We were lucky to catch up with Castle Frame Lauren McCullough recently and have shared our conversation below.

Castle and Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Castle : “In 2020, just like anyone did in the service industry, I had a lot of time to think. We were mid-lockdown, I was still legally prohibited from running my business (and worried about the consequences to my family’s health when I did), and I had just gotten my second finalist notification for best Massage Therapist in the Triangle. I started to reflect on my experiences working and growing with my clients and what was next in my career. I wondered what had contributed to my own success, and why is massage still so — straight and white…even though this wasn’t the case for my own clientele.

It led to a lot of conversations with my wife, my friends, and eventually my clients. I realized there was an opportunity to reimagine the what and the who in regards to the whole wellness industry. As I looked at my personal experiences in massage, I realized even as a massage therapist I had some of the same complaints. This was especially the case when my wife and I would get couples massages. While I love a little pampering, a 5-star spa isn’t exactly where I belong. On the other end of the spectrum, I feel I am about to walk into the doctor’s office. But it doesn’t have to be that way, it never did. Massage is a powerful tool for health. I wanted to make it approachable.

Lauren :

“I can’t remember exactly the day this all started, but I remember a lot of amazing hikes digging into this idea. With a background in tech startups, I obsess over user experiences. While this had been something I typically applied to software, I realized the same tenants of UX still apply to in-person services. You still need to provide an amazing product and ensure every interaction delights customers. You still have to build a brand that creates community and prioritizes your why. You still need to build a culture that retains talent and provides opportunities for growth.

Castle and I spent a lot of long nights at American Underground obsessing about our why and our core values. For a lot of small businesses, I think this comes much later. For us, this was the heart of everything. We want to be the best, not just for ourselves but for all of those that have support (and will) support us. I resonate with her comments around feeling like this industry wasn’t for me. Outside of massages from Castle and a couple massage friends, I barely ever went to get treatments because I felt so vulnerable and sometimes judged. I felt like everyone in the room was thinking “why is this girl here.” Maybe I made it up in my own head, but does that really matter? I wanted to find a space I felt comfortable in. I wanted to feel better. I wanted to begin investing in my own wellness, but I didn’t know where to start.”

For us, this really is the why of Auroraflow. We want to provide a safe, welcoming, approachable space for the community to begin investing in their own wellness. One of our sayings is “better starts here.” It doesn’t matter who you are and what you have done on the outside, we got you. This is where you can begin feeling better and taking those steps to invest in yourself. You deserve it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Castle :

“I was originally going to Ohio University out of high school, but quickly realized it wasn’t for me. Going into my second year, I changed directions and signed up for the massage therapy program at the technical school nearby, Hocking College. I had always loved giving massages and the use of holistic remedies. When I was sitting in the first class, Aromatherapy, I realized I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

During my time at Hocking, I was fortunate to have amazing instructors and peers that pushed me to become the best massage therapist I could. Although I struggled with test anxiety, I excelled in my hands-on classes and was able to really boost my skill set by offering a lot of treatments in and outside of my practicum. I still remember lugging my Craigslist table in and out of random houses in Athens charging $20 a massage, just to get experience.

When I graduated in December 2014, I had recently started dating Lauren (my now wife) and was trying to find myself and what I wanted next. I loved massage, but candidly, I struggled a lot with the board testing due my test anxiety. This really discouraged me. At times, I wanted to give up. I was fortunate though to have a very strong support system in my friends, family, and Lauren. When we moved to Durham in December 2015, I was still studying to retake my test. I was leveraging every study tool and pep talk I could find and, finally, in Spring 2016, I passed.

I quickly was hired on at a wellness center which was huge for boosting my confidence after a hard year and a half. I quickly built up a loyal clientele and relationships with other massage therapist in the area. However, after a year and a half, I started to get a little antsy and wanted to see what I could do on my own. We had recently purchased a home that, fortunately, had a home office that was a perfect place to start my practice. One year in, I won Best Massage Therapist in the Triangle.

This brought a lot of overwhelming emotions and allowed me to reflect on how a single test could have prevented me from a career that I loved and excelled in. Maybe this is why my heart is so committed to empowering new and aspiring therapists that love this career as much as I do. As we have gone out to classes for recruiting, I see myself in that room. I want them to excel as I have, but I know being a massage therapist can be a challenging career with a lot of burnout. At least least it was. Auroraflow wants to change that.

Lauren

“Unlike Castle, I have had very little experience in the wellness industry. I went to school with the expectation of working in nonprofits and policy reform, just to realize that the pace of those industries didn’t exactly match my work style. I wanted to make change and got pulled into entrepreneurship as a result of a few amazing startups I saw changing the world.

