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.
Amy Bradley Radford (00:31.297)
Yeah.
Amy Bradley Radford (00:37.752)
Well, hi there and welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk about something that I think would have changed my entire understanding of business if someone had explained it to me earlier in my career. Because I think a lot of massage therapists walk around feeling confused about why business feels so hard sometimes. One month things feel busy and hopeful and exciting, and you feel like maybe things are finally starting to work, and then all of a sudden, there's cancellations, slower weeks, financial stress, self-doubt.
And this feeling like you somehow lost momentum and you don't even know why. And when that happens, most therapists immediately turn inward and assume that something is wrong with them. Something like they're not experienced enough yet, or they're not good enough yet, or not posting on social media enough, or not learning enough new techniques, or not charging the right prices, or not saying the right things, or not marketing correctly. And the list can go on and on. Then there's this constant emotional pressure inside our field.
To somehow figure business out while also trying to become exceptional at massage therapy itself and busy enough to pay your bills. After spending 30 years in this profession, teaching massage therapists, coaching massage therapists, building businesses myself, and struggling through those same business phases I talk about and watching thousands of therapists try to grow practices, I have realized something really important. Most massage therapists are not failing because they are a bad therapist.
Most massage therapists are simply struggling because nobody ever really explained the actual system their business lives inside of. So every business exists inside some kind of container. And maybe container isn't the perfect word for it, but it helps explain this concept. But every business has a structure that supports it. There are moving parts inside that structure that have to continually function in order for growth to happen.
And once you understand the basic systems that make your specific business run and be profitable, things stop feeling so emotional and chaotic all the time. You start understanding why things are working or why they're not working and what actually needs attention instead of constantly throwing effort at all of these random things, hoping that something finally sticks. Honestly, in the whole starting and running a small business opportunity,
Amy Bradley Radford (02:58.572)
Massage therapy is actually one of the simplest businesses you can build successfully once you understand what the real moving parts are. And once you understand the systems that need to operate inside your container, then you understand what those parts are. Now, I know that kind of sounds strange because some of you listening feel completely overwhelmed right now. And maybe your schedule is inconsistent, maybe money feels stressful, maybe you are constantly trying to figure out where new clients are supposed to come from.
Maybe you were fully booked but physically exhausted and wondering how you're going to do this for the long term. Or maybe you're trying to raise your prices but are terrified your clients will leave. So whatever phase you're in, I want you to hear this first before we go any further. Your business is probably not nearly as complicated as it feels right now. So let me give you some perspective. If you think about like a bakery as a business example.
A bakery has so many moving parts happening all at once. They have inventory, ingredients, spoilage, staffing, equipment, rent, utilities, production schedules, food costs, waste management, customer flow, marketing, ordering systems, packaging, seasonal fluctuations, and consistency issues every single day. They are constantly balancing product creation against product loss. And if they overproduce, they lose money.
And if they underproduce, they lose customers. And there are dozens of moving pieces operating all at the same time just to keep those doors open. Or you can think about like a retail boutique. A boutique owner often has to purchase inventory months ahead of time, hoping customers will buy it later. They are managing trends, storage, unsold products, shipping, online sales, employees, storefront expenses, merchandising, returns, and inventory turnover.
Sometimes thousands upon thousands of dollars are sitting on their shelves waiting to hopefully become revenue later. But massage therapy is different. As massage therapists, we do not typically have massive startup costs. We don't usually have huge inventory problems. We are not managing product spoilage or shipping departments or large employee teams when we first start. Most massage therapists can start a business with a table, their hands, a treatment room, and a few clients.
Amy Bradley Radford (05:22.078)
Structurally, it is one of the simplest small business models a person can build. But where massage therapy becomes emotionally difficult is that it is a 100% relationship-based business. That is the part most therapists were never really prepared for. Because unlike inventory businesses, the growth of a massage practice depends heavily on trust, emotional safety, consistency, communication.
value, relationships, and the client experience itself. And you know, those things can feel much harder to measure. You cannot always physically see why someone returned to you or why they referred someone or why they quietly disappeared from your schedule. So therapists often end up feeling like business growth is kind of random when it's really not random at all. There are actually patterns happening inside your business all the time.
And I think it was after about 10 years into my own business I finally recognized these patterns. But when I started coaching others, wow, I realized almost every massage business repeatedly operates through the same three cycles over and over again, no matter what level the therapist is at in their career. And those three cycles are referrals, repeat clients, and revenue.
And you know, I have talked about these concepts in prior podcasts. These topics are actual classes I teach because they are so real and applicable to you in the massage field. But what is interesting is these cycles never really stop. They just simply evolve as your business evolves. So when you first start your practice, you need a few people to find you and get on your table. Those are referrals. Then you need those people to return consistently enough.
