The Wellness in Hospitality Podcast

Do you find that one day you have more clients than you can possibly deal with, and then suddenly, none? 

Then tune in, because this episode is for you. 

This episode is about the cycle almost every new consultant falls into, why it has nothing to do with talent or demand, and the one number that will keep you out of it for good. 

I've lived this cycle myself, back when I started out. And it's called the feast-famine cycle. 

You leave employment on a high. You're excited, you're telling everyone you...

The number one mistake new wellness consultants make?  

They price like an employee. 

I see this mistake constantly with wellness professionals who go out on their own.  

They carry their employee mindset straight into their consulting business. They trade time for money, because that's the only model they've ever known. 

Then they compound the problem. They benchmark their price against consultants who've been in the game for decades because they think all their years of expertise entitle them to that same number. 

It doesn't work like that. And I know...

70% of businesses fail in year one. 

Why ? Because there wasn't enough cash in the bank to keep the lights on.

Great ideas don't keep a business alive. Cash flow does. 

This episode is about the one step most consultants skip, and the reason so many of them don't make it past year three.


Note: This is step five, the final episode in my five-part series on how to make money as a wellness consultant. If you haven't listened to Step 1 (One Way Forward), Step 2 (One Thing, Done Brilliantly), Step 3 (Become Your...

There are two ways to overdeliver. One leads to burnout. The other leads to repeat business.


Most consultants think overdelivering means bending over backwards. They think it means doing extra hours, allowing scope creep, saying yes to things they don't even know how to do. It doesn't. It means something far more strategic, and far less exhausting.

 
Note: This is step four of my five-step process for making money as a wellness consultant. If you haven't listened to Step 1 (One Way Forward), Step 2 (One Thing, Done Brilliantly), or Step 3 (Become Your Client's Obvious C...

Rarely is it a money problem. It's an understanding problem.

You've heard "no budget" more times than you can count. And then, weeks later, you find out that same client hired someone else at five times your price. They didn't have a money problem. They had a "you didn't make yourself the obvious choice" problem. 

This episode is about fixing that so it doesn’t continue to happen.

Note: This is step three of my five-step process for making money as a wellness consultant. If you haven't listened to Step 1 (One Way Forward) or...

The thing you are best at is not always the thing you should build your business around.

You can be highly skilled at something and still feel no desire to spend your life doing it.

Because building a business requires more than expertise.

It requires choosing work you care enough about to keep doing when the road becomes difficult.

I am very good at numbers.

Finance has always come easily to me, and that ability was sharpened during my time at Goldman Sachs.

I was good at...

There are many ways to make money as a wellness consultant.

You can become an internal consultant.

You can work project by project.

Or you can carve out a specialist niche of your own.

All of these paths can work.

But you cannot build momentum while trying to walk down all of them at once.

When I started consulting more than 18 years ago, I tried to do everything.

I became an internal consultant for a hotel company.

I took on project-based work helping...

One of the biggest myths in wellness consulting is that expertise is enough.

That if you're good enough at what you do, clients will simply understand your value and pay for it.

I don't believe that's true.

After 18 years of building my consulting business, I've learned otherwise.

You can have decades of experience, be exceptional at your craft, and still struggle to make money from it.

Not because your expertise isn't valuable.

But because expertise alone doesn't create a business.

A business only works when...

One of the biggest myths in entrepreneurship is that successful business owners are fearless. 

That they wake up one morning, hand in their notice., burn the bridges behind them... 

and somehow everything works out.

I don't believe that's true.

After nearly twenty years of building my consulting business, I've learned otherwise.

The people who build sustainable businesses aren't the ones who take the biggest risks.

They're the ones who learn how to manage them.

And that's exactly what today's episode is about.

 

Most people think starting a wellness business requires one big leap of faith. 

You hand in your notice because you’re done being employed. 
You take the plunge. 

And hope everything works out. 

I don't believe that's true. 

After nearly two decades of building my consulting business, I've learned that successful businesses aren't built by taking bigger risks. 

They're built by reducing unnecessary ones. 

If you've been waiting for the "perfect moment" to leave your current role… 

Or wondering how other people seem to make the tra...

