Podcasts about zenfounder

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Boulay, the industry standard for Quality of Earnings, tax, and audit services, serving search fund entrepreneurs for 20+ years⁠⁠⁠⁠*This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oberle Risk Strategies⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Insurance Broker and Insurance Due Diligence Provider for Search Funds and Other Small-to-Medium-Sized Businesses⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  *  This week, I'm joined by Dr. Sherry Walling, a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, and best-selling author. She is also the Founder of ZenFounder, which aims to help entrepreneurs and CEOs navigate issues of transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. She is also the host of the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1M+ times.Sherry first came onto my radar when she published her first book, the aptly named The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together, which discusses many of the topics that we've explored over the years in this podcast related to managing your psychology as an entrepreneur and CEO.Her most recent book is titled Exit Strategy: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business without Regret, which goes beyond purely commercial considerations, and explores the largely unexplored personal considerations specific to the largest transaction of most entrepreneurs' lives.

In this week's edition of the AmiSights Podcast, we talk to Dr. Sherry Walling, founder and clinical psychologist at ZenFounder, which helps entrepreneurs thrive in business and in life by avoiding burnout and isolation. Dr. Sherry Walling discusses the mental health challenges of entrepreneurs, focusing on the importance of self-awareness, building a supportive team, and maintaining friendships outside of work.“I think it's really important for entrepreneurs to recognize their spouse as their first investor, the first person who said yes to their harebrained idea… The presence of a business is a little bit like the presence of a mistress, right? It's this ever present other thing that is absorbing the attention.”We explore why building a healthy company should not revolve around one person, but instead be systematized in a way that allows it to grow, thrive, and exist independently of the founder. We also discuss the importance of entrepreneurs being well-rounded, with interests and relationships outside of their business, and why securing full buy-in from a significant other is essential before starting an entrepreneurial journey.Connect with Dr. Sherry Walling: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/Check out ZenFounder: https://zenfounder.com/Recorded on 3/13/2025

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. Sherry also hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times.Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is an award-winning, poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. On this episode, Sherry and I discuss some of the mental roadblocks that entrepreneurs deal with, her path to psychiatry, went to seek psychiatric help, and much more.

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist serving startup founders, and the creator of ZenFounder.com. She's also the author of Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss.  In this episode, Sherry shares her perspective and strategies for becoming a high achieving human up to cool things in our world. She also addresses how to avoid entrepreneurial burnout, and how to process grief and achievement within your personal and professional life.  Get the transcripts and show notes for this episode: https://www.leadpages.com/blog/sherry-walling-living-a-brighter-life

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist. Website: https://zenfounder.com Twitter: @sherrywalling Instagram: @sherrywalling 1:09 "Why is choosing the most painful path not always the best idea?" -Brian Keith 2:49 Sharing Grief 3:53 State of Emotional Flux 4:55 "I am so glad you are talking about this [grief] as a business owner." -Sherry Walling 6:54 Confronting the Illusion of Control 8:54 "We build our way into resiliency." -Sherry Walling 12:35 Comments on Coping 15:56 "Sometimes my work is a break from my grief." -Sherry Walling 17:16 "The bottom line is there is no 'one size fits all.'" -Sherry Walling 19:23 Where Is the Joy?

Navigating grief, managing anxiety, and prioritizing your physical health with Sherry Walling from ZenFounder. ----- Welcome to episode 412 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Sherry Walling, a clinical psychologist and founder of ZenFounder. How to Support Your Mental Health as a Content Creator Sherry Walling is back on the podcast today to talk about something we should all be discussing more — the mental health of entrepreneurs. If you have a career as a content creator, it can be difficult to separate your personal life from your professional life. It can also be lonely to run your own business. Not to mention the challenges of sharing parts of your life on social media! All this to say that entrepreneurs face a unique set of challenges when it comes to mental health, and this powerful episode with Sherry is one you won't want to miss. She shares more about the habits you can incorporate into your life to better manage anxiety, stress, and grief, and prioritize your emotional and physical well-being. In this episode, you'll learn: Why Sherry started a public conversation around the mental health of entrepreneurs. The first steps to take when your mental health is suffering. Why it's important to prioritize your well-being. The habits that entrepreneurs can incorporate into their lives to take care of their mental health. The practices Sherry incorporates into her life to support her physical and emotional health (including the trapeze!). The benefits and detriments of technology for our mental health. How to live your life in a way that honors your soul. How Sherry navigated seasons of grief, and the lessons she learned from those times. What content creators can do to support their mental health. How to separate your personal from your professional life, and why that matters. Why it's important for creators to have a hobby. Resources: ZenFounder ZenFounder Podcast Sherry's previous episode of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast Headspace Full Focus The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You Gear Junkie We Study Billionaires: Wealth & Healthy with Jason Karp Touching Two Worlds Untangle Grief Refuge in Grief Empowered through Grief The Grief Project Follow Sherry on Instagram Join the Food Blogger Pro Podcast Facebook Group ----- This episode is sponsored by Clariti. Learn how you can organize your blog content for maximum growth by going to clariti.com/food. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

In this riveting episode, Blair Kaplan Venables sits down with Dr. Sherry Walling to talk about success, grief and how she spends her free time. About the Guest:Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.www.SherryWalling.comhttps://zenfounder.com/https://www.touchingtwoworlds.com/ https://twitter.com/sherrywalling https://www.instagram.com/sherrywalling/About the Hosts:Blair Kaplan Venables is an expert in social media marketing and the president of Blair Kaplan Communications, a British Columbia-based PR agency. She brings fifteen years of experience to her clients which include global wellness, entertainment and lifestyle brands. She is the creator of the Social Media Empowerment Pillars, has helped her customers grow their followers into the tens of thousands in just one month, win integrative marketing awards and more. Blair is listed in USA Today as one of the top 10 conscious female leaders to watch in 2022 and Yahoo! listed Blair as a top ten social media expert to watch in 2021. She has spoken on national stages and her expertise has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, CBC Radio, Entrepreneur and Thrive Global. Blair is an international bestselling author and has recently published her second book, ‘The Global Resilience Project.' She is the co-host of the Dissecting Success podcast and in her free time, you can find Blair growing The Global Resilience Project's community where users share their stories of overcoming life's most difficult moments.www.blairkaplan.ca Theresa Lambert is an Online Business Strategy Coach with an impressive hotelier background in luxury Hospitality in the #1 Ski Resort in North America. She supports Female Coaches and Service based Entrepreneurs to get their first clients or scale to 6 figures and beyond through strategic, tangible, and practical support. Her mission: To make Business EASY so your life can be more FULL.In 2020 Theresa became the Bestselling Author of her book Achieve with Grace: A guide to elegance and effectiveness in intense workplaces. She is also a Speaker and the Podcast co-host of

Sherry Walling: Resolving Trauma to Perform at Your Peak Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs navigate rapid growth, loss, and other complex human experiences. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been downloaded more than IM times. Welcome to the Conscious Millionaire Show for entrepreneurs, who want to achieve high sales and positively impact humanity! Join host, JV Crum III, as he goes inside the minds of conscious guests such as Millionaire Entrepreneurs and World-Class Business Experts. Like this Podcast? Get every episode delivered to you free!  Subscribe in iTunes Download Your Free Money-Making Gift Now... "Born to Make Millions" Hypnotic Audio - Click Here Now! Please help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps others find our podcast. Thanks so much! Inc Magazine "Top 13 Business Podcasts." Conscious Millionaire Network has over 3,5000 episodes that have been heard by over 100 million in 190 countries. Join us as a regular listener to get money-making and impact secrets on how you can grow your business and make a massive difference for humanity faster!

Sherry Walling: Resolving Trauma to Perform at Your Peak Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs navigate rapid growth, loss, and other complex human experiences. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been downloaded more than IM times. Welcome to the Conscious Millionaire Show for entrepreneurs, who want to achieve high sales and positively impact humanity! Join host, JV Crum III, as he goes inside the minds of conscious guests such as Millionaire Entrepreneurs and World-Class Business Experts. Like this Podcast? Get every episode delivered to you free!  Subscribe in iTunes Download Your Free Money-Making Gift Now... "Born to Make Millions" Hypnotic Audio - Click Here Now! Please help spread the word. Subscribing and leaving a review helps others find our podcast. Thanks so much! Inc Magazine "Top 13 Business Podcasts." Conscious Millionaire Network has over 3,5000 episodes that have been heard by over 100 million in 190 countries. Join us as a regular listener to get money-making and impact secrets on how you can grow your business and make a massive difference for humanity faster!

Is it possible to return to joy after the loss of a loved one? Tune in for an inspiring discussion with Sherry Walling, PhD, on her new #book Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss. #MomentsWithMarianne with host Marianne Pestana airs every Tuesday at 3PM PST / 6PM EST and every Friday at 10AM PST/ 1PM EST in the Southern California area on KMET1490AM & 98.1 FM, ABC Talk News Radio affiliate! Not in the area? Click here to listen! https://tunein.com/radio/KMET-1490-s33999/ Sherry Walling, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. https://www.sherrywalling.comFor more show information visit: www.MariannePestana.com#bookclub #readinglist #book #bookish #MariannePestana #author #authorinterview #kmet1490am #SoundsTrue#SherryWalling #reading #mustread #personaldevelopment #hope #loss

