YouSaid · the spoken record

Dan Murray-Serter

lines on the record: 154
first: 2020-10-26
most recent: 2020-10-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, Tinder for fashion, exactly. And it was a real exciting journey. But at no point did I enjoy it really. Not at no point my ego enjoyed it, right? And we won loads of awards. You know, we won the award we wanted. Like we were like, we just want to be written about in TechCrunch and all this stuff. And in 2017, we won best mobile startup in Europe over DPOP at the TechCrunch Europas. We didn't even turn up to that awards to take that award because I was having such a bad time mentally. I didn't even go to the awards of a ceremony. My friend picked up that trophy and took a photo on our behalf. I was sitting at home drinking whiskey feeling really terrible about myself. Because that was living someone else's dream. I didn't care about fashion.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really quickly, millions of downloads at a million monthly active users in our end. We had like a even acquisition that failed sadly, but would have made us millionaires was a real journey with that company.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because, like, all of the pain that you suffer as part of the game. That stuff isn't. This is the thing, right? That stuff isn't not true. You do have to grow, growth is painful, and you will have sleepless nights and all the other bits and pieces. That is part of the parcel. The thing that we confuse this is it's all mutually exclusive, aka my identity has to be that and only that because that's how Gary V and like a few other geniuses in society have got to the top of their games. But here's the thing like there's two reasons why I had burnout last time. The first was because I wasn't happy on what I was working and running a startup can feel a bit like a cage sometimes. So unless you're really sure, I say this all entrepreneurs all the time. Are you sure this is the company you want to build? Because if it's not, you're going to be doing it anyway. And then you are your own birdkeeper. You have locked yourself in a cage. And that's what I did with Gravel. I got lucky. I found a niche, an opportunity. It grew exposed.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“100% Gary V is a very clever man, very intelligent, but he has created a negative impact on society that he would probably be upset about because he seems to be a lovely man that really deeply cares about stuff. From what I can see, I believe his authenticity, but he has created hustle culture and hustle porn.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you can't do those things for your own body, it's like what I said is if you can't be the CEO of your body, you do not earn the right to be the CEO of your company. You've got to look after your mental state and your physical body first by thinking and finding the space, carving out the space to think. What does good decisions look like that fit my purpose and where I'm looking to go? And if you can do that and you can answer those things, you actually start to learn things start to add up.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And this, I guess, actually speaking of personal branding, a more popular post I did recently was about stamina and the things I've learned about REST, which is that as a founder and a CEO, you learn that you're not paid for your stamina. Yeah, you pay Mo Gordat for sorry, not Mo Gordat, Mo Farah for his stamina, right? He's got to run fucking 10K, that's stamina, right? That's what athletes are paid for. I'm paid for my decision making. People invest in me and they invest in heights for my decision making abilities. And overworking, giving yourself burnout, not taking space to rest, not listening to what you know to be true and spending the time planning. That's bad decision making.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, really? Okay, fine. Yeah, so neuroplasticity is that if you are into spirituality like I am, then it's called manifestation, right? It's spending the time thinking about what you're going to do and how you're going to get there. And then to put it into like super business terms, if you're into business, it's called planning and execution. So there are these different ways to articulate the same point. But the point is, if you just spend your days going bit by bit, not really thinking about where you're going to go and what it means to you, it'd be very hard for you to make good decisions. And frankly,”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, that includes friends, that includes saying, I don't have time for this friend anymore or this part of my identity anymore, even though I like it and I like them. I like all this stuff because frankly, there's, you know, this shedding almost that we do as human beings, you know, in reptile form, it's very physical, right? They're literally shedding a skin. But as humans, you don't see this change. But it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. And we go in these cycles. And I think a lot of mental health conditioning is attached to our holding onto the past and refusing to sort of embrace the future. And that's why, you know, I think it's really...”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“100%, and it's difficult, right? But as you grow, you edit. And you need to really consider who you're editing out of your life and who you're welcoming into your life. And I think, you know, there's the practical reality that what was good for you five years ago was no good for you right now. And frankly, you know, the highest leverage decision you can make, I'm still terrible at this, by the way. But the highest leverage decision you can make is picking what to say no to. And the hardest thing you can do is say no to opportunities that you would definitely say yes to.