Inspired by her positive first-hand experience with plant-based nutrition, Holistic Health Coach Manasa Rajan launched her very own healthy raw snack with Cure Bars. After finding success in retail, the founder then moved on to the cure.fit platform, to be able to reach a wider audience and help make a real impact on their health. She shares advice and recommendations for aspirants who wish to enter this competitive space and invest in personal branding that’s authentic, respected, and credible.
1. What’s your educational & professional background?
I did my MBA in Marketing and started my career in Corporate Communications at a stockbroking firm. A few years later, once I had my daughter, I became interested to learn more about improving my own health, which led me to study nutrition and also begin a process of research and extensive reading about food and how it relates to health & fitness. I then went on to study plant-based nutrition and began working with people on their health journey, as a Holistic Health Coach.
2. What prompted you to become a health coach?
In the beginning, at the time of my own health transformation through clean eating and a plant foods lifestyle, the change that my friends and family saw was so striking, that many of them requested me to help them make a similar switch. While working with many friends and family and seeing their remarkable transformation to beat joint pain, diabetes, PCOS, skin issues, and migraines, I found my calling. I knew there was a lot of merits and I could help people improve their health in a manner that would make a real difference to their quality of life.
3. What was your first milestone as the founder of Cure Bars, and how did you get there?
I had been working as a health coach for 6-7 years, at the time, and I could see that with so many of my coaching clients, there was a need for clean-labelled packaged snacks that are truly healthy for you. There were very few brands and such products at the time. And that’s how I came up with the idea to create a snack that is raw, packed with nutrient-dense superfoods, and truly healthy and convenient to carry. It also helped me channel my passion for food, and fulfilled my love for creating and experimenting with new recipes.
4. How long did it take you to monetise your venture, Cure Bars?
Based on the quality of the product, it took me 1.5 months to establish the product, and then I was also funded. With funding, I got visibility and brands like Nature’s Basket, and HyperCity slotted my product. Then GST was introduced and complete chaos ensued, and I realised, we needed more accountants than salesforce. That’s when I realised, I can do more by working through a platform than by going at it alone.
5. What made you decide to work with cure.fit as a health coach for their eat.fit platform?
It was with the intention to create a substantial impact on the overall health ecosystem, where I could create change towards the availability of clean foods without chemicals on a large scale. I wanted to be instrumental in the change towards the expectation of people, in their own health through a larger nutrition coaching platform, as well as through the digital content platform.
6. What’s your strategy when it comes to personal branding on social media?
I share content as a natural extension of my health philosophy. My posts are all about my personal journey, and about foods/recipes that I experiment with. I view social media as a fun place to share ideas with people and create a community of people who are on their health journey, where I can play some part in motivating and empowering them with knowledge sharing. There’s no ‘strategy’ as such. I believe so strongly in what I stand for, that I live it every day effortlessly. What you see on social media is just me; no pretence, no gimmicks.
7. What are your tips for an aspirant who wants to become a renowned and respected health coach in 2020?
I think knowledge is key, which is fast-evolving in this field. You need to be willing to read and absorb all the information doing the rounds and be able to decipher what’s authentic and what’s not. This will help you be clear on what you wish to stand for. Also, as a health coach having empathy is a very important and effective quality. You have to coach people through their highs and their lows. Lastly, it’s the age of digital and having a social media presence and following is obviously very helpful in 2020. It helps you reach and engage with a much wider audience.
8. Are there any online/offline courses you would recommend?
For Nutrition, I highly recommend the eCornell course on Plant-Based Nutrition.
You can follow and connect with Manasa Rajan on her Instagram.
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