Meet Leslie Jackson, Founder of Leslie Jackson Wellness
This week on The Muse List, we spotlight a conversation that goes far beyond wellness, it’s about reclaiming your power. In our interview with Leslie Jackson, Founder of Leslie Jackson Wellness, she opens up about the breaking point that shifted her from a high-pressure career in sales to a purpose-driven path in functional nutrition. Leslie’s story begins with a body in crisis and a system that wasn’t listening, yet it ultimately becomes a testament to self-trust, resilience, and the transformative impact of holistic healing. Her journey reminds us that sometimes the most pivotal awakenings come from finally saying, “enough.”
DCG: Your journey began with a breaking point. Where the body finally said “enough” leading you to your transformative path into functional nutrition. What was happening in that moment, and how did that experience first spark your vision to help others in the same way?
LJ: I was at the height of my (previous) career as a VP of Sales. I felt like my body couldn’t keep up with my career goals – anxiety, depression, debilitating exhaustion, bloating, weight gain, acne. I realized I was either going to have to address the way I was living and eating, quit, or get on medications. Years before, when I was in college, I was misdiagnosed with ADHD and on a medication for 4 yrs that severely dysregulated my nervous system and no doctor would listen to me when I said the medication was making me feel worse, that’s when I realized I couldn’t blindly trust doctors. And for that reason, when I hit rock-bottom again in my mid-20’s, I decided to lean into root-cause healing rather than manage and medicate.
DCG: Your work is centered on helping “ambitious women get to the root of chronic fatigue, hormonal chaos, weight that won’t budge, cystic acne, bloating, anxiety, and brain fog” while they’ve been told “labs are normal.” How do you approach creating trust and clarity in a space where clients often feel unheard or dismissed?
LJ: I listen. I believe my clients when they tell me what they’ve been through. As we work together to help them heal, it’s a collaboration, not a dictatorship. I view earning my clients’ trust as a process, and once I have their trust, I see it as a privilege, not a right.
DCG: Who or what has sustained and inspired you on your journey, especially during the toughest moments? Is there a personal philosophy, mentor, or a guiding principle that you return to when the path gets hard?
LJ: This work gave me my life back, and I see the conventional healthcare system fail more women than they help, and it’s absolutely unacceptable to me. It’s often overwhelming and disappointing, but I find peace in knowing that every day I show up and make a difference with the clients I have the privilege of supporting. I can’t solve the nightmare state of our healthcare system, but I can be a part of the solution. I also absolutely love doing this work; it energizes and inspires me daily, and I have no desire to do anything else. This work is one of my life’s core purposes.
DCG: Your practice uses data-backed lab testing and a three-phase framework (detoxify, restore, regenerate) to help clients. Can you walk us through how that philosophy came together and why it resonates so deeply with you and your clients?
LJ: My philosophy was built on the foundational belief that the body knows how to heal itself.
… when it has the resources it requires (vitamins, minerals, energy, water, movement, sleep, sunshine, purpose, community & connection), is surrounded by an environment that makes it feel safe, and a mind that’s committed to the process.
Most of my clients come to me thinking they just need to figure out what the “one thing” is that they’re missing, but most times, there are multiple elements of the body’s needs that are not being met, and the body communicates them through symptoms.
I use symptom-analysis & functional lab testing to collapse the time frame to healing and design a bio-individualized approach to every client. Their body’s signals are finally (often for the first time) seen, listened to, and the depleted resources are restored, and my clients heal fast.
DCG: What does it feel like to see a client begin to heal not just physically, but mentally and emotionally and how has witnessing those transformations informed your own evolution as a wellness founder?
LJ: It literally lights up my whole being when my clients start to believe in their body again. Their whole life begins to expand, they go after bigger goals, their standards rise, and they start to trust themselves again deeply.
DCG: As a high-achieving woman who sacrificed a lot for success, how did that tension between ambition and wellbeing shape the creation of your work? What have been the pivotal challenges and what lessons did they carve into your leadership and vision?
LJ: My zone of genius is helping ambitious women create a level of health that puts them at an advantage when it comes to stress capacity, executive functioning, and human performance. Most women battling chronic symptoms daily (fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, bloating, painful periods, etc) are having to shrink their lives to accommodate them. I’ve learned that my performance, income potential, and caliber of work are 100% dependent upon my state of health, and with that, I protect and prioritize it with maximum priority. This is what I train my clients how to do as well.
DCG: Beyond one-on-one coaching, you also deliver corporate wellness events and create broader environments of health and energy. In what ways do you hope to shift the broader narrative around what it means to be healthy, driven, and successful, especially in women-led spaces?
LJ: My broader goal is for women in leadership to be seen modeling what it means to be and live well, so that their teams are inspired and feel they have permission to prioritize their health too.
When women in leadership sacrifice their health for their work, it sends a message to everyone around them that, that’s the expectation. Which is unfortunate, because working more doesn’t always equal success, but it often times = mediocre work.
The goal is elite-level health, for elite-level performance and quality.
The women who are winning right now get this.
DCG: How has the act of founding Leslie Jackson Wellness changed you not just your business, but your relationship to your body, ambition, and balance?
LJ: It makes me want more women to have the audacity to found their own business so they can have more agency over how their life. Founding my own business was and still is the most challenging endeavor I’ve ever embarked on but also the most liberating and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
DCG: What encouragement or guidance would you offer to someone who’s sensing a deeper calling, someone who’s “barely holding it together” but knows there’s a better way through their own wisdom and healing?
LJ: Believe yourself. If your mind and body is telling you there’s another path calling on you, listen. Be willing to temporarily sacrifice comfort & security for the bigger picture, if you’re feeling called to do something that’s going to require you to start from scratch. Have the audacity to do what others won’t.
And, do it YOUR way.
DCG: Imagine Leslie Jackson Wellness five years from now. What would you hope it stands for, and what change do you aspire for it to have ignited in clients, communities, or practices at large?
LJ: LJW’s core belief, and anchor for the future, is that women deserve to feel DAMN GOOD in their bodies. Anything less than that is unacceptable.
I envision LJW to inspire more root-cause passionate healers to see what’s possible and believe in their ability to build an impact, heart-led practice too.
I envision LJW to set the bar on the standards that women hold their practitioners to.
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