Exploring Life & Business with Heath Wessling of Kansas City Wellness Club

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heath Wessling.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
This business is built off of a guided journey that I’ve been on and the work ethic gained from growing up in farm-dominated rural Iowa; my 18-year career managing IT systems at Cerner- the last 10 in Wellness; my 3 years living and working in London and traveling the world; 9 years of running a successful real estate investment company; and the encouragement I gained the last 5 years while being my living test lab for purchasing personal items from only local and regional economies. These experiences have equipped me to develop an immense interest in sustainability in all its forms and compelled me to dedicate my life to this opportunity. These passions produced a concept called Fresh Choice, which centers around empowering localized economies/businesses and personal programming to guide people to transition into sustainable new age living in a cost-neutral way to their existing budget by delivering simplified engagement tools for living a more local & wellness-focused fulfilling life that saves them time and money. In the fall of 2018, my lawyer reviewed the Fresh Choice business plan, and precisely 1 DAY after that, I learned about the open space at the grand historic Kansas City Club building and how the core infrastructure of multiple treatment rooms and existing sauna/steam components already existed. I knew that I had just manifested that vision and that this was the next step in my life mission. We fully launched in late January of 2020- less than 2 months before the world shut down for the CV pandemic. We courageously battled through the period by speaking a timely message- improve your health, strengthen your immune system, and plug into local economies to enable resilience to whatever future adverse events come our way. Having established the Health component, we are now introducing the Food component of the larger vision- helping people automate their repeatable engagement with everyday food needs. We need bold leaders in the health industry to help lead us out of this moment in time in a reasonable and supportive way. I recognize and humbly accept my responsibility to play a substantial role in navigating us through this journey.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Severe construction delays, limited resources, necessary prioritization, and adverse conditions all affected our planned launch date and pushed it back by nearly a year. For our first 2 years, our Mayor and local policy experts told people to stay home, avoid crowds, and not go to gyms or fitness centers, greatly affecting our marketing and sales efforts. Since I initially decided to fund this business on my own, and then the CV pandemic hit, I am limited in the funding available due to being new to the market and able only to post less-than-ideal pandemic financial numbers.

Thanks for sharing that. Can you tell us more about your business next?
We solve the problems of 1) people feeling stuck in life, always “so busy,” growing weary of a complex traditional “healthcare delivery model” and struggling with rising healthcare costs yet still not able to achieve- and maintain- optimal health, which is very timely these last couple years where good health is on a lot of people’s minds; and 2) people feeling burdened with rises in cost of living due to inflation & global supply chain issues, feeling uncomfortable from adverse Skyfall events (3 since 2001) that significantly alter their life, and wanting to support local businesses that benefit their friends, family, and local economy. We solve these problems by a) operating a brick-and-mortar holistic wellness center that saves people time & money by providing all their health & wellness needs in one place (massages, facials, hair salon, energy healing, wellness coaching, sauna, steam room, yoga, fitness center, even Virtual Reality) and does so using only natural/earthy products & treatments; and b) simplifying their pathway to lifestyle cost/time savings by automating the repeatable engagement one has with their everyday tasks by taking people’s existing monthly budgets that they spend on those everyday tasks (food on the table, clothes on their back), along with their taste and style preferences, out to a localized marketplace where only natural, sustainably focused businesses fulfill those orders. People want to support local; they seek more resiliency & stability, so we help them align their actions & choices to their intentions, and in the process, the economic activity & strength in the KC region are enhanced. In our first year of operation, we have already won Kansas City’s Best Day Spa award. In September 2023, the Kansas City Mayor declared September 9th to be Kansas City Wellness Club Day, honoring our success, breathing life back into the historic Kansas City Club building, and our contributions to the community since our opening.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
In many ways, this is a new industry, and there have already been businesses adapting to it and creating versions of their own. People always want more convenience- they always seek to save time & money- and therefore, the market will demand more centralized wellness centers. Places where they can get all their main life needs taken care of- Health, Food, Clothing, and Home- in ways that align with their core values of wanting to empower local businesses, be friendly to the planet, and align their actions & choices to those intentions.

Pricing:

• Massage for $90
• Facial or Energy Healing session for $120
• Day Pass for $29
• Memberships (with Hair Salon & Wellness Coaching & yoga classes included) starting at $111/month

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kcwellnessclub.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kcwellnessclub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KCwellnessclub
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kansas-city-wellness-club
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KCWellnessClub
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kcwellnessclub