TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Valorous Podcast, where we interview successful business owners and have them share their tips, their tricks, and some great stories along the way. Today. I’ve got the wonderful experience of being able to interview Karyn from Salus Wellness Spa.
So Karyn, welcome with us today, today, as I understand is a very special day for you, and if I’m not mistaken, it is 19 years from the day you began in business on your own. Is that correct? That is correct. Yes. So, uh, 19 years ago, today in April 1st, 2003. yep. That is so cool. And even more unique if I’m not mistaken, you’ve now spent half your life working for yourself and half of your life.
Not, is that, am I right? That is true. Um, I actually, I started the business when I was 19. I was 19 by two months. Um, and it, uh, wasn’t. Planned, um, I was actually working, um, at a company and [00:01:00] they, there was a strange situation where the owner of the company had an opportunity to move out of the city and still had some time left on the lease and offered it to me, basically super cheap rent five months, make it or break it.
Uh, here’s how to set up an LLC. Here’s some advertising ideas. Just go for it. Um, I had just finished my internship, just graduated from massage therapy. Um, And I was like, I don’t have any clients held built up. So what do I have to lose? And, uh, 18 years, 19 years, 19 years later, uh, here I am. So it was, it was completely high accident.
This was never, this was never intended, originally major. Congratulations. I know how few businesses make it the first year, let alone a decade or now almost two in your case. So, uh, congratulations. That’s a major accomplishment. OK. Tell us a little bit. You know, when you got started, you know, you’re 19 years old that the, your, were you doing an internship for the business at that time?
Or was it unrelated? So I was finishing up a [00:02:00] massage therapy internship, um, and, uh, I had graduated in March, uh, of 20 or 2003. And so I’d only been working as a, as a licensed therapist at that point, uh, for one month before I was able to take over the space and kind of go out on my. Um, I literally started with paper flyer, flyers that have like the rip off tags with a phone number.
And I put them up, um, at the women’s gyms that were in the area, uh, here in Jenison, where I started, um, I put ’em up in curves and contours, which are companies that are, are no longer with us, but that’s actually how I got some of my very first clients. And those same clients are still with me today. Um, one of them specifically, I’m gonna shout her out cuz she, I love her and she won’t care if I say her name, but Ms.
Linda, uh, is still a client of my 19 years later. That is awesome. Wow. I love that there. I think that’s certainly one of those stories that so many of us as business owners and founders and entrepreneurs hope and that’s that we can do a good enough job to keep those clients for that long term [00:03:00] basis.
And obviously kudos to you for being able to do that so well, and it’s interesting too, just to go back and see just from her, like how many people have trickled in from that just, you know, referrals upon referrals upon referrals, and that’s really what. Kind of kept everything going. Oh, I bet. I bet. Talk to us a little bit about, you know, so you said you had five months left, you kind of got thrown into it and it was like, well, let’s see what happens at what point did you realize that this was gonna last longer than that five months and that you might be onto something that was gonna last a while?
my first month I was able to pay rent. The second month I was able to pay rent the third month. I actually paid myself a little bit of money. Um, and I started to just slowly build up a clientele. And as long as I was able to start paying myself a little bit of money, I was able to pay rent. I was just like, okay.
All right. So I can do this. Like, this is apparently how this works. I don’t know. But, um, I just continued to gain clients and just [00:04:00] kept going forward. Great, great share. I. Uh, yeah, just that’s so cool. That’s way. Cool. So when you and I met Karyn, you were actually in Grandville, uh, yeah, Grandville time. And I know you’ve just recently moved back to Jenison in an amazing new facility, but talk to us a little bit about.
Just, uh, in your case where you’re obviously serving the public and you’ve got the public coming in for massage therapy and other services. How, how did the locations evolve over time and did, as you’ve done that, have you changed services? Have they stayed the same? Just talk to us a little bit about kind of that, that real estate evolution as you’ve move around as well, maybe services.