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I only speak to a bunch of them now, you know, identity is such an interesting thing. And, you know, you have it when you're, you'll be going through it right now. And I empathize right, you're not Steve from social chain anymore. And that's Daniel for ages. You know, I was down from Gravel, now I'm Dan from Heights. People do that. And that's fine, but it's important you don't overcompensate that identity for yourself attached to your business because we're all on a path and we're going to go through a journey. And the journey, the stories are going to change. And when you overattach yourself to a particular part of the journey is where you can find struggle.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of a particular person 100% Dude, like the thing that I've learned, which is so interesting is 90% of my fear of what people will think is based on my school friends.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At all, I'd say like 100, like inspired by the way that you've approached your Instagram, like sharing insights, because insights and like distilling my thoughts into something and writing them down, that is something that I do. I just don't publish them. Or I was on LinkedIn. So actually what I've now started doing on Instagram is like literally taking a leaf out of your book after our chat. Going through some of my high performing LinkedIn posts that might have got one or two thousand likes and being like, if it was popular there, I guess it'll be popular here. Let's have a go. And trying to get over it now, slowly but surely. But it's this constant belief that no one wants to hear what I have to say.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's a great question. So, I guess as a starting point, it's worth saying that I think a very healthy way to approach stuff like this in your life is to choose a place, build confidence, and go on from there. So I feel like that's what I did with LinkedIn. I understood that that's the place where I'd feel least impostery. And so I'd start there. Now, I picked up on Twitter. I mean, Twitter is like my favorite platform is when I spend probably the most time on. But, you know, it's got a very short half-life, so it's kind of impossible to consistently come up with gems. Instagram, you know, to me was this place where just beautiful people live, young, beautiful people live. And that's all anyone's interested in. And that's not really my world, right? I'm interested in challenge. I'm interested in mental health. I'm interested in stories. And interesting that I wasn't finding that on Instagram. So I was like, what am I doing? I don't really belong in this place.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All the time! All the time. So many people do it. And I give the most direct feedback on LinkedIn, probably very similar to you. Loads of people ask my help for loads of things all the time. And if I ever see stealth mode on their thing, I'm like, I don't talk to anyone in stealth mode, FYI.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And if you are stuck with the narrative that everything's going amazingly all the time and that's all you're telling people, no one can help you figure it out when you actually could do with the help. You know, it's the other thing going slightly off piece, sorry, but my biggest bugbearer in entrepreneurship is stealth mode. Think stealth mode is like the most stupid thing that an entrepreneur can claim to be in full stop because as you know, ideas are worthless execution as everything. Anyone that's ever built a business knows how hard it is. Stealth mode is when people say like working on a new business in finance in stealth mode right I'd love to see that.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know, right? Exactly. But it's such a complicated answer to give in the now. So anyway, like on the personal brand thing, I decided LinkedIn was a place I felt comfortable because I can be my authentic self because I am an entrepreneur, because I am someone who is willing to go big and fail and actually figure out why and talk about why. And I think this stuff is so important for entrepreneurs to connect openly and honestly, because I absolutely hate. And the one thing I will not miss about networking events is going to them and everyone talking about them killing it. You know, that is literally poison in our society. It's nonsense. So everyone just talking about how they're killing it stops people from saying, actually, you know, it's really hard right now. This is the problem I'm dealing with. And this is like how it's making me feel. If you're able to say that to another entrepreneur because you've created the container in the environment to be comfortable to do so, that person can probably help you.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Or something to almost 25,000 on the basis of, and as you know, there's no putting money behind anything on LinkedIn or anything, literally just by being myself, by writing about how I'd failed, by writing about what I was working. It's a horrible time for an entrepreneur in between, or it can be, certainly in between, people are like, what do you do? And your identity is in flux. And, you know, like, do I talk about this new thing that I've just discovered that might not be a thing in a month? Preaching to the question.