From Corporate Jobs to Oakwell Beer Spa | Jessica & Damien Zouaoui

00:00 --> 00:03 Guys, so some of the options on
00:03 --> 00:06 the website you can see before you book your appointment, they're going to have charcuterie
00:06 --> 00:09 boards and, um, uh, bonbons.
00:09 --> 00:13 I chose the bonbons. I just love bonbons. I want to
00:13 --> 00:16 have the experience of, um, having bonbons
00:17 --> 00:20 in a tub while I'm soaking in the
00:21 --> 00:24 beer bath. So, um,
00:24 --> 00:27 if you come here, I highly suggest that you do this
00:28 --> 00:31 because you're not going to have this experience probably anywhere else.
00:33 --> 00:36 So, oh, that's delicious.
00:36 --> 00:40 Welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where you
00:40 --> 00:43 hear real stories from real entrepreneurs.
00:51 --> 00:52 Hi,
00:54 --> 00:57 and welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where every business has a story.
00:58 --> 01:01 I'm your host, Jet Bunditwong, and today my guest is Jessica and Damien
01:01 --> 01:04 Zouaoui. They're both a husband and wife team that left their
01:05 --> 01:08 corporate jobs to create a unique wellness experience that combines craft beer,
01:09 --> 01:12 relaxation, and hospitality in what we call the Oakwell
01:12 --> 01:16 Beer Spa. Welcome to the podcast, Jessica and Damien.
01:17 --> 01:20 We're excited to be here. Thank you for having us, Jet.
01:20 --> 01:23 Yeah, you're welcome. And I would love to hear
01:24 --> 01:27 how you guys got here because I think your story is, is pretty
01:29 --> 01:32 With your leaving corporate job, traveling, finding this somewhere
01:33 --> 01:35 else and bringing it to America. Can you tell us about your story?
01:37 --> 01:42 Our story really starts in New York City. So Damien and I were both working
01:42 --> 01:45 corporate jobs at the time. We were climbing the corporate ladder.
01:46 --> 01:49 That's where we met. We had both recently relocated to New
01:49 --> 01:53 York for our jobs. Damien's background is in sales
01:53 --> 01:57 and marketing, so he worked in the travel industry and in
01:57 --> 02:00 the hospitality industry. My background is in
02:00 --> 02:04 HR and operations. So we very quickly met,
02:04 --> 02:08 we got married 9 months later. And we
02:08 --> 02:12 knew that we wanted to open a business together. So when we get home from
02:12 --> 02:15 our corporate jobs, we'd grab a pint of beer or a glass of wine and
02:15 --> 02:19 we'd brainstorm different business ideas. And we knew pretty quickly
02:20 --> 02:22 that we wanted to do something different. So as much as we love hospitality,
02:22 --> 02:26 we didn't want to do a restaurant or a coffee shop. Damien is from France
02:27 --> 02:30 originally, and I was fortunate enough to travel internationally at a
02:30 --> 02:34 young age. So we knew that there were a lot of interesting
02:34 --> 02:37 ideas that exist out in the world that just maybe haven't been brought to the
02:38 --> 02:41 United States yet. So the month after getting married, we decided if we're
02:42 --> 02:45 going to do something risky, now is the time before we have kids and a
02:45 --> 02:49 mortgage and these other responsibilities. So we decided
02:49 --> 02:53 to quit our corporate jobs at the same time. We packed 2 backpacks.
02:53 --> 02:58 We sold everything we owned and headed off on what was to be an indefinite
02:58 --> 03:02 round-the-world backpacking trip. And the deal was that we weren't going to come home
03:02 --> 03:05 until we found the perfect business idea that we could bring back to the US
03:05 --> 03:09 and scale. Uh, our travels ended up taking us to 25
03:09 --> 03:12 countries, uh, which took a little over a year.
03:13 --> 03:16 And it was about halfway into our travels that we found
03:17 --> 03:21 ourselves in a little town called Zakopane in the Polish Alps.
03:21 --> 03:25 Uh, it was a rainy day and we were looking for an indoor activity to
03:25 --> 03:28 do, and a beer spa popped up on TripAdvisor. I'd never
03:29 --> 03:31 heard of a beer spa before, but I love both of those things individually,
03:31 --> 03:35 so what could go wrong? And 30 minutes later, we found ourselves
03:36 --> 03:39 soaking in a tub filled with hops and malt. There was
03:40 --> 03:43 a free-flowing keg of cold Polish beer next to us.
03:44 --> 03:47 Damien fell asleep in the tub almost instantly. I promise he didn't have a lot
03:48 --> 03:51 to drink, just The aromatherapy from the hops was super relaxing.
03:52 --> 03:55 And I knew right then while soaking in that tub, I was like, hey,
03:55 --> 03:59 this is something I think we could— I think we can do something with this.
04:00 --> 04:03 You know, I've always been a big spa person and I felt like spas in
04:03 --> 04:06 the US are really tailored towards the female demographic,
04:06 --> 04:10 towards more of the wealthy, the elite.
04:10 --> 04:14 There's not a lot of great social spa experiences. Most spas in the
04:14 --> 04:18 United States are super transactional. You go in, you get your massage, you get grasp
04:18 --> 04:21 for a membership. Maybe they give you some tea and a cookie and you leave.
