Today we’d like to introduce you to L’Nai Cade.
Hi L’Nai, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Following a divorce and various health issues that left everything feeling shattered, a decision had to be made – to surrender or to discover a new purpose. Massage therapy emerged as that purpose. In my late twenties, I returned to school, determined to reconstruct my life by mastering the art of healing touch.
The name symbolizes that journey. Life presents numerous unforeseen challenges – stress, tension, and physical discomfort. Once life has taken its toll, the process of healing must begin. After life, there IS hope for recovery. After Life, there is massage.
Those experiences now shape every session – by understanding what it means to need relief, to seek healing, and to fight for wellness.
Having started right before Covid, my business ended up growing much slower than it likely otherwise would have. Because of this, my schedules were often unpredictable and inconsistent, though busy by the end of the week. It left me with a lot of room to take in last-minute appointments. At times, I worried about how that looked to possible clients as they could book online and see my, rather empty, schedule. Would they think I wasn’t good at my job or that I wasn’t a legit therapist?
Yet, at the same time, the clients I had often raved about how they loved that they didn’t have to book in advance and could get on my schedule when they were ready or in need. I already knew there was a lack of LMTs in my area with room for new clients who provided medical and pain relief style massage.
This shaped what After Life Massage became – an urgent care clinic. I do not push or promote booking in advance. I want my clients not to feel pressured or worried about getting on the schedule. I want them to be able to come in when they are ready or when their bodies say its time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid was the hardest. I graduated September 6th 2019 and then a few months later the rug was basically ripped out from under me. Washington State shut down all massage therapy. So, between not having a physical location (as I started as mobile only), and not even being able to work, I had no way of growing.
I decided around the end of 2020, to have my car wrapped for my business, which at least gave me some visibility when I was driving around. Even then, promoting a mobile only service was hard, as most companies won’t promote you unless you have a physical location or charged so much I couldn’t take the risk.
An LMT I am friends with let me know when a room went up for rent in the building she works in. Someone had already had interest in it, but I still messaged the owner and let them know I was if the other person fell through. Thankfully, they decided to pass due to the room’s size, which allowed me to rent it to become what is now my little clinic.
Once I had a physical location, business began speeding up and, now, I no longer offer mobile as a regular service as it was done so infrequently that it was no longer viable outside of emergency services for people who cannot leave their homes due to injury.
As you know, we’re big fans of After Life Massage. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
After Life Massage operates as an urgent care style clinic, meaning same-day and next-day appointments are not just available — they are the norm. No pressure, no planning ahead, just care when you need it.
Specializing in therapeutic and medical massage, the focus is on pain relief, injury recovery, and functional wellness rather than purely relaxation. Services include deep tissue, cupping, lymphatic drainage, prenatal and postnatal massage, and brachial plexus work. After Life Massage is also one of the few clinics in the area offering breast and chest massage, a specialized and often overlooked area of therapeutic care that can benefit post-surgical clients, those experiencing chest, neck, shoulder or back tension. Because Washington State is a very tech-heavy state, being able to work the chest contributes highly to the successful release of tech-neck (a common term for forward headed posture).
What sets After Life Massage apart is the combination of specialization, accessibility, and atmosphere. The clinic is designed to feel like a sanctuary of peace and healing, while still operating with the efficiency and availability of an urgent care model. Clients are not just a booking on a schedule. They are people who need relief, and that is always the priority.
What am I most proud of? Probably, building something meaningful from nothing, during one of the hardest possible times to start a business as well as a very hard time in my own life. I managed to create a space where people feel genuinely cared for, without judgement
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck has played a role in both directions. Bad luck showed up early, graduating just months before a global pandemic shut down the entire industry I had just entered. Starting mobile only, with no physical location and suddenly no ability to work at all, felt like the universe testing whether I actually wanted this. I’d already been through so much and now I felt like I was being tested all over again.
Good luck showed up in the form of a friend who happened to know about a room for rent at the right moment, and a stranger who decided the room was too small. That one decision by someone I never met is the reason After Life Massage has a home. Luck also played a heavy hand early on as an elderly man I knew gave me a place to live while I went back to school and built up my business while waiting out the pandemic.
Luck is also continuing to show itself by ways of how many people now suggest my business online to those seeking care.
However, if there is one thing I have learned, it is that luck only gets you to the door. What you do once you walk through it is entirely up to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.afterlifemassage.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfterLifeMassage
