Business Innovators Radio - Lacey Newman – Founder – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Lacey Newman is a founder, coach, and keynote speaker who has helped thousands of high-performing women build lives and businesses that are truly their own.Over two decades, Lacey built and scaled a real estate team to nearly $1B in sales volume, hosted an Emmy-nominated TV show, and grew her personal income to seven figures, all while raising two children on her own, proving that ambition and motherhood don’t have to compete.Today, she helps ambitious women break the cycle of over-functioning, untangle their identity from productivity, and reinvent their work from a place of clarity instead of burnout—so they can build wealth and freedom without sacrificing themselves in the process.https://laceynewman.com/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/lacey-newman-founder-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. You are listening to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Puehler. We have an incredible guest today, the incredible Lacey. Newman, she is the founder, coach and keynote speaker who has helped thousands of of high-performing women, build lives and businesses that are truly theirs to own. Hey, Lacey, welcome to Brilliant Business. Hi, Mark.

Thank you so much for having me today. I'm really looking forward to a conversation with you, and it's a really great topic to talk about. You've built tremendous success in real estate and entrepreneurship. At what point did you recognize that success isn't just about growth or revenue, but about creating a business and life that actually feels good to live inside of. Well, I think that that moment, that realization came, the year that I had my very highest year of sales volume in real estate ever. I was about 18 years in the business at that point. I hit $100 million in personal sales that year and I was absolutely miserable.

And that was the time that I realized that in building the business, I had essentially built myself a prison for lack of a better word. And I was not taking care of my physical body the way that I needed to. I was spending not enough time with my children. I was essentially prioritizing everyone else's needs and my business's needs in front of my own. And I just realized that this was no way to live. And so that was about 2021. So over the past five years or so, I've really been on this journey to unwind all of that success. And I want to keep the success. I want to continue to grow. I want everyone that I work with to be as successful as they want to be, but not at the cost of their own peace and happiness and the things that are most important to them.

Well, that's quite eye-opening. I see that 100 million in sales. I think everyone thinks that's going to be the biggest moment of your life where you're super happy and it's totally the opposite. People from the outside looking in are probably looking, thinking you've got it all going gone and inside you're feeling that in a term also. It's actually really good that you're opening people's eyes to how important it is that we look after our inner world as well, Lacey. A lot of entrepreneurs operating constant hustle mode without realising it. Can you talk about the shift you made from being reactive and overwhelmed to stepping fully into the role of CEO and leader. Yes, absolutely.

You know, I came to realize and understand that my role as the CEO was tangled with the role of the operator. And those are two very different things. And as we build our businesses, especially if we are solopreneurs, entrepreneurs of, you know, small business owners, we essentially begin. by being everything. We wear all the hats. And the problem is that what I notice in myself and the other people that I coach is that we have a hard time letting go of that identity because we built the entire business on our own grit and white knuckling our way to success. When we get to the

level that we want to expand the business, that we want to scale, that we want to hit a next level, we can't because our own capacity is already maxed out. And going through the process of discovering what needs to be delegated, who needs to take it over for you, what systems that you need to put in place in order to remove yourself from every aspect of the day-to-day, day-to-day operations so that you truly can sit in that highest-level seat is a real, it's not as easy as it sounds. It's where I see so many people get stuck and they, they get constantly pulled back and forth. They want to be the visionary. They want to be the big picture thinker, but they cannot untangle themselves from the day-to-day operations. Powerful words. I agree totally. Getting those

systems in place is so important. And as well, if you become poorly or you're not feeling too well and need to take time out, it's so important that you have all of those things in place so that you can even take time out of your own business and know that it's still running smoothly. So I think it's really, really important. You speak openly about visibility, which I'm big on, by the way, Lacey, and authenticity is important as well, especially in business. Why do you think so many people hide behind perfectionism and what changed for you when you stopped trying to perform success and started showing up more honestly? Well, you know, we all wear a mask. We all. We all, all have our real selves and we have the selves that we want to show to the outer world.

