David Galownia Of Slingshot: 5 Ways That Businesses Can Help Promote The Mental Wellness Of Their Employees
An Interview With David Liu
We’ve handled burnout by allowing for mental health days and a personal weekly round-up. The mental health days are just like paid sick leave: if you need a day to de-stress, you can take it. You can only do your best work when you feel your best, and this includes not just physical but also mental health.
As a part of my series about the “5 Ways That Businesses Can Help Promote The Mental Wellness Of Their Employees” I had the pleasure of interviewing David Galownia.
David excels at propelling Slingshot towards their goals and oversees the strategic direction of the company. He’s been described as ‘intense, driven, caring, and passionate’ both at work and play. At work, he enjoys watching his team explore, imagine, and reinvent to do the best by their clients. At play, he drives Karts at insanely high speeds and scares his wife half to death. It’s all or nothing. Which means he gives it all.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
Sure! I took a bit of an odd path to get here. When I was young, the career paths that interested me were race car driver, Navy Seal, Fighter jet pilot, or Architect. A far cry from a tech company owner but not as far as you might think. For me, it was important that I could do something that required a bit of daring, allowed me to be creative, and offered independence. Being a business owner had all three of those things.
I came about tech when I was pursuing a career in earnest driving race cars. Long story short I did not make it but I had to create a website for my sponsors along the way. I learned to do this by myself and really enjoyed the process. At this point I had dropped out of college to pursue racing full time but decided to go back, this time fully focused on learning software. When I graduated, I immediately started Slingshot and here we are today, 15 years later.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
When my company was early in it’s consultancy there were just two of us, both owning half the business. We were doing work with a client and got a huge opportunity. It was too big for us. The client wanted us to do the work but we couldn’t in good conscience take the work so we said no. There would have been any number of things we could do to handle the work but none that we thought that would allow us to do the work at a level we’d be satisfied with.
The client was insistent so we found a way where we could do a small part of the work and do that very well. They weren’t interested but still wanted us to do all of it! Finally we surmised there was a way to do it but we needed 2 other individuals who we knew well and together all four of us could execute at the level we’d feel good about it. The only problem was that these individuals were working jobs and we’d need to hire them. We decided we couldn’t risk their livelihood unless we could at least pay them for a full year after the job.
We went back to that client with an outrageous price but with a straight face. We told them the situation and said this was the ONLY way in which we would do that work. They pushed us hard to negotiate, to use contractors we didn’t know. We did not budge an inch and in the end they said yes.
I believe to this day they said yes because the lengths we went through to get that deal. They knew we could be counted on to deliver and the price we were asking was worth that. From that day forward I realized there is no such thing as a crazy offer and that I didn’t need to compromise my own values to succeed in business in fact quite the opposite, it would be a differentiator.
What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?
I think it’s important to remember why you did things to begin with, and check in with yourself on a regular basis to make sure that passion still applies. If it doesn’t that’s OK, As an owner you can change things. Don’t be afraid to shift the entire direction of your company if it’s not aligning with your passion. Even if your company is doing great, it has to be doing great for you. As a leader, your mood and passion will trickle down to the entire culture. People will know if you’re not into it anymore.
People may tell you not to change things if it’s going well, it’s too risky. Risk has two sides, doing something and it failing. Doing nothing… and burning out or going out of business. You must always push as the owner to be better. That is HARD. If your business doesn’t align with your passion then your chances of sustained success are very slim.
The second thing I would say is delegate. As an owner, stick to your strengths, delegate things you’re not good at but also things you do NOT enjoy. Little things can drag you down, don’t let it.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
The best way to define your work culture is by pulling from your employees. The biggest problem some companies face is that they define their culture without taking into account who their employees are. A company can say they have an energetic and exciting culture, but their current employees are more professional and relaxed. To your potential clients, it makes you come off as all-talk; if their culture doesn’t match who they are, can I trust them enough to do business with them? Ask yourself who your company is from your employee’s perspective, and you’ll be able to build a more genuine culture.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
“We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we’re too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.” HERB BROOKS (David)
This quote showcases why we call ourselves Big Kids and Daredevils at Slingshot; instead of burying our inner-child, we use it to our advantage to build better tech.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. As you know, the collective mental health of our country is facing extreme pressure. In recent years many companies have begun offering mental health programs for their employees. For the sake of inspiring others, we would love to hear about five steps or initiatives that companies have taken to help improve or optimize their employees’ mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each?
We’ve handled burnout by allowing for mental health days and a personal weekly round-up. The mental health days are just like paid sick leave: if you need a day to de-stress, you can take it. You can only do your best work when you feel your best, and this includes not just physical but also mental health.
In our weekly round-up, we take a bit to discuss (if they’re comfortable) what’s going on in our personal lives. This allows people to get things off their chest and talk about them should they need to.
These ideas are wonderful, but sadly they are not yet commonplace. What strategies would you suggest to raise awareness about the importance of supporting the mental wellness of employees?
Employee’s mental health is just as important as their physical health. One strategy is to ensure that everyone in the company understands this. When you have a group that supports the overall wellbeing of the team, both physically and mentally, you have a better ground to stand on.
From your experience or research, what are different steps that each of us as individuals, as a community and as a society, can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling stressed, depressed, anxious and having other mental health issues? Can you explain?
As individuals, support rather than advise. While it can be helpful to offer advice and your opinion, many times people just want to be heard. If someone asks for guidance, absolutely give it to them. But the most important thing is to listen, support, and be there.
As a community, we need to break down the barriers and stereotypes around mental illness. There isn’t one way to suffer from mental illness; everyone’s experience is their own. Automatically assuming something about a person based on their mental illness is the same as discriminating against someone for a physical disability. When we start to see mental illness as an injury similar to a physical one, we’ll be moving in the right direction.
Habits can play a huge role in mental wellness. What are the best strategies you would suggest to develop good healthy habits for optimal mental wellness that can replace any poor habits?
Check in not just with others but yourself. At Slingshot, we have a weekly company-wide meeting to update us not just on work, but each other lives and hobbies. It’s a time where we can share our highs and lows and feel supported.
But it’s also important to check in on you; a poor habit is making sure everyone else is happy and healthy but letting our own mental wellness slip through the cracks. Take time to feel your emotions, and make sure you‘re where you need to be mentally.
Do you use any meditation, breathing or mind-calming practices that promote your mental wellbeing? We’d love to hear about all of them. How have they impacted your own life?
Several of us at Slingshot meditate often. As I said above, it’s a time for you to address the issues you’re facing and the feelings you’re experiencing. Instead of pushing them off for another day, getting through those tough internal conversations allows you to live in the moment and lower your worry-load.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I think there are a lot of great movements already. As individuals we always want to do things our way but maybe we could spend a moment lifting others up? Chances are if you have a cause someone else already does and they’ve devoted their life to it. If you want to help then find that person and give them support by offering up your unique skills, perspective, and influence. I think if you have influence and are looking for a cause perhaps, you’re not the best to start that movement. Going for a cause it’s not an area where competition makes a whole lot of sense.
What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?
You can find Slingshot on our social accounts (@heyslingshot on most platforms), our website and weekly blog at www.yslingshot.com, and our bi-weekly newsletter Daredevil Diaries. You can register for the newsletter at www.yslingshot.com/#Newsletter
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
