IAM252- Founder and Speaker Mentors High Performers Entrepreneurs to Their Next Level of Success

Dr. Fern Kazlow (Dr. K) Founder of The No Doubt Zone™

Dr. Kazlow is a licensed clinical psychotherapist, speaker, author, business and branding consultant, and mentor to high performer entrepreneurs and experts — the influencers, the paradigm shifters, the round pegs in the square holes.

A pioneer and disruptor, Dr. Kazlow, a leader in integrative approaches to business and mind-body health, opened one of the first integrative centers in New York City and created methodologies that move high performers from stressed and stuck, into their No Doubt Zone™.

Dr. K gets that high performers are different — and their gifts, talents, the way they’re wired up, and the way they deal with challenges and trauma are both a gift and a struggle, leading to stress, conflict, and ultimately getting stuck in what she calls High Performer Resistance Syndrome.

Dr. Kazlow has been interviewed and featured in the major media (including The New York Times, WABC, WNBC, and New York Magazine), has had dozens of her articles published, and is an author of a book on Adoption Law.

• CEO Hack: Asking quality questions and pay attention to your responses to answers
• CEO Nugget: (1) Trust yourself more (2) Learn to be discerning
• CEO Defined: Creating a vision, executing and creating a culture of focus.

Website: http://drkazlow.com/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/drfernkazlow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/drfernkazlow
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drkazlow

Bonus Advice: Focusing on Who You Need to Be

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE.

Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello. hello. This is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Fern Kazlow of The No Doubt Zone, Dr. Fern Dr. K, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 0:37

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and to be with your community. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Dr. Fern so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Dr. Fern Kazlow, also known as Dr. K is the founder of The No Doubt Zone. Dr. Kazlow is a licensed clinical psychotherapist, speaker, author, business and branding consultant, and mentor to high-performer entrepreneurs and experts aka the influencers, the paradigm shifters, the round pegs in the square holes.

A pioneer and disrupter Dr. K a leader in integrative approaches to business in mind, and body health, opened one of the first integrative centers in New York City and created methodologies that move high performers from stress and stuff into their no-doubt zone, Dr. K gets that high performers are different and their gifts talents, the way they're wired up.

And the way they deal with challenges and trauma is both a gift and a struggle leading to stress conflict and ultimately getting stuck in what she calls high performer resistance syndrome. Dr. K has been interviewed and featured in major media, including the New York Times WABC, WNBC in New York Magazine and has dozens of her articles published, and is an author of a book on adoption law. Dr. K, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Dr. Fern Kazlow 1:54

Yes

Gresham Harkless 1:56

Awesome awesome, awesome, let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off just to hear more about what I call your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

Dr. Fern Kazlow 2:02

Well, it's interesting how I came to this particular business. I'm one of those people, like that's been a lifelong entrepreneur, and also lifelong in personal development. Education kind of started in the second grade when I had a very well said very difficult teacher who was mistreating a child in the class and Big Mouth is I had, I guess we could put it more nicely, but we'll just kind of say it like it is she was pretty much ignoring this child that she decided was limited and not capable of much.

And I went over to her and said, This isn't okay, you can't do this. You got to really work with her, help her. She's capable of more like, this isn't the day when they used to hit kids, especially boys. So she glared at me because she couldn't hit me. They didn't hit the girls, only the boys. I guess I was lucky. And she said you think you could do better? And I was like, Yeah, I can. She said, Then she's yours. And she said, From now on you do your work. And then she's yours every single day you work with her.

And so I did. I was pretty bored with schoolwork. So this was great, gave me something to do. She did great. And then the school started referring to me as other children. And this was really the beginning of my private practice. So by the time I was 14, I had a paid private practice.

Gresham Harkless 3:10

Awesome.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 3:10

Yes. So my entrepreneurial days in many different ways were early, and I moved into the direction of I love to market, I did marketing, and I did some things with sales. I built my own businesses very quickly. And I was a therapist, I had a clinical practice. So one of the things that were showing up are high performers, entrepreneurs, and health professionals, and they were depressed, they were anxious about why they couldn't build their businesses. So for me, that was something that was fun. It was something I was good at.

And I started working with them to help them to do the strategies for marketing to understand their business, their client, their branding, we didn't even use that word at that point, you know, but I helped them to brand themselves, to find their niche, all the things that now we talk about, you think about but when I started that was very new, to help them to do that and to become who they needed to be successful. So I was doing it my practice and it was happening. And then I created a center.

As you mentioned, I was one of the first centers in integrative health and business. And so I started a business that specifically worked with high-performing entrepreneurs, and marketers experts to get to the next level in their business or to maintain their success without harming their relationships, their health, their well-being even their money. So that became Capsule International now actually, Capsule Global that was the beginning of that company, helping people to get to that next level of success.

