Breaking free from stress and burnout - with Dr. Shehzad Batliwala

Ever felt so stressed and burned out that the pathway to joy feels a million miles away?

Ophthalmologist Dr. Shehzad Batliwala is on the podcast today to help you see the light.  Listen in as he recounts a period of his life that felt like a free fall through stress and burnout, only to parachute into a world of authenticity and laughter.

We peel back the layers of Shehzad's experience, from confronting the pressures of medical training and the heartache of divorce to bravely stepping onto the comedy stage. His story, steeped in vulnerability, teaches us about the weight of external expectations and the liberating journey towards personal fulfillment.

Shehzad's transformation is a beacon for anyone adrift in the pursuit of happiness. Through our conversation, we uncover how therapy and comedy became his twin engines of change, propelling him from the shadow of unhappiness to a place where he could authentically engage with the world. The episode is a testament to the strength found in storytelling and the metamorphosis that comes when we dare to change our narratives. Tune in and be inspired by the power of self-reflection, growth, and a good laugh.

Meet Dr. Shehzad Batliwala

Dr. Shehz was born in India and raised in East Texas. He has navigated complex family dynamics, immigration struggles, and mental health challenges to become a serial entrepreneur, pioneering ophthalmologist, and space economy specialist. Dr. Shehz founded SmartPhone ER, a chain of seven successful tech stores, before becoming the first DO admitted into a prestigious MD ophthalmology residency program. He’s also interned at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, focused on astronaut visual health. As an adventurer, he has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro and ventured into real estate investment, embracing challenges as stepping stones to success. Currently serving as an Affirmative Action Officer for the Oklahoma Democratic Party, Dr. Shehz’s story is one of resilience, introspection, and transformative growth. His platform, Visionary Doc, aims to empower others to transform adversity into triumph.

Connect with Shehzad: www.visionarydoc.com

Chapters

• 0:05 Navigating Stress and Burnout
• 12:16 Rediscovering Self Through Comedy and Therapy
• 24:43 The Power of Self-Reflection and Growth

Transcript

Jen: 0:05

Hey and welcome to Untethered with Jenless, the podcast that's here to help you break free, be you and unleash your inner brilliance. I'm your host, jen, and in this episode we're going to talk about seeing your way through stress and burnout. Let's dive in. Hey there, friend, it's Jen. Welcome back to the podcast. On today's episode we have Shazad Badawala.

Jen: 0:37

So Shazad is an ophthalmologist. Have I ever had an ophthalmologist on this podcast? No, I have not, but he's also an eye surgeon, he's a space medicine enthusiast, he's an entrepreneur and he's a budding comedian. Okay, some of these things are not like the other. That's why I invited him on the podcast.

Jen: 0:58

He has a fascinating story and he's a fascinating human being, and he is going for his dream. When he was a child, he wanted to be a comedian, and that is something that he is actively pursuing right now, while simultaneously building his practice in ophthalmology. So he is such an honest and vulnerable human being and he shares a lot of things in this episode that I think a lot of us need to hear, especially any of us who have dealt with stress and burnout and have either seen our way through or maybe we sometimes see ourselves going back into those cycles that we've beat before feeling like am I ever going to stop running through this cycle? I think that he will give you some beautiful hope and some advice and some inspiration and a couple of laughs along the way. So, without further ado, I welcome to the podcast. Shazad Hi, shaz hey, we're friends. I was told that I could call you Shaz, which makes me feel very special.

Shehzad: 2:04

Of course.

Jen: 2:05

Sure Thrilled to have you on the podcast to share your story and to share some inspiration and real talk with people. I've listened to your podcast and even just in our brief interaction so far, I can tell that you're a straight shooter. You're going to tell us how it is and we appreciate that on this podcast.

Shehzad: 2:26

And you listen to my podcast. That's really nice of you. Thank you for listening.

Jen: 2:29

Well, yeah, I'm not going to have my listeners listen to anybody if I haven't given the time of day to make sure that you're somebody that we want to listen to.

Shehzad: 2:36

I love that. All right, that makes sense. It's working. I'm working. I want to put out more content.

