This first episode features licensed massage therapist, Krystal Wilson of Mokena, IL. As the owner of Body Fountain, she finds satisfaction in helping people feel their best. She is a small business owner who endures even when times get tough. Krystal has the propensity to keep the positivity flowing.
Dub Feral by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3683-dub-feral
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
This first episode features licensed massage therapist, Krystal Wilson of Mokena, IL. As the owner of Body Fountain, she finds satisfaction in helping people feel their best. She is a small business owner who endures even when times get tough. Krystal has the propensity to keep the positivity flowing.
Dub Feral by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3683-dub-feral
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
00;00;08;02 - 00;00;31;07
Dave
OK, so, hey, we're welcoming Krystal Wilson from Frankfort, Illinois, to another one of our podcasts. And she is a Frankfort resident. She has she's a single mother of three children, 13, ten and three years old. She runs a business called Barbie Fountain in McKinnon. All right. So Tina, Illinois, and offering massage services and other related services that we can talk about.
00;00;31;07 - 00;00;44;10
Dave
She has a very inspiring story. Yeah, she's a passionate, hard worker. And we like to hear from her about, you know, what drives her, what motivates her and some of her unique ideas on running a business. So welcome, Krystal.
00;00;44;17 - 00;00;46;01
Krystal
Thank you so much for having me.
00;00;46;01 - 00;00;53;13
Dave
Thank you. This is exciting. It helps to go kind of in chronological order. And you've got an interesting story that started early, right? Eight years.
00;00;53;13 - 00;00;54;12
Krystal
Yeah, for sure.
00;00;54;16 - 00;01;03;04
Dave
And I started, you know, thinking that you had this skill and you were getting reinforcement from your family and your loved ones and so forth. Tell me about that. Tell me how it all started.
00;01;03;08 - 00;01;18;17
Krystal
Yeah. So I mean, my mom is notorious for loving her back scratch. So pretty much anybody who was willing to do it, she was like, hey, let's let's make this happen. And so I'll never forget and I can actually specifically remember even specific times that you're sitting on her back, scratching her back and is like, all right, mom and dad.
00;01;18;17 - 00;01;20;19
Krystal
And she says, well, how about this? Five more minutes, come on.
00;01;21;00 - 00;01;22;22
Krystal
$5. I'll give you $5. Just come on.
00;01;22;22 - 00;01;39;23
Krystal
Five more minutes. And I just remember as I was gliding my hand over her back going, I wonder what that is I'm feeling and wondering what that structure is. And so that kind of actually started, you know, the interest in the human body and what was actually under the skin. And so my uncle was a chiropractor. He actually owns a practice downtown Chicago, right by Midway.
00;01;39;23 - 00;01;56;16
Krystal
And so we would go visit him from time to time, and I would just stand in front of those charts and just look at the body and go, oh, I wonder if that's what it was I was feeling and just, you know, kind of like the roadmap to the body. Right. And I just I really became very interested in it and secondary to that, my dad, he was a very active father.
00;01;56;16 - 00;02;14;21
Krystal
I mean, we always were doing things, and he had this like exercise thing where it was basically think of it like a doll. Rod type of an idea with a string attached to it and a weight at the bottom. And the idea is you were supposed to hold that straight out in front of you. And as you would roll the bar, the string would tie up on the bar with that weight at the bottom.
00;02;14;21 - 00;02;28;01
Krystal
So it was really a four arm exercise. As a kid, I thought it was just a lot of fun to play with, not realizing I was building the strength of my hands and my forearms and so now here I go and I'm massaging people's shoulders. My dad's like, Oh, your hands are so strong.
00;02;28;01 - 00;02;30;03
Krystal
And I'm like, Hey, I didn't even realize that.
00;02;30;03 - 00;02;45;01
Krystal
You know, that's what it was about. But he had he belonged to Bowling League in Orleans. So we would I go up there every once in a while with him and, and I would sit on the counter and my dad would be like, Hey, you got to feel how strong her hands are. So I'm sitting on the counter and I'd massage people's shoulders for a buck.
00;02;45;01 - 00;03;03;03
Krystal
And, you know, and it was it was nothing exciting. It was just more bragging rights, I think, for my dad, you know, mixed with mixed with, you know, my mom's mind me to scratch your back, my uncle's ability to get to see charts and see, you know, what was under the skin and then the strength of that. I think the three just compiled perfectly together to create me.
00;03;03;08 - 00;03;12;28
Dave
That's a neat story. Yeah. So not only were you interested in, you know, the body structure, all that, you were certainly popular at family parties.
00;03;13;09 - 00;03;14;23
Krystal
Right. Well, it's funny because my.
00;03;14;23 - 00;03;28;09
Krystal
One aunt, her hands were really strong, too. It was kind of a running joke that she would come up behind people and just squeeze like they're trapped and just to try to get their knees to buckle. So I was kind of like, oh, I could do that, too. You know, it's kind of almost like following the footsteps of her, too.
00;03;28;10 - 00;03;29;23
Krystal
It's just that strength in the.
00;03;29;23 - 00;03;31;11
Dave
Hands and you're making a dollar.
00;03;31;11 - 00;03;33;17
Krystal
Doing it. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
00;03;33;17 - 00;03;35;16
Dave
It was cultivated at a young age.
00;03;35;16 - 00;03;36;09
Krystal
Exactly.
00;03;36;10 - 00;03;37;21
Dave
Most kids have a lemonade stand.
00;03;37;21 - 00;03;38;18
Krystal
You know.
00;03;39;07 - 00;03;40;24
Dave
You get a massage.
00;03;40;26 - 00;03;42;08
Krystal
Let me see if I can make you cry.
00;03;43;25 - 00;03;52;10
Dave
Oh, that's great. All right. Well, kind of take me through. You said you were doing this at a very young age, and you started to realize that you had this talent and you had this interest, right?
00;03;52;10 - 00;04;15;15
Krystal
Yeah. So I moved actually quite a bit. As I as a kid, I really got to learn, you know, different ways of life. And, I mean, actually, at one point, I lived in Iowa where, I mean, there really wasn't much, but just open fields. And I would just, like, climb up in trees and just kind of sit in a tree and just feel the earth and the energy and, you know, it was very centering and grounding and I think just kind of connecting with the earth on that point.
00;04;15;15 - 00;04;31;18
Krystal
And so I think I really got a lot of my my grounding from that and just being able to connect with the energies of life. And I just, you know, I always kind of still had that massage idea in the background. The human body always fascinated me. In seventh grade, we dissected a frog and everybody was all squirming.
00;04;31;21 - 00;04;46;09
Krystal
And I'm sitting there going, Oh, this is so cool. And I ended up like cutting open his stomach and was like, Oh, I wonder what's inside. I put it like the contents under the microscope. And it's like, he was a fly. So it just I don't know that the human body is just always been very fascinating. And honestly, same thing with frogs, apparently.
00;04;46;18 - 00;05;03;21
Krystal
And I just always kind of kept in the back of my mind. So when I graduated high school, I was going to go to Illinois State University and I was actually applied for their nursing program. But long story short, Mom and I discrepancy of who was paying for loans. When I went to go register for my second semester, I couldn't.
00;05;03;21 - 00;05;30;09
Krystal
And by the time my loan paperwork actually went through, I was going to be signed up for like cooking and stuff like that. And I'm like, I'm not spending all this money to take a cooking class. So I decided to come home and I went to JDC for a little while continuing on that nursing path. But I had taken a class called Medical Terminology, which actually has been the most helpful class I've ever taken in my life because really breaks down every single medical word and and, you know, might not even know the meaning of the word.
00;05;30;09 - 00;05;32;02
Krystal
But if you can look at the components of the word.
