From Loss to Wellness: How Traci Bateman Built a Thriving Business Empowering Others to Live Fully

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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello, I'm Mario Tonigusi, managing editor of Canada's Podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_02: My guest today on Edmonton's Podcast is Tracy Bateman, who is co-founder and owner
[00:16] SPEAKER_02: of Bliss Medispa, an integrated wellness in Edmonton, who is also a life and health coach.
[00:23] SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us today.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Mario.
[00:26] SPEAKER_01: Happy to be here.
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: All right.
[00:28] SPEAKER_02: Let me ask, we'll start the conversation off of this.
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: Tell me a little bit about what you do.
[00:34] SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
[00:36] SPEAKER_01: Well, we started Bliss Medispa about 12 years ago when my husband and I would travel
[00:42] SPEAKER_01: around because he was in the grocery business.
[00:44] SPEAKER_01: We had a lot of conferences.
[00:45] SPEAKER_01: So we'd go to Italy and Portugal and Vegas and all these wonderful places.
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: And when we travel, we'd go to the spa and we'd go.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: And then we'd come back to Edmonton and like, do you want to go for massage?
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: And we're like, Meh, Meh.
[00:57] SPEAKER_01: There really wasn't anything that had the luxurious experience that we had had seen in
[01:03] SPEAKER_01: all these other countries.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: So as he was selling his last grocery store, we're kind of like, well, maybe there's
[01:08] SPEAKER_01: an opportunity here.
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: And we're kind of in a hot yoga at the time.
[01:11] SPEAKER_01: So our original concept was a hot yoga studio and a spa.
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: Like, what if we're going to do a spa by miserable, do yoga?
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: We'll do massage.
[01:19] SPEAKER_01: If we do massage, we do a little smelty spa.
[01:21] SPEAKER_01: If we're going to do spa, let's do Medispa.
[01:23] SPEAKER_01: And it grew from one bait to four bays and just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: So then COVID hit.
[01:30] SPEAKER_01: So originally, was yoga spa, COVID hit.
[01:33] SPEAKER_01: Nobody was doing group classes.
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: So we had to pivot.
[01:36] SPEAKER_01: So then we became bliss, Mehdi spa with a focus more on the medical spa.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: But I also have this love of integrative wellness.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: So we do acupuncture and IV drips and some other more holistic services to go with all
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: the medical services too.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: Okay, how does this journey into this wellness area begin for you?
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: Well, that is my adventure.
[01:56] SPEAKER_01: I lost my mom when I was 14 years old to breast cancer.
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: She was given two years to live and she lived eight.
[02:02] SPEAKER_01: And when you're 14 years old and you don't have a mom, you have to figure out everything
[02:07] SPEAKER_01: yourself.
[02:08] SPEAKER_01: And for me, it was also the start of a journey of wellness and how not to die.
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: And so I started a role of dex of different practitioners, of holistic practitioners, but
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: I didn't trust the medical system anymore.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: So I started researching acupuncture and osteopathy and nutrition and all these different
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: ways to look after yourself.
[02:26] SPEAKER_01: And so that was kind of my foray into wellness.
[02:30] SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: What's your background in terms of education?
[02:35] SPEAKER_01: I actually went to the University of Calgary.
[02:39] SPEAKER_01: So my first degree is a VA in economics out of USC.
[02:44] SPEAKER_01: And then I moved to Edmonton in 2002.
[02:47] SPEAKER_01: I'm back to school and got an interior design degree and it's another VA in interior design.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: And then when I decided to pursue health and life coaching, I got five more certifications
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: on health and life coaching.
[02:58] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: So when you were first at university, what did you think you're going to end up doing
[03:04] SPEAKER_02: as a career?
[03:05] SPEAKER_01: You know what's funny is I actually was, I applied for the become program.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: And at the time, I was point oh, nine of a GPA away to get in.
[03:15] SPEAKER_01: And I went to the dean.
[03:16] SPEAKER_01: I went to the faculty and like you guys, I have all these undergrad degree courses like
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: let me in and like, nope, the next year they open it all up.
[03:23] SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, oh, I have all these economics courses.
[03:25] SPEAKER_01: So I'll take economics and my dad had it in my head that I was going to be in business.
[03:29] SPEAKER_01: Didn't know how, where, why, but I loved beautiful things.
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: So I didn't know how that was going to melt.
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: And now we see it in beautiful things in terms of personal beauty, in terms of my interior
[03:39] SPEAKER_01: design.
[03:40] SPEAKER_01: And yeah, so it wasn't necessarily where I thought I was going.
[03:43] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[03:44] SPEAKER_02: Now, I know over your professional career, you've had a couple of different kind of businesses
[03:51] SPEAKER_02: and pursuits.