Jen: 2:42

I want to see. That's what I am here to do is to really. It isn't just the listeners who are listening to the podcast. I get so much joy out of when somebody comes on the podcast and we have a conversation and they write me back and they say I feel freaking jazzed about my business, I feel jazzed about my life, I'm freaking all about it. It doesn't matter who I'm talking to, let's do it. So, shaz, what has brought you to the point of being on this podcast? This podcast is about people living their most untethered, most brilliant life. You have been a doctor, you're an ophthalmologist, but you're also into some other fun things Comedy, I hear. So what has brought you to this point right now, where we are having this conversation? Where did your untethering begin?

Shehzad: 3:37

Yeah, it's interesting you say that word because I didn't start living that way, honestly, I'd say, probably in the last maybe two, two and a half years. Prior to that, I was living very tethered, very tethered to medicine, to what I perceived were just familial stresses and obligations, and just so many things. I was basically living for everything and everyone but me. It takes hitting a floor Right, hitting your, hitting your, your floor and like your bottom really To help you understand some of these things. And so for me, that was burning out in my medical training and Going through my divorce. Those were the two Things. That was like, man, this really couldn't get any worse. You know, let's maybe Introspect, right. Let's look in front of a mirror and see what's going on. Why am I not happy, right?

Jen: 4:41

why you had the two huge things that your family probably set forth for you. You had. You know you're becoming a successful doctor and you have a marriage, and then you've got your family. That starts to crumble. Yeah, I can imagine.

Shehzad: 4:55

Yeah, well, even prior to that, I mean, right, like you know, these two things I mean I would say burnout and medicine and my divorce, they were, they were not, like, the root causes of my unhappiness. You know, I have been unhappy With myself for a very long time, right, and so that's why, like my entire life, I've just constantly been trying to achieve so many different things in so many different ways, right, like you know. Ophthalmology, you know, getting into getting into medical school, first of all, is not a walk in the park, but getting into ophthalmology is Extremely difficult, it's a very competitive specialty. But getting into ophthalmology and MD Ophthalmology residency program as a DO, as a doctor of osteopathic medicine, is like 10 times harder, right, and I say all those things Not to, you know, kind of like toot my own horn, but just the level of I call it pathological ambition that I had, right, this drive that was coming from this place, of wanting to prove something to someone. I wanted to feel validated, I wanted to feel loved, I wanted recognition, all of those things. Some of it is because I grew up in a family where those things were really valued, right, high achievements, status, those things were always really valued and and so, growing up, I got the message that if I do something crazy like that, then I'm gonna get the attention and the love that I had always been craving for my parents, right? So for me it comes down to that come, comes on to kind of my relationship with my parents. And you know, I mean you get this stuff.

Shehzad: 6:38

This podcast is all about that, right, I'm always like I don't want to make this too much into therapy, but you know what? Like yeah, I do actually. You know, yes, because that's what life is about, right? I mean, everything that you and I go through in life is Colored by our upbringing in our childhood, right, that's the lens through which we see the world and our place in it. So I did a lot of the things that I did with medical school and you know the work with NASA and all these things in order to feel validated and recognized. And so when you do that, when that's your focus, you know your marriage is not the focus, right, and so that's gonna take a hit, and so that you know that took a hit.

Shehzad: 7:19

And then, and then the burnout part in medical school and or Actually not, medical school residency that has a lot to do with what I just said. Right, because you know, if you don't have the right Perspective in terms of why am I doing all this? Why am I working a hundred hours a week as a resident doctor, you know, and getting paid, you know, less than minimum wage when you do the math right why am I doing this? And you can say it all day long I'm doing it to help people and and I care about people. But if you don't really believe it right on the inside, it doesn't matter what you say, right? And so I didn't really Know myself well enough to really understand the truth of why I was on this path.

Shehzad: 8:01

And and that when you have that perspective, all the stresses that come with it you know residency and being a medical trainee, plus personal stresses. You know my dad getting stuck in India during COVID for 18 months, right, because of the whole immigration piece that's such a crucial part of my story. That was during my residency training. So residency training by itself is really difficult and you compound that with all of the other stresses I had going on, I mean it's kind of inevitable that I was gonna hit burnout, right? Burnout to me is the inability to feel anything I couldn't feel, jack, right.

