Hey! I hope you’ve spent some time with the people you care about this weekend and you’re having some summer fun. Relationships have a bigger effect on our health and business success than we may think.

🏥 Sickness or Success

We’ve all heard about the importance of relationships in today’s isolated world, but did you know that they can directly affect our entrepreneurial success?

1. Burnout:

• Are you cooking up a lovely dish of burnout? A recipe for entrepreneurial burnout = sustained high levels of stress + social isolation + extreme passion + a lack of safety nets (HBR)

• How can relationships help with burnout? They reduce stress and improve your health. Harvard Health notes that positive relationships help relieve harmful stress levels, impacting coronary arteries, gut function, insulin regulation, and the immune system. Reduced stress translates to better decision-making and increased productivity.

2. Brain:

• Are you out of your mind? 72% of entrepreneurs have mental health struggles, as compared to 48% of non-entrepreneurs (Forbes). Healthy relationships can lower anxiety and depression risks. They can also increase self-esteem, empathy, trust, and collaboration (VIC.gov).

• Entrepreneurs with strong relationships maintain high levels of energy and commitment, enabling greater focus. This energy is crucial for completing projects and strategic thinking so you can crush your goals!

3. Body:

• Fewer sick days? How about fewer medical conditions in the long run? Harvard Health highlights that poor social ties increase the risk of premature death by 50%, comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

• Toxic relationships can also be toxic to your health. Conflict with a significant other can lower immunity, increase fat storage, and heighten the risk of heart disease (NIH). Relationship stress can lead to a lack of self-control as well, making those healthy habits that keep you afloat as an entrepreneur hard to sustain (NIH).

Healthy relationships aren’t just nice to have; they’re essential for staying at the top of your game in business and health. Keep your circle strong and watch your company thrive!

🤒→ 💪 My Story  

My first semester at Vanderbilt featured some special bonuses. COVID-19, bronchitis, strep throat, and a deep cough made me sound like a smoker for more than three months straight. I was on three rounds of antibiotics, which killed so much of my gut bacteria. My digestion, cognition, and energy levels were trashed. But when I talked to my doctor, there didn’t seem to be any underlying issues lowering my immunity—I had a strong diet, slept well most nights, exercised, avoided any substances, and had many friends. But my relationships were often riddled with drama, my self-worth fluctuated based on external results, and I sought validation on social media. My health, happiness, and productivity improved dramatically when I upgraded my relationships, especially my relationship with myself.

☎️ Reminder! Free Zoom Event: WeStand Impact-Driven Founder "Friend Dating" & People Skills for Startup Success with Nashville's Top Executive Coach and ESG Professor, Leonora Williamson

Tuesday, July 23rd at 8 pm ET.

> Click here to join!

👥 Reminder! Join My First Program :D

I’m creating mastermind groups to help impact-driven entrepreneurs feel less lonely and accelerate their success by strengthening four key relationships that drive outcomes: two professional (mentors and teammates) and two personal (friends and significant others). With an accountability group focused on choosing the right people for our entrepreneurial journeys, we can achieve our goals faster and create a massive positive impact on the world. The dream team includes people inside and outside of your business.

We’ll discuss research-backed best practices for leadership and relationship skills. After 170+ interviews, I discovered that the way entrepreneurs navigate conflicts, breakups, etc. greatly affects their businesses. Those with strong relationships are often the happiest and most successful. I’m developing this content with support from an executive coach and Vanderbilt professors.

I know time is critical for all of us, so we’ll meet only once every two weeks for eight weeks, one hour each, spotlighting one of the four relationship categories per meeting, jam-packed with all the info and discussions. There will be three groups of seven founders. Are you open to taking the next seat? Email me!

Text a friend today and enjoy your Sunday,
Ginny
Founder, WeStand
LinkedIn 
[email protected] 

P.S. What is WeStand?

WeStand helps impact-driven entrepreneurs feel less stressed and lonely by improving leadership and relationship skills. We talk in Zoom groups about research-backed best practices for four key relationships that drive success: mentors and teammates (professional) and friends and significant others (personal). The long-term vision is to build a SaaS tool to train out relationship weaknesses quickly.

Why relationship skills?

• After 170+ interviews and 11 conferences focused on learning from founders, I found that relationship skills were one of the biggest determinants of startup success. How founders handled conflicts, breakups, and growing apart from people made all the difference, and those with the strongest relationships were also the happiest. I want to help people build those relationships. Also, according to HBS, 65% of startups fail due to human-centric problems.

Am I an impact-driven founder?

• If your startup contributes to social, health, environmental, educational, and cultural breakthroughs, then yes! As long as you have a strong mission for the greater good in one of these 5 areas 🌎