IAM169- Entrepreneur Runs an Award Winning Spa in Westchester, NY

Oasis Day Spa owner Bruce Schoenberg is living proof that you can make a major career change work successfully. Bruce for over twenty years was involved in the event marketing and trade show industry, producing major events both locally and nationally. 

In 1997 seeing the emergence of the wellness and spa industry going mainstream he saw the potential to bring his vision to New York City. After writing several business plans, conducting numerous focus groups and visiting dozens of spas Bruce was convinced the industry was growing and could support another spa in the crowded Manhattan spa business. One of Bruce’s golden rules is: “numbers don’t lie, only people do”. If you do the math fairly and honestly, you can fairly predict what it will take to create a successful business.

Oasis opened its first location in 1998, a seven-room spa in Union Square. Bruce concentrated on the marketing, advertising and business operations end. Knowing his strength lay in marketing, people management and operations, he is most proud of the people he has hired with the expertise in the service end. Bruce also acts as the “Why Guy” regarding any service changes or purchase decisions for professional and retail products.

Oasis Day Spa was an overnight success, quickly earning ‘Best of New York’ designations from several local and national publications. Oasis second location at One Park Avenue, four times the size of their original spa, opened December 2001, and instantly garnered tremendous reviews and a huge loyal following. 

Business partnerships were formed with the Affinia Dumont Hotel where Oasis opened its third location in May 2004. This location also included a fitness center and incorporated more wellness services including Yoga. 

Oasis opened their fourth location at the jetBlue Terminal 5 at JFK Airport in December 2004. This partnership with jetBlue Airways culminated after the airline vetted four other spas and selected Oasis. This was Oasis’ opportunity to help stressed out travelers find a little peace and wellness during the harried times of traveling. In addition, the jetBlue experience would help Oasis extend their brand recognition.

In April 2006 the original Oasis location in Union Square was destroyed by fire, and the landlord opted out of the lease which was way below market value. After careful analysis of the Manhattan real estate market at that time it was decided to just maintain the two current locations. 

In the fall of 2007 Oasis opted not to go into the new Terminal 6 at JFK with jetBlue since the terminal location assigned was determined to be incapable of making a profit.

In early 2008 Oasis opened their location in Westchester, NY that opened in November 2008. This location is the largest spa in the county and features an outdoor rooftop garden and event space. Oasis Day Spa has been named ‘Best Day Spa of Westchester’ by Westchester Magazine for 10 years in a row.

• CEO Hack: (1)Solstice advice from others. (2) A program called Secret Shopper (3) Keep the old looking gold through proper maintenance
• CEO Nugget: Listen to your customers and solstice feedback because things keep changing.
• CEO Defined: Leader of a tribe, person with integrity.

Website: https://www.oasisdayspanyc.com/

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/OasisNY/?_rdc=1&_rdr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oasisdayspa/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Bruce Schoenberg of Oasis Day Spa. Bruce, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Bruce Schoenberg 0:37

Thanks very much for having me on, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

No problem super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Bruce, so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Oasis Day Spa owner Bruce, is living proof that you can make a major career change work successfully. Bruce, for over 20 years was involved in the event marketing and trade show associate industry producing major events both locally and nationally.

In 1997, seeing the emergence of the wellness and spa industry going mainstream, he saw the potential to bring his vision to New York City. After writing several business plans conducting numerous focus groups and visiting dozens of spas Bruce was convinced the industry was growing and could support another spa in the crowded Manhattan spa business.

One of Bruce's golden rules is numbers don't lie only people do. If you do the math fairly and honestly, you can fairly predict what it will take to create a successful business. Oasis opened its first location in 1998, a seven-room spa in Union Square. And Oasis has two locations now their Manhattan location named Best of New York by New York Magazine is located on an exclusive Park Avenue in the heart of New York City. And their Westchester, New York location has been named the best spa of Westchester by Westchester Magazine for 10 years in a row.

The first question I had was to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. And what led you to start your business?

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Bruce Schoenberg 1:55

Well, I come from a serial entrepreneurial family a story that I think many Americans probably share. My family was immigrants to this country back at the turn of the 20th century coming over from Europe. And my grandfather, with a little help from other family members, eventually started a very small business back then is not much different than today.

Immigrants have a rough go of it and have to depend on their own community. And so my grandfather taught my father who was the first of our family to go to college. In fact, my father was a very bright guy who went to Indiana University and ended up dropping out to go to the Korean War. But when he came out of the service, he went into business with my grandfather and eventually built that business up, and bequests you teach your kids not just the moral compass, but you try to teach them values, I started working with my dad, nine and a half years old, was brought down to work to get a firm appreciation of how hard he had to work.

