We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kirsten Dean a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kirsten, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
When I was in massage school, I knew that my end goal was to be able to work for myself. I had been working in a spa while I was finishing up school working the front desk and getting to interact with the guests coming in and just getting a general sense of the spa world. And then when I graduated, I went over to the service provider role! I absolutely loved all of the priceless knowledge I gained working for an established spa! I truly think my experience working for other people helped guide me into being able to open my own practice! From helping me gain confidence with my professional skills, to seeing the back end of how a spa is run, it really helped lay a great foundation of knowledge for me! I was also able to take the things that I DIDN’T like about working for other people and make sure I could run my business how I wanted. When I started my own practice, I still wasn’t confident enough to just run with it and try to build it on it’s own. So I stayed working for other people to try to make sure I’d have a “stable income” while growing my business and attracting my ideal clients! But I really think in the end, I think it held me back. I had to split my energy between two places and couldn’t fully put all of the work needed to actually grow my practice. One of the most important things to have in place is a support system! I couldn’t have made the leap of quitting my job for someone else and fully investing in myself without my amazing support system! Family and friends to emotionally support me and be there if I needed a listening ear. But when I finally decided it was time to invest in myself and my practice, that’s when it really started to take off and grow! Anybody that is in a similar situation and questioning whether they should take the leap or not, I would recommend taking a look at your current finances first, see how much money you need to cover 1-3 months of bills plus any start up costs you need and if you have that saved up, I’d say just do it! Don’t worry so much about if it fails, if it fails you’ll still have learned something and growth will never be a failure!
Kirsten, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have been a licensed massage therapist since June 2021. Before that, I was just working whatever secretarial jobs that came my way. I had gone to college but I was unsure of what I wanted to do as a career. I grew up knowing I wanted to help people but I wasn’t sure how. In 2014, I started practicing Reiki. My mom is a Reiki master and she taught me and from them I knew I wanted to incorporate that into my life, but I didn’t know how. And then eventually I thought I would try massage and I’m so glad I did! I love being able to help every single person that walks into my practice, whether they are having some pain or they need to just relax, I love getting to see my clients walk out of the room almost a different person than when they came in! I also enjoy being able to offer my clients personalized and unique services! From Reiki, to hot bamboo massage, to my newest service The Bellanina Facelift Massage!
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
One of the best things that have helped me grow my clientele really has been word of mouth! I try to connect with every client on my table and customize each session to what their needs and goals are as opposed to just doing the same massage routine for every client. When people feel listened to and feel like you curate each session specifically for them, they leave feeling relaxed, renewed, and wanting to tell their friends about the amazing massage they just got!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think really finding and defining my specific niche has helped me to build a good reputation in my area. I specialize in a holistic approach to health and treat the body as a whole with every session and do my best to share education about the muscles that may be causing my clients discomfort so they understand a little better about why we’re working on what we’re working on in our sessions! I also practice energy work, Reiki, and love incorporating that into sessions! This along with offering unique spa treatments has helped me stand out and when clients come in to see me for the first time and try a hot bamboo massage when they’ve never heard of it before, and they leave having really enjoyed their service, they tell people about it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.massagebook.com/biz/michmassage
- Instagram: Michmassage
- Facebook: MI Caring Hands Massage