04:22 --> 04:25 And as much as we try to make it a social experience by having a
04:25 --> 04:29 girls' day or doing a couples massage, the environment is never really set
04:29 --> 04:32 up for that in the United States. So I felt like there's a lot of,
04:33 --> 04:36 a lot of different directions we could go with this beer spa idea. So when
04:36 --> 04:39 we were still soaking in the tub, I splashed Damien in the face with some
04:39 --> 04:42 water, said, hey, wake up, like we need to start planning. We're going to open
04:43 --> 04:46 a beer spa. That's awesome. And Damien, were you on board right
04:47 --> 04:50 away? Did you think this was going to be a great idea? Yeah,
04:50 --> 04:54 absolutely. Um, I think, I think we still had
04:54 --> 04:57 to do the hard work of market research, uh,
04:57 --> 05:01 being analytical. We are very analytical and, and mostly modeling
05:02 --> 05:05 all of the risks, uh, but on marketing side,
05:05 --> 05:08 is it, is it the right fit for a specific market? So,
05:08 --> 05:12 um, so the first thing that we had to do to really make, to,
05:12 --> 05:16 to make sure that we were okay, we decided to tour
05:16 --> 05:20 other countries and culture and,
05:20 --> 05:23 and discover their spots. So wine spas in France,
05:23 --> 05:28 Spain, uh, those thalassotherapy type
05:28 --> 05:32 of wellness center on the Atlantic coast of France
05:32 --> 05:35 and Spain, uh, those German
05:36 --> 05:39 spas, of course, uh, onsen in Japan, jjimjilbang in,
05:39 --> 05:43 in South Korea. And as just, just mentioned,
05:43 --> 05:46 uh, we realized pretty quickly that the definition
05:46 --> 05:50 of wellbeing, wellness, the state of relaxation,
05:51 --> 05:55 the spa etiquette is way different outside
05:55 --> 05:58 of America. So looking at the
05:59 --> 06:02 whole industry, we didn't want to reinvent the wheel.
06:02 --> 06:06 We just wanted to shake up the industry and really
06:06 --> 06:09 position ourselves in a really, uh,
06:09 --> 06:13 very specific side of the spectrum where
06:13 --> 06:17 Okay, you've got your day spas where you have your facial, you have
06:17 --> 06:21 your typical massage. This is targeted towards women and that's
06:21 --> 06:25 fine. Okay, you've got your other day spas where cleanliness might not
06:25 --> 06:29 be as important. Plus they ask you to pay for a membership
06:29 --> 06:31 that you cannot get away from. Okay, fine.
06:32 --> 06:35 But what about us? What can we do to make sure that we
06:36 --> 06:39 can bring something that we can be excited for? We can be
06:39 --> 06:43 passionate about, we can show to all of
06:43 --> 06:47 those people who are still chained
06:47 --> 06:51 about doubting about their body.
06:51 --> 06:54 I don't want strangers to touch me. I don't
06:55 --> 06:58 feel confident and comfortable in front of everyone.
06:59 --> 07:03 I cannot walk naked in front of everyone. I don't want
07:03 --> 07:06 this smell. This is not for me.
07:07 --> 07:10 I'm a different person, right?
07:11 --> 07:14 Well, those people deserve a bit of fun
07:14 --> 07:17 and relaxation, and Oakwell was created for
07:18 --> 07:22 that specific purpose. But this could only happen if we had
07:22 --> 07:25 to really knowledge what's going on outside, how they're
07:26 --> 07:30 doing it, and how can we bring back the best of all of
07:30 --> 07:34 that, mash it up together with our own secret sauce.
07:35 --> 07:39 Yeah, one of the, or two of the things that I really appreciated
07:39 --> 07:44 getting to experience was one, the closed-off
07:44 --> 07:47 areas so you can have your own suites, right? Because that's, you know,
07:48 --> 07:51 I've had that experience where I've gone to spas and you're,
07:51 --> 07:54 you're literally just separated by maybe a sheer
07:55 --> 07:59 curtain of some sort. So having that suite experience is,
07:59 --> 08:03 was just tremendous for me. And then the other thing that,
08:03 --> 08:07 you know, I've had massages both ways now. And this
08:07 --> 08:10 was the other way, you know, I've had someone actually massage me, which is
08:10 --> 08:14 great as well. But then there was those moments I'm like, I don't
08:14 --> 08:17 feel like, as you're saying, taking off my clothes, doing all that just to
08:18 --> 08:22 have someone massage me. And those— that gravity chair was amazing.
08:22 --> 08:25 It was— it probably is the
08:26 --> 08:29 highlight of everything I went through in there because I was like, I can keep
08:29 --> 08:33 coming back to this. Every, every day, I guess, you know, if you,
08:33 --> 08:37 if you needed to, to be able to just get like the 10-15
08:37 --> 08:40 minute massage, get my body, you know, relaxed and then go on my way and
08:40 --> 08:44 then also be able to do all those other things in there on
08:44 --> 08:47 those special days that I want to treat myself to it.
08:48 --> 08:52 What, what were some of the things that you guys pulled
08:53 --> 08:56 in and felt were important into creating the whole experience?
08:56 --> 08:59 Like, what were some Were there things that didn't make the list at
09:00 --> 09:03 all? Like you were just like, this is, we like this, but it really isn't
09:03 --> 09:06 for the demographic that we're going after. Yeah.
09:07 --> 09:10 Um, uh, so first of all, as entrepreneurs, you need to create
09:11 --> 09:14 a business based on longevity. You cannot be gimmicky, you know,
09:14 --> 09:18 and, and, and right now the, the, I mean, it's still, as of today,
09:18 --> 09:21 very, it's still an ongoing exercise,
09:21 --> 09:25 exercise for us is to educate people about a beer
09:25 --> 09:28 spa. What, what, what is a beer spa? People are rolling their eyes. They even
09:28 --> 09:32 question. What did we drink or smoke? You know, when we tell them
09:32 --> 09:36 that, and we need, we need to make
09:36 --> 09:40 sure that this is not gimmicky, that this is relaxing. And the true
09:41 --> 09:45 definition of a day spa is you need to leave happy and relaxed.
09:45 --> 09:49 That's, that's actually the projection of your state
09:49 --> 09:52 and the way you feel after the fact,
09:52 --> 09:56 not before, not during, after the fact. That was the
09:56 --> 10:00 most important thing. Then you add that into a market
10:00 --> 10:04 like Denver that is extremely wellness, where, well, very focused
10:04 --> 10:08 on wellbeing and Colorado being the healthiest state
10:08 --> 10:12 in America is to truly work on the results
10:13 --> 10:17 of our services. How do you feel after leaving?
10:17 --> 10:20 You cannot just feel okay. I feel
10:21 --> 10:24 okay. I feel fine. You add as well a lot of service.
