Midlife financial anxiety and ACEs

Is entrepreneurship making your anxiety worse, or is it actually revealing something deeper about how you work and cope? In this episode, I talk with entrepreneur Chris Brogan and writer Ada Calhoun about the complicated relationship between freelancing, mental health, and the illusion of stability. Chris shares what it’s really like to build a career while living with depression, why success and struggle can coexist, and how he’s learned to “negotiate” with his mental health instead of letting it define him. Ada also breaks down the emotional and financial realities of freelance life, and the fears many of us carry about money and security. Tune in to rethink stability, understand your patterns, and build a way of working that supports your life.

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In this Episode, You Will Learn

00:00 Can you be successful while living with depression?

05:00 What it really feels like to work through depression day-to-day.

08:00 Why performance can feel easier than personal connection.

12:00 How to “negotiate” with your inner critic instead of fighting it.

16:45 How depression shows up in everyday work tasks.

18:45 What radical transparency about mental health looks like at work.

23:45 Is freelancing really riskier than having one employer?

26:15 What to do when your income drops or disappears.

30:15 Why freelance success doesn’t eliminate financial anxiety.

34:00 How freelancers manage mental health care.

38:00 How childhood experiences shape your fear around money.

42:45 Why does “enough” never feel like enough?

Resources + Links

Get a copy of Ada Calhoun’s book, Why We Can’t Sleep HERE!

Learn more about Chris Brogan’s work HERE!

Learn more about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) HERE!

Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever

Watch the podcast on YouTube 

Find more resources on our website morraam.com

Follow

Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam

Follow Chris on LinkedIn: @cbrogan

Follow Ada on Instagram: @adacalhoun