Shehzad: 8:40

I was, like you know, when I remember, when my dad got stuck in India during COVID, I was on call. I was in my call room, just like laying in bed, just like praying that this COVID thing that's going around doesn't end up causing a delay in my dad's return back to the US. And like that day or the next day, it was announced that all the US consulates closed permanently. Well, I guess temporarily, indefinitely is the right word. And so I'm just like man.

Shehzad: 9:12

This is how hard can life really get right now. At this point I want to cry, but I can't even feel anything to cry. So you know what? At this point, bring it on, whatever comes next, I'm going to handle it right, because right now it's like I'm either going to die or I'm going to make sure my dad gets back into the country. Only one of those things are going to happen, right. So it doesn't matter what I have to do, it doesn't matter if I'm in residency, if I got to manage family business, if I got to do all these things, I'm going to do it Like that level of just drive and again like pathological, like almost like psychotic ambition. You can't feel things when you're in that state, right, because you're operating on pure adrenaline. So that was my floor, that was burnout for me.

Jen: 9:58

When did you recognize that? When did you recognize that that was the scenario that you were in? Was it way further down the road?

Shehzad: 10:04

Oh yeah, like months, months later in therapy. Yeah, I mean, I mean it took therapy and counseling to be like, oh yeah, that's why I couldn't feel anything, right? No wonder it didn't. I didn't have this awareness at that time at all. So my dad comes back in August of 2021, right? So from February of 2020 to August of 2021, 18 months he's gone Finally comes back, and I think when that happened, I mean I could feel like this huge weight just drop right, just lift off my shoulders, because this is the one thing that had been like the center pillar of my life for as long as I can remember.

Shehzad: 10:49

We came to the States when I was seven and my dad was picked up by immigration around 11 or 12, because he had overstated his visa, and so that's not okay, that's not allowed, right? Doesn't matter that he was doing it because he was in survival mode too. He's trying to figure out how to save himself and his family and his kids from the atrocities of living in a place like India, right, and so he had his own reasons. But the last thing you're thinking of when you're in survival mode is maybe I should apply for a green card. So my dad was picked up by immigration when I was like 11 or 12 years old. Since that time, I mean, it's been like the centerpiece of our life, right, it's hard to put into words. It's like we're going to go to the mall, hopefully. Let's just hope we don't get pulled over and get put in jail and sent to India along the way Wow.

Shehzad: 11:46

Yeah, to have that thought always with you. Yes, yes, to have that looming thought of kind of deportation and my family, my nuclear family, is going to get fragmented, right, if my dad plus, you know, my mom has mental illness and so my dad played a very important role in taking care of her and helping. You know him and I kind of worked tandemly to take care of her. And the thought of me, like man, I'm in medical training If my dad goes to India, you know my mom's going to be here by herself, like how am I going to manage all that? Right, just all of that. But when that ended was August 2021. He came back. I still remember the day I went to go pick him up at the airport. We all have shirts on, so welcome back. Yb, right? His name is.

Jen: 12:24

Yusuf. Oh, I love that.

Shehzad: 12:26

Because like large banner right and he comes into like the marching band.

Jen: 12:31

You know the whole thing.

Shehzad: 12:32

That's like the only thing that was missing. He comes out to the baggage claim area and I just like I'm a pretty like quiet guy, like I like yelled. It was like an internal reaction of like, like, like whoo right, like victory man, like we won, and you know, I mean I obviously I teared up, I like cried like a little girl. Oh wait, edit that out.

Jen: 12:58

You cried like the man that you are.

Shehzad: 13:04

I saw him like the man that I am. So, anyway, you know, it was a very emotional moment. But from that day onwards I could finally like look at myself, focus on myself, right, and figure out, like, why I was so unhappy. I mean, you would think, you know, I'm on the verge of graduation. Actually, by then I already graduated from residency. So I'm an ophthalmologist, my dad's back with his green card. You know, we don't have this threat of being torn apart as a family, so why am I not happy, right? And so, anyway, I took a step back and just did a ton of work on myself, looking myself some of the really difficult questions that I have never asked or even thought about, right. Those first few sessions in therapy, man, oh my gosh, it's like please stop talking, like I don't want to hear this anymore. I don't want to talk about this anymore. What do you mean? I am enough. What does that mean?