00;05;32;12 - 00;05;32;22
Krystal
You can.
00;05;32;22 - 00;05;49;28
Krystal
Yeah, you can just decipher what it is by just looking at the pieces of it. In that class, there was a girl who was sitting next to me who was a massage therapist, and I sat there going, Man, I always did want to do massage. Maybe I should look into that. And I thought it was really funny because when I went to ICU, I never did a campus visit, ever.
00;05;49;29 - 00;05;56;21
Krystal
I was like, now my sister goes there. When I went to go for a massage school, I visited three schools. I sat there going, Hmm, well, that must have actually.
00;05;57;01 - 00;05;58;20
Krystal
You know, been meaningful to me. That, you.
00;05;58;20 - 00;06;15;23
Krystal
Know, I didn't really care so much about the nursing, but with massage, I was like, Yeah, let's go visit the schools. Let's see what this is all about. Let's let's actually pick the right one. And I ended up selecting a school downtown Chicago, right on State Street. And it was called the Sigma Institute. I don't know, I just I liked the idea of the Chicago feel and getting to know the city a little bit more.
00;06;15;23 - 00;06;39;18
Krystal
And my dad actually had worked downtown. And so I was able to kind of carpool with him every day. Yeah. So I ended up signing up there, and it was a seven month program. We went three days a week. I actually even did an Externship at Northwestern on the oncology floor. So it was kind of interesting how that ended up becoming a very important piece in my life later on, because obviously my with my daughter, which I'm sure we'll get into, she's had some medical challenges of her own with having brain cancer.
00;06;39;18 - 00;07;01;20
Krystal
So that was just kind of interesting that out of any externship we could have done, we happened to go to the oncology floor at Northwestern. But yeah, school's great. I was really good at remembering origin insertions or just muscle attachments on the body. I really enjoyed school and actually even at that point is when I definitely was a lot deeper I noticed than some because you would work on your classmates and some of be like, oh, you kind of lighten up a little bit.
00;07;02;00 - 00;07;05;03
Krystal
I didn't realize that so deep. Yeah. I guess that strength is kind of always followed me.
00;07;05;08 - 00;07;21;27
Dave
So things are starting to shape now. Yeah, right. So you kind of had a crossroad, came to a crossroads. I had a little bit of a challenge to deal with, and that ended up kind of turning you toward, you know, going to massage school and now things are starting to going in a certain direction. So you get through that experience, right?
00;07;22;03 - 00;07;38;23
Krystal
Well, and actually, honestly, I was right at the end, the tail end of my massage school when I started pulling out pen and paper and I started going, I want to do something with this because one of my teacher assistants, she had her own massage practice and I was like, that would be so cool. I kind of just started brainstorm of what would I want to offer?
00;07;38;23 - 00;08;00;07
Krystal
How would that even look like? So I was I finished massage school in 2005, and that's when the dream started. And honestly, I came up with a few different businesses, but obviously Body Fountain was kind of in the works. It didn't have a name yet. It's like, you know, just that idea of how is this going to look and what would the flow be like, how many employees would I want, what would the environment look like, you know, just all of that.
00;08;00;07 - 00;08;15;09
Krystal
So I was starting to kind of piece it together at that point, and I hadn't even technically graduated massage school yet. I still actually have that paper and every once in a while I pull it out and I, I kind of show people that notebook of all the, the thoughts and the processes and how was I going to market, you know, all of that fun stuff.
00;08;15;09 - 00;08;21;22
Dave
So it's interesting. Not only are you, you know, becoming a massage therapist, you're starting to think about being an entrepreneur.
00;08;21;23 - 00;08;23;01
Krystal
Before I even got into the field.
00;08;23;13 - 00;08;24;09
Krystal
Is it like truly.
00;08;24;09 - 00;08;27;07
Krystal
Hands on people? I was like, how was I going to do this? Because I wanted to do it.
00;08;27;07 - 00;08;36;11
Dave
Now you've got a mountain of challenges in front of you. You've got to find a path, right? So what's the first thing that you do? You finish school. Do you go out and start a business right away? Do you start.
00;08;36;11 - 00;08;36;25
Krystal
Working?
00;08;36;25 - 00;09;02;04
Krystal
Well, I kind of also knew that I wanted to do it right the first time. I mean, I've heard the stories of many entrepreneurs. They will actually fail numerous times before they truly succeed. And I didn't want that to be me. I ended up working at a few different places, different views of the business. I really kind of got to look at their processes, what succeeded for them, what failed for them, things that I would want to implement and bring to my own place.
00;09;02;04 - 00;09;22;00
Krystal
So I was kind of just building the pieces of body found by what I had seen and what I had worked with being an employee. And that's kind of I think I just I just kept putting it on my back pocket. So I always love this little lovely phrase right? A massage is usually something that people can't always afford because it can come with a pretty hefty price tag.
00;09;22;00 - 00;09;41;14
Krystal
So generally the people on your table are the people with the expendable income to pay for massage. Who are they? Professionals. So I would have players on my table, I'd have doctors on my table, I would have accountants on my table. I would have all these different professions that I was able to kind of pick their brain as I was working through the process of How do I want to do this?
00;09;41;15 - 00;10;03;26
Krystal
My mom and my dad were really big into advertising when I was younger. They actually that's how they met, and they both worked at the Penny Saver mom and stepdad, actually, let's put it that way. But he was around for my entire life. So I call him my dad. That's how they met was advertising. So I knew that that was that needed to be a huge piece because how can I reach the community if I'm not utilizing that source to really get out there?
00;10;03;26 - 00;10;09;11
Krystal
So, yeah, so I just I don't know, I just really kept using the professionals on my table as a sounding board. Really.
00;10;09;12 - 00;10;24;25
Dave
All right. So you're absorbing like a sponge. Yeah. You're paying attention you're drawing from different people's experiences and so forth. And this is a good time to ask you a question going through all of this. You're talking to different people that might, you know, be a little bit further down the road or have had some of these experiences.
00;10;24;25 - 00;10;34;07
Dave
But is there anyone in your life growing up or even now that you would consider a mentor, somebody you looked up to, somebody that inspired you?
00;10;34;12 - 00;10;47;14
Krystal
Yeah, I've had a few of them. And honestly, they'd come and go. There was a client of mine, actually. Super funny story. I did not like him when I first met him like and I will openly admit I really did do tissue on.
00;10;47;14 - 00;10;51;29
Krystal
Him because I didn't want him to come back but.
00;10;51;29 - 00;10;52;25
Dave
Apparently it didn't work.
00;10;52;25 - 00;10;56;12
Krystal
It didn't work. He fell in love. Apparently, it was total phrasing.
00;10;58;06 - 00;11;17;14
Krystal
Did it work? He obviously, you know, thoroughly enjoyed my sessions. But yeah, he I had met him at a chiropractor and, you know, I started working on him and not that he was a bad client, but he was very particular kind of sterile in some ways. But he had worked his way up through the food chain with management, with processing, with, you know, different things.
00;11;17;14 - 00;11;31;19
Krystal
So even though I didn't really like him so much when I first met him, he ended up becoming one of my most favorite clients. He started coming to my house and I'd start working on him every week. And actually at 11 day he walked in. He's like, you know, we've been working with each other for a while. And you haven't gotten a raise.
00;11;31;19 - 00;11;34;19
Krystal
I'm going to give you a raise. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, this is so cool. All right.
00;11;34;19 - 00;11;53;26
Krystal
You know, I mean, it it wasn't much, but he honestly was a huge piece. And then I also did have one other client as well who yeah, it just very few, honestly, that have really. But they were more or less repeat clients that I saw on a regular basis. So it was kind of easy to create that relationship.
