The MT Revolution didn’t happen overnight. Counting our combined massage experience, it took Krista Dicks (Radical RMT podcast) and me forty-plus years to get here. During that time, we learned how take care of ourselves in certain ways. For instance, I figured out how to massage pain-free. But as valuable as massaging pain-free is, it didn’t help me with depleted energy reserves or a priority list that didn’t include the things that were important to me.
Last year, after Krista interviewed me on her podcast, we talked about how we only had pieces of the self-care puzzle and not a comprehensive understanding of what it meant to truly take care of ourselves. Immediately we realized that we weren’t alone. Listeners of The Radical RMT and you all had the same questions and challenges.
So what was stopping us from bringing together a curated group of experts to frame self-care in a way that is comprehensive, accessible, and practical, so that massage therapists can start to change their lives right now?
Absolutely nothing.
So we did.
Enter the Take Care of You School Event for Massage Therapists on April 9, 2022.
But here’s the thing: Two people do not make a revolution.
We need you.
So if it’s getting hard to think about continuing to live a life where you’re always putting other people ahead of you, then we only have one thing left to say:
Here’s the foundation to staying out of pain when doing massage: massage options (as in different ways to get the job done).
I’m not talking about advanced massage techniques here.
I’m talking about options for pressing, gliding, squeezing, stretching and vibrating soft tissue without causing yourself pain.
For example, say you were taught to use your thumb to press on tight areas. Six months into massage you get pretty good with your thumb and it becomes waaaay comfortable to do, right?
But guess what happens in a year?
Your thumb hurts (trust me).
Now what?
Well, if you continue to be a one-trick-pony you’ll soon be talking about massage like this: “Back in the day, when I did massage….”
Here’s an alternative to burning out your thumb(s): You find other options to pressing with your thumb, like two thumbs barred together, one thumb over a thumb, knuckle(s), knuckle and a thumb together, massage tools (like a T-bar, L-bar, My Precious, TheraPress, Effleurage T-bar, JackNobber II, Pointer) and the list goes on.
But I need to be honest, having more massage options is not easy to do.
In fact, here’s what’s probably going to happen. You’ll be gung-ho about finding more massage options. Then you’ll do this.
Nothing.
No judgment here.
I was the king of doing nothing when it came to acquiring more massage options.
For one, I didn’t know what to try. And, two, I was afraid to try anything.
Here’s how I changed that.
To address “what to try” I broke down massage options into three categories: 1. Pressing, 2. Gliding, 3. Squeezing. Then I started experimenting.
To get you started experimenting, I’m going to offer an alternative option to the traditional way of pressing, gliding and squeezing. Think of my suggestions as fodder to fuel your experimentation so that you can come up with your own strategies and techniques that work best for you.
Pressing Option
Instead of pressing with your thumbs use a massage tool. Here’s an example of what I mean:
Gliding Option
Instead of gliding with your palms or forearms, try fists.
Squeezing Option
Instead of squeezing with one hand, do a two-handed press.
So, go ahead try one…I’ll wait…anytime…just pick up that massage tool…or put your fists down on that back…or press that trap between your knuckle and thumb…hmm…not happening, is it?
I know, you’re afraid.
I was, too–because a mistake would mess up my flow.
Here’s how my brain played out me interrupting the flow of the massage: I’m massaging along…I find a tight spot…I pick up the massage tool and jab it into the tight spot and the client screams, then gives me a bad review on Yelp…I lose my confidence, close my office and start hording cats…at least, they won’t know how crappy of a massage therapist I once was…
Flow is everything to a relaxation massage, right? Mess up the flow and you mess up the massage.
But is that really true?
I mean, yeah if you’re doing a herky-jerky massage, absolutely. But if you have a couple of hiccups, no way.
You can always get back in the flow AND you can practically avoid any flow interruptions while gaining more massage options by first (1) working on friends and colleagues, (2) working on a client who you can get feedback from without disrupting the massage, (3) initially trying out the new technique for a very short period of time (seconds).
Okay, we got flow under control, what else do you need to know?
How about how many massage options do you need?
More than when you started massage.
More than 6 months ago.
More than a month ago.
In other words, the “more” should never stop.
The more massage options you have, the less likely you are to overuse a joint or muscle. And the more prepared you’ll be to deal with adversity, like an injury or challenge.
How to Deliver Deep Pressure Without Hurting Yourself
Don’t over-think massage options.
Try some of the options that I’ve suggested and get your brain churning.
If you need more help, email me. I’m here to help:-)
I also have a book and online, home-study classes.
You’re not good at all the things needed to sustain and grow your massage business.
Okay, that was a little rude…but it’s true, right?
When I opened my practice I stunk at marketing and a whole lot more.
We’re not talking character flaws here. We’re talking too many hats to wear as a business owner.
And if you’re like me, you’re going to find ways to avoid the things you’re not good at until something really bad happens.
Massage Business Options
The easy fix to all of this is to hire people to do the jobs you’re under-qualified to do. But that comes with a price. Literally. Great if you can pay it. But for most, subbing out all the jobs except for actually doing the massage itself is not an option.
But I have another solution for you. Just a warning: It’s more Judge Judy than Judge Joe Brown.
Ready?
Here it is:
I’m going to scare the crap out of you.
That way you’ll stay on track and get better at the jobs you’ve been avoiding.
If you’re more of a carrot person than a stick person, check out this post by Michael Hyatt. It will help to keep that carrot in front of your face. (Then come back here and get a shot of fear for good measure:-)
Let’s start with some light scaring.
Contracting Massage Business
The problem with being your own boss is that the consequences of your actions or inactions are not always seen right away.
