Meet the Owner of a Local Wellness Center

From New York all the way down to Winder, is video game enthusiast and co-owner of Thousand Petals Massage and Wellness, Brian Garner. The new business, at 181 E. Broad St. in Winder, just opened May 4. The 27-year-old Garner, who co-owns the shop with Jan Jones, talked with Patch about his locally-owned business and some of the high points of his field.

Patch: How did you get into your line of work?

Garner: I became a massage therapist while I was living in New York. I had been doing it a couple of years just for friends and stuff and so then I got around and started seeing people.

I mean, honestly, it was just me and JJ (co-owner, Jan Jones) — we just kind of sat down one day and decided that we wanted to open up our own clinic and do things the way that we felt they should be done. We wanted to stray away from being more of a spa … we wanted to help people help themselves.

Patch: What’s your favorite part of your job?

Garner: Seeing people after a massage, mostly. You know, everyone is always super mellow after and it’s always fun to see. I also enjoy watching people progress on their own. A lot of people come in to get a massage and they’re stressed out or something like that, but then they start asking questions and to watch them take their homework and run with it. So just watching them take their own initiative to handle their stress.

Patch: How about your least favorite part?

Garner: We get a lot of people who have all sorts of like a wide range of medical conditions. Sometimes it’s simple like a sports injury, but we deal with people who have cancer and the part about the job I hate worst is whenever we meet someone — you just kind of get stuck and feel like you’re not making a lot of progress. From their perspective, they’re always grateful and they always say you’re helping them. It’s just frustrating — you have the tendency to want to fix people and that can get rough.

Patch: After a hard day at work, how do you relax when you get home?

Garner: When I’m not working 14-hour days, I do yoga, I meditate (and) that sort of thing. I play a lot of video games. (He enjoys the classics most.)

Patch: What is your secret to success?

Garner: I’ll say I don’t have a secret yet, but really, I think for a place like this — I think that the secret is to really love what you do, and to be honest about what you do and how you feel about it. This is the sort of environment where people want to relax and feel they are comfortable. Part of that is genuinely loving your work.

Thousand Petals Massage and Wellness. 181 E. Broad St., Winder. thousandpetalsmassage.com. 770-868-8222.