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Amy Bradley Radford (00:06.69)
Welcome to the Massage Business Success Podcast. I'm Amy Bradley Radford, massage therapist, educator, and the creator of Pain Patterns and Solutions Bodywork. On this podcast, we talk about sustainable business, how to successfully work for yourself, and pain management. What works, what doesn't, and why. Let's get started.
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Well, hi there, my friends. This is Amy with the Massage Business Success podcast. Today's episode is about the year you stop playing small in your massage business and how changing the way you think can change the way you grow. Because what if this year isn't about adding more to your plate? What if growth this year isn't about doing more but simply thinking different? So let's begin with a perspective shift that often comes as a total relief to massage therapists.
once they hear it clearly, and that is most massage therapists do not have a business problem. Because I know you are skilled, dedicated, you're a thoughtful professional who cares deeply about the quality of your work and the people that you serve. I know you show up consistently and you invest in continuing education and you put genuine effort into doing things well. And from the outside looking in, your business looks solid and functional.
But what tends to create friction over time is not a lack of effort or ability, but the fact that many massage therapists are operating from a set of assumptions about how this career is supposed to work, and those assumptions, they get absorbed early on, and we never really have a reason to question them. So these assumptions quietly shape how you think about things like income and capacity and growth.
and what is realistic for your life. And they influence how really big goals feel like you're allowed to have them or how much you can support or what you think you deserve or even how long you expect yourself to maintain a certain pace before something has to give. And when these assumptions go unexamined, they become invisible limits. And I'm here to show you how to change those limits simply by changing the way you think.
So this thinking game is why so many therapists feel as though they are circling the same level year after year, even as they gain experience and confidence in their skills. You know you have grown as a practitioner, but how you think about what is possible has not kept pace with who you have become. And so what I want to offer you here, it's not criticism, but just some simple clarity. So you are not stuck.
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because you lack motivation or discipline, you are stuck because your business is running on a mental framework that was never designed to support long-term growth, sustainability, or even creative expansion. I'm just gonna give you one example of an assumption. How many of you are still saying what you heard in school? The career of a massage therapist maxes out at five years. Heard that one before? So my first aha moment with what we're gonna talk about today
And this little thinking game was when I hit five years at the massage table and then I felt like I didn't know where to go because that's all I had expected of myself. So the question hit me of, now what do I do? Because I hit five years and I'm fine. I'm not burnout. So now where am I going to take this business and where are my skills going to go? And, and I'm actually, am I actually going to make it? You know, 10 years, 15 years. It was an aha moment to realize
that that assumption had set me up for potential failure or I just hadn't thought past five years. So the most relieving news for you is that your mental framework can be updated. And as your podcast massage business coach, I'm gonna walk you through that today because I know one thing very clearly. For those of us in the massage field, growth does not begin with doing more or pushing harder. Growth begins with
questioning whether the way you have been defining success still fits the person you are now. And when you allow yourself to examine these definitions honestly, without judgment, you begin to create space for new possibilities to emerge. So this is such a fun episode because it's not about fixing yourself or your business. It is about learning how to think in ways that allow your business to evolve naturally.
without requiring burnout or a crisis or even a drastic change. So let's jump into what I call defining the box and then understanding why it's so easy to stay in that box. I wanna share a recent experience that actually became the inspiration for this episode. I was working with a client in a coaching session and she had her big aha moment. It was one of those moments where you can almost feel something click.
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into place. So her and I have worked together for about a year, maybe a total of four sessions. And she scheduled an appointment with me because she was feeling stuck between business growth, her business was really growing well, and some healthy boundaries, and then this desire to help some of her clients receive the work they needed. And her story is a great example of how and why I coach massage therapists the way I do, which is also outside the box.
