Many
people are passionate about health and wellness but aren’t sure how to turn
their interest into a sustainable career. To gather some insight into how to
pull it off, I recently spoke with three solo wellness professionals from
around the country about how they have built practices around their personal
passions. Here is a look at how they created unique and thriving practices in
the $3.4 billion global wellness market.
He turned a running injury into a fast-growing
coaching practice
After
Jason Fitzgerald, 32, ran the New York City Marathon in 2008, he came away with
an unwelcome memento: shooting pains in his knee whenever he hit the road. The
serious runner, a former college athlete, spent six months seeing physical
therapists and poring over running books to try to heal himself. After starting
strength training and changing his race preparation methods, he saw a major
difference. By 2010, the Denver resident launched a blog called Strength
Running, to share ideas on how to run faster without getting hurt. He has had
only one injury since 2009, he says.
Today
Strength Running has grown to more than 200,000 readers per month. Inspired by
the online course Zero to Launch, the father of two now brings in more than
$200,000 a year in his business and was able to leave his full-time job at a
consultancy. He loves the freedom that owning his own business brings and the
control he has over his own destiny.
“The lack
of sense of ownership of what you’re working on in a corporate job can be very
frustrating,” says Fitzgerald. “At the last job I had, our clients were in the
government. There were so many things we all wanted to do and knew we could do
but because of all of the red tape, policies and procedures that had to be in
place, things moved very slowly. In my business, if I have an idea, I can move
extremely quickly on it.”
So how
does Fitzgerald bring in a six-figure income from his blog? One key strategy is
developing multiple revenue streams. The 2:39 marathoner and USA Track &
Field certified coach generates about 45% of his revenue from doing one-on-one
coaching and crafting customized training plans and about 40-45% from an injury
prevention program he sells. Much of the coaching is done by email. “Most of my
runners prefer email,” says Fitzgerald. “They have busy lives, too.” The rest
of his income comes from affiliate marketing through Amazon and freelance
writing. He extends his reach by hiring contractors, such as a content editor
and video producer.
Fitzgerald’s
number one tip for others who want to build a high-revenue blogging business?
Be consistent. The highly discplined runner updated his blog twice a week for
the first five months to ensure that he built a following and runs an email
newsletter to stay top of mind. “If you are not writing one or two really high
quality pieces of content every single week, you can’t expect your business to
grow,” he says.
Although
Fitzgerald concentrated on running, he says there are plenty of other areas
where it’s possible to turn a personal passion into a high-revenue blog. “There
are so many opportunities to build a business around something you love,
whether that’s running, food, or negotiation skills,” he says. “You can do
almost anything.”
He learned an uncommon skill and focused his
life on perfecting it
After
leaving his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University to work as a
percussionist on the world music scene and a carpenter, Chuck Carpenter
attended a workshop on holistic healing that changed his life.
The Rolf
Institute of Structural Integration was offering presentations in New York City
by top Rolfers, practitioners who use a system of soft-tissue manipulation to
get clients out of pain. Rolfing was created by the late Ida Rolf, a
biochemist, who worked in the departments of chemotherapy and organic chemistry
at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. She found she could improve
people’s posture by manipulating the myofascial system—made up of muscle and
connective tissue—and developed a series of 10 sessions to deal with imbalances
in the body.
“She felt
each one of us was struggling with how to be balanced in a field of gravity,”
says Carpenter. “Our job was to help people find that balance and remove the
restrictions they had built throughout their life that prevented them from achieving
that balance. That was inspiring.”
At the
time, the human potential movement was in full swing, and Carpenter was
personally intrigued by Ida Rolf’s message. “The idea that you can change the
human form and improve on how we function in the world was really kind of a
mind blowing concept at the time,” says Carpenter.
By the
late eighties, Carpenter had enrolled at the Rolf Institute, based in Boulder,
Colo., to learn how to Rolf. “The work is all hands-on,” he says. “We use our
fingertips, knuckles, open fist, forearm and elbow as our tools.”
He saw
parallels to his music. “There is an improvisational aspect of analyzing what’s
involved and what needs to be done—and being open to whatever presents itself
to you,” says Carpenter.
After
graduating, Carpenter set up a studio in a five-bedroom house he rented in East
Brunswick N.J., where other roommates shared the overhead, enabling him to keep
his overhead lean. Young and single, he was able to devote himself 100% to the
practice. “If you don’t have obligations and you’re committed to the work and
you’re good at it, it builds pretty quickly,” he says.
