Check out Crystal Bethea online!

• LinkedIn -  Crystal Bethea

• Website - c3wellness.com

• Instagram - @c3wellness

Note: This is an original transcript–edited for sense, length, and clarity.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email our host, Doria Lavagnino, at doria@sheventurespodcast.com.

Intro:

Doria Lavagnino: About 6 percent of veterans are business owners. This woman is not only a veteran, she’s a woman of color who co-founded a spa franchise, adding much-needed representation in holistic health franchising and entrepreneurship for minorities. She’s here to talk about her pivot from serving our country to creating her spa brand, C3, which stands for Complete Comprehensive Care, a holistic medical spa born from a desire to help veterans. Crystal Bethea, welcome to SheVentures!

Crystal: Thank you so much, Doria. It is such a pleasure and honor to be on your podcast. I love the work you’re doing in the community for women. I think this is empowering. I really appreciate being on today. This is fun.

Doria: Absolutely, and thank you for your service to our country.

Crystal: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Doria: We’re recording on Memorial Day. This may come out a little bit later, but this is the zone we are in right now. 

Mother Knows Best

Doria: Let’s start with a little bit of context. I always like to ask each guest a little bit about where you grew up and if there is an event, a person, or a memory that comes to mind when you think of your childhood.

Crystal: I grew up in Chicago, on the South Side. We moved to Florida because it was such a dangerous time back in ’81. My mother was like, “I got to put my children in a better environment before we become a statistic.” She never really wanted that for us. It was like a mini Beirut where I grew up. That was the greatest move that we made by moving to Florida. [It was] definitely a culture shock. 

From my childhood, I just remember my mother. She was an RN. She passed away six years back. Her health and wellness — she just embodied that when it came to learning about leaves, roots, teas, fish oil, and all kinds of stuff. She was into it. She was like, “Try to treat yourself naturally as much as possible.”

She taught me to use more Eastern and Western medicine — more Motherland medicine than anything. She was like, “Hey, you get the test done, learn how to treat yourself, find a way to use both because sometimes they’re necessary. Don’t go rogue and end up dying off.” She always kept it real. She was fun.

Doria: Yeah, it sounds like she was very middle of the road, in many ways. I think that we don’t focus enough on prevention. I think a lot of homeopathies can help with that. If we focus on prevention, then it’s better on every level, including costs down the road. 

Was she a single mom?

Crystal: Yes. She eventually married my stepfather and they were together until they parted.

Doria: Wonderful.

Serving the Country

Doria: As I mentioned at the top of the show, you’re a veteran. What went into your decision to serve? For how long did you serve and where?

Crystal: In my family, it’s tradition for everyone to go to honor my father, so that’s exactly what we did — fresh out of high school. We were so excited about it. It was terrifying all at the same time, but we were way more prepared than we realized. 
I think the hardest part was the physical activity. The yelling and the in-your-face stuff, I could handle it. We were fine. A lot of people broke during that process. It was tough to see. Trying to get that mental toughness taught us a lot. I got a chance to serve in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Jackson, Columbia [South Carolina]. I’ll tell you — Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, I wouldn’t wish that duty station on anyone. It was quite the experience. 

Doria: How long did you do that for?

Crystal: Not for very long. I think I might have been in there for about a year. 

I had an episode with the first husband — we didn’t get our duty stations aligned. Instead of them fixing it, it was just easier for us to come out. Because of that, I figured out a way to honor my father in a different way. Me serving and now serving our veterans and community is a way to tie that together.

Doria: Absolutely.

Getting Started in the Spa Industry

Doria: How did you get started in the spa industry?

Crystal: Right after I got out, I finished my cosmetology license because I joined fresh out of high school. I started doing facials, haircuts, and making wigs for seniors. That was fun. I made a lot of money. 

Doria: That must have been wonderful to see them happy.

Crystal: It really was.

Doria: So cosmetology school, how was that? Was it hard?

