Working Out the Kinks

After massage therapy improved Michelle Kameka's life, she and her husband wanted to bring it to their community. But to succeed, they needed to tweak a few things.

- By Madeline Garfinkle

Michelle Kameka was two years old when she was diagnosed with sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder that M left her with persistent chronic pain. When she was in her 30s, Michelle and her husband, Karim, began searching for holistic pain remedies. That's when they discovered massage therapy. It literally changed my life, Michelle says.

She was a professor of health services administration at the time, and Karim was a software engineer, but the couple felt a new sense of mission: They wanted to bring this service to others. It was important to open something like this in a community of color, because growing up, it felt very much out of reach, Michelle says. After a thorough exploration, they landed on MassageLuxe-a St. Louis-based brand that now has more than 70 locations in 16 states-and opened a spa in Pembroke Pines, Florida, just north of Miami. Five years in, the Kamekas share what it's meant to be business owners in an underserved area, and the challenges of figuring out what kinds of leaders they wanted to be.

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