Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in mental wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jordan Sider, Co-Founder of Welligence, located in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Welligence provides mental health at work training to employees of all levels at businesses of all shapes and sizes. Through education, language, and tools, not only can we improve individual and organizational mental health at work, but we can also improve productivity and profitability! Making good mental health at work a win-win for all.
Tell us about yourself
As a person who has lived experience with mental health, I understand the frustration of trying to show up 100% to work when you just don't feel well. My co-founder and I were successful in finding creative ways of working that embraced our mental health realities while still allowing us to do our best work. If we could figure that out, we thought, so can others - they just need a roadmap to get them started. It's exciting to wake up every day and know that what you're doing could have a beneficial impact on someone, let alone entire organizations and communities.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is definitely finding a way to build a useful, thoughtful product in a market that doesn't really exist yet. Mental health is a big topic that doesn't have a lot of actionable solutions, and we don't have a blueprint or first mover to model after or learn from. And yet, our approach seems to be effective.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Something I didn't think about until I was really in it is our responsibility to live up to our brand and mission. We never want someone to walk out of our courses and feel like it was a waste of time. Particularly when focusing on mental health, the last thing we want to do is be more useless noise in the space or send people in the wrong direction. And mental health is so unique to each individual; we all experience it differently and respond to it differently - so being an effective solution for EVERYONE is nearly impossible, but we still try to be as inclusive as possible.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- If you really believe in the product, you just have to go for it. Building a business means taking risk after risk after risk. Don't be afraid of those risks. Just make sure you're learning and optimizing along the way.
- Things don't always go as planned. Be ready to pivot at any moment, and don't be so stuck in your original plan that you don't recognize a potentially better opportunity. Our model has evolved so much from where we thought we wanted to be. And it's better than our original idea.
- Know when to listen to those around you and when not to. If you're the smartest person in the room all the time, you're doing it wrong. Learn from other people's stories, mistakes, and wins - people are happy to share their own experiences. On the flip side, it's your brand and product, and only you can ultimately decide what you want that to be.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://welligence.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/welligence.co/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/welligence_co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/welligence-co/
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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