Jeff Riseley's journey from high-pressure sales to mental health advocate is a compelling story of personal transformation and industry innovation. After graduating from McGill University, he entered the sales world in a classic boiler room environment, where he faced intense quotas of 200 daily calls. Despite outward success, he struggled privately with anxiety, insomnia, and panic attacks.
Rather than accepting medication as the only solution, Riseley began exploring ways to manage the pressures of his sales career through mental health and mindset techniques. His personal journey took a dramatic turn in July 2018 when, just three days after launching his first sales consulting website, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. This life-altering experience crystallized his understanding of how mental health strategies could be applied to both personal crises and professional challenges.
Through Sales Health Alliance, founded six and a half years ago, Jeff has transformed his experience into a comprehensive approach to sales team wellness. He's trained over 10,000 sellers at major companies like Shopify, DoorDash, and Dell, promoting the concept of salespeople as "corporate athletes" who need proper mental and physical preparation to perform consistently.
His methodology has evolved from one-off speaking engagements to a more sustainable approach. This includes his book "Stress Less, Sell More," which provides 220 daily discussion topics, and Project Mamba, featuring 80 micro-learning modules and a community of over 300 sellers. He conducts mental performance assessments to identify core needs and works with leadership teams to implement solutions.
Riseley's approach challenges traditional fear-based management techniques, arguing they're outdated relics from industrial-era thinking. Instead, he advocates for psychological safety and department-specific wellness strategies. He criticizes generic corporate wellness programs, emphasizing the need for context-specific solutions that address the unique stressors each department faces.
His work represents a shift in how organizations approach sales team wellness, moving from sporadic wellness initiatives to integrated, ongoing support systems. Through his community-based approach and micro-learning programs, Jeff is helping to reshape sales culture, proving that mental wellness and high performance aren't mutually exclusive but rather complementary aspects of successful sales operations.
