Loading summary

Transcript132 lines

[00:00]
A
You're going to raise a series A in 2026. Are you happy about where you are in terms of the development of your business?
[00:07]
B
I want us to go faster. I'm grateful for everything we've done so far. We are serving thousands of employees across Canada. We are on our way to get 1 million ARR. We have an amazing team of people, we have great investors, but we need to go faster. Employee needs change every quarter, AI and tech change every week, so. So it's challenging times. I'm grateful for a react, but we need to go faster.
[00:49]
A
Hi, everyone. I'm super excited to welcome you to a new episode of our podcast. And today we have a special guest who's coming visiting. She flew into Silicon Valley and then Silicon Beach. Her name is Farnell Florent.
[01:02]
B
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Can't leave.
[01:05]
A
And while she was in la, I thought it was a good idea to have her visit us and share a little bit more about her journey as an entrepreneur. But also we always like to talk about business and spirituality and see how you're able to navigate this beautiful universe by being also grounded into who you are as a woman, as an entrepreneur, as a wife, et cetera. So welcome to the podcast.
[01:29]
B
Thank you so much for inviting me. I was looking forward to meet you in person. You have such a great reputation. So many people talk to me about you and your journey in tech and everything that you've done so far. So thank you so much for having me.
[01:42]
A
It's very touching. And for those who don't know, she's from Montreal, Quebec, so where I'm from as well. And my sister Julianne keeps telling me about Farnell and her business were kind and she kept telling me, you have to meet her. And last year, July 2023, we started 75 days hard.
[02:02]
B
Yes.
[02:02]
A
Together. We're in a group chat. We're in a group.
[02:04]
B
Hello there.
[02:05]
A
We're still in a group chat. And for those who don't know what it is, a program to help transform your mindset, but also to transform your health. So you have to do two exercises a day of 45 minutes, one inside, one outside. You have to drink a gallon of water a day, read your book, et cetera. My biggest challenge. Do you know what might be a challenge?
[02:23]
B
Was timing. Taking the time to.
[02:26]
A
For 45 minutes, no reading, no water. That was hard. But I was not.
[02:34]
B
Which one?
[02:34]
A
Sleeping eight hours a night. Ay.
[02:37]
B
What about you? You need to face me. Obviously. It's water all the time. Yes. I don't Know why? Maybe I'm a camel. It's so hard to me. I've bought the new Tumble Tumble Stanley cup to make sure that I drink. So there's an improvement there. But I need to drink more and more water.
[02:55]
A
It was fun. So I got to know you a little bit more on a personal side and then when you told me you were coming to St. Francisco, I'm like this is great. I'm in LA, so welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. And I want to talk like really get to know about you, the person behind the enterprise just to understand you spent 15 years in corporates. You worked at Cassette, it's a marketing agency. You also work in another marketing agency and then you work in at a bank in marketing and communications. What gave you the courage to take that leap into launching your own business?
[03:30]
B
Workind the vision, the passion that I had, it just made so much sense and I was like I can do this. And I was full of drive. First time founder and I went, I was, I decided to go for it. When I got well since inception when I got the idea of building work kind and the actual time that it launched, so many years passed because I don't know, I didn't, I was ready, I didn't have enough cash but at the same time I felt like this, this needs to be done. So I kept going. During about the idea I initially I built work on to let employee to help employee shape the work life balance that suit them. It was important for me to build a platform where employee could easily have access to lifestyle benefit and a dream of a world where everybody could have a personal assistant, have a concierge and make sure that they have lifestyle benefit. And like for you it's not.
[04:24]
A
But so it's like your platform is like it's a SaaS business. So it's a business to business.
[04:29]
B
Yes.
[04:30]
A
That you launch. Yeah. Which is focused to help maximize employee wellness.
[04:34]
B
Yes, indeed.
[04:35]
A
So employees in big corporations, because not everybody works in big corporations have access to a budget that they can deploy for different activities that are going to be tailored toward their or their wellness. Can you give us some examples?
[04:47]
B
Of course. So we specialize into non traditional benefit.
[04:51]
A
So.
[04:51]
B
So ready to eat, ready to cook. Help at home for the elders, help at home support for caregivers, sitters, tutoring for kids, sporting activities experiences and Uber for the enterprise. Indeed. Yes.
[05:05]
A
I need food. I need.
[05:06]
B
Correct. I mean so that was, that was the vision. You need to have something. You just go there, there's money in your wallet. You take it, you order. But instead of having goods, retail goods, and having like product, we were like, if everything that makes you happy, healthy, productive, any type of services that you need, you can use the money from the wallet. And if by any chance what you're looking for is not available in the store, you can just submit a claim. And so we gonna take care of it as a, as a. So we build a platform to make it easy for businesses to take care of our employees, but also allow employees to have access to the services that they need whenever they want, wherever they want.
[05:42]
A
It's such an inspiring mission because it's. At the end of the day, it's to help every human that has access to those benefits to leverage them efficiently. And where was this idea? Where did it come from?
[05:53]
B
I did it for every other employees that were like me at that time when they needed to have support. So I was working in marketing at a huge company in Canada. I was responsible for the B2B marketing for the Montreal, Kelowna, Vancouver and Toronto office. And I wanted to have access to lifestyle benefit. I stopped working for two months and I really wanted to have just simply like a healthy food. I wanted to have a trainer to help me to, to move. And I also wanted to have help like for housekeeping. And at that time, I didn't have the cash. So barrier for me was to have the money to have access to these services. Unfortunately, I didn't have a support system. And I was like, okay, well, let me look at what my employer is offering because they're offering us tons of benefits. They surely have something to help me now. And they had like, lots of financial benefits, benefit group insurance, RSPs, ease up, but nothing practical for what I wanted. So I was like, wait a minute, they take money every two weeks for my paycheck, for group insurance, and so many things that I don't use. I only need $300 now to help me, but I cannot have access to it.
[07:00]
A
So were you like on sick leave or.
[07:02]
B
Yeah, just.
[07:02]
A
Okay, not sick leave. And you're trying to get the help. So specifically you said that you wanted to have like, what meal?
[07:08]
B
Yes. Yeah, I wanted to have lunches, like healthy, healthy meals. I wanted to have help with housekeeping.
[07:14]
A
Housekeep, which is critical.
[07:16]
B
And also to be able to have a trainer or to be able to move, to go to like a physical therapy. Yeah. And so I needed to have access to these services. And so I was like, well, it would have been great to have money from the wallet and all these services. And I just click and I can order the services or can book them to make sure that I have the services that I want, exactly as you said.
[07:40]
A
So that was the idea.
[07:42]
B
But I didn't, I didn't know tech, I didn't know how to build a platform. So I was a business founder, Mark. I had a lot of expertise in Markham, but then I was like, how am I going to do this? So the idea remained an idea until I started working at national bank of Canada. And I was responsible for marketing there and working with lots of VPs and dreaming, talking about Bonadilla. And they were like, this makes sense actually, every employee needs that and if you build it, we'll support you. And I was like, oh. And then I started working during weekend and that night on the business plan and the product that I wanted to build. And I came to Silicon Valley for the first time in 2018.
[08:21]
A
So 2018? Yes, basically. So you spent the five years at the bank?
[08:26]
B
Yes.
[08:26]
A
So you had the idea and then it kind of germinated and stayed in your brain and your heart for five years? Yes. You incubated it and then.
[08:35]
B
Yes, I did.
[08:36]
A
When? How did you decide to launch?
[08:39]
B
So I wanted to be inspired and I wanted to know more, more about the space. And I felt at that moment that what I really wanted to build wasn't available in Canada. So I did some research and I've seen and I found two businesses in Tel Aviv in Israel and a couple of businesses that were doing something similar here at Silicon Valley. So I traveled and I met with the founders of Espressa and found to know more about the space and employee wellness, lifestyle benefit, the concierge approach. And I was thinking about the type of business I really want to build. And initially I thought maybe we could partner together, it could be a sister company in Canada. But eventually I realized that I really wanted to work closely with employer and build something that was tailored to their needs. And I wanted to do co development. So I came back 2018, keep working and incubate as I really loved the word because that's what I've done. I incubated the idea since inception and how I want to do it, why I want to do it. The company name initially was Perk Spark. And I was like, well, focus is really on the, the benefit. But then why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want to. I want people to be happy, I want people to be healthy, I want people to easy, seamlessly have access to lifestyle benefit whenever they want, whatever they want, but I really want to have an impact and make sure that we build the most caring environment. And I was like, okay, we're going to change the name to Work Kind, which is a contraction of work and kindness, because as a promise for the employee, our partners, but also the employers. And then we changed and it was like, if I have to build out a product or I need to involve, it still makes sense on the why we're doing what we're doing.
[10:25]
A
I think the why is clear. And I feel like Work Kind is such an altruistic name and it sounds.
[10:31]
B
Great and when we say very fast, it sounds like we are kind, but it's Work kind. And I was like, okay, this is, this is the name. I came back, I asked a couple of friends of mine to build the branding, the logo, and I, I, I kept on working on the business plan and the financing and I left my job maybe two months before COVID I, I started work, I started work on in January 2020 and Covid happened in March 2020.
[10:57]
A
And then you raised seed money.
[10:59]
B
Yes.
[11:00]
A
How much did you raise?
[11:00]
B
I so far. So since I launched a company until Now, I raised $2 billion USD.
[11:05]
A
That's a lot.
[11:06]
B
And I mean, I mean that's, that, I mean that's nothing that says to.
[11:09]
A
US that's a $2 million Canadian and seed.
[11:13]
B
Yes.
[11:14]
A
And that was 20 in 2020.
[11:17]
B
20. 2020. So the last Canadian that received was 2024.
[11:22]
A
2024. And then do you have a date for your Series A?
[11:25]
B
Yes, I want to do it in Q4, 2026.
[11:30]
A
So it's coming up.
[11:31]
B
Yes, it's coming. So he started. So that's, that's also, that's also why we came to the Valley to meet with potential partners, investors, make sure that we understand what are interested on this end. Also, proposal for the, for the next round and a little milestone.
[11:47]
A
Me met with Google.
[11:48]
B
Yes. My forum. Yes. I met with great people from Visa, from Google, Microsoft. Yes. The Valley is quite a unique place in the world.
[11:58]
A
I like the energy of San Francisco. I fell in love when I left. I was a product manager at Yahoo and I had two back in the days and I had to travel in 2008 to Silicon Valley and I fell in love with the energy of innovation and all the ideas and all the VCs. And so I totally see me, myself and you falling in love with this energy. And did you raise some Canadian investors or Miles and yes, I did.
[12:26]
B
I started, I raised from Canadian investors. And so we're looking forward To I welcome new strategic partners from the States for the next round. That's exciting. Yes. Congregation, thank you.
[12:37]
A
How did you meet your higher self to be able to make that jump at the time to launch Work Kind.
[12:42]
B
To launch Work Kind. That's a pretty good question. I will reframe it by saying that I was intentional when I launched Work On. I wanted to have an impact. So I wanted to have a. I wanted to build a purpose driven company that will have impact, that will generate revenue, cash in order for us to have influence. Because I really wanted to have an impact. And I was like, there's no way for us to do it if we don't have cash without me, if we're not profitable. But really wanted to have an impact and change. I was looking forward to the needs of employees in the future. And I was imagining future of work. I was like, this needs to happen. Someone who's going to build it, so might as well. I'm going to do it. So you have.
[13:26]
A
Okay. What I'm hearing is like a lot of clarity in how much impact you could drive in the world of the future of work.
[13:33]
B
Exactly.
[13:34]
A
So you were clearly a mission. You tested the business model, talked to a lot of different people and big companies who said, yeah, that's a need.
[13:40]
B
Yes. And so myself, I'm Christian and I believe in God. And I really also wanted to have a legacy because I believe that you need to love yourself and love your neighbors. And I was like, that's a, that's a, that's a way for me to, to love all the other employees across the world who need a solution like that. So for me, it was also like, okay, that's. Yeah, obviously this is what I want to do. I want to build a purpose driven business because I have a purpose driven life. And so for me, it was just, it was alarm. And it's funny because I was, I've been a Christian for many years now, but when I started the workline, when I had the ideal building work on, I wasn't really close. I wasn't reading my Bible or really close to God. But then I started being more involved into my relationship with God and I started building the business also while building my relationship with God. And I. Every day I say that I'm building the company, but the company is building me because I need to change and I need to evolve. But I do it closely with God, changing me and making sure that I'm a better person. I meet. I'm going to use your word, my higher self. But I really is my example and to be a loving person and to be generous. So everything is aligned and it makes sense because this is how I started work on Truly.
[15:02]
A
It's beautiful. And I love the idea of like you are living a purposeful life.
[15:08]
B
Yes.
[15:08]
A
And that you were clear that your purpose.
[15:11]
B
Correct.
[15:11]
A
Was to help humanity and then this business was aligned with that and the business is building you as you're building it.
[15:17]
B
Yes.
[15:17]
A
That's so profound. So thank you for sharing. And did you know like because we also when we talk about the higher self we talk about the version of ourselves when we were five year old where we knew what we wanted to do and we're very clear and unencumbered by what society told us we could do or we could not do. Did you like what was. How did you find your purpose? Like forget about work.
[15:38]
B
I mean before. Yeah. When I was nine years old I wanted to work in communication and talk and be with people. I had no idea what communication was at that time and I would monetize that but it was like I'm going to be a communicator and I'm going.
[15:50]
A
To be helping people.
[15:51]
B
And as I went, I was, I was studying. I did my bachelor's degree at the other way you. I work as a reporter. I was like ah, I don't know. I want to have impact. What am I going to do? Am I going to build a nonprofit? Am I going to go into politics? Am I going to do lobby or I'm going to build a business. So the idea of building work on came because I that's a need that I had and I wanted to do that but I feel like it's what, what I do every day is aligned with what I believe in and my why as a person. So my purpose is to help people and so I build a business to make it easy for businesses to take care of their team and I want the employee to have access to lifestyle benefit whenever they want to shape the work life balance that suit them. So everything is aligned and I'm grinding every day. I'm doing this because it makes sense and it's. And I, and I believe in it and I'm passionate about it because building a startup is tough. Building a business is not easy. So you might as well need to believe in the vision and what you're accomplishing because if you run out of money, I mean I couldn't becoming a trader if I wanted to have a cash easily cash, you know, I mean every. There's nothing easy right There I feel hack. I can, I could be trade, I could be trader. But I mean, there's. There's other ways to make cash. You know, it probably the only goal. Exactly. And especially in, in 2025, there's easier, there's easier way and simple way to make it with, with the AI and so on. There's so many ways. And I, and now I talk to a lot because I'm surrounding myself with a lot of entrepreneur and I talk about business and how to be profitable and how to be cash efficient. And I understand there's so many ways to make cash, but it's harder to unpack, to build a sustainable business, to change things, to be global. And I feel people at Sicombad are doing it.