Yeah. Um, so originally I, uh, we started, so we started in gen. Um, in, uh, a building at the corner of Cottonwood Baldwin, and it was, uh, myself, another massage therapist and a chiropractor. Um, we kind of got busy, um, in that [00:05:00] particular facility and, um, started to basically run out of space. So, um, at one point in time, the other massage therapist and I, we actually partnered together.
And, um, cuz I actually started off as GenOn clinical massage therapy just by. And, um, the other massage therapist Miranda, she, uh, she and I partnered together to actually create Salus. So I was independent in that regard for, uh, just about six years. And then when we moved to Grandville, um, we were both busy enough to the point where we’re just like, we can’t keep up with our own schedule.
We, our own clients can’t get in with us. So we looked at the opportunity to expand. Uh, so we found our position, uh, or our building over in Grandville. We rented that for 12. um, and, uh, we started off with six rooms. Um, we had a couple’s one couple’s massage room and then five other individual rooms. And I was able to, uh, hire two therapists, um, one from a referral that I knew from a high school job.
Uh, her husband was actually my [00:06:00] manager back in the day. Um, so Ellen is actually still with me as massage therapist, um, 12 years later. So. And then another massage therapist as well. And same thing happened. We just kind of got busy and we stepped, we are like, need more space. So in that same building, so we moved into that building in 2009.
It was right after everything crazy happened with, uh, like the recession, that 2008 crash. Um, and so we moved at a really interesting time. Um, but it still worked out. Um, and in 2017, we actually took over another 900 square feet in that building. Uh, so we went from six rooms to 10 rooms, did that for the next, however many years.
I can’t do math in my head right now. Uh, and then we were going to expand again in the same building. Um, but the pandemic happened, um, and we had originally got everything figured out in that building, how we were gonna expand how much room we were gonna take up. And then the building owner was like, [00:07:00] bad timing.
We’re not gonna do that right now. So, but of course. Devastated at the time. Uh, but it was probably one of the better things that could have happened. Um, I was driving back from a chiropractic appointment and just took a different route back to work. And I noticed the paragraph building, which is the building that we’re in now, uh, finally had a for sale or lease sign in front of it.
So I’m like driving around the corner, like taking a picture of it, like out my window. Um, getting into the office, make a phone call with 10 minutes later, I’m talking to a gentleman and the very next day I was actually looking. The building. Um, and that was in the early summer of 19 and we spent the next chunk of time, not 19, uh, 20.
It was after we opened, it was summer of 20. Oh gosh, everything is crazy with timing. Uh, so we spent the next year just putting everything together, uh, and moving into the new facility. So we actually went from 2,700 square feet, um, in 10. To being in 4,500 square feet. [00:08:00] Uh, we have 12 treatment rooms, two float rooms, an infrared sauna room, halo therapy, um, hydro massage therapy, a relaxation lounge.
That was way bigger than before. And then a front desk could retail area. So we expanded, you know, almost double the size, um, in that amount of time. And so it’s just kind of been a whirlwind in the last year. So my, my timing and my brain thoughts don’t always coordinate anymore. It’s just all a jumbled mess going on in here right now.
Totally understandable. I mean, wow. What a progression of, of things over the years, that’s just amazing to hear how that went along. I can, I can imagine driving around that corner and going, oh my goodness. That building’s available. And then, you know, never thought that would work. Almost two years later, you’re in there.
Uh, you’ve got an absolutely stunning building. Talk to us a little bit. I know one of the things you did when you moved into your new location, Karyn, you added a number of additional services like float and halo therapy, [00:09:00] and probably a number more that I’m missing here. But talk to us a little bit about.
How did you as a business owner at that time determine, okay, I’m gonna have more room, the building’s bigger. Do I just ha expand on existing services? Do I add new services? How do you figure out what to add and, and what was gonna be successful with the community? Because as I understand, you’ve had really good reception on those new services as well.
How, how do you figure that out? Oh gosh. Um, So the whole thing started because I went on vacation, uh, to a resort in, um, Dominican Republic. And they basically had a lot of the services that we are adding, that we have added. Um, and I was like, man, there’s nothing like this, that exists in our area. Like at all.