Because I don't really have a blueprint. You you see out on social media how to buy everybody's blueprint. And I don't really have a blueprint for people to follow. I have what I like to call universal principles that work for most businesses, like how to find clients fast or how to understand expectations so you get repeat clients, you know, that kind of stuff. But when I coach one-to-one with people, that's when I help with the individual struggles inside that growth. And every one of you
that has a business, that business is as unique as your massage flow. And a one size fits all approach doesn't necessarily always work. And in fact, in my experience, it doesn't work because we can't see how to get there from here. Like when you get this blueprint, it's like, here, follow this and just insert it into your business where it's at. But that doesn't necessarily make it work. can't.
You can't incorporate all those things because you're not starting at the beginning. You're starting somewhere in the middle and sometimes those pieces just don't fit. And it's not like you can start over. So a lot of times what I'm helping people do is bridge that gap. And where most of the people I work with get hung up at in stages in their business is where they don't know how to find the solution between what their heart wants and what is sustainable.
And here I am a different kind of coach too, because I'm really a heart-based coach. Most massage therapists who are successful are deeply heart-based. And so you can't just take the nuts and bolts and ledgers of expenses and income and try and create this business. There is this blending of your heart, your mind, and your soul in your hands and this artistry that all comes together inside your business. And so when we can't
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make what our heart wants fit with what our business is doing, there becomes a conflict. And sometimes we hang out in this place for years because we don't know how to think our way around it or the solutions we've been given seem a little harsher than what we wanna offer our clients or ourselves even or our circumstances. So for this client, she felt like there was a roadblock or
no way around how to grow or increase her earning potential without compromising some of her values. And this is a common feeling for people like you and me, this heart-centered therapist. So the dilemma was this. This therapist works in a rural area and specializes in pain management massage therapy. Most of her clients truly need the work that she offers. And she had two clients in particular who genuinely could not afford to come in as often
as they needed to to create the change that they were asking for. And so her question to me was this, how do I reduce my prices to meet these clients where they are without dropping my prices across the board and you know I'm growing, I've tried really hard to grow and the conflict I'm having is while I want to help them, I can't really afford to lose that income but they need the work to truly benefit. And so it became kind of an ethical dilemma for her.
And she felt really torn because she truly wanted to help these people. But she also knew that lowering her rates was not sustainable for either her body or her energy or her business. And this is where many of us were taught that the quote unquote right answer is a sliding scale or maybe even barter something with them so that they could afford it and there was a trade going on. But here is the problem with those solutions. And some of you know this very deeply.
With the physical limits of massage, that real ceiling of energy that we all have to stay under, lowering your rates almost always means working more to make up the difference. And so, and I want you to listen very carefully, what looks compassionate on the surface will often turn into self-sacrifice underneath and burnout. So instead of solving the problem, what happens is it quietly transfers the cost onto
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the therapist's body and the livelihood. And then because you did it with one client, you begin to offer it to others to be fair, or this person sends someone in and tells them the price they paid and then that's what they expect. And then over time, it just snowballs out of control. And the only way you feel like you can climb out of that pit is to quit doing massage altogether, or as we mentioned before, creating some sort of crises that you have to stop working, whether that's conscious or subconsciously.
So this is when we need a different option. This is when we need to think differently. So I asked her this question. I said, is there someone close to these clients that you could train to help them in between sessions? What if instead of lowering your prices across your entire practice or creating potential issues down the road, just to accommodate two people, how about you compound your impact? Make it more worth their while.
If a client has a partner and even a massage gun, they could come in with their phone and record a short video of exactly what you want done at home. And that way, you're not giving away your expertise, you're just extending it so there's some at-home care. And you might actually give away 30 minutes of your time. Let's just say we tack on a little extra time to this paid session and you do it once to create support that lasts weeks or months. And here's where the real mindset shift
showed up. She said, I can't teach what I learned in massage school to somebody else. And I asked her, why not? This person isn't going to become a massage therapist. They're not your competition. They are not replacing your work. In fact, what usually happens is the opposite. This is about clients feeling more supported. And when they feel more supported, their healing journey is better. They ask
more empowering questions about their body and they become more invested in their own care. And then they tell everyone how much you help them, not just in the massage room, but in their real life. And I even went so far as to suggest one more thing, and that was, what about teaching in your community? What about putting a class together, like a partner massage class, for just specific conditions, like short, focused classes for practical help? And these options,
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outside the box really appeal to her true desire which is to help more people. And the best part is these options are ways to offer the solution without devaluing your time, lowering your rates, or compromising your livelihood or your growth that you're trying so hard to attain inside your business. And this is the point I want to make really clear. Growth doesn't always come from doing more or giving up money.
