[vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”custom” accent_color=”#1f56c4″][vc_column_text]Everyone has days where they feel they could use a personal cheerleader in their pocket. With Zhrum.com, your cheerleader is available at the push of a button. An online coaching platform designed to help you reach personal milestones through a new direct form of teaching, Zhrum’s only goal is to help you meet yours.

When co-founders Robert Moorhouse and Stephen Griffiths began developing the coaching platform the mission was clear: to create a program that could change the world by changing the habits of people. 

“I have always been driven by a need to make a difference, one that meant something significant and lasting,” says Griffiths. “We quickly settled on personal awareness; helping individuals to explore what they are personally capable of achieving and challenging any limitations they may have previously accepted.” 

Since 2018, self-care apps have become one of the most downloaded applications. The COVID-19 outbreak also saw a huge increase in usage as people confined to their homes searched for tools to help manage their mental health. Unlike your typical mental wellness or self-care app, Zhrum.com provides a fully comprehensive coaching system based on and personalized to your unique goals both personal and professional. 

In order to support morale, employees need to be provided with the ability to self-direct their development… Employees are seeking personalized resources, tools, and support, instead of group solutions. This support needs to be provided in a way that does not add to their already busy schedule but instead integrates seamlessly with their day. This is where Zhrum fits in…

A system Griffiths and Moorhouse identified as broken, with Zhrum the pair sought to redefine the self-care market by developing new online learning techniques that encourage users to implement new patterns into their daily routines. By doing so this all encompassing training method manifests internal changes for users that really work. 

“We wanted to create a model where knowledge is imparted but the focus is on application in your life to provide the best opportunity to create a real and lasting benefit,” says Griffiths.

During the coronavirus pandemic the entire platform without restrictions is available at no cost for teams and individuals to unlock their true potential. 

For this week’s entrepreneurial spotlight, we spoke with Zhrum co-founder Stephan Griffiths about his passion for changing lives, how they developed Zhrum’s 6 Life Levers, and the process of revolutionizing online personal learning.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” accent_color=”#1f56c4″][vc_column_text]

What is Zhrum and how does it work from individuals to teams?

Zhrum.com is the evolution of online personal development and learning. Unlike your typical online course, Zhrum is a self-directed online coaching platform that enables individuals to explore and unlock their full potential. With a fully holistic approach, we enable users to focus on the topics that relate directly to the development of their potential, whether personal or professional. To begin, users can complete the Zhrum assessment to create a guided route map through the broad range of topics. Once a user has identified a topic, Zhrum’s Change Engine creates a custom action plan that schedules a series of specially crafted coaching messages, received at the start of every day and designed to guide the user through the completion of 3 key goals, that relate to their chosen topic. Each goal relates to the three consecutive stages of development; Awareness, Acceptance & Action. Used as a standalone development tool or in conjunction with an organization’s coaching or leadership development, Zhrum puts the individual’s potential in their hands.

How did you come up with the 6 Zhrum Life Levers? What research went into that? 

We knew from the very start that to enable an individual to fully explore their potential we could not limit them to a specific category of development genre. Every individual is different and the route to unlocking their personal potential would also need to reflect that difference. That meant we had to include a full spectrum of proven and effective development topics. For the user to be able to navigate such a variety of topics, we needed to simplify the process. After three years of development, testing and with the assistance of our broad network of expert coaches and L&D specialists, we settled on the most impactful and proven topics. It is these topics that are then organized under the six Zhrum Life Levers, in order to make navigate easy for the user.

How did you navigate the research and development that went into creating the coaching programs?

Both myself and Robert have an extensive coaching and L&D background. Where my interests focused on personal or self-development, it is Robert that has dedicated his life to the pursuit of performance coaching as his passion. As a leading and highly accredited executive and business coach, with 35+ years of experience in this field, he has 2000+ hours of coaching experience working with well-known global organizations, teams, and individuals. Together we spent three years creating our platform to utilize a universal coaching model (Awareness, Acceptance, Action), as well as the creation of over 2000 custom coaching interactions based on proven and tested coaching topics and principles, in order to insure the highest individual impact. 

