Founders First - The Show About Mental Health in Entrepreneurship

Dr. Charmain Jackman shares a host of tips and experience, teaching us how to better gain perspective on our problems and stay present in our work without burning out. 

Andrea Grisdale saw her revenue drop 95% when Covid hit after two decades of consistent growth. Her flexibility has seen her company rebound and she shares some of her greatest tips with us here today. 

It turns out that love isn't just a fairy tale or a four-letter word. Dr. Charlie Cartwright explains that real leadership leads with love and that that love has to start with yourself before you can truly uplift others.  

Allen Clary spent 20 years climbing the ladder of the business world, eventually reaching the level of CEO only to give it all up. In this episode, you'll learn why, and how you might need to quit to start the next journey of your life.

It turns out that so many of us are focused on how to become successful that we don't think about how to handle it once we have it. Bennie Fowler knows first hand what the spotlight feels like. To find it again and maintain it, however, he's had to learn and change a few things in his approach. 

Karl Shallowhorn knows first-hand the struggles of anxiety, depression, and entrepreneurship. With over 3 decades of experience managing his personal issues and almost as many helping others with theirs, he's found community to be one of his best tools for continued success.

Dr. Chloe Carmichael has transformed a passion for yoga and body-mind connection into a hugely successful consulting practice. Rather than avoiding or squashing your anxiety, Dr. Carmichael suggests we use our anxiety as an indicator in our lives and teaches us how to manage it to be a force for positive change.

Mark Williams shares the importance of self-care and rest to perform at your best. It's so crucial, he says, that the airforce mandates all their pilots get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per day. Tune in to learn why, and how this applies to you as an entrepreneur.

David Paul is one of the most self-disciplined people around. It's something he largely attributes to his success and his ability to juggle the stresses of his business and personal life. In this episode, he offers a few simple steps to focus on to get these same benefits for your own entrepreneurial journey.

Join the conversation about what science says about the entrepreneurial brain and what makes us different. Learn more about our common strengths and the things we need to look out for.

Being real isn't just about letting your emotions out. It sets a standard and creates a "safe space" for those around you to do the same. Tune in as Jerry Colonna shares his insightful perspective on this and how being relevant is less important than community.

Don't try to find work-life balance. That's the advice of well-known early venture capitalist, Brad Feld. Instead, he suggests working to find what he calls, "work-life harmony". Find out what that means and more in this episode that's full of advice you won't want to miss. 

Leadership is about process and preparation. Listen in as Errol Doebler shares key insights into a process he perfected as a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander, FBI Agent, and combat veteran. Become the leader you need to be with a process you practice.

Michael Signer knows what it takes to weather life's storms. Listen in as he shares how he stayed resilient as Mayor of Charlottesville through the chaos of the Unite The Right rally of 2017 and more.

Ryan Eleuteri is proof that you don't need to be a serial entrepreneur to be a successful one. He built Charleston Bloody Mary Mix from the ground up without any history in business. Hard choices were made but resilience and conviction in his product drove him forward. 

Tez Steinberg is about to set off on a journey across the Pacific Ocean, by himself. From his rowing vessel off the coast of California, he shares with us that, although some of his preparation was obviously physical, most of it, and the greatest hurdles he will face are the mental ones. Mental resilience will be his greatest asset.

Erik Severinghaus offers advice not often heard in the entrepreneurial world. Working harder isn't always the right answer, feeling like an imposter is a common experience, and a lack of stillness can lead to poor long term performance. You, however, can and need to live at your psychological peak to perform at your best!