About Sean and Plunj
Sean Foster has been working in corporate marketing, specific to social media and events, for 6 years. After spending nearly a decade working in Advertising, as well as SaaS, Sean marketed/managed projects for multimillion dollar brands (Ubisoft, Oracle America, NetSuite, Splunk, Warner Brothers, etc..), so you could say Sean knows what it takes to effectively run campaigns and projects, and hopes to transition that knowledge into his new business endeavors.
Apart from his business life, Sean is the father of two children, and a husband to an amazing wife. Sean also enjoys getting outdoors in any shape and form, but has a special affinity for Trail Running, Skiing, and Mountain biking. Sean holds a BA in communications and advertising account management from Brigham Young University.
Over the past year or more, Sean has been doing a lot of personal research that led him down the path to contrast therapy. As an avid trail runner, he would go to the river after a run for the physical benefits of cold plunges. Soon, he realized the therapy had more profound benefits. He became so enamored with the solution because of the many positive effects it provided him and his family with, that he began to explore the idea of turning it into a business venture.
Although Utah has access to naturally occurring cold water where you can submerge yourself, there are no commercial and affordable offerings for contrast therapy. After a great deal of research, Sean decided to work on creating his own offering– Plunj. Plunj will be a studio that will provide access to saunas and cold plunges as well as other health and wellness amenities. You can expect a Plunj to open in the Provo, Utah area soon. We will follow up with Sean and his venture to update you on his opening and how his business has progressed.
Connecting to a deep why
In many of our episodes and conversations, many people have referenced the need to connect with a why. Sean and Plunj are a great example of just how deep that why needs to run. A business will see hard days and you need to have that why so close to the surface that it keeps you going, makes you scrappy, and helps you persuade others.
Sean’s why is focused on his family’s health and wellness. As he participated in cold plunges he saw his anxiety diminish. Something he’d been experiencing for years. His wife struggled with insomnia and it helped that too. Not to mention the positive impact it had on athletic performance. All of these things combined gave Sean an energy, a level of confidence and excitement that helped him, as an introvert, talk passionately and exuberantly about this to family, friends, and strangers. In fact, if you didn’t know better and you started talking to Sean about it, you could easily mistake him as an extrovert.
But that’s what passion does to us. It gets us to break out of our shells. And when it’s rooted in a deep why, it’s what will see us through hard times and will motivate us to push through and try our darndest to make something succeed.
Providing Connection
Contrast therapy exists in many cultures with a variety of subtle tweaks. Many of these rituals go back hundreds of years and across continents. Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark have deep rooted practices with Sauna. Russia, Japan, and Korea do similar things.
In a time when people are longing for human connection, a practice like this that is rooting in history and culture can provide that connection. Due to social distancing, it’s easy to think that the only way to have great human connection again will be once rules and restrictions are lifted and we’re able to gather like we used to. But connecting to the past, to cultural and historical traditions, is another way to satisfy that desire for human connection.
Sean may be limited in the way he provides services as he opens up amidst COVID, but he, and many other business owners, have things like culture and history that they can tap into as they open up. Because although we may not all be gathering in large groups, a sense of community and connection can still be felt as we participate in activities that provide a phenomenal experience and turn us into evangelists for the cause.
Seeing as COVID-19 has also brought mental health to the front of everyone’s mind, people will be keen to exploring and
When The Rubber Hits the Road
Recently I was asked to help move a piano. There are many ways this could have gone. My particular experience unfolded as follows.
“Hey, KC, can you come help us move a piano?”
“Absolutely!” *I’ll just bring my little one-year-old with me. This is bound to be quick.*
Five adults then discuss where the new door should go.
The new door is measured and remeasured.
The wall is measured and remeasured.
There’s some dithering
Opinions are shared.
Then we begin to turn back to the piano (which needs to be moved no matter where the door goes).
“We don’t want to scratch the floor…” So we should consider this, that and the other.
All the while, five adults still stand, looking at the piano.
I remind myself it is not my home, floor, or piano and decide to stay quiet.
Many options are discussed so as to avoid a scratch in the floor.
I finally speak up and say there are plenty of able hands and that we should just try lifting it.
We lift.
We move.
Done.
I go home.
This experience is not unlike what may happen to you while conducting research for your business. You want to get it right! You don’t want to scratch the metaphorical floor. But at some point you need to just decide to lift and move.
3 Takeaways
- Just act. Write down 3 things you can do in the next week that will get you started. This could be phone calls, setting up a URL and email inbox. You’ll find that once you start moving, it’ll be like a snowball and you’ll gain the momentum you need to keep rolling forward.
- Research. Not just customer research. But all of your logistics. Let your brain go wild. What are all of your options? How can you be creative to solve issues so you can do things like cut costs?
- Network network network. Spend your time meeting people. Talk to people who have been successful, and not just in the type of venture you’re pursuing. Get the word out about your business. Talk about it all the time. And then strategically leverage those relationships.
How to connect
Website: www.plunj.co
