Mental health as a founder and the importance of community - Tom Ross, Design Cuts
In this episode we’re joined by Tom Ross, who is the founder of Design Cuts, a marketplace and community for creatives which he’s grown to a team of 20 over the past decade. Tom is also a seasoned podcaster, co-hosting The Honest Designer's Show and Biz Buds which have been downloaded millions of times.
It's not all been plain sailing for Tom as he ran into severe burnout working 18 hour days, 7 days a week for 18 months, leading to him being hospitalised. In this episode we're going to find out more about Tom's story, some of his successes and failures in business, along advice he'd give to founders from his experiences.
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What we covered in this episode:
- Tom’s backstory
- Starting an Interpol forum
- Earning more money at home at 16 than in his job
- Growing a design blog to 15 million visitors
- Growing Design Cuts in the early days
- 10 years later, 20 employees, millions of revenue
- Mental health and burnout as a founder
- How to build good routines to avoid burnout
- How community can help with your mental health
- Why community is so important
- How to build a community
Recommendations
- Book: Thank You Economy by Gary Vee
- Podcast: Diary of a CEO
- Indie Hacker: Rosie Sherry
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