Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• HEALTHCARE & INTIMACY: a virtual symposium 

Discussion Topic

• What can I say after a massage instead of “How do you feel?”

Quick Tips

• Photopea

Sponsors

• ABMP 
• The Original Jojoba Company 
• Happyface

Transcript:

Sponsor message:

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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 to our show today. We're glad you're here, as always. Glad to be back. You did great last week, by the way.

Allissa Haines:

Ah, thanks. It was a little lonely and a little more technical. It was fine. I managed it, I'm a competent human being.

Michael Reynolds:

I saw you do all the buttons and stuff. You did great.

Allissa Haines:

I'm so glad you're back though.

Michael Reynolds:

It's good to be back. So what's going on this week? I think we're going to share the, what are we reading or watching or talking about this week, because we definitely want to give a shout-out to our friends at Healwell, so go for it.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. It's not so much about what I've been reading, but it's what I've been thinking about, and have been in fact reading about, Healwell's Healthcare and Intimacy Virtual Symposium. It is a live online event. Yes, I believe it will be recorded if you need to watch the bits later. Saturday, September 24th, Healwell will host a virtual symposium about healthcare and intimacy, which is great but what does that mean?

It means that we're going to talk about how healthcare providers' discomfort around sex and discussing sex can lead to less than optimal care. We are going to explore the idea of intimacy as so much more than sex. We are going to open the door to the reality that powerful therapeutic relationships rely on our comfort with non-sexual intimacy. And also, we're going to soften some of the taboos around sex and body pleasure so that we can allow our patients and clients the opportunity to discuss these topics in a safe and supportive space.

I think this is a really important topic, especially for massage therapists, because we are taught that the concept of sex and sex should never be discussed or enter our massage room in any way. And because our profession has been so closely tied with sex work, we've gone so far in the no sex direction that I think sometimes we can fail to serve our clients in a way that is most helpful.

And even just when you consider the number of clients we have that have had some kind of surgeries, either prostate removal or hysterectomies, or people going through menopause and having change in how their body feels and reacts to touch and all of that. I think we need to get a little more comfortable talking about and get a little more educated about so that we can be better sounding boards and resource finders for our clients. That's what I have to say about that.

Michael Reynolds:

Cool. I say for the link here-

Allissa Haines:

We will have the link.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, the link in the show notes there, it's a little bit long. But if you go healwell.org you'll just find it there, I'm sure. But yeah, the link is in the show notes so you can find it there. Thanks for sharing.

Allissa Haines:

And that's what I have to say about that.

Michael Reynolds:

Wonderful. All right. Well, before we move on to our next sponsor, we got a few good mornings here. I'm going to say good morning to Andrew, who's joining us on Facebook. Thanks Andrew for being here. And Marcy is also joining us on Facebook with a good morning, Marcy's a regular. [Saqina 00:04:08] also says good morning, so we're getting quite a few shout-outs here on Facebook.

And then Leslie is joining us on Facebook as well with a comment, "The prickly feeling that I have about this are probably a good indicator I need to take that Saturday off and do this." All right, so Leslie's onboard.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. And it's okay if you don't take the Saturday off too and you just register and watch recordings and stuff, but yeah, it'd be fun to do live. Yeah, dude, we've got all four of our regulars. Andrew was the only dude who stuck with me last week, bless his heart.

Michael Reynolds:

I saw that, yeah.

Allissa Haines:

I think, and some other people popped in. Yeah, thanks you all for joining us.

Michael Reynolds:

All right, so let's-

Allissa Haines:

Who's our next sponsor, Michael?

Michael Reynolds:

Well, I'll give a shout-out to our friends at ABMP.

Allissa Haines:

Yeah. Let's talk about ABMP. They say they're proud to sponsor us and we believe them.

Michael Reynolds:

I believe them.

Allissa Haines:

I believe them. I want to talk specifically about the Massage and Bodywork Magazine today. It is an award-winning magazine and all the ABMP members get the print edition, six issues a year. And the magazine's also available online to everyone at massageandbodyworkdigital.com. We have a column in there, Blueprint for Success.

But I really want to make people aware of this magazine, because the next issue that will probably come out at the end of August, it's the September/October issue, Ruth Werner has a fantastic feature article. I was honored to collaborate with Ruth on this and this article about how to get in touch with doctors to get more information to craft a safer and more effective massage. We provide some resources along with that. And that's all I'm going to say, I don't want to give away too much, but I am so excited about this collaboration. And when it comes out, we'll talk a little bit more about how this came about.

Michael Reynolds:

That's really cool.

Allissa Haines:

I get a little like uuh, because Ruth is like one of the ... She's probably the first educator that I ever started interacting with. I was the education director for the Massachusetts Chapter AMTA, and I think she might've been the first instructor that I ever hired. Or I think my education partner did, but she was the first person.

