02/07/2026
STORY TIME. 🤍
As a single young woman, I was absolutely terrified.
I had no idea how I was going to support the tiny human growing inside of me. I just knew I had to figure something out.
And then something strange started happening.
Everywhere I went, I kept seeing massage.
People talking about spa experiences.
Massage therapy programs on TV.
Schools popping up everywhere.
Friends telling me, “You know, you’re actually really good at this… and you’ve never even been trained.”
So I did the most logical thing a scared, pregnant woman with no plan could do.
I said, “What the heck,” and went to check out a massage therapy school.
Before I knew it, I was enrolled.
In 2006, I graduated from Stark State College in Ohio. Massage therapy there was no joke. We were licensed by the Ohio State Medical Board and required to pass a six-hour comprehensive exam in Columbus. It was intense, medical-based, and demanding. And somehow… it fit.
Life, of course, kept lifing.
Years later, when my daughter was heading into 8th grade, I decided I was done with Ohio winters. We packed up and moved to Arizona. I took a hospital job doing medical staff credentialing, something I’d done for nearly eight years. Massage was supposed to stay part-time.
But that calling again? It doesn’t really care about your plans.
Six months later, in early 2014, I opened a tiny 350 sq ft massage office. Some of you remember it. Asian screens separating my treatment room from the waiting area. Low budget. Big dream.
Every two and a half years, like clockwork, I felt the itch to grow.
350 sq ft turned into 600 sq ft.
I brought in another therapist.
Then another. Then left my Full time Job at VVMC
Eventually, I purchased a 2,400 sq ft commercial building.
As more therapists joined, I realized something important. I didn’t want to take credit for other people’s work. So I rebranded AB Massage Therapy into The Cottonwood Collective—a true collective of bodyworkers serving our community together.
Growth continued.
A beauty lounge.
Multiple locations.
More services.
More people.
Then life shifted again.
Family health issues required me to be present, to travel, to simplify. We condensed back down to what many of you know today as The Cottonwood Collective Body Lounge, and I handed the beauty lounge reins to my dear friend Jennifer Lukus, who helped build that space from the ground up.
For the past several years, I focused on massage and bodywork, knowing I’d eventually be traveling back and forth to care for my parents.
And now, 11 years later…
I’m closing this chapter.
I share this story because there are a few things I hope you take with you:
✨ You can start small and still build something extraordinary.
✨ I didn’t start with a 2,400 sq ft building. I started with screens and hope.
✨ Growth doesn’t happen overnight. It happens brick by brick, year by year.
✨ I’ve spent nearly 20 years honing my craft and caring for over 10,000 people.
✨ I’ve helped dozens of massage therapists and beauty providers build careers of their own.
And those texts, messages, and emails I’ve received as I transition fully into real estate? They’ve wrecked me in the best way.
Thank you to every client.
Every provider.
Every colleague who became family.
Now I move into a new chapter—real estate—where I still get to help people, just without breaking my body in the process. And I get to pass the torch.
Start small.
Grow anyway.
It doesn’t matter where you begin.....Just Begin!
Ten or twenty years from now, you might surprise yourself as to where you are 🤍