You may create moments that are uncomfortable for others when you speak of the dead. The air may leave the room for a moment when as they freeze with fear and awkwardness. Their emotional uncertainty is not your work. - Dr. Sherry Walling Are You Stressed Out Lately? Take a deep breath with the M21™ wellness guide: a simple yet powerful 21 minute morning system that melts stress and gives you more energy through 6 science-backed practices and breathwork. Click HERE to download for free. Is Your Energy Low? Looking for a cleaner brain fuel? Just one daily serving of Ketone-IQ™️ will help you feel sharper, more focused, and ready to take on the day. Click HERE to try HVMN's Ketone-IQ™ + Save 20% with the code "JOSH" *Review The WF Podcast & WIN $150 in wellness prizes! *Join The Facebook Group   Wellness + Wisdom Episode 515 Dr. Sherry Walling, a psychologist, author, and founder of the ZenFounder podcast, joins Josh Trent on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast to talk about the lessons she learned from her own grieving process and what you can do to cope with the loss of your loved one. Do you know how to cope with your own grief or the grief of others? Join Dr. Sherry Walling and Josh Trent as they discuss the stages of grief, how to cope with the death of a loved one, why we shouldn't identify with our emotions, and what it means to time travel for our mental health.   Listen To Episode 515 As Dr. Sherry Walling Uncovers: [1:30] Knowing God Touching Two Worlds by Dr. Sherry Walling Why Dr. Sherry is now placing more importance on the here and now. The reason Josh was angry at God when he was younger and how he realized he didn't truly know God. Uncovering why our anger implies hurt or needs that are unmet. Why for Dr. Sherry anger towards God means that there's a longing for a return to spirituality and understanding of what God is. Anger is more powerful than despair. The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential by David R. Hawkins   [10:00] The Stages Of Loss How anger expresses that something inside of us needs to change and why it's a parallel to passionate desire. Jordan Peterson Why energy can't be created or destroyed, only transmuted. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross How the grief when we are dying is different from the grief that we feel when someone we love is dying. Why grief is not only sadness but also anger and other dynamic experiences. Non-linearity of grief: Why we can't follow a step-by-step path.   [14:05] Losing A Loved One + How To Cope With The Discomfort Around Death Putting her knowledge as a trauma psychologist into practice when her dad passed and her brother committed suicide. How she got to understand that deep grief is universal and that no amount of training could make her exempt from the pain. The reason why we feel void when we lose a loved one. Why her patients and clients see her in a different way after reading her book. How her book has parts that are written about her for her and other parts that are written for others. Sharing your experience with others doesn't mean you're healed but it means that you're no longer bleeding. Why it's ok to let it be painful and uncomfortable for some time when someone's loved one dies. The importance of not skipping through the pain moment to the silver lining. Why the emotional quality of conversations about death should feel uncomfortable for a while. Transitioning to the celebration of the deceased person's life without alleviating the pain.   [22:42] We Are Not What We Feel How birth and death go to the depths of what it is to be human and to love. The ways in which Dr. Sherry found a resemblance between death and birth when she was taking care of her dad. How not being close to birth and death makes us uncomfortable and scared of these experiences. Identifying with our emotions: Why we're not what we feel according to Josh. Why emotions can feel like statements. What happens when we get stuck in emotions or attach to a story. The power of softness, flexibility, and allowing ourselves to feel our feelings without attachment. 483 Wayland Myers | NonViolent Communication: How to Stop Arguments In 60 Seconds + The Power of Loving Detachment Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall Rosenberg A healthy way to detach ourselves from our feelings instead of identifying with them. Why language is essential when it comes to our emotions. How two opposed emotions can exist at the same time.   [29:40] Listening To Your Body + How To Choose Your Therapist Listening to the spaces in our body that get triggered with curiosity. Transference: The client redirects their emotions about one person onto their therapist. Countertransference: The therapist projects their emotions onto the client. How we hold imprints of the people in our lives in our bodies. Why Dr. Sherry believes that a dysregulation is a helpful tool when we listen to it. Her own experience with countertransference. What behaviors we should look for within therapists and why it's important to observe our feelings toward them. The quickest way to spot the emotions that we have around our therapist. The importance of money and time containers in therapy. How some therapists can get a secondary gain from the sessions.   [39:50] The Privilege Of Witnessing Death And Birth Josh explains why living well and dying well matter to him. The duality of moving between the world of the dead and the world of raising children and being in love. Why she feels privileged and empowered by being able to shift between the two worlds. The death process inside of us when we become parents. Why Dr. Sherry thinks we don't exist as an autonomous mechanism. The beauty of dyeing she saw when her dad was dying. Why she supports the raw version of her that wrote the book three years ago. How she holds space for her dad and brother during moments of grief.   [48:10] Time Traveling For Mental Health How psychedelics help us with our grief by transcending the physical body. Dr. Sherry's experience with MDMA and how it added another layer to the memory of herself as her father's daughter. 481 Scott Jackson | Rewire Yourself: How To Create A Life You Love With Freedom From Subconscious Sabotage Why timelines are a big part of trauma and psychedelic-supported therapy. Traveling in time for our mental health: Revisiting the past, being fully present in the moment, and setting the future self up for success. The importance of finding and remembering early memories of joy. Joe Dispenza What hope means to Dr. Sherry and why it's a relationship with our future selves. Why gratitude is the opposite of resentment. How suicide can teach us about the meaning of life. Why play and challenging activities are important to Dr. Sherry. Zen Founder Podcast   Power Quotes From The Show Having Uncomfortable Conversations "If I tell you a painful story and suddenly rush to all that I learned about it and all the reasons it's ok now, I skip through the painful moment. The emotional quality of the conversation becomes relief instead of discomfort. It's ok to let it be uncomfortable for a while and let people hold that space." - Dr. Sherry Walling   Birth And Death "Birth and death are edge states. They are moments in our lives that don't happen very much but they get to the depths of what it is to be human, to be in love, and to show up for people in their most vulnerable moments." - Dr. Sherry Walling   The Challenge Of Middle Adulthood "There's a duality between the world of aliveness and the world of the dead. Many of us will at times in our lives be called to move back and forth between those energies, that's the challenge of middle adulthood. You're in support and in connection to parents and elders who are further along the journey of death, and young ones who are just beginning life. You're a bridge between the world of becoming and the world of ending." - Dr. Sherry Walling   Links From Today's Show  Touching Two Worlds by Dr. Sherry Walling The Map of Consciousness Explained: A Proven Energy Scale to Actualize Your Ultimate Potential by David R. Hawkins Jordan Peterson On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Detachment Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall Rosenberg 481 Scott Jackson | Rewire Yourself: How To Create A Life You Love With Freedom From Subconscious Sabotage Joe Dispenza Zen Founder Podcast Shop the Wellness Force Media Store breathwork.io Save 20% on LiftMode Products until February 13, 2023 PLUNGE – Save $150 with the code “WELLNESSFORCE" HIGHER DOSE INFRARED MAT - Get 15% off with the code “WELLNESSFORCE15“ Organifi – Special 20% off to our listeners with the code ‘WELLNESSFORCE' HVMN - Get 20% off your Ketone IQ order with the code "JOSH" MitoZen – Save 10% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” Paleovalley – Save 15% on your ACV Complex with the code ‘JOSH' NOOTOPIA - Save 10% with the code "JOSH10" Activation Products – Save 20% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” NEUVANA - Save 15% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” SENSATE - Save $25 on your order with the code "JOSH25" DRY FARM WINES - Get an extra bottle of Pure Natural Wine with your order for just 1¢ CHILISLEEP - Save 25% on Josh's favorite ChiliSleep products with the code "JOSH" ION - Save 15% off sitewide with the code ‘JOSH1KS' TOUPS - Save 15% with the code "JOSH" Feel Free from Botanic Tonics – Save 40% when you use the code ‘WELLNESS40′ Drink LMNT – Zero Sugar Hydration: Get your free LMNT Sample Pack, with any purchase BREATHE - Save 20% by using the code “PODCAST20” Essential Oil Wizardry: Save 10% with the code ‘WELLNESSFORCE' MY GREEN MATTRESS - Save up to $125 on your order with the code "JOSH" NEUROHACKER - Save 15% with the code "WELLNESSFORCE" ALIVE WATER - Save 33% on your first order with the code "JOSH33" M21 Wellness Guide Wellness Force Community Leave Wellness + Wisdom a review on Apple Podcasts Dr. Sherry Walling Zen Founder Podcast Instagram Twitter   About Dr. Sherry Walling Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, author, podcaster, and advocate for mental health. Her podcast, ZenFounder, assists entrepreneurs and leaders in navigating transition, growth, loss, and other complex human experiences. Touching Two Worlds, her new book, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, her best-selling book, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Sherry and her husband, Rob, live in Minneapolis and spend their days driving their kids to music lessons. She has also been seen performing as a circus aerialist on occasion.

You may create moments that are uncomfortable for others when you speak of the dead. The air may leave the room for a moment when as they freeze with fear and awkwardness. Their emotional uncertainty is not your work. - Dr. Sherry Walling Wellness + Wisdom Episode 515 Dr. Sherry Walling, a psychologist, author, and founder of the ZenFounder podcast, joins Josh Trent on the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast to talk about the lessons she learned from her own grieving process and what you can do to cope with the loss of your loved one. Do you know how to cope with your own grief or the grief of others? Join Dr. Sherry Walling and Josh Trent as they discuss the stages of grief, how to cope with the death of a loved one, why we shouldn't identify with our emotions, and what it means to time travel for our mental health. Listen To Episode 515 As Dr. Sherry Walling Uncovers: Losing A Loved One + How To Cope With The Discomfort Around Death Listening To Your Body + How To Choose Your Therapist The Privilege Of Witnessing Death And Birth Time Traveling For Mental Health How to Have Uncomfortable Conversations Are You Stressed Out Lately? Take a deep breath with the M21™ wellness guide: a simple yet powerful 21 minute morning system that melts stress and gives you more energy through 6 science-backed practices and breathwork. Click HERE to download for free. Is Your Energy Low? Looking for a cleaner brain fuel? Just one daily serving of Ketone-IQ™️ will help you feel sharper, more focused, and ready to take on the day. Click HERE to try HVMN's Ketone-IQ™ + Save 20% with the code "JOSH" *Review The WF Podcast & WIN $150 in wellness prizes! *Join The Facebook Group *Shop the Wellness Force Media Store *Organifi – Special 20% off to our listeners with the code ‘WELLNESSFORCE * Save 20% on LiftMode with code "JOSH20" until February 13, 2023 * PLUNGE – Save $150 with the code “WELLNESSFORCE" * Cured Nutrition - Save 20% with the code "WELLNESSFORCE" * NOOTOPIA - Save 10% with the code "JOSH10" * MitoZen – Save 10% with the code “WELLNESSFORCE” *PaleoValley - Save 15% with the code "JOSH" *Sauna Space - Save 10% with the code "JOSH10"

On today's episode I have Dr. Sherry Walling joining me to share about her personal experience with publishing her book, Touching Two Worlds. This book explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss. In the book, she reflects on the loss of her brother to suicide and her father to cancer. We also discuss working while grieving, the importance of community, seeking mental health professionals, and the benefits of getting the body moving regularly. Not to go without mentioning, her time studying abroad in Ghana and the impact that had on her perspective of working through traumatic events. Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Interested in connecting with Dr Sherry Walling? Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/ Book Website: www.touchingtwoworlds.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrywalling/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-walling-phd/ Zen Founder: https://zenfounder.com/ Mind Curious: https://www.mindcure.com/podcasts Want to buy a copy of my book? You can do so here: https://spouse-ly.com/product/a-series-of-flashbacks-darkness-within/ Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6HKCWY6 If you have questions or topics you'd like me to discuss, send an email to info@fromgrieftogold.com You can find me at: https://fromgrieftogold.com/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/fromgrieftogold Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fromgrieftogold/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissaanneorg/ If you'd like the show notes you can find them here: https://melissaanne.org/category/from-grief-to-gold Thanks for listening! Mel