Sometimes it comes from thinking differently about how you deliver your value. And more, and I really love this statement, more does not have to equal harder. So the best part for me as her coach, really, and this is the part that I love, I love this in hands-on classes too, is when there is a total shift in energy and enthusiasm and this light bulb moment happens where everything just goes plink, everything turns on, you're like,
there's a different option and there's something else I can do. And we went from trying to figure out how to help someone in a way that felt really heavy to solutions that brought energy into this situation. And I want you to keep that little part in the back of your mind because it is essential later on in this podcast when you do something that brings you energy versus something that takes it away.
So once you begin to see that there may be more than one way to grow, the next thing that usually shows up for most of us is overthinking. For many massage therapists overthinking, well, I'd have to say business owners really, but for those of us running our own businesses, we try and make sure that we look at every angle and every possibility. And so we overthink some of these situations sometimes, even going so far as to
to look at what the worst case scenario would be. And we tell ourselves, okay, we're being careful. We're making sure we cover all of our bases. And that's a good thing. But it becomes a bad thing when you stay in that place too long because overthinking quietly becomes a way that you get to avoid change. And it becomes easier to just keep going at the status quo than to deal with what might happen if you do something different.
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And at some point it feels safer to just not rock the boat, to not deal with potential client reactions. What if they don't like something and a change I make, what if they get confrontational about something I do? Or you have to explain yourself, like having to have an excuse to raise your prices because of inflations or whatever that you can come up with to justify those prices instead of just your value going up and it's meant to work that way. I see this
all the time. Therapists allowing themselves to feel unsatisfied, under supported and undervalued because they believe that staying comfortable somehow protects the business or the income or even themselves. And if you wait until you feel completely confident or certain before you make a change, my friend, you will talk yourself out of it every single time.
And then over time, this creates this mental fatigue that's brought on by this constant back and forth and back and forth until you just kind of determine that the growth is risky and it's overwhelming and it's just not meant for you. And you know, I have met therapists who have figured out how to make peace with this feeling and they tell themselves it's just part of the job. But underneath that acceptance is often this quiet decision
to just stay smaller than they know they actually are. And the way I learned how to approach growth and the way I've survived, mean, literally survived in this profession for over 30 years, it's not by making one big, huge defining decision. That's not what we're talking about when it comes to thinking differently. We're talking about making small, intentional shifts. And then this is the best part, really, sitting back and watch what happens.
And when you're in that space, your actions simply become information. They don't have to be this mental fatigue and this drama back and forth. It's just information. And it's not a test of whether you're worthy or competent or all those things because when action is simply information, you're no longer asking, my gosh, did I do this right? You're asking, huh, what did I learn? What did my business teach me? How did that work?
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instead of all of this emotionally charged energy around that particular action that you took inside your business. And you know, there were times that I learned that what I thought was going to work just didn't, it didn't work, it didn't work well. And so I would pivot and I would try something different until things just flowed and you know what I'm talking about. Things just flowed in the right direction. And the best part is that you know you're going in the right direction.
when whatever you're choosing to do starts bringing energy to you. And that is your intuition saying yes. Yes, we get to talk about intuition on this podcast. We do this with our clients all the time. It's time to learn how to do it with your business. You need to follow your gut. You need to listen. You need to observe patterns and find that path of least resistance and let your business guide you just like you allow the body.
to guide you in your work. So I watched this happen in real time with the client story I shared earlier. As soon as new options were put on the table, her massage table, her energy completely changed. She went from feeling heavy and stuck and feeling like she had to go down and devalue herself to accommodate these people to feeling hopeful and excited. And that shift matters when you are making business decisions.
And you know, when you operate out of that space, that kind of energy shows up everywhere. It's in your sessions. It's in how you communicate with your clients. It's in how you think about your business when you're not at work. And it becomes the driving force that carries your career forward. This is a big part of the answer when people ask me how I stayed a massage therapist for as long as I have and I still am. I learned to seek out that feeling.
that feeling of alignment and clarity and forward momentum and the fun, the fun energy and the learning. And I would lean into that and allow myself to follow it. And it was kind of hard because you want to run your business, but at the same time, you need to sit back and watch your business and see what it's telling you. And so it's such an interesting place to sit in when you're working for yourself. But when you take even a small
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positive action in your business, something important happens. Your body, your mind, your system gets feedback. And that feedback shows up as primarily relief, energy, confidence, clarity, and it's something that you can actually trust inside your business. And then you learn how to steer your business instead of feeling like you're carrying this heavy weight. You know, and then over time,
As you reach for this feeling more, it becomes very familiar. This was my journey. I learned how to recognize this feeling of, this makes me feel better. I feel more energized. And the more times I recognized what it feels like when something is aligned, it allows you to recognize when something feels heavy or forced. You actually start to see that more. And so instead of ignoring information, you start paying attention to it. And this is the point
right here where thinking differently becomes possible. And it's not because you tried to force a change in your mindset, it's because your experience showed you that there are other ways to move forward that don't require pushing harder or sacrificing yourself or downgrading your worth in order to make things work. And once you feel that shift in your body and your energy, it becomes easier to ask a different kind of questions. So it's not how do I make this work?
It is what would I like my business to be? And when you can get into that space, that question is where real change begins. So now let's talk about what actually starts to change when you shift how you think, because this is where things stop feeling like theory and they start becoming real life experience. What I see happen over and over again is that once a therapist gives them permission,
to stop trying to stay inside the normal model of massage. I call it the box. Their entire relationship with their business begins to change. And the first shift, it's not usually a dramatic change, it is this sigh of relief.
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I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that sigh of relief on a Zoom call with my clients. And it's when I know things are going to change for them. And you know, that relief occurs because all of a sudden you stop forcing yourself to want to or have to repeat something that doesn't actually fit you anymore. You know, I have to tell you, one of the first sessions that a lot of
clients sit down with me on is changing their schedule because they want something different. They don't want to work every night or every weekend or what you set yourself up to do when you needed clients is not the way you want to continue to do it when you are busy. So how do you shift that model over? And when they have a solution to that, that's when you hear that relief.
Quick pause here. If what you're hearing is helping you think differently about your work, you're welcome to join my email list at amybradleyradford.com. That's where I share deeper teaching, clinical insight, and updates on classes and resources without any hyperpressure. All right, let's get back to the episode. So when you start asking a different question, not how do I make this work, and
change it into what I would actually like my business to look like now, your nervous system also responds almost immediately. And that heaviness starts to lift and that business doesn't feel like it's controlling you. And that early excitement, do you remember that early excitement that you had when you were like, my gosh, I'm gonna start my own business. And it starts to come back, that excitement, the possibilities, that kind of stuff, it begins to creep back in.
And you know, your circumstances aren't magically changed, but because you stopped telling yourself that there's only one way forward, all of a sudden you can see more possibilities. So you know, most massage therapists are walking around with the same set of thoughts and it's things like, if I grow, I'm gonna have to work more. That's the only way I can grow is if I schedule more clients or if I raise my rates, then I'm gonna lose the clients I care about. That's a big one.
