Insights With Trent Munday

University of Derby, UK has announced that they will be dropping their Spa Management degree courses, due to a steady decline in student numbers. On the other side of the world, Melbourne's RMIT University no longer offers its Master in Wellness degree. According the University of Derby, the Spa Industry is shifting to more industry-led qualifications. Maybe? Not sure? But the problem is, in many countries, the authorities and regulators do not accept Spa industry qualifications. Instead, they insist on recognised institutional degrees. The regulators say they require institutional qualifications. The institutions say they can't provide them. This looks like it's going to become a MASSIVE problem. #spamanagement #education #spaindustry #regulators   Thanks to Amanda Pauley at Professional Beauty & Kathryn Dowthwaite-Blay for their contributions.

Fear of Failure can be crippling. But what about Fear of Success? Some people effectively self-sabotage their own work, even without realising it, for fear of what might happen if they actually succeed. This is especially true of those working on a 'Side Hustle' in the hope of finding their next career. And it's even more severe when the Side Hustle is a success by many measures, but maybe not quite strong enough financially for that person to walk away from their current job and go all in on the new thing.   #fearoffailure #fearofsuccess #sidehustle

One of the last remaining consumer magazines for the Spa industry in Asia, AsiaSpa, has announced they have ceased operations, as of October 28th, 2019. The publisher of AsiaSpa, Blue Inc Media, is itself a subsidiary of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). SPH had a major management shakeup earlier this year. It would be easy to write this off as just another example of the changing face of the Media Industry. But could it also be a sign of the changing face of the Spa Industry too?   #spaindustry #mediaindustry #publications

BIG NEWS...for those that have been asking. I have now got the FULL archive of Trent365, in both Audio and Video format, on my website for your listening and viewing pleasure. :-) Just head on over to https://www.trentmunday.com/ and on the menu bar you'll see an option for PODCAST & VIDEO. There's a Search function on both pages so should have no trouble finding the episodes of interest. Love it? Hate it? Don't care? Let me know either way.    PS: Here's a link to the Jet Lag app I mentioned... https://www.timeshifter.com/   #contentstrategies #personalbranding #contentcreation

We all know that you get dehydrated when you fly. But even I didn’t realise just how much. It turns out you can loose up to 2 litres of water on a long haul flight - like the 13 hr flight I just did from London to Kuala Lumpur. So drink up! #dehydration #flying #traveltips 

Google has just made a meaningful update to their search algorithm. BERT - Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. There's lots of technical explanations to exactly what the new update means, but in short, it makes it better and understanding the real intent of the search query. The new update will process words in relation to all the other words in a sentence, rather than one-by-one in order. BERT models can therefore consider the full context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it—particularly useful for understanding the intent behind search queries. Here's a great article to explain it all much better than I ever could... https://www.blog.google/products/search/search-language-understanding-bert #BERT #googleupdates #algorithms #search

We all know WeWork has been a train wreck. Legendary Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz says if only they had a Great But guy in the organisation, things might have turned out very differently. Every company needs at least one person who will say, 'That's great...but...what about...?' Who is your Great But guy...or girl?   #wework #companyculture #questioning

Google has launched their Digital Wellbeing Experiments. 6 new Apps, designed for Android of course, created to help you manage your time and exposure to your digital devices. They’re also inviting developers to download the Hack Pack to get access to the API and create their own Experiments. Interesting times in the world of Digital Wellness. https://experiments.withgoogle.com/collection/digitalwellbeing  #wellness #digitaldetox #digitalwellbeing 

The simplest of gestures can make a significant impact. Case in point, The Cookie by Doubletree! Whenever you check in at a Doubletree by Hilton hotel, they give you a really yummy, warm, chocolate chip cookie. It is the ONLY welcome / arrive gift that I still remember from the many, many hotels I've stayed at over the years. Simple. Impactful. Memorable. And a great brand message. #doubletreebyhilton #cookie #hotels #welcome #branding

Have you got a specific age demographic in mind for your product or service and would like to do some market research to find out a little bit more about what makes them tick? Get on to Tinder! Yes, the Match Making app. That's what David Harry Stewart, the founder of AGEIST did when he set out to launch a publication, and ultimately a community, for the over 50's. Super smart! Love it! #ageing #publications #marketresearch

