Integrative Leadership and Entrepreneurship with Lindsay LaShell of Buffalo Collective

Kim Allchurch Flick: Welcome everyone . I’m Kim Allchurch Flick. I am really pleased to be here with Lindsay Lashelle, who is. An amazing human being that I met at We The Change. And Lindsay is the founder and lead navigator for Buffalo Collective, a community of integration that gives lone leaders and solopreneurs the support structure and connection that they need to thrive.

She’s an experienced digital strategist and purpose-driven founder with a deep belief in the power of entrepreneurship as a path to wealth, justice, and self-actualization. Lindsay, welcome. 

Lindsay LaShell: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. The second we got introduced, I feel like we just clicked right away because we have such, so many of the same goals and so many of the same values.

So I’m really, I’m very happy to be here. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: I’m too, I feel really blessed. Blessed that we got to meet in person in April at the We, the Change conference in Denver. And then in October you came to Portland for the BUILD Conference and it was exciting to see you there as well. So could you tell us all, what has your journey been to we, the change and now this new endeavor, the Buffalo Collective?

Lindsay LaShell: Wow. Okay. Where do I start? I was a reluctant entrepreneur. I. Had, it’s so funny looking back like many times, actually started businesses a little bit out of necessity. I was tutoring when I was in grad school. I had like a farmer’s market business. For some time selling cotton reusable.

It was like right when Swiffers were like brand new and very popular. And so I like, I sold washable, cotton that we had knitted, we had a knitting machine and we like knitted us. So anyway, so like I was dabbling in entrepreneurship all the way. As for as long as I can remember.

And then when I started my agency, of course I didn’t. Know what I didn’t know. But I knew right away that part of what I wanted from that business was to use it as a vehicle for good. So I wanted to be able to pick my clients so that I knew that when their marketing was successful, it was putting more of what I want to see out into the world.

It was always a very ethical, inclusive, thoughtful, progressive place to work. Like all those values were really important to me and so. I started to l learn about triple bottom line businesses and all these different, I was in California at the time, so it was all the different formats of what it looks like to be business for good.

And of course, I had been familiar with B Corp community and getting B Corp certified the first time was just for us, it was just. Proving that we were, who we said we were, right? I didn’t have to change any policies. I didn’t have to update anything. It was just like some stuff we had to write down because it wasn’t formalized, but it was just this, it was very easy for us.

’cause we were already, and also because we were a service business. So it was pretty straightforward from a, accountability context. Yes. Yes. But that immediately got me introduced through somebody who’s still a very, very dear friend, Maya Holiday who’s also the B Corp and a we, the change member.

And she brought me to the we the change session at the first champions retreat that I attended in LA after we got certified. And that was it. And I was like, oh, these are my people. Okay, cool. And so I just immediately started to like, attend every meeting. And as the organization evolved, then it became pretty clear that I was like, I wanted to be a volunteer.

So I started to volunteer and then I got asked to be in the leadership circle and it’s right. It’s been a wonderful community to me for, I don’t see a lot of. Lines between friends and clients anymore. It’s one of the real, like amazing benefits of being what I call an integrated leader, right?

We need to be your whole self at work. Then friends and clients can be the same. There’s no, no downside to that. So, yeah, those are people. It feels really good. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: That is fantastic. Yeah. And this new venture, the Buffalo Collective, what’s, 

Lindsay LaShell: yeah, it’s wild. It’s still very, very new. I’ll tell you about the name first, because you were there when it started.

While we were in. Colorado for that retreat. The woman who came to do our land acknowledgement told us a story about Buffalo women in her culture and how Buffalo women were the women that were, they did what Buffalo did, which is that they were the bold ones that ran into the storm.

That’s, they were like strong enough and confident enough that that was the characteristic of these women who were just bold leaders, bold problem solvers in her community. And that stayed with me. And I even have this little stuffed buffalo that came that was a gift from somebody else who was at the thing that weekend.

’cause we really bonded over that story. And so when I was looking for inspiration for the brand, for this new business. That’s what came, that’s what sort of presented itself because, so I did a bunch of Googling and learned about it and buffalo are really unique. Like American bison are these creatures.

When they see a storm on the horizon, they will get into a group and they will run headlong into the storm together and it’s, it is a defense mechanism. It’s a safety. It’s a safety. Basically it, they know that the fastest way through that storm is straight through it. You can’t go around it, you cannot run it.