I mean, you can find something close in Chicago, um, with similar services, um, but nothing underneath the same roof. So I went, we are missing out, um, being in west Michigan, we all know, uh, and I grew up here, so I can say [00:10:00] this it’s a we’re conservative and we are a little behind on, um, other alternative forms of therapy.
Um, and so there, there’s a couple of businesses in the area that offer hydro massage, infrared, sauna, um, halo therapy and afloat, but they’re all separate entities. So. Being able to take all of those things together, along with the services that we currently have really made it an opportunity to be more of a well-rounded, um, business.
So that’s actually why we changed our name. Uh, so originally we were stainless massage therapy and we changed to stainless massage therapy in the skincare. Cause we added on aesthetics about seven years ago. Now we’ve become, say less wellness spa. So we’ve had this progression so that we can better serve the community and give opportunities for services that, um, are very helpful and beneficial to people, but not having to run around to eight different places in order to do them.
So being able to come in and just kind of spend an entire day or [00:11:00] pick the types of services that you’re looking for, but that would be helpful to an individual in really creating your own individual package. Um, versus just going in and saying, okay, I wanna get a massage here. I wanna do float here. I wanna do, you know, sauna over here.
You can only do the hydro massage if I go to the fitness center, you know? Um, so now we actually have them all combined and, and, uh, as far as I understand still, we’re the only company in Michigan that has all of the services that we have in a one stop shop. Wow. That is so cool. That is so cool. I love it.
You go on vacation to the Dominican. You learn through that. These are some, I mean, I’m sure you are aware of ’em, but wow. How cool. And then that gets your brain thinking about how could we put all this under one roof? That’s that’s just amazing for the benefit of everybody watching Karyn. And again, this could be seen anywhere across the us and potentially beyond that, but.
Help us understand real quickly. I think most of us are familiar with massage, but I know when you moved this, you had to educate me a little bit about float and halo therapy and that, can [00:12:00] you talk just real quickly about those key new services and give us maybe a, a 32nd to minute overview on each one of them and why?
You know, why, why should I be interested in float? What how’s it help me? Oh, gosh. So there’s ton of information. So I’ll, I’ll try to give you my, my elevator pitch. I appreciate it. So, yes. So float is, uh, it was originally designed as a sensory deprivation tank. It was actually developed back in the 1970s.
It is currently used by the general public, uh, pro athletes and even the us military, but it’s, uh, it is. A pod that is full of, uh, ours specifically, the size that we have is 200 gallons of water and 900 pounds of Epson salt. It is way more dense than the dense sea. Um, and the Epson salt itself is great for, uh, the skin and the muscles.
So if you’ve ever done, uh, an Epson salt soak for your feet, for instance, uh, if the magnesium sulfate is really good for, uh, relieving muscle pains and strains, [00:13:00] um, plus you’re actually floating on top of the water. it takes off that the pressure of the universe. So you’re kind of in a zero gravity ishish state, considering that, you know, you’re on planet earth.
You also have the opportunity to, uh, be in control of lights and music. So if you wanna have lights for comfort, if you wanna have music for relaxation or meditation, you can, or you can turn them completely off and it really tricks your brain into going from like that beta theta wave kind of situation.
It tricks you from being from awaken to. So even though you’re only in there for an hour, um, your body goes into a deeper form of relaxation than what it can do. Just taking a nap for instance. Um, so you get the benefits of taking the, the weight of the world apart are away from you, take away all senses.
So you can actually, you know, you’re not thinking or hearing of other things, so your brain can just truly chill and just turn the key and just kind of shut off and relax for a. The infrared sauna is, um, it’s different than the [00:14:00] traditional sauna. So it uses infrared technology that is going to actually heat you.
It’s gonna penetrate soft tissue versus just heating the air around you. So it’s going to affect circulation, lymphatic, um, muscles, uh, uh, inflammation as well, but you’re also still gonna get that detoxification, uh, from the sweating that a traditional song is gonna give. We do have the chromotherapy lights that are in there.
