Make the Most of Massage

Category: Start/Grow Massage Business (0 – 30K)

  • How to Stop Feeling Like an Impostor

    How to Stop Feeling Like an Impostor

    Do you need massage confidence? Then do this:

    1. Get reliable feedback about your massage.

    2. Then tweak your massage if you need to.

    That will give you confidence 80% of the time. For the other 20% of the time…

    3. Do a high-power pose.

    High-power?

    Yeah, think Wonder Woman pose. (Believe it or not, there’s science to this.) 

    Seriously, Dude?

    I know this seems way too simple, but here’s how all this looks in real life.

    You have some solid confidence because you got good feedback and tweaked your massage.

    Then one day during a massage you press a couple of spots that make your client squirm.

    Ruh-roh.

    You start thinking: Is my pressure off?

    Next thing you notice is that your client’s breathing is shallow.

    So you slow your stroke down, anticipating your client will start breathing deeper, but instead you get a head adjustment.

    Is she hating on my massage!?

    Then you lift her arm to put it under the sheet, but she won’t let it go and does all the work.

    OMG, I suck!

    Your fingers now feel like wooden sticks. Your strokes are awkward. And you can’t get out of your head.

    And that’s precisely when a high-power pose can snap you back into that “doing not thinking” mindset.

    But before we get into high-power poses, let’s talk about steps 1 and 2: Evaluating your massage and tweaking it if necessary.

     A Massage Confidence Struggle

    Jim was in his late 40’s when he graduated from massage school. He was a hard worker but his massage needed improvement and he knew it.

    In fact, he thought he was so bad that he felt like an impostor.

    I put together a plan and we started working on his massage issues. Soon his massage started to get better, but Jim still had that little voice in his head telling him that he was an impostor.

    Looking for Massage Confidence

    Here’s some more background about Jim: He wasn’t so good at relationships.

    Don’t get me wrong, Jim was a kind person and everyone liked him. His issue was staying engaged with and connected to people.

    In some ways, I saw massage as a way that Jim could connect with people through helping them, and it could serve as a template for deepening his personal relationships.

    And I had a feeling that Jim sensed this, too.

    So, to me this was not only a massage mission, it was also a life mission.

    Reliable Plan and Feedback

    That’s when I brought in reinforcements–fellow MTs who could give Jim reliable feedback.

    After a few sessions, Jim knew he was getting better because his colleagues were giving him good reviews.

    Even so, Jim refused to work on a paying customer.

    Quite frankly, the little voice in his head just wouldn’t shut the f*** up.

    Fighting the Little Voice

    I tried countering that voice by reminding Jim that he had graduated from massage school.

    I also reminded him that though he wasn’t the massage therapist he wanted to be at the moment, he was on track to being that therapist.

    He agreed with me, but still wouldn’t budge.

    So, I pulled out the guilt card. In a nice way I let him know that I’d put a lot of time in with him and that our goal wasn’t to just massage MTs. It was to massage a paying customer.

    That’s when I asked him to do me a favor and work on a paying customer even though he felt like an impostor.

    Unknowingly at the time, I was asking Jim to fake it (pretend he wasn’t an impostor) till he made it (felt like he was a massage therapist).

    Jim hated me at that moment, but agreed.

    Fake It Till You Make It

    Faking it, pretending to be something that you’re not feeling, will actually create physiological changes in your body.

    For example, if you hold a pen in your mouth (which forces you to smile) it can make you feel happy.

    Researcher Amy Cuddy, in her moving and powerful TedTalk (a game-changing must see video), explains that pretending to be powerful can actually make you feel powerful.

    In her experiment participants were asked to hold a high-power pose (e.g., Wonder Woman stance) or low-power pose (e.g., arms drawn in) for two minutes. Participants’ testosterone and cortisol levels were measured before and after they posed.

    Powerful and effective leaders have high testosterone (which means they’re assertive, confident and optimistic ) and low cortisol (which means they don’t freak out in stressful situations).

    High-power poses produced a rise in testosterone and a lowering in cortisol, the hormonal characteristics of powerful leaders!

    Cuddy concludes: “Our bodies change our minds, and our minds change our behavior, and our behavior changes our outcomes.”

    In terms of massage, assuming your massage is on solid footing, if you fake it, pretend you’re a competent massage therapist even though you don’t feel like it at the moment, you can do more than make it—you become what you’re pretending to be.