That you begin creating stability in your schedule. That becomes repeat clientele. Then over time, those repeat clients create income and support and sustainability inside your business, and that becomes revenue. But then something interesting happens. As your business grows, the cycle starts over. Maybe you raise your prices, maybe you improve your skills, maybe you change your schedule, maybe you refine your ideal clientele.
Amy Bradley Radford (07:36.566)
Maybe you move offices and reposition your business in a higher value experience. Suddenly you need a few new clients again and at that next level. And then those clients need to become repeat clients, then the new revenue is established at that next phase of business growth. And this cycle repeats itself over and over and over for your entire career. That is why some therapists can stay successful for decades.
They stop viewing business growth as this giant emotional mystery or mental mystery and start understanding that they are simply strengthening different parts of the system as they grow. And honestly, I think this realization can feel incredibly calming once you finally see it clearly. Because instead of feeling like you constantly have to reinvent yourself or hustle harder or become some completely different version of yourself to succeed.
you start realizing your business is actually built on a few very understandable moving parts. And when one part weakens, the business starts feeling unstable. And when those systems strengthen, business starts feeling more predictable, sustainable, and it supports you again. And that is really what I want to walk you through in this episode today. I think where therapists start getting stuck is that they usually focus all of their attention on only one part of the cycle while unknowingly neglecting the others.
And because of that, their business starts feeling inconsistent or exhausting, even when they are working incredibly hard. For example, most therapists become completely focused on trying to find clients. Everything becomes about marketing or social media or content creation or SEO or business cards, discounts, promotions, or trying somehow to convince more people to book.
And while there's absolutely a place for visibility and searchability in your business, what I often see happening is therapists spending enormous amounts of energy and sometimes money trying to get people on the table while never really strengthening the systems that make people stay once they get there. Because getting clients and keeping clients are two very different skill sets. That realization alone can completely shift how you approach your business. I've seen therapists with incredible.
Amy Bradley Radford (09:54.574)
Incredible hands struggle for years because clients would come in once, enjoy the massage, say wonderful things at the end of the session, and then never come back. And it's not because the therapist gave a bad massage or not because the client disliked them, but because somewhere inside that experience, the client never fully connected to enough value or trust or even emotional safety or consistency.
To make that appointment become part of their ongoing life. And I think this is one of the hardest parts about massage therapy emotionally, because unlike many businesses, we are often dealing with invisible decision-making processes inside of people. Clients do not always tell you why they return. They do not always tell you why they stop coming. They do not always clearly communicate what they actually are wanting from the experience, emotionally, physically, mentally, or even energetically.
And so as therapists, we end up trying to interpret, read, guess, business growth sometimes. And then what happens is therapists start internalizing every fluctuation in business personally. I can't believe how much we take our businesses personally. A slow week suddenly feels like a failure. A cancellation feels really emotional or maybe financially heavy. And a client not rebooking feels like rejection. And a slower month always creates panic.
And so we start reacting emotionally instead of using our professional and neutral, it's a very important word, neutral business mindset. So this is a really important distinction for you to understand. Because when you do not understand the systems underneath your business, everything does feel personal. But once you understand the systems, you can start asking different questions. Instead of what's wrong with me or what's wrong with my massage, you start asking, okay.
Which part of this cycle or the system needs more support right now? That is a completely different mindset. And it's a relief, my friends. It truly is. And honestly, I think this is why so many massage therapists burn out emotionally, even before they burn out physically. They are carrying the emotional weight of trying to constantly interpret unstable business patterns without realizing that business instability usually comes from weak systems, not personal inadequacy.
Amy Bradley Radford (12:15.106)
Sometimes referrals are weak, sometimes repeat clientele is weak, sometimes the therapist has maxed out their current revenue structure and you need to evolve your value. Sometimes boundaries are weak, sometimes communication is weak. Sometimes the therapist has become so physically exhausted and the business itself flat out needs restructuring. But none of those things mean failure.
They simply mean a part of the system needs strengthening before the business can grow again. This is where I think. No, actually I know massage therapists accidentally overcomplicate business. They start thinking they need massive overhauls or complicated funnels or expensive marketing systems or maybe some reinvention or my favorite, just another technique. If I take another class, I'll have all the answers. When many times what actually creates growth.
Is a lot more simple and it's much more relational to your business because massage therapy is still at its core a human relationship business. It's not all spa days and one-hour vacations. More frequently than not, people are coming to us in some very vulnerable places. These people, these clients, they're in pain. They're overwhelmed. They're horribly stressed. They're lonely. They're grieving. They are burned out.
And they are completely disconnected from their bodies, or they're trying to heal physically or emotionally, or perhaps sometimes both at the same time with whatever's going on in their world. And when people consistently feel better in your presence, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally too, something very powerful begins happening naturally inside your business. It starts to build trust, it builds familiarity, it builds safety.