[17:35]
A
Well, it's. I mean, the Valley and other places in the world now in Africa. And Africa as well. Europe, it's the new hub. Yeah.
[17:43]
B
And Abidjan. And that's my next trip.
[17:49]
A
Give me the dates, Give me the dates. I had a trip in Africa last year and it changed my life. In Congo, it was. Yeah, Congo. And. And then people were like, oh, you have to come this, you have to come to this place in the car. And so, okay, I'll go back to LA and then we'll talk about the next visit. But definitely. And I was invited to go to Tunisia and so, so many invitations. I just have to organize myself. But I totally see and hear. So what I'm hearing also from what you're saying is there's a perfect alignment between, like, you, your purpose, the job that you do, and how you want to make money and how it's also helping the world. And when you're in that place of perfect alignment, you're. You find your purpose because you're clear on your purpose. But you're also, you're moving. Your purpose moves you and you're moving a purpose. And because of that, you're in a place of bliss and joy. Doesn't mean that it's necessarily easy because I'm sure you're working around the choirs occur and you have to take care of yourself. But you have a mission and that mission gives you a lot of energy.
[18:49]
B
When you are a believer, you have a relationship with God, you believe in God, you believe in Jesus or whatever you believe in. But in my case, that's my belief. You see the world differently, you see the forces in action differently. And so I believe I'm going to die one day, and so why am I leaving? And the impact that I'm having every day is Important because all the gold and the money and the empowerment I'm building, I won't bring with me me into the crates. So because of that, we need to be mindful and be intentional on what. Why are you doing everything you're doing every day? Like all the. The trillion billion dollar I won't bring with me and all the passion clothes I won't bring with me.
[19:33]
A
Yeah.
[19:33]
B
And all the goal I won't bring with me. But is there something that I can build to make sure that people have hope and they're closer to my mission of life? Is there something that I could do to help my neighbors? Is there something that I could do? This is I also a way of thinking about life that also redirected the choices that you make every day and the type of work you want to.
[19:56]
A
Build and yeah, a hundred percent. And also you're giving back to people. People need to leverage your benefits employees or working hard at a moment that's important to them. And the fact that you're giving back, it's really you align your purpose and your dharma, as we call it. And now you're at the highest level because you're giving back. And then because you're giving back, then you were connected to your higher force. So it's beautiful to hear. It's beautiful to see. So now you're gonna raise a series A in a couple of years, in 2026. Are you happy about where you are in terms of the development of your business? Like, have you been able to get good clients?
[20:35]
B
I want us to go faster. I'm. I'm grateful for everything we've done so far. We are serving thousands of employees across Canada. We are on our way to get 1 million ARR. We have an amazing team of people. We have great invest. We need to go faster, change like employee needs change every quarter. AI and tech change every week. So I feel like now is the time for us to in order for us to get to the next milestone, surround ourselves with the best people. So we need to hire the best and the greatest. We need to rethink the product to make sure that it's aligned to reach product market fit and also make sure that we are executing on the vision but also serving our customers right now who trusted us. So it's challenging times. Definitely need to raise. I'm grateful for react, but we need to go faster.
[21:25]
A
And it's a beautiful milestones a couple that I want to celebrate because like you go, go, go, go. And I'm all for it. You raised $2 million. And now you're generating a million dollars in ARR. And for those who don't know what it is, it's annual recurring revenue. Right. Which is the health of a, of a business. Right. So if you can generate a million dollars a year, that's healthy. Now she wants to do more. She wants to have more customers to be able to generate more revenue and close bigger brands and, and have more employer seats booked and recurring paying to have access to those benefits. That's amazing. Indeed. And then as a woman entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, like how do you like keep yourself sane? Do you have any life and career hacks to keep yourself like tip top shape and sharp and energized?
[22:13]
B
I will be totally honest and humble. That has been a challenge for me. This is my biggest regret so far since I'm an entrepreneur because I focus so much on my team and the business, but not on myself. And I decided to change. So that's the decision I made at the end of last year. Saying what the business needs to get to the next milestone needs to be next to have a founder that has clarity, a vision, but also take care of themselves. I did all the sacrifices, crazy hours that all the startup responders does at the beginning, but this is not sustainable. So then I now have a physical coach to train three times per week. I try to fix my sleep, to eat well and I go to church, I pray, I made state. So all of these things is important not only for my sanity but to make sure that I'm the best and I focus on the right thing. So that has been a challenge. And I have a peer support. I spend a lot of time with other entrepreneurs.
[23:15]
A
So you have a peer group? Yes.
[23:19]
B
I have female group. I have female who does businesses who are the similar fate are Christian as well. I have black entrepreneur support group, I have people in tech, women in tech, I have different type of group, I can have peer support. And yes, this is the journey I'm in right now.
[23:42]
A
I think it's super important because there's a lot of studies that talk about happiness and a lot of our happiness comes from how close is your relationship with your community to have the right relationships in your life staying you. And I think I love what you said about you have peer group of support. Especially as an entrepreneur, you want to have people you go and work at the same time or are you going through the same challenges that you can support each other, but also in terms of your health and wellness. If you hire a coach or you have accountability and you I hear you're still not satisfied.
[24:14]
B
No.
[24:15]
A
What are the. What is the source of unsatisfaction?
[24:18]
B
I. To take care of myself better. I took care of the company and I grounded because I was a solo founder. I didn't have the co founders. I didn't have the CTO at that time. When I started, I didn't have the CEO. I was in tech. It was tough. So we had to fix a couple of things. And I invested a lot from the ground up until at the MVP, until we. We launched. We got to our first 500k and I was like, okay, this needs to happen. Things need to change and it needs to start with me. So this is why I'm not. I feel like maybe let's. Let's have another interview in six months. We'll see.
[24:56]
A
Does there be a chance coming? Yeah. And I listen, I've been through the journey and like ups and downs especially. I had a child and I had gained 65 pounds.
[25:08]
B
Girl.
[25:08]
A
It's.
[25:09]
B
I started working until now, people who knew me when I started, I've gained like 40 pounds. This needs to stop. That doesn't make sense because of stress, cortisol and not eating well because you wake up at crazy hours. You have pitches. You need to fly to do this. I mean, yes, at the beginning, just. But now, I mean, we have a stable ground. We have recurring revenue, we have customers. You know, now we need to evolve and get to.
[25:33]
A
Yeah.
[25:33]
B
Mediterranean place. Yeah.
[25:34]
A
And I can share a couple of things quickly. I think for me as trainer, just like you, she's. I have a special trainer. She's a. She's a black woman. And I make a joke when people talk to us because I would book her three times, sometimes four times a week. So it forces me out of my bed. That's number one. And then her level of empathy is very low. And I always make jokes. She's my trainer.
[26:00]
B
She's a real person.
[26:01]
A
But she's kind of like empathy has been leveled down because otherwise, if she's too empathetic, I want to stay in bed. So I found the perfect trainer who just pushes me super hard and helped me lift. I lost weight, et cetera. And. And she's not. She does. She doesn't take any excuses. That helped. I think what we did in the 75, being hard even though we didn't finish it, just the walks. I used to have always a device to track my steps. But I could see the difference when I would just walk outside in the sun, get those 10,000 steps or not that's important. Sleep is also critical. So finding ways like sleeping te people.
[26:37]
B
Underestimate the quality sleep, that's important. It's. It starts with fix your sleep, drink.
[26:44]
A
Your water and eat ashwagandha, ashwagandha tea, sleeping teas, etc. So just to kind of calm it down because like we're probably, both of us were type A's, like, go, let's go. So it's kind of like, how do you turn off your brain to be able to sleep at night? One of the biggest hacks, I would say, is meditation. There's a big difference. Like this morning I did my 15 minutes meditation. I love Jodi Spenza, I love him. And it just resets my day and then also affirmations. So it's just like it's a whole system. Because if my mind is calm, then I know my cortisol is going to go lower. And then if my cortisol is low, then I'm not going to be holding on to everything. And really like learning and training myself and also listening to my body. Sometimes I sleep more and drink more water and sometimes I just need to have fun. Because it can't be just fine.
[27:37]
B
You have to have fun. Exactly. It's what you're saying is so important. I had that time I went and I and I talked to my doctor and he was like, what do you do for fun? You're lonely, you're not fun. Yeah, I spend time with chiropractic. I spend time with my friend, my family, breakfast time and so on. It was like, well, go dance or just play music or learn Spanish or a new language. Just do something that is different, that won't challenge you, but that will be fun. It'll be different than just spending time with your family and working. Right. And I have to say that because I think that the source of my strength is my faith and my spirit and my relationship with God. Everything that Jesus has done for me, when I'm aligned with what I believe and I'm close to God, I'm less stressed when I am so in the noise and being in the action and taking over. I'm so stressed. So that meditation time, the time for reading my Bible or taking notes, journaling is key also to keep me grounded.
[28:49]
A
Do you have a part of the.
[28:50]
B
Bible that you prefer? Is there a part that I prefer? I love, quote I quote, I love everything. I love everything. I personally, in Joshua, it's a promise saying that when you execute on the word and you follow the Word, you Don't trust yourself, but you follow the Word, the Word, and you follow the Word of God. You will succeed in everything that you are doing because he has the power, he has the vision, and you just follow him. Right? And so not mean that you don't trust yourself, but you don't rely on yourself because that the burden of life, it's too big to be in your shoulder without the support of God. And so that's the verse that I really like. It was something that inspired me when I started my business. And then I keep going too.
[29:43]
A
I think that's very important because I have multiple conversations with entrepreneurs about talking about intuition earlier. But I love this when you follow the word because sometimes you don't want to follow yourself because we have like thousands, thousands of thoughts every day and not all the thoughts are nourishing like earth's purpose. So if you follow the Word, do you have an example of a day or a moment that you followed the Word even though you had all these voices that were like, no, don't do it or go do something else?
[30:14]
B
Yes, I have a lot. I honestly think that there's the truth and there's appearance of truth and there's the love of noise and there's distraction. And one thing that keeps people from the truth is distraction. And when you have something that is, that is real and you put like a glimpse of something, something that is not real, is false. It looks real, but it's not. And so for me, in the world of AI and distraction and disinformation and blurriness, between fogginess, between confusion. I mean, I'm trying to find the right word to say what I'm thinking. But I feel like we are, this is it. We are in a generation full of confusion, distraction, fogginess, blurriness. And you could easily get sidetracked, sidetracked and be influenced. So you need to know what's your truth or your truth hardly define. I believe my faith in Jesus is the ground for everything. So I rely on that because of all the noise that happened. But then I don't want to hurt anybody. I'm very respectful, everybody. But I feel that this is the truth. I'm going to talk about my truth. And any of these are truth that happened to me, right? It's so easy to just follow a trend, to follow your emotion, to follow a situation, but that changes.
[31:48]
A
I think it's good that you're grounded in your, in your religion, spirituality. And I think it's good that like more people will benefit from Being ungrounded. Because I think a lot of people lost and sometimes people are looking for how, what kind of relationship and how do I manage my finances, what kind of decisions do I make? If you don't have an anchor and having a strong anchor, whichever people decide that this anchor is or which religion or spiritual practices can help you just keep your eyes on the price and follow your purpose. And also like have a guiding light. Because I think that's. If you have a guiding light, then there's going to be a lot of noise. There's going to be a lot of good days or bad days, but they're not really. They're just days and there's gonna be ups and downs but you're gonna keep charging through. So it's what you share just simply beautiful. And like what you said about like there's the truth and then some people can add something in it.
[32:45]
B
Yes. And so yeah it's. You need to be, you need to be careful where you nourish yourself. You, you are what you eat, you are what you look at, what you read, what you listen to.
[32:56]
A
Do you have any tricks to get into a higher self, to shift into a higher self gear and higher self mode to be that motivated, energized version of yourself? Do you have like.
[33:06]
B
Yeah.
[33:07]
A
One, two, three.
[33:08]
B
Yeah.
[33:08]
A
The three tips for.
[33:09]
B
Yeah. What worked for me was three things. First, sometimes don't, don't think about it, just do it. Just do whatever you have to do. When we think we start overthinking, we start rationalizing. But sometimes you just need to do it. Wake up and go wrong. You have to do this task. But no, no, no, don't stop because then you open the door at sometimes this is this for me really work. Second item on the list would be to be accountable to start with someone or just to have someone not you not doing it with the person. But you are someone that you can talk to and you're accountable. For me it works very well in everything personally, business wise and so on early, early days of work kind I had an advisory committee because I was by myself. Even if I, I didn't launch, I was pre launch but was important to do that. So that for me worked very well. That's cool. And I think the last. I think, I think so just don't think about it. Just do it and start with the, the thing that. But to have 80, 80, 20. I do things that I love that makes me feel good and it's okay.
[34:17]
A
But just.
[34:17]
B
You just need to step out of it. To get out of it when it's. When it's. It's tough, it's okay to. To have a moment where it's tough. You. You feel like you're gonna melt down, it's okay, but you just need to step out of it. But I think when you always, like in this disorganized art mode, this is where it's dangerous. So you need to have that like, moment of joy, I would say. And so every day. And that's. That. That was one of the problem that I had because I had moment of joy, like every three months, every month, every weekend or two, but every day you need to have that. You know, I love this one. And I feel like, yes, because I mean, you. You cannot strive. And if you overachieve and I was. And. And it's quantitative because you think you're overachieving stuff.
[35:06]
A
But you.
[35:07]
B
You really are surviving. So you have to have six days where you work and a day off. You need to have your sabah. Find your sabah.
[35:15]
A
I love it.
[35:15]
B
Ideal. Ideally, every day you have that.
[35:18]
A
So let's recap. So the three top three advices to get back into higher self mode. So we start with the latter, which was find joy every day. And then the second one was to.
[35:32]
B
Be accountable, to have people and have.
[35:34]
A
An accountability body or accountability crew. And then the third one is don't overthink it. Don't overthinking. Just do it. That's very powerful. Thank you so much. Farnell. I'm so excited that I finally got to meet you. You think in flesh. I'm excited also for your business that you're venturing into the US market, which is super exciting, I'm sure internationally afterwards. And then also voice. Very excited to share your faith and your practices to shift into higher self mode. And you being a model. Listen, there's not a lot of in Canada, there's not a lot of black women entrepreneur that are going in series A. So I'm super excited for you and thank you.
[36:13]
B
Dilgier. Stand to embatting me. Pleasure.
[36:15]
A
Have a good one.
[36:16]
B
Thank you.

