Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• When Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021? [Cheat Sheet]
• Ep 153 – Type 1 Diabetes Blood Sugar Crash: “I Have a Client Who . . .

Discussion Topic

• What resources do you use to make sure you comply with regulations and statutes?

Quick Tips

• Beware of business courses and programs that over-promise. There are a lot of charlatans out there. If you’re really good at growing a business you’re probably really busy growing a business and you don’t need to sound desperate.

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 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 the ABMP Pocket Pathology can help you sort out contraindication before any treatment. These apps are included with ABMP membership and you can go to abmp.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're your hosts. Welcome. We are glad you are here and Allissa, I'm glad you are here and I'm glad I am here.

Allissa Haines:

Wow. You're just glad this morning.

Michael Reynolds:

I am.

Allissa Haines:

If you happy and you know it, clap your hands.

Michael Reynolds:

This is fun. I like what we do. This is fun. I look forward to this every week when we record it, it's fun. We hang out-

Allissa Haines:

Michael would not call himself a morning person, but by 9:00 AM when we record, he's pretty alive and alert and awake and enthusiastic. And that's one of the things I love about you. Also, you tolerate me. Okay. Folks yesterday, we had a business meeting, it was a Zoom with some people and it pretty much ended with me saying, "All right, everybody, don't get the plague and figure out how you can pay us more money." And that was my exit to the meeting.

Michael Reynolds:

They're like click and end meeting, it just right there.

Allissa Haines:

And I was like, I shouldn't be allowed in Zoom. So also one of the things I appreciate about Michael is that he's okay with my lack of business enos.

Michael Reynolds:

I like to think that we are a breath of fresh air in a sea of business plainness for our business partners, so.

Allissa Haines:

Right? It's definitely not boring to work with us.

Michael Reynolds:

Definitely not. All right on that note, what am I reading? Great question. So I'm going a little bit lighter today, nothing heavy or depressing today, just some good old social media tips from HubSpot. So I was reading on the HubSpot blog, one of their recent articles called, When is the Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2021, and has a cheat sheet. And I do recommend reading the entire article because it has a lot of good information on it, but I know a lot of our listeners, a lot of our members are interested in getting better at Instagram and Instagram seems to be a fun social tool that a lot of massage therapists are using for things like pictures of their massage studio, and some of our members are doing creative things with video and teaching, things like that.

Michael Reynolds:

So I thought it was an interesting reference and a couple of things from the article, on average HubSpot found that the best time to post on Instagram is Tuesday between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM Central. Weekdays between 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM Central is the optimal timeframe for increased engagement. And they also have a cheat sheet by industry. And the closest industry to us would be healthcare companies, which they have on the list. And it says best time is Monday from 4:00 AM to 5:00 AM Central, which is very interesting. So like I said, just a few snippets from the article, but if you dig deeper you'll probably find things relevant, specific to massage and more details on the ins and outs of times and days, and types of posts and things like that. So if anyone is looking to up their Instagram game a little bit, this would be a good article to check out, that's what I've been reading.

Allissa Haines:

HubSpot is just... You all could get a whole marketing education like an MBA, really, the marketing, just by going to HubSpot's free resources and reading all their eBooks and all of their stuff. They're really something and I have not read this article but I probably will. And I appreciate you sharing it with us, Michael.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. What about you?

Allissa Haines:

So I was listening to the ABMP Podcast, specifically Ruth Warner's pathology conversations. And last weeks, although, sorry, we're recording a week ahead. So episode 153 of the ABMP Podcast was Ruth's topic, type one diabetes, blood sugar crash. And it was a great episode. It learned me a lot about diabetes and which I have to say the whole topic is really embarrassing to me because we learned about this stuff in school. I knew I should always have a package of those glucose tablets in the office.

