Welcome to the Vici Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who've battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory, one story at a time. All right, all right. Hello, and thank you for joining us as we explore Good profit from good people, blending HR strategy with spiritual purpose. Today's theme will dive into the idea that integrity and profit are not mutually exclusive, and how to make your business feel good to run. Entrepreneur, published author, and CEO, today's guest is on a mission to prove that good profit comes from good people. With nearly 20 years of experience in HR, business development, and leadership strategy, she's helped countless heart-led founders grow businesses that actually feel good to run. As the founder and CEO of Conscious HR, Lindsay Mastro Giovanni, who goes by Lindsay Mastro, blends practical strategy with purpose-driven people ops, offering no-nonsense, customized HR solutions that align with businesses' goals and values. She's also the force behind Disrupt State, which is not easy to say, by the way. where she's shaking up outdated views of leadership through bold, disrupt HR events and real talk networking in Central and Northern New York, which I can't wait to talk about that later. So Lindsay and I met for coffee. I asked her for coffee this past summer. We are pretty much at the same life cycle stage in our businesses. We have some need to amplify our HR presence at Vichy. She came highly recommended. And I got to tell you, from the second I met her, her energy was undeniable. We connected. And it's definitely a her thing because I'm super awkward, but like she's got this energy. She's she's funny. And I'm excited to for her to be a guest on the show today and, you know, to welcome her. So, Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thanks. Super stoked to be here. I like to dive straight into the origin story. You have this spiritual breakthrough. We want to talk about the misfits mission is what I like to call this question. You describe yourself as a misfit turned founder, and your approach is a deliberate blend of no-nonsense strategy and purpose-driven people ops. What was the core challenge or frustration you experienced during your 20 years in traditional HR and leadership that ultimately led to you to found Conscious HR? And what was the moment you realized you had to disrupt the system and Oh, man, I probably realized it years and years before it actually happened. It was just the buildup of, you know, how angry am I going to get before before I do my own thing? I think very early on in my HR career, you dive into this certain understanding of what HR is, or I guess depending on the environment you're in, there's this common conception of HR that is very based in compliance and rules and regulations. And while those things were important to kind of form, I guess what like the boundaries would be of the work that I was going to spend the next 20 plus years doing. I constantly struggled with how rigid those rules were, not just the like state regulations and things that you have to learn along the way, but just kind of how business treated HR. And I immediately, just intuitively, I guess, knew that people were the key to operating a business because people are the ones who are actually performing or not performing. And you can sell all the products you can deliver all the services, but ultimately there's a human behind each of those things so. early on and kind of I was I was lucky enough to have a few really great mentors who I kind of like asked a lot of questions to and that's a big thing is being curious and asking questions when you don't know what the answer is. I very quickly realized that you have to constantly kind of vacillate between what are the true rules that really need to be stuck to versus what are these rules that business and organizations have just kind of made up along the way. And that's where I started to be really challenged was like, I understand that there's these compliant things that we have to deal with in business and especially doing business in New York state, there's a lot more than other places. So that was like the easy part to me. The more difficult part was kind of playing within these really made up rules that like society or organizations told you that you had to live by if you were an HR person. So being a natural kind of disruptor and misfit my entire life outside of HR type things, I just started to kind of press on those boundaries a little bit and I created my own way of working where people could relate to me, could understand that I was a human. I understood that they were human. When things were going out of compliance or when things didn't make sense, I wouldn't approach it from a rule perspective. I would approach it from a like, what can we do different perspective and dealing with great leaders and dealing with employees. They certainly appreciated that. But organizations and systems at a whole, weren't too happy with that, with me constantly questioning, why are we doing it this way? And always to get the answer of, because that's how it's always been done, drove me absolutely insane. So it was a long time of navigating those different systems and small businesses and large businesses and corporations. And, you know, in the meantime, you get like the nuts and bolts of what you actually have to deliver as an HR person. And like that's all just the business stuff. That's not what was going on with me personally. So it took a career worth of HR work plus my own kind of personal and spiritual development to really get to a point where I was like, I know I have to do something and I have to do it on my own, but I have to figure out how to marry those two very different things. Yeah. And I'm curious, was there something, because your approach is so different, and I feel like you may have a few of these examples, but was there anything you had to unlearn about corporate HR to create a service that truly aligns with a heart-led founder? Yeah. I would say particularly honing in on small business is what really allowed me to play within different boundaries and rules when I started working directly with founders and entrepreneurs or even you know the sons and daughters of previous you know legacy owners was when I started. to understand that