    Dude, are you telling me to do a Wonder Woman pose when I’m working on a client?

    Not Wonder Woman.

    Find your own.

    For me, a high-power pose happens when I get vertical and can raise an arm in the air.

    That arm raising is not only a good stretch, it also feels strong and empowering to me.

    I typically hit a high-power pose 5 to 15 times during a full body massage.

    It’s such a habit for me that it feels unnatural not to do it.

    Jim Nearly Snapped My Shoulder

    Oh, about Jim, well, he “faked it” and the client loved the massage:-)

    A few weeks later, he nearly dislocated my shoulder when we high-fived to celebrate his first repeat client.

    As Jim accumulated more wins, his confidence grew and that little voice was put in it’s place:-)

    Here’s the recap.

    3 Steps to Massage Confidence

    (1) Find someone objective in the field of massage who will act in your best interest and give you reliable feedback about your massage, like a fellow MT, a friend (who gets massaged regularly), a teacher or a coach.

    (2) If you need to tweak your massage, go ahead, but make sure you have confidence in the tweaking plan and continue to massage as many people as you can.

    (3) If you feel an impostor moment coming on hit a high-power pose.

    It’s not rocket science.

    It’s body language science.

    Now that you’re confident with massage, let’s make sure you get confident with bringing in the business.

    Get my how to build a massage business course right here: Jumpstart. 

  • How to Use Free Massage to Build a Business

    How to Use Free Massage to Build a Business

    How many hours of free massage do you do per week?

    Huh?

    Yeah, I know, it seems like it should be zero, but if you’re using free massage (demo massage) as an advertising strategy, then that’s not the case—and I have a plan for you.

    If you’re still at huh?, here’s why I recommend doing free massage: How to Sell (A Lot) of Massage with Your Hands.

    My Plan for Doing Free Massage

    Alright, for those of you who do free massage or are thinking about doing free massage to advertise, the answer to how many hours of free massage you should be doing a week depends on where you are with your massage practice.

    In general, if you’re just starting out, you’ll be doing a lot of free massage. If you’re just tweaking your business–less.

    The plan I follow is based on my experience using free massage as a strategy to build my private practice and now as a strategy to grow multiple locations. It has 3 steps.

    Step #1: Give A Lot Away for Free

    If you are brand spanking new to massage or your business is in desperate need of clients don’t freak out when I tell you that 4 to 5 hours a week of free massage is on the mark.

    Okay, just seeing that in writing freaked me out a little, too.

    But here’s the thing about free massage, I’m not talking about actual hands-on time. I define free massage as the time you’re making yourself available to provide free massage.

    Say you’re doing demo massage at a health fair and you’re there for 4 hours, but your actual hands-on-clients time was only 2 hours.

    So, rub time = 2 hours. Total time available to do massage = 4 hours.

    That’s 4 hours of free massage in my book because 4 hours of your time was reserved for free massage.

    Still a little freaked out because you think your hands will be crying?

    Don’t be.

    If you use massage tools, demo massages are easy. This article will help you with massage tools: The Mighty T-bar.

    Step #2: Give Less Away for Free

    In about two to three months you’ll get traction (more clients coming in), then you can prune free massage back to 2 to 3 hours a week.

    Step #3: Give Little or Nothing Away for Free

    In 6 months to year, once your business is rolling, you can back off to an hour or less a week OR you can stop doing free massage all together.

    Our Phoenixville Office

    Here’s how the free massage advertising strategy worked out in our Phoenixville office.

    I went in heavy with demo massages for about 3 months.

    First, I invited local personal trainers to come in to get a free massage.

    Then I did demo massages at a personal training studio and at a chiropractor’s office on a regular basis. And I massaged runners every Saturday at a local running store.

    After 3 months, as the Phoenixville client list grew, free massages slowed down naturally.

    My newness was wearing out at the chiro’s office and the personal training studio. So it was time to stop at those places. (By the way, it’s been about 2 years since I did demo massages at either place and we are still getting referrals from both.)

    I did keep doing free massage at group runs on Saturday at the running store for the next 6 months. That put me at 2-ish hours of free massage per week.

    After a year, I dialed back the free massage for the Saturday runners to every two weeks and now it’s once a month-ish.

    Why don’t I go to 0 hours of free massage?

    For one, I like working the group run on Saturday. It’s a lot of fun and everybody there treats me like family.

