Ignite Your Reiki Business - Overcoming Energetic & Business Hurdles with Kathleen LeBlanc

Welcome to "Ignite Your Reiki Business," where we empower you to harmonize energy and strategy to create a flourishing Reiki practice. In this introductory episode, we dive into our upcoming 3-week marketing intensive, "The Reiki Business Course." We designed this course to help Reiki practitioners navigate the sometimes overwhelming waters of establishing a successful business.

Throughout our discussion, we'll address common energetic and business obstacles that could be hindering your Reiki practice's growth. We'll explore how to channel your energy, focus your intention, and create a sustainable marketing strategy that connects with your ideal clients. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to elevate your existing practice, this podcast will provide you with valuable insights and tools to help you break through barriers and achieve your business goals.

Join us as we blend the spiritual with the practical, creating a bridge between the ethereal world of Reiki and the grounded realm of business. It's time to ignite your Reiki business and let your healing light shine brighter than ever. Stay tuned, and let's embark on this journey together.

Sign up for the Reiki Business Course:
https://www.hiddenbrook.ca/event/reiki-business-course-3-week-marketing-intensive/2023-06-12/

Listen to this podcast to learn more about the shadow self:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1364386/7990018

Check out Colleen Benelli's "The Spirit of Your Reiki Business" article:
http://reikilifestyle.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The_Spirit_of_Your_Reiki_Business.pdf


Kathleen LeBlanc, a biologist, yogi, Reiki Master, self-proclaimed world traveler, and fervent spiritual enthusiast, has recently embarked on a profound transformation, veering away from her scientific origins to pursue her ultimate calling: marketing and business.  Throughout her extensive travels, Kathleen discovered a remarkable talent for content creation, igniting a realization that she possessed the power to catalyze meaningful change by empowering spiritual businesses with unparalleled marketing strategies and compelling content.

Currently, Kathleen collaborates closely with Pam as they forge ahead in creating the transformative Reiki Business Course, driven by an unwavering desire to empower individuals in spreading the radiant light of Reiki across the globe.

Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, a businesswoman, and a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher (LRMT) with the International Center for Reiki Training.  She is the author of "The Reiki Business Book" and a co-author of ICRT Animal Reiki training.  Pam teaches Reiki, Animal Reiki, and Animal Communication online and in person in Canada, the US, and Australia.

A special thanks goes out to Music from Pixabay for the intro music and to Nate Miller for the meditation music. 

