Podcast

What caught our attention this week?

• StoryBrand Framework
• (and Hector Elizondo)
• Fairer Cents podcast

Discussion Topic

• Does my massage business need a will?
• APA example

Quick Tip

• 6 Cheap and Healthy Meals to Try This Week
• BudgetBytes

Sponsors

• Acuity Scheduling
• The Jojoba Company
• Yomassage

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by Yomassage. Yomassage combines restorative stretching, massage, and mindfulness in a small group session. Limited in-person trainings are happening in 2020, and virtual trainings begin the first Monday of each month. You can get a special $50 off on trainings January through March in 2020 using the code BLUEPRINT — that’s all caps, one word, BLUEPRINT. You can go to massagebusinessblueprint.com/yomassage to find out more about Yomassage trainings and use that special code BLUEPRINT for $50 off.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we help you attract more clients, make more money, and improve your quality of life. I’m Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines I’m Allissa Haines.

MR We’re your hosts. Welcome. Welcome today. Allissa, your office is warming up, it sounds like. You’re getting some feeling back in your fingers?

AH I am. We’re up to 64 degrees here. I’m wrapped up in a quilt my friend Karleen made me. I’m very cozy, but my coffee’s cold. So that’s a downer.

MR All right. Well, spring is just around the corner.

AH It is. It is.

MR In theory.

AH What are you — what’s going on with you, Michael? What are you reading?

MR I am reading about the StoryBrand Framework right now.

AH I don’t know what that is.

MR Well, let me tell you. I’m glad you asked. [Laughing] The StoryBrand Framework is a — kind of a concept created by Dan Miller who — he wrote a book called StoryBrand. It’s — I’m sorry, Donald Miller. I said the name wrong. It’s Donald Miller. He wrote the book called StoryBrand, and it’s a book that basically highlights how to integrate storytelling in a certain way into your marketing. And I’m not going to — I thought about making this a whole main topic, but I think we’ll do that in the future because I’m not a StoryBrand certified expert or anything, at least not yet. I haven’t really dug into it enough to feel like I can teach it yet. But I think it’s — the concept is approachable enough that a lot of people just kind of grasp the concept to start implementing it, at least bits and pieces of it, right away. And so I’ve been reading about it because it’s really interesting. A lot of — I think there’s kind of some growing interest in using StoryBrand, And here’s kind of the background of it.

So the book is called StoryBrand. So check that out for the source, but there’s also many articles that kind of give you a summarized version of it. The gist of it is you want to make your customer or your client the hero. A lot of us, we approach business thinking, okay, I’m the practitioner, I’m the expert, I’m the hero, and my marketing has to reflect that. And so when people market their business, or their massage practice specifically, they market themselves as, oh, I’m the massage therapist. Here’s my credentials. Here’s how I help you. Here’s all the stuff, me, me, me, and they make it all about them. And that’s very natural of all of us. I’m not beating anyone up for doing that. I do the same thing. We all have this natural inclination to kind of beat our chest and say, hey, here’s why you should hire me, or here’s why you should come see me. But what tends to resonate with people better is if you instead flip the script and make them the hero and you take on the role of the guide.

The StoryBrand Framework also follows the typical three-act progression of most movies. If you think about the Hollywood script — I’m going to ask you, Allissa. I’m going to put you on the spot a little bit. What is kind of the three-segment framework of any basic Hollywood movie? Can you kind of summarize it?

AH No.

MR I’m putting you on the spot. I’m probably asking the question poorly.

AH You are. I don’t have an attention span that allows me to watch movies anymore.

MR [Laughing] Well, let me throw it out there.

AH So it’s been a long time. I guess there’s some kind of meet-cute, and then there’s some kind of conflict, and then there’s some kind of resolution, right?

MR Exactly. See, you got it. That’s perfect. That’s exactly what it is. There’s an introduction, kind of set the stage. And then the middle is the conflict, the challenge, the whatever. The big conflict happens, and then the resolution at the end. So it’s this three-segment framework of the Hollywood movie script. And so StoryBrand follows that kind of script. It introduces a character that has a problem. The character meets a guide. The guide gives them a plan, calls them to action that results in either their success or their ruin.

