The Scaling Wellness Podcast: Scale Your Massage Business

Growing a wellness practice can look exciting from the outside.

But behind the team, the beautiful space, and a growing client base can be a business owner wondering whether any of it is actually worth it.

Dr. Nalu Cooley, founder of Nalu Healing Arts in San Diego, knows that feeling firsthand.

After more than two decades in massage, acupuncture, and Chinese medicine, Nalu took the leap from solo practitioner to building the wellness center she had dreamed about since massage school.

What followed wasn't the easy growth story she expected.

She went from being fully booked as a solo practitioner to managing a larger space, a team, higher overhead, hiring challenges, marketing, and the realities of becoming a leader. At one point, she was struggling to make rent. Later, after years of trying to make the expanded practice work, she reached a breaking point and was ready to shut the entire thing down.

Instead, she rebuilt.

Today, Nalu Healing Arts has a fully booked team, stronger systems, a more aligned business model, and a foundation that finally allows Nalu to breathe and gives her more freedom to pursue another passion: providing acupuncture and bodywork for touring musicians and artists.

In this episode of Scaling Wellness, Dr. Nalu Cooley shares the unfiltered story of nearly walking away from the business she had spent years building, and what it took to turn things around.

• Why being an incredible practitioner doesn't automatically prepare you to run a growing wellness business
• What happened when Nalu expanded from solo practice into a larger wellness center
• How hiring too quickly created some of her biggest business lessons
• Why she reached a point where she was ready to shut the entire practice down
• How getting clear on the purpose of her business changed its direction
• Why she eliminated services that no longer aligned with the practice she wanted to build
• How transitioning her team from independent contractors to employees challenged her to become a stronger leader
• What Nalu learned about marketing, Google Ads, reviews, and attracting the right clients
• Why getting clients through the door is only one piece of building a fully booked team
• How systems, hiring, training, retention, marketing, and leadership work together when scaling
• Why Nalu believes wellness owners should get business support before things start falling apart
• How building a stronger foundation is giving her more freedom to work with touring musicians and artists

Dr. Nalu Cooley's journey is a reminder that sometimes scaling isn't about adding more.

Sometimes it's about getting clear on what your business is supposed to be, removing what doesn't belong, and becoming the leader the next version of your business requires.

Connect with Dr. Nalu Cooley & Nalu Healing Arts

Website: https://naluhealingarts.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naloohealingarts/

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow Scaling Wellness on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

What separates massage practices that constantly struggle from those that consistently grow into thriving, profitable businesses?

In this solo episode of the Scaling Wellness Podcast, I break down the six key differences I've discovered after coaching more than 200 massage and wellness business owners. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, constantly putting out fires, or wondering why growth feels harder than it should, this episode will help you identify exactly what's holding your business back.

From creating a clear vision and building predictable marketing systems to improving operations, hiring the right team, staying focused, and becoming the leader your business needs, I share the framework that transforms practices from surviving to scaling.

Whether you're trying to hire your first therapist, grow to multiple locations, or finally build a business that doesn't rely on you for everything, this episode gives you a practical roadmap to get there.

• Why a lack of vision keeps business owners stuck in reactive mode

• The difference between random marketing and a predictable client acquisition system

• How thriving businesses build systems that don't rely on the owner

• Why hiring isn't enough and what great onboarding really looks like

• The hidden cost of chasing too many priorities at once

• Why leadership, not marketing, is often the biggest bottleneck to growth

• The six pillars every thriving massage and wellness business has in common

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a Wellness Practice That Creates More Time, More Freedom, and More Revenue Visit: www.scalingwellness.com

Need More Client Bookings? Get instant access to our proven training: www.bookyourteamsolid.com

Book a Free 1:1 Growth Strategy Call www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow Scaling Wellness on Instagram www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

Growing a wellness business isn't just about getting more clients. It's about becoming a different kind of leader.

Hannah Borgen knows that transformation firsthand.

After spending years working as a massage therapist, Hannah launched her own practice with nothing more than a rented treatment room, a smartphone, and a willingness to consistently show up on social media. Today, Decompress Massage Therapy has grown into two thriving locations with nearly 40 team members, a clear vision for expansion, and a business built around helping women prioritize their wellbeing.

In this episode of Scaling Wellness, Hannah shares the real behind-the-scenes journey of scaling a massage business from solo practitioner to multi-location owner.

She opens up about the hiring mistakes that shaped her leadership, the systems that allowed her to step away from daily operations, why she invested heavily in learning marketing, and how Facebook ads, Google marketing, and operational systems became key drivers of growth.

