Meet Shelby Hartman

We were lucky to catch up with Shelby Hartman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shelby, so happy to have you on the platform and I think our readers are in for a treat because you’ve got such an interesting story and so much insight and wisdom. So, let’s start with a topic that is relevant to everyone, regardless of industry etc. What do you do for self-care and how has it impacted you?

Every morning, I meditate for 15 minutes. I also exercise daily, and take my dog on walks without my cell phone. I’ve often said that, as an entrepreneur, every mistake I’ve ever made, I made because I was “moving too fast.” A voice whispered to me “don’t do this” or “do this,” and I ignored it, because I felt a false sense of urgency, a need to just move onto the next thing. And so I find that slowing down is integral, not only for my well-being, but for the well-being of the business. It’s in the space that I am able to be creative, and stay in touch with my intuition.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am currently the co-founder of a media and education company covering psychedelics. It all began with a deep love of journalism. I’ve been working in newsrooms, from CBS to magazines to media start-ups since I was 20 years old. And I’ve seen the volatility and devastation of the journalism industry. Throughout it all, I’ve maintained a belief in the importance of meaningful storytelling—and so, at a certain point, I decided that I needed to understand the business side of things. Time and time again, I saw that when folks who did not have journalistic backgrounds were in charge that real reporting was the first thing to go. I kept that idea in the back of my mind, and then, one day, while meditating I spontaneously had the idea to start DoubleBlind, a print magazine on psychedelics. It wasn’t a strategic decision, as much as it was an intuitive one, but it turned out that it was something that the world wanted to exist and it grew organically.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Passion 2. Kindness 3. Agility

Passion, first and foremost, I believe is integral to building the resilience necessary to weather the unforeseen storms of running a start-up. I can say, without a doubt, that the reason we still exist is because we were blessed, from the get-go, to have a wide network of talented folks on our side who just believed in what we were doing. They shared our work, invited us into events and collaborations, gave me strategic advice and a shoulder to cry on. I am so deeply grateful to every one of those people who gave us so much, when we had nothing to give them but our gratitude.

I think kindness, too, goes a long way. We live in an economic environment where relationships have become extremely transactional. “I’ll give you this, if you give me that.” But I like to believe that building real relationships matters.

Lastly, I think agility is important for success. Not overthinking things. Experimenting. Trying stuff out. If it doesn’t work, trying something else out. There will be failures that you could have avoided and failures that are beyond your control. But if you just keep playing and going and paying attention to what’s working, that will carry you far.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

The number one obstacle we’re facing is amplifying our work and reaching new members for our community. This is because as a journalistic outlet we are so much at the mercy of third-party platforms like Google, Instagram, and Facebook to get our work seen. We’ve been kicked off Instagram many times (and luckily have always gotten our account back) for “violating their community guidelines,” even though they’ve never been specific about what we’ve done wrong and we’ve reviewed their guidelines. Yes, we talk about controlled substances, but we don’t sell them and should be protected by the first amendment. In December 2020, we, along with every other psychedelic media company we know, lost 50% of our website traffic overnight following what experts call “the medic update.” Google, allegedly, was trying to bury harmful information about COVID and, in the process, buried articles from every other site, too, considered “alternative” in some way. Since then, our traffic has continued to decline as Google introduces new AI features and changes how it evaluates the value of a website. So at this point, finding new ways to bring folks into our community is a priority and we welcome any partners who feel passionately about our mission to help us in doing that.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Photo by Kaya Blaze

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Leadership Development
Empathy Unlocked: Understanding how to Develop Emotional Intelligence

“Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus

Productivity
Where do you get your work ethic from?

We’ve all heard the phrase “work hard, play hard,” but where does our work ethic

Productivity
Boosting Productivity Through Self-Care

When you have a never-ending to-do list it can feel irresponsible to engage in self-care,