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This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, Session number 223, Jody Skulls on the Business of Body Work. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success. Here’s your host, Jason Lynette. Welcome back to the program.
It’s Jason Lynette here, and for those of you in the United. Happy Independence Day as we’re releasing this on the 4th of July, July 4th, 2019. And of course, as we go out international, this program has been downloaded now officially in more than 80 different countries around the world. Well, for everybody else, happy July 4th, we might as well celebrate every single day, and we’ve been doing something a little interesting in terms of celebrating 4th of July.
The Independence Day theme on this podcast series, or at least while we did it last year, and might as well do it again last year, sharing the stage with Karen Hand, who does happen to be my favorite hypnotist, but don’t tell the others on the independence of working interactively with your clients rather than being bound to scripts.
That was last year’s Independence Day episode, and actually timing this one just right for a couple of reasons. We’ll consider this episode the. Five year celebration of the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast. It actually launched five years ago in June, 2014, and we’re now beyond 200 episodes, more than 400,000 downloads worldwide.
And just celebrating that five year mark and many more cool episodes to come your way. And specifically, I was gonna originally do this episode as a bit of a solo one, but then as I thought about it, there was one specific person who, as I thought about it, I knew had to be on this specific episode, and chances are, unless you are in the massage therapy industry, you might not know Jodi’s goals, but you’re about to just fall in love with the thinking, the integrity, the mindset behind what she does.
And you’ll hear a little bit more of this in our conversation, but let’s rewind my story. To like December, 2009, I believe, and I’m in the process of launching Virginia Hypnosis. I had just moved from Maryland a little while before this, and I’m now joining a business networking Group B and I, Business Networking International.
And someone gets up at this meeting and introduces herself as Jody Skulls, and her business is the business of body work. She’s not necessarily looking for people who are looking for massage. She wants to speak to those burned out massage therapists who want to scale up their businesses and you know, the, the value of that good elevator speech.
At one point she got up and talked about. Who’s the massage therapist, you know, doing $15 massages on Groupon. They need to meet me. Here’s what I can help them do. And in some small direct, yet also in direct way, watching what she was doing to help raise the bar in the massage therapy industry. Well, here we go with.
Five years of the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast. I’d say Jody was definitely one part of the inspiration for building this category of helping other hypnotists become even more successful. As we say, the more we’re all successful, the more we’re all successful. So inviting her onto this program, even though she doesn’t come from the hypnosis world, you’re gonna hear some amazing insights.
In terms of the integrity of creating relationships, how to really, I love the phrase that she uses here about how to really own your zip code, what metrics we should be looking at in terms of getting out there and growing our businesses. The insights towards financial stability. How it is that we can begin to build a thriving business and actually have something to show for it.
And just an incredible arc of the person who. Gets the massage experiences, something really amazing, decides I wanna learn this, starts to do it, and does it so well. But then has the skill, the insight to step aside and sell a thriving practice and realize there’s a bigger reach in serving others. That again, the more we’re successful, the more successful we could have Incredible benefit in the one-to-one experience.
Though to go out there and inform others to duplicate our success. She drills down the importance of systems. So definitely someone to listen to. Definitely someone to learn from. And I’ll give you the websites to check out the outstanding work that she does. These are all gonna be linked over in the show [email protected], so you can head to the website, Business of Body.
Dot com or simply go direct to jody skulls.com. And that’s spelled S C H O L E S. And the first name, Jody, j o j o d i. So j o d i s c h o l e S, which it sure is fun to listen to spelling on a podcast. Head over to the show [email protected]. Link directly over there. So a perfect fitting theme for this Mindset of Independence, the perfect fitting theme for this celebration.
Five years of this program finally featuring someone who was a major inspiration for a lot of the direction that I’ve gone in the last, uh, 10 or so years, and just an outstanding person to listen to and for further accountability and things to listen to. Of course, check out hypnotic business systems.
Dot com. This is the All Access Pass to my Hypnosis Business Training Library, Strategies for Success done for You marketing campaigns, and some of the insights about what do you say when you’re at these networking events? What do you put into your presentations as you’re out there selling the value of what you do, and rather than having to reinvent the wheel for yourself, especially in our little curious niche of hypnotism, instead have the model for success.
So check that out at Hypnotic Business Systems. Dot com. You can join for a monthly basis or opt for the all access pass to get the templates you need to get out there and thrive. And with that happy five years. Happy Independence Day and happy. It’s about time we had Jody on the program. Here we go.
Episode number 223. Jody Skulls. On the business of body work. So as somebody who began first, as the massage therapist, then looked around and saw that there was a greater need, what was that transition for you to start to realize that there, there was a need to get out there and teach people how to think differently about their businesses?
Well, started with my own experience, Jason, in that I built a successful massage practice. And found that I needed to leverage my space, my time, I could only do so much, and once I had a couple people working with me, then I started seeing the bigger picture, how my business could grow to help not just a few dozen people, but a few hundred people, and started to pay a lot of attention to the systems that needed to be put in.
To accomplish that because it was organic to start, you know, it was just me. It was me and some friends, and then me and uh, some friends and administrative assistant. But then we really needed to standardize our operations so that we weren’t all going crazy. Yeah. So what was that next biggest step that helped you to break through and start to resolve that?
