There is nothing like learning something new to stimulate our mind/body with fresh impressions from which to grow, and to shock it out of old patterns of thinking, learning, feeling and doing. This is essential for massage therapy professionals since the quality of what we do not only impacts the effectiveness of the treatments we give our clients and patients, but also directly influences the living we make in doing it. Most of us are familiar with the expression, ?if you don?t use it, you lose it,? and that certainly holds some validity. However, I think that massage therapy practitioners are less inclined to accept another similar truth, which is, if you do not seek to grow, even that which you know and do well will over time deteriorate and weaken — become stale. It?s not very different from body-builders who stop working out, soon after all their muscles begin turning to fat.

Becoming a health care practitioner, such as a massage therapist, is a commitment to life long learning and professional development. It is a responsibility that comes with being called a professional which is defined as ?possessing great skill or experience in a field or activity.? Although we know that children are naturally curious, as adults we can become complacent about learning new things, and it doesn?t usually get easier as we age. It should be no surprise that habits and patterns become more fixed as we become older and more settled and ?uncomfortably comfortable in our ways.? Every massage therapist forms habits and patterns of treating after doing what they have been doing for years. Therapists can easily become fixed and reach a point of stagnation. This doesn?t mean that practitioners are not doing a good job at what they do. Many have reached a high level of skill and get wonderful results. However, if nothing is done to continue to cultivate that, then it will eventually begin to wilt. What is worse, is that you may not even realize it until you notice your practice dwindling.

Brushing up on old knowledge and techniques after years of experience will often lead to greater and deeper insight into what you already know and do which will immediately reflect positively in your treatments. Expanding your knowledge and technical base with training in new specialty areas is another powerful way to enhance your level of skill and breathe new life into your practice. The trends in our field are changing rapidly. Getting stuck in old patterns and habits of doing massage therapy, thinking that you know enough or that you are good enough can quietly leave you years behind relative to the speed and direction in which the Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork Profession is moving. It won?t be long before clients are asking you questions about techniques and forms of treatment you haven?t heard of yourself. You really must keep up!

We owe it to ourselves as professionals to continue learning and training in our chosen profession. It is vital that all massage therapists hold a view that it is their personal and professional responsibility to seek continuing education. Most of all, we owe it to our clients and patients who depend on us for the best and most effective treatments possible. Make it your personal commitment to seek self-improvement and continue to serve your clients with safety and competency. Give your self the gift of Continuing Education this year. The massage therapist in you will deeply appreciate it, and so will all your clients.

Discussion: At one time or another every massage therapist experiences periods in which his or her practice becomes stale. Boredom sets in, and treating becomes mechanical and rote. I’d love to hear different experiences related to this and what action, if any, was taken to combat your “massage fatigue” and to renew and reenrgize your love for Massage Therapy and Bodywork. Did you find that taking new or refresher CE courses in your modality helped? Did attending a regional or national professional association conference or convention where you could be around many of your peers rejuvenate your passion for the field? Let’s hear!!

Do you know what you are doing wrong?

Today?s massage marketing environment is substantially different than it was even ten years ago. If you?ve been doing the same types of marketing for years and they were once successful but are not as effective now there is a good reason for that.

Pull vs Push your messages to others

Society has changed and the way people expect to hear from you has changed. Where marketing and communications used to be your practice sending information ?out? or pushing information to patients and prospects, it is now about you brining them in or ?pulling? them to you. Communicating in our society has changed and your marketing communications should reflect that change from a push to a pull strategy. Pushing your information out to anyone that would listen in order to initiate a conversation worked in the past, but no more. Now there is a need to pull prospects and clients into your sphere ? this is today?s communication. This is how to connect with people today.

How Obama changed the face of social media

A great example of this was Obama?s presidential campaign. I did a ton of research on this for the healthcare conference I did a workshop in January. Obama did an awesome job ?marketing? his campaign and run for presidency. His messaging played an important role (for change) as well as the WAYS he connected with people.

Obama was able to raise over 200 million dollars through a pull marketing strategy. He did this by pulling people in one small step at a time. He received absolutely none of that money from businesses. He built an email list of 3.5 million people in a very short time span. In a very easy and nonintrusive way he simply asked people to join his list to keep up to date on what was going on. He would then ask them to donate small amounts, $10, $15, $20 increments (this is just like asking people to take small steps to improve their health). He spoke to them through short text messages through twitter and YouTube. All with their permission. All through short, concise marketing communications.

How do we know this? Simply take a look at what?s going on with new communication trends. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all about sending short, concise messages to people that asked to or agreed to hear from you.

