The Massage Disadvantage: What Doctors Know About Making Money That Massage Therapists Don't

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How wonderful that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.– Helen Keller

Introduction

Now first off, I am a chiropractor not a writer. So I would expect that many of you naturally are wondering why I wrote this book for massage therapists.

The fact is that I’ve witnessed too many great therapists leaving the profession because they weren’t making enough money to survive. They were amazingly caring people with big dreams who mostly went back to their old jobs because they couldn’t pay their bills. This wasn’t a huge surprise to me because I had many struggles when I first started my practice too but I began wondering why massage therapists weren’t making it like I eventually did.

Over time I came to realize that chiropractors had a huge advantage. We can learn successful patient and practice management techniques in thousands of chiropractic offices all over the world. This gives us a huge competitive advantage. However, massage therapists are lacking this type of coaching which creates a huge dis-advantage for their profession, thus the title of this book.

One of the greatest things when it comes to working with massage therapists is their passion for their profession and their desire to help people. Most are genuinely caring people who went to school because they experienced the healing power of massage therapy first hand and wanted to help others experience it too. It seems like a perfect profession but there’s one big problem. The career length of the average massage therapist is shockingly short, often just a few years.

It highly unlikely in my opinion that this phenomenon is happening because the average massage therapist stops caring about people, finds helping people to be boring, stops believing in the healing powers of massage or has so much cash they don’t need any more money.

Of course, there are many reasons why one might leave the profession but in my experience the number one reason the dropout rate is so high is because massage therapists just can’t make enough money on a consistent basis to pay their bills. Many therapists end up in the same jobs they left when they decided to become a massage therapist except only now they have massive school loans to pay off too.

It’s my belief that if those therapists had made the money they hoped for, many would still be in the profession today and our society would be happier and healthier because of it.

So what happened? Why are so many massage therapists struggling to make a living? Isn’t massage therapy a powerful healing profession? Don’t most people in pain get relief and health benefits with massage therapy? Wouldn’t the average person with no problems at all be healthier with regular massages? That would be hundreds of millions of potentially necessary massages for the profession! So why do I regularly see massage therapists struggling to survive financially?

These questions were my motivation for writing this book. I kept seeing one massage therapist after another going bankrupt and closing their offices, struggling to get by with low paying jobs, or even leaving the profession all together. They loved what they were doing. They loved their clients and their clients loved them but at the end of the day they simply weren’t making enough money to pay their bills, support their families, or their lifestyles.

There are many reasons why I am a chiropractor writing a book for the massage therapy profession. The first of many is that much of the pain and frustration that so many massage therapists experience are the same pain and frustrations that I experienced when I first opened my practice.

I struggled to get patients, felt like nobody understood the value of chiropractic the way I did, felt that most people couldn’t afford chiropractic care, went from one low-paying job to the next, thought I would never be able to afford my own office, felt like I would never make enough money on a steady basis to survive and many, many more! And I’ve heard all of these same fears from countless massage therapists that I’ve spoken to and worked with.

The second reason I wrote this book for the massage profession is because I did overcome all those pains, frustrations, and fears and went on to build a very successful office using proven techniques.

I went from a tiny, hidden office in a strange town with just a few patients and worrying each month if I would be able to pay my bills to having more patients than I could physically handle and more money than I needed or knew how to spend.

The best part of all was the amazing sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and pride in my profession that I felt from this success. The money was nice but nothing can ever replace that feeling of satisfaction, accomplishment, and pride.

So I started asking myself – would so many massage therapists quit the profession after only a few short years if they had a busy office, a strong sense of satisfaction, accomplishment, and pride and an income to match it? I didn’t think they would but I decided to ask countless massage therapists in several countries anyway just to be sure. As I suspected, most therapists I talked to loved what they did and hated to leave it but the biggest problem most faced was that they just couldn’t make enough money on a consistent basis.