• How Hannah grew from a solo massage therapist to leading a team of nearly 40 people

• Why leadership is different from management and why that distinction matters

• Lessons learned from hiring the wrong people and building the right culture

• How Facebook ads and Google marketing fuel client acquisition

• The importance of wellness business systems and documented processes

• Why memberships can create predictable revenue and stronger client retention

• How to think like an entrepreneur instead of only a practitioner

• The mindset shifts required for scaling a wellness business

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

You hired the therapist.

Now comes the harder part: getting clients to actually book with them.

One of the biggest mistakes massage practice owners make is treating marketing like a collection of random activities instead of a system. A social media post here. A promotion there. A referral when someone remembers to ask.

The problem is that random marketing creates random results.

In this episode, I'll walk you through a simple framework for getting a new therapist booked faster without constantly chasing the latest marketing tactic.

We'll discuss:

• Why marketing becomes more important after you hire

• How to set clear goals for a new therapist's schedule

• How to identify what's already working in your marketing

• Why doing more of what's working often beats trying something new

• How to choose the right marketing strategies based on your time, energy, and budget

• The retention metrics that actually matter

• How to use internal marketing and client transfers to build momentum quickly

If you've hired a therapist and you're staring at an empty schedule wondering what comes next, this episode will help you create a more intentional plan to fill it.

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a Wellness Practice That Creates More Time, More Freedom, and More Revenue Visit: www.scalingwellness.com

Need More Client Bookings? Get instant access to our proven training: www.bookyourteamsolid.com

Book a Free 1:1 Growth Strategy Call www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow Scaling Wellness on Instagram www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

You found someone.

The interview went well. The practical looked great. They seemed like the perfect fit.

A few months later, things aren't going the way you hoped.

Before you assume you hired the wrong person, it may be worth looking at the bigger picture.

In this episode, I break down the five factors that determine whether a new hire succeeds or struggles inside a massage practice. We'll talk about hiring, onboarding, expectations, leadership, and one of the most overlooked pieces of all: keeping their schedule busy.

Because the truth is, a great hire can still fail in the wrong environment, while an average hire can thrive when they're given the right support.

In this episode, we'll discuss:

• How to tell if you actually hired the right person

• The onboarding mistakes that create problems before they even start

• Why unclear expectations lead to frustration on both sides

• The leadership skills most massage business owners were never taught

• Why marketing becomes even more important after you hire

If you've ever hired someone and wondered, "Why isn't this working?" this episode will help you diagnose where the real problem might be.

---

*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

In this episode, I explore why so many massage therapists struggle with the idea of building a larger business, where those fears come from, and the hidden cost of staying small simply because growth feels uncomfortable.

This isn't a conversation about getting bigger for the sake of getting bigger.

It's a conversation about building a business that supports the people inside it including you.

We'll get into:

• Why so many therapists are suspicious of successful group practices

• Where those beliefs come from and why they often make sense

• The difference between healthy discernment and self-protection

• Why many owners attach a moral meaning to money, growth, and success

• The hidden cost of staying fully booked, exhausted, and responsible for everything

• Why good intentions alone don't create a sustainable business

• What ethical profitability actually looks like in practice

• How profit creates more options for owners, employees, and clients

• Why a business that depends entirely on your hands is more fragile than it appears

• The deeper identity fears many therapists have around growth and leadership

• How to build a business that reflects your values without sacrificing your well-being

If you've ever found yourself thinking, "I don't want to become that kind of owner," I think you'll get a lot out of this conversation.

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

In this episode, Shaelyn Elliott shares how Stretch Fairy grew from a solo massage practice into a wellness ecosystem blending massage, movement, community, and education. We talk about building a team, creating client pathways, hiring for values, and making the shift from service provider to CEO all while navigating some of the hardest seasons of life.

• How free online fitness classes during COVID created a waitlist that sparked the growth of Stretch Fairy.

• Why Shaelyn built an ecosystem business that combines massage therapy, movement, education, and community.

• The client journey she uses to move clients from treatment into long-term health and wellness habits.

• How she hires for values, communication, and culture fit over experience alone.

• The systems she uses to keep her team aligned, accountable, and growing.

• Why she believes every practitioner should play a role in marketing and growing their own client base.

• How she expanded into a 2,000 sq. ft. movement studio during one of the most challenging personal seasons of her life.

• The mindset shifts around money, self-worth, and leadership that helped her evolve from practitioner to CEO.

• What she's learning now as she navigates the next stage of growth, delegation, and scaling beyond herself.

---

*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

Ever hired someone who looked perfect on paper… only to realize a few weeks later they were the wrong fit?

