Pedramin Vaziri - Navigating the Tranquil Waters of Flotation Therapy Entrepreneurship

Embark on an incredible transformation with Pedramin Vaziri, Soul Explode Spa's fearless leader, as she recounts her leap from architecture through motherhood to the forefront of the wellness industry. This episode paints an intimate portrait of her journey to nurture her health-challenged son, a path that led her to holistic nutrition and ultimately, to the serenity of flotation therapy. Discover the restorative wonders hidden within the silent embrace of Soul Explode's flotation tanks, where an hour's float promises the equivalent of a deep meditative state or a night's worth of REM sleep.

Our conversation with Pedramin dives into the business fabric of Soul Explode Spa, where community ties and organic marketing shine as beacons of success. Learn how she carved a niche in wellness with a client-centered focus, tackling misconceptions head-on, and turning skeptics into advocates. From addressing the fears of claustrophobia to curating the perfect pod, every detail is a testament to her dedication to holistic well-being and entrepreneurship.

Join us to gain invaluable insights from a business maven who lives by the mantra, "I'll figure it out." Pedramin's story isn't just about the birth of a flotation therapy center—it's a narrative of grit, integrity, and the unyielding belief that passion paired with ethical business practices paves the way for undeniable success. Whether you're nurturing the seed of your own startup or seeking a dose of inspiration, this episode offers a wealth of encouragement and practical wisdom for the journey ahead.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Pradramin. I'm the founder of Soul Explode Spa, first and only flotation therapy center in downtown DC In downtown DC.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Yeah, and tell me what exactly is flotation service?

Speaker 1: 0:44

Yeah, so flotation therapy. Think of it as a large, huge bathtub filled with 10 inches of highly saturated Epsom salt. Okay, the water is heated to skin temperature. The environment is soundproof, lightproof, so it's completely isolated from the outside environment. So it puts you into a very relaxation state of mind. Wow, what are the benefits of something like this? Well, there are so many benefits, but many people try for stress, for pain management, for recovery and also meditation. One hour of floating equals to six hours of meditation, and it also REM sleep.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Yeah, REM sleep. Rem sleep, yeah, To get you in a deeper sleep.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Yeah people with sleep deprivation, having a hard jet lag, a lot of stress. Majority of clients come to us for stress, relieving stress. So, yeah, it has a lot of benefits, but these are the main benefits. How long?

Speaker 2: 1:43

does somebody float for what's the typical?

Speaker 1: 1:47

A typical session is an hour. We do offer longer sessions, but for someone who hasn't floated, we highly recommend to start with an hour, because you have no idea what to expect and it might take a few minutes for you to relax and get used to the environment and then. So one hour is a very typical.

Speaker 2: 2:06

I was going to ask that Does it take people a little while to kind of like decompress and kind of like get into it?

Speaker 1: 2:13

For some people it does, especially if you don't have any practice of meditation or any tools for relaxation. Um, it might, but uh, most people get into it right away and I think because of the stress.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Uh, people are having and can do people actually fall? Can you fall?

Speaker 1: 2:30

asleep. You could fall asleep, um, I mean, uh, it's, it's better not to fall asleep because you want to be in that, you know, a relaxation state, tater state, uh, kind of like meditation, uh, but depends on where you are. Um, again, sometimes people are exhausted when they, you know, doing the fluid.

Speaker 2: 2:49

Um, there's a chance you might fall asleep, which is probably good.

Speaker 1: 2:52

I mean, people might want that right A lot of people again want to benefit from the Epsom salt. It helps with recovery injury, recovery muscle tension in the body, but then I mean it helps with sleep too.

Speaker 2: 3:08

Yeah, how did you get into this?

Speaker 1: 3:13

It's a long story. We're here for a good story, okay so, but it didn't start. The idea of opening a float center didn't start, you know, from the from, ever since I had the idea of having my something of my own. So when I this was back in 26, when I had my firstborn, I was I left architecture to become a mom, a stay-at-home mom.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Yeah, that's a big pivot it was.

Speaker 1: 3:42

It was very fulfilling. I made that choice. I wanted to be home with her and then I had my secondborn and then things were getting harder financially and we had to move so many times. And it was during that time that my son got sick and I was trying to help him with alternative medicine and that's how I stumbled upon flotation therapy. I mean, I tried different. I had different business ideas. I was trying to help with the family and bring some income. I was trying to help with the family and bring some income. So I had, especially after I, become a holistic nutrition. I wanted to do, make things, bake things, healthy food for kids, healthy sweets. But I knew my calling is bigger. I wanted to do something bigger to help. I love helping people, I love making a difference. So that was I knew my calling was something bigger. So I thought about opening a center for meditation, yoga, and then when I found out about floating, I was like this is a better idea, I know, but no one has done it.

