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Alexa Meyer, the Co-Founder and CEO of Coa, has approached her career from the mindset of wanting to build something herself someday. Early in her career, she was recruited into a sales role, which later led her to work for Interbrand, the world’s largest brand strategy company. That experience gave her an understanding of how Fortune 500 companies build brands and marketing strategies that keep them relevant in our constantly changing world.
Later, Alexa used her network to find a position in marketing at a startup, working closely with the founders and using it as a learning experience to better understand the challenges and pitfalls of running a company. In this episode, Alexa reveals her journey from selling McDonald's toys door-to-door to her leap into the world of startups and her role as Co-Founder and CEO of Coa, which is fighting the stigmatization of mental health and working toward getting people as proactive about it as they are about their physical health.
Everyone's career path is different, built by pivotal moments and choices. We're on a mission to amplify those stories and examine how our decisions shape our careers.
Nonlinear is hosted by Dave Fano, Founder & CEO of Teal—a genuinely consumer-first platform designed to help people grow and manage their careers. Our goal is to empower people to land jobs they love with free tools that guide and automate the process. Learn more at tealhq.com.
Alexa Meyer: [00:00:00] Fear is a totally normal emotion, but if you don't ask, the answer is always no. And so I, I'm not scared of "no"s.
David Fano: Alexa, thanks so much for joining us on podcast, where with Alexa Meyer today, the co-founder and CEO at Coa. Um, but we'll hear all about her, her career and how she got to what she's doing, but, uh, it's always best to hear it directly from you. So can you tell us a little bit about.
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. And thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here and I've been a fan of what y'all are doing at teal for a while. So I am Alexa and the co-founder and CEO of Coa. And our mission at Coa is to help people be as proactive about their mental health as they are their physical fitness. And what we do is a gym for mental health that offers therapist led emotional fitness classes that teach people skills like resilience, confidence, mindfulness, communication, all grounded and experienced that.
More like going to maybe your favorite [00:01:00] Peloton class and less like going to a stigmatized clinic.
David Fano: That's all, it's such an awesome mission. And just sort of from the sidelines watching you guys build it over the last few years is it's been amazing. I'm sure we'll get into some of that. All right. So I'm curious when I noticed that it seems like you worked all through school.
Um, and so work is something that's been very present for you just like how, how quickly you have ascended through your career and all the cool things you've done. So. When was it the first time you really started thinking about your career and like sort of what you wanted to be?
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. I love this question.
Well, I think so one of the things that I did is I was a very frustrated as a child, as a child, I was always like coming up with. Solutions to perceive problems. And one of the problems that I faced, I think I was like eight years old or something is I had too many McDonald's toys. They were like overflowing in my playroom.
And so I was like, what can I do with these? I don't really want [00:02:00] to throw them out. Like I didn't, that felt wasteful. So I made a price list for them. And then I went around door to door, seeing how much money I could make selling my old McDonald's toys. And I think that moment was the first moment where.
I would love to have my own business one day. Like this is super fun, doing everything from like creative strategy, coming into market these toys and make them really appealing to the people at the door to how do I price them? Like some are worth more than others for like, who knows why? Um, but the second, the second thing I started thinking about when I started thinking about my career was it's actually related to what I'm doing now is I had a family member that I, when I was 10 years old, I learned had unexpectedly passed from Susan.
And as a ten-year-old, you don't really understand like what that means. Exactly. Um, but what I did know is that they were having, you know, emotional challenges that you can't necessarily see, and they were struggling in some sort of way. And I'm like, well, where does somebody go? [00:03:00] To take care of the challenges you can't necessarily see with the human eye.
Like, is there a doctor for that? And through that kind of line of questioning, I learned about the discipline of psychology and learned about the practice of psychotherapy. And as a young 10 year old, I was like, well, where are they? I'm like, I don't see them anywhere. Like on the street, like you see doctors everywhere and you see gyms.
I was like, where did the therapist work? And I learned that they often, they were in these like dingy opposite sometimes where it was like really stigmatized and it really hashtag. Well, I don't think that is very cool. And I was like, I'm going to become a psychologist and I'm going to start my own private practice.
