The self-help industry is a multi-billion-dollar global market encompassing books, digital courses, personal coaching, seminars, and wellness apps aimed at personal optimization. Scottish author Samuel Smiles introduced the concept in 1859 with his publication Self Help, which emphasized thrift, discipline, and individual perseverance over societal change.

Today, we can turn to Oprah Winfrey’s self help bestsellers, life coach Tony Robbins, and apps like Headspace, Noom, and Calm to help us meditate, diet, and sleep. 

My two lunch guests today — Katherine Wilks and Margaret Wilkinson — are building their own self-help empires right here in Baton Rouge.

Katherine Wilks’ path to becoming a self-help author began first as a nurse. The profession runs in her family, she says: her grandmother served as chief nursing officer at Bogalusa Medical Center and became one of Katherine’s biggest inspirations.

Katherine has been a nurse for 20 years. She began her career in quality control and spent about eight years on the business side before eventually finding her way back to clinical work. Today, Katherine runs an urgent care center serving children and adults.

But, wait! There’s more!

Katherine is also the author of some 30 books, spanning family history, children’s literature, and self-help. She’s written extensively on narcissism, self-publishing a series of books informed by her experience in a difficult marriage to someone she says was clinically diagnosed. Two titles that caught my attention are Meeting the Narcissist: Love at First Lie and Leaving the Narcissist: The Most Dangerous Moment.

Self-help isn’t limited to books or apps. If you need more immediate relief, why not turn to alternative medicines?  One option here in Baton Rouge is Rad Dad Alternative Wellness. The casual, customer-friendly store specializes in functional mushroom, kava, non-alcoholic, and alternative wellness products.

Margaret Wilkinson and her husband Paul opened Rad Dad on Government Street in their Mid City neighborhood in 2023. Neighbors embraced it wholeheartedly, and now three years later, they’ve added a second location on Jefferson Highway.

We’re all striving to be our best selves each and every day. Yet, the discipline and individual perseverance required to fully succeed at self help is often in short supply. Our Baton Rouge community is fortunate that Katherine and Margaret are doing their best at their respective businesses to offer guidance and services that make the job of self help a bit easier.

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.com.