Authenticity & Healing: Soma Massage Journey with Amber Briggle & Manon on The Healers Café

In this episode of The Healers Café, Manon Bolliger, FCAH, RBHT (facilitator and retired naturopath with 30+ years of practice) speaks Amber who shared her journey from a childhood of homemade remedies to becoming a successful massage therapist. She emphasized the importance of a no-tipping model, which she believes elevates massage therapy to a healthcare service.

For the transcript and full story go to: https://www.drmanonbolliger.com/amber-briggle         

 

Highlights from today's episode include: 

Amber says stay true to your values—define what your business stands for and consistently uphold those values to attract the right clients and team members. 

Amber adopted a no-tipping model—pay practitioners a living wage, which reduces stress for both clients and therapists and positions massage as healthcare, not just a service.

Manon innovated with client-centered practices—test out industry shifts, like making appointments truly last a full hour and encouraging cancellations only when clients have genuinely improved, to foster trust and a caring environment for clients.

  

ABOUT AMBER BRIGGLE

Amber Briggle is the CEO of B-Well Enterprises, and the founder and owner of Soma Massage Therapy: a multi-award-winning business and the nation's most exciting new franchise opportunity! Amber became a massage therapist in 2004 and began Soma Massage Therapy in 2011. Through tenacity and determination she has literally built (and rebuilt, thanks to the pandemic!) a thriving massage therapy business and a promising new franchise brand.

Amber graduated massage school in 2004, moved around the world, and finally settled in the Dallas area in 2009. Within a short time, she had more massage clients than her hands could handle in a day, and she was regularly booked for weeks, if not months, in advance. For a while, Amber would refer those clients to other therapists in the area who had more availability in their schedules, but it wasn't long before she realized that business would be more reliable and stable by referring those clients to another therapist "in house" instead. And an idea, and eventually a business, was born.

Because of Amber's focus on "people first", her small business took off quickly. Team members were loyal because of Amber's approach to hiring, training, and staffing – leading to very little staff turnover, which in turn cultivated a very loyal client base! 

In 2013, Amber moved her growing business out of her house and into a brick-and-mortar, where Soma more than doubled in size from 2 treatment rooms 4 – plus a satellite office located in a chiropractic clinic – in just a span of a few years. By winter of 2019, Amber began looking for a larger space where Soma could continue to grow, but the global pandemic caused by covid-19 put those plans on hold.

During the pandemic, Soma was ordered to close. Many therapists resigned due to the various strains put on families during the pandemic, and by the time we reopened, Amber's staff of 13 therapists had dwindled to only four people, and she had to close her satellite location entirely.

More det