THE NORTH STAR INITIATIVE
Founders Are Quietly Losing Their Health, Their Marriages, And Themselves. We Help You find your way Back
North Star exists because building a business shouldn't cost you the person who built it. We sit with founders, name exactly what's breaking, and help you become someone your business, your team, and your family actually recognize again.
87.7% of founders say they're carrying a real mental health struggle right now
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68% of founders say they hide their problems from their own investors, their own board, their own team
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1 in 2 founders say they've thought about walking away from the company they built, and it's not because the business is failing
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Founders report depression at twice the rate of everyone else
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61% of founders say they've never gone to therapy because of what it could cost them professionally
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72% of founders say they carried a mental health condition long before they ever built anything
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1 in 2 founders say they're living in high stress right now, not last year, right now
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Small-business owners show 67% higher odds of a suicide attempt
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87.7% of founders say they're carrying a real mental health struggle right now • 68% of founders say they hide their problems from their own investors, their own board, their own team • 1 in 2 founders say they've thought about walking away from the company they built, and it's not because the business is failing • Founders report depression at twice the rate of everyone else • 61% of founders say they've never gone to therapy because of what it could cost them professionally • 72% of founders say they carried a mental health condition long before they ever built anything • 1 in 2 founders say they're living in high stress right now, not last year, right now • Small-business owners show 67% higher odds of a suicide attempt •
THE PROBLEM
You Say "I’m Fine." You've Said It For Months
Somewhere along the way, fine became the answer to everything, how's the business, how's the team, how's the marriage. Nobody follows up on fine. That's exactly why it works, and exactly why it's dangerous. It ends the conversation before the real one can start.
HOW IT REACHES EVERYTHING
It Doesn't Stay In The Office. It Never Does
It shows up in a sales call that used to close itself and now drags, because the certainty in your voice isn't fully there anymore. It shows up in a team member who used to bring you problems and now just quietly updates their resume, because the leader they signed up for feels like someone else lately. It shows up in a client relationship that's cooled a few degrees for no reason you can point to. And it shows up at home, in a spouse who's stopped asking how your day was, because the real answer stopped coming a long time ago.
THE PRACTICE
Thirty Years Of Getting Strangers To Tell The Truth On Camera Taught Us How To Hear Yours
Jason spent three decades sitting across from people who walked into an interview planning to say something safe, and left having said the real one. That's not a trick of asking clever questions. It's knowing when an answer is the rehearsed one, and staying in the room long enough for the true one to surface. We bring that same instinct here. We listen for what's actually underneath what you're saying, name it plainly once we're sure it's real, and then we stay. This is a practice, not a service. We walk with you.
Every engagement starts the same way, by naming what's actually happening.
- A written guide naming the patterns underneath founder burnout, plainly
- A way to see your own situation from the outside, before you talk to anyone about it
- No call required, no pressure, just the read
- A recurring advisory session with Jason, tracking the real patterns as they shift
- Dr. Maggie Klotz's clinical read feeding into every session
- A standing partner who knows your situation, not a new consultant every quarter
- Ongoing visibility into how your own message is actually landing, with your team and beyond it
- Everything in the ongoing partnership, extended across your leadership team
- Maggie's clinical read applied to team dynamics, not just one person's patterns
- A standing session with the team itself, not just with you
- Work that holds even as the people in the room change
WHO WE ARE
Two People Who Know How To Get To What's True
Jason Hensley founded McCosh Films on one belief: everything begins and ends with human connection. More than thirty years in journalism and media, especially documentary work taught him how to sit across from someone and hear what they mean underneath what they're saying.
Dr. Maggie Klotz is a licensed psychologist and Health Service Provider in Tennessee, and founder of Archway Counseling in Knoxville. Nearly two decades treating trauma, burnout, and life transitions inform every read she brings to this work. Learn more about her practice at archwayknox.com.
Together, that's an advantage most firms in this market simply can't offer. Jason reads the raw human behavior, what's actually happening in the room, in the marriage, in the version of you that shows up when the door closes. Maggie brings the clinical science underneath it. Between the two, you get a real road map built for you and your organization.
START HERE
Start With The Guide, Not A Sales Call
The Narrative Field Guide is a real exercise, not a worksheet you'll abandon on page two. It's built to help you name what's actually happening before you say a word about it to anyone else. Just a way to see your own situation the way we'd see it, from the outside.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
If You're Done Carrying This By Yourself
Book a free discovery call with Jason. We'll talk about what's actually happening, and whether this is the right next step.