speaker-0 (00:02.626)
Welcome to Massage Business Success. I'm Amy Bradley Radford, and this is the podcast for massage therapists who want to grow their business, strengthen their skills, and create a career they love. Let's get started. Well, welcome everybody to the Massage Business Success Podcast. I'm Amy Bradley Radford, your host, and today we have a treat.
I've brought a guest speaker on today. Her name is Shelly Hagan. And I got to meet Shelly because she was a continuing education provider at one of our AMTA events in Idaho. And I just loved our conversation with her. In fact, we couldn't stop talking. So I said, hey, let's take this conversation to my podcast and we're gonna start we're gonna just really explore some of the things that we talked about. But before we dive into all of that, Shelly, why don't you introduce yourself to us?
speaker-1 (00:53.602)
Thank you. I'm so excited to sit and visit. We are gonna have so much fun. There's gonna be so much to learn. There is so much to learn in this, but I am so excited to be here. I have been doing massage therapy for 25 years, more than half of my life. And just kind of felt into it in that my mother was having migraines and I was going to college for exercise science and Spanish. And no, I am not teaching aerobics in Mexico.
speaker-0 (00:59.214)
We're gonna have so much fun.
speaker-0 (01:23.456)
Everybody was even asked like
speaker-1 (01:25.548)
That what you're going to be doing? And I'm like, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a massage therapist. And so I went on to massage therapy school, started that, and graduated my program, started in business right away because 25 years ago, there just wasn't the opportunities that there are today. And so that really was my only option. And from there, started my own office. Then I decided and grew and I needed more therapists.
So I started bringing more therapists on. I've worked with independent contractors, then turned to an employee-based model. And from there was realizing that there was a lot of gaps in education. And that led me to teaching a lot of people when I would bring them on to be part of my team. And it just got to be the point where it's like, I just need to put a school together. And that way I can teach them from the ground up.
And from the teaching of the school, then started kind of seeing some pinch points because in every negative or any trouble, there comes an opportunity for improvement and growth. And so with that, started a continuing education company as well with core stones because we were working with our hot stones, which if you all know your pulled pork roaster needs to return to the picnic table.
speaker-0 (02:50.328)
To the kitchen.
speaker-1 (02:52.034)
Pulled pork roaster to go. I'm sorry. The water, the flaming heat, all of the above. And again, please don't think that I did this within the first year of coming out of school. No school. No, no. 25 years worth of traveling journey through. And then with that, mentoring a lot of people, making a lot of missteps myself. And that's where a lot of my growth has come from.
And then now my newest venture that I'm bringing into the world is Massage Marketplace. And I'm really excited, just again created out of the need that I have seen personally working with continuing education and creating a collaborative in community worldwide of massage practitioners because we need to collaborate.
speaker-0 (03:40.95)
You know
speaker-1 (03:42.026)
Shell, that is Shelly.
speaker-0 (03:44.174)
And I'm positive there's gonna be more facets to this diamond because I tell you what, I listen to her and I'm like, my goodness, I get tired. She's got so much going on, but she is a wonderful educator and just a wonderful individual to sit and talk to. And so I thought it would be a really great podcast to just break some things down because one of the things that you and I had kind of talked about when we met was, and this was primarily from
My perspective of the podcast and the people I work with is the struggles, the struggles that massage therapists go through from the time they graduate till they become successful. And even sometimes as they become successful, some of the struggles, and you've got to see it from all perspectives. You've got to see it as the school owner and the graduates. You've got to see people going out in the world and coming back with questions. You've got to see it with employing people and how they're coming into that. And all of these different things that
you get to see from the top down and we're talking to the people coming up and how do we bridge that gap between school and the next place that you want to be? So we we have some things that we wanted to go over and cover with you today.
speaker-1 (04:54.83)
Absolutely. And I just want to say to the listener right now who is tuning in, how kudos to you for reaching out to have content and really learning beyond just kind of sitting and spinning, perhaps. Or maybe you just need some encouragement. So you are in the right spot today.
speaker-0 (05:13.004)
Well, that's my primary goal. I've had people ask me for a long time, why are you running this podcast? Because people need some encouragement. They need some confidence. They need to know the next step when they don't know the next step. They just need to know they're not alone. Because there's so many of us doing the same thing and we're trying to get to the same place. So how about we all go there together?
speaker-1 (05:33.496)
Absolutely. And that collaboration, that is where we need to head. Yeah.
speaker-0 (05:39.064)
Yeah, I completely agree. So we're gonna talk about a couple of different pieces here that her and I have pre-discussed and spent lots of time talking about, but we're gonna talk about the gap between graduation and reality. And Shelly, I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. So what surprises graduates the most when they start out into the world as a massage therapist?
speaker-1 (06:01.342)
I think that graduates are very well prepared with their how they have been taught in their in their schooling. So they you've understand now going to to class how to get that A, how to write that paper, how to learn those muscles, how to focus in and and passing that emblex. That's a huge one. And really mastering clinic.
And having a full book of clients, clients loving you. And all of a sudden, there is graduation that happens, and the next step, and all of a sudden, the world gets quiet. There's no teachers there anymore to talk to and kind of give you that, hey, I need this due on Friday, or hey, we need you here by a certain time. There's
Nobody there to answer your phone. You know, if you're independent, you've gone and started your own company. There's nobody there to answer your phone to book those clients like you were in clinic in school. So all of a sudden, it gets to be a very quiet and confusing world for a lot of people at that point. And a lot of graduates leave with that business plan in hand and
speaker-0 (07:22.146)
Yes.
speaker-1 (07:29.302)
When I travel, I teach continuing it all throughout the United States. And people telling me that it's like, hey, I was really trained well in my business. And then I'll have some people say, Hey, I really didn't, you know, they kind of glossed over some different things. So kind of an inconsistency in that plan. But a lot of those students leave with that business plan in hand and think, Okay, I've got it. This is all I need. This is gonna be so easy.
I had a full book of business in when I was in school. I had people asking for business cards, rebooking, raving about me, leaving me amazing student feedback and how I was going to change the world and how they were going to bring all their family and tell everybody about me when I got started. And all of a sudden, like I said, the world gets really quiet. Quiet. And that treatment room.
can be really, really dark and silent. And that phone can sit without notifications for a very long time. But what doesn't stop is the bills that keep rolling in. The rent is coming due, the costs of the expenses of your space. Definitely huge, huge surprise.
speaker-0 (08:52.524)
You know, we were discussing this and we were talking about the the graduate, the new graduate expectation versus reality. And I think the hardest part is what you're describing is the reality. Is the reality because, you know, even when I was teaching school, you know, we would work on business plans and these students would be so proud of their business plans. They come up with all of these amazing ideas. They'd lay them out in this plan. And the problem is.
You're convinced in your own mind because of the success you're having in the clinic and you pass your emblex that you're gonna have the exact same success in this business plan. And everything that you put in this business plan is going to work like magic and this magic wand is gonna go over your massage table and voila, all of these people are gonna walk through the door. And it doesn't happen that way.
speaker-1 (09:41.972)
No, nope, not for most.
speaker-0 (09:45.44)
No, not for both. The reason behind that isn't a lack of education or what you walk away from school with or your expectation even. Most of the people coming into this field don't know what it's like to build a business. They don't know what it's like to run a business. I call it the employee mentality coming into a business situation because when you show up to work and you punch the clock, you just do your tasks and then you punch your clock and out you go. You don't see what it takes to make that business run. And so when you show up to work.
