Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• U.S. futures-based bitcoin ETF rises in the first day of trading, bitcoin nears record
• NPR’s Life Kit: tools to help you get it together

Discussion Topic

• Keeping Your Massage Business Small

Quick Tips

• Listen to anything using text to speech on your iPhone (or Android)

Sponsors

• The Original Jojoba Company 
• ABMP 
• PocketSuite 

Transcript: 

Sponsor message:

This episode is sponsored by the original Jojoba company. I firmly believe that massage therapists should only be using the highest quality products because our clients deserve it, and our own bodies deserve it. I have been using Jojoba for years, and here's why. Jojoba is non-allergenic, I can use it on any client, and every client without fear of an allergic reaction. It is also non-comedogenic, so it won't clog pores. So if you've got clients prone to acne breakouts, Jojoba is a good choice for them. It does not go rancid, there's no triglycerides, so it can sit on your shelf for a year plus and not be a problem. And that's what also makes Jojoba a wonderful carrier for your essential oils as well. It won't stain in your 100% cotton sheets, so your linens are going to last longer. The original Jojoba company is the only company, in the world, that carries 100% pure, first press, quality Jojoba and we are delighted to be their partner. You, my friends, can get 20% off the price of the product when you shop through our link massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba.

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 host. Welcome to our show. I feel like it's... Remember the old days when we used to talk about the weather.

Allissa Haines:

Yes. It's cold, by the way- [crosstalk 00:01:39]

Michael Reynolds:

We talked about the weather, like right before we recorded. So, it feels like a good time. Cause it is cold, it's fall. So, leaves are changing, weather's cooling.

Allissa Haines:

In this, the emergence of sweater season, Michael, what are you wearing? No. What are you reading? [crosstalk 00:01:56] I'm so tired this morning. You people, I don't-

Michael Reynolds:

Melissa.

Allissa Haines:

I just- [crosstalk 00:01:59].

Michael Reynolds:

We should do this offline.

Allissa Haines:

What are you?

Michael Reynolds:

What are you wearing?

Allissa Haines:

Okay, so listen. First of all, I was all set inside my house to log into this recording and then my headphones didn't work right. And then I had to come out to my little shed, which is freezing cold, which is why I wasn't out here in the first place. And then I had to reboot my computer and I'm struggling people, I'm struggling. So, Michael, what are you wearing in reading? Are you wearing a Star Trek shirt?

Michael Reynolds:

No, I'm wearing a conference shirt from an association I'm in and I'm wearing khaki shorts. So just my kind of my usual-

Allissa Haines:

Shorts?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Well that's my work at home outfit, plus it's... I think it's like going to be 70 degrees here today. It's been really warm in my neck of the woods. Let me check today's forecast, it is sunny-

Allissa Haines:

I think actually going to be warm here, but it's been cold for a couple of days and-

Michael Reynolds:

It's going to be high sixties today and sunny. So yeah, you better believe I'm wearing shorts.

Allissa Haines:

I'm excited about it being chilly, cause you can open the windows at night and it's nice and cool to sleep in, but I just wasn't really prepared for frosty mornings yet and yeah. But anyhow, what are you reading?

Michael Reynolds:

All right. Speaking of things irrelevant that we're talking about, I'm reading something that is probably not terribly relevant to what we do here at Massage Business Blueprint. But I'm reading about the new Bitcoin ETF, specifically the Bitcoin futures ETF, which launched on Tuesday of this week. And I'm kind of excited about it because as you know, I'm a... My other life, I'm an independent financial advisor and I'm into finance, and money, and personal finance, and crypto as well.

Michael Reynolds:

And in the U.S., we have our first official Bitcoin based ETF. Now there are some other kind of over the counter non-official, non-publicly listed Bitcoin based funds out there, but this is the first official listed on the New York stock exchange Bitcoin ETF funds. So it allows you to more easily include this fund in your investments if you choose to. And it makes it easier than opening up coin based accounts and wallets and stuff like that.

Michael Reynolds:

So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, just move on, forget it, it's okay. If you're into crypto, you probably noticed this or might be interested in this. So that's what I've been reading about. It actually increased the price of Bitcoin this week, significantly, the announcement really kind of pumped up the price and by the way, I'm not making any recommendations at all. This is strictly informational.

Allissa Haines:

I find the whole cryptocurrency thing fastinating and completely out of my realm of understanding. And, I've tried a couple times and I decided that I just don't... I'm never going to understand it. I'm going to stop trying. I have bought into just a little bit of crypto and I have a friend who gives me advice and I take their advice and I'm like, "We'll see what happens", and I've decided to just be okay with that.

