We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki L’Esperance a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nikki , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
It was the fall of 2020, I was in a massage session (as the massage therapist), and I heard a voice. At that moment, it was so real, I literally looked at the ceiling and responded in my head. That voice told me, “You’re going to open a massage school in the next year.” I responded (internally), with “you’re crazy.” To give you some context, I had five kids, two of which were four month old twins. I owned one business already and my husband travelled for work, making me responsible most of the time. We were quite honestly, in the thick of it. And now God thought I should be opening a massage school?! Granted, I had been struggling to find massage therapists that also knew Trigger Point Therapy, but STILL. Not now! Maybe when I’m 40. But, over and over again He responded with, “I’ve got you, it will be easy.” And quite honestly, He has made it work better than I ever could have imagined. It ended up taking two years to open, but it has been the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. Starting with researching HOW to open a school and going through the steps to apply and get approved took nearly a year on its own. Not to mention, onboarding students, writing curriculum, student handbooks, policies, etc. It has really made me take a large project and turn it into bite size pieces. Every step has been presented to me and made easy exactly when it needed to be done. Each piece is figured out in perfect timing.
After processing that this was something I was meant to do, I began to trust the process. At the beginning, I thought I’d need $60,000 to start the school. With creative solutions and a tiny bit of financing, it was able to be started up with less than $5,000. When you decide to do something, it’s amazing what clicks into place. I could have given up when I thought it was going to cost $60k, instead I decided to take it step by step and solutions were found. When things got hard, I took breaks, I let it sit for months at a time, trusting that each step would be taken care of as needed. Then, I would find inspiration for the next thing, until, in the fall of 2022, we started our first school year! My goal with Encompass Academy is to offer an excellent massage education heavy in anatomy, learning the body, professionalism and quality. I want every single massage therapist to have the confidence to help someone, no matter what they are dealing with, to look at the person that feels helpless and say, “I think I can help.” Trigger Points are knots in muscles that refer pain. They also have been found to be the cause of 75% of pain problems and involved in nearly every single pain problem. Imagine if we could reduce the worlds pain through massage therapy, and help the opioid epidemic. How amazing. So, the first step is to get therapists out there that are educated to do so, and that is our mission. This year, we have seven students in the program that are absolutely excellent!
At this point, you may be wondering, “well what about those kids?!” The thing is, I never wanted to do this alone. Instead, I hired two great employees to help me teach and that has been the key to making this school successful. I still have balance in my work/home life, I still have slow mornings with my (now 2.5 year old) babies, and the students have a system of support instead of just one person! I am so grateful for how well this school has gone, and how easily everything clicked into place once I accepted that this is what I am meant to do. If you feel like you’ve been given a big purpose, I encourage you to trust it. Take it one step at a time. What’s the next step you can take towards your goal? Do that and not anything else. It will come!
Nikki , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have been a massage therapist for almost 10 years. I started school in 2013, about a year after I graduated high school. I attended CenterPoint Massage & Shiatsu School & Clinic in Minneapolis, which provided me with an amazing education, especially when it came to helping people with pain and tension. After school, I worked at a privately owned clinic for about three years where I got a lot of experience, especially with people who had been in car accidents. I had always wanted to help people, but didn’t want to be in the medical field. Massage had always been in the back of my mind and after I didn’t love traditional college, I decided to take a chance and go for massage. That required me to move away from my small home town to a city for the very first time. In 2016, I decided to take a chance on myself and opened my own business, Encompass Therapeutic Massage. Shortly after I did, we decided to move back to my hometown, Calumet, Michigan. Since coming home, I have felt a big purpose being here in the community. No one else in the area knew what Trigger Point Therapy is, which is what I am so passionate about and has been the therapy that has been so effective for my clients. Over the years, education has been really important for me, first in educating my clients, then the community, then fellow massage therapists via offering continuing education about trigger point therapy and now a full blown school to bring more therapists into the community. This school feels like the ticket to making a difference here in the Mid West. I offer a full massage program that runs from September-May. In the first two trimesters we meet Tues-Wed-Thursday from 8:30am-5pm with a half hour lunch break at 12:30m. Each class is four hours with breaks. Morning classes are general education classes including Anatomy, Physiology, Communications, Ethics & Business, Kinesiology, Pathology & 3D Anatomy. The afternoon classes are the hands on classes, in the fall you have Swedish Massage Techniques every afternoon and in the winter semester, Advanced Therapeutic Techniques every afternoon. The last semester is our clinic semester and you also have one day of classes for special populations and clinic review. I also offer Continuing Education a couple times a year so that massage therapists who are already established can also learn Trigger Point Therapy and add it to their toolboxes. Our focus at Encompass Academy is education to support our community with their pain as much as possible.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
Experience is something that will come, but is also very important in the field of massage therapy. There are just some things you won’t know until you work with it, or fail with it and try again. I’ve learned so much over the years as a massage therapist that didn’t come from school training, but from “real life training”. Trying a technique, not having it work, trying something else. Learning how to start a business and have it be successful. Resilience through the hard times and wondering how payroll will be made at the end of the week. Trust isn’t always easy, but it is crucial. Trust that you’ll be taken care of, that you’ll figure it out, that the solution will come.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think once people started to find out how I helped others with their pain, it was something else they could try. I’ve had so many clients over the years that had ‘tried everything’ but no one had ever tried muscle therapy. Releasing tension in the body so that it could relax and return to normal, with no pain. Since my name has gotten out there, my schedule has been booked and my mission has been to educate other therapists about Trigger Point Therapy, too. Other things that built my reputation included regular hours, availability for those who work, and having knowledge about the human body that helped me explain what I was doing and why.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.encompassacademyofmassage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/encompass.academy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/encompassacademyofmassagetherapy
Image Credits
Megan Gervais Photography Jana Kathleen Photography