Summary6 min read

Podcast Summary:

Podcast: Driving Impact: The Top 5% Method®
Host: Katheline Jean-Pierre
Episode Title: "I DREAM of a world where everybody has a Personal WELLNESS Assistant" – Workind's BILLION-dollar employee WELLNESS vision
Date: September 18, 2025
Guest: Farnell Florent, Founder & CEO of Workind

Episode Overview

This episode features a dynamic conversation between host Katheline Jean-Pierre and entrepreneur Farnell Florent, founder of Workind—a company on a mission to redefine employee wellness by providing every worker with access to a “personal wellness assistant.” Covering Farnell’s personal journey from corporate marketing to tech entrepreneurship, the founding story of Workind, and her deep integration of purpose and spirituality into business, this discussion unveils strategies, personal hacks, and growth philosophies for high-performing founders and leaders.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of Workind: Turning Personal Pain Into Purpose

[03:29]–[07:40]

Farnell shares her transition from 15 years in corporate marketing to becoming an entrepreneur.
Inspired by her own struggle to access practical, supportive employee benefits during a challenging life period, Farnell conceived Workind as a platform to empower employees with on-demand, non-traditional wellness services.
- “I dream of a world where everybody could have a personal assistant, have a concierge and make sure that they have lifestyle benefit.” – Farnell [04:00]
She highlights the inertia in benefits offerings: financial/insurance were available, but not hands-on services employees need “right now.”

2. Building the Solution: What Workind Offers and Why It Matters

[04:46]–[07:40]

Workind is a B2B SaaS platform offering “lifestyle benefits” (e.g., meal kits, tutoring, elder care, sports, help at home)—spending is easy and flexible for employees, removing friction and paperwork.
- “If everything that makes you happy, healthy, productive, any type of services that you need, you can use the money from the wallet… If by any chance what you’re looking for is not available, you can just submit a claim.” – Farnell [05:06]
The goal: Seamlessly enable employers to take care of their people and enable employees to actively shape their own work-life balance.

3. The Founder’s Path: From Idea to Seed Funding and Beyond

[08:21]–[11:29]

Farnell chronicles the 5-year incubation period for the idea, while seeking inspiration and validation in global innovation hubs (Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley).
Workind launched just before the worldwide onset of COVID-19, adding a layer of challenge and urgency.
Funding Milestones:
- Seed round: $2 million CAD (~$1.5 million USD), raised in several tranches from Canadian investors.
- Series A planned for Q4 2026; actively pursuing US-based strategic partners.
Product-market fit is a focus, as is keeping pace with rapidly changing employee needs and AI/tech trends.

4. Purpose, Faith, and the Higher Self in Leadership

[12:36]–[19:32]

Farnell grounds her vision in spiritual clarity and a sense of service, drawing from her Christian faith.
- “Every day I say that I'm building the company, but the company is building me. I do it closely with God, changing me and making sure that I'm a better person.” – Farnell [14:33]
- She views building Workind as an act of love for her “neighbors” and a conduit for living a purposeful and impactful life.
On impact: “I'm building a purpose-driven business because I have a purpose-driven life.” [14:40]
Farnell leverages moments of spiritual reflection and daily connection to her higher self for resilience and authentic leadership.

5. Founder Mental Health & High-Performance Habits

[22:12]–[28:48]

Farnell admits to past neglect of self-care, overwhelmed by the solo founder’s burdens; now prioritizes wellness with a personal trainer, improved sleep, healthier routines, and spiritual practices.
- “The business needs to get to the next milestone, needs to have a founder that has clarity, a vision, but also take care of themselves.” – Farnell [22:30]
Peer support is crucial—she participates in several support groups, including women in tech, Black entrepreneur groups, and Christian founder circles.
Katheline and Farnell discuss practical growth hacks:
- Scheduling accountability (with trainers, peer groups)
- Walking outdoors daily
- Sleep hygiene; using teas, supplements, meditation (e.g., Dr. Joe Dispenza), affirmations
- Building in joy and fun, not just work, to avoid burnout.
- Prioritizing daily spiritual grounding, journaling, and finding “moments of joy.”