Why the change?

There is so much ?noise? going on around us and we are all so bombarded with advertisements that we simply can?t process it all.

So healthcare consumers are electing who and what they want to hear about, just like consumers in any other industry.

Bringing this back to you and your practice, look at what types of marketing you are doing. Are you sending things out, out, out and not asking for a commitment or an action from your community? Are you doing the same old post cards, the same old grocery cart brand awareness?

If you are not asking prospects to say ?yes? to hear from you they are probably not listening. You don?t have their buy-in. You are pushing.

What are some pull strategies that work well?

Anything where you are getting your client or prospect to say ?yes I want to hear from you?. An ezine or this blog is a perfect example. You agreed to receive it. You learned a little bit about it, obviously are interested in healthcare marketing, and gave us your name and email address to learn more.

Blogs, podcasts, newsletters and ezines where the reader has asked to receive the information (rather than just sending it to them), are just a few examples of ways to incorporate a pull strategy into your marketing rather than the current push strategy you may be using.

If you are seeing your marketing is not as effective as it once was understand there is a reason. Look at how you are connecting with both your clients and your prospects.

Contact us at Kelly@AMarketingConnection.com or call 303-460-0285 for more information.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit.

Kelly Robbins also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, ?5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits? at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.

Active senior citizens today know that anti aging is not just about eating more natural foods.  While many baby boomers search for products that provide real anti aging benefits, some mature consumers are now smart enough to know that it?s not sufficient to just buy natural foods from the store.  They realize that there are nutrient dense, natural foods superior to organic foods or even juicing that produce anti aging results they can really see and feel.

At 87, Olga is enjoying the anti aging benefits of nutrient dense natural foods

Let?s look at an older person suffering from arthritis for years.  They decide to change their diet to include more natural foods, but don?t see or feel results.  Then, they try nutrient dense concentrated natural foods that provide the most nutritious parts of the plants without the bulk or expense of organic produce.  Instead of the body degenerating from typical store-bought foods, they begin to feel relief right away through the power of ?regeneration?.  What?s happening is that damaged, old, dying cells are being replaced more rapidly by healthy, new cells that now are stronger because they are built with more powerful nutrients.

For anti aging benefits, nutrient dense natural foods provide far more nutrition in fewer calories.  This is key because scientific studies have shown that those who consume fewer calories enjoy a longer, healthier life.  Instead of constantly loading the body up with unhealthy foods, sugary drinks, or empty calories, consumers of concentrated, nutrient dense, natural foods are loading up on real nutrition that provides amazing results.  They are taking their health to a new level and winning the anti aging battle.

Many anti aging enthusiasts in their 50?s 60?s and 70?s are now feeling ten to twenty years younger, and believe they can actually live a healthy, energetic, disease free life until the day they pass away peacefully in their sleep.  This is far different from how most people wind down their golden years.  Far too many senior citizens end up in hospitals or nursing homes, unable to care for themselves.  The sad part is that it doesn?t have to be this way.  The philosophy of regeneration is real.  It?s simply a matter of shopping differently for nutrient dense, natural foods that aren?t usually sold in typical stores.  Look for concentrated natural foods and health drinks that are made with whole food ingredients, as close to nature as possible.

Many struggle with losing weight or when they do lose weight, too many times it just comes back.  There may be some hidden factors to consider to help people to become more effective in being healthier.  Please refer back to my blogs on “Are you having difficulty losing weight”? and “Pouring Water on a stone”. 

The following is a response from Owen Dodge, who is an excellent Myofascial Therapist:

“My reflections on this thread steer away from the focus on emotional considerations with respect to compulsive behavior such as overeating, and focus more on John?s title relating to general difficulty losing weight.

I recently heard glowing feedback from a client I treated with Myofascial Release who had for years tried to lose weight with diet and exercise modifications. She?d lose weight to a certain level, but could never get to her modest target weight.

Adding this aside to her history of neck surgery earlier in life and whiplash from a car accident, I wondered if maybe her thyroid function could have been affected by these traumas and associated scarring.

Several weeks after our one MFR treatment focusing on cervical balance, this client called to tell me how delighted she was to have finally dropped more weight without any special effort than she ever did with diet and exercise regimens.

Of course, this outcome leads to more questions than answers. But, at least in the eyes of my client, it also adds another piece of anecdotal evidence to the growing mountain of favorable treatment outcomes seen worldwide from those who put John Barnes? ?unproven? but straight-foward theories to the test”.