Crystal: It was hard but I was intrigued by how much chemistry and whatnot was involved in it. Learning a lot about the body kind of kicked it off. Many moons later, I ended up in massage therapy school. I was like, “This is where I’m supposed to be.” 

I was going through the process, learning about the body, conditions, and how to treat them. I was coming from a family of nurses, midwives, and military people. I was like, “I got to find my walk now. This is it.” I knew that tying skincare and massage therapy together was it for me.

Doria: You started working for other people when you were starting out, is that right?

Crystal: I did, yes. I actually started at Massage Envy. I was doing haircuts [on the side]. I was running my own mobile business. I was working multiple jobs. I had like three or four jobs, but I loved it. I didn’t have any children. I was able to keep myself out of trouble. Making money was my thing. I said, “Let me find a way to serve, do, and have a good time in that.” 

Massage — oh my God, what a rewarding field. Again, it’s more about maintenance. I learned more about that than waiting until you get to the acute stages. I started taking certification after certification. I have 23 certifications under my belt. Medical massage therapy is one of them. I tell you, learning how to treat the body this way — I don’t know what it is, there’s nothing like what we do. 

Doria: Oh, I can imagine. I’m in Brooklyn where we have an array of massage therapies. Some of [them] you can get the $100 two-hour massage from an unlicensed person. You assume they’re unlicensed, right? Not necessarily the cleanest, but like on the up and up in the sense that there’s nothing weird going on, right? Then, there are the more medical spa aspects.

Healing on a Budget

Doria: I’m wondering, what advice would you give to listeners who have a budget, but are looking for a way to help heal themselves with massage? What should they look for?

Crystal: Even on a budget, I think people spin on what they value. I think there is room for self-care. I think it’s just the last thing on our list. When it comes to taking care of ourselves, you can’t heal without touch. There’s no way around it. The only way to flush your body is to manually do it. 

A lot of us are so busy in the morning. When we wash up and put our deodorant on, we don’t even make time to lotion. We got lymphatic waste trapped in our tissues. Of course, it’s trapped in our organs. There’s no way to expel it. We don’t make enough time to work out. There’s no sweat, there’s no elimination. 

If you think about it in those terms, [and] you get a massage, [with] that manual flush — that full body flush — your body can heal itself. It can rid you of those impurities and toxins even if you have to expel them in the other direction. If you don’t sweat, it’ll come out.

Doria: It does come out one way or another. How often would you recommend that a healthy person get a massage?

Crystal: I think maintenance plans are good at least once or twice a month to keep mobile and range of motion going. It’s not just massage. If we get the stretching going, we kind of do the myofascial release to unbind those knots and things in the back and shoulders. It’s amazing the restrictions our body holds, it’s unbelievable. I don’t know why we feel like it’s a luxury. It’s not maintenance, it’s health. Again, it’s about putting ourselves first and making ourselves a priority at some point.

Self-Care Isn’t Selfish

Doria: This is something I hear over and over again, and I need to hear it because I’m guilty of it myself. Self-care is not selfish. It’s something you have to prioritize. You can’t take care of anyone else, even if you’re a people pleaser, unless you’re okay first. It’s gotta start with you.

Crystal: It’s so hard. That’s even hard for me. I’m a caregiver. We give so much and put so much out. We want to be present and of service. 

When I started tearing down, I’m no help to anybody. It took me a while to get myself back on track. I got to a place I was massaging all day and [for] so long that I would start gagging. My body was involuntarily gagging. I would be talking just like this and I’m like, “Why am I gagging?” My clients would laugh. We would laugh because I [was] like, “What’s happening?” I was putting out way too much energy. I had to withdraw back. Your body lets you know one way or another.

Doria: I’ve always wondered, massage therapists must receive a lot of their clients’ energy too, right? You have to do something with that.

