Making the Most of the Slow Season with Savanna Bell, MyMassageWorld.com| Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 9.

SAVANNA BELL:   Shift that mindset so you’re using this time wisely. A lot of people use this as a time where they think, ‘Oh, I can be lazy right now.’ Your slow time is NOT the time to be lazy.

MINDY TOTTEN: 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.

MINDY: Welcome Savannah Bell to the Do It With Intention podcast! I'm going to start by asking you what I ask every guest on this show: What is something about you that very few people know?

SAVANNA: I dream of living on my mini farm. If I could live on a 100 acres in the middle of the woods and grow my own food, and can and bake all day long, and make jams and jellies and pies, that would like be the life.

MINDY: And is that something that might actually happen one day?

SAVANNA: We are actually looking at a piece of land to try to do it. I can't be completely off the grid because I need the internet for work.

MINDY: That sounds really exciting. The thing that very few people know about me is not nearly as exciting — In fourth, fifth and sixth grades, I was a girl scout for three years and I earned every badge!

SAVANNA: That's really impressive. I was a girl scout for six months or something and I hated it!

MINDY: Let's jump in, Savannah. Tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you become a bodyworker? What kind of work do you do?

SAVANNA: I was waiting tables and going to college to become a psychotherapist. I ended up having some health issues -- a heart attack. And I had to either quit work or quit school. I went and I got a massage on a little weekend getaway, and about five minutes into the massage, I thought, “This is what I want to do. I want to make people feel like this.”

A few weeks later I was enrolled in massage school, and then I went on to be an employee and hated it. I opened a business, which completely failed. It was horrible. I made all the typical mistakes. I went back to being an employee, and then opened up my second business, which was successful for about six years.

MINDY: Let's go back to the first business and all the mistakes you made because that’s helpful to our listeners.

SAVANNA:

The first mistake I made was thinking that I was awesome at what I did, so people were going to come to me. That didn’t happen. I didn't understand a thing about marketing.

Nobody at my school mentioned it. When I started my business, I was ready to see clients, but I didn't how to get them in the door.

MINDY: I get it. I had the “if you build it they will come” mentality. I remember sitting in the office part of my treatment center and looking out the window thinking, “No one's going to come in here.”

What was the one thing that you did when you opened the second time that helped bring people in?

SAVANNA: I started talking to people. I was actually in a salon and a breast cancer boutique that did fittings and post-mastectomy prosthetics and things like that.

I started networking with the owner, seeing her oncology patients and women who had gone through a mastectomy. I started working a lot with those patients.

In turn that put me in touch with some of the plastic surgeons and the general surgeons that were caring for these women. Doctors began recommending massage for blood pressure reduction after knee replacements, or for people who wouldn't go to physical therapy. It sort of transformed into a medical practice, and that happened just from me talking to a lot of people.

MINDY: Speaking with people one-on-one is really underrated in our business. You don’t have to reach thousands of people via Yelp or Facebook. Speaking to someone about what you do – how you can help -- can be the best marketing ever. Not trying to push or sell yourself, but actually sharing knowledge.

SAVANNA: Everybody knows about chair massage events, and so many therapists downplay them or act like that's beneath them. But it's perfect opportunity to connect.

What we tend to forget is that you're asking someone to get naked and lay on a table and let you rub them. I know that sounds crude, but that that's what we're doing. You have to remember how vulnerable that is. There’s a trust that has to be there from the very start, and the only way to do that is with a direct interaction.

It's very rare that you have people who are perfectly comfortable doing that with a complete stranger. You have to be able to connect with them to let them know that they are safe in that space.

MINDY: Experienced bodyworkers tend to forget how vulnerable somebody has to be to be able to put themselves into that position to receive this beautiful work that we do.

You've written about what bodyworkers should do during this time of the year when things slow down a bit. We may get an influx of gift certificate purchases, but of course, we need to put that money aside for February, March, April, May when people use their gift certificates.

In general, especially for solo practitioners, this time of year tends to be slow. People tend to put the needs of others before the needs of themselves. Self-care moves down to the bottom of the list.

As bodyworkers we're not doing anything wrong. It's just a natural dip in the cycle of having your own business. I learned to shift my thinking during this time of the year.

What are your ideas about what bodyworkers can do to make a time investment so they can hit the ground running in 2020?

SAVANNA: First, just accept that this is normal, that there is this natural evolution that every business goes through. Even Apple and Google have a natural ebb and flow. Like you said, it’s a good time to shift that mindset and use this time wisely.

Your slow time is not the time to be lazy.

You might update your marketing strategy or your business plan. You should be learning something new. Those are the four biggest things that you should be doing during any slow time, whether it’s a week or a month or three months.

MINDY: I call it mending nets. When fishermen can’t go out and fish because of bad weather, they don’t hang around and have Margaritas on the beach. They use that time to do things that they couldn't do when they're out fishing. In this case, mending nets.

And that's what I learned to do as well. Let's talk about some things you mentioned. Work on your marketing strategy. What does that mean exactly?

SAVANNA: Most people don't have a marketing strategy, and it's actually one of the best things you can do for your business. A true strategy is going to help you build a clientele versus just getting people in the door at random. Take a look back at what you've done in the past and see what's worked and what hasn't. That can be a year, three years, five years.

