We recently connected with Katerina Summers and have shared our conversation below.

Katerina, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I have worked for other companies in the Wellness business for over 17 years, from being a Spa Therapist at a 5 star hotels to Regional Training Manager, opening new spas and educating Spa therapists, to Assisting on opening a new spa at the Four Seasons Hotel. When I moved to the States, it wasn’t easy to find a job, you would wonder why?! Well for most I was overqualified, some had even motioned: ” We will not be able to afford you” and some wouldn’t hire me because of the possible competition in titles. Unfortunately it is the truth. This was the perfect opportunity to seriously think of starting my own business. I have always thought of doing it one day but never really did it, until one day, I got, yet another rejection. I have been in this industry since I was 19 y.o and now I am 37, I have always believed in holistic approach, growing up in Hong Kong, in a family that also would give you a lemon, honey and ginger tea when you have cold instead of Dayquil, or Chicken broth and charcoal tablets when tummy is upset instead of tums or ginger ale. And by this time I took dozens of courses, I taught to thousands of students and worked with over 30+ thousands of guests, I have so much passion for what I do, I want to heloas many guests as I possible can through what I do, that it was time that I opened my small business with a vision to grow

Katerina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As per my mom, I always had healing and calm energy about me, she told me that after a stressful day at work, she would lay down to rest for few minutes before making dinner ( as a single mom of two, she was always on the go), I would seat or lay next to her and stroke my hands through her hair to calm her, and it always helped, she said. She would brag about it to her coworkers, that next time I’m at the office, everyone would line up for me to massage their shoulders. I am a child of a refugee family, so we were never spoiled, we were very close and had very limited recourses when one would feel unwell. One of my favorite place to be during school days was library, and I absolutely loved learning anatomy, reading about natural remedies and learning about our body. I had my first job at the age of 11 and was always saving money to go to school, I wanted to be a doctor but unfortunately we couldn’t afford the fees, so after school, I didn’t know what school to go, and my mom had guided me to look into this great school of esthetics and body massage in Hong Kong under the name of Frederique, which was a well known school throughout Asia. We went for a tour and here I am giving this interview.
I have gone back to the university but for a Hospitality Management at this time and I am still thinking of getting a second bachelor may be in medicine, time will show.
I am really glad that I took a leap of faith with going to Frederique Academy, because now I am able to help many guests with different issues, such as TMJ, headaches, muscles pain, insomnia, stress, anxiety and other forms of physical pain. It gives me purpose every day I wake up in the morning. I do also other treatments, and all that I do I always do it holistically, meaning I try to find the root cause of the issue and ways to solve it.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think in life or business you must be able to be flexible and ready to pivot. I am constantly analyzing my numbers, the market I am in, trends and so on to always be on top of what the current demand is. I have recently hit a seasons of people not showing up for their appointments, canceling, rescheduling on a very often basis, and as a Solo business owner it hurts my business tremendously, and while it is hard on my business, I have to continue, so I have to pivot, this particular issue, gave me an idea to increase my online presence and engagement with my followers, to add other unique treatments that no one else offer around me, to bring new tools to retail to my guests for home use and other ideas to keep afloat

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

When I started to work at a 5 star Hotel Spas with the Peninsula Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotels in Hong Kong, they were my first jobs and I was young, I had to follow very strict set of rules, as an example a word professionalism at the hotel mean a lot such as, no contacts after the appointment, no accepting of gifts, no discussion of any personal life events, always use last name, watch every word you say, cannot use words “ok” , “no’, “sure”, ” cannot” , “no problem” and so on, strictly business, no making friends, I take a guest, go through the questioner form, provide service and give a home care, that’s it. But having your own business, it is essential that I keep in touch with my guests, be it sending a follow up messages, asking to provide their homecare so I can go through it, or I would naturally become friends with many of my guests, as in our field, the services we provide has to be done consistently and not being friends (even professionally) would be tough to go on. It wasn’t as easy for me as you would think, I had to unlearn the hotel etiquette, that I followed for decades.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.facesublime.com
• Instagram: facesublime