Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nick Ngo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
I wanted people to smile when a fluffy tiger massage came out of their mouth and their eyes looking at the logo. That is my main goal: to make people feel good and happy. The business name is a metaphor for human personalities. Fluffy is the nice, courteous, kind side. Tiger is the aggressive, go-getter, ready to rumble side. It also represents the types of massage I perform. Fluffy is usually a light, comfortable touch to ease and comfort someone with cancer or a medical condition. Tiger is the sporty-deep-tissue, pretzel-twisting type of massage to get you right.
Nick, 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?
I got into Massage Therapy because I witnessed the positive effect it had on my mother while she was in hospice. The massage looked to have eased her pain and provided comfort to help her fall asleep. The session was provided by an Oncology Massage Therapist who was kind, effective and knowledgeable. She had me thinking to myself “man, I want to be like her one day”. Three years after my mother passed from thyroid cancer, I left Fitchburg State University and enrolled in the Massage Therapy Program at the Salter School of Tewksbury in Massachusetts. I received my professional massage license in 2005. I went on to study and received certification as an Oncology Massage Therapist in 2015.
Fluffy Tiger Massage, LLC was born on June 2017 because I was done tolerating gender discrimination and having my tips gone missing while working at a high-end spa in Raleigh, NC. My practice distinguishes itself from others because of three things: 1) Provide the client with the best rate of return on their investment. 2) Traditional fire cupping therapy. 3) Representation of my brand which consists of integrity, ethics, effectiveness, and empathy .
What am I most proud of and the main thing I want your readers to know about my practice? It must be the fact that I do not ever claim to specialize in Swedish massage, deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy massage, sports massage, etc.…I only specialize in number one. I do whatever it takes within the session to get my client to be better as soon as possible.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy for growing my clientele is being organic. Word of mouth and Google reviews are my allies for brand recognition and growth as I do not advertise. I use social media such as Instagram and Facebook as a marketing tool, when I have time.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My small, local, minority owned business started out with no client, no leads, and no advertising. My practice struggled to earn an income for the first eight months. I had to dip into my “rainy day” account to keep everything afloat. I truly believe that by answering the call to serve cancer patients, I was blessed to be contacted by Olivia Stancil at Cornucopia Cancer Support Center in Durham, NC to become a provider for her non-profit organization. Olivia elevated my calling and purpose when she connected me with Kelly Mulhurn of The Caring House in Durham, NC to become a provider for the guests there. The Caring House offers guests a healing environment at an affordable cost while receiving treatments at the Duke Cancer Center. If you and your readers would like to support this great organization from a distance, kindly consider donating to caringhouse.org/donate.
Once my residency at the Caring House was established, my practice took off. It truly grew organically starting with a chair massage gig I performed for a health event. A two-handfuls of my regular clients from the spa Googled my name and found me at Fluffy Tiger Massage and we connected. They remain loyal clients to this day. I never poached or coerced any client from any of my previous employers.
Then 2020 arrived. I was shut down for ten months. I was not able to do what I love and unemployment benefit was not sufficient to support a family of five and our pet, Mr. Tiggy (he is a chihuahua and yorkie terrier mix). To make ends meet, I put my fork truck skills back on the market and got a job at a warehouse. My practice returned to business in June of 2021 and it is thriving.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fluffytigermassage.com
- Instagram: @fluffytigermassage
- Facebook: fluffy tiger massage