10:25 --> 10:29 In America, coming from Europe and coming in your
10:29 --> 10:33 region as well, you understand that we have a very different perspective of and definition
10:33 --> 10:37 of service outside of America. But in America, it needs to be clean,
10:37 --> 10:41 it needs to be safe, and it needs to be very
10:42 --> 10:46 friendly in our own definition so
10:46 --> 10:50 that person who's gonna put on, remove their clothes,
10:50 --> 10:53 put a bathing suit in and enjoy this private
10:54 --> 10:58 spa suite, feel the safety, the safeness,
10:58 --> 11:01 the cleanliness of that space. And this,
11:02 --> 11:05 I jump on your private spa suite comment that you
11:05 --> 11:09 just made. The private spa suite was something non-negotiable first.
11:10 --> 11:13 Actually, it wasn't about COVID We were building this during
11:13 --> 11:17 COVID We didn't because of COVID we did it
11:17 --> 11:19 because The culture in America,
11:20 --> 11:23 yeah, people, it's not like Germany. It's not like in Asia.
11:23 --> 11:27 You can't, it depends in Asia, but people have
11:27 --> 11:31 a very different perspective of their body. So you
11:31 --> 11:35 had to be closed almost like your own little kingdom,
11:35 --> 11:39 your own little, your own little
11:39 --> 11:43 hotel room for the time being.
11:44 --> 11:48 Yeah, 100%. That is exactly what it felt like.
11:48 --> 11:52 It was like, there were moments that I forgot that
11:53 --> 11:56 there were other people there. Like, I actually stuck
11:56 --> 11:59 my head out and it was— I felt like there were so many people in
12:00 --> 12:03 the different suites and doing their own thing. And it was like— and then I
12:03 --> 12:07 was like, well, when I walked in there, there were like other people getting ready
12:07 --> 12:10 to go into the suites and I didn't hear anything. It felt
12:11 --> 12:14 like I was by myself. And then, you know, one of the things that I
12:14 --> 12:18 talk about in the video is to be able to have access to
12:19 --> 12:22 reach out and call for service if you need that too, right? You have
12:23 --> 12:26 a call button if you need service, you can press it and they will come
12:26 --> 12:29 to you. You also have the menu here, so if you want to refill on
12:29 --> 12:33 your drinks, there is a menu sitting right here and you just call
12:33 --> 12:36 them and they can bring it over to you. And it's not like I'm— I
12:36 --> 12:40 need to put a robe back on, go outside and go ask someone. I literally
12:40 --> 12:43 have someone at the push of my fingertips to be able to get something to
12:44 --> 12:47 me. So that's, I don't know, the experience is, it was just
12:47 --> 12:52 wonderful. And, you know, for someone that
12:52 --> 12:56 is not a beer drinker, you guys had other beverages like
12:56 --> 13:00 the cider, which I loved. And there was actually the orangey
13:01 --> 13:04 sort of dessert beer that I loved as well. I'm more of a sweet tooth
13:05 --> 13:08 person myself. So So I think for people who are
13:08 --> 13:11 thinking, oh, this is just going to be about beer, there's other things here.
13:11 --> 13:14 You guys have wine as well. And, you know, you have— you can go in
13:14 --> 13:17 there. So it's not— I think that beer just enhances the
13:18 --> 13:20 experience. But the whole spa experience is just wonderful.
13:21 --> 13:25 And, you know, what is it that you guys are foreseeing
13:25 --> 13:28 that you're— I know you're franchising. What do you think is going
13:28 --> 13:31 to be the ultimate vision for this? Are there going
13:31 --> 13:34 to be changes you're going to think you're going to make in the next 5
13:35 --> 13:38 to 10 years that will improve or things you're working on right now that will
13:39 --> 13:42 give it a better experience that are not there yet?
13:44 --> 13:47 There's, there's several things that I think make our business really
13:48 --> 13:51 special that will always carry through, through whatever iterations
13:51 --> 13:55 that we have. The first of which is the private spa suites that you're
13:56 --> 13:59 mentioning. That is one of our biggest differentiators. You really can't find private spa
13:59 --> 14:03 suites in any other spas. There's a few around the world like the
14:04 --> 14:07 Mandarin in Paris and, you know, some very high-end ones,
14:07 --> 14:11 but you're talking about $1 for a couple to do a a 2
14:11 --> 14:15 or 3 hour experience. So having these private spa suites is something that
14:16 --> 14:19 we'll always keep. You know, the, the beer component
14:20 --> 14:23 to your point is something that is catchy, right? You hear
14:23 --> 14:26 beer spa and you want to know more about like, what are we dumping a
14:27 --> 14:30 beer on our head? But we offer other beverages.
14:31 --> 14:35 And to kind of iterate off of that, we're also going to have
14:35 --> 14:39 a wine bath that we're currently developing. So right now there's only beer baths.
14:40 --> 14:43 But in about a month, we'll be launching our wine bath. So you can have
14:43 --> 14:47 a wine-infused bath. And who knows, maybe that turns into a
14:47 --> 14:50 champagne bath later on or a milk bath.
14:50 --> 14:54 Damien, I'm sure, would love a champagne bath being from France. Yeah.
14:55 --> 14:58 So I think there's a lot of different directions, but it will always be
14:58 --> 15:02 at its core having private spa suites, having alcoholic
15:02 --> 15:06 and nonalcoholic beverages to drink. But one thing that we will
15:06 --> 15:10 never do is have licensed massage therapist or esthetician.
15:10 --> 15:14 So from a business model standpoint, that is what makes our spa
15:14 --> 15:17 so attractive. If you talk to any spa owner, their biggest
15:18 --> 15:22 headache is labor, both finding and retaining massage therapists and estheticians,
15:23 --> 15:26 as well as if they call out sick for the day, the services are dependent
15:26 --> 15:30 on that specific person. So then you're having to cancel their entire appointment
15:30 --> 15:34 book for the day. For us, we recruit from the hospitality industry. So we
15:35 --> 15:38 have servers, bartenders, housekeepers. It doesn't matter if Joe or Sally
15:38 --> 15:42 is the one introducing you the tap wall or cleaning your room or bringing
15:42 --> 15:45 you back to your private spa suite. The services are not
15:45 --> 15:49 dependent upon the labor. And also, given that we're recruiting
15:49 --> 15:53 from the broader hospitality industry, it's a lot easier to find
15:53 --> 15:57 and retain employees as well. Um, so we'll never add services that require
15:58 --> 16:00 licensed professionals, um, but there may be little, uh,
16:00 --> 16:04 technology-enhanced services that we add along the way.