Allissa Haines:

I haven't had a client with diabetes in a while, but I did just get a client who came back after many years gone, who now has... It's weird, because it's type one diabetes, but she only got it two years ago when she started having all kinds of organ blockages and she actually had some clot in her pancreas, it's crazy unusual thing. But she ended up with type one diabetes. So she was on my table a couple of weeks ago and she got really warm, but I have a table warmer on. So she's like, "Can you turn that off, I'm getting a little warm." And we both attributed it to menopause and whatever. And then a few minutes later, I noticed she was a little bit sweaty. And then a few minutes later, an alarm started going off in her purse and I heard it and she didn't and I let it go for a minute, because I thought maybe it was just a phone bleep or something.

Allissa Haines:

And then all of a sudden she opened her eyes and I went, "Is that an alarm going off?" And she goes, "Oh my God, yes, I need that. Give me my purse." So she has a little thingy, I forget what it's called attached to her arm that consistently monitors her blood sugar. And it's attached to an app on her phone, but it also has a separate alarm so that when her blood sugar drops, the alarm goes off and her blood sugar was dropping quickly and dramatically. And she's like, "Oh my gosh, that's why I'm so warm." And she was shaky and she had glucose tablets in her purse. I literally handed her a purse. She shut off the alarm. She took some glucose tablets and then she had to scan.

Allissa Haines:

She had to check her blood sugar again, which she can do right through the device in the app. And the... I forget what it's called, the thing that's attached to her arm, the monitoring probe, the device thingy that's attached to her arm all the time. And she was fine, five minutes later she was totally fine, but that happened a couple of weeks ago and forgotten a lot of the red flags for diabetes issues on the table. And then this podcast episode came out and I was like, "I still haven't gotten the darn glucose tablets from my office." But thankfully I was listening to the episode on the way to work yesterday, and I had to make a stop at the grocery store anyway. So I picked some up and it took 16 and a half years for me to have my first issue on the table, but I really was not prepared for it and I should have been. So everyone needs to check out episode 153 of the ABMP Podcast. And that's my... what you should read what I'm reading situation.

Michael Reynolds:

Wow. Anything Ruth produces is pure gold.

Allissa Haines:

It's really... She's just phenomenal. Get on our email list that way if you're not a regular podcast listener, if you get on our email list, you'll see what she's put out recently and what courses are happening and stuff. And then you'll just be prompted to listen and yeah, go do that.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. Thanks for sharing that. Okay. Well, before we move on, let's give a shout out to our first sponsor a Jojoba.

Allissa Haines:

Jojoba. There's so many reasons that I love Jojoba. It is not allergenic, so I can use it on any client and every client without being worried about somebody having an allergic reaction, it washes out of my cotton sheets and I love that. It doesn't go rancid. It doesn't contain triglycerides. So it doesn't get all gross and you can have some small bottles with your essential oils in it and not worry about the oil... pardon me, not worry about the Jojoba wrecking your essential oil by going rancid. And what I want to tell you specifically is that they're the only company in the world that carries 100% pure first press quality Jojoba. So this means they squeeze the heck out of the seed and... but they do it gently and only a first press. So they get the highest quality of Jojoba dripping out of that seed, but they don't get as much as other companies that squeeze the bejesus out of it and get a lower quality Jojoba.

Allissa Haines:

So you and my friends can appreciate it. It's a fine olive oil only, Jojoba. You can get a 20% discount off the price of the product when you shop through our link massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba.

Michael Reynolds:

Thanks, Jojoba. All right. What do you got today for us?

Allissa Haines:

So today we are covering other topic that was requested by a listener and premium member. And I'm going to read the question in full, what resources do you use to make sure you are covering your bases in regards to state county talent licenses and permits, and state county towns scope of practice and statutes. There's no central source in my state, everyone interprets it differently. The town doesn't know the county requirements or just gives false info and some statutes contradict each other. I end up spending weeks sorting it all out, but honestly with regards to scope, I'm still confused.

