Just reading the title, you may be wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Well, you may have noticed that it’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog. Life happened. Life is still happening. I teach, I have a family, car repairs, sports massage events, I’m in school taking classes, and I’m working on setting up a business. I just got busy.
The thing is, so do our clients. Often, as massage therapists, we wonder where our clients go. The truth is that many times it has nothing to do with the client not wanting to come back. Life just got in the way. Very few people I know have large blocks of time in their schedules to do with what they wish. MTs often fall prey to thinking that they are only competing against other massage therapists. Some who see a little bit more realize that they are also competing against other niche products like chiropractic, pain relief, and stress-reduction activities. But in the broader scheme of things, we are fighting tooth and claw with almost every other business (and even person) out there for one thing. Time.
Time and Our Service Economy
We are competing with sports events, TiVo, concerts, charity events, kids’ recitals, theme parks, you name it. Time is our clients’ most precious commodity. It seems that all too often, even when you want to get together with a friend, they have to check their schedule and pencil you in in three weeks. More and more, people are just so busy they can’t get away for anything.
What does that have to do with the service economy? Few would deny that massage therapy is a profession that rests firmly in the service sector. Whether you look at it as health care or a luxury, it is still a service. In one of my business classes recently, I learned that the rise of the service economy in the U.S. really began after World War II. What ended up happening is that incomes rose so that people had more to spend. At the same time, a counter-trend was occurring in that people had more demands on their time. The result was this, people began to pay others to do time-consuming services that they didn’t wish to do. Things like dry cleaning, painting the house, dining out increased. People began outsourcing more of their needs to others.
Outsourcing
The way I see it is that our clients have outsourced some of their care needs to us. We provide a therapeutic service and can rattle off all kinds of therapeutic benefits for massage therapy. We’ve been contracted to provide something that our clients want or need, but either can’t or don’t want to do themselves.
Think for a minute about the things that you want or need and can’t/won’t do for yourself. A person could get in shape without a personal trainer or a gym membership, but isn’t it easier to pay the membership or have somebody else guide you? Massage is kind of the same. People could reduce their own stress, there are many forms of massage that people really could do for themselves. But that isn’t really the issue. It’s time and focus.
General Busy-ness
A month ago, I wrote about my TFL and my plan for addressing it. I was going to chart the progress and write about it here. I know this stuff. I teach this stuff. I recommend it to my clients. Did I do it? Nope. It wasn’t important enough to me at any given moment to do much. Oh, I worked on it a few times. I got some massages at my school. But did I do the entire protocol that I laid out for myself? Sorry.
The point is that our clients are the same way. It’s not that they’re lazy, or uncommitted, or that they don’t want to be healthy. It’s that they have a gazillion priorities and their health is only one of them. Proper nutrition requires a lifetime commitment while McDonald’s only requires a commitment of $5, right now. When so many people demand so many things, something has to give. Unfortunately for us, for many people that seems to be massage and taking care of themselves.
And Back to Outsourcing
The answer to busy-ness for most people is one of two things. Put it on the back burner to be ignored or forgotten OR… outsource it. Our clients are outsourcing part of the wellbeing to us. We just need to know the best way to go about it for our particular group of customers. So what can we do to fulfill our contract as outsourced wellness providers? I’ll save that for part 2… (nice teaser, eh?)
Showing posts with label Success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Success. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Your Perception Is Your Reality
“Your perception is your reality”
I recently heard someone say this and I thought it would make a great critical thinking question, especially when applied in context to massage and our client relationships. This is a pretty deep statement and has implications that affect all aspects of our lives. Many times people perceive what they want to perceive. In class, we identified five areas of impact – personally, professionally, communication, your clients, and your work.
Personal Perceptions
Your personal perceptions dramatically affect your own self-esteem and relationships. In essence, your own self-perception is actually the basis of self-esteem. Relationships also have a large element of perception. I know that I have seen people that when they state “I’m not happy in my relationship” it is less of an observation and more of a decision. They have decided that they are not happy and that nothing about it ever will. Others seem to be able to make it through hard times by having the faith that it is only a temporary struggle and that brighter times are ahead. We call these kinds of perceptions a person’s character and we describe it in terms of being optimistic or pessimistic or cheerful or sarcastic. These personal perceptions can really color a person’s world. Stereotypes are an example of this too.
