September 23, 2024 • 23 mins
How can understanding the structural reasons behind your discomfort transform your daily life? Tune into "The Mosaic Life with Laura W." as we welcome Annebritt Birkeland, a health and wellness veteran with over 20 years of expertise. Annebritt shares her revolutionary approach to massage therapy, which focuses on holistic wellness, stress management, and injury recovery. She emphasizes the power of educating clients about their bodies, enabling them to manage their daily lives more effectively. From advanced structural work to her nine-month apprenticeship program, Annebritt offers a comprehensive look at elevating massage therapy to integrate mind, body, and spirit.
In our candid conversation, we uncover the importance of a non-sexualized, therapeutic touch in fostering mental and emotional well-being, especially crucial during the isolation brought on by COVID-19. Annebritt discusses the challenges of meeting the soaring demand for such practices and the intricacies of building a business that honors these needs. She shares invaluable insights on mentoring new therapists, fostering adaptability, and overcoming financial constraints. Reflecting on how we've navigated the pandemic's hurdles, I express heartfelt gratitude to Annebritt for her support and wisdom. Don't miss this enlightening episode, and revisit this conversation and more by visiting Bizradious and exploring our shows.
Website: https://lightenupmassages.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LightenUpMassage
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightenupmassage/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annebrittbb/
A Mosaic is a bunch of pieces, put together, to make up the whole in a beautiful way. Here at Mosaic Business Consulting we discuss the various pieces of a business throughout the course of its life, and throughout all industries, and how these pieces, when put together, can help develop a better, more efficient, and effective running of YOUR business.
Find our more or register for a course today: Mosaic Business Consulting
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Website: https://www.mosaicbusinessconsulting.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Laura (00:10):
Good morning.
I'm your host, lauraWagner-Konecz, owner of Mosaic
Business Consulting, and you'relistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W.
A mosaic is a really beautifulbunch of pieces that, when put
together, make up the whole in areally beautiful way, and this
show plans to discuss thevarious pieces of a business
throughout different industriesand how these pieces, when put
(00:31):
together, can help develop abetter, more efficient and
effective running of yourbusiness.
To reach me, contact bizradious.
Today, my guest is none otherthan Anna Britt Brooklyn, and
Anna has over 20 years ofexperience in health and
wellness industry.
Her massage therapy skills, emttraining, private care provider
(00:57):
and patient advocacy workexperience pair well with her
radiography experience, advancedradiation science studies and
three years of hospitalinternships, enabling her to
provide highly skilled directclient care from a strong base,
a strong knowledge base, myapologies.
(01:18):
Passionate about lifelonglearning, anna fosters
results-driven care orinstruction for her clients,
students and apprentices, and Ithink what makes you so
different, anna, is the factthat you have not only a massage
therapy practice, but one thatactually is a continuation
(01:41):
education model, so that thestudents that you are helping
are folks that have alreadygotten their massage
certification and licensurestuff and then now you're
getting them to another level ofeducation.
Maybe you want to first of allwelcome to the show.
Thank you, thank you, yeah,yeah, and maybe we could talk
(02:06):
about that model of yours, thatthat you have in your massage
practice the same same wheel,same story.
Annebritt (02:29):
Basically, I found in my own practice that clients
these days are very welleducated.
They understand the need fornatural wellness overall and
they ever, particularly sinceCOVID, have really come to
understand that taking care ofthe body naturally and prompting
it in its own recovery processis very, very important and
(02:52):
actually preferred more naturalwellness and are much more
cognizant or aware of the needfor sleep, hydration and just
(03:12):
helping the body function better, more optimally.
We have all these newsupplements on the market that
are really focused on helpingthe brain and the body integrate
more, and it helps.
It helps the businessprofessional, it helps the
senior citizen, it helps theeverybody right.
Laura (03:30):
Yeah, and to that you brought up brain and body, and I
think that when you weretalking about COVID, the first
thing that came to mind was thesurge, if you will, of the need
for mental health care.