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pam@reikifromthefarm.com

Transcript

Pam: 0:07

Hi and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm podcast brought to you by me, Pam Allen LeBlanc from Hidden Brook Farm. I am a scientist, a businesswoman, and a licensed Reiki master teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. Each week in this podcast, you'll be entertained as you learn about a wide variety of relevant Reiki topics, helping you become a more knowledgeable and effective Reiki practitioner. We caution you, though, this podcast may also dramatically improve your life, and we are so happy that you're here. Okay, guys, so we're recording now on this week's podcast and in this month's Reiki share, Kathleen and I are introducing a new Reiki business course that We think it's going to be really helpful to a lot of people. Kathleen is my daughter. She's here with me today. And she is has been helping me amp up my own marketing abilities. And we decided we'd like to share a lot of what we learn with you. So we're going to be talking a little bit about the course that's coming up. The main thing we're going to then switch into is talking about the obstacles that a lot of people face when they either want to start a Reiki business, or maybe they just even want to get Reiki a little bit more out there, or a little bit more present in their lives, or in what they do. And so we're going to do talk about the obstacles, and then we're going Go into. powerful meditation that helps you release those obstacles. So we're so glad that you're here. So keep an eye out for the course. We will be putting a link in the ReikiShare chat and we will also be putting a link in the podcast notes. And for those of you that are here for the Reiki share, the first five of you that sign up will get a free signed book. So we'd love to, to have you join us if it speaks to you. Before we begin, I will just let you know about some classes that we have coming up this summer. I'm teaching a level one and two and master class in Campobello, which is just off the coast of Maine. It's a beautiful island that my husband and I have lost our heart to where our vacation home is. And if you can join us for that class, we will also be going out whale watching afterward. At the end of July and beginning of August, I will be teaching Animal Reiki level one and two, followed by a unique Animal Reiki Master, in the sense that the Animal Reiki Master will be held in the evenings, so that students from Asia and Australia can join us and share their experience. People who maybe come in person. They're all in person as well as online. People who come in person might have the whole day to explore the island before we do the class in the evening. So please join us for that if it speaks to you. And then in September, I will be having Level 1 and Animal Reiki, Level 1 and 2, and Masters in the Atlantic time zone, both online and in person. And in October, Here at the farm, we've got the full range of classes. I'll also be speaking at the International Reiki Retreat in Arizona about ways to bring more Reiki and integrate more Reiki into your daily life and into your work that you're already doing. Would love to see you there if that speaks to you as well. And before we get... Too far in. I'd just like to invite everybody to bring your hands into gassho and just go ahead and activate your Reiki symbols now and breathe. Just noticing the divine light that surrounds you, the divine beings, the brothers and sisters of the light, the angels, the archangels, the divine animal kingdom, and noticing the divine light within you. And just asking yourself now, are you ready to begin sharing that divine light, your beautiful soul? And if you are, we're going to lead you in a meditation today that releases all of the obstacles, hopefully, that are holding you back, and you can listen to it as often as you need. For right now, I just invite you to be willing to let those obstacles go. We don't need to do anything to earn the assistance of Reiki. We just have to be willing to allow Reiki to assist us. So we ask the Reiki energy now, please guide me and heal me so that I might be of greater service to myself and to others. Please show me the next steps, the steps forward. Then we say thank you to the energy. To each other, each group is divinely ordered. We were all meant to be here together today. Whether you're listening after the fact on the podcast or you're here with us in person, we are all of one mind. Reiki has healed us and we are in a place now when we are ready to share it with others, whatever form that may take. We are blessed to be of a lineage of light bringers creating wellness on the earth today. And we say just for today, I will not worry about this. I will be kind. I will be devoted to my work. I will not anger and I will be filled with gratitude. Thank you. Namaste. So guys. You've been asking, people have been asking us to mentor them especially after the Reiki business book came out. The Reiki business book, for those of you who don't know, some of you know this story, but some of you may not. In March of 2020, do you guys all remember what happened in March of 2020 when borders closed and so on? I had just finished teaching a Reiki class in London, England. And the Monday morning after the class, it wound up being a small class because of course, the world went crazy a few days before the class and my beautiful students had to back out and I understood that. And Katie's just saying that her cat came into the office drawn to the Reiki energy that happens a lot. And so in March of 2020, I was in Heathrow airport on a Monday morning after teaching Reiki to my host. I stayed and taught the gentleman that was hosting the class. And then afterwards, I asked him if he would get me to the airport very early Monday morning and he did. And Reiki, I'm grateful that I did do that, even though Reiki did tell me not to go about. Nine times and nine times I ignored it. But I am grateful that I went because Reiki had a huge impact on his life after that. And he's a good friend of mine and my husband's and we're so grateful that it did. He got me to the airport very early, 5 a. m. I was the second person in line to see about getting my tickets changed. And I was on Facebook, FaceTime with my husband who was freaking out. And I could see everybody in the airport. There was chaos all around me. People were freaking out. People have been telling me they've been trying to get their ticket changed for three days and they couldn't get home and so on. Some of them were from Canada. Some of them were from everywhere. Vacations had been cut short and people were really upset and agitated and worried, really. There was a lot of worry. And my husband said, how are you so calm right now? He was upset. And I said, I don't know. I had to think about it. And I went, Oh, Frankie. Reiki is why I was so calm. And that really called my attention to the chaos around me. And I remembered that Colleen Benelli, who is my mentor, who I worked with in the licensed teacher program, Colleen had said once in a meeting that I was in, My dream is for every family to have a Reiki practitioner in it. And for children to know, young people to know, that Reiki is a viable career. Opportunity or alternative and or possibility, and I remember thinking, wow, Colleen, that's so sweet. But I felt that it was very, not practical, like it would never happen. Except as I looked at the chaos around me, I said, my goodness, she's right. every family. We didn't have the context to understand what happened during COVID or what could happen. And I realized she was right. Every family needed. a Reiki practitioner in it. And as a teacher, a Reiki teacher, I suddenly became overwhelmed because I really got I got a nudge. I got a feeling that I was supposed to help. And I said, but I'm just one teacher. What can I do? And the energy was very clear. That I was one teacher, but I was a teacher with an MBA who had been a very successful businesswoman, and I still had difficulty bringing business principles into my Reiki business. It took me 10 years to sort out the difficulties that I had. Around that. And the energy said, if you had that much trouble, given your background, imagine the people that don't have that background. And I thought, Oh my gosh, that's true. If I had so much trouble bringing business principles into my business and I know what they are and I know how to do it and I'm good at it. What do people who don't know about this do? How do they, and I realized I needed to help them. And the energy said, you know what? You are a licensed teacher with the international center for Reiki training. You've done an additional thousand hours of training to become extremely proficient at what you do. You're in a leadership position between that and your business background. You need to teach the teachers. So I immediately knew I was to help other Reiki masters develop their businesses so that they could teach Reiki. Because even though so many of us are very reluctant to bring Reiki and business together, it has a historical precedent. Yasui, when he came down from the mountain, what did he do? He immediately opened