Do your clients’ driving skills, reflect their personality?

I moved my practice to a new space across town about a year ago. I totally admit, it’s not the easiest place to find. But, if you pay attention, and follow the directions I give you…it can be found. I don’t work in a remote town. I offer several options to guide clients to my practice. Here are a few options for them…

1- I have a ‘google map’ as well as written directions on my website

2- I offer to give verbal directions over the phone

3- I will personally email directions to clients, who are not willing to try the first two options

Despite all three of these options I’ve had several reactions from clients over the last year. 1st, I was concerned. Then, I was frustrated with them. Now, I’ve learned to throw my hands in the air and just accept it. To keep it entertaining, I amuse myself with comparisons between clients driving skills, and their personality type.

Here are some examples of what clients do before arriving to a session with me ….

1- A few have called me on the phone in an absolute PANIC!! They were sure they are lost in another city driving aimlessly around and around and they would NEVER find me (then, it turned out, they were a block away).

2- Some arrive 15 – 20 minutes late and insist it is the hardest place to find they have EVER arrived at. They ‘have NO IDEA how ANYONE can EVER find me’ !!! and demand I put a billboard up, on the freeway, giving directions ASAP !

3- Some arrive a few minutes late and calmly mention, they made one wrong turn and had to back track to find me.

4- Some have actually been to me before, at this same location and still wander around my building with no clue where my practice is…

5- Some arrive 5 minutes early, walk right in, no direction issues, and I am able to start their session on time

That’s quite a list of re-actions right?! I know ! It’s been crazy, and there were times I wasn’t sure if I would lose my entire clientele because they would never find me. But the comparisons between the way my clients behave when they arrive at my practice, and the way they handle life, have wonderful similarities.

For example:

You might read #1 and #2 and think, these clients are probably exactly the same. But not true, re-read them. Both sets of clients have a high level of anxiety, and both sets of clients are clearly over reactors. However, there are 2 key differences with them.

The clients in #1 take personal responsibility for losing their way. They get that they were lost, they aren’t happy about it, they take it as a personal failure and this sits with them for a while. It’s hard to get them to STOP mentioning it.

They are different from #2 clients who blame ME for their misdirection, and assume that I am misleading ALL of my clients (which makes the freeway billboard a necessity). I usually direct the conversation immediately to the present and acknowledge they made it to me, so ‘lets get started’…

#3 clients understand that a mistake was made, and know eventually, they will find me. They mention the practice is hard to find, not to attack me, but out of consideration that other clients may not find me so easily. They are concerned, but not self-loathing or confrontational about it.

#4 clients, I just can’t help these people. What am I supposed to do with them? These clients are usually found upstairs or outside my building just staring at another businesses front door or the directory out front. I find them, smile, greet them and walk with them back to my practice. These people give me 2 different reactions. Some of them act like they have NEVER been here in their life, and others apologize and tell me how sorry they are that they don’t remember where I am located. Both are calm about it, both sets of people bewilder me. I treat them both the same, with kindness and respect.

#5 clients are usually pretty laid back, they left home or work early, planning on not being able to find me. They’re patient with themselves and accept that not every business will have a yellow, neon sign, with an arrow over it reading “WE’RE OPEN”. They are ready to go when they come and are ready for the appointment.

So what’s the use in keeping some of these clients? Why not tell clients #1 or #2 or even #3 and #4 to go to buzz off ! There is a method to my madness of keeping each of these groups of people in my clientele. I will post more about this in a future blog. Please continue to check in with this blog, for more education on client behavior….

BFF or TMI?

What to do when clients want to have a closer relationship with you?  Some clients think you’re wonderful and enjoy their appointments with you so much they want more time with you.  They invite you out for coffee, lunch, a drink, or whatever personal time you can spare.

Do you accept? Blurring the line between ‘client’ and ‘friend’ can be a touchy subject. Any professional you ask will have an opinion about it. Either for it, or against it.  It can be an uncomfortable conversation to have with your clients, for most of us.  I’ve had it a few times, and it hasn’t gotten easier for me.    Consider this,  why is this person really wanting to spend more time with you?

