Art Of The Float

Should you have a membership? Just one option? An annual option? None at all? Secret memberships? Shareable or not? There are more membership options than granules of salt in a float tank, so we’re here to help you sift through them all. Keep your notebook handy because this episode is loaded with ideas. Since The Float Shoppe has been open for 8 years, Dylan has some strong feelings about why membership is a must-have for his business, but Drew is contemplating ditching the membership model all together. You’ll hear about entitlement behaviors, lost potential revenue, and schedule blockers… and how to spot the signs that you’re ready for expansion. And what about an inclusive, limited time only membership? Gloria dices up several ways to leverage memberships to create more frequent visits and how to turn members into your marketing team, as well as how to handle cases where people don’t use the floats they’ve accrued. And you’ll dive into policies and when to hold strong on them - or not. Sponsors Float Helm

Because the world of managing employees is so complex, we’re taking an episode to dive into employee scheduling. If you’ve ever wondered about the best ways to schedule your team, you’ll want to tune in. We dive into the need to recognize when employees will perform at their best, the need for anchors and consistency in processes, how to pinpoint when a mid-shifter should come in and leave, and different strategies for who does what when the tanks are full. While scheduling sounds pretty straightforward, we explore how having different modalities and unpredictable guests can create a little chaos. Sponsors Float Helm (https://floathelm.com) Floataway (https://floataway.com)

Continuing in our Employee series, this episode skims the surface of the glamourous world of employee training. The crew starts by dropping some stats on how many employees they’ve ever trained across their careers (spoiler: 5 to 10,000+), so you know they’ll have some varied view points and lots of tidbits to share. You’ll get to hear about timelines for each center owner’s training programs, how to start an employee on Day 1, different delivery methods for training, and when to “check yo’ people” and when to step back, float, and let your manager handle performance issues, should you have that luxury. You’ll also hear about the mistakes we’ve made, the lessons we learned, the plans we’re planning -- all to help you figure out how to train your employees to be the best they can be (without joining the Army). Sponsors Float Helm (https://floathelm.com) Floataway (https://floataway.com)

It’s inevitable that if you hire employees, at some point, someone will say goodbye - willingly or not. You can hire the right people, train and treat them well, but still have to end the working relationship. In this episode, the team talks about practical tips, like asking for a longer notice before an employee leaves, and inspirational concepts, like always appreciating the importance of each individual employee. We’ll leave you with tips for red flags, creating a paper trail, knowing “when it’s time”, planning for a departure, and why setting clear expectations and communicating well can help you avoid employee turnover heartache. Sponsors Float Helm (https://floathelm.com) Floataway (https://floataway.com)

In this episode, we continue diving into employee issues as the crew dishes on all things employee retention. You’ll hear stories about how one host thinks spending less time at his center led to an increase in employee turnover, while another hashes out the differences in turnover issues across multiple locations and between full-timers versus part-timers. We’ll dabble on employee benefits, and dive into why it’s important to engage, empower, and motivate your team members to be more than just recipients of a paycheck. Sponsors Float Helm (https://floathelm.com) Floataway (https://floataway.com)

It’s a bit of a catch 22…. You need help, but you’re too busy to find it and you’re not really sure exactly what to look for in the perfect float employee. Sound familiar? In this episode, you’ll hear four different perspectives as Dylan, Gloria, Drew, and Kim share their employee structure, including how they include interns. You’ll hear big differences in the way Kim and Gloria manage their internship programs, and a bit about how Dylan’s experience went in the past. The crew talks about different strategies for finding employees, from social media, to recruiting sites, to hiring float clients, and you’ll take in a lot of different things to consider when trying to find the right fit for your center. Should you hire someone who loves to clean, someone who’s great with people, or someone who gels with the rest of your existing team? Should you hire just for front of house versus back of house, or should they switch off or combine it all into one? And because the topic of employees is such a meaty one, we’ll

Dylan steps into social media land to share his strategy for social media, specifically using Buffer to help his Instagram game. He shares how he’s creating a consistent brand on his account… and Gloria chimes in with how she breaks those very same rules, but she does create consistency in the types of posts she creates routinely. Grab your Vanilla Ice, baby! Grashkahn is back with a brand new edition… of the Float Con! Graham and Ashkahn of Float On and Float Tank Solutions join us to break down the details about the 2019 Float Conference. Last year, they announced that the conference itself would become a non-profit, so over the last few months, they’ve assembled a team to create the new version. The conference now has a new Board of Directors and a small army working out the details. They share that the basic format isn’t really changing, but the conference will be moving from city to city each year, starting in Denver. Listen in to see what will be happening each day, and what training workshops will be

Grab your adult beverage of choice, put the kids to bed, meditate for a minute, and take a few deep breaths. In this episode, we’re talking about one of the most passionate topics in the float community… GROUPON. (Insert daunting theme music here…) Drew dug up a bit of research about the history of Groupon, and he sets the stage with a little foundational knowledge about how the company came to be what it is today. Gloria flips the coin to share her experiences of watching the company’s evolution from her backyard in Chicagoland. Each host brings a completely different perspective. You’ll hear about Dylan’s history of using Groupon to pay his center’s rent when they first opened several years ago, and how Groupon customers still make up about 5% of his center’s revenue. Gloria’s take is that Groupon, in its current format, is a marketing tool (and expense), not a revenue generator. Gloria dives into the strategic thinking of how to calculate a Groupon offer (including a brilliant pricing move to immediately

