Podcast

What caught our attention this week?

• Possible round 3 of PPP
• Amy & Isabelle
• The Parks And Rec Special and Leslie Knope’s Optimism

Discussion Topic

• Meg Donnelly, LMT visits the podcast to talk about advocating efforts in a time of COVID-19
• Meg’s small business resources
• Find your Legislator

Quick Tips

• Make something. Start to finish. With your hands.
• Get dressed for “normal” day to pattern interrupt your routine
• Create a Contact Tracing Calendar

Sponsors

• Acuity Scheduling
• The Jojoba Company
• Yomassage

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by Yomassage. Become an expert in all things restorative stretch, mindfulness, meditation, and therapeutic touch in a comprehensive three-week virtual Yomassage therapist certification. In this training, you will learn practices you can offer your clients virtually and an innovative modality that enables you to serve clients in a group or one-on-one setting. You will build community with the other therapists going through this training. You'll have assignments due each week, weekly discussion posts, live Q&As, weekly quizzes and lots on one-to-one feedback from your instructor. Payment plans are available for the May and June 2020 virtual trainings. And this training offers 10.5 NCBTMB CE hours, and because that's not enough, our listeners can get $50 off courses May through July. Use the code BLUEPRINT -- one word, all caps, BLUEPRINT. To learn more and register for Yomassage virtual training, visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/yomassage.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we're recording this on Star Wars day. So may the fourth be with you. I'm Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines And also with you, I'm Allissa Haines.

MR [Laughing] And we're your hosts. Welcome. So obviously you're going to get this a few days later, but we are recording on Star Wars Day May the 4th, and we have an exciting episode for you today because we have someone joining us. It's not just Allissa and I just blathering at each other. How about that?

AH Yeah, let's take a moment to welcome Meg Donnelly, licensed massage therapist. [Laughing] Say hi, Meg.

Meg Donnelly Hi everyone.

MR [Laughing] That's your cue, Meg.

MD Hi. [Laughing]

MR Welcome.

AH Internets are hard.

MD I'm excited to be here.

AH Thanks for joining us. Meg's going to talk to use today about her -- she doesn't want to call it advocacy, but I'm calling it that for lack of a better word -- within her massage community in Virginia. She's been a massage therapist for a couple of years, works with weekend warriors, is an amazing networker and business person because she comes from a corporate background. And Meg has helped me a great deal, and I'll share a little bit more about that later.

But Meg, what do we need to know about you that I didn't just cover?

MD No, I think you've summed it up quite nicely. And anybody that knows me knows that I'm never short for words. So I think that your introduction was a lot more short and succinct than I am.

Yeah, I've been a -- I changed careers at 40, and I am 45 right now. So yeah, I think you've covered it all.

AH Sweet. All right, Michael, let's do this. What are we reading? What caught our attention this week?

MR All right, so remember last week when I said my brain hurts. So my brain hurts even more because apparently there's a possible round three of the PPP program coming.

AH What's PPP stand for, Michael?

MR [Laughing] Let's define that. So just in case you haven't heard, PPP stands for Paycheck Protection Program. It is an SBA program that is designed to provide forgivable loans to small businesses who have been interrupted by the COVID-19 emergency. So I'm guessing unless you've been -- unless you're just joining us for the first time and have not watched or read anything for the past few weeks, you probably know all about this, you know what PPP is. We've had lots of conversations about that in prior episodes and in other areas.

But we've had two rounds of PPP funding so far. Round one was a few weeks ago; round two was a couple weeks ago, and now we are seeing there may be a round -- a need for another round of PPP funding. It's not confirmed. It's not a sure thing or anything.

But my opinion -- this is just my opinion -- is that it's probably going to happen because it's necessary and it's needed and it's already being talked about. So just an FYI, I know we have PPP fatigue. Many people have applied and gotten it. Many people have applied and not gotten it. Many people are trying to figure out what's going on. But in general, that's what the chatter is this week so far. So be on the lookout for that.

