Why You Need to Be the Pro and CEO of Your Massage or Bodywork Business | Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 2.

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 that they do into successful businesses that they love -- all without burning out or selling out.

For the last 15-plus years, I've created a successful 6-figure Craniosacral Therapy practice in a small city in coastal North Carolina. During those years, I've met so many skilled, big hearted therapists with great hands 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 your soul, but also your bottom line!

On the Do It With Intention podcast, we'll dive deep into what it actually takes to build and 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 bodyworkers do it with intention.

You’ve got to step up. I know you are a big-hearted bodywork therapist, passionate about helping others and about the work you do. It’s time to own that… by being both a PRO and the CEO of your business.”

Do any of these sound familiar?

“I know I need to work on my confidence level in marketing and educating. I don't know how to reach the clients in my community,”

“I struggle with work-life balance. I feel like I work way too much or not enough on my business.”

“My biggest struggle is promoting myself. That's the heart of it.”

“I can't find the time to do any marketing or work on my business.”

These are the exact words coming from therapists that email me and reach out on a regular basis. They're heart-centered bodyworkers like you who are overwhelmed because they're just not sure what steps to take to have a successful and sustainable bodywork practice.

And the truth is, it doesn't have to be this way. You can do the work you love AND make a great living doing it. You're not doing anything wrong.

You just might need a little help with the business side of things so that you can have not only a successful bodywork practice, but also an amazing lifestyle to match.

This is something that I get asked about all the time as a practicing therapist who specializes in Craniosacral Therapy, the creator of The Bodywork Project, and in my mentoring and coaching with bodywork practitioners.

I've been on the front lines of this work, and I know what it means to put your heart and soul into your business so that you can help others to heal their pain. And I've also created a beautiful and intentional lifestyle where I love every minute of the work I do and also still enjoy my husband and my awesome dog, George.

People say this to me all the time -- that I always talk about our dog, George, but never about my husband! I never mention his name. So I guess I should say I still enjoy my husband, Ranald, and my awesome dog, George, and my friends and the things that I like doing. We like reading and throwing crazy fun dinner parties.

I've designed my life so that I now do hands-on work two days each week and I spend the other days at the beach, the place that I feel most alive and most connected to.

So people often ask me: How are you able to do the work that you love, be your own boss, live the life you want to live, and make it all look so effortless? Well, let me tell you sisters, the truth is it's not that effortless.

It actually takes a LOT of effort. It takes a lot of work to make it happen. But once you know the steps that you need to take, you can be very mindful about where to invest your time, and where to invest your energy and your focus.

Because I'm absolutely clear that my goal is not just to work for the sake of working. This is MY life. This is all I've got and I don't want to work just to say that I'm busy. I want to work smarter and have a plan in place so that I can have time to enjoy my life.

And that's what I want to share with you on this podcast.

What I want you to think about is -- Can I step up and be the pro and CEO of my business?

So let me say that again. I want you to step up and be the pro and CEO of your business. What do I mean by that, exactly? What does it really mean to be a pro and CEO?

Let’s dive in with this framework that I created to help you start making the shift from the overwhelmed, overworked bodywork therapist, to a calm, confident CEO and business owner.

There are 5 areas that you need to have in place to have a successful, sustainable bodywork business. These are the key areas that we all have to look at in our businesses.

To be a pro, you need to work toward mastery in your modality, and you've got to create a safe container for your clients. You become a CEO by diving into the business side of your practice. This is where you reflect, build and sustain a practice that's perfect for you.

Let's take a little a closer look at each one of these pieces -- Being a pro and being a CEO. You've really got to do both.

Let’s say you're just a pro. You work toward mastery, you’ve got the safe container for your clients, and you do excellent bodywork. But you don't do any work on the business side of your practice.

If you don't do anything to develop your skills as a CEO, you're not going to make a go of it. Your business is not going to be able to thrive.

And if you flip that around and you only work on your business, you’ll also find challenges. I've seen people who do this -- they're terrific marketers and are always connecting. They're always networking and running around doing so many things.

But they have not taken care of the pro side. They haven't created mastery. They haven't developed their skills. They haven't gotten the bodywork experience they needed.

So even though they’re running around and really rocking it on the business side of their practice, people don't come back because their bodywork skills are sub-par.

You've got to have both in place. Let's take a closer look at each piece.

You begin the journey. By working toward mastery, you must become excellent at what you do. And again, I'm just going to put it out there. Business principles are only going to get you so far if you're a mediocre therapist.

If your clients don't see results, and they don't feel better physically and emotionally, they won't return. All the business strategies in the world won't generate people who love your work if your work is only so-so.

You've got to continue to work toward mastery throughout your career. How do you do that? Practice, practice, practice.

This is a piece of the puzzle that I see a lot of practitioners leaving out. It's not enough just to take one CE class every year and cross your fingers and hope for the best in working toward mastery. You've GOT to continue to read, to learn, to practice.

And I'm saying this out loud, I'm looking at you out there: Be sure to receive your own bodywork too!

It's about showing up again and again and again to refine your skills and get that innate healing wisdom into your hands. Working toward mastery never actually ends. It's a lifetime journey.

Every time I take a class I think: “Okay, I'm going to learn whatever the class is about … X, Y, Z.” And I think at the end of the 4 days or whatever it is, “I'm going to walk away and I'm going to know everything there is to know about that.”

But what happens to me every single time is that the class becomes a tiny window. And through that window I see all the stuff that I don't know.

I had my mentor tell me once that as we continue to grow and learn and do more and more with our education, the really, really gifted practitioners are those who realize that they know less and less, so they're actually learning more and more.

We continue to expand our knowledge. You go back to that beginner's mindset that is open to new modalities, new experiences, and new work. And I love that.

