Feng Shui Your Bodywork Business with Kerstin Tracy|

Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 53.

MINDY TOTTEN: Hey hey there. Welcome Kerstin Tracy to the Do It With Intention podcast!

KERSTIN TRACY: Hi, Mindy. Thank you for having me. It's such a great pleasure here.

Mindy: Oh, I am so excited to talk with you about this topic today because I haven't heard many other people discuss it in the way that we're going to discuss it. And you know, you and I have been having this conversation and I keep saying, wait, I just want to, I want to record this so that other people can hear it.

But before we jump into that, I always like to start my, do it with intention. Podcast interviews by asking this question. What is something that very few people know about you?

Kerstin: Well, very few people know about me that I used to pull dance for today. I did it at a time when I did it at a time when it was not very. Known and basically, well, it was known, but only in a certain , but I did it for athletic reasons. It was a birthday party. Somebody turned 40 and we all went. Yeah.

And I was the one that kind of got so hooked that I came back every week. I got my own pole and it wasn't that long ago that I. I still have my pool and I know I'm going to get back to it, but I guess got too busy and I had some health issues, so I had to stop it. But

Mindy: yeah, I've heard that it's really great for your core,

Kerstin: right? Oh, my God. I was so ripped, when it did it. And plus, you know, I'm a mother of two, three children. And, at that time when I started, they were really young and I just kind of felt like I needed to bring sexy back. You know, like you just function, you work. You're a mother. It was just a bit,

Mindy: Oh, that's fantastic.

Well, what I'm going to share today is not nearly as exciting as that, but, I was talking to my husband, Ranald and I, you know, I was saying that I was getting ready to record this podcast. And he said, Oh, I know what you should tell everybody this time. Cause he knows that I do that each episode.

So one of the things that very few people know about me is that it is really hard for me to take a left hand turn when I'm driving. If it's just, you know, at a traffic light or something like that, no problem. But to go out, you know, across a couple of lanes of traffic to take a left. Oh, forget about it.

As a matter of fact, a big shout out to Tad Wanveer, my mentor. Cause he, and I talk about this all the time. How for me, it's better to take three rights. And get where I want to go than to take a left. And, it's a joke now between Ranald and me, because I'm just like, no, we don't want to go that way because we'll have to take a left into traffic.

It's just, you know, many people can take lefts, but yeah, that's something that I guess it was good that a few people knew about

okay. And so jumping into what we are talking about today, I love this idea about feng shui. Am I pronouncing it correctly? Kerstin, correct. Punch way. Okay. feng shui and our businesses, before we really dive in, can you tell the listeners a little bit about the kind of work that you do and how you got, you know, your journey, how you got into functional way.

Kerstin: Yeah, I, I think I got into functionary really young. but I didn't know what it was. I, my best memory is that when my parents. Bought their first house. We used to rent an apartment. They took us to a couple of them homes at the end, or maybe actually it was just the one home, that we ended up.

They ended up buying and I remember walking in and I felt awful. I was 11 years old. I felt awful. And I remember telling my parents, they shouldn't buy this house. And of course it didn't listen. Cause I was just 11. I was just mean they were very happy. So the house to me felt cold, depressing. so yeah, so that was something that kind of got me thinking I had never felt that.

And from that moment on, and I kept kind of focusing on when I visited my friends, you know, how did their homes feel? Their homes were maybe smaller, but there was just so much love in the air and. I don't know, it just, I, it was something I paid attention to, but at the time, you know, functionally, it wasn't really made public till the eighties.

So that would have been then before the eighties. Yeah. That I realized that. so when I used to just read a lot of books and went to bookstores. And when I came across my first functional way book, I thought like, Oh my God, this is amazing. This is kind of what I felt. In that house and to make a long story short, my parents are divorced.

They don't talk to each other. My sister is kind of falling off the edge of the earth, you know, should we know where she lives, but so, you know, there's communication is difficult. Cold. And there was never really that much warmth in that house. So could have been a coincidence, but knowing what I know now, knowing what I know, which direction the front door faces, I kind of under.