    Two, I stay connected to the running store staff and they include me in special events they have at the store.

    Multiple Locations

    I’ve taken this same strategy that I’ve used in Phoenixville and I’m now using it at our new office in Lansdale.

    We’re still in the 4 to 5 hour phase of free massage, but should be in the 2 hour phase by the end of fall, and the 1 hour (or less) phase by the start of summer.

    Using Free Massage for Advertising in a Nutshell

    So for a general plan when using a free massage to build a business think:

    MONTHS HOURS OF FREE MASSAGE PER WEEK
    1 – 3 4
    3 – 6 2
    6 – 12 1

    Keep free massage as special deals you make with select people.

    And don’t say a word on your website about free massages.

    Here’s what I put on my websites to bring in clients: How to Build a Website Fast.

    Get Massage Client Online Programs

    If you’re trying to start a massage business and need help, this free course can get you to 30K: Jumpstart.

    If you need to take your “okay” massage business to the next level, go here: Accelerator.

  • How to Write a Massage Homepage

    How to Write a Massage Homepage

    Here’s a topic that’ll put your friends to sleep: massage homepage.

    And quite frankly it seems minor in the big picture of building a massage practice, doesn’t it?

    But when you dig down deeper you start to realize that your massage homepage is your 1st impression page.

    If the viewer likes what she sees, she’s going to continue to read about your services.

    Make a bad impression and bye-bye potential customer.

    Your Massage Homepage is Important

    I learned about the importance of a homepage from my new clients.

    When a new client comes into our office it’s not uncommon for him to say:

    “I like that your massages are 60 minutes long…” or “I saw your tennis ball video…” or “I never heard of anyone not accepting tips…”

    And that’s when I made the connection that having an effective homepage impacts potential customers calling us.

    Okay, Mark, how much is it going to cost to have someone write (or rewrite) my homepage for me?

    Nothing.

    Because you’re going to do it yourself.

    Massage Homepage Writing Strategy

    And I have a simple strategy to help you out.

    So simple it has only one rule:

    1. Don’t bore the viewer (potential customer).

    Let the franchise massage spas do that.

    Here’s Massage Envy in action:

    And Hand & Stone…

    Hey, Elements isn’t a slacker with boring copy either.

    Here’s the thing, they’re not dumb.

    They know their market, and they make tons of money.

    They choose boring copy because being boring works in their situation.

    They are drawing customers from the spa market. Franchise massage spas are the cheap option for these customers. So franchise massage spas want to blend in and look like the other guy (higher-end spas) while offering a cheaper deal. Hence, boring copy.

    But boring doesn’t work for us independents.

    We’re not only competing with massage spas, but we’re competing with chiropractors, wellness centers and each other, too.

    We need to stand out.

    The copy on our homepages has to pop, has to resonate, has to grab the viewer’s eyeballs.

    Make Your Copy Pop

    On our PressurePerfect homepage I let potential customers know that if massage spas are acid we’re the base.

    We do 60 minute massages.

    We provide ample time between clients so that no one is rushed.

    We don’t have memberships.

    And we don’t accept tips.

    That’s what we do on our homepage, but what should you do on your own homepage?

    1. Ask yourself: What about my business is eyeball catching?

    It doesn’t have to be radical.

    In fact, radical can turn a lot of people off.

    It just has to be truthful, something you are and/or stand behind.

    Here are some examples:

    1. Above-and-beyond customer care.
    2. Specialty massage.
    3. Expert with specific populations, like seniors, PTSD clients or cancer survivors.
    4. Niche market, like tri-athletes, golfers, actors, dancers, office workers, EMTs, nurses, etc.
    5. A special introductory rate.
    6. A really nice and relaxing massage room.
    7. Aromatherapy/essential oils.
    8. Guided meditation with massage.
    9. Massage and stretching.
    10. Your own brand of massage.

    So what if none of this is your deal or you just started doing massage, how else can you not be boring and engage the potential customer?

    2. Provide non-boring, helpful information.

    We have a self-massage video for neck and shoulders on our homepage.

    When a customer comes in and says, “I tried the massage tool that you showed on your video…” all I can thing about is how awkward I look on camera.

    But I know that the video was effective because the customer remembered it.

    [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9iLpapL4BY[/embedyt]

    3. Use pictures to take the yawn out of a homepage.

    I use a combination of free stock pics and ones that I have taken.