And so if you think of one example, Star Wars is a great example. Allissa, I’m going to keep putting you on the spot and probably keep failing miserably at asking these questions well, but let me ask you. Who is the hero in Star Wars, and the original Episode IV, the original Star Wars movie, the very first one that came out?

AH Princess Leia?

MR [Laughing]

AH Okay. I’m going to say it’s probably Luke, right? I don’t know.

MR It’s Luke Skywalker, yes. It is Luke Skywalker.

AH Okay. In my world, it’s Princess Leia, but okay.

MR In your world, Princess Leia, but in the StoryBrand world they go with Luke Skywalker. He’s the main character. So Luke Skywalker is the main character. Obi-Wan is the guide. Obi-Wan — who’s more powerful, at least at the beginning of the movie? Who’s more powerful, Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan?

AH Obi-Wan.

MR Oh, yeah, Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan could — he has the Force. He’s a seasoned Jedi. He could just wipe the floor with pretty much anybody, but he is not the hero. He is the one that is the guide to Luke Skywalker, who helps Luke Skywalker step into his own power and tell his own story and reach his own success through his journey. And that’s the role that StoryBrand teaches us as business owners to take, not the Luke Skywalker role of, I’m the hero, but the Obi-Wan role of, hey, I’m the powerful guide that is going to kind of step in the background and teach you how to be the hero of your own story. And so that’s what StoryBrand teaches us to do, is to kind of step out of the spotlight of hero and make our client the hero.

And so it’s a really interesting framework that I think can benefit massage therapists because obviously we could easily take on the role of the expert and the hero. We’ve got these credentials. We are trained in massage and can do all this stuff, but our client is the hero. Our client is the one that is wrestling with a challenge, maybe, or needs something, a guide to help them through their journey. And the massage therapist is there in a supportive role. And if our marketing reflects that, our clients can — will typically respond better to that because they can see themselves in the story better, and they respond better and take action. So I thought it was a really interesting framework. And I’m reading more about it recently because I want to get into the nitty-gritty of how to apply that to marketing. So that’s what I’m reading. I recommend checking it out. The book is called StoryBrand by Donald Miller.

AH This is —

MR Sorry that was so awkward for you. [Laughing]

AH No, it — I’m just not — I’m not hip with my stuff right now. Okay, so here’s what I was doing. I was looking up — I was thinking to myself, oh, the guardian angel character in every rom-com, or specifically the guardian angel character in every holiday rom-com —

MR Yeah.

AH — who is especially and often an actor named Héctor Elizondo — he was also —

MR [Laughing] Really?

AH He was the manager of the hotel in Pretty Woman too, I think. Yeah, I love that guy.

MR Full disclosure, Ariana and I watch every single holiday rom-com at holiday season. We’re hooked.

AH Heck yeah. Absolutely, we do. And he — yeah, so anyhow, so you want to be the Héctor Elizondo and not necessarily the leading man who is always a widower who finds his heart at Christmas. Okay, this was good. I’m glad we went there, Michael. I’m glad we went there.

MR I’ve got a link to an article that kind of gives the visual. They use Star Wars. They use Hunger Games. They apply it to movies you’ve heard of. And they also apply it to some business examples as well. So there’s a link to an article that kind of summarizes StoryBrand. So I recommend checking it out. It’s pretty useful.

AH And I’ll give a link to Héctor Elizondo.

MR [Laughing] Fair enough.

AH [Laughing] Because that’s important.

So here’s what I have been doing, reading, listening to lately. I’ve been listening to a new podcast, new to me, called The Fairer Cents, which is women, money, and the fight to break even. It is a well-acclaimed podcast. It won a best podcast for women award last year. And it’s — and I found it through the — a lot of the financial independent woman groups I’ve been listening to lately. It goes — it’s a podcast that goes really deep into what makes money such a complicated subject, especially for women, systemic issues that affect some of us more than others, and it is really interesting. And it describes itself as, “if you’re down to dig into the stickier economic issues that disproportionately affect women, people of color, non-binary people and everyone who feels marginalized by our current money culture.” And it is really, really good and interesting, and they’re funny. I like it a lot. It’s called The Fairer Cents, and I will put a link to it in our show notes.

