92 The 9-Finger Massage and a Growing 7 Figure Business

Entrepreneur Shari Aldrich is on a mission to relieve pain for one million people by 2025. CEO and founder of BodyMechanics, Shari has innovated a process for training massage therapists, and better yet, training them to run their own businesses. She has a big vision – and she shares how the loss of her finger in a freak accident led her to entrepreneurial success.

Melinda Wittstock:         Shari! Welcome to WINGS.

Shari Aldrich:                     Hey, thanks a lot, Melinda. I’m excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:         I am so excited to talk to you, too, because your story is so inspiring. I want to start a little bit further back: That moment when you’re a massage therapist, but you’ve lost a finger, and you can’t massage anymore. What was going through your head about your future? I mean, what were you feeling in that moment?

Shari Aldrich:                     So thanks for asking that question, Melinda. That takes me back down the road to a time when it was pretty scary in my life. Just to get some context around the accident itself. I was doing an obstacle mud run, and I was coming off of an obstacle, and my finger got stuck, and it ripped off my hand and the tendon all the way up into my forearm. And at the time, I was massaging 25 to 30 clients a week, and so it essentially ended my massage career as it was, which was pretty traumatic in and of itself, but I was also going through a divorce at the same time.

And when I suffered the injury, my plan going into that was that my massage business was going to be what supported me in that time. And so having that injury and having the finger ripped off my hand just was devastating on multiple levels for me. And just kind of having to re-evaluate and heal at the same time, both from the divorce and from the injury, and from my career that was lost, was really devastating.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so hard to imagine just how painful … no, I’m just going to pick up there.

Shari, you talk about this and for all of us listening, just, we empathetically put ourselves in your shoes and think, “Oh, my goodness. If that had happened to me, what would I have done?” And to have seen how you took what happened to you, not only the divorce and all the kind of financial setbacks, that that always, almost always entails, but also this traumatic injury, and that you turned it around and created this amazing business that you’re growing is so inspiring.

I mean, when you look back at that moment where you’re in fear and in pain, both emotional and physical, did you see or could you see that you were going to go off and become an entrepreneur and build this amazing business?

Shari Aldrich:                     Wow. That’s an interesting way to look at it. I don’t know that I thought about it at the time, I think I was in survival mode. It happened in October of 2013, and the divorce was supposed to be final in November, but we held it off until December so I had insurance through the rest of the year. And then all of 2014 was, honestly, it felt like I was in survival mode, just for myself, my sanity, my business, just paying all the bills at home and at the office. I felt like I was in survival mode. And it wasn’t until 2015 that I really felt like I was coming out of it and was really excited for the future, and started to develop a bigger plan than myself and the direction that I wanted my company to go.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, it’s interesting, because in a way you went from being a practitioner of something to building a business. And there are a lot of women who start out as entrepreneurs as solo-preneurs, they have a practice, they have a skill, and they do that skill. And that’s obviously not scalable. Right? And so you were sort of forced into scale.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right. Yeah, yeah. That’s a great way to look at it. And I did own the massage school at the time, and it was a local school in my community, and on average, I was graduating around 50 students a year, and so I did have staff working for me, and both my daughters as well. And so the stress was compounded, not just paying my bills, but ensuring that I had a business that would grow so that my children and my grandchildren could also survive.

And so when we look at this as far as scaling it, it was bigger than just myself. It was staff, it was people who wanted to change careers, and it was my children that needed me to be focused and grow the business in the way that it has grown.

Melinda Wittstock:         You know, that’s a lot of pressure, though, too. Did you ever feel that pressure?