Cows will run away. Buffalo right into it. And they know the safest way to get through it is together, because then you won’t get separated. You won’t get lost. You use it’s the herd mentality is literally the thing that protects them. And that became the image, like I’m reclaiming herd mentality.

This business is built on the idea that humans need connection. We need reflection, and we need accountability. Those are the things that help us to be our best selves. We can do a lot of work with a coach or a therapist. We can do a lot of work on our own and self-help, books and podcasts, whatever, but there are some deeper level things that need deeper support.

And I like experienced that for myself. And so I’m just building the business that I want to exist. So that’s it. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: That is so fantastic. And what are some of those things? Because it sounds, it feels very new and different and yet there’s like a deep residence that probably through history has been something that’s been lacking.

So how do you describe how you envision it? 

Lindsay LaShell: So

I think I call it the communities of integration because what I envision is that it is a small group of individuals. The communities are like the herds, right? Our eight people max, and it’s a like sort of. Bring your own framework. Bring your own identity. So folks who sign up for a herd. They tell us who they are.

Okay? And that is, if you like, bring me your Astro chart, if that’s how you understand yourself, bring that, bring your Enneagram, bring your Myers-Briggs, like whatever it is that helps you get a clearer picture of who you are. Bring that, and then bring your goals. Where do you wanna be? Who do you wanna be?

What do you wanna learn? Where do you wanna go? Whatever. And then through, there’s like digital systems of accountability, right? So we’re in like, there’s a Slack community where we, if you want daily accountability for like, here, I’m doing this today. I’ll tell you guys when it’s. Done. Like that, so we can get out of our own heads and just get it done.

So there’s like those kinds of cheerleading, right? I need help. Does anybody have an accountant? Like whatever. So the Slack community’s always on for that. And then on a weekly basis, we’re having things like virtual coworking spaces. It’s such a bizarre thing how our brains. We can talk ourselves out of doing things like, oh, I’m too busy, or I don’t feel like it, or, oh, it’s not whatever.

But if I just show up and turn on my camera and tell people like, for the next 90 minutes I’m working on this, I’m gonna do it. It’s like a, it’s so bizarre that that’s how our brains work, but we really do. And there’s, I like know a whole bunch of coaches who do offer virtual coworking sessions.

And again, this came out of like conversations I’m having with my peers who are also, B Corp leaders. And it was just like, I just wanna not do this alone all the time. And so then that makes so much sense. The right and so then there’s the real work gets done in the meetings, right?

So once a month, four hour block of time, chunk of time where with only eight people, that’s a lot of space for everyone to take. And the idea is again, that it’s just like you bring your identity and you bring your goals, and you bring your questions and you have the wisdom of the other individuals in the group.

You have their guidance, you have their support, and you have their accountability. So that like at some point, I mean it’s funny, like my vision for this is I really think there’s potential for new models of business finance and business investing because when you can imagine. That group working together.

Every entrepreneur thinks that they don’t, that they need marketing or money. That’s what every single entrepreneur will tell you, but that’s not the case. Most of us need some perspective and some accountability. Interesting. Because we’re not doing what we could. What we can’t. This is where the whole business was born from, was for me because as a marketing consultant.

We had a, I had always had a saying back, even when I had an agency, you can lead a client to water. And that was just always true. And the more that I worked with women leaders and with underestimated entrepreneurs, the more that it became clear. It was like not, knowledge is not the thing that’s holding us back.

A lack of knowledge is not the thing that’s holding us back. We have all these subconscious blocks. I’ll speak for myself, right? I was so programmed to believe that asking for attention, that speaking up and speaking out, that being ambitious. It was unlikable. It was unattractive. It was undesirable.

Don’t ever do it. And I was in my thirties when I started, or in my forties when I took the Gallup strengths finder. And it was like, significance is my number two strength. Yeah, I want your attention. I’m here. And then obviously, I mean, maybe it’s not obvious, but I’m a Leo and I spent my whole life trying to pretend like I didn’t want.

To be in front of the room when I do. And so I think there’s all, I’m not the only person who’s in this world of trying to perform what culture and what our families have taught us to be against who we really feel like we are. And then you add my, like neurodivergence, all these other things into it, like it just gets real crazy, real fast.

