Podcast

Weekly Roundup

• What if You *Have* to Borrow Money Right Now?
• Getting Things Done. OMG is this guy for real, with like 75 subcategories and such? 

Discussion Topic

• Have you taken the necessary steps to go back to a massage practice you'll love?  Or are you procrastinating like Allissa? Or procrasticleaning. And procrastibaking. 

Quick Tips

• Plan to Eat
• Set your environment to support productivity

Sponsors

• Acuity
• ABMP
• The Jojoba Company

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is proudly sponsored by ABMP. All massage therapists and bodyworkers can access free ABMP resources and information on the coronavirus and the massage profession at abmp.com/covid19, including sample release forms, PPE guides, and a special issue of Massage & Bodywork magazine all about this health crisis. For more, you can also check out the ABMP podcast. Recent episodes feature conversations with Ruth Werner, Brené Brown certified instructor Amy Andrews McMaster, and the Massage Business Blueprint team; that's us. They are available at abmp.com/podcasts and also wherever you listen to podcasts, wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can expect more from ABMP.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone, and welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we help you attract more clients, make more money, and improve your quality of life. I'm Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines I'm Allissa Haines.

MR We're your hosts. Welcome to our show today. We're glad you're with us. Allissa, what's going on this week for you?

AH You know, I guess the same as every other week and day of the last 110 days.

MR Fair.

AH Going to try to get some work done and not let the children play games on their Kindles for more than seven or eight hours in a day and maybe prepare a healthy meal. That's it.

MR That's a good pace. That's a good pace.

AH How are you doing?

MR Doing pretty well. Yeah. Hanging in there like everybody, just like you said. It's funny you mentioned screen time and stuff because screen time is just -- [laughing] we try. But we have an old iPad that Eli uses for like games and stuff, and then we have a new Kindle that -- or Fire tablet that we use for like shows and stuff. And he's got -- he carries both around. And he's like, I want to play the game, and then I want to watch the show. And we're like, oh, my gosh. We're terrible parents because his brain's turning to mush. But luckily, he likes being outside too, so it's not too bad.

AH Yeah. We just find they turn into monsters after like two or three hours on a device.

MR Yeah.

AH They just -- they get really cranky, so we're working on that. But it's also going to -- it rained yesterday, it rained Saturday afternoon, and it's going to rain for the next couple of days, so we might just give up for now for this week. Whatever. We're all doing the best we can.

MR Yeah. [Laughing]

AH Anyhow, what're you reading, Michael?

MR I am reading stuff from YNAB. YNAB is You Need a Budget, which is yours and my favorite budgeting tool as you know. They have an article that just came out in May, and it's called "What If You Have to Borrow Money Right Now?" It may be surprising that I bring this us because everyone that knows me even a little bit knows how much I hate debt, and YNAB hates debt as well, but this article is really insightful. It's really useful because they acknowledge that debt is sometimes just a reality. You shouldn't necessarily beat yourself up if you're in a situation where it is a last resort, you have to use debt for something. And they say if it's going to happen, here are some ways to think about it. Here are some ways to approach it. Here are some different debt options.

The author is -- sorry, I'm going to scroll back up -- Ben Barlowe, the author, mentioned that -- and he even goes far as to say here is why to avoid debt. Debt kills creativity. It really limits your options. But if you do have to use debt, here's how to approach even the guilt part of it. Some people get really guilty about borrowing money. And he says things like, well, guilt can be a good thing for a very short burst of time if it inspires you to action, not if it is unhealthy, and kind of approaches that philosophy, and then talks about the different ways to borrow money, the different types of debt. So anyway, I thought it was good. It's really good because often, I think, I personally get carried away with "debt is horrible, debt is bad, and avoid it at all costs." And it sometimes ignores the reality that it is something that we have to use at some point -- or many of us have to use even if we don't want to -- and if we do, how do we approach debt? How do we make it as useful as possible and overcome it?

So I really enjoyed it. It's a good one. It's linked in the show notes. Again, it's called "What If You Have to Borrow Money Right Now?" So check it out in the show notes if you want to read it.

AH Sweet. I hadn't seen that. I actually have not been keeping up on any blogs or stuff lately, so thank you for pointing that in my direction.

