“Our minds will keep us in our comfort zone, no matter how painful that is, because the unknown is so scary and so difficult to conceptualize for all of us,” explains Scout Sobel, founder of Scout’s Agency and author of The Emotional Entrepreneur, a guidebook for navigating the emotional challenges of launching, running, and scaling a business. In today’s episode, host Christi Lukasiak is joined in conversation with Scout Sobel to talk about the intersection of mental health and entrepreneurship.

Scout talks openly about being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and how it influenced the course of her life. She shares that until she took radical responsibility for her own life and realized she did have agency over how she was reacting to her depression, she remained stuck in a cycle of victimhood. Scout saw that she was choosing to stay in her depressive episodes, because it was more familiar and comfortable than trying something new. She started taking full responsibility for her life by taking advantage of every self help book, support group, and program she could. Once Scout got into the world of entrepreneurship, she realized that the largest threat to the success of her business was her emotions. This inspired her to write a book of lessons that would guide other women with similar struggles through the emotional roadblocks of starting and running a business.

Tune into this week’s episode of Christi’s Couch for a conversation about mental illness and entrepreneurship. Learn how the dominant narrative in mental health keeps people stuck in a cycle of victimization and how to navigate the anxiety of taking radical responsibility for your life.

Quotes

“Our minds will keep us in our comfort zone, no matter how painful that is, because the unknown is so scary and so difficult to conceptualize for all of us.” (40:49-41:00 | Scout)

“The narrative that this is out of your control is a highly disempowering narrative that keeps you in the victimhood. It keeps you helpless, it keeps you not inspired to take action.” (43:59-44:09 | Scout)

“You do have agency over your life. You do have power over your life. And you don't have to be afraid of yourself.” (44:32-44:38 | Scout)

“Whenever I get to a point where I think that I'm hopeless, and there's no beauty in the world, I know that my depression is lying to me and I'm temporarily unable to see beauty.” (47:52-48:01 | Scout)

“I saw so many women my age who had the financial means. Who had the resources, the education, who could start businesses at this snap of their fingers, and they weren't doing it not because they didn't have all that, but because they were afraid. And I said, Whoa, this game is so much more emotional than anybody's giving it credit.” (53:03-53:22 | Scout)

“You've survived every second of that emotion because you're still listening to me talking, which means you're still surviving. And if you've survived it before, it means you can survive it again and again and again.” (58:39-58:50 | Scout)

Links

Follow Scout on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoutsobel/

Grab a copy of Scout’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578951754

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If you've benefited from this episode be sure to tag me @christilukasiak on Instagram and share this episode with your community to spread the word! Also, be sure to leave a review on iTunes. And if you want a question answered on the couch, call 1-800-988-8155 and leave a message!

XO, Christi