Very rough draft of our ad

Hey Everybody, - so this is a very rough draft of an ad that i'm creating for the Pasadena Weekly.. it's probably also going to be printed out in thousands of fliers that are going out to the local neighborhood.

i think you'll get the gist of what type of people i'm trying to attract, but like i said this is a very rough draft... the result of my brain being kinda worn out.. but i present it to you guys for improvements, opinions, etc.

it's not quite as impacty or as flowy as i'd like.. but it's the best my brain can come up with right now.. maybe i could borrow your brains for a bit let me know what you think.

i haven't laid this down in photoshop or anything yet.. so just kind of imagine what this is going to look like.

Our logo & Name
with our tag line at the bottom
"Holistic Health Care for Real People"

What do we mean by real? We mean you.
You recycle. You vote. You work on yourself. You walk the dog. You
try to make the most of every moment.

We like people like you. And we want to help you be the best you that you can be. We know that when you feel good mentally, physically, and spiritually all things are possible. This is our intention for you at Elements Total Health Center.


and then somewhere on the page it will say

45$ initial visit for ANY of these services

- Flow Massage
- Roots Massage
- Acupuncture exam and treatment
- Chiropractic exam and treatment

our contact info..

Guinea Pigs Part Deux!

Hey Kidz,

Since we're STILL waiting on our reception desk, credit card processing, etc. etc. stuff we need to have to open to the public at large we're extending our guinea pig discount into this week!! Woo hoo for you!

Again, only nights for now-

35$ only for a regular massage, 40$ for deep tissue. Or if want some extra luv-in you can book an hour and a half for this week as well.

55$ hour and a half regular massage, 60$ hour and a half deep tissue.

If anybody wants to book for tonight let me know as soon as you can so I can give the therapists enough time warning. thanks!

P.S if you wanna pass this message on to your mother, your hair dresser, your work friends, your bar buddies, whatever, as long as they know we're in our "beta testing stage" - we'd love to have them in for a massage too.

ladybug

mmmm i love the universe. i woke up this morning stressed out as i have been for weeks about my business in its infancy. went about my morning rituals, shower, check email, tea. as i was making the tea i thought i saw something moving on the kitchen table, and upon closer inspection found it to be a big beautiful ladybug. she was sitting on my tea towel as cozy as could be.

i don't know how she could have gotten in. i hadn't opened my door yet this morning. but i'm one of those that believes in signs. when the universe sends messages its' best to listen. so i get on my computer right away and look up "ladybug symbol" and this is what popped up.


Ladybug teaches life is short and it teaches to let go of ones' worries and fears, to trust in spirit and enjoy life. It brings the gifts of renewal and regeneration. The message of the Ladybug could be asking you to “Let go and let God”.

Right on the money! It was exactly what I needed to hear before setting out on my day.

35$ Hour long massage this week at our brand new clinic :) -

So we're Alllllmmossstt there... We moved most of the furniture into our clinic today. Still have to install our computers and phones and such.. add a few decorative touches and we're done.

A lot of the business books i've read said for a service business it's good to do a test run with your friends and family as clients to work out the kinks before you open to the public at large. And I totally agree. This sounds like a fantastic idea.

That said, we're doing a "test run week" this week. And we're going to be giving you guys a big ol' discount for being our little guinea pigs.

35$ only for an hour massage, which is normally 55$.

or 40$ only for a deep tissue massage, which is normally 65$

You can also extend this offer out to your other non-tribe friends provided that they are cool and know that we're still in the baby stages of the business.

The only thing we ask is that you pay by cash or check. And that you be nice to our therapists and tip them at their normal rate, which is
10$ for an hour.

Since it's a test run week we'll only be doing appts. this week from 4pm-9pm so you can have a

4:15pm
5:30pm
6:45pm
8:00pm

haven't decided on our Saturday hours yet, but that's coming soon and I will post later on in the week.

I'll also be doing acupuncture, 40$ for this week only (anytime from 9am to 9pm). Call me and let me know when you want to set up a time for some poky poky! You can write me here, or call me to set up an appt. 310 621 1861 (my cell - since our phone system hasn't been set up yet)

Oh yeah - and we're in South Pasadena, super close to Highland Park, Glassel Park, Downtown, Glendale, Mt. Washington.
1605 Hope St. Ste 350.
South Pas. 91030

Made my Week

Wow - so starting a business is stressful to say the least. I wouldn't recommend it for the faint of heart. The last week and a half has been solid 13 hour days, tackling an endless mountain of tasks. Meanwhile doing hand to hand combat with my own fears and doubts leaves me mentally and spiritually weary. I'm finding myself having to dig deep, really deep to stay centered. But I'm handling it and doing much better now than I was a few days ago.

Tuesday and Wednesday were especially hard... so much to do, so little time. There were definitely points when I thought I'd just lose it. But then.. one little bright spot turned everything around. I got an email from a former patient of mine, a person I hadn't seen in almost 3 years. I was the first acupuncturist she'd ever gone to. This was back in the day when I was just an intern at my college clinic. She wrote me to tell me that she decided to become an acupuncturist and that she enrolled at my school last quarter! And on top of that she got voted in to be the student body president next year. How awesome is that?! I never even knew she was interested in Chinese medicine.

She went on to thank me for helping her and for being so sweet to her way back when. It was just a short note, but it lit me up like a Christmas tree. It sliced through all the crap running through my head - and reminded me with crystal clear precision why it is that I'm doing what I'm doing. It couldn't have come at a better time and it made my week.

I especially love that she wrote me out of the blue after such a long time. Most people wouldn't have made the effort. It's a reminder to me how these seemingly little ways you reach out to people can matter so much.

Call for Help!

