Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Hey, loving listeners, brace yourself for a barrage of bountiful brilliance. Today, our luminary guest, Dr. Lisa Nezneski, the mindfulness maestro, spins tales of transitions triumphantly tackled. So she's a beacon of balance amidst bedlam, a certifiable shaman. And a cheeky champion of change. So pop on your headphones, perch on the edge of your seat and prepare to plunge into the profound depths of Dr. Lisa Nezneski on the Heart Led Business Show. Lisa, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Tom. That was an awesome introduction. I am so thrilled to be here with your listeners today.

Awesome! And we're going to have a great conversation about being a heart led business owner. And of course, the first question I ask every guest is what's your definition of a heart led business?

That's a great question. Tom, I'm a pharmacist. So, the pharmacy business is fraught with not so much heart led business. As my business evolved, I help people integrate medications with natural supplements. I teach mindfulness. And as you mentioned, I do shaman healings, energy healings as well. So as my business evolved, I started off helping people integrate their supplements. So I had a little store in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. It was called Healthy Self. And when I moved here to Florida, it's healthymindfulself.com so that's out there. But my biggest concern was that I make a difference in people's lives. And that really started once I moved here to Florida. I, I had a couple of, of difficult years where I moved from Pittsburgh to North Carolina. My life fell apart rebuilding my life. I used seven mindful questions to rebuild my life. And that's one of my three books. And with the seven questions, as you run them over and over, you become more and more aware of how you are feeling. You know, it's really easy to make a living as a pharmacist, using your intellect, forgetting about your heart. And when I got to the point where I ended up in the emergency room with my heart rate dropping with chest pain, it went all the way down to 28. And I thought, I'm checking out. This is it. You know, tell the kids I love them. And I really thought I was, I was going to die at that moment because my heart rate just kept dropping. I thought, well, it's not too far of a leap from 28 to zero, you know? So I took a deep breath, which is very important in the story. And my heart rate began to climb and it was stress. So, when I was rebuilding my life, I had to pay attention to how something makes me feel and starting a healthy, mindful self makes me feel fantastic. You know, when I had healthy self, I always said that was the best job I ever had because people would come asking questions. And so now with healthy, mindful self when I do the pop up shows and have my inventory out on display, it's a, it's a repeat of that. I feel like I'm making a difference in someone's life by offering those. And, I do teach mindfulness on Thursday nights. I have a free join me by way of zoom and we meditate for half an hour and I teach different aspects of mindfulness through that and it's no charge. It's my offering to the world. I thought that was really important to have a service so that I could make a difference because I have on a little post it note it says make a difference. A living will follow. So that's my definition of a heart led business.

Wow. Yeah. Well, that posted notes is that it says, says it all right. And kind of follows that whole, you know, follow your passion and the money will follow as well. Something in there that, that you had said earlier about, you know, obviously you're, you're a pharmacist and I assume you worked in traditional pharmacy. Probably making good money as a, as a foreign pharmacist. So what was the shift though, where you were like, this is not doing it for me. And you, where you shifted from the money side to the more heartfelt and heart led side.

Yeah, so my two red diplomas back here are from the University of Cincinnati and it shifted when I graduated. So I graduated University of Pittsburgh, the blue and yellow, gold and yellow gold and blue, forever on high through fair and stormy weather. That's my Pittsburgh bachelor's degree. And so then when I got my doctor of pharmacy, this is back before the PharmD is now the terminal degree for pharmacists. So, when I left that, I went to work as a faculty member for 10 years, and developed practice sites. So I was helping small hospitals grow their clinical services, and this was in the 80s. So it's a long time ago. And then I realized I could make twice as much money not being a faculty member anymore, even though I was tenured. So I, I went out on my own and had my own business then for 10 years roughly. I was a consultant the whole time, consultant pharmacist in nursing homes, as well as I had three small hospitals. So my rule was I could only go an hour away from Pittsburgh in case something happened to my sons and I needed to head back and take care of whatever. So, yeah, so I, I did that for another 10 years before I started healthy self. And while I had healthy self, I still did some nursing homes, but my ex husband broke his ankle and could not work. He was non weight bearing for something like six weeks. And I thought, okay, well, I'm paying for the insurance for the family. I could get a job and I could, you know, just, forego, get back into the working world. So I, you know, I bit the bullet and I worked nights for a couple of years where it was seven on seven off until my body could not take that anymore. And then I got a job with Cardinal as a consultant pharmacist, navigant, deloitte, and then I went over to Wheeling hospital as a hospital administrator. I had pharmacy lab oncology, radiation, oncology, medical oncology, and research. So I had five departments reporting to me. And that's when I ended up in the hospital with the low heart rate. The stress was just unbelievable. So, I've been as a consultant, I've left there I am currently a consultant pharmacist as well. I practice in the area of orphan drugs. But I've done it so long. It's like riding a bike and I know it makes a difference to the customer. But to me, my passion lies in healing. And through this shaman training, it has been amazing because, you know, the synchronicities just multiply where I've seen four pictures of hummingbirds in the last 24 hours. I turned over one calendar. I always have the current month and the next month, I turned over one calendar that was a hummingbird to something else. And then I, I moved the May calendar to June and there was a hummingbird. And then on my laptop here was a hummingbird and on my work laptop also a hummingbird was on the screen. So the hummingbird is the spirit animal of the North. Ancestors, ancient ones those who have come before us and those who will come after us. So it's a lineage representation. So I'm like, Oh, this is cool. You know, might be my, my grandfather who always is around taking good care of me. But it was really fascinating to see that and knowing what it represented. So, yeah! The shaman training has taken me deeper into mindfulness. It's one step even higher elevation than mindfulness. Mindfulness, you can be totally unaware of the spiritual aspect of it and practice just being in the now, but of course it has a spirit, has spiritual roots but the shaman training actually takes it one level up, in my opinion, for me anyway.

