Where PALOMA confirms that what you have learned has become something you can use — before you take it onto the floor.
1 chapters · about 28 min to read · everything is open, including the answers
This is for coming back to — before a shift, or with your trainer. The chapter screens are where you work through it the first time.
01Knowledge Readiness
After thisYou show PALOMA that what you have learned is yours.
You have learned the house.
This is where PALOMA checks that it is yours.
Twenty moments, in the order you learned them. About twenty-five minutes, and nothing here is timed.
What counts is the answer you reach for first. You can try again on anything you miss — that is how you learn it — but the first answer is the one recorded, because an assessment you can retry until it is right measures nothing.
Six of the twenty have to be right.
Six of the twenty have to be right rather than mostly right. They are the ones about safety, about what is yours to decide, and about what to do when you do not know. You will not be told which as you go.
And one thing to be clear about before you start. This is about knowing. Being ready to hold the floor on your own is a different thing, it is shown later with your trainer beside you, and nothing you do here decides it.
A guest arrives twenty minutes early, rushed, still on her phone.
What does PALOMA do first?
●Let her land. The service can begin when she has.
Why this one
Yes. Regulation before transformation.
Nothing PALOMA does works on a nervous system that has not arrived yet. This is not a nicety at the front of the visit — it is the order the whole house runs in.
○Start early. She is here, and the room is free.
Efficient, and it skips the part that makes the rest work.
She is not late to anything. Moving her in faster moves her through PALOMA without her ever arriving at it.
○Offer to add something, since there is time.
No. This is the moment PALOMA is least interested in selling.
A guest who is rushed and holding her phone is telling you what she needs, and it is not a second service.
Someone asks you about an experience you have never heard of.
What are the four pillars actually for, standing at the desk?
●They tell you what a new thing is for, so you can describe it before you know the detail.
Why this one
Yes. Regulate · Connect · Beautify · Discover is a map, not a slogan.
Everything PALOMA offers sits under one of them. Knowing which door a thing belongs to means an unfamiliar question is a question about placement, not a gap.
○They are the four categories a guest chooses from when she books.
No — she does not book by pillar, and she will rarely use the words.
The pillars are for you. They are how you place something you have not met before.
○They are the brand's values, and they belong in how PALOMA is described publicly.
They do describe PALOMA, and that is not what they do at the desk.
They are working equipment. When a guest names something you have never heard of, the pillar tells you what kind of thing it is.
A guest is standing in the lobby, unsure where to go.
Two of these are polite. Which one is PALOMA owning the experience?
●“Make yourself comfortable here — I'll come and walk you back when she's ready.”
Why this one
Yes. PALOMA owns the experience around the guest so the guest does not have to.
She now knows where to be, that someone will come, and that it is being held. She was not asked to manage anything.
○“You can wait just through there — she'll come out for you in a few minutes.”
Polite, and it hands her the job.
She is now watching a door. The difference is small and it is the whole standard: the guest should never have to wonder what is next, where to go, or who to ask.
○“Feel free to have a look around while you wait — take your time.”
Warm, and it leaves the question open.
Take your time until when? An invitation without a next step is still something for her to work out.
The phone. A guest who knows what she wants.
“I'd like to book The Healer — whatever you have Thursday.”
What do you say?
●“Happily. There are a few Healers here — were you thinking the massage, the compression, or the sauna?”
Why this one
Yes. You named the rooms, not the prices.
She is not confused and you have not corrected her. Four seconds, and it saves a guest arriving on Thursday for the wrong service.
○“Of course — let me find Thursday for you.”
Warm, and it books the wrong service a good share of the time.
More than one thing at PALOMA is called The Healer. Taking the booking without asking passes the problem to whoever meets her.
○“Which one? They're different prices.”
The right question, reached the wrong way.
Price is not how PALOMA tells its experiences apart, and leading with it turns a choice about what she needs into a choice about what she will spend.
She does not have a name. She has a description of what her friend had.
“It was the one with the warm stones — she said it was incredible.”
What do you ask?
●“Lovely — do you know if your friend was on a table, or in a room on her own?”
Why this one
Yes. You asked about the room, not the name.
A description narrows faster than a name does, because she can answer it — she has heard the story. What she cannot do is pick from a list of services she has never seen.
○“That'll be the salt stone massage — shall I book that?”
