Academic institutions that are already running massage therapy programs should be thinking about new ways to grow and evolve them in order to create real quality programs, remain competitive and regain the edge in this rapidly evolving field. Based on my experience, there are many ways in which academic institutions can strengthen their massage therapy programs. I?m only discussing one of them in this blog but some of the others can be accessed in a recent article I wrote at my website: www.Schenkmanconsulting.com at the bottom of the home page. It’s entitled: Massage Therapy Training – The Next Step.  

               Implementing any one of them can make a big difference in the success of the program or school. Institution decision makers should take some time to consider which ways apply to their particular school. Since each institution is in a different place in the evolution of their massage programs, differences in overall mission, philosophy, curriculum, staff and faculty from one school to another will dictate which changes are more relevant to any individual school. However, whether or not any of them apply, it can be extremely beneficial to reflect on these ways and take an objective look at what, if anything, to do next!?

The ?Smorgasbord Syndrome?

                All too often institutions, particularly those with less hours to spare, stuff their programs with a multitude of short courses in different modalities of massage therapy and bodywork in the hopes and mistaken belief that this will somehow have a positive outcome for the graduate and for the school. I call this the ?smorgasbord syndrome.? Although it?s a marketing dream and it may look attractive, appetizing and exciting to an uneducated, prospective enrollee, (as in ?look at all I?m going to learn if I enroll in this program?), it unfortunately frequently produces a program that turns out graduates very weak in the fundamentals and ineffective in the basic foundations and technical competencies of treatment. As a result, it can backfire in a lower pass rate for the school on the licensing/certification exam which can ultimately have serious repercussions for accreditation, Title IV funding, etc….

               Employees who hire these graduates complain about lower competence levels and unprofessional demeanors and don?t keep them on staff. The inability for a school?s graduates to hold on to a job will seriously damage the Institution?s placement stats creating further accreditation and financial aid complications. And it?s not long after that when these graduates begin to wake up to the fact that the program they graduated from was, ?a mile wide and an inch deep.? That said longer programs, wisely developed, do have the room to offer and competently teach a broader array of forms of massage and bodywork which can be of great benefit to the graduate and to the clients they treat.

It is recommended that as a bottom line all basic, entry level professional programs should be at least 600 hours and should be focused on no more than two treatment modalities, i.e., Swedish massage and Shiatsu, or Swedish massage and Deep Tissue,?….. Given that all the other hours need to be spent on adequately teaching the biosciences including: A&P, muscle anatomy, kinesiology, pathology, clinic internship, professional development, ethics and business, etc.. spending precious hours on trying to teach four or five more modalities basically robs the student of a balanced education. Those hours have to come from somewhere!

               An additional modality can be introduced in a 600 hour program, but it should be made clear to students that it is only an introduction and that real competence will come after many more hours of continuing education classes and practice. Upgrading, revising and staying a cut above by offering a longer, more comprehensive program that is marketed properly can reinvigorate a massage therapy school or program and is something that should be carefully considered.  

I’ve found many workshop participants are uncomfortable performing hands-on abdominal work, i.e., pelvic and respiratory diaphragm releases and sometimes even superficial belly techniques. This seems particularly true when working with pregnant clients/patients.

Do you feel belly-work is under-emphasized in massage trainings? Does the area hold too much emotion or possibly too intimate for some? I’ve written a short e-newsletter & posted a video  showing some basic useful structural integration techniques @ http://erikdalton.com/NewslettersOnline/Sept_09_Newsletter.htm

Some new developments concerning structural differences may also add fuel to the gender phenomena fire. Several biomedical journals have published articles implicating inherited anatomical factors. Studies indicate that, as a group, women have forty percent less neck musculature than men, yet the female head still represents approximately eight percent of a woman?s total body weight which is the same percentage as in males. These conclusions could help explain why many more women, on average, suffer from migraines, osteoporosis, degenerative disc disease, and forward head postures than men. 

Manual therapists are keenly aware that pain does not afflict the two genders equally. Most medical literature points to consistent findings that women report more musculoskeletal pain than men, and additionally?the females? experience seems to differ significantly from that of their male counterpart. Some researchers believe this discrepancy is due to biological issues since female activities are typically comprised of a different set of risk factors for injury and pain. Others blame genetics such as inherited limbic system (emotional) overactivity and physical structural differences. My wife says I don’t listen to her…your thoughts?

 

According to a Robert Sandos? article in the European Journal of Pain, ?While education and unemployment seemed to be primarily associated with pain among men, economic worries, half-time work, and being married were the most commonly reported pain-generators among women?.