00;11;53;27 - 00;12;01;27
Dave
Do those relationships evolve? I mean, they started out as clients. Did they evolve to the point where you could ask questions or you could, you know, talk through.
00;12;02;04 - 00;12;02;15
Krystal
Yeah.
00;12;02;22 - 00;12;04;00
Dave
Your goals and.
00;12;04;04 - 00;12;26;11
Krystal
Well, as I say, I tend to be a person who shares too much with massage. You are in somebody's space bubble, even though I'm not an actual psychologist. I mean, there's a lot of times that you're hearing people's problems and you're just that shoulder for them to cry on or vice versa. I mean, you really try not to dump your issues on them, but after, you know, six years of working with somebody, every other week you develop a relationship, you know?
00;12;26;11 - 00;12;44;02
Krystal
So I've never actually became like friends with people I hung out with them outside of. I mean, it was always just strictly massage in that therapy room. But yeah, they they always became a pretty good sounding board. And, you know, they'd check in on me or, you know, like, hey, we talked about this last week, like, where are you at with it now?
00;12;44;02 - 00;12;46;11
Krystal
Or little things like that.
00;12;46;12 - 00;13;04;22
Dave
I would say that, you know, having mentors or advisors or so forth is good, you don't necessarily have to follow their advice. But if you think about it, maybe it will help you avoid the pitfalls of maybe a different path that you're taking. Is there anything that you can think of that you learned quickly through mistake?
00;13;04;24 - 00;13;22;11
Krystal
Oh, OK. So let's let's rewind a little bit into my history to answer that question. My mom and my dad got divorced when I was eight months old. And so I lived primarily with my mom and would visit my dad on the weekends. And the two of them are perfectionists, just in completely different aspects. I mean, my mom is lioness.
00;13;22;11 - 00;13;41;23
Krystal
Hear her roar like I mean, just who love her to death. But and my dad also very detail oriented and the two of them always nipped at my heels and I hated being corrected. I hated feeling that that letting them down or disappointment so it always pushed me to be forward thinking, like I don't want to give them a reason to be able to say anything.
00;13;41;23 - 00;13;54;13
Krystal
So knowing that pressure behind me, I just always thought forward off of, you know, what is going to be my possible problems so that I can already come up with a solution before I even get to that problem.
00;13;54;13 - 00;13;54;23
Dave
Sure.
00;13;55;04 - 00;14;07;25
Krystal
So my mother and father, definite devil's advocate. I mean, my mom for sure. But honestly, as challenging as it was being raised by my mom, I know I would not be the person I am today without.
00;14;07;25 - 00;14;09;17
Dave
Does that give you a fear of failure?
00;14;09;29 - 00;14;12;09
Krystal
Oh, no. No. I mean, I.
00;14;12;23 - 00;14;35;22
Krystal
I truly don't have too many fears in life, honestly. You know, it's just take one step at a time. I mean, at least I can say that now at this point in my life, because I've been through quite a bit of challenging moments where, you know, it is moment by moment, minute by minute hope of a deal, break it down as simple as possible, and then just get over each individual obstacle as opposed to thinking, I'm taking the whole project at once, because then you will feel overwhelmed.
00;14;36;02 - 00;14;42;04
Krystal
And it might be even hard to take that first step, but if you can make them small steps they're much easier to obtain.
00;14;42;10 - 00;14;52;25
Dave
Now, you've worked for other people, right? You've worked for other I don't know if we skipped too much of that, but, you know, at some point you had to get actual client experience, you had to get some massage experience right? Yeah. So you worked for a number of different.
00;14;52;25 - 00;14;58;06
Krystal
Yeah, I had actually done massage for six years before I actually opened the doors of Body Found.
00;14;58;09 - 00;14;58;17
Krystal
OK.
00;14;58;26 - 00;15;13;24
Krystal
Knowing that I had wanted to do this sitting in a dark room with a massage client. Most of the time people aren't talking. So you're, you know, not just counting the ceiling tiles. I'm thinking about what it is, what I want to do. So my brain tends to constantly be thinking. Like I said, I'm forward thinking all the time.
00;15;14;13 - 00;15;27;08
Krystal
And actually my one unit, I had a mirror in my office and I just use it as a big whiteboard. I'd be in my session, I'd come out of my session. I had three thoughts and I just grabbed a dry erase. Margaret, just write it down, and then I'd come back and like piece it together and figure out how it worked.
00;15;27;08 - 00;15;49;29
Krystal
But yeah, when I actually started looking at commercial property, four years before I even opened, I had never taken a management class, I had never taken a business class. I had just seen what my experience was being at these different businesses of what they their successes and failures were or what I thought were. And so I just kind of started compiling what what I would want and what it looked like and what I thought would be successful.
00;15;49;29 - 00;15;56;10
Dave
What was the biggest hurdle? I mean, you're going along, you would you say six years. Was that before you really opened the doors? Yeah.
00;15;56;10 - 00;16;16;07
Krystal
And honestly, I was really just going to start it off by myself. My biggest hurdle, honestly, was management. I'm I'm a very easygoing person. I'm a very patient and understanding person. And to manage other people and to keep them all on the same path and happy that's honestly what most people thought I would fail with because I'm not a dictator, OK?
00;16;16;10 - 00;16;19;01
Krystal
I'm very easy going.
00;16;20;09 - 00;16;27;19
Krystal
And I think I honestly, that's probably still my biggest struggle right now. I feel I'm a good leader. It's just making sure that I hold people accountable.
00;16;27;20 - 00;16;31;16
Dave
All right. So you've touched on something we're going to get away from the chronology you know, it's not.
00;16;32;00 - 00;16;32;23
Krystal
Like I'm excited.
00;16;32;23 - 00;16;50;12
Dave
On a deep dove into this a little bit into your leadership style. You know, in there's a little bit of contradiction here because you're a passionate, driven person. You're detail oriented. I mean, you're all over this, right? Yeah. But you're a laid back, easygoing, you know, when it comes to other people as well in terms of your leadership, in terms of your style right.
00;16;50;12 - 00;17;00;09
Dave
Yeah. How do you approach managing employees? How do you hire and maintain, I guess, you know, keep good, hardworking employees.
00;17;00;12 - 00;17;18;07
Krystal
So I finally decided, yes, I'm an open body found. And I came up with a I found a unit that met my needs. And the unit was a 600 square foot unit and a pretty old fashioned building. So the cost was OK. You know, I had been working at the chiropractor, I had been going to clients houses and had clients coming to my house.
00;17;18;07 - 00;17;35;10
Krystal
And I was getting to that point where I had such a following that I was like, you know what? I'm going to say, hey, I'm important enough. If you want to come see me, this is where I'm at, as opposed to me dividing myself up in all these other places. So I got that 600 square foot unit and I built a front reception area which was locked by a door.
00;17;35;10 - 00;17;56;09
Krystal
And then on the other side of that door was my massage room and my storefront reception area where I would check people in and out. Basically, the client could let themselves in the front door and just hang out in that chill relaxation area, get some drinks, water, whatever, and then behind that door is where I would be with my client because I had no other employees, I had no receptionist, I had no other massage therapist.
00;17;56;09 - 00;18;14;27
Krystal
I mean, I built the the website, I did the brochures, I did the painting. I actually even hung the wall trim up. I mean, like I did the design is much hands on as I possibly could. I did because I didn't want to really pay anybody to do it. I didn't have a lot of money and actually I was able to open body fat without barring a penny from anybody.
00;18;14;27 - 00;18;18;27
Krystal
So I felt pretty proud in that I didn't want to be over my head, basically.
00;18;19;05 - 00;18;19;22
Krystal
Before even.
00;18;19;25 - 00;18;20;16
Dave
Starting out in the.
