The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Gretchen Schoser’s Journey: Finding Hope and Healing Through Podcasting

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Gretchen Schoser's Journey: Finding Hope and Healing Through Podcasting Goesoninourheads.net Schosersolutions.com About the Guest(s): Gretchen Schoser is a mental health advocate and the co-host of the podcast "Shit That Goes On In Our Heads." With a robust career background, she spent 15 years working for UKG, a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) software company specializing in payroll and other solutions, before taking an early retirement to focus on her passion for mental health and wellness. Gretchen also runs SR Solutions, a consultancy firm aimed at helping companies integrate mental health into their organizational change processes. Her personal experiences and professional expertise make her an insightful voice in the field of mental health. Episode Summary: In this enlightening episode of The Chris Voss Show, Gretchen Schoser shares her transformative journey from corporate America to becoming a beacon of hope for many through her work in mental health advocacy. The conversation delves deep into the pivotal moment on Christmas Day 2022, when Gretchen faced a personal crisis. This moment eventually led her to establish "Shit That Goes On In Our Heads," a podcast aimed at normalizing discussions around mental health. The episode explores significant topics such as the importance of finding one's voice, the impact of boundary setting, and the power of community and sharing personal stories. Chris and Gretchen discuss how humor and authentic conversations can be therapeutic, highlighting the role of mental health resources like the 9-8-8 lifeline. Gretchen also shares her mission to improve corporate approaches to employee mental wellness through her consultancy SR Solutions. A powerful narrative filled with candid insights, this episode is both moving and motivational, urging listeners to acknowledge and discuss mental health openly. Key Takeaways: Gretchen Schoser's journey emphasizes the importance of recognizing mental health challenges and using personal experiences to help others. The podcast "Shit That Goes On In Our Heads" has become a global platform for sharing mental health stories, aiming to normalize and destigmatize these discussions. Setting boundaries and understanding self-care are crucial strategies for protecting one's mental health and promoting longevity in personal and professional life. The 9-8-8 crisis lifeline serves as a critical resource for those experiencing mental health crises, providing anonymous and free support. Gretchen's work at SR Solutions highlights the growing need for companies to incorporate mental health considerations into organizational change processes. Notable Quotes: "The lady on the other end of the line… I'm alive today because of her." "When our guests share their stories, we unlock somebody else's prison." "Find some joy. The world may be crumbling, but there are still beautiful things to appreciate." "Check out your extroverted friends. We are really, really, really good at masking our depression." "I am 61 and a half and decided I didn't want to do corporate America anymore."

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Cause you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now here's your host, Chris Voss.

Hey folks, this is Voss here from The Chris Voss Show dot com. Ladies and gentlemen, there are the latest things that make some fish. Welcome to the big show. As always, the Chris Foss Show. The family loves you, but doesn't judge you as harshly as the rest of the world. That's why you love us as a family for over 16 years and 2300 episodes. You've been just improving your life and making it better. You know what?

So if the rest of the world wants to judge you, let them have at it because you're always learning and growing more. Go to Goodreads.com for it says Chris Voss. LinkedIn.com for it says Chris Voss. Chris Voss won on the TikTokity and all those crazy places on the internet. Opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the host or the Chris Voss show. Some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast, but it is not an endorsement

or review of any kind. Today we have an amazing young lady on the show. We're going to be talking to her about her insights, her experience and her podcast and her story and journey. Today we're joined by Gretchen Schozer and we're going to be talking about her insights and experience. Welcome to the show. Gretchen, how are you? I am fantastic. Thank you so much for having me today. Thanks for coming. We really appreciate you coming on board.

Give us a dot coms. Where can people find you on the internet? So you can find me in two places. You can find me on our podcast website, which is goesoninourheads.net or on my company website, which is showsersolutions.com. So give us a 30,000 overview, what you do over there. So for my company, I predominantly focused on two areas. One would be working with customers that have UKG recruiting and onboarding

solutions. So I can go in and do system reviews, some training implementations. And then on the wellness side, I work with companies to help them remember that they need to include mental health. training, implementations, and then on the wellness side, I work with companies to help them remember that they need to include mental health when they're doing change within their companies. What is UKG? So UKG is a HRIS software, it's payroll and other ancillary products.

