Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Brad/Jaime Dancer with Massage Heights

Good afternoon. I think, Brad and Jamie, this is the— you're my latest interview in terms of the time of the day, so I figure with people, with people going back to work, this may be a little bit more accommodating. But welcome, um, to Connections in Southwest Florida. So the whole premise of me starting these live cams was really built around the fact that businesses have been affected in a number of ways by COVID. And we all recognize that when business as usual, whatever that's going to be, can resume, we want you guys to be able to hit the ground running. And so I thought this was a good way to spotlight some of the fantastic businesses that we have in Southwest Florida. So I am honored to have you on today. Let's start with, I see we, we, I didn't catch, we only have Brad's name there, but obviously there's two people, so I'd like to introduce you to Brad and Jamie Dancer. They are a dynamic duo, and I'd like to start, Brad and Jamie, by having you just tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we'll dive into the business side.

Okay, well, thanks for having us. This is such a neat idea, so we're glad that we could do it with you. Um, we met in high school. We're from the same small town in Michigan, um, so I guess you could say we're high school sweethearts. And, uh, we moved to Florida, South shortly after we, we finished college. We got married down here in Florida. We have 4 kids. My background is in exercise and health science, and I, when I moved down here to Florida, I went to massage school and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my degree and kind of thought I would start there. And that's kind of where this took off from there. So I worked as a massage therapist for probably 10 years or so. And then, you know, through the time that we had kids, that allowed me to stay home with them and work part-time, and it was just a good career for that. So I knew it was something I didn't want to do forever. Um, and so yeah, that's, that's just in short about me and how we got here.

Yeah. And, and for me, like, when we moved down 17 years ago, I started in real estate actually. I started, um, property management and commercial real estate mostly, dabbled a little bit in residential. I got involved with a group of investors and we started, uh, and built up a commercial-based telecommunications company. Um, and then that did what— we worked hard at that, real hard at that for about 5 years, and we sold it off. And at that point, I kind of got back into real estate, and then we got into Massage Heights.

Thank you so much. You know, one of the things I've probably enjoyed the most about hosting these sessions, and I've known you guys for a while, but you, you know, the opportunity to get to know you in a different sort of way. And one of the things that impresses me about you guys, not too unlike a lot of entrepreneurs, and I hope that people that are watching will find encouragement of this, you know, obviously I want to talk about Massage Heights, but I don't want to miss the opportunity to talk about the fact that you guys are great examples where You know, wherever you are in life, wherever your career path started, any day could be the day that you reinvent it and do something new. You know, Brad, you talked about the work you did in real estate, the work you did in telecommunications. And I mean, that's encouraging because I think a lot of people sit back and think, well, I've kind of been doing this, but it's safe. And, oh, would I really be able to go start something new? And you guys are a wonderful inspirational story of of finding something you wanted to go do and pursuing it, right?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, like I said, I knew massage wasn't something I wanted to do forever. It was a starting place, and I didn't know— we didn't know where that would take us to. And, you know, we don't know if this is the ending place for that either. But, you know, for now, this is where it's taken us. And yeah, it's kind of neat how that develops through the years.

Great. Well, let's— that's a great segue. So let's talk about, um, it's— gosh, time flies so fast for— so my, my dates are probably way wrong, but I remember when you, when you started the first Massage Heights and then subsequently acquired the other one. Um, you guys, you know, it's a great growing business and it's a service people like me sure appreciate. So talk to us a little bit about Massage Heights Start with sort of what prompted you, what sort of motivated you to get into the space. Jamie, that obviously isn't necessarily a new space for you, but becoming the business owner of this was. What motivated you? You know, why Massage Heights? And then let's talk about some of your products and services.

Sure, you can talk about how you kind of got into open cells.

Yeah, I mean, once we sold the telecommunications business and I kind of got back into the commercial and property management, the real estate sector, I wanted more still, like, yeah, I wanted to get back involved in another business of some sort. Didn't know what exactly, and one day Jamie just came up to me with this idea because of her passion and love for the massage and massage industry. She came up with the idea. I took a look at it. We researched it a lot, and I really loved the business model. That comes with Massage Heights, and so we just went with that.

So, yeah, I came up with the idea because, like he said, I have a passion for massage. I've always loved to get a massage. I've had back problems on and off throughout my life, and it's kind of been something that's just always relieved that or helped me, something that I wish that I could do more often. But it just, it wasn't an easy, cheap thing to be able to do, so I found myself only doing it every once in a while and wishing I could do it more. So one day I was getting a massage and I kind of looked around and I thought, you know, we need, we need something that's easier than this or more affordable than this. We need more of, more places like that. So kind of just started turning the wheels in my head and called Brad and we just talked about, you know, what, what there was out there and what could be and started researching franchises and whatnot. And, and that's when we came up with Massage Heights and how we ended up here.