It might be. It might be two other things.
You have guessed, warmly and confidently, and she has no way to tell you that you are wrong because she does not know the names either.
○“Do you know what it was called?”
She has already told you she does not.
Asking again puts the work back on her at the moment she was hoping you would take it.
“I'm so tense, but honestly I just want to switch off.”
She has just given you both families. Which do you lead with?
●Ask which she'd rather the hour was about, and say why you're asking.
Why this one
Yes. She gave you relaxing and restorative in one sentence, and only she knows which one today is.
Saying why you are asking is what keeps it from feeling like an interrogation — she can hear that you are choosing between two good things.
○Restorative — tension is a physical thing and that is what the family is for.
Reasonable, and it decides for her.
She said switch off second, and people often put the real thing second. That is worth one question rather than an assumption.
○Relaxing — switching off is what she actually asked for.
Also reasonable, and also a decision you made.
Either could be right. What is wrong is picking without asking, because you have a fifty-fifty chance on the thing she will remember.
Two services sit side by side on the same shelf.
What actually distinguishes them?
●What is added — the warmth, the product, the enhancement.
Why this one
Yes. Two families, then what has been added.
That is the whole structure of PALOMA's bodywork, and it is why you can describe something you have never booked: you know the shape, and you know what has been laid on top of it.
○The length and the price — that is what a guest is choosing between.
That is what she pays, not what she gets.
Duration and price move, and they tell her nothing about which hour is hers.
○The practitioner, and how each one works.
True of any two hours with two different people, and not the difference between two services.
The difference on the menu is what has been added to the same shape.
She is at the shelves on her way out, picking things up and putting them down.
The Edit is organised three ways. Which do you start from?
●By how she feels — the same door you came in through with her.
Why this one
Yes. Shop to integrate.
The Edit is how something continues after she leaves, so it starts where the visit started: with how she is. The other two ways in exist for when she already knows what she is after.
○By what she is looking for — it is the quickest way to something specific.
Right when she has a specific thing in mind, and she is not telling you that.
She is picking things up and putting them down. That is someone who has not decided, and 'what are you looking for' asks her to have decided.
○By collection — the signature ones are the easiest to talk about.
Easiest for you.
A collection is an organising idea, not a need. It is a good second step once you know what kind of afternoon she has had.
A guest says she has been travelling and everything feels heavy and slow.
Which of these could you reasonably bring her toward?
●Something in the bodywork family, and let her therapist take it from there.
Why this one
Yes — and note what you did. You went to a family, not to a diagnosis.
You brought her toward a kind of experience. What her body needs inside it is her therapist's to work out.
●The compression experience, described by what it is rather than what it treats.
Why this one
Yes. More than one answer is right here, and that is the point.
What makes this one right is the second half: described by what it is. The garment, the rhythm, what the hour is like — not what it does inside her.
○Tell her which one is better for circulation after flying.
No. That is a claim, and it is not yours.
You can describe. You cannot prescribe. The moment a recommendation is justified by an effect on her body, you have stepped over the line the whole of Course 05 is about.
●Ask what she is hoping to feel afterwards, before naming anything at all.
Why this one
Yes, and arguably first.
The fastest route to the right experience is usually a question. Heavy and slow after travelling could be four different afternoons.
Three of these are right and they are right in different ways — one routes to a family, one describes without claiming, one slows down and asks. The one that is wrong is the one that sounds the most helpful.
She is choosing between two things she has never had, and asks you the difference.
Which difference is always safe to give?
●What she does, and what is done to her.
Why this one
Yes. It is true of every family on the map, and it is never a claim.
In one she participates; in the other she is worked on. That single distinction answers more guest questions than any amount of detail, and you can give it about anything without going near what it does to her body.
○Which one is more popular.
It tells her what other people chose, not what either thing is.
And it quietly recommends — popularity is a nudge wearing a fact's clothing.
○Which one is gentler.
Careful. Gentle compared with what, and for whom?
That is a judgment about her body, even when it sounds like a description of the service.
She booked a facial. At check-in she mentions, lightly, that it has been a hard few months.
Read the moment first, then answer it.
“I just need to not think for an hour, honestly.”
This one is a feel rather than a fact — it is done on the screen, with the sliders.
One question does more work at the desk than any other.
“What are you hoping to feel when you leave?” — why that one?
●Because a feeling points at an experience, and a symptom points at a diagnosis.
Why this one
Yes. It is the question that keeps you inside your role while getting you the most useful answer.
Ask what hurts and you are collecting clinical information you cannot act on. Ask how she wants to leave and she hands you the thing you can actually guide with.
○Because it is warmer than asking what is wrong.
It is warmer, and that is not why it works.
It works because of what it gets you — an answer you are allowed to act on.
○Because guests rarely know what service they want.
Often true, and it is not what the question is for.
It is not a way around her indecision. It is a way to stay in your scope while finding the right hour.
You can see three things that would suit her.
How many does she hear?
●One, with the reason. The others exist if that one doesn't land.
Why this one
Yes. One suggestion, one reason, and a door she can walk back through.
Three options is not generosity — it is handing her the decision you were supposed to help with. One with a reason is guidance; she can always say no, and then you have somewhere to go.
○All three, so she can choose what suits her.
It feels respectful and it lands as a menu.
She came to you because she did not want to compare three things. Options without a reason are work.
○Two, so it does not feel like you are pushing one.
Better, and still a comparison.
The thing that stops one suggestion feeling like pressure is the reason attached to it, not a second option beside it.
Four ways to hand over the same recommendation.
PALOMA's verbs are soft. Which of these is actually a command?
●“You'll want to book this before the weekend — they go quickly.”
Why this one
Yes, and it is the one that sounds most like helpful advice.
Two things are happening: you told her what she wants, and you added urgency. PALOMA does not use urgency language, and you'll want to is an instruction wearing a favour's clothing.
○“If you'd like to hold a time, I'm happy to — no rush either way.”
That is the invitation. Soft verb, no urgency, and a genuine way out.
○“I'd start with the sixty, and see how it sits.”
A recommendation with a reason and a door left open. That is guiding.
Four things happen in one afternoon. One of them is not yours.
Which of these must leave your hands?
●A guest asks whether a treatment is safe with a medication she takes.
Why this one
Yes, and this one is not close.
No amount of confidence in the room is clinical authority — not yours, not a colleague's, not the most experienced therapist on the floor. It leaves your hands, someone qualified answers it, and that is not slowness. It is the only honest route.
○A guest asks how long a service runs. You have booked it many times.
This one is yours — with a condition.
It is yours because you can look it up, not because you remember it. Something you can check is yours; something you can only recall is a guess wearing a confident voice.
○A guest wants to move her appointment an hour later and the book allows it.
Yours, and straightforwardly so.
The book is the authority and you can read it. Handing this on would send a guest away to wait for a yes you can already see.
○A guest is unhappy that her usual therapist was not available.
Yours to hold, at least first.
Disappointment is not an escalation. Hear it, take it seriously, and escalate only if it becomes larger than a feeling you can meet.
Four sentences said at the desk this week. Three are fine.
Which one has crossed something?
●“It'll help balance your hormones.”
Why this one
Yes. That is a promise about her body, and PALOMA does not make it.
It is not softened by being well meant or by being something you have heard said. Possibility or promise — this is a promise, about a mechanism, to a person who may act on it.
○“I can tell you what the sauna is and what people come to it for.”
Inside your scope, precisely. What it is, and what people come to it for — described, not explained.
○“That's amethyst. It's traditionally associated with calm.”
Fine. Tradition named as tradition is one of the five kinds of statement PALOMA uses, and it is not dressed up as fact.
○“I don't want to guess at that one — let me find out properly.”
Always fine, and it costs you nothing.
Four things you might hear in a shift.
Which of these go to a manager?
●A guest mentions a reaction on her skin after her last visit.
Why this one
Yes. Safety and health. It does not matter how mild it sounds or how long ago it was — that family goes, every time.
●A guest says something dismissive about another guest's appearance.
Why this one
Yes. Guest conduct. You are not required to handle it, and you should not try to; you bring a manager in.
○A guest is disappointed that her preferred room was not free.
Yours to hold. Disappointment is not one of the four families — meet it, and escalate only if it becomes something larger.
○A guest asks whether you can hold a booking while she checks a date.
Yours. An ordinary request you can answer from the book.
Two of the four families in one shift — safety and health, and guest conduct. The other two are policy and financial authority, and service and experience failure. You only have to notice which family something belongs to; the deciding is not yours.
