Melvin Varghese, PhD
Clinical PsychologistHi, I’m Melvin!
the entrepreneurs’ journey is an emotional rollercoaster.
In addition to being a PhD-level psychologist, I’m also a husband, dad, and successful business founder.
When I first launched my own online business in 2015 (more on that below), I had more questions than answers.
How do I handle the day to day emotional roller coaster of entrepreneurship without it affecting my marriage and my relationships with family/friends?
How do I hire/let go of people on my team when there’s a part of me that wants to keep everyone happy (even at my expense)?
Can I build a successful business if I struggle with depression, anxiety and/or childhood trauma?
How do I balance being a present dad/husband/parent with being a successful entrepreneur?
If you’ve wondered these questions, I’m so glad you’re here.
My Story
The truth is I never imagined a private practice working with founders.
In fact, I never even saw myself having a small business. Well..that’s not completely true.
I always had an itch to do something more, to use my talents/abilities to help the world in bigger ways. But I was usually stopped by a million voices of doubt (and the voices of my immigrant Indian parents telling me that I needed a stable job to provide for my family).
But, I was miserable at my 9-5 job. In fact, I lost a ton of weight and hair and would have nauseating anxiety the night before I had to go into the office.
So, in 2015, I launched a podcast for mental health professionals who wanted to think differently about their businesses. Nothing fancy…just something recorded from a home office complete with a horrible looking 3 page DIY website =).
I built one product and then another.
Little did I know that the podcast that had 9 people listen on day 1 would be listened to over 800k times in 130 countries and the blog would grow it into a 6 figure business in 5 years.
I had to learn to go from a solo-preneur to the CEO of a 5 person team.
But it has’t been all easy.
I’ve struggled with chronic depression, loneliness, perfectionism, anxiety, and feeling like I was a failure when a launch didn’t go as planned.
Life doesn’t stop just because we’re entrepreneurs. During this time, I also became a dad to an amazing daughter who came into the world 8 weeks early and was in the NICU for several weeks.
During these years, I’ve spoken to countless successful entrepreneurs and all of us struggle with the challenges it brings whether it’s battling depression/anxiety, realizing that dysfunctional patterns we saw in our families is replicated in our business, or the unique stress that we all encounter as we step into the role of CEO.
I wanted to create a safe place where we could be real about the entrepreneurial journey. A place where for to become a better version of themselves and build a business that fits with our deeply held values.
My Approach
You’re the expert on your life. I’m simply walking along side of you. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my own entrepreneurial journey, it’s that our ability handle things mentally affects how far our businesses will go.
I work 1 on 1 with entrepreneurs here in Pennsylvania:
- Learn to ride the up’s and down’s of entrepreneurship.
- Find that elusive balance between being an entrepreneur while having time for relationships and friends.
- Learn to separate their business success and failures from their self worth.
- Learn healthy ways to make decisions for your businesses that are not impacted by childhood trauma, people pleasing, perfectionism, or by overwhelming emotions.
