Witchness Volume 2: Time to grow

Witchness_Volume2_Time_to_grow.png

It’s finally here, Volume 2 of Witchness digital magazine and this time we’re focusing on growth and expanding our knowledge, understanding and perspective. With spring comes a chance to start to focus on personal growth and watch as we blossom alongside the world around us. Witchness helps you to take action and think about things in a new way, so you can blossom into the person you were always meant to be.

In volume 1, we were focusing on starting fresh, especially after the circus that was 2020. We looked at things like business strategy, cleansing old stagnant energy and creating new and more positive habits for 2021. In volume 2, we start to build on those things and look at learning more about esoteric tools and concepts that can help us grow and develop, both as a human and as a business owner.

Witchness Magazine was always made to not only be a source of motivation for spiritual and creative entrepreneurs but to also help give you guys the esoteric and metaphysical tools you need to stay grounded, take care of your spiritual and emotional wellbeing and think about your work and life in a more balanced way. This volume is packed full of articles that start to really dive into concepts that you may have heard about in passing, that you may not have a full understanding of. It aims to help more with your spiritual development, which is increasingly important in a hustle-focused and overworked society.

So, join me on this spring journey of growth and self-development and grab your copy of Witchness Magazine volume 2!


Using tarot to pinpoint your soulful selling points

Using tarot to pinpoint your soulful selling points.png

There are lots of ways you can use your trusty tarot deck to make better business decisions, or even figure out the finer details of your business as you start off on your entrepreneurial journey. Today, we’re going to be looking at how we can use our tarot cards to get really niche with our business’ soulful selling point!

Your unique selling point is the pinnacle of your business and it might take a while for you to really wrap your head around it. I’m in my second year of business and I’m still tweaking my USP and pivoting my marketing to match my new discoveries. When it comes to being a creative entrepreneur, our USP becomes our SSP, our soulful selling point. Being a creative entrepreneur means that our desires and drivers behind our business are almost always rooted in emotion and intuition and this needs to be reflected in our USP. This means our unique selling point becomes our soulful selling point, our offering to the world that speaks directly to the soul, not just the bank account.

What’s the difference between a USP and a soulful selling point?

When we talk about USPs, we’re looking at the thing that our business revolves around that sets us apart from competitors. We’re picking out a particular value or unique offering that only our business can provide. This is a very corporate way of looking at things and a lot of the time pushing your USP can give you the ick. It can feel too salesy or sterile, whereas focusing on your soulful selling point brings you down to a more humanised level.

As a creative entrepreneur, you’re not speaking to people from a place of need, nobody really needs a creative, artisan or decorative product. You should be talking to your audience from a place of emotion, speaking to the heart and connecting with them on the same level that art itself connects with us as humans. Nobody buying any form of art looks at it and thinks ‘I need this because it will help me do X, Y, Z’, they look at it and want to buy it because it connects with them on a deeper level. It makes them turn inwards and they want it in their life because of the way it makes them feel.

>
A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

— Paul Cezanne

Figuring out your soulful selling point

What we want to do now, is think about what emotion, feeling or belief we offer our audience. What is the unique connection only we can form with our audience? Remember, we’re coming directly from the heart and soul, we’re not thinking about what will necessarily make people buy from us, we’re trying to work out what will make people connect with us and our business.

To help you do just that, I’ve put together a five-card tarot spread that helps you delve a little deeper into your own connection with your business, and allows you to unpack that and find connections with your audience.

 

Soulful Selling Point Spread.png

 

Let’s run through the spread together to find out how it all works:

Card 1) The Significator

Pick this card consciously. By that, I mean to go through your tarot deck and find a card that you feel represents your business offering the best. For example, if you’re someone that makes something with their hands that needs a lot of skill, then you may choose the Eight of Pentacles for this card. Or if you are a life coach, you may choose the Queen of Swords or The Empress to represent your services.

Card 2) The Why

From here, we’re going to be shuffling and choosing cards the normal way. Your second card will sit at the top of your main spread and it will represent your ‘why’, the reason that you yourself do the job you do. This might be common knowledge to you, you may know exactly why you started your business and why you want to offer the services you offer. If you don’t and this card has blindsided you a bit, don’t worry, you can unpack it in the final three cards.

Card 3) The personal connection

Card number three will back up card number two, in that it will give you a bit more information around the emotional connection you have with your business. It helps you delve deeper into your ‘why’ and unpack things a little more so you can get really niche. Your personal connection is very important because it’s the fire that motivates you and keeps you moving forward. If we lose that, it can be hard for us to know what action to take within our business.

