Make the Most of Massage

Category: Motivation

  • How Indian Clubs Make Me a Better Therapist

    How Indian Clubs Make Me a Better Therapist

    Ever heard of Indian clubs?

    It’s a new type of percussive, deep pressure massage tool…joking…

    Indian clubs were used by the Persians in the 19th century to practice sword and shield movements.

    So, what’s the connection between Indian clubs and massage, Mark?

    Indian clubs can be used for neck rehab.

    No joke.

    And I actually have a video to show you.

    But that’s not why I’m talking about Indian clubs today.

    I’m talking about Indian clubs today because they were the vehicle through which I made an important connection with Joe.

    Joe is a chiropractor and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. He’s evidence-based, a straight-shooter, accessible, nice, takes a multi-disciplinary treatment approach and cares a whole lot about his patients.

    By connecting with Joe I’ve amplified my ability to help my clients because I can tap into Joe’s knowledge base (talk to him) and utilize his skills (refer to him).

    To me, this is where making money and doing my job the way I want to do my job merge seamlessly.

    Let me put this another way: I don’t care if Joe ever refers a client to me.

    By knowing Joe, I can help my clients better than I could before I knew him. And the byproduct of having more ways to help my clients is that clients appreciate the above-and-beyond work that I do.

    From a warm fuzzy standpoint, that’s a lot of warm fuzzies.

    From a business standpoint, I don’t think any marketer will ever argue that having people say good things about you is a bad thing.

    Need a Joe in your client care network?

    Here’s how to find one.

    First do this:

    1. Contact health practitioners that your clients use.

    Let’s say your client, Ankur, is using an acupuncturist for back pain. Ask Ankur if you can share notes with his acupuncturist. By the way, that’s how we ended up opening up our third office—through sharing notes with a physical therapist.

    1. Target groups of practitioners.

    If you want to connect with a chiropractor, research chiros near where you work. Call them and set up a time to visit. This article will help you with that: Why Can’t I Get More Massage Clients?

    When you start meeting and collaborating with other health practitioners you’re on your way to finding a Joe (a health practitioner you shares your core values). And once you find your first Joe, more Joes start to show up.

    Well, I guess I need to fess up at this point: Joe was not my first Joe.

    Gayland was actually my first Joe.

    Gayland is a running coach and manages a local running store.

    We hit it off immediately. Not so long ago he said you have to meet Joe. And the rest is history.

    Which brings us back to Joe and his Indian club swinging video for neck pain.

    Here it is:

    Joe has more videos on his website.

    You can also follow him on YouTube and Instagram.

    And this September Joe is going to do a demo class at our Phoenixville office, so I’ll get more videos up after that.

    Speaking of videos, if you want to add a video to your website, here’s how you can do it with Weebly and WordPress.

    If you don’t use but want to use Weebly or WordPress, check out my DIY Website Guide.

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  • How to Crush “Getting More Clients”

    How to Crush “Getting More Clients”

    If you’re waiting to feel like a pro before you open your massage practice, you’re wasting precious time. Instead of waiting, think about doing the opposite: put yourself out there.

    Putting yourself out there means that no matter how uncomfortable you feel and/or how low your confidence is, you are in front of the people who can refer clients to you.

    But I’m Weak

    This may seem counter-intuitive— showing the world your massage talent when your confidence is shaky—until you view confidence as a moving target.

    When a client sings your praises you feel pretty good, right?  But a couple of days in a row with no work and you doubt if you can even spread cream.

    The truth is that everyone waxes and wanes with confidence. When you’re waning, here’s a technique to help you along: How to Stop Feeling Like an Impostor.

    Holes In My Massage

    But what if your lack of confidence is partially due to the fact that you have holes in your massage? Great! If you’re putting yourself out there, you’ll now have an immediate need to plug the holes.

    Early on in my career, I wanted to be a pro with pain and muscular conditions. However, my anatomy was weak. One day a chiropractor called and asked me to fill in for a sick MT. That quickly lead to a full-time job and suddenly body parts were flying at me. I needed to get up to speed on anatomy fast!

    So before my shift, I’d call the chiropractor to get my client list (and their conditions) for the day. Then I’d  study the anatomy that pertained to each case before I went in. It worked.