a school, a Gakkai, a business to share Reiki with others. What did Dr. Hayashi do? When he wanted to spread Reiki and share it with others, he opened a business. What did Mrs. Takada do? She opened a business. Business is a universal language and it gives the recipient of Reiki an opportunity to give back and to participate in their own healing. So business is a very efficient way to share Reiki with others and, a lot of us struggle with accepting money, but right from the beginning, we accepted money. You took out a membership. in his school. That was what you did. You became a member and you met, you got together and met regularly and meditated and eventually Yasui sensei understood how to do attunements and so that's what happened. But the business has been the way of sharing Reiki from the beginning. Now I started A course called the Reiki Master Mentor, where Reiki Masters came together, and it was partly, guided by what people let me know that they needed help with, partly guided by Reiki and Source, and together, and then partly guided by my experiences and how I had overcome certain obstacles and things. But in the first course, I knew that it needed to become a book, because if so it could reach more people and so that we could spread our light. I really struggled with marketing and I was asking the group that's with me in person what their biggest obstacles were and one a couple of people said marketing is an obstacle. I was just talking today with my Karuna Reiki class that I'm teaching about The shadow cell and in Karuna Reiki, there used to be some work we did around our shadow self, which is if there's a person or an animal or an event that's really driving you crazy or really bugging you, it's because there's. Something in you that relates to that or that identifies that with that. And when I went to my Karuna Reiki class, and we were going to be working on Shadow Cell, At first, I couldn't think of Any person that really got under my skin or got on my nerves. I really, there was nobody that I could think of. When the kids became teenagers, I would have had a list, but before that I could not, they were still young at that point. I couldn't think of anyone. And then I remembered I had a horse named cloud and. Cloud was my most talented, most beautiful, strongest, most sensitive, most athletic horse in my whole herd. And she wasn't doing anything. She refused to do riding lessons. She refused to have beginners ride her because she had a very sensitive back. She was just loafing around and everybody else, every other horse in the herd was paying for her hay. And she was the one with the most talent. And so it really bugged me that she wasn't living up to her potential. And I went, Oh, there's a shadow self. There's something I can work with. Because she really annoys me. And what you do when there is somebody that really annoys you, you write about what it is about them that really annoys you. And then you realize there must be something in me, in my shadow self that relates to that. Or else that person or that horse or that event wouldn't annoy me and as I wrote about what annoyed me, I realized, Oh, it annoys me that she has all this talent and all this ability, and she's not living up to her potential. And so I actually connected with her and communicated with her and I said, this really annoys me about you. And I was a little bit confused about, okay, what is it in me that's similar to that? I couldn't figure it out. Fortunately, I had animal communication. So I connected with cloud by animal communication. And I said, Cloud, I'm a little lost. What is it in me? And she knew right away. She let me have it. She said, you know what? You have an MBA. Your focus in your MBA was marketing and your website has sat under construction for two and a half years. And she said the work you do, the work we do is important. And you playing small is not helping anybody. And she basically showed me that I wasn't living up to my potential. She further went on, because she was rather opinionated, like me she further went on to say that you pretty much had to be standing right beside me to know when I was holding a class or a clinic. And smarten up. And do your marketing. And she was right. I thought, my God, she's right. I'm not living up to my potential. I'm not sharing Reiki. It is important. I know it's important. It changed my life. It can change other people's lives. Why am I playing small? I know how to do this. So I actually, what was really interesting, I came home and I completed the website that's there now. The one, this was 10 years ago. This was in 2013, the first time I studied Karuna Reiki. May of 2013, I immediately came home and I finished my website and do you know what? She immediately went to work. She found a beautiful person that leased her and she went to work and we both started living up to our potential. And she's doing incredible things. Distance rides she's seen Sofia. Her person through a lot. She's actually come a long way. Now fast forward to now, 2023. It's just over May 5th was the one year anniversary of the Reiki Business Book going live. It actually went live on Sanco de Mayo. The Reiki Business Book is Not losing ground. It's gaining traction every month. There are more and more sales of the book and that makes me delighted because more and more people are that means that they're stepping forward with their businesses. But I actually stalled out a little with my own marketing. And so what happened was Kathleen came in. She had created, she had started her own company Elevate Copy and Content. I never know if it's copy and content or content and copy. Copy and content. I have to keep looking it up. And she said, mom, I'm a copywriter and it's really hard to write about yourself. I can help you. So I said, you know what I'm gonna hire you. There was a little bit of argument before she said she was gonna hug you. That is true. I wasn't gonna bring that up. There might have been a little argument. I was like, no, I'm fine. I have an mba. I know how to do. Yeah, I know. At this point, I'm going to interject and say only a little. Only a little. All the stories you always tell us about how you have to argue before you fold. I do often argue before I realize oh, that's a very good idea. I do the exact same thing though. So Kathleen is my daughter and when she came home from her tour of Europe she had started this company and she was doing writing blogs and articles and marketing content for companies all over the world and she goes, Mom, I can help you. You don't have enough time. So you're right, Marissa. It was only a little argument though, wasn't it? Yeah, it was a little bit. It took you like maybe a week to come around. That's not bad for me, Marissa. That's a Pretty good for me. But actually what happened was she got involved and then the two of us it freed me up so that the both of us could really dig in to the marketing. And we basically took The chapter five of the Reiki business book, which is the marketing chapter to another level. And what we decided was that, you know what people have been asking us to asking me to create some sort of mentoring. around the Reiki business book. And at first I was thinking like, okay, I have to have them for 18 months and we have to do a year commitment and we'll go chapter by chapter. And then I always check in with the energy and the energy said, no, just do a chapter at a time. And people will join the chapters that they need and they'll leave out the chapter, and then they'll leave out the chapters that they don't need. Let people choose what they need help with. And I thought that was a fantastic idea. So I asked Kathleen look, can we, I think the thing that people need help with the most and the thing that we've learned the most about recently and taken so much further than what we were able to do when at, a year ago when I originally wrote the Reiki business book with Kathleen's help and learning with new technology and so on. Was we really moved marketing forward and we thought, huh, if we could offer a three week marketing intensive three evenings, three and a half hours long each of pure Reiki business marketing. Then, people could, if we offered it in June, right away, people could then work on their marketing over the summer. Just take what we, we'll have recordings, people can download the recordings, we'll send you, if you don't have the Rickey Business Book, we're going to send you a free copy of Chapter 5, that's a, so that you can read that ahead of the course and just get your mind wrapped around marketing a little bit. Then we figured you could work on your marketing over the summer. And by fall nobody people don't really book sessions and move forward that much during the summer. We're busy and barbecues and family reunions and weddings and get togethers. But that way you could work on it through the summer and by the fall. You'd be ready to hit the ground running. So I'm going to invite Kathleen to introduce herself now you all know me as the author of the Reiki business book you know that I. Have a business background and primarily in marketing. But I'd like to let her introduce herself and just tell you a little bit about the course.