You can spend twenty years becoming exceptional at what you do and still struggle to build a successful wellness business. 

Not because you lack expertise. 

But because expertise isn't what clients buy. 

This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see across our industry. We believe that if we're knowledgeable enough, experienced enough, or qualified enough, clients will naturally come. 

Unfortunately, that's rarely how it works. 

Whether you're a wellness leader thinking about consulting, a visiting practitioner building your own business, or a wellness professional ready for something more, there...

Are you building a masterpiece or a museum piece? 

You're a decade into running the family business. The bumpy years are behind you, you've got a proper grip on it now, and you're clear on where you're taking it and the story you want to tell.  

And somewhere inside that confidence, a new fear takes the place of the old one. You've stopped worrying about failing the generation before you. Now you worry about burdening the one after you.  

So you set out to hand your children something ironclad, finished, perfect, something that won...

Who is writing your story? 

Whether you choose to write it or not, the story of your hotel is already being written. Every decision you make, from every hire, every price you approve, every conflict you avoid, to every partnership you sign, is a sentence on the page of your next chapter. The only question is whether you're holding the pen, or letting the story happen to you. 

Most boutique hotel owners let their story get written for them. They delegate the writing of their story either by the brand agency, by their past, or by...

Who do you want by your side as you build the world that doesn't exist yet? 

There is an inn on a remote island off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Four times the size of Manhattan. Only 2,500 people live there. The nearest city is hours away. 

By every rule of conventional hospitality logic, it should not be one of the most sought-after destinations in the world. 

And yet, Fogo Island Inn holds three Michelin Keys. Guests travel from across the globe to reach it. Almost nothing inside it was made by anyone with a h...

What if the reason your hotel isn't standing out isn't because you need a better product, better marketing, or better guest experience? 

What if it's because you're still building for the people who already know you instead of the people who need you? 


In this episode, I explore why the most remarkable destinations aren't created by following categories, trends, or industry expectations. They're created by people who build their world first and wait for the market to catch up. 

There is a remarkable property in Spain sitting on the edge of one of...

What if the thing holding your hotel back isn't a lack of strategy, funding, or capability? 

What if it's a vision that isn't bold enough? 

In this episode, I share a story from my childhood about a hotel owner in Kenya who insisted on building what everyone said was impossible: a hanging swimming pool suspended over the hotel entrance with no visible support beams.

Every single person of the design team deemed that hanging swimming pool as imposible. 

One person said yes.

And the ripple from tha...

Most hotels focus on creating a better stay. 

Disney focuses on creating a stronger emotional connection. 

And that subtle makes all the difference. 

In this episode, I explore what the hospitality industry can learn from Walt Disney and why I believe many of us have become so focused on luxury that we've forgotten something far more powerful: wonder.  

While writing the first chapter of my second book, I found myself asking a simple question. 

Why do families save for years to go to Disneyland? 

Why do children dream...

You have tried everything. 

You brought in a new therapist and a seasoned wellness director. You redesigned the menu. You invested in equipment you were told would make the difference. And you are still sitting here, looking at a wellness offering that is not performing the way you need it to perform. 

The frustrating part is not that things aren't working. The frustrating part is that you don't know why. 

What if the answer had nothing to do with any of those things?  

What if the answer was already inside your busi...

Think about your most loyal returning guests, the ones who come back year after year, without a discount, without a loyalty programme, without being chased. 

Now ask yourself honestly: why are they coming back?

It's not your brand. It's a person, a special place, an indescribable feeling that exists nowhere else on earth. 

That distinction is key. Because if you're trying to grow your boutique hotel collection by borrowing the playbook from larger hotel chains, you may be destroying the very thing your guests keep returning for. 

I'm currently working with a f...

What if the belief that you genuinely care about your team is the very thing stopping you from ever changing anything? 

Today I want to talk about how a thought, a well-intentioned, completely sincere thought, can become the most expensive belief in your business. 

A few years ago I sat in a meeting with a hotel manager. She'd called me in to review my therapist manning. I'd asked for extra support staff, our team was at capacity (a good problem to have). 

What followed was a line-by-line negotiation over my spreadsheet. We were nic...

When did you last walk through your own hotel as a guest? 

Not as the owner who knows every corridor, every staff member, every shortcut it took to build the place.  

But as the guest who saved for this trip, planned it months in advance, and arrived with one simple expectation: to be looked after. 

Most hotel owners would struggle to answer that question honestly. And that gap, between the experience you think you are delivering and the one your guest is actually having, is exactly what this episode is about. 

Whil...

I stopped giving clients what they asked for a long time ago. 

Because what they asked for and what they were ready to build were almost never the same thing. 

This episode is the filter I use to close that gap before it costs you everything. 

I had a client. Twenty years earlier I had built her wellness concept from scratch. It was very unique. Two decades later she came back. Things had become unremarkable and she wanted a wellness offering that was amazing. 

I gave her a stepping stone instead. 

...

There is a particular kind of hotel that wins every award, gets featured in every design magazine, and is completely forgotten by its guests six months after they leave. 

And there is another kind, one much less impressive on paper, that guests carry with them for decades. 

The difference is not budget, nor is it design. It is not even service. 

It is where the hotel was built from. 

In this episode, I share a moment that stayed with me. 

A few years ago, I was sitting across from the C...

 Some of the least “well” experiences don’t happen outside of wellness, they happen inside it.

And some of the most powerful moments of wellbeing?
They have nothing to do with a spa at all.

While researching for my book, I was asked to audit two hotel properties, something I usually avoid.

Because there is nothing worse than a bad wellness experience. Not just emotionally, but physically, when a treatment is poorly delivered, your body feels it long after.

Here’s what I’ve observed:

We assume that everyone wh...

Most of the “great” experiences we invest so much time, money, and energy into are forgotten. 

So what actually makes something stay? 

In this episode, I take you into a defining memory from my childhood in Nairobi, watching my father, a structural engineer, obsess over what seemed like an impossible task: building a swimming pool that extended out of a hotel building (basically, a “hanging” swimming pool). 

Decades later, I don’t remember the design. 

But I remember the feeling. 

What that hanging swimming pool meant. The obsession. The sense that some...

What if the reason your hotel isn’t performing at the level you'd like it to has nothing to do with your team but with the system they’re working inside? 

In this episode, I take you inside a shift that has fundamentally changed how I see hotel performance. 

For years, like most in hospitality, I believed better people would create better results. A stronger GM. A more experienced team. More training. More effort. 

But over time, I started to see a different pattern. 

Two hotels. Similar level of inves...

You've spent 20 years in this industry. You know your craft. You know your value.  

And yet the moment someone asks what you do as a consultant, you launch into a list. Everything you can offer. Everything you've done. Every possible way you could help. The entire kitchen sink. 

And the only response you get is silence. 

My guest today knows that feeling. Annie Simpson is the founder of Aurora Spa Consulting in Montreal, and my very first Wellness Consultant Blueprint client.  

She'd started and stopped her...

Most hotels believe they are offering wellness. 
 
But if you look closely, most guests never actually feel it. 


I see this all the time in hospitality. 

Beautiful spas. Thoughtfully designed spaces. Strong concepts on paper. 

And yet… 

They’re sitting empty, are underperforming or uninviting. 


And the assumption is usually: 

“Guests don’t value wellness.” 

“There isn’t enough demand.” 

But that’s not what’s happening. 

Because the intention is there. 

The investment is there. 

The quality is...

What happens when your vision grows faster than your capacity? 

Most people interpret that moment as failure. They think they’re behind. They assume the goal might be unrealistic. 

But I’ve learned that when you raise your standard, a gap naturally appears between what you want to create and what your current system can deliver. 

That gap isn’t a problem. 

It’s the place where leadership and stewardship begins. 

In this episode, I share a personal story from my marathon training and how it mirrors exactly what h...

Tools remove friction. 

Instruments require mastery. 

 
The question is: 

Which one is wellness in your hotel? 
 
Because if it’s treated like a tool, it will always remain operational. 

If it’s treated like an instrument, it changes how you design, how you lead, and how power moves inside your business. 

And most hotels, without realising it, have already chosen. 


For years, I’ve watched hospitality struggle with wellness. 


