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Serenity and Fire with Krista
Welcome to Serenity and Fire. The podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, Krista Guagenti, founder of Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of bio-hacking, clean living, cutting-edge spa treatments and the hustle, grind and grit of entrepreneurship. From my personal battles with weight-loss and infertility, to a 30-year struggle to create and launch my dream business, to building a sanctuary for those 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.
Serenity and Fire with Krista
Can Marriage & Entrepreneurship Mix? My First Guest (And Husband) Jason!
For the very first time on Serenity and Fire, I’m bringing on a guest—and it just so happens to be the most important person in my life: my husband, Jason! 💚
Behind every late night at the spa, every big risk, and every moment I’ve doubted myself—he’s been there. In this episode, we’re pulling back the curtain on what it really looks like to build a spa business from the ground up while building a marriage too. From the sacrifices and long nights to the funny behind-the-scenes stories, we’re sharing the reality of entrepreneurship, partnership, and chasing big dreams together.
If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to open a spa, grow a wellness business, or balance marriage and entrepreneurship—this conversation is for you.
🎧 Listen in for laughter, real talk, and a glimpse into the heart behind Panacea Luxury Spa.
Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, krista Guagenti, 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, infertility and a 30-year journey 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. Welcome back to Serenity and Fire. Today I have a very special guest on the show, and he's special for two reasons. One, because he's the first guest that I've had on the podcast, so I'm super excited about that. But who better to have as my first guest than the most important person in my life, and that would be my husband, jason.
Speaker 1:As many of you know, running a business means long hours, constant hustle and grind and a lot of endless nights and personal sacrifice. For me, I 100% could not do any of that if it wasn't for this amazing man behind the scenes holding me up and holding everything else in our lives up at the same time, he's the one who not only supports me in everything I do and every crazy dream that I have, but he calms me when I'm freaking out. He grounds me when I'm losing my way or feeling frustrated or inadequate. He loves me when I need it the most. Even though he probably hates this part of our marriage the most. He's the only one who rescues me when things aren't going as planned.
Speaker 1:We may get into some of those stories here in just a little bit, but in hindsight those crazy situations always end up being the funniest stories that we tell to all of our friends. But I wanted to have him on the show to express my sincere gratitude for everything that you do for me. You're my rock, you're my soulmate, you're my partner, you're my best friend and you're everything in between, and I definitely don't get to thank you nearly enough. So, first and foremost, thank you so much for being all of those things, and doing so without ever complaining. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure how you do that, but for everyone listening, I also wanted to have you on the show today because behind the scenes there's so much that goes on that no one else sees and I thought that those people might like to have a glimpse at what that looks like, because behind every successful entrepreneur is and this is definitely true in my case there's a very patient and supportive partner who has seen it all, who's been through it all and who's been there right by my side all along the way. So, if everyone can help me, welcome this amazing human and the man behind the Surprise Wedding. If you haven't listened to that podcast yet, definitely go back and take a listen. But this is my husband, Jason Guageni. So, Jason, if you can introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what you do outside of being my biggest supporter.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I'm glad I have two reasons why I'm special, so that's great. So my name is Jason Guagini. I'm Lisa Lee Christa's husband. I've been in healthcare for 25 years. I run Central Ohio Urology Group as their COO for the last three and a half and just really love my job, but also love supporting my wife and her ventures. It's been a really exciting trip so far and it keeps getting better as we get along.
Speaker 1:Let's jump into some questions about what it's really like being married to me. I'm sure that everyone out there listening will love this, especially my staff, if they're hearing any of this. So let's dig a little behind the scenes. How would you describe what I do for a living in your words?
Speaker 2:Well, I would say what you do for a living is you're a creator and you have vision, so you try. You've been trying the last 25 years to put this vision together and you've been successful in doing it. So your vision's always been to have a beautiful place for people to relax. That's healing, that's a clean environment, that's fun, also helps oncology patients, and a big dream like that is hard to do and I've just loved your passion to get there. I mean, it's been incredible to sit back and watch and not just sit back, which I'm sure we'll get into as well but I think your job is that and creating jobs I know that's important to you is that part of what you've envisioned is not only all the things I just said, but you're creating jobs for people and trying to create an environment that people want to work in and be happy in their jobs, and I think that's one of your main missions as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, you actually like to see all the things that.
Speaker 2:I do. I love that. Of course I do.
Speaker 1:What do you feel like is one thing people don't realize when it comes to living with someone who owns a business.
Speaker 2:I think you got to be all in as the partner, right? I mean it's not, hey, you go do your thing and I'm just going to sit over here and do mine, right? So you've got to be involved. If you're not going to support your partner and being an entrepreneur, it's probably not going to work out very well. I mean calls in the middle of the night that I've got to go help too, or we might be out at dinner and it interrupts dinner. But that's life and I have that kind of job too. So we kind of reciprocate on that a lot of times. But it's a challenge if you're not all in you've got to be all in.
