Serenbe Stories

Feeling Well In Your Skin with Greg & Amanda Kasparian

September 06, 2021 Serenbe / Greg Kasparian / Amanda Kasparian Season 6 Episode 5
Serenbe Stories
Feeling Well In Your Skin with Greg & Amanda Kasparian
Show Notes Transcript

Greg and Amanda Kasparian had a vision for building a wellness business as soon as they knew they were making Serenbe their home. They initially opened Creek Retreat in the terrace level of their townhouse, and it quickly grew out of their home and into a retail space in the heart of Mado. Plus they've now launched a skincare line! In this episode, we talk about Greg’s background in the spa and wellness industry, Amanda's experience in fitness and nutrition, and how, during a workshop, Greg had his "A ha!" moment.


0 (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

0 (41s):
All right, now let's get back to ceremony stories. Greg and Amanda cast Berrien had a vision for building a wellness business. As soon as they knew they were making, Saron be their home. They initially opened Creek retreat and the terrace level, their townhouse, and it quickly grew out of their home and into a retail space in the heart of motto. Plus they've now launched a skincare line. In this episode, we talk about Greg's background in the spa and wellness industry and Amanda's experience in fitness and nutrition and how during a workshop, Greg had his aha moment

1 (1m 15s):
And he just blurts out this, this, this thing about what he wanted, what he envisioned was this wellbeing, wellness kind of business to, you know, draw in all his years of experience and his wanting to give back to people and care for them and a place where people could, could come and, you know, be together and for education, all these different things.

0 (1m 42s):
Well, I want to welcome everybody to Sarah and B stories today. We have Amanda and Greg with us as well as Steve Nygren. Hi, how is everybody?

1 (1m 50s):
Good afternoon. Hey everybody. We're doing well. Hey Steve, how are you?

0 (1m 59s):
It's so good to see everybody welcome again. And one of the first things we ask all of our guests, and we would love to know about you guys is how did you discover Serenbe

1 (2m 14s):
Wants to take that one, Greg. Amanda. Yeah, it's a fine story, but it it's a serendipitous

2 (2m 24s):
Route of a number of just sequence of events that got us here. And, and I I'd say the first thing was the CBS Sunday morning story in 2015,

1 (2m 38s):
But that was quite accidental. Yeah.

2 (2m 40s):
We, we, we used to watch it all the time and you know, it was something that I grew up watching with my parents and Amanda was upstairs and she came down and we have a little joke that usually there's a, a heartstring story in that and we'll will cry and I give a joke. Yeah, it's Sunday. Right? So this episode aired and she came downstairs. I said, you have to see this, just, just watch this place on this, this thing. It's just amazing. And so I rewound it and we watched it together, sitting there with our cups of coffee, almost like two little puppy dogs with their heads, tilted thinking, wow. I just remember the feeling that's it was it. I just remember how it felt being in that place, transporting myself.

1 (3m 23s):
Yeah. Yeah. I know it wasn't the crying part either. Wasn't wasn't there. I think what he thought I was going to be fascinated with was the sustainability and the farm. And they, you know, and, and the neighborhood feel of it because that's something that I had said we were missing in the town that we lived in that was, did not have that feeling. Let's just say, let's just leave it at that. So I'll have to find

0 (3m 52s):
You on the streets to ask you what place that is, right. You will. Absolutely

2 (3m 58s):
Not that important. I just got told

0 (4m 1s):
That's what I saw. Any town. Totally.

2 (4m 9s):
Not only did we put it out of our mind, we just never talked. We

1 (4m 11s):
Never talked about it because it wasn't a possibility and life happens.

2 (4m 16s):
Life happens. But then I, I being in the spa business, I went to a conference and it happened to be down the road about a mile, about an hour south. And who's the first speaker, Steve Nygren. And I've heard him give Steve, I've heard you give this talk a bunch of times, and I understand it a whole lot better now than I did the first time. I really didn't understand much about what you were saying because it was just light years ahead. And it was interesting. Soon as he, soon as Steve finished talking, I didn't even go up and say hello. I called Amanda. And I said, you got to fly down to Georgia.

