Fylde coast pals put their cards on the table with new business venture

Joe Nicklin, 22, from Cleveleys, and Mark Wilsdon, 22, from Marton, who both went to Montgomery High, always dreamed of starting their own business, and soon after the pandemic hit, this became a reality.

Drawing on their own previous experiences, Joe and Mark, also known as The Improvement Artist, have launched Cards Beyond Comfort in a bid to help tackle increased mental illness as a result of the pandemic and help others achieve their goals.

Comprising 52 social, physical, and mental challenges, Cards Beyond Comfort have been designed to help people improve their mental health, increase their confidence, reduce anxiety, and enhance general wellbeing in a fun and informative way.

Each card contains a challenge, along with an explanation of the benefits and easy to follow instructions.

The challenges are split into easy, medium, and hard, with two variations, normal or expert, to cater for anyone.

Joe found himself in a dark place while at university and the challenges he overcame inspired the development of Cards Beyond Comfort. Mark too had tough times after a change in career.

Joe said: “My mental health was the worst that it has ever been. had little confidence, I’d struggle talking to new people and I was regularly forced into uncomfortable, pressurised situations that were far from my comfort zone.

After taking many different steps to develop my mindset and improve my mental health it started to have a huge positive impact on me, and I managed to pull myself from that dark, negative place that I was in and completely transformed my life. Many of those challenges that I overcame were a huge inspiration in the design of Cards Beyond Comfort.”

Mark said: “Some days I didn’t feel like getting out of bed, I didn’t feel like socialising or talking to people. We both knew that Cards Beyond Comfort would be a great idea and it was enjoyable creating it because the challenges are already a part of our lives, it feels great to share the knowledge and help others.”

Joe and Mark conducted extensive research to ensure the challenges were beneficial and suitable for all.

Joe added: “We believe that the comfort zone is the biggest obstruction on the path to success, and can keep people in areas of their lives that they don’t necessarily want to be in, preventing them from progressing and achieving the things they want.

“We researched every single challenge to determine whether they could truly benefit people, sifting through scientific studies, health blogs and articles.

Mark added: “Once the design work had been completed, we ordered a sample from the manufacturing company and was so pleased with the outcome that we made a bulk order, and our product is finally live on Amazon UK and our website.

“As we are living through such uncertain times, it could not be a better time to start on the path of self-development, improve your mental health, achieve goals, dreams, and live your life the way you intend to.”