An Interview with Nicole Mixdorf, Balance by Nature Chief Wellness Officer: ‘We’re Extremely Nimble and Open to Create New Content as Needed for Our Clients in Real-Time’

“The idea is to guide employees to release stress and trauma while creating more balance and embracing a growth mindset to be their best selves.”

Balance by Nature is an award-winning corporate health and wellness consulting firm. It’s on a mission to inspire employees to create small healthy changes in daily routines to improve their health outcomes, overall well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity.

The corporate wellness programs Balance by Nature designs provide a combination of stress reduction strategies, mindset training, fitness opportunities, nutrition education, health education, personal development, and team building experiences.

The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.

Nicole Mixdorf, Balance by Nature Chief Wellness Officer, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Explain your services in brief.

Balance by Nature develops wellness programs to help employees thrive. We were recently awarded as one of the ‘Top 10 Employee Wellness Companies in the USA 2020’ by HR Tech Outlook Magazine and Manage HR Magazine. We were also awarded the ‘Most Innovative Corporate Health & Wellness Company in the Western USA 2020’ by GHP News and ‘Top 30 Most Reputable Companies 2020’ by The Silicon Review.

We are helping companies support their employees’ physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being through these challenging times and beyond. We guide our corporate clients to create cultures of health, improving the way employees feel and perform in all areas of their lives. Happier and healthier employees are more productive and have greater job satisfaction, a win-win situation for any company.

We take a consultative approach to designing and managing corporate wellness programs by first gaining an in-depth understanding of the unique culture and work environment of the business and then gathering employee feedback to determine what elements the wellness program should include. This allows us to tailor an effective wellness solution with high levels of impact, participation, and engagement.

We offer a wide range of wellness experiences for our clients to choose from as we develop the program design that best suits their needs, interest, and budget. We have created a virtual gym, offering a wide range of fitness classes to keep employees fit and healthy. This includes Yoga, Pilates, Zumba, HIIT, Boot Camp, Martial Arts, Qigong, West African Dance, Brazilian Samba, Flamenco, and more. We recently expanded our mental health and stress reduction experiences to include meditation, mindfulness, growth mindset, music therapy, laughter therapy, sound bath therapy, EFT tapping, reiki healing, chair massage, and our signature stress reduction program, 21 Days to Less Stress at Your Desk. Our team of nutritionists delivers interactive healthy cooking classes, nutrition presentations, and health coaching.

In addition to this, we deliver a wide range of personal development trainings, including stress-less strategies, breaking through fear, building emotional resiliency, embracing change, mindset for success, discovering your purpose, connecting to your intuition, and more. The idea is to guide employees to release stress and trauma while creating more balance and embracing a growth mindset to be their best selves.

Q. In your experience, what is the key to improving results for your clients?

We have found that implementing our programs on a department-level has been incredibly successful. As part of our implementation process, we schedule meetings with all department leaders to better understand the unique challenges they are having with their teams. This allows us to customize personal development training from a wellness lens relevant to the issues at hand. When the VP is driving the initiative, everyone participates. Our structure for these trainings involve collaboration amongst team members, creating opportunities for colleagues to get to know one another on a deeper level and improve their relationships, communication, and teamwork.

Leadership support throughout the business is key to improving results. This sets an example to all employees that physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being is a priority. This is how we drive positive culture change, allowing employees to bring their best selves into their work and perform to their greatest potential.

Q. What kinds of on-going resources do you offer to your clients?

All our wellness experiences and trainings are live-streamed and recorded. We host the replays of our fitness classes, wellness webinars, healthy cooking classes, meditation sessions, music therapy sessions, and more into a beautifully designed members-only wellness portal that we customize for each of our clients. Employees can access this content live and on-demand to best suit their schedule and needs.

Q. What are the main pain points you see in today’s wellness landscape, and how do you stay a step ahead of the curve?

We are experiencing an unprecedented change in the way we live and work due to the COVID-19 health pandemic. The moment that employees were sent to work from home, everything in our industry changed. Companies are struggling to maintain their culture, identity, and team unity amongst a remote workforce of stressed-out professionals. Employees are trying to juggle working from home while also home-schooling their kids with less or no childcare. Parents have it tough these days! Everyone is frustrated about not being able to see family and friends. Still, it’s the employees who live alone who feel the isolation most and are at the greatest risk of falling into depression. Many employees are feeling triggered by social unrest and the systemic racism that is being brought to light. Some employees may have been personally touched by COVID, or are experiencing fear about rising cases around the country and uncertainty in what the future holds. And we have all been on an intense emotional roller coaster due to the heated political climate that has torn apart families and friendships. Social media and news headlines instantly trigger our stress response. Everyone is feeling stretched thin, which easily leads to burnout, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and a whole host of unwelcome health consequences. It has never been more important to invest in the well-being of employees.

Understanding these challenges allows us to expand our offerings to meet the needs of employees. Our mental health, stress reduction, and personal development experiences give employees the tools and mindset they need to find peace in the chaos. Our goal is to teach people how to create more balance in their lives by making small changes in their daily routines that change how they feel and perform. We are extremely nimble and open to create new content as needed for our clients in real-time. This flexibility gives Balance by Nature a unique edge in the corporate wellness landscape.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

We will be launching our very first program to the public in January, called Finding Balance. For the first time ever, we will be sharing the same amazing content that we offer to our corporate clients with everyone. It will be an affordable monthly membership where people will learn valuable skills to reduce stress, create boundaries and balance, and do inner work to improve their lives.

Q. What are your growth plans for the next five years?

Balance by Nature is growing rapidly, with national and international expansion plans in the coming years. We are constantly growing and evolving our offerings and plan to integrate new technology to gamify our programs. We are also expanding into Diversity and Inclusion and Emotional Intelligence programs in 2021. They go hand in hand with wellness and drive the powerful cultural shifts that our clients are looking for.

The Leader at the Helm of Balance by Nature

Nicole Mixdorf is the Chief Wellness Officer of Balance by Nature and was recently awarded as the Most Influential Woman in Corporate Wellness Services USA 2020 by Acquisition INTL Magazine. She was also awarded as a Top 100 Healthcare Leader in the World 2020 by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare.

She is a motivational leader who inspires people to be the very best that they can be. After spending over a decade working her way up the corporate ladder in a global firm, she experienced a stressful work environment’s debilitating health consequences. After taking time off to heal her body, she launched Balance by Nature in 2012 to help other busy professionals find more balance in their lives and thrive.

Nicole takes a consultative and strategic approach to designing wellness programs, delivering inspiring content to businesses around the country. These programs help corporations to reduce healthcare claims and absenteeism while boosting morale and attracting top talent.

“We take a consultative approach to designing and managing corporate wellness programs by first gaining an in-depth understanding of the unique culture and work environment of the business, and then gathering employee feedback to determine what elements the wellness program should include. This allows us to tailor an effective wellness solution with high levels of impact, participation, and engagement.”