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You spend a quarter of your life at work - you deserve to find a career you love!
Hosts Katy and Emma talk with guests from across industries about their careers: what they love, what they've learned, and how they got there.
Plus, you'll get actionable advice to help you succeed at work, like how to feel confident in job interviews, what to do to avoid burnout and more. Explore career options and meet your goals with Work It.
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Work It, a UVic career exploration podcast. On this season, we're speaking with amazing UVic alumni who are making a huge difference out in their communities. They're doing amazing things with their careers and finding out what decisions they've made to take them down the road that they're on today.
Emma Ulveland:We're recording today at the University of Victoria, which is located on the traditional territory of the Lekwungen, Songhees, and Kosapsum peoples. And we want to extend our gratitude for being here as uninvited guests on this land and respect the ongoing historical relationships of the Lekwungen and the WSANEC people with this amazing land. I'm your host, Emma, and it's a beautiful day today at the University of Victoria. And there have been lots of people out and about. The semester is coming to a close while we're recording.
Emma Ulveland:And for all those students out there, if your mental or physical health is not what you're hoping it could be, I think you're really going to enjoy listening to our guest today. She might have just what you're looking for to feel your best for those final exams. On today's episode, I'm so excited to bring to the show Janna Malo. Sheher, a UVic psychology graduate and rowing and rugby team member who recently opened an inclusive multidisciplinary health clinic in Victoria called Allies Integrated Health. The clinic is rooted in trauma informed and community centered care and offers services such as acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, massage, and counseling with a strong focus on accessibility and people first values.
Emma Ulveland:Janna is also the former owner and founder of Fired Up, a Victoria fan favorite ceramic studio. Welcome to the podcast, Janna. We're so happy you're here.
Janna Malo:Hey, Emma. Thanks so much for having me.
Emma Ulveland:Okay. So let's start off kind of at the beginning. What job are you doing right now? What does your work look like? What is your day to day?
Emma Ulveland:Tell me a little bit about the that you do.
Janna Malo:Yeah. Totally. My day to day really looks like putting multiple hats on, and I change them on and off all day like a juggling act. So I am an acupuncturist. I'm seeing patients, and I own this multidisciplinary clinic, which comes with marketing, recruiting, bookkeeping, HR, problem solving, supporting the team.
Janna Malo:So it's like never a dull moment. Furthermore, I'm also a mom. And though it's not part of my career, it is part of my life and my job and something that I consider all the time. I've got two kids. They're nine and 11 right now.
Janna Malo:Oh. And they both play baseball. So my job is acupuncturist, multidisciplinary clinic owner, and baseball fan.
Emma Ulveland:Wow. You've got your hands full. You've got so much going on. Let's go back to when you were at UVic and you were a student because I know you didn't start your clinic and your acupuncture until a little bit later. Mhmm.
Emma Ulveland:So I wanna take a look at how we got there. So when you were a student at UVic, first of all, what made you choose to come to UVic and what drew you towards psychology?
Janna Malo:In my grade 12 year, actually, is when I decided to go to UVic. I had the opportunity to stay on campus for a weekend and I totally fell in love with the vibe. That was at a time where the bunnies were plenty around campus. Most importantly, it was the people who were going here and their thirst for knowledge, their interest in making the world a better place. And I got the opportunity to meet them and feel that, and I sat in on a lecture, and I was like, yeah.
Janna Malo:This is it. This is the place that I wanna spend the next four to five years of my life. I applied, and then I've spent my first year in residence. And I actually hadn't chosen a major yet. I did this kind of intentionally.
Janna Malo:I knew that I really liked being with people, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, honestly. So I took whatever courses spoke to me and that I thought I would be interested in women's studies and social sciences, a little bit of biology, And it was the psychology courses that really hooked me in. And I learned that I'm really curious about what makes people work, what motivates people, why do we choose what we do, why do we live the lives that we do in the way that we live them. So that's why psychology and why UVic.
Emma Ulveland:And it is. It's so fascinating. I mean, there's endless interesting pivots you can go down in the psychology world.
Janna Malo:Totally. It's such a diverse undergrad too. It doesn't lead to one specific thing. There are so many different applications that you can use psychology towards. It doesn't have to be counseling.
Janna Malo:Yeah. For me, it ended up being an entrepreneur, and I've used that over and over and over and over and over again.
