Voiceover: Doctor's Kitchen. Recipes, health, lifestyle.
Lauren Arms: The Global Wellness Institute estimates it's worth 4.5 trillion dollars globally as an industry and you can see why because it's everywhere. And so yes, there have been some dangers in that, but I think overall what started off as a sort of fluffy, glamour, trend-led conversation has turned into an opportunity for some really high calibre entrepreneurs and very credible and qualified experts to create real solutions to real problems that are sustainable and ethical and really consider the wellbeing of people with a really authentic brand story as well.
Voiceover: Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast. The show about food, lifestyle, medicine and how to improve your health today. I'm Dr Rupy, your host. I'm a medical doctor, I study nutrition and I'm a firm believer in the power of food and lifestyle as medicine. Join me and my expert guests where we discuss the multiple determinants of what allows you to lead your best life.
Dr Rupy: My guest today, Lauren Arms, is a business coach, speaker, writer and entrepreneur and she founded Well To Do, a global industry network for the wellness industry in 2014. It is one of the best resources I think, which has a UK slant, but it's certainly global in terms of the news that it covers on anything to do with the wellness industry, whether it be mergers and acquisitions, whether it be collaborations, whether it be funding, it's an incredible newsletter and one of those that I actually religiously click on and read through because it really does feel the pulse of the wellness industry super, super well. It's a very respected company as the definitive voice for the business of wellness, as is her Business of Wellness podcast that I will link to in the show notes, so please do check that out as well. Spotting innovation, trends, case studies and multiple insights. And the company itself helps build incredible businesses and careers in the wellness industry. So, if you're interested in the wellness industry, this is definitely a podcast that you will enjoy. It's a little bit of a fury away from what I usually talk about with regards to nutrition and lifestyle. However, I think this is a very important conversation because as Lauren talks about in the pod, wellness and health isn't going to be a separate industry, it's going to be every industry. Every company is going to have to be a healthcare company because of A, consumer demand, but also out of necessity. In a post-pandemic era, I really think that businesses are going to wake up to the need to look after their consumers in a different way and everyone's going to have to take responsibility for it as well. I was also featured as an industry expert on the BBC series The Apprentice with Lauren a couple of years ago and she's been covered by a number of different publications, all of which you can find on her website. The links are on thedoctorskitchen.com. Make sure you check out the show notes. I'm going to be quiet now. Listen to, I hope you enjoy listening to our podcast chat and do check out her podcast as well. I've got to say, I was so excited about doing this podcast. The reason being, A, I didn't have to do any prep for it because I'm a religious listener to your podcast, The Business of Wellness, which I think is absolutely fantastic. And I've been a subscriber to your Well To Do newsletter for years now, ever since I got back from Australia. So I know way more than the average person about your business and your background and what you're doing and how successful you've been.
Lauren Arms: Oh, thanks.
Dr Rupy: But for the listeners, perhaps, I honestly, I'm not just saying that. I think it's brilliant to just feel the pulse, sorry for the pun, but feel the pulse of the wellness industry and health industry in general and just how innovative people are being in this space and how many people that you've actually got to speak to as well on the podcast and really dive into the challenges that they've come across and how they've been able to create these incredible movements based on people's wellbeing. But I thought perhaps for the listeners, you could kind of introduce how you even got involved with wellness and set up Well To Do and what you were doing prior to that as well.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, sure. Well, you've given it away. I'm Australian, if my accent didn't already give that away. Um, and I moved to the UK seven years ago, in fact, this morning I went to apply for my permanent leave to remain in this country, which I've earnt over seven years.
Dr Rupy: Congrats.
