Balancing the Grind with Nic Blair, Founder & CEO at Midnight Health

Nic Blair is the founder & CEO at Midnight Health, a company on a mission to democratise healthcare through a patient-led digital platform.

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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I started my career in marketing, but quickly found a passion for entrepreneurship and the exciting journey that it is. I launched my first startups over 2008 and 2009, but unfortunately did not have the capital or experience to develop them into successful businesses and at the start of 2010, stepped back into the world of employment.

Despite the failed startups, I gained a significant amount of knowledge through this period and a spark for entrepreneurship that would continue to this day. In 2011 I started it all again and launched a digital marketing agency called Search Factory, followed by a mobile app marketing startup Brus Media in 2012.

After great traction in both businesses, Search Factory was acquired by a global media group, Dentsu in a deal over 2016-2019. In that final year, I also received the Australian Young Entrepreneur Award from Business News Australia.

Following my exit from Search Factory, I wanted to do something bigger and more impactful, so I set my sights on the healthcare industry. I launched my current startup, Midnight Health, in February 2021 with our first consumer brand, Youly.com.au, focused on women’s healthcare including the launch of Australia’s first emergency contraception delivery service.

Since launching last year, we’ve brought to market three other brands; Stagger.com.au (men’s health), hub.health (healthcare for the whole family) and Vidality (precision gut health). We’ve seen over 30,000 patients through our platform and have raised $16m in investor funding, with our last round giving Midnight Health a $48m valuation.        

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

With a team of 40 now, my calendar is always pretty full! I typically start the day with some exercise, training Brazilian jiu jitsu from 5.45am-7am. It’s a great way to get the body and mind working before stepping into the office.

Following this, each day is different, but I spend a lot of it in meetings now that the company has grown its stakeholders and employees. I have three periods that I focus on emails and other work I need to complete, that’s the time between training and the start of the work day, lunchtime and the end of the day.

The rest of a day might be something like a candidate interview for an hour, leadership or board meeting for two hours, a product meeting for an hour to discuss a specific product or service we’re building, marketing meeting for an hour to discuss performance or develop new campaigns, medical meeting for an hour to talk through clinical governance policies or scaling our practitioner network and finally a meeting with a partner we’re working with or someone external to discuss potential opportunities to work together.

Finally after all that, I come home to my beautiful wife and six month old baby for dinner and some family time.       

3) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

 I really enjoy what I do and I love the journey that you go on when starting and growing a business. It doesn’t matter what you do in your career, as long as you enjoy it and to me that’s the starting point for finding a great balance in life.

Secondly, it’s important to be organised and structure your time well, so that you can have time to enjoy life outside of work. It’s taken time to find the right work-life balance, but I do a few things now to ensure I achieve that.

Firstly, I don’t do any work on weekends unless absolutely necessary. Everything that’s there on a Friday afternoon will still be there on Monday morning. I minimise the amount of work I do at nights, and every night make sure I spend time hanging out with my family.

I make time for hobbies and things I enjoy outside of work, mostly being jiu jitsu, going to concerts or attending the racetrack, as I’m a massive car enthusiast! Finally, (before the pandemic at least), I’d always holiday twice a year. I find that taking at least a week or two off, twice a year, actually helps to increase my productivity and motivation throughout the year.    

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4) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

Doing a 5.45am workout is something new I’ve changed in my routine. I used to train at 11am each day, but with the growth of Midnight Health, I’ve found it more difficult to do. At this point, I actually prefer the morning workout, as I find it a great way to start the day before I put my business hat on. It’s great for productivity.

5) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

I’m not much of a podcast listener. In terms of newsletters, a few good ones for startup news include TechCrunch.com, Letterofintent.com.au and news.crunchbase.com. Books I’ve enjoyed – Rework, The 50th Law, Chaos Monkeys and Rich Dad Poor Dad (great to read when you are young).  

6) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?

Richard Branson.

7) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Startups will always be harder than you expect, so it’s important that you enjoy what you do and you find a way to have that balance. When I launched my first startups, I worked non-stop.

While I still probably work more than the average person, I’ve realised that the task list never ends. What you don’t do today, will still be there tomorrow. If you want to play the long game, you need to find the right balance that works for you and leads to happiness. 

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