Crystal: I’m telling you, you have to learn to ground yourself. I was way more scientific about the thought process starting out. I have evolved. Whether or not you believe in transparency of energy and all those things, you learn when you start experiencing things going on. They can have emotional problems. You’re left with this mess because of the transparency that you pick up off of other people’s energy and problems. I have become quite the tree hugger. I will walk around barefoot on grass and give back to Mother Nature just to get rid of the inflammation and healing in my body. You have to ground yourself going in.

Doria: Oh yeah, I’m with you right there, hugging the tree too. I know it’s real, you know?
Crystal: Yes, it is.

Evolution of the Brand

Doria: Can you talk about the evolution of your brand from Riviera Spa Massage, initially, and then it became C3 Wellness Spa?

Crystal: That was complicated. When I started at Riviera Spa Massage, I started as Cutting Head LLC because I was doing mobile haircuts and massages. I created a DBA for Riviera because I was a business inside of a business, but no one could find me with that name. I had to change it to the building name Riviera Spa but put massage on the end so they can differentiate that I’m inside of a gym.

Doria: Oh, gotcha.

Crystal: Yeah, I wasn’t necessarily tied to that name. It didn’t have a strong meaning. I just needed people to find my location.

Doria: Okay, very practical. Yeah, absolutely.

Crystal: I think after a while I wanted to expand. I went from a studio suite to two studio suites next door to each other to two locations later. Now, I’m out of that. One is 4,000 square feet; another one is 2,000. And 60 employees later. 

Now, I’m hands-off. I’m more focused on managing, training, and developing my franchise. It all happened so fast in a five-year span to us — which is us three, my husband, myself, [and] my daughter. That’s more on the back end of the story. 

C3 is us. I wanted to do complete comprehensive care, like a holistic wellness place. I wanted to put all modalities [and] cultural things, [and] put it together for the good of our community.

C3’s Relationship with Veterans

Doria: Were you always focused on veterans when you were doing Riviera Spa? Was that an evolution, also?

Crystal: I was more focused on the community. I wanted to find a way to bring the vets in because they’re the hardest ones to get to take care of themselves. They don’t necessarily want to spend out of pocket and I understand completely. They served the country; it should come with some benefits for sure. 

It took me some time but I got qualified and registered for the VA. Now, because of that, veterans can come in and they’re 100 percent taken care of by the VA. It took some time, but I got it done for them.

Doria: That’s incredible. I’m in the process of doing that myself. I’m not a veteran obviously, but sam.gov for the federal government is a whole process. Then, you can do it for veterans and a bunch of others. I’m now going for my women’s enterprise and that’s fascinating. 

I’m glad that it works. You’re a living example that it does. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’m still getting my capability statement ready.

Getting Credentials

Crystal: Yes! Oh my God, it took time. I’ll tell you how it works because I went through a rabbit hole. We started and went through a QA to get credentials with insurance companies, as well. We take insurance as one of our differentiators. VA government benefits are your major players. 

One system led to another. It was like, “Well, how do we do this?” The next thing you know, they all connected later, even though none of it made sense to us in the beginning. When people try to ask me, “How do we do it?” I’m like, “I really don’t know.” We were reading on Google and we’ll pull up a site and go, “Okay, maybe we didn’t do this right.” It was crazy. 

It ended up working out where we ended up talking with the VA. They said, “Oh, you filled this out and did this and that. Okay, you can become a government and a community caregiver.” We were like, “We did it!” It took us a year, but we figured it out.

Doria: That’s incredible. 

Crystal: It’s not supposed to take that long to work. 

Doria: I think it does actually. A lot of people lose hope, right? They’re like, “Oh no, I either have to go back to work or I’m not doing this.” 

You did veteran insurance and health insurance. Can you touch on the funding aspect? Were you bootstrapped? Did you buy your spot outright? How did that work?

Crystal: I started small. I kept turning over the money that I made. For me, starting from mobile services to transitioning over to me having my own suite. I did a wine and cheese open house. That got me my first 50 people. That word of mouth started spreading and it took off from there. It was a full-time gig for me. 

