We were lucky to catch up with Stevi Carr recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stevi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

“What got you here will NOT get you there” was the phrase I continued to remember through one of the most difficult moments of my career. The team that had a hand in building WISe Wellness Guild from the beginning was incredible, but the strategy required more dedicated expertise than the “side-hustle” support I had leveraged for almost two years. We had plateaued, I was too stretched, and the majority of my resources were placed in important but non-revenue generating areas. After consulting with coaches, a therapist and my team, I paused all team support for for three months.

During that time I examined our company purpose- to advance humans through whole-self wellness, helping them to achieve peak-performance and avoid burnout. We hadn’t waivered- but our “how” needed to change. At the time, we had already reached consumers in 50 states and 6 countries with programming and but I hadn’t cracked the revenue model to support the 400+ businesses that wanted to work with WISe. I also recognized that 80% of our effort was being placed towards managing small business relationships while it generated less than 20% of total revenue.

One lesson I learned while at P&G was the concept of “better, cheaper, faster”- if we could achieve at least two of the three we could create value for businesses, the consumer and WISe. In an effort to increase speed of access to consumers for businesses and decrease cost to WISe, I created the WISe Wellness Marketplace, a shoppable platform that would empower small businesses to create their own storefront to be discovered by new consumers. Instead of spending company time on onboarding each individual business, members would leverage onboarding modules to create their very own virtual storefront. While the onboarding experience was no longer “white glove,” and definitely had kinks to sort out, it allowed for businesses to more efficiently start selling, allowing the WISe team to spend more time to support revenue-generating activities, like business development, advertising and corporate wellness consultation. Further, in order to keep costs manageable for small businesses, they welcomed the automation.

The Cincinnati-based MVP launched in August 2021, and closing out 2022 we serve over 200 US cities on the WISe Wellness Marketplace, offering the delightful discovery of vetted wellness brands through a curated consumer experience. Through focusing on a scaleable solution, our business revenue grew 280% with a projected growth of 3x in 2023. Notably, over 90% of our partnering businesses are woman and minority-owned, allowing consumers to invest their dollars where they can make the greatest inspect.

Our mission is to connect humans with the best resources, brands and services that can help them invest in their wellness. We continue to believe that small businesses can drive the greatest impact in local communities while corporations can partner to support on a national platform. Through perseverance, willingness to reevaluate strategy and making difficult choices, B2B2C business model has leveraged automation and the power of relationships to scale on a national level.

Stevi, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

WISe Wellness Guild is a B2B2C platform aimed at advancing humans through whole-self wellness. We pride ourselves in being experts in curated connections, building strategies to connect corporations, small businesses and consumers with one another.

I started WISe when I saw a need to better support people’s efforts to proactively invest in their wellness, versus waiting until they became sick. Through years of research and hundred of interviews I discovered that people WANT to be well, and have the KNOWLEDGE to be well, but lack the WISDOM to know how to apply their learnings for sustained habit change- hence, the name WISe was born.

WISe supports the delightful discovery of trusted wellness resources, brands and services through content, experiences and a WISe Wellness Marketplace, serving 400+ businesses in 50 US States and 6 countries. Our B2B offerings include strategic consultation, brokerage, content/program creation, and advertising. Partners include P&G, Kroger, Christ Hospital, Paycor, Fifth Third, Sibcy Cline, Crunchmaster Crackers, Unilever and many more.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

WISe has multiple lines of revenue that generate value across our partnerships:
– WISe corporate strategy operates like an agency (project-based)
– WISe Advertising is a lump-sum quarterly/annual investment
– WISe Partners is a membership model with reoccurring revenue
– WISe Wellness Marketplace generates revenue from a portion of every transaction on the platform

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Word of mouth has been the most effective strategy and, until recently, the only tactic used. Our commitment to respectful and mutually beneficial partnerships has allowed for our satisfied clients to to recommend us to colleagues and to grow with us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wisewellnessguild.com
• Instagram: @wise_wellness_guild
• Facebook: WISe Wellness Guild
• Linkedin: WISe Wellness Guild
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@wisewellnessguild2753
• Other: www.wisewellnessguildpartners.com (Business Partners)

Image Credits
Molly Carr Photography Tasha Pinelo Photography