The Skinny on Gift Cards
Gift Cards. I have conversations too frequently with friends and family, going back and forth about whether gift cards are (1) a good present or (2) a lame cop out.
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Let me make the case for option (1).
In the meantime, here are details about your E-Gift Card:
It's digital--you can have it emailed directly to your recipient. Or you can email it to yourself, and you can send it when the time is right.
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You will be purchasing credit rather than a specific service. That means that if you want to gift a 105 minute massage, you should purchase the card for $130. (Don't worry, I have given you some suggested amounts as guides!)
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The value of the E-Gift Card will be applied to the price of services at time of redemption. It's not redeemable for cash in whole or part.
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Your recipient isn't responsible for gratuity! Remember I build gratuity into my pricing structure, and this is one benefit.
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The value doesn't expire.
A rebook discount offer will be extended to recipients who redeem within three months of purchase.
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The E-Gift Card is redeemable for services from Kate Wetzel, LMT TX#135100 at Unbound Massage and Bodywork as listed at www.unboundaustin.com.
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Good gifts, or GREAT gifts?
Oh, you know I believe they are GREAT gifts. Here's why.
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Purchasing a gift card for massage/bodywork is definitively different from falling back to our latter day online mega retailer or grabbing a few AMEX preloaded cards. For one, you are purchasing the promise of an *experience,* not a product. An obvious point, but the ideas behind it are big. Multiple clients have gotten off the table from a massage and said they want their s.o. to feel this same way. There's sentiment. There's intention. And there's connectivity.
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It's beautiful. Thanks, y'all. It's one of the reasons I do what I do.
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Also...go YOU. You made space, time, and presence to feel different. And, to note, you want someone else to feel this same goodness. A gift card nudges them to also make this space, time, and presence. A gift card gives specific, directive permission for someone to care about themselves.
Overwork and chronic self neglect are virtually glamorized, and for those of us with any drive to care-take or people-please, spending money and time on ourselves means we have taken those resources away from caretaking others. Maybe it emerges from social conditioning or possibly, at ts deepest, a compulsion from complex trauma. And y'all, if there's one thing on my radar, especially after working with children, schools, and grown adult humans in 2020...it's the evidence of trauma that I see abounding. Becoming a steward for personal and community health drives my Mission Bus literally every single day.
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Somehow, our jobs now are to be excellent to each other. Nudge others toward time and attention to self. A gift card for massage at Unbound? Free child care for a day? A month long yoga class pass? There are so many gifts of service and self care. It's always in season.
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