meet our founder...
Founder, director and believer that the working world, is happier, more productive and performs genuinely better when we dedicate time to proactively building mental fitness.
Not leaving it for when you have time (you never do),
...saving it until you have some left over budget (also...never happens),
or waiting until there's a crisis (you'll wish you'd been proactive about it).
I believe building your mental fintess as a business owner or leader should be 3 things:
Simple to integrate into your life and work
Actually about you
Improve your life and business
Because when you invest into the way you're able to perceive challanges and opportunity and the tools you have to navigate them, you're in the best possible position to thrive.
(and enjoy it along the way).
The need...
Mental health and wellbeing work often gets a bad rep.
Seen as "a good buzz word", something "nice to have" or a bit "woowoo" - I've heard them all since starting Cinder.
But the reality is, 1 in 4 adults have a diagnosable mental health condition in the UK, and even more than that (4 in 4), experience the day-to-day challenges of life, professionally and personally.
Business owners are particularly susceptible to burnout, overwhelm, loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression.
Not only do these of course feel awful to experience, but they undoubtedly impact the way you and your business performs over time.
It all started with anxiety and depression as standard dinner chat...
Growing up, both my parents worked in mental health, and conversations around depression and anxiety were standard dinner table chat.
Even with the regular "and how do you feel about that Jen..." questions, I have OCD and so know in-depth the reality and impact of mental health at work.
I can also say though, that I've gone from being on beta blockers for anxiety to standing on stage talking about the neuroscience behind it to huge audiences.
And whilst I'm absolutely not the finished article, I can say with 100% confidence that working on your mental fitness os transformative to life and career.
It was whilst working for the British Franchise Association (BFA), and supporting members, that I saw the gap in support within franchising, so I decided to do something about it and retrained to become an accredited instructor with Mental Health First Aid England, and created Cinder to become that missing piece of the puzzle.
...and we're actually pretty good at what we do!
Since we began in 2021, we've...
Become a multi-award winning business
Been made the BFA Academy partner for mental health and wellbeing in franchising
Worked internationally with well over 100 businesses
Pioneered research to gather hard data for franchising
...and stayed totally committed to making sure everything we do is grounded, delivers practical results and is light and fun wherever it can be.