Episode 416
May 27, 2022
While computers and phones can make life easier, they can also become hotchpotch of clutter. Let's talk about digital clutter and how to deal with it in the age of electronic devices.
Listen to "E416: A Digital Spring Cleaning" on Spreaker.
EPISODE 416
Weekly Roundup
- A letter from a listener
Discussion Topic
- A Digital Spring Cleaning
- We discuss how to spiff up your devices to make your digital life more functional.
Quick Tips
- If the spring cleaning list was overwhelming, just pick one thing and call it a win. Go get yourself a cookie.
- Considering switching from “do you understand?” to “did I explain that well?” Puts the professional onus on me rather than them.
Sponsors
Transcript
Sponsor message:
This episode is sponsored by Happyface. Face cradles can be super uncomfortable for a client, and that pressure and stuffiness can ruin your whole massage experience. Happyface is the most comfy face cradle that solves that problem. There is an innovative heart-shaped design, which means no sinus pressure, no eye pressure, no need to adjust mid massage, no wrinkles, no makeup smearing, no wrecking people's fake eyelashes, because those things are expensive. It is made in the USA. Happyface is seamless, so it's super easy to clean. It is about the same size as all the other massage face cradles, so your face cradle cover will fit just fine, and it's got a full Velcro back, so it's going to stick on your face cradle frame just fine and stay where you put it. You can get 20% off your entire purchase at massagebusinessblueprint.com/happyface. Use code MASSAGEBB at checkout, but all of that information is on that page, so just go to massagebusinessblueprint.com/happyface.
Michael Reynolds:
Hey, everybody. 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:
We're your hosts. Welcome to our show today, Episode 416. I know we don't want to harp on this all the time, but I looked at our number we're on, and 416. That's a lot. We've been over 400 episodes here, so yes.
Allissa Haines:
You're going to see me... I keep looking to the side here because there's an ant crawling up my office. I don't know if you can see it. No, you can't. It's out of the frame. So, anyhow, I'm keeping my eye on the ant.
Michael Reynolds:
We're still just as professional as ever.
Allissa Haines:
Just as professional as ever.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. What do we got today? Old twist on Weekly Roundup.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah. We got a really interesting... So, first of all, our topic today is super short and borderline boring, so this came at a good time to spice things up and talk about something that matters in a very different way from our topic about organizing your digital files and stuff. So, we got an email last night, and it was a very thoughtful and considerate email, and I just have to enlarge the text on it so that I can actually read it because I am very old. So, this email says, "Hello, friends. I've listened to your podcast for years and have always enjoyed it, and although I know myself to be a more conservative person than what each of you seem to be. Recently, I find myself close to deleting the podcast subscription to your show. I love hearing people of different opinions and always found both of you to have a good motivation and want good and be respectful of others." Typos, but we're cool with that.
Allissa Haines:
"But I've consistently felt more pushed out and that there's not room for a conservative person to listen. The show today was pushing a new app, and one of you said it was more trustworthy because there were no white people involved," I'm going to just editorialize, "involved in the making of that app." We'll get to the quote in a second. Back to the email. "This along with past podcasts that have pushed very liberal viewpoints, I find your concerns of inclusion to circle around and to begin to exclude. As a massage therapist of 13 years with a blessed business of which I've gotten to work on every size, shape, and race of person, I love that massage has the ability to transcend all dividing lines. But I feel like in an attempt to speak in current events, you've become overly politicized and make someone like myself feel like I don't belong in this group. I thought I would only share my perspective, and I don't intend to create animosity, but just offering my view. Thanks for the podcast. Sincerely, so-and-so."
Allissa Haines:
This email came in at like 10:00 last night, so I did not get permission to this listener's name, so I'm not going to. So, I just need to [inaudible 00:03:53] my note page here. In reference to the quote, it was last week's episode, and Michael was talking about the COVID app, the COVID-related app, and you mentioned that you looked at the development team and you really liked that it was women and nonwhite people. So, I'm thinking that maybe the way that was said came across as being kind of like an anti-white people sentiment, but Michael, why did you say that and why was that relevant in regards to this app about finding resources and testing and medications and everything for COVID-19?
