July 10, 2024 • 45 mins
What a lively and insightful episode! Hosts Rick Haney and Kaleem Clarkson chat with Tegan Bukowski, the innovative co-founder and CEO of WellSet.
Tegan's unique upbringing set the stage for her extraordinary journey, beginning with her formative years living on a 34-foot powerboat in Puget Sound, Washington. This unconventional lifestyle, which Tegan humorously refers to as her first remote working job, fostered her independence and adaptability.
Her transition from life on the boat to a successful career in Los Angeles is marked by impressive academic and professional achievements. Her dedication to social impact became evident through her nonprofit work, leading projects worldwide, such as designing a photovoltaic field in Rwanda and conducting art therapy with children affected by conflict. This work has received recognition in prestigious publications like The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Vogue.
Our guest transitioned from architecture at Zaha Hadid, where health challenges led her to explore holistic health, creating WellSet, the first holistic health platform for teams to combat burnout. Her decade-long journey saw wellness evolve from niche to necessity, driven by her personal health struggles. Becoming a yoga instructor, she used yoga, meditation, and diet to manage her condition, teaching globally.
Key achievements include wellness activations for companies like Samsung and Lululemon, often through organic opportunities from her rooftop sessions. Co-founding WellSet with Sky Meltzer in 2018, they pivoted from in-person sessions to digital offerings during the pandemic, with the Stay at Home Wellness Festival attracting 45,000 participants. This success transformed WellSet into a digital studio with diverse daily classes.
Tegan's journey through wellness, entrepreneurship, and remote work encapsulates the evolving landscape of holistic health and the profound impact of the pandemic on work and wellbeing! Her story is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the enduring importance of community and holistic care in navigating modern challenges. Thank you for joining us this time, Tegan!
Learn more about Tegan:
- Tegan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teganbukowski/
- WellSet: https://www.wellset.co/
More about us:
- Remotely One’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/remotelyone
- Remotely One’s Webpage: https://www.remotelyone.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kaleem (00:00):
Where did you originally grow up?
Tegan (00:02):
On a boat in Puget Sound in Washington State.
That's remote working.
Remote working from a boat.
Rick (00:10):
Yarr
Tegan (00:11):
That's my first remote working job.
We can talk about it.
Kaleem (00:15):
were born on a boat.
Tegan (00:16):
I wasn't born on the boat,
Kaleem (00:18):
Oh, wait, you were actually born in a hospital.
Tegan (00:20):
I was born in a hospital.
Rick (00:23):
But the hospital was a bOat
Tegan (00:26):
I wasn't born on the boat, but I lived there for 10
years growing up beforegraduating from high schooL.
Rick (00:31):
So the first ten years of your life you were raised on a
boat in Puget Sound Puget Sound
Tegan (00:36):
until 18.
Rick (00:37):
Eight That's amazing
Kaleem (00:39):
Did you believe in mermaids?
Yes or no?
Tegan (00:41):
Yeah, definitely.
Rick (00:50):
Welcome back to Remotely One I am your co host Rick Haney
joined by my esteemed colleagueKaleem Clarkson What's going
down
Kaleem (00:58):
Jazz hands Super jazzed up
Rick (01:05):
Oh this is going to be fun This is going to be so much fun
Kaleem (01:08):
Your baby blues is still shining through bro.
They're looking good again, man.
Looking good again.
You're
Rick (01:13):
Stop Stop Hey everybody Since you know how to find us do
us a huge favor and go to ratethis podcast com forward slash
remotely one and leave us areview That's it No big deal
Again it's rate this podcast comforward slash If you could do
(01:34):
that for us we would be ever sothankful Since 2015 RemotelyOne
is one of the largestcommunities of remote work
professionals With over 3 000Slack members and 5 000 email
subscribers And if I'm notmistaken that number is growing
Five That's awesome It's free tojoin so go check it out at
(01:57):
remotelyone com And with thatout of the way Kaleem my brother
Give us a tease or two abouttoday's guest
Kaleem (02:05):
bro.
Like what happens is, you know,we booked these guests and then
I'm like, ah, no big deal.
We're going to talk to you.
No big deal.
And then the day of I startedgetting real nervous, Rick.
And you know, I swept through myshirts, buddy.
Rick (02:19):
perspiry You get all perspiry
Kaleem (02:20):
Oh my gosh.
And it's just like an airplaneover here.
So
Rick (02:24):
I want you to turn that perspiration into inspiration
And we're gonna do that today
Kaleem (02:32):
yes, yes, I am inspired.
Do you know why I'm inspiredabout, about today's guest Rick?
Rick (02:36):
Uh lay it on me What
Kaleem (02:39):
is originally from the ocean and they now reside.
Yeah.
The ocean.
And they now reside in LosAngeles.
Okay.
They have touch land and they nolonger have fins.
The water was splashed on her inthe middle of the city.
Okay.
And then, you know, she had finsin the middle of the city, but
now she found her true loveRick.
(03:00):
So now she can walk on land nowand not have to live in the
ocean.
Unbelievable.
It's amazing.
Not only that Rick, our guestdid not just stop there.
She didn't just learn to walkand come out of the ocean.
She knows some shits.
Rick (03:16):
Okay okay let's hear it let's hear
Kaleem (03:18):
She knows some shits.
She got into the air forceAcademy.
Okay.
not only that she has hermaster's in architecture from
just a tiny little school.
No big deal.
Yeah.
Rick (03:31):
Yale That's big time
Kaleem (03:34):
Yep.
Yep.
And she did all that afterliving on a boat until high
school son after living on aboat until high school.
We're like, where are you?
Where are you from?
She goes?
I don't know because I was bornon a boat and I lived on the
boat.
Yes.
Now you weren't technically bornon the boat, right?
(03:55):
Guest.
Tegan (03:56):
No, I wasn't, but we can tell that story today, we can
even make it
Rick (04:00):
we're gonna go with
Tegan (04:01):
We
Kaleem (04:02):
you did live on a boat all the way until high school.
Pretty
Tegan (04:06):
Yeah, I did with my mom and it wasn't a houseboat.
A lot of people are like, Oh,it's, you know, one of those
big, like fancy Seattle, like,you know, sleepless in Seattle
type house floating housethings.
No, no, it was a 34, it was a 34foot power boat.
So
Kaleem (04:27):
I don't like small spaces.
I don't like small
Tegan (04:31):
No, it was, it was honestly beautiful though,
because that was why we ended upon the powerboat, not on a
sailboat, because it had thesebig windows, and it was really
beautiful.
It was antique.
It was, um, beautiful teak andmahogany wood everywhere.
So it was, it was beautiful, butit was a powerboat.
Kaleem (04:45):
That is unbelievable, but it worked out.
It worked out, Rick, Rick, thework that she has been done.
Just take this, just look at afew places.
We're just going to name them afew because I can't name them
all.
Rick.
Okay,
Rick (04:58):
you can try I mean that list is impressive
Kaleem (05:01):
her work has been featured in the New York Times,
Time Magazine, Fast Company.
Fast Design, TechCrunch, MartyBeingreen, Huffington Post,
Vogue Magazine.
I'm tired.
I'm
Rick (05:14):
Do I see Mother Jones on there
Kaleem (05:16):
Mother
Tegan (05:17):
That's a really interesting project, if you guys
want to talk about that one,that was featured in Mother
Rick (05:21):
do
Kaleem (05:22):
And Business Insight.
Oh, Glamour.
Glamour Magazine.
And of course, she got in thealma mater.
Yo, Retrospector.
I can't even say it.
Oh, Rick, our guest is the cofounder and CEO of WellSet,
which is the first holistichealth platform for teams.
(05:45):
Listeners and viewers, pleasegive a warm welcome to Teagan
Bukowski! Let's go! Let's go!Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Let's go! Let's go!
Rick (06:05):
Alright people
Kaleem (06:05):
down Settle Down studio.
Settle
Tegan (06:09):
you, thank you,
Kaleem (06:10):
They're so loud.
They're so loud.
Thank
Rick (06:13):
Teagan I mean we can't control these people All I can
say is that they're excited tosee you and hear your story
Tegan (06:19):
I'm excited to see them.
Kaleem (06:21):
Big crowd, big crowd.
Rick (06:22):
Yes Yes thank you for joining us Yeah it's really
great to have you
Tegan (06:27):
Yeah, great, great to be here.
And actually, as you werelisting off the, which I don't
normally hear a list of all theplaces that the work has been
featured all at once, but itmade me think about how you
know, I started My career in thenonprofit space, actually doing
a lot of different projects,creating a lot of different
teams, and they were alwaysremote.
I hadn't actually thought aboutthat until this moment, but
(06:48):
actually, you know, even thatmother Jones project that we
could talk about was a fullyremote team internationally, and
we were getting a lot done.
So, anyway, it's great to behere.
Kaleem (06:57):
Tegan, seeming you just blew off our first question that
we had for you.
Tell us about your firstexperience working remotely.
Damn it.
I don't know.
I don't know.
We got to talk about MotherJones.
Tegan (07:09):
All right.
I guess the, the nonprofitexperience is probably my most
applicable working remotely,although we were going to talk
about working remotely on theboat when I was like 13 and we
were going to
Kaleem (07:20):
Listen, this is your show, Tegan.
You C you can,
Tegan (07:22):
That is not my show.
This is your show.
Rick (07:24):
the captain
Tegan (07:24):
right.
Setting the stage
Kaleem (07:27):
that.
She the captain of the ship.
Did you hear it?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Tegan (07:32):
captain of
Kaleem (07:33):
You get it'cause you grew up on a boat just playing.
Rick (07:35):
Get it Get it Wink wink Nudge nudge
Tegan (07:40):
I wasn't the captain though, I mean, that's, that's
the,
Kaleem (07:43):
Seriously, now
Tegan (07:44):
it's true.
Um, working on the boat back inthe day.
I taught myself how to code andactually had, uh, you know, in
the 90s, my, my first kind ofproject was working, literally
sitting in the v berth of theboat, so in the front of the
boat, in my little v berth bed,coding at the age of 12.
And I started a website that Iwas teaching mostly girls how to
(08:05):
code.
Um, this was like before MySpaceand Facebook.
It was like back, back in theday.
back way back in the day.
That was kind of workingremotely.
But my, I think my, my firstexperience working with a team
remotely was probably my nonprofit experience.
So I started, what wasessentially kind of an umbrella,
501, C3 in college.
(08:25):
I went to WashU for undergrad,after I left the Air Force
Academy, I know you mentionedthat I went to the Air Force
Academy, and we were talkingabout this before the show, but
I think I, I chose to go to theAir Force Academy after living
on a boat because I had zerostructure.
Like, it was like, I was like awild child, like, running around
in my dinghy, like, you know,pet seals and stuff and I was
like, maybe I should stop beinga mermaid, and I should go into
(08:48):
the military.
That was the idea, that was thelink in my, like, 16 year old,
17 year old brain, I was like,military.
