Josiah: As a leader. The way you live, talk and work sets the tone for the culture of your organization. Today, we’re going to hear how one CEO approaches mental health and wellness in his company. This is Mental Health Awareness Month, and one person I’ve appreciated leading the conversation in this area is Matt Welle, CEO of Mews, a hospitality technology company. Today, you’re going to learn how he’s approached wellness, not only for himself but for the global company he leads. Here’s Matt.
Matt: It’s okay not to be okay and acknowledge it, and I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned. Last year, like I really struggled last year, we were scaling massively. We were also fundraising in the worst economic climate that we could possibly be in as a tech company And that compounded into me not being in a good place. I realized that and talked to [Mews founder Richard Valtr] about it and I said, hey, I feel like I need some time and I need to do something about it, and I have since moved to a different city just to get my perspective changed. I just arrived in Amsterdam last week.
Matt: I take Wellness Wednesday. We’ve introduced this day once a month, every month. It isn’t just once a year that we do something, but every month. We say there’s a Wellness Wednesday and you just do with it what you want. You could take that hair appointment, or you can go to see a doctor or do yoga class in the morning, or take the whole day off. We won’t question it. But it’s important that we break the habit because when especially in a remote environment where you wake up and then you walk into your little office corner in your house And it becomes this like back to back and you’re like is it Wednesday, is it Thursday? And we try and break it with this Wellness Wednesday And we started. You know, we have coaches in-house, mental awareness coaches, so if you ever feel like I need to talk to someone, in Slack they have a green ribbon So you can recognize the people that have been trained to talk to you And it’s just someone to talk to about the struggles that you have.
Matt: One of our values is ambition and resilience. Those are the two values that really tell the story of like Oh my God, this is a company where you got to work really hard and we love that, but at the same time, there’s the other side of it where you need to take care of your mental wellness. And it is difficult and I struggle with it all the time and because I talk about it openly, I think as leaders, we have to talk about it openly to acknowledge that it is a real thing, it isn’t some made-up sickness, it’s a real thing that we work incredibly hard and you have to have balance so that I can achieve at the top of my performance. I sleep eight hours every night, and that’s my primary priority. I work out every day. And if I don’t do those things, I will feel crap the rest of the day and won’t perform at my peak. So I make these life decisions for myself And it works wonders.
Josiah: I appreciate you sharing that, and it’s really interesting to hear about resilience being a priority because sometimes you know whether or not you think this is a priority. I think everyone can get behind. If you’re doing work that is important, it’s important that you stay in the game for a long time, and so this is the one other way that you stay resilient and you keep doing important work. So thank you for sharing that.