Wow. I would say the step that helped me the most was actually hiring a coach because I was so in my own overwhelm. I was so in my own business that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. And in coaching language, they, We talk about working in your business or working on your business. and when my coach first asked me, you know, what would you, what would you see as an ideal, you know, type of business, Jason?
I was so like, I was just so overwhelmed. I couldn’t even set positive goals. . And so a, a turning point for me was when she said, Okay, I want you to list everything that you’re, you’re absolutely going crazy with. Mm-hmm. , the things that are bugging you. Well, that was real easy. Yeah. , I, I can make a list of 20 things that were bugging me and systematically we reframed those and said, What would it look like if it was going right?
And that made all the difference, starting to see that you shouldn’t have been the one doing all those individual things. Absolutely that there were things I was doing because it was gonna take me too long to train somebody else to do it. Oh, of course. I mean, that’s . Yeah. And to rewind this back, I, I chair for those that are now, you know, listening to this, I believe you now have the bragging rights of more than 200 episodes.
In five years of this program, we’ve had other people on who clearly are not hypnotists, but the first person coming in from a massage. Pro, uh, perspective, so Oh, very great. I know, right? So there’s the, there’s the extra credit on the resume line though. I’m curious to even go back into that specific career cuz there are people in, in who are listening to this, who there are what I like to call hyphenate in our industry of people who do massage and they do hypnosis or even they do hypnosis and they do acupuncture or.
This energy healing modality and that other thing. To rewind part of your story back, what was your, what was your introduction and your decision point to go into massage as the beginning of. Well, I got a massage when I was in, when I was a, a young woman and I believe I might have even been 18 years old, and it was one of those massages where the earth moved.
Mm-hmm. , it was, I mean, I was, didn’t know how stressed out I was. It was in college. I was working two jobs and one of my colleagues at work said, Oh, you should go get a massage. There’s this really great person down the road, so I. . Well, that moment changed my life. I was like, This is so amazing. I should learn how to do this.
Yeah. And that seed was planted and about eight years, six years later, I said, Well, I’m not sure what I wanna be when I grow up. I know I wanna learn how to do massage, so let me go to massage. and I found myself transitioning over that time in massage school from having the mindset of someone who’s gonna have a hobby to the mindset of someone who’s gonna be an entrepreneur, who was gonna open my own business, who was going to take this on as a career.
And that was 25 years ago. Yeah. What’s beautiful about that is that, you know, we have to get that first introduction to something that, you know, you weren’t growing up originally going, I wanna be a massage therapist when I grow up, but looking at how, here’s how something affected your life. And I’m sure that story helped to inform how you were meeting your clients, how you were working with them one to one.
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And the way I wanted to show up for them was the way that this massage. , it had shown up for me. I mean, there are people in my profession and I feel like I’m one of them that say, You know, I didn’t choose massage. Massage. Kind of chose neat. Mm-hmm. , and it was that impression and that was what I wanted to facilitate.
That remarkable experience was what I wanted to facilitate for my clients. Yeah. And, and I love already the correlation of that story to so many others that have been here on this series so far of here’s the person who went in for that session here, as I, you know, many years ago saying to someone, Yeah, I don’t think that stuff works.
And he goes, You bite your nails. Sit down, shut up, close your eyes, Which I’m now nicer to my clients than he was to me. and the nail biting. Been gone ever since, and that was one of those little steps in the new direction. Um, I, I’d kind of bring everybody into our story of how you and I know each other, that I think it goes back to either 2009, 2010, and we were both members of the same BNI chapter in Alexandria, Virginia.
That’s true. Yeah. Which I can now reveal to you now that we’re past the pre-recording banter, by the way, if you want to see the, uh, sort of impulse behind everything work, Smart Hypnosis, you’re now listening to her. So thanks Jody . Cause you were, no, you were there. And that, that moment where you got up at a meeting one time and the statement is, define what you do and if you can explain exactly what you do so other people can understand it.
Until we can do that, we don’t have a business. And you got up at one meeting, I believe, if I remember right. And said, Look, stop sending me referrals for the person coming in who wants massage. Yes, I do that, but I’m here because I teach other massage therapists to be successful. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it’s so, you know, we get kind of stuck in that rut of what the stereotype.
Right, and that is some of the best advice that your listeners can hear. If you cannot specifically describe the, your ideal client and being, you know, and just know them inside and out, then don’t waste your time with networking. This is, you know, the ideal. Some people call it the ideal client profile. It, who do you really wanna serve?
Now my clients come back to me as massage therapists, you know, clinic owners, and like, Oh, Jody, I don’t wanna be too narrow. You know, I don’t wanna just talk about, Oh, I do sports massage, or I just work with oncology massage, or I just do pregnancy. Then, you know, that’s gonna eliminate so many. And it’s exactly the opposite.
Yes. As, as soon as I am clear about the people I love to work with, everybody else comes like, Oh, I know you work with Olympic athletes and I know you work with you know world, you know, professional athletes. Would you work with me? You know, I’m a weekend warrior, you know, I’m a stay at home mom. and it, it just works.
Just it, it, I can’t, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being super clear on your target market. For me, it like you referred to that meeting, I work with people who wanna be a community wellness expert. Wellness, body work, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, those people who wanna be known in their.