Speaker 2: 4:50

So did you open the other businesses? No, I did a little bit.

Speaker 1: 4:57

You at home while I was raising my kids. So when I went back to school to become a nutritionist, that's when I got pregnant with my third born.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Ah, they're trying, so they were all pretty close together back there yeah, five and three, so so, um, so I got busy with that. And then, you know, between all the moves, um, we had to move down grade. My husband was out of work. Um, I was trying to find ways to bring some income. Um, it really didn't work, uh, cause my attention was so many different places and um, so, yeah, that's when I it was. During the time I went back to school, I was intrigued by the idea of holistic health and I thought, when I found out about floating, I thought this is a better idea. I want to do this, even though I had no money, I had no school credit, I didn't know anything about business. I started taking some classes in business how to write a business plan, how to write a financial projection, all that stuff.

Speaker 2: 5:56

Um, but um so yeah, that's when and how did you learn how to do all that stuff? Did you have someone that was helping you? Did you? Well, I took classes, I took workshop classes um about business, entrepreneurship.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Um, right again, writing a business plan, a financial projection. I had to increase my score credit in order to be able to secure a loan, so there was a lot of hurdles you had to overcome?

Speaker 1: 6:21

Yeah, it was. So, yeah, raising capital, securing a location that was another hurdle, because a lot of owners did not know about the concept and didn't trust it and there was not a lot of history. I mean, there is a lot of history on floating, but then within the area Washington metropolitan area not a lot of places this was back in 2013 that offered this service, so it was challenging to convince people, convince the bank, convince the landlord that this can work. And so, yeah, I had to take a lot of classes and learn how to present my idea, how to come up with a projection that it's a valid idea.

Speaker 2: 7:11

So you really built it from the ground up. It was from the ground up. Yeah, you said your son was sick and that kind of sparked your interest into looking into floatation.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Am I saying it correctly? Floatation therapy, therapy.

Speaker 2: 7:23

Floatation therapy. How did that benefit your son?

Speaker 1: 7:27

Well that's not something that helped my son Again, because he was getting sick he was getting a lot of infections, okay, and I was sick of giving him medication antibiotics and he was not feeling any better, even though in my background, in my culture, holistic health is very known and it's been around for thousands of years. Years, yeah, but ever since I lived here in the US, I kind of were under influence of western medicine.

Speaker 1: 7:55

I was just following what doctors were telling me give him medication, antibiotics so I was like, let me go back and see maybe I can help him in a different way. You know, there must be an alternative way to help him. Yeah, so, um, so that's when sparked my um, uh, my uh your.

Speaker 2: 8:14

It sparked my interest to find more answers.

Speaker 1: 8:18

So it wasn't floating that helped him. It was basically change of diet and also essential oils, home remedies. But that sparked your interest and that sparked my interest to go back to school and become a holistic nutritionist.

Speaker 2: 8:32

So what are you doing these days for marketing and advertising? What's working for you, what's not working for you?

Speaker 1: 8:38

Well, as far as marketing, we have amazing.

Speaker 2: 8:40

Diana, yes, I see, she's our marketing, she's always behind the scenes.

Speaker 1: 8:44

Yeah, oh, she's always behind the scenes helping to bring organic traffic. We really emphasize on building a community. We work with small businesses in our area, other businesses, business to business and partnership, collaboration and social media. We're really active on social media. Those are all organic traffic and on top of that, we really focus on our clients. We are client-focused. We want to always give them the best experience. We're always consistent with delivering our service. So that's something they do the marketing for us. They always rave about us, so they bring most of the organic traffic referral programs, affiliate programs, things like that. That really helps.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Do you find it helpful to bring influencers in to come try your product? It does, because I think some people might be kind of scared of that. Are there people? That are scared that they're going to feel too closed in. Do you ever get any of that?