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah, yeah. So, it came out very awkwardly. After I said it I'm like, "Oh, that came out really awkward," and I ever responded to our listener who said that. So, I'm really good at being awkward at various situations, so it just came out not the way I intended it. But what I intended to say is I love the diversity I saw in the team. I thought it was great to see representation of lots of different nonwhite people on the team. Very often in the world of business and the world of software development in many industries, you see an overrepresentation of straight, white males, honestly. That's what our economy is still dominated by. So, I was really happy to see lots of diversity and lots of different people on the team making up this app. That's really what I was intending to say. I think it is important. You're going to talk about this later in this conversation, I know, but the representation I thought was important, so that's what it was meant to come across, and certainly didn't come across as the best way I could've said it.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah, and we're two people doing a live broadcast now with minimal, if any, editing, and when it publishes a few days later-
Michael Reynolds:
No. We just say stuff and-
Allissa Haines:
Here's where we're at.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah.
Allissa Haines:
So, I have some thoughts on this, and first, speaking to specifically Michael's comment about the development team of this app, I pulled some information from the CDC this morning, and I'm just going to read a very short little quote in which they say, "The COVID-19 pandemic has brought social and racial injustice and inequity to the forefront of public health. It has highlighted that health equity is still not a reality as COVID-19 has unequally affected many racial and ethnic minority groups, putting them at more risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19." I have the link to that page on the CDC where they're addressing health equity and COVID-19.
Allissa Haines:
It matters that that app was developed by women and nonwhite people because those are the communities that experience health inequity to a much greater degree. Representation in every level of business and development and government and nonprofit efforts in any kind of injustice or social community, representation is so incredibly important. If you can remember a few years back, there was this picture of a room in the White House filled with 18 white guys, and they were discussing women's health. That was really important for us to acknowledge, that a whole committee and group assigned to discussing women's health included no women and no people of color.
Allissa Haines:
Representation is super important., you're going to get better disability policy when disabled people are part of the planning. I've watched just entire chains on Twitter of disabled people putting pictures of an attempt to have some kind of accessibility situation, and the people who designed it and paid for it had no connection to the disability community, and it was completely ineffective. You can be so much more effective in helping people when you consult the people that you're purporting to serve. You can send a zillion vaccines to a pharmacy in an underserved area, but if the pharmacy is only open from 8:00 to 5:00 and it isn't within walking distance to people's homes and jobs, it's not helpful. You need vaccines on top of extending office hours for the pharmacy, transportation, and actual vaccine events in residential areas and workplaces and schools, and we saw this beautifully implemented in a lot of ways in the past couple of years, and we've also seen it fail epically because the people in the underserved communities were not even in any way consulted about the kinds of services and the actual help that they needed.
Allissa Haines:
This happens on the news a lot where you'll see some heartfelt inspiration porn story of someone, usually a first responder or something, who they come across a kid in need or a homeless person without shoes, and they buy the person shoes. Super great, but the story, the followup 48 hours later is that the homeless person was robbed and the shoes were taken. So, good to want to get people shoes, not good to neglect to identify and assist with the underlying issues of unhoused people. So, you get the idea of that. But even more broadly, issues like health equity, trans rights, reproductive rights, even prescription medication coverage, are all part of how bodies exist in this country and are allowed to exist and thrive.
Allissa Haines:
I'm a massage therapist. I don't know what I am right now. Right now, I'm a podcaster, but in my real life, in the life that actually matters, I think, I'm a massage therapist. My shtick is that I believe every body deserves access to safe, nonsexual touch. It is my job to help people feel comfortable at home, at ease, and safe in their bodies. It is also part of my job to help people advocate for agency over their bodies, and it is really unfortunate that this has become political, and I wish it hadn't. I wish there wasn't any controversy over people having safety and agency in and over their bodies, but it has been. It's been made political. States are putting women in jail for having miscarriage. They are putting women in jail for a health situation that they absolutely cannot control in which they lose a pregnancy. That's political. That's laws passed by politicians.