The Number 1 benefit of attending most conferences is meeting people. When you're at an event for the first time and/or don't know anyone else, it can be difficult to connect. So why not have random Speed Dating sessions on the first day of your event? If it's a multi-day event, you can have these sessions at various times each day. It's a great way to make newcomers feel welcome AND a great way for those that seem to know everyone, to meet new people they otherwise may not have. #spaconference #networking #events #conferences #GWS2019

In today's world of Influencers, being a Thought Leader is something lots of people strive to be. To be completely honest, I do too. But maybe simply being a Thought Contributor is enough for most people. Join in the conversation. Add your thoughts. But don't obsess about having to be the Thought Leader.   #thoughtleader #influencer #contributor

Many think of Baby Boomers as a bit slow when it comes to technology. But as David McCaughan pointed out in his presentation at the Global Wellness Summit in Singapore last week, they could in fact be considered the true technology natives. The Boomers have had to cope with...Television...Remote Controls....Walkman...Automatic Teller Machines...Personal Computers...Mobile Phones...etc. So when marketing to the Baby Boomers, don't assume they don't get technology. #babyboomers #marketing #technology

NEWS FLASH - although the Baby Boomers are today aged between 55 - 75 years old...they think of themselves as 20 years younger than their biological age. We're living better, longer. So when it comes to marketing to the Baby Boomers, make sure your messaging skews at least 20 years younger than the actual age demographic you're targeting. That was another insight from the Global Wellness Summit in Singapore last week. #ageing #babyboomers #gws2019 #targetmarket

The Restaurant Of Mistaken Orders in Japan openly states on its website... 'All of our servers are people living with dementia. They may, or may not, get your order right' 'It's OK if my order was wrong. It tastes so good anyway.' Brilliant!  Their aim is 'To spread dementia awareness and to make society just that little bit more open minded and relaxed.' Love it! If you're ever in Japan, go check it out... http://www.mistakenorders.com/en/home.html #dementia #dementiaawareness #dementiafriendly

CBD is all the rage in Wellness circles right now. Indeed, it was a topic discussed this week at the Global Wellness Summit in Singapore. Here's a few things I didn't know... 1. There's no evidence that too much topical application of CBD oil (ie: when you are a therapist performing multiple massages per day using CBD oil) has any side effects. - BUT...the same was said about Essential Oils 20 years ago too. So Best Practice would be to limit the number of treatments any one therapist does using CBD oil.   2. 3% of any CBD ingested is converted by your body into THC (ie: the 'bad bit' of the Cannabis plant)   3. As the CBD market continues to grow rapidly, Branded CBD will become important. #cbd #cbdproducts #gws2019 #wellness

Wellness Tourism is a market segment valued at $639 billon according to the most current data published by the Global Wellness Economy Monitor. Yesterday I heard a discussion on a recent study by the Wellness Tourism Initiative that people are turning to the local spa for the best information on where to go and what to do in terms of Wellness Tourism destinations and activities. So, I get to thinking, this could be a meaningful revenue opportunity for Hotel Spas.   #wellnesstravel #wellness #gws2019 #hotelspa #tomorrowspa

The Global Wellness Economy is now valued at $4.5 trillion. The Global Economy of Physical Activity report has just been published. They have expanded the scope of what was Fitness Mind Body, which was a $595 billion industry.  The Physical Activity segment is now valued at $828 billion. Here's a link to the FREE report... https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/industry-research/global-economy-physical-activity/ #wellness #wellnessindustry #wellnesseconomy

Visiting Practitioners are a great way for a Spa to keep their offering fresh, interesting and exciting. As with any therapist or practitioner in your Spa, it is important that you as the Manager or Business Owner have the appropriate insurances in place. In many countries, it is not enough to simply have liability insurance on behalf of the business itself. Individual spa therapists also need to have personal / professional liability insurance. But when it comes to a Visiting Practitioner, finding an insurance company willing to take the risk, on a global level, is not so easy. Toby Maguire has asked the question... 'Are there any insurance companies out there that will insure a Visiting Practitioner to work anywhere in the world?' Great question! I don't know. Do you? If so, please let me know. #wellness #liabilityinsurance #spa #visitingpractitioner

Storytelling is, quite simply, the way people remember.  The more you can tell interesting stories around your brand, your business, your product or your service, the more chance you have of that resonating with the market. Many struggle with knowing where to start when it comes to telling their story. Here's a really simple way to start that anyone can try...tell the story of your people. Just take a look at what Andras Szemes and the team has started doing for Mandara Spa Asia. #storytelling #branding #brand #marketing #communication