With sisterhood as their foundation, Michelle and Yan Calupitan build havens of wellness through Beyond Massage right at the comforts of your own home
Sisters have a bond unique to every other relationship a woman keeps. A relationship built at the early stages of life, or even later with our chosen families, sisterhoods are lifetime bonds one can trust to lean on in the best and worst parts of life. This is especially true to sisters, Michelle and Yan Calupitan. Michelle as the older sister, Yan would always look up to her in every aspect of life while Michelle gives her full trust to Yan as her permanent confidant. “We have always been the kind of sisters who cherished each other. We only had a 4-year gap and grew up in a big and close knit family. We were always so close to each other and there was never a time that we were separated for a long period of time. Even now, with my 4 kids people would sometimes say ‘Oh! magkasama na kayo kanina. Pero hangang sa pag-uwi magkatext at magkachat pa rin kayo’ We talk about everything, nothing stays hidden” Michelle shared.
This bond they carried even as they built their home-service massage and wellness company, Beyond Massage. “My family travelled a lot and every time we fly out domestically or internationally, we make sure to try different spas especially in luxury hotels. It annoyed how inconsistent it all was. Sometimes it was good, but sometimes it was bad too. That was a pain point we wanted to address with Beyond Massage. To provide consistently good massage services at the comforts of your own home” they said.
For Michelle, it all came into fruition with her four kids. “I am a single mom of four so basically, I was always pregnant. Ask anyone who gets pregnant and you’ll know the struggles of carrying a baby for nine straight months. That’s when I started looking for a therapist who can ease my lower back pain. I soon started Beyond Massage with my sister” shared Michelle. The sisters aimed not only for consistency in their service for their customers but also empowering women via helping their all-female therapists with liveable salaries as well as other benefits.
2019 was a great year for the brand as Manila’s massage enthusiasts raved about their services. Even big stars like Vice Ganda, Maja Salvador, and Marian Rivera became loyal customers of their signature services. But as 2020 came with an unexpected turn of events, Beyond Massage had to adjust. “At first, everyone was scared, even us who likes to get a massage, we were afraid. But then, this is the situation we are in. Ganito na ito, hindi na mawawala. So, what will we do? We decided to do RT-PCR tests every seven days for our staff, they are also being constantly monitored and we provide them staff houses just to keep everything safe and clean” shared Michelle. Both being COVID-19 survivors, they understood the task at hand and even had to drive their staff around the metro to reach their customers. They also took it upon themselves to continue because they knew that their staff depended on them. “The is our staff’s full-time job and if we stopped it would take so much from our girls. It was our responsibility to them to keep going” said Yan. Now, taking the service of comfort a leap closer to safety, Beyond Massage is the first spa to have fully vaccinated therapists in the Philippines.
In the longer sense, the sisters saw the current events as an advantage for their brand. Yan mentioned how the brand has always been known for its home service hence customers were more comfortable getting a massage in an environment they can control. Add to that the safety precautions and high standards of safety they keep in the company, Beyond Massage was meant to succeed even in the presence of many challenges. But the real stars of the company are their talented licensed female therapists who provide consistent great service to their customers. Proof that when you take care of your people, they take care of you too. “They are all like family to us and I feel proud whenever clients would mention that they couldn’t choose a specific therapist cause everyone is just that good” shared the sisters.
Family is a very important part of Michelle and Yan’s life that’s why they made sure that anything they build would have the same unbreakable ties that they both cherish. From building a caring relationship within the company to establishing trust worthiness and exceptional service with their clients, Yan and Michelle are set to change the wellness landscape as the new pioneers of this industry, one relaxing massage at a time.
To learn more about Beyond Massage, visit their official website. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news.