Understand the dynamics better? I would say no, it's not a huge, but that's how generally I started, you know, they, my journey was through sports signs and always looking for how can I make life easier and better, working with our own bodies with our own intelligence that's in, within us and also around us.

Okay. Yeah.

Mindy: So now you to practice CranioSacral therapy, right. With humans and with horses. Yeah. And now you're bringing in the feng shui piece. Is that right?

Kerstin: Yes. So, so, I, I just noticed that working with you and adding the functional way, just kind of brought it to another level. So for example, if I'm asked to do something that I'm very nervous about and.

Kind of expanding in a new way, which you know, who likes that you put yourself out there. So, you know, just adding the support of the environment at my home at the office has really helped with that. I find.

Mindy: okay, well, let's jump into that a little bit. Love to hear some ideas for my listeners, about actual.

Feng Shui things they can do in their treatment room, because before we hit record you and I were talking about how both of us have felt, you know, you go into one treatment room and you just immediately feel calm. Do you feel comforted? I know in the treatment room that was built on to our home in Wilmington, before we moved to Curry beach, everybody would comment, Oh, this room just has such a good feel and such a good and.

You know, I've read, you know, I know just enough about feng shui to be dangerous. You know, I've just read a teeny little bit. And people would come and do things like, Oh, we need to tie a red ribbon around this doorknob or something, you know? And I was like, okay, that's what we need, but I didn't really get the principals or anything.

So without having to dive really deeply into all of it, are there a couple, two or three things that you can recommend that could be, you know, generally helpful for most people depending? I mean, not dependent on what their actual direction of their room is or whatever. Right.

Kerstin: Right, right. Right, exactly. So, yeah.

So when a function where it gets really interesting, cause generally it's very individualized cause just kind of like her music therapy. Is there any form of body work? Right. so to find very general, tips is, would be the first one is you have to be able to see the door at all times. I, do receive sessions from a, a colleague to where my head is toward the door.

I haven't really said anything, but it makes a difference. because subconsciously you just don't know what's. Who's going to come in, even though I consciously can override it and know that this is the session stress for me and what he will walk in, but it's very, for the subconscious, you need to be able to see the doors play a major role because that's where your people, that's where your clients, that's where they come in.

Right. So, that would be absolutely the biggest, piece of advice that is important for everybody.

Mindy: So the person, the client who's laying on the table, they have to be able from their vantage point to be able to see the door.

Kerstin: Okay. Right. Even though they might be, you know, I'm assuming they're all somewhat, you know, closing their eyes.

It doesn't matter. This is a, it's like on a subconscious level, we'd like to, make that room, like you said, about your room, like a really safe and send space. And for that, you know, the brainwaves need to be able to lower. You know, should be feeling pretty grounded. and yeah, and that's just a very important thing to do.

Mindy: Okay. what's something else that we can work on.

Kerstin: just you've most people probably have heard it before is just be a client for a moment. Walk in and notice what you look at immediately. What's the first few, because where your eyes go, energy follows. See what they look at, what would happen? What do they feel?

What do they sense? How do they feel when they walk into your treatment room? is that so important? Lighting is important, even if you don't have all the lights on during the session. I don't, I literally have half the room darkened where the table is dark and I don't have any windows in my room, so that's and that's okay.

People feel very, kind of like cozy,

Mindy: right? It's like a

Kerstin: cake kind of. Yeah. But have lights everywhere. And in all the corners that in between clients, you can turn those lights on to just kind of amp up the energy to, I, also use a, Oh my God, what's it called? I make sounds, what is it called?

Like a. I go, I have a phone, but

Mindy: noise machine.

Kerstin: no. It's like a, yeah, use my, I don't know. It's just, I'm completely escapes me right now. I'm just at the end of the session,

Mindy: like a little girl.

Kerstin: yeah, exactly. So, so I'm in between clients to just, you know, just visualize or use a sound to really clear out the energy.

You know, feel your feet drain this. This all sounds like not like functionary because I'm not gay your exact tips, but, That, because those are different for each and everybody in a way, but these are very important things who we are as a person. We're just like the most important piece of the puzzle.