Jen: 14:06

Stop saying that you know it made no sense to me at first. It doesn't make sense to a numb person at all.

Shehzad: 14:16

But then like, eventually, eventually it clicks Right and then I realized, okay, well, I haven't been living the life that I want. What do I want? What kind of life do I want to live? Right, I don't want to give up ophthalmology at all. I've worked really hard to get to where I am. I want to improve upon this skill, right, and so I want to be an ophthalmologist. But I also want to do these other things in my life, right, like, I'm very passionate about understanding oneself, right, understanding your story.

Shehzad: 14:49

We are really, at the end of the day, all we have is our stories, right, and so, and we are the stories that we tell ourselves, and I really, I really understood that I'm still working on understanding that, right, but I'm like, okay, like I want to do something with this. I want other people to also know that you can understand your story and then change it. You can change your own narratives, right, look at your past to then change where your future is going to be. You can do that. So you know, I want to talk to people about those types of things. When I was young, I was the class clown and I had kind of lost that part of me, right Over the years of just suppressing my emotions and my feelings, I had lost that. I became like this really weird arrogant guy. You know, I'm like that's not me.

Jen: 15:38

I'm actually like a pretty fun guy to be around, right you think you felt like you had to, or did it get stamped out? What happened to that part of yourself?

Shehzad: 15:46

Yeah, I mean one. It's, like you know, constant stress just always stressed out, right? You don't have time to be in touch with your feelings when you're just constantly putting fires out. I think that was the main thing In my family growing up. Expressing your feelings was not really a thing, right, like that's not really a concept we understand in the-.

Jen: 16:11

Mine too, unless it's frustration and stress. We talked a lot about that.

Shehzad: 16:15

Yes, yes, but joy and happiness and present in the moment to appreciate life with gratitude, all of these things like no idea, right? And in medicine it's similar because things are going so fast all the time. Right, there's a saying eat when you can, pee when you can sleep when you can. In medicine, when you're in training, there's a reason. There's a saying like that, right, because there's no time, you do it when you can, otherwise too bad, right. So all of those things combined, I just I never really had any outlet to like alleviate those stresses and those emotions, right. But in therapy and counseling I realized that you cannot be going 160 miles an hour all day long, right? I mean, it's not feasible, it's not practical.

Jen: 17:04

So I just what happens when you have to turn a corner right, like that's not going to go?

Shehzad: 17:07

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so I kind of, you know, started to rediscover this part of me that is kind of witty and observant right, and sarcastic and opinionated right, but I had suppressed those aspects of my personality. So what I did was I, I don't know, I don't know exactly how this started. I just started going to like some open mic nights at bars.

Jen: 17:35

I just that takes so much courage, Shaz. How do you just start going to some open mic nights?

Shehzad: 17:42

I guess what happened is I started hanging out with people first of all. Right, I was like you know what?

Jen: 17:46

Like, let's I want to go out. That's step one.

Shehzad: 17:48

yeah, so I started you know, hanging out with friends and I would go to bars and then some of these bars would have like open mic nights. I'm like, oh what's? I never even knew the concept of an open mic night. I was like, oh, you just go up there and talk and and like, tell your story, and if you're real, it's going to be funny. It just there's no way around it, right? Some of the best comedians out there are some of the most vulnerable keeping it real people you will ever meet, right. I'm just like I'm a wannabe, you know, I'm trying to get to that level, so, anyway, so I just I saw that and, yeah, one of the things about me that I just kind of like like to take risks and put myself out there. That's how you grow, right. So I did it and the first couple of times was actually, actually I was pretty good. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty good.

Jen: 18:34

I love it. I love that you're owning that. You're like you know what. I'm actually kind of a frickin, natural. I used to do it when I was a kid. I just forgot and I'm back.