Volume 2 is officially here! Volume 1 of Art of the Float ran for about three years, so we’re delighted to come back from a little break with a fresh take on the podcast. As we dive into this new year and a new take, we also have some new voices on the show! Drew Kane, owner of New Hampshire Float Therapy is a new host, who came into floating much the same way as Dylan. (Thanks, Joe Rogan!) Drew’s start comes full circle because he’s been a loyal listener of Art of the Float since his start, and he was a consulting client of AOTF. With only one float tank (in someone’s home) in all of New England, he seized the opportunity. Drew was a juvenile probation officer who went through a few big challenges to get his center open, but he stumbled on the perfect location and got creative with the landlord situation. Drew’s center opened in November 2017, and as of our recording date, he’s adding a third float room and just hired employees. Rounding out the new hosting team is Gloria Morris, owner of three Float Sixty l

We take a moment to reflect on the past three years of the Art of the Float podcast, and say farewell to 2018. And we welcome the new for 2019: revisiting old topics to inject new knowledge, a new co-host, some tweaks to the format, and yes, a new theme song. Stay tuned for Season 2!

Kevin Rose from Unplugged Float Essentials joins us to continue our Float Marketplace series this week. Kevin shares his story about how he got started in the float world, as a Joe Rogan fan, and how he’s hoping to own his own center soon. In the meantime, he has started developing an essential oil, epsom salt, water-soluble CBD bath soak to start building brand awareness in his area, and to serve other float centers looking for a complementary retail product. Unplugged blends include unscented and scented blends, all named after chess pieces to invoke a practice of mindfulness. He hopes the end customer feels like they’re taking a bit of their float home with them. https://unpluggedfloatessentials.com/ kevin@unpluggedfloat.com

Tim Warshaw, owner of Float Scents, joins us this week to continue our “Float Marketplace” series. Tim has been managing a center for several years, during after an evening of floaty musings over beers with Stephen Johnson, Tim mentioned the idea of introducing aromatherapy into the float experience. After exploring several ideas, Tim eventually landed on the concept of a lip balm. He talks about the process he went through to research his idea and test a few concepts before deciding to make her own. His ingredients are simple, with a focus on the scent. Tim talks about how scents are often tied to memories, but how scents can also have the opposite effect. If you’ve created a great float experience, while the client is using say, a lavender scent, the memory of that great float may be triggered later if the client smells lavender again.

Luke Krueger, owner of Mandala Float Systems joined us this week to talk about his experiences in the industry. Luke started with a tank in his home before opening his own center (Deep, located in South Dakota), where he built his own tanks. He lives by the notion of “you either do it or you don’t”, so he went all in and started manufacturing open float tanks for others, as well as creating Ninja fans for tanks and cabins, and later Spout fans for pods - and these fans seem to have a cult following in the industry!

This week we kick off a new special on art of the float we're calling Float Marketplace. For the rest of the year we are going to feature float center owners who discovered a problem within the industry and created a solution with a new product for the float industry.  This week we feature Kane Mantyla of RewardMore who's designed a holistic "membership" plan that is low risk for clients and high reward for both clients and float centers.

This week, Dylan visited Dana Highfill at her center that’s been open for two months. She talks about her experience over the first couple of months, including starting with employees, why’s running the shop solo now, and how she’s toed the line of burnout. She provides a great reality check about the daily nuances of running a center and all the little things that add up to take a lot of time, really pushing the need for time management skills. You’ll hear her perspective on transitioning from a solopreneur with a business that relies solely on her personal skills and availability, to a larger business with multiple modalities and a need for more employees and support teams to run it.

If you missed the Float Conference this year, you missed a fascinating presentation by MC Flux, but fear not! He’s here with us to talk about his research at the Float Clinic and Research Center, where he has been working with Dr. Feinstein. His thesis work explores the intersection of basic molecular neuroscience and mental health treatment. This ever-creative individual even designed today's show cover image!

Calling all fashion police! This week, Amy and Dylan are diving into the world of fashion, well, float fashion at least.  Should employees wear a specific uniform? Show their personalities? Flash some logo wear? Amy talks about the intriguing reason why she keeps a pretty loose grasp on dress code at her centers, including one particular team member who loves to let his toes be center stage. Dylan obviously doesn’t live in the south, because he thinks those toes should always be covered. (And stubbed toes and foot injuries weigh on his mind too!) Dylan also talks about how clothing impacts the feeling his customers get when they walk in.

Kim Hannan recently posted a question in the Float Collective, asking others how they handle hosting events and workshops in their float centers, so we invited her to join the show to discuss the topic in person.

The Float Conference offers a variety of free sessions on Friday before the big event. One of those such sessions was Justin Feinstein’s discussion about the Float Research Collective, a way for commercial float centers across the globe to get involved in formal studies relating to floatation therapy. This conversation started at the Rise Float Gathering in St. Louis in April, and since then, Justin has been looking for ways to leverage the industry in order to grow the reach of what’s possible. In this episode, you’ll hear a live recording of his talk to a packed room with people piling up at the door to hear what he has to say.

Drew Kane, Kim Hannan, and Dan Larsen join Amy and Dylan this episode to recap the experience of the 2018 Float Conference. Each guest this week has a different perspective, from not-yet-open to only recently open, to “veterans” of the float world, and all experiences for attending the conference. Revisiting the Friday activities, Kim shares some of her takeaways from the marketing forums, Drew and Dan talk about what they learned at Justin Feinstein’s talk about how we can all work together to further the world of clinical research in our industry. Find full show notes at https://wp.me/p3DUt1-J0