Michael Reynolds:

Do you mind if I do like a tiny tangent that might help?

Allissa Haines:

Bring it.

Michael Reynolds:

So, we can all kind of agree that, let's say gold, for example. So gold is something that's been around for a long time and as society we've decided it has value, right? So like we know that gold doesn't really have any particular use, like you can't eat gold or use it for very much, it's not useful to our everyday lives as humans. But, for whatever reason, we have decided as a society that gold has value, therefore it has value. And so gold has become what's called an asset class, which means that it is a thing in the world that we have decided has a certain value and supply and demand dictates that value, even though it has no real use. So cryptocurrency is sort of the digital version of that cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, for example, has no real use.

Michael Reynolds:

Now the underlying technology does, but the currency itself has no use it just happens to be non-tangible where gold is tangible. So there's enough critical mass in the world where people have decided that Bitcoin has some value, therefore it has value, and it has become an asset class. Now I realize Allissa you know all this, but I'm just kind of sharing it for the audience who may be very new to crypto and kind of understanding why it is a thing and why it has value. So, that's kind of the... A quick summary that may help those who are struggling to figure out what it's all about and why it's worth something.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. And I get it now and for like the next 15 minutes, probably. And after that, it completely leaves my mind. It's like the sound barrier or the infield fly rule in baseball. I know it, but I need to have it reexplained to me every year. I literally used to call my brother at the beginning of every baseball season and be like, "What's the infield fly rule again." And that is how these things perform at a little dance in my brain and then go away.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, you lost me at baseball. So, I have no idea what that stuff is...

Allissa Haines:

But the sound barrier, I understand it, but I forget it and have to have it reexplained to me. Like why, how does a... How... What is... How does a Sonic boom happen? I don't understand. I do, but I forget.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, same.

Allissa Haines:

Anyhow. That's-

Michael Reynolds:

So Allissa had one of the things that are actually useful to our listeners. What have you got?

Allissa Haines:

Yes and super useful, actually. I have been listening to, quite a while now, to NPR's Podcast Life Kit, and it's called Life Kit Tools To Help You Get It Together. And it is exactly that, it is a really great podcast. They put out two to three episodes a week, I think. On every topic you can imagine in a very like introductory and useful way. Part of the reason I really love it is that the episodes are usually between 15 and 25 minutes and you name it, they've got an episode about it. They have one about the most... One of the more recent ones honoring your heritage and improving your health through food. And it's very interesting, it's 23 minutes, it talks about... The guest is a culinary historian talking about how to, and why you might want to learn a little bit more about your culture and it's food.

Allissa Haines:

They've got an episode about the 40 hour work week and maybe reducing it is actually going to be better for productivity. They have one about how to sew your... Start sewing your own clothes. They have a really good one recently was understanding jealousy and how understanding jealousy could lead to better relationships. And it is fantastic. They got one about how to start strength training, and how to organize your small kitchen, and how to deal with a difficult relative. And they had one that just came out, which is not in any way relevant to me but could be too many people, how a birth plan can help you prepare for all four trimesters. It's really great. It's totally like... And I've heard it insulted in this manner, like a millennial podcast. Like "Why do we need to have a podcast about how to organize your kitchen?" But it's super helpful life skills that not all of us learned from school, or life, or parents, or... It's super great, and it's so accessible.

Allissa Haines:

They had one about how to get started with bird watching, and they had a whole segment on how accessibility and bird watching is a big deal cause, you can't take your electric wheelchair down a really heavily rooted trail. So how do we make certain hobby more accessible? Just... I've listened to probably three quarters of the episode Because I totally ignore the ones that aren't relevant to me, like this birth plan one, but so helpful. Like a friendly friend explaining something to you that you didn't understand in a really nice way, I found that to be really relevant, really helpful. I've actually listened to the one about jealousy twice, because that's certainly an issue I have. And yeah, they're really great. Like if-

Michael Reynolds:

So I want to thank you, because this is the podcast I've been looking for. This is my style. I like really actionable stuff and I've kind of let my podcast library fill up with lots of things that are long, meandering, conceptual things. And those are good sometimes, but my brain is currently craving short, actionable podcasts. So this is really timely. Thank you. This is for me-

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. And I love 20 minute podcasts, because that's exactly my commute to work right now.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

So that's really nice.

