Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Bailey Mier-Nava. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Appreciate you 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.
Well… launching our advanced massage therapy clinic, Interstellar Massage, was a HUGE risk in and of itself. There was a risk to NOT opening it, and a risk TO opening it. It is one of the most impactful experiences of my life.
My best friend and husband passed away in May 2024, which was a devastating blow to my mind, my heart, my general motivation for life, and to my career as a newly licensed massage therapist. Grief ran me over like a freight train, the weight of it was merciless and there was literally no escaping those feelings. I’d never lost someone this close to me before, and the reality of it is that it’s like being trapped in an absolute tornado of emotional destruction on the inside. I joined several widow’s support groups online and I saw story after story of the devastating impact that this type of loss can and has had on countless lives. It can potentially completely uproot someone’s entire life and demolish their life/career/education/financial progress in SO many ways. I knew I had to think fast or I wasn’t going to “make it.” Our entire lives changed in that moment, and for a little while it was really unclear what the best way forward was. I was scared of losing our life that my husband and I had built together here in Houston, where some of our fondest memories as a family have been formed.
I knew that I couldn’t make a living wage as an LMT working for the corporate spas (from what I have seen, these brands have never paid any therapist enough to live on without another source of income supporting them), and I have a physical disability that makes it difficult for me to carry around heavy equipment like a massage table for doing mobile services on the side like some of my colleagues can do to make ends meet. So I knew I had to make miracles happen, somehow some way, and get a physical location to work out of where I was bringing in the revenue to support us instead of breaking myself working at a corporate chain.
I put myself out there and let my vulnerability show in that moment, and I asked for funding to start my own business. As luck would have it, I was blessed with it and that changed my entire life in that moment. I was able to build the clinic out on a shoestring budget and get it going, get an extremely talented team going of therapists that I had had my eye on ever since I started school, use my marketing skills to position the clinic and our vision/mission strategically in our local market, and get the first wave of operational processes ironed out. I have had so many people help me along the way, including some angel investors who have truly been like angels in the midst of this storm that have come along and helped in ways I have never even thought possible. Other professionals in the community who believe in what we want to do and want to see us win so that it helps our entire industry have stepped up to help us and send us resources to help us make it. We are starting to make an impact, and people are noticing!
If I hadn’t opened this clinic, I would have risked losing our quality of life as we had built it. That’s it, that’s a wrap.. I was thinking “oh God if I fail, hopefully my dad lets me and my kids move back home given the circumstances.” But who wants to HAVE to do that in their 30’s if there is literally ANY other option? That is an entirely different battle in your mind if that has to happen, and I did not want to have to cross that bridge as a mother, even though many other widows have also had no choice but doing so when they were thrust into this experience as well.
In opening this clinic, it absolutely could have failed at any moment (and certainly could still fail if we don’t make wise decisions at all times and plan ahead and be strategic and smart in what we are doing), and then all of those outcomes would have happened anyways. I just knew I had a 50%+ chance to make it if I TOOK the risk, and I had a 0% chance to make it if it didn’t. My babies are counting on me to do everything possible to give them a good life that sets them up for success as they enter adulthood… and my husband always encouraged me to be brave and fierce. So taking this risk and at least TRYING to make it was a no brainer.
It has been the most stressful, exciting, bittersweet, exhilarating, nerve wracking, humbling time of my life ever since, and I am thankful every day that I get to be here doing this for this organization because it helps me keep going. I was going to build all of this alongside my husband, so doing it now in his memory helps me feel close to him in my heart and that helps me find purpose and resilience in the face of that adversity. Our mission and vision for this company also reflects values that were important to him and I both — we wanted to one day help as many people as possible and do something amazing and good in this world, and we always talked about it and dreamed about it together. Now I am working on doing that, and committing to that process has helped me survive the grief of losing him. That is surreal to me. It has been the biggest risk I have ever taken in my life, and I am very glad I did because I get to help a lot of amazing people now.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Definitely! My name is Bailey, and I am a Licensed Massage Therapist in the state of Texas. I trained at Texas School of Massage for my foundational LMT training, and I received my license to practice and launched my brand, Interstellar Massage, in December 2023. I opened our first brick-and-mortar location on October 18, 2024. Our clinic focuses on providing advanced therapeutic massage, specializing in treating chronic pain, gait/mobility issues, and sports massage for amateur and professional athletes. We collaborate with other healthcare professionals like chiropractors, physical therapists, physicians, and more to develop treatment plans and help clients overcome chronic pain and injuries quickly and efficiently, with innovative processes and approaches not commonly seen in other clinics.
I have a strong entrepreneurial background throughout my entire adult career. I pursued my formal education in psychology and addiction counseling with the purposes of pursuing my PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology, until I switched gears for my children and pursued my education in Massage Therapy so that I could have more time with them as a mom until they go off into the world as adults. I use these skills I have built throughout these experiences over the years to help bolster our overall strategy at the clinic, and it has helped us tremendously to achieve the growth we have so far in a short period of time.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Honestly what every small business owner needs to know is that you are fully capable of marketing your business through free and extremely low-cost means and you will set yourself up for success that way, and there are resources to learn how to do that found easily through Google. And that comes from my days of owning a marketing agency. You want to have cohesive branding across all platforms, you want a clean line logo that works in many different applications, you want a consistent presence on every major platform, and you want to incorporate as much (strategic) paid print advertising (because print is DEFINITELY coming back) and as much guerrilla marketing as possible because that boosts your word of mouth and interpersonal connections with others that helps them trust your business and your brand.
Focus on creating a consistent customer experience from beginning to end of your sales cycle, form strategic alliances with other businesses in your industry, and don’t be afraid to collaborate with your “competition.” The reality is that we live in a major city, and almost none of our businesses could service all of those clients/customers. It’s just impossible. So others in your local market are more a resource than a competitor. Work together to influence trends in your local market and all of your customers will benefit from those collaborations! I think that is the biggest strategy we follow at Interstellar Massage that has brought us the most success. We collaborate with everyone we can that is related to our field, and we are BIG on being team players! Our clients all benefit from that, and so do all of the businesses that we form alliances with.
• We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
To be honest, I have gone through a lot of adversity in my life, but I am living the most epic story of resilience I have ever gone through, right now as we speak. So all I can say is.. follow along on our journey and that story will unfold before your eyes, and I truly hope that learning my story will help many others believe in themselves and take the risks necessary to change their lives also, despite any adversity they are experiencing. There is ALWAYS a way, and you have to find it within yourself. It is in there if you look within, and I would encourage you to learn how to be unabashedly you at all times.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.interstellarhtx.com
- Other: Clinic Phone: (281) 549-4594 [email protected]
Image Credits
Bailey Mier-Nava, LMT