they weren't, they were playing with a whole different rule book and the rule book often was out the window. So I kind of threw the rule book that I was taught from larger corporations and how to do HR, I just threw it out the window and I just kind of took their lead with the understanding and the knowledge of the compliance and the stuff you have to do and allowing them to really lead with what do you want to do with your business. And you, I think honing in on like personality of the leader, of the decision maker, of the business owner, leading with that first allows you to really be creative and play and meet whatever goals they want to meet. And it's not always growing a business. I think that was a part that I struggled with, too, because like my mentality is if we're in business, we want to grow it. There's a lot of founders and owners out there, especially the legacy, you know, people who are like, you know, I just kind of want to stay where we're at. I don't want to grow. And then you have people who are getting ready to retire and they want to sell their business or they or they just want to shut down. They want to go, you know, move to Costa Rica and have the time of their life. So it's. It's not there are no rules, especially in small business and leaning into the wants, the needs, the desires, the values of the individual leaders and owners of those businesses, and then attaching all of the need to use the state stuff, the local stuff, the federal stuff like that was less important and really partnering and building trust with an owner. That's where I saw the importance. And that's the stuff that gets overlooked in really large service based Yeah, because you got to build this large template for these large companies, but with small business and startups and early stage businesses, the rules are out the book. you know, you gotta personalize things more and customize things for. So like, you know, is there a specific incident where you saw a business fail because it prioritized process Yes, all the time. And I will say, I mean, this sounds like a shameless plug. It's really not, because I've seen it over and over again. HR is constantly, because it is this perception of being this rule based compliance, like, oh, HR is in the room type reaction. It's usually the last thing that an employer wants to bring in. And they think that there's some magical number where all of a sudden it makes sense to have HR. But the reality is, as soon as you have one employee, you're doing HR work. And the scariest part to me in watching the, you know, solopreneur change into an employer is assuming that they don't need anything or that the rules that really are rules don't apply to them and their business, you know, they are out of compliance or they bring in the wrong person and it destroys their business. So I think it's really during that early growth stage where they're adding new employees and they're not taking into consideration that they're handing, especially for a founder, you know, they're handing their baby off to somebody else. And there's a billion things I could talk about that happens from like a founder perspective and that, but not bringing in somebody who understands what the future outlook or what a people strategy looks like, even with one employee. I've seen businesses fail. I mean, we know the majority of small businesses fail within the first three years. And during those first three years is usually when you're bringing in your first few people. And it's not because of a lack of, you know, dreams or desires or outlook or even mindset. I think that's a big thing that we talk about now and like the mindfulness and bringing in spirituality into business. But it's you can have the greatest mindset in the world if you're not bringing in other people who believe in that too and helping them develop and helping them really feel tied to what you're doing. it's not gonna go anywhere. And I've seen a lot of really great small organizations, clients that I used to have that just called it quits after a couple of years, because it's really, really hard. It's all really, really hard. And certainly bringing more people into your circle who aren't aligned with what you're doing, who don't believe in the mission the same way that you believe in the mission, it's bound to fail. And this doesn't have to be Like we work with mission based founders, people who are ultimately doing what they're doing for a greater good, whatever that good is. But there's also these owners out there who are like, hey, I'm doing this to make money. And that's fine, but I would always argue that who are you making money for? You're doing it for your family, you're doing it for your kids, you're doing it for your parents. Like there's still some heart in making money and it's not going that extra level to think beyond what is this money all really for? I think that's another huge gap that I help people approach. And that's not because I'm an HR lady, that's because I'm Yeah, because you care. And you and I are both in the business of, you know, breathing life into business. A lot of businesses, which people don't know this, a lot of businesses go out of business because they do well, not because they're doing bad, but they make the wrong choices and decisions as they're growing. And the riskiest choice you can make is You know, they say, you know, higher, slow fire fast. Right. Like your, you can, you can ruin a really good thing with the wrong people. So investing and you got to look at, you know, and I, I, I, this is a part of like my conversation, my sales pitch, whatever you want to call it. When I talk to clients, you know, HR. Accounting, they're not expenses, they're investments. If you're not investing in this area of your business, if you're not investing in this infrastructure piece, you're really setting yourself up for failure, or you're just making things really difficult. And you mentioned spirituality in your last answer, and I wanna talk a little bit about integrity, clarity, and magic. Your work includes channeling spiritual guidance for conscious leaders, which is not a phrase you typically hear in a business context. What was the most significant challenge in integrating your spiritual practice and belief system into a practical marketable business solution like Conscious