Beyond the Surface: Healing Acne from Within With Leanne Hardisty

Hi and welcome to The You World Order Showcase podcast. Today we have with us, Leanne Hardisty. She shows people with skin problems, how to stop focusing on the symptoms and treating their skin with creams and how to make sustainable changes to what they're putting into their bodies to heal from the inside out.

She is a certified health coach and focuses on the holistic view. Welcome to the show, Leanne. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.

So tell us your story. How did you get to this point?

So you can probably hear from the accent. I am not American. I am living in Indiana, uh, close to Indianapolis. I have been for been in the yes about 7 just over seven years.

But prior to that, I was in Northern Ireland.

So born and raised there and I went to work for uh, uh, Fortune 500 company. In fact, based in Ireland, worked there for.

22 years and ultimately or ultimately worked there for 22 years, didn't work anywhere else. They brought me to the US.

Seven years ago and had me uhm.

Set, essentially setting up a larger team and consolidating A-Team here in the US.

So I moved here with that opportunity.

And in uh during lockdown, I didn't have the long drive to work. Sorry, I should say that I was supposed to come here for two to three years to set up this part of the business and then return. But I am.

I was enjoying what I was doing, so the company asked me to stay here in the US to get my green card and then I met an American.

And I married him. So I have moved here permanently.

So in.

During lockdown, I didn't have an hours commute each way, so I.

I decided to become a certified health coach, always something that I had wanted to do, but just never had supposed time or thought I didn't have time to do it. So use the time where I didn't have the commute to do that and just really loved it.

And when I returned to work, realised I was seeing her an hour a day.

So I decided to resign, which was a huge deal for me at that point. I had really progressed up the ladder in this organization, so it was executive level.

Very comfortable in my life and what I was earning, but I resigned and I opened and founded a company called Your Skin Sister.

And that had come from.

Uh struggles I had had for over.

Two decades, in fact, I had struggled with acne.

And essentially didn't know at the time it was creating the symptoms focused on what I was putting on to my skin and not and not into my body or other lifestyle changes. And whenever I got divorced many years ago from my first husband.

I was going to be on the dating scene again.

And after 12 years and I had said.

My confidence was shattered and I had said if I'm going to start to go on dates again, there is no way I'm going to go there thinking they're staring at my skin and my confidence was already low after the divorce. So I sat on a journey to work out how to get to the root cause and how to heal my skin and that's exactly what he did.

And I eat through diet and lifestyle and mindset. That's my 3 pillars through a combination of those things, I healed my own skin in less than 12 weeks.

Which I could not believe after struggling for 20 years.

So after that point I have been helping others informally heal their skin because I.

I know what it's like and it it's not just superficial. People haven't struggled with that. They don't realise the impact it has on confidence, not wanting to go out, not wanting to show up.

So because I'm so passionate about that, I literally want to run up to people and say, you know, you don't.

Need to.

Be struggling with this, so I launched your skin, sister.

About June, I think of last year formally, once I had resigned from my full time position.

And and that's where I brought in my health coaching certification because I was able to heal my skin holistically through those changes.

So complete life transformation with moving to the US, marrying an American, quitting my.

Very stable job and position. That's all I knew. Having my baby girl and then.

Going into entrepreneurship, which was just a huge change for me.

Wow, I'm. I'm sitting here thinking, yeah, I can see how your skin would be like breaking out and and your skin is your largest organ. People don't realize that it's. It's your warning signal that you know something's not right inside and.

Right.

Yeah.

You know it's it's.

Easy to think that I'll just lather this stuff on and miraculously things are going to change.

Right.

And having skin issues. I have skin issues. I have rosacea really bad. I have a really good person who helps me with makeup. It. It really can, can wreak havoc on your, on your confidence when your skin is messed up on your face and.

I've.

I've been sober for about seven months now, and it's it actually, is helping it a lot to clear up, so it's another one of those things where you just.

You know, looking at what you're eating and.

And making those little changes huge and it's it's pretty miraculous that you were able to to clear your skin up in just twelve weeks after struggling with it for so long. Because usually if you have a long run up to something, it's going to take quite a while to.

Right.

Get.

Get it to wind back down.

Absolutely. And I think there's a lot of factors come to play in the health of your gut. If you've been taking a lot of antibiotics, if you've been on birth control, your family history, all those sorts of things. Have you been through a pregnancy? I think there's a a ton of different things. If what you've been using on your skin.