That is a lot more accessible and modern feeling than what I'm seeing out in the world today. So password that was like the first time I thought about like, what do I really want to do with my life and career? And that sort of shaped some of the decisions I made later on in school, which may or may not get to.
Um, yeah, I think it was a combination of the McDonald's toys and the learning about the discipline of psychology. I was
David Fano: [00:04:00] completely like self, like initiated or, and where your parents entrepreneurial. Uh,
Alexa Meyer: no. So my, my parents aren't entrepreneurs. Um, but I do my family. I was exposed to entrepreneurs. Uh, my mom's side, they're pretty entrepreneurial.
So I think maybe like indirectly, I saw that, you know, there is something to doing your own thing and starting your own business, but not directly like my, my parents, my dad worked a pretty like corporate job and. Just sort of like, even though the other ways, like I would, I was always a person who was coming up with creative challenges for me and my friends to play.
Like I came up with like a detective game where everyone had a role and there was like an assignment and there was folders that I would give out to people to solve the challenge. Or there was a swamp challenge where I was like, let's go find the best swamp in the neighborhood and like, see who can come out of it with the most like discoveries.
Um, so I think [00:05:00] that there is just always this draw to. I don't wanna say doing things my own way, but like just doing things differently or infusing creativity into, um, activities. So
David Fano: it feels like when you went to school, you found like the perfect major, you focus on the right stuff. At least the way you wrote it on LinkedIn business, consumer behavior and cognitive psychology.
Yeah. Did you have to like craft that? Did you look for a school that had that, like how'd you
Alexa Meyer: do that? First I went in and just as a psych major and I wanted to craft psych and media. And this is in, I started, uh, undergrad university in 2007. So this is when Facebook was just coming on the scene and I was like, This could be dangerous.
I was like, people are getting, like I already saw my friends were getting super addicted to Facebook and I was like, what is the intersection between what I called at the time? It computer mediated communication and its [00:06:00] impact on people's psychology and mental health. So I actually tried to force us psychology and media major, but the school wouldn't let me do that.
So I was like, all right, I'll then I'll do psychology. And I added on a bit. Uh, set of classes, which I ended up really enjoying, applying and understanding of human made human emotions and human decision-making to how people fall in love with the brands that they invite into their lives. So, yeah, it was kind of like a Hodge together degree, but then there was also like a really specific, um, specialization or behavior.
That was a good intersection between the two psych and business.
David Fano: Oh, that's awesome. And it's, uh, it's not for everyone, but I just think that there's something around building your career. And having an intentionality and not just sort of being okay with what, you know, kind of owning it is, I think a big part.
So. All right. So you, you studied that, that was, you kind of crafted this thing that really was at the intersection of all your interests. Um, I think you were working
Alexa Meyer: through school. I [00:07:00] did. Yeah. I worked, um, a couple of different jobs. One of them was like, I was like, It's not a sexy job, but I was essentially like admin for a, uh, insurance company.
Um, and then I also just had some like server kind of jobs in the summertime, uh, golf courses and things like that. And then I do a lot of volunteering as well.
David Fano: All right. So you worked through school, you get a lot of interesting experiences I'm sure. And then right now you're making your, this call like first.
It's all a career. I think it all counts as the career. And I don't think we changed careers. I think we build them. Um, but let's call it like your first job, like, you know, out of school job and, and kind of like what, so, so walk me through that. Like what, what, what happened.
Alexa Meyer: My very first job. Okay. So my very first job was an intense sales job out of school.
So I graduated with a double degree in business and consumer behavior and psychology. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with that. I was like, do I want to do go the finance route and [00:08:00] like, try to take some of my corporate finance skills and like go work at Goldman Sachs, but that seemed kind of awful.
Um, and so I just started like looking at job boards and one job I saw was. A events company that was looking for salespeople to sell basically sponsorships. And my side job, I was volunteering for a not-for-profit that was doing a lot of work in the tech and entrepreneurship world in Canada, turned from, uh, selling sponsorships.
So I was like, oh, I can apply my skills on sponsorship for the snacker profit that I was doing pretty well at it. Use that to pitch myself for this role. And it was essentially a boiler room job, like literally dialing for dollars, but instead of selling, like, you know, something that costs $10, we were selling 10 to $50,000 sponsorship contracts.