The truth is, most bad hires aren't caused by hiring the wrong person; they happen because there's no hiring process behind the decision.

In this episode, I break down the three hiring mistakes that quietly cost wellness business owners time, money, energy, and team culture. You'll learn how to spot red flags before they become problems, avoid making decisions from a place of desperation, and create a simple hiring framework that helps you find therapists who align with your business, not just candidates with the best resume.

We'll get into:

• The three hiring mistakes that lead to costly team problems

• Why hiring based on "good vibes" isn't enough

• How to evaluate hard skills, soft skills, and culture fit

• The interview questions that reveal what resumes can't

• Why coachability often matters more than experience

• How to trust your instincts without relying on them alone

If you're growing your team or thinking about making your next hire, this episode could save you from an expensive mistake.

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

What happens when the business you dreamed of building starts depending on you for everything?

In this episode, DJ sits down with Katie Reschny of The Elm Body Co. to talk about the messy, emotional, and deeply human side of growing a wellness business beyond yourself.

Katie shares the behind-the-scenes reality of building a multi-location massage and bodywork business with a team of 12+ practitioners including the identity shifts, leadership challenges, systems, emotional labor, and hard decisions that rarely get talked about publicly.

This isn't one of those conversations that makes growth sound glamorous.

It's a conversation about what actually happens after you become "successful."

The pressure of being the one everyone depends on. The guilt of stepping away from hands-on work. The fear of becoming a "bad boss." The emotional weight of leading people while still trying to protect your own energy.

Katie opens up about what it looked like to go from massage therapist to business owner… and eventually into a leadership role she never originally planned for.

Together, DJ and Katie unpack:

• Why being fully booked is not the same thing as having freedom

• The surprising emotional challenges of leading a team

• How systems and structure actually create safety (not corporate coldness)

• The tension between wanting to help everyone and protecting your own capacity

• Why many wellness business owners accidentally build businesses that trap them

• The mindset shifts required to step out of the treatment room

• How leadership changes your relationship with time, money, and responsibility

• What it really takes to create a business that doesn't rely entirely on your hands

This episode will especially resonate with massage therapists and wellness business owners who:

• feel overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility

• are struggling to get clients to book with their team instead of just them

• want to work less without feeling guilty

• are afraid of losing the heart of their business as they grow

• feel stuck between "I can't keep doing this forever" and "I don't know what comes next"

There's also a powerful conversation in this episode around sustainability.

Not just financial sustainability. Personal sustainability. Emotional sustainability. Physical sustainability.

Because eventually, almost every massage therapist reaches a point where they quietly wonder:

"Can I keep doing this the same way forever?"

And this conversation is about what comes next.

---

*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness

The thing that makes someone an incredible healer can also make the business fail to get traction.

The best massage therapists are often deeply caring, highly responsible, intuitive people. They notice everything. They step in quickly. They protect people. They fix problems before anyone else even notices them.

Those traits create incredible client experiences. But in business?

Those same instincts can slowly turn the owner into the bottleneck.

In this episode, I unpack why so many skilled healers struggle with leadership once they begin growing beyond themselves, and why the shift from practitioner to owner can feel surprisingly uncomfortable.

I talk about:

• Why healing and leadership often reward opposite behaviors

• How "being helpful" can accidentally create dependence in your team

• The hidden difference between empathy and conflict avoidance

• Why do many wellness owners avoid systems or swing too far into control

• How structure can actually protect your values instead of destroying them

• What "caring differently" really looks like as a leader

• The identity shift from hands-on healer to business builder

This episode is especially for massage therapists and wellness practice owners who:

• feel like everything still depends on them

• struggle to step back without guilt

• feel emotionally exhausted by leadership

• want more freedom without becoming "corporate"

• are trying to grow beyond their own hands without losing the heart behind their work

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*Brought to you by GlossGenius.*

Are you dealing with gaps in your schedule? Clients who don't rebook? Low profits and high payment processing fees? When you're running your own practice, you don't have time to figure out where you're leaving money on the table especially when you're stitching together booking, payments, and clunky software that only makes things harder.

GlossGenius is the booking and business management platform built for massage therapists and wellness practitioners. It fills your calendar, automatically reBooks clients, upsells high-margin services, and has the lowest flat-rate payment processing fees in the industry. Plus all the HIPAA-compliant tools you need for charting, consents, and client records without the admin chaos.

More growth. Less busywork.

Use code **SCALING** at glossgenius.com/scalingwellness for 50% off your first two months of their Gold or Platinum plan.

Build a wellness business that gives you both time and income: www.scalingwellness.com

Book a free strategy call: www.scalingwellness.com/chat

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/scalingwellness