[03:53] SPEAKER_02: And you talk a little bit about that.
[03:54] SPEAKER_02: Tell us like what you've had in the past.
[03:57] SPEAKER_01: Well, my first business was in university at UFC as part of the Entrepreneurs Club.
[04:02] SPEAKER_01: And I started a golf accessories company with my now ex-husband.
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: But we started selling golf accessory bags, shoe bags, a whole line of products to golf courses when I was 19 years old.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: Well, that's my first business.
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: And then I opened, I worked an IT company and they needed to build a website for the Royal Gas Company.
[04:26] SPEAKER_01: So I learned HTML and created a website and then we needed an annual report.
[04:30] SPEAKER_01: So I learned how to build an annual report and it just kind of built.
[04:33] SPEAKER_01: So I started my own marketing company in Calgary as well.
[04:36] SPEAKER_01: So that was the start of it.
[04:38] SPEAKER_01: Then after I moved Edmonton, I kept in the marketing business and then went back to school.
[04:43] SPEAKER_01: It got my interior design degree.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: So then I also did interior design.
[04:46] SPEAKER_01: And then as we talked about, I've got bliss and then the health of life coaching as well.
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: So lots of businesses, lots of different industries, many simultaneously as well.
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[05:04] SPEAKER_02: When you when you look back at all that, you know, and you've got, you know,
[05:09] SPEAKER_02: quite a variety of different kinds of business, etc.
[05:14] SPEAKER_02: What is some of the key lessons, I guess you learned for being an entrepreneur going through all that experience?
[05:23] SPEAKER_01: I think the number one lesson that I didn't learn tell probably a few years ago was asked for help.
[05:31] SPEAKER_01: And surround yourself with people who are smarter than you because as much as you want to do it yourself
[05:36] SPEAKER_01: and you think you know everything, you don't.
[05:38] SPEAKER_01: And you need people who have expertise in different areas to really support you.
[05:44] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's your advice to somebody who wants to start a business?
[05:49] SPEAKER_01: Do your research make sure your financials are accurate that you really do have your projections.
[05:55] SPEAKER_01: You've you've accounted for so many different contingencies in what could go wrong?
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: What could happen because so many things come up that you don't think about or that you plan and they don't show up.
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: So I said really be comprehensive in your research.
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: Now you know, you're in the whole wellness field and and you know, it's although the stuff you do mostly is kind of physical nature.
[06:22] SPEAKER_02: It's also like mental as well, right?
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: They kind of kind of that's what I went into coaching to be perfectly honest is because the business of the physical side was doing well.
[06:32] SPEAKER_01: It had had its own space and then when COVID hit, I kind of saw people giving up on themselves.
[06:38] SPEAKER_01: And because I had lost my mom at such a young age, I work hard or not smarter.
[06:43] SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, I need to help people figure out how to work smarter, not harder.
[06:46] SPEAKER_01: So they don't have to go through all the heartache and all the hassle and all the difficulties I went through.
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: So that I could support people with because I didn't have that support networks.
[06:55] SPEAKER_01: I really wanted to give it to people to have that that support and accountability.
[06:59] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, now you know, in the entrepreneurial world, you know, people are busy at work, you know, extremely busy.
[07:10] SPEAKER_02: And do you think a lot of them neglect that wellness side to them?
[07:15] SPEAKER_02: And what are the consequences of neglecting that?
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: Funny you ask because I was that person.
[07:22] SPEAKER_01: So after when I did a blisk, I was, I had an identity of this business because a yoga spot had an existing Edmonton.
[07:29] SPEAKER_01: So I was very much my business. I was the face of the business and I burned out really hard.
[07:35] SPEAKER_01: Again, that's not asking for help thing and not taking care of yourself and putting the business so far in front of yourself.
[07:41] SPEAKER_01: I burned out hard. I wasn't sleeping, but I was exhausted. I put on weight.
[07:45] SPEAKER_01: I was losing my hair. I was irritable. I was cranky.
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: And I had a adrenal fatigue and really had to take a step back and look at my lifestyle choices and start making me a priority because I think a lot of entrepreneurs just put themselves or put the business ahead of themselves and they're going to feel that face that burn out as well.
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. And I guess the impacts of business, don't they?
[08:07] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. It does. Like luckily I have a business partner and she manages the staff and the operation.
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: So I was very lucky that I had someone who could pick up where I had to take some breaks and acknowledge where I was doing too much.
[08:21] SPEAKER_02: So when it comes to the wellness journey, are women more apt to take that journey than men?
