In this episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing, we dive deep into the enchanting world of experiential business with Jessica Skop, founder of Serendipity Wellness Spa. From an unexpected spark that led her into the spa industry to rebuilding after a devastating fire, Jessica shares how she turned obstacles into opportunities and created a brand experience like no other. Listen in as we explore how to transform a business into an immersive, unforgettable journey that keeps customers coming back for more. If you’re looking to awaken your brand magic, you won’t want to miss this conversation!
Three Key Topics Discused:
- The Power of Experiential Marketing in Business: Jessica explains how her spa stands out by offering unique, experiential themes—like Harry Potter-inspired spa days and fire-and-ice treatments. She reveals why creating unforgettable moments is the key to customer loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.
- Overcoming Adversity: Rebuilding After a Fire: When Jessica’s first spa location burned down, she didn’t give up. Instead, she reopened within 10 days and used the challenge as an opportunity to build something even bigger and better. Her story is a testament to the resilience and adaptability every entrepreneur needs.
- Awakening Your Brand Magic: Jessica shares how stepping into her brand’s unique magic—blending hospitality, wellness, and immersive storytelling—completely transformed her business. She encourages entrepreneurs to find their own special spark that sets them apart from the competition.
Follow Jessica:
LinkedIn | Jessica Skop
Instagram | Serendipity Wellness Spa
Check out last week’s episode here!
Transcript:
Beverly:
Did you know that businesses that focus on creating immersive customer experiences see a higher rate of repeat clients and word of mouth referrals? When customers feel something really special, they don’t just remember it, they share it. On today’s episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing podcast. It’s all about creating magic in business, and we have the perfect guest to show us how it’s done. I’m your host Beverly Cornell. And today I’m thrilled to welcome Jessica Skop, founder of serendipity wellness spa in Michigan. Jessica has been elevating 20 years, transforming self care into memorable. Immersive experiences that keep her clients coming back again. And again, she has built a business that really blends healing hospitality and a touch of enchantment. And today she’s here to share her journey, her insights and a few experiential marketing secrets. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the show.
Jessica:
Hi. Thank you.
Beverly:
So Jessica, take us back to the beginning. How did Serendipity Wellness Spa come to life? We call it the spark. How did it all start? And was there a defining moment that was the spark?
Jessica:
Absolutely. It is a funny story. I was in college studying to be an engineer. And in the meantime, I was working and I was a restaurant manager and I threw out my back taking care of an order that was coming in. So I had to go and get physical therapy and massage therapy. And right then and there is when it hit me that, I want to own one of these places. I want to own a spa. I knew I wanted to be a business owner. But I was just doing what I thought was right by going into engineering. And then once I experienced the spa world, it changed everything for me.
Beverly:
So it’s from your own journey of healing that you realize that This was the place you wanted to spend all of your time and energy. I love that so much because I think when you get back to the root of why everyone starts a business, it’s usually because of something that happened to them that really creates an experience that says, this is what my life is supposed to be about. I think that’s amazing. You’ve built an experiential and I say experiential and you in your bio, it says experience that’s truly one of a kind. What makes you different? What makes serendipity different from other spas and who do you serve?
