Jeff Johnston spent 32 years as a financial advisor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, eventually overseeing more than 800 million dollars in client assets and hosting his own TV and radio investment shows. In October 2016 his life changed when his 23 year old son Seth died of a fentanyl overdose after years battling addiction that began with a teenage Adderall prescription. Jeff and his wife Prudence, already longtime drinkers, spiraled further into alcoholism. Jeff quit drinking in December 2017, but Prudence died of alcoholism in 2021. After his mother's death and a suicidal crisis over Christmas 2024, Jeff underwent a profound shift, aided by psychedelic assisted therapy, moving from a victim mindset to viewing his suffering as purposeful. He now runs Living Undeterred, has written the book This One's for You, and is building Brighten, an app meant to be the nation's first true mental wellness planning tool, named for his granddaughter. He shares his story not for sympathy but to show others recovery and reinvention are possible.
A former 800 million dollar financial advisor on losing his son and wife to addiction, and rebuilding purpose through Brighten.
At a high level, what are you building at Brighten?
Our system only treats mental distress once it's acute, pulling people out of the river instead of asking why they fell in. We went through very hard times as a family, and I didn't want to add more clinical layers. I want to go upstream, understand why people struggle in a time of abundance, and help them find purpose while using AI as an ally, not an enemy.
What first pulled a young Jeff toward money and markets?
I graduated high school in 1984 and saw the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas. Even though it was about greed, it got me excited about Wall Street, so I got a finance degree and started selling life insurance door to door in the late 80s. I had no pitch deck, no internet, just a mindset that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
Jeff, what is your story?
On October 4th, 2016, I was dropping my middle son at a golf tournament when my phone rang and all I heard was wailing and the words Seth is dead. Seth was our 23 year old. I made the choice not to tell my other son right then since it was his tournament. Seth died of a fentanyl overdose after years of addiction that started with Adderall as a teenager.
How did Seth's death and the medication system shape your thinking?
Seth wasn't diseased or disordered, but the system handed him Adderall quickly for attention deficit disorder, and that became a gateway to eight years of addiction. I don't have a problem with medication when it's not the first option. The DSM keeps expanding, everything gets labeled and pathized now, and prescriptions for kids have exploded even though kids haven't fundamentally changed.
What happened with your wife Prudence after Seth's death?
We were both alcoholics long before Seth died, and his death exacerbated it badly. For a year and a half we both drank every day. On December 24th, 2017 I poured out my last glass and never drank again. Unfortunately my sobriety didn't save Prudence. On June 29th, 2021, the day after our youngest turned 18, she died of alcoholism at 46, weighing 88 pounds.
You mentioned a spiritual journey. What did that look like?
Christmas weekend of 2024, after losing my wife and then my mother, I sat in a closet with a loaded gun for three days, deciding whether to live or die. I thought of my surviving sons and my granddaughter Brighton. I came out committing to live, and I shifted from asking why me to why not me, from victim to victor.
How has psychedelic assisted therapy changed you?
I got introduced to psychedelic assisted therapy three years ago, and it changed my life, even though I never smoked pot and was just a drunk. These retreats involve real integration, crying, and care, nothing pretentious. It let me separate from the version of Jeff I always hated and see myself with more compassion, which quieted my ego for the first time.
What is the Brighten thesis, health, wealth, and purpose in the same portfolio?
A financial plan diversifies your money based on your risk and goals to reduce future risk. Mental health has nothing like that, it's just a free for all of putting out fires, gym for one problem, rehab for another. I came from financial planning, so I wanted to build the nation's first mental wellness planning app that actually structures and organizes care proactively.
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