2 (4m 56s):
We're we're having a post-conference towards ceremony on Wednesday, which happened to be her birthday. So she flew down on Tuesday. We did the post-conference. We did the post-conference wrap up, came up Wednesday, and we spent a half a day touring walking around ceremony with 25 of our closest spot. Right.

1 (5m 19s):
And had they had the perfect, you know, it was the perfect introduction. I'm racing to keep up with Steve. I remember that through the woods, I had flip flops on and over the overall that mulch, that Rollie polling mulch stuff. And, and we wrapped it up with, you know, lunch on the, on the enclosed porch and then tea and coffee and dessert out on the open, out on your open porch there. And it would, it was just, it was the most tranquil, beautiful thing, but we didn't see really, you know, it was a cold day. There weren't a lot of people out and Greg was just completely enamored. And I, I said, you know, it's kind of like a first date.

1 (5m 59s):
I need to know if there's any more substance to this relationship. I've got to have a second date. So we came back down in July and that was the, that was definitely the love Fest. I mean, we met more people there, here, you know, within five visits of while our place was being finished, then we had known in 12 years living in that unnamed town.

0 (6m 22s):
Yeah. It is kind of incredible. And, and you can't really explain it to people because nobody either believes you or understood or can't grasp the concept. Right. So do you, you alluded to your spa and wellness background with, which was sort of both of you guys have, so will you give us a little bit about, you know, what was that conference? What kind of industry were you in? You guys were living in the Northeast for over 20 years and really considering right. Moving to New York.

2 (6m 52s):
Yes. Being in the spine industry for 20 plus years, 25 years, I was down at the conference.

1 (7m 1s):
It was the green

2 (7m 2s):
Spot network. In fact, you know, I keep trying to get to come here and then I, I know they will, it's just a matter of time, but it was, I think back, I fought to go to that conference. Now, someone else had already been slated to go and I fought to go for other business reasons that had nothing to do with the real reason. When I look back to realize why I actually fought to go there, I felt like really inspired that I needed to be at this conference. If we didn't go to that, we wouldn't be living in Syria.

1 (7m 36s):
Yeah. It really was that, you know,

0 (7m 39s):
It is interesting. Yeah. You need a couple of different touch points, right? So maybe the CVS was sort of the, in the back of your mind, but then the invitation came from the green spa network to actually get you here, you know, because of that post thing. But you, you were working in New York city for over 20 years and, and, and a huge pioneer in the industry of wellness. Can you, can you share with us a little bit about that?

2 (8m 5s):
And I started at Aveda in the mid nineties, so I spent a lot of interesting time with horse Raechel Barker, who was the founder and creative Aveda. I mean, just some great stories with Horst. And that was my introduction. I was in finance before that, and I was working at Aveda. And in fact, the woman who introduced the men and I, she and I worked together at beta and she and Amanda were friends. So there's a lot of connections there, but

1 (8m 39s):
To Dermalogica

2 (8m 41s):
Dermalogica and I actually opened up the international dermal Institute in Manhattan in 1999, we, we proceeded to open up Boston, Philadelphia, DC, Detroit, and, and a lot offices open around the country. But there was a lot of educational component to that. And obviously part of what I did was regional manager for Dermalogica at the time.

0 (9m 6s):
But did you think that you were going to get out of the business when you moved here? Or what did you guys think? Like, that's that something that was on your mind? And I want to hear a little bit about that, but before you dive in too much, I do want to touch on Amanda's background and state that you guys are sitting in an audio booth that is at your house, which is pretty unique and I'm pretty jealous. So just to touch on Amanda's background, were you with Aveda at the time or you were just friends?

1 (9m 36s):
I was not. I was not. In fact, my, my experience in the industry is really more from a wellness fitness component. I've always had an interest in everything having to do with natural healing and, and sustainability in terms of food and all those kinds of things. I'm always diagnosing myself and that. And then I had also a fitness background. I taught, I taught kickboxing and some things like that around that same time that I met Greg, actually I stopped teaching when I met gray. Okay. That's the poundage that I have now. Oh, please.

1 (10m 18s):
I know it's a joke. Are there, is that Serenbe, you know, you come down here and you're, he says

0 (10m 27s):
This Aaron be 15. Yeah. From eating and drinking your way through every party.

