Serenity and Fire with Krista

30 Years, 1 Dream: How I Built Panacea Luxury Spa from the Ground Up

• Krista • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Every dream has a spark—and mine refused to burn out, no matter how long it took.

In this debut episode of Serenity & Fire, I’m sharing the full journey—grinding in pharmaceutical sales, to 90-hour corporate weeks, to finally opening the doors to Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. And let me tell you—the path was anything but straight.

This episode is equal parts heart, hustle, and a few moments of “what the heck am I doing?” Along the way, I’ll take you behind the scenes of how a tearful vacation meltdown became the wake-up call I didn’t know I needed, how getting denied by every bank turned into my first big pivot, and why launching two franchises was actually part of the plan all along.

And just when I thought I had it figured out—cue global pandemic. Cue major funding drama. Cue me, a control freak, learning how to ask for help. 

Today, Panacea lives in the heart of Quarry Trails with over 50 employees, spa treatments you can’t find anywhere else, and the peaceful, grounding energy I always pictured.

If you’ve ever had a dream that wouldn’t let go, this one’s for you. Because sometimes the long way is the way—and the journey makes the destination that much sweeter.

Hit that subscribe button if you’re into stories about resilience, reinvention, wellness, and above all finding your fire.

#WellnessPodcast #HolisticLiving #SpaEntrepreneur #CleanLiving #BiohackingForWomen #WellnessBusiness #MindBodyWellness #OncologySpa #FemaleEntrepreneurs

Krista:

Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, krista Guageni, founder of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of biohacking, clean living, cutting edge spa trends and the hustle, grind and grit of entrepreneurship. From my personal battles with weight management and infertility, through a 30-year struggle to create and launch my dream business to building a sanctuary for those who have been touched by cancer, I'm here to share real talk, inspire big dreams and spark a passion for holistic living inside each and every one of you. So let's dive in. So for today's podcast, since this is my very first one, I felt like it seemed appropriate to talk about my professional background a little bit and my entrepreneurial journey to opening Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Panacea has been a dream of mine for over 30 years, since I was in high school, and the road to getting here was definitely filled with lots of ups and downs. And while I don't feel like this story is that exciting, I do feel like whenever I tell it, I always have people coming to me and telling me how inspired they feel and motivated and just kind of really fuels them to pursue their own dreams, and so I do feel like it seemed appropriate to kind of share that whole story with you in this first podcast.

Krista:

My journey really starts all the way back to when I was 12 years old. I started working in the restaurant industry with my mom. I continued to work in restaurants as a server and then eventually a bartender. All through high school and college and grad school, I got my bachelor's degree in chemistry and then continued on to get my master's in business administration. I knew I always wanted to be in something that was medically related and I also had this dream of opening this beautiful, amazing, tranquil, relaxing spa space that focused on oncology therapeutics, so a space where people who've had a cancer diagnosis and their support systems could come and be together and receive all of the immune boosting and healing benefits that we know spa services can provide, while also being under the care of therapists who are educated and highly trained to manage things like extreme dehydration, thinning skin, residual surgical site pain, issues from where maybe people have had lymph nodes and organs removed, and to know how to modify services so that we're not putting them at increased risk for things like lymphedema and some of the other conditions that go along with having a cancer diagnosis and the thing about cancer that we know for sure is that stress and anxiety exacerbate the proliferation of cancer cell development. And so, even though hospitals and physician offices are trying to bring an incorporate spot into their facilities, the patient who is going in for those services let's just say that it's an oncology massage, for instance as they're pulling up to that hospital or medical facility, all of the anxiety and the hurt and the pain and the emotions of that experience start flooding back into their mind and their spirit and their body and that just increases the stress and anxiety and really kind of defeats the whole purpose of having this relaxing service. So I wanted to take them completely out of that environment and put them in this beautiful, tranquil space where they don't have to think about their cancer diagnosis, so that we can, at a minimum, really maximize their treatments, where we can really maximize their treatment outcomes because we are putting them in that relaxing, less stressful state of mind. I guess the real ultimate goal is that we can do things for them that even their modern medical treatments cannot do, and we'll get into that more in future podcasts.

