Foot Reading and Reflexology Podcast S1:E3 - Business and Social Media with Kelly Hainsworth

hello everyone and welcome to the reflexology and foot reading podcast i am your host sam bellier affectionately known by my clients and students as the foot whisperer and we are about to go deep with kelly haynesworth who is a reflexologist in leicestershire in the uk but where you might recognize kelly's name from is as the moderator of the love reflexology facebook group she is a community leader in the reflexology space and also serves as a business mentor for practitioners looking to establish their business it is my pleasure to have her on the podcast today as we talk about everything from social media to business and beyond welcome kelly so as far as this idea of uh how you got started in reflexology give me the rundown as far as uh what your reflexology education was like and how you started to stumble into the craft okay um i mean we're going right back to 2006. when i first became aware of reflexology my youngest brother actually died very suddenly and during the months after his death when you know you're in that real raw grief i had a lot of issues just relaxing and and going to sleep and even i just could not switch off you know my brain was just busy processing everything and a friend actually suggested why don't you don't have a reflexology treatment and you know you're at that point where you think i just need to do something i need to try something didn't really know a lot about the therapy at all and booked myself in and went along and that first treatment i felt nurtured i felt cared for i actually felt like i was having a big hug when i was in the chair it was the most it was the most incredible experience and i went home that evening and i felt a little bit emotional because obviously stress [Music] and to wake up feeling refreshed and not jaded was the most incredible thing um so i then went on and had more treatments and i just felt invigorated and i felt that i could cope better with you know process my brother's death and being able to support my parents better um so months went by and i decided i then wanted to learn reflexology i wanted to know more about it i wanted to know how i could go on and help people in the same way that this amazing therapy had helped me so i had a superb course with the iir because i know your trains i are as well some aren't you yeah um yes i i changed the ir and uh allison walker um he was an incredible teacher absolutely incredible and did my case studies and qualified and at the end of the the course i dedicated my qualification to my brother it was in his memory and i i established my business very much in his memory and it for me it was a huge positive out of a very very difficult time in my life and i always said that i just then wanted to go on and help people with this stuff in the same way she helped me oh my gosh kelly that is such a beautiful story i mean everybody comes into the reflexology field for you know some reason and sometimes it's more intentional than others and just to to hear that you know i kind of stumbled into the field myself but it seems like from the beginning like you've had such a deep sense of purpose with this craft and it's touched you so deeply and it's it's such an inspiration to hear that story oh thank you it's um you know as business has progressed and it's developed considerably past 10 years um i just always have my brother in my mind and you know you're my motivation and then it's it just inspires me every day oh so amazing so let's talk about the group um because that is one of the most fascinating parts of the story is i mean you literally just started the group in august and yet it has exploded into this online hub of reflexologists from all over the world i think you're at over 1500 members the last time i checked yes something today oh my gosh it's growing every day every day i log on and there are new member requests and i'm just blown away by the the support and the love for the group it's absolutely well i mean you put it in the title you know love reflexology it's it and i think that that's part of the reason why people are so attracted to it is because like you said this modality tends to offer that sense of being comforted in a way that maybe other forms of body work don't necessarily capture for such a wide breadth of the community and it i mean you've you've given us a forum to really share that love that we've experienced with the modality with not only the people around us but also other practitioners to kind of raise a virtual glass as it were and kind of cheers each other uh for for work well done yes it's um i mean initially i i used to run a twitter hour um right back 2013 i ran a twitter hour with another reflexologist and it was just a uk thing it was a networking thing and um it's always been in the back of my mind because when i did you know when i used to log off on twitter hours there was always conversations that were carrying on and it became really apparent to me that practitioners wanted to talk to each other they wanted this sense of community they wanted to be there for each other and support each other you know most practitioners work at home they work alone so sometimes it can be a lonely profession yeah i wanted to create this space where practitioners could come together share their stories share their experiences share best practice and just be there to support each other and not feel alone and i really feel that love reflexology is achieving that team and you know members can log on any day of the week any time of the day and there's usually somebody online who they can have a conversation with and say you know i've done this treatment today and i'm not quite sure about this or i've read this amazing book can i share it with you and i'm just loving how engaged everybody is in the group it's so inspiring to to see that happening and i mean so you started on a totally different platform with twitter and now you've kind of migrated to facebook so what was the what was the prompting that made you think hey let's let's start a facebook group about this and and transition platforms i think twitter's a fabulous