YouSaid · the spoken record

David Ko

lines on the record: 31
first: 2026-04-07
most recent: 2026-04-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Work together going forward. And I just want to be and continue to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I think it's just the problem. I think the problem is so large. And what I found is that you can have some best intention companies that are out there today, but this market is so fragmented and it's so diverse, meaning the following. Like my parents live in Korea today, we don't have conversations about mental health in Korea. It is still very taboo. It is still seen as a sign of weakness. Is the conversation kind of starting? Yes. What I love to go there and accelerate that conversation to where we are having in the US? Absolutely. So there are different conversations happening on a global perspective. And so for myself, I just think that this problem is not going to get smaller. It's going to get larger. I think technology too is going to accelerate it. I think we have to go figure out at times how we start to really”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know if I'm going to find more calm or balance. I think I'm going to continue to throw myself in more stressful situations.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he was like, I had a big desktop. I said, great. And did you have a phone that could be with you 24-7? He was like, no. And I was like, so you didn't take your work home with you. You couldn't physically carry that desktop home with you. He's like, no, ridiculous. I said, great. Well, guess what? Many of our youth today bring their work home with them and there is an expectation of 24-7. And so we just have to understand technology has shifted the mindset of how we expect people to respond, how we expect people to work going forward. So their ass of us are different as well. Okay. So both sides need to recognize that things have shifted. But I also do think they're dealing with more complexity than ever before.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, look, I think the question is very fair without naming the company, I'll talk to you through a real life kind of scenario. I went to a company and spoke within a leadership team, and one of the leaders, older gentlemen, was like, is our younger generation too soft? And while I really appreciated the question, I appreciate it because he felt safe in that room to ask the question. And that's on his mind. And I asked him a question right back. I said, hey, when you were younger and you were in the workplace, same thing as our Gen Z generation today. Did you have a laptop or desktop?”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It drives teamwork. It hits purpose. It hits the mission. It's good. It's when we start to feel that we have back to back to back to stress moments. There's not an understanding of the why behind the stress. I go to a lot of companies today and I ask them like, why are you stressed? They're like, I have all these things. And we as leaders sometimes just keep adding to their pile of things to do. And if we did one thing as leaders and we said, okay, we're going to add something to your pile, but we're going to take something away. A lot of times all we do is add, and that just adds to stress. That's when it leads to distress over good stress.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think Dr. DT Norakar, who was in my book and a really good friend, she said, you know, good stress is like you stress. It could bring you closer together. We all have stress in our life, but it's like, again, small microdoses. And bad stress is when we go into distress. And that's when we could fall and too much of it again can lead to burnout. And it's when we find ourselves just kind of spiraling. I've been to many companies and they'll say, how do we just eliminate stress from the workplace? And I'm like, I don't know. But if you figure it out, you should tell me. We're going to have stress. It's always going to be there. It's really how you handle that stress and how we have more good stress moments than bad stress moments.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Start the like, have them talk about what they do. Make it okay to have even the conversation, right? So often I'll hear people say, take care of your mental health. Okay. How do you take care of your mental health as a leader? And I think if you can be a little bit vulnerable and talk about how you take care of yourself, then you make it okay for others to take care of themselves. And so I think that's why so often I say it starts at the top. You can't put all the onerous on your HR leads to go do it. You also have to support them in this conversation.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's enough. It's enough to reset. And sometimes you just need these little micro breaks throughout the day. You know, people often think that you've got to do these 10 to 15 minute long meditations, ring the bell, light the incense. No, you don't have to do any of that. You can do these little micro breaks throughout that breathing is a form of meditation. You just might have to take a deep breath, hold it, breathe in, breathe out. Sometimes that's all it takes.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Three W's. Three W's. And this is what I do when I'm literally back to back. I will look out the window if I'm at a meeting just to reset a little bit. Because, you know, sometimes you don't have any time. You got three seconds. What are you going to go do in three seconds? You know, one thing you could do, Bob, you can go look out the window. Two, I can grab a glass of water that probably takes about 20 seconds or I could take a quick walk, which may be like a couple of minutes, even if it's just around the office. So if you don't have any time, look out the window, shortest amount of time. Go grab a glass of water, probably the second shortest amount of time. And the third is just take a quick lap around whatever floor it may be or your office or your conference room.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Put it away when we have dinner conversations. So, one thing I do now every dinner, but at least multiple times a week when I'm with the family, I just put that phone away and I try to be present. So if there was one thing you could do is really put that phone away and be present with the people around you.