Wonderful. So you guys have two stores now. Tell us a little bit about where they're located and what kind of services. And, and I think one of the things I want to make sure you guys talk about is, you know, there's, there's lots of different ways to, I'll say, subscribe to the services, right? There's the occasional, um, it's Mother's Day, hint hint, it's Mother's Day coming up. And then there's the, you know what, I like this and I'm going to invest in this and I'd like to do this once month. So talk to us about your two locations and the services and that kind of flexibility that you offer.

Sure, I'll talk about the services and I'll let Brad talk about the rest of that. But so we do massages, of course, but we also do facials. So like you said, we can— you can come in and just, you know, once a year or twice a year and get a massage if you want to. The massages that we offer are usually 60 minutes or 90 minutes, but we're happy to go shorter than that or longer than that. And we do add-ons or enhancements to our massages. We call them elevations. So you can do hot stones. You can do, we do a foot scrub that's really nice. We do a face massage with, it's a specialized face massage with small colder stones that's really awesome. We have all different kinds of therapists that can do all different kinds of modalities from deep tissue and prenatal. They can do trigger point. There's, you know, it's kind of endless what we can do and what we can customize to what you need. As far as massages go, we also offer aromatherapy to all of our members. So we have several different kinds of aromatherapy you can choose from. To kind of make it more of a spa-like relaxing type thing. We do, we have a couple's room where you can get a couple's massage for it, which is really nice for Valentine's Day or anniversaries, anything like that. So we do have that.

Or post-COVID celebrations, let's get out of the house day.

Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. Come on, couples. Can't wait for that. Can't wait for that. We also do facials, not, not quite as much as we do massage, but we'd like to do more facials. So we always have an esthetician available. We do, you know, usually what happens is the esthetician will look at your skin and suggest what you need based on your skin type. But, you know, anything from anti-aging treatments to acne treatments to just a relaxing facial, you know, we have all different kinds of modalities for that. We do microdermabrasion, we do a really gentle peel. So we have all different kinds of things that you can get for facials as well, if that's what you're looking for, and you can kind of mix and match the two as well. So, you know, if you decide to come once a month, you don't just have to come for facials. You can decide to come for massages and then every once in a while get a facial or You know, whatever works for you. So those are the services mainly that we offer. Brad can talk about, you know, how often you come and what that looks like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you asked about like pricing and stuff like that. So basically we have, we can accommodate anything, anybody, everything's customizable. We have, sorry, our screen went off there. We have people, we have members that come in weekly, sometimes twice a week, all year round. We have people that come in once or twice a year. It's very— we have an option for everybody. Anybody can come in and anybody's welcome. We're a membership-based spa, but we have just regular non-member pricing for anybody that wants to come in. We have, if you're only in town for a month, if you're only in town for, you know, 3 months seasonal, we have many different options for you to, to— we'll just make it work. It just takes a conversation with us or with our front desk, and, and we can get the pricing and, and, uh, make it affordable and easy for you.

Yeah, that's fantastic. And I can attest to that because I can't remember if it was Father's Day or birthday, I've done the recurring one for my husband. In fact, I'm glad he's not in the room because he's probably wondering when he's getting his next one. Um, and that's been a great option because I will tell you from a customer standpoint You know, we are, we are all not as good about keeping our promises to ourselves and treating ourselves to some of these things. And not just because it's a feel-good, but there's some positive health impact by it, by it too. Um, but when you know you've got that commitment and you put the appointment on your calendar, you make it happen. Um, that's nice. And I've also done the one-offs. They've made great gifts for people. So, um, I wanted to make sure I asked that because I know there are people that think it's only membership and, you know, maybe I haven't had one before and I don't want to commit to that, or maybe it isn't a special occasion. So I wanted to make sure people know that even though there's a benefit to doing the membership-based, there are other options out there.

So thank you.

I didn't, and I apologize because I know Jamie, you're probably going to want to kill me, but I should have put this on my list specific to you. I mentioned that there's health benefits. To this outside of just the feel-good? Not that I want you to do a dissertation, but talk a little. Are you— do you mind sharing?

That's sure. Sure.

Yeah.