platform and it's it's fabulous for networking but i found that practitioners want to secure to chat in a more secure setting yeah so that's why the group is a closed group and it's only for practitioners and so they can chat and they can share information stories knowing that it's just for practitioners and it's just easy to use a lot of practitioners also aren't on twitter it's not a platform that they're comfortable with so facebook's more accessible for everybody they're more comfortable using the technology and um they just feel better using that platform yeah i agree there's definitely a genuine sense of comfort when you kind of log on to the group that there's there's not this sense of kind of techy vibe like everybody's very down to earth they're speaking very plainly um it's not intimidating at all and that's what i want i want you know people to be able to log on post a comment or a question and feel comfortable doing it you know there's no judgements it's just a safe space for everybody to to really share their craft and so let me take this conversation a little bit further as part of your business mentoring um i took a quick peek at your website kellyhamswork.com and i noticed that you are actually looking to help other reflexology practitioners navigate the social media space which i think is a fascinating branch of business that not a lot of people are talking about so walk me through if somebody wanted to work with you on maybe developing a first-time twitter account or using facebook a little bit more intelligently or instagram i see you all over instagram talk to me about how you work with practitioners to develop that kind of social following okay so i always do a skype or a facetime meeting with with clients because obviously they're all over the country just to really establish what their business is about and what they want to achieve from their business and that's really important to get that foundation there first of all we then look at which social media platform that they need support with so for instance people most people have a facebook account but they're not confident using it they're not quite sure how to do certain techy things so i will work with that reflexologist for a month um i'm on constant email support or facetime support and we i set up challenges each week we go through lots of different techy challenges and i'll have tips and little tricks that they can use and they can apply that then for their business and by the end of the month most practitioners will go away feeling confident and you see them growing confidence on their social media platforms and it's incredible and i follow them sort of months down the line and they're flourishing and then they'll message me and say kelly i've got these bookings because on facebook and it's really working and so on social media level that's that's what i would do with the training on that point um in terms of business mentoring um i may work with clients who are already very confident in social media but they've got lost within their business so they're not quite sure what to do they're not getting clients through the door so i will work with them um to support them through the month and give them a gain coaching and how we can get clients into their practice i love that i think that especially for reflexologists it's a little bit difficult because i mean very similar to your story we get into this field wanting to help people not necessarily wanting to run a business and so a lot of practitioners they're okay with the hands-on stuff and they might even like you said be okay with social media and talking about what they do but they don't really understand how to set up the grassroots of that fundamental business practice to to kind of ground everything that they're doing that's right one of the key things that i always do um in particular business mentor clients is i get them you know whether they're newly qualified or whether they're even five ten years down the line within their business i get them to write a business plan um because it gives them such a good foundation for their work and then we establish their niche markets who their clients are and then we can really tailor their marketing and strategy for their business and it's all done in you know very simple terms there's no you know fancy marketing job and it's in clear simple english so practitioners can go away and really use this to make their marketing work i love that so as a as a practitioner as somebody who started out in reflexology um what was what was the pivoting point for you to start thinking about offering these business mentoring services how did you transition into not only that thought process but like what what made you feel qualified to actually offer your expertise to other practitioners um the needs for this kind of training and support became really apparent to me through doing the charter hour and also this year you know working with the reflexology i've come into contact with many practitioners who are incredible practitioners um you know got a fairly good client base that when it comes to marketing and just getting their confidence um to be developed online they just need a little bit of guidance a little bit of support um just to push them in the right direction and then they flourish and there's not that support there for them and as a small business owner you know you don't have a big budget to spend on marketing and you know for a company to do it for you so i'm providing a service that's affordable um and also i'm a practitioner so i've done it i've made the mistakes i know what works what doesn't work i've got so many clients as a direct result of social media on my website so i know what works in this field and i can then pass on those tips and those advice to the other practitioners that's so powerful i mean it's one thing especially when you're considering advertising options to work with an agency that maybe knows how to do marketing but they may not understand the practice they may not understand the unique struggle of being a reflexologist and what various aspects you know are required for us to do on a daily basis so it's hard for you know those outside agencies uh to really help us get the message out there when they don't know what the message is but you have been there done that and it's it's so perfect to hear it from another practitioner especially since i mean it's not like you've been off the radar it's like you've been learning publicly for so long through social media this is the offering that you're now able to say hey look it's not it's not even something that i've hidden i have a digital track record of everything that i've created that i can help you create too that's right i mean when i you know when i first launched my business sam um you know social media was kind of there and it wasn't really something that was in the forefront of my mind because printed marketing was very popular still then yeah and i made a huge error of you know pushing loads of money into things like yellow page adverts yeah you know local magazines i did the same thing you know you just want to get your name out there don't you and you make you make these mistakes in the early days and i learned very quickly that printed press does not work and people were not engaged with it at all and you know very quickly that word of mouth is one of the most important factors followed by a great website and social media presence and i've made you know i've made that those journeys i've made those mistakes found out what works what doesn't work and i can share that with practitioners and especially with facebook there's you know there's a lot of changes coming up with facebook and in 2018 they're changing um a lot of different methods on how we post and it is going to affect how small businesses appear in people's news feeds and so i'm going to be able to share with practitioners some of the tips and tricks and how we can still make sure that we're seen in our clients news feeds uh as as those changes roll out i would love to have you back on the podcast to talk about those changes because i mean especially if we have practitioners listening that aren't comfortable on social media to begin with uh some of those new changes might really throw them for a doozy uh and i know that seeing facebook evolve just over the past year there have been so many changes uh that it's hard to keep up with so i look forward to having you back on to talk about that that shift i'd be delighted thank you so let's talk about the beginner the beginner reflexologist so somebody who maybe just got qualified regardless of where they're at in the world what are maybe three things that you could suggest that they do to start out their practice would always say spend time business planning and as part of that business planning i would look at some key things i would set a target number of treatments that you would like to achieve that each week um think about the income that you need to earn you know be practical and don't be shy about numbers at the end of the day you are the business we're in a caring profession but you also need to earn an income as a practitioner so set yourself a realistic target of treatment and have that figure in the forefront of your mind you know pin it on your notice board so it's always visible and it helps you to stay focused um i would then also suggest that you think about who your target client is so you know really set up imagine imagine who that person is you know what's the age range is it 18 to 40 is it female male um you know what their sub spending habits what are they into you know are they into nature environmental factors you know really build a good profile about your client and when you've got that profile you can really use that information to target your marketing you know on social media printed leaflets website um and then you're not wasting time churning out loads of social media posts that actually your audience are not interested in they're not engaging with and keep that in the forefront of your mind with all of your marketing and then just review it and do it annually you know tweak it it's you know businesses change businesses evolve your targets number of treatments might change and you know you might find you've got more time to offer appointments so you can increase that target or you might actually want to downsize it for a bit if you you know if you have a family or um your life situation changes but have that have that business plan and use this as a good solid foundation to move forward with your business and have a good business head-on alongside the caring part of our business that we all love to do excellent i love that so start with the business plan then evolve the client profile and constantly constantly go back and review and i can imagine having somebody like you kelly as a mentor along the way to really help you help the practitioner stay focused so that even you know you holding them accountable for the progress that they should be making can also be really helpful yes i mean you know when i work with my mental clients we speak most days on email or we message each other messenger and sometimes they just want to sound out an idea so i've got this idea about my potential client profile what do you think does this fit in with you know where i'm at am i training does this sound right to you and we just bounce ideas off and it helps to keep them focused helps them to stay on the right path and it just gives their business such a clear direction and once you've got that you can then fly and it's wonderful i've seen several mentor clients this year just fly now in their businesses and i'm very excited to see where they're all heading for 2018. ah it's amazing to see them kind of jump off the ledge and and soar from that standpoint so on the on the flip side of uh maybe some things to do let's talk about uh some mistakes so give me a mistake or a funny story uh that happened to you while you were first starting out uh that maybe would be a pitfall to avoid for uh for new practitioners most definitely do not spend huge sums of money on printing right [Laughter] we both agree on that yeah i mean i was you know i was very excited i just qualified gosh i'm gonna run my own business and uh just went downhill with all this princesses i'm going to go to church