And it’s. You need humans. You need other people that you can trust to reflect the truth back to you. That’s what I need is like somebody who could say, yes, you’re being crazy, or No, you’re not being crazy. Or here’s how I dealt with it and here’s what my outcome was. Right? Our brains haven’t evolved in like.

10,000 years. A hundred thousand years. Something wild. When you think about the amount of time that we spend isolated, especially women leaders compared to what our bodies and brains and like emotional regulation systems are built for. We’re doing it wrong. We just need other people. And I think I just, I see.

I see that need in my friends. I just, I’m gonna write a newsletter about this. There’s a New York Times article about these women who started group it, like they just call it group. And it was like a half a dozen moms in like the seventies or maybe eighties. Started to meet twice a month with a therapist as like group therapy for moms.

It was all about trying to be like good moms and good people and good spouses and whatever. Twice a month for 44 years, these women have been meeting together. Can you imagine what they have been able to give to each other in terms of support and encouragement and knowledge and validation and like that just sounds beautiful.

I don’t believe in organized religion. I think church structures can do this for some people. Honestly, I think 12 step programs do this for a lot of people, but I kind of want to build like a small group for the rest of us,

and there’s such beauty there. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: You and I are both entrepreneurs. We know a lot of entrepreneurs and there’s always the work. Yeah. And the work sometimes never gets completely done. Yeah. It’s a striving and also stress and joy. Yeah. And what you said about connecting and communicating, I think there’s really something magical there to be able to share.

Otherwise, we’re very insular. And I know I work from home, so there’s really nobody to have chats with. And sometimes I borrow in so much I feel like I don’t have time for it anyway. And until it happens and

Lindsay LaShell: We lose sight of how important it is. We’re not, it’s not available to us, it’s not handed to us.

If it were built into a structure. A lot of us really benefit, I mean whatever you’ve got your like book club or like all these other things, right? But I think especially women, you tell me if this is different for you, but like I think women entrepreneurs, part of why we do this is because we are very capable and part of why we do this is because we feel like we have to prove that we’re very capable. And both of those things together serve to further isolate us. Like there’s just , we don’t do things for ourselves. We hire coaches for our business or consultants for our business, but it’s just wild to me that this is such a deep seated human need and there are so few people walking around talking about why they don’t have it.

Or trying to solve the problem of having it, like they solve the problem with a couple glasses of wine or they saw it, right? Or like some other mechanism that isn’t really, really, really what we need. And yeah. I just, I think it’s wild. How we have been conditioned, this is not what humans are supposed to be 

And in isolation and showing up with

with the work. Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: So how, and have you experienced good opportunities for you to engage, with the way you wanna build the Buffalo Collective. Have there been sparks of inspiration? 

Lindsay LaShell: Oh, so many. This is the, it’s taken me a long time to really narrow in on it. I’ve thought I’ve been like zigging and zagging and exploring.

For, I don’t know, I would say two or three years ago was the first sort of seed of this idea. And the seed was was actually around, this is, it’s gonna sound far field. It’s not I promise, but like it was actually around the potential for supporting. Home use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.

I was like, why isn’t there a DIY guide for a couple that wants to, that has some hard conversations they need to have and if they do that supported with MDMA, then it becomes these are. Clinically, all these things are being tested, but they’re all pretty much clear, right? Like I’ve, and so I was like, why doesn’t that exist?

And then it led down this rabbit hole for me, where in my own experience and in that of my peers, I just get really fired up about professionalism and how what, like, how messed up it is. That’s not usually the word I use, but it’s ruins us. And so that, so I, that really just I following the thread and trying to figure out like where, what do we need?

Where’s the healing? Where’s the opportunity? Where do I think I can build a business that serves the future of who we are? That’s part of it for me also is just that this is a need today. It’s been a need for many, many, many, many, many, many, many hundreds of years in, in our cultures, every maybe not hundreds since the invention of the atomic family, right?

This has absolutely just been like brewing since then, and I. I don’t know. It just led me to this place of, I think the most precious thing that we can be working towards is integration. Just this idea of who we are is who we are, and we can fully accept who we are, and we can’t expect the people around us to fully expect who we are or to fully accept who we are.

And then there’s no. Professionalism. There’s no pretending to be a certain way when you’re not. There’s no, the downside of professionalism, if you’re a like solopreneur or a leader of a small business is. You have all this baggage, all this subconscious, like every human does.