In this episode of Zenfounder, Brooke has a conversation with active duty service member Chad Conley, Green Beret. They discuss the ways his military service has supported his relationship skills as well as his work serving others through his non-profit, 50 for the fallen. 50 For The Fallen

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Connect with Dr. Walling on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-walling-phd/Visit Dr. Walling's Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/Purchase The ZenFounder Guide to Founder Retreats: https://app.gumroad.com/l/retreatsOn This Episode, We Discuss... - The ZenFounder Guide to Founder's Retreats- Learning How to Come Out of Your Shell- The Benefits of Utilizing a Facilitator During a Company Retreat- Measuring the Turnover of Your Business

Subscribe for more: www.nobu.ai/podcastFollow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nobuappFollow us on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NMIEgjblqmhwT6Uy3l0NmSubscribe to Dear Mind You Matter Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-mind-you-matter/id1573642046Leave us a review: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dear-mind-you-matter/id1573642046Interested in attending our Educational Events? https://bit.ly/eventsandeducation____Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. She is the author of two books: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together and Touching Two Worlds: a guide for finding hope in the aftermath of loss. Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.Social Media Handle: Instagram: @sherrywallingPublications: Touching Two Worlds: a guide to finding hope in the landscape of lossMemorable Moments: 2:24 Any kind of human that's under a state of stress is dysregulated. Their body is elevated trying to react to a stressor.  2:32 To help someone feel better in the midst of stress is to reregulate or bring their body and their mind down to homeostasis. Thoughts go slower, the heart beats slower, and breath is slower. If we can turn the slow-motion dial on that often helps stress feel much more manageable and accessible.3:22 When we can feel that sense of agency over our bodies and our lives, that feels so much better than feeling stuck on the tilt-a-whirl at the fair. And we're just moving so fast and we're like, ‘Yeah, I wanna get off.'4:47 Being in my own grief after the losses (of my dad and brother), one of the things that were so helpful to me was I really connected with my own body.  6:13 When we get into some kind of emotional expression, we can breathe again. It's a big exhale. It's like putting down the heaviness of all that we are carrying and being present with a different experience.6:27 Emotional expression allows you to have a little lightness, a little levity, or really express some of those negative emotions. Feel into your anger. Feel into your fear, but not in a way that feels like it's going to be overwhelming for you.6:52 Our society is kind of set up to move quickly through grief. Like policies related to bereavement leave. You might go to your mom's funeral on Saturday and on Tuesday, you're supposed to be back at work. There's not a lot of space for grief.7:09 A lot of us feel like we gotta muscle through hard things when we're in pain or suffering. But the tendency is to just keep going, just keep moving, just be gritty. And those aren't bad messages. I just think they may be out of balance.7:30 Don't go around pain or suffering. Don't avoid it. Don't skip over it. Talk about it. Feel it. Express it. Move toward the heart of what's difficult, knowing that that's where all the growth lies. That's where all the lessons are.  8:03  When you go in and through something - for instance, grief - there's no part of you that you don't have access to. There's no part of you that you feel like you have to hide from.8:56 Writing can be helpful for people who like to journal. Writing about your own experience can be a really powerful way to do some of that in and through work.9:13 If you feel like you want the presence of another human, it will help to be in therapy or go to a support group where you can begin to tell the stories to give life and words to the things that feel painful.  9:33 You can also try expressive movement such as a five rhythms dance practice where you pair different kinds of movement with different kinds of emotion. It can be a yoga session. There's something really can be quite healing about holding a warrior position and lingering there and letting your body do the work to breathe through and to hold that position.10:55 Doing grief better means talking about grief. It's naming those that we've lost. Naming the hopes that we had that never came to be.11:12 Doing grief better means we're collectively comfortable moving in and out of tender spaces, knowing that we can do that with gentleness and with some graciousness and not feel like we have to, again, skip over it and just get back to work and get back to normal life. That is quite damaging to people who are in any kind of grief.Dear Mind, You Matter is brought to you by NOBU, a new mental health, and wellness app. To download NOBU, visit the app store or Google Play. This podcast is hosted by Allison Walsh and Angela Phillips. This podcast is produced by Allison Walsh, Savannah Eckstrom and Nicole LaNeve. For more information or if you're interested in being a guest on this podcast, please visit www.therecoveryvillage.com/dearmindyoumatter.

A conversation about grief, prayer, religion, loss, pleasure and pain, love, parenthood, IFS, and movement with the fantastic Dr. Sherry Walling! Bio: Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. Sherry hosts the ZenFounder podcast, as well as Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist. Links: @sherrywalling on Insta and Twitter touchingtwoworlds.com The talk Leia mentioned in the episode, Decolonizing the Dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFvjqHDHhmk

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author and mental health advocate. The psychologist behind ZenFounder, she provides mental health resources to entrepreneurs and leaders grappling with grief. She's incredibly wise, and can teach you how to support yourself and your clients during difficult times. She's a strong support system and a caring friend to those dealing with loss — and after speaking with her, I feel better equipped to do the same.  I had Sherry on my podcast, Growing Your Financial Business… The Woman's Way to discuss:  How you can stop grief from affecting your financial stability The importance of holding difficult conversations surrounding loss How you can take your client's mind off money in difficult times  Making grief less scary Using loss to fuel the rest of your life Connect with Sherry Walling Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-walling-phd/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zenfounderpodcast/ Connect with Robyn Crane Website: https://robyncrane.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bizgrowth4women/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/robyn-crane-inc./ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RobynCrane Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robyncrane/?hl=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Losing someone is an unavoidable experience, and while everyone experiences grief, very few people are adept at dealing with it. So, in this episode, we invited Sherry Walling to speak about her substantial experience coping with loss and how she expressed her emotion to her children for them to understand and heal. Listen in to learn about the action steps to dealing with loss in a unique manner.   Key takeaways to listen for Ways to overcome grief and settle your emotions How to communicate grief to your children The different levels of grief following the loss of a family member 2 simple ideas to educate children about the death of a loved one Why is it important to allow your children to experience sadness?   About Sherry Walling Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Her new book, Touching Two Worlds, is a poetic, incisive exploration of grief and joy in the aftermath of loss. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there.   Connect with Sherry Website: Touching Two Worlds Instagram: @sherrywalling Twitter: @sherrywalling   Connect with Us To learn more about us, visit our website at www.18summers.com or email us at info@18summers.com. To get a copy of our book “The Family Board Meeting,” click here. Subscribe to 18 Summers Podcast and leave a rating and written review! Social Media Channels Facebook Group: 18 Summers LinkedIn: Jimmy Sheils Instagram: @18summerstribe

Ep #146 - In today's podcast episode, I'm joined by Dr. Sherry Walling, a speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, mental health advocate and clinical psychologist. In her professional capacity, Sherry helps smart people do hard things. Pairing her professional training with her personal experience, she's been able to help high intensity entrepreneurs to work through the hardest parts of running and growing a business. Dr. Walling hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been downloaded more than a million times and has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring psychedelics and innovation in mental health care. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her newly released book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding hope in the aftermath of loss.   Learn More About Dr. Sherry Walling: Visit Dr. Sherry Walling's website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/ Visit the Zen Founder website: https://zenfounder.com/ Visit the 'Touching Two Worlds' book website: https://thefinanser.com/ Connect with Dr. Sherry Walling on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-walling-phd/ Follow Dr. Sherry Walling on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherrywalling   Also, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a written review for the show if you find value in it. Your reviews help this show to reach a wider audience and I appreciate everyone that has been leaving them.   FOLLOW CHARLES GAUDET ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow Charles Gaudet on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Facebook: https://facebook.com/charlesgaudet Follow Charles Gaudet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesgaudet   VISIT THE PREDICTABLE PROFITS WEBSITE: https://PredictableProfits.com  

“Grief is the price we pay for love." ― Queen Elizabeth II In this episode, Sherry shares her perspective and highlights: Understanding that grief can occur for the loss of a job, a shift in identity, as your child grows older, etc., and the importance of acknowledging grief when it comes  Connecting that feelings of grief are linked to living a life that is full of connection and forward momentum  Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her soon-to-be-released new book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss. Find out more about her book and events @sherrywalling  Continue the conversation on Instagram @heatherchauvin_  For a limited time, apply for the Attracting Profit Intensives one-on-one coaching here: http://heatherchauvin.com/workwithme  Take the ENERGY FINDER Quiz: https://heatherchauvin.com/lifequiz 

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, and any manner of complex human experience.Please leave a 5-star review on Apple & Spotify! This episode was edited and produced by Josh Perez.Follow Make Something Cool on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or YouTube.

Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate.She is graduate of the University of California, Davis and Fuller School of Psychology. She has a PhD in clinical psychology and master's degrees in both psychology and theology and completed research fellowships at Yale University School of Medicine and the National Center for PTSD in Boston.She spent several years working with veterans before going on to become the director of clinical training at House Psychiatric Clinic in Fresno, California.Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience.Her soon-to-be-released new book, Touching Two Worlds, Sherry explores the inner workings of her own grief—and leaves a kind of hand-drawn map for those rebuilding hope in the aftermath of loss.Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist.She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.Her best-selling book,The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there.In This EpisodeSherry's websiteTouching Two WorldsZen FounderThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5739761/advertisement

In this episode of the Psychedelic Therapy Frontiers podcast, Dr. Steve Thayer and Dr. Reid Robison are joined by Dr. Sherry Walling. Sherry is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate among other things transition, rapid growth, and loss. She hosts the ZenFounder Podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She was also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast series exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics.We talk to Sherry Today about her new book, Touching Two Worlds.(2:28) Sherry introduces herself(3:20) Sherry is a circus artist(6:48) Sherry's grief story and the inspiration for her book(12:53) Sherry's experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy for grief (15:50) The value of defense mechanisms  (17:50) Embodied practices and physical expression for processing grief (23:22) MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD(24:20) The duality inherent in the grief process (26:00) The Wild Edge of Sorrow, by Francis Weller, MFT(26:45) Honoring your grief and comparing it to childbirth(30:33) What psychedelic-assisted therapy has to offer in the grief process(33:33) The parallels between supporting infants and those whose lives are ending(36:12) Different types of grief (40:36) Reid's experience with grief during an ayahuasca experience (45:35) Sherry's experience writing such a personal book(48:00) Sherry's, website, Instagram and ZenFounder businessEmail us questions and feedback at psychfrontiers@novamind.ca Learn more about our podcast at https://www.psychedelictherapyfrontiers.com/Learn more about Novamind at https://www.novamind.ca/Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drstevethayer/https://www.instagram.com/innerspacedoctor/https://www.instagram.com/novamind_inc/Disclaimer: The content of this podcast does not constitute medical advice or mental health treatment. Consult with a medical/mental health professional if you believe you are in need of mental health treatment.