Card 4) The customer’s connection

Card number four is all about what your customer’s connection is with your business. This should show you what your customers think and feel about what you offer. It’s important with this card to really analyse whether this matches up with the behaviour of your audience currently. If it doesn’t, you may need to make adjustments to your branding, marketing or services, to realign them with the connection you’re trying to create with your customers.

Card 5) Your soulful selling point

The final card is the outcome card of the spread, this card shows you what your soulful selling point is or should be. Link it with the other cards in the spread, try and see where it aligns and where it doesn’t. The areas where it doesn’t align is where you need to spend your time and energy, to help you get everything into place. All three of these bottom cards should flow and connect with each other, you should be able to see how your personal connection and that of your audience, connect to result in your soulful selling point.

Really spend some time on this, it may not be obvious at first and there may be a need to really dig into things and question what comes up. There’s a lot of subconscious work in this spread, so I’d highly recommend journalling while you give yourself this reading.


Business Planning for the Spring Equinox: Find the next level

business_planning_spring_equinox.png

On the 20th of March, we welcome Ostara or the Spring Equinox if you don’t celebrate the pagan sabbats. I based Volume 2 of Witchness Magazine around this divine time of year and I thought I’d write a little blog around the same theme of growth, but focusing on business planning and taking your creative business to the next level!

Usually, around Spring, we start to feel this restlessness or need to create, refresh or simply make strides forward to bigger and better things. This is because the energy of Spring is one filled with renewal and rebirth. It is the time within nature when everything that has been lying dormant throughout winter, starts to wake up and breathe new life. It’s also a very fertile time and this fertile energy can make us eager to create something new.

>
Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.
— Sigmund Freud

This season is perfect for taking the next step in your business because you will feel more motivated to move out of your comfort zone and push boundaries to get what you desire. We can use the Spring Equinox as our planning stage, really thinking about what our next goals should be and what we want to achieve long term. So, with that in mind, how can we do a bit of business planning that embraces this fertile energy of Spring?

What kind of business planning should you be focusing on?

You may have already done all the groundwork and the initial business plan for your creative business, so we’re not focusing on the core details like your audience, values etc. All that work should already be in the bag at this stage. For our Spring Equinox business planning, we are looking at how we can take that next step with our business.

This next step may look different for everyone. Here are a few examples of what the ‘next level’ may look like for you, to get you thinking:

  • A new, bigger income goal

  • A new product or service that will produce more passive income

  • A new social media series that will help build your followers

  • A new email series that will help you to build your mailing list

  • Plans to increase your visibility within your industry through booking speaking gigs

We’re thinking about how to increase something in our business. For most of us, that may be our income goal, but if you’re pretty content with the income you are currently bringing in, you may want to increase your authority or become more well known for your ideas, products or services.

How can you start to think about the next level in your business and how to get there?

When it comes to deciding what that next level looks like for you, we need to first understand what we want to achieve. What do you think your business could benefit more from? As a business owner, what will help you run your business more efficiently, more successfully or with bigger ambitions?

>
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.
— Andy Rooney

A great starting point for this is to think about your biggest long term goal. What is it you ultimately want to achieve with your business, in 5 or 10 years time? What do you want your business to provide for you throughout your life?

Your next level will be that one step closer towards that goal, so what could that next step look like with all of that in mind? If you have a big, long term income goal of earning £10,000 a month and you’re currently earning around £2,000 a month, then think about how you could increase your current monthly income by £1,000. What services, products or new passive income streams could you put into place? This small step may seem like nothing when you compare it to that bigger goal, but when you really think about it, that new income goal gets you £1,000 a month closer to that goal.

Planning these baby steps soon add up and before long, you’re a hair’s distance from reaching that big goal that seemed so far away at the very beginning of your journey.

Spring business planning worksheet

Now we know what we’re trying to achieve with our Spring Equinox business planning, it’s time to start working on that plan. I wanted to try and guide you as much as possible and help you figure out what your ‘next level’ looks like.

I’ve put together a quick worksheet you can download and print off, that should help you figure out what your next goal should be and get you started with your business planning.

 

Click the image or the button below, to grab the FREE PDF document. Print it off and work through it alongside a notebook and use these as jumping-off points to really start planning the nitty-gritty details.