My husband was still working full-time at his job. If I fell short anywhere, he had my back. It really worked out. It just kept growing from there. It was like, “This is awesome stuff.”

Doria: Word of mouth is the best kind of marketing because you’re not paying for it. It also means that what you’re doing is having an impact.

Crystal: Yeah, absolutely. It’s been rewarding. Another thing my husband did when I expanded to the second room — because I went from one studio suite, which was an office space, to two rooms — he cashed in a lot of his 401(k) so we could do it. It was $15,000 or something like that to buy all the equipment to duplicate what we had in that space. I was like —

No, no, boo. I’m on an interview — it’s my daughter. I apologize.

An Interruption

Doria: That’s okay, she can come say hi if she wants.

Hi, what’s your name?

Aryes: Aryes.

Doria: It’s very nice to meet you.

Aryes: Thank you.

Doria: I’m interviewing your mom about how she served our country, and how she’s now working as a franchise owner of a spa. How do you feel about your mom’s accomplishments?

Aryes: Good.

Doria: Yeah, she’s done a lot, right?

Aryes: She’s a great mom. She’s never failing.

Doria: Oh, that’s beautiful!

Crystal: Love you. Thank you.

Aryes: Love you.

Doria: We’re all here talking business and you break it down to what really matters.

Crystal: Oh my God, thank you so much. She has a heart of gold.

Doria: Yes!

Crystal: I’ve never heard her say that. You’re going to make me cry. I love you.

Doria: It was very nice to meet you. Someday I may interview you too if your mom lets me, okay? Bye!

Crystal: I’m going to finish. That’s my sweet girl.

Doria: Love it. Beautiful.

Back to Business

Doria: Let’s see, your husband handles the insurance side of things, right?

Crystal: Yes.

Doria: A few questions about that. I think we’ve already actually covered this. I was going to ask how difficult it was to become approved for what you talked about on the VA side. As a consumer, I feel overwhelmed with the nonsense I deal with with my insurance carrier with prescriptions or whatever. Was that also a largely bureaucratic process?

Crystal: Not really, I went to school for medical billing and coding. That was one of my nine, as well.

Doria: Oh, okay.

Crystal: I taught my husband the billing aspect of it. I was like, “I can’t handle this portion of it. I can’t be hands-on, training staff, and administrative.” He’s picking up the administrative, saying “You got to handle this.” It’s a lot of paperwork. We started the process of getting credentialed and found our medical director. Then, we were rocking and rolling. That was much easier than the VA portion of it.

Doria: Interesting.

Crystal: For a lot of these things, you can get help from different companies as far as credentialing. That part you don’t necessarily have to walk by yourself. We did it because we kind of knew some of it. There are companies that’ll get you credentialed and start those processes for you. You don’t really have to pay them until you’re actually in the network.

Doria: Oh, that’s good to know. I had no idea.

Defining a Franchise

Doria: Let’s start more basic: Can you explain to our audience, for those who might not know, what a franchise is?

Crystal: A franchise is an opportunity for you to expand your brand with other people purchasing those brands. It’s not a chain where I have to open up location after location. To create a franchise is to sell your concept. They have policies and procedures. Everything about your brand they have to follow. Then, of course, they pay you a residual. You get to put your brand of care out there in the world and it just works out.

Doria: Examples that people might already know are McDonald’s. That’s a franchise.

Crystal: Right, Massage Envy. Yeah, strong brands. 

Doria: Yes and so current. 

If I said, “Okay, Crystal, I am interested in putting a C3 spa in Brooklyn,” walk me through what I would need to do and the money involved. I honestly don’t know.

Crystal: Sure. For my brand, C3 Wellness Spa, what we do is get you financially qualified. We’ll go through that process. Then I would introduce you to my team. I have a franchise manager that will walk you through the funding process of it. I have a real estate franchise team that will meet with you. What we do is based on your location. We’ll try to find the most viable locations for you around where it’s easy for you to get to. We get to the nitty-gritty detail. We know how much they’re earning, making, what’s producing in that area, what’s residential, what’s Airbnb. We set you up for success as far as location-wise, because that’s the biggest thing in business — location, location.

