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About Me - Julie Onofrio, LMP
Hi, Are you trying to decide if a career in massage will be right for you...will you be able to make enough money and will you be happy being a massage therapist. Are you looking for a career that will pay well while allowing you more freedom and make your life more meaningful? Are you looking to change careers and get out of the 9-5 stressed out office senario? Or maybe you already are a massage therapist and are looking for information on how to start or build your massage practice or you are looking for a massage job. Whatever your questions are about careers in massage, building a massage practice or creating residual income for yourself while you build your practice, you can find out here. I am Julie Onofrio (like the actor D'Onofrio but without the D'). I am a massage therapist in Seattle WA and have been one since 1987. I love doing massage and being a positive influence on so many people's lives. In some ways I think it has changed me more than the people I work with as clients. I am always amazed that I lasted 20 years - because it wasn't always so easy. It wasn't exactly like what the nice massage school brochure portrayed. No one told me that clients don't just show up because I am a good massage therapist. They all look so peaceful and relaxed in the photos. No one told me that people have hairy backs, are overweight, have scary skin issues and sometimes have less than ideal personal grooming practices. The reason I became a massage therapist in the first place was that I wanted to find a career that I could set my own hours and have the freedom to come and go as I pleased. I wanted to work in a field that was more meaningful. I became a massage therapist back in 1987 after working for 12 years in the commercial photography industry where everyone needed everything yesterday! I found myself working long hours and dealing with irate and very stressed out customers while the owner of the company was sailing around the world in his custom made sail boat. I knew I wanted something more for myself. I had just started learning about health and nutrition and exercise when I read an advertisement on the back of one of Seattle's local newspapers -"Go to massage school. Learn about health. Help others". ( I wish I actually had the copy of the ad!) Within 2 weeks I found myself in massage school and I was so unhappy in my job that I ended up quitting even before I finished massage school. I started out renting office space in a health club in downtown Seattle. I built my practice mainly by showing up! People were already interested in health. I just had to learn to talk to them about massage. I tried everything -free massages, doing massage at local charity sports events, networking with chiropractors. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. But after about 12 years I found myself burned out, struggling with minor health issues and feeling betrayed by my profession. No one had bothered to mention how difficult setting up your own massage business would be -not to mention the physical demands placed on your body. The same reasons why I was drawn to the massage profession were the same reasons why I was left burned out. I had wanted to help others. I didn't care about the money. I hear those same things from aspiring massage therapists and now know that it is not about helping others - it is about helping yourself and taking care of yourself. It is about the money as you need money to make a Great living - take vacations, save for retirement, pay for health insurance. It is OK to make money for providing such a wonderful, caring service. The massage therapists I speak with and hear from through my website and Yahoo Groups that I run and participate in seem to have the same common problem - that of starting and running a successful massage business while doing what they love - the massage part. Most don't want to deal with the business part and think that just by having good hands the clients will come or the jobs in massage therapy will pay them $40 an hour while they just do the massage. The reality of it all is quite different. Massage is a very challenging profession and you can end up like this one massage therapist on Yahoo! Answers or you can make a more informed decision and also make $50,000-$100,000 a year and more! And I am here to share everything I know and have learned in the past 20 years of doing massage so you can do just that! In 1999, after feeling the effects of burnout from struggling so many years I started a website on a whim basically- just for fun. I also had hated the fact that there was so much information that was needed on being a massage therapist and it was so expensive to acquire it. My first web site, www.thebodyworker.com, started as a project to set up an apprenticeship program for massage therapy here in Washington State. I was gathering information to put a program together, when I realized how many "hoops" you have to jump through to become approved, accredited, etc, etc. I am not much for politics and credentials - so this is what has come about - A website with free access to all the materials needed to be a massage therapist/bodyworker. So I started writing and writing and writing. I never knew I liked writing although when I tell my high school friends they say they aren't surprised because I used to like to write back then. Funny how they remember and I don't. Now I currently practice massage (www.massageseattle.net) a few days a week still in downtown Seattle and work at home writing this website and a few others. My income from my websites has allowed me to continue to do what I love - doing massage and writing while not having to worry about making money. I don't do any marketing for my massage practice really other than having a website that works built with Site Build it! (that I built this site with too.) I have a constant flow of clients and all I do is write about how massage can help the various conditions that clients are faced with. People are looking for a solution to their problem - whether it is pain, stress, recovery from and injury. They just want to feel better! They want to know if you as a massage therapist are that person to help them do that. If websites had only been around 20 years ago it would have made my life so much simpler! So now with my websites and the constant flow of new massage clients, I am ready for another 20 years of writing and doing massage! My writing and websites are fueled by my readers questions, comments, suggestions and feedback so please feel free to contact me and let me know what is on your mind or what is going on in your area in the massage profession. To Your Success!, Julie Onofrio www.massagetherapycareers.com Editor, Explorer, Webmaster, Student
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