From Wall Street Burnout to Mental Freedom: Evan Marks’ Journey Through Panic and Purpose

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At 46, I'm in a car, greg going to the train station, and all of a sudden, my head starts to swag.

I think I'm having a heart attack.

I got taken to the ER, and it was actually a massive panic attack.

It was just the years of chronic stress.

I didn't want to be a traitor.

And luckily, I did well, but I hated every moment of it.

I had an identity crisis.

I was in more pain than anybody knew.

And this lasted 15 years, I suffered from fear of regret.

I remember looking at my wife saying, This feels like spiritual suicide.

I said, I got to get out of this.

I know so many people are going through this.

I saw a neurologist, and he says, You have to retire.

I didn't know what to do.

I went back to school at 46 years old to study psychological theory and neuroscience.

But when I think about your podcast, you are providing such a great roadmap to a game of possibilities.

Hey guys, and welcome back to the Labo Podcast.

This is Paul Alex and today we have a phenomenal guest.

He goes by the name of Evan Marks, guys.

So he's a seasoned mental performance coach with over 25 years of experience.

Guess what?

On Wall Street.

That's right, guys.

Evan has worked with a remarkable range of people from athletes, CEOs, to NASCAR pit crews, guys, helping them harness focus, managing stress, and perform at their peak.

So this is going to be a good one because you guys know how I am about mindset and stress, okay?

So, Evan, welcome to the show, brother.

Paul, thanks for having me, brother.

We had a nice conversation before we went live, and unfortunately, I'm on a time crunch.

But, man, what a great story you have.

Man, it's really, it's really admirable of what you, what you've accomplished, the lives you've impacted.

It's a pleasure to be here.

No, I appreciate you, man.

So let's get to know you, dude, because this show, this interview is about you, Evan Marks.

So what is it that you do now?

Yeah, you're a mental performance coach, but how would you describe your mission as a mental performance coach?

You know, it's a great question.

So,

and it's a very simple message.

I create strong mental foundations for people in order to leverage them.

Right.

So for me, it's, you know, performance is a very simple equation.

Performance equals potential minus interferences.

So once I better understand interferences and start to create new behaviors, we start to build really strong mental foundations.

And from there, what are the possibilities?

And that's leverage.

Yeah.

You know, how long does that take?

I can't tell, right?

Because you always have to know where people start from, where are they coming from, what was their programming early on?

So sometimes we have to do a little rewiring in the face of any emotion to create new behavior, which creates a new experience in the brain, which is obviously then circuitry.

So through the art of repetition, you know, I hear you talk about clarity, but we use a lot of intentionality also.

You know, clarity, intentionality are a dynamic duo.

So

with that repetition, that reminder, that consistency.

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Anything's possible.

Oh, yeah.

Right.

It's real dedication and commitment to, you know, to really really build this strong mental foundation.

Oh, absolutely.

And it's also life lessons, experiences.

Absolutely.

The roads that we go to.

Life is not linear.

No, it's not, man.

Right.

But, you know, you learn a lot in struggle, but also you learn a lot in success.

Yes.

Right.

So both sides of that paradigm are important to learn, you know, and I always tell people my job is to bring the unconscious conscious.

And then through repetition, we become unconsciously conscious, which means almost flow.

So, when you do that, that means behaviors are changing, right?

That's really habit formation.

Yeah.

So, that is what we do, whether you're a professional athlete, C-suite executive, founder, obviously, Wall Street professional, which I did for 25 years.

We know now that mental health is so important.

Yeah.

And

actually,

asking for help is a strength.

And not asking for help and dismissing how we feel, what our emotions are, is actually a weakness.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And I think a lot of overachievers know that now, which is a wonderful thing.

No, it is, especially with how open it is on social media.

People are able to talk about, you know, how it really is behind the scenes, right?

Of being an entrepreneur or a high performer, right?

So I'm a big believer in asking for help.

I'm a big believer in going ahead.

Hey, man, it's being real, man.

You have to be.

You have to let it out.

Listen, the internals lead the externals.

Yeah.

Right.

You can get away with it for a little bit, but if you really want to create a strong mental foundation and leverage the piss out of it, you really have to look under the hood and see where my interference is.