And I worked there for 15 years before I took an early retirement and decided to go out on my own. Now you're doing it. Now you have a unique story that you tell and it established your podcast. Give us a low down on some of that. So our podcast started from a really dark place. On Christmas Day 2022, I attempted suicide. Thank God for a small glimmer of hope. And I had remembered like a couple of months ahead of time, I had read an article about 988. And so I contacted 988. 988, the lady on the other end of the line was amazing. I'm alive today because of her.

And I'm thankful every day for that because that little glimmer of hope told me that things were going to get better and they did a thousand fold. So the day after I called 9-8-8, I opened up to social media to let them know what was going on. I am 100% extroverted and nobody knew how depressed I was, not a single soul. Pete Slauson

The podcast is right for you if you're 100% extroverted. And so, the 988, for those, let's lay a foundation for those who might be unfamiliar with it, it's a suicide and crisis lifeline that people can call and it's probably important to know if you ever feel like you're depressed or you're having issues that I believe they can even refer you to, they can even refer you to mental health professionals so you can get help. Basically, if you're facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol, drug use concerns, just need someone to talk to, there's counselors that are there and yeah, it's good to see that there's examples of it being used as a lifeline and it working on saving people from depression.

Yeah, 100%. And the nice thing to remember also is it's free and it's anonymous. So if you get like a little freaked out about calling, don't worry, they don't know who you are. They don't know your real name unless you want to give it up. Yeah. That's really important to know because, you know, I think some people maybe they're having issues.

They don't know the depth of their issue or the depth of their impact that it's having on them emotionally. And maybe they just feel like they have that need and it's great that they can reach out and have those conversations. What was it about the conversation you had with 988 that gave you that hope? They helped me find my voice. They helped me find my footing. Because as I was going through all this massive depression, I didn't understand what it was. And I couldn't tell anybody what was going on because I didn't understand it myself. But they, they helped me find my voice so I could

actually go downstairs and talk to my wife and let her know what was going on because not even, she didn't even know how depressed I was. Wow. And sometimes folks who like that, you know, we don't, sometimes we just think, you know, I'm having a bad run or I just don't feel up to par. And sometimes our self-talk can really beat us up inside of our own heads. We've got that kind of monkey brain as we had one podcast or one book author

call it that sometimes, you know, beats us up a little too much in the head. And that voice can kind of drive us to depression and to ugly thoughts of maybe self-destruction. And that's exactly what was happening. But like the lady on the other end of the line, she was powerful and compassionate. And I spent like almost two hours on the phone with her. Wow. Just to get me to a point where I could actually go and talk about it.

And, you know, I'm, I'm not proud of the fact that, you know, I hid it for so long, but like I said, I didn't know how to talk about it because, you know, at my age, I was 59 and a half when I happened. We're, you know, we're all taught at that age, like you never talk about your mental health, shove it down as far as it can go until it has no place else to go. Yeah. And you know, it's like, I always reckon it to, you know, putting a dam up to a river when you, when you, when you, you know, blockade off your feelings or your

thoughts and stuff, you know, the water's going to find a way to go somewhere. And you know, it creates a lot of dementia sometimes in not dealing with our issues. You know, the water will go around the dam and find a way. And yeah, a lot of times we don't understand, you know, I remember when I went in for anxiety, I was having panic attacks like daily when I was very young and starting companies. And I would have these panic attacks and then one day I I just felt like I probably had brain cancer because my brain would always hurt my chest would hurt and And so I went into the insta care one day and the gal said you have anxiety and I'm like, yeah

and I also have fear and loathing and depression and and Thanks, really I have anxiety cool You've named one of the emotional features of being human. And she was like, no, no, anxiety is like a depression thing. And so I had no idea, like I about ripped her head off because I was, you know, at that level of high anxiety and OCD. And you know, I'd have someone just tell you, you felt something, I'm like, what? And then she, you know, calmed me down and she explained to me, you know, anxiety, depression, different things, and thank God, you know,

she got through to me. But yeah, a lot of times, you know, this is something you teach us in high school, right? When we're growing up, how to deal with health, mental health issues. 11 Yeah, they don't teach us, they didn't teach us anything about emotional intelligence or how to check in on yourself or self care or self love or setting boundaries. They don't teach any of that. And that's, that's the sad part is that if anything, high school gives us issues and those early years too, you're like, yeah, why is this not working out the way I thought it would?

