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.

Brace your brains, beautiful business buffs. We're diving deep into the delectable sauce of success with Liam Naden. He's the never been nervous neuroscientist, the psychologist in pinnacle and a bonafide business balladeer from bracing bankruptcy to bountiful bounty. Liam's lavishly lobbed his wisdom into a whip. A brain brewed recipe for real success. Stay tuned right here on the Heart Led Business Show, as we yak about his yarn of yearnings in the world of entrepreneurship and buckle up, it's going to be a righteous ride of revelations with a punch of purpose. And a sprinkle of fun. Liam, welcome to the show.

Hi Tom, thank you very much for having me. I don't know if I can follow up on that introduction, but I'll think of something clever to say as you go

Just try a little alliteration and I think you'll be fine with that. Well, Liam, I'm really happy to have you here. I know you are mobile at the moment. We can dive into that a little bit, but the first question I always like to ask is what is your definition of. of a heart led business.

Well, it's such a brilliant concept because really what heart led means is to, as the word suggests, lead from the heart. But what that really biologically means in my whole Teaching and philosophy is about understanding our biology and how our biology determines whether we're successful or not. Heart led really means is to follow your natural biology and use the part of your brain that is designed to ensure that you're totally successful in every area of your life. So, and we can talk about how this works, but it ties in directly with how your brain operates, how it ties in with your feelings and very much how that determines what you do and also what happens to you in your life as well. That

is probably the most scientific definition that I've had yet so far. And I'd love to dive really deep into that too. So can we explain the heart, the brain connection and what you've studied with that?