But and that was a greatexperience, but it was at the
end of the day, it was, I,that's a whole story, but I, I
wanted to do something much morecreative.
Well, it was just, I actuallyloved the military part, and I
am a supporter of the military.
(09:08):
I think the military is great,but I am an entrepreneur.
I have done a billion differentcreative projects.
I'm, I have an architect'sbrain.
It wasn't for me in terms of theeducation, but anyway, I ended
up at Wash U in St.
Louis, and they have just suchan incredible way of supporting
students to start their careerssocial impact projects.
(09:30):
And so I ended up getting agrant from the Gephardt
Institute.
And started this non profit.
It was called Artist Activists,but honestly, that name was
really just an umbrella name.
And we ended up doing projectsin nine different countries.
Ranging from designing EastAfrica's first utility scale
photovoltaic field that powers,I think, at one point, it
powered almost 10 percent of theRwandan energy grid, and powered
(09:50):
about 25, 000 village homes thatdidn't have power before, and it
financially powers an orphanageof about 650 kids.
That was started originallyafter the genocide in Rwanda,
and, you know, now it's, it'sbeen a while, so I think most of
the kids have graduated from thehouse.
But, that were affected by that,but it's just a, that was a
great project.
But we also did arts therapywith kids that had been affected
(10:13):
by warfare, natural disaster,election violence in Kenya.
And those projects were inHaiti.
And and we did one in Rwanda,did one in Kenya.
We did one in Columbia with kidsthat had been affected by the
guerrilla warfare there.
And then, and we had a team thatwent to, to Ghana and started a
radio school actually,applicable to you guys, and that
was really cool because wetaught a bunch of teenagers how
(10:35):
to run a radio station, and theywould teach agricultural best
practice over the radio inaddition to a bunch of other
things, so.
Kaleem (10:41):
so.
you did all this remotely
Tegan (10:43):
was all remote! They were
Kaleem (10:45):
while in college while
Tegan (10:46):
While in college! Yeah, and actually, and it was, it was
a totally different world then,obviously we didn't have things.
Like, you know, easy videoconferencing.
And so it was a lot of timespent on, messaging service, use
services.
I don't even, I can't rememberwhat we were using back then,
but, it was a lot of probablyaim.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm not that old actually.
Rick (11:07):
Heh
Tegan (11:08):
We're beyond aim.
That was, that was when I waslike
Kaleem (11:11):
you were like you're like, ha ha.
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Slow down.
Slow down.
I'm not that old.
Tegan (11:18):
old.
Rick (11:19):
Hehehe
Tegan (11:19):
insulted.
Rick (11:20):
Hehehe Hehehe
Tegan (11:23):
is a video, this is a video, podcast.
I know, but, for people who arelistening, I'm not, anyway.
Kaleem (11:29):
that's hilarious.
Tegan (11:31):
but, um, My most remote working experience that is
related to the non profit.
so I met I went to, I traveled,as a result of one of these
projects through the non profit,I traveled to the west of Rwanda
and I met an orphanage out therethat was a different one than
the one we were working with,run by a really, really cool
guy, Victor Montroy, calledL'Esperance.
(11:53):
And and he was telling me whenwe were there visiting that they
were really struggling to takepayments from people in Germany,
which is where they had a reallybig support system.
And so I ended up, and this isbefore there were really easy
payment gateways, so, um, nowthis would be such a, an easy
thing for them to do.
But back then, technotechnologically, it was really
hard for them to take paymentsinternationally and from the
(12:14):
web.
So I built them a paymentgateway.
Gateway portal website.
And because of that, I ended upmeeting an astronaut named Ron
Garan, and he, I actually didn'tmeet him there, he ended up
calling me maybe about sixmonths later when I was back in
the States, and I picked up thephone and he was like, hello, is
(12:37):
this Teagan?
And I was like, yes?
And he was like, this isastronaut Ron Garan.
And I was like, okay.
Rick (12:43):
Hehehe Hehehe
Tegan (12:46):
so I ended up working on
Kaleem (12:47):
this is actually not Buzz Lightyear
Tegan (12:49):
I know literally no, he is literally buzz light year.
Kaleem (12:51):
What
Tegan (12:52):
light
Rick (12:52):
Reach for the sky
Tegan (12:55):
He's the coolest.
But he was like, I'm about to goto the space station on the
Soyuz rocket in, you know, abouteight months and I wanna do.
Um, and so I ended up actuallyhelping him to build kind of
the, it's, it was a humanitarianmapping project from space using
(13:15):
this open source technologycalled Ushahidi.
It was a crisis mapping platformthat I'd been using in Kenya.
And anyway we created kind of a,like a blog slash mapping
project from the space station.
So I actually had the spacestation phone number in my phone
for a while and anyway, so
Kaleem (13:31):
this is crazy.
How like
Rick (13:34):
I've never talked to another human being who had the
space station phone number intheir phone
Tegan (13:39):
That's some remote working.
Kaleem (13:41):
I don't feel worthy
Tegan (13:42):
are definitely.
Rick (13:43):
I'm so out of place right now
Kaleem (13:45):
Like like she's just like yeah buzz light year was
like yo, you want to do thisproject with me?
And she's like
Rick (13:51):
Yes Ha
Kaleem (13:53):
tonight
Rick (13:53):
ha
Kaleem (13:54):
and
Tegan (13:56):
Ron is the coolest and he, he's still, I think that,
um, it got adopted, the project,it was called Fragile Oasis, got
adopted by NASA and then Ithink, I can't remember, I don't
know how, what, I actually don'tknow what's going, maybe you
guys should have Ron on the shownext, but, um, he's, he's, doing
all sorts of cool stuff,
Kaleem (14:10):
with Ron.
Tegan (14:11):
yeah, I'll, I will, um, but I remember one day I missed
a phone call, this is before Ihad the phone number for the
space station in my phone, Imissed a call while I was on a
different conference call.
And my phone was literallysitting, cause we were all
talking at my phone.
And you know, like huddledaround this phone.
I think it was an internationalcall to, for some project we
were doing.
(14:32):
And this number popped up and Iwas like, I think I need to
answer that, and so I missed it,and and so I called back, and it
was the Johnson Space, or theKennedy Space, it was the space,
I can't even remember whichspace center it was, it was like
a weird, it was like not themain one, and I was like, Okay,
so if the space station calledme from this number, is, this is
(14:53):
like, I was talking to theoperator.
Rick (14:55):
Right
Tegan (14:56):
like, if the space station called me from this
number, would this be the numberthat would pop up?
And the operator was like, No.
And then I hung up on me.
I'm like, no, I think this, thatactually is what happened.
But anyway, so that's a, um,it's a fun fact.
It was, I did actually, itroutes through the space center
and operator number and comes toyour phone.
(15:17):
But, um, so I couldn't call him,but it was great.
It was, I got to talk to them.
I had to be trained and how totalk to an astronaut while
they're in space.
Can't say some certain things.
Kaleem (15:25):
What couldn't you say?
What couldn't you say?
Tegan (15:27):
Well, they're concerned about the mental health of
astronauts while they're up,which makes sense.
and, um, well, You can't talkabout, like, political stuff.
You wouldn't, you, they wouldn'twant you to say if you knew some
information about, like, afamily member of theirs, like,
basically, they don't want youto say anything distressing
because
Kaleem (15:44):
Right.
Tegan (15:44):
it makes sense, you know, they're, like,
Kaleem (15:46):
Right.
So there's, they weren't like,don't say pizza because they're,
they really want
Tegan (15:50):
No.
Kaleem (15:51):
Okay.
That's definitely a remoteexperience.
While we've definitely a I'venever met anyone that had the
space station's number in theirphone.
So that's the checkmark.
Rick (16:01):
could you text that to me
Kaleem (16:02):
Can
Tegan (16:07):
it's not gonna actually get you very far.
Rick (16:10):
Well I definitely don't know her
Kaleem (16:12):
Can you text?
Yeah, if you got anything,that'd be awesome.
If we could do if she texts usthe number and we just started
prank calling the space stationevery day like hello.
Yeah, it's impressive.
Rick (16:26):
Since we're talking about mental health it's a perfect
segue into what you're doingwith your company and I just I
have so many questions butReally what I want to know is
the phrase as you describe it isum the burnout epidemic is what
we're dealing with And peopleare being forced you know to
make drastic career changesbecause of it So you know that
(16:49):
being said you know how did youmigrate from architecture to
holistic wellness and how did ithow did you land where you are
now
Tegan (16:57):
That's a good question.
So I was working for thearchitect, Zaha Hadid.
She was my professor at Yale andthen hired me afterwards.
She's the, for people who don'tknow who Aha ad is, she.
She's, she was, she passed away,but she was the, probably one of
the most famous architects of ofour era, of our age but she's
(17:18):
very, she does very parametricdesigns, so it's all like, um,
like super space, space agelooking, and it's really, really
cool, Loved working there butin, in college, grad school, and
then also, um, the early days ofmy architecture career, I was
working extremely long hours.
It's kind of, architects arefamous for working insane hours
(17:42):
and having to pull all nightersall the time.
And I think probably my body wasjust like, don't do that
anymore.
But I ended up getting a chronicinflammatory condition.
That kept on landing me in thehospital over and over again and
actually doctors were telling methat I might need to live on
steroids for the rest of my lifefor it.
And I just really didn't, I meanit was basically because of
(18:04):
stress but it was also becausemy body is also prone to, um, I
have like a, an inflammatorycondition anyway, and so it was
like the combination of the twothings together but I mean it,
but it was really, reallyhardcore.
I would end up in the hospitallike with internal bleeding for
like two weeks at a time.
Like it was like serious.
And so yeah, so they were like,you could live on steroids and I
(18:25):
really just, I didn't want to dothat.
I didn't want to kind of giveinto this, like, having to rely
on a drug like that.
Of course, if it helps people,that's great, and if I ended up
needing to do it, I would havedone it.
But they also told me in thehospital that I could try a more
holistic approach.
But then what happened was thatthey told me also that they had
(18:46):
zero tools for me to try tofigure it out.
They were like, you're gonnahave to go and figure it out on
your own, basically.
And so,
Kaleem (18:53):
They're like, you could do the drugs for the rest of
your life and you could, youknow, do steroids or whatever
for the rest of your life.
Or you could try somethingholistic.
We've heard that works.
But,
Rick (19:01):
Yeah
Tegan (19:02):
But we can't help you.
Yeah.
Rick (19:03):
it's easier to write you a prescription and I'll get
kickbacks from thepharmaceutical company if I
Tegan (19:07):
Yeah, exactly.
So I ended up needing to kind ofjust figure it out on my own.
And, this was more than 10 yearsago.
And I think, you know, in thepast 10 years, the, you know,
wellness wellbeing industry hasjust completely exploded and
there are a lot more tools and alot, there's a lot more
information and there's like awellbeing column in the New York
times.
But back then it was barely evendiscussed.
