How Suzy Prudden’s Pounds Off Came About

In the years between 1998 and 2008 I built the largest Creative Visualization and Relaxation (CVR) Center specializing in Weight Loss in Los Angeles. The program was high end, expensive and it worked. I had a success ratio with my clients of over 60%. To put that in perspective, most weight loss and diet programs (including diet pills) are 2% successful, Weight Watchers is 10% and stomach stapling is 30%.

During those years I was vaguely troubled by the exclusivity of my program in the face of how big a problem obesity was becoming. The problem was that CVR wasn’t covered by insurance. My partner and sister Joan Meijer and I often talked about finding a way to broaden the availability of what we knew, but the solution was elusive and we were busy. Over those ten years our business spread to three centers, we had ten employees and we didn’t have time to think about the percent of people who called us who didn’t come in because the price was prohibitive or who didn’t bother to call us because they assumed the price would be prohibitive.

In 2008, when the recession hit, high end weight loss became a luxury. I closed my weight loss centers and started in a different direction developing a new modality called hypno-coaching. Just when I wasn’t paying attention to the problem of weight loss, my sister and I began to experience a new idea taking shape. In a matter of weeks the Suzy Prudden’s Pounds Off program emerged as a Business-in-a-box (or in this case, a binder).

As it turned out we were teaching a coaching class at the time. “What would you think about weight loss classes that use the material that you’re learning here and in my CVR classes?” I asked one afternoon. The response was amazing. It felt as if we had opened the door to a possibility no one had ever considered before and that the class was relieved to have the structure of that little binder to lean on while they built their practices.

My students began using the program and the success stories began to come in. The student’s clients lost 30, 40, 50 pounds, experienced no cravings and enjoyed lifestyle changes in exactly the same way as my high end clients but at much lower cost.

One day, in the middle of all this change and development, I had dinner with Dale Springer of New Reality a company which had developed a revolutionary delivery system for the processes I was developing. I was in the process of becoming the voice of New Reality and I was interested in seeing Dale’s reaction to our little binder idea. “I have 200 people who would sign up for this immediately,” was Dale’s response. “Let’s blend our businesses and market it.”

Thus began our quest to reach every corner of America with a revolutionary weight loss program which has a proven track record of success at a reasonable cost.