#ideastakeflight Stories: Trisha Dohn of Well365

I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in health and physical education and a Master’s degree in Exercise Science.  Upon graduation in the early 2000’s, the term corporate wellness was not popular or slightly mainstream. As many people with my background did, I went and worked at a fitness center.  I worked with individuals on their diet and exercise program but soon identified that I wanted more.  Not quite realizing the position I was taking, I accepted a job with one of the health care systems as a wellness coordinator.  This position is what exposed me to corporate wellness. 

Fast forward to 2015 while working in the corporate world of wellness, I identified that all of my work was being driven by corporate decisions and people whom did not understand corporate wellness nor the passion for wellness like I did.  This along with doing some soul searching on what I wanted to do, my Idea of Take Flight moment occurred and I took the leap of faith and started Well365, my own independent, corporate wellness company. 

I quickly learned that although I was an expert in corporate wellness, I had so much to learn about owning and running a business.  I learned about Zeal when they released an opportunity on social media about an Accelerator program.  I found out about it the night before the deadline to submit an application to be accepted into the program.  I quickly threw some things on paper, sent it over and kept on with my business until I learned I had been invited to give my elevator speech. Keep in mind, I didn’t even know what an elevator speech was!  All in all, I was accepted into the program and that was the pivotable step to me finally understanding that I was an entrepreneur, I owned my own company and for me to be successful, I needed to embrace this opportunity to learn from others who were successful in this space. 

Throughout the accelerator program, I realized that working from home was no longer a good fit and I decided to become a tenant at Zeal.  2 years later I reflect on the amount of help I received from resources, connections, brain-storming that really assisted me to get where I am today.  I started out in my basement with just myself and today have grown Well365 to 17 people turning in timesheets on any given month and clients we serve across 28 states.