Focused. Creative. Resilient.
These are traits that come naturally to us as humans, but they don't come easily in today's distracted world. We're here to change that.
In the information age, we’re rewarded for the quality of our focus, creativity, and our mindset. Yet we spend our days in distracted workflows where creative thinking is almost impossible. We’re overwhelmed and we’re underperforming.
As organizations, we rely on the fluid intelligence and resilience of our teams, yet the habits we reinforce and the work environments we create go against decades of evidence-based research on how to optimize for cognitive performance and support the wellness of our people.
Nature of Work helps individuals and teams reclaim control of their time, attention, and technology, and implement new practices to optimize productivity and creativity and live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
Our Values
Nature of Work’s values act as compass for how we decide to dedicate our time, attention, and energy. They are rooted in our company and culture guide our behaviour, decision-making processes, and ultimately how we choose to show up every day.
Lead with Love
We lead with love and compassion. We acknowledge that we are all connected as living beings on this planet. We are open, fair, caring, and considerate of everyone we interact with. We bring our whole self to work and build meaningful relationships with the people we work with.
Continual Transformation
We see every experience in this life as a chance to learn and expand our knowledge, awareness, and consciousness. We seek to continually transform ourselves and others through this work.
Mindful Work
We value being grounded, mindful, and intentional in our work. We recognize this takes effort and attention, and a continued commitment to self- reflection and our work practices.
Self-Leadership
We value the unique talents, passions, and perspectives of our people. We foster an environment that offers freedom, trust, and support for each other to contribute in diverse and meaningful ways. This requires team members to be self-aware, hold themselves accountable, and continually ensure they are delivering value to the organization and its purpose.
Critical Thought
We seek to explore and continually get closer to what is true and real in this world. We encourage dialectic conversations and diverse perspectives so that we can achieve a deeper understanding of the world around us. We recognize the risk of group-think and misinformation in the age of the internet and social media and work actively to rise above the pressure and noise. a
The Team
Steve Rio
CEO & Founder
Steve Rio is a social impact entrepreneur, futurist, philosopher, and transformational coach. He is the Founder of Nature of Work and Briteweb, and the host of NOW with Steve Rio, a podcast that explores what it means to live a good life.
Steve’s passion is helping individuals and teams realize their full potential.
Steve thrives at the intersection of social impact, culture, and consciousness and is an expert in remote and distributed teams, workforce performance and wellness, technology, and branding. He has real-world experience leading remote and distributed digital teams as well as implementing technology systems for over fifteen years. It’s through the lens as a business owner, leader, and entrepreneur that he thinks about performance and wellness for modern workers.
When Steve moved to Bowen Island, a small community off the coast of Vancouver BC, he experienced a revelation about the impact that his work and technology habits were having on him and on society as a whole. He began researching and developing a framework on how to optimize work, increase performance, and lower stress and anxiety. This research, which started as a personal passion project, evolved into Nature of Work.
Austin Love Austin
Co-Founder / Creative Director
Austin has been a holistic Product, Experience and Wellness Designer for over 20 years. Her background in functional medicine, natural products, human behaviour and mindfulness, combined with her love of minimalism, ceremony, nature and nurture, inform her designs to help transform ordinary moments into unforgettable experiences.
Yasmeen Sadain
Co-Founder / Coach / Operations Manager
Yasmeen’s career is focused around performance, wellness, human potential, and cognitive & neuropsychology. She is a Certified Professional Co-active Coach and a personal trainer in multiple disciplines. Yasmeen holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Psychology & a minor in Applied Ethics.
Advisors
Dr. Lawrence Cheng
MD, CCFP(EM), MPH, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner
Dr. Cheng is the co-founder/director of Connect Health Care Centre for Integrative + Functional Medicine. Dr. Cheng is trained in Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine and has a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University.
Dr. Cheng believes in the innate capacity for the body to heal and the importance of integrating mind, body and spirit.
Dr. Maia Love
MD, FRCPC, ISAM, YTT250
Dr. Love is the Founder and Director of BrainTalks@UBC and Certified in Mindfulness and Internationally in Addiction Medicine and Yoga. A wellness consultant, doctor and psychiatrist, she has a specialized practice ranging from wellness and optimization to healing from trauma.
Maia’s practice is rooted in the key values of kindness, respect, and possibility.
Dave Andru
CPA, CMA
Dave has almost 25 years of progressive hands on finance experience and is currently the Director of Finance for Lush Handmade Cosmetics Ltd, a company dedicated to the practices of fair-trade sourcing, supporting sustainable communities and giving back to grass roots organizations making a difference.
Evaleen Jaager Roy
MBA, BBA (Hons)
Evaleen Jaager Roy advises CEOs on talent and strategic HR and coaches executives for top performance. Prior to starting her own company, she served as Vice President of Human Resources for Electronic Arts, helping to build the industry for a decade in its early high growth years in Vancouver, across Europe and globally.