Speaker 1:I know I can Remember the time when I had my design business and I called you like panicking at 8 pm at night. We were installing motorized window coverings for this wonderful man who was in a wheelchair and I was determined to get this job done for him because he needed this so badly and he was living in this like abandoned warehouse that they turned into like high rise condos and were drilling into concrete and cast iron and I literally called you in total panic mode, crying my eyes out because it was taking. I had already been there literally for probably about 12 hours that day and we still had over half the job to do and I called you freaking out and panicking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just so everyone knows, we went through about 40 drill bits to hang two blinds and they weren't on the ground, they were about 20 feet up in the air. So we're trying to drill into steel and little you know. This was when we first had the business. We didn't know about the hammer drill, so we had regular drills trying to drill into to steel and basically just burnt through drill bits and it was super agitating for both of us but again we stuck with it. We didn't fight with each other. We figured out the hammer drill. We bought one, went great. After that we learned a lot on that job.
Speaker 2:We had a lot of stuff like that at your first business, where it was always an emergency call. I'd get off work and all of a sudden I need your help.
Speaker 1:Come out here.
Speaker 2:I can't get this blind in and for people that don't know, krista is way better at a drill than I am at this point. She is awesome at a drill because she did this for 10 years. So sometimes I come in to help and I'm like struggling so bad to get blinds in the wall and she's just going. Eh, eh, eh.
Speaker 1:Or blinds in the wall and she's just going, or I'm the one climbing up on the ladder because you're afraid of heights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm afraid of heights. So you always see krista up on the ladder in heels by the way, heels on a ladder not very smart, but she'd be up there and people would come out look and I'm holding the ladder and she's way at the top and they're looking at me like okay, that's great you gotta look good while you're working. I mean come on, but I mean come on, but we're always there Like I don't think there's ever a time I said I wouldn't come.
Speaker 1:And I think that comes back to.
Speaker 1:We opened the spa and, oh my gosh, I mean we went through five weeks of training with the staff and through all of that training, construction was still going on and so I was doing training all day and then you were coming after work and helping me put the spa together and put the furniture in.
Speaker 1:And you were building furniture and, like I'll never forget the day when all of the massage and aesthetics tables arrived and they came in on pallets and they were stacked three beds high and the delivery drivers wouldn't take them up to the third floor for us, so they literally just left them right outside of the elevator and you and I nobody else there had to uncrate them, carry them. They weighed so much and it was just you and me and you're like, babe, it's like 10 o'clock at night, can we just go home? And I'm like, no, we have to get this done. Like we had so much to do and there just was not enough hours in the day. And I know you were so exhausted and wiped out and I was too, but we had to get it done. And you were just like, okay, we're doing this.
Speaker 1:So we put them on our backs and lugged them into the elevator and broke them down and assembled them.
Speaker 2:I wish we would have videotaped that too, because we had us two. The tables weighed about 450 pounds apiece. We're trying to uncrate them. They're getting stuck in the crates.
Speaker 1:There are three crates high, so about eight feet off the ground, and I still to this day, don't know how we got them undone and safely got them to the ground.
Speaker 2:I have no idea either. It was incredible, but yeah, but that's really what I think it takes. I mean, if you're going to do something, especially the size of your business that you opened, you got to have the other person there when you need them, and I think it was a year. We were there every night. You were there all day, all night. I'd get off work, come down build. We were there every night. You were there all day, all night. I'd get off work, come down build furniture while you were doing other things. I built every piece of furniture in the spa, and it took about a year after we went through it all, so you know. The beauty of that, though, is I got to be part of the creation of it, and that means probably more to me than anything is that we built this together. It wasn't like you just build it up by yourself. We did it as a team, and we did it together.
Speaker 1:We'll be honest. How much did you have you hated all those times when I've called you and you were ready to just go home and go to bed and I'm like, oh yeah, there's no doubt.
Speaker 2:But I don't think I don't think I'd always put up a fuss about it. Sometimes, like I don't want to come up, I want to go home, um, krista tends to want to stay longer than she needs to. So even when I go into the spa right now, like she'll be like, okay, we're gonna leave in five minutes, two hours later, we're still doing stuff. So that gets agitating once in a while, of course, but I I loved every part of being there. Sometimes it just took a little motivation to get me there. Yeah, that's for sure, but we really did. I think we only.
Speaker 2:We only got tense with each other really one time and that was at the grand opening. Yeah, if you remember that, the grand opening of the spa, and there was a bunch of stuff that needed labeled, like five minutes before everyone walked in and I said, krista, no one's gonna buy a bunch of stuff here, why do we even care? She's just do it. And we're going at each other and everyone's kind of looking at us. I'm like we're fine, don't worry about it. And then we got it done. But that was the only really tense time we've had through the whole time.
Speaker 1:And people bought a bunch of stuff too. They did. I was wrong. We had it ready to go back to when we first met. What was your first impression of me as someone with these big, huge entrepreneurial dreams, Like did you see the busy side of all this coming? And if you knew that it was going to be like this, do you think that you would have dove all in like you did?
Speaker 2:Good question. So when I first met you I was like wow, of course I remember you had the little fancy 1930s hat on. I'm like look at this lady.
Speaker 1:I like her.
Speaker 2:I mean, back then you weren't an entrepreneur, right, but you had this amazing drive and energy that you really didn't see in a lot of people and it was always there. It wasn't like it was fake and it's still always there, like you are energized by your work. I think going into the entrepreneurship it's scary, because you had a really good job. You left that really good job. I supported a lot of us during that time. True, that was scary for me. So I think your drive, though I wanted you to succeed in owning your own business because you spent so much time working in the corporate world. And back then, I mean, that was what.
