Episode 391
Dec 10, 2021
Listen in as Allissa answers rapid fire questions with Michael.
Listen to "E391: Rapid Fire Allissa Answers Everything" on Spreaker.
EPISODE 391
Weekly Roundup
Discussion Topic
- Rapid fire Allissa Answers Everything
Quick Tips
- Don’t just buy stuff at the end of the year to reduce your tax bill.
Sponsors
Transcript:
Sponsor message:
This episode is sponsored by 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 manage all your forms and notes and contracts and payments and reminders. All of the things, all within the PocketSuite app, and it is all HIPAA compliant my friends. Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned business owner, PocketSuite helps you save time and make a good living. A massage therapist can be up and running on PocketSuite in 15 minutes. Our podcast listeners can get 25% off your annual premium subscription for your first year of PocketSuite. For more information, you can visit massagebusinessblueprint.com/pocketsuite.
Michael Reynolds:
Hey everyone, welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we help you attract more clients, make more money, and along the way improve your quality. I'm Michael Reynolds.
Allissa Haines:
I'm Allissa Haines.
Michael Reynolds:
And we're your host. Welcome. We are glad you are here for this lovely December day, or maybe you're listening to it in the summer. I don't know these things hang around forever, so who knows, but anyway, we're glad you're here. Allissa.
Allissa Haines:
We're feeling it.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah.
Allissa Haines:
We're deep into the December wonkiness now. I don't know about you, but I'm just kind of half butting everything I do because I'm already.
Michael Reynolds:
Trying to avoid that explicit flag on our podcast episode today, I see.
Allissa Haines:
There you go, yes. I am trying.
Michael Reynolds:
All right.
Allissa Haines:
Although when I get to my weekly roundup, like what I'm reading, I might ruin that. But Michael, what are you reading?
Michael Reynolds:
I am reading an article from Positive Parenting Solutions called, 5 Ways to Connect With Your Child on Their Level. This is mostly just a reminder for myself. A lot of the things I read and kind of share on this podcast, they're really just to kind of reinforcing my brain things I need. I'm not sure if anyone's aware of this, but I'm super grown up. It's not my tendency to act childish or act like a kid or let go and have too much fun or anything. I'm super grown up and I'm all about business. Stuff like this is really good for me because I have a six year old and it's very important to me to make sure that I connect with him and play with him and have an emotional connection.
Michael Reynolds:
This article is really good for me because out of the five ways, they're all good, but some of them are pretty obvious like, "Hey, take breaks from technology and blah, blah, blah." Number one and number four, I really liked. Number one was channel your inner child and get into the child ego state at least once a day. This is very hard for me because Eli's like, "Hey, let's play." The stuff that kids want to play, is not always the stuff that's fun for us, but if we can kind of train our minds to get into this child ego state and just be goofy and have fun and Alyssa, I think you're really good at this, but I'm not as good. Be goofy, have fun, get in this imagination state and just play with them without worrying about being silly, that really helps connect with children. It kind of sends a message that, "I love our time together. You're special to me," and I like that message. That was interesting to me.
Michael Reynolds:
Number four was slow down. This is super important for me because I'm a very type A kind of personality. I like to do things fast. I like to accomplish a lot of things throughout the day and I'm very kind of go, go, go. Often we bleed these tendencies into our kids, I think too, because of things like, "Hey, hurry and finish your breakfast, or you'll be late for school," or, "Don't doddle dot in the grocery aisle," or, "Let's get to this next thing quickly." Often we don't have to be rushed. We just have this natural habit and tendency to rush, but what's the worst that could happen if you don't rush around all the time? Maybe you get to your destination a little later than you wanted. Okay, fine.
Michael Reynolds:
This helped me to really remember that slowing down and being in the moment with kids, can really help them reduce anxiety and help you retain a stronger, more playful and fun connection with them. Anyway, went longer than I wanted to, but that article was really good for me, to help me kind of connect with my son on a deeper level. Anyway, that's what I'm reading.
