Joel Gujral: Transforming the corporate mental health approach

The business world's attitude towards mental health has undergone a sizeable transformation in the past decade. But one young entrepreneur is refusing to accept the slow rate of change and "one-size-fits-all" approach.

Our guest for this episode founded an app offering 1:1 therapy, counselling and career coaching sessions after suffering depression due to an undiagnosed health issue. MyndUp now services over 50,000 employees from global brands, including Savills, Dentons, CVC, The Prince’s Trust, and Avast.

This is our conversation with MyndUp founder and CEO, Joel Gujral.

Here's what we discussed:

• You’ve been open about your struggle with mental health and how this motivated you to start MyndUp – what was your experience like and how did it lead you to this point? (0:55)
• What was your own personal journey and story to founding the business? (04:34)
• How did failure in your early businesses affect your scaling of MyndUp? (06:25)
• Do you think society’s understanding of mental health is flawed? (09:38)
• Do you think there needs to be this double-edged approach to mental health - psychology and life coach? (11:15)
• What impact has the pandemic had on mental health? (12:38)
• Are large organisations just paying lip service providing mental health services or does it even matter because employees are benefitting? (14:03)
• Could offering good mental health support help a business? Such as improved productivity and team cohesion? (15:28)
• Have mental health issues risen or are we just more aware of them? (17:07)
• Is flexible working good or bad for mental health, or is it too soon to tell? (20:06)
• What can business leaders do to support their team members when it comes to mental health? (21:55)
• What are the strengths of being a young entrepreneur? (24:55)
• Do you have advice for young entrepreneurs who may experience imposter syndrome because of their age? (26:00)
• How did you secure funding? (27:27)
• How do you balance your own mental wellbeing whilst being the CEO of a company? (30:44)
• Answer the Internet: How much does it cost to create an app? (35:55)
• What makes a great business leader? (37:14)

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