Sure. Well, you know, I've studied how to be successful. From a very young age, I always wanted to be a success in my life, and that meant I wanted to have my own business, and I wanted to be wealthy, and I've had 18 different businesses so far in my life. I've been a serial entrepreneur, but what I discovered in my journey towards being successful, if you like, is that it was always a struggle. were always problems. There's always Obstacles. And we have, we've developed this mindset to say, problems are natural. You know, obstacles, these things are good for you. They make you grow. They make you better. You learn from your problems. You learn from all the stress in your life. that's not actually very helpful for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it doesn't make you feel any better. And I'm sure people listening, the reason you want a business is because you want this feeling that you're really in control of your life, that things are going well, that you're not dealing with problems and stress. You don't actually want problems and stress. not only do problems and stress not help us, they actually pull us down. So, how I came to understand this was I was this successful person. I was a multi millionaire. And I hid. I'd reached all my goals. I had my dream home, dream businesses, plenty of money, travel, all of the things I really wanted, but I was completely miserable instead of being happy, I was completely miserable. But I was very fortunate because I went through an experience that really taught me something radically different about what success actually is and how we achieve good results in our life and stop getting bad results. And that is, I went from being a multimillionaire to losing everything overnight. I became homeless. You know, the beautiful house, the marriage, all my businesses, they all just collapsed literally within weeks. And I ended up having to move in and sleep on the sofa in the living room of my elderly mother's small apartment. And I literally had nothing. But what I learned, it turned out to be the best experience of my life. I mean, at the time, of course, and I'm sure anyone listening would say, well, why would you ever want to be, want to lose everything and become homeless? Well, it's not something that I wanted, but it's something I needed to experience to teach me what real success is. Because after that experience, I went, my life went in a completely different path. And before I'd been chasing after success, I had my goals written down. of, I didn't have any goals about losing everything by the way, I had all my goals written down. I had everything planned out. I'd been to every seminar that I possibly could. I mean, you know, I'm from New Zealand going to seminars. Anywhere is a long way away. But I went to America, I went to Europe, I went to Australia, and I went to lots of seminars. And I read every book I could find on self help, motivation, goal setting, changing your beliefs, changing the way you use your mind, marketing, reprogramming yourself, if you like. And I did all sorts of courses and read all these books. But it didn't stop me from losing everything. It did stop me from ever feeling like I was really successful. Because I always had these problems all of the time. when I went through this homeless experience, actually happened after that, instead of being this driver after success, always wanting more, always trying to figure out what I needed, setting goals, visualizing, learning as much as I could, going after every opportunity. Instead of doing that, I literally did was give up. And what happened as a result of that was things started to show up in my life. Amazing things. You know, I went from having absolutely nothing. to, and people, less than nothing, people were calling me up, harassing me, wanting money, you know, money that I owed that I didn't have. I went from that to a business showed up, a really good business, a new relationship just came along. business just came along. I knew it, I was actually sailing my own brand new yacht around the islands of Europe. And I did that for eight years. And I remember this particular instance when I think I was in the Greek islands in a little bay an island. We were the only boat there. And I woke up in the morning sun was shining. It was a beautiful day. And I just fell off the back of the boat into the water and had a swim. And I got out and I thought, You know, I've got two businesses that are operating for me around the world and they're doing really well and I don't have any problems. I've woken up this morning, I've checked my email, things are going really well. And I had that feeling, the thing that I've been searching for years. through all of my struggle and pushing was that feeling that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. In other words, I'm feeling from my heart, don't have problems and stress. I remember saying to myself, what on earth is going on? Because how come I spent all those years and I was putting in all that effort and setting my goals and really working hard and being motivated, learning as much as I could, getting as many new ideas as I could, practicing everything I could think of. And I ended up with stress and problems, and then I lost it all. And now, I'm not setting any goals. I'm not chasing after anything. I'm not looking for opportunities. But things are just coming to me in some weird, strange sort of way. Things are just all falling into place. What I realized is I need to figure out what I was doing differently. And it all came down to an understanding that there is a biology of success, because if you look at the natural world, everything operates according to laws and they're all built around survival. Every living thing is wired primarily with one purpose, and that's for survival. So we're like every other living creature, we're wired biologically to seek to survive, all costs if you like, or as that's our primary purpose, our primary driver, is to survive. But what gives us the greatest chance for survival, the best odds for survival. It's not just when we're surviving, it's when we're thriving. when we're the best that we can be. In other words, when we're operating from a heart led place, when we're excited, when we're motivated, when we're inspired, when we're creative, when we're imaginative. Just feel good. We're making the right decisions. We're seeing the right opportunities. We're doing the right things. We're enormously productive in the right sort of ways, and our life works out the way we're supposed to live, because that is biological thriving. And what I'd never realized was that we have a machine that's designed to make sure, not just randomly to ensure, and whose sole job is to make that happen. Because every other living thing on the planet also has the same machine and it's doing the same for it, which is the brain. Brain is not just there to keep your heart beating and your, keep your breathing. It's designed to make you the best that you can be on every level, physically, mentally, emotionally, so that you have the greatest chance for survival, so that you actually thrive. And when I started to understand this, when I started to do some research into how this all worked. I realized it all made such, it's as logical or practical as the law of gravity. You know, imagine trying to walk off a 10 story building, but before you do, you say, I'm going to go in the air, I'm going to go up and you visualize it. You write it down as a goal. You practice all of these different techniques. You're incredibly motivated. You meditate, you pray, you rewire your subconscious mind or whatever you want to do. Any technique you name, walk off that building, you're still going to go down. And that is the biggest problem I see today with the people I work with, and really with most people, is we're all trying to achieve this success thing, but we're like walking off a building. We don't realize there's something bigger at play. There's a law, or there are several laws of nature that determine success. And if you go against those laws, and most of the time it's because we don't know they even exist, let alone how to actually incorporate these things, you're going to fail. And that's what's going to create problems and stress in your life. Not that you're not trying hard enough. This was, and I'm not talking here about any sort of woo spiritual sort of, you know, meditate law of attraction and it all show up in your life. It's, I'm not talking about that at all. This is a biological, physical thing. It's as physical, the laws surrounding the success of natural life, which we're a part of and we can harness So this is as practical as law of gravity. So, that's really what I do and how I help people and how I came to this realization that you know, problems aren't natural. We're all going down the wrong track.

You think that it's because we are going against our purpose or our natural biology that these problems will happen is, you know, I just think about, you know, pushing a boulder up uphill and sometimes in business that's how it feels and you take two steps up and then the boulder kind of comes right back down upon you. So, is that what you mean that the things are not in alignment and so it just feels difficult and then, you know, we're told by instagram influencers, just power through, you know, just keep going. You can do it. Just it's always a struggle, you know, go for the hustle. And I mean, that's always felt like BS to me, but you're saying that it's biological within us. It's complete BS.

