- CEO Story: Dr. Nicole has always been passionate about being a psychologist that went to different schools. Her pivotal point was her battle against anxiety and discovering mindfulness, thus when she started her private practice she uses mindfulness-based techniques. As it evolved, she started working with people and connecting with colleagues in the same field, at the same time went through some health crises and really started looking at her own nutrition and lifestyle. She discovered that it was the major missing piece in her life as well as her clients was the holistic piece. And so Dr. Nicole pivoted into implementing lifestyle and nutrition based on the work that she is doing.
- Business Service: Helping clients holistically – mind and body. Subconscious programming in the mind – understanding the narratives, stories, and programs and trying to shift them. Nutritional work.
- Secret Sauce: Master of objectivity. Allowing yourself to distance yourself from the negative things you hear.
- CEO Hack: Having a balance
- CEO Nugget: Don't believe your thoughts
- CEO Defined: Freedom
Website: https://yourholisticpsychologist.com/
Instagram: @the.holistic.psychologist
Facebook: the.holistic.psychologist
Episode Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/12/07/iam124-holistic-psychologist-helps-clients-with-holistic-mental-wellness-at-different-levels/
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Transcription
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00:22 – Intro
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.
00:49 – 00:59
Gresham Harkless: Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Nicole LaPera of Your Holistic Psychologist. Dr. Nicole, it's awesome to have you on the show.
00:59 – 01:00
Nicole LePera: Awesome to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
01:00 – 01:27
Gresham Harkless: No problem. And what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Dr. Nicole so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Dr. Nicole LaPera trained in psychology at Cornell University in the new school for social research in New York City. She practices as a holistic psychologist and is the founder of the Mindful Healing Center in Philadelphia. Recently, she brought her work online to spread the message of holistic mental wellness. Dr. Nicole, are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?
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01:28 – 01:29
Nicole LePera: I am. Thank you.
01:29 – 01:34
Gresham Harkless: No problem. Let's do it. So the first question I had was to hear, I guess, a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.
01:34 – 02:02
Nicole LePera: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm 1 of those people who was always going to be a psychologist. So as you heard, I went to a lot of school to do so did my training in New York, moved to Philly to start my practice, had kind of 2 pivotal points along the way, which kind of directed me into the holistic work that I'm doing now, 1 of which was around my own battle with anxiety and discovering mindfulness. So hence, when I opened up my private practice, I really focused a lot on using mindfulness based techniques and the mindful healing
02:02 – 02:31
Nicole LePera: center, you know, started working privately with people. As I evolved and started working with people, started connecting with colleagues in the same field, at the same time went through a health crisis of sorts of my own And really started to realize at that point, look at my own nutrition, look at my own lifestyle, and really started to realize that the major piece that was missing in my own healing journey, as well as a lot of the clients that I was working with, was the holistic piece. So I kind of pivoted again, And then started to really
02:31 – 02:49
Nicole LePera: implement a lot of lifestyle, a lot of nutritional based practices into the work that I was doing with my private clients, but also saw this big world that is the online sphere and really was wanting to, you know, going to get the message out there that I think is is missing in a lot of conventional mental wellness.
02:49 – 03:04
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And obviously it's sorry to hear about having to go through those different experiences, but it sounds like you've been able to go through them, but you've been able to cure yourself, but also help out so many other people as a result of it. You may not be able to do that if that didn't happen, I guess.
03:04 – 03:28
Nicole LePera: Right. I think all the time, you know, I'm always the biggest, I guess, cliche statement of, you know, we learn, we pick what we do with our past experiences. And I think, you know, like you're saying, there is a part of me now that can truly relate and a lot of the people, the clients that I see in my practice online, anxiety is just so prevalent. So having had my own experience is difficult and terrible as it was, I think allows me a lot to speak from a point of lived experience, which I think is really
03:28 – 03:29
Nicole LePera: helpful.
