Michael Held

LifeSpeak Inc. - Founder & CEO of LifeSpeak Inc.

Profile

Michael Held founded LifeSpeak in 2004. Previously, Mr. Held practiced as a corporate lawyer at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and securities law and, subsequently, as a consultant at Monitor Group, where he provided advice to Canadian and global organizations with respect to developing business unit and corporate strategies, evaluating acquisition and merger opportunities, and enhancing strategic planning and organizations processes. He graduated with the gold medal from the combined LLB/MBA program at the University of Toronto in 1997.

Firm Profile
Back in 2004, we started as a small company providing live workshops to help people manage their day-to-day challenges. While we loved what we were doing, we quickly realized we could only reach so many people in a live setting. So, in late 2008, we moved all of our teaching resources online. In mid-2010, we launched one of our most popular features – Ask the Expert – giving users real-time access to the best experts.

In 2010, we expanded our offerings to include solutions for partners interested in providing the LifeSpeak experience to their clients. By early 2012, our platform had reached 500 expert-led trainings, and by 2015 our expert-led trainings had doubled! To keep up with demand, we launched an updated LifeSpeak platform in 2016 and delighted our members with new personalization and action-oriented features. Today, we have team members all over the world, over 2,300 expert-led trainings, and over 300 experts. The latest generation of LifeSpeak will launch in the fall of 2021 and will be available in 12+ languages.

There has been a shift in society in how we think about, talk about, and treat mental health and wellbeing. At LifeSpeak, we’ve been helping organizations drive that change internally for years. Education will always be the vital first step in enabling people to make meaningful changes in their lives, and LifeSpeak helps them do just that.

A hands-on approach you can count on
Our approach to account management sets us apart, whether you’re looking to integrate LifeSpeak’s exclusive solution into an existing program or launch it as a standalone platform. This flexible, dedicated approach is just one of the reasons we have a 94% client renewal rate.

Most of us understand the value of educating ourselves when an issue arises. But often, life gets in the way. That’s why your dedicated account manager creates relevant launch communications to ensure your employees understand everything LifeSpeak has to offer, as well as ongoing communications to encourage usage. We provide everything you need to help your employees stay on the right track.

You want to understand how you can help your employees. Once LifeSpeak is up and running, you’ll receive detailed usage reports that include meaningful metrics and data that can be shared with internal stakeholders and decision makers. The data, while aggregate, provides a clear window into the issues your employees care about most – allowing you to further customize your LifeSpeak content library and your overall wellness program.

We’re serious about protecting your employees’ privacy. We do this by not requiring personal information to use the platform. Participants can access information anonymously without worrying about being monitored. Any usage information received by the company is aggregated at the overall group level.

Our values
Exceptional customer service
We know you are busy. That’s why we ensure your dedicated account manager is there to implement, customize, and support you the whole way.

Innovation
We look for better ways to provide high-quality, engaging education to help people solve tough problems.

Strong relationships
We work hard to maintain collaborative relationships with leading experts. That’s how we ensure our proprietary collection of content and tools is making a difference in people’s lives.

Believing in ourselves
We go to work each day knowing what we do is truly helping people. This is what drives us to do better and be better.

Teamwork
We support, respect, and care for one another to ensure we create an environment we all want to be in – one of trust, warmth, and cooperation.

Continuous improvement
We never stop learning, and never stop going above and beyond what is expected by our clients and our teammates.