Health and Wellness from Body Local Bleecker May 24, 2015 Featured, Fitness, Health, Lifestyle, NYC Happenings, NYC Services For individuals working in the health and wellness industry in NYC, it can be hard connecting with others in the field. Sure you may have your accra yoga partner and your green juice drinking buddy, but hardly ever do the healthy like minded folks get the opportunity to network with new and old friends in the field. Body Local wants to change just that. Their mission is simply to connect fitness and wellness practitioners, of all kinds, with one another so that together they can build successful businesses and a healthier society. How so? From the Body Local website Generate lots of networking opportunities for fitness and wellness providers that help them build and maintain powerful referral networks. Generate a community of trust and transparency amidst fitness and wellness providers so that they can work together to meet their goals. Provide a peer mentoring platform where our members can learn from one another and share best practices on business operations such as pricing strategy and customer retention. Provide pertinent and timely information on trainings, best practices, and other business opportunities so that the community as a whole grows and works together. Create dialogues between our Members and emerging & established fitness and wellness brands so that both benefit from one another. As the healthy writer for Eat Up New York, I thought a Body Local event would be a great way for me to discover new and unique health and fitness happenings in the city. Not to mention that it also happened to be right across the street from our offices! It was meant to be. The Body Local event was a Networking Luncheon and was meant specifically for “any fitness or wellness practitioner in NYC.” And if you fit that role, why then should you attend? To cultivate your referral sources, connect with your community, enjoy a delicious meal (sold!), bring home treats for your clients (double sold!), and experience a beautiful wellness center that’s new to you. Networking and Lunch with Body Local First order of business: fill up your plate with a heaping serving of delicious and healthy food, which was catered by Kitchen Therapy, a whole-food and plant based delivery service. Afterwards, the attendees took their lunch plates and we all took our seats in a large circle. Once seated, Ben Fleisher, the co-founder of Body Local gave a brief introduction. He then instructed each attendee to take 20 seconds (ideally) to introduce ourselves and share something we’re excited about. The guests ranged from fitness professionals and trainers and health coaches to acupuncturists and massage therapists. Everyone had a ton of exciting projects and events going on that I’m looking forward to trying out soon! After introductions, we had just enough time for some one-on-one action. Guests connected with people with similar careers and were able to chat and bounce ideas off one another. A bell would ring every 5 minutes or so, signaling us to move on and chat with someone else. As we wrapped up our final conversations, Ben let us know that we’d all be emailed a list of the attendees along with their contact information. As we left we were handed a goodie bag filled with healthy treats and coupons from sponsors of the event, the perfect send off! Overall, the Body Local luncheon was the perfect way to network with others in the health and wellness field around New York. Although this one was rather small, I believe these events have a much larger potential. It is hard to network and connect with others in the field when you’re so focused on achieving success with your own business. But what we often forget is how important it is to have a solid support system. Now with networking luncheons, community events, and so much more, we can sit back, relax, and let Body Local do all the work! For more information on upcoming events, and to become a Body Local member, follow this link.