00;18;20;16 - 00;18;21;09
Krystal
Hole. Yeah.
00;18;21;09 - 00;18;36;10
Krystal
So I did three months by myself and then I was kind of sitting there thinking, Well, if I'm paying rent and this room is not being used, why not get another massage? Therapist and have them use it in my off time? So after three months, I hired my first employee and she is still with me. Actually, I love her dearly.
00;18;36;10 - 00;18;54;05
Krystal
And then about three months after that, I hired a second employee. So now the three of us are using this one room and each other's off times and I was advertising like crazy. And actually there was one time I had one day I had done this nice advertisement on Yelp. I had turned down 12 phone calls in one day and I was like, Well, this is stupid.
00;18;54;05 - 00;19;12;14
Krystal
Why am I paying for all this advertising when I can't get them in the door? So that's when I realized we've outgrown this space. It's time to get a bigger space. It's time to actually get a receptionist. And, you know, so thankfully a unit to the south of that same building came available. So I was able to jump ship and that was 1800 square feet.
00;19;12;14 - 00;19;32;07
Krystal
So I tripled my space from six to 800 square feet. After a year, a year of being opened now I had myself a receptionist that actually paid hourly because now I knew I could actually supplement her income because now I had other therapists. So then I started off with just a three a few receptionist. Then I hired another massage therapist and so it just slowly kept growing.
00;19;32;07 - 00;19;53;24
Krystal
And for me, the awful but yet super beneficial thing is massage therapists are paid by commission only. That's how I've been paid my entire life so I could truly have 40 employees. And if they're not bringing in a massage, I don't pay them anything so that was actually very beneficial in opening is because I knew I didn't have a salary that I had to come up with, even though I wasn't bringing in the money for it.
00;19;53;24 - 00;20;10;06
Krystal
I just kept saying, Hey, I got available rooms let's have them open and I'm just going to keep advertising. I'm just going to try to keep filling them as I keep hiring people. And you could see that a little bit of a nervousness of the current massage therapist when that, oh, you're hiring another one. And I was like, Yeah, but I'm just going to keep pushing forward.
00;20;10;06 - 00;20;27;23
Krystal
And I mean, there was no turning back there. It was just keep going, keep going, keep going. Let's let's see what the limit can be. And so after three years at that second unit, the 800 square feet is when I just opened this. Now, 5000 square foot unit, people thought I was crazy because I went from 600 to 810.
00;20;27;23 - 00;20;42;01
Krystal
I'm in 5000 and we've been open four and a half years. I now have 22 employees. We actually even branched out and started doing esthetics because we were getting a lot of requests for massage and facial packages and I didn't have that market and I wanted to be able to tap into that. I mean that's more income, right?
00;20;42;01 - 00;20;52;20
Krystal
That's more success. That's, that's what we're here for. We started branching out and doing esthetics, and we've been doing that almost a year now, so not even a full year, but it's growing. It's starting to get there. The reputation of Body Fountain is helping.
00;20;52;24 - 00;20;54;02
Dave
You know, that's where I was going.
00;20;54;11 - 00;21;01;24
Krystal
No, I never actually thought about doing a study. It was just I honestly, what I saw a body fountain is I called, I found to the second unit.
00;21;01;25 - 00;21;05;26
Dave
Coincidentally, you named it Body Fountain. You didn't name it. You know, crystals, massage.
00;21;06;13 - 00;21;09;02
Krystal
So it really is right and fits. Well.
00;21;09;12 - 00;21;27;21
Krystal
You say that here's the reason of Body Fountain. The idea is I want your body to flow as smooth as a fountain. Without restriction. I want you to be able to pick up your grandkids, go golfing, do whatever you want to do. Let us help keep your body and maintain your body to be smooth functioning. We don't want you to not be able to garden like I can't kneel down.
00;21;27;26 - 00;21;41;07
Krystal
OK, well, why? Let's figure that out. Let's correct that. So we do more corrective massage as opposed to relaxation. Fluff and buff. I mean, yeah, sure, we do that because that's a little bit more mental support and you need that mental and physical to create proper wellbeing.
00;21;41;09 - 00;21;47;18
Dave
We're trying to follow the terms here, fluff and buff OK, and that's just a light massage.
00;21;47;28 - 00;21;48;08
Krystal
Right?
00;21;48;20 - 00;21;57;06
Krystal
So, you know, but for me, I can rub lotion on myself. I go pay for a massage because I want something to beat me up. But that's just me. I'm intense, I guess.
00;21;57;06 - 00;21;57;17
Krystal
Yes.
00;21;59;18 - 00;22;22;06
Krystal
Anyhow, so after COVID, I had a few employees that decided that they didn't want to stay there and they decided to open their own massage unit three blocks away. So this this one massage therapist was in charge of the group. We'll just say she ended up poaching six of my employees which three had left with her. One of them was a receptionist.
00;22;22;06 - 00;22;42;27
Krystal
So the receptionist pulled a lovely client list while the person in charge decided to call in clients to say, Hey, I'm now over here, I'm now over here. And the worst part was, is I ended up having the baby, the now three year old. And so a lot of my clients that I had established, I was now passing on to that employee and actually another one that she had poached.
00;22;43;05 - 00;22;51;09
Krystal
So the worst part was, is I hired them with zero client base and now they had a full schedule and now they were trying to take those clients for themselves.
00;22;51;12 - 00;22;52;29
Dave
All right. So this is one of your first big change.
00;22;52;29 - 00;22;57;11
Krystal
This is my my first I remember sitting on the floor just crying, going, Mom, she's.
00;22;57;11 - 00;22;59;17
Krystal
Taking everything you know, like.
00;22;59;18 - 00;23;22;27
Krystal
Everything that I've worked for is gone. And that's when, you know, this is kind of going back to what you were talking about. How do I retain my employees? How do I have good management skills where they feel confident and want to stay? And so that situation is what really opened my eyes to I have to really maintain the best of the best every way around I wanted to create a place that clients love to be at and didn't want to go anywhere else.
00;23;22;27 - 00;23;42;13
Krystal
I also wanted to create an environment for the staff that never wanted to leave because they were so happy they were properly you know, they were treated properly. You know, they felt appreciated. You know, their schedule was where they wanted it to be. So before I even hire any other staff, I would always go to my current staff, Hey, does anybody want to change their hours before I bring on somebody else?
00;23;42;13 - 00;23;58;23
Krystal
And they may take that time slot that you're looking for because we only have a select amount of rooms with a select amount of days. Each person basically reserves a chunk of the day. That's when I realized, like, Holy cow, if I'm going to be investing in these people and if I'm going to be sharing with them the clientele base that I've built, I want to make sure that they stay.
00;23;59;06 - 00;24;22;00
Krystal
So I got smarter and definitely ended up getting a non-compete for my employees to sign. And it wasn't necessarily just to protect the business, it was even to protect the other staff, you know, because these are we don't get possessive over our clients, their body fountain's clients, and I do definitely work on selecting proper massage therapists. So everybody is of great quality.
00;24;22;00 - 00;24;40;13
Krystal
So I have a lot of clients that will call in and say, it doesn't matter who's available, they're all good. Whatever times available around my availability signed me up when I had done massage. I explained before how it was just commission only based. I had worked at a place they didn't even take out my taxes I had never gotten paid a vacation day, never hourly, nothing like that.
00;24;40;13 - 00;25;00;29
Krystal
So, I mean, you were just kind of bottom of the barrel really. And, and I just always thought that was so unfair being a single mom like this is the profession I chose. Why can't it be treated as a profession? And so I kind of wanted to change that too. So this this situation that happened where they decided to try to steal my business really ignited a lot of change for me.
