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Archive for modality

What are you offering?

by Maggie Ostara · Comments (0)
08 Feb

Being clear, concise, and compelling about your offerings is critical to your business success. It’s one of the areas that I see evolutionary entrepreneurs struggle with the most. Shifting your thinking on this one subject will change your entire outlook, your income, and the stability of your business.

I could go on about this all day, but today I want to outline three key strategies for you to consider regarding your offerings.

Shift from thinking in terms of your modality to thinking in terms of the value that you truly provide–how someone evolves as a result of working with you. To do that you usually need to emphasize consistent work over a period of time rather than individual or even packaged sessions.

Most people are trained (if they are trained in business at all) to offer sessions in the field in which they were certified. These might be individual sessions, or they might also include a package of sessions, usually with a discount for a package.

I know I was, and so are so many of you that I speak and work with. As a Certified Clarity Breathworker, I was trained to offer a package of ten sessions, providing a 10% discount when someone pays in full for that package, or to offer individual sessions. Many holistic healers–acupuncturists, massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, hypnotherapists, and so on–were trained similarly to offer individual sessions even though, very often, the true value of their work comes with consistent treatment over time.

Evolution does not (generally) happen in a day, or a session (although it can).

By not emphasizing the significance of a longer term commitment, and not creating a structure that makes it easy for your clients to make this commitment, you are actually inhibiting their care and the rate of their evolution.

The biggest hindrance for the business owner is that as long you say “I’m a massage therapist” or “an NLP practitioner” you will always be fit into that box. The result is that you will only be thought of in terms of that modality (not in terms of either you or the evolution you provide), and what you can charge will be determined largely by the going rate for that modality. There is some flexibility here, but not very much.

When you shift your thinking from sessions to value and evolution, everything changes. You will create programs that draw upon all of the different areas of expertise that you have to bring about the evolution you are capable of facilitating. It’s the outcome and your ability to provide that that you are then promoting, and the entire conversation changes. More on this in the next note.

The other huge benefit for you is that you create programs that continue over a period of months, and this provides you with recurring income. That is income which is committed for a period of time that you do not need to generate anew every month. Instead of starting your month at zero, you start at $1000, $5000 or $15,000 or more and you build from there. Nice, huh?

Create simple, clear, and concise offerings that are described in terms of benefits and outcomes.

This becomes easier once you begin thinking about the evolution that you provide. I was speaking with one new client yesterday about exactly this issue. She has been in the mode as I describe above, of individually selling her massage sessions and packages, and her yoga classes. When I asked her what offerings are, her answer was difficult to understand because she has so many different rates and packages depending on frequency that I could not understand what she’s offering.

When I asked her what the primary benefit is that most of her clients get from working with her, she named several intangible experiences, like greater awareness and more choices. When I continued to probe, I discovered that relieving pain is the first thing that people come to her for. She’s an expert at helping people recover from injury and dysfunction so that they lead a pain-free life. Wow! Now that’s exciting.

In our conversation, I guided her to create a program that supports a life without pain. Her clients will get the benefit of a customized plan spanning a period of time that is designed specifically to help them first relieve the pain they’ve been experiencing and then develop a lifestyle that prevents the cause of pain from recurring in the future.

So rather than have a series of packages that are difficult to understand, she will now streamline her offerings to focus everyone toward this longer term, super high value program that is best for her clients, and much more stable and lucrative for her.

Create a clear progression of offerings.

You want to have a progression of offerings, not just a set of packages. When you begin to focus on evolution, you begin to see that you start with someone in one place and take them on journey with you through your offerings.

This gives your clients options for how to work with you, and it gives them a sense that they can grow and evolve with you. They aren’t just coming to you for one session (to make them feel better). They are getting to know you and taking steps along a path to having the life they truly want in relation to what is your area of expertise.

For example, maybe you offer a free introductory evening in which you give participants a taste of what it’s like to work with you. From there you invite them to a complementary session (a strategy session, discovery session, a vitality session) in which personalize your approach to them, and invite them to take the next step by working with you.