There’s no judgment. We all do. You bring that crap to work except for you pretend like you don’t because you’re acting like prof, like a professional. And so the same person who is not balancing their checkbook is then showing up and managing their business finances and thinking that those are two different.

Pathways for them, where it’s really not an integrated leader is like, no, this is, I have money baggage and this is how it shows up in my business. And that is how we get the freedom to work through it and move past it. So that’s why I focused on that. The entrepreneurship is a, it’s the playground, but it’s not.

The requirement, right? This is like being an integrated human is available to all of us, and I want it for everybody. But because I’m building a business, it starts with entrepreneurs. That’s where my community is. That’s where my audience is. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And that makes sense. And I think you’ve touched on so many things that are important and what’s been going through my mind thinking about it is like corporate life and burnout, and what does burnout mean?

And often it’s, I was talking with someone else about having to go to work and in a way put on a mask and be professional. . And bury the other things on the, on someone’s mind. And when you do that long enough and the stress buildup is, becomes very physical. Very neurological.

I’ve also been burnt out to the. Point where I went on a vacation and sat on a balcony of a hotel for two and a half days to the point where the hotel actually called me and said, are you okay? Because all I did was order room service, didn’t even read a book or anything. It was just like time to, to let the brain decouple a little bit.

Yeah. And I’m a reader. I’m activist. I usually get out and start exploring right away. But that particular one, and I’ve heard this from other people as well, and. Particularly with women and women of color who are also masking even more. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah.

Kim Allchurch Flick: To get to a place. And I read a book about a woman who made it to CEO and when she got there, she thought she could create a gateway for other people it was more free and open, but like the board and others expectations of assimilation.

Made it even more difficult to the point of physical illness for her, and I do see. I think CEO groups that get together so people of the same level can sit and chat and in Portland through Be local. There’s a grassroots group that I’m a new member of. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. Those CEO circles absolutely informed.

I talked to a lot of people about those that definitely informed some of what I’ve planned here. Yeah. Sorry. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: It’s, it is starting. It is. And. And also being, taking longer time, maybe not as frequent, but longer time. So that people aren’t just going around and expressing what might be their need of the day.

But it’s shallow. Across everybody. And the groups are learning to say, let’s focus on one person’s issue today, but it’s confidential and everybody listens deep. And gives that person a chance because sometimes we don’t even know unless there’s a question or even a comment. Like, oh, tell us more in a safe space.

And that’s what I see you bringing to it and I. And I’m just wondering if you could tell us more in the design or how you envision this happening for people where it’s unpeeling layers and they wanna come back And reveal more. Learn more. Heal more. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: How would that look? 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah, I think so. It, along the way, like I said, I’ve been digging and zagging and exploring a lot, and somewhere along the way I started to collect these sort of rules of engagement, if you will, right? I have they’re on my bulletin board here, like the like indigenous like very, very traditional laws of nature, right?

And it’s like cause and effect and relativity and like these ideas that are like, you can observe them everywhere. And if you. Employ them, embody them, they can, help how you think about things. And then I got the economic regeneration, whatever, eight laws of economics.

So I’m like putting all these like guides together. And I wrote one and it was like the. Ways that I strive to be part of them are ways that are very easy for me to be, and part of them are ways that are very hard for me to be, but there are things that I have observed are maybe unique or remarkable.

The thing that your therapist says too is like, whoa, that’s unusual. Right? Cool. Like, hold onto that and I wrote these down, wasn’t really sure why or what role they were gonna play, and then I realized that there actually are community guidelines. So I’ll grab a couple of ’em for you so you know what I’m talking about, like the very first one, kindness, directness, and authenticity, right?

Because anything that you accomplish by pretending, hiding, or forcing will not satisfy. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: That makes 

Lindsay LaShell: sense. Number two, and this is very consistent with what you already know about me. Give generously, ask boldly, receive graciously. Because if you want full participation in regenerative abundance, you have to give and take both in equal measure.

And that’s we have to name that because so many of us are conditioned to give more than we take no matter what. And so that, it goes on, there’s a whole bunch more of ’em. But it occurs to me that these are the touchstones of we’re not always going to accomplish this.

We’re not always gonna be able to do this, but these are the guidelines that we can strive for and that we can hold ourselves to. That we can say, okay, this is the, these are the way that I wanna show up in the world. So with those in hand. Every person having the encouragement and support and internal motivation to go where they wanna go.

