The Fellowman Podcast

Welcome to the first official episode under the new FELLOWMAN banner! I'm joined by another great fellow man, Mr Andrew Newton. Andrew is a mental health champion and men’s coach who I met recently through a regular Thursday morning workout / men's group here in Austin called the MPOWERED Brotherhood.

Aside from how similar our interests, history and approach to mental health are, what I love most about this conversation with Andrew is the way in which he shares his own mental health journey and specifically the role that men’s work has played in this.

We get into some detail on mental health diagnoses, the complex area of psychiatric medications, taking ownership of your lifestyle and much more. 

You can follow Andrew here on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewnewton/

Links to other resources mentioned in this episode:

My interview with Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Cecelia Howard.

You’re most likely listening to this as you’d previously subscribed to what was The Blackdog Cast, so I wanted to take a few minutes to explain why I’ve decided to change the name and focus of the podcast.

When I started the podcast, Blackdog was a project that was born out of mine and one of my best friends struggles with depression and Bipolar. The name itself refers to what Winston Churchill used to call his own very serious bouts of depression.

Since then, I’ve learned alot about my own mental health, talked to a lot of people, some of whom have been featured on previous episodes of the podcast, and while my own mental health issues are certainly not fixed, they are a lot better.

So it feels like a good moment to put the Blackdog to rest and focus on a more positive outlook going forward and also a slightly wider context looking at both mental, physical and spiritual health for men. 

That’s where Fellowman comes in; a curated source of knowledge, inspiration and storytelling for men looking to improve their mental, physical and spiritual health. Throughout my own journey, I’ve learned alot about my own health and wellness, mostly from some of the many people I’ve met along the way who are far more knowledgeable than I am on these matters.

So, stay tuned over the coming months for some great episodes with coaches, experts, entrepreneurs, scientists who have all got stories or knowledge that can help our Fellowman. 

In this episode i’m joined by award winning Neuroscientist Dr Scott Frey. Scott has spent the last 30 years in academic research into neuroscience, psychology and how they impact human performance. He’s recently made the shift into the world of business as a mindset coach and mentor, using his experience in neuroscience to help individuals and companies achieve increased performance and improved quality of life.

We dig into some of the neuroscience around mental health and developing a healthy mindset, what we can do minimise stress and other lifestyle factors that contribute to a healthy brain. As a fellow cyclist, Scott and I also talk in detail about balancing the pressures of being an amateur athlete, how too much data might be a bad thing, and how pro cyclists are impacted by the latest developments in neuroscience, mindset and psychology.

If you like what you hear please give this episode a rating on iTunes and share it with a friend.

You can connect with Scott and find out more about his work via his website, LinkedIn or directly via email; [email protected]

In another episode tackling the tricky subject of layoffs I'm joined by fellow bike industry exec and all round good chap Rhys Howell who like me was impacted by the layoffs sweeping many industries in the past months.

We chat about how Rhys has been handling the situation and dig into some of the detail around what's happening in the bike industry right now which has lead to this sort of thing. 

We also just have a good catch up and talk about life in Berlin, pro bike racing, Remco's lack of banter, will G win the Giro (alas he didn't).. and how Rhys became the most famous welshman in Berlin thanks to a gorilla marketing sticker campaign. Tune in to find out more...

You can connect with Rhys on Insta or LinkedIn.

I'll be honest, this episode started out about layoffs, specifically mine, and wanting to dig a little deeper into the current state of the mental health start-up landscape and why we're seeing something of a harsh re-adjustment in recent months.

But, it proved to be a way more interesting and uplifting chat with journalist Chris Larson from Behavioral Health business on the wider mental health business landscape in the US. We dig into the explosion of VC funding into mental health start-ups in recent years, what fueled this, and ultimately what has caused the recent blip.

We also dig into the psychedelic side of the business in particular and look at some of the challenges specifically with Ketamine based start-ups right now.

