OUR STORY
You might think that our story began on December 1, 2015, when our founder – Denise O’Malley – stepped away from the insurance industry after a long career.
You would be wrong.
Bill & Denise O’Malley
Our story began over 25 years ago when a long-haired massage therapist named Bill walked into the bar at Bennigan’s and spotted an insurance professional named Denise. They talked for hours and on their second date, Denise received her first therapeutic massage and was hooked… on the man and alternative medicine.
Fast forward to December 1, 2015. After 34 years in the insurance industry as an agent, agency owner, National Sales Director, and corporate executive serving on the formation of Colorado’s insurance exchange, Denise had had enough. She describes the experience has having seen ‘how the sausage was made’ and knew she didn’t have the resources to change the frustrating health insurance system… and no longer believed her work delivered value. It was time to leave. Immediately. A desperate attempt to ‘save her soul.’
Denise does not recommend people change their life as abruptly as she did… she left without a backup plan. Without savings, a purpose or direction, the question she kept asking herself was, “Now what?”
It was in thoughtful contemplation several days later – some will call this ‘meditation’ – that she felt she was being told, “You know what you need to do, you have the skills and resources to do it… GO DO IT!”
There is another part of this story that involves her husband, Bill. After years as a stay-at-home father, in 2014 it was time for him to return to working full-time as a massage therapist and that’s not something you can just jump back in to. Massage therapist’s need to become acclimated to giving 5-6 hours or more of massage every day so he eased back in by working at a nationally known massage franchise.
Already disillusioned with the insurance industry, Denise figured the next step in her career would be to manage Bill’s office when he opened his own practice and – in 2014 – took a part-time job in the evenings and weekends working at the massage franchise to get practice management experience. One of her responsibilities was to sell monthly massage memberships to clients and time after time clients expressed how they’d be thrilled if there was a way to take it out of their paycheck, but they didn’t want it coming from their checking account.
THIS WAS A LIGHT BULB MOMENT! Denise knew how to make that happen! She knew how to create a product, price it, build the claims and administration platforms, recruit providers and launch it in the marketplace!! She dove into creating a payroll deduction solution and presented it to the franchise owner… who flatly turned it down and refused to introduce her to the corporate office.
That business plan sat on a shelf in Denise’s closet until that day in meditation when she heard those pivotal words, “You know what you need to do… GO DO IT!” ‘IT’ being what is now known as You Define Wellness.
Denise O’Malley, founder of You Define Wellness
WHERE WE ARE TODAY
After 34 years in the insurance industry listening to thousands of employees in their benefit enrollment meetings, Denise O’Malley has orchestrated You Define Wellness’ creation of a revolutionary new benefit program focusing on the healthy living services employees desired… services not typically found in traditional medical insurance plans.
You Define Wellness is built around a community of health & wellness professionals representing more than 130 modalities… all independent small business owners. Although the initial concept was built for a national corporation, Denise’s goal has been to support and honor independent health care professionals like her husband, giving them much needed business exposure through numerous opportunities to educate the community.
Today, Denise – the author of ‘Hey Clients, Where Are You???’ for wellness professionals – has built a network of hundreds of vetted professionals across the country.