Us People Podcast

Kindness Is A Choice - Nuttha Goutier - Founder, CEO, Franchisor & Business Development Executive at Sabai Thai Spa #305

Nuttha Goutier · February 24, 2026

Entrepreneur · Wellness · Leadershipin

Interview with Nuttha Goutier

Kindness Is A Choice - Nuttha Goutier - Founder, CEO, Franchisor & Business Development Executive at Sabai Thai Spa #305

Podcast: Us People Podcast

February 24, 2026 · 52 min

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Kindness Is A Choice - Nuttha Goutier - Founder, CEO, Franchisor & Business Development Executive at Sabai Thai Spa #305

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Key topicsOpen Arms — The Franchise Manual That Begins With the WelcomeNuttha Goutier put the welcome on page one. A Certified Franchise Executive who has grown Sabai Thai Spa to seven Canadian locations across nearly two decades, she argues most franchisors get the order backwards, standardising the treatment while leaving the greeting to whoever happens to be on shift. Her franchisee training starts with the arrival instead: the warm greeting, the scent, the pace, taught as the part of the brand that cannot be improvised. She is direct about the limits, naming which Thai hospitality rituals can be written down, which only survive if the owner models them daily, and where standardisation quietly removes the thing guests came back for. Anyone running a multi-site service business gets a test they can apply this week: open the operations manual at page one and see whether it describes a process or a person.Field Study — How a Village With No Electricity Trained a Seven-Location Franchise FounderNuttha Goutier got her business training in a Thai village with no running water and no electricity. She spent her childhood gathering herbs alongside local healers and her grandmother, in a place where healing was part of ordinary life rather than something booked and paid for. A Certified Franchise Executive who has grown Sabai Thai Spa to seven Canadian locations over nearly two decades, she sets that upbringing against the formal syllabus of unit economics, territory planning and compliance, and is specific about which one governs the harder calls. She names the growth decisions where the credential won and the ones where the village won. Franchise developers and wellness founders leave with a blunt test for their own plans: list the judgement calls the training never covered, then say who on the team is qualified to make them.Please and Thank You — Running Seven Canadian Spa Locations on the Manners Most Bosses Grew Out OfNuttha Goutier runs a seven-location Canadian spa franchise on habits most leadership advice files under soft: greeting by name, asking before instructing, thanking staff in front of guests. She is a Certified Franchise Executive and was named one of the 10 Most Influential Wellness and Franchise Leaders of 2025, and she treats those manners as the method rather than the decoration. She walks through where politeness held a call a harder style would have forced, and where being an Asian woman in North American business meant warmth got read as weakness before it got read as authority. Listeners leave with a test for whether their own team behaves the same way on a bad week as on a good one.View all topics →

About Nuttha Goutier

Founder and CEO of Sabai Thai Spa

20+ years Leading a Thai-inspired wellness brand7 Sabai Thai Spa locations openedAward-winning Sabai Thai Spa brandFounder Sabai Thai Spa

Growing up in a Thai village without running water or electricity, Nuttha Goutier saw healing as part of life, not a luxury. Days spent gathering herbs with local healers and learning from her grandmother taught her that wellness was about community, presence, and simple daily practices. When she moved to Canada, she was struck by how spas often felt sterile, rushed, and focused on transactions instead of connection. She dreamed of creating a space where guests felt welcomed like family, somewhere that could bring the sensory richness of Thai hospitality to a new place.

Nuttha opened Sabai Thai Spa to offer guests more than a service: from warm greetings to calming scents, every element was chosen to help people slow down and feel cared for. The immediate response from the community confirmed the need for a spa that offered genuine warmth. Over nearly two decades, she has expanded Sabai Thai Spa into a franchise recognized for its immersive Thai-inspired environments and consistently attentive service.

Through franchising, Nuttha aims to make wellness a regular part of life for more people, helping communities embrace massage and self-care as everyday practices rather than rare indulgences.

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Savia Rocks opens season seven of the Us People Podcast with reflections on legacy, peeling away cultural conditioning and trauma, listening, and making choices that serve what matters. She interviewsNuttha Goutierco-founder and CEO of Sabai Thai Spa, who shares growing up in a small village in Thailand with no running water or electricity where community support, joy in hard work, and living in the moment shaped her values.

Nuttha describes immigrating to Canada over 25 years ago, overcoming setbacks, doubt, depression, and personal losses by acknowledging the past, letting go, and focusing on present choices, defining herself by resilience. She explains her purpose for building spas as creating a welcoming, belonging “home” experience, promoting self-care as a routine, supporting local communities, and planting a tree for every massage, with success defined by people’s happiness and community impact.

She outlines her daily routine (early wake-up, meditation, exercise, preparing four kids for school, and choosing gratitude), discusses wellness as preventive care for mind, body, and spirit, and argues that caring for yourself leads to kindness toward others. Nuttha Goutier speaks about avoiding judgment through respect and acceptance, concerns about technology’s impact on younger generations, and suggests more nature, meditation, and yoga in schools.

00:00 Welcome to Yes People Podcast

01:24 Meet Nuttha Goutier

02:23 Growing Up in Thailand

03:22 Finding Joy in Hard Work

05:14 Life as a Journey

05:44 Building Through Belief

06:31 Self Care and Balance

07:15 Looking in the Mirror

08:23 Overcoming Life's Challenges

10:53 The Power of Resilience

11:26 Dealing with Trauma

12:37 Letting Go of the Past