Professional Perceptions
Let’s talk about ethics first. When it comes to ethics, there are times when perceptions can matter almost more than the substance. Were you to socialize with a client, another client or professional could easily perceive the relationship as being improper. Really any interaction is open to interpretation about motives and you only have any kind of control over the impression that you present (I call it impression management). While you can’t control the thoughts of another person, you want to avoid anything that could give the “appearance of impropriety”.
Professional perceptions are also exemplified in job interviews. Your performance in that interview is dependent on how that interviewer perceives you. In this case the perception can quite literally create the reality in that you will never really be that employee unless they perceive you to be.
Communication
Since communication takes two, and the two can never completely know each other’s mind, there is an aspect of interpretation. How many times have we discovered a miscommunication because one person perceived a meaning the other never intended? Sometimes perceptions can also relate to selectivity – only seeing or hearing what one wants to see or hear. Different perspectives will also place different priorities on different things. You may intend emphasis on one thing, but someone else prioritizes another.
Your Clients
I know I’ve seen many clients who say that they are stressed. Sometimes I have to wonder how much of that is a symptom and how much is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are they stressed, or does believing that they are stressed just allow them to accept it and not find a way to get rid of it? If a client resigns themself to a life of chronic pain, does the perception create or contribute to that reality? There is a connection.
Another aspect is the “I can’t” mentality. You know what I’m talking about. A child is working on their math homework and is saying “I can’t do it” and then after a lot of frustration and agony they do in 30 seconds what they’ve been “unable” to do for half an hour. They’re just trapped in a mindset and convinced their self that it is too hard. They can’t do it as long as they believe that they can’t. Other examples can be clients stating that they can’t function without a steady stream of caffeine, that they don’t have time to take care of their self, or eating right is impossible.
In Your Work
Perceptions here can create some conflict when you perceive something to be beneficial to a client and others may disagree. A huge example of this is I have heard of some spas prohibiting their MTs from working on clients’ gluteal areas because of the perception that it is sexual. These clients miss out on an important integrative region of their body because of a perception (I’d say misconception, but that is my perception! :D). You may perceive that a client needs more pressure to achieve the results they seek, but they perceive that the pressure is already too hard. You perceive that trigger points are to blame for the agonizing pain they are in, but they perceive that trigger point work is simply increasing the pain they are experiencing.
So What To Do About Perceptions?
The good news is that you do have control over your perceptions and, to a lesser degree, others’ perceptions as well. Even a phrase like “look on the bright side” indicates that there is a choice about how you choose to perceive something. An important thing is to do some periodic self-evaluation and see (pun intended) if there are any perceptions that hold you back. Do you have any self-fulfilling prophecies? “I think, therefore I am” could be changed to “I think ______, therefore I am _______.” To a degree, when you think certain thoughts, you start behaving in a way to start to bring those thoughts into reality. Affirmations work this way. You choose something you want to be (a perception), and through repetition you change your thought processes to make it a reality.
Another simple strategy is to just do it. How many times have you thought something was hard or impossible only to realize it wasn’t all that bad? When an event occurs that dramatically changes our entire world view, we call it a paradigm shift. We can cause these to happen intentionally by opening ourselves up to new experience.
I certainly hope that you’ve perceived this to be helpful!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Diversity in Your Practice
Jack of all trades, master of none - or so they say.
While there is a lot of merit in specialization and becoming a master of your chosen niche, it is important not to become overly limited and specialized as well. And in that respect, I'll use another old cliche - moderation is key.
Why Diversify?
In investments, you diversify to minimize risk. In the workplace to capitalize on different cultures and viewpoints. In massage, it's both.
Risks?
