Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Graham has Juliet on the podcast today since Ashkahn is doing some post-Conference traveling.
The duo talks about times when floating just doesn’t feel like a good idea, which is something they have a bit of disagreement about. Juliet shares her experiences being cautious of her experiences in the tank and how she tends to have to be more mindful of when she floats.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode not currently available
Graham: All right, hello everybody.
Juliet: Wow.
Graham: My name is Graham.
Juliet: And my name is Juliet.
Graham: And Juliet is joining us in the studio today. We’re going to be doing another sans Ashkahn episode while he’s off frolicking around Europe post-conference. And Juliet is one our Float Tank Solutions team who’s been with us for a while now. She went on Float Tour, if you remember that. It took three months to visit a ton of float tank centers around North America. And she does a lot of the blogs and behind-the-scenes content work as well, including a lot of the free products there. About Float Tanks Guide and Tank Comparison Chart and just an increasing amount of responsibility here at Float Tank Solutions. So we actually wanted to take a little bit of time and answer some questions that weren’t quite so technical and may be relating more to the personal floating side of things. Which, in addition to being one of the crew, Juliet is obviously an avid floater as well. That’s it. So now you can say I finished my introduction.
Juliet: All of that is true. “I am absolutely indispensable.” I think is the big takeaway there.
Graham: “And I think I need a raise.” So today’s question is, “Are there times when you feel like you can’t float?”
Juliet: Yes. Next question.
Graham: Like if you have giant cuts all over or something like that. Like you were just in a car accident. You probably don’t want to immediately hop in a float tank.
Juliet: Right. Or after downing like three cups of coffee or …
Graham: I’ve had super-caffeinated floats that were not the worst thing in the world.
Juliet: I’ve had really bad super-caffeinated floats. So I think that that’s another thing is just being mindful of your own limitations. I think that there are definitely people who are very open and explorative when going in a float tank and there are other people who need to … I don’t know, tread water in a float tank.
Graham: Before you start adding adding caffeine?
Juliet: Yeah.
Graham: The hard stuff?
Juliet: Exactly. I honestly, I think having too much going on in your mind can sometimes really affect the float and not always in a productive way.
Graham: See, it’s interesting because, for me, I … if there’s not an actual physical reason to not go in a float tank, I often just get a lot out of the float tank. There’s … I can’t think of a time when I haven’t wanted to hop in because I have emotional stuff on my mind or I’m going through things. If anything, I personally have found the float tank to be just a really nice place to work through things. I mean, it’s not always the best floats and sometimes they’re hard. But it’s not … I guess it’s not a place that I shy away from.
Juliet: Right. And I think that that’s probably true for a lot of folks but I think that may be not true for everybody. So-
Graham: Something that I feel isn’t universal ? That doesn’t seem right.
Juliet: Surprising, I know. But, and this is actually something that I’ve heard a lot from other people in the float community where they feel like it’s not something that’s really recognized. It’s like … we should always be open to floating. And I think you should definitely try more often than not, but also recognizing when you know that there’s going to be times when it’s maybe not going to work out. Which has been really helpful for me is knowing that there are times where it’s not a good idea to float. I also don’t like to float … not just on caffeine, but on a whole lot of intoxicants or anything like that, like different things. If I’m a little drunk, I don’t want to get in a float tank. For example …
Graham: Alcohol is definitely not the thing to mesh too much with floats.
Juliet: Right.
Graham: And it seems so unappealing too. But, yeah, I’d definitely put that in the same category.
Juliet: I would too, for sure.
Graham: Ashkahn really does not want to go floating when it’s morning time because it’s really hard for him to wake up in the first place. So he’s like, “I just got out of bed. It took so much effort. I don’t want to go hop in a float tank, start resting again.” Other time, I guess if my tank is making a weird clicking noise, I just know that if I float, I’m going to think about fixing it and won’t be able to concentrate on it or anything like that. When a float tank is malfunctioning in some way, I find the floats especially difficult. So I guess I … those are times when I’ll shy away from particular tanks maybe.
Juliet: Right.
Graham: Or you go float at another float center, you know?
Juliet: Yeah. I mean, if that’s an option. There are centers out there where they’re the only place within a hundred miles.
Graham: What? My activities aren’t universal across all people in the float industry? So here’s a question for you. Do you know that you’re … how do I phrase this? Do you know that it’s going to be a bad float before you get in or do you just have times where you know that you shouldn’t float?
Juliet: Oh, yeah.
Graham: Or is it more like, you hopped in the tank, it’s not going well, and then you get out after like 15 minutes.
