From Less Than $1,000 to Owning 8 Spas ft. Nuttha Goutier

Welcome to the Goal Crazy Podcast. This is the podcast to listen to if you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a business owner who wants to grow to the next level. On this show, you'll learn from people just like you who have learned to take their dream of entrepreneurship and turn it into a thriving business. I'm your host, Jason Vanderveer.

I'm the author of the book, Dream Driven, the creator of the Goal Crazy Planner and a real estate investor in Akron, Ohio. To access free training on how to discover your perfect business idea, go to goalcrazy.com slash free training. Let's get started.

Hello there. Welcome back to the next episode of the Goal Crazy podcast. I'm your host, Jason Vanderveer. And today I have with me Nata Gutierre.

And she is an inspiring entrepreneur. She is the founder of Sabai Thai Spa, which is a beautiful spa. They have several locations in Canada. She has eight locations now.

She's franchised it with a handful more locations in construction right now. So it's going to be a really inspiring story and someone to learn a lot from. So welcome onto the show with me. Thank you for having me here, Jason.

I'm looking forward to share my story and excited to have a conversation together here. Yeah, yeah, me too. So let me start with this why entrepreneurship where did the passion and the idea of starting a business how that come about in your life me i i love entrepreneur at heart i you know i grew up in a small village i think it's it's not running water no power but it's just the way of life we always try to survive i guess that's what it is it just and then we always try i recently was a kid i always selling some eggs, go find some fish and sell some fish, go hunt and sell some stuff that we find in the local village.

And then start quite early age, when eight years old, I started to sell a coffee and hot chocolate at a local market. And then that point is, make me think about business. When you start a business, that eight years old, what taught me is everyone in my village, The kid, when you go to school, you only get one baht. It has a cent or a couple of cents to school.

And then because I started selling coffee and hot chocolate at the school, on that morning before the school, I can earn 50 baht. Not a lot to convert into a dollar, but it's a lot for that moment when we were young. and that made me think to working for myself quite a young age already. Wow, I can earn 50 baht before even going to school.

Every day that is what motivates me. I wake up at 6 in the morning or go to early morning and start to sell the coffee and hot chocolate. And then later on it's the same thing when I start to working with my dad, when we start to buy tapioca from the farmer and then we convert it to dry and then we sell to the factory. And actually we can earn in quite a good chunk that you, it's not a lot of money in that moment, but when you work for yourself, it's just more joy, more fun.

I work with my dad. We carry a lot of tapioca, very heavy. We carry about two tons a day in the whole season. But the hard work doesn't feel heavy when you have the care with your heart, with the fashion and purpose and just working for yourself.

It just makes it more joyful, more mission, I guess, is that, you know, the power that you can carry on to all the day. It's just enjoyable for me in that time. Yeah. Yeah.

That's really neat. Okay. So it started when you were a kid. Yeah.

You had this very entrepreneurial childhood. When did you start the spa? And how did, well, yeah, what made you want to start a spa? Yeah, let's go back in that story again.

When we back to the village, our village is just, like I said, we have no running water, nothing. We have no hospital, no clinic, nothing. We use natural healing. When you work in a farm, you get achy and pain, you get massage, you get hurt with steam.

And wellness is part of life. It's part of everyday living. It's not like Western world that we are here. In the Western world here, people's thinking, care for yourself is a bad thing.

They feel guilty. They feel like they're taking time away from other things. But in what I grew up with, taking care of yourself is responsibility. You must take care of yourself first before you take care of people around you.

Yeah, from the inside and out, right? You take care of your mind, body, and spirit. That's what makes me think like, okay, we need to educate people here. We need to create a space for people here to learn about and take care of yourself is passive life, passive routine, passive habit that you go.

Same thing that you go to the gym, you're brushing your teeth, you maintain your car because your body is like car, right? You need the gasoline to get going. You need the oil shane. You need the cleaning.

You need maintenance. Our body exactly the same. We need to be paused, to relax, to reset ourselves, to reconnect to ourselves, to get renewed and refreshed that we become a better version of ourselves. And we need to love ourselves.

We need to be kind. We need to be kind to ourselves. And we're kind to other people around us. You know, we go home, you become a better parent, better partner, better kid, and then better coworker, better contribution to a community.