magazine and i'm going to be in this and and it just doesn't work it really doesn't work and i learned very quickly that there were better forms of marketing and that were more successful so certainly don't spend large amounts on things with on that note i actually have a very similar story um except it had a little bit of a twist so i started my first major um marketing push was with door hangers like printed little leaflets that you would hang on doors um and so for about a month for a couple hours a day i would go hanging door hangers around my local community and except for this little thing called the weather uh i live in south florida uh which is in the summer anywhere from 95 to 100 degrees uh and so i would literally be drenched by the time i was done and those door hangers maybe brought one or two clients out of the thousands that i had put up but then as i started to do reflexology i put it on my website and literally literally within the week i had three new clients that had just found me online through putting the service on the web uh and it was such a drastic difference so i'm right there with you kelly like print ads are totally dead and we need to be shifting and talking digitally completely and i think that's why a lot of practices just need some support you know they're incredible practitioners they provide wonderful treatments that they just need that bit of guidance and support to get the best out of the technology that we have because you know on the whole facebook is free unless you choose to do some paid ads and it's a great platform for you know businesses especially small businesses to really get their their voice heard to a huge audience so let's use it and let's really get reflexology out there for everybody right i mean and you can't beat free like it's it's a resource use it you know exactly and you know i've worked with a number of practitioners this year who are now getting the best out of facebook and they're seeing that return with clients looking and it's just incredible resource to use i love that so what kind of clients do you love to work with both from a mentoring and from a reflexology standpoint and and why do you like to work with them um and in terms of the reflexology side um my main specialism is working with women and i love working with ladies of all ages to support them in the different stages of their life be it they're about to have a child or they are pregnant or even through menopause it's it's such a privilege to work with women through those different exciting stages of their life but i do work with the whole family i mean my youngest client at the moment is only two months old oh my goodness incredible and my oldest child's gentleman you know in his eighties so i love working with all my clients but i do have a particular passion for women's health i've actually been very privileged this year to work with three ladies who are undergoing cancer treatment for breast cancer and their oncologists actually said to them um go and have reflexology as part of your uh recovery program oh my goodness so that is a huge you know huge shift for me that i've seen this year and i've i've been really privileged to work with these very strong incredible women who are going through such traumatic time and just to give them that that treatment that space in their life at this time and i i feel very blessed that i've been part of that wisdom i find that too you know more so than anything even the hands-on modality aside reflexology is such an excuse uh to escape and to just allow the body to do what it does naturally and especially when you know women are feeling like they have to take care of the kids and they have to take care of the parents and they're stuck in the middle with no time for themselves it can be such a beautiful appointment to just let it go and to be self-focused for a little bit i fully agree and you know i work with a number of ladies who may be body conscious they may be a little bit overweight after they've had a child or that you know they're just not cultural their figures and their their weight at the moment so to come for reflexology treatment is very empowering for them because they really need to take off their socks and their shoes they don't need to undress like they're having you know when they have a massage so they feel completely comfortable and relaxed when they come and they feel safe and they don't feel body conscious at all and that alone is very empowering for a woman as well true so with uh reflexology let's kind of zoom out to this global idea of reflexology you're heading one of the most popular reflexology groups on facebook right now what are some of the trends that you're seeing as far as reflexology and where is it going as a global profession i think as a global profession it's increasing in popularity um i mean from when i first started out um right back in 2006 a lot of people didn't really know what reflexology was like you know people say to me what is it what do you do i've never heard of it and even in the past year i've seen it's increasing in popularity there's been a number of celebrities in the uk who are now coming forward into the press saying i have reflexology to help with my depression or to help with my stress so the public can now you know becoming more aware of it and when a celebrity kind of endorses things people stand up go oh right what is this um so i'm i'm definitely seeing an increase in popularity certainly in the in the uk i don't know how it is in the us it's you know very much along those lines um actually a couple years back i had an influx of clients because there was somebody in the public eye in politics that wrote a book and within that book there was a whole chapter dedicated to their health and wellness and reflexology was a big part of that so i would get clients you know in waves saying that they read about reflexology from the celebrity in their book uh so i've experienced the exact same thing but i think what i'm noticing here in the us is there's a trend towards specialization right now uh and as opposed to you know 10 15 years ago when it was just this idea of all massage was just massage you know now people