Massage Therapy News and Events!

Greetings Massage Marketers!

February 14th is less than 2 weeks away and beyond organizing some special valetine’s surprises for your significant other, it is time now to START SELLING YOUR MASSAGE GIFT VOUCHERS (if you haven’t already)!

Valentine’s Day is the absolute best time of year to sell your massage Gift Vouchers both to your existing clients (for their partners) and also to the general public.

Why? Because a massage is the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day and studies have shown that people who will probably never book in for a massage themselves, will in fact buy a massage Gift Voucher for their partner.

So this post is a timely / friendly reminder to you all to start promoting your Valentine’s Day Gift Vouchers A.S.A.P!

Here’s a few suggestions to get you started…

You can start by making up a sign and displaying your beautiful Gift voucher and envelope in a small basket of rose petals in your massage room or waiting area, clearly where your clients can see it.

You can also let your clients know that you have them available, at the end of their treatment, before they pay you.

If you have a massage newsletter about to go out, you should definitely announce your Valentine’s Gift vouchers and specials in there.

NOTE: If you don’t yet publish your own massage newsletter, you are missing out on what is probably the most effective way to keep your clients coming back again and again.

For more information see my post at:

Massage Marketing Newsletter

If you have an email list of your clients, you should definitely write up a nice friendly email and tell / remind your clients that about your Valentine’s Day gift vouchers that way. It’s fast and it’s free!

This strategy works brilliantly if you are also set up to sell your massage Gift Vouchers automatically online.

For those of you that are a little more Internet savvy or know someone who can help you, Gift Vouchers for massage treatments (and the like) sell like hot cakes on eBay, especially just before Valentines Day!!!

For those of you who want to sell a lot of Gift Vouchers (perhaps if you have a larger massage/spa business), you could approach other local businesses to sell your Valentine’s Day Gift Vouchers on your behalf for a commission - say 10-15% of the sales price.

This kind of ‘Joint Venture’ marketing can be extremely effective and is great for building solid ’supportive’ relationships with other ‘non-competing’ local businesses.

If you are worried about this eating into your profit, then simply increase the sales price by the amount of the commission.

When you have someone out there ‘endorsing’ you (i.e. saying your massage is amazing) people will be happy to pay more to have a treatment with you.

In fact they would more or less just assume that this is your normal price.

Off the top of my head, here are some possible partners that may be interested in selling your Gift Vouchers.

Card Shops
Newsagents
The Body Shop
Hairdressers
Gift Shops
Nail Technicians
Real Estate Agents (They could buy them as gifts for their clients)
Chemists/Pharmacies
Health Stores (i.e. Mrs Flannerys)
Gyms
Cosmetic Surgeries/Plastic Surgeons
Yoga Schools
Naturopaths
Juice Bars
…and the list of possibilities goes on!

NOTE: Be aware that many businesses may already supply a massage service or represent someone who does, so be sensitive and considerate in your approach. If you don’t ask though, you won’t get, so don’t be shy!

A general caution when it comes to selling Gift Vouchers…

“Gift Vouchers bring in tomorrow’s money. So be careful how you manage this money. You haven’t earned it yet!”

The last thing you want to do is to spend this money carelessly in advance and then have 3 weeks straight of little or no cashflow because some happy little ‘Valentines’ with Gift Vouchers in hand have suddenly filled up your appointment book.

Tania and I had a couple of close calls with this when we were first starting out, so we can speak from experience. Make sure you allocate that money carefully!

Anyway, if you don’t yet have a nice, warm, professional looking Gift Voucher for your Valentine’s Day promotions, don’t worry, I’ve just created a basic (yet beautiful) one for you below.

All you need to do is edit the business name, address and phone number in the lower left hand side of the Gift Voucher.

Just open the file in Microsoft Word, click on that section (there’s a text box there) and type in your details.

Then hit save and either print them out yourself on some thick paper or card, or for best results burn the file to a disc and take it to your local print shop.

If you decide to take it to a print shop, you will need to convert the Word Document to PDF. Print shops hate Microsoft Word because the formatting of a Word Document can change very easily and they generally dislike working with that program because of the need to reformat a lot of the time.