And we would try to get people to sign on the dotted line within one call. It was called a one-page close. And so that was fun, but it was. People burnt out of that job very quickly. It was like very intense. Um, and so through that job actually got recruited. I don't [00:09:00] think that's on my LinkedIn, cause I wasn't there very long, but I got recruited by one of my clients and they said, Hey, we want you to come sell for us because you did such a good job selling.
To ask you want you to do sales for us. And so I was like, okay, cool. So I sort of took it all out on the side. Um, but then realized like I wanted to learn more about marketing and brand strategy. I was really interested in that. And so my second real job post school was working at Interbrand, which is the world's largest brand strategy consultancy, where I got to work with Tiffany and Barclays and visa, and really understand how fortune 500 companies build brands and build marketing strategies that keep them relevant.
And the hearts and minds of their consumers.
David Fano: Then I know, you know, one of the things you, you told me in advance of this was, you know, the kind of transition from Canada to the bay area, right. That, you know, Toronto has an incredible tech scene and a growing tech scene. I'm curious how involved you are in that.
But, you know, obviously I think we all saw like Silicon valley is like, if you want to have a tech career, [00:10:00] that that's where. And then like you had that in your plans, you know, it doesn't seem like that was an accident. So kind of how. How'd you make that
Alexa Meyer: jump? Yeah. So here's a lesson in just saying yes, especially when you're early in your career.
Um, I got, it was when I was still in university, I got an email from my business strategy prop and he was like, Hey, there's a business and tech conference happening in Toronto. Like you should go it's about startups and technology. And you seem interested in that. I'm like, yeah, sure. So I went to that conference while I was still in school.
Um, and I met. Executive team Uber, a bunch of students, also my age running this not-for-profit that ran this tech conference. There's a startup competition. There is all this classic startup stuff. We now know it was like pretty pervasive. And I was like, I want to help. I want to join the team. So I joined that exec team for the not-for-profit after I'd graduated.
And it was a volunteer. But that's was my break into the tech industry, where I met tons of people who are all [00:11:00] now like founders and living in San Francisco. Um, even while I was at Interbrand, I continue to volunteer for that organization and just really expose myself to startups and venture capitalists and all of that.
And at the time Toronto is texting wasn't as good as it is now is like just getting started. Um, so it was for me at the time, I was like, I want to be in San Francisco. All of this is actually happening, um, which was in 2014.
David Fano: So how'd, how'd you do that? You went from being an awesome brand strategy, a company working with super cool brands, you know, in Toronto.
To the bay area.
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of hostile and grip. So I was like, I have no startup experience. Right. I was working at this big consultancy, doing brand strategy for fortune a hundred brands. Like no startup gave a fuck about that type of experience. Um, but I really wanted to apply what I had been learning and a lot of my interest in marketing at the time to in early-stage startups.
So. [00:12:00] I just started using my network. I asked people who had moved to San Francisco. I was like, Hey, do you know any founders who are looking for a first marketing hire? Like, here's my skillset. I did work for free to prove that I knew what I was doing. I started a Shopify site actually to prove that I knew a little bit about paid marketing.
I was like trying to sell posters. And then I used that experience to like, interview well for growth roles. Um, and then a long story short, I ended up with two offers. One in San Francisco with the company keen IO that ended up working for, and then one for a company in New York, that was a much bigger company at the time.
Um, and I ended up taking the keen IO role. I mean, I was lucky in that I had a full-time job at Interbrand while I was like doing all this side work and volunteering. So I lucky in the way that I like could take on free work outside of my core job, because I had an income. Um, so that was coming from a, for sure, a place of privilege with a.
Thing is I saw them [00:13:00] as a learning opportunity. I was like, I know I want to jump into this field of startups that I like on paper have no real experience in. And I don't actually know about much about. And so for me, looking at a. Uh, unpaid opportunity. It was like, am I going to learn from this as one, but also who am I going to meet?
Sometimes you do things for free because it builds your network. And I knew, for example, volunteering for the not-for-profit organization that was really embedded in the tech community was going to be great for my network, if I wanted to bring in to technology and break into tech. So those are like the two lenses I used when evaluating whether to spend time on a free thing.