Shari Aldrich:                     Oh My Gosh, yes. I don’t want to say that I felt like I could explode, but definitely there was a lot of emotions wrapped up and into that year, 2014. There we also had, just due to a lot of reasons, but two houses close to foreclosure. And so it was just tremendous stress that was going on as well as I’d bought my building that my businesses was in, and so I had to pay that mortgage and my house mortgage and my children. And I was the last one that I focused on. So yeah, stress was overwhelming. That’s probably the best way to say it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Entrepreneurs have this amazing ability, though, to handle that kind of stress. It’s a resilience; it’s something. I don’t know where it comes from, whether it’s learned or we just have that in our DNA. But what’s so interesting, though, is we rarely hear these stories, ’cause often as entrepreneurs, we talk about all the successes, and we look at all the other people who are succeeding as entrepreneurs, and it’s just so easy to forget.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right. It’s hard to describe, but I think you don’t want to feel like you’re not as good as everyone else. Social media makes it so easy to compare how other people are doing, and so I think you try to close it off and only portray that you are succeeding in whatever it is that you’re doing. And so I think we tend to close it off and not tell everybody how really, drastically poor we are doing. Yeah.

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]You totally have to have that mindset, that you have to be just keep pushing forward, and keep innovating, and keep creating change, or else, you’re not going to succeed. #WingsPodcast #WomeninBusiness @Olympia_Massage[/tweet_box]

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah. But so much of entrepreneurial innovation, I think, is born out of adversity.

Shari Aldrich:                     Absolutely. No. I totally agree. Like I say, my injury became a catalyst for change. And in that moment, 2013 and 2014, I wasn’t ready. But I had a friend tell me that the injury had to happen to my hand, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t be having the growth that I experienced after the injury. And I really, honestly, couldn’t agree with that more. At the time when he said it, I was not in the right frame of mind, and I was really feeling sorry for myself for this injury and how it affected my life. But that moment when he said it, it transformed me into looking ahead instead of behind. And entrepreneurs, you totally have to have that mindset, that you have to be just keep pushing forward, and keep innovating, and keep creating change, or else, you’re not going to succeed.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, well, the power and the empowerment, if you will, happens with how we react to what life throws at us. And, I mean, inherently, the life of an entrepreneur is one of uncertainty.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right? ‘Cause either you’re creating product …

Shari Aldrich:                     I would add on day-to-day compromise.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right. I mean, there’s cash flow. There are clients that you think have been sold and suddenly, their circumstances change, or it wasn’t the right fit, or a poor hire, which is so easy to … there are so many things that can go wrong, right?

Shari Aldrich:                     Right, right.

Melinda Wittstock:         So the only thing you can really trust is in yourself. So do you find, as you’ve gone on the journey, how you have come to say, trust your own judgment?

Shari Aldrich:                     Oh My Gosh, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s stronger, like it’s like going to the gym and developing muscles, right?

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, absolutely, yep. Especially as you develop new programs and they succeed. Then it just keeps giving you strength to continue on and keep adding more and more and more to what you’re doing.

Melinda Wittstock:        What’s interesting, though, Shari, is that you take this leap into this entrepreneurial journey, not in Silicone Valley or New York or Austin or Boston or any of the other cities where there’s density, I guess, of entrepreneurs, there’s a lot of other entrepreneurs around, because already, entrepreneurship can be quite isolating. You do so in a town where, really, there are not a lot of entrepreneurs around. So did it feel really isolating? Or how did that feel and how did you deal with that?

Shari Aldrich:                     I felt like I was an outcast, honestly. I’m from Olympia, Washington, which is the capital of Washington State, and most of the people that are around me work for state government. Generalizing, of course, but there’s many of them that are miserable with their state jobs and they stay for the benefits, and I don’t understand that mentality. I cannot understand that mentality. And so, I have felt extremely isolated. And as my head was racing with a thousand different ideas of things I wanted to do and create, I didn’t have a network of people that I could reach out to and bounce ideas off of. So, yeah, I’ve 100% agree, it’s very isolating. Especially when you’re in a community like I am, where I didn’t find anyone to identify with.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, it’s tricky, because we end up in that situation, reinventing the wheel, when we don’t really have to, right? If there are other people around you, you get resources faster, you get learning faster. So you really had to get out of your comfort zone and reach out, and so how did you do that?