6. Navigating Challenges & Staying True to Purpose

[30:13]–[32:44]

Farnell emphasizes the importance of remaining centered on personal truth amid distractions, trends, and the “fog” of noise in the world—anchoring to spiritual practices and value-driven decision-making.
- “One thing that keeps people from the truth is distraction. ... There’s the truth and there’s an appearance of truth.” – Farnell [30:13]
Both speakers reflect on how a strong anchor—spirituality, purpose, community—helps leaders weather ups and downs.

7. Top Tips for Getting Into “Higher Self” Mode

[33:06]–[35:17]

Farnell’s 3 Keys to Accessing Her Highest Self:
1. Don’t overthink—just do it!
  Don’t let rationalization sabotage action; momentum is key.
2. Accountability:
  Have someone (in business or personal life) to check in with—you don’t have to do it together, but be answerable.
3. Daily Joy:
  Create a moment of joy every day (not just on weekends or holidays).
- “When you always [live] in disorganized hard mode, this is where it’s dangerous… Every day you need to have that [joy].” – Farnell [34:16]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On building the company:
“Every day I say that I'm building the company, but the company is building me.”
— Farnell Florent [14:33]
On founder health:
“The business needs… a founder that has clarity, a vision, but also takes care of themselves. I did all the sacrifices, crazy hours... but this is not sustainable.”
— Farnell Florent [22:30]
On spiritual clarity and action:
“There’s the truth and there’s appearance of truth and... one thing that keeps people from the truth is distraction.”
— Farnell Florent [30:13]
On higher self hacks:
“Don’t overthink it, just do it. ... Accountability, and daily joy. That’s my recipe.”
— Farnell Florent [35:17]

Key Timestamps for Reference

[00:48] Introduction to Farnell Florent & Workind
[03:29] Inspiration: Personal struggles turned into the Workind vision
[04:46] Detailed description of Workind’s platform and services
[08:21] Timeline: From idea to launch, validation, and rebranding
[10:57] Fundraising journey and setting sights on the US market
[12:36] Integrating purpose, faith, and spirituality into business
[19:32] Reflection on impact, legacy, and “perfect alignment”
[22:12] Health, wellness, and founder self-care challenges
[23:15] The value of peer support and community
[33:06] Farnell’s top 3 tips for shifting into higher self/high performance mode

Tone & Language Notes

The dialogue is energetic, candid, and highly personal—blending tactical business advice, authentic reflections on the founder journey, and spiritual/philosophical perspectives. Both women are supportive, practical, and open about the real challenges of entrepreneurship.

Summary Takeaways

This episode is a masterclass in building a purpose-driven, high-growth company while staying deeply aligned to personal values and well-being. Farnell Florent’s vision for Workind springs from genuine pain points and is executed with spiritual clarity and relentless action. Listeners will appreciate her vulnerable honesty about founder challenges, her practical hacks for wellness and productivity, and her conviction that changing the world begins with caring for yourself and those you lead.

For leaders, founders, and anyone striving for “top 5%” impact, this episode provides inspiration, actionable routines, and a powerful reminder: success and fulfillment come from alignment between purpose, well-being, and daily action.

