Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• Inside the U.F.O. Report

Discussion Topic

• How to Build a Business Without Social Media

Quick Tips

• Have an emergency contact colleague

Sponsors

• The Original Jojoba Company 
• ABMP 
• PocketSuite 

Transcript: 

Sponsor message: 

ABMP is proud to sponsor the Massage Business Blueprint podcast. And we are delighted to have them. One of the many, many benefits of ABMP membership is ABMP five minute muscles and ABMP pocket pathology. These are a quick reference apps designed to help you quickly find information that you need to make a decision about your massage session planning. The five minute muscles includes muscle specific technique and palpation videos for the 83 muscles most commonly addressed by professional massage therapists and AMBP pocket pathology can help you sort out contraindications before any treatment. These apps are included with ABMP membership, and you can go to ambp.com/apps to access them. And non-members can sample demos as well. Again, that's abmp.com/apps.

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.

Michael Reynolds:

And we are your hosts. Welcome to our show today.

Allissa Haines:

Welcome. What are you reading Michael because I'm asking in a kind of a tone of voice because it looks hilarious.

Michael Reynolds:

Well, I am listening to a podcast episode from the New York Times podcast called The Daily on the UFO report released by the Pentagon. So Congress ordered the Pentagon to release a report on their findings about UFO's because apparently we've been wondering if the government's been covering up UFO stuff for a while. And I guess Congress is like, Hey, it's time. Let us know. And so this podcast episode is very underwhelming, but I just had to listen to it, one fun fact I've learned is that the government no longer calls UFO's, UFO's. They call them UAPs, which stands for unidentified aerial phenomenon. I guess that's a classier sounding name than unidentified flying objects. So that's a fun fact you've learned today. So the gist of it is I was obviously, like many of us, I was hoping there was some salacious stuff uncovered and never before discovered information about UFO's, but no, it's not.

Michael Reynolds:

It basically just said, Hey, we have 144 different events that we've classified as UFO's or UAPs. And we have an explanation for one of them and the other 143, we have no explanation for it, but we have five different possible scenarios. And they usually are things like the government's own technology or foreign technology or aerial debris or other and other is just kind of code for we just don't know. So basically it was kind of boring, but it was interesting at the same time to kind of hear the different possibilities, explanations. And so, anyway, that's what I've been listening to slash reading. So, sorry. I have no UFO shocking news to report.

Allissa Haines:

But you used the word salacious, so that's a win.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. I was hoping to use the word salacious. It just kind of felt right. It just felt like the vibe was there. So...

Allissa Haines:

I have not been reading or listening to anything of real substance lately. So the only big news I have and I'm very excited is that I scored a sit-stand desk on Facebook marketplace for 80 bucks. And I picked it up the other night and I just a few minutes ago, like set my whole computer set up on it. And I think I like it. I'm currently sitting. I might be standing later today and I'm pretty excited. It's actually just using it so much that I even needed the sit stand portion. I needed it so my desk was like deeper and to put my big monitor further away from me. And now that I spend a lot more time at my computer than I ever have before, I'm pretty excited about this.

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, right on.

Allissa Haines:

That's all I have to say.

Michael Reynolds:

I've tried standing desks before, like the sit stand desks and they worked for me for a while, but I've just decided I'm a sitter. I'm just a sitter.

Allissa Haines:

I'm like 80% a sitter. But when my shoulder really jacks up, I cannot sit. I got to stand. And this isn't like one of those super fancy plug-in one. It's like a... I don't even know. It's got like a pressure thingamabob so you actually would, to put it down you do have to like pull the knob and lean on it. [crosstalk 00:04:33]. Just kind of like a... Yeah, exactly. But I like it a lot. And it was all like the loveliest young couple that I bought it from on Facebook and they like loaded it into my car for me. It was my very first Facebook marketplace experience. So anyhow, that's my story.

Michael Reynolds:

I'm sorry. I'm going to totally like extend this too long because you mentioned Facebook marketplace. So my wife has been selling it a bunch of stuff. We've kind of cleaned out the various areas of our house and old baby stuff and toys and things. And so we've been selling stuff on Facebook marketplace and my wife has been doing the Facebook marketplace portion. And it's been hilarious because this is the first time she's ever sold stuff on Facebook marketplace. And she keeps saying things like, so why does everybody keep saying, is this still available? And then they ghost us. I'm like, have you ever been on Facebook marketplace? This is exactly how it goes. None of this is shocking. And she keeps being surprised by how unresponsive and weird people are.