How can career readings help creative entrepreneurs?

how_tarot_helps_creative_entrepreneurs.png

When I first started offering tarot readings online, I would pretty much take anyone who dropped me an email. They may be asking about love, their career or even just about general life. It was only when I started to notice how I felt after reading for ambitiously creative people that I realised the true value in reading tarot for creative entrepreneurs.

Since that eureka moment, I’ve had the pleasure to chat with some of the most ambitious people I’ve ever met. Creative entrepreneurs are not just about building a business, they’re about building a business that they are passionate about and that makes them feel fulfilled in both their personal and professional lives. I have SO much love for that mentality!

>
Creative entrepreneurs have a connection with their offerings that is hard to put into words.

However, even now there is a misconception about how the tarot works and a lot of people still think it’s only a tool for fortune-telling. It most certainly is not. I offer guidance tarot readings and I’ve spoken about the difference between the two in my previous post, Psychic Tarot Readings vs Guidance Readings. Guidance readings are more aligned with business or life coaching as opposed to telling you your future. The tarot is used as a tool to tap into feelings, mindsets and subconscious beliefs that you may not be aware of. From there, we work together to uncover what it is that is holding you back, causing you fear and hesitation or blocking your path moving forward. It gives you the answers you already have locked inside you, but that you are unable to access by yourself.

Tarot for Creative Entrepreneurs

When it comes to creative entrepreneurs specifically, there is a lot to work through. Not only have you got the pressures of building and growing a business, but you’re selling something that is probably very personal to you. Creative entrepreneurs have a connection with their offerings that is hard to put into words. There’s something very vulnerable and brave about making something based on your imagination or creative skill, it’s like you’re taking a small light from deep inside you and offering it up for other people to judge and value.

With this vulnerability often comes a lot of trepidation, which is why creative entrepreneurs, more than any other, face a lot of self-imposed blockages and obstacles. When we deal with the realm of emotion, in any walk of life, our brains automatically go into protection mode. This means that we can often create problems for ourselves that are not material, or that we can easily overcome by fighting back against the protective thoughts our minds throw at us.

>
Even the cards in your 10-card spread that hint at future energies coming in is only a suggestion, they are not absolutes.

The tarot helps us to pinpoint exactly what those fears are and sheds light on our concerns, worries and uncertainties. It reflects your subconscious back to you, so your conscious mind can start to process those things effectively. It also offers up potential outcomes or other obstacles that might arise in the future. All of this information then helps us to work together to create a plan of action. We can see what the issues are and what the potential outcomes could be and so we can start to devise a clear path forward towards success.

Helping you to get to where you want to be

The main objective of any guidance career reading is to plan and create a clear path so you can reach your goals. It’s not about telling you how things are going to play out because you have free will, your future is never set in stone and there is never just one single way to get what you want out of life. Even the cards in your 10-card spread that hint at future energies coming in is only a suggestion, they are not absolutes.

You don’t even need to get a professional tarot reading from someone like myself to make tarot an effective business tool. Learning the basic meanings of the cards and doing daily card pulls or simple three card readings can all be an effective way to get back on track.

If you’d like a career reading from me, then of course my inbox is always open. Or, you can join the Tarot For Beginners course and start learning how to use tarot on your own terms!

 


Witchness_banner_transparent.png

Tools to help you create a better work/life balance

create_a_better_work_life_balance.png

I love my jobs, I have two in total, one of them being The Self-Care Emporium, so I have no problem spending all my time at my laptop tapping away. I can spend hours on Canva working on Witchness magazine or writing endless blogs and emails for you guys. However, I also know that if I allow myself to indulge in this workaholic behaviour, I’ll fall deep down the rabbit hole and plunge into burnout and business fatigue.

I don’t see any reason why, as a solo business owner, you can’t work hard and relax hard (is that an oxymoron?). If I found that I was just as stressed and overworked as I have been in previous full-time office jobs, then what would be the point in me pursuing this self-employed life? I know that in order to make my business and freelance work worth it, I have to have a personal life that is just as fulfilling. Plus, I enjoy my work, even more, when I’m fully rested, recharged and loving life!

Blog recommendation: Finding Moderation as an Entrepreneur

When it comes to practically managing your work and life, things can get a little messy. So, I’ve put together some of the things that I use, as a solo business owner, to help me create a healthy work/life balance.

