Massage Warsaw- Massage Therapy – Warsaw Acupuncture

Category: Massage Marketing & Management

  • 'Tis the Season

    For massage therapists, Christmas usually comes pretty early…. about 4 months early. After business slows to a crawl in the summer, September usually brings a pretty sharp spike in business. It seems that every year as soon as the weather starts to cool a bit there is a flood of new clients looking for a massage. It’s different from the “slip and fall season” of the winter, the ” gardening back pain season” of the spring, or the “weekend warrior season” of the summer. This busy season is different in that it has nothing to do with physical activity or accidents and everything to do with insurance.

    Most people with full time jobs have extended health care benefits as part of their salary. The average person has a pool of about $500 that can be used to pay for massage therapy. These benefits can be used and drawn upon until the end of the year, at which time they expire and the balance is magically reset to $500. This means that if you don’t use your benefits in the current period, you basically lose it… all $500 of it. This is otherwise known as the “use it or lose it” system, and September is the time of year when the heavens open up, light bulbs go off and people suddenly realise that they only have 4 months left to get approximately 6 massages otherwise it’s money out the window. This is not exactly the most worrisome predicament in the world and I am sure you will somehow find a way to work through it. Remember to first check with your insurance provider to find out the details of your policy. Specifically you need to know how much is covered in total, how much is covered per visit, and what paperwork (usually a doctor’s note) is required in order to qualify for benefits.

    The beauty of the September insurance rush is the opportunities it brings to change your life. Simply dedicating some time regularly to caring about your health can open many doors to you. During their first massage, people often become aware of what is happening to their bodies as a result of the habits of their lifestyle. From this first glance, many become regular massage addicts, yoga students and gym members. This is the perfect season to start down that path of developing healthy habits that could help you live a longer, healthier, happier life.

  • Not as bad as I thought

    As soon as my shift was done, I jumped on the computer to see the damage.  I would’ve loved to have seen it live, but work called.  Luckily enough, Global TV keeps all their news broadcasts online for a month after airing, so if you would like to catch a glimpse of my brush with fame, check out Global TV’s Website. You will need to click on “Family Health” on the left navigation bar, then click on the video clip for “Detox Diets”.

    You might have trouble finding me.  The video crew came and shot for an hour.  They boiled the raw footage down to a 2:30 segment, and in that, you might be able to see yours truly (the “bald by choice” guy in the black tshirt) for about 10 seconds… just long enough for me to say “flush” (which my friend Amanda finds hilarious).  I was pretty happy that my part got whittled down so much.  Half the time I was talking to the camera I found myself wondering what the heck I was saying. From all the footage we shot, you can see me drinking a glass of water, saying that I lost 8 pounds, and saying “flush!”  Hardly a long career in superstardom… drink water, lose 8 pounds, flush, drink water, lose 8 pounds, flush.  no matter how many times I replayed it, I don’t get it.  I did, however, correctly predict that the box would steal the show.  You can see the box in the opening shot with the anchor people.  I am sure that the box got at least 1 second more air time than me.

    I can’t imagine I will receive a ton of business from the exercise, but that isn’t important.  I think that in this business, the money is secondary.  None of us became RMT’s in order to get rich.  We did it to do a job that we loved.  And the experience was just a lot of fun and a great change of pace.   My name was mentioned (though no mention of my being an RMT).   But most importantly, I get to start every conversation for the next week with “Did you see me on TV the other night?”

    Oh, and as a plus, I emailed the good people at Renew Life and they were so pleased that they offered to mail me some more cleanses to try out.  I will let you know how that develops.

    In the meantime, let me know if you need any celebrities or entertainment at your next event.  And, yes, I do barmitzvahs.