Yeah, that's wonderful. I would like, that's why I started Survive High Spa, because I want to create a space that people can come in to reconnect to themselves, to feel renewed, and to become a better version of themselves. A space is created like the first step you come in, you feel like your time spot to Thailand without getting on airplane. All your five cents taken care of, the sight, the sound, the smell, the taste, the touch, right?

And the whole journey has become like experience. It's not transactional. And then the caring, the high hospital and caring that we in here in our space, what the SPY offer is to care for others, for truly care. That we want you to have longevity.

We want you to embed your self-care to be part of routine. And that what we are here, that's what we're doing. And that's what we want everyone to do. because if you really care for yourself, imagine if you're going to take the moment, to take the pause, to get a massage every single week.

Jason, how would you feel every single week the rest of your life? I'd feel more relaxed, for sure. My wife would be jealous, but yeah, it would be very relaxing. Yeah, it'd be a big treat.

Yeah. Instantly, you feel relaxed, but not just only that your whole body your mobility your joy movement your circulation and then when you come out that moment that you pause when you reconnect we are so busy with new work here with technology with the scoring the screen the demanding that everybody feel have to grind have to work hard have to push to get through but actually when you pause to take the moment, you can think more clear and you can make a better decision. It's necessary to take that moment because sometimes when you say, you know, sometimes you try to get to your thing, how can I, I can't find solution of this problem.

I can't do anything. You try to think, you try to get to it, try to work harder. But actually when you step back, you take a moment, you take a pause that when the solution comes when you create a space for your mind and the body and the soul and you you actually will find better version of yourself you're thinking more clear you become a more effective at work and you become a better person and then you know people around you become more enjoyable and then you get to be joyful at the moment yeah yes there's a big purpose behind it I know two people I know, two mentors, both own large businesses, and they do a massage every Friday.

And both of them have told me that that's where they get the most clarity, their best insights. Not that they go there with the pressure on, I need to go get a massage and solve all my business problems. I'm going there to relax, but still, just by letting themselves slow down like that, it's provided a tremendous amount of mental clarity for them. Yes, we have many customers who, you know, very high executive level that they have to work so hard.

And they will book every single Monday, the rest of the year, exactly the same time. And then that's my time. And then I think he's always said, thank you for, you know, she said thank you to me to create a space. Because of your space, your spot, that was the reason I come to see you here that it get me through the week.

and is that what gets me through the week, makes me think more clear, makes me more grounded and it's so important that some people, we have people come twice a week. Some people like that, they're just twice a week. They come in for 15 minutes, an hour, they're in and out and then that's the space, they're calm and I believe it's very necessary for us to take the pause, the stilliness to help us to think more clear is a must thing to do. And I think we can do in a boss world, because when I come here, people in the Western world, it's so ambition, go-getter, you know, just put so much fulfillment and expectation and things like that.

It's just a lot of pressure. And you build that pressure. You feel like you have a knot in your heart, and then the weight are heavy, and then you glide through it. But it's too hard.

Oh, you will feel burnt out. You will break. And then you didn't take the moment to hear the other stuff, right? When you take the pause, that moment that you're still in it to care for yourself.

And that will help you to find more clarity. That's what I believe is so important. Instead, cry to and burn out. instead let yourself burn out before you get burnt out come and get that weekly treatment before you burn out Yeah I sure some people think oh we going to a spa It's expensive.

You have to pay somebody. But probably there's plenty of people that see counselors or therapy. They go into therapy because they're so stressed. They're so anxious.

Yeah. When maybe they could be allocating that money to something more enjoyable. I'm not a doctor. Don't take my advice.

But I'm sure for a lot of people, if they took care of themselves like that, they'd probably enjoy spending the money more on a spa every week than on a counselor or therapist to help them alleviate some of the anxiety. No, the anxiety and the feeling inside you. You know, every time you lost your sleep and you're grumpy and then your frustration, anxiety increasing to the roof. And then you lost, you don't know what your purpose anymore, right?

What's your goal in life? And then you're just running in hamster wheel. You know, it's okay to jump off the hamster wheel for an hour a week. It's not much.

And then you can jump back in again. with more, what do you call it, more attention. Energy. You have more awareness.

I guess that will help to run better in terms of your behind. Yeah. Wow, that's good. Thanks for giving me the mission, the purpose behind it.

