We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren & Candice Henry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren & Candice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job

John Maxwell says, “Growth is the only guarantee that tomorrow is going to get better.”

We experienced this first hand when we worked as leadership trainers for several years.

Our team had just arrived and was settling in for our first evening kickoff session of training before we would run the programs for this season’s attendees. The director started off the meeting with a simple, but pointed, question for all of us to reflect on and respond to, “Why are you here?”

We looked around the room full of familiar faces that we had worked with for years now as leadership trainers, each of us returning season after season. The question seemed somewhat silly to ask to so many veteran staff members, but at the same time, it really made us think. Why do we keep coming back? What has kept this team together for so long?

After a few minutes to think and write down our thoughts, one by one we went around sharing our responses with the group, and a common thread began to surface among all of our teammates.

The answer was two-fold. First, each of us had our own stories of how we had been personally impacted by the power of these leadership and success principles, and so we wanted other people to have that same experience as well! Second, in the process of teaching these concepts to other people, studying under the mentorship of the program director, and being in this environment of personal growth, we became better individuals. It was the opportunity to be in a place that would help you be the best version of yourself and inspire others in the process that served as the magnetic quality that motivated each of us to return year after year.

That experience and lesson motivated us to commit to lifelong personal growth and even led us to the work that we do today.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

What we do: At Aretios, we help leaders and young professionals learn how to lead well and live lives of purpose, influence, and adventure.
Our goal is to create a place where high achievers and leaders can connect with each other and grow into the best version of themselves.
This is for you if…
You’re looking to be a part of a high-achieving, motivated, elite community to grow with that will support and inspire you as you pursue your goals.
You have a desire to learn, grow, and become the best version of yourself.
You like to challenge yourself and are committed to doing what it takes to get results with integrity and excellence.
You are ambitious and want to pursue and reach big goals.

Why we do it
Growing up, we saw the lives of successful people who were living their dreams, accomplishing incredible goals, and making a positive impact by helping so many others. And we thought…why not us too? How is it that these people were able to achieve so much, while for so many others their goals remained a pipe dream?
After studying under successful mentors for several years, reading hundreds of books, attending numerous training events and conferences, getting master’s degrees in the field, working as leadership trainers, and even becoming university professors of the subject, we developed our own system of strategies that got results.
People would often ask us how we had accomplished so much at such a young age and would seek our advice to help them do the same. We wanted to point them in a direction, but there wasn’t a roadmap or platform with step-by-step guides of how to actually get results. So…we made it!
Our vision was this: to unlock the secrets of the successful for the next generation of leaders. To take what has formerly been reserved for the corporate executives, elite athletes, academics, or older professionals, and bring it to the new wave of go-getters, passionate influencers, and young leaders. (Designed for young leaders by young leaders!)

What sets Aretios apart from others out there?
We are firm believers that learning should be fun, interesting, practical, and actionable, so we’ve created everything for Aretios with our sense of adventure in mind. No dry theories here!
We shoot straight and don’t waste time with motivational fluff that pumps you up and leaves you high and dry when you attempt to apply it.
We’ve been studying and personally practicing these concepts for over a decade, so everything we teach is evidence-based. We are also young leaders ourselves, so we are intentional about creating for our demographic and tailor our offerings to speak the language that resonates with the next generation and addresses relevant topics.
While there are a lot of motivational “experts” out there, we bring engaging teaching, actionable content, and relevant strategies with class, adventure, and spark.
Curious? Here’s how you can be a part of the Aretios community:

Join the community:
-A-Team Insiders Newsletter
The best place to start is with our free newsletter! Each month, we send out curated resources, the latest lessons we’re learning, and valuable insights on personal growth and leadership directly to your inbox.
-Aretios Courses (https://www.aretios.com/shop)
Come learn with us inside one of our Aretios online courses! Whether you’re looking to clarify your purpose, bring more balance and productivity to your schedule, or improve your relationships and mental game, we’d love to help! Aretios courses are easy to access anytime, anyplace so that it seamlessly fits into your busy schedule.
-The Daily (https://www.aretios.com/thedaily)
Did you know that there are four habits that nearly every high achiever has in common? With our favorite guided journal, you’ll be able to easily implement them into your daily routine so that you can stress less and achieve more.
-The Best Life Challenge Ebook (https://www.aretios.com/bestlife)
If you’re ready to jump right in to experiencing more meaning, excitement, and success in life, look no further than this quick read where we’ll walk you through 5 days of powerful strategies and actionable next steps so that you can start living your best life now!

How’d you meet your business partner?

Our co-founder story is somewhat unique because we are sisters, so we’ve known each other for our entire lives. While working with your sibling isn’t for everyone, we absolutely love it. Here’s a few things we have learned that have helped to create an effective business partnership.

–Aligned vision

It’s so important to make sure that you and your business partner are headed in the same direction with how you want to grow the business. If your goals for how you see things taking shape are different, you’ll end up playing tug-of-war instead of making strides toward your dreams. For the two of us, our shared passion and experiences inspired us to make what we learned and benefitted from available to others, so the process of dreaming up the future of our business is very much aligned.

–Know what you do best as a team and individually

The two of us have many shared strengths, but we also have several complementary skills that enable us to be a stronger team because we can divide and conquer according to our interests and abilities. Learning how to most effectively delegate responsibilities, along with deciding which tasks are best completed together, has helped our productivity and enjoyment in our work to skyrocket!

–Value relationships over work

One of the most valuable lessons to keep in mind, especially if you are working closely with another person, is to always prioritize your relationships. Business success and ideas can come and go, but life is all about relationships, and at the end of the day, whether you agree or disagree on something, remember that friendship is more important.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

In the process of building our business and learning how to be an entrepreneur along the way, we had to unlearn wanting to do everything ourselves.

As entrepreneurs, you have to wear many hats, and in the beginning stages this means you have your hand in every aspect of the business, and for good reason. We encountered so many opinions from others about the direction we should take our business. Therefore, during the formative stages, we felt that it was crucial for us to maintain control of the growth so that we ended up building a business that fit with our dreams and wasn’t solely shaped by others’ opinions.

However, once we had solidified our concept and direction, we quickly realized that we needed the expert insight of others if we were going to make this a reality. This meant we could no longer rely solely on ourselves and our understanding.

So, we took our own advice. Just as we had been recommending to our clients and students that if you want to go to the next level, you need mentors and coaches to help you get there, we began to work more closely with those who could mentor and coach us in the process of building our business.

This is where we had to unlearn the tendency to only use ideas that we came up with and open ourselves to strategies and techniques that were new, different, and even foreign to our experiences.

Part of this process involved learning about what to delegate and what we were ultimately responsible for. While coaches and mentors could provide strategic direction to us, we had to do the work. It became very clear that at the end of the day, no one is going to care as much about your dream as you will.

As Robert Schuller says, “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.”

So while we can’t achieve big dreams all alone, we do have to realize that if we want something, we have to champion it. As you begin to ardently pursue a goal, those willing to help will appear and those uninterested will disappear, but your passion and drive must remain a constant if you’re going to see it to the finish.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.aretios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aretiosofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aretiosofficial

Image Credits
Image credits: Aretios & Christine Wozz Photography