For example, imagine your massage business has slowly been contracting for the past six months. You know you should do something, but you’re not sure what to do.
Instead of taking action you’re able to push the situation out of your mind because it’s not an emergency.
A few more months go by and things have drastically changed for the worse. Your best client has lost his job and isn’t coming in. Now you have an emergency.
Finally, you work on bringing more clients in, but a month of hard work only nets a handful of new massages. Yikes! You’re stuck in the precarious position of hanging on by your fingernails, hoping your marketing efforts pay off in time.
Another Solution
Now imagine that when you see your massage business shrinking you hire Deana to be your boss. Deana gives you instructions to build an email list with existing and new clients.
One month goes by and Deana asks you how the email list is going.
Well, Deana, I haven’t started it yet.
At month 2 you give her the I had a lot of massages to do this month.
Okay, we can all see where this headed. But before month 3 rolls around, you know you have to do something right now or you’ll be looking for another job, and that’s precisely when you jump into action.
Think of fear as Deanna, the boss who is going ride your ass and/or fire your ass.
The trick is to find the fear that will motivate you.
I’ll do my best to help.
Let the Sh**ing Begin
The Sign Marathon
When my wife, Lisa, and I, opened up PressurePerfect Massage, I didn’t want to put out the money for signage because we had already spent a lot on other start-up costs. Months went by before I contacted sign companies. When I finally settled on a sign company, it took them months to get our banner done and another month to get it from them.
Since they were the worst sign company ever, I decided to make our road sign myself. You guessed it, more months for me to get that done.
By the time all signs were up, a year plus had gone by and by my estimates we had lost over $3000 in revenue.
The Website Debacle
During our early years, I had avoided doing a massage business website myself because the DIY options were limited and you pretty much needed a programmer to build your website.
Eventually, we made a massage for website barter-arrangement with our friend who was a computer programmer but who had never built a website.
The project moved at glacial speed. We missed holiday advertising, gift certificate sales and any Internet presence for six months. We couldn’t fire our friend because we hadn’t hired her. And we couldn’t nag her to death because we might lose a friend.
I estimate that we had lost about $2000 in revenue and 82 of my hairs (pulled out) because Lisa and I gave up control over our website construction by not hiring someone.
By the way, do you think Deana would have fired Wifey and me? Uh-yeah.
A SEO Seizure
If you have trouble falling asleep, say this word Search Engine Optimiza—zzzzzzz…oh, sorry…Optimization, also known as SEO. Yeah, what a yawn.
Years back we were ranking low in Google Places and organic searches and needed SEO big time.
Of course, I decided to do it myself. Me actually doing it wasn’t the problem. Me starting to do it was. I dragged my feet for months because I was intimidated by the process. By the time I actually got it done, months and months had gone by where we didn’t even rank in a local search.
There’s more…
Remember PressurePerfect Massage with no outside signs? Well, in 2014 we had rolled Mark Liskey Massage into PressurePerfect Massage, but I didn’t redo some of the SEO to reflect the change, not out of laziness—out of ignorance. I just hadn’t dug deep enough in SEO.
No outside sign and no web presence because the SEO wasn’t right. Can you say: trying to go out of business.
Scared?
Just in case you need a little more:
Source: Frances Proctor
Seriously, not having persistent and adequate motivation to do something you don’t want to do is a problem when you’re your own boss. Don’t let yourself get in a hole that you can’t get out of.
This is what you can do right now:
Admit that you’re not good at all the jobs you have to do in your massage business.
Hire someone to do them or do them yourself.
If you decide to do them yourself, do them!!!!!!
Sit down and take the time and learn what you need to know
When you detect avoidance behavior, refer back to my list to scare the poop out of yourself.
Now, I constantly use “healthy” fear to keep me on track to getting better at the jobs that I’m not good at but need to do until I can sub those jobs out.
If you need healthy fear, advice or more information about a challenge you have with massage, jump in my email group. Once you join, you can tell me what you need and I’ll get the right information in front of your eyeballs.
On the Radical RMT podcast, host/creator Krista Dicks asked me why it’s important to know how to massage pain-free. The obvious answer is that a lot of pain will send you to an early retirement. The less obvious and more life-force-sucking answer is that any amount of pain could limit you from reaching your full potential as a massage therapist.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask yourself what happens when you massage in pain, and I think you’ll get an answer similar to this: You avoid deep pressure clients and seek out light pressure ones. You struggle to keep your head in the game because each massage hurts you—literally. And your dream of building a massage business or making more money evaporates because pain limits the number of massages you can do in a day/week/year.
Unfortunately, it’s worse than that because the physical pain you feel in the massage room just doesn’t stay in the massage room. You take it with you, and life activities that increase your pain get nixed. In the worst-case, pain scenario, life becomes a job of not exacerbating your pain.
I get it.
Pain limited me for a good part of my massage career. Finally, when my body said enough is enough, I had to make a decision—quit massage or fix the pain.
I chose the latter.
In this book I share with you all the strategies and techniques that eliminated my pain in the massage room and allowed me to increase my massage productivity so that I could create the massage business that I wanted.
By the way, this book is designed to get results fast. With some pain-free massage techniques you’ll immediately be able to try out on paying customers, no matter if you’re new to massage or a seasoned practitioner, like me. With other techniques you’ll have to put in some practice time on friends, colleagues and/or non-paying clients. Also, I want to mention that I provide links in the chapters to instructional videos so that you can see how I do the specific techniques and strategies that I teach.
Lastly, it’s my goal to help you build a massage lifestyle without limitations, starting with not sacrificing your body in the massage room, and I think this book is the foundation for that.
For the paperback edition ($19.99), go here: Amazon.
Don’t over-think massage options.
