Newton Community High School alumna Jamie Goss describes herself as having been “probably the band geek” back in her high school years, but that self-effacing description barely scratches the surface. In the years since she marched across the graduation stage in 1999, Jamie has become a small-town powerhouse—a business owner, mother, community volunteer, and the creator of one of Jasper County’s most unique wellness spaces: The Palm Effect.

Jamie’s life hasn’t followed a straight line. It’s taken turns that couldn’t have been predicted from her high school days in Newton, where she imagined a future in law enforcement or mortuary science. “I took the hard way,” she admits with a laugh. She became a young mom at nineteen, and she married her husband—a Newton grad from the Class of 1991—when their lives began to intersect.

But if Jamie took the hard way, she also took the hands-on way. Her path has always been about work. Raised in a family of entrepreneurs, she watched her parents build a car wash and a gas station from scratch in Altamont. The idea of launching something new, of betting on herself, was part of her DNA from the beginning—even when it was scary.

“I started out in dental assisting,” she explains, “because it let me balance school and motherhood.” Jamie worked in dentistry for 17 years. But when her employer retired and COVID hit in 2020, she suddenly found herself without a job and with an uncertain future. That’s when a call came in—an opportunity to buy a property just outside of Newton that she had inquired about more than a decade earlier. The seller’s husband had passed, and she was now willing to part with the house and building.

Jamie made a bold offer—and to her surprise, it was accepted. “I had no job. I was building my massage clientele from a spare room in my home. But I closed on the place, put in a new septic, and started hauling off trash. It was terrifying—but I did it.”

From those humble, chaotic beginnings emerged The Palm Effect, Jamie’s growing wellness center that has become both a community favorite and a regional destination. The center includes three massage rooms, a hydrotherapy circuit modeled after Jamie’s travel experiences in Mexico, and—most recently—a Japanese head spa offering scalp analysis, hair detox, and hand-and-foot reflexology. “We’re always trying to offer something nobody else around here does,” Jamie says. “That’s what keeps us growing.”

And grow they have. What started as a solo operation now includes eight team members: massage therapists, reflexologists, estheticians, cosmetologists. “I’ve got over 700 clients,” she says. “People drive from Marshall, even from places like Pana. Some come for five- or six-hour sessions. It’s a destination.”

While Jamie built her business with grit and hustle, she never left her hometown behind. Her family still lives in Newton, where she remains deeply connected to the community—particularly to the school district that helped shape her. For years now, Jamie has volunteered in the costume department for Newton’s musicals and band programs, even sewing uniforms and costumes from scratch. She started by helping her stepdaughter, Cheyenne Goss, who went on to sing on American Idol and perform with the Christian music group I Am They. “It started with buttons and stuck,” Jamie recalls.

Her son, Garridan, who recently graduated, also took center stage—starring in seven musicals from junior high on up. “Now there are three of us who handle the costume department. And even though my youngest just graduated, I’ll probably keep going. It’s going to be harder now—because I won’t hear him singing while I’m sewing—but I still love it.”

The arts and entrepreneurship run strong in her family. Her stepdaughter Skylee, the oldest, lives nearby and works with her husband at RPI Rehabilitation and Performance in Effingham. Her biological daughter Baylee just gave birth five days ago. And Cheyenne is expecting her first child in two months.

Jamie’s own son, Garridan, is now entering massage school—drawn by his mother’s example but also looking to carve his own path in sound and music therapy. “You can do a lot with massage certification,” she says. “There’s flexibility, freedom, and fewer restrictions than other career paths.”

She’s also passionate about bringing more visibility to massage therapy as a legitimate, sustainable career choice. “I tell Beth, the high school principal, ‘Put me on the list for career day!’ These kids need to know this is an option. You can make real money doing this, and it doesn’t require years and years of school debt.”

Her future? It includes expansion. Jamie dreams of growing The Palm Effect into a franchise model or opening new locations. “There’s still a portion of the back of the building left,” she says with a smile.

As with most entrepreneurs, the biggest challenge is managing time—working in the business while still working on the business. “I’m up early and go to bed late. I’m answering texts at midnight, squeezing in bookkeeping between clients. It doesn’t end. But I love what I do.”

What she also loves, deeply, is the town she calls home. “It’s the small-town community. If you need something, people are there. Sure, there’s gossip—it’s a small town—but when it really counts, people show up. That’s the secret sauce of Jasper County.”

She laughs, remembering a neighbor who once tilled her garden just because it needed doing. “That’s why I’m here. I’d never live in a place where I didn’t know my neighbors.”

When asked what advice she’d give to her younger self, Jamie pauses. “I wish I would’ve put more effort into everything earlier. I did well later—graduated top of my class in dental school, all A’s—but I didn’t apply myself when I was younger. Still, I wanted my kids to see that I went back and got a degree. I wanted them to see it can be done.”

That lesson—of resilience, of reinvention, of building something from almost nothing—has now been passed down. Jamie’s kids and grandkids will grow up knowing what’s possible when you combine vision with hard work and faith in your own hands.

They’ll know the effect of a life lived with purpose. They’ll know The Palm Effect.