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Gonzalo Sanchez on The Science (and Soul) of Stress
7 Plays5 days ago
Gonzalo “Gonzo” Sanchez, founder of Everlast, is on a mission to change how we understand and manage stress at work and in life. Drawing from his experiences at Uber, Bird, and in telemedicine, he shares how Everlast uses wearables, biomarkers, and personalized roadmaps to help people unlock better health. Gonzalo and Curtis unpack the physiology of stress, emotional regulation, and why stress isn’t just psychological — it’s deeply physical. Gonzalo shares personal stories about hitting his own limits, the inspiration behind Everlast’s name, and how his team is reimagining stress as something to understand, not just suppress. It’s a fascinating conversation that blends science, storytelling, and strategy, giving leaders and individuals alike a new lens on well-being.
About Gonzalo:
Gonzalo is the founder of Everlast, a digital health company that helps people unlock their stress to live healthier, more fulfilling lives. Everlast’s core belief is that stress doesn’t just live in your head—it shows up in your body. By combining biomarkers, wearable data, and lifestyle insights, the team connects the dots and delivers personalized plans that work for each member. Before launching Everlast, Gonzalo led marketplace operations in the telemedicine space, building and scaling clinician networks. Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade at Uber and Bird, where he built high-performing teams and launched marketplaces across multiple regions.
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Transcript
Introduction: Building Better Workplaces
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello again and welcome everyone. It's time for another installment of Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. In these episodes, I speak with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces.
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm your host, Curtis Forbes. Welcome to today's Fireside Chat. with our guest, Gonzalo Sanchez. Gonzo is the founder of Everlast, a digital health company that helps people unlock their stress to live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
00:00:34
Speaker
Everlast's core belief is that stress doesn't just live in your head, it shows up in your body.
Gonzalo Sanchez's Career Journey
00:00:40
Speaker
And by combining biomarkers, wearable data, and lifestyle insights, the team connects these dots and delivers personalized plans that work for each member.
00:00:51
Speaker
And before launching Everlast, Gonzo led marketplace operations in the telemedicine space, building and scaling clinician networks. Prior to that, he spent nearly a decade at Uber,
00:01:02
Speaker
and Bird, where he built high-performing teams and launched marketplaces across multiple regions. Welcome to Voices Behind the Build, Gonzo. Curtis, thank you so much for having me. That's a mouthful. You've done everything.
00:01:18
Speaker
and now And you're of now a founder. Had some fun. Had some fun. But yeah, definitely yeah excited to be here and share a little bit more about what we're doing and and and my experience. Very excited about it. So this conversation,
00:01:32
Speaker
It's actually gonna be a bit different than many that we've had in the past on Behind the Build. I think a lot of our our guests are are here to talk about things like HR tech and AI and compensation and total rewards, but we're gonna be talking a lot about stress and all the ways that it impacts people, including and in the workplace, right?
00:01:54
Speaker
Because that's what we're all about here, the future of work.
The Impact of Stress: Beyond Mental Resilience
00:01:57
Speaker
um But before we get into all of that, you end up in the business of stress? Like what is the journey that got you here?
00:02:07
Speaker
Awesome. So I would say, look, I've always thought of myself in my career as someone that was mentally strong, right? I was like, if I can think through it, I can power through it, everything is possible. And that did work out for a number of years and allowed me to to be part of high performing teams, but also build high performing teams.
00:02:29
Speaker
And it wasn't until maybe I started getting a little older and younger kids that not just thinking that I could power through things stopped working, right? And the body stopped.
00:02:42
Speaker
the body started, you know, sending signals and that usually comes in the form of inability to sleep or being just tired, but wired all the time, um gaining weight.
00:02:54
Speaker
And that's when I really started thinking, okay, there's, there's gotta be something here that I can just think my way out of it. And the more I learned about myself, the more I learned about what my peers were going through, um,
00:03:07
Speaker
One way or another, also exploring what can we build in the in the health, in the wellness space. That's where we are today. and and And really excited. The more we learn about stress, the more exciting we the more excited we get about the opportunities that it presents.
00:03:24
Speaker
I love how stress excites you. Right. i'm i'm Obviously, that's sort of a distillation of of everything you said and and probably an unfair characterization. But but it's it's nice. Right. It's not your work. You're working on a problem that we all have.
00:03:44
Speaker
um All of us. you know It's funny how you know sometimes it does take you know having kids to to really crack that nut for all all all of us you know who are mentally strong.
00:03:56
Speaker
um you know have Have that five-year-old who really teaches you that maybe you're not as strong as you thought you were.
00:04:05
Speaker
And I think that the the exciting part about what what we're building and and why stress, like and I agree, I do get excited about it, but I think it's really exciting is The technology that we have today, our ability to understand it better, to transition away from stress being this just psychological thing to more of a physiological thing that it's in your body, it's not just up here.