When I receive clients like this, I have to be grateful that they have come into my practice.  This sort of flattery from my clients shows me that they are thankful that I pay attention to them.  By offering to take me out for a meal, they are simply implying “you are such a good listener; I want to spend more time with you and tell you even more things about myself”.

Do you accept this offer, or do you tell a client that you can’t spend personal time with them?  Is that uncomfortable for you?  If you’re  a strong enough person to prevent lines from being crossed with your clients, then you won’t have a problem with this client dialogue.  Some people are just born with this sort of assertiveness. As for the rest of us it’s something that you learn over time, and constantly have to work at.

I am against it personally.  I  have worked so incredibly hard to get to the point that I am right now in my practice and my business.  I don’t want to become BFF with my clients, or even FF with them.

Clients come to you for a variety of reasons.  The time you spend with them is valuable. So valuable that in addition to your skill, they are paying good money to spend time with YOU.  When you begin to give that time away for free, it becomes less valuable and possibly invaluable eventually.

Does this mean that they may start taking advantage of you professionally by showing up late for their appointments, or asking for discounts or deferred payments? Possibly.  My research interviewing other practitioners has shown that most of them who become friends with their clients do regret blurring the line.  If you think having the ‘client training‘ talk with them is difficult now, imagine how hard it will be after you’re friends.

On the other hand, is there a chance that none of this will effect your work relationship with your clients?  Yes.  In my interviews I have found that hair stylists, above other salon and spa business owners, are able to maintain client friendships.  Why is this?  Is it their assertiveness, or their communication skills in general?  Are they able to set clear boundaries when massage therapists, or aestheticians are not? Are you willing to bunk the stereotype, take a chance that this won’t happen with you and your client?  How do you feel about becoming friends with your clients?

Client Training: 101

Clients suffer from bad behavior in the same way most humans and animals do.  Clear communication with your clients is so essential. From the start of your relationship you must be clear, be consistent, and be upfront about bad behavior.  You deserve to enjoy your job, as much as your client deserves a great experience with you.

Now, most clients understand the social skills that are needed in order to see you for a service. But for the few that do NOT, you must train them.   This is not to say that they mean to, or even intentionally, behave badly at your job.  Some clients just don’t know the correct set of social and behavioral skills that are needed at your salon or spa.

Don’t take these ‘people skills’ for granted, you must say (or print) any of the following you feel strongly about:

Here are 12 basic Client no-no’s (to start you thinking).  You can pick and chose the ones you truly care about.

1-Don’t show up late

2-Don’t ‘No Show’ without calling me

3-Don’t bounce your checks

4-Don’t show up without any payment at all (and make an excuse why you didn’t bring your purse/wallet)

5-Don’t keep your cell phone on (ringer full volume)  and expect to talk on it during your appointment or don’t bring your iPad and expect to work on it during your appointment

6-Don’t bring your pet or your child (under the age of 3) and allow him/her to run around my salon/spa/massage room with no supervision

7-Don’t yell down the hall in front of my treatment rooms

8-Don’t bring greasy fast food and leave the wrappers in the waiting area,

9-Don’t drink a tall iced mocha before your massage appointment

10-Don’t spill your coffee on my hair station and leave it there for me to clean

11-Don’t drink coffee while I am trying to file your nails

12-Don’t set your coffee (or soda) on top of my receptionists computer…

And why, you ask, do some clients do these things?  I have spent countless hours wondering this very same thing. I have observed my own behavior when I go to spas and salons.  I even continue to travel around the Bay Area, interviewing other practitioners about their business issues with clients. Human Behavior interests me, but Client Behavior fascinates me!  The more we understand why clients behave the way they do, the more successful we will be !

You say Tomato, I say Perv

In the many years I have been in the spa industry as a Massage Therapist, I have had some strange encounters. Mostly over the phone, some emails, and only one in-person perv. I am constantly amazed by the creative ways men (sorry men, its never women) come up with to ask me if I will give them a ‘happy ending’.