An exceptionally significant postural issue begging for a logical explanation is the ?short right leg syndrome?. Although an inferred awareness of right-sided limb length shortness has existed for thousands of years with decades of published research available, no one has yet to produce a universally acceptable answer to these two basic questions:
1. Why the unusual frequency of short right legs seen in clinic?
2. How does this common limb length discrepancy relate to chronic pain and somatic dysfunction?

How do you measure leg length…supine or prone and what’s the difference?

 You are creating packages and pricing for your massage therapy practice. You have services and products to sell in several prices ranges and you aren?t sure where to start.

Should you present the least expensive service first, the mid-priced product second ending with the most expensive? Or start with the mid-priced product? It seems like starting with the least expensive service first makes sense, because you don?t scare the prospect away with a high-ticket item.

But that?s NOT what you should do.

What you should do may go against what seems like common sense, but is proven to not only sell more products, but in the long-run results in clients spending more money overall.

The key to making more money overall and selling more massage therapy products and services is to sell the most expensive item first. Robert Cialdini gives an example in his book The Psychology of Persuasion of men?s clothing salesmen. If a man walks in and asks to look at suits, sweaters and other accessories you should always present him with the suit first. After deciding on a $500 suit, a $200 sweater or a $150 belt seems inexpensive and he is more likely to buy all of them.

And because he just decided on a nice suit he realizes he should have high quality accessories to go with it and is more likely to spend more.

Another example Cialdini gives is a strategy used by car salespeople. They first sell you on the price and style of the car. They make the car easy and affordable to buy. After you?ve agreed on the price and type of car, they then offer you smaller items to add on. Upgraded seats, a nice stereo system, etc. What?s a couple hundred more dollars to the $25,000 you are spending on your new car? All those accessories add to a nice chunk of profits in the end.

Offering the most expensive product first is called ?the contrast principle? and automatically triggers certain responses in humans. It?s psychology.

Failing to use the contrast principle and selling the inexpensive items first will not only make the more expensive items seem and feeeeeel more expensive, but it actually causes the contrast principle to work against you ? it causes the more expensive item to seem even more expensive that it actually is.

This principle works so effectively because of the mood or atmosphere created in the beginning. When used effectively the mood you create is leveraged on the secondary sales items.

Let?s take a closer look at why this principle really works so well. You can try this experiment yourself. Get three buckets and fill them with water. Fill one with hot water, one with very cold water and one with lukewarm water. Put your left hand in the hot water and your right in the cold water. After a minute or so take both hands out and place both hands in the lukewarm water at the same time.

When you feel is truly amazing! Logically you know the lukewarm water is one temperature, but both hands are experiencing something very different. The hand in the hot water feels like the water is very cold, while the other hand is feeling warmth.  Because of what they experienced before they were merged into the cold water.

What?s important to take away for your sales copy is to know what impression you want to make with your reader. Whether you want your product to seem expensive or inexpensive ? the perception is influenced by what you present first.

About the author

Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning author, copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. Kelly is a blogger for both ChiroEco and MassageMagazine and is the author of Marketing 101: Why Successful Alternative Healthcare Practitioners Specialize as well as co-author of The Practice Evolution Success Kit. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, ?5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales

Article marketing is one of the many online tools for promoting your website, your massage business, your massage school, your massage ce classes, your related massage products that is not very well known by massage therapists.

Article marketing is writing short, to the point articles and posting them on various free services such as ezinearticles.com or one of the many article marketing sites.

The main goal of article marketing really is to get the link to your site.  It doesn’t necessarily about getting people to click on the link but that can help too.  The search engines love to see that you have other sites out there that are linking to you.  They want to know that you are popular.  Most search engines rate and find your site based on the keywords you use in your site and pages and also how many backlinks (other sites linking to you) you have to your site.  They don’t really care if you create your own or not!

Writing in depth articles can also help you become recognized as an expert in your area, field or whatever it is that you are promoting.  Massage schools and massage ce teachers could benefit by writing articles about what their classes are and will do for people.  So many teachers miss the boat for promoting themselves.

Article marketing is fairly easy.   I also have set up a free article directory for massage therapists to add their articles too.  It is just a blog really that I have set up on my site www.thebodyworker.com The way it works is that you just create a free login.  You have to have a valid email address to get the login information.  After you get that you can login and post articles through the dashboard.   It works just like a word processor really.   Here are some ideas for articles that might help you get going:

For massage therapists promoting their business

• massage and fibromyalgia
• massage and cancer
• how muscles get tight
• the real benefits of massage
• describe your unique blend of techniques

For massage teachers/authors/massage schools:

• write articles on a topic that you talk about in your class or school or book and just write enough to want people to know more and then leave a link where they can find out more.
• Write why your class or school is different and what it will do for massage therapists – what will it do for their massage business or in getting a job?
• Write personal things about why you are doing this and what doing massage and doing the things you do mean to you.