Consistency. And when those things happen, referrals begin happening more organically. And clients begin emotionally attaching your services to their own relief. And clients begin attaching their emotional relief, comfort, self-regulation, healing, support, whatever you want to call it, to your services and feel like they have an option to help themselves. It gives them a sense of being grounded in their own lives. And that is why some therapists
Amy Bradley Radford (14:34.2)
quietly stay busy for decades. It's not necessarily because they're doing some flashy marketing or they have the fanciest office or because they know the most techniques and have the most certificates up on their wall. It's because over time they learned how to strengthen the relationship systems inside the business itself. You know, I would love to sit here and tell you that our jobs are just mechanical, but they're not.
There are ways to separate it into something more structural or anatomical, but I would be lying to you, and you know this, if I said that our job was to simply provide an hour of mindless kneading and squishing of muscles and nothing else of ourselves poured into that process or came back to us in that process. Healthy boundaries needed? Absolutely yes. Does touching people impact many levels of the individual at the same time? Yes.
Does it impact us on many levels at the same time? Yes. Our work will be very personal all the time, no matter what we do. But if we go back to the systems, once you begin understanding that your business is always communicating with you inside these three systems, it helps you know where support is needed next. You can begin growing your business much more intentionally instead of emotionally reacting to every rise and fall inside that process. I'm here to tell you.
That emotional roller coaster is in itself completely exhausting to you. It's so hard to maintain this slight pressure on the accelerator, as I call it, always pushing on that accelerator in your business when you are exhausted because you are up and down emotionally and mentally inside your business. So let's talk a little more about these three repeating cycles because once you start seeing them inside your business, you honestly cannot unsee them anymore. We're gonna open Pandora's box.
You begin realizing that almost every growth phase, every plateau, every pricing shift, every busy season, every slower season, and even most emotional business struggles can usually be traced back to one of these areas needing attention. So our first cycle we're going to talk about is referrals. And I think referrals are often misunderstood because therapists tend to think referrals just happen randomly. Like some therapists are just lucky enough to naturally get talked about while other therapists somehow are not.
Amy Bradley Radford (16:54.614)
Or they got their marketing right or spent more money on it to get it. So here's a fun little statistic that I found for you. In the AMTA, American Massage Therapy Association 2026 Massage Profession Research Report, it states that 80% of clients find a therapist by referral. 80% of your clients are coming to you because someone told them about you and gave you a recommendation. And just for some context,
The next in line is internet and websites at 52%. Social media, professional networking, community events, and online locators were all in the 30 to 38 percentile range. This should make you question what you're pouring your efforts into for new clients. Should you be putting 90 to 100% into social media over and over and over and over again and not seeing the results? Or should you be creating systems to increase referrals?
So referrals are usually not random. They are most often the very natural byproduct of someone having an experience with you meaningful enough that they truly want to tell another person about it. And people do not usually refer average experiences. They refer experiences that stood out to them and met their expectations, which is a huge piece to this. So these experiences created relief in a way they were looking for or made them feel cared for.
in a way they were looking for, or solved something important to them in the way they were looking for. And for massage, these experiences both emotionally and physically impacted them enough to become memorable enough to share them with those around them. And what is interesting is that referrals are not always created by being quote unquote the best massage therapist, technically. Some of the busiest therapists I have ever known were not necessarily the most advanced therapist in the room from like a clinical perspective.
But clients felt safe with them. They felt heard by them. And they translated what they heard into a touch experience. And the client felt better after the sessions with them and also felt comfortable in their office. They felt comfortable with the way that the conversation flowed. They felt comfortable in silence. But ultimately, they were comfortable with coming back.
Amy Bradley Radford (19:11.192)
To repeat the experience. And so that consistency inside that session matters so much more than I think therapists realize sometimes. From the client's perspective, they are not evaluating your business the way therapists evaluate each other professionally. Clients are evaluating your business through whether or not your sessions become something supportive enough to integrate into their life consistency and they're worth their value. And when that happens, your referrals start occurring much more naturally.
Now, does that mean that there are not strategic ways to encourage referrals? Of course not. There absolutely are. I teach people how to create referral systems. You can create referral systems. You can reward referrals. You can increase visibility. You can strengthen your communication, but it is not going to be through social media. It is going to be your interactions with people and how people feel on your table and how they feel when they leave and the consistency that you create of those feelings.
You can make it easier for your clients to talk about you. But underneath all of those strategies still sits the same foundation. People talk about businesses and services that feel valuable to them. I also think this is where many massage therapists accidentally create exhaustion for themselves. They can focus so heavily on trying to bring in new clients that they overlook the enormous growth potential already sitting inside the relationships they currently have.