AH Well, what I got isn't as smart or business related --

MR [Laughing]

AH -- as Michael, but I've been reading more fiction lately. And particularly I'm reading a beautiful book called Amy and Elizabeth. And it's the first novel, many years back, by an author named Elizabeth Strout. And you may have actually heard of her recently because she had a book called Olive Kitteridge and just published a second book with that same character called Olive, Again. And I believe that the original is being turned into like a mini-series with -- who's the lady from Fargo? Norma something or other. And anyhow -- actress whose name I can't remember --

MR Yeah, yeah. Nothing, sorry.

AH -- and I should have prepared better for this. However it's neat because it's the first -- it's her first novel, but also her following books take place in that same area of Maine, and you find some -- it's not a series but there are crossovers -- even multi-generational crossovers in the characters as you move through her books. They're not -- I like the books because they're not -- I can't read, like, mysteries or things like -- I can't read Gone Girl; that doesn't work for me. But I like these books because they are -- they have a lot of depth and a lot of like -- they're character studies, but they're also funny and sweet and really examine family structure and relationships in a way that's just so -- it sucks me right in. So that's what I'm reading, and I'll put a link to it because I really am loving the books of Elizabeth Strout.

Meg, what are you reading or watching or doing?

MD So I love this because it's -- Michael talks about PPP, and then you're talking about reading a book, and my way of reading is listening to audiobooks if I even get around to that. So I'm just going to take it another level of fun, and I had a blast this week -- I don't get to watch that much TV these days, but the Parks and Rec special and Leslie Knope's optimism was exactly what I needed at the right time, and I think I'm going to obsessively watch it multiple times this week. [Laughing]

MR I love Parks and Rec so much. [Laughing]

MD It's so good. They got everyone back, and they got some of the special characters that kind of come on and off, and it was just really well done and it really warmed my heart and was funny and was all the things. So I don't want to ruin it for everyone. Plus, too, the other thing is during it they were promoting giving to Feeding America, and that's always really close to my heart because my stepfather was an executive chef and did a lot with foodbank work and things like that. So it's all around feel good. It was on NBC but I think you can get it on Hulu right now, and it's definitely worth it.

AH I -- little known fact -- actually it might not be that little known -- Michael gifted me a Ron Swanson bobblehead doll several years back.

MR True story.

AH And I don't have it up in my office, but I have to put some more shelves up, and then it will live in my office permanently.

MD Ah, he's the original distancer, right?

MR [Laughing] Yes.

AH [Laughing] Brilliant. All right, Michael, who's our first sponsor?

MR All right, I'm going to put Meg on the spot and surprise her. Meg, would you like to do the honors for our sponsor today?

MD Oh, would you like me --

MR And announce -- not do the spot, but announce in the way --

AH Tell us who the sponsor is.

MD The sponsor is -- I'm going to try to do my best Michael impression -- jojoba!

AH That was beautiful

MR Not bad. Not bad.

AH And actually Meg has a special tie-in to this sponsor as well that I'll get to at the end.

Sponsor message As you know, I recommend HobaCare jojoba for use in your massage practice since it never goes rancid and it's safe for everybody and it doesn't stain your stuff. However with all the handwashing that we're doing, it might be time to grab your bottle from the office or just order a bottle for your house and keep it by your sink so every time you wash your hands you can put a little bit on there and it will keep your skin soft and healthy. But what I want to tell you is that they also have this really great new product, HobaCare Hand & Cuticle Salve, and it's a combination product. They're actually partnering with Ridge Pond Herbals, which is run by Cari Balbo who is an herbalist and also works for The Jojoba Company. I met her a couple of months ago; she's just delightful. And they made this wonderful hand and cuticle salve, and Meg gifted me some. She heard me say that I wanted to try it, and she just sent me some, and it's wonderful. And it sits on my counter and I use it all the time and every time I use it, I think of Meg. So if you want to be like Meg and get your own salve or send it to somebody, you can go to massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba. Orders of $35 or more get 10% off. And get yourself a couple bottles of jojoba and maybe a couple of tins of little salve.

AH So thank you, Meg.

MD Yeah, and I mean I'm not -- I just want to say that they did an amazing job of sending them out super quickly, especially with everything going on there's been a lot of delays with getting deliveries out and stuff like that. And they were amazing. It was really, really super quick and easy. And really inexpensive.

