Upcoming Events: Open House

Update on my study/mentor programs: I'm almost caught up with reading my massage magazines--chugging away impressively at a week and a half per magazine. Just 2 1/2 more magazines to read, then I'll be all caught up (until the next one arrives!). Once I'm caught up, I will be able to pore my attention into these programs. I feel confident that I can be ready to launch and begin really marketing for the study/mentor programs by the end of the year.

Ah, the end of the year. It is September now, so be careful--in the blink of an eye, it'll be January!

The tail end of this month marks my 5th anniversary as a licensed massage therapist. I've decided to celebrate by hosting an open house in the office on Saturday, October 8th from 9am-6pm. I plan on having a drawing for at least one free massage. Stop in and get one entry. Bring a friend with you (who is not an existing client of mine) and you both get two entries. Book a massage appointment within the month of October or buy a gift certificate and get another entry. If your friend books their first massage session with me within the month of October, they'll get 2 entries into the drawing. I'll have some light refreshments. This will be a great opportunity to ask any questions you might have about anything massage related, or specific to my business. Or just come in and peek at my new room!

Rumor has it we'll be having an acupuncturist joining the team at Heidi's soon--into my old room downstairs next to my new room. As I find out more information about that, I'll see if he'd like to participate in my open house event as well. 

Are you following me on Facebook? If not, you'll really want to start! As my clients from years past may remember, I had a pretty fantastic offer go out for Black Friday last year. I plan on running the same special (with minor provisions)--but I think I may only be announcing it on my Facebook Page this year--and that's why I'm emailing this post to everyone as well. I'd also love to have this blog be more of a back-and-forth between us, so your comments are always welcome and appreciated. Subscribe to my blog & follow me on Facebook now. You won't want to miss this!!

If the Black Friday tease isn't enough reason for you to follow me on Facebook, try this: I often post my same-day open appointments at $15 off. This is good news for those that aren't able to book in advance due to complicated/inconsistent/irregular schedules. There's often only a few hours' notice for these appointments, so you really have to keep your eye out.

Upcoming Events

I'm still fine-tuning my time management, as you can see. It's been too long since my last post once again, but I tell you now, I just set a recurring appointment for myself to get in here and write something once a week. My apologies for missing a few this summer. 

Our CD of the month for August is another of Gary Jess'. The album is Northwest Trilogy. If you recall, I have another CD from Gary Jess featuring piano work. This one also has piano, and to be very honest, I think I like the other CD better. There's a track on this one that reminds me of the Doogie Howser intro, in a minor, gentle way. It did inspire me to watch an episode on Hulu today though! Love those blasts from the past. :)

Room Update: I have transitioned into my new room--yay! The only left to do is get my certificates hung on the wall. I have an open wall that is waiting for some beautiful piece of art to go on. I initially was drawn to panel-type sconces in the Partylite catalog, but wound up changing my mind about them. 

Speaking of Partylite, I finally got my show to close and am anxiously waiting for all my new things to come in. I forgot to order one of their seasonings (yes, if you didn't know, they're carrying a small food line now too!) that my hostess prepared into a dip for our party. She didn't mention that it was a Partylite item (we devoured my Blueberry Buckle instead), though that may have encouraged more sales if she had. I don't have the catalog in front of me now, but I think it was some kind of Buffalo-Blue Cheese seasoning mix that she added to equal parts mayo and sour cream. SO good! Fortunately, I do have lots of leftover hostess credit coming my way in the form of product certificates, so I will be able to order some soon enough. No, I'm not a consultant myself, so if you ever find yourself with access to placing a Partylite order, I do highly recommend ordering that seasoning. It has a little zing to it, but not too much. Delish. Consider this plug my recipe of the month for last month in lieu of a full post for it. ;)

My study and mentor programs are slowly creeping along in progress. Very slowly. I am starting from the ground up here, and have just made a crucial decision on how to structure this, so that's been helpful. There's so much information to cover, I didn't know where to start with it all at first. It may be several months before I can comfortably launch it as a means of generating income for me. 

PS--Remember to put on sunscreen on these gorgeously sunny days we've been getting! A client of mine recommends Mexitan organic sunscreen. I haven't tried it yet, but it comes with such high regard from her, that I feel confident in sharing it with you.

Upcoming Events

I hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July celebration and took advantage of that awesome weather we had. We found ourselves cutting down two poorly placed trees in our backyard and attempting to remove the stumps that weekend. We've since gotten one of the stumps out, and now: back to rain. Nonetheless, I love Oregon. The cooler, wet weather gives us an excuse to let our bodies rest from our newfound homeownership-induced weekend warrior status. 

I've got a few things up my sleeve to tell you about this month. On Sunday, I'm planning on painting the walls of the bigger room next door to my massage room and begin to move into that room. After nearly 3 years in my current room, I'm beyond ready to stretch out my legs. The extra space will be put to use during the workshops I'm trained to teach to other massage therapists, as well as my new project. My business is taking me in another new direction, a pull I can't resist and am SO excited about. I'm in the process of creating study and mentor programs to help newly graduated massage therapists prepare for their licensing exams, get a job, and/or learn to build their own clientele through my help and guidance. 

The study and mentor programs are in the very early stages of development, but I'm hoping to be ready to launch them within the next month or two. As much as I enjoy the hands-on aspect of my job, it still surprises me how much I enjoy the behind-the-scenes business-end of my job, and I feel these new programs will bring a fun twist for me.

In other news, our CD of the month is Medwyn Goodall's Medicine Woman. 

I recently had a client come back to see me after a 3 year span since his last massage with me. Upon seeing the picture above, he said he liked the picture, and thought of me as a medicine woman, not realizing that it was the cover to the CD we were listening to. 

Other client testimonials this week include another client I hadn't seen for a year who stated the he must get massages more often, and would have to get his wife to come in. 

The testimonial I am most excited about was not even an expression of words, but the very dramatic difference I made with her physically, which has now inspired me to keep a little video camera at the office so I can document before and after massage results. When this client was first laying on my table, face down, I thought she was uncomfortable due to seeing wrinkles in her skin where her shoulder and neck seemed cramped. She said she was fine, readjusted a little, and was able to move her shoulder away from her neck a little, but it was still quite "stuck." After my work with her, both her shoulders were leveled out, and she felt the opposite shoulder was the one that was raised up near her neck--she felt so out-of-balance that "normal" now felt wrong to her! 

If you find yourself on my table, and I see something that I think will show dramatic visual results such as this, I may very likely be asking your permission to take some before and after video that I can post on my website for others to see. I so wish I had the opportunity to do that with this client, the results were absolutely amazing!

One more side note: I am hosting a PartyLite party this Saturday to replenish my stock of candles that I use during massages. If you'd like to order and contribute to the sales of my party, you can do so here. Just click on Shop, then Look Up Your Host and enter in my name for your order to be applied to my party. And much appreciation, as always!! I'm excited to be adding their water fountain and maybe a few other things to my "new" massage room soon!