Description

The world loves to celebrate the hustle, but the psychological toll of entrepreneurship is often left out of the business plan. Small business leaders carry pressure that can be difficult to explain if you have never lived it: financial responsibility, decision fatigue, customer demands, employee needs, personal sacrifice, and the constant pressure to keep going even when you are running on empty.

Join us for Beyond the Hustle: Evidence-Based Wellness for Small Business Leaders, featuring Reverend Dr. Clifford Matthews Jr, MSW, LCSW.

Dr. Clifford Matthews brings a unique combination of clinical, spiritual, community, and leadership experience to this conversation. He is a therapist with Perry Counseling Healing and Recovery, where his work focuses on helping clients live with confidence, authenticity, and hope. He is also the longtime pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, where he has provided spiritual leadership, teaching, community engagement, and partnership-building for more than two decades. His background includes a Master of Social Work from UNC Charlotte, a Doctor of Ministry in Leadership from Duke Divinity School, and executive development through the McColl School of Business at Queens University. 

In this session, Dr. Clifford Matthews will explore the research-backed mental health challenges unique to founders, entrepreneurs, and small business leaders. Attendees will learn how personal history, stress patterns, and ACE scores can impact resilience under the pressures of ownership, and why mental health self-assessment should be viewed as a strategic business necessity, not a personal luxury. This is not about stepping away from ambition. It is about building a more sustainable professional infrastructure around your most valuable business asset: your mind.

Whether you are a small business owner, founder, entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or professional navigating high-pressure leadership, this session will offer practical insight into how wellness, self-awareness, and mental health support can help you lead and build with more clarity, resilience, and sustainability.

What to Expect

•  A research-informed conversation on the mental health realities of entrepreneurship
•  Practical insight into stress, resilience, and founder wellness
•  Discussion around ACE scores and how personal history can shape leadership under pressure
•  Tools for thinking about mental health self-assessment as part of business planning
•  A grounded conversation led by a therapist, pastor, and community leader
•  A more honest conversation about sustainability beyond hustle culture

About Reverend Dr. Clifford Matthews Jr.

Reverend Dr. Clifford Matthews Jr. is a therapist, pastor, and community leader based in the Charlotte metro area. He currently serves as a therapist with Perry Counseling Healing and Recovery, where his work focuses on helping clients identify patterns of thinking that work against the life they want to build and replace deeply rooted negative beliefs with healthier, more life-giving ones. 

He has also served as Pastor of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church since 2000, providing spiritual leadership through preaching, teaching, community engagement, and partnerships. His educational background includes a Doctor of Ministry in Leadership from Duke Divinity School, a Master of Social Work from UNC Charlotte, and executive development through the McColl School of Business at Queens University. 

Dr. Clifford Matthews brings clinical training, pastoral care, leadership development, and community-centered experience to conversations about wellness, resilience, and sustainable leadership.