Ep 426 - “ 5 Words to Inspire Any Practitioner with Kristin Coverly

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0:01:56.8 KC: Hello, and welcome to the ABMP podcast. I'm Kristin Coverly, practicing massage therapist, educator, and director of professional education for ABMP, where I am in the incredibly lucky position to create CE courses and events for massage therapists. Speaking of events, all of my guests today are CE providers that I work with to create courses for the ABMP Education Center. And the three of my guests are instructors at the upcoming ABMP CE Summit Headaches. It's an online event, Tuesday, April 30th, free for everyone in the profession, including three hours of CE credit. Hope you can join us. Learn more and register at abmp.com/summit. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do for this podcast, of course, I had a lot of ideas, millions of ideas. And I was having a really hard time choosing just one. And so I decided I wanted to create what I'm calling the compl pod, because it's a compilation of answers from several different leaders in our profession.

 

0:02:57.1 KC: Same question, different answers. So then of course, I had to figure out, well, what was I asking? What's the question? And I had to narrow that down from an infinite number of possibilities to just one. And as I was sort of deep in the woods, trying to hone in on that one question, I remembered something I used to do with my students when I was teaching ABMP's business and marketing workshops across the country. They're called BizFit Live. When I was creating the content for those workshops, I happened to have a Snapple tea. And on the underside of the cap, where they always have fun little tidbits, there was a five word description someone had written of themselves. I ended up getting a lot of different caps, and I could only really remember one of them. And it was rebellious teen now raising one, which I thought was fantastic. And those caps actually inspired me to do an activity with my workshop attendees.

 

0:03:51.9 KC: And I had them write five word mission statements for their practices. And so all of that coming full circle, remembering that experience inspired me to choose my question for my podcast guest today, which is, what five word piece of advice do you have for practitioners? I don't know about you, but I am always curious about what people who've been through the ups and downs of professional and personal experiences have to say to guide others as we're all on this journey together. So I always wanna know, like, looking back, what piece of advice, if you take everything that you've been through, what advice do you have for others? So curious about that. And then, of course, I had to ask a little bonus question of what are you reading? Because I'm always curious about that too. My first guests are Ann and Lynn Teachworth, educators, practitioners, and owners of the CE provider, Trunamics. Hi, Ann and Lynn. Thanks so much for being on my compl pod here on the ABMP podcast.

 

0:04:55.1 Ann: Hi. Thanks so much for having us.

 

0:04:56.8 Lynn: Great to be here.

 

0:04:58.3 KC: Lynn, let's jump right in. What is your five word piece of advice for practitioners? 

 

0:05:03.9 Lynn: Well, after thinking about this a lot 'cause, you know, I have a lot of words, but I would say always keep learning and seek mastery.

 

0:05:16.2 KC: Oh, I love that. Can you tell me how how did that bubble up from all the options? What really stood out about that for you? What's that life lesson? 

 

0:05:21.9 Lynn: I don't know. I guess after being a therapist for 33 years, you know, and teaching all over the world and mentoring a lot of advanced practitioners and young people, I think the ones that that really make it through and really become successful never stop learning. And they're trying to master their craft. And, mastering takes years. But I think the learning is the key thing. And it's, a lot of people will just say, oh, I do neuromuscular therapy or I do myofascial release or do this thing. And they tend to get caught up in one ideology or have one bucket and one tool. And I think that's important, but after two or three years, you kind of master that.

 

0:06:01.6 Lynn: There's so many different ways to look at addressing the body. But, of course, I'm coming from a therapeutic background, not a relaxation, type spa type thing, which I think is important. But at the end of the day, if you want to be a successful practitioner, you have to get results, and I think learning and getting different opinions, right, 'cause there's so many great teachers and great philosophies out there. It's I can't imagine doing one or two and then like, Okay, that's what I do. It's we're out there to serve people to help get them better. And it's kind of unethical if you don't continue to to learn and then to master and just keep throwing it in every day and working and doing your best.

 

0:06:43.4 KC: Ann, how about you? What's your five word piece of advice for practitioners? 

 

0:06:48.2 Ann: Sure, so mine's kind of a way of being in practice, but also in learning and in life. So stay humble, curious and confident.

 

0:06:57.9 KC: Oh, I love that. And how did you boil everything down to those five words? What stood out to you about that? 

 

0:07:06.0 Ann: Well, I think humility, because as soon as you think you know everything you need to know, you will be flummoxed. And if you are feeling like you have all the answers, then you just end up kind of banging your head against the wall and working against the body in front of you. So humility, really important. And then that leads to the curiosity, which is really in line with what Lynn was saying, like always learning, always seeking, seeking mastery. So curiosity in general in life, but even in a session on the table, not going in with, I know exactly what this person needs because of what they said on their intake or what I saw in them last time. But I'm gonna be curious about what the body has to show me today on the table and what arises. And as I do one thing that might make something else shift or something else possible. So even throughout a session, having that humble curiosity, but then at the same time, confidence, right? Like we do have great education and great background and all of the experience.

