Mental Health Awareness Month With Jennifer Carota

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May 27, 2019 • 60 mins

Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States? Mental health is something that I really think more of us need to be talking about, specifically in the small business arena. And these days, I'm also a lot more open and honest about the hard stuff about small business. In May, last year, I had a really incredible and eye-opening conversation with Laurel Harlan, a licensed therapist and cookie business owner, on the podcast. So, when Jennifer Carota, who is also a mental health professional, contacted me this year, I was particularly excited because it's very rare to find somebody who wears these two hats.

Jennifer is from Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, in the United States. She is a licensed professional counselor and she owns a business called The Counseling House, which is a group practice, not far from Pittsburg. The Counseling House is dedicated to providing mental health counseling services to individuals and families in a comfortable, nurturing, and home-like environment and Jennifer has a whole bunch of people in her practice, who can help a whole lot of us out. She has professional counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. The really cool thing is that Jennifer also owns a cheesecake company, called The Cheesecake Fairy. Baking is Jennifer's therapy. It's her self-care and it keeps her sane and centered, and so it accidentally became a business. The Cheesecake Fairy is largely a wholesale company that makes elegantly upscaled cheesecakes in a jar. Because Jennifer is both a mental health professional and a cheesecake fairy she is totally my people! Tune in today, to find out how to cope when things start getting a bit too much for you to deal with.

Show Highlights:

If you don't take care of yourself, it will begin to affect your business, because you can't separate yourself from your business, no matter how hard you try.
Baking is Jennifer's therapy and it keeps her sane and centered.
Jennifer explains how a licensed professional counselor became the Cheesecake Fairy.
Although Jennifer went to graduate school and got her master's degree and her license, she always had a nagging feeling in her belly that there was something that she still needed to be doing.
Jennifer found it stressful to be responsible for the livelihoods of four or five of her team members, as well as taking care of her clients.
When things got stressful at the Counseling House Jennifer started playing around with cheesecakes again.
Jennifer explains how she finds the time to run two businesses.
Baking cheesecakes really created a new, healthier routine for Jennifer.
Jennifer's cheesecakes are in jars and they're the perfect portion size, so it's easy not to over-indulge in them.
Jennifer makes both sweet and savory cheesecakes.
Jen explains how she finds balance and keeps sane amid the chaos of so many competing priorities.
How slowing down and being more assertive in communicating has really helped Jennifer.
How chaos expands and creates anxiety.
Separating yourself from your situation can really give you a clear perspective.
Jennifer gives some of the warning signs that things are starting to get out of control. Prevention is the best intervention.
Getting off the treadmill and making more manageable choices.
Creativity resides in that mindful space.
It's really worth the effort of reaching out and checking up on people.
What to do if you're just not feeling yourself.
Making better choices for yourself.
How much should you put on social media?
Looking at your patterns can help you work out if you're just feeling a bit blue, or if you're actually suffering from depression.
Paying attention to how you are really feeling.
You can have conflicting emotions about the same thing at the same moment.
The importance of maintaining great emotional hygiene.
Choose very carefully what you focus on.