Mental Health Momentum
Jenny Groberg: Why ‘Push Through It’ Was The Wrong Advice
Some of Jenny Groberg’s greatest professional accomplishments came during some of the hardest years of her life. And at one point, working harder wasn’t the answer. It was making things worse. In this episode of Mental Health Momentum, host Dr. David Morgan, licensed psychologist and Director of Mental Health Awareness at Silicon Slopes, sits down with Jenny Groberg, founder and CEO of BookSmarts Accounting & Bookkeeping, for a candid conversation about resilience, limitations, mental health and learning to keep moving forward when you can no longer live—or work—the way you once did. Groberg built her accounting business after failing to land a controller job she needed while her husband was in medical school. What began out of necessity eventually grew into an award-winning company with a flexible employment model designed to give talented professionals, particularly women returning to the workforce, another path into meaningful work. Then Groberg suffered a traumatic brain injury. For years, she struggled with dizziness, memory problems, fatigue and cognitive limitations that eventually forced her to step away from the company she had built. Her team ran the business while she spent three years focusing on her health. For someone accustomed to believing she could accomplish almost anything by working hard enough, recovery required learning a very different lesson: sometimes strength means respecting your limitations instead of fighting them. “I can see that it’s okay that what I used to be able to do is not the same now,” Groberg tells Morgan. Eight years after her injury, those limitations remain part of her life. But so does ambition. Groberg talks about returning to business, confronting fear, creating jobs and discovering the cumulative power of simply continuing to show up—even when showing up looks different than it used to. The conversation also explores what that lesson can teach business leaders. Employees experiencing difficult circumstances don't necessarily need the same solution. One person may need time off. Another may need more hours. Sometimes the most useful thing a leader can do is stop assuming and ask, “What do you need?” In this episode: Why some of Groberg’s biggest accomplishments happened during her hardest years Her three-year step away from BookSmarts after a traumatic brain injury Learning that pushing harder can sometimes make recovery harder Why accepting limitations requires its own kind of discipline How suffering changed Groberg’s attitude toward fear and failure Why “showing up” looks different during different seasons of life How her own need for flexible employment inspired a business model that helps other women work Why financial stress, debt and unrealistic expectations can take a toll on mental health How social media can distort expectations about money, homes and success Why business leaders should ask employees what they actually need instead of assuming they know How vulnerability from leaders can give employees permission to acknowledge their own struggles Groberg doesn’t tell a story about overcoming adversity and returning to exactly who she was before. It’s a story about recognizing that you may never be exactly who you were before, and discovering how much you can still do from where you are now.