Speaker 2:15, 20 years ago, it was hard to be a woman in the corporate world. And back then, I mean, that was what 15, 20 years ago, it was hard to be a woman in the corporate world. There was, especially in some of the companies you work for, it was blue blood men dominated and it was hard. And I saw you working so hard and then you'd have all these things that you're just like why is this happening? I mean, I'm busting my butt and I'm I'm having problems that I shouldn't be having. And for me I saw, hey, if you start your own business, you can put all that energy in and you're the boss. You're not going to have any of those problems. Whatever you did, you're going to be successful. Who ever thought blinds and window coverings would be what you got into first? But you made that hugely successful. So, knowing that, leading up into what you're doing today your ultimate dream I knew it was going to be successful.
Speaker 1:Well, and I agree with you. I feel like I tell a lot of people that if you want to control the outcomes and control the destiny of what's happening in your work and, ultimately, in your business, owning a business is the way to do it. There's still things that happen that you can't control. You deal with vendors and you know different things, but when you work in a big organization, there's so many other people that you have to rely on in order to get anything done, and that's frustrating for someone like me who is a driver and type A and wants to get things done right away and do the right thing for the people I'm working with.
Speaker 2:So when you're a workaholic, so it doesn't matter if you're working for somebody or yourself. You're going to work the same amount of time. Yeah, I'm not. I can be forced to and I'm fine when I'm forced to. But the difference I saw in you is I go back to a trip that we had to South Carolina when you were working for the corporation still, and you weren't engaged the whole entire time and you had people calling you, customers calling you, and I think you got to a certain point. I think you and your sister were together and you just started crying because you hadn't spent any time with and I think that was our first trip with the kids and the family, and I think that was your breaking point.
Speaker 2:You're like I don't want to do this, I want to have time, I don't want to think about work all the time. And I think that's the big difference now between then is you do work all the time, you know, but when we go, when we go on vacation and things like that, you're present and you weren't present before. So, it's given you the opportunity to be present because you feel confident in what you're doing and you can turn it off when you need to turn it off, now that you have your own company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. In the beginning of our relationship. How do you feel like my work ethic affected our dating life?
Speaker 2:I don't think it affected it that much. Really, when we were dating, I mean, I had my kids half the time you were working, but when we had time together, we spent a lot of time together. I mean, I don't think it affected us that much, because I do think he turned it off when you were with me, because I'm that special.
Speaker 1:Well, in all fairness, I think that that's been one of the greatest gifts from you to me is that you've taught me how to not work 24-7.
Speaker 1:I still work a lot, to your point, but you've taught me how to have like be present in the moment and you know, like with us. Even though sometimes we don't get to dinner until 7.30, 8.30, 9 o'clock at night, once we have dinner then that's our time and we sit and we're together and whether it's Netflix and chilling or just hanging out on the couch and having dinner and chatting a little bit, we have that time together and I think in the past I definitely would be working all the time, and I'm not saying that I don't ever still work when we're hanging out on the couch, but I really you really have taught me how to enjoy vacations and try to not work the whole entire vacation, like maybe spend a little bit of time in the morning getting the work done and then that way we can spend time together later in the day, and I think that's been a good, valuable lesson from you to me.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks, because you're so good at that, like you're so good at doing your job and leaving your job and coming home. And same thing with you, not that you don't ever have to go to meetings or conferences or take late calls, because you do, but the majority of the time you leave your work, when you leave your work, and then you, you are much better at balancing things than I am for sure, so, and I've learned from you to get better at that, so I think that's great. Ok, so, as a busy entrepreneur, you know that my schedule is usually all over the place, and a lot of times it's not my own schedule or our schedule. So how do you feel like that craziness has impacted our daily lives, and what things have you implemented to help make things work for us? And I'm asking this because for people who are listening, who may be married to entrepreneurs or who are in relationships with someone who is thinking about opening a business. What can they expect, like, how can they manage those things?
Speaker 1:Because I talk a lot about how, when you own a business, if you want it to be successful, you have to be in the business and working the business, and especially in the beginning it's the hardest because you're putting tons and tons of time into it and pouring everything into it. And you know when, especially when we first opened Panacea, I mean there were days when I was working 20, 22 hours a day and that's a lot for you know anyone, and thankfully it's. It didn't stay that way forever, but for the first year to 15, 18 months, it was a lot. So how did you like? What kinds of things do you feel like you can share with people that would help them when they're going through that?
Speaker 2:You know, I've learned I don't like to be alone. I grew up in a big family. All those type of things Always live with people had kids, so it's different for me to be alone. So when, when you're working late some nights, I've found other things to do. I really enjoy cooking now, which works for both of us, but I enjoy.
Speaker 1:I other things to do, I really enjoy cooking now which works good for both of us.
Speaker 2:But I enjoy. I found things like that to enjoy.
Speaker 1:I probably wouldn't eat half the time if it wasn't for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, but a lot of times we do hang out. I'll come up to the spa and hang out while you're there late. You know those type of things, but for me it's. I've definitely found some passions, like cooking, to kind of fill the time. It does give me some time to do some work too. I think a new thing I'm starting to do is getting into stock trading. So I do a lot of that when you're not home and sit out there and do that type of stuff. But I mean all around I feel like we have a lot of time together. I think the cooking's probably been my favorite thing.
