Dr. Dominique Carson on Why Massage Therapy Is Not a Luxury

welcome back to the authority formula podcast where we help you grow your business attract new opportunities and help pace your competition my name is george wright iii i'm your host and i've partnered up with valiant ceo magazine to bring you the hottest entrepreneurs thought leaders and experts from around the world that are crushing it in business together we're going to unpack strategies and tactics that they're using to become the authority in their field. And my goal is to help inspire and motivate you to do the same. So let's get right into it. George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I'm excited to have Dr. Dominique Carson in on the studio today. How are you doing, Dominique? I'm good. Thank you for asking. You know, I am glad you're here because for those of you listening, what I try to do with the Daily Mastermind is I always want to be able to help you to create your best life and level up. And that has to include not just business, but it has to be mindset, body, health, fitness, all kinds of things, including the version of your life that you want to have. And there's no one better to help us to do that than Dominique. So let me give her a quick introduction so you guys that do not know her will know a little bit more about her. She's an award-winning licensed massage therapist practitioner, but also a globally recognized freelance journalist. She's got a bachelor's and master's degree, including as well an honorary doctorate. And she's got multiple honors, including Global Iconic Changemaker Award. And I think one of the reasons that I wanted to have you on, besides being the founder of Manny Benedetti, right? That's for blessed hands. Is that what that means? Yes. I love that. And that's a mobile massage therapy business. But what's crazy and awesome about you is that you take a holistic approach. You believe it's not just about stress relief and reduction. You really believe that overall health, mind and body is important. So tell me what that means to you. And by the way, thank you so much for being here. But tell me what you're all about. Tell me a little bit about why you chose that name for your business even. I'm an Italian speaker. So first and foremost, I've been studying Italian since I was 14 in high school. and it was on my wrist and my partner, my significant other, we was going over names and he was like, how about you name it that what's on your arm? Like, and I was looking at it and I said, you know what? Moni Benete, I mean, I help people impact with my hands. And then I think about my work and my career as a journalist. And that's how the name came about. And I wanted a very unisex name that can attract male and female. So I was like, maybe I should write it out, blessed hands in English. And I was talking to my aunt, who is an entrepreneur in cosmetology. And she was like, no, I think it needs to stay the Italian name. The name is interesting. The name is going to be like, yeah. Well, and you're doing what you love. And, you know, most people would hear that and think, OK, those are two completely different industries. Massage therapy, your business, as well as being a freelance journalist. but you really do heal people with both your hands and your words. Wouldn't you agree? Yes, absolutely. Tell me a little bit about what you believe and why it's more than just, why did you get into massage and why is it more than just massage that you were really passionate about? Well, I tell people all the time, massage found me. I thought my life was going to be Carrie Bradshaw, sex in the city. I'm living the nightlife in New York city, which is my hometown. And that was kind of like my lifestyle for a little while. I would do my little nine to five. Then I would cover shows, interview artists and get home, crack a dawn and getting up again and taking the train to do my nine to five. And I just felt very unfulfilled. I'm interviewing all these top-notch artists and I feel very unfulfilled. I'm like, there's something else that I need to be doing in my life in addition to what I'm doing now. So I played with massage since I was like 17, always knew the craftsmanship of my hand, overcoming pediatric trigger thumbs. And what that is, my thumbs were born bent. So if you look at my thumbs, I don't have an arch. There's no joint. So hearing like little nuggets like that from your family, your mother and your cousins. And it wasn't until my beloved grandmother, Eloise Estelle Grant, second queen of my life. God bless her soul. I massaged her. And that's when she said that I was going to have another career utilizing my hands and they're going to help people. My cousin, Hassan, God bless his soul. He was like, Ma, I'm telling you, I know Dom is a writer. I get all that. But her hands are too gifted to not be doing something with them. Like, this is crazy. And it's like, because my cousin was an athlete. So sometimes I would just compress him on his back. And I felt that like his tension was fading. That was kind of like a turning point. And the same thing for my mother. And we just played around with it. We try to utilize a lot of networking we had over the years. I was