The Modern Man Podcast

He Was Terminated Twice and Filed for Divorce. Sober Since May 5, 2018

Nick Jonsson · July 18, 2026

Executive Coach · Author · TEDX Speaker · Leadership · Wellness · Life Coachin

Interview with Nick Jonsson

He Was Terminated Twice and Filed for Divorce. Sober Since May 5, 2018 — Nick Jonsson

Podcast: The Modern Man Podcast

July 18, 2026 · 57 min

He was terminated twice. He filed for divorce. He gained 60 pounds and drank on the highs AND the lows. Then May 5, 2018, he walked out of an AA meeting and hasn't touched alcohol since.

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He Was Terminated Twice and Filed for Divorce. Sober Since May 5, 2018

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Key topicsPerformance & Biohacking for Business LeadersDrawing from his experience as a top 2% Ironman athlete, Nick shares how leaders can optimize their energy, focus, and recovery through biohacking strategies. He connects physical conditioning, mental clarity, and executive performance, offering practical steps for leaders to sustain peak performance without burnout. Why Success Makes Leaders Lonely-and Why That’s an Organizational RiskIsolation at the top isn’t a character flaw; it’s a leading indicator of burnout, secrecy, and bad decisions that can cascade through a company. Nick Jonsson-ranked the world’s #1 thought leader on Executive Loneliness and author of _Executive Loneliness_-turns a taboo into a leadership imperative. Drawing on lived recovery, global research, and years coaching senior executives, he reframes loneliness as a system problem that demands a system fix. His 5 Steps to Holistic Leadership™-Surrender, Connection, Purpose, Goals, Discipline-give leaders a practical, stigma-free playbook to move from silent strain to sustainable performance. Nick’s approach is disarmingly candid and deeply actionable: how to build psychologically safe peer forums, measure connection like any other KPI, and replace performative toughness with habits that boost engagement, retention, and decision quality. It’s the conversation leaders avoid-delivered by someone who’s been there, and knows how to get them out. Why discipline and surrender matter more than hustleWe’ve been told that hustling harder is the key to a better life - but for many, it only leads to exhaustion, anxiety, or unhealthy coping habits. Nick learned this firsthand when chasing success left him burnt out and disconnected. What turned things around wasn’t more pushing, but two practices most people overlook: surrender and discipline. Surrender means letting go of the habits or patterns that keep you stuck, and discipline means building small, steady routines that bring you back to health and clarity. Drawing from his own journey of recovery, Nick shows why these two forces matter far more than hustle if you want lasting energy, connection, and wellbeing. View all topics →

About Nick Jonsson

#1 Global Thought Leader on Executive Loneliness, International Bestselling Author and TEDx Speaker

900+ EGN Southeast Asia membersTop 2% Ironman athletes worldwide1,000+ Recovery meetings attended & supported#28 worldwide Global Gurus Top 30 Coaching Professionals

Nick Jonsson is widely recognized as the world's leading authority on Executive Loneliness. His pioneering work has earned him a dedicated Executive Loneliness Wikipedia page and international recognition, establishing him as one of the world's most respected voices on leadership, vulnerability, mental wellbeing, and authentic connection.

Ranked #28 in the world among the Global Gurus Top 30 Coaching Professionals, Nick is a TEDx speaker, international bestselling author of Executive Loneliness, Professional Certified Coach (PCC), Certified Master Coach (CMC), qualified Counsellor and Psychotherapist, facilitator, and certified Team Psychological Safety practitioner.

For more than two decades, Nick held senior international leadership roles, leading businesses and high-performing teams across Asia. From the outside, his career reflected success. Privately, however, he struggled with burnout, alcohol addiction, and overwhelming loneliness - experiences that ultimately became the turning point of his life.

Rather than allowing those challenges to define him, Nick rebuilt his life through recovery, vulnerability, discipline, and purpose. Today, every keynote, workshop, coaching engagement, and counselling conversation is grounded in both professional expertise and lived experience.

Nick works globally with executives, leadership teams, founders, and organizations through keynote speaking, executive coaching, counselling and psychotherapy, leadership facilitation, and Team Psychological Safety training.