When you convert a file to PDF, that format is ‘universal’ and what you see is what you get. If you don’t have PDF converting software, such as Adobe Acrobat, here’s a free online service you can use to convert your Gift Vouchers to PDF:

https://www.pdfonline.com/convert_pdf.asp

NOTE: If you’re not too computer savvy and you’d like me to customize the Gift Voucher for you and convert it to PDF so that it is Print Shop ready, I’d be happy to do it for you for a small fee of $20. I’ll then email you the finished PDF as an attachment and also send you a copy on disc.

If you’d like me to do this for you, just send me an email and give me your details. Otherwise, if you know your way around Microsoft Word, feel free to customize the Gift Voucher, however you like.

Anyway, here’s the download link to your free Valentine’s Day Gift Certificate:

Valentines Day Massage Gift Certificate

Please enjoy with my compliments and all the best with those Gift Voucher sales.

Remember, time is ticking so make the most of this once a year opportunity!!!

Mahalo

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - If you use my Gift Voucher, be sure to let me know how many you sell. I love to hear how you guys are doing!

P.P.S - If you already have a Gift Voucher that you’re using, one way to make it more ‘Valentiny’ (if there is such a word) is to purchase some nice little heart, Cupid or rose stickers from your local newsagent or Officeworks and just stick them onto your regular Gift Voucher and or envelope.

NOTE: Always, always provide an envelope with your Gift Vouchers. You want it looking beautiful and professional when it is opened, not marked or ‘dog eared’ because it’s been floating around the car or your handbag unprotected.

Surprisingly, I have bought several Gift Vouchers over the last few years and I did not receive them in an envelope. I remember thinking to myself how ‘cheap’ and ’unprofessional’ that was.

Remember, it’s often the ‘little things’ that set apart the ‘ordinary’ from the ‘excellent’…so why not be EXCELLENT!!!

Speaking of envelopes, bright red ones for your Valentines Day Gift Vouchers would be a nice, warm touch (red is the colour of ‘passion’ afterall).

P.P.P.S - Here’s a bonus tip!

You will sell A LOT more Gift Vouchers if you put together a ’special package’ for Valentines Day.

So if you have skills in addition to your regular massage for example, Lomi Lomi, Hot Stone Massage, Spa Body Treatments or beauty therapy (nothing painful though like waxing), then put together an ‘irresistable’ package that you yourself would like to receive.

Also, if you can make the numbers work, perhaps you can include a glass of champagne with a couple of ‘chocolate-dipped’ strawberries (YUM!). Or, if you’re set up for it, perhaps you could create a special Valentine’s Day package for ‘couples’.

You could easily charge a ‘premium’ price for this and people will pay it as they buy with their ‘heart’ and not with their head, especially at this time of year!

The secret is to focus on selling the benefits that the Gift Voucher ‘buyer’ will receive (as opposed to the actual ‘recipient’) i.e. convenience (no need to go shopping which is a great incentive for a lot of men!) and how much their partner will love and appreciate them for organizing such a caring and thoughtful gift!

Anyway, I hope that wets your appetite and gets some ideas flowing. I wish you much success with your Valentines Day promotions!

Hot Stone Massage - It’s no secret that Hot Stone Massage has become very popular among massage clients throughout the world, due to the many health and wellness benefits that this powerful treatment can provide.

However, what about the Hot Stone Massage practitioner? Do they recieve any benefits in offering this ancient modality to their clients?

Absolutely! In fact, here are 3 powerful benefits that the Hot Stone Massage practitioner enjoys…

1) Greater Leverage

Firstly the permeating heat from the stones acts as a powerful muscle relaxant as layers of stress and tension are literally melted away. This ‘tension-melting’, deeply relaxing heat, along with the fact that the stones are used as massaging ‘tools’, provides the Hot Stone Massage practitioner with massive leverage.

In fact, it is possible to perform a much deeper, more potent massage treatment using hot stones than you could ever do with just your hands and fingers.

This fact will no doubt appeal to those Massage Therapists whose hands and fingers are already tired and stressed.

2) Increased Income
‘
Without a doubt Hot Stone Massage is considered a ‘premium’ massage treatment and clients are prepared to pay a premium price, around 30-40% more actually. This means that you can potentially earn more money for your time.