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And if I want more, it probably means I'm not grateful enough. I'm fine, I have plenty of money. That's not true. I mean, maybe it is. Or how about telling yourself this is just how a massage business works? And you know, these thoughts don't come from nowhere. It's so interesting. These were the same things that I kind of took on when I went to massage school. And when you asked about business, these were the answers that were given. And when you talk to other people in the industry, these are the conversations you have.
and they come from watching other therapists hit a ceiling and then we just assume that's how it goes. That's all they can do, that's all they're gonna get, that's as far as it's gonna go, that's as far as I'm going to go. And you know, when your mind resists growth, it's not always because you're afraid. Sometimes it's because it's been framed as something that would cost you more of yourself or once that's the only version of growth you know, of course some part of you says no.
and then change is unattainable without all this sacrifice. But when you allow yourself to see that growth doesn't always mean more hours or more clients or more wear and tear on your body, then you start thinking differently without even trying. And you stop asking, how do I fit more people in? And you start asking, how can this be done differently? And you stop treating every idea like it has to be this permanent decision and instead it's just information.
You just try something, you see how it feels and you watch what happens and this is when you start to get unstuck. So you know another thing I see all the time is therapists waiting for clarity before they move. They want to feel 100 % sure before making a change but I'm here to tell you people, clarity rarely comes that way. Most of the time, clarity shows up after you take a step and not before. You have to.
put the ball into motion to actually see what's gonna happen. And you know, once you experience it a few times, then something important happens, this positive change. Your confidence grows, not because everything worked out perfectly, but because you realize you can adjust and your business can adjust and all that adjusting will still move forward and your business doesn't implode. So another thing I wanna add in here is that
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sometimes there's a lot of guilt wrapped up into wanting more. And some therapists think if I want something different, that must mean I'm unhappy or unsatisfied with what I build and I'm not appreciating things enough. Or another one I see is, let's say you trade with some other therapist and you all charge the same and now you feel like your value is higher and placing yourself higher than your peers feels uncomfortable.
like you're making a statement that you're better than them. And you know, none of that is true. None of that is true. All of it, all of it boils down to, it just means you've outgrown the structure you started with. When you have put the time in, when you have more experience and more skill and more awareness of the bodies you work on and of your body and your limits, and you have more intuition and depth to all the care you give, it makes sense that the business you built early on
might not be the business that you can carry long term. And when you let yourself think that way, when you let go, then your creativity comes back online and you start seeing options you couldn't see before. And these are some of the things I saw, teaching, mentoring, structuring your time differently, changing how clients engage with you. And you know, one of my favorites is doing less of what drains you and choosing.
to do more of what actually works for you. You know, none of this requires quitting. It just requires letting your business evolve instead of staying frozen out of loyalty to an older version of yourself. And once you see that box, and once you see that the box was never solid, that how you kept yourself inside this safe box, it's just a set of habits and expectations you either inherited or adopted.
then it finally loses its grip on you. And that's when decisions changes, feel lighter and nothing feels final or stuck or cemented into a specific way of doing things. And you begin to trust yourself more. And this is how momentum actually starts. Not from pushing harder or forcing change, but actually giving yourself permission to just think differently. And then letting that thinking guide you into your next step.
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So in this next section, I want to talk about how to start moving forward without overhauling everything. I do not recommend that. I don't. We're gonna talk about how small shifts in your thinking can create real change, but now we're gonna actually make it a little more practical. Because for many massage therapists, the biggest question at this point is what do I want? Or how do I start without messing things up?
If I dive in and make changes in my business, I can't lose money if I do that. So let me offer you a way to begin that doesn't require a big decision or a full plan or this huge leap of faith. The first thing I want you to do is actually nothing. I don't want you to do anything. I want you to just start noticing where your energy goes inside your business. And you can even go so far as to keep a journal or a log or just write some things down about
When you feel your energy go down and what is happening that is consistently draining you or irritating you or making you feel heavy. And then I want you to pay attention to what parts of your work leave you feeling grounded and energized. And this isn't about judging those parts or you immediately jumping in and trying to fix them. This is just about collecting some information. And in the most powerful and subtle and most intelligent way,
your body is already giving you the feedback you need to change your business. It's just that we're not taught to listen to it when it comes to business. Yes, we're taught to listen to it when we work with the body and listening to our intuition about what bodies tell us, but we're not taught how to take that same skill and listen to our business. And then the next step is I want you to name what assumption you've been operating under if you've never really questioned it.
