Not understanding return on investment for your clients is like being a kangaroo with no tail.
How often do you, dear somapreneur, consider the ROI for your clients — or for yourself as a business owner? If you haven’t really thought about it, you may be finding it difficult to propel your business forward.
Are you saving your clients money, or empowering them to earn more in their lives and careers? Is your work providing renewed vitality and endurance for their bodies? If you are, it’s OK to say so!
You probably already have a list of benefits – just start thinking about what those benefits might be worth to a new person that doesn’t know anything about somatic magic. Start asking your clients.
What’s special about the ROI for somatic expertise?
Many of us shy away from the language of money. Our work deals in the intangible, softer benefits of transformation and healing. Yet expressing ROI clearly to our specific audience can deepen our impact, make our marketing 75% more effective, and support the sustainability of our practices.
Yes, the value of somatic practice is culturally undervalued, but clarifying that for the public is our job! Here’s how you can get started.
If you are struggling with sales or income, understanding ROI could make a huge difference for you.
Health challenges – and I include trauma in that category – cost more money the longer you ignore them. Time spent trying to heal is measurable, and costs money. For example, I’ve crunched the numbers and some of my clients have gotten an 86% ROI by avoiding expensive surgery.
An 86% ROI is significant.
My math is based on someone studying with me for a whole year, a considerable investment. For a working class person, $6,000 spent up front is daunting; but not when you compare it to a $75,000 surgery, not covered by health insurance, which will take you out of commision for 6 months or more.
In one case, my client who avoided surgery also worked intensely with a physical therapist as well to rehab the damaged part of his body.
Many of my clients are super motivated regarding self-care and longevity, and my services are not the only ones making an impact for them. You could cut the ROI in half to 43%, and it would still be significant.
However, ROI is more than money.
While financial outcomes are important, the “soft” ROI of embodied practices may be restoring agency, empowering clients where they felt powerless before. This is a new insight for me, based on conversations I’m having with therapists (my core clientele) and AT colleagues.
The fact that a sense of agency is measurable was a surprise to me! If I hadn’t been interested in ROI, I would never have started to research the topic.
Energy is also measurable. The client I reference above told me that the AT gave him the necessary vigor and endurance to do all that PT, and to maintain his strength long term!
Even if a client of mine ends up having surgery, they will have more successful outcomes.
They are going to participate fully in how it happens and what happens afterwards.
I recently worked with someone who has MPD (multiple personality disorder) and they said that the hour spent moving any way they want to (that’s how they experienced lessons with me!) was their favorite hour each week. That is agency. Agency is fun!
People look forward to activities that are empowering, and when they are looking forward to something they are much better able to meet the considerable challenges they face when life is not so fun.
Somatic practices restore agency, but not total control.
Healing and growth require partnership with our bodies, not rigid control. I think much marketing in the “trauma industrial complex” uses the word control in a way that is easily misunderstood.
We need something closer to “cooperation with the design of our bodies,” a phrase I’ve heard in the Alexander Technique community.
This shift is essential, especially in trauma work, where agency is foundational for genuine healing. The estimated “cost to society” of PTSD in the United States (in 2022) was $232 billion, $19,630 per individual with PTSD per year. That’s a bit shocking, and even out of date at this point.
Clients getting better faster is the number one ROI for every doctor or therapist that I have collaborated with. Anything that will help them achieve that goal is of great value.
Accepting the predominantly autonomic functioning of our bodies is key, and somapreneurs can provide that secret sauce to healing.
Yet many somapreneurs I know struggle to earn a sustainable living.
Financially sustainable practice means measurable impact, and we have to step up to the plate and start gathering data! I encourage all my Mastermind group members to get as much data as possible for every workshop they offer.
Data that communicates client healing and process efficacy is vital for your business—and ultimately helps your modality thrive for the long haul. I’m hoping that new collaborations bear “data-fruit” around this issue of agency for me.
Educational frameworks are different than diagnosis/treatment ones. Let’s own that.
If you are a somapreneur that struggles with sales, there is a 50/50 chance that it’s because you don’t quite understand ROI – yet.
I promise you it is there – you just need to know how to look for it. If you want help figuring out how to measure and express the impact of your work, please reach out for a single session with me, or consider joining our mastermind group for business development.
Let’s embrace both the “soft” and the monetary sides of ROI as we empower our communities to express real agency in their lives.
Onwards!