What risks, you might ask? In massage school, we all should have learned (and hopefully learned well) the risks associated with improper body mechanics and repetitive strain injuries. We learn how to help our clients deal with and prevent these things in their lives. But what about ours? Massage is physical work, and even using the best body mechanics isn't going to eliminate all potential problems. We all come into this work with a different history, a different accumulation of life's wear and tear on our bodies, and different genetic predispositions. Some can certainly last longer than others, and proper body mechanics employed consistently and habitually should allow any therapist to (as I always say in class) "let you work for as long as you choose to, not for as long as your body will let you." So, performing the same movements over and over again in your work can create the potential for RSIs.
Let's not forget that we are holistic beings here, so we can't neglect emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of specialization as well. Personally, I thrive on novelty. I love new projects, getting things kicked off, establishing procedures and efficiencies, building businesses, and starting careers (that's why I love teaching). Doing the same darn thing day in and day out is torture for me. For me, psychological burnout is a bigger concern than physical problems. There is a real danger to the client-centeredness of your practice when things become so habitual you stop asking questions and start running on autopilot. Work becomes less fulfilling, monotonous, and a chore. I'd venture to suggest that just as many, if not more, MTs leave the profession because of this as for physical reasons. It can also lead down the slippery slope of focusing on what you're getting out of it (aka $). Not a good road to go down.
Specialization has its rewards too, but I don't hear too often any discussion about the downside. A healthy MT/practice/career strikes a balance.
Diversify
OK, so over-concentration in a single area can be risky. What do I do about it? How do I diversify?
Well for starters, it may mean using some different techniques. I'm sure there are a lot of things you learned in massage school that you haven't used in a while. Or you could watch a massage DVD, even search on YouTube so you could see some different techniques. Trade massage with an MT that uses a different style than you do or purchase one. Read a book. Even learn something from a discipline that is similar but different like PT, emotional healing, yoga, breath-work... You could also just make the effort to change up the emphasis in your sessions - do a lot more stretching, try some techniques that require client participation, mix zen shiatsu into your Swedish.
Another way is to provide some complementary services. Body wraps, exfoliations, hot stone, aromatherapy, and others are all great ways to mix things up. They can use your body in a different way or potentially use your body in the same way but with an entirely different thought process. It helps to keep you (and your client) engaged in the process.
It might also mean diversifying your work environment. Getting out of a rut means breaking routine. Try working in different environments - a spa, chiropractice office, a pain clinic, a law firm, a house call, outdoors at the charity 10K... Try working with some different clients that have different challenges for you to work with.
Got some ideas on how to diversify? Let me know!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Effects and Benefits of Massage Therapy
This is the first in my Critical Thinking Series of questions from class discussions.
Question:
How does understanding the effects and benefits of massage or massage techniques make you a better massage therapist and/or more successful?
As we discussed this topic as a class, several themes emerged:
- Effectiveness & Outcomes
- Contraindications
- Professionalism
- Marketing
- Communication & Education
Effectiveness & Outcomes
The very first student comment to this question was in selecting treatment. We examined the adage "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" and how it applied to this idea. In understanding how a massage technique will affect the body, we also can determine whether or not it is appropriate or effective for a given problem. Selecting more effective techniques leads to better outcomes.
Contraindications
Naturally, the prior discussion led right into the discussion of what to do when massage is not appropriate. Understanding the effects is a large part of the "do no harm" mantra. It can prevent possible harm, but sometimes it can serve another positive function in practice - positive regard for the client. This overlaps into the next theme, but it demonstrates a positive regard for the client's well-being to help them find the help they need, even if it isn't with you.
Professionalism
As part of this discussion, I asked the students how many of them had had a client who had asked them about a particular massage style or technique and what it did. Of course they all had. The follow up was "what did you say?". It was quickly determined that many hadn't felt they had provided the best answer, or that they had to think about how to condense an entire class down into a simple, understandable statement. The consensus was that you look like an idiot when you are unable to give an answer to those questions. Who should know better what a technique does, you or your client? Understanding these effects makes you appear more professional in the eyes of the client - more competent, more knowledgeable, more credible.
Marketing
Why should they buy what you're selling if you can't even give them a reason? Understanding effects is the foundation of what you need to communicate to your clients. But it doesn't stop there. A discussion of effects seldom means a whole lot to the client. Enter benefits.