[08:30] SPEAKER_01: You know what's interesting is I do have a couple of male yoga teachers and they're definitely embrace the lifestyle and the wellness side of it.
[08:38] SPEAKER_01: But 195% of our clients, our staff, everyone involves our women and you know whether that's a nurturing perspective or whether it's an openness perspective.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure. Not to say I don't have male clients like my husband's one of our best clients.
[08:56] SPEAKER_01: But it is I think it's a it's a bit of a mindset that men can do this too.
[09:05] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[09:06] SPEAKER_02: How?
[09:07] SPEAKER_02: You know for for a lot of people, again, male or female, you know, they hear the point that maybe that they've gone too far in one direction, right?
[09:21] SPEAKER_02: And their health is, you know, gone astray.
[09:25] SPEAKER_02: How do you convince them that they can turn turn the clock or you know turn back?
[09:33] SPEAKER_02: Even though you know, they think, you know, I'm going to be this bad.
[09:38] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to tell the you know, I'm going to have these problems.
[09:41] SPEAKER_02: So I'm not going to worry about it.
[09:43] SPEAKER_02: How do you convince them that no, you can change?
[09:47] SPEAKER_01: Very small steps.
[09:48] SPEAKER_01: James Clear wrote a book called Atomic Habits.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: And one of the things he talks about is habit stacking.
[09:52] SPEAKER_01: So say you want to add meditation into your world.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: What I would say is after you brush your teeth, take five minutes to do a short meditation.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: And start adding these small habits in with other things that you're doing or book yourself in for massage.
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: You know, once a week come and prioritize self-care.
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: So it's also determining what your priorities are and seeing how self-care fits into that and then making time for it.
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: Like blocking it in your calendar on your phone and actually doing it.
[10:23] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[10:24] SPEAKER_02: Now you're based in Edmonton.
[10:25] SPEAKER_02: I'm just curious, you know, as a business owner and I'm assuming that your other businesses were in Edmonton.
[10:33] SPEAKER_02: Outside of the Wana University.
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: My marketing company was in Calgary.
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: I didn't bring that to Edmonton.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: Well, I tried to, but it didn't really work.
[10:41] SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I had a marketing company Calgary as well.
[10:44] SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
[10:45] SPEAKER_02: Tell me, you know, being based in Edmonton right now.
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: Like what?
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: You know, what is the climate like for you as a business owner being based in Edmonton?
[10:55] SPEAKER_01: It's really interesting.
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: When I move from Calgary to Edmonton,
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: I really miss the pace of Calgary and like obviously the proximity to the mountains.
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: My family's all there.
[11:05] SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of things I love, love, love about Calgary.
[11:08] SPEAKER_01: But I have to say that Edmontonians were very welcoming of me and they're very down to earth.
[11:13] SPEAKER_01: And it's because it's a government city.
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: It's a little more blue collar.
[11:18] SPEAKER_01: It's not as fast-paced.
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: So there's definitely differences in the two cities.
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: The economic climate is very interesting.
[11:24] SPEAKER_01: So we're a luxury product.
[11:25] SPEAKER_01: So we're not for everybody.
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: We're not the Tim Horton's.
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: We're the Starbucks.
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: And the recession has been very scary.
[11:33] SPEAKER_01: I have to say, well, COVID, COVID was really hard.
[11:36] SPEAKER_01: We shut down three times.
[11:36] SPEAKER_01: I had to lay off our staff.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: Oh.
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: So it was a really big struggle.
[11:41] SPEAKER_01: And so now we've had to reinvent ourselves with this new name and looking after some more wellness stuff.
[11:46] SPEAKER_01: And it's hard.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: I have to say this, this economy is, is little scary.
[11:53] SPEAKER_02: How did you get through it?
[11:54] SPEAKER_02: How did you get through that period?
[11:56] SPEAKER_01: Tenacity.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: Pivoting.
[11:59] SPEAKER_01: We did a renovation.
[12:01] SPEAKER_01: We took our yoga studio from 32 people down to 12 people.
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: So we created a different experience.
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: We created, we opened up some IV infusion therapies to really a big focus on health and prevention.
[12:11] SPEAKER_01: And then I opened it up to some cosmetic injectables.
[12:13] SPEAKER_01: So I have five nurses on staff.
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: So there's opportunities to do some different things that maybe have a higher profit point too.
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[12:29] SPEAKER_02: What about like business conditions for an entrepreneur in doing your business in Edmonton?
[12:37] SPEAKER_02: Now even the province of Alberta.
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, one of our biggest issues is honestly our rent.
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: And so that's a business condition that we struggle with a lot.
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: That we are in a very affluent neighborhood in this beautiful strip mall.