Shari Aldrich:                     Well, I joined some Mastermind groups. It just put me into a community of people, of like-minded people, who were also on a growth trajectory, and that I could share ideas with and learn from. You know Mavericks, obviously, we’re in the Maverick group together. But that one was life-changing for me in the aspect of being around like-minded people, and that I didn’t feel like a freak anymore. That’s the best way to say it. I felt like a freak before. I went to this Maverick event and found people that I identified with, and I felt like I fit in, finally.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, I love that. I feel the same way about Maverick.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. I call it an island of misfits that we all just are together…

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, you see, this is the interesting thing about entrepreneurs, because, we are different than most people. I mean, it’s a totally different attitude to be able to just accept the inherent risk, I suppose, of being an entrepreneur. And yet, I think just about any other job is just as risky, you’re just risking something different.

And the way I see entrepreneurs is that entrepreneurs are figuring out a way to actually reduce risk, right?

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, yeah. I would agree with that. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:         But to me, it’s so interesting, maybe this is just the entrepreneurial DNA, I would hate to risk living a life of regret.

Shari Aldrich:                     Oh My Gosh, yeah. Yeah. Which is what I felt like I was doing right up and until I had the divorce. I was excited in the office, and I would be developing and creating new things and new ideas and really just felt alive, and then I would come home into a situation that I just wasn’t supported, and my ideas weren’t heard. Yeah, it was suffocating. It honestly was suffocating.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, because when we’re in relationships as women, and we’re out creating businesses, if our spouse or partner isn’t supportive, that can be devastating.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. It was.

Melinda Wittstock:         I mean, I had a very similar situation, ’cause I am also divorced. We separated around the same time as you were getting divorced, and I remember just how much it had debilitated me not to have that kind of support or be with someone who, at the end of the day, didn’t actually want me to succeed.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right, right. And I don’t know that about my ex, I think he did want me to succeed. It was just we were just not compatible anymore. He was a, I like to say, a clock puncher. He went to work and he did his job and he went home, and his job did not follow him home. Where my head never stopped thinking about my business and this growth that I was on, and I didn’t have anybody at home that I could talk to my ideas … I’d talk over my ideas with. And so it was frustrating. It was just so frustrating.

But I know that, now we’re years past it, and we’re friends and he’s proud of how far I’ve come, but it wasn’t enough while we were married.

Melinda Wittstock:        How we think as entrepreneurs, though, is very different, and we do need people to bounce our ideas off of. And so I think it’s so smart that you reached out to all these Masterminds and coaching and Maverick, and all these ways to get that support. I mean, one of the things that has been really interesting, Shari, following your journey, is seeing how you use social media with inspiring posts that are really inspiring to all other entrepreneurs that read them. And every time I read one of your social media posts on Facebook about sort of a challenge that you’ve overcome or just keeping a positive mindset, or whatever it is you’re writing, I find them really uplifting and-

Shari Aldrich:                     Thank you.

Melinda Wittstock:         No, but it’s wonderful to be able to give forward in the way that you do, when you’re the one in a community of government workers. And yet, you’re keeping us in a positive mindset.

Shari Aldrich:                     Thank you. Well that actually was a self defense mechanism, I suppose, for lack of a better word. One of my mentors, at some point, gave me this idea of using social media for positive posts. And as I was going through my trauma in my recovery, I would post inspiring thoughts or motivational thoughts that I’ve had, and people would write back to me and say, “You’re so motivational, and you’re so strong,” and that fed me. And so it became a self-fulfilling circle, of offering hope to people and strength and then getting that back. And then that bolstered me, and made me feel better. And it just kept going around in a circle, where I was helping people, but they were helping me more than they knew they were helping me.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. You know, sometimes by teaching, we learn.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yes. Oh My Gosh, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         And I think it’s really kind of … it’s viral in the sense that I think it’s encouraged other Mavericks and other entrepreneurs to start to do the same thing, and it becomes, I don’t know, self-reinforcing. Because this is a tough journey, it’s not easy, it’s not for the faint-hearted, and yet to know that other people have your back and they understand you and they get you.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right, exactly. It feels good to be in a community of people who do understand you, who do get you. That [crosstalk 00:28:10]

Melinda Wittstock:         Right. And that’s hard for dudes who are entrepreneurs as well as women, but women have some extra challenges. And so what have been some of yours as a woman, do you think, or that makes it different or … have you felt that? Have you felt that there’s any kind of gender bias that impacts your business or your ability to grow your business the way you want?

