In this episode, I'm interviewing Kyra Matos of Mantis Massage Studios, a corrected deep tissue massage studio in Austin, Texas. In fact, not just one studio, but two.
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Welcome to the Breakthrough Mastermind Show. I'm your host, Jen Argue and I facilitate masterminds for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses to help others and create financial independence. I'm so excited to have Kyra Matos with us today. She is the owner of two corrective deep tissue massage studios in Austin, Texas, and she is also a member of my mastermind in her second year.
She came on January of 2020. Which is not a great year for massage studio owners. It wasn't a great year for business. For business in general. Right? But you, you stayed in the mastermind for quite a long time. I mean, you, you were going through all the paperwork that was necessary, but it was just, it was hard with all of the restrictions that were placed on us during that time.
Yeah, it really seemed like my business along with many, many others were dead in the water at that. Oh! So I was like, well, I don't have a business anymore. So I guess it can't be in a business mastermind [laughs] probably made it through. And you know, some of that might've been, even though I ended up leaving the mastermind, you know, my kids were home and it was so hard.
But, think just that couple of months of trying to figure it out with all the other business owners helped me to keep going and stay in business. Oh, I love that. And then you came back and you started in January this year with the mastermind again, which I'm so happy about because there's such an incredible addition to the group.
I really love being part of it. Oh, I love that. So one of the things that I love to ask people on these shows is what is your journey? Because as a woman entrepreneur, I always love to hear where did you start out and how did you get to where you are now? Yeah. Well, I started as a massage therapist in 2007 and... I wish for like massage envy corporate, and then I moved to Austin, worked for massage envy, which is, you know, a big change eventually moved over to more of a family owned spot.
But that spot was just so far from all of my clients in central Austin. So it was hard... it was hard for my clients to come and see me. It was hard for me to see them, was still sort of new to Austin. So I didn't realize. Oh, people don't go north of 51st street if they can help it. And I was all the way in Cedar park.
Well, first I started doing out calls to my clients in Central, Austin. And so I tell people I started Mantis Massage with $80 because that's how much it cost me to buy a massage table on Craigslist and start going to people's houses [laughs] with just my, you know, bed sheets from home that I would bring home and wash every day and then use for my client the next day and just, you know, whatever lotion I had left from my actual work day.
But that came to be a lot. It's a lot to drive all around Austin, seeing your clients, especially after a full work day. So I rented one little room in Central East, Austin. And it was in an architect office. And there were all kinds of people renting rooms in there from this architect and photographer and home builder wore all kinds of hats.
And I rented this little room for very, very cheap, and I saw my clients there and they were very, very happy to come there because it was much closer to them. And it just kind of grew from there. And it was also kind of a mistake. So my son started kindergarten. And being... you know, a first-time public school mom, I didn't realize that you had to sign up for after-school care the year before.
And so it was like first day at kindergarten, like how do I sign up for after-school care? Um, and that's not how that works. So I suddenly had to really change the way my business worked and I hired someone to take my afternoon and evening clients because I couldn't be there. And it just keep going and growing. And we're in that same space that I used to run from the architect, but we have the entire space, you know, we took one room after the next, after the next, until he was like, how about I just move out and you take over everything. [laugh]
And so I did, and that became my first location. And then we even outgrew that, um, we might be outgrowing it now two times over, but we outgrew that. And so decided to open a second location and I was much more familiar with Austin at this point, but it turns out that I didn't realize people didn't like crossing the river either.
So I opened the second location in South, Austin thinking, oh, all these people that can't get into our Airport Boulevard location, we'll just go to South, Austin and that is not what happened. So we really had to build then a second client help. But being in Austin where there just weren't that many options for pure deep tissue, corrective massage, you know, you're coming in because you're hurting and not just because you want a spa day, we were really able to grow our clientele on both sides of the river.
And yeah, we have two amazing teams now into amazing groups of clients that we all love dearly. Uhm, And it works and, you know, even after COVID we were able to keep both locations and just keep going. I think what sets you apart is that you have a niche with the correct of D tissues. So tell me, how did you get into that?