Charlie Sheen is a well known perv

I asked a police officer one time (he was sent by the police station to check out my practice. At that time massage therapists were regularly checked by the police station to make sure everything we were doing was “legit” and “legal”. This doesn’t happen very often anymore (thankfully) how I can best convey to my clients that I do “legal” massage and not “happy endings”

He told me that when Massage Therapists (Massuses) open up a new practice, ‘perverts’ (he called them perps, hey, you say tomato I say, perv) normally approach their practice over the phone. If you are crystal clear about the services you provide, they will hang up and move on to the next Massage Therapist that is unsure, or ambiguous about their services. Men who approach these practices that provide “illegal” services have a network, and they talk among their network to refer “their friends” to this same practice for the same “illegal” services. There are websites out there that will actually point out the best places to get “happy endings”. They check these regularly and add and edit this list constantly.

In my particular case, the opposite happened. When I first opened my practice I would get about 1-2 perv phone calls per week. As the weeks went on, and I shot more and more perv calls down, they completely stopped calling. It finally got around to the “network” in that city, that I was not “that kind of Massage Therapist”. The perv network stopped calling.

There are three ways in which perv’s will approach you :

1. Call you – usually with a deep voice, they will talk slow, ask you about your “draping” technique (lame)

2. Email you – like the email below

3. Ask you politely during the session (ew)

I will say my latest perv inquiry came through email. I haven’t had an email like this in years, so I thought for your benefit I would share with you what his email was, and why I know he is a ‘perv’ looking for a happy ending

I moved my practice out of town, then recently moved it BACK into town, so I am not surprised that I got this email but its still daunting, non-the-less to have to communicate with these A-holes.

His email to me (don’t think I didn’t consider posting his email address, but for legal reasons that might be a bad idea)

Hi, I received your contact info from your website as i was searching for a massage therapist in Lafayette/Walnut Creek area. I previously have seen a therapist in Lafayette who has helped me with a lower back issue (bulging disc in L4-L5). Because of the injury the areas that are bothersome is the upper hamstrings (sciatica) inner thighs, glutes, general mid section (groin and pelvic area). I have learned to shed my taboos about this area being massaged as this injury has been with me several years, and providing stimulation to these areas provides relief/release. My therapist has also performed lymph drainage therapy on me and has been both pleasurable/beneficial.

Her technique however is more ‘llight touch’ and I have recently developed a condition that needs more sports type of work…i think. Recently I have had an extended bout of vertigo. Someone suggested that there is not enough blood-flow to my brain/ear area. Also, I do feel tightness in my neck/shoulder blade, base of my head area.
So, I am looking for someone to treat my pelvic and related area due to the lower disc, and also work no my upper body to increase bloodflow to the head.

I am wondering if you can accomodate the above descriptions. Also, I prefer undraped for comfort.
I am only looking for a licensed, certified and legitimately experienced professional to perform a ‘true’ full body massage.
Thank you for any information.
Frank

This guy is a real douche. There are specific words and phrases that point out this is a perv email.

Perv Words: “true” (in quotes), undraped, groin or pelvic area, pleasurable

Perv Quotes : I prefer undraped for comfort, shed my taboos about this area being massaged , has been both pleasurable/beneficial, increase bloodflow to the head.

Its not that any of these one words is bad (well some are) but that he used almost EVERY Perv Word and Phrase there is – shows that he is really desperate !!! It would almost be better if he just wrote one simple line “do you give happy endings?” He would have saved us BOTH a lot of time !!

This is the biggest problem with Perv’s, they waste Massage Therapists time and they make us feel uneasy. Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve been doing this long enough to where I no longer let these tools effect me. I find the humor in these jerks and hope you do to !

Do You Mean Clean?

I used to work with my mother for years!  and guess what? She acted like a mother at work too ! Duh ! One of the ‘mother’ things she used to do, other than boss me around, was place the importance of keeping my area clean at all times ! It drove me crazy, but like most mothers, She Was Right ! Having a clean working area is so essential in your clients taking you seriously, and you taking your work seriously. Now, as I have left and work with others in this industry, I find that many business owners simply Do Not Clean !

