There is a better way to work.
Focused. Productive. Creative. Resilient.
These are traits that come naturally to us as humans, but they don’t come easy in today’s distracted world. With the right knowledge, practices and training, you can find a new sense of calm, unlock your full potential and achieve higher quality work, faster.
About Us
Nature of Work exists to maximize human potential and help people live fuller lives.
In the information age, we’re rewarded for the quality of our focus, creativity, and our mindset. Yet we spend our days in distracted workflows where creative thinking is almost impossible. We’re overwhelmed and we’re underperforming.
As organizations, we rely on the fluid intelligence and resilience of our teams, yet the habits we reinforce and the work environments we create go against decades of evidence-based research on how to optimize for cognitive performance and support wellness of our people.
Nature of Work helps individuals and teams regain a sense of ownership over their time and technology, and learn new practices in order to optimize productivity and creativity and live healthier, more fulfilling lives.
The Nature of Work Online Program
A program to rapidly rewire your brain.
The Team
Steve Rio
CEO and Founder / Lead Researcher
Steve is a futurist, technologist and researcher born in Vancouver BC, Canada. Steve is founder and CEO of Briteweb, an international social impact agency delivering strategy, branding and digital, and the Founder of Nature of Work, helping people be more productive, creative and happy in their work and their lives.
Steve thrives at the intersection of social impact, culture and technology and is an expert in exponential organizations, remote and distributed teams and workforce wellness and performance. He has real world experience leading remote and distributed digital teams as well as implementing technology and systems for over a decade. It’s through the lens as a freelancer turned business owner and entrepreneur that he thinks about performance for modern workers.
When Steve moved to Bowen Island, a small island off the coast of Vancouver BC in Canada, he experienced a revelation about the impact that technology was having on him specifically and as a society at large. He began researching and developing a framework on how to optimize human performance and manage technology and our lifestyle in a way that allowed our natural wisdom, intelligence and abilities to thrive. This research, which started as a personal passion project, evolved into Nature of Work.
Austin Love Austin
Co-Founder / Product Developer
Austin has been designing and developing products for over 15 years. She is an expert in tea, nootropics and natural supplements and remedies. She is passionate about creating products and rituals that transform ordinary moments into unforgettable experiences.
Yasmeen Sadain
Coach / Researcher / Content Design
Yasmeen’s career is focused around performance, wellness, human potential, cognitive & neuropsychology. She is a soon-to-be certified coach (CTI) and a personal trainer in multiple disciplines. Yasmeen holds a Bachelor of Science graduate with a major in Psychology & a minor in Applied Ethics.
Allen MacKinnon
Researcher / Content Design
Allen is an engineering and operations professional who works with technical teams to elevate performance. He is passionate about working smarter in the pursuit of quality outcomes. Allen holds an MBA in Management of Technology and is presently Director, Product Operations with Westport Fuel Systems.
Advisors
Dr. Lawrence Cheng
MD, CCFP(EM), MPH, Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner
Dr. Cheng is the co-founder/director of Connect Health Care Centre for Integrative + Functional Medicine. Dr. Cheng is trained in Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine and has a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University.
Dr. Cheng uses an integrative and functional medicine approach to treat chronic diseases including cardiovascular, metabolic, hormonal, food/environmental allergies and autoimmune conditions. He believes in the innate capacity for the body to heal and the importance of integrating mind, body and spirit.
His areas of interest include personalized medicine, the emerging technologies of genomics, the microbiome, botanical medicine, healthy aging and mind-body medicine.
Dr. Cheng continues to practice Emergency Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital and is part of the Research + Development Team at Providence Health whose goal is to look for innovative solutions to health care.
Dr. Maia Love
MD, FRCPC, ISAM, YTT250, IHEM
Dr. Love is Founder and Director of BrainTalks@UBC, Certified in Mindfulness and Certified Internationally in Addiction Medicine and Yoga, is a doctor and psychiatrist with a specialized practice ranging from wellness and optimization to trauma recovery and addiction.
With a practice deeply rooted in the key values of kindness, respect, and possibility, she guides professionals to develop wellness strategies, clients to heal through psychotherapy, daily leads mindfulness programs for patients in hospital, and coaches professional wellness on wilderness retreats in Tofino, BC.
Maia has taught yoga in many locations over the last 19 years, run multiple workshops, directs a talk series on brain health, and loves surfing as a metaphor for finding the sweet spot in life.