MR All right, looking it up now.

AH And while you’re looking it up, I will talk about our first sponsor.

MR Cool.

AH And that sponsor would be Jojoba.

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by The Jojoba Company. I believe that massage therapists should only be using the highest quality products, and I know you do too. Jojoba is noncomedogenic, so it won’t clog your client’s pores. So if you have a client that’s prone to acne, jojoba is a really good choice for them. It won’t stain your 100% cotton sheets, so your linens are going to last longer. And Jojoba in the only company in the world that carries that 100% pure, first-press quality jojoba. And we are delighted to partner with them. You, my friends, can get 10% of the price of the product on orders of $35 or more when you shop through our link, massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba. And it’s been a while since I’ve spelled it out, so let’s just clarify that that’s J-O-J-O-B-A.

MR Thanks, Jojoba.

AH Yeah. All right, let’s dive into our discussion topic here. And that topic is —

MR Does my —

AH Does my business need a will?

MR [Laughing] I thought you were waiting for me to say the topic. You paused so dramatically. I thought it was my turn.

AH I know. I was just being dramatic. I’m sorry.

MR I know. That’s all right.

AH And first of all, let me just say that I’m super embarrassed because this topic was brought to us, and I just double-checked my email, a year ago. And it took me this long to get my act together and get on it. So thank you, Joan, for suggesting this as a topic. I apologize for taking a year to make it happen.

So yes, just like in our personal lives we need a will, in our professional lives we need a will. We need some document — ideally legally, we’ll get into that — that tells our loved ones what they should do with all of our business crap if something happens to — oh, and I just totally gesticulated and knocked my headphones off. That’s how passionately I believe about (indiscernible).

MR [Laughing] We are not editing that out because it is too awesome.

AH Yeah, I know. I’m really living the life today. So yeah, we do need something that makes it easier on our family, and also if we have any business partners or coworkers or people who share office space with us, and our clients, if something happens to us so that all of their income isn’t interrupted and our clients aren’t left hanging if — and this applies if something happens to us, not just death, but like an accident or something that takes us out of commission or makes us unable to really well-communicate and handle stuff for ourselves. And it makes it a lot easier if you do have something happen, like a loved one having a health issue and having — you having to book out of town, or not even book out of town in a hurry, but just having to all of a sudden deal with something, having this information together is going to make everything much easier on you, if you’re still around. And it’ll definitely make things better for everyone who lives and works around you to make things better for them.

If I got hit by a bus today, there’s like four people who rent from me who would have their businesses disrupted if I didn’t have things organized so that they could handle it and handle what needed to happen at the office.

So does your business need a will? Yes. Why? Because it makes it easier on your family if they’re grieving or dealing with stuff. And it makes it easier on the people around you, including your clients. And the best example that I found, and that I didn’t really found, I think Joan delivered this to me, is psychology — the American Psychology Association. It’s actually part of their standards of practice that they mandate that there must be some — it’s an ethical and legal requirement that psychologists have some kind of plan, transition plan, set up should something happen to them so that all of their clients are not left stranded. So what has to be — the primary — and I’m going to put the link to the APA professional will and instructions template, which is not — you’re going to need to talk an attorney or some kind of legal service in your state to make sure that this is handled properly, but it’s a really good start.

And the primary thing is that a professional will will designate a trusted colleague as a professional executor and then give them all the information they need to manage your business stuff promptly in the event that you are incapacitated or dead. And again, this is not just for death, but for emergencies. So you’re going to have to — I’m going to link to this template, which is really interesting, the article about how to create a professional will, and then — and they give you a sample. And it gives you a lot of — it gives you the bulk of what you need to gather in order to have a colleague handle this kind of stuff for you if they need to. And it’s cute because it’s a slightly older template, so it says things like make a list of your passwords. And passwords change so frequently now that the better option is to have a password manager that someone else can log in to or that you can share passwords with. I know we’ve talked about that before. You can look into it on your own or email us if you need more help.

