Mental Health First Aid and the Power of Being Prepared for Difficult Conversations with Sara Stowe

CONNECT WITH JESSI ON LINKEDIN >>> HERE!The hardest workplace conversations rarely go well by accident.They go well because leaders have built trust, created clarity, and learned how to handle human moments before the crisis arrives.In this episode of At Work, Under Pressure, Jessi Beyer sits down with Sara Stowe of True Terpenes to talk about psychological safety, difficult conversations, performance feedback, leadership development, mental health first aid, and what it means to support employees without pretending HR is therapy.Sara shares how her background in theater shaped the way she reads subtext, looks for truth beneath the surface, and approaches people challenges with empathy and curiosity. She also reflects on how mental health first aid training prepared her to respond when an employee experienced a serious and highly visible workplace crisis.In this episode, Jessi and Sara discuss:How theater training translates into empathy, truth-seeking, and better HR judgmentWhy termination should never be framed too casually as a “gift”How weekly one-on-ones create the foundation for hard conversationsWhy specific, observable feedback is more useful than vague criticismHow neuroscience, psychological safety, and collaboration improve performance discussionsWhat mental health first aid gave Sara when a real workplace crisis occurredWhy mental health support affects retention, safety, trust, and the bottom lineThis episode is for HR leaders, managers, executives, and anyone responsible for giving feedback, navigating employee crises, or creating a workplace where people feel safe enough to speak up.Because psychological safety is not built in the five minutes before a difficult conversation.It is built in everything that happens before it.CONNECT WITH SARALinkedInTrue Terpenes