Doria: That makes sense. I understand the value. It’s expensive to rent a storefront in Brooklyn.

Crystal: Yes.

Doria: What you’re saying is that if I came to you and wanted to do this, your team would help me not just with finding the right place, but then adjusting prices accordingly so that I can cover my expenses.

Crystal: Absolutely, based on what you’re doing financially, the finance is going to be there with the brand for sure. As far as the location, we don’t want to put you in an oversaturated market. I’m not trying to oversaturate the industry. It’s going to disrupt it anyway because we accept insurance and there isn’t any other brand out there that does that. 

I can put you next to a massage, but it would hurt them quite a bit. I’m trying not to do anything like that. Put it in a reasonable enough space, a place where everybody can thrive. There’s definitely enough business to go around. We want to put you in a thriving location with parking and all those things people don’t think about [when] we try to find our own locations, right? We think we know what’s best because we see a lot of traffic. You can be in a low-income area and even though things are busy, it’s not the best. 

Thank God for franchises. You have a team behind you to walk through these pitfalls. You avoid all those errors you would probably make on your own.

Doria: Are there any regrets that you have about doing a franchise?

Crystal: Oh no, none at all. I’m new starting off in this. I know that there’s no overnight turnaround. There’s a process for everything. 

Going Nationwide

Crystal: I’m going through the onboarding with all of my brokers. They’ll be going out to sell the concepts of educating brokers nationwide. It’s been exciting to be involved in that, to meet so many people and answer all these questions. It’s like I was born for this. I was like, “This is it! I love it!”

Doria: So you’re starting in Florida because that’s where you’re located?

Crystal: That’s right.

Doria: When is the nationwide? It’s happening now, but it’s going to start to permeate.

Crystal: Oh no, I’m not just pigeonholing myself to Florida. I have people interested in California, Chicago, and Texas — quite a bit is picking up in Georgia. 

I have a team and a construction crew all ready for the permitting process. They’re willing to travel wherever I need them to go. I have an amazing corporate team behind me that I put together. They helped me as I grew through here. 

I’m just attacking them like, “Hey, let’s go into business together! I got this franchise going.” They’re like, “Let’s do it!” That’s exciting. I have an amazing team. I’m ready to put them to work. I know it’s going to happen any day now.

Doria: I love that.

A Year From Now

Doria: What I’d like to do is interview you a year from now. I do it with a couple of women and we’ll see where you’re at, see how you’ve expanded, and what you’re really happy about where you want to grow more. I think that would be wonderful if you’re open to it.

Crystal: I would love that opportunity. Thanks, Doria!

Salt Therapy

Doria: There were a couple of things that I saw you offered and I did not know what they were. What is salt therapy?

Crystal: Salt therapy is so important. It’s a booth. There are a lot of places that have salt rooms. They have the Himalayan salt you step in and all that. I have a salt therapy booth. It’s much cleaner. You get to sit and focus on the therapy, not necessarily the aesthetics of it. It’s more concentrated. You don’t have to be in there that long: 10 minutes in a booth is considered like you being in a booth in a room for an hour. 

It combs the respiratory tract. —I’m sorry, it’s what it does! It’s a therapeutic-grade salt. Not only does it help with eczema and skin issues, but it also helps with emotional stress. You sleep better. It calms you down quite a bit.

I’ve got some veterans with PTSD and [other] issues. When they go in there, they come back and are like, “What did you put in there? That was the best sleep I got. I wasn’t rattled and frazzled at night.”

What it says it does, it does. The combing of that debris [and] of those hair-like structures — it combs all those bacteria and debris and helps your body expel it. 

Doria: Oh, wonderful.

