Integrating Wellness and Inclusion with Ashley Brooke James and Elizabeth Moore

In the season 4 premiere episode, the TRILUNA co-founders share their story of starting a company to bring a more holistic version of wellness into corporate America.

When Elizabeth Moore and Ashley Brooke James first met, they’d just quit their jobs to pursue careers in wellness. Amazed by the transformation that yoga had caused in their own lives, they decided to team up and build a business that would help people “get back to the basics” and take a holistic approach to overall health.

“We saw that fitness was taking the place of wellness and the full meaning of well-being,” James explained. “The world has placed this whole thing on us that we have to look like this, we have to eat this, and we have to do all of these things to be well. And so we wanted to take a different approach.”

In this episode of Disrupt the Continuum, Moore and James join guest host Kevin Roddey of Pinnacle Financial Partners at Launch Tennessee’s 3686 Festival to explain how they’re transforming the corporate wellness space and building a business around diversity and inclusion. If you’d like to hear more conversations like these, join us for the next 3686 Festival, set to return this summer! Be sure to watch this space for more information coming soon.

Redefining Wellness

For James and Moore, wellness is about much more than just fitness, and they set out to build a business that would make holistic health accessible to anyone. In order to do so, they’ve had to facilitate a larger conversation about representation.

“We didn’t see representation of anything other than the white, female ‘Lululemon’ model, and we didn’t think wellness was that,” Moore explained. “To us, wellness is this really comprehensive life approach that allows you to live the kind of life you want to live with the people you want to be with.”

Because of that unrealistic model of health, James and Moore realized that most corporate wellness programs were failing to help the people who need them most. They decided to create classes and programs that are designed for a beginner, but are still scalable so that even more advanced participants can benefit.

They offer a variety of programs centered around health coaching, movement and cooking classes. Additionally, TRILUNA is teaching people that wellness can be enjoyable.

“We want people to show up and know that they’re not earning the donut after. We’re just eating donuts, and we’re going to have conversations about how we should be eating this, instead of how we shouldn’t be eating this,” James explained.

Moore and James believe that these classes provide major value, not just for the employees participating, but for the whole corporation.

“An employee that is unwell is less engaged. They’re less likely to stay with the company, and they’re more likely to cost the company more money,” in the long run Moore argued. “We’re looking for companies that intrinsically understand the value of taking care of their employees from the inside-out.”

Practicing Anti-Racism

In all of their conversations around inclusion and representation, TRILUNA Wellness is also centered around anti-racism. Moore and James believe this is uniquely important in their industry, because most wellness communities are predominantly white.

“Being a Black woman teaching yoga or doing yoga in the Nashville area, I didn’t see myself a lot,” James shared. “In order for people from the Black and Brown community to show up, they needed to see representations of themselves.”

And though anti-racism has recently become a buzzword for many people, TRILUNA believes it’s a vital part of their long-term vision for creating healthier communities.

“An individual can only be as well as their community. And if we do not address the systemic racism that our community is experiencing, we cannot experience true individual wellness either,” Moore explained. “So diversity and inclusion will always be part of our wellness programs.”

Please subscribe, rate, and review Disrupt the Continuum wherever you listen to podcasts. This season of Disrupt the Continuum is powered by Pinnacle Financial Partners. We’d love for you to join us next year at Launch Tennessee’s 3686 Festival to