April 8, 2008

Advice from a Famous Book Editor

I’ve just finished reading The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones, acclaimed Knopf editor who brought us food guru Julia Child, Indian cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey and PBS Italian food maven Lidia Bastianich, to name just a few.

What does this have to do with your business?

Lots.

Ms. Jones helped transform America’s palate by introducing the public to a new way of relating to food. In a time when most Americans were eating Jell-O salads, her authors introduced us to fricassee, chutney and pomodoro sauce.

What a daunting task.

As a wellness professional, I can feel your overwhelm at the thought of working in this field, with the obesity rate nearing 60% and most Americans at a loss for how to make a fresh start.

So I propose learning a few things from Ms. Jones:

For wellness to become a way of life, get them while they’re young.

Ms. Jones writes, “I feel passionately that we need to lure more young people into the kitchen, so that it becomes a way of life for them.” No one needs to tell a wellness professional how snack food and soft drink companies, fast food chains and similar industries work hard to hook the palates of the young, ruining their taste buds for natural flavor … and for life.

Those of you who are called to work with children and young adults, the suggestion is to get into the schools, communities and universities. Think beyond one-on-one counseling. Put together programs that schools and companies say YES to.

For those working with parents (and their children and/or grandchildren), target your marketing toward if they can not do it for themselves, they must do for their children. Emphasize what they do not want to miss (i.e. the energy to attend their grandkids’ baseball games, etc.). Draw a picture beyond the food and nutrition. Show them what’s possible when they care for their well-being.

Evoke the transformative power of your services.

Many of Ms. Jones’ cookbook authors included recipes with wonderful anecdotes that connected the heart and soul of the reader to food. Some of her favorite novelists wrote scenes that weaved the transformative power of food using all five senses to engage the reader.

For example, Ms. Jones writes, “Novelist John Updike, who grew up on a heavy Pennsylvania Dutch fare (as did his character in Rabbit Redux) … wrote a delicious scene in the book by the same name about Jill, the flower child, who has moved in with his main character:

‘For supper Jill cooks a fillet of sole, lemony, light, simmered in sunshine, skin flaky brown; my son gets a hamburger with wheat germ sprinkled on it to remind him of a Nut burger. Wheat germ, zucchini, water chestnuts, celery, salt, Familia: these are some of the exotic ingredients Jill’s shopping brings into the house. Her cooking tastes to him of things he never had: candlelight, saltwater, health fads, wealth, class…. Her cooking has renewed his taste for life. They have wine now with supper, a California white in a half-gallon jug. And always salad: salad in Brewer County cuisines tends to be a brother of sauerkraut, fat with creamy dressing, but Jill’s hands toss lettuce in a glowing film invisible as health…. Contentment makes Harry motionless; he watches the dishes be skimmed from the table, and resettles expansively in the living room. When the dishwashing machine is fed and chugging contentedly, Jill comes into the living room, sits on the tacky carpet, and plays the guitar.’

This passage makes healthy living sound very appealing indeed.

Could you evoke a “renewed taste for life” with your services? Of course you can.

So many wellness professionals lead with facts. Consider leading with the senses, emotions and a good tug on the heartstrings of your potential client. Logic and facts should only serve to back up the emotions.

You could weave success stories and inspiring testimonials from your workshops, classes and one-on-one experience into your newsletter.

You could evoke a deeper desire when writing about your services. Pampering and weight loss anyone? How about a forget-your-troubles stress melting massage? Or find hope and connection to true love through the unparalleled support of relationship coaching.

Show people the impact of your services. Paint a picture for them. They can not see this as easily as you.

Make it easy to work with you.

Ms. Jones writes about when Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian cookbook manuscript came to her at Knopf: “I was immediately persuaded that food-conscious Americans were ready for authentic Indian food, particularly if they had someone as skillful as Madhur guiding them. She was canny enough to realize, it was apparent, that she had to seduce us slowly, step by step. She knew that not everyone was willing to spend hours in the kitchen, to chase down unfamiliar ingredients and to hand-grind spices. So she started each chapter by offering the simpler dishes, figuring that once we were hooked we would move on to the more complex.”

I think this is exactly how wellness services and products should be marketed, but sadly, are not. Take a look at the hundreds of books on wellness and they almost all require you to turn your life upside down in order to see results. Never mind the misery of self-deprivation.

Most of your clients will not spend hours cooking, doing yoga or reading the next self-help book. Acknowledge this and figure out a way to meet your potential clients where they are and show them a path to where they want to go.

Why not create classes/products/books that entice your audience to dip their toe into the “change your life” pool? Once people start to feel good, they will want more of it. Create different levels of your service and attention at varying prices, each level dove-tailing into the next level up.

Seduce your audience into wellness slowly, consistently and systematically. And when they’re ready, you will be there.

Here’s to your life and success in the wellness market,

Karin

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Filed under Blog, Business Inspiration, Materials that Work by Karin