Being an entrepreneur can take a toll on your mental health. Find out how you can protect yourself from possible financial and mental health strain as Shannon McLay shares her story.
Shannon is the CEO and founder of The Financial Gym, a fitness-inspired personal financial services company. She is the host of the award-winning podcast, Martinis and Your Money, and the author of Train Your Way to Financial Fitness.
In this episode, Shannon shares how in 7 years, she’s experiencing different forms of mental health challenges from building and managing her own company.
The ongoing economic crisis and protests prompted her to offer a mental health week for herself and for her staff. We discuss how she is being a trailblazer in creating a company that prioritizes the mental health and wellbeing of her staff.
She shares how she prepares and protects her mental health from all the ordeals of talking with investors and raising money. As an entrepreneur, she talks about realizing and accepting what she can only do for her business so that she can manage her wellbeing today.
She also gave advice for new entrepreneurs on how to protect themselves from financial and mental health strain.
If you’re an entrepreneur or want to be one, you don’t wanna miss this.
What You Will Learn From This Episode
- How you can protect yourself from financial and mental health strain when starting and managing your business
- Why it’s important to prioritize the mental health and wellbeing in company culture and how to do that
- What to do when your personal finances get entangled with your business and become a mess
“As I’m going through the 401(k) and realizing I was worth more dead than alive… I did literally have thoughts of like, maybe it’d be good if I got hit by a bus now.” – Shannon McLay
“We process trauma differently but to pretend like it’s not traumatic, that’s wrong. So, we’re going through trauma and we have to process it differently and I wanted my team to take time off and take a mental health week.” – Shannon McLay
“We have a team of human beings not a team of robots.” – Shannon McLay
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Timestamps
2:18 – Shannon’s background – why she started the Financial Gym and how she started it using all her money, even exhausting her 401(k)!
5:03 – How starting and managing her business affected her mental health especially today with the pandemic and the protests going on
8:50 – The point where she took a break and just spent a week for herself
11:40 – Why Shannon has to always wear make-up to work
17:35 – Why it’s important to acknowledge the mental health of your employees and create a safe space in these challenging times
21:40 – Protecting the mental health of the company as a whole
24:37 – How Shannon finds and talks with investors and raised $8.5 million
26:43 – How she prepares and protects her mental health from all the ordeals of raising money
29:15 – Realizing and acknowledging what she can only do as an entrepreneur and her general practice/routine to manage her mental health today
34:24 – Shannon’s advice to anyone who wants to become an entrepreneur and wants to prevent financial and mental health strain
36:55 – What to do when your personal finances are entangled with your business and become a mess
People Mentioned
Resources
Connect with Shannon
Connect with Melanie
- mentalhealthandwealth.com
- melanielockert.com
- Contact: mentalhealthandwealthshow@gmail.com