Speaker 1:And do you feel like? Because I always tell people I love when you come and work at the spa with me and you know, you've been the laundry person, you've been the bartender, you've been the furniture builder, you've been so many things to the business. And for anyone out there who doesn't know this, a lot of the um, our associates at the spa called Jason and I the spa mom and the spa dad, which is kind of funny.
Speaker 2:And laundry boy that's what I used to call me.
Speaker 1:I think that's what you called yourself, because you were stuck in laundry for so long. But I think that that helps too, and it helps that you've enjoyed that. And you know again, sometimes the only time that we get to have together is if we're working together. And so and I know that we were both nervous about how we would work, be able to work together, cause, quite frankly, you know, this is a family business when we started this, I couldn't do this by myself. I mean, there we were fortunate to be busy right off the bat, and but I, you know, I didn't hire a bazillion people to start. So you're my mom, you know mom was there helping us.
Speaker 1:You were there every single weekend, every single night after your other job helping. How exhausting was that for you? Super exhausting.
Speaker 2:I mean it was exhausting. I lost a lot of weight, which was nice. We get about 20,000 steps, 20, 25,000 steps a day doing that. But it was important to me because I learned the business too. So if ever there's going to be an opportunity for me to come over in this and actually work in the business, I know it now. I wouldn't have known it otherwise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, it could be frustrating sometimes. Yeah, sometimes I come home. I mean I don't, I don't have a small job, I'm a CEO of a company, so it's. There's a lot to that. There's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of hard work, talking to people all day. Sometimes I just want to go home and lay on the couch and do nothing, and I didn't have that opportunity for about a year and a half. I'd always come over and help, but when I didn't, so there were times where I said I'm not coming today. And I said I'm not coming today and you're like, oh no, I'm not coming today. But then I had FOMO. I'm like I should be there. What am I doing? What am I doing sitting at home? I need to be there. So it had both effects on me, but it was exhausting that first year and a half. Two years was exhausting for both of us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now it's kind of got into a better rhythm where I'm not there every day.
Speaker 2:I'm there when needed, but I don't spend every night and every weekend there, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now we have managers that help support us and I don't have to be there seven times, seven days a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have some really great leaders, and that that, I think, is the transition for a business, is when you start off. A lot of times you're the leader. Right, and that's how you started off. You were the leader. It took you a while to get some good managers and good directors in, but now you can kind of step away and do the strategic things that you want to do where it's not folding laundry and mopping floors and doing those kind of things, because if we had to, we'd do that again, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure, but you can't move your business forward unless you find good people and good leaders to be part of your team and part of your family. Ok, so now that the dust has settled a little bit on Panacea opening we've been open two and a half years now. What do you feel like is the hardest part of being married to someone like me?
Speaker 2:So I think you do work all the time, and so some of the hard things are we'll be watching Netflix and this isn't hard, but it hard things are we'll be watching Netflix and this isn't hard, but it's annoying. We'll be watching Netflix. She'll start doing something for work and then like, oh, rewind that, I didn't see it. And I'm like, ok, I rewind it five minutes later. Oh, I wasn't paying attention, rewind it again.
Speaker 1:And I literally have to hear every word and see every scene and you don't. You're just like you don't care.
Speaker 2:So so that can be annoying. I I think sometimes having the attention right. Um, I want some attention. I'm a I just looked at my Zodiac sign and what it means I'm a cancer. I need attention, uh. So sometimes I don't get it and I get frustrated with that, and we've talked about that before and it can be frustrating for me. Um, you know, at the end of the day we're happy together and we're happy and doing what we're doing. So the little frustrations don't bother me, because I know we're lockstep in what we're doing and we both enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2:Now I do have to say Krista has a very interesting knack. Like I said, she works all the time. So we'll be sitting and she'll be typing on her computer while we're watching TV and all of a sudden she'll just fall asleep instantly.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Instantly and about two or three minutes later she'll wake up and continue typing exactly from where she left off, like doesn't miss a word, doesn't miss, like type something wrong. It's instantly, and it'll happen four or five times in a row. Yeah, fall asleep, get back up, type again. It's true, I've never seen anyone do that, it's. It makes me laugh every time. Still today, when I look over and she does that, I'm like this is hilarious 17 and a half years later. Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1:What do you feel like is the most rewarding thing about being married to someone like me?
Speaker 2:It's really invigorating to own a business together. I mean, you feel like you accomplish something. I feel like when I go to work I accomplish things, but it's not the same feeling as something that you own. Yeah, and I think that's the best part for me is that we own stuff.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I'm not involved every day. You know, starting businesses is hard too, because you got to have one person bringing in some money while the other one's working on bringing in some money. And there's with a spa. There was a pretty big gap between the last business and the spa and I had to work to be supportive. Hopefully someday we can get to a point where I don't have to do that anymore and I can come in and work side by side every day. But it can be hard, it's hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and let's be honest, you love when you come in and get to work at the spa and get to, like, talk to all of the clients and, like you've always had this vision of you know, being the Italian restaurant owner who walks?