As a community wellness expert, and they’ve got at least two or three employees. You know, I mean, sometimes we, I work with people who are just getting started, Um, but that’s a little bit of a different conversation. But yeah. Thanks for that. I love that you have experienced so much success in getting clear with who you’re here to serve.
Yeah. And it’s that ability that we can look at how specific we can get there. And I always have to throw in the riddle, the, the word that’s spelled N I C H E. How’s that pronounced? niche. Thank you. Cuz niche rhymes with rich. Uh, there’s no more niche . Yeah, Right. But by, by getting specific it’s where, look at any network marketing to look at any promotion that we do.
Even going out in the community and talking about the work that we do. It’s not just those people who are directly there in front of you. It’s also who do they know? And if they can define very clearly. Okay. So Jason’s the guy who works with entrepreneurs to help them improve their public speaking confide.
Oh, I know someone for that versus, you know, I help people who want to overcome their challenges using the power of their mind, which my community nerds out over that, and they love that phrasing. But what the heck does that mean? ? I, I have to ask. They’re not specific enough. Yeah. Right. So I, I’m curious to ask you, and it may be something that you’ve done before or perhaps someone you’ve worked with, what would you say has been that most specific niche market that you’ve seen someone excel?
Oh, golly. I’ll use a recent example. I worked with a client on the East coast, actually technically in Connecticut, and she was in overwhelm and was looking at an opportunity to expand her business, but was referred to me because she, she’s like, There’s no way I can do that. And we went through my business blueprint.
Well, we did, you know, a call where we figured out if we were a good match and then we did worked through my business blueprint over 12 months. Oh my gosh. Jason, our little mantra, there’s the turnaround was remarkable and one of the modules in the program is to increase production. Now with a wellness business, a lot of times people think immediately, service, right, We’ve gotta do more service.
And in this, in my mo in my module, we look at all aspects, You know, are you offering retail? And in her case, she was offering some retail, but it kind of looked like a yard sale. Mm-hmm. and a little tweak here. A little tweak there. And literally within three months, her retail was paying the rent. , and that to me is just such a measurable mark of success for the business owner that they’re no longer relying on that phone ringing and seeing clients, but they’ve got multiple streams of income.
And that’s really what I find are the most remarkable turnarounds for the clients I work with, is helping them to discover that money that’s just sitting right under their nose. and they don’t even realize it. Well, it’s the theme of there can be a built in audience, the people that you’re already serving, the people that you’re already working with, that if, remember back when we were around each other, these meetings that one of the things you were targeting, and this may be a little different nowadays, I’m sure, but going into gyms that had empty spaces and having them integrate massage.
into their, into their practices there. Absolutely. Yeah. So I, I’d, I’d be curious to ask your thoughts on this, because there’s a lot of people who are in a category A as I am, where I’m at Virginia Hypnosis, which is my own specific location that’s mine. And I do see a good chunk of business because of referrals, people coming in from past clients or you know, connections in the community that I’ve made over the years, though there’s some who have gone out there and specifically there in residence.
Somewhere else. I was just recording actually with a former massage therapist out in the Seattle area and a lot of his business is coming in because he goes, I moved my office location to be in a spot where now I’m being seen by the medical community and now I’m paying half the rent for a smaller space.
Yet the difference is now this is my advertising because they see I’m here in this environment. If you had to give some advice to someone looking. For that, for that kind of symbiotic kind of relationship, what steps would you recommend them? Oh my goodness. This is part of the program. Jason, it’s so funny you’re talking about this because I basically, as a community wellness expert, I want you to own your zip code.
And to do that, we must, must, must move beyond the social media advertising and come back home to grassroot. Marketing. Nice. And part of that is networking. Yeah. Part of that is whether your physical space is visible or whether you are visible on behalf of your space, you must become more visible. We call it in the program becoming omni present and for people, new clients to say, My God, you show up every.
And it, it was one of those secrets of my success, you know, whether it was speaking or, you know, volunteering for something I was really passionate about. And I wanna caution your listeners that just getting busy is not the answer. Right? Yeah. Because I spent a lot of time being, And, you know, running here and there and joining this chamber and you know, just, you know, going to like all sorts of different, you know, meetings and networking and, and it wasn’t until I got really strategic about my networking and set a goal for every event or project that I was a part of that was super clear.
This happened to me even just last. I attended an event that was called Taste in the Nation and my goal was to make, to make three connections that were going to help my business grow. And I accomplished that with two iit, the president, the incoming president of the Rotary Club. And I guess I ended up reconnecting.
I reconnected with two clients. And then there was another key person. Oh, I met the director of the, Basically in the Northern Virginia area, there’s something called the Power Club. It’s a dinner club. Yes. And so in another area of the US there’s an, uh, Organization called the 100 Club, and I met the director of events for the 100 club and got invited as a non-member to the next social event, which is where some of my target market will be.
So in any case, coming back to the point is simply the set of goal for every event or project that you’re involved with and be strategic. It’s important to be visible, but it’s important to. On purpose, right? Yeah. As well. Well, I love that the metric wasn’t just, I’m going to sign up another person. This is where people often get frustrated with that world that they go to this meeting and they come back and they go, I didn’t get any business from that.