And especially if you're growing a business, you want to present a particular version of yourself to your clients. You want to be seen as that professional. You want to be very polished, all of those things. But what is so interesting about the times that we live in is that even with large multinational corporations, the brand and the personal authority and the business is that, of the founder of the company is actually one of the things that matters most to consumers. And so when we dial it all the way back to those of us that are running small business operations, personal brands, speakers, coaches, real estate agents, anybody that's in this world, it is vitally important that we come out from behind the facade of our business and really be

seen as the people that we are. And, you know, it is absolutely a journey. This, there are, I always joke that if showing up on social media and showing up visibly to the masses is hard for you, congratulations, you're probably not a narcissist. You know, this is not comfortable for normal people to be that open and vulnerable and visible, but it is absolutely necessary in the world that we live in today. And I've actually discovered that it is really kind of therapeutic because when you do step out from behind the facade and you show up as the person that you are and you connect deeply with the people that you are here to serve. It is very gratifying. It's very fulfilling. But it takes a lot of inner work.

And I always say that your business development will never outpace your personal development. And success is really a factor of how much you are willing to grow. And this is such a growth edge for so many people because for normal people, it's just not comfortable. But it's absolutely necessary. Oh yeah. I think it's so important we share those vulnerabilities, those weaknesses that we may see as weaknesses, but people actually see those as your strengths. I learn that as well. And I think as well, personal development, working on yourself, I know I've done that for so many years now. It's a constant thing that I'm always like working on myself. But I think it's important not to fall in a trap of thinking you

needing healing rather than that. It's you're improving yourself. You're evolving and getting better. Otherwise, you're constantly trying to heal yourself. You have to get to a point where you're like, okay, I'm healed, but I'm still going to keep working on myself and improving and involving. So I think it's really, really important. And that takes me to my next question really, really well about boundaries and nervous

system regulation. I'm big on things like breathwork and I do. a lot of things like hypnosis and I even have a great supplement, different supplements that I take that are really good for the mind and the nervous system, just really good nutrients for the body because I had a problem with intrusive thoughts and that was like a dysregulated nervous system. So I really had to do a lot of work to get myself back into balance and harmony. So these are the topics people often associate with business. strategy, yet you believe they're foundational to substantial success.

How have boundary, boundary, structure, and emotional regulation directly impacted your business growth and personal life? Oh, my goodness. Yes. And to your point, we can go down this rabbit hole of healing and get so engrossed in it that we forget that there is more work to be done. And so while I am absolutely a huge proponent of therapy, of breathwork, of meditation, of yoga, of healing, of inner child work, all of the things, I think they are so critical, but they are not all of it. You have to then surrender and then decide. You've got to regulate and then move. All of those things, you can't just go down the rabbit hole of self-help and healing and not take action in addition to doing that. But it's made such a profound impact on my life.

And I just want to make the point that it is something that you always have to come back to. In fact, just this morning, I had a consult with a wonderful company that is led by a woman I know in Nashville. And I just had a 118 point hormone and blood work panel done. And then I got on a call this morning and got the recommendations from a clinician of supplements, hormone therapy, peptides that might help optimize my system because as we age, those things shift. Your body chemistry never stays the same. And so I do believe in every person that I know who is wildly successful in operating at a really, really high level, especially in midlife, is taking a ton of time and care to be sure that they are fueling their body with the right things, that they are optimizing

their levels, that they are getting enough sleep and exercise and, you know, getting away from alcohol and doing all of these things that, you know, we learned in health class in the fourth grade, but that when we are in our 20s and 30s, we can really get away with not paying a lot of attention to. But when you hit midlife especially, this is the time that you have to focus on those things because, you know, brain fog, bad sleep, a sluggish immune system, all of those things have a profound effect not only on your mental health, your energy, but your business specifically. And I have to be totally honest here, Lacey. I struggled a lot with the mind. I went through a state of really bad fear, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts. I'm not there anymore.

that was quite a few years ago now, but there were still just certain things in the mind and the body that I was struggling with. And it wasn't until I started looking at the nutrition side of things and supplements. And the supplements really changed everything for me. And I didn't really see that before how I needed the supplements. And there are only things like vitamin D3 and K3 vitamin and I take something which is called like saffron which works it's it's as powerful as an antidepressant but it's good for you it's really healthy it's a spice um but it's got no negative side effects like a medication would have um and saffron was so powerful for my mind so adding some of like these um like things that are good for a healthy gut um because i didn't realize all of your

tonings in 90% of it's in the gut, not the mind. So you have to make sure that you're looking after after the gut as well. And so after I introduce the supplements, I had the biggest impact on my mind without the big conscious effort. So a lot of it was the nutritional side. I don't know if you've ever experienced anything like that. Well, what's funny is that when I just had all this blood work done, exactly those things that you named, vitamin D, vitamin K, magnesium.

