IAM2283 – Entrepreneur Runs an Award Winning Spa in Westchester, NY

Title: Transcript - Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:10:22 GMT

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2024 07:10:22 GMT, Duration: [00:16:55.65]

[00:00:00.36] - Bruce Shoenberg

And that's what we try to foster at Oasis Naispa, 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 volume.

[00:00:20.01] - Intro

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 Harkness 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.

[00:00:45.24] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today at Bruce Schoenberg of Oasis dayspod. Bruce, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:54.92] - Bruce Shoenberg

Thanks very much for having me on.

[00:00:56.75] - Gresham Harkless

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 in Oasis. This is Day Spa owner Bruce is a 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 spot 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?

[00:02:12.96] - Bruce Shoenberg

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, as 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, went to Indiana University, ended up dropping out to go into 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 because you teach your kids, you know, not just the moral compass, but you try to teach them values. I started working with my dad at nine and a half years old. I 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 I, at a very early age was fortunate enough to be exposed to seeing my family run a business and found that to be extremely interesting and exciting. I went to college, studied mostly, took a business track in college in marketing, and didn't want to go into the family business, but came out always 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 trade show companies that I was at, learning the business there, building my contacts, and eventually going out and launching my own company.

[00:03:57.06] - Gresham Harkless

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

[00:04:11.03] - Bruce Shoenberg

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

[00:04:14.74] - Gresham Harkless

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

[00:04:24.67] - Bruce Shoenberg

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 we're in business now 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 based 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. The lessons I learned there. We were innovative in that we were the first spa to open up in an airport. We have a major presence in the corporate world when we go into offices to provide our services at the trade shows, and we host a lot of events at the spa. 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.

[00:05:48.91] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes sense. But is that what you kind of would consider, like your secret sauce or what you feel kind of distinguishes Oasis and makes you guys unique?

[00:05:55.66] - Bruce Shoenberg

I can say that, you know, being an athlete during my life and playing on team sports, you know, 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 all is. It's like the Spartans of 300 Spartans. I love that they were able to fight an army, you know, 10 times the size of them because they. They were able to work together. And that's what we try to foster at Oasis Nayspa, 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 volume.

[00:06:47.45] - Gresham Harkless

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, and 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. 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, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient as an entrepreneur or CEO.

[00:07:20.10] - Bruce Shoenberg

Yeah, I read that. And 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 through soliciting 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 for Oasis, they 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 these secret shoppers, 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. We'll 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 could 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.

[00:09:35.74] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask 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.

[00:09:43.76] - Bruce Shoenberg

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 solicit 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, 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 of 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 for 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 lifetime was when the fax machine came into existence. 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 used to have to mail it out, 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 Cairo 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 tune 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 to even late 20s wanting to get Botox, which is surprising.

[00:12:22.13] - Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you for 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 wanted to ask you, Bruce, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:12:32.33] - Bruce Shoenberg

Well, CEO means what? Chief Executive Officer. So that means you are the leader of the Tribe, you are the, in front of the band. And I think for me, the pressure, I'm not saying it's pressure at this point because I feel so comfortable in this position. And I, frankly, I've, I've always, I've been lucky enough personality wise that I've always had leadership skills from when I was a kid. You know, I was the captain of the coach would make me the captain of the team or I was always the one that organized something. So 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, in a CEO position is to be straight with your staff. Tell them what's going on, solicit their feedback. Once you lose trust, whether it be in a product, whether it be in a service, whether it be in your staff, you're cooked. 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, 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 I 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, own 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 that. And I think they might do things, wish they had done things differently. But I think for those young entrepreneurs looking at how 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.

[00:15:13.25] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Yeah, that definitely, you know, 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, to let us know if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best they can get a hold of you.

[00:15:25.67] - Bruce Shoenberg

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 247 until New Year's Eve and then I'm taking two weeks off. So I would say if they need to reach me, I would love to hear from you. My email is brucewayspa nyc.com and so I'm also on LinkedIn and Facebook. I'm sure you could find me. Not that hard.

[00:16:06.51] - Gresham Harkless

You Google me, I'm there and we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well as that offer that you provided to us. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of Gresh.

[00:16:15.40] - Bruce Shoenberg

Thanks for having me on.

[00:16:16.66] - Intro

Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blu16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at Imceo. Co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating. This has been the IMCEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.