03:29 – 03:37
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I definitely agree. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper in here, exactly how you're helping to serve these clients, how you're helping them with their holistic wellness. Could you tell us a little bit more about
03:37 – 04:02
Nicole LePera: that? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when I think of when I say holistic, I mean, the mind, the body. So obviously, I do a lot of the mind piece of things. And you know, what that looks like is I'm of the believer that we have this subconscious part of our mind that is formed usually when we're very young. I call it our subconscious programming. It's kind of what happens, what kind of, you know, are the things that we do very consistently on a daily basis. So for the mind piece, I do a lot of work around
04:02 – 04:29
Nicole LePera: kind of understanding what our narratives are, our stories, our programs, and obviously trying to work to shift them because a lot of times they're not so helpful. The biggest piece is I think the body piece. So I do a lot of nutritional work. There is a ton of research out there that is really starting to find the pivotal role that our gut health actually plays in everything from anxiety to depression. Actually there's like autism, schizophrenia, things like that. So a lot of mental illnesses you think are, you know, the way I would define them is a
04:29 – 04:58
Nicole LePera: symptom of a actually gut related issue. So I do a lot of nutritional focus and I bring this up too because I think that there's a lot of contradicting, confusing, overwhelming information out there in terms of all things nutrition. There's so many different camps of people. So I really try to drill down and give the people that I work with my clients, at least what my opinion is in terms of the optimal mental wellness diet for humans. So a lot of nutritional work as well as lifestyle. I do a lot of work around breath work, meditation,
04:58 – 05:21
Nicole LePera: mindfulness is still a huge part in my practice. So I kind of from working on all of those levels, you know, like I said, I do this still working individually with clients. I bring this message online. I'm expanding, I'm doing Skype sessions, all of that. So it's been a really cool evolution. I'm hoping in the next couple months to get a program that I will be able to release to have people kind of self-direct themselves through the healing process.
05:21 – 05:37
Gresham Harkless: That's exciting. And I've always heard that about kind of like the holistic wellness that you sometimes just try to take 1 piece of it is like, oh, that I ate that today, but it could be so many different other factors that you need to kind of have that holistic perspective to understand exactly like what might be the underlying cause as you mentioned.
05:37 – 06:02
Nicole LePera: Absolutely. And I think, and I have, you know, this probably is a longer conversation for a different time, but I have my theories of, I think as a society, we do like to have this kind of, I call it the reductionistic, right? 1 problem, 1 solution approach, right? Like I hurt my arm, so I just fix my arm. But I think just before, and I wholeheartedly agree, I don't think it's ever as simple as 1 thing. You're very complicated more often than not. We, because all of our systems are so interconnected, our mind and our body
06:02 – 06:11
Nicole LePera: being 1 of those are those 2 major systems. You know, we can't just pick apart 1 thing and say, this is how you feel. Unfortunately, it looks like a bunch of different things.
06:11 – 06:21
Gresham Harkless: Right, right. Exactly. That makes sense. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart, but do you have an example of a secret sauce that you?
06:21 – 06:48
Nicole LePera: Yeah, so absolutely. So I think my secret sauce, and I think actually really helps me in terms of, you know, being the clinical psychologist part of the work that I do is, I like to call it, I am a master of objectivity. I think a lot of it comes from my own childhood experiences, but I have an almost uncanny ability to distance myself. Not all the times my own personal feelings sometimes, but to distance myself, especially in the room with people. And I think that really helps me because a lot of times, you know, we hear
06:48 – 07:11
Nicole LePera: someone say something or we don't agree and we become triggered. I think I can sit in a lot of, hear a lot of things and sit in the feelings that all of those things bring up and not allow my own, you know, feelings to kind of get in the room. And when you're doing work with people on an individual basis, I think that can be a really good secret sauce to have as a psychologist, because it's really about them and not what I think of what they're saying or feel I should say about what they're saying,
07:11 – 07:18
Nicole LePera: but kind of showing up for them, meeting them where they're at. So I think that's really benefited me in my personal life and in my practice.
07:18 – 07:33
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And so objectivity, you're saying is kind of like, you're not, I guess, all the way into like what it is that somebody's saying you're able to kind of look impartially and make what is the quote unquote right decision based off of not, not based off any bias. Is that correct?