Lauren Arms: Thank you. So very soon I'll be a British citizen. Um, I arrived in this country, um, with the ambition of kind of climbing the corporate ladder. So I'd studied business, I'd worked in um, sales and marketing roles for various companies in Australia. Um, not very wellness at all. I mean, I worked for six years for an aerosol manufacturing company, uh, with our main markets being kind of mining in Australia and construction. So when I moved to the UK, it was sort of this liberating move to go and discover the world and find myself. Oh, that's so cringy, isn't it? But, you know, um, progress my career and do something fulfilling. And I think I very quickly realised that London is this incredible city for opportunity, but you suddenly feel like all of your talent and experience is heavily outweighed by all of the other incredibly talented and bright individuals, you know, blazing incredible paths for themselves. And I discovered entrepreneurship, you know, really by accident. I wasn't somebody who aspired to be an entrepreneur growing up. I wasn't the kid, you know, squeezing lemons and making lemonade out the front of my parents' house. Um, I, I was called to it because when I moved to London, I started to meet people doing really creative entrepreneurial things and most importantly, following their passion. And so I went on this journey sort of on whilst working in my nine to five job in my first couple of years in London of, you know, getting in touch with this idea of personal passion and building a career based on fulfillment and alignment with deep, you know, personal values. And I'd never really thought about this idea of wellness before because as you know, Rupy, you've been to Australia, you've lived in Australia, you know, Australians are outdoor people, you know, the climate is so conducive to wellness in inverted commas. Um, so I grew up living this wellness lifestyle without even realising it. You know, my dad grew organic vegetables, but we didn't know they were organic. It wasn't a thing. And what I found so interesting in London was that there was this real movement around wellness as an industry, as a, a sort of conversation, as a community of people and you could go to a healthy cafe and you would meet people who shared those values with you and, you know, you're either someone in London who goes and drinks in the pub on a Friday night or you were someone who went to yoga on a Saturday morning and a million other things in between, right? But um, I started to, to really define this passion and it was a proactive exercise of I want to start a business and I think wellness is the thing that I want to start a business in. Um, and for me, any other industry that I'd ever worked in, there were opportunities to kind of come together with other people in that industry. And I felt like wellness was really missing that. And so I was looking for this big idea. I was looking for my business idea and actually in the process, I started a blog called Well To Do London. I set up a crappy WordPress website. I made a logo in Microsoft Paint for anyone who remembers that ancient program. Um, and it was, you know, it was far from perfect. It wasn't a slick, you know, brand identity. It was about being experimental and starting to have conversations with people about how they got into the business of wellness and what the trends were driving this kind of awakening that was happening in London or the UK around wellbeing. And, you know, I remember, you know, we would have been in those early days having met, you know, probably four or five years ago where wellness is a really new thing. Um, healthy cafes, boutique fitness studios, yoga studios, these, these things were kind of coming into the mainstream conversation, mainstream media. Um, and so that's sort of where wellness, uh, Well To Do, sorry, was born out of that initial yearning to want to start a business in wellness and then actually Well To Do became the business, ironically. Um, and it's kind of evolved from there.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, and what Well To Do, forgive me if I get this wrong, you started it in 2014, is that correct?
Lauren Arms: Yeah, yep, whilst I was still working in my full-time job and for another 12 months after that.
Dr Rupy: So whilst you were still working, proper scrappy, using MS Paint for your logo, no, like, you know, designers or any spend on marketing or anything like that. You just like really from a passion. And my first interaction with Well To Do was when I got back from Australia. So to your point earlier about how people, um, particularly where I was, uh, living and working in Manly, Sydney, um, wellness is just something that people do. You know, you go for a run at like 6:00 in the morning, you have your coffee outside, enjoying the sun, or you've been surfing or whatever it is. And then you carry on with your day and you go to sleep early because you want to catch the waves in the morning or go and do your bike ride or whatever it is. And I remember being absolutely struck by this kind of culture. And when I came back, I really wanted to dive, uh, into, you know, how we can kind of bring this way of living back to London. Um, and my first interaction with Well To Do was, uh, going to one of your, um, conferences, I guess, or one of your meetups. Um, and I remember thinking, wow, this is so slick. It was really well put together. You had, um, the founder of Frame, uh, her name evades me at the moment, but and you had a couple of other people. And I went to another one where you had Patrick Drake and the, um, founder of the, um, chocolate bar, um, Pana Chocolate from, I think he's from Australia as well, um, at the, uh, facilities. So my from, from my point of view, when I came back, this must have been like 2016, Well To Do had this real polished sort of, uh, essence around it. It really had this great veneer of like what it want to represent. Was it still as scrappy behind the scenes back then or was it had it evolved into something that you had a crystal vision for?
