Show Trailer: Welcome to Bettermental!
[00:00:00] Leanna: Welcome to Bettermental everyone. So you may not know this yet, but we are reintroducing ourselves. We used to be MXV.
[00:00:15] Mike: And before that...
[00:00:20] Leanna: The Mike Veny Show! Mike's Testament to himself.
[00:00:26] Mike: Okay. Hold, hold on. For the record here, it started with me looking for co-hosts for my show, for my brand. And then I realized, I thought it was stupid to have a show. I really hated it. I'm like, you know, you were still talking about it. I was like, oh, Now we did MX V, which was mass times velocity. And that was something, yeah.
[00:00:48] Leanna: Momentum was a play on, you know, mental health, you gaining momentum in your mental health and your business and your life. And you're like, yeah, you know, that's, it's kind of hard to explain to people it had [00:01:00] this real science-y vibe.
[00:01:01] Mike: Like we got it, but yeah, no one else got it.
[00:01:05] Leanna: So we wanted something that was just rolled up; was a little easier to to explain, and that kind of captured what we're trying to do. I think a little better. And so today we just kind of want to reintroduce the show quickly, tell you a little bit about ourselves a little bit about what's coming up and, yeah. I think this is going to be a start of a great, a great new thing.
[00:01:30] Mike: No, it really is. And the name of the show is Bettermental and I think that's really simple to remember. And it's all about your mental wellness as a business.
[00:01:43] Leanna: And not just that it's about... To me, it's about the wellness, the health of the business, too. Right? Because as a, as a business owner, especially if you're a single business owner, especially if you are freelance, you know, working for yourself by yourself, [00:02:00] you are the business, right?
[00:02:01] You don't have team members to back you up. You don't know. A boss to tell you what to do or to help kind of help you through what's what's happening. It's all on you. So you need to show up for yourself. You need to show up for your clients and to show up for your work. And that means showing up healthy. Right?
[00:02:21] So that's the way I see it. And, and so some background on this this is really, really personal for me and Mike, because we both deal with mental health issues on a daily basis. So I deal with anxiety, depression, PTSD. And Mike, what's your particular cocktail of mental health stuff.
[00:02:43] Mike: Here's how I describe my mental health to people. There's an oven, not just a regular oven, an industrial strength Viking restaurant oven with four burners.
[00:02:53] Leanna: *laughing*
[00:02:53] Mike: This thing is badass. And, on this oven, on the top right burner, is my [00:03:00] obsessive compulsive disorder in a frying pan. On the bottom left burner. I'm sorry, the bottom right burner is my anxiety. On the top left burner is my depression.
[00:03:11] Leanna: *laughing* So specific...
[00:03:12] Mike: And on the bottom left burner is a stock pot. So I take the OCD, the anxiety, and the depression, put it into a stock pot, close the lid and turn up the heat. But the kitchen is also cool in some ways, because, in the ceiling, there's a slanted mirror and a curtain there. This is like a fun house and, everywhere I look, everything is about me and it's distorted, but ultimately the kitchen, sometimes I want to get out of it. But sometimes I don't because it protects me from you, not just you, Leanna, but anyone. Cause I think people are going to hurt me. And so that's what I've been battling my whole life. And I'm in that kitchen right now in my head.
[00:03:45] Leanna: Yeah. Yeah, no, I can, I can totally relate to that. It is kind of like being, I don't know, stuck in yourself. You're stuck in your own body, in your own head, and that can be [00:04:00] scary sometimes. And it's sometimes just a little hard to deal with. And anyway, we're going to be, we'll be sharing a lot about our own personal experiences throughout the show, but I've been dealing with PTSD for close on 10 years now. Anxiety and depression for a good bit longer, closer to 20.
[00:04:20] And it really, the thing that I really drew from it was how long it took me to get help and how I've spent my entire professional life living with these mental health disabilities. Now I call them disabilities. Mike has like a different, he doesn't necessarily agree with the term. It's something we argue about sometimes, but...
[00:04:46] We both know what it's like to try and balance mental health with professionalism; with a business. So that is something that I've had to learn. And it's a trial and error [00:05:00] process. It's taken a lot of time and I'm still learning. So that's why we started Bettermental.
[00:05:07] Do you remember how we met?
[00:05:09] Mike: How did we meet?
[00:05:10] Leanna: *laughs*
[00:05:11] Mike: I think, no. Okay. We, we... it was a project we were a part of, you were calling me about scheduling. The same thing you call me about now.
[00:05:22] Both: *laughing*
[00:05:24] Leanna: No, so I called you to get an interview set, set up because I was working on the production team of that video project that we did for a conference: Self-employment in the Arts (SEA) . And we just kind of got to know each other throughout the process. And we `really liked each other, I guess. And yeah, it was, it was really great.
[00:05:44] Mike: Well, you said something to me I'll never forget, and it touched my heart, when we first spoke. You actually, we had the whole scheduling conversation and I gave you my vague answer, like I always do. And you, you said at the end of the conversation, by the way, I just want to let you know, I'm a Mike Veny fan [00:06:00] and it just touched my heart at that moment.
[00:06:01] Maybe I was having a rough day or something. I was like, "oh, that was really nice to say. Like, I don't know who this person is." Then I remember calling you back for something and I got your machine. And I heard your voice on your voicemail, your greeting. And it was like, wow, it's a very unique voice.
[00:06:19] And I started to think, you know, cause this is the artist in me, "what if we put my voice and her voice together?"
[00:06:25] Leanna: Were you think of that right away?
[00:06:27] Mike: Yeah. I was thinking it right away and I was like, I was like, just something seems right. I was like, I could be wrong, which is fine. I've been wrong about plenty of things. But it's worth a try. So I figured I was going to start my own podcast, the Mike Veny show, and I wanted a cohost.
[00:06:42] And I also had an info product that I tried to create that never went anywhere at all. I think I deleted the files at this point. But, but the thing was, I remember hearing our voices together recording our first recording and I was like, "whoa, this works. Whatever this is works." But you know, the reality [00:07:00] is, look, we both run businesses.
[00:07:02] We know how difficult it is just to run a business. And just to deal with the cash flow. Clients that drive you up the wall.
[00:07:11] Leanna: Schedules, time management....
[00:07:13] Mike: Yeah, COVID!
[00:07:14] Leanna: Energy, all sorts of things.
[00:07:17] Mike: And so we wanted to really give something back because we both gained a lot of tools in the past several years for our own mental wellness. We really have.
[00:07:25] And in my work, I'm a speaker. I speak about that. All over the world at this point. And I'm a writer, not as good as you, but I'm a writer and I'm the author of the book Transforming Stigma: How to Become a Mental Wellness Superhero. And all of the stuff I do comes from my own pain and my own struggles, trying to get help for myself.
[00:07:47] And I just love that we have this opportunity.
[00:07:49] Leanna: Yeah. And so I'm a freelance writer, journalist, and occasional speaker. Mike has really, really encouraged and [00:08:00] supported me. And I... A lot of the speaking I've done, I've done with you, because now we go to conferences together. We speak at conferences and we do webinars. And it's, it's really great to see and to get to know more people who are trying to trying to learn more about mental health, trying to get... To get.... Trying to just do better in their business to create a business that really supports them personally. So as I said, I'm a freelance writer and up until recently, and this is part of the transition into Bettermental, up until recently, I didn't really write much about mental health. I didn't really write much about business development.
[00:08:40] I was very much more into tech and finance and. And now working with you, working with the Mike Veny show, with MXP podcast, with, now, Bettermental I'm like, "this is what I want to do. This is what I want to write about. This is what I'm good at. This is what I know."
[00:08:58] So now my focus is [00:09:00] on business wellness, on mental health, on business development. I write about humanitarian tech, entrepreneurship, remote work and digital nomading. And, basically, I'm fascinated by the future of work and where we're going as small businesses as freelancers and, and yeah. And so it's exciting to me that I can explore that in a podcast, but also in my work.
[00:09:24] Mike: Yeah, no, I, I think it's great. And we're hoping that through this, we can really help the many business owners that are out there that are just privately struggling. We live in this world where you think you can just come out of your hut and just do your thing. You know, pound your chest and say, I'm going to do my thing. But you know what you need, you need other people and we are here to support you where we're going to be the start of your support network, if you've never had one before. You get to listen to us.
[00:09:50] Leanna: Yeah, so let's quickly kind of do a quick, quick summary of what we're planning for Bettermental. So we're going to be working, from now on, in seasons. And [00:10:00] this year season is about stress management. So obviously the past year has been insane for stress and stress management, mostly. But we want to cover... In this season we'll be doing a bunch of episodes about stress management, about exhaustion, about burnout. You'll hear from other professionals that we'll be bringing on, guests to talk about their experiences, what they deal with and how they manage stress with, you know, with either their own mental health disabilities or their... maybe they've struggled more with mental health over the past year or so, and how they're dealing with that and the sort of systems you can put in.place to better your business and better your health. And that is what we're here for, is working to live well. And, and just generating that, that great business growth, but in a healthy way.
[00:10:47] Mike: In a healthy way. Yes. And stress, exhaustion and loneliness. Not loneliness, sorry.
[00:10:53] Leanna: Well, I mean, that does come into it.
[00:10:55] Mike: It does come into it. Stress, exhaustion and burnout are affecting everyone. They are affecting [00:11:00] everyone. So it's really important that you listen to this season because we have so many tools for you.
[00:11:12] Leanna: Thank you so much, guys. We will be back for our next episode. Stay tuned. We have a three-part... We're starting off our season with the three part series on stress, exhaustion and burnout. So you should be hearing from us on that next month. And yeah, we're really excited to get started aren't we?
[00:11:30] Mike: We're excited. We'll see you soon.
[00:11:31] Leanna: All right. Take care.
[00:11:33] Mike: Bye!