Starting from scratch, again

How to become a (local) rockstar

Office space and Dr. Evil

Good design. Get some.

I am not a robot.

This is a long post, so if you want to go the skim route, I’d read these sections: How I got the word out, the cliff notes under My Sneezers, and the Upsides and Downsides. Ok, Onwards.

As I mentioned before, I’m in licensure limbo. What that means these days is that I’m still waiting for the state of Connecticut to mail me a little piece of paper that says I’m a bonafide Rolfing practitioner who can accept payments for my work.

In the meantime, what’s a girl to do? A couple of months ago when I realized Connecticut offered me some new hoops to jump through, I got right to work by pouting for a solid 48 hours.

After pout-fest 2009 concluded, it occurred to me that it was a great opportunity to grow my referral network by practicing radical generosity. And so Help for the Helpers was born. If I can’t accept payments, and I need to grow my network, well then- why not offer free work to the Sneezers in my community?

Sneezer is a Seth Godinism that is used to describe the people who are most likely to spread the word about your work- those who spread the ideavirus of what you do. In my case, I’ve always gotten a lot of referrals from my fellow practitioners.  

The thing that the broader group of wellness practitioners has in common is that we’re all so busy taking care of everyone else that we don’t pause often enough to take care of ourselves. (I indulge in the italics only to remind myself to continue on the trend of prioritizing self-care. More on this in a future post.) So voila! Offering free sessions to my local wellness practitioners/sneezers is a win for everyone!

How I spread the word:

Before I even had a cute little name for the promotion (Help for the Helpers), or had set up a page on my website describing it, I got busy connecting to the Sneezers.

When getting the word out about any free offer, it’s totally crucial to have it spread by someone who’s already trusted in that community. “Free” instantly translates to “useless crap” in everyone’s minds because we’ve all been conditioned since childhood with our free happy meal prizes and other such crapola. In order to not be viewed as the aforementioned crapola, I decided to reach out to one key person at a few local wellness meccas. Sort of a Sneezer within the Sneezers approach, if you will.

My sneezers:

Ellen at Fresh Yoga: While it’s true to say that I get a fair number of referrals from my fellow wellness practitioners in general; it’s especially true about yoga teachers. Oh how I heart yoga teachers. People who are connected to their bodies, highly value their health, love to experience new things, and encourage all of their students to adopt all of the above. They are my perfect sneezers. I adore working with them and their students.  

I’ve recently gotten to know the totally delightful Ellen, a teacher at Fresh Yoga, through a mutual friend and by taking her classes. Fresh Yoga is the bad-assiest yoga studio in town. When I went to my first class at Fresh I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Life outside of NYC wouldn’t be so bad! There was serious yoga here in New Haven! Not ‘look cute in my yoga pants’ yoga, but ‘I have a practice I’m committed to’ yoga. With outstanding teachers, workshops, and all the rest. Yay!

I knew Fresh and I needed to get to know one another better. I gave Ellen a session of Rolfing and told her of my little Help for the Helpers idea. Once the page was up on my website, Ellen was kind enough to send a message with the link to all of the teachers at Fresh.

Artemis at Revive Wellness Center: Artemis is a fantastic Naturopathic Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist who owns a large wellness center in the next town over. They also happen to not have any Rolfers. No one’s toes to step on- phew!

Artemis and I first connected when I was considering working out of her space (the office that’s a short walk from my house won out- can’t beat the walking commute) and we had a nice lunch together (she definitely passes the lunch test). While working in her center didn’t work out, she was still interested in trying Rolfing so I gave her a session a couple weeks after our first meeting.

Based on the fact that she’d really enjoyed her session with me, and that she and I had made a nice personal connection, she was happy to email the link along to everyone who practices in her space.

Sarah, Jason, and Sabrina at my new office space: My colleagues in my new office space have been tremendously supportive and have emailed the link all over town to every practitioner they can think of. It’s this kind of generosity that helps everyone in a space to thrive. Talk about radical generosity- these guys are the dreamiest!

Various new friends: Since I moved to New Haven in December I’ve been exceptionally blessed to stumble into a wonderful group of friends. They’re doctors, midwives, civil rights lawyers, psychotherapists, local business owners- in other words, mega-helpers. I passed along the offer to all of them and they’ve also been very kind in spreading the word.

* The cliff notes version: My first interaction with all of these people wasn’t a cold call to ask them to let me work on them for free. We developed a relationship first, and then they received my work, and then passed the word on to their communities.