Allissa Haines:
That's neat. No, I just found a new someone to follow on TikTok. Her name is MegAnne, and she's a parenting coach and specifically kind of like a, she doesn't use the word gentle parenting. She's conscious parenting, I think is what it is. She's talked a lot about that, letting go of your stuff so that you can get on the kids' level. One of the things I really appreciate about Walt is that he doesn't rush. He doesn't react to a sense of urgency, like in a way that exasperates difficult situations.
Michael Reynolds:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Allissa Haines:
I'm working on that too, so good job us.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah. Good job us.
Allissa Haines:
Any who, I'm reading-
Michael Reynolds:
How about you?
Allissa Haines:
... I am knee deep in romance novels, as I tend to do to disassociate from stress in stressful times.
Michael Reynolds:
I've noticed that.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah. You know what, it's my brain candy and I love it. Not like the super racy ones, like the ones that are really explicit I am like, "Nope, thank you. That's what internet porn is for." But the romance novels, I found them, kidding, not really, whatever, I like regular fiction and non-romantic stuff. I read a lot of different things. There's an author, it's actually two women, Christina and Lauren, and they write under the pen name, Christina Lauren. They've got a handful of books and they're just like sweet characters and just the hint of smut. There's just really fun. I just read one that had a little bit of a mystical element, almost like a Groundhog day effect within the story. It was just light and fun and they have good characters. They don't have weak lady characters who are looking for men to save them. It's really good. Actually, every book is not particularly heteronormative, so that's nice. Yeah, that's what I'm reading, Christina Lauren books people.
Michael Reynolds:
Nice.
Allissa Haines:
Okay. On that note, who's our first sponsor?
Michael Reynolds:
Jojoba.
Allissa Haines:
Yay jojoba. Yeah, what I want to say about Jojoba is actually different from the scripts I normally say. One, I love jojoba. It's non-allergenic and won't your cotton sheets and all the stuff you've been hearing me say for six years, but I love their website. They had a website design at some point in the past year, and they built out this learning center. They've got a page about what jojoba is and laundering and storing your jojoba and the regular versus the organic. They have info for all the different types of professions who use jojoba, so people who make herbal skincare products and use jojoba as the base, all kinds of stuff like that. They've got a page for people who use jojoba to diffuse aromatherapy stuff. They've got a page for massage professionals.
Allissa Haines:
They have this fantastic blog that is just like, there's so many things you can do with jojoba. You can use it as a base for things. We can also use it on your pets. I have a thing with my eyelid where they get kind of irritated and I have to do this special scrub on them, but I found that it was making my eyelids really dry. I just use like a little bit of jojoba and rub it into my lash line and it's fantastic. It's helped more than anything else. They've got this phenomenal blog, so you can go to a jojobacompany.com/blog, or you can just go via our link, massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba, and then click on learning center. I use it to oil squeaky hinge door hinges in my office. It's just such utilitarian stuff and I love it. That's why I wanted the world to know, also I want you to know that you can get a 20% off discount on the price of the product when you shop through our link, massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba. Yeah, that's what I want you to know about jojoba.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah. I didn't realize their blog was so good. I'm on their new website now, and it's really good. Their old website was kind of so-so, and the new one is really, really good.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah.
Michael Reynolds:
It's really an improvement, yeah.
Allissa Haines:
They had a lot of this information on the old website, but it just wasn't designed beautiful and they've really taken it to a new level. We adore Brian, the president over there, and yeah, they're doing good stuff. Any how.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah.
Allissa Haines:
Jojoba.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. We're doing something different today. I'm liking where you're going with this, because I get to ask you a bunch of rapid fire questions from our community and you get to answer them.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah. Well okay first of all, they're not questions from our community.
Michael Reynolds:
Oh, I'm sorry.
Allissa Haines:
They're questions from all over the interwebs.
Michael Reynolds:
Oh, sorry about that.
Allissa Haines:
Various social media platforms that I tend watch. I actually removed myself from most massage communities because I would get so annoyed when other people would answer questions wrong or the way I think is wrong. Now, some of the communities I can still see, but I can't comment on them. I collected, over a little bit of time, some questions that I saw. This is just an Allissa explains it all rapid fire episode. Also, because I don't want to give anybody a lot of tasks because it's December and we're tired and you all should be handling your bookkeeping and all of that crap. Handle your bookkeeping and enjoy this non-actionable episode.
