When I started my massage blog 13 months ago, I have no idea that I would be able to have enough massage related material to share with everyone, let alone have interesting stories to tell. I am often asked why I give away so much free information, am I not afraid that a competitor will steal the information and compete with my business? No, I am not afraid, and I will continue to share my experiences and the lessons that I learn, because I have a tremendous amount of passion for what I am doing.

Internet technology has given me a platform to speak to anyone who finds my experiences interesting, I find this very rewarding. And because, I am passionate about the massage industry, not only from a stand-point of being a therapist, and helping other bodyworkers to achieve success in their massage practice. But also, realizing the benefits and the potential that massage has on people’s lives. Helping people to overcome their physical pain and you can’t have physical without the emotional pain, is meaningful work for me.

I want to share with you a short video clip from Malcolm Gladwell at the Dreamsforce in San Francisco, on doing meaningful work. It’s why I share with you so much free information with you and it also why, I have been able to continue, for 13 months.

Whether you call yourself the head honcho of a company of one, a freelancer, a solopreneur, or self-employed, Biznik is for you. Nothing beats the power of a face-to-face meeting to build real, lasting business relationships. Combine that with an online social network designed to get you noticed, and you have Biznik: business networking that doesn’t suck.

I found out about Biznik through my networking group, and at first I resisted it because the last thing I needed was another social networking website to consume more hours of my day. But the shortly after, I attended Biz Tech Day in San Francisco, California where I got to meet Lara Feltin and Dan McComb the founders to Biznik.com. Connect with me on Biznik and “add me to your network” choose option that we met online.

After listening to Dan and Lara, I decided that I would give this business networking community a try. It has been a month since I joined and I am really enjoying it so far.

• Biznik is based on a simple idea: connecting small businesses to each other for mutual business benefit.
• Biznik combines powerful social networking technology with face-to-face meetings and education, in a community that serves the unique needs of entrepreneurs and personal businesses.
• Biznik is a free service with opportunities for members to pay for enhanced features and more visibility, of course. This is how they make their money. Biznik was founded in March 2005 by Lara Feltin, a successful photographer, and Dan McComb, an indie Web developer.

What I like about Biznik.com is its search engine friendly URL’s, title tags and categories. You can post your events, articles and promotions with so many more features. On your profile you have Google maps showing your location of your business, you have the option to do a video profile and post what you need currently for your business.

“Connect globally and meet locally”

I love this quote, on their website. With that mind I invite you to join the Biznik community if you are not a member yet, build your profile and make connections. Then come out and bring a bunch of business cards and network with us Left at Alburquerque in the Pruneyard, Campbell.

Left of Alburquerque

1875 S. Bascom Ave
Campbell, California 95008
Mon Dec 1, 2008 6:00 PM

For more information view this link… http://biznik.com/events/bay-area-biznikkers-unite and RSVP

Connect with me on Biznik and “add me to your network” choose option that we met online/at an event.

Our business Roman Paradigm Massage, is truly thankful to Hazel Grace of Socialbees for her expertise on upgrading and utilizing Facebook for business. We are a small but growing massage business in San Jose and have grown this business by embracing internet technology and social media.

Marketing 101

If location, location, and location often is a determining factor for success, I can only say that this applies not only to your physical location but also where you are on the internet. You want to position your business where your customers are and with over 120 million users using Facebook, chances are your current and potential customers are part of that 120 million. By the way, this number surpasses Myspace.

But in order to be successful on Facebook or any other social media community, you have to understand their platform to get the best returns from your efforts. In most cases businesses who jump into social media do not understand social media and do not get any results from it. Often in many cases they hurt their businesses more than they help it. And there are many reasons why this could happen to you. So in order to avoid these mistakes and to get the best results from your social marketing efforts, you need to attend this workshop being offered by Hazel Grace and her company. By implementing the valuable information that Hazel Grace has shown us, we have upgraded our page and you can see it here…Roman Paradigm Massage Facebook.

Hazel Grace owner of Socialbees

“The Socialbees business model allows me to share my social internet knowledge with small businesses (my passion!) who may normally not be able to afford consulting. I’ve broken my services down into a cost effective a la carte menu that allows you to manage part of your social marketing project in house and we’ve created group workshops to keep training costs low.”

“The Socialbees mission is to make it possible for all small businesses to have the high quality social media presence previously reserved for big budgets.  Between now and next spring Socialbees will be focused solely on Facebook services. After carefully assessing all the major networks, we chose Facebook as our starter platform because they offer the best tools for the widest range of small businesses.”

The Facebook Business page workshops

The Facebook 1.0 workshop is for users who are new to Facebook. We will teach them how to become a power-user and lay the groundwork for later leveraging the system for business.