Michael Reynolds:

I am subscribed. Thank you.

Allissa Haines:

Yay. Who's our first sponsor?

Michael Reynolds:

Well, our friends at ABMP.

Allissa Haines:

Hey ABMP today, I am going to talk about their apps. That's what I want to talk about. Thanks ABMP for being a sponsor, first of all, they say they're proud of us and we believe them. There are-

Michael Reynolds:

I believe them.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, we really do. There are a ton of ABMP membership benefits. I'm going to talk about their apps today. They have two in particular, the five minute muscle app and the pocket pathology app. You can find both of these and the information about them at abmp.com/apps, A-P-P-S. They are quick reference guides designed to help you, again quickly, find the information you might need. So if you have a client walk in and they're like, "Hey, I have a history of"... I'm trying to think of one and I can't right now, but there you go. Or for me, okay, so you have a client walk in and they're like, "Yeah, I'm having these new rotator cuff issues."

Allissa Haines:

And if you haven't dealt with that in a while, you might need a little bit of a refresher. You can literally do your intake say "Hop on the table. I'm going to take just an extra minute to refresh my rotator cuff memory." And you can open your app and in two minutes or less, have a really good refresher of what all the rotator cuff muscles are. And what you need to do to them to help this client. It's just, they're nice refreshers and the pathology app is just super, super helpful. It is progressive web technology, so you can get the little push on your phone and it won't take up a ton of space in your device. These are included with ABMP membership. And again, you can go to abmp.com/apps and try a demo of each one. Even if you're not a member, you can try a demo. Yay.

Michael Reynolds:

Yay. Everything ABMP has is pretty much quality.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. They're pretty great.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. All right, I'm in love with what you are going to talk to us about today.

Allissa Haines:

Well, good. This is... Okay, so this is like a not actionable episode, really we normally try to-

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, I would argue it's very actionable.

Allissa Haines:

It is in a way, I think my hope is that it will be validating and comforting to people. Okay, I've talked about this a little bit recently, but I'm getting a lot of Instagram ads lately for like, "Grow your massage business, get 20 new clients this month." And I know that I've like complained about how you click on the website and they're going to sell you some program. That's going to, make you this magical six figures in a year, which by the way they're talking about gross and not net, so oh my God be quiet. But also, they really like... It's always coaches with glamor shots of themselves and a flashy website. They can overhaul your practice and six figures and blah, blah, blah.

Allissa Haines:

I find it so exhausting, because none of it really feels... None of it resonates with me, right? I don't want to have a massage website that features me, a lot of these graduates of the programs like rock on and I'm glad it works for them. But it doesn't resonate with me having some, I don't know... I love branding, I love niching. But having an overly branded, glamorous... It seems fashion based massage practice, these people seem to want me to have. Just doesn't, it doesn't resonate with me, it doesn't make sense to me.

Allissa Haines:

There's also related and will fit into this topic. There's also a lot of talk, and from us too, about additional income streams. We had a whole episode on this and it was last week, right? Additional income streams, passive income, what to do when you want to make more money, but you don't want to take more clients, all of this is valid and super relevant and helpful. And it's cool to want growth and bigger income and all of that. But it's also just cool to be cozy with being a fee for service provider. It is okay to be a massage therapist, service provider who trades your time for money. There's nothing wrong with that. If that is what you want, and you do not wish to expand on that, with other income streams, or other... I'm going to air quote, "passive income." That's cool. If you're making enough money to live the way you want to live, mostly, if you're making enough money to save for when you don't want to work anymore, that's a win.

Allissa Haines:

And that is enough. If that's enough for you, that's enough for you. And that's plenty. And it's more than a lot of people have, so rock on. It's great to have a plan B. It's awesome to have a, "If I cannot massage anymore, but I still want to earn an income. This is my plan." It's also okay to not have a super firm plan B. My plan B mid pandemic almost became, "I'm going to go work in a bakery." And, I swear to God, I would've applied right then and there. But the owner came around to the register and took their mask off to check me out. And I was like, "Can't work at this bakery." But I was ready to ask for an application and go work at a bakery. And that was going to be my plan B. And I'm kind of cool with that.