But just — I’m just going to sample some of the things you want to get together. You want to have — you want to tell — be able to tell someone how to access your client scheduling and your records if they need to, to literally to call and cancel your clients and to inform your clients that something has happened to you. You — I totally lost my train of thought here because I flipped pages. But I’m going to flip back now. There we go.

MR [Laughing] This episode is awesome.

AH Yeah, I’m sorry. And it’s about creating — we’ve talked about creating an organizational binder for your business before, but this has really pushed me to get on that. And I’ve made it my mission in the next month to, every time I log in to something or every time I utilize a piece of software or a website, even to write down all of my email accounts that are associated with my business and who they’re administrated through — most of my emails are administrated through Gmail, but if someone was trying to handle my business, would they know that? So creating a list of all of the things you use in your business, all of the services, all of the tools, especially online, and to be really clear in your list about what they are. Like Walt could pick — I’m in a car accident. Walt could pick up my phone and know that somewhere in here is my work schedule, but he’s not going to — I — he doesn’t — I couldn’t just say, here’s how you manage Acuity. I have to be like, here’s how you manage my scheduling system, which is called Acuity, and here’s the login and password. Now, I have a colleague who knows that. But if something was to happen to me, I don’t know that the colleagues in my office would immediately be like, okay, so who’s our internet provider? Is it Comcast, or is it Verizon? Where would our account number be? All of these things, all the different bank accounts, I have like four different bank accounts at two different banks for my business, are they — people going to know what those are?

So listing all the different services, all the different things that you use to manage your business, making a list and making a couple notes so that people know what they are. Acuity is scheduling. Comcast is the office internet. Have your logins and — maybe not your passwords stored with your logins. Maybe you’re going to talk to your designated person about where they can access your passwords, your bank accounts and what they’re designated for because there’s probably going to need to be taxes and stuff paid after your death, all of those kinds of things. And since I made this list, I haven’t been in my office. I made this list this past weekend. And I’m really excited to go into my office, and it’s on my to-do list, to kind of walk around my office and — I have a pretty current list of all of my business property, but I also need to think about, what do I want to do with that? So I know that two friends, I’m going to ask them if they don’t — if they would be okay being in charge of dividing up my property among them and the colleagues in my office should something happen to me. I want to make sure that they have all the information and a copy of my lease so that if something happens to me, one of them can decide to take over the office, or they can jointly decide that they’re not going to and they can all inform the landlord that they’re going to move out and they’re not going to pay any more rent.

Do I have enough money in the savings account for the office expenses to cover a month or two at least so that they are not stranded and out of a place to work because I die the last week of the month and I haven’t paid the rent for the next month? I really want to think about making things easier for the people who have to pick up my messes. And yeah — and also just a responsibility to your clients, if you’ve been in business for a long time, do you want to leave it so that people are knocking on your office door or calling and leaving voicemails and then someone you love has to respond to them? Or no one ever responds to them and they think that you’re a flake who dropped off the planet, which you kind of did. [Laughing] But do you want your clients finding out via an outgoing voicemail that you’re dead? Or do you want to have a colleague, ideally not someone who’s super, super close to you — you don’t want your life partner or your kid to have to call your clients. They’ve got enough to do after you die.

But who’s your colleague friend or a “friend” friend who’s good at business stuff that you can talk through this stuff with and who says, no, I’ll make the 50 phone calls that have to be made if something happens to you to cancel the next couple months of clients so that — to clear your schedule so people aren’t showing up at your office and making your officemates cry. And that’s what I have. I will put the link to the APA information and template. I did look around. You can do these professional wills online at some of the online legal services like LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer and Nolo. And you can also chat with an attorney in your state, but I would say get all of the information together ahead of time so that you are spending your money wisely should you see an actual attorney and make the process quick and easy. That is my shtick. Sorry I got lost in the middle of it. Sometimes I lose my notes.