07:33 – 07:57
Nicole LePera: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So it's, you know, I think to a large extent, we all see the world through our lens. And often that lens is our narratives, our meanings that we're assigning in there for the feelings we have. So part of the mindfulness-based approach that I practice outside of my practice as well, is standing in that objectivity, like you're saying, being able to hear something, not to say I don't have a thought about it or a feeling about it, I'm human, but not being able to step far enough back, I think you put it a really
07:57 – 08:06
Nicole LePera: good way, from that to then just kind of meet the person where they're at and not then speak through my lens and my opinion or my feeling might be if I might not agree or what have you.
08:06 – 08:21
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that's that was definitely a great example of a secret sauce and definitely a lot of people can use a benefit from that as well, too. So now I want to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack and this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
08:21 – 08:49
Nicole LePera: Yeah, absolutely. So interestingly, my first answer was kind of the objectivity, the mindfulness piece. My second answer is going to be the body piece. I think nutrition. Like I said, what propelled me into my own holistic wellness, personal journey was a health crisis. And with that comes, and I think a lot of the symptoms that I was having are a lot of the symptoms that a lot of us have. My brain felt foggy, I had no energy, motivation. While I could kind of summon it, I really had to work hard to do it. So really changing
08:49 – 09:14
Nicole LePera: my lifestyle, my nutrition, as the major factor of it, I think is really giving me a balance that allows me to be more successful, to have more energy, to think clearer, to have those hours where I feel like I'm very much alive in my body in a way that I think if I hadn't made the lifestyle or nutritional changes that I had and a lot of us, you know, aren't making, you know, are struggling. And I think that we are being limited in our, in our productivity because of it.
09:14 – 09:31
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, absolutely. I've always heard that you and kind of like I guess you are what you eat to some degree So sometimes when you're putting things that might not be great for you into your system and not taking care of nutrition As best as you can that can manifest itself in stress or depression or frustration So you kind of have to look at that and figure out what you're putting into your body.
09:31 – 10:01
Nicole LePera: Yeah, so the research, 1 of the major things it's coming, you know, bringing up to light is there's a very much a connection between our guts and our brains to the extent that if our guts are damaged before long, the blood brain barrier, so the kind of protection that keeps our brain safe, gets penetrated. So the speech appointment has a very real physiological effects then. If toxins are going into our brain, not only are our mental processes going to be slowed down, but areas such as memory and executive functioning kind of where we do our creative
10:01 – 10:14
Nicole LePera: thinking are actually legitimately going to be affected. So I think that really does speak for, we have to follow that train down, right? And then really make sure our guts are healthy so that upstream, our brains are physiologically as healthy as possible.
10:15 – 10:27
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, that definitely makes perfect sense. And I think that's a phenomenal example of a CEO hack. And now I wanted to ask you for a CEO nugget and this might be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?
10:27 – 10:55
Nicole LePera: Yeah, so I would tell my younger business self this. I would tell my younger self this. I would tell everyone this. Not to believe your thoughts. And like I said earlier, I think a lot of times our thoughts are 1 of our major disservices, whether we're an entrepreneur in business, whether we're just someone trying to make it through our day, we have a lot of negative critical voices. And like I said earlier, I think a lot of it comes from this programming and it becomes so subconscious that we're saying these negative things to ourselves on repeat,
10:55 – 11:23
Nicole LePera: not even realizing it half of the time. So I think a really huge hack and something that I'm still working on, it's much easier said than done, is not to believe my thoughts. Everything from the morning routine that I now hold myself accountable for, to even my food choices. There's a part of my mind that tantrums, still, I don't want to wake up early. I don't want to not have ice cream. I don't wanna do this thing. So I think from anything of I don't want to do or not do to I can't, I can't succeed,
11:23 – 11:48
Nicole LePera: you're a failure. All of these thoughts, I think the biggest kind of tip is to just ignore them or at least develop a distance, not to say that they go away. I hear them, but I can choose to listen to them and throw my hands up and say, okay, I suck. Or I can choose to say, all right, thoughts, you know, not today, you're inaccurate. You know, I'm not listening to you. So I think that's a huge, you know, kind of a huge important piece for us all to keep in mind. It's a practice. It's much
11:48 – 11:56
Nicole LePera: more difficult than, you know, I think, than said, but it's something that I think could benefit a lot of us, definitely entrepreneurs who have that critical voice.
