Ep. 101: Love is a Business Strategy with Mia Kyricos- Founder, Kyricos & Associates

Mia Kyricos is a pioneer in the field of wellness and well-being in the corporate world. With over 20 years of experience, Mia has worked with numerous organizations to implement wellness into their corporate initiatives. She is the President and Founder of Kyricos & Associates, a boutique advisory firm providing strategic guidance to the wellness and hospitality industries on a global scale. Throughout her career, Mia has worked for industry pioneers, including Spa Finder Wellness, Canyon Ranch Health Resorts, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and served as the Senior VP and Global Head of Wellbeing at Hyatt Hotels. Mia’s most recent work focuses on how love can be implemented as a business strategy and achieve a huge ROI for companies.

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Show Notes

[3:04] I lived at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires between my first year and second year of grad school, and really just got a passion for really understanding how East can meet West and not how we can just cure people's health and well-being if they're feeling sick or they have an ailment. But how we can increase our quality of life, our longevity and prevent illness.
[4:35] I was the global head and senior vice president of well-being at Hyatt Hotels Worldwide, which really was the first position of its kind because it wasn't just focused on commercial health and wellness, things like food and nutrition, quality of sleep, spas, fitness and so forth at hotels, but also the health and wellness of one hundred and thirty thousand colleagues worldwide in a business that never sleeps, and that's open twenty four by seven.
[5:37] I would say that 2020 is not the great reset which I've seen in business press. I would call it the great catalyst for the business of wellness and well-being, because I think the issues we had, much like we learned when we quarantined in that home, if you had poor relationships at home, you learned about it, right? Same in the business world today. I really feel like 2020 is going to accelerate the conversation from the importance of self care as individuals, that it's not selfish, that it's a responsibility to ourselves and our families and our teams and our communities, but also the importance of looking at how we work because it's making us unwell.
[7:52] The one thing everyone has in common right now is the state of our mental health and wellness. It is dramatic. If we had sort of underlying conditions, they have been pushed to the forefront, really thinking about tools and resources that we can bring to life that are easy as an individual level.
[8:24] How we respond or take responsibility for our own wellness is going to also really have implications for the illness that's legitimate and out there as well.
[8:56] I think loneliness is an epidemic.
[9:44] I've called that the need to connect with people is an anecdote for people that are struggling and they've lost their jobs and they're trying to find work.
[11:54] If we don't start looking at how we work and the cultures we're fostering in companies, we have no chance in having any of these programs work.
[13:41] You have to find a way of helping people to understand and identify with how they prioritize their own well-being.
[15:10] We had to help them commercially care because they were running businesses, then help them personally identify whether it was financial, spiritual or emotional, connecting with loved ones, whatever their personal definitions of wellness was. And then only then could we help them turn around and be models for their team members and their families and their communities.
[16:03] I think it's not work life balance anymore, I think it's work life integration. I think it's integration and it's helping to build boundaries and communicating what's important to you.
[19:30] It's very, very hard work because we have to basically undo decades of core habits. \
[20:36] We all need tools that we can reach when we know we need a timeout to check yourself before you wreck yourself.
[21:31] Typically in a corporate environment, 70-75% will score poorly in mental health and wellness.
[22:56] I have this hypothesis that if we institutionalize love as a business strategy, that it could actually be seen in a top line and the bottom line analysis.
[25:12] I think 2020 is going to really help us to get real from well-being to how we treat each other. If we haven't learned anything about what's going on in the world today, how we treat each other is so important.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“I think it's not work life balance anymore, I think it's work life integration. I think it's integration and it's helping to build boundaries and communicating what's important to you.” - Mia Kyricos
“If we don't start looking at how we work and the cultures we're fostering in companies, we have no chance in having any of these programs work.” - Mia Kyricos
“You have to find a way of helping people to understand and identify with how they prioritize their own well-being.” - Mia Kyricos

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