Speaker 1:around and like talks to all the people, or the bartender who hangs out and socializes. And I love when I see you in the spa and you're walking around and talking to the clients and sharing them, you know, touring them through the space and sharing the story with them and like just watching you engage with people. I think you love that too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it gives me energy. Like working with the staff too. I love the staff. I love talking to the staff. I love getting to know them. I love working side by side with them. But, yeah, the clients that come into the spa that gives me energy. I love talking to people. I'm a social person. I like being around people. It's kind of like my dream job to be like front of the house or something like that and be able to just keep everyone happy and keep everyone going and keep the employees going and happy too.
Speaker 1:It's my dream for you to be there. Um, so over the last you know, we've been together about 17 ish plus years. Um, we have kids and pets, and can you talk a little bit about how we've divided responsibilities, like when my work takes a priority? I know, like one thing I can think of is when our basement flooded and when we were first opening the spa. This was literally, like, I think, six weeks after we opened the spa and our basement completely flooded and you were gone and I called you.
Speaker 1:I think you were at the grocery store or something shopping and I was in pure panic mode and like talk about that story a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, so I get the call and I'm like what's going on? She's like the whole basement's flooded, the whole basement's like you gotta get home. So I come home and I'm like, okay, this sucks, but you know we can get this done. And she kept running around me like panicking what are we going to do with this? That I finally just said Krista leave.
Speaker 1:And she's like what I was like please leave. I felt so bad because I didn't want to leave you there with all that mess. There was so much stuff.
Speaker 2:You were stressing me out more than the stuff. So I was like, please leave, I can get this taken care of. It's going to not be fun, fun. I had to like have dry vac. Like I don't even know how many times up and down the stairs I emptied the dry vac probably a hundred. But I I knew she was stressed because of the spa opening the spa just open. I just said, please leave. I it's not gonna help for you to be here because you're so stressed out about everything else. This is just gonna make it worse. But that's the things we do for each other. I we're good at this point in our 17 years. Like if I'm bugging her, she's bugging me, or I can see that she's so stressed that this isn't going to be good for her in the long term. I'm just like I got it.
Speaker 2:And you do the same thing for me, so it works really well.
Speaker 1:Well, and then it flooded again. And then it flooded again and it was like a fire hydrant going off in the basement and I was called you and you were at Kroger. Again I was at.
Speaker 2:Kroger, again, I'm like you got to be kidding me and this was like maybe six months later, yeah, and, but this time you're like I'm leaving. I'm like, good, we got that situated.
Speaker 1:But in all fairness, I got you cleaned it all up.
Speaker 2:You went to work.
Speaker 1:I think you had a dinner or something that night. I got home at probably 10 or 1030 and I saw all those wet rolls of carpet in the garage and the trash was the next day and I was like there's no way I can have him carry all those out after cleaning all of that up.
Speaker 1:So I lugged all those wet rolls of carpet out to the street with the trash cans so that they would be out there when you got home. So you know, you did all the hard part and I did what I feel like was the easy part of that, but I felt so bad when I got home and I saw all that carpet. Okay, can you share a time when my business brain has like totally taken over at home or like at some point in our relationship?
Speaker 2:I can always notice when you're stressed because you start driving me, so I can always pick up on and I call you out on it now, and sometimes that causes a little riff for a second.
Speaker 1:I feel like we always take out our frustrations on the person we love the most. They're the most accessible. They're right there, they're the closest. That's definitely the case for us. So how do you deal with that?
Speaker 2:I call you out on it now. I'll call you out on it. So if I feel like you're coming at me like because you're stressed or something else is going on, I'll say stop, I'm not doing whatever's going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can usually tell when, like, there's something else that's motivating the frustration. You're very telling.
Speaker 2:You're very telling when you're getting frustrated because your demeanor towards me changes and I'm able to like okay, I can see it coming now.
Speaker 1:That's because I can never do that at work or like with anyone that I work with you know, because I have to be that strong, calm, positive, optimistic person and not that I don't always want to be that for you too, but I feel like sometimes that's that's just when it kind of falls apart or when all of that just kind of like creeps in. You get home after working 10, 12 hours and you've had a really super stressful day and like you're the one yeah, and usually it rolls off my back and I don't care, but sometimes I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes I will say something for sure.
Speaker 1:And I will say when we first started dating, you weren't good at that, I was terrible at it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:In my first marriage. I was terrible at it. I never pushed back on anything, and that's kind of what I've learned with you too. Is it's OK to do that? We're fine, yeah, if we get in an argument about something and we really don't get it in that many, but when we do, it goes away pretty quick.
Speaker 1:Because I think you can admit that I've forced you to have and confront situations right away Not force you, but like you've seen me do that with my sister and my family Like we're very vocal and very if something's going on, we tell each other. If we're upset about something, we tell each other, like we don't let it linger on and fester and become passive, aggressive with each other. Like we always put the put all the issues and the problems right out on the table and take care of them. And I think that was really hard for you when we first got together because you weren't used to that. Your family was not like that. So I think you know that's how you've gotten better with that over time and maybe sometimes I'm a little too aggressive.
Speaker 2:Little bit, yeah, but I mean, I think the other thing I've learned in our relationship is to be patient. I'm always on time. I like to be on time. Chris is always late anywhere we go, but I've gotten good with unless it's something really important for me that I need to be there at a certain time, I kind of just like, well, we'll go when we go, I guess I mean you know, because I like to be at events on time.