We have clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, mental health advocate, and founder of ZenFounder, Dr. Sherry Walling, stopping by for a fascinating discussion on finding hope in times of loss and turmoil. Grief is one of the few human certainties we'll all inevitably have to experience.  In this conversation, we dive into grief, finding our way out of the darkness, dealing with the aftermath of loss, and her newest book ‘Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of loss' and much more. Connect with Dr. Walling Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherry-walling-phd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrywalling/ Touching Two Worlds: https://www.amazon.com/Touching-Two-Worlds-Finding-Landscape/dp/1683649672/ Podcast (listen at all major outlets): https://zenfounder.com/podcast Connect with Julian Become a health concierge client: julian@theartoffitnessandlife.com Connect with me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thejulianhayes Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julianhayes --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/executive-health/message

Dr. Sherry Walling joins Dawson for a conversation about grief and loss based on her newest book, Touching Two Worlds: A Guide for Finding Hope in the Landscape of Loss. Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her soon-to-be-released new book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss. Dr. Walling is an expert in trauma, stress and burnout and her research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Website: https://www.sherrywalling.com/ Dawson's website: http://dawsongift.com/ #eft #eftuniverse #mindtomatter #blissbrain #grief #loss #healing #findinghope 

I am so happy to chat with Sherry Walling clinical psychologist, speaker, Yoga teacher, and the host of Zenfounder Podcast! Sherry will share with us her new book: Touching Two Worlds, a guide for finding hope in the landscape of loss. Today's Episode is about living in grief and joy and how Yoga can help us during these trying times. Connect with Sherry Walling: SherryWalling.com ZenFounder.com Sherry Walling, PhD on LinkedIn @sherrywalling on Twitter and Instagram Connect to Yoga And... Podcast Please support us on Patreon: patreon.com/yogaandpodcast Please write us a glowing review wherever you get your Podcasts yogaandpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram: yogaandpodcast Earth Commons: https://earth-commons.com Use promo code: YOGAAND to get 10% off your next order! Help the Ukraine: https://www.razomforukraine.org Support the Ukraine Military: https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate-en/ Yoga Knees: https://yogaknees.com Use promo code: YOGAAND to get 10% off your next order! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yogaandpodcast/message

“I'd watch so many people find their way through painful experiences so that when I experienced mine, I had this deep sense of knowing that I wouldn't get lost in it, that I would meander out eventually.” Dr. Sherry is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, yoga teacher, mental advocate, and bestselling author who's just published her latest book - Touching Two Worlds. Through her company, ZenFounder, Dr. Sherry empowers leaders and entrepreneurs to do hard things by exploring creative ways to get unstuck.Despite grief being a certainty, most of us struggle to navigate the landscape of loss. Dr. Sherry lost her dad to cancer and her brother to suicide within six months of each other. In this episode, Dr. Sherry shares what she learned through her experience of “touching two worlds.” This conversation is a potent exploration of death, loss, and grief inspired by Dr. Sherry's own lived wisdom combined with her experience guiding others through painful experiences. Sherry's wisdom inspires the confidence to learn how to grieve while providing an invitation to explore your own relationship with death and dying. “The book is called touching two worlds because of that, because of the permission to be in grief and in the shadowy dark places, and also to be enjoy and be in creative creativity and be in love and being gratitude.” Blurb 3: Why the listener wants to listen to this episodeKey takeaways:Differentiating between moments to learn and moments to grieve and feel. Integrating the mind, heart, and body. Meaning-making as a strategy for escapism. Allowing as a tool for presence and integration. Sherry's experience of fighting for her brother. “I love you”… the most powerful force on this planet. Noticing the traces of love throughout our lives. The art of touching two worlds. How circus arts helped Sherry navigate grief.Making an appointment with grief. What is aliveness?Contact Info:Buy Sherry's new book >>> https://www.touchingtwoworlds.comExplore Sherry's work here >>> https://www.sherrywalling.comListen to Sherry's podcast >>> https://www.sherrywalling.com/podcastWe thrive on your feedback, so if you've enjoyed this show, please rate us and leave us a review. And don't forget to subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode again. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sherry is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate whose company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She experienced her own cycle of grief when, in her forties, she lost her dad to cancer and, only six months later, lost her brother to suicide. In response to this journey, she penned Touching Two Worlds, a just-released book (July 26, 2022) that explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss. It is her intimate and deeply personal story that is crafted like a trail of breadcrumbs for others who will, one day, experience grief of their own. Connect with Sherry at zenfounder.com and purchase her latest book at your local bookstore or touchingtwoworlds.com. Contact Us: Email: amgits.reverse@gmail.com Instagram: @brushcreekthrivers Facebook: From Survivor to Thriver

Everyone has been affected by grief at some point in life. You may have experienced a devastating loss of a friend or family member or felt America's collective grief during the pandemic, a contentious election, and news of war. In grief, we are saddled between two worlds. One in which we feel devastating loss. In the other, we show up for work, go on vacation, watch funny movies and give ourselves permission to feel joy and laughter. Here to help us navigate these two worlds is my friend Dr. Sherry Walling. Sherry is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss and conflict. In today's episode, we discuss: Sherry's second book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss.  Why leaders may have a hard time addressing mental health topics with their teams How Sherry personally experienced grief and loss (and its effect on her career) Why the Great Resignation was a wake-up call for employers Comparative suffering, compartmentalization, and what it means for us to “touch two worlds” Here are other resources I mention:  Order Touching Two Worlds today! The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together ZenFounder & MindCurious podcasts Follow Sherry on social media @SherryWalling Stay connected to Diary of a Doer: Have you subscribed to my podcast? If the answer is no, I'd love for you to subscribe. Diary of a Doer is full of stories of business, some behind the scenes, and freaking amazing guests. If you're feeling really generous, I'd love for you to give me a review over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps me out a ton! If you like this episode, you may be interested in:How to Lead When You're in a Hard Season of Life (Season 3, Episode 15)Unapologetically Build a Business On Your Own Terms (Season 3, Episode 11)The Retention Roadmap: Encourage (Season 3, Episode 03) Schedule a FREE strategy call! A Leader's New Hire Checklist Connect with Priority VA Follow me at @Trivinia  

So how are entrepreneurs doing lately? Dr. Sherry Walling joins the show for the second time around to give some insight into the state of entrepreneurship today, including whether entrepreneurs are re-evaluating their lives and businesses as the world emerges from the pandemic. As a Clinical Psychologist that specializes in helping entrepreneurs with their mental health, and the founder of the ZenFounder.com podcast, she has a unique finger on the pulse of what it's like to be an entrepreneur in the world today. Listen in as we talk about some of the most common myths that entrepreneurs tell themselves, what it can look like to balance work and personal life successfully as an entrepreneur, and whether it is actually more stressful to be an entrepreneur today than at any other time. We also explore grief and psychedelics, including the strategies that Sherry personally used to grieve and how she uses psychedelics therapeutically in her practice. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/3RLT4Wo Interested in our Private Community for 7-Figure Store Owners?  Learn more here.   Want to hear about new episodes and eCommerce news round-ups?  Subscribe via email.

Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, author, and mental health advocate. Her company,ZenFounder, helps entrepreneurs and leaders navigate transition, rapid growth, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts theZenFounderpodcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She is also the host ofMind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care via psychedelics. Her best-selling book,The Entrepreneur's Guide toKeeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her soon-to-be-released new book,Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for finding wholeness in the aftermath of loss. Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist. Sign up for 10% off of Shrink Rap Radio CE credits at the Zur Institute

Relationship expert and ZenFounder team member Brooke Bergman hosts the podcast this week to talk about love and grief. She explores how they both impact and interact with one another, how the ability to grieve well can determine the course of your love , and things to consider when one or both partners in a relationship are grieving. Touching Two Worlds

Jack and Dr. Sherry Walling dive deep into our minds to discuss burnout, depression, the benefits of neurological diversification, the mental health fallout from Covid, psychedelic assisted therapy, and more for people who work for themselves.They also get into the mindset, values and traits of becoming and sustaining going out on your own as an entrepreneur.Dr. Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. 

What does it take to have a high performing team? How can managers be better at providing feedback to help their team grow? On this episode we sit down with Dr. Sherry Walling. Sherry is an clinical psychologist, author, aerialist and CEO of Zenfounder. She has been around entrepreneurs and business leaders for a long time learning all of the things they deal with and how to help them navigate business and life changes. During our conversation Sherry shares insights into how leaders can mold high performing teams and the importance on having a physical hobby to rewire your brain. She also talks about her new book Touching Two Worlds tackles the difficult topic of grief and how to handle it.  Enjoy.

ZenFounder team member, Brooke Bergman Parr hosts the podcast this week to talk about how the pandemic has reshaped romance. She shares reflections of the state of our relationships 2 years into Covid. From her work as a relationship expert she gives her insights and hopes to change the conversation about how we love.

