One question I get again and again is about setting up your support team for the Passionate Training. Another email arrived yesterday:

The first problem I have run into is not being able to find enough committed people to start my group (or for me to join) who are local, or willing to commit. I am not going to let it become an excuse not to start or finish the course, but how can I ‘find’ others like me in my area (who would not consider me competition or vice-versa, and are willing to help and support each other).

Do you maintain a register of your clients who would be willing to  help each other? If you do, I would let you gladly pass my contact information to them, to help establish a support team.

Anyway, if I have to do it on my own, I shall, but I know it will take me a lot longer, and I may lose some of my enthusiasm along the way.

Thanks for what looks like a great resource for therapists the world over.

Your are not Alone

You are not alone with not being able to find local people for your team. Have you had a chat to the people you trained with? Some of the students have set up virtual teams, using skype and email to communicate. That worked really well for them.

When I started providing the training, we had an online forum where questions could be asked and connections made - that was my plan anyway, but very few practitioners made use of it, so I closed it.

If you do not find health practitioners for your team, ask your partner or a friend whether they can meet with you once a week and give you that external feedback.

Reasons to Work With a Team

The most important part of having a team is to be accountable to someone other than yourself. It is one of the best ways to stay motivated. Secondly it is to share your thoughts. They often clarify when shared. The third reason is input of new ideas.

Your Chance to Make Connections

To help you find others who do the training, we can use the comments. Just share who you are, what you do, where you are located and how others can contact you.

I’ll let every new person who starts the training know that this posts exists and that the comments are a possibility to interact with others in the training.

If you have not yet received my free report: The 7 Biggest Business Mistakes Health Practitioners Make, just enter your name and email and I'll send it to you. Name: E-Mail: I respect your privacy and will never sell, share or pass on your details.

Massage Therapy Research is becoming a new part of the massage profession. There are new research studies coming out quite often. Research can help promote the massage profession and help the public to understand more about what it is that we do.

But research is confusing for the most part. The studies are hard to understand and knowing if it really is good research is a challenge for massage therapists. Learning about research methods and what to look for can help you decipher massage research and start referring to research as a way to promote your own practice.

The way to read a research study is to take a look at the massage protocol - how the massage was done and by who. Was it done by a licensed massage therapists or a nurse with no massage training? What is the ‘dose’? What was the length of the session, # of sessions, how much pressure was used and how often were the massages given? What massage techniques were used? What was the sample size- the number of participants? The more participants the better but most studies are usually small because of funding issues. Was there a control or comparison group? This will tell you if they got better because of the massage or would they just have gotten better anyway over time?

These are some of the things to start looking for. As more research becomes available there will hopefully be people helping us to analyze and interpret the results.

The thing about research is that there just isn’t enough of it so that we can say without a doubt “massage can help low back pain” or whatever ailment clients present with.

What it can do is bring us to a place where we can say something like ‘evidence is starting to show that massage can help alleviate low back pain”.

For more information see my site www.thebodyworker.com’s massage therapy research section.

Julio Onofrio
Founder of www.thebodyworker.com

Hello to you. I’d like to extend a warm hello to you. I would like to provide you with some great articles about how you can get more clients in your massage business.

My best wishes to you,

Amy Roberts
www.massagetherapymarketingsuccess.com

Amy Roberts is a Massage Therapist and International Business Consultant for Massage Therapists. Amy has helped over 10,000 Massage Therapists world wide grow their massage businesses, and is also an international speaker on many issues that therapists face in their businesses. Travelling overseas to the UK, Amy was a guest speaker at the Bowen Therapy Association UK and then a guest speaker at the Therapeutic Massage Association of New Zealand.

Amy has a regular column with the American Massage Therapy Association. She also has been accredited by the AMTA’s continuing education program on stress management issues in a Massage practice. Amy has 6 eBooks that she sells online and coaches therapists in person and in groups. Amy’s website is www.massagetherapysuccess.com . She answers all emails personally.

I recently had the opportunity to review the work of Amy Roberts. She is a successful massage therapist and business coach to massage therapists around the world. I had known about her for a few years but only recently realised that we only live two hours apart.

We have not met yet, but are planning to do that soon.

Amy has generously agreed to let me review her entire suit of books and workbooks. The sheer volume felt a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but once I delved into them and worked my way through, I got really excited. Amy has put together a complete collection of everything you need to know to advertise your massage therapy business.

Marketing Preparation

Rather than just jumping into the advertising, Amy spends time discussing the foundation of a successful massage therapy business. Developing your vision and keeping a positive mindset are just a small part of what Amy offers. She also provides great insight into developing a clearly defined target market.

Advertising Samples

Amy’s ebooks give detailed examples of headlines, direct mail letters and whole ads. She explains why and how to use the different elements to attract clients. You are even free to copy the examples and use them in your own ads.