That’s stupid. And then they don’t, They don’t go back. But to change that metric, I mean, I can think back to here I was at this event and I now end up sitting next to the editor of a local newspaper. And from those conversations, I wrote a column for them for about two years, and here’s everything I can now track directly or perhaps even indirectly as a result of being there at that event, which I could have left that and went, I didn’t get any clients.
That’s stupid. I’m not going back yet. I didn’t need them because that was a much more valuable experience. Absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more, and if you go to an event expecting to get a. That’s like going out on a first date and expecting a proposal, . You gotta build rapport. You’ve gotta build credibility and, and every now and then, well, in your business and in my business, whether it be, you know, helping someone, Get more comfortable on stage, or in my case, helping someone, you know, leverage and grow their, their wellness business there.
Ha You have to build value and to take a page out of the Business Network International book. It’s credibility plus visibility equals profitability. And so that visibility comes first and that’s what networking is. You’re visibil. Where the credibility comes in is the one to one, like sitting down and having a coffee talk.
So in my example that I’ve used, I’m going to the rotary meeting Thursday at noon, and I’ll see if, um, you know, the incoming president would like to go have coffee and just talk about what his business is and what my business is. That’s where the credibility comes in. And your listeners may also be feeling like, well, We don’t even know if that incoming president is ever gonna be a client.
He’s probably never gonna be a client, right? , He doesn’t have a wellness business, you know? But the 15 or 30 or 300 people that are in his circle of influence, there’s probably somebody in there that could be a. , and that’s, that’s really where we start to expand our mindset. But it’s not just about finding a client.
It’s about finding those strong referral partners. Yeah. Or those, you know, areas where you can gain even more visibility like you are, um, writing your article for the local paper example. Well, I mean, look at that example of being at that event and being willing to, I mean, it’s that sharing of content.
It’s that sharing of data that, you know, without calling this person out, here’s someone who’s become a good friend over the years. Just to give the disclaimer to this, I do have programs that I sell. I, you know, have classes that are high dollar. I have ongoing recurring membership programs online.
There’s other trainings that I provide. I’m speaking and doing pre and posted various conventions. So as much as I’m out there teaching and sharing and putting out this series on a free basis, there’s also yes, stuff behind the curtain that you have to pay to actually get. And here’s someone who, she’s been listening to the program.
This podcast series for years, and it’s kind of that fun irony that I go, She’s never bought a single. And there’s no, and there’s no animosity, there’s no negativity towards that. There never once was the moment of, you know, this isn’t how I run things. To go, Oh, you need to buy this. There’s the answer. No.
We’ve had long conversations about our business and, and by not tracking financials as the single metric of success, I can indirectly now think of people who have found their way into my classes, into my programs because of that relat. And, and, and the joke was, she goes, I’m gonna buy this thing of yours.
You’re only selling this little thing for 17 bucks as a single, you know, training course. I’m like, I’m just giving it to you cuz I still like having the bragging rights you haven’t bought from me , which might not be good for business, but I think it’s also very. Very good for business. So it’s lot, it’s transparent,
Right. Well you mentioned, you mentioned, you know, the, the metric of making that new connection, A, as people are looking out there to grow their businesses and increase that influence that they have, what are some of those other metrics that they can look at? Oh, got As far as where are other opportunities to, to grow their business as far as grassroots, Is that your question?
Either that or how should be people be looking at? You know, for example, you went to that meeting. And you left that with the benefit of making these new connections, which you know, there’s gonna be a testing phase to everything. We don’t know yet if that specific connection is gonna turn into something, but it may be, and it may be someone that they know that they connect you with.
So you know, here, here’s the person you meet that’s very happy with the way things are going in their business. So that connection being one possible metric, Yes. The earning money is a metric. Are there other metrics to track? there are. Mm-hmm. There are, and I’ll tell you when I sold my massage practice, cuz I had a massage clinic with about 20 employees over 14 years, one of the most valuable things that was on on the table was goodwill.
Yes. that the reputation of my business had a tremendous amount of goodwill. And that’s tough to measure, right? You know, that’s tough to, to say as a metric, but if I, I think it comes back to a point I, I wanted to make sure that I clarified, which was when I sit down and I am meeting someone new for the first time, who could be a referral partner for.
My mindset is how can I help them? Yes. How can I help you? And here’s the funny thing about that, Jason, is that if we spend the whole 90 minutes talking about their business, I know one thing for sure. They’re not really a referral. I’ve had clients come back to me and say, I went and I had coffee with that physical therapist and I really thought that they were gonna start referring my clinic business.
And we never even talked for a minute about what I do. . You know what? Check the box. Yeah. They’re not actually gonna be a referral partner cuz they’re not wired to give. when we sit down and we start asking those questions about how can I help? Who’s your ideal client? You know, tell me a client success story.
You know, if you could have a, a practice full of these kind of people, what’s your dream? You know, what’s your dream job? Your dream client? And if a whole hour goes by and they’ve never asked me one question about me mm-hmm. , then they’re not wired to be a true referral partner. Yeah. They’re not a connect.