Kathleen: 22:52

Yeah. Hi everybody. I'm Kathleen, but people call me cats sometimes. Some of you might already know me. Some of you have known me since I was about six years old as tall through my mom growing up with my mom. The Reiki guru spirituality and Reiki were very common in our household. Last year when I had this crazy adventure where I traveled the world and I taught yoga and I cooked up a storm in Austria and I had the best time. And then eventually, at a certain point when you're traveling and having a good time, you do tend to run out of money. And so at one point I was scratching my head. I was wondering how I could make ends meet traveling and not have to go home right away. And that's when I stumbled upon copywriting. And content writing. I've always loved to write. I used to want to be a famous writer when I grew up. I actually have many novels. They're not published. They're all about unicorns. I wrote them when I was seven or eight. But then I grew up and I stopped writing. I actually went to school for biology and I probably went spent way too much time staring into a microscope. But to be fair, I really loved everything that I learned and I found the sciences to be just a little bit too restrictive and repetitive and I didn't want to be stuck in a lab. And I wanted to be more creative. I wanted to learn more about spirituality. And I realized that with marketing, I had an opportunity to serve others and help people start or grow their spiritual businesses. I have clients in the yoga space. I have clients in the massage space clients in the Reiki space, obviously, as well. And I'm just absolutely loving every moment of it. So I'm telling you this because I've seen firsthand the magic of When Reiki and marketing joined forces especially, like mom, sorry, this is Kathleen's dog. She likes to be a part of everything. She likes to be the center of attention. So that's what's going on right now. So yeah, no, basically I know how scary business can be. I am self taught but I took lots of courses, and I really enjoy it, and I think that I have a really unique perspective being in it. Amanda said that I've been incubated the very beginning, which is, I think, a really good way to describe it. So yeah we just wanted to create something that would help with business overwhelm. I'm sorry, Kathleen's dog is being very distracted. No, that's all right. I shouldn't laugh, but she's being really cute right now. I wish you guys could see her. So yeah, no, like my mom said, she noticed that a lot of her students were struggling with this thing that was dubbed business overwhelm. I really like that term for it because I think that's truly what it is. And being the boss lady that she is, she obviously took it upon herself to write the So yeah, and the course that we are talking about running. This June. Yeah. And a couple of weeks and a couple of weeks, June 12th. It's very soon. So in this course, we're basically going to take a deep dive into identifying ideal clients, establishing your unique value propositions establishing your online presence that can speak to your audience. We're going to explore content marketing. So that's blogs or, like online content. So videos and things like that. So we'll explore a little bit of that. We're going to talk about strategic networking, online advertising, and all of this is going to be tailored to the Reiki community. So it's just, yeah, it's really different from, I think, any other marketing you will ever see, or marketing course you'll ever see out there. We're going to teach you a little bit about AI, too. I was going to say, yeah. How we can leverage it to help us. Yeah, so AI, I, we love AI. I, AI tells me what I'm doing. It's like my personal assistant. It helps me write every once in a while when I'm having to write stuff. Yeah. And yeah, we just, we want to talk a little bit about that. We just have found that it streamlines things, makes things much more efficient and easier. And we'll also talk about other tools like MailChimp and things like WordPress and even, Squarespace and different things like that. We'll touch on those briefly. And just to talk about all of the tools that you can use each section, there will be a meditation to help you integrate. What you've learned or what we talk about and to just help you move forward. And so even though we're going to cover a lot, because we want to give you a ton of value for this we also want you to then take your time going through section by section so that it isn't overwhelming. And so the meditation should help everything integrate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be like. Yeah so yeah, as my mom also mentioned, should I call you Pam? I don't know. It feels weird. That's weird. You can just say more. I think I can say mom. So yeah, like my mom said at the beginning we are also offering a free copy of the Reiki business. book for anybody who would like to sign up after this Reiki Share. So it's for anybody who was at this Reiki Share for the first ten, I think we said. We said five, but we can make it ten. Okay. We've been flip flopping. It's become ten, so the first ten from this Reiki Share who decide to sign up we will be sending you a signed copy of the book, awesome. Yeah, so I'll see you there. Yeah, you guys can, you can check it out on the website. You can look in a calendar or under courses. And you know what, Kathleen, why don't you just drop the link Yeah. To it, into the chat for the people that are here. And we will put the link in the podcast as well. Yeah. That's my spiel. Great. All done.

