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Visited my wonderful in-laws in Mississippi for the holidays. Saw a marathon rerun of
the 2009 "Next Food Network Star" episodes.
The basic idea: judges eliminate one of ten contestants weekly, based on that
episode's cooking challenge. The last chef left standing gets his or her own
Food Network show.
Guess what? The same qualities that produce a celebrity chef also produce
successful health & wellness businesses!
1) Technical skills
A couple of contestants who consistently undercooked food were quickly
eliminated.
The lesson: Mastery of the basic skills and subject matter are necessary for
a successful business - it's table stakes. But it's not sufficient to guarantee
success.
Health and wellness professions are not for the faint of the heart. For
example, if you're a personal trainer, you've got to know basic anatomy and
biomechanics, the psychology of motivation and much much more. You've also got
to know how to adapt your skills to different clients with different needs,
potential and limitations.
Or say your business provides workplace wellness services to employers.
You've got to know health and wellness AND how insurance reimbursement, claims
processing, and managed care work. AND how corporations make business decisions
and manage vendors.
And if you're going to run a successful business, your staff will need to
include business competencies as well as health and wellness know-how. Financial
management, people management, vendor and landlord negotiation, sales, marketing
and more.
And all this...is just to get started!
2) Magnetic story
Melissa, the winner, told cute stories about how "her girls" would help her
"cook" as she described different dishes. I'm not particularly into kids and
even I thought it was engaging. Another contestant told interesting stories
about growing up as a Korean-American who doesn't speak a word of Korean.
The lesson: Every wellness business, whether big or small, has a personality.
Make sure your business personality is genuine and interesting -
authentically appealing and engaging to potential and current customers. Avoid
the temptation to drain the personality out of your business by
"over-corporatizing" it.
3) Know your strengths
The eventual winner enthusiastically described herself as "a fabulous home
cook". She ended up launching a Food Network series called "Dinners For Under
$10" targeting - you guessed it - home cooks. In a hurry. On a budget.
As a single mom with kids, she lived those priorities every day. Those were
her strengths, and it's not coincidence that the Food Network already renewed
her show for another season.
The lesson: Successful wellness businesses understand their strengths and
capitalize on them. And they know what they don't know.
For example, there's a big difference between running a free online fitness
community and selling a turnkey personal training program to fitness centers.
Strengths like computer and Internet literacy and an understanding of search
engine optimization are much less important if you're offering a fee-based
product through a direct sales model.
4) Grace under pressure
Melissa, who ultimately won, had to overcome a tendency towards "mommy
mayhem" when things heated up. Instead of rushing in six directions at once,
talking a mile a minute, she eventually learned to slow down and work
methodically.
Another candidate received kudos from the judges because he always stayed
calm. He may've been screaming inside, but you'd never know it.
The lesson: Business owners always face pressure and adversity. It's
unavoidable.
So the question is how you handle it.
Do you make your staff miserable when you're under stress?
Can your customers tell when you're having a bad day?
5) Unique point of view
In the Indian cuisine episode, one chef chose to use premixed commercial
curry powder rather than mixing his own. His dish was adequate - but nothing
special. And it certainly wasn't memorable. In fact, you and I could do it,
right?
The lesson: the basic ingredients of health and wellness don't change much.
Physical activity, nutrition, stress management, and so forth.
It's what you do with them that sets your corporate wellness or health
coaching business apart.
Successful wellness develop their own distinctive brand. They don't copy a
competitor's branding, because they understand, for example, that while nearly
every weight management program addresses exercise and nutrition, it's HOW they
do it that sets them apart.
(And #3 - knowing your strengths - plays a big role in defining your unique
point of view.)
6) Consistency
Some contestants made marvelous meals in one episode - and produced disasters
in other episodes. The judges eventually knocked them out of the competition.
The lesson: A consistently good experience is essential.
Health and wellness services are, for the most part, provided by people. So
it takes special attention to make sure that the client experience is
consistently wonderful.
Every employee has to provide great service - not just the front desk. Every
interaction with a nutritionist, health coach, personal trainer, clinician,
instructor has to be wonderful.
When your customers get a mix of experiences - some good, some crummy - that
inconsistency chips away at the customer relationship like water dripping on
rock.
Eventually, they'll no longer be YOUR customer.
Related articles
What
McDonald's Can Teach Your Wellness Business
Nutrisystem's Four Hard Lessons
Gold's
Gym: Why You Can't Have Your Cake & Eat It Too
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