So we’re going into that meeting. How do we, how do we prevent that? How do we break outta that shell if we’ve, you know, been there? Which, which my audience is, is an interesting one cuz I teach that, you know, if you’re gonna go to a networking event, you know, go prepared. Here’s how I teach to craft the elevator speech.
Here’s how to build value. Here’s how to explain what you do, but be ready for the fact that you’re now in a position where you’re the first one there. So, yeah. So for the hypnotist, my first Chamber of Commerce event was the round table speed networking, speed dating style of things. And as it goes around the table, I’m a banker, I’m a realtor, I’m a banker, I’m a realtor, I’m a banker, I’m a realtor, I’m a hypnotist.
I’m a wait what? A what? Which all conversation stopped. And yes, because I’m po which was really annoying cuz I needed a new banker and I needed a realtor . But you know, as I’m there in that experience though, it could have easily shifted to them just questioning me and asking further questions. How would you recommend making that pivot?
So it is a balance. So we are learning how to better also serve that other client too. That other business. I if, if it started getting lopsided, which it can very quickly, Right? Especially if you’re like a hypnotist, a massage therapist experienced that as well. Yes. Because you get the, Ooh, yeah, I’ve got a pain right here.
And, you know, it immediately digresses into, you know, what would you do for me? And really what we’re looking for to do is kind of bring, stay in, stay in the present. Don’t go down the rabbit hole about, you know, stories or treatments. Invite them to a one to one. Invite them to your office to have a cup of coffee or a cup of.
See, I would love to address that with you, but I feel like in 30 seconds I’m not gonna be able to do a very good job with that if it’s a condition. Yeah. Okay. And, and so really the motivating factor is to have them come and see your space. Now, if they’re not comfortable coming to your space or you’re not comfortable having them in your space, that would be, you know, something else to talk about, why you wouldn’t be comfortable having, you know, a referral partner.
See your. But the idea is to build rapport genuinely. Mm-hmm. and doing that in, in a, at a round table where there’s, you know, eight or 10 other professionals listening, you know, that’s, that’s not going to accomplish the goal. You know, the goal is to learn about everybody else’s business and give everybody else the chance as.
So might be tempting to use c the, the limelight and the spotlight, you know, and, and, you know, start beating our test about how we’ve treated this patient or that patient and their miraculous recovery. But understand the venue, understand the dynamics. Understand that you either have a ten second introduction, a 32nd intro.
Or you’ve got your ask, which is if you’re at a BNI group or another networking group, that usually is a time in the meeting where you can specifically ask for a referral, and that would be, I’m looking for clients who are frustrated with their wellness business, who know they can have a bigger impact, but can’t even imagine getting any busier.
We take them from overwhelm to. We take them from working 80 hours a week to working a five hour work week in the freedom phase of my business blueprint. We give them their life back, but they’re making more money than they’ve ever made before. So those overwhelmed, like the wellness professional, that doesn’t call you back?
Yes. That’s who I wanna have a conversation with, which I love that because you’re able to define, you’re starting with the problem. You’re not using the, you know, using these more marketing terms that we would use inside of a thing of, they’re not searching, they’re not going online and going, Oh, I’ve got a, I’ve got a mindset problem.
Let me look up mindset . Mm-hmm. But if you can define, if you can define that specific problem point of, And that’s a beautiful one of going, the person who can’t return their. and immediately almost everyone knows that person. I’ve been that one until I got better at the, uh, automation and the right, uh, scheduling out that I’m just building a better system so that nowadays in the business, people actually schedule the call online.
So rather than the game of the back and forth building a system where now that’s taking care of and there’s the method to go around that, but. to get specific. You know, who’s that person? You know who has ? I love this one. If you’ve ever fished a cigarette out of the trash can, we need the. Oh yeah. Then again, I don’t think you ever saw my, uh, my elevator speech that I kind of closed out my be and eye days with, where I’d stand off to the side of the room and I’d find the spot where I’d be one of the last ones to get up and give my, you know, 35 seconds.
And so you stand up and you feel your voice shaking. You’re holding something in your hands so no one sees that your arms are trembling and you’re doing best just to stand perfectly still because it feels like your legs are about to tremble out from underneath you. If I’ve described you, we need to.
Absolutely. And painting, painting that picture. I know. I wanna, I wanna chat with you about the question though of not everybody’s in that category of that bursting at the seams. There are some who are looking to, to make that transition from perhaps out of another career into something new. What advice do you have for those that are in those, uh, in those startup phases as opposed to these scale up ones?
Wow, there’s really so much, you know, , I would say don’t do it, . And there you go. This is Ben, Jody, and we’re done. You know, but you know what? Some of us are wired and even as much as we joke and say, Don’t do it, you know, our profession, our calling. , we, we don’t necessarily choose it. It chooses us. Mm-hmm. . And so that deep fire that burns in our soul to make a difference in people’s lives doesn’t go away.
And in my TEDx talk, I talk about how our pain tells a story, and sometimes it’s those unrealized desires to be making a difference in people’s lives versus in a dead end mindless soul numbing. And I, I really like, appreciate that statement of being hardwired. That, and, and I referenced, I think it was like episode, I’m cheating now, and just looking up back in, oh, almost about a year ago now, June last year, robbed de Gro, who’s a hypnotist out of Belgium that, you know, he talked about and, and some people had some negativity towards this, but as I.