What am I reading? Oh, so yeah. So I've been -- I talked about this last month, or last week even. I started reading Getting Things Done by some dude whose name I don't remember right now.

MR David Allen.

AH Thank you. And -- because I know it's something that you've talked about, and lots of people who I respect and find to be very productive have read it. I got through the first 30% of it really quickly, really happily being like, yes! I understand this. You need -- with the word you've been preaching for a while of have one dedicated place where all of your things, all of your -- all of your information and your tasks go. Have a trusted system, you call it. That part was really helpful, and the idea of like, you sit down, and you list out every thing that you need to keep track of so that you can unload your brain. And he kind of defines them as projects. So I really got it. It worked for me.

And then, partly just because of pandemic brain, and also because it got super granular, it completely lost me by like -- and I have a Kindle, so I can't do pages or chapters -- by like 45% into the book, it got so granular that it completely lost me. And it has taken me a solid three to four weeks to get through the middle third of the book.

So let me ask you this. Now because -- I understand batching your tasks into contexts. So if you know that you have time to sit down in front of your computer, and you can look at your task list or your projects, and you know that maybe you don't have the brain power for deep think-y work, but you can totally knock out all of your computer-ish, admin work -- doing things in context, making all of your phone calls at once when you have the energy and the wherewithal and the resources to do that. But he got so deep into like, okay, have a list of things for when you're going out and running errands, and have a list of things you do sitting in front of your computer, and have a list of things you might want to talk to your spouse about. There was so much overlap that there was no way I could stay organized while going that deep into -- it was like, have one list for if you're working from your kitchen table, but you don't want to do too much thinking hard, or have one list for when you're sitting somewhere without internet access. He lost me. And I'm struggling to get through the last third of the book because it's so -- there is no way I would be able to keep a system that complicated. I have immediately forgotten the three lists I created to do things.

So Michael, tell me how -- I know you like this system, but have you adapted it to be that complicated, or have you just taken the theory and kept it a little more, I don't know, Michael-ish?

MR [Laughing] That is a common criticism of David Allen is he goes really, really deep. It's like -- if you're really into productivity as much as David Allen is, and you really are able to manage that level of complexity, then yeah, I think some people probably do it. I personally do not. I think it's probably -- I think either his goal was to think that everyone should be that granular, or to basically set a framework for every possible outcome and possibility and catch every contingency so that it is available to anyone who wants to adapt it. I'm thinking it's a really, really great blueprint, and you don't need to look at every nook and cranny of the blueprint.

So what I do, personally -- one thing, I think context is different for everybody, so I think it's important for everybody to define their own meaning of context. For some people, context means literally phone calls and computer stuff and out running errands and talking to your spouse and all the stuff you mentioned. And I've done that in the past, and it worked pretty well. But for me currently, context means, for the most part, business or area of life. For example, I have a -- one of my contexts is Massage Business Blueprint. Another context is my advisory business. Another context is family. Another context is church. Another context is shopping. Stuff like that. So I have contexts for areas of life, and that works really, really well for me because when I sit down, and I'm like, you know what? I want to focus on Massage Business Blueprint work. It's all kind of together. I might do computer stuff. I might do writing. I might do admin stuff, whatever. It's all -- I'm working on that business, and my energy is kind of focused on that business. So I don't think there's a right or wrong when it comes to context. I think people need to define what context means for them as well.

AH Okay. Thank you for that permission. I kind of grasped that a little bit from -- because I knew you did a podcast on your other podcast that I can't remember the name of -- Wealth Redefined with Michael Reynolds.

Did I get that right? I hope I got that right.

MR Yes.

AH You did a productivity podcast, I don't know, a week or two ago or maybe more, and I just haven't caught up, but that -- you kind of veered towards that concept of context, and that helped me a lot. Because I have my Microsoft To Do set up as Massage Business Blueprint, and then Haines Massage, and then my personal stuff, and then some other little contract to get gigs that I'm doing right now -- okay. That helps me. Anyhow, sorry. Thank you, guys. A lot of this podcast is going to be just me asking Michael questions.

MR [Laughing]

AH So yeah. So I really like it, and it's really helped me, and I would totally encourage people to read it. But I guess I would say give yourself permission to read the first portion, and then skim the rest for bits that might be useful to you.