In each article you can leave a link to your website.  To create a link just select the text you want to make into a link and click on the link symbol at the top and it will pop up a new box where you enter the exact address.  Select open in new window.   To get people interested in your link use it in an example or put something like :  For more information (on my very interesting class/school/topic) see my website

I started this awhile ago but only have a few articles written.  I don’t think people quite understand the reasons or methods of article marketing so let me know if you have questions.   I started doing an intensive article marketing campaign last month and my website traffic is increasing quickly which in the summer it is usually quite the opposite as far as traffic goes.

I had a blast at the National Convention in Orlando last week. There was so much going on, both in the open and behind the scenes, it was a whirlwind just trying to take it all in. The Rosen Shingle Creek Resort was a beautiful venue for our meeting. My only complaint was that the room was way too small for the opening ceremony; many people couldn’t get in or had to stand the whole time. Otherwise, the accommodations were superior, the food was good, and the staff was very personable and friendly.

I?m sure it will surprise my readers to know that one of the high points of my trip was the better part of an hour that I spent with Paul Lindamood, CEO of the NCBTMB. I?ve written many things about the NCB in the past two years, the majority of it uncomplimentary, and have openly criticized Mr. Lindamood personally on several occasions, so it was quite shocking to some of the membership who chanced to walk by to see us sitting in an open area having a chat. Rick Rosen, newly installed at the helm of the recently formed Alliance for Massage Therapy Education, couldn?t resist taking a picture.

I have to give him credit; Lindamood listened to what I had to say about the NCB and the disappointment I and many others have felt about the direction the organization has taken in the past few years. Whether he acts on any of it is yet to be seen, but I did come away from our conversation feeling like he paid attention to my long litany of woes. He even made the comment that although a lot of my blog posts have been distressing to him, he admired me for speaking out about it. No, this does not mean I have had a sudden change of heart about the NCB…however, I have always said that I did not want this organization to go away; I want them to get back on task, so I’ll be watching them like a hawk and seeing what happens–and of course reporting on it.

Speaking of Rick Rosen, it appears he has manifested his appeal for a ?dignified sunset? of the Council of Schools. That in fact is happening; the Board of Directors voted to adopt bylaw changes that elminate the COS and all language relating them. The Alliance is the logical entity to replace that organization. At this stage, the startup of the Alliance is being guided by a six-member Leadership Team of veteran educators. They are in the process of incorporating the organization, creating an administrative headquarters, and planning for the first Annual Meeting in mid-2010.

I’m sure one of the highlights of Rick Rosen’s trip was watching with pride as his wife Carey Smith was given the Jerome Perlinski Teacher of the Year Award. Carey has been educating students as well as other educators for many years, and her award was well-deserved.

Another highlight of the trip for me was meeting so many Facebook friends. Most of you know I?m a huge proponent of Internet networking and I was just thrilled to death to meet so many in person that I?ve known through Facebook, Twitter, and the massageprofessionals.com website. A group of Facebook friends gathered on Wednesday evening, and I met others throughout the convention. Xerlan Geiser-Deery, who practices in Oklahoma and who just started a blog of her own, was one of my favorites, as was Allissa Haines from the MA chapter. Alissa appointed herself the Fashion Police during the convention, and I must say, her critiques were spot-on. Lounging by the pool is one thing, but is it really acceptable to attend a class or a business dinner with your belly-button hanging out? A number of people apparently think it is. Allissa was taking names.

I spent quite a bit of time at the booth of the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards. I?m North Carolina?s delegate this year and was pleased to see so many folks stopping by the booth to inquire about the MBLEx and the other benefits of Federation membership. I spent some quality time with Sally Hacking, who was given a very beautiful award from AMTA; also visited with Debra Persinger, Kevin Snedden, and Scott Miller, all of whom I’ll be seeing again in a couple of weeks at the Federation’s annual meeting.

I was also pleased to meet Glen Moyle, who will be our national president during 2011, and her husband Gordon. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time talking with Gordon, who is a fascinating person with a lot of interesting stories to tell. I sat with them during the Massage Therapy Research Foundation reception. I took a picture of Gordon with Ruth Werner?s husband Curt, who also sat with us. These two are the prime illustration of good men being behind great women.

Diana Thompson had great news to report about the donations the Foundation has received in the past year, and Ruth gave a short speech about her upcoming term as the new leader, just before her beautiful donated quilt was raffled off.