If you are not working for yourself but rather for a Spa, clinic or salon, having Hot Stone Massage under your belt will put you in a strong position to negotiate a higher rate for your services.

Afterall, if you’re adding value to a business by offering a premium treatment, it’s only fair (and right) that you as the Hot Stone Massage practitioner be paid a premium price for your time, energy and your ‘expertise’.

3) More Attractive

Now I’m not saying that by practicing Hot Stone Massage you’ll become more attractive in the physical sense, but rather in the ‘marketing’ sense.

Hot Stone Massage is a very popular treatment and this is not going to change any time soon. However, only a fraction of all Massage Therapists actually offer this treatment.

So just by having Hot Stone Massage on your treatment menu and more importantly promoting it in your marketing, you will more easily stand out from the ‘massaging crowd’ and potentially attract new clients more easily.

When you consider just these 3 core benefits (there are several more), Hot Stone Massage is a valuable skill for all Massage Therapists to have. However, just as Hot Stone Massage treatments vary greatly from practitioner to practitioner, Hot Stone Massage training courses vary greatly from school to school.

If you want to learn a thorough, complete and totally amazing Hot Stone Massage treatment that has actually ‘proven’ to be very effective and very popular in Australia’s top Spas, then I invite you to take a closer look at our Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy course.

You can learn all about this fun, intensive and empowering Hot Stone Massage course at:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/hot-stone-massage/

Thanks for reading. More informative posts to come!

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - Our April Pohaku Hawaiian Stone Therapy course is now fully booked with a waiting list and we are now taking bookings for May.

As at the time of writing, there are just 4 places left. Want to ‘get away’ for a few days and join us? Just send us an email or give us a call on (07) 5531 0178.

Music Performed by Keali’i Reichel. Click here to learn more about this superb Hawaiian artist and his ’soul-soothing’ music!

Aloha Friends!

Tania and I have just updated our Lomi Lomi massage demo video.

It’s now almost 4 minutes long and contains a lot more of the techniques that we teach on our Lomi Lomi courses.

Notice the beautiful, continual flow of Tania’s movements. This constant flowing motion is almost impossible to follow when you are on the table receiving it, and within a short time your mind just ‘lets go’ and you start to drift into deep levels of relaxation.

This ‘flow’ is what separates Lomi Lomi from many other massage therapy modalities that tend to focus on one part of the body at any given time. That and of course the ‘Aloha’ (love) that is being passed on from the Lomi Lomi practitioner to the recipient.

If you’ve ever experienced more than one Lomi Lomi massage, you may have noticed that they are never exactly the same. This is because the Lomi Lomi practitioner is taught to ‘read the body’ and ‘listen’ to what it needs, as opposed to just performing a ‘routine’.

In fact, one of our Lomi Lomi teachers in Hawaii sums this up well by saying that as the Lomi Lomi practitioner, you are the ‘dancer’ and the body of the recipient is the ‘choreographer’.

I really like this analogy as it keeps you in the mindset/spirit of working ‘with’ your clients as opposed to working ‘on’ them.

Afterall, as massage therapy practitioners we are really ‘faciliators of healing’ and not actually ‘doing’ the healing itself.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this new Lomi Lomi massage demo. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have or make comments below.

Mahalo and enjoy the rest of your day!

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - Our first Lomi Lomi Foundation Course commencing in March here on the Gold Coast is almost fully booked!

If you’d like to join us for an amazing 6 days of fun, intensive learning, lots of rejuvenating lomi lomi massage and leave feeling inspired and empowered about your massage career, please send us an email or give us a call on (07) 5531 0178 to secure your place!

To learn more about the Lomi Lomi course please go to our webpage at:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/lomi-lomi/

 

The single most important thing you can do as a ‘marketer of massage’ is to grow and nurture your list of leads and clients.

The second most important thing you should do is to continually ‘follow up’ and build a relationship with your lists via your own monthly massage newsletter.

Here’s why a publishing a regular massage newsletter is so important…

1) It gives you the ability to build trust and credibility with both your leads and your existing clients.

2) It positions you as an ‘expert’ in your field.

3) It gives you a way to promote special offers to your clients that ‘call’ them into your practice, when times are slow.

4) It gives you a way to promote/sell other related products and/or services - a way to make an alternative income stream besides massage.