I just loved anatomy. I went to massage school because I loved anatomy. I was working for a hospital system and... I was talking to one of the radiologists. They were like, you know, you at the massage school, you can do cadaver classes 'cause I was always asking to assist and sit in on surgeries. It turns out they don't just let, like amazingly patient transporters sit in on surgeries.
But, you know, I would ask anyone [laugh] that might be able to let me in. And so one of the radiologists is like, you can do a cadaveric class at the massage school. So I was like, cool, I'll go to massage school so that I can do a cadaveric class. And I did, and now as a team now has mantis massage. We do the Texas state cadaver class each year.
We did up until COVID. I need to see if they're offering it again. They may still not be, but up until COVID we did the Texas state cadaver class every year, because I think that it's so important to see the anatomy and see how things work and see which muscles connect and how they connect. And I liken it to... you know, it's like becoming a mechanic, but only having worked on our car, like through a sheet, like you just, you know, you could probably do it.
You could probably feel around for all that stuff, but it's really way easier if you take the sheet up and you can actually see it and get your hands in there. And so, yeah, I just have muscle. I, and I love to know like when they're not working, where is it not working? Yeah. Yeah. Are you good at finding out where it's not working and figuring out how to make it work?
Right. And that's incredible. And I think that somebody who's not an expert at that would have no idea where to even start looking or they might just think wherever it hurts, that's where it's coming from. Yeah, for sure. That's a common thing, even in the massage world, if you don't have the detailed, deep tissue and an injury training.
You know, massage therapist, we'll just go to where it hurts, which it's important. It's important to go to where it hurts too. That's not always where it's coming from. And I'll also, I think people think that massage is just about the actual manual manipulation, but we know so much about how the body works.
You know, we can get in there and we can touch it with our hands and we can get in there and move it around and make it better. But we can also tell you like... hey, the way that your walking, your dog is actually, what's causing this in your shoulder. Like get one of those leashes that go around your waist.
And you're going to just see your shoulder and get better exponentially over time, or even such things as you know, people who ride motorcycles, they won't tell us that they ride a motorcycle, but, but we can tell just from working on their body, like, oh, you ride a motorcycle. Like here's what you can do differently so that this isn't hurting you in anymore.
That's phenomenal. [laughs] Thats look amazing. [laughs] It sounds like, you know, people that are, that are trained to be able to tell counterfeit money, you know, and it can tell just by like holding it or whatever, it's like, you have this intimate knowledge of a person's body and like what is going on and what their lifestyle is just by... Yeah.
You touched thousands of people who carry a toddler on their left hip. And you know, when the next person carries a toddler on their left hip, incredible, I was going to ask you what type of people typically come in for corrective tissue massage? It's who have something that hurts. So, you know, it might be intense as they were just in a car accident or just had surgery or...
Now we're actually seeing a lot of rock climbing injuries. We went through this phase where it was all CrossFit injuries all the time, and now the CrossFit injuries have kind of waned, but Brock climbing gyms in Austin have just kind of exploded. And now we're seeing [laugh] all these rock climbing injuries, you know, and just people who like my neck is hurting all the time.
It could be something like a repetitive motion injury, or it could just be from looking at your computer all day, or, you know, you're hitting, this started hurting and you don't know why. And it turns out it's ** you have a toddler you're carrying on your hip or you know, your dog on your shoulder. Yeah. So what I love about your story... is that you took all these steps, you know, and they kind of evolved from you pursuing what you wanted to do and trying to make it work, you know, with having your massage practice, but then having difficulty with your son's after school hours. And so then you had to hire somebody to take this, and then it just kind of evolved into you having this clinic and then over filling it and having to start another one.
And so now, you got these two successful businesses that you're running just out of natural, you know, working just like doing what you love to do. Yeah. I mean, to some people that seems like a dream, you know, like a dream to be able to do that. And what I know from helping people in business is that there's always these two aspects of growing a business and experience success like you have.
One is the soft skill like you have some soft skills to be able to grow these two successful businesses. What do you think is one that really stands out to you that helped you experience success? I think I just love people, you know, so much about it is being able to talk to people, being able to talk to someone and to giving you more reasonable rent and they might give you the [laugh] next give to the next person.
