Advice For a Fellow Intuitive Professional
I got a sweet couple of emails today from a new professional intuitive reader, who found me through a business social networking site. It is a competitive world out there, but I always welcome friendships with colleagues since there are more than enough clients to go around, and we always find our favourite clients with which we stick well! I usually get the added bonus that, if they later choose to take a new career path, they refer their client base over to me. Here's our correspondence that I think might help out a few others that are new to the best career path in the world!
I was
pleased to come across your profile. Your articles were intriguing.
I
am also an intuitive. I've recently left my day job to pursue healing
arts full time (bodywork, energy-work, intuitive work, writing). While I
have offered readings for some time, I have only recently come out of
the psychic closet. That is, I did not talk about readings or psychic
intuitive work with anyone who did not already know that I offered it. I
recently decided to integrate everything, and stop making my psychic
work a secret. It changes a thing when I decide not to hold "secret"
energy around it.
Do you have any suggestions regarding building
an intuitive clientele?
Welcome to the very best job on Earth! Building clientele takes
time, but the best thing you can do is to start by imagining who is your
very best type of client. Narrow this down as much as possible. I know
it is hard, because when you are first starting out and you need clients
you may be thinking "I'll help anyone!" But when you're advertising,
it is more valuable to you if you can get really targeted, because there
are lots of your ideal clients out there! Then, think about what media
sources those kinds of people use every day, and start some advertising
campaigns. You'll have to invest a good deal of money into ads, and so
make sure you're tracking where you clients come from, so that you can
see by trial and error which are effective. People go to school for
years to learn advertising, so it is difficult to learn and keep up
with, but it is something that I would suggest!
Thanks. I really appreciate your help. I feel a little ridiculous. For
some reason, it didn't occur to me that I should start by identifying my
target market. I don't know why--I did that for my massage business.
Again, thanks for the tip. I'm going to think about who my target market
is.
One of the challenges to advertising this aspect of my
business is that I want to make sure I'm finding places to advertise
that are ethical and forthright. Again, you're giving me food for
thought.
Sometimes I struggle with self-acceptance a little. Yes,
the intuitive work is part of what I do...but sometimes, I still feel I
should hide it. Have you ever dealt with this?
Don't feel silly! The Marketing thing is a pretty alien
concept. It's a constant struggle to keep up with it!
Lucky for you, there are TONS of advertising opportunities! Even if you
are very selective with advertisers with which you ethically agree,
you'll still have more options than you can ever possibly explore!
I did briefly have a problem needing to hide it from some
people. I have been doing this for over ten years, and for two of those years
I spent some time teaching in local public schools, and felt the need
to hide it from parents who might be offended. I am relieved that I
don't have to live that way anymore! It was stressful, and it crippled
my business during that short time. If I did it all over again, I would
not have worked so hard to hide my business. I think it is important to
clearly put out there what kind of person you are and what kind of
person you are not. People will make all kinds of assumptions. But,
like the old saying goes, "what other people think of you is none of
your business." You're going to get A LOT of harsh criticism. And if
you don't prepare yourself for that, you may find yourself quitting at
the first snide comment.