So, I realize I haven’t written a blog in quite a long time—and I do apologize to those of you who actually read it. Things have been pretty busy here at the shop, which is great. However, my cohort Jessica went to Florida and never came back, and I’m honestly not entirely sure what happened there. Life happened, I guess.
I also haven’t made blogging a priority, but I’ve been thinking about switching to a video blog. It would be much quicker for me, and I might actually be better at it. Time will tell. I use a company for virtual assistant support, and I have a call scheduled with them tomorrow to learn video editing—so maybe they can help me figure out the whole video blog thing too. Technology and I don’t exactly get along, but I am trying to do better.
Now, I’m not sure how many of you are from Indianapolis, but we’ve had quite the storm over the last day or so—pretty major for around here. I hadn’t planned on staying near the office overnight, but the snow started earlier than expected, so I grabbed a hotel a couple miles from the shop.
That’s when I realized I didn’t have a snow scraper… or boots… or a shovel.
I made a Home Depot run and managed to find what is quite possibly the world’s smallest snow scraper, along with a broom. This morning, I took two Walmart bags, went old school, and tied them over my sneakers for makeshift snow boots. I used the broom to scrape my van and made it back to the office—only to realize I still needed a shovel. Fortunately, I had a dustpan. So yes, I shoveled a pathway with a dustpan and made it work.
What’s that saying? Desperation is the mother of ingenuity… or something like that.
I’m fairly certain my landlord—who was also out there today doing snow plowing—was thinking, Who is this asshole in the worst storm we’ve seen in years, wearing plastic bags on her feet and shoveling with a dustpan?
But hey, I pay my rent on time, so there’s that.
It did get me thinking, though. It’s amazing what we can’t accomplish when we think we can’t—and what we can accomplish when we don’t even know we can’t.
I think back to when I started Gypsy Massage. I was in absolutely no shape to start a business. I had virtually no short-term memory from a traumatic brain injury, and I was heavily abusing cough syrup. Not exactly a winning combination. I’m sure plenty of people thought I was out of my mind for thinking I could start a business.
But I didn’t know I couldn’t—so I did.
And all things considered, it worked out pretty well.
Granted, I had to close it when I went to prison. But having built that business gave me the confidence—and the clientele—to start again when I got out. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have loyal clients, and I truly believe it’s because I genuinely love what I do. I like the people who come in here.
Hell, I had a client call recently and the moment I answered he said, “Hey Jen, I think I’m about to get arrested—will you bail me out if I do?”
It wasn’t over anything serious—more an attitude issue with a cop who was threatening to tow his car—so I said yes. Obviously, if he had murdered someone or done something I had a moral issue with, that would’ve been a different conversation. But this? I could live with that.
Granted, he probably shouldn’t be a douche to a police officer just doing their job—but I wasn’t there. I don’t know how it actually went down.
A couple weeks later, I had another client blow out his knee and ask for help around his house. I didn’t really have time for that, so instead I offered to let him stay with me until he could get around on his own.
I like that my clients feel comfortable reaching out to me for more than just a massage. A lot of them text just to chitchat—or more often, to get a little pep talk when they’re feeling down. I don’t have the time to sit around texting everyone, but if someone is genuinely in a bad mental space, I’ll take the time to listen or help them gain a little perspective.
So whether you’re looking for a life coach, a massage therapist, a motivational coach, or a sobriety coach—someone who sees you as more than a number or a paycheck—maybe consider coming in here. I don’t do surface-level work, and I don’t pretend change is comfortable. I work with people who are willing to be honest about where they are and take responsibility for where they’re going.
Ready or not is irrelevant.
Action is what matters.
Decide accordingly.
