Discuss: Mind, Body, Spirit

Today Thinking Club welcomed guest, Suzy Reading.

A bit of background
Suzy recently returned to Australia after building a successful holistic wellness practice in London. She is challenged with re-creating its success in a new market and asked Thinking Club to work with her on developing a brand identity and promise that will appeal to Australian clientele.

Suzy’s business is a rich offering. She is a qualified psychologist, yoga teacher and fitness instructor. Suzy combines teachings in each of these modalities to deliver a personalised wellness plan for her clients. Yoga is the vehicle for delivering this.

However, where in London people were happy to pay well for one-on-one yoga, Suzy is finding that the local market prefers group sessions. To cater for this demand, Suzy offers her individual clients the opportunity to invite up to five additional guests. This still allows for a strong degree of personalisation yet helps with cost sharing among attendees.

Suzy is also running large group classes at established gym and yoga studios in order to build her profile within the local market. These serve as a light introduction to her teaching style and showcase some of her talents to prospective private clients.

Thinking it through
Using a common creative thinking technique – Opposites. made it easier for Suzy to define how her approach differed from many traditional fitness, yoga and psychology practices.

Where fitness trainers strive for continuos improvement, Suzy coaches acceptance. Where yoga often maintains that stillness and meditation is the only true yoga and that poses are merely a way to achieve this, Suzy embraces both its physicality and mental disciplines. Where psychologists traditionally have suit-wearing clients recline on couches, Suzy feels that an active environment allows hers to move through issues more easily.

Thinking forward
We then used a Ken Hudson exercise, ‘How to Create the Perfect Customer Experience’ to develop an understanding of how Suzy’s practice could translate across the Atlantic.

Envisaging the ‘Perfect Customer Experience’ as a one to five year goal allowed Suzy to open her business to new possibilities rather than remain trapped in practices that may have worked well overseas but may not do so well here.

Suzy saw this ideal future space as a private sanctuary. One that offered freedom to explore the reality of now and make peace with one’s current situation.

Some clarity of thought
Through our workshop Suzy realised her clear point of difference. In stark contrast to many personal trainers’ goal-setting techniques Suzy sees her practice as one of letting go of outcomes and enjoying an acceptance of what is.

While many of her clients attain lofty benchmarks, such as dropping 3 dress sizes, Suzy says this is more a by-product of the happiness her clients achieve through getting in touch with their bodies and minds. The clarity her clients attain, serves to deliver positive results in all areas of their lives especially where there have been blockages.

In summary
Its clear that Suzy has a fabulous offer. Her biggest challenge is getting the message out there. Once she does, there will be no stopping the new wellness revolution.