1 (10m 34s):
But then I was also, I was doing narration. I was doing voiceover since about 2002. And then, you know, at home, once the industry really went in that direction, bought the booth and was, and I do record at home. So yeah, I love it. So cool. How's our sound cloud.

2 (10m 58s):
It's we have one little fluorescent light, quite small. I don't spend much time in here, but we have to change that.

0 (11m 5s):
We're going to get an led for a sustainability. So you guys came, you bought a house and you're like, okay, this will be my neighborhood. This will be a great place to be. But did you think that you were going to open a business here?

1 (11m 22s):
I can. I can speak to that a little bit, because before we moved here, we did these emotional intelligence workshops, a series of three of them that were pretty involved. And one of them, you know, you, you, everybody had a vision for their life that they shared with the group, and it was very emotional, intense kind of thing. And you know, Greg's in the middle of this group with a microphone and I'm thinking, I have no idea what he's gonna say. And he just blurts out this, this, this thing about he wanted what he envisioned was this wellbeing, wellness kind of business to, you know, draw in all his years of experience and his, you know, wanting to give back to people and care for them and a place where people could, could come and, you know, be together and for educational, these different things.

1 (12m 15s):
And that, that transpired quite by accident shortly after we got here. Cause I mean, that wasn't really the intention at the time still had a corporate job.

2 (12m 27s):
Well, and a little backstory was this was this, this workshop we did was probably two or three weeks after we put our bid in to buy our home here, where we're sitting. And so there was a lot of energy to that. There was a lot of momentum and excitement, and I spent something pretty close to the fact, I want to start a wellness space in ceremony where we, where we were going to call our new home. And yeah, so it was, it was inspirational. And it's, I don't know where it came

1 (13m 3s):
From. Again, it came from your heart. I mean, it really, it really came from his heart. So you hadn't thought about that. You just, it really, it might, it came out of, it came out of being here over successive visits while the place was being finished. I think we both had a process of revealing of things that happened during our visits here, revealing about our arts, you know, revealing about how we saw our future. And so, you know, what he said, there was, was very much part of that, that process, you know, we came down here and realized, wow, we were missing community and we didn't even know it

3 (13m 47s):
Well. And the two of you arrived and you instantly seemed like you were just part of the community. And I mean, you were, you put yourself out there and everyone was welcome arms and it wasn't long at all. You were, you were a definite part of the first day.

0 (14m 7s):
Yeah. What did you do to kick it off? Did you know what you were going to do? Because it is morphed and grown in such a beautiful fashion from something that was really, you know, sort of, you know, we'll call it a cottage industry, but you really started it in, you don't quite have a live work, but you're downstairs. You really turned over in, into this really beautiful space. But tell us what you started with, tell us where it's grown to and all this extensions, the brand extensions now.

2 (14m 40s):
Well, yeah, it's, we started in the terrace level of our apartment where we're sitting here and this was a treatment room too. And, and it, it was the interesting part of it was Amanda alluded to it. I was working at the time when we moved here with HydraFacial and I was running and division. And it was, it was an interesting time because a group of investors had come in and within 60 days they fired the man who invented the machine. Who's still a friend of mine. And then through, through a history of, of, of firings, they basically went through everyone who was existing and my term was up and that happened in July of 18.

2 (15m 34s):
So it was like, okay, am I going to go back into the corporate world? Or am I going to really, you know, make it happen? And so we started very humbly here, anybody that was here, Steve, you, you saw the operation. It was, it was pretty simple. We were just figuring it out. We got to, we got to incubated here and we took that inspiration from a live work. You know, Amanda said it, we were up, we were up in Maine and she said, why don't we just start it there and the terrace level? And I'm like, great, sounds good. So that's kinda how it started. And it was a choice because I, I just, I had, I had to take, I'll use a baseball analogy.

