Archive for Julie Onofrio

The truth about becoming a massage therapist?

May 28, 2007 Julie Onofrio Become a Massage Therapist

I have been doing some research for the writing of a new ebook for my www.massage-career-guides.com website. The name of the ebook will be something like “The Massage Career Guide: The Truth about becoming a massage therapist…”

I actually had an ebook by the same name when I first started that site and eventually took all of the information and put in onto the site. I now am getting enough traffic and have been collecting information to create a new ebook.

Locally, I saw a commercial the other day in the middle of the afternoon advertising a massage school. The advertisement talked about getting a job with the freedom to be your own boss and set your own hours. It showed pictures of people getting massages with the clients head turned toward the cameras ( I hate that- I never in my 18 years have had a client turn their head to the side while working on them. It puts more strain on their neck than anything I think.) Anyways, the commercial made it look like such a glamorous career.

Does anyone really have freedom just by being able to set their own schedule?

I am not sure what people are being told about becoming a massage therapist. I think they are being drawn to the field because of these typed of unrealistic commercials and advertising. No one talks about the real things that happen on a daily basis – having to do laundry, trying to find a job that pays more than $12 an hour, dealing with getting a steady flow of clients.

I also has an email from a disgruntled ex-massage therapist awhile ago who had tried to make a go of running a successful business and he had to give it up because he could get the clients he needed yet he really thought he was good at what he did- doing massage.
What massage schools don’t tell you is that it really doesn’t matter how good you are or aren’t.
The technique does not have much to do with it. I have gotten the worst massages in my life from people who were really successful at running a business.

What makes the difference in starting, building and maintaining a successful business also does not have anything to do with figuring out the best marketing tactics.

What it does have to do with is YOU. YOU are what makes the difference between being able to make it in this profession or not. YOU and your values, beliefs and thoughts about who you are and what you do.

Part of the law of attraction or what is being said in the movie “The Secret” is asking for what you want, but being clear about your intention for wanting something and believing that you can get it and having the commitment to follow through and take the next step on the path.

So what does it take to be a massage therapist that has a successful and rewarding practice?

  • Compassion for yourself
  • Empathy for yourself
  • The ability to take responsibility for your actions and have congruent beliefs and actions
  • The ability to question your beliefs and assumptions
  • Self aware
  • Presence

    • What else do you think it takes to be successful as a massage therapist? What qualities are need to build a successful and rewarding career?

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    Building Your Ideal Practice

    May 24, 2007 Julie Onofrio Peer Supervision, Start Your Massage Business

    As much as I talk about websites, there is only so much they can really do. If you have been following the blog or my other writings, you may have heard me say how much I hate billing insurance companies and working with them and I have been wanting to get back to a total cash practice.

    I have two websites for my clinic. One my Sitebuilit! Site -www.massageseattle.net and the other my test site for massagelaunch.com – www.citycentermassage.com. I started getting a few calls from my citycentermassage.com site a few months ago but they never turned into appointments for some reason or another. I think I had 2 clients from that and one was someone traveling through Seattle and one was a person who only gets a massage 1x a year or so – still not my ideal clients. Part of the problem was that I was still taking the insurance clients because I was fearful of not being able to make a living and pay the bills. I finally just couldn’t take the insurance stuff anymore and I just went cold turkey – well almost. I talked to all of my insurance clients and basically sent them away for various reasons. I now am only taking insurance from one company who pays the most – almost $100 per hour.
    I cleared my schedule up and made room for new clients and what do you think happens? My website finally started working for me. I have gotten 2 new cash clients from both of the sites in the last 2 weeks.
    I didn’t do anything different and I haven’t even really been adding any content (which is the Sitebuildit ! way.) or doing any advertising or anything.
    It is really all about creating the intention and walking the talk- following through with your intentions.
    I also had some really amazing coincidental things happen this week. One of them being I was thinking of this exercise/weight lifting book that I used to have a very long time ago- probably 12-15 years ago. I hadn’t thought about it in ages and didn’t think I even had it anymore. I did a quick check of all my shelves and couldn’t find it. Today I go into the office and it is sitting on my desk with a note from one of my office mates telling me that so and so (her client) returned the book! I don’t even remember even loaning it out or anything let alone to this other persons client. Anyways – amazing things do happen when you start to get in sync – when your thoughts and actions are in alignment which is what the law of attraction is all about. I just started a site on that a few months ago and while it is still in it’s very early stages here it is www.learn-the-law-of-attraction-secret.com

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    Is the pressure ok?

    May 19, 2007 Julie Onofrio Ethics, Peer Supervision

    One of the things that will make or break your massage is learning to give the right amount of pressure to each individual client. Since each persons needs and perspective are different, it is important that you learn to communicate with the client to find out what they need.

    Just asking “Is the pressure ok” does not tell you anything. Is is ok for what?

    I just had the experience of having such a massage at a local spa by a fairly new massage therapist. It is my once or twice a year experience where I just get it in my head that I need a massage and I go off looking for one. Actually even more interesting is that she asked if the pressure was ok when she was digging her knuckle into my Achilles tendon – which gave me little or no sensation but pressure. She applied deeper pressure there but no where else or at any time during my massage.I did go in knowing that it was a spa and that I would be getting a spa massage, but this place actually offered deep tissue massage. One of the other things that really amazed me is the amount of time she wasted doing the fluffy massage stuff even after I asked her to do deep tissue work. Do people at spas really like this? Or do people who go to spas not know any better and don’t ask for much more?

