The Women Building the Support System They Were Never Given

Every woman who has built something in this industry knows the particular loneliness of it. You are often the only woman in the room where the decision gets made. You are the one whose idea gets repeated back a beat later in a lower voice and suddenly gets heard. You are building a career, and frequently a family and sometimes an entire company, and the network that would make all of it easier was built by and for people whose path looked nothing like yours.

Jennifer Halsall-de Wit decided to build a different one.

She created The Collective, a consultancy and community working across lifestyle medicine, fitness, wellness, and prevention, and alongside it something that may matter even more for the women in this industry. She built a network designed specifically to close the gender gap in health and leadership. She built it as something more durable than a networking event or a conference panel that meets once a year and then scatters. It is a living, daily support system of senior women who have decided to move faster by moving together.

Why She Built It

The Collective brings together senior operators, strategists, and scientists, most of them women, who have spent decades in fitness, health tech, femtech, longevity, and public health. On paper, it is a consultancy where organizations gain access to shared intelligence rather than a single hired consultant. Underneath that, it is something more personal to the women who built it.

“I left corporate because I wasn’t thriving in a system that was working against me. But what you lose when you step out is the team. You become a team of one, and that gets heavy — you don’t make the impact you want alone, because you don’t have the capacity for it. I wanted a group I could tag into projects. People with range. So I built one.”

— Jennifer Halsall-de Wit, Founder, The Collective

The framing she uses is deliberate. This is about closing a gap rather than celebrating one that has already been closed. The women’s health and leadership gap is real, measurable, and persistent, and Jennifer built The Collective as a direct response to it rather than as a general-purpose networking group that happens to have women in it.

“We’ve done the research — you can read it here. There is no gender balance in leadership in this sector. You see it at events, you see it at presidents’ councils — there aren’t enough women at the table, which means we’re not being designed for, as consumers or as employees. And as long as business grows steadily, the pain isn’t big enough to force anyone into new markets. So we do what we’ve always done and get what we’ve always gotten. If the industry saw what it’s missing by not designing for the female consumer, you’d turn some heads.”

— Jennifer Halsall-de Wit

Related: What the Fitness Industry Still Gets Wrong About Coaching Women, According to the Women Coaching Them

What a Real Support System Looks Like

The network side of The Collective is a free community of senior leaders spanning every continent and nearly every corner of the health and wellness world, from lifestyle medicine and femtech to health policy, impact investing, and AI in health. What makes it a support system rather than a directory is how it is designed to be used.

Members introduce themselves and say plainly what they do and where they are. They share the work they are in the middle of, whether that is a launch, a piece of research, or a new initiative, and they are explicitly invited to ask for groundswell when they need a story amplified or an idea pushed forward. They also ask for what they actually need, whether that is a job, a connection, a recommendation, or advice, with the understanding that they will offer the same to others when they can.

That third part is the quiet engine of the whole thing. A support system is not a place where you only take or only give. It is a place where senior women who have historically been made to feel that there is room for only one of them at the table decide instead to hold the door for each other.

The support does not stop at connection. The Collective also gives its members real infrastructure to build with. There is a toolkit of free downloadable resources covering longevity, women’s health, leadership, and where the industry is heading. There is a podcast that amplifies the voices and the work of the women in the network. There is free PR support that helps members get their launches, research, and milestones in front of a wider audience, which matters enormously for women whose work has historically been under-covered. And there are live events that turn the digital connection into the kind of in-person relationship that moves a career forward. Taken together, these are the things a woman would normally have to pay for, chase down, or go without, offered inside a community built to make sure she does not have to do any of those three.

“Fenne Terlingen put her introduction in the network and mentioned she lives in Rotterdam, where I live. We have a coffee planned. Someone building a business fifteen minutes away who I’d never have found otherwise. At our networking event at the FIBO Women’s Leadership Summit, two women at a meetup found out they were doing the same thing in adjacent networks — they spent the whole day together and found ways to work together. But what stays with me is the hugs I get at events from women who’ve been quiet in the network the whole time. They’ve never posted. It just reassures them that it exists. That short degree of separation from help, or a sparring partner — that’s the thing.”

