"Time is the biggest problem."
Meet Wilhelmina Zeelen, a chemist by day and a self-taught expert on what can and can’t be frozen, according to science, and a little trial and error. Bzice started as a challenge that began twenty years ago when she and her brother, on a long rain-soaked summer afternoon, wanted to find out what they could and couldn’t successfully freeze.
What began as a trivial challenge, soon became a lifelong obsession and Wilhemma began Bzice as a way to document and share what she discovered about which products and foods could successfully be frozen.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Wilhemma Zeelen: I’ve been a chemist for the last decade, and my company started as a hobby that I originally began to indulge in as a child. My brother and I used to challenge each other to discover what could and couldn’t be frozen, and the hobby eventually became an informational, web based business, Bzice.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Wilhemma Zeelen: My older brother. He’s always been my rock and my guiding light and has driven me to succeed in everything I do via his constant positive support and belief in me. And if he hadn’t made the frozen challenge when we were younger, Bzice wouldn’t exist.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Wilhemma Zeelen: Trying to find researchers who could actually do what I asked of them was difficult, as being locked down meant that we had to find new ways to work and adjust our practices. How did we overcome them? With Zoom, which was literally a godsend and ended up saving me a fortune in coffee bills.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Wilhemma Zeelen: No, because my small research team are all freelancers anyway, so I didn’t have to deal with any of them resigning, and we’re still the same size team now as we were before COVID.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Wilhemma Zeelen: It’s endemic of our working culture, and to be honest I wasn’t surprised. We work within, or rather used to work within, a very rigid framework that didn’t allow for any sort of work / life balance. We were expected to be in the office all the time, and after working from home and finding out that it wasn’t necessary to subscribe to that model, things changed very quickly.
How do I feel about it? I’m glad that it happened, as it highlighted problems that have existed for years and made us realize that we needed to change the way we work if we wanted to continue to succeed.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Wilhemma Zeelen: Listen to your staff. Ask them what changes they’d like to see implemented and how things could, and can, be improved within the work place.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Wilhemma Zeelen: Everyone is different and everyone thinks about work differently. The problem is finding the right balance that suits everyone. Personally, I think we need to prioritize family time and think of it as being as valuable as the time that we spend behind our desks.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Wilhemma Zeelen: By making sure that the rate we pay our researchers and the way we treat them is fair, and allows them to enjoy their time away from their desks and computers.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Wilhemma Zeelen: Finding the time to try and formulate an expansion plan that’ll see us graduate from remote working back into an office based space. Time is the biggest problem.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had $10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Wilhemma Zeelen: I’d probably spend it on all expenses, round the world cruise for my brother and me. After all, if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Wilhemma Zeelen for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