Shari Aldrich:                     That’s a fantastic question. I don’t know that I personally have felt that a whole lot. Maybe when I was trying to get the loan to buy my 6,000 square foot building that my school is in, and I was going to banks, this is really, I was new in my business, and I was turned down. And I think I was turned down because my business was new, but I probably took it personally thinking it was an attack on me. But I’ve discovered that I can turn the tables a little bit, and I’m looking at refinancing my business and my building right now, and I’ve invited bankers to come in and see me in my building, so they get a sense of what it is that I’m doing, and what I’m creating, and I’m getting a better reception. So I don’t know if it’s gender bias, or maybe I’m just more savvy in business now that things are changing. But massage is a female-dominated field, so I don’t think in massage therapy there is that same bias against women.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, but you make really interesting point, though, ’cause as we do get more savvy, we start to value ourselves more, right? We start to have more confidence, so it’s easier to ask for money or negotiate good terms when we have more confidence in ourselves. And so-

Shari Aldrich:                     Right, well, and I think that confidence also comes with talking with people like you and our other Maverick friends or meetings that we go to, that you learn how other people are doing it, and you get to model that success. And so that just helps build you faster.

Melinda Wittstock:         No, it’s so true. I think of all the kind of rookie mistakes that I made early on. And sometimes I catch myself in these things like where you want to, are tempted to under price, or you’re tempted to way over deliver, at the root of that is a lack of confidence, or a lack of kind of, “God, am I enough?” Right?

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. For sure.

Melinda Wittstock:         You know, I find it so interesting, though, with women entrepreneurs, that it really is about an inner-confidence. And I think we believe as women that we need to earn that confidence, that we don’t really have a right to it until we’ve done a whole load of stuff, whereas guys tend to … they’re confident right from the get-go when it comes to things like pricing their product or service. We often, as women, tend to under price to begin with, or over deliver, or do these things that belie kind of like a lack of confidence.

So do you just feel like with the more accomplishment that you have, the more confident you are, and the more confident you are, better things happen?

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, I think so. I mean, as we’re talking, it’s just taking me down the path to even when I bought this school and how I negotiated that. I think you’re making me internalize and think a little bit more that I’ve had strength inside of me all along that I didn’t know that I had it. The price that I negotiated for this school, I bought it for almost $300,000 less than the man was asking for. So I think I’ve had strength inside of me all along. Thanks.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, bravo, sister! Well No, you have. You see, now, this is the interesting thing is we have all these amazing things within ourselves, but the entrepreneurial journey sort of brings them out. It’s kind of like, I’ve joked on the podcast before, that if you want therapy, be an entrepreneur, right? But it’s true, ’cause it’s this kind of self-actualization, like to really succeed, you have to get to know yourself, you have to be really honest about your strengths and your weaknesses, you’ve gotta forgive your weaknesses. Hire those, double down on your strength. So in order to be even able to do that, it means that you have to be pretty honest, you have to look internally, you have to really understand yourself.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, and I guess, just thinking back to the moment when I bought the school, and then putting it in context with the finger injury and what happened, I guess I always had to have this strength and the resiliency inside of me. So, I don’t know, all those months of fear and worry, maybe I didn’t need ’em.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, yeah, but you know what? But you overcame them, right? And so there’s tremendous confidence that comes from that.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. I’m just laughing at myself, ’cause I’m just like, “Holy crap! I had it inside me all along. I didn’t have to worry all the-”

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, of course, did you discover that now? Holy moly, yeah, I had that all along. You know, it’s true, though, we all have had it inside our …

Shari Aldrich:                     This is a great counseling session we’re having here, Melinda, thanks.

Melinda Wittstock:         But it’s true, though. It’s so interesting because I think a lot of times, we can have that internal chatter in our minds, right? You know the incessant, kind of mental chatter that we all have and often that voice is a critic, it reminds you of all the things that you didn’t do well enough, or you didn’t do, didn’t do, didn’t do, and trying to change that into a more loving voice, right? That actually remembers and thanks ourselves and acknowledges the things that we’re doing really, really well.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, I’ve done that a lot with journaling. That’s really been something that has really helped me to formulate my thoughts and be nicer to myself, not put myself down or not feel like an imposter that I don’t belong to be here. So journaling has really, really helped me.

Melinda Wittstock:         Ah. Well, the imposter syndrome is really interesting, ’cause you and I were both in Puerto Rico at the Maverick Summit, now this is such an interesting story, because we were going to have our annual summit in Puerto Rico, and then the hurricane happened, and I think, for a little bit it’s, “God! Should we go there?” But the decision was made to go anyway and help. And the theme, which was awesome, it was about that sort of entrepreneurial resilience that we have been talking about on this podcast.

What was amazing, Shari, is that you and several other of our colleagues in Maverick shared these moments where their life was falling apart, and what was so interesting, ’cause they’d had a big kind of business failure or something, and what was amazing to me is all through those times when they were going through that, nobody knew. They seemed as successful as normal and as happy as normal. And what was wonderful about everybody sharing that is it gave permission for everybody to share that, that that’s part of the entrepreneurial journey, these down moments.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right. Yeah, we’ve talked about that a couple of times in different meet-ups, that there’s not a lot of space given to entrepreneurs who are going through really hard times. I remember having a conversation with a family member, and I was really kind of struggling and feeling kind of down on myself, and kind of called out this family member that she wasn’t supporting me very much, and she said, “Well, that’s because I knew you’d be okay.” And I was like, “Yeah, but I was really struggling. Where’s the support?”

And so yeah, we don’t give a lot of context to, we don’t share how we’re feeling so we don’t get people to support us when we need it, because we don’t share it.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, it’s so hard, though, to ask for help.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. [crosstalk 00:37:42]

Melinda Wittstock:         Have you gotten better on your journey at being able to ask for help?

Shari Aldrich:                     I think I’ve gotten better at that. Yeah. I mean, I’m definitely, with my team, and taking a different approach and asking them, “This is the problem, how can we get there together?” Instead of thinking I have to do it all by myself.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right, ’cause that’s one thing that universally, almost, women sometimes do. We think that we have to have it all sorted out before … or the idea fully formulated before we speak up, or the product completely done or whatever on our own and, you know, it’s a pity, because a product, or an idea gets so much … it’s so much better for everybody participating in it.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, if you’re moving at the speed of one unit, then you can only produce at the speed of one unit, so …

Melinda Wittstock:         Exactly. It’s leverage. And I think that’s interesting is I really clocked … God, what am I on? Business four now? But last year, I went through this period where I realized that I was actually pretty bad at asking for help. At least I had lost the muscle or something. But I was really not doing it, and the only reason I realized this is because I had this catastrophic ankle injury. Like, I couldn’t walk for eight weeks, I couldn’t drive, I have two kids to get to school, all this sort of stuff. And I had to ask for help for things that I took for granted, like being able to, yeah, drive my kids around, or just stuff like that. And it was so hard. I was amazed at how hard it was, and then I realized that wow, there was a reason that I was supposed to go through a little remedial tutorial at that particular moment in my life.

So sometimes a lesson learned, you may get to learn it again. Or at least that’s been true of my life, sadly.

Shari Aldrich:                     Right?

Melinda Wittstock:         I like to get it right the first time, but doesn’t always work that way.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. I think you’re just saying that you’ll keep getting the lesson over and over and the lessons will get harder every time until you learn the lesson.

Melinda Wittstock:         Until you actually really, really listen. This is an interesting thing, because I think the best entrepreneurs are really coachable. Not over-coached, ’cause you can get a lot of contradictory advice and lose yourself in that …

Shari Aldrich:                     Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:         But knowing whose advice to take and when to take it, knowing what to ask for. So I look at you, and I see that you’ve done all these different things. You’ve done Dan Sullivan’s Strategic Coach, and you’ve done others as well, but what did you get, say, from doing that program?

Shari Aldrich:                     From Strategic Coach?

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah.

Shari Aldrich:                     I think what I got is the systems and the processes most. It’s the most structured coaching program I’ve ever done, that’s for sure. But I think they just give you a different perspective of looking at your business from satisfaction with doing your business. Like, taking days off, because most entrepreneurs don’t take time off. Even, they think they take the day off, but they’re answering emails, taking phone calls, maybe from the beach, but they’re still working. And so the first thing they do is get you to take days off.

And then every time that we meet, they give us different tools. And so Strategic Coach has been a fantastic growth program for my business.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, and what are some of the other ones you’ve done? Because, by the way, that’s so important to actually unplug.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Well, I started off on the fitness side, doing a program with Bedros Keuilian, and Craig Ballantyne, called 7 Figures, and then onto their Info Product one, and then did that for a couple years, and I joined Mavericks, then I did Strategic Coach. I’m just starting my third year. And I’ve also done Mastermind Talks with Jayson Gaignard and a couple other amazing people. So those are been the biggest programs that I’ve done.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, I just find those different networks and different Masterminds at different times are just so vital for those big growth spurts that take you to the new level, because right now, you’re at the stage of your business where you’re sort of scaling. I mean, you have so many different directions you can go on with the business, so that presents a bunch of new challenges and new issues, and so say the training that you might have needed at the beginning, well, it’s totally different now. Maybe it’s about systems or hiring, or whatever. What’s going to prepare the ground for hyper-growth and scaling? So what are-

Shari Aldrich:                     Right, right. Sorry. That’s basically where I am now. Sorry, go ahead.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, and so what are some of the big, big challenges that you’re finding now with the business, as you take into this kind of growth level.

Shari Aldrich:                     So what I’m working on right now is a done for you product that is available for anybody around the country that wants to open up their own massage school, so it’s all the back end stuff, the curriculum, policies, procedures, handbooks, and so forth. So it’s a completely done for you product. And so what I’m working at now, or struggling with, is kind of the message to put out there. Kind of like we talked about before that, imposter syndrome, you know, “Am I good enough? Is my program worthy enough?” Which, I believe it is, so. Just kind of the marketing funnel, getting all that built out with the constraint of time, with the other programs that I’m working on.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right, yeah. It can be tricky, ’cause when you have a lot of different directions that you could go in, figuring out which one and the right order and all that kind of stuff, making sure that the offer is irresistible to your customers. And yes, as you said, getting out of your own way, like that little niggle fear, like, “Is this good enough?”

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, right. Exactly. I mean, I’ve had this idea since 2011, that I wanted to do this. And so really bringing it forward, we made our first sale last December, or just this most recent December. And now we’re really geared and ready to go, so it’s really an exciting time.

Melinda Wittstock:         That is really exciting when you’ve seen something for so long, and you see it actually come together, and the thing that’s so interesting is that you’re not just teaching people to be the massage therapists, but it’s like to operate this business. And so it’s not just operating the business, what do you have to do in the business procedure, but the fact, Shari, that you’ve gone on this journey yourself, you know exactly, psychologically even, what all these new business owners you’re helping them launch their entrepreneurial careers. There’s so much that you’re able to offer. So it just seems-

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. So exciting. I take everything that I learn from Strategic Coach and Mastermind talks, it doesn’t matter, Mavericks, all of these different things, and they just formulate in my head, and they just go and go and go, and I teach that to everybody else, and it’s so exciting for me.

Melinda Wittstock:         Shari, just watching you as I have for a couple of years now, and just your positivity and your resilience, and also just seeing how you’re so aligned with your “why,” like your mission and your purpose, and you clearly have so much joy in what you do. I think that’s pretty critical for all entrepreneurs, that if you’re going to build a business, make sure you really, really love it.