MR I think that's fair. And the energy -- sorry, I just want to -- before we move on, I wanted to kind of focus on the energy part of it because I think that's really important to me, anyway, that you align the system with your energy. A lot of people think they have to read the book and do exactly what David Allen says. I think that's true for just about any system or advice that you read. I think it's super important to adapt it to your energy. So if your energy is aligned with certain types of context, great. My energy is aligned with businesses or contexts of areas of life. So going with the flow of your energy makes it all work a lot better.

AH Sweet. Thanks. That's what I'm reading.

MR Now we can move on.

AH Sorry, that was -- I should have left that as the podcast episode itself. Whatever.

MR I liked it. [Laughing] It works. It works.

AH [Laughing] Who's our sponsor, Michael?

MR Jojoba!

Sponsor message Hey, everyone. As you know, I recommend HobaCare Jojoba for use in your massage practice since it never goes rancid, and it's safe for all your clients, and it rinses out of your natural fiber sheets. But with all the handwashing happening and weird glove wearing and all of that stuff and cleaning supplies that we have to get all over our skin, it might be time to grab an extra bottle of jojoba for your home. Or if you're back to work, stock up, my friends, because even if you have to shut down again because you find out a client was COVID-positive when they came to your office, it's not -- your jojoba's not going to go rancid, so it's with you for the long haul. That same jojoba is going to be fresh at the other side of this pandemic. You, my friends, can get -- that was a totally improvised ad. Sorry, HobaCare -- 10% discount off the price of product on orders of $35 or more if you shop through our link massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba.

MR But it was authentic.

AH It is authentic.

MR Everyone knows how much you love jojoba, so it's authentic.

AH I got to say I've been so -- when I shut down my office, and I moved everything out, I brought all of my oils and lotions and stuff home, and I put them -- we have an extra refrigerator. Thank goodness. So I put them all in the extra refrigerator because when you -- if you were to refrigerate your bulk stuff, it lasts even longer. So I have the jojoba in the fridge even though it doesn't really need to be. But I opened the fridge downstairs the other day, and I was like, oh, yeah. Look at all this oil. All right. Well, it's still going to be good in six months. Yay.

MR Beautiful.

AH So it's good to know. Anyhow. Michael, what are we talking about today?

MR Well, I think you want to kind of share how you're baby stepping your way back to work and discuss that a little bit.

AH A little bit. I ran into some interesting observations and obstacles in the last week that I kind of wanted to share with people because I think this is a common sentiment. If not, sorry. So if you are the kind of person who has been out of work, but you've been doing all kinds of work on your business during the pandemic, hats off to you. And if you had your business running the way you wanted it to be in your ideal world so that when you return or if you have already returned to work, it's just a matter of adding in the COVID-19 precautions and then stepping back into work, hats off to you. Kudos.

I, however, knew before this pandemic happened that I was going to make some big changes in my massage practice in the next year or two. As it turns out, I have done nothing over the past three plus months to prepare my business for a reemergence or a reopening. And this really came to a head for me. First of all, I'm not blaming myself for this. I'm not harboring any guilt about it. We have all dealt with this global crisis in our own way, and some people have done so by being very productive, or -- God help us all -- pivoting to something else. Some people have taken this time for rest. Some people have taken this time to take on side jobs because they financially have no other option. Some people have just been completely immersed in distance learning, remote learning, with their kids and trying to keep everybody low anxiety and fairly happy. Whatever you've been doing, great.

I have been doing every except considering what I want to happen with my massage practice, which is -- I knew I should be doing it, but other things have taken precedence. So I realized this week that I am not at all ready logistically or mentally. And I had been thinking, because we're doing really well in Massachusetts, our infection rates are very low, they are steadily declining, other people in Massachusetts have been massaging for a week or two now, things are looking good. We're going to hit Phase 3 soon. So in my head, I've been thinking, well, in August-ish, maybe I will start doing home visits for a few regular clients who I know have been mostly secluded, especially thinking I have a couple of clients who already have tables, their own massage tables, and I was thinking I'll get a few more to leave at a few various houses. I'll have new pricing. I'll have a new service menu. But I've done nothing to get ready for this.

And then last week, I did a home visit. And I wasn’t really excited about doing this, but it was a new client referred by an old, dear client who has since passed away who was really integral in my practice and my work with kids with autism and with oncology. So when someone emails and says, hey, Grace referred me, I'm going to jump on this. And also, it was a client who has considerable pain and a terminal illness. When this person emailed me a while back, the wife emailed me and said, this is what we're looking for -- massage wasn't even legal. We were still shut down -- I said, I will reach out to you as soon as I have an idea of when massage is going to be allowed again and if they allow home visits, and I will keep in touch. I was not planning on working anytime soon, but I will make an exception for you if all of the -- if it makes sense to do so, and it seems as safe as possible.

So over the last two months, I've kept in touch with this person. And last week, I was really procrastinating reaching out because massage was allowed, home visits were allowed, but I was terrified. And she emailed me like a day after other people started working and said, what's the situation now? because I hadn't updated her in like a week or two. Anyhow, I decided to do this home visit. I spoke with some colleagues for some guidance. I spoke with the wife about precautions and their level of isolation. I did all the things, and I decided to do this home visit. And I was completely unprepared. I hadn't done a home visit in a very long time, I hadn't done a home visit where I had to bring all my gear in a very long time, and I also just hadn't given a massage in three months. And even knowing all this on Wednesday of last week and knowing I was going to do the home visit on Saturday, I super procrastinated getting things together. I roughly in the back of my head knew I had all of the things, but I really resisted. I was so nervous about it. I really resisted handling it, which is a little unusual for me, but nothing is unusual anymore in these pandemic times.

On Friday afternoon, I finally got my crap together. I double-checked that my table was all set, and I wiped it all down again even though it hadn't been touched in weeks and weeks. I got all my stuff together, and I cleaned it all as I put it into the bag. I did a load of laundry because my linens have been sitting in a box for three months. I did all the things, and I practiced with the mask to make sure my gloves didn't -- or pardon me, my glasses didn't fog up. I tried a couple -- we have a couple different boxes of gloves here, so I tried a couple of different kinds of gloves on here. But I was just so discombobulated that I forgot to do a few things like practice with some oil and lotion using the gloves because the product reacts a little differently, and you feel things a little differently, not badly. It was fine.

The whole thing went fine, but -- oh, and then I did the verbal intake with the client's wife to really go through things and make sure it was going to be as safe as possible, and got off the phone and realized I never gave her -- I never told her how much it is. And my website's not live right now. My website is just an email subscription form, so I don't have prices listed anywhere. I didn't tell her how much it was going to be. I hadn't even thought about how much it was going to be, how much more I was going to charge for travel because I don't this a lot, and if I was going to charge the -- if I was going to give the senior discount that I have in the past. I was just a mess. And then I was like, oh, I got to go into Acuity and schedule this appointment in there. And oh, I have to update my intake form to have the COVID waiver and a couple of different questions. Oh, my goodness. It was just --

MR You're all like, how do I business?

AH How do I business? So it was fine. It took me about an hour and a half on a Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning to get all this together. I completely forgot how to use Acuity. I know I have all these old appointment types that I'm not going to use moving forward. It was just way more of a curve than I thought it was going to be. And it all went fine. I updated the intake form. Oh, and then for some reason, the form wasn't accepting responses, so then I had to send her a new link to another intake form. Oh, my gosh. But it's fine. I tested it. I created a new response spreadsheet. It was a nice slap in the face that if I'm actually going to go back to work sometime, I kind of need to get moving and actually lay the foundation to make that happen. Because if I don't, I'm going to all of a sudden get an office or all of a sudden decide to start doing home visits, and I'm going to end up defaulting to all the systems I used to have, which were not serving me well. So yeah. I have to do this.

I went into my Microsoft To Do, and I created a project or a task of revamping my massage practice or preparing to reopen. I don't even remember what I called it. Now I have to look and see what I called it. It is my Redesign Massage Practice list, and you can add steps. So instead of having like 50 different tasks, I have 1 task with multiple steps listed in there, which does -- it works better for me visually. And I laid out all the steps that I need to do to revamp everything and be prepared to start doing home visits for a few regular clients with my new pricing and a new intake form and all of that stuff. And I parsed it out over five weeks with very loose due dates for each task. But I know myself, and I'm already looking at this week's schedule and being like, argh, I'm not going to have time to do any of this!