something like, know, I can't change that because this is how we do it. Or if I do this differently, clients won't like it. Or if I create these changes, then my business is going to fail. There's some sort of assumption like that five years, you know, I've worked for five years, that means I'm done. Those are all assumptions. I want you to start thinking about what it is you're operating under. And we're not gonna replace that belief, you're just acknowledging it. You just need to see it. Because once something is named,
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it literally stops running the show in the same way. And then the last step I want you to do, once you've kind of observed and you've identified what you're operating under, we're just gonna take one small, safe, comfortable change and we're gonna implement it and then we're just gonna watch what it does. And you know, some of those changes might be just how you talk about your work or at work. You know,
I think in the beginning of my podcast, I talked about etiquette, know, talking etiquette, just changing what you say into something positive and just see how it changed. Instead of bringing up the negative or all the problems in your life, just shift it into talking more positively or maybe adjusting one boundary. And one of the biggest boundaries I talk to people about adjusting is how about reclaiming your time boundaries instead of
You know, you have a 60 minute massage and you go 70 minutes or you have a 90 minute massage and you go 95 minutes. It's reclaiming your boundary with all of your clients so you're not leaking energy or maybe shifting just one appointment time that has always felt so heavy somewhere else that's easier for you. Does that mean you might lose one client? Maybe, maybe, but you know what I've learned and what I've taught people is there are many times that that one appointment can be shifted up.
and the client that is up could be shifted up again and you can move people around so that you're not working those late hours or you're not working that one hour that makes it so hard for you to manage your life with kids or other obligations, just one appointment. Or maybe you could test a different structure in your massage approach or flow or your sales process. What if there's the way that you've put the massage together
that you've practiced isn't the best for your body. What if you just need to change some form in order to change how you feel, which then impacts your client? Or maybe you can offer something in a new way that allows your clients to experience and choose, this is huge, more of what you have to offer, such as a new menu item, or maybe a higher priced massage experience.
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which I think is an amazing thing to do because then you start to teach your clients to spend more money with you and it fits into some of the ways that people increase their income at the table. Just one and it could be one of those or it could be something completely different. I picked the ones that a lot of people talk to me about but once you take that one little change and you inject it into your business,
I want you to sit back and watch how it feels. And it's not necessarily about financial impact, but I want you to see what it does to your body, your mind, and your energy. And this is how confidence in your business actually grows. Not from knowing ahead of time, but from learning that you can respond, adjust, and make thoughtful decisions as you go. And if you find that you're able to do this on your own, my gosh, that's great. Many therapists can.
But if you notice that you keep circling the same thoughts or you second guess yourself or you're feeling unsure about how to move forward without overthinking or you just are flat out afraid that you're gonna make a mistake, this is not failure. This is just information. And sometimes it just helps to talk through things with someone who understands this work, this industry.
or running a business or the mental patterns that all business owners get stuck in or massage therapists get stuck in. And you don't need someone to tell you what to do. You need someone to help yourself more clearly. You know, what does that support look like? And this is not a plug for me as a coach. I'll plug it at the end of the podcast, but this is something I want you to learn how to do for yourself. You know, as you start paying attention to your energy and these assumptions,
and the small experiments that you're trying, something usually becomes clear really quickly. And you either start to feel movement or you notice that you fall back and you keep circling with the same thoughts. Neither one is wrong. But some massage therapists find that once they give themselves permission to think differently, that they're able to follow that clearing. They're able to find the confidence to move forward and they feel that energy and momentum and they follow it.
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and they continue to follow it and steer their business in a different direction and it creates the changes that work. But others notice that while they can understand what they want to change, they can't quite see their way forward without second guessing themselves. So they start and they stop and they overthink and they stop and then they start and they stop or they feel unsure about which direction to move or they're afraid they're gonna create more problems or they're afraid that if they make changes, it's gonna impact them financially.