Thursday night I enjoyed the annual LWW author’s dinner. It’s fun meeting all the other Lippincott authors and hearing what everyone is up to. I gave Nina McIntosh, who is ill and couldn’t be with us this year, a quick call and we all yelled our greetings to her. She was with us in spirit.

Also seen and heard: I met Michael Reynolds, president of the Indiana chapter, who is also a FB friend and someone I have long admired from a distance. His company, Spinweb, makes fabulous websites, and Michael is very generous with the marketing advice he shares on FB. He is every bit as charming in person as he is on FB?..also pleased to finally meet Leslie Young Giase, editor of Massage & Bodywork Magazine; Sid Duncan, who does marketing for Massage Magazine, Kim Goral, whom Allissa predicted will one day be president of the Foundation; Cliff Korn, snappy-looking in a green blazer. I was also glad to see many AMTA friends from NC, SC, and GA.

I did hear the distressing news that Florida is considering the passage of HB139, which will exempt graduates from accredited schools from taking any kind of licensure exam. I strongly urge our neighbors to the south to nip this action in the bud. Sometimes schools are guilty of passing students who aren’t up to par just to get rid of them. I don’t think this is a good move, and I hope this bill is soundly defeated.

All in all, it was a great trip. If YOU have never attended a national convention, you are missing out on one heck of a good time. Even the ABMP folks were there; you don’t have to be a member to attend. There is something totally awesome about being among 1000 or so other massage therapists. It’s absolutely restorative! Next year’s convention will be held in Minneapolis, so make plans now to join us.

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen

First off, I would like to apologize to all the people who have made comments on my blog that are not posted. There has been an ongoing problem with this now for several months and for some reason, no comments are being posted. Management is aware of the problem and is working to fix it. It has apparently affected most of us, not just me. The comments are there in line, they’re just not making it into print, and I’m sorry. I don’t withhold any comments, including those from people who disagree with me, so hopefully this will be resolved sooner rather than later. I do appreciate everyone who has commented on my posts.

Now on to the real topic today, and that’s about attitude. My fellow blogger here, Julie Onofrio, directed me to a website the other day that was full of therapists who were all making extremely negative comments about our profession and how they aren’t making a living, whining about their lack of clients and the general decay of the massage profession. Not being one to mince words (and neither is Julie), I was appalled at what I read and think it’s a bunch of claptrap. I firmly believe that your business can be whatever you make it.

I want to state clearly that the county that I live in is the 2nd most economically depressed county in North Carolina, out of the 100 counties in our state. We have the second highest unemployment rate in NC, and of towns our size, the 13th highest unemployment rate in the nation. And in spite of that, my business is rocking to the point that just this week I took over another suite of adjoining offices, adding four more therapy rooms, and hired additional staff to handle the clients.

We aren’t cheap, but neither do we cater to the rich and famous. There aren’t any celebrities that I know of in Rutherfordton, NC. There are just honest working folks, or I should say, they would be working if they hadn’t been laid off when their plant closed down and moved out of the country. I think when people are stressed out, whether that’s over money or some other reason, they need a massage. Maybe the people who can’t afford to take a vacation this year are getting a massage instead. Whatever the reason, we’re booming, and I’m very thankful.

In reality, I attribute the success of my business to one thing, and that’s the positive attitude of my staff. People feel welcome when they come in the door. They receive the best service we know how to give, and they are made to feel appreciated for choosing to spend their money with us.

I just received my first massage this afternoon from a new therapist I hired a couple of days ago. I don’t believe in making therapists “audition” for a job at my place. I hire them based on attitude. I can teach a monkey how to give a good massage. I can’t teach anybody how to have a great attitude. I’m glad it was a great massage, but the bottom line is, it was her personality and great attitude that caused me to give her a job.

I’m a big believer in the law of attraction, that whatever you put out there is exactly what you’ll get back. So if you’re dragging to work every day with the thought that you aren’t going to make the money you need, the universe is going to see to it that you don’t. I choose to go to work every day trusting that my needs are going to be met, and they have been. If I go to work whining that I’m not going to have a good prosperous day, I am virtually assuring myself that I won’t have one.

You can’t sit around waiting for business to come in the door. You have to go out and get it. You have to make it a point to tell at least two new people a day about your business, and give away at least two of your business cards every day. You have to network with other small business owners and others at every opportunity. You have to be prepared to look at every new person you meet as a potential client. You have to see to it that the clients you do get are so thrilled with your services they go out and tell a dozen other people. You have to work at it! And you have to have an attitude of success, even when your success has not yet arrived.

