FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #39 Beyond Quick Fixes: Creating Community in Wellness
Stepping into the world of wellness with authenticity and purpose, Jennifer Craig-Ford shares the compelling story behind Kül Contour Studio, a med spa nestled in the growing Spotsylvania Courthouse area. Her journey from California lawyer to Virginia wellness entrepreneur reveals how personal health challenges became the catalyst for a business focused on honest, supportive approaches to body contouring and self-care.
Jennifer's candid discussion about her own struggles with fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, and weight management in her 50s provides the emotional backbone to her business philosophy. Having experienced firsthand how conventional approaches to health can fail women, particularly those facing hormonal changes and autoimmune conditions, she's created a sanctuary where clients receive both effective treatments and genuine understanding.
The science behind fat loss takes center stage as Jennifer expertly demystifies cryocontouring, explaining how extreme cold permanently destroys fat cells without migration to other body areas. She thoughtfully dispels industry myths about quick fixes, emphasizing the partnership required between provider and client for lasting results. What emerges is a refreshingly honest approach to wellness that acknowledges the complexities of body composition beyond simplistic views of weight gain and loss.
Beyond her thriving med spa, Jennifer's passion for community building shines through her candidacy for the Spotsylvania County School Board and her involvement in local merchant initiatives. Her entrepreneurial wisdom—rooted in identifying genuine community needs and pursuing ventures that spark personal excitement—offers valuable insight for anyone considering their own business journey. Connect with Kül Contour Studio at Külcontourstudio.com or by calling 540-693-2182, and discover what makes this wellness approach uniquely supportive for women navigating health challenges.
Jennifer Craig-Ford
Kul Contour Studio
9108 Old Battlefield Blvd, Suite 100 Spotsylvania, VA, 22553
(540) 693-3218
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. Today, joining me is Jennifer Craig- Ford of Kul Contour Studio. Jennifer, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, dori, it's always great talking to you. Well, I'm excited to dive in and learn more about you and your business. So let's start there. Can you share with us a little bit about Kul Contour Studio?
Speaker 3:Sure, Kul Contour Studio. We've been open for about a year now and we've been in our location for, I think about, yeah, also a year now, so it's actually been really exciting. The time's gone by really fast. But essentially, Kul Contour Studio grew out of another business that I have in the area, where it was a mental health business. We were trying to put a wellness division into it and everything I was bringing in was moving towards more of a med spa business. I was able to find my partner. We got along really well and we went with what we're looking for. So we offer things like body contouring. We have medical aesthetic services such as RF lasers. With the Alma Opus, we have cryocontouring. We also have IV therapies and massage and hydrafacials. So, yeah, so it's been a pretty exciting year getting all of that built up.
Speaker 2:Well, congratulations on hitting your first year. That one year mark is a big milestone. Congratulations, thank you. Yeah, it's been great.
Speaker 3:So tell me a little bit about your background and your journey and how you got into this Sure. So we moved to the Spotsylvania area about 10, 12 years ago. My husband was in the Marine Corps and we had spent he had spent his entire career in Southern California and for the last tour of duty we got, we got sent to, he got sent to Quantico. So we settled in the Fredericksburg area and then we just ended up loving it here so much. The kids were thriving in the schools. We really liked the small town but also growing. You could tell it was going to be growing back then feel of things. So it was really exciting to stay here.
Speaker 3:Bruce ended up going to Eastern Mennonite University and getting his master's degree to be a counselor. During this time period I was still working as a lawyer, but I work out of California for that. I don't. I chose not to do. Virginia didn't want to muddy the waters there and then, after, after he got his license, we started the medical, the mental health business and then, like I said, from there I ended up accidentally starting this med spa. But it was a really exciting endeavor. I got to meet so many people doing this and it's just been really exciting and we love.
Speaker 3:I think the thing that really drew me to the model that we follow at Kul Contour Studio was just talking to the women that come in to see me. You know we all have a lot of common stories but it seems to me that we're ashamed sometimes to share them. I have a picture of me up in the salon so people can see that I understand, like, the struggles with weight loss. You know I hit 50 this year and coming into it I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and psoriatic arthritis and then, of course, being in perimenopause and it seemed like, no matter how much I tried to eat correctly, exercise correctly, I just hit that point where, like, the weight was just coming and coming and coming. So I love the part of being in Kul Contour Studio where I get to meet clients when they're first coming in, because it's really a lot of.