    The reality is that most holes that need to be plugged are a lot smaller than we think.  To quickly patch holes when doing relaxation and pain relief massage, check out my posts New Therapists Can Be Good Therapists and Competing with Bob for Clients.

    Putting Yourself Out There

    There are a lot of ways to put yourself out there and get in front of referral sources. I like this 4 step process. It reduces the scariness by easing me into the process.

    Step #1:  Ask Your Current Clients

    Approach your regular clients for referrals, but instead of simply asking them for referrals, give them an incentive to refer to you, like a free massage for each referral. If you have an email list, you can announce your referral program to everyone all at once. Check out How to Email in More Clients for help.

    Step #2:  Email/Call Other Health Professionals

    Next, do a Google search for local businesses with referral potential. Look for businesses that do NOT have massage as part of their business. My list includes: chiropractors, pain management doctors, personal trainers, individual physical therapists, yoga and Pilates studios, country clubs (tennis and golf), cycling shops and running stores.

    Once you have your list, it’s time to call or email to introduce yourself and make a special offer. As a special offer, free demo massages have worked spectacularly for me.  Here’s a demo-massage email [download id=”688″] that I sent to personal training studios. You’ll need to modify it, but it shows you the main points to get across.

    In the email you’ll notice that I offer the demo massages to the business owner, her employees and her clients. In fact, I give the business owner and her employees each 60 minutes of free massage and her customers/clients 15 to 20 minutes.

    My first goal is to win over the business owner and her employees. If I do, they will champion my service to their customers/clients.

    Step #3: Special Intro Offer

    After the demo-massage customer gets off my table, I tell him about our special intro rate. (Our special intro rate is $45.) If the person liked the demo massage, the special intro rate is hard to pass up. Keep your schedule nearby in case someone wants to make an appointment right then. Seriously.

    Step #4: Ask the New Clients from the Demo Massages

    The people from the demo massages who are now your clients are potential referral sources, too. If you have a referral program, let them know about it. If a demo massage client works at or owns a business that’s a good fit with massage, offer to do demo massages there.

    Putting Yourself Out There Is Currency

    It’s not an overstatement to say: “Putting yourself out there” is currency that you spend to build a practice.

    And you don’t need to be an extrovert to put yourself out there. Most of us aren’t. You just need to follow a plan:

    1. Give your current clients a referral incentive.
    2. Email/call businesses and offer to do demo massages.
    3. Tell the demo-massage customers about your special intro rate.
    4. Offer demo massages to new clients who work for or own a business that’s a good fit with massage.

    Free Course to Jumpstart Your Massage Business

    If you’re just starting a massage business and aren’t making 30K a year working for yourself take this free course: Jumpstart.

    If you’re trying to take a meh massage business and make it a dream massage business, go here: Accelerator.

     

  • Experiment 113: How to Gain More Time

    Experiment 113: How to Gain More Time

    I like self experiments. But I have my failures—like the time in the 90’s when I didn’t wear my glasses for a year in an attempt to improve my distance vision. My eyesight didn’t improve and I spent a lot of time in my car lost. (Reading road signs was sort of important pre-GPS.)

    However, recently I started a goal management experiment that’s changed my life in ways I hadn’t expected. Since I’ve started the experiment, I’ve stopped dwelling on the past. I don’t worry about the future (as much) and I’m focused on the now. And the great thing about this experiment is that it’s not hard to do.

    Here it is: think of your life in terms of days of a year rather than days of a month.

    February 16, 2016

    Okay, you’re not going to abandon your Days of the Month calendar. That’s how life runs. Instead, you’re going to add in a Days of the Year calendar. When you do, really cool things are going to start to happen.

    For example, I laid down some hefty goals for 2016—like launching this website. On February 16, 2016 I was overwhelmed. It was taking more time than I thought it would to build a WordPress website.

    I regretted not starting this website five years ago–and some serious mission creep set in. I saw myself looking for another project to start. Because if I got involved in another project, I could pretend that I hadn’t failed with my website, and that it was just on hold.

    Day 47

    But as much as it was February 16, 2016, it was also Day 47 of 2016. And when I put my situation in a Days of the Year context, I was only on day 47 of a 365 day year. Huh, that didn’t seem so bad.

    So I picked Day 61 (March 1) as the official launch day of the website. I had 13 days to get it done and if I got it done, I had 304 days to get my other goals accomplished. Suddenly I felt myself laser-focused on the now.

