Healthy Mind, Healthy Life

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Nazish talks with author Aaron Ryan about the moment a hobby starts asking for more than a hobby is supposed to ask for, and what happens inside a person while they build something real out of it. Aaron, who recently published his fiftieth book, describes writing as a calling rather than a hobby, something that nagged at him until he answered it, and talks candidly about the mental cost of living inside the worlds he creates, including keeping his fictional characters' birthdays on his real calendar.
The conversation moves into the practical and protective side of a creative career: the scams and predatory offers that target indie authors and podcasters, how Aaron filters and spots them, and why thick skin and patience matter more than talent in the long run. He and Nazish also talk about keeping family as the anchor underneath the work, the private, unpublished journal Aaron keeps for his sons, and why surrendering your own timeline is often the real adjustment that keeps a creative calling sustainable instead of exhausting.
About the Guest:Aaron Ryan is an author who has published fifty books, including the Dissonance saga and the Talisman saga, and works as a voice actor to support his writing career. A member of the Authors Guild, he is active in helping other authors and podcasters recognize and avoid predatory offers and scams targeting creators.
Key Takeaways:
There is a real difference between a hobby and a calling. A hobby is something you want to do, while a calling nags at your schedule and priorities until you answer it.
Living inside the worlds you create has a real mental cost. Protecting family time and personal boundaries is essential for a creative career to last decades rather than burn out in a few years.
Predatory offers targeting authors and podcasters are common, often arriving through unsolicited email, and usually promise guaranteed sales, reviews, or adaptations for a fee no legitimate offer would require.
Assertiveness in a creative career looks like committing to the long haul rather than dabbling, treating the work as a business pursuit rather than something to wade into occasionally.
Surrendering your own timeline matters because the desire to give up a creative pursuit usually comes from dreams not manifesting on your own schedule, not from the dream itself being wrong.
A mantra, a filtering system for scam emails, and a hard line between work and family time are concrete, repeatable tools for staying sane inside a demanding creative career.
Connect With Aaron Ryan:
Website: authoraaronryan.com
Private author community: authoraaronryangroup.com
Episode Chapters:00:00 - Cold open: when a hobby starts asking for more than a hobby should00:47 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Aaron Ryan01:44 - The inner shift from hobby to calling04:45 - The mental cost of being the engine, steering wheel, and roadmap06:47 - The difference between burning out in three years and writing meaningfully at year fifteen08:31 - Spotting and protecting against predatory offers and scams13:08 - Who Aaron is when he is not producing: daddy, husband, provider15:30 - What a sustainable, creatively honest life actually looks like19:00 - One small adjustment for a creator at the edge of giving up21:42 - The one thing to walk away with when turning a hobby into a calling22:54 - How to connect with Aaron Ryan and his author community
 
Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatchDM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Contact:💼 Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™📧 Email: https://www.podhub.club/contact🌐 Website: https://www.podhub.club📍 Based in: India & USA
🎧 Listen to all podcast shows: https://www.podhub.club/podcastnetwork🤝 Be a guest: https://www.podhub.club/beaguest📩 Newsletter: https://healthymindbyavik.substack.com/
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In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Nazish talks with Isa Lara Marie about the quiet ambient pressure of modern life to always be producing something, and the soul that waits patiently in the background, rarely asked how it is actually doing. Isa traces her own turning point back to her early twenties, when debilitating physical symptoms that modern medicine could not explain pushed her to turn inward and commit to healing and finding herself. She describes how she had been spiritually bypassing her own difficult emotions by staying busy and overachieving, a pattern she had to consciously unlearn.
The conversation moves into what balance actually feels like in the body rather than as some perfect, permanent state, and into small, doable practices, like a few conscious breaths done anywhere, a traffic light, a checkout line, a six-minute gap between calls, that can shift a nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into a calmer state. Isa and Nazish also get honest about spiritual bypassing in its subtler forms: using spiritual language to override boundaries around giving, or gently talking oneself out of feeling grief, and why staying present to real human emotion, without being swept away by it, is part of genuine spiritual groundedness.
About the Guest:
 Isa Lara Marie is a spiritual teacher and author who focuses on staying grounded and present in a world built to keep people constantly producing. After a health crisis in her early twenties that conventional medicine could not resolve, she turned to inner healing and has since developed a body of teaching she calls Integrating Infinity. She is the author of the book First Light.
Key Takeaways:
Balance is not a fixed, perfect state to arrive at. It is a felt sense in the body, something people return to again and again rather than hold onto permanently.
Spiritual bypassing can be subtle: using spiritual language or beliefs to override real emotions, like dismissing grief as "not real" or feeling obligated to give endlessly because that feels more spiritual.
Boundaries are compatible with being a genuinely spiritual or giving person; depleting yourself to give to others is not a requirement of spirituality, it is a pattern worth examining.
Short, consciously breathed moments, even just a few breaths at a traffic light or in a checkout line, can shift the body from a stressed, sympathetic state toward a calmer, parasympathetic one.
Letting go of the idea of perfection and embracing one's own uniqueness, the way a tree's scars and variations are simply part of its beauty, is part of staying grounded rather than striving.
Reconnecting with the body does not require a retreat or a formal practice. It can be as small as pausing with a cup of tea, gazing out a window, and breathing consciously for a moment.
Connect With Isa Lara Marie:
Website: isalaramarie.com
Teaching: Integrating Infinity
Book: First Light
Episode Chapters:
 00:00 - Cold open: the soul that hasn't been asked how it's doing in weeks
 00:45 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Isa Lara Marie
 01:37 - Disclaimer: personal views, not medical advice
 01:37 - The health crisis that pushed Isa to turn inward
 04:46 - Redefining balance as a felt sense, not a destination
 10:06 - Letting go of perfection and embracing uniqueness
 12:29 - A real-life practice for the six minutes between calls
 15:51 - Why this kind of small practice changes the nervous system over time
 17:54 - Where Isa has caught herself spiritually bypassing
 20:38 - The subtler forms of spiritual bypassing, like dismissing grief
 22:09 - How to connect with Isa Lara Marie, Integrating Infinity, and First Light
 
Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatchDM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Contact:💼 Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™📧 Email: https://www.podhub.club/contact🌐 Website: https://www.podhub.club📍 Based in: India & USA
🎧 Listen to all podcast shows: https://www.podhub.club/podcastnetwork🤝 Be a guest: https://www.podhub.club/beaguest📩 Newsletter: https://healthymindbyavik.substack.com/
 
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In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Nazish talks with therapist Liz Chelak about a shift she sees over and over in her practice: people spend years in traditional talk therapy identifying and changing their thoughts, only to discover that thoughts are downstream reports from the nervous system, not the source of the problem. Liz explains how a nervous system shaped by past stress or trauma can keep responding to danger that is no longer present, showing up as constant low-grade anxiety, exhaustion that sleep does not fix, or relationship patterns that repeat no matter how much insight a person gains in talk therapy alone.
The conversation moves into concrete, doable practice, including a simple extended-exhale technique Liz uses herself and teaches clients to signal safety to the body in calm moments rather than only during a crisis. She and Zeeshan also talk candidly about the line between nervous system awareness and a new form of self-rejection dressed up as self-improvement, and why Liz's Sovereign Body Method is built around helping people become the leaders of their own lives, learning to use their feelings as information rather than treating their own reactions as evidence of being broken.
About the Guest:Liz Chelak is a therapist who works with the nervous system as the central piece of mental and emotional health. She developed the Sovereign Body Method to help clients regulate their nervous system, reconnect with their bodies, and use their feelings as guidance rather than something to fix or fear. Her approach moves beyond traditional talk therapy toward somatic, body-based work that she teaches through her practice, Evolve Therapy Counseling.
Key Takeaways:
Thoughts are downstream reports from the nervous system, not the root cause of anxiety or low mood, which is why changing thoughts alone often produces only short-term relief.
A nervous system shaped by past stress or trauma can keep responding to danger that is no longer present, showing up as low-grade anxiety or exhaustion that sleep does not fix.
A simple extended-exhale practice, done with intention and repeated a few times a day, signals safety to the body and can meaningfully reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms over time.
Reactions, triggers, and relationship patterns are not evidence of being broken. They are a conditioned nervous system doing exactly what it learned to do to survive.
Nervous system practices should be done in calm, neutral moments rather than only during high stress, so the goal becomes changing the body's baseline state rather than just coping in the moment.
There is a real risk of turning self-improvement into self-rejection. The Sovereign Body Method aims for people to become the leaders of their own lives by using regulated feelings as information, not another project to perfect.
Connect With Liz Chelak:
Website: evolvetherapycounseling.com
Instagram: Liz Chelak
Episode Chapters:00:00 - Cold open: the nervous system as the floor underneath mental health00:50 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Liz Chelak01:40 - Disclaimer: personal views, not medical advice01:40 - Why the nervous system, not the thoughts, is the real foundation03:26 - Why talk therapy alone often isn't enough04:32 - Reading low-grade anxiety and unexplained exhaustion correctly06:34 - Reframing reactions as a conditioned nervous system, not being broken09:07 - A simple daily practice: the extended exhale11:55 - The science behind why the exhale works15:24 - The line between nervous system awareness and self-rejection19:02 - One tiny practice to try tomorrow morning before checking your phone21:22 - How to connect with Liz Chelak and Evolve Therapy Counseling
 
Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatchDM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Contact:💼 Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™📧 Email: https://www.podhub.club/contact🌐 Website: https://www.podhub.club📍 Based in: India & USA
🎧 Listen to all podcast shows: https://www.podhub.club/podcastnetwork🤝 Be a guest: https://www.podhub.club/beaguest📩 Newsletter: https://healthymindbyavik.substack.com/
#podmatch #healthymindbyavik #podhub.club #healthymindhealthylife #lizchelak #nervoussystemregulation #somatictherapy #mentalhealthpodcast #healingjourney #traumainformed #anxietyrelief #bodybasedtherapy #sovereignbodymethod #selfregulation #innerwisdom

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Rashmeet talks with Jon Symes about the particular kind of ache that shows up in people who are, by every outward measure, doing everything right. Jon traces his own turning point back about fifteen years, when a social venture he tried to build in Ecuador failed, and the failure cracked open an identity he had built around always being the person who could fix things. What followed was a long, honest look at the unconscious stories he and so many high-functioning people carry, stories that quietly run the show until they stop working, which Jon reframes as the real definition of a midlife crisis, one that can arrive at almost any age.
The conversation moves into how these hidden narratives, like "I am what I produce," show up as stuckness, frustration, or a dissonance between a life that looks good on paper and one that feels empty from the inside. Jon talks about learning to listen to the body's signals rather than overriding them, the self-compassion it took to stop treating his own perceived flaws as sabotage, and why he does not encourage people to blow up their lives in response. Instead, he points toward reconnecting with the qualities, compassion, curiosity, creativity, kindness, and strength, that he believes every person is seeded with before culture's scripts start to dampen them.
About the Guest:Jon Symes works with people navigating midlife transitions, helping them recognize the unconscious stories shaping their choices, relationships, and sense of self-worth. His own path included building a career around solving problems, a failed social venture in Ecuador that forced a reckoning with that identity, and years of work developing the self-compassion and self-awareness he now brings to his coaching.
Key Takeaways:
A midlife crisis, in Jon's framing, is simply the moment the stories we've been living by stop working, and that moment can arrive almost any time from age thirty onward, not on a fixed schedule.
High-functioning people often carry a story like "I am what I produce," which quietly ties their sense of worth to output and makes slowing down or reflecting feel like failure.
The body tends to register dissonance, through depression, low energy, or lethargy, long before the conscious mind is willing to name that something isn't working.
Noticing a limiting narrative starts with locating the pain or stuckness in daily life: where the same strategy keeps failing, or where frustration keeps repeating.
Reconnecting with purpose doesn't require detonating a life, a job, a relationship, or a move to a new country; the deeper shift is letting go of inherited stories rather than carrying them to a new setting.
Jon encourages self-compassion toward the parts of ourselves that seem to sabotage or delay progress, treating them as an inner landscape to tend rather than a flaw to fix.
Connect With Jon Symes:
Focus: Midlife transitions, identity, and unconscious narrative work
https://www.jonsymes.com/ 
https://www.wholeandfree.me/free  - The Mid-Life Reset Challenge 5 days. One clear next chapter. If you’re feeling stuck or off track, this free challenge will help you reset with clarity, purpose, and energy.
Substack
Instagram
YouTube | Facebook
Episode Chapters:00:00 - Cold open: the ache that hides inside a life that looks fine on paper00:48 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Jon Symes01:49 - What quietly nourishes Jon right now02:30 - The Ecuador social venture that cracked open his identity04:13 - Finding compassion for the parts of himself that seemed to sabotage him05:07 - Why high-functioning people end up emptier than expected08:39 - What changes when someone admits the good-on-paper life doesn't feel good09:53 - Making the unconscious narrative real in daily life11:45 - The most common hidden story in successful people: "I am what I produce"13:08 - Reframing midlife as an awakening instead of a punchline16:11 - Why Jon does not recommend detonating your life to reconnect with purpose
Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatchDM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Contact:💼 Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™📧 Email: https://www.podhub.club/contact🌐 Website: https://www.podhub.club📍 Based in: India & USA
🎧 Listen to all podcast shows: https://www.podhub.club/podcastnetwork🤝 Be a guest: https://www.podhub.club/beaguest📩 Newsletter: https://healthymindbyavik.substack.com/
#podmatch #healthymindbyavik #podhub.club #healthymindhealthylife #jonsymes #midlifetransition #unconsciousnarratives #selfworth #mentalhealthpodcast #healingjourney #identitywork #personalgrowth #successandburnout #selfcompassion #innerlife