You have just said “I don't know.”
What has to come after it?
●Who does know — her doctor, her own provider, or someone qualified here.
Why this one
Yes. “I don't know” on its own is a door closing.
With a destination attached it is the most trustworthy thing you can say, and she leaves the conversation with somewhere to go rather than with your uncertainty.
○An apology — she asked a fair question and you could not answer it.
There is nothing to apologise for.
Apologising for a boundary makes the boundary look like a failing. It is the system working.
○Your best guess, clearly marked as a guess.
No. A guess marked as a guess is still the thing she will remember and repeat.
Marking it does not make it safe to say.
A guest is standing in front of you. You do not know the answer.
“Is there anything on Thursday afternoon, and what does it run?”
Where does this answer live?
●The booking system, every time — and I check it in front of her rather than remembering.
Why this one
Yes, and the second half is the part that matters.
Availability and price move. Something you can look at is yours; something you can only recall is a guess wearing a confident voice.
Where the rest of it lives:
· What a service is, and how it differs from another — Reference.
· Anything about her body — her therapist, or someone qualified.
· Something not written down anywhere yet — your manager. A hold in Reference will tell you plainly when that is so.
Stop. Confirm. Escalate. You will use stop a hundred times more often than escalate — that is not a failure rate, it is the system working.
○Reference — it has every service PALOMA offers.
Reference is the right instinct for the wrong question.
Reference holds what PALOMA knows; the booking system holds what is true today. She asked about a Thursday and a price, and both move.
○I would tell her what it was last time I booked it, and confirm later.
No — and this is the most tempting wrong answer on the page.
It is fast, it is friendly, and it is how you become confidently wrong. A number said out loud to a guest has been promised.
○Ask my manager, so I am not guessing.
Careful rather than wrong — and it spends someone else's time on something you can see yourself.
Your manager is for what is not written down anywhere yet.
A guest has collapsed in the lobby. There are three of you nearby.
What is the first thing that happens?
●911 is called, someone stays with her, and the Manager on Duty is brought.
Why this one
Yes. Respond. Stabilize or escalate. Notify. Document. Follow up — and the first three happen almost at once.
The person first, then the paperwork. Nobody waits to find out whose job it is.
○Find the Manager on Duty, so the right person is making the call.
No — and this is the careful-sounding wrong answer.
Looking for someone is time she does not have. Notifying happens alongside responding, not before it.
○Move her somewhere private, away from the other guests.
No. Moving someone who has collapsed is not yours to decide, and the instinct to protect the room is coming before the person.
The space is managed after she is.
○Write down exactly what happened while it is fresh.
That comes, and it comes fourth.
Document is a step, and it is not the first one.
Someone at a dinner asks what PALOMA is.
In your own words. Two or three sentences — however you would actually say it.
This one is not marked, and the models are not answers. Words can vary. Intention cannot.
If yours sounds different from both of these and passes the four checks, yours is better — because it is yours.
ONE WAY
It's a wellness house — bodywork, sound, skin, that kind of thing. But the whole idea is that you settle first and everything else follows from that. It doesn't feel like a spa.
ANOTHER WAY
Somewhere you go to come back to yourself. There's a domed room for gatherings, a hallway full of crystals, and a lot of quiet. The treatments are the part people book; the calm is the part they come back for.
HUMAN?
Does it sound like you, out loud, to a person — or like something read off a card?
TRUE?
Is every part of it something PALOMA would stand behind?
GROUNDED?
Did you say what it is, not only how it feels?
WITHIN YOUR ROLE?
Did you promise anything about what PALOMA would do for their body?
That is the twenty.
What this confirmed: that you know PALOMA, that you can tell its experiences apart, that you can hear what someone came for, and that you know where to look when you do not know.
What it did not confirm is the floor.
What it did not confirm is the floor. Holding a day on your own — a real one, which will not be tidy — is shown with your trainer beside you, later, and it is a different thing from this.
Anything that went wrong is worth an hour, not a worry. Below is where to go back to, and you can take this again whenever you are ready.
What this confirmed: that you know PALOMA, that you can tell its experiences apart, that you can hear what someone came for, and that you know where you stop.
What it did not confirm is the floor. Holding a real day — which will not be tidy — is shown with your trainer beside you.
Anything that went wrong is worth an hour, not a worry. You can take this again whenever you are ready.