HR? And how did overcoming that internal or external resistance lead to a major breakthrough in Wow. I feel like the answer to that question spans about 10 years and will continue to grow. It's always a journey. Anything spiritual, anything, you know, personal development related, you're always growing and changing and learning. And certainly you can't even start to get there if you don't have that ongoing learning mindset in the first place. I am somebody who craves understanding and connection. So inherently, I'm always looking for the next thing. I think that's also what makes me kind of just like a natural entrepreneur. I'm always, OK, what what can we do next? What can we do more? What can we do different? Some people aren't built like that, and that's fine. Everybody needs to be on the right seat on the bus. in my in my book I actually have a whole kind of breakdown of like the seats on the bus and who belongs where we can't all be entrepreneurs like we would all be crazy people we're naturally just a little crazy um to answer so it's kind of like preface to you know getting to this point in my journey but the whole spiritual part of who I am really was handled very separately than my career in business ever was and I constantly struggled because I am just an authentic human being like to a fault I think sometimes um it probably hurts me in business but I it like hurt my soul I could not wake up and go to work every day and like hide this giant part of who I was which as I was coming to find out was a medium. I had a billion experiences since I was little, a little kid, just kind of like naturally was always part of my life. Had no idea that I was a medium, though. I just thought I was like surrounded by ghosts all the time. It's like weird. There's there's people everywhere. This is crazy. I kind of like pushed it off in my teens because I was going through a lot, had a lot of chaos and it was too much. So I pushed it away, pushed it away. Then into my 20s, I got married young, early 20s, had my daughter when I was 24. And it all was coming flooding back to me. And I was having a very difficult time pushing it away. And it was really impacting my work performance. I was like, I was really burning out like I was all in on career and my job. I was Lindsay the HR lady and that's who I was always going to be and I was going to be the best at it. But there was this whole piece of who I actually am like gnawing away at me because I was basically pretending to be this other person. So I sought mentors and leaders just like you do in business with my personal life or with my spiritual life. kind of allowed, like, they gave me the space to be able to just talk about all the things I was experiencing, and then gave me words for what these things meant or were. Because in my head, a medium was like what you see on TV or in movies, or, you know, there's people standing in the room with you or and I, I was like, that's not, it was so normal to me. And that felt like, Oh, I'm not that though. So once I had like, normal people who also had these same experiences, but years later in their journeys, helping me understand, I was like, they basically made me prove to myself that that's what I was. So then the next step was like, I need to be both of these people at the same time. And how do I do that at work? I had built up a really great professional level of respect from my peers, from my coworkers, from people I was helping. So it kind of got to the point where I just had to take a giant leap in my corporate life at that point and come out of the broom closet, is what I always say, and just be like, hey, by the way, some of you might know this in personal conversations, people you're closer with, but this was not something that the world knew. And I had to just, I put up a Facebook post one day I was like, just so you know, and I was terrified. I thought everybody would think I was crazy. I thought I would totally lose respect for everybody. And I built this entire career with and much to my dismay and very. I guess I was very surprised that I was met with the opposite. I had been authentic in who I was as a human without revealing this kind of more taboo thing that was a piece of my life. And because I had built up a great professional reputation and people trusted me, they were like, oh, that makes total sense. This is great. I want to know more. And I never anticipated that. So once I was met with that acceptance and curiosity, it allowed me to just be like, let's figure this out together, basically. So I stayed working. I just started doing readings, like actually getting paid to do them while I was also doing HR. And as I was starting to like work professionally in the spiritual realm, I was starting to then notice the commonalities between that world and how I kind of conducted myself at work. And I realized what made me so successful as a leader, as an HR person, was that when I was sitting down with somebody, I was reading them and I had no idea that that's what I was doing. But I was just tapping into their energy and going like, what do you need? What's going on? How can I help you? And I just had that little bit of advantage to like feel their energy, which I never knew I could feel any of it, because when you're experiencing it, it's just your experience. I had nothing to compare it to. I thought everybody did this. So again, it's years of practice and kind of doing the work and being able to mirror those two things. And then I still at that point, now we're like three years into me kind of like revealing this to the world, finally got to the point where I was like, I'm seeing the gap for small business. They're not getting the service the way they need to be serviced. I'm out. As a medium. I'm still doing this HR work. I'm still doing readings and I struggled for about a year between like the last year my corporate career and me starting this side gig to figure out like what is it that I'm going to deliver like what is my service because what I do now, what my team does in Conscious HR really has nothing to do with like spiritual services. But everything that the business is built on is founded in consciousness and intention in doing things on purpose. And it's built on people. So it took a very long time to get to the point where, like, I started the