SHOW NOTES:

This week on Fall Back Up, perhaps one of the most important, yet least talked about issues facing entrepreneurs, their own mental health.

 

I first met Michael DeVenney after he reached out to me to discuss the largest study of its kind, The Mindset Project.

 

This study resulted in almost 500 survey responses from entrepreneurs engaging on how their entrepreneurship intersects with their mental health.

 

The results are incredible.

 

In the study, more than 72% of entrepreneurs questioned if they were getting what they wanted from their company with more than 68% experiencing some form of mental health challenge.

 

Respondents also indicated that more than 74% faced deterioration of their social life and relationships while 40% found their physical and mental health had suffered after starting their business.

 

The project has resulted in Devenney's new startup, Nogotopsa, a five-person firm creating analytics of the impact of mental health issues in specific sectors.

 

Michael is an entrepreneur himself as well as a strategy consultant and investor for other entrepreneurs.

 

After struggling for years with anxiety and depression, Michael founded The Mindset Project to study the impact their work has on the well being of entrepreneurs

 

A lifelong learner, Michael holds his ICD.D and CFA and recently completed a degree in Applied Positive Psychology.

 

He holds degree in business, strategy, and leadership from Acadia University, Michigan State, Villanova and Notre Dame universities.

 

I spoke with him at his home in Halifax.

SHOW NOTES:

Lisa Drader-Murphy is marking a milestone — 20 years of breaking barriers in fashion designs. Starting out with an investment of $250, the business has remained debt-free and without investors running entirely on retained earnings.

President and owner of the Lisa Drader-Murphy collection, including the Turbine label. She now owns five boutiques across Canada, her own Shopping Channel Store and a mobile boutique. More recently she’s become the Hollywood & Luminaries Editor for Story of Fashion Magazine and National Style & Celebrity columnist for ReFINEd Magazine.

She has shown her styles in celebrity suites at the Golden Globes, Oscars and Cannes Film Festival.

Lisa is a Progress Club Women of Excellence award-winner in the category of innovator/entrepreneur and one of five women to be recognized by Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Awards in 2016.

...and she still designs, cuts, sews and retails all her collections.

Lisa has also established the Turbine Fund. With a mandate to “Empower Women Through Education, Support, and Example,” the Turbine Fund has contributed cash in excess of $250,000 to various organizations.

She could run her fashion house from anywhere, but she opted to set up shop in a renovated 1700s sea captain's estate in Falmouth, the gateway to the Annapolis Valley....

SHOW NOTES:

I've known Bill Carr since the early 90's when he was doing political commentary on the CBC.

Originally from Nova Scotia, Bill grew up on Prince Edward Island, graduating from Colonel Gray High School where his athletic ability provided a scholarship at Acadia University. As you'll hear from our conversation, that's where his career took an abrupt turn, to what would become a life-long passion...the theater.

His studies in expanded to Philosophy and English followed later by work towards his Masters of Theology at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax.

Over his thirty-five-year career Bill walked the planks of stages and in radio and television studios across Canada

His wry wit took him to political and cultural commentary and on to the speakers circuit and he continues throughout North America speaking and giving workshops and keynote addresses on creativity, communication and living with humour.

Bill and his wife Gola are also deeply involved in restorative justice and he's a founding partner of the Atlantic Restorative Company, a social enterprise focusing on applying restorative practices to strengthen relationships in business, justice, schools, personal life and all aspects of community.

He’s recently completed a documentary on the topic and last year published his first book, Acting Up.

He's also the newly minted president of the Professional Speakers Federation. Bill stopped by my house in Halifax and I began our conversation asking him if he could pinpoint a time when he was young that started him on his path…

SHOW NOTES:

I met sports geneticist Dr. Jeremy Koenig when I was looking to get in shape to run a marathon. While I never became the marathon man, he did manage to whip my sad 55 year old carcass into the best shape it had been in for 30 years.

Jeremy was a varsity track and field athlete while completing his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology. Following graduate school he pursued postdoctoral training in genetics at Cornell University all the while running track to keep himself sane.

Eventually he landed as a Professor of Nutrigenomics at Mount St. Vincent University before moving to the biomedical industry to work on developing and commercializing a genetic screen for fertility.

When I met him he was training NHL and olympic level athletes. He has more than 15-years of experience coaching professional and elite level athletes.In 2014, he started Athletigen in cooperation with the high tech incubation hub Volta Labs.Athletigen uses proprietary software which looks at an athlete’s DNA to uncover data about strengths, weaknesses and ideal diets.

Athletigen has enjoyed endorsement from NHL star Brad Marchand and Canadian Olympians Heather Hamilton and Akee Haines.We sat down to chat at Athletigen's head office in downtown Halifax...

SHOW NOTES:Fresh out of university in the early 90s Malcolm Fraser saw a business opportunity in something called the Internet.

Over the years he built Internet Solutions Limited (ISL) into one of Atlantic Canada’s largest web marketing and development companies. He is an active member of the business community and has been recognized as one of Atlantic Canada's Top 50 CEOs and is now the Vice President and Managing Director, Halifax at FCV Interactive. 

He holds a BComm in Marketing and Economics from Mount A, has served as Chair of the Research Committee for the Canadian Tourism Commission, and ITANS, the Canadian ICT Federation and the Nova Scotia Premier’s Council on Innovation.

Malcolm has worked with all three levels of government in promoting policy change and the economic growth of the region. Malcolm is also the Chairman of the Board for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and sits on both the Board of the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation and the Board of the Sobey Art Foundation. 

Malcolm and his wife Jennifer live in Chester, Nova Scotia.

In the mid 70's Colin MacDonald and John Risley opened up a small retail lobster shop on what was then, the outskirts of Bedford Nova Scotia. 40 years later Clearwater has grown into one of the world's leading seafood companies. With a combination of enthusiasm and grit and a little help from their friends, the duo changed the face of seafood exporting in Atlantic Canada.

MacDonald grew up in Fairview, just down the road in a family familiar with hard work and the rough and tumble of suburban Halifax. In this conversation, he explores his early days, dealing with adversity, the politics of the fishery and how he views success and failure.