David Fano: Yeah, yeah. In the area of startup, smaller than whatever the big opportunity was, you had. And I think you did a lot of different things there. Um, so like how little were they when you got there? Talk us through a little bit of, of, you know, your, your time there and some of the opportunities you were able to experience.
Alexa Meyer: So there were seed stage. When I joined, I was the very first [00:14:00] marketing hire. I think that one of the first like nontechnical hires. So the company. Three co-founders who were all really brilliant engineers, starting a very pretty technical company. It was a developer tool for analytics. Um, so my first role was coming in as a marketing role.
And then as the company grew, we run from series a led by quota. Then we also raise a series B. I ended up being VP of growth and revenue there. So I was overseeing both ourselves. Engine and we added on an enterprise function. So we were selling Corbett deals and then also thinking a lot about product growth and like, how do we make it easier for developers to use the product?
I did a lot, um, worked, I think with almost every member of the team on some Glen across marketing community and the founders was running our board meetings at some at one point, uh, And then the engineering team as well. So I just learned a lot about fundraising learned about, about managing a board, learn a lot about growth and growth can be hard, sometimes sales and also culture and people, people management, and I'm growing a [00:15:00] team.
David Fano: And w I think a lot of people fear startups, especially one that little, um, they just raise funds. So maybe that kind of de-risked a little bit, but yeah. You know, to be in companies that small. I think sometimes it will compare those to big opportunities like, like you did, but you gave it the value that things were beyond like the stability and the learning opportunities.
And it seems like you got them, like what, what were some of those experiences that you gained by joining a startup that maybe you wouldn't have had you joined that bigger company?
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. And I think I knew that I one day wanted to work on my own company. So that was a big lens. Informing like joining an early stage thing where I was going to get to work directly with founders and also get to know our investors versus joining something bigger where I did.
No focus on one part of the, just one part of the company. So part of it was like, how much can I learn from being here so that when I start my own company, one day, I will be armed with a lot of the information and, uh, aware of the trials and [00:16:00] tribulations that come along with any early stage company. Um, and then the second I think is just at that age, like being really risk averse, I was like, I could either like continue on this corporate path and try to like optimize for salary, but to me, and this is personal.
That was a path to like apathy and depression. Like just not feeling like I was trying to do something, um, bigger and more meaningful in the world. And so the opposite is like more stress when you're at a startup sometimes. Um, but to me, like less, uh, less of a risk of feeling apathetic and sad, and like I'm selling myself short on my potential
David Fano: experience.
A lot of things you taught, you know, board meetings, fundraising. How much of you getting access to those things was like you pushing for it, um, versus you being, uh, brought along for, because I think there's like nuggets of advice here for people that join [00:17:00] startups, uh, because startups sometimes operate at such a fast pace that it's not an intentional, uh, like leaving.
But sometimes you have to kind of like fight and claw to get in the room again. Not because anyone's trying to ice you out, but it's just like, they're moving so fast. So I'm curious for you, cause you sort of came out it out on the other side of it in a really productive way. How much of that was you sort of creating those opportunities for yourself?
Alexa Meyer: Yeah, I, I worked really hard, um, but it was less about me being like, I want to be at the board meeting and more like, I. I w I think I was probably the most annoying employee for our, our CEO. Cause I was just always being like, here's what I think could be better here. He was like, it could be better here.
What about do that? Hey, I spun up this project cause I noticed this problem. So I was just being really proactive as an employee. And I was also really passionate about the company. So when that particular opportunity to like go from, and I was like, the title is director of marketing to VP of revenue.
They're like Alexa, like just, they offered it. Um, and I honestly was terrified at the time. I [00:18:00] was like, I just I'm like, I can't, I can't go to a board meeting. I'm like, I can't prep for this board being like, I don't know what the fuck, I don't know what I'm doing, but, um, they're like, no, like you're like, we're confident and we'll help you and all of that.
And, um, so it was a combination, but I was definitely showing that I was working hard and had I think good ideas about the company's direction and how we can influence it in a positive. So
David Fano: curiosity and yeah, I
Alexa Meyer: asked a lot of questions. Yeah. Question like one of my superpowers I think, is asking a lot of questions.
