Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha
Gabby Bernstein: Transform Your Business and Lead with Clarity Through Self-Healing | Mental Health | E352
Mon, 26 May 2025
To lead with greater alignment and less burnout, entrepreneurs must prioritize mental health, mindset, and self-healing. Gabby Bernstein’s childhood was rooted in spirituality, but a high-pressure PR career in New York’s nightclub scene led to addiction, burnout, and anxiety. Realizing her health, business, and identity were at risk, Gabby began her journey to inner healing and is now a leading voice in spirituality and manifestation. In this episode, Gabby shares how Internal Family Systems (IFS) can enhance leadership, boost productivity, and improve decision-making for entrepreneurs. In this episode, Hala and Gabby will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:18) The Nightlife Career That Nearly Broke Her (05:08) How She Transformed Her Life and Business (12:35) The Power of IFS Therapy in Self-Healing (16:52) Self-Led Leadership for Business Growth (25:18) Four Steps to Reconnect with Your Inner Self (33:06) The Role of Protector Parts in Team Building (36:22) Setting Boundaries in Entrepreneurship (38:23) Healing a Perfectionist Mindset Gabby Bernstein is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including her latest, Self-Help. A motivational speaker, spiritual teacher, and founder of the Gabby Coaching Membership, Gabby was named a "Next Generation Thought Leader" by Oprah Winfrey. She is also the host of the Dear Gabby podcast, where she combines physical, mental, and spiritual wellness to inspire lasting change. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/profitingIndeed Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at youngandprofiting.co/shopify Mercury - Streamline your banking and finances in one place. Learn more at mercury.com/profiting LinkedIn Marketing Solutions - Get a $100 credit on your next campaign at linkedin.com/profiting Bilt - Start paying rent through Bilt and take advantage of your Neighborhood Benefits™ by going to joinbilt.com/PROFITING. Airbnb - Find yourself a co-host at airbnb.com/host Resources Mentioned: Gabby’s Book, Self-Help: bit.ly/SelfHelp-GB Gabby's Podcast, Dear Gabby: gabbybernstein.com Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Psychology, Biohacking, Motivation, Brain Health, Life Balance, Positivity, Happiness, Sleep, Diet.
Chapter 1: What was Gabby's nightlife career like?
Being a young entrepreneur, I started my first company when I was 20. That became my new God. I think the first decade of my career, maybe I had five or six books at that point. Interviewed on Oprah, Next Generation Thought Leader. It was like sort of benchmarks that I was just going towards. And by the time I was 25, I had a serious cocaine addiction. I can't remember things.
I'm not nice to people anymore. I remember having an intern. She'd been working for me for a year and I did not remember her name. That was how bad my brain had fried from the drugs and partying. I recognized that I couldn't go on like that. And I said a prayer. In that moment, I heard this inner voice say to me, Around 35, I hit a huge bottom. Then I had a panic attack.
My whole left side of my body went numb. It wasn't until about three months after that that I had a dream. And in that dream, I remembered
What's up, young Improfiters? If you've ever wondered how to lead with more alignment, build with less burnout, and recover when life knocks you sideways, then this episode is your reset. I'm joined today by Gabby Bernstein. She's an author, speaker, and spiritual leader, and the host of the Dear Gabby podcast. Her latest book is entitled Self-Help, This is Your Chance to Change Your Life.
Chapter 2: How did Gabby transform her life and business?
Gabby is going to share some tools that can support entrepreneurs and leaders who are struggling with pressure, trauma, control, anxiety, and so much more. This episode is packed with so much value, but first, make sure you follow and subscribe to this podcast. That way you'll never miss an episode packed with expert insights like this one. Gabby, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
Hala, so good to be with you. Thank you for having me.
I am so excited for this conversation. I feel like I've been waiting for you to come on the podcast for like years now. And finally, here you are. So thank you for joining us. I have arrived. I'm here. So when I was researching about you, I found out that you were really spiritual even since a really young age. You learned how to meditate from your mother.
And these days, everybody knows you as this big spiritual guru, leader. But then in your 20s, You got into the nightlife in New York City and you started a PR firm and you kind of moved away from your spirituality. So I want to ask you, why do you think you ended up moving away from it in your 20s and how did you ultimately get back to it?