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really personal. And look, I don't think there's a company out there that is not going to leverage AI going forward, but you got to be real intentional and thoughtful. I think if you're a startup with not many users and potentially nothing to lose, you may take more liberty. But when you're a company like ours that has so many millions of users that trust and turn to you today, I think we have a real obligation to not be as flippant in that conversation. And so that's where I continue to say AI can help us scale. But humans are the ones that are really going to give it meaning going forward.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Between apps that are out there today plus talking to someone. And folks in the red immediately probably need to speak to someone today. Right now, the system is kind of all, can kind of be all of a mush type system where everyone is in every lane. And so we want to make sure the efficacy is there. And we want to make sure that, you know, the advice that you're getting is the right type of advice, that there's clinical advice out there. That's why so many healthcare companies today are HIPAA and HITRUST compliant. That's not just because of their fancy names around data privacy and how your data is being used and what is being used for. But there's a real difference between consumer apps and what's, you know, in terms of what's high trust and what's within HIPAA.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's providing comfort. And for many folks, it's immediate when they need it. Again, that goes back to the access issue, that people aren't always available and they will turn to technology. And there's an affordability issue there as well. Let's not gloss over the fact that there's a real cost to this too. And so it could be helpful is today a lot of times there's a lot of people that are in therapy today that might not necessarily need therapy, for example. So they're in what we call the green. For folks that are in the yellow, our job is to figure out how we keep them there or how we get them to green. And folks in the red, obviously, to the yellow. And so forth. But for folks that are in the green, using an app like com or other services that are out there is probably good enough. And you may not need to speak to anyone. Folks in the yellow probably do need to speak to somebody, but they can also do that in a more of a hybrid approach.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think we're going to continue to evolve where the market will take us. I've used different chat bots on a personal note. I've spent a lot of time on this. I think it's something that people are going to turn to because there's a real access issue that's out there today. Look, we don't have enough therapists out there who can, or coaches that can help us. And sometimes when you need someone to turn to, they're not available. So if this could help from an access perspective and it's done in the right way, and I think that is still under interpretation.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's evolving. I think we sat there two years ago at the explosion of AI and we asked us, we were all asking this question, when will AI replace us? And I think many of us were having this conversation. I think it was, and that's another thing that was causing stress and a lot of anxiety. Now I think we're having this conversation right now is how can AI support us? And I think it's a conversation that's going to continue.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Falls dramatically because I'm thinking about it. And the first thing I reach for when I wake up is my phone to see if that individual responded or how did that turn out. Today, the last thing I do is not send an email. And the first thing I do is not pick up my phone. And so the things that we're asking is a little bit more nuanced is like use products or services because we know technology is going to be around you that you know may not cause you stress or anxiety right before you go to bed.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then I'm asking people to turn calm on. And part of it's nuanced. What I'm asking folks is the following. Do things that you know may not cause you stress or anxiety right before you go to bed. So for example, if you feel stress opening that work email, I do. I feel stress. When I send a work email late at night or I see a work email late at night, my quality of sleep”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. It's not lost on me that I will go out there, Bob, and I'll tell people, don't let the phone be the last thing you look at before you go to bed. This is going back to our quality of sleep in the beginning when you and I started this conversation.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“White answer per se, but I do think it is a part of the problem. And I think many of them are trying to think through like, well, how do we solve the problem? And for me, it's just a recognition that education plus policy as I zoom out on myself needs to get more involved. And we need mental health programs. I'll give you an example. Your linkage between mental health and physical health, everyone now sees that. Everyone's like, yes, if you have mental health issues, you're going to have physical health issues. If you have physical health issues, you're going to have mental health issues. Well, guess what? In school today, we have PE classes. We don't have anything around mental health in many of the schools that are out there today. I'm not saying we should have it every day, but should we at least start to educate our youth and have more conversations about mental health at an earlier age? I believe we should, but it's still in a very neat.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Complicated question. And we've seen that young children today can have addictive type tendencies. And I've seen it within Calm itself where during COVID, for example, a large part of our user base grew within young adults. And we had a lot of schools and universities reach out to us about working with them going forward. So we've actually now started working with a lot of universities and middle schools, for example. And many of them were reaching out because they are finding that, you know, mental health isn't something that turns on when you're 17, 18, or 19 or you're an adult. It actually starts at a much younger age. Can it be all attributed to social media? Maybe. Are there other factors at play? Yes, for many. So I don't think it's a black and white.