You step into the elevator and shuffle to the side to make room for the kind-eyed, old woman with the miniature poodle.

“Good morning,” you say with a smile.

“Good morning,” she beams back, her gaze resting briefly on your water bottle with the logo from your float center’s annual party.

After a brief pause, she asks, “What is Float-a-Palooza?”

You take a breath, smile, and launch into your literal elevator pitch.

So, what do you say?

Some people, no doubt, have their pitches down. Give them a minute or two, and they can precisely impart the basics of float tank technology, industry history, and the float experience, leaving their listener with a nascent understanding about floating and, hopefully, a resulting interest to try it. The truly skilled approach does all of this without programming or shaping a potential floater’s experience, instead giving wise and simple advice: Go see for yourself.

If you don’t have your talking points down, however, you can turn an opportunity to be a positive float ambassador for the industry into a tangled mosaic of sensory deprivation language, fantastic salt puns, dolphin research, new-aged babble, and pseudoscience.

The truth is that floating is hard to talk about precisely because it is so unique. For most people, there isn’t an easy reference point and, therefore, making a comparison to another industry or experience is difficult. Perhaps womb-like, pseudo-hallucinogenic, uber-savasana, Dead Sea hot tub spa could work…

For those of us with any level of enthusiasm for floatation, we often find ourselves trying to educate about floatation (the “what”) while simultaneously convincing people to try it out (the “why”). This can feel like a daunting task and, in this fertile mix of excitement and challenge, we do our best to paint an impassioned, educational, and measured portrait of this unique industry.

It’s important to recognize that how you talk about floatation should and will depend greatly upon who you are speaking with, what your role is in the industry, and the context for the conversation. Here is a range of plausibly plausible situations in which you might find yourself talking about the salty domain:

 

Are you at the bank trying to get a loan for your upcoming center?

“I’ve done my research into the best practices of this new industry. Here is our fully fleshed out business plan, marketing timeline, and construction summary. Based on our projections, we aim to break even within the first two years, and begin turning an ever-increasing profit soon thereafter. When we’re open, you should come float!”

 

Did a reporter suddenly cold call your shop and you want your staff to have a ready response?

“I’m emailing you a link to some good resources that you might find helpful. If you wait one minute while I get this floater in the tank, I can chat a bit more about our center. I’d also like to put you in touch with our owner, _____, who knows more than me.”

 

Asked by the author of this blog to describe floating and you have a perfectly tailored 86 word response, probably pre-loaded into textexpander, ready to go, like a salty boss?

“Float tanks are like a perfect bathtub. The typical tank is 8’x5′. Air flows freely and the door never locks or latches. They hold about 10½” of water, with 1000 lbs. of Epsom salt. This allows a person to float on the surface. The temperature is 93-95°F, which is known as skin-receptor neutral, meaning you lose track of where your skin ends and the solution begins. The tanks and the rooms around them are insulated against sound and, when you turn off the light, completely dark.” ~ G. Talley, Patent Pending. jk.  lolcats

 

Talking to your friend with whom you’ve explored shamanic rituals, psilocybin adventures, and Esalen mudbaths?

“Dudette, these tanks are a trip! I was like, sideways and, all of a sudden, things flipped, you know, and then I was like, ‘whabbap!’ and i was drifting in space, and then the stars came out but there weren’t any lights on, so i guess it must have been in my mind. And then I had tea with Adele and Louis Armstrong and sang while eating biscuits. I’ve never eaten biscuits in my life! You gotta check these tanks out! No further explanation forthcoming.”

 

Having a casual chat with your great step-aunt in rural Texas after church?

“Floatation is a novel health modality with numerous physical and psychological benefits. You float in a hypersaturated epsom salt solution in a large tub, kinda like a hot tub, and use this unique environment to relax. Also, while some people use it as a spiritual tool, of sorts, it in NO WAY contradicts the teachings of Jesus Christ.” (And then you quote Mark 9:50 — “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”)

 

Trying to negotiate with a potential landlord or get into a building?

I’m really excited about the possibility of working together. I think your location and space is the perfect fit for my center. I know that Root Beer Floats** is going to do really well. Centers, like the one I’m planning, are doing great in other cities, and I believe our community will show up to support it. It will bring traffic to your building, and leave you with happy customers who enjoy coming to your space. We’d be interested in signing a long-term lease with you and, since the buildout takes some time, would like two months rent free as we create our space. If you are curious about floating and want to check out a center, and even try it out, I can get you a float on the other side of town at Nautilus Float Co.” ***

**  Mmmmmm, sooodaa

*** Not an actual float center either but, heck, I think it’s a good name. “Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!”

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Why it’s important to talk about it well.

At Float Tank Solutions, we understand that we have a range of readers. From current and prospective float center owners to general industry enthusiasts – everyone comes to floatation with a unique perspective, story, and array of interests. Some centers might be eager to boost their marketing strategy or reinforce their salt- and sound-proofing. Soon-to-be center owners might just want to learn as much as possible before taking the salty plunge. Curious floaters often come to browse our products and blog, indulging their newfound enthusiasm.