Allissa Haines:

And the board in that state says, ask your attorney. Okay, so this is one of these answers slash non-answer things. Because again, it's all just a giant cluster and who knows every state in this delightful United States of America, every state is empowered to enact their own regulations for licensing any particular profession. So some states have really intense massage therapists, licensure laws, and regulations. Some states have none. And in many states it is regulated by the town or city or by the county, as opposed to the state. And it could mean anything from, we have no licensing at all. You can just call yourself a massage therapist and hang up a shingle and start working if you like, to, you need to complete a program that is 2,500 hours, includes this and this and sit for an exam administered by the medical board, which is how Ohio used to be.

Allissa Haines:

So it's a mess. It's a hot mess. And in a lot of states and such, I don't see any way around having to spend a lot of time to sort it all out, if you want to ensure that you're practicing legally and ethically, but here's my very loose suggestion for resources and how to determine this in an ethical way. All right, here we go. So government wise, start small and work your way up. So start with your town or your city regulations. Do they regulate massage, the practice of it and or the facility of it? So obviously you want to be following all those rules in getting whatever business license you need or back when I started in Massachusetts, it was licensed town by town. And the town I worked in did not have a licensing protocol but the town I lived in did, so I got licensed in the town I lived in just so I would have a license, which served me better because then I got legacied right into the state licensure very easily.

Allissa Haines:

So start with your talents city and make sure you are following an every rule according to them, and then go step up to your county. And this is relevant in some states and not in others like in my state, we don't really do stuff by county. So, but I know in many other states counties matter a lot. So you go up to your county regulations and see if there's any rules, regulations, scope of practice indicated for massage therapist, follow all those rules if there are. And then you go up to your state. Now, if you're regulated by the town and or your county, it's likely that you don't have state regulations, but check it out just in case. There's usually in every state some division of professional licensure, there's typically a board that will license physical therapist or occupational therapist and nutritionist, not nutritionists, dieticians and those kinds of things.

Allissa Haines:

So if massage... you can't find any licensure information, try calling that department of your state government and see if massage is included in any of that. It may be, it may not be. Not every state has a really robust online portal to find all of that information. You can also always call or email your state representative. So your state Senator, or state rep or state council person, I do not use... call the different thing in a lot of different states, but most states have a legislature. I think all states have a legislature, and you will have some representative to that legislature covering your area. You are their constituent, and you could call that office and say, "I cannot make heads or tails or find any massage regulation. Does it exist or is this an unregulated profession here?"

Allissa Haines:

So you're going to do town or city county and state, right? So you've got all those regulations in front of you if they exist. And maybe some of them contradict each other. So one may not have scope of practice listed at all. And another may say, you can do a facilitated stretching with someone and another regulation at a different level say, massage therapist can't do stretching. So to sort this out, you can now start reaching out to organizations that are not government related. So if you are a member of a professional organization and, or get your insurance through a professional organization, it would be wise to look at that professional organization and see if they have a code of ethics. See if they define scope at all, they probably don't. They probably kick it back to the state level, but it's worth going through that code of ethics.

Allissa Haines:

And it's also worth looking into the insurance provided and making sure it covers the things that you do. So, if you do some kind of... I'm trying to think some bodywork that may or may not be covered. I don't know, maybe if you do Rolfing or something and you do that through your massage license, is that allowed? And does your insurance cover you, if you hurt somebody while doing a Rolfing protocol? I don't know how it went wrong, and if I just use that example correctly? I apologize. Just trying to think of something. So check in with the insurance provider and make sure they cover the things you do. Your insurance provider might very specifically say, "We do not cover you if you give people rehabilitative exercises or stretching and they get hurt, that is not a covered modality. That's not a covered thing."

Allissa Haines:

So, or the insurance provider might kick it back to the state and be like, "Do whatever your state says." Your state doesn't say you can't do stretching, then you probably can. If you hold credentialing and with any particular organization like NCBTNB and you hold... I know they have board credentials and board certification in certain types of massage. See what they consider scope within that. But yeah, this question totally highlights the hot mess that is massage in the United States. There's no clear definitions. There's no clear scope of practice that is agreed with through all credentialing organizations or state or local regulations, and to truly cover your butt, which I know is what this particular listener is trying to do. They are trying to cover their butt with all the different things they do. One, you need to practice in the most conservative way according to all of these rules and regulations.