I think that’s all we need. I really do. I’m like so deeply, I believe that the people who see these community guidelines and resonate with them and they’re like, I wanna be challenged in that way. Those are the people who are gonna sign up. And the thing about being a buffalo is you have to be ready to do the hard thing.

You have you gotta sometimes it’s gonna be listening to the hard thing. Sometimes it’s gonna be saying the hard thing. We’re all on the same page with that together. But it’s not for everybody. And it is not for some people right now, it’s not for like it’s okay because it’s not a support group.

It’s not, and it’s not a coach, it’s not a class. We are here for people who know that they have work to do, and they know that they will be able to do it stronger, better, smarter, faster, more pleasantly if they have a team rooting for them while they do. That’s really, that’s the crux of it, is.

Isolation is our enemy, the echo chamber of our brains that don’t have perspective and can’t give yourself grace and can’t give yourself the validation that you need. All of that stuff. Isolation is the enemy. And so that’s why hurts. That’s why our small groups 

Kim Allchurch Flick: well and there it is.

And yet I think many of us don’t always acknowledge what you just said that. Sometimes we sit back and say, okay, during a storm, I just have to weather through it by myself. Or like some people do run 

And I love the metaphor of the group head down, forcing through. And that breaks open something good because the rainbows on the other end.

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah.

Kim Allchurch Flick: And then how do you envision it with a group that’s working like that and they. Breakthrough the other edge of the storm together. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: There could be other storms coming, but what else? Of course. Yeah. Wonderful things can be on the rainbow side of it. 

Lindsay LaShell: It is my hope that people will come and go in the seasons.

When they need this, right? The other offering, right? We have these heard small groups. We’re also gonna offer psychedelic retreat, like weekend retreats. And the idea is that if you’re like participating in one of those, then you join a herd with other folks who are at that retreat, and then that is what supports you through the like post psychedelic integration process, right?

So like that is hopefully gonna be the mechanism that starts to get, ’cause we can offer that integration for psychedelic retreat facilitators all over. That’s the thing is that right now in the very best. Most well-respected programs for certification and training for psychedelic for psychedelic facilitation.

They want you to provide resources for your clients to get integration, which is for most folks, that’s one conversation and like a bunch of links or a bibliography or something. It’s not, there’s very few facilitators that are building communities of practice around actual ongoing integration and like investing time and space in it.

And so that’s the future that I see for this is that like we are gonna. I don’t, there’s all kinds of things from a business perspective, there’s all kinds of things. I don’t know. Like I, what is our lifetime customer val value? I have no idea. Because how long are people gonna be in groups?

I don’t know. I love the idea that like this group that’s forming now for January, maybe we are around in 30 years, like maybe it has that value and we have that stability and that’s how that goes. But the. The vision, like what I’m imagining is folks, some facilitators will bring their clients and use our structure, right?

They can use all of our technology and frameworks and tools. Some folks are gonna come to our. Retreats and then they’ll work with our facilitator. And it’s really similar to the CEO circles that what I was, what I’m planning is folks who come on with a facilitator, with a facilitating group.

The facilitator will be with them for six months. So it’s a long enough to establish relationships, communication standards, culture, expectations. And then the group can carry itself from there. Partly because I want the price point to be really accessible and obviously if there’s a staff facilitator, it changes the price point quite a lot.

Sure. But also because I’m not. I’m not offering wisdom. That’s not what this business does. The point of Buffalo Connected Collective is just to provide connection. It’s just get, I, everybody knows where they need to go. That’s not my job. I just wanna give people the retainer that they need to get the support in order to go where they want to go.

Kim Allchurch Flick: What a gift. I think that just sounds so fantastic. Thank you. 

And i’m sure people will be curious about the psychedelic component. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah.

I’ll pitch it because it’s actually I very strategically have scheduled the very first one, so it’s gonna be just right outside Milwaukee, the weekend before the champions retreat.

So if anybody is planning to travel to Milwaukee for the B Corp Champions retreat in April of 2026, the weekend before, they can come in the weekend before and do this retreat with us, and then go to the Champions retreat. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: That is a fascinating idea. 

Lindsay LaShell: Thank you. I’m really excited. I love the B Corp community.