00:04:31
Speaker
ah That is really exciting. and And when we talk to scientists in the space, um they are also learning more and trying to understand this this area of health that really can make a ton of difference and on our day-to-days.
00:04:46
Speaker
Yeah. And yeah. And in, in the workplace, obviously, which is probably one of the biggest stressors for most people. So you've now founded Everlast. why why Everlast?
00:04:59
Speaker
What, what drove you to build your own company? And tell me a little bit about the origin story of the name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um,
00:05:09
Speaker
okay. Uh, this is a good one. Uh, and I'll try to to keep it together, but, um, The founding story of Everlast, I worked to, you talked about my career earlier, I worked in the telemedicine space for a number of years during during the pandemic. so imagine being in telemedicine during the pandemic,
Everlast's Holistic Health Approach
00:05:27
Speaker
very busy. And and I got to participate in in giving access to folks through telemedicine. But I also got to see that so many of the options out there for someone to get healthy is go online, push a button, get a prescription drug delivered to your door on a monthly basis. And
00:05:46
Speaker
um I'm not anti-medication, but I just found that, hey, there' there there's more that we can do for people. um Obviously, my own experience with going to the doctor every year and saying, ah, you're okay. and then But I don't feel good. like I am tired. I am groggy. My back hurts. I'm too young for my knees to hurt like this if I had a few beers at night. like All these things that were just off.
00:06:12
Speaker
um And then trying to put together, okay, what do I actually know? And what have I actually done in my life that can help us build something? That's where Everlast ah started. um Over the past couple of years, we've done around ah ah series projects.
00:06:28
Speaker
um Testing and meeting people and understanding how do they think about their health? Where can we help them? What are the different ways that we can and get someone to feel their best and for the long, like in the long term without necessarily just pushing a pill to them?
00:06:46
Speaker
That's how Everlast started. The name very specifically, I think that um is one represents something that, you know, it's it's for the long term, but it also is a play on words with a good friend of mine that was my mentor.
00:07:04
Speaker
We went through the Uber and Bird journeys together that ended up passing away a number of maybe, I think three years ago. um His name was Everett.
00:07:16
Speaker
So this is a ah my homage to him ah i was like, hey, we're not um we're not able to to to do this together, but you know i get to I get to remember him and honor him as as we get to build Everlast.
00:07:34
Speaker
I love that, man. I tell my kids all the time, I'm always with you even when you can't see me, you know? and And I love that. And I think that that's a very, very cool name.
00:07:46
Speaker
um you You point out the really interesting, i guess, the the, I don't know if if a dilemma is a good way to put it, but maybe the something striking about telemedicine, right? That that maybe...
00:08:01
Speaker
makes it more of a band-aid, right? than ah Than a long-term solution. So how is Everlast? Maybe describe in some detail how it's different than some normal telehealth programs out there, like what separates it from the other solutions that help folks out when it comes to their mental health.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So when we think about
Understanding and Managing Stress
00:08:24
Speaker
telemedicine and and options are there. Most of them, and I think that largely driven by where technology has been over the past decade and where it is today, you go and it's symptom-based, right?
00:08:36
Speaker
I am fat, here's a pill for you to lose weight. I am anxious. Here's an SSRI for you to feel better, right? And so everything is compartmentalized and nothing connects the dots.
00:08:47
Speaker
Today, we have one, and and an internal willingness to actually build something that is more cross-functional across different parts of your health. Also, technology today allows us to do this.
00:08:59
Speaker
And that is like a super exciting place to be building right now. um So what we do at Everlast is we, one, help you understand how stress shows up for you very individually to you, right?
00:09:14
Speaker
So for example, for you and I right now, Curtis, maybe this this podcast for you is just, you know, another day they at work. For me, I was thinking about this. Maybe I was stressed about it for a little bit.
00:09:25
Speaker
So we need to understand how stress shows up in our lives that is unique to ourselves. So we help you with that. We also look at your data. So we look at data from wearables, but we also look at specific biomarkers that you get from blood labs that can tell and paint that picture of your stress.
00:09:44
Speaker
And the third thing that we do is we connect you to someone on our care operations team that has a meeting with you, gets to know you, gets to understand that Curtis is a CEO, a founder. He's also a father. He has ah house. He has these commitments. So when we build your roadmap,
00:10:01
Speaker
your roadmap is actually something that fits you and your life. And it's not just this catch-all, work out five times a week and take these supplements, right? um And we have the ability to do that at ah at an extreme level of precision that your plant, Curtis, will work for you.
00:10:19
Speaker
That doesn't guarantee that it will work for me, but that's a good thing. So I think that that's where we are we're mostly different from anything out there, our ability to connect these different areas of your life, your data, your lifestyle, your goals, a care team that we put in your pockets. You can also text them at any time and use that as a something that builds this roadmap that gets you to feel your best over time.
00:10:43
Speaker
Well, I mean, I'm already sold. and We still have a half an hour to do, but it's, that that's a, I joke, but it's a, it's a really powerful, um, value, right? And it's so unique and so personalized and you're right. I mean, stress shows up so differently for everybody.
00:10:59
Speaker
Um, ever last, you know, focus specifically on stress. Emotional regulation is that foundation for better health. And it's in, in this stress, you know, while I know it's something we've we've all experienced, um Tell me, define, let's define stress.
00:11:17
Speaker
You know, what what does it do to the body and the mind? Yeah. And this is an interesting question because stress generally gets a bad rap. And if your stress is bad, and and that's not necessarily true. So the way that we think about it and with the way we articulate stress is your built-in alarm system, right? So when something is happening, your full system gets stressed and that starts creating a series of changes in your body. So for example,
00:11:46
Speaker
right now, I need stress to be present so I can be focused, so I can be engaging, so I can hopefully say things are um useful for for your audience, right? But if I bring this state of hyper arousal to dinner and then to my kids' bedtime and then to my own bedtime and then tomorrow at breakfast and you know rinse and repeat for 10 years, I am in this state of my alarm is just going off, right? Yeah.
00:12:13
Speaker
So what happens when you are stressed is not just that, oh, I am busy here in my head. your orb Your hormones start fluctuating. Your digestion may be deprioritized.
00:12:25
Speaker
And all these changes that happen in your system, influence what you need for a specific ah part of your day, right? So right now my system may not be focused on digesting my lunch, right? We're focused on let's let's have this conversation.
00:12:42
Speaker
But at some point I need to use my body to repair itself. I need to use my body to digest something I ate earlier. i need my body to just rest, come back to baseline, enjoy life, enjoy what I'm doing.
00:12:58
Speaker
um So that's, I would say that that's how we think about stress. That's the way that we also try to help our members understand it. Because oftentimes what happens is people think that all stress is a busy calendar.
00:13:12
Speaker
And it's not just that stress is also poor sleep and poor nutrition and lack of movement. And maybe even more importantly, lack of connection with other people.
00:13:23
Speaker
That's actually a really great, a really great point. to Tell me more specifically, or differentiate it from emotional regulation and and even dysregulation? What does that mean? and and And what do those states look like? Like how do they manifest manifest in an individual? Yeah.
00:13:40
Speaker
So emotional regulation basically means your ability to understand when when your system is firing up the signals and live that alarm going going live and living through that period, but also then having the ability to come back to baseline.
00:14:01
Speaker
So if I'm emotionally regulated, I know that you know this busy meeting that I have tomorrow right is going to end tomorrow. And after that, I can come back to a state where I am more relaxed, I am breathing better, I can go for a walk, and I can come back to baseline.
00:14:18
Speaker
If I'm dysregulated, I've been thinking about this meeting tomorrow for a week. I haven't been able to sleep. Then I went to the meeting and after the meeting, I was like, oh my God, I thought about this and this happened. And now they're thinking about, and in my system is in this revving motion that never stops.
00:14:40
Speaker
And if you're dysregulated for an extended period of time, that's where your system is confused. It doesn't know what is what is happening. And then all of these other ah downstream health issues start popping up.
00:14:55
Speaker
You know curious what, you know, you bring up a good point about, you know, the ah meeting or or whatnot. I could see these things pop up so, so much, so frequently, often, right? And and be exacerbated by work Being at work, working with people who make you uncomfortable, doing things that make you feel uncomfortable um or that are out of your comfort zone.
00:15:19
Speaker
um Right. And so, you know, I would imagine there's probably some pretty extreme lack of focus, productivity that stem as ah as a result Is that accurate?
00:15:34
Speaker
A hundred percent. And and one thing that is that is curious about just how fascinating our our our bodies are, like oftentimes also that you may feel stressed and you may be triggering all these responses in your body for things that are not even real.
00:15:50
Speaker
You may be thinking about this person may be in the meeting and they always look at me like if I don't know anything, right? That may not be even real, but you're already... revving up your body, your system, your hormones are are shooting up. Like all that is is definitely something that then shows up at work.
00:16:09
Speaker
And honestly, because we're spending so much of our days at work, the boundaries are a little bit more blurred today between work and life and everything else. um It definitely comes into play at at work. And a lot of what our members tell us um really has to do with like their day-to-day and their day-to-day at work.
00:16:31
Speaker
Do you think that people are more or less stressed today than they have been in the past? You know, what what what is it about our current lifestyle, in your opinion, that causes this? So definitely, yes, I would say. And I was also reading some literature on this earlier. But um back in the day, I think and there's so many things and and I love this topic, but I even as early as the early 2010s, right? Like a lot of people were, when you ask them, what are you stressed about? It was work and finances, right? Work and finances. And today you are stressed about work, finances, you're stressed about violence, you're stressed about the political climate, you're stressed about the actual climate.