going to massage schools, going to open houses, and I just did not feel comfortable with some of the massage schools that were offered in New York. So I picked around at it again. My grandfather gave me $100 for my 25th birthday. And I used that money to apply to massage school. And I went back to my alma mater. Like when you graduate from a CUNY school, the credits transfer. So my education looked kind of funny. Like here she is with this whole master's degree. And now she's going to this community college. But I didn't care. It was like, if I don't do it now, I wasn't going to do it at all. You know, my mother knew that this was something I always wanted to do. She felt like the timing was bad at the time because she was like, you just graduated with your muscles. What are you doing? I said, Ma, I got to do it. I didn't care. It took me three and a half years to finish because I worked part-time. I was taking a bus to a train to a bus three days a week, doing a nine to five. And the science courses in massage therapy, you will think it was a full shift. It was a nine to four, but that commute kept me motivated. I have to do this two hour commute. I have to finish this program. And I love my other degrees. I tell people that all the time, but this one was so impactful because I was out of my comfort zone. From the time I was in grammar school, I always did well in school. Massage therapy challenged that but I would not be the massage therapist I am if it was not for my massage program in Queens I would not be Yeah well you done a phenomenal job of actually incorporating both into your and why you're such an authority in that area. But I think a lot of times people think of massage therapy as just kind of a luxury or an extra item. And from a real practical standpoint, how does, from your perspective, massage therapy really help to regulate your nervous system? Why is it so critical for, let's say, high stress employees, professionals, entrepreneurs or business owners like a lot of our audiences? It affects all your 11 body systems, especially your nervous and your endocrine. I tell people all the time, you need your nerves and you need your endocrine, the balance of your hormones. You need your nervous system to send you the signals to do the things that you're doing with your muscles and your bones. So I tell people, think of a massage therapist as your mechanic. Instead of you going to a mechanic to rewire your nervous system and your muscles, you come to us. And when I said that to a client one day, he was like, that makes a lot of sense. I said, when you get massages, we are rewiring your nervous system for not to be in a very flight or flight mode. You have the importance of circulation. You have the importance of your endorphins, your dopamine. All these neurotransmitters are taking place while you're massaging. Your nerves have to be sedated or they have to be stimulated. That's why I tell people massage therapy is not a luxury. It was a lot of allergies. And think about it. We are the extension of nursing. We are. So there's so many allergies in massage therapy. There's psych, there's sociology, there's kinesiology, there's the study of movement, there's myology, study of muscles, there's anatomy and physiology. I can go on pathology. We have to know the study of diseases, figure out which type of movement is best for you based on your medical condition. We have to think about lymphatic drainage. We have to think about your circulatory system, your lymphatic system. All of that matters, even though it's not a popular body system. But the lymphatic system is important because how that transport of that fluid determines how much blood flow is going back into your heart. It's going back into those other capillaries or those smaller vessels. So we have to play into all of those things and put that scientific knowledge and that evidence-based practice along with our intuitive nature as massage therapists. So when you break it down to people, they're like, oh, my God, I didn't know how deep it was. It was STEM. And I think I'm very fortunate since COVID, it made people realize, OK, wow, I can really get medical massages through an insurance, through my HSA account, through the veteran affairs. I think people really started understanding that we are health care professionals. And it's unfortunate that it took COVID to happen. But because of COVID, we're becoming more respected in the health care industry. And I tell and I give my flowers to nurses, male or female, because we are the extension of nursing. We really, really are. Well, you said something earlier that I think is so true, and that is this is not just for health or preventative. If you are, for example, listening to this podcast and you are a high achieving or high functioning entrepreneur, business professional, C-suite person, and you want to perform at your highest level, this is why professional athletes put as much into recovery and all types of therapies that they can do. because you can't just perform at a high level without that. Your body and your mind and your energy and all those things are gonna feed the results you get in your life. And so, yes, your health is gonna be better. Yes, you'll stress