Kathy Gruver PhD has an award-winning, medical massage, and hypnotherapy practice. She is the author of 5 award-winning books, including 2 on stress, and has lectured around the world on health and wellness issues. She is a frequent guest on radio and TV, and also provides stress and wellness programs for corporations.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Dad
When business started difficulties overcame:
I probably wasted so much money just trying everything, I was desperate to get my name out there. It worked on some level because business took off really quickly but I wish I could have had someone there to bounce those specific massage ideas off of. You know and it was trying to juggle everything because when you are starting out in business you have to be there to answer the phone and you have to take those clients and you have to take those calls because if you don’t they will move down the list and call the next person…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books
Think and Grow Rich Book by Napoleon Hill Brendan BurchardFavourite Quote
“go for it”
Recommended Online Resources
Best Advice to other entrepreneurs
Let the fear go. It is very rare where you try something new where there is not going to be a hesitation and there is not going to be that huhhhhh. You just have to go for it, you just have to do it. Write stuff down and break it into doable steps…[Listen for More]
More from Kathy Gruver
The Alternative Medicine Cabinet
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning
“Asking the right questions, takes as much skill, as giving the right answers.” Robert Half
Other Quotes From the Chat with Kathy Gruver:
“how you define yourself is how people are going to view you”
“we definitely can’t control change, we definitely can’t control any of those outside things so controlling our reaction to it is really all we have”
“you have to step off your fear and you have to reach for what you want”
“focus on the positive things you always have the ability to make a different choice, you always have the ability to take a different path, just follow that”
#00:00:48-1# Neil : Hello, its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way, the entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey, the vision, the mindset, the committment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Dr. Kathy Gruver. Before I introduce you her, I have a little quote for you. Robert Half said, ‘asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answers.’ The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Kathy, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us? #00:01:30-4# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : I am, thanks for having me Neil, I appreciate it. #00:01:33-1# Neil : Thank you for coming on here. Dr. Kathy Gruver phd has an award winning medical massage and hypnotherapy practise. She is the author of five award winning books, including two on stress, and has lectured all around the world, on health and wellness issues. She is a frequent guest on radio and tv, and also provides stress and wellness programmes for corporations. Kathy, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life, to allow us to get to know more about what you do and who you are? #00:02:04-5# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh absolutely, I started doing massage very accidentally. It was never a career I set out to have, I was actually an actor. I was a theatre major in school and thought that would be my path, and I found that over the years, I just sort of followed breadcrumbs and ended up in a completely different world that I ever thought I would be in. So I started doing massage back in college, and I thought what a great sideline, you know I could do that when I am pursing the acting gigs. And little did I know, about ten years later, it actually became the primary focus of my life, and the acting sort of faded away. Except when I am on stage, sort of speaking or doing radio and tv and so from the massage, I realised that clients are really looking to me as a health practitioner, they did not just want a massage, they wanted full care. So I started studying more and more, I got my masters and phd. And then I wanted to reach more people, so I started writing and doing more interviews. And I recently added hypnotherapy to my practise, because to me that was a beautiful addition to what I was already doing, and in the words of my father of ‘having something to fall back on’ you know, some day my body is not going to let me do 30 hours of massage a week. So to me, hypnotherapy was a beautiful replacement for that when I got to that point. So, its been an incredible journey and I love learning things, I love the business aspect of what I do. There are so many people that are phenomenal healers, but not really great business people. So, I love that aspect of it, I love that talking about that aspect of it. And that is why I am excited about your show, is to share my views on business, as well as the healing aspect of it. #00:03:37-5# Neil : So Kathy, what do you enjoy most about what you do? #00:03:41-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Its the helping people. I mean, I know it sounds so cliche, but you know, I have clients that walk into my office in pain, they are having muscle issues, they have had an injury, they have just had surgery, and they walk out feeling better. That to me is the most exciting thing, and there are very few businesses, where you can serve people like that and also really make a good living, and I am very lucky that I found the combination, I made that choice to find the combination of things that truly are making people feel better, and also I get to make