Over 100 founders and entrepreneurs gathered at Fishburners for Mental Health Day yesterday, in recognition of the distinctive stress felt by those involved in startups.
With the World Health Organisation citing stress as the leading cause of disability globally, Blisspot, Mealpal and Fishburners came together to create an event that equips the startup community with practical, implementable, mental and emotional wellbeing skills in order to further their capacity of resilience and therefore their business’s success.
Jason Roache, CTO of Blisspot said “Running or working in a startup dishes up a unique blend of stresses and expectations that can really snowball and affect not only your mental health, but the success of your business. The pressures, especially in the early days of starting a business are not additions to your mental load, they are multipliers. It is really important that all founders take the time to revision and ground themselves.”
Deborah Fairfull, CEO & Co-Founder added “Forging new frontiers is inherently stressful. We need to learn how to ask for help and get unstuck.”
Experts at the Fishburners hosted event, included Dr. Andrew Powell, Dr. Carmel Harrington, Anne McKeown and Morgan Webert, to tackle topics from money mindsets to sound sleep.
Dr Andrew Powell founder of The Abundance Circle, told attendees that their connection with money and earning can have significant impact on their mental health.
Dr Powell said, “unless you come from a family that has generational wealth, then you have been programmed with a bunch of limiting money beliefs. People who come from money have been programed to control resources whereas people from the working class have been programed to be resources. Most startup founders, don’t come from a family of startups. Part of their journey is stepping outside their programming which can put people into a constant cycle of stress response.”
Morgan Webert, founder of the Yoga Lifestyle reminded founder, “You are the engine behind your business. If your engine isn’t working, your business isn’t working. Self care isn’t a luxury, it is a responsibility.”
Anne McKeown, founder of 2Mpower, had a special message for the women in the room, ““Women need to be empowered for business and life, in order to find their voice and stand up and be counted. I find so many women now in Australia have given away their power and just need a little helping hand finding it again.”
This event was sponsored by Fishburners, Blisspot and Mealpal.