That's beautiful. So it sounds to me like, so you grew up in Thailand, if I caught that correctly. Then you came to Canada. You saw people are not taking care of themselves.

here. So you wanted to launch this business. Tell me how, tell me the story of how you launched this business. How did, did you think about it for years?

Did you start, start this business in your house and then eventually got a location or what's that, what did that look like to get your, your first location open and started? Yeah. When I come here, of course, after I come here and I moved to the city, work to a different clinic, different spa, medical spa, a different hotel spa. And then talk to a lot of people.

A lot of people hear, oh, I only come to get a massage once a year on my anniversary, on my birthday. Two times a year. Many people never. And some people never.

Oh, I don't like touch. I don't want anything. But actually, a human, a part of nature, touch is a natural healing. Even not a good massage, still a good massage.

You know, even a good massage, even a luki or healing, any treatment is still good for our soul and spirit and our body as well. And for longevity, that's what we need to do. And when I see that gap, I just, okay, people need to do that. And I believe this vision that I want to create for people will work.

On that time, I'm still young, you know, still 20. and late 20. I did not have money to start a business, but what I have is belief and trust myself. And then with my passion, and then what I believe is that will work and that create a purpose.

And then what I want to do, my mission is to help people here, to see different ways, to see self-care is a must thing. You need to do that to be able to have longevity. And I have less than $1,000 to start a business. And I just went, you know, find a space, went to the landlord, and the landlord said, how are you going to start a spa business when you have less than $1,000?

And I said, I'm young and full of energy and believe my vision will work, and I believe that what people need here and I need to create this opportunity for others. And he hand me over the key. And of course, I didn't know anything about business. I did not went to business school.

Didn't you have to hand him the keys and did you give him your $1,000? Right, he needed rent or did he give you the keys without taking some of your money? He did not take any money from me. He just gave me the key.

And when he got the key, I just, wow, how do I do? I do not know how to start a business in Canada. Different culture, different everything. But people showing up, universe hearing you, people show up when you need them to.

The same in my village. People showing up when you want to harvest your cough and when you're sick or you want to build a house. in my village. People just show up without asking.

This happened to me exactly the same in here, the village. Find me in the northern, you know, America, in British Columbia, Vancouver. A lawyer come in. I said, oh, I'm a lawyer.

I can help you to corporate the company. Just give me a trade, you know, a trade or massage. Okay, a couple of massage. and then, you know, I would like to make it look like a traditional Thai house that is about 2,500 years ago.

This is what it looked like. If you look at my website, it's a picture, and it's just a teakwood, warm teakwood, traditional Thai house. It's a lobby of the Thai house, and I want to look like that. And then the guy who worked in the film said, oh, I can help you with that.

Just give me a tan massage. And, oh, I know someone else to do the color. I know that's, and then the world just, you know, just reached out to different people. And everything just happened from the trade, actually.

Even the website, bookkeeping, the whole thing, it just happened that the village showed up. As soon as I opened the door, the local community just come in. Oh, what is it? What's happening?

What is you offering here? Everybody just stopped by and they're asking. and then after they come in, they really like what I'm doing. They say, I'm going to tell everyone in my neighborhood.

I will tell everybody in my work. And they get a lot of gift certificates and give so many people. It's just a word of mouth just spread so quickly. And I also walk to every shop, every store to introduce myself.

Grassroot marketing. I didn't spend any $1 on marketing because I don't have it. I don't have money to spend. But I just interview everywhere.

I go to local events, local school, local sports, and soccer, swimming, everything. And just show up everywhere and interview who I am, what I'm doing, why I'm doing. And people just coming in, spa just busy, phone ring nonstop. People actually lie up to get the gift certificate and to pass to everyone.

every barbecue people talking about a spa and then the word of mouth just spread uh very fast yeah wow wow well first of all you're awesome that's a great story so you went to this landlord you only have a thousand dollars uh and you told him that uh he gave you the keys without needing rent at signing so he gave you a month or so to to get your business started and then pay him. He gave three months. Actually, he gave me three months to get started. Yeah.

So he gave you three months. Yeah. Yeah. So he gave you three months and then you traded with people to, hey, I'll give you this many massages if you paint the walls in here.

I'll give you a massage if you make my website. I'll give you this many massages if you set me up legally. Yeah. And that's how you got the place ready to open your doors.