00;25;00;29 - 00;25;23;11
Krystal
As difficult as it was, I'm very thankful because it really changed my outlook on things. And, you know, I was originally not taking out taxes. I'm taking out taxes now. I actually am covering everybody's liability insurance. So that's something that now they don't have to pay out of pocket for. I am now offering medical, dental and vision insurance, which is unheard of for a massage place, especially a small unit that we have.
00;25;23;18 - 00;25;39;22
Krystal
Eventually, I'd love to get to retirement stuff. You know, I'd love to be able to offer like a 41 K or something for them. So again, I want massage to be treated as a profession because a lot of women or even men actually I shouldn't say just women, you know, select that as their profession. So I want them to be confident in that.
00;25;39;22 - 00;25;51;01
Krystal
And again, I want to retain those employees. If they're not happy, they're not going to give a good service or they're going to try to take that client and work on them outside of work. And the idea is, is we want it. We want to keep body fat and growing.
00;25;51;02 - 00;25;54;21
Dave
What are the most important things to the to the people that work for you? You know.
00;25;54;21 - 00;26;18;11
Krystal
I really try to create a family, support my staff. I mean, you can go work at any massage place, get paid hourly. I wanted to increase that percentage so when people start working with me, they're getting paid higher than most anywhere around. Some of my girls will be like, this is the gold mine. You screw this up, you're an idiot, you know, because I want them to, you know, be happy in the money that they make.
00;26;18;17 - 00;26;40;10
Krystal
Now, obviously, I can't control what people tip, but I can control my commission and split with them. And so that's much higher than most places around. But that family friendly environment, you know, we support one another. And this was a story that happened just a couple of months ago that I thought was very touching, that I have created such a group that they all love and truly, genuinely care about each other.
00;26;40;10 - 00;27;09;23
Krystal
I do try to do outings every quarterly where I take them out to dinner and and we don't talk about business stuff and we just have fun and get to know each other. But there was a therapist who ended up telling another therapist that she was suicidal and obviously weird kind of got around, you know, five, six people all got together, taking turns, calling her every day, making sure that she was healthy, making sure she was happy, you know, that she felt that she was loved and and I kind of heard that through the grapevine and realized, wow, like that's pretty that's pretty touching.
00;27;09;23 - 00;27;27;16
Krystal
Your work is your home away from home, you know, and you want to be comfortable. You want to feel confident. And and I love on my staffers. I've had such a hard day. I was just so glad to come to work. I mean, who says that? Most people don't say that. Most people can't wait to leave work. But my staff has has really come together.
00;27;27;16 - 00;27;45;15
Krystal
And actually, strangely enough, I just planned a sleepover. We're actually going to have a sleepover next next month. And you know, do massage exchanges. Everybody wants to play hide and seek. I'm going to cater and some food. But that's the idea of creating not a dictatorship. I'm one of them. I'm in the massage room right next to them working.
00;27;45;23 - 00;28;00;22
Krystal
So I know exactly when that table warmer isn't working or when those cups need to be changed out. And so I think that's kind of been very helpful. To keeping them around. They don't feel that I'm like every other boss that they've had. You know, I'm right next to them doing the same thing.
00;28;01;02 - 00;28;18;17
Dave
Maybe that's why people want to come to work now, right? Maybe you hear so much about, you know, that in America now that we don't want to the employees don't want to work anymore. And I've certainly observed that I don't it's a generalization. I don't know how fair that is or if it's if it's widespread or anything like that.
00;28;18;17 - 00;28;24;06
Dave
You know, it's a place that we spend a lot of time in. Right. So at least a third of our life.
00;28;24;06 - 00;28;25;14
Krystal
Right, right. Right.
00;28;25;14 - 00;28;28;26
Dave
So it sounds like, you know, they truly want to go to work.
00;28;28;29 - 00;28;48;25
Krystal
When my oldest, who is now 13 when she was three was diagnosed with brain cancer. And that was also a big motivator for me wanting to open Body Fountain is because I knew she would always have a job, you know, even if it was just washing cups and stones you know, just kind of being a spa attendant. And if she wanted to live on her own, I knew she would have the means to do so.
00;28;48;25 - 00;29;10;27
Krystal
I could bring her to and from work, you know, and that's the nice thing about my staff and having this family feel. I've got some that by my kids advent calendars every year or, you know, whatever it may be. But we just we have that big family setting and I think you can't replicate that. So that's a really great way of retaining my staff is as they feel at home.
00;29;10;27 - 00;29;20;23
Dave
You have you have a daughter that had some health issues that you've battled through and so forth. And this is one of your motivators undoubtedly. Right. Things that inspire.
00;29;20;23 - 00;29;21;18
Krystal
You for sure.
00;29;21;20 - 00;29;32;26
Dave
You know, if I asked your daughter what she admired most about her mother and if I see her, I might ask her, just so you know. So think carefully. Think carefully. What do you think she would say.
00;29;33;14 - 00;29;34;06
Krystal
About me.
00;29;35;09 - 00;29;36;14
Dave
Or what do you hope she would.
00;29;36;14 - 00;29;38;18
Krystal
Say? This is a big love bug.
00;29;38;25 - 00;30;05;28
Krystal
I mean, she would probably say momma cuddles, OK? Her phrase, she just she's just a ball of love. She's technically legally blind, uses a walker to walk around because her balance is been affected by her tumor in her brain. She's got facial paralysis. I mean, there's just there's so many things that she has had to overcome, OK? And people would always say to me like, oh, how are you so strong going through all this?
00;30;05;28 - 00;30;22;27
Krystal
And I was like, you know what? I had two options. I can either sit there and cry about it or I could get up and do something about it. And so I think honestly, too, having that in my back, you know, history has also kind of allowed me to go, you know, what challenges are going to come, take them one step at a time.
00;30;23;20 - 00;30;29;05
Dave
Are there things about your skills in your experience that you've been able to use to help her.
00;30;29;10 - 00;30;30;05
Krystal
100.
00;30;30;05 - 00;30;30;18
Dave
Percent.
00;30;30;18 - 00;30;41;17
Krystal
Obviously, that medical terminology class, that was probably one of the most impactful things because going through her surgeries and stuff, I mean, they'd be like, oh, hydrocephalus. And I was like, hydrocephalus. OK, us is a condition.
00;30;41;17 - 00;30;46;03
Krystal
Hydro is water, several is brain. OK, so a condition of too much water in the brain. I figured it out and I didn't.
00;30;46;03 - 00;31;02;17
Krystal
Even have to know what the actual word was, but I was able to break down the pieces of it. But anyhow, so she had full facial paralysis for a year and a half with zero movement. I mean, no eyebrows, no eyelids, no cheeks, no lips, no nothing. And the neurologist had said to us, it's been a year and a half.
00;31;02;25 - 00;31;18;25
Krystal
Nerves grow a fourth of an inch a month. By now they should have repaired if they were going to and life is always delivered me who I needed at the time on my massage table. No joke. Love it, love it, love it. And I just I just welcome every day to be like.
00;31;19;04 - 00;31;20;20
Krystal
Who's going to be all right today?
00;31;21;12 - 00;31;41;28
Krystal
But I had this client who who always would see this other girl. And one day she happened to be on my table and I happened to tell her kind of the story of my daughter. And she's like, have you ever tried acupuncture? And I was like, actually, I haven't, but I'd be willing to give that a try. And so she ended up connected me with this lady and this lady and I talked on the phone, and it was just immediate connection.
00;31;41;28 - 00;31;58;20
Krystal
And she's like, I would love to meet your daughter. And so she came over and she did an acupuncture treatment on my daughter. My daughter wasn't sweating. So, you know, the way they explained it to me, she had basically laid down for a nap, woke up and couldn't walk. Seven days later was getting brain surgery. It happened that fast.