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Rashmi sits down with Kimberly Crowe, founder of Speakers Playhouse, to talk about the quiet, inherited stories people carry about who they are and what they're allowed to want. Kimberly traces her own path from seventeen years inside a Fortune 1000 company, including the "golden handcuffs" of a job that paid well but no longer fit, into entrepreneurship, where she built a million-dollar business only to find herself in what she calls a "golden jail cell" of her own making. The turn came through an unexpected, joy-first side project teaching audiobook narration with her teenage son, which became the seed for Speakers Playhouse and a new rule for her work going forward: if it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing.
The conversation then moves into the mechanics of actually shifting a limiting narrative, not through sweeping affirmations that the mind rejects outright, but through smaller, believable adjustments that the brain can accept and build on. Kimberly and Rashmi talk about "I'm not ready yet" as one of the most common stories people hide behind, why trying to leap straight to a completely new identity backfires, and the grounding question Kimberly returns to again and again: whose story is this, really, and does it still belong in your life.
About the Guest:Kimberly Crowe is the founder of Speakers Playhouse, where she helps coaches, authors, entrepreneurs, and speakers build the confidence to get on stages and podcasts and share their message. Before that, she spent seventeen years in corporate leadership at a Fortune 1000 company and later built her own million-dollar business, experience that now shapes her practical, no-nonsense approach to helping people step into visibility without burning out in the process.
Key Takeaways:
"I'm not ready yet" is one of the most common limiting stories people tell themselves, whether they're updating a resume or getting behind a microphone, and waiting for readiness often means waiting forever.
Confidence tends to build through repetition, not preparation. Getting it a little wrong a few times is usually what makes someone feel ready, not the other way around.
Trying to force a dramatic identity shift, like telling yourself "I'm a millionaire" while staring at an empty bank account, rarely works. Smaller, believable shifts the brain can actually accept tend to stick.
Recreating the same pressures in a new form is easy to miss. Kimberly's own escape from corporate "golden handcuffs" led her straight into a self-built "golden jail cell" as a business owner.
A simple grounding question, whose story is this, can help someone recognize when they're still carrying a narrative handed to them by a parent, teacher, or old classmate rather than one that's actually theirs.
Joy became Kimberly's non-negotiable filter for new work after a fun side project with her son outperformed years of "serious" business building.
Connect With Kimberly Crowe:
Company: Speakers Playhouse
Website: speakersplayhouse.com
Free gift: amazeballsgift.com
Episode Chapters:00:00 - Cold open: the stories we inherit and rehearse until they feel like facts00:49 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Kimberly Crowe01:51 - A small story Kimberly has gently set down02:43 - The corporate years: climbing a ladder she didn't actually want08:43 - Where old narratives hide in daily life, and the first sign one is running10:43 - Affirmations versus real narrative shift, and where people go wrong12:29 - A simple exercise: naming the story you're ready to outgrow13:40 - The grounding question: whose story is this?14:35 - How to connect with Kimberly Crowe and Speakers Playhouse
 