Surge, if you will, of the needfor mental health care.
Absolutely, that helped us tounderstand that there were other
methods that we need to use.
I think yes.
(03:51):
Right and so yeah, so tell memore about that, yeah.
Annebritt (03:57):
Yeah, so.
So basically what what Idiscovered with my career in
massage therapy is I had higherand higher level demand, not
only for the advanced structuralwork working with athletic
athletic people or people whoare recovering from injury but
(04:17):
more and more people were comingin saying I really need to feel
more connected to my life, Ineed to manage my stress better,
I need a, I need a, a.
They needed a partner in theirwellness.
That was part of the overallteam, just like more and more
people are recognizing thatmental health therapy and
(04:41):
awareness is is important.
Therapy and awareness isimportant.
Advanced massage therapy isreally starting to bridge that
gap of helping people be able tostave off surgery or prevent
surgery, incorporate the stressand the overall tension in their
(05:04):
lives and manage themselvesbetter.
But it's not the necessarilythe feel good spa type of
massage that people are lookingfor anymore.
They're looking for a higherlevel of feedback and skills,
and I found that as aninstructor at local colleges.
The basic skills techniques thattherapists are taught initially
(05:29):
are more geared towards spawellness, which is great, a
wonderful modality.
Having relaxation therapy isimportant, but getting the
relaxation response and alsogetting the sense when you get
off the table that I'm better inmind, body and spirit, because
(05:52):
my my aches and pains are notaffecting me.
I was really able to learnabout breathing.
That helps calm my body down.
I come away with techniquesthat my therapist has helped
educate me in to help me dealwith my daily life, and I didn't
run into therapists who alsowere incorporating that much in
(06:18):
the integration of their workand and so in seeking out other
therapists to work within mypractice, I realized, oh you
know what, maybe I should workon trying to foster this
education and therapists who aregenerally interested in this,
in this scope of practice, andand work towards helping to
(06:45):
create an in-depth, intensiveprogram.
So we have a nine-monthapprenticeship program that we
work with.
That's really cool.
Laura (06:54):
And can I just ask?
You know, I'm wondering, likeabout the entrepreneurs and
thinking you know, how does thathelp a business owner?
How does massage improve mydaily activity?
How is that going to improve mybusiness?
How is that going to improve mylife?
(07:16):
What are things that it does?
Annebritt (07:20):
So our reviews often say things like you know, I have
a profound and deep sense ofpeace when I'm able to get a
high quality massage that alsoaddresses my physical and
(07:41):
relaxation needs.
So also, people feel betterwhen they feel like they are
more in touch with their body.
So they understand when theywake up in the morning with an
ache or a pain, they understandwhere it comes from and they
also understand how to work withit.
(08:02):
So, as you know, you can wakeup with a crick in your neck
that can really hurt and it canrestrict your movement so that
you can't do much withthroughout your day.
And so I think that, especiallyfor anybody who's out there
working in any sort of industryor service relatedrelated field
(08:25):
my desk sitters, my computertypers, everybody who is
actually doing more physicallabor and they're utilizing
their body that way to be ableto understand not just, oh, I
have this discomfort, discomfort, but understand structurally
why they have the discomfort andthen what to do for it.
(08:46):
What we say in our practice iswe want to teach you how to be
your own therapist, how toreally have a deeper connection
with your own body, so that cometo us for the major tune-up,
but in between you are empoweredto care for yourself and to
really understand yourself at amuch more intimate level, when
you feel that you feel moreconnected in life in general and
(09:09):
you're overall more calmbecause you feel essentially
less overwhelmed.
Laura (09:16):
Your nervous system isn't overwhelmed.
So many of the things that youwere talking about.
I was just thinking.
You know, it feels like whenI'm, when I'm calmer, then I
feel like my brain can be moreactive, in the sense that the
flow is easier, I'm notabsolutely strained and
(09:38):
therefore I'm not feelingwithout the stress, I'm able to
really focus and and and I'malso feeling like it gives that
maybe that more stimulation ishappening that allows me to be
more creative, more innovative,more, you know, more
(09:59):
opportunities in my work to,excuse me, be productive.