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look at COM, many companies do this different ways. We're trying to add simplicity to the system that I think is overly complex at times and sometimes could give you too much choice. And it's really hard. So sometimes you just need to narrow that. So I'm not saying what our competitors are doing is wrong. I think it's just like everyone has a different kind of model for it. I just think for me, the model is not trying to add more people into the system. It's really trying to leverage who's there in actually thinking about it from more of a simplistic standpoint where they actually utilize those resources that are there.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think people aren't thinking about the right way. And here's how I would think about it if you truly want to effectuate change in healthcare, it's got to be on two fronts. So often when we talk about healthcare, we talk about intervention. So at the point of which someone has a problem, we figure out how we intervene, but we don't really help in the preventative stage. Like how do you prevent the problem from ever occurring? And so I do think there are things that come really helps or companies like Calm apps that are out there. It just doesn't have to be calm itself that help in the preventative stage, but also companies that are doing that need healthcare because they have the clinical programs that are proven with those outcomes to show an ROI. Just people aren't utilizing them. And that's where the system needs to work together.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All organizations will have some form of stress. And, you know, stress is your body's natural reaction to pressure. And that in small doses actually can be quite healthy. It could help to build resilience. It could help to bring the team closer together. Now, when this becomes chronic, that's when you start to see burnout. And burnout to me is when you could think about it like a marathon. Stress is like more like short sprints and you can handle that. Burnout's like a marathon and you don't even want to get started. And so when you start to reach that stage, you really have a problem and we want to be more preventative there and then rather just trying to intervene at that stage.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was asked this question during our last election, and I was asked this also during the holidays. And I would say, holiday stress is absolutely real. Election stress is real. Some organizations will see financial stress will be at the top of the list. In some organizations, we'll see they're much more attuned to like what's happening from a global perspective. And we even haven't spoken about AI yet, which I appreciate. But that too is causing a lot of stress in the workplace. When you put all this together,”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I hear it all the time. You know, it starts from CFOs, it starts from, you know, kind of HCHROs, and we talk about the ROI. And now there's a lot of CFOs getting involved and they want to see the returns of all these different types of programs. And a lot of times you have to just look at the raw facts of what's happening within your own organizations. Do you see higher absenteeism? Do you see employees that are quitting at an accelerated rate? What is actually the root of that? And so much of what we're finding is that stress and burnout are rampant in organizations today. And the organizations that start to hit them head on and understand like, okay, it's not just a benefit. It's really got to be incorporated within the company and adopted. We see those metrics start to go down.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Employees feel it, but I do try to practice what I preach. And the biggest thing that I do is I try to be very vulnerable in front of them. And I don't view vulnerability as a weakness. So I will tell them when I'm feeling stressed. I will tell them when things aren't going well. I'm super transparent, and I wasn't always that way because I used to view it as a weakness. And today I'll tell you, I view it as a strength.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“100% Bob. People will ask me at times, what is it like to be the CEO of Com? Do you meditate all day? Do you just sit there and meditate all day? And I tell them honestly, no, I am the most stressed out CEO you will ever meet. And it kind of catches them by surprise. And the reason I say that is because every second of every day, someone is turning to us for help. And I feel that pressure that wherever they are in the world or wherever moment they're in, they're asking us whether it's 30 seconds, whether it's five seconds, whether it's 10 minutes, they're looking to us for some type of help in the moment. It could be prevention or intervention types of moments. And so I feel that pressure. So when you ask at a company that's, I think, small and punches above its weight, we feel that pressure. I feel that pressure. I know my...”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, when you ask me, how are CEOs feeling, and do they believe in mental health? Many of them do. They're in reports and studies that we've done, but just that right now many of them too are feeling the stress.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And what was really interesting was that as we pressed even further, we asked them, well, are you sharing this with your employees? Do they understand how stressed you're at? And many of them said, no, they didn't feel safe yet to have these conversations in more of a public format.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think things can get muted, or it's just another benefit. And so we went out and spoke to over 250 C suite executives. And what was really fascinating because CEOs need this. They need the details and they need the numbers to know. We went out there and asked them, how are you doing? Over 80% of them said, I'm good. We're good, right? When you ask that question, though, again, because as you know, you have to ask CCE executives the same question twice. They were like, actually, I'm pretty stressed out. And that was over 47% of them said I'm pretty stressed. And when we correlated even further, 28% said, I actually feel I'm under major stress at this very moment. And then when we push them even harder, almost 50% of them said, I'm thinking of stepping down.”
2026-04-07 · Masters of Scale · The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT