18 | Mental & Physical Health of the Entrepreneur

Adventures in Businessing: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and a Healthy Dose of Humor

Introduction Rob is driving this show, but it seems like someone should have told him that before the show actually started. James celebrated his son’s fourth birthday, as well as the fifteenth anniversary of WordPress, by giving his son a video game and immediately hogging it. He tries to make it sound like his son wanted him to take all the turns, but we know the truth, James just wanted to play the old school video games. Kevin bemoans the week of meetings and product discussions that he and James both just came out of. They both seem to have needed the three day weekend. I’m not sure it made this podcast any better, but you can’t win them all. Rob talks about taking time out of his work schedule for family and plugs a family-friendly hotel/waterpark in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He had to ultimately get permission from one of his employees to allow himself to go on vacation. I was going to make fun of that, but once I typed it all out, it seems a bit sad. The Show This week, the hosts discuss ways of keeping yourself mentally and physically fit. Kevin kicks things off by talking about how playing basketball is therapeutic for him. When he’s playing he can just turn off his brain and play by instinct. If you’ve ever seen him play, you’d definitely assume his brain is turned off. Let’s just say that there’s a reason Kevin’s favourite song is I Wish. Surprisingly, Rob doesn’t bring up fly fishing or movies. He kind of misses riding a motorcycle because he could focus on the ride, but his fear of a gruesome death keeps him from riding these days. If you have anxiety issues, you may think you’re having a heart attack. Rob says that when he has panic attacks, he has a checklist that reminds him that he isn’t actually dying. So, I guess do that? James relates that he doesn’t feel a lot of stress consciously, but that his body has been creating and healing ulcers for years. He also got a really cool irregular heartbeat, but no, he doesn’t feel stress at all. Meditation comes up again as a great way to maintain balance and mindfulness, although it doesn’t seem to have reminded James about all those ulcers. Physical activity is also mentioned as a necessity to handling what is ultimately an extremely stressful occupation. Although, I don’t think anyone on this podcast is going to be running any marathons anytime soon. Recommendations If you like to garden, Kevin recommends using a drip irrigation system to water your plants. This allows you to water at the roots, which can cut down on the amount of moisture and fungi. Oh, yeah, and Kevin says that God doesn’t know how to water plants. I don’t know if there’s a specific law on the books that deals with blasphemy against God’s gardening abilities, but I will say that several major religions feel that God’s got a pretty green thumb. James recommends a book dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and founders stay sane by Sherry Walling called The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You. He’s suggested this one before, and it should be reiterated that Sherry is actually qualified to give good advice on the topic of mental health and stability. If you’re still reading this, you should probably just stop and read Sherry’s book instead. I promise you’ll get more out of it. Can you smell what Rob is cookin’?!? If you live in Cleveland you probably can, because Rob loves fish. You may have guessed that from his several dozen mentions of fly fishing, but I just wanted to confirm. In what sounds like a very sketchy multi-level marketing scheme, Rob wants you to buy your fish from vitalchoice.com. Yes, he knows that it sounds like a site your aunt buys stock in because some guy on her favourite news channel told her to, but he claims it’s a place to buy fish online. Specifically, Rob wants you to eat Salmon.