So you go through this journey, do you want to talk about some of the things that was happening to you in life so that if other people are maybe going through the same thing, they can identify it? Yeah, 100%. So in the last quarter of 2022 was horrid. It was more horrible than when my mom passed away because a lot of stuff happened in the last quarter of 2022 was horrid. It was more horrible than when my mom passed away because a lot of stuff happened in a very short period of time.

I was offered an early retirement and yes, that probably should have been a good thing, but remember there's ageism in the net in the workforce. So, yeah, trying to think about that. During all that, my wife got shingles. If you've ever dealt with anybody that had shingles before, there's absolutely nothing you can do to help them. Yeah. Then I hit and killed a deer.

I highly do not recommend doing that. Yeah, that's dangerous. Yeah, it was crazy. And then I got catfished, but thankfully by the time that happened, I had kind of come to my senses, I ended up not spending any money. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Hope got F got the FBI involved.

Oh really? It was nuts. Wow. And then a really good friend of ours passed away unexpectedly. My father-in-law passed away two days before Thanksgiving. Oh, wow. You throw in a little bit of holiday depression and a little bit of seasonal depression, and then that December in upstate New York was probably the coldest

December I've ever felt in my entire life. It was like minus 22 on Christmas day. And I was just done. I just wanted to go for a drive. I go out to start my car and my car didn't start. Why? Because it was minus 22. So I marched back inside and by, by the time I'm

just like, I'm so done. I, I, I didn't want to talk to anybody. So I marched upstairs and I'm like, just, I want to be done with this. Like, and the continuous like negative self talk of, I can't get my stuff together, my life sucks. And I sat on my bed and I was like, I need to figure something out. And that's when I called 9-8-8 because I kept thinking about all the people who would leave behind and they didn't want to do that and made me feel really guilty for having those feelings, but at the same time I didn't understand it. And finally, when I got off the phone with 9-8-8, I was able to go down

and talk to my wife and we talked for hours. And I felt like one of those heavy x-ray weighted blankets had gotten lifted off my shoulders. Wow. You know, I know this feeling. I know this feeling of what it's like to have your brain just whipping at you and punishing you and you know, it's kind of one of those things that initially, to my understanding, the psychology of this part of our brain, this monkey brain that we have, is to remind us of things like, hey, you know, you fucked that up, don't

fuck that up again. You know, just to, it's supposed to be helpful. But a lot of times, especially with depression and different other things, it can turn into just turning you into a mental whipping post where your thoughts just overrun you just beat you up. You did this wrong and you did that wrong. And it sounds like you went through quite a few, you know, you were just getting the punching bag with hits in a very short timeline. And it was making, you know, it was just overwhelming you.

And a lot of people aren't prepared for that. I had gone 27 years when my first dog died, I'd gone 27 years without anyone dying in my life. And I mentioned that, you know, I didn't have any calluses really to people passing away. And so all of a sudden after 27 years of no one dying, my dog dies instantly from a seizure, well in over 30 minutes and it's over. And without any warrant, we knew she had seizures, but you know, we just didn't ever think that it would happen that night, you know?

And you know, your brain whips at you and a lot of people, I don't think they understand suicide or depression, but you reach a point where that voice is whipping you so hard internally that you just want it to end. You just want that voice to shut the fuck up and leave you alone. And thankfully, I had a friend turn me on to Eckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, and that was actually a lifesaver for me. That was my 9-8-8 moment. And being able to sit down and find ways to turn off that abusive brain thing that, you know, it's technically supposed to work good for us, but in depression, it just will override us, right?

It does. It's like, you'll want to, you'll have like other thoughts in your head, but the, you know, depression is still kicking your ass. You know, I found though that sharing my journey with other people, that really helped me also because I'm also an empath. And so I was sucking up everybody else's energy and all the bad crap going on in their life, I was not taking care of myself. energy and all the bad crap going on in their life, I was not taking care of myself. And like in the first two or three sessions with my therapist, I learned about setting boundaries. I'm telling you, lifesaver, lifesaver, life changer. Like now I have no problem saying no. And boundaries are really important because otherwise, like you say, if you're empathic,

