Turning Suffering Into Purpose - Keegan O'Connor
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Episode Description
On this episode of the On The Rise Podcast's Faith Driven Leaders series, host Nick Stromwall talks with Keegan O'Connor, co-founder and CEO of Chill Shark, a wellness-tech company building portable cold-plunge chiller systems. Keegan shares how cold water immersion helped regulate his nervous system after a PTSD treatment program, why he funded the first clinical research on cold water immersion for PTSD, and how the company uses luxury hospitality to fund a mission of helping veterans. He also opens up about walking away from his faith, being drawn back by his brother's peace, and learning to surrender his business to God. A candid conversation on pain, purpose, and building with integrity. (Note: discusses PTSD, trauma, and veteran suicide.)
Summary
Chill Shark was built to solve his own problem.
Keegan wanted a cold plunge in his apartment, tried the products on the market, and found none removed the friction he needed. That gap — plus a deep belief in cold water immersion's benefits — became the company about two and a half years ago.
Cold water immersion helped regulate his nervous system.
After a 45-day PTSD inpatient program, Keegan found that a morning cold plunge was the one thing that consistently regulated his nervous system — something the program itself hadn't offered.
"I'm the research."
When military trainers and clinics asked for evidence, Keegan discovered there was no clinical research on cold water immersion for PTSD. So he built a medical advisory board and funded a first study on 33 veterans that showed reduced PTSD symptoms, inflammation, and cortisol across every participant.
Consistency drives the benefits.
The "cold shock response" releases feel-good chemicals once you feel the shiver, and Keegan says he needs only about 90 seconds at 50°F. The real payoff comes from doing it consistently — after about ten days the body adapts and begins to crave it.
Luxury hospitality funds the mission.
Because investors weren't moved by a multi-year military-contract mission, Keegan found traction first in pro sports and then luxury hospitality. The premium price point funds R&D and research, with the goal of eventually making the product accessible far more broadly.
Faith left, then came back through his brother.
Raised Catholic, Keegan walked away in college and blamed God for hard things in his life. Seeing the visible "lightness" and freedom in his brother — who had quietly been praying for him — drew him back to church and to Christ.
Surrender is the anchor.
Keegan prays daily to surrender the business — even asking God to take it away if it isn't His will. He frames his suffering as the very thing that led him to God, and now sees turning pain into something good as the point.
Leadership: serve the customer, and hire for experience.
His ethos is that taking care of the customer takes care of everything else, led with integrity. His hardest lesson: hiring for potential instead of proven experience cost real time and money — a mistake corrected when he brought on a COO who had scaled hundreds of thousands of units globally.
Resources
Website: https://chillshark.com/
Email: keegan@chillshark.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koconno1/