I'm scared because the massage on Saturday went really well. There has been no determination if I am going to go back and do more. If it helped the pain, then I certainly will do maybe one in July before I really start -- provided all the numbers stay good in Massachusetts -- start doing more in August. But I know myself, and I think I'm going to procrastinate this some more or decide that other things are more urgent, in theory, although maybe not important in front of me.

So this is the part where, once again, I ask Michael, now what? What do I do to motivate myself to do something that's terrifying and overwhelming and extremely uncertain? Because I could do all of this, and then when they open up for Phase 3, we could get another wave, and I'm out of work until October anyway. So Michael, let's do a little free therapy. What do I do? But we can call it coaching if you feel like it.

MR [Laughing] What is the most terrifying part about this for you?

AH I mean, just going back to work in general is scary.

MR Yeah.

AH So I think I want to not do the things that I need to do so that I can delay going back to work.

MR Fair.

AH As much as I really want to get back to work, and as much as it was so wonderful to put my hands on somebody on Saturday and to have it be, I think, an effective treatment -- it was definitely effective -- if nothing else, the client had the best nap of their life on Saturday afternoon after I left. Literally rolled off the massage table onto a spare bed -- I was in a guest room -- and I'm confident slept for quite a long time. He was asleep before I finished packing up my table.

MR Nice.

AH So I think just fear of the whole environment of massage, and also fear that I'm going to do something wrong in redesigning, or that I'm going to do things that -- now I'm going to raise my prices, which I was planning to do next year anyway, and people aren't going to come to see me anymore, or that I'm going to get all of this set up and not even find an office to practice in. And I don't want to do home visits for the rest of my life. I looked at an office last week, and I'm confident I didn't get it because I wasn't willing to sign a three-year lease. So all of those things.

MR In your mind, what is the worst thing that could happen if you go back to work?

AH I could get sick and get my whole family sick, and we would all die. [Laughing]

MR Okay. So what do you think the chances of that happening are if you follow all the protocols?

AH Fairly low. Fairly low.

MR Okay, obviously low enough that you feel comfortable giving a shot and going back to work. Okay. Yeah.

AH Yeah. Not right now, but -- even though I could right now. But I feel like if the numbers continue to decline, that August-ish for a few home visits for people who are mostly isolated, yeah.

MR Okay. So what are the things you can control?

AH I mean, I can get off my butt and redesign my service menu and my prices and finally decide and decide which services I'm going to cut -- I'm totally going to cut 30-minute massage -- and adjust my prices. I can't really fix the schedule yet because I don't -- and that's another thing too. There's so many uncertains, right? I can't create a work schedule until I know if these kids are even going back to school. Or we're waiting to see what day of the week -- Walt's going to have to go into the office one or two days a week, and we don't know what days that's going to be yet. So the only schedule I could fix would be one where I work nights, and I don't want to work all nights. So yeah. There's just so many balls in the air and fear combined. I'm a mess.

MR Yeah. And I know everyone's situation is different, but you, specifically -- financially, you can -- you're okay if you don't go back to work really quickly, correct?

AH I am because I shut down my office, so I am not hemorrhaging money.

MR Yeah. Okay.

AH Yeah. And that's really lucky. And I have part-time work, and I have a partner who's employed, and that wouldn't -- yeah. I can -- so far with unemployment and then with the PPP that I'm going to use to pay myself in August and September, I'm okay.

MR Yeah. Well, I think -- the reason I ask about this stuff is I feel like the title of this podcast and the way you talked about the beginning, I think, is a really good place to start, which is the baby steps. Not the baby steps, but just taking a baby steps approach to it and focusing on one thing at a time and focusing specifically on things that you can control. It's very clichéd. We always say, oh, focus on what you can control. It's clichéd, but I think it's clichéd for a reason. It actually is fairly useful.

So to me, focusing on what you can control in the short term, I think, is really useful because it gives you quick wins. You can't control, obviously, the pandemic. You can't control a lot of things about your environment around you, but you can control, specifically, what happens in your business and how much of that business you want to do and how fast you want to go. So it might be a good time to really just intentionally take it super slow, and do, I don't know, one or two massages a week when you start up, and really get good at deciding how you want to do it protocol-wise and business-wise and pricing. Just treat it like starting your business all over again almost. I don't know. What do you think?

