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

Sabrina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I opened my business when the spa industry reopened in February 2021. I honestly was fairly certain it would fail on the heels of a global health crisis, and being a single mom, I needed to be conservative with how much money I invested into my business. Because of that, I decided to open without starting a website or ordering business cards. I began to tell what clients I did have that I was working for myself now and accepting clients full-time. As my business grew with word of mouth and people would ask for my card or web address, I began to jokingly answer “I run my business like a speak-easy, you need the password to get in. And the password is the name of whoever referred you.” While it wasn’t intentional to be something different from the industry standard, it has become a unique component of my business.

Someday my business might require more conventional business norms but I will say I have the best clients in the world. I genuinely enjoy working with all of my guests and I believe that’s because they were referred by someone else I like working with.

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 back background and context?

My journey into the healing arts evolved from my own quest to heal myself. While in massage school I met a woman who was a reiki master. At the time I had no idea what reiki was but the promise of feeling more grounded and trusting life was a ground breaking idea and something I desperately needed for myself. After completing my second degree reiki training, I realized giving people massages was not my career but facilitating a space where people could be authentic and could be handed the tools to heal was my life mission. Since that class I have had the honor of training under some of the best healers in the industry and have been blessed to sit at the feet of indigenous medicine people, shamans, and kahunas who have shared some less conventional wisdom with me.

I like to think of my sessions as experiences for healing. I will integrate modalities such as structural bodywork and cupping and then marry them with energy healing, vibrational massage, or meditation. I have found our physical pain and our emotional life cannot be separated and sometimes that pain in your neck has little to do with the muscles holding your head up.

It’s also important to me to offer a range of services for all budgets. On the higher end of my menu I have a week long healing retreat in Costa Rica, one-on-one sessions, and reiki classes. On the more affordable side of my menu I offer zoom meditation classes and host in person group workshops.

This work has taught me to remain a hungry student of life because the human condition is ever evolving and the more tools I have in my hands, the more likely I can fully serve my clients. Currently I am a doctoral student of Chinese Medicine and am attending Pacific College of Health and Science so that I can someday add acupuncture and herbal medicine to my toolbox. When I am not serving my clients I like to take my dogs hiking and I love traveling.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I feel like I had to unlearn my entire life being in this industry. Growing up I was always told to get good grades, so I could go to college and get a good job. I checked all of those boxes and realized I hated my “good” job. Few people in my life supported me emotionally when I decided to step away from my traditional job and enter this unpredictable industry, and those who did support me were afraid I was making a huge mistake. In the beginning it wasn’t easy. Even though I kept a full-time job, for the majority of the years I have been in this field, people in my profession were only paid on commission, which meant if there were no clients I was expected to show up to my job and not get paid.

Looking back now, it was fear I had to unlearn. The advice I received as a child was safe advice to ensure I would have a stable life. But that’s the funny thing about life, it’s not stable. At any moment something completely out of my control can change my life. So shouldn’t we all fully live our lives free from the fear that might hold us back?

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I curated my business to model what I look for in friendships and what I look for as a consumer. This combination might not make sense so I will explain.

In friendships I want people who are excited to spend time with me and who remember the details of my life. As a consumer I want a clean environment that is warm and inviting, I want my service to start and stop on time, and I want the best product in the market.

The fact that I know all of my clients as people and I can deliver exactly what they order has built my reputation as a professional that my community can trust.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: bodyworkbysabrinahadnot