Effects vs. Benefits
Effects are what happens in the body - mechanical, physiological, reflex... increased circulation, parasympathetic stimulation, enhanced lymphatic flow, and many, many more. Benefits are what the client experiences because of those effects - they sleep better, experience reduced pain, improved body image... Clients for the most part don't care about the effects (in marketing we call them features) because it doesn't really mean much to them. Benefits, on the other hand, are the things they care about - that register on their consciousness.
Back to Marketing
When a student learns the effects of massage techniques, the next step is to be able to translate those effects into why it is a good thing for the client, aka the benefit. Often this is a very different way to frame it and it is also highly dependent on the audience. It doesn't do a whole lot of good to discuss with an athlete how massage will help them sleep better when they are really concerned with performance improvement. Likewise an insomniac won't care about increased rang of motion and power out of their throwing shoulder. A thorough understanding of effects and benefits allows you to speak in your client's language about their problems. Not grasping this is like trying to speak a foreign language with only half the alphabet.
Communication & Education
Effective marketing is honest education - education about why your service is valuable to your client. Communicating and educating about effects/benefits effectively increases the value that you offer to your clients. You can't teach someone why what you do is important if you don't already know it yourself! To be honest, this category encompasses all of the ones we've talked about so far because education and communication are such an integral part of what we do.
Anything we missed? Please add it to the comments below. Happy massaging!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Mirror Neurons and Learning Massage
I just received the most recent issue of "The Massage Educator", ABMP's newsletter for massage schools. In this issue there is an interesting article on mirror neurons and their role in learning.
Mirror Neurons
Mirror neurons are a relatively new discovery - only found and researched since 1996. They are specialized neurons and connections in your brain that are associated with learning by observation. The key to this is that when you watch somebody do something, it activates the same parts of your brain as if you were the one doing it. In essence, observing someone perform a task is akin to practicing it yourself (If only I could watch Santana and play the guitar so well).
These connections also help us to associate the observed behavior with existing concepts, which increases retention and understanding of the subject.
Familiarity of the Teacher
What's more is that the effect is increased through familiarity with the demonstrator. So a child would learn better through observing his parent than a total stranger. Perhaps this is because we already have stronger associations with that teacher and are less focused on learning their mannerisms.
So What Does This Mean?
First off, it validates the old screenwriting adage "Show it, don't tell it". Standing in front of a class lecturing is a poor way to deliver information. In fact studies show that people only retain about 5% of the information they hear that way. It means that it is important to bring demonstration and experiential learning to your classroom in as many different ways as possible. Don't just limit it to showing the bodywork - demonstrate the subject.
Be the part. When teaching a subject like say professionalism, it is vital that you demonstrate it to your students. With clients, it is important that you demonstrate the qualities that you are trying to promote to them.
Effectiveness of Learning from DVDs and Books
This goes to show that learning from a DVD can be an effective method, particularly with a clear and concise framework for the demonstrated techniques and with a respect to prior knowledge of the observer. The demonstrator on video must be sure to relate the new material back to knowledge the observer already possesses to reinforce the learning.
In my opinion, books can be a highly effective method for delivery a ton of material, but can also be quite weak at providing a learning experience for practical technique. Books excel at delivering lots of information, but really need to have some additional support to provide for the understanding necessary for the learner to truly own the knowledge. This is why I think the most effective books have DVDs or video to accompany them, or are used in the classroom in tandem with live demonstration.
The challenge is to strike the proper balance. I have found that as an instructor I am often faced with the difficult task of having too little time to pack in too much information. It is a choice many times between the increased amount of content covered or increased student understanding. There is a certain level of knowledge that must be achieved, but there appears to be increasing pressure to pack more into the same program time-frame.
Personally, I am never satisfied with what I'm already doing and constantly search for better methods for better student outcomes. Mirror neurons are another piece. Happy teaching!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Massage is an Art
Massage is an Art. And that's Art with a capital A.
Sometimes people use art to describe something that must be felt, that isn't scientific, planned, or even well-thought out. I beg to differ. I think an art is the expression of knowledge layered in emotion. Our feelings add meaning to it and art that has no plan, rhyme, or reason seldom works.
