An Enlightened Approach to your Business Card

By Coach Cary Bayer

Let me start this column by saying that, as a business coach for massage therapists and a wide range of alternative healers, I'm going to provide an enlightened approach to your business card. But, contrary to your possible expectation, I'm not going to tell you what to put on it. I'll let designers who are far more capable of layout and graphics than I am do that for you. Instead, I'm going to tell you a way of using this little piece of ID, you're not yet familiar with.

Let's look at a typical way in which you might give out your card: namely at a party. You've been to many of these in the past, and given out your card and often nothing ever came out of it. Why do you think that is? My answer is simple: Because of an incorrect use of your card. So let's look now at a correct, or enlightened, use of it.

You're at this party and let's say you're talking to some guy at the guacamole dip. You've talked about what you do as an alternative healer, and he expresses interest, so you automatically give him your card. In the past nothing happened because he knew how to get a hold of you but you had no way of getting a hold of him.

If, for example, you're a woman in her mid-40s or older--this may resonate emotionally for you in the deep recesses of your memory. That's because you may remember the days before the advent of cell phones, pagers, and voicemail--when you may have sat beside the telephone waiting for a certain guy on whom you had a crush to call. You felt the vulnerability of being reactive and disempowered. So now I'll show you how to be proactive and empowered.

Instead of just reflexively pulling your card out of your purse, handbag, or wallet--like the knee that juts out when the doctor hits it with a hammer--invoke a different cultural tradition than the one you're currently familiar with. I'm sure you know and have probably uttered yourself the old adage that goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." To that, I'll add a new one that you've never heard and has probably never been uttered by anyone before, "When in America, do as the Japanese do." The reason for this new maxim: the Japanese have a tradition of trading business cards. When a Japanese person gives a business card to another person--whether that person is Japanese, American, or French--he expects to receive one in return from whomever he's giving his to. So I say, be like the Japanese. Say to the guy at the guacamole dip, "You know I could just give you my card, but I prefer the civilized way they do it in Japan: In other words, I'll give you my card and you give me yours."

Then, if he seems interested in the kind of treatments you provide--whether it's a session of bodywork, energy healing or counseling--but isn't yet interested enough to book a session, say to him "Think about if you'd like to get relief from that pain in your back (mind, heart, or soul, as appropriate to the kind of work that you do) and if I haven't heard from you within a week, I can make your life easier and give you a call. Would you like that?"

Most people lose cards, forget to make calls, and have cracks in their desks for things to fall between. But now, instead of like that disempowered teenager you might have been a few decades ago waiting for a phone call, you can be an empowered adult therapist and call him. I'm not saying he's automatically going to become a client if you call. But I can tell you one thing based on your own experience: if you don't, he probably won't.

Then, a week later, pick up your phone and give him a call. Remind him that the two of you met at the party, that he had expressed interest in the kind of healing that you do, and that he had given you permission to call if he forgot to do so himself. Then ask him if he'd like relief from whatever is troubling his body, his mind, his heart, or his soul. He just may say yes. And if he does, you can face the East and do a silent bow to the enlightened business card trading tradition of the Japanese. The Land of the Rising Sun may help you rise in your client load, your income and your overall success as a healer.

For more information visit www.CaryBayer.com.