These multiple perspectives help us understand that there is no #onesizefitsall way to talk about our extraordinary industry. Each conversation you have related to floating will have a positive, neutral, or negative effect on your center, and on the industry as a whole. When talking to someone who has never floated, it’s important to have a stock answer. Even more important, however, is the ability to read the situation and the individual to get a better sense of why they might be interested.

 

Do they seem to light up when you talk about what floating feels like in the body, or do they seem more attracted to the psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects? It is important to recognize and honor the reality that everyone has different experiences. If you focus your pitch on how you have crazy visuals 57 minutes in, every time, and normalize that, you have unwittingly programmed someone into expecting to have your experience. This is the paradox of talking about floating: every word you use shapes someone’s relationship with it. When I float, I tend drop into a mentally hypercreative space while feeling all of my muscles relax profoundly. My brother, on the other hand, has powerful, lucid dream quality hallucinations most of the time. When talking about floating, it is important to reflect and respect the wide range of experiences and either make an effort to describe this variety, or simply say something like, “Everyone’s float is a little different. If you try it out, I can’t wait to hear about yours!”

 

Have they had experiences with other health and wellness modalities like meditation, yoga, acupuncture, etc.? You can use this as a reference point to explain and differentiate what floating is and is not. If someone hasn’t had as much exposure to these other modalities, you might assume that their perspective wouldn’t be as primed to understand and accept floatation as something they might want to try. (For this individual, I suggest you give them a free float and let fate do the rest.)

 

I was recently a groomsman for my best friend from high school’s wedding, and many old friends and teachers were there, giving me ample opportunities to practice talking about floating. I began to notice a trend. Rather than having a single pitch, I noticed that I approached each situation like a decision tree:

“So what are you doing these days, Ben?”

 

While the industry, as a whole, is moving rapidly away from association with the terms “isolation” and “sensory deprivation,” asking this question honors the reality of the modern industry’s roots. Most of the time, anyway, when I begin explaining “floatation,” people will inevitably say, “Oh like isolation tanks.” Start with where people are, and educate accordingly why the industry has shifted away from those terms.

If you know the person, you might know what to focus on first. If you don’t, find your entry point so your description is anchored in their interests rather than yours at first. 

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If all goes well, you have helped the industry by A) increasing the likelihood that someone will float and B) used information and language that will help them talk about it to others. That is why, when someone asks “What is floatation like?,” I always respond with “I tend to have ______ experience but everyone’s is different.”

‘Bout that $$$

If you have any financial stake in the industry’s well being, then every conversation has monetary implications as well. While you are in it primarily because we love floating and want to share the experience, you are running a business. Just like not cleaning your center well enough or using non-salt proof materials can lead to problems down the road, each conversation ultimately affects your brand and the industry as a whole.

A float center owner who knows how to communicate with current and potential customers in an open way, will attract and retain more clients. The success of your float center is, in part, determined by how you discuss your center and the float experience with your customers.

Consider the following two owners talking to a first-time floater before and after their first float. While they may be equally passionate about their profession, one has a little more je ne sais quoi…

 

 

While it’s hard to measure how much you gain or lose in the above, more casual scenarios, certain conversations about floating can have a much more direct financial impact on your center. These situations might include landlord negotiations, securing a bank loan, selecting a contractor, shopping for tanks and other float technology, marketing and community outreach, float pricing, and membership structure. Ultimately, the successful navigation of most of these potential conversations will depend on the depth and breadth of knowledge. For those wishing to get into the industry, it’s helpful to be prepared. Have you researched the best practices in float room buildout and salt-proofing your center? Do you have a fully fleshed out business plan and a proposal for a marketing timeline? 

 

(Mis)Information, Research, and Snake Oil

Finally, it’s the responsibility of any industry to represent their product openly and without hyperbole. In my opinion, because floating is, in many respects, a health industry, it has an even greater obligation to be knowledgeable about what floating does, doesn’t, and might do.

Many claims about floating have their roots in research, others in anecdotes. With any health modality, many people are quick to suggest that it can cure or heal xyz. A healthy dose of skepticism is essential when it comes to people’s wellness. Because it is a holistic modality that seems to address many systems in the body either directly or indirectly, it makes it natural for people to tend to blur correlation with causation.

Take someone with insomnia. While a float might be the reason for this person’s improved sleep, it could also be that the increased mood from the float has boosted their weekly exercise and diet regimen and this has helped them sleep better. For someone else with insomnia, it might put them into a hyper-alert and creative space. As a proponent of floating, you must be careful not to let your enthusiasm overstep your responsibility of representing it accurately.

While anecdotal information and collective impressions are helpful in general, floatation needs more thorough research into it’s benefits and possibilities. Gathering concrete physiological, psychological, and other metrics on a wide range of populations will help us know how to integrate it into people’s lives and society at large.

 

In summary, these are exciting times for those of us who spend our days slinging salt. Just like yoga, meditation, or acupuncture, floating is seeing its cultural moment and experiencing fantastic growth as it bubbles to the surface of societal awareness. Unlike those ancient modalities, however, floating is relatively new and we are the ambassadors responsible for presenting it to and sharing it with the world.

Lucky us 🙂

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Interested in marketing content to use at your float center? 
Check out our complete social media toolkit, The Buoy Project!