WayUp Office Hours: Health & Wellness

If you don’t know what WayUp Office Hours are by now, you’re seriously missing out: our free, summer event series gives interns in NYC the opportunity to learn from leaders of booming industries. This week’s theme was Health & Wellness (and good thing there was a free SoulCycle class after so that we didn’t look too bad next to our health-conscious speakers!). Our four incredible panelists — Spencer Rice, CMO at SoulCycle, Jenna Tannenbaum, Founder at Green Blender, Sadie Kurziban, Founder at ((305)) Fitness, and Katherine Ryder, Founder & CEO at Maven — taught us how to shape up our lives and our careers. Check it out.

Your major and your past work experience do not define your career: you create your narrative. Fun fact? None of our panelists studied health and wellness, and in fact, three out of our four panelists’ first few tries at finding their career path landed them all over the job map: Spencer started off at a talent agency, Katherine as a copywriter at The New Yorker, and Jenna as a risk management consultant.

Spencer, who majored in American History at Harvard, said that “if a recruiter won’t hire you because of your major, then that’s a failure of creativity on their part,” but that if you can’t craft a story, clearly communicating the skills you learned from your major and applying them from one job interview to the next, then “that’s a failure of creativity on your part.” You should always be able to tell any employer what you bring to the table.

Starting from the bottom isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it can be valuable. “Start low, get in there, and prove yourself,” Spencer said talking about how every SoulCycle employee he has hired has helped to work the front desk. “Learn the system and the ops from the ground up; it teaches you about the culture,” he added. Sadie shared that this type of willingness to never say no to tasks is what she looks for in employee — “someone who comes on board, and who is like ‘I’ll do anything.’”

Yes, this could mean that your first job may be something you aren’t so excited to take. “But here’s a secret,” Jenna said, “You don’t have to do that for the rest of your life – nothing is permanent.” Asking yourself questions like “Am I learning something? Am I creating something?“ are the main ways to keep yourself moving forward, she advised. So put your heart and soul into whatever you do – then find a new opportunity.

Especially in an industry like this, don’t lose sight of the impact you’re making in people’s lives.

“We’re in health and wellness – there’s a lot of social good that can be done,” Katherine said, describing how her digital clinic service Maven is launching a “buy one, give one” deal that helps users donate a free consultation to a lower income woman.

Sadie’s company ((305)) Fitness not only has donation-based community classes but also makes a conscious effort not to talk about impossible body or beauty standards. “We don’t say ‘beach body,’ ‘fit into those jeans!’ I don’t think it’s what resonates anymore.” After all, she added, why feed those unhealthy thoughts into your system?

Now that’s some empowering advice.