By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”
On Monday, I got a wonderful email from a client. He was so excited because after putting it off, after going through a lot of financial hardship this last year with real estate and stocks, etc. After losing a beloved brother who always encouraged him and made him believe he could do anything. After going through a serious car accident with broken ribs and more – he finally took a massive step toward starting a new life for himself.
My client, I’ll call him Ned, mentored with me on a regular basis last year and was making great progress. He is sort of a massage therapist to the stars. People like actors Ted Danson and Ben Affleck are his clients. He wanted to take his secrets of how to have a very successful, profitable massage therapy practise out to other massage therapists. He wants to eventually stop doing massage and focus much more attention on workshops, trainings and other info-products. He’s already taught at a massage school.
His vision is all about finding a way to take his expertise to others and make that a business model. So we worked with that. I sensed he had a lot of fear around doing this without his brother there for him. His parents are deceased as well. There were even moments when he felt a little hopeless – I’d encourage him and he’d pull himself back up and get going again.
We put a lot of time into figuring out the agenda for his workshop. Years ago a woman with a Ph.D. in Instructional Design helped me put together my first workshop – so I shared that knowledge with him and together we came up with a wonderful program for him. It felt true and authentic to who he is and his experience and he knew it would help other massage therapists while also being fresh and new. We also talked about getting the word out and how to fill the room with the right people. People who were willing to learn AND willing to pay.
Then September 15, 2008 happened. The stock market was in an upheaval and he lost money. You remember. He owned two rental homes and both his tenants lost their jobs and couldn’t pay rent. So he was struggling to keep up the mortgages. The number of people booking massages with him dropped – so his income from that source dropped, too. Consequently, he wasn’t able to keep up marketing mentoring with me. But once in awhile he’d pay me for one session at a time. And he’d keep me posted by email.
I’m not 100 percent sure when my last mentoring session was with him. I’d have to look through my calendar. I think it was August. In between – except for connecting with me on Facebook – I didn’t really know if he was still working at it or not.
He was.
Monday when I got his email telling me what a triumph his workshop was the weekend before, I was jumping up and down excited for him. It’s just a start but his information was very well received and he also made a profit. Whoooo-hooo! He did it with a healing rib from his car accident – but he kept breathing through it (I’ve heard healing ribs are painful) and he was successful. In the last paragraph he said, “Denise, I put payment for another mentoring session with you in your paypal account – just let me know when you can meet.”
You might already know I have a workshop coming up this Monday November 2nd here in Las Vegas. I have three seats remaining so if you’d like to find out more and attend click on the link at the top of this page that says “Denise’s Events.” But the reason I’m digressing like this is because I’m very recently aware of all the work it takes to put together a successful event even if your health is just fine.
Ned is turning his life around in the direction he’s wanted to go for years now. He’s inching closer and closer to living his dream. And I couldn’t be more happy for him – and thrilled to know that I had a little something to do with his new success. What’s you’re dream and are you getting help and guidance in making those positive changes to your business income and your life.