Hurt Craft’s owner and founder, Naomi Earls, is no stranger to folks raising an eyebrow at her business.
She comes from a family of Massage Therapists who focus on the softer, “hippie woo-woo” side of massage as Naomi jokingly refers to it. Her mother, a now retired 23-year veteran massage therapist, was the first to warn against her business name and branding. It’s just not the norm in the massage world.
Naomi never intended to follow in the family trade.
She remembers going to massage school with her mom as a kid when no one could watch her and her brother, learning to massage necks and feet. She grew up playing sports and getting worked on by her mom to help her chronically bad knees. She was even encouraged to go into massage after high school, but typical massage never appealed to her. It wasn’t until many years later when she was ready to leave her corporate job and focus on her competitive boxing that she decided to look into massage therapy to help pay the bills and keep her in the health and fitness world. She could train and focus on helping other athletes.
She attended The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in Austin, TX.
While she struggled to conform to the ideas of traditional massage she was able to finish school and follow her passion for working with athletes at an Austin local establishment that focused solely on corrective deep tissue work. But even there her technique was considered too much for most. Unfortunately for Naomi, intense deep tissue massage and competitive boxing are not easy on the joints and she had to choose between her work and the sport she loved. Lucky for her clients, she chose to continue with her passion for no-nonsense deep tissue body work.
Naomi believes in doing the work that most people don’t want to do (or don’t believe in).
There are plenty of relaxing, “therapeutic” and stress relieving massage practices anywhere. And while she absolutely agrees that work has its place, there is a serious need for truly deep tissue, “seek and destroy” work and it happens to be her specialty. So she founded Hurt Craft Deep Tissue Therapy to represent her own personal style and purpose of deep tissue massage. A business that seems a little rough around the edges and possibly harsh, but caring, professional and result-driven. Just like Naomi.
Her client’s results and the continued demand for more of her work speak for themselves.
So much so that she is now able to train more Hurt Craft Therapists to continue delivering the good hurt to OKC. And while she understands that her brand may seem crazy to some and her work will be misunderstood by massage traditionalists, she is certain that this work is needed and will have a positive impact on her community.
Plus, it’s her business. She can do what she wants! ♥️