I’m a crappy dreamer. Seriously. I mean I’ve got no problem starting a dream (massage business dream included), but what happens next always gets me in trouble.

And what happens next is this: Inevitably, I hit a bump in the road, and I jump to next dream.

Basically, I’m a dream jumper.

And when I do the deep dive into my history I see that dream jumping is more than a pattern. It’s a habit. A way of life.

The downside to dream jumping is obvious. You don’t stay with a dream long enough to see if you can make that dream come true.

That alone is a big-time incentive to stop dream jumping.

And you’d think that I should have been able to purge dream jumping from my brain years ago.

But it’s not that easy.

I mean there’s got to be an upside to dream jumping or I wouldn’t be hooked on it.

Here’s what I think the upside is: I get an endless supply of hope when I jump to the next dream.

This dream sucks (hope leaving), but this one could be the winner (hope is back:-).

To be honest, I don’t even think you need an endless supply of dreams to have endless hope. You just need 3 or 4 dreams.

Focus on dream #1 and when the going gets tough bounce to dream #2. Rinse and repeat down the line until you’re back to dream #1. And by that time you’ve forgotten that dream #1 wasn’t working out.

Okay, at this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m hating on hope.

I’m not.

In fact, I love me some hope.

We (humans) need hope.

But chasing hope is not the same as chasing a dream.

Chase hope all the time and you’re back to starting a dream but not seeing it through.

Here’s what I mean.

Caught in a Business Dream

Portraits In Words was a business dream that I had 20+ years ago during the analogue to digital transition phase.

At the time I interviewed friends, family members and anyone who I thought had an interesting story. I’d record the interview and over time I had built a library of audio recordings that told stories about many peoples’ lives.

In essence, I had an audio scrapbook of memories.

I loved my ad hoc audio scrapbook!

So, how was I going to turn this idea into a business?

Well, the sales part seemed easy to me.

Your audio scrapbook might have a chapter of you “interviewing” your kid from when he was 1 to 18 (or indefinitely).  Another chapter might be various short interviews with your mother or your best friend from high school.

Being able to hear a voice (kid, friend, relative, whomever) as it changed through time, both literally and figuratively, seemed priceless to me. And I thought other people would think the same thing.

I also had an idea about how I’d deliver this product.

I knew I wanted this to be a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) product. The customer would receive a kit. In the kit would be a handheld recorder and a tutorial resource (possibly access to a website) where I’d provide templates showing how to do short but meaningful interviews so that the audio scrapbook didn’t turn into an audio tome that you never, ever wanted to click on.

I was so jacked about this business idea that I had even bought a very expensive ($2000) digital recorder for a side business of interviewer-for-hire.

Hope was off the charts.

And it stayed off the charts until my first road block.

I was trying to fund this business dream through various income streams (massage, personal training and writing), and it was becoming apparent that I needed more money, a loan, an investor, something.

So what did I do next?

I generated another business dream, of course. This time it was a business idea that involved massage and functional exercise training.

When the exercise training idea hit a snafu I added in another business dream, and over the next five years I’d jump from dream to dream every time hope reached a critical low.

At the end of five years, hope remained up, but my Portrait In Words dream remained a dream with no sign of ever becoming a reality.

So where does that leave us with hope?

Here’s where it leaves me.

Dreams start with hope.

But I know that there’ll be some defeats along the way and hope will vanish.

This is when I Zen it.

I don’t chase hope. I watch it leave, then I work hard on my dream—and I see if hope returns.

Guess what?

If I get a small win, it usually does.

Not in some big, dramatic way.

It’s more like: Wow, I brought 5 new clients in this week.

And then I get a zap of hope which usually gives me enough juice to get me to my next win.

But here’s the thing, you may not get a win.

You may suffer defeat after defeat and hope may never come back for that dream.

That’s okay.

Maybe it’s time to let that dream go so that you can work on another one.

In hindsight, maybe Portraits in Words could have been a small business if I stuck with it. But it could have also been a big waste of time and money. Ultimately, the hope went away because I didn’t think it was  good bet.

So here’s how I handle hope when I dream now.

