THE RADICAL RMT

WHAT MIGHT I PUT IN PLACE TO ALLOW ME TO GO OFF THE GRID
​FOR 4 TO 8 WEEKS, WITH NO PHONE OR EMAIL?

LISTEN NOW

APPLE PODCASTS | ANCHOR | SPOTIFY​

Welcome to a series of short episodes where I answer "17 Questions That Changed My Life" from Tim Ferriss. 

I journaled each morning on these questions and I am excited to share my answers with you and how I am applying them to my massage practice,  business, and personal life. 

Today's question is, "What might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 4 to 8 weeks, with no phone or email?"

We can all benefit from exploring this question even if you never plan to go off the grid for any amount of time.

Systems are sexy and if you don't have them you will quickly find out where there are bottlenecks in your practice, how much you micromange , and how quickly things can fall apart if you aren't around. That's not what we want. 

One goal of starting business (including a massage practice) is to enjoy time freedom away from it! So why make things difficult on yourself by gatekeeping?

In this episode I share my top tips for creating systems in my practice, how I build trust with my colleagues, and ways I am still improving. 

I hope you enjoy!

If you play along and ponder these 17 questions, I would love for you to share your answers with The Radical RMT community or send me a DM! Instagram: @theradicalmassagetherapist
​
THE FULL LIST OF QUESTIONS
https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/17-Questions-That-Changed-My-Life.pdf

Krista Dicks

Welcome radical massage therapist to another episode of the radical massage therapist podcast. My name is Krista, I am your host and a registered massage therapist in Ottawa. And I'm also clinic owner, which I'm still getting used to saying. Today's episode is another question from Tim Ferriss. 17 questions that changed my life. And I am interpreting them for myself and for massage in general. So today's question is, what might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for four to eight weeks with no phone or email? Well, a great resource for this book is the E Myth by Michael Gerber, where it helps you to understand that you need to work on your business, instead of working in your business.

WHY YOU NEED SYSTEMS 
You need to create systems so that you can go on holidays and not be needed. Now, that might be a bit of a hurt ego for some people, but it is critical to not burn out you need part of creating a business is so that you don't have to be there anymore to directly be hands on in the business, you want to be able to trust the people in your business to run your business for you so that you you can have that freedom that you aspire to, to when you decided to start your business, right. That's the whole point, that point of owning a business is to make money to earn a profit, right, and then to also have time freedom. So this is a great question to explore that. And we did touch on this question a little bit of what if I could only work two hours in my business and you had to delegate tasks and not be the bottleneck in your practice.

SYSTEMS I HAVE IN PLACE
So for myself, I'm in order to go away for a long stretch of time, I have started to put a few things into place now. So I'm still one year in owning the clinic. But I do feel that I have a few things in place. That mean that I don't need to be there. I mean, for one, we're all independently contracted. And I don't need to be there to open and close at the beginning of the end of the day, because everybody has their own key to access the clinic for their own words, we don't have to be at the desk for reception. For those hours, either we have a virtual reception, which works out really well. And we have online booking the general standard operating procedures I have available online and a Google Doc and I am working on creating videos so that everybody has access to the same information. And if something needs to be done at the clinic, or they need to know how to, you know operate the point of sale machine, or how to check out a gift card, they have a resource for this. And that resource is not contacting me directly. I am available if anybody needs me, of course. But I have tried to create these middle middle resources so that I am not the first go to for everything, especially if there's repeat questions. So this is something that you can start taking inventory of now it will keep coming to you with the same questions and the same text messages or emails, perhaps it's a good idea to start putting those into a Google doc so that everybody has access to them. You can also print this, to have it accessible in the clinic. One of my colleagues has requested that because just in case, they were able to access it on the line, I'm trying to take note of how quickly we run out of certain items so that I can put them on automation. And that way I don't have to keep track if we're running low or not. The therapists are usually quite good at leaving something out for me if we are out of it, or writing a note to me if we are getting low on it. But I also want to stay ahead of it in case I am not able to order it right away. So I'm just kind of taking stock now, as if it were one year into practice. So I'm starting to learn you know how quickly we run out of certain certain items. And then I can put those on automation so that they just kind of magically arrive which will be really cool.

ASSIGNING A FIRST POINT OF CONTACT WHILE YOU ARE AWAY
I'm assigning and compensating a colleague to be the first point of contact at the clinic when I am away. So one of my colleagues I did offer it to editing of the call my colleagues say to volunteer to be This individual, but they and they are also compensated fairly. So I paid them a higher split for the duration of the time that I'm away. So that they are the first point of contact, and then all of the therapists at the clinic know that this person is the first point of contact, if there, if there are questions related to the clinic, if you know something does need to be addressed at the clinic, like if there is damage, or if something, something happens, they are still the first point of contact, and I'm relying on them to make good decisions that they would make for themselves as well. But of course, I am available. If needed, I certainly want to know about negative things that are happening at the clinic, or if there's something that they need assistance with. But let's say a plumber needs to be called out the clinic, it doesn't have to be done through me, I have given this particular colleague who is now the first point of contact, and list of plumbers and I trust, and they're going to make the best decision to contact that plumber, they're going to be the one to meet that plumber at the clinic, they will also I will be able to pay that plumber. But they also know that if they need to hand over their credit card or pay that plumber, I will I will be compensating we'll be sending them an E transfer ASAP. So these are just, you know, some of the things I know that as clinic owners, sometimes we feel like we need to be the one doing all of the things. But I'm really trying to give a lot of trust to my colleagues. And this is one example of how I can do it. It's it's only we've only done this on one occasion, so far, where I decided to take a vacation and have them be completely in control of the clinic. And I was not even checking emails, I was not checking on the schedule. The the assignment, they handled all of that, and they even held back emails from me that were directed to me. Yeah, and so if there was a decision that they can make, like if somebody wants to reschedule, they could do that. If somebody had a question, they decided that, again, to, to not send me those emails to my personal account. Because that, you know, that just is me getting into the headspace of the clinic, as well, even though it was something small that I could have done, they decided to handle that for me, or they didn't feel some of the emails as well, they didn't need immediate attention, I was gonna be back in a few days. So they just held those for me and the businesses in account, and I addressed them when I got back. So I appreciated that. And so that's one of the ways we're trying to step away from the clinic. As you know, to take time off, without worrying about how things are going at the clinic and not just being involved. I'm really trying to allow my team to make decisions that are best for the clinic, when it comes to buying items, etc. So if somebody does have a recommendation for something different, I am all ears to see if it's going to work better for the therapists at the clinic. And, yeah, just anything that's going to make somebody's life easier, I'm open, open to the suggestion, every massage therapist I worked with, as I mentioned, has a key to the clinic. So I do not need to eat it to open and close. I'm directed to other clinic owners, including the owner of align, as well. So this is if I'm away, then the therapist that I assigned to be in charge of the clinic that I own. He also can contact the other clinic owners, or I let the other clinic nurse owners know as well that I'm away so that this you know they might be contacted for some bigger issues. It's not going to happen very often that I go off the grid. But I think it's a really good idea to pretend what if you went off the grid and you didn't have access to a phone or email? Like, what could you do?

DOING A SHORT EXPERIMENT CAN REVEAL THE CRACKS 
Doing this in a short term also helps to reveal some cracks in your business or bottleneck positions as well. Because you don't you don't need those. You don't want those. They're a headache for everybody. So if you can expose them and then do something about them, that's really helpful. A cleaning schedule, or maybe a cleaning service is TBD. So you know, again, we're independent contractors, I cannot make anybody clean the clinic. But I do have a list in that standard operating procedure of like daily things that can be done or our clinic is small. So like a weekly thing that can be done. And if you are looking for something to do, or you do notice that there's, the floor has to be swept. And then you know, there's just, you know, if you can just attack that once a week, that would be great. And I think that a service is going to be a long term solution for us as well.

AUTOMATE WHAT YOU CAN
Automatic bills, of course, is a great way. And importantly, I think that's pretty standard these days. But if there is, anything that you feel is still, like that doesn't that could be automated, I 100%, recommend that you do that, either by an E transfer comes directly out of your account or credit card payment, you know, rent, I think is one of those ones that still needs to be paid, you know, by you know, by you physically putting it into this system and transferring the money. And I'm looking for ways that how that can be more, you know, more automated, especially if you are away during the first of the month, that could really take away from just a little bit of your vacation, buy. Anything that you can pay a service for that is online and accessible. So long as I have a device, like any device. So the payroll for example, everything can be done either from my laptop, I have set it up on my mobile, and I've set it up on my iPad. And so if there is ever a situation we're in without one or the other, I can still have my therapist paid. While I'm while I'm away. And my landlord also has a key to the unit. And this might be something that some people are not comfortable with. But I feel like it's also pretty standard. So this way, I do not have to meet the landlord for any of these issues as well. You know, like, as I said, we'd like to be plumbing our communities to inspect the location, we have fire checks. For example, you know, I don't have to be there to let them in, they have a key they can come in whenever they need to. And they always ask for consent anyway. Um, and I don't know why, but I've got a weird note at the bottom that says mu NCH. Munch, munch. Anybody know why I wrote that? Always interesting. Sometimes that might have been, like better than AutoCorrect. Or much mean, when it comes to what might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for four to eight weeks with no phone or email? No idea about that.

WHICH RESOURCE WILL YOU TRY?
That is my list of what might I put in place to allow me to go off the grid for 40 weeks with no phone or email? Which resource Do you like the best? Which one might you try in your own practice? Do you feel like you could go off the grid for four to eight weeks in your practice? And we'd love to know how you're enjoying these episodes as well. Are they helpful for you? As I'm interpreting them from Tim Ferriss, to the massage world. Thank you so much for listening. Find me on Instagram at the radical massage therapist and have an awesome day Transcribed by

https://otter.ai​

MORE FROM THIS EPISODE
The E-Myth (Book)
​
JOIN THE NEXT RADICAL POWER HOUR CO-WORKING SESSION
Stay Tuned

BOOK A FREE VIRTUAL CHAT WITH ME 
Want some help with discovering your own real world MBA? I seriously love this stuff and would love to help you if you are feeling stuck or overwhelmed. Please don't hesitate to send me a DM @theradicalmassagetherapist or email [email protected]
​

ABOUT
Krista Dicks, RMT since 2006, practices in Ottawa, Canada and is a Certified Stott Pilates instructor. She is the host of The Radical RMT Podcast and has been published in the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork and received an honourable mention in the Massage Therapy Foundation Inaugural Practitioner Case Report Contest. Krista is co-host of the first annual “Take Care of You School.” This virtual event for massage therapists focused on self-care for the massage therapist and presenters were represented globally to share their experience on topics of physical, mental, emotional, and financial well-being. It’s Krista's goal to encourage massage therapists to experience life on their terms thanks to the opportunities we have in our profession. With a willingness to grow and self-care of body and mind she believes we can maintain long-term fulfilling careers.

CONTACT
[email protected]

I'm a girl who was told by my grandma that I have magic hands and so I became a massage therapist.  I love reading in bed, the combo of peanut butter and chocolate anything, and working from my laptop or phone with my dogs by my side. My mission? To help other massage therapists own their awesome and do what they love every darn day!  Even if that love is not massage therapy.​