11:56 – 12:17
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. And, you know, especially in this day and age, Sometimes there's so much kind of negativity pulling at you. And a lot of times, like you said, it's been kind of indoctrined, I guess, into us as we've grown up. So sometimes you have to be able to quote unquote fight that. But I think that, you know, I guess you kind of touched on 1 aspect where you kind of rewire. Not that I don't think that I could do that, but I actually can do that as a way to kind of, you
12:17 – 12:21
Gresham Harkless: know, take control and kind of empower yourself to some degree so that you can reach whatever goal you want to.
12:21 – 12:44
Nicole LePera: Yeah, absolutely. I love that you said empower. I probably say empower a million times a day because I think that there are so many little micro moments in a day where we can, whether or not it's a victory over a thought or making the way I kind of put it, we make a small promise to ourselves and we keep it even if it's so little and so small. I think that's hugely empowering. I think even just stepping back and acknowledging that we have a choice with what we do with our thoughts, whether we listen to it
12:44 – 13:01
Nicole LePera: or not, that's empowerment. And a lot of us are disempowered for a lot of different reasons. So I think really cultivating, I love that you brought that word out, that empowerment, I think is hugely beneficial. Again, whether or not we're just someone trying to heal from our past or we're someone trying to be an entrepreneur and be really productive and succeed, I think empowerment plays a major
13:01 – 13:13
Gresham Harkless: role. Definitely, definitely. I would definitely agree with that. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?
13:13 – 13:39
Nicole LePera: Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first word that came to mind as soon as I think about this definition is freedom. Everything from freedom to come up with the ideas that I want to present to the world, to freedom to pick the population that I want to present it to or work with, to freedom to pick the hours that I want to work. I think a lot of us are pushed into this 9 to 5, kind of be productive in these hours timeframe, and I don't think it necessarily works. So freedom to wake up and decide
13:39 – 14:08
Nicole LePera: these morning hours are my most productive or these afternoon hours and work on that schedule, obviously to financial freedom, right? The hard, the amount of effort I put in, you know, translates and has nothing to do with anyone else to freedom in terms of being able to move and, you know, kind of do my work wherever I want. So I think, you know, the number 1 thing that comes to mind when I think of my version of a CEO, what is so appealing and what has inspired me to pursue my own path is freedom.
14:08 – 14:28
Gresham Harkless: Yeah, I love that. And even kind of like what you said before about being able to kind of make a choice and it kind of sounds you have the freedom to be able to make your choice and we all kind of have the choice to do that, but as a CEO, you're kind of barking on that path and making that decision that I'm gonna do that. So I think that's a phenomenal definition. Dr. Nicole, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. What I want to do is pass you the mic just
14:28 – 14:33
Gresham Harkless: to see if there's anything additional You want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best they can get a hold of you.
14:33 – 14:35
Intro: Of course. So I have 2 major platforms.
14:36 – 15:08
Nicole LePera: The 1 that I'm on most consistently on a daily basis is Instagram at the.holistic.psychologist. I'm on there pretty much every day. I post daily tips, whether it's nutrition, lifestyle, all things kind of mental, the mind, mental wellness. So come check me out on there. And I also have a blog at yourholisticpsychologist.com. My right blog's weekly. There is an email list if anyone who is interested. The link for my website is also in my bio on Instagram so you can get through it that way. If you sign up to my email list, there's actually a free gut
15:08 – 15:16
Nicole LePera: health pdf I put together a couple weeks ago and you will be on an email list and get my blog. So Instagram and or your holisticpsychologist.com.
15:17 – 15:28
Gresham Harkless: Awesome, awesome, awesome. And we'll have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can also click through here and follow up with you. But Dr. Nicole, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule and all the awesome work that you're doing. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the
15:28 – 15:31
Nicole LePera: day. Thanks, I appreciate being on. Thank you so much and have a good day yourself.
15:32 – Outro
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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