 

0:08:05.6 Ann: And we have an hour to spend with people. And we have an opportunity to work with their whole body, whole being. And that's more than a lot of other healthcare professionals are gonna be able to do with them. And so to be confident that we have an opportunity to make a big difference for them and to really produce results and to shift the things that are important to them and to help them address their goals. And so to own that, yeah, we can provide that. And I think when we balance that with the humility and the curiosity, it is a recipe for success.

 

0:08:40.0 KC: Always keep learning, seek mastery, and stay humble, curious, and confident, both incredible and fantastic. What really resonates with me about both of those is how applicable they are to both our professional and our personal lives. Like we can really take those in a lot of different deep layers in both professional and personal ways. So I hope you gotta good spark of information for one or both of their pieces of advice. I asked the same question to Dr. Joy Edwards, a massage therapist, physical therapist, silicone cupping expert, and owner of the CE provider, Alchemy Education. Hi, Dr. Joy. Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast.

 

0:09:24.7 Dr. Joy: Hey C, thank you so much for having me.

 

0:09:27.4 KC: I'm so excited to hear your advice for practitioners and I know our listeners are as well. So let us know what's your five word piece of advice for practitioners.

 

0:09:37.2 DJ: Okay. So I gave it a lot of thought, honestly, and the biggest thing for me, my piece of advice is don't be rigid in thought.

 

0:09:50.5 KC: Oh, I love that. And I feel like there are lots of layers to that. Tell us a little bit more about it.

 

0:09:58.2 DJ: So I've been in massage and healthcare and physical therapy for a very long time and I love the environment. I am, I'm a cupper. I use cupping as my modality of choice. I have come across some therapists that are so rigid in thought that may have never tried cupping, may have never experienced cupping, that it's not just that it doesn't resonate with them, but it actually turns into almost a negative commentary and energy around it. I've had people email me and say just outright mean things, honestly. And it's not just me. I see it across the board with other modalities, with other techniques. I mean, just color choice, just anything that may be different from another is deemed negative. And I think having an open mind is having an open heart.

 

0:10:47.5 KC: I love that. Having an open mind is having an open heart. And that will serve because we need to, as humans, keep growing and expanding, right? 

 

0:10:55.0 DJ: Definitely, definitely. And even that, you say, you know, growing and expanding. Healthcare massage changes every few years. And so what may have been a gold standard five years ago, maybe now has changed. And so some people are stuck in that, well, this was it, and this is it. And there's nothing else that they'll entertain. But again, even if it doesn't resonate with you, just having that mutual respect and saying, oh, wow, well, that's cool. But shutting it down and then, like I said, going further and creating that negative talk around it does nothing for us, I think, as a group. And I think, as always, I go back to the same thing. We're stronger together. We're better together.

 

0:11:35.4 KC: Don't be rigid in thought. Did Dr. Joy's advice spark anything for you? I'm wondering, can you think of areas of your life where you're being rigid in thought or action? After I heard her answer, I know I really started to think that way too. Like, can I identify any areas where I am being rigid? And can I be more flexible? Can I let go of that rigidity? So good to think about that. Next up is Doug Nelson, educator, practitioner, owner of the 22 Therapist Clinic Bodywork Associates, and owner of the CE provider Precision Neuromuscular Therapy. Hi, Doug. Thank you so much for joining us for our compl pod today.

 

0:12:16.8 Doug Nelson: This will be fun. This is a really fun exploration. So I'm thrilled to do this.

 

0:12:20.8 KC: Well, thank you. And I'm thrilled to hear what your five-word piece of advice is for practitioners.

 

0:12:29.7 DN: Cultivate endless curiosity and wonder.

 

0:12:32.6 KC: Oh, I love that. There is a lot to unpack in there. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you came to those five words? How are they important to you? 

 

0:12:43.3 DN: So the first word, cultivate. You know, I grew up on a farm. And obviously, to cultivate something, it's not like, you know, you sit in your chair and then watch what happens in the field. To cultivate is to think carefully, thoughtfully, and develop, right, the thing you want to come to fruition. And so for this, you know, for those attributes that I was hoping for, it is something that is, this is not a passive thing. To cultivate is to develop, to intentionally work on your craft, to bring the skill sets, to recognize the skill sets necessary to make something happen. And so, you know, when I was thinking about some of the other words, I kept struggling with, yes, but what is that word that represents that process? And it really is a process. And so it's really fun. Somehow that word came to mind. And yeah, it's funny, Kristin, when you have that thing that like resonates that you say, yes, this is what I was after. This one word represents the thing I was hoping for. And so cultivate is important to me.