Because one strong repeat client who trusts you deeply can quietly bring multiple people into your business over time without you constantly chasing marketing. In fact, I want you to sit back and think about who actually referred other clients to you. When I talk to therapists about the people inside their business that send other people to them, they can tell me the names of three or four people that have sent you a majority of your clients. Three or four people are the ones that build your business for you.
That is a system. It's a system that already naturally exists inside your business if you're willing to see it and cultivate getting those people to talk about you more. That is one of those systems. And more often than not, we never build upon those processes. We turn around to what we see in social media or email, or we try to bring people in ways that fit other businesses, but don't necessarily fit ours. So cultivating.
Amy Bradley Radford (21:36.972)
Those systems, cultivating those people who talk about you, giving them a reason to talk about you more is what brings more people in your door faster. Now, this leads directly into the second cycle I want to talk about, and that's repeat clientele. This is the area that creates the most stability inside a massage business long term because referrals may bring people in, but repeat clientele is what stabilizes your schedule.
your income, your confidence, and you as a business owner. This is what I call the bread and butter of our business. It's the number one thing we are all working towards in our business, consistency and a full schedule.
And it's also comforting and rewarding to know you have people consistently returning because the service you offer, what you have worked hard to cultivate and refine, has become part of their self-care or their pain management or stress management or healing process, or it helps them with a quality of life. And that makes you feel successful at the same time. But repeat clientele is also what where therapists often unknowingly struggle the most because clients do not return simply because they liked you.
I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions in massage therapy. A client can genuinely enjoy you as a person and still never rebook. You can try your hardest to offer an amazing touch experience and the client doesn't come back. And I think therapists sometimes take that personally without fully understanding what's actually happening underneath it. Clients return when their expectations have been met. Only after they have been met do clients value what you do enough to integrate it into their life. Let's talk about what.
Some of those expectations are. Sometimes expectation is pain relief. Sometimes it's emotional support or stress reduction. Sometimes it's injury management or maybe even athletic recovery. Sometimes it is simply the feeling of finally being able to exhale for one hour in a life that constantly demands from them. But whatever the reason is, the client has to have that expectation met through their experience with you enough.
Amy Bradley Radford (23:42.178)
That returning feels important to them. And that requires that you, as a therapist, develop an entirely different skill set beyond just performing the massage itself. You have to learn a different level of communication and sometimes a different type of listening, even listening with your hands. And the client is feeling all that communication in their body from what they heard from you, what your hands are relaying back to them. And after the massage, they make a decision to return to you based on that.
I think this is what makes massage hard for some therapists because you almost have to learn to speak a different language. Of course, there's listening with your ears and your mind and hearing what they have to say. There's recognizing patterns from person to person. There's expectation management from the first interaction with the person, which by the way, is when someone books the appointment, not when they get on your table, all the way through the massage and into the rebooking and also communication.
between the sessions, those are all expectation management. And of course there has to be consistency. If you gave them an amazing massage the first time and then you had a bad day and the second massage they got from you lacked, they're not going to come back. How the session flows and the continuity and quality of touch you offer is huge. There are professional boundaries in the massage, your talking, your behavior, how you manage the room on top of managing the massage, all of those things fit into that.
And this is something I talk about in my expectation class. You actually have to figure out what the client wants before they ever get on the table and possibly educate and adjust their expectations so you can meet them. Because some people have very lofty expectations that, by the way, no massage therapist could meet. And then there is this ability you have to develop that allows you to understand what people are often trying to communicate underneath the actual words they say.
Sometimes clients overlay what they want with fears or exaggerated hopes. And we somehow have to hear the truth of what's being said to know how to meet the expectation that's underneath all of that. I honestly say people lie. They lie to you sometimes, but you have to be able to figure that out. And one of the things I noticed about myself was I started to hear similar things when clients would come in the longer I was in massage. And I learned that when they used certain phrases,
Amy Bradley Radford (26:03.96)
They didn't actually mean what they were saying. For example, you know, I was a trigger point and a deep tissue therapist when I first started out. And people would come in to me and they're like, my friend sent me in. They said you did wonderful things for their neck and did all this deep work, but I really want you to help my neck, but I don't want the deep work. And what I heard was, I want help. I don't want to be hurt. And so I would literally say, you've been hurt with massage. And that would just open the floodgates to them telling me this story about.
Having been hurt through a massage, whether it was their spouse or another massage therapist, but there was a severe lack of trust coming in, so much so that they were willing to downplay what they really wanted to make sure they didn't get hurt. But when they left my table, if I didn't understand that, they still didn't get what they wanted and they still didn't come back. So that's why I say sometimes you have to read between the lines to understand what people are trying to tell you. And that wasn't something I learned in school.
That's something I learned through failure and success over three to five years that I don't think has to take that long to figure it out. So most therapists are never deeply taught these things in school. You have barely enough time to learn muscles, anatomy, protocols, and have exposure to different techniques, options, and outcomes with enough information to be able to pass your licensing exam. It is hard, and you know, it's also hard to teach how to be proficient at creating long-term.