And then you, it was knocking on doors telling people what you do and growing it from that yeah every yoga place and every soccer team it's amazing when you literally get out there's too many people out there who want to start a business i know they are google digital marketing and everything like that is but nothing can beat in person nothing can beat that you go and show your fashion what you want to do to your local area that you are in. People appreciate people, and people want to support local business and support people who you are.

And that is a business. And then not just only that. If you go out like, the reason I go out like that, also I meet a lot of people. And then when you meet a lot of people, you become your friend, become your community.

And actually your job, your business become more joyful. you enjoy the boat you go to work you enjoy to walking around you know everybody and then it just just give you more meaningful to do your business yeah oh i can yeah i can relate to that it's fun having connections and knowing people enjoying the people you work with and i imagine with the type of business you have you have lots of repeat customers so you probably develop relationships with these people if you see them once a week uh okay you get to know them yeah and then you have whole family and then you have whole did they send in the company some people just okay give me 20 kids to get out give to all my corporate people and then they just send all the corporate team it's just a word of mouth that grow that way it's it's grassroots uh still amazing even now of course right now we we do a lot of different marketing but for me i still love the grassroots marketing because it's just meaningful and enjoyable to do it.

Yeah, that's great. Okay, so how long did you have just the one location before you opened your second? The second location? Yeah.

Yeah. Our first location, it opened in 2005. And second location in 2010. Third location in 2011.

And then 2013, the fourth location. And then after that, I just, I'm just so young before when I started business. Even at the crew at that time, I have no idea about business. Even the first one I started, I have a key.

I fear, I scare, I doubt, I make so many mistakes. I sidetrack out a different direction and just didn't focus what I'm doing. I love it, even a fashion it, but I did not have mantra or, you know, how to run the business. Because I never went to business school, but I still love what I'm doing.

I still do fashion it. I wish that I could become more focused and stay in one lane. And because when you have the entrepreneur mindset, you just interest everything, right? That is a challenging for you to get where you want to be is persistent and stay in your lane, focus and be patient because the time will go, the food will ripe when they're ready.

Because right now, I think a lot of new generation, young generation, they want instant success, instant everything. Because now we can order food to Uber, they instantly arrive in 15, 20 minutes. You want any information, you're typing in a few seconds, you get a million options. But literally in a life to a business to success or other things it doesn happen the same right It like you planting a seed planting the tree you know you bury it under the dirt and then it doesn feel like nothing happening, that in business it's happened that way.

Sometimes you feel like you're working so hard and nothing happening, but actually if you put the right soil in, the right soil is You mean your right mindset for yourself. And then you're watering them. The season comes, the time comes, and the seed grows to a tree and stable and strong. And after that, it's just a time.

Eventually, the branch comes out, the fruit comes out, and then ready to become ripened. And ripened is in your own time. Do not compare yourself to other. See other people's success.

Oh, why don't you succeed? And then you feel bad. And then, you know, just don't compare. You work, focus on yourself, learn about yourself, and then do your best and take time to take care of your mind and the body.

Because if you don't have your mind and your body, you will not achieve anything in life. Yeah, that's good. I think that's a great message. You have to be patient with it.

You're not going to build something giant overnight. And if you've been working hard for six months and you're still not a millionaire, don't give up yet. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. That's really good. When you opened your second location, was it hard to. You had to be able to have them run without you there because you can't be in two places at once.

Was that hard to develop that skill set to have managers in place and other people there so that they can. And you were still, I'm sure, very involved. But again, you can't be in two places at once. So talk to me about that transition.

When I open the first location, that's the thing when you start the business very young. Sometimes you just do things that you just try things. And I start quite young. And that time is a freedom is what I really like when I'm younger.

I just want to be able to go to Thailand three or four months a year. And I literally get a key in August. I think we open the door by October. Actually, January, I hand over the key to the receptionist.

And then I'm going to Thailand for three months. I come back in the end of March. Did you have other employees then at that point to help do the masseuses? Yeah, in August.

August to October I don't have anyone I just work in trade for massage and do some small treatment I just do a lot of treatment at that time in the evening at night I just do the renovation you know just fixing the wall and try to get the preparation spa to be ready to open by October I have five people working with me already because on that time I think I cannot provide the service that I want to do to many people because I'm only one person. The only way I can provide more service is to have my more team member to offer it.

