90% Mental with Madeline Walsh

"I Know How the Story Ends:" Interview with Paytient Founder & CEO, Brian Whorley

For over a decade, Brian Whorley worked at a non-profit, community-owned 400-bed hospital in Columbia, Missouri and loved every minute. In reflecting on his time there and the needs he witnessed within our healthcare system, Brian says, “I felt a great deal of pride being a very small part of a place full of really talented, mission-driven people who provided great care during life’s most uncertain moments. The challenge is to satisfy a near infinite need with finite resources — how our country figures that out is consequential.” Fortunately, lightning struck one afternoon as Brian rode his bike along the Missouri River. He returned home with the idea to help expand access and affordability at lower cost; an idea that would lead to the founding of Paytient [https://www.paytient.com/]. The company was first to market with a triple-sided product, the Paytient app, that 1) allows employers to pay less for lower cost health plans, 2) enables employees to more easily pay for care at time of service (without interest or fees), and 3) help providers to cure uncompensated care and receive payment in full at the time of service. Since founding the company in 2018, he has been walking toward a single North Star: not just helping people pay for care but to help people & health plans pay less for that care. Today, Paytient works with nearly six thousand employers, insurers, and providers, serves over 26 million members, and has raised more than a hundred million dollars in capital. What drew me to this conversation wasn’t the scale of what Brian has built — it was how he thinks about building it. We got into what it means to operate from a place of deep conviction when most of the world can’t see what you see yet, how Brian feeds his soul and his spirituality so he can show up as his best self, the tension of transitioning from founder to CEO, how he’s learning to release control, and why he believes the worry-driven voices in our heads are almost never the ones worth listening to. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 90percentmental.substack.com [https://90percentmental.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Intensity is the Strategy: Interview with GreenPal CEO, Bryan Clayton

Bryan Clayton spent years building one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee. He grew Peachtree from a small operation into a company with over 150 employees and 8 figures in annual revenue before selling the business in 2013. While he initially thought he'd take time off, Bryan found himself drawn back to operating. Only this time he didn't start in an industry he already knew. Instead, he became a tech entrepreneur and started GreenPal [https://www.yourgreenpal.com/], a platform that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals, with two of his best friends. The journey was anything but easy. He and his cofounders ended up having to rebuild the first product from scratch while simultaneously teaching themselves to code. It would take three years to expand beyond Nashville into a second market. Today, over 10 years later, GreenPal is a nationwide platform that has celebrated over 5 million transactions. Over the course of our conversation, Bryan and I spoke about what he’s learned across his 20+ year entrepreneurial journey. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 90percentmental.substack.com [https://90percentmental.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What You Focus on is What You Feel: Interview with Former Professional Athlete, Entrepreneur, and Beam Cofounder, Matt Lombardi

Matt Lombardi played college hockey at Boston College before going on to play professionally for two years before injuries forced him into an early retirement. As he navigated life after sport, Matt searched for something that would challenge him mentally the way competitive sports had challenged him physically. He found his answer in entrepreneurship. In 2018, Matt started Beam [https://shopbeam.com/] with another former BC athlete and former professional baseball player, Kevin Moran. Their mission was to create a brand with science-backed wellness products that enabled their customers to feel and perform at their best. Eight years later, Beam has grown to a team of over 30 and expanded that mission into product categories that include sleep, hormone balance, gut health, creatine, and pediatrician-formulated supplements for growing kids. Over the course of our conversation, Matt and I spoke about * Why one of the best things leaders can do is ask questions * The role of quirky sayings in creating Beam’s culture of debate * Why he’s focusing on learning to calm himself down rather than amp himself up * The role of process and execution in avoiding worrying too much about the competition * Why Matt believes that the philosophy behind the saying “what you focus on is what you feel” is so foundational to creating strong mental performance This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 90percentmental.substack.com [https://90percentmental.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Your "Why" is Bigger Than Your Fear: Interview with Former Professional Football Player, Boxer, and Advocate for Change, Stacey Copeland

Stacey Copeland [https://www.stacey-copeland.co.uk/] knows a thing or two about facing your fears in pursuit of ambitious dreams. As a football player, she represented England on the U-18 team and played professionally in the Premier League for the Doncaster Belles, Manchester City, and Tranmere Rovers. That said, Stacey’s first love was boxing. It was a love that began in her granddad’s boxing gym and never died. Unfortunately, Stacey came of age at a time when women’s boxing was illegal in England, which meant she was prevented from pursuing the sport as a young woman. Fortunately, by the time injuries forced Stacey to retire from football, the laws had changed, and Stacey had never stopped her boxing training. At age 29, she dove headfirst into her lifelong dream of becoming a professional boxer. As an amateur, she would go on to represent England and Team Great Britain, win a silver medal at the European Championships, and become a three-time national ABA champion. As a professional, Stacey made history by becoming the first British woman to win the Commonwealth Championship. While injuries forced her to retire from boxing earlier than she’d hoped, Stacey hasn’t stopped inspiring others and working to pave the way for the next generation. Pave the Way [https://www.stacey-copeland.co.uk/pave-the-way] also happens to be the name of the charity she started that aims to challenge gender stereotypes for girls, boys, men, and women, and spark social change. Over the course of this interview, Stacey and I spoke about * What the takeaway method is and how it can be used to overcome performance anxiety * The power of finding your why and how Stacey’s why helped her win the Commonwealth Title * Navigating the grief and loss that came with retiring from professional sports * Learning to live without achieving her greatest dream and how she found purpose in new goals * Why she has mixed views on resilience and mental toughness * The importance of finding people who can act as your positive petrol tanks * How the concept of Sisu has guided her through sport and life This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 90percentmental.substack.com [https://90percentmental.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Sensing Our Way to Change: Interview with Professor Norman Farb

What do you do when the mental strategies that once made you successful start making you feel stuck? That’s the focus of my conversation with today’s guest, Dr. Norman Farb. Norm is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where he studies the neuroscience of human identity and emotion. I became familiar with Norm’s work when I read the book he coauthored with clinical psychologist Zindel Segal called Better in Every Sense [https://betterineverysense.com/]. In the book, Farb and Segal look at how our brain’s autopilot mode, which they term the "house of habit," can contribute to feeling stuck. Through their research, they’ve uncovered a surprising insight: the key to getting unstuck and breaking our bad habits isn’t necessarily more thinking or problem-solving; it’s deliberately paying attention to our senses. During the conversation we talk about * The specific brain mechanisms behind our brain’s autopilot mode * Why more thinking and problem-solving won’t necessarily get us unstuck * What makes sensation so critical for change * Why it’s important to build a practice that allows us to embrace uncertainty and constantly update our expectations of the world This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 90percentmental.substack.com [https://90percentmental.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]