AH Yeah, I've never had an unhappy interaction with anyone from Jojoba --

MR Yeah, they're amazing.

AH -- and I've been shopping with them for 15 years. [Laughing] We love them.

MR They are fantastic. We love Jojoba.

AH All right, so let's dive into our topic, shall we?

So we're bringing Meg on because Meg has done some amazing collaborative work and shown some -- just absurd levels of leadership during this crisis and during this whole COVID-19 situation. She has rallied small business owners, she has led online meetings that are just helpful and inspiring without being too foofy, and has really helped me. But I want to be really tangible about -- well, I guess, Meg, let me ask you this.

What are the few things that you have done? I'm going to let you describe them because you do it better than me.

MD Yeah, sure. I don't know if I'll do a better job, but I'll try. I think -- well, first, when all of this kind of happened -- well, I guess I'll just start with saying that I have a really good foundation, right? So there's an amazing group of people within the Massage Business Blueprint premium group. So we've had the kind of foundation for a while. I've also got another foundation; I'm part of a co-work space locally. And it's a woman-focused but open to all space and it's really collaborative. So I've got that. And then I've got a group of small business owners that are women that all have brick-and-mortars, and we had been meeting monthly. So when this all went down, I think, you know, the impact was -- I think I felt it a little bit more immediately, not just for my own business, but for other businesses, right, because I've been collaborating, talking with other massage therapists that have maybe come from different places than I do and kind of talking to different business owners and things like that.

So the first thing that we had done was got together with a videographer and we had taped a "we are small business" just to kind of tell people, hey, here are some safe ways you can still support us while you're social distancing, right? Because at that time -- this was early on. We knew that it was -- nothing was mandated yet, but we knew that those were the recommendations. So we wanted to come up with ways that people could kind of help support us when they couldn't be seen in person or within six feet.

And then that kind of rolled into the next step -- and then obviously as we went kind of into more of a lockdown -- people don't really like that world, but that's what it felt like so that's what I'm going with. And here in Virginia, our massage establishments were closed. So it then became really important for me to reach out to our senators and our governors and, you know, all the people that are making decisions here in Virginia and throughout the US because I really felt strongly that we as -- especially the self-employed massage therapists, were being severely left behind when it came to PPP, PUA, FPUC -- all the acronyms. We were being left behind. So that's really where it all started. So I'd love to say that I had a more altruistic view. But I was really like, we got to make sure that we're getting a piece of this money because we're going to be among the last to come back. So I got to make sure that I'm getting in front of their faces.

And then, you know, from there, then, kind of the larger picture of reopening started, and we really started to look at, listen, we're not going to be in phase 1 of reopening. I didn't think at the time that anyone would, and then I came to find out through my connections in other states, that other states were opening a lot more rapidly than I would have thought was possible. So then it became really important that we really let our leadership know about the health risks, but then also on top of that, the financial risks that we have by being open because we're not going to have the same volume.

So that was a little bit all over the place but that's kind of who I am and how I am. And that's kind of how it all got started. Does that give you an okay overview?

AH Yes, that is [Laughing] That was cohesive, dude. Tell me about the response. What's it -- or tell me -- yeah, about the response. What's it been from the community leaders and the legislators that you've reached out to, and what's the response been from our colleagues?

MD Yeah, I want to start with a positive. So I'm going to say from the massage community, it's been really positive. I've gotten lots of, kind of, support, and we created a small subgroup of the Massage Business Blueprint members that are from Virginia, and they have been such a great wealth of knowledge. And listen, we're hearing about town halls being set up by the senators and any of our legislators. We're hearing about them the day before, so it's great because we have a group of six or eight of us, and so someone will say hey, there's going to be a town hall tomorrow, and hey, you can submit questions to the governor. And so that's been a wonderful, wonderful resource.

And then it's been really nice too because I've been hearing from through third parties about people that have been finding my information. And the response was so good that eventually everyone was reaching out to me that I realized I needed to kind of have a place where we could house all this information. So I created a page on my website with all the small business resources surrounding COVID, whether they were letters to the legislators or contact names for our massage advisory board in our state or recordings of the questions I was able to ask on some of the town halls. So that's definitely been positive.