5) It gives you the perfect vehicle to ‘educate’ your leads and clients about the specific ways that regular massage with YOU can benefit THEM.

Plus, statistics have shown that it can take as many 7 contacts from you or 7 exposures to your marketing, before you are able to convert a ‘Lead’ into a ‘Client’.

A newsletter is the most effective way to make regular contact without feeling like you are ‘intruding’.

For those of you who don’t yet publish a newsletter for your leads and clients, it must sound like a daunting task. But the truth is, it doesn’t have to be. It can be very basic and still be very effective.

Remember, the main purpose of a newsletter is for making regular contact with our leads and clients and building a relationship with them by providing them with helpful information and at the same time making them special offers that bring them into our massage practice.

Here’s what a basic newsletter should consist of:

1) A warm, welcoming introduction. 
2) 1 or 2 short ‘content-rich’ articles with valuable health and wellbeing ‘tips’.
3) A couple of testimonials.
4) 1 or 2 promotional offers.
5) A warm conclusion that basically finishes with,

“Thanks for your support and I look forward to seeing you soon!”

That’s really all you need. Don’t worry, once you’ve read through this post, you’ll see how easy I’ve made it for you to publish your very own monthly massage newsletter.

——————————————————————————————————————
IMPORTANT NOTICE
For years I have been a big advocate of ‘e-newsletters’ as opposed to ‘printed newsletters’, however I have recently changed my view on this completely!
——————————————————————————————————————-

Here’s why…the lack of ‘ DELIVERABILITY!’

The spam filters of all the major email service providers have become extremely strict due to the proliferation of unsolicited/uninvited email (i.e. spam) by unscrupulous ’spammers’.What this means is that many legitimate and ‘expected’ emails are either being blocked outright or put straight into junk mail folders, where they are highly unlikely to be seen, let alone opened and read.

So, for all the benefits of sending your newsletter via email (i.e. fast, free, convenient etc) these benefits are greatly diminished if a large percentage of your emails aren’t actually getting through. So you may think that your 100 subscribers (or whatever number you have) are getting your newsletter, but in reality it’s probably much less!

Unless you are able to track your emails, you would have absolutely no idea that this is occurring, but I bet you’ve noticed that the response to your emails is not as strong as it was before. That should give you a clue right there.

So how bad is this problem of ‘deliverability’?

Well in addition to running Touch Of Aloha, I usually have several different online projects going, and I have a different email list for each.

Over the last several months I have been paying close attention to my email stats as I track every single large emailing that I do, especially my e-newsletters.

What I have noticed is that only about 65% of my emails are getting through to my subscriber’s email accounts (the rest are blocked) and of this 65% only 50% are actually being opened.

I would guess that a large portion of the 15% that were unopened were actually delivered straight into the junk mail folder but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Early last year my email stats were all up in the 90% range and higher. So you can see that there has been a considerable drop since then.

In fact only half of all my emails are potentially being read, and I’m not the only one who is experiencing this. Several of my friends who are very experienced Internet Marketers are also experiencing similar results (or lack there of) with their email newsletters and other promotions.

The crazy thing is, everyone on my email lists are ‘double opt-in’ which means they first filled in a form on one of my websites and then they clicked on a confirmation link in an email that was sent to them, making sure that I had their permission to email them.

What’s sad is that it’s only going to get worse as spam filters get even stricter, particularly if you send attachments with your emails, which I know many of you do. I’ve received half a dozen e-newsletters from Touch Of Aloha graduates this week (please feel free to include me on your mailing lists by the way) and all were sent as attachments and all were delivered straight into my ‘junk mail’ folder.

Now I always check my junk mail folder for legitimate emails, but do your leads and clients? Maybe they do, but probably not consistently, which means that your email will most likely be purged after 7 days and they would never have known that it was there.

Even if your subscribers ‘whitelist’ your email address by placing it in their contact list/address book, there is no guarantee that your emails will get through to them.

And, even ‘ IF‘ your email actually gets through to their Inbox, you still have a high chance of being ‘lost’ in a pile of other emails and even if they do open it, you’ve got just a few seconds to hook them in to your newsletter before it gets deleted.

