November 5, 2024 • 24 mins
In this episode, we sit down with Ben Atanga, a dynamic entrepreneur who is reshaping holistic wellness. Ben shares his path from studying child psychology to founding The Stretch Loft, a cutting-edge business that harnesses the power of stretch therapy and guided breathing to release tension and promote healing. His personal experience with injury recovery led to the creation of The Stretch Loft and The Stretch Loft Academy, where over 200 practitioners have been trained under his guidance. With the successful launch of his seventh studio, Ben offers insights into how this innovative approach addresses muscle tension in a way no other modality does.
We also explore the untapped potential of integrating stretch therapy into existing businesses, boosting both diversification and revenue. Discover how adding this service can transform a simple appointment into a comprehensive wellness experience, enhancing client engagement for hairdressers, massage therapists, and spa owners alike.
Learn more about The Stretch Loft: https://thestretchloft.com/
Follow The Stretch Loft on Instagram: @thestretchloft
Email Ben: ben@thestretchloft.com
Conversation highlights:
1:03 What is stretch therapy?
3:30 The difference between stretch therapy and other holistic wellness services
6:05 What does a stretch therapy session look like?
10:40 The mobility assessment that tells the story of your body
12:58 Diversifying your business with stretch therapy services
16:29 How being team-based supports the franchise model
20:53 How being team-based changed the Stretch Loft's culture
Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/LLzJyensi_0
To learn more about how Strategies can help you create more profit, fun, and growth potential for you, your business, and your team, schedule a free 60-minute strategy session:
Schedule a free 60-minute strategy session: https://strategies.com/free-coaching-session
Strategies: https://www.strategies.com
Salon/Spa Business Coaching: https://strategies.com/memberships/
In-Person Salon/Spa Seminars: https://strategies.com/seminars/
Podcast: https://strategies.com/podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strategies4biz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strategies
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@strategies4biz
The Beauty Business Strategies Podcast is designed to give salon, spa, medspa, barbershop, and lash studio owners, just like you, quick tips to make more money, inspire your team, and create world-class client experiences.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Timer.
Look at you You're a machine ofjust efficiency.
Perfect, perfect, perfect.
All right, ben, are you ready?
I'm ready, all right, here wego.
We're good, ali, all right, allright.
(00:42):
Well, welcome to the BeautyBusiness Strategies podcast
Again, michael Yost, with youtoday, and I am joined today by
Ben Atunga.
Ben, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
How are you doing, Michael?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm doing great.
So, as we always do on podcastis we love to bring you people
that have great information.
But most of all, I always amdrawn to people that have
passion, and I'm going to tellyou right now, we find no
greater passion than talkingwith Ben.
Ben's one of those people thatwhen we first encountered if you
meet Ben in person, it bleedsout of him, and so it's really
(01:18):
awesome and, again, I thinkthat's contagious.
But he's got some great thingsthat we want to talk about today
and he's got a great businessand, anyway, there's a lot of
ground we want to cover.
So, to get into it, ben, what Iwould love for you to do is,
for those not familiar with you,just give us just a quick
introduction of yourself, kindof your background and, again,
the business that you have.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, sure, sure, and I just wanted to say I
appreciate this opportunity.
Hello everyone, my name is BenAtanga and I'm located in
Maryland, in Prince George'sCounty, right outside of DC, and
the field that I'm in is inholistic wellness, specifically
stretch therapy.
I own a business called theStretch Loft and we just
launched our second location,and I also own another part of
(02:04):
business called the Stretch LoftAcademy the Stretch Loft and we
just launched our secondlocation, and I also own another
part of business called theStretch Loft Academy.
The Stretch Loft is a holisticwellness business that caters to
the release of stored tension,trauma and energy from the body
via stretch therapy and guidedbreathing, and the Stretch Loft
Academy is an academy thattrains aspiring stretch
practitioners in the field andmodality of holistic stretch
(02:27):
therapy.
So we train them, we certifythem and we mentor them, and so
I've got the brick and mortarwhich we provide, the service.
I have the academy, which weprovide the education.
We've been around for four yearsand I didn't go to school for
this.
My bachelor's is in childpsychology.
I I came into the thing frompersonal training, from an
injury that I had that doctorscouldn't figure out, and I met a
(02:49):
trainer one day who stretchedme.
It unlocked my body, I feltalive and, uh, after you know, I
went out and I sought outcertifications to learn how to
do it.
Um, and once I startedpracticing it, instantly I
started making a difference inin people's lives and the way
they were feeling and the thingsthat they were dealing with,
and so I've been able to growrapidly in this industry.
(03:11):
I'm on my second business now.
I'm opening up my seventhstretch studio and in the last
three years, we've trained over200 aspiring stretch
practitioners who are alsoinside of this work now with
their own businesses.
So this is a great opportunityand I just really want to share
what I do.
Whether you're looking to comein and receive the service or
you're looking to maybe expandon what you're doing, I think
(03:33):
that this is something great and, like Michael said, I'm very
passionate about.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I love it.
I love it.
So, ben, you know what'sinteresting to me.
You mentioned all the you knowin that intro, just all the ways
that the benefits, right.
But talk to me about what'sdifferent between because again,
I will freely admit I do notknow and I don't even pretend
that I understand what will besome of the main differences
(03:57):
that you see between, like, ifwe're talking about stretch
therapy and what you do, what'sthe difference between that and
like, say, massage, or even Iwon't even throw, even thrown
like other things, like maybeeven chiropractic services or
those kind of things?
Where, where does stretch fitin and what are the?
What would be, what would youclassify as the differences in
the different areas?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I think that stretch is an ancient and a hidden
modality and where it fits in itfits into holistic care, like
when I embarked on stretchtherapy, I had seen three
chiropractors, I'd seen multiplephysical therapists, I'd seen
massage therapy.