Therapeutic relationships that build sustainable business without some experience behind it as well. Some of you are shaking your head with me. I can hear it right through the microphone. That's why so many therapists feel confused when they work incredibly hard, but still experience that inconsistency in growth because technique alone does not create retention. Retention happens when people consistently experience enough value and have their expectations consistently met.
To continue making space for your services in their life over time. That's actually one of my funnest classes I love to teach because once you start understanding how people communicate, how they want professional touch, how they want their massage to go, it opens up worlds of possibility inside your business, so much consistency, so many repeat clients, and it really starts positioning your business where you want it to be. And that brings us to our last and third cycle.
Amy Bradley Radford (28:25.386)
If you've ever listened to this podcast and thought, okay, but what would Amy tell me to do about my situation? That's exactly what coaching is for. We take everything you're learning here and apply it directly to your business. I love to help therapists who are ready to take what we talk about and put it to work and find their own massage business success. If that sounds like you, I have a coaching request form linked in the show notes.
When referrals and repeat clientele begin functioning together consistency, that naturally starts strengthening revenue. You start earning a consistent amount of money. And I think revenue can be a complicated part of massage therapy. I know that sounds funny because we all want to be full, making the most money we can, but because unlike most professions, like many professions, massage therapists are physically exchanging their own effort, time and energy and some invisible outcome.
Or income every single day. So your money can become about how you feel personally very quickly. So your revenue and what it does or does not do for you affects how exhausted you feel. I can't tell you how many people I've worked with that once they got their prices in line with their value, all of a sudden they weren't so exhausted. And they didn't have to work as much either. So there was a double do good right there, but their exhaustion disappeared because they felt valued themselves.
And your revenue affects your schedule. It affects your boundaries, your self-worth, your physical health, your stress levels, your home life. And most importantly, your revenue really impacts how long you can sustainably work in this profession. Something I have noticed over years of coaching therapists is that many therapists do one of two things with revenue that really impacts their career. Number one, they try to increase revenue before they strengthen the systems that are supporting the increase.
So they raise prices too soon. Or number two, which I see all the time, they neglect raising their prices out of fear of losing clients or hurting those hard won relationships with clients. And both scenarios create difficulty in finding the level of financial success, which is higher revenue that we are all looking for. So if you raise your prices without increasing some kind of perceived value for your client, clients will slowly stop scheduling with you.
Amy Bradley Radford (30:47.628)
What you are charging at that point doesn't match their expectations or the outcome they're leaving with. It creates this disconnect from the business relationship. So the lesson is that when value grows alongside pricing, clients will grow with you naturally because the experience continues feeling supportive and worthwhile to them. When I started working, I was charging $25 a session. And as I ended later on in my career,
My fees went up well over $100. And I had some clients that followed me from the 25 to the 150 and beyond. And it was because the value that was infused inside those sessions matched each one of those raises as time went on. And all of you, those of you who have been doing this for a while, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say this. If you don't follow that little niggle of intuition inside of you that knows it's time to raise your prices and you avoid it for years.
It is you that feels undervalued and disconnected. And then you lose the desire to continue to serve your business and your clients. So as a coach, I see this neglect to raising prices all the time. And when people reach out to me to learn how to raise their prices, it's not just about earning more. It's about finding the level of revenue that matches what you know you are worth and what you're offering. And then how to sustain a business.
as you raise your prices along the way. It's about falling in love with what you do again and knowing you're worth it. I know I've used this story before, but this is what I saw when one of my technique classes on a weekend turned into a business QA during a lunch break and extended an hour into the class. And I realized that people just like you listening to me needed some answers and help to know where to take your business next.
It's why I'm here talking to you and why I have such a narrowly focused purpose and why I love it. I just want to see more massage therapists understand their value before they quit. Because I have seen our industry lose so many good hands and therapists because they didn't know how to serve and take care of themselves. So that is why understanding these three cycles matter so much. Referrals bring momentum, repeat clientele creates stability, revenue.
Amy Bradley Radford (33:06.83)
creates sustainability. And all three are constantly interacting with each other inside your business and leveling up with each change, whether you actually realize it or not. I think one of the most important things therapists can understand is that these cycles are not limited to phases in your business, like just a new business or a 20 year plus business. They are not something you complete once and then never have to revisit again. This is not a staircase where you magically dun da da da
Arrive at success and suddenly your business never needs attention anymore. These cycles are living systems inside your business. And every time your business evolves, the cycles begin repeating again at the next level. For example, when you're brand new in practice, referrals become extremely important because you simply need people on your table. You need exposure. You need conversations happening around your business.
And you need experience working with different people and different bodies and different needs. At this stage, many therapists are building confidence while simultaneously trying to build clientele. And honestly, that's a pretty vulnerable place to be because every new client feels very important to you. Then something starts happening as your schedule grows. You begin realizing that getting clients once is not actually enough to create stability. my gosh, I remember when.
The very first person rebooked with me. I had probably worked on 30, 25, 30 people. Of course, a lot of family and friends and all that kind of stuff. But this was a stranger that I met that scheduled in with me. And when she came out of that massage, she said, Can I come back? And I didn't say sure. I said, What? You want to rebook with me? And she's Yeah. And I'm like, okay. It was so crazy to me that someone wanted to.
come back to me because I was so focused on just trying to get people on the table. You may have a few busy weeks followed by a slower week. It's pretty normal, or a month where things feel really excited, followed by a sudden drop in bookings, which really sucks. And that is usually where therapists begin realizing they need stronger repeat clientele systems. They need clients to return consistently enough that the business stops feeling unstable all the time. You literally can't run a business by getting new people on your table all the time.
Amy Bradley Radford (35:23.104)
It just doesn't work that way unless you're in an area where it's like vacation haven that's all you're getting is people coming on vacation. But when you're running a real business, then you have to have stronger repeat clientele systems. You learn how to level out your skills and also have consistency enough with each client so that they are going to return. And then it's usually at this point you learn how to design your massage work tailored to each client.
And as you continue in that process and you create more value inside each experience and you learn how each client needs or expectations met, then eventually the next shift happens. The schedule starts getting fuller. You become physically more experienced and maybe more exhausted. Confidence increases, skills increase, demand increases. And then suddenly, and I know those of you who are starting out can't believe this, suddenly your business problem changes again.
Now the therapist is no longer asking, my gosh, how do I get clients? Now they're asking, how do I keep going? How do I sustain this? When do I raise my prices? How do I stop from burning out? How do I work less while earning more? Ding, ding, ding. And how do I create longevity in this career? And that is a completely different phase in business. But what is fascinating again is that the same three cycles are still operating underneath everything.
Because when you raise your prices, guess what happens? You're going to need a few new referrals at a new value level. And then those new clients need to become repeat clients. And then your revenue stables again at that next business phase. And then it repeats. And then maybe later on you decide to specialize or you reduce your hours or you shift your clientele or you move into a higher end service or you transition towards pain management services. Or you might even create a more luxury experience.
Or step into coaching and teaching alongside massage. And every single time the business evolves, the cycle quietly begins again. And that is why I think therapists need to stop viewing business plateaus as failure. Many times what feels like stuck is actually transition or the time to transition. You know it's time to raise your prices when your schedule is full.
Amy Bradley Radford (37:41.102)
So full that you are booked out six weeks or more and that pressure feels really heavy. That's your business signaling it's time to change when you have arrived at full and bursting at the seams. Your business is simply prepared for the next level of growth, but the systems supporting that next level don't ever change. And I wish more therapists understood this because I think so many people leave this profession too early.
believing they are unsuccessful when really they're just simply sitting inside the next normal business growth without understanding what they're experiencing or what to do, or they refuse to move to the next level for fear of losing clients or their business. And when therapists do not understand these patterns, it's so natural to react emotionally instead of strategically, depending on the problem. Some of the things I've seen is they panic and they lower their prices, especially in the beginning, or they coupon to a point
Of their work being unsustainable or unsupported financially. I've seen people do this. They can get people in the door and they can have a full schedule, but they're making so little money they can't keep doing it. And then they have a clientele of these lower paying clients. And then they struggle because when they've got to move their prices up, they lose a lot of their clients because they undervalued themselves to begin with to just get people on the table.
Or they overwork or overbook themselves, trying to make up the difference when they don't have enough people scheduling and it's feast or famine and they don't have some consistency. Or they start trying all of these random marketing strategies just to get people in the door which aren't working for them and they don't understand why. And then they think it's them. They compare themselves to everyone else online. They start questioning their skills and then we lose our confidence. And they start believing everyone else.
You start believing. Everyone else somehow understands business much better than you do. And meanwhile, successful therapists are simply repeating these same cycles over and over with more awareness each time and less emotional panic attached to them. This is such an important realization for each of you. Because the therapists who stay successful long term are usually not the therapists who never struggle. They are the therapists who learned how to understand what stage their business is in currently.
Amy Bradley Radford (39:54.626)
And then strengthen the systems supporting that stage instead of shrinking every time growth requires some kind of adjustment. That is why I have now separated these ideas into some individual trainings instead of trying to teach them all together in one giant concept, which is what I had on my website, because I knew each one of you needed all three at one point, but that's not necessarily what you need at the moment. Because depending on where you're at inside your business, you may need support in a completely different area. A brand new therapist.
usually is only focused on getting referrals like yesterday. And the therapists with inconsistent bookings often need stronger retention and communication systems. They need to learn how to interpret and meet expectations with touch more than they need referrals or anything else. And a fully booked therapist who is exhausted may need revenue restructuring, pricing evolution, schedule refinement, maybe some healthier boundaries.