Pam: 28:52

Thank you Kathleen. We hope to see you there and I'd like to talk now a little bit with you about obstacles and then After that, I will, I'd like to lead you in a meditation. Oh, great question. So the question in the chat is what time will that be in Australia. We specifically did that did the class from 7pm until 1030pm, so that it is later morning in Australia, we really wanted to do an evening class. So that hopefully our Australian students can join and it's once a week on a Monday from 7:00 PM Atlantic time, 6:00 PM Eastern Time, and I believe Marissa, that would be 9:00 AM for three and a half hours on a Monday morning once a week. So Kathleen just dropped in the chat the link to. Learn more about the class and to sign up if you would like to. So thank you. And if there's any other questions, by all means, let us know. So I want to start off talking now about obstacles and releasing the obstacles to your business success. And I can go ahead and let you off spotlight, Kathleen, if you'd like. And and chapter three, releasing the obstacles to your business success. I'd like to share a quote with you from my dear friend, Tracy Sullivan. When I started to believe in myself, relax within myself and release and overcome these obstacles. My life became easier and more aligned with what I truly want. As I was creating the Reiki Business Book, the energy was very clear that not everybody needs to do sessions and classes like I do. Some people can, and if that's right for them, that's absolutely great. But other people... are going to maybe want to incorporate Reiki into their art, into their law practices into their management positions, into a myriad of things. And this we want to support you regardless of how you want to bring more Reiki forward. The number of obstacles, though, that sometimes get in our way is enormous. And the main obstacle to getting started is actually getting started. When you're ready to get going, a lot of layers are going to come up to be healed, and that's important because then we can work on our business, not from a place of fear, not from a place of lack, but we can work on our business from a place of love, trust trust in the abundance. of the universe, trust in ourselves, trust in Reiki. So let me just run through for you. Once you do decide to get started, and if you're here right now, you've taken the first step, you've started. So you've got past that obstacle, that main obstacle. So now let me share some other obstacles that sometimes come up. Do I know enough to become a Reiki practitioner teacher? What if I fail? What if I succeed? Who am I to think I can do this? Is it okay to charge money for doing something so spiritual? Will anybody even show up? Will they want to see me? This is so complicated. I'm completely overwhelmed. I don't have business skills. Am I the right person to do this? Do I have the right talents? Do I have the gifts? I don't have clairvoyance. Can I still do this? Should I even try? What if people think Reiki's weird? What if they think I'm weird? What if it's not acceptable? What if I get judged? What if people make fun of me? What if I can't answer their questions? Can I make a living doing this? Should I make a living doing this? Who am I to be a Reiki master, a practitioner, a healer? These are some of the things that show up for all of us. We have, we all struggle a little bit with imposter syndrome. We all say wait a minute, I'm not perfect. You know what guys, if A Reiki master needed to be perfect or a Reiki practitioner needed to be perfect to practice or to teach, there'd be nobody doing it. I certainly wouldn't be. Any of these things that show up can be overcome, and I'd like to help you overcome them today. One of the common obstacles, really common, is money. I struggled with that. I really struggled to accept money when I was doing Reiki sessions. Oddly, I could understand the need to accept money for Reiki classes because I knew in order for my students to gain all that they needed to gain out of the class, they needed to pay a fair value. And I actually observed some people that offered really inexpensive Reiki classes. And, that was what they were worth. Their students didn't come out with a great understanding of Reiki or a great education. And I realized that you get out of something what you put into it. For classes, I understood. A need to charge money and actually as a teacher, you'll often get people that say, Oh I'm really struggling financially. Can you give me a discount on the class? And at first I used to, I did. I thought, Oh, sure. You're struggling financially. I can give you a discount. What I noticed was the people that I gave a discount to. Didn't get as much out of the class as the people who paid full price. And I didn't tell anybody that I gave them a discount. They didn't tell anybody, but I could literally see that they just didn't gain as much from the class. They didn't appreciate the class as much. They still struggled in their lives, whereas the people. Who paid full value didn't and it really made me ponder what's happening here. This isn't doesn't make sense. I didn't want them to get less from the class. They didn't want to get less from the class. Reiki wouldn't punish anybody like what is happening here. And what showed up through Reiki was that I was enabling their poverty mentality by giving them. a lower price or lower fee for the class. I wasn't helping them realize that they were worth just as much as everybody else who was in the class. I was enabling that poverty mentality. And when I realized that, I said, wow, I, I don't want to help people stay in a poverty mentality anymore. I know that it's just a state of mind. I don't want to encourage that. And so I made a decision that I would, I'm happy to take payments and I'm not even real fussy if the payments aren't complete by the time the class happens, that's all right as well. But I stopped offering. Discounts to anybody is no, but I'll take payments. And I've noticed since I've stopped enabling the poverty mentality of the people that say, Oh, I really want to work with you, but I can't afford it. everybody's getting as, from the class what they need to. So it made a really big difference. So I did understand that need for a person to contribute to the class, to get out of it what they needed to right from the beginning. But With sessions in my mind, I kept thinking, for the same price as three sessions, you could do a level one class and you would get so much more value. And so I didn't value the sessions and people would show up for my sessions and they'd ask what they owed me afterwards. And I'd say, that's all right. You don't owe me anything. And it made them very uncomfortable and they didn't come back. And in the first I taught like crazy as I came home because I just believed in Reiki so much and I wanted to share it, but I probably did six sessions in the first year that I had Reiki. And then I listened to a presentation that William Rand gave at a Reiki retreat and he said, If you don't allow people to contribute to their healing through some form of payment, and it can be barter or whatever, as long as it's a fair barter. He's, it's not like a five dollar value for a session, which would normally cost between 90 and 120 dollars. He said if you don't allow people to contribute through payment or fair barter, You're taking a balance of power over people. And I felt awful. I thought, I don't want to take a balance of power over people. So his suggestion was, if you struggle with receiving money for Reiki, work on that. Send Reiki to that every day and heal that. Because it's only