Spas of America, recently had the pleasure to sit down with Allan Share, the charismatic leader of the Spa Industry Association.
1. What is the Spa Industry Association?
The Spa Industry Association is a trade group that supports anyone working in the spa, salon, medical spa, resort, destination industry. If they fall under the wellness umbrella, they can be a member in our association, and it doesn’t cost anything. It’s free.
2. What keeps your customers returning?
Free is unusual in our business. Most associations have a hefty fee to belong. We are supported by our vendor partners and service companies in the industry. This allows us to offer credit card processing discounts, industry magazine subscriptions and discounts to trade shows, but what people really love about the association is the access to information. They can call us anytime with questions like ‘Who do you know at?’, ‘Where do we find?’, ‘What do we do when?’. We thrive on helping people in our industry.
3. What decision in your life lead you to where you are today?
I never pictured myself in this business. I grew up in the clothing industry. My dad had eight stores in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I ended up gravitating to the phone systems business. One day a friend came along who had been in this channel with two partners and they were suing each other, and going out of business, and it looked to me like a good business. I then began interviewing a few chiropractors and massage therapists, and a few spas and salons. And then because I had more balls than brains, and I didn’t know any better, I went out and put inventory in the garage, made a price list with product descriptions on my Smith-Corona electric typewriter, and I went out knocking on doors, and people starting buying stuff from us. Eighteen years after we started, we sold the company to an equity group in Chicago.
4. Why do you love your job?
Because I don’t work. I’m truly the quintessential guy who says I haven’t worked in 31 years. I love being in the spa business. I fell into something that absolutely fits my personality. We run the Spa Industry Association in a unique manor. We act like Switzerland. Everyone is welcome. We keep information private, but we are willing to share anything to anyone and we don’t charge for those services.
5. How do you integrate wellness into your life?
Wellness is my life. I don’t look at it any other way. Everything I do, I do with 
moderation. It doesn’t matter whether you’re eating or having a cocktail, or you want to smoke a cigar on occasion. I am a five-day a week workout guy. I love working out, but I’m keenly aware of my age and working out. I take time to meditate and take care of Allan during the day. And of course, I have two bosses. It’s not just the lady of the house, we have a four-legged named Rocko. The part I love about Rocko being demanding is that he wants to walk three times a day. Cathy and I get out with him, and I just find it very cathartic to look up at the mountains and the blue sky and walk with the dog, and pick up after him. And it makes me smile. Wellness makes me smile, regardless of what I’m doing. I’m also a user of our own services. I go for massage, and I like to get facials. I’m also very keenly aware about talking about our industry all the time to my friends and family.
6. What’s the best advice you’ve given or received?
At the beginning, there were a few people in our industry when I was brand-spanking new, who for no reason whatsoever said ‘hey we’ll help you get started, and help start building your business’. They started sending me some clients. One was even a competitor and they had no reason to do this but they liked me and said ‘the business had been good to them and that they wanted to help’. So, 31-years later, I still think I’m helping, that’s why I tell my team, “say yes to everyone and we’ll figure it out later, but say yes”. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had extraordinarily good people that I’ve connected with in our industry, and they paid it forward to me, so I’m always paying it forward.
In order to be successful, you need to be a good grinder. You gotta want to get up every day, you gotta work out, you wanna, gotta go to work. You have to be able to get it. You don’t get the opportunity to say ‘naw I don’t feel like it, I’m gonna go lay on the couch and watch Netflix’ (and we all love to do that). I’ve been a very steady grinder. When we were running New Life and Lotus Touch we had 42 employees and always when we hired new people they would ask “why is Alan always the first one in and the last to leave?” I’ve made it a habit to set a good example for people that work for me, and people I work with. That’s my always my key piece of advice, is to be a good grinder.
My second piece of advice, and as my Dad always told me ‘Cash is King’. What he meant by that is you’ve got to be good about the way you use your cash and how you manage your money.
7. Where was your favorite spa and wellness experience?
I’ve been fortunate that in the 31 years I’ve been in this business, Cathy and I have been in spas between Beijing and London, and everywhere in between. I am most happy getting a massage or a facial. I am most happy in a facility when I find an intuitive healer to work with. I’ve found them everywhere from Grounded Bodyworks right up the street here in Palm Springs to The Spa at The Four Seasons in Lanai. Part of loving a place and going to a place is embracing the whole feeling, the whole experience of going. Whether it is arriving in your hotel room, sitting on your balcony listening to the ocean, or going to the spa to receive a great treatment, or eating Sushi!
8. What spa or wellness experience in the world would you like to visit?
I have a really long list… but I’d have to say Rancho la Puerto in Mexico.
9. What is next for the Spa Industry Association?
This is a difficult year to predict. No one has lived through a pandemic like we are living through right now. It is a true black swan event we’re seeing. Things seem to be figured out as we go. We as an association are continuing to support the industry through videos. We are spreading the word, sharing information – talking about how to get back open and running. As an association, how do we help everyone get back on their feet and to get people to start coming in.
10. Any advice to someone considering working in Wellness?
People who gravitate to our industry, who enjoy their work, who enjoy being around other people, who enjoy having people feel healthier when they get off from their table or out of their chair… this is such a marvellous industry, and people can stay and work in this business as long as they wish.
