How to Kickstart a Career in the Wellness Industry

When starting out, the career path of an expert or practitioner in wellness can feel a little overwhelming. There are so many considerations and perhaps you have multiple passions in different areas of wellness, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly where you want to go.

That’s ok, and also entirely normal. In this article, we’ll break down the 8 steps that you’ll take to kickstart a career in the wellness industry as a respected thought-leader and authority in your chosen field. Having a sense of what the big picture journey looks like might help you to see the destination and understand that each step takes time – but that there is no need to rush. Having a clear roadmap can remove some of those overwhelming emotions and keep you focused on the possibilities that exist for you. It’s an exciting time to be considering this potential career path.

Step 1: You’re going to start by looking for inspiration in the wellness industry to really help you identify your key areas of interest. We’ll talk about how you can use social media to help you with this in the next activity, but for now, understand that there are plenty of ways to inform where you want to take your career.

Step 2: From the research you’ve done, you’ll decide on your chosen area of expertise. You might even shortlist a few options which you’ll then take with you into the next few steps.

Step 3: You’re going to create a plan for getting the skills, expertise and/or qualification needed to make this your future.

Step 4: Next, you’ll consider who your ideal client or audience will be – that is, who you’re actually going to help with this expertise.

Step 5: In step 5, you’ll be thinking about how to get experience (paid or volunteered) so that you can build your confidence, your reputation, and your credibility in this area.

Step 6: You’ll then be able to decide on a structure for your expert career – in other words, how you will make money to sustain this career move.

Step 7: Your next step is to decide on how you will share your message and market yourself to the world – including the format, style, and tools you’ll use to do this. For example, do you need to create a website, will you utilise social media, and do you need a team around you to help you build a practice?

Step 8: Finally, you’ll take enormous action on everything above! This means, not getting too caught up in what exists beyond this point…you already have enough to think about and do. Let’s create a strong foundation on which to build a successful career and recognise that becoming an expert is a life-long journey, not a short-term destination.

What do you think?

Which of these steps will be the hardest for you, and why? For example, do you think the biggest challenge will be deciding on an area of expertise to focus on, or do you think it will be more challenging to decide how to structure your expert career and make money? Look for similarities in what other learners are thinking and feeling.