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

Hi Tia , thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

One of the most meaningful ways we’ve shown appreciation to our community at Bexar Collective has been through creating what we call our “Hourly Equivalent” offerings—sliding scale events designed to make healing work more accessible.

As a collective, we’re deeply aware that services like sound baths, bodywork, and energy healing can feel out of reach for many people. Instead of accepting that as a limitation, we wanted to actively shift it. The Hourly Equivalent model allows people to pay what aligns with their current financial reality, while still honoring the value of the work.

What made this especially impactful was seeing who showed up. We had people attending their very first body work session, individuals who had been curious but hesitant due to cost, and returning community members who were grateful to have a way to stay connected during tighter seasons of life.

There was one moment during NLPR (Next Level Pain Relief) where the room felt incredibly full—not just physically, but emotionally. You could sense a kind of collective exhale. It wasn’t just about the service itself, but about people feeling considered and included. That’s what appreciation looks like to us—creating spaces where people feel like they belong, regardless of their circumstances.

I think what made it so meaningful is that it wasn’t a one-time gesture. It’s something we’ve built into how we operate. It reflects our belief that wellness should be shared, not reserved, and that showing appreciation sometimes means removing barriers rather than adding perks.

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 background and context?

I entered this work through Bexar Collective about three years ago. I began by simply showing up—attending free yoga classes with Yoga Dave SA and spending time in the space as a participant in the community. Over time, that presence naturally evolved into deeper involvement, as I began collaborating on events and helping co-create offerings with the collective. What started as participation slowly became a shared responsibility in shaping what the space was becoming.
Bexar Collective, to me, is best described as: “a living, evolving offering to the community—centered on accessibility, collaboration, and soul-level care.”

We are a cooperative (co-op), meaning we are a worker-owned and collectively run organization where practitioners are also decision-makers. Instead of a traditional top-down business model, a co-op is built on shared ownership, shared accountability, and shared benefit—so the people who are actively doing the work also have a voice in how it is shaped and sustained.

Our offerings include sound baths, meditation sessions and instruction, yoga classes, Ashiatsu bodywork, NLPR body-based healing work, and Muay Thai training. These are offered both in private sessions and group class settings, with a strong emphasis on accessibility. Many of our community offerings are donation-based or sliding scale, allowing more people to participate regardless of financial circumstance.

At the core of our work is a set of intentions that guide everything we do: making wellness financially accessible, breaking exclusivity in healing spaces, building real community care infrastructure, supporting nervous system regulation and burnout recovery, and bringing spiritual and somatic practices into everyday life. Just as importantly, we are committed to supporting practitioners in sustaining their work in ways that are fair, ethical, and nourishing.

What sets Bexar Collective apart is our cooperative structure and the way it actively shapes our culture. We practice collaboration over competition, community care over gatekeeping, and embodied healing over performative wellness. Through donation-based offerings, public outdoor sessions, and partnerships with local organizations, we bring modalities like sound healing, bodywork, movement practices, and creative arts into shared spaces where they can be experienced with ease, dignity, and belonging.

What I’m most proud of is the accessibility work we’ve been able to grow over the past few months—expanding real pathways for people in San Antonio’s working-class community to access wellness practices that are often financially or socially out of reach. That ongoing effort to make care more available, more human, and more rooted in community is at the center of everything we continue to build.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As we’ve grown as a cooperative, our approach to funding has been intentionally rooted in shared responsibility and resourcefulness rather than traditional outside capital.

Each member has contributed their own initial capital to help launch and sustain the business. Instead of relying heavily on loans or large external investment, we’ve built slowly and collectively—each practitioner donating their time, products, and supplies into the co-op. These contributions have allowed us to build our foundation in a way that keeps overhead low and ownership distributed.

This model has also meant that growth has been organic. Rather than scaling through large financial inputs, we’ve expanded by pooling what we already have—skills, materials, and offerings—and reinvesting directly back into the community we serve. In many ways, the co-op itself has become our shared investment: every contribution strengthens the whole, and every member has a direct stake in what we’re building together.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Our most effective strategy for building our clientele has been consistent marketing campaigns across all of our services, primarily through Patreon, Eventbrite, and Instagram. Since many of us began with existing client bases, we were able to bring those clients into the co-op early on, which created a strong foundation.

However, the most impactful driver of our growth has been word-of-mouth referrals. Personal recommendations from existing clients have been central to how our community has expanded, building trust and authenticity in a way that traditional marketing alone cannot replicate.

From there, our ongoing campaigns across Patreon, Eventbrite, and Instagram continue to support visibility and help new people discover our offerings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bexarcollective.org
• Instagram: @Bexar.Collective
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/Bexar_Collective