Krista:

But that was really always my goal and what I really wanted to create. You know, when I started thinking about this over 30 years ago, so I wasn't really ever sure how I was going to get to that point. No one in my family ever owned a business. I knew at that time in my life really nothing about spa, but I was extremely passionate about the field of medicine and so I moved forward with trying to get into the pharmaceutical industry, which I eventually did accomplish.

Krista:

It was that also was not easy, because when I started interviewing for those positions, everyone that I would interview with was like well, you have no sales experience and you know that whole rig them and roll them when you get out of college, like everybody wants experience. But you're just getting out of college and like you have no experience. So you're so frustrated and you're wondering like how are you going to give them the experience that they wanted? And so I ended up taking this really super crappy sales job in Cincinnati selling professional employer organization services they're called PEO organizations and basically we sold employee benefits and we pulled small businesses together to combine resources to provide benefits to their employees. It was crazy. I mean I literally was like cold calling at its finest. I mean I would go out at like to stores and get boxes of caramel corn. They had one back then that was called Poppy Cock. I would put bags of caramel corn. They had one back then that was called poppycock. I would put bags of caramel corn together with a cute little ribbon and a tag on it that says I just popped by to introduce myself and like little corny, cheesy things like that.

Krista:

And then eventually I was able to get into a surgical device sales job with a really small company here in Columbus. I actually really loved that job. I was traveling, you know, to Florida and West Virginia and Kentucky and just all over the tri-state area up here, going into surgeries and showing, you know, physicians pavement, cold, calling on every hospital that I could possibly get into I will literally like. In order to get in front of some of these physician offices we had to bring in meals for them, drive from Columbus, ohio, to Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, with all of this food wrapped up in the back of my car and carrying all of this in, lugging it in to feed 20 or 30 people just so I could get five minutes in front of a surgeon or their medical staff to tell them about this device that I thought was so awesome. So there was definitely some grind and hustle going on there, and then eventually I finally was able to get into big pharma. I spent several years working for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and then eventually ended up moving into a medical device sales position with GE, and with GE I sold high-end radiology equipment and then eventually got promoted into a senior client director position where I managed over 35 specialists, a $10 million portfolio for the major hospitals here in Columbus and basically everything from bed monitors to MRI systems.

Krista:

I eventually got to the point where I was working 90 plus hours a week, vacations and holidays and, just really honestly, all of the the time it never stopped. In 2010, I was on vacation in the Outer Banks with my family and my sister's family and we had gotten there on Saturday and on Wednesday I was still working full-time. I was missing out on going to the beach and putt-putt and dinners and like all the things that they were all doing together. I vividly remember my sister and I had spa services scheduled that Wednesday evening and as we were driving to the spa, I was literally in tears and telling her how frustrated I was that I was working this whole entire week and I was basically missing this entire vacation. I just said I don't know why I don't just open my own business and I'm like vacation. I just said I don't know why I don't just open my own business and I'm like tears running down my face and my sister was like, yeah, why don't you? And I was like, yeah, why don't I? I've been wanting to do this my whole life, and so from that moment on, I immediately just started planning out what this whole business was going to look like.

Krista:

I went into that spa and was critiquing everything about the service, the place, what I loved, what I would do different, how I would change things when I opened my own spa. I had already been journaling for years before that, really since I went to my first spa service when I was in high school, and this just kind of really fueled that excitement in me, and so every time I would go on vacation or I would travel, my husband and I would go somewhere, I would sign him up for all these wild crazy services and I would do all these wild crazy services and we would meet afterwards and talk about, like, all the things we liked and didn't like, and in 2010, I started putting together really all of the plans for what I wanted the spa to look like. I actually found a building. We put together architectural plans. I started building my business plan. I traveled around to some different conferences and met with some spa consultants and had everything ready to go. And then I went to my bank, which I had been banking with for since like 1991. They basically laughed at me and said this is 2010. We just came out of a recession. You've never owned a business. We cannot give you this kind of a loan, so you either need to pare back your plan or go out, prove that you can run and own a business with the money that you've saved and come back to us in a few years and then we'll revisit this. Rewinding just a little bit.