Gresham Harkless 4:33

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I absolutely love that story. And it's funny like you touched on that a lot of times your gifts are things that you do naturally happen to you at such a young age before you even you know get I guess sucked out by the world and saying you should do X, Y, and Z. A lot of times you showcase that when you're younger and I can even speak to it haven't been done for me. So it's great to kind of hear that.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 4:53

And it's interesting because most health professionals are not health professionals and entrepreneurs and health professionals marketers are Um, and even today, we see all of these courses for coaches how to be, you know how to build your practice, the two skills are very, very different. And yet they have so much in common. When people say to me, what is it, therapist? You know, you're a licensed clinical psychotherapist, what are you doing in marketing?

And I say who better because who understands the market the clients, how to work with yourself how to work and deal with the relationships that come down? Who can do that better than a therapist? So if that is something that's natural, I think you're right, we don't always I didn't go there, first, I was doing it. I built my center and in 10 months, I went from 2 people to 12 people. I mean, that was huge, at a time when Integrative Health was something that was really on par with Buddha never shake our head, mind-body health, back then it was no, you know, we knew that stress affected things. But that was it.

So it's a really good point that you're making that a lot of times we're taking what we're good at, we're not always as blessed as I feel I am to be able to combine the two things, if you said to me pick one, I would have a very hard time picking just one because I love the psychology of marketing. I love the psychology of high performers. I love moving people to who they need to be to create what they want.

Gresham Harkless 6:07

And I know you touched on it a little bit. So could you tell us a little bit more about how you're serving the clients and some of the things that you're doing?

Dr. Fern Kazlow 6:12

So I focus on high performers, and the top usually top 1% in their field, or people who are committed to being people who really want to do more. And so they're basically I met I do mentor individually or in groups, masterminds, business and branding, consulting, I do a power branding, clinic workshops, and I do speaking. So those are things that I offer.

And what we're really doing is working with these high performers, to help them get to that next level. So despite their success, something's got them stressed, something's got them stuck. And we work on the ways that they can get that next level of success but also have whole wealth and the rest of their life. Because if you've got a successful business, but your health is suffering, your relationships are suffering, you don't feel good, you're just not happy. What good is it?

And usually one of the tricky things is that people come in, and they have a business problem. But it's not usually about a business problem, we pick the area that we feel safest. And it's true, to let our problems show up. And so if somebody comes to me and says, I have a business problem, I will go in beneath that, because what often happens is that they have a problem, not about failing, but about succeeding. They don't want to go beyond their brother or their spouse or a best friend, or there's something in them that stopping them.

So we go underneath, and we really look at sometimes it's a health problem, they don't think they're helpful, sustain it, if they're too successful. So it looks like they got a business problem, they can't grow fast enough, or they can't grow enough. But it's really their imperfect control of the business and keeping it exactly where they feel their health can handle.

So it's a very, you know, it's kind of a fun thing, because it's true, you still have to work with the business problem. It's not growing. But if you don't get to that underlying problem, you're going to solve it, and then it's going to show up someplace else, someplace else, and someplace else. So you get some success for a while. But you're not going to get to that core of what makes it different.

Gresham Harkless 8:01

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And you might have already touched on this. But this is what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart or your practice.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 8:08

Yeah, well, that's kind of what I'm saying. It's like I really see where they are, how they're holding themselves back, why they're holding themselves back, and how to move. And so the secret sauce comes from over 30 years of the lens and experience of a licensed therapist, and an entrepreneur marketer, who has not only created several successful businesses of my own, but I've helped other people do the same thing. At a very high level.

So some people were beginners, but a lot of people already have success, but they reach that stuck point. And so it's 30 years of research, 30 years of experience with the psychology of high performers, the psychology of marketing, so many people were talking about mindset. And yet that creates what I call the mindset trap, it will only get you so far. So you've got to actually work at a different level.

And because I have this deeper understanding and practical know how there are a number of things that I can do that you don't see other people do, for example, high-performance resistance syndrome, honoring it, I really get people to see how this is motivated people, this isn't those people who are digging their heels in and saying, you know, they don't really want to change. But there's a lot of people you know that because of all the interviews that you've done, and you know what in yourself, I'm sure because I know what to myself when we really want something to happen.

And yet we can't make it happen. We're motivated people think if you're motivated to happen, but no. So it's like we're motivated. And yet a resistance that's really strong comes up. And I know how to take that and turn that into an asset along with really understanding at the deepest level more the market, the client, and yourself because if you don't understand yourself, and know how to put yourself in and how to take yourself out, you're not going to understand your market or your clients. And when I look at it, I'm always thinking how superficially understanding is, and a lot of that is because of the limited lands that we see the world through as marketers and entrepreneurs.