Emma Ulveland:I think that's so cool. I love how you could take that from psychology and use it in your entrepreneurial ventures. That's really amazing.
Janna Malo:Yeah. Absolutely.
Emma Ulveland:So psychology was not the only thing you were doing at UVic when you were here. You were also a part of the rugby team and the rowing team at UVic. I wanna hear a little bit more about that. What was that experience like?
Janna Malo:The rowing team was my first introduction to varsity sports. And in my first year, they had a program that was like a try to row and see what it was like. Okay. I think that it allowed me to create the connections that formed a foundation of what it was like to be in a varsity sport. The people who I was rowing with, lots of them lived on campus with me as well, so we would drive there together.
Janna Malo:And I met a lot of people who were just as driven as I was. I really learned how to be able to manage my time. And then the people who were more senior on the team, those people ended up becoming my mentors. And I wanted to be just like them and spend time with them and learn how they were succeeding at life, pouring so much into school and so much into rowing and then becoming these beautiful, well rounded people and and making huge differences in the world.
Emma Ulveland:Wow. That sounds amazing. I love that team dynamic.
Janna Malo:Absolutely. So then I did a bit of schooling in Hawaii. I had the opportunity to do an exchange, I spent nine months in Hilo, which is on the Big Island. And that's where I got a first little taste of what rugby could be like. They didn't have a rowing team there.
Janna Malo:And so when I came back in this really serendipitous moment in a biology class, sat next to someone who immediately started talking about rugby. And she's consequently still my best friend. And she drug me to the first rugby practice and said, you're gonna have so much fun, and everybody is so nice, and it's so lovely. And it wasn't until maybe the fourth or fifth practice that I actually experienced what a tackle would feel like. Unfortunately, by that time, I was already hooked into the sport and into the culture.
Janna Malo:So I spent some time playing with the rugby team, and two years later, I actually switched to managing it instead.
Emma Ulveland:Oh, wow. That's amazing.
Janna Malo:A couple of things that I've learned about playing sport, and I think it's really integral to going to post secondary school, either playing a sport or being part of some sort of a team, a club, whatever happens to be your interest, is that being a team member and knowing how to read people and knowing how to learn what other people really excel at, and then doing some introspection and actually knowing where you don't excel. And being able to match those two up and work together really sets the foundation for any kind of career that somebody might be going into. If you can't work with a team, if you're kind of in a silo, it ends up stunting your growth in a career. If you know how you can communicate or have really good communication skills and make sure that you can adapt and work with other people, then the sky's the limit. As a team, you're gonna go way farther.
Emma Ulveland:Oh, I love that you brought this up. It's such an important point and I feel like so many job applications for all our students out here who are looking for jobs right now. There's always that one line in that job application. It's like, we really want a team player. And this is exactly what you're saying.
Emma Ulveland:And it's such a good way to think about it is assessing where you fit, where everyone else's strengths are and how you can really bring all those together to excel in whatever it is you're trying to do. So I love that you brought that up. And you're also an artist, so I wanna dive a little bit into that. You founded Fired Up, which is a really cool ceramic studio. I actually got the opportunity to go there two years ago, and it was so much fun.
Emma Ulveland:I loved it so much. It's a really great place for community to gather and create art. Tell me about that aspect of your life.
Janna Malo:Art has always been the place that I land when I need a little bit of solo time or processing time. It was something right through my childhood that my parents really advocated for me to be able to do, not necessarily as a career, but I knew that creative problem solving was something that I really like to do. So growing up, we moved every two years. Both my parents are in the RCMP. And every town that we landed in had one of these little paint on pottery studios, and I just loved it.
Janna Malo:But there wasn't one in Victoria. When I graduated with this undergrad in psychology, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. I was looking for something where I could create a therapeutic atmosphere that really relied on an art therapy play. My boyfriend at the time was like, yeah, every time we go traveling, you drag me into one of these Peyton Pottery studio things, and this is the thing that you totally love. So why don't you just try it?
Janna Malo:And I just started researching what it would be like to open a business. And then all of a sudden, I had keys and I had signed a lease. Then I was creating a brand, and then I just kind of tumbled into it. And then Fired Up was born.
Emma Ulveland:Wow. You've built something so beautiful. It's always busy every time I go past it. It's always packed. So clearly, you've really resonated with the community here.
