Meet Jhane Davis | Massage Therapist & Mental Health Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jhane Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jhane, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have a background in mental and behavioral health with a focus on kids and teens. I’ve worked with afterschool programs, mental health facilities with a focus of autism as well as eating disorders. A quick background story: the facilities that I worked at housed many mentally ill patients with a plethora of different disorders. With working in these types of facilities, the safety of the patients and the staff was the greatest concern. As you could imagine, working with kids who may be on the autism spectrum or have behavioral disorders can be very challenging and take emotional and physical tolls on the staff who work there. As a staff member who went home night after night emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted, I was constantly looking for an outlet as a means of a way to relax in my spare time. During the time that I was working at a particular facility, I began taking classes to become a massage therapist. While I attended night school, I was still working at a particular facility during the day. One day at work, I encountered a young boy who was from a third world country. I learned that this young boy was sexually abused for years and came to us with a case of HIV. The ironic part of it all is that when I met this young boy, I was actually learning about the effects massage therapy has on HIV patients. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a massage therapist who traveled to different parts of the country, in hopes to alleviate pain and suffering to kids who have been diagnosed with HIV.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I feel what sets me apart from others in that there are not many African American women in the world of massage therapy and if they are, they’re not in your community, a few miles away. My massage business is mobile, meaning, not only do I conduct massage services in my home but I also travel to your home, office, anywhere you feel comfortable enough to receive a massage. I’ve never been one to want to work in a spa because I wouldn’t be able to massage my clients using the modalities that I feel are necessary to mental and physical wellness. I like to sage before my clients arrive, I utilize aromatherapy and incense, I even have a certain playlist (that everyone tries to steal before leaving, lol). I wouldn’t be able to do that if I worked in a spa setting and not for myself.

To get to where I am today, it took a lot of passion and dedication. I worked one, sometimes, two jobs during the morning and afternoon and drove straight to night school for about a year and a half. At one point of my life during that period, I had gotten into a terrible car crash which prevented me from working as much. I was also on the verge of not having a place to lives and having little to nothing to my name. I had the ability to still make it to class those nights and luckily so, I was able to get free massages from classmates to work out the injuries from my accident (lol). I was also able to utilize the friendships I made to push myself forward, study for quizzes and tests and graduate with a 3.3 GPA. Trust me, had the entire course not been about ligaments and bones and how the connect and function together, that GPA would have been much higher, lol.

The main challenge I encountered was getting in the way of myself. I knew for the most part, where I wanted my massage business to go so with that in mind, I needed to keep a positive attitude and trust and believe in myself and my journey. I knew that things took time but when it came to a business aspect, that quote didn’t register to me until I had a business of my own. Things really do take time. It took months to build a clientele. Unfortunately for my business, I couldn’t just promote to people in my age group. Most of my clientele are women and men in their 30’s-50’s who just need a minute to relax and declutter their mind. To better grab the attention of of my peers, I learned that we’re in a world focused on skin care and beauty so I’m currently in the process of creating many products that cater to the skin care world. As my services already provide customizable body and foot scrubs, other products go hand in hand with massages.

My brand is forever expanding and I’m a cereal entrepreneur. I have my hands tied into massage therapy, art and DIYs, skin care products, more career certs and so on and so on. I’m a jack of all trades and I don’t like boredom so I find things to do in that time. I want to expand and have a hand in everything.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Day One : Resting ! Any of my friends traveling here includes a long flight or a very long drive. Talk, catch up and REST !

I’m definitely a brunch kind of girl and I love a perfect mimosa. We’re going to Flying Biscuit but for a nice R&B vibe, my go to would be BQE or Ms. Icey’s to name a couple. During the day, I’m down for anything fun and action filled. Andretti, paint balling, six flags, skating; anything to keep me moving and I know my friends are down for some fun.

The night life looks a lot different than when I first moved to Atlanta five years ago. Clubs and walking around downtown with friends used to be fun but now what I call fun is hanging with the girls, having some drinks and food and laughing and dancing around. My circle of close friends is small so my “back home” friends know my “new home” friends.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to first and foremost give a shoutout to my family, all of which who are from and still currently reside in North Carolina (I’m originally from Raleigh and yes, feel free to insert your own Petey Pablo lyrics lol). My family is always supporting me with encouraging words and prayers and I love them for that.

My friends are unimaginably some of the biggest supporters I know. They support me and I support them, always. While my friends own shoe boutiques, luxury purse boutiques, have their own doula business, financial advising business, etc. that they manage, they are also superheroes like myself during the day. Full-time moms, nurses, musical mentors and teachers, fraud investigators and myself, still working in eating disorders. There’s just no way that our lives could function without the friendship and support of each other.

I could NEVER not acknowledge the few coworkers who kept me laughing and smiling during all of the hard days and the easy days at work. It’s a little hard for me to let people in and the coworkers I met became my family and are still considered that to this day.

My partner in crime and the love of my life is a HUGE part of my support system. There is never a stupid idea or a thought that can’t or won’t turn into a successful business whenever I randomly spit out my crazy, silly thoughts and opinions.

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