You know, talking a client who's hurting into trying the service that you have to offer, um, talking people into working at your business that is inside an architect's office. [laugh] It wasn't that easy. If I wasn't able to do it, it wouldn't have, uh, turned out this way. So I think talking to people and being able to work with people and figure things out that work for everyone, it's not easy, but I think that I'm okay at it. [laugh] Umm....
Yeah. Yeah. You are... you're succeeding at it. [laughs] So you aren't good at that. So how about what hard skill really helped you experience success in your business? Honestly, the stuff that I'm not good at, I just learned... you're going to do it wrong until you find the person who does it right. Mm... And so I think that the hard skill is actually outsourcing, not doing everything yourself.
It seems cheaper. And you know what? You file your taxes wrong three different times and have used up that discount. [laughs] And then some, so, you know, I did our own bookkeeping and taxes and that went really, really poorly. And I ended up having to pay someone, you know, three years later to just correct all of our filings and all of our bookkeeping, um, outsourcing is a hard one... because, you know, you want to do it all yourself and you want to do it right. And there's also a cost to it, but I just think you have to do it. The things you're not good at that is what I have learned for myself. Like, if I'm not good at it, if I don't know how to do it, if I can't easily learn how and know that I'm doing it right, then I find the person whose job it is to do it.
Yeah. Yeah. And it save you time, you know, you think it's going to go faster doing it yourself, but if you hire the right person, it saves you time. Yeah. And it's done right. And it's done right. And that's really the most important part. [laughs] I did a lot of things wrong. [laughs] Well, through trial and error, right? As you're growing your every step brings something new, a new challenge. And I wholeheartedly agree about outsourcing. I think that is one of the best ways to grow a business.
Yeah. I tried to do it myself for so long, but my support staff is amazing. We have two studio managers and I would be... delusional. If I thought that I grew all of this alone, I have two amazing people along for the ride who will also come in and tell me like... hey, you're complicating things.
Or like, Hey, you're not doing this well, like let's find somebody else. It's great to have people who will be honest with you. [laugh] Yeah, yeah, that's great. Obviously it's working because your studios are doing great. It sounds like your staff loves working at your company as well. They lead me to believe that they do. [laughs]
Okay. So one last question that I have for you. Oftentimes, women who are entrepreneurs, I'm going to say women love what they do so much that they find it hard to stop working and to actually invest in their own interests. Like sometimes, you know, I think people would say. We’ll running my business is my interest, but we also need to always acknowledge that we need to feed our souls, that we need to invest in our personal relationships in our personal lives.
What do you do to invest in yourself? Oh my gosh. I don't know. I might still be in that camp of like, my business is my life and when I'm not doing my business, I'm feeding my children, not my soul. [laughs] I'm looking forward to our mastermind retreat so much. I think it'll be so nice to get out of town. I guess I leave town on a fairly regular schedule.
I feel like I can't put my email away unless I'm outside of Austin. [laugh] Like sometimes we'll just drive to a small Texas town for the day. They eat in a diner and walk around and go for a swim or something just because it's like, oh, I'm outside of Austin. So I won't answer any emails. [laughs] Um, I think it travel. I love that owning my own business gives me the opportunity to travel. Mmm...
Like I feel like people think like, oh, you can just have all this flexibility and you don't have to work that much. And for me, it's like, no, when I'm here, I'll work and I'll give it 110% so that when I'm not here, I can just really relax. Mm... Oh, I love that's such a great answer is to just physically remove yourself from the town. [laughs]
And just connect, [laughs] So it's kind of like a, a big chunk. It's like, probably not as easy every day, because like you said, you have kids. And so it's like, if you're not giving at your work, you're giving that home to your kids, but to actually get out away from the, you know, where you work away from home helps you to just rejuvenating.
Yeah. Great. Well, if people want to check out your deep corrective tissue massage studio. How do they get in touch or how do they find out more about you. They would go to mantismassage.com that's where they can read all about us. And then you can email me [email protected].
And thank you so much for being here and spending time with us and sharing your story. I think it's inspiring and encouraging to hear how you went from where you were to where you are now. And I think it's going to inspire many, so thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Jen.
And if you're looking for more support, challenge and inspiration in running your online business, I would love to have you apply to my mastermind.
Check it out! @jenargue.com