Krista:

As I started putting together all of my plans for the spa, I wasn't 100% sure if I wanted to open my own concept from the ground up or if I wanted to pursue a franchise concept. I had reached out to a spa consultant who I'm actually really good friends with to this day. At that time there really weren't spas franchising. There were concepts like Massage Envy and Elements out there that were available to purchase, and I did look very seriously at those concepts and even went out to the headquarters of Elements and definitely considered moving forward with one of those franchises. But because of all of the things I wanted to do with oncology, I felt like those concepts were going to be too confining for me and that I would want to go in and change everything about those franchises, which you can't do when you're investing in a franchise. I mean, you buy into a franchise because their business model is proven and successful and you know the franchisor wants you to come in and open their concept, not your own concept. So I decided to steer clear away from those concepts.

Krista:

But my franchise consultant had also introduced me to several other businesses, one of them being a business called Budget Blinds. Budget Blinds was a custom window covering franchise and I vividly remember her saying I know you've never seen yourself, you know, selling window coverings, but you just have to trust me. This is a really great business. The founders are amazing, the products are fantastic and it has a really good, strong business model and I think you're going to love it. Fantastic, and it has a really good, strong business model and I think you're going to love it. And she said you know, if you don't end up doing the spa right now. You could do this for a few years and, you know, see where things go and then eventually open your spa down the road.

Krista:

And so my husband and I flew out to California and met the founders and honestly fell in love with them and the products and really the whole concept. And I had a design background as well, where I had done some home renovations and some remodeling projects. And so I kind of looked at this business like, well, this would be a way that I could express that creative interest, be in a business that I wouldn't want to change everything about. It seemed like a pretty simple business concept and the financials were really, really strong. And so I told my husband you know, if we can't get the funding for the spa, then I'm going to move forward with this business and then in a few years we'll hire someone to run it for us and then I'll move forward with opening the spa and then that way we have a cashflow stream coming in from the blinds business. And you know, while we're working to build the spa, as you already know, that's exactly what happened the banks turned us down for the funding and so I moved forward with opening this blinds franchise, which you know, when you think about it today like really had nothing to do with anything that I wanted to do. It all did kind of come full circle. So I moved forward with opening this franchise and within six months I was totally cash positive and debt free and I worked really hard to just continue to grow this business.

Krista:

We started it out of the basement of our house and it was just me, so I was out doing all of the marketing and the sales, the installations of these like ginormous shutters and window coverings and old warehouses in downtown Columbus where I had to drill into concrete and steel and like it was insane and sometimes calling my husband at like eight o'clock at night and begging him to come and help me finish some of these installs. It was. I think one thing that was really cool about that is, first of all, I can operate power drills probably better than my husband now, but not sure if he'll admit that. But secondly, you know it just, it taught me so much about business ownership all the things that you don't realize behind the scenes when you start a business from the ground up that are so critically important, like cat taxes and sales taxes and all of the administrative stuff that you really just don't even know exist or that are even important. And also, you know, when you start a business from the ground up and you don't have a franchise supporting you, you have to build your website and build your marketing plan and your go to market strategy and, like all of that is on you. You have to do your search engine optimization, your Google optimization, like all of that stuff. And when you go into a franchise, all of that's already taken care of for you. So you kind of just jump right in, take the business model that they've created and you run your business and the rest of it just happens.

Krista:

So there were lots of great learning lessons out of that experience and as we continued on, three years rolled by really super fast and I went back to the bank and I was like, okay, I did what you told me to do. I've proven that I can build this business. We're super successful, we've grown year over year and I'm ready to open my spa. They said, but you have no spa experience. So I was kind of pretty devastated, honestly, until my husband, like it seemed like all of the signs were saying that this really wasn't the path for me to really be going down, and so I told him at that time. I said you know, maybe it's just not meant to be and I'm just going to continue with my budget blinds franchise. We're we're doing really well and building lots of momentum in the community, and so let's just see where things go and we'll go from there. So I continued to grow the business, eventually turning it into a million dollar a year window covering business. I started doing high end draperies and really more like true custom high end projects and I did love that.