Allissa Haines:
Okay. I'm going to calm down because I really want to make my point. There are medical schools and medical techs that are still teaching doctors in training that black people do not experience pain as acutely as white bodies, and therefore should not get the same kind of pain relief care. That is still being taught. It is still in texts that are actively being used at some of the top medical schools, I'm going to air quote that, top medical schools in the country. There are currently laws being passed in, I don't know, more than 10, 15 states that will outlaw... This has already happened, and it's continuing to happen in other states, outlaw providing medical care for trans kids. In some states, Texas specifically, those children are being taken away from parents who affirm their trans identity. I'm going to repeat that. Children are being pulled out of their safe homes because their parents are affirming their trans identity. Holy wow.
Allissa Haines:
Then this email comes... That's political. It is about someone's body, and it has been made political through legislation. There it is. This email came on the heels... We're less than 24 hours out of 18, I think, now 19 children being slaughtered in a grade school in Texas. This happens a lot, and not only is this a... We're talking about bodies. We're talking about babies and their bodies. This is happening because of the politicization of murder and gun rights, and on top of that, ICE was at the scene, and this was a heavily Hispanic area, which means there are a bunch of undocumented parents who could not come to the scene to find out if their children had been killed because they were concerned about being detained. Take a second for that. Holy crap. Talk about bodies being politicized.
Allissa Haines:
I don't like it either, but this is where we are. So, we've hit a point where the racism and the sexism and all the other isms are so deeply rooted in our institutions... I say we hit a point, but we've always been there. We're just starting to acknowledge it. The reality is that only a highly-politicized revolution is going to change this. It is only with massive legislative efforts written by the people actually impacted by all of these isms are going to make a difference. So, I hear you, and I acknowledge that we as a podcast, me as a practitioner, me as a citizen has become highly politicized.
Allissa Haines:
This is just a podcast talking about massage business. We could avoid that. We could do what all the major organizations, we could do what all of the magazines do. We could stay right in the middle so we don't irritate anybody on either side and take everybody's ad money and keep doing that. We don't do it, and that's part of the reason why we are the way we are and we stay independent the way that we stay independent, and we choose our sponsors very, very carefully, and that if anyone wanted me to be less controversial, I'm air quoting that, we could just say, "Bye-bye. Don't sponsor us anymore."
Allissa Haines:
Anyhow, wrapping this all up, and every time we get one of these emails, which this was the most beautifully, thoughtful, caringly written... Caringly? I don't know. Email that we've gotten about this, and I really appreciate it, and I want to be respectful of that, and at the same time, I need to counter this with some questions. If you are in a profession that is charged with caring for bodies and caring for people, because this is a caregiving profession, how can you claim to care about those bodies when you vote to harm them? Because I looked up the two senators in this state, the two conservative senators in this state who have repeatedly voted against prescription drug coverage. One voted for, one voted against the second round of assistance to business and people for the COVID relief act, and I forgot what the name of that act was.
Allissa Haines:
Can you truly be a caregiver? Can you truly respect bodies of all colors and shapes and abilities when you identify with and support the party that is responsible for banning healthcare procedures for trans kids, for supporting gun rights and for fighting against the rights and access of disabled people? If you care about bodies, all shapes and sizes and abilities, and then you turn around and you vote against them, do you really care about those bodies? If you have a blessed business in which you've gotten to work on every size and shape and race, what the hell are you doing with that blessing if you are not outside of your massage room advocating for the worth and the rights of those bodies in every aspect of their lives?
Allissa Haines:
So, I think at some point you have to accept the disconnect and the incongruence, and I don't like to use this word, but I'm going to use it, but the hypocrisy of that stance. If you care for these bodies, you have to care for them everywhere, not just in your massage room where people are paying you. You need to care for them in every aspect that these bodies exist. That's my feeling on that. You can answer the questions or not, and that's okay. I just needed to get this out. So, I cannot promise that we are going to stop talking about these political views as they relate to the care of bodies and as they are relevant to our massage practices and our businesses, but what I can promise you, and I really am so glad that you brought attention to this, I can promise you that we're going to try to do a better job of discussing why some of these little things matter.
Allissa Haines:
We should have expanded on why the representation of that development team really mattered with this COVID app. It's a little thing, but it's important because when you start to see that, you'll see it in a lot of other places. I can promise you that we will try to be less flippant and more helpful with our words, and I am done, Michael. I'm going to mute and drink my coffee. Do whatever you want to do.
Michael Reynolds:
Thank you. Thank you for unpacking what was really behind my comment. Like I said, I wasn't very eloquent, but I do stand by the sentiment behind it, and you really eloquently explained the sentiment behind it, so I appreciate that, better than I actually could've even after saying it, so thank you for that. Appreciate it.
Allissa Haines:
Can you bring... I don't know how to do it.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah, let's do some comments.
Allissa Haines:
Can you bring Catherine's comment up?
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah. We have actually-
Allissa Haines:
So, Catherine says-
Michael Reynolds:
Well, sorry. I go Marcy's first.
Allissa Haines:
Oh, sorry.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah. Marcie said, "I know of two friends who are moving out of Texas to protect their kids."
Allissa Haines:
Yeah, and that's-
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah, no words for that.
Allissa Haines:
... just bonkers, right? Catherine has said, "Please keep doing what you do however you want to do it." Thanks, but we do have a responsibility to be thoughtful. "I have endless respect for the integrity you bring to your work. We never get to opt out of politics of being human in the world, as much as I'm sure we'd love to sometimes, and it's important to talk about that and how it relates to our work, or our lives, work included." Thank you, Catherine. You actually said a lot of that better than I did. Here's the thing. I don't want to be all Joe Rogan being like, "I'm just a guy with a podcast." I'm just a girl with a podcast about massage business. I fell into this. I take this responsibility, I take this very seriously.
Allissa Haines:
We have a good size listenership, and I don't want to be blowing smoke up anybody. I'm going to screw up and I'm going to say things wrong, and I take that very seriously. I don't ever want to say something and be like, "It's just my opinion," because it's relevant when we think that our opinions are important enough to have a podcast about it. So, I really appreciate people and their thoughtful comments when we do things in a way that rubs them the wrong way.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Thank you to Marcy and Catherine for stopping by and doing comments. Those listening via audio only on the podcast, just a reminder that we do this live every Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, and that's where you're hearing the comments. People pop in on Facebook and YouTube, and you can type comments and questions in there, and we bring them up during the show. So, that's why you're hearing from Marcy and Catherine. All right. Well, before we move on to our very different topic today, let's hear from-
Allissa Haines:
Boring.
Michael Reynolds:
... The Original Jojoba Company, our sponsor.
Allissa Haines:
Hey. This is a person who we really appreciate them staying as a sponsor, regardless of the stuff I say sometimes.
Michael Reynolds:
They're sticking with us, or so we think.