The great artists - Da Vinci, Beethoven, etc... - could not have done what they did without a deep understanding of their craft. To draw you have to have an understanding of weight, perspective, shading. In music an understanding of timing, harmony, and pacing. In dance, fluidity, grace, dynamics. In massage it is physiology, timing, strokes, fluidity, relationships. All involve knowledge and intelligence - what can be called craft.
Craft
You can't create art until you thoroughly understand the techniques used to create it. It must be internalized, digested, and assimiliated into your being before it can emerge as an expression.
A wise teacher once told me:
"I show you something and you do it, it is mine. You do it ten times and it is still mine. You do it a hundred times and it is still mine. You do it a thousand times and then it is yours."
That has stuck with me through all of these years and is very true. It takes practice to assimilate new knowledge. Once it has been absorbed, only then can it be expressed in your own way, with your stamp on it. You go to school, learn a new technique, and then it is up to you to make it yours. Then you can craft it and use it.
Let's Get Buck
Lil' C, a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance uses the term "buck" to describe peak artistry. He defined buck as meaning the union of internal artistry with external expression. Ideally, this is what we all strive to achieve. That ultimate union between what we have learned to do, expressed to the world at the perfect moment, in the perfect manner.
Now that's Art.
Massage and the Happy Medium
Massage takes place at the hands.
It sounds obvious, right? Maybe. Maybe not.
I've taught massage therapy for almost five years now, I've educated clients for almost 11 years, and before that I taught martial arts. I've observed how people learn and practice their skills for quite a while. In my experience teaching, I've noticed that there is a spectrum that all students fall upon...
Intuition (Client) <---------------> Intelligence (Therapist)
...where the intuition refers to your feelings and sense of the way things should be and the intelligence refers to your knowledge and thoughts. That naturally begs the questions where are you and where do you want to be?
Intuition
I always ask my students when I first meet them about what drew them to massage. A common theme in their responses is often a story about how they have always done massage in some form. People tell them they have a good touch. They have a talent for finding the knots and even though they don't know what they're doing or how to describe it, they are able to melt the knots away.
I place these students high on the intuitive side of this equation. They are sensitive to other people. They are able to work from information that they gather through their hands from the other person's body. They are responsive to the changes they sense in the other's body and adapt to it. When they do massage, they are performing "inside" the other person's body - on the client side.
Intelligence
People high on the intelligence side of the spectrum operate from the confines of their own head. They intellectualize things, do very well with tests and theory and assessments, and are good at putting the pieces of the puzzle together. They can also see how different techniques and styles can be used effectively on various conditions. They perform massage mostly in their head, thinking through the process - they have a plan. They are performing massage "at" the body, almost as an academic exercise.
Intuition vs. Intelligence
As a teacher, I have observed many students who tend to struggle on one side of the spectrum or the other. First, the problems...
Intuition Problems (or the too-touchy-feely sydrome)
When it comes to the intuitive students, they often have issues with timing, assessment, and figuring out the puzzle. Their sessions can become muddled because having a plan comes from within the therapist. The client's body can lead them in different directions or because every area is crying for help they can get caught up in one spot and neglect the other problems. They can also sometimes have difficulty reconciling the difference between what the client's mouth says and what their body asks for. These students also can have problems in finding where the problems really are when the issues require critical thinking to pin down. They can also overlook some problems because others are "talking louder" and drawing their attention.
On the other hand, these students can seem naturally gifted because their bodywork addresses the clients' needs. They often seem to take a new technique and while they might not always do it right, they take it to a point where it feels good to the client quickly. Because that's where their focus is. One thing to watch out for is the potential discouragement these students can experience when they used to get praise for the quality of touch they had when they didn't know what they were doing and then in school they fumble around with some techniques that engage the intelligence side of the spectrum.