I had an injury.
I dropped the weight on my foot.
I didn't break anything, but itcaused me to start compensating
and putting most of thepressure on the right side of my
(04:41):
body and over time, the jointsand muscles in that side ended
up locking up, which made itvery uncomfortable to sleep, to
drive, to move.
I visited chiropractors, Ivisited physical therapy.
I was either gettingmisdiagnosed or they wanted to
perform surgery.
I'd go to massage therapistsand they would rub the area out
and it would feel great whilethey're doing it, but by the
time I got back to my car I wasstill in pain.
(05:02):
And so the biggest differencewith stretch therapy is that
stretch therapy number one itdoes to your muscles what your
muscles need.
Your muscles contract, and well, they contract and release.
Right that contracting andreleasing helps for blood to
flow but also for oxygenproduction.
Right, like when you go to achiropractor, a chiropractor may
(05:23):
adjust your cervical, yourlumbar and your thoracic spine,
and they believe that byadjusting it that everything
will fall into place.
That's not necessarily thetruth, right?
And massage therapy you gothere.
If you have a crook in yourneck, you're going to go there.
They're going to try to massageit out, which is great, but
then if you don't stretch it out, then you don't restore the
length tension relationship.
(05:45):
So the reason why I say thatstretch therapy is like a hidden
modality is because this issomething holistic.
It's something natural.
We're doing something naturalto the body, and when you go
through a full body stretch,things tend to realign.
Right, and when you'rerealigned, you think better, you
sleep better, you're able toprocess things better.
Right?
In recent years we've heardabout how the body keeps score,
(06:06):
like restore everything insideof our bodies.
This is one way that you canrelease it.
When you mix, when you infuse,stretching and breath work like
it's just people leave off thetable with just like, like, feel
like, a million bucks, you canactually see the energy just
kind of just flowing off of them, and so I would say that that's
the biggest difference.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, that's really fascinating.
So what would it be like?
Say, let's say for myself, I'llput myself in this position and
say, hey, listen, you know, Irecognize the fact that, wow, I
really am already gone.
Man, I can really use what youdo.
What would be like, what's anormal, if I came into your
(06:48):
business?
What's a normal service looklike?
Like length of time, is it a 30minute, is it 60 minutes in
length?
And what would be like if Iwere trying to maintain, like
all services, like I said, I'myou know again my background,
being a hairdresser I'm used tosaying, hey, listen, I need to
go in every four weeks, everysix weeks, every eight weeks to
maintain this.
Again, I know, being somewhatfamiliar with chiropractic, you
(07:12):
know they recommend a schedule.
Is there a recommended type ofmaintenance and schedule in
stretch?
And what does that look like?
And again, what's the generalservice itself look like?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Gotcha, gotcha.
So most likely, if you came in,there's probably something
going on right, like you'reexperiencing pain somewhere.
You may be experiencingsleeplessness, maybe some
anxiety, right, and so everycase is a little bit different.
You may be experiencingsciatica, and so, because every
case is different, everybody'splan is a little bit different.
(07:44):
Like we have like acute plans.
Like if you came in and you'relike dude, I've had chronic
lower back pain, I'm havingsciatica, you're going to need
something a little more acute.
You're going to need to see usmaybe two to three times a week
for a few weeks.
Let's say three to six weeks,okay, but overall maintenance
and that three to six weekperiod, michael, we would
stretch just about every singlemuscle in the body and we would
loosen you up and realign you,okay.
(08:06):
But then we would send you intowhat we call our maintenance
plan, which is anywhere fromabout two to four times a month,
Okay.
Or, like I say, the best one isabout one every 10 days.
Stretch every 10 days, right,we'll keep the body nice and
flexible and loose and keep youlight, okay.
And so, as far as length oftime, we can get through a full
(08:28):
body stretch session in about 28to 30 minutes.
Okay.
If you are looking for more oflike a relaxation stretch, you
want us to slow it down, youwant more repetitions, then we
can expand that to a 50 to 60minute.
But also if you just needsomething quick, right.
Like you know chronic lowerback pain, I ran a 10K this
weekend I just need somethingreal quick before work, during
(08:49):
lunch, after work, you can comein and get a 15 minute.
We call them energizers, okay,and we do those energizers for
people who are in competitiontoo, like before a race, before
a cycling event, before afootball game.
Get an energizer, it warms thebody up, it gets the blood flow
going.
And the average client, youknow this is something that
you're going to need the rest ofyour life.
Like I always ask people likewell, how long do you want to be
(09:11):
, remain flexible and movable?
Yeah, right, the rest of yourlife.
And so two to three, two tothree, two to four times a month
is about that frequency, whichis also a huge difference from
chiropractic and massage andmassage world.
We see most people get massagesonce a month and chiropractic,
something's got to be wrong andthey put you on a treatment plan
(09:32):
, stretch therapy.
Whether there's something wrong, something's not wrong.
You can come in and justmaintain that and maintain that
vitality and mobility andflexibility.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, Well, you got me thinking.
I think about my own like stageof life that I'm in right and,
uh, in now my mid fifties, andI'm thinking to myself, you know
, if I don't start to whatever Istart to do, I mean should have
been doing this even before now, but like I still look at it
and go, the habits I start doingnow are going to carry me into
(10:01):
having good sixties, seventiesand eighties and beyond.
But again, I think you see itso many times where, again, as
people get older, as I, as Ilook at even my, my within my
own family and my parents andthings like that, of course age
brings that atrophy, that that,again, that we're not stretching
those muscles, we're not usingthose man I'm sure, what a huge
(10:23):
difference.
Probably a bad sign, Ben.
