How To Use The NO HANDS Brand To Build YOUR Business

How To Use The NO HANDS Brand To Build YOUR Business By Gerry Pyves ® (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves A Short History of the NO HANDS trademark… I am often asked why NOHANDS is a trademark. Here is the reason why: Unlike most businesses, the whole conception and development of the NO HANDS Massage brand was almost entirely accidental. It is a twenty year story – to date. First came the Massage itself. The approach I developed was simply the result of injury to both my wrists on the same day. As I evolved my approach, over many years, more and more Massage therapists who heard about my work came asking me to teach them. As I taught this approach I began to realise that in the wrong hands and with an incomplete understanding of the principles involved my approach could actually injure Massage therapists more than conventional Massage. It could also injure clients, too. This understanding alone took a decade. Because the whole body-weight of the practitioner is involved the potential for damaging clients was always foremost in my mind. On the one hand I wanted to share my ideas to protect the careers of as many therapists as possible. On the other hand, I wanted to sleep at night in the certainty that clients and therapists alike were safe from injury. When I looked around at the Massage world I saw that plagiarism and intellectual theft was rife in many of the training institutions. The pattern was there to be seen by anyone who had been around the Massage scene long enough. No matter what dedication, inspiration and sacrifice had gone into the development of a new approach to Bodywork, the colleges and training institutions would set up copy-cat trainings in that approach without any reference to the originator or acknowledgment of the intellectual source of the approach. This happened with Indian Head Massage, On-Site Massage, Hopi Ear Candles, Hot Stone Therapy and a whole list of new approaches. The originators of these approaches – many of whom spent a lifetime developing their approach - were not consulted about these trainings. Instead, these training courses were often in the hands of non-clinicians (frequently lecturers in FE colleges) who had attended a single course from the originator and then copied their approach and decided how to teach it. I realised that there was only one way to protect the therapists I taught and all their clients from such poor standards of teaching and such academic dishonesty - through a trademark. With a trademark, no matter how many therapists or colleges tried to copy my approach (and I knew they would), there would only be one legal provider of the trademark approach. This would mean that members of the public could identify this approach and always be safe, whatever other copycat versions existed – they could never be called NO HANDS. It was also clear to me that what I needed was a name that simply described the single most significant and recognisable feature of my approach – NO HANDS. Unlike most brands, it had nothing to do with any products or product house. It was actually based on the humorous caption “Look Ma, No Hands!” which became ubiquitous in the 1950’s. NO HANDS was perfect choice for a trademark for two reasons: The first thing you come up against when applying for a trademark is that you may not trademark a technique. However over 90% of my training was about changing the approach of Massage therapists from a focus on the client to a total focus on the power of the touch. The (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves ® concepts behind NO HANDS are the most revolutionary to hit the world of Bodywork in over two millennia. From the 7 Postural Secrets to Healing Synergy, to Breathe, Feel Release, to the Practitioner Hub and Going Slow and from Talking The Walk, to Privacy, Clear Contractual Communication, Six Styles, and the Four Elements; everything about NO HANDS was about changing the attitude and approach of Massage therapists from conventional approaches to Massage. So I had no problems claiming that NO HANDS was not a technique, but an approach especially as the whole purpose of NO HANDS was to protect the hands of massage therapists so they could use them without injuring them or covering them with scar tissue! The other reason that NO HANDS was a perfect trademark for my teaching was it’s nonsensical nature. It is in fact, an oxymoron. The very word Massage means to rub with the hands. To apply for a trademark called NO HANDS in relation to Massage was therefore oxymoronic. Especially as we actually use the hands. Ironically, it is my belief that the only therapists able to use their hands safely are NO HANDS practitioners. Not surprisingly the trademark was passed without too many problems. Less known is the fact that I took out this trademark worldwide. I knew that with the internet my approach would be broadcast worldwide and I had already taught my approach in Ireland and the Far East. So far I have had cause to use this trademark legislation to protect my work no less than twenty times and on one occasion had to actually threaten one of the biggest associations in the UK with legal action before they published an apology and paid me compensation. The word is out there: practitioners and training providers copy the NO HANDS trademark at their own peril. Every month we do a search to locate transgressors – most we hear through the grapevine. With over a thousand NO HANDS practitioners already, I have the best trademark police force in the world! In this way my practitioners and all their clients are safe. Now all therapists and increasing numbers of clients know that NO HANDS is a completely new approach to Massage. An approach that is powerful, effective on every level and safe for both the client and the therapist. Now is exactly the time to use the trademark to build your business. How can this work? (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves The Business of Massage… As I taught more and more students I was forced to open my eyes to the world of business and beauty salons and spas. I came across product houses who actually taught therapists to carry out treatments for the one and only purpose of selling - on their products. Massage wasn’t being used as the great therapy it truly is. Instead, it was simply being used to sell products. Something that had touched my life deeply and transformed the lives of hundreds of my clients was being abused and I was appalled… I also realised that many therapists I was training were investing thousands of pounds trying to brand themselves. How do you think their heroic attempts at branding themselves from scratch compared with the multi-million pound brand product houses? Well what do you think? In truth the vast majority never had a chance – reality: clients looking for safe professional massage will most often go for the big Brand names, not realising that the emphasis is more on