We recently connected with Antheria Watson and have shared our conversation below.

Antheria, appreciate you joining us today. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge for me as far as massage therapy would be that people see it as a luxury instead of seeing it as a health and wellness necessity for managing stress and physical health. They believe that massage only relaxes you. Don’t get me wrong it does that but massage increases blood flow in your body, loosens tight muscles and removes toxins from your body.

As far as personal training most people don’t feel they need a trainer. They just pick a random video on YouTube or pick a workout that looks cool off instagram or tik tok. Not understanding that that may not be the best workout to achieve their goals.

I have a personal training client that saw an influencer having a sale on her app for black Friday and purchased the package. She kept the app and was doing the workouts but not being able to achieve any goals that she set for herself.

With massage you see all these pictures of people getting massages and they look all relaxed and at ease, Often times for the people who really need the work done it’s a little painful to release those trigger points and to also be able to increase that range of motion because of tightness in the muscles.

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

I was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. Im one of 6 kids. Always loved sports and anything that kept me fit. I got into massage therapy and the health and wellness business because I believe that your health matters more than anything else in life. You can have millions and still die because you aren’t healthy. I wanted to move through life without all the aches and pains that come from not being physically fit. I didn’t want to be winded playing with my kids. I didn’t want to watch them live from the sidelines.

My business is Theri, LLC. I do massage therapy (MassageTheri) and personal training (FitTheri) and I also teach Mat Pilates and Yoga. I hope to also add spinning to my portfolio in the near future.

What sets me apart from other is my background. I haven’t just worked with the average client. I’ve worked with collegiate athletes, semi professional and professional athletes. So I know what the average person needs and also what athletes need. My education in Persoanl training makes me more relatable to those who are physically active and wanting a different type of massage than what a normal day to day person would want.

I’d like people to know that everything that I do for my clients is personal to me. I don’t have a cookie cutter method to what I do. Every person gets something different based on what they need specifically. I take my take to formulate a plan that will help the client achieve their goal. Wether it’s wanting more range of motion, wanting to lose weight or if they just want that knot out of their shoulder.

I think I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve done all these things while also being a mom to 4 kids. I didn’t make excuses for why I couldn’t do it. I needed my kids to know that you have to commit to your dreams no matter what life throws your way.

Each and everyone of my clients is treated like family because they could go to any massage therapist, Personal Trainer or fitness instructor but they chose me. I don’t take for granted that my clients had other options but chose to stick with me. If what we tried isn’t working we rewrite our plan until we find something that does.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That you can’t help everyone and everyone isnt your target audience. Some people want you to do all the work for them. I’ve had client who lost weight and rewarded themselves with the very thing that made them gain weight in the first place. I’ve also had clients that I tell to stretch to help supplement the massages and they say they don’t want to stretch and wonder why they keep coming back to the table with the same issues. Some people want a physique that they’ll never be able to achieve because it doesn’t fit their anatomy.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’m married to a college football coach and anyone who knows anything about that profession knows that you don’t often stay planted for too long. I’ve moved to 4 different states and had to aquire a massage license in all of them and start my business from scratch. But each time I added a new spin to it. I became more knowledgeable about my craft and began to take courses that support my overall goal of helping people become their best self physically. And I also had to learn about the business laws in each state and how I would be able to operate in a way that worked for me and my clients.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @MassageTheri
• Facebook: FitTheri
• Linkedin: Antheria Watson

Image Credits

Antheria Watson