if you care about others, if you're a person of empathy or emotional depth that comes with emotional intelligence, you could really get sucked down people's rabbit holes. And if you have some, what do they call them? Emotional vampires or drama vampires or people know, they just live to drain everyone's emotions for whatever sort of problems they're creating in their life. It can really, it can really, you know, have a massive impact in your life, correct? Oh, it did. It had a horrible impact because like I said, I would just take care of everybody else's emotions, but not my own. But what I did do is I now have this imaginary

black box and if it smells like drama, it does not get to come in the box. Okay. Well, I, I, I've already been down that rabbit hole. You're not going back. It's really true. There are, I mean, look, I don't, and people have all sorts of issues and I don't mean to

minimize them, but there's, you know, I don't, people have all sorts of issues and I don't mean to minimize them, but there's an adage that you need to, it's the airline adage that you need to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before you put it on whoever's sitting around you in the airplane. And the concept is you can't help other people fill their buckets if your bucket is empty, right? It sounds like a title to a book right there. But a lot of us do that in life. We get caught up just being good people, just trying to help people with their problems. But there's some people, they live for their problems, they live to have them and they need to do their own 9-8-8 calls they need to do their own 9-8-8 calls and get some help. But, you know, trying to be everyone's psychologist and savior can just drain you. And a lot of times those people

aren't reciprocal, and so you feel drained, right? Jodi They suck every little bit of life out of you that they possibly can. But once I started like putting up that black box, you know, yes, I did lose a few friends because of that. Sure. Yeah. Because you know what? I wasn't going to, no, I'm not going down that

rabbit hole again. I'm just not, if it's not something that's going to serve me personally, I don't really need it in my life. But what was cool is like the day after all the shit went down, I opened up on social media and I had about 200 people reach out to me and say, thank you. Because now they didn't feel so terrified and alone in their own journey. Yeah. And so that, that worked for me.

Like I did that for about six months. I would rate my days between one and five. I had a whole lot more ones than I had fives, but they all propped me up when I couldn't prop myself up. And this is the power of sharing your story, of sharing, of talking, of opening them up, of not, you know, a lot of times we, we, you know, we're like, you know, I always tell the story about my dog. I'm sure the audience has heard it a million times, but it's pertinent. You know, I remember when my dog passed, the example I gave earlier, I sat drinking half a bottle of vodka that night, trying to drink myself so I wouldn't

wake up in the morning. And I was really angry the next morning when I woke up that I was waking up. But I wrote this huge post on Facebook about, you know, just pouring out what it felt like to have losing my dog and just the agony of it all. And I remember it took me half an hour to press the button to send, because I'm like, no one wants to hear this. No one cares. This is so selfish. This is me, me, me, me, me. Oh, poor Chris, his dog died. And I, I, I just wouldn't push the button to send it. And I, I put it away at one point and then I, and I copied and pasted it back.

And, and finally, you know, enough vodka had gone by to where I just didn't give a fuck anymore and I sent it. And I thought it was the most selfish thing I'd ever written or done in all the selfish things I'd always written about done on social media. And it was amazing how much it helped other people. It was mind blowing. I mean, still to this day, people will write me and tell me how that post years later, it's almost 10 years later now, maybe seven or eight, 2014. Oh my God, it's 10 years, I think in September of this year, or no, it was 10 years in September last year. I'm still living in 2024. It tells you where I'm at in life. And yeah, so it's been 10

years. Yeah, it's been 10 years and people still talk about that. And I had people write me the next day like you did in sharing my journey and my story and my struggle. I had so many people write me and they go, hey, you're not alone, you know, and you've helped me understand that I'm not alone either. And that there's people in the world that are suffering through tragedies like you're suffering through and I've suffered through. There are people that wrote me, they're like, you made me cry. I never realized I hadn't got closure with my father or my mother or my grandparent or a child that I'd lost to death. I realized I never got closure with my animals passing away. And it really helped so many people. And I didn't have that foresight of thought when I was making that post like you did. I don't know that foresight of thought, you know, when I was making that

post like you did. I don't know if you had the same lack of foresight of thought or if you're just sharing, but I did. And I was like, this is selfish. Everyone's just going to go, oh, boohoo, Chris. Oh, you know, everyone's dog dies. What are you doing? But no, the impact it had was just massive. And that's why we share stories in the Chris Foss Show. That's why we say stories are the fabric of life, is our stories, you know, we share them with other people and they learn that they're not alone, we're not alone. There are other people that have problems and there are also other people that have blueprints to solve their problems. And that's probably one of the greatest things ever on top of human nature's, you know, eternal hope.