That that disrupts and a lot of those acne products are just so harsh that they disrupt the natural skin barrier, even though you think they're doing good. So there's so many factors that.

Come to play as to how long, but the body is an amazing thing that.

You can't heal it so quickly.

But the gut health? That's one thing that was a huge benefit to me through corporate. I got to travel extensively in Asia.

In fact, one year I went a week, a month. So I was there over 2 weekends.

And I really got to see the eastern world's view of the gut health, guts, skin, ultimately skin connection. Like you said, it's reflection of what's going on inside.

And I remember going around having my translator and driver take me around herbal herbal type places and writing down in Chinese so I could go with the note.

But.

I and none of that worked cause I was just doing one thing in isolation cause acne is very it's complex. Like you said, it's not something you switch overnight. Even though we all pray for that.

It's complex, it can be unique to the individual because everyone's gut microbiome and everyone's history, like I explained, is very different.

Stress.

Stress is huge. Yeah. I was in a very demanding position. And you don't realize the stress that that puts on the body.

Sorry.

So you you were.

Able to find these different herbs and stuff in in your journey. Did you know that story? Because that's.

Yes.

But I was just always obsessed by trying to find something. And I obviously met a lot of people whenever I was in my travels in China, and I was always asking.

There's such an association there between our our gut health, which I think is becoming more prevalent here, particularly maybe for me as a health coach, I specialize in hormone and gut health.

It.

So I'm always reading up on it. I'm always. I'm through. I've done my certifications through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, so I'm always getting their latest information.

So I'm in the midst of it, but for all those years, like I said, for nearly 20 years, I had never made the connection.

I was.

Never thinking about my gut health and was creating my skin, so I was fascinated by that. Within him, I went to various places in India and China, so I brought a lot of what I learned there and what I heard from them back and have built that into my programs. Like I said, I don't think it's.

In my experience.

And for those I've been helping so far, I don't think it's one thing so people will come to me and say just tell me what not to eat or just tell me one supplement.

That I can go take.

And and some people are very fortunate where I've told them maybe a couple of things and they've done it and it's worked. But for others like me, I.

Had.

To take various steps with my dad, my lifestyle, and my mindset.

Because I don't know if you've ever read the book Psycho Cybernetics.

It's actually written by a cosmetic surgeon and it talks a lot about his patients that have come in with some disfigurements or something like that, and he works on them and he would never think they had had it. But yet, in their mind their self-image and their self-confidence and.

The way they see themselves doesn't change, even though he's correct. Whatever the issue was.

And I I found that personally, even today, coming on to this, years later, I have.

We had people staying and my diet was just all over the place and in fact, all weekend we ate candy and I woke up with a a spot which I haven't had in quite a while and all that comes flooding back to me.

We're going on vacation.

And we'll be going on the beach. I don't want to wear makeup and and all it, even though I've done a lot of work in myself. So that's why I bring a lot.

Of.

The mindset, work and the power of the mind.

Into my programs as well as to alongside the diet and and lifestyle changes because it's so crucial the way we think of ourselves. Because then that's ultimately how others see ourselves.

Do you work with women with makeup too? Because Makeup's a huge thing I it if you are wearing cheap makeup, you're it's a recipe for disaster. It just like clocks record.

There's there's, there's a lot about wearing makeup that people don't think about, but if you have a lot of acne and you're you're probably or skin issues, you're probably wearing a lot of makeup because you you want to cover it all up.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Right. Yeah. That that's part of what I teach. It's step by step to here's what to eat. Here's not what not to eat. And here's how we can get your diet where varied and wide and eat what you enjoy without being paranoid. Finding out what your triggers are, because it might only be one thing. So you're not eating.

No dairy, no soy, no gluten, no sugar, no nothing, no life.

Thing and then, uh, then a strand of it is the skin care which is obviously vital and part of it. I just don't want people to think it's number one, I think.

Diet and lifestyle changes are up there and then as we filter down.

The skin care what we use on our face absolutely complements that.

And I.

Have a series of DIY skin care that works really well for acne prone skin in fact.

Perfect for anti aging and whatever as well, but really good for.

Acne prone skin so I have step by steps. With that I show people how to if it's their favorite makeup and they love it. How to assess the ingredients to see is it.

Clogging their pores.

Is it non common genic which means it won't block their pores, right? Teach them how to find out those thing.