Annebritt (10:05):
I don't know what.
Yes, without getting tootechnical, there are two, two,
essentially two components ofyour nervous system, in your
body.
We all know about the fight orflight response that's generated
by adrenaline, epinephrine,cortisol.
We hear about those hormones asthe stress inducers.
(10:25):
Right, massage therapy,listening to birds, singing,
breathing deeply, yoga, lots ofdifferent things, walking in the
forest.
That brings on yourparasympathetic nervous system
and that is where you're goingto see your vagal nerve start to
(10:47):
have more response andupregulate, as they call it.
And what that does is it doesexactly what you just described
it frees up your resources, itfrees up your brain, your
breathing rate, it eliminatesthat cortisol driven, adrenaline
(11:08):
driven ah, I got to go dosomething, I've got to run from
the saber tooth tiger.
And it gets you into that calm,centered flow that everyone is
looking for.
And when you are able to allowyourself the time, as we're
learning now in modern society,it's really important that we
(11:28):
give ourselves the time for thatdowntime, for that de-stress
time, for the ability to reallyallow ourselves to get centered.
We can then make much moreefficient and effective
decisions and we're just nicerto be around, so we have much
more productive interactions.
Laura (11:50):
Yeah yeah, and I was wondering you know you had
mentioned in the beginning aboutCOVID and I know that you had
to have your business go throughCOVID and all that and you know
, as a situation where it'sbrick and mortar, where you have
to physically be there kind oflike a store, what was the
(12:12):
impact on COVID and what, whatkind of lessons did you learn?
Annebritt (12:17):
or or maybe more like , what challenges were you able
to overcome to rebuild, if youwill, Well, I learned how vital
it was to really identify yourpurpose, my purpose in my
(12:41):
profession, and I learned howimportant it was to provide a
service that was deeply needed.
Covid did shut us down.
And that was scary and but but.
I had clients who were poundingat the door to get back in, and
the reason was because thelevel of care that they were
(13:06):
getting was such an importantcomponent of their life.
And very humbling.
It was also a littleintimidating.
I went back to work with fullgloves, mask, shield, apron,
like I looked like I was gettingready to go for hazmat, but
(13:27):
that's how important some ofthis work really was.
Now obviously those are more ofthe clients who needed more of
the heavier structural work.
But so many of them expressedif I didn't have this connection
, if I didn't have the sense ofbeing cared for we all have
touch receptors for a reason andtouch is so now kind of taboo
(13:49):
in our society, unfortunately.
And healthy touch, I mean nonsexualized touch.
That is about really helpingpeople feel well, our nervous
system.
The minute we get into arelaxed state where someone is
helping to soothe our nervoussystem, that through those
little receptors in the skin itfacilitates the release of
(14:13):
oxytocin and other hormones thatcreate that bonding sense, that
sense of community that we hadback in the day when we had a
full family with grandmothersand cousins and large families
or tribes around us, and it wasthat sense of connection that my
clients felt with me thatreally many of them expressed.
(14:38):
I needed this to help mementally and emotionally cope in
this sense of separation fromeveryone.
It was very overwhelming formany people and the challenge
there was, honestly, that whilemany other therapists were
shutting down, I started gettingoverwhelmed.
(15:01):
I had more demand than I couldkeep up with and Because of the
blend of the different thingsthat I started putting together
from that history that youmentioned, I realized that there
was a niche need here.
But it's not a tiny niche, it'sa huge one.
(15:23):
We have 10,000 people retiringevery single day right now.
Exactly day right now and in afew years it's not going to be
oh, I can't get in with thatspecialist until you know,
october or December it's goingto be.
That waitlist is two to threeyears long.
We have many medicalprofessionals who come into our
(15:44):
practice and these are some ofthe discussions we have and
we're finding that more and morepeople are really wanting that
greater care continuum andsomething that is an
intervention level betweengeneral wellness and advanced
health care.
(16:06):
I started looking for otherteam members and other people
who could come in and work, andI found that I couldn't follow
the standard massage or industrymodel, which was booth rental
where I'd say, hey, come in,join the practice, here's your
office.
You know, let me know if youneed anything.
(16:28):
Here's how we break down paystructure.
What I needed was somebody whocould speak that same care level
language, and so that was areal challenge and I just I
decided to take it one bite at atime and worked a lot of hours
(16:49):
to juggle my own and thankfullyvery busy practice during a time
when not many people could saythat and I was still deeply
humbled and overwhelmed.
But when yes, yes.
Laura (17:05):
So when you go back to that, I'm kind of curious what
did you find?
I'm kind of curious, what didyou find?
What have you found?
Building your business?
That has been a challenge andwe're on a short time clock.
You know we've got less timeavailable, but just you know
what was the biggest challengeyou found setting up your
business and how did youovercome that?
(17:28):
Just you've got like twominutes tiny budget.
Annebritt (17:33):
I was a single mom, you know, and and I had walked
away from massage therapy.
I thought I was going to workin radiation therapy and in
radiology and when COVID hit themassage, the demand on the
massage side was hit.
(17:55):
The massage, the demand on themassage side was, was huge.
So I just found that I couldn'twalk away from it.
And yet I didn't really havevery many resources Because I
had given everything up and Ihad gone back to school in my
late 40s.
So I I I've done everythingfrom scratch and everything has
been a very grassroots, and I'lltell you what it dials you into
(18:16):
what works very quickly and itdials you into what doesn't work
very quickly.
So that's an advantage and achallenge.
I think there would have been alot more waste if I had had
ample resources initially, whileI was figuring it out and I had
to learn to accept mistakes asteaching moments.
(18:38):
I had to get over the concept ofwrong, right and to get excited
about the mistake, because itactually showed me where to go,
where to pivot, right andpivoting.
Pivoting the concept of pivotingbeing a lifelong learner, being
(19:02):
excited about learning andpivoting when you run into an
obstacle or when you run into astressor or something that isn't
working, being willing to letit go and pivot to what does
work.
So I had to hopefully knock onwood, get that ego out of the
(19:23):
way and I'm still working onthat and being willing to allow
other people to come in andwatch them go through their own
process and learn how to pivot,to be more of the listener, the
guider, the mentor, the coach.
(19:45):
It's one thing to know a skillset, quite another thing to try
and teach it.
Know a skill set quite anotherthing to try and teach it.
And it takes being willing toreally get out of the way of the
process and allow others toreally help you understand how
they best learn and what theirvoice is.
(20:07):
When I find out what thosetherapists need in terms of what
their unique voice and theirskillset is and what jazzes them
up and what they want to bringto their client base, that's
where I get the moment of ohgreat, this is where we can work
.
I don't want to turn anyoneinto a puppet of me, and I think
(20:28):
, a lot of times, as managers,we run into that.
We run into like this is theprocess.
Well, no, this is just atoolbox and you're going to use
tools in a different way than Iam, and I can't wait to see what
you create, right.
Laura (20:42):
Well, and I'm so glad you mentioned that, but if people
wanted to get to know you moreor learn more about your
practice, how can they reach outto you?
What's the name of yourbusiness and things like that?
Annebritt (20:54):
Oh, thanks, lighten up massagescom L, I, g, h, t, e,
n and U, p, m, a, s, s, a, g, eS and you simply can go there.
We have everything's prettyeasy and very clickable.
Um, very, I've worked very hardto make it a simple website.
(21:15):
Um, and I think that's veryimportant.
In today's business, peoplehave click fatigue, um, so you
know, um, hopefully you can getit into what you need and want
to see within one to two clicks.
Uh, their contact informationis right on the front page and
then my email, if you want toreach out to me directly, is
Anna at LightenUpMassagescom,and thank you very much for this
(21:38):
opportunity.
