Leadership during a crisis is the difference between a permanent catastrophe and a temporary speed bump. But what do leaders do if their mental health is suffering? Hope For The Day’s Johnny Boucher has elevated the conversation around mental health to a new level through outreach, education, and action. In this wide-ranging conversation, Printavo’s Bruce Ackerman hosts Rowboat Creative (Lucas Guariglia and Joe Zangrilli) alongside Campus Ink (Steven Farag) to talk with Johnny Boucher about mental health for screen print shops.

Hope For The Day: https://www.hftd.org

They discuss why small business owners are suffering so much right now. Steven Farag says, “Small business owners are lonely, stubborn, unemployable...that’s why we work for ourselves!” But since there’s so little structure, small business owners have to take on so many responsibilities. Johnny Boucher’s idea is simple: “Whether you have 10 people or 350,000 people, you have to lead. That means setting yourself up for success right now.”

Johnny’s path to success originates in a well-define routine. “Getting up at 5 AM each morning isn’t easy [...] but by 7 AM, I’ve done yoga, meditated, and gone on a walk with the dog and my wife.” With everyone’s routines disrupted, it’s hard to find a way to soldier on under new circumstances. Rowboat Creative’s Lucas Guariglia has weathered the storm in Charlotte, NC – 1,500 miles from his Chicago-based print shop. He adds: “The most productive routine is hard to find. Even when you detach, you’ll still think: Shouldn’t I be formulating a better plan? Shouldn’t I be doing something else?”

Even then, what is productivity under these circumstances? Events are canceled, and the majority of traditional screen print orders have come to a halt. Johnny urges business owners to take a realistic approach: “Understand you’re probably only really operating at 50 to 60% capacity...and that’s ok.”

Lucas noted the irony of this situation: “There’s less work that can actually happen, but we’re working more than we ever have before.” The things that caused distractions during normal circumstances are gone. There’s just the core functions left: work on your business.

“Control what you can, confirm what you can’t,” Johnny urges screen print shop owners. “Stay out of conversations you can’t control...they’re a waste of your time,” he adds. And definitely stay away from what Johnny calls the “24 hour news death cycle.”

Screen printing is a difficult path – there’s no question. Joe Zangrilli from Rowboat Creative recounted when he met Johnny Boucher: “He pulled me aside and got me to admit that things really weren’t ok. I’d spent 14 years with my head down, just working as hard as I could. I mean, I’m my own boss, and I wouldn’t even let myself go outside and take a walk around the block during the day.”

We’re all familiar with the unhealthy routine: drink coffee until 1 PM, then notice you haven’t had a single thing to eat and your eyes hurt from staring at a screen. “You’ve got to create an environment where you can thrive,” Johnny says. “We need to figure out out our own individual processes for ourselves in order to be productive right now.”

The conversation about mental health is a hard one. But now – more than ever – it’s one of the most important conversations we can have. Keep pushing, Print Hustlers.

Rowboat Creative: https://www.rowboatcreative.com

Campus Ink: https://www.campus.ink

Hope For The Day: https://www.hftd.org

Printavo: https://www.printavo.com

Check out Printavo Merch: https://www.printavo.com/merch

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