Allissa Haines:

And I've been thinking, I might want to do that eventually, but it's also okay to not have some big official plan B. It's fine, if you want to hustle, and grow, and be entrepreneurial. And it's also fine, if your total goal is to run a sustainable business, that is mostly on autopilot and keep your business serving you. Instead of you feeling like you are serving, and building, and serving, and building, your business in a really arduous slog. You don't have to grow, for the sake of appearances, or because some dude at a networking group thinks you should franchise, or because other people call you an entrepreneur and you feel like you have to live up to that. It is cool to own the, "I run a small business. I am a small business owner. I run a small massage practice" and I'm the literally saying, this is me Allissa.

Allissa Haines:

I run a small massage practice that I don't want to be much bigger than it is now. Like post pandemic or at least on the other end of this pandemic, I'd like to have a few more clients a week. I'll take a few new clients. I don't want any more than that. I want a sustainable business, that's going to earn me the income I want, allow me to save and be on autopilot. I don't want to have to constantly be learning new things, and doing new things, and trying new things. I worked really hard for a lot of years to get this business to be kind of self-serving and sustainable. And I love it, I love the number of clients I see, I love the amount of admin I have to put into seeing that I'm amount of clients.

Allissa Haines:

I love that it covers my bills and I take enough home. It's pretty awesome. And that's enough. I don't want to hire employees. I don't want to go back to renting out a lot of space and that's good for me. And part of this came from talking to other people about how they're building their business or not. And also... I closed down my large space where I was subletting to a lot of people last year. And then I found a new space, much smaller. It was just me, but I did sublet my room out a few days a week to somebody else. And when we... When I did that, this person had like never owned their own massage business. So they were super excited about decorating. So I let my tenant, decorate our massage room. She picked out the paint colors and the wall art, and it was fine. And wasn't my style, but it was totally fine. And whatever.

Allissa Haines:

Her practice got big enough where she wanted to move out into her own full time, so she did that. And for a few days I entertained the idea of taking in another tenant, and I kind of had it in the back of my head. Maybe just someone one or two days a week, little bit of extra money, it'd be great. And then I redid my massage room, I don't know, two weeks ago, and completely redid it. I repainted it, I repainted my furniture, I changed the lighting and the art and completely different, totally different vibe. And I am so happy in there, that I was like, "Yeah, I'm not going to share this room again." And then I was like, "Well, you know, that income from a renter is pretty sweet and da, da, da, da, da. And you should probably think a little bigger than this."

Allissa Haines:

I don't want to think any bigger than that anymore. And I'm cool with that. And I know that a lot of people you're like laughing at this right now being like, "Of course, it's cool. I've been running that kind of business for years" and rock on. But I do talk to a lot of people who worry that they're not being ambitious enough. I just want you to know that you're totally ambitious enough. Like, if you're starving and you're not feeding yourself and you're not making enough money, clearly you need to do some of the growth stuff or change something. But, it's cool to just coast. I worked really hard to be able to just coast, Imma just coast. That's the end of my rant.

Michael Reynolds:

I like it. I think it's actionable.

Allissa Haines:

Okay.

Michael Reynolds:

I like it, I think it's very specific and a great message that many of us need to hear. So thank you, I agree.

Allissa Haines:

Thank you, sir. Anything to add?

Michael Reynolds:

No, I agree with everything you've said.

Allissa Haines:

I love it, sometimes when I say it's going to be a short episode and then it really is. So, who's our next sponsor.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. Our friend over at PocketSuite.

Allissa Haines:

Yay. And PocketSuite is one of the things you can use to make your business kind of run itself a little better. It is an all-in-one app that makes it super easy to run your business. You can schedule and get booked online by clients. They can handle their own appointments so you can manage your forms, and contracts, and payments, and reminders. And it's all within a HIPAA compliant app. They can do text reminders, they have just added to be able to do email reminders. You can be up and running in PocketSuite in 15 minutes or so and I can tell you that it's true, because I test drove it. Massage Business Blueprint listeners will get 25% off your annual premium subscription for your first year of PocketSuite. You can visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/pocketsuite to check it out.

Michael Reynolds:

Nice, good stuff they're doing over nice app.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, they're cool people I like them.

Michael Reynolds:

All right-

Allissa Haines:

And I don't like anybody. So, that says something.

Michael Reynolds:

That's true. That's high praise. All right, so quick tip time.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. I don't have anything. So what's yours?

Michael Reynolds:

I have a thing I'm super excited about, which nobody'll probably care about because I feel like I'm probably the last person in the world that discovered this, just in case there's someone else out there that knows this. So I am, I'm taking... I think last week I even talked or maybe a recent episode, I talked about how I'm taking some online courses and they're all text based. And I like to multitask while I learn stuff. And so, I had to block out time to read things and it was just not quite working for me. And I was like, "Okay, there's got to be a better way." And so I did some research and discovered that, low and behold, you can have your phone read things to you. Again, I realize I'm probably the last person on the planet to discover this, but in iPhone, there's an Android way to do it too.