agency. I was working individually as a consultant for a few years, like playing around with what is a spiritual reading versus what is HR consulting versus what is business coaching versus what is coaching like when you're working with somebody who wants to work on their spiritual gifts. And so it was just a lot of playing around and a lot of customization. And every client, every single client person that I worked with over the course of those three years, like the last before I quit corporate, was boutique, and I knew that that's how small business needed to work, too. Like, small business is just so unique to the founder, to the owner, to the leaders, to the board, whoever it is, this group of people or individual that's responsible for delivering this thing into the world, into their communities. I knew it had to be a boutique service. But I also, because I'm business minded, knew it needed to scale. So kind of working individually for a while and building this idea of what this agency could look like that allowed founders to meet their missions and also do it in a way that fit their goals and their values and building those values with them, because a lot of them don't know how to do that. They're just operating like it, but they're not defining it. Um, and I think I've been talking for 20 minutes but but I think you would ask at some point kind of bringing in like the the practicality to all of this is incredibly important because if you're in the spiritual community you'll know there's a whole lot of amorphous can't touch it tangible you know like thrive is a word that I actually don't like because it there's nothing like let's thrive well what does that mean it's different for everybody there's no way to tie it to anything. So everything I wanted to build in Conscious HR as an agency, I knew had to have this like practical kind of backbone to what it is. So we do have like a very base level structure that we work within, but that structure is still fluid and it becomes what you need it to, but it's a framework that you can build upon. So that's really the extent of the quote spirituality that comes into what we do in HR. It's really just building that kind of framework and foundation for you to build your thing off of. And the people that I bring in to help these clients, like I'm finding the right people that are aligned with me because I'm the founder and it's my baby, but I can't do it all. I don't want to do it all anymore. So again, me finding the right people who really are tied to our mission and our values and how we want to operate and who will go out there and like, preach the good word of what we're doing is super, super important because it can't just be Lindsay. Like that's because of the readings and because it's a very like, oh my gosh, I need to know more type thing about being a medium. People came to know Lindsay Mastro, but then they're like, well, what is conscious HR though? Like, what are you actually doing? I want to work with Lindsay Mastro. I'm like, no, no, no. You want to work with my team. So going from individual solopreneur side gig to building an agency is an incredible shift. And all of that has to do with your people. Yeah. Key man syndrome is, is tough when, you know, when everyone wants to, you know, putting in the, the, you gotta invest in, you know, the perspective that you're building, your company's going, if you've got a good thing going, your company's going to grow. And eventually you're going to not have the bandwidth to take on good clients that you want to help. And if you naturally, you know, are a helper and someone who has a big heart, you know, why stop helping people? Right. So you just got to put in that investment in, in your team. Uh, it's funny. Who would have expected, right, you know, that I had no idea when we were meeting that you were a medium. And I was telling one of my team members before I was like, by the way, you're going to really want to catch this episode because Lindsey is a medium. And she was like a medium. Like, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And so- Yeah, I'm always like tossing dead people. Yeah, that's what I do. And we were like, you know, it got to one of the parts of that conversation was like, you know, can they turn it off? Can it's gotta be, you know, it's gotta be distracting. And, you know, some people can turn it off. You know, people that are more skilled can. You've sounds like you've got some good balance with it where it's helping you make breakthroughs for you, your team and your clients. And it's under control and it's a benefit. It's a strategic advantage that I don't know anybody who has. And, you know, it's great that you can see further into, you It's certainly I had mentioned before, it's weird when it's your just your own experience. And I remember getting or not remember, it still happens, but I get super frustrated when other people can't just like do something. Like I'm like, well, if I can figure it out, like I don't think I'm special. I'm just a person. So the fact that like somebody could give me information and I'd know what to do, I would be like, why can't they just figure it out? Because I, it's not like I was like doing anything too crazy to figure it out. A lot of this information was, I was picking up from them. I was just basically tapping into their potential and saying like, hey, this is what you can do. And then I had the education, the experience, the background in business to be able to say this is the framework in which you get to that point. So the intuitive part. is being able to see kind of what the future could look like. And another big piece of like spiritual education that I give in that world is just because there's potential doesn't mean that's going to happen. Like there's no I do a lot of educating around like the psychic world and the spiritual world because I think people assume that you sit down with a tarot reader they flip a card and that's your future. Like you could say a different sentence, you could turn left instead of right as you leave that door and all of a sudden it's an entirely new. future. So there's no guarantee, like there's free will, there's a billion things we can do that constantly change our outlook, but certainly having the ability to see what the future potential could be is really what allowed me to back in the practical strategy of how to get there. And I do think it's a strategic advantage. My book is Becoming Conscious in a Corporate World and it talks about what that structure looks like and how to bring in the practical piece to the spiritual. More in the context of you're a person like me who is in corporate and you knew that you needed to either move up or move out. And I was on the move out like I got to do my own thing. Not everybody's there, but it's about navigating that pathway of like how do I be all of me and in what context and what do I want to do so. being able to help people and like pull what feels like your own cloudy vision, being able to kind of clear that out for them and go like, this is your potential and this is what you can do. Now let's get you the right people in the right places and the right things to be able to meet that. Like that's where I see success. it's an advantage for me to gift people to say this is your potential but you still have to know like what are the steps to get there and I think that is my unique advantage actually is the Yeah. I experienced a similar, and it's on a daily basis. I just, I just see people are more capable than they think they are on a daily basis. And part of my style is, you know, I'm sort of the hype guy. I'm, I'm the inspiration guy. Like, no, you can do it. Trust me. I know you can. That's the magic of having that intimate relationship and that customized service of leaning in and giving personalized services. Like, I know you and listen, I'm not special. And I know a lot of other people that are not special that can do it. And that coaching aspect is a big part of what we do too. And it's a lot more special when you're able to guide people along and show them like, hey, Especially when they're surrounded by people who are telling them no or they can't. I think most of us are accustomed to these rigid structures that are like, no, you can't do it that way. You have to do it this way. Even if it is creative and a new idea, there's too many people that are like, no, no, no, you should do it this way. And I'm like, there's no. Like again, there's no real rules to this. Like we are making all of this up. So what do you want to do? And what is the next step? And what is five steps from now? And what is 10? And by the way, if we take the first step and then by the time we get to five, we've gone another direction. Let's write it again. Let's redo it. Like there's always a way to get to the next thing, but you have to be comfortable with the fact that those things the art of combining spirituality and practicality is really what it is. And, you know, trying to pass on, you know, that knowledge. I wanna jump into some purpose, impact, disruption stuff. You know, your mission is to prove that good profit comes from good people. And I couldn't agree more. What is the most common tactical business challenge or internal crisis you see in a growing company where the founders lose sight of the principle How do you step in and provide a no-nonsense solution that simultaneously solves I think getting too caught in the weeds is one thing. So like you have your plan, you go to execute and you get caught in the tasks. And if you wanna drill back further, that's like not delegating again. And maybe you're not delegating because of your own control issues. Maybe you're not delegating because you don't have the right person to delegate something to. It could be that you need to develop your own leadership skills in order to trust that person to do the right thing. So I think there's a lot of different kind of scenarios that play into you need to have other people who you who will help you do the thing. It's the person who like I work with a lot of blue collar and it's you know the plumber or the contractor or it's the person who's doing the thing and they are so used to doing the thing and they are you know a visionary or they do have these big ideas but they're not allowing themselves to step outside of the day-to-day to see the bigger vision and to build a team and to bring in the right people and to network and to partner And those are all things that they need somebody who's outside of their, you know, making the widgets type job to say like, this is the potential, these are the people you can talk to. By the way, here's other ways that larger businesses have operated and they've grown, like they didn't come out of nowhere. A lot of times it's just, One, removing yourself from the weeds, and then two, opening yourself up to other things that you didn't even know existed. Things that were natural to me, like going out and finding strategic partners who could refer in business to me, that's not like a known thing to some people. If you're like to give an example of somebody like me, an HR consultant, if you're just going to go out there and find, you know, four clients and work with those four clients all year and it's just you and you're happy with that, that's great. But I wanted to grow and I didn't want to be the consultant anymore. I wanted to actually lead change and disrupt the system and change the system. So I can't be out there working direct with clients and also be changing the world at the same time. So working with other people and other service providers, for example, like find somebody else to do the day-to-day. Let's introduce you to some networking groups that are available in your area so that you can find these other strategic partners so you can start bringing in more business. Then maybe you bring in enough business that now you have to hire your next person. And then looking at productivity of those people versus the money that's coming in, setting pricing appropriately. It's a constant reevaluation of what you want and where you're going. And if you're not on a very regular basis, revisiting your goals and kind of where you're at with meeting or not meeting them. And a lot of times it's not meeting them. And I don't think people talk about that enough. I think the shift happens when you're not meeting your goals. like success comes through failure. And that piece of it, I don't think is often talked about enough. Like, this is hard. This is hard work. If you're, I'm just crazy enough to make it hard, you know? So yeah, I think the failure comes in not being open to