money at what I love doing. And I had somebody tell me the other day how lucky I was that there are so many professions, you know you go to the dentist, nobody wants to go to the dentist. You know you have to but no-one really wants to go. People love seeing me because they feel good, you know massage is such a great tool for enhancing your health, so I am very lucky and that I have people that are excited to see me every day, and I get to help them and I get to make a living out of it. So, I cannot complain about any of that, its fabulous. #00:04:39-5# Neil : Yeh I suppose you have got direct contact with people in the sense that you see the results, don’t you? #00:04:43-4# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh sometimes immediately which is really great, I had a woman that has had chronic shoulder problems, and I really worked her over. I thought, oh man she is going to be sore later, and about an hour later I got a text message that said, ‘all my pain is gone, I feel so fabulous, I knew you could do it.’ Its like, ‘wow, what a great’ you know very people get that in their daily life. That type of immediate feedback, so yeh, I was really excited about that. #00:05:10-5# Neil : Yeh, its great and what is that drives you Kathy? #00:05:14-2# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh me. I’m really type A. I am like, my husband says I am type A plus plus plus. To me, I want to learn more, I want to provide more for my clients, I want to provide more for my readers and the listeners, and so I am constantly looking for new techniques to add, or new things to do. I just came back from a three day silent mediation retreat, because I wanted to know what that was like. You know, so it was sort of me shutting off, but it was also me learning new meditation tehniques, learning new physical techniques that I can then share with my clients with my readers. So its me, I really, I am a very driven person, I don’t know where it came from. I think I shot out of the womb that way, and it was just ready to do, ‘ok we are done with that, what is the next thing?’ It could be a detriment to that, I get a little carried away with tasks sometimes. But to me, its just that want to help people and that want to learn more, that really just gets me going, that really moves me to the next thing. #00:06:12-5# Neil : Have you ever thought about digging deeper into the why behind that, because obviously thats what you do isn’t it? You are driving yourself to do all these things, but there must be a why behind it, what is your why? #00:06:22-6# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh you know, I have had people suggest various things, I was an only child, and I was raised very much as an adult, I had trouble relating to other kids, because I was constantly around adults. So I think that is part of it, I think I was so used to being in that driven adult world, that I was just like that. But I was like that even as a little kid, you know, I was in five dance classes a week and I was in every school play and I was doing the advanced classes, and that was just sort of my mo with stuff like that. I don’t think I am proving things to other people, thats been suggested to me. I think there is just a lot I want to do, I want to experience everything. Its like, I want to try new things and I want to try different things, so to me, that is a big drive, of just having the experience on this planet of getting to see and do different things. I think that is a big drive for me, I don’t know the why behind it, but I enjoy it, so I am not going to argue with it right now. #00:07:20-0# Neil : Ok thats good, and how do you relax when you are not driving for all these things that you want to achieve? #00:07:27-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Mmm hmm, I still dance. I dance three or four days a week, I do flying trapeze, which most people are going, ‘that does not sound relaxing’ I stand on a little platform 30 feet in the air and I hold on to a bar and I fly around and do tricks and get caught and that is one of the most relaxing things that I do, which is really kind of counter-intuitive but it works for me. And I do meditate every day, that is a newer thing for me. But the daily mediation really has made a huge difference in my focus and my balance, people are even saying that I look different. ‘did you just wake up from a nap? you look so relaxed.’ I am like,, ‘no I have been meditating’ it has taken me a long time to get to the point where I can do it, and where I want to do it, but I am really seeing the benefits, I really am, it has been pretty remarkable. #00:08:15-2# Neil : Doing trapeze work, that is quite unusual, how do you find somewhere to do that? #00:08:22-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : I don’t believe in bucket lists. To me, its like, if you want to do something and you can, I think you should go and do it. I have a girlfriend that is consistently saying, ‘I want to go do a hot air balloon’ and I am thinking, ‘well go do a hot air balloon’ its not that out of the realm, it does not cost millions of dollars. Its not time of work, well then go and do it, because how often are you going to say, ‘I want to’ and then you get to the end of your life, and you realise you did not. And I have done so many things, rock climbing, splunking and repelling and zip lining and my husband and I we scuba dive and we have been swimming with sharks and swimming with dolphins and I had a client ask, ‘jeez you have done so much is there anything left on your bucket list?’ and I said, ‘I don’t believe in a bucket list, I said but one thing I have always wanted to try is flying trapeze’ and as the words came out of my mouth, I thought, ‘oh