I mean, that's seems to be the thing that keeps the species alive is our ability to hope and dream. I believe that. And you know, for me, yes, it was a little selfish, but it was also kind of like my apology tour because I felt bad that I didn't really let onto everybody that I was so depressed. Yeah.

You know, I have a huge social media following, you know, it's always the class clown, always somebody, you know, I would do anything for anybody and I just kind of wanted to come clean and it made me feel better. But the other thing that made me feel better too, is just laughing. You know, hindsight is 2020. I can go back and laugh at some of the shit that happened during that last quarter. You know, not many moments I'm super proud of, but you know, when you're in a depressive state, you're

not really thinking. But that all kind of started with my cohost, who at the time was my manager. And I use that term so super loosely because I retired in April. But we had been friends for, you know, like seven years. And so every day before work, we would call, we'd call each other and just laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh about super irreverent stuff, things that you probably should never talk about. I'm probably going to be driving the bus to hell, but I'm, I'm okay with that. And so like during one of those conversations, she's, Hey, we should do a podcast. And I'm like,

Hey, yeah, let's do a podcast. So that was on January 14th. We dropped our first episode on February 14th in honor of my mom. I had buried my mom in 1997 on Valentine's day and wanted to change the trajectory of the day. And we thought, Oh yeah, we'll get three episodes in. Nobody's going to listen to us. Boy, we're we full. three episodes in, nobody's going to listen to us.

Boy, we're we full. And so now you guys do a podcast, give us the title of the podcast again. So the title of the podcast is shit that goes on in our heads. And when you spell shit, you have to use the exclamation point because the Apple and Spotify police don't let you use the real word. We have, we are now finishing up season 10. We are listening to an over 60 countries and truly the mission behind our podcast is to normalize how we talk about mental health. Wow.

And so you guys have, it looks like on iTunes about 113 episodes so far that are published? Yep. And so you launched this podcast to help other people share, you know, share your story and help other people with their story. And it's been a pretty good success. You got about 400,000 downloads so far? We have switched platforms.

Okay. But you know, the numbers don't carry over. We're a little over 1.5 million downloads. Wow. Good for you guys. 1.5 million. That's awesome. It's scary. Isn't it, you know, you've tapped into a vein and you found your voice, you found your passion, evidently, because you like sharing on the show. And so what goes on on each episode? What do you talk about? So for each episode, you know, we have guests from all walks of life.

We let our guests come in and just, you know, tell us their story. And then dirty skittles and I, you know, we ask questions, we let them sell their wares and it's just a great organic conversation. We never script our show ever. And we just let the guests run with what their stories are. So one of my one of our favorite guests was Bookie. She's a good friend of mine. She had terminal breast cancer. And we got to interview her. She died about a month after the episode released, but there were lessons in that episode that I still carry with me today. Wow. One of our most listened to episodes, Dirty Skittles Dad came on twice.

He's a licensed therapist. Uh, you know, we always either laugh, we always laugh a little bit in the episode and we talk about some really dark stuff, but levitability is really good for your heart, but you know, we'd laugh. Some of our guests cry. Um, we dig deep and we always give like tips and resources that other people can use because when our guests share their stories, we unlock somebody else's prison. Yeah.

And we tell the stories that a lot of other podcasts don't. And we've had our guests tell us it's kind of like sitting around the fire, shooting the shit with friends. That's a good place to be. People need more friends and social stuff too. A lot of people are isolated nowadays. COVID really impacted that and compounded it. Yeah. We, you know, I'm, I'm sorry that that idea didn't come up during COVID, but you know, neither did the mental health breakdown and all the other sort of crap that came with that, but I, am I mad that all of that happened?

I'm not because my life has made, it's a complete change. I completely reinvented myself. I'm healthier, I'm happier now than I have ever been in 20 years. And I get to be me. Yeah, yeah. And that's important, finding your own personal voice, finding your personal passion, the thing that you love the most. My podcast is about the only thing I've ever loved out of any of the companies I've owned

in all the years I have. People think that's funny. They're like, really? And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I was an investor in a lot of companies and I know in my businesses and what I built and stuff, but I wasn't really ever in love with any of it. I wasn't passionate about it. I was kind of like, oh, let's get some money out of this stupid thing.