And those are completely different business problems, even though they all exist inside the same overall system. I think understanding that can feel incredibly validating because it helps therapists stop assuming that they are failing simply because their business currently needs attention in one area. So every business needs strengthening sometimes. Every therapist goes through growth phases. Every business level requires adjustment. There is simply normal business growth problems.
Sometimes you need someone to help you walk through those problems. I know I did. And I had the people that I could go to, my mentors that helped me. And I know that that doesn't always exist for everyone out there. And that is one of the reasons why I do this podcast because I think in some way this can be your mentoring that you're getting from me. So what matters is learning how to recognize the cycle you're in so you can respond intentionally instead of emotionally. I've talked a lot about emotional, but
The longer I'm in coaching and the longer I've worked with people, there is so much emotion tied into our businesses. And I think because we deal with people's emotions at the table, it's not so cut and dry as to be mechanical. And so it's important to talk about this emotional side of these cycles because business growth, it's never just about business for us, us massage therapists. We are not detached from our businesses. We can't be. Our businesses are deeply connected to.
Amy Bradley Radford (42:16.088)
Who we are, our energy, our emotions, what we pour into our clients, our confidence affects us substantially. Our finances can impact us, and it can even impact our identity sometimes. And when one part of that business feels unstable, it can start affecting everything in our world very quickly. I've oftentimes said your business is a mirror of you, both professionally and personally. And I know some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. When you're doing good in life,
Your business is. When you are struggling, your business is. And I believe this is true in any business, but you really see it in those service businesses, especially when you have to let go of what's bothering you in your life and create a positive experience for someone at the table. It's so interesting. And when I talk with people about struggling with revenue or struggling with their business or being burned out, there's a very viable personal component that's coming through and impacting their business.
All of this is especially true in massage therapy because most people enter this profession from a place of wanting to help. We're helpers. We are naturally caring people. And that's hard. That's hard to take that caring attitude and take business and put them together and maintain really great boundaries and move forward. All of us, we are sensitive people. We are nurturing people. We are observant people. And many are healers by personality. Many of us are healers by personality long before we ever became therapists.
Professionally. And while those qualities make someone wonderful at helping clients feel cared for, those same qualities can sometimes make business feel really, really complicated. We, me and you, massage therapists in general, we are so beautifully, beautifully complicated. But there are major differences between massage therapy and many other businesses. I think this is the part that makes massage business ownership.
feels so emotionally complicated sometimes. A bakery is providing a physical product, like we talked about. A boutique is providing a physical inventory. People can visibly see, touch, taste, wear, take home what those businesses are selling. But massage therapy is different because what we're offering is pretty much invisible. Yes, there is a physical touch happening, but what clients are truly purchasing is often much, much deeper than that. They are purchasing relief.
Amy Bradley Radford (44:37.46)
Regulation, comfort, support, trust, pain reduction, stress reduction, emotionally exhaling. How about some human connection? The feeling of finally feeling better inside their own body again. And because those results are not sitting visibly on a shelf somewhere, therapists, I think, struggle to fully understand what they are actually creating for people and why some clients deeply connect to the experience while others just simply don't.
So our work is communication through touch, which means the success of a massage business often depends on learning how to understand human needs at a much deeper level than simply squishing and kneading their muscles. We are constantly interpreting verbal communication and nonverbal communication. We're listening with our hands. We're
Acknowledging physical tension patterns, emotional stress patterns, nervous system responses, expectations, comfort levels, client experiences, all of that all at the same time. And that's what makes massage therapy such a unique kind of business because the product we are creating is an experience that even we can't fully see. That is why it becomes so important that you understand.
These business cycles. Because when your business is built around human experience instead of some sort of physical inventory, the systems supporting your trust, communication, consistency, retention, and value, honey, those become everything. They become everything to you because you have to have a gauge of some sort in all of that. Because as therapists, we often overgive, we overextend, we undervalue ourselves, we struggle with boundaries. And this is huge.
fear disappointing our clients or feel guilty for wanting to charge more, we tolerate schedules that exhaust us no matter how hard we try. We still emotionally absorb client stress or pain or heart eye, no matter how much we ground ourselves. And so many of us quietly tie our self-worth to how busy we are or how needed we feel inside of being busy. So when our business fluctuates, it does not just feel financial, it feels personal and it all gets jumbled together. So
Amy Bradley Radford (46:55.862)
Again, that's why understanding the business systems underneath everything becomes so important. You need that measurement, you need that gauge to help you know where you're going and why. Because I'm here to tell you, if your business only survives by constantly draining you, eventually something starts to break down. It's either your body or your nervous system or your mind or your passion goes away for what you do, or your relationships outside of your work start suffering. And I think many therapists normalize that exhaustion for far too long. I did.