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When my last company failed, I didn't know what I was going to do next. I looked at my social media platforms and was like, you know, where am I going to spend time rather than where am I going to waste time, ultimately, right? Because you can get caught up in this silly game and then thinking personal branding. Where do I feel comfortable? That would be a good place to start. And I chose LinkedIn. And the reason I chose LinkedIn was because I told myself a story, which I completely believe to be true anyway, which is whatever I do next, I'm a serial entrepreneur, right? As in I'm fine not having any money, I'm fine working for other people for free, doing all these things, but I'm always going to start something else myself again. So if I know that to be true, it means I'm always going to hire people. And what a really smart and impressive people want from their boss. They want to know who they're working for. They want to know what your values are. They want to know what you believe in. They want to know what kind of things you share. And so I was like, LinkedIn is the only place that could credibly do that for me, right? And I actually went from, I mean, it's not, you know, that impressive, but I went from like 3,000 followers.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Over 100 science papers, and I'll know what science says is good for your brain according to journals, experts, etc., which will be an amazing step to create an amazing habit to build, to get over my own mental frailties and my own story of imposter syndrome. So when it comes to social media, I feel like I've got the same thing, which is”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Doesn't change right in me. That voice is still there. However, a really good thing if you're aware, if you're consciously aware of your limitations, especially like some of your mental frailties, creating steps to improve those things are helpful. So with hypes, the first thing I did just over 100 weeks ago was start a newsletter. Because I was like, I'm going to get imposter syndrome so badly in a space of neuroscience and nutrition, not neuroscientists or nutrition. It's going to mean awful for me. So I'm going to write a newsletter every week and I'm going to read a science paper every week. And I am going to distill that into three minutes because when you read something and you learn it once and when you share it, you learn it twice. So the process of literally rewriting this was creating neural pathways and embedding the information into my brain. So I was like, in 100 weeks, it's actually what I told myself. And it's just been 101 now, in 100 weeks, I won't be a neuroscientist or a nutritionist, but I will have read.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is the story. This is the story that I tell myself. It doesn't mean that it's true. Then there's another question about platforms, right? So, you know, this isn't a mental health condition, but I do have imposter syndrome. And, you know, we've talked about this in the past as well. You know, the first business that I scaled was Gravel, which is when we first met. And, you know, that was me going into technology and fashion having had no experience previously I was in advertising before. And I love changing industries and I love challenging myself to completely wipe the slate clean and do something new. But it comes with imposter syndrome. That's what I've learned about myself, right? I'm full of the internal monologue of I'm not good enough. No one cares what I think and I don't deserve to be doing this. It's someone else's dream.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think when you're doing B2B, that makes loads of sense. The challenge I have is my products are B2C, right? They're for consumers. Putting as much time and effort and thought and energy into promoting myself is mental energy I should be putting into the brand. You know, there is, I think, probably a reasonable compromise and also like all things, this is a bit of a developing scenario. However, it's a very fair thing to say that I'm not the product. This is the product. Inside my company, we could all agree that that is like broadly true, right? We're selling a thing. We're not selling me. Whereas, you know, going through exactly the same experience that social change, you guys, if you weren't in the room, you guys would have come to the same conclusion, which is Steve's the greatest part of the funnel here. So we as a company succeed when Steve's succeeding. So that's the kind of marketing funnel we should back. So, you know, I can see sort of smirking at me because.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you told me to listen to an episode which I did, and he was talking about the early days of social chain. You learned early that you were bringing in most of the revenue, like Steve was bringing in most of the revenue. Therefore, the business decision made lots of sense to center that around you.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Got a fucking point So, you know, I guess I'll put it a slightly different way. I was listening to one of your earlier, but you sent me this, actually, your podcast with him. Sorry, what was his name?”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's such a good question, Steve. But also because we connect a lot on this, right? So you're like my unofficial mentor with a few voice notes where I'm like.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So these little triggers and shifts emotionally change something in you, but I've learned a lesson the hard way through ayahuasca as well, which is just because you're learning lessons. This is like all wisdom, right? It doesn't matter whether you get it from ayahuasca or you get it from your Instagram posts. You can read it and it can resonate, and you can be like, wow, that's powerful Without action, it means nothing. So if you don't create, then the steps to be better based on what you learned, you're wasting a very powerful weekend and painful weekend. I've been guilty of that too. I've learned lessons that I haven't necessarily followed through with. And sometimes it's because they take bravery. And I feel like I'm not ready for that bravery yet.