Oh, I'm taking magnesium. Yeah, these were all the things that were really low. These macronutrients were really low in my blood work. And then I went in my pantry. I had all of them. I just wasn't taking them. So it was a really, it was really validating. And this is where I think that, you know, things like functional health can be so powerful

for people in business because, you know, I can know I need to take something. supplements, but when someone shows me my blood work and I can see that my macronutrients are in a bad, in a bad spot, it clicks. Show me the proof. Show me the evidence. And so now I am taking these and I can't wait to see how it affects my hormones and all, you know, inflammation and cortisol and all of those things in the rest of my system. And it just really goes down to making sure that we get the nutrients that we need and sunlight

and moving our body. and getting outside in nature. So important. The little things are the big things. But so many people like myself get so locked into the work that they're doing and their schedule and taking care of their clients and taking care of their children that they forget to take time for the most important person, which is you. Yes, I'm actually on something called ashriganda, but that one's more temporary.

But it's really good for cortisol. It really stops the stress hormone. So if it's too high, it kind of regular. it or even if it's too low, it regulates it. So I'm on that temporary as well. That's a good one for Kortisone. You talk about emotional wealth as a hidden currency of success. For entrepreneurs who may be financially successful, but emotionally exhausted, what does emotional wealth actually look like and how can they begin building it? Emotional wealth is everything. It is, you know, it's wonderful to have the bank account and to be able to buy the plane ticket or the bag or whatever.

That's great. But those really are the souvenirs of true wealth. True wealth to me is looking at my calendar on Sunday night and looking at the week ahead and being excited about everything that I have to do that week. It is, wealth is what I'm doing right now. I'm in Charleston, South Carolina, where my 17-year-old daughter is doing an internship with one of my college best friends. And I rented us this beautiful Airbnb. And we've spent the entire week here. And she's going and interning with my friend. And I'm working from this beautiful place that I love because I've created a life where I can do my job from anywhere in the world.

And I get to design the schedule the way that I want to. Those are the things that have allowed me to truly be happy and fulfilled in my career. I've got a beautiful supportive team. I've got the right people in the right seats in my business where I can really trust them. I know that they're doing their job no matter where I am, no matter where they are. I know that they are committed and care as much about our business as I do. And that, to me, matters more than the amount of money in the bank account. I love that. I love that. We haven't really spoken about it a lot and we're just closing up here. Do you help women with this, Lacey. Is this something you help women with? So I want to know, I want to know how you

support people and who you're actually talking to today. Who's that one person who's listening that you really want them to reach out to you and share how they can get you as well? You know, yes, I do help women. This is, this has become my absolute passion in life. The best way to connect with me is on Instagram. Look up Lacey Newman or you can go to my website, Lacey Newman.com. But I help women, especially those who have already become successful. You know, I'm not typically working with newbies. I'm working with women who have established businesses who've looked around and realized that

this life that they've built looks amazing on paper. But there's something inside them that's saying, this is not it. This is not everything for me. And the thing that makes me most excited and what gets me out of bed is helping women discover the small, sometimes large, but a lot of times it starts. with just really small changes that can be made that make all the difference in that emotional wealth, in their overall satisfaction, in the freedom that they feel in their business and their life. Because we don't, we do not need to work as hard as we do for as long as we have,

rack up all the accolades that you can win, get all of the trinkets of success, but not feel happy and free and whole and at peace. And so that's really the woman that I have realized is who I am really here to serve. And so anybody can reach out to me, email me, Lacey at Lacey Newman.com. I would always welcome a conversation. Well, if that's you listening out there, I would definitely go to Lacey Newman.com. Lacey, thank you so much for being my guest today. I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you.

This is wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. The pleasure's being all ours. you everyone for joining us for brilliance business conversations with leading experts in business until next time by for now thanks for listening to business innovators radio to hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters visit us online at business innovators dot com today.