And I just remember sitting with her at lunch during this CE event and being like, "She's just like us," and like ... It was when I started to realize that part of why massage is such an amazing profession is because our educators are often so easy to connect with, and so just wise and full of information and ready and willing and excited to share that. Anyhow, get a little worked up here. Super excited about ABMP's Massage and Bodywork Magazine, especially the next issue, because my name's on it in a few places. You can learn more at massageandbodyworkdigital.com, see all the back issues. And you can also learn more about ABMP and what a wonderful organization it is at abmp.com.

Michael Reynolds:

Andrew popped in to say that Ruth is the pathology queen.

Allissa Haines:

She is indeed, and so much more.

Michael Reynolds:

And so much more, yeah.

Allissa Haines:

So much more, and a really wonderful friend.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, just a wonderful human. Yeah.

Allissa Haines:

Just a lovely human being and a wonderful friend.

Michael Reynolds:

Yes.

Allissa Haines:

All right. I'm going to take a sip of water.

Michael Reynolds:

All right. That's a great segue into what we're talking about today and-

Allissa Haines:

Yeah, actually-

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, go ahead.

Allissa Haines:

I was going to say, why don't you tell us how this topic came about, because it was your fault.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah. My fault, I'll take the blame for it. This topic was posed to us by one of our listeners, and it was a really great practical topic. And the question is, is there something better we can say after massage than, "How do you feel?" And her context around this was she shared, "Hey, I usually just default to, 'How do you feel,' after a massage." And clients typically say, "Well, I feel great." And in her mind that was fairly easy to interact, fairly easy interaction, but it wasn't terribly useful because it prompts the client to say, "Well, I feel great," and doesn't really give constructive feedback.

And so she was posing the question, well, is there something we can say that's better than, "How do you feel," that is more useful and constructive? And so we thought that'd make a great topic for today.

Allissa Haines:

It is. And it was actually kind of a hard topic because I usually say things like, "How you feeling," after a massage. So I crowdsourced this to our Blueprint Premium community, because sometimes I need to ask for help too. And we got some really great responses and I think some really good jumping off points. And also, when we get to the end of this, I'm going to ask you to email us and tell us what you say so we can do a follow-up.

So, what do you say after a massage instead of, "How do you feel?" Our friend, Marcy who's listening now, says, "I recap the massage session briefly, explaining why I worked on what. It gives them a client time to reset without awkward conversation," which is so true. "Then I give them some homework, get their payment, and book the next appointment."

And our friend Alexandria said, "There is probably a better answer than, 'How do you feel,' but I find that their, 'I feel great,' is a wonderful lead into, 'Awesome, when would you like to rebook for?' I make them tell me no to rebook before I take their payment". I love that. I think that's a really good order of operations. You want to get them rebooked before they pay, I like that.

Wendy says, "I ask if they feel better," that is super relevant. Jen says that, "Depending on the purpose of the session, I started asking if they're satisfied with my work or if they feel better than they did when they came in." I love that because so much of our work is intangible, that at least to be able to frame that around how you felt when you came in and you feel better walking out is, I think, really helpful. And Jen also continues and says, "I haven't had a new client in a few years. And everyone that comes to me has at least one session a month, so they're used to me asking them something about the session." Yeah, totally becomes a pattern.

I wanted to share a little bit about what I do, because it really varies. When someone is coming to me for a specific issue, let's say someone's coming in for a lower back pain. I try to make sure I address and reference that specific issue when they come out for the outtake portion. So I'll say things like, "How did your lower back feel when you were getting dressed?" Especially if someone said, "My lower back hurts, I'm having trouble getting my shoes on, things were .... "If I have to reach down." I try to reference that as specifically and, I don't know, in context as I can.

Or if I worked on their shoulder, something as simple as saying, "How's that shoulder feeling?" And they'll probably go like this and move their shoulder around. And sorry, I'm saying "like this," realizing that you're not going to be able to see that, everybody. But you can imagine somebody's going to move their shoulder around or ... This is also really helpful if you someone who does a little bit of assessment before the massage. If someone comes in and says, "My neck hurts," have them do the motion or at least show you, demonstrate where their range of motion is, because then after the massage you can say, "Hey, try turning your neck to the left now. Does that feel a little bit better? Does that move a little bit further, you think?" It gives like, again, a frame around your work before and after.

And it doesn't need to be super specific, but it is a nice way, when you're doing that kind of care, to put a frame around the efficacy, at least short-term. I know that people can feel great when they walk out of their office and the next day feel crappy again. But in a perfect world, we can isolate that particular improvement. And then it also gives you something to ask. If you make note of that, it gives you something to ask the next time they come in so their continuity of care is a little bit better.