How do you want it to change the market of self-help apps?

Zhrum is unlike any existing self-help app or platform, so much so that we believe that the platform exists in a completely new product segment. One that leverages online learning content, employee engagement, Learning Management as well as Employee Wellness. Instead of providing employees with access to multiple and expensive services, in the hope one might fit, Zhrum represents a single point through which the individual can create their own development journey, traversing a broad range of topics which relate to the realization of their personal potential. It is the first platform to solely focus on the individual’s potential, irrespective of whether that relates to their professional career or their personal life. 

Employee morale has been a huge topic of conversation since the beginning of the pandemic. How does Zhrum step in to be helpful to business owners in ensuring employee wellness? 

In order to support morale, employees need to be provided with the ability to self-direct their development, enabling them to seek support and guidance in both their personal and professional life. Employees are seeking personalized resources, tools, and support, instead of group solutions. This support needs to be provided in a way that does not add to their already busy schedule but instead integrates seamlessly with their day. This is where Zhrum fits in, providing each employee with their own virtual coach, helping them to identify the topics that matter to them and providing the necessary guidance to achieve the change they desire. Irrespective of whether an employee is seeking wellness, personal or professional related support, Zhrum provides one single platform to address a broad range of development topics. We put the individual at the center of Zhrum service, making the realization of their potential the priority.

What major changes to companies that use Zhrum experience? 

Zhrum’s ability to enable users to self-direct their development and navigate such a broad spectrum of development genre’s (professional, personal, wellness, etc.), as well as being accessible on multiple devices has helped many companies to be ready to meet the changing world of work. With Zhrum they have access to one platform that has enabled them to quickly provide employees with a service that provides an immediate impact and benefit and which the employees control. As the platform is fully automated, there is no integration or management resources required of the company and Zhrum’s low-cost model means the financial investment is minimal. Zhrum’s reporting insights are also enabling companies to further reduce their L&D spend by focusing on more bespoke and personalized offerings based of user insights. Zhrum is consistently scoring higher in employee engagement surveys in comparison to web/virtual based facilitated training sessions, especially in relation to personal impact and value. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve allowed free access to your programs. What prompted that decision and why is a commitment to helping others such a huge pillar for you personally and in your mission statement? 

As coaches, we made the point at the very beginning of the business to clearly identify and agree with our end goal. What would success represent for us and how did we want to conduct ourselves and our business as we pursued that goal. Central in this was a need to help as many people as possible realize their full potential. We also agreed that the commercialization of the business was of course a necessity, but it would never be prioritized over our desire to help people. We had completed 3 years of development and testing of the new platform just as COVID-19 pandemic occurred, and for us it was a simple decision. Our initial launch plan was to focus on enterprise customers only, but we quickly changed our plans and instead provided free registration to the platform to everyone. During COVID-19 many people have been forced to move outside of their comfort zones, with many facing unprecedented challenges in their life or career. For us as a team it was important that we make Zhrum available and hopefully help as many people as possible cope with these changes. 

What was a pivotal moment in your career and how have those lessons learned during that time helped you navigate scaling your company? 

The most significant pivotal moment in my career originated from my personal life. I had spent most of my adult life suffering from anxiety, usually in the form of extreme panic attacks. In my attempt to understand the reason behind my anxiety, I began a journey of self-exploration which continues to this day. I discovered that the central source of my anxiety was the pursuit of a version of success, specifically in my career, that I never wanted. I had to accept there was a lack of real authenticity in my life, that I was not being true to my real passions or potential. It did not happen overnight but as I gradually embraced a new way of thinking, focusing on pursuits that truly mattered and motivated me, I began to understand that I was capable of achieving so much more than I ever believed. My confidence grew, my insecurities and fears decreased and with them, my anxiety. I was able to bring that passion into the new business, attracting other like-minded and passionate people which enabled us to scale the business quicker than we could have ever imagined. When passionate people are aligned behind a shared goal, believing anything is possible, then development occurs at a much faster pace. We have also found that staying true to our authentic need to help others, resonated with our users who have been sharing and talking about the service from our first launch and helping us spread the news.

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