Allissa Haines:
Yay. Jojoba is wonderful. Let's talk about The Original Jojoba Company. They are the only company in the world that carries 100% pure first-press quality jojoba, which means they don't get quite as much liquid out of the seed, but what they get is a much higher quality. It will not go rancid. It doesn't contain triglycerides like many other products do, so it's not going to go back. It's nonallergenic, so if you have someone walk in with 50,000 health issues and dermatitis things and allergies, you can feel really comfortable that you can use jojoba without an allergic reaction being an issue. It does not stain your 100% cotton sheets, which is really nice and ultimately is going to save you a bunch of money on linens. You, my friends, can get 20% off the price of the product when you shop through our link, massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. I have to admit I really love... You called it boring, but I really love this topic. I'm in love with what you're about to share because I'm a nerd.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah. So, this was actually suggested by a friend of ours. I think it was Sarah. I'm sorry if I've forgotten and I'm naming the wrong person, but there was a topic... I think we did a quick tip that was like, "Hey, clean up or something or other," and they were like, "This could extend to digital." We're calling it a digital spring cleaning, and this episode gives you some work, but it is work that will ultimately make your life easier. Oh, you know what it was? I think we talked about the dude who got his bank account shut down, and it was a project to open a new bank account because he had never saved the letter than the IRS sent with his tax ID number, and the bank wanted to actual letter, and it's a whole process, so anyhow... Also, when you have file cabinets or virtual files that are just packed full of old things, it gets really hard to find the things that you need and actually need to have and need to stay current.
Allissa Haines:
So, a digital spring cleaning, what do I mean by that? I mean clean up your digital assets. I like to start with my desktop, my computer desktop, and delete and/or file all the things that are randomly scattered across my desktop. That means uploading them to the cloud when appropriate. It means deleting. There's one or two things I was like, "Oh, I actually need to print this out and file it. That would make more sense for this particular thing." Sharing files and permits or whatever with people you share your office with, doing the thing that needs to be done with whatever the document or file is that's sitting on your desktop, deleting old stuff you probably don't... If you have a current insurance policy, you don't need to save every copy of every previous insurance policy.
Allissa Haines:
So, there's things in your virtual files that annually you can delete. So, I uploaded my new liability insurance policy, and I thought to actually Google, or not Google, but search my files for the same document from previous years and just delete them all, get them out of the way. I don't need them anymore. Now is a good time... That works with licenses, and I don't need a whole bunch of the permits and stuff from my last office, so I finally got rid of those. Pruning your email list, this is a good time to do that. Just remove any people that you don't want to come back or people that have not opened an email in a couple of years. Just get rid of them. Get them off your list. You don't have to think about them anymore. You can do this with your contacts too. I actually do this with my contacts in my computer contact book regularly.
Allissa Haines:
Scan your bank statements or download your bank statements. You know what? I have bank statements here twice, I think. So, go to your bank website, download all your bank statements year-to-date, all your check images. If you get the paper ones and you need to scan and upload, do it. Oh, I see what I did. I got my verbiage wrong. So, you can do that all, and then make a note in your calendar to do that all again at the end of December or the first week in January so you can get the whole year caught up. Some people do this regularly with their bookkeeping tasks, but I'm actually really bad about the bank statement thing because all my transactions automatically enter into my bookkeeping, so I don't technically need the bank statements, but they're a good thing to have.
Allissa Haines:
Okay. So, what I intentionally meant was peruse your bank statements or your transaction history and see if there's any unneeded subscriptions. You probably don't need to be paying for Spotify and Pandora, so pick one. Maybe you've got subscriptions to whatever that you're not using, and you realize... If you go back a year, that's wise because then anything annual, anything that renews annually, you're going to catch it and you can make sure that you're not going to automatically renew if you don't need to. Michael and I both have gotten caught on an annual renewal of things we didn't need anymore. We both have done that. So, now is a good time to take care of that.
Michael Reynolds:
Just don't cancel Blueprint Mastermind.
Allissa Haines:
I was going to say if you find that you have a subscription to Blueprint Mastermind that you have not used, I would suggest you log right into that community and start using it, my friend. Delete and reorder all the apps on your devices. I do this every so often with my phone because I'm not getting on any flights anytime soon, so it was like a year ago I was like, "Well, I can delete all of the airline apps from my phone because I'm not going to be traveling for a while." There's all kinds of things like that that you can typically remove because you're not going to need them for a while, or you can just put them back on if you are.