Now for my regulars, who are on maintenance care, I'm a lot more casual. There's a less tangible element to the work I do with people with anxiety and depression. My intake questions are specific. "How have you been sleeping? How have you been feeling?" For people who have to take as-needed meds for ... I'm punching my chest because I had an anxiety thing yesterday and I had that woo feeling, so I was like ... For people who have to take meds as needed for that kind of thing or have to do something to get rid of that anxiety attack or borderline anxiety attack, I ask very specific intake questions. "How you been sleeping? How often have you had to use that rescue medication for your anxiety attack," things like that.

But when they come out of a massage there's not as much tangible to ask about, so I keep it casual. And I'm tend to use casual speech and a little bit of humor, so they come out and they're all like, "Oh my God, I'm so relaxed." And I'm like, "You going to make it, doing okay? How you feeling?" And that works in that context, but I'm really ... It was nice to see people's answers because as much as I do the "how's that shoulder feeling," I think I could get a little more specific. And this I think is going to nudge me to do a little bit more pre-massage assessment for certain things, just to be able to frame the results a little better.

So that's it, short one today. We really want to know what you say outside of, "H.ow you feeling." And I want you to email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. I want to know what you say after a massage or feel free to post in the comments underneath where we post this episode on the Facebook and the Instagram and all the places. I think it's just Facebook and Instagram, or maybe LinkedIn, but I don't pay attention to that. So don't put your comment on LinkedIn and yeah. Let us know what you say after a massage to wrap it up.

Michael Reynolds:

Love it. Thank you. Can't be hear our listeners tell us as well. All right.

Allissa Haines:

Any new-

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, go ahead.

Allissa Haines:

I was just going to say, any new comments, but I looked and we don't have any new comments.

Michael Reynolds:

We do not, but that's a great time to move on to our last sponsor for today, which is Happyface.

Allissa Haines:

Yay, Happyface face cradle. Happyface is the most comfy face cradle so you can give the most relaxing massage-

Michael Reynolds:

Massage.

Allissa Haines:

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Michael Reynolds:

I can vouch for Happyface. My massage therapist uses a Happyface cradle as well. In fact, next week I have one scheduled and I cannot wait to lay down on the Happyface and be comfy.

Allissa Haines:

You go, man. Good for you.

Michael Reynolds:

I'm going. All right. Quick tips, you got anything today?

Allissa Haines:

I don't. You do yours.

Michael Reynolds:

I think I may have shared this before, but it's been long enough that I think even if I have it, I think it's good to reshare. And it's come up because I've built a website or two recently for some of our members, our Blueprint Mastermind members. By the way, side note, we do build websites. So if you're a Blueprint Mastermind member and you're thinking of refreshing your website, we do that. We have a very low cost, easy, simple, comfortable way to get a new website up and running quickly. And it's beautiful, and we know massage so we can fast-track it and we know what we're doing. Anyway, that's what we do here also.

But as I was doing this, it reminded me that a lot of us have trouble manipulating images like, hey, resizing images, or cropping images, or getting our photo just right. And there's a lot of fancy software out there for editing graphics and things. But there is this free tool called Photopea, and that's spelled photo-P-E-A.com. And it is free, it lets you upload images. You can do simple things like sizing, cropping, effects. So it's a really great free tool for just the basic lightweight editing you might do to photos and images for things like your website or marketing or social media or whatever.

I know Canvas is also one of the great tools out there, but I find Photopea a little simpler. It's like, hey, you don't make an account or anything. You basically just upload an image and start messing with it. So if you want something super basic, super simple, no registration required, Photopea's a really great tool for that. I wanted to share it with those who may be needing some help with editing images and such. That's Photopea, photo-P-E-A.com. That's my tip. Ever used Photopea?

Allissa Haines:

Sweet, thank you. I have not.

Michael Reynolds:

Yeah, it's nice. It's simple. I like it.

Allissa Haines:

I'm not against it, I just haven't.

Michael Reynolds:

You're not anti Photopea?

Allissa Haines:

I am not anti anything nowadays.

Michael Reynolds:

Oh, all right. Ah, that's not true. All right. So anything else?

Allissa Haines:

All right. We're done.

Michael Reynolds:

We're done. We're done, good. Short one today. Let's do this. Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us today, we appreciate you being a listener. As always, you can find us on the web, massagebusinessblueprint.com. And we've mentioned this a couple times before, but if you're not a member of Blueprint Mastermind, why not? Check it out. It is on our website. You can click on the Community button or it's in the menu there. It says Blueprint Mastermind, and you can read all about it. It's 30 days free to try it out. So if you try us out for 30 days and you don't like us, you can just cancel and not pay a dime, but we think you might like us. So check it out and we'd love to see you on the inside.

As always, thanks for joining us today. You can email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. Have a great day. We will see you next time.

Allissa Haines:

Bye.