What if aging isn’t something to fight, fix, or freeze, but something to express?

In this episode of the Leading Visionaries, host Anjel B. Hartwell sits down with Cathy Goldstein, with nearly four decades in holistic medicine. Cathy challenges cultural narratives that tell us to chase youth, erase expression, and disconnect from our innate wisdom as we age.

If you’re a visionary leader, entrepreneur, or changemaker who wants to age well without losing authenticity, reclaim confidence without erasing your story, and bring your innovative ideas into the world with courage and clarity, this conversation will expand the way you think about beauty, healing, and leadership.

What You Will Learn:

Why visionary leadership isn’t just about seeing the future but about making vision practical, useful, and embodied.

How emotional experiences, stress, and trauma become stored in the muscles of the face over time.

Why facial expression is directly connected to brain chemistry, nervous system regulation, and emotional resilience.

What functional aesthetics is and how it fundamentally differs from traditional beauty and anti-aging models.

How releasing facial tension supports brain health, energy flow, and authentic self-expression.

Why freezing the face disrupts emotional communication and disconnects us from inner truth.

How facial muscles differ from body muscles and why they hold lifetime patterns of emotion and stress.

The role of the limbic brain and amygdala in facial expression, emotion, and perception.

How smiling, expression, and movement influence neurotransmitters and emotional states.

Why premature aging is often about tension and fatigue rather than wrinkles or skin texture.

How lymphatic drainage plays a critical role in detoxification, vitality, and facial health.

What it means to retrain the body rather than simply fix or override symptoms.

How frequency, energy medicine, and bio-photon technology support cellular communication and healing.

Why authenticity, not perfection, is what draws people to leaders and visionaries.

How cultural conditioning around beauty impacts confidence, relevance, and self-worth as we age.

Why aging can be a process of gaining wisdom, resilience, and deep beauty rather than loss.

How to recognize when an idea or innovation is ahead of its time and why that’s often a sign of true leadership.

The importance of trusting your work even when others don’t fully understand it yet.

Why knowing your product or vision deeply is more powerful than any external marketing strategy.

How tenacity, resilience, and self-belief shape long-term entrepreneurial success.

Why shelving your own vision can create future regret and how to keep going despite obstacles.

How to lead from embodied experience rather than external validation.

What it truly means to age well without losing expression, vitality, or identity.Sparkling

Resource:

Cathy Goldstein

Tru Energy Skincare

Leading Visionaries Podcast

Join the Leading Visionaries Community

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Creative Age Consulting Group

LVP 118 Cathy

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Now, here's your host Anjel. Be Hardwell.

Anjel: Welcome to another episode of the Leading Visionaries Podcast, where we celebrate the ingenious, insightful. Innovative and inspired leading visionaries of our time and provide our listeners with world-class examples of the kind of courage, clarity, and confidence it takes to bring visions into reality.

Facial expression, science and advanced skincare to restore vitality from the inside out. With nearly four decades in holistic medicine, she's redefining aging as expressive. Energy alive and brain connected. I'm really excited to have you on the show today. Welcome, Kathy.

Cathy: Welcome to me having your, you as a, or me as a guest for you.

And that's what I love about your message.

Anjel: Oh, beautiful. Well, Kathy, I was inspired when you pitched us to be on the show because you're doing something really. You really are the definition for me of a leading visionary. You're doing something incredibly ingenious, insightful, innovative, and aspired.

So I wanna start our time by talking to you about vision. Were you always visionary were you did mm-hmm. Always know that, you know, you were a visionary. Were you always seeing far, you know, kind of far into the future or sourcing mm-hmm. New ideas and so forth? Or is that something that kind of came along later in your life?

Cathy: Like how does that, what are the consequence? What's the outcome? What's the forward? Thought presses of what we're talking about right now. And you know, my mom, who's always been a, you know, a huge advocate for me, which I just absolutely love that she's given me that support. She definitely was like, you thought that you should be able to stand up on the front of the car going 60 miles an hour going, you know, and saying, I'm here.

How strong are you? Test you. Right. So I've had many, many of those, you know, you know, almost died a couple of times as you know, as a child. Definitely had my teen experiences. Definitely you know, when I was 26, ended up in the hospital for, you know, three months and two years later, seven surgeries.

And you know, it definitely for me was always had been about this isn't gonna define me in that I never. Thought, why is this happening to me? I just kept thinking, this is not gonna define me. This is not gonna make me who I am. Mm-hmm. And you know, making sure that I just was pushing and pushing probably to a fault on the pushing.

Where is that useful? Where is that useful for other people? Right? Mm-hmm. So in my practice it was, you know, I was definitely driven by not just science, but why. It was the why. What is this? Why is that? And so a lot of people might define that thinking outside of the box, but for me it was like, why the heck is there a box?

Right? Mm-hmm. So it's, you know, reaching on, putting things together that most people don't put together. Like what is the emotional component to this? What is the physical component to this? What is the spiritual component you know, to this? And that's. What drove me in my practice is, is, you know, what am I missing?