possibilities and saying like, what can I do different? Or how is this isn't working? Admitting that it's not working is super Right. And I think a lot, you know, example, you know, some of these, you know, blue collar guys, you know, man in the van, I usually call them, you know, there's a quality of life aspect that they're just not aware of, right? Sure, you can just be that one guy, but ultimately, there's more freedom to working with people and solving their problems and bringing on some help. And you don't have to scale to 100 million a year, but there is a better life as you grow a little bit bigger, for sure. And you did mention Disrupt again, and we mentioned Disrupt State. and I haven't messed that pronunciation up yet. Can you tell us a little bit about disrupt and, you know, basically like what outdated view of leadership are you specifically trying to shake up, you know, with your events and why is that disruption necessary for Central and Northern Sure, so Disrupt HR is actually a global brand. It started as one event in Chicago, two HR people who were like, hey, like we're just tired of playing by the rules all the time and we think HR is capable of much more. So they start this little event with an ignite speech format very quick speeches and all of these speeches had to be five minutes long 20 slides 15 seconds auto advancing slides very specific format and people loved it and it took off. And so they did it again the next year. And by the third year, they were being approached by people in different cities saying, hey, I want to do this in my city. So it grew over the course of, I think, like 10 years to literally 260 odd cities globally. I've been aware of disrupt HR for probably the last five, six years. Never was able to make it, even though it was in Rochester, which is close enough to here in Syracuse. And just kind of kept an eye on it because I just knew they were doing things differently and they were going out of their way to talk about doing things outside of the norm. And the norm in HR, all the things we've talked about, like very compliance driven, very rules driven, very like focused on abiding by some unwritten law or saying that these rules are the most important thing to making a business run instead of looking at people first type philosophy. or knowing how to marry the two at least. So it kind of was aligned with everything that I was building in my career and my understanding. And finally in 2024, I found out actually it was the second year they were in Syracuse. The first year was so small, I didn't even know existed. I applied to speak, I got accepted. And then in the course of me kind of building my own talk, having experience in the North country, in particular in HR, there is very little support from an HR perspective. I was working for a large company and I was one of the only like HR consultants who was actually working with small business. And a lot of them are blue collar, they're rural companies, they're family run. And I, again, knew that there was just this gap in the understanding of what HR is and could be and how it helps build a business. And it's not just a drain on the P&L. And like it's conceptualized to be. So I started thinking, well, this would be a really cool thing to host in the North country to bring in, just introduce people in that area of these new ideas, because it can't always just be Lindsay out there talking. So why don't I get a bunch of people together and we'll start talking about this, bring in the other HR people, bring in other leaders. And I think that's an important piece, too, that might be a little different in what I'm doing than other disrupt HRs. It's not just about HR. It's about leadership and it's about running businesses. So because of my passion and my mission, I wanted to start building this community of people that understood that HR isn't just HR, it's just leadership. It should be built in. It should be something every leader is focused on. The compliance stuff comes later. There needs to be specialty and compliance, but that's not what's going to change business for people. So I go and I get a license for North Country. And a few months later, the person who was running Syracuse contacted me and said that he was taking a new position and couldn't run it and didn't want it to go away and asked if I'd want to take it over. So because my interest was really in building this community, I know that's not going to happen in one event. I knew that needed to be like a year round effort to educate and to bring in different opinions. So I built Disrupt State, which really is the umbrella for Disrupt HR in North Country and in Syracuse. And so this year, we just had our North Country event a month ago, actually, or just three weeks ago. And it was fantastic. And just We had amazing feedback. We had no idea what to really expect because it was the first time that this was even introduced in a region. It's a brand new name. Disrupt HR is new. Disrupt State's new. And we just had the best time. And we had so many people walk away and actually be able to apply some of the ideas that were discussed into their organizations. So now we're about a month away, actually a month minus a day. to disrupt Syracuse, which is gonna be bigger. And it's at a really cool place called Inspire right here. It's the largest business hub in all of New York State now. They just poured millions of dollars to redo the tech garden here in Syracuse. So we're super, super happy to be hosting it there and they're great partners. And I'm just really, really looking forward to bringing this kind of like revamped version of Disrupt to Syracuse. And then beyond that, of course, next year, we're going to have ongoing events beyond Disrupt HR that are kind of more networking focused, that are just fun, that are about people getting together to talk about doing business differently, building up leadership and incorporating ideas about people first leadership and compliance and building these kind of foundational strategies for small business. So really just spreading the word and helping people understand that Like, if I could remove the word HR, honestly, out of things, it would be better off. And I battled with that when I started Conscious HR. I was like, do I really want HR in the title? And my original business