Yeah, well, we'll look, we'll think about it naturally or logically, anyone listening or watching. How is all the struggle helping you? Because you can be struggling for years and you've got all of these plans, and for a start you're very unlikely to achieve the goals that you set for yourself. And there's a whole biology about why goal setting doesn't actually work. It doesn't make any biological sense. It's not in harmony with the laws of nature, which is why there's only a two to three percent success. And if people are really honest, and anyone listening, think, Answer the question, how many of your goals that you've ever set, you've ever achieved? It's probably very few. As I say, the reason is it's because of biology but here's the thing I didn't realize, and it was so obvious once I started to look into it, and that if we've got a brain and the brain is nothing more or less than a machine that's designed to make you the best that you can be so that you thrive and have the greatest chance for survival, surely the only thing we need to do is learn how to use it. And if we're not getting the result. That we think we should. In other words, if we're not thriving, if we're not feeling like we're being the best that we can be, then obviously we're not using the machine the right way. We don't know how to, it's a bit like trying to drive a car. You know, we know a car is a machine. There's nothing complicated in the sense of what it's designed to do. It's designed to get you from where you are, to where you want to go. And it's going to be, do it predictably, and it's going to be an enjoyable ride for you. But if you get in there and you don't know how to drive it, and you're fiddling around with the wrong pedals, or you're totally confused. What's going to happen? Problems are going to show up. you're not going to blame the car for the problems showing up. You're going to say, well, there's something wrong with the car. Well, you might, but what's caused the problem is the way you've been driving it. You're the one who's created the problems. And it's so much the same with the brain. The brain is this machine, a biological machine designed to make sure you thrive and at your best. And if you're not, it's because you're not driving it the right way. You're getting in the way of its operation. mostly it's because we don't understand, firstly, that's what it's there to do. You know, if you'd ask most people, do you think it's possible to be the best that you can be and live a life without problems? Most people, we've been so conditioned think that problems are normal, problems are natural, problems are good. And the fact that everybody has something doesn't mean it's normal or natural. so we don't realize that it's simply about using this machine the right way. And that was the difference between what I did before and what I did after. It was the only difference was I was using it in a different way. I didn't know the way I was using it. Sort of stumbled on it, now I can explain it from a biological perspective as to why it works. And when everybody I've shared this with, a lot of people have had really quite when you get it, because it's about doing, living your life a way.

Is it different for every person that, you know, yeah, at the biological level, the brain is designed to help us thrive as best as we can, but are there natural born talents that, you know, like, should I try to be the best basketball player in the world when I'm five foot seven, or is it the business side that I should really Go after, like how do we figure that out? Or how does the brain tell us?

Well, here's the amazing thing, and I know we're running out of time, but you don't need to figure it out. Because the part of your brain that you use to try and figure stuff out is not the part of your brain that is designed to be used to manage your life. And we know this is true because we're often barreling down thinking, I really want to do that, I really want to achieve that goal, and you put all your effort into it. And it doesn't happen. And later you say, I'm so glad that didn't happen. Oh, that would have been a disaster. You know, very often this happens. I used to do this all the time in business. Think I need to make that happen for me to be happy. And either it didn't happen and I was grateful it didn't. Or if it did happen, I was like, Oh, it doesn't actually make me happy anyway. So the way the brain works is there's four parts to the brain and I teach all of this and I know we haven't got much time to explain it, but essentially there's a part of your brain that's designed to be in control, to manage your life, to make sure that everything, all the right things happen. Without it sounding woo, this is biological. It's what I call the creative brain. And the creative brain, this has been described by peak performance athletes, high performance business people, creative people, people throughout history, as the driver of life. Because the creative brain, which is located right in the very center of your brain, this is responsible for generating creativity, imagination, intuition. It's where you get the gut feelings from. It's where you get, and it's those aha moments that you get, those moments of you've been working on a problem and you suddenly get the answer. your motivation, your productivity, you're avoiding doing the wrong things and doing the right things. All of these things. And as we know, these are the resources. enable you to live the best life possible, to be your best. It's not sitting there trying to figure stuff out and think things out and strategize and plan and say, what do I think I need for me to be happy? when you activate all of these things, you naturally do the right things and the right things show up in your life. But most people don't use this part of their brain because this part of the brain is deactivated. Whenever you feel, this is all biology, whenever you feel fear, stress, worry, anxiety, frustration, anger, you shut down this part of your brain. And we know this is true because you try and figure out what to do with your life when you're stressed and frustrated. You say, I'm so confused. I don't know what to do. What do I need to do to be happy? This is all using another part of your brain. called, which I call the survival brain, which is only there to protect you when there's a threat to your survival that comes into play. But what we don't realize as well is that shuts down your creative brain. So the whole point about living a heart led life is when you trust that this part of your brain, your creative brain, will bring to you exactly what you need at exactly the right time, get you to do the right things, Then you don't need to have any fear, because if you know that fear will block it. And when you really think about great businesses, great business leaders, what are they, how do they operate? They make great decisions. They don't have fear. They're charismatic. They're, they know where they're going. They're not stressed. I mean, they might, you know, they're, they might be tired at times from putting an effort, but they know what they want. Not in any sort of you know, limited way. I want to be a millionaire, but they just have a vision that hasn't come from them. You know, if you read about Steve Jobs and a lot of these great business people, and I've talked to some as well, and they go, I don't know where these ideas come from, but I just know this is where my business needs to go. So to operate a business in your life. is to use this creative part of your brain and know that it's their design to make sure you make the right decisions. And so many times in business, we're frustrated when things aren't going the way we think they should, than just saying, well, if it's not working, it's not right. You know, we're reluctant to give up the things that aren't working in our business without realizing that another of the laws of nature is the law of least resistance. And nature operates the best when it's resisted the least. Try into the wind. It's a lot harder and you don't get very far as if just go with the wind and that's, people say, well, that's giving up and not being in control. It's the opposite. It's allowing your creative brain to be in control and to guide you to do the right thing at the right time. And it always will. Guaranteed. That's the way it works.