Loading summary

Transcript132 lines

[00:00]
A
You're going to raise a series A in 2026. Are you happy about where you are in terms of the development of your business?
[00:07]
B
I want us to go faster. I'm grateful for everything we've done so far. We are serving thousands of employees across Canada. We are on our way to get 1 million ARR. We have an amazing team of people, we have great investors, but we need to go faster. Employee needs change every quarter, AI and tech change every week, so. So it's challenging times. I'm grateful for a react, but we need to go faster.
[00:49]
A
Hi, everyone. I'm super excited to welcome you to a new episode of our podcast. And today we have a special guest who's coming visiting. She flew into Silicon Valley and then Silicon Beach. Her name is Farnell Florent.
[01:02]
B
Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Can't leave.
[01:05]
A
And while she was in la, I thought it was a good idea to have her visit us and share a little bit more about her journey as an entrepreneur. But also we always like to talk about business and spirituality and see how you're able to navigate this beautiful universe by being also grounded into who you are as a woman, as an entrepreneur, as a wife, et cetera. So welcome to the podcast.
[01:29]
B
Thank you so much for inviting me. I was looking forward to meet you in person. You have such a great reputation. So many people talk to me about you and your journey in tech and everything that you've done so far. So thank you so much for having me.
[01:42]
A
It's very touching. And for those who don't know, she's from Montreal, Quebec, so where I'm from as well. And my sister Julianne keeps telling me about Farnell and her business were kind and she kept telling me, you have to meet her. And last year, July 2023, we started 75 days hard.
[02:02]
B
Yes.
[02:02]
A
Together. We're in a group chat. We're in a group.
[02:04]
B
Hello there.
[02:05]
A
We're still in a group chat. And for those who don't know what it is, a program to help transform your mindset, but also to transform your health. So you have to do two exercises a day of 45 minutes, one inside, one outside. You have to drink a gallon of water a day, read your book, et cetera. My biggest challenge. Do you know what might be a challenge?
[02:23]
B
Was timing. Taking the time to.
[02:26]
A
For 45 minutes, no reading, no water. That was hard. But I was not.
[02:34]
B
Which one?
[02:34]
A
Sleeping eight hours a night. Ay.
[02:37]
B
What about you? You need to face me. Obviously. It's water all the time. Yes. I don't Know why? Maybe I'm a camel. It's so hard to me. I've bought the new Tumble Tumble Stanley cup to make sure that I drink. So there's an improvement there. But I need to drink more and more water.
[02:55]
A
It was fun. So I got to know you a little bit more on a personal side and then when you told me you were coming to St. Francisco, I'm like this is great. I'm in LA, so welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. And I want to talk like really get to know about you, the person behind the enterprise just to understand you spent 15 years in corporates. You worked at Cassette, it's a marketing agency. You also work in another marketing agency and then you work in at a bank in marketing and communications. What gave you the courage to take that leap into launching your own business?
[03:30]
B
Workind the vision, the passion that I had, it just made so much sense and I was like I can do this. And I was full of drive. First time founder and I went, I was, I decided to go for it. When I got well since inception when I got the idea of building work kind and the actual time that it launched, so many years passed because I don't know, I didn't, I was ready, I didn't have enough cash but at the same time I felt like this, this needs to be done. So I kept going. During about the idea I initially I built work on to let employee to help employee shape the work life balance that suit them. It was important for me to build a platform where employee could easily have access to lifestyle benefit and a dream of a world where everybody could have a personal assistant, have a concierge and make sure that they have lifestyle benefit. And like for you it's not.
[04:24]
A
But so it's like your platform is like it's a SaaS business. So it's a business to business.
[04:29]
B
Yes.
[04:30]
A
That you launch. Yeah. Which is focused to help maximize employee wellness.
[04:34]
B
Yes, indeed.
[04:35]
A
So employees in big corporations, because not everybody works in big corporations have access to a budget that they can deploy for different activities that are going to be tailored toward their or their wellness. Can you give us some examples?
[04:47]
B
Of course. So we specialize into non traditional benefit.
[04:51]
A
So.
[04:51]
B
So ready to eat, ready to cook. Help at home for the elders, help at home support for caregivers, sitters, tutoring for kids, sporting activities experiences and Uber for the enterprise. Indeed. Yes.
[05:05]
A
I need food. I need.
[05:06]
B
Correct. I mean so that was, that was the vision. You need to have something. You just go there, there's money in your wallet. You take it, you order. But instead of having goods, retail goods, and having like product, we were like, if everything that makes you happy, healthy, productive, any type of services that you need, you can use the money from the wallet. And if by any chance what you're looking for is not available in the store, you can just submit a claim. And so we gonna take care of it as a, as a. So we build a platform to make it easy for businesses to take care of our employees, but also allow employees to have access to the services that they need whenever they want, wherever they want.
[05:42]
A
It's such an inspiring mission because it's. At the end of the day, it's to help every human that has access to those benefits to leverage them efficiently. And where was this idea? Where did it come from?
[05:53]
B
I did it for every other employees that were like me at that time when they needed to have support. So I was working in marketing at a huge company in Canada. I was responsible for the B2B marketing for the Montreal, Kelowna, Vancouver and Toronto office. And I wanted to have access to lifestyle benefit. I stopped working for two months and I really wanted to have just simply like a healthy food. I wanted to have a trainer to help me to, to move. And I also wanted to have help like for housekeeping. And at that time, I didn't have the cash. So barrier for me was to have the money to have access to these services. Unfortunately, I didn't have a support system. And I was like, okay, well, let me look at what my employer is offering because they're offering us tons of benefits. They surely have something to help me now. And they had like, lots of financial benefits, benefit group insurance, RSPs, ease up, but nothing practical for what I wanted. So I was like, wait a minute, they take money every two weeks for my paycheck, for group insurance, and so many things that I don't use. I only need $300 now to help me, but I cannot have access to it.
[07:00]
A
So were you like on sick leave or.
[07:02]
B
Yeah, just.
[07:02]
A
Okay, not sick leave. And you're trying to get the help. So specifically you said that you wanted to have like, what meal?
[07:08]
B
Yes. Yeah, I wanted to have lunches, like healthy, healthy meals. I wanted to have help with housekeeping.
[07:14]
A
Housekeep, which is critical.
[07:16]
B
And also to be able to have a trainer or to be able to move, to go to like a physical therapy. Yeah. And so I needed to have access to these services. And so I was like, well, it would have been great to have money from the wallet and all these services. And I just click and I can order the services or can book them to make sure that I have the services that I want, exactly as you said.
[07:40]
A
So that was the idea.
[07:42]
B
But I didn't, I didn't know tech, I didn't know how to build a platform. So I was a business founder, Mark. I had a lot of expertise in Markham, but then I was like, how am I going to do this? So the idea remained an idea until I started working at national bank of Canada. And I was responsible for marketing there and working with lots of VPs and dreaming, talking about Bonadilla. And they were like, this makes sense actually, every employee needs that and if you build it, we'll support you. And I was like, oh. And then I started working during weekend and that night on the business plan and the product that I wanted to build. And I came to Silicon Valley for the first time in 2018.
[08:21]
A
So 2018? Yes, basically. So you spent the five years at the bank?
[08:26]
B
Yes.
[08:26]
A
So you had the idea and then it kind of germinated and stayed in your brain and your heart for five years? Yes. You incubated it and then.
[08:35]
B
Yes, I did.
[08:36]
A
When? How did you decide to launch?
[08:39]
B
So I wanted to be inspired and I wanted to know more, more about the space. And I felt at that moment that what I really wanted to build wasn't available in Canada. So I did some research and I've seen and I found two businesses in Tel Aviv in Israel and a couple of businesses that were doing something similar here at Silicon Valley. So I traveled and I met with the founders of Espressa and found to know more about the space and employee wellness, lifestyle benefit, the concierge approach. And I was thinking about the type of business I really want to build. And initially I thought maybe we could partner together, it could be a sister company in Canada. But eventually I realized that I really wanted to work closely with employer and build something that was tailored to their needs. And I wanted to do co development. So I came back 2018, keep working and incubate as I really loved the word because that's what I've done. I incubated the idea since inception and how I want to do it, why I want to do it. The company name initially was Perk Spark. And I was like, well, focus is really on the, the benefit. But then why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I want to. I want people to be happy, I want people to be healthy, I want people to easy, seamlessly have access to lifestyle benefit whenever they want, whatever they want, but I really want to have an impact and make sure that we build the most caring environment. And I was like, okay, we're going to change the name to Work Kind, which is a contraction of work and kindness, because as a promise for the employee, our partners, but also the employers. And then we changed and it was like, if I have to build out a product or I need to involve, it still makes sense on the why we're doing what we're doing.
[10:25]
A
I think the why is clear. And I feel like Work Kind is such an altruistic name and it sounds.
[10:31]
B
Great and when we say very fast, it sounds like we are kind, but it's Work kind. And I was like, okay, this is, this is the name. I came back, I asked a couple of friends of mine to build the branding, the logo, and I, I, I kept on working on the business plan and the financing and I left my job maybe two months before COVID I, I started work, I started work on in January 2020 and Covid happened in March 2020.
[10:57]
A
And then you raised seed money.
[10:59]
B
Yes.
[11:00]
A
How much did you raise?
[11:00]
B
I so far. So since I launched a company until Now, I raised $2 billion USD.
[11:05]
A
That's a lot.
[11:06]
B
And I mean, I mean that's, that, I mean that's nothing that says to.
[11:09]
A
US that's a $2 million Canadian and seed.
[11:13]
B
Yes.
[11:14]
A
And that was 20 in 2020.
[11:17]
B
20. 2020. So the last Canadian that received was 2024.
[11:22]
A
2024. And then do you have a date for your Series A?
[11:25]
B
Yes, I want to do it in Q4, 2026.
[11:30]
A
So it's coming up.
[11:31]
B
Yes, it's coming. So he started. So that's, that's also, that's also why we came to the Valley to meet with potential partners, investors, make sure that we understand what are interested on this end. Also, proposal for the, for the next round and a little milestone.
[11:47]
A
Me met with Google.
