Welcome to season three of Rooted and reaching, where we talk with dreamers, doers, and difference makers building an innovative future right here in the South Bend Elkhart region. Entrepreneurs know that where we're rooted matters, and where we're reaching matters even more. Today we're talking with Andie Hines-Lagemann, emotional intelligence practitioner, Elevate Ventures entrepreneur, resource connector, and dear friend. Let's start up. Andy, thank you for being here with us today.

Of course.

It is thrilling to have you here. You just finished a workshop.

Yes.

That had a lot of people in.

It, and it was titled protecting your passion, and it was about stress management and burnout prevention.

There you go. Stress management, burnout prevention. Yeah. Protecting your passion is actually a really interesting phrasing too, because you think about passion as something that you just, like, throw out there into the world, not something that you need to maybe put some protection around. But I think that's probably what's really important for folks to hear. And the fact that so many people signed up for your session. I would suggest that people are feeling it. Yes, people are feeling it. So tell us before we get into too much. Alice, tell us what you do.

Yeah, so I do a couple of things for Elevate Ventures. I'm the statewide director of engagement, and I am also the on staff emotional intelligence practitioner. So under the engagement work, I travel all over the state, meeting with economic development folks, ESOs and universities and elected officials, just making sure that they know Elevate exists and who to send our way. And then on the emotional intelligence side, I provide mental health support to our portfolio companies and partner organizations like you.

Guys, which we are grateful for.

Yep.

Yeah. I want to ask you about how you got into the work, but what is emotional intelligence like? What is that as a field or expertise?

Yes. So the newest branch of social psychology is positive psychology does not mean happy. It means like forward thinking. So it's about goal setting and strengths identification and making sure that we're placing as much emphasis on the research and methodologies on those things as to traditional psychology places on deficiencies and trauma and what has happened in the past. Right. So it's sort of like the counterbalance, not either or. That's the other side of that. And then out of the science of positive psychology came emotional intelligence. And so this is the field of study and again, practice of how we think and feel about ourselves, how that comes out into the outside world, how that impacts our interpersonal relationships, the value we see in other people, how we solve problems and make decisions, and how we Cope with stress.

That's fantastic.

Yeah.

You came to the work with entrepreneurs, I think, through a slightly unusual journey, or at least maybe not the typical one you might hear. Do you want to tell us how you got to that point? What drove you there? What led you there?

Yeah. Well, and I do want to say, I think for most people, if not every person I have ever talked to who became an entrepreneur at some point in their career, it was not because everything was great. It was not because work was sunshine and roses, and they were happy and fulfilled and everything was meaningful. And then they were like, well, that's enough of that. I'm gonna go do something else. Right. So I think for a lot of people, that it'll resonate that my journey was. Was difficult. And that's a good point. Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. Back in 2014, I was working for a huge company, and I was doing sales and marketing, which I had done my whole career up until that point. And I was. I was working with a national brand that makes pants and it rhymes with shmeweis.

Okay.

And then also a common word that we think, and it all sounds really cool.

Yeah, yeah, very.

But everybody was. Yeah, right, right, right. Like, so fun. So, like, flashy and cool.

Right.

But everybody was a big jerk.

Oh.

And then I got sick. And so In February of 2014, I found out that I had cervical cancer and immediately decided that as soon as I got that nonsense out of my body, I was going to quit my job. And do what I didn't know, but I was going to go do my own thing.

Okay. Was this like a life is too short to keep putting up with?

Yeah. Truly. Three weeks before my diagnosis, one of my colleagues in the marketing industry in Fort Wayne had died of cervical cancer. And so that felt like a very real potential outcome of the situation. And I was like, well, I could literally die.

Yeah.

What am I doing working for these A holes, you know? And, like, so it was more like.

Oh, yeah, that's a very clarifying thought to have.

Very clarifying. And so, thankfully, they caught it very, very early. I'm going to look straight into the camera and say, ladies, get your pap smears. And so they caught it very, very early and were able to take care of it fairly quickly. And so, like I said, diagnosis in February, and then in May, I was able to walk into that company and quit my job. And I started.

How did that feel?