If you set concrete goals, if you’re working toward them and doing the absolute best that you can, and you don’t give up, it will happen for you. On that note, I’ll sign off with a quote from Thomas Edison: Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close to success they were when they gave up.

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen

Social Networking is the latest craze as many of you are well aware of.  Figuring out what is the best use of your time is important when considering participating in these networks.  How will you find the best opportunities to get new and repeat clients?

Twitter is one of the easiest to use and get results with.   If you don’t know what twitter is yet, it is an online network that you sign up with for free.  Create a twitter account to just be used with your business.  Twitter is unique in that it only allows you a few sentences of space to use to communicate with people.   But who are you communicating with?   People can sign up to ‘follow’ your postings.  But where do you get people?   The best place is to put a twitter feed on your website.  You can get the code to put a twitter badge on your website by going to the Settings page.  In about the middle of that section there is a place for you to put your website address but right under that is a link that says:

(You can also add Twitter to your site here)

Click on that and click on the other tab (or one of the others if you are using one of those systems for your website.)  Click to create a badge.  You can add what you want it to say on the top or whether or not you want to create a flash badge or a html badge.  The flash badge will be interactive and show people’s reply ( I think!) So just copy and paste the code into your webpage where you want it.  I have mine on my homepage above the fold (near the top) where it is the highest profile and also on my services pages.  I also just created a twitter page that people can go to directly.  You can see how I am using it at www.massageseattle.net  I actually just started using it last week and have already gotten 3 new clients.  I also have quite a few visitors to my website and it already gets me a lot of calls but I think it will help even more by making this info of my schedule availability more public.  I am also sending a series of posts based using “you know you need a massage when you ….” and then will do a top ten reasons for getting a massage or something like that and see how that goes.

Facebook – Facebook is fairly time consuming.  It is really important to set up a business only listing.  What facebook is better for is finding your old high school buddies and long lost loves.  You are supposedly not allowed to set up more than one facebook profile.  They do have a way to make a business page and have it connected to your personal page but to me it is not private enough.  I personally don’t mix clients and friends.  You can use facebook to create more messages and even use it like a mini website if you don’t already have your own.  You can search facebook members to find businesses and doctors or other people who you want in your referral network and ask them to be your friend.  You can write a small newsletter like posts.  People can post on your wall or you can opt to not allow people to do that.  The thing I don’t like about Facebook is that people who become your friends will also have access to see each others profiles which may not be a good thing for your clients who want their privacy.  I did find a facebook group for my office building when they were having an open house that I could become a fan of and post my message about being the massage therapist in the building.

Linkedin in works sort of the same way as facebook but it doesn’t connect you with all of your old friends.  Linkedin is more of a professional networking site.  They also have a section where people ask questions like yahooanswers but it is much more professional than answers is.  You may possibly find someone looking for a massage but it is more like looking for a needle in the haystack.

I am not a big fan of social networking because of the time it takes to put into it all.  I would rather be writing a new article for my website to educate people who are already interested in getting a massage.  My website is found for the keywords that I have chosen – downtown seattle massage and it comes up first on Google and most of the other major search engines so writing there is more targeted advertising.  Also writing more content and educating people about massage and muscles and how the body and massage work together is a way of building trust with people.  When they read a website full of information and research they will get the feeling that you know what you are doing and trust you enough to make the call.

So if you are using one of these or other social networking sites successfully I would love to know what you are doing!

Hello all,

I’m not one to pour my energy into politics but there are times when something catches my attention.  Here is one such thing that I think deserves passing along and following because it could positively affect funding for complementary therapies in hospice and palliative care.  The following information is from this web link http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=HealthCare

In June 2009, Senator Warner introduced the Senior Navigation and Planning Act of 2009, health reform legislation that will strengthen the quality and availability of counseling, support services, and care management for patients and families coping with life-limiting illnesses.  The legislation includes:

• Enhanced Medicare and Medicaid Coverage of Advanced Illness Care Management Services
• A Requirement for Physicians to Provide Certain Medicare Beneficiaries with Information on Advance Directives and other Planning Tools
• Incentives for Providers to Achieve Accreditation and Certification in Hospice and Palliative Care
• More Comprehensive Discharge Planning for Facilities
• Increased Public Awareness about the Importance of End-of-life Planning

Several prominent organization have endorsed the legislation, including the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. An important element of the legislation in my view is that it enhances much needed end-of-life education for physicians along with public education about advanced directive. 

I don’t bring this up to endorse a political stand but rather to shine a light on this important conversation taking place on a national stage about end of life care.  Take a look at the link– what do you think about its possible impact on funding for our services?

Until next time, enjoy the gifts of summer!
Many blessings,
Ann