I realized there’s a real need to make massage therapy available to way more people.
I tried not to pull a Jerry Seinfeld during my conversation with Incorporate Massage founder and CEO Amelia Wilcox and trick her into giving me a massage. It wasn’t easy though because I quickly learned that if there’s anyone qualified to give a really great massage, it’s Wilcox and her Incorporate Massage team.
Wilcox founded the company in 2010 when, while working as a masseuse from her home, she realized the demand for massages was greater than what she could offer alone. “I could only do so many hours of massage in a day,” Wilcox explains. “I realized there’s a real need to make massage therapy available to way more people.”
These people are office employees that can get a free, in-chair massage without having to leave work, visit a spa, or even take off their clothes, though that would really shake up the workday, wouldn’t it? By hiring Incorporate Massage, employers are able to use massage therapy as an intervention for employee health problems, and keep injuries from escalating into workers comp claims. Employers also benefit from having an edge in the current competitive recruiting market. Offering employees massage services helps build morale, retain the best employees, and find the best new employees. Because people love a good massage. Massage can reduce blood pressure, decrease stress, anxiety, depression, and hostility, promote a positive body image, help with arthritis, and relieve headaches. Do you understand now why I nearly pulled a Seinfeld during our interview?
Because so many employees can benefit from the healing effects of massage and because so many employers want to keep their employees healthy and happy, the company is growing almost faster than they can scale. New positions with the company are available all the time and the positions appeal to employees with children. “Our employees are really, really happy,” Wilcox says. “They have workplace flexibility and family comes first.” The Incorporate Massage employees are probably not too sad about the 90 minute massage they receive once a month, as well as a number of other cool, nontraditional benefits.
So employers benefit from implementing Incorporate Massage, employees of those employers benefit from the services of Incorporate Massage, as Incorporate Massage employees benefit from working for Incorporate Massage. There can’t possibly be anyone else whom the company benefits, right? WRONG. In fact, the community at large benefits from Incorporate Massage’s outreach. “We’ve made community involvement a high priority,” Wilcox says. At the time of our interview, Incorporate Massage had been on the news twice that week and our interview was on a Wednesday. Wilcox and her team decided to take care of teachers and after local communities nominated schools, they chose a winner and sent a whole army of massage therapists to massage the entire faculty. Incorporate Massage also provided massages for the police department and dispatch team in San Bernadino after the recent shootings. Wilcox hopes to be able to provide more of these services as the company continues to grow.
Wilcox also hopes to expand massage services to all fifty states, and have a system to scale that growth. Her team can expand into my living room anytime. Just send my employer the bill, right guys?
Published 5/26/2016