Amazing. My eye had been twitching for, like, a month. And as I was driving out of the parking lot. It just. It just stopped twitching. I was like, okay, there. Evidence that that was stressing me out. Right. And so I ended up starting my own marketing. My own marketing firm. It was called Redtree. And. But. But almost immediately when I started my agency, I was like, where are the other. Where are the other women entrepreneurs? And I could look around town, I could look around Fort Wayne and say, well, there's Lindy owns that deli over there, and this woman owns that boutique clothing store. But is it the three of us? Surely it's not the three of us. And so I ended up going to her chamber. They dug into the backside of the Secretary of State website, and they said, well, there's a reason that you're not visible. And that is that. A generous estimate is that about 5% of the entrepreneurs in Allen county are women, the second largest city in the state of Indiana, and 5% of our entrepreneurs were women. And I was like, well, now that I know that, I have to do something about it.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so I immediately went out and started a nonprofit that was. It was called Own youn Success. Kind of an accidental name, but it was all about community and networking and connection for women entrepreneurs so that more women felt empowered to start their own businesses. You know, if I can. If I can look around and see a group of women who are doing it, it makes me feel like I can do it. And it makes me feel like when I have questions, I know you can turn to. And so. So our very first meeting, we had about 30 women there and Covid. We ended up sunsetting the organization during COVID but by that time, we had grown to 700 member companies. So I kind of felt like we did what we set out to do. And in fact, I can see in my community that work is still happening. It's still snowballing. But that. That community building earned me an award from the state of Indiana, a torchbearer award. Thank you. Which caught the attention of Elevate Ventures. And they were like, hey, yeah, do you want to build a community for us?

Yeah.

So. So that was the whole thing that.

Led you to Elevate Ventures.

Yeah.

Now, the EQ practitioner, you were doing that at the same time. Because I'm here. I've heard you said marketing.

Yeah.

And starting up a nonprofit.

Yeah.

And then there's this whole other thing, which you're very passionate about, and it seems very impactful and related, but, like, where's the connection there?

Yeah. So. So you're right. My whole career, from college up until Until Covid, I was a marketing professional. And Covid was. Was like, my great. Another great clarifying moment for me where I was like, I don't want to do that anymore. It just. I wanted to help people in a more meaningful way, and marketing just wasn't it. And so I took that opportunity to go back to school. I closed my agency, which made great sense at the time. We had gotten very heavy on the corporate event side of things, and all of our clients needed to cancel their events. And I was like. I just sort of, like, backed away from it. And. Yeah, so I went back to school. So I have a master's in positive psychology and clinical certifications. Excuse me. In emotional intelligence and behavior.

Did you know you wanted to do that? Like, how did you get to that field of study?

Yeah, so I knew that I wanted to do something in mental health, but truly recognizing my own emotional bandwidth, I'm a highly empathetic person. I am an emotional sponge. And I thought, you know, there are just certain conversations that I can't sit in an office and have those conversations all day, every day. I think I would just. I think of it like, black tar. Like, I would just be drinking that black tar from those people, and I think it would kill me, like, maybe literally. And so as I was kind of doing my research into what I wanted to do from a mental health capacity and, like, honoring my own boundaries as far as that goes, I was actually watching tv, just, like, scrolling Instagram, like we do, and an ad came up for this positive psychology program through Indiana Wesleyan University. And I thought, positive psychology, like, what? That's interesting. And I.

Like the opposite of what you were worried. Right? Is the opposite of.

Right. It is the opposite of what I was worried about. Yeah. Yeah, completely. I read it, and it literally was one of those moments, like, the clouds parted, and it was like, this is what you're supposed to be doing. And it was. Yeah, it's been amazing. I feel like this is what I was meant to do.

So. Okay, that is fantastic. And so you started doing that. Do you have a private practice doing that, or you just started integrating it with your work?

Yeah, because at that time, I did already work for Elevate, but I was just doing it part time. But I did also start my own practice. So. Yeah, my practice is called Tidewater.

I am curious about. So you're working for Elevate Ventures, which is this big statewide venture capital fund. Was it hard to go to them and say, I want to layer on top of all the work? I'm already doing this thing called emotional intelligence.

Yeah.

And how did they take it? Were they.

Oh, I will say it didn't take much convincing. Okay, so one of the members of our team, Jacob Schpach, we met him last night.

Yeah, I saw him last night.

He is such a doll. I always say Jacob and I are like the quintessential rom com couple, where the guy is always proposing and the girl's always like, no. Because for years, Jacob had asked me to come full time on the Elevate team and do this engagement work. And about the time I was wrapping up my master's degree, he called me and he was like, so now do you want to come full time? And I was like, no, now I'm a mental health practitioner. Right, right, right. I'm going to, like I said, I still wanted to do because I do love the work that we do at Elevate. I love the economic development and supporting entrepreneurs and all of that is just, like, so meaningful to me. But so he was, you know, please come full time. And I went back and I said, you know, here's a way. Here's a way that I would come full time and if you let me support the companies that we're investing in. Like, being an entrepreneur is scary. It is stressful. It's intimidating. It's imposter syndrome. It's interpersonal conflict. It's. Yeah, I mean, all the things, all the things, all the things. And I found because of the work that I do and algorithms being what they are, I have gotten a couple of articles in my feed about a couple of VCs. Not very many. Like, maybe like two on the west coast, one on the east coast that are outsourcing mental health support.

Got it.

For their portfolio companies. And I was like, here's something that is happening a little bit, and I think that it'll improve the sustainability of our companies. You know, when you feel better, you perform better, all of those kind of things. And I mean, honestly, it was a fairly short conversation before they were like, yeah, we see the value in that.

