Healthy Business

Today is National Fitness Day, and I’ve just returned from a lovely 45 minute lunch break run with a good friend. We moved outdoors in nature, got some good healthy sunshine on our skin, talked some personal challenges through and also had a good laugh and shared a few silly jokes. The health benefits of that hour would be just as huge if we’d gone for a walk together too: don’t over think exercise, just get out.

The National Fitness Day campaign’s role is to highlight how physical activity can assist us to lead healthier lifestyles, reducing susceptibility to preventable disease, reducing health risks, and boosting recovery from treatments and cancer. I’m on board with that. Millions get involved each year, and the campaign has evolved to encourage everyone to view this day as just one small step in a much bigger journey.

Both personally and professionally I know a thing or two about habit building. I speak about it in an upcoming podcast episode later this year on this topic, and I understand from personal challenges and changes how simple, small actions, however far removed from your goal, build to create sustainable positive change. I’ve gone from a daily jog, to a robust training regime leading?me to multiple ultra marathons and endurance rides. Start small.

We Can’s relevant expertise on all of this.

Back in 2022, We Can Creative, my consultancy, were commissioned by Luton to develop a wide-spread creative campaign to combat the stigma surrounding mental health and wellbeing in their community.

Our idea centred around a set of evidence-based public mental health messages aimed at improving the mental health and wellbeing of the whole population.

The campaign we developed received overwhelmingly positive feedback across the board, both from the council and the public, and achieved 100% of Luton’s objectives. Attendees of the launch event reported a 91% improvement in awareness of the Five ways to wellbeing off the back of our work.?

Moreover, our campaign’s website utilised the Council’s trusted links to successfully direct individuals to local mental health services, ensuring the vital ongoing support within the community. Overall, the project significantly contributed to reducing stigma and promoting mental wellbeing in Luton.

The power of a big idea - One Small Step.

UK Active’s theme for the 2024 National Fitness Day is ‘Your Health is for Life’, and holds a powerful message that can resonate with us all. National Fitness Day is no longer about exercising at just that one moment in time but about the longevity in taking small steps towards a lifestyle which can both protect and improve your health.

For our work within Luton, We Can worked within the EAST framework to optimise insights from the research to directly inform our creative work. Our in-house team, with strategy led by Alice Bell , devised the campaign’s big idea of “One Small Step”, which focused on simple, relatable habits that are easy to adopt, and aligned with the wider Five ways to wellbeing. A powerful yet simple approach backed by science.

The team engaged and directly collaborated with leading mental health professionals and respected Luton community members to ensure our campaign had genuine relevance and vital inclusivity – a vital element in engaging a richly diverse community.?

How you can benefit from our work.

One part of this project I was most proud of our team for was an idea from our original pitch, created and developed in house, of a brand new digital tool, a "Wellbeing Wall", now called “Read The Room”.?

This interactive online resource provided a safe space for sharing how you felt regarding your mental health and was built to be flexible enough to use in a variety of settings.

It provides a safe space for sharing how you feel, in line with mental health. This tool is designed to be flexible enough to use in a variety of settings.

We are launching this product soon under the title “Read The Room", which can be white-labled for a brand to provide instant visual feedback on a business’ employees mental health, providing an ongoing snapshot over time, or to use at an event or a community group.

The engagement with the digital wellbeing wall we launched in Luton after the campaign was huge – particularly through social media – and robustly demonstrated its effectiveness in facilitating vital discussions around mental health in a fresh, anonymous and more visual way.

Prioritizing health can significantly impact business success. Healthy habits improve physical and mental well-being, leading to increased productivity, creativity, and resilience. This can result in better decision-making, reduced absenteeism, and a more positive work environment.

Get in touch.

If you’d like early access to this science-backed tool “Read The Room” for your business or event, contact me directly on LinkedIn and I can send you more information.

Or call me on 07790829050.

+ Join me

Every last Sunday in the month, I, with my business ROAR Porridge, host an easy trail run from No.7 Coffee House Bedford - nobody is left behind, we all move together, and enjoy some outdoor exercise, lots of chat, and polyphenol rich coffee to boost the benefits even further. You can sign up here: