Spotlight Interview- Claire Fitzsimmons- If Lost Start Here
We chat with Claire Fitzsimmons,co-founder and co-director of If Lost Start Here, a wellbeing company that helps people get to a better place in life, she tells us how her mother’s illness inspired her to build a company that supports people who feel lost.
Tell us about If Lost Start Here and how it started?
If Lost Start Here is a female-founded brand on a mission to help people feel better in their everyday lives. Founded by myself (a writer, emotions coach practitioner and well-being curator) and Amanda Sheeren (a designer and illustrator, @okayyeahdesign) we’re here to help people who are feeling lost find their way by providing real-life guidance
We launched our company in 2019 because we weren’t in a good place, and neither were those we loved.
For my part, I started If lost because of my mum, Carol. Once bubbly and devoted to her family, in her late forties my mum’s mind started to slide, slowly at first, then completely, beginning a decades long struggle with her mental health.
As I witnessed my mum’s mind unravel, I also tried to catch myself. I saw so much of her in me. I have struggled with panic attacks, general anxiety disorder, and depression, and I have experienced the frustration and confusion of trying to find what I needed, whether that was help with easing anxiety, feeling more connected, or figuring out how to be a sensitive person navigating an overwhelming world.
I gave up a career in the art world to work on If Lost and as a curator by training, I started by bringing together the different ways – whether a place, a person, an idea, a book, a practice, anything — that could help when we find ourselves lost in our lives.
We have some way to go, but since we started, we’ve launched an online guidebook to people-friendly places and initiatives that can help us feel more connected and happier in our everyday lives (like Single Parent Wellbeing). We’ve launched our first on demand wellbeing courses and a range of self-care products. And we now offer 1:1 coaching sessions that cover everything from having a healthier relationship with our emotions to better navigating midlife.
We know we all have limited resources so where we can we give back to those who are working to improve our individual and collective mental health on a wider scale; 10% of profits from across all our programs will go to mental health initiatives.
What is your vision?
Our vision is to find a better way to well.
The wellbeing industry in the UK is worth $223 million (one of the biggest markets in Europe) but the UK is falling in happiness rankings and 22.2% of people report high levels of anxiety. These stats are replicated across the US and other WEIRD countries.
Neither of us recognized ourselves entirely in a wellness world that sells one version of how to be a person and doesn’t reflect how we’re mostly just trying to get through life. And though we are both fascinated by the science of well-being, we continually wonder how we can apply all that we were learning to our everyday lives when the laundry is toppling, and the yoga mats often serve as forts.
We wanted to create a compassionate wellbeing company that offers something attainable, realistic and kinder. We’re figuring out life in uncertain times and we make sure we don’t put the pieces of the world that are broken onto the people we support. We also advocate for a form of selfhood that is based on collective care so that we don’t have to go it alone with our wellbeing anymore.
And we wanted to make sure that our little company with a big heart is ethical: We’ve found ourselves in an industry that likes to hustle and that is unregulated. We abide by professional standards, work with people who are certified, and offer reduced pricing for those who need it.
Can you tell us more about the online Everyday Retreat?
This is our latest online course – we only launched it in October! We realized that we’re all so overwhelmed right now – one more WhatsApp message would probably break us – and our default is to long for escape, even to go on a retreat.
But we also realized that retreats can be expensive, hard to fit into schedules that are already overflowing, and those positive mini-break feelings would probably evaporate when we return to our real lives.
That’s why we created this Everyday Retreat to offer a daily moment to connect with ourselves without having to book it out three months in advance, get to the airport, or spend more money than we’d like.
It’s self-guided so people can start in the moment they most need it. We’ve also added a Together Version for those who like company with their courses in November and January.
At If Lost we believe in getting positively messy with our well-being and creating an everyday version of wellness that can fit within the shape of our daily lives, however that needs to look like. We provide the framework for the Everyday Retreat and you’ll get to take it in all different kinds of directions.
What are you excited for in 2025? Will you be bringing any new projects to life?
We’re really excited to offer our Wellbeing Prescription in a year-long format, so that we can help people create a tailored well-being plan that fits their unique needs and that they can live out across the year. Over 12 months we’ll take people through all areas of their lives from creativity through to purpose, from nature to community. They’ll get access to Find Your Way, our self-guided well-being course, and monthly coaching sessions, so that they get support for their everyday emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing throughout 2025.
We’re still offering the original course + our popular shorter Wellbeing Prescriptions sessions, but we noticed that some people were looking for something they could return to month after month as essential life maintenance.
Where can people find you online?
If Lost Start Here website: www.ifloststarthere.com
Instagram: ifloststarthere
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