We are delighted to be speaking to Sherry Walling, PhD, today. Sherry is an amazing person! She and her husband are both entrepreneurs. Sherry hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has produced 300 episodes so far, and she is also the owner of a company called ZenFounder. Sherry offers mental health advice for entrepreneurs. She has a new book coming out soon, called Touching Two Worlds. It is about mental health and ensuring that you know how to take care of yourself as a business owner.  In this episode, Sherry tells her professional story, shares her experience, and talks about her new book. She describes the similarities between trauma from combat and the trauma experienced by entrepreneurs. She also talks about using psychedelic drugs to cure trauma, what we can do to prevent burnout, and coping with grief as a business owner. We hope you enjoy our insightful conversation with Sherry Walling!  Bio Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, helps leaders and entrepreneurs navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine and has been downloaded more than 1,000,000 times. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring psychedelics and innovations in mental health care. Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Her soon-to-be-released book, Touching Two Worlds, explores new strategies for grief and wholeness in the aftermath of loss.  Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist. Sherry's story Sherry started her career as a clinical psychologist working in a traditional environment. She worked with veterans at the VA Hospital, so she developed expertise in treating trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. She found that the traumas of the people she worked with often occurred within the context of their jobs, so she often helped them work through their relationship to their jobs. Working with entrepreneurs She later started working with entrepreneurs, helping them to explore their relationships with their business or work when their business is psychologically expensive. The mental health of entrepreneurs Sherry married an entrepreneur in the software space, so she spent a lot of time with entrepreneurs. There was not much talk going on about their mental health, so at one point, it made sense for her to start considering their mental health needs. The first tipping point  Two tipping points made Sherry decide to start a business of her own. The first happened in 2017, when Aaron Swartz, the founder of Reddit, committed suicide. It upset her husband, and Sherry realized she could help by offering some skills and insight into that community. So she started a podcast, a series of conference presentations, and some open public conversations around mental health in the entrepreneurial community. The second tipping point The second tipping point happened a few years later when her husband sold his company. They moved from California to Minneapolis, so Sherry left her job and decided to do something new and different. Similarities There are many similarities between the work Sherry does today and the work she did before with veterans. Both situations involve working with highly motivated people climbing ladders and chasing goals. She found the personalities of the people she has worked with, in both situations, quite similar. Trauma Trauma consistently affects all bodies. It causes an overwhelming amount of physiological stress. Trauma from combat looks physiologically similar to trauma related to a sexual assault or a shooting incident, so a similar conversation is required to integrate the bodies of all traumatized people with their minds and hearts in their pursuit of health.  A spectrum Trauma falls on a spectrum. PTSD trauma is on one end of the spectrum because the system gets completely overwhelmed. On the other end of the spectrum, there is some homeostasis, calm, or relaxed state. The stress that comes from entrepreneurship is somewhere in the middle. Threat For some entrepreneurs, the threat of potentially losing their livelihood can be traumatic. Psychedelic drugs to cure trauma In research studies, the use of MDMA, or Ecstasy, has shown tremendous promise for treating PTSD. Sherry co-hosts another podcast called The Mind Curious, which addresses using psychedelics for mental health. Burnout prevention Sherry recommends activities like play, exercise, and meditation to prevent burnout because those activities provide balance for the brain. The future Sherry thinks we will see a combination of hybrid, remote, and in-person for work in the future. Grief Business owners should be a little more authentic than they usually permit themselves to be around grief. Grief usually requires stopping and being still for a while. If you are a customer-facing professional or deal with people in your job, create corners in your life where you have space for grief. Sherry's new book In Sherry's new book, Touching Two Worlds, she wrote about what was happening in her life after losing both her dad and her brother within a few months. It contains memoirs and her thoughts as a psychologist on coping with grief a little better. It is due to come out in July.   Connect with Eric On LinkedIn On Facebook On Instagram On Website   Connect with Dr. Sherry Walling On Zen Founder Podcast and The Mind Curious Podcast On the ZenFounder website On her website

To celebrate the 300th episode milestone, Rob joins Sherry to talk about the evolution of the podcast and reflect on what it has meant to them. They discuss some of their favorite episodes as well as what the future holds for ZenFounder.

This week's episode is hosted by Brooke Bergman, a ZenFounder team member and relationship specialist. Brooke talks about some practical ways you can improve your mental health and prevent problemsbefore they arise. She discusses strategies and dives deep on the differences between flow state and non-flow state exercises.

Due to the covid-19 landscape more people than ever have left their jobs and plan on creating their own opportunities. Having been recently contacted by Intuit Inc. to be involved in a campaign to help raise awareness around the unique challenges and needs of early stage entrepreneurs, Sherry shares her insights on the topic in this episode.

What Are The Real Qualities You Need To Be a Successful Entrepreneur? Next Thursday, October the 28th at 9 am PST we will be interviewing Sherry Walling PhD of the "Zen Founder" & "Mind Curious" podcasts You can join us live on WP-Tonic's Facebook group page and YouTube, where you be able to watch the whole interview (plus bonus content) live we will be discussing the real qualities needed to be an effective entrepreneur or leader, is social media damaging us and our children, and education, plus IQ testing. It should be a fascinating interview please join us. Dr. Sherry Walling is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, best-selling author, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental wellness resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate the transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience. She hosts the ZenFounder podcast, which has been called a “must listen” by both Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine. She is also the host of Mind Curious, a podcast exploring innovations in mental health care and the new science of psychedelics.Her best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Shit Together, combines the insight and warmth of a therapist with the truth-telling mirth of someone who has been there. Dr. Walling is an expert in trauma, stress, and burnout and her research has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Traumatic Stress Sherry and her husband, Rob, reside in Minneapolis where they spend their time driving their children to music lessons. She has also been known to occasionally perform as a circus aerialist. Rob Walling the joint founder of Drip and the host of the popular podcast "Start-up For Rest of Us." https://www.sherrywalling.com/

Are you a firm owner with feelings of burnout? Are you an attorney with work-life boundary issues? It's so common and easy for us attorneys to let our mental health take a backseat to our work and our businesses. Dr. Sherry Walling helps smart people do hard things. She is a clinical psychologist, speaker, podcaster, angel investor, entrepreneur, yoga teacher, and mental health advocate. Her company, ZenFounder, provides mental health-related resources to leaders and entrepreneurs as they navigate transition, loss, conflict, or any manner of complex human experience.  Sherry joins us to help navigate the mental pitfalls of legal entrepreneurship and practice. We discuss the subtle exhaustion, stress, and burnout that founder/owners experience, and the choices we make about boundaries and workload management. There are ways to deal with the mental-health pain points of running your own firm and reset your approach in a healthy way, and Sherry delivers a lot of insight. These are incredibly important topics that affect every interaction of your business and certainly affect your client service. All that said, this conversation isn't a 30-minute slog - we keep it light and hopefully you connect with a lot of what we cover. I think you will. Find Sherry at https://www.sherrywalling.com or on the ZenFounder podcast here: https://zenfounder.com/category/episodes/ FiveStarCounsel.com Get our FREE client service whitepaper! Join the Five Star Counsellors FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1575616019297055 Here's a link for you to get 20% off your first year of using Text Expander! - https://fivestarcounsel.com/textexpander  

Layout catch Sherry talks about what she is learning running her business/professional life and through trapeze training. For her trapeze training is her play. Play is important to how she conceptualizes well being and mental health. Play helps people feel hopeful, helps people rest, and restores motivation. In this episode Sherry gives some lessons trapeze […] The post Episode 273: Trapeze and the Circus of Leadership appeared first on ZenFounder.

In this episode Sherry asks the question, how do people heal in the aftermath of terrible experiences? So many of us are in the process of trying to re-calibrate and re-inordinate after a major time of up-hovel, grief, and recovery. Sherry shares a personal story that she hopes can provide insight and demonstrate some key […] The post Episode 272: Speaking Your Truth to Heal and Grow appeared first on ZenFounder.

Sherry talks with Emily Fletcher, the founder of Ziva Meditation and a leading expert in meditation for performance. They talk about Emily’s upcoming program zivaKIDS!, a new resource that helps kids learn to meditate. zivaKIDS!   The post Episode 271: Turning Kids into Meditating Superheros with Emily Fletcher appeared first on ZenFounder.

Sherry talks with David Burkus, author and former business school professor who holds a doctorate in strategic leadership, about his new book “Leading From Anywhere: The Essential Guide to Managing Remote Teams”. They discuss the opportunities of having a fully remote company, building culture remotely, tracking productivity and more. David’s Book   The post Episode 270: Leading from Anywhere with David Burkus appeared first on ZenFounder.

http://microconfremote.com Startup Founders In Cars Getting Coffee: Founder Origin Stories Dr. Sherry Walling has spent nearly 300 episodes on her podcast, ZenFounder, talking about the in’s and out’s of the founder psychology. That, along with a doctorate in clinical psychology and years of working with entrepreneurs, has helped her put together a couple of avatars for the variety of founders you see in the startup work. Join her and Rob as they talk about the origin stories of many founders, and see which one you relate most to. If you want to join in on the conversation with over 1400 other founders, join MicroConf Connect, a slack community space where you can meet founders from around the globe working on cool products in a sustainable way. Head over to http://microconfconnect.com for more details. This video was recorded on September 1, 2020 in Minneapolis MN. All proper social distancing, PPE, and health and safety measures were taken in the production of this show. Note, this is not a live session, so calls for questions, survey, etc… are all pre-recorded.