00;31;58;20 - 00;32;21;05
Krystal
We had no idea. And then within a week, we had the development. We had, you know, seen the images, all of that fun stuff. She had her first surgery on Monday, developed a blood clot on Wednesday, had to have a second brain surgery on Saturday. They really didn't think she was going to make it through the night, came back to us on a ventilator she actually went mute for six weeks, but she had to relearn how to hold up her hand.
00;32;21;05 - 00;32;37;26
Krystal
She had to relearn how to sit up. And at that time, my son was only seven weeks old. I basically had two infants starting all over again. And actually even hearing her first word after six weeks was mom. I was like, yes, I won for the second time because I was mom the first time. And then the first word for the second time was mom.
00;32;37;26 - 00;32;40;06
Krystal
But I lost.
00;32;40;06 - 00;32;41;04
Krystal
My train of thought. Where was.
00;32;42;24 - 00;32;51;09
Dave
I? Tell you what, you know, just listening to that, I can see where you get your inspiration. It sounds like you know, she's coming along fine.
00;32;51;16 - 00;33;09;08
Krystal
Yeah. I mean, she's she's doing great. So anyhow, so we started that's where I was going with this. So we started the acupuncture and she wasn't sweating at all. And after that first acupuncture treatment, she was like, Mom, I'm sweaty. And I was like, You're what? Because for a year, I mean, it was dead hot summer. And she is completely bone dry.
00;33;09;08 - 00;33;32;28
Krystal
And I'm a little concerned because that's your body's way of helping to cool the body down. So she would probably easily overheat if she's not sweating. So that first acupuncture treatment, she started sweating while then about three weeks later, I started noting noticing what I call the Elvis lip. She started getting a little indentation by her nose. And so the acupuncturist would come to my house sometimes twice a week and charged me only 20 bucks.
00;33;32;28 - 00;33;49;29
Krystal
And each time I tried to give her more, she'd give it right back because she wanted to be there for the process. She knew it was probably going to be a longer journey that we would have to endure. I guess I should say she did really well with it. My daughter and I had said to the acupuncturist, they said, I want to see my daughter smile because that I think was a selfish reason for me.
00;33;49;29 - 00;34;15;10
Krystal
Like, I just I wanted to see her smile because there was this one time we were sitting in the car and she's making noise and I'm thinking she's laughing. And she was actually crying but because she had no facial expression, I couldn't tell the difference. And you don't have teeth. She has no tears. Still, to this day, ten years later, still no tears but and without that facial movement or proper mouth movement, you don't even get the same sound.
00;34;15;17 - 00;34;32;27
Krystal
So it was just all very different. So I said to I want to see her smile. And that's the only thing we've gained. We haven't gained eyebrows. We haven't gained much in the cheeks. But she actually can create a smile with her mouth. And so I just find that very interesting, you know, people ask, does acupuncture work? And I say, yes, because we didn't gain anything else.
00;34;32;27 - 00;34;46;09
Krystal
It wasn't I mean, yes, the sweating thing that was kind of the first step. But that I think just helped me realize that it could work, it could do something. But seeing her actually create a smile out of anything was super, super cool.
00;34;46;13 - 00;35;06;16
Dave
I find your the challenges that you've had interesting and the roadblocks you've had and how you've handled that interesting. And, you know, you've grown this business in, you know, faced issues with employees and whatnot. You've overcome all that. Yeah. But in my mind, you don't have a choice. You don't you have a daughter that's faced such challenges that makes you seem minuscule.
00;35;06;20 - 00;35;08;01
Dave
Yeah. So you have no choice.
00;35;08;01 - 00;35;25;04
Krystal
Right. And every once in a while I get reminded of. Yeah, actually. So I was in the middle of opening body found this last November, I should say October actually. And I get a phone call from the doctor that she had just had another scan, and they found a new tumor. And as stressed out as I was about opening body found three.
00;35;25;04 - 00;35;48;09
Krystal
I hit the floor and I went, that's what life's about. And all of that stress from Body Fountain three of trying to get the cry whole unit and making sure the contractors were done on time and all the inspections and, you know, making sure everything was done, how quickly that meant nothing. Once they told me we found another tumor, thankfully, it's in a different spot and they don't think that it's a reoccurrence of her brain tumor.
00;35;48;10 - 00;36;10;04
Krystal
So we actually go next week to really kind of dissect that image and really look at it and do a really good you know, look see at her. But they're feeling pretty confident. It's just a side effect of the radiation. So, you know, fingers crossed she's good. But how quickly puts it in perspective of of what life's true purpose is.
00;36;10;04 - 00;36;16;29
Krystal
And yes, we we get stressed out about wanting everything to be perfect, but being able to hug my daughter is super.
00;36;16;29 - 00;36;31;22
Dave
Important of the day. Yeah. You know, obviously that's your key inspiration and motivation. But now let's get back to you. Let's you know, now you've just moved into this new facility. You know, this game's not done for you.
00;36;31;23 - 00;36;33;00
Krystal
Oh, no. Right now we.
00;36;33;14 - 00;36;34;17
Dave
Have bigger ideas I'm.
00;36;34;17 - 00;36;34;23
Krystal
On.
00;36;34;25 - 00;36;35;16
Dave
I can tell Frank.
00;36;35;18 - 00;36;36;05
Krystal
Right now.
00;36;36;05 - 00;36;36;28
Krystal
A lot of.
00;36;37;12 - 00;36;57;01
Krystal
Again, we talk about life hands me things when I'm supposed to have them, and they usually show up on my massage table. And I was presenting with something new about three weeks ago that I think is going to make a huge impact. I kind of want to I want to take health care and change it around. I don't want people to have to go to the doctor unless they need it.
00;36;57;03 - 00;37;10;28
Krystal
I mean, obviously, I'm working in a field where people don't want to take pills. I have this client that I've been seeing for seven years, and she was playing ball with her son and she felt something happen in her shoulder. So she went to the doctor and orthopedic and I said that he, you know, put his hands on you.
00;37;11;01 - 00;37;29;22
Krystal
She's like, No, I go. Did he ask to see your range of motion? She's like, No. I'm like, What do you do? He just gave me a pill. And I was like, Oh, my goodness. So that's the word. I want to reinvent health care. So the thought of massage therapist not being able to bill insurance, I just need to get a proper person in there to be able to do that.
00;37;29;28 - 00;37;36;28
Krystal
So that's what I'm working on now. So we're coming into a new phase hopefully that is going to change everything.
00;37;36;29 - 00;37;45;02
Dave
Do you feel like there's momentum in the United States now to focus more on body healing and preventative?
00;37;45;17 - 00;37;46;00
Krystal
Thank you.
00;37;46;00 - 00;37;48;00
Dave
Covered right now. There we go.
00;37;48;03 - 00;37;49;27
Krystal
We can only say it once and for that reason.
00;37;50;05 - 00;38;09;22
Krystal
But yeah, it just honestly, I think people have really pushed away from, you know, the political part of it and the money part of it. And let's just get back to healing people. You know, get somebody to come in and be like my mental state is creating this physical pains because that is huge. That is that is honestly way more common than most people even think.
00;38;09;22 - 00;38;32;06
Krystal
You know, how many times are you nervous and anxiety and your stomach's totally messed up. That is emotional pain causing physical. What's the word I'm like for love, you know, emotional distress causing physical changes in your body. I've actually started what's called these intention classes. I've even done meditation that now we have a classroom setting to try to help support that mental state as well.
00;38;32;16 - 00;38;39;19
Krystal
Because we need, again, that mental and physical to create that full wellness. I'm really excited to see where this is going to go.