00:17:12
Speaker
And all these things are in our face all the time are putting us in this state of chronic stress at all times. um So definitely more stress. And I think that and when it comes to maybe trying to make the connection with work, I think a lot of what we are seeing today, not just from the research that is happening, but also from the conversations that we've had with people, we had hundreds of these conversations, is that modern life has has blurred all the boundaries,
The Role of AI and Remote Work in Modern Stress
00:17:41
Speaker
right? So...
00:17:43
Speaker
um and And it's not only even exclusive to perhaps hybrid work or work from home or working in person, but there are no boundaries, right? You are working while you're relaxing, watching Netflix, while you are being a parent, while you may be being a spouse.
00:18:06
Speaker
And it's just happening all the time. So folks don't have those boundaries that also allow them to restore their systems. Right. um And yes, I think we're going to talk a little bit more about AI as well. There's a bunch of stuff that also I think AI is causing when it comes to stress that I think we just need to be.
00:18:26
Speaker
um And I love and I love this conversation. i know we're going to talk about it, but also just like the the the the responsibility that then falls on leaders to, to help, to help build people up and companies that can, that can thrive in in this environment.
00:18:42
Speaker
And you just, so many things I think in that, in there was, it's like a black box, right? yeah There's, there's so much stuff in there to, to even talk about and talking about the, talking about the boundaries.
00:18:57
Speaker
I mean, you know Certainly social media hasn't helped either. you know All those things that you talked about are that are so front and center, whether it's climate, political climate, you know your friends, your family, all of these things, right?
00:19:12
Speaker
We have social media that puts it right in front of our face. And then we're also seeing on social media all the people that we work with. and right in front of our face, right? All all all the time.
00:19:25
Speaker
So it's hard to really make that, it's hard it's hard to it's hard to disconnect. you know You also brought up a really interesting thing about you know working from home or hybrid you know or on-site. I think a lot of people feel like remote and hybrid work gives us more flexibility and control over our time. But for a lot of people, could these situations cause even more stress for the workforce?
00:19:51
Speaker
What we observed is that if someone isn't intentional about it, absolutely. right Because yes, it is giving us more flexibility.
00:20:03
Speaker
But like I was saying earlier, it's also completely erased all the boundaries that existed prior to this. in what used to be called work life, right? right like And what happened in those boundaries was very important for your for your nervous system and for your health to come back to baseline.
00:20:26
Speaker
So maybe six, 10 years ago, you would drive to work and during that drive, you would listen to music or you call your mom or you call your friends. And Those are all the things that feed into your nervous system so that you can be in more balanced.
00:20:42
Speaker
Today, yes, we have a lot more flexibility, but we have more flexibility to, at times, do more laundry, clean a house, sort out what are like what is for dinner tonight, like work on and getting the kids from school, like which are all very important things.
00:21:01
Speaker
but they just bring a reality that now everything is together. Right. So I think that for, for us and I, I work remotely, my team is all over the U S like I, I love the flexibility it gives us, but at the same time it comes with us having to be a lot more intentional about, Hey, you know, this spaces that we have, let's make sure that we, um,
00:21:28
Speaker
think about how they play a role in a specific part of our day and not in another and try to separate them as much as possible. You also had an interesting comment about ai And I know that like, you human connection super, you know, important in so many ways. I can see how having that, you know, could be beneficial for for coping with stress and and relieving it, you know, if if not at least helping to avoid it too.
00:21:57
Speaker
Do you think there are ways in which like technology that's supposed to make our lives easier is actually making our quality of life and and maybe then you know the the stress we experience even worse, especially in terms of the workplace, like particularly interested in whether you have thoughts on this as far as AI is concerned?
00:22:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, absolutely. i think that...
00:22:21
Speaker
A number of um components to my answer. One is, I think that AI and technology is really good. I was reading ah ah a research paper paper actually by ADP that was shared with me by someone I met at the conference a few weeks ago.
00:22:37
Speaker
um And in that paper, they talk about stress in the workplace and the importance of like when you love what you do, how how you can thrive at work, right? And I think that AI, particularly AI today has allowed us to do a lot more of the things that we like and all the little things just let AI do it, right? Which is yeah is really good. And I think that it allows us to do more of what we love.
00:23:03
Speaker
The more we do, the more of what we love, the the more we thrive at work. But at the same time, I think that what is happening right now is that the expectation for your output is a lot higher, right?
00:23:14
Speaker
You can just do it with AI. You can just do it with AI. you can So that report that would have taken you a few hours or maybe a couple of days to to think through and you know put it away and then go for a walk and come back and have a new idea and change your formula and then come up with the insight, now it has to be done in like now see So there is this pressure for our output to like, I don't know, 5, 10x while we also are doing more of what what we like. So there's ah there's a balance there.
