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

Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I didn’t go to college, but I always knew I wanted to own my own business someday. The challenge was that I didn’t know exactly what that business would be. What I did know was that I wanted a career centered around helping people. Over the years, I considered several paths, including nursing, physical therapy, and psychology. However, the amount of schooling required, the debt that came with it, and the fact that I was financially independent made those options feel defeating.

When I discovered massage therapy. It was one of those lightbulb moments. At first I thought “could I?”. Then i dismissed it, acknowledging I had no interest in standard spa massage and I would still live a life of struggle. After some research, I realized that massage offered many different avenues and specialties, and I became especially passionate about sports and medical massage. It was a way to help people. And that became my niche and the foundation of what would eventually become my business.

The first step was getting myself through massage school. I worked two jobs to support myself. During school I landed an internship at a Chiropractic office. I worked for there for three years and that experience deepened my love for the medical side of massage therapy and allowed me to work alongside healthcare professionals while helping clients recover from pain and injuries.

Over the next several years, I focused on gaining as much experience as possible. I maintained 3 jobs while building my skills, taking continuing education classes in my niche, seeking mentorship, and developing professional relationships. At the same time, I began educating myself on everything involved in running a business. I spent countless hours learning about state laws and regulations, accounting, budgeting, finance, marketing, branding, business operations, and continuing education within my specialty. I didn’t want to just be a business owner. I wanted to change industry standards and stigmas around massage therapy.

I treated those years as my preparation phase. Every class I took, every client I worked with, and every dollar I saved was helping me build toward a larger goal. Eventually, I reached a point where I felt confident not only in my clinical skills, but also in my understanding of what it would take to successfully run a business.

In 2022, at 30 years old, I took the leap and opened my own independent studio, Revive Therapeutic Massage Studio LLC.. In 2023, I bought a commercial property for my business so we could grow into a larger space. In 2024 I co-founded Revival Chiropractor and Wellness PLLC. What started as a desire to help people and a dream of owning a business became a reality through years of hard work, self-education, persistence, and a willingness to bet on myself. Looking back, there wasn’t one defining moment that launched my business—it was the result of thousands of small steps that gradually turned an idea into something real.

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 background and context?

Revive is more of a clinical practice vs a spa setting. We specialize in modalities such as Sports and corrective massage, myofascial release, IASTM, cupping, trigger point therapy, and lymphatic drainage. We believe massage therapy should be both deeply intentional and reset to the nervous system. We individualize each session based on each clients unique needs and goals. We strive for true physiological change within the body. We love helping clients recovery from injuries, surgeries, chronic pain and making a difference in their day to day lives. Their is passion behind our creative and intuitive ability to free flow in our sessions and give personalized care.

We treat various injuries and ailments from frozen shoulder, post op care, joint replacements, car accidents, fibromyalgia , arthritis, golfers elbow, herniations, scoliosis, neuropathy, auto-immune, acute injuries and more.

We train staff expertly, bring in continuing education teachers and have a great team that is aligned with our mission and standard of patient care.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Moving my mentality from a business owner to a leadership role was the hardest parts of growth for me. I want to be the “cool boss” and I often sacrifice self to ensure the team is happy. I have slowly found my voice— and boundaries. I lead by example, check in, ask questions. I am thoughtful of my staffs’ outside and interpersonal life. I consider full time to be 25-30 hours a week, encourage 4 day work weeks and give my staff ability to earn 6 figures. I don’t want my therapists to struggle or work three jobs like I had to. I reward hard work, give bonus incentives, host team outings which has made us very close. We truly are a little family at Revive. I am also a full time therapist so I’m in the trenches with my team. I spend time answering questions and offer in depth training. I believe valuing your team members is the most critical and pivotal part of managing and maintaining a staff.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was determined to live a debt free life personally and professionally. Hence, the three jobs. When I purchased my commercial property, I had $917 to my name. I now had the burden of my personal rent and bills plus new overhead costs for the business… and I could barely afford it. So I kept my Chiropractor and nanny job. Within two months of opening I was BUSY and I put in notice of resignation at the chiropractor. A few months after moving into the new location, we had a huge flood. I was still trying to recoup any sort of savings. It was a lot of 70-80 hour work weeks, spackle, demo, and painting. I kept my nanny job for another few years because my heart was tied to the family. and I wanted remain debt free.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vagaro.com/revivetherapeuticmassagestudiollc
• Instagram: @revivetherapeuticmassagestudio
• Facebook: Revive Therapeutic Massage Studio.

Image Credits

Sarah Smile Photography by Sarah Smile