I mean, have there been some negative responses? Maybe. But me, right or wrong, I'm just a person that -- I don't listen to the noise, right? My resources that I put out there -- and I should say "our" resources because there's a lot of people that have been supporting me behind this. But the resources I put out there are all free for anybody to edit, add, change, delete, use however they'd like, right? We're in a very unique time right now. So you don't have to agree with me, but if you want to use a resource or you like the way something's worded, just take it. It's fine, and make it your own. I think the important thing here is that we're reaching out to let our legislators know what our concerns are.

You know, and then the not so great response has been, certainly, from some of our leadership at the state level, on the county level, on the town level. There's been a lot of, I would say maybe, I'm not sure if someone fully understood what I was saying. And then there's been a lot of -- I forget what you call them -- but just the kind of answers that roll off the tongue really easy. The word is escaping me if you guys think of it.

AH Asshat. Is the word asshat?

MD [Laughing]. Well, I don't want to say that because the responses seem really good, but they are well too practiced. So I don't think they are going to enact any change, right? It's that prewritten response that I already have in my head because somebody's going to ask me about money and I'm going to give this answer. And I don't know why that phrase is escaping me, but that's kind of --

MR It's like talking points?

MD Yeah, exactly. Exactly, Michael. It's been the talking points that I'm like, oh, fabulous.

Then there have been other people that, you know -- like Senator Warner has been really good in repeating back the questions that people ask him and including their question in his answer. And so do I think that that's going to make huge changes happen? No. But I have a recording of that now and I can help spread the word of what we're looking for as massage therapists, from his phrasing on that. Now, he was a little bit more concerned on trying to get self-employed and sole proprietors money included in the PPP. And I don't know how successful or unsuccessful that effort was. But those things were a little bit nicer.

And then we had some real fallback. So it looks like in our state, our governor is not going to set forth restrictions on opening. We will have phases. So there will be that. But we'll be leaning more on the board for any restrictions or any regulations of that sort. And our board doesn't really like to do a lot of that. So we may not have a lot of guidance when we go back as to what our practice should look like, and that's a little bit concerning. So it's kind of where we are now.

But yeah, so I mean, overall from the massage community, the response has been great. A couple of people are not happy with what I'm saying, and they have a right to do that, and that's okay. I just don't respond to it. I have to focus on my vision and what I'm focused on and that's on taking care of the people that share my vision or the people that want to kind of utilize my resources for what's important to them. I don't know. Does that make sense?

AH It does. And I -- one of the things that has helped me so much about watching how you have moved forward and communicated with legislators and leadership and all these things is that I definitely have a fear of reaching out to my state-level legislator or my board of massage or the governor's office because I feel like I'm going to say or sound stupid.

How do you -- what do you suggest people get past that? If someone's like, listen, I want to express that I'm not going to be able to meet these safety and hygiene protocols and it's going to be devastating for me to -- if the governor says I should go back to work and unemployment gets cut off, this is going to be devastating. Or I want to be able to express that I am really concerned about this increased stroke and clotting issue risk, but I'm worried I'm going to sound stupid. How do you suggest people start approaching their legislators or board or leadership in one way or the other when they're just, like me, a little bit terrified of putting yourself out there?

MD Yeah. Well, I mean, I think one thing is if you see a town hall coming up, definitely watch one of those because then you'll see how other people phrase their questions, and that will make you a little bit more confident. Our legislators want to hear from us, so that's the first thing I figured out through this process. By the way, I didn't even know -- I'm going to be perfectly honest. Before all of this -- and shame on me -- I didn't even know what the role of our -- of everybody was. I really didn't. I had kind of an idea, but I didn't know, and I don't think since civics classes in high school when I wasn't paying attention.