    The “should have done this five years ago” still popped up occasionally, but I could quickly kick that thought to the curb because I now saw it as an obstacle to accomplishing my goal.

    Allows You Time to Make Adjustments

    In years past, I sometimes missed accomplishing goals because I didn’t adjust fast enough. For example, one of my yearly goals is a work/money goal. Since my income comes from more than one source (massage, teaching, massage business, writing), I can adjust the amount of time I give to a source of income to affect how much money I make during the year.

    Using a Day of the Month Calendar I would sometimes get close to the end of the year before I realized that I was going to miss a work/money goal. At that point, any adjustment I made, like spending more time on my private practice to quickly bring in money, would be too late for me to reach my goal.

    But now, by thinking in terms of 365 days, I’m constantly reminded about how many days are left in the year for me to reach my goals. My guess is that the shot of adrenaline that moves me to make an adjustment now is ultimately less stressful than the anxiety at the end of the year if I miss my work/money goal.

    Puts Everything in Perspective

    Lastly, the Days of the Year Calendar can reduce generalized anxiety caused by daily life. For example, birthdays are reminders of our age—and, at the risk of being a downer—our mortality. The Days of the Month Calendar can amplify birthday anxiety, as in: “Wow, I’m (fill in the blank) years old!?”

    But the Days of the Year Calendar “extends” time. Say your birthday is on August 10. That’s Day 192 in 2016. There are 364 days from this day to your next birthday. That’s a lot of days to enjoy and to get things done.

    Easy As 1,2,3

    If the Days of the Year Calendar sounds like something you’d like to try, here’s what to do:

    1. Download the 365 app. It’s a simple app that will let you know the day of the year.
    2. Set your goals according to the days of the year. Go through your digital and/or paper calendar and mark the day of the year that a goal is due. (E.g., 10 new repeat clients by Day 182 (middle of the year).
    3. Know what day of the year it is every day and see what happens.

    I’m Not (Probably Not) Nuts

    I wonder if my great nephew, Jake, thinks I’m nuts when I send him a text that reads: “1 hour and 46 minutes left in Day 131.” But I can’t help myself. That’s an hour and 46 minutes of his life that he can consciously choose how he wants to spend his time.

    Ultimately, the Days of the Year Calendar is not only a business experiment, it’s a life experiment that can put you on track to accomplish yearly and LIFE goals.

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  • Should I Quit Massage?

    Should I Quit Massage?

    After a heavy day of massage, every MT has asked herself this question: should I quit massage? I certainly have. Massage is physically demanding (and mentally at times). Sometimes we are way underpaid for what we do. Sometimes clients stress us out. And sometimes we have less time than we thought because we have to see clients when it’s inconvenient for us. (Hmm…I don’t remember them telling me about this in massage school, do you?)

    If you’re having one of those days, weeks, months, year, ask yourself this question before you “hang up your hands and walk away”: What do I want out of massage? Plain and simple, if you’ve never asked yourself the question, then you honestly can’t say if massage is something that you should stick with or not.

    So, what do you want out of massage? I find it helpful to think of this question in terms of meaning (I want massage to be fulfilling), money (I want to make a certain amount of money) and time (I want time to do the things I want to do)? If you’re like me, all three will part of my answer, but in varying degrees and can change over time.

    For example, early on I wanted to specialize in a modality that would allow me to help people with acute and chronic pain. The satisfaction that I got from helping someone outweighed the extra time I often put in to get the job done. Now, time is number one. I create a massage schedule that allows me to have the time to research, write and teach.

    As you may have noticed in my examples, you may have to give up a little of one thing to get more of another thing. If you’re interested in making more money, you may have to put in more time improving your skills, finding more clients, or adding an extra massage job. Conversely, if you want more time you may have to give up clients whose appointments interrupt potential blocks of discretionary time.

    Regardless the trade-offs, massage is a career/job that provides us with the opportunity to have some sort of control over three key elements to a happy life: meaning, money and time. Ultimately, massage may not be the right career/job for you—but you won’t know until you identify what it is you want out of massage.

    What’s the most important thing for you with massage? Meaning, money, or time? There’s no right answer. Seriously. Don’t be afraid to be honest. In fact, if you’re not honest, you’re more likely to get stuck in a place where you don’t want to be (been there, done that). Take the first step and start the conversation.

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