We've Been Doing the Work. Here's What We Learned.
By Stevi Gable Carr, Founder, WISe Wellness Guild & WellNXT Global
There's a version of this post where I lead with a confident pivot announcement. A rebrand with a clean tagline. A carefully worded statement about our "evolved focus."
That's not this post.
This one is the honest version, which I think is more useful to anyone building a business in wellness right now, and more representative of who WISe Wellness Guild is.
What the Last 18 Months Really Looked Like
After 7 years in business, we came out of our biggest years of growth and walked straight into a market that shifted under our feet. DEI budgets — a significant funding source for our cultural transformation work — were restructured across the board. Brands that had been expanding their wellness investments pulled back. The pipeline that had carried us thinned out.
I also went through a divorce and a health scare that stopped me in my tracks, making me ask the questions I'd been too busy to sit with: What are we building? Where do we do our best work? And who are we here to serve?
Those questions led me somewhere useful.
The Audit That Changed Everything
I ran a full audit of every proposal we'd ever written — the wins, the losses, the deal sizes, the sources, the patterns. All of it.
What came back was clarifying in the way that only data can be. Our highest-revenue work was in experiential marketing and events. Our highest win rate was in fractional brand and marketing engagements. Our most reliable referral base was in healthcare and physician leadership. And the work I'd been most emotionally attached to, the consumer-facing content and engagements, weren’t generating income and became dilutive to the brand. Not because the work wasn't good. But because what we’re building with WellNXT is so much more intentional, global and inclusive.
The data wasn't telling me to abandon anything I believed in. It was telling me where to aim.
What We're Doubling Down On
WISe Wellness Guild is now clearly focused on three things:
wellness brand strategy and positioning for brands that want to earn real trust
experiential strategy, marketing and events that create genuine connection between brands and people
fractional brand and marketing leadership for organizations that need senior-level direction without the overhead of a full-time hire.
These aren't pivots. They're the threads that were always strongest in our work, pulled forward and made explicit.
At the same time, WellNXT Global, the curated wellness marketplace and city festival platform I co-founded, is growing into its own identity. We executed a 4,000-person event in Miami, we're building toward 30,000 in New Orleans, and we're activating at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami at the Dolphins game. WellNXT is the consumer experience. WISe is the brand strategy behind it.
What I'd Tell Any Founder Right Now
If you're in a season of contraction — in your business, in your confidence, in your clarity — I want you to know that the audit is worth running. Not just on your revenue, but on your energy. Where do you do your best work? Who do you serve most naturally? What have you been selling that you're not winning, and what have you been winning that you've been underselling?
The market will keep shifting. The only durable thing is knowing what you're actually good at and being honest about it with the people you want to serve.
We spent 18 months figuring that out. We're better for it. And I'm more excited about what we're building than I've been in years. I want to thank Sophie Blum for encouraging me to do this work. I will be joining her C-Forward cohort to further propel this work forward.
How to Work With Us
If you're a brand navigating the wellness space and you want a partner who has been inside this industry long enough to know what actually works, reach out. I'd love a conversation. Drop me a line at hello@wisewellnessguild.com or contact us here.
If you're a leader preparing to step into a new role (executive, founder, role expansion) and you want a coach who understands both the clinical world and the business world that's a separate practice I run through Stevi Carr Coaching. While the majority of my client base is physician leaders, I work with high-achieving executives across all industries, aiming to achieve more, sustainably. Reach out to me here.
And if you just want to follow along, the Wellness Pulse goes out every week, and it's the most honest take on what's happening in wellness you'll find in your inbox. You can subscribe at wisewellnessguild.com
Here's to doing the work — the visible kind, and the invisible kind.
— Stevi Gable Carr
Founder, WISe Wellness Guild & WellNXT Global