Shari Aldrich:                     Totally agree. Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:         And so when you think of where you’re going with this, where do you see yourself being … ’cause you have such a strong vision … where do yourself being in like, I don’t know, five years from now, ten years from now. What’s the ultimate?

Shari Aldrich:                     That’s a fantastic question. Because right now we’re just on the cusp of this growth trajectory, it’s hard to, right now see myself out of it. So I don’t think that in five years that I’m selling the business, but I definitely think that I want to play in that field of growing the national side of my business, my two campuses that I have in Washington State are doing great, and my children are doing a fantastic job managing those divisions, and so I really see myself playing over in a different pond, growing the Body Mechanics brand nationally. So I see myself in five, maybe ten years, looking at a buyout of some sort. Maybe.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s so hard to know.

Shari Aldrich:                     It is hard to know, but I’m having fun. And it’s just one of my core beliefs, that do what makes you happy, and right now, everything I’m doing in my business is making me so happy that I can’t imagine myself not being there right now.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, and you have a big, bold mission, too.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. Yeah, my mission is to take a million people out of pain by 2025. And, initially, that was what I started when I started my massage practice back in 2006. And as I grew, I bought the school in 2010, then I had my injury, and I really focused on my school. So now I see that I’m creating an army of people who can help me take a million people out of pain by 2025. And then as I grow into this national concept of building other massage schools around the country, I think that goal is going to morph and change. And I’m also recognizing, because of my injury, and deaths that I had in my family a while back, that there’s a lot of different kinds of pain that I want to help with: emotional, social, financial, physical pain. That I have a message inside of me that needs to come out to help people who are in pain.

Melinda Wittstock:         That’s beautiful.

Shari Aldrich:                     So I see myself with a book and speaking at some sort at some level.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. I’m going to just keep reminding you about your book.

Shari Aldrich:                     Thank you.

Melinda Wittstock:         You have to get that written, it’ll be a bestseller, I know it.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah, for sure. Thank you. I’m going to get it there.

Melinda Wittstock:         So Shari, how can people find you and work with you?

Shari Aldrich:                     Well, I’m not sure how many of your listeners would want to open up their own massage school, but I’m also interested in helping with life choices and decisions that people have to make if they are struggling with any kind of physical pain or the types of pains that I talked about. They can reach out to me at my business, which is Shari, S-H-A-R-I  @bodymechanics-school.com, I’m also on Facebook, Shari Aldrich, friend me. I love to have new friends to talk to. And I’m also on LinkedIn as well.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, and Shari, your Facebook posts are very inspiring, so everybody friend Shari Aldrich.

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. Follow me on Facebook.

Melinda Wittstock:         ‘Cause, seriously. No, really. It really helps me. I look at your posts all the time.

Shari Aldrich:                     Thank you.

Melinda Wittstock:         No, they are really, really uplifting. So thank you for that.

So do you have any kind of special offer for any of our WINGS listeners, today?

Shari Aldrich:                     You know, I’ve really gotten into really just taking control of my health lately. I had this epiphany back in October, and then it was solidified in November, I went to Tony Robbins, and I just totally focused on my health in the last little bit of time. I’ve started running, I’m up to about 30 miles a week now, I’ve become vegan, I’ve cut out caffeine, most part I’ve cut out alcohol as well. And so I’ve written my fitness and health manifesto, and I’m very happy to share that with anyone who would like to see it, if they’re interested in taking better control of their health along with finding those things that make you happy. And they can just shoot me an email and ask for my fitness and health manifesto, and I’m happy to send it to them.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that’s wonderful. Well, thank you very much, that’s very generous. And congratulations on all that part. 30 miles a week, my goodness! Wow!

Shari Aldrich:                     Yeah. Well, not this week, we had snow. But I’ll be back.

Melinda Wittstock:         All right. Shari, thank you so much for putting your wings on and flying with us today.

Shari Aldrich:                     Thanks for having me, Melinda. It was a blast.