PCBA Panel: Good Mental Health is Key to Business Success

With every new year, it’s not unusual for people to think about their health and ways to improve their physical well-being. More recently, however, mental health has been shown to be just as important.  

To help its members start the year right, the Peachtree Corners Business Association hosted a panel discussion on January 30 at Hilton Atlanta Northeast. Titled “How Prioritizing Health and Wellness Can Influence Your 2025 Business Success,” it featured a diverse mix of community leaders and professionals.

Panel members and host

Facilitator Caroline Dotts, owner of Strengths On Site, a coaching and consulting company, is dedicated to helping individuals and teams discover their innate talents and unlock their true potential. She posed questions to the panel members that were geared towards the financial impact of health and wellness on business decisions and company success.

The panel included:

Alex Wright, Peachtree Corners City Council member

Michael Maiorano, tax partner at Hancock Askew & Co.

Toby Anderson, senior financial advisor at SGL Wealth Management Group

Dr. Jeff Donohue, medical director of Elite Personalized Medicine

Ashley Lock, physical therapist at Emory Healthcare

Jason Price, founder and COO of Atlas Behavioral Health and Zenith Mental Health

Good health isn’t just physical

The panel discussed the importance of prioritizing health and wellness for business success by emphasizing the interconnectedness of physical, mental and financial health, highlighting that a balanced approach is crucial for productivity, employee retention and overall success.

Dotts kicked things off by asking each panelist about their philosophy for mental health.

Maiorano explained that prioritizing health and wellness means taking care of oneself before helping others, using the analogy of putting on an airplane mask first.

“For me, health and fitness are like three legs of a stool, and if any one of those legs is out of out of whack, then success is going to be more difficult to achieve,” he said.

He emphasized the importance of spiritual, mental and physical health, stating that all three are critical for achieving success. He concluded by stressing that a healthy mindset is essential for focusing on and achieving important goals.

“I really believe that all of those are critically important to be in a healthy mindset, and therefore help you achieve success,” he said. “That part must be in line if you’re going to be making an effort and focusing on something that’s important and … trying to achieve a goal.”

Implementing positive actions

Price explained that prioritizing health and wellness involves implementing actions that support wellness, not just talking about it.

“I can say as an operating officer that we prioritize health and wellness, but if I don’t put some kind of implementation behind that, it’s all fantasy,” he said. “I work in substance use and mental health, so [with] my staff, if they are not healthy, how can I possibly expect them to help our clients get healthy and get wealthy?”

Lock said that success to her is keeping people out of her clinic.

“A big portion of my job is actually education,” she said. “The first time you see me, I spend 30 minutes just yapping about how you could have not ended up here and how I’m going to get you out fast.”

She added that knowledge is what’s lacking in this society.

“We focused on drive, drive, drive. But we forget to kind of look at ourselves and think about the hierarchy of needs,” she said. “We can’t address the higher parts of that need pyramid until we address ourselves.”

“If you’re not taking care of yourselves, it’s very hard to look outward, and it’s hard for you to want to do other things.” She continued. “If you’re in pain, if you’re not well, you’re not really focused on other things. You’re not being the best for yourself.”

Prioritizing health

Anderson said that health and finances are two of the most important aspects of anyone’s life, and prioritizing health is critical for financial planning.

“If I’m helping somebody plan for retirement, get into retirement, or if I’m helping a business owner launch their business, if I’m not bringing the best version of myself, I’m not doing right by them,” he said. “To prioritize my health is critical to making sure I’m in the right state of mind and have the right ability to guide my clients with extremely important decisions that are extremely personal to them.”

Wright emphasized that health is the foundation of everything else in life. He shared a personal anecdote about the importance of health, stating that without it, nothing else matters.

“This past weekend, I caught some kind of fungus and woke up on Saturday — I normally go work out with some friends of mine — but I just could not get up,” he said. “When something like that happens, everything else is irrelevant.”

He added that you could be 65 years old with $50 million, but if you’re decrepit, you really have nothing.

“I think we’re all kind of saying the same thing in that, if you don’t have your health, nothing else matters,” he concluded.

Getting to the root cause of health issue

Dr. Donohue explained that he practices functional medicine, and it focuses on finding the cause of health issues rather than just treating symptoms.

“Our goal is to make you the best version of you,” he said. “We all practice what you guys preach. … When you come see us, we’re going to work on your journey — what you want to get out of life.”

He emphasized the importance of stress management, diet and exercise in functional medicine.

“I always tell my patients exercising 30 minutes, five days a week, results in a 70% reduction in all causes of mortality. That is a big deal. It’s not blood pressure control and diabetes and cholesterol,” he said. “Make your patients move. That is our goal.”

How to help employees, residents with wellness

Dotts further asked about physical wellness strategies that businesses can implement to support employees.

Price explains that burnout is a significant issue in the substance use and mental health fields.

“It goes back to what the doctor was saying about stress and people aren’t taking care of themselves,” he said. “If I’m just exhausted and drained all the time, and I don’t want to go to the gym, then I’m more depressed because I didn’t go to the gym. And it can spiral out of control.”

Price also mentioned that many employees use their job as their self-care program, which is not sustainable in the long run.

Anderson went further to suggest that employers can and do offer benefits that help workers physically, mentally and financially, but the rank and file don’t always know about them.

“One of the biggest challenges any business owner or business has is keeping and retaining the right employees. And the more benefits you can give to your employees, the more likely they are to stay,” he said. “If they feel like you are investing in them, in their well-being, from a health standpoint, mental health standpoint, functional longevity standpoint, they’re more likely to stay.”

He said helping employees find ways to successfully manage their finances can have a significant return on investment for business owners when that stressor is removed from workers.

“I think the statistic is like 80% of employees do all of their financial planning and most of their health stuff at work,” he said. When I bring on board a new client, whether it’s a business owner, an employee, I love to look at their benefit package … so I can see if they’re in the right plan for their situation.”

Community wellness in Peachtree Corners

Wright went over community wellness initiatives in Peachtree Corners.

“In 2012 there was no gathering place. We were just a commuter city — a series of neighborhoods that kind of slide together. The Forum was our de facto downtown,” he said.

One of the things that the city was very intentional about was creating a place for folks to gather.

“According to some stats I looked up, they’re talking about an epidemic of loneliness in the country,” he said. “The report said one in three adults in the United States suffers from loneliness, and it said that the physical impact of loneliness was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes.”

With foreknowledge of this issue, city leaders created the Town Center as a place to gather.

“Humans want to commune with each other. It’s good for us,” he said. “I’m a member of the YMCA and when it closed for COVID I was in a class that immediately started meeting out on the Town Green because we sort of desperately needed that human connection.”

He added that the plan is to continue in that direction. The city has created venues for people to gather and connect, such as the Town Green and various parks. It has also invested in infrastructure, such as sidewalks and trails, to encourage physical activity.

But it doesn’t mean anything if it’s not utilized.

“There will be a calendar that will be launched soon to be a community calendar, basically anything going on in Peachtree Corners, including PCBA events,” he said. “It will be a one stop shop that’s all about getting people out, giving you opportunities to be around other people, and combating the physical issues of isolation.”

For more about the PCBA and upcoming events, visit peachtreecornersba.com.