Preventative Mental Wellness

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Bill Lennan, Co-Founder of HAERT Program, located in Los Gatos, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Most teens struggle with loneliness, anxiety, depression, and feeling powerless. They mask this from their parents, teachers, and often peers. HAERT is a new approach, teaching skills to reverse these common teen problems. Teens who use these skills are confident, sociable, engaged, and lead with initiative. Based on 30+ years of clinical research and 20+ years of pragmatic, real-world application.

Tell us about yourself

Twenty years ago, I was struggling. Both my tech career and my marriage were struggling, and I struggled every day. Some days were incredibly dark. Then some friends piqued my curiosity and enticed me to do unusual research into leadership, relationships, confidence, and communication. My career and relationships changed dramatically :-) My software teams were doing "impossible" projects, and my relationships were blossoming.

Fast forward to 2019, and I met a mental health clinician who was frustrated with and rising number of depressed, anxious, addicted, and self-harming patients coming into her program. She wanted to create a preventative course that gave young people skills for managing their lives and mental health that everyone should learn, but none of us do. The HAERT Program was launched from her clinical experience and my pragmatic, real-world experience.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Our biggest accomplishment? That has to be translating a set of clinical interventions into the real world, daily skills that people can learn and easily use. Students get over social anxiety and loneliness, their stress drops, they engage and contribute, and they become initiators and leaders.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Finding product/market fit has to be the hardest challenge. We've lived the value of the skills we teach, and we don't always know how to communicate the benefits effectively. It's a marketing problem :-) We regularly talk about new ways to express our "why" to people.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

Sell the idea before you build anything. Our first client was a local high school who we sold our idea to. We used them to prove the market before we built anything.
Be ravenously curious. I'm constantly reading books on business, leadership, sales, marketing, and personal growth to help us craft our messages.
Learn to be uncomfortable every day. Even in tiny ways, this helps us expand our comfort zone over time and to do what our businesses need to grow. A year ago, I started doing TikToks and was very afraid of criticism; today, I'm posting daily and hunting for new topics. :-)

Depression, anxiety, insecurity, and loneliness - are the tip of the mental health iceberg. Most of our struggles can be traced back to poor mental models (aka beliefs) and a lack of skills. Twenty years ago, I lacked both the mental models and skills to succeed in my career or relationship. Today I'm teaching my kids how to excel in school, careers, and life. They are learning skills as young adults that I hadn't heard of until middle age. Giving our kids a leg up earlier will help them accomplish more than we did.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.haertprogram.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haertprogram

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/haertprogram/
https://www.instagram.com/wblennan/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/haertprogram/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/haert-program/

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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