How to make your living doing what you love

Keeping your clients coming back - the Rule of 3 

In that wonderful book Nourishing Destiny, Lonny Jarrett discusses the idea that each of us is a unique individual, and Oriental Diagnosis is of the relationship between two unique individuals, giver (practitioner) and receiver (client), as much as of the condition.

To me, the key word is relationship. A close, personal relationship evolves in a shiatsu session. Masanuga's student Wataru Ohashi in Reading the Body describes how to extend that relationship beyond the treatment-occasion and use it for "client-retention" by applying the Rule of 3.

The first step would be to contact your receiver 3 days after their first treatment, to ask how they've been and how they are feeling. Spend time talking (better, listening!) to them. Show an interest (be interested!) in their life and conditions or situations mentioned at the treatment, being mindful this is not the time to re-book them - more on this later.

Getting in touch again after 3 weeks would be to find out how they are getting along. Have there been any changes in their condition? By take a genuine interest in whatever is going on in their life (a holistic view) you are sustaining the relationship that evolved in the shiatsu session. If they have not been able to follow recommendations/advice, let your attitude be supportive rather than judgemental, because  they are giving you valuable diagnostic information.

When you make contact again after 3 months they will appreciate your interest even if - perhaps especially if - they cannot afford more shiatsu or if life has taken over where they had other plans.
None of your follow-ups are to re-book them for treatment. If they want one they will ask you for it. Let your focus be on sustaining the relationship between you, so that they know where and who to come back to in time of need.

Your last contact would be after 3 years. They will remember you and be glad you called. They know they have a shiatsu-friend if they need one.

This is the second of a series of articles on 'How to find Clients - and keep them coming back' by Kris Deva North, Master of the Zen School of Shiatsu.  You can read the whole series with a click here, including the audio-version, completely free.

NEXT WEEK: Finding new clients
 © Kris Deva North

Get a proper job - or how to make your living doing what you love!

I thought it might be helpful to give some insights from my early days of starting and running my Shiatsu practice.

When I qualified in the art of gentle healing I thought I was doing such good things that the world would beat a path to my door. Growing up in the Age of ‘Get a Proper Job’ Responsibility it was hard for me to take that first step up to self employment, making my living doing what I love. Such self-indulgence was for those of private means, or musicians. Nowadays of course the Age of Generosity gives us all access to the whole wide world of www - is that enough?

In those days I had to learn how to TELL THE WORLD I do shiatsu. I read a book on 'business development' and, in my mind, replaced the word 'business' with 'practice' as I followed the advice, to

* make a list of everyone you know and tick them off as you tell them, just let them know. Leave the rest to them.
* I learned to dress the part to give a treatment, in special shiatsu-clothes, no particular colour, just what you wear only for shiatsu. It makes you feel special, and your client feel special too.
* I quickly realised I had to make sure the answerphone/voicemail is on when you're not available on the phone. And to return calls right away.
* I chose one day a week to give treatments. Just one day. When that day was fully booked, add another day. And what did I do with the other days? I'll tell you:
* I learned to spend as much time seeking out new "customers" as you spend on giving treatments.
* Remembering that your best chance of building your practice is repeat treatments.

NEXT WEEK: The Rule of 3

Watering the meadow

Watering the houseplants, giving each their particular attention, less for the cheeseplant, more for the bonsai, plenty for the moneyplant, spray for the orchids,  I found myself thinking of last night's Asking Diagnosis tutorial and an anxious new student wondering if she really could make a living doing Shiatsu.  Someone had told her, she said, to get a proper job and just do shiatsu part time.  Why not, I thought, its as good a way to start as any.  But no, said another more senior student who had returned after a long absence: "I've been making my living at it full time for the past three years, paying the bills, going on holidays, all the things I did when I was in employment.  The difference," he added with a serene smile, "is that I can start work at noon and organise my time the way I like."
What a great example!  of both, I mean, because some people like to do things one way and some people another,  whether bonsai or a an orchid!
That tutorial inspired me to serialise our Zen School teaching 'How to find Clients - and keep them coming back', the system adopted by the returning student to build his practice and based on my own experience of thirty years in business and management development before I discovered shiatsu.
The truth is, while these challenging times seem to clothe the merchants of gloom with authority, we can each use our talents and follow our nature to make our living doing what we love in the way that suits us best, from cheese-plant to money-tree, in the Way of the Helping Hand.
My mind drifted back to the days with the Rainbow people, where the protocol for dealing with forest fires was either to join the team fighting the flames, or to run away to safety taking with you the children and utensils for the tribe's survival.  Both ways are honorable for we honour our nature, and while some will do shiatsu part-time, others will take the step to full-time, and both will be helping others.
Read all about it with a click here