You Inc. raises emotional intelligence, highlights mental health

Jillian Fountain
Wed, 18 Apr 2018 03:03:16 +0000
Arts & Life, Pop culture, alumna, emotional intelligence, featured, mental health, npr, ohio state, personal brand, public radio, wcbe, You Inc., You Tune

You Inc. airs on WCBE 90.5 FM every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Credit: Carrie Legg

For Ohio State alumna Ria Greiff, every decision she made throughout her counseling career came with one thing in mind — her personal brand. Now, she’s bringing that same mindset to others.

You Inc., and its mini-show You Tune, is a weekly wellness radio program on central Ohio’s NPR station WCBE, which Greiff started in November 2016. Combining entertainment and education, the show aims to “elevate the emotional intelligence of the populace,” according to its mission statement. Every week features a life “tool”, and a guest who exemplifies it, on topics ranging from sibling relationships to overcoming fear.

The idea for the show, Greiff said, came to her suddenly while driving through the Ohio State campus one night.

“I was like ‘I know! I want to have a radio show and I’m going to call it You Inc.’ That was it,” she said. “It was an instant idea. Because I always called, I always referred to myself as ‘Ria Inc.’ … That’s how I came up with the idea for You Inc. because we’re helping to build the most important brand in your life, which is you.”

Greiff said her background — she earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Ohio State in 1992 and worked as a therapist until 1999 — has equipped her for this dream, to help people with their mental health through You Inc. She does so by creating resource lists for listeners and interviewing knowledgeable guests on every episode.

“All the shows we do for You Inc., what’s embedded inside of them are scholarly books and peer reviewed articles. We do our homework,” she said. “This isn’t just my idea of what we’re supposed to be equipped with.”

Humanities professor Stephen Kern, marching band director Christopher Hoch and athletic director Gene Smith are just a few of the Ohio State guests who have been featured on the program. Greiff said being connected to the university is something that You Inc. prides itself on.

Apart from guests, You Inc. also uses many Ohio State students and recent graduates as full-time employees and interns.

Kelly Herle, a third-year in marketing and a branding intern for the show, said ?being involved with You Inc. has not only peaked her interest in wellness, but has helped her in her own life.

“I think I’ve definitely paid attention to how I live on a day-to-day basis more,” she said. “Just being more cognizant of how I act and why I’m acting and how I could improve.”

Chris Ott, who graduated from Ohio State in 2017 with a degree in ?communication and is You Inc.’s video editing intern, said he wished he had a resource like You Inc. when he was a college freshman.

“If you think about it, you’re coming into a whole other environment from what high school was,” he said. “When I transferred here it was still totally different … Adjusting to college life in terms of wellness and taking care of your body as a whole, that’s important for college students.”

Though wellness is a broadening and ever-changing realm, Greiff said, it can be simplified and that is what You Inc. aims to do.

“Wellness, to me, is ultimately stress management,” she said. “Stress is equal to when the pressures in your life are greater than the resources you have available to you. So, conversely, to be well in life your resources have to be greater than the pressures in your life.”

In addition to the weekly You Inc. and You Tune shows, Greiff and her team are working to develop YouTube videos on emotional intelligence and to further grow her personal brand building seminars.

You Inc. airs on WCBE 90.5 FM every Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and You Tune airs every Thursday at 9:01 p.m. Both programs also are available on the Apple podcast app and streaming sites such as Soundcloud and iTunes.