Krista:

But 2018 rolled around and it just seemed like every corner that I turned, something was slapping me in the face, saying that I needed to do this spa. So I went to my husband and I said I don't know how we're going to do it, but I'm opening the spa. I'm going to be 45 soon and I feel like if I don't do this, I'm going to like my life is eventually going to come to an end and I'm going to feel like I didn't accomplish all the things that I was meant to accomplish. We're going to figure this out. So I called my franchise consultant, who was elated because now you know it's 2018. There's tons of spas franchising. She knew this was always my dream. So she was so super excited to work with me on this. So we looked into all of the different spa concepts that are franchising now Hand in Stone Spa Via Woodhouse a plethora of them now and I very seriously looked into moving forward with a couple of the concepts. But at the end of the day, even my franchise consultant, melissa, said, krista, this concept is so unique and you're just not going to be happy with any of these franchises if you don't do this on your own. I agreed with her wholeheartedly.

Krista:

At that point I decided to move forward with developing Panacea from the ground up. Melissa, my franchise consultant, had also introduced me to another franchise concept at that time called Decalash, and Decalash is a spa-like boutique for eyelash extensions and brow services. Much like what she told me when I opened my blinds franchise. She said I know you probably never saw yourself promoting eyelash extensions, but I think there's some really great synergies with what you want to do with the spa. And she's like just look into it, it's an emerging concept. It'd give you an opportunity to get in on a new franchise concept, have a lot of input, just you know, see what you think.

Krista:

So I did go out to Pittsburgh to meet with the founders. I really loved that they were very oncology philanthropy driven and motivated, and I loved the idea that people who have had a cancer diagnosis and who have gone through treatment so oftentimes lose their lashes and their brows and once they're finished with treatment they most of the time don't grow back to the same level of fullness and thickness that they used to have before they went through treatment, and so being able to get something as simple as eyelash extensions can be extremely life-changing for someone who has gone through cancer treatment. There were so many synergies between Decalash and the things that I wanted to accomplish and do with Panacea, and it was also an opportunity for me to start developing a client base that would hopefully be clients, you know, at the spa. When we eventually opened Plus, I also knew that it was going to probably take two or three years for us to find the right location, so this gave me an opportunity to get my foot into the beauty industry and eliminate yet another thing that the banks could say to me for why they wouldn't give me funding. So I did decide to move forward with opening a Decalash franchise with the plans of, you know, hopefully having two or three locations open by the time we opened the spa, I started immediately looking for properties for the spa. We finally found the property where we're at now, at the end of 2019. And then we didn't close on the purchase of that property until the end of 2020. And then we didn't close on the purchase of that property until the end of 2020. So it was nice to be able to have Decalash to focus on while we were looking and building the plans for Panacea.

Krista:

I was not actually planning on selling my budget blinds business, but a buyer fell into my lap and it was kind of a too good to be true opportunity. So I went ahead and took it so that I could focus all of my time and energy on building the spa brand and opening the Stekolash franchise. So I sold the Budget Blinds franchise at the end of 2018. We finally opened the first Stekolash location in October of 2019. And we were well on track to meet all of our projections and profit goals.

Krista:

And then in early May, we had our official public grand opening for Decalash and 10 days later we got shut down due to COVID, and so that was devastating, as it was for many businesses at the time and we were shut down for two months. We basically had to relaunch the entire business all over again. It was a struggle because, you know, half of my employees couldn't come back to work because they didn't have child care available, because the child care facilities weren't open. So we basically started with one and a half flash artists and it took about 18 months to rebuild the momentum that we had before we shut down and what we had built like in the first six months of being open. But we got through it. But it also made the prospect of opening Panacea that much more scary. But we found this beautiful property at the Quarry Trails. It's in this beautiful health and wellness development park that was built on an old quarry. There's beautiful quarry lakes and trails and there's a all natural enormous waterfall that they incorporated into the development. Incredible beautiful natural parks and rock climbing walls and mountain bike courses and just all kinds of things out there, and so I knew that this was going to be a kind of a once in a lifetime location for us.