Today, another serial entrepreneur, Rob Walling, joins us to discuss founding and generally running a bootstrap startup. We sat down and talked to Rob about his journey of getting his software startup off the ground, developed, and eventually sold with no outside funding. Rob Walling is not only the co-founder of Drip, which recently sold for eight figures, he also writes a blog and hosts two podcasts for startups. He is most known for starting, running and selling Drip but he has also bought and sold several smaller SaaS applications, including HitTail. Finally, Rob is co-founder of Microconf, a bi-annual conference for software startups. Rob's goal is to continue to acquire new businesses while maintaining the time-clock free lifestyle his years of software startup and acquisition experience have afforded him. Episode Highlights: The story behind Drip and what led Rob into marketing automation. Building and growing a SaaS company. Launching a new software business without a lot of staff or cash. Building the automation that ended up being the key factor that got Drip on the consumer radar. How the company managed to compete against the larger players. The luxury of being a small team and working primarily in person. Why Rob would now choose remote over local. Tips for hiring high quality candidates that fit in with your company's principles. When you know it is time to scale up your startup. Knowing when you have something that people really want. How to recognize when the option to sell comes on the radar. Knowing when you've found the right buyer. The importance of putting all the deal-breakers on the table and sticking to your guns. What small startups learn in the acquisition and transition process and how that changes their teams. The story behind Microconf, Rob's bi-annual global software conference unlike any other. Transcription: Joe: So this morning we were deep into a program called GetDrip and it's what we use for our automated email sequences. And I understand you had the founder of that gentleman … with that software as a service program on the podcast that's all right? Mark: That's right and I think a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with Rob Walling. He writes over at Software by Rob. He is the host over at Start Ups for the Rest of Us Podcast. He's the founder or co-founder I should say of MicroConf the SaaS conference. He is also the founder of HitTail an SEO software and of course Drip – Email Marketing Automation; one of the leading email marketing automation softwares out there which was acquired by Leadpages a few years ago in an eight figure acquisition. So really cool guy, tons of experience in a lot of different areas especially in that start up environment. And Joe you and I like to have these calls with people … these conversations with people where we try and like pull out a certain lesson or something else. Remember the episode with Mike Jackness and the crazy high open rates and returns that he gets on his Facebook marketing. I went into this without any specific agenda. I just want to talk to Rob about his story and kind of the adventure he's been on since he started up Drip and some of the other things as well. But we didn't get into much else because we just kind of talked about his journey with Drip which was fascinating. And one of the things to think about with Drip, they started off in a world where there was really big competitors. You had Infusionsoft, you had Klaviyo that was still big at the time, you had MailChimp which was absolutely a monster, AWeber which had been around forever. And here you have this little start up with no funding just a handful of coders working out of basically a closet as it were. And they ended up blowing up into one of the biggest email marketing automation softwares out there and being acquired for eight figures by Leadpages a few years later. And so we talked a lot about how they do it … how do they go through that, how does he hire people? We covered a lot of territory but it was fascinating. Joe: Well I think you said founder maybe five or six times there so I would think you would have to be fascinating when you're founding that many companies and that successful. So I don't think anybody wants to hear you and I talk about this anymore. Let's just go right to Rob. Mark: Yeah let's get to him. Mark: Rob thanks for coming on. Rob: It's my pleasure thanks for having me. Mark: All right so you've listened at a couple of the episodes of the Quiet Light Podcast you know how we work. Why don't you give people a quick introduction as to who you are? Rob: Yeah so my name is Rob Walling and I'm a serial software entrepreneur probably most known for running … founding and selling Drip which is email marketing or marketing automation software. I've also or run a number of other SaaS apps including HitTail which is an SEO tool. I co-founded MicroConf which is a conference for self-funded startups. And I have a couple of podcasts. One's called Start Ups for the Rest of Us and the idea there is to help people … give people an option in starting software and SaaS companies that's like you don't need to raise funding to do it. And that podcast has been running since 2010 so we have like 400 something episodes. Another one is called ZenFounder it's with my wife who's a psychologist and we talk a lot about just trying to stay sane while running a business. Mark: Well trying to stay sane while running a business that's a pretty hard thing to be able to do. Rob: It is, yeah. Mark: Yeah. That's pretty cool so we have a lot that we could talk about here. I want to talk a little bit about just building and growing a SaaS business. But one thing I want to start off with here is you're kind of like a member of the very old guard when it comes to Internet entrepreneurs. When I started in the online world it was kind of expected that you do everything right? You code, you market, you design, and you do everything top to bottom and it's a lot harder to do that today but you've been [inaudible 00:04:35.0] keeping up with that. So are you still actively doing a lot of the coding? Rob: I am not. I backed away from it. I … you know we'll software professionally for a paycheck from about 2008 and I really enjoyed that time and it basically gave me a leverage and a little bit of savings to be able to start acquiring businesses. I mean that's what a lot of people don't know is I really only started a couple of software companies. I've bought way more than I … products and websites and software SaaS apps than I started so … but around let's say 2011, 2012 it just became … it just was no longer worth it for me to code. My time is more valuable doing all the other stuff … that pulling the big levers to move the business rather than sitting behind a [inaudible 00:15:19.12] even though I love it. I still write code on the weekends though. I hack with PHP scripts; I was scraping Twitter feeds and trying to do sentiment analysis. I was … it's just myself having fun. It's just fun to build things but I don't … I have a push production code in probably five years. Mark: Yeah, I used to code … I started to code out of necessity when I first was an entrepreneur and at first, I had no money so I was like I need to build this … I think I built a very basic pay per click search engine and kind of advertising platform. I did that and pearled all things and then yeah again self-taught myself and since then I've missed doing it but I just don't have the time to jump back in. So the fact that you're doing it on the weekends [inaudible 00:05:58.8] for sure. So let's talk a little bit about building and growing a SaaS company because you've done it a couple times, you've done it successfully, and maybe also I didn't know that you were active in the buying world so let's talk a little bit about that. Let's talk about what you look for when you are buying this SaaS Company and how do you go about some of those code challenges. So let's start with a basic question; ball park number how many businesses do you … would you say that you bought over the last five or six years? Rob: Let's go back a little further because see … once I started Drip which was 2012 so I bought zero in the last six years. But before then from let's say 2005 was my first acquisition and 2011 was my last so over that six year period I probably purchased I would say 25 or 30 different. They're either software products, SaaS, or even … I mean I bought like half a dozen Ad Sense websites back in the day. So I really enjoyed it. I mean the idea of being able to skip product market fit and not have to do all the hard work up front and have a great history has always been attractive to me. Especially if someone … I mean when I was writing softwares I was doing, I was contracted, I was doing 125 an hour or 150 an hour sometimes and I mean my time was super valuable. I was booked 40, 50 hours a week and so I was like wait let me get this straight I couldn't … back then it was Flippa, right? I mean it was before you guys, before FE and other folks, and I would go on Flippa and pay 18 months of net profit and sometimes I got totally hosed on it because Flippa can be a little bit dangerous but the ones that worked were life changing for me. By 2009 I was full time just on products. Sorry, that was a long answer but that's the value I see in acquiring over. I've told my wife like if I do this again … because I don't know if I'm going to do it [inaudible 00:07:44.5] have to but it's just a lot of work, there's no chance I'm doing it from scratch. Zero chance that I will do something from scratch for the rest of my life. I will always acquire from this point on. Mark: And obviously, we are big believers in that. I mean that from product fit and like you said and doing our work is difficult. When you started Drip … when did you start Drip? Rob: We worked on the code in December of 2012 and then we launched in 2013. Mark: Okay, and you were originally just sort of an add-on or a layer on top of existing software programs right? Rob: That's right. Mark: So like AWeber and I think mail Chimp was one of the main vehicles. Rob: Yeah, we were just like a pop up and auto responders but we also fed into mails because we didn't … we couldn't even send broadcast emails at the time. Mark: Wow, all right so then you layered on top of that and did you always have in mind with Drip that it was going to be an automation; the sort of kind of logic sequence. Rob: No, we didn't. And in fact, we resisted it pretty heavily because I didn't want to get into the marketing automation. It's just a big … at least in my eyes at the time it seemed like this big, enterprisey, clunky, old, really hyper competitive space with a bunch of funny competitors; just not a market I want to get into. I tend to like really tight niche markets where you can just own that thing and you don't have to … you're not fighting red water every day with someone else. It's not a feature race all the time. But it became clear about a year into running Drip … a year, year and a half that that was where the whole space was going. And not building that would have just relegated us to being undifferentiated; everybody just had another major product and by building an automation and building it in a way that was more elegant and … or you know at least I think so, more elegant, easier to use than Infusionsoft and Active Campaigns and some of the other competitors it … we became, that's how we got on the radar. I mean we were an unfunded marketing automation platform in essence. We didn't raise any money and we were five people basically in a closet in Fresno, California and we were number 12 on Data Analysis Marketing Automation List. And all the 11 ahead of us had raised … decked a million, some had raised nine figures, I mean it was crazy. Mark: Well, that's one of the things I find fascinating about your story. When I first saw Drip kind of pop up you had these really large players out there that you knew had significant revenues coming in, significant funding, very large programming teams of developers, how did you guys manage to stay agile like that at such a small footprint of a company but still put out incredible code? What were some of the things … I'm asking you to go back here and kind of think back but [inaudible 00:10:28.3] so what was all those things that you did to be able to compete against these larger players? Rob: Yeah, that's a really good question because Derek and I … so Derek is my co-founder with Drip and we are both software people. I've written code since I was a kid and so had he. And so we built the company. It was very much a product focused company you know a lot of [inaudible 00:10:47.7] tech companies launch and they're very marketing focused and the software is kind of a piece of crap. And then you'll see them get legacy over the years and eventually they can't ship features so they ship very very slowly, one or two releases a year. And for a SaaS app that's just not the way you need to do it. So Derek and I from day one built a very strong foundation. It took six months to get Drip into people's hands and it really … we could have done it in three months but it would have been shitty code. And so we focused early on of not having a legacy, we took our time to build a really solid foundation architecturally, and then the first three hires that I made were Derek who was a contractor at the time and then became W2 and then eventually got chairs and was retroactively made him a co-founder and then two other developers. So when we were a team of four which was three developers and me and I did everything else. And that allowed us without the legacy; it allowed us to ship really fast. We were super agile. We used to get hub issues and we just … we were, I mean we would hammer out features. We would hammer out an entire integration in less than a day. Because there was one dude who had built … he built 35 integrations for us. And it was just this relentless focus, there were no meetings, there were no … if there was a question we stood up at a white board. It's a luxury of A. being a small team and B. being in person. And I know if I build a team again it's going to be really remote but we move way faster because we were in person two to three days a week and then we're all at our houses the other two or three. And it was just perfect blend of like speed. I mean our velocity it's funny you call that out because so many people call that out and even [inaudible 00:12:22.5] Leadpages called that out early on and said how are you … you're like five people, how are you shipping this many features? And we were shipping multiple features a week and it was just getting in there. Our architecture was stable and the developers … also we hired really good developers we focused very much on that; Derek and I being two developers. We were super rigorous and super picky about who we hired and so there's a lot goes into it and then you know I'm kind of been rambling but it was really this relentless focus on the product comes first and the product is what is we're going to be really good at. And at the same time and I have some regrets you know of like I think I should have marketed it harder early on. I think I should have hired a marketer that was better than me. I think that you know there were certain things now that I look back that it's like didn't we focus on the product a little too much? But I don't know in the end I think it worked out. Mark: Obviously it worked out. And this is kind of an interesting thing I've seen with software companies. I've read a book by the founder of Zoosk [inaudible 00:13:16.3] and they talked about their ability to push out code and features rapidly. It would be we've come up with that idea in the morning and pushed it out by midafternoon because they were able to do that. What sort of approval process did you guys have in place to be able to ensure that you weren't just getting all sorts of really conflicting features? Rob: We had … well A. both Derek and I knew every feature that was shipping. And we knew that until we hit … I mean even … so I left Drip about three months ago it was acquired by the Leadpages you know I think it's kind of the punch line that some people know about that, and even when we were 10 or 12 engineers Derek and I still knew everything we were shipping and so it's just a product management. To be honest when there's only three or four developers you can keep it all on your head or on a whiteboard you don't even need that much process. Now soon as you tip to four or five then you need some type of can ban you know or something and then when you hit … when we hit seven or eight it was like all right we do need a weekly meeting now; 30 minute weekly meeting. But we had no standing meetings, none of that. I mean it was like you're writing code 100% of the time or you're talking about writing code. So we also had extensive unit test coverage. We had I think three lines of unit testing code of unit test for every line of production code so it allowed … that allowed us the safety of like pretty sure this is going to break anything because one of these tests would have caught it and then we do a sanity check on the server and push it. We … you know knock on wood we have very few over the five-ish, five and a half year run like production bugs that really did some damage. And we get a little things here and there but we only had maybe two that I can remember. It was like a scheduling issue, it's like oh crap we forgot to send emails for an hour like that's a big deal you know and that happened maybe once and there is [inaudible 00:14:58.5] so code quality was high and we focused on that. Mark: So you mostly run your team local to some extent but at some point when you started to grow and before the acquisition with lead pages did you have a remote team? Rob: We did yeah. Yes so there were 10 of us total by the acquisition and there were five of us in Fresno in office. And like I said we came in about two to two and a half days a week to that office and worked from home the other days and that was a great balance of there was enough time to whiteboard, there were enough days, every other day you're going to see some people and ask questions but then you could go home and get a ton of work done right. And then we have five people who are all over the place really [inaudible 00:15:38.5] guy in Mexico and we had a developer in another part of California and somebody in New York and stuff so it was … it worked out. Mark: So given … you said if you start something again here in the future it will probably be remote even though you're not really convinced that's necessarily the better way to go about it; why is that? Why would you choose a remote in the light of the fact that you might think it's not the best way to go? Rob: Yeah, I think the ideal way is that everybody can meet in a room a day or two a week. As I've said that was the best working environment I've ever had. I would go remote because it's just so hard to find the right talent at the right price in any given metro area. It's like you can go to Silicon Valley and yes there's a lot of engineers but damn are they expensive. Or you can come to Minneapolis and they're going to be less expensive but how many ruby developers are actually here and how many are going to leave Target or Best Buy to come work for me? It's going to be tough. If I'm making a nationwide search or even as I tip tend to go three time zones in either direction, three hours in either direction from where I am; so I'll go north to south. [inaudible 00:16:40.6] hire in Canada or Mexico Central South America you're going to just find really people who sometimes live out in the middle of nowhere and if you're able to work with them remotely then they can ship some really good stuff for you. Mark: Yeah hiring people is always a challenge. I don't think I've ever talked to an entrepreneur and business owner and I'll throw myself in that ring as well, hiring people has an absolute pain. Do you have any insights that you want to