How the room feels when you walk in, let the room talk to you. So a be a client that walks to the be stand in your room and let it talk to you. Okay.

Mindy: I love that. I love that idea of walking into the room as a client, because I know I was going to say all of us, I won't speak for all of us. I'll speak for me.

I know after 16 years of working in the same room, he's sort of start to take it for granted. It's just sort of, you know, a space that you don't really pay attention to. Of course you clean it and you keep it, you know, needs and nice. But I love this idea. I'm thinking of it as even having somebody else opened the door for me, like starting outside of the room and opening the door and walking in and seeing, like you said, where does my, where do my eyes go?

What do I notice right away? I think that's a fantastic idea for everybody listening. And that kind of takes us to the next piece that I wanted to discuss the idea. I keep saying, you know how to function the way your business and I'm not even sure that's a thing. I'm just thinking like these physical changes that we make.

I wonder if he could speak to us about how can that, or how would that affect the business? I can we think of our business as something to be funky swayed as

Kerstin: well. Yes. Yes. I think, yeah. So that's when it goes, the work goes deeper. That's when you find out what your personal energy number is, which has to do with your birth date, that's fine.

That's when you find out what the birthdate of your businesses. And you go with what's the element that was that year at that time, the most? No. w what's the element care? Is it like I'm very earthy. by Chinese Zodiac, I'm a fire horse. So the college you see me, where are between beige, you know, Brown, earthy tones and red tones.

They support me, they keep me grounded. So that is something we can use for Logan. It goes for business cards as well. And in going into details, that's even, where you place your logo on your business card. As well, cause they're standard business cards, right? It's usually on the left hand side and mine has to go to the right.

I had to figure that out, how to do that, because that represents that area, the computer, your desk. They can all be farm swayed. They can all have deep be divided in the nine directions that we use. And, so yes, it's very supportive.

Mindy: Fantastic. I love those ideas. And I know that you have recently started doing some distance feng shui can you tell us a little bit about that?

Kerstin: So especially right now, there's not always a possibility and opportunity to walk into somebody's home. And so a lot can be done, via videos, zoom, photos, and the most important thing is always the floor plan. Somebody has the floor plan from includes the outside landscape of their home or their treatment room.

There's a lot we can work with. from a distance.

Mindy: And when you do like right now, of course everyone's listening to us, but we, you and I are also speaking via zoom, so you can see behind me. So I'm like, Ooh, I wonder if all these windows are bad for my feng shui or something like that. So when you, yeah, I do.

Yeah. But when you work with somebody distance, do. Can they like take their computer or their phone and walk around the space and show you? Yeah.

Kerstin: Sometimes it gets a little dizzy depending on the connection. Yes. Yes. So actually, is it okay if I say something. Yeah about your desk. Yeah,

Mindy: sure. Okay.

Kerstin: So, cause you just reminded me of, so even if I'm assuming that most people have their treatment rooms outside of their home, like not in their homes. Right. And in a different building, the home is really important the personal space. So we really, focused on both, almost the treatment room being secondary because how you feel, how you.

Sleep, how you're supported at the other hours, since you're not working 24 hours. I hope nobody is. it's really important. so having a home office is important where your desk is positioned. So it, my kids, for example, I have two entryways. I have the main entryway and then it have the other entry way that goes into the rest of the house.

I'm in the front of the house, which. Great. There's a lot of yang. That means there's the mayors. It's a lot more energy bedrooms are supposed to be in the back of the house. It's calmer and quiet more in there, but, how you position your home? Do you have space? So this is leads me to you. I can't see what's in front of you.

So I'm half space, have several feet of space in front of your desk so that, You can breathe. You can have a vision, you can have clarity and you're open. You're going to invite things coming to you and then right. To bring them yeah, a step further. I have, actually, my feet are on it right now. I have a chair.

In front of my desk, like, you know, somebody could walk in through the front door, it's an imaginary person. I could sit down there. And, so I'm inviting people into my business that way.

