Soule Shop & Spa owners Kristi Holst, left, and Kortlyn Frush, LMT, pictured in the lobby of their new space located at 311 Main Street in downtown Dysart. In addition to massage therapy, the business also offers infrared (red light) therapy, a massage chair, and a rock/crystal shop. Up until last Friday, Kortlyn worked as an independent contractor at Traer Chiropractic. PHOTO BY KAILEY’S PHOTOGRAPHY

DYSART – After giving nearly 3,000 massages while working at Traer Chiropractic over the last five years, Union High School graduate Kortlyn (née Ewoldt) Frush, LMT, is ready to give her heart and ‘soule’ to a new venture – her very own business, Soule Shop & Spa.

Since graduating high school in 2018 and later Carlson College of Massage Therapy in February of 2019, Frush, a licensed massage therapist, has been hoping to one day own her own business, she just never dreamed it would happen so soon.

“It’s crazy how life seems to go so slow until you look back and there’s so much behind you,” Frush wrote last Friday on her business’s Facebook page as she commemorated her final day working at Traer Chiropractic. “I am so excited for what my future holds at Soule Shop and Spa. I’m struggling to wrap my head around the fact that I’m able to start my own business at 24 years old.”

Last Wednesday, Frush and her mother/co-owner Kristi Holst along with Frush’s nine-month-old son Holt Frush, kindly gave the Telegraph a tour of the new space located at 311 Main Street in downtown Dysart in the former Heckt Power Products and Redline Firearms shop. For those who have never stepped foot inside the building, you would be hard-pressed to believe it had ever been a combination engine repair/gun shop.

“We put a lot of lipstick on this place,” Holst joked before turning serious and explaining all the different updates the duo and Frush’s husband Austin made to the space.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

“This whole wall was pegboard,” Holst said as she pointed to a large wall that greets customers upon first entering. “And brown. Everything was very commercial. The smell of gasoline and motor oil was [pervasive].”

“We were in here probably six hours a day,” Frush continued. “Some nights until one in the morning – all while I’m still working over in Traer.”

There’s not even a hint of the former shop’s smells now. And everything has been updated in either fresh white paint or natural wood surfaces.

In the former gun room located to the right of the entrance, there’s now a rock and crystal shop – “This is new. This is something we’ve been into for a really long time,” Holst said. While to the left past the front desk is the ‘Zen Room’ which then leads into the Massage Room.

The Zen Room, which Frush said is more of a “last minute type” option, has a massage chair that can be booked for up to 30 minutes.

PHOTO BY KAILEY’S PHOTOGRAPHY

“I know how busy I am. If you can’t get in with me, this is [an option]. Or they can book it for after their massage – take a nap or keep the party going.”

Eventually, Frush said, she’s hoping to have another massage therapist providing treatment in the room.

Frush said her average massage client is somewhere between 30 and 50 years old, but she does see a lot of the older generation, too. She even has a couple of high schoolers who book a sports massage which is done completely over the clothes.

It was back in high school that Frush herself happened upon what would turn out to be her future career.

“I was heavily involved in the fine arts. And part of our morning warm ups for choir was a massage train. At 15, I would have people run across the room to get in front of me.”

PHOTO BY KAILEY’S PHOTOGRAPHY

Even before high school, Holst said her daughter was always a very tactile person.

“She was the kid that in the dead of summer when it’s 110 degrees she had to be touching three parts of your body. Always had to be touching or close to you.”

Frush said she originally had plans to head to Kirkwood Community College following graduation to major in physical therapy assistance but changed her mind senior year.

“A month before graduation, I can remember it vividly, I was sitting in study hall and I made the decision. I called my mom. I told her, I don’t want to go to Kirkwood. I don’t want to go to college. I struggled paying attention to classes that weren’t hands-on [while] I absolutely excelled in anatomy. … I told her, I want to go to massage school. She was not thrilled.”

The next day, Holst told her daughter that if she was going to become a massage therapist, she was “going to do it right” which led her to Carlson College in rural Jones County.

Massage therapist Kortlyn Frush, LMT, pictured with her family including her husband Austin Frush and their nine-month-old baby Holt in the lobby of Soule Shop & Spa in downtown Dysart. The new business which is co-owned by Kortlyn and her mother Kristi Holst (not pictured) is holding its grand opening this weekend. PHOTO BY KAILEY’S PHOTOGRAPHY

“Carlson is the highest accredited massage school in Iowa,” Frush explained.

On Wednesday last week, as Frush walked from room to room of her new shop – which also includes a ‘Great Room’ housing an infrared sauna which uses red light therapy to treat everything from weight loss to pain relief – with her adorable baby on her hip, it was clear to see she is in her element and has truly poured everything into her new business.

When asked if she worried about the move from Traer to Dysart – would she lose her clients? – Frush said any anxiety has dissipated since opening up her online scheduler.

“They have showed no problem driving over to Dysart,” Frush said of her Traer clients before then adding, “And I had a lot of Dysart clientele already.”

“Ten hours after opening, her April schedule was full,” Holst said. “And May is getting close.”

A QR code on the front door of Soule Shop & Spa following the recent rains. Interested clients are asked to click on the QR code's link to book online for a variety of massage therapy services.

In her Facebook post last Friday on her final day in Traer, Frush ended with a heartfelt thank you to all her clients over the last five years, writing: “From the bottom of my heart and soul, (or should I say Soule) THANK YOU. [Whether] you have been on my table once, or 100 times, THANK YOU. So much love for all of you.”

And now a new chapter begins.

Soule Shop & Spa – which is located in downtown Dysart next to KE Black Mercantile – will hold a public open house and grand opening this Saturday, April 6, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for those interested in checking out the new space. For more information including the online scheduler, visit the business’s website at https://www.souleshopspa.com/, or call (319) 476-7722, or email Souleshopspa@gmail.com.