jeez I better get on that.’ ha ha so she is literally changing her clothes that I am on the computer trying to find a place near me to do flying trapeze and a couple of weeks later, I drove down to Los Angeles, I am about an hour and a half north of there, and I did flying trapeze for the first time. And I was completely hooked, and so I have been flying for years now and I have done dozens of tricks and gone through a couple of injuries, coming off one right now. But to me its a mindfulness practise, its kind of a parallel for life, you know you stand up on this little platform, and you jump, you go for it. You go for that step in your business, you go for that task that you need to do and you hope someone is there to catch you. But if there is not, there is a net to cushion you, so to me its this big parallel for life and business, of taking those risks, taking those calculated risks and really going for it. #00:09:59-1# Neil : So its about stepping over the line isn’t it really? Like in business. #00:10:02-9# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh #00:10:02-9# Neil : And do you have any entrepreneurial role models Kathy? #00:10:06-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : You know, people ask me all the time about mentors and who inspired me and my dad was a small business owner. And so as a kid I observed him running a business, and seeing the challenges with that and the ups and downs, it was just a little paint store, a little neighbourhood paint store. But I did observe that growing up, I also had a couple of clients when I was starting out who are very successful business people, and because my field, you know its unusual to find someone who is a massage therapist who really is into business. Usually they just kind of, they just hang up a shingle, if that. They work out of their home, they go to other people’s houses, they don’t really look at it, as a business, the way I do. It was hard to find someone in the health field, who was a role model for me. But I was very lucky to have these two clients who were incredibly good at business, and they loved to talk about it. So during their massage, we would talk for part of it about my challenges and my fears and my struggles and business things, I ran alot of stuff by these two men and I was so happy to have them. They are still clients of mine too, they have been clients for almost 15 years now. But yeh, beautiful to be able to bounce ideas off someone, you know so nobody big in the outside world that I looked to, but yeh definately my dad was an influence in that, and then these couple of clients with their advice and their support was completely invaluable to me. #00:11:29-4# Neil : Ok, thanks for sharing that. Kathy, I would like to find out a little bit more about the time before you were an entrepreneur, so you were an actress, so and then you obviously went into the business that you have got here now, so can you tell us what difficulties you had to overcome when you started your business? #00:11:45-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh yeh it was completely unchartered territory, and because again, I was trying to expand in a field where people were not really doing it, there were not alot of massage therapists advertising. The yellow pages, even though it had been decades old by that point, they were not really utilising advertising methods. So, I was kind of lost, I did not have anybody to ask questions of, except these two clients, who were not in that field, they could give me general business advice, but from a ‘hey what do I do with this massage business?’ I really felt lost, so there was a lot of throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what stuck. I did alot of really stupid advertising things when I was starting out, things that failed miserably you know. Its like, ‘I am going to put an ad on a park bench during a golf tournament’ and things that I just thought, ‘well I got to try it.’ because no one told me if it would or would not work, so I probably wasted so much money just trying everything, I was desperate to get my name out there. It worked on some level, because my business took off really quickly. But I wish I would have had someone to bounce those specific massage ideas off of, and it was just you know, trying to judge everything. Because when you are starting out in business, and you know, you have to be there to answer the phone, and you have to take those clients, you have to take those calls. Because if you don’t they will move down the list and call the next person, so I did not have alot of time off, I was working evenings, I was working weekends, I remember my husband and I out for the afternoon wine-tasting and me huddled in a parking lot with my finger in my ear, trying to talk to this person on the phone to book a massage. Because I needed to, I needed that money, I needed those clients. So it was really time consuming, it was all-consuming. I actually for a while, I had other therapists that worked for me, I got so busy so fast that I bought in four or five other therapists, and several of them said, ‘I want to do just what you do, and I want to run my own business.’ #00:13:42-6# Neil : Mmm hmm #00:13:42-6# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : The about three weeks later they came to me and went, ‘I don’t want to do what you do, its way too much work’ and I said, ‘I know,’ and then it was really and just then billing and doing the laundry, and then keeping track of the taxes and driving all over the place, because I did not have an office yet. So I was also going from house to house, which was exhausting. It was really just a challenge to juggle everything, I am still juggling alot of stuff, but now its different juggling. But yeh, it was just trying to figure out the path, and then just keeping it all straight was really just two of the biggest challenges. #00:14:17-9# Neil : Quite a few of the people that I talk to on this show have talked about how they draw from people from other industries, so its sometimes a good thing to get perspectives from other people I think like that, and sometimes its good to have ignorance in what you do, I think sometimes as well because not knowing what the rules are sometimes means that you do things differently, so that you actually defined your own rules rather than thinking theres just a fixed way of doing it. Would you agree with that? #0 #00:14:41-2# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh exactly, and to that point there is a gentleman in town that started a business called ‘the access book’ and its kind of you get a little like almost credit card looking thing, and you stamp different numbers for each business. And it was like ‘buy one entry, get one free’ or ‘buy an appetiser, get a free drink’ and I went to him and I said, ‘I’d like to put an ad in for my massage practise’ and he said, ‘oh, well we don’t have any massage practises in there’ and I said, ‘yeh I know.’ And they had car washes, and they had golf courses, and they had you know, free tyre rotation. They did not have any spas, they did not have any massage people or chiropractors and that sort of thing. And I was literally the first person in his book to advertise a massage practise, because I thought out of the box on that, and I thought, ‘well if you could buy one entry, get one free, why can’t you get 10% off your massage?’ and he loved the idea, and we ended up becoming pretty good friends over it too. But now, I am not in that book anymore because I don’t have to be. But now you look and there are 30 spas, and 30 chiropractors and I think, I started that, you know I was the one that got him out of his limited thinking. And he said, ‘well yeh, why can’t we put you in there?’ So thats kind of exciting. So I was really trying different things to see what would work, and like I said, some did and some did not. But yeh definately kind of thinking outside of what you already know is definately useful. #00:16:05-4# Neil : Yeh and did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business? #00:16:11-5# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh, I mean I kind of ermed and arred at first, and I just stuck a toe in, so I was still working at a lot of other spas and alot of hotels and I put a resume out to whoever I thought would give me on call work every once in a while. And then as I slowly started building up my practise, which ended up happening very quickly. Those fell away, so I did have that sort of safety net of ‘oh I can always go work at such and such spot today, if I don’t have enough clients’ it was maybe a four-six month transition, where it really went from other people’s work to my work. It happened pretty quickly, but I did have a little bit of transition time there, so I took an easy road, I did not just stop everything and start my own practise. That was too scary, that was too unstable. So I eased into it, but I was working at a physical therapy office, full time, and one day I said, ‘I’m done, I’mknowf starting my own practise.’ ethically they had some issues and I knew when it was time to go. Just that urge of ‘ok I’m done’ and I quit that day. So in that way, I did sort of jump in, but I had a little bit of safety net of working for, of part time on call for other people as well. #00:17:28-2# Neil : And what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey? #00:17:35-8# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : I did not outsource things, you know with every massage I do, theres a whole set of sheets that go along with that, of course we change the sheets in between every client. And I found that I had bought a couple of sets of sheets and I was trying to launder them all at home. Well as my business increased, I was still trying to have the same five sets of sheets and launder them at home and there was one day I got a call for a massage, and I could not take it, because I did not have any sheets. And I thought, well what business am I in? Am I in the laundry business? or am I in the massage business? and I immediately went to the store a nd I bought five or ten more sets of sheets, and I got a laundry service, so that was the start of me realising I need help and its ok to outsource those things and yes it costs me a little bit of money, but I had just lost a client because I did not have any sheets. That was really ridiculous. You know it was one of those things where I thought ‘where is your focus?’ so that was a great lesson for me early on, of its ok to outsource things, its ok to ask for help. I have had an office assistant for years now, who ran my sheets back and forth, who goes and picks up my mail, who changes out my cd every week. And I had one client say, ‘ooh jeez you can’t change your own cd, you are that busy.’ and I said, ‘no I can’t change my own cd’ I said, because in the amount of time it takes me to do all the stuff around here, it is not just changing a cd. I said, thats time I am not researching your condition, I am not calling you back to get you on the books, I said, ‘I would rather have someone else do that stuff and give someone a job’ than not waste my time but use my time in that way. So to me, outsourcing and bringing people to help was just a key lesson I learned, probably not soon enough, but I got there eventually. #00:19:21-4# Neil : Yeh you just made me think of a quote from Jim Rohn, where he said ‘make sure you major on the majors rather