And constantly he spoke to not just myself but my siblings about the importance of mastery of your own destiny so to speak. So at a very early age was fortunate enough to be exposed to seeing my family run a business I found that to be extremely interesting and exciting. I went to college and studied mostly I took a business track in college and marketing and didn't want to go into the family business became out always college with the from college with the expectation that someday I might; that was always the game plan.

I was able to evolve from working at the event and tradeshow companies that I was at learning the business there building my contacts and eventually going out to launch my own company.

Gresham Harkless 3:38

That's awesome. It definitely sounds like you had the DNA, to be an entrepreneur and business owner. And, I love the phrase that you mentioned about the mastery of your own destiny. I think that's what you said. It's kind of like that's at the core I feel of most entrepreneurial journeys.

Bruce Schoenberg 3:53

I think that you'll find just like you Gresh, there are no shortcuts.

Gresham Harkless 3:56

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. definitely sounds like it worked out. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about Oasis Day Spa and exactly what you guys do to kind of help support your clients. So could you tell us a little bit more about it?

Bruce Schoenberg 4:06

Anybody that has ever been to a day spa or now knows about the industry, it's really gone mainstream since I've been in it and I'm we're in business now for over 20 years, which is quite a testament to the people that work there. Because if you start a company today 100 companies start on January 1, 2019, how many are going to be around in 20 years, maybe four or five as much as I hate a lot of people give me the credit. It's really the people that work with me that are responsible for helping me succeed.

Oasis Day Spa is a beauty and wellness business. We deliver massage therapy, skincare aesthetic services, we do wellness services such as acupuncture, we also do a lot of work with the corporate world going out to corporations to trade shows.

I still keep that past life somewhat in my back pocket because that was so instrumental in helping me get to where I am today, and the lessons I learned there. We were innovative in that we were the first spa open up in an airport, we have a major presence in the corporate world when we go into offices to provide our services at trade shows.

And we host a lot of events at this spot. So right now, I have a wonderful team of people working very hard to make sure that the holiday season is merry for not just our customers, but for the people that work at Oasis.

Gresham Harkless 5:30

Yeah, that makes sense, in the case grid, that you have that realization that you understand that it's not just you building the business, but you and a team and people that are put in place, and it's helped you to be successful. And I wasn't sure if you kind of already touched on this, but is that what you kind of would consider your secret sauce, or what you feel kind of distinguishes Oasis, it makes you guys unique.

Bruce Schoenberg 5:49

I can say that being an athlete during my life and playing team sports, I played college football and baseball, I cannot tell you the enjoyment that I took out of that experience from being on a mission with other people to achieve a goal.

So my secret sauce is building an army. That's all; it's like the Spartans have 300 Spartans I looked at who was able to fight an army, you know, 10 times the size of them because they were able to work together. And that's what we try to foster at Oasis Day Spa, that everybody is on the same plane and has the same mindset as to what we're trying to deliver. And our customers see that. And the customers want to go to a company where they see the employees want to be there. It speaks volumes.

Gresham Harkless 6:41

Yeah. And it's funny that you mentioned that, yeah, that's an awesome movie. And then it's a great perspective and reminder for CEOs, entrepreneurs, or business owners because when you do have that mission-driven team or culture, it kind of manifests itself in so many different ways from answering the phone to actually providing the services to so many different things. But when you're not that mission-driven, sometimes you can tell the difference.

So it's great to hear that you have been able to build that culture, but at the same time be able to do it for so long 20 years. So definitely kudos to you for that.

Now, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app or book or habit that you have, but it's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient as an entrepreneur and CEO.

Bruce Schoenberg 7:20

I read that. When you say business resource or business hack, I think probably, as I move forward in my career, and become a better CEO, it's because I've been far more open than ever before to solicit the advice of others, especially my staff, my vendors, the people that are providing me with either services or products because they have a vested interest in my success as well. No vendor wants to lose a customer.

And so Oasis Day Spa, they're going to go out of their way to make sure that they're providing me with good advice, especially when it comes to their products. I've even had some of my vendors, their companies come out with a new product.

And they'll say to me, I don't think it's for you, I don't think it's going to work in the mission that you have. And so they're looking out for me one of the things that I feel that the reason that I have such a loyal staff in not just management, but the infantry, the people that are on the front lines is because I'm always soliciting their feedback.

And they know that I'm listening, and I use a program called Secret Shopper. And the Secret Shopper is I'm sure you know what that is, they'll come in and they'll shop your business, not just the services, but they'll tell you how your team did in answering the phone and scheduling the appointment.

And then they will deliberately call up and change things and challenge them to see how they can handle making a recommendation or how they deal with a difficult client who will actually have on occasion, one of the Secret Shoppers call up and be the type of annoying, crazy client that everybody's afraid of just to see how our staff deals with that.