MR [Laughing] No, that’s was great. And you reminded me to go check LastPass. And I still need to add people for emergency access. So Allissa, you’ll be getting an invitation here shortly. [Laughing]

AH Woohoo!

MR So all right, cool. So speaking of Acuity, they are our sponsor before our quick tip. So Acuity, we love you guys,

AH Yay!

MR Thanks for being a sponsor.

Sponsor message Acuity, thanks for being our software of choice. I personally use Acuity because they make everything easy, and my clients love it. And I was just talking to a new — I was talking to a massage therapist who has just started using Acuity. And she was like, oh, my goodness, it’s — I started to book some fake appointments to practice the whole booking thing so I would know what my clients go through, and I can’t believe how totally easy it is. And it really is. And you can have your clients pay online before the appointment. You can have your clients fill out forms before the appointment. Customer service is a delight. You can customize your booking page so it matches all the branding of your business. And you can get a special 45-day free offer when you sign up today. Check it out at massagebusinessblueprint.com/acuity.

MR Yay!

AH Yay! You go first with your quick tip because I don’t have one, but I’m going to add on to yours.

MR All right, I’m keeping it light this week. I subscribed to the Ramsey Solutions newsletter, which is Dave Ramsey’s company. And I saw an email come through that said, 6 Cheap and Healthy Meals to Try this Week. And I thought to myself, I’m a sucker for cheap and healthy meals, so I read it. So I was going to share this. We’ll link to it. It has some stuff that I have not tried yet. One is called chicken sheet pan meal. One is called chicken parmesan zucchini boats, which zucchini boats — I mean, who wouldn’t like to try zucchini boats? So that looked interesting as well. There are six cheap and healthy meals that I have not tried before that I’m going to try. So thought it might be interesting to our listeners as well.

AH So I’m a big fan of sheet pan meals, which pretty much just means you can put all of the things on one big sheet pan and bake it. And sometimes you have to put some of the ingredients on there and put them in there a little — like, first. And then halfway through you add another ingredient if it’s something that doesn’t need to be cooked quite as long. But they’re really good for — I haven’t done any with chicken yet like this recipe says. But — and it looks pretty simple. It’s just chicken breasts —

MR Yeah.

AH — a little bit of mustard on there, and some chopped fresh vegetables. So things you want to keep in mind when you’re doing your sheet pan meal, Michael, is that you want to chop the vegetables to roughly the same size. And if you have a vegetable that tends to cook a lot faster than another one, you want to put that in a little bit later in the process. But usually, you can do it in two stages pretty easily.

I don’t — I haven’t done a chicken sheet pan meal, but my favorite sheet pan meal that I made the other day is — I take a kielbasa and I — we do a turkey kielbasa around here because it’s little better for you, and chop it up into big chunks, and then do big chunks of pepper and maybe onion, or I think I actually did — I did roasted broccoli on the last one. Broccoli roasts really nice. It’s cool. And they went in at the same time. And like 15 minutes later, everything was cooked and I pulled it out. We threw it over rice, and it made a bunch of — rice will really stretch a meal. That’s a good budget saver.

MR Um-hum.

AH You can get a giant bag super cheap, and rice will make any meal go longer. So what would probably have been two to three meals if we just ate it without rice easily became four to five servings because we added rice to it. And yeah, you’re going to like the sheet pan meal. For cheap meals, I like the website Budget Bytes. And it’s B-Y-T-E-S. I think I’ve talked about it before and in my meal prep episode. But yeah man, I am a big fan of cheap and healthy meals.

MR Right on.

AH That’s all I got. Wrap it up. Take us home.

MR Well, there you have it. Well, thanks everyone for joining us today. As always, you can find us online at massagebuisnessblueprint.com. Reminder, don’t forget to check out our 2020 Blueprint Summit. That is massagebuisnessblueprint.com/summit, limited spots. We’d love to see you there. And if you have any feedback for us, as always, you know where to send it, podcast@massagebuisnessblueprint.com. Thanks for joining us today. Have a great day. We’ll see you next time.

AH Bye.