Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Johnson and Melissa Mickelson.
Jessica and Melissa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Since we were young, my sister, Melissa, and I always wanted to own a business together. It wasn’t until Oct 2014 that our ideas and passions collided. She had been running a medical spa for several years and was enjoying the heck out of it. I was winding up a career in teaching attorneys how to market their practices online. I joined forces with her briefly at the spa she was running. About 2 months into it, I said we should buy the spa from the doctor.
We sat down with him, offered him a deal and he respectively declined. But he said something that really impacted us and propelled us not only to go out on our own but to always keep an abundant mindset.
When we asked how he felt if we opened our own CoolSculpting practice he said, “ladies there is enough fat in AZ for both of us to have businesses and be successful, you’ll do great go out and do it!”
Three months later we had successfully raised close to 400k, purchased 2 machines, found a medical director, built a website, secured a location and hit the ground running!
We grew up with entrepreneurs and are insanely thankful for their guidance. In addition, each and every job or endeavor we’ve pursued has allowed up to gain knowledge and insight into how to start, run and grow a successful business. There is no shortage of people we both thank continually for being exceptional mentors to us, their support and love really shaped us and has had a tremendous influence on who and why we built Bodify how we have.
The most exciting part, it we still plan to grow and expand and continue to not only help clients say goodbye to stubborn fat but help other CoolSculpting practices successfully grow their CoolSculpting revenue and enhance the client experience.
We’ve been so fortunate. Within a few months, we were the #1 CoolSculpting provider in AZ and are #4 in the nation. We continue to grow and thrive and build a strong reputation among clients, other CoolSculpting providers and even the parent company, Allergan, has asked us to allow other providers to come to our location so they can model our success. We continue to have an abundant mindset and always let other providers come to our location.
Good, bad, right or wrong, we feel when a person feels and the most confident and attractive in their skin, they operate in the world differently- better! So we love that we can offer our clients a real solution that is backed by science and FDA-clearance to help with stubborn diet and exercise resistant fat.
We’ve done over 12,000 treatments as of Oct 2017 and love that we help out clients step into the bodies they haven’t been able to achieve with hard work alone.
My sister and I have very different roles in the business and this has allowed us to create a business that is not only very sound financially, but markets exceptionally well and most importantly offers our clients an incredible experience and great CoolSculpting results.
Not a day passes, when Melissa and I don’t sit back in awe and think “wow, in 3 years look what we’ve built.” This pushes us to continue to be the best and find new ways to grow and enhance the client experience.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
When we first started we hired a marketing specialist. Everything that was said and promised to us sounded incredible and unfortunately the strategies didn’t pan out nor show a return. Melissa and I call it the “stupid tax”, we signed a pretty good length contract and couldn’t get out of it for months although we knew very early on the strategies and person were not a fit.
Something else we’ve learned is the importance of setting proper expectations with our clients on the results they can anticipate and being willing to say no if someone isn’t a fit for either the service or our office culture.
We’ve been lucky and can attribute that to past experiences and wisdom shared with us by mentors and family.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Bodify story. Tell us more about the business.
We are CoolSculpting only boutique. CoolSculpting is the world’s #1 non-invasive fat-reduction technology. Millions of individuals eat well and are active yet because of aging, genetics, hormones or a slew of other factors, have one or more areas on their body that drive them nuts. Who can’t relate to that?
In a non-invasive way, we freeze the fat cells, while damaging no other cells or tissues! The fat cells die over the course of a few days and take 2-4 months to flush out of the body. With a single treatment a client can expect to see a 20-25% reduction of fat in the area(s) treated.
When we opened Bodify we were clear, we not only want to be the experts in CoolSculpting but we want to create a culture when our clients and staff loving coming into the office and know when they invest hard-earned dollars into CoolSculpting at Bodify, they will see a result.
We created a Beautiful Results Promise as a result. We think it’s the right thing to do and as a business owner it makes us feel so confident and happy that we can say, if you invest in us, we are here with you every step of the way and will do a treatment for free if you don’t see the result we anticipate.
I can’t tell you how grateful the handful of clients we’ve had to do that for have been. There is no argument, we stand behind our word and do what’s right.
We also created a man cave. We know that millions of men also struggle with unwanted fat. Yet they don’t want to go to a facility that feels girly or overly feminine. In the man cave, men can sit back, watch TV, relax and freeze their fat in a guy-centric space.
Lastly we opted to only offer one service, CoolSculpting. We believe you can’t be good at everything. So we have decided to be the best at one thing. People love coming to a specialist as removing fat from your body is a big decision and you want to ensure you pick a provider that gets incredible results.
My sister and I are most proud that in less than 2 years we are debt free. We are huge Dave Ramsey fans and it makes us feel incredibly. We are proud we can offer profit sharing and 401k benefits to our amazing staff, we are thrilled to be #1 in AZ, we are honored that Allergan sends other providers our way in hopes that they can mimic our success, we feel amazing that in 3 years we will have generated more than 3.8 million in sales.
But above all we are proud that as sisters we have built a company we can be proud of, provides for our families, helps others and is a fun, safe and enjoyable place to work.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Timing certainly played a role in our success. We were the first and only CoolSculpting only practice in AZ to open. Soon after, many others tried to open and have since failed. We are not certain if luck truly plays a role or if it’s simply that my sister and I always look for opportunities and have the ability to turn what others may consider a bad break into either a learning lesson or an opportunity.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2999 N 44th Street
Ste. 135
Phoenix AZ 85018 - Website: www.thebodify.com
- Phone: 602-354-8040
- Email: jessica@thebodify.com
- Instagram: @bodify
- Facebook: thebodify
- Twitter: @thebodify
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bodify-phoenix-2
Image Credit:
Carl Schultz and Bloguettes
Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