Lauren Arms: Definitely not. I mean, at that point, um, if it was 2016, I would have been a year into kind of building it full time. And, you know, definitely making it up as I was going along. Um, but getting an incredible response from people, um, who, yeah, were really plugging into this idea of what is the business of wellness. I want to be an expert in this space, build a business or, or even build a career, find a job in this industry. And there was a yearning to for people to align their personal passion with some kind of career aspiration. Um, but in terms of behind the scenes, you know, at that point, I think I had one full-time employee. Um, I think that my boyfriend, now husband was probably collecting tickets at the door. Um, you know, like it was, it was scrappy because I wasn't someone who went into business with a really crystal clear idea. Like, I'm going to launch a food delivery company or I'm going to open a, um, you know, a spinning studio or launch a digital fitness app. I went into business just sort of following intuitively pain points that people had in that space. And that first iteration was our events, as you say. So it was about bringing together the community so that I could get to know, okay, if you're somebody in one of those categories wanting to start a business, um, wanting to build a career, you know, what are your struggles? And inevitably, people want to learn from the successes that have come before them. So, you know, Patrick Drake, who, who was a co-founder of Hello Fresh, you know, such an inspiring story of someone who left the city, you know, um, forayed into being a chef sort of alongside his job as a lawyer and then started building out meal kits in a shed somewhere and delivering them to people. You know, people love hearing those stories and it was bringing that to life that really excited me. And then, you know, it was about adding on additional revenue streams of sort of consulting with big brands who wanted to reinvent themselves in the wellness space and, um, working with founders and, you know, moving into recruitment and all of these other things that kind of, yeah, eventually became a little more slick. We're probably still, you know, scrappy in our own way because that's building a business, but, um, yeah, those days were definitely about trialing and testing things and making lots of mistakes and learning from them.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, I, I want to double click on the extra sort of, um, sources of revenue and the type of business that you do now. Um, but I love the fact that it kind of all started from a passion of just wanting to create a community of like-minded people and actually learn from other people rather than pretending that perhaps you guys are the experts and this is how you do it, etc, etc. It's really, like you said, a process of sharing stories, sharing pain points, learning, iterating, and then hopefully supporting each other going along the way. But, um, so what has been sort of the strategy, whether there was a strategy or not, of of adding the extra adjuncts to what you do in the business at the moment and and how did you find yourself on that journey?
Lauren Arms: Yeah, sure. I mean, going back to your earlier point, I think it's Richard Branson who says business is just solving problems for people. And if you think about it like that, it's not, uh, it takes that kind of ego out of it of what do I want to build and puts it back onto your consumer to say, you know, what do the people need? Um, and so, you know, from our first foray into events, it was clear that, uh, if you're an entrepreneur in this space, then you need access to funding, you need access to legal support, you need access to a host of business services that any business needs. And so we decided to really align ourselves with service providers in this space that get wellness, that buy into it. And so we've built out some pretty powerful partnerships in that space, which is a core revenue stream for us. Um, and then, you know, we built a reputation because of the content that we built. So we have an incredible editorial team that, you know, um, as you shared before, share regular content around consumer trends, um, you know, industry news, what's driving the growth of wellness globally. And I think when you commit to pushing out that much content, exactly like you've done with your business, you know, when you're giving all of that content, people see you as an expert, for us as a brand, and inevitably they come to you to say, you know, here's my problem, can you help me solve it? And that's how, you know, we forayed into more of the consulting work. Um, for me personally, you know, I wanted to play a role, um, supporting founders more, um, in more of a, uh, intimate way, I suppose. And so I've spent for the last four years, uh, three years, sorry, a day or two a week mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs in this space. And I love that work. You know, for me, it brings me a deep sense of fulfillment to coach somebody through turning an idea into something that is profitable and scalable and high impact and that it's possible to have both of those things. And so the business coaching is part of of what I offer as well. Uh, and then with, you know, with us having an audience of businesses growing in this space, they also need people to build, build out that cause. Um, every every incredible brand has an incredible team behind it. And so naturally, you know, Well To Do careers and our recruitment agency, Well To Do search was born. And so now we help, you know, global brands and small brand startups to to find talent to really kind of push the vision forward. And that's hugely rewarding because some people aren't ready to start a business in wellness, but they want to work in this space and kind of, you know, they live and breathe wellness in every other aspect of their life, but they wake up on a Monday morning to a job that they hate. And so for us to be able to play a role in supporting that career aspect is, is very rewarding as well.