did not have it. The one when I was a solopreneur. But I'm like, you got to start somewhere so people understand what you're doing. But I think it because of the idea around HR, it kind of does a disservice. So Disrupt State is really about changing the idea of what HR is. And we can deliver services for small business through conscious HR, but again, I'm not going to change anything unless we're looking at this from a thought leadership perspective and we're bringing in other people who are leading businesses and leading people and letting them share their ideas and what's worked and what's not worked and what are the successes and what are the challenges and to do it in this really fun engaging quick format plus to provide this networking and bringing in other local small businesses to help support all of that it's just like amazing and I'm I keep calling it the ecosystem like one thing doesn't work without the Well, and there's a lot of synergy between Disrupt State and Conscious HR. So when we look at what's next, what's on the horizon for Conscious HR, which maybe it's just conscience, maybe there's a rebrand in the future, I don't know, we drop the HR, because you're redefining really what HR is or what it always could have been when you lose some of the red tape. You've built it into a successful purpose-driven firm. You know, what's the biggest challenge you're focused on overcoming right now in scaling your business without losing the integrity or Quite honestly, it's struggles in funding because of federal challenges that we're dealing with. Being a woman business owner is hard. Being a business owner is hard enough anyway. And then being a woman business owner, obtaining funding just does not happen the same for a woman as it does for a male-owned business. So being able to serve more clients means I need more help. And inherently because of what we do and who we focus on we're working with small businesses who just don't have the funding to have even a fractional level of support that we can provide or if they can it's only for a period of time instead of ongoing work. So we've built out our service delivery model to really meet people where they're at. But I know is I want to grow and I want to kind of change the world of business. That's going to happen through disrupt state through the ideas. And naturally, it kind of will create more of a talent funnel for me than it will create like business. The business is going to come through conscious HR no matter what. But finding kind of the runway to be able to do that and build up in the first few years is definitely a challenge. Keeping super close look at my, you know, top line and bottom line is like every day a thing I have to look at. And I also have I don't even know that we've talked about this yet, but just a couple of weeks ago with Disrupt HR in North Country, we announced my new nonprofit called People on Purpose Inc. Poppy. And the nonprofit is really gonna be able to focus in on those very small nonprofits, small community-based organizations, the ones that don't have that top-line revenue, but need the help. We'll be able to gather some funding sponsors, donors from larger corporations that are mission-based and willing to help so that we can ultimately serve who we're meant to serve. And then conscious HR can start bringing these concepts to like mid size organizations more of like the 50 plus crowd so that it kind of again builds back against that ecosystem. So we'll be able to truly serve our mission through conscious HR work with little bit bigger organizations to bring in that idea of conscious and intention. while Poppy will be able to serve the mission of these small, you know, nonprofits, community-based organizations that truly are making the difference in our communities. And they have their own missions that need to be served. So again, bringing in the right people, helping them kind of navigate those with their struggles and funding is the reason that Poppy exists. And then changing the actual delivery of that service on a larger scale comes through Disrupt State because we're helping other leaders understand what it takes to actually be able to navigate the peopling Yeah. Wow. I did not know about that. And I, I think, I think listeners would be surprised to know that you have a family and you do all that. There's a lot going on and I did not know about that, but I think it's great that you're bringing more awareness and some funding to, you know, some of the underserved, you know, nonprofit sectors that struggle with HR, just like, you know, any of the profit sector Anything, anything that I'm struggling with as a small business owner is what other small business owners are struggling with. So I think purely like doing the thing while experiencing the thing is crucial and what we do like you have to. Again, be able to experience it to know where the gaps are and where the challenges are and having the skill set to one build a team who's able to deliver it and deliver just kind of the support and the coaching myself. It's only going to not like our mission is to help small businesses. be better. And so if they are able to fulfill their missions, then that's how we change our communities. Like from even before Conscious HR, my thing has always been better people, better business, better communities. People are communities, and that's what's really making a difference in our day-to-day lives. It's not these giant corporations. Like they're necessary, they're needed, they're a part of our larger lifestyle, but They're not what's making a difference when you wake up in the morning, when you go to the grocery store, when you take your kid to the park, when they're going off to school. Like these are all things that are at the heart of our living, our actual lives every day. And it's the small businesses, it's the nonprofits, it's the community orgs that are making those differences. So like those are the people that I want to serve so that they can fulfill their missions. So. we were actually able to figure out through some local data for every dollar donated to Poppy, it turns into $10 of economic impact. So what's better than that? That's great. Like, that's amazing. So we're definitely early stages. Like I said, we just announced just a couple of weeks ago. So we're in kind of