Intelligence Problems (or the you're-thinking-too-much sydrome)
Students who are too far over on the intelligence side of the equation over-think most of what they do in class. They're always worried that they are doing it right. They seem to be able to nail the theorey quickly, but then can struggle with the application. Placement of hands, body mechanics, or doing techniques in a way that are both effective and feel good to the client can be challenges. By the self-focus (hence the therapist-oriented approach), they can sometimes neglect the clients' needs, forget simple things like noticing that the client is cold, or miss some observable information from their client because they are focus inwards. Sometimes these students can get discouraged because they don't seem to get the high praises that the intuitive students get for their work. That just fuels the insecurity that it isn't right and spurs more furious thinking.
These are great people to talk to if you need to get your mind around a problem or you need to piece together pieces of information. They can often, even as a student, piece together some great assessments and make connections between disparate symptoms. They can figure out what is going on with the client and are usually quite good at formulating a plan to do it. They can prioritize the problems and design a session for the best results in the time they have.
The best bodyworkers strike a balance between Intuition & Intelligence
So now we get back to it. Massage takes place at the hands. That means that your massage must be a marriage of the knowledge in your head and the wisdom in their body. Your head will come up with brilliant ideas about what is going on and where to look and their body will tell you "over here!". It's all about the balance. Massage doesn't take place "inside" their body or in your head - it takes place where you and your client connect - at your hands. Where the rubber hits the road, so to speak.
If you perform your massage too far onto the intuitive side, it may feel good, but often the client leaves feeling like you didn't get to everything, that you spent too much time on their (insert body part), or that the results were short-lived.
If you perform your massage too far onto the intelligence side, your client may feel disconnected or that you're very smart, but it dodn't feel good, or again that their needs are ignored. Or perhaps that the massage addressed everything but left them feeling like something was missing.
If you are intuitive, take steps to think things through and plan your strategy. If you're intelligent, work on setting yourself free from the shckles of your thoughts and feel what the client's body tells you - put yourself in their skin.
The hands inform the head.
The head guides the hands.
The union of your intuition and intelligence is wisdom
And that's the Happy Medium.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Massage and Money
Money. It's a word that has a lot of baggage tied up with it. And it's something that I have noticed that many people seem to be uncomfortable with. Especially massage therapists. I have had plenty of students and seen plenty of practicing MTs that have an unhealthy relationship to money. Why? Massage is about relationships, and this post is about a massage therapist's relationship with money.
I've heard many people misquote the Bible as saying that "money is the root of all evil". Actually it says that the "love of money is the root of all evil." A big difference and a lot more true. Money itself is just a tool. A medium of exchange. A knife isn't a good tool or bad tool, it's how you use it.
Another heavily quoted line is "do what you love and the money will come". A lot of people do what they love and money doesn't come, so what gives? This statement has the priorities right, but misses the mark. I choose to interpret it as
"do what you love (follow your passion with a systematic plan) and the money will come (if you respect it for what it is and what it means to you)"
So why do so many people have such an antagonistic relationship with money?
First off, some people hate what money represents. They have seen what some people do to others to get it and don't want to be associated with that. It could be a matter of worth or value - the the therapist doesn't feel that they are worth the money - a self esteem issue. It could be a sense of idealism or a genuine desire to help without need for compensation.
Money can seem hard to come by. It can seem like there is a chronic lack of it. Especially in these economic times. A person can get used to thinking that there is never any money for them, hating it all the while. Some people pursue money as an end to itself, a way to keep score, as if just having money affords the status or life that they want.
The problem with the pursuit of money is that money is a very poor motivator for happiness. People (and studies prove this) don't gain a whole lot of satisfaction or improved quality of life from having more money. Ironically, the reverse is true though, that not enough money is a huge de-motivator and a source of distress and unhappiness. Money can't buy happiness, but not having any leads to sadness.
Putting Health and Money at Odds
Our society often seems to pit health and money against each other. When we hear studies of the impact of some diseases on the poor and the exclusion of 40% of americans from our health care system because they can't afford it, there is an association with money. In fact, the increasing inclusion of massage in health care may make massage more exclusive instead of more accessible.
Many massage therapists have an idealist streak that creates guilt about charging money for what they do. Massage is like a divine gift, something that is present in all of us and can sometimes feel like charging for bottled water when people can get perfectly good water out of their tap.