Dr Rupy: I've noticed that for sure, uh, in the newsletters, you know, it is definitely my one stop shop for finding out everything that I need to know, um, or I want to know with regards to what's going on in the wellness industry globally, you know, whether Peloton's had another round of funding or, you know, what's this new sort of like fem hygiene brand that's going out and whether I agree with it or not, you know, it's really interesting to note the direction of people's mindsets. And I wonder if you can give us some insight over your five years plus of experience of where the wellness industry has gone as as how much influence it's had on actual consumer behaviour across industries. Um, one of the things that I wrote about in my first book is how actually we need to be thankful for, um, wellness influencers, whether they were promoting good things or bad things, because they've encouraged green smoothies and kale to be a staple in our shopping baskets, and they've really pushed our culture along to actually appreciate health and wellness. So, you know, whether it was scientifically backed or not, it's actually encouraged everyone to think about self-care in a new light. So I wonder if you could sort of guide us on that, perhaps the pros and cons of what you've seen in the wellness industry over the last five years.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, it's so interesting. I think that first iteration of wellness was very trend-led in the sense that it was glamorous and you had, you know, I remember this front cover of the Evening Standard magazine with, um, Natasha Corrett, like naked with kale over her like, whatever, you know, to to for modesty. And it was like that was, you know, this initial image of wellness was, um, on a on a more serious note, very lacking in diversity because it was very much, you know, a middle-aged white woman's world of doing yoga and drinking green juice. And but it's interesting because that initial trend aspect pushed it into the social media realm. Social media, you know, um, catapulted it into the headlines. It was very fluffy and lacked a lot of the science that you talk about. But it paved the way for objection to that and almost, um, serious reflection on, okay, like is this what wellness is or is it something more? And I think for me, that was where it got interesting because then you had a whole host of credible experts saying that's not right, you know, that's not evidence-based, you know, this is actually what wellness is. And then we had the conversation about balance and, you know, finding moderation and not being extreme and there's been so many layers of it. And then with that came, obviously, what I'm super passionate about and interested in is the foray of of businesses of startups saying, we can do better. We can do better in the food category, we can do better in the fitness category, we can, you know, let's create products and services that make wellness really accessible to people on every level from premium right through to free. And what's fascinating too is that wellness is now almost like this theme that runs through every industry category, whether that's, um, the obvious ones like fitness and food, or whether it's travel or technology or beauty or, you know, even just crazy things like automotive, you know, every brand and actually Accenture released this really powerful report last week that said every company in the world now is a health company. And partially because there's been a global pandemic, but every company now has to have some kind of health response, you know, to consider the impact of what they do on the health of their people. And so everything has sort of snowballed into a really radical industry that touches almost every industry in a way. Um, and so I feel like what I started five years ago was sort of like a premonition of this. I had no idea it would be this big. I knew that it that something was coming with wellness, but, um, now, you know, the Global Wellness Institute estimates it's worth 4.5 trillion dollars globally as an industry and you can see why because it's everywhere. Um, and so yes, there have been some dangers in that, but I think overall what started off as a sort of fluffy, glamour, trend-led conversation has turned into an opportunity for some really high calibre entrepreneurs and very credible and qualified experts to create real solutions to real problems that are sustainable and ethical and really consider the the wellbeing of of people with a really authentic brand story as well.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, no, I I love that. Um, I love the fact that you you picked up on the homogeneity perhaps of the wellness industry during its inception. Um, and perhaps when I came back to to London back in 2016, that was definitely my experience of it. And and I'm definitely a hypocrite for bringing this up now, but I'm glad you touched on diversity given the current scenarios with what's going on with the Black Lives Matter movement. But I noticed particularly in your coaching, you've, uh, you've got quite a diverse number of individuals and influencers that you've helped grow in their own brands. Adrienne's, uh, podcast you were just on earlier, I've been a part of as well. I didn't actually realise that you were helping her as well as a string of other people from different backgrounds like Loretta Inon and Diba Anandan. So I think, you know, on a personal level, you're you're definitely promoting diversity in the wellness industry that is in desperate need of, um, of of change and, um, uh, heterogeneity. But perhaps the wellness industry overall, um, needs a bit of a rethink. What do you think, um, wellness industry, uh, brands are going to be doing in the future and what have they done up to this point perhaps to to encourage that diversity?