I, I, and I’m very lucky to be connected to lots of folks in the B Corp community and beyond, who are really. Really, really, really wonderful, experienced, empathetic practitioners of this kinds of facilitation. And, for me it’s just, it’s that it’s like jumping the next level, right?

For women entrepreneurs, for every human, but for like women entrepreneurs, it feels especially cute, the power of our subconscious and our conditioning. We don’t even realize the things that we tell ourselves and the way that we hold ourselves back. You just, you don’t even know because you’ve been told one thing, right?

And you push forward in that paradigm because that’s the guidance that you have and. I think what psychedelics can do in terms of allowing for self-acceptance and self-actualization. ’cause you can actually see a different vision of how you fit into the world and your role in it. Yeah, I think the power and potential for that is really endless.

And I, I think, from a business perspective, our mental health care system is not sufficient. It’s not going to be sufficient. It can’t catch up fast enough to the need. And psychedelics offer a real solution to that, but they. Can’t do it with the work on their own. Their medicine.

They still need people to participate in their own healing. And that’s, what I hope Buffalo Collective can provide. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Indeed. And there is, more information like Michael Pollan’s book of a couple years ago. Yeah. More books are coming out it seems oh yeah. A lot of it is about trauma.

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And you’re talking about a different look at it. And some of it can be. Trauma of within a business that may not be breaking through or doing what people anticipate or just the stress of holding onto everything with no support system. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And to offer something that is about making a living as well.

Yeah. And how to really consider opening that up. I. I would love to have you back for a podcast in after the Champions retreat. And yeah, if there’s some feedback on what that’s like, because it’s really Yeah, opening up new ways to look at business and life and leadership integral and leadership and yeah.

And it’s a choice as well. And what do you say to people who are hesitant about psychedelics? Haven’t tried or don’t know? What to expect or how it helps. 

Lindsay LaShell: So I am the only one. The only medicine that I am really a passionate, outspoken advocate for is psilocybin, and part of that is. Because it’s like deep cultural history in North America where I’m from, right?

So like for part of it is because that is from here as I am from here. Part of it is because it is so safe. You literally cannot overdose on mushrooms. You cannot hurt yourself. The worst thing that happens is you have a bad trip. You may become deter, have to face some things that you don’t wanna face.

It’s not. Always pleasant, but it’s never dangerous. And for those two reasons, this stuff is getting mainstreamed real fast, like there’s a, I don’t, there’s a community called Moms on Mushrooms. The woman who founded that community’s been on Good Morning America, and it’s all, it’s a microdosing community for moms.

So they didn’t belong in. Like they’re not schedule one drugs, like they don’t belong in that category. They were, and we don’t need to like get into the politics of it. But like the whole thing has been politicized in a way that has caused our culture to be really confused and scared.

And. When you start to do just a little bit of research, you see that this is medicine that arguably created human consciousness, right? There’s like a real strong argument that it was psilocybin mushrooms that actually sparked the evolution that led to humans in the animals in the apes or whatever that consume them the first time.

And the benefits. For trauma healing, for self-acceptance, all that stuff. Yes. But even just as on a microdosing level, they provide benefits like reduced anxiety and stress, which means reduced blood pressure and hypertension. And so there’s like all of these ways in which I think they are a, an absolute necessary part.

For the next phase of our human health, of the, of our human existence right now, we need them as coping mechanisms as teachers. They do those things, but I think they’re, they are gonna help us even beyond that. And so if I don’t wanna push it on anybody if you’re scared, but I’ll say the if you have gotten to a point where.

Your SSRIs, your therapist, and this is in your business or in your, yourself, right? If you’ve hit the wall, you’re, you can’t you’re not making any more progress with your therapist. You’re not making any more, your SSRIs aren’t doing enough, whatever it is. If you’ve hit the space where you don’t know what else to try, there’s really no downside to trying these medicines because they’re completely safe.

Yeah. And you can get them legally all over the place, even though technically they’re illegal. So 

Kim Allchurch Flick: true. Oh, and I live in the other Pacific Northwest where there are clinics and, but they’re actually legal and therapists and Yeah. And that is in the news and it’s people are writing newsletters about their companies, so 

Lindsay LaShell: Oh yeah.

