Meet Kat Maurina | Massage Therapist & Yoga Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kat Maurina and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kat, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I had been working in studios for larger massage organizations for several years and had been maintaining a small private practice on the side that was exclusively in home services. The last studio I worked at I had built up a really solid clientele along with the private clients I had already. At the end of 2021 I knew that I wanted to pursue yoga teacher training and I was going to need more flexibility in my schedule, so moving into 2022 I decided to take the leap fully into private practice and getting a studio space of my own. I was very lucky to be working at a studio where the owners were gracious enough to allow you to take a small number of clients with you if you left as long as they had been coming exclusively to you. The regular clients from the studio in addition to my existing private clients was a really solid base to feel like I could shift into private work without scrambling and have the space to dive into studying yoga. It truly felt like one of those moments where everything conspires in your favor and the path forward is so clearly aligned.

What should our readers know about your business?
Something I feel has been pivotal to the success of my business has been my commitment to consistency and planning ahead so clients know what to expect. I keep pretty regular hours, if I’m going out of town or going on a trip I make sure everyone knows well in advance so they can plan their sessions accordingly. Thankfully I’m generally pretty healthy but it is incredibly rare that I cancel anything last minute which builds trust and a sense of reliability which is so critical in my industry. These qualities also help existing clients feel like they can refer to you and have confidence that you’ll be there and responsive when someone new reaches out. So much of how my business has grown has been word of mouth referrals, whether that has been for individual clients, corporate accounts, or new teaching opportunities. I also really do put emphasis on getting to know the people I work with and remembering details about them whether that is staff in buildings I work in for corporate gigs, clients who come to my studio for massage, or folks who show up in my yoga classes. Both massage and yoga can be very intimate practices to share so I do my best to treat the relationship building aspect of each practice with a high degree of care. It’s important to me that everyone I work with can feel that we are team and I’m invested in supporting their wellbeing. Over the years I’ve learned more about how to ask the right questions, where to offer extra support and how to set expectations and boundaries to create trust and to really get to client’s ‘Why’ so they receive what they need. I will say I”ve had to pass through a few uncomfortable windows where I didn’t have a policy in place and had to navigate in real time how to sort out a situation in ways that both honor my needs and don’t feel inflammatory to clients which is sometimes a really tricky balance. It’s also been really interesting running a business and seeing how your personal patterns show up and impact your operation and learning to shift into better habits.

Something that I deeply appreciate about having my own business is that it really is an ever evolving practice with endless opportunities for refinement. You learn how to communicate better, how to plan more effectively, how to implement more efficient processes, what works best for your energy level and work/life balance. Some of that you can find in trainings or with mentorship support oriented at operations and some of it you uncover as you go because it is uniquely yours. It is in so many ways a mirror for self discovery and self actualization which is really powerful! I am a passionate learner so this aspect of operations is really exciting to me and both yoga and massage have so much opportunity for continued study. This is something I really pride myself on and feel sets me apart from so many practitioners. Every single year since I got my massage license and my teaching certificate I take some sort of continuing education training for both yoga and massage. Not only does this improve what I can offer to my clients, it keeps me curious and inspired. It allows me to integrate new information and weave it in with my existing knowledge base so my work continues to evolve.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
It might depend a bit on what season but definitely some sort of mountain adventure would occupy a few of the days. With a weeks worth of time I would probably opt to head down towards Telluride/Ouray or Crested Butte for camping and hiking, pass through Buena Vista/ Salida area on the way back maybe get into the Sand Dunes. No question I would include a trip to hot springs, I have a soft spot for Cottonwood because they’re woman owned but I also love Valley View, Penny hot springs and Mt Princeton. Knowing my friends if there was something fun playing I think going out to Red Rocks or Mission Ballroom would probably be part of the trip as well. For experiences in the city, I would include an afternoon picnic in Cheeseman Park, drinks at Forest Room 5 and Honey Elixir bar, dinner at Ash’Kara, Senor Bear or Temaki Den and takeout from Tikka & Grill. I would probably also bring them to a yoga class at Samadhi or take them climbing at Movement.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Gosh, there are so many folks I can think of that have helped and supported me along the way. I would say the first and most obvious shoutout would have to go to my clients who have been my biggest supporters. So many of them have been with me for years, some since the very beginning of my practice more than 5 years ago! I had one client in particular who sat down with me to run numbers and do some financial planning when I was shifting fully into private practice which was incredibly helpful. There were also quite a few who dropped memberships at the studio to continue working with me when I left and have continued over time to refer people to me. My family also was incredibly supportive. My mom ran her own business my whole life so she was really excited for me and shared so many resources about where I could get help doing business planning and basic steps to set up the foundations for the business. I also had some friends who were already in private practice or were shifting into private practice and we all would share resources we found that had helped whether it was booking software or marketing tools or a bank with good options for small businesses so that was really a sweet collective effort to help each other build. Initially I did some work with an organization called SCORE to help set up my business and to ask questions about how I could do things more efficiently and I cannot recommend them enough for anyone starting a small business and looking for help, many of their services are completely free and they have a huge resource bank for all aspects of operating a business.

Website: https://www.cultivatedcalm.com

Instagram: @cultivatedcalm