And that was about it. And so I just finally found something I love with my podcast. I love talking to people, I love hearing their stories. Some of the things you guys talk about on the podcast, I'll just kind of spin out some of the different things here. On March 25th, you guys had a show about anxiety, self-trust and joy, mental health, deep dive with Alyssa, empowering your mind, anxiety,

growth, finding your path, how Hadley found her joy after letting go of social drinking. Lots of heartfelt stories, the aces of grief, understanding trauma and healing with Honey Badger, part one, you know, these different things that many people are going through. We all have emotions, we all have issues and, you know, life is really kind of strange right now with all this sort of weird stuff happening, starting with COVID and everything else. You think? Yeah. I feel too.

It's kind of a, it's kind of a weird time in 2025. Let's put it that way. It is. And you know, I was just going to say like over the, since January 20th, our listenership has gone up, I don't know, 40%. Really? Wow. Like we have crazy numbers that I can't explain and now I just leave it alone.

Kind of like I don't look at my news feeds anymore because it gives me anxiety. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you got to, you know, ride it. Just enjoy it, man. Just enjoy it. There's so many podcasts that fail. They never go anywhere that are what I call zombie podcasts.

You know, they have five episodes. What is the old rule? 80% of podcasts die by episode five or seven, I think it is. And then of the 20% that survive, 80% will die by episode 25. Most people never make it out of the gate in podcasting. And really they just, they're not really that into it and they're really not that good at it and they should go find, they should go back to McDonald's or find work or something. I'm kidding people.

No, I'm not one of the two. So anyway, I mean, I just, it's a business where everybody thinks it's really easy to get into, oh, I just get a mic and talk and you know, how much money do I make doing this? Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's a thing where you can talk about stuff. You guys got all those episodes now up so far. What else about the podcast maybe haven't we teased out or talked about that you think is important? What's kind of crazy for both of us is that we are now booked, like physically booked

with guests until March of 2026. Holy crap. Wow. And how often do you do your show? We record five to six episodes one Saturday a month. One Saturday a month. So you're publishing those five to six during that month? So when we record, we're about six weeks out from when you record. And we have just been getting these really incredible, phenomenal guests. Like my email, I can't even keep up. I will tell you, email is evil and not the best way to manage a podcast today.

Yeah. We see a lot of that too, where I think we got hundreds of applications a month to the show. And it's like, we can't take everybody, folks. I mean, I've had people say, why don't you have all those people in your show? And it's like, how much time take everybody folks. I mean, I've had people say, why don't you have all those people in your show? And it's like, how much time during the day do you think I have? Yeah. It's hard to do multiple shows, even a day. We do two to three a day, a weekday, I should mention. We do take the weekends off, but it's hard.

People don't realize how hard it is to do a show and produce it live, especially, or to be funny and interesting and improv it. And, and we, you know, our, our goal really is at the end of each episode that, you know, our listeners have gotten something out of that. And I, I just got a note from one of our listeners the other day that says how helpful our podcast has been. You know, they're re they're trying to get back into the workforce, you know, and they're scared.

And they found that our episodes have been very relatable and easy to listen to. And it made me cry, kind of made me smile. And, you know, for Dirty Skittles of Mine, when we record, it's like free therapy for us. Pete Wow. Free therapy. Chris Free therapy. Pete Wait, is that why I do this podcast is for my own therapy? Oh, I think we just discovered

something about Chris Voss and Chris Vosha. Chris It's super healing. Like, you know, we don't realize it when we're talking about it, but we'll get off after the day. And some of our stuff is emotionally draining. So I always remember to take care of myself after each recording. But our guests have now become part of our family and they're just fun and we've learned stuff

and we're like best of friends now. And it's funny, it's funny. My wife tells me all the time, she's, I've never seen you work so hard on something you don't get paid for, but it's, it was never been about the money, it's been about our mission and the world's a scary place right now. And I think that, you know, people need to know

that they're not alone and that, you know, resources like 988 are out there and available. And people need to take care of their own mental health because we have been on a ride. Yeah. And we're still on the ride, evidently, according to yesterday. We just announced tariffs on islands that just have penguins on them. So, and God knows they're not exporting anything other than stupidity evidently, but that's that.

