Adam Mead on overcoming fear and anxiety

12/05/17 • 41 min

Terri talks to her son Adam about how he struggled with being bullied in middle school and how this experience has shaped him. He still suffers from anxiety and is afraid of the unknown but he is using his newly found empathy to help others who he sees struggling as well. They talk about everything from what to expect from college, how you don’t have to have it all figured out, and that it’s ok to change your mind.

Who is Adam Mead?

Adam is Terri’s 16-year old son who is a junior at Woodside High in Redwood City. He was born in San Francisco and moved to Redwood City when he was one. He loves performing in plays and musicals and regrets not having played water polo his freshman year. He is a reluctant academic achiever and is taking three AP classes this year along with drama, Latin and regular history. He has a girlfriend, Alyssa, who is also in drama with him. They enjoy hanging out playing video games and watching movies together. All in all, he’s a good kid.

Show Highlights

Adam talks about how his terrible experience in middle school has shaped him to be cynical, resilient and empathetic
Adam and Terri talk about the importance of lightening up and not being afraid of looking at colleges or life in general
Adam turned the table and asked Terri if having a stable job has made it easier to figure out what she wants in life
They talk about the fear of unknown and not being afraid of taking chances
Adam talks about how he’s dealt with some of his lowest points including having suicidal thoughts
Terri talks about how she continues to develop the tools to deal with new situations and how she doesn’t expect Adam to have it all figured out either
Adam talks about anxiety and fear of failure and how he is trying to cope with both
They talk about college in terms of what to look for in searching for one and what to expect from the experience
Terri talks about how you don’t have to have it all figured out when you go to college, get out of college and after and how she didn’t and used being an opportunist to get to where she is today
Adam would wave a magic wand to make food free and have economic freedom

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Having conversations like this with her son fills her heart and her soul.

References in the Podcast

California State University, Fresno: http://www.csufresno.edu/
California State University, Chico: http://www.csuchico.edu/
California State University, Hayward (now East Bay): http://www.csueastbay.edu/
University California, Santa Cruz: https://www.ucsc.edu/

Contact

You can reach Adam through Terri at [email protected].

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Adam Mead?

Show Highlights

Adam talks about how his terrible experience in middle school has shaped him to be cynical, resilient and empathetic
Adam and Terri talk about the importance of lightening up and not being afraid of looking at colleges or life in general
Adam turned the table and asked Terri if having a stable job has made it easier to figure out what she wants in life
They talk about the fear of unknown and not being afraid of taking chances
Adam talks about how he’s dealt with some of his lowest points including having suicidal thoughts
Terri talks about how she continues to develop the tools to deal with new situations and how she doesn’t expect Adam to have it all figured out either
Adam talks about anxiety and fear of failure and how he is trying to cope with both
They talk about college in terms of what to look for in searching for one and what to expect from the experience
Terri talks about how you don’t have to have it all figured out when you go to college, get out of college and after and how she didn’t and used being an opportunist to get to where she is today
Adam would wave a magic wand to make food free and have economic freedom

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Having conversations like this with her son fills her heart and her soul.

References in the Podcast

California State University, Fresno: http://www.csufresno.edu/
California State University, Chico: http://www.csuchico.edu/
California State University, Hayward (now East Bay): http://www.csueastbay.edu/
University California, Santa Cruz: https://www.ucsc.edu/

Contact

You can reach Adam through Terri at [email protected].

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Previous Episode

Startup conference Slush Helsinki 2016

Terri talks about traveling to the startup conference Slush in Helsinki last year via the specially charted flight and how it is like no other startup conference. She learned about digital health in the Nordics, operated on very little sleep, and was impressed by how well run the event is. Terri is looking forward tosome new experiences at the event this year including moderating a panel on shifting demographics and the need to adapt to the shift in terms of investing.

Who is Terri Mead?