That's interesting. And would you say that the shift though happened after the heart incident, the emergency room?

Yes. Oh yes. Everything in my life changed after that point. I'm going to be getting married to a new husband. So old husband is gone. Thank you. I was living in Pittsburgh. I've moved five times since then. I'm here in Florida now. My job changed. I went to a different company, left the hospital setting. Yeah. So, and then of course I divorced and, went back to my maiden name, which is on all my diplomas, which is kind of fun. You know, I get to actually live as that person for a while. Since, you know, that's the name my mom gave me. So yeah, yeah. It's, it's been a tremendous growth. Period, because, you know, I, I've done things that I never thought I could do, like hook up my dryer and washer myself, those kinds of things. So yeah, it's been a little bit of a, a challenge, but it's all for the good. It's like, I, I, sometimes I've kept myself up like, yes, you can do this, you can do this. It's not that hard. And so, you know, you'll hear me outside talking to myself saying, it's okay, Lise, we can do this. It's not that hard. But that, that's all part of the growth aspect of going through this major life transition.

Yeah. And, and that's when you started the new business as well in terms of the coaching and the helping people integrate

Yes.

with current medications and supplementation and all of that. Is that, that

Yes. Integrate them safely. Yes. Exactly. So that, that actually started when I got here in Florida. I put everything on hold because the divorce was contentious. And after my divorce was final and 17 days later, I was here in Florida.

So when you went the shift from consulting, and I know you're still consulting now, but the starting of your mindfulness business. So what kind of surprises have come up with creating a business that's more heart led than profit led and they could be good surprises or they could be not so good surprises.

It takes you a while to trust that this is in fact the right path. And shaman training says you should close that back door. So, although I know I will be leaving that full time job and moving into doing this full time soon, that's my back door. And that was sort of a surprise because I, it's like, do I want to pay a mortgage on this house for the rest of my life? When my spouse has a paid off house? No, I don't want to do that. So I would have to work to support the house instead of my self. So that was sort of a surprise and being very mindful about my, my goals shifted in the last five years.

And so making that shift, like if they say, you know, burn the bridges, if you're going to like, go over that's shutting the back door, right? That's same, same philosophy. A lot of times so that that can backfire, right? So I just, I think it's very admirable that you kept the platform so that you can have some breathing room to grow into the new new practice.

Exactly! And I think one of the biggest surprises is that you do have to invest in marketing because people just don't really know you no matter what. So that was kind of an interesting phenomenon, to be honest. You know, as I was doing live presentations, my, my, the word was out. So I need to capitalize on those folks that were interested. So that was also you know, having a job and a, and a side job.

Yeah. I thought I was being fooled

in too many directions. So, I'm finding a good marketing company that can help me with that and really move forward in a way that resonates with my heart. You know, there's, there've been a few companies that I've worked with that I felt it was really profit oriented. I, I had to fire the Brazilian girls because, first of all, I was doing all the work and translating from Brazilian to English, and that was just too taxing for me and the culture change was drastically different. I'm pretty dispassionate when I'm at work. Okay. Brazilian ladies are very passionate about life. So we, we sort of had a culture clash there. So, um, yeah, so I eventually fired them when they plagiarized my work and put it on another customer. So finding someone that resonates with me, understands where I want to go and thinks ahead for me. I can't be doing all the thinking, you know, I've got too many other things to do.

And yeah, in your, in your corner that is helping you with the things that maybe that you're not good at, is that an accurate statement?

They're important, but if I did them, I would be, I, I'm very particular when I'm working. I'm probably one of the pickiest authors that my editor has worked with. So I would be the same way with marketing. And so, there was a point in my life that I thought I would be an epic pharmacist helping with implementations of software. And it drove me crazy. I was just too particular. I could not get it to work the way I wanted to. And I thought, you know what? I've never quit anything in my life, but I'm going to start right now. So I had all the training, but the final. I just could not get that final to work because I wasn't in a hospital. I was working for a consulting company at the time and it was sort of odd. Nevertheless I thought that was a really good experience because there are certain things that bring out the worst of my personality. You know, that, that I have to really be obsessed over. This has got to work perfectly. And I'm like, I don't want to be at this person. I don't like this. So, that for me was another revelation is to those things that I know that I will obsess over, I need to give them to someone else and just do what I'm good at.