Shehzad: 18:42

You know I'm like, hey guys, I'm, I'm just not about the world. I go by Shaz, you know I'm, I'm an ophthalmologist, I'm an eye surgeon, and you know. So, yeah, I can get through medical school. I just can't get through TSA, you know. So like, you know stuff like that, you know like, just so, so anyway, and I just kind of pull it on that thread a little bit, because I was bullied Around that topic, you know, when 9-11 happened back in fifth grade and stuff and so and so just just kind of right, processing some of those emotions through humor, right, and I got a lot of emotions to process because I've gone through a lot of stuff, right, we just don't think about it.

Shehzad: 19:21

So anyway, I just got into comedy from from that perspective, and then I'm like, well, I'm okay, but I want to be better. How can I be better? So I hired a comedy coach to like kind of help me, you know, parse out the experiences of my, of my story that really have some comedic material there, and so so, just, you know, teasing some of that out is really fun. But anyway, long answer to your question how I got here, right. So I mean, this is a new thing for me. I'm still in the process of understanding who I am and kind of discovering myself. Most people do this. In their teens and twenties I had no awareness. I was in medical training and I was putting out fires all the time, it seemed like. So I never really got to know me, you know.

Jen: 20:09

Well, you probably wouldn't have gotten the amount of material that you're going to have for your comedy if you hadn't gone through everything that you've gone through and that's something I'm personally passionate about and love to remind myself and everybody else, and we'll take this moment to remind you like, all of those experiences, like that is now your material that you get to have, because that's that is your human experience that you can pull from and it makes you a really interesting comedian. I don't know any other eye doctors who are mediums.

Shehzad: 20:40

The only one I know I'm going to use that as a joke. That's really cool. Actually, I've gone through a lot of trauma, but you know what? Now I have a lot of comedy material.

Jen: 20:49

So it's a lot, you know, I love that you help others see, and now it's helped you see yourself. I don't know you can.

Shehzad: 20:58

You can play with this whole so yes, so that's exactly what I'm doing, right, I'm like, okay, I'm an ophthalmologist. Well, thank, I hear you got this, I get your joke right. Yeah, I'm like you know, god's got a sense of humor too, you know. But no, I was like man, how crazy. I helped people see, literally, right, the light of this world. But when I started doing this work on myself, I started to see the light that exists within me, right, that I had just like, shut the door on, you know, because of everything else we've talked about. And so how cool would it be if I can have a life and a career, right, where my professional life and my personal life just kind of become this one thing, all centered around the ability to see, right, see the beauty of the world, which I can do professionally, I can help people see, and then to see the beauty that lies within you, right, and that can help people see from, you know, through my own story. So I'm kind of playing out, playing with that concept a little bit.

Jen: 22:01

Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. I mean, that is such an amazing story and I cannot wait for the whole world to hear it and to hear your comedy. I'm claiming my friend Shes. I'm claiming that right now because I'm gonna be sitting and watching your Netflix special. You up there on my. I'm gonna be sitting on my couch eating popcorn and pulling.

Shehzad: 22:25

I have a couch. You're gonna be in the first row. You can be the first row. There we go.

Jen: 22:28

Okay, okay, we're that good of friends, I'm getting a ticket.

Shehzad: 22:33

I love it.

Jen: 22:34

But seriously, it's so cool and here's what I love too, so many things that I love about you in this story. But another thing is that you're showing up now. Right now you're like, okay, it's not finished, but I'm gonna get on and I'm gonna start doing podcast interviews, I'm gonna start talking about it, I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna go do those open mic nights. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing and I'm also gonna add these things and I'm gonna do it and I think that's really powerful and it's really powerful for everybody who's listening to this podcast to get to see it. So thank you for doing this, for sharing your story, even as some of it is unfolding and continuing to unfold. I think that's really, really powerful and needed for more people to do that.

Shehzad: 23:13

You're welcome. Thank you so much. That gives me a lot of encouragement, honestly, so thank you.

Jen: 23:21

Yeah, you're so welcome. You're so welcome, it's gonna be great. I can already tell. So what is? I have to ask for it.