Well, I definitely know that having a spiritual foundation as a child was really crucial for me in my life as the through line of my life. And my mom brought me up visiting ashrams and I was named by the gurus. And it was just a very natural thing for me to meditate, to talk about spirituality, to have a open dialogue about what that meant because it was in my home.
But by the time I was in my 20s, I was really looking for my self-worth in all the wrong places. And really, being a young entrepreneur, I started my first company when I was 20, and I was representing nightclubs as a publicist. And that became my new god, really. It was like, let me get past the velvet ropes, say Gabby at the door.
It was all about how much I could push and how hard I could go to get to the levels of success that I was seeking. And really what I was looking for was that feeling of that spiritual connection, but looking for it in all the wrong places. So looking for a feeling of self-worth, looking for a feeling of connection inside, looking for genuine, genuine value. but in an external world.
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Chapter 3: What is Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy?
And so I'm sure you've had this conversation with many entrepreneurs of when they're searching, searching, searching, and doing a lot of muscling and forcing, it often leads to not only burnout, but in my case, addiction. And so that outside search became...
so extreme that now it wasn't just about workaholism or trying to be seen or trying to force myself into the best rooms or the best locations, but it started to turn into using drugs and alcohol to start to kind of numb that void inside. And by the time I was 25, I had a serious cocaine addiction and and was my own boss, right?
So I'd been running my PR business for five years and I had a business partner, but I was the one bringing in all the business, so like I ran the shots, right? I could be like, I'm showing up at noon and who gives a shit, right? I'm here when I want to be here.
And I remember being at my desk and having an intern and I didn't remember, she'd been working for me for a year and I did not remember her name. That was how bad my brain had fried from the drugs and from the partying. And then I just started getting to a very dark place of just being mean and just, even though my external circumstances were still functioning, right?
Chapter 4: How can self-led leadership boost business growth?
It was like a very high functioning addiction where I was still making money. I was still having success. My successes were in this really dark place of the nightlife scene. By the grace of God, I got myself sober. So October 2nd of 2005, I recognized that I couldn't go on like that.
And I said a prayer to return to my spiritual roots, and I said, God, universe, whoever is out there, I need a miracle. And in that moment, I heard this inner voice say to me, you can get clean and live a life beyond your wildest dreams. That was the day I got clean. It's been almost 20 years now.
And in that 20 years, I've just gone headfirst into what it means to live a spiritual life and live a life of faith and trust that there is a presence of energetic support within us and around us and use the power of spiritual principles as a guiding force in my career and in my life.
I just spoke to Rachel Hollis and she's got this new book and she talks about this never again principle. And basically it's like a line in the sand moment where you tell yourself never again, I'm going to break this pattern.
And it's a promise to yourself and it's a way to strengthen your self-integrity so that you never do the thing that you decided like this is the day I'm never doing this again. So it reminded me of that. And I'm just curious, I'm sure you wanted to quit drugs before that moment. So why do you think that was your line in the sand, never again moment?
I remember having this psychic reading about five months before I got sober. And the psychic said to me, you're struggling with drugs and alcohol. And I was like, It's not that bad. And then she said, well, you're going to have two choices in this lifetime. You can stay on the path that you're on and we all really struggle, or you can get sober and make a major impact on the world.
And I had this cassette tape recording. I kid you not, I'm 45 now. So we're really dating 20 years back. I had a cassette tape in my white beat up Toyota Corolla. And I would put that cassette tape into the, you know, when I would be like hungover doing alternate side of the street parking in New York City.
And I would just press rewind and play and rewind and play, just listening to her say that you can get clean and make a major impact on the world. And I heard those words. And I think in my heart, I knew that to be true. And because I had that spiritual foundation as a child, I knew there was more. And even in the midst of my addiction, I had these stacks of self-help books next to my bed.
And I had big dreams and visions of a career, but really a mission, a mission. And I think that that knowing is what allowed me to decide that that was my last moment. That was my last day. I also had hit my bottom. I'd hit enough of a bottom for myself. Thankfully, I wasn't in jail. Thankfully, I wasn't near death. I mean, who knows? You could have gotten there.
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Chapter 5: What are the four steps to reconnect with your inner self?
