Give the Gift of Wellness - Episode 42

We are delighted and honored to introduce you to our friend Frank Ricciardi, the founder and CEO of Maavee.

Maavee is a wellness experience platform that makes it easy to discover and connect to the best of wellness. Maavee is committed to positively impacting the world through the pursuit of well-being.

Frank created Maavee out of his own personal fascination and sheer frustration as he attempted to navigate the wellness market. He and his team have not only scoured the planet for the best wellness products and services, they’ve evaluated brands to ensure that they have a visible commitment to the environment, society, and you, the consumer.

We are beyond impressed with the products, companies, commitment and entire team associated with Maavee. We felt like this is the perfect time of year to introduce all of you to Maavee – so that you can give yourself and your loved ones the gift of wellness to check out the products discussed on today's podcast. Visit MaaveeGoods.com.

And tell your employers about the Maavee app and have them visit GoMaavee.com.

Visit theseekingcenter.com for more from Robyn + Karen, plus mega inspo -- and the best wellness + spiritual practitioners, products and experiences on the planet!

You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:43 Give the Gift of Wellness

Transcript

Robyn: I'm Robyn Miller Brecker, 

Karen: and I'm Karen Loenser. Welcome to seeking center. The podcast,

Robyn: join us each week as we have the conversations and weed through the spiritual and holistic clutter for you, we'll boil it down to what you need to know. Now 

Karen: we're all about total wellness, which to us needs building a healthy life on a physical, mental, and spiritual level.

We'll talk to the trailblazers who will introduce you to the practices, products, and experiences. That may be just what you need to hear about to transform your life. 

If you're listening to this, it's no accident. Think of this as your seeking center and your place to seek your center. And for even more mega inspo sign up for seeking center.

The newsletter at seeking center . 

Robyn: We are delighted and honored to introduce you to our friend Frank Ricciardi, the founder and CEO of Maavee. Maavee is a wellness experience platform that makes it easy to discover and connect to the best of wellness. Maavee is committed to [00:01:00] positively impacting the world through the pursuit of wellbeing.

Frank created Maavee out of his own personal fascination and sheer frustration as he attempted to navigate the wellness market. He and his team have not only scoured the planet for the best wellness products and services, but they've evaluated brands to ensure that they have a visible commitment to the environment, society, and you, the consumer.

You can find them all on Maavee goods.com and the Maavee app for employers, which Frank will tell you all about. We are beyond impressed with the products, companies, commitment and entire team associated with Maavee. And we felt like this is the perfect time of year to introduce you all, to introduce all of you to Maavee so that you can give yourself and your loved ones the gift of wellness.

Let's get going. Hi Frank. Hi Frank. 

Frank: Great to be here. I really appreciate it, . 

Karen: so happy to have you here and right at ahead of the holidays when people are thinking about gifts. So we can't wait to dig in and talk to you about Maavee. Why don't we start there? tell us about Maavee and what the word Maavee 

Frank: [00:02:00] means.

It's actually really simple. It means my life in French by pronunciation, not by spelling. So when we started this company, we had already had an aha moment that there was a correlation between the pursuit of wellbeing and life. In fact, we decided that they're the same thing. And so we codenamed the company Maavee, but spelled a French way, m a v i e, or Maavee.

And as we got closer and closer to coming to market, we decided that not everyone would say it correctly. And so we went through a very enlightening and painful branding exercise only to find out that we loved the name. And we just decided to change a couple letters. So said the same way Maavee, but spelled but the intention is about life. 

Robyn: I'm so glad you talked about that because we had wondered from the beginning what it meant, because it's spelled differently, it's unique. Yes. 

Frank: I think we get a little bit [00:03:00] of the unique, you get that appeal what is that?

. But we didn't lose the intention, which we love, and I 

Karen: love intention when we're talking about businesses, you we're so used to hearing about what's the business plan or what is the business mission, but intention is different. What does intention mean to you, Frank?

Frank: Karen. I think it was to create impact.

Robyn, you said that our mission was to positively impact the world through the pursuit of wellbeing, which sounds lovely. But the question really becomes, what does that mean? And that's where the intention comes in for us. We decided early on, we had a bunch of aha moments as this story unfolded, but the first aha moment was maybe obvious that we knew we could have an impact on someone's individual life.

And that's the first intention. But what evolved for us was the ability to impact the world. And so a couple of things come out of that. One is the more people that discover their own personal wellbeing journey, the better the world. [00:04:00] But we really believe in the power of the collective the power of everyone working together to have impact.