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's this thing that I've learned as well, which is when you go into experiences, it's helpful to have a totem, right? So I carry a different stone in for each experience, and I have these stones at home. Anyway, I have this stone by the side of my bed. And every single morning that I wake up, the first thing I see is this stone, literally just a pile of crap stone. But the point is, it's imbued with this message for me. And I wake up every day and I'm grateful for having running water in my bathroom there. And that is like an unbelievably poetic and powerful way to live your life past an experience, to wake up in Camden Town, in London, being, you know, so fortunate. Of gratitude as opposed to like waking up groggy and being like, Yeah, I'm grateful for waking up today. This is like it means something to me.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“50% of my whole entire psychedelic experience that night was literally walking like a mile in this boy's shoes. This lesson sort of came to me about, you know, it isn't always about what you want and it isn't always about like, you know, asking for more. It's actually about having gratitude for what you have. And when you have enough gratitude for what you already have, you will unlock the path to more.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Basically, and I became that kid, and I became this person trying to get water for his family and having to walk miles for it.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The single greatest lesson I've learned in iOSCO is about gratitude. So I was going through a period, I think I was 30 potentially. So it was a few years later. And things were going well at the time. So my attitude, my mindset was I want this, I want that, right? What's your intention going in? Well, I want this. I want that. That's how you answer it because you're not enlightened enough to understand. You get the psychedelic experience, right? Yeah, yeah. And you can write it down and come back to me and be like, that was what I was looking for in this journey. But actually, the lesson I learned, so I was asking, you know, how can I 10x what I do? How can I be more? How can I become better? How can I have more impact? Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, all these questions. I was instead transported to like basically, I'm not sure where in the world, but a very poor part of the world where there was this like kid like begging industry.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can actually say, I'm not ready for that yet. And sometimes it'll push you and say, open it anyway. But sometimes it will actually listen to you and let you go sort of back into your body. So it is a really fascinating experience. And what I'd say about it is the number one most important thing I've ever done in my life. And especially because it's not pleasant. The first time I did it was, you know, the single most life-changing moment of my life not only got over my depression. You know, I went and spent the whole day with my mum the next day explained everything that I'd experienced, you know, not a mum's favorite chat, hearing your son talk about psychedelics, but certainly is in context of like helping me get over something she was aware I was suffering from.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Understanding how everything in this earth is living in a cycle, like a beautiful miracle. And so it was less about like seeing micro things and seeing macro things being in it. If it's taking me to a place I don't want to go, an ador I'm not ready to open, you can negotiate.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People who haven't done you drink it takes about an hour for me. You lie down in the pitch blacks fluid. It's like a shot. It's taste disgusting, but some people like it. You lie back. And the shamans basically start playing music. And it's a completely guided, facilitated experience with them if you're having problems. They come over. They help you if you need to be taken out of the room. They look after you. It's like, you know, it's busy night. There's noises. A lot of people throw up. How's this for irony? I didn't throw up for my first 10 times, which everyone was like, that's super weird. I was like, yeah, especially considering my history. Really bizarre. But the experience I saw was the one I needed. And there's a really deep insightful experience you get from psychedelics, which you can often go in wanting a thing, but it isn't what you need. And in this experience, what I wanted was to see my dad and to connect with my dad. But it isn't what I got. What I got was a vision of”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A great book by Michael Polland called How to Change Your Mind. And in it, he talks about this problem with psychedelics. It's a bit like dreams, right? You're having an ineffable experience. So to describe it for people was generally quite boring. What I think is more interesting in a sense is to discuss the outcomes that I've got from it. So the first time, you know, very quickly, because you asked, the experience was the hallucinogenic experience, like I said, was watching the cycles of the Earth develop.