And so for those people, this is when outside support becomes useful. And so there's all kinds of support. doesn't have to look one specific way, but I wanna kind of bring some of these ideas forward so that you have an idea of what you can pursue in order to help you get unstuck and get out of the box and learn how to think this way for yourself. So for some people, it simply starts with peer support.
talking openly with another therapist who's also thinking about growth and boundaries and not just trading stories or complaining, but actually saying, would we do this better? What do you think? And talking through real business strategy with somebody else that's in the same boat as you. And then for others, and I really like this one, because the perspective is different. It's helpful to talk with someone who owns a business
outside of massage because they don't have the rules. They haven't adopted those rules inside their profession like we have. And so business owners in other fields can be incredibly clarifying because they're not emotionally tied to how massage should work. And they're not in that same box we talked about. And they often see patterns and options we miss because they're not inside our industry norms.
Some of my best conversations about business and growth were with people in completely different business arenas. And I was able to see a completely different picture because of their perspective. And then another one that I've done that I love because it's just fun and it gets your creative juices going. And it gives you a support group because as entrepreneurs, it's a lonely field in massage therapy, being an entrepreneur. And sometimes,
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It's just nice to be with another group of entrepreneurs because you start to feel like you belong somewhere. So some therapists benefit from joining a monthly business group, a lunch group, a local entrepreneur meetup, or even a small circle where you can just bounce ideas off each other and hear different perspectives and then realize you're not alone in these challenges of growth that sit inside businesses because our businesses are a reflection of our growth in life.
and where we're at in life shows up in our business. So it's always interesting to see how different people overcame different challenges and how that would apply to us inside of our businesses and our life. So there are others who look for a mentor, someone who's a few steps or even several steps ahead, who's made decisions that you're considering and who is willing to share what worked and what didn't and have a real conversation with you.
And then for some hiring a business coach like myself, see I told you I'd plug it in later, or taking even specific classes, which help you focus on growth and structure, or even to learn how to do decision making differently, those people and skills and classes, they can provide the clarity and confidence you need to move forward more clearly. So the common thread that's woven in through here isn't the format of support, it's the willingness
to stop trying to do all of this inside your head. The best support doesn't take away your authority, it helps you trust it. And it gives you a place to talk things through and to hear your own thinking out loud and to make decisions without feeling rushed or alone and allowing you to come into yourself as a business person. And you know, sometimes that support is ongoing. Sometimes it's just one or two conversations until you get the hang of it.
that help you see things a little differently and then you can move forward with confidence. And just like with your clients, the goal is not dependency. Yes, we want our regulars, it's our bread and butter of our business, but at the same time, we want our clients to get better. We don't want them to be dependent upon us for their health. We want them to learn how to manage themselves better so that they can grow into their healthy process. And it's the same thing in our business.
Amy Bradley Radford (40:59.243)
We just need clarity and understanding and to realize that you can drive your business with that energy and that emotion and it can show you, it can teach you the direction you need to go. So one thing I wanna share here because it's really important is how I approach growth when I'm working with people one-on-one and it's something you can absolutely apply for yourself. In fact, I totally recommend it.
So when I coach people, I take very diligent notes. I listen very closely. And together, we turn big ideas into very simple, clear action steps. And it's not a long list. It's not an overhaul of their business. It's usually one or two or maybe even three things to focus on per week or sometimes in a month, depending on what makes sense for that person and where they are.
But I have to have, the people I work with, and me too, we have to have that list to come back to. Because when your brain is doing that mental cycle, it's hard to remember sometimes the clarity that you had and what it is you need to work on. And my clients tell me that this time, these notes are some of the most valuable things they get out of coaching. And when I coach myself, and I have a business coach as well, but
When I coach myself, I sit down and do the exact same thing. I break everything down and then I select the two or three things that I can do that week because that's realistic. And this behavior helps you stay focused and you're not trying to fix everything at once because you can't do that to a business. You can't totally reorganize the business. You have to take that business where it's at, how it's running or not running and make the changes that steer it into the right direction of where it needs to go.