    I’d prefer to do all homegrown pics, but some pics are beyond my pic-taking abilities.

    Also, if you’re comfortable writing…

    4. Write a short article on something important to the customer.

    You can’t go wrong with massage as it relates to neck or back pain.

    That article can be on the homepage itself or you could create another tab on your website, paste the article on that page and simply have a link to the article on your homepage.

    Not too hard, right?

    So have at it.

    Make your homepage not boring.

    How do you know if your copy is boring?

    Are you bored writing it or when you read it?

    If so, rewrite.

    Make that viewer want to come see you.

    Give her reasons.

    Earn her business.

    Tell her what makes you different from the competition.

    Give her information (article) that can have immediate impact on her health.

    Show her (video) how to do something that can relieve pain.

    Provide her with the information that demonstrates you are the one to get the job done.

    By the way, you are:-)

    Hey, I never get bored talking about homepages and websites.

    For more help with your website check out my How to Build a Website Guide and my How to Decide Which Website Builder to Go With article.

  • Massage Technique Course Versus Massage Business Course

    Massage Technique Course Versus Massage Business Course

    When’s the last time you took a massage business course?

    Hey, I get it. I once avoided them like the plague.

    For one, I wasn’t so interested in being business-y, especially when I thought being business-y meant that I had to be a jerk.

    Two, my brain just didn’t think in terms of “business”. It thought in terms of “massage”. Sorry world, deal with it.

    Three, I always needed to improve my massage skills and knowledge. After all, the better I got doing massage, the more clients I would have.

    My massage brain ran the show. But guess what?

    It didn’t work out so well for me.

    Why not?

    Money.

    As in, I didn’t make enough.

    The Case for Taking a Massage Business Course

    At some point in massage we all face the money thing. We love massage, but where’s the money?

    Believe it or not, it’s out there.

    And if you’re not making the money you want to make it’s because you’re not approaching massage from a business perspective.

    This is soooo fixable.

    Let’s start by examining the massage brain we all possess.

    Changing Our Massage Brains

    1. First, you don’t have to be a jerk to be business-y.

    Uh, remember Enron and Lehman Brothers, Mark?

    They were jerks. But you’re not. I’m not. Millions of other businesses aren’t. Jerk-y is a choice. We’ll never be that and no one will ever make us that. Period. End of story.

    2. Next, massage brain says I can’t learn this business stuff.

    And besides, experts say to focus on what you’re good at—that’s why I stick to massaging clients.

    That’s easy to say if you’re not a one person show. But when your livelihood depends on just you, you better learn how to bring in clients.

    By the way, learning the business stuff won’t be as bad as you think it will be for this reason: You just need to be competent at the business stuff, not great at it.

    I manage our one office in Phoenixville.

    Is it my strong suit?

    Absolutely not.

    Did I learn enough to make it work?

    Yes.

    Will I hand that managing baton to someone else as we grow so that I can focus on what I’m good at?

    Can’t wait for that day:-)

    The point is that you may not like a business job, but you can learn to be competent at that job with a little work.

    Last massage brain hurdle and it’s a biggie.

    3. Massage brain says you have to prioritize improving your skills over everything else.

    Staying on your game is really important, BUT it’s a big, fat mistake if improving your skill is your only plan to bring in more clients.

    I know this firsthand. When I became certified in neuromuscular massage I thought my office at the gym was going to explode with clients.

    Not even a little bang.

    The fact is that more knowledge may help you to do a better massage, but it isn’t the key to bringing in clients.

    What is?

    Marketing.

    Time to Get Business-y

    I think this article is a really good place to get your feet wet with marketing. Though it’s not a  massage business course, it has very practical advice about marketing for us massage brain people.

    Oh, you’re sad.

    Don’t be.

    We’re not trying to turn you into Warren Buffet here. You just have to get competent with doing business-y things, like bringing in clients.

    You can take a massage business course.

    You can read my article.

    You can read other peoples’ articles.

    Just take a step in the business direction. And at some point more clients will start coming in.

    Once that happens you’ll never want massage brain running the whole show again because you’ll have more money AND you’ll have the security of knowing that you can bring in clients consistently and forever:-)

    Free Getting Your Business Off The Ground Course

    If you want a jump start with the business stuff, check out my free Jumpstart course.

    And if you want need to take your business to the next level, go here: Accelerator.