is that money mindset mantra really going to help?

It’s no secret that scarcity mindset is alive + well within the wellness industry - especially Massage Therapists. And I’m not surprised - it’s a challenging place to be - working at the intersection of Capitalism + a nurturing profession.

If you’re in the business long enough, you arrive at the place of knowing you need to raise your rates + chances are that feels a little scary.

You’ve probably heard this is a “money mindset problem” + you need to recite mantras about abundance to overcome this.

Maybe. Maybe not.

What if what you’re afraid of really isn’t about money?

What if you’re saying, “I invite money into my life in abundance” till you’re blue in the face + it’s not really making you feel much different? Maybe what you’re scared of is something else.

The thought of conflict, the uncomfortableness of upsetting someone.

It’s not that you don’t want more money - actually you’d really LOVE to have more money in your pocket because you’re tired of wondering if you’re going to be able to pay bills next month. What you’re truly worried about is “are all my clients going to be mad when I raise my rates?”

You’re carrying around so much guilt, hoping that the magic amount to raise will come to you in a dream so that you get more money and clients aren’t pissed off.

The truth is the vast majority of our clients will be happy for us or won’t have feelings about it at all.

And look - we can’t control other’s reactions. We can’t make them happy any more than we can make them mad. That’s all on them. What we can do is spend time crunching numbers and calculating what the business needs to thrive so that if we receive push back, we can feel confident that we made a good decision - even if they aren’t happy about it.

Not confident in setting + holding healthy business boundaries

Somewhere along the way you were taught that saying “no” was mean and you should accommodate whenever you can. Then you ended up in a service providing job - and wowza, you’re feeling overwhelmed!

When we raise our rates, we’re essentially setting a boundary of “if you’re not willing to pay $xxx, then I won’t be able to give you a massage.” And when someone throws a fit about that - your knee jerk reaction is to relent.

Boundaries are a necessary part of running a business. They protect you and they also protect the client. They are what helps you overcome burn out.

Without them you might feel stressed, spread thin, out of control, undervalued and resentful. And it’s no different with money - if someone doesn’t want to pay your massage rates, you might spiral with Imposter Syndrome or feel compelled to keep rates low long after you know you need a raise.

Perfectionism + not living up to our own outrageous standards

You know you need to raise your rates. You have it all laid out and you’re feeling good about it, but you’ve stalled out announcing because you just can’t seem to get the email and social media post just right. The wording is a little off and you’re worried people will misinterpret.

Having high standards is a good thing - until your greatest strength becomes your weakness and it’s causing you to freeze cause you just never seem to make it to the goal line.

You’re spending a lot of time on details. You’re analyzing every last piece. You’re right there - but freeze at the last minute when it comes time to release the thing into the wild.

A lot of this has to do with avoiding feedback, because we assume it’s going to be negative. Perfectionism is really armor against critique and it can be seen as a “good trait” because “I want everything to be right”

But if the desire to be an A+ student keeps you from crossing the thing off your to do list, then when do we say enough is enough and it’s as good as we can get it - and it’s time to do the thing.

“If I look perfect and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgement and blame.” -Brene Brown