00:23:45
Speaker
I do think that way the way we implement AI. There's a ton of AI in our workflows, in our day to day, but we also make sure that we find that time for us to have human-to-human conversations.
00:23:59
Speaker
And sometimes say, hey, let's actually just talk this through before we just go and ask Chai GPT to to to tell
Personalized Stress Management with Everlast
00:24:07
Speaker
us. Because though AI has made so much um make progress over the past couple of years, it's still very much at times is gonna tell you what you wanna hear.
00:24:20
Speaker
yeah And sometimes I do think that particularly when it comes to building high performing teams, what you want is people to tell you what you don't wanna hear. What you want is to be like, hey, I disagree with that. Hey, I don't know. And what about this? Well, if this doesn't work, well, can we look at it from another? And that's when the magic happens.
00:24:39
Speaker
And I don't think AI is ai is there yet. Not yet. you know i um you know There's tech out there that can really improve your quality of life. i know i know that the you know Everlast is a great example. and i kind of want This obviously isn't going to turn into an an infomercial, but I want to know how does Everlast support users in beginning to shed stress and and and improve their health? so We've talked about identifying it, right? And identifying how it manifests.
00:25:14
Speaker
How does it support people in beginning to get rid of it or make things better? Yeah. So a lot of what we try to do is show people, one is like, we it's important for you to to explore and to understand, to see your data. So we we we are um a data driven, we have a data driven approach to showing you how stress is impacting your life.
00:25:34
Speaker
And then it's starting to incorporate stress small changes to your day-to-day, right? So um that may mean at times to help you, hey, these are breathing exercises that you should just have after tough meetings, right?
00:25:49
Speaker
So you have a tough meeting. You already know. They're on your calendar, right? You already know that that meeting is going to be a little hard. Maybe before you jump on that meeting, you do 10 squats, right? That helps dampen the impact of your cortisol during and after that that meeting. So there are a lot of small steps that we help people implement and we put them in their plan.
00:26:10
Speaker
And then we have the team behind the scenes that you can just text at any time. We have 24 seven access to a care team that you have questions. If you feel that you need more support implementing a specific technique or tactic or, hey, i don't really I don't think I can do the workout that you guys prescribed for today, then then the team is there to adjust that plan pretty much in real time as you evolve and as life evolves.
00:26:37
Speaker
um So that's how we think that we can we can really come in and and and support you, right? and be And be next to you. We want to become your partner in this journey.
00:26:49
Speaker
um and be there for when life happens, right? Like sometimes either you get sick or your kids get sick or the car breaks down. And um if you just have a PDF plan there that is static, then nothing changes.
00:27:02
Speaker
i i I love that. I didn't realize that there was that team there to really provide that extra support. So, you know, beyond Everlast, if you were going to talk to some of your your members, your customers,
00:27:16
Speaker
or some folks who maybe haven't yet signed up for it, you know, if somebody wants a better quality of life where they're happier, healthier, you know, where they face less stress, where do they start?
00:27:28
Speaker
What do you, what do you tell them? I would say start with your sleep. Like sleep is so important. I know that there are, um one one way that someone articulates sleep is like try to become a professional sleeper.
00:27:45
Speaker
um which is Which is interesting because we have some of our members are parents of young kids and and sometimes it's like, man, don't we can't really go and tell a parent, hey, sleep more.
00:27:55
Speaker
But if you can, the number one thing is prioritize your sleep. And prioritizing, what does that mean One thing that we also tell people in our programs and and part of our our or marketing material is like stress is not just in your head.
00:28:11
Speaker
So the first thing is get out of your head. Don't think about sleeping better. Just do things with your body that will help you sleep better. For example, What does your sleeping environment look like? Is your room dark?
00:28:21
Speaker
Is your room cold enough? like Do you have a sleeping mask if you need one or do you have ah earplugs if you need one? like Set up your environment so that your body can just show up and fall asleep and you don't have think about it. That's big part it.
00:28:36
Speaker
The other thing with sleep is what your body really needs is sleep consistency. So try to go to bed at the same time every night, try to wake up at the same time in the morning or maybe 15, max 30 minutes, um you know, before or after that that bedtime scene. What often happens is, oh I'm going to sleep eight hours. But yes, tonight you go to bed at 11. Tomorrow you go to bed at 2 a.m. The next day you go to bed at 9.
00:29:00
Speaker
Your body just doesn't know what's going on. Yeah. would say sleep. move and and And that i we don't use the word exercise as much as possible because exercise is is usually taken as like you got to go and work out and do all these things.
00:29:15
Speaker
But if you can start by just moving, right, which means get out of your chair, do a quick stretching exercise for 10 minutes or go for a walk around the block. take a Take a meeting on your phone as you walk around as as you walk around your backyard.
00:29:31
Speaker
um That is the second one. um recover. So try to recover, try to breathe, look up, look up, you know, to distance, try spend some time outside.
