Few industries have experienced as much momentum over the past decade as health and wellness.

Consumers are paying more attention to recovery, preventative care, fitness, nutrition, longevity, and overall quality of life than ever before. Cold plunges, IV therapy, infrared saunas, cryotherapy, hormone optimization, and countless other wellness services have rapidly moved from niche concepts to mainstream conversations.

That growth has created enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs.

It has also created a problem.

For every wellness concept that becomes a sustainable business, there are countless others that ride a trend only to disappear a few years later.

During a recent Fran Opps Live interview, I sat down with Dr. Ann Edwards, founder and CEO of TherAnnu, to discuss why so many wellness franchises struggle to last and what separates enduring brands from short-lived trends.

Her answer was surprisingly simple.

Many wellness businesses are built around a single trend.

The strongest ones are built around solving long-term human problems.

Dr. Edwards didn't enter the wellness space because she saw an opportunity to franchise a concept.

She entered it because she spent decades helping people heal.

A Doctor of Physical Therapy with more than twenty years of clinical experience, Edwards spent the first part of her career working in corporate healthcare environments where she learned not only patient care, but also the operational side of healthcare businesses.

Eventually, she launched her own practice centered around dry needling, an emerging treatment designed to help alleviate pain and improve movement.

As she continued working with patients, she began noticing something important.

Many people needed more than a single treatment.

They needed a broader approach to recovery and wellness.

That realization led her to explore services such as cryotherapy, infrared sauna therapy, compression therapy, massage, and other recovery-focused modalities. Over time, those services evolved into what would eventually become TherAnnu.

Rather than focusing on one service, Edwards built a business designed to support health from multiple angles.

That philosophy remains at the center of the brand today.

One of the most insightful moments of the conversation came when Edwards explained why so many wellness concepts struggle to survive long term.

The issue isn't necessarily that the services are ineffective.

The issue is that many businesses place all their bets on a single trend.

As she explained:

"If that one service becomes irrelevant, so is your business."

She pointed to whole-body cryotherapy as an example.

A decade ago, cryotherapy was one of the hottest concepts in wellness. Entrepreneurs rushed to open businesses centered almost entirely around the service.

But consumer preferences change.

Today, some consumers have shifted toward alternatives such as cold plunges and other recovery methods. Businesses built solely around cryotherapy now face challenges they never anticipated.

The lesson is clear.

Trends can attract customers.

They rarely build lasting businesses on their own.

TherAnnu was intentionally built with depth.

Instead of relying on a single service category, the company combines physical therapy, massage, recovery therapies, skin treatments, wellness education, retail products, and membership programs into one ecosystem.

That diversification creates resilience.

If consumer interest shifts away from one service, the business still maintains multiple revenue streams and multiple pathways to help clients achieve their goals.

More importantly, it allows staff members to recommend solutions based on individual needs rather than trying to force every customer into the same offering.

A client might initially visit for a massage.

During that visit, they may learn that adding another service could help them recover more effectively, reduce pain, improve mobility, or support broader wellness goals.

The focus remains on outcomes rather than transactions.

That distinction matters.

The word "holistic" gets used frequently in today's wellness industry.

Sometimes it's little more than a marketing buzzword.

For Edwards, however, holistic wellness has a very practical definition.

It means looking beyond symptoms and understanding how different systems within the body influence one another.

She offered the example of skin health.

Many providers focus solely on topical solutions, but skin issues can often be connected to internal factors such as inflammation, gut health, or nutritional deficiencies.

Similarly, someone struggling with chronic pain may have underlying nutritional deficiencies contributing to the problem. Addressing only the symptoms without considering the larger picture often produces incomplete results.

As Edwards explained:

"It's putting all of those pieces together."

That philosophy influences everything from service offerings to retail products and customer education.

One of the themes that surfaced repeatedly throughout our conversation was patience.

In an industry where rapid expansion often receives the most attention, Edwards intentionally chose a different path.

Although TherAnnu has only been franchising for a relatively short period, the business itself has been evolving for years. The company began taking shape in 2017, expanded significantly in 2020, and has spent the last several years refining systems, processes, training programs, and operational standards.

That deliberate approach wasn't always easy.

But it allowed the company to test ideas, eliminate weaknesses, and create stronger systems before expanding.

As Edwards explained:

"We've pulled things out, we've ramped things up, changed some structures here and there, and it's really very fine-tuned at this point."

For prospective franchise owners, that matters.

A franchise system becomes far more valuable when it helps owners avoid mistakes the franchisor has already solved.

Like many successful franchise leaders, Edwards believes growth means very little if the wrong people are entering the system.

When discussing common mistakes made by emerging wellness brands, she quickly pointed to franchisee selection.

Too many companies focus on who is willing to buy rather than who is truly equipped to succeed.

TherAnnu takes a different approach.

The company looks for individuals who genuinely embrace healthy living and understand the importance of holistic wellness.

They don't necessarily need healthcare experience.

They do need authentic belief in the mission.

As Edwards explained:

"They need to be passionate about it. They need to live a healthy lifestyle."

She also sees physical therapists as particularly strong candidates because of their clinical background, work ethic, and passion for helping others.

The goal is to create owners who can educate clients, inspire teams, and represent the brand's values in their communities.

The wellness industry will continue producing trends.

Some will flourish.

Others will disappear.

The businesses most likely to survive won't be the ones chasing the latest fad.

They'll be the ones focused on solving real problems, educating consumers, building strong systems, and creating lasting relationships.

That's what stood out most about TherAnnu.

Rather than building a business around a trend, Dr. Ann Edwards has spent years building a platform designed to evolve alongside the changing wellness landscape.

In a category filled with noise, that kind of long-term thinking may be the biggest competitive advantage of all.