are starting to get aware that there's structural types of massage and then there's craniosacral therapy and then there's energy work and then there's something like reflexology which very much blends it all together and they're starting to get the consumers are starting to get more intelligent as far as bodywork as a whole and i think reflexology is definitely benefiting from that yeah i'd agree with that i actually had a client today who has been seeing a physiotherapist helped with her back and she's been seeing this physio for some time um and she said to me today that she's you know benefiting more from actually coming and having the reflexology because it deals with the whole person yeah um not just helping with her back which is helping her stress levels it's helping to sleep better and people are becoming more educated about the different treatments available and and you know what reflexology can do for them yeah i had a conversation with a fellow body worker the other day and they said something very much to that effect they said you know when they go to something or someone rather like a physiotherapist and they're working with just the mechanics of the body like the meat suit of the body i you know other modalities like reflexology shine because we're taking the whole person into account as opposed to just isolating different muscle groups so it's really this whole person conversation that we as reflexologists get to indulge in and work with clients on so you know emotional stress family relationships uh if they're moving if their work's doing well what's on their mind you know all of that is technically relevant in reflexology as opposed to just you know other therapies that are rolling out the meat suit how does it work yes i fully agree and you know i've worked with some clients for eight years and you see them at different stages in their life but like you say they may have moved house and they've got their high stress levels going on and you can support them through that time by providing a really relaxing treatment because that's what they need at that time they need that nurturing yeah whereas other times you may see them and it might just be you know they've been suffering with headaches and you support them through that and clients are becoming very educated about the different treatments available and the benefits that reflexology can have for them any unique client stories that kind of come top of mind as far as people that you've worked with and some of those kind of wow moments where you've really seen reflexology shine well she's speaking so many things i've been very blessed i have a wonderful client base here in leicestershire um i worked with a very special gentleman um a number of years ago who who actually is no longer with us and he was he was a gentleman and i supported him through his last days and they were the most beautiful treatments and he always said at the end how much peace i brought to his life at that time and it really touched me um when he passed away his wife actually called me to thank me for what i've done for him and these the kindness i'd show and that the support i'd given him and it's always stayed with me it's always that she felt so moved by you know the work i've done to actually pick up the phone ring to thank me and that will always stay with me oh my gosh what a story that's ah that encapsulates everything that reflexology should be right there it's just truly powerful when we have those experiences so as far as the lessons that you've learned um let's talk back to that re love reflexology group and maybe share with the listeners some of the lessons you've learned that they could implement in their own practice as far as maybe they want to start their own facebook group for reflexologists locally where they are um or maybe things to avoid as far as cultivating a sense of online community sure i mean when when you set a group up um i mean the first factor you need to be aware of is time and the time that it takes to run a group um and i learned very quickly how to manage the group and it's very much now part of my role as a reflexologist so i have my treatment side my business my mentoring and my love reflexology work and it all encompasses who i am as a practitioner so you need you can't run a group as kind of a separate thing you need it needs to encompass who you are and who your business is um so you you set that time then dedicated to running that group so my working week i always have so much time slotted in my diary for the group and it's really important that you you dedicate that time to it for it to be successful and and to work um you also need to keep an eye on membership so for example for this group i have questions set up so that when somebody sends a request they have to answer certain questions to join the group i do get some very random requests from people that aren't practitioners but having those questions there really helps me to filter out who's genuine and who isn't so it's always worth adding in something like that if you're thinking of setting a group up and then the main thing is just to create engaging content within the group um content that's relevant to the members that they want to see because you know as you know sound facebook's absolutely full of so much information and sometimes it's really overwhelming oh gosh i can't i can't read this i've not got time for this so you need to you need to have content in there that's engaging and interesting for your members and that's one thing with the live q and a's which you wouldn't if you did for me recently um is to provide something a bit different as well um you know i've been really honored to have some fabulous guests this year and to have that is something a bit different from some of the other groups that are running and it brings people in and people want to engage in it so if you're thinking of doing a group try and think of something that maybe other groups aren't doing something a bit different it makes you stand out from the crowd and makes your members want to you know to interact and engage in the group yeah definitely i mean when i joined love reflexology just scrolling through