00:29:44
Speaker
And the fourth thing I would say, it's sleep, move, recover. And the fourth thing, which I think is critical is connect with other people. Yeah. We live in maybe the loneliest time in history for the individual.
00:30:00
Speaker
um reach out to that friend, reach out to that family member. um Don't overthink it. just Just send a text message, make the call. um Loneliness um is such a huge epidemic that we have right now.
00:30:17
Speaker
And what it does to your body is it's like having, it's like smoking a bunch of cigarettes every day. If you feel feeling of loneliness,
00:30:29
Speaker
does to your body what cigarettes do to your body.
Creating Supportive Work Environments
00:30:35
Speaker
So I will start there You don't need anything. Of course, you know, we can teach you all this at Everlast, but if you were to start anywhere, steve move, rest, and connect.
00:30:48
Speaker
What about at work, right? should should what What should employers begin to do when it comes to doing better by their people, when it comes to their mental you know and physical health and well-being? And I love this. I think that creating a safe place is probably the one that is going to make the biggest impact. And what I mean by safe place is a place where, one, people are recognized, that they understand what their work is that they are um they they arere kept accountable for their work.
00:31:24
Speaker
I think that that setting up that safety at work is probably the most important thing that I would say because, and and I don't come, i I have built teams and I'm not, what i'm where I'm coming from is from listening.
00:31:37
Speaker
to members that come to us that happen to be employees. So creating that safety space, that safe space where they can be themselves, where they can be recognized, where they are what do they know what they need to do, where they know what is going to be rewarded, that that I think is so so crucial.
00:31:57
Speaker
And then having leaders that live those values and that are open to their um to their teams about what they expect, I think just makes a huge difference. there's There's some like very specific tactical things that I personally like doing. So one of them is, for example, make your calendar seen by everyone.
00:32:15
Speaker
right So if you you know if your team knows what you're working on, then they understand what you're what you're doing and they understand maybe what's important to you. When you your teams when you talk to your teams, stop talk through your thoughts.
00:32:29
Speaker
Don't just share the outcome of what you spent a bunch of hours thinking about. So your team now understands and can see you and how you think and how you go through ideas. So then they can understand, okay, this is how I engage with Curtis and this is how our relationship can get better.
00:32:46
Speaker
So I would say um start there, but safety is something that just like the the core, the key word that comes to mind from from what our members tell us and their experiences at work.
00:33:01
Speaker
I love that. and we We've had a few guests on Behind the Build. even discuss financial wellness and how employees you know who lack emergency savings or retirement accounts or you know sufficient funds to comfortably even make it to their next paycheck, how they struggle at work. And and these individuals may you know become less productive or experience higher absenteeism rates and then have higher turnover rate, among among other issues, you know all due to the stress that the financial insecurity they're experiencing.
00:33:36
Speaker
How do you think performance issues at work are really just symptoms of stress? And how do you think that stress is caused or amplified by the employer?
00:33:48
Speaker
so I would say, i don't want to say all the time, but very close to all the time. if if you think about just ah what you mentioned there, Kurt, is around financial stress, right? What that then causes is this person is not sleeping well because they're thinking about it They go to bed and they're thinking about the fact that they're not goingnna make pay like they're not going to pay the bills next by the end of the week.
00:34:10
Speaker
So they're not sleeping well. Then if they don't sleep well, they show up to work and they are grumpy, right? Or they are disengaged, right? Hey, what's going on here? you It seems like you're not focused on this. Like, are you looking for something else?
00:34:23
Speaker
And now they're like, no, but I haven't slept. I haven't slept because I'm stressed. And now work is putting more stress on that. And you can see how those vicious cycles are super easy to get in.
00:34:36
Speaker
I really think that it's on it's on us, the leaders that are building these companies and that are making sure that um the company meets their goals and targets to also care for the people in it and having real conversations. A lot of this is just caring about your employees, caring about your teammates, and not necessarily you yourself taking care of it, but sometimes it's you know, as you build a relationship with your teammates is ask, maybe you ask Jennifer to check in on Alison, right? and and and and And encouraging and fostering the personal relationship between your teammates can make a huge difference when it comes to, when it comes to performance at work that is driven by stress outside of work.
00:35:28
Speaker
Now, so let's talk about a little bit about r ROI. I'm going to come come at it from sort of a backwards angle here. I mean, there's a lot of people in business world who push back when it comes to rolling out wellness programs, whether personal or financial, right.
00:35:44
Speaker
Or providing any kind of benefits or perks beyond, you know, basically what's required. They see it as another cost, right? I mean, people are are generally our biggest cost center. And then typically their benefits are the next biggest cost center.
00:35:58
Speaker
Um, What do you think the real cost to businesses that don't invest in their people and their well-being? I mean, how does saving money by not offering these things negatively impact those organizations?