[11:48]
B
Yes. My forum. Yes. I met with great people from Visa, from Google, Microsoft. Yes. The Valley is quite a unique place in the world.
[11:58]
A
I like the energy of San Francisco. I fell in love when I left. I was a product manager at Yahoo and I had two back in the days and I had to travel in 2008 to Silicon Valley and I fell in love with the energy of innovation and all the ideas and all the VCs. And so I totally see me, myself and you falling in love with this energy. And did you raise some Canadian investors or Miles and yes, I did.
[12:26]
B
I started, I raised from Canadian investors. And so we're looking forward To I welcome new strategic partners from the States for the next round. That's exciting. Yes. Congregation, thank you.
[12:37]
A
How did you meet your higher self to be able to make that jump at the time to launch Work Kind.
[12:42]
B
To launch Work Kind. That's a pretty good question. I will reframe it by saying that I was intentional when I launched Work On. I wanted to have an impact. So I wanted to have a. I wanted to build a purpose driven company that will have impact, that will generate revenue, cash in order for us to have influence. Because I really wanted to have an impact. And I was like, there's no way for us to do it if we don't have cash without me, if we're not profitable. But really wanted to have an impact and change. I was looking forward to the needs of employees in the future. And I was imagining future of work. I was like, this needs to happen. Someone who's going to build it, so might as well. I'm going to do it. So you have.
[13:26]
A
Okay. What I'm hearing is like a lot of clarity in how much impact you could drive in the world of the future of work.
[13:33]
B
Exactly.
[13:34]
A
So you were clearly a mission. You tested the business model, talked to a lot of different people and big companies who said, yeah, that's a need.
[13:40]
B
Yes. And so myself, I'm Christian and I believe in God. And I really also wanted to have a legacy because I believe that you need to love yourself and love your neighbors. And I was like, that's a, that's a, that's a way for me to, to love all the other employees across the world who need a solution like that. So for me, it was also like, okay, that's. Yeah, obviously this is what I want to do. I want to build a purpose driven business because I have a purpose driven life. And so for me, it was just, it was alarm. And it's funny because I was, I've been a Christian for many years now, but when I started the workline, when I had the ideal building work on, I wasn't really close. I wasn't reading my Bible or really close to God. But then I started being more involved into my relationship with God and I started building the business also while building my relationship with God. And I. Every day I say that I'm building the company, but the company is building me because I need to change and I need to evolve. But I do it closely with God, changing me and making sure that I'm a better person. I meet. I'm going to use your word, my higher self. But I really is my example and to be a loving person and to be generous. So everything is aligned and it makes sense because this is how I started work on Truly.
[15:02]
A
It's beautiful. And I love the idea of like you are living a purposeful life.
[15:08]
B
Yes.
[15:08]
A
And that you were clear that your purpose.
[15:11]
B
Correct.
[15:11]
A
Was to help humanity and then this business was aligned with that and the business is building you as you're building it.
[15:17]
B
Yes.
[15:17]
A
That's so profound. So thank you for sharing. And did you know like because we also when we talk about the higher self we talk about the version of ourselves when we were five year old where we knew what we wanted to do and we're very clear and unencumbered by what society told us we could do or we could not do. Did you like what was. How did you find your purpose? Like forget about work.
[15:38]
B
I mean before. Yeah. When I was nine years old I wanted to work in communication and talk and be with people. I had no idea what communication was at that time and I would monetize that but it was like I'm going to be a communicator and I'm going.
[15:50]
A
To be helping people.
[15:51]
B
And as I went, I was, I was studying. I did my bachelor's degree at the other way you. I work as a reporter. I was like ah, I don't know. I want to have impact. What am I going to do? Am I going to build a nonprofit? Am I going to go into politics? Am I going to do lobby or I'm going to build a business. So the idea of building work on came because I that's a need that I had and I wanted to do that but I feel like it's what, what I do every day is aligned with what I believe in and my why as a person. So my purpose is to help people and so I build a business to make it easy for businesses to take care of their team and I want the employee to have access to lifestyle benefit whenever they want to shape the work life balance that suit them. So everything is aligned and I'm grinding every day. I'm doing this because it makes sense and it's. And I, and I believe in it and I'm passionate about it because building a startup is tough. Building a business is not easy. So you might as well need to believe in the vision and what you're accomplishing because if you run out of money, I mean I couldn't becoming a trader if I wanted to have a cash easily cash, you know, I mean every. There's nothing easy right There I feel hack. I can, I could be trade, I could be trader. But I mean, there's. There's other ways to make cash. You know, it probably the only goal. Exactly. And especially in, in 2025, there's easier, there's easier way and simple way to make it with, with the AI and so on. There's so many ways. And I, and now I talk to a lot because I'm surrounding myself with a lot of entrepreneur and I talk about business and how to be profitable and how to be cash efficient. And I understand there's so many ways to make cash, but it's harder to unpack, to build a sustainable business, to change things, to be global. And I feel people at Sicombad are doing it.
[17:35]
A
Well, it's. I mean, the Valley and other places in the world now in Africa. And Africa as well. Europe, it's the new hub. Yeah.
[17:43]
B
And Abidjan. And that's my next trip.
[17:49]
A
Give me the dates, Give me the dates. I had a trip in Africa last year and it changed my life. In Congo, it was. Yeah, Congo. And. And then people were like, oh, you have to come this, you have to come to this place in the car. And so, okay, I'll go back to LA and then we'll talk about the next visit. But definitely. And I was invited to go to Tunisia and so, so many invitations. I just have to organize myself. But I totally see and hear. So what I'm hearing also from what you're saying is there's a perfect alignment between, like, you, your purpose, the job that you do, and how you want to make money and how it's also helping the world. And when you're in that place of perfect alignment, you're. You find your purpose because you're clear on your purpose. But you're also, you're moving. Your purpose moves you and you're moving a purpose. And because of that, you're in a place of bliss and joy. Doesn't mean that it's necessarily easy because I'm sure you're working around the choirs occur and you have to take care of yourself. But you have a mission and that mission gives you a lot of energy.
[18:49]
B
When you are a believer, you have a relationship with God, you believe in God, you believe in Jesus or whatever you believe in. But in my case, that's my belief. You see the world differently, you see the forces in action differently. And so I believe I'm going to die one day, and so why am I leaving? And the impact that I'm having every day is Important because all the gold and the money and the empowerment I'm building, I won't bring with me me into the crates. So because of that, we need to be mindful and be intentional on what. Why are you doing everything you're doing every day? Like all the. The trillion billion dollar I won't bring with me and all the passion clothes I won't bring with me.
[19:33]
A
Yeah.
[19:33]
B
And all the goal I won't bring with me. But is there something that I can build to make sure that people have hope and they're closer to my mission of life? Is there something that I could do to help my neighbors? Is there something that I could do? This is I also a way of thinking about life that also redirected the choices that you make every day and the type of work you want to.
[19:56]
A
Build and yeah, a hundred percent. And also you're giving back to people. People need to leverage your benefits employees or working hard at a moment that's important to them. And the fact that you're giving back, it's really you align your purpose and your dharma, as we call it. And now you're at the highest level because you're giving back. And then because you're giving back, then you were connected to your higher force. So it's beautiful to hear. It's beautiful to see. So now you're gonna raise a series A in a couple of years, in 2026. Are you happy about where you are in terms of the development of your business? Like, have you been able to get good clients?
[20:35]
B
I want us to go faster. I'm. I'm grateful for everything we've done so far. We are serving thousands of employees across Canada. We are on our way to get 1 million ARR. We have an amazing team of people. We have great invest. We need to go faster, change like employee needs change every quarter. AI and tech change every week. So I feel like now is the time for us to in order for us to get to the next milestone, surround ourselves with the best people. So we need to hire the best and the greatest. We need to rethink the product to make sure that it's aligned to reach product market fit and also make sure that we are executing on the vision but also serving our customers right now who trusted us. So it's challenging times. Definitely need to raise. I'm grateful for react, but we need to go faster.
[21:25]
A
And it's a beautiful milestones a couple that I want to celebrate because like you go, go, go, go. And I'm all for it. You raised $2 million. And now you're generating a million dollars in ARR. And for those who don't know what it is, it's annual recurring revenue. Right. Which is the health of a, of a business. Right. So if you can generate a million dollars a year, that's healthy. Now she wants to do more. She wants to have more customers to be able to generate more revenue and close bigger brands and, and have more employer seats booked and recurring paying to have access to those benefits. That's amazing. Indeed. And then as a woman entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, like how do you like keep yourself sane? Do you have any life and career hacks to keep yourself like tip top shape and sharp and energized?
[22:13]
B
I will be totally honest and humble. That has been a challenge for me. This is my biggest regret so far since I'm an entrepreneur because I focus so much on my team and the business, but not on myself. And I decided to change. So that's the decision I made at the end of last year. Saying what the business needs to get to the next milestone needs to be next to have a founder that has clarity, a vision, but also take care of themselves. I did all the sacrifices, crazy hours that all the startup responders does at the beginning, but this is not sustainable. So then I now have a physical coach to train three times per week. I try to fix my sleep, to eat well and I go to church, I pray, I made state. So all of these things is important not only for my sanity but to make sure that I'm the best and I focus on the right thing. So that has been a challenge. And I have a peer support. I spend a lot of time with other entrepreneurs.
[23:15]
A
So you have a peer group? Yes.
[23:19]
B
I have female group. I have female who does businesses who are the similar fate are Christian as well. I have black entrepreneur support group, I have people in tech, women in tech, I have different type of group, I can have peer support. And yes, this is the journey I'm in right now.
