Steal These Ideas! How to Get Your Next 20 Clients in Your Massage or Bodywork Business | Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 8.

MINDY TOTTEN: Now that I'm mentoring and coaching other therapists, one of the biggest questions I hear is, “How did you find clients way back in the beginning back when nobody even knew who you were?”

Well, first of all, I did a ton of stuff that I read about online that didn't work. I am talking total bombs, so today I'm going to take you behind the scenes and share with you exactly what I did to spread the word and find those first clients.

Welcome to Do It With Intention, the podcast for massage and bodywork therapists. I'm your host, Mindy Totten, a mentor and coach for bodyworkers who want to turn their passion for the work they do into successful businesses that they love -- all without burning out or selling. 

For the last 15 plus years, I've created a successful six-figure Craniosacral Therapy practice in a small city in coastal North Carolina. Over those years, I've met so many skilled, big-hearted therapists who are struggling to make their bodywork businesses work for them. Not because they weren't terrific therapists, but because they didn't know how to make the business side of their practices work. 

It became my mission to help other massage and bodywork therapists build practices that support not only their soul, but also their bottom line.

On the Do It With Intention podcast, we'll dive deep into what it takes to build and to sustain a profitable massage or bodywork business. We'll have honest conversations about what really works and what doesn't as you create the ideal practice for you. 

After all, you do great work in the world and you deserve to make a great living doing it. But you've got to be intentional about it not only in your modality but in your business too. That's how body workers Do It With Intention.

This fall, I've officially had my own Craniosacral Therapy practice for more than 15 plus years. That is such a huge landmark that sometimes I can hardly even believe it.

One of the things that keeps it fresh for me and why I love doing the coaching and mentoring work that I'm doing now is that I have this internal time machine that enables me to remember everything I was going through when I started my practice.

At first I was just so happy not to be working in a spa anymore. Even though I struggled at first, gradually my practice began to fill.

I was able to build a reputation for doing excellent Craniosacral Therapy and I was able to earn fans and repeat clients.

But it was definitely one session at a time and it didn't happen overnight.

I just really tried to connect with each client and be of service to them.

Now that I'm mentoring and coaching other therapists, one of the biggest questions I hear is, “How did you find clients way back in the beginning back when nobody even knew who you were?”

Well, first of all, I did a ton of stuff that I read about online that didn't work. I am talking total bombs, like setting up my chair at running races for chair massages, which of course has nothing to do with Craniosacral Therapy.

I went to meet-ups and networking events where nobody was interested in who I was or what I was doing. They were trying to give me their business cards and I would leave there feeling like so discouraged and so bummed out.

So today I'm going to take you behind-the-scenes and share with you exactly what I did to spread the word and find those first clients.

Number One: Emails, emails and more emails. I emailed every single person in my contacts -- friends, family, former colleagues -- everyone to let them know about my new business.

I kept it really short and sweet, saying “I’ve officially become an entrepreneur and opened my own bodywork practice. I specialize in something called Craniosacral Therapy, which is light-touch bodywork that's wonderful for just about everyone.

I'm passionate about working with and helping people who are suffering from anxiety, migraines or headaches or who are recovering from trauma. If you think that I could be of service to anyone you know, I would love it if you shared my email information with them.”

I offered complimentary 30-minute sessions to friends and family so they could get a sense of what CranioSacral Therapy is like.

That's it. I sent individual emails to my contact list -- not a group blast -- but really connecting with people individually.

I've heard people say that a business will grow at the speed of relationships and that's really true. And I discovered that I really enjoy connecting with people one-on-one.

And I think that they can sense that and they know I'm genuine and have integrity and they're more likely to give my information to somebody that they think that I might be able to help.

So those emails that I sent out right in the beginning got the ball rolling.

There is also a program called BombBomb (www.bombbomb.com) that allows you to send individually taped video messages to people on your email list.

If you create a video and you try to send it as an attachment to your email, those files are too often big, and bombbomb.com is a great place for you to start.

Number 2: The second thing that I did that really helped is offer complimentary 30-minute sessions. I printed out these small cards and gave them out to as many people as I could think of.

When I first opened my business, I was new to our town and didn't know many people, so I gave them out to people who had a connection with my realtor, contractors who had worked on our house, to a group in a creativity seminar, and members of a book club.

I made it a goal to give at least one out every day -- to the librarian when I checked out a book, to the cashier at the grocery store.

And people started to book these free sessions and introduced to this subtle touch therapy.

I'm not asking you to discount your services, or give away huge freebies, but just offer a taste so that people can come in, you get practice, you get the experience, and they get a sense of what the heck it is that you do.

They can decide if they're going to come back in or refer someone.

My conversion rate was about 20 to 25%. For every 20 of these little freebie cards I gave out, four to five people would make appointments with me.