2 (16m 17s):
I had to take my foot off first to steal second, and I needed to just let go of the whole core corporate lifestyle, because it can be very,

1 (16m 27s):
He did it really well, the way you put bird out of a nest and it knows how to fly. You know, that's essentially what we did. He just pushed and pushed each other. It's hard though. It is, it

2 (16m 40s):
Was extremely hard. And then, you know, w when, when things are shut down last year, I had to think about, you know, going back into that world, but things worked out, we patiently watch good things happen. I mean, and to your other question, we, we, we went over into a shared space with Dr. Milligray chiropractor who lives here. She would really live in the live work lifestyle, a naturopathic physician, the AASCU method STAM. And now Sam's partner just started with us. We have an announcement going out this week on that. And so it is a community thing, and it's really grown and I've tied.

2 (17m 25s):
I've kind of listened to what people are telling us and trying to just following that inspiration instead of having a really solid here's what I'm going to do in five years. And this is what I mean, that's, that's still good, but at the end of the day, life takes you in these different twists and turns and you have to, I want to be flexible enough to follow that.

0 (17m 46s):
Yeah, well, and you guys are, have sort of build yourself as sort of a wellness collective, which I love with, you know, this wonderful, shared space. And that is able to get people who maybe didn't want their own standalone space, or maybe were a little nervous about, you know, putting that out on their own and they can come in and sort of to your point, try it out, see how it goes. And just like you guys sort of flew from the corporate to the terrace level, into this space, you're providing a nest and incubation for all those other wellness practitioners, which is so cool. And especially as a resident to be able to have more resources is super wonderful.

0 (18m 31s):
Yeah.

1 (18m 31s):
And as we grow, I mean, as we grow as a community, it's more active as I think how, how business does in serum be in general, are growing to accommodate the greater numbers of residents that we have there with a lot of different modalities on our own that we were super interested in. And luckily people here are interested in the same things.

2 (18m 56s):
We test a lot of things upstairs. Yeah. Yeah.

0 (19m 1s):
Well, and you've started a practice as well. And so talk about product for a minute line. Yeah.

2 (19m 10s):
When everything was shut down last year, you know, what, what are you going to do learn a new language? I took, I tried Italian. I, we kind of, well, that was after COVID really, but you know, I've always talked to people in the spine industry about creating a line of a skincare line that what I've been around most of my life, except when I was doing capital equipment like HydraFacial device. So we, I actually started with close to a hundred products or formulations, more, more products, wouldn't be the right word, but a hundred formulations narrow that down to about 50 really whittled down to about 25.

2 (19m 51s):
And by when we had our first product ship in, in January of this year, 2021, we had 13 and immediately one of the 13 came in and I took it off the shelf and we never sold it because it just wasn't right. The other Ford was the sunscreen that I've been talking to Steve about for two years. And Steven, happy to know on Thursday, we got, we got that product in and it's even better than the formulation that I shared with you before. Amazing. Congratulations. Yeah. It's, it's, it's really, it's really great. So that, that was something that we got to do during a shut down.

2 (20m 37s):
And it was, it was a lot of tinkering and fun, and it's

1 (20m 40s):
Collaborative too. You have a team working on those on product, you know, fun product names to reflect different product espouses. And that was, that was a fun part

2 (20m 54s):
Of it. Yeah. I can't take credit for the names. A lot of other people help with the names.

1 (20m 58s):
Yeah, they did. They did. It was, it was fun.

0 (21m 1s):
Okay. So going to back up for just a little bit, because I don't know if a lot of people know what a HydraFacial is. Okay. Good point. I, and I'm just, I think the, the, probably the majority of people, maybe haven't had one, or don't know, or they've maybe heard of dermabrasion or they've had a facial, but this is very different. Can you tell us a little bit about it and then, cause I do want to sort of then bounce off again, back to some of the product and why it benefits, but tell us like why this is better.

2 (21m 32s):
I'll tell, I'll tell it from my experience I was in, I was working Italian skincare, brand, running a operations for north America and I was in Chicago and I saw this machine and I, and I just couldn't get my head wrapped around it. And, and I asked the guy who would later become my boss. What is this? Tell me about it. And he talked to me a little bit about it. And that night we sat at the bar and had a steak. And we, we were talking about the technology and, and I just knew it was going to change, change the industry in a way that that was be a big, be a big game changer. So I, a few months later, I went out to their corporate offices in California.