Date: Saturday, 11/15
Time: 9:30am-11:30am

Here’s the link for details:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=32201243255&ref=mf

The Facebook 2.0 workshop is for savvy users who are ready to learn the ins and outs of to Facebook for business. This class will cover the ENTIRE Facebook tool kit including how to market your page on and
off of Facebook. This class is best suited for very savvy users and those of you who already have business pages, but could use help optimizing them and improving your ads and other marketing techniques.

Date: Saturday, 11/15
Time: 12:30pm-4:30pm

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=44532703616&ref=mf

Massages, especially the full body kind, require your clients to take off all, or at least most of their clothes. And this puts you in the position of having to earn their trust with your professionalism and expertise. Even the slightest mistake can turn an innocent massage session into a potential situation where your job and your reputation are on the line. As a professional masseuse, here’s what you can do to ensure that your business is on the up and up:

• Talk to your clients before a massage, and stay within the boundaries they set.
• Let them know that it’s ok to keep their underclothes on if they’re not comfortable with the idea of taking off all their clothes in the presence of a stranger.
• Give them some privacy so that they can undress and slip under the sheet on the massage table.
• Make them comfortable and secure a few minutes into the session by letting your professional hands do the talking.
• If there is a hint of inappropriate behavior, ignore it unless it becomes too overt to let slide.
• Refuse sexual favors firmly, but politely. If the client insists, terminate the session and refuse to see him or her again on a professional basis.
• Never date your client; besides the fact that it could get awkward, it’s also illegal in some states.
• Do not massage sexual organs.
• While some massages do require the breasts to be touched, most states ban this kind of therapy. And it’s always best to be upfront with your client about the limits of the massage.
• Always ensure that you apologize for an inadvertent touch that’s inappropriate.

A massage has numerous benefits for both physical and mental health, as long as it stays within the ethical perimeter. If not, it could end up being detrimental to your mental peace.

Article is contributed by…

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of massage therapy jobs. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com

San Francisco Massage Supply Company is a great resource for local massage therapists in the San Francisco bay area. Her massage supply store offers all the essential equipment and supplies that we all use in our daily practice. Leslie Hollingsworth is also a great success story going from being a massage therapist for 15 years to now becoming a massage supply business owner.

San Francisco Massage Supply Company is having a birthday bash

November 15^th between 6:00pm and 9:00pm,

207 9th St at Howard San Francisco, CA 94103

415-255-4693

I just received an email newsletter indicating that there will be food, drinks and PRIZES!!

When I say prizes, I do mean prizes, the grand prize is a Inner Strength E2 massage table. So be sure to get down to San Francisco Massage Supply Co. and support her 1 year in business.

For the whole week of our Birthday (Nov. 10-15th), they will have a bowl at their front desk. Select your items, bring them up to the checkout counter and pick a card out of the bowl - Viola! Your magic discount coupon is revealed! Discounts range from 10% - 50% your total purchase, not matter what you buy!

I think one of most unique aspect of Leslie Hollingsworth’s massage supply store is the ability to rent massage tables to massage therapists. You can rent the massage tables by the day, week or month, this is huge especially when you are first starting off and might not have the clientele or funds to get your own massage table.

“My inspiration to open San Francisco Massage Supply Co. happened soon after I moved from New Jersey to San Francisco in December of 2005. I’ve been in practice for over 15 years and was thoroughly accustomed to having a supply store that I could just drive over to and get what I wanted when I wanted it. Simple as that, no online shopping, no shipping charges, no waiting. And plus, if I didn’t know what kukui oil felt like, or whether I liked French Lavendar or Hi Alps Lavendar, I could just go feel it, or smell it!”

We at Roman Paradigm Massage in San Jose support Leslie.

Over the past year, I have tried many internet marketing strategies to build our online presence. And we have had great success utilizing article marketing, PPC, blogs and social media websites to name a few. Not until now, have I tried experimenting with videos.

Youtube, is the 3rd most visited website on the internet, according to Alexa. Google the #1 search engine owns Youtube. It becomes clear to me that you need to be using video to market your business on the internet. So I went on Amazon and bought the Flip video after researching it.

