Entrepreneur and businessman Jesse Cannone is the successful Co-Founder and CEO behind The Healthy Back Institute and purveyor of the cult-favorite natural supplement Heal-n-Soothe. However, he can also add certified post-rehabilitation specialist, personal trainer, and natural healthcare advocate to his impressive list of accreditations, experiences, and specialties. Truly believing in the message of natural wellness behind his company, Cannone aims to spread useful information to sufferers of chronic pain to help them live meaningful, healthy, and pain-free lives.
Inspired by his own health and wellness journey including various sports injuries, Jesse Cannone’s purpose was realized when he received particularly useful advice at a post-rehabilitation personal training summit. After receiving aid in a natural fashion, he recognized the immense need for alternative health and wellness to be available for the general public. Recognizing a lack of resources within this niche of healthcare, he set out to create The Healthy Back Institute.
Providing an extensive line of all-natural supplements, holistic pain management tips and resources, and all-encompassing interviews with more than 100 leaders within the alternative medicine field, The Healthy Back Institute has skyrocketed to the forefront of the growing holistic movement. As individuals around the country continue to become disheartened by interest-driven Big Pharma and recognize the detrimental side effects of conventional medicine, the future for The Healthy Back Institute, products like Heal-n-Soothe, and holistic resources looks bright.
How did you get started in this business? What inspired you to start this business?
I have always been interested in physical and mental wellness and have always been cognizant of the mind-body connection. Thus, I became certified as a Post-Rehabilitation Specialist, Specialist in Performance Nutrition, Advanced Level Fitness Trainer and Master Fitness Trainer. As a Personal Trainer, I helped many individuals from all walks of life reach their fitness goals and live generally healthier lives. Not only did I provide personal training services, but I also aided clients in recognizing that their personal habits may play significant roles in their overall wellness, including diet and food relationships, lifestyle, stress, and emotional trauma.
Unfortunately, my own chronic back pain, and pain from other sports injuries, began to take a toll on my professional life. As a Personal Trainer, being able to perform physically was always a requirement of the job. Thus, as my knee pain and back pain began to impede my ability to perform within my job, I started to consider my options for relief from this ongoing pain. Following a conventional medical route, I visited a surgeon, and of course, surgery was immediately recommended as the optimal route to my potential recovery. Though I did not want to pursue this route knowing it would only bandage the sensation of pain without resolving the root cause of the pain, I was unaware of alternative methods of pain relief.
Merely days prior to my scheduled surgery, I attended a continuing education workshop as part of my certification training as a Post-Rehabilitation Specialist. Throughout this workshop, I was awestruck by a particular professional who discussed various tips for successfully completing physical training sessions with individuals post-surgery, many of whom would still be experiencing chronic pain. Upon the completion of the course, on a whim, I approached this teacher, and spoke with him at length about my own struggles with chronic pain, and my upcoming surgery. He suggested that I try adhering to what I now call Muscle Balance Therapy, which essentially works to balance the muscles of the body. He provided me with a few varying stretches, exercises, and movements aimed at balancing the muscles responsible for providing strength to bones and joints.
After adhering to this recommended regimen, I was incredibly surprised to find that my chronic pain disappeared shortly after beginning the exercises. Of course, I cancelled my scheduled surgery and never looked back! I considered myself incredibly lucky to have avoided the potentially negative, dangerous, and potentially life-altering side effects associated with surgery and vowed to shout the benefits of Muscle Balance Therapy! Thus, my own positive experience with holistic treatment of chronic pain inspired my desire, drive, and ambition to spread this knowledge about natural remedies.
From there, I developed the Healthy Back Institute as a means of reaching the widest audience possible. I knew that I was not the only individual suffering from chronic pain, and I recognized the need to pay my own experiences forward. I vowed then and there to provide an educated forum for those seeking alternative assistance with pain management.
How do you make money?
As a business owner, CEO, and entrepreneur, I am able to survive based on my business thriving. From the inception of The Healthy Back Institute, though, financial gain was never the primary motivation. Though the company is now successful, I am confident that this financial success was brought forth due to the transparent, wellness-focused, and honest message behind the business.
With the success of natural supplements, including the mega-popular Heal-n-Soothe, and various subscription-based benefits available, a revenue stream is generated. However, I have always also given a tremendous amount of information away free of charge, forgoing financial gain in lieu of spreading this important message about health to reach a larger audience. For example, after penning the book “The Seven Day Back Pain Cure” I decided to offer it free – either as a completely free digital download or a free print copy and only charging enough to cover my cost of shipping it to the reader. My desire to get this important information out to the general public far surpassed any desire for financial success.