less. Yes, you'll get certain things. But there's a reason I do that as well as far as frequent massage. But I think you're making a point that you're pretty modest about. And that is I don't think that necessarily all massage puts as much into it as you do. And your background certainly makes it more effective but you know decades of doing different things from journalism and storytelling to massage therapy and wellness you're starting to combine this all together and to do what you love and you have this philosophy this core philosophy called tribe explain to me what that is so I love acronyms from one time I was a child I love playing with acronyms in different words and it helped me while I was in massage school. So I'm in the field and I wanted to do something creative, right? So I thought about the coloring book. I was like, people can color, they can get affirmations, and then we're going to get educated about massage therapy. So I thought about what touch requires and being a sexual abuse survivor myself, why touch is so important. So the tribe acronym is touch requires integrity and boldness effortlessly. And I think that boldness, because I have to step into that room and let you know that I am a professional, that I am a licensed professional, and that you're going to respect me as a licensed professional. That's that boldness coming in, the integrity, the craftsmanship of my field. This is something that I take seriously in addition to my passion. And then now that I am an entrepreneur, it's like business first, craft is second. So that's why I really have to be bold in that now that I'm self-employed full time. So that's how the acronym came about. And I was inspired based on the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. That was my influence. So I thought about the nine fruits and I said, you know what? I think this is going to be in my acronym. And it became an award-winning coloring book. We just released an educational version of Tribe. It's available on Amazon. And when the coloring book received its athletes and its recognition, that's what I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be something creative and yet educate people why massage therapy. Because basically massage therapy is muscle awareness, supporting stress alleviation, and then generating endurance in your muscles. I want to explain it to a point where a 10-year-old can understand what is massage therapy. And that was the gateway for me to release that coloring book. And it became a coloring exercise for a lot of other people that are not necessarily massage therapists or had their apprehensions about massage therapy And then it became a help for massage therapists themselves to incorporate their own self If you listening to this there a couple of points I want to make One is, this is a great example on the surface of why certain individuals in their craft become authorities. Meaning a lot of people have interests or jobs or professions, but they dabble. When you go deep, that's when you come across things like Dominique, you're talking about with your acronyms as well as your study and your expertise in this area. So no matter what you're doing, I wanted to point that out in your careers is it's important to go deep. If you really truly want to be successful at something, you've got to do that. But also, in addition to the fact that there are health benefits of massage that you need to prioritize both your mind and body when you're being a high performing individual or high achieving individual, there are so many other reasons that that is important in your life. So I want to shift gears for a minute. You have experienced some significant personal loss in the last little while while you've been pursuing and building your dreams and now your doctorate. Because I think a lot of people are dealing with things in their life. Now it might be on a surface level stress or anxiety, or it might be a deeper thing. And loss a lot of times can really create a riff in your life, make you pivot in your life, or even go deeper in what you're doing in your life. How has loss or grief or things that you've struggled with recently reshaped your purpose and focus and clarity on what you're doing? First and foremost, I'm human myself. I think that's why I love my field. It keeps me in touch with my humanness and that I have to exercise my self-care to be the best professional that I am to other people, especially I'm in a very stress relieving profession. I lost two uncles I love to my core. One of them, I like to call him my creative arts mentor. That was my Uncle Ricky. I would not be the storyteller. I would not be the massage therapist. I am without that man. His gift for alternative medicine was phenomenal. And, you know, we have a family friend. He was just telling my mom this. He was like, I think, because they call him Peoples, he passed the torch to your daughter. Oh, wow. And I felt like very honored when he said that. And then here's my Uncle Rodney. I like to call him my ironwood of carpentry. My uncle could damn near build anything. And he was my favorite for a lot of reasons. What a lot of humor in my life taught me the importance of integrity, not letting anybody