In 2016, April Wilkie came to a crossroads. She loved Healing Hands, Massage Therapy and Skin Care, the business she founded in Springfield in 1996, but she was becoming overwhelmed. She felt her home-work life uncomfortably shifting.
“I was stressed all the time. My family was tired of me coming home cranky. I am a woman of faith, and I said, ‘OK, God, something’s got to change. I love what I do, but I do not want to be so stressed all the time,’” she says. “Then, I heard a voice in my head that told me to turn on ‘The Today Show.,’ which I thought was weird as it’s not a show I watch. I tuned in and saw the CEO of Panera Bread being interviewed. He was asked what he attributed his business success to. His response: “You figure out what your passion is and quit trying to do all of the other things.”
The comment was a revelation for Wilkie, who at the time employed a full staff managing a variety of services, from skincare to waxing and massage therapy. It was too much. “I realized that skin care is my passion,” she says. “My stress was coming from trying to be a one-stop-shop and having such a large staff.”
Then came another divine intervention: One by one, her staff quit over the coming weeks. “It was all for good reasons — life circumstances, a move — and I realized, ‘I asked for help, and I got it. I need to trust the process.’”
She immediately set about renaming and rebranding her business to reflect her passion: Healing Hands Skin Therapy.
Her love of skin care began when Wilkie was a teen in Norwood, “devouring” magazines on the topic and assisting an experienced stylist who owned her business. “I was enthralled with studying her work and learning so much about various techniques and how to interact with clients,” she says. “I loved watching the clients’ faces light up when they would look in the mirror after a service.”
Then, Wilkie entered and won a national makeup competition; one of the prizes was a scholarship to the Westmore Academy in Los Angeles to study makeup artistry. After finishing the course of study, she returned to Missouri and began working for a spa owner. “When the spa decided to focus on their educational facility, I decided to start my own business and keep the clientele I had worked so hard to build,” she says.
Focusing her services on skin care in 2016 proved to be the right decision, but as her clientele grew, Wilkie found herself starting to feel overwhelmed again. It came to a head two years ago as she struggled to balance her growing business while managing a household of two children — daughter, Parker, now 22, and son, Fisher, now 13 — along with her husband, Matt, who often traveled for his job as director of field teams at Convoy of Hope. “It was mostly just me at work, and I realized I needed help,” she says.
As in 2016, when Wilkie asked for help, she received it. The following day, a young woman she knew named Meg Fess texted her to say she was considering a career in aesthetics and wondered if Wilkie needed help. Wilkie jumped at the opportunity and took her on as an apprentice. “Meg began seeing her own clients in January 2024 and will be marking her second year working here in January 2025,” Wilkie says.
As she comes close to celebrating 30 years in business, Wilkie counts her abundant blessings. “Years ago, my mother decided to pursue her doctor of naturopathy degree, and I’m thankful to have her on staff to help our clients create health and balance on the inside,” she says. “I feel honored to own my own business and provide for my family as well as be an example for my children in that I have pursued a fulfilling career. I am also grateful to serve the community of Springfield, where the people are so friendly, warm, kind and hospitable.”
And for Wilkie, being thankful includes giving back. “A favorite annual event is International Women’s Day, sponsored by Convoy of Hope,” she says. “Knowing that my business can partner with causes like that is one of my favorite things. I love that we can invest in an organization that is empowering and equipping women all over the world to start their own businesses so they can provide for their families with dignity.”
Learn more at healinghandsskintherapy.com and follow Wilkie’s advice on healthy living on Instagram: @eathealthy.simply
“You figure out what your passion is and quit trying to do all of the other things.”