Allissa Haines:

So if your state says that assisted stretching is out of your scope, even if your insurance would cover it and the NCB says you can do it or whatever, you still got to follow the most restrictive rules that could possibly apply to you, even if they're contradictory to rules at other levels. If your talent says you can do stretching, but the state more recent regulations say that you can't, you got to go with the, I can't do that. And a work around for this is to get certified in related fields to cover the work you want to do. So if you want to be able to do stretching and strengthening stuff, then get yourself a certification in personal training or whatever coordinates with the modalities you want to do.

Allissa Haines:

And even if there isn't a state-level certification or licensing or whatever for that particular thing, taking that extra class and being extra qualified to do so, I think it's an ethical concept that we should consider. So while I know this is helpful and not really helpful at the same time, because I know the reader's done all this already and they're still confused. I think you need to follow the most restrictive regulations that guide your profession if you truly want to cover your butt. I also think it's important to remember that hurting somebody from massage is pretty uncommon. So if you are thoughtful and conservative enough to be caring about your scope of practice and doing the legwork and do these rules that your hands on work is probably conservative enough to not really hurt people. So I'm not saying you should go out there and hurt people, everyone.

Allissa Haines:

But I do think it's important to remember that the... hundreds of thousands of massages that get given every day, it's pretty rare to hurt somebody. So if you are a mindful practitioner, you have done your legwork looking into your scope. You have gotten extra certifications and trainings to be sure that you can safely do the things that you're doing. I think you can sleep okay at night and maybe not worry about hiring an attorney. I think a call to your insurance provider is probably a more helpful resource than paying an attorney for that, and that is what I think.

Michael Reynolds:

Awesome. Thanks for sharing that.

Allissa Haines:

No problem. And I do a lot of Googling too to find some sample situations in states. And I looked at my own state scope of practice and it is hard. It's really hard. I don't think my state board even agrees on, if what the scope of practice listed in our licensing laws are, everybody has a different version of the word. What is the stretch mean?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, it's kind of a mess.

Allissa Haines:

It's a hot mess, and I'm sorry I can't answer the question better, but I think if you've checked out all the levels of government, if you've checked out your professional organization insurance, and if you're practicing within the parameters, the most restrictive parameters laid out by any of them, then you can sleep at night and stop stressing about this.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Well I think you've given a lot of people a lot of things to think about, which are very helpful to some.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, or overwhelming and unhelpful, who knows?

Michael Reynolds:

There's something for everybody here. All right. Well, thank you for that. Before we move on, let's give a shout out to our other sponsor today, which is Pocket Suite, one of our newer sponsors and we're loving hanging out with them.

Allissa Haines:

We are. They're a great company, doing good things. Pocket Suite 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 manage all of your forms, notes and contracts, payments, reminders, all of the things and they are all HIPAA compliant within this app. And you can access the program via your desktop computer if you're old like me, and also via the app on your phone, it hooks your phone number in there so you can text from the app and people can reply to that text and it will actually come to you. It is super helpful, whether you're just starting out or you are a seasoned business owner, Pocket Suite can help you save time and make a good living. Massage business blueprint listeners can get 25% off your annual premium subscription for your first year with Pocket Suite, visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/pocketsuite to check it out.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. Quick tip time.

Allissa Haines:

You go first.

Michael Reynolds:

Okay. All right. My quick tip is be aware of business courses and programs that over promise. There are a lot of charlatans out there to watch out for, and if you're really good at growing a business, you're probably really busy growing a business and you don't need to sound desperate. That is my quick tip. And I have a... Oh, sorry. I was going to-

Allissa Haines:

Go ahead.