And so we thought long and hard about what that looked like, and we do it in a couple of ways. One way we do it is by curating, although I don't like that word, and we can dive into what we think curation but we curator, we look for the best possible wellness products and services on the planet to be discoverable by you along your personal wellness journey.

But as Robyn said in the introduction, we also seek to ensure that those brands are also doing good in the world. That's table stakes for us. But if you take that a step further, the real question is

 how do. Bring everyone along and do more together. Because one of the things we realized as we evaluated brands around their commitment to doing good is that everyone was doing different stuff, which was all amazing. Some people used their [00:05:00] voice to advocate for a fair and just society. Some people choose packaging that's sustainable and disintegrates in a landfill in, six months instead of 60 years.

And so when we looked at all of that, we said, That's great. We don't want to decide what good is, but one thing we do want to do is leverage the power of this family of brands to help each other do more. So we created a community among the brands in order to inspire each other, to educate each other about what we're all doing.

And we Maavee bring resources to the table to help everyone accelerate both their own business growth, but also their social impact. So that was the second part of intention for us that was really important, which was to leverage the power of the collective, but also influence one life at a time.

Robyn: And you're doing it. We have had the privilege and honor to get to know both you and your team and some of the brands that are working within Maavee. And you [00:06:00] can feel that. You can see that. And I know from our own journeys, I often think about what has led me where I am today.

And one reason I feel I'm here was working with a shaman who said to me, what is it that you wanna do? And in my mind, I have this vision of what I wanna do and how I want to impact people's lives. And then she said to me, and how do you wanna shift culture? How will what you do shift culture?

And Karen and I have really thought through that in our larger vision. And that is what you're doing, which is why I know we're so aligned. With that greater vision of the collective. For sure. Yeah. So tell us, what does wellness 

 Mean to you? 

Frank: It's a word that is so used today, I think is a double edged sword.

One is it's on everyone's mind, not because I think the word is used often, but because I think never in our human history have we ever aspired more to be well [00:07:00] than today. And that doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon. So it means that It's part of everyday conversation now. And so the other edge of the sword is that it could lose its no one really knows what wellness means anymore. And so we actually thought a lot about this, and this comes back to the origins of Maavee. One of the things that we realized that was really important to what we were bringing to the world in this ability to make it easy to discover the best of wellness, was this notion that your journey is different than mine.

Your needs, your interests, your environment, your context, your passion, your problems, whatever it is, it's different. And How do you address those needs? And what we realized was that wellness is a journey that lasts a lifetime. Yours is different than mine, and it's constantly changing and fluid. There is no silver bullet 

we're human. We all want the answer. Sadly, there are infinite answers, which [00:08:00] means that you have to find a way to navigate the journey. And at every turn, we couldn't separate the notion that the journey is life. We all hear life is about the process, not the destination. That it's about the present moment, not about the future of the past.

And so what we take for that to mean is that like life, your wellness journey is meant to be discovered. It is constantly unfolding and you need to be okay with the fact that there is not a single answer, that there are lots of answers, and you need to find the one that works for you in the moment and be okay that the answer might be different tomorrow or next week or next month or next year.

And that for us is wellness. It's a journey, not a destination. Now, wellbeing may be a destination that we all aspire to get to, but in all fairness, unless you become Buddha or you die , you're not gonna get there. Probably the latter is more likely. 

So again, to sum it up, wellness is a journey, not a [00:09:00] destination. And that's what we anchor our entire business. 

Karen: Can you talk a little bit about your journey to the creation of ma? how did that start 

Frank: yeah, look, it's the proverbial like started in a garage and , It happened to be a kitchen table, not a garage. , a little bit of the personal side is I've always been a well seeker. Didn't know what I was really seeking, but it was always seeking something. Maybe center . 

Karen: 

Feels 

Frank: appropriate. It feels appropriate, but true, right?

Seeking Center is a real thing. And I've always been on that path to wanting more, been in technology my entire career. My last long term stint at a tech company was 13 years, burnt out royally, like in a crispy, crispy way. I went to Asia for six years and built a business from scratch and Asia and nine countries all at the same time.

So when I came back to the US I was a little crispy and decided to take a little bit of a break and. That's a whole nother podcast about the break, by the way, which I'd [00:10:00] love to talk about. 

Robyn: I'd be 

Frank: interested by the way. I'll sum it up by saying I've never been more surprised at my own personal expanse, my available availability my just desire for more and more expansiveness.