2 (22m 15s):
And six months after that I joined the company. The, the reason I did is that the technology is such that it's a, it's like dermabrasion, but it's hydro dermabrasion. So instead of sandblasting, the skin skin, people are using glucosamine and lactic acid to remove that top layer called the stratum. Corneum. After that, we use a mild acid peel, which liquefies what's in the pores. And then we turn up the vacuum. And in essence for the guys that are listening, we shot back the face. And we, we extract out automated, painless extractions, and pull out what's in the pores.

2 (22m 55s):
And lastly, the topical infusion of antioxidants, low molecular weight, hydronic acid, and peptides that help rejuvenate. So it's really some rejuvenation facial treatment,

1 (23m 9s):
No redness, no, you know, terrible recovery

3 (23m 15s):
And I'd become a regular user. So I

0 (23m 18s):
Like it testimonials here. And Amanda, all three of you guys, I mean, I've done it once. I need to get back in there. It's phenomenal.

1 (23m 26s):
And I don't go often enough either. You know, it's that the cop, the cobbler's children have no shoes. She is always bugging me to go in and do it. I love it

2 (23m 37s):
A lot better with the businesses here in our chairs. That is for sure. I'm

0 (23m 41s):
Sure we, we make up a million excuses of why not to, and we get busy in our, and don't do these wonderful

2 (23m 48s):
Treatment. Monica. No, don't feel bad. It's the commute for a man has gotten too far. So the fact that we're over

0 (23m 53s):
Ingrained, I know I'm like way far away. I take me five minutes to get there. So do you feel like the, the products that you created, I mean, you have a curated product sampling on your website, but the, but the pro your personal Creek retreat products, were you working on those to sort of compliment a HydraFacial? Were you thinking about it through that lens when you formulated them

2 (24m 21s):
A little bit? There's a number of, there's a number of approaches that I wanted to take yes. To support that based on a continuation of hyaluronic acid sunscreen, which, you know, we just, we just finally received this week or last week, and that's really important to carry on and keep that treatment going. We did one of the things that people would reach out, especially when things were shut down, Hey, what can we do at home? And I, you know, there's really not a lot out there. So I guess to answer your question, we, we did create it that way so that there are things that are, are duplicating at home, what you could do in the treatment.

2 (25m 7s):
Now, obviously the device gives us much more ability to really take it, take it much further from a treatment standpoint. But if you want to use, we came out with some acid pads that have six different acids that really humbled exfoliation.

1 (25m 23s):
We'll take a little bit of credit on this one, because I like playing around with stuff. And I'm like, and I came up with some things and I said, look, this is like a HydraFacial hack, like in between treatments gives you, this gives you the benefit of, of the same kind of field of the skin and, you know, exfoliation and, and, you know, I said, look, look at my face. It looks great.

2 (25m 47s):
Okay. Yeah, it does give a lot of inspiration, usually in the bathroom.

1 (25m 54s):
Tell

0 (25m 54s):
Me what your favorite product is right now. Now the sunscreen just came out. So that's something definitely we need to, to pick up in general. We should be wearing that every day. But what, what sort of each of your favorites right now? Well, I mean, I

1 (26m 7s):
Do love the pads that he was just having acid pads. Yeah. And you can just sort of wipe it on the face, leave it on if you want, although that's got a bit of a tacky kind of feel too. And if you don't want that, leave it on for a couple minutes and just take that off with a damp washcloth. And it really feels as though you have had your skin, you know, beautiful in gently surface, very smooth, like

0 (26m 30s):
The hydro face hack brightening pads. Right. Okay.

2 (26m 38s):
Mine is still my, the baby, the skin hero. It's a, it's a product because it has so many antioxidants really to fight the free, radical damage of, of the environment, the sun, it just, I I've always loved the combination of those ingredients. Vitamin C might've been a <inaudible> antioxidants. It really helped and fight the free radicals so that the skin can be as healthy as it

1 (27m 7s):
Can be. They're good at they're good in combination.

0 (27m 11s):
And that's great. I use a serum that has a lot of these things in it, so I'm feel like I need to come try or it's because your price is quite good right now. It looks like you're doing a sale.