Um, different spectrums of light affect the body brain and the skin differently. So you can actually choose a color spectrum that would work best for you depending on your situation. At that time, we also have vibrational resident therapy, so you can actually Bluetooth your music into the booth, and it will actually resonate from below you to kind of add into that relaxation and, um, increase circulation in, in lymphatic flow.
Just that much more. Uh, halo therapy is salt therapy. So we actually take, uh, medical grade micronized salt. We pump it into an air. It’s kind of think of like a, a foam booth. Basically. It’s [00:15:00] not much bigger than that. It micronize, it puts it into the air. And your goal is just to sit there and just breathe it deep down into the lungs.
Salt has been known to kill lots of nasty stuff, so to breathe it down into the lungs, get it into those deeper, uh, lower quad. It’s gonna help with allergies, asthma cough, cold flu bronchitis, C O P D. Um, the post effects of colds and COVID. So if you’ve got something going on inside, um, the respiratory system, it can help break that up and get it to come out.
So think of it as being a, a Netty pot. Airborne. And, um, like Musinex kind of all in all in one, all natural service. And it’s only a 15 minute treatment, uh, versus sitting in salt room, which salt rooms are wonderful in their own right too. But this is more of an express service. Hydro massage is a little bit different.
Uh, it’s a great addition to services. You can do it on your own, but it’s just, it’s um, like a chase lounge. And [00:16:00] you, uh, lay down and there’s, uh, 60 different jet settings all the way up and down the body and, and the water just flows up and down and you can choose 10 different pressure levels. You can choose a speed and you can actually zone it.
So it only, uh, is working on certain parts of the body. Or you can just do the whole body all at once, but it’s 95 degree. So, um, it, uh, helps to relax the muscles with heat plus kind of work the muscles, um, a little bit as well, you know, prior to a service. So it actually kind of makes the massage therapists like a little bit easier.
Um, but we’ve decided to add that as a complimentary service to all of our float and, um, sauna services. So if you schedule either one of those, you get 15 minutes of hydro massage for free. Very cool. Now, just to clarify for anybody who know the hydro massage is actually, you don’t get wet in the process to share no, it’s a dry treatment massage you, correct?
Yep. That is correct. Thank you. Yep. Yeah, I know. I didn’t know the first time. So I’m, I’m, [00:17:00] I’m hoping not the only one, uh, dry service fully closed. Yes. So, and, and that was, uh, actually a question that was brought up. When we originally brought on the service, we were like, well, it’s not a hands on massage.
It’s not as good. Yes, but, and Jonathan, I’m gonna pick on you. You’re actually one of those individuals. That’s not a fan of people actually touching you. Um, so this is a way to actually have massage service without having to have the, um, that more, um, hands on service, uh, that vulnerability, uh, for that matter of being in a room with an individual, if you’re not, if you’re not comfortable doing that.
So it, it is there for that opportunity. Well, excellent. Excellent share. Really cool. And, and it’s exciting to have those services here in the area. Since obviously we’re both here in west Michigan, that’s really exciting. And, uh, if you’re watching this and you’re not, uh, certainly service is worth looking up.
Uh, in your area because it’s, it’s really amazing. And, uh, again, for me, it’s been fun to watch that transition and that [00:18:00] growth over the years that I’ve known you Karyn to see that. So just kudos and congratulations. On 19 years of success, talk to us a little bit about the future. Where, what are your plans look like for the next 19 years?
I, I hesitate to say all the things that I have in my brain, cuz I don’t want somebody else to steal my idea. Fair enough. Fair enough. Basically, uh, something adding to what we have. There are other things that I was not able to bring into this facility simply because of space. Um, so I do have hopes and dreams of having a second location at some point.
Uh, some days I go, I don’t know if I could ever handle a second location. My brain’s going crazy enough now. Um, but ultimately things are gonna settle in. We’ve only been in the new facility for six, seven months now. Um, there’s been a stupid amount of changes in the last year, uh, for not only myself and my staff, so I don’t wanna throw more at them right now.