Um, and so that, I think that was definitely helpful. I felt terrified underneath, but I w I just took action. I was like, you learn through action. So. Don't overthink it just take action. And the people I knew I was working with supportive people. So even if I was making mistakes along the [00:19:00] way I had, I think the company had a level of psychological safety that some companies just don't have to be honest.
So, um, I think the combination of just act, try things and either be a positive result or you'll learn from it. And then you can course correct. Um, the other thing that I use, I think this is like Jeff Bezos framework, but if I was making a really big decision. On marketing or growth strategy or sales or whatever, I would think.
Okay. How easy is it to implement this thing that I'm thinking about implementing mentoring? What's the risk of like it being a damage to the brand or the company and how reversible is it? And so the easier it is to implement the lower, the risk and the higher the reversibility. I've just go when you wanna think about it, because it's just like, if it doesn't work out, you can easily change it.
And the damage will be minimal.
David Fano: Yeah. I think that Amazon, they talk about it as one way, doors in two weeks. Yeah. If it's a one-way door, it's like, okay, we better stop. And like, really think about this. Cause you can't go back in, but most decisions are two way doors. [00:20:00] So that's a great, great framework. If I can undo it, it's like, it's fine.
It's it's uh, not a, not a big deal. You know, a lot of people wrestle with this decisions, like starting their own thing. A lot of people were like, oh, I'd love to start my own business. One. But a lot of people don't like the, the stars don't align. Um, but you were able to iterate your way into, you know, what is now an awesome company doing really cool things, helping a lot of people, but you had to take that first step.
Um, it was a big career decision. So can you talk us through kind of how you were able to do that?
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. And so going back to what I just said around taking action, it really started with taking action, like just trying things. And so what I was seeing in the techniques, this is in 2017. Uh, close to 2018, just like the pervasiveness of common mental health challenges.
So burnout, stress, anxiety, relationship, conflict, existential questions, like people not being happy in their career. Um, w that was happening within me. And I was having within my peers and colleagues in the country at large. And I was like, [00:21:00] okay, well, like nobody's actually getting the support that they need.
Like therapy is still stigmatized at the time and really hard to ask. And then things like common answers are coming on the scene, but they were like, not for everyone meditation and that's like a single-player experience. And so I was like, well, you know, what, if there was sort of something more accessible, like a gym for mental health, just like a Barry's bootcamp, it's soul cycle and all these great brands.
Like what if there was that for mental health? And it was like, well, how can I test that? Like before, like going out and building Bismol around it and raising money and like, how can it be tested in a way to see like, do people actually want. Um, and so I came up with the concept of like a mental health pop-up, which was like an in-person event where people could come try out therapy, do a class, like learn a skill around mental health.
And then all of it would be in a community setting. So there'd be tea and reading material and all of that. And so through that, that's where I met my co-founder Emily, Dr. Emily on hall. And she was on her same, very similar mission on [00:22:00] emotional. And so we started collaborating together on those pop-ups with the first thing was just seeing, like, can we get people to show up to these?
Will they pay for them? And then we'll be able a little, the outcome be. Um, and they went really, really well, but we did 10 of them before we even thought about making COA into an official.
David Fano: Did you leave your job to start that? Or were you doing that sort of nights, weekends while you were still employed?
Because I think that's a lot of, a lot of people think that everyone's just got to kind of like up and go, but I always like to hear, like how it what's the H how'd you how'd you do it?
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. So the first two pop-ups I was still at keen, so I did them like nights and weekends. Um, and then they were going well, and I just like, I want to give this my full attention.
I want to give this a real. And so I left after the first two pop-ups keen and then started really putting full-time effort into it. And that's where really we started to do, like, we did like eight more. We did a [00:23:00] corporate one. We were making like some revenue like bootstrap revenue. Um, but yeah, I think that was a really important step to take, to really see through, see out the proof of concept.
But you can start side projects initially without having to leave your job.
David Fano: Yeah. That's, that's kind of in the framework I've used is like, when this is occupying more of my subconscious. Then my job, I'm not being fair to myself and like not being fair to my job. It's like, this is what I'd rather be doing.
Like assuming I can afford to do it and all those things, you know, but as soon as like, those boxes are checked and it's like, okay, cool. This is where I want to go a hundred percent of my time. All right. So you, you, you got the pop-ups done yet. You're going to do this thing. You got a co-founder what, what was kind of like, what was the shift from pop-up to.