2 (27m 22s):
You're thank you for noticing that, because I probably know the product that you're using. I think he probably do. You won't see in any of our communications, but we will reference that product. And the idea was, how can we re river? So five of the products in our line are reverse engineered. Meaning we, we, we take them apart, analyze them in the lab, figure out what the components are and the percentages, and then try to rebuild it. And a lot of times, in fact, the product we're speaking of that formulation is 20 years old. So what you'll notice in ours is that we added co Q 10, like what's current, what's the new technology.

2 (28m 7s):
What can we use to, and how can we do it at, at a lower cost so that, you know, there's, there's somebody on the team there that comes in every couple months, they get the skin hero because she loves it. I mean, yeah. So I wanted to bring value with an incredibly great ingredient deck.

0 (28m 28s):
Okay. I like it. Well, we'll talk offline about the details, but I think I'm gonna have to come in and get some cause that enzyme is not in the one that I use and yeah, that's a whole, like really fabulous wrinkle UV Ray reduction. So tell me what else. So tell me, you guys are in motto and tell me about motto. We've had different people on that share their experiences in motto, and you guys have been here long enough to have experienced it pre COVID. And during COVID give me your motto. Like what your favorite thing about motto is. Cause it's, it's a fun neighborhood. No offense to Grange, which I love.

0 (29m 8s):
No,

2 (29m 8s):
I, I love them all. We love being here. The energy here is really, really high. And we, we chose, we chose to be here. In fact, when we took the tour with Steve, Steve, that was March of 17. I think there were two houses. Maybe. I don't even know if anybody lived here yet, but maybe one or two houses

1 (29m 28s):
We're here. A couple of, couple of neighbors were here, Stacy and Jason were here, Natalie and TJ here. There were a handful. That was it. That was independent minutes. It's still wonderful. That was definitely a part of the early. We were always like together. It was, it was like an extended family. When Steve

2 (29m 48s):
Would walk through the first time over, here's going to be the pool and over, here's going to be in this big office building and we're going to have the oldest wellness and the luminol. And I'm like, wow. You know, four years later it's manifested.

3 (30m 5s):
I know it. It's fun to look at a fly through that we did. And it was great, you know, and now you actually can look at it and it's pretty well.

0 (30m 16s):
Yeah. Yeah. We should throw that into the website. Show notes is the previous animation that was this crazy fly through it. It showed the neighborhood. And honestly it looks exactly what happened. So it's a lot of fun and the pool's here now. And, and so many of the wellness things are here now, but there's a lot more coming to motto too. Right. Steve, do you want to give like a little taste of just like nothing that's, you know, but just like what's, what's the further

3 (30m 46s):
Vision did you all see? I mean, the hillside and you can sort of see the terrorists now with all those big machinery going on the different levels that you could just see that activity level. Imagine when that Hillside's filled with, with all the lights of the houses, remind us of when we were all in Italy together, and that you were in Italy were into gray. Yeah. And to the global wellness summit, middle, but you know, it's, it's very reminiscent of the massing of the Italian hilltowns and you can sort of see it coming together over there and we're working on that flight.

3 (31m 27s):
So here in a few months, we'll be able to actually show you. And now you'll have confidence that that actually is, oh, I already have.

0 (31m 39s):
Yeah, that happens once you, once you've been here a little bit, and you hear Steve with these, like what we'll call crazy ideas that we, you know, the general public thinks, and then you you're here and you're like, oh, that actually happened. And it was better than I even could envision. And so the other things that are going to come is going to be the school is going to get built out next to the pool, which is going to be super cool. That's kind of coming. And then, you know, lots more commercial, future commercial and a fun little park. That's going to be sort of a temporary installation. That's going to come. Right. Steve

3 (32m 15s):
Monica is telling you everything is coming on, but yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It's going to be the issue drive to, and from your home and that as you descend tab away and you kind of, right now, it looks like a construction site still. And we're really working on in the next several months transforming that so that it really comes together. Even though there's going to be future buildings there possibly it will be a park completely laid out with sacred geometry. So the geometry will become not only something you'll experience when you're in the park, but if you visually see it when you're on the higher road and yeah,