I mean, tell me if this is abad sign, because probably if I
stood up right now and I triedto bend over and touch my toes,
I probably couldn't do it.
It's probably a bad sign, isn'tit?
There are some bad signs outthere that we should be aware of
.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know everybody's relatively different, right Like
?
I never compare like one personto another.
Um, cause your flexibility isrelative to you, right?
Like?
Like, some of us got longerlimbs than others, right, some
of us are are just just justprone to be more tight.
Like, believe it or not, peopleare, they're people that are
just born tight to be more tight.
Like, believe it or not, peopleare, they're people that are
just born tight, right?
(11:05):
Um, I wouldn't say necessarilyit was a bad sign.
However, it's it's.
It's what I would encourage ishey, let's see if we can improve
upon that, right.
Like and that's what most peoplethink Like.
When I think flexibility, can Itouch my toes?
Right, there's a lot more thatgoes into it than just being
able to touch your toes, and themuscles work together, but they
also work independently of eachother too, okay.
So there is another test thatwe not a test, but an assessment
(11:26):
that we do and it's called theoverhead squat.
So I basically I make peoplestand up, put their hands above
their head, and I make themsquat down to see if they can
get their butt all the way downpast their knees and to sit
almost like on their heels.
Okay, and that in itself lets meknow where you're tight, where
you're weak, like if some peopledid that, let's say you did
(11:48):
that and your heels came off theground, then I know that, okay,
cool, you're tight in yourAchilles and your calf area.
If you did that and you sort ofstarted to fall forward like
this, okay, so you've gottightness in your hip flexors.
If your arms fell forward, okay, you got tightness in your
chest, maybe your mid back area,and so I like using that
assessment better, because thatassessment is more functional,
(12:10):
right, like we sit down, we siton toilets as we get older we,
you know, sitting and standingup gets harder, right?
It also assesses our range ofmotion in our knees, our ankles
and our hips and our shoulders.
Okay, so if you stood up andyou did that and you weren't
able to, then I'd say, okay,like we've got some things to
work on.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Right, I'm tempted right now, but I'm like I'm not
going to do it right now, but Isure will as soon as we're done
with this.
I'm like I got to figure that'sreally cool.
I'm like I I sure will as soonas we're done with this.
I'm like I got to figure that's, that's really cool.
I'm like I'm wondering how manypeople are listening to this
podcast or watching like allright, hit pause and doing this
right now and going all right,what happened there?
But that's, I mean it's superfascinating.
(12:55):
I mean this brings us to.
You know, I want to kind of keepevolving in the time we have
our conversation and moving itforward.
So something we talked aboutand I think this is a great time
to kind of bring this insomething we talked about just
kind of off camera and before wehit the record button on this,
was just talking about how, whatyou do in stretch therapy, how
that could really start to lenditself to being another way to
(13:17):
diversify your business, a wayto diversify your business, and
I thought that was a reallyfascinating point because I'd
never really thought about it inprepping for this podcast.
I never really thought aboutfor people out there that are
business owners and they mightbe listening and thinking about,
you know, other opportunitiesto create different ways to kind
of again diversify.
You know you mentioned that andyou know I thought, wow, that's
(13:40):
a really unique thing.
Talk to me about why you thinkthis could be such a really good
way to diversify an opportunityfor someone possibly.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, so number one, we're in a time period where
there's online education, moreand more people are going out
and seeking services differenttypes of services and if you are
a one trick pony out there,right, like the people who come
to you are also going somewhereelse to give their money
somewhere else.
(14:11):
So if you already have abusiness, right, let's say
you're a hairdresser, youalready have a business.
You have a client that comes toyou every three weeks, right,
and they sit down on your chair,right.
That client is also most likelystoring tension, trauma and
stress in their body.
Right, and because this is sucha skill set that you can learn
(14:33):
pretty quick, wouldn't it makesense to maybe offer that as
well?
You could turn a $100 serviceinto a $200 service versus
looking for another $100 service, right?
Or if you're an owner of abusiness, you can have a
separate area where this isgoing on, like, in the last 10
years, I've taught chiropractors, physical therapists, med, spa
owners, salon owners hey, whydon't you utilize that space
(14:55):
over there in the corner, thatextra room, and have stretch
therapy going in there?
Because these clients arecoming in here for these
services and that lets us knowthey most likely probably care
about their health, they careabout the way they look, feel,
and so why not have that rightthere and have a complete
revenue center Like I?
Um, I came into this thing frombeing a personal trainer and
when I first started I justblended my services Like it just
(15:18):
made sense to train someone for30 minutes and then turn around
and stretch them Right, and soI could see a massage therapist
doing that, I could see.
I could see a hairdresser,people in the beauty and
cosmetics fields doing beautyand hair field doing that.
Right, people who arecosmetologists actually licensed
to touch.
Right, they actually have agreater license than someone who
, like me, who I don'tnecessarily have a license to
(15:41):
touch I'm just in a field whereit doesn't require a license,
right, and a lot of these peopleare already very self-aware.
They already have a great, youknow, client interaction, and
those are some of the things andskills that it takes to be able
to do this.
So why not?
I mean you could easilyincrease your revenue 30, 40,
(16:02):
50% by just adding this to theside or hiring someone who could
do it out of your space.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, right, just again, a greater service
offering.
I love it.
So we met about a year ago.
We met at our annual conferenceand were first introduced, and
so, again shifting theconversation to more to the
business side of things, youreally kind of gravitated to
just the overall team-basedbusiness model itself, and so I
(16:31):
know it was something that youwere looking for, something in
your business that you werelooking for.
You found us, you decided, hey,listen, I'm gonna check out the
conference that you guys do,and from that point forward it's
been a really kind of cool andfun journey along the way.