Laura (21:39):
Well, it's been great to have you and I'm so glad you
helped us get out of COVIDtogether and move into calmer
and more peaceful ways of being.
Excuse me, I'm so sorry andwe're having a little gloomy day
today, but not that you couldtell by the picture.
But this is why I have thispicture behind me, because I
(22:04):
like to see sun and shine whenthere's cloudy skies outside.
So, anyway, I really want tothank you, anna, for showing up
and for helping us out andlearning more.
Thank you, oops, and I alsowant to thank you, the audience,
for listening to the MosaicLife with Laura W.
(22:25):
You can listen to this episodeagain and get this great content
and listen to other great hostsand their shows by going to
bizradious and click on shows.
And thanks so much for havingfor listening and have a great
rest of your day.
Good morning.
I'm your host, lauraWagner-Konecz, owner of Mosaic
Business Consulting, and you'relistening to the Mosaic Life
with Laura W.
A mosaic is a really beautifulbunch of pieces that, when put
together, make up the whole in areally beautiful way, and this
show plans to discuss thevarious pieces of a business
throughout different industriesand how these pieces, when put
(00:31):
together, can help develop abetter, more efficient and
effective running of yourbusiness.
To reach me, contact bizradious.
Today, my guest is none otherthan Anna Britt Brooklyn, and
Anna has over 20 years ofexperience in health and
wellness industry.
Her massage therapy skills, emttraining, private care provider
(00:57):
and patient advocacy workexperience pair well with her
radiography experience, advancedradiation science studies and
three years of hospitalinternships, enabling her to
provide highly skilled directclient care from a strong base,
a strong knowledge base, myapologies.
(01:18):
Passionate about lifelonglearning, anna fosters
results-driven care orinstruction for her clients,
students and apprentices, and Ithink what makes you so
different, anna, is the factthat you have not only a massage
therapy practice, but one thatactually is a continuation
(01:41):
education model, so that thestudents that you are helping
are folks that have alreadygotten their massage
certification and licensurestuff and then now you're
getting them to another level ofeducation.
Maybe you want to first of allwelcome to the show.
Thank you, thank you, yeah,yeah, and maybe we could talk
(02:06):
about that model of yours, thatthat you have in your massage
practice the same same wheel,same story.
Annebritt (02:29):
Basically, I found in my own practice that clients
these days are very welleducated.
They understand the need fornatural wellness overall and
they ever, particularly sinceCOVID, have really come to
understand that taking care ofthe body naturally and prompting
it in its own recovery processis very, very important and
(02:52):
actually preferred more naturalwellness and are much more
cognizant or aware of the needfor sleep, hydration and just
(03:12):
helping the body function better, more optimally.
We have all these newsupplements on the market that
are really focused on helpingthe brain and the body integrate
more, and it helps.
It helps the businessprofessional, it helps the
senior citizen, it helps theeverybody right.
Laura (03:30):
Yeah, and to that you brought up brain and body, and I
think that when you weretalking about COVID, the first
thing that came to mind was thesurge, if you will, of the need
for mental health care.
Surge, if you will, of the needfor mental health care.
Absolutely, that helped us tounderstand that there were other
methods that we need to use.
I think yes.
(03:51):
Right and so yeah, so tell memore about that, yeah.
Annebritt (03:57):
Yeah, so.
So basically what what Idiscovered with my career in
massage therapy is I had higherand higher level demand, not
only for the advanced structuralwork working with athletic
athletic people or people whoare recovering from injury but
(04:17):
more and more people were comingin saying I really need to feel
more connected to my life, Ineed to manage my stress better,
I need a, I need a, a.
They needed a partner in theirwellness.
That was part of the overallteam, just like more and more
people are recognizing thatmental health therapy and
(04:41):
awareness is is important.
Therapy and awareness isimportant.
