Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Joel Heath, founder and CEO of FluidStance, located in Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
FluidStance's purpose is to bring life to work with innovative, eco-friendly lifestyle accessories for wherever you work. After making shoes in China in my previous gig, I wanted to walk my factory line and read to my kids at night in their own bed, so when I founded FluidStance in 2015, I set out to build life-changing tools close to home.
Fluidstance launched in 2015 with the category creating Level, which brings active movement to your desk while you work and has continued to expand the product line into products to stimulate physical and mental workflow. Based in Santa Barbara, California, Fluidstance is a vehicle to create epic good in the world. We have donated a percentage of the equity of our company to the charity First Descents - an adventure experience for young adults surviving life-threatening illnesses. We make products that bring joy into the proverbial grind, and we use materials that do as little harm as feasible to mother earth and our consumers.
Tell us about yourself
My first startup included building the largest outdoor adventure event in the world, [GoPro] Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. Back in those days, it was common for our staff meetings to be on chairlifts or a hiking trail. My work life was full of adventure. After successfully selling the business in 2008, I came in to help turnaround Teva Footwear. Ironically coming into an adventure business, my life was filled with a ton of time at a desk, board room, or airplane. I simply lost my mojo. In an attempt to regain my life of movement, I started to tinker with ideas in my garage to create enough movement to matter but not too much to distract at my desk. 27 different prototypes later, the Level for FluidStance was created - the first active platform for a standing desk.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My personal purpose is to move the world. As a business owner, that can mean simply sweeping the floors to let my team focus on what matters or building products that change how people work. The sometimes dark days as an entrepreneur are lit by common emails that rave about how our products have changed the way they work, the beautiful design, or the amazing customer service. I hope my efforts as a business owner are a vehicle to create epic good, not just a business of one.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
The media glamorizes the "Founder's Life" through the storylines of Jobs, Musk, and Gates, to name a few. Other stories about massive funding rounds and startups that went from the garage to unicorn status create a lifestyle of glamour. The reality of being a business owner is it is a lonely world. You are constantly providing a face of momentum for the future while dealing with the realities of hurdles and obstacles. You have to have the arrogance to beat the horrific odds of startup survival but the empathy to inspire the masses. Maintaining belief when there is no rational argument is at the confluence of art and science. It is a tough line to walk, but it is where ultimate discovery is found.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Understanding your "entrepreneurial personality" will give you a jump on the potential mistakes of your future. Many academic theories walk through the various personality types of an entrepreneur, but the simple "Artist, Manager and Entrepreneur" framework by Tony Robbins is the easiest for me to understand. I thought I was an entrepreneur most of my life, but I have recently discovered I am an artist with strong entrepreneurial tendencies. I am not a classical artist that can paint or sing, but a creative problem solver. As an artist, I have learned that I am a visionary, and I need to surround myself with "managers" that can carry forward the operational load of the day-to-day. Otherwise, I will just innovate without execution.
Knowing who you are in business life helps you know who to surround yourself with, so you do not fill your startup with only like-minded individuals but find complementary ones who can magnify each others' efforts. It also will show you where you have biases in your business mind to know when not to trust or trust your gut.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://fluidstance.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FluidStance/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fluidstance/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelheath/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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