Sometimes it just seems like magic that I get massage clients. Some would think that I am talking about the law of attraction idea but it is much more than that. I used to buy into the LOA and kept reading everything I could but you know it never really worked for me after all that. I’ll write my next post on that but for now back to getting massage clients using magic.
I have written about the many different ways to get clients – there is the big list of marketing ideas, how to make websites, how to get clients through building a referral network and yes I have done many of them with my focus on my website. Since the creation of websites, it has been such a big relief for me because frankly I just hate marketing and networking – yup it’s true. Websites for me are ideal being an introvert and shy – yup that’s true too. For the most part my website is the only thing I use to get new clients. When people are looking for massage online they are already want a massage. Those are the clients I want mainly because I don’t have to do much to turn them into a regular client. They already know what massage does and that they get relief from it or if they are a first time or fairly new to massage -they are at least open to massage. After all they are searching for massage.
So yes sometimes even with that my massage business is slower than I would like it to be but there is a whole other side to that. My business is slow usually when I have something else on my mind or on those days when my heart just isn’t into doing massage. Since the beginning of the year after having my best year ever last year massage wise I found that the main insurance company that I had been working with that also happened to pay the most out of any insurance company was reducing my allowable fees – well not just reducing but cutting them almost in half. That meant I would have to do twice as many massages to make the same amount as last year.
In Feb, I received some distressing health news that further complicated the issues and frankly I just didn’t feel like working much doing massage. I was exhausted from dealing with everything. I didn’t like taking the insurance clients that I was – not because I didn’t like the people but it was just so discouraging not to get paid the same. I couldn’t work more than I did last year with this new health issue- Don’t worry I am OK – just a hereditary high cholesterol issue that was also creating plaque in my arteries. I have lost 15 pounds, stopped eating sugar and gluten and high fat foods, started walking more and am on my way to being healthier than ever. I reduced my cholesterol by over 50 points in about 3 months!
So back to using magic to get massage clients. So there I was feeling like I didn’t want to do any massage, feeling frustrated with the insurance companies and thinking that I too would do an Oprah moment and think about ending my massage career at 25 years which would be at the end of this 2011. One day last week I also tweaked my knee running to the bus and couldn’t work much that week so one afternoon I just laid down on the table and stretched and asked – What is all this telling me? What am I supposed to be doing? What am I missing? What do I need to change? It became clear that with the physical challenges I just need to get even clearer about who I want to work with as a client. My time is limited so I need to make the most out of every hour that I work. I spent about an hour and just came to know that my next steps would be to just stop taking insurance clients. I thought also about how a few years ago I had to put my foot down and stop taking one of the insurance plans that paid the least out of them all. That was a big decision since it seemed those people called the most. I didn’t have any of the higher paying insurance clients calling. It was a scary move to make. I just finally one day said no more. I had about a month of not being as booked as I like to be. (I usually like to do 12 sessions a week.) But soon the situation changed and I had moved all of the clients with the lower paying insurance out and all of a sudden the one’s with the higher paying insurance started arriving. It is sort of like I had to make room for them to start calling. I had to have faith that it was the right thing for me. I was a little worried but I never went back on my boundary – no clients with the low paying insurance any more for me. I did have a few moments when I thought I would have to break that but I didn’t.
So now the day I made the decision to stop taking insurance clients – before the decision my day was just one of those days right from the start. I missed the bus running for the bus and tweaked my knee to boot. After I got really clear about my goals and what boundaries I needed to set for myself the phone started ringing and my email box was lit up with the little red star telling me I had new mail.
Everytime in my career that I have set such boundaries, the more successful I have become. I felt better the minute I made the decision. I hadn’t been doing much to market myself because of my health challenges yet still the phone started ringing – OK I do have a website that is at the top of the SE for my keywords but it’s like magic – it knows when I am feeling like I can’t work so it doesn’t get me new clients.
Boundaries are so important. They are what support you in the process of building a business and throughout your personal life. Getting clear is the process of getting to know yourself better each time. You often don’t know how decisions will work out but you can learn first hand when you see the contrast between your choices – how does each one feel? Your feelings are what tell you when you are on track. Keep making decisions that help you feel relief – just the slightest bit of relief will do! It doesn’t have to be a major life change. Your boundaries are there to guide you and keep you on track for your goals and for your purpose or mission. They will help you make difficult decisions – the one you have to make to stop seeing clients that don’t pay enough. You might see that as being greedy or materialistic – I used to also think that. The more I go through this though the more I see that it is just good self care. What can you do right now to practice good self care right this minute? What boundary do you need to set that supports the belief that you are valuable and are worth it to have as many clients as you need?