  • The Longest Wait

    Yesterday’s attempt at free publicity is already behind me, but now that the cameras are put away and the lights aren’t glaring in my eyes anymore, I find myself anxious to see how it turned out.  The cast and crew were at my clinic for about an hour and probably put together a minute and a half segment for the news tonight.  The question is what parts will they show for the minute and a half ?  (btw, that’s roughly one tenth the minimum personal allowance according to Andy Warhol, which doesn’t seem quite fair.  It seems that there are way too many people out there that are getting far more of their allotment than they should.  Don’t I deserve at least the full 15 minutes?).  There was the interview which would have been wonderful if it weren’t for my 10 pound swollen tongue which mangled my words and the super slidey sofa which had me slouching and crouching like one of the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings (My Precious…).  Followed by about 4 or 5 shots of me pretending to pop some detox pills and wash them down with water (You won’t believe how technically difficult it can be to take pills).  And then about 10 minutes of still video footage of the Cleanse Smart Detox Box.  So, out of my interview, my taking pills or the footage of the box I’m guessing that the box is going to grab the spotlight away from me.  It is certainly the more photogenic of the two of us.  It didn’t flub its lines.  And it had a lovely colour scheme (I’m not sure how the white balance works on Asians such as myself.  If the camera wasn’t a Sony, I’d probably call it a racist).  But anyway, the show won’t air until 6PM tonight on Global, so I won’t know how much of a leotard I was until then.  For now, I am just stuck imagining the outcome and alternately calling up people telling them to watch the news or stay away from their TV sets.   All this for some free publicity.

  • My 15 Minutes of Infamy

    The cameraman just left with the others from Global TV and I am now breathing a sigh of relief.  I had been offered the chance to be on TV before and had shied away from it.  For some reason, giving a massage on a reality TV show kinda scared the bejeezus out of me so, 2 years ago, I politely declined.  This time for some reason I decided to try it out.  They were doing a story on detoxes and cleanses and just wanted my 2 cents on the experience so i tried it out.  You’re welcome to have a peek.  It should air tomorrow, Wednesday September 23 2009 on the 6 o’clock news.  Also it will be available after 8pm on the Global TV website so that you can watch it over and over and over again and wonder how I knew that a black t-shirt would be so perfect for hiding the rivers of sweat trickling down my upper body.  Myself, I will be watching and re-watching to get an exact count on how many times I really do say um, like, or y’know…… I’ve always been curious.  For those of you that have never met me, ignore the broadcast. I’m usually way more combobulated in person.  It is just that the TV really does add 10 lbs to you… or in this case it added 10 pounds to my tongue making it virtually impossible to articulate.  No matter what I wanted to say, every time I tried to speak that swollen ten pound mass of a tongue in my mouth got in the way.  Anyhoo. don’t say I didn’t warn you.

  • Free Detox Cleanse Diet Book

    If you remember, a few weeks ago, I was on Global TV News for a story they were doing on cleanse diets. Renew Life, the company that produced the detox cleanse was so happy with the coverage that they promised me oodles of free stuff. My swag package finally came in the mail this week and it contained:

    • Fibre Smart
    • Oil Smart
    • Cleanse Smart
    • a book: “The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps” by Brenda Watson, CNC

    I would like to thank Caroline Farquhar of Renew Life for the freebies.  I really do appreciate it and will put the products to good use and hopefully write about them on my blog.  I get the feeling though that somebody else out there would appreciate the book more than me.

    So, if any of you out there would like the book feel free to enter my inaugural first ever on line contest.  There is no charge or cost.  Entry is free.  Simply leave a comment on this page explaining why you would like it.  The best entry gets the book for free (I will pay for shipping within Canada & the States).  I will post the winning entry on my blog.  The deadline is December 31, 2009 at midnight.  So here is your chance.  If you have ever considered doing a detox cleanse diet or would like more info, this is a perfect opportunity.  Or if you just enjoy getting free stuff, this contest is perfect for you.  I can’t imagine there will be a deluge of entries, so the odds are stacked in your favour.  Just give it a try.

  • Jogging for Charity

    I just got an email from the organizers of the Fresh Air Fund Half Marathon in NYC.  It’s a bit far away from Toronto, but it sounds like a great cause.  If any of you can help them out, they would really appreciate it.

    “Would you like to run this year’s New York City Half-Marathon on August 16th while also helping Fresh Air Fund children? Join our Fresh Air Fund-Racers team today! If you would like to register, please visit http://freshair.kintera.org or just click here!  If you have additional questions or are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact Kate at runners@freshair.org or call (800) 367-0003 ext. 8890.”

    Last summer’s NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE was a huge success for The Fresh Air Fund, and we couldn’t have done it without all of our Fund-Racers! Thank you to the dedicated runners who participated through our team and to everyone who came out to support us! We raised more than $125,000 which will go directly to our free programs for NYC children.