So while you continue to work toward mastery, it is critical that you create a safe container for your client.

And there are really 2 pieces to this. You need to create a safe container, not only therapeutically so that your clients can feel better, but also in your business, so that your clients can get the most benefit that they can from their work with you.

Creating this safe container includes things like establishing healthy boundaries and solid time management skills, being consistent with your pricing, and having a clear cancellation policy.

Those are just some of the things that go into creating a safe container on the business side of your practice. These first two pieces -- working toward mastery and creating a safe container -- are going to establish you as the professional that you are, and people will be drawn to working with you.

Then you can dive into the business side of your practice and be a CEO. And that begins with reflecting.

It is so, so, so important to have clarity about your practice.

Where are you now? Where do you want to go? What does your ideal practice look like? Who do you want to work with? How many days each week, what hours each day? What modality do you want to use?

You need to have a sense of where you're heading. Otherwise, you and your practice will just blow around in the breeze, and you can wake up in a couple of years and think, “Why am I so exhausted and still feeling like I don't know how to balance my work and my life?”

Clarity is key. I always say: “How can you get where you're going if you don't know where you're heading?”

When I first started in my business, I was trying to do all the things -- everything I read about online or I think somebody told me to do. I was grasping at everything, but I didn't have a clear vision for my practice.

And I realized this when I finally did reach out to get some support around the business side of my practice.

The guy I was working with asked me what I wanted my practice to look like. I stammered that I wanted to do CranioSacral Therapy. He said, “Great, how much money do you want to earn?”

The only thing I could think of to say was, “More.” I didn't even really know how much I was earning. But I knew that I wanted to earn more.

He said: “How many days a week do you want to work?” At that point I was working 6 days, basically anytime somebody wanted to come in. So I didn't even realize the lack of clarity that I had until somebody pointed it out to me.

You've really, really got to be crystal clear with your vision for your practice. And once you have a clear vision for that practice, then you go to the next stage, which is building it.

This is where you start implementing those ideas. You do the work necessary to make your vision a reality. And these are the nuts and bolts of business. Things like marketing, networking, branding, messaging, finances, all of it.

It can seem like a lot, but by breaking it down into doable chunks, you can get it all done.

And here’s a heads up and some inside scoop: Next week's episode is all about learning how to create the time and to actually do what you need to do to build your practice. So stay tuned for that…

Some listeners may think, “I'm so far from filling my practice,” but I'm here to tell you, you can do it.

And after you fill your practice, you and your business will move into the sustain phase because there's going to come a time when you are so successful that there's not one more hour in the week that you can see clients one-on-one.

To be of service to more people, you'll then begin to scale your work.

Whether that's with workshops and classes, or training other people to work with you, or writing a book. The sustain phase allows you to have a bigger impact and serve more people without burning out.

I encourage you to use this simple framework to see where you are out of balance as you work to grow your ideal bodywork practice.

So many therapists get caught up in the building phase of the framework because this phase is where all the marketing and networking and sales come into play.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that that piece of the puzzle is all you need to be successful. Too many people end up spinning their wheels and then wondering why it's not working for them.

One of my favorite assignments for my students is to have them actually track their time that they spend working on their business.

And when they share it with me, we realize that one of the biggest reasons their businesses aren’t growing is because they're basically flying by the seat of their pants and don't have a plan for going forward. They're chasing every new shiny object out there like I was doing early in my career.

And they don't have much time available for those first two pieces -- mastery and creating a safe container.

Our goal is to begin with the first part of this model so that you can start to think of yourself as a savvy, smart bodywork therapy pro. The simple shift in how you approach your business is essential to designing a practice that works for you.

Being a pro is about making time each and every week for business development and business education.

And hey, hey, guess what? The Do It With Intention podcast is one piece of your business development and business education, and you're going to love it because you're going to begin to take the steps that you need to take to see huge results in your business.

I want you to take what you've learned today and get into inspired action. I've created a free PDF download that will give you a visual that explains how to be a Pro and CEO.

First, I want you to start thinking about where you're spending your time with your practice, which pieces of this framework do you have a handle on and which are you struggling with?

Maybe you haven't been doing one piece of it at all because you didn't realize that you needed to. That’s okay. You're here, you're working on it, and you've got me, a guide who's been there and will light the way for you.

Click on the link in the show notes and you'll be on your way. The next thing I want you to take a look at is how much time you can commit to working on your business each day or each week.

How much time are you going to commit to becoming a true pro and CEO? I want to make it easy for you to be a successful CEO. So think about what you can easily commit to based on where you are right now.

If all you can commit to right now is 30-minutes once a week by listening to the Do It With Intention podcasts, then that's perfect. Give me 30 minutes once a week and you'll start to see progress in your business.

You'll be creating this amazing habit, a pro and CEO habit, that will serve you through the life of your business. If you're able to give yourself a little more time to work on your business, that's even better. What I don't want to hear is, “Oh yeah, I'm going to work on my business, you know, three hours a day.”

That’s just setting you up for failure because it’s nearly impossible to do. Save yourself up for success. Keep showing up and keep taking those baby steps forward!

And once you figure out how much time you can give to becoming the pro and CEO of your business, I want you to block it out on your calendar. We'll be talking more about this in upcoming episodes, but go ahead and put the Do It With Intention podcast into your calendar or appointment book.

Give yourself that 30 minutes every week and you'll start to see progress. Just be consistent, and take tiny, baby steps. Take them consistently and you'll begin to see results.

So there you have it: the foundation that will help you to be the true pro and CEO of your massage or bodywork business. Be the pro and CEO that I know you can by stepping into that power. You'll be amazed by all that you can do!