So talk to me about what hasbeen for you over this last year
, as it kind of we're talkingabout the overall team based
(16:53):
business model and adapting thatinto your own company.
What have been some of thehighlights for you?
What was, what are some of thebeen some of the highlights for
you?
What are some of the wins foryou?
What was the draw for you?
I mean just the overview ofthis last year.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The draw for me was I've been in this industry about
10 years and when I got in Iimmediately went into business
and there wasn't anyone else whocould show me how do I run or
manage a stretch business Like Istudied the massage industry, I
studied personal training, Istudied different modality,
different industries, and I justcouldn't find it.
(17:30):
And when I came across neil onyoutube talking about like this,
this structure, the system,like this, this way of bringing
people together and havingsomething more cohesive, that's
what drew my attention right.
Like I've made a lot ofmistakes in this thing, you know
, in the last 10 years, I'm surea lot of business owners have,
I was gonna say that's a commona yeah, a common phrase.
(17:53):
And so when I came to TBX a yearago and I got a chance to go to
those different classrooms, itwas just to be honest with you.
I just never heard of thesesort of concepts inside of
commission-based businesses,right Like teams working
together, teams coming up withstuff, teams basically being
(18:15):
able to profit off of theprofits of the business.
I just never seen or heardanything like that.
And the one thing that reallydrew me was like, hey, like
these guys are like, like thepeople who work for strategies
and the clients, I see a lot oflike family, like you guys are
leaning on, like like they'relike, you guys are leaning on
like things like compassion andworking together, and that's
(18:38):
that's not the industry.
You know what I mean.
Industry is like my clients, mymoney, like that's it Right,
like I don't give a crap aboutthe next person, but that's not
what you guys were doing.
And so over the last 12 months,as we've gone through like the
different tenants of whatteam-based culture means, and
implementing no compromise intoour business and implementing
(18:59):
the huddles, it has given uslike a synchronization amongst
our team that wasn't therebefore.
But also my business isfranchised.
I mean, I'm the main franchisorand I held back on actually
launching that franchise becauseI knew that we just didn't have
(19:20):
a system in place that wasduplicatable, like that system
was based off of me.
And so now, almost 12 monthslater, it's like no, like I have
a system where I can.
I can show or provide apotential franchisee and say,
hey look, this is how we do,this is how we manage our
business.
This is how we manage our costsand this, and and I could show
(19:41):
this to a new potentialemployees that like, hey, here's
the track, this is how you, youenter our company, that's how
you grow inside of our company.
You're not, you're not on yourown right, you're inside of a
system.
Um, and the biggest thing isjust really being able to
provide benefits, being able toprovide, uh, uh, like, just time
(20:01):
off.
You know, like I always tell myteam, we're doing something
inside of the body work industrythat has not been done.
Like those other guys, theydon't pay people enough, there
are no benefits, they don't makeenough, like, and the people
inside the business aren'tprofiting off of the profits of
the business, right, and so, um,I'm really excited.
We we Jackie just converted andwent team-based two weeks ago,
(20:25):
so we're still very new and, um,um, I'm looking forward to
seeing, you know, just kind ofseeing how this thing turns out.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, awesome, I mean , as as are we, and again, this
would be something.
It's a great excuse to be ableto come back and do another
conversation with you andanother, you know, eight, nine,
10 months down the road, getinto kind of the end of our time
(20:55):
, though there's one, you know,kind of one last thing would be
in this past year.
Then again, you know it's been,this has been a journey, a
series of changes and evolutionin your company.
You know, as far as that goes,what changes have you seen, like
what's been the team's reactionto the, to the progression,
because obviously, a year agoprobably, your team was kind of
(21:15):
in one place and kind of with,with a way of thinking, whatever
that you know, whatever theculture was and and whatever you
guys, you know yourself inleadership and the other key
people in your team, leadershipteams probably was heading one
direction.
But how is that even evolved inthis process of change over
this past year?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So, like I mentioned, you know, we just we just the
entire company just went teambased.
We've been, you know, talkingto what our teams and we've been
implementing, like things likehuddles and productivity and
(21:57):
productivity, and the one changethat I see is that my
practitioners are, they're moreinvolved in the business.
Like before, things likeproductivity and rebook weren't
a thing, and now, like I can askanybody in the company and they
know what the productivity rateis, they know what the rebook
rate is right, and so it givesthem more responsibility and
more, I'd say, responsibilityand pride inside of what they're
(22:17):
doing.
You know what I mean.
Before I would say we didn'thave a real way of tracking
performance or metrics.
You know it was sort of justwhat you did is what you did and
what you got paid is what yougot paid.
Now it's like, well, no, howproductive are we?
What's our rebook rate line?
These are some of the maindrivers of the business, and so
(22:39):
it's given me, as anentrepreneur, a better
opportunity to understand mybusiness, but also it's given my
staff a better opportunity toalso understand what I'm looking
at.
Right, like we always say asentrepreneurs, your team thinks
that like they get a little bitand you, as an entrepreneur, get
the rest of the money Right.
So they're starting to get abetter understanding of that,
(23:01):
which is great, because, as wegrow, I'm going to need people
who can understand the numbers.
I'm going to need people whounderstand the system.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So Yep, right, it's exactly.
It's like getting everyoneinvolved.
So again, so there's thatunderstanding like you just
shared.
I love that.
So, as we kind of wrap our timeup, you know probably some
people out there just kind ofwondering.
It's like hey, listen, you knowI hadn't thought about stretch
before, I hadn't thought aboutwhat those opportunities you
know could look like you knowI'm in, I'm interested to maybe
(23:30):
learn more about this.
Know could look like you knowI'm, I'm interested to maybe
learn more about this.
What would be the easiest wayto to connect, possibly with you
, uh, or just get moreinformation you know, on
yourself, your business, theseopportunities that might be out
there.