What am I resisting?

Where do I need help with?

Right.

Because then you're limitless.

Then, you know, then the world of curiosity starts to take form.

Yeah.

Of

what am I capable of doing?

Right.

And that doesn't, you know, and it's interesting, Paul, it doesn't have to be this Herculean moment.

These small, little, subtle changes,

these moments of small compounding effects.

You know, what's interesting is that, you know, we talk about time.

The only way to use time to your advantage is when you stack days, weeks, and months.

Because all of a sudden you look back six months from now, you're like, how did this happen?

And that's using time to its advantage.

Unfortunately, there's another side to it.

Then, when you don't change, you know, Pat Riley used to say something since we're in Brickland, I might as well throw some Miami out here.

If you're not getting better, you're getting worse.

That's an old Pat Riley line, and it's so true.

Yeah.

So, how do we make these changes?

You know, you talk a lot about clarity and vision and goals, and

it's step by step.

You know, at M1, we always talk about you have to go, you have to slow down in order to speed up.

But slowing down is just the, it's got nothing to do with gas.

It's got all to do with intentionality.

Once you start to get things right, watch what happens.

It's like that hockey stick effect.

It's just, you know, it's important.

Yeah, it is, man.

So

before you were helping top top performers and high-level individuals with their mental clarity and their performance,

how was life like for you before you became a coach, man?

So I went to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

I was a D1 lacrosse player.

Unfortunately, I blew my knees out not once, but twice.

And I thought I was okay, but I was a student athlete.

And I actually had an identical twin brother who went to Penn with me.

Oh, wow.

And we grew up single mother.

It was my brother and I, an older brother was handicapped.

Unfortunately, my father wasn't around.

He ended up homeless and addicted to crack.

So we kind of, you know, we're working at 12 years old.

We didn't know much.

So there we go to University of Pennsylvania.

We had no idea was an incubator for Wall Street.

We should have known that since Wharton School of Business is there.

And my brother got a job afterwards at a hedge fund.

I didn't even know what that was.

And I was going to go become a consultant, which didn't fit my personality.

And I ended up on Wall Street.

Yeah.

And I did it for 25 years.

And

unfortunately, I was pretty good at it, but I never liked it.

So I lived in the city for almost 20, 25 years.

I moved out to the Burgers with my two young daughters and wife.

And at 46, I'm in a car going to the train station, talking to my assistant.

And all of a sudden, my head starts to sweat.

And I can't see my phone.

I think I'm having a heart attack.

Now, I've already had two reconstructive knee surgeries.

I have a new shoulder put in already.

So I'm not an alarmist, but something was wrong.

So I get back to my house.

I'm walking up my driveway like I had 27 martinis.

And I got taken to the ER.

Wow.

And it was actually a massive panic attack.

Top of my game.

On paper, everything looks great.

But it was just the years of chronic stress and multiple concussions.

And I saw a neurologist and he says, the gray matter in your brain is significantly impaired.

He goes, you have a decision to make.

I said, excuse me.

He goes, you have to retire.

Why don't you become a coach or a teacher?

I said, a what?

I said, I just bought a house.

I got two young daughters.

I got all these investments.

I go, I don't have time to be a coach or a teacher.

He goes, well, you better think about it.

And luckily, my wife was there.

Right.

And I was very fortunate to have coaches along the way.

And one of these coaches asked me to come join her.

So I took a 98% haircut, probably 99.

I went back to school at 46 years old to study psychoanalysis theory and neuroscience.

And six months later,

I'm working with Jimmy Johnson's pick routines at Hendrick Motorsports.

And that's how it started eight and a half years ago.

Wow.

Right.

But I knew, so it's so interesting, Paul, is that when I blew my knees out in college, I was a student athlete

and I had an identity crisis.

I was in more pain than anybody knew.

I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know how to handle it.

I didn't know what it had turned to.

And this lasted 15 years

that I had to prove to people how good I was.

I didn't want to be a traitor.

And luckily I did well, but I hated every moment of it.

Wow.

And the last 10 years, I remember looking at my wife saying, this feels like spiritual suicide.

Yeah.

