Sparta couple professes the importance of looking ‘Onward and Upwards’ at international symposium

Dr. Jill Pedalino and Marcello Pedalino, of Sparta, recently presented at the prestigious annual Think Tank symposium. This year’s event celebrated the group’s 20th year and was held in Mexico. The name of the Pedalinos’ keynote presentation was “Onwards and Upwards,” and the couple gave the attendees a road map to help them deal with and move on from any significant setbacks that come their way.

Marcello has been a member of Think Tank since its inception in 2002.

Giving the 2022 Think Tank Summer Symposium a theme, as well as a theme for each day of education, was unique and special for this year’s anniversary event.

“Sunday was Reunion, Monday was Recovery, Tuesday was Reflection, and Wednesday was Response,” Marcello said. “David Meister, one of the education directors, reached out to Jill and I back in January to see if we would be able to kick off this year’s 20th Anniversary Symposium. We were honored and excited for the incredible opportunity. Hosting this year’s event at an international destination was also a special touch for 2022’s Think Tank.”

The overall goal of Think Tank is personal and professional growth with like-minded colleagues who value a supportive environment.

Dr. Jill

When Jill Pedalino graduated from high school, she entered Bucknell University as an English major with the idea to become an attorney. At the end of her freshman year she reached out to a temp agency for a summer job and they placed her in a local hospital’s medical staff office.

“As fate would have it, I had the rare opportunity to witness the delivery of a baby and at that point I knew my calling in life was to take care of children,” she said. “I returned to Bucknell for my sophomore year, adding a biology major to my English major and redirecting my course load to prepare for medical school, and I never looked back.”

She is now a highly acclaimed pediatrician with a practice in Nutley.

In Dr. Jill Pedalino’s daily practice of general pediatrics, she was seeing more and more patients with physical ailments like headaches, abdominal pain, and chest pain. After full investigations and sometimes the “million dollar work up” to find the cause of these symptoms, she found that most ended up being physical manifestations of underlying stress, anxiety, and depression.

“I knew that I had to do something to remind my patients and all children that our thoughts become our physical reality and we have to always be mindful that we must choose our thoughts wisely,” she said.

This was her impetus to write two books. “The Universe Is Listening” (2018) was the book that delivered that message. “You Are Abundant” (2020) was written as a second reminder that starting to practice gratitude as a young child is a wonderful way to create a life of abundance.

Marcello

Marcello Pedalino has been an entertainer and event producer for 35 years.

“My company provides talent, on-site coordination, and event management solutions for once-in-a-lifetime milestone celebrations and corporate galas,” he said. “The main reasons I started this business are the same reasons why I still love what I do; I enjoy helping people celebrate life, traveling to amazing locations, and creating memorable moments for some really awesome people.”

After writing his first book, “Celebrate Life” (2015), which focused on work-life integration and energy management, many of his clients from the private event and corporate world started hiring him to be the keynote speaker for their conferences to help empower their employees and raise productivity.

“It turned out to be a perfect complementary evolution for my professional skill set,” he said.

Onward and Upward

At the Think Tank summit, the Pedalinos gave tips and actionable advice on how people can improve their current stress reduction, nutrition, exercise, and sleep hygiene status.

“Then we helped them deliberately create the best possible environment for that recovery by showing them how to improve their physical, interpersonal, financial, and emotional foundation,” Marcello Pedalino said. “With Jill’s experience as an award-winning physician and her vast medical knowledge combined with my expertise as a certified fitness trainer and nutrition coach, our husband and wife tag team approach proved to be a winning combination. In the 60 minutes on stage, we covered everything from time-restricted feeding to the connection between managing our gut micro biome and its effect on stress, to the importance of our thoughts and how they manifest into our reality. We also touched on relationship advice and parenting tips by reminding the audience that taking care of yourself first isn’t selfish, it’s actually selfless, because if you can’t take care of yourself you can’t take care of the people who depend on you.”

On the second day, the couple facilitated six private lifestyle audit sessions for Think Tank members who were “sick and tired of being sick and tired” of not living their best life.

“We spent the first 15 minutes listening to what their biggest challenges were and second 15 minutes coming up with a plan to help get them back on track as soon as they flew home,” Marcello Pedalino said. “The sessions gave the members an opportunity to express their vulnerabilities and we, in turn, had the opportunity to offer them a fresh look at solutions that can create positive momentum in their recovery.