Terri Hanson Mead is President of Solutions2Projects, LLC, a consulting company that provides IT strategy and IT compliance services in the life sciences space in addition to expert witness consulting services. She is also an active angel investor and former Vice President of Sand Hill Angels, regularly advises startups and in her spare time, flies helicopters. She is passionate about supporting, and advocating for, female founders and investors and has created Class Bravo Ventures to more formally do so.

Show Highlights

Terri talks about the chartered flight from SFO to Helsinki, Santa Claus visiting the flight, the mannequin challenge and collecting her posse as she leaves the plane
Terri takes you through the various events including visiting the Swedish and US embassies in Helsinki
Terri hits a wall on day three of the event, gets a power nap and attends another US embassy event followed by dinner at the hotel to thank her concierge and driver
Terri talks about what she’s afraid on this trip including being in a bathing suit in a sauna in the winter and being disappointed
Terri, Stu and others get to the airport for the flight home in a sleep-deprived state

References:

Slush Flight mannequin challenge video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnigL3ggyVU
Slush Helsinki: http://www.slush.org/home-2/
TheVault: https://www.thevault.co/
Hotel Kamp Helsinki: https://www.hotelkamp.com/en/
Maria 01: https://maria.io/
Napue gin: http://kyrodistillery.com/products/#
Roster Helsinki: https://rosterhelsinki.com/
Clue app: https://www.helloclue.com/
Ida Tin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Tin

Contacts

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead

Feel free to email her at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Next Episode

Theresa Piasta helps women live life more fully with their pups

Terri talks to Theresa Piasta, CEO and Founder of Puppy Mama about how she decided to take her experience improving her health through canine therapy to build a business around finding ways for women to live their lives more fully with their pups. This includes both through accessories and apparel for their dogs and finding pet-friendly places for them to take their dogs with them whether it be for travel, dining, or other daily activities. Who is Theresa Piasta? Theresa Piasta is the Founder of Puppy Mama - a pet-tech company leveraging technology to enhance the lives of dog moms around the world. The Puppy Mama online store is bringing style to dog moms everywhere! And, the Puppy Mama web application gives dog moms a safe place to share, connect with one another, effortlessly schedule fun meet ups with their friends, and rate businesses, travel services, and hotels to advocate for a more dog-friendly world. Before Puppy Mama, Theresa was a Vice President at JPMorgan, and served as an Army Captain in a Field Artillery Brigade. During her 14-month Iraq deployment in 2008, Theresa led a large team to defend thousands on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Delta near the Iranian border. She was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service. Theresa attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite program and received a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College. She also studied military science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a ROTC scholarship recipient and was a collegiate soccer player for two seasons during her time at Wellesley College. Show Highlights

Terri and Theresa talk about meeting at The Guild’s Serendipity event this past fall
Theresa talks about what Puppy Mama, her dog Waffles, and how she came up with the idea for Puppy Mama
Terri asks about the size of the market for pet care and more specifically about how big the market is for Puppy Mama with the two different focus areas for Puppy Mama
Big businesses like Disney are recognizing the needs of their customers and have opened up their facilities to pets and pet owners in order to attract them to their businesses.
Theresa talks about the difficulties associated with being a female founder with a startup targeting the female consumer market
If Theresa could wave a magic wand, she would make it so that people would treat each other like dogs treat each other and create positive human interactions

Terri’s Key Takeaway Female founders with startups targeting a female audience continue to find challenges in raising capital from male investors who often need to be educated on the size of the market opportunity and that the opportunity actually exists. References in the Podcast

The Guild’s Serendipity un-conference: https://www.guildserendipity.com/
Puppy Mama: https://www.puppymama.com/
Slush: http://www.slush.org/
YouTube video of Terri’s panel at Slush on shifting demographics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-1LQ3838s&t=27s

Contact Theresa can be reached at [email protected] Waffles can be reached at [email protected] Instagram: @puppy.mama Puppy Mama application; https://app.puppymama.com/auth You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead. Feel free to email Terri at [email protected]. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.