(19:28):
It was kind of a, Like, you'dhave to find a practitioner or
somebody to help you, like a,like a nutritionist or something
or a health coach on your co op,uh, bulletin board, you know,
that's like, it didn't reallyexist as a thing.
So, I ended up becoming a yogainstructor through this journey
of like, just figuring it out onmy own because I got really into
yoga and meditation andmindfulness and that sort of
(19:49):
thing.
And,
Kaleem (19:50):
Were you noticing an improvement though?
Like as you got involved inthat?
Were you like, huh, I went toyoga, feeling I'm feeling okay.
Like like
Tegan (19:57):
the biggest, the thing that helped me and my particular
condition the most was, I wenton a really extreme anti
inflammatory diet for six monthsand it just kind of like fully
reset things.
And like, I don't live on thatdiet all the time, but it was
really, really helpful.
It almost felt like, cause I'vealso taken the steroids, it
almost felt the same as takingthe steroids, like in terms of
(20:18):
like how my body felt is it wasso good.
It's super resetting and calmingand I've had some little flare
ups here and there in the last,um, you know, 10 years, but it's
been way more under control thanbefore and I ended up not
needing to be on the steroids.
So for me that was really,really helpful and continues to
be really helpful and, but Ithink that journey basically led
(20:39):
me to discovering the holistic,yeah, the holistic side of
things.
And there's so many aspects ofit that.
are so helpful for so manypeople.
So the yoga thing ended up justbeing kind of a byproduct of
that.
And then also the mindfulnessside of things.
And I ended up teachingmindfulness and around, around
the world of yoga andmindfulness and Croatia and
(21:00):
England and all sorts of placesat festivals and different
things.
And, um, I mean, I think interms of remote work, I'm just
like, I'm just now realizinglike how much remote work I've
done in my life, even before thepandemic because of all these
projects that were sointernational.
So
We'll be right back after thesewords.
2020 was no joke.
It changed the game foreveryone.
(21:23):
Workplace flexibility is nolonger a perk, but an
expectation.
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(21:44):
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That's blendmeinc.
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Ever wonder how certain adscatch your attention or get
stuck in your head?
It's because the person voicingit knows how to tell the story.
Maybe they're telling you tostumble over to Sullivan St.
(22:25):
Patrick's day for green beers,Irish car bombs, and con beef
all freaking day.
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Hoo wee, Cooters! Or, here atBrooks Brothers Mortuary, we put
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Everyone is just dying to joinus.
Alright, well that's a bit much,but for you, I'll do it.
I'm Rick Haney, and if you're abusiness owner looking for a
creative voice in yourmarketing, look no further.
(23:07):
I'll tell your story the way youwant it told.
Follow along at RemotelyWeAreOneor visit my website at
rickhaney.
me for more information.
And now, back to the show.
So another side side project of mine back in the day
was we helping to work on afestival in Sweden.
(23:29):
And that was all remote work,but that was in, you know, that
in 2010.
So I was like way beforenormally people would have been
doing a lot of remote work.
But anyway, so, I ended upstarting a rooftop yoga class
with a friend of mine just forfun.
We started running classes at abig hotel in New York on, like
overlooking the city from thisrooftop.
And it really caught on reallyfast.
(23:50):
We had yoga on helicopter padsand like famous people were
showing up at the classes and westarted growing this community
kind of accidentally, likeAriana Huffington was at our
class.
And Misty Copeland and, like,all these really cool people
and,
Kaleem (24:02):
Yeah.
Tegan (24:03):
was about, I guess, 10 years ago.
And, again, kind of before yogawas everywhere, which is hard to
imagine.
It's hard to imagine a time whenall of this wasn't around.
But that kind of started tointroduce me to the idea that,
you know, this, a lot of peoplethat were coming to our sessions
were, had really similar, youknow, Kind of healing journeys
or, you know, health issues thatthey wanted to address more
(24:26):
holistically that they didn'tknow where to turn.
And so the kind of next step forthat little company was to do
the first wellness activationsfor companies like Samsung and
Polaroid and Lululemon.
Kaleem (24:38):
Right off the bat, like, so, so you're doing this on the
rooftop, doing yoga on therooftop of these buildings in
New York, you're like, wow, thisis getting kind of big.
And you're like, the next stepis why don't we Show this to
businesses like I was justtrying to understand where you
got the connection to like pitchit to business.
I mean, I
Tegan (24:56):
I can't even remember what happened.
Maybe somebody came to one ofour rooftops.
I mean, this was a long time
Rick (25:02):
Yeah sounds like it might have happened organically
Kaleem (25:04):
Yeah.
Tegan (25:05):
happened pretty organically, and then We ended
up doing the Wellness Loungesfor Fashion Week with IMGWME,
and that was because of, a cofounder that we brought in named
Jordan, who's, um, It's amazing.
And she is just, you know,incredibly connected within the
fashion world.
And so that, that's where thatcame from, but yeah, there was
just, what happened though isthat, you know, for the fashion
(25:26):
week lounges, for example, we'dhave people come in to our
lounge and there would be, therewas a kind of a pop up
situation.
So we had like a little, like.
store that we had popped upwith, honestly, a ton of brands
that are now huge brands in wellbeing, but were just like baby
brands then.
It's like Sun Potion, FourSigmatic, like all these like,
little itty bitty brands thatare now huge.
(25:47):
And then we also hadpractitioners that would be
giving little mini sessions andwhat we kept on hearing over and
over again was, I'm doing cancertreatment and I would love to
have an acupuncturist to be, youknow, complimenting my cancer
treatment, but I don't knowwhere to find one.
Or, I've got some fertilityissues and I would love to try
(26:10):
talking to a health coach and Idon't know where to find one.
And so it kept on being thisthing, you know, like, I can't
find one.
I ended up starting, my company,Wellset with my co founder, Sky
Meltzer.
He was the CEO of Manduka, theyoga mat company, for about 10
years.
And he had just had his secondprivate equity exit with
Manduka, and had been lookinginto a, Concept for a
(26:34):
marketplace and he knew that Iwas kind of working in that
space trying to, you know, builda marketplace.
So we were connected and welaunched market well set as a
marketplace in early days and
Kaleem (26:45):
What year is this?
roughly?
Tegan (26:46):
in 2018
Kaleem (26:48):
Okay.
Okay.
So
Tegan (26:50):
I guess we fundraise in 2019.
Kaleem (26:52):
So now you've done all this, this work up, you started
the company and this is prepandemic.
And I'm assuming things aregoing okay.
I'm assuming things are signingup.
All right.
I'm just going to take a guess.
Did you start the companyremotely?
Cause I'm assuming is your cofounder in the same place that
you were or
Tegan (27:10):
We did originally start remotely and then when we got
funding, I moved to la I was inSan Francisco and he was in Los
Angeles.
And so I ended up moving andmoving to la but we ended up
getting an office for a littlewhile, for just in 2019.
But then of course the pandemic.
Kaleem (27:27):
right.
Tegan (27:28):
And, and, and actually the pandemic really changed how
our business was built and inthose early days we created the
largest marketplace of holisticproviders, I think, in the
world.
And most of them, about like 95percent of them at that point
pre pre pandemic were all inperson sessions.
And so that really, really,really drastically changed with
(27:49):
the pandemic.
And we were actually supposed tolaunch the platform in March of
2020, which we obviously we hadto, we had to change our launch
date.
Kaleem (27:58):
whether funders okay with that?
You had to you had no
Tegan (28:00):
Yeah, you have to, it's a, the pandemic was pretty,
everybody understood.
Kaleem (28:04):
yeah, I mean it must have just been mind blowing just
hearing you talk about likewe're building this up and then
all of a sudden You know wherewe're getting ready to launch
everyone's excited and Then thathappened and you're like, oh no,
I just Wow
Tegan (28:22):
Yeah, I know it was wild.
And I think I'm definitely aperson who, I think I see the
writing on the wall.
I don't, um, like double down onsomething that's not working.
Which is, I think served ourcompany really well.
So we've been able to like pivotin little ways and like find our
direction instead of you know, Ithink some people are like, no,
this is what we're doing.
And then they, it's, you know,you can really drive something
(28:45):
into the ground by, by not beingflexible, but we've been really
flexible with it with listeningto the market and just kind of
figuring it out.
One of the things that happenedwas that, in the early days of
the pandemic, we realized, youknow, we have 20, 000 wellbeing
practitioners that we havevetted and background checked
and we, it's kind of almost madeus the biggest talent agency for
(29:07):
these types of wellbeingpractitioners.
And with my events backgroundand our company's events
background, We realized that wecould offer something really
great for people when they werestuck at home, especially in
those early days when everybodywas really nervous.
Nobody knew what was going on.
It's hard to even remember atthis point how scared everyone
was.
(29:27):
I know it's, but it was really ascary time and people had COVID
and were stuck at home for areally long time with not seeing
anyone and not knowing whetherthey were going to die.
Literally, it was really scary.
And so, We ended up startingsomething that we called the
Stay at Home Wellness Festival,which was about six weeks of ten
hours per day of live Zoomclasses.
(29:51):
And our practitioners wereteaching, we had a whole range
of different topics, we'dpublish a new schedule every
day, and we had 45, 000 peoplecome to that to that festival.
And it was all organic, weweren't doing any ads and people
just loved it.
And so that was kind of thefirst, thing that we saw that
was like, you know what,actually, maybe the in person
(30:12):
one on one thing is not actuallythe direction for the company.
Maybe actually we can reduce theprice point of everything by
making a group classes anddelivering it with like a
really, really inexpensivemembership.
And and so what we have now is aplatform, a digital digital
studio that gives people accessto Uh, you have 24 hours a day,
(30:32):
to these classes that are in agroup format.
So there are up to six liveclasses per day, every day, with
practitioners ranging fromhypnotherapists through to EFT
tapping, um, we haveacupressure, we have myofascial
release with posture classes,nonviolent communication classes
with therapists.
So it really, really ranges thewhole gamut of all of the
(30:54):
different types of of, holisticcare, kind of mind, body,
spirit, holistic care.
And we've packaged it up for areally, really cheap price point
for teams because we actually,the pandemic really, you know,
making everything more remotehas created a lot of, need for,
you know, even more of this,like kind of wellbeing stuff
being delivered to people intheir homes.
Yeah.
Rick (31:14):
I would say so
Kaleem (31:15):
it's almost like, for a lot of people, the pandemic,
including Rick and I, it was areally scary time, but like the
forced ability to kind of workremotely spurred a lot of
innovation during that time.
And it made us kind of rethinkhow we live and what priorities
some people had.
(31:36):
So it's just cool to hear fromyou.
Like you had this great idea tostart off with and then the
pandemic happens.
And because of how people werefeeling.
You all were like, Hey, how canwe help?
And it's almost like yourwillingness to help.
You could tell you you come froma place of wanting to help just
hearing your story, right?
(31:56):
Like started charity in college.