And there's nobody there, it's very different. And that's why I say it's expectations versus reality. And what it really takes to get people through the door, and what it really takes to build a business, and what you have to be willing to adjust your perception to to be successful.
speaker-1 (10:36.394)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that there is that dream, the American dream. yeah. Everybody has it, right? We want to be able to control when we work, how long we work, how much income that we have, income earning potential that we have. So we come into massage school and it's like that's one of the selling factors, right? You can be your own business, you can be your own boss. And that's so exciting because it's like nobody's gonna tell me when I need to be somewhere. And
And nobody's gonna make me work when I don't want to work. And the expectation of that versus the reality of that, which what you will talk, if you lined up a hundred business owners, they would tell you that they work far more hours. And for them to, you know, when five o'clock rolls around, that's when the first shift is just first shift is.
speaker-0 (11:29.974)
No kidding.
speaker-1 (11:31.926)
Yeah, that's that is it. If you take a day off, hey, I want to take the day off, I want to take the week off, that is great because you are your own business. But that means also that there's no income coming in for that week. And that is a huge reality. It's like, wait a minute. So now where are you gonna make up that income? Pay? Nope. Unfortunately not. That's a huge my goodness, really? I never thought of that. Yeah.
speaker-0 (11:52.47)
It's not vacation.
speaker-0 (12:00.116)
It's it's that employee mentality that comes into working for yourself. And there is a transition period. So that that difference of what it takes versus what we think it's going to take. I think that area of our mind is the hardest thing to shift. Because if we get really burrowed in to our brain of what we think things are going to have to be or what we're willing to do to be successful, we end up fighting ourselves in business a lot. A lot.
speaker-1 (12:28.812)
Yep, absolutely.
speaker-0 (12:30.53)
I think this is a good place to bring in work ethic, but what does that really mean? And it means different things to different people. Shelly and I spent some time talking about work ethic. Actually, we spent some time identifying one another because we're both kind of workaholics just a little bit. But I love working. I have this little ADHD brain that just takes off on all of these different tangents, and I think, my gosh, I could do this and I could do this and I could do this. And
And I have, I have done a lot of things, owning schools and running a continuing education company and a podcast and all of these fun things, but I really enjoy working. And so for me, work ethic is a little different than perhaps some other people. And I know that Shelly is a workhorse herself. And so we wanted to talk about what work ethic means translated into this expectation versus reality, because
I've seen this. I've seen this with my own graduating students. I've seen this with therapists who are struggling. And I think this is a really good thing to just kind of break down and have a conversation around because maybe the expectation inside of that is what is holding up some of the success for some of the people listening to this podcast. What do you think work ethic means for massage therapists coming out of school, being an employee or being self-employed?
speaker-1 (13:48.674)
Well, I think this goes back into reality and expectation again. You know, when you're in school, clinic is very easy to book. I know our clinic is can be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 4 30 p.m., which fills very, very nicely. Even the morning is a little slower, of course, but they're again so easy because there is a market for that discounted session.
And so this therapist comes out and is like, I'm gonna do a 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. And then I'm gonna have the rest of my day free. I'm not gonna have to do any more work. So then I can go and I can do whatever I want. And so really defining work ethic has become such a confusing yes, because all of a sudden we're getting different messages. We're getting this message of don't burn yourself out.
speaker-0 (14:32.96)
It is confusing.
speaker-1 (14:42.392)
Take your mental health day, take your time, don't overextend, get your boundaries set. So we have this balancing act that's happening, that we want to be very successful, but we only wanna be successful between the times of 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
speaker-0 (15:02.356)
I'm sorry. I shouldn't be I should not be laughing.
speaker-1 (15:06.58)
that's the that is the mindset. It's like, okay, so I'm gonna be super, I'm gonna, I'm gonna light the world on fire, but only the hours between noon and four. Because if I go outside of that, now I'm gonna be burning myself out and then that's not gonna be any good. And now I am not doing myself a service. I'm not living to work. I'm working to live. There's all these, it's not a badge of honor to be to put in extra hours.
So this is kind of this thing that we're fighting. How do you navigate this? How do you balance all of this? And number one, I always tell whether it's my children or my students is if you find something that you absolutely love to do, figure out what your passions of your life are, right? And then figure out how you can be compensated or make it a way that you can make a living off of what you love to do, because then you don't work a day in your life.
And so that has always been how I was raised and what my strategy has been. I happen to really enjoy creating new things. So as far as if I have to put in an extra couple hours, I will do it because I want to see it come to the level that I want it to be. And I don't put myself in the box of I can only work from nine to one. if the job needs to be done, you put in the time to make it happen.
So again, how do you balance this? Cause I know that there's people listening to this and they're like, okay, I get where you're headed here, but how do you make this happen?
speaker-0 (16:45.26)
One of the first things that comes to my mind is, you know, in some of the business classes I teach, we all know this in our mind, but sometimes we have to speak it out loud to really hear it. So Shelly, let me ask you, do you make eighty dollars an hour, forty hours a week? No. Do you make eighty dollars a session when you're working?
speaker-1 (17:00.758)
Yeah.
speaker-1 (17:04.928)
No.
speaker-0 (17:08.917)
So you you have to change your mind. And this is the very first thing. You have to change your mind around how you earn money and how it comes in. Because when you're a massage therapist, let's say you're doing 16 sessions a week. Let's say you have a really great business rolling and you've got 16 sessions a week. That's not 16 hours. That'll never be 16 hours. That's 16 hours of table time. But then you have another five hours of laundry.
Or maybe fifty hours of laundry. I don't know how that works for everybody, but it never ends. You have you have bookkeeping and then you've got cleaning and then you've got you've got all of these things. And we all know this, but we want to slide back into how little can I work to get the greatest amount of money to come to me. And I think that's where some people get a little hung up in their careers of I don't want to put time in for free because that's how they see it, but you have to change your mind.
Because it's not time in for free. And if you were to line up those hundred business owners like you talked about and ask them how much they earn per hour, they couldn't tell ya. Because they wouldn't.
speaker-1 (18:15.034)
I tell my business owners do not calculate that. No because you will be very disappointed. You will be I yeah, thank you. You will be very disappointed. Think there has been so many times where I'm just like, if I went over to McDonald's, I would already be making more than than I would than I am now. And
speaker-0 (18:39.054)
I've never heard that before, but you are correct.
speaker-1 (18:41.376)
It is. And I don't say that to be defeating. I don't not at all. I'm not saying like, let's have a mass exodus out of massage therapy because you know you can make more you can make yeah, more at McDonald's. It's simply the reality that you can you have to stop calculating hourly because it's no longer a mindset. It's looking at if any of you have retirement funds of like a 401k.
speaker-0 (18:49.742)
Employment in general.
speaker-1 (19:09.878)
Okay, you you don't look at the monthly statement.
speaker-0 (19:12.428)
You don't. It's a defensive
speaker-1 (19:14.798)
Correct. Because one day it's supposed to pay out, right? You simply move ahead with the confidence. You're putting everything forward that you that you need to be putting forward. So we're talking about consistency. You're you're showing up every day, regardless if you have a full book of business that day or not. You're showing up and you are having tasks for yourself. Cause so this is where that self-discipline comes into play as well.
speaker-0 (19:44.523)
yeah.
speaker-1 (19:45.178)
Because, and I don't know how many times I hear therapists say, I didn't book today, so I'm just gonna go shopping. Okay. Or I'm gonna go take a me day, right? Which is great because you need that from time to time. But guess what? There is nothing happening in your business to move you forward with taking a dark day, right? When the theater is shut, they call it dark, right? So it's the same thing with.
your business. So when you take a dark day, there is nothing moving ahead. So then you also can taking a look at your reliability. Are you canceling appointments on your clients because you need a me day, right?
speaker-0 (20:26.2)
That's a big one. I've seen I've seen this one a lot.
speaker-1 (20:29.278)
One is this is a chronic issue. This is something that's happening. I see that even in employees, that they push themselves a little too hard over the weekend with their fun. Then all of a sudden they look at the schedule. And I don't know. This is another one. I will I will look at my calendar, and future Shelly is so much more capable than the day of Shelly. So I will be booking appointments and I will book myself solid on a day.
Because that's future Shelly. Future Shelly's gonna worry about this. Then the day comes or the the night before that day, and I'm like, what was I thinking? Like, this is nuts. Why did I put so many appointments on this day? Okay, I'm just not really feeling it. So I'm gonna actually call the first few and move them because I just overbooked myself and I don't feel like I want that. So now all of a sudden clients are being bounced around and now.
they're not feeling like they can rely on you. So they they're looking to go somewhere else.
speaker-0 (21:33.898)
Or they turn around and do the same thing back. Yes. You set the precedence of how your clients behave. So if it's okay for you to cancel on them, then it's okay for them to cancel on you at the last minute and not be expected to cover it. So, you know, it's it's tit for tat, as I call it. Like you train your clients based on your behavior with them.
speaker-1 (21:36.898)
Correct.
speaker-1 (21:57.174)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And so then you have your initiative, right? So moving ahead, taking the initiative to reach out to people to clients that you haven't seen in a while. That is a constant. So if you don't have people booked for the day, you should have a system in place. And I'm sure that, Amy, you have some content on systems.
speaker-0 (22:18.734)
me in systems. Me and systems. yes. So
speaker-1 (22:22.926)
So that you already know when you get up in the morning, if you are not booked in a certain area, you already have the protocol, okay, I'm not booked for my first hour. I'm going to consistently go through these steps and I'm gonna look, I'm gonna reach out to these clients that I haven't seen in a while. I'm going to have a list of tasks so that you are moving yourself ahead, right?
speaker-0 (22:48.088)
call it working your schedule. This is actually one of the primary pieces of running your business. It is your responsibility to maintain a full schedule. And then what are all of the systems in place to do that? Because when you come to work and you've got two openings, that's money lost.
Because we only do work so many hours a week. We are limited to the number of I can't do 30 hours of massage, 30 sessions. I can't do 30 appointments. Some of you can. I have met some people that can. I think, wow, you're amazing. I can do 10 to 15 appointments. So every one of those hours is essential to my bottom line. So what are the systems you have in place to fill that? Would you like me to give you some ideas?
So I called this, I call this working your schedule. So you look at your schedule and you go, okay, I have twenty-four hours to fill that time slot and I don't have anybody on a cancellation list. And so cancellation list is the very first one. And if you're really busy, you will have a cancellation list. The second thing is is you look through your schedule and go, you know, Nancy told me a couple of times ago that she'd like to get in earlier, but I was full.
So I'm going to call her up and see if she wants to take that appointment because that gives me 48 hours or 96 hours to find someone else to fill that next appointment. So I'm not losing that hour. so-and-so has a gift certificate hanging out there, and I know they do. And I teach people that you don't pay yourself with your gift certificate money until people come in. That's when you pay yourself. You don't spend before they're there. So call them up and say, hey, I know you have a gift certificate. I have an opening. I'd love to see you today. And then there's other things. And that's
working your schedule, but you have to be aware and you have to be willing. And I'm going to say that right there. You have to be willing to make sure your time is full instead of going, I have an hour off. I'm going to I'm going to go over to, you know, Target and find some summer clothes. You have to be willing and disciplined to do that.
speaker-1 (24:39.892)
Yeah, another one that we find is very successful is reaching out to the clients that we currently have booked for the day and offering them an extra 30 minutes. So then you even if you have to discount it a little bit, you now have the person before that time staying an extra 30, and you have the person coming in after coming in an extra 30 ahead of time. And so now you have you have scheduled through that that hour that was sitting blank.
speaker-0 (25:07.894)
You've earned something, which you and I have had a conversation about as well. And I think this might be a great segue into it. You've earned something. Something. So Shelly and I have talked about, we see this, and and I and I saw this a lot with with students as well when they graduated. And I even see it with people like I coach in business, where you know, one of the things I talk to new business owners about is a concept that I call the power of the invitation.
And that is where you make a list of people you know, your brand new business, and you invite them to your table for free for a half an hour to sample your services. And when I mention this to people, some people are like, my gosh, that's such a great idea. And they and they roll with it. And it's amazing how fast they build their clientele because they were willing to put marketing time into hands-on time. So they they doubled their ability to get more people on the table. And then I hear this one, but I'm not gonna work for free. Shelly, have you ever heard?
That one of I'm not gonna work for free?
speaker-1 (26:03.606)
Yes, I hear that. I I that is a common one that I hear a lot when I'm talking about business and people are asking me how I built as fast as I did. Now I think there needs to be a shift in mindset. Okay. When you first get started, what do you have a lot of money or time? Okay, so you get time. So what's the difference of you spending sixty dollars on marketing?
speaker-0 (26:23.465)
Yeah.
speaker-1 (26:32.942)
For like a Facebook post or Instagram or boosting something or a postcard or whatnot, a billboard or whatever, versus spending $60 of your time, which is no output of cash. It's simply time that you have because you don't have anybody there to do a 30-minute session to have them come in and experience you.
have an opportunity to get to know you because bottom line if you learn nothing more about business the key element to business is personal relationships that's it that is it boil it all down the noise the cost all the things boil it down personal relationship if you can connect with somebody and bring a value because we are all as humans we are programmed to need each other that is the key and
As we've come through COVID and become more a technology and we've kind of created this wall between people.
speaker-0 (27:32.28)
Void of human connection.
speaker-1 (27:34.648)
Voided of human connection. And I'm just really excited too for massage therapy in the industry because AI cannot touch us. Because you cannot, I mean, they've tried with this robot thing and they've tried with all these things to recreate us. And luckily for us, is you cannot swap out human connection and the exchange of energies because we're all energetic beings, right? So having this ability to connect.
on that personal level. Now they rebook with us. And now who now, okay, so and I just have to preface a bulletin board or a billboard is probably the worst investment that you probably can make with your money. You will you will blow a ton of money. Does it seem cool? Is it ego boosting? Yeah, for sure. If you want to do that, go you know, go for it. Have that experience. The amount of calls that you will get from that is you're you're lucky if you're going to get one. Yep.
So now you've spent seven grand on this billboard, or you have spent seven grand worth of your time to do those half an hour sessions and now have rebooks. Correct. So when people start getting a little snarky with me and snarly, because they say, you just want me to give away my time and devalue myself. Want me to work for free? That is not it at all.
speaker-0 (28:45.73)
Have a full schedule.
speaker-0 (28:56.716)
Want me to work for free?
speaker-1 (29:00.97)
It is a different mind shift and strat strategy. That's what it is. It is a different strategy. And you are strategizing to use your time, which equ you can equate to so if you want to put a dollar amount to it, fine. How much you're investing that time you're investing into that human connection. Now you could either a just blow that money, seven grand, and sit by your phone and wait, or
you can actually move yourself ahead with seven grand worth of time to your next level of success.
speaker-0 (29:36.172)
You know, I have to add something in right here because I know this is a strategy that a lot of massage therapists use when they get out of school because it's the easiest one. It's the easiest one for us to approach. And that's social media. Yes. And I while I think it's great to post daily, I've had some people say I'm posting three times a day and I'm still not getting anybody. Right. And it's because most people have to experience your touch.
In one way or another. They have to sample your services to know that you're safe and they're safe and they like what you're doing and they want to pay for it. And none of that comes through a great social media post with a great picture of you doing massage. None of it does. It doesn't. So our businesses are even just a little more unique in that we have to really create this trust with people.
For them to want to get back on our table. And the easiest way for us to do that is to figure out a way for us to get our hands on them first. And so this is like way effective marketing. So again, you can look at it like I'm not gonna work for free because I hear it all the time. Or this is the most effective marketing you could ever do that literally isn't costing you anything. Because if you invite 10 people to your table,
Like, hey, come try my services. People that you know that you just started your business. Hey, you said when I was in business to let you know. And also, why don't you come to my table for a half an hour and just get to know me and my service? Out of those 10 people, if you get all 10 on your table, I guarantee you 80% of them will rebook. And then you're going to start the next piece of this. And that is they're going to tell their friends. Right. They're going to tell their family. They're going to tell their neighbors, their coworkers, because referral is the golden ticket.
speaker-1 (31:10.326)
Yes, they will.
speaker-0 (31:22.744)
To everything we do. And you have to get this train rolling. You have you have to get it going down the tracks in order for that to happen. You know, there's actually an AMTA statistic. There's a they put out studies every year and they ask all thousands of massage therapists how they get how their business runs, how they get referrals, where their people are coming from, what kind of services they're offering. And 82% of your clientele comes from referrals.
So not only when when you get someone on your table, not only are you getting them to come back, you're setting up the machine, the system, to turn around and create the referrals. And so you have a choice. You have a choice in your mind to say, I'm not gonna work for free, or you have a choice to look at it and go, how best do I get more and more people on my table? This is my marketing tactic right here. And it doesn't cost you anything except your time.
speaker-1 (32:16.622)
Absolutely. Now, then the other piece is when you have those people come in and you are doing your session with them, this needs to be quality. It needs to be showing up prepared. It needs to be above and beyond. And that is something that we have lost, that I feel that we have lost. If you can hone in on customer service.
speaker-0 (32:29.333)
very much.
speaker-1 (32:46.742)
And that I mean, that's a whole nother podcast, right?
speaker-0 (32:49.066)
That is a whole n especially for massage therapy. That is a whole nother podcast.
speaker-1 (32:53.07)
So we have bringing them a value of something that you is your differential advantage, something that sets you apart from other practitioners. Because every one of us has a the secret sauce. We all have our own secret sauce. We are all created to have that and be authentic and unique. We are not in competition with each other.
speaker-0 (33:21.608)
Another podcast.
speaker-1 (33:22.732)
And that is a whole nother podcast. But when that potential client or that new person comes into your office, you need to be focused in on them. You need to be giving them the time that you said you were. You're not showing up late with your sandwich in hand or that you got caught in the drive-thru, right? And you're showing up at the same time they are, that you're building value for them.
That they see that this is beyond a transaction because we've become very transactional. It's just like we're behind computers, we're just like, hand me the money, move along, hand me the money, move along. So if you are going to be connecting with these people and creating that value for them so that there is a reason for them to come back and want to connect with you. Right. So that's another thing because therapists all of a sudden are saying, okay, well, I'll do this then. So they're just turning and burning, right?
okay. Well, now I just get all these people coming through and it's not working, Shelly. It's not working. You told me that if I did this and I'm just working for free and I'm just giving all this away and people aren't rebooking. All right. Well, then we need to look at your your strategy and we need to look at what are you doing in that interaction? And this is where I would suggest if you're really, really
Finding that, you know, if out of 10 people you're only getting one person to rebook or two people to rebook, that you spend a little bit of income and connecting with a coach. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. So you can continue to be stubborn. And I know well, this wasn't a problem in school, and I just don't know why this is happening now. And you know, I know everything. I I was taught everything. Okay, that could be true, but pretend.
Perhaps you just need some tweaks. Perhaps you need to have somebody from an outside point of view to walk through and be like, okay, this is great. You are nailing this. And then say, okay, here is a spot that could be seen as maybe aggressive. This is a spot that could be seen as passive. Or this is a spot that you're just completely missing altogether. And you can continue to head down the road for six months.
speaker-1 (35:41.972)
and struggle and be constantly scrapping and scraping. Or you can spend X amount of dollars, maybe it's going to cost you $500 to get some assistance. Now you have invested, invested is the word, right? Because it's bringing you forward. When you're sitting there swinging and just spinning, there is no investment. You are continually letting money go down the drain. $500 now you are given a new perspective to connect you
With the potential now. So now that $500 is recouped within a couple months, if not faster. So that's the mindset shift as well. And I think a lot of people, it's like, well, where do I go? Who do I who do I talk to? Well, get on, get on and connect with this, these podcasts, right?
speaker-0 (36:32.398)
Come talk to me. Come talk to me.
speaker-1 (36:34.734)
Reach out to Amy and have her do an inventory with you on how you can improve some areas.
speaker-0 (36:44.258)
Here's something I've learned after years of coaching massage therapists. The biggest thing holding most businesses back isn't talent, it's perspective. When you're inside your own business every day, it's almost impossible to see the habits, systems, and decisions that are keeping you stuck. That's where coaching changes everything. If you're ready for honest feedback, a clear strategy, and someone who's invested in helping you build a business that you actually love, I'd love to talk to you.
Coaching is application based because I want to make sure that you and I are right fit for each other. You can learn more and apply at amybradleyradford.com or click on the link in the podcast description. Now back to our episode. One of the reasons I became a podcaster, and one of the biggest reasons I became a massage coach, I actually fell into massage coaching. Because how many massage coaches have business coaches have you met? I mean, literally. And this for me, this started when I was
Because my my dual passion is pain management, really specific pain management. And I was teaching one of my classes and we were at lunch and I was sitting around with everybody because of course I brought my own lunch and I was just chatting with everybody and I had somebody say, Hey, Amy, I have a business question. And I was like, Okay. So they asked me this question. And everybody that was there for lunch that day turned and paid attention because it was the same question they all had.
And then that question led to another question. It led to another question. And everybody showed up from lunch and they were like, no, no, no, we want to hear what you have to say. And we were talking about business and and an hour into class time that we were supposed to be learning some pain management stuff, I finally said, We have to stop. And everybody said, Please don't. And I said, you know what? I'll do this for you. As soon as we're done with class today, we'll stay after and I'll answer whatever your question. We ordered dinner. We were there for another three or four hours.
Because nobody was really sitting down and dissecting and breaking this down so that they had answers. And those people walked away. And I got so many calls back because finally someone was able to help them identify the issue they were having in their business. And mind you, I've taught more than one class where, and I'm sure you've seen this too, Shelly, where people were coming to the class to learn another technique because they thought that's what would fix their business problems. And while it helps and it gives you more tools and helps you.
speaker-0 (39:07.192)
Have more to offer more people, it still doesn't necessarily fix what you don't understand about running your own business. And so I created a monthly coaching group, a weekly coaching group. And I had like 15 or 18 people join that group right off the bat because they wanted to fix these problems in their business. And based on that experience I had and all of the coaching I've done since then, I started this podcast because there are people that don't even know who to ask.
help them with their problems. And if what you and I are talking about today helps them go, that's me. And now I have two ideas I can go use. Then we've done everything that I'm hoping to do. Because I know for our field specifically, there are two things happening when we're building our businesses. Number one, we're still figuring out our hands when we come out of school. We really are. Because it's one thing to practice in a clinic where the environment is set, your boundaries are there and you have help.
And you have bodies to work on, and it's a whole nother thing to get out there. And your level of professionalism just jumped 100%. And what people expect is a little different than what they expect in clinic from you. And so we have to learn that skill on top of learning how to build a business at the same time. So how do you do both at the same time and be successful enough to make your car payment? That's what we're talking about here. And so, yes, there may come a time where you need to invest a little more in yourself to be successful.
And it is well worth your investment. I would have to say that ninety-nine point nine percent of the people I've worked with have recouped their investment within a matter of weeks when they've worked with me because it taught them how to get people on the table.
speaker-1 (40:49.088)
No, that's that's absolutely true. You can go it alone because it's cheap. You can go it alone. Now, but what is the cost of being ineffective? You have to ask yourself, what is the cost of that? What is the cost of a mistake? And mistakes are gonna happen. Don't get me wrong. Even if you have a mentor and a coach, you're gonna make mistakes because that's just part of life. And if you never try anything, because there's a lot of people that are paralyzed in fear too. So that's the other one. I have the stubborn people.
They're like, you can't tell me what to do. I know, I know what I'm doing. I've got this. I know it all. Okay, that's great. I'm glad you have that confidence. But ask yourself, am I succeeding? Could I do better? And so I'm just gonna have plant that seed right there. And if that's the case, let's talk a little bit more about that. We have the people that are afraid. I don't know if I can do this. Can I do this? I'm afraid to pick up the phone and call somebody. I'm afraid.
I'm a I'm afraid to ask for a rebook because that what if they say no? Okay. So we have that. We also have the caregiver mentality. I am just gonna love everybody to death and I am gonna make a million dollars off of my love.
speaker-0 (42:00.664)
And I'm gonna burn myself out completely.
speaker-1 (42:03.02)
Yep. And no matter what time they call of the day, I'm gonna come a run-in. And to different degrees, sometimes people are kind of a mixture of all three, right? And some days, depending upon how you're feeling. Maybe you had a really great week and you've booked really easily for the week. I know that was always something first starting out. You'd have a really great week and you're like, yes, the wheels are turning. I'm finally over this. And now the next month comes and it's Cricketville. And you're sitting there wondering where did all these people go?
How did how did I do this? What happened? Right. So take a look, really realistically take a look at yourself and ask you, am I actually at the point that I want to be? And if you're not, what's gonna be your strategy? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna continue on hoping, wishing, sitting on your phone more and posting more Facebook posts? Or perhaps you need to say, I'm gonna take a few minutes.
And I'm gonna reach out and I'm gonna get an appointment scheduled to look and strategize with a coach. And from there, you know, maybe that's all you need is a small visit, get you back recalibrated from time to time. But maybe you need some real hands-on assistance that ongoing. And there's nothing wrong with that.
speaker-0 (43:20.832)
No, and you know what, there's a lot of older therapists out there that would love to spend some time. Yes. And from my perspective of being an older therapist, really old therapist, one of the things that was hard for me is I had a lot of people wanting to, you know, once you've been in business for a long time and you got all these referrals, you get to a point where you can't take you can't take more people. Right. But on the flip side of that, who do you refer them to? Right. And, you know, this is where building those relationships with
these therapists, there is there's a lot of older therapists out there that would love to make a relationship with a motivated new student willing to learn perhaps some of the nuances of this person's massage. So that referring clients over, they know that they're getting a similar treatment. And that's a that's another podcast.
speaker-1 (44:09.71)
It's a whole nother podcast. That one I could I have stories for days on that.
speaker-0 (44:14.359)
yeah, if you could affiliate yourself with someone who's willing to show you what made them successful and you're willing to learn from them.
speaker-1 (44:21.942)
He is willing to learn from
speaker-0 (44:23.918)
Drilling to learn. Which may mean adjusting what you do a little.
speaker-1 (44:28.12)
Correct. And being respectful of that person. Yes. And having reverence for that person too, because that is a very common one. I'm just going to say you have that mentor that is helping you and giving their time and energy and sharing their secret sauce.
speaker-0 (44:45.09)
Yeah, there's a there's a whole nother mentality there. I'm gonna put this out there because I've helped therapists mentor other therapists and I created a contract. And that contract really outlines some things because I think there needs to be some stuff thrown on the table if you're gonna do this, because you can't take advantage of people. You can't.
speaker-1 (45:04.812)
No. And I'm just gonna say it's not okay to take your mentor's client list and download it and then leave and then send all of their clientele where you're now practicing. I'm just gonna throw that out there. Not that that's ever happened to me twice.
speaker-0 (45:25.098)
You tried to help too much, Shelley. Is that what I'm saying? You tried to help too much?
speaker-1 (45:28.94)
I assisted and got them wings to help because of course they did the work, but I encouraged them and gave them wings and they decided on their way out that they needed to download my client list and take off.
speaker-0 (45:42.146)
This is this has turned into an ethics class.
speaker-1 (45:45.42)
Yeah, no, I know. And that's why it's like we could go I it was like, How many podcasts is this? Because this the amount of experiences that I have had could fill years.
speaker-0 (45:54.754)
But you know what, Shelly? You're talking about nothing new. It becomes the choice of every single person to remain ethical. And we're supposed to take these ethics classes, so we understand ethical business, but the adoption process of ethics is another story. So, Shelly, let's talk for a minute about why passion isn't enough. Why is passion not enough for this business? You know, one of the biggest insights from our meeting was many therapists love massage, but very few understand what it takes to build a business. And I just want to touch on this for a minute.
Why is passion not enough?
speaker-1 (46:25.838)
Well, wanting something and being willing to do what it takes to get something are two separate things. Cause we all, yeah, I want a new car, I want a new house, I want, I want to be a millionaire. Okay. All of those things can be accomplished. I'm of the thought process, everything that you dream you can achieve. Right. Now, does that mean that it's gonna happen quickly?
Does that mean that it's gonna be dropped in your lap? Absolutely not. Right? You can have your passion. That's like when I was talking about love what you do and you never work. Okay, that's all people are like, that's all fine and great, but I'm still not succeeding. I found what I love, I'm doing what I love, but I'm still not able to pay the bills. Okay, so that's where, again, if you really are struggling and you're sitting in your dark treatment room and
You're staring at an open canvas of appointment times. That's when you need to have somebody assist you. Get that coach because it's going to the gym. If you go to the gym and walk around, I'm a guilty of this. I'll go to the gym and look at all the machines and I'm like, wow, this is great. And they're all working out and it's wonderful. And I'm and I kind of go over to a machine and kind of do something. And then I go to another and kind of do something. And okay, that was a workout technically. I was in the gym, right? I got my workout in or
I hire a personal trainer who says, okay, Shelly, we're gonna be here at this time. We're gonna be doing this, this, this, and this. I've maximized my time. Now I start to get some really great gains. Okay. So I'm still passionate, both passionate. I'm going to the gym. I'm loving what I'm being at the gym. Yay! But you can also be in a vehicle that's gonna take you to the next level in your passion. Right. So
Marketing, finances, networking, referrals, customer service, all of these things. And at this point, I think I might have lost some of you because you're like, my gosh, that is so much how I'm like, my gosh, there's no way. Peace out.
speaker-0 (48:37.484)
Yeah, that's too much. I'm I'm overwhelmed. I'm done.
speaker-1 (48:40.204)
I'm overwhelmed. I'm done. It's like this is no longer a passion because it's just so much work. Okay. That's where again, where that coach comes in with systems. Right. And so now it's, it's, I call them mouse bites. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Right. So little tiny mouse bites with consistency. Now you're getting to an end goal as opposed to just kind of sitting and spinning.
And then the other part that we haven't talked about is you know, we've really been hitting hard on have being an independent business owner and having your own business. I really don't want those of you who are working for a company to think that you're less than. You're probably sitting here thinking, ha ha, I've got it figured out. This is I'm actually in the better spot. Cause after I'm listening to all these people with their own business problems, and here I am, I'm showing up to work and I get to just show up to work and do a great massage.
I'm not calling people. I'm not doing laundry. I'm getting to hone in on my craft and just really focusing in on one thing to be amazing. And then I'm also learning from this company how their structures and systems are. And so what really works well and what do I enjoy? And working for somebody is not a less than.
And that really sometimes I see, especially in the keyboard warriors, get going on online. And even if you are working for somebody and still have some coaching, go for it. It's not that that's not a value for you, even when you're a business employee.
speaker-0 (50:15.606)
One of the things that that I have begun to really become aware of as a business coach is our success is deeply embedded into our confidence. And
You know, if you're not feeling confident about your skills and you're not feeling confident about what you're doing, you don't feel motivated to invite someone to your table or go out and market. In fact, you really in fact you really begin to question yourself. And I think some people can go so far down this road that they leave the career of massage therapy, even though they love it because their confidence didn't get those boosts that it needed. You know, massage is one of those things where we're creating an invisible result. We can't see
the byproduct of our results when people get up. And so our confidence can be snapped like a twig sometimes because we don't get enough feedback to be like, okay, you did a good you did a good job, Amy. And let's bring in the next person. And so sometimes being sometimes just really asking yourself what you need to be successful and then following through on that is going and working for someone to build your confidence so that you know what you're capable of. Because when you're in massage school, people know that they're getting a
Not professional level massage yet. They know that. And when you're a really talented therapist, they're like, my gosh, you're so amazing. Because I've experienced all these different levels of training with people. And so it builds our confidence up in a way that when we think we go out in the world, that's immediately going to happen. And it doesn't always happen. And it's confusing. It's confusing to us. And confidence is a huge part of our success. So if you're feeling like you just need some more time, it's okay.
It's okay to go work for somebody else and build your confidence until you're like, I've got this. I am understanding now how to shift everything I'm doing for this person and these expectations and this person coming in and what they need. And I understand the difference. And you just know your skills so much better so that your confidence is there so that building a business becomes much more easy to you. And there's nothing wrong with that.
speaker-1 (52:16.526)
No, not at all. Nope. And I think it's the smartest path that you can take. I really do. Giving yourself 12 to 18 to 24 months minimum of working with an entity so that you can really take that time to really build up your modalities. Take that stress off of pavement pounding, marketing.
business with the laundry because you'll have enough alone just honing in on your craft.
speaker-0 (52:54.616)
Well, and again it boils down to those relationships. You learn how to deal with people. You learn how to meet expectations. And it's kind of a safer environment sometimes before you head out on your own. Because it is, it's about relationships and it's about expectations. And when you finally figure out how to take your skill and meet an expectation, then you get a repeat client. So practicing that, that is that is huge. So Shelley
We talked a little bit about the therapist who wants to succeed and you've watched therapists for over twenty years. Yep. What do the ones who succeed consistently have in common?
speaker-1 (53:30.722)
That they are not afraid to ask for help is one. And where does that come from? Humility. We are there to assist and help clients' bodies in their wellness. We are not doctors. We are not miracle workers. We are not gods. Okay. So let's just get let's clear that right off this the the the
The schedule or the plan right now because we there c becomes this God complex in the massage therapy industry that I see time and time again, that people have become, I am God's gift to wellness, right? And I can fix, I love that, I can fix anything, right? So that is where we start getting inflated egos. So people that can stay very humble and really keep at the core of.
Helping the body, people that continuously are curious about new modalities, things that are changing. There's there's people that get very comfortable in I've done this for 80 years and I'm never gonna change it because this is the way I've always done it. And don't tell me that there's a new way. Being resilient and having another pathway or another pivot point and being open to that because economies are gonna change. This is the reality. Our economy.
Is constantly going to change. Business is constantly changing. So people that have the ability to be flexible and to also strategize and look ahead, because you've always got to be looking ahead at what's coming down the road and trying to figure out what pivots are you going to need to make to continue to thrive. Because that's just the name of the game. And if you're risk adverse, stay as an employee.
Because you will stress yourself out and go nuts otherwise. And that's okay. And knowing your personality type, I think that that's the other thing. Cause I like we talked about before, I think that there comes to be this like less than if you're working for somebody else. It's like, well, you're not as important or you're not as successful. When you really calculate, if you get down to calculating time and hours, all the calculations that I run, it's a horse apiece. It's really 5050. It's like,
speaker-1 (55:53.784)
Pick out what are the things you enjoy about the massage industry. And if it's moving and grooving and strategizing, have your own business. If you really enjoy the bod and connecting with people, stay an employee. Because
speaker-0 (56:08.992)
Or you like to walk away and not worry about it at the end of the day? Yeah.
speaker-1 (56:12.702)
that yes, absolutely. Because I have seen time and time again people think that they need to have their own business, but they really hate all the tasks. This freedom that was promised has now become a prison. And it's become an anchor and frustration. And because now it's like now I'm doing 80 hours a week in my business and I'm not.
You know, I'm not getting the clients that I need, but this is what I have to do to keep the lights on. And and you hear this time and time again. being honest with yourself and also staying away from what other people's perceptions and what their opinions.
speaker-0 (56:57.132)
Yeah. Humility, curiosity, resilience, a willingness to learn, a willingness to adapt. I think that was the biggest one. A willingness to adapt. Because I don't know about you, Shelley, but I have adapted a million times. Every every day. Yeah. That that is the entrepreneurial spirit is okay, something new. What how how do we how do we break this down? And if that does not appeal to you, then then small business is going to always be challenging.
speaker-1 (57:11.212)
All the time. Every
speaker-1 (57:26.742)
And that's okay. And that is completely okay. The other thing is with that resilience is that if my my thing is my joke is like, don't tell me no. Don't tell me no. So it's like, you know what, Shelly, that's not gonna work. I'm like, why? It's like, well, this, this, this, and this. I'm like, okay, well, how do we make our way around it? How do we
speaker-0 (57:30.497)
It's totally okay.
speaker-1 (57:53.858)
bust this thing apart and rebuild it so that it can be a yes. And that that's that's my philosophy. And that's where I find a lot of people with that succeed have that same thing.
speaker-0 (58:04.536)
You know it's funny is I had a theme for July and it was to change the way you think. Everything I wanted to talk about was just to really make you sit back and go, is that the only way I can do that? Or what is that trying to tell me? And to really open your mind and to constantly open your mind and think differently. So I'll pay you for that little spot in my podcast later because you you actually just tied it in beautifully. So but how do you how do you change the way you think? Because
That is that is how you change your business. That's how you change your career. You change the way you think first.
speaker-1 (58:39.736)
Yeah. And I think when when we talked about the fear, the fear that's part of this, because everybody's it's like I need enough, I need to make enough money to pay my bills and eat. Right. So there becomes this fear and scarcity mindset. And now all of a sudden you're making decisions out of fear. You're making decisions, you're clinging to what feels secure. And a lot of times those are the things that are going to actually sink you.
speaker-0 (59:04.246)
You know, when I coach people, it's so interesting to me that when they come to me in that that frame of mind, that's all they're focusing on. Correct. And and when you when you ask them questions about moving forward or whatever, it is literally what they have been focusing on. They are so focused on not succeeding and scared that they literally can't see how to think themselves out of a situation. And when you shift your thinking, things start changing. But but it's always it's made a huge impression on me in the last year how much that fear
can override coming up with other ideas to help yourself. So it's amazing. Amazing what that fear does.
speaker-1 (59:40.43)
And the fear too will also keep you from connecting with the community and the industry.
speaker-0 (59:45.868)
Because you you don't even you don't even see the opportunities around you because you're focused on the fear.
speaker-1 (59:50.446)
Correct. Correct. And like I was talking about, everybody has their own secret sauce. And if we all c collaborate and share, there is more than enough clients out there for all of us. There is a shortage of massage therapists. I I'm looking at the statistics at things rolling ahead. We are going to be in a crisis of not enough massage therapists coming up.
speaker-0 (01:00:06.604)
my gosh.
speaker-1 (01:00:15.34)
Because the people are not going into the industry for one reason or another. And I'm still trying to crack the code on that because I feel that it's one of the most rewarding careers, the most flexible in the sense of there's so many avenues that you can take your license. And that's the other thing. Talk with a mentor too about opportunities. A lot of times there's things out there that you haven't even thought of that you can do with your license to get really let's get past that.
Somebody's gonna take my customer or there's not enough customers. My goodness. you think about how many, what our population is, and then how many, how many sessions can each therapist do realistically a week? Okay. We need far more therapists.
speaker-0 (01:00:58.46)
far more. You know, this is actually something I debunk a lot of times in my business classes because if you were to ask massage therapists how many clients they actually need, what does a full clientele look like of repeat clients? Yeah. It's less than a hundred people. Less than fifty people. Yep. Mm-hmm. And and but no one ever sat down and said those words to them and they're like
speaker-1 (01:01:11.02)
I know. I know.
speaker-0 (01:01:18.402)
Well, I guess I never thought about just a hundred people for you. So you look at your population and each one of you is only serving a hundred people. There's a lot of people for massage therapists out there. And there's there's a lot of things that we could work on collectively as a industry to support one another a little bit.
speaker-1 (01:01:37.966)
Absolutely. And that's where it all happens because together we all succeed.
speaker-0 (01:01:42.402)
I can't tell you because I've been in my area. I mean I've lived in the same area for my entire life. And so people know me. I have people who still call me, text me, reach out to me, Hey Amy, I was your client years ago. Can you refer me to somebody? I cannot tell you how many times I'm referring people every week and and it literally is these relationships that I've built. The people that that I know are going to be positive and pleasant and have great customer service skills and are good at their craft and willing to listen and but I refer people
all the time because I want to see all of us do well. And I'd love to see more people. If you're listening, listen carefully. I'd love to see more people out there all working together that way because we raise each other in this industry up. Not not take down. Nobody's gonna steal your clients unless they steal your clientele list.
speaker-1 (01:02:31.202)
And even then, okay, I have to swing back to the even even then when I had my clientele list stolen, it did nothing to cripple my business. Because they you can you can buy names and numbers. Heck, way back in the day there was a thing called a phone book.
speaker-0 (01:02:40.184)
Does not.
speaker-0 (01:02:49.058)
yeah, yeah, that that thing with the yellow and white pages in it.
speaker-1 (01:02:52.67)
Exactly. Yes. And essentially you could take that phone book, but that doesn't make you a success. Names and numbers do not make you a success. And so if you think that you're gonna steal or take somebody's clientele list and that's gonna be the golden ticket to it, it does did more tainting to that person because the people that were very loyal to me and to my team found it very off putting.
speaker-0 (01:03:18.966)
Mm-hmm. They're they're not unaware of what they're doing. They're not. Those clients know exactly what happened. They're like, look at that person, be unethical. I'm not gonna call them again. Yeah. But yeah, there's there's so much opportunity. So so much opportunity out there. And you know, Shelly and I, Shelly and I are examples of how far you can take this career if you want that. Correct. Bus you know, business owners, employers, school owners, you know, just
Here I am doing business coaching, and she's over here doing core stones and teaching more people how to save their hands. And, you know, there's just, there's, there's a, there is a world of possibilities depending on where you want to take it. I've recognized that about our career for a long time. There's lots of things you can do. You can specialize inside this career and increase your earning capacity. There's there are very few careers out there that you can do that. But but you know, I think we get hung up with, I'll only make this much as a massage thing.