Advanced massage therapy isreally starting to bridge that
gap of helping people be able tostave off surgery or prevent
surgery, incorporate the stressand the overall tension in their
(05:04):
lives and manage themselvesbetter.
But it's not the necessarilythe feel good spa type of
massage that people are lookingfor anymore.
They're looking for a higherlevel of feedback and skills,
and I found that as aninstructor at local colleges.
The basic skills techniques thattherapists are taught initially
(05:29):
are more geared towards spawellness, which is great, a
wonderful modality.
Having relaxation therapy isimportant, but getting the
relaxation response and alsogetting the sense when you get
off the table that I'm better inmind, body and spirit, because
(05:52):
my my aches and pains are notaffecting me.
I was really able to learnabout breathing.
That helps calm my body down.
I come away with techniquesthat my therapist has helped
educate me in to help me dealwith my daily life, and I didn't
run into therapists who alsowere incorporating that much in
(06:18):
the integration of their workand and so in seeking out other
therapists to work within mypractice, I realized, oh you
know what, maybe I should workon trying to foster this
education and therapists who aregenerally interested in this,
in this scope of practice, andand work towards helping to
(06:45):
create an in-depth, intensiveprogram.
So we have a nine-monthapprenticeship program that we
work with.
That's really cool.
Laura (06:54):
And can I just ask?
You know, I'm wondering, likeabout the entrepreneurs and
thinking you know, how does thathelp a business owner?
How does massage improve mydaily activity?
How is that going to improve mybusiness?
How is that going to improve mylife?
(07:16):
What are things that it does?
Annebritt (07:20):
So our reviews often say things like you know, I have
a profound and deep sense ofpeace when I'm able to get a
high quality massage that alsoaddresses my physical and
(07:41):
relaxation needs.
So also, people feel betterwhen they feel like they are
more in touch with their body.
So they understand when theywake up in the morning with an
ache or a pain, they understandwhere it comes from and they
also understand how to work withit.
(08:02):
So, as you know, you can wakeup with a crick in your neck
that can really hurt and it canrestrict your movement so that
you can't do much withthroughout your day.
And so I think that, especiallyfor anybody who's out there
working in any sort of industryor service relatedrelated field
(08:25):
my desk sitters, my computertypers, everybody who is
actually doing more physicallabor and they're utilizing
their body that way to be ableto understand not just, oh, I
have this discomfort, discomfort, but understand structurally
why they have the discomfort andthen what to do for it.
(08:46):
What we say in our practice iswe want to teach you how to be
your own therapist, how toreally have a deeper connection
with your own body, so that cometo us for the major tune-up,
but in between you are empoweredto care for yourself and to
really understand yourself at amuch more intimate level, when
you feel that you feel moreconnected in life in general and
(09:09):
you're overall more calmbecause you feel essentially
less overwhelmed.
Laura (09:16):
Your nervous system isn't overwhelmed.
So many of the things that youwere talking about.
I was just thinking.
You know, it feels like whenI'm, when I'm calmer, then I
feel like my brain can be moreactive, in the sense that the
flow is easier, I'm notabsolutely strained and
(09:38):
therefore I'm not feelingwithout the stress, I'm able to
really focus and and and I'malso feeling like it gives that
maybe that more stimulation ishappening that allows me to be
more creative, more innovative,more, you know, more
(09:59):
opportunities in my work to,excuse me, be productive.
Annebritt (10:05):
I don't know what.
Yes, without getting tootechnical, there are two, two,
essentially two components ofyour nervous system, in your
body.
We all know about the fight orflight response that's generated
by adrenaline, epinephrine,cortisol.
We hear about those hormones asthe stress inducers.
(10:25):
Right, massage therapy,listening to birds, singing,
breathing deeply, yoga, lots ofdifferent things, walking in the
forest.
That brings on yourparasympathetic nervous system
and that is where you're goingto see your vagal nerve start to
(10:47):
have more response andupregulate, as they call it.
