Women In Wellness: Anne Silsby of Act of Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Take care of your skin. A simple rule of thumb is cleanse, treat and protect. Cleansing the skin and regular exfoliation will help keep your skin clean, soft and smooth. Protecting your skin with SPF is so incredibly important to protect it from sun damage. SPF helps protect skin from cancers and other skin aging that is caused by too much sun exposure.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anne Silsby.
Anne Silsby is the co-founder of Act of Wellness, a new indie wellness brand launched in 2021. She’s worked as both a brand expert and product developer for numerous top skincare and wellness lines. One thing about the brands she loved working for most, they all inspired true connection and belonging — and sparked genuine joy.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us? What brought you to this specific career path?
I’ve spent my professional career as a marketer working for several well-know brands. My favorite part about marketing and branding is getting to know the customer and how they interact both emotionally and physically with the brand and the product. When I started my career, I worked for a baby products company and it was so rewarding to be a tiny bit involved in such a beautiful and emotional moment in these customer’s lives. That started the spark in me that I wanted to work for brands that really had a true connection with the customer. Most recently, I worked for a wellness company that supported thousands of individuals who were working to improve their own wellness. It was so incredible to experience this sense of community and belonging that was brought together by a brand, the product and the consumer. Over the past few years I was focused on my own wellness journey and it was that experience, plus all the learning from my career that inspired me to create and launch my own brand, Act of Wellness.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
My business partner, Michael and I have been working on our company for the past several years. We had a roadmap with products and launch timing planned. We hit two major roadblocks before our company had launched. The first challenge was we started working with a manufacturer that we were very excited to partner with. More than six months into the partnership, we were informed that the partner would have to put our work on hold because they had staffing limitations and they could not give us a timeframe on when they could resume our work. This stopped us in our tracks — the decision to stick with them or find another partner would significantly impact our plan. We experienced a range of emotions, but ultimately decided to move on to another partner.
The second interesting event was the start of the pandemic as we were getting ready to launch Act of Wellness. We were facing so many operational and financial decisions at time with so much uncertainty going on in the world. We had recovered from the manufacturing set back only to have another hurdle placed in front of us. We did decide it would be best to reduce the number of products we launched and to start with a smaller quantity because we had no idea how consumers would be interacting with our brand and product during this challenging time.
The main takeaway was that we easily could have walked away from following our dreams because we had some pretty major unknowns that we were faced with. We felt defeated before we even launched, but we knew that there were people who needed to hear our message and encouragement to take small steps journeys towards wellness and happiness.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There hasn’t been a big mistake so to speak thus far. There have been a lot of things learned and modified as we grow. One thing we talk a lot about is not falling into the comparison game. The beauty and wellness space is very competitive, there are new brands launching all the time. There have definitely been moments where we ask ourselves how did they get that many followers so fast, how did get that much press already, etc. The lesson here is we are on our own journey, things will be different and on different timing. It’s all ok and most of the time happens for a reason.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
What makes Act of Wellness stand out is the mission in combination with our product performance. Our message is really simple, focus on taking small steps towards wellness and happiness each day. So many people try to make huge changes or too many changes at once, this often doesn’t work out in the end. People get frustrated and burnt out. Through our own personal journeys to wellness, we realized the importance of just taking small steps forward and in doing so found more happiness.
