In this episode we talk with Linus Wennerström, co-founder of Fenix Media Group — one of the leading media sales organisations in the Nordics, working with publishers, apps, podcasts, esports and out-of-home media across Sweden and Norway.
But this episode is not really about media sales.
It’s about what happens when a high-performing sales culture becomes so dopamine-driven that people eventually crash.
Linus shares the very honest story of how Fenix built an organisation fuelled by competition, gamification, performance tracking and constant goal chasing — and how they later realised that several employees were burning out behind the scenes.
Instead of removing ambition or lowering performance expectations, they started rebuilding the culture around long-term sustainability.
We talk about:
→ the dark side of performance-driven cultures
→ dopamine vs serotonin in sales organisations
→ why high performers are often the ones at highest risk
→ how to build guardrails without killing ambition
→ leadership, recovery and mental health in scaling companies
→ creating a culture where people can perform long term — not just short term
One of the most powerful moments in the episode:
“From recurring burnout cases to ‘night and day’" according to Linus.
They didn’t remove performance culture. They rebuilt it for sustainability.
A very honest conversation about growth, pressure, culture and what sustainable performance actually looks like.
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EPISODE CREDITS:
Produced, edited and mixed by Zveki
Segment jingles composed and produced by Niclas Gozzi and Story of You
Additional music licensed through Stim