Since, I have worked in and with probably 150+ startups (to varying degrees). I figured out a lot on what to do, and what not to do, when launching a business. I always gravitated towards companies that I felt were pushing the mold on changing how we see specific goods and services existing within our lives and communities. Even 3 years ago, I would have never guessed I would work on opening up a wellness center. But, as I brainstormed with Castle, something caught my heart. Our “why” pulled me in, especially as someone who had experienced the challenges in the industry first hand (both as a client and the wife of a therapist).

I tend to be future oriented, so my most proud moments are still to come. I see Auroraflow evolving into something beautiful and impactful…not just in Durham but around the world. I think there is an opportunity here to change the faces of wellness and provide a refuge for integrated health. To me, this is just the beginning. I cannot wait to see what’s in store.“

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Lauren “As I mentioned, I have spent a lot of time working with startups. I always got how hard funding was, but experiencing it in real life was something else. This was extra complicated by both being solo-preneurs. Apparently lenders don’t trust you to pay your bills if you don’t have a W-2 income.

When we first started, we were set on doing our own build. A couple calls with community financing organizations and we quickly got the wind knocked out of us and decided leasing would be a much better option to start. We had to balance the tricky question of “how do you start.” We had big goals, and settling on a 1,000 ft unit in a strip mall felt like a stumbling block and not a starting block. But this was all we thought we could afford.

We went back to a number of community lenders, but somehow stumbled on some amazing resources at JP Morgan Chase. I still am not sure why they put so much energy into us, but their team was fantastic. I am really not sure Auroraflow would be here without them.

They helped us understand how we could be competitive for a loan, including guiding us through a home refinance that would give us access to a small nest egg that could be collateral for the debt we were about to take out. Looking at the first few places, we were looking at 150k+ in funding just to provide the buildout and startup capital. Unfortunately, we got rejected from this loan amount and were left without enough capital to move forward.

This is where our other superstars, our broker John at CBRE and landlord, came through. John knew the circumstances we were under and somehow found us an amazing property that was with a local family. The best part, they were going to provide a majority of the buildout so we could finally get over our capital hurdles that we thought could stop us dead in our tracks. When we look back, I think we will see our landlord as our first investor. They took a huge risk on us, but believed deeply in what we were doing.

Once we understood our capital requirements, Chase worked with us closely to come up with a combination of debt capital from loans, lines of credit, and some credit cards that delay interest for 18 months, enough to help us get off the ground. While credit cards can be scary when you are still pre revenue, this was CRITICAL for us.

The final funding source, that maybe is the one that I am most proud of, is the $10k we raised by preselling treatments and memberships to our community through an Indiegogo. By raising these funds from Indiegogo, we have the money to pay some amazing artists from our community to put murals in each of our treatment rooms.

Putting together the initial capital to start our business was challenging, but with a lot of hustle and an amazing support system, we made it happen. To anyone getting started, don’t give up. Get creative. Just because you get denied doesn’t mean you should quit, it means you need to go back and reassess how you can leverage everything in your power to make your dreams a reality.”

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Castle : “I think a lot of people launching their business think they need to just put their head down and do the work alone, but that never really meshes with our brand or work style. We feel strongly that Auroraflow is by the community, for the community. Some of this is geographical, but also working with groups like the LGBTQIA+ center to build a business that reinvest within the same communities that lift it up.

I think this really hit home for us dealing with construction delays the last few months. We originally were set to open our doors in late August/early September, but hit a bunch of issues with inspections and permitting. As much as we wanted to just sit back and feel frustrated, we reached out to our network for help building momentum and staying relevant. We have used this time to really build our roots. We have hosted chair massage events at local coffee shops, barber shops, and co-working spaces. We believe this will be helpful for our launch, but also will help to establish our reputation as the collaborative, community building organization we want to become.

Maybe it’s a little early to say, but I feel that we are well on our way to establishing a strong brand and reputation, wherever this venture leads us. We not only want to be seen as an business that provides exceptional services, but is a force for good. We are looking for that “wow” factor, which is why creating a unique, welcoming, beautiful space is a top priority. We are making commitments already to how we treat, compensate, and cultivate talent within our business and look forward to the day when we can provide further financial assistance for expanding access to wellness.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.auroraflow.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auroraflowmassage/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/auroraflowmassage/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/84337067/admin/

Image Credits
Credit : Castle Frame
Alyssa LaFaro