Do-It-Yourself Work Sheets

There is a multitude of questions and worksheets that help through the steps of developing your own advertising. One of the best is the “Business Checkup”. It helps to get a really clear picture of how you rank in your marketing approach and what to do to improve it.

The whole course is set out in such a way that you do not need any other professionals. I would still maintain the extra Dollars for a professional graphic designer are a worthwhile investment.

However, by working through Amy’s course, you have a precise proposal that cuts the necessity of professional input to a fraction.

To get more detailed information about what her course entails, see www.massagetherapymarketingsuccess.com 

Feedback

If you have worked with Amy’s ebooks (or any other massage marketing coach or books) leave a comment so we can all benefit from it.

Have you heard of Elizabeth Fletcher Brown? She interviews interesting people (many of whom are successful massage therapists) at Massagesuccessradio.com.

She is now offering an 8 week telecoaching program. It starts in two weeks (Monday March 10th  or the 11th of you are in Australia).

There is a limit of only 20 massage therapists who can attend. That way she can really delve into specific issues of each participant.

Why do I recommend it? I have recently participated in a similar program. It has helped me to focus exactly on what I want to achieve. Reporting back to your peers each week gives you a whole different motivation to take action. It is the best way to stop procrastination and get you closer to the practice you envisage.

And the whole program is only $97. So if you have never tried to work with a group of peers, this is your chance to see its amazing results. And if you already know how much better you achieve your goals in a group, Elizabeth’s program might be for you.

If you decide to participate, please let me know how it goes for you.

Did you know that the Passionate Training is accredited for Continuing Education points? Not just in massage, but across a whole range of natural health modalities.

All you need to do is pass the 5 tests and you will receive your certificate of attendance.

Massage Continuing Education enough?

A lot of practitioners I encounter spend a lot of money on learning new modalities and refining massage skills. This is no doubt an important investment to keep abreast the newest developments.

However, if you do not have enough clients to serve, the additional knowledge will not help anyone.

Action focused training

That is why I developed the Passionate Training. Its main difference to other programs: It is completely focused on action. There are exercises spread over 25 days (you can of course do it at your own pace).

If you have any questions about the training (or any feedback for the ones who have done it) please leave a comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

Alexander

What exactly do you mean by credibility? Is it in relation to people believing that you can help them?

If you are just starting out the only way to get that fast is to give people a taste of what you do: giving something away for free. Depending on your modality that could be a check-up or a short demonstration of your modality. When you do that, it is best to put a $ value on it to show what you are worth. And then you can use that meeting to start building a relationship.

Give to Get

You have heard it many times: clients are built on relationships of trust. That
is the way to new clients as well. This is so important, because treatments
are services that differ from products in that potential clients cannot touch
them or look at them before buying.

The best way to earn their trust is to give them a taste of what they can gain
from a treatment. This means you need to give something without the
security that you will get anything back.

I have heard many practitioners saying that they are not willing to give
something away, that they have spent too much money for their education
and now is the time to earn it back.

The fact is, if you are not having enough paying clients to fill your day, you
are wasting your valuable time. Each hour that you are not producing
income, you are losing money. Let’s assume that you charge $50 per hour. If
you have 10 empty spots a week that is $500, which is around $25,000 a
year. Talk about giving something away!

So now you need to be focussed on filling these spots. Using any spare nonproductive
time is the cheapest thing you can give away, because it only
costs your time, not time and money.

That is a big question. Here are some thoughts:

Do you know what factors stress you the most to bring you close to burn out?
If you do not, find them first. Really take some time to look at your life and identify what is hard and what is good.

Once you know them, think of ways to change those factors.

Here is an example:

If you are working 8 hours a day to make enough money to pay your bills, then either your expenses are too high (decide what you can do to reduce your living expenses) or you do not earn enough.

If you work 8 hours a day, you are great at attracting clients (assuming that you are self employed). That means you charge too little. Increase your prices to reflect the value your clients are getting from you.

If you are exhausted from the repetitiveness, think of other ways to use your skills and expertise to vary what you do.

Another stress factor might be that you are not attracting enough clients. One solution might be searching for employment where you do not have to worry about marketing or administration. Or you need to get some professional help with the marketing.

And possibly the most important factor is whether we enjoy what we do. Even though it might have been your dream once, it might not be any more. Maybe it is time to switch direction…

Someone shared his fear that it maybe a lonely existence working from home, as opposed to working in a Spa with support systems.

That is such a valid and important point. I have been working from home for the past 3 years and the biggest thing I am missing is the interaction with colleagues.

But there are ways to nurture that interaction through professional support groups. I set up some and found that 4-6 people are best. That is intimate and varied.

The Passionate Training also emphasizes that. Here is a brief outline of how we structure of our meetings. (more…)

If you have any question about massage marketing, just post it as a comment. I’ll be happy to share my thoughts on it.

And you know what we’ll do?

The best question will win a Passionate Training. We’ll hold this open until the end of February, so just keep asking.

Looking forward to your questions.

Alexander