Speaker 2:I like to be at stuff right at the beginning. I've kind of learned not to worry about that. And same with airplanes. So Krista likes to get on the airplane, get in line to go through security about five minutes before the plane takes off.
Speaker 2:No, before it starts boarding uh, sometimes it's really close and I'm a freak when it comes to that, like I panic before flying that I'm gonna miss my flight. But I've gotten better and we've come to an agreement that if we miss a flight then I'm in charge when we leave and we haven't missed a flight yet in 17 years, so she's still I still get to control the flight and travel schedule. Couple really close calls, but uh, we haven't missed one yet, so I've learned to be patient.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to. I'm going to ask you some bizarre questions. What do you feel like is the weirdest request that I've made because of my business? Or maybe something that you thought like what is she thinking? I can think of one instantly.
Speaker 2:Okay, tell me Cause I can't think of one the Miller Avenue house flip. Oh geez, I didn't. I put that behind myself. I don't even remember it anymore. So, yeah, that was crazy. So Krista loved Joanna Gaines and that whole show and had this crazy idea let's flip a house show and had this crazy idea let's flip a house.
Speaker 1:Well, actually my idea was that we would become the chip and joanna gains of columbus, ohio, and we would do everything window treatments and tile and the whole design and plan and everything.
Speaker 2:So that was that's how it started so my, my and her partner's wife, uh, when we, when they were talking about doing this, we swore we were not going to be involved, we were like this is a bad idea, we don't want to be involved.
Speaker 1:But why was it a bad idea?
Speaker 2:Why was it a bad idea? This was a total gut house. We were not talking about replacing a bathroom or putting in new carpet or giving paint. It was down to the studs had to take the roof off 100% All the siding carpet or given paint it was down to the studs, had to take the roof off a hundred percent. It was a rebuild, basically, and it I, at the end of that, I did not want to go back to that house ever again.
Speaker 1:I think we actually could have torn it down and and just rebuilt it for cheaper. Yeah it was a.
Speaker 2:It was quite an experience. We've never done one again because I told Krista if we ever do one of these again, I'm out.
Speaker 1:That's how bad it was and you swore you would not get involved and then we had things fell apart with my partner and that was just a whole other story that we can discuss in another show maybe. But you did end up having to come down and help me do work and basically dig me out of the hole that I was in with this project, and we did end up selling it, actually during COVID.
Speaker 2:It turned out beautiful.
Speaker 1:The house was gorgeous when we were done Like we almost thought about moving there because we loved it so much.
Speaker 2:But I couldn't stand the stuff in it.
Speaker 1:I'm like no way, I'm not doing it, you're having nightmares about that house.
Speaker 2:I was that. One was tough.
Speaker 1:That was a struggle. What do you think is something that I've taught you about work ethic?
Speaker 2:I really so. In healthcare it's really hard to build a positive culture. I've had success in a lot of jobs doing it in pockets and different places, but it's really hard to do in healthcare. You're dealing with sick people. It's a hard job. It's head down all the time. It's stressful. I think what you've shown me in business, and at the spa especially, is that warm care touch for your employees. You have a great space where you allow your team to use the amenities. On Tuesdays you always have some fun activity and some fun things to do in the meetings. So it's really showed that me that you can build a culture that that's fun, that is accountable. People are doing their job, but but you have extra things and you really care about them.
Speaker 1:I've always cared about my staff, of course, but it's hard to create that culture like you've created there, where people like to come into work all the time it's just tough well, and I feel like that that means a lot, because I feel like whenever we have get togethers with your teams, like your teams all love you so much, so to hear you say that about me really does mean a lot. I also I think one thing I've always admired so much about you and watching you with your teams is how well and easily you are able to delegate things to people and how much trust you build in the teams that you've developed, and they appreciate that. You can see that whenever we're with them, they all trust you, they all love you, so I think that's awesome. What's something that you feel like you've taught me about slowing down?
Speaker 1:Or have you taught me anything about slowing?
Speaker 2:down. I don't know if I've taught you anything. I think I've subtly got you to do it sometimes, um, especially on vacations or um. I think I think where you slow down is when you can be around friends and family, so when we can do things with friends and go out and do stuff, you're pretty you slow down at that point, unless there's something emergency. Come in or not, you're there. So I think you just learned over time by being with me that that time is important and I think you focus more on it now, of trying to be present in those situations to where you weren't before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you secretly try to get me to places where you know I can't have my computer.
Speaker 2:I do so like golf golf has been the best thing, so we just started golfing three months ago probably, and that has been great, because we're not staying in the house, there's no opportunity to work. We enjoy it, we're having fun together. I mean it's been a game changer for us. We're not that great yet, but we're getting there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually we're horrible, we're pretty bad, but we have fun.
Speaker 2:We have fun doing it. Yeah, I love the fact that you want to do that, because it does give me four hours of your attention.
Speaker 1:Okay. If another person's spouse is thinking about opening a business, or maybe their partner that they're with already owns a business, what advice would you give to them when it comes to keeping their marriage and their relationship together while also supporting their partner's big dreams?
