Bettermental

Welcome to Bettermental’s first episode! Mike and Leanna are excited to be back recording together again in person. In this episode, they introduce a three-part mini-series on stress, exhaustion, and burnout. 

Starting with stress, they dive into exactly what it is, what it looks like for business owners (and themselves!), and several in-depth tips for recognizing and managing it. You’ll leave this episode with questions to ask your...

Welcome to Bettermental! To kick off their season on stress management, Mike and Leanna have introduced a three-part mini-series on stress, exhaustion, and burnout. 

Part 2 focuses on the next stage of stress: exhaustion. According to Mayo Clinic, exhaustion or fatigue is “a nearly constant state of weariness that develops over time and reduces your energy, motivation, and concentration.”

In this episode, Mike and Leanna talk about h...

Welcome to Bettermental! To kick off their season on stress management, Mike and Leanna have introduced a three-part mini series on stress, exhaustion, and burnout. The last part of this mini-series (Part 3), is all about burnout, which is what happens when you’re exhausted from stress and haven’t managed it effectively. AKA the “crisis mode” of stress.

In this episode, Mike and Leanna get really personal about the part that burnout...

Happy New Year! 2021 is FINALLY over, and if you’re thinking it’s time for some changes to your business, you’ve come to the right place. Continuing the season’s theme of stress management, Mike and Leanna ring jump into January with ideas for starting a new business year off right both personally and professionally. 

Don’t miss Bettermental’s very first acronym (courtesy of Mike!), RESET: Recalibrate, Evaluate your business, Stop d...

Whether you’re working remotely, in the office, or somewhere in between, mental health isn’t something you can leave at the door. In today’s episode, Mike and Leanna walk through how leaders can create a mentally healthy work culture with empathy, compassion, and practice. 

Listen to this episode to find out how to build rapport with your teams and take meaningful steps towards protecting and supporting mental health.  

Show notes an...

How can you talk about mental health with your clients? What’s the difference between indirect and direct disclosure? In today’s episode, Leanna and Mike meet with Chrissy Kozol to discuss how to navigate client relationships and your mental health. 

As a freelancer or small business owner, there’s a delicate balance between managing client expectations, oversharing your struggles, and submitting your best work. Chrissy shares her s...

Freelancers and business owners know too well: time is a precious resource. You have a finite amount of time each day to manage client relationships, do your work, and juggle everything in between. But what about your mental health? Do you have to choose between mental health and your business? 

In today’s episode, Mike interviews Leanna about her anxiety and depression and how she manages her energy throughout the workday. Together...

Running a business isn’t easy. Whether you work one-on-one with clients or lead a product-based business, being an entrepreneur means a lot of hard work and stress. There’s always another fire to put out or another project that’s falling behind. How do you keep yourself from burning out? How do you prevent stress from holding you back? 

While you can’t remove stress completely from your life, you can learn how to manage your respons...

Bettermental is a mental health resource for small business owners. Your hosts are Certified Corporate Wellness Specialist®, Mike Veny and future of work and wellbeing writer, Leanna Lee. In each episode, they share their mental health ups and downs and practical solutions for healthy business growth.

Between the two of us, who calls themself a bit of a control freak, and how does that come into play with planning a podcas...

Do you consider yourself a manager? Or would you say you’re more of a control freak? 

We often can't control our emotions, but we can learn to recognize them. We can learn to notice how they feel in our bodies, understand what they are showing us, and try to move forward in a healthy direction.

In this episode, find out how to navigate the delicate dance between control and management.

You’ll learn:

• The importance of...

What happens when you feel an emotion? A common piece of advice is to “think positive thoughts. But is that enough if you struggle with mental health challenges? 

Listen to this episode to learn the difference between controlling and managing emotions. Leanna explores how emotions differ from mental health conditions, while Mike offers advice on how to check in with yourself each day, even during a busy schedule. 

You’ll learn:

• Wh...

How much of your work day is truly productive? Are you spending time on the right things?

In this episode, Mike and Leanna dive into the topic of time management, and how managing your time can improve your mental health as well as your productivity.

Learn strategies for tracking your daily activities, finding a work life balance, setting boundaries, and dealing with interruptions.

You’ll learn:

• Mike’s “brain dump” strate...

Do you feel like you have enough money in your business bank account? In this episode, Mike and Leanna talk about the financial pressures of being an entrepreneur, hustle culture, and the impact money has on our mental health and self-worth. 

You’ll learn:

• Cultural myths that have become accepted as common knowledge, such as the feast or famine cycle [5:49]
• That freelancers and business owners do not have to struggle to achieve, a...

As business owners and freelancers, we rely on our client relationships to make a living. But managing them can sometimes be a struggle. In this episode, Mike and Leanna discuss defining your ideal client, setting expectations and having emergency protocols in place, and how to deal with difficult clients.

You’ll learn:

• That defining a target market is essential for successful client relationships [5:53]
• The importance of doing in...

Running a business with depression can be a huge challenge —and a never-ending one. In this episode, Mike and Leanna take a break from their scheduled episodes to share a spontaneous update on their mental health and work.

You’ll learn:

• About each speaker’s experiences with depression and what it’s like to continue working during a depressive episode [3:55] 
• How the symptoms of depression can change over time [5:32] 
• How ...

Are you a perfectionist? Do you appear to have it all together, but inside you feel worried, overwhelmed, and burnt out? In this special guest episode, Licensed Professional Counselor Tatiana Garcia joins Mike and Leanna to talk about high achievers, high-functioning anxiety, and her own mental health journey. 

You’ll learn:

• The typical characteristics of people with high-functioning anxiety [5:49]
• How Tatiana’s experience as a bu...

Ambitious, goal-oriented, perfect. These qualities may sound like positives, but sometimes the person with which we label them, actually feels overwhelmed, burnt out, or not enough.

In this guest episode, Licensed Professional Counselor Tati Garcia joins Mike and Leanna again to explore the relationship between high-functioning anxiety and the need for control.

You’ll learn:

• What high functioning anxiety is and how it might look f...

Bettermental is wrapping up Season 2 with a question: are you limiting your own potential by trying to control your success?

Mike and Leanna discuss what success has meant for each of them: professionally, financially, and mentally. They describe the potential benefits and limitations of wanting to control things when it comes to your personal success, and how your definition of success might change over time.

You’ll learn:

• H...