funding stage right now ourselves. We have a wait list already of a bunch of organizations that we're already starting to serve and some that we're like, We're looking for help and then we're going to help you. And in the meantime, for the parts that for the organizations that do have that little bit extra, we're still able to help them through conscious HR. So really just any way that we can jump in and meet their needs and help them fulfill their missions is what I want to do. And it's hard, but And yes, I do have a husband and a daughter and a dog at home and they are incredibly supportive of everything I'm trying to Before we go, what is one practical piece of advice for a purpose-driven business owner who's feeling overwhelmed or burnout? Where should they look for their next I don't often have just one word, but my one word would be inside. I think we're looking externally for a lot of solutions when honestly it's like breathing. I'm taking even if it's three minutes like waking up in the morning and before you grab your phone or before you start doing the internal checklist. a gratitude practice has changed my entire life literally just taking like forget three minutes even if it's a minute like just start somewhere you wake up in the morning maybe don't even open your eyes yet just start going through not your list of things that need to be done but list of things that could make your life better or are making your life better. Things you already have. Like sometimes it's as simple as I'm like I'm so grateful for this super comfy pillow that allowed me to sleep last night. It doesn't have to be these grand gestures. It can literally just be like getting inside of your body and saying thank you and I'm here again, and I'm here for a reason, and maybe I don't know what that reason is today, maybe I don't wanna do that reason today, but I can tell you that I'm grateful that I have this pillow, or this comfy comforter, or this person next to me, or my dog on the ground, or this glass of water next to me, because I'm so thirsty. Like just starting so small in a gratitude practice will change I completely agree. I, I benefit from that exact advice every morning. It's, it is a thank you. And for me, it's, it's spiritual. It's, I struggled learning how to pray and it's, it's very simple. Everyone has their own ways, but it's, I start with gratitude. Thank you so much for another beautiful day on this amazing earth. And, you know, thank you for this pillow. Thank you for oxygen. Thank you for water. Thank you for my wife and my kids. And like, it is crazy, but, you know, there's science and there's, I've seen it in my own life, just being grateful for what we do have and not dwelling on the tough things, because we all know that good times and bad times, they come and go, and you just got to weather the storm sometimes and just be grateful. So that's super, super great practical advice. I just want to review some of these key takeaways. You know, conscious HR has this revolutionary approach that like HR doesn't have to be, you know, a bad word, right? You know, HR should be a building block. You should, you know, embrace it and, you know, nurture the idea of investing in your company from an HR standpoint. Maybe we change the word HR someday, but right now it's still HR, but like, look at it differently. I think we discussed a lot of ways of how you can look at HR differently and implement that as a strategic advantage to your business. And, you know, have the courage required to blend strategy and spirit, right? Be authentic. You know, the way I feel like I bring to Vichy, Lindsey brings to Conscious HR, you know, be authentic, be yourself, be intentional. That translates to, sure, maybe you'll lose a few people, but I think you'll gain more out of self-respect and credibility and being aggressively who you are. So Lindsey, thank you for your time, your candor, and for showing leaders how to lead with integrity. I do wanna really quick let people know how they can get ahold of you. And I have some questions about your book and stuff, If you wanna learn more about Conscious HR, it is conscioushr.co, not Exactly, conscioushr.co, and you will find links on the very homepage of their company's socials, LinkedIn, Instagram, all that. If you're interested in following Lindsey's personal journey, you can follow her on Instagram at TheLindseyMastro. or she's also on LinkedIn, which is a good place for someone in HR to be on, at Lindsey Mastro as well, on there as well. Lindsey, real quick, give us, you've written a book or two, you've got the nonprofit, can Sure, if you're somebody who is struggling with being your whole self at work, whether you're a business owner in corporate, kind of trying to figure out what you want to do next, certainly check out the book. That's at lindsaymastro.com. It's called Becoming Conscious in a Corporate World. It's also on Amazon, an easy way to grab it, and it is a very practical three part takeaway and how you can find out what your personal gifts are, your spiritual gifts are, how to apply it at work and how you're going to change your career. And then lastly, how you're going to bring it to a team. So it really leads you through step by step. And it's full of funny stories because I have a lot of them. Practical exercises. There's actually worksheets and takeaways that are available right within the book to actually put your thoughts and plans into action so that you can take the next step. Uh, so that's everything about the book. Um, and then poppy, we are actively looking to spread the word, spread awareness of what we're doing, helping other organizations meet their missions and ultimately create better communities. You can find out more information about that at work with poppy.org. Can you spell poppy just in case there's any it's P O P I work with P O P I.org. And that's people on There you go. That's it. Lindsey, thank you so much for joining us. I look forward to connecting with you outside of this episode. And to our listeners, thank you for listening to the Vici Code. Join us next time as we continue to explore the journeys of purpose-driven leaders. Take care. Thanks for tuning in to the Vici Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. If today's story hit home, share it. And remember, faith fuels a fight, and