That's just fascinating. Just hearing you talk about that and just looking back at my own business experiences as well. And, you know, leading with the heart, leading with the, you know, the brain heart connection and all that just really makes sense in terms of the times that I'm stressed. I'm definitely not making the best decisions ever. And the times that I'm relaxed, like things are going well. And You know, everything is good. I feel in alignment as well. And a lot of people talk about heart led businesses of being in alignment with your purpose and your desires and all that as well.

Well, it's an alignment of your brain is putting your being in alignment with itself. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, guess, as well, you could say. That's what alignment is, it's natural, it's biological, it's not just some idea, and it's natural success, the way everything works. And you can't help but be naturally successful, and one of the problems is people, they have expectations, they have outcomes that they hang on to. That's not natural either. It's about going with the flow, seeing what shows up, seeing what direction it takes you in, what direction your creative brain takes you in, and you responding to what's there at the moment, seeing the opportunities. And so many of the times, and I'm sure you've had this as well, you know, you think you're going in one direction, but you end up in a completely different direction. And that's the way life's supposed to be. Your brain is going to guide you in the right direction, but you don't force it to happen. Force is, again, unnatural. You know, it's the opposite of least resistance. And it took me a long time to realize this and to really internalize it so that just let go and trusted this creative part of my brain and said, you know, I'm not going to be afraid anymore. I'm not going to be stressed. I'm not going to worry about what happens because the great thing is when you have nothing, you get to a place where all I do is, I don't care anymore. I mean, it can't get any worse than this, you know? So I re I really don't care and I don't care what happens. And that was the place I got to. And I didn't realize that's when my creative brain said. At last, you're out of the way. Now I can get on with my job of making sure that you have the most fulfilling life possible. And leading me to somewhere where I didn't think I'd be, if my brain had said to me your ultimate goal, that what's really going to make you happy is living on a yacht, living in a motor home, traveling around the world, running your business from anywhere in the world and sharing ideas about how you, how your brain, how the brain works. Different ideas that people haven't heard before about what success actually is and how you achieve it. I'm going to be sharing with people from all around the world. Now, if my brain had told me that was my goal, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have thought, that's insane. Firstly, because I didn't think that I could ever do it, sailing teaching about what, but the other thing is, I didn't even know that's what I wanted. this is one of the biggest problems. So many people are trying to figure out what they want. You'll never figure out what you want. What you think you want is in another part of your brain. It comes from another part of your brain, which is very limited. It's based on what you already know. It's the information that you've gathered in your life. You don't want to use that to figure out what you really want with your life. You want to have access to everything. All information, you know, which comes from a different place. So that's what comes back to what I said at the beginning about setting goals. You know, you can't, you'll never figure out what you want. And I'm sure if everyone thinks about this, most of the important things that happen in your life, you've never decided beforehand that was going to happen. You know, like you meet somebody, you didn't write down, I'm going to meet my wife tomorrow. The person who's going to be my wife. You don't do that. All these unexpected and in business. It's. People show up in your life, unexpected opportunities. Things never go the way would like. We'd like to think that things, that we're in control, but we're, it's a different sort of control.

