Funny how things change

OK, so you know how they're going to be putting up walls in the place I'm in (which I blogged about a few posts ago)? So this means that there will only be me and 1 other LMT in our place, and only 4 of us sharing our little area.

Well, the other MT approached me today and asked if I did chair massage and if I ever did gigs that needed 2 therapists, she'd be interested. She also suggested that we market couples massage (although I did say that the wording would have to be different since the couples would be in 2 different rooms) so I said "Yeah, sure". So my theory is that since we're both comfy with each other and there is no worry of another therapist moving in on our territory, that we help each other out.
Know what?
I LOVE IT!
See, she's got her business and I've got mine. Both of us are chugging along there with our client base built and I know she doesn't have that "Eeek...there's my competition - I don't want her around" attitude because I don't sense it. And I know she doesn't get it from me either.
She's cool.
So I'm going into coopetition mode with the therapist in the next room.
So now I'm putting my thinking cap on to see how to promote us...........

PTSD and returning soldiers

The Universe is a funny thing.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Chamber of Commerce Friday morning meeting, only I REALLY didn't feel like going. I wasn't feeling that great since I have "gut issues" and they're the worst in the morning.

Anyway, when I was coming out of the cubicle in the restroom (this is probably TMI, but I'm trying to give you a picture here!) there I came a across a woman who had tears in her eyes, so I asked if she was OK. I'll not say what was going on with her, but the situation ended with me giving her a big hug, we had a wee chat, I gave her my card and told her she should come get a massage and it would be on the house.

I found out from another colleague at the Chamber that the lady was involved in setting up a group to go to the airport to do nice things for the soldiers coming back from overseas. So I thought that she'd be a good one to ask about looking into getting a group of massage therapists to go out to the airport to work on some of the soldiers as volunteer work (just chair massage). I had it on my "list" of things to look into.

So. Weird thing happened today. When talking to a fellow MOST-EXCELLENT massage therapist blogger on the phone today, Christina, I mentioned what I was planning (plus a lot of other stuff since I'm SO excited that Christina is planning on moving to Texas).
THEN a couple of hours later the lady that I met in the restroom called to set up an appointment for her massage and we talked about the airport/soldier thing then too. She thought it was a great idea. So she's contacting the contact that I need to contact to see about getting this thing going.

Back to my favorite quotation of all time: "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous". The pattern of me not feeling that great/meeting the lady because I didn't feel that great/talking to Christina and then the lady calling right is leading me to get this thing going (and yes, that was an overuse of the word "contact").

Plus I think the lady that was upset deserves a free massage. She's obviously had a rough time of it and she's a nice person.

Just out of interest, I came across this good article on post traumatic stress disorder and massage .

Very interesting. Looks like chair massage will be as far as I'll go since the article suggested that I might need more training for dealing with PTSD clients on the table.

It's REALLY nice to be missed

I spent most of today at an office doing chair massage. I also had 2 regular table massages, so I'm knackered, but the chair massage gig was a long one....but nice!

I'd been going to the office every month for ages, but then last January they started a ton of renovations to the office, so I couldn't go - there was nowhere for me to massage since the offices were being torn apart in stages. I thought I'd never hear from them again, but the office manager called about a week ago and asked if I could go today since they were having a health fair.
I was amazed at the number of people that said they missed me - all these wee software guys.
The office manager said that she sent out an email saying I'd be there today and that there would be a sign up list in the kitchen. She sent the email and she said by the time she got to the kitchen there was a line of people waiting to sign up!
Plus I got a free 'flu shot too - can't beat that.

We're going back to our monthly visit.
It's nice to be missed!

Blooper #6

The following happened on a looonnnnng day.
It was my first visit to to local Chamber of Commerce and since I was there as a guest I had to get up and speak for about 20 seconds about my business. It was the day before St. Patrick's Day and there were a lot of people dressed in green - some even dressed up as leprechauns. When I got up to speak I think people thought I was putting on my Irish accent and I became incredibly nervous - I started sweating. I could feel the beads of sweat at the back of my neck and on my lip.
After the meeting I'd to go and do a 1.5 hour hot stone massage, which was hot work, then I'd to get some lunch and rush off to a 3 hour chair massage gig in an office.
While in the middle of this session I had a bit of a panic attack. I discovered that my right armpit was stinking.
Well, if there's one thing that doesn't exactly "go together", it's massage therapy and B.O., and of course I had come to the job without any antiperspirant in my bag.
But I put my thinking cap on.
I spray my chair with Lysol every now and then to prevent the spread of any viruses.
So, yep, you guessed it. I Lysol-ed my smelly pit and know what? It worked like a charm!

