Delivering A Memorable Email Reading Pt. 3 - Sustaining Your Practice
This is part three of the Delivering A Memorable Email Reading series. You can also go back and read Part One and Part Two if you wish. In the first installment, we focused on tools and techniques to ensure your clients get the most of the reading. In the second installment, we turned the tables to examine practices that will help you get the most of your services as a reader. Today, we'll be talking about ways to sustain your practice and ensure you're maximizing your time and energy. This is critical to examine because if you're not being mindful of your own reserves, your product and ability to deliver will inevitably suffer.
Similar to the advice in Part 2, I learned a lot of this through trial and error. For this reason, I am hopeful I can condense what took me years to sort through in such a way that we can shorten your learning curve and give you some food for thought.
Know Your Pain-Points
If there is something in your practice that is causing you stress, grief, pain or even mild annoyance this is a call to action! Look at that thing, ask yourself why it bugs you so much and troubleshoot ways around it. We don't have to suffer through a process or practice that isn't working - but if you accept the pain and do nothing to better it you're only going to grow resentful, and slowly but surely fall out of love with what you're doing. I am putting this tip first and leaving it fairly broad because I think it is the perfect frame for everything else we'll discuss. If you don't like something - change it. There is always another way!
Maximize Your Time:
I'm a very fast typer, so email readings don't take an enormous amount of time. But, that isn't to say they aren't time/energy consuming. If you find the process of typing readings out especially tedious, consider the following points.
Can you transition away from written readings to audio? You'll still send the reading by email, but you can attach an MP3 instead of a PDF.
Have you created templates for yourself? It may seem like a small thing, but having a template for every style of reading you offer will make the first part of putting your reading together a breeze. Fill out as much of them as you can, which are the generic bits, and make sure to keep the files labelled properly and organized for easy access.
Are you giving yourself a proper turnaround time? I used to advertise my readings with a 3 day turnaround, but that wasn't sustainable. Now, I say "up to 5 business days" because it gives me time, accounts for everything else I have going on in my life, and allows for the unexpected.
Are you charging enough? We talked a bit about charging by the hour vs. by the reading style in the last installment of this series, but it's worth touching on again. If you're spending 4 hours assembling an email reading, but charging $30 bucks, you're selling yourself way short. Be reasonable about the time it takes and charge accordingly.
Keep it short and sweet. Your email readings don't need to be pages long. If you know typing takes a lot of time for you, structure your offerings to accommodate this. Maybe you only offer 1 or 2 card tarot readings. Perhaps you make it a point to let clients know your readings are "no filler". You don't need to beat around the bush - just give the straight up goods and keep things succinct. As long as you're being upfront about your style, you will attract the right clients who leave satisfied every time.
Less words, more visuals. Your email readings don't need to be traditional by any means. Maybe instead of standard readings, you offer intuitively channeled mantras, or vision boards or designs. You can keep the text to a minimum and focus on other offerings. If you have a knack for photography or graphic design, consider how these elements could become your service highlights. Think outside the text box!!
Work With The Collective
When you work with clients one on one, time is of the essence. You can only fit in so many appointments a day before you max out and this means, there is a cap to your earnings and the amount of folks you can reach. However, when you're working with the collective, you can flip this entire way of working on its head. For example, on my Patreon page one of the rewards for the $5+ tier are collective readings. At least once a month, what I do is sit with spirit and ask what the collective themes are among that set of individuals. I then convey the messages back in a way that are both general and specific, and ask each individual to use their own intuition to understand what part of the guidance is for them.
You could also do something like this with email readings in mind. For example, you could set up a mailing list, charge a small fee, and every month (or whatever) you send that specific group collective insights and other bits from spirit. It's a bit like horoscopes, but you're drawing cards instead of looking at the stars. This way, you're saving time and also reaching far more people. Of course, you need to charge accordingly. Collective readings, in my opinion, should never be priced in the same range of a regular one-on-one.
Take Care
Taking care of yourself in other ways cannot be overstated. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating the right foods? Are you moving your body? Are you doing other activities you enjoy and engaging with creativity in other ways?
For me, I can fully engage in my practice when I'm feeling my best and keeping myself organized. Recently, I discovered grocery pick up and this, for example, has freed up a lot of my time. Instead of spending hours at the grocery store exhausted and frustrated, I order everything online then just pick it up. It's a small thing but it makes all the difference when you only have so many hours in the day. And when I'm feeling depleted, I make sure i'm getting extra protein because it's a natural energy boost.
Another thing you can do is at the end of every reading for a client, pull one card for yourself. Ask spirit, what do I need to know in this moment either in regards to this session or aside from it? Give back to yourself and you will have that much more to give to others when duty calls.
Let It Go
There are aspects to this work that can become draining, energetically speaking. To help ensure your tank stays full, consider the following advice.
Don't judge the information. Not only does mulling over whether the message makes sense take time, it also muddies the waters. Who are you to judge the information you're receiving? When we do this, we also judge our ability to translate the message and this is a time waster and energy killer. If you get a message, relay it to your client and assume it will make sense to them. I can't tell you the amount of times I've received something that seems out of left field but was later validated. This means things you're writing may make little sense to you - but that doesn't mean it wasn't exactly what the client needed to hear. Remember, the reading isn't for you - it's for your client - trust what's coming through.
When it's done, it's done. Once you press "send", consider it case closed. You do not need the validation from the other end. You did your job and it is best to assume, even if you never hear back, that no news is good news. Remaining attached to every reading you send out isn't healthy or sustainable. Cut the cord and move on!
There are no right or wrong ways to approach your practice, and this type of intuitive work should always be fine tuned to our innate skills and deep joys. See point one - Know Your Pain Points. If something isn't working, change it! Your practice need not look like anyone else's, so remove the temptation to peer over fences and replicate what's already been done. You are a unique reader, with unique abilities offering services that make sense to you. And if you do this, authentically and consistently while tending to your own energetic reserves, you'll soon have a practice that uplifts with clients that perfectly click.
Keep slinging!
Julia