Kim Allchurch Flick: There’s definitely more to learn. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. The. But like business startup stuff that’s happening around it is huge, but it’s also just lots of really wonderful growth and education, right? And studies. So many clinical studies are showing the benefits. And I’m far from the expert to talk about this, like for PTSD for addiction, right? For substance for substance abuse. Like it’s really. Really quite compelling. So yeah, so that’s all I would say is just know that it’s safe and keep an open mind and make sure you’ve got, make sure you got some people. Don’t do it alone, that’s all. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Yeah. And what else is on the horizon for you?

The Buffalo Collective is just brand new. It

Lindsay LaShell: is, yeah. Our first two herds, so I’m launching the first two herds in January. Very, very, very excited. And then our first retreat will be in April. As I said, and that’s in Wisconsin so that we can, piggyback on the Champions retreat.

And then, the world we’ll see, like I, my intention is to build this really targeting entrepreneurs to start with since, those are my people and I really get them. The idea is that year two we’ll do probably. I think if we do three retreats next year, we’ll do maybe twice that many in the following year.

And then, as I said, like our goal by year three is that we have partnerships and relationships with psychedelic practitioners of all kinds who, who recognize our community as the recommended community of integration for the group, for their work. Yeah.

Kim Allchurch Flick: And on a personal level what are your values that are leading you to create this and how do you envision this affecting you as well?

Lindsay LaShell: Oh God. At this point, I’ll be honest. Like at this point I just want to, I wanna be financially stable like I’ve been, I’m like, I’ve been a marketing consultant for the last five years and that. Been rough for the last three. And so I. I love, like part of how I got here, right? My, I am a Scorpio moon, which means I have all the feelings and they’re complicated and they’re messy and they’re huge.

And that’s the Scorpio. I’m Sagittarius Rising, which means I’m really adventurous and I’m gonna try everything that’s. Offered to me, like I’m gonna go, explore everything. But I’m a Leo sun, which to me is like the, that I’m here to talk about it. I’m here to tell you about those things.

And so I’m really excited if this business gives me the opportunity to tell more of my healing stories, more of how I got to. Realize these things and learn these things and evolve from those things. If that is what I’m here to do, then I am just really excited for that opportunity to do it and I’m, and I love.

That this journey for me has been so much about knowing what I’m for and knowing what I’m not for, right? I’m not a facilitator. That is not my strength, and I can’t wait to bring on other skilled, passionate values, aligned, progressive people to do that, right? Because I just wanna tell everybody about these opportunities for healing and connection.

That’s really what I wanna do. I wanna make it for myself. I wanna make it for others. And then. I just wanna, I’m an activator, that’s another one of my Gallup strengths, right? Is getting, and you’re like, I recognize that. Like I know that about you. Yeah, exactly. And and that’s just so whatever, like the greatest gift you can give yourself if you’re an entrepreneur is to set yourself up to spend all of your time in your zone of genius, right?

Getting other people on board is my zone of genius.

Kim Allchurch Flick: And you’re good at it, and thank you. And that’s how hopefully others like me can help as well. I, my tagline for me and my company is Connector, collaborator. Catalyst. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yes. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: It’s like I love to connect people. I love to collaborate, but a catalyst is like an enzyme.

Lindsay LaShell: Yes. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And that’s like introducing two things and getting out of the way and stepping back to let that. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. And like Catalyst happen to create something new, right? I love it. That’s great. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And hopefully the word will spread and the people that go through the first two herds will also be the ones that are talking to other people who.

Create more herds. You and I both seem to be people of metaphor. My company was named off basically after a metaphor based in nature and the buffalo herds that it’s always gonna stick with me. That together we can make it through a storm. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah, 

Kim Allchurch Flick: and I think that’s particularly relevant now and I am seeing some real optimistic things happen.

There’s another person who. Wants to create a company based on finding ways to work with the activists, the people that are on the front lines. The very wonderful people who are speaking up.

But there is always a, price to pay for giving too much. Especially giving too much in stress. And this person wants to create a place for those people to step back, relax in their way. And it’s like sharpening the ax. It’s a metaphor, but also a story that I used to tell when I was a manager is that there’s.

Two people and they have an ax and they’re cutting trees and one of them just keeps cutting and cutting and the other one takes a break. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And in the end, the person who took the break cuts more trees. Why is that? Because during the break he sharpened his ax. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And so I think what you’re giving people is a chance to sharpen the ax.

