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.

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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

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

---

*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 feel like your business is a treadmill that you can't get off of?

In this episode, I break down what it really takes to step away from your massage business for 30 days, without losing money or clients.

We'll get into:

• Why most businesses can't survive 30 days without the owner

• The quiet truth behind "time off"

• The real problem most people miss

• The emotional layer most people don't talk about

• The difference between the two versions of time off

• What actually has to be in place to step away

• The real constraint holding most owners back

• The math behind freedom

• Why $10K/month isn't enough to fully step away

• The real revenue and appointment target for freedom

This conversation is especially for massage business owners who feel fully booked, but still tied to every part of the business.

---

*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