 

0:13:51.2 DN: And then the second word, endless, the process of learning and discovery, the process of development is an endless thing, just like that field, right, which is, this is not a one year thing. And you can't think in terms of that without any time constraint, that learning is an unfolding process. So this lifelong learning process, certainly for me, as I look back over the years, how much things in my own understanding that depth has endlessly changed. So that's fun. Curiosity. I was thinking about that this morning, why that word was so important to me. And you are not curious. I am not curious about the things I think I understand. Why would I be? I'm only curious about things that I realized, I don't understand this. And unfortunately, in my life, and in so many ways, the things that have tripped me up are things that I thought I understood, but really didn't. And there's a quote from Einstein, the things that that which holds us back isn't what we don't know, it's what we think we know. Curiosity, then the assumed next step is discovery.

 

0:15:10.1 DN: If you find out there's stuff you don't know, then the invitation is right there laying for you. Once you find out you don't know, then the open door is, well, then go through that to discover a world that was previously unknown to you. And the last word is wonder. A person comes to mind when I think of this, he is an amazing scientist. I have many examples, but I'm thinking of one person in particular. And he is an amazing scientist at the University of Illinois. Students just clamor to be in his classroom. And it's a hard thing to be able to get in. It's because he's like a little child. His childlike sense of wonder is just infectious. And this is a person who is unbelievable in his field and is making, I mean, I really think he's destined for a Nobel. And yet it's childlike in his sense of, isn't this amazing and stuff that he doesn't understand and the discoveries he's made that really will affect society in a big way. And now that I say his name in my mind, I think, well, yes, but there's also, and there's also all of these people who are just really celebrated in their field. When you spend time with them, you get that awe, that sense of awe and wonder about the world. And it's just such a delight to be around people who are like that.

 

0:16:46.1 KC: Cultivate endless curiosity and wonder. I'm curious, does it inspire you to ask yourself, am I currently cultivating endless curiosity and wonder in my life and practice? Like, can I genuinely say, yes, I am. That is something really interesting to think about. And if not, the answer is no. How can we do more of that? How can we start thinking that way? Cultivate endless curiosity and wonder. Let's take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors.

 

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0:18:00.1 KC: Let's get back to our conversation. And what's my five-word piece of advice for practitioners? Well, I'll be honest, my original answer had a lot of overlap with my guest's advice. So I pivoted and came up with another one. It's so easy to do. There are a million different things we can say, right? But this one also really resonates with me. Proactively evaluate and shift competently. Let's break that down a little bit. So proactively evaluate. Something I often say is that life and practices can sort of be created by default, right? So do they have their own momentum and you say you start your practice and then you just start, you know, getting referrals from clients of their friends and family and coworkers and your practice builds and that's great, but it kind of builds by default. So maybe all of a sudden you find yourself doing a lot of sports massage and you think to yourself, well, that's interesting because when I started my practice, I thought I was gonna have a focus in prenatal massage. What happened, right? So if you don't proactively hit the pause button and kind of make yourself take a good look at your practice from time to time, really evaluate it, you might end up with a practice that's not really bringing you joy or not challenging you or it's just not what you hoped for and dreamed for.

 

0:19:10.0 KC: And so it can be really hard to take that time because we're so busy, but it's so important to take that time to pause, take a good look, and then evaluate, right? Think to yourself, what do I wanna keep? What do I wanna completely let go of? And what do I want to change? That's so important to take that time. I always say, schedule your own little corporate retreat, even though you're not a, you know, hundred person company, you were your own practice, you deserve a retreat, you deserve a time and space to pause and really just be focused on your practice. So give yourself a little bit of a retreat. That's the evaluating part of the advice. Now let's move on to the doing. Shift confidently. I use the word shift here really thoughtfully because we want the changes we make and that we plan to be doable and not overwhelming.

 

0:20:07.9 KC: So even if the ultimate goal is an overhaul, we achieve an overhaul still one step at a time. And often we don't really even need an overhaul. Just making a small shift in our focus intentions and actions can really bring the change that we need. At the beginning of every year, I choose a word or a phrase to set the tone for the year and keep me on track, sort of act as my North star. This year's phrase for me is vibrant shifts. So I'm trying to always be aware. What small changes can I make? How can I shift direction to make my life feel more vibrant, more joyful. And what's great about shifts and that word shifts and thinking about it in that way is that it feels very doable.