As a result many negative emotions begin to surface. They question themselves and their judgment for going into a profession that pays so much less than they expected. They may even start to question the need for massage therapy in the first place. They still love massage but it loses value. They usually deny it at first but after a while those beliefs and feelings begin to come up to the surface. I know those emotions are in there because they’re the same emotions that I felt when I wasn’t making enough money to survive. It wasn’t a fun time. I felt like such an idiot for studying so long and spending so much money on a profession that paid so little.

The good news though is that I overcame all my limitations, started from nothing and built a large and profitable practice. The better news is that you can too. You don’t have to struggle like I did. Just follow the recipe to success. It doesn’t matter whether you’re male or female, young or old, experienced or a new student, an introvert or an extrovert. The path to success is outlined in this book. Yes, there’s a recipe for success just like there’s a recipe for failure. The problem is that it this recipe isn’t widely known especially amongst massage therapists. Now virtually any massage therapist can take control of their life and create a happy, profitable career.

The procedures you’ll learn in the coming chapters have been successfully implemented in thousands of the top chiropractic offices all around the world. They’re not theory. They will work in any city in any country and they’re not the latest marketing fad either. These same procedures were building busy offices long before we were born and they’ll continue to work after we’re all gone. They’re timeless and will serve you well throughout your career. Technology will change but human nature will be the same. I’ve taken the best and most productive of these techniques and adapted them to work for massage therapists.

Although these techniques are powerful, effective, and proven, they’re not magic. They won’t work by themselves. In order to achieve real and lasting success you need two basic character traits of successful people, persistence and determination! You don’t need to be smart, good looking, charismatic, or outgoing. You don’t need any previous business experience, sales or marketing background. Persistence and determination are usually enough to change everything.

The reason I know this to be true is because for years I, too, was struggling in practice and barely able to pay my bills. I was lacking experience, had no money, and was such an introvert I rarely spoke to strangers. After six years I hit rock bottom and stopped trying to be something I wasn’t. Instead I followed a proven path to success using my favorite two tools – persistence and determination. It wasn’t a quick fix but soon I was busy and successful with financial abundance.

As this transformation was happening, I was also speaking to each graduating class at the local massage school. I was already a big believer in massage and it was great to see so many enthusiastic students. However, after a few years I noticed a disturbing trend. Within a year of graduating many of those therapists weren’t working as massage therapist anymore. Instead they were working around town in restaurants, grocery check-out lines, and in retail stores.

Each time I saw one I would ask them what happened and why they weren’t working as a massage therapist any longer and each time the answer was the same. I was told time and time again I didn’t have enough clients so the money wasn’t steady and I needed to pay the bills. They loved massage and I knew from experience that they had good hands but there they were waiting tables or working as a cashier.

What happened? Did the school mislead them and prepare them for a profession nobody wanted or could afford? Was demand for massage that low? Was the competition so high that new graduates didn’t have a chance? Was massage only profitable for the outgoing, charismatic types that could naturally attract people without trying?

After some consideration I realized that the answer to each of those questions was a solid, absolute No. The simple answer was that each of the therapists that left the profession was struggling with the very same challenges that I used to have. In fact, many of them had more skills than I did upon graduating.

I finally realized that the biggest difference was that I had studied with a number of coaches until I had learned solid business skills. If a quiet introvert like me can start with nothing and build a busy office with financial success by following good business procedures then most massage therapists can do the same thing.

I realized it would work for any massage therapist willing to follow the steps and do the work. Before the next class graduated from the local massage school I did some research to see who was teaching massage therapists how to build a successful business. All I saw was a few pamphlets on marketing but there was nothing even close to the powerful systems I had learned.

At that point I decided to create a business system so that my massage therapy friends could be happy and successful too. It seemed like a simple and necessary idea at the time; little did I know that it would be years of work and thousands of hours before it would be complete. Now that it’s done I am excited to bring this knowledge to massage therapists around the world. This is the first fully-integrated A to Z business system for the massage profession.

Note: That while these procedures were adapted from proven techniques that doctors use, there is no need to act like a doctor by ever exceeding the scope of practice outlined by your local laws and those of the board that licensed you.