Hey Tribe Family,


So as most of you know Chris and I just signed a lease for our brand new clinic space in South Pasadena. We already had to pay rent for June, so this means that each day that we are not open as of Jun. 1 is 150$ that runs right down the drain. Let's just say we're VERY motivated to be open as soon as possible!

To get open sooner rather than later we need your help! We're going to be painting the clinic this Saturday - times to be determined - but probably somewhere along the lines of 11am to 7pm. And also on Sunday probably right around the same times.- We will provide pizza and beverages and many many hugz and kisses to whoever can come lend a hand.

Let me know if you can make it I would be eternally grateful! 310 621 1861

Oh yes, and we're also looking for someone who can network computer systems. We're going to have 2 office computers that need to be able to talk to eachother - plus we need the capability to have 2 laptops talk to the 2 office computers - simple right?

P.S - If you or anyone else you know in the community needs space to teach classes, or hold meditations, or meetings let us know we'd love to work with you. Right from the get- go we had the idea that we wanted our space to be more than just a clinic. we envisioned a place that people could feel as comfortable at as they would in their own homes. we envisioned it as a community space. there are some fairly large rooms within our center. we have 1800 square feet with 7 total rooms. - which means there are many many possible uses for the space.

Girls Girls Girls

So I went to this party on Saturday that was thrown by the author of this book "Straight Girls Guide to Sleeping with Chicks." I checked out her website after the party because she and all of her friends were totally boss chicks, mega fun to hang with.

Anyhoo - here's an excerpt from her book. I thought it was so great I had to pass it on.

www.jensincero.com/samplechappy.html

Kidz

It's weird how sometimes you get to redefine yourself- and sometimes unexpectedly. For instance last week at my jujitsu class our head sensei motions me over and says "I've got a special favor to ask of you" Now seeing as how it's a super rare occasion that he asks his students for favors, I open my big mouth before thinking, and say "Sure, anything you need" To which he replies "I need a second instructor for our kids class. Rob (one of the current instructors) is going to be unavailable for 6 weeks and I need you to fill in for him." This is the point where my brain hits the panic button.

Ack! Now I'd done it. I'd totally committed myself to teaching a kids class twice a week for six whole weeks, when I don't even like kids! ... well ok that's not exactly true. I do like kids, at least I don't mind them.. but if you asked me if I was a "kid person" I would have definitively said no. I mean it's hard enough for me to relate to adults. How in the hell am I supposed to relate to a bunch of hyperactive rug rats? Right??

But I'm locked in at this point and have no choice but to go. So I go.

When I get there, the instructor who's a friend of mine from the adult class decides to throw me directly into the action. He promptly introduces me to the 16 rug rats and tells me that I'm to lead them all in a Qi Gong exercise. Ok so that doesn't sound so bad. I've done this before with the adult class, so I take a deep breath and I decide I'm just going to do it the same way, but with smaller words, and little bite sized explanations. And after about a minute... I can see that all these little kids are totally engaged. They love it. They're totally paying attention. They're smiling up at me with their toothy little grins. And then it hits me....... WOW - I'm actually enjoying myself!

Soooo weird! After the exercise we break up into small groups and start working on some throws. And within 10 minutes all these kids are calling me by name, and asking questions, some silly, some serious. Meanwhile, I'm still fully enjoying myself, and STILL totally tripping out about it.

By the end of class the other instructor and I decide to give the kids a little show and demonstrate some higher level arts for them. And they LOVE that, they're cheering and have basically decided to root for me against the other instructor. It was hilarious!

So anyway, long story short, I'm probably not going to be picking up baby sitting jobs soon or anything like that, but it's refreshing sometimes when the world turns you on your head like that and makes you look at yourself from a totally different perspective. Next time somebody asks me if I'm a kid person I just might have to say yes.

2 friggin' months!

So there's good news and bad news for our clinic location.. looks like we found something that will work. It's a little place on Mission St in South Pasadena. The only thing is - is that there's a tenant in there already and they won't be moving in all likelihood for the next 2 months.

That's 60 whole days before we can get in there.. and still we'll have to spend probably a week or more on top of that to paint and get it ready.

And that means I have a whole lot of time on my hands *sigh* I was so not expecting this when I quit the crazy Scientologist job.. Anyhoo - I've come up with a list of stuff i can do to fill my time until then. But 60 days, 24 hours a day is a lot of time to fill. And before anyone asks no I can't just spend 6 hours a day masturbating.

Soo that said - let me know if any of you want to get lunch on a weekday, or if you can think of other cool, enlightening, or otherwise productive things for me to do. Also I'd super appreciate some extra work too.. so if anybody you know needs some acupuncture or massage give a holler! Thanks!

Recurring Dream - again....

Do you ever have those moments when you wake up totally remembering a dream, but then you get a phone call, or realize that you're late for work, or something like that and you forget. Then later on something makes you remember it again, but what you remember is just a bare whisper of what it was. Well I woke up this morning 16 hours ago - and just now I remembered that I had a flying dream again last night. If you don't know what I'm talking about go back a few blogs and you'll see my original post on this.. but here's the continuation of that story.

Gah - it's driving me crazy because this is all I can remember now.. and i know there was so much more to it, but last night I dreamt i was flying again.. but this time there were other people flying with me, unfortunately i can't remember who. I think there were maybe 20 of us. Somehow we were under attack. Projectiles - like small missiles of some kind were being shot at us.. but we were ok. In the previous dreams I "flew" by pushing energy into the ground. In this dream, for the first time since this series of dreams started I could push that energy out of my hands. And it was strong enough to deflect missiles.

In all seriousness I really want to know.... do any of you remember flying in your dreams last night??