than majoring on the minors’ and that is very much what you are talking about there isn’t it? Not getting bogged down with the stuff that is stopping you from doing the stuff that you need to be doing, to drive your business. #00:19:37-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh exactly, exactly. #00:19:41-3# Neil : And so what are some of the things that you did before you started your business? that would be helpful tips to some of the listeners, who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way? #00:19:50-8# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh I am a big list maker, I love writing things down. I think having that road map to what your goal is, is so important and I actually did not exercise over the weekend, it was very similar to something I did, 15/16 years ago when I started this was take three minutes, and write down ten goals. Write them down, rapid fire, whether its I am going to lose ten pounds or I want this amount of money in my savings account, or I need to do this, this and this in my business. Write them down, and then look at them and say, ‘whats my top goal? what one goal is going to lead maybe to some of the other ones’ and break that down further. I think, whether its writing a book or starting a business, it can be so overwhelming, because its such a huge task. But its not one huge task, you are not sitting down to write a book, you are sitting down to write a paragraph. You are sitting down to write a sentence, and I think people get so overwhelmed in looking at this huge thing, they don’t think to break it down into smaller easilier chewable bits. So I think that is the biggest thing I did, is I actually wrote down goals, I had a life road map, and I wrote down where I wanted my office, and how many clients I expected to see, and that I expected to have my car paid off. And you know writing that stuff down, really solidifies it in your subconcious, and really does help you reach those goals. So to me, you have got to have map, you could have a formal business plan, I never did that, it did not really work for my business, but writing stuff down to me was one of the key components to it, I just think you have to, that is so important, and then again, breaking it down into smaller steps. #00:21:27-4# Neil : Mmm hmm, well thank you for that advice. Kathy, can we now talk about your entrepreneurial journey a little bit, and can you tell us, do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business? #00:21:39-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Do I think culture is important? #0 #00:21:41-6# Neil : Yeh in terms of the culture that you create within your business. #00:21:47-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh yeh, sort of the mood and the theme and the what you portray to other people, I do, I think that is so important. How you define yourself is how people are going to view you. And that was a struggle, when I started my business because I was not sure who I was yet in the business, I just thought I do massage, ok well what kind of massage? Oh, I have to define that. That is like someone saying, ‘I make food.’ ok what kind of food? Ok you can’t just have restaurant and just have food, ha ha, you have to decide what kind of food you want to have. And who your target audience is, and what that looks like to other people so I think it is incredibly important and that is reflected in the staff you bring in. That is reflected in the decor in your office, what your letterhead looks like, what your business card looks like, what your headshot looks like, and when I talk to other practitioners about marketing and social media and stuff like that, what does your picture look like? especially if you are in a field like myself where you are having this intimate personal relationship with someone, frankly whether you are a financial planner or a banker or real estate person, you want to put your best foot forward but you also want to have a face of that business, and it comes down to having a good picture sometimes. People need to know they can trust me, and that is portrayed in my photo. So I think definately the culture of your business and how you put yourself out there, I think that is vastly important and I think alot of people overlook that, in various ways. #00:23:18-1# Neil : Knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve? #00:23:26-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh, I think a little more bravery would have been good. I think I did have some fears about getting an office for the first time. I remember being very very scared about that, because its one thing when you are driving around from house to house, there is no overhead. When I now have rent, that put a lot of pressure on to make sure I had those clients. That was a really scary step for me. And I think just organising my notes and things like that a little bit better, I did not keep very good track of things, that I wish I would have like email addresses, and client birthdays, and client preferences, I thought, I only have ten clients, I can remember that. Well now, 16 years later, how many have I had? thats alot of clients. And it just became overwhelming and my poor little brain got full. So I wish I would have written more things down and kept better records, because we can’t remember everything. So I think definately taking better notes would have been good for me. #00:24:21-9# Neil : And you obviously got a bit braver, now you are doing the trapeze work as well, aren’t you? #00:24:25-3# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Ha ha you can see how I started. #00:24:30-0# Neil : And how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business? #00:24:33-6# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh so much, I think we need to listen to them more, that women’s intuition, we now have so many women in business and I think alot of it is led from that aspect by intuition and by that gut feeling, you guys have it too, but you tend to not listen to it as much as women, in my experience, not to blanket statement. But I think sometimes you have to just sit on something and wait and say, ‘is this a good idea?’ I just signed with a new publicist, and the email that she sent me, really felt good to me, and then I met her in person and within two minutes of talking to her, I knew I wanted her on my team. I just knew, I did not care what else she said, I knew that was a good fit. I am usually right with things like that, not to say I have not made mistakes. But you have to ask yourself, ‘is this an emotional decision based on something I desperately want so bad?’ or is this truly a good inner voice saying, ‘hey this is a good idea.’ Sitting with things and really asking really works, and I had a friend years ago give me such a wise piece of advice, I remember what it was, I was torn between two things, and he said, ‘well flip a coin.’ And I said, ‘well thats not scientific, thats ridiculous, why would I flip a coin?’ he said, ‘you flip the coin and how you react to what won, thats how you know what to do. If you flip the coin and it comes up no, and you go oh man, you know you should say yes.’ and I thought, ‘what a great idea, because it kind of forces you to have that gut feeling.’ You know what your reaction is when the coin flip happens. So I thought that was an interesting math, I have used it. #00:26:13-7# Neil : And does it work for you? #00:26:15-2# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh. It does. #00:26:18-9# Neil : Yeh sort of deciding factor isn’t it, I suppose it just brings out your real feelings on something there, so that is good. #00:26:23-9# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh it does. #00:26:24-5# Neil : Kathy, life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not, and some would say the only constant is change. How do you try to keep up with change? #0 #00:26:36-2# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh I’m not super with change, because I love to be in control and change is out of our control. And so what I learned and this is from all the stress work I have done and all the lectures I have given and you know we cannot control certain things. We definately cannot control change, we cannot control any of those outside things. So controlling a reaction to it, thats really all we have, because if we try to change things, that cannot be changed or try to stop things that are changing, we are going to drive ourselves crazy. So I have really sort of learned to go with the flow on things, its still a learning process for me. The meditation has really helped, learning to pause, and respond rather than react, is really important, we have these knee jerk reactions of ‘oh this is awful’ its like, ‘well hang on a second, think about it. Is it awful? how can you make this not awful? will it be awful? we don’t know.’ There is a massage chain that has opened up all over the states, and they offer incredibly discounted massage. They have a huge staff, so you can call day or night and there is someone there to massage you for half the price of what I charge, and when they first moved into my town, I kind of freaked out a bit. I had this panic of, ‘I can’t compete with that’ and I cannot charge that amount and I am going to lose all my business and I am going to be out of work’ and it just spiralled. And my husband finally said, ‘Kathy, the people that are going there, are not your clients. Its not going to impact your business.’ And it really has not. But my first reaction to that change in the environment was really scary to me. And I had to just step back and say, ‘take a minute, lets see what happens’ and in reality, it did not affect my practise at all. In fact, they have injured enough people who now come to me and I get to fix them. So it actually kind of ended up being a benefit. So sometimes things that we think are going to be scary and bad, don’t turn out that way. So, staying in the present moment is very helpful. #00:28:35-4# Neil : Ok, and what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen? #00:28:43-9# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Yeh I really like ‘think and grow rich’ I have flipped through it, I have read various parts at various times, I don’t read alot of business books. I am reading alot of medical books, which I find fun, because I am that person. But I like ‘think and grow rich’ because it really expresses the fact that we do have the power to make that success, we do have the power to make that change. Its that mindset, its that visualisation, its the affirmations, its going into something positive, and saying ‘I am going to make this happen’ so I really appreciate that philosophy, and there are so many books like that, and then something I found recently is Brendan Burchard, has a whole programme on business and marketing yourself, and I have done a couple of his workshops and classes you know through dvds and audio programmes and things like that, and he has got some really great ideas, and he has got some really great ideas, his philosophy is not for everybody but I have learned alot of really good techniques from him. So, there are so many great resources out there. Reading and learning from other people really is key to success I think. #00:29:46-1# Neil : Ok, yeh Brendan Burchard does some great stuff doesn’t he? I have watched his stuff. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com. as long as you haven’t already signed up, then you will qualify. Kathy, what I would like to do now is just speculate with you about a few things in the future. So, what one thing would you do with your business, if you knew that you could not fail? #00:30:24-8# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : I think that I would expand it into a healing centre, and actually bring in other practitioners, get a much bigger space, and really make it a place where people could come and spend a couple of hours, you know and have multiple treatments. Right now its me and a little office just doing massage and hypnotherapy. And I would love to expand it into a whole healing centre. #00:30:47-4# Neil : And what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business? #00:30:53-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh I think I need two more hands, ha ha ha thats tough, it is a the disadvantage of my business is I can only see one client at a time. So I think if I can clone myself and see multiple people at the same time, I think that would be really that would be the only thing that would help me. Having the time to expand, and to more group workshops and things like that, I think would be great. #00:31:16-9# Neil : Mmm and in five years from now, if a well known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say? #00:31:28-6# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : The perfect combination of healing and business. #00:31:32-5# Neil : Ok, we are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us. So Kathy, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it? #00:31:41-0# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : My favourite quote is ‘go for it’ that has been my tag line since high school, and with everything from the trapeze to starting a practise, and writing the books and getting a phd and to me, you just have to go for it, you have to step off your fear and you have to reach for what you want, thats the only way to live for me. #00:32:02-0# Neil : And do you have any favourite online resources that you could share with us? #00:32:06-3# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh you know, I don’t do alot of business stuff online, there are some schedulers that I think are really important, and because I do so many radio shows, even something as simple as google calender, all my radio shows get funnelled into that, and it reminds me, anything that reminds you its time to do something, to me is one of the best things, and you know I love wikipedia, thats got me through alot of stuff. #00:32:31-2# Neil : Yeh thats a good one. #00:32:33-5# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Not that creative of onlines resources, but you know the basics, we have got to have the basics. #00:32:37-6# Neil : Thats good, and what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs? #00:32:43-1# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Let the fear go, you know its pretty rare that you are going to try something new where there is not going to be a hesitation, there is not going to be that ‘huhhhh’ you just have to go for it, you just have to do it. Write stuff down, break it into doable steps, and really just live your dreams, because to me there is no failing, there is just learning from stuff. So even if you try something and it does not work out the way you think it is supposed to, its leading you to something else and you are gaining knowledge and information from that, and sometimes its just for the pleasure of helping someone else later. There has been things I have failed at or I have had an injury or you know have not worked for me, that I have now been able to impart on other people, to help them with their journey. So to me there is no failing, there is you do it, and if it does not work out the way you think it should, you are still learning something, you are still gaining knowledge from that. #00:33:35-3# Neil : Mmmm superb mindset. Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Kathy’s favourite resource or her favourite book, you can find the links on Kathy’s shownotes page. Just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Kathy or Kathy Gruver, in the search box. Kathy is there anything else you would like to add about your business? #00:33:57-3# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : You know, you have to do something you enjoy, and I am really happy that I get to wake up every day and I love what I do. There are days where I am tired, and there are days where I go ‘jeez I cannot do this anymore.’ We all have that, that is natural so one is don’t beat yourself up for having that kind of day, and really just trying to live in the joy of what you are doing. You know focusing on the positive things and knowing that you always have the ability to have a different choice, you always have the ability to take a different path, and just following that. Just following that intuition, listening to that gut and going for what you want. #00:34:32-3# Neil : Ok Kathy its been an absolute honour having you on here, you really have given us some great thoughts and insight into your mindset and you have inspired us all so thank you very much for coming on the show. #00:34:44-9# Dr. Kathy Gruver Healing Founder of Circle Massage and The Alternative Medicine Cabinet : Oh thanks for having me Neil, I appreciate it. #00:34:46-4# Neil : You are welcome. Thank you.Transcript of Dr. Kathy Gruver's Podcast
You have to ask yourself, is this an emotional decision based on something I desperately want so bad, or is this truly a good inner voice saying, ‘hey this is a good idea.’ Sitting with things and asking, really works.
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