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just somewhere else. But what's fascinating and very common from people's recollections of ayahuasca trips is you have a spirit guide called Mama Ayahuasca. That's what everyone calls her. And in all of my experience of doing it, and I've done it about 12 times now, so I almost go back every year. By the way, it's an incredibly painful experience. And it's very difficult to do, and it's not something you look forward to, which is why it's like rockish rocket fuel growth, which is why I do it. because you learn all the things about yourself you don't want to hear you don't want to know and you confront the worst realities um i've learned more in those weekends that i've done this than you know you can learn with therapists and you can learn yourself”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, ayahuasca is essentially a completely natural from the Amazon. And it's been practiced for thousands of years. I won't go into the whole history of psychedelics, but I could do because I've read a lot about it. The reality is it's sacred. So our shamans have like a legal license to practice with it. And it's a guided experience. So the most important thing to say to anyone thinking about iOS or whatever, this is not something you do at home on your own at all, ever. You could do that with mushrooms. You can definitely do that with LSD. You definitely do not want to do that with ayahuasca because in my experience the other psychedelics are a bit like you can have sort of one foot in this world, one foot in that world and ayahuasca is not even in this plane.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when they get annoyed, I'm like, I've got and having a belief has actually helped me, helped guide me to then work on things like what are my personal values, you know, which you talked about, you know, mental models. What do I say yes to and no to in life? Well, you can only figure those things out if you spend time with mental models, first principles, thinking about what things mean to you in life. And then suddenly other things start to come into flow.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Recycling all the time for a sustainable system and being like, you know, that is in itself a scientific miracle, but something greater than us that's always happening throughout time. It was a real shift for me because A, I overcame my depression from that. B, I suddenly believed in something, even if that something is nature. And when people are like, and I get this from Christians quite often as well, they're like, you know, what do you mean you believe in nature? Like, what is that? I'm like, I mean, it's more believable than a guy that walked on water.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I mean, I came back that weekend completely. I mean, when I say a 180. I went from the most cynical non-believer in the whole world, negatively so, to like without sounding like a complete twat, like positively enlightened and confident, never more confident of anything in my life of spiritual realism and what I believe in. And ultimately what I believe in, and I have these like fun conversations with people now about spirituality, which is, you know, what do I believe in? I believe in nature. I believe in looking at the beauty of the world and how cycles work, which is science, right? And the way that my ayahuasca experience actually opened my eyes to believing in something spiritual or greater than myself was 90% of my hallucination was observing what happens in nature with cycles, right? Birds, bees, oxygen, air, soil, all of this.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What actually happened to me was, you know, I would be relatively Difficult and question people a lot when they were talking to me about their religious beliefs. I'd want to dig into them and I'd really want to challenge the way that they think and why they think these things and how they can defend them, but not trying not to be an absolute asshole, but just using my own, I guess, bitterness and my own experience of growing up being told to believe in something, which is very different to finding something. You know, when my father passed away and I didn't have this connection to it anymore, I also felt like I didn't have a connection to spirituality or anything. And so it's very weird to have like almost the death of a religion as a human being because that's your death of your connection to this earth and purpose and everything. And it wasn't until I was 27 really one of my really good friends told me about, and obviously we've been talking about Christian Nangemeier as well, like our mutual friend. So this is a relevant conversation, told me about ayahuasca. And I'd never heard of it before. I don't even know what it was. And I went on a retreat with him.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So 24, my dad died. So, I mean, also similar time to having the, I mean, I didn't even realize that until I was saying it just now. But so probably related, obviously. I went through about three years of not believing in anything, right? Like really, and not very nice about it either. So I grew up Jewish. And I've always said in fairness, you know, I think Judaism is as bad a religion as all the other religions. You know, I don't actually personally like any one of them, but I do love what they all mean. But then, you know, it's very possible to be wise and not associate yourself with a religion. What I've learned, which I find so interesting, is my identity, my connection to spirituality, and Judaism is a weird one as well because it's like a race and a religion. So it's like you can actually be not religious. You can lose your religion, but still be the race. And that's like actually it's a positive in a way because it means you don't have to disassociate from cultural values, but you can disassociate yourself from religious ideals.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I lost what I believed in this world And if you don't have a sense of belief, it's really hard to find your purpose. And I would say that I went through a few years of that.