16:05 --> 16:07 Yeah. It's a great point that you brought that up because I was going to
16:07 --> 16:11 bring that up eventually, that from a franchise owner,
16:11 --> 16:15 you're, you're really not having
16:15 --> 16:18 to worry about those licensed employees that
16:19 --> 16:24 you're talking about. Right. And, and I think it allows you to get
16:24 --> 16:27 into the industry without, I guess, having to learn so much about that
16:27 --> 16:31 payroll side of things or for those specialty type of employees
16:31 --> 16:34 that you have to come in because like, you know, California is going to be
16:34 --> 16:38 different from, let's say, Nevada, right? They're going to, there might be some
16:38 --> 16:40 tweaks that you have to learn. And this allows you to go in there and
16:40 --> 16:44 just say, we're going to concentrate on the customer service side of things and not
16:44 --> 16:47 have to worry about finding those specialty people. And I'm
16:48 --> 16:51 sure it gets harder and harder as you start to expand in
16:51 --> 16:55 terms of where you guys are, that you're like, okay, does this state allow
16:56 --> 16:59 this or whatever it is, you know, the licenses to be able to match up
16:59 --> 17:03 with what you're doing easier. And, um, I, I think
17:03 --> 17:07 from, um, Uh, an owner's standpoint, it's,
17:07 --> 17:10 it's so much more— I was— I would say easier because you're still running a
17:11 --> 17:14 business, but I think you're going to be able to not have to go
17:14 --> 17:18 down those avenues or like, oh my God, so we have,
17:19 --> 17:22 we have one great massage therapist, we have to find
17:22 --> 17:26 4 more to be able to fill that time, you know. Um,
17:26 --> 17:30 so I'm assuming that was part of the strategy going into
17:30 --> 17:33 this. Right. So that you wouldn't need to have that.
17:34 --> 17:38 It was when we were looking for a business idea,
17:38 --> 17:41 you know, traveling the world, there was a few things, you know, criteria that
17:42 --> 17:44 we were looking for. We were looking for something in the hospitality industry. We wanted
17:45 --> 17:49 something that we were passionate about, but we also wanted something that was scalable.
17:49 --> 17:53 And so when we found this idea of a beer spa,
17:53 --> 17:57 you know, we didn't just copy and paste the version that they have in Eastern
17:57 --> 18:00 Europe. We really wanted to take our time since this is such a new concept.
18:00 --> 18:03 Let's talk to people in the spa industry. Let's talk to people in the food
18:03 --> 18:07 and beverage industry, figure out what their pain points are and create our business
18:08 --> 18:11 model to solve for that. You know, it was a beautiful thing that
18:11 --> 18:15 there, there were no other beer spas that existed. So it was a kind
18:15 --> 18:18 of choose your own adventure. We could make it however we wanted. We could have
18:18 --> 18:22 had massage therapists. We could have had bartenders that pour beer, but we decided
18:23 --> 18:26 to do an RFID-enabled self-pour tap wall. So all the little
18:27 --> 18:30 operational components of our business really came from
18:30 --> 18:34 talking to people that actually own spas and that own restaurants and figuring out
18:34 --> 18:37 what keeps them up at night. Um, so things like the labor that
18:37 --> 18:40 we touched on, you know, that's a big headache. But, um,
18:40 --> 18:44 perishable food— if you talk to any, uh, restaurant owners,
18:44 --> 18:46 it's having food waste and, uh,
18:47 --> 18:50 inventory. And well, this lettuce only stays fresh for this long,
18:50 --> 18:53 and now we're having to throw it away. And how do I plan? Because people
18:53 --> 18:57 aren't making, uh, appointments, they're just showing up, and I have no idea
18:57 --> 19:01 how much I'm going to need. So all of our food and beverage is prepackaged
19:01 --> 19:05 and it's non-perishable. So yes, we're in the food service industry,
19:05 --> 19:08 um, but we're not having to deal with perishable inventory.
19:09 --> 19:12 Uh, we have reservations as well, and we don't have any peak times.
19:12 --> 19:16 We are booked, uh, as much in the summertime
19:16 --> 19:19 as we are in the wintertime. We're booked as much during the weekdays as we
19:20 --> 19:23 are on the weekends. So there's really no fluctuation. And our guests book
19:24 --> 19:27 their appointments in advance so we can plan for staffing. We can
19:27 --> 19:30 plan for inventory because we know exactly
19:30 --> 19:33 how many appointments are going to be coming in that day. So it was really,
19:34 --> 19:37 you know, really a great thing that we were able to make
19:38 --> 19:42 this business however we wanted and solve for a lot of the pain points
19:42 --> 19:45 that operators are experiencing today. Yeah,
19:45 --> 19:49 that's great. And when you guys
19:50 --> 19:54 are— what was the moment that you guys decided that you were going to go
19:54 --> 19:58 into franchising? Was that always from the beginning or did it after
19:58 --> 20:01 the success after the first location you decided to do that?
20:02 --> 20:06 No, we really, again, creating a business with
20:06 --> 20:11 the longevity in mind, start by dreaming
20:11 --> 20:14 big. And dreaming big takes a lot of structure
20:15 --> 20:18 and SOPs and discipline. And we've
20:18 --> 20:21 never understood when small
20:22 --> 20:25 business owners are becoming maybe a slave of their
20:25 --> 20:28 own business because from the very early
20:29 --> 20:32 days, they might not have thought about structuring it in a
20:32 --> 20:36 way that actually any business are
20:36 --> 20:40 systems, right? And the system, if it's strong,
20:40 --> 20:43 if it has been tested, of course there's failure points,
20:43 --> 20:46 friction points, but all of that needs to be structured in a
20:46 --> 20:50 way that you're not becoming a slave. Of your own business. Instead,
20:50 --> 20:54 the business runs no matter if we're here or not.