Michael Reynolds:
Okay. Love it. Lets get started. All right. First question. Learning massage therapist here. Deep tissue massage. What is that for you? I'm trying to determine if I give a deep tissue massage or just a firm pressure massage. What are ways I could be sure?
Allissa Haines:
Hey, so deep tissue is a crap term and it doesn't mean anything because deep is subjective. It doesn't mean anything. I would suggest to anyone who wants to think about how their pressure is received and how to describe the depth of their pressure, Google Walton Pressure Scale. Tracy Walton came up with a pressure scale with really wonderful ways to visually see and describe the amount of pressure you're giving, so that you can chart it in a consistent manner and have good communication with the client so that you can gauge what deep is to them. I looked at my schedule for the day and the first client I can be with all of my body weight, leaning into her low back with a pointy elbow and she would say that's medium pressure. The last client on my book today, if I so much is tense my fingertip while I'm working on their neck, that is deep, deep pressure to them and they would be upset that I hurt them.
Allissa Haines:
It's totally subjective. It's a crap term. I would also encourage you to listen to our podcast episode that has come out on Wednesday, December 1st with Massage Sloth Ian Harvey, about whose new book, Massage is Weird, because we get into deep tissue and what that means. It's a great conversation. Yeah, deep is subjective. It doesn't mean anything. Oh, and if you want to learn more about the Walton Pressure Scale and really learn how to use it in your work, Healwell has a class. If you go to healwell.org and look at all their courses, you'll see a Walton Pressure Scale course.
Michael Reynolds:
Next question. What is the most secure way to handle cash tips when working at a spa? The guest checks out with the spa coordinators and leaves a cash top with them. How can we make it so there's no room for human error with that tip getting to the therapist?
Allissa Haines:
Well, I would say you need to hire competent desk staff who can understand that what a name on an envelope means, and hire competent staff who don't steal from the business. Also, I've heard of other businesses using Venmo and just having, they've got a big piece of paper and a picture frame, and it's got a Venmo QR code for each of the therapists who work there so people can tip via their own Venmo right there. Or, you could just change your pricing so you don't need tips and you're paying your employees properly. Staff that doesn't steal is a really good start.
Michael Reynolds:
Okay. Next question. Would you do a 30 minute deep tissue on someone and then a 90 minute deep tissue on the same person, two days apart? Not even a full 48 hours apart.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah. The answers on this enraged me, because people were like, "No, that's too much work to the tissue." Dude, if your first massage is so deep that they can't have another massage two days later, you've hurt the person and you shouldn't be doing that kind of massage. We can't be doing a massage that hurts people and damages the tissue to the point where they can't have a regular activity two days later. That's absurd. Yeah I would, because I know that my deep tissue is not harmful to people. Also, I know that deep is subjective and unless there's some kind of other medical contraindication, I know that my massage on day one is not going to make it a problem to have a massage on day three. Yeah, if your massage is so deep that someone can't get another massage two days later, you need to change your technique.
Michael Reynolds:
All right, next question. Hello all, I have a question. I'm in search of my current textbooks. My books from so, so long ago were accidentally tossed by my husband. I am in need of some new ones, especially anatomy and physiology and others. I thought I would ask here if there were suggestions of any titles I should look for?
Allissa Haines:
Yes. Listen, your husband actually, I know the person who wrote this isn't probably listening to the podcast, but your husband did you a favor because we need updated anatomy and physiology and pathology guides. One, my favorite all time anatomy book is, Trail Guide to the Body. Google that, get that, it's fantastic stick. It's a wonderful anatomy and palpation guide, but also Ruth Warner's, A Massage Therapist's Guide to Pathology, the latest, I think the seventh edition came out in the last year or two. We will put the link in the podcast notes, but you can also just Google Ruth Warner Guide to Pathology and get it right from Books of Discovery. You can get it from Amazon. It's a fantastic guide. We love Ruth. We've had her on the show. That is the defining guide to pathology for massage therapists. I heavily suggest that to everyone in the world. I'm actually buying myself one for Christmas. There you go.
Michael Reynolds:
There you go. Next question. I need help with lighting during a massage. I have a small room and I need ideas.
