In this episode of the Pharmacy View Podcast, host Scott Carpenter, EVBC and guest Bruce Hultgren talk about the correlation between productivity and an individual’s wellbeing. Bruce is the Founder and CEO of theGOYA.life, a world-class app that guarantees improvement in staff wellbeing and productivity.
Bruce is a former NBL basketballer and has worked for several decades as a coach and educator. He wanted to develop software that he wished he had as an athlete and a coach. He put years into researching best practices that could be included in the app and also drew inspiration from his own experience. The result of all that was the world’s first wellbeing app: theGOYA.life!
Bruce believes that a person’s wellbeing stems from mindset as much as it does from being physically fit. That’s why the app addresses the following questions:
- Do I belong?
- Does someone care?
In fact, these were the questions that Bruce asked himself as a 17-year-old when he thought that he would not see the next day and having overcome that personal challenge wanted to stop other people from falling into the same dark hole. The app he created ensures that
- An individual has access to a community of people in a bully-free zone where they can choose to let people know how they are feeling on any given day
- An individual has access to what he/she needs 24*7 so that they know that someone’s got their back
Bruce adds that when he showed the app to a friend who was a teacher, they said that it could be used in the field of education; likewise, a business executive and health specialist thought it would be helpful in ensuring that people had the right mindset for productivity and personal improvement. So the app now comes in four versions:
- GOYA Connect – for Community and Business
- GOYA Learn – for use in Education
- GOYA Men – for Men’s Mental Health groups
- GOYA Sport – for Sporting Organisations and Athletic Directors
Bruce reiterates that ‘prevention is better than cure’ and that’s why GOYA is an app that enables you to show that you care, and that they belong, by enabling you to monitor the wellbeing of your team or clients on a daily basis. So you can ‘check-in’ as opposed to ‘check-up’. It functions as a private journal and a bully-free zone and allows individuals to not only set their goals but also choose their communication settings—it is a tool that helps one manage life away from the pressures of social media. All it takes is a few minutes each day!
Topics Covered
- How GOYA was Developed
- How the App Works
- Features of the App
- Managing Communication and Life with the App
- How Push Backs and Barriers to Entry are Managed
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
- “About eight years ago, I wanted to develop a software that was everything I wished I had as an athlete, and then now for the past thirty years, everything I wished I had as a coach. So, a client-coach relationship or athlete-coach management software.” (1:17 – 1:30)
- “If you talk to anyone who’s been in that lonely mental health space of something wrong, there are typically two things that are missing in their world: do I belong somewhere and does someone care?” (11:16 – 11:26)
- “When I was 17, I was on the verge of not seeing the next day. The only thing that stopped me was I couldn’t do it to my parents. And so going back into that zone: where was I and how do I stop other people from getting into that?” (11:28 – 11:38)
- “You can literally give somebody a place to manage their life away from social media.” (12:01 – 12:04)
Social Media Clips (Time Stamps)
- The Development of GOYA (1:19 -2:26)
- Let People Know They Belong and Someone Cares for Them (3:22 – 4:40)
- App as a Communication and Management Tool (11:04 – 12:06)
- Managing Push Backs (13:16 – 14:28)
Useful Links
Scott Carpenter, EVBC | LinkedIn
Shopfront Solutions: Overview | LinkedIn
Aerion Technologies: Overview | LinkedIn
Aerion Technologies | Helping Non Techs Build Better Tech
Pharmacy View Podcast: Overview | LinkedIn