Michael Reynolds:

... add on one thing. I have a podcast episode already drafted to expand on this. So we'll talk more about this, but I wanted to bring this up because we both, Melissa and I both constantly see massage therapists asking about, "Hey, is this $5,000 program worth it? It sounds really amazing." And they ask her opinion and we dig into it and it's like, "Yeah, it's probably fine." But they're making it sound way over-hyped and they're going way over the top and over promising.

Michael Reynolds:

And I just want us all to watch out for that. And don't get sucked into slick marketing and emotional long sales pages that give you a feeling of scarcity, and trick you into being fearful enough that you'll pull out your credit card and buy this multi thousand dollar course, just... If someone is really good at growing a business, they don't need to sound like this. They don't need to over promise and make it sound desperate. So we'll talk more about this in a future episode, but just watch out.

Allissa Haines:

You mean I won't get 10 new clients a week for the first eight weeks of this program?

Michael Reynolds:

Just be careful.

Allissa Haines:

Okay. First of all, I need to say, did you say charlatans? Because-

Michael Reynolds:

Charlatan.

Allissa Haines:

... I thought it was charlatan.

Michael Reynolds:

Sorry. I meant to say charlatan. I probably overemphasize the CH, yeah. Charlatan.

Allissa Haines:

Okay, good. Because I was worried that I had been saying it wrong.

Michael Reynolds:

No, no. I think I just said it slightly incorrectly.

Allissa Haines:

It is a good word, though. It's so much-

Michael Reynolds:

Charlatan. It's hard to say.

Allissa Haines:

It's a good word. Yeah, man. You know how I feel about this? I think I mentioned it in our recent recording too, that I stumbled on a program being an Instagram ad that was $4,300 for a massage therapist to do this eight or 10 week program. And I looked through the highlights of it, it was all this same stuff everybody's been teaching for ages, which is because marketing is only like five foundational principles, people. And I was like, "Oh two weeks on niching and branding, how novel. I should definitely pay $4,000 for that." And it's tough, because I know some people really need the structure of a program with a start and a finish.

Allissa Haines:

And I don't want to be dismissive of that because sometimes that can be really helpful, but oh man, $4,300 or getting... I clicked on the Facebook and the Instagram ads because I'm curious what people are doing. And I think also because at massage business blueprint, we've made a point to not be like that. You're never going to see a bunch of Instagram or Facebook ads that focus on glamor shots of Michael and I on a beach to sell our coaching program that's just not how we roll, it'd be fun.

Michael Reynolds:

The Photoshop private jet behind us.

Allissa Haines:

Right? It's tough. And it's... I feel like it's those kinds of ad campaigns and those kinds of programs can be super predatory to people who are already struggling. And I've seen people go through a couple of programs that were all about... just completely overhauling their practice and it's wrecked them. And I think an overhaul is wonderful, but who would've pay 5,000 or more for this huge coaching program that ends up... I don't know. It's struggle, so be aware people. We're anti charlatan over here.

Michael Reynolds:

[crosstalk 00:24:31] To be fair. I've paid thousands of dollars for courses before, but they were really good and they were really thoughtful and they were high quality. So I'm not saying don't spend a bunch of money if it's worth it. But I just think there's a high percentage of these courses and programs and gurus out there. I'm using gurus in quotes because they call themselves that, out there that charge a bunch of money and they don't deliver, so that's what I'm worried about. So anyway, we'll talk more about this. I can't wait to expand on this more in a future episode. So what do you got?

Allissa Haines:

I don't have any quick tips.

Michael Reynolds:

Awesome. Well, there we go. Well, I think we both ran through enough for both of us on that quick tip, so.

Allissa Haines:

Probably, and you know what? We've... I did a poll and people like short episodes, so let's just take it home you all.

Michael Reynolds:

Okay. That's my signal. The hook is pulling me off the stage. Hey everyone, thanks for joining us today. We appreciate you being a listener. As always, you can find us on the web at massagebusinessblueprint.com and you can email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. And we have a private member community, which will not cost you $4,300. In fact, it's 30 days free and then very inexpensive after that. So check it out if you want to. And thanks for joining us today, we'll see you next time.