Allissa Haines:
All right. The answers to this totally annoyed me because everyone's like, "Get a salt lamp and do this." It was all options of needing to place a lamp on furniture. But she said, they, I don't know if it was a man or woman who wrote this. They said it was a small room, which means furniture's hard. Lanterns that hang from the ceiling, lights that hang on the wall. All of these can be gotten pretty much anywhere. Lights that hang on the wall don't have to be hardwired in. They can have a cord that goes to a plug. Yeah, lanterns from the ceiling, lights on the wall, get the high quality LED bulbs that can be dimmable. You need to look for that feature when you're buying a bulb, and put dimmers on everything. Then you have really easy, out of the way, customizable lighting for everything that needs to happen in your room.
Michael Reynolds:
Okay. Last question. How do I fix a squeaky table?
Allissa Haines:
Oh my God. I love the replies to this. A lot of them are really, really good, and actually one of them even suggested using jojoba on the hinges, yay. Call the manufacturer. That should be your first step because the manufacturer is going to have a really good idea and decades of experience, knowing exactly what kind of squeak means and how it can be handled. Before you start unbolting things and rebolting things and perhaps making your table a little less secure and safe, call the manufacturer and say, "Hey my table, I know it's old, I'm not saying anything about a warranty, but it's doing this squeak. What are your recommendations?"
Allissa Haines:
I had this problem. I bought a used electric table and it had a certain kind of creak and clank after it was moved into my space. I tried a few things and I got really frustrated. I spent like 1500 bucks, so I'm in tears thinking I'm not going to be able to use this table. I called the manufacturer and they gave me a couple ideas. I had to get a certain kind of lubricant called white lithium grease. I needed Walt's help to unbolt something. But once we fixed the very first thing they told me to fix, to adjust and lubricate, it went away. When I tried to fix it myself, I had no luck, but once I did what they told me to do, it was completely solved and then I wasn't crying anymore about spending $1500. Okay.
Michael Reynolds:
That's a really good, kind of add on to that is, how often do we have a problem and instead of going directly to the provider of that thing we're using, we just ask people in general. It's really good, simple advice. If your table's having an issue, call the manufacturer. If a software app has an issue, email support. How often do we just not do that? It's a really good reminder.
Allissa Haines:
It has actually been a big mission of mine to not flail at something without just asking for help. I was managing a website, an e-commerce site for somebody and Monday, so it was like Cyber Monday so everything was a hot mess online, and they were like, "I don't know what's going on." I messed around with it and I Googled and I couldn't find anything and I'm like, "Duh, there's a little button here for chat support." I chat supported and with five minutes, I found out it was a whole Weebly issue, it wasn't my website, and they were already working on a fix. I would've spent another hour messing around with that, which is ridiculous. I've been really utilizing chat support and phone support. I'll do one Google for a help article about my problem. If it doesn't work or I can't find it, I immediately go to chat or email support. It's life changer, my friend. Yeah.
Michael Reynolds:
There you go. There's a pseudo quick tip embedded within the main topic. How about that?
Allissa Haines:
That was the last one. That's your rapid fire Allissa explains it all. If you have questions, please, please, please, please email us podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. I love to share my absurd wisdom.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Before we move on, let's give a shout out to our next sponsor, the fine folks at ABMP.
Allissa Haines:
Yay. I'm so excited because this ties into our topic because a question that I didn't put on my list was, where can I find some kind of reference guide to make quick decisions about customizing a massage treatment to somebody's particular health issue? You can go to ABMP. They've got a five minute muscle app and an ABMP pocket pathology app. They are quick reference guides designed to help you make fast decisions about your session planning. They're awesome. You can go to abmp.com/apps to play with some demos. These apps are included in ABMP membership. They're just worth it. It's fantastic. It is a wonderful resource. ABMP took a long time building these and you got to check it out. Sweet little short palpation video and technique videos for the 83 muscles most commonly addressed by massage therapists. The pathology app is just worth its weight. That's what I say. You should go to abmp.com/apps. If you're a member, get these apps on your device. If you are not a member, play with the demos because it might convince you. There you go.
Michael Reynolds:
Love it. All right. Cool. All right, let's wrap it up with some quick tips. I've got one. Do you have anything?