Our experience led us to dig deeper into how we influence our own happiness receptors, through products combined with life style choices. We developed our line of skincare products that have been formulated to connect our inner and outer self that make us feel happy. The skin is the largest organ so it is so important that we take care of it. Our first product, Euphoric Exfoliation is a 2-step skin exfoliator + serum that delivers results you can see and feel after just 1 use! We have heard from our customers about the compliments they receive from their dermatologists, estheticians and friends about how great their skin looks. It’s a double reward because skin looks and feels great on the outside, but those compliments release dopamine that helps positively impact your mood from the inside.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
The most exciting thing we are working on is how we are reaching customers with our message and products. Over the past couple of years and certainly due to the pandemic, where people are shopping and being entertained is changing. Physical stores will always be important, but we think online social selling will play a big role in future. We have some exciting partnerships we are working on that focuses on where we are reaching people with our products.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
If we could accomplish one thing, it would be to help people take care of themselves. Taking care of our bodies including the products we use, the sleep and activity we get — all play a factor in how we hope to inspire people to make their personal wellness a priority. We hope to create a community both in-person and online where people can support each other and share ideas.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
- Take care of your skin. A simple rule of thumb is cleanse, treat and protect. Cleansing the skin and regular exfoliation will help keep your skin clean, soft and smooth. Protecting your skin with SPF is so incredibly important to protect it from sun damage. SPF helps protect skin from cancers and other skin aging that is caused by too much sun exposure.
- Try to get enough sleep. I’m not a sleep expert but I try to go to bed and get up at approximately the same time each day. I charge my devices in another room so I’m not tempted to delay my bedtime or scroll in the middle of the night if I cannot sleep. I also try to keep the room dark and cool, these things help me sleep more soundly.
- Get moving (and into nature if possible). The first part is about moving our bodies. It doesn’t always have to be continual for 30 minutes or hard core exercise. Sometimes I turn on a couple songs and dance with my kids. I also have found that I can fit in several 10 minute walks throughout the day instead of 30 minutes straight. Part two of get moving is to get into nature if accessible. Nature energizes me both physically and mentally. There is so much beauty outside to be explored and I believe spending time moving in nature spills into so many more aspects in our wellness.
- Pay attention to your body after you eat. How does your body feel? A few years back I started removing meat from my diet when I realized it made me feel sluggish and not so great. As I transitioned away from meat, I had more energy and felt much better after I ate. That was my experience and everyone will feel different based on what they eat. It is to illustrate how listening and adjusting what I ate and how much based on how my body felt after eating.
- Get an accountability partner. I love Dr. Mark Hyman’s quote that, “Friend power is so much more powerful that willpower.” An accountability partner is someone who is there to support you, cheer you on and go on the wellbeing journey with you. I’m very lucky that I have several accountability partners that I rely on that have absolutely supported me in my own wellness journey.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
If I could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most people it would be changing what we eat. I believe most people are doing the best they can, but there are a lot of dynamics in today’s household that put people in a position to sacrifice healthier food choices for the sake of cost, convenience and commercialization. It’s a complex topic, but people need to demand more of food companies. I see a lot public figures raising awareness and taking some of the food companies head on, this is encouraging to see more accountability demanded when it comes to public health.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Expect the time it will to accomplish certain goals to be longer than planned. You have a timeline, but not everyone else is on your same timeline so it timing will take longer so you will learn when to push forward and when you will need to wait.
- You will really be pushed outside of your comfort zone. Whether learning a new part of the business or making important decisions, you will be uncomfortable at times.
- When you are told no, don’t get discouraged. Either the timing or opportunity is not right at that moment. It will be right someplace else so keep pushing.
- Trust your instincts and don’t force decisions you know deep down are not right for the business. Sometimes you think you want or need an opportunity so bad that you are sacrificing somewhere else. If you give yourself some time to reflect, you really do know what is the best decision to take.
- Find mentors and utilize their expertise. Mentors are great sounding boards and often have had similar experiences that can help guide you.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Wow, it’s hard to pick just one because they are all important. I would say mental health is probably the most important to me. It is dearest to me because I’m a mom and I know how important it is to my pre-teen and teenage children. There are so many factors that can induce mental health decline and when mental health suffers, so does overall health. In our household, we do our best to protect our mental health and when we have had challenges, we sought therapy which helped us so much.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Learn more about Act of Wellness at www.actofwellness.com and follow us on Facebook / Instagram @actofwellness
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Anne Silsby of Act of Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.