When work wasn't taking up 130% of my mind share. So I was really surprised by that. But basically what happened was COVID happened and we went into lockdown and wellness was on my mind, and it was literally at. Very seat, the kitchen table that I became fascinated by Instagram ads.

I'm not a super big social media guy, but we all know that the ads are super specific . So I was enamored by the relevance, the beauty of them, the messaging, and I wanted all of it. And I started ordering stuff and because we were locked in the house, the stuff started to come, .

I will tell you that eight and a half times outta 10, when I unpacked what I ordered, I was [00:11:00] dissatisfied. And it was mostly wellness stuff. And there were really two reasons. One was the gap between But the marketing said, and what it was huge. It was just uninspired by what I received.

And the second was the minute I ordered something on Instagram, I got the next ad for the same thing, different brand, better ad, better messaging, more beautiful people, whatever it was. And you're like, which one should I have ordered? So I ordered both and but it was more out of fascination. And what I realized is that it's a complicated market.

Actually, when I dug into it a little bit in this very seat, I found out that the market is 4.4 trillion globally. That's hairy and ugly and complex. For you and me as consumers, right? Yes. And so the first notion of Maavee was there's gotta be a better way to discover Great. And so the first incarnation of Mai was to find a way to create the ability to shop well, to be well.

And that's where it all started. 

Robyn: And we are so in awe of what you are doing from that[00:12:00] product and services perspective, because we felt that really we began that journey from the practitioner's perspective, There are so many people that are out there, a lot of them are not able to be found.

And then from there, it's coming up with a way to evaluate people so that you can find the credible practitioners. To your point about Instagram ads, there's a lot of people out there that can market themselves well.

That are brilliant at it. And then you go and you have, a session with them or whatever it is for that modality, and you're deeply disappointed. And so that was really, the impetus of our starting this podcast, of also starting our business, and our vision. 

And 

Karen: there's also the flip side to that, of course, too, which is I'm a maker.

I'm doing my mission, but that's why I don't wanna market myself. I don't know it to go about doing that. And that's the frustration as well. And then people can't really find those great products and services that they're looking 

Frank: for. I fully agree. [00:13:00] In fact, people always ask me like, oh, what are the brands that you have, available through Maavee?

And what I love is that 80% of the brands you might have never heard of, but. They are changing the world. They have an intention. They have brought something to market that has a passion behind it, an amazing creator and a good story. And part of our mission when I said, to make it easy to discover the best of wellness and to create this community of brands that can help each other even be better, being better means growing your business first so that you can do have more social impact.

We can't just say, oh, you should have greener packaging or better shipping, or post more about, diversity and inclusion if you're not growing. They go hand in hand. . And so for us it was really important. The discovery was a really important anchor. How do you help brands get discovered?

And so I love it because unless you have a passion for something or you have a problem, You're probably not diving into a 4.4 trillion industry. [00:14:00] And so the making it easy to discover is the brand promise. And so I really think that

 bringing visibility to brands that you might not otherwise discern is part of your journey. Like I had no idea that the komuso shift was gonna be part of my life. You can't see me. I'm holding it right now. Yeah, you're gonna have to tell 

Robyn: everybody what you're 

Frank: doing. I'm holding it right now. But I met Todd, the founder so Design.

He made this product. It's a beautiful piece of jewelry, hangs around your neck, it's called the Shift, and it's for breath. Now he invented it because he was having anxiety attacks and couldn't find a solution for a very long time until someone, an expert told him, Todd, stop. doing all the things you're doing, and go get the little bar straws that go in your drink at the bar that are too thin to drink through.

Cut him in half, put 'em in your pocket and every time you feel anxiety, put it in your mouth and blow through it for two minutes. And this was the thing that solved his problem. And so he brought it to market in a beautiful piece of jewelry. Now I use [00:15:00] it one because I love Todd, I love his stories, but if you had said to me a year ago, are you gonna be at Breathwork guy?

I probably would've said no. But I'll tell you what I use it for. I don't breathe when I type. And so as I'm doing email, I pop it in my mouth and I blow through it, and all of a sudden now I'm breathing and it hangs around my neck and I'm re reminded of it. And so it's part of my journey now. So I discovered that I wouldn't have found Kamuso unless I was like in it to win it in breath work

Robyn: That's right. And now people are from around the world can find him and Kamuso as well, 

Frank: right? Story. Yeah. We wanna make his story discoverable just as much as we wanna make the product discoverable. And how 

Robyn: do you see the needs for wellness services and community changing and how have they changed in your opinion over the last just few years?