You know, as we further got into the conversation, they heard the intention that he has additional hypnotist working in his staff, and he explained, I’m looking for those people who just want to be the practitioner and they don’t have interest in being the business guy. And it’s not necessarily from the position that he doesn’t want to create his own competition.
It’s more so the fact that, you know, here are those people who just want to do the. They don’t get absolutely excited about getting out there and doing the business side of it. They just wanna show up and work with people, which is not as common in the hypnosis world as it is in, in the, you know, massage world.
So if someone is looking to, let’s say, excite that frequency of the mind to be the entrepreneur, how would you recommend they start to take those steps? . So what I would say is to be willing to take bold action. Yeah. And get I, I would say my very first piece of advice would be to get an accountability buddy who is even more optimistic than you are.
Yes. Someone who believes in you. That’s not a family member. Yeah. Hopefully someone who’s up the financial ladder from. . So they’re already Oh, thank you. In financial place, , where you would like to be? I think the simple advice, Years ago I had worked with someone who was paying me for coaching time and we were working on their business card and just making sure it was delivering one specific message with one specific call to action without the laundry list of everything on the back.
And then suddenly they sent me images of the card and I’m like, This is, this is not what we worked on. Oh, I know, but my, uh, my sister said this would be, Like your sister’s not in this line of business, and also, not that this is a measurement of quality of person, but she’s not as sex successful as an entrepreneur as you would like to be.
Take advice from those people who have done what you want to do. That’s gonna be the more direct route. Or someone who can, who can think bigger about things. Absolutely. Someone you know, there’s a quote from K Bra that says A true friend. And sing the song of your heart when you’ve forgotten the words.
And to find someone in your life who sees you, who sees how successful you could be, who believes in you, but who is not a family member. Because unfortunately, our family wants to protect us, and in doing so, they keep us. And another huge criteria is that they are financially successful either at the level or above the level you would like to be.
Take them on as an accountability buddy and have them hold you accountable to take steps towards launching your business. It’ll be the best thing you could do to get that business off the ground. Yeah. Any specific advice about how to go out and make that connection? Find that person. Oh, for your listeners, they already know who it is.
They’re already thinking about it. Yeah, because it’s someone they admire, but it’s someone they don’t dare ask for help. And that’s where it comes back to taking bold. . Well, I, I found be bold enough. Yeah. Well help that We sometimes find that greatest success by being willing to do things that make us uncomfortable.
Absolutely. And here’s the other kind of crazy thing that I’ve found, at least in me, finding my mentors, in my accountability buddies, they’re more than happy to help. They’re, they’re delighted that I’ve asked. They’re like, Oh my God, Jody, you’re so successful. I’m like, I am taking it to the next level. Uh, you know, and I need somebody to hold me accountable.
I need somebody to say, Hey, did you write the next chapter of that book? Did you get, you know, your TEDx video produced? Is it on your website? Yes. Yes. Because, you know, I know that I quote, unquote, should be doing that. And for your listeners, Try and eliminate the word should from your vocabulary. Yes,
Because we should not, we shouldn’t. We don’t should on ourselves. We don’t should on others. Yes, I know that that’s something I need to do, but when somebody who I respect asks me about it, and I know they’re gonna ask me about it on Friday at noon at lunch, hell up. If I’m not 11, you know, midnight on Thursday night, you know, or at 11:00 AM Friday, making sure that that works.
Yeah, no, I, It’s where I’ve done a number of things in recent years to reach out and go, Here’s something that I know I can do on my own, but I can probably do it better if I hire the expert. Oh, and delegation is key. Yes, absolutely. In a startup though, you know, we have to be careful about how much we delegate.
I’ve worked with some clients who said, Oh yeah, yeah, I hired somebody to do my website. and they took a very hands off approach to it. Mm-hmm. , well, it, it didn’t really represent who they were and in the end, they weren’t a hundred percent happy with their website because they weren’t involved. So being careful about delegation, but also knowing you can’t, you’re not an expert at everything and we don’t need to be an expert at everything.
I just relaunched my website and. God bless my web developer. Love you, Donnie. Yeah, it looks great by life, but he gave me way more information than I ever needed. Mm-hmm. . And so what ended up happening is I hired him out a retainer. So that on a monthly basis I would be like, I have these updates to make.
Can you do them ? Yeah. Cause I don’t wanna get into the back end of my WordPress site and mess something up. Yeah. I don’t think you’ve heard my story that I’ve got a long time web designer. She does all of my projects and the fun moment where I tried to fix something on the Virginia Hypnosis website, I’m looking at the sidebar.
And it’s, it’s late at night and I’m thinking it’ll probably take me more time to describe what’s wrong than to fix it myself. So let me go in and fix the sidebar, and I crashed the whole website and, Oh no, you for the next, And she fixed it right away. But also for the next two weeks, she changed the password, so I couldn’t get into the site.
Which exactly scares business owners, but in her words, This is why you pay me. Stop screwing this up and making my job hard. I’m like, Thank you. You can have our now, my gosh. Which there’s a, I bet you business Yeah. Owners across the, across the nation right now, across the world are going, Oh, you shouldn’t hear my story
Yeah, no. And the moment of. Pride is that on, uh, on YouTube? I believe, and actually we repurposed as a podcast episode a while ago, a talk I did on outsourcing, which the bragging rights is I did not outsource the video editing of my outsourcing video. I did that myself, , which will set that aside though.