Allissa Haines:
Photos and videos on your phone, clean those up. Save the ones that you want to save. Upload them to the cloud and get rid of the rest. Finally, the last one, this is so controversial and always causes a lot of emotions from people, clean your inbox, man. Deal with your email inbox. If you are someone who has 20, 40, 80,000 emails sitting in your inbox, if you find that gives you any stress or inconvenience, you should probably consider cleaning that up.
Michael Reynolds:
You know that you are.
Allissa Haines:
Maybe it serves you. That's fine. If you know that it needs to be done, but do not feel like you can do it yourself, this is something I do to relax, so let me know. We can arrange a time where we can Zoom and I can just take control of your screen and clean up your email inbox for you without deleting things that could be important. You don't have to worry. You don't have to stress about deleting things that would be important because you can just archive them and search for them later. It's not a big deal. I really should just start offering this, 100 bucks an hour to clean up people's email, or just charge a penny an email that I delete. I don't know, something. Anyhow, it is worth your effort, I think. If you can sit down, if you can just hit it 10 minutes at a time a couple of times in the next week, that's a win, whatever you can do to clean up your digital life so that it's easier to find things and do things later on. That's a win. That's all I have to say.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Next week, Allissa's going to have an LLC files and a domain, cleanmyinbox.com, and be in business. So, we'll see it. I'm glad I said that right as you took a drink too.
Allissa Haines:
I would love that so hard.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. We've got a couple comments that came in. Alexander stopped by on Facebook to say, "This is great information, as always." Thank you, Alexander. Then Riann apparently is claiming credit for the topic. Woops. That was Marcy I hit instead of Riann let me go to Riann there. Riann said, "That was me," so I think Riann's claiming credit for the topic.
Allissa Haines:
Oh, okay. So, it was Riann that said that that was... Sorry about that. Thanks, Riann.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah, and then let me get to Marcy who I need to get to now. Marcy said, "I accidentally deleted everything in my biz email box. It was a very pleasant result eventually." Thanks, Marcy. Glad that eventually worked out for you.
Allissa Haines:
Yeah, you do what you got to do.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah.
Allissa Haines:
The reality is if something's important enough, the person's going to email you again.
Michael Reynolds:
Right on.
Allissa Haines:
It's very rare that anything important only has a one-email lifespan.
Michael Reynolds:
Yeah. Life goes on.
Allissa Haines:
So, try not to stress.
Michael Reynolds:
Life goes on.
Allissa Haines:
Why don't you do your quick tip first?
Michael Reynolds:
Oh, are we going to give a shout out to ABMP?
Allissa Haines:
Oh, wait. You have a sponsor. I'm sorry.
Michael Reynolds:
Just drove right by our sponsor, didn't you?
Allissa Haines:
I'm sorry. This has been a really loaded episode, okay?
Michael Reynolds:
I know, I know.
Allissa Haines:
I was up at like 6:00 prepping for this, but mind you, I was ready for the episode yesterday, but then we got that email last night. Yeah. Let's talk about ABMP, and let's talk about... I'm going to talk about it because I used it the other day. The ABMP apps, my friend, ABMP Five-Minute Muscle and ABM Pocket Pathology apps. You can learn more about each of them at abmp.com/apps, A-P-P-S. They are quick reference apps designed to help you quickly find the information that you need to make a decision for session planning, or to just use outside of the session to refresh muscle and pathology knowledge. This really helps me all the time. Occasionally when I have a client who will email ahead and be like, "Man, I wrenched my hamstring," I can go into the Five-Minute Muscle, and just with a very short, little video, three minutes or so, get some muscle-specific techniques and palpation videos, and it's really, really helpful.
Allissa Haines:
It's definitely improved my hands-on work in a very efficient way that's not too much work for me, because we all know I'm lazy. They use progressive web app technology in order to take up less space on your phone and device. These apps are included with ABMP membership. Again, you can visit abmp.com/apps and... Words. There are sample demos of each app for nonmembers to try to check it out and verify that what I'm saying is absolutely true and not even an overzealous endorsement, because these apps really are helpful. Abmp.com/apps.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Do you still want me to do my quick tip first?