I said, I got to get out of this.

But all of a sudden, you had to deal with responsibilities.

Yeah.

And I know so many people going through this.

And like I told you before we started this podcast, we talk about, you know, my job is to understand emotions and emotional patterns, to assign new behaviors, which creates new experiences.

But when we talk about fear, we talk about fear of rejection,

judgment, embarrassment,

whatever, fear of loss, whatever it may be.

But I think I suffer from fear of regret.

Like, I knew I didn't want to live this life.

But I kept living it.

So when I think about your podcast,

it's really the, you are providing such a great roadmap for the game of possibilities.

Absolutely.

And by the way, you may not be right

when the game of best decisions, but you'll never know

if you don't take the risk.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Life, life, life is all.

My story.

No, and that's a wonderful story, man.

There's so many things I want to touch upon.

I mean, I think for a lot of people listening, you know, this is a self-help podcast and entrepreneurship, but a lot of people, they're trying to take the first step, man.

They're trying to take the first step and, you know, taking extreme ownership of their life by making a conscious decision to go ahead and actually execute on an idea that might work out for them in the future.

But for a lot of people, they can't get over that idea of

actually doing it.

So you being a mental performance coach, what do you say to somebody who is battling self-destruction every day?

And they were exactly where you were at in Wall Street for several years.

and guess what

because they were prideful

so what do you have to tell them so you know something something's called self-exploratory questions so right so I'm doing this interview with you and you're asking me questions so you're obviously in the seat of influence but self-exploratory questions when we ask ourselves questions puts us in the seat of influence for ourselves which is really a great state of consciousness So as you're taking a walk, as you're listening to this, start asking yourself questions.

What is it I want out of life?

What do I think is holding me back?

What am I really trying to accomplish?

You don't have to answer them, but these questions do, they start to stimulate your unconscious because there's a lot of reasons we do what we do, and sometimes we don't know why.

But to break it down even better than that.

Change, we all need to change certain things.

And like I said earlier, it doesn't have to be Herculean, but you got to start being able to trust yourself.

So how do you start trusting yourself?

Go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, take a cold shower,

work out, exercise, these little changes, even though we're not talking about business yet, you start to trust yourself that you are intentional with what you want to do.

These are core things.

You don't have to read 900 self-help books to understand this.

The first self-help book is the same as the 900th one.

These are core tenets that can really change the way you feel and respect yourself.

And then, when we talk about business, you start to trust yourself.

But we know business doesn't happen overnight and nor does change.

So, once you start to get in this thing, mentally, you start to really believe that you say something and you will do it.

People don't think about that sometimes.

Like, what does sleep have to do with it?

It's really trusting yourself that you'll do what you'll say you'll do.

Watch,

right?

You start to build that trust.

And then when we talk about doing something that's outside of your comfort zone, whether it's business, whether you have a nine to five job and you want to do a side hustle or you want to start a business, right?

You start to really trust yourself.

You start to really understand how you think, which is metacognition.

And you also have the ability

to know that you're able to take risk because you trust yourself.

Yeah.

Right.

People think they have to do something so big.

I just gave you four things, and they're free.

Free.

Watch what happens.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Small wins, man.

Small wins will allow you to go ahead and win the game.

They add up.

Watch, you know, we always talk about money compounding.

Watch when behavior compounds.

Absolutely.

You will be blown away.

Get 1% better a day.

It's cliche, but it's true.

the most

things that sound so cliche brother are so true in life you know i think half my life is a cliche now but i agree with you yeah no absolutely trust me so

let me ask you okay

what's your vision for yourself personally and professionally now that you're doing something that you actually feel fulfilled helping other people what where do you see yourself your vision for yourself personally professionally in the next five to 10 years?

You know, it's

so I started M1 Performance Group about a year and a half ago after being with a group for quite a long time and learning a lot.

And I had no social media exposure, never been on a podcast.

I didn't have to.

I was on the hedge fund world.

I didn't need to be involved in any of this.

So at 53, well, 51, it was a learning lesson.

You know, I do a lot of one-on-one coaching, which was important to me.

I think one-on-one creates impact.

And I do group coaching.

but I've realized now how important mental health is and mental performance is.