Allissa Haines:

Right? It's so funny. Walt does that a lot. He gets... We got rid of like an ancient Kirby vacuum cleaner and like a handful of stuff. And I feel like he's like every other day he's walking in the door with like 40 bucks and is like, I sold the thing off Facebook marketplace. I'm like, on dude. I don't want to talk to strangers ever. So it was like a... And it was a big deal that like, I didn't ask Walt to handle this for me because typically I'd be like, oh, can you see about buying this? And then like, I send him the link and then it's gone already by the time he jumps on it. And so I did it myself. It was like, I was a big girl and so I'm very proud of myself, but I'm not going to be buying anything else. And I can't imagine selling anything else because I don't have that kind of energy.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. It's hilarious.

Allissa Haines:

Anyhow, who's our sponsor.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. The lovely folks at PocketSuite.

Allissa Haines:

Yay PocketSuite. PocketSuite is an all-in-one app that makes it easier to run your massage business. You can schedule and get booked online by clients and you can manage all your forms and customize those forms, notes and contracts, payments, reminders, all of the things within a HIPAA compliant app, whether you are just starting out or you're a seasoned business owner, PocketSuite helps businesses save time and make a great living. A massage therapist can be up and running on PocketSuite in 15 minutes. Woo. Woo. Massage Business Blueprint listeners can get 25% off your annual premium subscription for your first year of PocketSuite. You can visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/pocketsuite to check it out. And I will note that PocketSuite sent me and soon Michael will get his, the coolest welcome gift. We're so excited we're partners gift, that I have ever received in my entire life.

Allissa Haines:

And I can't say what it is because I don't want to spoil the surprise from Michael. As soon as Michael gets his, I'm going to post it on our social media because they just sent us some really sweet swag. And they're just a pleasure to work with. We have an interview episode coming up with one of their founders. Her name is Chinwe. I did an Instagram live with them, with Chinwe a couple of weeks ago. That was super fun. And yeah, it's just been a pleasure to begin our partnership with PocketSuite.

Michael Reynolds:

Well, I will be checking my mailbox daily now.

Allissa Haines:

Oh my god. You're going to love it.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. So tell us how to build a business without social media.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. This was a thing that was asked by one of our premium members and she was all, what do I do to get clients and build a business without social media? Because I hate social media. I hear you, sister. I hear you. I hate social media as well in more, I hate it more than I love it. Even though I use it for different businesses and for personal. It's a love, hate thing. So I guess I just want to acknowledge that you absolutely can build and run a business without having that business have a social media presence. You don't need to. And there will be people who are like, well, you have to have a Facebook page or you have to have this. You don't have to have anything. You could be completely off the grid if you want. And as long as you're good at other methods of getting new clients, you're completely fine.

Allissa Haines:

You don't even have to have a website, if you don't want to. Darn it. You get to be as old school as you want. It may impact how quickly you get new clients, but I'm going to run through this list of like things you can do that don't involve social media and keep in mind that I think there's a ratio here. You can hate a whole bunch of them, but you have to use enough to get your business going. And the good news is, if you're really good at a lot of these things, even if you hate it, after a certain amount of time, you're going to have enough clients that will be their own referral engines. So I know a therapist who have taken their practice completely offline because they don't need to be online in any way to gain new clients at this point.

Allissa Haines:

So know that these are all ideas and suggestions. They're not, if you are not on social media, you have to do these others things. No. It's all what you piece together to work for you. So the first thing, have a really good web presence. And that means a website. That means a good website with good SEO, search engine optimization, which usually means lots of informative blogs and articles and videos or some kind of content that will attract the right people to your website so that they will very quickly know what it is you do. And if you can help them. Easy online scheduling, just because you're not on social media, doesn't mean you need to be like a troglodyte with these tech things. You can be tech savvy, even if you're not on social. So easy online scheduling.

Michael Reynolds:

Thank you for using troglodyte.

Allissa Haines:

Troglodyte. Yep. There you go.

Michael Reynolds:

That made my day.

Allissa Haines:

And also just make the process simple and frictionless without too much for the client to do, to book a darn appointment with you. Have a really good Google My Business listing. Now, technically I don't consider Google My Business, a social media, because it's not really a place where people connect with each other so much as just connect with your business listing. So even if you consider it social media, just roll with it. You don't have to monitor it and interact in the same way that you would other kinds of social media. So a Google My Business listing, and this is also something that's really good for search engine optimization and it helps you get on the Google Maps for certain areas when people are searching for massage therapists. Also, I just realized, I forgot to add this in. So I'm adding it in now, make sure that your business has a listing on all of the major map services. And that's usually just Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Allissa Haines:

Those are the two big GPS kind of guidance things people are using on their mobile devices and are searching when they're looking for certain businesses and stuff. So I would say definitely get on Google Maps, which that will integrate with the Google My Business listing, and also on Apple Maps.

