Professional Mobile Massage, now Phoenix Mobile Massage, was born in the early summer of 2015. A fellow therapist and myself decided to partner. With our years of experience combined, it seemed like a brilliant move. We had fun as we laughed (silently of course) through couples massages, spent endless lunches brainstorming our master massage plan and stumbled our way through the summer preparing for our "Busy Season".
We both had some regular clients but if we were busy and a client needed a massage the other would cover.
Enter Safari Shawn. Shawn was a little man in his late 60's and is no taller than a horse jockey. The moment you enter Shawn's house you can't deny this man demands respect. His young assistant answers the door in her Victoria's Secret tank top and lounge shorts. She speaks broken English as she leads me to his massive bedroom accompanied by 2 giant German Shepherds Along the path I see exotic rugs of zebra hide on the floor. Everywhere I look I see animal parts displayed on the walls, floors and shelves. Basically everywhere I look.
The full 2 hours that I am in the massage session with Shawn I spend enveloping myself in his world. He's a hunter. He likes the prize. Is it the thrill of the hunt? I look at his photos displayed. Lions, and Tigers and Bears. Literally.....EVERYWHERE. Dead ones. I do not judge but I am curious what intrigues the hunt? I have time.. a lot of time to feel out who Shawn is.
The session ends and I wake Shawn and excuse myself as he dresses. He is quiet as he slips out of the room and returns handing me my payment. This is a consistent behavior and every time he adds a $100 gratuity. I was confused at first that he didn't understand the charge but this was his typical practice of gratitude. My business partner worked with Safari Shawn on occasion as well. We compared notes and pondered the mysterious disappearing act after each massage.
This is what we came up with.
Shawn has a secret room in his house. In my mind it was covered in leopard spots and accessed with a secret combination code that required 2 turns left, 4 turns right, left then right then left one more time. Slowly the vault opens and a hidden drawer pops open. Whazam! A freshly printed Benjamin is dispensed for the taking. The mysterious drawer in my mind is embellished in gemstones. My business partner has a vision of a gold plated drawer. Either way a trip to the drawer values the work we put in. I have a tendency to make a story of grandeur in my mind. But why settle for anything less?
I will never forget the first time Professional Mobile Massage (now Phoenix Mobile Massage) hit a goal of collectively making 1k as an independent business. We rolled the car windows up and took that cash and "MADE IT RAIN" The music was up and we were screaming as $20 bills rolled off our hands and filled the front seat. We were celebrating us in that very moment.
Often we work so hard and we don't acknowledge where we are and how we got there. The energy exchange of money or being invited back again and again because people see the value of walking to the drawer for YOU.