As a
Certified Advanced Rolfer, he found that offering a relatively uncommon service
drew clients to his practice. Many came to him after exhausting other options
to get out of pain. “Within six months, I had a full practice, with 20 people
or more a week,” he recalls. “It gives me a sense of satisfaction that I can
bring something to their lives that they can’t find anywhere else.”
Soon
Carpenter moved his practice into the office of an osteopathic physician in
nearby Edison , N.J.–which contributed to a steady flow of clients–as well as a
second studio in New York City. Over the years, thanks to word-of-mouth
referrals, he has worked with everyone from dancers and bodybuilders to
construction workers who use heavy equipment and office workers who hunch over
a computer all day. “Our bodies are not designed for us to stare at a screen
for eight to 10 hours a day,” says Carpenter.
An
important key to providing relief to all of his clients, he has found, is
listening.
“In order
to help somebody, you have to be present and listen carefully to how they
describe what they are feeling, knowing they may not have the vocabulary,” says
Carpenter. “They are describing feelings and sensations unique to them.”
As he
grew the practice, Carpenter found that knowing he was helping his clients kept
him inspired. “I was born to a single mother,” he says. “I never knew my
father. Somewhere in there I’m sure there was a sense of abandonment. I liked
being needed.”
When a
recession hit in the early nineties. “I was really worried,” he recalls.
“People were losing their jobs.” He wondered if clients would still be able to
afford to come to him. Instead, he says, “I got busier.” As many of his clients
lost their health insurance and had to pay for health-related costs out of
pocket, he says, “they found Rolfing was the most cost-efficient way of dealing
with their problems.”
Although
Rolfing sometimes unlocks emotional pain, Carpenter says that clients don’t cry
during sessions as often as is sometimes implied. When they do, he says, “it
usually involves a serious trauma.” In some cases, he refers them to therapists
he knows. “There is a lot of pain in the world and a lot of hurt,” says
Carpenter. “It is possible for them to get to the other side. Having seen
people move through it over time gives you not just hope but knowledge there is
light at the other end.”
Over the
years, the steady practice enabled him to support his former wife and his
daughter, now heading off to college. He charges $180 per one-hour session,
comparable to other Rolfers in the New York City area.
Although
some clients come for just a few sessions, others keep coming back for
maintenance. “I’ve been seeing many of my clients for twenty-something years,”
he says. “I know their physical structure. I use that knowledge to keep them
well.”
After
several decades in practice, Carpenter has no plans to slow down–nor the fears
that corporate professionals at comparable stages of their careers have about
getting laid off. That, he says, is the beauty of running his own practice. “I
plan to keep doing this until I can’t do it anymore,” says Carpenter.
This chiropractor spun his interests in health
and entrepreneurship into three six-figure businesses
Jeremy
Weisz, 37, a chiropractor in Chicago, has long had a second passion:
entrepreneurship. In June 2011, he tapped into that interest as branched out
from his practice, founded in 2005. He launched InspiredInsider, a podcast
where he interviews leaders and founders of successful businesses, such as Baby
Einstein creator Julie Clark, as well as thought leaders such as Essentialism
author Greg McKeown and Paleo diet expert Loren Cordain.
Inspired
by his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who was interviewed by Steven
Speilberg’s USC Shoah Foundation about his experiences, Weisz focuses on asking
guests how they overcame their toughest challenges. “I always picture them
leaving a legacy, as well,” says Weisz. “Their stories are going to live on.”
To
combine his passion for entrepreneurship with his chiropractic business, Weisz
two years ago began ramping up an ecommerce store he had started , marketing
nutritional supplements he once sold only to patients, after doctors who liked
the supplements began asking how to order them for their own patients. “I see
it as a way to help more patients,” Weisz says. Like his chiropractic practice,
his ecommerce store has grown to a six-figure business.
On top of
this, he and business partner John Corcoran opened The Entrepreneurs’ Retreat,
a business that holds getaways where small groups of entrepreneurs can talk
business. It, too brings in six figure revenue, he says.
Owning
several successful businesses has made life easier financially for Weisz, a
married father, but it means he is very busy. He has tried to limit his
business travel so he isn’t often far from home. “I look at how I want to be,
personally as well as professionally,” he says. “I value my marriage and my kids.”
His
secret for getting it all done? He chunks up his time. “I sometimes will do an
interview from 8:30 to 9:30 am,” he says. “Then I will see patients from 9:30
until noon. Then from noon until about 3 pm, I will work on the interviews.
From 3 pm to 6:30 or 7, I will see patients.” Then he takes a break for
personal and family time—before jumping on his computer from about 10:30 until
2 am.
His
schedule might sound tiring, but it’s hard for him to slow down. “I have so
many passions,” he says. He’s in the lucky position of acting on them, every
day.
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