0 (33m 10s):
Exactly. And then six more live works, there'll be across the street from you guys eventually where, where the wellness collective and CRICO Trita. So you'll have a mirroring of wellness activities potentially, which is really exciting. One of the things that we're always curious about is if you were going to tell somebody to come to Sarah and be for the day or for the weekend, what would be that sort of undiscovered gem or hidden thing that you typically wouldn't get off the website? Or maybe only, only a resident might know

2 (33m 47s):
Gems. There's so many of them, you know, we came for the place, but we, we were, we're in love with the people, right? So there's so many great people here and those are some of the gems, but then there's all these little, just beautiful fines. The, the, the park bench by Steve, what do you call that? The, the little falls that that's just a beautiful, that's just a beautiful experience. Very peaceful spot. We had, we had a great aha moment when we discovered that on our own, just walking around the tree forts,

1 (34m 32s):
Actually we were on the other side of the stream industry in the stream and didn't even see the bench. And I said to Greg, isn't this beautiful. I wonder if anybody else ever comes to her. And then we lift their heads and looked, and here's the bench. And the whole thing. Obviously people had been there before us.

2 (34m 50s):
And the interesting thing is, there's a, there's a beautiful saying that's in concrete and I guess silver letters and that's what happens to be on Amanda's phone. So it just kind of like, wow, it's just like an epiphany. We we've had so many wonderful experiences. The trails are fantastic. Steve's taken us. And we've, we've gotten to see some really amazing just nature walks. I think if somebody is coming to visit and they're staying in the community, one of the beautiful things about being here, I thought about it yesterday. We try to go up to the farmhouse twice a week because that little journey up on that gravel road is just so picturesque.

2 (35m 35s):
And even though you're here in ceremony, when you get to, to the farmhouse, it's another dimension that is just, there's something super special

1 (35m 43s):
About it. But then when you go, what I would do is I'd go sit up at the bar and have a drink and chat with people and introduce yourself and talk to them because that is, as Greg started out by saying, that's what we found here. That was so amazing that we didn't know we were missing and people are incredibly friendly. And I, I, I loved it when I came and did that and met people and I love doing it when I, you know, encounter a visitor. I mean, I, you know, it's just, it's the best way I think, to really experience what is the beauty of this place is the connection to one another as human beings and the farmhouse,

2 (36m 21s):
How we discovered the bar and the porch is great. There's so many things that trampolines, there's so many events that are happening, the wine shop. I mean, you can, if you want to just go have a bottle of wine, you can sit in the wine shop and do it. It's just, it's fantastic. So there's so many little, there's so many there, there, there, I can't remember them all.

1 (36m 46s):
Yeah. And people are happy there too, which is nice. Yeah.

0 (36m 50s):
Which is really great. Yeah.

3 (36m 51s):
It's funny. You mentioned the bench is the first thing and it dawned on me. There's certain B is so large. There's so much land that people do not even realize this. And I just walked with Thomas to show him one of my favorite meditative spots that no one has really seen because we haven't had paths to it. And you know, I have to keep some secrets to myself.

1 (37m 24s):
We decided we're going to do a

3 (37m 26s):
Pass to it. And it's, it's magical. It's truly magical. And so maybe you can help think of the people that would really appreciate that. And we'll organize a little walk and I'll share it with you. Maybe the trail won't be completed, but you don't mind crawling over some trees that have fallen and <inaudible> good spirits. They aren't expecting a clear path to the journey, but you know, some people get upset when it's not a clear path.

0 (38m 13s):
I know. I know. Well, the last thing I want to ask you guys is what's next, what's next for you guys? And Creek retreat and the wellness collective

2 (38m 25s):
It's, it's it, you know, we

1 (38m 32s):
You're getting bigger. We're

2 (38m 33s):
Yeah, we're getting bigger. We we've hired required. We've hired some other folks. We have two people at the front desk. Now we have two estheticians that started this month. They're going to be onboarding and starting this month of August, we, we just, we just launched cryotherapy last month. So that was a big lift. So full body therapy and local and facial cries therapy. I'm going to, I'm going to check out another facility in, in all places, Philadelphia, which is where we came from. They have a model that looks really interesting to me, that is really on that high tech arch.

