PIVOT SERIES – How “The Way” have pivoted post Covid-19

As a Health and Wellness Business our days were usually occupied with helping clients in the gym, 1-1 coaching sessions on health topics like nutrition, stress management or visiting companies to teach, talk and work with their employees on all aspects of looking after health and wellbeing.

Since early January we had been watching with concern the news of Covid-19 from China but it wasn’t until 12^th Mach after listening to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s address that we realised that we had an immediate need to figure out how could we still do what we normally do or we would have no business to speak of at all.

Companies were all scrambling to answer the same questions and we needed to get their attention and the attention of our day to day customer to show them that we can still deliver our services despite the restrictions and distance between us.

Embracing Change

Our first adjustment was to quickly make investments in change – we knew we had to be able to give people workouts they could do daily with minimal equipment from home so we ran out to buy better audio and video tech before everyone else realised what was going on. Being a small company gives us the ability to make decisions quickly and this paid off as we were up and running within two days of the restrictions.

Another key investment we made was to make use of the technology that was always available to us e.g. Zoom and Google hangouts, this made delivering everything from cookery demos to mobility focused classes possible and provided us with a strong platform to keep in touch with our clients. We had to adapt quickly and establish a presence to reassure our them that we were still here for them or we might have become invisible due to the glut of ‘free’ offers that were being put out there by others.

Zooming in

The past 2-3 months have involved adjusting workspace in the house, grabbing equipment from the gym to deliver our daily workouts, lots of home DIY and more than it’s fair share of stress due to the uncertainty and unpredictability of work and trying to adjust to home schooling an 11yr old. We knew these were the same experiences that all our clients were facing and we and tried to reflect that in what we were offering through live Zoom sessions on nutrition, sleep, managing stress and how to stay resilient. We also remained active on our social media and posted daily to let people know tough times require connection, support and positive habits and we are here to help.

Our USP is our holistic health offering grounded in years of experience training clients face to face and working in a corporate environment – this has put us in a position where distance may be a hurdle but that has been made somewhat easier to jump due to the confidence we have in our services and the speed at which we pivoted.

Pivoting for the future

We have always had a people first approach to business and in the current climate we maintained close contact with our clients but not through aimless emails and texts but through good old-fashioned phone calls so we could really get a sense of what they needed and how we could help.

The Future is one we are all adjusting to, but we see Connection and Safety as the vital components in the future of our work.

We see a future where there are more outdoor spaces for people to come together to exercise free from the worries of going to a packed gym. Partnership and support from local councils and businesses will needed but imagine if our parks or business green spaces could be used for more than walkers and dogs.

“Excellence is the next five minutes”

We know that remote working will be reconfigured so that people are not stuck at home working but have access to shared spaces. We imagine a future where these shared spaces could also have space for health and wellbeing – for small group, minimal equipment workouts, talks, cookery demonstrations, led meditations etc and technology can deliver services like ours to those spaces.

As Tom Peter’s would say “Excellence is the next five minutes”, right now we focus on delivering excellence in that next phone call and in that next live Zoom session. We are writing our plans in pencil, not pen, adjusting in the now in the hope of creating a better future for us AND our clients.

www.thisistheway.ie
We are the go-to team for fitness and wellbeing.
Our way is simple – Move Well, Train Well, and Eat Well to be well!
Grainne & Dominic

You can catch Grainne and Dominic on the following social media platforms:

Grainne on Instagram
Dominic on Instagram
Grainne on Twitter
Dominic on Twitter