Frank: I think it's, no longer about working out and eating healthy and stop smoking. . So it's much broader. It's wellbeing is your body, your mind, your heart, your soul, work, money and [00:16:00] planet. And so that latter being, this notion that, It's connected, we're connected to the wellbeing of the world.

So we can no longer separate our own wellbeing from that of the world in which we live. And it needs to be part of your own individual wellness journey to be a great global citizen and good to our planet and good to each other, So we think that's part of wellness. And it's also deeper, what used to be, five protein bars are now 5 million different protein bars every category is deep. And it says two things to me. One, it says there are real problems to solve and everybody wants a shot at solving them, but it also makes it harder to figure out which ones for you. And we don't claim to know the answer of which ones for you.

we're not gonna prescribe that you do this and do that, and then eat this protein bar. But we are gonna do our best to find what we consider brands that are really having an impact in making them available. Wellness is more personal as well. we can't decide for you.

[00:17:00] And so we just need to give everyone the tools to make it easy. And I guess the last thing I would say what's changed is wellness is no longer things that only hippies do. It's the things that we all do now, like mindfulness and meditation 20 years ago was like a new age thing.

Yep. And now it's literally data that says if you meditate and are mindful you can prevent disease. So the data is there, and now healthcare treatment and wellness prevention are converging in a meaningful way. And so I think all of those things just create a really interesting dynamic moment where everybody wants in.

Nobody wants to die anymore. No one wants disease. Yeah, 

Karen: and we talked a lot about too how, for every person, it's personal in the sense that their way in their doorway may be doing yoga, or it may be what they decide to eat, or it may be meditation. And so having a place where people can explore all that in a trusted way is something that we're really passionate about.

So I just wanna ask you about [00:18:00] the products and the services that you offer. how do you find and evaluate the products and companies associated with your platform? How do they get there? 

Frank: We have a team of people who scour the planet for great stuff, and they pre-vet. By doing research that's publicly available on websites, on blogs, on social media.

They look for evidence of things that we will eventually evaluate, and then if we think that there's something there, we invite the brand into our process. And our process is loosely related to the ESG methodology. We call it esy, which is Environment Society. And you being the consumer. And we have a set of criteria in each of those categories where we ask the brand to demonstrate their connection to these criteria.

And I'll give you a couple of examples. In environment or planet, we [00:19:00] ask them about their packaging. We ask them how they ship. we ask them about their supply chain. We ask them about ethical labor. We ask them about how they use water and natural resources. And so they answer our questions and we then go back with more questions.

I think they're always surprised that we actually come back and ask questions and we get to a point where we are comfortable that there's evidence. And so that's environment and society. We look for things like how do you use your audience and your voice to advocate for a fair and just society, are you promoting diversity visibly?

Are you giving back to charity? Do you have a charity? All kinds of things that build a fair, and just society. And then for you, the consumer we look for is there data to support? What you're saying is it evidence based in science backed and, are there good ratings and reviews or is there any controversy around your brand?

So we do this with a small and mighty team that have gotten to know the [00:20:00] brands in such an intimate way that by the time we say you're in welcome. We love each other. , we've really gotten to know each other and we get such incredible feedback from the brands on the process, which, not only makes us feel good, but it validates that we're doing good work and we wanna do more.

There's always more to do, what we're doing right now is a really great start. One thing I don't think we talked 

Karen: about there are certain categories of products on your site? Correct? Can you talk 

Frank: about. Yeah, so we think of wellness very broadly, body, mind, heart, soul, work, money, planet, we call those streams of wellness.

And in each of those streams there are lots of subcategories. So in body you can imagine that there's food and drink and supplementation or breath work or even genetic testing. and it's both products and services. We believe that you have to have both in order to navigate a journey.

And as you guys said, we don't have practitioners per se in the way that you guys think about them. That's another [00:21:00] natural evolution into service. So it's all very important. And I think there are about 25 or 30 subcategories below those streams. 

Robyn: And recently, we were talking to you and you gave this example of somebody who didn't think they'd be interested in wellness products and services until they checked out what you had available.