give us right now? Rob: Oh my gosh. We could do all episode on this. Mark: You really could do all episode on this and so we'll keep it a little bit short because I want to talk a little bit about MicroConf and also more a bit of the history of Drip but this is more for me [inaudible 00:17:19.9]. Rob: Totally, yeah I know some quick tips. One thing that Derek and I did was we hired a lot around personality. We really want … especially when we were small it was like I want to be able to hang around in a room with [inaudible 00:17:36.9] hours a day [inaudible 00:17:38.6] I don't do that or I've worked at don't do that they really do hire based on skills and talent and as a result we passed over some pretty good developers. But we could just tell they were edgy or they were a little to opinionated or let you know they were just things it was like we were super super careful. So we did hire slow and then our hiring process took a long time. We also presented it for what it was. The job postings were written very … almost like a blog post or like it was very conversational, oh it was more like a sales letter it would start my job descriptions and say it was all you language, it was like you're an excellent developer the world is your oyster, you can go work at any company you want but here's why you don't want to work at an agency because that da da da da da, you know you could go here but come work for us, you can be fully remote you can be … and then I present the benefits. It was very much like either magic or writing a sales letter where you present the you language and then you're going to present the problem and then what are the solution like come work for us. So as a result we got really high quality candidates and it was a very … I bet I would say look we do not pay, don't come here if you want to make what you are going to make at a Fortune 500 company. We do not pay these exorbitant developer wages but here's what you get in exchange, you get the freedom to do this, there are no set working hours, you're fully remote we're going to send you a MacBook Pro, we're going to buy you two Dell monitors, we're going to … you know just all the stuff that; some developers don't want that. They just want the maximum paycheck and other developers loved it, there were people who came and said I can't get this kind of flexibility in work. So having … like what is your differentiator? That's what we figured out early on and we put it right from the start in the job description of like you … this is either awesome for you or this sounds terrible. And then the last thing on and I'll stop is one thing that I learned once we went into Leadpages, because our hiring process took a long time. It was 20, 30 hours a week for me at times and once we got to Leadpages there were two in-house recruiters, just full time recruiters who were freaking phenomenal. And I … one thing that I would do if I were to do again is try to find someone like that on an hourly basis and not a contingency recruiter where they charge at 15% of the salary but just find somebody on Upwork or whatever who's 50 bucks, 75 bucks an hour who I can have … I can train to do all these stuff, or they can train me frankly. Because once we get to Leadpages like they had bat it down. I mean they grew 50 people a year for a few years. So they had that process down and they taught me a ton of things that I wished I had outsourced more of that in essence is what I'm saying. I felt like as a founder I had to do all the hiring. But it turns out as long as I did the last mile and I would thumbs up or thumbs down someone it was plenty good and sort of the funnel was filtered so much for me. You know by the time we worked and we paid and so I was like I shouldn't have been doing that type of funnel stuff and hiring process. Mark: Yeah, I can tell you, I just went through the process of hiring somebody on for Quiet Light Brokerage and typically with Quiet Light the people that come on and work with us they approach me about coming on as a broker. But we needed some work on the marketing side and so I put out a job application. It's a full time job and going through and trying to vet these people and you know you want to hire slowly but you've got a bunch of other stuff on your to do list. Outsourcing that and if you're able to do so makes sense. So the tip that you gave as far as writing the job post in terms of you … you're the second business owner that I've talked to recently that has given that tip. I think it's a phenomenal way to go about it instead of just saying we need this, we need that, we … or you know this is what we need given the benefits that you attract that top talent is a good suggestion. Okay, let's talk and go back again to Drip here, when did you realize that this was not just like a little project that you were going to have as like a super niche product and really something that could play with some of the big boys? I mean now you guys would be direct competitors with a Mail Chimp and with an AWeber and those guys have had to play catch up to you frankly in some ways or to what you built. So when was that realization? What made you turn and say okay I'm going to go all in on this for a while? Rob: Yeah, it was a very difficult decision and it was a hard one to make as I said because I've had a lot of lifestyle businesses and I value my lifestyle very highly. And it was a decision of boy am I going to continue to have a lifestyle business or am I going to scale up like a startup? Do I want to go all in on this? And I was talking with Derek about it too but it was really a turning point for me. So we started doing our early access in mid-2013 and we launched to our launch list in November of 2013, and it took us until August of 2014 to hit product market fit. We were just struggling you know just adding and it was when we added automations, the initial automation there wasn't even the work for us that are all visual it was just kind of almost like if this [inaudible 00:22:22.1] stuff. That was game changing because we started growing I don't know 20% month over month. We're already flailing around a bit until June as we start rolling out missions then it was like all right now we're going 10%, now we're going 15%, now we're going 20% and it was like boy this is becoming a fact. You know this is we have built something that people really want and we at that point we weren't ahead of … you know Infusionsoft had a visual builder and Active Campaign did too and I don't know it was Klaviyo I mean there were competitors around. We weren't ahead of them but we had just done a very elegant job. You know it's kind of like we had built a really easy to use platform like on Mail Chimp and we added automation to it in a way that really didn't exist quite in the same way. So that was when it was really towards the latter half year of 2014 it was like man this thing is growing fast and we have to hire lift the staff up like that was the realization. Mark: Was that the point in time when you decided that possibly selling was on your radar? Rob: No selling came on the radar in 2015. And it was we were staffing up and I realized [inaudible 00:23:29.7] Derek and I have a lot of conversations that's like we can't hire fast enough. Like we don't have the money you know. Running Drip was … especially with the staffing and trying to keep up with everyone else it was just an expensive thing. I mean SaaS apps obviously have great margins and we had a great gross margin but our net margin was not very good because I kept hiring. You know it 10 grand of MRR and now I go out and hire another developer every time because I know we have to keep up with all these competitors. So that was when I realized you know we had a need to raise an angel round, like a seat round probably half a million or we may want to think about answering one of these e-mails we're getting to acquire us. So we got maybe five pretty serious inquiries, we got more than that they were just you know whatever. You get weekly funding offers from a junior rep at a VC firm and every couple of months we get an email of like we'd like to acquire you and about five of them were people who companies or funds who actually had the money to do it. And that was when it was coming all right so what we do, do we take chips off the table you know cash out in essence, have a good outcome for us and the employees or do we push more tips and basically raise funding you know to at a valuation? Because we probably would have raised funding similar to the valuation we're going to be acquired at and that puts you in for two three four five more years of doing it. So that was a big decision process for us and frankly, I was burning out a bit. I mean I was struggling to run the company. I didn't delegate or outsource as much as I should have. Next time around I would it a little differently for sure. Mark: So how did you decide Leadpages was going to be the partner that you're going to work with? You had five serious potential acquirers. Rob: Yeah, Leadpages was just the best strategic fit and I knew the CEO Clay Collins. We kind of ran in overlapping circles. He was in like the Internet marketing space and I was in more of the startup space but we overlapped a bit. He had been on my podcast and stuff so it wasn't just like oh we have these five suitors and we're going to pick Leadpages. It was kind of like well let's kind of follow each of these tracks you know and then we had … and it didn't all happen at once right it was over the course of maybe 18 months that like these five conversations happened. And so we just kind of followed each of them to the logical extent and the one that made the most sense and just kept coming back up again and again because deals fall apart like this right? Because someone puts a number on a piece of paper and you're just like yeah that's nowhere close and then it's like all right well then we're out you know. And then two months later you get an email and it's like hey so we want to rekindle the … and that's how these things go right. So it took 13 months from the first email when Clay reached out to when the deal closed. And it was really about six, seven months of hard negotiation during that. Mark: Sure yeah and that walking away right? That's so typical on a lot of these deals especially in a strategic deal, being able to walk away and you know people just set goals and objectives change over that time as well so they can re-evaluate things. What was some of the things that you learned going from a complete startup environment where you're a super agile small team that you're building and that kind of hanging on to this year past sort of growth and then being absorbed by a company that had raised tens of millions of dollars and much different sort of environment; what sort of transition was that? Rob: The transition, it was probably one of the best that I've heard about. They did a really good job of kind of leaving us alone for three to four months because we just … we were all shell shocked. I was … it was so crazy I mean we [inaudible 00:27:00.2] moved here and then go on [inaudible 00:27:02.5] pick off [inaudible 00:27:03.0] people we were and it was just this culture shock for us. So they made it as good as it could have been I think. They didn't screw with the product nobody said [inaudible 00:27:11.5] all our people came on board and joined the team. So I feel like the transition went as good as it could have but it was still hard on me and hard on some of the team members because it … we have been just this tiny little team and then you get kind of absorbed into 170 person company. But I mean to Clay's credit he set it up really well. So I learned a bunch of stuff … the interesting transition, there was a mental transition at a certain point is we've gone from basically being kind of cash strapped to having tens of millions of dollars in the bank as you said from the funding they raised. And I just realized we had to think about things totally differently. Like I needed to stop every week checking our AWS bill and trying to turn servers off and adjust things on the weekends. It's like that was no longer … it was not worth saving $500 a month for all that time. And you have to be cognizant of the money but it's like 500 bucks a month is just a rounding error. They probably spend that on toilet paper in a month and it's like focus on some … if I'm going to spend that mental damage do it on something that grows the bottom line or that improves the product. It was things like that and we … when we can finally pay everybody market rate salaries it was so so cool. We had to hire a lot of junior people and train them up [inaudible 00:28:22.5] up so we … it took us a while for people to really hit the ground running. And once we got here and it's like oh man we can pay market rate. We're able to hire senior engineers for the first time ever and that was another game changer of like the luxury of having someone come in and like come with code three days into their job because the code base is solid and they are super advanced. They've been doing it for seven years instead of six months like some of the folks that … who are great developers now but they were just very junior when we hired them. Mark: You have a lot of other projects besides Drip obviously over the years. You've had Start Ups for the Rest of Us, you've had MicroConf; they were totally cool with you just continuing on with those projects? Rob: Yeah that was the nice part is you know as Clay and I talked through the whole acquisition it was like … I was like Clay here are my deal breakers number one we can't … I'm not going to fire anybody like I do not want to lay people off and we didn't. Number two I do not want to screw our customers like please don't pivot us into some crazy niche or leave the customers behind that we already have, shut the product down you know let's not do damage to that. And [inaudible 00:29:23.3] deal breakers although I have like a price, oh I want it … I said it kind of needs to be for enough money that I never have to work again. Like that was one of my things and so we figured all that out. Oh and that was … the third one I was like look I do MicroConf and he knew that and I do the podcast and I don't spend that much time on them. In all honesty like the podcast is about 30, 40 minutes a week and MicroConf typically was off hours and it might be 20 hours aside from when I would go there [inaudible 00:29:54.0] offer and he said yeah that's good. And I said I do a lot of public speaking too and I said you know I'll be representing Drip and Leadpages at that point so it's actually a … perhaps of benefit to the company so it was good. That would've been a really … I was going say be tough but I just that would've been a deal breaker. I don't think I would have not stunned the podcast or the conferences it's just something I've done forever you know. Mark: Yeah, let's talk about MicroConf for a quick … for people that don't know what is MicroConf? Rob: Yeah MicroConf is a conference that's run twice a year in Las Vegas and then in Europe and it is a conference for self-funded startups, so bootstrap startups. And we're not anti-funding. It doesn't mean that companies that raise funding can't come because certainly a lot of … 80% of what funded and unfunded companies worry about is the same thing. It's hiring and it's marketing and it's building a good product and then there's just 20% percent that we just don't talk much about at MicroConf. And so we get about … we have a Growth Edition which is for businesses that are providing a full time income or more. So it's a lot of six seven and some eight figure businesses but it's definitely smaller. Its SaaS focused but we do get e-commerce people we do get Word Press plugins and info marketers and stuff. And that conference the growth one is about 250 people and it sells out every year. And then we have the Starter Edition which is from idea to full time income and that's at the same time right around the same time in Vegas and then we have of course the Europe edition which is here in a few months in Croatia; it's in October. And I'm excited to go to Croatia and now we started selling tickets for that a couple weeks ago. So we try to get … we wanted to build a conference that we wanted to attend. Like Mike and I who was my co-host with the conference, it was like I go to these conferences and there's multi-tracks and there's the vendor halls and there's all this bullshit. I really just want to come, I want to meet entrepreneurs. I want the attendees to be top notch. I don't want it to be the marketing guy, the C level guy from this oracle or it's like that no that doesn't help me you know. I want the attendees to almost all be entrepreneurs in a similar space. And then we want to keep it small. They tend to be about 120 to 250 attendees. And then we want to get really good speakers that may not … these are not like the big name speaker who comes up and pumps you up and you know there's time and place for that but it's super super tactical and so that's what we've … it's kind of like if you want tactics and some inspiration come to our conference. If you want just pure inspiration and you just want to get pumped up then go see Tony Robbins or go to the World Domination Summit. It's just a very very different thing. So that's my spiel on it. That's MicroConf.com if folks are interested. Mark: Yeah absolutely and I absolutely love those smaller conferences the 100 to 150 attendees, you know 200 attendees but where it's really focused again on the people that you get to know from those conferences. I just find that you do get to know people so much better and the partnerships and relationships that come out of that more than pay for any sort of price that you're going to have to pay. Your location is Croatia, are you kidding? That's incredible. Rob: Ain't that awesome? Yeah, I'm stoked. We did it in Barcelona … we did in Prague for two years, Barcelona for two years, and then we did it in Lisbon, Portugal last year, and this year we're upping the game. It's going to be a little harder to get to but man we're stoked because I've never been to Croatia. We do try to like put it in places that A. people would want to go to but that we want to go to as well. You know it's an excuse to visit a cool country. Mark: Yeah absolutely, all right we're up against a clock here but what does the future hold for you? You left there a few months ago. Rob: Yup. Mark: What are you looking at the doing here in the future? Rob: I don't know yet. I started writing a book about my experience. I've written a couple books about software startups and that kind of stuff. And I started writing another one and then I kind of … I got about 12,000 words in and I was like you know I don't know that I want to do this right now. It was all about my experience with Drip and everything and it was funny I just kind of petered out. So I don't know if I'll come back to that. I don't have a deep desire to do anything bigger than Drip. I think I'm going to take another few months off and I know something will come up and I'm probably going to acquire something is what's going to happen. And but I wanted to do something that like it needs to make money for my personality you know like I just I have to that's how we keep score right? But I kind of want to do something in like … even in the hobby space that I really enjoy. I can't imagine going back and then doing another SaaS app. It's just I've been there I've done that what's new? Like could it be a just a completely different thing that I really enjoy that it also makes some money but maybe it's not some big fancy startup that's acquired. Mark: Well awesome. Well, good luck with all of that and let's make sure that we stay in touch especially being local to each other here. But let's make sure that we stay in touch. Thanks so much for joining me. Rob: Absolutely Thanks for having me on Links and Resources: Rob's Website Startups for the Rest of Us Podcast Zen Founder Podcast Microconf Rob's blog