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. So from pop-up to business, we were like, we were just doing tons of them. And then we were getting requests from companies to do them. So we're like, okay, there's a corporate angle here. Even though we didn't do any outbound to corporations, they were [00:24:00] just like hearing about the consumer pop-ups that we were doing and employees were coming to them and they were going back to their employer and being like, Hey, I went to this really cool mental health event.
I think we should do it for the whole company. So that was a really cool sign of. We're being pulled in a certain direction. And then Emily and I talked about like, what does this look like to be an actual business? Like, what is a gym for mental health permanent look like? And that's when we decided let's raise money for it and make it a reality.
And so this was pre COVID and the original plan was to first open up physical space. Um, so sort of like a rework meets a one medical group meets a Barry's bootcamp for mental health. Uh, and then start to once we established like really good footprint, physically start to scale digitally through with the classes later on, and we know what happened with COVID, but, uh, we raised pre COVID and then had to totally pivot the business model with the everything going on.
David Fano: So tell us how. [00:25:00]
Alexa Meyer: So it's really, really, really fulfilling what's happened. But I think it's because, you know, COVID brought us terrible as COVID has been. It's brought this amazing silver lining where one stigma around mental health has dropped dramatically to us, forcing us to go digital sooner than we did plan to.
We've been able to serve people all across the country, all around the world and help them with their mental health and emotional fitness. Um, the other thing that's happened is like, Eisenmann. With the corporation sort of like pulling us in, we focused entirely on consumer, but as a result of people actually loving what we're doing, we've been pulled into organizations that are now bringing COVID classes to their teams.
One of our customers they've actually incorporated Coa classes into the employee onboarding, which is very cool because it's now like one of the first touch points an employee has with this company is a emotional fitness class, which really signals to them. I was like, oh, this is a company that really cares about proactive, mental.
David Fano: Well, cool. [00:26:00] Well tell it, I mean, that was awesome. Thank you. Um, I think there's a lot to learn from your career. I think there's some like cool leaps you've taken, um, and some really interesting things for people to learn from, from how to do it. Um, You're entrepreneur. And, you know, we're trying to get people that aren't just entrepreneurs, you know, folks that have worked and then eventually do it.
You know, kind of my rule is more of their career has been working somewhere. And so I think you still technically, uh, meet that criteria and then is a back and forth, right. That's kind of what I've started companies. They got bought. I became an employee. I left again. And so navigating those things that come along in the career or.
But thank you so much. If folks want to learn about you, Coa, Emily is also great to follow on Twitter. She's brilliant and funny. Um, tell us how we learn more about.
Alexa Meyer: Yeah. So I'll show I'm here at first. Cause her Twitter feed is like the most helpful feed ever. So you can follow Dr. Emily on hall at Dr.
Emily on hall on Twitter. She [00:27:00] chairs really helpful psychological content and concepts, and you can follow Coa at join Coa. So that's J O I N Coa, and that's also our website. Join coa.com and you can sign up for any of our classes with the code teal.
David Fano: Awesome. We will link, uh, all those great links in the show notes.
So you can get those, um, Alexa, thank you so much. Um, it's you know, the first entrepreneur that we've recorded. Cool. Uh, so I'm really excited for people to kind of get that path, uh, of this kind of, to see how careers can evolve. You've done so many cool things. I mean, a lot of things that people struggle with, you know, relocating to different countries, uh, going through that process, working at startups, working at big companies, so lots to learn.
Thank you so much for sharing your career with
Alexa Meyer: us. Yeah, of course. Happy to help. And, um, just on the visa thing, you could probably do a whole episode on how. Got into the U S as a non American for like how to [00:28:00] navigate the new visa process. Not easy.
David Fano: Oh yeah. Yeah. That's it. But maybe when we'll do the episodes, well, it's actually probably changed since we did it, but yeah, another topic.
Yeah.
Alexa Meyer: Thank you so much for having me as a super fun. Thanks, Alexa.
David Fano: And that's it for this episode of Non Linear. If you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe, share, and rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can learn more about Teal in our website tealhq.com, or follow us on social media @teal_hq. Thanks again, and please join us again to keep hearing about how we make decisions that shape our careers.