Allissa Haines:

What's next? Google ads. Pay for Google ads, use the whole Google AdWords network and pay, I don't know, 30, 50, a hundred bucks a month to run some Google ads so that when people search massage for headaches near me, they come up with your website. And the nice part about this again is you won't have to do this forever. As your search engine optimization increases, you're going to come further and further to the top of search results, even without ads. So that's a thing that can get you over the hump to get started, but you don't necessarily need to do forever. All right. We've covered the web presence stuff. Michael, did I leave anything out on the web presence stuff?

Michael Reynolds:

No, you did not. But I've got some other potential ideas I might jump in on later. So continue.

Allissa Haines:

Okay. Got it. All right. Strong local networking. And maybe this means a formal networking group in your area. And if that is not... If you can't find a formal networking group that is a good fit for you or that you can't get to the scheduled meetings or whatever, maybe you make your own networking group. Maybe you find some like-minded business owners and create your own semi-formal, less formal, but still structured networking group that works for you and your needs and the needs of the other business owners you bring in. Volunteer. Find some volunteer based organizations in your area and specifically those who might either serve or have participants that are people in your target population. So if you serve runners, see if there's a running club and if they do any kinds of volunteer stuff, like a lot of organizations like that often do some kind of charitable event that maybe you could volunteer at, somehow get involved with, or maybe your local rotary club or your... I was going to say, lions club, oh, the masons, the Freemasons.

Allissa Haines:

They actually take women now too. And whatever kind of volunteer local organization or charitable cause, if you work with people with cancer, getting involved in your local relay for life or walk for cancer or anything like that. And I don't mean going in and massaging, I mean becoming a volunteer in that organization and doing whatever they need you to do. It is a wonderful way to one, serve your community, two, serve your target population in another way, outside of just putting your hands on them and also to meet people who could be great clients or could refer to you great clients within your target population. Okay, next. If you are not going to use social media, you've got to think about other really wonderful retention techniques. And on the tech side, that means email and or text marketing for retention. So many of us have clients will come in once and then just keep booking.

Allissa Haines:

They'll decide they want to add massage to their life and they'll keep booking every four weeks or two weeks or four weeks or six weeks. I have a woman who comes in every 10 weeks, whatever works for you. And you'll have people who don't rebook. There are just people who will never book their next appointment while they're in your office because they don't know their schedule or whatever. They're just not the kind of person who can plan like that. Have a system for making sure you capture and retain their contact information so that you can email them or use text-based marketing to encourage them to come in for their next appointment. That's retention. Make sure for those people, or maybe everybody, you're going old school and sending birthday postcards, or at least a birthday email or text or something, some contact to encourage people to come back in because they're not going to see you through shared contacts or whatever on social media.

Allissa Haines:

Okay. My next couple are a little theoretical philosophical. If you're not going to do social media. And really even if you are, incorporate some strategy and some measurement into the efforts you put into recruiting new clients. Otherwise you're just guessing at stuff and flailing, which is how 90% of us run our businesses is by guessing and flailing until we get smart and realize we actually have to create some kind of strategy. And that's going to look like a series of steps that says I did this thing. I ran a Google ad. It costs me this much money. It costs me a hundred bucks and it took me this much time. It took me a month and it brought me how many clients? Three. Okay. Did I get my money's worth? Yeah, because three new clients, 300 bucks and I only spent a hundred bucks.

Allissa Haines:

So I'm winning here. Did I like the clients it brought me? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to adjust and repeat. Maybe adjust the ad verbiage a little bit, or maybe not because three clients for a hundred bucks is pretty good recruitment and do it again, but in a very strategic and measured way. So you actually got to think, you just can't be throwing posts up online or doing some random Google ad words and dropping money and not seeing if it's really working for you. And along with that, persistence, consistency and structure, and that applies to every business regardless of social use. But it's important enough to mention, anytime we talk about any kind of marketing or new client recruitment, you got to be consistent. You got to be persistent about it, doing that same thing over and over again in a regular way so that people come to expect that from you, it's got to be structured.