when that is healed, it's only when you become comfortable with that, that your clients become comfortable with that, and that everybody gets the value for what they what they do. So what I'm going to invite you, those of you who are listening, as I go through the obstacles, I'd like you to write down the ones that, if you think I resemble that, that sounds like me, write it down because that is one of your obstacles. And what I'd like to do after our meditation is just check in and see how we did, what percentage Of each of those obstacles remain and if it's a pretty high percentage, then go back and listen to this again as many times as it takes until the obstacles are at zero or in a place that feels comfortable to you, you might be comfortable with okay, I'm 20% uncomfortable with money. I have a 20% obstacle with money, and if that's the case, that's fine. There's another obstacle that tends to show up for people, and it's confidence. Confidence usually goes hand in hand with fear and the unhealed ego. The unhealed ego uses fear as its instrument, and that prevents us from having confidence in ourselves, in what we're doing, and sometimes we don't even have confidence in Reiki. The only way to gain confidence, though, is practice. And I tell my students, my level one and two students in particular, I say, go and practice on everything that will hold still for you. If there's a tree and it says, sure, I'll take Reiki, practice on it. A dog, a fish, a blade of grass, a person, a child, whatever. Practice practice. I'm a very skeptical person by nature. I, like Kathleen, I'm a scientist before I was a businesswoman, and I, that scientific mind always wants proof. I need proof. I need proof. I need proof. The only way to get proof is to practice and you will start gathering proof and you'll start gathering proof that no matter how skeptical you are you can't ignore and when you do that then that makes it a lot easier going forward so go ahead and practice for free go ahead and offer sessions for next to nothing if it helps if it's going to give you practice or for nothing if it's going to give you practice until you really get A lot of practice and you begin to feel more confident. I struggled so much with that need for proof that I actually used to work with the goddess as my guide, the female aspect of God, the earth, Gaia, mother whatever name you want to use. And as I would do Reiki, a Reiki session or Reiki for a situation or whatever I was Reiki for my horses, for myself, whatever I was doing, I'd always say, if something just happened, if something's really happening, could you please show me some proof? And I would get remarkable proof. And then one day I asked that question, I said, if something just happened right now in this session, can you give me some proof? And the Reiki energy said, daughter, I have given you proof 386 times. It is time for you to have some faith. And so I realized that was actually true. And I was able to to realize, yeah, 386 times is a lot of proof together. I think that, even with the scientific method that would accept that. And and Mary said she's worked with the Marine Corps and it's practice makes perfect. I taught 4 H and it was learned to do by doing. And my husband brings that up all the time, learn to do by doing. So just practice and gather your evidence. The confidence will come and you can give yourself, give your ego, give that unhealed ego some Reiki, give the fear Reiki and release it. Confidence will come. Okay. Another thing is people sometimes think that because they don't have a lot of intuition, they can't practice Reiki or they can't move forward. That's fine. You don't have to be dialed into your intuition. One of the most powerful Reiki masters, a couple of the most powerful Reiki masters I know, and aren't dialed into their intuition at all. One of them says, Pam, I feel nothing when I do Reiki. And I said, how can that be? You lead these wonderful conferences in Costa Rica. You've taught hundreds of people. You've been teaching for 10 years longer than I have, like. How can you feel nothing? She goes, I just don't. She goes, but you know what? I use three minute chimes when I do sessions. So I know when to move to the next place. And she said, I know it works because my clients and my students all tell me how amazing it is and how much they get from it. So I know it works, but I just don't have, I'm not in touch with my intuition. And I was so grateful that she shared that with me because I realized, wow, you can be. a successful Reiki practitioner, even if you're not in touch with your intuition. That's what Mrs. Takada brought in the hand positions for. If you're not sure about, if you don't have intuition, whispering in your ear, telling you things it still works. If you want to enhance your intuition, there's lots of courses that can help you with that, including my animal communication class. It's all about connecting with your intuition. learning to work with it and understand it. But you don't have to be intuitive to practice Reiki. And in fact, I actually prefer not to receive intuitive information with my Reiki sessions. If I want intuitive information, I'm going to go for a psychic session or to see somebody for that. I really prefer to just receive. Straight Reiki without any intuitive messages. So that's just fine. Some people don't have enough time to do Reiki. And, when I started my Reiki practice, I had two other businesses. and they weren't full time businesses. I actually wound up with three part time businesses, and that's actually been a beautiful mix for me, because I spend about 15 hours a week on each of them, or I used to. I spend most, I spend full time on Reiki now, but for years I spent about 15 hours a week, and it would vary. Like some weeks I'd spend, 40 or 50 hours just on the horses or just on the essential oils or just on Reiki and doing that, I realized, wow, I really having that next week. I'm going to switch over and spend more time in this other area. And I really liked having the blend, the time. Is an issue for you. There's a couple of things that can help. I discovered an app called Focus Keeper. It keeps track of time for 25 minutes at a time with a 25 minute break or with a 25 minutes with a five minute break. And it's a free app. And what I realized is I can do anything I can find 25 minutes every day to work on my Reiki business. And so I will sit down with Focus Keeper. When it was when I was writing that book. That book is there because of focus keeper, because it can be really hard to get your butt in the seat to write. There's a lot of layers that come up to heal when you're putting yourself out there in the form of a book. It's so nerve wracking and Reiki seems to just enjoy putting me into the most nerve wracking things, like you're going to create a podcast when you have no idea what about technology and things so on. And so Reiki for me has always been. Looking at what the limitation is and Reiki helps me get past it. So with the book, a lot of limitations came up and finding the time. And I realized, no, I can schedule in my calendar a half an hour. Every day to write on that book and that's what I did I put it in my calendar, and I didn't miss. And I, and you know a lot of times I sat down for the 20 and I thought I'm just sitting here for 25 minutes when that bell dings I'm going to go walk the dogs or whatever. Sometimes. That did happen. The bell dinged and I went and walked the dogs or I had to go teach a class or whatever. But a lot of times the bell dinged and I was having so much fun, I stuck with it. If I had the time in my schedule, I stuck with