Most importantly we end things on a positive note with a reminder that despite these challenges the future looks bright for many of these companies who are offering much needed services to folks that need mental health help.

You can follow Chris here on the following platforms:

LinkedIn.

Getting #laidoff sucks in a big way. It happened to me back in February and after laying low for a few months and licking my wounds I decided to get back in action by talking about it with some of the many, many folks in my LinkedIn feed in the last few months who are in the same boat.

First up is Jimmy Mouton, our paths crossed briefly in my agency days when he worked at Nike and he popped up in my feed a few weeks ago with his "Laid Off And Learning" content series. Just the sort of positive spin on getting laid off I was looking for!

So in this chat we talk about Jimmy's career in sports and the burgeoning Web3 / NFT space and what he's done since getting laid off... 

You can connect with Jimmy on the following platforms:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmymouton/

If you like what you hear please share this with someone and give it a rating / comment on iTunes.

As part of my wife Gretchen's new podcast, Leading with Pleasure we turned the tables and I got to interview her and talk about her recent work in conscious leadership.. which includes;

• Mental health & well-being at work

Just like with this podcast and my own mental health journey, our own mental health challenges frequently inspire and motivate us to find ways to help others going through similar issues. My guest on this episode has done exactly that through the creation of a super simple app to track your mood each day, simply called Mood.

Gareth Dauncey is a Welsh architect who used his passion for simple, clean design to create a highly visual way to track his own mood each day as he navigated his own mental health challenges. Through a series of serendipitous events including meeting his co-founder at the DO Lectures in Wales, Gareth's colorful paper based mood tracking tool morphed into an iPhone app which has been championed by Ruby Wax and her Frazzled Cafe organisation amongst others.

Listen to hear more about Gareth's own story and how spending a few minutes each day tracking your mood can help manage your own mental health.

You can download the app here. For every paid download, Mood will donate one free subscription to an organization that supports mental wellbeing.

Have you ever wondered what men's work and men's coaching is all about? It's an area that seems to be increasing in visibility right now with various formats / approaches / philosophies out there. To explain all of this in more detail I'm joined by Men's Coach Tim Neal.

Tim has been a coach & trainer since 2012 and uses a combination of coaching modalities, psychology, neuroscience, NLP and embodiment & mindfulness practices to guide men to create powerful & transformational personal breakthroughs.

He's also is one of the teaching staff on a Men's Wisdom Work coaching program I am mid-way through right now. So he joins me to dig into the subject and explain the world of men's work in detail.

We talk about what men's work is, how it can build confidence, masculine embodiment and authentic, conscious relationships, who can benefit from it, some of the underlying philosophies behind masculine coaching and how it differs from and can be used in conjunction with therapy.

For anyone who's curious and wants to explore this a bit more, Men's Wisdom Work has a weekly free community men's group, open to anyone, drop and see what it's all about or feel free to reach out to me directly for more info.

Links to some of the resources mentioned in the podcast:

Tim Neal Instagram.

In this episode I'm joined by my own psychiatric nurse practitioner Cecelia Howard PMHNP to talk in detail about the tricky subject of mental health medications. It's an area that still carries a ton of stigma, and it's a serious matter to go down the road of taking antidepressants, mood stabilizers or other psychiatric meds.

We use my own very positive experience of working with Cecelia and taking a couple of different drugs (A mood stabilizer called Lamotrigine and an SNRI antidepressant called Pristiq) to highlight her unique approach to working with patients.

We talk about her lengthy intake process which includes using DNA testing to assess what medications a patient might need. We cover how to know when you might need meds, why you should avoid any practitioner who writes you a prescription after a 15min consultation, and how to get off meds in the right way at the right time.

There are quite a lot of scientific terms used so here are some links if you are not familiar with some of the neuroscience behind this.

Neurotransmitter Overview.

NAC

Lamotrigine (mood stabilizer)

Genomind Pharmacogenetic Testing

Book - Blame it on the Brain