How difficult is it to make changes in our lives to prioritise our own wellbeing? Personal wellbeing has slid down the priority list for many people in our modern society to our detriment. After Camille Pierson learned this fact the hard way, she changed her life to put wellbeing at the forefront of everything she does in her business as well as her personal life. After spending years as a marketing professional, Camille moved away from the corporate world to setup The Float Spa, a multi-award winning health and wellness centre offering floatation therapy, yoga classes, massage, an infrared sauna and other complementary therapies all aimed at improving your mental and physical wellbeing.
With the success of The Float Spa – starting from nothing and leading to a clientele of over 30,000 people (& still growing). Everything Camille has learned through running it and immersing herself in the wellbeing world, she now wants to help people make the changes in their life they need to be happier, healthier and more fulfilled.
Change can be hard and bad habits hard to break so Camille has trained at the College of Naturopathic Medicine as a Health Coach, in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), Behavioural Science, Habit Coaching and Meditation to help people focus on forming good habits to achieve their health, wellbeing and fitness aspirations.
Can you share a brief overview of your career journey and the key milestones that have led you to your current leadership role?
I remember leaving University at a bit of a cross road, I had studied Product Design, but very quickly realised this wasn’t the direction I wanted a career. Luckily I managed to secure a brilliant role in a digital marketing agency and then spent the next 10 years in 2 other sales and marketing roles. I remember when in 2009, the owner of the company said to me ‘one day you will have your own company’ – before that I never envisaged myself as a business owner. That planted a very small seed, however it took a further 5 years, and following a very traumatic experience in my life which resulted in a PTSD, anxiety and depression diagnosis. After using floatation therapy to improve my own mental health challenges, I realised that the high stress, high pressure sales environment wasn’t the right place for me, but opening my own business which focussed on mental and physical wellbeing would be best for my own long term health.
What do you believe are the most important qualities or attributes that a successful business leader should possess, and how do you embody them in your leadership style?
For me I prefer to lead my team and inspire them to do well as opposed to manage them. My team are by far my most important asset. The Float Spa is open 7 days per week, 90 hours per week. I cannot be present all hours, having a team which I can trust is paramount to the business success. My clients return time and time again, due to my teams conscientious and caring approach.
Can you describe a significant challenge or setback you’ve encountered in your career, and how did you overcome it to achieve your goals?
During my career before The Float Spa, having a mental breakdown was incredibly traumatic and disruptive to my successful career, the strength needed to make that change into business ownership was tough, but essential and I have never looked back. Since I opened The Float Spa in 2015, there has been many challenges, a very uncooperative landlord being one. However in a service led business which you are reliant on footfall into the centre, Covid19 was high significance. Having to close the doors for 11 months in total to the general public proved mental and financially tough. Not knowing when or even whether we could reopen – that level of uncertainly was very difficult. Not to mention two young children who were now being home schooled. I do not dwell on this challenging time as it was hard for many. During this time, we reviewed all avenues of the business, we applied for a small grant to redesign our website and add an online shop, we added new therapy rooms into our premises and used the time to redecorate the entire premises. We also launched a acupuncture client which supported NHS front line workers. We have reopened much stronger, more resilient and I truly believe a much better environment.
In a rapidly changing business landscape, how do you stay informed about industry trends and adapt your strategies to remain competitive?
Our entire motto is Kaizen – continuous improvement. If I revisit how the business looked when we opened to now, we are so much better. We have constantly invested in new services, therapists, yoga teachers. The result we have a team of yoga teachers who are committed to us and vice versa, this is very unusual in our industry, we continue to value feedback from our clients and team. We reward any team member who presents and idea which is implemented with a £25 gift voucher. Our team feel valued and heard and we love that.
What is your approach to building and leading high-performing teams, and how do you motivate your team members to achieve their best potential?
I enjoy leading my team to be the best possible version of themselves. Yes we have training days, we have away days, we have many incentives to support the team’s needs. In 2015 when we opened, we had 2 part time members of staff. Now we are a team of 7 full time. One of those original team members is still with me today, having progressed to Manager level is very much my right arm in the business. My team members are experienced in their own right, they love wellbeing and enjoy all the perks of working with us. They are often using our services on their days off (all free of charge of course). Our staff retention levels are brilliant, most have worked in the business since covid and are very valued members of our Float Spa family.
How do you balance short-term financial goals with long-term strategic planning for the growth and sustainability of your business?
We always plan the year ahead, but as a luxury business we note reactions to media issues. The cost of living crisis, we always see membership cancellations. We are experienced now, we can see trends happening and mapping the year by 3 month cycles help to manage all avenues. We have hundreds of members who pay monthly, which is a huge bonus during the challenging times, as we know we have set income every month which is guaranteed.
Can you share an example of a major decision you had to make that had a significant impact on your organisation? What was the outcome, and what did you learn from the experience?
Pre-covid about 45% of our revenue came from yoga, when covid hit we lost 80% this revenue overnight. Interestingly during this time, our other members who paid monthly for float and infrared sauna sessions, just continued paying, knowing they could ‘catch up’ when we reopened. For yoga, the world went ‘online crazy’ yes we had our own classes online, but when Yoga with Adrienne was offering free classes, why would people pay for us. Our core members who loved the teachers kept paying and using our online sessions, but by month 4/5 even this was tested. When the first reopen happened in July 2020, we noted how scared our clients were still. The average age our yoga client is 45, with a lot being much older, we felt their worries about being in a room with 28 people. Another 2 lockdowns later, the worry continued. We made a huge decision to reduce the physical size of our yoga to create two brand new therapy rooms and add in a new infrared sauna. With these rooms being single person only there was less risk. If these rooms could be used, we could also reduce the pressure of yoga and offer a more bespoke service. This all proved hugely successful, we have taken our yoga revenue to 25% of our business, but increased the other areas to plug the gap and increase revenue this way.
What role does innovation play in your business strategy, and how do you foster a culture of innovation within your organisation?
We are a business that helps people to ‘switch off’ from the outside world, being able to look inside and heal. Innovation for us, may come in the form of new treatments, but innovation also comes in the form of research into medical conditions and how our services can help. We have just supported the University of Sussex in a research project on how floatation therapy can help alleviate the symptoms of long covid, chronic pain and also chronic fatigue syndrome and the results are due to be published in early 2024. On seeing the participants we know they have all seen huge improvements to their symptoms.
How do you handle ethical dilemmas and make difficult decisions when they arise in your role as a business leader?
I believe decision making is part and parcel of being a business owner, often losing count of the decisions made in a day. That being said difficult decisions and brilliant mulled over inside a float tank or infrared sauna. When a situation arises, it’s paramount to not jump in feet first without the time to stop and listen first. So first stop would be for me to take a run, then infrared sauna session or a float session. This gives me the space to really think about what is best for the business and my team.
Looking to the future, what are your top priorities and goals for your business, and what strategies do you plan to implement to achieve them?
The future looks promising, our big focus for the next 12 months is to increase our Workplace wellbeing avenues. We offer something very unique to other providers, we have premises, but also have a wealth of knowledge from our therapists, teachers and myself who deliver strategies for businesses to help them support their own teams mental and physical wellbeing. As well as continuing to improve our product offering. Both of these avenues are not limited by number of appointments, opening hours and clients within our main centre.