Allissa Haines:

You've got to think, okay, I'm going to send an email once a month or every other week and I'm going to cover like a short little topic that's seasonal or really relevant to what's happening in this week or this time period. And I'm going to do that religiously for a certain amount of time. And then I'm going to stop and measure it, see if that strategy is working and see how this all comes together and move forward either with that or a new technique, because that old thing isn't working really well. Persistence, consistency, and structure. That's what I've got. Michael's got a few other points. So let you jump in, dude.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. So I've been thinking about just putting myself in that situation. If I were going to build a business today without social media, I would want to build a really strong... I want to make my own community basically. I would build my own community around a content piece and you definitely alluded to this. I just want to talk a little bit more about it. And so I think it really works well, if you have a personal, in real world network that you can deliver some big content piece to. Not some like huge multi content strategy thing, but just like a thing, like an event series or a podcast you launch or webinars that you do. And maybe you... You mentioned email marketing earlier, so maybe your email list is like the thing that you build.

Michael Reynolds:

And then every networking event you go to, you just hammer it down the point, Hey, please sign up for my email list or invite people to sign up for my email list where I announced my webinars or my events or my podcast or whatever it is you're doing. Or just say like, Hey, I've got a podcast or I do webinars once a month on these wellness topics. And just make that the thing you're always telling people about and start to build community around that where people can subscribe to it, or they can join an email list. And along with that, you don't have to be on social media yourself to take advantage of it.

Michael Reynolds:

So if every single time you're meeting people and networking, you're saying, Hey, I'd love it if you would share this on your social media, like maybe it's your blog, maybe it's your podcast, whatever it is. They can use their social media. You don't have to be on there, but you can ask them to share it with their friends on social media and offline as well and that can be a pretty effective strategy. So the less you're on social media, I think the deeper you have an opportunity to go on creating your own content on your own properties and building a community around that. So those are my thoughts.

Allissa Haines:

And I think that there is a really neat little niche involved here where you could do some blog posts or some videos on your website and have one of them be like, why you won't find my business on social media. I think that would really attract a lot of people who were like, yeah, I hate that. It sucks my life away. And you can talk about why you're not on social media, why you feel mentally happier when you're not engaging in that way. And what improvements have been made in your life when you removed yourself from that or... I think that would resonate with a lot of people, especially we're in the health and wellness and specifically like often the mental health and wellness area. And I think there's a lot to be said about how the decisions and how you run and market your business really relate to the kind of life that you want to have and the kind of life maybe that you want your clients to have. So I think there's something to be said about that. And I said it.

Michael Reynolds:

I agree. You said it.

Allissa Haines:

That's what I got.

Michael Reynolds:

Right on. All right, well, before we get to quick tips, let's give, shout out to Jojoba.

Allissa Haines:

Yay Jojoba. The Jojoba Company is the only company in the world that carries 100% pure first press quality jojoba. What's really nice about a whole, but it is the closest thing to your skin's natural sebum. It's not an oil, it's a wax ester. And it's really nice to use in the summer because it doesn't leave that like thick, slimy sheen on people when they get a massage. And then they go back out into like the hot humid weather and they feel like they're lathered and whatever motor oil, it lets the skin breathe and do what it needs to do. It is non-allergenic so you can use it on any client and every client without worrying about an allergic reaction. And you, my friends, just because you're a listener here, you can get 20% off the price of the product when you shop through our link massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba.

Michael Reynolds:

All right, you have a quick tip.

Allissa Haines:

I do. I have a quick tip and it is also a little bit of a lecture to myself on something I haven't gotten on top of lately. It is a really good idea to have an emergency contact colleague. And what I mean by that, is someone who has the password to let's say your scheduling software, that includes your client contact information, so that if something happens to you, they can log into your info, whatever, your database and contact your clients on your behalf. And this is something I used to have in my old office. A couple of us use the same scheduling system. And so, one of my colleagues, I was like, I literally just wrote down my password. And this was before I had like a password program. And we kept it like in a drawer, in a file or something in the office.

Allissa Haines:

And the deal was, if I got hit by a bus, she would call all my clients and tell them, and it sounds silly, but a friend of mine, I saw her post online the other day that she had to put a sign up on our office door because one of her office mates or colleagues passed away and no one had any way of reaching his clients. And that's just tough. It's just tough. And so, since I moved and started over again, I don't have that same colleague in my office and I need to set up a system so that if something happens to me, I've got a colleague who can log in and contact all of my clients and say, Hey, Allissa is not going to be in for a little bit or ever again in a kind and compassionate way that our clients deserve. So get yourself an emergency contact colleague and make sure, maybe be theirs as well and get that set up.

Michael Reynolds:

That's a great idea. Thank you.

Allissa Haines:

You bet.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. Well, Hey everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate you being with us. You can find us on the web @massagebusinessblueprint.com. And if you're not a member of our community, our private community, please check it out. As always, you've got 30 days to try it for free, click on community and you can read more about it. So thanks everyone for joining us today. Have a great day. We'll see you next time.

Allissa Haines:

Bye.