I mean, the benefits are endless, especially as far as I'm concerned. Like I said, I had back problems my whole life. So just aside from that, something kind of everybody knows, you know, my neck hurts or I get headaches or I have a back problem. That massage can help, you know, sometimes just in one session for something like that. But it, um, it does a lot of other things too. Um, a huge one right now is going to be stress relief. I mean, it— there's studies showing, you know, how good it is for stress and, um, taking that down a notch. So I know everybody's going to need that soon. Um, and better sleep, lowering blood pressure, just to name a few. Um, but the list goes on and on about health benefits. So it's not just a feel-good type thing, it's not just a relaxation type thing. There are definite physiological benefits that come from getting a massage, and something that we both believe is something that everybody should have in their life routinely. So that's a little bit about that. Is that what you're looking for?

Yeah, absolutely. I love it. And I've heard even the circulation and all that. So yes, it's nice to have when you might be a little sore because you haven't worked out in a while and you're going to go work the knots out, but there's— it's, it's, it's a very good preventative, um, you know, therapy that people can do too. So fantastic. I want to make sure— I, I think most people know about the health benefits, but you never know. So talk to us a little bit about— you're going down, you've opened up, you have two locations. I forgot to go back and, and highlight that. Where are your two locations?

Yeah, so we— they're both in Naples. We have one off of, uh, Airport and Pine Ridge Road next to the, in the Target Plaza there between Target and Bells. And then we have another one in East Naples. It's off of US 41 and Rattlesnake Hammock. There's a CVS on the corner. It's just right behind that. So, you know, we kind of the southern end of town and the northern end of town, we have, we have heavy coverage.

Fantastic. What I was going to say is you're going down the path. You guys have started these businesses. Life is good, and then COVID comes and hits us right upside the head. So I wanted to ask you, in the face of sort of this evolving COVID, what businesses and services are you able to offer? Or if you're not, what, you know, kind of what are your plans in case somebody is interested? And I do want to say, even if they can't do the massages today, let's not forget people, it's a great time to buy gift certificates. Because even if there's limitations in what we can do, we can still spend money to pay it forward to people that will benefit from that service in the future. So Brad and Jamie, tell us a little bit about, you know, what the status of business is right now and what you're anticipating moving forward.

Um, well, the status of business right now unfortunately is null and void and nothing because Massage is, it's human touch. It's not, you can never change that. You know, you can get a handheld massager or something that sits in your chair, but you know, that's nothing that we can do for you. So, you know, we had to close down. It was sad, it was too bad. But, you know, we're definitely going to open in phase 2 whenever that might be. So we're ready to go and you know, that's coming soon. So unfortunately we did have to close and there's not a whole lot there we can offer, but Brad can talk about gift cards and things that you can do now if you're interested.

Yeah, we've, we've been, uh, we've been selling, we've been selling gift cards quite a bit actually in the last few days. Um, so we have a Mother's Day special going on right now where if you buy, if you spend $100, you buy a $100 gift card, we give you a free $25 gift card with it. You can use it as soon as we open back up or whenever. Gift cards won't expire. So I guess the easiest way right now since the stores are closed is you just email me directly, brad.dancer@massageheights.com, and I can contact you back and we can do it. But we've been actually, I've been really blessed with the last few days. A lot of people have been coming in buying the gift cards, getting ready for, you know, for Mother's Day and then for when we reopen.

Fantastic. Did I happen to mention it's Mother's Day coming up and that's a good time to buy gift certificates to massage?

I know what I would want for Mother's Day.

Everybody's listening. And you said brad.dancer@massageheights.com if they want to get in touch with you to work on the commerce and handoff of a gift certificate. So thank you. I think that's one of the ways that while businesses can't necessarily be on the forefront providing the services today that they usually do, that really helped because that starts to build your book of business when things come back. And look, we all know when it's time to get out of the houses and we get a little more freedom, there is nothing that would feel better than a massage, except for maybe the massage followed by the beach.

Totally.

I know, I know I'm ready for a massage.

A massage and a facial.

There you go. And I will say I've had a facial at your place and I remember telling you, Jamie, it was truly and sincerely the best facial I've ever had. So that's a great point.

Thank you for— A lot of people tell us, a lot of people tell us the facials are more relaxing even than the massages. So yeah, it is a good service to have.

Yeah, absolutely. And not to mention the glow that you still have when you leave that carries on for a little while. So, well, and one of the— yeah, I imagine that doing a massage in a mask with gloves, even if we could, might not feel as good. So respectfully, you know, I hope that, I do hope that you guys get to open up soon. You've been such a wonderful addition to the community, both on the southeast side of Naples and the north part of Naples. One of the things I wanted to ask is, recognizing that there are options for massage, what do you guys think makes you unique? What's the, you know, sort of what's the plug on why Massage Heights?