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I think that, um and and I can see because I've also talked to many folks, an HR team, also CFOs running and you know owning owning some of these budgets. and And the concern is real. I think that um where where I come from is, well, you know you're your head of HR or your you know your VP of operations burning out and leaving the company is very expensive. Right?
00:36:42
Speaker
um and if they if And if they get to leave because they are burned out or because they don't get the support that they need from you because theirre now their teams are really stressed and their teams don't know what to do, like that that adds up very quickly.
00:36:56
Speaker
um What I think is important when it comes to to that ah ROI is to work like to work him in partnership with the partners that you bring on to support your employees, but also to work with your employees in having that like that open communication. like Are these benefits helping you?
00:37:16
Speaker
Are they allowing you to you know to thrive at work? And then is... is there any data to to back it up, right? And I think that interesting thing where, again, with some of the technologies that exist today, like there are ways that we can Um, we can show that, that person, and mainly we show the employee, we show her, like, look, you're, you're sleep, you're, you're sleeping more, right? Your deep sleep is you're, you're more restored now that you're, that you're implementing some of these things that we're recommending.
00:37:47
Speaker
Like your, your, your body's recovering better. Now you can show up to work and actually think about first thing in the morning. It doesn't take four hours to, to lock in. um But yeah, when it comes to ah ROI, I think it's it's um for us, obviously, but it's it's a no brainer. But it really is about do you want people to come in and clock in and push the button? Or do you want them to be thinking more long term, thinking more specifically, trying to come up with the new ideas that are going actually move the needle?
00:38:23
Speaker
That's where I think wellness comes in, stress comes in.
Technology in Health Management
00:38:28
Speaker
um One last thing maybe specifically about stress is that what stress does to your body at times can be compared to like a cold or a flu, right?
00:38:41
Speaker
So you're super stressed. You don't want to hang out with people. You don't want to, you want to eat like more calorie dense foods. You just want to be snuggled in like,
00:38:53
Speaker
all that are the symptoms of actually being sick. So the more stressed someone is, the more quote unquote sick they are. The less productive they can be at work. So um today there are there are plenty of options. I think that some some things like Everlast, but also some things like making sure that your teams are aware of the type of wearables that they can wear to to understand how they're doing are are also super important.
00:39:20
Speaker
Let's shift a a little bit. I'm curious about that. I mean, are there other technologies you see as being game changers when it comes to like really improving the quality of life? They they don't need to be health or or workplace specific. I'm just, I'm curious what you see out there.
00:39:33
Speaker
And we i am I am definitely looking a lot into into you know health products. I do think that there are some really fun tools that can help you just kind of see how, maybe how your body works. I don't know if you've heard or or done any of the glucose monitors, for example.
00:39:50
Speaker
Like super interesting to see how food impacts your your system. And in some of these trackers, I mean, you wear in your arm. within seconds of having that cheeseburger, you can see the spike, right? yeah Sometimes you can understand like, hey, you know, these are the type of foods that make me have this constant energy throughout the day.
00:40:10
Speaker
um what is like ah That is one of my favorite ones right now. And then when you combine that with other with other data then is when you really get insights, um which I think is what we're all after. right We don't just want data for the sake of data, um and unless you're a consultant.
00:40:28
Speaker
But if not, you want ah you want you want insights. You want to know what to do with it. does Does Everlast have plans to to integrate with external sources like that where it can ingest more information or data in order to help deliver you know more unique things?
00:40:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. guess For sure. We actually, part part of the experience, if you have a wearable, you connect one of those. And and we know... We know in real time that you had a crappy night of sleep yesterday. So we may just send you a text and say, hey, Curtis, take it easy today.
00:41:06
Speaker
Or we may say, hey, Curtis, you know try to go to bed a little earlier today to to to optimize for what's happening next week because we know what's happening next week because you told us that. um Yeah, and and and and our goal is to continue to increase our ability to capture data from from your day-to-day, which I think is that black box that the existing the existing healthcare doesn't have, right? You see your doctor, once let's say that
00:41:36
Speaker
Let's say that you see him twice a year, right? Which would put you maybe like the 5% of Americans. um But let's say that most of us see the doctor once a year. That doctor has no idea what happened in the other 364 days from when we saw them.
00:41:54
Speaker
We do come and we tell them, but what does that even mean? right With some of this data, we, like Everlast, can see and can start building you this evolution of life and health that goes with you us as as things as things happen.
00:42:13
Speaker
That's incredible. um Out of curiosity, and talking about some of the support that you offer, right, um does it ever – get to a point where your support team isn't qualified or licensed to discuss certain things with an individual? Is there ever a ah boundary, rules, regulations that come into play?
00:42:38
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And and and and there's definitely... yeah you know from a regulation, their scope of practice, right? That sometimes we can't we can go in specific places. um we are We are not trying to take over your entire medical you know, support, right? What we actually do for some of our members is you can come to us, Curtis, and say, hey, next week I'm seeing my primary care physician, right? And we can tell you, okay, Curtis, in preparation for that meeting, you should ask them this, this, this, and this questions that we've known and we talked to you about so that they can give you some of that guidance that you already have.