Like

it's everybody needs this.

I think it's paramount.

So

my big word that I think of a lot is impact.

So as M1 expands and we have our clients, and you know, clients don't last six months at M1, they last five years.

Right.

What we do is we build new levels of mental performance and we keep leveraging it.

But, you know, for us, we want to have some more significant impact.

So, podcasts, more stage work, really letting the message out that what we're talking about on the mental performance side, anybody can do.

This isn't meant for the multi-millionaires and billionaires.

Anybody can start.

And that's very important to me.

You know, and when you talk about these programs and do stuff like anybody can do this stuff,

Like, not everybody was born on home plate.

Correct.

A lot of guys I know started with nothing.

And they have so much, they had their backgrounds are so diverse that, like,

you know, it's interesting.

I'm not discounting that people were victims in life.

I am saying that you have a choice if you want to be in victimhood.

That's the truth.

Right?

You may have not been the problem, but when you're in victimhood, you are the problem now.

So the question is:

if you're the problem, then you have an opportunity to be the solution.

That's anybody.

And that's true.

Is it easy?

No.

Does it get easier?

Yes.

Does it take courage to start a journey like this?

Absolutely.

Is it linear?

Absolutely not.

That's why, you know, and I heard one of your positives, if If I can just go a couple seconds longer,

we're going to go back to a cliche.

It's the company you keep.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yep.

What's your environment look like?

And if you don't have the right one, go find one.

How do you find one?

Listen, you know, I think social media has its pros and cons and

you may not get it right first time, but go out there.

Go see, you know, go to events, go to meetings, go to networking things.

I don't know, right?

If you admire somebody, send them a note.

You know, like, do like a Jesse Itzler move where you send them a handwritten note.

I don't know, do 50 of those.

I don't know.

Do something.

I can tell you one thing.

You will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Doing an imperfect action is better than doing no action.

Amen.

And at the end of the day, what else do you have to lose?

You're going to be stuck in your same situation anyways by taking inaction.

That is the golden rule, isn't it?

It's true.

Nothing changes if nothing changes.

So

let me ask you, in your view, what makes someone mentally resilient?

and high performing regardless of their field because you were a high performer in Wall Street.

So how were you able to stay resilient, mentally resilient and high performing, even though you didn't enjoy what you did for years?

Well, you know, it's interesting.

I wasn't that resilient then,

right?

Because I had to leave.

So I didn't take care of myself the way I should have.

I didn't express what was going on.

I didn't have an outlet to share my emotions.

So in a way,

I might have looked resilient, but inside it wasn't as it seemed.

So the real question is, how do you build resilience?

Obviously, we know when you see the goggins of the world and stuff like that, you got to do hard things.

But resilience also comes from sharing how you feel.

Because what happens is when we dismiss how we feel, the pain we're in, whatever it may be, and we push it aside,

it comes back, but it doesn't come back onefold.

It comes back fivefold.

It shows up in behavior when it's most unexpected, or it seeps into things in your life.

Resilience definitely is doing hard things and taking risks, and you can feel the nervous, feel the emotions.

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but when you can't express them

it doesn't stimulate the resilience you want

That's important.

Like, you know, I've done triathlons.

I've been a D1 athlete.

I put myself in a lot of precarious situations money-wise and and trading and investing

but i was scared half time but you have to let people know right you don't maybe don't have to tell everybody but you need a trusted ally to express how you feel you know as a coach

oftentimes we talk you know i hear things that nobody else knows right there's got to be an outlet right that doesn't diminish resilience

i think it leverages it

so when i think of my own experience i wish i had the courage

to share yeah yeah yeah it's and that's the truth you know when people see me they i'm like that's not the whole story yeah yeah and maybe that's why i do what i do now no like yeah you know it seems like you're you're paying it forward man you know you got into this field because

of fulfillment, helping other people so they don't have to relive the situation that you did, you know, not being able to ask for help, not being open-minded about it.

I mean, maybe myself, I came from an industry in law enforcement where, dude,

you're a part of a good old boys club.

Absolutely.

Everybody holds their feelings in.

Everybody's macho, testosterone is in the air, man.