Um, but I’m definitely a [00:19:00] dreamer and I have books. Of things that I write down of everything that I wanna do and add and create, um, I don’t wanna say that I would never, but I don’t think I would ever do like a franchise situation. I think I’d just stay small and just be like another, like a two location, three location stay in this area.
Um, but I’ve definitely got some other ideas to branch out into more services that are going to be, uh, E adding more benefits. To, uh, the services that we do so that we can be continue to be a full wellness center. Very cool. Very cool. Well, you mentioned something there that I think’s really important.
And I love to ask on the business podcast here and that’s dealing with, with team members. We all know right now in 2022, we’re sitting here in April 1st, 2022, finding. Across the board across the nation is really difficult now. And, and that’s made not only finding new staff hard, but oftentimes retaining our valuable staff that we have is, has become more [00:20:00] difficult.
Do you have any tips or tricks? I know you’ve had a number of staff members that have been with you for a very long time. What things would you share with other business owners? Karyn is. Things that, that you have found successful or maybe recommendations to help keep those team members, those value team members plugged in and, and interested in staying where you’re at.
It’s a very good question. Um, sometimes I, I, I, you have to keep coming up with ways to kind of make that happen, but it’s, it’s creating the right environment. Um, truly, um, we had asked the staff before what keeps them. Um, what are we doing? Right. You know, like what, what makes it that way? Part of it’s the freedom.
Um, I understand, um, is I don’t restrict them too much, which is the reasons why some days we’re very, very short staffed because if they wanna take time off, they can take time off. I know that’s a big thing, uh, for, for people and, and, uh, society and even specific generations, I say generations, which makes me sound really old, but there’s another whole generation below [00:21:00] me.
And that’s a weird thing now. Um, but it’s, uh, I CA I started in the same positions that they’re in. So creating policies and procedures around my experience so that I know that I know what I would never have wanted, uh, to be treated like. So I try my hardest to create policies in an environment that makes it so that they won’t ever have to do that either.
Um, I, I say that we’re kind of a, um, give us your tired your your week. We, we tend to be a refugee for some other, uh, specific type of location, set therapists work at where they tend not to be treated. Great. Um, so I’ve taken a lot of that information from them. Like what did you not like about where you were cool.
How can we fix that? Integrate that into our facility as well. So, making it more about them and having a better work, like life balance than what I have is probably one of the bigger things. it’s. No, I, I appreciate the share and [00:22:00] it’s just so valuable again, as, as so many of us as entrepreneurs are dealing with that, it’s great to hear the success stories that others have had.
So just a couple more questions and we’ll wrap things up. I know you’ve got a lot going on. I really appreciate your time today, but talk to us about, uh, I always love asking, do you have an interesting story of either something that, you know, made you question your sanity at some point about being an entrepreneur and business owner or anything else that you could share with us and maybe how you overcame that hurdle?
Probably, oh, gosh, let me think for a second. Um, when you said stories, uh, being a massage therapist, if you wanna have a fun little tidbit, we have a lot of stories. Um, crazy things happen when you’re a massage therapist. I always say at one point in time, I need to find somebody who’s really to, to like, I’m not a writer, right.
I’m way too dyslexic for that. But to tell somebody all of my stories in like memoirs of a massage therapist, like I have stories for. um, but as far as like challenges and things as [00:23:00] being like a business owner,
starting a business at 19 and being female didn’t start off. Great. So it’s been fun to have recognition in certain ways, um, like for you even, uh, Jonathan. Getting involved with different, um, events, companies, groups, like the CEO group that we met in, um, and finding that I’m starting to gain respect from not only my, my peers, um, but from other business owners that I, I respect as well.
Um, in the beginning, uh, you never did this to me from the beginning. I had a lot of other male business owners look at me and be like,
You’re a girl you’re young. You don’t know what you’re doing. Yeah. Well it turns out I kind of do so yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s been fun to kind of, you know, go back and see people that [00:24:00] dismissed me before and then to have them see where, what we’ve accomplished, uh, in the last 19 years, I’m like, you’re welcome.
so I think that’s kind of. That’s fun. That’s, that’s probably the fun part, but yeah. Being a female business owner in the beginning, nobody gave me any credit. Yeah. Oh, I, I bet. I bet. Well, you’ve, you’ve proven them all wrong and, uh, done so very well. So last question. This is something that I’ve started doing recently.
