Alive & Well

Every day, hot tub retailers promote wellness and good health. Yet, as business owners, it’s easy to let their personal wellness fall to the wayside. A healthy lifestyle helps owners stay sharp, make effective decisions and handle stress better and is a must, according to some of the industry’s top retailers.

“Daily habits are important for our health because they shape our long-term well-being, energy levels and overall quality of life,” says Adrianne Morgan, vice president of retail operations at Patio Pleasures Pools & Spas in Wisconsin. “Even small, consistent actions compound over time.”

Below, industry pros share their insights into balancing business and well-being in all areas of life — physically, spiritually, mentally and financially.

Seize the day 

Every morning, Sky Matula starts his day with a hot tub soak. It’s his “meditative time” where he listens to the birds chirping while sipping his coffee.

“I use my hot tub every day, twice a day,” says The Hot Tub Store president and CEO, based out of northern California.

Matula says it’s essential time he needs before going to work where he’s managing showrooms, warehouses and employees. As the company’s “head coach and cheerleader,” the downtime is imperative to his success.

“I believe in everyone living their best life and having a healthy lifestyle,” he says, noting he encourages his team members to hot tub as well. He also asks staffers to get outside on their breaks, even if it just means walking around the parking lot for an energy lift.

“It benefits everybody to be aware of your own health and wellness,” Matula says. “We are in the wellness industry.”

Review key life areas often 

For spa industry speaker Steve Hasenmueller, overall health is a nonnegotiable. “You’re the golden goose,” he says. “You have to take care of yourself.”

Hasenmueller says the “levels of prowess” — physical, mental, spiritual, relational and financial — must be consistently reviewed. He says intentionally spending time on activities like exercise, journaling, social connections, meditation and financial investments, helps business owners get a better sense of direction.

“You start to get this sense of control,” he says of zeroing in on those areas.

He adds that work is only one aspect of life, so focusing solely on business building isn’t a healthy reality.

“If you’re good at your job, that’s one-dimensional; life is multidimensional,” he says.

It takes work to invest in personal wellness, but “anything worth achieving requires effort,” he says, noting that starting with a little bit each day can build heightened awareness. “Nothing gets better on its own.”

Leslie Cunningham, owner of Impact & Profits, feels the same way. As someone who provides leadership and teamwork development, she knows business owners have plenty of distractions and minimal time. 

The Montana-based entrepreneur also recognizes it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the areas of life that need fixing. But she urges people to focus on one aspect. For some, it may simply mean putting on their shoes and going for a five-minute walk.

“We want to be careful we’re not doing too much,” she says. “Pick one thing in your personal life that would really make a difference and slowly build on it. What’s the one thing you can be consistent with?”

That’s why she spends the end of each week doing her “power minutes,” where she reviews her accomplishments and looks at upcoming commitments.

For entrepreneurs who do a similar review and only see mistakes or uncompleted tasks, she has a gentle but helpful phrase: “Congratulations, you just got a reminder you’re a human like the rest of us.”

Self-care must be nonnegotiable

Anyone with a chock-full calendar knows prioritizing well-being isn’t an activity that schedules itself.

Cunningham says choosing two to three areas of life to focus on helps her prioritize well-being. For her, fitness is a must, which is why she carves out time daily for weightlifting.

“If I’m going to make an impact, it needs to start with what I am doing to fuel myself and support myself,” she says. Cunningham knows herself well enough to understand that working out makes her a “way better person” who can feel livelier and “in the flow of life.”

With so many demands on an entrepreneur’s schedule, prescheduling and time-blocking can be a game-changer, she says.

Cunningham’s advice resonates with other entrepreneurs who know firsthand the importance of planning ahead.

“Prescheduling is critical,” Morgan of Patio Pleasures says. “Otherwise, the day-to-day takes over. Exercise is a choice. We will find time for it or find excuses not to do it. I believe everything in life is a choice and our decisions reflect our priorities.”

Preventing burnout 

Hitting the brakes before burnout happens means proactively looking for the symptoms. It’s different for each person, but it usually involves exhaustion from nonstop work hours, irritability and a blurred focus on priorities. For many, that’s also when health issues emerge.

“Health is something we can easily take for granted until we don’t have it,” says Rene Huston, president of Patio Pleasures. “Running on a full tank doesn’t just fuel your productivity — it sharpens clarity, strengthens focus and builds resilience needed to face everyday challenges.”

An essential part of maintaining a healthy life is checking in with yourself.

“I start feeling unmotivated,” says Cunningham of knowing when business matters are overtaking her life. “I start feeling apathetic. I’m irritable. I find myself responding curtly with my son or husband. I get more reactive. Inwardly, I feel grumpy. It’s OK — we are human. We are going to have days like that. It requires a bit of awareness as leaders.”

Cunningham encourages entrepreneurs to look at ways to be “playful” and creative if burnout creeps in. For her, it’s stopping to pet her cat’s belly or having a dance party with her son.

“If we aren’t experiencing play and joy in life, it’s limiting access to our creativity and inspired ideas that would impact the people we lead in our businesses,” she says.

Being playful is one area that varies among entrepreneurs. For twin sisters Huston and Morgan, that looks like spending time in their gardens.

“I just started gardening and love it,” says Morgan. “There is so much satisfaction from seeing a large cucumber pop out of nowhere. The garden also encourages us to cook with our family and kids. I love anything that creates more family time.”

Another way to reduce burnout is to let go of the need for control.

Matula of The Hot Tub Store trusts his staff enough that he can head off to the mountains for his much-needed “therapy” of hitting the snowy slopes.

Business owners often like to micromanage, he says, but it isn’t worth the stress it adds. Trusting his ability to hire the right people and let them use their talents has lifted a weight off him. “It’s not sweating the small stuff and letting go,” he says. “As a leader and business owner, my job is to encourage the people we have to do great work and focus on how we can continue to grow our organization and provide a better workplace and team members who work for us and with us so the business can continue to thrive into the future.”

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Words of Wisdom 

On Financial Well-being 

“One of the biggest dangers companies face is overextension — the pursuit of growth or taking on excessive risks without the resources for the downside — so if your personal financial wellbeing is attached to the ups and downs of the business, the downs look a lot different. One shared feature of companies that have weathered the storms of the pool and spa industry is [the business owners] have stable personal financial literacy traits that carry over to the business. I quote Warren Buffet a lot: ‘Life seems to break us at our weakest link.’ The financial link is an important one to get on top of.”

• Steve Hasenmueller, Effort Today Enterprises

On Avoiding Distractions 

“Turn phones off when you’re doing important work; many leaders are constantly distracted by their phones. Let’s give our phone a bedtime. It’s a habit. Turn it off. Shut it down.”

• Leslie Cunningham, Impact & Profits 

On Healthy Habits 

“Exercising is a great way to release stress and is good for our bodies. A good eight hours of sleep is also important. I’m a morning person and love starting my day early, so getting to bed at a decent time is important to have the energy and the clarity required to run a business. It’s also important to think about gratitude every day. Life can be so tough, and it’s easy to forget about the good things in life.”

• Adrianne Morgan, Patio Pleasures 

On Expanding Past Comfort Zones 

“We’re just too damn comfortable. We don’t get made better by that. We’re wired to get better at something; you can’t flatline and stop. The challenges make us better.” 

• Steve Hasenmueller, Effort Today Enterprises