Sincerely,

Owen Dodge

               Academic institutions that are already running massage therapy programs should be thinking about new ways to grow and evolve them in order to create real quality programs, remain competitive and regain the edge in this rapidly evolving field. Based on my experience, there are many ways in which academic institutions can strengthen their massage therapy programs. I?m only discussing one of them in this blog but some of the others can be accessed in a recent article I wrote at my website: www.Schenkmanconsulting.com at the bottom of the home page. It’s entitled: Massage Therapy Training – The Next Step.  

               Implementing any one of them can make a big difference in the success of the program or school. Institution decision makers should take some time to consider which ways apply to their particular school. Since each institution is in a different place in the evolution of their massage programs, differences in overall mission, philosophy, curriculum, staff and faculty from one school to another will dictate which changes are more relevant to any individual school. However, whether or not any of them apply, it can be extremely beneficial to reflect on these ways and take an objective look at what, if anything, to do next!?

The ?Smorgasbord Syndrome?

                All too often institutions, particularly those with less hours to spare, stuff their programs with a multitude of short courses in different modalities of massage therapy and bodywork in the hopes and mistaken belief that this will somehow have a positive outcome for the graduate and for the school. I call this the ?smorgasbord syndrome.? Although it?s a marketing dream and it may look attractive, appetizing and exciting to an uneducated, prospective enrollee, (as in ?look at all I?m going to learn if I enroll in this program?), it unfortunately frequently produces a program that turns out graduates very weak in the fundamentals and ineffective in the basic foundations and technical competencies of treatment. As a result, it can backfire in a lower pass rate for the school on the licensing/certification exam which can ultimately have serious repercussions for accreditation, Title IV funding, etc….

               Employees who hire these graduates complain about lower competence levels and unprofessional demeanors and don?t keep them on staff. The inability for a school?s graduates to hold on to a job will seriously damage the Institution?s placement stats creating further accreditation and financial aid complications. And it?s not long after that when these graduates begin to wake up to the fact that the program they graduated from was, ?a mile wide and an inch deep.? That said longer programs, wisely developed, do have the room to offer and competently teach a broader array of forms of massage and bodywork which can be of great benefit to the graduate and to the clients they treat.

It is recommended that as a bottom line all basic, entry level professional programs should be at least 600 hours and should be focused on no more than two treatment modalities, i.e., Swedish massage and Shiatsu, or Swedish massage and Deep Tissue,?….. Given that all the other hours need to be spent on adequately teaching the biosciences including: A&P, muscle anatomy, kinesiology, pathology, clinic internship, professional development, ethics and business, etc.. spending precious hours on trying to teach four or five more modalities basically robs the student of a balanced education. Those hours have to come from somewhere!

               An additional modality can be introduced in a 600 hour program, but it should be made clear to students that it is only an introduction and that real competence will come after many more hours of continuing education classes and practice. Upgrading, revising and staying a cut above by offering a longer, more comprehensive program that is marketed properly can reinvigorate a massage therapy school or program and is something that should be carefully considered.  

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Summer Olympics in Beijing. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you know there has been a lot of press, mostly negative, about China’s record on human rights, especially in connection with Darfur, and the annexation of Tibet.

Many groups are calling for a boycott of the Games this year. Some are suggesting that Heads of State decline to attend the Opening Ceremonies as a way to send a message to China.

I have the pleasure of working with a number of athletes who have been training for years for their shot at the Olympics and I believe we would do every Olympian a disservice if we boycott the Games. Ideally the Olympics is about sport and competition and fair-play and should be outside the realm of politics. In reality, politics has played a role in every Olympics. I think that all of the attention being focused on China will have a positive effect on the behavior of the Chinese government.

OK I am a bit of a geek which is unusual for a massage therapists.   I have a system that I use and recommend but it is fairly time intensive yet anyone can do it.  So the other day I started researching various website design systems for massage therapists and was wondering what people are using and what is effective.

An effective website to me is one that gets 3-5 clients a week AND also makes you an additional stream of income from promoting affiliate products. (Affiliate marketing is promoting things that are related to massage – like I promote a stretching program, Traumeel, Biofreeze and books on health that I have read)

The reason that I feel a website is so important is that it is more than just a calling card for your business.  It is also an opportunity to be more professional and educated doctors and the general public about what massage really can do and how it is used.   You know the drill – it’s good for stress, injuries, wellness but most people are clueless really about their bodies.

A website is one of the easiest ways to get clients I think because people are already looking for a massage therapist.  They aren’t looking for you when they start out – but they are just looking for someone to help them with whatever issue they are having – stress  or pain in some combination usually.   People want to know that you have experience working with the kinds of things that they are dealing with.  They want to make sure they are spending their time wisely.  What do they think when they find a site that doesn’t have any more info than just a few pages on how much the massage therapists charges?