Janna Malo:Something that I hit on and that I didn't know about Fired Up was that it's not about the pottery at all. It's not about the art. It was really about the experience of spending time away from a screen with people. I got to experience so many beautiful moments. There were birthday anniversaries.
Janna Malo:People proposed to their partners in Fired Up. There was a mother who hadn't seen her children in fifteen years, and they met at Fired Up for the first time, it became this place where people could spend time and then have some sort of memento after. And that's really what the beauty of Fired Up was for me.
Emma Ulveland:Oh, it's so special. I mean, I remember the time that I went with my fiancee and it was one of our favorite dates we've ever been on. And we still talk about it to this day. So yeah. It's like creating that magical moment and that memory.
Emma Ulveland:It's just beautiful.
Janna Malo:Yeah.
Emma Ulveland:That was your first venture into entrepreneurship, and it wasn't the last. You became the founder and owner of Allies Integrated Health. I would love for you to tell me a little bit more about the clinic, what its goals are, what types of work that you do there. Yeah. Please tell me a little bit about it.
Janna Malo:Yeah. So in order to tell you a little bit about Allies, I have to continue this story. In 2019, I was looking for a little something extra. And by that time in my life, I had actually discovered herbalism. And it was maybe gonna be like a side venture.
Janna Malo:So I found a recipe for dandelion soap. And I thought, oh, yeah, this is great. I could make soap. I'm creative. Fired Up was doing really well.
Janna Malo:I was a mom at that point, and I kinda wanted a side gig. So I thought, okay, I'll make soap and bath bombs and salve, and I'll grow this cute garden, and this will be my side gig, and I'll set up a table at a market and sell this. Then curiosity definitely got the best of me, and I fell down a several year long rabbit hole of researching herbs and how they work in the body. And I'm really interested in the biochemistry part of that. And then I found Pacific Rim College, and they have a community herbalist certificate, and then they also have a phytotherapy program.
Janna Malo:It's p h y t o, and it's the study of plants and what they do in your body. So I started going to school again. So here I am, business owner, mother of two, gardener, amateur herbalist, student again. And then COVID hit, and that was really, really tough. It was tough for business.
Janna Malo:We had to pivot so many times. Fired Up as a gathering place had to pause. Right. And so it was fired up as a take home art kit kind of place. Mhmm.
Janna Malo:It was really stressful, and I really missed human contact. And so Pacific Rim had just a few classes that they were still putting on in person. And there was this one class called anatomy. And I thought, okay, I'll take this class. I'll talk to some people.
Janna Malo:I like bodies. I wanted to learn about muscles. And so I showed up for the first day, and it was me and a whole bunch of acupuncture students. And I kind of learned more about acupuncture than I did really about the body at that point, And I was totally hooked, I fell in love with acupuncture and Chinese medicine. And the concept of treating somebody in a holistic way, where we're not just looking at the body like a machine with parts that need to be fixed, but like a garden that exists in a universe that is all tied together.
Janna Malo:And it was like the world just sort of made sense for me. This is why I studied psychology because I liked people, And then I was studying herbs because I like to know how the universe and how nature interacted with bodies. And then acupuncture just kind of tied it all together. So at that point, I made some pretty big background life changes. I became a single parent with my two kids.
Janna Malo:And then I had a good conversation with my general manager at Fired Up. She's actually totally a rock star and was running the business already. So we made a plan where she bought the business from me. I graduated from acupuncture, and I did kind of the thing that you're supposed to do when you graduate is you start looking for a job. At this point in my life, realized something really, really important.
Janna Malo:I am neurodivergent. I'm what we call ADHD, which is like an interesting flavor of autism and ADHD together. And what that means for me is that the expectations of working in many of the clinics in town were going to be really stressful for me to try to fit myself into that model. So I needed to create a space where I could work and make a career and also feel like I didn't have to mask every day, where I could just show up and be myself. And that's kind of how Allies was born.
Janna Malo:That coupled with the fact that I have very close ties to the queer and trans communities here in town, and I had the unfortunate, call it an opportunity to hear their stories about what it's like in health care for them. It's not great.
Emma Ulveland:I have heard some serious horror stories.
