We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Angela Landeros a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Angela, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

A Business Built on Healing

I went from being independent to growing my business into a multiple therapist operation.
Massage therapy has always been more than a career for me. It was the craft that helped me understand pain—my own and others’. Specializing in pain management and injury recovery wasn’t just a business decision; it was a calling. I wanted a space where people struggling with chronic pain, injuries, movement limitations, and everyday stress could feel understood, supported, and truly cared for.

But when you open a business focused on healing, you take on a responsibility much bigger than yourself. You aren’t just offering a service—you’re offering trust.

The Risk of Leadership

One of the greatest, often unseen risks in entrepreneurship is the responsibility of building a team. As a massage therapist myself, I know how personal this work is. Every touch, every technique, every decision impacts someone’s body and well-being.

Hiring isn’t about filling a schedule—it’s about finding practitioners who align with your philosophy, your level of skill, your standards, and your heart.

That takes vulnerability.
That takes intuition.
That takes courage.

Each new therapist who walks through the door is someone I’m trusting with my clients, my business name, and the mission I built from the ground up. Building the right team means saying yes carefully—and sometimes saying no courageously. And for every team member who joins us, I feel the weight and privilege of being responsible for their livelihood. Their families. Their stability.

This isn’t a one-woman mission anymore. It’s a shared one.

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.

From Horses to Humans: The Backstory Behind My Massage Journey

Before I ever laid hands on a person, I thought massage belonged entirely to the world of horses. My life started in the equestrian arena—riding, teaching, training, and eventually becoming an equine bodyworker. Horses were my partners, my teachers, and, in many ways, my first clients.

Massage therapy for me wasn’t about spa music and dim lights; it was about listening to an animal with no words. It was about interpreting movement, behavior, and subtle shifts in muscle tone. Horses taught me the most powerful lesson of all: intuition is the real language of the body.

So when a close friend asked me to work on her, my immediate response was, “You have two legs, not four, and you have no fur. I have no idea how to work on you.”

Still, I agreed—hesitantly. We were on the floor, laying on a towel, and I worked over her clothes with no expectations. But within minutes, something clicked. Muscles were muscles. Restriction was restriction. Pain patterns, body mechanics, compensation—none of it changed just because the being on the floor had hands instead of hooves.

In that moment, I realized I could work on people.
In that moment, I realized I wanted to work on people.
And in that moment, I decided to go to school and make it my profession.

The horse had already given me the foundation:
• Intuition — the ability to feel what the body cannot express in words.
• Sensitivity — understanding subtle responses, tension changes, or shifts in breath.
• Athletic insight — recognizing that the body, whether horse or human, is an athletic machine with patterns, strengths, and vulnerabilities.

Because a horse is an athlete—every horse, no matter the breed or discipline. That athletic mindset transferred naturally into my human work, shaping me into a therapist who leans toward sports massage, clinical work, and highly specialized techniques. It allowed me to understand not just where pain was, but why it existed.

This journey from equine to human massage became the backbone of my practice—and eventually, the inspiration for my second book. I wanted to write about the techniques I’ve developed, the intuitive processes that came from years with horses, and how these skills evolved into a unique clinical approach that now guides my team and my business.

And that leads to the bigger dream: to expand Physical Touch Body Work based on these techniques, this philosophy, and the profound lessons that started not in a classroom, but in a barn—with the quiet wisdom of a horse.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Leadership Requires a Complete Shift in Mindset

One of the biggest lessons I had to learn was how to transition from working independently to becoming a business owner responsible for an entire ecosystem of people. When I was on my own, all I had to manage was my schedule, my clients, and my workflow. But as Physical Touch Body Work grew, so did the responsibility. Suddenly, it wasn’t just about me anymore.

I went from managing one schedule—my own—to overseeing the schedules of ten therapists, two assistants, and a growing client base with a constant flow of needs, requests, and moving parts. I had to learn how to delegate, communicate more clearly, and build systems that supported not just my work, but everyone’s work.

Becoming a steward of the business meant stepping into leadership in a new way:
   •   Supporting my therapists in their own growth.
   •   Ensuring my assistants had what they needed to succeed.
   •   Balancing personalities, strengths, and workflow styles.
   •   Making decisions that benefited the whole team, not just my own practice.
   •   Keeping the vision unified, even as each person brought their unique approach.

This shift required patience, humility, and the willingness to evolve. I realized that leadership isn’t about control—it’s about creating an environment where everyone can thrive. The success of Physical Touch Body Work is now a shared effort, and learning to carry that responsibility with both strength and grace has been one of the most transformative lessons of my career.

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

Building a Business Without Capital: A Story of Timing, Trust, and Faith

When people ask how I funded Physical Touch Body Work, they often expect a story about investors, loans, or a nest egg set aside for entrepreneurship. But the truth is much more humble—and much more meaningful. There was no capital, no cushion, and no financial roadmap waiting for me. The only money I had at the beginning was used to write my book on the SummaTeq method called ‘Advenures in Massage, Become an Superhero Massage Therapist’ which is the foundation of my massage philosophy.

Everything else?
It was built from the ground up—literally.

I started inside a chiropractor’s office, renting a single room. That chiropractor wasn’t just a professional connection but a longtime friend who believed in me. The space was small, but the timing was perfect. It gave me a place to begin, to build, to grow. And grow we did.

One room became two.
Two became three.
And eventually, the walls could no longer contain us.

When it came time to expand beyond that office, once again, the universe stepped in with surprising alignment. A client—someone who believed in our work and understood our mission—had just purchased a building. One of their suites had been newly built out and was a perfect fit for us. No major renovations. No overwhelming expenses. No barriers to growth. It was as if the space had been waiting for us.

I didn’t build this business with dollars.
I built it with timing, relationships, intuition, trust, and a willingness to start small and evolve with purpose.

Every step along the way has unfolded in a way that felt intentional—almost guided. And all I can do is continue to hope, pray, and work with clarity that the next step will reveal itself with the same purpose, the same alignment, and the same faith that has carried us from one room to a thriving, growing practice.

Physical Touch Body Work wasn’t funded by money.
It was funded by conviction.
By community.
By divine timing.
By resilience.
And by the belief that healing—true, meaningful healing—is worth building, one room at a time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://angelalanderosheals.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summateq/