[12:53] SPEAKER_01: And the rent we pay is exorbitant.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: And it's one of our big barriers to profitability.
[13:00] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I don't know if that translates to everyone, but that's definitely one of our biggest issues in terms of business.
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: I think to when we started, there weren't a lot of there was no really luxury products in Edmonton, particularly.
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: I know Calgary was a little more ahead of the edge of all.
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: So in the 12 years we've been open, we've seen a bit of a change too.
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: And that people are wanting to spend a little bit more money on themselves.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: And so there's more competition right now as well.
[13:28] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, on a personal level, do you, you know, obviously as a business owner and you're busy and then you're doing all this stuff.
[13:36] SPEAKER_02: Do you struggle with finding the time to take care of your own models?
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a big joke actually because I'll get in the massage with one of our therapists only when there's a cancellation and they'll give me trouble for not coming in more often because I've got not so up to here in my shoulders.
[13:51] SPEAKER_01: So yes, I am.
[13:56] SPEAKER_01: Because I coach on that as well.
[13:58] SPEAKER_01: So I have to make big efforts.
[14:00] SPEAKER_01: I'm a big golfer. So I do take time to golf.
[14:03] SPEAKER_01: But I also, my ritual is I have a bath at night and that's kind of my downtime, my meditation, my alone time for me to do a bit of a recharge.
[14:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what are the things that do you do outside of obviously the work and and some of these wellness pursuits?
[14:20] SPEAKER_02: Do you have any other passions interests?
[14:22] SPEAKER_01: I love to travel. So we travel quite a bit and I'm a competitive golfer. I'm a four handicap golfer. So I play a lot of competition.
[14:30] SPEAKER_01: We when we travel, we golf as well. So those are two big things in my life. I have four dogs as well.
[14:36] SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow. Very quite busy. Any, you know, when you take a say you look at your golfing, how does the wellness part of it and the, you know, the relaxation part of it?
[14:53] SPEAKER_02: What do you do in golfing?
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: You know, it's hard because I always have my phone and it's like I have to make an effort to put my phone down and not like and just accept being present as something I get a coach along.
[15:05] SPEAKER_01: But golf is one of those things you can't have your brain elsewhere. You need to be present.
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: So I really work hard at being in my game right then and there. I work really hard to have a coach.
[15:15] SPEAKER_01: I love it. My stepson is a cornberry golfer like it is in our blood. It's in our our family big time. So yeah, I definitely have to make that effort to be present.
[15:25] SPEAKER_02: How difficult is that for people in this day? No matter whatever it is they're doing to be present.
[15:33] SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's a choice. I've coached them. I mean, people that have had childhood trauma that goes with that, you know, a parent that's a little bit more difficult and high expectations.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I'm hoping with this generation of parents that they're a little more vocal about listening to their children's needs and things like that. Whereas I was a perfectionist and always striving and striving and striving.
[15:59] SPEAKER_01: So we'll see how that that changes in this next generation too.
[16:03] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. And I'm just curious so at your spa, like what are what kind of services that you give there?
[16:13] SPEAKER_01: We do everything. So obviously massage is a big part of it. We do facial waxing.
[16:18] SPEAKER_01: We have a couple of laser machines. We do a lot of rejuvenation.
[16:22] SPEAKER_01: Later parent removal, rejuvenation. I have a couple of nurses who do Botox and fillers. We do acupuncture. I do my coaching here. I have a raky practitioner.
[16:31] SPEAKER_01: Like we are really a full service wellness center.
[16:35] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[16:35] SPEAKER_02: It's an interesting term isn't it wellness because it's not something that was used, you know, be long time ago.
[16:44] SPEAKER_02: You talked about fitness or health or exercise, you know, all that type of stuff. But, but the wellness part of it really encompasses what you're trying to do, right?
[16:56] SPEAKER_01: Yeah. And I think too, it's so much on the inside of now. One of the big things that's important with for us is there's no judgment.
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: So somebody said to me once, well, you do Botox and all this stuff that makes you fake, but yeah, you talk about feeling good on the inside and all of a sudden I'm like, well, but there's no judgment here.
[17:12] SPEAKER_01: So if we can help you feel better about yourself, whether it's through the process of being touched or your face being massaged or having acupuncture needles in you or we have a machine that's going to fix your cellulite.
[17:25] SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter. There's no judgment coming here and feel better about yourself. However, that means.
[17:31] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thanks so much. Tracy for joining us today.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: That's been my absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.
[17:38] SPEAKER_02: All right. That was Tracy Bateman, who is co-founder and owner, co-owner of List Medispa and integrated wellness in Edmonton, I'm Mario Tonoguzzi, managing editor of Canada's podcast. Thanks for joining us today.