From Bootstrapped Exit to Ikigai: Chris Erler on Freedom, Spirituality and AI

Your Aligned Next Chapter — Dr. Anne-Marie King on Finding Freedom After Achievement

What if everything you've built was powered by a belief that's now needs to be reexamined? In this episode of The Next Mountain Podcast, Dr. Anne-Marie King, UK-based performance psychologist and former psychiatrist, unpacks why high achievers feel lost after their biggest wins. We explore the unconscious belief she calls conditional worth, how to move through the emotional aftermath of an exit, and what it actually takes to build a life that feels as good as it looks. ✨ Key Themes * Why high achievers tie their identity and worth to their output * The emotional iceberg that surfaces after an exit * Fulfillment as a felt state, not a destination to reach * Fear-based vs. alignment-based motivation * How to widen your capacity for aliveness, not just achievement Learn More About Anne-Marie * Dr. Anne-Marie King on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marie-king] * Anne-MarieKing.com [https://www.anne-marieking.com/] * Aligned Next Chapter [https://www.therealignment.com/aligned-next-chapter]

Natasha Freidus on Re-Imagining Business for Good

Natasha Freidus calls herself an "accidental founder." While volunteering with refugees in France around 2015, she went looking for a simple tool to match needs with offers in real time, and when she couldn't find one, she used a wedding registry instead. That improvised fix became the proof of concept for Needslist, a software company that went on to match millions of dollars in aid through crises from Hurricane Dorian to the fall of Kabul to the war in Ukraine, before she exited on New Year's Eve, 2024. In this conversation, Tasha reimagines what business for good can actually look like. She's candid about the myths she was taught in accelerators (the unicorn model, the hockey stick), why impact investors often made her jump through ten times the hoops for a tenth of the money, and why she now tells early-stage founders not to lead with their impact when they raise. We talk about her move from global crisis tech to hyper-local, place-based economic development through her work with Shorefast and the Fogo Island Inn. We get into why caring for the places we live is less divisive than the language of "social impact," and the alternative ownership structures (co-ops, employee ownership, steward ownership) that could redistribute wealth instead of concentrating it. Learn more about Tasha * Natasha Freidus on Linkedin [https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-freidus/] * The Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economics [https://institute.shorefast.org/]

The Midas Loop: Colin Beavan on the Success Trap and the Art of Being Fully Alive

Colin Beavan is an executive coach, writer, Zen teacher, and self-described "professional quitter." He spent years building a successful PR business in London, then walked away from it on a motorcycle trip he was terrified to take. He went on to write the bestselling No Impact Man, run a nonprofit, and now coaches founders, philanthropists, and leaders through the question that brought him to Zen practice in the first place: how do you actually live? In this episode, we discuss what Colin calls the Midas Loop, when success stops feeling alive. We chase one success, find the treasure chest empty, and assume we chased the wrong thing, so we chase again. Colin warns that meaning and purpose can become their own version of the loop. We talk about why the personality that built your success can become the cage you can't leave, how fantasies of escape are diagnostic rather than destination, and why becoming fully alive rarely requires changing your circumstances, but always requires changing your relationship with them. More about Colin * Website: colinbeavan.com [http://colinbeavan.com] * Substack: colinbeavan.substack.com [http://colinbeavan.substack.com]

Building for a Better World: Jeffrey Hollender on Regenerative Business and Meaningful Exits

Jeffrey Hollender spent 20 years building Seventh Generation into a $150 million pioneer of the sustainable products movement, a decade ahead of the market. Today he teaches social entrepreneurship at NYU Stern, sits on Morgan Stanley's Sustainability Advisory Board, and has just published his seventh book, Built for a Better World. In this episode, Jeffrey makes the case that most of what passes for impact today doesn't go far enough. Sustainability means doing less harm. Regeneration means actively repairing what's been damaged, and that's a much higher bar. We talk about the line between sustainable and regenerative business, the compromises every purpose-driven founder has to navigate (and the one place you never compromise), why systems thinking is non-negotiable, and why selling your company to your employees may be the most meaningful exit you can design. 🔗 Resources mentioned: * Built for a Better World by Jeffrey Hollender → builtforabetterworld.com [http://builtforabetterworld.com] * Jeffrey Hollender's website → jeffreyhollender.com [http://jeffreyhollender.com] * The Big Myth by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway * Bookshop.org [http://Bookshop.org] (independent bookseller alternative to Amazon) * The Giving Pledge & The Patriotic Millionaires

From Bootstrapped Exit to Ikigai: Chris Erler on Freedom, Spirituality and AI

Chris Erler built a sales automation company in Berlin, bootstrapped it to 140 employees, and sold a majority stake to a private equity fund after just four years. He hit every target he'd set for himself at 21: financial freedom by 33, a dent in the economy, the works. Then, an autoimmune condition flared up so badly he couldn't work for three months. His body had been keeping score the whole time. In this conversation, Chris shares what it felt like to stay on as founder under private equity pressure when his gut was screaming to leave. How his brain kept "running on the old program" even after the exit. Why he forced himself to do nothing for 12 months and how an Ikigai process helped him reconnect with what he'd loved since childhood: history, flying, and helping other founders navigate complexity. We explore what freedom actually means once money is no longer the issue, why the post-exit void is really an identity crisis in disguise, and how Chris is now channeling his structured engineering brain and his spiritual side into supporting European scale-ups through the AI shift.