take advantage of you because you are a bookworm and that you have to still be alert. that was his biggest thing. And when I was younger, he was so fixated on my innocence, not being tainted as much as it could outside of life circumstances. And that one hit me the most because I just mended my relationship with him 11 months earlier. You know, we were very close and we went through this very bitter feud for five years. And when my uncle reached out, it was like, we didn't miss a beat. We didn't miss a beat. And like I said, at times it was a very niece daughter relationship. And it's been a month and it's been very, very, very hard. I think about the lessons he's taught me. Yeah, he just would have been very, very, very proud. Very. And that was the last thing he was saying a lot to me lately. I'm very proud of you. Like you took it to a whole nother level. And I lost both my uncles to health issues. So now that's shaping me about thinking about health across the board. Like I tell people I've accomplished a lot, but I would not be sitting here right now without God's grace and the people that are near and dear in my life. You know, like I said, this is a very difficult phase for my uncle's sons, my mother, his siblings, relatives, you name it. you've really done a good job though of and people are dealing with some really difficult situations out there but it seems that and maybe it wasn't all the case it seems like you've really tried to find some meaning in it and it's driven you even deeper into something you're passionate about you mentioned they both had health problems are you just someone who naturally saw that or did it take a little bit of work or how do you use that to become which i think from what we've talked about now a driver for you. And the reason I asked this question is I think for a lot of people, you know, how you react or respond or deal with things in your life are either going to make you stronger or they're going to set you back. And maybe it's a little bit of both. But how did you do it? I thought about what my uncles would want, first and foremost, especially my uncle Rodney, especially what he told his sons, like the work don't stop. Don't use me as an excuse to not fulfill your goals and your dreams. So as when my cousin, his baby son taught me that, I say, yep, that is Uncle Rodney. That is Rodney Hughes. That is something he would definitely say. I thought about what my Uncle Ricky taught me, continue to follow the yellow brick road. You were looking for the lesson. And, you know, I think that's so true. You know, a lot of people can turn what you hear that a lot, you know, turn your mess into your message, turn your obstacles into your drive and your fire. And I think, you know, that's something that is even, you know, driven you further. What made you decide to go and get a further doctorate? Is it just your love of education? Um, no. Because at some point you got to be like, I can't go back to school. You have so many degrees. I was fine. I was fine with massage. I was fine with my honorary. My cousin, Sean, who I call primo, we was talking about honor. we were talking about PhDs from COVID. He was telling me about a school he was in. And I was just like, I don't know if I want to do that, Primo. Like, I've been going to school since forever. Like, I need a break. Like, so I had another colleague from college and my college mentor, he was like, I know how you feel about PhDs. And, you know, because I thought, to me, I wouldn't do it unless I was planning to teach at a university. So one of them was like, look into the online, you know, especially your lifestyle right now is self-paced. A lot of things have changed. I promise you, especially COVID. And I looked at Liggs University for a while. It kept coming up on my newsfeed. I'm like, where's this school at in Hawaii? I don't have time to be And it was online And I like their values their ethics their self And they give you two to three years You part of this academic network that takes care of your tuition and they support your dissertation topic So when I was talking about it with my mom and she's like, the first thing she asked me was, did God tell you to do that? I talked because I called my husband and partner on purpose and I say, he's like, did God tell you to do that? So I have two people asking me. So I thought about this in prayer. I found out that I was accepted in April. So I didn't make a final decision in October because I needed to make sure that this is something that's important for me or necessary to do in my life. And it was like I got the green light and now I figured out why I got the green light, because now this is an advanced level of writing that I can educate people, especially the two people I just lost and how their health affected it. So I'm like, OK, I can go in this lane, have free range. And then I found out that the founder of the school is going to be helping me with my digitization topic. So that's huge. Opportunities come along the way. Right. And it's interesting because I am a big believer in lifelong learning. And, you know, I'm not telling people they got to go out and get a degree. But I think lifelong learning is just a process by which other things can happen. And when we were talking before, your ongoing learning is actually helping you to frame how you're running your business as well as how you're intersecting both education and holistic healing and all that type of stuff. Correct? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I could just hear one of my uncles now like, like my Niki is a whole doctor. Like, and we talked about this when he was still alive and he was like, I want you to do it, but I want you to do it on your terms. Like my uncle was, my uncle was very simple with words, but it had impact. He's always been that way. And I said, okay. Well, and for people that are listening, a lot of times, you know, there's a lot to be said and we don't have time to necessarily go down this rabbit hole. But, you know, completing things for yourself, accomplishing things that help you to build both your focus, your clarity, your narrative, your confidence, all these types of things. Sometimes they come in small ways. Sometimes they come in big ways. And, you know, for you, this is a milestone as well. So I think that that's pretty important for you, even though, as I mentioned before, you've got such a high degree of credibility in this field. So I do want to ask you one other question before we kind of get going is for people that are not familiar with massage therapy or have not been using it and they look at it as just a luxury. What are some of the misconceptions people have that they should be aware of? And where should they start if they're interested in trying to get into a little bit more holistic massage, whatever it is, in order to optimize their overall performance? I would say, you know, really talk to an experienced licensed professional. Like you can get like a synopsis. I'm willing to do that as well. Tell you what massage therapy is because it's more than more than a luxury. It's like what I said to you. Massage therapy is muscle awareness, supporting stress alleviation, generating endurance and muscle. And I think a lot of people are apprehensive because of what they heard, lack of education, ignorance, or violation of touch. We don't think about that aspect of it. When you've been violated, your touch has been violated, has been compromised. That's a very difficult situation. And I hate to say it, unfortunately, a lot of other massage providers forget that aspect of it and be a part of that touch violation. That's why we have such a stigma in this field. Unfortunately, that's why we refrain people from calling us masseuse. We are not masseuse. Please do not call us that. If you call me, I'm not going to answer you. I'm not. I take pride in what I do. I take pride in my education. I take pride in my license. That's what I'm saying. It goes back to that boldness. I'm coming in the room and letting you know what time it is. Like I am a licensed professional. I'm not tolerating any debauchery. If it is, I'm terminating your session. I've always been that. Right. And people shouldn't let their fears or even lack of knowledge or understanding stand in their way because this is truly, you know, something that can help benefit you from just a pure optimization standpoint. So, yes, absolutely. I totally love that. Well, listen, I've enjoyed this conversation. I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned, both from your history, your past, your knowledge, pursuing your career, pursuing things that you love to do. If people are listening to this and either they have an interest in massage, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to bring on the topic, but also if they have an interest in finding ways to be successful at what they love. All of those are great lessons. Before we take off, though, is there anything that you feel like you would like to say to our audience or any other strategies, ideas or things that you would like, points you would like to make? I like to always leave this message with guests. Align your actions with intentions and change your priorities to match opportunities. I love that. I love that. And you have even doubled down even further on that given your recent losses and focus. So I love the message. I appreciate you being here with me. And folks, if you're listening to this, for the first time, make sure you like and subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes. But do us a favor and share this episode. It would mean the world to me. I think it would maybe bring some inspiration, awareness, or relatability to people that might be out there. So share this episode. Hit us up on The Daily Mastermind. Let me know what you're dealing with, what you're struggling with, or even your wins. I want to celebrate some wins. Hit us up on The Daily Mastermind on any of our social channels. And just remember this. I do want to make sure that I remind you every time that it's never too late to start creating the life that you were meant to live. But you've got to take action. You've got to move forward. And you've got to remind yourself that you have greatness inside of you. You've got to move forward and take action. So I appreciate you being here with us today with Dr. Dominique Carson, George Wright III. Have a great day. Outro Music