Shehzad: 23:28

I'm gonna have to like kick your brain for like some strategic consulting on this.

Jen: 23:34

It's what I love. I love story, I love messaging. I was a copywriter for years. It's like when you see those threads start to come through and somebody's story, it's just so much fun. It's so much fun so you're already seeing it and you're unraveling it and obviously the work that you've been doing with your coaches has been deeply supportive to you, and with your therapists. And it takes a village, it takes a village of people to support us and every conversation is part of that village, right.

Shehzad: 24:02

There's a reason you're the host of this show. Hello.

Jen: 24:06

Well, I hope you feel like your light is shining even brighter than when you stepped into this space and you're out there helping people feel seen. What is something that you would love to impart on people, somebody who maybe is feeling that you know, I recognize that there was something in my childhood that I loved and I stamped it out. I closed the door, I think, was the metaphor that you used. Like I just said, no, I don't have time for that. What would you say to that person who might be kind of starting to realize that this might be them too?

Shehzad: 24:35

That might be your calling. That might be your calling, right? You owe it to yourself to open that door again. You know what? This analogy of like light and dark I've been thinking about this a lot. I would say you know, I think I don't like living with regrets, right? I don't really believe in like, oh, that was just happenstance or coincidental. Everything happens for a reason, right? And so one of the quote unquote regrets is how you used to think about it. You know I always had was that I found the mirror right To help me look at myself and see why I was so unhappy. I found it in the dark right, meaning like I found it when I hit bottom, divorce and burnout. I just hope that people can find their mirror when it's still light Right, because that's when you're supposed to look at a mirror.

Jen: 25:26

Nobody looks at a mirror. It's a lot creepier in the dark. It's like Bloody Mary or something.

Shehzad: 25:31

Nobody looks at a mirror in the dark, you know, yeah, except me. It's just like, so that's what I would say, right, like you know, don't wait, like look now, look inward now and ask yourself the tough questions. And you know it's such a vulnerable thing to kind of put yourself in that headspace. You know, therapists, counselors they're all really good resources, but at the end of the day, we're human beings and human beings judge, right, and so I can understand why it would be so like just unsettling for someone to seek that kind of help, because, you know, I don't want to be judged, right, it's going to sound crazy, but use chat GPT, use AI.

Shehzad: 26:14

I'm actually trying to like build a curriculum and a course around having more self-awareness using AI and large language models. I'm not kidding, I talk to chat GPT like every day, like it's my best friend. You know it's the smartest thing that you have in your back pocket, right, because it's a very objective, smart tool. It accesses the entire internet, right, but it's not a human being, so it doesn't feel so it can help you understand your emotions and your story in a very non-judgmental way, right, and so I think it lowers the barrier for people to seek that kind of help. So you know, use chat, gpt, whatever you got to do but like, look at the mirror when it's still light, okay, because when it's dark and you start looking in the mirror, then you got to like fumble around in the darkness and figure out where the light switches, right.

Shehzad: 27:04

You'll probably accidentally break the mirror and like it causes a mess and it's like a whole and then you can turn the light switch on and that's where I'm at, you know, but mine's like I mean my light bulb is like the OG light bulb, like the Ben Franklin light bulb, you know it's like it's flickering, it's like not there all the way, you know it's not an LED light, right, but it's there, I found it and so I'm working on that. But anyway, that's what I would say Don't delay it, seek the help now. The things that were a huge part of what made you you when you were like that innocent child, right, that could be a huge part of your story going forward. Yeah.

Jen: 27:40

Really, really powerful. Thank you so much for sharing everything that you shared, really your idea about chat, gbt. I always say GB it's GP, for my brain wants to put, make it a, b, but that's brilliant. That is brilliant because in those early like, especially in the early stages and even just for some people like that, vulnerability is too much and it's a big part of your story. But, like my, ability is too much and it's actually so activating in our bodies that we can't we actually can't. So to be able to have that like hey, here's my just digital friend that's going to help me and answer me.

