Hello world!
January 7, 2022What began as a spontaneous, emotional talk on stage at Edge Indy, 2024, became the spark that ignited a movement. In that moment of truth-telling, Jon Bailey (Precision Proco) said what many had been thinking: we need to be more human with each other. We need to be more honest.
Within weeks, David Rosendahl (MindFire), Jessica DeCola (GPA), and Chris Minn (Digital Ink), and Jon Bailey gathered to launch She*t for Brains — a raw, unfiltered initiative focused on mental health and emotional well-being in the printing industry. Together, they committed to creating a safe space for professionals to share struggles, lean on each other, and normalize the hard conversations.
“It’s not about having the answers,” says DeCola. “It’s about making sure no one feels like they have to figure it out alone.”
In the year since, She*t for Brains has hosted a series of powerful virtual sessions featuring experts like Glenn Packiam, Chris Barez-Brown, and the industry’s very own, Brian Scott, his wife, Amy, and daughter, Becca, tackling topics from burnout and resilience to leadership, work-life balance, and learning how to manage through trauma and adversity. The sessions were unscripted. Honest. Necessary.
But everything changed at Dscoop Edge Long Beach, where She*t for Brains held its first in-person session, “Printing Hope: Fighting for the Soul of the Next Generation.” It was raw. It was real. And it confirmed what the team suspected all along: we underestimated how much this industry needed a platform like this. What began as a conversation among four colleagues has become a community rooted in authenticity, empathy, and shared humanity.
Following the Long Beach session, the co-founders held a debrief and agreed — with more clarity than ever — that this initiative can’t stop now. “We’ve opened Pandora’s Box, and there’s no going back,” says Minn.
“This is self-help for us, too,” Bailey shared. “Some years I’ve walked through industry events feeling like I was on top of the world. Other years, I felt like I was just barely holding it together. And I know I’m not the only one. She*t for Brains is about saying that out loud. And building something better because of it.”
“The conversations that have started are only the beginning. If the first year has shown us anything, it’s this: there’s still so much more to say — and so much work to be done,” says the group collectively.
So here’s our ask: What are you willing to do to help move this forward? This is a movement that will take all of us.
Join the She*t for Brains LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14521336/
Follow the She*t for Brains LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/107420930/admin/page-posts/published/
Reach out to one of our co-founders:
Jessica DeCola, Chris Minn, Dave Rosendahl, or Jon Bailey
Stay tuned. Share your story. Show up — for yourself and for someone else who needs it. This isn’t about branding. This isn’t about being polished or perfect. It’s about being present. Being vulnerable. Being real. Because we all have sh*t for brains sometimes. And we’re better when we face it together.