One of the best exercises you can do is to go online and try to find a good massage therapist.  Go through all of the process of searching online.  Actually go and do it and follow through and go and get the massage.   See what you find out there!

The components of an effective website are many.  It has to do with keywords and a little simple search engine optimization and also just writing all of the things down that you really just talk to people about – how muscles work, how massage works, what happens with stress and injuries.  Writing this all down will also improve the way you communicate with clients in person.

While all of the technical details might seem too overwhelming they are worth learning about to create an effective website.  I have it all laid on on my website at www.thebodyworker.com

If you would like some help with your current website just leave the address and I will give you some pointers on how to get your site to the top of the first page of Google (which is really the goal of every website. )

Happy Halloween!

Julie

    Some scientists say structure determines function.  Others say function determines structure.  The debate rages on.  Is it possible that it is both?  Is the effect of structure and function interchangeable? 

     Recent research has shown that the ground substance of the fascial system is the immediate environment of every cell of our body.  It has also been shown that an increase in the viscosity of the ground substance can change the shape and mobility of the cell.  The change in the shape of the architecture of the cell alters its function and the important bio-chemical reactions required for health.  Bob Mollica, PT has provided an important link to and an article titled, “An architect walks into the lab.” (  http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0109/feature1_1.html )

     You may also want to read my new article on the Massage Magazine website titled, “Myofascial Release Perspective: Therapeutic Insight?Fascia, a Liquid-Crystalline Matrix.”  To access my latest article,  go to www.massagemag.com and scroll down on the left side of the page to the box titled “techniques” and click on that tab.  Then you can click on my latest “Therapeutic Insight” article or you can click on the following link for direct access: http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=7057 .

Thanks.

     John

 I have been in the massage business for about eight years. Within these  eight years, I have practiced massage on my own, but not as a business owner and I have worked for other people in spa’s and clinics. I have noticed now that I am a business owner I seem to get less tips. When I worked in the spa’s and clinics I did get tips, but the owners would not, which I thought was fair because I am giving them half of cost of the massage. What if you are a business owner, but you are the only employee. You do all the marketing, scheduling, and practicing. Is that work worth a tip or because I am the owner is that not necessary? Any thoughts? Bee Healhy. Bee Happy. Bee Well…..

Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce and many massage therapists are members just because we thought we should be. We see other businesses in our community with the chamber stickers in the window and think we?re not valid until we have one. The fact is not all chambers are the same and not all are an effective way to grow a massage therapy business.

Chambers of commerce come in all different sizes and have different types of benefits available to their members. But as different as they are, they all have one thing in common ? their mission is to connect businesses with each other. Their main purpose in the community is to help your business grow.

Joining a chamber of commerce sounds great, doesn?t it? It sounds like an easy way to connect with other business owners and the community. If only making money and connections were as easy as joining?

First things first, you can?t become a member of the Chamber of Commerce and then not do anything. You are just throwing your money away. You have to commit to being involved and taking the time to manifest the benefits available to you.

Here are a few basic things to do to maximize any chamber of commerce membership:

?    Investigate all the benefits before joining. If you are already a member take the time now to review the member benefits ? what haven?t you taken advantage of? Take some time to uncover the different marketing options available to you as a member. Ask the person that signed you up what the best events are for you to attend. Is free advertising included in your local paper? Are ribbon-cuttings standard procedures for new members?

?    Attend networking events. This doesn?t mean that YOU specifically need to attend every event. You may have someone in your office attend more frequent events, and you attend ones with the ?high-rollers? in your community.

?    Include educational articles in publications. Does the chamber have a publication they send out to members? Don?t necessarily jump right to advertising in the publication if they have one. You want to ask if they accept educational articles that would benefit all of their members first. It?s usually free to include these and they are read more often (and are more believable) than ads.

?    Encourage strategic introductions from the staff. If there is a specific business you want to form a relationship with, ask your chamber representative if they can sit you with someone from there or introduce you. Be strategic and network. Don’t waste your time with the people that don’t do anything but attend events. Move forward and be purposeful in your connections.

?    Get involved in a worthwhile committee, but be particular about which one. Larger chambers will have different ?levels? of committees you can get on. Be picky. Ask who the other members of the committee are. Are they the movers and shakers in your community? Are they business leaders you want to forge relationships with?

Don?t just become a member of your Chamber of Commerce just to do it. Be strategic, ask smart questions, and be picky about who you spend your valuable time with.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, ?5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales