Podcast

Comments? No comment? How do I deal with the trolls and the haters? We discuss the conundrum of comments on your massage business blog.

Rianne’s podcast & her website.

Allissa’s convection oven

This episode is sponsored by:

• Mother Earth Pillows
• Center for Barefoot Massage

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by Mother Earth pillows. Mother Earth pillows are the original herbal flaxseed pillows handcrafted in Missouri. Made from golden flax with a little magic and a lot of love, they offer the highest quality products for self-care and for therapists. Available with and without scented herbal blends, Mother Earth pillows are made from food-grade golden flaxseed that hold heat and cold longer than similar products. With 100% cotton fabric and recyclable and reusable packaging, you can feel good about using Mother Earth pillows in your massage treatments and retailing to your clients. To get free shipping on your next order of over $50, use coupon code BLUEPRINT. Not to be used in combination with other coupons or on sale items. Visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/motherearth to learn more and order your Mother Earth pillows. That’s massagebusinessblueprint.com/motherearth.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we discuss the business side of massage therapy. I’m Michael Reynolds. 

Allissa Haines And I am Allissa Haines.

MR And we’re your hosts today. Glad you’ve joined us today for this episode. Thanks so much. Allissa, anything new in your world? It is raining here for the weather update. I had my sushi for lunch. I think I’m all caught up on our pre-show updates.

AH It’s clear and cool here, and I am going to have a plate of tater tots for lunch.

MR Oh! Give me your tots.

AH I know — I got my roommate this really great convection toaster oven for Christmas because the old one was just terrible, and it makes tater tots super crisp and crunchy in 15 minutes; so I have it warming right now. I’m going to throw the tater tots in as soon as we’re done recording. So here’s a thing: Dr. Boyfriend does not like tater tots, which, at first, I was like this is a —

MR What? That’s un-American.

AH — I know. I was like this is a huge character flaw; I don’t know if I can love you. Then I was like, wait, now I never have to share my tater tots because the kids don’t like them either.

MR Yeah. It’s actually a win.

AH Right? Anyhow, I’m having tater tots for lunch, and it’s cool and clear here. We’re done. We’re done with our banter.

MR I believe tater tots are gluten free.

AH Yes, they are.

MR So I can enjoy them as well.

AH Yes. Yes, you can, and you should.

MR All right. I probably will in the near future now that they’re on my mind. Today’s topic — I kind of made fun of you about today’s topic before we started, but actually, it’s a really good topic. You’re right. [laughs]

AH Thank you.

MR And it is should I allow comments on my blog?

AH Yeah. And this is yet another topic that came up for discussion in our premium member Facebook group. We actually had a situation where one of our premium members got a comment on one of her blog posts, and it was a comment from another massage therapist. Now, mind you, this is a website for her massage clients and her massage business. She got a comment from another massage therapist that was really negative, and so this topic came up. Our member handled it really well. She chose to let the comment sit there, and she responded to it in a very gracious way, and it was fine. Anyone who read that would be like wow, this business owner is really kind and gracious, all right, even though this other commenter is a jerk-face. But the topic came up, should I allow comments? And somebody jumped in and said Dude. Delete it. Which, by the way, I think if someone’s negative on your blog, you can delete it, but that’ll be the next topic. And also, one of our friends said I don’t allow comments on my blog, and I’m cool with that. And then one of our other members said I do get comments on my blog. I like to have another way to interact with my clients. And, sure, sometimes — unless you’re a really big blogger, you’re not going to get tons and tons of traffic and comments anyway — so you just moderate them, and if it’s spam, you just send it to the spam box, and if it’s super negative, you get to decide if you’re going to delete it or if you’re going to respond to it in a gracious way. Or not. You get to decide. I think you should leave comments open.

My opinion here is that both are just fine. I, personally, do not allow comments on my massage blog. Comments are closed. Partly because I don’t want to deal with it. I don’t — also because I feel like my client base and my potential client base, if they really want to comment, they’re going to drop me an email with their thoughts, or they’re going to comment when I post it on social media and they’ll comment in that venue, and I just don’t want to deal with it. It’s a thing that I don’t want to handle, and I’m okay with that. It may lessen opportunities for conversation with potential clients. I’ve decided I’m okay with that. In the same way that I decide I’m not going to worry about people who call me and hang up and don’t want to use my online scheduling system, I have decided I am okay with closing that channel of communication and not stressing about it at all. You may decide differently. If you decide to allow comments on your blog, I think that that’s great. But before I jump into that, I want to talk about today’s halftime sponsor. Michael, who is today’s halftime sponsor?

MR We are giving a shout out to the Center for Barefoot Massage today.

AH Yay!

Sponsor message The Center for Barefoot Massage offers Ashiatsu continuing education classes all across the country, lots of different areas. They focus on a unique blend of anatomy-driven, game-changing, career-saving “FasciAshi” courses that will empower you to provide massage techniques with your feet. They are the leader in this movement of a niche market that offers massage therapists an opportunity to stay in their profession longer, to not break their bodies, and to even retire their hands, or to, at least, use your feet as accurately and efficiently as hands. So if this is exciting to you — and I have to say, I do Ashiatsu work; it is exciting to me — you can visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/barefoot to learn more. That’s massagebusinessblueprint.com/barefoot.

AH And I just want to make note that I adore having them as a sponsor. They are lovely. Our friend Jeni Spring is a co-owner of the Center for Barefoot Massage, and we were just talking about how much we like her and how cool she is. And she runs some mad social media, people. You should totally check out Center for Barefoot Massage on Instagram and also Jeni at Heeling Sole, and it’s H-E-E-L-I-N-G-SO-L-E, that’s her massage business that is strictly Ashiatsu in San Antonio. And Michael’s going to give me a lecture because I went too long with our halftime spot, but I don’t care because Jeni is awesome. So let’s move back into —

MR [laughs] I was listening along intently so…

AH — I didn’t even take a breath for most of that because I just love Jeni. And she’s going to be our guest on a deep-dive episode in upcoming weeks, which I am super excited about because her business acumen is just — it’s a thing of beauty.

MR Well, I also love Ashiatsu because we actually have a member in our course right now that does Ashiatsu, and it helps you differentiate your massage practice, and we’re all about niching and differentiating; so it’s got that going for it too.

AH We are. Michael, I’m just going to jump right in, and, completely without warning or preparation, ask you if I was going to allow comments on my massage practice blog, what do you think? If someone who is not a niche client, not a potential client leaves a negative comment, what do I do with that?

MR Don’t worry. I saw the question coming. Nice try trying to throw me off guard there. I would — yeah, the comment thing, I agree with you. Comments are not — it really doesn’t matter. It’s based on what you feel comfortable with and how you’re going to use it. If someone does post a negative comment, a lot of people just say well, just delete it, just ignore stuff, or delete it or whatever. That’s not my favorite approach. Now, if it’s truly abusive and out of left field and is not worthy of a response, then yeah, maybe deleting it is okay — if it’s just out-there. But if someone’s posting something negative, I always ask is that an opportunity to come out with more information, take the high road, and elevate the conversation? I think it depends on the type of negative comment. But if someone posts something negative, maybe it’s about your massage practice, or something — oh, terrible service or whatever. Well, at that point, assuming you are right, you could take a chance to — or have a chance to set the record straight and follow up and say oh, I’m sorry that this — I’m sorry that you have this impression. Here is actually what happened. Here is how we can make it right. Can you give me a call and we can work it out? And you come out looking much more mature, much more professional. People will see that. I think we’re always terrified of oh, someone’s going to criticize me in public and that’s going to be my negative mark forever. That’s really not how things work. People are smart enough to see — when someone responds appropriately with class, with intelligence, with articulate communication, that generally helps them come out looking even better, and the person that is being negative and abusive, even, comes out looking pretty bad. Obviously, there’s a spectrum. There is fairly benign, reasonable criticism, and then there’s abusive, off-the-wall, out-of-left-field criticism, and depending on where that comment is on the spectrum, you’re going to respond accordingly. But don’t always go straight to deleting it or arguing back or stooping to their level. Sometimes it really is an opportunity to come out with an even better impression than before. What do you think?

AH I totally agree. Yeah. I don’t really have anything to add to that. [laughs] [indiscernible]

MR I kind of rambled a little bit; so hopefully that was —

AH No. That wasn’t rambled; that was strategic. I liked it. Yeah. I always feel weird when the answer to the question is so incredibly simple. But comments are fine; not having comments are fine; deleting negative comments is totally fine. It’s your space; you’re allowed to deal with it however you want. Also, there’s an opportunity to take the high road and show how classy you are.

MR Well, here’s something else. Can I add one more thing about commenting on or off?

AH Yes.

MR Chris Brogan, who you and I both follow and respect and like his work and stuff — he’s a prominent business expert-speaker-consultant-author, and he’s at chrisbrogan.com. And this reminds me of, I think it was a few years ago, actually, he came out with this big, bold statement saying I am going to stop allowing comments on my blog. And his blog gets a gazillion visitors a day; it’s really, really popular; it’s one of the top business blogs out there, and he has a huge following. A lot of people thought he was crazy, and his explanation was I am seeing that conversation is happening more on social networks than on individual blogs. Now, he actually got lots of conversation on his blog, even. He got 20, 30, 40 comments on any given article, usually, with good conversation. But he decided to turn comments off of his blog because he wanted to go with the grain of the internet, so to speak, and say You know what? I am going to encourage people to share my blog and share my articles, but the conversation is going to happen on Facebook or on LinkedIn. That’s where people naturally want to talk, and so he wanted to make sure that conversation around his content happened where people naturally wanted to have that conversation; so he just steered people in that direction and didn’t want to mess with moderating his blog and messing with spam and stuff. And so, from his perspective, that kind of made sense. Because there’s nothing wrong with turning off comments on your blog and just saying, you know what? Conversation’s going to happen on Facebook, and people are going to have a conversation. When I share it, the comments are going to happen right there, and that’s just where people like to talk. That may be an approach you want to consider as well.

AH Makes sense to me.

MR Yeah. Seems to be working for him.

AH Yeah. Why not. And I’m all for anything that gives me less work and things to manage on a daily basis.

MR Yeah. We allow comments on the Massage Business Blueprint blog, and, for the most part, it’s very classy and people have very thoughtful commentary. But I can see a day coming when it may be less classy. [laughs]

AH I don’t know if you noticed, but we got hit with some spammers yesterday, and I spammed eight comments in a row from massage offices in Dubai or some crap like that —

MR I did see that. Yep.

AH — I couldn’t even — whatever.

MR It’s not too bad so far, but I think it could get worse, and we may reevaluate that at some point. For the most part, our blog gets really good conversation.

AH And that’s all I have to say on the topic, Michael.

MR Yeah. Good one.

AH Oh. You know what?

MR Yeah, go ahead.

AH Let’s — can we just take a moment for two random shout-outs —

MR Why not.

AH — and the first one is going to be for someone else, and then the second one is going to be for us. The first one is — I just want to give a shout out to our friend Rianne at Balance and Peace Massage —

MR Oh, yes!

AH — in Panama City — it’s Panama City, Florida, I think. That’s a thing, right? That’s a place.

MR Yes.

AH It’s Balance and Peace —

MR It’s a real-life place.

AH — I will find the website as we chat here, but Rianne — tell the people why we’re mentioning Rianne.

MR Because she is, I think, the first, to my knowledge, of our community that has started her own podcast. I’m actually googling her website right now so we can find it as well, but —

AH It’s balanceandpeace.com —

MR — easy enough.

AH — and that’s her website, but I don’t know that the podcast is hooked in, particularly, there yet. But you can go to iTunes, and you can — it’s probably in the other major podcast things. I’m going to check on that right now. But, you can go to iTunes and look for Balance and Peace podcast, and she’s on episode three or four right now. And it’s just Rianne doing this amazing podcast about the kind of massage that happens at her two offices, and it’s delightful, and it’s hilarious.

MR She’s really good at it.

AH She’s good, and I love the way she does it, and I want to acknowledge at the same time that there’s a million different ways to do a podcast, but a little inspiration. If you need a nudge, check it out because she’s amazing. I’m saying it out loud so that it happens. We’re going to make Michael do a webcast soon on how to do your own podcast so that people who are afraid of the tech notion of it can get over that hump. That’s what I — that’s the first plug. The second plug I wanted to mention — we have a course that’s starting up in — I don’t know — three weeks or something — maybe a little less than that now. It’s the Transformational Journey course, and, Michael, tell the people what that’s about.

MR Yeah. As the name implies, it is a transformational journey [laughs] — so clever, I know. It’s designed to go through a number of different segments of your business. The very first thing we do right out of the gate is address marketing, and we help you to define a niche and a differentiating focus of your massage practice so that instead of looking like every other massage therapist in your community, you end up looking different and more specialized and, therefore, more special and more sought after. We help you set that up. We put together a marketing plan. We put together systems. We pull apart your intake process. We blow up your charting and all the stuff you really need to get hammered down. And, really, as the name implies, again, we want to elevate your practice to an even better level of service and marketing and delivery and operations and finance and everything that goes into running a practice, we elevate it to a higher level that helps you stand out among other therapists and, therefore, get more business and make more money. It’s really, really good. We’re really, really proud of it. The course — the first course we ran started last year, and it’s wrapping up here in a few weeks — or maybe about a month or so. We are having a wonderful time. We have had some amazing work happen in our course, and we’re about half full for the one coming up. Now’s the time to jump in.

AH There we go. You covered it.

MR Massagebusinessblueprint.com/elevate. That’s how you sign up.

AH And I say you should sign up too.

MR I agree.

AH And that’s how we do commercials here —

MR We’re so good at this. [laughs]

AH — at massagebusinessblueprint.com. [laughs]

MR All right. That’s a great place to stop. What do you think? [laughs]

AH Take us out, Michael.

MR All right. Thanks for putting up with us today — I mean listening today. We appreciate that. As a reminder, you know where to find us. Our website is massagebusinessblueprint.com. Email us comments or questions at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com, and we love all the iTunes reviews we’ve been seeing lately. Thank you, thank you so much for that. It really means a lot. We appreciate that. Thanks again for joining us. We’ll see you next time.

AH And you can totally get Rianne’s podcast on spreaker.com. I’ll put a link in the podcast notes; I just found it. And have a great day.

MR There you go.