Jessica:
My second location, which is now my sole location, we are a tour spa, but we also serve the locals. Our clientele is a little bit mixed, same kind of demographic, but we do a lot more couples than what you would see in a normal day to day spa. We also do a lot of parties and things like that. Our demographics is going to be primarily the women that are 30 to 60 years old, but then we also do those couples and parties. One of the things that I feel makes us absolutely different than any other spa out there is our main focus is on that experience. And I think it’s the hospitality side of my past in my education that really brought that to light. We don’t want you to just come in and get a massage. We want it to be a whole experience. We don’t want you to come in and get a pedicure. We want you to get a put the lime in the coconut pedicure and serve it with, a pina colada drink or toes in the sand pedicure or, self love pedicure for Valentine’s Day. And it’s served with a love potion drink for yourself, it’s just absolutely fun, unique, different, and it’s all themed as far as like seasonal or, we do events and things like that. That’s what it’s about. It’s about the experience. I’m always looking for value added. So what can we add onto this service that makes it better? And it can be anything from, every single one of our massages comes with young living aromatherapy. It’s included. We use the hot towel therapy, we make sure that it’s the full 60 minutes. Not 50 minutes. We have, the tiny bolsters that are tucked right here underneath your shoulders. So it props the women up a little bit, makes them more comfortable, the hydraulic beds. So the experience is more comfortable. And it’s all these little things that add up to a big difference and it makes it not just from going to your local massage place and getting a massage, feeling better, walking out, but a whole experience involved in that. So I think that’s where we’re different. We’ll find ways to create rituals where it’s like a two hour treatment, A perfect example of that is our fire and ice. My husband and I traveled to Iceland and we like to do experiences that are based on our travels. So there’s a fire and ice ritual and it’s combination of hot stones and cold stones and the facial globes and eye treatments. And it’s literally the hot and cold throughout the entire body treatment. And it’s set in an Iceland room, the whole room is Icelandic decor. Each of our rooms have their own kind of theme. So in every single room in our spa is based upon an experience that my husband and I had on our travels. that’s where we make things a lot different and unique and fun and interesting and that’s our goal.
Beverly:
Plus when you travel, it’s like for work, which is fun, too.
Jessica:
Yes, absolutely. I love traveling to different spas around the world. It’s amazing.
Beverly:
Yeah, that sounds amazing. That would be like Great passport stamp anywhere. I love that. So I read in your bio that you had a real big challenge where you lost your first spot in a fire. How did you push through that and rebuild something even better?
Jessica:
I absolutely did. Our first spa was in Linden, Michigan, and there was this beautiful downtown building. It’s called the Union Block. And there was a portion of it that caught fire and with it being built in the 1880s. Everything was, the old wood so it took all the businesses in that block down. I don’t know if I could do it again at my age now, but I just ran and ran for days and didn’t stop. I watched the fire till about 4. AM finally got a couple hours sleep, but we gathered the crew. I said let’s get everyone together. And I did a shotgun lease on a building half a block over and brought as much, help as we could into the building to just fix it up and make it look somewhat spa and we opened 10 days later. It was in May. And I was like, I got bridal parties and I got people we got to take care of. So we had big tubs and we brought in tubs and chairs. I borrowed massage tables from my team and, we just made it work that way. And we honestly took about three years to fully renovate that building. We were expanding at the time when the fire hit and that would have put us at 2, 400 square feet. The original spot was 1, 200. The new building we were able to build that up and expand that to about 6, 300 square feet. And the cool thing about that is I did work with my attorney and got a liquor license. So then we were the only spa in the area that had a wine bar as well. It was very unique, very cool. Again, the hospitality side and how can we make it different? How can we make it more fun?
Beverly:
I had a client who watched part of their business burn down and it was all over the news and all kinds of things. And what nightmare situation. Gosh, I can’t even imagine watching it burn until four o’clock in the morning and that you just got past that in 10 days to get something to open such resiliency. I think so many entrepreneurs and solopreneurs that we work with have such a resilient spirit that they’re just like, we’re going to rebuild. We’re going to redo. The spirit of just rebuilding is so incredibly strong. And it’s really admirable for entrepreneurs to have that. We wouldn’t be anywhere without that rebuild spirit. So I commend you for sure to have that. One thing that I think is interesting is that everybody I talk to has something that frustrates them about their industry. So what is it about the spa industry that frustrates you? And if you could change one thing or that you do change in what you do, what is it?
Jessica:
I think maybe a little bit more of understanding of the team. And where they’re coming from. I think we do a really good job with this, with our guests, but explaining to a guest how a no call, no show can really affect the team members. I am blessed because in a tourist spa, people are expecting credit cards to hold reservations and things like that. But I see this with a lot of my co business, friends or my business friends, where they’re really struggling with it. People that will cancel last minute or just, not show and think that’s okay. I think it’s shifting, but I would like that to be a little bit more of a understanding from the guest perspective is just knowing that, this woman or this man, that’s, doing the services they’re here, they’re preparing the room, they’re preparing the products. It’s not just a matter of I didn’t receive the service. I don’t want to pay for that. And no disrespect to our guests. Cause I absolutely love them. We have very low situations where that happens, but I see that a lot with the businesses. I don’t do hair in our spa, but my girlfriend is a hairstylist and I see her struggle sometimes if she has three cancellations in a day.
Beverly:
Yeah.
Jessica:
Cause that’s her entire day. So I think that I would like to see a little bit better in the industry. But I said, it is changing and people are now starting to be aware of that and cognizant of that. And then the other would be probably the stigmatism that it’s all drama in this business. Because I do feel if you put the time, the energy and the effort into your team and you love on your team and you treat them with the respect that they deserve and it’s the same back to you. You’re going to get that back. Our team is absolutely amazing and we are always diving into how can we be better for them and ourselves. So those are the two things that I would probably change.
Beverly:
I love that. I love the idea of when you’re a leader, it doesn’t matter where you work or what the setting is or where you are, even if it’s typical drama, that is totally a fixable thing with good leadership. Good leadership can fix a lot of situations in the workplace. When you handle yourself with care, kindness, and just, understand that everyone’s a human that works with you first before they’re your employee, I think it’d make a huge difference. If you had to reflect back on all the things from the initial spark to the fire, to opening the second location, that’s much bigger. What do you think is one aspect of your business strategy that has evolved the most and why?
Jessica:
I do believe it’s in the marketing side. We always had unique marketing, but after COVID, that’s when we went into, all right let’s really ramp this up and make experiences and things like that. And I started to introduce events. Such as return to Hogwarts, which is huge I’m surrounded by Harry Potter stuff in my office here.
Beverly:
We’re going to have a little magic here to a little bit. So we’re going to talk magic. So it’s going to get there.
Jessica:
I can get my wand. I think I have three of them in here. So I think that was a huge stepping stone for us and that’s what took us to the next level. We have returned to Hogwarts, Whoville. We transformed the spine to Whoville and we have the Grinch. And then, and things just started to evolve like wild stuff that I’m thinking of. Now we do like igloo pedicures and we do pedicures out in an igloo in Frankenmuth, Michigan, which is Christmastown, USA. They literally do Christmas movies for Hallmark in Frankenmuth. We’ve got Hagrid Hut where they can, have this VIP experience and sit in Hagrid hut and get their pedicure Martha May snow globe and things like that. So at the Grinch’s Cave we built that. So taking. Nobody does this and nobody thinks to, cause it’s go in and get your toes done or go in and get your nails done or go get a massage. We don’t want to just level up one notch. I want to level up like a hundred notches. And I want people saying, have you been there? It’s so cool.
Beverly:
Yeah.
Jessica:
I think that was a big change. A big shift was after COVID introducing those unique experiences.
Beverly:
Who builds all this stuff for you?
Jessica:
It’s a combined effort. I hire a crew that just mostly our team. I have all these wild visions. I wanted 250 floating candles. So I literally hung them on fish line and then it evolves over time. Then I was like, okay, so now we need a piece of wood with hooks coming down so I can put these candles on dowels and just hang them this way and quickly. Yes, because that would take an entire day to do. Yep. So it’s a combination of our team, taking my vision and putting it into fruition. I also have hired a few handymen to build some more platform type things. But it is my team and myself. And, put it all up like flying dementors, putting up a leaky cauldron bar. And I try to make as many things touch on the movies and the books as possible. We have the sorting hat cupcakes from sugar high, which is where we put the house color in the actual cupcake and they bite into it. And I have professor McGonagall sorting them. We have a flying car that’s new. We have professor Snape, potion closet, and it takes over our entire massage lounge and it’s just like shelves and shelves of potion the massage rooms will change them to the color of the house that you are. So we change out all the bulbs and make them changeable bulbs. We have Harry Potter music playing as the ambiance music instead of regular massage music.
Beverly:
Beautiful music. That’s awesome.
Jessica:
Yeah, it’s wonderful. We set up Honeyduke sweet shop and we, give chocolate frogs and, That leaky cauldron bar, you get your butter beer and polyjuice potion and it’s just, it’s so fun.
Beverly:
I have to go just for the Hogwarts thing. I have to just go experience it once. And then you said before we started recording that you’re going to New York at the end of the month. Please tell me you’re going to go see Harry Potter on Broadway because it’s so fun. Absolutely. Fantastic.
Jessica:
That’s the goal. I got a book launch coming out. So if there’s some of my coauthors, we’re trying to get together and I’m like, can we go see this, please?
Beverly:
Incredible. It’s so good. It’s three hours or something. My nine year old was on the edge of his seat the entire time, which he has ADHD to keep him sitting straight for three hours is incredible. But we were first row of the balcony. and the Dementors come right into your face, yeah. Yeah. The tricks they do, the polyjuice Potion, they actually become the person on stage right in front of you. Like they, like the actors, it’s them. My husband, I met in musical theater and we were like, how do they do some of these things? It’s incredibly well done. So I cannot recommend enough. Everything is made for the Harry Potter movie. So everything feels very Harry Potter ish. They sell butterbeer, the chocolate frogs, they do all of that there. We went for my birthday and my son’s birthday last April. It was so good.
Jessica:
Done deal. We’re right in Times Square at the moment. Yeah, it’s right next to it.
Beverly:
It’s like right there.
Jessica:
Done. Sold.
Beverly:
You have to convince them because, and even if you don’t, you need to just go by yourself.
Jessica:
Yeah. I’ll just tell them, Hey, I’m getting tickets to, Harry Potter and who wants to come? You want to
Beverly:
come or no? Okay, good.
Jessica:
Our guests even get an acceptance letter to Hogwarts with the Hogwarts. Oh, real? That is so cool. Yes, they hand sort them at the post office. It’s amazing. Yeah. I’m all about the tiny details.
Beverly:
I threw a seven year old’s birthday party. It was a Harry Potter, so for Zeke, the one that we took for his birthday. It was a Harry Potter themed birthday party. We made polyjuice potion out of Hawaiian punch and all sorts of different things. And we had sorting hat cookies that I had made as well. And we did a Harry Potter movie watching outside. It was like a very epic party, Jessica, because all the parents were like, the kids never stopped talking about it. And it really wasn’t that much detail. It was super fun. So fun. And the theme thing, I guess I feel for me is so fun because it all goes to that experiential marketing side of it. It’s very memorable, experiential. People remember these experiences, the sensory side of things like the fire and the ice, and there’s so much more to it than just. A pedicure you’ve got like aromas, you’ve got the hearing of the music, like all of it. So for marketing for our business, we even created a playlist we put on our website so that people can listen to marketing and creative type music when they’re doing their marketing. We were like, how do we make it more experiential and how do we create that opportunity? So even some of our client packages. I have like themed packages where I send out and I have like unicorn So I’m all about the unicorn being a magical unicorn, having unicorn like confidence for my clients. It’s something that’s really important to me. So in there is unicorn. I might have a unicorn hot cocoa with multicolored marshmallows. It is pink. The cocoa is pink. It’s not, black. So here’s a theme for you, a unicorn theme. And then I had like mints that are in our colors that are unicorn and there’s even like unicorn flavored, that’s not flavored, but all different colors. Popcorn. Even in there I spray like a vanilla Cake spray, so it smells like cake when you open the package. All the things are really important it has to be, it has to feel like there’s crinkles in there that are all different colors and shimmery And even the outside envelope is iridescent. So when they get it, it’s not a typical envelope. It needs to feel magical. You can be 2 percent different and it makes a difference. But if you’re like a hundred percent different, holy cow, watch the world out because. People will remember what you do. So I love this idea of experiential. I do it for my company. I strongly encourage it for other people. Even if they do a logo with us, we’ll send them their logo package and their branding guidelines, but maybe a month down the road, we’ll send their logo animated as like a little gift.
Jessica:
So cute.
Beverly:
Just ways to, like you said, add that extra. Our big question, this particular season, is about awakening your brand magic. Was there a moment when you decided, you said post COVID, but was there a moment when you saw how this unique magic that you bring to the table really was the thing that was going to make you way more successful?
Jessica:
Okay, true story. My son was turning 12 and I wanted to do something special for him. And I had known his teacher since college. He was my brother’s roommate and I went to him and I just said, Hey, I need to do something special for Nathan. I want a mother son trip. I don’t know what to do. And he said, you should take Nathan to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And I’m like, what is that? True story. What? True story. And he’s Jess, you got to read these books. You got to see these movies. When that all came out and was the big craze, that’s when I was starting the business. When I had Nathan, he was eight months old when I started the business. And then I went through a divorce. So it was just, me and Nathan and a business, I didn’t have time for the outside world. So I didn’t know everything that was going on, all things, Harry Potter. So I took him to the wizarding world. We started going through the books together. We started going through the movies. So that way we had the background and I fell in love with that. It was like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool. So then we went to the wizarding world when he was 12. And that was a strike moment for me because I said to myself, I would love to have a spa here. If I could do a spa in Digon Alley, how cool would that be? That kind of stuck with me for a while. And the attention to detail. Stuck with me. So we went through the covid and I was literally sitting at my laptop and it was 11 30 at night and I just put a post out on our business page. Because I was like this is sticking with me. And so I just said if we decided to do a Harry Potter themed spa day, would you be interested? And I put it out to the public. We had 72, 000 engagements, whether it was likes, comments, shares. It went viral. Just that post. I was like, Oh my goodness. I’ve never had a post have so much traction. And I did a lottery just to get tickets. It was wild. So they had to enter a lottery just to get a several hundred dollar ticket to go to this event. We did it. It was, we put it all up. We did the event. It was, Awesome. Amazing. But we had so many people that we couldn’t service that day. So I brought it back at the end of the month and I did it again. But then obviously you work out the case, you cannot shut down for a day, put all that production up, do the event, tear it down and put it out. And so then it became a weekend event. Now I stretched it at one point to about five days and it was too much. Now it is a three day event, but Oh my gosh, the response that we got was just. Off the charts. Like I said, we have the committee, we meet ahead of time. We delegate jobs out. So certain people are in charge of certain things. We, shut down the day before we do the setup. We go through the whole event. We do recap meetings. I type everything up. I share it with the team. Yeah. Ideas, feedback, everything. And then we use that to tweak it for the next year.
Beverly:
What has been the hardest thing about marketing for you then? Obviously this has worked fantastically, but what, have you made a marketing mistake that hasn’t worked? Like what have you learned from some of those things?
Jessica:
To be honest, yeah, I’ve wasted money on stuff that I thought was going to be awesome. I hate to say it, but like anniversary parties. I have pumped a ton of money into anniversary parties. And the first one it was okay, it was an outdoor event with a band and everything.
Beverly:
Wow.
Jessica:
We had a beer tent set up, we had a band but I didn’t realize that the band needs. So I was running all these cords like wild to get, power to the band, but then we were overloading our circuits in the building. And so I’m pulling from other buildings and I still have all these extension cords. And so like they would be playing and then shut down and then playing. That was fun. Luckily it was a friend of ours, his band is well known in the area. So it was fun but it was a lot of work and a lot of hiccups. So I did learn from that. I did throw a party in Frankenmuth for our 10 year as well. And I had like a little quartet, a string quartet, and I had prost catering and it was all beautiful. And then a tornado hit the town and we all had to go in the basement.
Beverly:
Yeah. These are like, Really random things that are happening.
Jessica:
Okay. So we’re not going to do any big anniversary parties.
Beverly:
Fair, totally fair.
Jessica:
Yeah. So I stopped doing that. We did a Galentine’s day event, which we did for a couple of years as part of our events. And last year we had an ice storm coming. So I’m learning, be careful of the timing of it as well. So I pulled the Galentine. This is the first year we’re not doing it because the weather’s unpredictable.
Beverly:
Especially in Michigan, that time of year, January, February, I feel like it’s really rough. So I have a magic hat, but my magic hat is purple and sequiny. And in here are a bunch of questions. Okay. And we call this our magic hat round, but it’s like a lightning round. And I’m going to wave my wand over the magic that will help us find the perfect question. This one is there a book, a podcast, or an entrepreneur that has made a lasting impact on your entrepreneurial journey? And it can be more than one. So you don’t have to feel like, Oh my gosh, one, but is there been any that have really, inspired you?
Jessica:
Yes, absolutely. So there’s two books that I always refer back to and not necessarily marketing books, but there’s two books. One being principles of success by Jack Canfield. It drove me to actually study with him in his breakthrough to success. So I spent about eight days studying with him. And then my second book is the magic. By Rhonda Byrne. I literally have multiple copies back there, which you can see on my shelf. And I was introduced, obviously the secret was a huge favorite of mine, but I am shifting gears as it is right now. And I’m really focused on gratitude. I want to become a gratitude leader. I want to help others understand the power of gratitude. The magic is a 28 day gratitude journey. And like in November I do a, we give thanks package at the spa where they get a massage, they get a pedicure all November seasonal themed. All the falls cocktail. And a beautifully wrapped copy of the magic to take home and take on that magical journey. So those are the two books that really resonate with me. They are professional and personal development, but it shifts me back. So when you start to get, like the negative side or the worries or the anxiety or anything like that, it’s always nope cancel. Go back to gratitude. Grateful. So principles of success and the magic.
Beverly:
I read a book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Big Magic. Have you read that?
Jessica:
No, I have to write that one down.
Beverly:
I’m going to suggest it. Okay. About your creativity. And I feel like you have such a creative side that it probably would find some benefit of that. So what is something in your business that brings you pure joy?
Jessica:
Kind of stuff like this. I get so excited just to share the journey. I get so excited to try something new. I also like in the actual business, I love designing events or renovations. I love it. Love making something more beautiful, more fun, more what can we do next?
Beverly:
Yeah. Entrepreneurs love to build things. So I’m not surprised.
Jessica:
This is so fun for me. And sharing that and talking about it. Instead of just constantly day to day stuff, I’m not a day to day person anymore. I definitely on the visionary side now.
Beverly:
That’s the best seat to be in on the whole business. If you could collaborate with any brand or entrepreneur, who would it be and why? Ooh.
Jessica:
It’s probably Jack Canfield. I love all of his work, his workshops. All of his principles of success and everything in that whole brand. I think that’s who I gravitate to the most. I do Denise Duffield as well, but I think I just have a history with Jack. So I just connect with him and his mindset and it’s a combination of meditation, gratitude, and get the work done. I think it’s just amazing at what he does.
Beverly:
How has running your business changed you as a person?
Jessica:
Oh, wow. I think the biggest thing is… you know, obviously everybody gets confidence when they’re a business owner. They get confidence. But with being a business owner, you don’t have a lot of people that you can go to for the answer. You have to find the answer. You have to be resourceful. You have to do the research. You have to learn it yourself. It’s very rare that you can just take a team member and say, okay, I want to do this. Can you go learn it? No, you have to learn the software. You have to learn social media. You have to learn how this all works. So in working that muscle, that resourcefulness muscle. I gained the confidence in the ability to not look at problems as impassable. Or impossible that one too, but it’s not, I’m not at an impasse when I come up to this, the new thing, I’m not at an impasse because I don’t know the answer. I may have to find the right person that has the answer. Like an attorney or an accountant or something like that. But I know that I’m resourceful enough to find that answer. Now that I’m an entrepreneur, there’s always an answer. Yes.
Beverly:
I have the word yet on my vision board. I don’t know something yet. Like it doesn’t mean I’m not going to learn it or they’re not going to figure it out. It’s just yet if it’s a problem right now, it’s just a yet situation. So yeah,
Jessica:
your vision board right there.
Beverly:
Yeah.
Jessica:
These are all vision boards.
Beverly:
Oh, very cool. We’re going to be best friends. Love it. Okay. Last question. Have you ever thought about quitting and what pulled you back?
Jessica:
Ooh, yes. I have. When I had my second son we were approached about selling the one location. My oldest was 15 when my youngest was born. And that started a thought process of, do we switch gears in our life? Do we look at a new career? And so we had sold the first location and. Was able to spend more time with our newborn, which was awesome. And then Frankenmuth had taken off and it, it flourished and things like that. And there did come a time where it’s okay, this is day to day. This is day to day. It’s not lighting me up anymore. So what pulled me back was. Wait a second. Okay. I can still create unique experiences and I can still be a visionary and I can still be around these people that I love that they’re like my family, but to do them justice, I also need to look over here.
Beverly:
Yeah.
Jessica:
So I told myself, We got a great business. We’ve got a great serendipity family. There’s so many things like that are absolutely amazing about this group of individuals. There’s 43 of them. And I’ve never seen such a great collaboration that gets hands down best team we’ve ever had. So I’m like, okay, so if we can work on working with our managers and making sure that they have that mindset, that, that love and compassion, yet holding accountable LMA. Then I can be the visionary, but I can also work on things like being on a podcast, launching a book, doing consulting for other spa owners. And that’s what drew me back in. I don’t have to do the day to day. I don’t have to be at the spa 80 hours a week. I did that. I did that. And I’m glad I did because I can speak from experience, but that doesn’t mean I have to give it up. So yes, I did have thoughts. And then it was, Wait, I can still live my dreams. I can still work from home. I can still do these fun events. I don’t have a boss telling me, nope, you can’t do that marketing plan. And I’m like, watch me because it’s mine.
Beverly:
I think is fabulous about the women that I’ve interviewed is that. Because we are raising families and doing all these things, we are recreating what it even looks like to be at the helm of a business. And. This freedom of being able to, move things off of your plate and trust people to do their work so that you can live in your magic and not Be stuck in the day to day.
Jessica:
So true.
Beverly:
So before we move into my magic wand I want to ask one more question. Tell me a story about one of your customers and how your business. Affected them, the impact you had on
Jessica:
them. Ooh, gosh. The most recent is a Harry Potter one. We have a guest that’s been coming to our event every year. Her name is Shannon and her husband, Steve. Has been, booking the appointments for her and everything. Huge Harry Potter fans. And her daughter has been struggling with fertility and all this kind of stuff. And this past year, her daughter was going to join her for the Harry Potter event. And she had reached out to me privately and they had success with their fertility efforts. And my husband and I also went through a long journey with that and IVF. And so I really connected with her and we were able to create this whole Experience in the middle of Hogwarts and her daughter had to take a potion together and she had to say this magical spell and I took her through this whole journey, then in the cauldron came out, The message that basically she was going to be a grandmother. It was amazing to see their experience and they put it all over. And then that was part of their announcement was that video. So it was really special to be a part of that.
Beverly:
I think that’s Beautiful. I do have experience in fertility and done that road. So that’s even more interesting, Jessica. Twins separated. So I’m going to wave my magic wand and we are going to go into the past and we’re going to 18 year old Jessica who just graduated from high school. And we’re going to give her a bit of advice. What would we tell Jessica who’s 18 just finishing high school?
Jessica:
Good question. For advice, I would say follow your gut and not what people tell you to do. Don’t follow the blueprint that the world tells you. To follow and follow your gut and don’t be afraid to step out into the world, confident in yourself.
Beverly:
Okay. Let’s also ask that Jessica what she thinks of who you are today. What do you think she would say?
Jessica:
I think that Jessica would be proud, confused at first. That Jessica wanted to conquer the world. So a hundred locations, that kind of stuff. But I think she would be proud to see that one of the things that I made as a absolute non negotiable part of my heart and focus is my family. My family is so dear to me. So important to me. Met the love of my life through the spa on a sales call. And my husband is just my world. My boys are my world. When she’s looking upon me, she’s going to say, okay, now I understand it doesn’t have to be conquer the world. Because you don’t have to get validation through that, which I may have thought at 18 is you’re important if you conquer the world, but now seeing there’s so much love there and so much joy. I think she would be proud of my number one job is being a mom, I love being a mom.