And so I'm constantly trying to upgrade the product in some way. And I guess the analogy I make to my staff is you can have a 20-year-old car, but if you keep that car washed and waxed and looking stellar. It's not a 20-year-old car, maybe a 20-year-old car to you, but to somebody that's coming in and seeing your car for the first time, they go wow, what a great old car this is. I wish I had that. So we are constantly waxing the car, making sure that it looks buff.

Gresham Harkless 9:36

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now when it asks you for what I call a CEO nugget and this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that you would have for other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Bruce Schoenberg 9:44

Your business is always evolving. You could be making lug nuts that are something that is a standard operating piece. There's going to be somebody out there that's trying to create a better product than you. I think it's so important that you Solstice feedback not just from the vendors that I spoke about or your staff, but you listen to your customers, we run events a couple of times a year when we're not what I would call our slower periods, but periods where we know that our customers may have a little more time to give us and we ask them what it is that they're looking for. Because the 30-year-old up today is different than the 30-year-old of 20 years ago. It's a different world we live in, in terms of instantaneous media.

And I'm an old dog when I was in the trade show, I remember how we would be on the phones soliciting new exhibitors or new sponsors. And we would then if we made a deal, we would send out the contract and we would wait for that contract to come back technology events of my life were when the fax machine existed. And I remember the first time I sent a fax to a customer in LA to sign up for a show in New York. And 45 minutes later, the little tone on the fax machine went off, and out came the contract signed by the customer. And the deal was made in an hour where I just have to mail it out and wait for it to come back.

And so technology is changing so rapidly in my industry. Now, with skincare, especially, we used to have traditional facials now, the industry has advanced so much technology-wise, well even medically with things like Botox, but we now do things like microcurrent, one of the rages in the industry now is whether you people go in and do Kairo, freezing, you have to constantly be listening to what it is that your customers are looking for, and evolving with your customers because I am still focused on that womb to tomb sort of philosophy.

But now I'm dealing with a different younger client that has a different agenda. Never before did you ever see people so young, getting anti-aging treatments that you would associate with women or even men that would not think about that till they were in their 50s. And now we're seeing people in their mid even late 20s wanting to get Botox, which is surprising.

Gresham Harkless 12:22

Now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So I want to ask you, Bruce, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Bruce Schoenberg 12:33

Well, CEO means Chief Executive Officer, so that means you are the leader of the tribe, you are in front of the band. And I think for me, the pressure, not saying it's the pressure at this point, because I feel so comfortable in this position. And frankly, I've always I've been lucky enough personality wise, have always had leadership skills from when I was a kid and I was the captain, or the coach would make me the captain of the team or I was always the one that organized something or my personality suited me for a leadership role.

But I think the most important piece of advice I would give to anyone that's going to be in a leadership position is to understand the importance of integrity to not ever mislead your customers, not mislead your staff set an example that you would demand from your people that you would want from your customers. I don't think I can honestly tell you, I don't think that I lie. I give people a straight answer. I may massage it in such a way that I don't want to hurt people's feelings.

But the most important thing that I could I would tell anybody in a CEO position is to be straight with your staff, tell them what's going on, and solicit their feedback, once you lose trust, whether it be in a product, whether it be in service, whether it be in your staff, you're cooking, so nothing's more important to me than integrity.

And so I try on. Every time I have a conversation, whether it be in a group with my staff, or I'm speaking at a PR opportunity to potential customers, I will tell them, we may not be the right spa for all of you, and or my business may not be for everyone. I try to at least think it comes across that I am sincere and that's why I think I've had the extreme loyalty of my employees and my customers when I even say to my children when you mess up on it, and I was watching with a lot of curiosity, one of the biggest marketing tools that a lot of businesses have especially Oasis is Facebook.

And watching the crisis of confidence that Facebook has there were a lot of lessons to be learned about how they handled and I think they might do things well and wish they had done things differently. But I think for those young entrepreneurs looking at how the business operates, and now we're also seeing it in our political officials that what kind of trust can you have? And once you lose trust, you're done.

Gresham Harkless 15:14

Awesome. Yeah, that definitely makes perfect sense. And Bruce, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I want to do is pass you the mic, so to speak. And let us know if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know how best they can get a hold of you.

Bruce Schoenberg 15:26

If anybody is interested in visiting our website and purchasing a gift certificate or anything, I'm going to give you my special code, which is Bruce, use that as a promo code, and that'll give you a nice discount off of any valued dollar gift card. But at this time of the year, right now, I'm working 24/7 until New Year's Eve, and then I'm taking two weeks off though, I would say if they need to reach me, I would love to hear from you. My email is bruce@oasisdayspanyc.com. And so I'm also on LinkedIn and Facebook. I'm sure you could find me not that hard. You google me, I'm there.

Gresham Harkless 16:08

And we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well as the often that you provided to us. So Bruce, I truly appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Bruce Schoenberg 16:17

Gresh, thanks for having me on, and wishing you and your family a very happy holiday and New Year season.

Outro 16:23

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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