Speaker 3:I think the way that the media portrays it, or has portrayed it for years, is that it's somehow our fault that we are gaining this weight. But if you, if you look around, there's a lot of external factors that come into play for it. For instance, like our food in the United States has been found to be very inflammatory for our systems, which so I'll have ladies who come to me and they think that they're put on fat and if you look at the way they're actually composed it's more inflammatory, based either cortisol, or maybe they have some sort of inflammatory disease that they didn't know about or they look into finding. Just because I mean my own personal journey with being diagnosed with an autoimmune, it took me about 30 years of trying to be persistent, saying, hey, I really think I have an autoimmune which I don't know if you're aware. But if you talk to anybody who's in that situation, it's pretty common that it takes a really long time and a lot of persistence to get an accurate diagnosis.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Well it's. I hit the 50 club recently as well and there's so much confusing and conflicting information out there. So I love that you have created a safe place for people to come, and it sounds like you put a lot of emphasis on the education side of things. But also, you know, having gone through it yourself, I imagine that your clients coming in feel that kind of a sense of community.
Speaker 3:I do think so and that's something that we really tried to foster because, on top of just being someplace, they can come and feel supported, no matter what their story is. I also find that, especially for a lot of moms. They come to see me and we're kind of their only adult conversation for an entire day, so I never like to really rush anybody out. You know, we have a little waiting area, we have some coffee and tea and on days that I'm there, instead of working in my office I tend to work in our lobby area. So you know, our longtime customers know they can just come and sit down and talk about anything and it just gives them a little bit more of a connection component. I think, to their self-care, which is really important as women, to try to not be isolated, which is hard. Just the way we've modern society has geared us up towards that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the environment that you've created, so tell me, do you find that there are myths and misconceptions? I guess that's kind of a funny question. There's probably a ton, but talk to me a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:There's a lot, so let's see, let's touch on some of the ones that I hear most often. The one that I do find um that I I tried to really work with is we come from a we're in an industry where essentially, a lot of um promises were sold to women about things that are going to help or things that are going to work for them, and so a lot of times I'll have somebody come in who's been through three or four different things, whether it's a supplement they ordered online or you know diet that they were told to try to follow, or you know any number of things that they've tried before.
Speaker 3:So a lot of times I get women who are frustrated and what I always like to say is well, not everything is going to work for everybody that walks through my door. I do know all of the things we have in Kul Contour Studios are something that I've tried and it's worked for me. So at least I know that there's some efficacy behind the services that we offer. And then the other thing I do like to always kind of go over with people who come to us is it is really in any part of the med spa industry.
Speaker 3:You know it's a two way street, you know, and I kind of I let people know that you know it's not going to be a quick fix for going to be a quick fix for, for instance, if you are the type of person who's lucky enough to go on many cruises throughout the year, it's not going to be able to have you just kind of stop in and have us like change that pattern for you. So we do, with our medical staff and even our other, our contour staff, try to let our customers know. You know it's a two-way street. We'll help you as long as you help us and we really want to give you something that is attainable. But you know, with the also the understanding that there really are no quick fixes which I think is what gives the industry a little bit of a bad rap is people who try to market some of these things that you know we do as being a quick fix or, you know, not having any responsibility on the part of the client, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I guess if it's a quick fix, usually it's too good to be true and it's probably a scam.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, you know. And the service that started us off and that is our most popular is our is our cryo contouring service, and I can explain the science behind it and how I know that it works. Essentially, what we're doing is we're using extreme cold to cause the fat cells that we have in our body to be destroyed. So behind the science behind that is and this is something I didn't even know until I got into this industry is similar to like the eggs that we are born with in our ovaries we never make more. It's the same thing with our fat cells. So the way the science works is that we're able to permanently destroy the fat cells that are there are there, and this is why I always like to caution.
Speaker 3:It's a two way street. Whether we are removing the fat cells slowly and non evasively through cryo, or even if you're going to a plastic surgeon and you're doing liposuction, those fat cells are permanently gone. They're not going to migrate through your body. I guess that's another misconception I hear a lot is will the fat redeposit somewhere else? That's not the science behind it or how it works. People, for instance, who may have had liposuction and they're like, oh, but the fat around my knees is getting bigger, it's not that the fat cells have migrated there. It's that your body's going to compensate. So if you're destroying fat cells through whatever technique, but then you're not filing a responsible, healthy lifestyle, then the fat cells that we have are going to mitigate for that. So that is one of the myths that I do like to touch upon. When somebody comes in consults with us about the fat removal process, Interesting.
Speaker 2:It is very interesting how that works. Yeah, okay, so clearly you work very hard on your business, so talk to me about when you are not at work. What are you doing?
Speaker 3:When I'm not at work. Apparently, I'm trying to make myself even busier.
Speaker 2:Tell us all about it, I know.
Speaker 3:So I'm like the kind of person that I like to say yes to things more than I like to say no. You know, we've talked before. I have four businesses that I'm working on and getting into that. It's seeing opportunity somewhere and being able to say yes, but not from a place of fear, not because I have to, but saying yes to this experience because I really see the potential, I see how something I can do is going to make a difference. So my latest outside of work project is that I'm running for the school board for Spotsylvania County in the Battlefield District battlefield district. So that's, that's pretty exciting and it's something I have thought about for for doing for a while and there was the opportunity to do it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's what I do for fun. Well, I commend you for that. It's a big responsibility and something that we need really good people in those positions. So I commend you for, you know, putting your hat in the ring, that's awesome yeah thank you so much for that.