[23:42]
A
I think it's super important because there's a lot of studies that talk about happiness and a lot of our happiness comes from how close is your relationship with your community to have the right relationships in your life staying you. And I think I love what you said about you have peer group of support. Especially as an entrepreneur, you want to have people you go and work at the same time or are you going through the same challenges that you can support each other, but also in terms of your health and wellness. If you hire a coach or you have accountability and you I hear you're still not satisfied.
[24:14]
B
No.
[24:15]
A
What are the. What is the source of unsatisfaction?
[24:18]
B
I. To take care of myself better. I took care of the company and I grounded because I was a solo founder. I didn't have the co founders. I didn't have the CTO at that time. When I started, I didn't have the CEO. I was in tech. It was tough. So we had to fix a couple of things. And I invested a lot from the ground up until at the MVP, until we. We launched. We got to our first 500k and I was like, okay, this needs to happen. Things need to change and it needs to start with me. So this is why I'm not. I feel like maybe let's. Let's have another interview in six months. We'll see.
[24:56]
A
Does there be a chance coming? Yeah. And I listen, I've been through the journey and like ups and downs especially. I had a child and I had gained 65 pounds.
[25:08]
B
Girl.
[25:08]
A
It's.
[25:09]
B
I started working until now, people who knew me when I started, I've gained like 40 pounds. This needs to stop. That doesn't make sense because of stress, cortisol and not eating well because you wake up at crazy hours. You have pitches. You need to fly to do this. I mean, yes, at the beginning, just. But now, I mean, we have a stable ground. We have recurring revenue, we have customers. You know, now we need to evolve and get to.
[25:33]
A
Yeah.
[25:33]
B
Mediterranean place. Yeah.
[25:34]
A
And I can share a couple of things quickly. I think for me as trainer, just like you, she's. I have a special trainer. She's a. She's a black woman. And I make a joke when people talk to us because I would book her three times, sometimes four times a week. So it forces me out of my bed. That's number one. And then her level of empathy is very low. And I always make jokes. She's my trainer.
[26:00]
B
She's a real person.
[26:01]
A
But she's kind of like empathy has been leveled down because otherwise, if she's too empathetic, I want to stay in bed. So I found the perfect trainer who just pushes me super hard and helped me lift. I lost weight, et cetera. And. And she's not. She does. She doesn't take any excuses. That helped. I think what we did in the 75, being hard even though we didn't finish it, just the walks. I used to have always a device to track my steps. But I could see the difference when I would just walk outside in the sun, get those 10,000 steps or not that's important. Sleep is also critical. So finding ways like sleeping te people.
[26:37]
B
Underestimate the quality sleep, that's important. It's. It starts with fix your sleep, drink.
[26:44]
A
Your water and eat ashwagandha, ashwagandha tea, sleeping teas, etc. So just to kind of calm it down because like we're probably, both of us were type A's, like, go, let's go. So it's kind of like, how do you turn off your brain to be able to sleep at night? One of the biggest hacks, I would say, is meditation. There's a big difference. Like this morning I did my 15 minutes meditation. I love Jodi Spenza, I love him. And it just resets my day and then also affirmations. So it's just like it's a whole system. Because if my mind is calm, then I know my cortisol is going to go lower. And then if my cortisol is low, then I'm not going to be holding on to everything. And really like learning and training myself and also listening to my body. Sometimes I sleep more and drink more water and sometimes I just need to have fun. Because it can't be just fine.
[27:37]
B
You have to have fun. Exactly. It's what you're saying is so important. I had that time I went and I and I talked to my doctor and he was like, what do you do for fun? You're lonely, you're not fun. Yeah, I spend time with chiropractic. I spend time with my friend, my family, breakfast time and so on. It was like, well, go dance or just play music or learn Spanish or a new language. Just do something that is different, that won't challenge you, but that will be fun. It'll be different than just spending time with your family and working. Right. And I have to say that because I think that the source of my strength is my faith and my spirit and my relationship with God. Everything that Jesus has done for me, when I'm aligned with what I believe and I'm close to God, I'm less stressed when I am so in the noise and being in the action and taking over. I'm so stressed. So that meditation time, the time for reading my Bible or taking notes, journaling is key also to keep me grounded.
[28:49]
A
Do you have a part of the.
[28:50]
B
Bible that you prefer? Is there a part that I prefer? I love, quote I quote, I love everything. I love everything. I personally, in Joshua, it's a promise saying that when you execute on the word and you follow the Word, you Don't trust yourself, but you follow the Word, the Word, and you follow the Word of God. You will succeed in everything that you are doing because he has the power, he has the vision, and you just follow him. Right? And so not mean that you don't trust yourself, but you don't rely on yourself because that the burden of life, it's too big to be in your shoulder without the support of God. And so that's the verse that I really like. It was something that inspired me when I started my business. And then I keep going too.
[29:43]
A
I think that's very important because I have multiple conversations with entrepreneurs about talking about intuition earlier. But I love this when you follow the word because sometimes you don't want to follow yourself because we have like thousands, thousands of thoughts every day and not all the thoughts are nourishing like earth's purpose. So if you follow the Word, do you have an example of a day or a moment that you followed the Word even though you had all these voices that were like, no, don't do it or go do something else?
[30:14]
B
Yes, I have a lot. I honestly think that there's the truth and there's appearance of truth and there's the love of noise and there's distraction. And one thing that keeps people from the truth is distraction. And when you have something that is, that is real and you put like a glimpse of something, something that is not real, is false. It looks real, but it's not. And so for me, in the world of AI and distraction and disinformation and blurriness, between fogginess, between confusion. I mean, I'm trying to find the right word to say what I'm thinking. But I feel like we are, this is it. We are in a generation full of confusion, distraction, fogginess, blurriness. And you could easily get sidetracked, sidetracked and be influenced. So you need to know what's your truth or your truth hardly define. I believe my faith in Jesus is the ground for everything. So I rely on that because of all the noise that happened. But then I don't want to hurt anybody. I'm very respectful, everybody. But I feel that this is the truth. I'm going to talk about my truth. And any of these are truth that happened to me, right? It's so easy to just follow a trend, to follow your emotion, to follow a situation, but that changes.
[31:48]
A
I think it's good that you're grounded in your, in your religion, spirituality. And I think it's good that like more people will benefit from Being ungrounded. Because I think a lot of people lost and sometimes people are looking for how, what kind of relationship and how do I manage my finances, what kind of decisions do I make? If you don't have an anchor and having a strong anchor, whichever people decide that this anchor is or which religion or spiritual practices can help you just keep your eyes on the price and follow your purpose. And also like have a guiding light. Because I think that's. If you have a guiding light, then there's going to be a lot of noise. There's going to be a lot of good days or bad days, but they're not really. They're just days and there's gonna be ups and downs but you're gonna keep charging through. So it's what you share just simply beautiful. And like what you said about like there's the truth and then some people can add something in it.
[32:45]
B
Yes. And so yeah it's. You need to be, you need to be careful where you nourish yourself. You, you are what you eat, you are what you look at, what you read, what you listen to.
[32:56]
A
Do you have any tricks to get into a higher self, to shift into a higher self gear and higher self mode to be that motivated, energized version of yourself? Do you have like.
[33:06]
B
Yeah.
[33:07]
A
One, two, three.
[33:08]
B
Yeah.
[33:08]
A
The three tips for.
[33:09]
B
Yeah. What worked for me was three things. First, sometimes don't, don't think about it, just do it. Just do whatever you have to do. When we think we start overthinking, we start rationalizing. But sometimes you just need to do it. Wake up and go wrong. You have to do this task. But no, no, no, don't stop because then you open the door at sometimes this is this for me really work. Second item on the list would be to be accountable to start with someone or just to have someone not you not doing it with the person. But you are someone that you can talk to and you're accountable. For me it works very well in everything personally, business wise and so on early, early days of work kind I had an advisory committee because I was by myself. Even if I, I didn't launch, I was pre launch but was important to do that. So that for me worked very well. That's cool. And I think the last. I think, I think so just don't think about it. Just do it and start with the, the thing that. But to have 80, 80, 20. I do things that I love that makes me feel good and it's okay.
[34:17]
A
But just.
[34:17]
B
You just need to step out of it. To get out of it when it's. When it's. It's tough, it's okay to. To have a moment where it's tough. You. You feel like you're gonna melt down, it's okay, but you just need to step out of it. But I think when you always, like in this disorganized art mode, this is where it's dangerous. So you need to have that like, moment of joy, I would say. And so every day. And that's. That. That was one of the problem that I had because I had moment of joy, like every three months, every month, every weekend or two, but every day you need to have that. You know, I love this one. And I feel like, yes, because I mean, you. You cannot strive. And if you overachieve and I was. And. And it's quantitative because you think you're overachieving stuff.
[35:06]
A
But you.
[35:07]
B
You really are surviving. So you have to have six days where you work and a day off. You need to have your sabah. Find your sabah.
[35:15]
A
I love it.
[35:15]
B
Ideal. Ideally, every day you have that.
[35:18]
A
So let's recap. So the three top three advices to get back into higher self mode. So we start with the latter, which was find joy every day. And then the second one was to.
[35:32]
B
Be accountable, to have people and have.
[35:34]
A
An accountability body or accountability crew. And then the third one is don't overthink it. Don't overthinking. Just do it. That's very powerful. Thank you so much. Farnell. I'm so excited that I finally got to meet you. You think in flesh. I'm excited also for your business that you're venturing into the US market, which is super exciting, I'm sure internationally afterwards. And then also voice. Very excited to share your faith and your practices to shift into higher self mode. And you being a model. Listen, there's not a lot of in Canada, there's not a lot of black women entrepreneur that are going in series A. So I'm super excited for you and thank you.
[36:13]
B
Dilgier. Stand to embatting me. Pleasure.
[36:15]
A
Have a good one.
[36:16]
B
Thank you.