In fact, you’re better off not doing so. Once you step into the trap of getting into diagnosis and treating conditions you open yourself up to a whole new set of problems and liabilities. It’s not necessary for your clients either. They simply need to understand that you’re a competent healthcare professional that can detect their muscular problems and improve them.

I’ve made every attempt to keep all the procedures legal and compliant with the boards but it is and always will be your responsibility to check your local laws before you do anything new. As you’ll see everything is ethical and honest but I have clients in countries around the world so the laws, license requirements, and scope of practice vary widely. It’s impossible for me to keep up with them all. They are also constantly changing so make sure you check your local laws first.

This begins your journey to a busy, profitable practice, and a fulfilling life. There are no magic tricks or fads here. No gimmicks. No selling. No scare tactics or high pressure closing. Practice success is the result of many smaller steps that add up to a professional practice where the clients understand the value of massage and are willing to pay for it. There are many steps and it takes time and practice to learn them well however, none of the steps are hard and none will require special skills. A willingness to learn combined with persistence and determination will be all you need.

Think of process like you’re going to bake a cake. If you wanted to bake a cake you would need more than just the ingredients. Flour, sugar and water mixed randomly can make a lump of goo or a cake as hard as a rock. It’s important to know how long to cook it, at what temperature cook it, and how much of each ingredient to use. This is what makes a recipe so powerful. Anybody can follow it and make a good cake every time. So consider the rest of this book a recipe for financial success. Just follow the steps and add ingredients until your practice is as busy and profitable as you want it to be.

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

Leon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens

PART I:

People create their own success by learning what they need to learn and then by practicing it until they become proficient at it.– Brian Tracy

Chapter 1

What Is Success?

The term business success often goes against the core beliefs of massage therapists. I often hear therapists say I hate the business side or I just want to do the massage. This is understandable as most therapists didn’t get into the profession just to make money. The typical therapist is very caring and really only wants to help people. Most therapists have a stronger association with the words helping or healing than they do the words business success. Helping and healing conveys happy, peaceful images but business success is more likely to convey images of Wall Street and that’s just not congruent with massage therapy.

But here’s the dilemma, massage therapists are leaving the profession in record numbers because they can’t make enough money to survive financially. This isn’t good for anybody. It’s terrible for the therapist who’s forced to abandon a career they love and it certainly doesn’t help their clients who needed massage therapy.

So when I say that massage is a business and therapists need to learn new skill sets to survive I am not saying that massage therapists need to become business people or change who they are but I do think they should all be able to survive financially and have long happy careers. Both of these are very possible.

But before we start to explore the procedures that bring happy, profitable, and successful careers, it’s important to answer one simple question: What does success really mean?

Is success when you can make more than you did at your last job? Is it when you get to $50,000 a year? Is it when you own your own clinic? Employing other massage therapists? Buying your own home? Putting your children through college? With hundreds of thousands of therapist all with different goals this list could go on forever but which one is really considered success?

As I see it the answer is that you’re a success when you can meet your basic needs, do what you love, and live a happy contented life. That’s it. There’s no magic amount of money, number of clinics, or clients that define success.

This means that if you see five clients per month you’re just as successful as the therapist who sees fifteen clients per day…as long as both therapists can meet their basic needs, do what they love, and live a happy contented life.

If there’s not enough financial abundance to pay the bills, you’re forced to resort to other jobs to survive which will cause you to be constantly stressed or unhappy. In my opinion that’s not success. There is also the other extreme which would be the super achiever who’s constantly pushing to get to the next level. This is fine to do as long as it’s a labor of love and passion and it produces happiness. However, it if brings unhappiness it can be just as difficult as financial failure.

I have seen many poor, struggling therapists and most were unhappy but I’ve seen overachiever types that were just as unhappy. The happiest and longest lived careers are usually somewhere in between the two extremes.

As you learn the procedures in this book you’ll see that it doesn’t matter which massage technique you use or how your massage rooms are decorated. The main purpose of the procedures in this book is to develop a professional image where your clients stay, pay, and send their friends. When that happens you should have enough money for a long and profitable career. You don’t have to sell, be a phony, or become someone else. In fact, doing those things will make building a profitable practice more difficult. The best way to become a business success is to be honest, caring, and professional with your clients.

