12 Years Ago Last Week, I Became Legal
It was April 29th, 2011. I remember it like it was yesterday. That was the day I finally became…legal. Let me explain.
In March of 2010, while working my day job in a Physical Therapy clinic, I got a call from Crystal Romeo, the Fitness Director of The Meadows Country Club. She and I had met a few months earlier about a Personal Training position she had available, but I had not heard from her since.
That day, she called to tell me that the man she hired instead of me (because I was only available part time, and she needed full time) had left town and was nowhere to be found. Her next words were, “can you come in and take over all 13 of his clients? You can work any schedule you want.”
It took me all of about 2 nanoseconds to decide how to respond to that. I started working at The Meadows about a week later.
As the weeks progressed, not only was I working with the previous Trainers’ clients, but many people were also coming to me for my core specialty- Muscle Activation Techniques. They were being referred by the other Trainers as well as from the Massage Therapists.
By May of 2010, things were booming so much that I was seriously contemplating quitting my day job and going into full time practice at The Meadows. Thank God I didn’t though, because midway through May, one of the massage therapists came to me and told me that she had called the Florida Department of Health, told them what I was doing, and they told her that I was practicing massage…illegally!
I was shocked!
You see, back in those days our main form of activation was to manually palpate the tendons of the affected muscles. According to the Florida statutes, that was technically considered massage. Because I did not have a license to do massage, they said I was in violation of Florida law. I later found out that the reason they made the laws so strict was to give police an easy way to shut down “massage parlors” that are really houses of prostitution. Go figure!
After this, she went to Crystal and to our General Manager and let them know that if they let me continue to practice then they were also in violation of the law. Talk about trying to shut me down!
Sidenote- I heard through the grapevine that she was upset that some of the clients she referred to me weren’t coming back to her and this was her retaliation.
After this, I sought counsel from God, but all I heard Him say to do was to honor the law, forgive the woman, and trust Him no matter what. So, that’s what I did. I released all anger towards the woman, I stopped seeing all my Muscle Activation Techniques clients, I gave it all to God, and I firmly decided that until I’m “legal” I was not going to continue, even “under the table.”
Over the next few months, I looked at all my different options and realized that all I could do is either get a license or move to a state where the laws were more lenient. First though, I went to Muscle Activation Techniques Corporate to see if they could offer any help, but to my shock and distress…they said that they had tried to get those laws changed through lobbying and litigation for years but had NEVER had any success, so they gave up.
Closed door number 1!
To get the massage license would mean 10’s of thousands of dollars and well over a year of near full-time classwork. Ultimately, I knew I couldn’t do that because I needed to keep working.
Closed door number 2!
When considering moving out of state, I just didn’t have peace about starting over where we knew almost nobody, so that was closed door number 3. At this point, I knew I needed a miracle.
By now it was October of 2010, and we were approaching a midterm election. We were also about to vote for Florida’s next Governor, which prompted an out of work friend of mine to take a job on the campaign team for gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott. If you aren’t a fan of his, it’s ok, I understand. You’ll still like how the story ends.
My friend called me one day to tell me that Rick was holding a rally in Bradenton and that I should come and hear him speak. I told him “Unless he can help me with my legal problem, I don’t really care what he has to say.” He kept pleading with me- “Just come! Maybe you can talk to him!” After much consideration, I decided to give it a shot.
I didn’t know much about Rick before all this, but when I started researching him, I found that he was running a campaign largely focused on stimulating job growth. Because of this, I thought that maybe he would actually care about my situation. That is, if I could somehow get a chance to tell him about it.
That Saturday afternoon I made the 30+ minute drive to Mixon Farms in Bradenton as a man on a mission. I waited through Rick’s entire speech and when he finished, as he was getting mobbed by media reporters, I waded through the crowd, went right up to him, and I said… “Mr. Scott I have to talk to you!” To my shock, he turned to me, and he listened intently to every word I said about my situation.
Afterwards, he gave me his email address and told me to email him a summary of everything I just told him. As soon as I got home that day, that was exactly what I did. Even while typing it though, part of me thought he would never even read my message, so when I got a response back from him a few days later-I was shocked!
Screenshot below. Fun fact- this was also the first email I ever got from an iPad.
Long story short, a few months later, Rick Scott, by a TINY margin, became our Governor. And, unlike most politicians on both sides, he kept his word. At least to me. Over the course of his first few months, he eliminated a number of regulations from many different Florida industry statutes, and on April 29th, 2011, I was officially informed by the Florida Board of Health that I could practice again! They told me “you can perform your services with anyone, anywhere, with no additional license required. That is how we are judging all these cases now.”
I was SOOOOOOOO happy, you have no idea! I was on cloud 999!!
And all this was nearly a year after I was shut down and after MANY times feeling like it was totally hopeless. BUT GOD!
Now, the biggest dilemma was letting the massage therapist who shut me down know that I would be practicing again. I had no idea how she would react to this news. Well, CRAZY story- the SAME day that Crystal was going to tell her, she put in her resignation for a completely unrelated reason! How’s that for timing!?
Exactly 3 months after I got this news, I finally did what I wanted to do the year before- I quit my job and I never went back. I’ve never had another job since then either. Now, 12 years later, I am AMAZED at all the Lord has done!
In fact, just last week I cleaned out all my old paper files from the last 9 years and discovered that I’ve seen 480 clients, just since then! That’s an average of one new client EVERY week for 9 years, which includes an entire year (Summer 21-Summer 22) where I purposely took no new clients at all.
I stacked the files on top of each other and I was so amazed that I had to take a picture. They go all the way to Barry Bones’ waistline! LOL!
I hope you enjoyed my miracle story. I know it’s different than what I usually send out, but I’ve never actually shared this story publicly before and I really didn’t want to miss a chance to thank God by sharing about His amazing grace. Plus, I knew I would REALLY have fun writing it! And I did! LOL!
Let me close by saying this- You may not be in any type of situation like I was, but just know that even if you are facing something seemingly impossible, if it is the Lord’s will for you to continue, AND you trust Him and do things His way- He WILL make a way. Believe that!
Love and blessings!
Chris
P.S. Have you read some of my other practice miracle stories? If not, here’s a few that you’ll enjoy.
Miracles In the Practice, Part 1: The Miracle of How I Got Started
Miracles in the Practice: The Miracle of 2020
Miracles In the Practice: The Miracle of How I Started My First Practice