00;38;39;20 - 00;38;40;04
Krystal
All right.
00;38;40;07 - 00;38;48;02
Dave
Good. After we finish this recording, we're going to come up with a game plan for me get some good issues.
00;38;48;26 - 00;38;50;01
Krystal
Everybody's got issues.
00;38;50;13 - 00;39;08;12
Krystal
I mean I mean, especially with with COVID. I mean, there's the stress of it all. And and not knowing how to navigate all this, right? You know, people are being told to wear a mask and how many times do you go to the store and you only get to see somebody XYZ? And I lately haven't been wearing a mask as much, you know?
00;39;08;12 - 00;39;25;17
Krystal
And it's just nice to see somebody smile, you know, you see somebody smile and what does that do to your inside? It makes you happy. Well, just think, for the past two years, we've been covering that. And I think of how the mental state of everyone is. I mean, there's way more shootings going on and just depression and suicide and just.
00;39;25;21 - 00;39;26;13
Dave
Why is this.
00;39;26;25 - 00;39;41;12
Krystal
Exactly let's get back to the person and not so much the business side of the pharmaceutical part or the politics of it all. Just, you know, come in. Hey, what's going on? I'm going to actually listen to you because I actually care. I mean, that's huge.
00;39;41;13 - 00;39;42;09
Dave
Got to start somewhere.
00;39;42;14 - 00;39;47;14
Krystal
Sometimes people just want somebody to listen. They don't even need anybody to say anything back. Just just hear me, please.
00;39;48;03 - 00;40;09;21
Dave
It's more than physical. It's emotional. It's mental. I'm trying to put piece this together into, I guess, motivation for life. You know, the whole purpose of interviewing folks like you is not just to inspire, but to teach people. Yeah. A little bit about how to approach life and and maybe make improvements and and maybe some entrepreneurs. Right, that want to start a business.
00;40;09;21 - 00;40;12;16
Dave
Do you believe that the American dream is still alive?
00;40;12;18 - 00;40;13;08
Krystal
Absolutely.
00;40;13;08 - 00;40;18;07
Dave
You're living proof, right? Yes. There's always roadblocks, there's always challenges. And a lot of it's your mental, right?
00;40;18;18 - 00;40;22;07
Krystal
Yeah. But you can't enjoy the ups if you don't have the downs.
00;40;22;07 - 00;40;41;27
Dave
Right. And the American dream doesn't necessarily mean necessarily mean having to start a business. Right. It's about, you know, learning to live, learning to be successful in overcoming challenges. You know, if the American dream is still alive, you know what's stopping people from pursuing their goals and dreams, right? Pursuing a better life. Yeah. You know, I don't know.
00;40;41;29 - 00;40;59;09
Krystal
I think we need to have more positivity out there. I mean, you look at the news and how many people don't want to listen to the news because it's so depressing, you know, and maybe, you know, that's what tick tock, right? Tick tock was all great because it brings people joy. But I think at the same time is it may might bring that immediate joy.
00;40;59;09 - 00;41;16;15
Krystal
It's also bringing a lot of inner conflict because. Well, I don't have that or I want that. And, you know, people perceive others in a way different light than they actually maybe really are because that's what they're trying to show. So as much as I think social media has been helpful, I think it's actually a really terrible.
00;41;16;17 - 00;41;17;11
Dave
Double edged sword.
00;41;17;11 - 00;41;39;02
Krystal
It really is. You know, it's it's I think also leading to that depression and feeling I'm not like them or I wish I had that. And and so I think everybody has anxiety nowadays, I feel like and it's just and maybe people do actually have anxiety. But I also kind of feel like people are using it as a crutch, a way to easily give up a little.
00;41;39;02 - 00;41;58;04
Krystal
I can't do that. I've got anxiety. Sometimes I want to be like, come on, pick yourself up. Isn't it better to feel empowered? Don't you feel a lot more accomplished when you saw that task and realized that you've overcome it and you found a solution, that sensation is way, way more beneficial than just saying, I've got anxiety, I can't do it.
00;41;58;14 - 00;42;12;13
Krystal
People are too afraid. They need to be a lot more confident in themselves. And I don't know. I don't know how we get there. I don't I don't know how we turn society around because I feel like it's it's very dark. It's very dark, and I just would love to bring more light to somehow.
00;42;12;25 - 00;42;15;27
Dave
I guess as you live life, you know, you hope that you make a difference.
00;42;16;06 - 00;42;16;20
Krystal
Right?
00;42;16;25 - 00;42;20;01
Dave
So you're doing whatever small part you can, right? To. Yeah.
00;42;20;08 - 00;42;21;29
Krystal
To promote. I feel like more of it.
00;42;21;29 - 00;42;27;03
Krystal
I feel like I'm a very optimistic person and I just wish I could somehow share that.
00;42;27;04 - 00;42;30;24
Dave
How do we how do we get like 100 crystals, right?
00;42;30;24 - 00;42;32;01
Krystal
Can we can.
00;42;32;01 - 00;42;32;26
Dave
We make that happen?
00;42;32;26 - 00;42;33;11
Krystal
I don't know.
00;42;34;11 - 00;42;57;01
Krystal
Because honestly, we've only talked about a few of my struggles. I think I've had lots and lots of things that should have broken me. And I still come in every single day shining bright ball of energy. My goal is to just uplift people. That's what I love. Doing. I knew that ever since I was younger, I see somebody who is down and I'm just attracted to lifting them up.
00;42;57;01 - 00;42;58;10
Krystal
And I don't know how we recreate that.
00;42;58;12 - 00;43;00;05
Dave
There must be a secret sauce.
00;43;00;11 - 00;43;01;14
Krystal
Yeah, I need a magic wand.
00;43;01;21 - 00;43;02;00
Krystal
Yes.
00;43;02;03 - 00;43;03;15
Krystal
Maybe we'll sit in some trees.
00;43;03;15 - 00;43;03;29
Krystal
I mean, that's.
00;43;03;29 - 00;43;04;13
Krystal
What it is.
00;43;04;15 - 00;43;12;01
Dave
I guess if there's one thing that you could have that you don't have now, that would help you get to where you want to go. What would that be?
00;43;12;03 - 00;43;12;27
Krystal
More time.
00;43;12;28 - 00;43;13;17
Dave
More time.
00;43;13;20 - 00;43;14;25
Krystal
Everybody needs more time.
00;43;14;25 - 00;43;16;05
Dave
I actually predicted that answer.
00;43;17;19 - 00;43;35;08
Krystal
Yes. I mean, I want to be there for my children. But I also want to be there for my business. I want to be there for my staff. I, I wish I could just duplicate myself for many reasons. I would love to get a massage by myself. That is pretty cool. But I want to be able to do so many things and, you know, you're only given so many hours in the day.
00;43;35;10 - 00;43;44;29
Dave
Is it challenging for you to manage your time so that you can do what needs to be done for your business and then also do what you enjoy, which is give a massage and help people?
00;43;45;01 - 00;44;03;06
Krystal
I feel like I'm definitely having to dial back the massage a grand scheme, right? That the big picture. Yeah. I want my body found to succeed and and maybe once that gets to a comfortable spot, then maybe I can increase my massage hours. But right now I have a lot of people relying on me, and I want to make sure that I'm doing the best that I can do for them.
00;44;03;16 - 00;44;31;05
Krystal
I want to make sure that I'm doing the business. I'm not should say doing the business a disservice by saying a massage room. I can't manage in that massage room. I have to be in that office and up front getting to know people promoting this or that or, you know, just being that brains behind the operation because I find a lot of the times in my usual flow is, you know, I go to work from nine to five, I come home from five to 9:00 is is children and home and cleaning and dinner and homework and you know, activities, all these things.