2 (39m 20s):
Because when I was at HEDA in the, in the nineties, it went from, we used to call it the beauty business, and then it went to the spot and it became, we were dabbling in wellness. But if you asked a hundred people, what wellness is, you'll get a hundred different answers. And, you know, there's, there's words like biohacking, you know, it's like, where's it going? And what does that look like? I don't always know, but I am looking at about four or five different modalities right now to, to be announced and determined. Some, they don't always make the cut from a collaborative standpoint with the wellness collective. I want to just keep bringing in talented people that have gifts, healers, people that can really help the community and where their modalities and our modalities overlap, but they support each other.

2 (40m 15s):
We've had three of the people that have walked in there now working a Creek retreat, walked in and said, what is this I don't? And I don't know why I'm here, but I felt like compelled to come in. Wow. You know that we have three employees like that right now. And then there's, there was another practitioner who came in and said, Hey, what is this? I just got a good vibe here. What, what, what do you do? What do you do? And how much it fits. So we're creating a space for somebody who's coming back probably in October, November. That is an incredible healer and good work in our community. Wonderful.

3 (40m 57s):
And the fun thing, you know, we talked about creating this wellness valley. And so it's not one place it's, it's this entire street and community of various wellness, practitioners and shops, and it's really starting to, to happen. And naturally it's very exciting to see, and you all have certainly been an anchor to, to help demonstrate how that organic movement can really grow and prosper. And, and everyone who's opened a shop, they're thinking, oh, will it work a day? Can I possibly, they're all looking for more staff now it's true. Like fun.

3 (41m 40s):
And I saw Derek at the, at the gym that or Sebastian at the gym this morning. And he said, it's amazing. He says, I now have four friends that are all working at Sarah B you know, complained to me about their jobs. And I say, come over with Sarah. I think this has happened to this going there. And he said, they're all working here. They're all having a ball.

2 (42m 3s):
It's a lot of fun that everybody that's working with us, they they're just loving it. They love all the neighbors coming in. Even the, even the visitors that are coming for the weekend are inspired. So there's, there's a really good vibe here. And what what's, what's neat about it. I mean, when I think about what we're doing, you know, Steve, you've heard me say it and, and you, you you're humble about it, but, you know, I, I just respect the fact that, you know, you dug the well, and that gave us an ability to do what we're doing. If I was, if I was in the corporate world, living somewhere else and, you know, they terminated the position.

2 (42m 46s):
I probably would have ran fast and scurry to get back on the hamster wheel. But because I was able to go in the woods and hang out and just catch a breath and go, Hey, wait, I could actually check in what do I really want to do? What, what needs to happen? Yeah. And there's a support

3 (43m 4s):
System of a lot of other people who have already done that. And so that's a little bit of security as you watch other people that, Hey, this isn't frightening. It's actually inspiring.

0 (43m 21s):
Yeah. Even without a clear path, but you have the community to hold. You like, hold you up and to hold you accountable. And now you're

3 (43m 31s):
One of those examined other people that are struggling with that idea.

2 (43m 38s):
Yeah. You just said something really, really important. Hold us, hold us up and hold us accountable. And that's a beautiful thing. And it's done in such such care. We were really lucky that that the way the community has supported us.

0 (43m 56s):
Wow. Thank you guys for coming on and sharing your story with us. Always appreciate it. And love seeing you guys. Thank

3 (44m 2s):
You, Amanda and Greg love having you here, loving having you as neighbors and friends.

0 (44m 7s):
Yeah. And can't wait to see more and come get my serum. Thanks.

3 (44m 16s):
Thanks guys. Bye.

0 (44m 21s):
Thank you for listening to Sarah and B stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please follow us and leave us a five star review and visit our website to learn more about guests episodes and everything. Seren be@sambstories.com. This episode is supported by the, in it ceremony, nestled in the rolling countryside of the bucolic community of ceremony where guests can walk on the 15 miles of private trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow and the animal village, relax at the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on wraparound porch, lay on the croquet lawn, grab a canoe and jump on the in-ground trampoline connects with nature and each other all while staying in a luxurious space@theendatsandyhookyourstaytodayatceremonyin.com, S E R E N B E I NN.com.