How long did it take for you to become profitable?
I literally co-founded The Healthy Back Institute with personal credit cards, and for quite a long time, wore every hat imaginable within the company. In the beginning, I acted as CEO, bookkeeper, marketing director, plumber, and every other role that presented itself as necessary for success. I knew I wanted to avoid taking on investors as I recognized the importance of maintaining control of the direction of the company, the content presented, and the transparent nature of the company. Thus, I avoided taking on investors, which certainly would have allowed this grassroots effort to grow a lot quicker than it did. However, it was more important to me to maintain personal integrity in the growth of this business.
I consider this company to be a part of what I call “conscious capitalism.” In this sense, the concept of capitalism and financial gain is important not for personal gain, but to garner the financial stability needed to continue to grow reach, to provide services for individuals, and to maintain a resonating presence within the industry.
I have always been a person intrigued by garnering knowledge and have thrived in situations that have required my gaining new information. Thus, interviewing medical specialists and conversing with leaders in the medical community has always come to me naturally. Truthfully, however, some of the aspects related to business ownership have not always come so naturally. I had to become an expert within the realm of business development, marketing, and various other aspects related to growing a thriving business. Though I am fortunate now to have a core team of dedicated individuals who want to see the business succeed, that wasn’t always the case. I’m certainly grateful for starting the business with my own personal morals though and I wouldn’t trade the experience.
When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?
I co-founded The Healthy Back Institute based on the intrinsic values and morals that I have always possessed and the motivation to spread insight related to all-natural chronic pain remedies. Thus, with such strong conviction, I was not necessarily focused on the potential failure of the company! When doubts crept in, I reminded myself about my own personal experiences with chronic pain and my narrow escape from potentially damaging surgery. Upon remembering my own experience, I was able to draw upon the motivation needed to keep moving forward, even in times of adversity.
How did you get your first customer?
This is a tough question to answer precisely, as I continued to personally reach various individuals through the early journey of The Healthy Back Institute. As a Personal Trainer, I assisted many clients with chronic back pain and other ailments. Upon the launch of the company, many of my personal training clients requested my services for natural pain management and for the self-assessment and self-assistance tool that I developed. In the beginning stages of The Healthy Back Institute, I personally took on clients who wanted to relieve their chronic pain without surgical intervention, and often assisted these clients via email, telephone, and in person. Many of those referred others to me. It’s almost impossible now to discern the concrete line between personal training clients and the many who reached out for help in those early days.
What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works well to generate new business?
Since the beginning of the business, I have been a proponent of the power of building an audience and generating interest through content. I am confident that giving away my book without charge was a successful manner of gaining attention about the useful nature of holistic approaches to chronic pain. Though many might have argued I could have received payment for my book, I am certain that by offering it free of charge, interest in what I had to offer grew at a more rapid pace.
Additionally, I believe that maintaining a positive reputation within the holistic wellness community is a crucial means to generating new clients. Not only does a positive reputation entail excellent customer service, but also being a purveyor of extensive, factually correct, and useful information. All of these separate concepts come together to formulate a respectable entity within the niche of holistic health. By continuing to be a reputable source of insight, we generate new business based on the integrity of the company.
What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?
Though it has been longer than a few months since I’ve made the conscious decision to devote my time in a manner that felt most conducive to a broader audience, this example continues to remain at the forefront of my mind as a poignant, difficult, and enlightening moment. While The Healthy Back Institute was still in its earlier stages, I was working overtime to create content, garner information from healthcare leaders, promote the company’s message, and spread the word about our unique and effective approach to back pain relief. Simultaneously, I was taking on new clients as a personal trainer, and advising people regarding their chronic back pain, which often involved extensive travel.
Eventually, my goal of personally helping each person who reached out was not being met, simply due to my exhaustive schedule. Though many like to say there aren’t enough hours in the day, it was certainly the case for me. I began to feel as though my mission to reach a wide audience was being slowly extinguished. I began to wonder if my desire to physically meet with each person was inhibiting my ability to do exactly that. Though it took a lot of introspection, I eventually decided the best way for my teachings to reach a broader audience would be to drastically reduce my need to physically meet with people. I came to recognize my ability to assist more people in reaching a desirable end result would only come through providing them with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to assist themselves. By providing people with tools for self-assessment, I began placing the power of healing back into the hands of the individual. This pivot in focus allowed me to reach a much larger audience while re-focusing my energies on developing additional wellness tactics, interviewing holistic wellness experts, and generally scaling the company to grow with our increasing audience.
What do you think it is that makes you successful?
I have always been addicted to learning and have yearned to amass deep knowledge about many topics of particular interest. As holistic wellness, alternative medicine, and chronic pain relief are exhilarating topics to me, I have been intrinsically motivated to garner as much knowledge on the topics as possible. However, I am confident that my ability to compartmentalize, organize, and rework information to appeal to the general public is the key to my success.
For example, within the realm of medicine, there are many conflicting “facts,” and there is a lot of information available that serves a particular agenda. Conversely, there is also a huge amount of insight available from leaders within the honest realm of holistic wellness, yet even that can be confusing to the novice practitioner. So I strive to internalize this plethora of information then relay it in a way that is not only confident and authoritative, but also easy to follow and enjoyable for those who may be considering a natural wellness approach to their health.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
It is difficult to recount only one moment of personal satisfaction within the scope of the company, as I continuously strive to be personally and professionally satisfied. However, I can honestly state that I find great satisfaction in knowing, without a doubt, that my insights have been able to truly help people. I have devoted my professional existence to the notion of aiding people in living pain-free lives, maintaining general health and wellness, and avoiding potentially detrimental surgeries. Positive feedback from clients literally means in many cases that their livelihood has been restored or their quality of life has been significantly improved. Nothing is as satisfying as the knowledge that my life’s mission is being successfully played out.
What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?
Though no one can predict the future, my professional goals include continued growth, success, and prosperity for all of my endeavors. Specifically, I would love to dedicate more time and resources to interviewing various experts within the natural wellness fields. While I thoroughly enjoy the process of having enlightening and meaningful conversations with these individuals, I truly believe that their insights can be incredibly useful for our clients. By continuing to grow our scope of expertise, and by continuing to nourish our network of like-minded professionals, we can truly provide an unending amount of support, knowledge, and advice to clients.
With increasing amounts of people becoming more and more aware of the dangers of conventional medications, they are beginning to look at the benefits of natural supplements in a new light. For example, all twelve supplements found in the all-natural Heal-n-Soothe formula have been proven to act as natural pain remedies, and one of the herbal components has even been proven to provide as much relief to arthritis sufferers as its most famous pharmaceutical counterpart. With results being virtually impossible to distinguish between the conventional chemical and holistic nutritional formulas, more and more people are choosing the natural remedy, in lieu of the doctor-preferred drugs.
With increasing focus placed on diet, exercise, and emotional wellness, more are intentionally seeking out healthy lifestyle choices than ever before. I find this movement exhilarating and am proud to be a proponent of natural wellness. Within the next decade or so, I look forward to further exploring the depths of this movement and its reach on an international level.
What business books have inspired you?
Though he has not written “business” books per se, I would advise people interested in the mind-body connection to read books by Dr. John E. Sarno, a former professor at NYU’s Medical School, and attending physician at NYU’s Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine. He has extensively covered topics related to holistic wellness and emotional trauma being the root cause of certain physical ailments. I’ve been particularly inspired by his approach to wellness and have found several lessons that can be imparted upon most people.
What is a recent purchase you have made that’s helped with your business?
Throughout the continued growth of the business, I have found it crucial for the entire team to be able to be on the same page, literally, in real-time. Thus, we have been utilizing premium cloud-based solutions, which allow the entire team to share documents, edit files remotely, and be cohesively intact with one another from great distances. As my work sometimes takes me abroad, and our team continues to thrive within varying schedules, I have found it incredibly helpful to be able to interact, communicate, and store information in this manner.
What is one piece of business advice you can share with our readers?
Universally and unequivocally, I find it immensely helpful to look at a specific problem or issue in a holistic manner. Specifically speaking, when I encounter a particular individual who has been suffering from chronic lower back pain for a number of years, I do not aim to merely quiet this individual’s symptoms by silencing the effects of a physical concern by masking the symptoms. Instead, I want to explore the root cause of the chronic pain, examining all of the complicated factors that make up the end result of pain. I want to delve into the person’s health history, habits, work-life balance, stressors, previous trauma, emotional tolerance, diet and nutritional deficiencies, exercise and movement, etc. By gaining understanding of the entire picture, I can then point to specific factors and narrow down the root cause of the symptom, aiming to eliminate the root cause.
This can be applied to all areas of life including all areas of business. Within the scope of business, a vast understanding of a particular problem is the key to eliminating the root of the concern, rather than moving forward by merely placing a bandage on the symptoms. For a business to function in a streamlined manner, numerous parts must work together cohesively, effectively, and on a long-term basis. Thus, there are always bound to be symbolic symptoms and side effects floating around that require a holistic solution.