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Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 117 True Rest Float Spa is changing how Charlotte approaches stress relief and recovery.
Curious about why NBA star Steph Curry swears by floating in 1,000 pounds of Epsom salt? Michael Shoniker, managing partner of True Rest Float Spa, joins Regina Lee to unpack the fascinating world of sensory deprivation therapy and how it's transforming wellness in Charlotte.
Michael shares his journey from corporate sales professional to wellness entrepreneur, driven by a passion for natural health solutions and an unexpected discovery of float therapy through Curry's endorsement. After experiencing the benefits firsthand, Michael and his partner Doug committed to bringing this unique therapy to Charlotte residents who were "missing out" on its remarkable effects.
Floating, as Michael explains, involves resting in a spacious pod filled with 10 inches of water and a thousand pounds of Epsom salt. This creates a uniquely buoyant environment that removes gravitational pressure from your body while allowing magnesium absorption through the skin. Beyond physical benefits, the sensory deprivation aspect offers a rare opportunity to disconnect from our chronically overstimulated lives. Though many clients require 2-3 sessions to fully appreciate what Michael calls the "magic float," the therapy provides significant relief for pain management, stress reduction, improved sleep, and enhanced mental clarity.
Addressing common concerns like claustrophobia, Michael reveals that many initially hesitant clients become their most dedicated members, often describing the experience not as confining but expansive—"like floating in outer space." With locations in Plaza Midwood and Fort Mill Indian Land, True Rest offers accessible wellness to the Charlotte community through their intuitive booking system and comprehensive orientation process for first-timers.
Ready to disconnect from the digital world and reconnect with yourself? Visit TrueRest.com to book your float session and discover why this therapy is becoming an essential part of wellness routines across Charlotte.
True Rest Float Spa - Charlotte
Michael Shoniker
906 Pecan Avenue Charlotte, NC 28205
(704) 526-0402
charlotte@truerest.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Everyone, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm here in South Charlotte and I love to talk to local business owners. Today, I have with us the managing partner of True Rest Float Spa, michael Schoniker. Welcome, michael.
Speaker 3:Thank you, regina. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, excited to talk today about floating.
Speaker 2:I've heard about you guys for a long time and I have a lot of questions. But first tell me a little bit about you, how you got into this. I know you've got a partner, but tell us the story yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3:Um, I I've been in corporate sales my whole life, um, but I've also had an entrepreneurial spirit and my first endeavor was in an industry that I I didn't really have a huge amount of interest in, but I've always been very interested in health and wellness and just natural therapies and whatnot, so in fitness. So for my second entrepreneurial endeavor, it was important that it be something that it was passionate I was passionate about, and it just so happened that stars aligned. My partner Doug was moving down to Charlotte right around the same time where I saw this video on SportsCenter of hometown hero Steph Curry, and he was talking about how amazing float therapy has been for him, not only in his basketball career but also just in general life. You know, stress levels, mental clarity, his creativity, his focus, all those things, and then also pain relief and recovery for from practices and games. So I was like a huge fan of Steph Curry. So I was like I have to look into this.
Speaker 3:My partner Doug and I tried it a couple of times and you know, as we learned, it's kind of common to really not fall in love with float therapy your first couple of times. It takes some getting used to. It's a very foreign concept to sit in silence and in the dark and away from our phones and away from our screens for an hour and just kind of be alone with our thoughts, right, so you're thinking about your product, your to-do list, all the things you got to get done, and it's a little bit sometimes for some people, hard to get used to. But after, like the third float, we fell in love with it, started feeling all the benefits and we're like, ok, we have to bring one to Charlotte, like this. You know people in Charlotte are missing out on this, and so that's when, about 2018 time period, we decided to bring a float spot to Charlotte. And now we are on our second location down in Fort Mill Indian Land area.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. So describe to me the setting you know like. Are you in this room by yourself? Does the pod lid close? Are you in a swimsuit? Just describe how it goes.