the products than on the Massage. What I also realised was this: in promoting my training courses over ten years or more I had actually invested over thirty thousand pounds in photography, top quality professional drawings, graphics and designs! What if I made all of these materials available to all NO HANDS Practitioners so that the most widespread image in relation to Massage became the NO HANDS images and logo? What if we could overwhelm the public with an approach to touch and Massage that was truly healing and deeply holistic? This would surely be better for everyone, practitioners and clients. Wouldn’t it be great to have a brand that would offer the public a chance to learn about touch and the power of self healing that lies within themselves? When this idea first dawned on me I started asking Massage therapists at courses about their reactions to this idea and you know what? I got standing ovations that brought tears to my eyes. And I had not even produced a single item. As a result of this unanimous reaction from my students, focusing on how to help independent massage therapists secure a good client-base and build themselves a decent income has been my sole concern for the last five years. My mission is clear: to educate members of the public to the power of touch to heal their lives so that Massage becomes part of their weekly routine as important as going swimming or jogging. The very latest stage in this has been the introduction of an optional evening business training seminar on every single NO HANDS training course. This is not just any old business training, though – it is training in how to use the NO HANDS brand to compete with the big boys and attract all the local businesses and local clients to your treatment room. (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves Looking into the crystal ball… The NO HANDS vision is simple. In every town and city to have a whole group of Massage therapists promoting their own private independent businesses - all with the same brand posters, images and logos – NO HANDS. The public see NO HANDS everywhere they go – on car stickers, posters the internet in the newspapers and on TV. The public are talking about it to each other in the coffee houses and restaurants in a way they never would if it were just a bunch of similar looking different brands – sometimes they are talking about it because there is a public NO HANDS treatment going on right in front of their noses! These same therapists will be joining together regularly to support and help each other build their clinics with joint promotions and presentations. They also meet up regularly at trainings – these provide great opportunities for new ideas and hearing from other therapists all doing the same thing. Why would they do this? Simple. Because they have seen the scarcity that competition mentality produces and have decided to join the mind set of more successful and established businesses who all understand that only by working together can you generate awareness and success. This is why you find business networks in every locality. In this way, NO HANDS therapists are re-enforcing each other’s business whilst simultaneously benefiting from the marketing activities of all their colleagues, nationwide. Rather like a street full of banks, everyone wins. The public see a safe brand and keep hearing about this NO HANDS and the therapists get the public enquiring all the time about what is this NO HANDS thing? The public will see a highly professional brand looking many times better than all the cheaper individual brands of other independent therapists. For every ten leaflets, posters or cards in a shop window, imagine what it looks like if over half of them are all NO HANDS! As we grow bigger and stronger we are able to afford national advertising campaigns that every NO HANDS therapist in the country can benefit from. We are not there yet, and it is still early days. But… Just one year ago if you entered NO HANDS in Google you got only a handful of finds – mostly my training company web-site. Now there are over 25,000 references to NO HANDS and most of them are for individual therapists. Instead of looking for any old massage therapists (and not many do that actually) people will be queuing up to find their NO HANDS therapist. An important part of the Brand trademark is to separate NO HANDS from conventional massage with the simple truth that it is many times more effective. Remember this is a Brand that has been developed not by a product house but by one of the country’s most successful Massage therapists. And he has only one interest at heart – helping you to build a successful business and training you how to do this for as long as you want without any fear of injury in order that the public get to experience the real healing power of touch . So how does it actually work? I will take you through this in stages that actually summarise the different business trainings we are now offering at every level of NO HANDS. (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves Using The Brand… 1. Transforming Touch Level: The first level of NO HANDS training is the Transforming Touch course. This 3-day training gives you the basic foundations of movement encapsulated in my Seven Postural Principles and gives you a 40-60 minute NO HANDS treatment (the NO HANDS “Back To Basics” treatment) to offer your clients. This has a twofold benefit. Instead of simply diluting your NO HANDS by integrating it into your existing massage it gives you a new treatment with which to kick start your business. It also gives you a treatment to build your skill and competency in NO HANDS. Now on this Transforming Touch training we also give you the following business training: · We provide promotional materials that enable you to reach more members of your local community than you have ever reached before. These consist of letters, cards and fliers and clear step-by-step instructions on how to do this successfully. We show you how to market and present a series of talks to people in your community that gives them a chance to learn about NO HANDS and to experience it. With NO HANDS you really have to feel it in order to understand it. We make available to you presentation materials, notes and hand-outs that enable you to give presentations to potential and existing clients and teach them all the unique treatment protocols of the NO HANDS approach that are necessary for a successful treatment. · · What we have discovered is that members of the public are fascinated by the story of NO HANDS and by the fact that it is totally different from any other form of massage around. This is what is known as a USP – a Unique Selling Point. With NO HANDS you have about twenty USP’s and it has nothing to do with a logo or some little freebie offer – which is what most therapists are forced to resort to in order to distinguish themselves from everyone else. By looking the same as each other, all NO HANDS therapists are reinforcing the USP that you will each trade off independently! This presentation is a proven hit and converts to bookings easily. We teach you how to do this in teams and how to identify the most successful team for your promotional activities. This means that each member of the team works to their strengths and does not need to have all the skills themselves. Some will be natural presenters, others natural organisers and yet others will be natural conversationalists. One of the main reasons so many therapists are struggling to build a successful practice is that they are often trying to do it all on their own. Very few people have all the gifts necessary for success. 