MINDY: I think so often we just want to try the latest thing. One of the most common questions I get is: “Which marketing strategy should I use?” And I always ask, “What’s worked in the past? Whatever works, then do more of that.” And you can't do that without looking back. I usually go back a year. What do you do?

SAVANNA: If you've been in business long enough, I think you should go back at least one year, if not up to five. Especially if you're talking about certain event specials that you tried. What worked for you last Christmas? What worked when you ran summer specials? What worked for Valentine's Day?

What didn't work? If there is something that worked, you need to dissect it and figure out why it worked and if there was something that did not work, you need to dissect it and figure out why it did not.

People might say: “I tried Facebook ads and they don't work.” But dig down here. What did you do? What was your offer? What was your copy? What was your image like? Who did you put it in front of? The same is true for email marketing. Does it work? Why or why not? You really have to dissect everything.

And then you can make an informed decision about how you want to spread the word.

I think one thing a lot of people don't take into account, especially if they're new and they don't have those years to look back on, is to take a look at your competition or people who are in the same type of market.

For example, if you tailor your business to athletes, explore what the local gyms have been doing for the last five years. Take a look back at all their social media accounts. Take a look back at what they had on their website, any specials they brought in. And while you can't see the back end numbers, you can still see the kind of engagement they received. Social media has given us more access into what other businesses are doing and what works for them.

MINDY: And I would add to that: remember that what works for somebody else is not necessarily going to work for you. I’ve had therapists say that HAVE to do video because everyone is telling them they HAVE to do video. But if video makes you want to barf, then don’t do it!

Here’s a general rule of thumb: if a marketing strategy makes you want to barf, you shouldn’t be doing it!

See what other folks are doing, see what works for them and then you can pick and choose what resonates with you.

SAVANNA: If you notice that all the gyms have been doing cross promotions with other businesses, that puts you in touch with other businesses too. If they did videos, how long were they? What types of subjects are they covering? You obviously don't want to copy people, but you can be inspired by this type of research.

MINDY: OK, the next thing you mentioned is updating our business plan? What’s that look like?

SAVANNA: A business plan can be as detailed or as simple as you want it. The more detail, the better.

When most people think of a business plan, they think of a very legalistic document that has to go in front of investors. But for the vast majority of therapists, a business plan is simply a roadmap -- how you get from point A to point B. You have to have a plan to actually get there.

For example, what's your pricing strategy? How often are you going to increase your prices? What's your brand going to be like? What’s your ideal client profile? Break down every single step of your business.

How do you answer the phone? What's the client experience from start to finish? Are you going to have retail? What sort of add-ons are you going to have? Will you pursue continuing education and how is that going to affect your business? Will you learn new modalities or fine-tune some of the things you already do and just expand on them?

MINDY: These are all wonderful ideas. I'm imagining some people feeling overwhelmed, but please don’t be! You don't have to answer every single question today. Reflect on them as you're meditating, maybe.

This roadmap is so important because how can you get where you want to go if you don't know where you want to go?

I did a business plan and six months later I decided it wasn’t working for me because I started to shift my business. That's why we update on a regular basis because your business is going to evolve and shift and your business plan needs to do so as well.

And then you can look back and see the progress you’ve made even though from day-to-day it feels stagnant. When you research the goals you set for yourself, you’ll often see that you’ve done a lot of the things that you set out to do.

And this is one more thing that folks can focus on during these down down times. Get ahead on anything.

SAVANNA: I think you can catch up on anything that you've let fall behind, whether that’s scheduling social media posts, planning your next six months of newsletters,  writing thank you notes and birthday cards.

All you have to do is drop them in the mail when the day comes. Things like that go a long way.

Bookkeeping too. Tax season is coming up, and I know nobody wants to think about it at the end of the year, but this is the time to sit down and look at your books, catch up on all the stuff you haven't done, get all those receipts.

MINDY: I'm cracking up because I just recorded an episode that's going to drop on January 1st, and it’s about how I'm ready to file my taxes on January 1st because I just get so excited to be able to be done with it!

This is the ideal time to do something like this when you're not inundated with new client calls, with following up with new people, and concentrating on a marketing plan. This is the perfect time of year to get that stuff together.

Savannah, I’d love to hear a little bit more about how people can work with you.

SAVANNA: We have a membership program where we help therapists build their businesses and market their businesses without all the stress and work behind the scenes.

We create marketing content, social media graphics, promotional videos. We also have an entire stock photo library that includes realistic massage shop photos instead of the really cheesy ones.

We also have pre-written blog posts. We do branded bundle templates and business form templates that folks can customize themselves. We have business classes, a private Facebook group, and office hours every week that people can call for one-on-one chat to get some business advice. So there's a ton to it.

MINDY: And a little birdie told me that prices are getting ready to go up. Is that right?

SAVANNA: It’s currently $29 a month or $299 a year, and on January 1st rates will increase to $39 a month or $399 a year. We don't increase rates with existing members. So if people get in before January 1st they can get the cheaper rate.

MINDY: I'll put that link into the show notes for you so that you can check out www.mymassageworld.com. If that's something that resonates with you, I encourage you to lock in that rate right now and get it grandfathered in.

Thank you Savannah for joining us today. I really appreciate your insight, your sense of humor, and how practical you are with simple steps to take to improve your business.

I think we need to dream and I think we need big visions, and we have to take the steps to make those visions a reality.

SAVANNA: Thank you for having me.

MINDY: 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/episode9.

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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.