AH That is not bad advice. Wow. Okay. Yeah.

MR I think embracing and accepting patience and perseverance is really, really important for all of us right now. I struggle with it myself, and it's -- we all want things to go back to "normal," which we know is not ever going to happen really, but normal soon. And we want to quickly get back to an income level where we were before, or we want to quickly see results and want to quickly have our business the way it's supposed to be, and none of that happens. Even pre-pandemic, none of that really happens. It takes time and effort. So more than ever, I think it's really important that we embrace this state of patience and perseverance where things just take a long time. Perseverance is one of the most useful habits or traits or behaviors we can adopt and really embrace right now. It's necessary. It's critical. We have to have the patience and perseverance to move forward. There's no other choice right now.

AH It's so strange because I feel like -- I'm definitely craving this return to whatever normal is. And at the same time, I don't want to go back to the way I was working. I was seeing clients on too spread out of a schedule. It was wearing on me. The way I was juggling Blueprint along with my practice was wearing me down and making me very unfocused. I think there's even -- there's this desire to return to the world that I know, and at the same time, this very strong desire to take this opportunity to make it different and more suitable for me.

And at the same time, this pandemic has been pretty good for my family. My family thrives when we don't have a lot of outside interaction. [Laughing] We've been doing -- I have cooked every meal from scratch. I've only gotten some drive-through take-out the month I was closing my office a few times. We get Chinese food once a month, and we have pizza night every Friday, and we -- outside of the screen time thing, I am so feeling weird and resistant to going back to stuff because we don't want to go back to that. We are -- outside of like, it'd be great if the kids went to school again, I don't want to go back to running all over the place six days a week. I don't know. It's very weird. Sorry, this went a lot longer than I intended. But this is good. I think I kind of had the baby steps worked out.

MR Yeah, I think it's good to talk about.

AH So now I just need to create some kind of an accountability to actually do them. So maybe I'm going to report on every podcast episode on the baby step that I have accomplished that week, and y'all can hold me accountable to that.

MR Right on.

AH I promise we won't make it as long of a thing as we did just now.

Who's our next sponsor, Michael?

MR Our friends at Acuity. Speaking of Acuity, here they are.

AH Yay. And Acuity, bless them, because it did only take me like 20 minutes to get back into the swing of thing and create a new appointment type and create new confirmation emails for it and embed my link to my new intake form. Thank you.

Sponsor message They are indeed the scheduling assistant that makes it easy for traditional businesses and virtual businesses to just hustle and run their businesses and keep their schedule filled as much as you want it filled, and to adapt to any weird situation. From the moment clients book with you, Acuity will handle automatically sending booking confirmations and reminders and anything that you need handled. You can get a special 45-day free offer when you sign up today at massagebusinessblueprint.com/acuity.

MR Thanks, Acuity.

AH Do you have a quick tip?

MR I do.

AH Share it with me.

MR My quick tip is pretty simple, something that's been working for me a lot lately. Pandemic brain, obviously, is affecting most of us or all of us, I think, and so it's really easy to get overwhelmed and not know what to do or how to approach the day sometimes because of just general overwhelm. So one thing that really helps me is to set up my environment to support productivity, and specifically, my physical environment, things like my desk, my office space where I work. Sometimes, I just get stuck to the point where I'm like, oh, my goodness, I have all these things on my to-do list. I don't know where to start, ah! And sometimes, the best way to approach that is to put the to-do list away, just to stop looking at it, and to realize that hey, I've got some clutter on my desk. I've got gunk lying around. I've got papers on the floor. I've got stuff just in my environment that just -- I'm not trying to get too woo here, but it's sucking away my energy.

If clutter is surrounding me, it just sucks away my energy, so I'll spend 20 or 30 minutes, and I will organize stuff. I'll shred some stuff that needs to be shredded. I will put stuff away. I will dust my desk even. I'll get my work space set up in a way that is really clean, really minimal, really open. And then when I sit back down, I've done something. I've seen the fruits of my labor. I've gotten a quick win. I've gotten an outcome that is visual and tangible. And then when I sit down, I feel much clearer and have more energy to focus on what's on my to-do list. So that's been working really well for me. And sometimes we forget to do that. I know we all know that works for us, but we forget to do it sometimes. So just a reminder that it is extremely useful and extremely productive to take the time to put your work away and to clean up your environment around you so that you can work well.