Lauren Arms: It's such an interesting conversation and the bottom line, you know, is we can do better. In every industry, we can do better. And it would be ignorant to say that, you know, that it's enough to have a diverse range of clients or to have, you know, people of colour speaking on panels or, you know, anything that's happened up until now, I think the bottom line is we can do better. And that's for me what has come out of this week. Um, that it's not about me, it's about, you know, it's about what we can do to take action. And so, you know, there are starting points like asking that community, um, you know, what, what do you need from the wellness industry? And you'll know too, it's deeply rooted in the health, um, system, it's deeply rooted, um, in in every industry, but what can brands do? I think it's, you know, um, being more proactive with brand campaigns. It's, I think it's fundamentally because it comes back to before, you know, business is solving problems for people, is speaking to the right people so that you can solve those problems effectively. And if we're not talking to diverse groups of consumers about what they need from the wellness industry, then we won't be able to provide a diverse solution. And so it starts with that conversation and then it it flows through into actually providing solutions that are, um, meaningful to more people.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, I I I totally get that. And you one of the most interesting podcasts that I've listened to, um, aside from the ones that you've produced, obviously, uh, are the how I built this, um, podcast. And one that sticks out and I think it's particularly relevant to this conversation is, uh, regarding the founder of, um, Walker and Sons, which is a predominantly black focused, um, shaving company that figured out an issue with, um, shaving for the, uh, the male black client. And what they found is that, you know, the whole, uh, deal with Gillette is, you know, the more razors, the better, the cleaner the shave, etc. But that's not actually relevant for for black skin, which is quite unique in that it needs a more sensitive blade and a different shaving experience. And so for decades, this has been completely overlooked by the health and beauty category. And now this person who came and disrupted it, um, you know, has created this amazing company, but his journey along that was pretty eye-opening in that a lot of the investors didn't understand that there was a massive issue or that there was opportunity as well. And I think right now, there there are going to be huge opportunities and and what I would encourage people listening to this is kind of, um, to to to really, um, think about ways in which you can be an entrepreneur and use this to your opportunity to represent your communities as well.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, absolutely. And, um, you know, I've been thinking a lot about the problem of, you know, tokenism and and how we overcome that so that it's not just having a person of colour in a in a in a photo shoot. It's, it's actually, as you say, like how does a product work for that person? Um, and I heard a really beautiful IGTV from a lady called Nat Lou. Um, and I just stumbled across it and she was saying, you know, if as a person of colour, as a black woman, I have to do my own research about how a product works on my skin. So a skincare product as you say, then you're not doing good enough, like as a brand. So it's in the the nuance of, you know, speaking about how a product works or looks or fits or feels or, you know, reacts with with, um, with a specific body type or ethnicity, you know, there's so much that can be done and so I really hope that we can play a part in, you know, sharing some of those points of view on on Well To Do, but also challenging brands and challenging ourselves as a business to kind of step up.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, inward looking is definitely the way forward and it's something that I think, um, everyone is being encouraged to do, including myself as well, because just because you're a person of colour doesn't mean that you can't be, um, racist or be complicit in systemic racism either. Um, I wanted to talk about the point you made about the Accenture, um, uh, report regarding every company being a wellness company. I really love that sentiment because I think particularly in a post-pandemic era, there's going to be a lot more emphasis on self-care. I wonder if you can give us some insights into how industry that might be quite far left field like the automotive industry, for example, are embracing wellness and what opportunities there are for budding entrepreneurs that listen to you or listen to me or or might be out there stumbling across this pod.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, so thinking about, you know, this new digital consumer and how people will consume generally, um, whether that's, you know, that digital influencer, whether it's consumers stepping into more of a transformational, um, economy. So they're thinking about, you know, we as a generation are, let's face it, pretty self-obsessed. There's a great book called Selfie by a guy called Will Storr and it's such a good read because it talks about the evolution of how we think of self, right? And I think as a generation, we are more self-absorbed than than some generations before us. And I think and part of that drives wellness too, because it's this question of constantly how can I look, feel, be my best, live my best life, you know, live at my full potential. So to answer your question, you know, I suppose there are a couple of layers to it. Lots of industries are responding to wellness because they're being forced to as a result of a global pandemic. Um, but I suppose they're responding to because consumers see wellness as part of their personal identity now. And consumers have so much more impact on how brands, um, you know, how brands react and and this call for arms to being more authentic, being more purpose-driven. Uh, and the good thing is, you know, the evidence shows that purpose-driven brands grow faster than than the economic average. I think it's like, uh, purpose-led brands grow 28% faster than the average economic growth. Wow. Um, and that's a good thing. So it calls for transparency, it calls for, um, sustainability, it calls for a response to global world issues. And so fundamentally, that's why brands have to become, you know, wellness brands on some level, whether they kind of like it or not. Um, and so when we look at wellness, we're kind of looking at, you know, more than 25, 30 categories that make up wellness now. So for somebody listening who wants to start a business in this space, you know, you can look at everything from digital fitness, um, functional health, personalized nutrition, right through to, you know, mysticism and astrology is now part of wellness and massive amounts of wellness of of investment, sorry, being pumped into these like subsectors of wellness. Um, natural beauty, um, you know, I could go on technology within, um, female health and sexual wellness. There's a real buzz around like sexual wellbeing right now, financial wellbeing. And so how people spend their money and actually do we have a healthy relationship with with investing and saving and, you know, money is a massive cause of stress for people. So, you know, when I start to dig into some of these subcategories, it's there's crazy amounts of opportunity and and we have this incredible guide that we, um, we email out through our careers website that says if you want to get into the business of wellness, start by understanding what's going on in the landscape of wellness. And with that, you start to open your eyes to the incredible amount of opportunity for innovation and and not even reinventing the wheel, just being part of this new dynamic of of wellness as it becomes more important to consumers.
