Make the Most of Massage

Author: Mark Liskey

  • Massage Therapist Self-Help: How to Get the Passion Back

    Massage Therapist Self-Help: How to Get the Passion Back

    In my 20s I used to think there was something seriously wrong with the journey that I was on. How could Bill Nye the Science Guy be so passionate about what he did, and me not so much?

    I spent many years looking for something to be passionate about only to fall in and out love with hobbies and jobs, massage being one of them.

    Becoming Bill Nye

    But during the past 5 years, things have been different with massage. In fact, I now feel like Bill Nye the Science Guy.

    What has changed?

    I stopped believing that passion was innate, something that just happened naturally. Instead, I started to work at being passionate and discovered that when I did, it stuck around.

    Yo-Yo Passion Ride

    When I first started massage, I was ignited by the feeling I got from helping people feel better. But after a few years of working at the same place, I felt trapped and thought  I was underpaid—and out went the passion.

    My passion for massage returned when I opened my first office in a fitness center, but only to leak out of me again because my hands started to ache.

    Then I asked my dad to customize some massage tools for me. I started to experiment with the tools and my hands felt better. I got jacked about massage again!

    This lasted for a while until I had a turf war with the chiropractor who also rented space in the fitness center and had MTs working for him. Ugh, I hated confrontation. Bye-bye passion.

    More than One Payoff

    Back then it seemed like every time I got my passion back, something was there to suck it out of me.

    OR, could it have been that in order for me to sustain my passion, I needed to have multiple payoffs from massage—not just the good feeling I would get from making someone feel better?

    Multiple payoffs eventually proved to be the right answer for me.

    What I Need to Sustain Passion

    In fact, when it comes to massage payoffs, I’m a little greedy. I need a lot of them to sustain my passion. Here’s my shortlist:

    Evidence that I’m helping people; acknowledgment from my clients that they appreciate my work, to not be in pain after doing a massage; earned respect from my you, my colleagues; business autonomy; business competence; an income that supports my lifestyle choices; opportunities to start other businesses; and a massage business that reflects my values.

    A problem arises when something gets in the way of me getting one of my payoffs.

    For instance, I threw myself into helping people feel better because that was easy for me to do. But, back then, ask me to raise the price of my massage (so that I could  support my lifestyle choices) and I would forget how to speak.

    Here’s how I got around this:

    Getting a Payoff

    At one point in my massage career, I was getting resentful of the clients who I had given special deals to when I first opened my practice.

    I knew that I had to raise their price, but if I did, I was afraid that they might walk. In reality, this was unlikely. And if I dug a little deeper into my psyche, my concern was more about how they would view me (as a money-grubber) if I raised the price on them.

    Because I knew that I would crack under pressure, I had my talk therapist, at the time, hold me accountable for raising my price. Over the course of a couple months, I raised my clients’ rates. No one left (or hated me) and my passion for massage returned.

    Massage Therapist Self-Help

    The step-by-step of what I did looks like this:

    1. Pick one thing about massage that is not working for you.

    This download What Do You Want From Massage Quiz may help you figure out what to focus on first.

    1. Write down how you can change this one thing and then make it a goal.
    2. Write down a due date to accomplish this goal.
    3. Give me permission (mark@makethemostofmassage.com) or a friend, family member or adviser to be your friendly auditor, to help you stay on track.

    The Rest of Your Life

    Maybe, ultimately, massage is not right for you. But if you think your loss of passion for massage is because you’re afraid to tackle the challenges that come with massage, here’s what I would do:

    Identify the multiple payoffs that you need from massage to make you happy. Then pick one that hasn’t come to fruition. Write down what you’re going to do to change it and give yourself a due date. Ask someone to hold you accountable.

    Then go for it. Seriously. Go for it.

    It might be the nudge that pushes you in the right direction to sustain passion for massage–and other things in life, too:-)

    Need More Help?

    Join my email group.