I normalized it for far too long because they assume burnout is simply part of being successful in massage therapy. How many of you heard that massage therapists are only gonna, you know, we have a five-year limit to how long we're gonna work? How many of you heard that? I remember hitting five years going, hey, I'm okay. How long am I gonna do this? Now what do I do? Because I had a five-year goal in my mind. And when I hit five years, I was okay. So we normalize certain things like you're going to get injured or you're going to be hurt, but that's not true. And it doesn't have to be that way. And
I think your business has to be built intentionally. And I know that therapists who stay successful long term usually begin understanding that the goal is not about becoming busier. The goal is strengthening the systems inside your business enough that growth becomes more supportive instead of draining you. And that is a completely different mindset. There is a huge difference between being fully booked to the maximum degree.
And then being sustainably successful, which means you're charging within your value, seeing less clients, and creating more meaningful experiences for your clients. And for all you newer therapists out there, it's natural to assume that once you're finally busy, everything will settle down. Life will be happily ever after. And what actually happens is the next layer of business growth simply becomes visible to you. Now boundaries are going to matter more. Your time matters to you. Taking care of your body and your physical health matters.
Pricing matters. And retention matters so much more. Every stage of business growth reveals a different relationship with each of those three cycles. So before we wrap it up today, I want you to take a deep breath and really let all of this settle in for a minute. Because honestly, if there's one thing I hope you walk away after listening to this episode, it is this. You're probably doing better than you think you are. I know you are.
Amy Bradley Radford (49:21.708)
And I know that sounds easy to say, but I actually really mean it. I think so many massage therapists spend years looking at their business through the lens of what is missing, the clients they do not have yet, the money they are not making yet, the schedule that is not quite full enough yet, the confidence they wish they had, the skills they think everyone else has figured out but them. But none of that's really true. But I'm gonna tell you, if you spend enough focusing on what's missing, it becomes very easy to not see what's actually working.
You start forgetting what you've built so far. You think about it. You've learned a profession. You've learned a skill that isn't easy. You've learned how to invest in yourself. You have stepped into a room with another human being and learned how to help them feel better. You created trust. You created relationships. You learned how to be professional. You created experiences that people came back for. And all of that, all of that matters.
And I think massage therapists spend so much time trying to get to the next level that they never stop long enough to recognize how far they have already come. I know I did. And when I stopped and finally looked back, there was so much success, fulfillment, and purpose. And honey, that wasn't all about business and money. It was making a difference in people's lives. And that is just as important to me as the business and the money.
So the purpose of understanding these three cycles is not to give you one more thing to worry about. It's actually the opposite. It's my way of helping you and hopefully giving you the tools to just stop guessing. Because once you understand these systems inside your business, you can stop making every challenge means something about your worth. A slower month does not mean you're failing. It might mean you're tired. A schedule that feels inconsistent does not mean you are bad at business. It just might mean you need to shift.
A full schedule that feels exhausting does not mean you chose the wrong profession. this one hits home kind of hard sometimes. I have felt that. I felt like I needed to get a new job at other times. And that usually happened when I was not managing my schedule like I needed to. Most of the time, any of these, it just simply means one part of the system is asking for your attention. And that is a problem you can solve. And that is where hope lives. Because if there's a system, there's a solution. And if there's a solution,
Amy Bradley Radford (51:41.496)
Then there's a path forward. And maybe your next step is learning how to create stronger client retention. Or maybe your next step is learning how to generate more referrals. Or maybe your next step is finally understanding your value well enough to create revenue that supports both your clients and yourself. But whatever stage you are in, you do not have to solve everything at once. You only need to understand what your business is asking you to learn next.
And that is exactly why I separated these topics into individual classes, because a therapist struggling with referrals does not need the same answers as a therapist who is fully booked and burned out. So support should match the problem and the solution should match the stage. And when these things align, business starts feeling a lot less overwhelming. So as you leave this episode today, I want you to ask yourself one question.
Which one of the three cycles is asking for my attention right now? Is it referrals? Is it repeat clients or is it revenue? Because the answer to that question may be the very thing that helps you stop spinning your wheels and finally start moving forward with more confidence, more clarity, and a lot less frustration. A hell of a lot less frustration. So I want to thank you for spending this time with me today, and I am incredibly grateful you're here.
I believe this profession needs good therapists and I believe the world needs what you and I are doing. And I believe more massage therapists deserve to build businesses that support them as well as they support their clients. So until next time, I want you to keep learning, keep growing, and keep believing in the value of the work you bring into the world. And just know I'm here cheering for you.
Amy Bradley Radford (53:30.136)
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 amibradleyradford.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.