Janna Malo:It's a really tough place for them to navigate. So I wanted to create a space where people who can't just go everywhere could come and know that it would be safer for them because we're actually doing the legwork to make the changes and do even just the little things that help them feel just a little bit better.
Emma Ulveland:That is so important, and it's so nice to hear that someone is doing this work because there's so few spaces in health care where I feel like this is actually occurring. So thank you for making sure everyone has the proper health care they deserve.
Janna Malo:Thank you to my community, my team, the people who have helped me do this. I definitely could not have done it if it was a solo journey.
Emma Ulveland:Would you be comfortable sharing what one of the biggest challenges you faced in trying to start this type of work?
Janna Malo:I think the biggest challenge for me has been the feeling of starting at a place where I really don't know everything and reminding myself that it's okay not to have it all figured out and not to have all of the answers and being a little bit messy and frankly being kind of bad at it sometimes. It's been a really hard and really good lesson for me to learn that struggling through something can make it really worth it at the end, but it's really hard to go through.
Emma Ulveland:So many people feel that impostor syndrome too, wondering like, should I be here? Should I be doing this? Am I good enough at this? Sometimes that's the best way we learn and the way that we can bring something from a stage where it's okay to a stage where it's great and it's really working, but you have to push through those boundaries. Right?
Emma Ulveland:And it's so hard.
Janna Malo:That's a fantastic point. Yeah. Imposter syndrome, definitely, all of the way. And it probably doesn't apply just to allies, but it applies to fired up. It applies to even going to university.
Janna Malo:I remember asking myself, do I deserve to be here? Am I meant to be here? This is really hard, and all of these people around me seem like they've got it all together, and I feel like I'm falling apart. Finding that drive to just keep going and get a little better and a little better has been a huge challenge.
Emma Ulveland:I was taking a look at the Ally's website, and the amount of services that your team is able to offer is just incredible, and I'm sure it is making a huge difference for people. So it's wonderful. One thing I've noticed about you in our conversation that I really love is that you seem like the type of person who's really curious about so many different things in life, and you let that curiosity guide you and lead you and take you down paths that maybe you didn't expect. And I love that instead of being stopped by your fear, you let that curiosity be your guide.
Janna Malo:I would absolutely describe myself as somebody who's really curious. And I think that's something that just keeps me going is that I don't wait until I have everything figured out or I don't wait until the moment things feel perfect to act. I make a lot of decisions based on emotion and how things feel. And if it feels right, then it's worth it.
Emma Ulveland:I love that. Students, listen up. This is a really good piece of advice. Were there any resources you brought forward as you moved into your entrepreneurial journey?
Janna Malo:So there's a program called Futurepreneur, and it's a Canadian run program with the BDC, the Business Bank of Canada. I've used that with Fired Up and with Allies. It's a business funding program, and in order to get the funding, they match you with a mentor who you meet with monthly for the first year of your business.
Emma Ulveland:Oh, cool.
Janna Malo:And they also have some milestones that you have to meet before you qualify for the funding. Building a business plan
Emma Ulveland:Okay.
Janna Malo:Building a marketing plan, and making sure that you're really actually set up. And for me, somebody who kinda goes with my gut and does the thing that feels the best and feels really exciting, sometimes I can get a little bit ahead of myself. And the Futurepreneur program really helped me get grounded and find some solid answers of where I was gonna go. So for any of the students who are listening who do actually wanna pursue entrepreneurship, that would be one of the first places that I would point them.
Emma Ulveland:That's great. And we'll be sure to link to more information on that down in the show description. So do check that out. Let's talk about advice because you've done so many amazing things in your career thus far. And I have to ask you what advice you would give to someone who's thinking about going down a similar trajectory.
Janna Malo:Don't wait until you have it all figured out would be the first one. And I think that's a bit of a theme of what we're talking about here. Do what feels meaningful. In today's society, it really matters how you spend your day. It matters to your work life balance.
Janna Malo:It matters to your psychological well-being to get up in the morning and be excited about what you're gonna do. Pick something that you like and give it a try and see how it feels. And if that isn't the right thing, make a change, and that's totally fine. The path of life doesn't look like the story that used to be in generations past where someone would graduate and do one career for their whole life and then retire. It looks like changing with the times and doing multiple careers and living life to the fullest the whole time we're living rather than just living for the end.