    I’ll send you my latest info. It’s free:-)

  • How to Use “Care” to Build a Massage Business

    How to Use “Care” to Build a Massage Business

    This is how I thought years ago when I didn’t have enough clients coming in: I’m a massage therapist with zero massage marketing skills. 

    No biggie, I’ll hire Ashira to do my marketing.

    Oh, wait, she charges more than d0-it-for-free.

    So, I was left with two choices: Hide my table from the repo man or start to market myself.

    I decided to dip my toe into marketing and after a while I discovered something pretty cool: I didn’t have to be a marketer to market.

    I just needed to take my massage skills and turn them into massage marketing skills.

    So, I clicked my heels together three times and said “There’s no place like home”.

    I know, turning massage skills into marketing skills sounds like something that only happens in Hollywood, not real life.

    But it does happen in real life.

    In fact, we’re going to take one of your massage skills and turn it into one of your massage marketing skills right now.

    Ready?

    I bet you care about your clients.

    I’ll go one further. I bet you care about your clients a whole lot.

    You show that care through fantastic therapeutic rapport and by doing a kick-butt massage every time.

    You see where I’m going here.

    Caring for your client is one of your massage skills.

    And it can be turned into one of your massage marketing skills by simply up-ing the care.

    Here’s how you can up your care:

    1. After the massage explain your findings.

    In other words, let clients know what you did and what you found.

    Your levator scapulae was tight. Your lower-back required less pressure than y0ur upper-back. Your traps felt good.

    Clients will appreciate that you’re going the extra mile to help them.

    2. Call new clients 2 days after the massage to see how their doing.

    Not only is this a good PR strategy, it’s a good way of gauging whether what you did was helpful.

    Did you feel relaxed? Are you in less pain? Do you move better?

    If there answer is yes, then they’re probably coming back to you.

    If no, decide if a different massage approach would be worth a try. If so, explain what you’d do differently next time.

    3. Be available.

    Who has my cell number?

    Everybody.

    Clients.

    Potential clients.

    Running coaches.

    Store owners.

    Physical therapists.

    Chiropractors.

    Personal trainers.

    Straight from the pages of “7 Habits of Highly IN-effective People”, right?

    But here’s my counter.

    No one abuses having access to me.

    Clients only text when they want a massage. And being accessible to other business owners, managers and sports coaches has allowed me to build an array of referral sources.

    Can granting more access get difficult to manage?

    Sometimes.

    But I’d rather be challenged with managing interactions that keep a healthy business going rather than in a position where the only person calling my cell is my mom.

    4. Care about other businesses and their clients/customers.

    Nothing says caring than giving your business buds something to give their customers/clients.

    Here’s what I give the customers of my business buds: limited, free massage.  Here’s how I do that: How to Grow Your Business With $0.

    5. Find businesses that share your core value of caring.

    This sounds like fluff, but it’s 100% not.

    When you align yourself with other businesses that share your core value of caring for clients and customers, you get solid and steady referrals forever.

    Why?

    Because those business allies know that you’re going to take care of their customers/clients/patients as well as they do.

    And there’s more…

    When you hook up with businesses that share your value of caring for the client you get connected with their business allies who share the same value. And your  network of businesses who provide extraordinary customer care grows. As it grows you’ll have more opportunities to do business in an environment where you thrive.

    You Have Massage Marketing Skills

    Don’t fight it.

    You care.

    And you can’t turn it off.

    So why not just turn that spigot wide open and grow your business by caring even more?

    Talk to your clients after the massage. Tell them what you’ve found. Make recommendations.

    Call them a couple days after the massage to see how they feel.

    Give your cell phone number to random strangers. (Just seeing if you were paying attention.)

    Make yourself accessible.

    Care about other businesses’ customers by doing something of value for them, like demo massages.

    Align yourself with other businesses who go out of their way to care for their customers and jump on the opportunities that arise from these relationships.

    Fired up?

    I am.