So, I mean, that's great, actually. I mean, that seems like you wouldn't get that everywhere you are.

Yeah.

Someone willing to say, yeah, I hear what you're saying. I value it, and we want to make it part of what you do. The passion. Sorry, protecting your passion session that you just did. I'm assuming that some of that grew out of both your training in emotional intelligence and positive psychology and then your experience working with entrepreneurs.

Yes, all of the above. So my Area of research in grad school was burnout prevention and stress management. It just felt like a topic that would be highly relevant to my client base, because even in my own practice, my clients are corporate leaders. And so it's very transferable to the work that I do at Elevate as well. And burnout is a huge problem.

Yeah. What are you seeing today? I mean, we made it through Covid. We're in 2025 now. There's a lot going on in the world. The landscape around entrepreneurship has changed a little bit. The landscape around venture capital has been changing. When you're working with entrepreneurs, what are you seeing right now?

I mean, I wish I could say, like, Covid is behind us, and everybody is like, okay, now. I think in some ways, and I've read research to support this experience that I'm having with the people that I work with, but in some ways, it's worse than ever.

Burnout. That is okay.

Yeah.

Why do you think that is?

Because one of the things that Covid did was connect us more always everywhere, 24.

7. In our beds, in our cars, and on our vacations.

I'll say, when I'm giving workshops, you know, we are subjected to stress at a greater, you know, rate and intensity than ever in human history. And I think the biggest reason for that is because we are on all the time. And I'll be talking to a room full of. You know, I gave a workshop last week. There were about 150 people, and I said, who here sleeps with their phone next to their bed?

Yeah. Yeah. A bunch of guilty hands.

Everybody in the room. Right. Like we all do. And so, you know, just as an example of being so tuned in all the time and not just to work, but also to the news, for better or for worse right now.

And, I mean, I feel it myself. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

What do you. We're sort of running low on time. What. What are some of the. If you could condense a couple of takeaways.

Yeah.

For an entrepreneur who's just feeling like their passion is not being protected.

Yeah.

Are there any condensed. I don't know. I'm not doing a sound bite here, but, you know, I guess you need to go to an entire session. But what would you say?

Yeah, call me. No.

Yeah, exactly. Call Andy.

Yeah. But no, I mean, one of the. One of the tools that I've been working on a lot with people lately is creating a stress management menu. And this is going to be a literal physical document, an actual list of stress management techniques. And the reason to create an actual list is that when we are experiencing compounding stress, it actually prohibits our brain from being able to solve problems, make decisions and even form words. And so if you're going about your day and you are experiencing that compounding stress.

Yeah, yeah.

Are you feeling me too? I know, I was like, are you feeling a little convicted right now?

Yeah.

If you can't make decisions and solve problems or you're finding it difficult and if I'm like, marty, you need to calm down quick. Pick a stress management technique. What are you gonna do?

You're gonna be like, so then I need to get my cheat sheet out.

And be like, yes.

So what would be something on that list?

Yeah, so some of the top go.

Home, go to bed.

I mean literally depending on how bad it is, maybe go home and go to bed. A gal in the session just now said, what if I go for a walk? And then I just like, don't come back the rest of the day, keep walking and like, then that is what your brain needs to do is the answer. From a practitioner standpoint, breath work is a huge one. And you know, even just taking three nice, slow, deep breaths. Right. So these are many things. These are not. I'm going to go on a two week vacation. This is like I need, I need to manage what's happening during the day. Right, right, right. So breath work, a little mind, body, kind of connectivity, awareness. And that can be something as simple as like just giving yourself a little stretch. Right. Reaching out to a friend.

Sure.

Send a couple of quick text messages. One of the first things to go, like, connectedness is a core human need. But one of the first things to go when we are managing a lot of stressful situations is like going out for margaritas with our friends. That's not happening. Right.

Because that's what you need the most.

Too busy juggling like flaming batons or something to do any of that. So reaching out to a friend, doing a little journaling or meditation. I mentioned going for a walk. Right. So what are some small little, I call them lifestyle choices that you could make? Is it 3 o' clock in the afternoon and you haven't peed yet today? Maybe take a break.

Right.

Is it three o' clock in the afternoon and you're still drinking your like cold, disgusting coffee from this morning from.

7:00Am, you know, or your, or your.

Water from yesterday, you know, or could you go for a walk?

Yeah, I love that.

Could you go take a little nap? Right.

We talk a lot in the office, how we need a nap pod. A little power nap pod.

Yeah.

15, 20 minutes.

I love it. Yeah.

Andy, thank you for being here. Thank you for doing the workshop today and being part of IdeaWeek.

Yeah.

And it was great, fun conversation with us.

Of course. Anything for you.

Oh, gosh, thank you. You're the best.

You're the best.