When I graduated from massage school, I wrote down my five-year plan with the goal that in year one, I’d get my hands on as many people as I could, and see where I fit in. By year three, if I was really busy, I'd start a private practice. Then by year five, maybe I'd think about having a business. This whole five-year thing fell apart when I did all of it in six months. (Why wait five years? Did I ever mention I’m impatient?) I always had these specific goals in mind. As a result, using the techniques and strategies in this book, three months out of school, I had 10 clients. By six months I had 110 clients.
I didn’t think success would come so fast. My initial plan was to make money and gain experience by working as a massage therapist in a variety of settings and absorb as much about these settings as I could. I took these jobs for research purposes (and financial purposes!), because I wasn’t sure where I would fit in. I quickly learned from each location what I truly loved (and frankly hated) about each place that I worked. I vowed to carefully study what was working and what wasn’t about each place I spent time in. I played detective, studying their training manuals, their protocols, their booking software, and even how they answered the phone and spoke to clients. I paid close attention to what I loved and hated about each.
My first job out of school was working for a yoga studio, then a chiropractor's office, and then a wellness clinic. I worked at a prenatal spa for a while. I did sessions for a surgeon’s patients, doing massage therapy for scar tissue, and working on women who’d recently undergone reconstruction after having mastectomies. What I realized fairly quickly was that there were things about each of those places that I loved, but there were also things that I really hated, or that made me feel downright awful.
The yoga studio was beautiful. I loved the clients, but it was very loud, often disorganized, and at times kind of dirty. For me, those are big, big, NOs.
At the spa, I liked that it was a calm and serene space, but the pace was brutal. All day long, I worked 50-minute back-to-back sessions with just 10-minute breaks in between.The spa also wasn't paying very much, and I had to sell products just to make a decent wage. I also hated that their products were filled with a lot of harsh chemicals. Trying to be helpful, I suggested some product lines that were higher quality, but management wasn’t at all interested, and I just felt like a bystander in my career. I didn't feel like I was impactful.
At the chiropractic office, there were bright glaring lights, and cold scratchy paper sheets, and only 10 minutes to quickly go through the session prior to the client’s adjustment. It didn't feel like the kind of relaxing setting that I envisioned. While I seriously enjoyed the site-specific clinical work, I left there feeling exhausted at the end of each shift.
I realized I really wanted to be doing a very clinically focused massage, very precise and curated, but in a very warm and comfortable setting. I couldn't find this kind of practice anywhere, so I decided I wanted to do it myself.
I encourage you to think about what you love and hate about your current place of work as a wellness specialist and make a list. When you are ready to start your own practice, this list will allow you to create the practice and environment that works best for you!
If you want more ideas on how to create and grow your wellness practice, I’d love to support you! Get in touch with me by booking a free 15 min appointment here.