We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nathalie Yerak. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nathalie below.

Nathalie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I have always had an interest in the wellbeing space, specifically, I wanted to help individuals accomplish the unimaginable, true work-life balance! As I got older and moved forward in my career, it became evident to me that the impact I wanted to make would only be posible by helping organizations better understand what support employees seek. I am a true believer that a good product comes from good work, and good work comes from a good employee. Organizations need to find the “right person for the job” by ensuring a good organizational fit but all of those efforts are wasted if you don’t continue to develop and foster that organizational fit.

Organizations need to understand what their employees need, what they want and what they are looking for. In 2021-2022, we heard a lot about the “Great Resignation”, people started realizing that there is more to life, people want purpose and meaning in their jobs and careers, they want to work for an organization that cares for them as a person. This is when my partners and I started to build (our idea) the Sama PACT, a tool that organizations can use as part of their employee listening strategy to truly understand what their employees are seeking and to help them prioritize their actions. We felt that this was the perfect time to develop the tool that we had been discussing. The Sama PACT was a solution to the problem and it was the perfect time to roll it out. This is a tool that is mutually beneficial for organizations and employees because the happier that employees are, the more productive they tend to be and as a result, the less likely they are to leave their job or the organization.

Nathalie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Nathalie Yerak, I was born in Venezuela but moved to Miami, FL at a very young age. I have a Masters degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and I enjoy using my critical thinking and data analytic skills to think outside the box to find innovative solutions or ideas.

I am a dreamer and an overachiever, because I truly believe that we can have our cake and eat it too! I think that work is part of life just as much as life is a part of our work. With Sama, we will help organizations view employee engagement differently, in a more holistic view that is mutually beneficial to both parties. We strive to make a lasting impact in the workplace and that is what we want our brand to be.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my co-founders in graduate school. Erica Pieczonka and Archana Tedone, both have their PhDs in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. They were already in the program at Florida International University once I joined but we had a couple of classes together which allowed us to connect right away and has lead to a long lasting friendship. We all have similar interests in the wellbeing space, Archana’s research has had a heavy focus in Occupational Healthy Psychology (OHP) and focuses on modern workplace stressors, such as work-related technology, and how they impact employees’ lives both inside and outside of work. Her work focuses on employee wellbeing, workplace safety, and occupational stressors. Our other co-founder, Erica Pieczonka worked as a director of Talent for an organization in the health care industry and is now and entrepreneur who provides leadership and lifestyle coaching using a heart-centered and holistic approach.

Our similar interests have kept us connected and we have kept in touch throughout the years. Even though we all live in different states and distance can sometimes make it difficult, we have ensured to stay connected now more than ever!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Since our organization has not required too much initial capital we have been able to get very creative. Currently, Sama Solutions is still our “side-hustle” and we all continue to work our full time jobs. During the first year of the organization we organized and blocked time on our schedules to meet on a weekly basis to ensure that we were dedicating time to our organization. We were able to secure a small client, the payment for the project was able to fund our data research and once we had the data we were able to hire an intern through the university where the intern signed up for research credits through our organization. This opportunity to have an intern for two semesters really helped us save money while continuing to move forward.

We were able to fund our business in very creative ways and hope to continue to be able to do this to become a profitable organization sooner rather than later. One of the main reasons as to how we have been able to do this is by planning ahead and by being very organized, specially when sharing files and data across our team members. Always making sure that we have the tools need to move froward and achieve our goals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sama-solutions.com/
• Instagram: @sama.solutions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/80989410/admin/feed/posts/