How to Build an All Encompassing Wellness Brand

What's up, coach?

I'm Beverly Simpson, owner of View Simpson Fitness and the founder of the PT profit formula and podcast. In today's video, we're talking with business owners Tommy and Natalie Conway of One Health. And by the end of this video, you'll discover how to build an all inclusive, all encompassing wellness brand. So if you're a smart and struggling personal trainer or physical therapist, and then you're going to want to stay till the end of this video, we talk about the common mistakes that most struggling coaches miss and what to do instead. We also talk about how to build a network, how to refer out. We talk about how to navigate business building with a partner. We also talk about the importance of words and impact versus intent. So if you like this video, be sure to hit, like hit subscribe and ding that little bell so that you can be notified when the next best video comes out. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview.

Hello, Tommy and Natalie, how are you? Thank you for coming.

Hi, how are you? I'm great.

I'm super pumped that you're here on the show today. So let's just dive right in. Can you go ahead and just share with us a little bit about who you are and who you serve?

Yeah. So me and Natalie were a husband and wife team and we run a business called One Health in Ireland and people we work with is wide variety. So I'm a physiotherapist, physical therapist and Natalie's actually a primary school teacher. But we treat people from the ages of, I suppose 6, 7 to 90 years of age or even a little bit over for varying conditions. And then we have yoga, reformer, Pilates and nutrition also in our facility. So a lot of different people.

That's amazing. How'd you get there?

We got there together. It took a bit of effort. Like I started my business, it was originally called TC physiotherapy five years ago and that was just a regular PT clinic, physical therapy clinic. And we slowly built up that business and then we knew that we wanted to do something extra for our clients. We knew we kind of needed to bring in some form of exercise that we really truly believed in that would actually benefit like our long term back pain clients. So we decided to open a former studio. So Natalie was the main instructor and also been a primary school teacher as well. Helped us because she kind of teaches everyone.

Teaches everyone what to do and tell them what to do. But no, we kind of got there because Tommy's brother. Really?

Oh, yeah. Actually we got to the Reformer studio.

Because of my brother.

So like Reformer studios were really non existent in Ireland, a few in Dublin. And Tommy's brother had a serious back.

Issue mitral disectomy on his spine in Australia.

He felt better.

Yeah. And he was kind of pushing me to look at Pilates. Former Pilates, but I'd done math when I was in college, didn't enjoy it, thought it was very boring, didn't have enough detail. And then I done. Natalie actually booked us in for a class in Dublin after a night out on the Reformer and after I'd done the class, I was blown away. I just thought it was such a smart, simple. It just got all the right muscles, you know, it got the stuff that we find difficult as pts or certain condition coaches to get working on people in a good position. You're talking your hamstrings, your triceps, your obliques and it hit all them spots in a 50 minute workout and I was very impressed with it. So from that day on, after doing that class, we just said we have to open a studio. So we did.

Three years ago now. Yeah, come up to three years. And then we, we got married and the businesses got married as well. So the former, the clinic moved into the Reformer Studios hub and that's how One Health grew as well. Our community that we built were asking for more and more. They wanted to see more and more. Some were talking about yoga, people were asking us about eating the right stuff and we said, look, we need to give all these services they're asking us. We obviously aren't knowledgeable enough to give that because we're not qualified as nutritionists. So be it. So that's why we developed One Health because of our community and our great clients and they just wanted, they loved our environment. So we said we needed to give them some, some of those services. That's how One Health came out.

So how far is Dublin to you? Like how did, how far did you have to go to go to this Reformer Pilates class?

Oh, only an hour. Ireland's tiny. We're right in the middle of Ireland. So from one side of Ireland to the other is three hours max. And that's up and down. It could be six, I'd say. Don't hold me to that now. Anyone assistant from Ireland, some, some person be like, oh, he's got that wrong.

It's an hour drive from Tullamore where we are to Dublin though. It's an hour, it's an hour.

But listen, I'm not driving an hour to go to Reformers Pilates class. So that was commitment.

Yeah. Especially after a night out as well. Beverly. And we like a good night out. So that was commitment on my end. Yeah. Natalie had it all planned. I didn't know what was going on because back then I was stubborn to it. I didn't want to do it. I kind of. I didn't. My experience from it was, I suppose, bad. And it's like when clients come in and say, oh, I've tried Pilates before, but I didn't like it. When your experience is bad in anything, you get a bad taste for it. So we kind of. We kind of. I kind of knew Natalie knew it needed to be pushed a little bit because she could see the opportunity in it. And also we had to amalgamate together as a. As a couple to become business partners, which is always tough.

Yeah, I definitely want to talk about that today too. But Natalie, you were a schoolteacher, right. I didn't actually realize that. So how did you get into learning about Reformer Pilates?

Well, it was from that because we had the business idea from Tommy's brother Michael. And we just after we did that class then we said, look, I need to go do the training, I need to go do it. And we went up and I trained in Dublin and then we qualified and then we did a lot of in house training as well with Tommy's knowledge of pri and we kind of tried to Tommy's system and Tommy's a lot of study all around the world and we tried to bring some of his knowledge and systems to practice as well to give our. Give the one health experience to our clients. So that's how I came about and I was double jobbing there. So going from school and actually I used to do morning classes. So I was doing a morning class then going, being a teacher in school and then going back in the evening and teaching more class. So it was full on. It was fun though. But yeah, that's how it all came about for me. I was maybe forced into it. Tommy's a tough taskmaster, maybe.