So the first thing I found out -- by attending one of the town halls, I found out that they really do want to hear from us. And then the second thing was, I am not as well-spoken myself. And especially when I'm writing, I don't put the commas where they're supposed to be, and I capitalize stuff that's not supposed to. But I have a friend that I hired that's a professional writer, and I have another friend that does a lot of advocacy work. So if you can find somebody who does advocacy work already, talk to them because they did a really great job of telling me, God, Meg, you got to -- listen. You talk and talk and on and on and on, and you're giving all these details. They don't want the details. Give them the bullet points.

And that was a really good point to me, right? And it's a point that some massage therapists have brought up to me in some of the letters that I wrote. They're like, you really need to talk in more detail about the, let's say, the clotting issues or the DIC issues. You've really got to go in -- and the thing is they don't have time for that. You need to say your points succinctly, highlight the point that you want to make. And again, my confidence just really came from -- I worked with a professional writer, and it was not expensive at all. And then I worked with somebody that does advocacy work who looked it over afterwards and said, ooh, you know what really works well? This phrase and that phrase. And so that was super helpful.

But even if you don't do any of that, simply going onto the contact us page and sending your thoughts is a great start. And then the last thing I will say is that you can't just send a letter. You need to send a letter, and you need to -- ugh, I know. We hate doing it. We're so good at talking with clients one-on-one, but we hate picking up the phone. And you have to pick up the phone and call their office because if they're getting a letter and they're getting a phone call and they're getting that from multiple people in our industry, that's what's going to raise that bar to a level of concern for them.

AH And you gave me an amazing tip, which was to open any emails or letters to my state legislators with a "I am a voter."

MD Yes.

AH I did that. I've done that "I am a vote, a resident of Sharon, Massachusetts, and I run a business in Plainville Massachusetts." That's been great. I have to say, I didn't even -- I mean, I had a general idea of who my state-level legislators were, but I hadn't ever needed to contact anybody for anything for a long time. I think I did when there was massage legislation stuff happening five or ten years ago. But it was so easy to find my legislators, and I'll put a link to how to do that in our show notes. And I'll put a link to all of Meg's resources in the show notes. But it was actually very easy for me to find my state- and federal-level legislators, find their email addresses and phone numbers, and I got emails back from my state-level legislator within 12 or 24 hours. And I emailed at the beginning of the crisis situation, and then I've needed help with a few things since then. And I've emailed and they've been wonderful.

And I, who tends to get really nervous in formal situations and formal letters and things like that, I used Meg's resources. I used her letter about why massage should be delayed and be in one of the later phases of business reopenings. And it was so helpful to me for that template. I changed a bunch of stuff because I wanted it to be relevant to my state and my feelings and what I think. But it took hours off of the task for me, and it was just super, super helpful. So we'll make sure we guide everyone to those resources as well.

MD And Allissa, I think you made a really good point that that's exactly it. You took the letter that was there as an example and you made it your own. So there's two things. If you know what district you're in, which on the resources that Allissa will post they will be there as well, make sure your district is in there because when they know you're a voter in their district, their eyes light up a little bit more. But yeah. Yeah, making it your own so that it's your voice is a great thing to do. You don't have to use any of the resources exactly as written.

AH Michael, do you have anything to pop in with because I feel as fully educated as I can get in one hit.

MR [Laughing] Yeah, I agree. I want to just really recognize Meg for doing this. I mean, it's -- you've spent a lot of time on this, a lot of work, a lot of effort, putting yourself out there. I think it's really exciting that you're such a great example of how to speak up for the profession in your area with your legislators. And I just want to thank you for providing the resources and the inspiration and the encouragement that anybody can do this. So I just want to say thank you for that, and really great work you're doing, Meg.

MD Oh, thank you so much. I do want to add, though, that listen, in a time of a crisis, we're all going to handle things different ways. And so one of the things that's helpful for me is I just happen to go into planner mode. That's just who I am and how I deal with the crisis, right?

MR That's how I am, yeah.

MD Other people need time to reflect, and other people need other ways. And this is just my way. So that made it a little bit easier for me.

