This episode of WellBuilt, was originally a LinkedIn Live Jon hosted with Russ Laraway, author of a new book called "When They Win, You Win".

Russ was formerly Chief People Officer at Qualtrics, and is currently CPO at Goodwater Capital.

Before being a People leader he held Go To Market roles at both Twitter and Google. He was also a Commander in the Marine Corps. All this to say, Russ brings a refreshing and interesting point of view to the world of Management.

In his book, Russ touches upon his own experiences, business case studies, and other powerful stories to paint the picture of why "Managers are failing" and what we can do about it.

He rejects much of the conventional wisdom, for a simpler overview on what primary research and industry findings tell us makes a good manager, and how we can all lead in a way that measurably and predictably leads to more engaged employees and better business results.

You might find that many of the lessons in the book and in our conversation adhere to common sense. A great employee experience leads to a great customer experience, and they can reinforce one another in a virtuous cycle.

But the clarity, passion, and wittiness of his delivery and presentation, and the data he leverages to support his points, made it really fun and engaging conversation and the book an awesome read.

Grab a copy of "When They Win, You Win", and enjoy!

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Ankit Gupta, Founder & CEO of Bicycle Health.

Bicycle Health is increasing access to high-quality, integrated healthcare for people with opioid use disorder.

Their virtual care platform provides empathetic, affordable, person-to-person care at scale, including medication management, behavioral health treatment, support groups, and care coordination, supporting patients wherever they're at in their recovery journey.

In their conversation, they got into why opioids are over-prescribed and under-managed in the United States, and how this is impacting far more people than most of us realize.

They got into the different types of treatment for opioid addiction, and how Ankit came up with Bicycle Health's unique digital solution.

They got into the story, lessons, and culture behind the naming of the company, and why he named it after a bicycle!

And finally, we discussed what building a company focused on addiction has taught him about his own mental health, habit formation, and wellbeing.

Enjoy!

P.S. In preparation for their conversation, Jon read a book he referred to during the podcast, which we and Ankit highly recommend called Empire of Pain.

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Jacob Pechenik, Founder & CEO of Lettuce Grow.

Lettuce Grow makes it easy to grow your own fruits and veggies at home with a self-watering & fertilizing hydroponic vertical tower they call their Farmstand.

In their conversation, they got into how becoming a father got Jacob food-obsessed, and how this passion drove him to pivot his career from tech & entertainment to the food system.

Witnessing issues of food waste firsthand on a farm, and observing how transporting produce not only impacted the food's quality and freshness, but that it also is not very environmentally friendly, he began ideating on what the world would like if more people grew their own food at home.

Instead of growing crops to their full maturity, Lettuce Grow sends their Farmstand customers ready-to-plant seedlings. These urban grow operations are localized, which allows them to cut down the delivery time and optimize for the produce's freshness. They're also more efficient from a real estate perspective, since the plants are smaller in size.

Beyond Lettuce Grow's story, they got into Jacob's view on financing and pivoting a business, its relationship to parenting, and finally his passion for polo :horse_racing:

Enjoy!

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Sylvia Hastanan, Founder & CEO of Greater Good Health.

Greater Good Health (GGH) is an innovative primary care model centered around Nurse Practitioners (NPs).

GGH has a bit of a contrarian view when it comes to their business strategy. They are first and foremost optimizing their model for happy and healthy clinicians.

GGH strives to offer an amazing employee experience with generous wellness benefits and opportunities for personal and professional development. They believe doing so will allow them to build a best-in-class patient experience with better health outcomes.

In their conversation, they got into how Sylvia combined her nursing education with a business degree to uniquely identify this gap and opportunity in medicine.

They discussed why healthcare is moving towards value-based care from a traditional fee-for-service model, how we're at risk if we don't make the transition, and why NPs holistic education is perfectly suited for the future.

Finally, they got into what GGH means when they promote work-life integration rather than work-life balance as part of their cultural values, and tangible examples of this in Sylvia's personal and professional life.

Enjoy!

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Alex Lofton, Co-founder & President of Landed.

Landed is a real estate technology company with an interesting model and beautiful mission: They are making home ownership more affordable for essential professionals.

More specifically, they help education, healthcare, and public sector employees buy homes by providing access to funds, trusted partners and guidance.

They have a unique shared appreciation down payment program or coinvestment in a home since they've found that many essential professionals are able to afford the monthly payment on a standard mortgage loan but that saving upwards of 20% of the down payment with an expensive cost of living can be nearly impossible.

This program is designed to help these individuals and their families reach at least a 20% down payment, and avoid private mortgage insurance (PMI). In many of their eligible areas, Landed can contribute up to $150k of the purchase price towards the down payment, which brings the homebuyer's contribution to at least 5%.

They partner with employers as a way to get the word out there about Landed so if you're an organization or belong to a company in education, healthcare, and/or the public sector, and looking to buy your first home, feel free to check them out!

Enjoy

Thesis is a wellness company that makes personalized blends of nootropic supplements. Each of their blends has a different formula or list of proprietary ingredients to help with a specific type of mental state.

In their conversation, Dan shared his life and career journey, his own struggles with attention deficit disorder in school, and how nootropics helped turn things around for him.

Dan went from dropping out of high school to work at Subway making sandwiches to working as a global chef at Club Med to attending Yale in his late 20s and eventually starting Thesis.

Dan openly talks about how psychedelics have positively impacted his life. Thesis is a proud JOON customer, and one of their top goals with their wellness benefits program was to make psychedelic-assisted therapy accessible to their workforce.

Beyond using JOON for mental and spiritual health, Dan spoke about what using our platform says about their broader people and culture strategy. He is very bullish on investing in his team's personal and professional growth, and believes everything in building a successful company comes down to the people once you have formulated your product.

Finally, Jon and Dan got into some of Thesis' team rituals. Every Friday they try a new product from a direct to consumer wellness company, rate it, discuss it, and learn from the brand — this helps them with their own brand, allows them to better understand the market, and to also find new wellness-focused products that add value to their lives.

If you're interested in trying Thesis, Dan and the team have been gracious enough to give WellBuilt listeners 10% off with the code JOON.

Check them out and enjoy!

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Bill Evans, CEO of Rock Health.

Rock Health is a multifaceted digital health organization that consults, invests, and gives back.

Rock Health Advisory helps major corporations act on opportunities in digital health's evolving landscape through a consulting practice and membership program.

Rock Health Capital is a venture fund that invests in entrepreneurs building digital health businesses.

And finally, Rockhealth.org is a non-profit with the goal of breaking down the long-standing barriers and inequities that exist in healthcare.

In their fun and interesting conversation, Jon spoke to Bill about their mission to bring more humanity to healthcare, how portfolio companies like JOON and Oula Health fit into this framework, and broader trends he and Rock Health are seeing in healthcare and digital health like omnichannel brands, the consumerization of healthcare, and why there are still so much opportunity to make healthcare better.

Bill reverse interviewed Jon for a bit as they discussed the consolidation of point solutions in the employer market and opportunities to simplify and better contextualize employee benefits.

Jon eventually took back the reins and they got deeper into Bill's top three influences for a more positive attitude and state of mind.

If you're interested in learning more about Rock Health and getting a taste of their thought leadership and content, we highly recommend subscribing to their newsletter, Rock Weekly.

Enjoy!

Neuro makes functional gums and mints that help support energy and focus as well as relaxation, calm, and flow. They do this by infusing their products with caffeine, b vitamins, l-theanine, gaba and other ingredients and amino acids that support neurotransmitters and your brain's wellness.

Kent and his co-founder, Ryan, are college friends and started their entrepreneurial journey as elite athletes. Ryan was training with the U.S Paralympic team and Kent was a member of Japan's Olympic Judo team. They were both always searching and experimenting with ways to boost their energy and were sick of traveling with bags of obscure powders so decided to create something that made neuro-hacking easier, convenient, and delightful.

Kent is an interesting and awesome guy. Jon got deeper into his personal why, what he's reading, and the other activities and roles he enjoys when he's not working on Neuro. More specifically, Kent is an incredible multimedia artist and muralist.

Check out his work, try Neuro, and enjoy their chat!

BONUS: Kent and Ryan on Shark Tank.

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Michael Brandt, Co-Founder & CEO of H.VM.N, Health Via Modern Nutrition.

HVMN is a human performance company best known for their Ketone-IQ, a drinkable ketone designed to be taken daily to support mental clarity, athletic performance, and metabolic health.

Ketones are a nutritional primitive, a source of energy that your body naturally makes when doing low-carb/keto diet, exercising, or fasting.

Besides providing ketones to hundreds of thousands of everyday people via direct to consumer channels, the brand has also grown through a multi million dollar contract with the United States Department of Defense and by working with athletes in every sport. In our fun conversation, we also got into Michael's own experience as a triathlete and marathoner, and how that inspired the company.

Check out HVMN and enjoy!

On this episode of WellBuilt, Jon spoke to Elizabeth Stein, Founder & CEO of Purely Elizabeth.

Purely Elizabeth is a natural foods company that makes better for you products like superfood granola, oatmeal, and pancake mixes.

In their conversation, they got into Purely Elizabeth's founding story. Elizabeth has been working on her brand for over 12 years, and the way she fell into starting the business was incredible to hear.

They nerded out on the ways the natural food industry has changed over the last decade, specific ingredients she avoids, how she thinks about healthy eating, and her continued passion for cooking.

And finally, they got into how Elizabeth thinks about company culture and employee wellness, her vision for Purely Elizabeth as a lifestyle brand, and how that corresponds with the evolution of her own wellness journey.

Bon Apetite!