Unfortunately, this can lead some MTs with a burden of guilt about money and their business. It sets the stage for a struggle with their career. After struggling in their private practice, they may get a job at a massage business and harbor resentment towards the business for collecting the money the therapist feels guilty about charging! Sometimes the MT grows disillusioned, thinking that the bodywork itself was tainted when it was their attitudes and beliefs about money that were the problem. They end up moving into a profession they don't really care about but is more "reconcilable" with their ideas about money.
Cultivating a Healthy Attitude About Money
If you already have a healthy attitude about money, you can skip this next part. This is for any MT who feels at all guilty about collecting money for their services.
Money isn't evil. I'll say it again. Money isn't evil. You say it. Really. That wasn't so bad, was it? The first step to cultivating a healthy attitude about money is to acknowledge that, at the risk of being redundant, money isn't in fact evil. It's your attitude that is.
You have to realize that you need to make a living. If you can't make a living doing massage, you'll need to make a living doing something else to pay the bills - which means that you won't have nearly as much time to give the gift of massage. Massage-wise, everybody loses that way. You aren't doing what you love and your clients won't get to receive the benefits of your work. I suppose your new employer would benefit from your awesome-ness, but that's not quite the point.
A healthy business supports both you and itself. And when I say supports, I don't mean just squeaking by. It should support your lifestyle and help you to achieve your dreams.
Example. I knew a massage therapist a while back who had been working longer than I had. She'd been out of school for maybe four years and still had plenty of clients that were paying her student rate - half her regular rate. I found this out after asked some questions following her wondering why she was having trouble making her car payment. When I asked why a significant number of her clients were still paying such a reduced rate, she told me that she was afraid of losing them if she charged them more. Several weeks after we spoke, she did decide to raise her rates. Not all the way, but much closer to her going rate. She did lose a few clients, but most stayed with her, and a few even told gher straight out that they had wondered why she hadn't raised her rates a long time ago. She ended up making more from the remaining clients than she did with her full load at the prior rate. The clients that left only came to her because she had the cheapest rate around, not out of any loyalty.
There Is Plenty Of Money To Go Around
You may not believe it, but there is. For example, here in the Bay Area we have around 7 million people and a median household income of a little over $70,000 per year. If we estimate an average household as 4 people then we're looking at somewhere around $120 billion every year flowing through this area. That's a plentyhuge pie to capture a very small slice of.
The other thing is that that money is going to be spent anyway. Either they go to buy a car, or they go to the mall, they order an iPod online, or they invest it somewhere - but money is changing hands all the time. All you want to do is have some of it pass through your hands first. There's no need to feel guilty about that. Shed the attitude that just because you make money, somebody else loses it. It's just not true. All you need to do is figure out how to tap into that flow.
Tapping the Flow
Think synergy (boy am I full of cliches in this post!). It's not really a competition. When you do well, your clients do better, you do your part to keep the economy chugging along, et cetera. Synergy is when the sum is greater than the parts. In this case, your massage + your clients' money = better lives for everybody. Really, your work helps to make your clients' lives better, and isn't that what they are out there earning money to do? Gee, I hope your guilt meter is starting to read zero by now!
Think Win-Win-Win
Thinking synergy involves thinking win-win-win. You win, your employer or business partners win, and you client wins. Everybody likes to play when they can't lose. Think of money as the tool that it is - a device to help everybody win.
Another way to look at money to develop a positive attitude about it is to look at it literally - as a means to an end. Money by itself doesn't do much for you. It's what it allows you to do that makes it important. Think about the things that enough money will allow you to do - expand your business, take that vacation you've been longing for, take scuba lessons, whatever. Look at money as a stepping stone to your goals (see my last post for more on defining success).
Parting Thoughts
Think about money differently. It is not a dragon to be slain, a mountain to be conquered. It is a tool of the trade. A necessary tool that will allow you to continue helping people while also experiencing what life has to offer. Now get out there and tap into the flow.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Defining Success
Me: “So what are your goals as a massage therapist?”
Student: “I want to be a success…”
Every time I teach my business classes the subject of success comes up. So what is it? Students want to be successful… who doesn’t? The problem is that people seldom know what they mean by “success”. It’s made more difficult by the fact that it means something different to everybody. Let’s take a look at this thing called success.
Dictionary.com defines success as:
- the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors
- the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like
- a successful performance or achievement
- the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted
What is Success?
The first three definitions above sound good, but when you get right down to it, do they really mean anything? How do I know if I am successful? I could argue either way about my success to this point and I would be right – if those are the criteria. The fourth definition is a little bit better – it introduces a concept of planning and a desired outcome. It turns out that that is the key to finding success – knowing what you want in the first place.
Intention & Priorities
You have to start by asking yourself what you want to accomplish. Simply saying that you want a successful business isn’t enough. What do you want to get out of it? And who do you want it for? You could say “I want to help people”. OK, a little better. Wait, you want a business that earns money too? Now you’ve got more than one person involved! How much money? “I want to be rich” is often the facetious reply to that question (and I’ll tell you now that there are much easier professions to grow rich in). My reply is usually, “How rich is rich?” In essence, you need to make it definable.
I like to use visualization in this process. How do you picture success? I want you to get that image in your head and then start to think of all of the elements that make your vision so appealing to you.
What gets me is that many people don’t really think about what they want to get out of their “success”. Money is one way to define it, but certainly not the only one. Do you want freedom – financially and with time? Esteem, reputation, honors & accolades, respect, credibility, recognition, gratitude, satisfaction, or any of the other things that can be derived from your work? These can all be measures of success.
There, I said it. Measure. It is one of the key points in attaining success. In order to do this right, you should list out all of the things that you want you or your business to accomplish. Then you should prioritize them in order of importance. Finally, you have to find a way to measure it.
For example, you could define success as:
- Having work that allows you to earn a full-time income on 30 hours a week
- Operating a business that earns enough to support you and itself (be sure not to short-change yourself and set this number as the bare minimum to pay the bills – it has to support your lifestyle)
- Being able to take a 2-week vacation to another country once a year.
- Owning a home (again, be specific about the type of home and where…)
…or a combination of things. Setting SMART goals is an effective method that helps you to define and attain success for yourself. More on that later. The most important thing for defining success though is being specific.
Stay on Target
Knowing what you want helps you to stay on track and not go astray. I have witnessed massage therapists let their career get away from them – either drawing in clients that weren’t their intended market or growing so dissatisfied with their jobs that they leave the profession. I would say that this is most often an alignment problem – that their internal (and undefined) idea of success and what they were actually doing were worlds apart. Defining your idea of success gives you a gold standard to compare everything to – a set of criteria. If what you’re doing doesn’t fit in with your vision of success, if it doesn’t move you closer to those measurements of success, then it’s not for you.
The best part of setting measurements of success is that you know when you get there. Do you ever wonder why kids always ask “Are we there yet?”? It’s because they don’t have a measure of how far you’ve gone or have to go. As we get older, we do have those tools. We see a sign that says 20 miles and we can instantly figure out that we’ll be there in 20 minutes – counting down the time all the way. It makes the long trips easier (and your career).
Having a specific measure of what success is to you provides motivation as well. You’re on the way. Your path. To a place that you know you want to be. And when things get tough, it’s the light at the end of the tunnel.
What to Measure
That being said, think carefully about what you measure. Make sure it really is what you’re looking for. I get asked all the time by my graduates “They pay this much at this spa. Is that good”. I don’t know, is it? The real question is, does it get you where you want to go? I’ve seen many people, in many different kinds of jobs, lose focus of what they really wanted and leave a better, lower paying job for a higher paying, higher stress job that they hate and tears their family apart. Or they do it for benefits. Or sometimes worse, they settle. Don’t do it just for the money.
If I measured my success based on money, then in my eyes I’m a failure. I won’t tell you what my definition of success money-wise is, but I can tell you that I’m not making it on a teacher’s salary. I did not say that I’m not a success though. I’m esteemed in the eyes of my colleagues (OK, so that is hard to measure). I just finished a degree. And here’s my favorite one. I’ve personally graduated and changed the lives of 120 students who by the averages are out there having made a combined $8 million! If only I got royalties!
That is a serious measure of success in my book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