Crystal: So people who have asthma — it gets into those tiny little areas and sacs that even their medication can’t get through [and] opened up a whole lot more. 

Doria: Okay, with the booth, does one go into it alone or is it like a sauna where you [share]?

Crystal: No, I have room for two. I have two seats in there and some tissues — the mucus is going to start flowing [and] you got to get that out of there. I tell you if you have any respiratory problems, four to five sessions will do.

Doria: Oh, I love learning about that. 

Body Contouring

Doria: My other one, this one I think my daughter brought up with me, is body contouring.

Crystal: Yes.

Doria: Tell me about that. What’s happening?

Crystal: It’s non-invasive. We do cavitation radio frequency. Cavitation is lipo without the lipo. What it does is it expands the fat. It causes it to explode into a liquid so your body can flush it out. It uses like an ultrasonic wave. It explodes the fat as we keep going over the area. It helps shape you, lose those inches, and then eventually you see it on the scale. After a series of that, you start expelling all this waste. 

Doria: That’s not the same as frozen lipo, right?

Crystal: I would say this about the freeze — they never really tell people. I used to do it. It’s really for small pockets of fat, like if you have a smaller pudge on some that may be 120–130 pounds. It’s not really for people over 150 pounds. You’ll end up with a seat in a seat.

Cavitation is a much more effective way of covering an entire area versus them charging you an arm and a leg to freeze sections. 

Doria: Right, and is it painful?

Crystal: Well, it can be sometimes because it’s the first initial suck-up through the machine and then it pulses. It kind of inches, goes numb and then you’re fine.

Doria: Okay, and then typically, if someone wants to lose a few inches, how long does that take? How many treatments?

Crystal: With cavitation, what we do is we do consultations so we can at least tell you how many you’ll actually need. We have to customize that to every individual. I think after the second or third, but you’ll see it after the first immediately. We take a before and after picture. You stand up and are like, “Whoa, that’s different.” 

It’s still going to continue to get smaller as it starts expelling. You’ll need body-contouring shapewear because it helps you expel it. You don’t want to go through all that work and not wear that. It freezes back in place. Every moment your shapewear helps you get it off your lymphatic system. 

Doria: Do the fat cells actually disappear? With lipo, they suck them out.

Crystal: No, the lipo takes it completely out. This one explodes the fat cell, but the cell is still there. if you go back to not eating properly and all those things, eventually they’ll fill up. For the most part, they flatten.

No Shortcuts to Good Nutrition

Doria: I feel like good nutrition is important no matter what. There are no shortcuts to that.

Crystal: True.

Doria: How do you stay up to date with the latest trends and advancements in the wellness industry?

Crystal: Oh man, I’m always reading, studying, and researching. It’s just innate in us. Then when I hear good things, I always listen to my staff like, “Hey, what’s new? What’s popping? What do we need to learn about?”

I don’t want to get into every trend. I don’t want to get into trendy things. I want to get into what works and something that we can bring on that we can continue to use. I don’t follow fads as much. I want to try to keep it clean.

There are things that I don’t want to get into. I do understand the care of it for liability’s sake. I think it’s good to keep what we have going on but stay current as much as possible. If there’s a way that we can perfect our procedures or a way to make things easier for the client or us, I’m always for bringing those things on.

Doria: Innovation, absolutely. 

Being a WOC Business Owner

Doria: As a woman of color, have you faced any unique challenges in your journey as a business owner?

Crystal: In the beginning, from the location where I started — it started off in a 55-and-up resort-style community. There are different journeys and walks of life. I think for the most part, faith brought me to the right people. It broke down walls and barriers of people who just didn’t know any better. That’s what I look at when it comes to certain gaps — they just don’t know. 

The cool part is, I’m here and you can ask any questions. My massage sessions turn into therapy sessions. It was amazing to learn so much. They threw me diamonds of information. We were able to actually grow together, my clientele and me. It was great.