Can you talk about that? you are most likely interested in wellness if you're listening to this podcast, but you may know someone in your life who may sound like this person that Frank's gonna talk 

Frank: about. Let me start by saying, Robyn, that Maavee has a couple of ways that we

help you to discover your personal wellness journey. One is directly to consumers, to you and I who are just shopping, but we actually started with employers and what we intended to do, first of all we have a fundamental belief that employers are a very important part of the wellness journey[00:22:00] of an employee.

What's an employee? A human being with a job, . But they're a human. they're consumers. But employers take the majority of our life and employers are leaning in now very heavily to the wellbeing of employees and the experience that those employees have while being employees.

They're investing lots of money. They want their to be connected to their employer brand and they do it for lots of reasons. They want them to be more productive, they want them to be more loyal. They want them to be advocates in the world for that employer. They want them to be healthier.

It might be that they want their insurance premiums to be lowered, So they'll healthier. The employee base is theoretically they'll lower the insurance premiums. lots of different intention, but they want their employees to be well, and we want to help employers do that.

So one of the Maavee experiences, which is the Maavee app available to employers as a wellbeing benefit to employees. And quite simply, the employer gets to put money [00:23:00] in your digital wallet in the Maavee app. To spend on the best wellness products and services. And most importantly, the employee gets to choose, we just said wellness is personal, it's not super personal.

Although well intended for an employer to choose a meditation app for everyone, even though they would love everyone to be mindful, meditation for me might not be an app. It might be the Komuso shift. . So let me choose. And so basically we say we're the easy button for employers to make it easy for employees to discover their own journey.

Which brings me to your real question, which is tell you about Rick. So we ask our employer clients if we can talk to employees every once in a while and ask them what they think about Maavee, the app. So we get on a Zoom call with Rick and we say, Hey Rick, what do you think of Maavee? And he did not hesitate by saying, Look, I would never use this app

 I'm just not that guy. I'm not gonna go spend a hundred dollars on myself. I'm not gonna go seek out wellbeing products and. We felt a little deflated for a second [00:24:00] until he literally on the zoom call, pulls out a lumbar support pillow with micro needles on it, made by a bed of nails and it's an acupressure lumbar support pillow.

And he said, look, my employer gave me $300. I found three products I had no idea ever existed, would've never found them. I love this one because I sit at my desk all day, hunched over, I have back problems. And he said, the micro needles hurt. They feel good, it makes me wanna push into it or reminds me to push into it.

And we actually told the employer anonymously that we had a such a conversation with one of their employees. And John, the founder of the company that, Rick worked for, said, I would spend money on that all day, every day. That's wellness happening in the moment, in real time. And I wanna support that.

So it was a really eye opening moment. That choice is so important to the journey. . 

Karen: And again, like another example of how wellness, the definition of wellness is different to every person. 

Talk about some of the other products and services[00:25:00] on Maavee.

What are some of the ones that just really stand out in your mind or that people might be surprised or even there? 

Frank: Karen, I'm inspired every day by the brands story. I have to be honest. we have a meeting once a week to discuss the evaluation of new brands. And I'm never unsatisfied with the conversation.

what these brands do are really incredible. So I'll give you a couple of my favorites that I've discovered. As part of this process that are now part of my own journey. So I met the founder of Energy Bits. Her name is Catherine. She's the algae lady. I call her algae lady . She makes little tablets that are algae.

And what I love about these, first of all, there is enough science to support the goodness of algae for your body. You could be reading for years, but I don't know, did you know that you should be taking algae? Who knows that? No, I meant Kathryn and my mind, I was like where do I get the algae?

And I didn't know if I would feel better, if I would feel [00:26:00] nothing. but the story and the science. My journey with algae is not that I feel 180 degrees different. My story with algae is I love taking it . The actual act of taking the algae pills brings incredible awareness that I'm doing something good for my body.

And so for me, that is part of it. There is nothing on the planet that's gonna change your life overnight. It's about consistency. It's about doing it over the long term and, but that the moment of taking the algae 

Robyn: It's a ritual, right? 

Frank: And it's more in my mind, I have to be honest that I love to do it cuz I know that it's doing good. So I love that because again, you don't feel immediate effects, you're feeding your body. so I, that's part of my journey every day, a couple times a day. And I also love Barbara and Dr.

Luke who founded kaibae. kaibae is a supplement that supports the gut [00:27:00] and skin microbiome, which is also probably a whole nother podcast on the microbiome. But it's made out of the fruit of the baba tree from Africa. And what I love about them also, the sciences there that will blow your mind.

