Waiting for my key

I hired another person yesterday. Can I pay this other person? I don’t know. But I desperately need her.

And that brings me up to 4 employee’s that I have to pay every other week. A Latina, a Puerto Rican, a caucasian, and a half-black. I’m technically a minority at my own business. And because there were plenty of boring white people who applied, this is proof to myself that I’m definitely not a racist. I haven’t hired an all black person yet, so there’s still a chance I might be.

I fork out over $2,000 a month to pay them. It’s like I’m walking on glass right now. Every step hurts. But I can’t do it alone, I just can’t.

My Puerto Rican therapist just texted me that I have a beautiful soul. White people don’t do that! I told him he reminds me of myself because I’m a total schmoozer like him.

My Caucasian therapist is so up-tight that the only time I felt any sort of familiar bond with her was when we both laughed at one of my clients.

I had a client a few weeks ago. A short plump woman who was all belly with skinny legs and arms, wearing a big tie-dye shirt. She taken a huge shit in our bathroom just before her massage, and while I was massaging her, she kept nuzzling her head against me like she was a cat. And then she taken another huge shit (leaving remnants) once her massage was over.

My Caucasian therapist who was working at the time, bursted out laughing. And then I started laughing. It was our one and only bond time and it was at the expense of someone else.

Gossiping / making fun of people has incredible bonding capabilities.

What if my minorities start ganging up on this minority (me)?

Nah….

I have so much to write about. An astronomical amount. But I don’t know where to start.

Today is Monday, my day off. I went to work earlier to meet with a woman from the Record Journal. She’s trying to get me to buy into an online ad marketing program. Not like Google ad-words, but those other ads you see that follow you around everywhere. The ones that pop up on random sites that are targeted specifically to you.

It’s just more money that I have to spend, although the salesgirl didn’t call it “spending”, but investing.

I don’t have the words to describe how destitute I am. If this keeps up, I’ll be bankrupt and out of work within months.

I foreseen getting myself into what I call “Groupon debt”. Groupon debt is when you sell a bunch of online deals, get one lump sum of cash, spend that cash before redeeming all those online deals, and then you’re left with no money to pay your employee’s – no money, but still a shit load of clients who need massages.

Groupon debt…..

I’m not exactly there yet, but I can foresee it happening. Even before opening my business, this was one possibility that I had no control over – one possibility that I had no plan for. My plan for success revolved around having those clients re-book, but here we are going into our third month and still most (about 95%) of our clients are new.

In the meantime, my arms want to fall off. They want to detach and clatter to the floor like hard brittle rocks.

When I’m playing receptionist, I answer phones sounding so mellow. Mellow, efficient, zero stress or emotion in my voice. It’s like I’m doing exactly what needs to be done despite everything – I’m giving myself no choice and because I’m giving myself no choice, I become emotionless. I’m like a stereotypical massage therapist who’s akin to being a backdrop – a tool, a prop – a secondary character of no consequence. Someone who does her job so perfectly adequate that she’s disregarded, an after-thought. Thumbs up and great reviews though.

Where is my heart?

I’m questioning myself. Just like my tarot reader said I would. I went to see her weeks ago (I already wrote about it), and she told me there’s a key. A key I’m waiting for that will open the doors of success.

“It could be a contract, it could be knowledge about a particular software, it could be a skill set, it’s not a big-picture sort of thing, it’s a very specific thing. Credit with a proper bank…. One key factor that has to be there in order for you to start to… open the doors.”

Those were her exact words. I recorded the session and I already listened to it more times than I’d like to admit.

I had no idea what she was referring to. Not only did this “key” not apply to me, but it was the first time I questioned the validity of this specific tarot reader. “Are they all scammers?” I wondered.

But then it came. The key she was talking about. And yes it is very specific, and yes I’m waiting on it like it’s a matter of life and death.

I have a marketing idea that is so absolutely, irrefutably awesome, that I have no doubt it will work. At least it should work. Just enough to keep me out of Groupon debt at least. If it works better than my realism advises, I’ll be out of this dreadful stress zone and possibly start living inside a fairy tale.

If my idea works, everything, my whole life and everything leading up to this moment, will indeed feel like a fairy tale. It won’t be a fairy tale ending exactly, but a beautiful beginning.

I’m not going to give you the full details of my plan. I’m fearful right now, and fearful people are extremely superstitious, so it’ll remain a secret. All I can tell you is that I’m waiting on my stupid mass emailer provider to kick on.

(My tarot reader said it can be knowledge of a particular software!)

SpaBooker uses MailChimp as their main email provider. I sign up with MailChimp through SpaBooker (because they are partners), and they allow me to send out mass emails to all my clients. I have not heard back from them. Waiting to hear back is like listening to teeth grinding. The fate of my business (the fate of my fairy tale ending), rests upon the shoulders of MailChimp.

This is the part of my life where I’ll look back on and cringe.

“Oh you poor girl. You made it through though! You wouldn’t be this successful if it weren’t for these strength and faith building years. You are a true hero. Oh shit, I’m my own biggest hero. I sound like a damn ego-centric narcissist. Stop that right now you!”

That’s my future self talking. Am I accurate future self?

I hath no patience.

And that’s where I am right now. In this semi-surreal summer of waiting and hoping.

I have quite possibly an awesome post about faith vs hope, but I can’t write about it now. I have too many buckets. When I’m carrying too many buckets, I have to put certain writings aside. They expel too much energy and require full brain capacity. When I’m operating on full brain capacity, that means I’m utilizing only one bucket.

While I wait for my key to arrive, I’ll have to settle on half a brain, if that.

Maybe that’s why 90% of the population are ignoramuses. We’re all just waiting.

My new employee works tomorrow from 10-3, which gives me my first real break since I started this business.

For rest periods I now have all day Monday, and Tuesday and Sunday afternoons. Friday nights can also be blocked off because I have two therapists working. I unblock myself when their schedules fill up. Starting tomorrow, it will be the first week of having a little extra rest time.

I’m paying a high price not to be there, but you have to believe me when I say I can’t keep up working all those hours. 8 hands-on hours 6 days a week – it’s impossible.

And I’m so tired……so unbelievably tired and stressed and worried. I can’t wait until that moment when I can put it all down – all those buckets. Like I’m returning home, to a safe place. Coming around full circle only to bring back treasure in the end.

Be strong Mel. You’ve got this!

A client came in the other day with certificates of sponsorship. He’s sponsoring a child from the Philippines. I’m offering free massages to anyone who sponsors a child – and I do it happily! That’s the crazy part. I don’t enjoy manual labor, but I enjoy it when clients do this. So if anything, if I completely fail at owning a business, at least I got to save a few kids before going down with the ship.