And what that does is it doesexactly what you just described
it frees up your resources, itfrees up your brain, your
breathing rate, it eliminatesthat cortisol driven, adrenaline
(11:08):
driven ah, I got to go dosomething, I've got to run from
the saber tooth tiger.
And it gets you into that calm,centered flow that everyone is
looking for.
And when you are able to allowyourself the time, as we're
learning now in modern society,it's really important that we
(11:28):
give ourselves the time for thatdowntime, for that de-stress
time, for the ability to reallyallow ourselves to get centered.
We can then make much moreefficient and effective
decisions and we're just nicerto be around, so we have much
more productive interactions.
Laura (11:50):
Yeah yeah, and I was wondering you know you had
mentioned in the beginning aboutCOVID and I know that you had
to have your business go throughCOVID and all that and you know
, as a situation where it'sbrick and mortar, where you have
to physically be there kind oflike a store, what was the
(12:12):
impact on COVID and what, whatkind of lessons did you learn?
Annebritt (12:17):
or or maybe more like , what challenges were you able
to overcome to rebuild, if youwill, Well, I learned how vital
it was to really identify yourpurpose, my purpose in my
(12:41):
profession, and I learned howimportant it was to provide a
service that was deeply needed.
Covid did shut us down.
And that was scary and but but.
I had clients who were poundingat the door to get back in, and
the reason was because thelevel of care that they were
(13:06):
getting was such an importantcomponent of their life.
And very humbling.
It was also a littleintimidating.
I went back to work with fullgloves, mask, shield, apron,
like I looked like I was gettingready to go for hazmat, but
(13:27):
that's how important some ofthis work really was.
Now obviously those are more ofthe clients who needed more of
the heavier structural work.
But so many of them expressedif I didn't have this connection
, if I didn't have the sense ofbeing cared for we all have
touch receptors for a reason andtouch is so now kind of taboo
(13:49):
in our society, unfortunately.
And healthy touch, I mean nonsexualized touch.
That is about really helpingpeople feel well, our nervous
system.
The minute we get into arelaxed state where someone is
helping to soothe our nervoussystem, that through those
little receptors in the skin itfacilitates the release of
(14:13):
oxytocin and other hormones thatcreate that bonding sense, that
sense of community that we hadback in the day when we had a
full family with grandmothersand cousins and large families
or tribes around us, and it wasthat sense of connection that my
clients felt with me thatreally many of them expressed.
(14:38):
I needed this to help mementally and emotionally cope in
this sense of separation fromeveryone.
It was very overwhelming formany people and the challenge
there was, honestly, that whilemany other therapists were
shutting down, I started gettingoverwhelmed.
(15:01):
I had more demand than I couldkeep up with and Because of the
blend of the different thingsthat I started putting together
from that history that youmentioned, I realized that there
was a niche need here.
But it's not a tiny niche, it'sa huge one.
(15:23):
We have 10,000 people retiringevery single day right now.
Exactly day right now and in afew years it's not going to be
oh, I can't get in with thatspecialist until you know,
october or December it's goingto be.
That waitlist is two to threeyears long.
We have many medicalprofessionals who come into our
(15:44):
practice and these are some ofthe discussions we have and
we're finding that more and morepeople are really wanting that
greater care continuum andsomething that is an
intervention level betweengeneral wellness and advanced
health care.
(16:06):
I started looking for otherteam members and other people
who could come in and work, andI found that I couldn't follow
the standard massage or industrymodel, which was booth rental
where I'd say, hey, come in,join the practice, here's your
office.
You know, let me know if youneed anything.
(16:28):
Here's how we break down paystructure.
What I needed was somebody whocould speak that same care level
language, and so that was areal challenge and I just I
decided to take it one bite at atime and worked a lot of hours
(16:49):
to juggle my own and thankfullyvery busy practice during a time
when not many people could saythat and I was still deeply
humbled and overwhelmed.
But when yes, yes.
Laura (17:05):
So when you go back to that, I'm kind of curious what
did you find?
I'm kind of curious, what didyou find?