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About this episode

Nick Jonssonis a licensed specialized counselor, best-selling author of Executive Loneliness (the book coined a term that now has its own dedicated Wikipedia page), leads one of Asia's largest networks of senior executives, is a TEDx speaker on sleep, and an Ironman triathlete who splits time between Sweden and Asia. He's also the father of a 17-year-old son and a working husband.

In this conversation, Nick and Ted go deep on the drift that destroys high-performing men — the anxious-overachiever wound that made them successful in the first place, the 68% of executives who have nobody to confide in (per Harvard Business Review), the corporate stigma that keeps men silent even when they know better, the KLM Tenerife disaster that shows what fear of speaking up actually costs, and Nick's 5-Step framework from Executive Loneliness for the man ready to come back.

Plus the through-line Nick applies to triathlon, executive coaching, marriage, sleep, and time — the "principles that work in this work in all areas of life" reframe that turned a mediocre triathlete into an Ironman PR-setter and a man 60 pounds lighter with 30 years of marriage ahead of him.

If you're a high-performing man between 25 and 55 with more contacts than you have people to actually call — this one's for you.

Key insights from this episode:

The anxious-overachiever wound that made you successful (and why healing it doesn't kill your edge)

Why 68% of senior executives have nobody to confide in — and why 84% won't even tell HR

Multiple purposes, not one — the "keep steady in the middle" reframe from 12-step recovery

The KLM Tenerife disaster — what fear of speaking up actually costs

Nick's 5-Step framework from Executive Loneliness

Take Stock. Who Can You Talk To. Get Healthy. (Plus what comes next.)

Sober since May 5, 2018 — the exposure sequence that changed everything

Sleep half an hour more, break your Ironman PR (Nick's TEDx origin)

Removing the TV from the bedroom — and other things Nick surrendered

Own your shit — Nick's final answer, the biggest transformation of his life

Chapters:

00:00 The confession — terminated twice, 60 pounds, drinking on emotions

01:00 Welcome brother — Ted's intro

01:26 What keeps high-performing men isolated?

02:06 The anxious-overachiever wound

03:04 The wound that made you successful (and the fear of healing it)

05:44 Multiple purposes vs. one why

07:20 Keep steady in the middle

08:35 The Harvard 68% stat

09:58 Nick's own survey (30% / 75% / 84%)

11:00 If you break a leg you see a doctor. If you break your emotions, you hide.

11:43 Therapy as maintenance, not crisis

13:21 Stigma, the corporate ladder, and resilience

15:22 Real-world consequences of vulnerability

18:10 The KLM Tenerife disaster

20:19 Chernobyl, night shift, and mistakes made from silence

22:13 Step 1 — Take Stock

23:31 Step 2 — Who Can You Talk To

25:19 The May 5, 2018 exposure sequence (wife, doctor, friend)

27:00 The tribe found — the urge lifted

27:49 The primal fear of rejection 29:14 The three people you'd call at 2 a.m.

30:30 Build safe spaces in the good times

31:32 Being discerning with who you offload to

32:56 The through-line — from recovery to triathlon

34:23 Applying the same principles to everything

35:00 Signing up for a triathlon tribe (coach, cycling club, swim academy, running club)

36:14 The sleep experiment — 30 days of half an hour more

37:00 The TEDx that came from sleeping more

37:34 Ted on the sleep struggle

39:48 Discipline, accountability, and "just keep going"

41:19 The Ironman as a mini-life

41:50 Ted on Hyrox

44:06 How Nick manages time (paid to remove the bedroom TV)

44:45 Say a lot of no. Hit many birds with one stone.

45:30 Cycling with his 17-year-old son

47:09 Where to find Nick and Executive Loneliness

48:36 Own your shit — the biggest transformation

49:53 Outro and Ted's recap

🤝 Connect with Nick Jonsson:

Website: www.nickjonsson.com

Facebook: @jonhannah.berryhill3

Instagram: @jonssonnick

LinkedIn: @nick-jonsson

YouTube: @NickJonsson

Book: Executive Loneliness — Amazon (Kindle, paperback, Audible):

https://www.amazon.com/Executive-Loneliness-Overcoming-Isolation-Depression-ebook/dp/B091B1Y3WZ

Wikipedia page: Executive Loneliness (dedicated page on the term Nick coined): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Loneliness

TEDx: "Nick Jonsson sleep on TEDx"

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Guest: Nick Jonsson