What's the what's the easiestway to connect?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think every a lot of people out there have
Instagram and, uh, we have a.
They can reach out to me onInstagram at the stretch loft,
um, or they can reach me out viaemail and Ben at the stretch
loftcom.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Perfect, Awesome.
And if you are not a follower,Ben's got a great social media,
great Instagram.
Uh, how many followers you hadnow?
What?
Eight?
Like 800, gajillion orsomething like that.
But what are you at?
Like 80,000 or something.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
We're right under, I think, about 71,000.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
All right, 70 plus thousand Love it.
It's a great follow.
Check them out.
Like I said, also, we'll putall this information, of course,
here, you know, attached foryou.
So if you missed anything, nota problem, just go into the uh,
into the links here, and you'llfind out all of that stuff.
But, ben, it's been awesometalking to you.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
All right and to everyone out there.
Thank you guys for listeningand watching and we'll see you
at our next podcast.
Awesome, thanks, ben.
Yeah, thank you, thank you,that was great.
Timer.
Look at you You're a machine ofjust efficiency.
Perfect, perfect, perfect.
All right, ben, are you ready?
I'm ready, all right, here wego.
We're good, ali, all right, allright.
(00:42):
Well, welcome to the BeautyBusiness Strategies podcast
Again, michael Yost, with youtoday, and I am joined today by
Ben Atunga.
Ben, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
How are you doing, Michael?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I'm doing great.
So, as we always do on podcastis we love to bring you people
that have great information.
But most of all, I always amdrawn to people that have
passion, and I'm going to tellyou right now, we find no
greater passion than talkingwith Ben.
Ben's one of those people thatwhen we first encountered if you
meet Ben in person, it bleedsout of him, and so it's really
(01:18):
awesome and, again, I thinkthat's contagious.
But he's got some great thingsthat we want to talk about today
and he's got a great businessand, anyway, there's a lot of
ground we want to cover.
So, to get into it, ben, what Iwould love for you to do is,
for those not familiar with you,just give us just a quick
introduction of yourself, kindof your background and, again,
the business that you have.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, sure, sure, and I just wanted to say I
appreciate this opportunity.
Hello everyone, my name is BenAtanga and I'm located in
Maryland, in Prince George'sCounty, right outside of DC, and
the field that I'm in is inholistic wellness, specifically
stretch therapy.
I own a business called theStretch Loft and we just
launched our second location,and I also own another part of
(02:04):
business called the Stretch LoftAcademy the Stretch Loft and we
just launched our secondlocation, and I also own another
part of business called theStretch Loft Academy.
The Stretch Loft is a holisticwellness business that caters to
the release of stored tension,trauma and energy from the body
via stretch therapy and guidedbreathing, and the Stretch Loft
Academy is an academy thattrains aspiring stretch
practitioners in the field andmodality of holistic stretch
(02:27):
therapy.
So we train them, we certifythem and we mentor them, and so
I've got the brick and mortarwhich we provide, the service.
I have the academy, which weprovide the education.
We've been around for four yearsand I didn't go to school for
this.
My bachelor's is in childpsychology.
I I came into the thing frompersonal training, from an
injury that I had that doctorscouldn't figure out, and I met a
(02:49):
trainer one day who stretchedme.
It unlocked my body, I feltalive and, uh, after you know, I
went out and I sought outcertifications to learn how to
do it.
Um, and once I startedpracticing it, instantly I
started making a difference inin people's lives and the way
they were feeling and the thingsthat they were dealing with,
and so I've been able to growrapidly in this industry.
(03:11):
I'm on my second business now.
I'm opening up my seventhstretch studio and in the last
three years, we've trained over200 aspiring stretch
practitioners who are alsoinside of this work now with
their own businesses.
So this is a great opportunityand I just really want to share
what I do.
Whether you're looking to comein and receive the service or
you're looking to maybe expandon what you're doing, I think
(03:33):
that this is something great and, like Michael said, I'm very
passionate about.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I love it.
I love it.
So, ben, you know what'sinteresting to me.
You mentioned all the you knowin that intro, just all the ways
that the benefits, right.
But talk to me about what'sdifferent between because again,
I will freely admit I do notknow and I don't even pretend
that I understand what will besome of the main differences
(03:57):
that you see between, like, ifwe're talking about stretch
therapy and what you do, what'sthe difference between that and
like, say, massage, or even Iwon't even throw, even thrown
like other things, like maybeeven chiropractic services or
those kind of things?
Where, where does stretch fitin and what are the?
What would be, what would youclassify as the differences in
the different areas?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I think that stretch is an ancient and a hidden
modality and where it fits in itfits into holistic care, like
when I embarked on stretchtherapy, I had seen three
chiropractors, I'd seen multiplephysical therapists, I'd seen
massage therapy.
I had an injury.
I dropped the weight on my foot.
I didn't break anything, but itcaused me to start compensating
and putting most of thepressure on the right side of my
(04:41):
body and over time, the jointsand muscles in that side ended
up locking up, which made itvery uncomfortable to sleep, to
drive, to move.
I visited chiropractors, Ivisited physical therapy.
I was either gettingmisdiagnosed or they wanted to
perform surgery.
I'd go to massage therapistsand they would rub the area out
and it would feel great whilethey're doing it, but by the
time I got back to my car I wasstill in pain.
(05:02):
And so the biggest differencewith stretch therapy is that
stretch therapy number one itdoes to your muscles what your
muscles need.
Your muscles contract, and well, they contract and release.
Right that contracting andreleasing helps for blood to
flow but also for oxygenproduction.
Right, like when you go to achiropractor, a chiropractor may
(05:23):
adjust your cervical, yourlumbar and your thoracic spine,
and they believe that byadjusting it that everything
will fall into place.
