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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE UPSIDE OF BEING DOWN

Jen Gotch

How Mental Health Struggles Led to My Greatest Success in Work and Life

From the founder and CCO of the multimillion dollar brand ban.do comes an entertaining and humorous inspirational memoir - like #GIRLBOSS meets FURIOUSLY HAPPY - about harnessing your creativity and embracing your flaws to reach your goals, including stories about how Jen Gotch's struggles with mental illness influenced and spurred her success in business.
With humor and heart, Gotch shares the story of her unlikely journey to becoming the founder and CCO of a multimillion dollar brand. From her childhood in Florida where her early struggles with bipolar disorder were misdiagnosed to her winding career path as a waitress, photographer, food stylist, and finally entrepreneur with no business experience, she illuminates how embracing her flaws and understanding the influence of mental illness on her creativity actually led to her greatest successes in business and life.

Hilarious, charming, and filled with fascinating insights from her hard-won experience as a true creative and a visionary businesswoman, Gotch's inspirational memoir dares readers to live each day with hope, optimism, kindness, and humor.

Jen Gotch is genetically predisposed to optimism. A creative powerhouse and mental health advocate, she founded ban.do with a friend in 2008, and with no prior business experience, was able to transform it from a small, vintage, one-of-a-kind hair accessories company into a multimillion dollar brand within years. After a long (and winding) road of jobs that led her to where she is today, she's now the chief creative officer and fearless leader of the ban.do team. She's passionate about sharing her experience in both business and life in a candid and lighthearted way in order to help others build their own self-awareness and emotional intelligence and most of all to help them feel less alone.
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Published 2020-03-24 by Gallery

Comments

It is [Gotch's] honesty, this duality of making her dreams come true while surrendering to the biology that can impede her hard work, that has made Gotch so popular, especially with women. For most, the mental health struggle is, by its very nature, a solitary predicament, which colors it humiliating and can create a vicious cycle that leads to even more isolation. By giving her psyche's trash-talking devil a microphone, and full access to her Instagram account, Gotch has taken ownership of this narrative, empowering herself and inspiring her more than [220,000] followers.

Ban.do Founder Jen Gotch Wants You To Feel Less Alone: BUST Interview Read more...

Captures the energy and enthusiasm required to build a startup company and provides strategies for maintaining an optimistic outlook. Ultimately, Gotch's feel-good focus conveys a positive message about a long journey toward emotional stability. An upbeat look at dealing with life's curveballs. Read more...

Gotch has allowed herself to be the face of ban.do, because she believes customers want to know the person behind the products. Gotch presents an unvarnished image of herself on social media, both through her own accounts and ban.do's. Many of her posts don't present an idealized version of her life, which means that when Gotch - and by extension, ban.doposts optimistic sayings, they don't ring hollow, because fans know that Gotch also has bad days.

THE UPSIDE OF BEING DOWN appears at #11 on the New York Times Bestseller list the week of April 11.

Gotch is unequivocal in delivering her message that mental health is every bit as important as physical health (and that the two are interrelated), and her often humorous delivery underscores her belief that sometimes a laugh truly is the best medicine. Anyone who's ever dealt with mental illness will appreciate this forthcoming and empathetic volume. Read more...

The Upside of Being Down hits home with me and so many of us who have struggled with our mental health. Jen's raw honesty, humor, and wit break through the noise in a way that bridges memoir, inspiration, and self-help. I highly recommend!

By Jen Gotch - 10 Minutes Read / Excerpt Read more...

The Upside of Being Down is laugh-out-loud funny, irreverent, and most of all, inspirational. Jen is a role model for navigating the ups and downs of any and all diagnoses with resilience and creativity. In a time when the world is increasingly anxious, Jen's story has the power to remind us that it's ok to struggle, and in fact, struggle can point us toward our greatest accomplishments. This is a book that will give hope to many, many people.

You know when you get stuck in an elevator with a stranger and you're so freaked out that you start telling each other deep secrets and powerful truths and then you realize you have a new best friend and also she has wine and you decide it's actually better to be trapped in the elevator than out in the real world? That's exactly what this book is like. But without elevators or wine. Unless you bring your own.

Gotch brings her signature wit, sense of humor, and inspiring energy to the page. Read more...

Jen Gotch is a magical sensitive soul. She shares her wisdom and unique perspective on life and offers advice she has learned through founding the joyful & optimistic lifestyle brand, ban.do, and being a BOSS (who cries at work), but ALSO through her own struggles with mental illness, personal setbacks, and managing to come out on the other side with optimism firmly intact. She wrote a memoir disguised as a self-help book--or maybe she wrote a self-help book disguised as a memoir? Either way, as far as I'm concerned it's required reading for 2020. So get on it!

An exclusive interview with Jen Gotch Read more...

Q&A with author: How ban.do founder Jen Gotch used her anxiety to shape her business... Read more...

Jen shares the empowering story of her winding path to creator and CCO of a multimillion-dollar brand... the beautiful, hilarious, soulful story of embracing her flaws, coming to understand the influence of her mental illness on her creativity, and how those things in tandem led her to her greatest successes in business and in life. Read more...

Gotch's honest reflections on her mental health are both relatable and empowering, showcasing that it's perfectly fine to not always feel perfectly fine. Read more...

Irreverent and instantly lovable, Jen Gotch shares her personal struggles with bipolar and anxiety disorders in a relatable, diaristic tone. She details the challenges and ultimate triumph of founding a multimillion dollar thriving business based on bringing joy to others, called Ban.do. Read more...

Underneath Ban.do's pink, sparkly exterior, Jen Gotch builds a serious business.

Jen Gotch has perfectly translated her natural hilarity and charm into her storytelling. A well curated set of life stories. You will laugh hard, maybe cry, and fundamentally understand why we do the things we do.

Jen is my hero, because she's not afraid to tell the messy truth about entrepreneurship, business, love, and mental health, and how it's okay to not always be okay. I loved this book as much as I love sequins, confetti, and pizza.

The founder and creative director of Ban.do wants to help her team, customers, and people everywhere prioritize their own wellness.... Read more...

Interview with author: Jen Gotch Bares All In 'The Upside of Being Down' Because She Wants You to Be Okay... Read more...

Both honest and entertaining. You'll laugh, cry and totally relate. Read more...