So as you proceed through this book and your practice grows, remember that you’ll be successful when you say you are. You’re the only one who can decide when your life has achieved the perfect balance. Meditate on this question until you have the answer because it will affect your future happiness.

A Word about Journaling

Keeping a journal as you go through this system is something that I highly recommend for a number of reasons. Journals are a great place to record your progress, thoughts, and challenges. Studies show that keeping a journal helps you to remember things that you’ve learned as well as work out challenges that you might be having.

Journals are also really helpful at giving insight when you go back to your entries months or even years later. Your writings can help you to see things that may have been holding you back or patterns that you tend to run in your life. This insight can be invaluable to you and your business now and in the future.

It’s also a great way to review your progress in the future in order to see just how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown along the way.

Other great things to put in your journal are pictures of your practice as it grows and progresses. You might not see the real value in taking them now but you most certainly will over time.

Action Assignment

What does success really mean to you? Is it a number like a certain amount of clients per day or a certain income per week? Or is it an intangible like helping people? What kind of life and lifestyle do you need in order to feel happy and successful? Be as specific as possible!

Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, But first you have to believe." - Mark Victor Hanson

Chapter 2:

Strong Beliefs Equal Strong Practice

Belief systems can empower you, but they can also disempower - and without you being aware that it’s even happening. This often happens to massage therapists and it’s one of the reasons that I wrote this book.

The powerful tools and technologies is this book can keep you busy and profitable, but it is important to remember that if you have just one disempowering belief about the massage profession, business or your abilities as a massage therapist or a business owner you can very easily sabotage your own goals without ever realizing it.

So before we cover all the aspects of running a successful practice let’s discuss some of the commonly held beliefs that can cause stress and financial hardship for massage therapists. I have found that when it comes to building a successful practice, the therapist’s belief in their profession or their ability as a business owner is often a bigger factor in their success or failure than their technique skills, the practice location or the amount of competition.

I struggled with achieving practice success for several years but it wasn’t until much later that I realized that part of it was my beliefs were holding me back.

Like any student I had big dreams of the future and was very excited when I graduated but much to my dismay I was not greeted by a high paying job. I searched all the job postings only to find those that were available were paying much lower than expected - and came with ridiculously long hours too. There was no special employment agency for chiropractors, no jobs available at the hospital and few listings online. After working at some of those jobs it became apparent it was worse than I thought, not only was it long hours with low pay but many were all about the money. It was very demoralizing after so many years of school.

What I didn’t realize until later in life was that that my time as an unhappy employee affected my internal belief system. I started wondering if chiropractic was just a scheme to rip off insurance companies and maybe it wasn’t about helping people at all. I began to feel that these low paying jobs were all I could get. The more I worked in these places the lower my career expectations became, until I woke up one day and realized that I had become very negative about chiropractic, my earning potential and life in general. Deep inside I still had a strong belief and knew it could help people but my confidence and belief in making a living were at rock bottom. My experiences as a practitioner were all very disappointing and many of my classmates were miserable and struggling as well.

I finally realized that the primary purpose of Chiropractic College was to teach me the skills I needed to pass the state boards. The purpose of the state boards was to make sure that I wasn’t a danger to the population - but they were not interested in whether I was successful financially! I came to realize a sad truth, that outside of family and friends, nobody really cared whether I was a success or a failure. In fact most employers just wanted to take advantage of cheap labor.

It was not an empowering belief but I accepted it for years and had all the financial problems that came with it. One day I had a flash of inspiration and realized that the responsibility for learning how to be successful was mine. It was true that the school didn’t prepare us for the real world and it was true that the boards seemed more concerned with limiting competition than growing the profession. It was true that the competition was fierce. It was certainly true that most employment listings were for low paying dead end jobs. But I could not change any of those factors. All I could change was my belief in my abilities and my profession. One day I had a thought - instead of believing that I had chosen a low paying, dead end profession, what if I believed that I had more to learn and needed to master the techniques that ensure a profitable career?