The other thing, you know, I have to -- fortunately or unfortunately, I have to talk about -- there's a level of privilege that I have that not everybody in our professional has. So I am a -- it's me and my husband. And my husband is working from home, and we have a roof over our head and we don't have kids. So I don't have additional responsibilities of figuring out how the heck I'm going to get my kids on board with staying home, and then get them to do online learning, and then make sure everyone in the household is okay, and how am I going to keep a roof over my head because PPP hasn't come through. While PPP was waiting to come through for me and while still to this point I don't have unemployment insurance for the time that PPP wasn't, I didn't have to worry about how I'm going to put food on my table. So anyone -- I just want everybody to know that if you're not able -- if all you're able to do is look up the resources and send a couple of letters and make a couple of phone calls, that's fine. It's not -- I don’t' want anyone to look at what I'm doing like oh, my gosh, I didn't do that. Does that make sense?

AH It really does. And I appreciate that. I have a similar level of privilege and have been able to dedicate some time and thought to this, and not everybody does. So do what you can, and don't stress about the rest.

MD Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and on that note, I think all of us really need to start thinking, though, about how the world is going to change. And even if you decide you're going to go back to practice, right -- I mean, you can tell from my tone where I stand on that, but even if you decide, you're not going to be as able to be as busy as you were. So I think everybody really needs to think about what they're going to do, whether that's pivoting their business, whether that's staying home because they have the resources to do that, whether that is going in a different direction. I think we're now, what, eight weeks into this since some closures. I think it's time. we have to start thinking about that.

AH I can only agree. Anything else to wrap up, Michael?

MR No, I think it's been awesome. Thank you, Meg.

AH It's -- I can't thank you enough. You've been crazy helpful to me.

MR Yeah.

AH Michael, who's our next sponsor?

MR Our friends at Acuity.

AH Yay! Thanks, Acuity.

Sponsor message Acuity is the scheduling assistant that makes it easier for traditional businesses to become virtual businesses, because I think that's the kind of pivot Meg may have been talking about. And it works behind the scenes to fill your calendar 24/7. Barely any effort from you. You can get a special 45-day free offer when you sign up today. And you can check that out at massagebusinessblueprint.com/acuity. And even if you're just taking some of this non-practice time to rebuild your business a little bit for when it's safe to go back, know that you can sign up for Acuity and use that free trial and also there is a free level of service that you can just keep everything humming at in the background, and then you can upgrade if you want more features when you go back to work. So you don't have to shell out any money for this while you are not working. We respect that.

AH All right, quick tips. You want to go first, Michael?

MR Oh, actually, can I back up?

AH Oh, sorry.

MR I want to back up to Acuity one more time because I want to add a side note on Acuity. I've been doing a handful of website projects for some of our premium members because we're beta testing a website design service for our premium members, which has been going awesome. But I also want to say another kudos to Acuity, their embed code works beautifully in websites and all versions have it. So there are some other scheduling services that make you pay for an upgrade to be able to embed the widget on your website, but Acuity lets you actually just place your scheduler directly on your website so that you don't have to leave the site to book online. It looks like it's part of your website and it works beautifully. So I just love the way Acuity integrates with your website so elegantly. Just wanted to mention that.

AH That is good to know because I'm going to make some website changes, and I'm going to embed this time.

MR Yeah. All right. Now (indiscernible). Go for it.

AH I'll go first. There's a podcast episode that was -- well, technically it's going to be released tomorrow on Tuesday, May 5th, but now that's in the past -- with Til Luchau. And we talked about things to do to kind of handle emotionally, mentally what's going on right now. And I've been thinking all weekend, since I had the conversation with him, about how important it is to make something tangible to -- if you feel like your brain's spinning out a little bit, do something and make something really tangible. Draw something. Color in a coloring book. Make a very simple but specific meal from beginning to end and really notice each step of it. Do something that involves something with your hands, something tactile.

And I realized I had been kind of doing some of that automatically and I have this theory that that's what all this breadmaking is about, if anyone's checked the Instagram bread load situation. But it's tactile and it feels very tangible to have a start and a finish and a product. And if it feels like your tail's spinning, which might be happening eight weeks into this situation, make something with your hands start to finish. That's my tip.

What do you got, Michael?

