In This Episode:

* Bestselling author & business consultant Chris Brogan shares how depression and anxiety impact his experience as an entrepreneur* Why he always knows what he can “drop” when things get rough and what he isn’t willing to let slide* Why he has been transparent about his mental health challenges on social media and how he’s helping to reduce the stigma for others* How he approaches his conversations with others to be as supportive as he can, while also creating his own support network

I have received an outpouring of gratitude in the last 6 weeks.

Telling you that makes me quite uncomfortable and feels self-serving, but I promise there’s a point.

The messages I’ve received have thanked me for being a leader and for sharing how I’m personally processing both our public health crisis and our economic pause.

Many of these messages have also ended with something along the lines of: I hope there’s someone supporting you right now.

And that’s why I’m sharing this with you. Because, sure, I know that sharing how I feel, what I’m doing to navigate planning or marketing, and how I’m coping is helpful.

But what I think is really helpful about what I’ve been sharing?

It’s showing people that they’re not alone.

I think that’s what they’re really saying to me when they say “I hope there’s something supporting you right now.” They’re saying “you’ve made me feel like I’m not alone and I hope you don’t feel alone either.”

Because the truth is…

Leaders get lonely.

When everyone is looking to you for answers, for support, for guidance, you can feel like there’s no one to go to for your own support.

And since all small business owners are leaders in one way or another, we all feel that loneliness sometimes—or maybe, we feel it quite often.

This month, we’re tackling that feeling of loneliness and the different kinds of support we can lean on to feel grounded and whole.

We’re going to tackle 2 sides of this conversation—mental health and business owner support—and we’ll acknowledge that this conversation really has many more sides than that. I’ll share what works for me and we’ll be asking our community members to share what works for them, too.

You’ll hear from Nancy Jane Smith about living with and finding support for high-functioning anxiety which is something I certainly deal with, along with many other business owners I know. You’ll also hear a conversation between me and Startup Pregnant founder Sarah Peck about using & facilitating masterminds for support. And you’ll hear from Shirin Eskandani about finding support through coaching.

Today, we’re kicking things off with Chris Brogan, an author, speaker, and consultant who has been incredibly forthcoming about his own experience with depression and anxiety. Chris helps business owners feel less lonely by vulnerably sharing what he’s going through on a regular basis and by regularly offering his support to those who are in the throws of mental health challenges.

Post by post, conversation by conversation, Chris is doing his part of reduce the stigma of depression, anxiety, and even failure.