Learn best practices for starting and running a float center:
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Something in the world of floating have you stumped?

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Show Highlights

Some people have special ways that they prepare for floating, and how it’s approached depends entirely on the person floating.

Graham and Juliet (Ashkahn’s still missing) talk about their different approaches to floating, whether it’s sneaking in to float whenever they can, or planning entire days around floating to make sure it goes off without a hitch, they share their perspectives.

Listen to Just the Audio

Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: Alright, welcome everyone. I am Graham.

Juliet: And I am Juliet.

Graham: That’s right. We got a Juliet in the studio again. And for those of you who aren’t familiar, she was just on stage at the Float Conference giving a wonderful talk, which will be coming out soon through the Float Conference website. She went on a three month float tour with us around the country. And she’s responsible for a lot of our blog posts and content going into our free product. So pretty important person here at Float Tank Solutions. And she’s also an avid floater, which means she’s going to be helping us go through some questions that are geared more towards the floater specific side of things and a little less technical.

And today’s question for us from you is, “How do you get yourself ready for a float?” I assume yourself they mean like us. And do you have advice to give to customers? So yeah, what do you do? How do you prepare yourself for a float?

Juliet: Typically avoid caffeine. I like if I’m floating later in the day, I like to get in a walk or light exercise. Just get my body to not be so tense while I’m in the float.

Graham: Have you exercised before hopping in the float tank?

Juliet: Yes.

Graham: That’s a very unpleasant experience.

Juliet: I don’t like it, no.

Graham: Yeah, I went on like a really long run, well, a joggle – juggling while jogging – and then I went to float and I just had to have the door open, like, I was so hot, even after taking a cold shower, I was miserable. Okay, so don’t do that, don’t drink caffeine.

Juliet: Right.I don’t know. I look forward to my floats. And I try not to over-hype myself. I think that’s a big problem for some of my floats sometimes, but, I try to create a very present mindset for when I get into a float, so that it’s not such a big deal, and maybe that’s a difficult thing to tell customers to do, but I also think it’s a generally good idea.

There … I don’t know. I’m rarely in a space where I don’t think that a float is a good idea.

Graham: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I hear ya.

Juliet: But, depending on where I’m at in the day, it can really change the trajectory of the float once I’m in the tank. And, I guess, just being open and prepared for that, and letting people know that, I think, for a float center, is probably a good idea, you know. It’s going to take you where it’s going to take you, right?

Yeah, and I try to treat it, I try to treat floats with a little bit of respect, I guess, and be mindful of them, because there are days where, it’s like, I can’t float because I just shaved my legs, or things like that, so I’ll plan like even a couple of days around a float sometimes, so.

Graham: Maybe it’s just as the result of being an owner, and, like, I have this guilt that I’m taking floats that are in prime slots, or when other people would take them, you know? So I tend to just sneak my floats in at the last minute. Like, my, largely my preparation for a float is checking the schedule to make sure that there’s at least one tank free before I walk down to Float On. Which, also living 5 minutes from Float On is a huge boon in this case.

Juliet: Right, yeah, I have to go across town in order to get it.

Graham: Yeah, I guess, like, only when I acutely really like need a float, like I’ve hurt my back, or just been feeling really sore or something like that, I’ll really plan ahead. Or if I’m trying to do something like 10 days of floating all in a row, just do kind of a recenter or something like that, I guess I treat it a little more like this, more of a journey, or like, more sacredly, or something like that.

Juliet: Sure.

Graham: And, often, I’m just “Floating always sounds like a good idea,” so, it’s really just like, “Oh, is there a tank free that I could just hop in right now, because I have some free time?” And that’s kind of how I hit my once a week sort of habit is just like that.

Juliet: Yeah.

Graham: Which is fine. I think that my habits are just very different from my customers, which also sometimes, I guess it doesn’t make it too difficult to still give them good advice on what to do to prepare.

Juliet: Right.

Graham: Do you bring fresh socks?

Juliet: I try to plan around my outfits so that I don’t even have to wear socks.

Graham: I wear sandals when I go to float, it’s like my thing. I really don’t like putting back on socks that are, like, that you’ve been wearing the entire day, you know. I thought that was a good pro tip.

Juliet: I really enjoy being able to wear just like something very casual and drapey. I’ll wear a lot of dresses on my float days, which is awesome. Just get like a … For people who don’t wear dresses, muumuus exist. I recommend it. Maybe just robes, float robes, that you plan to take with you for the rest of the day. Acquire a look is what I’m saying.

Yeah, no, and I do, I plan days around this, so it’s like, I have my float outfit, I wear float shoes and go in and I have my float time, and then I’ll get out and enjoy the rest of the day.

Graham: It’s one of the tips we give to customers, too, for sure. You know, it’s like, half of the tips are things to avoid, kind of like we covered, it’s like don’t shave your legs the day of, don’t drink a bunch of caffeine, you know, don’t get into a big fight with your landlord before heading over to float, ideally. You know, it’s kind of like take it easy before and after your float is also the advice, you know. Make sure you don’t have anything that’s going to put you in this immediately stressful place right before coming in.