"I DREAM of a world where everybody has a Personal WELLNESS Assistant" - Workind's BILLION-dollar employee WELLNESS vision

"I DREAM of a world where everybody has a Personal WELLNESS Assistant" - Workind's BILLION-dollar employee WELLNESS vision

Podcast Summary:

Episode Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of Workind: Turning Personal Pain Into Purpose

2. Building the Solution: What Workind Offers and Why It Matters

3. The Founder’s Path: From Idea to Seed Funding and Beyond

4. Purpose, Faith, and the Higher Self in Leadership

5. Founder Mental Health & High-Performance Habits

6. Navigating Challenges & Staying True to Purpose

7. Top Tips for Getting Into “Higher Self” Mode

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Key Timestamps for Reference

Tone & Language Notes

Summary Takeaways

Podcast Summary:

Episode Overview

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of Workind: Turning Personal Pain Into Purpose

2. Building the Solution: What Workind Offers and Why It Matters

3. The Founder’s Path: From Idea to Seed Funding and Beyond

4. Purpose, Faith, and the Higher Self in Leadership

5. Founder Mental Health & High-Performance Habits

6. Navigating Challenges & Staying True to Purpose

7. Top Tips for Getting Into “Higher Self” Mode

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Key Timestamps for Reference

Tone & Language Notes

Summary Takeaways