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and like my dad was such a generous spirited guy. He was blind. He had all of these things wrong with him anyway. And still was just the funniest, nicest, warmest person anyone knows. And the last person on earth to kind of deserve something like that. And so for me, the experience after he passed away, so he believed in God. So when he died, I was like, that's my connection to God gone. Therefore, I straight up believe in nothing. You know, I think it's really interesting to have conversations with people, intelligent people like yourself when you talk about purpose and vision and these things. It's very hard to imagine that you've got a purpose, a vision for anything if suddenly you've switched and you've switched off and you've said, I believe in nothing.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know depression is also not something to claim you have. When they said he's 100% going to die, actually survived, made it out of the hospital into recovery home, and then someone basically had a cold around him and he died of their cold, catching their cold after the entire recovery process. The truth of the matter is that my depression was actually interestingly sort of linked with a lack of belief in a higher power or whatever you want to call it, justice, like everything, right? Because”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, in my head. And actually, 27 was the start of like a whole other, you know, experience in life for me anyway. So it is possible that these things are related to stress and other things. My entrepreneurship journey started at 24, so it's not completely unrelated, but not quite not enough to actually label it and say it's for a thing. But then, you know, the other experiences that I've had with mental health are a lot clearer. So I think depression is a really complex term. And the only, I think it's really worth saying the only... Relation that I've got to depression that I'm comfortable talking about is after my father passed away. And I think that's really reasonable, right? And so this is the thing because I work so much with people in mental health and experts”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but naturally, I wasn't doing anything different. I mean, I started to learn what foods would make me more sick than others, if that makes sense as well. But I find it super interesting. Again, less so, I mean, we're called to know the trigger, obviously, but it's almost less so that and more so the fact that it kind of ran its course as well was interesting to me and that I buried it”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think self deprecation can sometimes be like a defense mechanism, right? And ultimately, with these things, you're going to hear them a lot. If you grow up fat, you're going to hear it a lot, right? You're going to go to a new environment. Someone's going to bully you for the obvious. And so you kind of find a way of coping with it in your own way. For me, it's just interesting because the other mental health issues that I've had in my life, I'm able to trace back usually to a moment or a thing or reflect on why. This one kind of just happened later. And then I had it for a few years, but then it just also went away.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So oxygen was going, not going in my mouth and through my bloodstream properly. Somebody was skating around my head and my brain. So it was like an emergency procedure to get me on meds and sort me out. But it's so interesting because even knowing that that had happened to me, I didn't relate the cause to actually a deeper root cause, which was another mental health problem. To be honest with you, I couldn't say to you what the trigger was beyond this story. You know, the things that we grow up with the people that we grow up with, those little, you know, bullying and things like that. I mean, you know, in some good respects, because I grew up fat, I've got a good personality and a sense of humor. So I've always been able to really connect with people because I just never had it all my way kind of thing.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was at a festival one time, and I had a coughing fit in Hackney. And I had a coughing fit at the hospital, and I coughed a hole in my throat, literally. It's called pneumo media steinum. It's a very unique thing to happen, apparently. And fortunately, it was close enough to the Royal London Hospital to go in there and show them, right? And basically what happened to me was my head started to grow. So I was with my friends feeling fine other than this cough. And one of my friends just looked at me and was like, whoa. And I was like, what? They're like, mate, your head is massive. I'm like, I'm not even talking, mate. Don't be a dick. No, no, your head is growing. What is going on? I was like, what? And then everyone else was like, oh my God. Anyway, walked to the hospital. It's sort of like five in the afternoon or whatever because there's a day festival. And there's like, you know, it's East London. There's quite a lot of genuinely like gang-related things. People are bleeding everywhere, all this stuff. And they just see me and they're like, that guy's next. And I went into it.”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's really hard to say what the cause was because I got it after I'd lost weight. So, you know, by the time I was sort of 21 or whatever, I was in perfectly reasonable shape. But I got it at like 23. And actually there was a result of it. The only time I was ever hospitalized really random but hilarious story in its own way. Because I'd been throwing up, I'd been basically like hurting the inside of my throat, right?”
2020-10-26 · The Diary of a CEO · Overcoming Depression, Burnout, Anxiety and Insomnia with Dan Murray-Serter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT