00:00:06 – Dr. Ken Huey:
Christopher, welcome today. We're so interested in the journey that brings people to where they are in this field. Everyone has a story. Can you share yours? What experiences or challenges shaped you and brought you to this point?

00:00:13 – Christopher Bennett:
 My entire journey has been shaped more or less by taking risks, experiencing failure, and failing forward. I've been in this space for nearly 20 years now, and in order to get where I’ve gotten, I’ve had to take risks and fail along the way.

And I don’t just mean in business. I mean in relationships and in life. That’s the beauty of the entrepreneurial journey. To me, entrepreneurship is the greatest personal growth mechanism that exists. It constantly puts you in touch with yourself.

When I look back, the moments that felt the most painful at the time ended up being the most powerful moments of my life. Whether that was getting sober in my early 20s, which felt like the worst day of my life at the time, or watching my life fall apart in 2019 as an entrepreneur.

In that period, I lost a business, lost relationships, and lost my father all within a very short time. What those experiences taught me was how to return to equilibrium and ask a simple question: what did I learn, and how do I move forward from here?

00:01:40 – Dr. Ken Huey:
Looking back at those moments, is there one pivotal experience that really launched the leader you've become today?

00:01:53 – Christopher Bennett:
 There’s no doubt about it. Over ten years ago, I intellectually understood what I wanted to do in business. I had read the books and seen organizations operate successfully. I knew people were the strongest asset in any company and that culture drives performance.

I believed the most profitable companies were happy companies.

But knowing those ideas and actually executing them are two very different things.

In 2015, I started a behavioral health company in my hometown in Northern Virginia. There was a huge gap in services and we were trying to fill it. I was young, inexperienced, and barely 30 years old. Vision can only take you so far if you don’t understand the implications of the decisions you’re making.

By 2019, everything unraveled. I had damaged relationships with four partners, two of whom I had known for 20 years. I walked into a meeting one Monday morning and they told me to get out and not come back.

The business was struggling. We had grown too quickly, we were overleveraged, and the internal turmoil was spilling into every corner of the company.

Eventually I sold the company, but just barely got out from under it. I lost investor money, and those investors were people I spent Christmas with. Friends and family.

What that experience did was strip away my ego and every narrative I had about knowing what was best. It forced me to become curious. It forced me to start asking better questions.

That season stripped away everything. And uncomfortable as it was, it became the beginning of a much deeper journey of growth and leadership.

00:05:22 – Dr. Ken Huey:
Leadership can often be isolating. When you're protecting culture and making hard decisions, it can feel lonely. How do you combat that isolation?

00:05:40 – Christopher Bennett:
 My wife once called me the most hyper-independent person she had ever met.

At first I thought that was a compliment. She quickly told me it wasn’t.

What she meant was that I had learned to operate in a way that disconnected me from other people. And that wasn’t healthy.

In my previous startups, I carried the mindset that no one understood me or what I was dealing with. But in hindsight, that was a way for me to stay disconnected.

Now, in my third startup, I’m surrounded by partners who are incredibly talented and frankly much smarter than I am. Being in a room like that is something many entrepreneurs aspire to, and I feel fortunate to have reached that point.

But even with great partners, there are certain aspects of leadership that still require different conversations and deeper relationships.

Over the years, I’ve joined different communities of leaders and thinkers. Those relationships have helped tremendously. Now my focus is building deeper and more meaningful connections with others in the field.

When I first entered this industry 15 to 20 years ago, mentorship wasn’t always readily available. Today, I see so many leaders who have built lives and organizations that I admire.

My next chapter is about intentionally building relationships with people who inspire me and continuing to grow alongside them.

00:08:38 – Dr. Ken Huey:
If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting in behavioral healthcare, what would it be and why?

00:08:49 – Christopher Bennett:
 There are a lot of things that come to mind, but for me it always comes back to understanding your why.

Early on, my why was surface level. I would say I wanted to help people who were struggling. But over time I realized my deeper ambition was to serve the masses, not just a few people.

I want to care for people who have often been forgotten or discarded by the system.

The work we do in behavioral health is difficult. It’s emotional. Without a strong sense of purpose, it becomes very hard to sustain.

The other lesson I learned is that I cannot carry someone else’s water. It took me years to understand that I cannot save someone’s life.

What I can do is create the environment that allows someone to change their own life.

Whether it's clients or employees, we can walk alongside people. But we cannot do the work for them.

So my advice would be to go deep into your why. When the chaos and uncertainty come, that purpose is what keeps you moving forward.

00:10:22 – Dr. Ken Huey:
 Christopher Bennett, you’ve earned wisdom through experience and you carry it well. Thank you for sharing your journey today.