Meet Steven Wrioght | Health Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Steven Wrioght and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Steven, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My family was really excited for me to be an electrical engineer and 3rd generation General Motors. The money was good but I hated every minute of it. And when I looked forward at people 10-20 years in the career path of Plant Mangers they too seemed miserable. So I left in the 2008 financial crisis got my “dream job” as a consultant at KPMG and thought that was going to be better. It only took like 9 months for the fantasy to wear off and again spending time with Partners at the firm, they seemed unhappy and stressed.

At that point in 2009 it became clear to me that I didn’t see a viable career path working for other companies that lead to the kind of happiness, freedom, and wealth I desired in my life. So, I started buying books about business and online training programs. Tim Ferriss’s 4 hour work week was one of the biggest influences as was Eben Pagan’s Business training. Together they stood out above the rest and actually gave blueprints on how someone could go step-by-step towards building a business.

During this time, I was at the peak of my health crisis as well. I was having embarrassing gut accidents, I was in daily pain after every meal, and even my boss at the time talked to me about being the “stinky guy” at the office and needing to get it figured out. I didn’t know it but my inability to lose weight, panic attacks, depressive episodes, exercise induced asthama, seasonal allergies. They were all at their peak at this point but when I sought medical help. The tests were always inconclusive, more drugs were given and I was told to suck it up.

So during Tim and Eben’s training they talk about choosing a niche in business. Choosing something you know deeply, that you could focus on for 10+ years without too much effort, and something that was unsolved for you and others. In this case, it was my gut issues. At the same time I started to discover nutrition and online communities of people who were struggling like me.

I tried my first dietary intervention and it was profoundly helpful for my gut issues. It didn’t fix everything but it gave me so much more control and less pain that I wanted to tell the whole world about it. I didn’t want anyone struggling like me to every feel like a doctor telling them they didn’t have any options was the only way.

So that’s how we started, not even talking about nutrition or gut issues specifically, but how to do this complex real food diet in a step-by-step way and included a lot of emotional support. Since those were really the only things I was qualified in. The process of starting extremely niche (only 10,000 people searched for this specific diet per month) is against most business advice but being the best in the world at a very specific niche issue has scaled many times over.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
It’s been 16 years since our first iteration of the business and I think what sets me apart from others I’ve met along the way is this desire to keep learning specific skills. Whenever I have a fear, setback, or mistake I try and figure out who’s the best in the world at this specific issue. Find like 3-5 people who are masters at it and I try to read their books, listen to their podcasts, take their courses and usually within 3-6 months I can be 80-90% better than most in that issue. Stacking those skills over time in both health and business has lead me to where I am today.

No it wasn’t easy, it’s been the hardest thing in my life. 8 Years ago when I was coaching other business owners I thought anyone could be an entrepreneur and that it was just a choice that anyone could make. I’ve since learned that it takes a certain type of personality who is willing to face constant uncertainty, challenges, and failures and not lose sight of a brighter future. That ability to be in years of pain and struggle but still believe you can make reality better for the world is a unique thing. I think everyone has it inside of them but most don’t want to pay the price of constant failure and struggle.

To overcome the challenges I think there’s two things whether it’s health challenges or business challenges. 1) never give up (you can quit for a day or week or whatever) but you have to be willing to stand back up everytime you’re knocked down 2) Seek out multiple top experts in whatever you are trying to fix, overcome, or learn and do whatever it takes to learn from them. For me this included hosting someones podcast for free for 4 years, it included paying money to consult, and or going to events I knew they would be at to meet them.

From there, do an 80-20 of those experts on a topic. What is the same between the top 5 people, what is different? Where do they agree and disagree? And then from your perspective separate their words from their actions. How do they act that’s the same and different. What about their history and skills are similar to your history and skills? I think what I’ve learned in this process is that you can learn something from everyone but we all have innate personality and skills. Anytime I’ve tried to emulate too closely to someone who’s say far more intelligent or emotionally stable than me. It’s failed.

So for me, it’s about learning from these people about how they get results in a given area. Then distilling it down to the similarities and differences between them. And then I lay it on myself. My history, my traumas, my curiosity, my personality. Oftentimes I learn something but can’t implement it as it’s not sustainable for my mental and emotional way of being.

Our brand and story is one of this intense exploration of how do you create something that’s the best in the world. How do you find experts who are already good and then take their ideas and make it even better? What level of thinking, curiosity, testing, exploration does it take to create truly great products? For me, that rabbit hole of curiosity is very rewarding when it’s complete. Everything we put into a product has been evaluated from 10’s of angles and ways and it’s done so in order to get the best results with the least risk while having the best repeatability. Meaning you ask me, what should I do for XYZ? When I make that recommendation, which I take as a sacred act, if it’s one of our products, I know I’ve done everything I can think of to try and get you results for that issue.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d take them to hike Mt. Santias afterword we’d go to Pearl street and get a coffee at OZO and walk the Pearl st mall from end-to-end to give them a flavor of Boulder. Later, we’d grab a drink at the roof deck at Corrida and dinner at Stellas or Kitchen Upstairs.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shoutout my previous co-founder Jordan Reasoner. For 4 years we worked nights, weekends, and kept trying and trying when nothing seemed to be working. There were many many weeks of giving up or wanting too and he was a powerful force to keep me going. As I mentioned Tim Ferriss and Eben Pagan as well, their books and trainings were instrumental in having a blueprint or a series of steps to take when first starting. Recently, It’s my wife, and current co-founder Shay Pausa. She helps me stay sane, believe in myself, and keep going even when it feels too hard.

Website: https://Healthygut.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthygutco/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthyGutCompany/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@healthygutsteven