March 6, 2017

Meet Holden Zalma of MetaTouch Therapeutic Massage and Wellness Center in Culver City

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holden Zalma.

Holden, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 1994 I started as assistant athletic trainer at USC. I originally planned on going into the doctoral of Physical Therapy program at SC but saw that there was a gap not being met within medical world. There were spas that focused on pampering, Chiropractors that focus on the spine, PT whose treatments were limited to the doctors prescriptions and the orthopedics that were limited to injections, drugs or surgery. All these modalities treated one part of the body at a time but failed to see the body and person as a whole. This is why I created MetaTouch.

Our goal at MetaTouch is to look at every person as a person not just a bunch of individual pieces. We take into account not only where their pain is, but the history, emotional state, job and exercise routines all to help create a treatment plan that addresses their core issues. If we can treat the core instead of just the symptom our patients get better faster.

In 1996 I opened MetaTouch in Culver City, all of our therapists are personally trained by me to treat every client with the same purpose and care that I founded the company with.

From the beginning we were always focused on the client and their wellbeing, but I found that wellness on a individual level was not the only place it was needed. The workplace, where most of us spend the majority of our time, also could be one of the most unhealthy places we could be. This need created Meta2Go, our on-site massage devision. Meta2Go provides on-site massage, ergonomic consulting and education to help create a work environment that is happy, healthy, and free of pain. We do all of this with the same purpose MetaTouch was created with. Healthy workers are more productive workers. Over the years we have worked with 100’s of companies and over 200,000 individuals.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has never been smooth! The business shifts every 2-3 years and we have to change the model to adapt to the new environment or we die. During the first dot com boom we had 40-50 corporate accounts a staff of over 30 therapists and were doing very well. Within a 3 week period 95% of all our accounts went out of business without ever paying their bills. I had to let everyone go and pretty much start from nothing. At that point I re-focused and moved all my attention to the clinic and built that back up.

We tried doing group on when it first came out, almost went bankrupt but then change everything around and was able to gain and retain almost 700 new clients for the clinic.
Where I love treating clients and seeing the transformations that can be achieved, I equally love the business aspect and discovering new ways to grow and expand in new innovative ways.

MetaTouch Therapeutic Massage and Wellness Center – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I do a little bit of everything. I treat patients, and am known as a bit of a guru. I’m the guy you go to when nothing else works and you have run out of options. I do all the marketing, management and training of all the therapists as well. Needless to say i wear a lot of hats!

I’m most proud of my people, they are a group of individuals that are the best in the business and truly care about the people they work with.

What we offer our clients sets us apart from the rest. The experience and level of customized care given by our therapists can be found nowhere else.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I think there are many ways to define success money, size, and accomplishments. I think the way I define success one client at a time. If we can get one person out of a pain that was stopping them from living their life to the fullest, then I am a success.

After that I would like to grow to the point where we have multiple locations, and multiple trucks going out to businesses all over California.

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