But looking at, you know, the strategy I tend to say for websites is exactly what you just mentioned. Hire someone you can work with and then do a pivot and figure out. How much do I have to pay you for ongoing updates? And I’d even go so far as to say, Great, let me pay you that times one and a half for two hours for us to hop on Skype or on Zoom and you show me how to go in and just simply like, you know, add a blog post, go in and absolutely change the date I, you know, I do my work Smart Hypnosis live hypnosis certification class, and it’s basically always the same class, but then after the one in July passes, I’ll be announcing the one either September, October, and you know, for that.
Okay. Yeah. I can go in and I can change the dates myself because I know enough. I don’t wanna say enough to be dangerous cuz I’ve already been way too dangerous with my own websites. Yeah, yeah. Uh, what, what skill would you say beyond delegation, beyond relationship building do you think is essential though for the modern day entrepreneur, especially in wellness?
Oh, this is, yeah, this is an unfortunate one. You have to be able. To deal. You have to have a relationship with your money. Yes. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs only looking at their books once a month, once a quarter. Some of them, only when their accountants demand it’s time to do your tax return. Yes.
Money is like a lover. If you wanna have a good relationship with your lover, how often do you wanna speak to it? Speak to them. Daily, maybe a couple times a day. You must have a relationship with your money, both professionally and personally, and it’s something that most entrepreneurs avoid because they don’t like what they see.
I get it. I was there. I did the same thing. And what I would say that right out of the gate is important to have at least once a week. Where you sit down and you look at your bank balances, look at money going, coming in, but money going out as well. We need to be honest with ourselves about money. That’s a, that’s a huge thing.
And I mean, especially again, on the outsourcing side, this is why, you know, I keep on a full time, well, not full time for me, but someone who I pay every month for bookkeeping. Someone who I’m still in contact with as the accountant, to be able to, to ask these questions about little things. Like, Hey, I formed.
You know, I formed a new DBA inside of the business. Should that be its own separate llc? And getting the legal advice on that, getting the financial advice on that and the, and the decisions of buying the office that I’m in now as opposed to renting, which was mostly a decision based on the fact that Amazon has made the local rental market go nuts.
Uh, , Right. And learning. You know, there’s a, we were having this chat before there’s a, there’s a hack to everything I found, and yeah, so I was able to cash out every bit of my down payment. And still my monthly mortgage is now about the same as what my rent used to be. But to actually look at it and have someone go, Okay, the money’s going here.
The money’s going there. Are you setting aside for retirement? Are you setting aside for this? So to get that advice along the way because that’s, that’s a conversation we don’t want to be thinking about when it’s too. . Absolutely. And you know, I actually scheduled it, Yes. On Mondays from nine to 12 is my finance time.
Mm-hmm. and it’s, it, it’s a place where I can table the questions that my will keeper has for me. And she knows on Mondays between nine and 12, I address these things. and there’s some great blueprint out there that if you haven’t taken a look at it, I mean, I have my clients who are in the Business Blueprint program, the one of their assignments is they read a very skinny little book called The Richest Man in Babylon.
Yep. That was the beginning of my journey to, To more wealth. No one when I was growing up, no one ever told. To spend less than I make to save 10%. And there’s just some really good core principles, whether it’s from the Richest Man in Babylon, from Dave Ramsey and his Financial Peace University from the book Profit First.
Yes, from another great, great book asking that, you know, as an entrepreneur, twice a month you put away one to 3% of your profits. I mean, there’s just some really good basic principles that you can. Early on as an entrepreneur, so that that first three years is not as hard as it needs to be, as as it could be.
You. . So to, to kind of bring an all full circle to look at, you know, the shape of what you’re doing now, where you’re working with those, you know, those wellness centers that really want to up their game, really want to, that, you know, as you said, they know they’re playing small. They want to own that zip code, and by doing so, create that better service for their, their community that they’re now that.
Integral part of what is around them as opposed to just another commodity, which especially I’m sure with massage, that that becomes a factor for that. Mm-hmm. , how, how do you recommend someone begin to stand out to, to shine out in the local community? I love that question, which we’re, we’re a culture of people who think, How do I make that happen?
What’s the trick for that? But I may be certain. Preframing, the idea that integrity’s probably gonna be a part of this . A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So there were little things we did in my office, and really that is a question that actually starts with the heart. Mm-hmm. , right? It starts with who are you being in your practice?
And for my practice, you know, when I had a massage clinic, everybody got a bottle of water when they left, and they also got a rose. Every, I mean we bought over a hundred roses a week and that meant it be financially feasible. But bear with me. It made us stand out. People would tell me the stories about what they did with their roses.
They gave it to their significant other. They gave it to the toll booth operator. It. People in my plaza would say, What’s the deal with the roses? , and you’re like, Well, everybody who comes in and gets a massage gets a rose. You know? And it’s just a little reminder that, you know, they did something nice for themselves.