Mindy: that's great. It's ironic because I'm curious to know this knows this, but. A lot of you might not.

We recently downsized to about our place, about 700 square feet. So we have to make use of every square inch. And so I'm actually at our dining room table, which is my desk right now because it has a better internet connection. So behind me as Kerstin can see theirs. The ocean and other houses along the beach in front of me, there is a chair because it's the dining room, the other dining room chair.

So I think that's neat. Somebody could come and sit down. And then there was probably about five feet of space on the other side. So it's not too cramped in, but off to the right. What am I doing right now? About 45 degree angle. There's the ocean. And so there's of course a ton of space there. So that's really fun.

Kerstin: Yeah, these are good. So, so yeah, so that's important. I, yeah. And then, And that you can see them in the us. You want to have a high back chair. You want to be supported in your back cause you can't see who's behind you. This goes back to when punctuate supported the emperors, right?

Mindy: these are fabulous ideas, Kerstin. If somebody who's listening wants to find out more about this. I mean, I think you're such a perfect person to talk to you because you are a bodywork therapist yourself. So you've got that. Skillset, but you've also brought this funkshway piece yeah. Into it so beautifully. How can people reach you?

How can they find out more about you or contact you?

Kerstin: Yeah, reach me via email at this point. I do have a website too, and I'm in the process of expanding my knowledge of functionality of sharing it more in combination with bodywork and not just with body work, but in. Growing our business and feeling so supported by the environment.

it's just like connecting with the inner wisdom, ultimately with, you know, creating this, like just connecting with the supporting energies. And then the beauty is when not, you know, things change all the time. not all energies that we have to and cycles even monthly. Okay. And it's beautiful to place cures in areas where the energy is not to have a successful business, right.

Or successful great life, no matter what, like last year was, has to be a not good year for me at all. And it was one of my best years ever. That's so great possible. And I kind of wish that for everybody, cause life could be so much easier.

Mindy: So if people want to reach out your website is KerstinTracy.com and we'll have links to this in the show notes.

And then did you want to do an email as well? You don't have some people don't like to, but you had mentioned before that your email, how can people reach you via email?

Kerstin: Sure because, yeah. So then I can see where people's interests are and kind of gear my, My work, my populate, some are blogs around it.

as well. So my email address is just a bit curious to net Kerstin, tracy.com.

Mindy: Okay, great. And we'll put that in the show notes as well. So as we are winding up here, Kerstin, I always ask people at the end of these interviews, and I don't know if this connects with funkshway or not, but what does doing it with intention mean to you?

Kerstin: Doing it with an intention means that I am very focused and present and that I have a clear goal and direction I had toward kind of like dock top of that. Just set the shortest distance between two points is an intention. That's right. Yeah. That's Hey, and this helps with two, you know, for me, this helps with bodywork and punctual way.

And so when we, for example, sorry, have to go back to the functionary. When we placed cures and activations, we really do it with intention. We don't just put them there. Because somebody told you to do that. We really ask for it support and are grateful for it support. So there's so much love and respect, you know, that's in there.

That's to me do it with intention. No, they may say one more thing. One little tip. Sure. For sure. Or for people listening bonus tip. Bonus tip. So one of the things I personally always struggled with was clarity, Oh my God, what do I want to do? Where do I, where am head? the way I lived from sprays, we use colors as well.

and, a wonderful way to support your career is to use the North direction of your office. And, Pape, place a, light blue color there for clarity. It's like an Aqua blue. It could be an item. I don't know if you're familiar with our color blue. I'm trying to find, it's kind of like Kenyatta and of, you can see it behind me up on the wall.

There's something there. Yeah. So like an Aqua blue doesn't have to be big item there that supports clarity. That's

Mindy: wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you for that. And thank you, Kerstin Tracy for joining us today and sharing all of this. I mean, they're practical tips, but they also make you think a little bit more deeply too.

You know, what is my intention here? What can I do to support? You've used that word quite a few times to support my intention so that we all can put our work out into the world and support other people, which is what we're all here for. So I, so, so appreciate you joining us today.

Kerstin: Thank you very much for having me.