Speaker 2:Well, I think number one, like we talked a little bit about before, if that spouse isn't fully bought into starting a business, then it's not going to work. I think they can ease into it, but if they're just dead against it, it's going to be really hard. I think you've got to be able to be willing to give up your time together or be there one of the two.
Speaker 1:I think also too, don't you feel like we had lots of conversations before I even ever opened my first business? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:If you remember, my first business was yeah, absolutely. And if you remember, I opened my first business was a franchise and it was really awesome because my franchise consultant, remember she did tons and tons of interviews with me, but she also interviewed you and asked you lots of questions and made sure that you were gonna be supportive and that you would be there for me through the development of creating this new business. So I think we learned a lot from that experience and that created and opened a lot of doors for us to have a lot of conversations about what life was going to look like and how our schedules would change and how we could be there for each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what spouses have to understand too is that it's going to be a tough two years. It's not an easy two years when you're learning a new business, when you're getting a new business up. It takes a lot of time and it takes a lot. There's a lot of pressure points too. We went through a lot to get Panacea open financially trying to get loans, not getting loans, having to sell houses, that we own on campus to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:So there's sacrifices and compromises back and forth campus to be able to do it. So there's sacrifices and compromises back and forth. But I still think if you're not bought in as the spouse, let your spouse know that you're not bought in. And then you got to talk about what that means. I think you can still have it happen, but you got to be honest with each other is am I going to be involved or not involved? If I say I'm not going to be involved, are you okay with that?
Speaker 1:Well, and this is so. The spa is our third business that we opened and really fourth if you count our rental properties. And just like with the rental properties when you wanted to do rental properties, I was like I'm all, I'm all in on this. Like I'll help financially, I'll support you emotionally, but I am not going down to those houses and I am not taking the midnight calls when the toilet is clogged Like that is on you.
Speaker 2:And we were fine with that and that worked. Yeah, yeah and and uh, I kind of miss it a little bit. We're kind of out of that business now and um, but but that that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:It's, it's I love that you say you miss that, but I also remember you moaning and groaning on saturdays when you would get calls. I know it's like a weird. It's like a weird miss.
Speaker 2:I hate to mow the lawn. I probably could have hired someone, but I'm cheap. I wanted to make all the money we could out of it, but I did enjoy it. I enjoyed a lot of it. Some of it I didn't, of course, but I think that's a good point. Like you said, I'm not going to be involved.
Speaker 1:Problem I didn't ask you to be involved. I didn't say well, chris, I need you go down there and mow the yard now, so hold on one second, though. Remember the the circus floor in the kitchen of the one rental property and how you decided to put new flooring in there. Who was down there? On the floor ripping up tile with you that's true because that project was a nightmare that was a one day or yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay, I want to ask you. I want to do like a quick fire round of questions.
Speaker 1:So no overthinking on these, just give me, like the first thing that pops into your head. If you had to describe our entrepreneurial marriage in three words, what would they be?
Speaker 2:Satisfying, invigorating and challenging.
Speaker 1:Okay, I love it. What's the worst thing I've ever asked you to do when it comes to helping me with a business?
Speaker 2:Laundry. I don't want to do laundry ever again.
Speaker 1:And actually it's funny that you say that. I want to just let everyone know that it is our dream eventually for you to come over and work in the businesses with me someday down the road. We're not there yet, but when that day comes, the very first thing that you said to me was that when that day comes, all I can tell you is that I'm not going to be your laundry boy, that's right.
Speaker 2:That is right, a hundred percent. So. I'll make sure that you're not the laundry boy I do remember the worst thing is you called me out at budget blinds one time and you had to put a ladder, like almost horizontal, across the stairwell and it was way up to a top window and you were.
Speaker 2:I had to hold it because, again, I'm scared of heights, and she was crawling over the top of this horse. That was the worst thing I've ever experienced. I thought you were gonna fall and die and you kept saying, I'll be fine, just hold the ladder. And I'm like, oh my god, she's gonna kill herself. That was the worst by far and all I was doing is holding the ladder so I can think of many of those scenarios.
Speaker 1:Um, what's okay, the favorite thing you've done, or still do, to help me with the businesses?
Speaker 2:um, I think just going over, uh, I I really enjoy doing anything at Panacea. One thing I don't enjoy is is when we go to use the amenities and she always wants me to clean and everything and not. We don't ever enjoy them.
Speaker 1:So I'm trying to get you to enjoy I know everybody always is like oh must be so nice. You own a spa, you get to use all of this stuff and I'm like you don't understand when we come in and we do the cold plunge and the hyperbaric and the sauna and the pools and everything. All I can see is like this needs fixed. That needs fixed, needs fixed. This needs clean. That needs clean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not fun, but I do enjoy bartending too. That's one of my favorite things when we have events and things of that nature Back in the event space. I like doing that. I don't like cleaning up after it, but I like doing the bartending.
Speaker 1:Okay, the business idea I've had that made you go really Aside from the Miller Avenue property.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't think there's been many of those Um.