it. But if you don't have a lot of time, at least try to find 25 minutes. And if you don't have 25 minutes, find 15 minutes a day. and also schedule it in your calendar. One of the things you may have to consider, if you want to say yes to this, what are you saying no to? So if I want to say yes to maybe a Reiki business, writing a book, sharing more Reiki in the world, Working on my website, whatever you want to say yes to, you may have to say no to something, Kelly notaris talks that who wrote the book you were born to write, which helped me write my book. She said she gave up her daily meditation practice, even though she loved it. I gave up yoga and self care and a few of the things I love in order to find the time for that book. So that's a possibility. But another thing you can do with time is you can ask Reiki to help you find the time to do, and Reiki has the ability to help reorganize your schedule or help you do whatever you need to do. You may struggle with organizational skills. That's another thing that shows up as an obstacle. And if organizational skills are a struggle for you, if you feel scattered and organize, first of all go ahead with the Reiki business book. It can walk you through step by step, so you can just take things with small bite size chunks. But, another thing that you can do is just bearing in mind that sometimes we put very high expectations on ourselves. And if we are creating a Reiki business. The idea, the energy, the name for the business already exists. Colleen Benally has a wonderful article, which I'll share in the podcast notes saying meet the spirit of your Reiki business. I actually share a link to it in the Reiki business book as well. And that is just an opportunity with meditation and with Reiki to go and See what the, what exists in the formless realm as your business and what that looks like and so on. And so knowing that you're creating form from the formless, you're taking something that doesn't exist and you're manifesting it. You're bringing it into existence. I'd like to invite you to remember that this all happens according to divine timing and divine timing. Isn't always aligned with our timing. We often have very, I, I just chuckle sometimes at my to do list because I'd have to be three people in order to actually accomplish it. And I've really, one of my biggest lessons as a type A boss personality has been to just learn to sit back and let the universe direct me one step at a time and. Not think I have to get three steps done that day. William Rand told me once. That I said, William, you must be the busiest Reiki master I know and he, William is very accurate with his language and with words he won't let us use inaccurate words and, or negative words. But he really thought about it and he said, no, I'm not that busy. And I said, how can that be? You're the president of the largest Reiki association in the world. You get, you, you have, All of these licensed teachers that you or your people have trained and you're managing so much. How can you not? And he said, every day I just do the most important thing. That's it. And the rest I either hire some good staff or to look after it, or I let it take care of itself. So he said, I just do the one most important thing each day and I thought, huh, here I am with like six most important things each day. And I decided to let Reiki take over and learn to relax a little and say, what's the most important thing for me today? And as long as I do that, William says everything else I do is a bonus. And a lot of times I just do that one thing and then I meditate or I go for a hike or I do something that I like to do. And so you, we can back up a little bit on ourselves. And there's another thing that I like to encourage people to do, Laurel Gaia encouraged people. If you're having a struggle getting organized, go ahead. and write a list on separate pieces of paper of everything you need to do. Drop that list into a bowl or a vase or something that you can fit your hand into. and give it Reiki and ask Reiki to show you what's my most important priority today. Try to break it down into smaller tasks so that each task is only 15 to 25 minutes long and then you simply give Reiki to your bowl or your vase and say please show me the most important thing on this day. You pull out a slip of paper and that's the thing, that's the only thing you do. That day, maybe it might not be in the order that you would have chosen, but you can allow Reiki that way to set your priorities and help you. Sometimes we worry that we don't have enough knowledge. And one of the best ways that I have found personally to gain more knowledge about Reiki is reviewing classes. Sometimes your teacher, I know myself, I offer a special review rate, not for a class you haven't taken with me. If you've studied with somebody else, you don't qualify for the review rate, but if you've already studied a class with me, I'll give you a much lower rate to review that class. And you can come back and spend two full days in the energy for level one and two classes or three full days in the energy for master classes. The thing about reviewing classes is the energy meets you where you are. Each time we do a class the first time we're usually doing a lot of healing. Sometimes we even miss a lot of the information from the class because we're healing so much. And. And we're usually at a certain vibration. Now the class is going to raise your vibration. Continuing practicing with the energy is going to raise your vibration more. You might even start teaching. That raises your vibration more. And all of the time that you spend in the energy continues to raise your vibration. So the next time you take the class, your energy will be in a very different place. The class meets you there. And I constantly have people saying, I don't remember this from the first time that I took this class. I have somebody reviewing my Karuna Reiki class right now. And she's wow, I'm getting so much more out of it this time. Or I'm, there's things I didn't remember. Or discussions we didn't have or things that we've learned since then. And so I really encourage people to review classes. I've taken every Reiki class three to four times, except for the ones that I've taken five times. And I actually have an intention of Signing up and reviewing some classes with my LRMT, my licensed Reiki master teacher colleagues who have as much and some of them have more experience with Reiki than I do. Some of them I just, I'm really interested to see their different teaching style. I'm going to learn something in every class. My vibration is going to go higher in every class. So if I can, find the time. It is my intention. And Em says, ditto, she reviews a course every six months. I try to review I have reviewed at least a course every year but I would like to review every six months as well, Em, because it really helps you learn even more than reading books or being in the energy really helps. I also have the, there's also self doubt you're going to feel imposter syndrome sometimes. I think when that shows up, you guys, the most important thing to remember is that it's not actually about you. The imposter syndrome, fear. That's all unhealed ego stuff. So go ahead and give Reiki to helping your ego to heal so that it can catch up with the level of development that you're at. Because we all feel that at some point. No worries, Denise. I realize I've gone a little bit over, so I'll wrap up really quickly here. So we all feel that sometimes that imposter syndrome, you guys, and just remember when it crops up, that it's not actually about you. It's about Reiki interacting