Allissa Haines:
No, but I'm totally going to add on to yours so do it.
Michael Reynolds:
Okay. All right. Just about every year at the end of the year, we look at our finances and there is this advice floating around in different ways that always ends up looking like this. "Hey, you should buy a bunch of stuff at the end of the year to reduce your tax bill." I've heard this from many sources. Sometimes accountants will say it, whether it be maybe they're misunderstood or don't have the whole picture or they are just giving this advice just for whatever reason or people are thinking, "Oh, this is kind of how you reduce your tax bill. You buy a bunch of stuff and that's just kind of how people do it as a business owner."Well, no stop, stop, stop. You don't have to buy a bunch of stuff at the end of the year just to reduce your tax bill.
Michael Reynolds:
If there is something that you do need to buy anyway, and you're planning on buying it in the next three months regardless, yeah. Okay. Maybe December is a decent time to buy it to increase your expenses, reduce your taxable income. Yeah. That can make sense. But if you're getting advice or you're thinking about this and you're thinking, "Oh, I just need to some stuff to pay less in taxes." That doesn't make any sense because you're wasting your money. Instead of having the money you would've had, you now have less money and things you don't need, just to avoid paying a little bit of taxes. Listen to me carefully. If you are paying taxes, it means you are making money. I would encourage you to get in the habit of welcoming the fact that you have to pay taxes because that means you made money, and ideally you have that money. Don't just buy a bunch of stuff you don't need just to reduce your tax bill. That doesn't make any sense.
Allissa Haines:
What I did, is I thought about what I actually was going to need in the next couple of months, like Michael mentioned. I did stock up on a few things while they were on sale over Black Friday and whatever. I needed some more and some different masks from my office. Two of the companies I've been buying masks from had a Cyber Monday sale. I needed more cleaning supplies and I've been putting off buying them, so I just bought them in bulk online so I'm set for the next year. But then I also thought, another way to reduce my tax liability, I could just put this money that I was going to spend on $200 of cleaning supplies, I could just put it in my traditional 401k.
Michael Reynolds:
Yes, that's a much better thing to do.
Allissa Haines:
Then I was like, "Then I'm buying myself a future, instead of buying a year's worth of cleaning supplies." Anyway, I actually did buy the cleaning supplies, but I also have been setting money aside. I actually have my meeting with my tax preparer accountant this week, and then they will tell me how much more I am eligible to put into my 401k. Then I will make an educated decision about tax liabilities and then decide if it's going to go into my Roth, which is post-tax 401k, or my traditional 401k, which would reduce my tax liability. If you really feel like you need to get rid of money so you're not paying tax on it, get yourself some kind of retirement account that has a tax benefit, if that's what you, and perhaps your financial advisor and or tax prepare accountants say you should do. Email Michael actually, at Michael@elevationfinancial.com. Is that right?
Michael Reynolds:
That's correct.
Allissa Haines:
He'll set you up with 401k. It can be traditional and you can also have a Roth and he can explain to you what the differences between those, if you need to. That's my add on to Michael's quick tip. If you feel like you have to get rid of your money, do it in a way that benefits future you.
Michael Reynolds:
I like it.
Allissa Haines:
See, I turned that right into a commercial for you.
Michael Reynolds:
Nice.
Allissa Haines:
Aren't you proud of-
Michael Reynolds:
I see what you did there.
Allissa Haines:
... how much money I put into my retirement this year?
Michael Reynolds:
I see what you did there. Yeah, I like that. Yeah.
Allissa Haines:
Any how.
Michael Reynolds:
Very proud of you.
Allissa Haines:
Thank you.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Well with that, Hey as always, we're glad you joined us today. You can find us on the web at massagebusinessblueprint.com. If you're a new listener, Hey, start there. Give us a look-see at massagebusinessblueprint.com, you can find out more about us and you can learn more about Blueprint Mastermind, which is our private community of super smart massage therapists, where we talk business and marketing and money and stuff and help each other with all these sorts of things, including office hours and resources. Just a whole bunch of really good stuff that helps you run your massage practice even better. If you'd like to email us, the email address is podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. Have a great day. We'll see you next time.
Allissa Haines:
Bye.