It’s so frustrating to work with business owners who do not keep their practice clean.  I’ve worked with several business owners in the last year who just aren’t noticing/caring how dirty their business is. Sometimes, as business owners, we get so used to showing up to the same place day in, and day out that we tend to overlook the little things that our clients would notice. 

But when it gets to a point where the LARGE things are also going unnoticed, maybe you need a vacation. Or another persons point of view? It is so valuable in our work environment to get a second opinion about our business.  Even our regular clients can get used to the way our practice, spa, salon, or business looks.  But when that new client comes into your work place and views it for the first time, what impression will they leave with?

Example of Little Things: 1-You haven’t dusted in a few weeks 2-You haven’t vacuumed and there are little white dust bunnies behind a couple of chairs and furniture 3 -you’ve run out of paper cups on your Alhambra Water Dispenser and forgot to reload them…

Dead Plant Humor

Example of Big Things: 1-You have dead plants 2-Your garbage hasn’t been emptied in days/or weeks 3-your carpet is stained 4- you use parts of your practice for temporary ’storage’ that others can see when they walk past 5- the dust has become so thick, you can write your name in it

I have a suggestion for you, invite someone to walk into your practice/business and tell you the first few things that they notice.  Who NOT to invite.  Do not invite a CLOSE friend, they may hold back for fear of hurting your feelings. Do not invite your husband, or wife…they live with you and are used to your habits.  Do not ask your regular clients, they are used to the atmosphere as much as you are.

Who to invite. Invite the business owner downstairs, or next door if you have a good relationship with them.  As a business owner, they may notice things that you would never think of, and as a non-competitor of your business they are genuinely interested in your success. Invite your sister or your brother (if they don’t frequent your business), they usually don’t hold back (watch out for atomic wedgy’s and nooggies while they are there).  Invite a NEW client !!! Tell them that you will give them a discount for their “services”. This shows your new clients you care about their opinion, value their business, and they are a part of your success !  Hire a consultant or a business coach to do a walk through. One hour should do the trick, maybe two if you have a large business. They are un-bias, and realize that you are paying them for a job and not to coddle your bad habits.

Those of us who are afraid of this experiment, may want to ask ourselves why?  If you work for a business owner who suffers from ‘dirty birdy’ syndrome, might I suggest that you offer to do ONE MEAN CLEAN per month?  This is an event that the entire office/practice/spa can get behind ! This is exactly what it sounds like:  Vacuum, Dust, Wash, Clean (even the windows), throw out old plants and get that storage OUT of there or behind a locked door !!

‘Tabatha’s Salon Take Over’ does this once in a while.  I think its brilliant !  The whole staff gets involved, they feel more apart of the success of the business, and they share a common bond for one day. Providing snacks and beverages (of any kind) doesn’t hurt the morale either !

Even if your clients are not saying it to you, they are noticing. Having a dirty business is a direct reflection of the pride you take in your business. Being dirty at work shows your clients that you aren’t professional. It shows you don’t really care about them – you’re in it for the money, and shows that you aren’t fully invested in your business. 

You’ve worked so hard to get where you are and have a Thriving Business, don’t screw it up because you can’t take the vacuum out of the closet every now and again.  As a former employee, co-worker, and consultant for dirty businesses it’s really frustrating to work for/with someone who doesn’t keep a clean business. As a client, I would simply move on to a different business.

Pick up a dust buster, and get to work people !

Less Talk More Action

The center of all communication is genuine interest. Being interested in your clients means really caring that they are comfortable with you. You can create this atmosphere by making eye contact, not ‘talking over their heads’ in ‘industry language’, and also finding out why they have come to you. Asking questions is essential.

Many times as business owners, we get caught up in selling our services to clients.  We talk and forget to listen.  Our clients have so much to tell us in their speech, body language, and behavior.  They are fascinating when we take the time to really notice them !

Bad Hair Day

One of the most humbling things you can do as a business owner is to give your clients the opportunity to complain about your service. If you are an especially defensive person, or someone who feels that your service is perfect and anyone who does not agree can ‘suck it’, then ….this isn’t the post for you.

However, when my clients leave I often hand them a comment card. It is a simple postcard with my name and address already on it so they can go home and say whatever they were too shy to say to my face before they left. They mail it back to me and I email them to acknowledge their suggestions and THANK THEM ! No matter how rude the card may be.

Now, to my credit I have had about 99% of these come back to me with pleasant things on them. These make me smile and feel like a good person. I wish that all of these were true, but I’m smart enough to know that although they all have wonderful things to say about me, some of these people do not return. Why? That’s when the “other” comment cards that come back REALLY come in handy.

The 1% with negative or ‘room for improvement’ remarks on them are worth ‘millions to me’ ! These are a true testimonial to why I might be losing clients without knowing it. These are the clients who will not be coming back to me and they possibly speak for the few “pleasant comment card clients” who will also not be coming back to me. I study these cards and really try to see the service from their point of view.

Some of the cards I will admit, seem ridiculous and ‘nit picky’. I think, this person MUST be having a “Bad Hair Day”, or they’re just in a bad space and want to criticize me ! These are typical reactions and defensive thoughts because my feelings are hurt. I take pride in what I do and I really want every client to come back to me. But sometimes I will read comments that feel so over the top I think, “there is NO way anyone can make this client happy!” Forget You !

I have to remind myself of why I provide the comment card to these clients to begin with, to improve my business. If I didn’t want to improve upon my service or business there would be no need for constructive criticism. Is there a way I can cut down on the noise this particular client was hearing, can I change my music a bit, or can I maybe spend less time providing a service that isn’t appreciated. There are ALWAYS ways to improve.

Another reason comment cards are important, it gives your clients a medium to “vent ” on rather than using YELP or other social networking sites where your reputation can spread like wild fire ! Often times, clients just want to be heard! If you listen, and acknowledge what they are telling you…its good enough for them. They won’t continue to tell the whole world when you’ve had a bad day.

We all know in this business, we can’t have a bad day at work. Its not like we sit in an office and if we misfile a document or forget to spell check our memo someone will write about us on YELP and we could lose our job. When we have a bad day its effecting clients hair, skin, nails, and stress level ! That’s really powerful and can create alot of hostility, not to mention lose clients for you. Worse than this, most clients will just leave and NOT tell you that something is wrong because 1- they are scared of you 2- don’t like confrontation 3- or they just don’t want to hurt your feelings. Yet, if they have the opportunity to talk to others or post about you, they have no problem doing this.

This is why it is important to approach them in a passive way. They will feel less threatened, more empowered and by acknowledging their opinion and thanking them, you may even see the return of a client who might not have otherwise come back to you.

What’s a snooki?

The final results of the “No TV for a Week Challenge” are in !  I was very surprised by the results. I learned a little about myself, and about other people surprisingly.  The statistics at the bottom of this post are not the result of hours and hours of research, pie charts, and smoking beakers in a lab, just simply a rough estimate of how I spend my life.

I love TV !  I wouldn’t say that I would “marry” it, but I did get married ON IT, so yes…I love TV.  I have been known to audition for a reality show or two, have won a few contests and met celebrities here and there…all fueling my passion for TV.

So it goes without saying that whenever I have met someone in the past who says,”I don’t watch TV” or “I don’t own a TV”, I am bewildered by how they spend their time?!  I instantly ponder what the Hell they do with their free time? I grow nervous and a little perspire-y at the thought of NOT owning a TV. What would I do? How do these people not know who Snooki is? Who the Glam Fairy is? Or which Kardashian is the most annoying? How can they have anything to talk about at parties without guessing who the next American Idol is ?

