Melissa Long is the founder and CEO of the Wake Foot Sanctuary. She is a former corporate sales manager who left Maine and moved to the mountains in North Carolina to follow her entrepreneurial dream and start up a business. Now Melissa is making the move from small business owner to franchisor. After founding the Wake Foot Sanctuary in 2011, she quickly built a next generation one hour spa concept that is now driving more revenue per square foot than the leading spa brands, and averaging 50% year over year revenue growth. Melissa’s mission is to lead a team of great people in making the Wake Foot Sanctuary brand into the BEST shared spa experience in the world – with a first of its kind franchise concept.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Melissa’s husband
- Elon Musk
- Sophia Amoruso founder of Nasty Gal
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I think for me and my personality type, I think doubt was one of the biggest things that I had to overcome and for someone like me who’s more data minded and more pragmatic in how I go about things I think it then became how do I put pen to paper on this, how do I create some structure and benchmarks to what I’m trying to achieve and start to write down and formulate some things about this model to help me better contemplate making this jump and making this decision”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Book by John C. MaxwellFavourite Quote:
“Just do it”
Recommended Online Resources:
Linkedin – is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and mobile apps.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“Try to build teams around you that help to shore up gaps that you might be weak in because everybody has weaknesses and I would say to really try to grow as a leader for your people and to do that with integrity, that’s the real test of what people are going to remember about you when you’re gone, you can’t take your worldly possessions with you when you’re gone you only have your legacy” …[Listen for More]
More About Melissa Long:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.” Arthur C. Clarke
Other Quotes From the Chat with Melissa Long:
- “If you have gaps, or you score low in these different areas then you can’t expect that your staff and your team is going to score any higher than you because you’re sort of a leader of everything”
- “Without having trusted people that can help run your day to day operations you sort of never get out of the weeds of having to be that person
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