Speaker 1:I just told, remember, I just told you last night I'm going to write a book. What do you think about that? I think it's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think you've got a great story to write. I think you'd enjoy writing your story. I think it comes back to your grandma, cause your grandma remember we found her books or journals or diaries and you really love that. So I think leaving something behind is important to you, kind of a legacy thing. Now I don't know when you're going to do this book writing between all this stuff. Maybe that's a good vacation thing to do in the morning or something. But no, I think I think I'm. When you said that, it made sense to me. I was like, yeah, that would be really cool for you to write kind of women's perspective on entrepreneurship and the things you learned as you went through.
Speaker 1:See, this is why I love this guy. I swear he supports everything. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:I think you thought I was going to like. What the hell are you thinking?
Speaker 1:I did. I kind of did, I thought you would. No, I was, I was actually. It makes sense to me. Okay, what's?
Speaker 2:one thing you'd love to see me do in the next five years. Next five years, I I really well, we're expanding the spa, so I know that's important. I'd love to see us put one in like a really nice big city other than Ohio or in Europe. Would be awesome. That would be cool, because that gives us the opportunity to go to Europe, but also to put a concept and see if it'll work, which I know it'll work over there.
Speaker 1:Paris, paris would be great Calling my name. I'd love Paris Anywhere in Italy would be amazing. What's the most ridiculous entrepreneur habit of mine that drives you crazy but that you secretly love?
Speaker 2:Working in bed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It drives me crazy.
Speaker 1:And you secretly love it.
Speaker 2:I don't secretly love it Okay.
Speaker 1:As we start to wrap up, I just have a few last questions. The first one is how has being married to me changed your life?
Speaker 2:Well, number one I have my life partner and not just my wife, Like we want to be around each other all the time and I feel comfortable all the time around you and that's where I want to spend my time. So it's really changed my life. It's made me more relaxed. I have somebody I can go to that I really trust in my my hardest moments and we've had some over the last three years I have personally and I wasn't afraid to tell you what those were and so that's that's been game-changing.
Speaker 1:I think our marriage is something I cherish the most in my life yeah, and I think it's awesome too, because our girls see us and our relationship and I feel like look up to us. Um, and that's important to me. I think that's a cool thing. Um has being married to me changed how you see life and how you define success, personally, professionally and in our relationship?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always. I always wanted to retire by the time I was 50 and I see where you've built this business. We build it together where it's going, and I could work for a long time, and so I think success is continuing to create jobs, these great spaces and a life for us that hopefully someday we can wind down a little bit and enjoy life and not work all the time. So, but I think you've built that base to get there and so career aspiration, life aspiration, I'd love to help people. I mean, that's why I'm in healthcare and I think the spa is is even a next step for that, because it's helping people stay well.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm actually glad to hear you say that, because I, for a long time, I was like, felt like I was maybe crushing your retirement dreams of retiring at 50, which you just turned, by the way, I just turned 50.
Speaker 2:I see the future in the spa as not as much work as I do today. I know that sounds weird, but if I could do front of the house things, make sure people are getting the services they deserve, the staff are happy To me, that's. That's pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:I mean, and it is a beautiful space and we're doing such incredible work for people. And absolutely the stories and the compliments and the things that we hear from people is definitely very rewarding. Ok, my last question, Looking ahead how do you see our life evolving as our business grows? Any dreams that you think we should have as a couple?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to continue to travel. We've had the opportunity to travel a lot, you know, here and there, but our dream's always been a couple months down in Florida when it's cold. I think we'll get there at some point. I think your dreams are my dreams. I think expanding this concept, which is amazing, and getting more people to have exposure to it. And I see people come out of there all the time happy.
Speaker 2:I don't know how there's so many people that come up to me out of nowhere and just say, oh, my friend went to your wife's spa the other day. She had the best time she's ever had. She said it was life-changing. I have doctors that I had a doctor getting his hair cut and they were talking about our spa and he's like oh, I know who owns that. And they're like oh, tell them it's the best place we've ever been. That's cool. That is cool. That means you're changing people's lives and making people's lives better. And that's hard, like in the health care business. Like a lot of times you're telling people they have cancer and we'll get you treatment and yay. You know it's hard to get people excited about that. You're in a space that can help people continue to be well and give them a happy and fun experience. So it's really it's, it's really invigorating to me to be in there and see it.
Speaker 1:I love that my dream has become your dream. That means so much to me. So, unfortunately we're out of time, but this was super fun and I really just want to thank you for being here and supporting yet another one of my wild, crazy entrepreneurial dreams.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to be here first.
Speaker 1:Were you nervous.
Speaker 2:I was nervous, yeah, yeah, all the way here. I was nervous, but not bad.
Speaker 1:Do you think you would come?
Speaker 2:on the show again.
Speaker 1:I would, yeah, good, okay, everyone. So that's a wrap for today. Please let me know if you liked today's show and what you would want to see more of or less of in future shows, and if you have more intriguing questions for Jason, send them my way by messaging into the show. I'll be happy to grill him and get all the nitty gritty details behind the scenes and bring them back to you. So remember, if you want to start biohacking your way to better health, start at Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique. You'll save 10% on hyperbaric oxygen therapy or whole body LED light therapy session when you book your first treatment using the code Serenity10. And don't forget to leave us a review and hit subscribe on the Serenity and Fire show wherever you get your podcasts. This helps us reach more people like you so we can spread the word of health and wellness to the masses. Until next time, keep balancing Serenity with Fire. I'm Krista Guageni and I'll talk with you in our next episode.