But at this stage in my life, I was at my bottom. And my bottom was I can't remember things. My bottom was I'm not nice to people anymore. My bottom was I can't go a day without using cocaine. And that was enough of a bottom for me to make that decision.
That actually leads into one of the questions that I had for you was your vision of your career. Did you think about writing books and speaking? And did you know that that was the path that you wanted to take? Or did that unfold more organically?
I always knew. When I was 14, I was the president of the Jewish youth group in my community in It was the regional youth group. So I'd lead like hundreds of kids through these spiritual weekends at the temple. And when I was in my drug and alcohol addiction, I would have these after hours parties and they'd have these books next to my bed, all these spiritual books of Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay.
And I would tell the people that I was doing drugs with, I'd be like, I'm going to be a motivational speaker and a self-help book author. They'd be like, nice fucking try. But I knew, I knew, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. And I've been introduced to all these teachers like Louise Hay and Wayne Dyer, my predecessors, who then became my friends and mentors and publisher.
And that was what I knew I was here to do.
So you just manifested it. You also hustled. You hustled really, really hard from 25 to 35. You wrote five books. You were named by Oprah as one of these really important people to listen to and all these kinds of things. Yes. When you were hustling, what kind of season were you internally? What were you dealing with internally? Were you completely recovered and who you are today?
Or what was it like for you?
No, I was not recovered at all. I think the first decade of my career from 25 to 35, you said it about right by that point, maybe I had five or six books at that point. I had been interviewed on Oprah, Next Generation Thought Leader. It was like the benchmarks that I was just going towards and A lot of that happened quite effortlessly because I was in the service of the work I was doing.
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Chapter 6: How do protector parts influence team building?
And that all was working, right? So the successes were there because I was in the joy and the light of my work. But all the while, I was having extreme anxiety, extreme workaholism, extreme issues around the belief that if I don't do it, nobody else is going to do it. So just doing, doing, doing and trying to control everything and real controller aspects of myself driving my life and
major gastro issues, just constantly in physical pain, had the inability to be present. And it was up until I was 36 that this was such an extreme problem for me. I remember around 35 when my husband left his job at JP Morgan to come work with me because he My career was skyrocketing and I needed, he's a lawyer and he was a banker and I needed that foundation, right?
I needed that everyone deserves a Zach if you're an entrepreneur. And so he came to work with me. It was around the same time that we were family planning and trying to have a child. And I just, I hit a huge bottom. where I started saying very regularly, I can't go on like this, I can't go on like this, I can't go on like this.
Chapter 7: Why are boundaries important in entrepreneurship?
And then I had a panic attack in a yoga class where I was doing Kundalini yoga and my whole left side of my body went numb. I called the doctor. The doctor's like, well, this could be MS. They just started scaring the shit out of me. And I did all these MRIs. Everything was fine. And she said, you're having panic attacks. You're sending your body into these psychosomatic conditions, right?
You're having psychosomatic condition. And it wasn't until about three months after that that I had a dream. And in that dream, I remembered abuse from my childhood. And it was a dissociated memory that I tucked away, that I had shut down. And it made so much sense to me.
Chapter 8: How can healing a perfectionist mindset lead to success?
As terrifying as it was to recall this memory and as earth-shattering as it was, it was tremendous relief because I knew now, I said, okay, that's what I'm running from. That's what I've been drinking over. That's what I've been using over. That's what I've been loving over. That's what I've been eating over. That's what I've been starving over. That's what I've been working over.
And recognizing that core wound as the impetus for my addictions. And for the reasons that I was running. And that was a turning point in my life. It was interesting. My big turning points were 25 and then 36, like these decade moments. And in fact, a decade later now, 45, I'm having another turning point. I think it's these decades. I think it takes me about 10 years to get to the up level.
And so I spent the last decade up until this point doing extraordinary trauma recovery. just transformational trauma healing, babe. Like the greatest accomplishment of my fucking life is the work I've done on myself. And to get to a place now where I feel so safe inside and I've unburdened the belief that if I don't do it, nobody else will.
And I really have the ability to lead with more clarity and lead with more confidence and get my needs met by just asking for it. And just being able to be in this foundational energy where an entrepreneur must be in order to grow and excel, which is just unburdened from the younger parts of myself that were so protective for so long.
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