And there's a period of time where you're only going to make that much, but you can take it as far as you want it to go.
speaker-1 (01:04:20.61)
You absolutely.
speaker-0 (01:04:22.438)
So you know, I have a couple of things that we want to close this podcast up with. So Shelly, I would really like you to tell the audience what Core Stone is.
speaker-1 (01:04:32.3)
Stone is a ergonomic cut stone heated on an open system. It's because the word stone is in the word, people automatically think hot stone, right? So core stone, hot stone. So I will go and I will have some real veterans that will show up. These are some of the most coolest people because they've been doing this for like
speaker-0 (01:04:53.464)
Forty years.
speaker-1 (01:04:55.128)
50 years and they're just like, and they will walk in. Some of them will walk in with their arms folded and they are like, I have to be here to get ours for my state. And I am not gonna like this. I know everything there is to know about everything that you're gonna teach me. And I do can you just basically give me my certificate so I can leave? I will also say, Okay, guys, really you've learned everything. Like I know you've been doing this a long time, but you have
I said, have you ever seen these before? Well, no. I'm like, okay, so you really don't know everything about what we're going to be learning today. Well, yeah, I know everything. It's like, okay, well, then just sit there and let's just absorb. Nine out of ten of those people at the end come up eating humble pie, can't believe that they have practiced for X amount of years without these tools, and are really kind of embarrassed.
for their behavior in the beginning because they were so closed off from either giving or receiving. And then I get messages from them. I have a a bulletin board with cards that people send me. And as thank you notes, I didn't realize that how close I was to retirement because of my my repetitive use injuries until I found this class.
And it I fell into this class because I had to go. And this is this is completely gonna be a game changer for me. I'm gonna have another five to ten in this. And I even had some of them come up to me after class crying.
speaker-0 (01:06:36.086)
It's beautiful. And for those of you who have never heard of core stones, go check out Shelly's website. This is amazing. And you know what's interesting is I just have to say this because she came and taught this class at our AMTA convention. The comments that I heard when they came out of this class were, I thought this was just gonna be another hot stone class. You know, that's what it was. And it was mind-blowing what they could do to preserve their hands and create this amazing massage experience. So check it out because
I I firmly believe that Shelly has put this together because she truly believes, just like I do, in the profession. And this is another way of creating some longevity and something new and something different, something fun for massage therapists. Now, before we end, I want you to talk about your massage marketplace.
speaker-1 (01:07:24.878)
Absolutely. So this is my new passion project as a massage therapist for the longest time. We all know that we, for most states anyway, we all need continuing education for our licensure. But even if we don't need it for our licensure, we just talked about it, the importance of continuing to learn and learn from other people in community. So I know that the incentive is higher for those of you that have to do it because it's kind of like taxes. You got to pay them. Yep. Got to do continuing ed for your license.
But what happens is we have, and if you've tried to find classes, where do you go? Where do you find a list of classes? There's so many things out there to learn. There's so many avenues. We talked about that as well. But sometimes they don't come to you. They don't come to your state. Maybe you have to travel to go find them. And so a lot of times we will find that there's a lot of Facebook pages out there, groups that are dedicated for.
posting posters for continuing ed that's happening all over the world, really. But the challenging part that comes with that is those posts are like a river. And if you if you log on at a certain time of a day, you're gonna see a different bunch of posts than you will at a different. Or perhaps you have a family member that lives in Florida. And it would be really wonderful to go visit this family member in Florida, do a continuing education class so you don't have to pay for a hotel.
And then you can also see that family member. But how in the heck are you going to find what classes, what dates are happening around that time? And a lot of times you end up taking some crazy class like underwater basket weaving for massage therapy. So massage marketplace is being created so that we have one community meeting point. So that when you go to massage marketplace, you can search continuing education by state.
You can use filters. Is it an online class? Is it a hands-on class? You can go down to the modality. So if you are just looking for a basic modality anywhere, you can type that in and you can see all the things that pop up, right? And then the dates too, filter through dates. Then you will also see a profile for the educator. So then you can actually see who is this educator. And the educator will have reviews from their students right there.
speaker-1 (01:09:47.032)
So now you can see who are these educators and what do their students, because the only people that are going to be getting these review links are the students. This isn't keyboard warrior bill, right? This is people that have actually been through the class. So you can get a real bird's eye view of is this something that I want to do? And how, you know, how do I want to put this in my schedule so that it's not a river of madness, right? So then from there, we also have.
an opportunity if you have space in your massage office. Perhaps you have a large lobby. Perhaps you have a yoga studio within your space and you want to make some passive income. So you can post your space so that educators can find and do a class out of your space. So you can make income from your time, you know, that that you're not using that space and getting some continuing ed to come and be in there.
We also have a product page. So with that, we're going to have products that are going to be listed and there's going to be special pricing through Massage Marketplace so that you can go and do some shopping, some click-through and get the best pricing of those products and see what's going on. We also will have a podcast page so that you can see all the massage therapy podcasts and select and look through so that you can stay in community as opposed to trying to have to find.
have all of these separate entities of finding how to get in one spot. We're we're really excited to be able to bring this out and grow this collaborative community and and really spotlight continuing education educators and have them see reviews because there isn't anything out there.
speaker-0 (01:11:40.034)
There isn't anything. And I have to just put this little plug in here. As a educator, it is becoming increasingly difficult to offer the education because of the costs of trying to offer the education. And you're always looking for where you can show up that is cost effective to teach, because I'm gonna tell you right now, hotels are not cost effective to teach at all. And you know, it it's hard to be an educator bringing quality education to people if
if what you're doing is a business again and the profit margin is off. And so what Shelly's doing for educators alone is huge. So not only is she supporting the continuing education industry, she is supporting massage therapists in finding that continuing education so that it becomes more accessible. The one the number one thing I hear all the time is I want a live class.
Well, in order for those live classes to keep going, I want a live hands on class. It has to be something that can be found so people can attend and it's got to be something that makes the cost margin more profitable for the continuing education provider or company because those things have to match up in order for it to work. Absolutely. Yeah. I think you're doing an amazing thing, an amazing thing for our industry.
speaker-1 (01:12:57.698)
Yes, it it's going to be, it's going to be so helpful and really something built by a massage therapist for massage therapist. This is not a big entity. This is not some large corporation coming in and creating this. This is something that we need and understanding from the ground up.
speaker-0 (01:13:18.382)
Mm-hmm. We do. Well, thank you for putting all of your time and energy into this because I know it's a passion project for you. Okay. All right. So, Shelly, I just want to tell you thank you for being on the podcast today. And I'm sure we'll have you back. We have we have lots of things that we could talk about. Many things. But I really enjoyed the direction we went today because I think what we offered a lot of people was how to change their thinking.
speaker-1 (01:13:26.038)
Absolutely.
speaker-1 (01:13:43.53)
And and sometimes just to have it verbally brought to life. Because
speaker-0 (01:13:47.19)
Forward. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because we yes, we see it and other people see it, but sometimes the person in the middle of it it doesn't necessarily see it. And we want you to be successful, not impede your own success. But thank you so much for being on the podcast and we will have you back another time. Thank you. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. If today's episode helped you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another massage therapist.
To learn more about today's topic, explore continuing education, coaching, and free resources, visit amibradleradford.com. And until next time, keep building the business and the career you love.
