Putting The First Mental Health Gym On The High street with James Routledge

Today’s guest is James Routledge, Founder of Sanctus.

Sanctus is a mental wellness start up that is on a mission to inspire people to work on their mental health just like we do our physical health.

They have a bold vision to put the world’s first mental health gym on the high street, and I for one hope that they can achieve this.

James’s passion to help others improve their mental health came from his own experience having suffered mental health issues, following the failure of his first business Match Chat, something we discuss in detail in today’s show.

The idea for Sanctus actually came about when he shared this struggle in a heart-felt and honest blog where he openly talked about the journey that he and his co-founder George had been through. This blog received 100s of responses and from this initial post the idea for Sanctus was born.

Since then Sanctus has grown into a large team with over 40 businesses including Aviva, Secret Escapes, Tansferwise, RedBull amongst others, to help them reframe the conversation around mental health. Their amazing work has been featured in publications including the Times, The metro, and now the 40 Minute Mentor!

I have close friends and family that have had struggled with their mental health over the years so when I heard about the work Sanctus was doing and saw the refreshing honesty and humour with which James talks about it, I was really keen to get James on the podcast to have a chat.

This episode was recorded shortly after mental health week here in the UK and we go into some really important topics in this interview around mental health, the challenges we all face and what you can think about to look after yours.

James’s experience of launching and growing a VC funded start up and then dealing with and overcoming its failure to get to where he is today is truly inspiring. It’s a little longer than previous episodes but I know you’re going to get so much from what he shares in this interview.