There’s something most new fitness and wellness practitioners learn, many early in their careers. Something that’s all over Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. It’s at your gym, spa, aestitician, and dermatologist.
They’re marketing what’s wrong with you.
Many service practitioners in the fitness and wellness space learn early on that if they want to build a thriving business they need to sell to your problems.
If you were around for the early 2000s you probably remember The Pickup Artist fad - Neil Strauss’ book The Game or Mystery on VH1. Negging was a technique these men would use to make women feel bad about themselves and then sleep with them.
The wellness and fitness industry are taught to neg you.
They tell you what’s wrong with you so you’ll buy their stuff.
Then, you’re solving a problem you weren’t even sure you had - and maybe don’t?
Here’s a common scenario:
You’re browsing on social media, scrolling through Insta, when a wellness influencer you follow pops up with a new reel. They rattle off a string of problems: “are you tired, frustrated, and exhausted all the time?” You didn’t think you were… but you’re thinking about it now!
“And are you struggling with how you look, too?!” Oh man, you were just thinking about how your jeans are getting tight (never mind that you put them in the dryer yesterday).
“Then you need <insert miracle product here> that I use every day to <insert bold, unsubstantiated claim here>. Use my discount code!”
BOOM! They’ve sold you the problem.
You hadn’t been feeling off. Your jeans shrunk in a normal way. But now you’ve got it in your head that without that supplement you’ll be struggling endlessly.
This happens over… and over… and over… throughout your day.
And it’s a marketing technique that’s pushed ad nauseum in these industries.
(I know - it’s how I learned at first)
When you learn they’re doing it, you can make more informed choices for your wellness
It’s not easy to de-program a lifetime of fitness and wellness marketing. Some ways it might show up:
That feeling that something is “wrong” with your body, even when you’re making progress or otherwise okay with how you look, move, and feel
Judging your nutrition choices as “bad”, “wrong”, or “can’t have” and that other foods are righteous, “good”, or a sign of someone’s value and goodness
Nitpicking your appearance, face, or beauty choices
Routinely searching for what’s “wrong” in your habits, self-care, fitness, nutrition, or other aspects of your wellness. Starting from the baseline that something needs to be improved, even if nothing feels off or under-nourished
As you pick up on these internalized judgements you can dig a little deeper with a simple series of self-inquiry:
“Where did I learn that?”
“Is it a helpful set of things for me to think/feel?”
If not, “what would be a more helpful thought/feeling?”
Finally, “how can I embody that new belief?”
Over time you’ll more readily recognize the manipulations these kinds of marketing tactics use, and how they make you feel. You might consider:
Unfollowing the accounts of influencers who use these tactics
Checking in with yourself when you realize you’ve been subject to them
Giving feedback to content creators you value when they use these tactics
Final Point of Clarity
Marketing manipulation is not to be confused with the assessments done as part of a typical consultation nor with a service provider making an offer. Let’s break each of those down.
Consultation vs Grift
Many providers in the fitness, wellness, and coaching spaces offer a free consultation before taking on a new client. This is a beneficial standard practice that allows the provider to gather much needed information, the client to gauge their own comfort with the provider, and for each to asses if they’re a good fit for the other.
As part of the consultation most practitioners will perform assessments to establish a baseline and gauge if their services will be helpful. An ethical practitioner will:
explain the assessment in terms that are understandable to you
show you the results of the assessment and explain how those results relate to you and to norms
alert you to anything concerning that you should consult a medical professional or specialist about - this includes mental health concerns
relate these assessments to any goals you have shared
A potential for grift and manipulation comes with these assessments. An ethical practitioner will be direct and frank with you about the assessments, your goals and desires, and how their services may help given this information. This offer is made as an attempt to inform, recognizing their business practices, and then respecting your decision making on what is going to work for you.
The manipulation/grift comes when these assessments are used as a tool to overcome your sales objections or convince you to purchase a larger or higher priced service.
Service Offers vs Marketing Tactics
Service providers are often working double duty as content creators to communicate valuable information, gain a following, and potentially build business. That path is a long haul and many service providers are looking for techniques to build success.
Nothing wrong with that - unless what they learn is the same harmful techniques common in the fitness and wellness space.
An ethical professional will put out content that informs, inspires, and generally communicates reliable information and tools while respecting their audience.
A grifty-marketer will typically tell you what’s wrong with you, why what you’re doing is wrong, and why they know something you don’t.
Spoiler alert: There is no magic secret that the industry is keeping from you.
No secret tool or tip or life hack that’s a magic wand.
There is good information, having a solid system for using that information, and your own personal journey towards integration and wholeness.
Which is all to say: there are many reliable, ethical, qualified practitioners in the fitness and wellness spaces. There are also many people who will say or do anything to separate you from your money. When you find yourself interacting with the latter: unfollow and unsubscribe.