And then by December, I think I have almost 10 team members working in a location already. Wow, that's great. So then only like less than six months into business, you went back to Thailand and left your new business to run without you? Yeah, I actually, yeah, from the $1,000 to start, and then from October to December, actually in that time, I did look at the bank account.

It's about 65,000 Canadian on that time. Like a couple months, it's just like, wow, that's a lot of money. I didn't have that much money. It's my first lot of money in the bank.

But it doesn't, for me, it's what you call materialetics, The money is not the success for me, right? It just doesn't drive me. The driving me and business is the people, right? It's the people that I work with.

I care a lot about them because the reason I create a space for the first place, because I'm an immigrant too. I feel lonely. Sometimes I don't feel belonging when I'm working with many, many places. And I want to create a space for people to work and feel like family, feel like home.

I want them to feel belonging. And that's what I create the culture in the space that, you know, I talk to everyone. We are here more than we see a family. We are family.

We have to treat each other well. We have to care for each other, like truly care. And then same thing, truly care for your customer, truly care for your co-worker. And everyone is just so enjoying to become like a best friend.

They bring potluck to each other every day. They go for a hike. They do things outside work. It's like family.

And that is successful for me, to see my team laugh and enjoy at work and looking forward to come to work. And I see customers enjoy and happy. And that is very successful. But what I did, even I started my business at that time, I have people working.

I still make time to care for myself. I still go. Early morning, I wake up at 5.30 or 6.

I will go to do my yoga. and during the day, I take a break in the day, I go for height. And then at night, I still do another yoga at nighttime. I do 90 minutes in the morning, 90 minutes in the evening.

And then during the time, I still make. That's just why people say, oh, I don't have time. Like people, oh, I don't have time. I'm too busy to get myself.

I'm too busy to do this. No, you have time. If you make your time for it. And if you value that time, you will make time for it.

And then because Dois Tham are very important to have because if you, like I said, if you don't make Dois Tham, you're grinding to it and then you just become, what do you call, too gray. You cannot see, like your land, it just gets covered with dust. It's like, you know, sometimes I always differ is, you know, when you see life in different lanes, like, you know, here's my lane of my life. I just, oh, I'm just, this is what I'm going to do.

That's my life. I'm automated. I'm busy and everything. I'm just thinking to go this way.

I woke up and I have a million of things that I want to do. It's the brain just spinning. Oh, here's the checklist I need to achieve and things like that. But actually, it's not the way that if you, it's because yesterday is the past.

you have to start the day fresh every day. You know, the day is, you know, if you keep spinning and thinking, that actually you do nothing. It doesn't apply to your work. Your work not get done.

You didn't achieve anything. It just spins in your head and gets yourself tired. And then, but if you really take your time to do the, to clear your mind, and that is just actually you thinking actually what actually priority of work that you have to do. What my sale, what I do every day when I wake up in the morning is, you know, three deep breaths and what three things I feel grateful for, what three things that I was looking forward to.

And then before you open the touch the phone, don't open the social media, don't open your email, nothing. Just go to yourself first. I'll go in and then do some quick meditation, one minute, two minutes. One minute is very powerful if you're able to.

You don't need to do a lot. You say, oh, I don't have to practice. You don't have to become a monk. You just need the moment to clear your mind, to let go of all your thoughts that you had yesterday, your argument, your disappointment, your uncertainty, anything, you just let it go from yesterday.

And then today is a new day. You start the day. And that's it. You have that moment in the morning.

And then protect those hours because it's very important. You don't think, oh, I don't have time. You make time for it because those times will help you to become more clarity to make a decision in life and in business. Yeah.

Wow. Well, OK, thanks for sharing that. I feel like there's a lot of really good little pieces in there. So kind of bring this back to your story.

You left to go back to Thailand and you have this business that at that point you had built a culture where in a team that they could run it when you were gone. but it sounds like a big part of you being able to do that was that you practice what you preach uh you want people to massage get a massage once a week so they can learn to let go it's like even letting go for one minute if you if you're not willing to let go for one minute first thing in the morning you probably wouldn't have been willing to let go of your business for a month while you went back to thailand right it was the the discipline of i'm going to take care of myself.

I'm going to give myself breaks, even if they're small ones. That's really what gave you the mental muscle to say, I'm going to let go of my business that I just started several months ago, go back home, and then come back and work on it again. Is that fair to say? I come back and the business is open.