One day while volunteering at the “Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center” , I sat with 10 other business owners stuffing envelopes for a fund raiser. We all talked about how much time we put into our businesses but it never seemed to be enough.  After going on for 10 minutes about Tabatha’s Salon Takeover, an older woman turned to me and said, “JEEZ if you put as much time into your business as you do watching TV, you’d be a millionaire!”  I laughed at first because I was so taken aback by her bluntness (what a beee-och).  But 1 year later as I was watching a re-run of “Seinfeld” I had seen probably 12 times before, out of the BLUE that woman’s comment came back to me. I really thought about it.

I did a rough estimate of how many hours of TV I watch in a 7 day period. I was shocked, at least 28 hours of TV per week (conservative estimate).  Because our TV is on most of the day I take for granted how many times I stop and watch it.  This includes everything from pausing for a couple of minutes to actually sitting down and watching  hours at a time.

That’s when I decided to shut my TV off for 7 days and see if my life changed for the better, or the worse. And here’s what happened.  The first two days were easy. I found myself glancing at the remote once in a while, but I walked away and found other things to do. I read, did laundry, actually TALKED to my partner, took the time to take better care of my skin every night when I went to bed, played with my dog more, went to bed at a decent hour. I felt more relaxed at night, and I actually felt happier during the day – this in turn, helped me run more errands and get more accomplished during the day while I was at work.

The second and third day it got a bit harder.  I still felt happy during the day, still did ran more errands, and felt alot more productive although, I started to miss TV a bit and ponder what shows were ON that I was missing.

That’s when I started to wonder why I was doing this, and if anyone would KNOW if I actually watched just a LITTLE bit of Modern Family or The Middle. My family and friends grew a bit concerned, my partner caught me looking up the Jerseylicious Website.  They began posting on my wall they wanted me to come back to TV, they felt I was possibly turning Amish, or had joined a NO TV cult of some kind.  This made me really miss TV, I will admit I even became a fan of The Discovery Channel on Facebook just to get close to TV without having to actually watch it.

The Forth day I was so busy with my work schedule and my personal life I had no time to EAT that day, let alone sit down and watch TV.

(To give you an example, I actually attended a WEDDING in between my clients that day.)

That day I felt frazzled and just wiped out. I definitely felt emotional at the end of that day ! That’s when the urge to watch TV really hit me when I got home. I just wanted to ‘zone’ out.  But I didn’t, I went to bed.

The fifth and sixth day is when I started to get weird.  I felt like I was really really tired.  I became very forgetful of things and I felt really drained.  Mentally I felt exhausted from my week, and a bit emotional.  I continued to leave the house during the day and walk my puppy.  I ran errands, and did more housework, I cleaned the fish tank.  But at this point TV wasn’t  an option for me, so I stopped missing it and instead just wanted a mental break.  By the seventh day, I sat down and watched the clock with remote in hand DYING to see the DVR’ed shows I had missed.

What I thought might be a marathon of unwatched shows and mind numbing Ecstasy, turned out to be about 1 hour and 45 minutes of semi entertaining viewing. But I found myself not as interested in what was on.  I turned the TV off and actually went to bed on time.  I read, I talked to my partner, I folded some laundry and continued with my good skin regiment I had developed.

I have gone back to TV a few times in the last two days and its just not as thrilling to me.  Its kinda boring unless there is something I really want to see.  I actually REALLY love magazines ! feeling good during the day when I have gone to bed on time, and the feeling of accomplishment when I’ve washed ALL my makeup off and moisturized before bed (what a dork!)

I’ve learned that those people who don’t a TV aren’t weird, they just have other priorities.  I’ve learned I’m not a bad person for loving TV, and that I do need a small amount of it to keep me sane.  Some people are mediators or avid book readers or knitters, and although I know how to do all of those things I really need a small amount of TV to zone out and give my mind a break or I start to get a little weird.  I feel GREAT that I was able to take a small portion of my life and really examine it.

I think EVERYONE needs to do some self evaluation once in a while.  Just like excluding Dairy, or Gluten, or     John Mayer from your life can change the way you feel – My Self Challenge really taught me the impact of this TV habit.