Yeah. And plus it doesn't pull you in multiple directions either. So when getting the word out, I think that that's, you know, I've heard that over and over from other heart led businesses, that it's difficult sometimes to get the word out about what you do, because sometimes it's a little bit hard to describe it. Do you feel like that's the same for you as well?

The interesting aspect is that I'm sort of like a full package, if you will, with regard to healing. If you're in the traditional medical path, I'm right there with you. I can understand where you are. I understand the medications. I understand their side effects. And actually, that's one of my best talents as a pharmacist is determining side effects of medication. So from there, you know, I added the piece on botanical medicine. I want to be sure that I'm giving information safely. There are a ton of benefits from using the right supplements. And there are a lot of unscrupulous companies that just don't care about the manufacturing or the ingredients. And so, you know, I feel ethically, it's my responsibility to find someone the right product. for their condition. So, that's really important to me is to make sure that they get that particular aspect done. So that's the pharmacist part. Back to the full package thing. I've, I've written three books. Most of them are based on mindfulness. I teach mindfulness. So healing is more than just physical health. It's mental and emotional and spiritual. All four aspects. So when we get into mindfulness is really emotional regulation, understanding what you're feeling in the moment and deciding whether or not you're going to sit with it. And I forget what it was that happened to me not too long ago, but I decided that I was just going to sit with it for 24 hours before normally I would have like, all right, we're going to jump in. We're going to answer this. We're going to solve this problem. And I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to give it some space because this feels really uncomfortable. And let me see what happens. So, I did that. And by the next day, It had shifted and I felt differently about it and I didn't have to do all the work myself either. So asking for help is also important. And then the spiritual energy healing I've practiced Reiki with clients, customers. I also have let me just think how to describe this. I'm an ordained minister from the church of inner light and that's really a type of energy healing that we do there as well. And You run energy through your body and it really helps move things that are stuck. And the shaman training gives me one more depth of the spiritual aspects of healing. So when I say total package, you know, it's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. So, you know, my, my website, I describe everything and we have to add the shaman part of it yet to the website. But you know, there's a form there where people can contact me for any of these services.

It's really interesting, just the combination and, you know, I heard somebody talking about skill stacking and when you stack skills and different that seem desperate, not desperate, but disparate skills that kind of make it very interesting and make you very, very marketable in the, in the marketplace as well. It's a very unique as the Liam Na and I have a unique set of skills that type of,

True. True. So, so true.

very unique set of skills, Lisa So, that's awesome. How can, how can people get ahold of you or do you have something that you like to offer the listeners to kind of experience some of that mindfulness and the heart led aspect of your business?

Yes, I have I think they're five minute meditations that are free. That's at my website, which is www.lisanezneski.com forward slash freebie. F R E E B I E. My last name is spelled phonetically November Echo Zulu, November Echo Sierra Kilo India.

All right, we'll link all that in the, in the the very good phonetical alphabet. Not many Americans know that, which is funny, like a lot of Europeans know that, not, and pilots as well, or, and captains of ships as well. So that's, good.

Yeah, military. yeah. exactly.

We'll link all that in the, in the show notes so, people can easily click on that and don't have to remember the spelling as well. Cool. Any last words for those that are making that transition similar to, or having the difficulty or needing to make those transitions that you did? Any words of advice for them?

Well, I described my journey where things fell apart and I had to rebuild my life and ground it in chaos. And that's my first book that was published. It's in narrative verse. It's sort of like poetry. But it really is a lot of raw emotion. So, version 2 of that is coming out on May the 4th. Because may the fourth be with you. And seven mindful questions is how I rebuilt my life. I went through a process and I, there's a mnemonic ABC pause and breathe CBA for the seven questions. Aware because care. pause and breathe, choose a better alternative in a nutshell. That's the book. And each part of that, you're spending time. I have meditations in there that go along with the book and exercises. So all of those, For those who are going through it, I have been there and I have come out the other side much happier, much better all the way around. It didn't hurt that I took some time off from work in the last year. So, yeah, I think for those of you who are suffering, there is help out there. And for the month of May, I'm still doing shaman energy healings. At no charge. So please reach out if I can help you.

That's

Yep, that's my service.

Awesome. Very cool. Very cool. Thank you, Lisa, so much for spending the time with us today and sharing your journey as a heart led business owner, certainly appreciate you spending the time with us.

Thank you so much for inviting me. This was truly a pleasure.

Excellent! And to all of our show listeners out there, thank you so much for tuning in today. And if you could do what other things you would Thoughtful and considerate listeners do and share the show with those who you think might benefit from the stories that we share on the Heart Led Business Show. That would be great. I would certainly appreciate it. And until next time, lead with your heart.

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.