It's making money, people working. Wow, actually it's fine. And what did I learn from that is trust others. Were you worried while you went back to Thailand?

Not at all. No, no. Okay, that's good. I'm just too young at that time.

I didn't even worry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.

Wow, that's incredible. Okay, so then going back to where I started with that question of when you had your second location, that wasn't that big of a jump for you. Because you were already building processes where this business could run without you there all the time. So opening a second location, it was the work of getting it going again.

And all right, because I know now you have a bunch of locations and you franchised it. So at what point in your journey did you decide to franchise it and share this business model with other people? And what did that decision look like? It pretty much starts from the first location when I left to the trip, when I come back, and wow, everything is work.

And now it makes me think, actually, I can open more locations because I don't need to be there. It's a thought coming up, right, but on that time. And then it helped me to developing the system. I developed protocol in the first year of 2005 because I like to be away.

The reason I created it, it's not for the business side at all. It's just for myself to be free. I just want to get out and do things. And I create a protocol.

If people, you know, if emergency, you have to do this. And then if something, you have to do this. And then people make sure that people follow what they support to do. And then there's a second location, a little bit challenging when we come up with a second location.

The second location that's challenging is the technology. we got on one location, everything storage in one spot. And now we open a second location. Oh, how can we storage?

How can, because we want the customer to go any of those locations. And then we want information to flow between four locations. And now it's technically come in. And that when they look into different how can we get crowd system How can we adapt to that stuff And now we developing the whole area That what the second time I developing the protocol I think 2010 when we open a second location.

And then after that third and fourth location, oh, and we're implementing it. Actually, wow, actually that's work because the system is there. And then we have the manager in place for different locations. And actually, I don't need to be at the location and those first four locations.

After that, it's like, well, actually, it's work. I could just expand to a chain or should I expand to franchising? And that time when we have four locations, we could go. And that would be developing 2013, developing another system to expansion.

But after that, I have a first daughter. And then I said, okay, that's it. I'm done. I don't want to expand anymore.

I stopped expansion and all those plans. And then I have four children. Nice. We have four kids.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you say four kids or four locations? Kids.

Four kids. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah, we have four kids.

Yeah, 2013. And then that's when I have four children. And that's the reason why we didn't expand for many years. I just, like, I don't want to open anymore.

I just want to be a mom. I want to enjoy a motherhood life. I just want to spend every day. I meet up with the local mom.

I get out. Just a lot of coming. I hang out with a lot of kids and just learn about the kids. Another side that I never know before.

Before, just a business side. Wow, I'm actually a mom. I'm having kids. I have a lot of kids.

And enjoy that time. I really enjoying that time. And then 2017, and that time I come back again, the business is working. I spend a ton of time with my kids and I'm not even in the store.

The business are working. Maybe it's ready for franchising or maybe it's ready for corporate go as a chain. And that time I wasn't have a clear vision which direction I want to go, but I developing the system again to define the system if we really go. How can we have that every area to cover?

And then we plan to expand four more locations before the COVID and to implementing the system. And then the COVID come, we only open one template with the system that it created on 2017. We launch it with the COVID year. We open one location, exactly the model, the system and everything.

And then it's working again. And then it's, okay, let's try this system again with two more locations. I think 22, we opened two locations with the system that I'm directing on 2017. And then one with like a lot of experience, with a lot of well-train.

Another one like, okay, let's get someone with no training, no experience, very young and just everything. to see if that system works itself. And both working. And were those people, were they just managers?

Like you still own the stores and they were managers? Okay, so they weren't franchisees yet. You were just experimenting. I just experimenting.

Yeah, can I teach this to somebody? They can run their own location. It's still yours. Okay, so this is like beta testing for your, okay.

For me, it's all about like placing people in because I'm not in the location, right? I'm always thinking, okay, I'm not there. If I'm placing this system with someone well-trained, trained from different locations, trained with someone that well-trained, and what the result would be. And then, okay, how about this location?

I just pick someone with no training, no life experience, no management skill, and then hear the protocol and the system and follow this. Would that work? And then I test both, and then both working. And that time, I literally confirmed that, okay, now actually I'm probably ready for franchising.