Yeah, I mean, one difference that Massage Heights has is just in our membership base, our pricing model. We, because of how the business structure is set up as a membership-based model, we are able to provide services at a much, you know, a much lower, more affordable rate than most of our competitors. So, I mean, it's, you know, we have great therapists, great, you know, availability. It's, you know, convenient and easy to get into us and get a great massage. We used to only, or You know, back in the day, massage was kind of considered only for really the wealthy. And now, I mean, you know, a lot of the big resorts would charge $160 a massage or, you know, whatever it is. But now we're able to touch, you know, everybody and everybody can come in and experience it.

And experience it on a, on a more frequent basis than just once a year, twice a year. We're also, you know, massage is one of those professions that has gotten a bad name here and there. And so sometimes people are just scared to go somewhere. They don't really know what they're going to be stepping into when they go. And, you know, you're very vulnerable when you go get a massage. So, you know, just the quality of massage, the professionalism that you're going to get when you come to us is something that you don't have to worry about. You know, you're going to step in and you're going to get licensed therapists. They're going to be very professional. Customer service is always going to be our number one priority. So, you know, when you come in, um, you don't have to worry about any of the unknowns that go with, um, getting a massage if you've never had one before, or if you just moved here and you're not sure where to go get one, um, any of that, you know, we're very professional that way too. So, um, definitely the place to go for that.

Yes. And in a very clean and comfortable environment too, I might add. One of the things I love, Jamie and Brad, that I've experienced in having a massage at Massage Heights is you guys do a good job of trying to match what somebody's preferences are on a massage with the therapist because not everybody is the same, right? It's sort of like real estate, I guess. I found that really good too. Talk for a minute about, you know, Um, yeah, so yeah, you're exactly right.

Sometimes people go get a massage and, you know, it really is dependent on who you get and what you like. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get the right person and connect the right way. So, um, we're very open to having discussions with people about what they're looking for, and if they didn't like the first one, you know, kind of discussing further and trying, trying out somebody new and working with somebody until they get the right person, because it really does make a difference in how you feel when you're done and if you want to come back with whether or not you had the right person for you. And we have all different kinds of therapists that do all different kinds of things. And so I know without a doubt that we can connect you to the right person as long as, you know, you're willing to have a conversation and let us know what you're looking for, and we're definitely, you know, open to working with you.

Well, and, and I'll build on that because not only do you do a good job of trying to get in, ask the right questions to make the match up front, I found you both wonderful to truly be interested in what people's experiences are. And maybe especially if it's somebody like myself, when I got my first massage, I couldn't have told you what I thought I wanted or liked, but You create an environment where because you're interested in how the massage goes, you can, you know, maybe, maybe you got with someone who you like more of a soft massage, a gentle, and you got that deep tissue. Jamie and Brad are very open to hearing, you know, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but here's why, and they'll take care of it, get you matched the next time. So even if you don't know what you like, they'll help you shape that.

Yeah, and a lot of times people don't know what they like. I can't tell you how many times somebody say they like a really deep massage and then, you know, you'll set them up with the deepest person that we have and they come out just, you know, saying that that was, that was way too deep and, you know, that it was awful. And so, you know, it takes, it takes a couple of tries of figuring out exactly what that person wants. But, you know, we do have it. That's the thing. We do have all different kinds of therapists and we can match you with somebody perfect for you. Sometimes it just takes a couple tries. So that is, that is one of our passions is, you know, trying to make that happen too.

Great. Now this is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child, but you've got a variety of services. What do you think is, if, if, if somebody said, tell me what the best massage is to go get, recognizing we're all different, what are your more popular services?

Well, you know, that's probably a great example that we're both different in what we like. So I just love a really deep massage. So I would, I would pick just a deep tissue massage. Nothing special. I don't like stretching. I don't like anything fancy. I don't like a lot of extras. So I want to lay there for 90 minutes and and get a deep tissue massage and have somebody go as deep as they can. And Brad probably feels a little differently about it.

I, you have to have 90 minutes, a 90-minute massage. Once I used to start with just a 1-hour massage and I bumped up to 90 minutes and you can't go back. I mean, even the 90 minutes seems too short now. So, and then, and I always do the hot stones as well. I like more firm, not necessarily deep, deep pressure, And the hot stones really loosen up your muscles and you get that deep, deep massage experience without, you know, necessarily like that deep pressure that could potentially hurt your muscles a little bit or, you know, stuff like that. So I just, I love the hot stones added with the 90-minute massage.

I love it. So if you don't know what massage to get anybody, but you know somebody that deserves one, you've just been given two good suggestions. And I just wanna say, I wanna get it out there, People snore during these and it's okay.

It is.

Don't not get a massage because you're afraid you're going to snore. I think I've snored. I think my husband snored. I think that's a sign of a good massage, right, Brett?