It’s just to add a little fun to the podcast is I go out online and, uh, there’s a website called random question generator, as you know, this is not prepped. I didn’t tell you this one was coming. Uh, so I’m gonna put you on the spot here. And here’s the question of the day. If you were offered the position of mayor of your.
Would you take it where I live or where I work either one
totally random obviously has [00:25:00] nothing to do with anything we’ve talked about, but it’s kind of fun, you know? Yes, I would. Um, I’d give you my vote. You do well. I think I do. Okay. Uh, reason number one, I would, I would take the, the mayor of Georgetown township and give myself a liquor. Because I think we deserve fun.
yes. I love it. I think you should be able to have Mosa and get a foot treatment at the same time. And there are other businesses like mine in the area in Georgetown township. We all want them. And I think that we should have them. So yes, I would be mayor of Georgetown township and I would, um, fix a couple things that I am also not a huge fan of, but yes, I would grant myself with a good.
Awesome. I would love it. That’s fantastic. Fantastic. Well, Karyn, um, Obviously, uh, we’re gonna put in the show notes, how to get in touch with Salus and, uh, your web address and address and things like that. If somebody doesn’t wanna wait for the show notes and see that what’s the best way, if they say, wow, I need [00:26:00] to try out that float or the halo, or what’s the best way for them to get in touch with you guys.
Sure. Um, we actually finally have online scheduling. Yay. Uh, so if you go to our website@experiencesalek.com, uh, there is a book now button that you can press, and it will lead you over to our scheduling system to, uh, create an accountant book online. Of course you can always give us a call. The number, uh, our office number is, uh, 6 1 6 5 3 4.
7 8 2, 2. You can also text that number now, cuz we got a new phone system, um, moving up in the world. Um, but those are the two primary ways to get ahold of us. Um, and to find out all the information there’s always, you know, our Facebook page on Instagram. Awesome. Awesome. Well, sharing out here. Did you have Dotty around Dotty’s here?
Oh, we gotta see Dotty before we’re done. Do you, can you take a minute and grab her? Yeah. Get dot. Everybody needs to meet Dotty. [00:27:00] Well, Karyn’s getting this. If you guys haven’t met Dotty, Dotty is kind of the, uh, the mascot I would say of Salus and, uh, definitely worth meeting. So, uh, we’ll let Karyn run and grab Dotty a minute and you guys can all see who Dotty is.
And, uh, make sure if you stop in that, you take the opportunity to see Dotty. She, uh, she lives over at the shop there, uh, from what I understand, although I think that Doty went on a couple of trips, so I have to find out do has been on trips. Yes. Tell us about Dotty Doty is the purple spotted Lama. She is the mascot.
She, uh, she is the Donnie Lama, spreading peace, love and relaxation to the world. Um, I did go on a camping trip. Um, This last summer. And I went to an alpaca farm and I brought Dotty with me and they had to, they had a five day old baby and an eight day old, eight, nine day old baby. So I brought Dotty and they were like, no to noses.
They were so intrigued [00:28:00] by her. They just took her into her herd. They very much liked her, but yes, this is Dody. So she hangs out with us in the relaxation lounge. So you should come and see her, but she’s. She’s our little pride and joy. She’s adorable. She wants to do wonderful. I’m so glad you remember say Dotty.
Yes. I totally forgot. And that, you know, Dotty’s definitely worth seeing. So, um, that she came, move me to the signing of the building. She’s she’s a, she’s a good support. Lama emotional support Lama. I like that. Maybe there’s a new business there for you, right? Yeah. All right. Well, Karyn, again, thank you so much.
Super congratulations on 19 successful years and prayers and blessings for another 19. Uh, we just wish you all the best and, uh, wanna thank you for your time today. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it, Jonathan. Thank you so much. All right. Have a great. Thank you, you too.