Allissa Haines:
Yes, please.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. So, my quick tip is this. Consider switching from, "Do you understand?" to, "Did I explain that well?" It puts the professional onus on me rather than them. I don't know who originated this. I've seen it a lot of places. I've seen it said by a lot of people. So, Allissa, if you know, let me know, but I'm not sure who originated it. But I really like to concept, and I really put myself in the place of the person receiving these phrases to really help me understand, and when I imagine myself, someone saying to me, "Hey, do you understand?" I immediately get the sense of, oh, great. So, if I don't understand this, I must be dumb or missing something or inadequate in some way, and that puts the onus on me to be enough or whatever.
Michael Reynolds:
So, it really brought up those feelings, and then when I flipped it and imagined someone saying, "Did I explain that well?" it was much more relieving. It was a relief to hear that phrase because it put it back on the person explaining the concept or teaching me to be the one communicating clearly and articulately. So, I appreciate that phrasing, so I think it's good. I'm trying to remind myself to use that phrasing instead so that I am taking on the responsibility to explain clearly and not put the responsibility on the receiver of the information to take on that responsibility. So, I really am trying to work on that myself. I like that.
Allissa Haines:
I tend to say, "Did that make sense?" when I finish something because sometimes I can go a little roundabout. But yeah, I like the, "Did I explain that well?" With kids, specifically kids, or even adults with executive functioning issues, it can be really helpful to say, "Did I explain that well?" and then they'll say, "Yes," and then you say, "Okay. So, what's the next step we have to take?" So, I might be like, "Here's the thing. We got to get your laundry done before..." I'll say things like, "We got to get your laundry done before Saturday morning when you need to blah, blah, blah," but that doesn't make my point clear.
Allissa Haines:
So, I'll say, "Hey, listen. We got to be really orderly tonight about stuff. We got to get the laundry done. We got to do this," and I'll stop and I'll go, "Do you know what you need to do next?" and the kids will be like, "No. I know the end goal, but I need help figuring out the steps to get..." "Okay. So, this is what we got to do. Your next step is to get your laundry down the chute. Your next step is to..." Anyhow, that's my translation of that into parenting, but that, "Did I explain it?" is really helpful.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. What you got?
Allissa Haines:
I just want to note that the list of tasks that we provided a few minutes ago can feel really long and arduous and a lot of work because it could be a lot of work. If that list was overwhelming or you're just like, "I'm never going to do this," because task initiation is a real struggle for some of us, if you guys just pick one thing, if you do one thing off of that list, if right now you pick up your phone and you delete all the unnecessary photos that you don't care about saving, that's a win. That's a win. Go get yourself a cookie. You accomplished something. Feel good about it. You don't have to do all of these things, and anything that you do is in fact a win. So, there you go. You're off the hook.
Michael Reynolds:
Love it. All right. Anything else you would add, or are we good for the day? Is this enough?
Allissa Haines:
I'm exhausted.
Michael Reynolds:
We're exhausted.
Allissa Haines:
Let's just get this done.
Michael Reynolds:
All right. Let's do it. Well, hey, everyone, reminder that... We mentioned Blueprint Mastermind earlier in the show. Blueprint Mastermind is our community of super smart massage therapists who help each other, ask questions, come to office hours, use our resources in the community. It's a great thriving community full of massage therapists who want to get better in their business and support each other. It's $20 a month unless you're an ABMP member, in which case it is $5 less if you go through the ABMP benefits area if your portal, so be sure and do that.
Michael Reynolds:
There's a 30-day trial, so it's pretty much no risk to try us out, see if you like us for a few weeks, and stick around if you want to. So, definitely check that out. We have a lot of great, I would venture to say life-changing support and information in there for massage therapists, so check that out. All right. Sorry. I almost hit the wrong music there. With that, thanks for joining us today. You can find us on the web at massagebusinessblueprint.com, and you can email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great day. We will see you next time.
Allissa Haines:
Bye.