Dr Rupy: I I really love that. The fact that, you know, purpose-driven, um, purpose-led, uh, businesses are more successful, I think speaks to the fact that you have to be authentic in this industry or all industries, but particularly this one. Um, and I think when most people think about starting a business in wellness, you immediately might stereotype wellness as, okay, I'm going to start a green juice company or I'm going to start, you know, a brand of turmeric or whatever. But actually, wellness can exist across different categories. Using myself as an example, and I don't regard myself as a as a business yet, but my mission was to help my singular patients of which there are probably, you know, a couple of hundred, eat and live better by empowering them through information about the ingredients I used in recipes and showing them how to cook those recipes and how easy it was to maintain your health every day using food. And that has since spiraled out from that mission, I guess, and that purpose into yes books, into yes podcasts, and hopefully a digital product later on down the line as I notice the the certain trend towards digital led products that is something that I have a genuine interest in anyway. So I think anyone listening to this doesn't have to immediately assume that if you want to be part of this wellness industry, you have to fit certain categories that exist already. I think, you know, financial wellbeing, um, sexual wellbeing, these are so many different, um, uh, business places that are right for disruption and there's one around the corner, I'm sure for everyone.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, and it might also be looking at categories of people. So we talked about diversity, you know, there are lots of groups of people in society who don't necessarily have access to the wellness world that we describe because we're living in this little urban London bubble or wherever you are in the world. But, you know, there's an aging population and there's some really cool stuff now happening for kids in the in the context of mindfulness and meditation and helping kids to cope with what's going on in the world. So it comes back to what we talked about right at the beginning of kind of finding space to be creative and think of new ideas of of, um, yeah, how to how to create wellness experiences for people in ways that, you know, haven't been done before.
Dr Rupy: I to that point actually, I'll share a little anecdote about what we're doing with my nonprofit culinary medicine that's teaching initially, well teaching medical students how to cook and the foundations of nutrition during the medical curricula. But it's now spun out into another project where we've realised that a lot of the vulnerable population don't actually speak English. And so we've led a new project using our translational services, um, where we can utilize, uh, some of the recipes and have them translated into multiple languages, whether it be Eritrean or Urdu or Hindi. So we can actually, uh, democratize the information around healthy eating and actually make culturally relevant meals for them as well. And you know, that, I mean, we're doing it in a nonprofit, um, facility, but that alone could be, um, a wellness product, you know. Uh, and I think looking internally, like looking at what you're actually passionate about will, will take you deeper down the rabbit hole and and, you know, you will stumble upon opportunities to to talk about wellness and and provide products as well.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, definitely.
Dr Rupy: Even this podcast, I've noticed the deeper I go into wellness, uh, I'm having more broad conversations. Like, I think when I started, I don't think I was going to have a conversation with you about the business of wellness, but I think this is definitely something to factor in because, um, the industry is having such an impact on people's general wellbeing. I wonder if you can offer some insight into what you think the future of wellness is going to look like in perhaps 10, 15 years time and uh, and where people might fit into that as well and what, what kind of things that you are most excited about?
Lauren Arms: For sure. So, you know, wellness is pervading every aspect of our lives, where we work, where we play, where we rest, you know, where we shop. And I think that's the most interesting thing from an infrastructure perspective is, you know, from a practical perspective, you're seeing gyms open up in airports because, you know, when you travel, it's good to have a stretch and, you know, eat something healthy. That makes sense. Um,
Dr Rupy: I actually wish there were more gyms in airports personally as someone who travels probably a bit too much. Yeah, that would be brilliant.
