Michael Stutts Risked His C-Suite Success To Fight for Your Mental Health
Burned by boardroom stress, this marketing leader took on a new mission—advocating for employees’ emotional well-being.
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I was born with a lovely combination of anxiety and depression, both seemingly causeless. It followed me around and I pushed it down, never addressing it. Eventually, this issue turned me into an insecure overachiever. I excelled in business school, pursued a successful career in investment banking, and rose quickly in the world of management consulting and, later, marketing. At one point, I was a top-five executive at a $4 billion company.
Factually speaking, I was doing very well at work, but I was falling apart as a person. The stress of the work and the 100-hour weeks went completely against my emotional operating system. I compensated with drinking, travel, and other distractions. But when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like who I saw. I was so overwhelmed that I decided to end my life. Thank goodness, I have a wonderful mother and sister who stepped in and stopped me.
In the spring of 2022, I put my career completely on hold—that's when I went to an inpatient mental health facility. I was on a pretty big rocketship, career-wise, but I told myself, “This is not going to be worth it if I'm dead.” That decision saved my life. But even when I got better, I thought, “Wow, I just threw my career away, and I'm never going to come back from this.”
Of course, I knew that these were self-destructive and incorrect thoughts. So I switched my thinking to, “Okay, how can I make the most of this? How can I help other people avoid this?” I decided to write it all down.
In the following years, I published a book about my experience. And I’ve worked to address mental health and well-being in corporate settings. I’ve started several mental health interest groups within companies to offer training and resources for employees, especially leaders.
The end result? I’ve had a lot of people you’d never expect come up and say, “I’m so glad you're talking about this.” For every one person who speaks up, there are probably 10 more who are experiencing it.
When it comes to the stress that marketing leaders have in particular, it’s that everybody’s a marketer. The CEO, the CFO, the Head of HR, the Head of Legal—they all have opinions on marketing. When the arrow is not pointed in the right direction, marketing is the dog that gets kicked. Everyone thinks they could have done it better.
After being an IT leader—which I thought was the hardest job in the world—I’ve been a marketing leader twice. Now I envy IT. It takes a lot more technical knowledge to have a real debate with an IT leader. So you get a lot less push-back.
I also think we have to address the challenges facing people leaders. I rose quickly in my career, and I was managing others at a relatively young age. Real pressures go with this—like having people come to you with all their problems. How do you manage someone who comes into your office and bursts into tears? I wasn’t prepared to handle the interpersonal drama and toxicity that takes place.
New managers need to listen and observe. Marketing departments are full of artists—and the emotions that fuel them. Healthy creative tensions can push people to greatness. But a good manager checks in on the team, making sure that unhealthy tensions don’t get a chance to fester.
And finally, while work-from-home has benefits, it has made some things harder because we’re more isolated. Let’s say I’m on a Zoom with 20 people, and it didn’t go as well as I thought. I can do nothing but think about how bad it was all day. I’ve got no feedback to tell me otherwise. I know remote work isn’t going away, and I’m not trying to fight gravity here, but it’s super important to find coping mechanisms and stay grounded in the real world. Go outside and touch grass, call a friend, and remind yourself that your life doesn’t revolve around that meeting or that review. These aren’t negotiables; they are daily habits. Other options? Spend time with God, connect with family, exercise, or be active with a hobby.
A corporate job doesn’t have to feel like an uncontrollable life force. There are ways to do this work without succumbing to the strain. I had to blow everything up to learn this lesson. But if you can change the way you respond to your circumstances, you don’t have to.
* There’s No Room Service at the Psych Ward: From Boardroom to Breakdown and Back, Ballast Books, 2023