And similarly, try not to have any commitments right afterwards, where, you know, regardless of your mind state, you might have to just go and immediately do something. I’d almost say, just, I mean, for me, open time is one of the best things after a float, you know. I would rather do that than even plan for, like, “Oh, I’m gonna go watch this concert,” or do something even if I might enjoy it, just because, once I get out, I don’t even know what kind of mental state I’m gonna be in, you know. Sometimes I want to lounge, sometimes I want to go on a walk, sometimes the concert would sound like an awesome idea, but, yeah, I kinda don’t even want to guess ahead, you know.

Juliet: Yeah, yeah, no, I totally get that. And I think that that lines up pretty well with customer experiences, too, because I think that this is kind of a treat for most people.

Graham: You mean my experiences are universal?

Juliet: Yes, sure. Let’s go with that.

Graham: Yeah, any other little tips for customers, or tips for float center owners to give their customers to prepare?

Juliet: No, I don’t think so. I think that’s it.

Graham: Don’t come in just super sloshed.

Juliet: Right, yeah, yeah.

Graham: Yeah, it’s just all the kind of basic stuff, you know. Once you’ve been open for a week, you kind of have your spiel down for all the little things to avoid. I guess the last thing is making sure people actually pay attention to those, because, often, you’ll be saying things, or your brochure says something like, “Don’t drink caffeine beforehand,” and what the person is thinking, “I get to float tomorrow,” and they’re absolutely not paying attention to your warnings.

So, reiterating that, you know, we say it in our brochure, we say it in our email, we do it during call-aheads, when we’re calling to people just reminding them of the little things that they should do to prepare, so, don’t think that just because you say this in one place that people will internalize it and actually prepare accordingly.

Juliet: Right, yeah. It takes, what, seven times in order for something to get stuck in your mind, sort of a thing? Repetition.

Graham: I don’t know, I’ve only heard that like three times, so it’s hard to remember.

Juliet: Yeah.

Graham: Cool. Well, if you have your own questions, or your own answers, I guess, if you want us to come up with questions, just go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. And, yeah, we’ll do whatever you want. Just write in your demands there, just don’t hurt us.

Alright, bye, everyone.

Juliet: Bye.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Choosing the Hours to Staff Your Float Center – DSP 114

How do you figure out how many people to hire? What’s the ideal hours for a float employee to work? Is there such a thing as too many hours? Too few?

Graham and Ashkahn share their insights with staffing Float On and what their staff looks like to cover all their shifts running a six tank, 24 hour float center.

Tips for Creating an Inviting Float Center Lobby – DSP 113

Not all of us are interior designers, but we all want to have a space that is welcoming to our customers.
Graham and Ashkahn definitely have an eye for this, especially after visiting so many float centers. They share some of their favorite designs they’ve seen, as well as common tactics to help make your center comfy and inviting without necessarily breaking the bank on furniture. They also share some of their pipe dreams for their ideal designs that never came to be.

The Weight of a Gallon of Saltwater – DSP 112

When Graham and Ashkahn get to definitively answer a question, it’s like Christmas. Birds sing and the guys bust out their “Answering a question definitively” dance, which has the added side effect of better crop yields during the coming harvest. It’s an exciting time. 

There’s a very straightforward mathematical equation for measuring the weight of salt water based on specific gravity, which is excellent. And useful!

Also, whoever wrote this question needs to contact Graham and Ashkahn ASAP!

Tips on Structuring Your Service Menu – DSP 111

There’s a lot of nuance to how you structure your service menu that can have a significant impact on how your customers spend their money. The size of prices, how they’re ordered or arranged, what price you put first on the menu, etc. all make a difference. Given all these small details, it can seem daunting and make some business owners unsure of where to start or who’s advice to take.

Fortunately, Graham and Ashkahn have been at this for a long time and really dig marketing psychology, so they have lots of advice, tips and even some of the psychology behind why we do the things we do. 

What is the Longest Float Session? – DSP 110

There is somebody, somewhere, that has floated for the longest period of time on the planet. And given how recent the popularity of floating is, it’s likely that the person who floated the longest is alive and that Graham and Ashkahn have met them.

The guys share one of their favorite stories from floaters at Float On, which involves the longest float they’ve ever run. Are you listening Guinness? We’re making history!

Latest Blog Posts

Slowing Down, Letting Go, and Stepping Up to iFloat

Slowing Down, Letting Go, and Stepping Up to iFloat

My intention for this first blog post is to give you some background into my life, and how and why I ended up running a float center, and teaching courses about metaprogramming in float centers. For as far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated with exploring...

We’ll All Float On

We’ll All Float On

This is the introduction that I wrote for the Portland Float Conference program. I wanted to repost it here, so that all of my zany predictions for the future of floating could be recorded for all time. It also seemed like a good piece to kick off this month's topic...