Juliet: I’ve experienced both of those, yes. And there are definitely times where I’ve known it’s going to be a bad float and it’s not necessarily contingent on my mood. Because I’ve been in bad, negative spaces and had really positive floats. So I’m not saying being in a negative mind space or being kind of down on yourself is necessarily a bad place to get into a float from. It’s more like recognizing where your thoughts and patterns are taking you in that moment and maybe recognizing when being completely isolated by yourself isn’t super helpful, right?
Graham: So kind of like, just trust yourself?
Juliet: Yeah.
Graham: And if you’re not having a good float then hop out?
Juliet: Yeah. I think that that’s a really important and valuable thing.
Graham: That’s something we tell our customers too. Especially ones who are worried about having a bad float or think that … sometimes people think we’re actually going to lock them in the tank which, obviously, is true only in the most extreme circumstances.
Juliet: When they really deserve it.
Graham: But no, I mean actually telling people. It’s like, “Hey, you don’t have to shut the tank.” And if you want to, if you get in the tank, you lay down, the door is open, the light is on and it’s not for you. You can just get out and we’ll refund you. If you get out after 15 minutes, don’t worry about it, you know?
Juliet: Yeah. A float mulligan.
Graham: Totally. Everybody gets one.
Juliet: Everybody gets one.
Graham: All right, anything else to say about times when you don’t feel like floating?
Juliet: No.
Graham: I guess, I mean, I really liked your kind of message, which is just giving permission people to feel that. I think especially as float tank owners, there is a lot of pressure to take advantage of hopping in the tank and almost feel like this should be something that you feel like doing all the time, so-
Juliet: And float center owners are typically, from what I’ve noticed, very enthusiastic about the practice. And there’s probably a little bit of a disconnect between that and their average customer and it’s important to recognize that, I think. And find that there are going to be different ways that people approach floating.
Graham: Cool. Well, I think that’s a great message for anyone and on that note, if you have any questions of your own, go on down to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and send it it.
Juliet: And see you next time.
Graham: Talk at you next time.
Juliet: Talk at you next time.
Recent Podcast Episodes
When should you call it quits? – DSP 94
Deciding when to close down is a challenge in any business, but it can hit especially hard for a float center. The upfront costs to build out are much higher than other industries, many of which simply cannot be recouped. When do you decide that it’s time to cut your losses and move on? What expenses can you recoup?
Graham and Ashkahn tackle this difficult question with laying out some sensible guidelines about what it means to run a business and how to go about it in a way that makes you comfortable.
Leaving a tank unattended for a week – DSP 93
Float tanks are like giant salty babies sometimes. Between water sanitation, temperature control, and filtration…they require a lot of attention and care, and even when you do things perfectly they can still make giant salty messes everywhere. So how do you leave your baby alone for a week? How do you prepare for that? Unlike a human baby, you can take your float tank with you (or at least it’s unlikely).
Choosing a Shower Disinfectant for your float center – DSP 92
A recommendation for a shower cleaner should be a fairly straightforward answer, right? Well… maybe not. Graham and Ashkahn are very particular about the definitions of things like “sanitation” “disinfectant” and other common cleaning terms. In this episode, they take the time to explain what product labels typically mean and what you want to look for when getting a surface cleaner for your float center.
Be ready to dive in and do some extra reading when getting into this episode. There’s a lot of terminology to parse and clarify. Fortunately, it’s Graham and Ashkahn so they have lots of really clear advice, like “don’t mix bleach and ammonia (or any homemade cleaning product, really)”.
When Does a Float Start? – DSP 91
Time management and maintaining your schedule is one of the most important quality controls in a float center. If you can’t get people out on time, it can throw off your schedule for the rest of the day. So, when does a float start? How do you measure that time? And what do you do if a floater starts late? Cut off their float? The next persons?
Graham and Ashkahn have been running Float On in a particular way for a long time now, and have particular insights into the challenges of how you manage your schedule.
Tips for filling an empty service schedule – DSP 90
There are fewer things more stress inducing for a float center than seeing their schedule for the week and having it just be completely empty (Maybe watching your pump start up and spray water over your entire float room, but it’s a close call). What do you do in that situation? And how do you prevent it from happening in the future?
Well, Graham and Ashkahn have tried everything, from doing shout outs and deals on social media, to literally walking down the street trying to convince people to come in and float while the tanks were empty. Some tactics are more effective than others, but what it really comes down, at least in Float On’s case, is being prepared to give out a ton of free floats.
The guys talk about the effectiveness of each strategy they’ve tried and how they’ve reached out to contacts to form mutually beneficial business relationships and really get the ball rolling with filling up their tanks.
Latest Blog Posts
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