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And like the other woman who’s not gonna be working with business people so much, but with nonprofit people, activists, legislators, judges, attorneys, people who are pushing forward a chance to step back and sharpen the ax. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And I see this. For you and the people that are in your herds as well.

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. Thank you. I hope so. I, this is, it’s it feels to me very much like a the right people are gonna raise their hand.

And because they are the right people, when they raise their hand, they are gonna get what they need from this. That’s, that there’s a very I’m just, it’s like if you put a pond in your backyard if some ducks need a place to chill, they’ll show up there, right? And so that’s, but there weren’t ducks sitting on your front porch waiting for your pond, so that, so exactly. Yeah, that’s how I’m thinking about it. It’s feels crazy ’cause I spent my whole career being like.

The internet is not a, if you build it, they will come situation. That’s not the way marketing works, but I think that is how this works. We’ll see. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Me too. So could you remind everyone of the website and how to reach you? 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah, so it’s BuffaloCollective.co definitely please go sign up and subscribe.

I’ve kept it once a week. Newsletter. I’m gonna keep doing that. That’s my work to do. So what makes that hard for me? ’cause it’s not, and I’m on LinkedIn, Lindsay Lashelle. That’s the easiest way you get to hear all of my ranting about my internal critic and all my criticisms of our current work environment and entrepreneurship expectations and all that kind of crap.

But yeah, like I said, I’m, I realized a long time ago that. I have, for whatever reason, I can say things that other people can’t say in a way that doesn’t cost. I don’t have the same social capital at stake that other people have. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: I see. Interesting. 

Lindsay LaShell: So the reasons why people don’t speak up when they see something, when they have a problem.

The reason why people don’t speak up when something’s been wrong for them, when the, whatever those are, it’s very little risk for me to say those things. And so I have to say them because somebody has to say them because that’s the only way we can learn and grow and people feel seen and right, all of the reasons why, right?

Those hard things need to be said. I get to say them. So that’s what happens on LinkedIn. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: That’s great. And that’s also breaking through, running through storms, getting, breaking things apart. It can be I love that. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

I just wanna make it easier if I go first than other people can.

That’s, I just wanna make it easier for others to do that too. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: And it makes a difference. And we’re seeing that in the world too. Those who speak and those who don’t. And knowing how to get ahold of you will be very important. So everyone I do hope you go to the website in LinkedIn and connect.

Before we break off, I have one more question. That I wanna ask every podcast guest. And that is if you could have dinner with one to three other people, so you have up to a table of four. 

Lindsay LaShell: Yeah. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Living or dead.

Who would you choose and why?

Lindsay LaShell: That’s a really good question. Three people. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Up to you. You could start with, you could have dinner for two, three or four. Just more than four.

Lindsay LaShell: I don’t want a one-on-one. I want like conversation.

I’ve gotten recently a lot of ideas about.

You know how like God always used to talk to people in the Old Testament, and then at some point he stopped talking to people. There’s a lot of historians now that are making good arguments that like that was psychedelics. The people that were talking to God were actually having psychedelic experiences.

You can get there without lSD like there’s lots of other ways to do that. Psilocybin, mushrooms being one of it, but there’s lots that like, don’t even require medicine, right? Breath work and stuff like that, that can get you into a non-ordinary state. It’s really bizarre, but like that, like I think of I wanna talk to like Rachel or Moses or one of these, like an Old Testament.

Maybe it’s Queen Esther. Like an Old Testament prophet to understand that experience for them or, I could say like Ram Doss, like somebody who’s a, he’s a, he was, he’s a spiritual teacher now. He was a psychedelic researcher right in the seventies alongside Timothy Leary and some other crazy people.

Yeah, I feel like those folks, maybe even like a, like an Einstein sort of character. ’cause he was like the . Humans that were not bounded, that were thinking in ways that were not bounded by the time and place where they were. And I. Those are the ones that I wanna talk to. And, I don’t want to just talk to them. I wanna sit and listen to them, talk to each other.

Yes. So it’s definitely three of ’em. And those are some rough ideas, but Yeah, that’s kinda, that’s how I think like a cross section of folks who are exploring boundaries a little bit. That’s what I would want. 

Kim Allchurch Flick: Indeed. Indeed. I so appreciate you. I thank you everyone listening.

Thank you. And we always wish you the best. We’re here to help.

Lindsay LaShell: Thank you so much, Kim.

Kim Allchurch Flick: Thank you.