When you have a few simple, clear, and concise paid offerings, you can advise them which of your offerings is right for them based on their desires and needs. And as your business matures and grows, you will have a number of offerings at increasing price points with increasing levels of value and commitment so that you have something that is right for anyone who is an ideal client for you.

Using these three strategies you will become a master of evolutionary business that is best for you, and best for you clients.

Comments (0)
Categories : Uncategorized
Tags : consistent treatment, consistent work, hindrance, hypnotherapists, massage therapist, massage therapists, modality, nlp practitioner, offerings, period of time, reiki practitioners, sessions, struggle, term commitment, time evolution, true value

Do You Stand Out?

by Maggie Ostara · Comments (0)
25 Jan

On my latest visit to my favorite retreat center, I took notice of the array of business cards on the table inside. Like other retreat centers, this one is a gathering place for people wanting to relax and rejuvenate. On the table were spread out a whole display of business cards, almost all of them from people in the same industry: massage therapy.

At least that’s what all the cards said. Massage therapy.

It was virtually impossible to tell anything about the individuals whose cards were spread out on the table. Very few of them had photographs (always have a photo on your business card!). And the cards said almost nothing distinctive so that a viewer might know what to choose one vs. another.

None of them stood out.

There’s another retreat center that I visit (a much bigger one) where they have a number of massage therapists working at any one time. Each one who is working has a flyer posted so that patrons can choose who they want to hire for a session. Most of them have photos, so you can get a little bit of a sense of them from that. They often list the different types of body work offered: Esalen, Swedish, deep tissue, Reiki, Shiatsu. But very little about the person, or what specifically this person could help you with (other than relax and reduce stress).

Very few of them stand out in this massage mall. And this is far too common.

Instead of standing out, you fade into a sea of business cards, or faces with serene looks, or listings of types of body work (or coaching or counseling or teaching . . .).

Because most practitioners in the healing arts identify as just that–a practitioner in the healing arts. They present their modality and their training in their promotional material, rather than anything specific about themselves, what makes them different, and why you would want to pick them out of the crowd.

That’s what “The Flavor of You” is all about. Knowing so clearly who you are and what you’re offering that it oozes out from the words you use, your essence shines from your photographs, and everything you present speaks loudly of who you are.

Now this is one part of the equation because there’s also the matter of what can you do for your people, what do you specialize in, and what outcomes or results can people expect from working with you? That has to do with who your people are–focusing in on a specific type of person so that you actually come into focus for them (but that’s for another article).

Right now I’m focusing on YOU and the importance of you standing out from the crowd. Because if you don’t, it’s extremely difficult to build a successful business. There are simply too many other people in your same industry doing work similar to yours–or at least that’s what it seems like from the way you present yourself.

What can you do about that? You can discover what is different about you and emphasize it! Because the truth is, there is only one of you ever–you are unique. And you have a specific combination of gifts, talents, skills and life experience that, when fully acknowledged and appreciated, become the basis of you being an expert in your OWN field. That’s right. You define the field in which you are working and you stand out like never before. That’s the magic of “The Flavor of You.”

Comments (0)
Categories : Uncategorized
Tags : crowd, deep tissue, faces, gathering place, healing arts, little bit, massage therapists, massage therapy, modality, patrons, promotional material, retreat center, retreat centers, shiatsu, stress

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Maggie Says:

Forgive yourself for choices you’ve made in the past, consciously or unconsciously, and move forward.
Get creative and be the author of your story, rather than at the mercy of your story.
Decide that it’s Possible. Accept nothing less than your birthright of full self - expression and empowerment.
Now is the time of rapid and miraculous change. Ride the wave.
With patience, intention, and support, it really is possible to receive and align with what you want, with who you are.
Let your creativity be your guidance.
Open your awareness to the abundance that is surrounding you at this very moment.
Listen to yourself and your own heart. Clear the way so that you have space, and time, and energy, to be you.
Stretch to feel the light of your Soul that burns in the core of your being. Stretch and the fear will begin to melt.
It matters that you show up fully as who you are to share yourself, your gifts and your contribution with others.
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