The bigger results came after the sessions. Out of the folks who came in to try Craniosacral Therapy, a whopping 50 to 60% came back for more sessions. And even those who didn't return often recommended me to their friends and family.

And that helped me to start growing my client base.

Number 3: Connecting with other therapists.

As I proceeded to grow my clientele, I also started reaching out to other therapists in the area.

I’m old school and used snail mail. I sent out letters introducing myself and my work, and I have a template of that letter available in my Business Toolkit and I'll share that link in the show notes as well.

If you want to get an idea of how to write one of these referral partner letters, I really encourage you to try snail mail. Folks today are inundated with email and texts and when you reach out individually through the post office, when somebody gets an actual envelope in the mail, they're so excited.

And I got a really great response from people that I sent these old- fashioned letters to. I heard back from about 10% of the people I wrote to.

So for every 10 therapists I reached out to, one of them got back to me, and that's a pretty high conversion rate.

We connected by having lunch or a cup of tea and I again offered free 30-minute Craniosacral Therapy sessions.

Even though I only heard back from one in 10 of the people I contacted, I made some connections that have lasted over a decade. And those therapists who did come in began referring people to me.

Number 4: I consistently sent my email newsletter from the very beginning.

I had an email list that people could sign up for to get my monthly newsletter.

Honestly, the list consisted of about five people, and three of them were me testing the system with different email addresses.

You know what I'm talking about, but I even then was adamant about being consistent every month.

The newsletter was from my heart. I wrote things that I was learning, breakthroughs in Craniosacral Therapy, and offered links and ideas for my readers to become healthy and whole again.

Pretty soon, I noticed that every time I sent out a newsletter, someone I hadn't seen for awhile would contact me for a session.

So even though that wasn't my intention, the newsletter served as a reminder to folks that I was here and I was ready to be of service to them.

Consistency, consistency, consistency. It pays off.

It positioned me as a solid, dependable therapist, which is so important in our industry.

You have to be a pro at what you do -- the therapeutic side, your modality -- and also a CEO. You've got to be solid. You've got to be consistent so that people have a safe place to land.

I call it creating a safe container for your business so the people who come in trust you. You have to be consistent with your email newsletter and your social media posts, or however it is that you keep in contact with people.

Number 5: Take pride in your work.

I did really good work and worked hard, and was constantly trying to improve my skills.

When people came in, I was completely present for them. I was there for them using the skills that I learned from Craniosacral Therapy, and they started getting great results.

I knew that being of service to my clients was the most important thing. I always focused on having strong, predictable boundaries – I was always on time, I got back to people immediately, and did the best work that I could do.

It wasn't long before people started telling their friends and family about me, and my appointment book started to fill.

Referrals and word of mouth marketing are the fastest ways to grow your business.

And once my clients became raving fans, they did the marketing for me.

They're the ones who started to tell their friends and family.

That is how I spread the word and got my first clients to come in and check out Craniosacral Therapy.

I didn't do chair massages. I didn't do health fairs. I didn't buy Facebook ads.

I just connected on a real level with as many people as I could. That kickstarted it.

If you're just starting out and looking for your first clients, you've got to put yourself out there. To be of service to people, you've got to connect with them.

If nobody knows about you, you're not going to magically manifest clients. Announcing your new practice on Instagram a couple of times is just not going to do it.

You've got to step into your power and connect with people.

I've got a challenge for you: Sit down and make a list of everything you've really done to connect with people. Have you handed out a card for a freebie session every single day or did you hand out a couple and then get shy and chicken out?

Did you send an email to one practitioner in your town and then give up because you never heard back?

When you sit down and really look at what you've been doing, you might see that you can put yourself out there more.

I know it's hard. I know it's scary. I know it's uncomfortable, but I encourage you to put on your big girl pants because here's the thing: The people that you can serve are just waiting for you, just waiting for you to get over those fears.

I've got a free download that I created called Five Ways to Get Your Next 20 Clients.

It goes deeper into the ideas that I talked about today and will help you create your own plan for getting those next clients in for your work.

Just pop over to the show notes and download your copy so you can get started.

Remember, the people that you can serve are just waiting for you to get over your fears.

 Thanks for coming on this journey with me today. I know what it takes to make time for something like this in your busy day and I so appreciate that you tuned in and listened all the way to the end. 

We've got all the links from today's episode in the show notes that you can find over at MindyTotten.com/podcast.

If you really enjoyed today's conversation, I'd love to send you a special sticker to remind you that Bodywork Therapists Do It With Intention. All you have to do is take a moment to leave a review on Apple podcasts. 

Once you do, just send a quick email with a screenshot of your review to hello@mindytotten.com.

Be sure to include your best mailing address and I'll get this fun sticker out to Pronto.

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Okay, that's it for today. It's my pleasure and my privilege to be with you on this journey. I'll see you next week, same place, same time. Until then, get out there and Do It With Intention.