IAM2430 – Founder and Speaker Mentors High Performers Entrepreneurs to Their Next Level of Success

Dr. Fern Kazlow

00:00 - 00:23

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 in 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?

Intro

00:25 - 00:49

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Grush values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the

Gresham Harkless

00:50 - 01:02

I Am CEO Podcast. Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the IMCEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Fern Caslow of the No Doubt Zone. Dr. Fern, Dr. K, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

01:02 - 01:06

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

Gresham Harkless

01:07 - 01:48

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 Caslow, also known as Dr. K, is the founder of the No Doubt Zone. Dr. Caslow is a licensed clinical psychotherapist, speaker, author, and business and branding consultant and mentor to high-performing entrepreneurs and experts, aka the influencers, the paradigm shifters, the round pegs, and the square holes. A pioneer and disruptor, Dr. K, 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.

Gresham Harkless

01:48 - 02:19

Dr. K gets that high performers are different in 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-resistant syndrome. Dr. K has been interviewed and featured in major media including the New York Times, WABC, WNBC, and 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?

Dr. Fern Kazlow

02:19 - 02:20

You bet.

Gresham Harkless

02:21 - 02:27

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

02:27 - 02:56

Well, it's interesting how I came to this particular business. One of those people, like that's been a lifelong entrepreneur and also lifelong in personal development and education kind of started in the second grade when I had a very, we'll say a very difficult teacher who was mistreating a child in the class and big mouth as 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.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

02:57 - 03:21

You can't do this. You got to really work with her, help her. She's capable of more. And like, this is in 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.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

03:21 - 03:50

I was pretty bored with schoolwork. So this was great. It gave me something to do. She did great. And then the school started referring to me 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. Awesome. 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. I did some things with sales. I built my own businesses very quickly. And I was a therapist. I had a clinical practice.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

03:50 - 04:19

So one of the things that was showing up were high performers, entrepreneurs, health professionals, and they were depressed. They were anxious. 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 and we think about.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

04:19 - 04:52

But when I started, that was very new. Helped them to do that and to become who they needed to be to be successful with it. So I was doing it in my practice and it was happening and then I created a center, as you mentioned, I had one of the first centers in integrative health and business. And so I started a business that specifically worked with high-performance entrepreneurs, 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 Caslo International, now actually Caslo Global.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

04:53 - 04:58

That was the beginning of that company, helping people to get to that next level of success.

Gresham Harkless

04:58 - 05:18

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I absolutely love that story. And it's funny, like you, you touched on is 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 up 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 having been done for me. So it's great to kind of hear that.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

05:18 - 05:54

And it's interesting, because most health professionals are not health professionals and entrepreneurs. They're not health professionals and marketers. And even today, we see all of these courses for coaches, how to build your practice, 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 a therapist? 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 about who can do that better than a therapist So if that is something that's natural, I think you're right.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

05:54 - 06:21

We don't always I didn't go there first. I was doing it I built my center in 10 months. I went from two people to 12 people I mean that was huge at a time when integrative health was something that was really on par with voodoo now We shake our head my 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.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

06:21 - 06:32

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

06:33 - 06:37

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

06:38 - 07:16

So I focus on high performers and the top usually top 1% in their field or people who are committed to being okay, people who really want to do more. And so they're basically I meant I do mentoring 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 the 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 in the rest of their life.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

07:16 - 07:44

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 is true to let our problems show up in. So if somebody comes to me and says, I have a business problem, I will go underneath that because what often happens is that they have a problem, not about failing, but about succeeding.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

07:44 - 08:11

Maybe they don't want to go beyond their brother or their spouse or a best friend or there's something in them that's stopping them. So we go underneath and we really look at sometimes it's a health problem. They don't think their health will sustain it if they're too successful. So it looks like they've got a business problem. They can't grow fast enough or they can't grow enough, but it's really their perfect 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.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

08:11 - 08:25

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

08:26 - 08:33

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

08:33 - 09:11

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. 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 very high levels. So some people are beginners, but a lot of people who 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 are talking about mindset, and yet that creates what I call the mindset trap.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

09:11 - 09:42

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. high-performance resistance syndrome, honoring it. I really get people to see, now 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 them because of all the interviews that you've done and you know it in yourself, I'm sure, because I know it in myself, when we really want something to happen and yet we can't make it happen.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

09:43 - 10:16

We're motivated. People think if you're motivated it happens, 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, 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 lens that we see the world through as marketers and entrepreneurs.

Gresham Harkless

10:17 - 10:25

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

Dr. Fern Kazlow

10:26 - 10:53

it's like 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 say change your mind, and knowing how to bring people into their no doubt zone. Not just the no-doubt, but their no-doubt zone and helping them to continually evolve because the fun or not so fun thing is as soon as you get to that next level, especially high performers, they get that next level they want to go to and what do they have to do? They have to evolve again.

Gresham Harkless

10:53 - 10:53

Exactly.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

10:53 - 11:04

And so sometimes that 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 thwarting them.

Gresham Harkless

11:04 - 11:13

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 Apple book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

11:13 - 11:40

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? Basic question, I ask it every day. It guides my decisions.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

11:40 - 11:41

It's my compass.

Gresham Harkless

11:42 - 12:00

Nice. I absolutely love that. And asking questions and being able to pay attention to your answers, like you said, physically as well, too, is definitely 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 hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Dr. Fern Kazlow

12:00 - 12:33

Trust yourself more. Trust myself more. I was pretty good at it, but there are places that I didn't. People, second guess, they stop being consistent because they think they're on the wrong path. So the trick is, one, pay attention to what you feel, what you know, 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 learn to be discerning and learn to trust yourself. And you need to do both of those more. And it's a process, pretty much a lifetime journey. But that's what I would say.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

12:33 - 12:58

Those times when I was hesitant, really go inside and look for discernment and look for trust. And then follow it, follow it. And we all know when we're off it. We know it. If we're willing to pay attention, we know when we're off it. But a lot of times we get caught up in excitement, we get caught up in other people's expertise. So it's know it, know the discernment, follow your, follow your learned

Gresham Harkless

12:58 - 13:15

wisdom. Absolutely, absolutely. Because a lot of times you already know the answer. You just got to 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

13:15 - 13:51

Yeah, I love that question. I've gotten into a few little discussions, we can use that word, with people about it who've said, you've got to have a big company, a certain size company, to be a CEO. To me, 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.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

13:51 - 14:08

They don't have that vision. They're 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 that business, I have no doubt that we will have far more effective businesses that create the impact and the income.

Gresham Harkless

14:08 - 14:21

Absolutely. I absolutely love that definition. I 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 in alignment with that, their goals and their visions.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

14:21 - 14:46

And they would come off totally differently. you say, I am CEO. It's very, just even think about it in your body, feel what happens, feel how you hold yourself, go into a meeting as the CEO versus I'm a solopreneur, a little comp, it's 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

14:46 - 14:58

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 and our listeners know, and then how they can find you and of course get a copy of your book.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

14:59 - 15:27

Okay. Um, they can find me by, uh, drcaslow.com, which will probably be up on the website because it's hard to spell my name for a lot of people. K-A-Z-L-O-W. 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, 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 fun things on, you know, some of the questions you've asked.

Dr. Fern Kazlow

15:27 - 15:48

I love your questions also. But I really want to say to the community, 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, see if we're fit. But there's a contact page, really easy, drcasla.com or Google No Doubt Zone and it'll direct you to drcasla.com.

Gresham Harkless

15:49 - 16:03

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And 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.

Intro

16:03 - 16:33

Thank you. Thank you for listening to the I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase. It's a community. Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16media.com. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.