It might not sound like much but I was starting to make a major shift in my belief system. Instead of placing the blame for my lack of success on the school, the boards, a poorly organized profession and the competition, I was placing the blame on me.

Accepting all the blame would have just been depressing if not for one more new belief and that was: If I created this mess that I don’t like then I have the power to create something new that I do like.

I didn’t realize it at the time but I had just switched from a victim mentality to a survivor mentality. As long as my beliefs were that my problems existed because my ridiculously overpriced school did practically nothing to prepare me for business success, that the profession had no hospital privileges, that there were no high paying jobs available, or that most employers were soulless demons, I could only be a victim. I didn’t have the power to change any of those things, not even a little bit. But I could change me. I could learn more and study new skills. I could find better mentors or create opportunities where none seemed to exist. At the time I had no idea what those skills were or how to learn them but it didn’t matter. I had changed my belief system and suddenly my world was being controlled by me, not my employer.

The change to a success mentality didn’t happen overnight of course, but it all started with the change in my beliefs. It wasn’t just my experience either. Many of my close friends have had the same experience. Other friends of mine didn’t change and they still have the same problems 20 years later that they had back then.

The thing is we all have beliefs. Some of them empower us and take us to new heights and some drag us down. Beliefs control our lives. The trick is to identify the ones that are dragging us down and then change them. This is the change that will bring us the results we want.

So if you’re disappointed like I was and you’ve started to believe that massage therapy is a low paying job, it’s hard to find and keep clients, people don’t have the money to spend on massage, the competition in your area is too tough, the other therapists have some special advantages that you don’t have, the clients don’t respect your opinion, clients don’t care about their health, your school charged too much and didn’t teach you how to survive, or any other negative beliefs, be aware that they’ll surely make your life even harder. The good news is that you can change them, and by the end of this book you should be feeling empowered again.

The point to focus on is "I control my destiny, I can change my life and to do that I must learn more". Work smarter, not harder – or work smarter and harder. Finish this book and you should have new beliefs that will lead you to a pleasant and profitable career.

I’ve talked to hundreds of therapists and listened to all their stories. All the stories were just variations on the same theme – I finally accepted that I can only get busy enough on my own for massage to be a part-time job or If I didn’t have this other job on the side I could never survive as a massage therapist or People just don’t have the money in this economy to afford massage, I am not good at business, I hate business and just want to massage people and other limiting beliefs.

Unfortunately it’s largely because of these disempowering beliefs that we’re seeing so many massage therapists reverting to other avenues to make a living. Some are taking low-paying jobs to survive because they can’t get busy enough to pay the bills. Some returned to the old job they had before massage school, only now they have loans that need be repaid. Others are selling products unrelated to massage like magnets, juices, powders and so on. Rather than promoting the power of massage therapy they find it easier to sell a product – even if they hate selling. Others are leaving the profession because they believe they can’t achieve a sufficient income doing the massages they love. The saddest of all are those that lose faith in massage and no longer believe it’s a true healing art.

You also won’t see a lot of media attention with massage therapy so there’s very little social proof. Turn on any medically based show from the past 50 years like House MD, MASH, Scrubs, ER, Greys Anatomy, Nip/tuck, Emily Owens, MD, The Mindy Project and many others you’ll find that the traditional medical community has always gotten great coverage almost since television was invented which gives medical doctors a huge image boost.

When was the last time you saw a TV massage therapist come in to save the patient or figure out a difficult case? It happens every day in real life but apparently it doesn’t make good TV. This tends to encourage the belief of the providers and society in general that massage therapists, acupuncturists and chiropractors are not as important. It might be subconscious but it’s usually disempowering for those of us that are alternative providers. It also doesn’t help that they rarely include most of our professions in their referral system or insurance plans as if our services are less important and aren’t capable of helping their patients. After a while we start to believe it.

In the long run these disempowering beliefs generally lead to a therapist who is burned out, frustrated, and struggling with financial hardships. The good news is that every one of these hardships can be overcome so don’t give up just work harder and learn new skills.

