Wellness for Everyone: Why Diversity Matters for Self-Care Events
For wellness event creators with fresh new ideas that cater to marginalized audiences, there’s ample opportunity to carve out a niche.
Download NowThe wellness industry (now worth $4.2 trillion!) is booming. From yoga festivals to virtual meditation groups to massage pop-ups, opportunities to rejuvenate and connect with oneself abound. But what you may not be thinking about is this: the wellness world has been highly gentrified. Despite the fact that many wellness practices originated in Eastern cultures, the world of self-care events today skews largely affluent and white.
If you are an event creator with a passion for wellness and a vision for expanding it to new audiences outside the Instagram norm of young, white, and wealthy, then this is the ebook for you. Inside, you’ll learn:
- How to create a unique wellness event brand
- The inroads to finding and gaining the trust of your audience
- How to ensure your message remains consistent across your event partnerships
- How to apply the logistics of profitable events to your particular niche
Preview
01. Tap into under-explored areas of wellness culture
The founders of Black to Yoga are veteran yoga teachers. Over time, Kirsten Rogers, Maureen Miller, and Zenovia Forbes noticed an uncanny pattern in the demographics of most of the classes they taught: they were very white. As black women living in a racially diverse city, they saw room – and a calling – for a different kind of yoga.
So the three launched their Oakland-centered yoga business to bring yoga to black women across the city. Of their yoga classes, Miller says, “It’s very different than any other class I’ve taken or taught. It’s a place I can come be me, and bring what I have: my sense of humor, joy, my sense of lightness, my sense of play. People are happy to be in the space and appreciate the community vibe we’re building.”
Black to Yoga looks to create a space that’s comfortable for the black community. “My playlists are one of the most important parts of my classes,” says Miller. “I get to bring in some funk, some soul, and some old-school hip hop that I might not necessarily bring into the other places I teach. It creates a different energy and vibe, and really sparks a sense of joy in my classes.”