Meet Anastasia Yecke Gude | Founder & Managing Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anastasia Yecke Gude and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anastasia, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
Healing Hands may be a small company, but we believe we still have an ability to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. We are enthusiastic members of the worldwide B1G1 community, which stands for Buy One Give One.

B1G1 asks the question: “What if every business could make a difference in their own way, just by doing what they normally do?” Their hundreds of awesome microgiving projects empower businesses to give back in ways that align with their mission and resonate the most with their employees and clients.

B1G1 projects are tied in with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are 17 initiatives including education, clean water, gender equality, sustainable cities, climate action, conflict resolution, and our favorite – good health and wellbeing. B1G1 makes it easy for businesses to tie giving to everyday actions, so for us:

– Every time an employee participates in a wellness program, we give a day of access to e-learning to a child in India.

– When someone comments or shares one of our posts on social media, we provide information and reach out to 10 women at risk of domestic violence.

– For each company that signs up for an online wellness portal, we equip one local woman in Indonesia to become a health leader in her community.

– When a client books a massage, we give 4 days of access to life-saving clean water to families in Cambodia.

During the pandemic when times were tough at my company and it was easy to fall into the trap of feeling sorry for myself as a small business owner, it was B1G1 that really pulled my team out of our rut and reminded us why we do what we do!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Healing Hands has two divisions: corporate wellness and massage. Since our incorporation back in 2011, we grew at a relatively good, steady rate through the years – until the pandemic hit. Suddenly our entire book of business for the remaining 9 months of 2020 vanished, and it was up to me as the business founder to chart a new course.

Although our massage studio had to remain closed for 3 months, most of our wonderful clients have now come back and they appreciate our heightened cleaning and safety protocols. As for our corporate wellness services, by April 2020 we had revamped our programs from onsite to online. We retrained our practitioners to teach to a virtual audience and updated our website and marketing materials to reflect this. We also focused our energies on getting our WBENC certification (Women Business Enterprise National Council) and started pursuing contracts with the federal government – specifically, wellness services for veterans at the VA, as both of these avenues open us up to new audiences and opportunities.

We have found that going virtual has greatly expanded our reach, as our wellness classes can now be attended by an audience with no geographic limitations. I am extremely grateful to our wellness practitioners and massage therapists who stuck by us and adapted as the company made a hard pivot!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Well, any visitor to Miami has to start in Miami Beach. But after the obligatory walk down Lincoln Road, I would definitely head down to the Keys, particularly Lorelei on Islamorada, for a tasty meal with a great Keys vibe including live music, spectacular sunsets, and a killer drink called a Key Lime Colada. As for dining spots a little closer to home, I love Di Piazza in Hialeah for Italian food, Mi Rinconcito Mexicano in Little Havana for a Mexican meal, and Ceviches By Divino in Miami Springs for Peruvian delicacies. There is a thriving art scene in not only Wynwood but also Little Havana, and pre-pandemic each neighborhood had a designated Gallery Night at the same time each month. I hope that comes back!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The members of my Rotary club are like my extended family here in Miami (my closest family members live 1,200 miles away). We all enjoy serving together – both here in our local community and at a national and international level. And we can always count on each other if we need any help or encouragement; we had already known that on some level but the pandemic was even further proof that the world’s largest service organization is made up of a LOT of very caring people!

I’d also like to give a well-deserved shout-out to Karina, our Wellness Ops Associate.  Karina is one of those Millennials who gives me hope for the future – she’s incredibly talented, a hard worker, and not afraid to think outside the box.  The work I do for Healing Hands may be the nuts and bolts of the company, but her work is equally important: she is the metaphorical hand at the crank that keeps everything moving forward!

Website: https://healing-hands.us/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healinghandsmiami/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healing-hands-therapeutic-massage-corporate-wellness

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HHMassageMiami

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealingHandsMiami/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/healing-hands-therapeutic-massage-miami

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/healinghandsmiami

Image Credits
Paola Lehman