Krista:

We started contract negotiations at the end of 2019. And, you know, the end of 2020,. The developers were like you really need to make a decision if you're going to do this because we need to start construction and move forward with the development. And it was terrifying because we were still recovering from COVID and I had to make this multi-million dollar purchase to purchase this property or lose out on this location. I told my husband, like we're just going to go for it, and so we literally put everything we had on the line for this property. It was a really interesting situation. We were able to put down a small amount on the purchase until the developer actually built the building and finished the building and then, once they finished the building in January of 2022, then we had to pay for the rest of the property. So it worked out really nice. We had the funds to be able to put that down payment down ourselves and move forward with construction on the building. We started construction in January of 2021, and they finished the building construction in January of 2022.

Krista:

During that time, we were moving forward with the banks to secure funding for the loan that we would need, and you know we knew this was going to be about a $10 million project more than anything either of us had ever taken on and 10 plus times what we had ever put into any other businesses. We tried to partner with the bank who funded us for the Decalash business that bank. When we first developed our partnership with them to fund my decalash business, I had always told them you know, anything we do has to always be done with panacea in mind. If we aren't going to be able to get funding for panacea by opening and investing in decalash, then we're not going to invest in decalash because we want to make sure that this happens. The banks were like nope, your finances look incredible. You guys are great candidates. We definitely want to partner with you on this. We are totally on board with you for the whole plan. Everything looks great. So we did move forward, obviously, with the funding for Decalash, and that was in 2019.

Krista:

And then in 2021, after the building construction was well underway, we continued to move forward to try to get funding with them for the development of Panacea. You know we went through almost that whole entire year and the funding still had not come through. I finally went to multiple other banks to try to see if we could get something to work with them, and it was just too complicated of a project for a lot of these banks to take under, and so I went to my accountant and I was like I don't know what to do, like we've already put pretty much everything we have on the line for this opportunity and the bank that I've been working with is not progressing in the funding, so I'm not sure what to do. And he was like, thankfully, he was such a great resource and was like let me introduce you to some banks that I have relationships with. I fully support you in this project. Let's see where things go.

Krista:

So we met with a couple of banks, and one of the banks who we ultimately ended up doing our funding with met with us in December of 2021. I sat down, went through my whole story, my whole project. They're actually very familiar with the Corey Trails project, so that was a big help. But they loved it and they were like we definitely want to partner with you on this. I basically told them I'm like look, I want my interest rate to be around three to four percent, I want this to be a 20 to 25 year loan and I only want to have to put down 10 to 12 percent. They were like no problem, we, we should be able to do all of those things for you. We just have to take it to committee because it was a credit union concept, and then we'll do that in early January and then we'll go from there. So they contacted me after their committee meeting in early January and then we'll go from there. So they contacted me after their committee meeting in early January and they're like the board loves the project we unanimously voted you in. We're going to move forward with your funding. You are good to go. We're so excited to work with you. Blah, blah, blah.

Krista:

So the banker that I was working with, I explained to him that you know we were ready to move forward with the interior build out and construction, which included, first of all, delivering the pools that are in the spa before any of the exterior walls went up. He was like yep, you're good to go, the funding's there. And I was like are you sure we're good to go? And because I'm ready to sign this construction contract, he was like yep, everything's good. I asked him at least three times and he told me we were good every single time. So we moved forward.

Krista:

Six weeks later, he calls me and told me that a portion of the loan funds fell through and it was a big portion of our loan. I was literally beside myself, because we were, at that point, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to our contractors. My husband and I had already put about a million and a half into the project. It was everything we had. We put all of our properties as collateral on the line for this business and we had nothing else left. And so the banker was like, well, do you have any investors? And I was like no, like why would I have investors? You already told me the funding has gone through.

Krista:

After I very probably rudely hung the phone up on him and went home and cried and brainstormed with my husband, we called my same accountant who had helped me find the bank and he was like don't worry about it, this project is amazing. I'm fully supportive of it. Let me see if I can put together a group of investors for you. And it was not something that I ever wanted to do. I never wanted to involve investors in my business. I always wanted to be the sole owner.