But you know, I mean, Federal reserves and economies and who needs them really when it comes down to it. Anyway, yeah, it's kind of interesting right now, 2025. And, you know, we just got over bird flu and egg prices and COVID and it's just keep on coming. But, you know, hope springs eternal. And like you said, the other thing is knowing we're not alone, knowing there's other people in the struggle with this. You know, like I said, when I wrote that post about my, how I felt about losing my dog, and it was really shocked because it came, it was over in 30 minutes.

And we were sitting there happily as a family and then within 30 minutes, it was all taken away. And that's how life can go sometimes. But knowing that there's other people that have experienced that, I mean, hope springs eternal. I mean, hope springs eternal. I mean, that's the great thing about human nature. But knowing we're not alone, knowing there's other people we can help each other, there's a lifeboat.

You don't have to swim alone in the water if the ship feels like it's sinking. There's lifeboats and there's people that can help and there's people that will lift. I remember during COVID, one of the reasons we changed the show from kind of being a little bit selfish of a show, we talked about Silicon Valley and tech stuff and product reviews and things like that. But when COVID happened, you know, people could be gone in an instant. You couldn't even hold their hand in the hospital beds. You know, you had people just dying in their homes.

We've had refrigerator trucks people. And so I remember I was in a massive depression. We were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in guaranteed income that we built in our product base every year doing events and touring and interviewing CEOs. And I saw a post from a friend and he says, here's what you do right now. You do one of two things, you be a lifter or you find a lifter. And it sounds like January 20 is being a big hit for you in bringing people to needing to hear other people's stories, needing to maybe flush their story out with other people that might have similar and find other people that need lifting too, you know, that's what you're doing now.

You're being the lifter. And I remember I said, you know, I don't want to find a lifter. I'm not a good follower and I'm a person who likes helping other people. So I'm going to be a lifter. And so either be a lifter or find a lifter in these moments of time that, you know, maybe we all find that we need some issues resolved. So I'm glad you're doing it. I'm glad you're doing that part. Give me your thoughts on what I just passed forward to you. And then let's delve into some

of the stuff you're doing at the other company you launched for, I think consulting and stuff. You know, like you said, we are lifters. I think we kind of have a responsibility for that right now. Bringing a smile or bringing some resources to people where resources are being turned off and giving people the ability to just feel, right? Whether it's laughing or crying or finding their joy and in, in whatever, however they find their joy. That's my big thing right now is find some joy. Like the world may be crumbling, but like you can still look outside and see a beautiful flower or hear a child laugh.

Those are the things that are going to make your heart maybe skip a beat and make you think that, oh, you know what, life is going to be okay. It's just we're on a really bumpy road right now. And just making people feel okay. Yeah. It's really important and making people feel secure in what they're doing, et cetera, et cetera. It can just make all the difference in the world and help people with what they're going through and all that good stuff. So as we go out, give people a final pitch out to onboard with some of the different

things you're doing, some of the different things you're offering, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, for sure. We are still taking guests on the podcast. So if you are interested in being a guest, you can go out to our website and go to the contact form, reach out to me. We may not be able to get you on until sometime in 2026, but I do do pre interviews with every single guest just to make sure they're a good fit for the show. I am in the process of writing a book. I was almost done and then I quit my job and decided to include everything that's happening now

into the last chapter of that book. I do want everyone to see me as a story of hope. I worked really, really hard for the last two and a half months, two and a half years to get here. And then I just opened my new business and I'm, you know, I'm in that now two months and I have a client and made some money. It was super exciting the other day. I got my first paycheck with my company name on it and I took a picture of it because it made me happy. took a picture of it because it made me happy. But you know, I'm 61, 61 and a half and decided I didn't want to do corporate America anymore and

I knew I could go out and do things better myself. Yeah. And I'm super happy in doing it. I'm trying to learn how to, you know, find new customers and also, you know, just share my knowledge, my 45 years of working and living experience around mental health and being in business and in the corporate environment and really getting corporate leaders

to think about employees' mental health as they're going through changes and things within their companies. Because right now, people aren't just thinking about the stress at work, they're thinking about the stresses on the outside too. Yep, definitely. And we need as much help as we can get.

