Ashley Stafford, owner, Tranquil Therapy and Tranquil Business Solutions talks about business consulting in the relaxation world

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Both of your business names use the word “tranquil” but provide different services. Why is tranquility an important part of your brand? 

I’m providing business solutions, but that by itself didn’t say a whole lot, and when I started that (business) it was directed at wellness companies and I never changed it. But (Tranquil Therapy Wellness) was more that it always felt like whenever people go to spas or clinics it’s kind of impersonable, where I would go in and they would say, “okay you’ve got an hour and you want deep tissue” and it would kind of stop there. There wasn’t a lot of talking about, what are your goals? What are the issues you’re having? So I was trying to find a way I could make massage more clinical without feeling clinical, and that’s where “tranquil” came from.  

What do you take from business consulting that helps in the massage therapy business, and vice versa? 

Massage was first — I’ve been doing this for 15 years — and I didn’t really ramp up the business consulting until 2019. With Tranquil Therapy, I learned how to do everything on my own with some help from some awesome people. I got help building my own website, I got help doing the marketing for my website, I ended up learning search engine optimization, a little bit of coding here and there so I could fix things as I wanted them to look and feel, to make sure the information people were looking for is easily accessible. I started realizing a lot of people just didn’t know how to do all those things; for example, I always recommend my clients go to whatever state they’re from and register their business on their own so they can see the process. You need to know when to spend money to promote yourself versus don’t spend money because it might not return the type of customers or clients that are right for you. Not every opportunity is a good one, and I learned that through massage, through understanding which clients are right for me. I don’t want all clients, I want clients who have chronic pain or autoimmune conditions.  

Massage is very tranquil and I get a little bit of a meditation session whenever I give a massage. I spend less time on my phone, less time on social media, I’m more mindful when I work in my massage space and I try to bring that over to my business consulting, because if you don’t take time for yourself you’re going to constantly be playing catch up, you’re going to be burned out, you’re going to be overworked and overwhelmed,  feeling underappreciated with the whole shebang. For me, I think it’s very symbiotic, both businesses. 

Why is web development a focus in business consulting? 

A lot of people ask me, “why do I need my own website?” and the short answer is, you own your website, the language on the website and the message that’s being said. When you put your business on Google, you do not control what pops up. You can populate all the fields but Google is going to choose what they think is the most important or the fields it’s being asked more, and they’re going to promote that. Same thing with social media accounts — you don’t really own any of that material. Plus, have you ever heard anyone say, “I lost my business account, how am I going to get hold of all of those clients or customers?” You can funnel them to your own website.  

What is your go-to listening for relaxation? 

It changes. Right now I’ve been into singing bowls, chimes, gongs, that kind of thing. I recently added it to my practice because you can sit there and play all these instruments and you can just let the flow state come to you. When you allow yourself to get immersed in whatever act you’re doing, you can just let your body do what it wants to do, and for me it’s a kind of somatic unwinding. So if I’m playing singing bowls and gongs, my body moves and it feels like it’s flowing from each thing to another. But last year it was actually audio books that I was going through on Libby, the library app.  

Jennifer Botchie-Deinlein is a freelance writer 

About Ashley Stafford 

Ashley Stafford, 34, is the owner and founder of Tranquil Therapy, an orthopedic massage therapy studio based in Lancaster, and of Tranquil Business Solutions, which focuses on entity creation and web development for growing businesses. 

Stafford has studied and continues to study massage and related disciplines and holds a certification in massage therapy from Harris School of Business as well as certification in orthopedic assessment and rehabilitation specialization through the Academy of Clinical Massage. 

She and her husband live in Lancaster.