Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maribel Diaz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maribel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Taking a risk. I have taken many risk in my life to get to where i am today. It started with leaving my job at two bunch palm back in 2021, right before covid hit. i was really close to one of the managers that worked there, where i had told him my business ideas and what my plan was on building a retreat. he would tell me the pros and the cons of it, what to be aware of and so much more. i had mentioned to him i had investors who have jumped on board to help create this dream of mine in opening up a retreat where we focused on a 360 wellness. In Functional performance, health and wellness, where we will create a wellness program during their stay depending on what their goal was. May it be pain management, holistic or maybe on their spiritual journey.

i searched and searched for the right piece of land that energetically met and connected with me.
Finally finding what i have long searched for, it was time to close one chapter and get ready for the next.
i hesitated to put my two weeks at two bunch palms, i sat on it for two weeks on how was i going to tell my manager that i was leaving. so i wrote a letter. i went into his office and gave him my letter and stood there with my palms sweating. as i watched him read it i can see his face expression building with such anger. he was upset with me, which shocked me hoping he would be happy for me. i was told i wasn’t going anywhere in life, that i was going to fail and that i was making the biggest mistake of my life. instead of feeling emotionally sad about what he had told me, i took his words as motivation. because the same words that came out of him are the same words that came out of a verbal abusive relationship i had to leave, to focus on my wellness and spiritual journey which got me to want to open a retreat.

taking the risk in leaving my job to open a retreat was huge for me.
having 3 investors by my side. but i had one investor who mentioned i had to many investors and that i needed to minimize them. so.. i did.. which i don’t regret because one investor ended getting divorced and left the state.
When the day came to sign the paper work, with such excitement, one of the investors pulls me to the side and mentions that he is hesitant to move forward because he wanted to find love and was worried that all his energy would be focused on getting the retreat going. even though he had agreed to become a silent investor. it was a shocked to me and i could just hear the words that where told to me from my manager and past relationship.

i decided to move forward by doing things on my own, even though i had a investor that was still wanting to do business. i took this as “if i want things done right i have to do it myself”.

So i moved forward with starting from scratch and looking for a place. no way was i going back to work for a company. taking the risk of doing this on my own looking for a studio during covid, where we where going through a shut down. not knowing when places will open up again. especially me being a massage therapist, the shut down was not allowing massage therapist to work. luckily to my advantage i am a medical massage practioner.

i meditated on it, may i find a place that is close to the mountains or water. i drove everywhere, every city looked at so may placed. then finally i find a place. the 1st shut down has lifted. i gave my offer to how much rent i could pay knowing the owner was flexible. my offer was shut down. the second covid shut down hit, and immediately got a phone call from the owner asking if i was still interested. i said yes. again taking another risk not knowing when the second shut down was going to get lifted.

2022 i have now received the keys to my own place, called Myokinetix, where we focus on functional performance health and wellness with pain managements services, holistic services and mindful monthly events where we gather the community to educate them on different ways to heal their persona, may it be health, emotions, trauma and so much more.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

It started with my grandparents owning a ranch. my grandmother had a garden where she grew herbs. i was always with her, and played outside. i would be roaming in the garden putting herbs in a bottle pretending it was medicine, one day my grandmother was outside with myself and my cousin Eduardo, and i was telling him how the herbs will help him with certain health issues. My grandmother pulled me to the side and asked who had showed me this, and i just shrugged my shoulders and said i don’t know. i just know. slowly my grandmother started showing me her ways on how to heal the body naturally, with herbs and remedies and as i got older she began to show me trigger point in the hands feet and heads and how to work with the nervous system.

this began when i was 7 years old until i was 16. when i was a freshman in high school, I use to hate eating the food provided at school during lunch, so i would massage the seniors sitting at the senior quad for money to buy me better food. i did that all 4 years being in high school. one day the marines visited the school trying to have the seniors sign up, i went to go talk to one of them explaining how i was interested in joining and becoming a snipper. i was shut down and taken seriously. so i went on to go massaging someone who has neck pain. an old friend of mine came up to me while massaging saying we had 2 weeks left till we graduate, what are you going to do. i replied saying I’m not sure, i didn’t want to not do nothing and become lazy. she said she’s going to massage school, so i said ok let go.

after graduating massage school and being in the business for a year i felt that something was missing, that this was the start of something but i needed more. so i decided to go back to school for physical therapist in sports medicine. i attended college of the desert for 3 years aiming to transfer out to Loma Linda university. the counselors advised i looked into another school just in case i didn’t make it, but i refused to go anywhere else. once done with college of the desert, i had applied to loma linda university. i received a letter and happen to carry that letter with me to work, when i was working at two bunch palms. i was on lunch break and opened the letter just to read that i was on the waiting list.

i began to freak out, wondering what i was going to do while i waited, i didn’t want to loose the knowledge i had gained during my years at c.o.d. luckily i had a nosey co worker who had mentioned medical massage.
stating the medical massage is a combination of massage therapy and physical therapy. but i had to travel out to Costa Rica. so i took the shot and traveled out. taking that course definitely opened doors for me as i took other courses teaching about posture correction, pain management, working with the skeletal, nerves and myofascial system.

I not only worked for a spa worked for myself as well. i began working out of my parents walk in closet. tuning their closet into a treatment room for in home clients. i did this because not only did i get to keep what i made but also i wasn’t able to practice what i learned at a spa. but that is where i met two of my investors.

through out the next two years 2016/2018 i worked for multiple places, trying to see where my knowledge fit best, where it was respected along with renting a room out and not doing house calls at my own home for safety reasons.

i worked on helping clients with pain management, posture correction, and nervous system issues. worked with clients trying to avoid surgery or has a spine issue. this opened up the doors to also planting the seed to wanting to strive for my retreat.

working for all these companies, studying how they ran their business, their programs and the type of clients they where attracting, help me discovered what type of clients i wanted to work with. but in the means of all this, i myself was going through health issues. where i was being tossed around by multiple doctors, no one could figure out what was going on. until i gave up, and decided to take matters into my own hands. being diagnose with fribomyalgia was not something i accepted. I had gone to see a special acupuncture who really know herbal medicine and Chinese medicine. she advised what i needed to do to get better. luckily i happened to work for a wellness retreat that helped clients restart their digestive system. so i did the program my job had to offer and sure enough it helped with 80% of my issues.

that motivated me to help people deeper into their health

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Word of mouth has been the most effective strategy for growing my clientele. choosing and knowing what clientele you want to attract. going to health events, business meeting and reaching out to small business owners

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

staying on top with your clientele or customers, making sure that your business is a always representable in a way where it connects with the customer. along side with the products and services given

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.myoknetix.com
• Instagram: mykntx
• Facebook: Myokinetix Functional performance, health and wellness
• Yelp: Myokinetix

Image Credits

tenten photography