In this powerful episode, Dr. Marisa welcomes her father, Bud Bauman, to share his journey from entry-level programmer to corporate executive managing 500+ employees and overseeing $250 million projects.

Bud's career spanning Cigna, Dow Jones, News Corp, and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield provides a masterclass in authentic leadership and value-driven decision making. You'll hear how establishing clear personal values guided his most pivotal career decisions—even when they seemed counterintuitive to others.

✨ In This Episode:

• How to identify and leverage your unique strengths in any environment
• The career-defining moment of turning down a promotion to honor his commitments
• The five personal values that haven't changed since 1995
• Why "Be Here Now" became Bud's leadership philosophy after a touching moment with his daughter
• How to build teams that thrive by recognizing individual strengths

Key Takeaways:

On Personal Values: "Family is the most important thing to me. And so when I start thinking about what grounds me, the first thing I say is, what's the impact to my family?"

On Leadership: "The greatest mistake new leaders make is believing they have all the answers."

On Decision-Making: "Your fears have a front-row seat to your transformation. The most rewarding things I ever experienced were accomplishments where I took a total risk."

On True Presence: "Whatever aspect you're dealing with, you have to be there now. Heart, mind, soul, body."

This episode offers invaluable wisdom for entrepreneurs and corporate leaders alike on maintaining integrity while pursuing ambitious goals.

Connect with us: Instagram @drsaragray@dr.marisa.nicole10@theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

That feeling when everything's going right... and you're secretly waiting for it all to fall apart? Dr. Sara opens up about her recent "life is beautiful" season and the surprising question her coach posed: "How long can you actually let yourself stay here?"

In this raw conversation, Dr. Sara and Dr. Marisa dive into why we sometimes sabotage our happiest moments and how to break the cycle of only feeling "productive" when we're healing through hardship.

🔥 In This Episode:

• Why we subconsciously create problems when everything's flowing perfectly
• The trauma response of "waiting for the other shoe to drop" even in healthy relationships
• How stopping personal development work at the first breakthrough sets us up for failure
• Building your "emotional savings account" to handle life's inevitable challenges

"Life is life-ing" whether things are messy or magnificent - and your journey deserves both the healing AND the celebrating. This episode challenges the narrative that growth only happens through struggle, inviting you to embrace the beautiful, brilliant flow that's available on the other side of your inner work.

As Dr. Sara puts it: "I would so much rather ride life here and have it beautiful and brilliant and mysterious and adventurous and joyful all the freaking time."

Connect with us: Instagram: @drsaragray@dr.marisa.nicole10@theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

Ever wished you could grab coffee with successful leaders who'd skip the sugar-coating and tell you the whole truth? This unfiltered Q&A delivers exactly that. Dr. Sara and Dr. Marisa dive straight into your most vulnerable questions with zero pretense and all heart.

🔥 What You'll Experience:

• Leading through your worst days: The raw truth about showing up authentically without emotionally hijacking your team (hint: there's no perfect balance—just beautifully imperfect humanity)
• The loneliness paradox: Why the fear of being alone might actually be your greatest invitation to discover who you truly are
• The entrepreneur's eternal truth: Why managing humans will always be your biggest challenge (and greatest reward)
• People-pleasing rehab: The transformative exercise that reveals exactly where you're pouring out without getting filled back up
• The ultimate freedom: How building a business that bleeds your essence creates a "big, red, bloody, sparkly mess" that's perfectly yours

This episode strips away the polished veneer of leadership to reveal what's real—the cycles of giving too much, the fear of not being enough, and the revolutionary power of choosing yourself without guilt. Sara and Marisa share the exact tools they've used to break free from caretaking cycles and build businesses that honor their entire selves.

Drop your questions for our next Q&A in our DMs! The messier, the better.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @drsaragray @dr.marisa.nicole10 @theheartworkpodcast
• Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

What does it really take to rebuild after losing everything? Justin Freishtat, fund manager and entrepreneur, joins us to share his raw, unfiltered journey through one of the most traumatic periods of his life—when he lost $12.7 million, faced his brother's cancer diagnosis, and mourned his beloved dog all within months.

Justin pulls back the curtain on what it truly means to lead through crisis. Rather than sending investors a K1 for their losses and walking away, he made personal calls to 47 investors (including his own father) and fought through lawsuits that ultimately led to a $114 million judgment in their favor. His story isn't just about financial recovery—it's about maintaining your integrity when everything around you is crumbling.

In This Episode:

• The moment Justin realized $12.7 million was gone and how he broke the news to investors
• Why Justin's biggest fear wasn't the money, but letting down the people who trusted him
• How he rebuilt his identity when everything that defined him seemed to be "dying" simultaneously
• The surprising shift in his approach to goal-setting after experiencing catastrophic loss
• Why feeling "unworthy" might actually be a common trait among high-achievers

Justin reminds us that "the first is always the worst" when it comes to failure—each subsequent challenge becomes easier not because it hurts less, but because you've built the resilience to endure it. His perspective on success cuts through the noise: "Life's not nearly as serious as we think on a day-to-day basis... in 100 years, none of us are going to be here. Handle what's calling your name. Don't be scared to do uncomfortable things."

This episode is for you if you've ever faced a setback that felt impossible to overcome, if you're wrestling with imposter syndrome in rooms where you feel unworthy, or if you simply need permission to prioritize rest in your relentless pursuit of success. Break free from living in the future and start finding power in the present.