And the powerful thing is you can do it for yourself. You just simply identify one thing, pick that one thing to change, that one idea to test, and then you make that change and you sit back and you observe what your business does in response. And notice how your clients react. Notice how you feel. Pivot if you need. And then take the next step when it feels clear. I have often told my clients that your business will tell you when it's time to make the next step.
Amy Bradley Radford (43:17.697)
whether it be raising prices or adding in a new service, it's not guesswork. The behavior of what your business is doing always gives you the answer. And you know, a perfect example of this is when is the perfect time to raise prices? Well, it's when you are completely full and have a waiting list. Because what your business is telling you is you figured it out. You figured out how to run the business, provide a service, give a massage, provide a positive experience,
Take care of all of the things that are needed to run that business and it's running smoothly and now you're full. And that means that you have accomplished something. You've hit a new level of your business and your service and you and your value. And now it's time to raise your prices. And it also fits into your basic concept of supply and demand. Your time has to become scarce in order for people to pay more for it. Because if they can't get into you,
and you raise your prices, they're willing to pay to get into you. If you have turned yourself into that kind of a therapist. And so your demand has to outweigh your supply and that is when you raise prices. You don't raise your prices when you're still figuring out how to fill your schedule because the supply and demand is off. And your goal at that point is to play around with the things that create referrals and repeat clients until you have a full schedule.
and then your business is telling you you can move to the next step of raising prices. So when people say, how do I raise my prices? I don't tell them how to do it. I ask them if they're full, because you have to be full before you can move to the next step. So this is how real momentum is built. It's not through force, but it's through consistency and just observing. And you don't need to rush this process. In fact, the slower and more intentional you are,
the more confident you feel along the way and the more you change your business into something you love. So whether you're doing this on your own or with peer support or with someone guiding you, the approach is the same. Small steps, clear focus, and allowing your business to guide you to your next step. So as we bring this fun little conversation to a close, I want to come back to some of the simple stuff. Growth always starts when you begin to shift how you think.
Amy Bradley Radford (45:39.729)
or what parameters you think within. The ones you picked and maybe the ones you automatically adopted. And I believe, I personally believe, you can think your way through just about anything if you will allow your mind to be open. And if there's one thing I really hope you take from this episode, it's that you don't need to push harder or have everything figured out in order to move forward. You just need to be willing to look at things a little differently about what growth can look like specifically for you
right now at this stage in your business. So I thought this was a perfect podcast for you as you move into the new year so that you could pay attention to what keeps coming up for you after you listen to this podcast. I want you to notice which of the ideas really stick with you from this conversation we've had, which ones feel interesting and which ones actually feel heavy because that information matters.
guiding you to where it is you wanna be. And once you give yourself time to observe what happens, watch how your business responds. Watch how you respond, then adjust, take that next step and just keep going. And that steady intentional movement is how momentum forms without burnout. And it's how businesses evolve naturally into something that actually feels good and last and it becomes
what you had always envisioned in your mind. If you find that you're able to do this on your own, trust it. Believe me when I say this, you're building the same skill that I learned how to build that allowed me to be in this career and love it for the longterm. And if you notice that you need help staying focused or sorting through ideas or turning thoughts into clear next steps, that's information you need just as much. You just need some support.
And sometimes having someone listen or taking notes or someone helping you organize your next few actions, it's enough to just make everything feel more doable. Whether that support comes from peers or mentors or even a few conversations with me, what matters is that you don't feel like you have to keep carrying all of this business stuff alone. I wanna thank you all for being here and for listening and for the work that you do. And I promise you,
Amy Bradley Radford (48:05.997)
2026 is going to be your best year yet. I just know it. I'll see you in the next episode.
Amy Bradley Radford (48:19.799)
Thanks for spending this time with me. If this episode was helpful, subscribing or leaving a review helps other therapists find the show. For classes, resources, and ongoing education, you can visit amybradleyradford.com or join my email list if you'd like to stay connected. Take care of your body, your clients, and your business. I'll see you next time.