Beverly:
Okay. I’m going to wave the wand and I’m going to go forward and we’re gonna go all the way decades and decades from now to your funeral where people are listening to your eulogy you’re celebrating your life, Jessica. What is the biggest impact have you made? They’re going to talk about
Jessica:
that I became a gratitude leader that I taught people how to see the good and any bad situation. And I helped turn mindsets. So that their life wasn’t crumbling or debilitating or horrible for a long period of time. I think that would be my big thing.
Beverly:
What a gift to give to the world is more gratitude for sure. I hope so. Okay. I’m going to wave them back to one and bring us right back to the present day. We are now in 2025. What is one thing that you think you could help our listeners, new entrepreneurs, seasoned entrepreneurs all scopes of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs. What is one tip you would give to them that they could help them awaken their brand magic today?
Jessica:
I would say, think about what you can bring to the table that no one else is doing. And if you are not a marketing person. It’s okay to reach out for that help. But if you are solely in that, what can I do to awaken this brand? It’s what am I going to offer that nobody else has right now? And you can do it in retail, you can do it in service, you can do it in restaurants, you can do it all over the board.
Beverly:
You are the magic. It’s your personality. It’s your perspective. It’s your beliefs. It’s your heart, your soul, you are part of that magic. Really own it. Don’t be afraid of that. Fully embrace who you are and why you’re so passionate, your story, all that has so much magic in it to create difference for sure.
Jessica:
It’s funny you say that because I struggled at first with changing over all of our massage rooms. into personal stories. I really struggled because it was, is this going to make me sound like I’m, puffing my chest and everything. I didn’t know if I should pull that trigger or not. And it was suggested by an old mentor of mine to, to theme the rooms and stuff like that. That’s when I thought let’s make it personal, but then I struggled. And then once I did it, So many people embraced it and now they’re standing outside the massage rooms reading the story. It made them feel more connected to us.
Beverly:
Stories are the most authentic part of who you are and the way you show up is what your clients need. Your clients need you, and they’re just waiting for you to show up with your magic so that they can buy from you, be served by you, whatever that looks like. Fully stepping into your magic is extremely powerful on so many levels. Really being vulnerable and being more open to the reasons why you started your business and why you make the decisions you make and all of that, I think helps people really see the connection to you and your magic. So lovely. So Jessica, where can people learn more about you, the spa and the new book that I hear is coming out?
Jessica:
So excited. So Serendipity Wellness Spa in Frankenmuth, Michigan. That’s our spot. That’s our baby. That’s our Serendipity family. So that’s at serendipitydayspas. com. That’s our website. We’re at serendipity wellness spa on Facebook, Instagram, I believe is serendipity. spa. We’re also as far as learning more about me, it’s just my name. It’s jessicascope. com. That is my coaching website. as well as mindset and coaching. And that’s where, I help other salon and spa owners with their marketing as well as their mindset. So those are the ways that they can contact me. And then the new book that comes out February 12th is Believe Beyond. And it’s a series of authors. We we all talk about stories of resilience that they’re calling it like a movement and it’s just about believing beyond what is possible. And so we write about our stories and it’s just a really cool, unique experience that I’m so super excited. Awesome.
Beverly:
Thank you so much, Jessica, for joining me today. I really enjoyed our chat.
Jessica:
I’m honored to be here. I really truly am. I thank you for inviting me. It means the world. So I’m grateful for you.
Beverly:
Jessica, thank you for sharing your story and all the challenges and the ups and downs. and downs and the creative experiences to all of our listeners. I really hope you found today’s conversation as inspiring as I did. Please stay tuned for more inspiring conversations and actionable tips on future episodes of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing podcast. Until next time, keep sparking and igniting.
