A year of change...
What a year it has been... since COVID change our world. 2020 started out to be the best year ever for my event company, but on March 17, 2020, I laid off my whole team. By the end of August I decided to dissolve the business and embark on a new journey.
For months I studied, researched and learned everything I could about virtual events, mental health and masterminds. You see, no business and no travel forced me to be alone with my thoughts and anxiety about the future. Once again, I needed to re-invent my life and my mission.
Back in 2019 I started feeling the new calling God had for my life... to do something about reducing the suicide statistics in our world. It is only by His grace that I am here at all. He allowed me to live through a time 23 years ago when I thought I wanted to die, I just wanted the pain to stop. My calling was amplified in August of 2019 when I lost a friend to suicide. Hence why I dove into this mission in March 2020 when I had nothing else to focus on.
It has been a crazy but productive year. I feel like I have been through a college curriculum in a short 6 months. And now I am ready to start a new journey.
Genius & Sanity is the gift for me that came from this incredible pandemic journey.
First, this article was posted by Thrive Global!
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/deana-mitchell-humans-need-to-be-more-kind/
As a Mental Health Advocate my goal is to save lives and provide a new way of thinking. Education and awareness is the only way we are going to move away from the stigma around depression, anxiety and suicide. There are many organizations with the goal of suicide prevention but they all target the people who are struggling with ideation. My theory is that we need to target the friends and family of the people struggling so they can understand the best ways to be supportive and in turn it reduces the stigma to help the person struggling open up and get help.
As an entrepreneur, the last couple of years I felt stuck, exhausted, and overwhelmed on a daily basis. I never slept more than 2-3 hours at a time and I was anxious about everything. What I did not realize is that for two decades, I was stuffing down my feelings of depression and did not process or address them. This year, I have learned that there is help and you do not have to feel that way.
The next part of my big news, is an announcement that still blows me away!
https://www.gofundme.com/f/one-life-saved-documentary
I will get the honor to work with the amazing Kim Walsh Phillips of Powerful Professionals and the Emmy award winning documentary film maker Nick Nanton on a film that will expose the fact that over 50% of over 500-million entrepreneurs in the world that silently suffer with some form of anxiety or depression. Imagine that.. all of the small business owners and creative entrepreneurs who solve the problems in our world and create millions of jobs feel like they are lone wolves. They carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and feel like they have no one to talk to. In most cases, they have supportive friends and family that praise them for their accomplishments and inadvertently put more pressure on us to perform. We appreciate their support, but we do not want to let anyone down, so in turn we put more pressure on ourselves and feel like no one understands.
This brings me to my solution... a community for entrepreneurs and small business owners. A safe space to talk and brainstorm with others that do understand. a network of people who can support each other. Where you can get advice personally and professionally about how to get through situations and ahead of the struggles that have held you back until now. It is all about us balancing our Genius & Sanity in order to thrive in every area of our life.
More news to come... I would love to hear from you if this interests you... Deana