All right. Oh, massage therapists actually, actually like that when that happens because they know you're relaxed and you're enjoying it. So yeah, absolutely.

Don't worry about it. It's even worse at the end of a meal.

Yeah, right? Absolutely.

I love it. Well, let me do this. I want to just for a moment take a break and highlight some of the businesses that we have coming in next, and then I'm going to wrap it up with Jamie and Brad on some final thoughts. But we've got— what, I don't even know what day it is today. Today's Wednesday, right? Tomorrow I've got Susan Hattinger from Hattinger Floors and Cabinets. We're going to round out the week with Alicia, and I think Alicia, she might still be on. She was on earlier with Mira Listica to share some of her artistic abilities. Next week I've got a lineup starting with Michelle Lee with Tritone Triple Bar, and I've got a little bit— I've been trying not to have real estate related things come in and overwhelm, but we do have our first real estate related company coming in, and David Judd is going to come and talk about Heights Title and their services. So I'm really excited about the businesses we've talked to thus far, including Massage Heights today, and I'm excited about what's coming. If you have— know of a business, um, that you think would benefit from having this free service of a 30-minute spotlight, please send them my way, renee@yournaplesexpert.com. It's free, so don't feel like, I don't know if I should call her because she might tell me I've got to— she's going to charge me, you know, $50 to be interviewed. Um, it is free. You just have to be comfortable being in front of a camera, or at least being subjected to it for 30 minutes. You do have to be a locally owned business. So I'm, I, as much as there's wonderful businesses in the Naples and surrounding areas, I'm not looking for national brands. This is about local and, and making sure that we support our, our locally owned businesses, but I'd love to spend time with other businesses as well. So Brad and Jamie, I did want to just give you an opportunity. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with the audience? We, whether they're on with us live or as they're following up with the video later.

Yeah, I mean, as with all the COVID-19 going on and us being closed, you know, a lot of people have concerns about getting back out in public and being around people and worrying about social distancing. And our franchisee, our franchisor, has been amazing at coming up with a whole new set of protocols, sanitation protocols, and I just want to make sure everybody knows, well, we're doing the best we can. It's gonna be the safest environment possible to come back to. Our therapists are all wearing masks and sanitation stations everywhere. We have— we'll be taking the temperature of all of our employees the first couple weeks, all of our guests. We're You know, so what else? I mean, we have every touchpoint will be completely sanitized whether anybody touches it or not. So before and after every single service, every doorknob, every, you know, clothes hanger, everything's getting wiped down. We have a whole series of protocols to follow. We have our, right now as we speak actually, we have our, some training going on. Inside our retreats, and our front desk staff and our therapists are all getting trained on these new sanitation protocols. So we're going to be geared up and ready and are going to be as safe as ever before.

Fantastic. And did I mention that this weekend is Mother's Day and it's a great time to buy a gift? Absolutely. So let me ask this, Brad, as we round out the half an hour here, recognizing that nobody knows when Level 2 is, and it sounds like Level 2 is when you guys are, are planning to be able to reopen the doors. Are you waiting to make appointments? Is it just gift certificates right now? Will, you know, when would be the appropriate time for somebody to actually book it if they already have a gift certificate, want to schedule something? When, what is it, what are the plans for that?

Yeah, right now it's just the gift certificates that we can offer. We're still, we're just monitoring and watching the governor really on a daily basis, and I think we're really hoping for, you know, Phase 2 to kick in within a couple weeks from now. So once we kind of get a firmer date on when we can open, we'll start calling all of our guests that have ever seen us before and just try and start booking appointments at that point. So I would think that we should be able to start taking appointments hopefully within the next couple weeks.

And it'll be on our website as soon as we're taking appointments.

Facebook and our website.

Fantastic. Well, Jamie and Brad, thank you so much for sharing a bit about your business today. I, you know, I have the pleasure of knowing you guys from your commute from the community, and I know you're great salt of the earth honest, good people who want to bring value to others. And I'm so appreciative that you share your passion and your expertise with us. Like I said at the beginning, I think there are going to be several, if not hundreds, if not thousands of people that would greatly benefit from one of your services. And we've talked a lot about massage, but I want to make sure nobody missed the fact that it truly was one of the best facials I've had as well. So We appreciate you all being here today. I saw a number of mothers online that I hope are delivering little private notes to their family, their spouses and husbands about calling Brad Dancer at, at Massage Heights to get their gift certificate reserved now. So thank you everyone. Have a wonderful rest of the week as we round out the second half of this week. And we'll see you tomorrow when we come with Hattinger Floors.

Thank you.