You started coding when you're12 years old to help other kids
learn how to code, like, so youhave this passion of giving and
it's just really great to hearthat giving kind of helped you
all kind of blossom too.
I'm sure that wasn't the plangoing in and now look at you
today.
So I kudos to the world.
(32:18):
I'm doing
Rick (32:18):
Yeah
Kaleem (32:19):
putting some more good back out there, you know,
Rick (32:21):
yeah no it's wonderful And yeah and what I was just gonna
interject with is that we stillhave so much work to do.
I feel like People had pandemicfatigue.
You know long before we declaredthat this pandemic was over they
just wanted to get back tonormal.
And You know moving beyond thatyou know over the past year been
(32:42):
seeing kind of a disconnectbetween Managers executives
whatever and what employees wantyou know you know Working
remotely do you think that thekind of the friction between
them is really a driving forcebehind people wanting just to
feel better?
Like is it causing them a lot offriction in their own lives to
(33:06):
know that I just want moreflexibility I gotta start living
better but I also have to workLike can you talk a little bit
at all about that relationship?
Yeah
Tegan (33:16):
I mean, I think that at the end of the day, I think a
lot of people talk about in thebenefits space, like how they
can really move the needle onthings, like how HR teams and
managers can move the needle onthings like retention and,
presenteeism or absenteeism.
And, a lot of times if you askthe employees what they want,
(33:36):
really all they want is, To workless and be paid more.
It's really comes down to that,
Rick (33:43):
Yes
Kaleem (33:43):
Yes.
Yes.
Tegan (33:46):
problem is like it's almost like you have to talk to
us.
I'm including me.
I'm an employee of my companytoo.
And like, I'm like, yeah, it'dbe great to be paid more and
work less.
I would love that.
But it's almost like you have totalk to us all like little kids.
Cause like, you know, littlekids also like, they want the
marshmallow, right?
It's like you just want themarshmallow, or you want the
cookie, but you know that if youjust eat cookies all day long,
you're gonna get sick, and like,you gotta also eat some
(34:07):
vegetables.
And so, I think that can'talways be the answer, to just be
paid more and work less.
There have to be other thingsthat we, as the employees, have
to be like, you know what,actually, Yes, I need to, like,
take care of my well being andso that will make me feel better
as well.
I need to take care of myselfand be given the tools to take
care of myself.
And that includes a bunch ofdifferent things, not just the
stuff that we're working onproviding.
(34:29):
You know, it also includes, alot of things that are not
really being addressed right nowin, in our country very well.
It includes child care andelderly care.
It includes, you know, just,it's like, you know, all of the
things that go into.
helping somebody to feel betterin their workday, that, that are
not necessarily about like whatyou're doing when you're sitting
down or the number of hours thatyou're working.
(34:50):
And so, I think that there is alittle bit of a shift in mindset
right now, among managers and HRteams to see, you know, how they
can support people in theirwider lives.
And I think, I think like mentalhealth and well being and health
care all happens outside of theoffice for the most part, like,
(35:11):
you know, some things mighthappen in the office, but for
the most part, it's outside ofthe office.
So it's all about equippingemployees to act or empowering
employees and empowering teamsto actually make better choices
in their off time, actually, youknow, it's like, how do you
spend your evenings?
How do you spend your mornings?
What are you choosing to put inyour body?
(35:32):
What are you choosing to do withyour body outside of the office?
I don't know if that answersyour question,
Rick (35:36):
Yeah No you know it's all relative I I think that one
thing I've realized is that astragic as the pandemic was I
mean we lost a lot of people andit's incredibly sad and tragic
but in my mind something had tohappen I would rather have it
not been as tragic as thepandemic was but you know I feel
(35:58):
like coming out of it now we'reall starting to realize How
unhealthy we were not all of usof course but you know something
needed to change and we wereforced to change how we were
living And now it's like thesethoughts are just unfortunately
they're starting to catch up tous to a lot of people and
(36:20):
they're just realizing now wowdid I have it all wrong before
You know look at all the thingsI used to take for granted
Kaleem (36:28):
right.
Like holistic wellbeing is aprime example of a space that
really grew significantly, in myopinion, in the last five years
because of people startedreprioritizing, you know, I want
to move closer to my family.
I don't mind seeing the cat goacross the desk anymore or an
interruption from a childbecause like we started putting
(36:50):
humans first because there wassomething so tragic that was
going on.
We started saying, well, dang,we're just human.
So kind of take care ofourselves first.
So,
Rick (36:59):
And obviously we're not here for very long
Kaleem (37:01):
Right.
And the fact that you made areally cool point about like all
of these things are new.
And how organizations are likean HR department.
A lot of people, ops people andTegan, I can't believe didn't
hit up that area of transform.
I'm All the people at transform.
A lot of times you hear people,ops, people talking, and it's
(37:24):
like, HR got all thisresponsibility.
You know, now we got to beconcerned about some of the
things outside of the office sothat they're productive inside
of the office.
and I like the way you put itabout like providing resources
for people to, to decide howthey would like to spend their
time outside of work.
(37:44):
That's really cool.
That's really cool.
Tegan (37:46):
Well, and I think, like, the remote working side of
things also is, I think we'renever going to go back to
people, everybody just, youknow, expecting that working in
the office full time is normal.
This is just my opinion, but Ithink there will always be at
least a hybrid element to a lotof jobs to jobs that that is
possible, just because I thinkthat there was such a shift in
(38:09):
mental health and, you know,being able to take care of your
elders and your kids, becausethey're at your house, probably
and actually, that happened tomy family during the pandemic.
We were taking care of my mygrandparents and, it was a great
thing that, that I was able tobe at home and not in an office
every day because of that.
I think everybody now has seenthat there could be a different
(38:30):
way.
You know, over, over themillennia, we've moved away from
being really like, um, Well,actually, I should say Western
world, because I think, youknow, there's still some
communities around the worldthat still do things in a
different way.
But Western, the Western worldhas moved away from supporting
each other in a community kindof way.
(38:51):
And it's become all about theindividuals in the nuclear
family, but that has becomereally problematic.
It's put a ton of pressure onpeople who are working out of
the pre pandemic out in theworld and then having to come
back and figure out a way to gettheir kids have to be someplace
else.
Somebody else has to help thempick up their kids from
someplace because they're acrosstown working in an office.
(39:12):
And you know, now we've kind ofseen like, Oh, wait a second,
actually.
If I can work from home or atleast in a hybrid way, I can be
there for my kids at pickup andI can still be there for all the
meetings I need to be at.
I can take my aging parent tothe doctor and shift my meetings
around.
So it's possible.
And I just, I think that I I'mtalking a lot about care because
I think that was one of thebiggest things that shifted
(39:34):
because of the pandemic.
Rick (39:36):
A huge driver
Tegan (39:36):
yeah, huge, huge driver, and on the mental health care
side of things, I think thatremote working really was hard
for a lot of people, mentally,there's a lot of loneliness,
there's a lot of feeling likethe day is blending into the
night, and you just like there'sa lot of Boundary setting.
And so I think a lot of peoplehave had to figure out how
(39:57):
they've had to teach themselveshow to put boundaries in.
And, I think there's a lot ofwork to do on the loneliness
side of things still because Ithink a lot of people still do
feel that way.
And so, you know, I think that'ssomething we try to do.
It's hard for us.
It's a digital platform toreally do that.
But we just started this humanhumans network for HR people,
for people ops, uh, teammembers.
So ranging from more juniormembers to CHROs.
(40:19):
And we're bringing, you know, HRteams together in community
because we've heard from themover and over and over again
that their jobs are superlonely.
They feel pressure from aboveand below and and they're the
ones that are setting the tonefor their whole team.
So we, you know, as peopleleaders that it's their job to
set the culture.
And so we really believe in Likea trickle down system of like,
(40:41):
if we can get the mental healthand the loneliness problem
solved at the HR level thenhopefully that can translate
down into better mental healthand better well being for their
teams as well.
Kaleem (40:51):
really, really, interesting
Tegan (40:52):
yeah.
Kaleem (40:52):
for sure.
I like
Rick (40:53):
Yeah Yeah definitely.
So Teagan can you tell us abouta comical or inspiring moment
you have had while workingremotely
Kaleem (41:01):
yes,
Tegan (41:02):
Sure, so I, I think, I don't know, it's, I think one of
my favorite pandemic momentswas, um, I was working at home
at my grandparents house,actually.
And they have since passed away,which is very sad, but I was so
grateful because of being ableto work remotely to get to spend
a ton of time with them in thoseyears.
I wouldn't have been able tootherwise.
(41:23):
I would have been, I would havebeen in an office and instead I
got to work from their housewith them for weeks at a time,
sometimes months at a time.
And, My favorite thing thathappened was I was on a really
important investor meeting.
I had a bunch of people on theother line, like a board of
people, like listening to metalk and my, my.
It was serious, and to mygrandparents, I'm still their
(41:47):
grandkid, who is like a baby tothem, you know, I'm
Kaleem (41:51):
course.
Tegan (41:52):
of a tech company, I'm, I'm like,
Kaleem (41:54):
Oh little TT.
Little
Tegan (41:56):
I'm a little, yeah, exactly, Teags, Teags, and so
I'm sitting in the kitchen, and,my grandpa who would normally
stay kind of like in the back ofthe house.
I didn't really expect for himto come through, so I didn't
warn him, but he like comes inwith his walker and pauses like
right behind me in the view andhe's the cutest.
And I love him so much, but he'slike hard of hearing and also
(42:16):
blind.
And so he doesn't know what'sgoing on.
And he's just like yelling atme.
I'm just like.
Rick (42:22):
Ah
Kaleem (42:23):
What's he yelling at you for?
What's he yelling at you for?
Tegan (42:25):
no, I don't even know what he was saying, but he's
like, he was saying somethingabout the puppies.
I think that's what it was.
He comes in, he had these twolittle dogs and he'd be like,
he, he walked in and he waslike, puppies, puppies, And then
he started yelling and then hestarts, and I'm like, I don't
know, cause I, he can't evenhear me.
And so I'm like, Grandpa.
(42:47):
Speaking of muting yourself,Rick,
Rick (42:49):
Yeah yeah
Tegan (42:50):
myself.
Kaleem (42:51):
Oh my gosh.
So what happened?
So like everyone on the
Tegan (42:54):
it was fine.
It was, no, but I mean, it wasendearing.
It's fine.
It wasn't a problem, but can youimagine that happening before we
were all working remotely thatyour grandpa would be watching
the view behind you while you'rein a really important pitch
yelling about puppies?
Yeah.
Kaleem (43:09):
Out of curiosity.
Did you land the pitch?
He's like puppies.
Tegan (43:11):
I can't even remember.
Probably not.
Kaleem (43:14):
Well, you know what?
They're lost.
You shouldn't have.
Hey, wait, just to be sure, justin case you did get the funding
from the company, just in case.
Great job.
If you didn't, you're lost.
Good
Tegan (43:28):
barking.
So I'm going to get the fullworking remotely experience.