Podcast walks

I always tell you guys to get out in nature and go for a walk, but I know that some of you might find the idea of just walking around extremely dull. I get it, I do too sometimes. However, this can also be the perfect time to catch up on your favourite podcasts. Recently I’ve been listening to my friend Victoria’s The Manifestation Collective Podcast, Philosophize This! (this did nearly give me an existential crisis in the park though), Duolingo Spanish Podcast (I’m learning Spanish on Duolingo btw) and Spit or Swallow, which I promise is a comedy podcast around wine tasting with comedians and nothing untoward.

The podcasts you choose don’t have to be educational or inspirational, they can just be podcasts that make you laugh or make you feel better about the world. You don’t have to always be learning or improving yourself, but if you wanted to use this time to do just that, go right ahead.

Getting serious with hobbies

Over the course of the pandemic, most of my disposable income has been spent on trying new hobbies, from candle making to painting. I also started to do something I’ve been saying I’ll do for literally years, learn a language. Although I’ve tested out a lot of hobbies, the two that have really stuck with me are painting and learning Spanish. I decided that I may as well commit to them seeing as I had a lot of time to do so. Since starting, I’ve managed to make time every day to sit back and just enjoy messing about on Duolingo or sitting in front of a blank canvas and slapping some paint on it to see what appears.

I’ve found that setting myself some hobby-based challenges has been a great motivator for finding some ‘me time’. I set myself a goal to create five original pieces of artwork before the end of the year, something I’ve already nearly achieved. Even if your hobby is a love of films or reading books, set yourself some goals to aim for and see how easily you’ll find time for it.

If you can get serious about even one hobby, you’re already on your way to creating a much healthier work/life balance. After all, life is about doing what we love as much as it is about loving what we do. Here are a few resources to help you find a brand new hobby you love:

  • Duolingo – A super fun way to learn a new language

  • Centre of Excellence – They have loads of amazing online courses and always do promo codes to get courses for just £29 or less. These guys are great if you’re interested in metaphysical or spiritual woo stuff.

  • Udemy – An online learning platform that offers free and paid courses across loads of subjects, they always have a new student offer on and this was the first place I took a tarot course!

  • YouTube – That little website, you might not have heard of it. I’ve learned so many new skills from YouTube and you can always find someone that has done a free tutorial on the new hobby you want to try.

Blog recommendation: Is your business your life’s purpose?

Official meal times

When I worked in a full-time 9-5 I would very often just sit at my desk and eat breakfast and lunch. When I started working from home though, I decided that if I continued to do that, I would undoubtedly develop cabin fever in my tiny box room office. So, I decided that no matter what, I’d eat breakfast before sitting down at my desk and always go downstairs for lunch. I also make sure to take a full hour or longer for lunch, if I need a bit of extra break time.

This helps to break the monotony and refresh my focus for the rest of the day. It also means that I know when it’s time to work and when it’s time to unplug for a bit and just chill. It sets clear boundaries that are easy to maintain day after day.

Work & life TBR piles

Every year I set myself a reading goal, I never actually reach it but I set it anyway. Usually, I prefer to read fiction, but recently I’ve been getting a lot of business-related non-fiction books and adding them to my already huge TBR pile. I decided, that I would set time aside during my workday to read one of these business books and then as soon as I log off for the day, I read the fiction book of my choice.

I read for escapism primarily, so I prefer not to read books that remind me about work or anything work/real-world related in my down-time. Doing this also helps me to divert my thoughts away from what I’ve been doing during the day. Because I love my job as much as I do, I can easily start planning and strategising when I should be relaxing. Working doesn’t always take place at a desk, sometimes it occurs in the mindset we choose to invite in that moment.

Dream time

How often do you set time aside to just dream about life, plan for the future or think about what you want to get out of your time on this planet? Some people call it a distraction or daydreaming, but I love setting some time aside to just allow myself to think about the big picture. Create a vision board, spend some time on Pinterest planning what destinations to visit, new craft projects to try out. Set yourself some personal goals or bucket list items.

Being able to sit back and visualise the life you want to live doesn’t just help to lift your mood, but it can also help you better understand the direction you want to take your work. This dream time is beneficial for all areas of your life, so give yourself permission to just relax and think about your own life and desires.

Work/life balance doesn’t just come to those who wait, it’s also not a given when you choose to create a solo business. You have to work at it, understand your values and what you need to prioritise. There is a discipline in being a business owner, both in getting yourself to put the hours in and also getting yourself to take a break. Make sure you do something this week to create more of a work/life balance and start enjoying the benefits of self-employed life a little more.