00:43:19
Speaker
some of the guidance that they should give you, but you already have a relationship with them. We're not, we're not here to try and take that relationship over. We're here to add on to it. Hopefully make your life easier. Hopefully educate you on things that matter so that we can make your relationship with that practitioner also more effective.
00:43:37
Speaker
A hundred percent, hundred percent. And we we really try to, um be there for what you care about. Right. Yeah. And sometimes that is not something that is not with us. Right. Sometimes, for example, um in some cases we have, we have um members that are women that are maybe going through either perimenopause or menopause. Right. And there's only so much that we can support them with until we say, Hey, look, this is the best thing.
00:44:07
Speaker
women's health ah practice that we've heard of, that we've done a research on, you should go and talk to them. And then we, if we can make the connection, we make the connection, but we are also a place where you can get resources on um the things that you actually need.
Future Predictions in Health and AI
00:44:21
Speaker
I love that. um do you Do you have any predictions for, you know, or on human wellness and how it pertains to to maybe the workplace? mean, for example, do you you think that we'll see more or less employer investment in these wellness plans? You know, be more will there be more or less human connection as AI becomes more prevalent? You know, will things be, or how will things be different in 10 to 20 years? I'll take anything you can give me.
00:44:48
Speaker
Man, I think that there is a world in the future where um one, your there are solutions like Everlast that know a lot about you on how your health is evolving and your dayto- day to day.
00:45:03
Speaker
There's also technology that is being built around, not just, okay, I'm gonna wear this watch or I'm gonna you know send a voice note to my coach on phone and that's gonna get recorded and be part of a program.
00:45:14
Speaker
There is um technology that's being built around my house. So if if I ah had a ah a good night's sleep, maybe the curtains go up earlier, right? And things like that, it just happened automatically.
00:45:28
Speaker
I do think in my bed and where I am spending my time, energy and resources in making sure that that world that we're all building towards and that we're creating technology for um doubles down on human connection and prioritizes the fact that, yes, there are going to be all these things that are going to do all these things for us and then
00:45:52
Speaker
we need to have a way to foster connection with people, connection in in real, like in person, digitally as well. um I talk a lot about with with investors generally about you know the future of technology and just the fact that We can't do that. doesn't mean that we should be doing that.
00:46:14
Speaker
um But yeah, i want to I want to grow up or I want my kids to grow up perhaps in a world where their health is is is more more present. It's easier to understand and do something about it. But at the same time, they can also um spend time with their friends, spend time with their families and actually enjoy life.
00:46:33
Speaker
I like that picture you were painting about, you know, if I had... technology that could read certain markers and instantly know, you know, how to turn on or off, you know, things. And it's funny, you know, five or 10 years ago, you know, we'd popularized IoT, right? The Internet of Things. And we we we have smart homes now that could operate, you know,
00:46:55
Speaker
this sort of symphonic way, right? All of the different parts and pieces. And, you know, I, I kind of see you describe that world where we have smart people, um, meant differently than smart people, smart people. Um, but it, it, it sounds like a very cool world if, uh, you know, if handled, handled obviously responsibly.
00:47:18
Speaker
um What's your advice for up and coming business leaders? You know, you' you've been one in multiple organizations. You're a founder now helping folks with deal with their their stress and and how it affects them in their workplace.
00:47:32
Speaker
What would be your single most important piece of advice that, you know, you you have one thing that you can tell them you're on an elevator up to the top floor and it's about to open and you watch them walk out the door. What is it you say? would say lead from the front.
00:47:44
Speaker
100% from the front, be the example. Your team will follow, your team will do what you do, not what you say, you know, follow through. If you don't have to send that email at midnight, don't send the mid email at midnight.
00:47:58
Speaker
Be open, I would say. But yeah, it's it's more about, I think that like, Genuine leadership is is something that the business world needs, but the world just in general needs right now.
00:48:15
Speaker
People who are true to their values, who can understand how others think and and what others bring to the table. i would I hope if there's one advice, that to be it, right? And through that, make sure that you take care of your body. Make sure you take care of a head.
00:48:33
Speaker
Yeah.
Conclusion: Enhancing Workplace Happiness
00:48:35
Speaker
I think that's incredibly insightful um and very good advice. Thanks so much for joining me today, Gonzo. Curtis, thanks your time. Yeah. Also big thanks to all of you for tuning into mustard hub voices behind the build.
00:48:49
Speaker
Please like share this episode, subscribe so you don't miss the next one and visit mustard hub.com to learn more about how we help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and culture into a competitive edge.
00:49:03
Speaker
And while you're there, be sure to sign up to get started with mustard hub for free again. Thanks for joining us until next time.