Most wellness concepts don’t fail because they lack beautiful facilities or trending treatments.

They fail because they were built from the top of the iceberg down, not from the base up.


Over the years, I’ve worked with wellness founders, hotel owners, and consultants who deeply care about doing wellness properly. Their intention is solid. Their belief in wellness is genuine.


And yet, many still ask the same question:
“What kind of wellness offering should I build?”


That question is already part of the problem.


In this episode, I unpack the single distinction that explains why some wellness concepts thrive and endure, while others struggle, stall, or quietly disappear. It’s a thinking model I use with every client and in my own work: the Wellness Value Iceberg.


It reveals where real value in wellness is actually created, and why starting with trends, tools, or treatments puts your entire concept at risk.


Here are the 3 things we explore in this episode:


1.- Why wellness succeeds or fails at the level it is designed

A well-designed wellness concept isn’t just beautiful or innovative. It’s anchored in purpose. And if it’s designed well, it can only endure if it’s stewarded well.


2.- The Wellness Value Iceberg explained


The base: Why you are doing wellness, what success truly means to you and who you want to serve


The middle: How you want to create impact and transformation


The tip: What individual wellness elements you choose

Most businesses start at the tip. The ones that endure start at the base.


3.- Why starting with “what” puts your business at risk

When wellness is built around individual elements, trends, or tools, it becomes fragile. Market shifts hit harder, differentiation disappears faster, and long-term value erodes.


By the end of this episode you’ll understand why starting with your why is the only way to design a wellness concept that transforms guests, performs commercially, and endures over time.

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Are you ready to take wellness to the next level?


Here are 2 ways I can help:


1️⃣ WHO: Wellness directors who want to join 1% of wellness leaders


📌 WHAT: The Wellness Asset Academy
A 10-week online group programme where I guide you through my 7-step ESSENCE framework. Achieve higher pay and secure a genuine seat at the hotel’s big table—so wellness is no longer the most neglected area in the hotel.

→ Join the waitlist here.



2️⃣ WHO: Owners of small, independent hotels with a strong wellbeing focus


📌 WHAT: Asset Builder Mentorship
Exclusive 6-month 1:1 mentorship programme to master creating a wellness asset, build a proud team, and deliver transformative experiences for your guests.

Wellness has had its growth spurt.

But growth alone doesn’t create legacies.

In this episode, I share why 2026 marks a quiet but powerful shift in the wellness and hospitality industry, and why the next decade won’t be led by those chasing trends, but by those who’ve earned the right to design what endures.

As I closed 2025 and stepped into 2026, I found myself reflecting on more than two decades in wellness.

I’ve seen this industry move from the margins to the centre.

From spa as an afterthought to wellness as a serious commercial and cultural conversation.

I’ve lived through the years of having to convince.

Convince owners.

Convince brands.

Convince boards.

And now, five years after publishing The Wellness Asset, I’m working with a very different kind of entrepreneur—purpose-led founders and land owners who don’t want wellness at any cost, but want it done with coherence, responsibility, and intelligence.

This episode is a reflection on what has crystallised for me over the last 20+ years, and why I’m choosing to spend the next 25 teaching what I know works.

Here are the 3 things we wxplore in this episode:

1.- Why the wellness boom is over, and why that’s a good thing

The last five years have shown us that scale without stewardship creates backlash. Overtourism, community resistance, hollow wellness claims - these are symptoms of growth without depth. The next era belongs to those designing with intention.

2. The shift from fluid intelligence to crystallised intelligence

In our earlier years, we borrow frameworks. We study others. We absorb endlessly.

But there comes a point where wisdom stops being external, and becomes authored. I share how this shift has shaped my work, my models, and my decision to teach from lived intelligence rather than theory.

3. Why there is no longer a playbook, and why that’s liberating

There is no single way to “do wellness right.”

Every destination, every land, every founder carries a unique intelligence. The future belongs to those who stop copying and start designing: from who they are and what they stand for.

By the end of the episode you’ll understand:

→ Why wellness is no longer about facilities, features, or trends

→ What it truly means to build a wellness business that performs and endures

→ Why the most powerful work ahead is not scaling faster but stewarding better

And how to recognise when it’s time to stop looking outside for more and start implementing what you already know.

Wellness is no longer something guests do on holiday.

It’s something they expect to be supported in, from the moment they book to long after they leave.

In this episode, I’m joined by Emma Sleight, Head of Content at The World’s 50 Best Hotels, to explore how hospitality is being reshaped by changing guest expectations, deeper definitions of wellness, and a growing demand for meaning, connection, and place-led experience.

This is a conversation for anyone building, operating, or advising hotels and destinations that want to stay relevant in the next decade of travel.

Emma’s career has always revolved around storytelling across journalism, food, travel, and global brands. Today, she sits at the intersection of insight and influence, overseeing content, voting academies, and industry narratives for one of hospitality’s most powerful global platforms.

From that vantage point, she sees patterns long before they become trends.

In this conversation, we unpack what Emma and her team are seeing across continents, cultures, and property types, and why the future of hospitality is no longer about “adding” wellness, sustainability, or design, but about integrating them into a coherent ecosystem that actually serves the guest.

Here are the 3 things we uncover in this episode:

1.- Why hospitality has shifted from experiences to ecosystems

Guests no longer choose hotels based on rooms alone. They build entire journeys around singular experiences: wellness rituals, food philosophies, landscapes, or cultural connection. Hotels are now part of a much wider, more intentional travel ecosystem.

2.- How wellness has moved from spa amenity to strategic differentiator

“Wellness” is no longer a spa menu or a gym in the basement. Emma shares how leading hotels are embedding wellbeing across design, food, sleep, movement, and emotional experience, often rooted in local culture and backed by science.

3.- What the World’s 50 Best is really responding to right now

From new award categories to the expansion of discovery platforms, Emma explains how diversity, authenticity, sustainability, and place-based storytelling are shaping what gets recognized, and why smaller destinations and secondary cities are increasingly coming into focus.

By the end of the episode you’ll understand why:

→  Wellness and sustainability are now baseline expectations, not “nice-to-haves”

→  The most compelling hotels start with who they are before deciding what they offer

→  Future-ready hospitality brands design for emotion, memory, and meaning, not just aesthetics or trends

And why the hotels that endure will be the ones that build clarity, coherence, and credibility into every layer of the guest journey.