And then as well as other recommendations, I don't work. I'm not associated with any brands or anything like that, but I will share the EWG's a great resource that shares the natural products.

And.

They do a lot of testing, so I'll I'll share. Think links like that to recommended products and then of course I have tried and tested so many of the years.

I never recommend any that I haven't tried, and if some if I've tried something that claims to be totally natural breaks me out, I'm going, I'm going to.

Fail.

That on.

For sure I am.

I feel less less that I have vetted and has worked well for me and I've seen work for others and my clients. I've been working with.

That's that's got to be so hugely helpful to people. And how do people work with you if they?

There I2 key ways. I was just inundated at the start so I just didn't have the bandwidth for the the number of one to ones.

So from that I branched out and I have two key programs which are online programs, self-paced. The first one is really my community. I call it my skin sister society. My business is your skin.

And it's really built off how I felt on my journey. I felt very lonely, very. I stayed. I was so embarrassed. I talked to my mother once about it years ago, and she told me, don't be silly. At some spot, you know, it's teenage thing.

And I was so embarrassed. And apart from some doctors, I wouldn't say I never talked to anybody about it again. So it felt very lonely, very embarrassing.

So I've built my skin sister society, which is essentially a.

A monthly program where you can go into my portal and I'll do a monthly video with my top tips, whether that's diet, lifestyle, mindset. I'll give recipes I'll give. Here's a food swap. If you love these chips, eat these ones and not these ones.

These are much more skin friendly, so I'll work through things like that. I give bonuses, I do meditations, but the overall is to a community that you know you're not on your own. I'll be there.

And you can access all the previous months. There's a lot of information goes in there from.

Use this makeup, not this makeup. Eat this, don't eat this. Here's recipes, all those.

Sorts of things.

And then my core program is my clear skin blueprint.

Which is a UM, essentially a group program where you can go online self-paced. It's all there's guidebooks, there's recipe packs, there's trackers, there's videos, step by step for every section. It's really three pillars. It's diet, lifestyle and the mindset. The three that I believe once I brought those together.

After struggling for 20 years, I was able to clear my skin in.

Less.

Than 12 weeks, which I just I couldn't believe.

So I built all of that into a step by step program where I've I felt that I had to go through so much literature, so many books, white papers. So I've stripped it right back to give the.

Here's what you need to.

Do here's high level. Why?

And then I have monthly Q&A where everyone can dial in to zoom, call camera on camera off doesn't matter and you could come and ask me your questions.

And then in between those live calls I have messaging.

Where in that core program people can message me with their questions to get support.

I obviously do one to ones, but they're limited and that's why I created that group program again for since the Community and I got feedback that.

I just heard that person ask that question I.

Hadn't thought of that.

And I was really motivated. I just joined that, that person just cleared their skin. So it was great to see or.

They came up, they were talking about a recipe that I hadn't even thought of, or they talked about what they were eating at a restaurant.

That made me think, well, I can go out and eat and enjoy things. So it's I think just that sense of community that they know they're not on their own, that they're going to do this. I'm going to help them every step of the way because I know what it's like.

Because you can become paranoid, you can become. Oh, I'm scared to try this. Or and it's expensive. You're trying. You're reading online. People are having success with the product. You're buying it.

You don't know how long to leave it before.

You figure out it's not working for you. Is it making your skin worse? Is that purging or is it just not working for you? So there's all those questions that people just need that support as they come through it.

It's always great to have other people that are walking on the same path you're walking on it and you know that asking questions, though, well, that's a great question. I hadn't even thought about.

That you don't get that in one-on-one coaching but and you make friends for a lifetime, can't tell you how many friends I've made just from joining communities or getting and coaching group coaching programs and they're.

No.

Just like wow.

These people, they have, everybody has something so unique to bring to the pot.

That, like the more connections you can make the I think the faster the transformation happens too.

I absolutely agree.

I.

So I I set that up and I spent last summer really recording the videos and putting the workbooks together and all of the information on.

Everything you need to know in all areas.

And they don't like to be held to times.

Yeah, and, but that's another thing that really helps your skin when you're not stressed about. Oh my gosh, I paid for all of this. And I I can only access it during these times and.

You know, just you don't need that kind of stress in your life.

I get it. I worked in the corporate world a long time. I worked night and day. I traveled.