Doria: It’s incredible. It’s ultimately a dialogue. The fact that you’re willing to have a dialogue to at least explain in a way that they can receive the information. 

Crystal: Yeah, absolutely. I think there’s a misconception for the most part that is the Black American group. We don’t always have our hand out. We don’t use any life situations. A lot of us are here for service or care. 

I don’t make excuses for myself. I won’t be like, “Oh, I’m a single parent so, tip me a little more.” I don’t discuss myself personally unless that was asked. For the most part, I’m here like “How are you doing? I remember your trip!” If you came in two months later, like, “Oh my God, he went to such and such.” They’re like, “You remember that?” I’m like, “Yeah, this is my Young and the Restless. I remember.” I don’t watch a lot of TV so this is great for me. It’s fun. 

They get a chance to learn that we’re hardworking people. We have pride and a sense of duty. To be able to present that is key.

Doria: I’ve interviewed, I think now around 150 women. Women of color, I don’t want to get myself in trouble, but they have the most fascinating stories and are the most hardworking women that I know. It’s not to say that white women aren’t hardworking —

Crystal: No, no, I understand where you’re coming from. Things exist like we’re talking about, whether people want to acknowledge it or not. I think in our community to be recognized, we do have to work two or three times harder to even get recognized or noticed. It’s been like that my whole life. That’s why it was important to me to get into a space and place that if I’m working this hard for someone else, I can definitely do it for myself and make more of a difference without any handicaps. I’m going to give advice to anyone and all people period.

Doria: Yeah, absolutely!

Entrepreneurship Tips

Doria: In terms of young women who may be listening and are interested in entrepreneurship, what are some tips that you would give them of either things that you feel that you’ve done well or that you would have done differently?

Crystal: I think people are more focused on the glamour of the business. They’re so focused on aesthetics. They want it to look good because that’s the world we live in. It’s the judgmental aspect of it. You’ll go broke trying to keep up a facade versus starting off small. Start off within your means and grow from there. Get an understanding of your business. No one creates a business plan anymore. They’re full of ideas, but they don’t write them down. I’m like, “If you just do the small version of your business plan, you’ll realize that your business plan is your website. Your business plan is your policy and procedures.” 

I did that starting off. I got a book from the library. Nobody goes to the library anymore. Everything’s on the Internet. Order a book on Amazon, or whatever you’ve got to do. I was old school. I went to the library and I wrote it down.

Doria: You started small with the money that you had. They always talk about these fancy terms like “product market fit” or “know your customer.” You did that and you iterated as you went along, it sounds like.

Crystal: I did. I started off small. I started off mobile from my car to finally being able to have enough clientele to start in a marketing suite. I was careful not to put myself in debt. We only did what we can afford, aside from my husband pulling from his 401(k). We were making enough money to be able to do that — and now expanding, always flipping the money without doing loans. It was important to us to be smart about the money we make and be able to pay our staff. It went from my car to owning a multi-million dollar business in like five to seven years. You’ve got to think about the long term, not necessarily think about the short. It’ll discourage you.

Doria: Multi-million dollar business owner! I love that. 

Connect with Crystal

Doria: Where can listeners learn more about you and, if they’re interested, in a franchising opportunity?

Crystal: For learning more about myself, I’ve been putting quite a bit of PR out there. It’s been a fun process and an amazing journey doing the amount of interviews that I’ve been able to do to get brand awareness and a sense of people to know who we are, my husband and I. 

For my franchise, you can go to www.c3wellnessfranchise.com. There’s a lot of information on there about where you can get started. My team will contact you along with the chain of emails you’ll probably get but they’ll reach you.

Doria: It sounds like they will get a lot of help along the way if it’s the right fit!

Crystal: Absolutely.

Doria: Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing authentically and coming on SheVentures!

Crystal: Thank you, Doria. This is amazing.

Doria: See you in a year!

Crystal: I look forward to it.

Doria: Likewise.

Crystal: Thank you!