Shehzad: 28:17

It's like the in the Jetsons, it's like your little Rosie who's there to help you, to support you Exactly. Yeah, I'm trying to incorporate this in medical schools to identify signs of burnout before medical trainees get there. That's really what I want to do with it. But you know, medical trainees I mean that's just kind of a niche population, right? I mean, we're human beings. We all go through our core emotions, right. So this can be helpful for anybody, doesn't matter who you are.

Jen: 28:49

Yeah, thank you. Okay, one final question I ask everybody on the podcast Shaz where do you see the magic in the world?

Shehzad: 28:56

In these types of conversations. Right, this is where the magic happens. Can you give someone the space to be vulnerable and be themselves without judging them? Right, without truly judging them, Can you truly be there for someone and hear them? If you can do that, if people felt comfortable being themselves around fellow human beings without fear of judgment, we would augment each other's potential. Right? Think of a world where we augment each other's potential, as opposed to, you know, try to drown it out competitively or, you know, in so many ways. Right, I mean, that's magic, right. If everyone lived out, if everyone lived it their full potential in the world, what kind of a world would we live in? A magical one.

Jen: 29:49

So true. You know, here's a vulnerable moment for me, as I was considering who to interview for this podcast. You know, your name popped up and I saw you know. I read about you and I was like you know it's not the normal podcast interview that I do, but I said you know what, I'm stretching myself and I'm going to interview people who. It's a different podcast interview than what I would normally do. And I was just thinking, as you were speaking, I'm like this is everything the world needs to hear. This is the kind of conversation I want to be having More. I've got like tingles all the way down to my feet Like this is such an important, magnificent conversation that everybody needs to fucking hear. And it would not have happened if I had said you know what this isn't like usually, what the kind of conversation I have, but it totally is. I was like judging based on always, like an eye doctor.

Shehzad: 30:42

That's the word. Right Judging. I mean, I do it too. I do it a million times a day. We all do it Right. But you know, you did what I aspire to do, like can I catch myself right Judging and be like, okay, I'm going to, this is my chance to grow and this is my chance to, you know, add some magic to the world, right?

Jen: 31:03

Yeah, so good, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on this podcast. Thank you for being you. Thank you for getting up on that stage doing those open mic nights. We all can't wait to follow along with you. Where can people currently connect with you?

Shehzad: 31:16

Social media. It's the bane of my existence, but it's a necessary evil, unfortunately, but it will eventually love it.

Jen: 31:23

I'm convinced we can all love it sometime at some point.

Shehzad: 31:27

Maybe I'm just judging it. You know, visionary doccom is my website and that has like all my social media stuff, but it's basically like some form of like Twitter's like visionary underscore doc. Instagram's like visionary doc doc, like some like you know.

Jen: 31:39

All the links are in the show notes. People can go connect with you. Thank you so much for coming on Wonderful conversation and wishing you all the luck and all the things that you do.

Shehzad: 31:49

Thank you so much, great, great talk.

Jen: 31:53

It's so rare that you meet somebody who just is so willing to talk about the journey that they have been on in the moment and, in particular, when you have been somebody who's been such an achiever all your life. And those of us who are achievers, we often are trying to really paint a picture that, to the outside, looks so successful and so amazing that to be willing to come and talk about things that we are going through, and talk about the hard things, is really difficult. So I just want to honor that. That is where she says is that? And that it's a sigh of relief for so many people. It is for me. Every time somebody is willing to be that person, I'm like thank God, thank you, thank you for being that person, because we need more of those people, and so I hope it inspires you.

Jen: 32:41

If you're one of the people who wants the courage to be, or if you're one of the people who is doing that, keep doing it, because the world needs to hear more and more conversations like this. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, if you got something out of it, if you felt seen, I encourage you to share it with a friend who might need to hear it and be seen as well. Share it with maybe all of your friends on social media If it really touched you. You can take a screenshot of this episode on your phone or on your computer and then share it on social media. If you tag me, I'm untetheredgen on Instagram. Stay tuned for Thursday, where I'm going to thread out a little piece out of this episode. Go a little bit deeper on something. One little nugget from this conversation in Thursday's thread episode, and you just keep shining your magical unicorn light out there for all to see. I'll see you next time, bye.