2. The NO HANDS registered PRACTITIONER level: The next level in NO HANDS is the 4-day PRACTITIONER training. At this course we teach you FOUR new treatments. This consists of three thirty minute treatments: · · · The NO HANDS® Back Massage The NO HANDS® Foot Massage The NO HANDS® Head, Face and Shoulders Massage and one full hour treatment: (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves · The NO HANDS® Full Body Massage Once you have completed both Transforming Touch and PRACTITIONER trainings you have trained for over a week with me personally and I am happy to endorse you fully by registering you to use the Brand trademark. At Transforming Touch I will only endorse the single treatment you can offer – the “Back To Basics” treatment. I will not allow you to describe yourself as a NO HANDS practitioner. That is only reserved for those who complete this PRACTTIONER level. The business training at this level steps everything up a notch. It gives you yet another talk to continue holding the interest of your existing clients and to increase the attraction to people who have not yet met you. · We provide notes on show you and how to introduce and explain these four treatments and also how Massage works and why it is so powerful. · We also show you how to explain why it is the least understood and yet most scientifically tested of all complimentary therapies and provide you with the back up information sheets to hand out. · As well as this we explain how you can now build the brand with a whole range of our association products from web sites to posters and car stickers to leaflets – all for just a fraction of the cost it would be for you to do these to the same professional standards yourself. · We also explain how you can use the internet to build you massage business. · We make available a whole raft of materials to convert these interested people into actual bookings in your treatment room. 3. The NO HANDS ADVANCED PRACTITIONER level: At the ADVANCED level training course (4 days) we teach you how to: · · · Give a NO HANDS colon treatment Do highly effective structural work Work directly on the client’s nervous system On this course we also teach you some of the deepest secrets to powerful touch which will effect everything you do. We do this here because now you have done enough to understand them and actually master them. The business training at this level takes you to even further heights… Here we teach you how to spread your marketing net even further into the region using the media and we also teach you how to set up a clinic management system that keeps your existing clients coming back to you again and again. We also teach you yet another talk, this time on maintaining your health through the colon and we give you five simple ways to get across the whole idea of holism in a way that is more than paying lip service to this powerful concept. The people who attend this talk will always think of you when they make profound changes in their lives and it is this attachment that is the key to your long term success. (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves 4. The NO HANDS Chair/Reflex level: On this 4-day course you are taught how to provide: · · · NO HANDS Reflex treatment NO HANDS Chair + clothed Massage NO HANDS Detox treatment The next level of business training teaches you how to take your touch out into the community and into the corporate world and the world of public services. Whether it be blue chip or hospital, recycling companies, trucking companies or charities, you will be taught how to go out there and impress. Here we teach you how to become ambassadors of touch in a touch starved world. In this we build on everything you have done before and the confidence you have built up during the year. You are also taught how to give a talk about the Reflexes and about the importance of detoxification and how to promote yourself with our uniquely gentle but powerful NO HANDS Detox treatment. You are also taught how to earn money from your growing NO HANDS expertise by creating work for other less experienced NO HANDS practitioners than yourself. We begin to train you how to become a NO HANDS leader. 5. By The End of One Year… By the end of just one year you have learned NINE new treatments as well as learning powerful structural and nervous system work and you should have paid off all your training costs ten times over. You should have a secure clinical business and be on the way to building a solid income base for yourself. It is my aim that if you wish to continue your journey with me through my MASTERY programme you can easily afford both the time and money to do this. In addition to this you have built an enormous Brand awareness of NO HANDS so that the whole association can go to the next level – the national level. At each stage materials and training have been made available to you either for free or at a fraction of the cost it would take to prepare them yourself –not to mention saving you all the time and money needed to prepare them, try them out, learn and revise them. The business approach outlined above is already well tried and tested. A unique approach… The beauty of this approach is that you do it in your own time and in your own way. No one actually tells you what to do with each client. You are the boss. You are an independent therapist and this approach is designed to protect that quality in you, whilst at the same time providing you with all the support you would get as part of a big brand house – promotional materials, customer services and supervisory support. You are still solely responsible for what you do with your clients. (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves Everything about NO HANDS is an invitation. We will simply show you what we think works and offer you everything we can to support you. What we already know works, is to totally immerse yourself in all the above until you have a successful practice. Yes, you can do it slowly, but it will take three or four times longer and be ten times harder to achieve the success you want if you choose to do it that way. If you want to have a successful practice, one that has just the right number of clients for you, then here is how you do it. You do it by using our Brand… to build YOUR practice. (c) 2007 Gerry Pyves