What’s your belief about your role in the healthcare system as a massage therapist? Is it your role to treat the muscular system, to relieve aches and pains, relieve stress, keep the body strong and healthy, balance the muscles, improve posture, increase lymph flow, strengthen the immune system or is it all of those things? Or is it much more?

When you give a massage the client almost always appreciates how they feel but what else is going on that they’re not even aware of? You know that just a few of the side effects of massage are improved lymph flow, strengthened immune system, faster healing, toxin removal, improve the overall health of the body and so much more. There have been numerous studies showing the powerful effects of massage therapy.

It’s very important that you really understand that all of your clients are getting far greater benefits than just stress reduction or pain relief. Don’t just intellectually understand it but understand it with passion and conviction. When you really embrace all of the wonderful side effects of your massage just think how that affects the overall health of your clients. Shouldn’t everybody be getting regular massages for optimal health? If you can see this then you can also see that there are probably tens of thousands of people in the community right around your office that should be seeing you on a regular basis. So many, in fact, that you could never possibly see them all.

But they won’t come in until you really start believing in what you do. Your belief in what you do is the first key to having the practice of your dreams and achieving astonishing success as a massage therapist. Of all the healthcare providers, the massage therapist can stand proud with the best of the best.

Every single person who gets on your table will not only feel better when they get up but their entire body will function at a higher level when you are done with the massage. Every single one of them will get health benefits far beyond what they came for or can even understand thanks to the tremendous natural health benefits that come with a massage.

It doesn’t even matter why your client came in to see you in the first place. No matter what they wanted they are going to get so much more than they could have ever imagined. By now your whole body should be vibrating with the realization of all the energy and potential that you really have as a massage therapist. You are not just a therapist, body worker, pain reliever, or stress reducer. You are all of those things but you are also so much more. You have the power to aid the healing response within the human body. Every time you lay your hands on one of your clients you are aiding their body’s natural ability to heal.

When you really embrace this concept, not just with your head but with your heart, I can assure you that it will change the people you touch forever. It will not only help your clients, it will also help you throughout your career as a massage therapist. But that belief in massage therapy alone isn’t enough. It’s equally important to believe that there’s an abundance of clients who need and want your services, they’re able to pay for it and you have the ability to find them and bring them into your office.

When you have rock solid beliefs combined with the power to really improve a client’s health, people will see and feel it - and when that happens you’ll get a reputation for being the must see therapist in your town.

The main point is to open up your mind to the enormous potential of massage therapy. There’s no reason to limit yourself to just helping people with muscle aches and pains because you’re capable of so much more.

Now I want you to wrap your head around another important concept. If a massage therapist is capable of making $70 or more an hour treating muscle pains and strains, how much should the massage therapist who strengthens the immune system and helps the body to naturally heal itself make per hour? Suddenly that $70 for an hour massage seems pretty cheap, doesn’t it? So why is it that we continually see skilled massage therapists working for low wages or struggling to get busy enough to pay the rent? Shouldn’t they be paid a fair wage as an employee or be super busy with their own clinic?

Well, I whole-heartedly agree and that’s another one of the main purposes for writing this book. This is usually the biggest issue as most massage therapists have strong beliefs in massage therapy but much lower beliefs in their ability to run a business or make a good living. Eventually many come to believe that massage is just not a profitable career.

Even if you have already had experience to the contrary, massage therapy can be a very profitable career, but it does require new beliefs. Instead of allowing yourself to think things like clients don’t have enough money for massages in a bad economy, I can’t get a good job, I could never run my own business, clients don’t really care about their health or I need to sell a product to supplement my income, try thinking this instead:

"I control my destiny, I can change my life and to do that I must learn more!"

There’s nothing wrong with your profession, your charisma, or your hands. Most massage therapists struggle because nobody ever taught them solid business skills or they just don’t believe they can learn them. You can learn solid business skills and the first step is developing strong beliefs that you can and you must learn them.