Lauren Arms: Absolutely. Uh, and then you look at kind of the the overhaul of workplace wellness. So employers are suddenly taking responsibility for the the wellbeing of their employees in a way that they never have before. It was like, you know, for our parents, it was like, leave your problems at the door and get on with it. And now you've got companies offering in-house counseling and therapy and massage and, you know, a million other things that help people on on on so many levels to perform better. So there's there's that element of it that wellness will become a touch point across our all areas of our lives. I think what's interesting and and this perspective actually came from a friend of mine who has a supplement brand, her name's Jules Miller and the brand is called The Nue Co. And she talks about how, you know, wellness really shouldn't have a look and feel. And if we can talk about a wellness industry and define it as such, then we're almost not there yet. And it's sort of echoes that conversation we had about, you know, growing up in Australia and your experience there, it becomes just an inherent part of life. And that wellness shouldn't be a brand, it shouldn't be a a photo shoot, it shouldn't be a certain photo on Instagram. It should be simple measures that you can take to to look after yourself. And that fundamentally comes down to education, which I know you're playing a huge part in because, you know, if we can infiltrate that into our health sector and if, um, you know, if practitioners can be more educated about that in the medical arena, then amazing. Um, but, but I think the proliferation of wellness will become so widespread that it kind of loses its its banner because it is just part of life. And I think that's what I'm most excited about alongside all of the other things like the incredible way in which technology is allowing wellness to become personalized. So, you know, um, I recently used a a supplement company that as part of their their process, um, you give a blood sample and so you actually get personalized supplements based on what your body actually needs rather than, you know, walking into a store and kind of scanning the shelves for what you think you might need or following the advice of an influencer or or whatever, you know, but there are these ways in which AI and, um, you know, just technology generally are are making it easier for people to understand their own kind of nuanced approach to wellbeing and what they actually need and how they can actually perform better. And and that might be sleeping better or working more effectively or achieving more focus or, you know, improving their their capacity to achieve fitness goals. You know, so many areas. Um, and so tech is ultimately kind of driving wellness forward in a really powerful way. Um, but I think, you know, we're increasingly living in a world where people are more stressed, more lonely, more disconnected than ever before. And so let's not ignore the fact that, you know, there are some big challenges as part of this, this, um, you know, dream world where wellness is everywhere that still need solutions.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I I I wonder if we could go back to the present just briefly and just talk about how if people were going to be starting wellness products or or projects, whether that be in the digital or physical sphere, how you advise them to toe the line between something that might be a bit of a gimmick versus something that has reasonable, uh, clinical validity and and how would people from a non-health, non-scientific background, uh, navigate that tricky, um, environment?
Lauren Arms: I mean, collaboration. So, I mean, I've met some incredible founders recently who have admitted that they want to solve the problem of, um, you know, gut health or, um, I spoke to an incredible founder of a US company called Seed who are, um, doing really deep, heavy research into microbiome and gut health and reinventing the probiotic. And her background is she's a film producer. And so she was talking about how she, you know, went to Harvard, found an expert, found the expert, you know, found this incredible professor whose name escapes me, but, you know, said, okay, we need to, if we're really going to solve this problem, we need to build a an advisory board, a pool of experts that can, as you said, fill that void between having an idea and being able to execute it with credibility and with, um, you know, with science behind it. And I think with with a credible wellness business, that takes a bit longer. It means you can't rush into market. It means you can't get caught up in the glory of, you know, being a successful business overnight. And and that doesn't happen anyway. But it it means taking time to build a product that is, yeah, deeply rooted in in something real and substantial and isn't just solving a surface level problem. I think that's sort of been done with the wellness industry. You know, do we need another green juice for the sake of it? Probably not. Do we need real problems for, you know, for making fitness more accessible or, or like this particular business seed that I talked about, you know, really looking at how gut health can shape the future of of health and solving those sorts of real problems. I think takes a bit more time and planning, uh, and probably takes going outside of your realm of knowledge and bringing in other expertise. And lots of brands are doing that. I know that you've worked with brands as a as an expert to kind of bring that validity to an idea.
Dr Rupy: Yeah, yeah. And to use another example from your, uh, amazing podcast, you can tell I'm a super fan. Um, modern fertility, um, and the founder you you interviewed who, uh, I think was in incubated in Y Combinator, which is one of the most famous incubators in the world. Um, but her, um, perspective on collaboration, I thought was really important. And what she's trying to do is something that comes out of true passion, but I think she's also, you know, um, accepting of the fact that she's not a fertility expert. She doesn't come from an O&G background, but she knows the right way of going about things to make sure that the product that they provide, A, solves a problem and B, does it in the right way. And I think for people listening to this who want to join this, um, movement, I think that's probably the best way to do it. I think in a word, it's about collaboration.