Michael Reynolds:

But I have an iPhone, in iPhone, you go into accessibility and turn on text to speech. And then when you're reading anything on your phone, you can swipe down from the top, with I think two fingers maybe, or maybe one finger anyway. And then it'll open up a little layover menu, or overlay menu that lets you click play and it'll read the text to you and you can choose the different voices. So now I can go on walks and listen to things like articles and things I want to read, through my headphones, which is awesome. And on Android, it's similar, you turn these settings on an Android and there's a little menu that appears in the bottom, I think for reading things to you. So on either phone, you can have it read things to you. And this has really improved my productivity, so it's been kind of life changing. And again, I'm probably the last person on the planet to discover this, but I was happy. So I'm sharing it.

Allissa Haines:

You're not the last person, I actually knew about this but I haven't used it in a long time. So I'm kind of glad to get the reminder. And there's also a school of thought that says that for some people, movements and actually staying physically active, while you learn something, imprints the information on your brain a little bit better.

Michael Reynolds:

I'm like that, I believe that.

Allissa Haines:

And there's some people like you need to read visually, or you need to hear something, or, in my house, a lot of us need to do both. So we, when the kids have to read a book for school, we do the audio book and then actually the visual book at the same time.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

And that helps them retain it. But for some people movement is key and rock on dude. I'm actually thinking of getting a treadmill that I can hack to be like a treadmill desk. Yeah.

Michael Reynolds:

Nice.

Allissa Haines:

Have you seen those?

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

They're amazing.

Michael Reynolds:

They're nice.

Allissa Haines:

And I totally want one. Anyhow, good for you using text to speech. I'm very impressed.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. So hope that helps at least one person.

Allissa Haines:

Hey, here's the thing I... Quick tip that's off the top of my head here. If, you are not on our email list, we send out an email every Friday that just has a link to the most current podcast that we publish that week and anything new and important that's going on. If, you are not on our email list, you super duper should be. Because I had a brilliant idea yesterday for something that we're going to turn into an eBook and you're going to want to be on the email list so that, you know when that comes out. And I'm going to try really hard to get it out before the holidays. Probably not before Thanksgiving, but maybe, and you want to go to massagebusinessblueprint.com. And I got to tell you off the top of my head, I don't have any idea where we have our email sign up. So I'm going to go to the website right now, which I cannot spell correctly.

Michael Reynolds:

I know it's on our website-

Allissa Haines:

I know it's on our website.

Michael Reynolds:

It is at the bottom, at the bottom.

Allissa Haines:

I feel like it, yes. So if you go to massagebusinessblueprint.com, scroll all the way down. If you're on a desktop, it's on the right side. If you're on mobile, it's probably just going to be at the bottom and you'll see the little newsletter block. Put your email in there, subscribe. We do not send you a ton of obnoxious emails, it's not like that. And this is for everyone, you don't have to be a member of the community, of the premium Blueprint Mastermind community to get our newsletter. It's again, once a week Friday mornings, it comes out. But I'm going to have a new eBook out, that I think is going to be really fun. And you should totally get on the email list, so you are alerted right away. Yay.

Michael Reynolds:

Yay.

Allissa Haines:

That's all I have to say about that. I really am done.

Michael Reynolds:

All right, cool. Hey here's... Since you mentioned it in passing, it's a good time to mention to our listeners. We've officially named our community Blueprint Mastermind. So it's got kind of its own name. So when we say Blueprint Mastermind, we are referring to our private member community for all the resources that are in there. So again, Blueprint Mastermind is our new name for our community. We really wanted to give us something a little more special, so that is why Allissa said Blueprint Mastermind.

Allissa Haines:

I know, I was proud of myself for remembering because we only decided last week.

Michael Reynolds:

There we go. All right now we're really done.

Allissa Haines:

We are.

Michael Reynolds:

All right, thanks everyone for joining us today. As always, you can find us on the web massagebusinessblueprint.com and you can find Blueprint Mastermind there, read all about it. We would love to have you check it out, first 30 days free, and email us if you want to at podcastatmassagebusinessblueprint.com. Thanks for joining us today, have a great day. We'll see you next time.

Allissa Haines:

Bye.