What am I missing for this person? Mm,

Anjel: yeah. Beautiful.

Cathy: So, yeah.

Useful. Like, how can I make this useful? And I think many leading visionaries struggle with having a wide open. Channel to vision, which is like, there's a constant bombardment by, by life itself of, of potential visions, right? There's this just constant bombard bombardment, and so when you use that phrase of making it useful, that speaks to me about the leadership piece, right?

So I just really wanted to, point that out. And I, when I left the real estate business, I made a little business card for myself that said, box what box? And I had to like, the sides of it was like tilted. So I love that as well. So let's talk a little bit about your leadership journey. Were you always like independent in terms of self-employment was, you know, did you go some other path where you like went in corporate and then you left corporate and started your own thing?

Or tell us a little bit about your leadership journey.

Cathy: Yeah, so, I. It kind of goes with that, with the part about being really sick. Right? So I was finishing prerequisites for, for osteopathic school, medical school, and I got really sick with Crohn's disease and I realized that the, that, that Western medicine saved my life, however.

You are on your own, you know, you are the rebel. So I definitely have been an entrepreneur you know, went out to practice on my own, always have, you know, and that was, and then. Also opening multiple practices, living in different places. You know, I was never afraid to start over 'cause I didn't really ever feel like I was starting over.

So it was always like recreating.

Anjel: Mm-hmm. Yeah. You were evolving, your business was evolving as you were evolving, and you were evolving as your business was evolving. Yes. Which, yeah, I see that a lot and have that experience myself, so. Let's now talk about in terms of leadership, another piece that comes up for, for many people is.

So a leader needs to take those things and synthesize them. Then puts it together into something that's brand new in the world. So I'd love to have you speak a little bit about pioneering functional aesthetics. Okay. While you're at it, maybe explain what you mean by functional aesthetics.

Cathy: Right. Okay. Yes.

So, so functional aesthetics, defining functional aesthetics is really it's the philosophy that, whether it's beauty or health, that it needs to come from a functional perspective, right? Meaning that if I'm using a a supplement for somebody, it can't just be filling a void. It has to be retraining the person.

Prior to that, I was used to treating people who are, you know, autoimmune disease, very sick. You're my last chance, you know, you're the la you know, that really you know, suffering human being, right? So when I, at 49, when I inadvertently caught myself in the mirror. And I unexpectedly, and I thought to myself, what the heck?

And I have in the practice, what I call an integration room. And my integration room is, is that after you do a treatment, you go in this room and, and you're bombarded with. Energy medicine, so, you know, light energy, crystal energy, sound energy, biophoton energy, because it's all of those resonating frequencies that are specifically tuned to have your body learn how to heal.

And it's being able to get your nervous system, get your body, get your what, what I call, what I call, you know, the all of the different nervous systems the cell to cell communication, learning how to vibrate at a frequency of innate intelligence and healing, right?

Anjel: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cathy: So when I had caught myself in the mirror to go full circle on that, what I realized is, is that.

Right. So all those, are you

Anjel: looking at me right now? Kathy's

Cathy: right? It's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's us. Right? Because that's, you know, that is our nature is, is that. The muscles of the face have a very specific function, and the function has to do with how our brain or our limbic brain, our amygdala functions.

Here's our happy hormones and our happy neurotransmitters. Right? All

Anjel: right.

Cathy: It's real. It

Anjel: is real. And we are happy right now to have you on here. And we are also happy to take a quick break. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're gonna dive in a little bit more to this pathway that we're on and let people know where they can find out more about you.

The best support is found in collaboration with other leading visionaries, which is why we've created the Creative Age Leader Lab. Discover more about this opportunity@leadingvisionariespodcast.com slash Creative Age Leader Lab, or click the connect with Anjel button on the website to apply and qualify for a consultation for more personalized access and support, be sure to share the show in your own spirals of influence with the people who you think might benefit from our content.

I wanna say a huge thank you to all of our listeners who are downloading, rating and reviewing. We're welcoming thousands of downloads from all over the world. We wanna shout out this week to our listeners in Jacksonville, Florida, where Kathy is, and also in French Polynesia and Norway, and we will be right back with Kathy Goldstein.

Your word is your wand. And as the leader, your ability to articulate and communicate your vision is essential to its materialization and monetization. Please enjoy with our compliments, a free copy of the book, be Heard By Millions, and Live Your Destiny, which was a number one new release in three categories to get you started.

Anjel: And we are back with Kathy Goldstein. Before we went to the break, I said I would let you know where you can find out more about her. You can go to true energy skincare.com/you. True Energy skincare.com/u. We will have that for you in the show notes. And true energy is spelled TRU. There's no E on the end of that, so T-R-U-E-N-E-R-G-Y skincare.com/u.

Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. And you know, this is a, this is the thing, Anjel is, is that. You know, our cultural message is, is where I have, you know, a beef, if you will, and it is really. Very conditioned, very trained in very strong that we should be chasing beauty, right? That who we are as we age is no longer relevant, that we disappear.

Actually their facial expressions and their ability to make facial expressions. So freezing the face versus releasing the muscles of the face, which is where the true energy really goes down that lane, is it's, it's about releasing the stuck energy on our face. That's our emotional traumas. That's our emotional stressors that are no longer serving us.

Mm-hmm. That we now can, you know, move into our most authentic self. That's really resilient and that's what we gain in age, is resilience and you know, wisdom and deep beauty. Deep beauty. Mm-hmm. So, that the culture shift for me is, is it's not about skincare, it's not about beauty, it's about authenticity, and I.

Do I need to consider, you know, Botox and injections? Like, wait, that doesn't resonate with me. No. And so it was being able to find a solution to what really makes a difference in why it is that one, those muscles get stuck, and two, what are those muscles actually doing to our brain and our brain health?

And that's just so fascinating to me.

Cathy: Yeah. There's a map,

Anjel: right? And there's a map.

So. We might as well just 'cause I have this like thing right down the middle and somebody told me that it, it was like a third eye thing from Yogi, you know, some yogis that it's like a special third eye thing that says that your third eye is open. I was like, okay, my third eye is

Cathy: I'll buy that.

Anjel: Great, I'll, I'll accept that.

Right. I'll accept that I have this thing right in the middle and now you're saying it's the divorce line. So just for fun, I'd love to have you speak about like, how does your system. Both identify these emotional things and then get them unstuck.

Cathy: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of times when we look at the face on we look at, we're looking at the skin, just skin deep, right?

What people often see when they look in the mirror on premature aging is, you know, fatigue. I, you know, sagging li deep lines, lines around the mouth and sagging jawline more so than skin and skin texture, believe it or not. And those are more premature aging things because they're not really aging.

They're tension that we're holding onto. So, so the system is more about releasing the. Fascia wrapping around that muscle that is holding those tight and stuck, because we don't like when we think about the muscles of the face, that perpetual facial expressions get frozen on our face, essentially. Mm-hmm.

Anjel: Mm-hmm.

Cathy: So, the protocol is lymphatic drainage and then it's about releasing the muscles that are dragging our face around and then popping the muscles that need rejuvenating with that, with that energy. That's frequency that I use to imprint not only in the wand and the tools, but also in every.

Skincare jar. I have a little green bead or a little blue, blue bead that I imprint with frequencies that teach the skin to resonate at that vibration of healing and health and collagen production.

Anjel: MM, and wellbeing. And yes, no longer, no longer thinking about the divorces. Yes. Or whatever else it is that is emotional.

Cathy: Mm-hmm.

Anjel: You know, many people might have an innovative idea like you have, and so they, you know, often will stop themselves and get stuck.

Because of, you know, emotional stuff, prior trauma, you know, just general fear of being able to actually pull it off. So if you had anything that you either went through in your journey that you needed to overcome as a bus, kind of as a business owner and as a founder of a brand new system.

Cathy: Mm-hmm.

Anjel: Or like words of encouragement that you would want to send to the audience around that journey.

Cathy: Yeah.

Anjel: Love to hear that now.

Cathy: Okay. Yeah, for sure. So, it's a great question because like you said, many ideas, many innovations, very amazing thoughts go through our head all the time. When I first started developing True energy I actually, it was way before its time because it's energy medicine.

And another company, you know, shelfed me for a year and a half, right? And finally I realized, you know what? I'm hiring other people as my marketing team for a product that I know. My best. The best, right? Mm-hmm. And it was from that space of saying, I'm really good at what I do, but I don't know anything about marketing.

What could I possibly, how could I possibly, you know, market my product? Well, I know my product better than anybody else. That's how. You market your product by knowing it, you know, by knowing it. Because that's what people wanna hear. They wanna hear the authenticity of it. They wanna hear like, what's real, like, how does it work?

Ad: Mm-hmm.

Cathy: So every, for all of those years, I, periodically, sometimes, more often than others would ask myself, does this problem solve a problem? Is this a good product? Does this, you know, so I'd ask my com myself, those key questions, is it a good product and does it solve a problem?

And it's yes, yes. Okay, keep going. Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so it's just a, it was for me, just about re encouraging myself that if I shelf my own product, how am I gonna feel? About that down the line. Oh, I, it was a good one I could have done. It was, you know, it's like that regret from the, you know, from the future, right?

Go for it. Yeah.

Anjel: Beautiful. Well, and the truth of the matter is this is true for every visionary. Whatever you're doing, your product or your service is naturally, always pretty much going to be before it's time. It's just, that's just the facts. And so, you know, I would also add to this, not only. Are you as the visionary and the leader in your organization, how, however big or small your organization is, not only do, are you the one that knows best, right?

Because you birthed it, you created it out of nothing, literally out of nothing. You know it better than any anybody. But you also in my mind, need to love, absolutely love what you're offering into the world.

Cathy: Yeah.

It's beautiful. I love that you said yes. Yes. Keep going. Alright. Thanks so much, Kathy, for being with me today. What a blessing and what a gift that you are to many people who are interested in actually relieving and releasing their face rather than remaking it in some way. So thank you so much for being with us and listeners, we do love feedback.

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