Gresham Harkless 9:53

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And you know, we all have a lens so being able to kind of tap into your expertise and your 30 years plus of experience definitely you know helps out a lot. So

Dr. Fern Kazlow 9:57

The bottom line is the experience coming both from the psychotherapy, and the entrepreneur having an integrative approach, because you can't just change your mind because you said change your mind. And knowing how to bring people in there, no doubt.

So not just gonna do it, but they are no doubt so on and helping them to continually evolve, because the fun or not so funny thing is, as soon as you get to that next level, especially high performance, they get that next level they want to go to and what do they have to do? They have to evolve again. Exactly. So sometimes it can feel like an identity crisis. Sometimes you can leapfrog it and it can be really joyful. But it's learning to help people do that in a way that is inspiring instead of sorting them.

Gresham Harkless 10:39

Absolutely, that makes perfect sense. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 10:48

Okay, hack, favorite one, there are a number of them. But my favorite, ask quality questions and then pay attention to your own response in your body to the question. This is again, a topic that we can talk about for a long time. But if I can share one question, one question that I always ask, Does this bring me closer to or further away from who I need to be to create what I want? And does it bring me closer or further from creating what I want? The basic question, I ask it every day, guides my decisions. It's my compass.

Gresham Harkless 11:16

Nice. I absolutely love that. And you know, asking questions and be able to pay attention to your answers, like you said physically as well, too, is definitely, you know, huge so you can understand if you're trying to trick yourself sometimes. And now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Dr. Fern Kazlow 11:35

Trust yourself more, trust myself more, I was pretty good at it. But there are places that I didn't. People second guessed, they stopped being consistent because I think they're on the wrong path. So the trick is, one, pay attention to what you feel what you know, and trust yourself. But for that, to not lead you on a wild goose chase, you also need to learn to be discerning.

So it's learning to be discerning and learn to trust yourself. And you need to do both of those more. And it's a process a pretty much a lifetime journey. But that's what I would say those times when I was hesitant, really go inside and look for discernment, and look for trust. And then follow it all the way. And we all know when we're off it. We know if we're willing to pay attention. We know when we're off the grid, a lot of times we get caught up in the excitement and get caught up in other people's expertise. So it's no, no the discernment follows your learned wisdom.

Gresham Harkless 12:34

Absolutely, absolutely. Because a lot of times you already know the answer. You just gotta listen to yourself and trust yourself in order to do that. So that makes sense. And now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on the show. But Dr. K, I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Dr. Fern Kazlow 12:50

Yeah, I love that question. I've had, I've gotten to fuel discussions, we can use that word with people about it, who said, You've got to have a big company, a certain size company, to be a CEO, to be CEO is about a lens that you look at your business and even your life from. So it's about creating the vision, it's about the culture, it's about how you execute. It's all of those things. It's about leadership.

And I think we need to be the CEO of our own life. So when somebody says, You're not a CEO, I will tell you one of the biggest reasons that solopreneurs fail, besides not being who they need to be, is that who they need to be maybe as part of being a CEO, they don't have that vision. So like a little company, instead of looking at this as a real business. So if they could look at their business, and if they could look at themselves as the CEO of our business, I have no doubt that we will have far more effective businesses that create an impact on the economy.

Gresham Harkless 13:43

Absolutely. I absolutely love that definition. I'll absolutely love that perspective, especially for like you mentioned the solopreneurs that maybe if they had that more strategic focus on what it is they were doing and making decisions and alignment with their goals and their visions.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 13:56

And they would come up totally differently. If you say I am CEO is very just even think about it and your body feels what happens feel how you hold yourself going to need it as the CEO versus a solopreneur. A little totally different. Totally different. So I've been CEO of, you know, solopreneur, partnerships, larger companies, having that within you changes yourself, as well as how people react to you.

Gresham Harkless 14:21

Absolutely, absolutely. I would definitely agree with that. And Dr. K, I truly appreciate your time today, what I want to do is pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers that our listeners know and then how they can find you and of course, get a copy of your book.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 14:34

Okay. They can find me by drkazlow.com, which will probably be up on the website because it's hard to spell my name for a lot of people. But if you Google No Doubt Zone, it will take you to my site, it'll be redirected. So I want to invite anybody who's struggling with some of this to give me a call and reach out. I want to hear it. I want to help you.

So I want to thank you for having me and for bringing me into your community and we've done some Some things on you know some of the questions you've asked. I love your power questions also. But I really want to say to the community to reach out if you have a question if you feel that you are stuck in some way, and you could use some help moving into that greater success, reach out, and see if we're fit. But there's a Contact page really easy. drkazlow.com Or Google No Doubt Zone, it'll direct you to drkazlow.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:24

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well so that anybody can follow up with you and see all the awesome things that you're doing and things that you have done to help out so many entrepreneurs and Dr. K, I appreciate you so much again, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Dr. Fern Kazlow 15:38

Thank you.

Outro 15:39

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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