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Jonathan Mongeau has The Goods

Alum co-edits weekly e-newsletter that brings only positive stories
February 16, 2018
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By Joseph Leger


On a cold, grey day in January 2017, Jonathan Mongeau, BA 07, was feeling somewhat grey himself. “It seemed like the world got really heavy last January,” says Mongeau.

“It was winter and with what was going on in the news, it was too much. I kind of had enough. I talked with my wife over a week or two and I asked, ‘Why don’t we just write something positive and share it with our friends?’”

Jonathan Mongeau Jonathan Mongeau juggles a full-time job at WeWork and his passion project, The Goods — a weekly e-newsletter featuring positive and uplifting stories. | Photo: Renée Ledoux photographie

Mongeau and his wife, Annique Beaudreau, decided to start a weekly e-newsletter featuring positive stories to make up for the overwhelmingly negative news coming from traditional media. On February 1, 2017, they emailed the first issue of The Goods to family and friends.

Beaudreau, a nutritionist and creator of Niki Nutrition, serves as chief editor of The Goods.

Their first issue featured an article on heart health and, in honour of Black History Month, a profile on Viola Desmond, a black Nova Scotian who famously challenged racial segregation in 1946. Canadians not familiar with Desmond will be soon — she is the new face of the Canadian $10 bill.

The Good’s first issue opened with a promise of hope and positivity, signed by Annique and John:

“We’re tired of bad, negative news. We promise to only share new ideas, fresh perspectives and meaningful content. We want you all to learn more about: good, positive news, good stories about great people, and good ways to live better.”

It has been a year and they haven’t broken their promise.

“We had no expectations,” Mongeau says. “We just wanted to share some positive stories. But since then, every Wednesday, we’ve somehow managed to publish two-to-three stories without fail.”

In about a year they’ve doubled their team size from two to four people, adding Beaudreau’s cousin, Kaitlyn Nye, and their friend Danko Vassev, BCSc 12, to the team. They’ve also started working with a local designer to add polish to The Goods’s look.

“Kaitlyn is running our social media, mostly on Facebook and Medium right now,” Mongeau reports. “And Danko is our tech guy. He’s working on a WordPress blog for us. We’re building slowly and we’re taking our time. We’re learning and having fun.”

Finding the time

The biggest challenge is juggling full-time jobs while producing The Goods. Mongeau says he spends most evenings and weekends working on his passion project and during the day he leads sales and growth for WeWork Montreal.

WeWork provides private offices, open workspaces and services to individuals and businesses. It launched in New York City in 2010. Today WeWork has more than 200 locations in 20 countries — and with plans to double its global footprint in 2018, it’s growing rapidly.

Jonathan Mongeau and Annique Beaudreau Jonathan Mongeau and Annique Beaudreau, his wife and chief editor of The Goods, explore the forest for a story about forest bathing in a 2017 spring issue. Photo: Jonathan Mongeau

The company has also branched out into other shared-space concepts, including wellness with their signature gym and spa, Rise by We; their shared-living project, WeLive; and even a daycare and kindergarten venture called WeGrow.

“I love what I’m doing at WeWork,” Mongeau says. “It’s just a cool mix of everything that I’ve ever been good at. There’s always something new happening. It’s very fluid and there are always new challenges.”

While he is passionate about his daytime job, Mongeau also has a strong creative streak that needs an outlet.

“When I was younger I wanted to be a filmmaker,” he reveals. “I had a big, cool camera at the time and I would shoot anything. I made short films, music videos, anything really. I was very creative and I loved it. And in school, I always did well when I had writing projects.”

Rather than pursue a career in the arts, Mongeau instead chose to study history at Concordia, before earning his law degree at Université de Montréal.

In school he developed an interest for business and marketing. After completing his law degree studies, Mongeau gravitated towards the business world — which is how he eventually ended up at WeWork.

The Goods is a way for me to express my creativity,” he says. “I do everything each edition, from design and writing to finding and cropping images.”

Mongeau’s dream would be to broaden the scope of The Goods to include live events, videos and documentaries, podcasts and more. For the moment he’s content to share positive stories to whomever wants to read them.

“I’m going to keep doing this as long as I can,” Mongeau says. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned is that everything takes time. I feel like I’m leaving something behind that will last. There’s no objective beyond that.”

Interested in receiving The Goods? Sign up here to receive the weekly e-newsletter.

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