Rachel Tobler, Copper Mountain Manual Therapy

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

I'm Rachel Tobler. While I was born in northern Utah, by the time I was in 1st grade my family had skipped down-state three times to land in St. George, where I graduated from high school. I finished a double bachelor's at Southern Utah University and springboarded into life's adventure from a mission in Germany using my college-forged speaking skills, then from Logan to Idaho Falls, Sacramento to Chicago, and Irvine to El Paso.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now.

After cartwheeling with my husband's career, we chose northern Utah as our home for our own kids to finish high school. I love the four seasons that northern Utah offers, and it has become home for my husband's family as well. Traveling south is another added bonus to share time with friends and family. We've loved exploring close neighborhoods and red-dirt trails in St. George, Zion and Moab with our e-mountain bikes. It still feels so good to get warmed by the sun.

Tell us a little more about what your company does and how it started. How does it help your customers?

Copper Mountain Manual Therapy helps people Move, Feel, and Live Better. CMMT offers clients a combination of manual therapy techniques, including myofascial (muscle and fascial) release, visceral release, cranial sacral work, and Perrin Medical Lymphatic Massage. This combination addresses all body systems, honoring osteopathic insights into the "path of the bones," which during development set the map for circulation, nerves, lymphatic, muscle, tendon, and ligament buildouts. This work addresses chronic pain patterns and positively supports all body functions.

It is the micro-adhesions and movements that matter most in the end. We do not win the Centurion Race of Longevity by starting in our 70s. Yes, the 20s-40s matter, but at 40 our capacity to regenerate cells halves. I'm nearly 60 now, and that capacity halves again every 20 years. But that does not mean that I cannot heal at this age. Living tissue has the capacity to heal. It just takes more attention to time, rest, movement, nutrition, hydration, and a little help if this formula does not work on its own.

Aches and pains that keep showing up in the same place in the same way at day 4, past the rebuilding period of delayed onset muscle soreness, signal chronic issues that need to be addressed.

Two osteopathic principles that apply to my work as a licensed massage therapist include the expectation that everything in the body is intended to move, and everything in the body needs to be fed. Reduced movement in one area, an adhesion, can block fluid flow and cause a loss of feeding and/or an increase of pooling fluids, creating pain reports.

My training includes the capacity to read the body and its range of motion with simple tests, focus on the tissues, and ensure mobilization for better circulation, drainage, and function.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Get curious. Challenge yourself. Do the work to make the changes that bring the results you want. Connect with people who are doing the work, and ask to observe and counsel. Find other professionals who are successfully building their own business or have skills that can improve your own capacity and outreach. Maintain regular touch-point calls so that you can summarize your progress and consider your situation from their perspective. Daily journal reflection of even a few sentences was also valuable during my first year of business.

Honor your strengths and baseline norms. It is OK to challenge and grow our skills, but maintaining our own balance is vital for growth. Feed your mind and your body regularly. Read or tune in to mindset, business growth, and service/skill-oriented voices. Nap 15 to 30 minutes a day—this research-based activity helps you reclaim your frontal lobe and make deep connections with your physical function and mental long-term memory schema. Schedule it relentlessly, and sleep 8 hours a night.

Some fiction—books, episodes—and play each day are a necessary disconnect and good for your immune and overall health. Laugh out loud. Eat at a table with people you enjoy. When alone, be alone and sit without multitasking to taste and enjoy your food.

Walking will help you mentally and physically walk away from the work and improve digestion after each meal. If you are physically dragging, not digesting, or mentally overwhelmed, read and follow Dr. Joel Fuhrman's research in Eat to Live and rocket-blast your world into recognition of what you can accomplish and become. I'm really glad that I did.

Remember, when you are building a business, you are limited to offering two of three benefits: Better, Faster, or Cheaper. Honor your resources and represent the two that matter most to you. It's great to model your work after people you respect, but it is most important to honor your own natural energy cycles, movement, mindsets, and skill sets that you bring to the table.

A new business requires inspired product or service development, back-office balance, and inviting, inviting, inviting. Adding employees is another facet of the JOB you have created for yourself. Give yourself the self-respect of knowing it will be messy and overwhelming. In these normal situations, take the step you can see and have the energy and resources to achieve now. Calendar or list the rest. Some is enough. When you are tired: rest, evaluate, and prioritize the value each of these areas can produce for your success. We are only intended to be in one place at one time working one situation. This kind of focus is team and business building gold.

Top performers in their industry invest 10% of their income annually in education. We are not expected to know everything, and new tools are being developed consistently. Walking away to be the student creates a space to rest from your work, an opportunity to connect with peers, and inspiration. Do something to learn and grow—this is a quick avenue to confidence.

I also target November to give. It reminds me that each customer is a gift and a prayed-for miracle at my door, part of my education and privilege to serve in this journey. I ensure that the giving I do choose is in balance with my bottom-line costs. I know my work is valuable even when it can be considered expensive. I remember I have paid thousands of dollars and hours to learn how to help, and that is worth honoring. Sharing keeps me in an abundance mindset.

What is one piece of feedback from a happy customer or client that you won't forget?

I've learned that I'm blessed both by those who come and by those who do not come. It is always rewarding when a client reports that improvements have stuck. It has been nice many times to have a client return after two or three years and learn that the one appointment we had shared fixed the problem for so long. Frequently chronic pain builds after years of use, and more time is required to unwind the issue. When pain returns, it can signal that the lymphatics are overloaded.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I have built a skill set and a connection with purpose and people that allows me to live in the happy state of flow. Using this work myself, I expect, like my peers, to offer services for even the later decades of my life. Daily investments yield long-term maintenance and gains.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

Massage therapists were initially termed "Rubbers": that still makes me laugh. Manual therapy, this work with my hands, incorporates the best that massage practices offer but is targeted for tissue function in movement and health. Not only does it help people with chronic issues, but it addresses the needs of infants following birth, the mother during and following pregnancy, the child as growth requires a new shoe size, the adolescent in the transition to adulthood, the sports enthusiast wanting to be at the top of their game, and the aging for continued mechanical function. It helps with concussion, accident, and injury to reclaim better capacity. Manual therapy combines well with all other medical disciplines for best results. While it is NOT relaxation massage, and pain response can accompany the targeted work, clients leave feeling refreshed and reset. A client's investment at home in hydration and movement will reinforce the work for long-term benefits.

What has been one of your biggest struggles building your business, and how did you deal with it?

As mentioned above, I wanted to respect the one or two business models I had first observed. It was with my travel, training, and further interviews that I gained an understanding of the many ways to build and maintain my own business to protect my own health and happiest lifestyle.

What was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

I was an oldest child whose mother played elevator music of her own generation, so I just loved the introduction to high school and college dances and sporting events with my peers. Still, it is a pleasure to walk over to the high school and join a football or basketball game. We have attended choir and orchestra concerts as well. These date nights feel like a perfect way to connect with our larger community. During theater weeks, we call it our Broadway Week and hop from one high school to another to celebrate what these bright students accomplish.

Any shoutouts you want to make?

I am so grateful for the work of Neal O'Neal of PursuitPT.com, who gave me my foundation; many mentors who opened their doors; Lino Cedros of KinectionsInc.com, who challenged my pacing and practices; and the Upledger and Barral Institutes, which taught me to slow down and feel.