And what kaibae has done is, one, they've become a certified B Corp. Which is a big deal. They are ethical in every aspect of their supply chain and sustainable, and this is a certification that you earn. And they're a small brand that has achieved this mighty certification, which is really impressive.

But they're also the number one source of income for communities in Ghana where the baba fruit is harvest. And so they're doing such good in the world maybe not in your backyard, but in the world. And I love that because it is about the world and it's about the planet and they're doing such great stuff and the product is amazing.

And I take it, I'll just give you one more example, is the [00:28:00] black girl doctor. So we've said that wellness is personal and there are solutions services in our app that are, coaching and therapy for all. But we also have the black Girl doctor, which is coaching and therapy for and by black women founded by Dr.

Ty. And that makes it more personal for some people. And Dr. Ty and her therapist and the black girl, doctor of the company do so much social good in the world. They use their voice in such a powerful way, and they give back in such a powerful way. To advocate for diversity and equity and inclusion that we're proud to have them in the app.

And so everybody's doing different things, they're all amazing. And again, we can't separate the doing good from our wellness journey. 

Robyn: And the other thing I would wanna point out to everybody listening, and we've talked about this before and having obviously gone through both the app as well as maaveegoods.com, there is also diversity in the range of cost of these products for the consumer.

Can you talk about 

Frank: that? Yeah, [00:29:00] you bring up a good point because part of making it easy to discover the best of, it's not cheap to be well, and so part of making it easy is making it accessible. So the question that we always challenged ourselves with, and the reason we started with employers by the way, is to make wellness more accessible.

We have products that are $10 and products or services that are $2,500. They're completely different things. I'll give the example of a bike $220 for a really great road bike might not be accessible for everyone. But if your employer's giving you 200 or 300, that's either a $20 bike or a free bike

And so that's why we really believe that the employer's spending money, let's make sure that money gets spent well. Meaning spent on wellness at the choice of the employee and spent with brands doing good in the world. But we don't just curate really expensive things. We look for. And another good example, by the way is a yoga mat.

If you go to Amazon or 2,657 yoga mats and you're probably gonna buy the one at Amazon, tells you [00:30:00] why, because nobody has the time to figure out which one to get right. So we have only a couple, but they're distinctly different. They're different price points and they're doing different things in the world.

Like one literally disintegrates in a landfill very quickly if you discard it and one gets sent back when you're finished with it and made into sandals For people in India who don't have shoes, but different price points and we look for that. We are trying to take the complexity and hairiness out of wellness but we do look for different price points so that it can be more accessible.

Robyn: And we completely agree. Again, that's really what Karen and I have been doing as well in terms of these, experiences for people. we know that there are some people that are gonna charge, a lot of money for their time as, and there are others that it is more accessible.

And that's the goal is making all of this accessible all within this 

Frank: world. Absolutely agree. And when we talk to employers and we say to them, how do you decide which wellbeing or [00:31:00] wellness solutions or wellness benefits to offer? Eight times outta 10, they tell us that people in the organization ask for it.

. And we know that the employees want their employers to support them and to support them with things that resonate with them. And 

Karen: one of the things you've told us before too is that you don't have to be a monster Bohemoth company in order to be part of Maavee that even the smaller companies are leaning in because they know that it's a wonderful gift that they can give their employees that's meaningful. 

Frank: And, we agree a hundred percent with what you just said. Karen and fundamentally believe that there is an incredible underserved market of small and medium sized businesses who are well intended, spending money and doing great things for employees, but they don't have the same visibility to the solutions that are out there.

Or they perceive that these solutions are big, complicated things to implement, or that [00:32:00] it's super, super expensive to do this. And our hypothesis was that small and medium sized business would want to contribute to the wellness journey of their employees and. Prove that very quickly. We weren't sure initially if small businesses were gonna be spending money on employees, and what we found was quite the opposite.

In fact, we come across all the time companies that say, oh yeah, small companies. We give everyone a wellness benefit. I put $400 in their paycheck every November and tell them to spend it on their wellness, which is so well intended, but no idea if it's spent on wellness. 

Karen: And I also still love too, on the other side of it, that you are giving these small brands, a place, a platform where they can find people who are actually looking for them as well. So it's just such a wonderful. All way around idea. So glad you followed that intention at your kitchen table that day.

Robyn and I know firsthand, it's like when you have a vision it's great, but then you actually have to put the work into bringing it into life. And so I know you are so passionate about [00:33:00] doing this. Is there anything that stands out for you in your mind, Frank, on this journey that you've been on so far that's really inspired you along the way?