And I stressed at the hilt and did not realise it for a long time. I thought I was Superwoman. I think at times.

And nothing feels me and yeah.

I think we were trained to be super women.

It's like you can have it all. You can have a family. You could be the perfect wife. You could keep the greatest house and you could work 60 hours a week for half the pay. Yeah, no, I think people women have caught on to this shenanigans.

Yeah.

Good.

That's what it took me too long.

Well, I think it's taken a lot of people too long, but we're getting there. It's like it's like, hey, have to leave my house to, you know, have a good life and and really make a difference. I mean, I'm sure what you're doing right now is way more fulfilling than whatever you were doing for 20 years with that corporation, but.

You're enriching somebody else's dream or making their.

Absolutely.

Dream come true.

Well, that's it. And I had thought about it for quite a number of years, but I just never had the nerve to do it. And then when I was seeing my little girl who I wear it for a long.

Time to have.

An hour a day.

But.

This isn't now. It took a lot for me to resign. I mean, sometimes I look back.

And go. What the hell?

But I just have to keep the end in mind. Like you said, the amount of people that I'm helping and building that community that they.

Wouldn't have had.

Which I didn't have.

And only wish that I had had I I just felt I had to go and discover all myself.

I'm I'm happy for you that you had your daughter late in life. I I had children late in life also. And it was the best experience. And even though I'm older now, I I still have young kids. That's great.

Right.

Kind of keeps you in touch.

So yeah, I got.

It does, and even that journey brought back a lot of fear for me on my skin because I was going off birth control and I had two miscarriages and I did IVF and all those things and pumping hormone into my body and that just filled me with fear.

And.

That, like, is my skin gonna be a mess again after enjoying the luxury of not worrying about my skin because I consumed so many of my thoughts.

As my skin look today and you know where people staring at me and all those things so.

It was so good that I had.

Learned all of this before I went on that journey through particularly IVF, which was a very tough experience, but worth it.

Very tough. I have a daughter-in-law who who struggled with that and and she's still they did IVF and she still has struggles with her, her body because of all of these things that she had to go through in order to have her two children that are just amazing.

I'm super glad she went through it.

So.

That's it. It. Yeah. And looking back, I never want to do that again. I I had. I didn't have the opportunity even if I wanted to. But so I was one and done.

But I just.

Wouldn't want to go through all of that again. It is a pretty harsh on the body now. I had the benefit and luxury that I know a lot. I'm.

A health coach.

So I know a lot about the gut. I know a lot about hormones, all that connection.

I've been studying that for a while.

So I was able to be able to coach myself through that.

But when you've got morning sickness more and it's not morning, it's.

Every minute of every day for the first so many weeks I was not wanting to eat lettuce and kale and spinach and.

All those things.

Right. Just salt and vinegar. Potato chips sounds so good.

Yeah.

So I know you offer a free guide. You want to talk about that a little bit.

Yeah. So I have put together a free three day pick start guide essentially. So again, it's just based on what would I have needed at that.

Time.

So it steps through why diet is so important, and there's really three key reasons why and I get that very high level. Here's why. What you eat is so important. Here's what it triggers in your box.

And then I get into the detail. Then of. Here's Key Foods to eat and I give. I think there's nine or ten recipes in there that you can use over. I think it's nine recipes, three per day for the three days. It's a three day kickstart guide just to give people a feel.

For.

What? A skin friendly or acne friendly diet would look like?

And there's lots of other tips in there, so it's pretty comprehensive kickstart guide where people can get a feel for what it looks like, how it's different to what they do today.

And there's also some information in there on me in my journey and how I was able to clear my skin just to try and motivate.

Some people, because I know as I was going through it, I thought.

Why me? And it's never going to happen. I'm never going to clear this. And I felt that I was on this. I now call it the.

Acne fishes circle of struggle.

Where you're just sad and you just got this real sadness when you look in the mirror. Why me? And and then you move to.

Anger. Sometimes you see these people beautiful skin. You're like, why? Why is that not me? And then you move into hope because.

You you read online that someone has.

Bought a product and it's really worked and you go buy it and.

Then you're really hopeful it's going to work for you and then you move into the impatience as how long do I need to leave this forum member asking my that that so many times and people say, well, you know, it's 8:00 to.

12.

Weeks. You need to give it a go to see if it's going to work, and then I have very sensitive skin as well as.

Acne.