Yeah, it's interesting to like, I've always been big on goal setting and visions and, you know, having a plan for the future and looking back, you know, I'm glad that I have some direction, at least a direction, but looking back at the goals and the direction I've achieved what I've wanted to achieve. But it's never been what I had envisioned at the time of writing. So looking back, it's like, yeah, I've achieved that. But the route that I got there was drastically different than what I thought it would be. And the same with this podcast, you know, if I would have started this podcast five years ago, it would have been a struggle. It would not have been as successful as it has been. And because now it just seems easy. Like a lot of people that I've spoken to, they're like, Oh, doing a podcast is so hard. It's like, so labored. I love it. I don't, it's not that for me and I have a team that does all of the work for me, but you know, and it's, it just seems easy. And I think that goes with exactly what you're saying in terms of having a business that's in alignment, you know, the brain is allowing you to live. your best life. And I think that's really a beautiful way of putting it

Well, we've forgotten that life's not supposed to be a struggle. Life is about, you know, about, you look in the natural world and I'm lucky I travel all the time and I'm always in the natural world and I'm always amazed at how abundant and easy it is. It's not based on struggle. We're not supposed to struggle. And When you're not struggling, you are being your best self. You know, and we know this from a physical perspective that when you're not struggling, when you're at ease, when you're not stressed, you're healthier, your body performs better, you live longer. So it's all, it all makes total sense. And the sign that you know you're in your natural state and doing what you're supposed to be doing is when it's not a struggle. If you've got problems, I mean, someone once said, if it hurts, you're doing it wrong. it's absolutely true. And, but we don't know this. We think, Oh, that means that's a cop out. People say you don't grow unless, you know, there's all this school of thought. You've grown. Yeah. You've got to get stronger. The best way to get stronger is to get into your natural flow and get rid of fear. And do doesn't mean you're. You do less, you do more. You're more effective. You're more productive when you're in your creative, why I call it the creative state. Because it's a state of creation. So we need to get over this idea that problems are good, and stress is good, and, you know, working hard, even, and struggle, these are all virtues. They might have been virtues in Medieval times when the bishop would come to you and say, well, you know, don't worry, you'll get your reward in heaven. Now just keep digging my ditches, you know, and it might've been appropriate then, but it's not really natural.

This has been just really eyeopening and totally took a different direction that I would have thought of for the show. And I, but I totally appreciate the wisdom that you brought to today and giving a different perspective on kind of how that heart led business can be. Successful without the struggle and having that all in alignment as well. But we have come to that, that, that time in the show, unfortunately we have to move on, but tell us how can people get ahold of you and learn more about what you're doing and potentially work with you?

Well, if people are interested in learning more about how to live a successful as a non struggling life. without, from a practical point of view, yes, I'd love to help anybody I can, and there's a lot of information that's all on my website, which is just my name, liamnaden.com. But actually, if people really want to do something, I've just put together, if I can mention it. A free audio mini course, how to unlock your rapid solution brain. So if anyone's listening and I'm sure everyone's listening, who's got a problem, something that's bugging them, imagine you could actually activate this other part of your brain, the one I've been talking about and suddenly get the answer to the problem. And not only just, not only get the real answer, the one you go, Oh, why didn't I think of that before? But also find yourself actually taking the actions to make that solution happen. And all you need to do is do something different with your brain, operate this machine in a slightly different way. So I've put together this mini course to show people exactly how to do this. And I had someone contact me the other day and he said, you know, that course, it's save me$10,000 because I was going to make a decision and I suddenly when I use this technique because it use, I have a little technique in there on how to do this. When I use this technique, I suddenly saw the right thing to do and it wasn't to do this thing that was going to cost me$10,000 So it's really practical and it's really powerful. And to do that, let's just go to my website or if someone's on their phone or listening to this, and I know everyone listening to this is an action taker, not a procrastinator, and they're just going to do it because that's the way you succeed. Just send me an email, take out your phone if you're on it, open your email right now and go course, C O U R S E, at liamnadin, L I A M N A D E N, dot com. Send me an email, bang, you'll get it straight away. And you'll really see how profoundly different and how profoundly effective this approach is. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and connect with you and your audience. Thank you so much.

Thank you listeners for watching or listening to the show, depending on what platform you're on. I know we definitely appreciate it. We'll provide all of those links down into the show notes. That's a pretty amazing and if you could do me a solid favor and do what other smart and considerate listeners are doing and sharing this show with a friend or a loved one who could use the advice that we've shared on today's show. 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.