Meet Sonya Stattmann
Founder. coach. advocate.
Creating a future where founder mental health
is the foundation, not the footnote.
Championing founder mental health
Founder mental health is not a wellness topic.
It is a foundation for every decision, every culture, and every company being built. These are the core beliefs that shape my work with founders and their organisations.
We are not machines.
But we are expected to operate like machines: constant output, emotions managed out of sight, and our bodies ignored until they collapse. We push because we want impact, change, and our mission actualized. But the cost shows up quietly, over time, in our bodies and minds. We start to make decisions from exhaustion, our relationships erode under stress, and our mission gets buried under survival.
The founder’s nervous system is the nervous system of the organisation.
Nervous systems communicate unconsciously. Your team feels what you are carrying before you say a word. The founder’s nervous system gets built into the bones of the organisation. A regulated founder builds coherence and deliberate direction; a dysregulated founder builds reactivity, regardless of stated intentions. The organisation does not mirror what you say. It mirrors your nervous system.
There is a better way to build.
When founders regulate, something unexpected happens. Clarity replaces reaction. They get more done, not less. Innovation becomes possible again because the nervous system is no longer burning its resources on survival. It creates a ripple effect, moving through the team and the culture. A company built from regulation does not just perform differently. It feels different to be inside it. That is what becomes possible when a founder’s mental health is treated as the foundation rather than the footnote.
Meet Sonya Stattmann
Founder. Coach. Advocate.
Championing founder mental health
Creating a future where founder mental health is the foundation, not the footnote.
Founder mental health is not a wellness topic.
It is the foundation for every decision, every culture, and every company being built. These are the convictions that shape this work.
We are not machines.
But we are expected to operate like them. The cost shows up quietly — in our bodies, our decisions, and the mission that gets buried under survival.
The founder’s nervous system is the nervous system of the organisation.
Your team feels what you are carrying before you say a word. The organisation does not mirror what you say. It mirrors your nervous system.
There is a better way to build.
When founders regulate, clarity replaces reaction. A company built from regulation does not just perform differently. It feels different to be inside it.
The story behind the work
The Cost Nobody Talks About:
I have been a founder most of my adult life. I built my first bootstrapped business at 25, capturing a genuine gap nobody else was filling. Then I built another and another. Different countries, different industries, but the same drive underneath all of it.
I built the first coworking space in Austin, Texas, but it wasn’t just a coworking space; it included wellness services, yoga and childcare. We focused on founder mental health and sustainable performance before it was a trend.
Even in my seeking to support other founders’ mental health, I neglected my own. Alongside the coworking space, I had a full-time coaching practice, and I was raising a daughter alone. I worked day and night because my work was not just labour; it was a labour of love. But I was constantly divided, and I was accountable for everyone’s wellbeing except my own.
I knew about stress. I thought I was managing it with workouts, biohacking, and sheer will. I told myself burnout was a later problem, that I was the exception, that I could handle it a little longer. The thing is, we all tell ourselves that. And the payment still comes due. In your body first, then your decisions. Eventually, your mission starts to blur at the edges. I wish someone had told me what was actually happening inside me, the science of it, and the real cost. I would have built differently, not less ambitiously, but more intelligently.
What I built from the other side:
When I finally hit a wall, I did not find failure. I found clarity. I spent the years that followed learning what actually creates sustainable success: what founders genuinely need to balance mental health and ambition without sacrificing either. And I can tell you one thing: recovery takes exponentially longer than prevention.
For more than a decade, I didn’t just theorise. I tested. I sat with thousands of founders in the middle of stress, heading toward burnout, and not feeling like they could take a breath. I watched what techniques and tools moved the needle and what was just noise until I could see the difference clearly. Then I built what worked into a sequence and framework for growth.
We have to work with our biology, not against it. Regulation does not slow you down. It makes you sharper, more decisive, more able to see what chronic stress makes invisible. When a founder arrives wired and exhausted, the first thing I do is help them regulate and breathe. Then I put practical tools in their hands that they can implement immediately, within the life they are already living.
After two decades and more than 10,000 coaching hours, I have a clear understanding of what actually matters, in what order, and why. I found the path by losing it first. What I offer you now is the map I wish I had been given.
What makes me tick:
coffee first
I can’t start my day without a good cup of coffee: fresh beans and perfect espresso.
the beach
We traded six years of nomad life and world travel to settle in Sellicks Beach, South Australia.
A Mission
I have never had hobbies because I have always had a mission. It drives everything I do.
My Family
I’ve been a parent almost as long as an entrepreneur. They keep me focused on what matters.
Professional background
Built From the Inside Out
More than two decades at the intersection of entrepreneurship and mental health
I have never had a job. I have always had a mission, and every insight I bring to this work comes from living inside it as a founder who knows what it costs to keep building when the pressure is relentless and the support is thin. My credibility is not credentialed in the traditional sense. It is hands-on, hard-won, and grounded in what actually works. What makes my approach different is not just the depth of experience but a fundamental conviction: that we have to work with our biology, not against it. Regulation is not a wellness practice you add on top of the real work. It is the foundation on which the real work stands.
Watch me in action…
A 3-minute talk on Cooling Conflict
The experience behind the work:
More than two decades of direct coaching work with founders, business owners, and their teams across Australia and the United States Over 10,000 hours of 1:1 coaching and facilitation More than 500 workshops, keynotes, and facilitated sessions delivered in person and virtually TEDx speaker, Melbourne Host of three public podcasts with more than 280 episodes, including Women in the Business Arena, ranked among the top business podcasts at its peak Featured guest on numerous podcasts covering entrepreneurship, leadership, and nervous system science Certified in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy through the Embody Lab, a leading trauma-informed training program Trauma-informed coach specialising in nervous system regulation and psychological safety Co-founded the first coworking spaces in Austin, Texas, integrating wellness, yoga, childcare, and business support, focused on founder mental health before it was a movement
Sonya’s work is uniquely insightful because she approaches work & life through a lens, unlike any other facilitator I’ve worked with. Focusing on skill-building over tactics, Sonya creates space to do the real work that leads to meaningful, motivating changes in life and work.
Sonya is a wonderful speaker! She hosted our virtual keynote session and spoke about emotional intelligence. We learned how to be present in the moment, tools to improve as individuals, and what emotional intelligence truly is. She was very kind and professional, and our employees enjoyed the event.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that Sonya changed my perspective on doing business, the way I operate, and ultimately, my life. I’m confident that my business would never have had the same growth if it weren’t for the work I did with Sonya.
Let’s work together
explore my services
See the full range of ways I work with founders, teams, and investors.