Want to be a guest on Healthy Mind, Healthy Life? DM on PM - Send me a message on PodMatchDM Me Here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/avik
Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
If you have concerns about any content, please contact us here
By listening, you acknowledge and accept this disclaimer in full. Read detailed disclaimer here.
Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
With over 6500+ episodes and 200K+ global listeners, we unite voices, break stigma, and build a world where every story matters.👉 Subscribe and be part of this healing journey.
Contact:💼 Brand: Healthy Mind By Avik™📧 Email: https://www.podhub.club/contact🌐 Website: https://www.podhub.club📍 Based in: India & USA
🎧 Listen to all podcast shows: https://www.podhub.club/podcastnetwork🤝 Be a guest: https://www.podhub.club/beaguest📩 Newsletter: https://healthymindbyavik.substack.com/
#podmatch #healthymindbyavik #podhub.club #healthymindhealthylife #kimberlycrowe #speakersplayhouse #shiftingthenarrative #limitingbeliefs #publicspeaking #mentalhealthpodcast #healingjourney #selftalk #entrepreneurjourney #joyfulwork #personalnarrative

In this episode of Healthy Mind, Healthy Life, host Nazish talks with Dr. Dan Neissany, founder of TBP Strategies and author of I'm The Problem, about what leadership actually costs a person on the inside, beyond the polished version shared on LinkedIn. Dan traces his own turning point back to a Tony Robbins seminar question, what do you actually know about the people you work with, and the shame he felt realizing the honest answer was nothing, despite years of working alongside the same team.
The conversation moves into the harder, more personal layers underneath leadership struggles: the ego that disguises self-interest as service, the discomfort of discovering your own blind spots, and why most people do not change simply because they rarely build an honest action plan around what they learn about themselves. Dan and Nazish also talk through what it means to build a business that serves a life rather than consuming it, including Dan's own quarterly practice of assessing health, relationships, and purpose using a wheel of life exercise.
About the Guest:
Dr. Dan Neissany is the founder of TBP Strategies and author of I'm The Problem: Take Your Leadership Skills From Toxic to Transformative. With a background in physiotherapy, he grew an organization from a small team into one with over one hundred fifty employees, and now works at the intersection of leadership development, personal growth, and entrepreneurship, helping founders and operators build businesses that serve their lives rather than consume them.
Key Takeaways:
A single honest question, what do you actually know about the people you work with, can expose how disconnected a leader has become from their own team, regardless of how many hours they are putting in.
Working long hours can function as a kind of badge that masks deeper leadership gaps, especially when team members are not growing or advancing under that leadership.
It is possible to tell yourself you are sacrificing for your team while actually chasing personal accolades and validation. Recognizing that gap requires an uncomfortable level of self-honesty.
Most people do not change their behavior simply because they rarely build a concrete, honest action plan around what self-reflection reveals, so insight alone rarely leads anywhere.
Self-awareness has real limits. Outside, trusted feedback, from a coach, partner, or colleague, often reveals blind spots a person genuinely cannot see about themselves, much like reading a label from inside the bottle.
A quarterly wheel of life check, covering health, finances, relationships, contribution, and spirituality, helps a founder catch misalignment before burnout forces the reckoning instead.
Connect With Dr. Dan Neissany:
Company: TBP Strategies
Website: tbpstrategies.com
Book: I'm The Problem: Take Your Leadership Skills From Toxic to Transformative
Available on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram
Episode Chapters:
00:00 - Cold open: the version of leadership that never makes it to LinkedIn00:56 - Welcome to Healthy Mind, Healthy Life and introducing Dr. Dan Neissany01:34 - The moment Dan realized leadership would demand something internal05:22 - The slow building of self-trust behind the competence story09:28 - Why so many leaders avoid asking themselves the hard question11:50 - The moment a leader stops blaming the team for their own gaps16:42 - The ketchup bottle analogy and the limits of self-awareness18:39 - Building a business that serves a life instead of swallowing it23:11 - Redefining success beyond financial status and title25:25 - How to connect with Dr. Dan Neissany and TBP Strategies
 
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Disclaimer: This episode is produced for educational and informational purposes only. All views expressed by the guest are their personal opinions alone and do not represent the views of the host or Healthy Mind by Avik™. The Network does not verify, endorse, or assume responsibility for any guest statements. Nothing in this episode constitutes medical, legal, financial, or professional advice, please consult a qualified professional before making any decisions. Listeners are encouraged to engage critically and independently with all content do not consume blindly. Use this content as a starting point for your own reflection and research, not as a substitute for professional guidance. Third-party content is referenced under fair use for informational purposes only. Guest speakers are solely responsible for their own statements.
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Healthy Mind By Avik™️ is a global platform redefining mental health as a necessity, not a luxury. Born during the pandemic, it's become a sanctuary for healing, growth, and mindful living. Hosted by Avik Chakraborty, storyteller, survivor, and wellness advocate.
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