Then there’s that small but significant percentage of people who only check their email once a week, or once a fortnight and yes even once per month!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that email and e-newsletters as a marketing medium is dead. Far from it, but a definite trend is occurring and e-newsletter publishing is nowhere near as effective as it once was.

Considering how our newsletters are such a vital part of our ‘Internal Marketing’, we ‘ need‘ them to be as effective as possible!

So, contrary to my previous advice, I’m now recommending that you switch to publishing a ‘print’ newsletter that you post out to your leads and clients every month. The sooner you do this, the better!

You should definitely still use email, in fact you might like to send your newsletter via email AND via post. But I suggest that you focus on using email more for ’spontaneous’ special offers that you announce to your “Very Best Clients” (i.e. all of your clients!) ‘in-between’ issues of your newsletter.

I gave you an excellent example of an email I have used effectively on numerous occasions, in the post called ‘Building Your Personal Goldmine’. By all means you’re welcome to use it!

Now I know that publishing a ‘print’ massage newsletter is going to be more time consuming and will actually cost you some money in ink, paper, envelopes and stamps etc, however the real benefits of the print newsletter now significantly outweigh the ‘potential’ benefits of the e-newsletter.

For example, you can pretty much guarantee that provided you have the correct mailing address, your newsletter WILL be delivered and has a very high probability of being opened and read (i.e. not lost in a sea of other emails all competing to be opened and read).

Plus, your print newsletter has the potential of being given much more ‘attention’, often being read multiple times and by more than one person as it floats around the house from the coffee table, to the kitchen, to the bathroom etc, before being tossed out. (Yes it’s sad, but your newsletter will ultimately end up being ‘recycled’. The good news is that there’ll be a new one to replace it every single month.)

This will increase the impact of your newsletters and also the response you get from them, which is ultimately what you want.

Now as I’ve already said, a print massage newsletter will definitely be more work for you, particularly if you have a large list, but what I’ve done to help you is I’ve designed a complete Massage Newsletter Template that you can download and use over and over again.

All you need to do is customize each section of the newsletter with your own information (i.e. testimonials, offer, photo, business name and address etc) and your done.

This single page template will make it much easier for you to actually be ‘consistent’ and publish your newsletter EVERY month, which I know has been a challenge for many of you.

The reason we send out a newsletter on a monthly basis is because at the very minimum we want both our Leads and Clients to at least to be ‘thinking’ about having a massage with us at some point every single month!

The more we think about something and imagine it in our minds, the more we are likely to ‘act’ on that thought, which is exactly what we want our readers to do…take ‘action’ and book in for a massage!

Anyway, I’ve created a video for you where I take you through all the significant sections of the newsletter, explaining the marketing angles behind them, as well as how to customize each section with your own information.

You can watch the video now by clicking on the following link:

http://www.massagemarketingmastery.com/video/newsletter.html

Please Note: This massage marketing video is 18 minutes long. So make yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable!

Once you’ve watched the video, you can then download your customizable Massage Newsletter Template.
 

Here’s the Newsletter Template for Female Massage Therapists:

http://www.massagemarketingmastery.com/files/newsletter_template_female.doc

Here’s the Newsletter Template for Male Massage Therapists:

http://www.massagemarketingmastery.com/files/newsletter_template_male.doc

I hope you found this information useful and that you will make the commitment this year to publishing your own massage newsletter for your leads and clients every month. It really is the most powerful massage marketing strategy available!  

James Thomas
Marketing Director & Co-Founder
TOUCH OF ALOHA

Aloha Friends!

Just a reminder that our very first course for 2008 is our Hawaiian Lomi Lomi Foundation Course.

If you have not yet trained in this beautiful hawaiian bodywork or even experienced a lomi lomi treatment for yourself, you are really missing out on something special.

Hawaiian Lomi Lomi (at least the style we teach) has been described as a massage that contains all massage styles within it, performed in one beautiful never-ending ‘flow’.

It is this flow that gently, yet steadily encourages the lomi lomi recipient to truly ‘let go’ and deeply relax…and relaxation afterall is the primary goal of all massage.

Why is relaxation so important? Well, where there is relaxation, there is no tension and the Hawaiians believe that all illness stems from a state of tension on one level or another.

