What is Wellness-Driven Communications?
Spoiler Alert: It’s About Manifesting Positivity to Achieve Impact, Engagement, and Trust
I founded Fieldrose after working in marketing, PR, and communications for the past twenty years across multiple industries, including corporate business, nonprofit, education, arts, health, science, research, and agency. Fieldrose takes a unique perspective when it comes to the type of communications it offers: wellness-driven communications. I created “wellness-driven communications” as the foundation of Fieldrose because I believe in setting positive intentions and manifesting positive vibes to achieve mission-driven impact that helps people. So often, when we communicate, we forget what our goals are, or we set out too quickly and put out confusing messaging in the hopes of making a few bucks. This disjointed communication can push us off the path to success as marketers, clients, and people, because we’re not intentional enough with our boundaries, energy, and purpose.
Over the past two decades, I have noted common themes that occurred amongst internal marketing and communications teams no matter what, including:
Extreme burnout and stress across marketing teams occurs across sectors. And it’s the general nature of the marketing job function, not the industry, that causes burnout and stress to occur. One study reported nearly 100% of PR professionals surveyed stated that work-related stress negatively impacted their health.
Unclear communications and expectations result in battles that worsen team morale and lead to ineffective marketing and PR outcomes and turnover.
Too many opinions adds to stress. Making business decisions without data to back them up is not a strategy.
It is often poor, misguided, or lacking internal communications that contributes to the most challenges marketing teams have when it comes to executing external communications and effectively achieving goals. Indeed, George Bernard Shaw said that “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
But what does “wellness” even mean?
The immensely profitable global wellness industry is worth $5.6 trillion, according to a 2023 report from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI). The term “wellness” is so prolific that it can mean anything from getting a vision check-up to spending $4,000 on sketchy snail vitamins that some random TikTok influencer sold you on. It is true that the meaning of the word can have many loose interpretations and the terms “health” and “wellness” are often used interchangeably.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (illness).” It is important to remember that for optimal health to be achieved, wellness has to be reached first. Put simply: wellness is what happens on the way to good health. Wellness is a positively-lived, non-toxic life.
The University of Maryland’s Your Guide to Living Well outlines eight dimensions of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental, and states that “while all dimensions of wellness need our attention for us to truly flourish, there doesn’t have to be a balance among all dimensions. Instead, the goal is to find a personal harmony with the dimensions that are most authentic for you. You can’t get there passively, it requires active awareness, acceptance, and commitment through choices you make every day, no matter how small.”
One of the most important choices we have every day is how and why we communicate. While we cannot *always* control who we communicate with, or sometimes, what we say, we can aim to actively control the messages and energy we give and receive in the world as much as possible.
Wellness-driven communications is purpose-driven communications with the goal of achieving greater health.
To put it another way: it’s the strategic use and promotion of positive and intentional creative brand offerings and meaningful communications across all platforms to improve someone’s health and well-being.
The Bottom Line
In order to communicate to help others achieve wellness without burning yourself out in the process and running away screaming, it is critical to holistically understand your audience, purpose, and industry landscape so that you can put the right messaging and vibes into your brand content and best engage and help audiences along their journeys. Wellness-driven communications also relies on a clear strategic framework and goals in order to be successful.