I want to see all massage therapists take their income and professional standing to a much higher level. How much higher can you take your career once you’ve mastered the three-step process outlined in this book? It all depends on the size of your vision. It’s my hope that one of you becomes the Ray Kroc of massage therapy and starts clinics all over the world. (If you don’t know Ray Kroc’s story he the one that bought a hamburger restaurant in California and turned it into a worldwide franchise called McDonalds).

Whatever your dreams and goals may be, it all starts with a strong belief in what you do, in your potential, and in your ability to learn business skills.

In addition to business skills it’s also important as a healthcare practitioner believe in your heart and soul that you’re the best therapist for your clients. Without this certainty in yourself and your technique you’ll still be able to help people but you’ll never be as effective as you could be.

When I first graduated I would have thought that statement to be arrogant and conceited. With all the doctors, surgeons, therapists and psychologists out there who was I to think that I was the best chiropractor? Sure, I was serious and caring but the best?

Well, one day I had a conversation with a cardiologist that changed my mind. This doctor was a leader in the field and had done some of the very first heart transplants. He was well known for being brilliant but he had a big surgeon attitude and he always intimidated people. Most people just thought he was arrogant.

One day when we were talking he said something that changed my career forever. He said "I know people think I am arrogant but when I go into surgery to replace a heart I have to be absolutely certain that I am the very best person to do that surgery. If I don’t think that, if I even have a sliver of doubt about my abilities, then I won’t have the confidence to replace that heart and I shouldn’t even be in the operating room. Somebody else should be doing the surgery".

His point was that he had to be absolutely certain of his abilities and his procedures in order to be able to literally take someone’s life in his own hands, pull out a damaged heart and replace it with a new one. Without his own confidence and belief that he was the best one to do that job, he could be endangering that patient’s life.

I really thought about it and realized that he would be exactly the surgeon that I would want if I needed a new heart. His total certainty combined with his skill was what made him the best person for the job.

So with this new found insight I started thinking. How certain and confident should a chiropractor be to do a good job? I knew that I had no intention of becoming an arrogant person but I realized that if I thought somebody else could adjust my patient better than me or if I felt that there was a pill, potion, or lotion that could provide better results than I could then I shouldn’t be adjusting that patient at all.

Now I am not saying that certainty and confidence can override skill. It most certainly will not. You’ll always need to constantly improve your techniques and skills in order to deliver the absolute best care to your clients. What I am saying is that if you don’t believe that you’re delivering the absolute best care that’s available you’ll have a big problem and unfortunately, so will your clients.

After this revelation I decided to study and train until I was confident in myself, my care, and my profession. This way when people came to me with a problem I would feel that I was the absolute best person to help them. If I ever felt for any reason that I wasn’t the best person to help someone with their problem I would confidently refer them out to someone that could help. So I studied, went to seminars and read books until my belief system was strong. I found one technique, perfected it as best as I could and brought the newest procedures to my town. I studied with busy successful chiropractors and learned from their experience and as a result my confidence soared.

Later in my career I realized that although the cardiologist had a point and striving to be the best is important when building a busy practice, you’re the one that gets to decide what the best really means. It’s possible to be the best at many things - your technique, the number of clients you see per day, your client communication, promotions, new patients, referrals – and the list goes on forever. It’s impossible to be the best in all of them so how do you know when you’re the best? Is there a special number of patients, seminars taken, and hours spent massaging or money made that tells you when you are officially the best? No, being the best is something personal that you feel about your own accomplishments. None of the numbers really mean anything and nobody else needs to know but you. It’s not a competition with anybody except you. If you’re constantly striving to be better and working at being the best therapist you can be, then you are the best. And don’t you already know when you’ve worked hard to learn something and did a really good job? Of course you do, we’ve all had that experience in some area of our lives.

Even if you’re a struggling massage therapist, aren’t you very accomplished in another area of your life? It might be playing a musical instrument, skiing, cooking, surfing, teaching, raising children, excelling at school, or any other area where you have confidence in your ability. Now think about how you got that confidence. Using the above examples, how does one get good and gain confidence at playing an instrument, skiing, cooking, surfing, teaching, raising children, or excelling at school? Think back. Were you born with those skills? Of course not! You started at the beginning just like everybody else and kept going until