I can't remember what pitch itwas, but I only say probably not
because I pitch, you know, youjust don't, the probability is,
you know, it's like 10 percenthit rate.
So it's like probably one of the90%.
So one
Kaleem (43:42):
There it is.
There it is.
I mean, grandpa probably savedyou from some ridiculous terms.
You know what I mean?
So thanks Gramps.
He's looking out for you everytime.
He Still is.
Thanks.
Rick (43:54):
That's such a great story Tegan thank you so much
especially for your insights butsharing your experiences with us
and um
Kaleem (44:00):
Putting up with us.
Rick (44:01):
tolerating our juvenile behavior as I say you were a
super sport and we were we're soglad to have you here Where can
our listeners and viewers findyou
Tegan (44:11):
So Wellset is at wellset.
co.
So W E L L S E T dot C C O.
If they want to join HumanHumans, if they're on a, people,
um, So if you're on the GoogleOps team or if they're a people
leader that's free.
Completely free to join.
That's at wellset.
co front slash human humans.
If you contact us through anyform on the website, I will see
(44:33):
it probably.
We're still that small of a teamso yeah, feel free to reach out.
Rick (44:36):
Well the work you're doing is amazing You are a ray of
sunshine in a sometimes darkworld and we appreciate you
Kaleem (44:43):
Thank you
Tegan (44:44):
thank you for having me.
Kaleem (44:45):
We'll talk to you later.
Peace.
Where did you originally grow up?
Tegan (00:02):
On a boat in Puget Sound in Washington State.
That's remote working.
Remote working from a boat.
Rick (00:10):
Yarr
Tegan (00:11):
That's my first remote working job.
We can talk about it.
Kaleem (00:15):
were born on a boat.
Tegan (00:16):
I wasn't born on the boat,
Kaleem (00:18):
Oh, wait, you were actually born in a hospital.
Tegan (00:20):
I was born in a hospital.
Rick (00:23):
But the hospital was a bOat
Tegan (00:26):
I wasn't born on the boat, but I lived there for 10
years growing up beforegraduating from high schooL.
Rick (00:31):
So the first ten years of your life you were raised on a
boat in Puget Sound Puget Sound
Tegan (00:36):
until 18.
Rick (00:37):
Eight That's amazing
Kaleem (00:39):
Did you believe in mermaids?
Yes or no?
Tegan (00:41):
Yeah, definitely.
Rick (00:50):
Welcome back to Remotely One I am your co host Rick Haney
joined by my esteemed colleagueKaleem Clarkson What's going
down
Kaleem (00:58):
Jazz hands Super jazzed up
Rick (01:05):
Oh this is going to be fun This is going to be so much fun
Kaleem (01:08):
Your baby blues is still shining through bro.
They're looking good again, man.
Looking good again.
You're
Rick (01:13):
Stop Stop Hey everybody Since you know how to find us do
us a huge favor and go to ratethis podcast com forward slash
remotely one and leave us areview That's it No big deal
Again it's rate this podcast comforward slash If you could do
(01:34):
that for us we would be ever sothankful Since 2015 RemotelyOne
is one of the largestcommunities of remote work
professionals With over 3 000Slack members and 5 000 email
subscribers And if I'm notmistaken that number is growing
Five That's awesome It's free tojoin so go check it out at
(01:57):
remotelyone com And with thatout of the way Kaleem my brother
Give us a tease or two abouttoday's guest
Kaleem (02:05):
bro.
Like what happens is, you know,we booked these guests and then
I'm like, ah, no big deal.
We're going to talk to you.
No big deal.
And then the day of I startedgetting real nervous, Rick.
And you know, I swept through myshirts, buddy.
Rick (02:19):
perspiry You get all perspiry
Kaleem (02:20):
Oh my gosh.
And it's just like an airplaneover here.
So
Rick (02:24):
I want you to turn that perspiration into inspiration
And we're gonna do that today
Kaleem (02:32):
yes, yes, I am inspired.
Do you know why I'm inspiredabout, about today's guest Rick?
Rick (02:36):
Uh lay it on me What
Kaleem (02:39):
is originally from the ocean and they now reside.
Yeah.
The ocean.
And they now reside in LosAngeles.
Okay.
They have touch land and they nolonger have fins.
The water was splashed on her inthe middle of the city.
Okay.
And then, you know, she had finsin the middle of the city, but
now she found her true loveRick.
(03:00):
So now she can walk on land nowand not have to live in the
ocean.
Unbelievable.
It's amazing.
Not only that Rick, our guestdid not just stop there.
She didn't just learn to walkand come out of the ocean.
She knows some shits.
Rick (03:16):
Okay okay let's hear it let's hear
Kaleem (03:18):
She knows some shits.
She got into the air forceAcademy.
Okay.
not only that she has hermaster's in architecture from
just a tiny little school.
No big deal.
Yeah.
Rick (03:31):
Yale That's big time
Kaleem (03:34):
Yep.
Yep.
And she did all that afterliving on a boat until high
school son after living on aboat until high school.
We're like, where are you?
Where are you from?
She goes?
I don't know because I was bornon a boat and I lived on the
boat.
Yes.
Now you weren't technically bornon the boat, right?
(03:55):
Guest.
Tegan (03:56):
No, I wasn't, but we can tell that story today, we can
even make it
Rick (04:00):
we're gonna go with
Tegan (04:01):
We
Kaleem (04:02):
you did live on a boat all the way until high school.
Pretty
Tegan (04:06):
Yeah, I did with my mom and it wasn't a houseboat.
A lot of people are like, Oh,it's, you know, one of those
big, like fancy Seattle, like,you know, sleepless in Seattle
type house floating housethings.
No, no, it was a 34, it was a 34foot power boat.
So
Kaleem (04:27):
I don't like small spaces.
I don't like small
Tegan (04:31):
No, it was, it was honestly beautiful though,
because that was why we ended upon the powerboat, not on a
sailboat, because it had thesebig windows, and it was really
beautiful.
It was antique.
It was, um, beautiful teak andmahogany wood everywhere.
So it was, it was beautiful, butit was a powerboat.
Kaleem (04:45):
That is unbelievable, but it worked out.
It worked out, Rick, Rick, thework that she has been done.
Just take this, just look at afew places.
We're just going to name them afew because I can't name them
all.
Rick.
Okay,
Rick (04:58):
you can try I mean that list is impressive
Kaleem (05:01):
her work has been featured in the New York Times,
Time Magazine, Fast Company.
Fast Design, TechCrunch, MartyBeingreen, Huffington Post,
Vogue Magazine.
I'm tired.
I'm
Rick (05:14):
Do I see Mother Jones on there
Kaleem (05:16):
Mother
Tegan (05:17):
That's a really interesting project, if you guys
want to talk about that one,that was featured in Mother
Rick (05:21):
do
Kaleem (05:22):
And Business Insight.
Oh, Glamour.
Glamour Magazine.
And of course, she got in thealma mater.
Yo, Retrospector.
I can't even say it.
Oh, Rick, our guest is the cofounder and CEO of WellSet,
which is the first holistichealth platform for teams.
(05:45):
Listeners and viewers, pleasegive a warm welcome to Teagan
Bukowski! Let's go! Let's go!Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!
Let's go! Let's go!
Rick (06:05):
Alright people
Kaleem (06:05):
down Settle Down studio.
Settle
Tegan (06:09):
you, thank you,
Kaleem (06:10):
They're so loud.
They're so loud.
Thank
Rick (06:13):
Teagan I mean we can't control these people All I can
say is that they're excited tosee you and hear your story
Tegan (06:19):
I'm excited to see them.
Kaleem (06:21):
Big crowd, big crowd.
Rick (06:22):
Yes Yes thank you for joining us Yeah it's really
great to have you
Tegan (06:27):
Yeah, great, great to be here.
And actually, as you werelisting off the, which I don't
normally hear a list of all theplaces that the work has been
featured all at once, but itmade me think about how you
know, I started My career in thenonprofit space, actually doing
a lot of different projects,creating a lot of different
teams, and they were alwaysremote.
I hadn't actually thought aboutthat until this moment, but
(06:48):
actually, you know, even thatmother Jones project that we
could talk about was a fullyremote team internationally, and
we were getting a lot done.
So, anyway, it's great to behere.
Kaleem (06:57):
Tegan, seeming you just blew off our first question that
we had for you.
Tell us about your firstexperience working remotely.
Damn it.
I don't know.
I don't know.
We got to talk about MotherJones.
Tegan (07:09):
All right.
I guess the, the nonprofitexperience is probably my most
applicable working remotely,although we were going to talk
about working remotely on theboat when I was like 13 and we
were going to
Kaleem (07:20):
Listen, this is your show, Tegan.
You C you can,
Tegan (07:22):
That is not my show.
This is your show.
Rick (07:24):
the captain
Tegan (07:24):
right.
Setting the stage
Kaleem (07:27):
that.
She the captain of the ship.
Did you hear it?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Tegan (07:32):
captain of
Kaleem (07:33):
You get it'cause you grew up on a boat just playing.
Rick (07:35):
Get it Get it Wink wink Nudge nudge
Tegan (07:40):
I wasn't the captain though, I mean, that's, that's
the,
Kaleem (07:43):
Seriously, now
Tegan (07:44):
it's true.
Um, working on the boat back inthe day.
I taught myself how to code andactually had, uh, you know, in
the 90s, my, my first kind ofproject was working, literally
sitting in the v berth of theboat, so in the front of the
boat, in my little v berth bed,coding at the age of 12.
And I started a website that Iwas teaching mostly girls how to
(08:05):
code.
Um, this was like before MySpaceand Facebook.
It was like back, back in theday.
back way back in the day.
That was kind of workingremotely.
But my, I think my, my firstexperience working with a team
remotely was probably my nonprofit experience.
So I started, what wasessentially kind of an umbrella,
501, C3 in college.
(08:25):
I went to WashU for undergrad,after I left the Air Force
Academy, I know you mentionedthat I went to the Air Force
Academy, and we were talkingabout this before the show, but
I think I, I chose to go to theAir Force Academy after living
on a boat because I had zerostructure.
Like, it was like, I was like awild child, like, running around
in my dinghy, like, you know,pet seals and stuff and I was
like, maybe I should stop beinga mermaid, and I should go into
(08:48):
the military.
That was the idea, that was thelink in my, like, 16 year old,
17 year old brain, I was like,military.
But and that was a greatexperience, but it was at the
end of the day, it was, I,that's a whole story, but I, I
wanted to do something much morecreative.
Well, it was just, I actuallyloved the military part, and I
am a supporter of the military.
(09:08):
I think the military is great,but I am an entrepreneur.
I have done a billion differentcreative projects.
I'm, I have an architect'sbrain.
It wasn't for me in terms of theeducation, but anyway, I ended
up at Wash U in St.
Louis, and they have just suchan incredible way of supporting
students to start their careerssocial impact projects.
(09:30):
And so I ended up getting agrant from the Gephardt
Institute.