Statistics:

Wine – drank about 30% less        Food - ate about 30% less  

Puppy – Played about 10% more Cleaned – 50% more                  

Errands- ran 75% more         Happiness – 40% more

Relationship - 30% better

Flow like water…

Marty Morales is a man that has been in my life for a while now. Although not the way you would imagine, he’s happily married to *another* woman.  When he first caught my attention years ago, he was well known for his “Guerrilla Marketing” classes. I sent him an email asking for advice. I asked, in addition, if he would be willing to meet with me. I was sure he would shoo me away with the excuse that ‘he had too many clients’, and that ‘his schedule is way too busy’, like most other practitioners had done. He surprised me be saying neither of these things.

2 weeks later, he sat down and answered my questions, as well as give me advice on myriad of other topics relating to our Industry. As soon as I met him, I liked him. I don’t know why, I just wanted to hug him. He’s got these eyes that make him look like he’s smiling, even when his face isn’t. Aside from his physical attributes, there’s something more special about him, he truly cares about the work he’s doing. Over the years I have contacted him again for advice, bodywork, interviews, as well as colleagues he could refer to me. He’s always made himself available.

The thing about Marty is that even though he is a very busy man with two thriving practices, teaches, and involved in other projects he is never too busy to collaborate. I’ve learned a lot from Marty over the years, more than he will know, about what it takes to be successful in this industry. For example: I was contacted myself, by a student who asked me to mentor her. I arranged a time in the middle of my work day. I started out the door, and my co-worker asked me where I was going.

The conversation went something like this… “I’m going to mentor a massage therapy student”

‘oh’, she said, ‘how much is she paying you?’

“She’s not, I’m doing it for free…I’m mentoring her”

‘really? is she referring clients to you?’ , I was confused…“um, no”

“What are you getting out of it? Why would you give away your advice for free?”

It didn’t dawn on me that one cup of coffee and a 30 minute conversation with a student needed to be charged, or paid back to me. I was simply doing it to be helpful. I answered back to her, (remembering my first meeting with Marty. He never asked me for payment.) “Because that’s what I do in order to be successful, help others. Don’t you ever do volunteer work?”

‘yes, but not when it comes to my business, I’m here to make money!’ she gasped

“well, sometimes it’s not about money for me, it’s about sharing my experience with others” I was frustrated.

I find this attitude typical with a lot of people I’ve worked with in the salon and spa industry. It’s irritating, and I believe that I have become a bit jaded because of it. I speak with a lot of salon and spa people, there are a lot of people who are dramatizing the volume of clients they work with, or the financial status their practice is in. There are a lot of people who are not willing to share any aspect of their work experience with others. I think of how much farther we would all be if we actually shared with one another our experiences rather than keeping it to ourselves and competing with each other.

I sat down with Marty Morales for a follow up interview one year after our original. I was amazed to see he was still willing to be just as open with me about his experiences as always. Marty is a Practitioner who to me is truly successful. Over the last two years I have interviewed a lot of salon and spa professionals. Each one has something special about them. Marty’s been expanding his business gradually over the years, and along the way has hit setbacks that would disappoint most others in this business. Yet, he keeps persevering and continues to make progress.

I expressed to him that at times I feel “jaded” by this industry. I asked him how he keeps such a great attitude when businesses or colleagues set up steep roadblocks in his path to expand his business. He smirks a little and says, “I’m a big Bruce Lee fan, he has this wonderful expression…. ‘be like water, flow like water’.

Even though he is speaking of Martial Arts, here in the business sense, you have to flow like water, when I here “no”, that’s fine…there are other ways around it.” He leans forward with a big smile on his face as if he has just re-assured himself that he is doing the right thing. This is what I find brilliant about Marty Morales, he’s not telling me this because he thinks he’s a spiritual guide, or a guru of any sort. He’s just a cool guy, with a desire to collaborate with others, do great work with clients, and train the next generation of Bodyworkers.

I feel lucky to have him on my side. If you’re interested in having him on your side, go to http://www.instituteforbodywork.com.