20:54 --> 20:58 We've done that since day one to make sure that
20:58 --> 21:01 we can scale internationally.
21:02 --> 21:05 We were, of course, questioning ourselves. Should we franchise or should we keep
21:06 --> 21:09 owning the stores? Should we go the Chipotle road? Should we go
21:09 --> 21:13 the McDonald's road? Let's talk about
21:14 --> 21:17 those guys. Well, um, I think franchising for us made much more
21:18 --> 21:22 sense because, um, first of all, uh, I think
21:22 --> 21:27 the, the, the, the, the speediness, uh, of going to market
21:27 --> 21:32 could be faster. You're leveraging other people's skills and,
21:32 --> 21:36 uh, and capital to be able to implement this concept somewhere else.
21:36 --> 21:40 And secondly, I think this is such a new concept that I think if
21:40 --> 21:44 it was just the two of us as entrepreneurs, I think
21:44 --> 21:47 we wouldn't have the same strength as if we
21:48 --> 21:52 surround ourselves with all of those other strong
21:52 --> 21:56 operators that are already doing so many incredible things in
21:56 --> 21:59 their own markets. And they know their markets so well
22:00 --> 22:04 that the go-to-market will likely be more efficient
22:04 --> 22:07 and faster. But answering your question very simply, yes,
22:07 --> 22:11 from opening stores,
22:11 --> 22:15 bringing this new concept nationwide was always
22:15 --> 22:17 a plan of ours. Yeah. And,
22:18 --> 22:21 you know, it leads to my next question. If I am a franchise owner
22:22 --> 22:25 and/or potential franchise owner wanting to
22:25 --> 22:28 have another Oakwell in my city,
22:29 --> 22:32 what does that journey look like from the time they start to connect with you
22:33 --> 22:37 until they open? Like, could you walk us through how much handholding
22:37 --> 22:40 do you guys do and what do you help them to achieve their goal?
22:41 --> 22:44 Well, sit around the table and drink a six-pack. No,
22:45 --> 22:49 in a spa, you start to dip into a hot tub together,
22:49 --> 22:53 start to make things up. Yeah, exactly. Must bring your
22:53 --> 22:57 bathing suit. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so really the first
22:57 --> 23:01 step, uh, is typically they'll submit their interest via an
23:01 --> 23:04 inquiry form on our website, oakwellfranchise.com.
23:04 --> 23:08 Um, we guide all candidates through every step of the sales
23:09 --> 23:12 cycle ourselves. So we find it's really important, especially with our first
23:12 --> 23:16 few franchisees that were very hands-on and that were very selective about
23:16 --> 23:20 who we're bringing on board. You know, their success is as important to us as,
23:20 --> 23:24 as it is to them. These first few franchisees are going to be our validators.
23:24 --> 23:28 They're going to prove out that this concept works without Jessica and Damien being there.
23:29 --> 23:32 They're the ones that are going to speak to other potential franchisees in the future
23:33 --> 23:37 and say, hey, this was a really great experience. I'm sure we've all heard stories
23:37 --> 23:41 about new franchise companies and they just crash and burn before they even
23:41 --> 23:45 get started because the support system wasn't there. So we to be really
23:45 --> 23:49 hands-on and selective with the first few that we bring on board. So from the
23:49 --> 23:52 first call, which is our brand overview call, that will be with Damien and I,
23:52 --> 23:56 that's 30 minutes, we go over the concept, what our biggest differentiators
23:56 --> 24:00 are, why our operating model is better than, you know, other food service
24:00 --> 24:04 companies or personal service companies. After the
24:04 --> 24:08 brand overview call, we have a financials call. So that's when we break down your
24:08 --> 24:12 estimated initial investment, every single line item from
24:12 --> 24:15 what your rent is going to be, your build-out is going to be,
24:15 --> 24:18 the fees did they pay to us, how much they're going to spend on inventory,
24:19 --> 24:22 on equipment, just so they can then use those ranges
24:22 --> 24:26 and build their own financial projections on, okay, in my
24:26 --> 24:29 market, rent is more so going to be here, labor is here,
24:29 --> 24:33 and they can build their financial projections, which will be used to secure a
24:33 --> 24:37 loan. After the financials call, and also to go back, the financials
24:37 --> 24:41 call will also go over a detailed P&L of both of
24:41 --> 24:45 our corporate-owned locations from their day one through today.
24:45 --> 24:49 So we wanted to be very transparent with how our 2 stores are doing,
24:49 --> 24:53 which, you know, they're doing well. And so we want to, wanted to
24:53 --> 24:56 be very transparent with, you know, here's how much we actually spend on labor.
24:56 --> 25:00 Here's how much we spend on utility, everything line item by line item.
25:00 --> 25:04 A lot of emerging franchisors don't provide that level
25:04 --> 25:08 of transparency. They give very broad, like, oh, here's income and here's our net
25:09 --> 25:12 margins and, you know, have at it. But ours is a very detailed
25:12 --> 25:15 broken down P&L. So we'll go over that in the financials call.
25:16 --> 25:20 Next call is marketing and operations. So we'll explain the systems
25:20 --> 25:23 behind what makes Oakwell work. Damien will go over
25:24 --> 25:27 our marketing program, both what they'll be responsible for locally, as well as
25:27 --> 25:31 our national brand fund. And then the last call is my
25:31 --> 25:35 favorite, site selection and construction. So we go through our guidelines
25:35 --> 25:38 of what our prototypical space looks like. How many square feet?
25:38 --> 25:42 How many different rooms do you need to have? What's the ceiling height? How big
25:42 --> 25:46 is the water line? As well as what the finding a
25:46 --> 25:49 site, signing a lease, securing your loan, and then all
25:49 --> 25:53 the way through construction, what that timeline looks like. It is
25:53 --> 25:57 a more extensive build than, let's say, a Massage
25:57 --> 26:00 Envy where you're just making, okay, 4 little massage rooms and a front desk and
26:01 --> 26:04 you're good to go. Our build is plumbing intensive. And so we
26:05 --> 26:08 just want to make sure that they feel comfortable with what that process entails.