 

0:20:54.3 KC: And even a small shift can have a really big impact. So I know sometimes people feel like, well, I wanna make this huge change, but that just feels so overwhelming. Bring it down, boil it down. What are the small shifts, small changes you can do to get in the right direction or have that big impact? For the last word in my advice, I was debating between confidently and fearlessly, but honestly, you know what, for most of us, there's an element of fear anytime we make change. So it's really not to me about being fearless because the fear will be there, but it's about confidently making the necessary shifts and changes even when fear is present. So that I think can be the challenge, right? Sometime is recognizing the fear and doing it anyway.

 

0:21:41.0 KC: And that's important that we keep moving. We keep shifting. We keep changing. So again, my piece of advice for you, my fellow practitioners, proactively evaluate and shift confidently. Okay. So I hope at this point in the pod, you're feeling inspired and you're starting to think of your own five word piece of advice. It's really fun to think about, isn't it? And so there's been a lot of great information already from my guests, but wait, there's more. Let's find out what everybody's reading. And I hope you get some inspiration from that too. Ann, what are you reading right now? 

 

0:22:19.0 Ann: I am always in the middle of a bunch of books, some of which I finished, some of which I don't, but one that I'm really loving that I think is relevant for our audience is Functional Anatomy of Movement by James Earls. This book is, it gets all of my soapbox rants about the way anatomy and function are taught. And he writes in such a fun way and it's really applicable, understandable. And I mean, maybe it's just me being a nerd, but I read it over breakfast and I'm like smiled and smiling and delighted at everything. So James Earl's Functional Anatomy of Movement.

 

0:23:00.9 KC: Lynn, what are you reading? 

 

0:23:02.5 Lynn: Mine is not really massage related right now. I'm reading a book called Strength to Strength because I love economics. I love philosophy, right? 'cause our world's changing so fast that it's interesting to just see how countries are doing and things are going and all of that. But this book is really about stages of life, right? I'm 55, I'm kind of over the hill and on my downward trajectory. And not say, I'm moving more from like, hey, I can't bang out 50 hours a week anymore, I'm down to like 30. But moving into that serving mentoring role, at that point where I go, okay, I'm not as concerned with money and fame and all the fun things and material things you get there or whatever. But it's for me, it really realized like, oh, this is how I wanna do the second part of life and have my skills in that area go up, where I can really serve people and really know myself better about what makes me tick and how I can keep in the profession and keep giving back, but also keep making a living and understanding what that looks like at this stage of life. So it's really opening up a lot of things for me and understanding my past and present motivations, you know? So it's a great growth book for that stage of life.

 

0:24:14.8 KC: Dr. Joy, what are you reading? 

 

0:24:20.6 DJ: So I am reading now, the Book of Joy, the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's just about creating joy, J-O-Y, not J-O-I, in case you were wondering. Creating joy in any circumstance and in any environment and just taking a step back sometimes from things and looking at it with a wider perspective, a wider angle and being able to create joy out of that moment, even if it may be not the best moment, but learning to create joy in any environment goes a long way. And it's just, it's opened my eyes, man. And it's a wonderful book by, of course, two amazing humans.

 

0:24:58.7 KC: Doug, what are you reading right now? 

 

0:25:00.1 DN: I just finished a book called, I think it was, I gave it away. So like, oh gosh, I can't remember the title, but I think it was called Enlightened Minds. And it was about Voltaire, the philosopher, Voltaire and his female companion, although she was married to somebody else. That's a really interesting story in itself. Her name was Emily Duchelet and just their constant exploration. I love the Age of Enlightenment just for all those same reasons. And I love to read about some of those founding philosophies. So that was the book I just finished.

 

0:25:38.0 KC: And what am I reading? I'll tell you about two things. First, as part of my watercolor painting journey, I'm reading A Field Guide to Color by Lisa Solomon. It's a beautiful study in color, color theory and techniques, and it's a workbook. So it's fun to play and apply the knowledge immediately as I'm learning. Secondly, I've started A New Habit in the Mornings. I read a short chapter from one of Tim Ferriss's books, either Tribe of Mentors or Tool of Titans. They highlight the habits, behaviors and advice from people who are successful in their own fields. And some of the names are big and you'd recognize them, but many you won't.

 

0:26:16.2 KC: They are just individuals out there doing what they love and really finding a way to succeed at their passion. And every time I read a chapter, they're just a couple of pages, they're short, very doable. There's always at least one nugget that resonates with me. And it's a great way to start my day with a little shot of inspiration. And I hope this compl pod has been a shot of inspiration for you. Please share your five word piece of advice for practitioners with me. And let me know what you thought of the podcast by emailing me at ce, for continuing education, ce@abmp.com. Thank you so much for listening and have a beautiful day.