Hawaiian Lomi Lomi like the waves of the ocean washes away this tension, layer by layer, breath by breath. Although there is the common perception that lomi lomi is just a soft, gentle massage, in truth it can be as strong and deep as it can be soothing and gentle. It is truly a style of massage that is for every body!

For the practitioner too, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi is healing to give and does not require physical strength, nor pressure on the hands and fingers. All movements stem from the core of the body and every movement serves only to strengthen and empower the practitioner’s body, mind and spirit.

Before practicing Hot Stone Massage and Spa Body Treatments, Tania and myself had built up a large clientele and all we offered was Lomi Lomi.

There was no need for any other massage modality and our clients didn’t want anything else. That in itself should give you some insight into how truly amazing (and how popular) Hawaiian Lomi Lomi is.

In fact, at one point in our careers, Tania and I walked into a NSW Tafe with the intention of learning about Swedish massage. The Tafe recognized our prior learning and experience, gave us a short video to watch, explaining the Swedish massage techniques and we then jumped straight into a practical test.

About an hour later we walked out with Certificates in Swedish Massage…with Distinctions!

All we did to achieve this was apply the Swedish techniques with the ‘flow’ and ‘connection’ of the Lomi Lomi and the teacher (Head of Massage) was really impressed!

Tania later was invited back to the TAFE to run a 6 week introductory workshop in Lomi Lomi, which was very successful and several of those students have since gone to complete further training with us.

If you too would like to learn a truly amazing, powerful, inspiring form of massage that your clients will totally love, we would love to have you join us on our intensive Lomi Lomi Foundation Course here in the Gold Coast Hinterland.

Here are the details of our first course for 2008:

Hawaiian Lomi Lomi Foundation Course
March 29th - April 4th, 2008
Tallai, Gold Coast Hinterland

We are only taking a maximum of 6 people on this course, so you are going to get a lot of personal attention and support throughout the 6 days.

————————————————————————–
 AVAILABILITY UPDATE: As of today Wednesday 16 January, there are just 3 places left on this course so if you want to join us you’ll need to act fast to secure your place. This course WILL book out!
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It’s going to be intensive, it’s going to be a lot of fun and you are going to walk away with the knowledge and skills to perform an amazing full body Hawaiian Lomi Lomi.

If you’d like to learn more about this lomi lomi course, go to:

http://www.touchofaloha.org/lomi-lomi/

Or alternatively you can call us directly on
(07) 5531 0178. We’d love to hear from you!

For those of you who have already completed this course, if you know anyone who you think would like to participate, please feel free to tell them about us. Your genuine ‘word of mouth’ referrals are more powerful than any marketing I can do on my own. MAHALO!

Anyway, thanks so much for reading this post and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

James Thomas
Co-Founder & Marketing Director
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - In case you haven’t watched it already, here’s a short video presentation that gives you an insight into our Lomi Lomi courses and what our graduate’s are saying…

P.P.S - Here’s another photo of little Jaden Kalani. He’s doing beautifully, putting on weight everyday and is just so peaceful. Our hearts are so full right now. You’ll get to meet him and have a cuddle (or two or three) on the courses!

Little Jaden Kalani in his new Bunny Suit that Daddy bought.

Aloha Friends!

At 11.30 pm on Saturday night Tania’s water broke and she then went into a 19 hour labour.

At 6.25 pm on Sunday night, little Jaden ‘Kalani’ (’Heavenly’ in Hawaiian) Thomas was born almost 4 and half weeks early.

Yes we have a beautiful little son weighing in at just under 6 pounds and he was born completely natural (no drugs), here at home in the water.

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced!

Tania was just amazing, moving through the intensity and trials of labour and beyond her own ’limitations’ with perseverance and grace before ’self-delivering’ our beautiful little boy.

As for our wonderful midwife/nurse, well she has been such a blessing. Mahalo Elisabeth Moen for your wealth of knowledge, your experience and your empowering spirit. We couldn’t imagine having done this without you!

Anyway, Mum and bubs are doing very well, although we need to give little Jaden constant attention, making sure that he feeds every 2 hours to ensure that he gets all the nutrition and calories he needs to grow steadily and healthily.

As you can imagine, we haven’t had much sleep since he was born. However we consider this our ‘intensive care’ for him, which is a whole lot more loving than the ‘intensive care’ he’d be getting had we needed to go to the hospital.