Remember folks, right now, find a lifter or be a lifter. You know, any day above ground is a good day when it comes down to it. There's so many beautiful things about life, about ourselves, you know, we just have to find the beauty in that. You know, yesterday I spent time with my puppy, playing with my puppy and just really thinking how blessed I am. Gratitude is a big point in a lot of this, you know, finding gratitude, being grateful

for what you have, you know. So what? You don't have everything. No one does. And you know, I mean, there's people that make millions per year and are still the most unhappiest people in the world. And I've seen what that's like in being successful and being depressed no matter how successful you are. You're just like, I just can't do this.

And you know, so everyone struggles, everyone goes through this, everyone seems to be sometimes given things that they find insurmountable, even though some of us may look at them and be like, really, that's bugging you. But when you're in the depths and throes of that voice in your head that, you know, decides it wants to beat you up and have its way with you, that can be just an incredible challenge and hard for people. So as we go out, give people your final thoughts and pitch out to subscribe to your podcast, get to know you better, reach out, et cetera, et cetera. If there's a newsletter to the podcast, all that.

Yeah. So we do have a newsletter at the bottom of the show notes in either Spotify or on Apple. You can find the link to our newsletter if you want to sign up for it. We go out every Tuesday morning at 3am. We have an incredible Season 11 coming up. Super excited about that. And if you, if you, if we say something or do something that really like triggers you or would like to get more information, please reach out to us at goes on in our heads at gmail.com. I respond to every single email, even though I

think email is evil and because we get too much of it. And I might want to hire a VA for that. Maybe. I don't know. That's the, that's the next step. Yeah. Find somebody to take that off your hands. Cause it sounds like you really hate it.

I really hate it. It's, it's a great tool. I don't know why I'm trying to sell you email, but you know, by the way, you can join my affiliate service email doc anyway. I'm sorry to interrupt you. Go ahead. But we, you know, we are super excited to, to be where we are. It's, it's been a work of passion and you know, I, with my own company, it's a,

it's past, it's something I do. I work because I want to, not because I have to. And if anybody out there is interested in my services, if you go to my website, shows or solutions.com, you can have a 30 minute free consultation with me and we'll see if there's something I can do to help you and your business. We certainly appreciate you coming by and sharing your story and thanks for starting the podcast and helping so many people. It sounds like it's having an incredible impact.

And you know, you're saving lives. I mean, it's interesting. You know, we've had so many authors on the show and people have told me themselves. I mean, there was decades ago, decades ago, how old am I? Social media has only been around since 2009, Chris. But I remember on my social media Twitter feed, I pumped, I just pumped some feel good quotes into it, into our automator. And two people wrote me over those 10 years saying, I'd saved their life that day. And whatever I'd been pumping with no intention of saving

anyone's life, just, you know, pumping feel good quotes. You know, they told me that they were planning on committing suicide that day and something in the quotes that I quoted them resonated and saved their lives. So sometimes we just never know the impact we have on other people. Sometimes you'll hear stories, sometimes people come up to me and tell me how much an episode impacted them and I'm like, wow, really? That's amazing. So I think it's great what we're doing and we're sharing and sometimes we just need as many voices as we can in the space to help lift as it were. So, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you so much.

And just as one parting word, check out your Extraverted Friends. We are really, really, really good at masking our depression. You know, somebody told me when I was around 20, they said, you know, a lot of people are comedians and clowns, they're masking issues, they're hiding issues, they're coping with it really. But sometimes that's what, sometimes you're in so much depression, that's what we need. We find the laughter and we find the joy of it, but sometimes we're running from our own demons and that can be a challenge.

You know, we saw that with Robin Williams, we saw that with other comedians that have killed themselves or died of overdoses because they were coping or medicating their issues with drugs or alcohol, etc. And so, you bring forward a good point, you know, just because someone is the most funnest, happiest person, doesn't sometimes mean that they're, that's going on inside them. Sometimes they're running from their own demons. So. 14 Thank you so much for having me today. I really, really enjoyed this conversation.

14 Thank you. And so did I, Gretchen. Thank you as well. And thanks for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Forchance, Chris Foss, LinkedIn.com, Forchress, Chris Foss, Chris Foss1 on the Tik Tokity and all those crazy places. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time. And that should have sound great.