MR All right. I tried something recently, today, in fact, as we're recording, that I kind of like doing, and I think it's kind of helping a little bit. So a lot of us are spending all day in our pajamas or in just kind of relaxing clothes, which is a lot of fun. It's great to just relax if you can. But today I got dressed up in what I would call normal clothes. I got a -- put a nice shirt on and jeans and stuff I'd wear in a work environment or just a normal day if things weren't crazy. And it's kind of nice. I mean, I think it does a little bit for, at least, my mental mindset to be a little more focused, a little more productive, kind of makes things have an illusion of normalcy a little bit. So that might work for others as well. So you might try it. If you've been spending two weeks in your pajamas, maybe try just putting on regular clothes as if you were going out to do something and just see if it makes a difference in your focus or your productivity or how you approach the day. So it may not work for everybody, but it's kind of a nice change for me.

AH You know, I do this.

MR Yeah?

AH Yeah. I've been doing this. And I do it almost every day and I have throughout this whole thing. I think I gave myself a couple of days to just be in pajamas. Yeah, I get up and I have a cup of coffee and I do an hour of writing, and then I make breakfast and I get dressed and I do all of those things as if I was going to go off to the office. I don't wear my most restrictive clothes or my fanciest clothes, but I'm putting on real clothes every day. And then usually right at dinner time, maybe just before or just after dinner, I'll take a shower and get back into clean pajamas. So I'm only spending like six hours in legit clothes.

MR [Laughing]

AH But it really helps me.

MR Yeah, it does help. Yeah.

AH Meg, are you getting dressed?

MD I am getting dressed. But I mean, my getting dressed -- listen, my life is in exercise clothes. So it's literally getting changed out of exercise clothes I went to sleep in to put in exercise clothes that I'm going to wear for the day. But I do get changed every day. [Laughing]

MR [Laughing]

AH Hey, I make it a point to show up to webinars or any kind of video call just in the clean cat pajamas that I have. I like that they have cats on them. They're very comfortable. But I always make sure they're clean and fresh if I have to appear anywhere.

MR [Laughing] I think you wore a Darth Vader shirt to the Acuity webinar last week. [Laughing]

AH I did. I did.

MR That was awesome.

AH I was like -- and I didn't do that on purpose. It was just the t-shirt at the top of the stack. And then I was like I just appeared on a software webinar with a Vader shirt. I have crossed a line.

MR You got street cred now.

MD You got cred now.

AH I know. I'm like a meme. Meg, what's your tip?

MD All right, so I feel like I was light and optimistic on the top end of the show, and so now on the bottom end, I just think it's something that's necessary, and I'm going to give a shout out to Cal and Healwell because I took their Back to Practice course. And one of the things they mentioned was contact tracing. So most states, as we reopen, are going to start contact tracing, which means if someone has COVID-19, they will go back 14 days to see exactly where they went. And I thought, I don't know what day last week I went to go get -- pick up pizza. I just don't know. So I started a contact tracing calendar. I did mine on a white board. And so once I get to 14 days running, I'll delete a week and then keep it as rotating calendar. Some people are using bullet point journaling. And then other people -- I thought this was really good -- are using their app -- their mileage app, and at the end of the day they're checking that mileage app and adding anything that the app might have missed. And so if you're an online person, that might be a way to do it. I find just writing it down lets everything sink inf or what I've done for the day. So contact tracing calendar. That is my tip of the -- my quick tip.

MR Great tip.

AH That is brilliant, thank you. Thanks for that.

MD Yeah, it -- I can't believe I didn't think about it sooner.

AH Yeah, I should have -- we should have known that. But hey, now we know better; let's do better.

MR Hey, we're doing the best we can. [Laughing]

MD That's true.

AH Take us home, Michael.

MR All right, well, thank you, Meg. It's been so great talking to you. Thanks for joining us today on the podcast.

MD Thank you. It's a pleasure.

MR All right, well, as always, you can find us online at massagebusinessblueprint.com. All our podcast episodes are there as well as on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and a bunch of other places out there as well. Send us a note at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com if you would like to tell us anything or give us feedback or ask a question. And we will see you next time. Thanks for listening.

AH Bye.

MD Bye.