Mellissa Stone

I Was Told I’d Never Dance Again. Today, I’ve Built a Business Around Movement. My name is Mellissa Stone. I’m the founder of StoneRMT, a growing multidisciplinary rehabilitation and wellness clinic in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. But my journey into entrepreneurship began long before I ever imagined owning a business. It began with dance, a cliff in Greece, and a future I nearly lost. Dance was my first love. I grew up training in ballet, tap, and jazz, but I found myself drawn to African and Caribbean dance — something entirely outside my training and comfort zone. Before leaving for a trip to Europe, I auditioned for COBA, the Collective of Black Artists. It was competitive, culturally unfamiliar territory for me, and I barely made it in. But I made it. And I had no idea just how important that opportunity would become. While travelling in Greece, I went cliff diving and suffered devastating injuries. I fractured my sternum, spine, and ribs and came frighteningly close to paralysis. Doctors told me I would never dance again. I was also warned that I could develop severe arthritis in my cervical spine within ten years. Imagine being a dancer and being told that the one thing that makes you feel most alive may never be yours again. But I wasn’t ready to accept that. I returned to dance. And in an extraordinary turn of events, the African and Caribbean dance movements I’d been so drawn to, particularly the powerful head and hair movements, became part of my personal rehabilitation journey. Nearly twenty years later, I am still moving — without the chronic neck pain I was once warned might become my reality. Movement didn’t just bring me joy. It helped me find my way back to myself. But recovering from my injuries didn’t mean life suddenly became easy. I was a struggling dance student. I loved what I was doing, but financially, I was barely surviving. There were times when I worried about my next meal, let alone what kind of future I was building. Then I met a woman who changed everything. She was one of my dance coaches — a professional company dancer who travelled, but also a Registered Massage Therapist, college instructor, wife, and mother. I was captivated by the life she had created. She had a career with flexibility, purpose, independence, and room for the things she loved. For the first time, I could imagine a life where my passion for movement and my need for financial stability could coexist. Massage therapy kept calling me. And eventually, I listened. But choosing that future meant making one of the hardest sacrifices of my life. I couldn’t attend college full-time, continue professional dance training, and work enough hours to support myself. Something had to give. And heartbreakingly, that something was dance. The very thing I’d fought so hard to reclaim after my accident. I didn’t walk away because I stopped loving it. I walked away because I needed to survive, support myself, and build a future. Sometimes the hardest part of growing isn’t failing at something you love. It’s succeeding, and still having to let it go. I became a Registered Massage Therapist in 2012, and what began as a career eventually evolved into something much bigger. Today, I’m the founder of StoneRMT, a rehabilitation and wellness clinic that’s growing beyond massage therapy to bring together healthcare, physiotherapy, rehabilitation, fitness, movement education, and community. And entrepreneurship has challenged me in ways I never anticipated. I’ve had to learn how to lead while still learning who I am as a leader. I’ve experienced personal loss while carrying the responsibility of a business, navigated financial uncertainty, made difficult decisions, and discovered that being passionate about helping people doesn’t automatically teach you how to run a company. There have been moments I’ve questioned myself, moments I’ve been exhausted, and moments I’ve wondered whether I was capable of building the vision I carry. But I keep going. Because I know what it’s like to have a future suddenly taken away from you. And I know what it means to rebuild one. And perhaps the most beautiful part of this entire journey is something I never expected. Dance has found its way back to me. Through the Pilates, Barre, and movement programs we’re developing at StoneRMT, I get to bring pieces of the dancer I once was into the work I do today. Do I still miss dancing professionally? Absolutely. There is a part of me that always will. But every time I teach movement, incorporate choreography, or watch someone discover what their body is capable of, something in my heart comes alive again. It’s as though the dancer I thought I’d left behind has been quietly waiting for me all along. I would love to speak with Emma Grede about the realities of building a business as a woman, the sacrifices we make in pursuit of financial independence, the mentors who change our direction, and the courage it takes to reinvent ourselves more than once. Because my story isn’t about a woman who had a perfect plan and executed it flawlessly. It’s about a woman who nearly lost her ability to move, fought to dance again, sacrificed that dream to create a future, and ultimately built a business where movement could become part of her life once more. The universe kept leading me toward a life I couldn’t yet see, while I was still grieving the one I thought I wanted. And nearly fifteen years into my career, I don’t believe my entrepreneurial story is finished. In many ways, I feel like I’m only just beginning.