Smola Consulting Wellness
Wellness, the way it should feel.
We believe well-being at work isn't a program you roll out. It's a culture you build. Smola's wellness team works alongside your organization to make that happen, one relationship at a time.
How we think about wellness
Wellness means something different to every person and every organization.
We start by listening to your leadership, your employees, and reviewing your data. From there, we build programming that's grounded in prevention, rooted in education, and designed to meet people where they actually are.
We think about wellness as something personal. The work we do is shaped by the belief that when people feel seen, supported, and equipped with the right tools, real change follows.
Well-being isn't something you hand people. It's something they have to feel for themselves. We help organizations build that foundation through education and real experience, so that prevention becomes the doorway to a fuller, more sustainable sense of well-being.
When people understand the why behind healthy choices, the behavior change sticks.
Every program we deliver is shaped by your people, your goals, and your community.
Wellness is the walk you take before the day gets away from you, the meal that actually made you feel good, the conversation that reminded you you're not alone. Real change doesn't come from a single event. It comes from small, consistent choices that quietly add up over time. We help organizations create the conditions for more of those moments, sustained long enough to become habits. Your habits become your health. Your health becomes your culture.
What we're seeing right now
Trends shape how we build programming each year. Here's what's on our radar.
Across our client organizations, we're seeing a meaningful shift away from screen-based programming. Employees are craving connection to nature and the research backs them up. Nature-based wellness experiences are consistently showing up as high-engagement, high-impact interventions. Our NatureRX program was built for exactly this moment.
People are moving away from rigid diets and toward sustainable, plant-centered approaches to eating. Our Good Life Challenge, heading into its 10th annual year in 2027 with over 15,000 participants, reflects how powerful a short, accessible and flexible commitment to whole-food plant-forward nutrition can be when it's framed with warmth and without judgment.
The conversation around well-being is expanding past individual health metrics. We're paying close attention to how social bonding, shared experiences, and community-building outside traditional programming contribute to culture, engagement, and belonging at work.
Outcomes that speak for themselves
Our flagship programs, The Lift Project, The Good Life Challenge, and NatureRX, form the backbone of what we do. Proven, participant-tested, and always evolving, because the people in them should be too.
Each year, a rotating program complements our core offerings, drawing from the broader dimensions of well-being. Past programs have included The Four Pillars of Wellness, a 30-day Yoga Program with Inner Dimension TV, and the Mental Health Reset, to name a few.
What makes these programs truly powerful isn't just the content. It's what builds around them. Sustained programming creates social communities, shared accountability, and a culture of well-being that outlasts any single program year.
Our partnership with The Lift Project has engaged more than 10,000 participants across our school community network since 2019, contributing to peer-reviewed research published in the American Journal of Health Promotion in 2025, validating what we've seen firsthand: this program moves people.
Renfrew et al. American Journal of Health Promotion, 2025. Read the publication
The Mental Health Reset
The Mental Health Reset, developed in partnership with Andrea Tait, physical therapist and founder of Thrive Wellness, is a practical, integrative approach to well-being designed to help people reset old mental habits, shift mindsets, and adjust emotional responses. Experienced across 21 days, participants will notice behaviors shift, changes take hold, and new ways of thinking become their own.
The Mental Health Reset tracks each participant individually, comparing where they started to where they finished. That matched data tells a clear story: confidence in identifying emotions rose from 66% to 91%. The ability to stay present grew from 45% to 74%. And capacity to manage stress and burnout climbed from 43% to 63%.
With client and vendor partnerships that span years, our programs and our relationships are built to last.
The LIFT Project will reshape the way you think about your health, well-being and happiness. It offers simple and effective strategies that will improve your life and LIFT your spirit.Heather Bachman, Genesee Valley BOCES
I have been WFPB since the very first Good Life Challenge. My goal was to lose some weight, but ultimately get off of my blood pressure medicine. To date I am off 3 out of 4 and continue to work towards getting off of the 4th.Good Life Challenge Participant
During the immersion activity, what felt most meaningful was the intentionality behind my time outdoors. Normally, being outside is something that happens in passing, walking to and from places, or being outside while distracted. Slowing down and dedicating at least 20 minutes each day allowed me to notice details I would typically overlook, like subtle changes in sound, light, and movement. One surprising experience was how quickly my mindset shifted once I became more present. At first, it felt like I was simply completing a requirement, but over time it became something I looked forward to. I found myself feeling calmer and more grounded, especially when I focused on my surroundings rather than distractions like my phone.NatureRX participant, Clyde-Savannah CSD
The people behind the work
Smola's wellness team is two people and that's intentional. Dan Justis and Jen Nguyen are strategic wellness experts who work directly with your leadership and your employees. No handoffs or intermediary staff. You get us.
Dan brings a rare combination of strategic thinking and hands-on delivery. He's equally at home presenting a wellness roadmap to your executive team and leading a yoga class for your staff on a Tuesday afternoon. With a background spanning the Air Force, the Wounded Warrior Project, and MVP Health Care, Dan has built wellness programs for populations of every kind and brings that range to every client he works with.
B.S. Kinesiology · Certified Wellness Program Coordinator (Chapman Institute) · ACSM Physical Activity in Public Health Specialist · Registered Yoga Teacher
Jen is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Personal Trainer who believes that sustainable wellness starts with education, not restriction. She's spent years helping people build healthier relationships with food and movement in schools, athletic clubs, and workplaces alike. At Smola, she brings that same approach to organizations: practical, plant-forward, and always rooted in the real lives of the people she's working with.
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist · Certified Personal Trainer (NASM) · Dietetic internship, Cornell University
Built around you, every year
Every year, Smola begins building a new year of programming from scratch. We pull from industry trends, local and national partnerships, and direct feedback from our clients and program participants. Then we build end-to-end resources, education, events, materials, facilitation, so your team doesn't have to.
That's what boutique means to us. It's not a size. It's a commitment to showing up every year with something that reflects what your people actually need right now.
And if your organization needs something we haven't built yet, we build it together. We'll walk alongside you from the first conversation to the last participant survey.
Your wellness program is our wellness program too. We don't build these programs from the outside looking in. We built them as participants, as community members, and as people who care deeply about what well-being looks like for the people around us. We show up not just as consultants but as neighbors, personally invested in the health of our community.
Our programs
An evidence-based wellbeing program drawing from neuroscience, lifestyle medicine, and positive psychology. Delivered over 10 weeks, online or in person, facilitated by our team or a trained leader within your organization.
Learn more Contact DanThe Good Life Challenge is 10 days of flexible, whole food plant-forward eating. Rooted in WFPB research and the MIND diet approach, the goal isn't perfection. It's learning to combine single ingredient foods, herbs, and spices into delicious, repeatable meals that become part of how you eat for life. In partnership with CookUnity, participants receive 60% off all meals during the challenge. Heading into its 10th annual year in 2027, the Good Life Challenge has become a community of its own.
Get outside. That's the prescription. NatureRX is a three week program built around intentional outdoor time, starting at 20 minutes a day in week one, building to 40 in week two, and 60 in week three. Hike it. Garden it. Paddle it. Sit in it. It all counts. With over 5,000 participants across four years, NatureRx has become one of Smola's most loved programs. The research is clear and so is the experience: intentional time in nature changes how you feel, think, and show up.
Developed in partnership with Andrea Tait, physical therapist and founder of Thrive Wellness, the Mental Health Reset is built around 21 proven strategies designed to help people reset old mental habits, shift mindsets, and adjust emotional responses. Each program day explores a key topic including sleep, movement, social media, rest, and mindset, offering simple but powerful strategies that build on each other across 21 days, creating lasting shifts in how your people think, feel, and respond.
Developed in partnership with O'Sullivan Wellness Connections, The Four Pillars of Wellness takes a science-forward look at the four foundations of a well life: Movement, Nutrition, Mindset, and Recovery. Going beyond surface-level wellness, each pillar is explored in depth through physiology, research, and practical education, building the kind of foundational knowledge that changes how people understand and care for themselves long term.
Each year, Smola brings world-class voices in nutrition, lifestyle medicine, neuroscience, and behavioral health directly to your organization. Real experts. Real conversations. No keynote theater.
From yoga and chair massage to biometric screenings and cooking demonstrations, our vetted vendor network and in-house team can design a wellness day, a semester, or a full year of programming around your culture and goals.
Let's talk about your people.
Reach out to Dan and Jen to start the conversation.
About Us
Smola Consulting is a full service benefit
and wellness consulting firm
Our mission
Our mission is to educate and consult with our clients to ensure that they are making the best benefit decisions possible