BYU grad Rich Millar starts company Health Movement

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When BYU grad Rich Millar started working in healthcare administration, he soon became tired of seeing people struggle with health problems that could easily have been avoided.

Millar realized that to actually make a difference, he needed to quit his well-paying job and start his own company. After saving up some money, he took the plunge and started Health Movement. At the time, Millar didn’t have much of a plan and found the task of starting the company more difficult than originally anticipated, but his passion for health pushed him through.

“I’ve always been passionate about health, and studied it at BYU, but saw our health crisis worsening as a nation,” Millar said. “So I figured I’d better get to it.”

Millar recently launched a campaign online to raise $50,000 before Aug. 8, 2013, for his company. Those who donate will get perks, which include anything from early access to his website to having Millar visit their company and speak on health. The Health Movement website will be a forum to inspire people to meet fitness goals by providing information, tracking tools and opportunities to speak to others with similar goals. The website should be up and running by November 2013.

BYU alum Rich Millar started Health Movement, a company created to inspire physical fitness
BYU grad Rich Millar started Health Movement, a company created to inspire physical fitness.

Millar hopes Health Movement will be a lasting company that will provide society with value for years to come. He wants Health Movement to be a place where people can turn to find credible information and advice on healthy living, as well as a place where they can go to track goals.

The free website, www.healthmovement.com, will be divided into three main parts: Learn, Achieve and Inspire. The Learn area of the website will give users the information they need to make healthy decisions. The Achieve area will allow users to track their health goals through sleep, exercise and nutrition. The Inspire area will allow users who are passionate and knowledgeable about health to reach out to each other and work together toward their goals.

Millar hopes the Inspire area will bring people together in a way that has never been seen before.

“We believe one of the problems with most health sites is that it fragments these different groups of people (i.e. weight-loss, body builders, health nuts, triathletes, yogis, etc.) into different spaces or websites where they don’t interact with each other,” Millar said. “We think this is wrong. … Ultimately we all have the same underlying goal: we want to be healthier.”

BYU student Austin Lawyer worked for Health Movement as an intern last semester. He enjoyed working with Millar and learning from him.

“He is truly inspirational,” Lawyer said. “If there is anyone who can start a health movement, it’s Rich.”

In addition to the website, Millar has committed to a 10 percent giveback program. Ten percent of all the proceeds of Health Movement will go back into the community through the three website areas. The Learn area will hold free community workshops, seminars, school assemblies and other similar teaching tools. The Achieve area will fund community projects like clearing walking areas and building community gardens. The Inspire area will hold free community events like yoga classes or boot camps.

BYU graduate Tiffany Whalen worked for Health Movement as an intern last winter and believes the movement works better for those who have tried other sites or apps and gotten frustrated.

“The greatest thing about Health Movement is its simplicity,” Whalen said. “It’s not one formula fits all, it’s finding out what works for you and then easily tracking it. Health Movement is about being a better you, not conforming to the world’s idea of perfection.”

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