And no one wants to talk about how they feel.

But then also,

within first responders, there's a high suicide rate because of that.

Right.

And that's behind the scenes.

That's not shown in the media, man.

But there's a lot of officers out there struggling, you know?

And

my advice to you guys is ask for help.

You know, it doesn't make you guys weaker.

It makes you stronger.

It makes you stronger.

You know, you know, it's interesting.

There's this whole, you know, we know what material wealth is, you know, cars, houses.

But ever since COVID, or maybe before, maybe it was Simone Biles, all these things, there's a holistic wealth movement happening.

And that holistic wealth movement is quality of life.

Yeah.

is, I don't know what happiness is, but I know what joy feels like.

Accomplishing things.

It's really shifted in

not, you know,

comparing or envy and stuff like that.

I think we're starting to see things differently.

Oh, yeah.

And having these sort of conversations is so important.

They should be modeled.

And people should know that there are people out there who are willing to listen.

And it's a sign of strength.

I want to once again emphasize that.

And by the way, as Nick Sabin says, who I think is an incredible coach, we all have this massive capability gap.

Be curious to see what that looks like.

And by the way, it's not linear.

We get knocked in the head a couple times, but we learn a little bit.

And that goes back to resilience.

Take risks, but make sure they're not reactive risks, but they're responding and thought through.

Right?

We're in the game of best decisions.

Only time tells us if we're right.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So

what would you say

is one piece of advice you would give to our listeners that's listening to this episode right now for boosting their mental health starting today?

One of the simple things, and I know it's been around for a while, is pen to paper, journal a bit.

But like, now, when I say journal,

Be consistent, right?

Consistency with evidence builds confidence, right?

You can't tweak inconsistency.

You don't only journal when things are bad.

You have to journal when things are good.

Pen to paper, brain dump.

Get it into that sort of rhythm.

And it's very simple.

This is what you write down.

This is called feed-forward thinking.

What did I do well today?

I don't care if you woke up early and it's the only thing you did well.

What do I need?

What do I want to get better at?

Right?

Not,

I want to put down the Snickers.

I want to get better at eating more fruit.

This is not positive psychology.

This is just feed forward.

Like, I'm not a very big positive psychology guy.

I'm a big positive attitude person.

So the way we

reframe things really affects our narrative.

So my recommendation to everybody, I did this well today.

I want to get better at this.

So now we know, I don't want to go back to the cliches, but the energy flows to some garbage like that.

We start to think differently.

So now we talk about sleep, nutrition, exercise, you know, mindfulness, right?

Breath work.

Put these into your daily routines and be consistent.

Do it for a week.

And now add a little journaling to do some brain dumping before you go to bed.

Send Paul a text on the cast and tell me what you think, right?

Do that two weeks in a row.

Now we're talking how time plays into this.

Do it for a month.

There's certain guarantees.

If you drink a lot, you're going to feel like shit in the morning.

That's a guarantee.

If you do this, you're going to see change.

Yeah.

Just by taking the action, guys.

Just by taking the action.

I love it.

I love it, Evan.

And Evan, you got to come on a second podcast, dude.

I know you're running out of time here, but where can my audience find you, dude?

I'm on social media at EMARC72 on Instagram.

On LinkedIn, I'm Evan Marks.

We have a website, m1performancegroup.com.

We have a lot of podcasts on there, some great videos, some great written blogs and content about performance.

And my team's done a very good job on it.

So I'm pretty proud of it.

And then you guys cater

to almost everybody in every niche or specifically a certain group.

We cater to high performers.

in decision-making roles.

Love it.

Pressure is a privilege to us.

Yes.

It's a responsibility.

And those are the people we cater to.

Yes.

Love it.

Love it.

There you guys have it.

Evan Marks, mental performance coach.

Guys, leave a five-star review on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube.

Thank you for making us top eight in all categories across the board in the United States right now, guys.

We are doing this for you guys and for your guys.

Mental health is a self-help.

Amen.

Amen.

That's what it's about.

You got to get your mindset right.

before you go ahead and handle business is what I always like to say, guys.

With that being said, I'm Paul Alex.

This is the level up.

We'll catch you on the next one.