And so we look at the practice that that wellness expert has and say, How do you increase your client experience to that five star client experience? Is it with, you know, the waiting area when they come in? Is it with the additional education that you, Do you offer free workshops or a newsletter? Is it with having heated towels during the winter?
So those moist teethed towels around the feet? Is that the Wow? What’s making your clients say? Wow. And we become strategic about, We make it easy to duplicate. We make it a system. Yes. With, yeah, with my new clients. You know, at our clinic everybody got a handwritten thank you note. We bought those pre stamped postcards and they’re a therapist would just say, Thanks for coming in.
It was great to meet you. and then they’d share, you know, they’d say one personal thing. Yeah, I hope your dog’s doing well. Love hearing the story about your dog, . Short, sweet. But the amount of goodwill, the amount of loyalty, the amount of personal attention that that client felt. They don’t feel that in other places.
That makes a huge difference as a community wellness. Yeah. How are you connecting with your clients? Yeah. And a, a book reference on this too. Have you read Giftology by John Rule? , I haven’t, I’m pulling from Blue Ocean Strategy. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, a lot of the same themes and, you know, updates and variations on similar mindsets.
But the, the subtitle of the book is the Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut through the Noise, increase Referrals and strengthen client Retention, where it’s often that littlest of thing. And I’d share the insight that Note card strategy is one that I used for years and which I need to do again now that I’ve moved the location and I have a bunch of cards with the wrong address.
Uh, so I’ve, I still, it’s an. I know, right? Yeah. And you know, I’ve been doing just a quick custom video to people that they have that video the evening after we first met, which is just the, Hey, it was so good to meet you. But I love the insight that I just went to a major marketing convention and where they’re talking about everything from all the current trends of chatbots and you know, here is a product you can now get made that.
It’s not like you’re sending someone an iPad, which would be kind of overkill unless you were going for very, very large targets, but they were showing off these devices that everyone was going nuts over that. You open up this little folio and there’s a little video player built into it, and it just begins to play the greeting and there’s a flash drive and there’s all your promo material.
But on top of everything, major marketing event with some of the biggest names and online advertising there, What was the most talked about trend? direct mail, . I love it. Package, yeah, it’s so important. Package in the mail, like my secret weapon postcard. Yeah, in direct mail, which the year only about a year ago, I mean, for the classes that I do, I get people traveling in from around the world.
We had an event here about two weeks ago where someone came in from Dubai, someone came in for five minutes, come in from down, from five minutes down the road. And what I tend to do with my trainings now is that no matter where they are in the world, I’m sending a package of books in advance, a signed copy of my books and other resources, which people go, Oh, how much does that cost?
And I go, It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter babe. The books, it doesn’t, The books by the time I’m done are about maybe $30, cuz I’ve got the wholesale rights to some of them. And shipping at worst is 20 bucks International for first class. But the impact that now, it’s not just that they’re getting the digital delivery of, you know, one of these major products of mine, but it’s that here’s something they get to touch, here’s something they get to interact with.
Right. , Uh, which the impact that’s been having has been Yes. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I promise you, I promise your listeners that if you take nothing else from listening to this podcast, take this away. That a physical piece of mail, book, postcard, birthday card, makes a huge impact and will build. Our relationship so much more quickly because it’s so thoughtful and we live in a time where we have so little people doing that.
Mm-hmm. really is hugely beneficial. Makes you stand out in a crowd so mu so quickly. Here’s a little secret thought. Here’s a little secret After the networking events you wanna, you wanna test drive this theory, go to a networking event, collect 10 business card. Send each one of them a handwritten note afterwards saying it was nice to meet you.
Watch the impact. Yes. Outstanding. Well, Jody, it’s been awesome having you on here. It’s about time we did this too. I know. Thank you so much for the invitation. It’s great to catch up. Yeah. So thank you to your listeners as well for being with us through the podcast. Yeah. And where can people find you online?
How can they learn? , they can learn more at the business of body work.com. It leads you directly to my information about speaking at your next wellness event. It leads you to the business blueprint of what we cover, but the business of body work.com. And my name is Jody SCHs with the spelling s c h o l e.
Outstanding, and we’ll put links and everything over in the show [email protected]. Uh, Jonie, Any, uh, Jodi, any final words to share? If you are listening and you are overwhelmed in your business or you’re considering going into business, no matter where you are, whether you’re startup or you’re 10 years in, I am sending you love and lights and a reminder that you are here listening to this because your angels are on your side.
And they are rearranging the universe on your behalf to be successful. And so just take that hope and that knowing that you are on the right track. You are doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing at this time in your life. Jason Lynnette here once again, and as always, thank you so much for interacting with this program, for sharing your reviews online, posting this on your social media streams.
Again, check out Jodi’s website, joie skulls.com, and to learn more about really upping your game and your business and having that accountability built in for you. Check out hyp. Business systems.com. This is the all access pass to my Hypnosis Business training library. What do you say when you’re at those networking events, how do you actually build that amazing customer support?
How do you handle those moments where maybe things don’t go as well and you make sure the client leaves better off as a result and we really start to build that? Thriving integrity within our local community, giving you the roadmaps, the uh, step by step templates and the real thinking to really get out there and thrive as a business and hypnotic entrepreneur.
Check that out. Hypnotic business systems.com. See you on the inside. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.