Here’s a picture of Mother and Son. Aren’t they beautiful!

I hope you all too have had wonderful starts to the New Year.

We couldn’t have wished for anything better!

Mahalo

 

James & Tania
‘The Happiest People We Know!’

P.S - Stay tuned for Tania’s own personal update and some more baby pics!

Well, here we are in 2008.

Happy New Year Everybody or as they say in Hawaii, Hau Ole Makahiki Hau!

This is set to be a big year for us with our first baby set to arrive later this month, or early next. The actual due date is the 6th February but both Tania and myself feel that he/she will arrive earlier than that.

Tania is doing just great by the way and has had very much a ‘dream pregnancy’. Her energy is high and she’s feeling relaxed and looking forward to having the baby here at home.

Here’s a photo I just took of her. 8 months pregnant and just glowing!

As you can imagine, we are both sooo excited about meeting our special new addition soon and we are looking forward to the adventures that lay ahead for the 3 of us or should I say 4 of us - our kitty cat TomTom is the head of the house (or at least he likes to think so).

For those of you who haven’t met TomTom, he’s a 12 year old cat that we rescued from an animal shelter here on the Gold Coast, after his previous owner could no longer care for him. He’s a beautiful boy and likes to hang out with everyone on the courses.

Meet ‘TomTom’ - (He was named ‘Thomas’ by his previous owner and my last name is ‘Thomas’ so we just put them together to make ‘TomTom’)

Anyway, another thing that we are really excited about is our recent decision to continue teaching throughout 2008!

As most of you would already know we had initially decided to take a break from running courses this year so that we could focus just on being parents. I even closed off our website and discontinued our newsletter.

However, throughout 2007 we were encouraged by many course participants to keep on teaching, and that the beautiful environment that we all create here on the courses would be wonderful for the baby.

In truth, the baby has already been enjoying the courses (in Mum’s tum) and has enjoyed many of your warm, massaging hands. It’s so wonderful to see how unborn babies (and babies in general) respond to loving massage.

Anyway, after giving it some careful thought and taking into consideration both the advice and the encouragement we have received from all you beautiful people throughout the year, we have ‘reconsidered’ our initial decision and will continue to run courses throughout 2008.

We know this will be good news for many of you who weren’t able to get onto of our 2007 courses, due to the fact that they booked out so quickly. Yay!

However that being said, our course calendar will be much ‘lighter’ than usual this year so that we have plenty of time to focus solely on the baby, in addition to running courses.

Maintaining a healthy ‘balance’ in our lives is going to be a focal point for us in 2008.

Those of you who know us personally know how hard we tend to work behind the scenes here at Touch Of Aloha. So creating more ‘balance’ between work, play and of course being ‘”Mum” and “Dad” (the most important jobs of all) will certainly be a blessing for us this year!

Anyway, even though we’ll be running fewer courses, there is still plenty of opportunity to participate in the course(s) of your choice or all of them in fact
…provided you put your name down nice and early!

Also, you may have noticed that we have completely updated our website and given it a new ‘look and feel’ and a more ‘user-friendly’ structure.

You’ll easily be able to find all the information you need about all of our upcoming Lomi Lomi, Hot Stone Massage and Spa Body Treatments courses both on the site and also in our updated course information pack. You can check it out at:

http://www.TouchOfAloha.org

Anyway, Tania and I would both like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2008 and we look forward to working with you and supporting you throughout what promises to be a wonderful New Year!

Aloha, James and Tania
TOUCH OF ALOHA

P.S - If you have any questions at all feel free to send us an email anytime.

P.P.S - Keep visiting this blog as we’ll updating it regularly with more news and massage therapy related content.

http://www.TouchOfAloha.org

Aloha friends and welcome to our new blog.

This is the first post of many to come and we hope that you’ll come and visit often.

We will be posting a lot of free content about lomi lomi, hot stone massage and also spa body treatments and would love to answer any questions you have.

You’ll also be able to keep up to date with all the goings on here at Touch Of Aloha including the latest news and upcoming events!

Mahalo (thankyou) for visiting and we hope you’ll come back again soon!

Enjoy the rest of your day~

 

James Thomas & Tania Hodder