{"id":2162,"date":"2015-07-06T06:55:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T06:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/?p=2162"},"modified":"2019-08-11T12:44:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-11T16:44:58","slug":"a-new-chapter-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/06\/a-new-chapter-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Chapter Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is the first day of my new job, and a new chapter in my life. I officially start work today as the Massage Division Director of Soothing Touch<\/a>. I’m very excited to be joining the Khalsa and Bird families, who became the owners of the 30-year-old company in 2006.\u00a0 My duties are going to be representing Soothing Touch at state and national conventions and education conferences, and visiting massage schools all over the country. It’s going to be an exciting time and a learning experience!<\/p>\n

I’ve written more than 300 blogs in the past 8 years, and for most of that time, I’ve focused on the politics of the massage profession. There’s always something swirling on a state or national level, and it’s been a task to keep up with\u00a0 the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve stepped on a few toes, received angry phone calls and emails from the leaders of the organizations when I’ve written something they didn’t like, and had plenty of comments from people who disagreed with me. As Jerry Garcia said, what a long, strange trip it’s been.<\/p>\n

I’ve taken a break from blogging over the past few months because my husband was in a serious health crisis. One of my last blogs was about the stress of being a caregiver<\/a>. The entire experience of his survival from stage IV cancer and an aneurysm took a big toll on both of us. I am happy to report that he was pronounced cancer-free a few weeks ago, and he’s on the mend. He lost a lot of weight and is still way short of the energy level he had before his illness, but he’s slowly getting there.<\/p>\n

This opportunity to work for a company that I have the highest regard for is a blessing, and something I just couldn’t pass up. I met Gurukirn Khalsa a few years back in Miami at the Extreme Massage School Makeover, which was the brainchild of Angie Patrick of Massage Warehouse<\/a>, and one of the greatest events that ever happened in massage. We struck up a conversation and I told him the story of my conversion to Soothing Touch products. When I was in massage school, the school used (and sold) a particular brand of massage creme, and I had stuck with that for ten years. I was at a national AMTA convention when I won a gallon of Soothing Touch. My first thought, when I put some in my hand, was that I had wasted a lot of years using the wrong thing. Since that day, I’ve never used anything else. Over the past few years, I’ve attended the FSMTA convention a few times and worked in the Soothing Touch booth with the Khalsa family. I’m thrilled to death that they’ve asked me to come on board full-time.<\/p>\n

Champ and I have owned a massage and chiropractic clinic in our little town for the past 13 years. We’re not giving that up. Fortunately we have a great staff that carries on pretty well whether I’m there or not. Champ, who is also a licensed massage therapist, is retiring from carpentry, which he’s done for 45 years. He is easing into working at the office. I’ll be traveling a lot, and setting up another office for myself in our building, away from the front desk, but still close by. It’s the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n

I’ll still be writing occasional blogs, and if something earth-shaking happens in the massage profession, I’ll still report that when I have the time, but after 8 years of it being one of my priorities, it’s moving down the list. I’ll probably write some about the places I go and the people I meet. I’m expecting my job with Soothing Touch to be fun, which has always been a priority for me. When you enjoy what you do, and you get up every day looking forward to going to work, that’s one of the best things you can hope for. I’ve always said that the day I don’t enjoy my work anymore will be the last day I do it. I’m very pleased to be going to work for a company that is family-owned and operated, because I know they’ve put in the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to survive and thrive in business. I’m pleased to go to work for a company that is environmentally-conscious, and has recently had their manufacturing facility Certified Organic by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. I’m pleased to go to work for a company that supports the causes of US veterans and wounded warriors. I’m pleased to go to work for a company that makes superior products, and wants to keep them as affordable as possible. I’m just pleased all around. It’s a new chapter in my life, and I’m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to know more about Soothing Touch products, contact me at laura.allen@soothingtouch.com or call 505-820-1054 Ext 124.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is the first day of my new job, and a new chapter in my life. I officially start work today as the Massage Division Director of Soothing Touch. I’m very excited to be joining the Khalsa and Bird families, who became the owners of the 30-year-old company in 2006.\u00a0 My duties are going to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A New Chapter Begins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-of-massage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2164,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162\/revisions\/2164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauraallenmt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}