My Plan for using the Flip Video

I am not going to talk much about the features of the product, but what I can say is that after 3 days of playing with it, it is so easy to use. Because I have many different projects that I am working on and being technically challenged, I needed something that was easy and convenient to use without much technical know-how. Here are my ways of using video to market our Massage Business, Roman Paradigm Massage…

1. Shoot short 3-5 minute massage training videos
2. Video Bio pages of our massage staff
3. Video client testimonials
4. Video our massage rooms to show clients our professionalism
5. PPC video landing pages
6. SEO benefits
7. social media

As you can see there are many opportunities for using video to market your massage business or for any business. And if you are selling products, imagine how much more you can engage your potential customers with video. I will write a follow-up blog post about how I specifically will use these 7 outlined tips, but for now, enjoy the video below that I just created using the Flip Video. Please tell me what you think?

The video footage below is of our salt water tank, located in our lobby. If you are local to the San Jose Bay Area, here is my guy, Jeff for salt water tank set ups. Be sure tell him that Robert or Doreen sent you for a free consultation.

A few months ago one of our massage therapists (Aeriol) and a client of hers came up with this wonderful idea called, a massage bliss bootcamp.

What is a Massage Bliss Bootcamp?

Well we all have heard of bootcamps, they have bootcamp for basic training, they have teen bootcamps for trouble teenagers as well as fitness bootcamps. So we took this concept and applied to massage therapy and it turned out great. Below you can hear how one of clients at RPM Therapy went through this massage bootcamp and her feelings with it.

A massage bliss bootcamp is a commitment that you make with yourself, that for a period of 2 weeks, you will get a 30 minute massage everyday, These massage sessions can vary in any length of time, Suzanne decided that she wanted to have 30 minutes each day and scheduled all 2 weeks worth for the same time each day.

RPM Therapy has never done anything like this before so to get feedback, we interviewed her at the end  And what was surprising to me, was the guilt feelings that came up maybe once or twice during the 2 week period for her. She almost struggled to continue with her commitment because it just did not feel right or fair that she was receiving these massages everyday.

What? Can you imagine the day that giving yourself such a treat would come with so many guilty feelings, I just think that this is the most terrible thing to ever feel, we all should be able to experience this kind of joy and bliss that massage therapy offers. And the happiness that comes with it, be a way of connecting with ourselves and being whole, knowing that this is something that we all deserve it because, the joy of life is beautiful.

Book Your Massage Bliss Bootcamp with us here

Check this video testimonial of our massage bliss bootcamp

Pain, muscle spasms and inflammation are common responses to injury, which affects ligaments, tendons and tissues that connect muscle and bones. Cold applied to these areas decreases the flow of inflammation causing fluid into the tissues and slows the release of chemicals that cause pain and inflammation. Cold decreases feeling in an area by reducing the ability of the nerve endings to conduct impulses.

Ice massage therapy is most effective if it is applied as soon as possible after the injury occurs. The cold makes the veins in the tissue contract, reducing circulation. Once the cold is removed, the veins overcompensate and dilate and blood rushes into the area. The blood brings with it the necessary nutrients to allow the injured back muscles, ligaments and tendons to heal.

Ice massage therapy provides convenient and effective pain relief. It can help to provide relief for back, knee, and ankle or elbow pain in a number of ways, including:

• Ice application slows the inflammation and swelling that occurs after injury. Most back pain is accompanied by some type of inflammation, and addressing the inflammation helps reduce the pain
• Ice massage therapy numbs sore tissues (providing pain relief like a local anesthetic)
• Ice massage therapy slows the nerve impulses in the area, which interrupts the pain-spasm reaction between the nerves
• Ice massage therapy decreases tissue damage

Scar tissue Removal

In our San Jose massage facility, we often work with clients who are athletes. And we all know that athletes injured themselves.

Many our massage clients who suffer from scar tissue formation; we specialize in scar tissue removal at our clinic. After every one of our scar tissue removal sessions we finish off with a 5-7 minute ice massage. This is design to keep any new scar tissue from building up after these very evasive massage sessions.

Scar tissue removal massage techniques are designed to cause micro trauma to the area being worked on. This is necessary for the removal and break up of scar tissue that our massage clients may be suffering from. But at the same time your thoughts are to minimize the damaged that occurs from this very intense deep massage. Utilizing ice massage with this type of massage allows us to this very effectively.

You can use an ice cube, but it’s easier to use an “ice cup” for ice massage.