Krista:

He helped me realize that having a team of investors was actually an asset and a benefit to me, and what I realized later is that this allowed me to have a team of about 12 people who are business owners themselves, created a great support system for me, a great sounding board for me, a great team of individuals who could help give me business ideas and help me manage difficult times in the business as we continue to launch Panacea. Thankfully, I only had to give up a small percentage of the business. I looked at it like kind of like the franchise opportunity, because whenever you invest in a franchise you do have to pay royalty fees, and most franchises those fees are 10 to 12 percent of your gross revenues and with this opportunity of investors I was actually able to have them invest the rest of the money that the bank was requiring for me to put down as a down payment and only have to give up 10% of my net profits. So much less expenditure up front for much greater resources and support. And so it really had ended up being a blessing in disguise for me. Pulled together another million dollars to put down and, to make a long story short, I ended up having to put down almost 25% total. My interest rate ended up being over 10% and I did get the 25 years, but the rest of it was way more of a gut wrench than what we had ever anticipated. But at the end of the day. This bank did help me finally realize the reality of Panacea, and I got this really great team of investors out of it too. So we finally opened our doors in March of 2023. And we've now been open for a little over two years. I'm so super grateful. The community has really welcomed us with open arms and we've been incredibly busy. We now have over 50 employees and we're continuing to grow and add more services and more. We're going to be doing more locations at some point and just lots of really exciting growth going on with Panacea.

Krista:

During that whole entire process, I also ended up getting my license in aesthetics and my license in massage therapy, because I feel like it's really, really important as a business owner to be able to say that you're in it and know what your team goes through on a day-to-day basis. I practiced that with every business I've owned, obviously when I had budget blinds. I mean, even to the last job that I did before I sold that business, I was out installing a whole house of shutters, so I could literally do every single thing that any of my employees could do, and I felt like that was so important to carry on with all of my businesses DecaLash I trained all of my lash artists how to actually do lash extensions With Panacea. I can do almost every single service that we offer in the spa. The only thing I can't do is nail services, but everything else I can do and I think my team really respects and admires that. And that also was just one less thing for the banks to be able to say like, hey, you don't have this, so we can't support you.

Krista:

So I really wanted to make sure that there were no obstacles standing in my way for when I finally decided, you know, to open Panaceas. That's the story. It's wild, it's crazy. I think that, as some of those things were happening to me in the moment, I was feeling very down and defeated and like this dream spa was never, really ever going to happen. And now, looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, I can say that everything that happened to me came full circle, because now in this business, I use my design experience with budget blinds to create almost all of the interior design of the entire spa.

Krista:

I worked really, really hard to bring the outside into the spa and create that whole mind, body, spirit, earth connection. So we have quarry rock walls, we have plant walls and moss walls and we have a call lined with birch trees and just beautiful three-dimensional floral murals all throughout the spa. You know the colors that I used are greens, which is obviously my favorite color. I wanted the colors that were energizing and vibrant, while also calming and soothing and relaxing at the same time. So all of my experience at budget blinds did actually end up coming into play. I actually did all the window treatments in the spa too, and then Decalash helped me get my foot into the spa industry and really understand booking systems and hiring estheticians and specialists that are in this industry and learning POS systems and all the things. My chemistry degree has been so helpful because, as you're going to hear in future podcast episodes, we're going to talk a lot about biohacking and exciting technologies and trends in the spot industry that are very much scientifically based. Obviously, getting my master's in business has been a huge help as well, because there's just so much that I've learned along the way, not only from having my MBA but running businesses that don't know that everybody learns or understands until you've actually been in it. So really everything has come full circle.

Krista:

I would say that you know, if you're someone out there who finds that you're fighting similar struggles and challenges to achieve your dreams. I'm here to tell you that you should not give up Like this. Took me 30 years to get here and it was worth every step of the way, and nothing means more to me than when clients come up to me and they say this place is the most amazing place I've ever been. This place has healed me in ways that I never dreamed could happen. You've thought of every single thing in this spa. Those are things that, like I'll never get tired of hearing, but also things that I know wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't gone through some of the challenges and the struggles that I went through over these past 30 years to get to this point. So everything does happen for a reason, and I'm here to personally tell you to keep hanging on. Bye.