I love that. And Tommy, you brought up a good point when you talked about how, you know, I think people have these preconceived notions of what Pilates is supposed to be like. Or you know, they think like yoga, Pilates, they loop it together. And I know for me I had that perspective of, oh, it's just stretching, it's not real. It's not really working out.

Yeah. Like especially I probably kind of when I started to. Because we opened The Reformer Student. I didn't teach for about a year. We opened the reformer student in 2017, September 2017. And then I went and done my posture restoration certification in Nebraska in the end of 2017, December. But it's only when I started teaching it that I really. It brought home to me that there was a good bit of genius behind us and in the fact that it made working out. As we all know, pri and PRI now is becoming very popular. Regards strength and conditioning coaches and exercises. For me, Pilates does all that. In a 50 minute class that people can enjoy. You can do all the good stuff that you want to give them without them even knowing, which is great because you can actually treat your client safely. And on a Reformer, it's amazing. The muscles and the change you see with people. If we see it, we see people that are not able to stand up straight and they just become like a ballerina walking around. And it's just. I always like to think in a local community, I know by the way the people walk that they're our clients. They have that good posture, they have that good look. And that's what we're proud. That's what I'm proud of anyways. To see that we actually have that sustainable change with people, which is hard to get.

Mm.

It isn't just stretching. It's a lot more than that. If you want to feel a burn, that's what you need to do.

You can't hide. You can't hide on it. You can't cheat. I'm the worst person in a gym or a gym class. I want to cheat, I want to hide. I want to do less reps. You just can't hide in the Reformer. You just can't. It doesn't let you. You have to perform on it. And the resistance and everything, it's just. It's a genius. As Tommy said, it is a genius piece of equipment. Like, it's changed my whole body shape. And, you know, over the last couple years, we've seen our clients who've come in, like Tommy said, they're standing and wall controller. Like even for some people, like, you know, some people like, I know, I find after having Molly the baby, like, you kind of feel like you're kind of rolling over a bit too much because you're holding the baby the whole time. So it just fixes that posture. It makes you sit up taller and more conscious of your. Your presence, I suppose. So it's. Yeah, it's cool.

It's an element. Like, it's. It's like anything, it's, it's another form of exercise. But I, for me, what I studied in America with pri, it's just done it in an easier way. It makes more sense. And for a long time it kind of muddled my brain a little bit where I didn't know my own system because I felt it was actually just easier to put people on a reformer and train them than to give them one on one exercise that they do at home. And that's what makes it good because most people want to go to a group environment for entertainment. So it made our lives easier, I would say.

You know, pri, I feel like sometimes, especially for new strength and conditioning coaches that are new to pri, they're excited to take on these concepts and these exercises and they just want to put their. Keep their clients on the floor. But what most trainers miss or don't recognize is that you're not going to get client buy in or client. You're not going to get client buy in or client adherence if the exercises that they're doing aren't fun or don't also meet their goals.

Yeah, like it's, that's very so important that if you see someone that's full of energy bouncing into the room and they're like an Energizer bunny, they don't like moving slow. Now that might be the right thing to do to help their body, but they won't stick to that program for long. So you can tell them that straight away. You can say to them, as a young PT or a young strength conditioning coach, you're full of energy. I know you want to go fast. Let's do this for two weeks, then I'll let you go fast. And that's understanding because a lot of them exercises are very slow, boring, isometric holds. They do work. But don't forget, like you said, that clients want entertainment. And the people that have a basic level of knowledge, they still have a large client base because they know how to entertain. And I understand that in my game as well as the Pilates studio, we have to try and show a bit of. That's what I've seen with Pilates studios before. It's very. They use big words and it's boring. Like use words that clients don't understand instead of telling a joke or something like that, which people would enjoy a lot more. And that's what I think that we try and bring. I think it's. Well, I try and bring any of that.

Tommy's the comedian of the year.

I never said to my Comedy sketch, Beverly.

No, you have to for sure. But you know, that's what, you know, what I was hearing from you is hearing you talk about one health and hearing you talk about how you've integrated all these principles. To me it sounds like using the Reformer, at least that's been one of the ways that you've been able to implement, you know, fundamental movement and strengthen those concepts with, while, at least while keeping your clients attention.

Yeah, that has been a, it's, it's been an easier way to get someone out of long term back pain, correct someone's posture. It's easier adhering. The clients have an easier time adhering to that. They have a more enjoyable time. I see better results. And if you're, if your environment doesn't have that, for instance, where you have that availability to go into group exercise, your life is harder. Your life is hard to try and improve them people and keep them better. It's been a groundbreaker for us and it's given us such an opportunity. Like we wanted to originally open I think Reformer studios around surrounding area, but after we, after we opened our first one, our clients just kept asking for other services. So we said, right, that's the next thing we need to do. We have to give the people that trust us what they want. And it's going well, it's going well. So thank God for that.

So that's great. And I definitely want to get into that. But before I segue, I'm just curious, you know, what would you say to a new PT or a new strength and conditioning coach? Like, how would you get them to start taking these complex concepts and breaking it down to. For their clients?

Yeah, I think one thing for me, I think that's very important is that I don't see too many people talking about it. Like, I've trained a good few pts and Pilates instructors.