The “most stressed” wellness CEO, with Calm’s David Ko

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**David Ko** (1:33)
People will ask me at times like, what is it like to be the CEO of Com? Do you meditate all day? And I tell them, honestly, no, I am the most stressed out CEO you will ever meet. And the reason I say that is because every second of every day, someone is turning to us for help.

**Bob Safian** (2:03)
That's David Ko of mental health and wellness app, Calm, who just announced he's stepping down as CEO. Today, David talks with me about this moment of transition, the mental health burdens of the workplace, and how to tell the difference between stress that builds you up and stress that burns you out. It's a surprisingly upbeat conversation about some serious stuff, and there's a lot to learn and apply, so let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.
I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with David Ko, who has run mental health and wellness platform, Calm, as CEO since 2022 David, thanks for joining us.

**David Ko** (2:51)
Bob, thanks for having me. We're looking forward to today's discussion.

**Bob Safian** (2:55)
So the big news here, you've just announced that you've stepped down as CEO. You're becoming a senior advisor to the board. I have to say, I was surprised by this turn of events. How did this come about?

**David Ko** (3:09)
I'm glad we're starting off with this.

**Bob Safian** (3:13)
Go right at the elephant in the room.

**David Ko** (3:15)
Yeah, Bob, thank you for the question. And I had made the decision to leave really because as I took a step back, I saw that Comm is a brand today that, for those of you who don't know, we've had over 180 million downloads of the product and growing in over 190 countries and seven different languages. And we've really made strides in health outcomes. That's where we're going with Comm Health. But at the same time, I'll tell you, Bob, what's really become abundantly clear for myself is that we're in the midst of something that is so much bigger. And it's so much bigger because what we're finding is everything is so much more interconnected than it was before. And what I mean by that is there's a reliance on employers, payers, providers, apps like ourselves, other apps that are being developed at lightning speeds with AI and real policy both at the federal and state level. So it's really not just about one individual, one company. It's really more about how do you create more of a movement. And for myself, I just felt it was the right time to take a step back, zoom out, and really see if I could impact things at a larger scale. Now, I don't have all the answers on how I'm going to do it, because you're hitting me literally right after. But I feel, on a personal note, just more interconnected to comms and comms mission than ever before. I just wanted to try to do it at a scale that I think can really kind of move this forward on a global basis.

**Bob Safian** (4:49)
I mean, comms business, as well as your book and your podcast called Recharge, they focus a lot on managing stress. And I'm curious how your stress is with this change or in the convernacular. Like, how's your battery?

**David Ko** (5:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I got to tell you, my battery today is it's great because I was, you know, when I think about my own battery, like my phone battery, I would tell you, I feel fully charged. And I'm not just saying that. I got a good night's sleep last night. And and for me, I always feel like the day starts well when it's not about the quantity of sleep. I don't know if this is for you, Bob, but really the quality of sleep I got. And I've really focused on that for me. It's been a non-negotiable.