Janna Malo:Furthermore, I'd say create a team around you. Find the people who are really good at what you're not good at. Make friends with them. Start businesses with them. Have careers with them.
Janna Malo:And learn to ask for help. It's not always gonna be easy. It's actually really challenging. Some parts of it are really, really, really hard. But lean on your team to hold the hard parts with you, and you can enjoy and celebrate the meaningful bits together too.
Emma Ulveland:Excellent. I love that living to the fullest part. So many of us get so wrapped up in the stress of am I doing the right thing right now? And you're right. I mean, the big scheme of it, there is no right or correct path and it doesn't look like it did for our parents or our grandparents.
Emma Ulveland:So, yeah, let that kind of give some freedom to our listeners who aren't really sure what the next step is, that's okay. You might end up stumbling into the greatest thing of your life that you never anticipated. So I love that advice.
Janna Malo:Totally.
Emma Ulveland:So what's coming up next? I know you've got a lot going on with allies. What do you see in the next five years for you?
Janna Malo:So at the moment, I'm focusing on growing the clinic in a way that's sustainable for myself and the team and the people we serve. But I would be totally remiss if I didn't say that I also maybe don't totally know what's next for
Emma Ulveland:me. So fair.
Janna Malo:I have so many interests and so many curiosities and things that I really love. Pouring into being the best parent I can be and being a great clinic owner right now is certainly a priority. Five years from now, who knows? Maybe I'll be back on this podcast talking about something completely different.
Emma Ulveland:Oh, we would love that. Yeah. We should have you come back and give an update. Happy songs. I think it's time to move into our rapid fire questions.
Emma Ulveland:Are you ready? Yes.
Janna Malo:I think so.
Emma Ulveland:Okay. So the way rapid fire works, for those of you who have not heard this segment before, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I just want you to respond with the first thing that comes to your mind. You can answer it long form, short form, doesn't matter. I just want whatever's that first thing in there, that's what comes out.
Janna Malo:Okay. Okay?
Emma Ulveland:Are ready?
Janna Malo:Yeah. Let's give it a try.
Emma Ulveland:Okay. Let's do it. Favorite study spot on campus?
Janna Malo:The Engineering Building. Yes. Why? Well, it was quiet. Nobody talked to me.
Janna Malo:And at the time, they actually had the best snacks in the cantina.
Emma Ulveland:Okay. I like that. Now speaking of snacks, do you have a favorite study snack?
Janna Malo:Yes. It needs to be something that stays in my mouth for a long time so that my hands don't have to be really busy bringing food up to my mouth and they can be on my keyboard or taking notes.
Emma Ulveland:Now, do you drink coffee or tea or maybe juice or matcha? Or, like, what's your go to drink of choice?
Janna Malo:All of the above. This is definitely a neurodivergent thing. At any point in time, I will have several mugs on the go. I will have something hot, something sparkly, something a bit sweet, and something that is gonna help me drink more water during the day, all on my desk at the same time.
Emma Ulveland:I love this. Honestly, that seems like a luxury in the best way. I think it's perfect. Do you like to spend time outdoors?
Janna Malo:Yes. Definitely.
Emma Ulveland:Okay. Are you maybe more a forest or mountain hiking kind of person or more a I go to the beach and I lay out and get a tan kind of person?
Janna Malo:It depends. With kids, we're at the beach all of the time making sandcastles or digging for clay. If I have a moment to myself, though, I would really prefer meandering in the forest and getting a little bit lost with the fairies.
Emma Ulveland:Do you have a favorite piece of advice you've received over your years?
Janna Malo:Yeah. You don't have to have it all figured out was the piece of advice that released so much weight off of my shoulders.
Emma Ulveland:Excellent. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today, for sharing your wisdom and your life experience and all the amazing work that you're doing. We wish you nothing but the best. And we will be sure to link more about your clinic down in the show notes, so please go check that out.
Emma Ulveland:And thank you again for being here.
Janna Malo:Thank you so much for having me, and this was really great.
Emma Ulveland:Work It is developed and distributed by Co op and Career Services at the University of Victoria. It is hosted by Emma Ulveland and produced by Joy Poliquin. Today's guest was UVic psychology graduate, Janna Mallow. Our theme music and art were created by Emma Ulveland with audio editing by Emma Ulveland. To learn more about career possibilities and resources from UVic, visit uvic dot c a slash career dash services.