What have you found?
Building your business?
That has been a challenge andwe're on a short time clock.
You know we've got less timeavailable, but just you know
what was the biggest challengeyou found setting up your
business and how did youovercome that?
(17:28):
Just you've got like twominutes tiny budget.
Annebritt (17:33):
I was a single mom, you know, and and I had walked
away from massage therapy.
I thought I was going to workin radiation therapy and in
radiology and when COVID hit themassage, the demand on the
massage side was hit.
(17:55):
The massage, the demand on themassage side was, was huge.
So I just found that I couldn'twalk away from it.
And yet I didn't really havevery many resources Because I
had given everything up and Ihad gone back to school in my
late 40s.
So I I I've done everythingfrom scratch and everything has
been a very grassroots, and I'lltell you what it dials you into
(18:16):
what works very quickly and itdials you into what doesn't work
very quickly.
So that's an advantage and achallenge.
I think there would have been alot more waste if I had had
ample resources initially, whileI was figuring it out and I had
to learn to accept mistakes asteaching moments.
(18:38):
I had to get over the concept ofwrong, right and to get excited
about the mistake, because itactually showed me where to go,
where to pivot, right andpivoting.
Pivoting the concept of pivotingbeing a lifelong learner, being
(19:02):
excited about learning andpivoting when you run into an
obstacle or when you run into astressor or something that isn't
working, being willing to letit go and pivot to what does
work.
So I had to hopefully knock onwood, get that ego out of the
(19:23):
way and I'm still working onthat and being willing to allow
other people to come in andwatch them go through their own
process and learn how to pivot,to be more of the listener, the
guider, the mentor, the coach.
(19:45):
It's one thing to know a skillset, quite another thing to try
and teach it.
Know a skill set quite anotherthing to try and teach it.
And it takes being willing toreally get out of the way of the
process and allow others toreally help you understand how
they best learn and what theirvoice is.
(20:07):
When I find out what thosetherapists need in terms of what
their unique voice and theirskillset is and what jazzes them
up and what they want to bringto their client base, that's
where I get the moment of ohgreat, this is where we can work
.
I don't want to turn anyoneinto a puppet of me, and I think
(20:28):
, a lot of times, as managers,we run into that.
We run into like this is theprocess.
Well, no, this is just atoolbox and you're going to use
tools in a different way than Iam, and I can't wait to see what
you create, right.
Laura (20:42):
Well, and I'm so glad you mentioned that, but if people
wanted to get to know you moreor learn more about your
practice, how can they reach outto you?
What's the name of yourbusiness and things like that?
Annebritt (20:54):
Oh, thanks, lighten up massagescom L, I, g, h, t, e,
n and U, p, m, a, s, s, a, g, eS and you simply can go there.
We have everything's prettyeasy and very clickable.
Um, very, I've worked very hardto make it a simple website.
(21:15):
Um, and I think that's veryimportant.
In today's business, peoplehave click fatigue, um, so you
know, um, hopefully you can getit into what you need and want
to see within one to two clicks.
Uh, their contact informationis right on the front page and
then my email, if you want toreach out to me directly, is
Anna at LightenUpMassagescom,and thank you very much for this
(21:38):
opportunity.
Laura (21:39):
Well, it's been great to have you and I'm so glad you
helped us get out of COVIDtogether and move into calmer
and more peaceful ways of being.
Excuse me, I'm so sorry andwe're having a little gloomy day
today, but not that you couldtell by the picture.
But this is why I have thispicture behind me, because I
(22:04):
like to see sun and shine whenthere's cloudy skies outside.
So, anyway, I really want tothank you, anna, for showing up
and for helping us out andlearning more.
Thank you, oops, and I alsowant to thank you, the audience,
for listening to the MosaicLife with Laura W.
(22:25):
You can listen to this episodeagain and get this great content
and listen to other great hostsand their shows by going to
bizradious and click on shows.
And thanks so much for havingfor listening and have a great
rest of your day.
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