Speaker 1: 9:47

Yeah, that's actually one of the biggest barriers for people or objections that I'm claustrophobic, I don't want to be in a closed space, and we let them know. I mean, we really emphasize on educating people. Sure, it's the you know the way, the business, not the business flotation therapy. It wasn't very known when I started. Even now still we need to really spend time, effort and funding to educate people about the benefits, how it works and it's a safe space. So that part of it. It really helps us to bring clients and really trust us because we communicate with them either through social media, email marketing, any you know, a partnership, even influencers. So when we partner with an influencer, we really do the work and study the influencer and see we want to see if they're aligned with our values.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Yes, absolutely, they have the same. You know mindset they're looking for. You know talk about health and wellness, emphasize on holistic health, and that's when we do partnership with other influencers.

Speaker 2: 11:03

Other influencers Do you? Is there somebody there that monitors the different? What do you call the float therapy, the actual contraption that they're in? What is it called Float pods? I was going to call it a pod, but I didn't know if that was right. No, no, pod is actually. That's what we call it.

Speaker 1: 11:21

Some places call it float tanks, isolation tanks or isolation pods. I mean, there's so many different names Different names, but essentially a pod. Yeah, yeah, we picked pod because there are float tanks. They look like a pod. Okay, it's surrounded.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Some people say it looks like an egg I was gonna say a big egg, yeah, it is so, uh, yeah, just, and how many do you guys have?

Speaker 1: 11:45

we have three pods that are for individual use, and then we have the open basin. It's kind of like a big pool inside a private room, and it's usually used for couples two people floating, and we don't have to be a couple, but but yeah, but two people floating together.

Speaker 2: 12:00

So that's kind of nice. You can go in with a friend or a significant other and yeah people bring um either.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Sometimes we have um during mother's day. We have uh moms floating with their daughters.

Speaker 2: 12:10

We have you know couples we have moms floating with their daughters.

Speaker 1: 12:12

We have, you know, couples. We have friends, girlfriends, you know, you name it yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:18

What a unique gift idea too. Like my head's already thinking, oh my gosh, this would be such a great gift certificate to give to somebody you know, as opposed to like a massage or a manicure or pedicure. You could give them a float session right.

Speaker 1: 12:33

Absolutely yes, we definitely advertise our gift cards. We have online gift cards. We have in-store gift cards. Yeah, seasonally we have promotions, and how long have you guys been open? So this summer is going to be this August is going to be seven years. Oh great, august 14 of 2017, that's when we opened first. But yeah, it's going to be seven years, seven long years.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Seven long years. Yeah, what have been? You said that it's hard to convince people sometimes that they're not going to feel claustrophobic or that they are in a safe place. What other challenges do you see, either with customers or just from the business side, about growing your business? You're in DC, right. Are there any challenges with that there?

Speaker 1: 13:19

are many challenges.

Speaker 2: 13:20

You're like where do I start? Yeah, where do I start.

Speaker 1: 13:23

How much of it do you want to know? Well, we don't really have challenges with customers. Again, we really love our customers and our clients. We really emphasize on their needs and educating the public. It's something that we really invest on in any form social media, email marketing. We really emphasize educating on the website. So basically, we take their hands through the journey. That's something that we spend time with them one-on-one from the beginning till the end, and then also, we have a very good follow-up system in place that we make sure that after their session it doesn't matter first time, 10 times how was their flow? How they feel about it? Is it helping them? Are they getting the result they're looking for? So, basically, you know, our focus is on getting them the result they're looking for, the goals that they came in the first place, the first time to, you know, looking for floatation therapy.

Speaker 2: 14:25

And what is recommended? Is it recommended people do this once a week, once a month?

Speaker 1: 14:31

It depends People with chronic pain. They float often at least once a week, once a month. It depends People with chronic pain. They float often at least once a week. You have clients that come in once a week, every other week or once a month, and then we have clients that come seasonally or occasionally, for birthdays or anniversaries, but majority of return clients are coming on a daily basis and you have some regular people.

Speaker 2: 14:53

I'm so intrigued by this because I've seen it. Talk to anyone who's done it, though, like I've never had a friend that says, oh, I did that and it was awesome, so it's super intriguing to me. It is. It's so hard to explain to people.

Speaker 1: 15:07

I always say it's like if you've never tasted honey and you're trying to explain to someone who has never tasted honey what it tastes like, that's exactly what flotation therapy is. It's hard to explain the feeling. What flotation therapy is? It's hard to explain the feeling, but I would say 99% of the time when people try it the first time they're hooked. They're hooked. They're hooked and also, they really see the result right away. I mean, the benefit stays with you for days. But a lot of people have a fascinating experience, even the first time.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Yeah, I want to back up and talk about the business part of it, because that was a pretty big pivot from. You had your kids all really close together, staying home mom and trying to bring in more income and make changes in your life. What advice do you have for someone in your shoes that might be in the same position, you know, wanting to make a change, wanting to bring in another income and start their own business?

