The Behavior Change Company - Maia

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jason Rivas, Co-Founder and CEO of Maia, located in Austin, TX, USA.

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

Maia helps organizations (companies, non-profits, and government) create and deliver health and wellness programs based on behavioral science and focused on actual behavior change. The tools and services we offer help organizations grow their audience and have a greater impact on health outcomes.

We offer a behavioral science-driven framework called the Periodic Table of Change that helps business owners and organizations develop and evaluate their health and wellness programs. It's made up of 105 elements that could help or hinders someone's ability to change. The framework helps people determine the individual elements best suited for their audience and identify which compound of elements will have the greatest effect on participant engagement and behavior change. This allows for the creation of equitable and inclusive programs that provide audiences with the best chance for behavioral success.

To go along with the Table of Change, we offer a patented, behavioral science-based online education and training platform to help scale and deliver health and wellness programs. What makes it unique is that it's conversation-based, highly tailorable, and built in a way that addresses many of the elements necessary for behavior change.

Tell us about yourself

For almost 20 years, I worked at Western Michigan University, developing and evolving the behavioral science-based education and training platform (along with Dr. Bob Bensley) that my company uses today. Although we were grant funded, it was very much like a business growing within the university. Eventually, we hit a wall where we couldn't continue to grow in the way we wanted under the university, so we spun out a business that would give us the freedom to expand in different directions. I've been blessed to have the opportunity to blend three areas I'm ultra-passionate about - health, technology, and behavioral science. There are endless ways to be creative and innovative in that combined space, which makes every day an exciting blank page that I get to work and play with.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

One of our main focus areas has always been addressing the needs of hard-to-reach, underprivileged populations. One of our products, wichealth.org, which serves participants in the US Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supplemental food program, has had over 10 million lesson completions since it first launched in 2002. And through detailed evaluations we've conducted over the years, we've been able to confirm the tremendous impact it has had on the health of families who have used our service. It's incredibly rewarding to know something you contributed to the world has made a difference in the lives of so many.

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

Making time to be active and engaged on social media has always been challenging for me. There are so many other things that compete for my time, but in a small company, you typically wear many hats, and if you don't have a dedicated social media manager, that task will likely fall in your lap. So we're now dedicating time to learning how to leverage the various platforms and create high-value content that will help position us as thought leaders and help increase awareness of the products and services we offer - starting with our Substack Newsletter. And since it's a constantly evolving space, there's something new to learn on a regular basis. It can be a real struggle to keep up!

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

1. Hire an accountant and lawyer you can trust. Or at least have a lawyer you're familiar with who you can call if needed. Financial and legal knowledge is often outside the expertise of many small business owners, so having a competent and capable expert who's available for questions or consultation helps ease a lot of stress that comes from those areas.
2. Find the proper tools that will help you streamline your business operations so you can spend more time working on your business instead of working in your business.
3. Don't think it's up to you to always have the answer. Surround yourself with employees or friends (if you can't afford employees yet) that push you to think differently about various aspects of your business. They can help inspire new product ideas, business growth strategies, or even marketing tactics. At the very least, find people who support your journey. There's no joy in being a lonely entrepreneur.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.behaviorchangecompany.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonRivas
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/behaviorchangecompany/

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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