And started this non profit.
It was called Artist Activists,but honestly, that name was
really just an umbrella name.
And we ended up doing projectsin nine different countries.
Ranging from designing EastAfrica's first utility scale
photovoltaic field that powers,I think, at one point, it
powered almost 10 percent of theRwandan energy grid, and powered
(09:50):
about 25, 000 village homes thatdidn't have power before, and it
financially powers an orphanageof about 650 kids.
That was started originallyafter the genocide in Rwanda,
and, you know, now it's, it'sbeen a while, so I think most of
the kids have graduated from thehouse.
But, that were affected by that,but it's just a, that was a
great project.
But we also did arts therapywith kids that had been affected
(10:13):
by warfare, natural disaster,election violence in Kenya.
And those projects were inHaiti.
And and we did one in Rwanda,did one in Kenya.
We did one in Columbia with kidsthat had been affected by the
guerrilla warfare there.
And then, and we had a team thatwent to, to Ghana and started a
radio school actually,applicable to you guys, and that
was really cool because wetaught a bunch of teenagers how
(10:35):
to run a radio station, and theywould teach agricultural best
practice over the radio inaddition to a bunch of other
things, so.
Kaleem (10:41):
so.
you did all this remotely
Tegan (10:43):
was all remote! They were
Kaleem (10:45):
while in college while
Tegan (10:46):
While in college! Yeah, and actually, and it was, it was
a totally different world then,obviously we didn't have things.
Like, you know, easy videoconferencing.
And so it was a lot of timespent on, messaging service, use
services.
I don't even, I can't rememberwhat we were using back then,
but, it was a lot of probablyaim.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm not that old actually.
Rick (11:07):
Heh
Tegan (11:08):
We're beyond aim.
That was, that was when I waslike
Kaleem (11:11):
you were like you're like, ha ha.
You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Slow down.
Slow down.
I'm not that old.
Tegan (11:18):
old.
Rick (11:19):
Hehehe
Tegan (11:19):
insulted.
Rick (11:20):
Hehehe Hehehe
Tegan (11:23):
is a video, this is a video, podcast.
I know, but, for people who arelistening, I'm not, anyway.
Kaleem (11:29):
that's hilarious.
Tegan (11:31):
but, um, My most remote working experience that is
related to the non profit.
so I met I went to, I traveled,as a result of one of these
projects through the non profit,I traveled to the west of Rwanda
and I met an orphanage out therethat was a different one than
the one we were working with,run by a really, really cool
guy, Victor Montroy, calledL'Esperance.
(11:53):
And and he was telling me whenwe were there visiting that they
were really struggling to takepayments from people in Germany,
which is where they had a reallybig support system.
And so I ended up, and this isbefore there were really easy
payment gateways, so, um, nowthis would be such a, an easy
thing for them to do.
But back then, technotechnologically, it was really
hard for them to take paymentsinternationally and from the
(12:14):
web.
So I built them a paymentgateway.
Gateway portal website.
And because of that, I ended upmeeting an astronaut named Ron
Garan, and he, I actually didn'tmeet him there, he ended up
calling me maybe about sixmonths later when I was back in
the States, and I picked up thephone and he was like, hello, is
(12:37):
this Teagan?
And I was like, yes?
And he was like, this isastronaut Ron Garan.
And I was like, okay.
Rick (12:43):
Hehehe Hehehe
Tegan (12:46):
so I ended up working on
Kaleem (12:47):
this is actually not Buzz Lightyear
Tegan (12:49):
I know literally no, he is literally buzz light year.
Kaleem (12:51):
What
Tegan (12:52):
light
Rick (12:52):
Reach for the sky
Tegan (12:55):
He's the coolest.
But he was like, I'm about to goto the space station on the
Soyuz rocket in, you know, abouteight months and I wanna do.
Um, and so I ended up actuallyhelping him to build kind of
the, it's, it was a humanitarianmapping project from space using
(13:15):
this open source technologycalled Ushahidi.
It was a crisis mapping platformthat I'd been using in Kenya.
And anyway we created kind of a,like a blog slash mapping
project from the space station.
So I actually had the spacestation phone number in my phone
for a while and anyway, so
Kaleem (13:31):
this is crazy.
How like
Rick (13:34):
I've never talked to another human being who had the
space station phone number intheir phone
Tegan (13:39):
That's some remote working.
Kaleem (13:41):
I don't feel worthy
Tegan (13:42):
are definitely.
Rick (13:43):
I'm so out of place right now
Kaleem (13:45):
Like like she's just like yeah buzz light year was
like yo, you want to do thisproject with me?
And she's like
Rick (13:51):
Yes Ha
Kaleem (13:53):
tonight
Rick (13:53):
ha
Kaleem (13:54):
and
Tegan (13:56):
Ron is the coolest and he, he's still, I think that,
um, it got adopted, the project,it was called Fragile Oasis, got
adopted by NASA and then Ithink, I can't remember, I don't
know how, what, I actually don'tknow what's going, maybe you
guys should have Ron on the shownext, but, um, he's, he's, doing
all sorts of cool stuff,
Kaleem (14:10):
with Ron.
Tegan (14:11):
yeah, I'll, I will, um, but I remember one day I missed
a phone call, this is before Ihad the phone number for the
space station in my phone, Imissed a call while I was on a
different conference call.
And my phone was literallysitting, cause we were all
talking at my phone.
And you know, like huddledaround this phone.
I think it was an internationalcall to, for some project we
were doing.
(14:32):
And this number popped up and Iwas like, I think I need to
answer that, and so I missed it,and and so I called back, and it
was the Johnson Space, or theKennedy Space, it was the space,
I can't even remember whichspace center it was, it was like
a weird, it was like not themain one, and I was like, Okay,
so if the space station calledme from this number, is, this is
(14:53):
like, I was talking to theoperator.
Rick (14:55):
Right
Tegan (14:56):
like, if the space station called me from this
number, would this be the numberthat would pop up?
And the operator was like, No.
And then I hung up on me.
I'm like, no, I think this, thatactually is what happened.
But anyway, so that's a, um,it's a fun fact.
It was, I did actually, itroutes through the space center
and operator number and comes toyour phone.
(15:17):
But, um, so I couldn't call him,but it was great.
It was, I got to talk to them.
I had to be trained and how totalk to an astronaut while
they're in space.
Can't say some certain things.
Kaleem (15:25):
What couldn't you say?
What couldn't you say?
Tegan (15:27):
Well, they're concerned about the mental health of
astronauts while they're up,which makes sense.
and, um, well, You can't talkabout, like, political stuff.
You wouldn't, you, they wouldn'twant you to say if you knew some
information about, like, afamily member of theirs, like,
basically, they don't want youto say anything distressing
because
Kaleem (15:44):
Right.
Tegan (15:44):
it makes sense, you know, they're, like,
Kaleem (15:46):
Right.
So there's, they weren't like,don't say pizza because they're,
they really want
Tegan (15:50):
No.
Kaleem (15:51):
Okay.
That's definitely a remoteexperience.
While we've definitely a I'venever met anyone that had the
space station's number in theirphone.
So that's the checkmark.
Rick (16:01):
could you text that to me
Kaleem (16:02):
Can
Tegan (16:07):
it's not gonna actually get you very far.
Rick (16:10):
Well I definitely don't know her
Kaleem (16:12):
Can you text?
Yeah, if you got anything,that'd be awesome.
If we could do if she texts usthe number and we just started
prank calling the space stationevery day like hello.
Yeah, it's impressive.
Rick (16:26):
Since we're talking about mental health it's a perfect
segue into what you're doingwith your company and I just I
have so many questions butReally what I want to know is
the phrase as you describe it isum the burnout epidemic is what
we're dealing with And peopleare being forced you know to
make drastic career changesbecause of it So you know that
(16:49):
being said you know how did youmigrate from architecture to
holistic wellness and how did ithow did you land where you are
now
Tegan (16:57):
That's a good question.
So I was working for thearchitect, Zaha Hadid.
She was my professor at Yale andthen hired me afterwards.
She's the, for people who don'tknow who Aha ad is, she.
She's, she was, she passed away,but she was the, probably one of
the most famous architects of ofour era, of our age but she's
(17:18):
very, she does very parametricdesigns, so it's all like, um,
like super space, space agelooking, and it's really, really
cool, Loved working there butin, in college, grad school, and
then also, um, the early days ofmy architecture career, I was
working extremely long hours.
It's kind of, architects arefamous for working insane hours
(17:42):
and having to pull all nightersall the time.
And I think probably my body wasjust like, don't do that
anymore.
But I ended up getting a chronicinflammatory condition.
That kept on landing me in thehospital over and over again and
actually doctors were telling methat I might need to live on
steroids for the rest of my lifefor it.
And I just really didn't, I meanit was basically because of
(18:04):
stress but it was also becausemy body is also prone to, um, I
have like a, an inflammatorycondition anyway, and so it was
like the combination of the twothings together but I mean it,
but it was really, reallyhardcore.
I would end up in the hospitallike with internal bleeding for
like two weeks at a time.
Like it was like serious.
And so yeah, so they were like,you could live on steroids and I
(18:25):
really just, I didn't want to dothat.
I didn't want to kind of giveinto this, like, having to rely
on a drug like that.
Of course, if it helps people,that's great, and if I ended up
needing to do it, I would havedone it.
But they also told me in thehospital that I could try a more
holistic approach.
But then what happened was thatthey told me also that they had
(18:46):
zero tools for me to try tofigure it out.
They were like, you're gonnahave to go and figure it out on
your own, basically.
And so,
Kaleem (18:53):
They're like, you could do the drugs for the rest of
your life and you could, youknow, do steroids or whatever
for the rest of your life.
Or you could try somethingholistic.
We've heard that works.
But,
Rick (19:01):
Yeah
Tegan (19:02):
But we can't help you.
Yeah.
Rick (19:03):
it's easier to write you a prescription and I'll get
kickbacks from thepharmaceutical company if I
Tegan (19:07):
Yeah, exactly.
So I ended up needing to kind ofjust figure it out on my own.
And, this was more than 10 yearsago.
And I think, you know, in thepast 10 years, the, you know,
wellness wellbeing industry hasjust completely exploded and
there are a lot more tools and alot, there's a lot more
information and there's like awellbeing column in the New York
times.
But back then it was barely evendiscussed.
(19:28):
It was kind of a, Like, you'dhave to find a practitioner or
somebody to help you, like a,like a nutritionist or something
or a health coach on your co op,uh, bulletin board, you know,
that's like, it didn't reallyexist as a thing.
So, I ended up becoming a yogainstructor through this journey
of like, just figuring it out onmy own because I got really into
yoga and meditation andmindfulness and that sort of
(19:49):
thing.
And,
Kaleem (19:50):
Were you noticing an improvement though?
Like as you got involved inthat?
Were you like, huh, I went toyoga, feeling I'm feeling okay.
