Mental Health Resources for Entrepreneurs in the time of COVID

From the health crisis to the financial crisis to the looming mental health crisis, we’re facing unprecedented times with these three crisis happening all at once. While I think a lot of amazing efforts are addressing the first two, I’m becoming increasingly more concerned about the latter.

Recently, my interactions with colleagues across the board seem to carry an odd sense of cynicism and latent stress. I know personally that the groundhog day effect coupled with endless and emotionally charged zoom calls, a three month old, and a general sense of being physically trapped is definitely starting to weigh on me. I know it is for others too, and I’ve been thinking a lot about this, as it has become one of the core focus areas of Energize Colorado —an entity I’m involved with assembling some amazing relief efforts in Colorado.

I know mental health has a bad stigma tied to it. The reality is that being an entrepreneur is about the hardest job imaginable. Good days are great, and bad days can be defeating. The dynamic between those days is dramatic, and sometimes even a single day can throw you for several oscillations — from great to horrible to wonderful again, or vice versa.

In my experience, the big secret is that most every single entrepreneur I know has dealt with some level of mental health challenges throughout their journey; however, in the moment, and especially for first time founders, most are not willing to acknowledge the gravity of what they are experiencing or simply label it as a mental health issue.

I often speak with other founders about my journey — building a company while on unemployment in 2010, barely affording rent, not knowing how I was going to pay the bills, questioning my self worth, worried about letting others down, or even worse, the thought of failing after being so deeply committed to what I was doing. It eventually caught up to me after neglecting my own physical and emotional health, and I spent five days in a hospital with a super rare bone infection. I still remember sitting in the hospital bed hammering keys on my computer, refusing to stop working despite literally not being able to get out of bed without help.

I was in a bad spot and it took me several more months to realize everything I had been going through. I have always been good about hiding my emotions, and almost no one around me knew that anything was wrong. In the moment, I would have never let myself admit that what I was struggling with was genuinely a mental health issue. If it were not for my amazing girlfriend (now wife), our family, and my co-founders, it’s scary for me to think about what would have been different.

Since then, many others close to me have been vulnerable and shared their experiences about similar trying times. I find that hearing stories from people I respect can radically normalize the way I view whatever I might be going through. Perspective matters, support networks matter, and more than anything, having the courage to talk about it as a normal human experience and seek help from others when you need it is critical.

Seeking help for me often isn’t talking to a therapist, although there are a couple that have been transformational for me. Seeking help is more about recognizing how I’m feeling, having open conversations with people I love and trust, and reading/watching/hearing the stories of others.

Below are some resources that I turn to and would recommend to every entrepreneur I know to help navigate the wild ride of entrepreneurship:

• Energize Colorado — A great list of resources, and sign up for the newsletter so you can watch for a new, robust offering I’m excited about.
• Techstars Entrepreneurship & Mental Health Toolkit — it starts with four stories go watch them! A particular shoutout to a former colleague, Matt Helt who I have had long conversations with on this topic for many years.
• Jerry Colona’s Reboot Podcast & his book Leadership and the Art of Growing up — I had the chance to work with Jerry and his team over the years and am so thankful for amazing gift to help people truly see themselves.
• The GAN Founder Support Fund — I’m an Advisor to GAN and am proud of the commitment that Pat & team have made to providing meaningful support to founders across their network of accelerators around the world.
• Dr. Finney — I call her more of a CEO Coach with a degree. She is an entrepreneur from a family of entrepreneurs who really understands how to apply a degree to the specific realities founders face. She’s done a lot of work with our founders across the GCVF portfolio as well as with many accelerator cohorts. We go as far as to cover costs for coaching with Terri as part of our portfolio support to any of our founders.
• Gratitude — Perhaps the most simple and powerful tool that comes pre-installed for us all, go say thank you to someone you love or respect for something they’ve done for you lately.