Connect with Justin on Instagram: @justinfreishtat

Stock ticker for his company on NYSE: HITC

Connect with us: Instagram: @drsaranelsongray @dr.marisa.nicole10 @theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

#HeartworkPodcast #ResilienceJourney #EntrepreneurialGrowth #BusinessFailure #ComebackStory

When is it time to say goodbye to a team member? How do you honor both your business needs and the human in front of you? In this refreshingly honest conversation, Dr. Sara and Dr. Marisa dive into the delicate dance of transitioning team members out of your business—a topic that's rarely discussed but critically important for sustainable growth.

With the vulnerability that only comes from lived experience (and collectively hiring over 40 people between them!), these two heart-centered leaders get real about navigating team transitions with integrity.

🔥 In This Episode:

• The subtle early warning signs that someone may no longer be aligned with your mission
• How to distinguish between a temporary challenge and a fundamental misalignment
• The trap of "mothering" team members instead of leading them
• Why extending grace without boundaries can damage your entire culture
• Practical steps to create clear accountability when you're giving someone a final chance to align

"If I hire someone and they leave a better human being than when they first started, I've done my job," shares Dr. Sara in this episode that proves true leadership means having both the courage to maintain standards and the wisdom to recognize when it's time for someone's journey to continue elsewhere.

Whether you're currently navigating a difficult team transition or simply want to strengthen your leadership muscles before you need them, this episode peels back the layers on what it truly means to lead with heart. It offers both the practical framework and the permission you need to lead with integrity—even when that means making the difficult decision to part ways. Because sometimes the most loving thing you can do is recognize when it's time to let go.

Connect with us: Instagram: @drsaranelsongray@dr.marisa.nicole10@theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

#HeartworkPodcast #BusinessGrowth #AuthenticLeadership

What do great sex and thriving businesses have in common? They both fail when you're only focused on the end goal. Dr. Sara and Dr. Marisa dive into this spicy parallel, exploring why treating your business like a purely transactional encounter leaves both you and your mission wanting more.

After pausing a major expansion despite perfect-on-paper metrics, Dr. Sara shares how a beach vacation with zero agenda led to unexpected clarity. The conversation flows from intimate relationships to entrepreneurship, revealing why genuine spontaneity and presence create more sustainable success than rigid control.

🔥 In This Episode:

• The link between sexual energy and business growth
• How fear of losing control blocks both pleasure and profit
• Ways to embrace spontaneity without sacrificing success
• The power of presence over forced productivity

Break free from the transactional approach to success and discover how embracing spontaneity, presence, and genuine connection can transform both your business and life. This episode proves that sometimes the best outcomes happen when you stop forcing them.

Connect with us: Instagram: @drsaranelsongray @dr.marisa.nicole10 @theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

#HeartworkPodcast #BusinessGrowth #AuthenticLeadership #SpontaneousSuccess

Dr. Marisa opens her heart about a pattern many high-achievers know intimately - sacrificing the very things that make us feel alive in pursuit of business success. Through her story of returning to the gym after a two-year hiatus, she illuminates how singularly focusing on business growth led to an exhausting cycle of control, perfectionism and perpetual overwhelm. Dr. Sara and Dr. Marisa dive deep into the paradox of how loosening our grip on achievement often creates the very expansion we've been chasing.✨

Together they explore the nuanced difference between productive action and performative busyness, sharing powerful metaphors about watching seedlings grow and witnessing child development. Their conversation challenges the cultural narrative that constant consumption of self-improvement content leads to growth, offering instead a path back to trusting our innate wisdom. 🌱

Essential Insights: 💫

• The unexpected way that reclaiming personal joy creates more business success, not less
• How hyper-vigilance in one area of life breeds scarcity mindset across all areas
• Why "productive rest" misses the point - and what true restoration looks like
• Practical ways to identify when you're choosing consumption over presence
• The profound shift that happens when we stop optimizing and start being

Actionable Integration: ⭐ This week, notice one activity that makes you lose all sense of time - not because it's "worthy" but because it lights up your soul. Give yourself 10 minutes to engage in it fully, without multitasking or documenting. Simply be present and notice what emerges.

Connect with us: Instagram: @drsaranelsongray@dr.marisa.nicole10@theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

Pull up a seat for this deeply honest conversation where Dr. Marisa opens her heart about the stark differences between building her first practice (which sold in record time) and the more intentionally-rooted growth of Homestead. Meanwhile, Dr. Sara vulnerably shares how childhood experiences shaped her relationship with safety, control, and money in business. Together, they unpack the messy truth about entrepreneurship in 2025. 💫

Real Talk Revelations: ✨

• How tight control and "hawkish" behavior can actually stall abundance
• The surprising way Marisa's most profitable time came during her darkest season
• How visualization differs from control (and why it matters for results)
• Sara's powerful revelation about using money as a safety net instead of trusting life's flow
• The dance between necessary business strategy and intuitive leadership

Through raw stories and tender revelations, they challenge the hustle culture narrative that "more control equals more success." Instead, they offer a fresh perspective: What if our tightest grip on business goals is actually suffocating our highest potential?

This isn't just another business strategy session - it's an honest exploration of finding your rhythm between structured goals and intuitive leadership. Whether you're growing a practice, scaling a business, or simply trying to find balance between planning and trust, this conversation reminds us that sometimes our greatest expansion comes when we loosen our grip and trust the process.

Join the conversation:@drsaranelsongray @dr.marisa.nicole10 @theheartworkpodcast Email: theheartworklife@gmail.com

#HeartworkPodcast #BusinessGrowth #AuthenticLeadership #EntrepreneurLife #BusinessWithHeart #IntuitiveLeadership #TrustTheProcess