Today on the anxious achiever, the story of an anxious entrepreneur who was told by his

psychologist when he was a young man that he needed to find a career that he could handle,

one suited to his supposedly fragile temperament. While this anxious entrepreneur went on

to found an incredible business that sold for $92 million.

I'm Maura Erin Smealy, and this is the Anxious Achiever, the show that looks at the intersection

of mental health and leadership and work and asks, how can we do it all better?

Josh Kilmer Purcell is a self-describe, anxious entrepreneur, but his anxiety hasn't held him

back.

Instead, it's led him to have an approach to risk that built a 10-figure beauty and wellness brand.

Josh and his husband, Dr. Brent Ridge, co-founded Beekman 1802, which grew

from a goat farm in upstate New York to filling shelves at all the big beauty stores. Along the way,

they won the amazing race, and they built a business around kindness. Josh tells me, I had no role models growing up in the corporate world, no mentors

who would talk about mental illness.

Josh has lived his whole life with clinical depression and anxiety.

And over time, he's come to appreciate the upsides of the pain behind having depression and anxiety.

He says, I really did start to see anxiety as my superpower and my depression as a way to help me empathize with consumers.

My Conversation with Josh Kilmer Purcell.

Josh Kilmer Purcell, welcome to the anxious achiever. I'm just thrilled you're here.

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I mean, what what you're doing is so important and so close to my heart.

So I am just thrilled to be a part of it.

Well, I have to tell you that we're both Harvard Business Review authors.

And when Felicia, who is the head of PR at the press at Harvard Business Review, sent me your book. And she tagged the page

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