00;44;31;05 - 00;44;46;19
Krystal
And then the kids go to bed at nine and then from like nine to 11 I stay up and I work more, but I'm realizing I'm losing myself in that one a little bit. I've been trying to be a little bit more mindful of not doing too much work and to still remember I need my own mental health and I deserve that.
00;44;46;20 - 00;44;50;26
Dave
Do you have to conscientious sleep plan your time so that you find balance?
00;44;50;29 - 00;44;51;29
Krystal
I try not to kind.
00;44;51;29 - 00;44;53;02
Dave
Of ebb and flow.
00;44;53;05 - 00;45;05;18
Krystal
Yeah, exactly, exactly. I try not to plan too much because then you're kind of like, Oh, I should be doing it. And then, I don't know, I tend to get down on myself. If I said, Hey, you know what? You're going to do this tonight, and then if I don't do it, then I'm like, Oh, I just failed myself.
00;45;05;29 - 00;45;06;28
Krystal
So I try not to do that.
00;45;07;00 - 00;45;08;02
Dave
Can we talk about love?
00;45;08;02 - 00;45;08;27
Krystal
Sure. All right.
00;45;11;27 - 00;45;18;14
Dave
Now what you think, though. So what do you what do you what is it about running body found that you absolutely love the people?
00;45;18;17 - 00;45;20;24
Krystal
I just love seeing people smile. That's what it is.
00;45;20;25 - 00;45;27;10
Dave
All the things that you have to do in running a business. Is there one thing that you'd prefer not to do if you had a choice?
00;45;27;10 - 00;45;30;25
Krystal
Corporate tax seasons right around the corner. So that one's pretty forefront in my brain. Right.
00;45;30;25 - 00;45;31;07
Krystal
So you.
00;45;31;11 - 00;45;33;25
Dave
You're crabby during the tax season or you.
00;45;33;29 - 00;45;34;03
Krystal
Know.
00;45;34;08 - 00;45;56;26
Krystal
Just I'm not very diligent at recording all of my as I say, ins and outs. And so that part weighs a little heavily around this time of year. OK, OK, make sure everything's put into the system. And so that I can hand that off to the accountants and then they can they can do their deal. So that would be one thing that I would love to delegate to someone else if possible or not have to do ever would be great.
00;45;57;11 - 00;45;57;23
Krystal
All right.
00;45;58;25 - 00;46;02;03
Dave
I hear you. I got about eight things.
00;46;02;11 - 00;46;02;19
Krystal
Yeah.
00;46;03;08 - 00;46;12;06
Dave
You've got an amazing, inspiring story. You've got these goals and dreams. And I'm sure, you know, if I talk to you a year from now, it's going to be even more interesting. Yeah.
00;46;12;07 - 00;46;32;25
Krystal
You know, I feel like I move I move in. Fast forward, I mean, I started a business four and a half years ago, and we had a pretty big milestone last year. And I'm super, super surprised and proud and cannot believe the success that we have attained in just this short four and a half years. I mean, we actually were voted number one for massage in the whole Southland.
00;46;33;00 - 00;46;36;02
Krystal
To sit there and think that I did that is pretty damn.
00;46;36;02 - 00;46;40;11
Dave
Congratulations. Do you ever just take a moment and step back and just say, Wow.
00;46;40;15 - 00;47;00;18
Krystal
I've been trying to do that. I want my self to see what I've created and it happened, I think the first time I ever did that because I've kind of low self esteem, I guess. You know, I, I really find I get uplifted by uplifting other people. It was our first open house body found two, so we were probably established a year and a half at that time.
00;47;01;03 - 00;47;26;18
Krystal
And after that open house and everybody left, I was in my office and as I said, I had that big mirror and I took a dry erase, dry erase board marker and I wrote on there, I am proud of myself. And then I just stared at it for a little did you really just say that you like? Because I'm not a cocky, arrogant person at all, but to say that and look at it and truly believe that I am very proud of what I've created was super cool.
00;47;26;27 - 00;47;34;18
Dave
When you first started this, it was just you. Yeah. And so it's some point your children, but in the beginning it was all about you.
00;47;34;24 - 00;47;35;02
Krystal
Yeah.
00;47;35;10 - 00;47;36;12
Dave
But not so much anymore.
00;47;36;23 - 00;47;54;06
Krystal
No, I and honestly, I don't even know exactly where it's going to go. And I think in the beginning I had set up what I thought would be successful, but I didn't actually really envision like how would that look? And like I, I have created what's called a Vichy shower and basically think of it like a waterproof massage table.
00;47;54;06 - 00;48;10;29
Krystal
And I shouldn't say I created it. I, I built that into my business. I had used it actually at a gym that I worked at, and I just thought it was a really cool thing. But it's basically a waterproof massage table with drains in the floor. And then you have eight body sprays that run horizontally over the table.
00;48;10;29 - 00;48;30;26
Krystal
So as the client lays there the therapist is doing a full body treatment and you are just being flooded with water. I mean, it really actually goes into Body Fountain very nicely, actually. But you know, that that I thought was really cool. And so even before I open body fat, I knew I wanted one of those. Just because it would set me apart, it would be different.
00;48;30;26 - 00;48;48;20
Krystal
And I thought the benefits of it were spectacular, but I didn't actually, like, see, like what that room was going to look like. Was I ever really going to be able to do that? Like, I didn't even get to that part. I just I knew that this is what I wanted to offer, and I just knew over time it would all work its way out of who was going to do it.
00;48;48;21 - 00;49;04;27
Krystal
How are we going to do it, the cost of it, the products, I mean, all of that, right? Those were all those minute details that just kind of come over time. So it just the idea of knowing that I wanted to do it was was exciting and yeah. So kind of back here. Like, I didn't really think that I was going to be where I am now.
00;49;04;27 - 00;49;06;19
Krystal
Guarantee in five years I look back and.
00;49;06;19 - 00;49;09;16
Krystal
Go, Holy moly, you didn't really think you'd be here.
00;49;10;08 - 00;49;28;01
Krystal
Because I don't know how to stop. I just like to constantly reinvent and move forward. And I don't know that talk about that passion. I mean, I truly am very passionate about what I do and I love what I do. And I don't think I could ever do anything else. And actually, I don't even know if I'll ever truly be able to stop massaging.
00;49;28;01 - 00;49;38;03
Krystal
That is my Zen time. That really helps no matter how stressed I am. I put my hands on that client and I just breathe and calm down and everything kind of drifts away.
00;49;38;11 - 00;49;45;05
Dave
Passion. Yeah, I think that's probably the number one statement. Do what makes you happy, do what you enjoy, and you'll find a way to persevere.
00;49;45;12 - 00;49;45;20
Krystal
Yeah.
00;49;46;13 - 00;49;46;26
Dave
Thank you.
00;49;47;05 - 00;49;47;19
Krystal
Thank you.
00;49;47;19 - 00;50;08;14
Dave
Thank you for coming to talk about this. I could talk to you for days. You know, I find everything very interesting, and maybe there's opportunity for more stories down the road. I'm going to check on you, but I can tell everybody from personal experience that Crystal has amazing hands and that if you go get a massage, that you'll be pushed to the limit, but you will feel amazing you leave.
00;50;08;14 - 00;50;19;13
Dave
So I think everyone should do their part to live a more positive life. A feel good, you know, probably go a long way to solving a lot of our problems in society. Right? So you got to start somewhere.
00;50;19;21 - 00;50;20;16
Krystal
Lead with your heart.
00;50;20;25 - 00;50;25;20
Dave
With your heart. So good luck and thank you for joining us. It was really cool, right?
00;50;25;22 - 00;50;26;15
Krystal
Thank you. Enjoyed it.