That's not necessarily thetruth, right?
And massage therapy you gothere.
If you have a crook in yourneck, you're going to go there.
They're going to try to massageit out, which is great, but
then if you don't stretch it out, then you don't restore the
length tension relationship.
(05:45):
So the reason why I say thatstretch therapy is like a hidden
modality is because this issomething holistic.
It's something natural.
We're doing something naturalto the body, and when you go
through a full body stretch,things tend to realign.
Right, and when you'rerealigned, you think better, you
sleep better, you're able toprocess things better.
Right?
In recent years we've heardabout how the body keeps score,
(06:06):
like restore everything insideof our bodies.
This is one way that you canrelease it.
When you mix, when you infuse,stretching and breath work like
it's just people leave off thetable with just like, like, feel
like, a million bucks, you canactually see the energy just
kind of just flowing off of them, and so I would say that that's
the biggest difference.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, that's really fascinating.
So what would it be like?
Say, let's say for myself, I'llput myself in this position and
say, hey, listen, you know, Irecognize the fact that, wow, I
really am already gone.
Man, I can really use what youdo.
What would be like, what's anormal, if I came into your
(06:48):
business?
What's a normal service looklike?
Like length of time, is it a 30minute, is it 60 minutes in
length?
And what would be like if Iwere trying to maintain, like
all services, like I said, I'myou know again my background,
being a hairdresser I'm used tosaying, hey, listen, I need to
go in every four weeks, everysix weeks, every eight weeks to
maintain this.
Again, I know, being somewhatfamiliar with chiropractic, you
(07:12):
know they recommend a schedule.
Is there a recommended type ofmaintenance and schedule in
stretch?
And what does that look like?
And again, what's the generalservice itself look like?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Gotcha, gotcha.
So most likely, if you came in,there's probably something
going on right, like you'reexperiencing pain somewhere.
You may be experiencingsleeplessness, maybe some
anxiety, right, and so everycase is a little bit different.
You may be experiencingsciatica, and so, because every
case is different, everybody'splan is a little bit different.
(07:44):
Like we have like acute plans.
Like if you came in and you'relike dude, I've had chronic
lower back pain, I'm havingsciatica, you're going to need
something a little more acute.
You're going to need to see usmaybe two to three times a week
for a few weeks.
Let's say three to six weeks,okay, but overall maintenance
and that three to six weekperiod, michael, we would
stretch just about every singlemuscle in the body and we would
loosen you up and realign you,okay.
(08:06):
But then we would send you intowhat we call our maintenance
plan, which is anywhere fromabout two to four times a month,
Okay.
Or, like I say, the best one isabout one every 10 days.
Stretch every 10 days, right,we'll keep the body nice and
flexible and loose and keep youlight, okay.
And so, as far as length oftime, we can get through a full
(08:28):
body stretch session in about 28to 30 minutes.
Okay.
If you are looking for more oflike a relaxation stretch, you
want us to slow it down, youwant more repetitions, then we
can expand that to a 50 to 60minute.
But also if you just needsomething quick, right.
Like you know chronic lowerback pain, I ran a 10K this
weekend I just need somethingreal quick before work, during
(08:49):
lunch, after work, you can comein and get a 15 minute.
We call them energizers, okay,and we do those energizers for
people who are in competitiontoo, like before a race, before
a cycling event, before afootball game.
Get an energizer, it warms thebody up, it gets the blood flow
going.
And the average client, youknow this is something that
you're going to need the rest ofyour life.
Like I always ask people likewell, how long do you want to be
(09:11):
, remain flexible and movable?
Yeah, right, the rest of yourlife.
And so two to three, two tothree, two to four times a month
is about that frequency, whichis also a huge difference from
chiropractic and massage andmassage world.
We see most people get massagesonce a month and chiropractic,
something's got to be wrong andthey put you on a treatment plan
(09:32):
, stretch therapy.
Whether there's something wrong, something's not wrong.
You can come in and justmaintain that and maintain that
vitality and mobility andflexibility.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, Well, you got me thinking.
I think about my own like stageof life that I'm in right and,
uh, in now my mid fifties, andI'm thinking to myself, you know
, if I don't start to whatever Istart to do, I mean should have
been doing this even before now, but like I still look at it
and go, the habits I start doingnow are going to carry me into
(10:01):
having good sixties, seventiesand eighties and beyond.
But again, I think you see itso many times where, again, as
people get older, as I, as Ilook at even my, my within my
own family and my parents andthings like that, of course age
brings that atrophy, that that,again, that we're not stretching
those muscles, we're not usingthose man I'm sure, what a huge
(10:23):
difference.
Probably a bad sign, Ben.
I mean, tell me if this is abad sign, because probably if I
stood up right now and I triedto bend over and touch my toes,
I probably couldn't do it.
It's probably a bad sign, isn'tit?
There are some bad signs outthere that we should be aware of
.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You know everybody's relatively different, right Like
?
I never compare like one personto another.
Um, cause your flexibility isrelative to you, right?
Like?
Like, some of us got longerlimbs than others, right, some
of us are are just just justprone to be more tight.
Like, believe it or not, peopleare, they're people that are
just born tight to be more tight.
Like, believe it or not, peopleare, they're people that are
just born tight, right?
(11:05):
Um, I wouldn't say necessarilyit was a bad sign.
However, it's it's.
It's what I would encourage ishey, let's see if we can improve
upon that, right.
Like and that's what most peoplethink Like.
When I think flexibility, can Itouch my toes?
Right, there's a lot more thatgoes into it than just being
able to touch your toes, and themuscles work together, but they
also work independently of eachother too, okay.
So there is another test thatwe not a test, but an assessment
(11:26):
that we do and it's called theoverhead squat.