    Building a business that is authentic to my way of being makes me seriously do this:-)

    Need more help?

    If you’re just launching your massage business or thinking about launching your massage business, this free course will help you get the job done: Jumpstart.

    If you have a meh business that’s making 30K or less, this program will take your business to the next level: Accelerator.

    Want my latest info?

    Join my email group.

    You get my weekly info.

    It’s free:-)

    Sign up below:

  • If you heard me on a podcast…

    If you heard me on a podcast talking about massaging pain-free, you might want to check out my other website: www.PainFreeMassageTherapist.com!

  • Massage T-bar: Get Sensitive with Pressure

    How do you get good at applying the right pressure with a massage T-bar?

    Don’t press and hold the T-bar when you’re first working on an area. (I’ll explain why later).

    Instead…

    1. Find the area you want to work with your finger, knuckle or thumb.

    2. Then press down with the T-bar to the depth of what was needed to find that area with your finger/thumb.

    3. Next ease up on your pressure slightly.

    4. Last step: Increase the pressure until it feels like the same pressure you would use to work the area with your finger or thumb (probably similar to your palpation depth).

    This seems pretty straightforward, right?

    But it’s slightly more complicated than that.

    Here’s what I mean.

    Grip Versus Hold

    If you grip the T-bar like this…

    …or if you grip any massage tool too tight or for too long the tool is going to hurt your hands.

    Been there, done that.

    Okay, but isn’t gripping going to give me fine-tune control of the T-bar, Mark?

    Yes, but there’s another way to have great control over the T-bar without gripping.

    It starts with a relaxed hold.

    Relaxing your holding hand does two things.

    1. The more your T-bar-tool-holding hand is relaxed, the more it needs help from the other hand to keep the T-bar upright.
    2. Two hands supporting the T-bar together make it easier to hold the the T-bar without gripping.

    Supporting the Massage T-bar with Two Hands

    Here’s a picture of a relaxed hand hold with support from the non-holding hand.

    If I look way comfortable here, it’s because I am.

    See all the points of contact (fingers on back) that are supporting the T-bar?

    That’s a really stable configuration.

    The T-bar is not going anywhere and my hands can chill.

    But where’s the control if I crank up the pressure?

    Those fingers are going to have to tighten around the T-bar, right?

    Not if I pin the T-bar between my hand and the tissue I’m working on.

    Pinning the T-bar

    How do I pin the T-bar?

    I lean into it.

    So, instead of pressing the T-bar using my shoulder and arm, I “balance” some of my body weight on the T-bar.




    My body weight is doing the work.

    How much I lean determines how much pressure I’m exerting.

    Here’s what it looks like sitting:

    I know, balancing on top of a little, wooden T-bar doesn’t seem so fine-tuned.

    But it is once you get comfortable pinning the T-bar.

    This should help you out with pinning and leaning:

     

    Alright, let’s let’s go over this pressure trick one more time.

    The Massage T-bar Pressure Trick

    Don’t immediately press and hold an area with a T-bar.

    Why?

    Because you want to mimic your thumb with the T-bar.

    To do that you need to establish different “feels”.

    You need the palpating the trigger point feel (the deeper pressure).

    And you need the lighter pressure feel.

    Now you have the two end points to work in between.

    Here are the finding-the-right-pressure steps:

    1. Find the area you want to work with your finger, knuckle or thumb.

    2. Then press down with the T-bar to the depth of what was needed to find that area with your finger/thumb.

    3. Lighten your pressure a little.

    4. Slowly increase the pressure (by leaning) until it feels spot on with the pressure you’d be pressing with your finger or thumb to work that area.

    How to Use Massage Tools Online, Home-Study CEU Course

    This online, home-study course will give you everything you need to know to get competent with a massage tool: How to Use Massage Tools  Fearlessly and Effectively (2.5 CEU).

    Once you’re feeling comfortable with using a massage tool you can increase your massage max and have a massage brand that stands out from the crowd.