— Jennifer Halsall-de Wit

Why This Matters for Every Woman in Wellness

The coaches, operators, and founders reading this do not all need a global advisory network. But every woman in this industry needs the thing underneath it: a group of people who want her to win and will do something about it.

The lesson of The Collective is not that you should join one specific WhatsApp group, though you can. It is that the support system most women were never handed is something they can build for each other, deliberately, starting now. Jennifer did not wait for the industry to close the gap on her behalf. She gathered the women who were tired of waiting and built the structure herself.

“Ask for what you need before you think you’ve earned the right to. Demand the promotion, pitch the big idea, go for the next big position. Not because women aren’t doing enough already — but because you shouldn’t have to do it alone, and the whole point of building this was so that you don’t.”

— Jennifer Halsall-de Wit

The women who built their careers alone did it the hard way, often because there was no other way available to them. The ones coming up now have a choice their predecessors did not. They can build in isolation, or they can build together, and the women behind The Collective have made it clear which one gets you further.

The model is simple enough to state in a sentence. You ask for what you need, you offer the same when you can, and it works for any group of women willing to decide that there is room at the table for all of them.

Related: How Women Are Rewriting the Business Model

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Collective?

The Collective is a consultancy, community, and platform working across lifestyle medicine, fitness, wellness, exercise, and prevention. Rather than offering a single consultant, it gives organizations access to a network of senior operators, strategists, and scientists who provide advisory, fractional, and project-based work. Alongside the consultancy, The Collective runs a free global network built specifically to close the gender gap in health and leadership, connecting senior leaders across every continent and sector to grow networks, amplify each other’s work, and help one another move faster.

Who created The Collective and why?

The Collective was created by Jennifer Halsall-de Wit, a business growth, customer experience, and strategy expert with more than two decades of experience across fitness, wellness, and health. She built it in response to the persistent women’s health and leadership gap, both to deliver cross-industry strategic expertise to organizations and to create the kind of support system that women in the industry have historically lacked. The network exists to help senior women move faster by moving together rather than navigating their careers in isolation.

How does The Collective network support women in the industry?

The network is a free community of senior leaders spanning fitness, health tech, femtech, longevity, public health, and many adjacent fields. Members introduce themselves, share what they are working on, ask for groundswell when they need visibility, and request what they need, whether that is a job, a connection, a recommendation, or advice, while offering the same to others. The design turns it into an active support system rather than a passive directory, built on the principle that senior women advance further when they lift each other rather than compete for a single seat.

How can someone join The Collective network?

The Collective network operates as a free WhatsApp community open to senior leaders across the health, fitness, and wellness sectors. Prospective members introduce themselves, share their work and their needs, and contribute to others in turn. Details and the invitation to join are available through The Collective’s website.

Jessica H. Maurer covers Feature stories for Coach360News.

About Jessica H. Maurer
Jessica is a recognized fitness business consultant and strategist focusing on transforming businesses from overwhelmed to organized. Her international presentations, workshops, certifications, and consultations underscore her commitment to helping fitness professionals and businesses realize their full potential. When Jessica takes the stage, she’s sharing fresh ideas and inspiration that spark positive change. Jessica’s international presentations and consultations are about growth, career transformation, overall wellness, and making fitness a joyful journey. Her expertise spans education, program and instructor development, and brand evolution, making her a key player in elevating the industry. Jessica also played a pivotal role in developing the Mental Well-being Association’s certification for Fitness Professionals., always striving to bring a holistic approach to wellness that’s as uplifting as it is effective.

Jessica has presented at prestigious events like IDEA World, Fitnessfest ACSM Health & Fitness Summit, SCW Mania, AsiaFit, and more. She has worked with brands such as FIT4MOM, SFR, BOSU, Lebert Fitness, Savvier Fitness, SCW Fitness, FitSteps, canfitpro, IDEA, and VIBES music. She also has written content for the IDEA Fitness Journal, canfitpro Magazine, Mental Well-being Association, FIT4MOM, Motherly, and more.