Speaker 3:I just think that, especially like the way my brain works for all these businesses that I have and developing products and developing services is I like to look at problems and then try to find, like, the best solution for it. Or if I see something that I know is going to work, like with the how I accidentally started the med spa through mental health, because I could see the potential for the services we were offering and how it was benefiting the public. So I think that that's just the big thing that drives me, whether it's in business or in my personal time or in my hobbies or even now my political career you are amazing.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much so, as someone who has started multiple business businesses if a new entrepreneur came to you and asked for advice, what would you? What would you tell them?
Speaker 3:I think, um, in starting the businesses, first of all it's got to be something that excites you as a person. For me, I saw all these interesting opportunities within Spotsylvania County. You know. I saw that there was a lack of mental health practitioners in our area and I happened to you know, hear about it through my husband or whatever of an opportunity to start a business and I had actually studied most of a master's degree in marriage and family therapy. It's just I got busy with my businesses and decided that I got what I needed out of that program. So, looking at that, I saw how it spoke to one of my passions and that would be how I found that business to do. You know, the med spot was a similar thing. I accidentally stumbled upon this you know device that was amazing, and then I started talking to other people in the industry and then I started talking to even local friends I had who were in the medical spa industry to see where was something that I could improve upon it. Then, even within that, it became developing a couple of products that we have in Kul Contour Studio that I developed with another local entrepreneur and her husband. So, for me and for what I think is going to make somebody successful is you have to know your interests and it has to excite you and you have to see how you're filling a niche. It's not necessarily that my business is so much different than the other medical spas in the area. We all have similar basic services. There's some that are different, but it's more in the approach of what feeling do I want to create for my clients. That's going to be different. How is it that I'm going to do something more effectively or better? So I think if you can really look at your business idea and feel that that's going to be a great place for you to go and chase your passions because you'll be determined, place for you to go and chase your passions because you'll be determined.
Speaker 3:It's not easy. It takes some hard work. It's still about I think the estimate is still about three years. In the first three years most businesses will fail. So it's figuring out how you're going to have the determination to make it. You know there's been some times early on in all of the businesses where, uh, it was tough. I was using, I was basically paying to keep the businesses going out of my main source of income, so, but it never felt um, like a burden to me because I could really see my end goal and what I wanted to do and how I knew it was going to like serve my purpose and then serve the purpose of the community. So maybe more of a philosophical advice to give somebody who's starting a business. But I think if you have that passion I think it will make any of the tough times starting out feel easier to manage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's really good advice, really good advice Having a really strong why for your, why you're doing it, and conviction in what you're offering, and that will often carry you through the hard times. Yeah, so what is something that you wish the listeners knew about? Kul Contour Studio.
Speaker 3:Well, probably our location. Good start. Well, probably our location. We're located out in Spotsylvania Courthouse area and that was on purpose. I saw that there were a bunch of areas within Spotsylvania County where businesses tend to cluster closer to downtown Central Park. South Point is building up a little bit, but looking at where the major developments are going to be coming within our county you know, spotsylvania Courthouse is now an area that's really growing, and trying to get services out there in that location was really important to me. I live in the Breezewood area so I know that it's a struggle for some people to get to different places. Um, I have a fantastic staff and they are just what keeps me going. Um, it's really great to really know that your staff cares about your business and your clients as much as you do, and it, you know, sometimes can take a while to get that perfect team going, but I think we're really there now, so that's pretty exciting.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. I think you picked the perfect location, Thank you. You are right where the growth is getting ready to explode.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Like, even just within the Spotsylvania Courthouse marketplace area where we're located, they now have we have a merchants association and we're starting to put on events to get more community events out in that area as well. We host Wednesday nights. We have a farmer's market now that's in that area of the County, which is pretty exciting. I'm a farmer's market person so I loved that it was closer to me. Even if I didn't, you know, work on a Wednesday, it's still for me an easier commute to get to the farmer's market than some of the other locations. So it's pretty exciting. And we look at trying to do some things around the holidays as well. So, pretty excited, this year, in conjunction with the annual Christmas parade, there's going to be an actual Christmas market, which I'm really excited about. I'm such a fan of Christmas markets. Yeah, I love that, I love that. So it's pretty exciting. And, yeah, the area is up and coming and I just think it's such a nice feeling.
Speaker 2:Nice, so you mentioned where you're located. If the listeners want to find you online, where can they find you?
Speaker 3:Sure. So our website is www. kul lcontourstudio. com, and then you can always give us a call. Our phone number is 540-693-2182.
Speaker 2:our phone number is 540-693-2182. All right, all right. Thank you so much, jennifer. I have enjoyed having you on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you for being my guest. Awesome, it's always great talking to you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg neighbors podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast. com. That's fxbgneighborspodcast. com, or call 540-534-4618.