Speaker 3:So so, yes, so it is a thought you're in a sensory deprivation pod and um, sensory deprivation sounds like a scary word, it's really not just means you're not overstimulated by, you know, sounds and sights and the feels and all that stuff. It's takes that stuff out of the equation, um, and the sensory deprivation pod is. It's pretty big, it's about the size of a volkswagen beetle, um, and you know you lay down in there and a thousand pounds of Epsom salt and 10 inches of water. So it's extremely concentrated, to the point where if you were to put any more Epsom salt in there, it would solidify. So what it does is creates a mattress of salt and water. And that mattress is important for a couple of reasons. Number one it takes the gravity off of your joints and muscles, so it helps with recovery. That Epsom salt is rich with magnesium, so you absorb that. It's the number one deficient mineral we have, and and and today's day and age is magnesium. So it's it helps for relaxation and it's involved in something like 200 chemical reactions in the body. So very important for, for, for that aspect.
Speaker 3:Then there's a whole slew of benefits I can go through in terms of, you know, mental and physical benefits of floating. But the essence of it is is you're, you're floating for an hour and a thousand times pounds of Epsom, salt and water. You float effortlessly. It's impossible to sink. I'll tell you that right now we do tests with bowling balls and all these different things, dumbbells, and they float right on top. So you just, and then, yeah, you're essentially in there for 60 minutes. You shower before you shower, after we got an oxygen bar after to kind of get you reinvigorated with your senses and whatnot, and then you're off and feeling great.
Speaker 2:How often do people that truly get into this, how often do they float? How often do people that truly get into this, how often do they float? So?
Speaker 3:we recommend? Yeah, we recommend once per week. That's not always doable for people's schedules and or their budgets. So we have memberships that start at once per month and then you know anybody that's a member floats, you know, a lot more cost effectively on a regular basis if they want to buy extra floats. But once to twice per month is really where you want to be in terms of a baseline. And then we have we've had unlimited members float every day since we opened almost, which is, you know, if you can do it every day, do it every day because you're going to feel amazing.
Speaker 3:But not everybody has the time or the budget for that. So you know, just to answer your question, especially for pain relief, we recommend at least once a week. That'll typically get people, you know, to the point where they're pain free after a month or two and then after that it's maintenance mode, once or twice per month. So it's about how frequently we offer or recommend Share the typical feedback after someone's first time floating. Yeah, I'm glad you asked because, yeah, like I mentioned, my partner and I, doug, we weren't huge fans at first and that's, I'd say, probably about 60 percent of people feel that way, especially if you don't have a number of practice yoga or meditation especially if you don't have, if you've never practiced yoga or meditation, it's, you know it's. It's kind of takes some practice to be able to kind of ground yourself and focus on the breath and stuff like that which really helps, you know, set you into that deep relaxation mode.
Speaker 3:So typically, you know again, the majority of our customers it'll take them a time or two before they really fall in love with floating, maybe even three times, usually usually no more than three times. You know they get to that point where they we call it their magic float um and then from there you know they love it and they they're seeing all the benefits from floating um. So typically your first couple of times you're just really getting used to. You know, um, that type of environment. You know we're, like I mentioned, we're always, we're chronically overstimulated in today's day and age between you know screens and iPhones and tablets and you know TVs and computers. It's just, you know we're so overstimulated it's foreign for us to sit there alone with our thoughts. So in regards to that, it's tough to get used to. Usually it takes a couple of times and then people are good to go from there.
Speaker 2:So, for that first timer, what do you? How do you educate them before you leave them alone in there?
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean it starts with. It starts with our social media accounts. You know we're we try to educate people on what to expect there. Just just in terms of give it a time or two, here's what to expect for your first float. But we do have an introductory process. For every new customer we have about a six or seven minute video they watch that goes through all the FAQs. A lot of people are worried about claustrophobia, a lot of people are worried about the water cleanliness. All those things are answered in that video so that they feel 100% comfortable with their first float. And we also tell them, give them tips and tricks. Okay, if you're not really kind of easing into that relaxation state, here are some tips and tricks to do with your breath, you know, just some things to focus on in terms of how to get in that deep relaxation mode. So, yeah, we do have a video and then we take everybody on a tour on how to have the perfect float their first time.
