Meet Jake Mitchell of Serenity Labs in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Mitchell.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Jake. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2013, I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark where I took an entrepreneurship course. Being a business major at Skidmore College, I enjoyed marketing and other aspects of the major, but hadn’t felt a strong pull in any particular direction – then I found entrepreneurship and immediately fell in love with it. In that course, I met Arye Shabtai, my business partner at Serenity Labs.

After college, I lived on Martha’s Vineyard and worked at The Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival. I then road-tripped around the US and landed a job at a small film group in NYC in late 2014. I produced a documentary series that followed the challenges and triumphs of three startup companies located near Wall St, called “Wall St Startups.” I left that position after a year to backpack through Central & South America for four months, then came back to NY and knew I wanted to get into the startup scene. I re-connected with Arye and joined his company at the time as one of the first hires. I was an investor in the company and helped to scale the sales team.

Arye and I both resigned from that company in early 2018. He had a new idea for a company called Serenity Ventures (we recently rebranded to Serenity Labs) and recruited me as the co-founder in August 2018. Since, we have and are continue to dive deep in our personal development to support entrepreneurs and business leaders and coaching to maximize their impact, build resilient organizations, while building a harmonious lifestyle for themselves to prevent the burnout that entrepreneurs too often fall into, sometimes at serious health risks (sometimes life-risking).

In other words, we’re in the business of supporting business leaders to take care of themselves so they can show up more powerfully for themselves, their relationships and their businesses.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The short answer is: no. It has certainly not been a smooth road! Anyone who takes on a creative endeavor can relate. Obstacles, both inner and external, have come into play that I couldn’t have anticipated even if I tried. Things such as self-doubt, fear, confusion, external stress (from friends & family). Some of the biggest lessons have been stepping into my authenticity and communicating it clearly with courage.

I find the key is to embrace the obstacles and invest in my personal development. I’m an avid meditator, workshop attendee, men’s circle participant, enthusiasm of vulnerability, nature lover and more. These practices are my re-calibration system – without them, I wouldn’t be this far. Truth is, stepping into an entrepreneurial journey takes incredible endurance and focus. In my opinion, self-care & self-growth are the most important area to invest in and create consistent positive habits, beliefs and routines around to sustainably grow and thrive.

Please tell us about your business.
Serenity Labs support entrepreneurs and business leaders to turn their brains off so they can show up more focused in all areas of life. Today, entrepreneurs and business leaders face serious health conditions. They are 2x more likely to suffer from depression, 3x more likely to suffer from substance abuse and 50% of business leaders suffer from one mental health condition in their lifetime.

We believe that success as a business leader is not just determined by the bottom line – it’s truly a holistic approach. From an organizational perspective, success can be determined by the happiness of your employees, how you give back to your communities, and your environmental footprint. From an individual perspective, we focus on helping leaders create wealth and vitality in all aspects of their lives such as relationships, creative expression, spiritual growth, play. We use a variety of tools to measure and improve these aspects of their lives.

In a world that is deeply distracted and changing, we find that many leaders need this kind of support to prioritize the well-being of their organization and themselves – without it, burnout, health conditions are very likely and the longevity of the organization is in jeopardy.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
In all honesty, I wouldn’t change a thing. I trust my intuition to lead me down the unknown. But to choose one thing, I would have started attending seminars and personal development programs earlier. The earlier one creates momentum in this path the strong the positive compounding effects!

Contact Info:

• Website: serenitylabs.co
• Email: jake@serenityventures.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakemitchell/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jake.mitchell.1126
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-mitchell-b0ba9855/

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