Meet Kelli Wise, BS LMP. Kelli is living proof that you can be a web developer, climber, guitarist, lousy cook and still enjoy a successful, rewarding second career as a massage therapist.

We had the opportunity to speak with Kelli the other day about her second career as a massage therapist . . .

Kelli Wise, BS LMP

describe the imageQ: What are the advantages and disadvantages of arriving at the profession of massage therapy as a second career?

One of the big disadvantages is, of course, that you start at the bottom. This usually means a cut in pay, a lot more hours, and a lot of extra work. You may have gotten extremely good at your old job and you suddenly go from a place of tremendous competence and confidence to being a beginner and trying to find your footing. This also allows you an opportunity to go back to discovering ‘beginner mind’ and the sense of adventure with starting out on a new path.  Actually having some previous business experience helps, too. I’m seeing several of my colleagues beginning to teach the skills they learned to other massage therapists. Skills like sales & marketing, bookkeeping, writing, networking, among others. We all benefit from someone who’s ‘been there, done that’ to help fill in the gaps and increase our odds of long term success.

Q: So Kelli, what prompted you to enter the profession of massage therapy?

Like many of you, I came into this profession as a second career. I’m just naturally hungry for knowledge.  I love to learn; it’s probably my favorite activity. Whether it’s some obscure fact I pick up in a magazine, a documentary about life around the hot vents at the bottom of the sea, how neurons transmit signals – it’s all good.

I also had some physical therapy and massage to treat an old neck injury and it included massage. The massage was incredibly helpful in treating the pain and keeping me active and the local massage school emphasizes injury treatment training, so how could I resist? I felt like I could help people get out of pain and get back to the activities they love.

Q: What were you doing before?

Before I became a massage therapist, I was an electrical engineer and engineering manager in the high tech world.  Yes, I’m a geek.  I’ve designed consumer products, business products, managed teams of engineers and quality assurance technicians and have worked at various tech companies including Radio Shack, AT&T and Intel (the computer processor company, not the government intelligence community).

Q: Are you really a former geek – or are you still geeky?

Massage therapy is struggling to catch up with the changes in technology. The realm of social networking, Facebook and the like, present new ethical questions and concerns for many professions.

I tap my inner geek to provide useful advice and information to massage therapists – I  help them avoid a lot of tech stress. Being a geek is like being a Marine – you’re never really a ‘former geek’.

Q: You’ve done a fantastic job integrating your previous career skill-set into your massage career. Can you share any thoughts on this?

Everyone is good at something. I’m not the only person who has pointed out that most of us take our skills for granted. ‘Well of course, web design is easy!’ – this is true if you’ve been doing it for years. But if you haven’t, it’s all terribly confusing and discouraging. So take those skills you have and teach someone else. You’d be surprised at what a boost it can be to your self confidence and what fun it can be for you and the student. What kinds of skills? Pretty much anything. If you’re really young and have only had fast food jobs, bring the experience of dealing with the public. Many of your colleagues have only had office jobs and don’t have the experience or patience to deal with customers or know how to handle complaints. Being a great massage therapist is about a lot more than just the hands on technique. And keep in mind that everyone started at the beginning, even the rockstars of the profession were fresh out of school at some point.

Q: Your Twitter bio identifies you as a Massage Therapist, Web Developer, Hiker, Climber, Guitarist, Photographer, Composer, below
average cook.

We’ve noticed that many massage therapists are multi-talented, multi-faceted people – any thoughts or theories about why?
describe the imageI have a private massage practice.  You can see details at Mountain Shadow Massage.  But I’m also a partner in a local indoor climbing gym, Warehouse Rock Gym and I also design websites. I’ve spent a lot of time playing guitar and cooking but I’ve never gotten terribly good at either. I don’t know that having a lot of unrelated interests is unique to massage, but so many of us have come to massage as a second career that we’ve just accumulated an awful lot of experience and knowledge in other areas. Dealing with clients is not simple; they have a broad spectrum of needs, issues, and motivations. A certain amount of maturity is helpful to really be able to address or deal with them. In addition, we tend to be ‘soloprenuers’ and having some experience will help prepare you for running your own business.

Q: Why does teaching interest you?

I’ve organized conferences and spoken to audiences of over 500 people. I guess I’m a natural, or as one of my students put it I “love to talk”.  I also discovered that I love to teach. Since my initial motivation to get into massage was to help people get back to lives they love, I find that I can impact a lot more of the public by teaching. I can only massage one person at a time, but if I can help 10 massage therapists, then I can effectively massage 11 people at a time.

Q: Why do you teach massage therapists about business and ethics?

I have a lot of previous experience that can be applied to the massage profession. I teach business, ethics and communications at Bodymechanics School of Myotherapy and Massage – most of the students are overwhelmed with other course work and very few of them had any business or technology experience.  After graduating, many find they don’t remember everything taught or there were things they needed to know that couldn’t be taught due to time constraints.  I’ll meet with them over coffee or lunch and try to help fill in the blanks.  So why not do it for a larger audience?