#60: Paying attention to our elders with Viva Vita’s Carleigh Berryman

Carleigh Berryman grew up in a family of wildly successful entrepreneurs who valued and appreciated the older generations. In college, Carleigh resisted the tempting urge and social pressure to pursue a lucrative Marketing Consultant path and instead successfully secured seed money for a unique virtual reality company for seniors.

In American culture, we spend very little time investing in our elderly populations. Her company - Viva Vita - is a tech-enabled services business that disrupts that impulse by selling virtual reality tours as an activity to retirement communities to bolster their activities calendar, appear attractive to future customers and to engage their populations in a novel way for better mental wellness.

In this interview, we discuss the formation of Viva Vita, what it takes to stand up for your idea (even when it’s not popular), the challenges of entrepreneurship, the value of a strong mentor and how to take care of yourself through all of that.

Carleigh is a rare breed, both a head and heart-centered leader who encourages people to be open to the world, embrace uncertainty, work hard with genuine passion and, most important of all, care deeply about your work. 

More Viva Vita: https://www.vivavita.org

More Carleigh: https://www.carleighberryman.com