We say it’s strategic. 

But in meetings, the question is always...

There is no wellness concept in most hotels. There is a wellness space, a wellness team, and a wellness budget. 

Those are not the same thing. 

I ask every boutique hotel owner I work with one question: if you removed every physical element tomorrow, what would remain? 

That answer, or the absence of one, is telling. And once you know what should remain, you can't build wellness any other way. 

Here’s why this happens. 

Most boutique hotel owners didn't choose their wellness model. A consultant advised on which element...

Smooth seas make every boat look well-built. 

Right now, wellness is in calm waters
 

Revenue is flowing. 

Demand is rising. 

Investors are confident. 

But tailwinds are not strategy. 

Is your wellness engineered to endure or it simply being carried by the market? 

In this episode, I share a personal lesson from my marathon journey. 

For years, I completed one marathon a year. I believed that with discipline and putting the effort in to clock the miles...

Most boutique hotel owners aren’t adding wellness because they want to. 


They’re adding it because they feel they should. 


Because wellness is “what the market expects.” 

Because everyone else seems to be doing it. 

Because not doing it feels like falling behind. 

 

This is the starting point I see again and again. 

 
And it matters more than most people realise. 


Because when wellness begins as an obligation rather than a belief, it quietly sets the tone for everything that f...

Who is responsible for designing your wellness offering? 

Really, who? 

As I’ve been researching and writing my second book, I’ve been revisiting some of the thinking that has shaped how I see wellness leadership and business today. One idea I keep coming back to is first who, then what. It’s the idea that you need the right people on the bus and in the right seats. 

But the more I sit with this idea, especially in the context of wellness within hospitality, the clearer it becomes that we’ve...

Wellness doesn’t fail because leaders aren’t capable. 

It fails because the system still relies on heroes instead of governance. 

For more than two decades, I’ve watched highly capable wellness leaders carry broken systems on their backs in hotels, spas, and now in consulting. And when they burn out or move on, the entire operation quietly collapses. 

That’s not a leadership problem. 

That’s a design problem. 

This episode was sparked while I was outlining my next book and dee...

Most wellness concepts don’t fail because they lack beautiful facilities or trending treatments. 

They fail because they were built from the top of the iceberg down, not from the base up.


Over the years, I’ve worked with wellness founders, hotel owners, and consultants who deeply care about doing wellness properly. Their intention is solid. Their belief in wellness is genuine.


And yet, many still ask the same question:
“What kind of wellness offering should I build?”

 
That question is already part of the proble...

Wellness has had its growth spurt. 

But growth alone doesn’t create legacies. 

In this episode, I share why 2026 marks a quiet but powerful shift in the wellness and hospitality industry, and why the next decade won’t be led by those chasing trends, but by those who’ve earned the right to design what endures. 

As I closed 2025 and stepped into 2026, I found myself reflecting on more than two decades in wellness. 

I’ve seen this industry move from the margins to the centre. 

Wellness is no longer something guests do on holiday. 

It’s something they expect to be supported in, from the moment they book to long after they leave. 

In this episode, I’m joined by Emma Sleight, Head of Content at The World’s 50 Best Hotels, to explore how hospitality is being reshaped by changing guest expectations, deeper definitions of wellness, and a growing demand for meaning, connection, and place-led experience. 

This is a conversation for anyone building, operating, or advising hotels and destinations that want to stay relevant i...

Consulting does work. 

But only when you stop using it as an escape and start building it like a business. 

If Part 1 showed you why most wellness consultants fail, this episode shows you the path that actually works. 

In the first part of this series, we looked at the uncomfortable truth: 

90% of wellness consultants fail in their first year. It’s not because they lack expertise, it’s because they carry their operational frustrations straight into entrepreneurship. 

 
In this second and final episode, I want to shift th...

Most wellness leaders don’t fail at consulting because they lack expertise. 

They fail because they use consulting to solve a problem it was never designed to fix. 

If you’re thinking about consulting as your way out of burnout, frustration, or feeling stuck, this episode may change how you see everything. 

This is the first episode in a two-part series. 

In Part 1, my goal isn’t to convince you to become a consultant or to sell you on a dream. I...