Upsides of radical generosity

Sneezers! You connect with the Sneezers which means that you grow your practice quickly. I currently have people scheduled and waiting for my licensure to come through so they can see me as a regular client, and yes, pay my full fee. That means I get to have paying clients the day my license is in my hand. Not too shabby.

Community! You connect to your community which means you grow your practice more quickly not only in the short term, but long term. Most people will need some time to ponder whether or not they want to call you for an appointment. They’ll need to hear your name a lot of times, mentioned by a lot of people whose opinions they respect. With a radical generosity plan, you kick off the word of mouth ripple effect sooner rather than later.

Jedi mind tricks! By seeing clients- even if you’re not getting paid- you’re giving a strong message to your subconscious mind that you’re up and running, you’re super busy, you’re totally rocking it, yay! Don’t underestimate the value of keeping your hands busy and getting in the groove of having a practice. It’s crucial for your mental state to be doing the work you want to do, rather than thinking about doing the work you want to do.

I’m booked solid until September and nearly every appointment is with a first time client. When I’m juggling appointments trying to make room for one more person who wants to take advantage of Help for the Helpers, I feel like (lousy economy be damned!) this thing is going to succeed wildly. It’s a momentum that’s essential when starting something new.

Downsides of radical generosity

Here’s the part where I angelically coo (imagine Glinda the Good Witch’s voice), “Why there are no downsides! Generosity is universally rewarding for everyone involved, so nothing can ever go wrong, of course! How selfish of you to even imply something so hideous!” Nope. Be generous, but make sure you set up clear boundaries so that your work is valued and you’re taken care of as well.

Time boundaries: Have a clear time boundary for when the deal ends. I should have my license by the end of this month- and everyone knows that once my license is in hand, no more free Rolfing. I won’t spring it on anyone who’s already scheduled as a Help for the Helpers client, but I won’t set up new free appointments either.

The bump rule: Your goal was to grow your network, meet lovely people, and spread the word that you exist- so be sure to do that! Don’t let one or two people clog up your schedule by packing in as many free sessions as they can get. This isn’t an all you can eat buffet. Prioritize keeping room in your schedule to book the people who have yet to experience your work by clarifying to anyone who wants to get seconds that they’re “bump-able”. In other words, if someone who hasn’t ever had a session from you calls you up and wants their appointment slot, it’s going to get taken.

Remember what you’re up against: You are up against the useless crap problem- so bring you’re A game to every session you give.

You are also up against a long and painful history of people using “free” as bait to get people where you want them, and spring a major sleazy sales pitch on them. It’s the time share trap. You know- where they promise people a chance to win a free car in return for listening to a long-winded aggressive sales pitch about how they’ll miss the opportunity of a lifetime if they pass up owning a time share. Nooooo thank you! Do not require anything other than people coming and enjoying a free session. They don’t need to talk you up, and they don’t need to listen to any long pitch about why your work is so fantastic. If people are naturally curious about what you do (and one can assume they are if they showed up for a session) that conversation will happen naturally.

What’s that you say? You don’t have a trust fund? Me neither. Dang. I know “give away a bunch of work for free” sounds ludicrous if you need to pay the bills. I’m a single mom- so I indeed have bills to pay. I managed my lack of a trust fund in two key ways. The first is that I asked people to donate the $25 it costs me to use my office space (I’m on a session by session basis until I choose to have a monthly rent) this kept me from paying to give people free work. I just plain can’t afford to do that. So far everyone’s been more than happy to donate for the use of the space.

The second is that I have other sources of income. The rest of my work life (consulting with one non-profit and with wellness businesses) keeps me busy 30 to 40 hours each week. I’ve managed to carve out a day and a half for Rolfing each week on top of that schedule because it’s important. When you’re trying to grow something there’s the inevitable juggling phase. Spreading yourself a little thin in short bursts can work out just fine if you know where the finish line is. I won’t have my crazy 50 hour workweek forever, and while I do I’ve also increased the amount of self-care I’m giving to myself. Things like good nutrition, more sleep, connecting with my friends and family, and exercising help to get me through the juggling stage.

All that is to say, you may want to keep that day job just a wee bit longer. The desperation that comes from being without a safety net can creep into your attitude towards your growing practice really quickly- and that kind of energy can choke a good thing.

The result, so far

So far the result of my experiment with radical generosity has been more than worth the stretch of my time and attention. I’ve connected with some truly dear people who I feel grateful to know and to work with, and the phone calls from people referred by them are already rolling in. I’ll give you an update once it’s officially wrapped up and I’m seeing people at my full fee, but at this rate I may need to find another Rolfer to join me in my practice. This is not a bad feeling to have in the first few weeks of hanging out my shingle.