I know you're meeting all these great people, you've got an incredible team, but not everybody is willing to follow through on that inspired moment and really go the distance. What is your takeaway from where you are right now and how do you feel about this journey that you've been on to date and where do you hope that it ultimately takes you 

Frank: personally?

I love the question . Because it first of all, it is a journey, right? You guys know starting a business and following through and dealing with the complexities that come up and the great things that happen every day and, making sure that the team stays motivated and excited. And first I will say I continue to be inspired, one by our own team's passion for what they do, two, by the community of brands that we've created.

Three, by the stories of [00:34:00] commitment by employers. To their employees and why they do what they do, which is another community, by the way, of employers just wanting to do more and do it better. So I'm inspired by the stories, but I would say there's one thing that I've probably been learning for a long time but never knew it is that for all the work and all the action and all the pushing forward

to move the needle and make stuff happen, there's just as much power in allowing it to happen, to being open to it just unfolding and happening. And so I think I've been learning that for a long time but again, didn't know how to put words around it. And the summary for me is if I'm gonna take an action and try to push forward, it became very clear to me and starting Maavee that it needed to be inspired action.

Just pushing forward wasn't moving the needle as much as being inspired to [00:35:00] take that action, which is, for me, the art of allowing and knowing when the right time to really push something forward. So that keeps me going. I love watching this unfold and testing it out, proving to myself that is actually how it works.

Robyn: it's so true. And there is an art and a practice. Karen and I talk about that all the time cuz it's not 

Frank: easy. It's not easy. It's a constant mental exercise. 

Robyn: It really is. 

Frank: and we've been conditioned to do it differently. We've been conditioned to bust down every wall.

We really have. 

Robyn: At least the three of us have. I think in our careers that really has been how we've moved forward. 

Frank: Absolutely. And I'm not saying don't act Of course. No. That's why it's an art. Why it's aren't ex Exactly. Be inspired. The action allows a lot more to 

Robyn: happen.

 There's so much truth there. 

Karen: I was just gonna say, I think in anybody starting their own business and following through it, it can be such a lonely journey, even if you're doing it with somebody else, [00:36:00] because it is that combination of taking everything that you think that you should be doing or everything that you've learned and allowing that inspiration to really carry you forward.

It's just a dance that you're constantly having to do. 

Frank: And the word you just used, the, such an interesting word, the should I was just gonna say, 

Robyn: and she had it in quotes for those listening. 

Frank: Yeah. Yeah. It's, we should do a lot of things. Exactly. And you're not gonna get very far if you're just constantly responding to the shoulds of life.

Robyn: That's right. we're trying to ban that word in our vocabulary, . We really are. 

Frank: We speak the same language, that's for sure. 

Robyn: Can you talk about Maavee goods.com? I know we've mentioned it, but I'd love for you to just expand on that 

Frank: a little. Sure. So the first solution that we brought to market was the Maavee app, which is for employers And that's go Maavee.com and that is a service that employers can offer to their employees. And just as a side note, the app is not just a [00:37:00] marketplace of wellness products and services. It's an experience that helps you to navigate a journey. And we think there are four key ingredients to doing that.

One is content to inform and inspire You, spark your curiosity community for connection and support along the way. The ability to shop well, to be well along the way, and then features what we call them, impact features. And the features are designed to not just nudge you and remind you to be on your journey, but also to have collective impact in the world.

So I'll give you an example. We have a giving feature where you can give the money in your digital wallet or your own money that either your employer offered you or for your own money. You can give it to charity Charities that we've curated, that we believe are having a real impact on making underserved areas of our community more well.

What's interesting, if I can get Karen to give $25, it's more interesting if I can give a million people to give $25 to [00:38:00] share. So it's having an impact on one person's journey, but having a collective impact together, have a bunch of features that are designed to do that and again, that's another aspect or layer of having impact in the world or positively impacting the world through the pursuit of wellbeing.

So that's a very journey based experience in the app maaveegoods is taking all of the great products and services that we've curated and quite simply making them available to you and I as human consumers at maaveegoods.com and so we, really try to think about our mission, which is to make it easy to discover the best of wellness.

One way we can do that is by allowing employers to help you do it. One way we can do that is by connecting to humans who shop and wanna shop well to be, shop at the best of, and there are other ways that we can do it that we're thinking about that we're watching unfold which is really interesting.

