Become a Resource in Your Community: A successful massage therapist shares
“Seek out other professionals in related fields and get to know them and what they believe and how they work. Yoga teachers, chiropractors, osteopaths, midwives, life coaches — find whomever you might learn from and can share your knowledge with. Find out where classes are held that might increase your span of knowledge and check them out. Not just for continuing education, but to broaden your knowledge and network.”
—Cynthia Bryant LMT, Columbus, Ohio massage therapist and business owner.
A massage therapist who is also a community resource has to have a great network. Since opening her business, Kneads On Call, LLC, Cynthia Bryant has made it a point to go out and create the kind of practice that reaches beyond her office walls.
In the beginning, Cynthia’s practice was 95% corporate onsite massage. She now gives full-body, table massage 80% of the time. At Wyandotte Athletic Club, she targets two groups that work out there — the morning seniors, or the “Bagel Bunch,” and the afternoon group of young professionals and body builders. With both groups, she meets them, demonstrates on a massage chair, and talks to them about what she offers. But then her approach diverges. Why? These groups want different things, and she can give them that. The first group wants relief from achy backs and joints. She emphasizes the gentle, but effective relief that massage offers. She talks to them about resources that can help them relieve pain and maintain flexibility.
With the body builders, she talks about specific
muscle groups, and uses terms like the ACL and iliotibial band because these
clients understand them. She also spends time educating
the personal trainers at the club. Personal trainers tend to know about massage
for healing injuries. Cynthia works to educate them to see massage as
part of the fitness regimen. Now the trainers understand that massage can help
prevent injuries as well as treat them. They are coming around to seeing massage
as an integral part of training.
Cynthia has taken on two new groups of clients as well — fibromyalgia
patients and yoga students. She employs effective techniques for fibromyalgia
patients, and gets good results. The word is spreading that she is a well-educated
resource in this specialty. People hear about her and seek her out, saying
they think they have the condition, for example. She advises them not to self-diagnose,
and refers them to good websites and doctors.
At Flex Yoga Center, Cynthia has connected with new clients through
the yoga teachers. She attended meetings with yoga teachers so they could get
to know her personally. But she didn’t just talk about herself. She asked
the teachers questions, so she could learn the differences between types of
yoga and specific classes. Now when her clients have questions about yoga,
she tells them what she knows, and then refers them to a teacher for more.
She also attended yoga classes and introduced herself as the Center’s
massage therapist. She thinks of all of this as becoming part of the yoga center “family.”
Cynthia’s advice is to get more education, get comfortable with your knowledge, then share it with your clients and the wider community. And she recommends sticking with your specialties. Don’t be afraid of referring clients out for other conditions or techniques. You can’t help everyone, and even if you are helping someone a lot, other practitioners can complement what you are doing to great benefit. Using your referral system builds trust and adds to your reputation as a resource.
Following this advice can not only help you develop your niche, but also build a business that is based on your particular abilities to truly help both individuals and the wider community.
|
|
Clearance Sale