Speaker 1: 16:07

I mean, I know it's very hard.

Speaker 2: 16:09

Nobody told me that when I started.

Speaker 1: 16:12

I have to admit, my family, especially my father. He kept telling me this is not going to be easy, especially a brick-and-mortar um downtown dc. Yeah, um, and you're a woman um, so, um, I mean, it's very challenging, I have to be honest um, a lot of suffering, a lot of sacrificing, um, but it's worth it, it's worth it, it's absolutely worth it.

Speaker 1: 16:37

So you would say that's anybody wanting to I would say yes if it's something that you truly believe. That was my case. I believed in floating, I love floating and, more importantly, I love helping people. So I knew this was my calling and I'm passionate about it. I mean again, it's not all glamorous, it's not?

Speaker 2: 16:59

what you see on social media.

Speaker 1: 17:02

So you just have to, you know, day in, day out, stick to it and just push forward and push forward. Most of the time, especially at the beginning, it's a lot of lonely time. It's a lot of, you know, you lose friends, you lose family members because they don't believe in what you believe in or they don't see what you see, your vision. So yeah, it's tough, it's definitely tough, but at the end of the day it's worth it, but all worth it, yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:32

And where do you see yourself moving forward? Where do you see your? Do you see growth in the future? Do you see adding more pods or second locations? Yes, absolutely in the future.

Speaker 1: 17:41

Do you see adding more pods or second locations? Yes, absolutely, that's the, that's a big vision to have other locations and eventually to create that blueprint for franchising. I mean, we already get a lot of requests, questions from our clientele. If this is a franchisee, they show an interest that they want to you. You know, if it's once becomes uh, become becomes a franchisee, they want to take um ownership partnership. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, so that's where I that's the big vision, uh, but I still have a lot of work to go through, yeah to get there.

Speaker 2: 18:14

But that's the big, that's the big picture. That's a big picture for sure. Yeah, did you have anybody in your life that was a mentor to you, that kind of helped push you in this direction of opening your own business? Um?

Speaker 1: 18:27

not. I mean I listened and watched a lot of podcasts, programs, videos, youtube, um, inspirational people that I've been following and, uh, listening. But well, I did go. When I went through the business programming, I did one of the coaches basically become. She became my mentor during the preliminary stage of the business starting the business, securing the fund and all of that stuff. She helped me and she mentored me and she was there for me and yeah, I mean, that was it. My parents are always encouraging. Yeah, I'm so grateful for that. My sister, I have to say.

Speaker 2: 19:13

What's the best advice your parents ever gave you?

Speaker 1: 19:17

Don't give up. Yeah, don't give up. If there is a way, if there's a will, there's a way. Yeah, I was going to say what's that expression? Again, there's a will, there's a way.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Exactly, that's awesome. Yeah, um, and as my final question, is there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with? Any words of advice, or business advice, or a mantra, something you live your life by?

Speaker 1: 19:43

Business advice I don't have. I mean, I don't consider myself fully successful. I know that I'm someone who doesn't give up. I keep pushing, no matter what challenge you put in front of me. I find a way. I always say people ask me all the time what are we going to do? What are you going to do about this? What are you going to do about that? What are you going to do about that? I say I don't know as of now, but I'm going to find out. So that's actually my motto, so every time.

Speaker 1: 20:09

I'm facing a challenging situation. I tell myself, I'll figure it out.

Speaker 2: 20:13

I don't have the answer right now, but I'll figure it out.

Speaker 1: 20:16

I like that, yeah, so I think that's the only business advice I have.

Speaker 2: 20:23

Just a life advice, something kind of like you live your life by like a certain I live my life by integrity.

Speaker 1: 20:32

I'm a very integral person and I stand by that standard and value. I want to be true to myself and also the people around me, my clients, my staff. That's a very important value that I stand by.

Speaker 2: 20:50

Integrity, integrity, yes, yeah, I think it's the baseline for a lot of things. Right, just to have integrity. Yes, true, true. Well, thank you so much for coming on today, you're welcome.

Speaker 1: 20:59

I loved hearing your story. Thank you, and I can't wait to.