The lesson learned here is to always carry antiperspirant on chair gigs and to load up on it on days that I know I'll be stressed out!

Blooper #4

This one happened on a chair massage gig and it really isn't that funny, but there's a lesson to be learned.

I was working on someones shoulders during the chair massage when I realized I was rubbing the color off her sweater. Yep, turns out the stuff I was using either to sanitize my hands or clean the face cradle (I think it was the cleaner) was taking the color off her clothes. I'd to give her money to replace the sweater.

Lesson to be learned: check your hands and make sure you've no cleaning materials on them before starting a new client. Also, check the hand sanitizer to make sure it won't remove coloring from clothes.

Playing with mud and fighting a fomentek

I did a mud wrap today. I don't do many wraps, but they're interesting since I think I kind of like wrapping people up like turkeys - think it appeals to my control-freaky side. Anyway, I tried something different today. I really don't want the client to get cold, since I have had a wrap before when I've been cold and I've decided I'd rather be frying my own spleen than have a cold wrap (well maybe not, but you get the point). So cold wrapped-up clients are unacceptable in this neck of the woods.

NORMALLY I use heated rice bags that I normally use as back warmers in massage. I put them in with the client when I'm wrapping them up to keep them nice and toasty. But today I decided to try out my fomentek bag. The directions say that I've to fill it up only a third of the way full with hot water.

This bag is massive. At least, it FELT like it was massive. When I brought it into the room I sat it on my wee useful table that I use for lots of things (that's why it's called my "wee useful table"). So water being water-like, the bag took on a new life of it's own and slowly rolled off the table. So I put it on the dresser and the bag sort of became like something out of Dr. Who and decided to go and have a walk around it too. It made all these scary noises while doing this, so the client had to check out what sort of Alien had come into the room - head up, looking around, worried vibes.

Anyway, I got it under control in the end and it worked well at keeping the client warm. She cooked up lovely. All I needed was to throw a few spuds and carrots around her and it would have been a cannibal's Christmas. The client was happy with the experience and when they're happy, I'm happy. Playing with mud is fun!

Gaelic lesson #45 "uisce", pronounced "ishke", meaning "water"

I don't know about your association.....

....but mine is brilliant.

I switched to ABMP a while back for a couple of reasons, one of which is too long and complicated to explain, and the other being that I heard that good things about them. I was on a course with 2 ladies from Beaumont, Texas (who were a blast, and if Sandy and Carol are reading this - you gals still make me smile when I think back on that course!) who sang the praises of their association after Hurricane Katrina hit and AMBP called THEM, not the other way 'round. They didn't have damage to their place of business, but I was impressed by the fact that their insurance provider actually took time out to make sure they were OK.

Anyhoo.....I'm impressed with their service. They provide a free website to their members which is easy to use, and even though I have a main website, I'm using their free website (they have a range of different templates to choose from) to get more visibility for my main site (links to my main site help with search engine optimization for it). BUT I had a brainfart when I entered the website domain name and misspelt "massage" - yep, you'd think that I'd know how to do that by now. It annoyed me that this happened and even though I won't be putting the domain name of the freebee site on anything, I just didn't like the fact that it was just wrong. So I emailed them and they got on to it right away. Nice as pie in their communications and efficient in executing what needed to be done. You'd think I had my own wee I.T. department. Oh, and they also provide a lot of cool printed material for your business and lots of good marketing advice.

So if any of you are thinking of changing associations at any time in the future, keep ABMP in mind. I think the acronym actually stands for "Association of Brilliant and Marvelous People".

Gaelic lesson #27 "daoine deas", pronounced "din-ye jass", meaning "nice people"