Speaker 2:So are you literally closed in for those of us who are claustrophobic?
Speaker 3:You know how do you get yourself out of that mindset.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. And the answer to that is you don't have to be all right. We do recommend a float with the pod closed, is? You don't have to be All right, we do recommend to float with the pod closed, but you don't have to be. But we get a lot of people that come in and they're very nervous about being claustrophobic and they leave afterwards and they're like, wow, that wasn't bad at all.
Speaker 3:And some of our highest converting members that people come in, new customers and end up being members are claustrophobic, are claustrophobic and what they'll do is they'll start with the lid open. Um, see how they feel, close the lid. What we get, just anecdotally, there's just people telling us and I can, I can vouch for this as well what we get the most of is people saying it kind of felt like I was in like outer space, like like a limitless amount of space in there, that opposite of claustrophobia, so, and there's a lot of, a lot of space in and of itself in there. It's not very closed in, it's not like a tanning bed, um, it's not like it. Can you still hear me, regina?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, it just went to a different window on my screen but, it's not like a tanning bed or anything like that. Where it's closed in, you have an abundance of room, so it's usually not an issue in terms of space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just thinking for those of us who might get panicked. How does that?
Speaker 3:work.
Speaker 2:Just open up the lid and hop out, I guess. Yeah, open up the lid and hop out, I guess yeah, open up the lid and hop out.
Speaker 3:You know it's not locked or anything, you just pop the top open. We have two different. You know, in Charlotte we have lids that on pop up, and Indian land we have just like French doors. They open up and close very easily. So yeah, if you're, if you're not comfortable and or you feel enclosed in any way, shape or form, you can keep that open so I've had girlfriends say hey, let's go do like a float session.
Speaker 2:Are you alone or are there group type situations?
Speaker 3:so what typically for what we'll have, you don't float in the same pot at the same time, but we have um three pods in each hallway. You know three in one, three in another and you float. You know you can float in the same hallway at the same time or at certain times of day you can float with up to six people. Five or six people. We've had, you know, bachelorette parties where people come in. They come in and kind of shut the whole place down and float together like that. So you know you can float with friends just not in the same pot as friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got it, got it. So you have two locations. The one in Charlotte you said is Plaza Midwood. Is that correct area?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the one in Charlotte is Plaza Midwood. It's on Pecan Avenue If you're familiar with. There's a couple of businesses there's Vellani's Bakery and Rico's Acai Bowls, right across the street from us, right in the Plaza Midwood, elizabeth area. And then our second location is in the Fort Mill Indian Land area, in the Redstone Theater, right across from Redstone Theaters.
Speaker 2:Gotcha and talk to us about the booking process. Do you do that online or call?
Speaker 3:Some people. Some people do it online, some people call you know today's day and age, a lot of people like to do that stuff online. So we do have you know, just that. Truerest. com. They can book. We also have a mobile app they can book on. Some people prefer to call. You know our employees are usually available to book them in our system live, if they call us over the phone. There's also an option you can book where, if we can't answer the phone for any reason, you get an automated text that allows you to. You know, press one to book an appointment, press two to reschedule your appointment. So that's pretty easy that way too.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So when you're not running this awesome business, what do you like to do for fun in the area?
Speaker 3:I love to. I love to golf. I'm not very good at it, but I love to golf. I love to watch sports. I love to. I love to play outside with my son, mikey he's a little over 18 months old now and my wife just my wife, taylor, I like to, you know, hang out with her as well. She just is taking up golf as well, so we're going to be able to get out there on the course and have a little bonding experience and she'll see all the frustrations, the highs and lows of being a golfer. That's right.
Speaker 3:And I also like to travel too. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do as well.
Speaker 2:Well, Charlotte is a golf area for sure and there's so much to do here. Well, Michael, it's been a pleasure chatting with you about true rest float spot. I definitely am going to have to come, but I'm going to get my mind right, so I'm not nervous.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yep, yep, yeah, we welcome you to come try it and I, I think you're going to love it. I think you're going to love it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP south charlotte. com. That's GNP south charlotte. com, that's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.