Kiwi Business Story: Sarah McGuinness at ROW

 
Sarah McGuinness is the Founder and CEO of Revolutionaries of Wellbeing. Sarah received Business Coaching from The Icehouse. 

This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 27 October 2022 and all figures and facts quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.

What has been the Revolutionaries of Wellbeing (ROW) journey?

It’s been such an iterative journey that it's hard to pinpoint exactly when it started, although there have been many key milestones. [Initially] it literally grew by word of mouth. Then when Covid hit, it just became so epic.

What is the service?

(ROW is on a mission to unleash human potential. They create wellbeing-centred workplaces that put people first and unlock performance. It has a powerful community to help organisations embed wellbeing into business and also partners with organisations to create well-being cultures in the workplace).

On the one hand, we have the community. We run a monthly webinar, we interview someone, turn it into a podcast, and then we have a paid, professional group that has its own version of LinkedIn; people are able to communicate, share resources. It’s a huge amount of generosity and everyone's on the same page.

Then, on the other side, is the consulting part and that's really grown from people asking for help – anything from organisations needing assistance in defining well-being, through to someone contacting us saying, ‘Help!’ they have to present to their leadership group next week and need advice.

What’s a practical tip for a business owner wanting to improve their workplace wellness?

Before we talk about the workplace, you have to prioritise your well-being. You don't really get a choice, because if you don't, then you'll burn out. I learnt that the hard way…

[In the wider workplace] What we usually recommend is to just go and talk to your people and find out where they're at. If it's not a comfortable conversation, start using some language that really works; we'd like to support you, we'd like to do something to help, what would support you right now? 

Then it’s really about checking in with people on a regular basis, and whatever feels most comfortable. Obviously that'll be different for different workplaces, and what those strategies are will be different, but as long as there's this continual communication backwards and forwards, then that's probably the biggest thing you can do.

If you put people at the centre, and you ask them what they want… people are pretty realistic about what's appropriate. I think sometimes managers and leaders are really worried that if they ask people, they're going to be opening Pandora's box, but that’s not really no experience at all.

How did you initially hear about The Icehouse and decide to get coaching?

[Getting help] was on my radar for a little while, in the early days, when I was really in dark tunnels, trying to find light switches and just thinking, ‘I just can't work out where to go next and I'm really struggling’. 

It was really only me working on the business at the time. I was Googling around
and I came across The Icehouse. I thought it sounded really cool, all the stars aligned, we’d made enough money in the business, so I reached out and said, ‘I think I need some coaching. I think I need some help!’ 

Any hesitation?

The only thing that really held me back at the time was just being able to pay for it because of how the business was. Thankfully we were able to get some RBP funding, and that was a game-changer.

How did The Icehouse help you and your business? 

Kevin D’Ambros-Smith was the first coach that helped us and he was so great. He understood the business straightaway, was able to identify some of the areas where we could grow it, and some of the things to park. He was my coach when Covid kicked off. 

We decided to rebrand then, and put everything under one brand. With his background, I don't think the ROW branding would be nearly as strong without his input. He was just brilliant. 

Then I stepped away for a little bit to organise the business and imbed everything that we changed. I went through burnout, reached out to The Icehouse again, saying, ‘I need somebody who's just going hold my hand for a bit!’

Richard Poole was brilliant. He was so patient, so helpful and so kind. He had some really brilliant ideas, which helped me to prioritise what I needed to do. This is the brilliance of The Icehouse – all the things that Kevin had put in place, Richard built off, so that it was just a really natural journey. It felt like they were all part of an extended team that you could call on.