1. Dream.
2. Embrace hope.
3. Work on the dream.
4. Watch hope go.
5. Reassess the dream.
6. If I decide it’s worth pursuing, I work hard on the dream and see if hope comes back, knowing that having an ever-present reservior of hope is not the ultimate goal.

Here’s another post I wrote on dreaming: Advanced Dreaming: I Live in Philly Philly.

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If you feel undervalued as a massage therapist there’s one sure way to change things. Create leverage.

Early on in my massage career I thought that leverage meant that one person had the upper-hand and the other person (me) was basically screwed.

But I was wrong. Very wrong.

Leverage, an advantage or power to accomplish something, doesn’t have to be one sided. And in my experience, if you want a win/win in any relationship, it shouldn’t be.

Losing Money

Unfortunately, it took me a long time to get comfortable with idea of leverage. During that time, I made some bad deals, including being locked in a rent contract with a fitness center that cost me thousands of dollars. Another time I did a lot of free massage to build a clientele that ultimately wasn’t mine. All these bad deals involved a misunderstanding of leverage.

My first glimpse that leverage could be a good thing happened accidentally. I worked for chiropractors when I started as a massage therapist. It was a great learning experience, but at one point I felt trapped. I thought Ed, the chiropractor I was working for at the time, was underpaying me.

You Have More Power Than You Think

I didn’t approach Ed for more money because I didn’t think that I had any leverage. For one, Ed, could hire another MT to take my place for the amount he was paying me. And secondly, I lacked confidence in my massage work which translated into me thinking that Ed didn’t value me.

But after talking to my wife, Lisa, I realized that my perceived leverage was off the mark. Yes, Ed could hire someone else to replace me—but besides making a mess in the sink when I washed my hands after a massage—I was a decent employee. Also, Ed often thanked me for my work. So, he actually did value me—he was just a little on the cheap side.

Make Yourself More Valuable

Coincidentally, at this time, I began training as a neuromuscular massage therapist (NMT). I loved NMT and I immediately incorporated it into my massage at Ed’s office. Suddenly my client base grew. (Not because I was practicing NMT. It was because NMT taught how me to deliver the full range of pressures. I explain how to do this in Competing with Bob for Clients).

Though unintentional, I now was a more valuable employee to Ed because I made him more money. And, subsequently, I had more leverage.

Eventually, I used my leverage. I went to Ed for a raise and we negotiated. I got enough of a raise to keep me happy, and he knew that he could continue to count on me to grow his practice.

Over the next decade it was two steps forward and one step back until I finally embraced the good of having leverage to create fair deals. Here are my leverage steps for negotiating:

Step #1 : Accept The Need For Leverage

If the idea of leverage still bothers you, try thinking about it this way. Leverage (power) is neutral until you use it. Use your leverage to create a win/win (fair deal)—and at the end of the day, you’ll feel really good for taking care of yourself while not compromising your integrity!

Step #2 : Understand Current Leverage Points

It’s not easy to see your leverage points. When in doubt, ask someone who you can trust to give you an honest appraisal of your work situation. It could be a work colleague. Or it could be someone completely removed from the situation. The key is to find someone who can see your situation as an observer.

Step #3: Create Leverage By Adding Value

It only works as leverage if the value you are creating is meaningful to the person you’re trying to influence. If I had studied to be an esthetician instead of a neuromuscular therapist, I wouldn’t have had any more leverage with Ed because selling adjustments and massages paid his bills—not facials and peels.

You’re Not Ruthless

Let’s face it, in our business, a boss, whether it be an employer or a client, is NOT going to voluntarily hand out raises. At some point, if you want more money, you’re simply going to have to ask for it.

Before you do, evaluate your leverage situation. If you need to tweak your massage (to get more repeat clients) before you go to your boss for a raise, check out New Therapists Can Be Good Therapists.

If your massage is good to go, you may already have enough leverage to negotiate for a raise or to raise your price.

I promise you that when you find your leverage points, you won’t turn into Montgomery Burns. In fact, you’re probably going to become more empathic as you work towards getting a fair deal.

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I’m going to get pretty serious on you: Are you happy doing massage? Be honest. No clients are looking.

There’s some grey here, I know. You may like some things about massage, but not other things.

