Founder and CEO of Australia’s first female-led dispensary, Lisa Nguyen, is hard at work growing her business so that more women can experience the healing effects of plant-based medicine.
An Australian trained pharmacist, Nguyen gained extensive experience early on in the medicinal cannabis industry as a clinical pharmacist and a medical science liaison. As an early adopter in the Australian medicinal cannabis sector, her journey in the corporate pharmaceutical cannabis space commenced shortly after legalisation passed. She worked with early prescribing doctors to navigate the complex regulatory prescribing process in various therapeutic areas.
In 2020, Lisa left the corporate cannabis world and founded Astrid – Australia’s first boutique female-led dispensary specialising in medicinal cannabis. Lisa’s vision for Astrid has always been people and patient focused; with the dispensary designed to help remove the stigma associated with cannabis.
Now, Astrid Dispensary is about to launch their third dispensary this year, and Nguyen tells Women’s Agenda she’s excited about the design concept.
“We are focusing a lot more on patient experience, cannabis culture as well as nature. I can’t wait to weave all these elements throughout this new dispensary – and bring to life a cannabinoid destination that Australia has never seen before,” she says.
Three years into her business, Nguyen feels “humbled” that the brand and design of Astrid still makes her feel “inspired” and “creative”.
And with so much happening across the business, Nguyen knows how important it is to take care of her physical and mental health along the way. She’s learned to make time for herself in the mornings, break up her work days and do what she calls “self-care Sundays”.
Nguyen is the latest to feature in our How I Manage My Health series, examining how dynamic women from different career backgrounds manage their physical and mental health.
Read Lisa Nguyen’s full “How I Manage My Health” profile below, and see other women profiled in this series here.
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What does your morning routine typically look like?
There are two types of founders, I believe – the early risers or the night owls. And I am certainly more of a night owl – I peak in ideas and productivity in the evening (driving my husband bonkers!). Because of this, I love super, slow mornings to allow my mind and body to ease into the day. I purposefully block out the first two hours of the day just for myself – it could be going for a slow walk to grab a coffee, it could be sitting in the sun in my backyard eating a healthy breakfast and allowing my thoughts to roam or it could be just giving myself time to plan the rest of the day. Blocking out time for myself in the morning means that I am prioritising myself – and allows me to have more clarity to tackle the rest of the day.
Do you have any top tips for staying focused on key tasks?
As a CEO, I find myself juggling everything because I’ve got to be across everything in the business. A tip that I use is that I brain dump everything in my head on a Friday afternoon into a running to do list so that it is out of my brain for the weekend. Then, I prioritise which tasks are most important and schedule them into my calendar so I can stay focused on the top 3 tasks.
I block out Mondays and Fridays as my admin or deep work days so I tend to avoid putting in any meetings on those days. As someone that has ADHD, I find that I will always do the tasks that “excite” me first – so I allow myself to do my “top 3 most exciting or fun tasks” first. Then, once I’ve completed these, I’ll allocate them for the less exciting tasks such as admin. Finally, when I am focusing on the top 3 tasks, I don’t allow myself to give myself a backup timeline so there are no distractions.
Do you have a framework or key rules or procedures for organising your day?
For sure! I like to visualise my weeks and my days. During the week, I always make sure each day starts with a morning walk or journaling to write down my intentions for the day. I always block out lunch times as a non-negotiable – and even if I am super busy, I will always make time to stop, pause and eat. In the past, I used to want to achieve a million things in one day and I would skip lunch – but now, three years into Astrid, I’ve learnt to break up my days into zones.
Nourishing my body is non-negotiable. The first part of the day is about doing work that is easily achievable but also things that I enjoy. I always allocate 30 mins of lunch time and give myself the ability to pause and reflect on the day. Then the last zone of the day tends to be 1:1 meetings with my direct reports or external meetings with stakeholders or potential clients. I always end my day by preparing for tomorrow’s tasks so that we’ve already got a head start by the time I tackle it the next day.
And I make sure that I don’t take work home – I’ve now learnt to close my laptop at 6pm. This took many years of practice and a lot of letting go – but it is so much better for my mental health and allows me to have work-life balance even when owning my own business! I also love ending the day with going for a walk with my husband to debrief on the day and just chat.
Can you share a time when your work really tested or even harmed your health and well-being?
Absolutely. When I started to scale my business three years ago, I faced a lot of hurdles and challenges. People told me that I couldn’t do it and it was impossible. And with every hurdle, I’d keep pushing myself to hold on and fight through the exhaustion. I worked myself to the ground and somewhere along the way, I stopped putting myself first. And by the end of the first year, I had burnt myself out and I could barely recognise myself. So, from then on, I am really conscious of trying to allocate time to look after myself – both physically and spiritually.
How do you stay active, anything you can share on your ideal weekly schedule for doing so?
It’s funny, as I get older, my reasons for being active changes. As a young woman, you want to get fit because you want to look a certain way so I’d do crossfit or join very fast paced gyms such as BFT or F45. But now, as I get further into my 30s, I no longer care about what others think; I love being active for myself and for my mental health. I really love how I feel after a hot yoga session or a slow yin yoga session. I love walks in nature and getting sunlight in my face.
Can you share a key thing you regularly do (or aspire to do more) that really supports your wellbeing?
Without fail, I schedule in time for what I call “Self-Care Sundays”. This could alternate between meditation, hot stone sauna, infrared saunas or bathhouse sessions or therapeutic massages. I love doing these self-care sessions on a Sunday afternoon around 4pm – it’s the perfect way to unwind my mind and body after a long week. There’s not much that can slow down my brain but these self-care Sundays are just magic – the best thing I’ve added into my routine. Currently I love going to Comma – they have bathhouses in both Melbourne and Byron Bay!
How do you manage your health when working remotely or from home?
Scheduling lots of time for being active (even if it’s just a 10 min walk), not skipping meals and remembering to nourish your body – and having a big 2L bottle of water next to you at all times!
As a leader within Australia’s emerging plant-based medicine space, what do you want more women to know about their health?
Women are incredible human beings – and our body is capable of doing SO much. I am currently going through IVF and as much as I appreciate traditional medicine – I do believe that natural medicine and ayurvedic medicine plays a huge role in the health of my uterus, womb and female-health. I believe plant-based medicine IS the future of medicine – we’re going full circle and getting back to our roots.