with your client, and that we're just providing the channel and the opportunity for that to happen. And see if you can back yourself out of the equation. Sometimes we have doubt about Reiki again. Practice. Get out there and get using Reiki, and you'll find that over time, the doubt disappears. Sometimes our social conditioning gets in the way. More Reiki is the antidote for that, and sometimes we have experiences from our past or past lives that get in the way, or our inner critic gets in the way. These are all things that Reiki can heal. I want to put a special mention out there about clutter because our inner world always resembles our outer world and our outer world always resembles our inner world. One day my practice was going okay, but it wasn't as vibrant as it could have been. And the Reiki energy showed me that although my Reiki room was very tidy and my house was very tidy, Under my desk was a mess. It was just completely cluttered and it said go ahead like you're not ready for business while your space is cluttered. And so I actually did a big uncluttering. I noticed that every time my level raises I unclutter more. I did a big uncluttering. It took me a couple of days. To unclutter all the old manuals and all the old stuff that I was keeping under my desk and papers and files and so on. And once I got that uncluttered, my inner clutter also cleared. Sometimes you can clear your inner clutter to clear your outer. Sometimes if you clear your outer clutter, it will clear your inner. It works both ways, and so as I uncluttered my space it really it opened things up. And finally, you might have some parts of yourself in your shadow self that still need to be healed. If that really, if you say that's me, I did do a podcast on the shadow self with a special shadow self meditation that I encourage you to go ahead and look at. And there are some Karuna symbols that can help. with shadow self healing as well. So these are some of the most common obstacles. And what I'd like to do now is just invite you to go into a meditation with me. Once you have an idea of which of these ones speak to you or resonate with you, I'd like us to go into a meditation together to begin releasing the obstacles. And this meditation is based on the holy fire healing experience that's taught in the ICRT Yosui Holy Fire Reiki Master classes. I'd like you to just close your eyes and bring your hands into gassho again with your thumbs at your heart as you invite the Reiki energy to flow and just consider for a moment if there were no limits, what would you love to achieve with your Reiki business? We invite the Reiki symbols. And the spiritual teachers from your lineage, your guides, the divine earth, the angels, the archangels, the enlightened beings, the divine animal kingdom, and the brothers and sisters of the light to be with us today, supporting us in our work and helping us to recognize what our work is going forward with Reiki. Understanding that each of us has a unique purpose and asking the Reiki to help reveal our purpose with Reiki. Notice the Reiki energy flowing all around you, and you can now place your hands comfortably on your body, giving yourself Reiki and making yourself very comfortable as you close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. The light of Reiki is here in the room. Invite it to guide you now. And I invite you to imagine that it's a beautiful, warm, sunny day and that you're walking down a path in a beautiful forest. And as you breathe into yourself, you breathe in the life essence and energy of the forest. And with each step that you take, You feel the energy of the earth flowing out through the bottoms of your feet. As you walk along, you notice another path going off to the right, and you decide to follow that path. As you follow that path, you come to a clearing in the forest. And in the middle of the clearing is a small hill covered with soft grass and beautiful wildflowers. As you climb up the hill, feel the grass rubbing against your legs. And when you get to the top of the hill, lie down in the tall grass. Feel the grass and the earth beneath your body and gaze up into the sky. Gaze up into the sky and see the beautiful white clouds there. And as you're gazing up at the clouds, a beautiful beam of light begins to shine down all around you. This is no ordinary light. It's a beautiful beam of Reiki energy that comes directly from source, the source of all that is. The light shines around you and even flows into you. Filling you with warmth and feelings of safety and love. The light now focuses directly on all of the obstacles, blocks, or barriers that you have identified that might be in the way or could get in the way of achieving your life purpose with Reiki. Anything that might prevent you from fully stepping into your power and place in the world. I invite you to focus on those obstacles now yourself and simply be willing to let them go. You do not have to do anything to earn this. I simply invite you to be willing to let them go, and we'll breathe here for a few moments. Now gaze directly into the light, and as you do, the light will begin to guide you. This light is Reiki. It comes directly from Source. You can decide whether or not to follow the guidance, but for now, the light can show you the next steps. in your Reiki journey, and it can show you what a successful Reiki practice or business or career looks like to you. And at the same time, it can empower any goals that you have set or that you have. Please don't try to direct the energy. Allow it to direct you. Follow the direction you receive. We'll take a few breaths here. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we put pressure on ourselves and sometimes we feel guilty or discouraged because we have not accomplished more sooner. If those feelings exist around your Reiki path or your journey, invite them to leave now. They have no place here. Our Reiki journey is meant to be joyous. It's not meant to add pressure or strain to your life. It's meant to bring about a greater connection with the divine and with ourselves to enhance the journey. So we purposefully release now any guilt, shame, blame, doubt, or overwhelm. Any feelings that would get in the way of joyously moving forward, at the pace that feels right to us, and in the manner that feels right to every one of us today. You have everything you need to step into the next phase, or to take the next step in your Reiki journey. To step into your power and to create a successful Reiki practice, whatever that looks like to you. We invite the Reiki energy to empower our sense of purpose on the path to sharing Reiki with others. You may find yourself filled with energy and enthusiasm now. You may find the qualities that you need to move forward on this path. You may find yourself filled with light and love and purpose. We invite these energies into ourselves now. We'll breathe here for a few moments. I invite you to continue in this experience as long as you feel you need to. And when you're ready to return, Bring your awareness to your eyes, slowly open your eyes and come back, take a few moments to write about your experience and to go ahead and check in with each obstacle and ask yourself what percentage of this obstacle remains, what percentage is still there. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for joining us today. Thank you for being here and thank you for being the beautiful, bright light that you are in the world. And if we can help you in our Reiki business class, the three week marketing intensive, please join us. We would love to see you there. Thank you. Much love to all of you. Namaste.