And 2022, that's when I reached out to the top franchise firm and consulting firm to help us to set up. And pretty much top lawyer who in franchise field and reaching out to people who have over 35, 40 year experience to help us to set up. And we spend 22 to 24, actually, we spend almost a couple of years to set up a system, foundation, is that if we go at a franchisee, what LV would fit? The same thing, I'm just thinking the same at the first location.

You know, if I'm not there to babysit every single one, how can we implement this system if they're a franchisee instead of manager? Would that work for them? And that we spent two years to create a system on the back end before we launched it in 2024. And then end of 2024, I think November 9th, that when we launched a franchise opportunity.

The first year of franchising, of course, learned so many things, what to do, not what to do. Our first year is like you're going to kindergarten. You're just learning. And then you just learn so much.

And now we are in the second year. We learned. I learned so much in the franchise industry in the last few years here. Yeah.

Now we're ready. We're strong. Our foundation is strong. We have strong support.

And we come up, you know, how can we become a better franchisor? How can we become better to support a franchisee? And how our brand stands out from the other one? And how can we support the local community?

how can we be impactful into the community environment and everything right like if we want to do something that level how can we be something that more impact to what we're doing and be meaningful way to do like doesn't matter what scale they are I think we're still able to to do something that impactful and meaningful to a community and make a world a better place yeah yeah well i think one of your strengths that i'm hearing is you're really good at finding great people because if you're able to open these locations and you're able to find people who you can train and trust run your business and they do it uh that's incredible and now you're able to find people who are driven enough to start their own business and use your franchise model i feel like that's a that's a huge skill of yours how are you finding these people is it How are you finding these people for both your own employees?

Well, let's start with employees. How do you find these managers? And then maybe we can talk about how are you finding the right people for franchising? For me, I trust people.

I trust people. Most people will want to do a good job. You have to learn to let go and trust other people. You cannot do everything on your own.

That's just not possible to achieve. a bigger goal and things like that. It's just too much on your shoulder. We need help.

And I need help. And I need many help. And then for me to come up with that is to create the culture. It's the people first.

You know, your team is come number one. For me, it's a team, number one. A customer, number two. You know, the first thing we have to take care of are people who work for us and looking to find the right fit.

If they're not the right fit, for us, you know, in an interview system, we have the HR department, what we're working is Cultural Plus program training. Cultural Plus program, one of those pieces is to find the right match. This is our mission. Our mission company is to truly care for others and then to help other people to have a longevity.

And that what we want is to create an impact. on people's lives and the community that we are in. Would you see yourself working in this environment? If they say, no, well, you're not the right fit.

You spend five minutes and they can go. But if there's someone like that and you just find the right fit, that who have the same vision in two different levels, whoever the work doesn't matter what the position, you don't really look to the people, how many experience they have or less than me or they look good like that. It's just to find if they are a people person, if that person, what do you call it, care for others. A persona of a company is pretty much the caregiver and explorer.

Like we need to be able to care, but also we need to keep people exploring and get advantageous. That means the journey that they're coming in is more like explorer. And then the caregiver is like we truly care for that person when they're coming in. Yeah.

That's good. Yeah. Yeah. It's building the right team.

Do you see that, are you finding employees from your own customer base? Has that started to happen where people, they started out as a customer, enjoyed it working so much, and they applied to work there? Or is that not really being a source for employees? Some of them, but not all.

Usually it's a word of mouth. Usually the people come to work with a company, and we don't have many turnover. People work very long time, and then usually they just reach out to their friend and family, some family member and other friends and then just a word of mouth. A lot of them are word of mouth for us.

Yeah. Yeah. That's really incredible. Well, I feel like I keep asking you questions for a long time, but I know I'm running out of time.

So if there are other people like me who are still curious to learn more about you, your business, where should they go? Yeah, you can go to our website, sabaitai.com, S-A-B-A-I. Thai is T-H-A-I dot com.

Or you can find me on LinkedIn. It's N-U-T-T-H-A, my first name, and last name is G-O-U-T-I-E-R. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn. You can send me a message.

I'm open for any connection. It's nice to get to know more people. Yeah, yeah. Wonderful.

All right, well, I'll put both of those, your website and your LinkedIn, down below. But, Nata, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing your story. It's incredible. You're inspiring me.

Thank you for having me. I'm very enjoying to share my story here. Hey, thank you so much for listening to this podcast and making this show possible. If you enjoyed the content in this episode, there are two things I would love for you to do.

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