Like like
Tegan (19:57):
the biggest, the thing that helped me and my particular
condition the most was, I wenton a really extreme anti
inflammatory diet for six monthsand it just kind of like fully
reset things.
And like, I don't live on thatdiet all the time, but it was
really, really helpful.
It almost felt like, cause I'vealso taken the steroids, it
almost felt the same as takingthe steroids, like in terms of
(20:18):
like how my body felt is it wasso good.
It's super resetting and calmingand I've had some little flare
ups here and there in the last,um, you know, 10 years, but it's
been way more under control thanbefore and I ended up not
needing to be on the steroids.
So for me that was really,really helpful and continues to
be really helpful and, but Ithink that journey basically led
(20:39):
me to discovering the holistic,yeah, the holistic side of
things.
And there's so many aspects ofit that.
are so helpful for so manypeople.
So the yoga thing ended up justbeing kind of a byproduct of
that.
And then also the mindfulnessside of things.
And I ended up teachingmindfulness and around, around
the world of yoga andmindfulness and Croatia and
(21:00):
England and all sorts of placesat festivals and different
things.
And, um, I mean, I think interms of remote work, I'm just
like, I'm just now realizinglike how much remote work I've
done in my life, even before thepandemic because of all these
projects that were sointernational.
So
We'll be right back after thesewords.
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(21:23):
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And now, back to the show.
So another side side project of mine back in the day
was we helping to work on afestival in Sweden.
(23:29):
And that was all remote work,but that was in, you know, that
in 2010.
So I was like way beforenormally people would have been
doing a lot of remote work.
But anyway, so, I ended upstarting a rooftop yoga class
with a friend of mine just forfun.
We started running classes at abig hotel in New York on, like
overlooking the city from thisrooftop.
And it really caught on reallyfast.
(23:50):
We had yoga on helicopter padsand like famous people were
showing up at the classes and westarted growing this community
kind of accidentally, likeAriana Huffington was at our
class.
And Misty Copeland and, like,all these really cool people
and,
Kaleem (24:02):
Yeah.
Tegan (24:03):
was about, I guess, 10 years ago.
And, again, kind of before yogawas everywhere, which is hard to
imagine.
It's hard to imagine a time whenall of this wasn't around.
But that kind of started tointroduce me to the idea that,
you know, this, a lot of peoplethat were coming to our sessions
were, had really similar, youknow, Kind of healing journeys
or, you know, health issues thatthey wanted to address more
(24:26):
holistically that they didn'tknow where to turn.
And so the kind of next step forthat little company was to do
the first wellness activationsfor companies like Samsung and
Polaroid and Lululemon.
Kaleem (24:38):
Right off the bat, like, so, so you're doing this on the
rooftop, doing yoga on therooftop of these buildings in
New York, you're like, wow, thisis getting kind of big.
And you're like, the next stepis why don't we Show this to
businesses like I was justtrying to understand where you
got the connection to like pitchit to business.
I mean, I
Tegan (24:56):
I can't even remember what happened.
Maybe somebody came to one ofour rooftops.
I mean, this was a long time
Rick (25:02):
Yeah sounds like it might have happened organically
Kaleem (25:04):
Yeah.
Tegan (25:05):
happened pretty organically, and then We ended
up doing the Wellness Loungesfor Fashion Week with IMGWME,
and that was because of, a cofounder that we brought in named
Jordan, who's, um, It's amazing.
And she is just, you know,incredibly connected within the
fashion world.
And so that, that's where thatcame from, but yeah, there was
just, what happened though isthat, you know, for the fashion
(25:26):
week lounges, for example, we'dhave people come in to our
lounge and there would be, therewas a kind of a pop up
situation.
So we had like a little, like.
store that we had popped upwith, honestly, a ton of brands
that are now huge brands in wellbeing, but were just like baby
brands then.
It's like Sun Potion, FourSigmatic, like all these like,
little itty bitty brands thatare now huge.
(25:47):
And then we also hadpractitioners that would be
giving little mini sessions andwhat we kept on hearing over and
over again was, I'm doing cancertreatment and I would love to
have an acupuncturist to be, youknow, complimenting my cancer
treatment, but I don't knowwhere to find one.
Or, I've got some fertilityissues and I would love to try
(26:10):
talking to a health coach and Idon't know where to find one.
And so it kept on being thisthing, you know, like, I can't
find one.
I ended up starting, my company,Wellset with my co founder, Sky
Meltzer.
He was the CEO of Manduka, theyoga mat company, for about 10
years.
And he had just had his secondprivate equity exit with
Manduka, and had been lookinginto a, Concept for a
(26:34):
marketplace and he knew that Iwas kind of working in that
space trying to, you know, builda marketplace.
So we were connected and welaunched market well set as a
marketplace in early days and
Kaleem (26:45):
What year is this?
roughly?
Tegan (26:46):
in 2018
Kaleem (26:48):
Okay.
Okay.
So
Tegan (26:50):
I guess we fundraise in 2019.
Kaleem (26:52):
So now you've done all this, this work up, you started
the company and this is prepandemic.
And I'm assuming things aregoing okay.
I'm assuming things are signingup.
All right.
I'm just going to take a guess.
Did you start the companyremotely?
Cause I'm assuming is your cofounder in the same place that
you were or
Tegan (27:10):
We did originally start remotely and then when we got
funding, I moved to la I was inSan Francisco and he was in Los
Angeles.
And so I ended up moving andmoving to la but we ended up
getting an office for a littlewhile, for just in 2019.
But then of course the pandemic.
Kaleem (27:27):
right.
Tegan (27:28):
And, and, and actually the pandemic really changed how
our business was built and inthose early days we created the
largest marketplace of holisticproviders, I think, in the
world.
And most of them, about like 95percent of them at that point
pre pre pandemic were all inperson sessions.
And so that really, really,really drastically changed with
(27:49):
the pandemic.
And we were actually supposed tolaunch the platform in March of
2020, which we obviously we hadto, we had to change our launch
date.
Kaleem (27:58):
whether funders okay with that?
You had to you had no
Tegan (28:00):
Yeah, you have to, it's a, the pandemic was pretty,
everybody understood.
Kaleem (28:04):
yeah, I mean it must have just been mind blowing just
hearing you talk about likewe're building this up and then
all of a sudden You know wherewe're getting ready to launch
everyone's excited and Then thathappened and you're like, oh no,
I just Wow
Tegan (28:22):
Yeah, I know it was wild.
And I think I'm definitely aperson who, I think I see the
writing on the wall.
I don't, um, like double down onsomething that's not working.
Which is, I think served ourcompany really well.
So we've been able to like pivotin little ways and like find our
direction instead of you know, Ithink some people are like, no,
this is what we're doing.
And then they, it's, you know,you can really drive something
(28:45):
into the ground by, by not beingflexible, but we've been really
flexible with it with listeningto the market and just kind of
figuring it out.
One of the things that happenedwas that, in the early days of
the pandemic, we realized, youknow, we have 20, 000 wellbeing
practitioners that we havevetted and background checked
and we, it's kind of almost madeus the biggest talent agency for
(29:07):
these types of wellbeingpractitioners.
And with my events backgroundand our company's events
background, We realized that wecould offer something really
great for people when they werestuck at home, especially in
those early days when everybodywas really nervous.
Nobody knew what was going on.
It's hard to even remember atthis point how scared everyone
was.
(29:27):
I know it's, but it was really ascary time and people had COVID
and were stuck at home for areally long time with not seeing
anyone and not knowing whetherthey were going to die.
Literally, it was really scary.
And so, We ended up startingsomething that we called the
Stay at Home Wellness Festival,which was about six weeks of ten
hours per day of live Zoomclasses.
(29:51):
And our practitioners wereteaching, we had a whole range
of different topics, we'dpublish a new schedule every
day, and we had 45, 000 peoplecome to that to that festival.
And it was all organic, weweren't doing any ads and people
just loved it.
And so that was kind of thefirst, thing that we saw that
was like, you know what,actually, maybe the in person
(30:12):
one on one thing is not actuallythe direction for the company.
Maybe actually we can reduce theprice point of everything by
making a group classes anddelivering it with like a
really, really inexpensivemembership.
And and so what we have now is aplatform, a digital digital
studio that gives people accessto Uh, you have 24 hours a day,
(30:32):
to these classes that are in agroup format.
So there are up to six liveclasses per day, every day, with
practitioners ranging fromhypnotherapists through to EFT
tapping, um, we haveacupressure, we have myofascial
release with posture classes,nonviolent communication classes
with therapists.
So it really, really ranges thewhole gamut of all of the
(30:54):
different types of of, holisticcare, kind of mind, body,
spirit, holistic care.
And we've packaged it up for areally, really cheap price point
for teams because we actually,the pandemic really, you know,
making everything more remotehas created a lot of, need for,
you know, even more of this,like kind of wellbeing stuff
being delivered to people intheir homes.
Yeah.
Rick (31:14):
I would say so
Kaleem (31:15):
it's almost like, for a lot of people, the pandemic,
including Rick and I, it was areally scary time, but like the
forced ability to kind of workremotely spurred a lot of
innovation during that time.
And it made us kind of rethinkhow we live and what priorities
some people had.
(31:36):
So it's just cool to hear fromyou.
Like you had this great idea tostart off with and then the
pandemic happens.
And because of how people werefeeling.
You all were like, Hey, how canwe help?
And it's almost like yourwillingness to help.
You could tell you you come froma place of wanting to help just
hearing your story, right?
(31:56):
Like started charity in college.
You started coding when you're12 years old to help other kids
learn how to code, like, so youhave this passion of giving and
it's just really great to hearthat giving kind of helped you
all kind of blossom too.
I'm sure that wasn't the plangoing in and now look at you
today.
So I kudos to the world.
(32:18):
I'm doing
Rick (32:18):
Yeah
Kaleem (32:19):
putting some more good back out there, you know,
Rick (32:21):
yeah no it's wonderful And yeah and what I was just gonna
interject with is that we stillhave so much work to do.
I feel like People had pandemicfatigue.
You know long before we declaredthat this pandemic was over they
just wanted to get back tonormal.
And You know moving beyond thatyou know over the past year been
(32:42):
seeing kind of a disconnectbetween Managers executives
whatever and what employees wantyou know you know Working
remotely do you think that thekind of the friction between
them is really a driving forcebehind people wanting just to
feel better?
Like is it causing them a lot offriction in their own lives to
(33:06):
know that I just want moreflexibility I gotta start living
better but I also have to workLike can you talk a little bit
at all about that relationship?
Yeah
Tegan (33:16):
I mean, I think that at the end of the day, I think a
lot of people talk about in thebenefits space, like how they
can really move the needle onthings, like how HR teams and
managers can move the needle onthings like retention and,
presenteeism or absenteeism.
And, a lot of times if you askthe employees what they want,
(33:36):
really all they want is, To workless and be paid more.
It's really comes down to that,
Rick (33:43):
Yes
Kaleem (33:43):
Yes.