Prone, so I didn't know if my skin was getting worse, which it was most of the time when I changed products because it was.

Breaking out because of the product? Or was it purging?

Infamous word you always hear that it's just getting all the bad stuff out and then it'll hail. So I always think of it as that circle of sadness, madness.

Hope and impatience and then you just keep going round and round, which I thought I.

Did for 20 years.

And then as I I keep talking to people.

I hear the same thing, and in fact, when I was pregnant, I got chatting to another lady in the waiting room.

At the doctor's surgery and this was her second child for her first child, she was bedridden for the third trimester and she was delighted because her skin.

Was so bad.

I thought pregnancy and life is tough enough without you being actually really glad that you're being told to go to bed for.

Your third trimester.

Because you didn't want anyone to see you.

And when I heard that, I thought, you know what I've done the right thing. I have launched this business, I've done the right thing.

Yeah, that's so sad.

You're helping so many women that probably men and women, but I think women because we're.

We're supposed to meet some idealistic standard that no one meets.

Because I'll tell you, my husband has a beard and he comes in while I'm getting dressed in the morning and he like very carefully, brushes his beard. I'm done.

Yeah, I'll be another 20 minutes, dear.

And we just have this image that we're supposed to be like.

I don't know.

Yeah, wake up beautiful and roll out of bed and.

Yeah, never happens. I promise you. No matter how many TV shows you watch, were there and makeup is always perfect when they wake up in the morning. That's not real life.

Exactly, exactly. Though I would say now it's nine day difference for me from when I did have acne, where I was waking up as dread, and I don't even want to go look in the mirror. I was always.

Making sure the lights were down. I never wanted the big lights to be on me and.

I wouldn't have gone out without makeup, whereas I take my daughter to daycare now and I don't wear any and don't care, but that took me. It took me a while.

That's awesome. I I'm really. I'm actually really proud of that. You can do that and just that your skin is so good that.

You can step into it and embrace it.

Right.

So how do people get in touch with you if they want to go on this journey with you?

They could go to my website.

Yourskinsister.com and that's where they could go and grab my free guide. There's also I do a weekly blog on a Friday.

So there's loads of tips in there. Uh, every Friday, they'll be able to go in. It's like the top three top supplements to take or the latest one is.

Let's talk ****. And why your poop is going to tell you a lot about what's going on with your your skin and how to turn that around. So I talk about all those taboo types topics. So if you go in there, you can go to services and get my free guy. Just send your e-mail and you'll get that in your inbox. You can go get the blog every Friday.

OK.

Or you can see the two key programs that I mentioned with the Skin Sister society, which is a uh $54 per month program where you got all that information with me live every month or the clear skin blueprint, which is the my real signature online program, the group program where you get monthly.

Coaching and Q&A, as well as the.

Uh, ongoing messenger, which is is really Monday to Friday. I do that messenger service.

Or any questions that people will have or I'm at your skin, sister on Instagram or Facebook. So I go on there and give my top tips and do Q&A on.

On there as well.

That's wonderful. That's wonderful. So what's the one thing that you hope the audience takes away from our conversation today?

Well, acne wise, I think they don't need to struggle with it. I only wish I had known what I know now. 20 years ago. I wish one of the doctors had said to me.

Let's talk about your gut. Let's talk about what's going on inside your body that's making this react. No one said that to me.

No one.

I think actually one of my friend's mom said it to me once about chocolate and I thought it was.

Like an old wives tale type thing.

So I would say do not give up hope. I talk to Vic. That vicious circle of struggle.

We can get that roller coaster can get stopped. I've. I've seen it time and time again with people I'm working with and I saw personally.

And I think at an overall level, the key thing for me through my journey is not just the acne, but.

Be yourself and I heard so many of my bosses as I progressed up the career ladder, used to always said to me as I was moving on. Just be yourself.

And I wonder why they all send that to me. And they're like just.

Just like you shine through and that's why you're progressing so well.

Because you're you're unique at what you do, and I think everyone's the same way. I think we tried away. I tried to be miss professional and and I was a negotiator. And I was, you know, no one.

'S.

Going to walk over me and I tried. I've brought all that masculine energy.

And brought that persona for a lot of years. And through this journey to entrepreneurship, I have and being a mother, I've been able to.

Step back and do what many of my mentors through those 22 years told me. Just be yourself.

Yeah, that's perfect.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Thank you for having me. It's wonderful to meet you.