Angela Steel is the founder of Superwellness, a business that specialises in helping busy professionals get on top of their nutrition.
We caught up with Angela to find out more about her journey in business so far.
Here’s what she had to say:
What inspired you to start Superwellness?
When I worked in my corporate job (marketing in the IT industry) I always felt there was something missing. I wanted to do something I believed in and that made a difference to people in a very measurable way. One year I went on a fasting holiday in Thailand, just to try out something new, and it made me realise how much what I ate affected how I felt. Three years later, having completed my nutrition studies, I decided I wanted to share this valuable knowledge with other people in the same situation as me. So as soon as the time was right, I left my job and started SuperWellness.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business to date?
Seeing the results achieved by attendees on our programmes is always rewarding. Participants in our first ever 3 month nutrition challenge, (staff at Kuoni Travel) improved their energy levels by 33% on average. Not knowing how well people would engage with our programme, it was a relief to find that it actually worked and there were measurable results to prove it!
What has been your most challenging moment and how did you overcome it?
Probably realising that a one-to-one model of nutritional consulting was not the way forward for growing my business sustainably. I did almost burn myself out in the process! I had the hunch that there was an opportunity to create a new type of service for the corporate market, so I picked up the phone and cold-called some companies to see what the reaction would be. It was positive, and one of my first clients was Harrods, so I carried on from there and haven’t looked back since.
What’s next for Superwellness?
I’m in the process of licensing the SuperWellness concept to enable nutritionists around the country to deliver the programmes. The aim is to create a national network of practitioners trained to the highest standards in working with corporates, delivering group programmes and getting the best possible level of engagement with employees. The initial idea has attracted huge interest in the nutrition community across the UK and Ireland, so watch this space!
If you could pass on one key tip for how our clients can use nutrition to improve their productivity at work, what would it be?
It would have to be to have a good breakfast! So many people don’t eat anything in the morning, either because they’re in a rush or they don’t feel hungry. The problem with running on empty for so long, is that it affects hunger levels later in the day, so they get home feeling ravenous. Your cells need a good source of energy to fire on all cylinders (especially brain cells, which require about half as much more energy than other cells to function properly). Protein is also very important as many of our brain chemicals (which make us feel motivated or happy for example) use protein as raw material. Not everyone has time to cook eggs in the morning, so I often recommend a good, clean protein shake for those who don’t eat breakfast. A word of warning though, read the ingredients list carefully and avoid any brands that contain sweeteners and artificial additives.
And finally, how has hybrid legal helped Superwellness?
Last year, Hybrid guided me through registering the Superwellness brand as a trademark to make sure it was protected. With all the work that’s gone into building the brand and the business, it would be a disaster to find that another company could have a claim over it and maybe even prevent us from using it. Having the expertise of Hybrid to help me through the process was invaluable and gave me peace of mind that all angles were covered.