So I basically I make peoplestand up, put their hands above
their head, and I make themsquat down to see if they can
get their butt all the way downpast their knees and to sit
almost like on their heels.
Okay, and that in itself lets meknow where you're tight, where
you're weak, like if some peopledid that, let's say you did
(11:48):
that and your heels came off theground, then I know that, okay,
cool, you're tight in yourAchilles and your calf area.
If you did that and you sort ofstarted to fall forward like
this, okay, so you've gottightness in your hip flexors.
If your arms fell forward, okay, you got tightness in your
chest, maybe your mid back area,and so I like using that
assessment better, because thatassessment is more functional,
(12:10):
right, like we sit down, we siton toilets as we get older we,
you know, sitting and standingup gets harder, right?
It also assesses our range ofmotion in our knees, our ankles
and our hips and our shoulders.
Okay, so if you stood up andyou did that and you weren't
able to, then I'd say, okay,like we've got some things to
work on.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Right, I'm tempted right now, but I'm like I'm not
going to do it right now, but Isure will as soon as we're done
with this.
I'm like I got to figure that'sreally cool.
I'm like I I sure will as soonas we're done with this.
I'm like I got to figure that's, that's really cool.
I'm like I'm wondering how manypeople are listening to this
podcast or watching like allright, hit pause and doing this
right now and going all right,what happened there?
But that's, I mean it's superfascinating.
(12:55):
I mean this brings us to.
You know, I want to kind of keepevolving in the time we have
our conversation and moving itforward.
So something we talked aboutand I think this is a great time
to kind of bring this insomething we talked about just
kind of off camera and before wehit the record button on this,
was just talking about how, whatyou do in stretch therapy, how
that could really start to lenditself to being another way to
(13:17):
diversify your business, a wayto diversify your business, and
I thought that was a reallyfascinating point because I'd
never really thought about it inprepping for this podcast.
I never really thought aboutfor people out there that are
business owners and they mightbe listening and thinking about,
you know, other opportunitiesto create different ways to kind
of again diversify.
You know you mentioned that andyou know I thought, wow, that's
(13:40):
a really unique thing.
Talk to me about why you thinkthis could be such a really good
way to diversify an opportunityfor someone possibly.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, so number one, we're in a time period where
there's online education, moreand more people are going out
and seeking services differenttypes of services and if you are
a one trick pony out there,right, like the people who come
to you are also going somewhereelse to give their money
somewhere else.
(14:11):
So if you already have abusiness, right, let's say
you're a hairdresser, youalready have a business.
You have a client that comes toyou every three weeks, right,
and they sit down on your chair,right.
That client is also most likelystoring tension, trauma and
stress in their body.
Right, and because this is sucha skill set that you can learn
(14:33):
pretty quick, wouldn't it makesense to maybe offer that as
well?
You could turn a $100 serviceinto a $200 service versus
looking for another $100 service, right?
Or if you're an owner of abusiness, you can have a
separate area where this isgoing on, like, in the last 10
years, I've taught chiropractors, physical therapists, med, spa
owners, salon owners hey, whydon't you utilize that space
(14:55):
over there in the corner, thatextra room, and have stretch
therapy going in there?
Because these clients arecoming in here for these
services and that lets us knowthey most likely probably care
about their health, they careabout the way they look, feel,
and so why not have that rightthere and have a complete
revenue center Like I?
Um, I came into this thing frombeing a personal trainer and
when I first started I justblended my services Like it just
(15:18):
made sense to train someone for30 minutes and then turn around
and stretch them Right, and soI could see a massage therapist
doing that, I could see.
I could see a hairdresser,people in the beauty and
cosmetics fields doing beautyand hair field doing that.
Right, people who arecosmetologists actually licensed
to touch.
Right, they actually have agreater license than someone who
, like me, who I don'tnecessarily have a license to
(15:41):
touch I'm just in a field whereit doesn't require a license,
right, and a lot of these peopleare already very self-aware.
They already have a great, youknow, client interaction, and
those are some of the things andskills that it takes to be able
to do this.
So why not?
I mean you could easilyincrease your revenue 30, 40,
(16:02):
50% by just adding this to theside or hiring someone who could
do it out of your space.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Right, right, just again, a greater service
offering.
I love it.
So we met about a year ago.
We met at our annual conferenceand were first introduced, and
so, again shifting theconversation to more to the
business side of things, youreally kind of gravitated to
just the overall team-basedbusiness model itself, and so I
(16:31):
know it was something that youwere looking for, something in
your business that you werelooking for.
You found us, you decided, hey,listen, I'm gonna check out the
conference that you guys do,and from that point forward it's
been a really kind of cool andfun journey along the way.
So talk to me about what hasbeen for you over this last year
, as it kind of we're talkingabout the overall team based
(16:53):
business model and adapting thatinto your own company.
What have been some of thehighlights for you?
What was, what are some of thebeen some of the highlights for
you?
What are some of the wins foryou?
What was the draw for you?
I mean just the overview ofthis last year.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
The draw for me was I've been in this industry about
10 years and when I got in Iimmediately went into business
and there wasn't anyone else whocould show me how do I run or
manage a stretch business Like Istudied the massage industry, I
studied personal training, Istudied different modality,
different industries, and I justcouldn't find it.
(17:30):
And when I came across neil onyoutube talking about like this,
this structure, the system,like this, this way of bringing
people together and havingsomething more cohesive, that's
what drew my attention right.
Like I've made a lot ofmistakes in this thing, you know
, in the last 10 years, I'm surea lot of business owners have,
I was gonna say that's a commona yeah, a common phrase.
(17:53):
And so when I came to TBX a yearago and I got a chance to go to
those different classrooms, itwas just to be honest with you.
I just never heard of thesesort of concepts inside of
commission-based businesses,right Like teams working
together, teams coming up withstuff, teams basically being
(18:15):
able to profit off of theprofits of the business.
I just never seen or heardanything like that.
And the one thing that reallydrew me was like, hey, like
these guys are like, like thepeople who work for strategies
and the clients, I see a lot oflike family, like you guys are
leaning on, like like they'relike, you guys are leaning on
like things like compassion andworking together, and that's
(18:38):
that's not the industry.
You know what I mean.
Industry is like my clients, mymoney, like that's it Right,
like I don't give a crap aboutthe next person, but that's not
what you guys were doing.
And so over the last 12 months,as we've gone through like the
different tenants of whatteam-based culture means, and
implementing no compromise intoour business and implementing
(18:59):
the huddles, it has given uslike a synchronization amongst
our team that wasn't therebefore.
But also my business isfranchised.
I mean, I'm the main franchisorand I held back on actually
launching that franchise becauseI knew that we just didn't have
(19:20):
a system in place that wasduplicatable, like that system
was based off of me.
And so now, almost 12 monthslater, it's like no, like I have
a system where I can.
I can show or provide apotential franchisee and say,
hey look, this is how we do,this is how we manage our
business.
This is how we manage our costsand this, and and I could show
(19:41):
this to a new potentialemployees that like, hey, here's
the track, this is how you, youenter our company, that's how
you grow inside of our company.
You're not, you're not on yourown right, you're inside of a
system.
Um, and the biggest thing isjust really being able to
provide benefits, being able toprovide, uh, uh, like, just time
(20:01):
off.
You know, like I always tell myteam, we're doing something
inside of the body work industrythat has not been done.
Like those other guys, theydon't pay people enough, there
are no benefits, they don't makeenough, like, and the people
inside the business aren'tprofiting off of the profits of
the business, right, and so, um,I'm really excited.
We we Jackie just converted andwent team-based two weeks ago,
(20:25):
so we're still very new and, um,um, I'm looking forward to
seeing, you know, just kind ofseeing how this thing turns out.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah, awesome, I mean , as as are we, and again, this
would be something.
It's a great excuse to be ableto come back and do another
conversation with you andanother, you know, eight, nine,
10 months down the road, getinto kind of the end of our time
(20:55):
, though there's one, you know,kind of one last thing would be
in this past year.
Then again, you know it's been,this has been a journey, a
series of changes and evolutionin your company.
You know, as far as that goes,what changes have you seen, like
what's been the team's reactionto the, to the progression,
because obviously, a year agoprobably, your team was kind of
(21:15):
in one place and kind of with,with a way of thinking, whatever
that you know, whatever theculture was and and whatever you
guys, you know yourself inleadership and the other key
people in your team, leadershipteams probably was heading one
direction.
But how is that even evolved inthis process of change over
this past year?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
So, like I mentioned, you know, we just we just the
entire company just went teambased.
We've been, you know, talkingto what our teams and we've been
implementing, like things likehuddles and productivity and
(21:57):
productivity, and the one changethat I see is that my
practitioners are, they're moreinvolved in the business.
Like before, things likeproductivity and rebook weren't
a thing, and now, like I can askanybody in the company and they
know what the productivity rateis, they know what the rebook
rate is right, and so it givesthem more responsibility and
more, I'd say, responsibilityand pride inside of what they're
(22:17):
doing.
You know what I mean.
Before I would say we didn'thave a real way of tracking
performance or metrics.
You know it was sort of justwhat you did is what you did and
what you got paid is what yougot paid.
Now it's like, well, no, howproductive are we?
What's our rebook rate line?
These are some of the maindrivers of the business, and so
(22:39):
it's given me, as anentrepreneur, a better
opportunity to understand mybusiness, but also it's given my
staff a better opportunity toalso understand what I'm looking
at.
Right, like we always say asentrepreneurs, your team thinks
that like they get a little bitand you, as an entrepreneur, get
the rest of the money Right.
So they're starting to get abetter understanding of that,
(23:01):
which is great, because, as wegrow, I'm going to need people
who can understand the numbers.
I'm going to need people whounderstand the system.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
So Yep, right, it's exactly.
It's like getting everyoneinvolved.
So again, so there's thatunderstanding like you just
shared.
I love that.
So, as we kind of wrap our timeup, you know probably some
people out there just kind ofwondering.
It's like hey, listen, you knowI hadn't thought about stretch
before, I hadn't thought aboutwhat those opportunities you
know could look like you knowI'm in, I'm interested to maybe
(23:30):
learn more about this.
Know could look like you knowI'm, I'm interested to maybe
learn more about this.
What would be the easiest wayto to connect, possibly with you
, uh, or just get moreinformation you know, on
yourself, your business, theseopportunities that might be out
there.
What's the what's the easiestway to connect?
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think every a lot of people out there have
Instagram and, uh, we have a.
They can reach out to me onInstagram at the stretch loft,
um, or they can reach me out viaemail and Ben at the stretch
loftcom.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Perfect, Awesome.
And if you are not a follower,Ben's got a great social media,
great Instagram.
Uh, how many followers you hadnow?
What?
Eight?
Like 800, gajillion orsomething like that.
But what are you at?
Like 80,000 or something.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
We're right under, I think, about 71,000.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
All right, 70 plus thousand Love it.
It's a great follow.
Check them out.
Like I said, also, we'll putall this information, of course,
here, you know, attached foryou.
So if you missed anything, nota problem, just go into the uh,
into the links here, and you'llfind out all of that stuff.
But, ben, it's been awesometalking to you.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
All right and to everyone out there.
Thank you guys for listeningand watching and we'll see you
at our next podcast.
Awesome, thanks, ben.
Yeah, thank you, thank you,that was great.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.