But right now it's for consumers and for employees. Those are the two offerings, if you will, that we have. That's great. 

Robyn: And you really have [00:39:00] made it easy for both journeys, Karen and I have experienced both of them, and you are living up to that intention.

Frank: Appreciate that. That means a lot. 

Robyn: We wanted to also ask you, I know you shared your algae story, but , is there a spiritual or wellness practice that you feel has helped to transform your own life that you can share with everybody listening? 

Frank: I touched on it a little bit, but I'll expand on it in that

I started the conversation by saying I was a well seeker. Maybe be a little bit more broad and say that I've always been a seeker. Just in general. I have this insatiable appetite to seek new things out. And which means I'm a thinker, I think, a lot. And so that's, is that's good. But it also brings complexity that you have to deal with.

And I don't wanna say meditation is the practice but for me, the spiritual practices awareness I'm so pleased. I'm so inspired. I find such joy in being aware of things. More and more as life progresses. [00:40:00] Oh, that's that. Or, oh, I know what that is, now, or what to do with it now.

And so I'm constantly being mindful of and aware of the things that kind of help my story unfold, and they really have allowed me to allow but it all started with awareness. Yeah. And so I just find myself just trying to be aware of what the moment is. 

Robyn: And then you start to see the patterns or you start to see the signs.

Exactly. The signs. And then you can take that inspired action. Oh, the proof. Yes. Exactly. Validation, all of it. Yes. 

Karen: Yeah. And you start to live in that present moment, which going back to the corporate world they Teach you not to do, they teach you to really look at the list and to look at the next thing and the deliverable and the forecast and Future, and not really be in that present at all. And I think it's a constant battle that we 

Frank: all fight and you have to do those things to look at them and see the north stars and then be aware of what's really happening in the moment to get there. Because 

Karen: You can miss, you can totally get off path [00:41:00] because you're so busy looking ahead.

Robyn: I often think, and I wanted to mention this person who brought us together, which is Amy Haggerty, and I'm sure she'll be listening to this at some point soon. And I think about how Amy had the inspired thought to connect you with Karen and myself. And she had sent an email, I can't even remember at when this was, but she sent an email and I thought what was so interesting is that it was about a month after she sent it, you actually reached out to me on whatever given day.

And it was literally on my list of things that afternoon to do was to reach out to you. And I often think of that and. . There is no coincidence. And yeah, it was like, that was when our frequencies, that art of allowing, that's when we were supposed to talk. For whatever reason, it's not, it's actually unlike me to wait a month after someone introduced and probably for you too.

But who knows what was going on in our world. I think about that all there was ous. I didn't know that. Yeah. There was such [00:42:00] synchronicity on that afternoon And I was like, oh my God. And I just also just have to thank Amy again For following her intuition and she had mentioned you to me prior to actually, when she sent the note, she's I dunno, I just think you're supposed to know Frank . And she mentioned your company and she herself at that time trying to understand what you were doing.

But she's there's just something there. I 

Frank: don't think we knew well, maybe we had a PowerPoint and a maybe a dream. 

Robyn: That's amazing. I think that's be the name of our movie, 

Karen: Robyn. 

Robyn: We had a PowerPoint and although ours would be

 Keynote 

Robyn: and a dream

Karen: I love that. Thank you Amy, for following through on that inspired thought. we all need to do that more, and that's just what you were saying, Frank, about being enough in that moment and being aware. That's when the real inspired moments come. And if we don't action, then we can totally get off.

 Course, we've missed something entirely. 

Frank: Yep. I'm glad that Amy had that moment as well, and that you waited a month because now we wouldn't have been able [00:43:00] to have that story or that synchronicity. That's right. You didn't have the inspired action in that moment and neither did I, but eventually we did.

And by the way, that's not the only inspired action that we've had in our journey together. That 

Robyn: is very true. . Again, there was, she would have no idea that there would be such alignment. And again, we were evolving at the same time. Cuz this was a while ago and our vision was evolving during, and I know, so that's why it's all on purpose that all of that timing and that allowing is on purpose so that we could come together and there's huge potential for us to really work together and.

As you said, really impact the world. That's the goal. So thank you. 

To find out more about the wellness products we discussed today and to discover many more plus, to give the gift of wellness to someone else, visit Maavee goods.com.

That's M a V E E G O O D s.com. You can also tell your employer about Maavee and have them visit goMaavee.com. 

Thank you [00:44:00] so much frank 

Frank: Thank you very much.

Robyn: Bye.