We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rebecca Tamm a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Rebecca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights 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.
I left high school halfway through my senior year in favor of a GED, and for a few years after I finished high school I bounced around, not really sure where my path was until a chance encounter with a brochure for a local massage school caught my eye. Despite never having given a massage (or received one), I was young (24), apparently having my quarter life crisis and figured why not throw caution to the wind and try something new.
I cashed in my 401K to pay for school, took a year off of working to focus on my studies and in June 2003 graduated from Irene’s Myomassology Institute with dreams of working at a fancy day spa doing fancy body treatments. I got a job doing exactly that and I quit there at least 4 different times, but kept getting calls to come back.
It wasn’t until I realized that driving in to a spa for one 4-hour shift per month still left me in tears that my passion for that work wasn’t there. I never had any plans to open my own business, yet once again the stars aligned and dropped an opportunity in my lap, and for over 12 years I had a small massage practice that operated out of a single room. And that is where I made a name for myself.
Fast forward to 2017 and I once again took a chance and signed a 5 year lease on a building in Troy of over 1400 square feet (far cry from the 200 square feet single room I was working out of), and despite a shutdown of 3 months from March-June 2020 because of the global pandemic, in October 2024 we will be celebrating 20 years in business!
Michigan Massage and Wellness is still 100% owner operated (and a woman-owned business). And I feel that what makes us different than a lot of massage practices out there (especially the franchised ones) is that the practice is run by a massage therapist. I know how demanding this work is on our bodies, which is why I feel it is of the utmost importance that my staff take care of their bodies, just like we take care of all of the bodies that land on our table. The average career span of a massage therapist is 5-7 years, and I am in my 21st year. My secret to success is to always be learning. New techniques/modalities. New ways of looking at things. Not only is it going to help you get your clients the best results they can, but it’s going to give you a multitude of tools in your toolbox for fixing not only clients but yourself.
We now have a team of 4 fantastic massage therapists at our location in Troy, Michigan and we are able to offer a variety of services and modalities designed to help you get back to living life on your terms, and not to let your body dictate how your day is going to go based on how you’re feeling.
Personally and professionally a lot has happened over the past 20 years; the financial meltdown of 2008, losing loved ones, pandemics, recessions, fear, etc., but I continue to show up day after day because I truly love what I do, and the fact that we have had clients coming back time and time again over the past 5, 10, 15 and 20 years tells me that we must be doing something right!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Michigan Massage and Wellness is in the business of helping people.
What started out as a dream of working in a fancy day spa in 2004 has morphed into twenty years of owning and operating a massage practice where our specialty is YOU.
We offer a variety of services and modalities designed to fix whatever ails you. From relaxation and deep tissue massage to Ashiatsu, cupping therapy, fascial stretching, scar tissue therapy, concussion recovery treatments, Manual Lymphatic Drainage, TMJ treatments and more.
I like to joke that I want my massage practice to be the Cheers of the massage world; where everybody knows your name. And one thing that we continue to pride ourselves on is our client retention. We aren’t a revolving door business and we have people that will wait several weeks/months for an appointment, but that is a testament to our work. The focus is quality over quantity and we don’t believe in short changing your session time to include things like undressing/re-dressing, so that “one hour” massage that is advertised is really only 45-50 minutes. We give a full 60 minute session when you book that.
Additionally, we put the emphasis on staff happiness and satisfaction as much as we do for our clients. We work closely with one of the local massage schools with their student externship program and we have had several students come through our doors to complete their training and many of them are still with us today!
Our work is closer to clinical work than spa work, but if you are looking to just relax and quiet that rage that is threatening to bubble up under the surface, you’re in excellent hands. We are constantly learning new techniques and modalities and are in the business of building relationships with our clients. We take the time to understand what is happening that made you visit in the first place, and we want to help you with your goals.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Treat your employees with respect! It amazes me (and quite frankly, shocks me) how poorly people are treated by their companies/organizations. I believe in treating my staff like adults. I hate to micro manage and put people into a box. Encouraging my staff to explore different styles of treatments and modalities has been key to helping them find their passion in this field.
I remind myself regularly that I wouldn’t have the business I have today if it weren’t for my staff. We may be small, but operating a small clinic is great as it allows us to really have the time and resources to deliver the best services we can for our clientele.
Regular staff get togethers outside of the office allows us to let some steam off and just enjoy each others company. We are incredibly lucky that we don’t have employee drama, or need to worry about things like theft, poaching of clients, etc.
Sir Richard Branson said it best on two occasions:
-‘”Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”
– “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
I don’t think I would! It’s funny that I never once considered massage therapy as a career until I enrolled in school on a whim and changed the course of my path drastically. However, looking back over the past 20 years I would definitely do some things differently, such as get certified in Manual Lymphatic Drainage much sooner. There is such a need in the field for qualified therapists and after ignoring it for my entire 20 year career, I wish I would have discovered the ‘magic’ of that earlier.
Another change would be to implement the Profit First system much much sooner. If you’re a small (or large) business owner, I cannot recommend Profit First by Mike Michalowicz enough to business owners! I always joke that I didn’t go into massage therapy for the income, as we certainly don’t get rich doing this, however the work/life balance is really amazing and when you do get all of your financial ducks in a row, it helps to set you up for success down the road.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.michiganmassageandwellness.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/michiganmassageandwellness
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/michiganmassageandwellness
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/michigan-massage-and-wellness
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnJKKohHFtDXI66MX8NCOfg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/michigan-massage-and-wellness-troy
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/place/Michigan-Massage-and-Wellness-21568295379308731