Today we'll be talking to Dr. Sherry Walling. A clinical psychologist, Sherry has a ridiculous amount of education and is incredibly smart. She has some great insights into us as entrepreneurs and how we operate and balance our businesses and families. Today we're going to talk about her education and her work with entrepreneurs and startups. She'll share some insights on what makes us tick and how we can look at ourselves differently. We'll also talk about questions to ask yourself before a transition and how we can balance the way we interact with our businesses and how we interact with our kids. In This Episode You'll Learn: Information about Sherry's education and how she translates this into working with entrepreneurs, which is a world with few guidelines. Some of the problems that Sherry sees with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurism and how she addresses these issues. The four main values that entrepreneurs use to decide how to spend their time and what to focus on, as well as some of the liabilities of those values. How entrepreneurs really feel about their businesses. Tips on how to diversify your passions and not focus too much on your business to the detriment of other things in your life. Ways to keep in touch with yourself through deep breathing, journaling, and self-assessment. Thoughts on planning for bad things that might happen. How opening a second or subsequent business changes an entrepreneur's mindset. Some of the topics that Sherry and her husband talk about on their podcast. Takeaways: You just have to sit down and figure out what's important to you and what you're getting out of the business in terms of passion, purpose, and satisfaction. It takes real work; diversifying isn't always fun at first, but it's necessary. You might need to have a “funeral” for your business and mourn for it if you want to be at peace with what you want to do next in life. It's vital to take time to take a deep breath, meditate, go to the gym, or whatever it takes to self-reflect and take yourself outside of the day-to-day “doing.” Links and Resources: The Value Vantage ZenFounder Podcast The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your S**t Together Wait But Why – The Tail End About Sherry Walling: Dr. Sherry Walling is a licensed clinical psychologist and the co-host of the ZenFounder podcast.

Hey we've got a party episode with Rob and Sherry Walling from the podcast ZenFounder. We are going to discuss how to balance life with kids and entrepreneurship. We explore the common problems with living  with kids and keeping a business going. We also discuss how entrepreneurship affects marriage. Rob and Sherry share how they are able to keep their communication open. We also discuss how we ourselves cope with the struggles of keeping family and entrepreneurship in a fair balance. [tweetthis]Working for a boss was not even a possibility when you see that & you know entrepreneurship as the default. - Jordan[/tweetthis] Here are today's conversation points: The issues we have the public school systems. How to encourage entrepreneurship with your kids. How entrepreneurship affects marriage.   How to leave work behind at the end of the day. Why spouses aren't necessarily the best person to vent to or use as a soundboard. How kids change your goals and motivations. How to deal with burnout. How to make the shift from work time to family time. How to plan your week beforehand. The importance of giving your spouse non-kid time. [tweetthis]I find a lot more value in having Mastermind groups and friends and advisors to talk about real issues. - Brian[/tweetthis] Resources Mentioned Today: Rob Walling on Twitter Sherry Walling on Twitter ZenFounder MicroConf Vegas As always, thanks for tuning in. Head here to leave a  review in iTunes.