Yes.
Tegan (33:46):
problem is like it's almost like you have to talk to
us.
I'm including me.
I'm an employee of my companytoo.
And like, I'm like, yeah, it'dbe great to be paid more and
work less.
I would love that.
But it's almost like you have totalk to us all like little kids.
Cause like, you know, littlekids also like, they want the
marshmallow, right?
It's like you just want themarshmallow, or you want the
cookie, but you know that if youjust eat cookies all day long,
you're gonna get sick, and like,you gotta also eat some
(34:07):
vegetables.
And so, I think that can'talways be the answer, to just be
paid more and work less.
There have to be other thingsthat we, as the employees, have
to be like, you know what,actually, Yes, I need to, like,
take care of my well being andso that will make me feel better
as well.
I need to take care of myselfand be given the tools to take
care of myself.
And that includes a bunch ofdifferent things, not just the
stuff that we're working onproviding.
(34:29):
You know, it also includes, alot of things that are not
really being addressed right nowin, in our country very well.
It includes child care andelderly care.
It includes, you know, just,it's like, you know, all of the
things that go into.
helping somebody to feel betterin their workday, that, that are
not necessarily about like whatyou're doing when you're sitting
down or the number of hours thatyou're working.
(34:50):
And so, I think that there is alittle bit of a shift in mindset
right now, among managers and HRteams to see, you know, how they
can support people in theirwider lives.
And I think, I think like mentalhealth and well being and health
care all happens outside of theoffice for the most part, like,
(35:11):
you know, some things mighthappen in the office, but for
the most part, it's outside ofthe office.
So it's all about equippingemployees to act or empowering
employees and empowering teamsto actually make better choices
in their off time, actually, youknow, it's like, how do you
spend your evenings?
How do you spend your mornings?
What are you choosing to put inyour body?
(35:32):
What are you choosing to do withyour body outside of the office?
I don't know if that answersyour question,
Rick (35:36):
Yeah No you know it's all relative I I think that one
thing I've realized is that astragic as the pandemic was I
mean we lost a lot of people andit's incredibly sad and tragic
but in my mind something had tohappen I would rather have it
not been as tragic as thepandemic was but you know I feel
(35:58):
like coming out of it now we'reall starting to realize How
unhealthy we were not all of usof course but you know something
needed to change and we wereforced to change how we were
living And now it's like thesethoughts are just unfortunately
they're starting to catch up tous to a lot of people and
(36:20):
they're just realizing now wowdid I have it all wrong before
You know look at all the thingsI used to take for granted
Kaleem (36:28):
right.
Like holistic wellbeing is aprime example of a space that
really grew significantly, in myopinion, in the last five years
because of people startedreprioritizing, you know, I want
to move closer to my family.
I don't mind seeing the cat goacross the desk anymore or an
interruption from a childbecause like we started putting
(36:50):
humans first because there wassomething so tragic that was
going on.
We started saying, well, dang,we're just human.
So kind of take care ofourselves first.
So,
Rick (36:59):
And obviously we're not here for very long
Kaleem (37:01):
Right.
And the fact that you made areally cool point about like all
of these things are new.
And how organizations are likean HR department.
A lot of people, ops people andTegan, I can't believe didn't
hit up that area of transform.
I'm All the people at transform.
A lot of times you hear people,ops, people talking, and it's
(37:24):
like, HR got all thisresponsibility.
You know, now we got to beconcerned about some of the
things outside of the office sothat they're productive inside
of the office.
and I like the way you put itabout like providing resources
for people to, to decide howthey would like to spend their
time outside of work.
(37:44):
That's really cool.
That's really cool.
Tegan (37:46):
Well, and I think, like, the remote working side of
things also is, I think we'renever going to go back to
people, everybody just, youknow, expecting that working in
the office full time is normal.
This is just my opinion, but Ithink there will always be at
least a hybrid element to a lotof jobs to jobs that that is
possible, just because I thinkthat there was such a shift in
(38:09):
mental health and, you know,being able to take care of your
elders and your kids, becausethey're at your house, probably
and actually, that happened tomy family during the pandemic.
We were taking care of my mygrandparents and, it was a great
thing that, that I was able tobe at home and not in an office
every day because of that.
I think everybody now has seenthat there could be a different
(38:30):
way.
You know, over, over themillennia, we've moved away from
being really like, um, Well,actually, I should say Western
world, because I think, youknow, there's still some
communities around the worldthat still do things in a
different way.
But Western, the Western worldhas moved away from supporting
each other in a community kindof way.
(38:51):
And it's become all about theindividuals in the nuclear
family, but that has becomereally problematic.
It's put a ton of pressure onpeople who are working out of
the pre pandemic out in theworld and then having to come
back and figure out a way to gettheir kids have to be someplace
else.
Somebody else has to help thempick up their kids from
someplace because they're acrosstown working in an office.
(39:12):
And you know, now we've kind ofseen like, Oh, wait a second,
actually.
If I can work from home or atleast in a hybrid way, I can be
there for my kids at pickup andI can still be there for all the
meetings I need to be at.
I can take my aging parent tothe doctor and shift my meetings
around.
So it's possible.
And I just, I think that I I'mtalking a lot about care because
I think that was one of thebiggest things that shifted
(39:34):
because of the pandemic.
Rick (39:36):
A huge driver
Tegan (39:36):
yeah, huge, huge driver, and on the mental health care
side of things, I think thatremote working really was hard
for a lot of people, mentally,there's a lot of loneliness,
there's a lot of feeling likethe day is blending into the
night, and you just like there'sa lot of Boundary setting.
And so I think a lot of peoplehave had to figure out how
(39:57):
they've had to teach themselveshow to put boundaries in.
And, I think there's a lot ofwork to do on the loneliness
side of things still because Ithink a lot of people still do
feel that way.
And so, you know, I think that'ssomething we try to do.
It's hard for us.
It's a digital platform toreally do that.
But we just started this humanhumans network for HR people,
for people ops, uh, teammembers.
So ranging from more juniormembers to CHROs.
(40:19):
And we're bringing, you know, HRteams together in community
because we've heard from themover and over and over again
that their jobs are superlonely.
They feel pressure from aboveand below and and they're the
ones that are setting the tonefor their whole team.
So we, you know, as peopleleaders that it's their job to
set the culture.
And so we really believe in Likea trickle down system of like,
(40:41):
if we can get the mental healthand the loneliness problem
solved at the HR level thenhopefully that can translate
down into better mental healthand better well being for their
teams as well.
Kaleem (40:51):
really, really, interesting
Tegan (40:52):
yeah.
Kaleem (40:52):
for sure.
I like
Rick (40:53):
Yeah Yeah definitely.
So Teagan can you tell us abouta comical or inspiring moment
you have had while workingremotely
Kaleem (41:01):
yes,
Tegan (41:02):
Sure, so I, I think, I don't know, it's, I think one of
my favorite pandemic momentswas, um, I was working at home
at my grandparents house,actually.
And they have since passed away,which is very sad, but I was so
grateful because of being ableto work remotely to get to spend
a ton of time with them in thoseyears.
I wouldn't have been able tootherwise.
(41:23):
I would have been, I would havebeen in an office and instead I
got to work from their housewith them for weeks at a time,
sometimes months at a time.
And, My favorite thing thathappened was I was on a really
important investor meeting.
I had a bunch of people on theother line, like a board of
people, like listening to metalk and my, my.
It was serious, and to mygrandparents, I'm still their
(41:47):
grandkid, who is like a baby tothem, you know, I'm
Kaleem (41:51):
course.
Tegan (41:52):
of a tech company, I'm, I'm like,
Kaleem (41:54):
Oh little TT.
Little
Tegan (41:56):
I'm a little, yeah, exactly, Teags, Teags, and so
I'm sitting in the kitchen, and,my grandpa who would normally
stay kind of like in the back ofthe house.
I didn't really expect for himto come through, so I didn't
warn him, but he like comes inwith his walker and pauses like
right behind me in the view andhe's the cutest.
And I love him so much, but he'slike hard of hearing and also
(42:16):
blind.
And so he doesn't know what'sgoing on.
And he's just like yelling atme.
I'm just like.
Rick (42:22):
Ah
Kaleem (42:23):
What's he yelling at you for?
What's he yelling at you for?
Tegan (42:25):
no, I don't even know what he was saying, but he's
like, he was saying somethingabout the puppies.
I think that's what it was.
He comes in, he had these twolittle dogs and he'd be like,
he, he walked in and he waslike, puppies, puppies, And then
he started yelling and then hestarts, and I'm like, I don't
know, cause I, he can't evenhear me.
And so I'm like, Grandpa.
(42:47):
Speaking of muting yourself,Rick,
Rick (42:49):
Yeah yeah
Tegan (42:50):
myself.
Kaleem (42:51):
Oh my gosh.
So what happened?
So like everyone on the
Tegan (42:54):
it was fine.
It was, no, but I mean, it wasendearing.
It's fine.
It wasn't a problem, but can youimagine that happening before we
were all working remotely thatyour grandpa would be watching
the view behind you while you'rein a really important pitch
yelling about puppies?
Yeah.
Kaleem (43:09):
Out of curiosity.
Did you land the pitch?
He's like puppies.
Tegan (43:11):
I can't even remember.
Probably not.
Kaleem (43:14):
Well, you know what?
They're lost.
You shouldn't have.
Hey, wait, just to be sure, justin case you did get the funding
from the company, just in case.
Great job.
If you didn't, you're lost.
Good
Tegan (43:28):
barking.
So I'm going to get the fullworking remotely experience.
I can't remember what pitch itwas, but I only say probably not
because I pitch, you know, youjust don't, the probability is,
you know, it's like 10 percenthit rate.
So it's like probably one of the90%.
So one
Kaleem (43:42):
There it is.
There it is.
I mean, grandpa probably savedyou from some ridiculous terms.
You know what I mean?
So thanks Gramps.
He's looking out for you everytime.
He Still is.
Thanks.
Rick (43:54):
That's such a great story Tegan thank you so much
especially for your insights butsharing your experiences with us
and um
Kaleem (44:00):
Putting up with us.
Rick (44:01):
tolerating our juvenile behavior as I say you were a
super sport and we were we're soglad to have you here Where can
our listeners and viewers findyou
Tegan (44:11):
So Wellset is at wellset.
co.
So W E L L S E T dot C C O.
If they want to join HumanHumans, if they're on a, people,
um, So if you're on the GoogleOps team or if they're a people
leader that's free.
Completely free to join.
That's at wellset.
co front slash human humans.
If you contact us through anyform on the website, I will see
(44:33):
it probably.
We're still that small of a teamso yeah, feel free to reach out.
Rick (44:36):
Well the work you're doing is amazing You are a ray of
sunshine in a sometimes darkworld and we appreciate you
Kaleem (44:43):
Thank you
Tegan (44:44):
thank you for having me.
Kaleem (44:45):
We'll talk to you later.
Peace.
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