    Now how they define deep tissue massage is still a mystery to me and they don’t have a clue what deep tissue means to me as they never asked or tried to communicate about the pressure in a way that could determine just how much pressure would feel good and do the job of loosening up some tight muscles that I have from working out and gardening a lot lately.

    It really gives me some new insights everytime I go off and get a massage from someone I don’t know. It really helps give me some perspective about how to better serve my clients – something I still am always striving for after 18 years in the business.

    How do you find out if the pressure of the massage is meeting the needs of your client? Just asking is the pressure ok one time really does nothing. How do you engage the client in the process of getting their needs met?

    A better way to ask is to ask a series of questions as you work on various parts of the body. Does this pressure feel deep enough? On a scale of 1-10, how deep does this pressure feel? What number would you like it to feel like?
    You could basically be asking that question every 3 or 4 minutes or everytime you move to another muscle or area.

    The other thing that happened is that after I asked for deep tissue and I was met with confusion and no interest in whether she had adapted adequately, I gave up asking and just put up with the massage hoping to get something out of it at least and waiting to be able to tell the people at the desk that it was an awful experience. I knew the gal was new and it wasn’t really her fault but she didn’t even try or know how to try. How often do your clients give up or hide what they really want thinking that they will hurt your feelings?

    They of course had no interest in knowing how I liked their service. Is it no wonder the massage therapist didn’t have any interest? Is it the nature of the spa business that you think that most people don’t come back and they are only coming for their once a year or whatever spa adventure?

    I guess I always seem to find the ones to write about!

    What do you do to communicate with your clients about how the pressure feels to them?

    7 comments

    Contracts for Massage Therapists

    May 18, 2007 Julie Onofrio Find a Massage Job

    When you work for someone as a sub-contractor you are really self employed. Setting up an agreement with the ‘contractor’ or business owner requires that you know what you want for yourself and what type of environment you want to work in.

    Many go into a situation without getting all of the details ironed out and it is cause for trouble down the line. It also helps you get clear about what it is that you want. The contract is where you get to ask for what you want and if you don’t get it where do you draw the line and still continue to work there (or not work there).

    I have written about some of the things that you need to think about at www.thebodyworker.com

    In general you want to know what will happen in each different situation. What happens when you leave? Who is responsible or the owner of the charts and the client information?

    The real key to creating a contract is knowing what you value and honoring that by only taking a position that supports who you are. When you start compromising on this you will begin to feel resentful. I have seen it go as far as taking it out on clients.

    Agreeing to a contract is really one of the first steps in setting up boundaries for yourself and your practice. Boundaries are what will allow you to take care of yourself first which is essential for preserving and maintaining your practice.

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    How do people find you online?

    May 14, 2007 Julie Onofrio Massage Websites, News

    When people search online for a massage therapist, what terms or keywords do you think someone would use to find you?

    massage therapy?

    massage therapist?

    While there are many people searching for those keywords, using those words would be like searching for a needle in a haystack as far as the results the search engines would find.
    What exactly is someone searching for when they put in those keywords – I really don’t know. Are they massage therapists? Are they people looking for a massage therapist? Since people for the most part don’t really know how to do effective searches it is hard to say what people are really looking for when someone searches for ‘massage therapy’.

    One of the ways to get your website to the top of the search engines is using Google Adwords or Yahoo! Search Marketing which I have talked about before.
    Basically what you do is pay to get your site to the top pages by bidding on the keywords with each search engine. You can set the amount you pay per click, per day and per month. You can choose what words to bid on.

    If you choose Google’s Adsense program, you can also choose to advertise on specific sites like my site www.thebodyworker.com which is one of the top sites for when someone puts in the words Swedish massage at Google. I also get about 2000-2500 visitors a day searching for something related to massage.

    Most people who know how to search would probably search for massage, your city I would think. To get to the top of the search engines for using those keywords you can also choose to pay for Advertisements with the search engines or pay for other methods of advertising.

    Using Sitebuildit! will also help you get there as they teach you what you need to do to create pages and links to get the traffic that you will need.

    To start getting a better idea of the process of finding a good massage therapist – go out and go through the process of finding one yourself. What do you do to find someone? Who would you go to once you get some names or even referrals from doctors or friends? Most people go on referrals but you have to have referral source you can trust. (I have a friend who has referred me to some people that she sees for various healthcare issues and everytime I go, I am greatly disappointed as I have different needs and value different things. I finally figured out to stop going to people she referred – we are just different.)

    What are people looking for when looking for a massage therapist? Most have a problem that needs a solution. Or it may not be a problem but a need that they have that they are looking to get fulfilled. Once they find your site or office, what will make the difference in them calling you vs. someone else? They have to perceive that you and your massage is something that they need and they also have to value your service. If they have never met you how can they make a more informed decision on whether or not to choose you? You have to tell them what you value so they can figure out if their values match yours.
    By paying close attention to what you value you can also make more conscious business decisions and attract clients who need your services…more on values later but you can read what I wrote a few years ago – Truth Marketing.

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