• To make an ice cup, fill a small paper or Styrofoam cup about two-thirds full, and freeze it until it is solid.
• To use the ice cup, peel off the top of the cup so about 0.5 in. of ice is showing. The remaining part of the cup is for you to hold on to.
• As the ice melts, it will drip, so put a small towel under the area you are icing.
• Rub the ice in small circles all over the affected area. Avoid areas where the bone is close to the skin, such as right over your kneecap, the point of your elbow, or your spine. Some people also find it is more comfortable to put a moisture barrier such as a section of plastic bag over the area, so the ice is not directly touching the skin. To try this, hold the plastic in place with one hand and rub the ice over it with the other hand.¹
• If the ice melts down so the cup is touching your skin, peel more of the cup off.
• Continue for about 7 to 10 minutes. You will go through 4 stages of with ice massage first stage is cold, second stage may burn, third stage will ache, then finally the fourth stage and the most important stage is the numbing stage, as soon as this is achieved, remove the ice. Your skin will be pink and cold when you finish.
• You can do an ice massage several times a day if it helps you

Please do not attempt scar tissue removal techniques on your clients unless you have experience doing this type of work. You can cause more damage to the injured area. These massage techniques are advanced and have no preset way of achieving results, this is where your experience will guide you. You can rest assure that with RPM Therapy in San Jose, we are experienced bodyworkers and if you suffer from scar tissue or think that you do, our staff is here to help.

This past Sunday, I completed my first half marathon in San Jose, called the Rock-n-Roll ½ Marathon. An event like this could attract at least 10,000 runners. As you can only imagine, trying to get a 5 minute massage to reduce your muscle soreness, will have you standing in a line for about 30 minutes or more. And the skill set of the massage therapist should be a concern for you as well. Because it is at this time that a sports massage can do more damage than good. I personally do not recommend getting a post-event massage at your event for these reasons, unless of course you have VIP status and can get seen by a massage therapist quickly and who is knowledgeable in post event massage techniques.

According to a recent study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers at Ohio State University found that Swedish massage helped speed muscle recovery at the cellular level for rabbits that got mechanically intense exercise.

I find this study to be a little interesting, as I have heard of horses and pets getting massage but never rabbits. Anyways, this study is helping to affirm the benefits that sports massage can have on muscle recovery with massage verses not getting massage.  I personally have done case studies on myself with regards to how massage affects muscle recovery. And this is what I can share with you.

I had done a case study a while back and I picked my calf muscle for this case study. My calves have always been a weak point for me (just ask my girlfriend she can confirm this for you) but as I was saying, I picked calves for my study. Here is a quick outline of it…

• 100 reps total, 4 sets of 25 reps with a weight of 50% of my maximum 10 repetitions.
• No massage to the area after this workout was done

Results: 4.5 days of muscle soreness, I measured muscle soreness as what I felt when I touched the calf area. Waited a full 2 weeks before I done the same weight and rep scheme but this time I had my calves massaged right after the workout and the day after.

Results: 2 days of muscle soreness only, but honestly it was not even a full 2 days. Getting oxygenated blood into your overworked muscles is key to continuing to perform your best in whatever event or sport that you participate in.

As a massage therapist you would think that, I would just believe, that massage can help you with muscle recovery without inflicting that painful experience on myself. But I like to know first hand what I am talking about when it comes to giving out advice.  So as a final thought I do recommend post-event massage therapy for muscle recovery after your event, but schedule your massage with a trusted massage therapist prior to your event.  Have it all setup so that when you finish your event you go right from there to your massage appointment maybe even schedule two shorter massage appointments in close together to maximize the benefits. You will be happy to know that you can trust your post-event massage sessions with us at RPM Therapy in San Jose. Your body will thank you for it.

Right after Thanksgiving, our seasonal stress begins.  “According to the American Institute of Stress, more than 110 million Americans take medication for stress related causes each week.” Why become a number in this statistics?

We talk about giving out massage gift cards for the holiday but our massage business, RPM Therapy is implementing gift cards because we think that the concept of gift cards make sense to our business. We already have the options to buy massage gift certificates online through Paypal and have a printable version emailed to the recipient. You can also prepay for your massage sessions online through Paypal as well.

Why You Should Purchase Massage Gift Cards:

• Perfect gift for that “hard to shop” individual
• Massage Cards are re-loadable
• Convenient and easy to use
• Perfect staff gift or Employee Incentive

Eventually at RPM Therapy we would like to see some kind of internet system that would allow you to purchase massage gift cards for any dollar amount right from our website and have it mailed to you or the recipient. Our massage gift card program is brand new, but once we get it going we may offer special promotions for gift cards holders, i.e. buy a $125 gift card for $100. Or how about being able to re-load your massage gift card right from your computer so that you never need to bring any credit cards, checks or cash with you when you come for your massage appointment, great or bad idea?

We would like to hear from you, what are your thoughts about gift cards? And what can RPM Therapy do to make it more special for you. We like to know how we can make this successful, did you come across a website that offers massage gift cards or massage gift certificates that you really enjoyed using, if so please let us know, we would love to hear from you. We are located at 3097 Moorpark Avenue in San Jose, California, near Santana Row and Valley Fair Mall.