The Range

I’ve found that when I ask MTs if they’re happy doing massage, their answers fall within a range. On one end is “I like doing massage, but…”, and on the other end is “I hate it”.

Just so you know, I’m not trying to get you to love massage.

My goal is to help you identify what it is that you want from massage, and then help you get it.

To do this, we’re gonna look at the like-buts, the hate-its and everything in between.

Almost Happy Doing Massage

Let’s start with the like-buts:

1. I like massage, but I need more money.

Before we get into the strategies about making more money, I need to ask you another question: Do you want to make more money doing more massage?

Make More Money Doing More Massage

If you said yes, and you have a business or clients on the side, read this: How to Grow Your Business with Zero $.

If you said yes, and most if not all your money is made as a massage employee, check out this article: No Leverage = No Power to Change Things.

Now, what if you want to make more money, but you don’t want to make it by actually doing massage?

Enter multiple streams of income.

Make More Money Not Doing Massage

I thrive on having multiple streams of income. For one, it’s like having a diversified portfolio. If one thing goes south, I don’t lose the whole portfolio.

Plus, my brain gets bored with doing the same thing all the time.

Here are some options for making more money without having to rub.

Write

If you have a writing bent, you can make money writing for massage and health magazines. Here’s what you’ll need to know to get started: How to Make Money Writing.

CE Courses

Writing and developing CE courses go hand-in-hand. You can use the articles you sell to create CE courses.

If you’re nervous about actually teaching the course, make your first teaching gig a small (and warm) audience. You can also make the course an e-learning course and that can  take you out of being in front of the classroom.

Personal Training

Personal training is a great dovetail business with massage. It made up a good chunk of my overall income when one of my offices was in a fitness center.

It will cost you some money to get certified, but you can make that up quickly because some of your massage clients will want to be your training clients.

Massage Teacher

Another massage-related income would be to become a teacher at a massage school. There are basically two types of massage schools out there.

One is a school owned by an owner or owners. The other is a school owned by a corporation.

They each have different work cultures. If you haven’t worked for a corporation (like me), then a corporate owned school may not be the best fit for you (like me).

Think Outside the Massage Box

Your additional stream of income doesn’t need to be connected to massage. I was once a new business consultant for a small company that managed corporate fitness centers. I landed the gig through a friend who had owned a fitness center.

When you’re looking for a part-time job outside the massage box, start with the people in your social and work network. A friend or work colleague may no someone who knows someone, and suddenly you have an in.

2. I like massage but I’m burnt out.

I hear ya. Too much of anything will eventually make you turn and walk (run, sprint) the other way. I went through some burnout spells with massage myself.

If you’re suffering from burnout, I think this may help: How to Get the Passion Back.

If it’s not burnout and you’re 100% not happy doing massage, then let’s look at the next category.

3. I hate massage.

First, we have to check to see if the hate is situational. The two biggies for temporarily hating massage are money and pain.

I talked about making more money in the I Like Massage But Need More Money section.

Here’s what you can do about eliminating body pain when doing massage: Minimal Effort Massage: More Massages, Less Pain.

Pretty Sure I Hate Massage

Nope, Mark, I went through the checklist, and I just want out of massage.

Okay, but then the question becomes out of massage into what?

If you know, great. Go for it. I have a MT friend who got of massage to be a PTA. Another became an OT.  A massage client who was a massage therapist has a longstanding career in IT.

If massage turned out to be a mistake for you or was only supposed to be temporary until you could start or create your dream job, my advice would be to find a new, marketable skill while still doing massage.

After you acquire that new, marketable skill, you can then start to transition out of massage without losing income.

This article will help you out with that: How to Follow a Dream: Massage Bridge Business.

Happy Doing Massage Recap

Okay, there’s a lot to think about here. The important thing is to have an honest discussion with yourself. Allow yourself to feel whatever it is you feel. Then get clear on what you want out of massage.

If you’re not happy doing massage or just need to tweak what you’re doing, read my suggested articles for ideas.

One more thing:

Once you’re clear, don’t wait.

Life is short.

P.S. Here’s a way to stay motivated so that you get things done. Join my email group. I’ll let you know when new articles, videos and tutorials are out. It’s free and you can unsubscribe whenever you want:-)

Keep it rollin’:-)

Mark