26:08 --> 26:11 So you really have those 4 education calls.
26:11 --> 26:15 And then after that, they come to Discovery Day in Denver. So it's 48
26:16 --> 26:19 hours here with us at our corporate-owned stores. We give them a behind-the-scenes
26:20 --> 26:23 tour of, uh, how it works, you know, what a day in the life looks
26:23 --> 26:27 like. Um, that day ends with an experience, an Oakwell
26:27 --> 26:31 Spa experience like you had, Jet, um, where they get to see the full
26:31 --> 26:34 thing from a guest point of view. Um, we take them
26:34 --> 26:37 out to a nice dinner, and then the day after they go home, we have
26:38 --> 26:41 a confirmation call, which is where we both give a mutual
26:41 --> 26:45 decision as far as If yes, we feel comfortable bringing them on
26:45 --> 26:48 board and likewise, if they feel it's a good fit for them.
26:48 --> 26:51 And then we go into signing contracts, all the legal stuff.
26:52 --> 26:56 So that process usually takes 6 to 8 weeks because
26:56 --> 27:00 by the time someone's filling out a form, they're usually already
27:00 --> 27:03 mentally prepared that they want to leave their job or they want to invest
27:03 --> 27:07 in a new business. It's more that process is just about learning about,
27:07 --> 27:11 you know, what makes Oakwell special. Yeah. Thank you for explaining
27:11 --> 27:14 that. And, you know, I just,
27:14 --> 27:17 this short time of speaking with both of you, I feel that you guys
27:18 --> 27:21 are also looking for people that are going to work well with you in,
27:22 --> 27:25 you know, as a personality. Right. And let me ask you,
27:25 --> 27:28 what do you think is a personality-wise is a great fit
27:28 --> 27:29 for Oakwell?
27:32 --> 27:36 I think someone that is very hospitality-focused is really
27:36 --> 27:39 important for us. At the end of the day, we are in the service business.
27:41 --> 27:45 And there's a lot of people I think that open businesses strictly for the money
27:45 --> 27:48 and don't really care about what the outcome is for the guest or for the
27:49 --> 27:52 employees. But we have always been very passionate about, you know,
27:53 --> 27:56 anyone obsessed with, with guest service. I think anyone can open a
27:56 --> 28:00 beer spa with deep enough pockets, but no one else is going
28:00 --> 28:04 to be able to replicate how our guests feel when they leave
28:04 --> 28:07 Oakwell. We have very specific standards for our employees.
28:08 --> 28:11 They're called our 5-star service standards. We modeled them after the Ritz,
28:12 --> 28:15 Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons. And we have
28:15 --> 28:19 very specific language, right? Like we say, uh,
28:19 --> 28:22 my pleasure. We never say no worries or no problem.
28:22 --> 28:25 If a guest asks where the restroom is, our team needs to escort them there.
28:25 --> 28:29 You don't just point down the hallway. If we're pointing at something,
28:29 --> 28:32 we use an open palm. We don't use a finger. So we have this playbook
28:32 --> 28:36 of how to provide hospitality the Oakwell way. And it's
28:36 --> 28:40 extremely important that our franchisee understands and really
28:41 --> 28:45 identifies with the importance that we're placing on hospitality or that's
28:45 --> 28:47 not going to be carried through to their team because it always starts at the
28:47 --> 28:51 top. But other than that, I think we're looking for someone that
28:51 --> 28:55 we can really collaborate with. We're not
28:55 --> 28:58 in this to be someone's boss and just say, here, you have to follow our
28:58 --> 29:01 playbook and you have no input and we're just going to take royalties from you
29:02 --> 29:05 and, you know, shut your mouth. That's, that's not at all how we want to
29:05 --> 29:08 go about doing this. We really want to find people that are like-minded,
29:08 --> 29:12 that have ideas that can help us make the system even better,
29:12 --> 29:15 that have, you know, they can look at our operations and
29:15 --> 29:18 say, hey, why don't we do it this way? Have you ever thought about this?
29:19 --> 29:22 That's really why Damien and I are going into franchising is because
29:22 --> 29:25 we want to surround ourselves with people that can help lift us
29:26 --> 29:29 up rather than, you know, just having people that we manage
29:30 --> 29:34 all day. So I think people that are entrepreneurial, people that are very driven and
29:34 --> 29:38 hospitality-focused are going to be our biggest
29:39 --> 29:42 components that we were looking for. And people will care. I mean, being hospitable is
29:43 --> 29:47 something, but caring about your guests, caring about the whole experience
29:47 --> 29:50 and caring about your team. Because again, in hospitality,
29:50 --> 29:53 it's managing people all day, every day.
29:53 --> 29:57 It's being in the business of people and humans.
29:59 --> 30:03 Yeah. I wanted to mention that, that going to
30:06 --> 30:10 meeting the staff and going there and getting services, I felt that in
30:10 --> 30:14 everyone there. It was just from start to finish that wanted
30:14 --> 30:18 to make sure they check on you and then also walk you through thoroughly
30:18 --> 30:22 and cared about what your experience was. And I think that's important.
30:24 --> 30:27 I would think the person, like you were saying,
30:27 --> 30:30 Jessica, that the person leading that has to exude that or it
30:31 --> 30:34 doesn't get through to the other employees, right?
30:35 --> 30:39 Uh, you know, curious, just kind of shifting a little bit,
30:39 --> 30:43 working as a husband and wife team, how has that been for
30:43 --> 30:47 you from, if you were to go back, look at your journey from the beginning
30:47 --> 30:50 of this to now, what, what has changed about you
30:50 --> 30:54 as entrepreneurs and then how have you approached that, um,
30:54 --> 30:57 towards each other? Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
30:57 --> 31:01 you, you, I think the first rule is to delineate,
31:02 --> 31:05 uh, having limits, delineate, delineate, um,
31:06 --> 31:10 each task, who's gonna complement each other and what.
31:10 --> 31:14 This is very important so you're not stepping on the toes of others.