AH Dude, that's awesome. I found last week when -- because I'm taking this course that's got about three hours of watching the computer a week. And so I found last week when I was watching one session, I was getting really antsy just sitting here and looking at the screen. The slide show isn't that important, but listening is, so I actually just got up and started cleaning my little office while listening to the class. I got to tell you, I remember what was going on in that class more than any of the ones prior where I was just trying to stare at the screen. And my office was clean, so when the class was over, I actually immediately launched into doing some of the homework for the class because I felt like, okay, my desk looks really good now. I want to sit at it and work. So that -- yay. Thank you for that nudge.

MR Cool.

AH My quick tip is -- actually came to me from our friends at You Need a Budget. It's a website and an app -- although I'm not using the app; I'm just using the website -- called Plan to Eat. I'm big on meal planning, especially now that I'm cooking many, many meals every week from scratch using my new air frying attachment to my Instant Pot and all kinds of other things. I'm getting the use out of the bread maker and the KitchenAid mixer, and I'm just -- I'm in it to win it with food prep right now, and also, super budgety food prep. So I'm soaking my own beans and making hummus from scratch and doing these things. But it was getting a little more complicated, and I was starting to get tired of it. Then I got an email from You Need a Budget, and they were talking about grocery budgets and stuff and this app called Plan to Eat. And it's really cool.

There's a free trial, so yay. It takes a little bit of setup. You got to import the recipes that you use, but you can do it by just -- and all my recipes are on a Pinterest board. But you can slap a web address in there for a recipe, and it imports the whole thing. And then you -- once your recipes are in there, you just slide them into a calendar. So I can look at my calendar right now and be like, oh, okay. I know that tonight we're grilling kielbasa and vegetables, and I know tomorrow night we're having vegetable dragon noodles. You can slide everything into this schedule, and you know what you're going to cook all week.

And it will actually generate a grocery list for you if you need that. I don't need that myself, but it's really cool because I don't always go to my Pinterest board to think of thing -- I forget that it's there, but with this app, I'm literally just leaving it open in a window. I also have a little paper list on my refrigerator that just roughly gives what we're eating every week. It's super easy to adjust things because -- I had my menu kind of planned out for the next two weeks, and then the little guy was like, remember you promised you'd try to do the chicken nuggets, just like Chick-fil-A? I was able to slide things around and make that the meal for Saturday. So it's really nice. I like it a lot.

So if you are getting a little bit weighed down with "what the heck am I going to feed these people every night?", then this is good. And it was also great because Walt cooks dinner some nights, so it was really nice to be able be like, okay, what are the things that he likes cooking and that he's good at? and put them into the calendar. Anyhow.

MR It sounds like a really good app. I'm looking at the site right now. It looks really well designed.

AH It's pretty slick. It took me a little setup. I spent about an hour last night -- but literally, I put the most recent season of Queer Eye on in the background, and I watched that while importing recipes and stuff. It's pretty good. I'm going to totally screenshot my menu for the next week and put it in the show notes because that's how ridiculous I am. All right. That's all I got. This was a lot of episode of me blathering. Sorry.

MR [Laughing] I learned a lot, especially this app. It looks really nice.

AH We'll do something very specific and action-and-task oriented next week. I promise.

MR I liked it. I enjoyed it.

AH And if you're having trouble getting -- jumping back into your practice or revamping stuff, I want to hear about it, and maybe we can do some more stuff to help people. So you can email us at podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com, and we'll talk about it.

MR Cool. All right. Well, hey, quick side note. If you heard my neighbor mowing his yard in the background, sorry about that. He mows his yard every four days as I was talking to Allissa earlier before we recorded. So if you heard it, sorry about that. if you can't hear it, never mind. Forget I said anything.

With that, let's wrap up. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Our website, as always, is massagebusinessblueprint.com. You can find things like our podcast episodes with the show notes there, blog posts, as well as information on joining our private community. So if you're not a member of our community yet, check it out. It's growing every day. We have some really, really good stuff happening there, really good stuff. So check it out there, and thanks for joining us today. We'll see you next time.

AH Bye.