Welcome to the Straight-Line Podcast. Today, Kristof Cuppens and Mandy & Johan van der Put take you on a raw and honest conversation about stress in leadership. Not the popular self-help version, but the reality that entrepreneurs face every day.
Research shows that 45% of entrepreneurs have considered closing their business due to mental pressure. 91% don’t make it past the first ten years. Financial worries are the number one cause of stress in business. But stress itself isn’t the problem. How you deal with it determines whether it wears you down or makes you stronger.
We’ll debunk the lies entrepreneurs tell themselves to avoid stress and confront what really works. In your business, where do you let fear, excuses, and procrastination get in the way? When will you finally face up to what you’ve known all along you need to do?
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Other episodes
When Everything Is Taken Away From You: Skull Fracture, Recovery, & Leadership Under Pressure
In October 2025, Mandy van der Put fell in her barn. This resulted in a skull fracture, a serious brain injury, a hospital stay, and months of recovery. But today, she’s back to her old self. In this episode, Johan and Mandy candidly share what really happens when everything is taken away from you all at once. When your body no longer functions, and you have to hand over your position as leader of the organization you built entirely on your own to someone else.
You're putting it off. You just call it something else. | Straight-Line Podcast Highlights
Procrastination is rarely called “procrastination.” We call it waiting for the right moment. We call it “I’m worried.” We call it “I need to understand it first.” In this episode of the Straight-Line Podcast, Kristof and Johan peel back four of those masks and show that “now” isn’t a spot on the calendar, but a mindset.