31:15 --> 31:18 Obviously, trust is something,
31:18 --> 31:23 but when you're married and you've toured the world and end up in a country
31:23 --> 31:26 like China where the bus driver yelled at you because you don't have the right
31:27 --> 31:30 change and you're broke and she's American, I'm French,
31:30 --> 31:34 culturally different sometimes, it's a great
31:34 --> 31:38 test for your business. So Actually, we always
31:38 --> 31:42 suggest trying to live together first, trying to
31:42 --> 31:46 travel together first. If you can do that for a good span
31:46 --> 31:49 of time, you can certainly launch a business together.
31:49 --> 31:53 You know, it's mutual respect, like we're at the same level.
31:54 --> 31:57 I often joke she's my boss, but I, I don't mind.
31:57 --> 32:02 You know, I like to have a boss, so I always push myself faster and
32:02 --> 32:06 stronger. But it's, yeah, I think
32:06 --> 32:08 it needs to be natural too, you know,
32:09 --> 32:13 despite the fact that we live together, we have
32:13 --> 32:16 kids together, we have our business together, we're constantly
32:16 --> 32:20 together, we actually try to
32:20 --> 32:24 work separately and then have meetings here and there so we can
32:25 --> 32:29 brainstorm, be creative when we're business owners
32:29 --> 32:32 at, but then when we are family, Uh,
32:32 --> 32:36 when we wear our family hats, such as being a father or mother, then we're
32:36 --> 32:40 all together. Um, those silly rules of not talking about
32:40 --> 32:44 business when we are not doing business doesn't work for us. We're so passionate.
32:45 --> 32:48 And I think this is currently, I mean, this is incredible
32:49 --> 32:52 what's happening to us. We're, we're truly living the dream.
32:52 --> 32:55 So, um, actually it's a constant brainstorming. What did you think
32:56 --> 32:59 about that? What do you think about this meeting? What do you think about this
32:59 --> 33:02 new idea? Do you think this would work? You know,
33:02 --> 33:07 and the work-life balance is very
33:07 --> 33:10 subjective. You know, we own our business.
33:10 --> 33:14 Our business is everything. The business doesn't
33:14 --> 33:18 own us because we have systems in place, but we're so passionate
33:18 --> 33:22 about it that even if we see a guest email
33:22 --> 33:26 coming at midnight and we're awake and
33:26 --> 33:30 our managers already left, we might address this email because again,
33:30 --> 33:34 we're the mission here is to, you know,
33:34 --> 33:38 be the best day spa in America and help humanity to feel
33:38 --> 33:42 relaxed, reconnect while having fun
33:42 --> 33:46 doing it. And this takes 20,
33:46 --> 33:50 19 hours a day. Yeah. Yeah. And you
33:51 --> 33:53 guys still have, you have kids on top of that. Like you have to make
33:53 --> 33:57 sure that this is all working while you're raising kids. Um,
33:57 --> 34:02 what has been one, I guess, one attribute
34:03 --> 34:06 that you think that has improved for each of you? Is there something that each
34:07 --> 34:10 of you has worked on in order to become a better entrepreneur through the past
34:11 --> 34:14 couple years of doing this? As a newly parents?
34:14 --> 34:18 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, like, with regards
34:18 --> 34:21 to everything, right? You're entrepreneurs who are trying, who have young
34:22 --> 34:25 kids, and you're also franchising in a short period of time,
34:25 --> 34:28 which is a little bit unheard of for what you guys are doing,
34:28 --> 34:31 but I feel like it's so successful that you guys
34:31 --> 34:35 can do this, but there, what are, what is one element
34:35 --> 34:39 of you that's been like, okay, this has grown and become better,
34:39 --> 34:42 and it's, it's through this organic process of
34:43 --> 34:43 this business.
34:47 --> 34:51 Yeah, for me, I've had to learn how to collaborate
34:51 --> 34:55 with others more. I've always been a bit of a lone wolf.
34:55 --> 34:58 I like working on my own. I like doing my own thing. I often,
34:59 --> 35:02 you know, sometimes to my detriment, feel like, you know, I can do it better
35:03 --> 35:06 than everyone and just leave me alone and I'm gonna, you know, put my head
35:06 --> 35:09 down and get it done. Um, and, you know, especially now we have
35:10 --> 35:13 a team of a little over 30 employees between our 2 locations and,
35:14 --> 35:17 uh, you know, helping oversee our cosmetics business and various other things.
35:18 --> 35:21 I've had to learn to collaborate more and to
35:21 --> 35:25 delegate more. It was very hard for me to delegate at the beginning because I'm
35:26 --> 35:28 like, it's going to take more time for me explain to someone how to do
35:29 --> 35:33 something than for me to just do it myself. But to Damien's point
35:33 --> 35:36 that he made earlier, it was really important to us that the business did not
35:36 --> 35:40 revolve around Jessica and Damien, that it ran in the same way whether
35:40 --> 35:43 we were there or not, because so many small business owners become slaves of their
35:44 --> 35:47 own business and they end up working, you know, all day, every day,
35:48 --> 35:51 7 days a week. They're never able to step away because they
35:51 --> 35:54 feel like the business is just going to fall apart if they're not there.
35:54 --> 35:58 And so we were really intentional about putting, putting things in
35:58 --> 36:01 place and also figuring out like, okay, I'm comfortable like
36:02 --> 36:06 stepping away from that. I can delegate that to this person. And also,
36:06 --> 36:09 you know, figuring out to, to pick your battles, right?
36:09 --> 36:12 Like if we walk into the store today, I'm,
36:12 --> 36:16 I'm sure I could pick out 20, 30 things that I
36:16 --> 36:20 would be doing differently if it were me. But at the end of the day,
36:20 --> 36:23 we always like to reflect back on, is this affecting the guest
36:24 --> 36:27 experience? Is this hurting us financially and is this
36:28 --> 36:31 hurting the morale of the team? And a lot of times it's a no to
36:31 --> 36:35 all of those. Like, I wish they would fill out their opening checklists,
36:35 --> 36:39 like actually check things off every morning because I know they're going to miss things
36:39 --> 36:41 if they don't. But at the end of the day, does the guest know?
36:41 --> 36:45 No. Is it losing us money? No. Are the— is the team unhappy? No,
36:45 --> 36:48 they're probably happier that they're not having to fill out this checklist. So, okay,
36:48 --> 36:51 I'll leave it alone. But that's been a really, a hard
36:52 --> 36:56 lesson because I think just naturally Damien and I are both a little bit of
36:56 --> 36:59 perfectionists. Yeah. What about you, Damien? Patience.
37:00 --> 37:05 I think I was born with a rocket somewhere behind my
37:05 --> 37:09 back. And like, you know, being newly parents
37:10 --> 37:13 for the past 2 years now, we have a second kid now. So they're
37:13 --> 37:16 very close apart. It's patience. It's like communications,
37:17 --> 37:19 patience, where You say something,
37:20 --> 37:23 I said blue, that person received this as green.
37:24 --> 37:27 And now we need to teach everything again and again
37:27 --> 37:31 and again. And in the middle of all that, we need to be patient
37:31 --> 37:35 because there's a timeline that takes a bit more time
37:35 --> 37:38 for specific people to learn, to communicate, to act,
37:39 --> 37:42 to take ownership. So patience
37:43 --> 37:46 is definitely something I'm embracing now.
37:46 --> 37:50 And actually every morning I wake up and say, Rome has not
37:50 --> 37:54 been built in one day. The Roman Empire has been successful,
37:54 --> 37:59 but it didn't take one day to build it. So how do I approach
37:59 --> 38:02 this every day? And, you know, and I go to sleep at night, I was
38:02 --> 38:04 like, I wish I had more than 24 hours a day.
38:05 --> 38:09 Who came up with 24 hours a day? That should be more like 30
38:09 --> 38:12 or 40 hours a day, but I guess everyone will be dead.
38:13 --> 38:17 If they were living a 40-hour day. So patience is
38:17 --> 38:20 key and this is a good virtue to have.
38:20 --> 38:24 And in business, usually patience is
38:24 --> 38:27 a reward because if you rush, we,
38:27 --> 38:31 I can tell you so many crazy stories about how
38:31 --> 38:35 sometimes we've rushed into things and lost time
38:35 --> 38:38 actually, or even money.
38:38 --> 38:42 And then you look back, it's like, ah, I should have
38:42 --> 38:46 actually given it an extra month or 2 for testing
38:46 --> 38:49 purpose or for feedback or for just
38:49 --> 38:54 training, you know, and that's
38:54 --> 38:58 key for business winners like us. Yeah, I can
38:59 --> 39:02 appreciate that. And, you know, wrapping up here, if you guys could
39:02 --> 39:06 go back to your younger entrepreneur selves and
39:06 --> 39:10 give yourself advice, one piece of advice that you think would change you
39:11 --> 39:14 for the betterment and expedite a lot of this, what do you think it would
39:14 --> 39:17 be? Uh,
39:17 --> 39:21 don't worry. I don't know
39:21 --> 39:24 if she agrees. So don't worry.
39:24 --> 39:28 Okay. So, uh, don't worry and chill out again.
39:29 --> 39:32 Um, the, the, the tastes, the thirst
39:33 --> 39:36 and the taste and the hungriness of just
39:37 --> 39:40 creating something, doing something, creating my own business and
39:40 --> 39:43 being obsessed with that and being frustrated with that.
39:44 --> 39:48 It was nonsense when I look back
39:48 --> 39:52 today. So don't worry, chill, and trust
39:53 --> 39:55 the time block. Yeah. What are you, Jessica?
39:57 --> 40:00 I think don't take things so seriously. In the moment,
40:00 --> 40:04 there were a lot of things when we were building the business and,
40:04 --> 40:07 you know, things that happened with our first team members that we,
40:08 --> 40:11 you know, had to hire really quickly because we were booked
40:11 --> 40:15 out at 100% occupancy from the day that we opened our doors. And we
40:15 --> 40:18 thought, you know, we were going to get busier over time, over like a year.
40:18 --> 40:21 And that ended up not being the case. So we had to hire a team
40:22 --> 40:25 really fast. And, you know, the people, they ended up not working
40:25 --> 40:27 out. And there was a lot of issues. And it was just like, it was
40:27 --> 40:30 very stressful in the time. Um, but,
40:30 --> 40:34 you know, I think just having been able to remind myself,
40:34 --> 40:37 like, everything's gonna be okay, don't take this so seriously,
40:38 --> 40:41 you're gonna laugh about this a year from now is just always
40:41 --> 40:44 a good reminder to have because things that feel really big in
40:45 --> 40:48 the moment, I've honestly probably forgotten half of them by now,
40:48 --> 40:51 5 years later. That's awesome. All right, guys,
40:52 --> 40:56 to wrap up here, can you tell the audience how
40:56 --> 41:00 they can find you, all your socials, everything? Let them know where
41:00 --> 41:03 you are. Yeah. oakwell.com for
41:03 --> 41:07 more website to learn more about our services and
41:07 --> 41:10 make a reservation from your experience.
41:10 --> 41:13 oakwellfranchise.com for anything related to franchise.
41:13 --> 41:17 If you're interested about opening an Oakwell Beer Spa
41:18 --> 41:21 in one of your markets, oakwellfranchise.com, and we'll get
41:21 --> 41:23 back to you within 24 hours.
41:24 --> 41:27 And then social media, Oakwell Beer Spa
41:27 --> 41:30 on both Facebook, Instagram, and for TikTok,
41:31 --> 41:33 Uh, it's Oakwell Spa.
41:33 --> 41:37 All right, all right guys, well thank you
41:37 --> 41:40 so much Jessica and Damien, uh, for being on here. Um,
41:41 --> 41:44 uh, I can't wait to see what happens in a couple
41:45 --> 41:48 years from now. I feel like there's going to be Oakwell Beer Spas popping up
41:48 --> 41:51 all over the country and we're going to change the way that,
41:52 --> 41:55 uh, people, especially men, see how they can experience
41:56 --> 41:59 this, uh, spa wherever they are. All right, well, thank you so much,
41:59 --> 42:03 guys, for being on The Personal Side of Business. Thank you so much,
42:03 --> 42:03 Jet. Cheers.