the posts not even with the interviews like the interviews themselves could be monetized like they're so valuable um just oozing value from all of the experts that you have on these interviews but just even the questions and the conversation like you have some really intelligent high-level practitioners that are responding to these questions on a daily basis so it's kind of like having a free mentor i mean it's just it's so amazing to be a part of this group that you've created where just every time you log on you're learning something new yeah i mean i i've been overwhelmed some to be honest with the level of support the groups received from some exceptional practitioners and i'm so thankful to them for supporting the group and also for giving up their time to respond to questions and share their knowledge and expertise with you know practitioners who may be just starting out who haven't perhaps got a deep level of knowledge yet and i'm very very thankful for those um practitioners for for aid giving up their time to share this advice and then also doing the q and a's because it's inspirational and it inspires practitioners to to want to deepen their knowledge to go on and learn more maybe read a new book go on a new cpd course and i'm just i'm very excited for next year to see where this group is going to go and develop and i'm just very thankful to everybody for being part of it so on that note of 2018 what are some things that you're currently working on maybe behind the scenes maybe not so behind the scenes that we can expect to see from you in 2018 um i've got lots of ideas bubbling away in the background i don't see it as work so i've got lots of ideas bubbling away for the group for next year that i hope to roll out in the coming months i'm also working on some more of the business mentoring work and have some ideas for that to launch in the new year and so lots yeah lots going on in the background that i hope to share with everybody soon and certainly more live q and a's with fabulous experts um and again like i said i'm so thankful for them for sharing their knowledge and expertise with us all do you know the the next life speaker that you have cued up off the top of your head we have a facial reflexologist called helen um she's in january on the events page within the group if anybody is part of the reflexology group head to the event page and there are full details there so if you have an interesting facial reflexology this one will be for you awesome and if people want to reach out to you either for business mentoring if they're local and they'd like to get a session from you or maybe even if they just had a spur-of-the-moment question what are some of the ways that people can connect with you and interact with you okay um well i have my website uh which is kellyhayneswith.com you can contact me directly through the website and all my social media links are on there also so i'm on facebook twitter instagram pinterest linkedin please feel free to contact me through any of those or if you just want to pop me an email to kelly at kellyhaynesworth.com um i'm usually online at some point in the day so you know feel free to message me and you know share share any questions i'm always approachable and i love networking and meeting and speaking with new practitioners so do feel free to reach out to me i'm always always here that brings up a really interesting topic real quick as far as how do you think technology as a whole is serving the reflexology community i think it's a very powerful tool for us to use as practitioners it's a great resource to to network um i've got i've made connections online through twitter with other local businesses to me and that's led us on to organizing events which has led then on to me gaining new clients so in terms of networking and reaching out it's it's a valuable tool for our businesses and then as a practitioner also with groups might love reflexology it's a great resource for learning and i've learned so much from from the incredible practitioners in the group and it's really deepened my knowledge so i think it's a fabulous resource for us all awesome kelly well it has been such a pleasure to speak with you today i'm just in awe of everything that you continue to put out online uh both through instagram and what i see on facebook uh it's just so amazing to be able to share your knowledge with our listeners um and definitely if you have not checked out the love reflexology group if we haven't said it enough during this podcast episode it is definitely the premiere hub for all reflexologists across the world to go check out so make sure you do that i appreciate your time kelly thanks so much for being on and thank you so much for for inviting me again thank you for being my guest recently it was inspiring and i've had so much feedback since it was just incredible and people asking me when are you coming back is sam coming back oh my goodness in 2018. that episode was ridiculous i mean and that was one of the reasons why i really wanted to have you on is because like the outpouring of just genuine interest and appreciation but the quality of your membership and the mass of your membership you've just created a beautiful garden of practitioners and to see that firsthand and you can watch the live replay uh in the group as well for those of you that want to want to check out the the live uh interview that we did in the love reflexology group it was i mean the comment train was massive uh and it was it i it was so hard for me to keep up everybody just kept commenting and liking and sharing and then somebody else would pop on and it's it's turned into an animal really yeah i don't mean even i don't see the day after you know it's not finished but there were still comments coming in and people said i've just bought the book and i'm really excited you're inspirational and it was just incredible and so exciting yeah and it was fascinating because really i mean both of us didn't really know how it would play out um it's in a typing format before but you were my first live video guest and some some members are a bit unsure about how it would work or how do i join in but once it started that was