Lauren Arms: Yeah. And, you know, for any success story, you'll face, you'll face hurdles, you'll face barriers where you say, I don't know the answers to that, whether it's that piece of it, which is the credibility and expertise, or whether it's just knowing how to run a business. So it's not being afraid to say, I've got a great idea, but I don't have all of the tools in in, you know, my toolkit to be able to build this alone. Um, and there were there are some really incredible businesses that have been formed out of that collaborative effort. And the wellness industry is, I think, a very collaborative space. Have you found the same?
Dr Rupy: Yeah, very much so. I found it very collaborative, um, throughout my sort of career. And it's weird like to to admit to even myself that I'm part of this wellness industry because I always see myself as like, you know, just a clinician who likes talking about food. Uh, but, you know, actually embracing it and actually, you know, being part of, like you said, a 5 trillion dollar worth, uh, global industry, I think it's pretty amazing. Um, something that dwarfs, uh, pharmaceuticals and, you know, it's it's definitely a very powerful force and will continue to be. Um, I wanted to close by by asking you, uh, a bit about how you've pivoted, uh, post-pandemic and and what ramifications that will have on your business going forward and what things you're most excited about. I noticed that you translated one of your, uh, webinars, um, or no, your your physical sort of conferences into a webinar very quickly and I thought, you know, in the spirit of entrepreneurship, that was, um, that was very, very well done. Uh, and it was really well, um, performed, but yeah, uh, wonder what your, your, your next, uh, steps are.
Lauren Arms: Yeah, I think it's actually been good timing for us in a, you know, not in a perverted way, but the call to move into a purely digital space for this period of time has meant that, you know, we rebranded four years ago from Well To Do London to Well To Do Global and yet we have carried on because of our capacity to run our events in London. And so for us to truly be Well To Do Global, we need to offer our, our solutions to a global audience. And what better way to do that than in a digital format. So what was initially, you know, disappointing and appeared to be a hurdle for us to not be able to run our in-person events, it was, you know, an easy response to say, actually, let's move these into the, into the digital space and and carry on as, as, as, you know, as effectively as we can. And it was so nice to to see on that first, um, digital event when I said, you know, where is everybody joining from? You've got people in Mexico and, you know, I just got up at 5:00 a.m. in New Zealand to join this. And suddenly my eyes were open to actually our database is is rich with with lots of people from lots of different countries doing interesting things in wellness. So, you know, secretly, I'm a little bit delighted because I have a desire to be not geographically contained to anywhere and as you know, like spending time in Australia is important to me and so, hey, can we be purely digital for the time being? Absolutely. Will we go back when we can to running in-person events? Absolutely, because there's such an important place for for in-person networking and meeting and, you know, and embracing people and sharing ideas in person that that the digital world just can't replace. Um, just laughing, you know, because we were checking out audio and AirPods and, you know, you would never have to do that in real life, would you? But that's the reality that we're living in. But yeah, we've we've faced some challenges, but we're also very fortunate that we have incredible partners and sponsors of our events that trust that we are delivering as much value as we can given the circumstances. And I'm like you, like super positive, looking for the silver linings, looking at why actually this is a great thing. And so I know a lot of businesses have really struggled because they've had to shut their doors and the fitness industry will face inevitable challenges with getting people back into studios. And so let's not downplay that. We've had a role to play in really supporting a lot of industries that are struggling, um, because they can't reach their consumer digitally right now. Um, but it's been amazing to see people really pivot and tap into, um, creative new solutions and we've had to do the same. Um, and so I'm excited about the opportunity for us to reach a bigger audience and to scale our impact with Well To Do, um, going forward.
Dr Rupy: Yeah. I mean, Lauren, I just wanted to close by saying thank you for, you know, having a huge influence on not only the individuals of the wellness industry in London, but clearly you're going to have a huge influence globally as well, now that you're able to scale your events and all the other, um, products and services that you offer. So I can't wait to see what direction you, uh, you push the industry into. Uh, and it's been a pleasure chatting, honestly.
Lauren Arms: Thanks, Rupy. It's such a pleasure and I'm a huge fan of everything that you do as well. So it's been an absolute delight chatting.
