#182 - Julian Reeve: Perfectionism, Burnout, and the Identity AI Cannot Copy

The Personal Success Podcast with Ryan Watts · Aug 3, 2026 · 1h 5m

Julian Reeve was the music director on the first national tour of Hamilton. Three months into the job, at 43, he had a stress-related heart attack. He was diagnosed on a Sunday, received two stents, and was back conducting ten days later. In this conversation, Julian tells Ryan Watts what he found underneath it. Working with a psychologist, he traced the heart attack to years of lifestyle choices driven by low self-esteem, workaholism, and perfectionism. That perfectionism went back to his first piano lesson at four years old, when a mistake became, in his mind, an opportunity to be loved…