By:Amy Rosner By:Amy Rosner | February 7, 2022 | Lifestyle,
Coined as the “Peloton For Mental Wellness,” Mine’d is a one-of-a-kind mental health app, and the world’s first emotional network to exist online.
Co-founded by notable podcaster and Human Connection Specialist Mark Groves, alongside health and fitness tech entrepreneur Aaron Albert, Mine’d is a forward-thinking platform that is filling a critical gap in the market.
The revolutionary platform connects users with 20+ top emotional wellness experts and a mindful community through daily live sessions and 1000+ on-demand classes.
Mine’d’s network of leading wellness experts focuses on a myriad of health and wellness fields, including marriage and family, sex and relationships, human performance, spirituality, self-love, personal growth, financial empowerment, intergenerational trauma, and LGBTQIA+ celebration.
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Focusing on community support, Groves and Albert understand the importance of emotional health support, and are giving users the opportunity to build a sense of self through community.
We sat down with Groves and Albert to discuss how Mine’d is changing the mental health narrative, while simultaneously creating a more positive social media landscape.
In what ways does your app function as an emotional network? What are the advantages of having this type of network?
When Mark and I were looking for a solution to the emotional health crisis, we noticed that people were turning to social media and other online networks when they were struggling. There is a lot of insight to be gleaned from that. One, that social media is a place that people proactively go to, two, that we’re socialized to consume tons of content, and three, that we’re doing it in a space that we know through copious amounts of data is really unhealthy.
We believe emotional health needs its own feed. And Mine’d is effectively that feed. There’s a way for people to be in conversation with one another, but instead of through likes and how well-edited their photos are – they are in conversation through growth and compassion and empathy, and learning. And we can create a place where they are supported by top experts in the field, creating best-in-class content around people getting emotionally better.
How is your platform shifting the conversation around mental health and wellness?
Mental health has historically been an industry and field that is inaccessible for people for a plethora of reasons - including, but not limited to cost, logistical access, cultural barriers, the time it takes to find help, etc. Not to mention how clinical it's always been.
We’re building a consumer brand in a way that feels colorful, real, edgy, and raw and not in a way that feels woo-woo or sterile. Additionally, from the expert point of view - from the content creator's point of view – oftentimes we are forgotten about. We are building Mine’d to take care of the people taking care of people. At our core, not only do we care deeply about the mental health of the content consumer, but we care about the mental health of the content creator.
Can you talk a bit about your process of choosing health experts for your platform? How do they each bring something different to the table?
Vetting emotional wellness experts is not a simple problem. It’s very easy on paper to qualify a therapist because of the letters after their name, and so many are amazing but some are not. And then on the other end of the spectrum, you have this exploding coaching industry that is wildly unregulated and has no real qualifier. So at Mine’d, we internally use six different pillars that range from education qualification to engagement factor.
As far as what they bring to the table, I had the unique experience of seeing myself in Mark and it allowed me to feel connected to the work and it also gave me this sense of permissiveness to embark on this journey of emotional wellbeing. Something that is deeply at the core of who we are is making sure that we have creators on the platforms that are representative of the world we live in and give consumers that same opportunity to see themselves in someone else.
In what ways is Mine’d adapting to the new age of social media?
I think for a platform like ours, there’s a natural inclination to want to be completely antithetical in the tactics and tools we use that social media employs, given that we’re an emotional wellness brand.
But the way we see it, is that this power exists in the world and it's really a question of how we’re wielding it. With social media, it’s clear it's not being wielded for good. But we also realize that if we don't play by some of those rules, it is very hard for us to keep any sort of attention from consumers. And so, where we net out is any tactics that we employ, we wield for good – we’re helping peoples emotion's, ensuring that they are spending time on something meaningful in their lives, and creating a platform that doesn’t give them comparisons or self–doubt or self-worth issues.
Mined’s networking of health experts discusses a wide range of sensitive topics, from marriage to self-love to personal growth. How do you ensure these conversations are conducted in a sensitive and respectful manner?
Because we’re still a small team, we rely heavily on our experts to moderate conversations that they lead. Beyond that, we have tools in our product that allow for reporting of users, and experts can remove someone from a room who is a potential threat to safety. Additionally, because there is a subscription cost to be on Mine’d, there’s an inherent barrier to entry and so it’s not a free forum like social media might be. If you want to be involved in the conversation, you have to put some skin in the game and that elevates the level of mutual respect on the platform among consumers.
How does your platform differ from traditional therapy sessions or support groups? In other words, what differentiates Mine’d from other existing self-help outlets?
Therapy is expensive and infrequent and it’s really hard to find a great therapist who you connect with and feel safe with. Support groups are arguably even scarier to go to, because now I’m not just talking about my problems to one person, I’m now talking about them to 15 people. Mine’d also meet people earlier in their journey – during that phase where they are reading books or scrolling on Instagram – even maybe before they want to go to a therapist or support group.
Although incredibly common, Mental Health is still seen as very taboo. In what ways does Mine’d erase the stigma surrounding mental health?
From the minute you enter the Mine’d app - we want it to feel less like a doctor’s office and more like Spotify. Like this is a cool, relatable, easy place to hang out where people are talking about the things you thought you were the only one struggling with. So we’re meeting users where they actually are and empowering content creators to be this really human familiar face that meets them there.
Photography by: Priscilla Du Preez
