CEOs share their routines for staying calm in stressful times
Megan Gluth has something many other CEOs don't: a side gig.
While Gluth's day job is running Catalynt Solutions, a distributor and producer of chemicals used in everything from soft drinks to shampoo and paint, she teaches yoga at least once a week at a studio near her home outside Seattle.
"Everybody thinks it's kind of funny that I have a part-time job," she told Business Insider.
That side hustle is proving useful. Because of uncertainty over tariffs, she's had to pull back on some investments that Catalynt had planned. Gluth, 44, has also had to have difficult conversations with clients about price hikes resulting from import duties.
Those types of discussions, plus being a mother to kids ages 6 and 8, make her days stressful. To help endure it all, she relies on the yoga and is a "committed meditator."
Like Gluth, many CEOs have long found ways to deal with taxing days that often spill into evenings and weekends. Indeed, having bosses share self-care routines became popular during the pandemic as managers sought to discuss coping mechanisms with workers amid the Zooms and sourdough starter.
Now, as questions swirl about how tariffs might collide with the economy, wellness routines are again serving as important tools to help dial down stress, Gluth and other chiefs told BI.
Keeping a balanced life
Keith Lambert founded and runs Oxidizers, a company that sells pollution-control equipment and services to industrial sites around the US. He's also the CEO of InCheq, which helps organizations manage critical tasks. Running two companies keeps him busy.
Luckily, Lambert is a morning guy — some days he's out of bed by 3:30 a.m. "The moment I'm up, I'm moving," Lambert said.
That movement helps him remain calm, he said. Lambert has plenty of conference calls and, when he has to, sits in front of a camera. Otherwise, he's on his feet and, when the weather allows, is on his phone while walking through his neighborhood outside Chicago.
"When I can, I keep myself in motion," Lambert, 55, said.
Besides walking, he starts his days reading scripture. Lambert also makes time for friends and, especially, his wife, the couple's son, and their dog, a wheaten terrier-poodle mix known as a whoodle.
"I guess you could say I do my best to practice a balanced life," Lambert said.
Time in the woods
Michelle Volberg, founder and CEO of the startup Twill, often finds balance in the woods near her home outside New York City. She enjoys " forest bathing, " a practice that originated in Japan and involves being in nature to boost well-being.
Volberg told BI that once or twice a week, she'll try to find 45 minutes for a hike with her husband. Time beneath the canopy, where her phone often falls silent due to a lack of signal, means she can do some of her best strategic thinking, she said.
On the hikes, when Volberg does tap at her phone, it's mostly to collect ideas for her company, which pays tech workers to recommend peers for key jobs.
"That completely grounds me and calms me with all of the chaos that generally surrounds founders and CEOs," Volberg, 38, said, referring to time outside without distractions.
She also relies on a community of women who, like her, run venture-backed startups. Volberg is part of a group of about 500 women who belong to the organization VC Backed Moms. Its members often communicate through a Slack group to trade ideas and share information. It's generally all off the record, she said.
She said it's helpful to learn how others are handling various situations.
"The more perspectives you can get on a situation, the better off you are to make your own decision," Volberg said.
Starting with 'purposeful scrolling'
Technology also helps Kyle Hanslovan, cofounder and CEO of Huntress, a cybersecurity firm. Most mornings, he said, he'll spend about an hour in bed engaging in "purposeful scrolling."
Hanslovan, 39, tends to start with Instagram to catch up on his personal life, move to LinkedIn for insights on topics like business and history, and end on X, where he reads various news and finds diverse opinions.
"I need stuff that is still mentally stimulating that is not work," he told BI, referring to his use of social media.
While social media often gets a bad rap, he says, rather than ratcheting up his stress, he's pruned his feeds so they offer good insights. Hanslovan often texts himself links to some of his favorite nuggets.
Some, like quotes from famed boxer Muhammad Ali or Steve Jobs, make their way into the "Townhall Tuesday" companywide meetings he runs.
Hanslovan, an Air Force veteran, has a gym at his Jacksonville, Florida, home, so he makes a point to work out three to five times a week. Even though he said the gym isn't a time for thinking, finding time to get his heartbeat above 170 beats a minute — with his phone nowhere near him — is "so damn important."
Responding, not reacting
Each week, in her hatha yoga class, Gluth from Catalynt Solutions, guides participants on breath work and meditation.
Meditation and yoga help her maintain a mindset of "responding rather than reacting." Gluth sees that approach as a hallmark of leadership.
She takes staying focused seriously, in part because she has dozens of people working for her.
"I have 55 families, essentially, that depend on me every day to not lose my shit," Gluth said. "I need to be centered, and I need to be balanced."
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