Rhyze Up! Feature: Building Better Business and Leadership Strategies

Rhyze Up! participant Mary Lobson, CEO of REES Community said the program was particularly well-timed for her newly launched company. REES Community is a simple, secure online platform for reporting sexual violence. It can be adapted for use across sectors and industries beyond post-secondary campuses; anywhere people live, learn and work.

IG mentors Sandra Harriot (business) and Nancy Carroll (leadership) were very supportive to Lobson throughout the difficult process of starting a unique business. “We are creating a market that didn’t exist,” she said. “The business mentorship focused on strategies specific to REES and what we needed within our own timeline developing a strategy to move forward.” Lobson said the leadership coaching helped her look at her strengths and identify growth opportunities within her habits and processes that increased productivity. “Nancy is skilled at teasing out themes that go across work and life through a transformative process,” she said. One aspect Lobson said she most valued was the opportunity to focus on her specific needs as a company and as a leader through an unencumbered process that adapted to whatever she needed or wanted at a given time, free of anyone else’s agenda. Another aspect she appreciated was how customized the business scale up support was to REES’s needs. “Where we identified a need that wasn’t among my mentors’ skill sets, they brought in other experts to provide the best help.” Participating in Rhyze Up! helped REES Community establish a go-to-market strategy with a tangible plan for the short-term that they could execute, test and evaluate. As a result of her participation, Lobson said REES has a clear plan and strategy that they are executing while utilizing and reflecting on the insights gained during the program. Lobson said she wished she could continue the working with her mentors whose expertise she described as exceptional! REES launched in September 2020 at 10 post-secondary institutions across Manitoba. Since then, they have welcomed four additional campus partners and have launched in BC. They will launch in Ontario in the second quarter of 2021.