This post is the final post in the 'How She Started Her Healing Business' series, where 7 inspiring young entrepreneurs share the story of how they created their holistic careers - giving you inspiration, advice, and a window into how you can do it too!
Today's post comes from... Me, Beth Katherine! I'm an intuitive coach for spiritual young women who desire to give their gifts to the world. I work with Spirit Guides + Angels in my sessions, as well as blog, create coaching videos, and deliver workshops to serve my really incredible audience.
When I started this blog tour, I had one thing in mind - there are so many resources out there for people who have already started their own businesses. This marketing expert, and that social media consultant - but what about the information for those who haven't started, at all?
Where is the inspiration and guidance for those of you who get freaked out by the business mumbo jumbo - and just want to start a healing career in an organic way?
So I created this blog tour, entitled, How She Started Her Healing Business, for just that reason. There are too many women out there with the most profound gifts, that aren't using them like they could be. You are all meant for big things, bold things, powerful things. But how can you unleash them into the world? Getting inspired by others who have already done it is a great first step!
I chose to write my own post, the last post in the Blog Tour, in an interview format style. Many of you have read different versions of the story of how I started (Check out this blog post, and this page, if you haven't) - So I thought it would be fun to answer specific questions about my journey.
I hope you enjoy this post, and more importantly, I hope that this Blog Tour has inspired you to realize that everyone's journey is different, everyone's gifts are different, and it's not about the destination - it's simply about the choice to follow the calling of your soul!
How did you get started in full-time entrepreneurship? Did you start with a job and then transition?
I started planning my business when I was in my last semester of University (studying for a Finance degree). At that point, it was a non-profit that I was planning, that focused on hosting events and getting different speakers to come talk about various spiritual topics, while also selling products like crystal necklaces, and the like. (I totally forget how the non-profit part of it came into play, sorry haha.) I submitted my plan to a Business Plan competition that my school ran, and I received feedback that my idea was not really feasible as there were already spiritual mentors like Wayne Dyer speaking on PBS, so why would people want to come out to events? Also, making a website was very expensive, where was I going to get the money?
It was at that point that I realized - 'Ok, I've got to leave this mainstream way of thinking! These people don't get me, or my project!' (Enter teenage angst - I am so mizaundastood!!!) - and I realized if I was really going to do this, I was just going to have to leave other people's voices of doubt behind, and jump in.
I created my own website virtually for free (more on that in a bit), changed my plan around to better suit my skills + desires, and upon graduating University, asked my Grandfather for a $5000 loan so I could focus on starting up my business without having to work another job, at least for the first few months.
I didn't really intend to be full-time right away, but that's just what happened.
Even though I applied for several jobs a few months after starting my business, I didn't get any of them (which was weird since I'd gotten every job I'd ever applied for minus 1 before that!) - but you know what, I think I was just subconsciously sending out the message - don't hire me! I don't actually want to take orders anymore! I want to be my own boss and do this healing thang!
So somehow I did it. I created crystal necklaces, and did a bit of meditation coaching - I usually made enough to just get by, and I had a fantastic time doing it. I didn't feel like I was missing out because I wasn't making as much as my friends, I was so satisfied and thrilled by my 'work', I just kept going and going!
What were the first products + services you offered? How did you decide on them?
Oh my goodness. This is a funny question. At the start, I honestly just threw out anything and everything. I had so many ideas, I didn't know how to filter them, or what to focus on. Some of them came to me in meditation, and some of them I just said - 'Oh this would be cool, maybe I'll try this!'
Here is the list of ever product or service that I offered when I started:
- Crystal necklaces
- Custom crystal necklaces
- Meditation coaching
- Business consulting
- Meditation space creating (interior design for your sacred space)
And there are probably more that I now forget. I had no takers for the business consulting or the meditation space creating. I had 2 clients sign up for meditation coaching (1 of whom is still a regular client - how cool!) - yet I had lots of people want crystal necklaces, once I started selling them at markets, and putting pictures of my creations on Facebook. Interestingly enough, Krista, who is also featured in this series, was the first person ever to sign up for a custom crystal necklace - something that later became the backbone of my business.
How did you create your website?
Firstly - let me just say that I started using Photoshop and teaching myself HTML coding when I was around 14, because I was a really cool person and was a part of a Hilary Duff forum online, and had a lot of internet friends and loved to spend my time online with them! I taught myself photoshop and started creating 'signatures' for other people to use, using photos they gave me and making them into pretty looking things for the end of their posts and comments.
So I did have some computer coding experience, and a background in photoshop.
Then in University, I created my first blog called Samsara (check it out here), and taught myself more in terms of how to create nice looking webpages. So when I was ready to create my own website, I already had some confidence in the computer department.
I used an online software called Wix, which I would recommend, along with the platform I now use called Squarespace. I hired out the logo and header design to my friend Kai, and started taking some fun pictures in my basement with my friend Katie. Once I had the pictures and the logo, I plugged it all into Wix. (I've included a picture of one of the first drafts of my website below) Wix allows you to create a website from scratch or from a template, and honestly, you don't really need much computer experience at all to get the hang of it. It's very intuitive. It's just my background with computer work helped me to be more confident and play more.
After that, you just need to pay for it to be hosted (about $10-$20 a month) - and you're off!
Did you ever plan an event or host a workshop that was a total flop?
Yes and no. I've hosted events that had attendance rates much lower than I expected - yes - but I have a fairly strong commitment to just serving people, so in my opinion, a flop would be an event where I was not in the mindset of service.
What is your North Star? Meaning - when life gets crazy and disorganized - what keeps you focused?
Ohh so many things - they mostly all revolve around feeling the deep pain that the much of the world and the animals I love so dearly are in - and then finding the motivation and knowingness that I can be a part of changing it.
Everything that I've done started out when I became intensely interested in environmentalism, while still in University.
Through my research, I discovered so many things going on in this world, to the animals, and the plant kingdom that drove a spear through my heart. (ie. factory farming, animal testing, deforestation, ocean dead zones, etc)
Shortly after this time, I realized that the solution to theses issues was not to be found in addressing all of these problems individually - rather the root of the issue lies in human consciousness. And so, I got to work in addressing how we can all be more loving, more intuitive, and more aligned with our truths. Young women were specifically the people I gravitated to spreading this message to, as I felt I could relate the most to them.
I do what I do, to create a more beautiful, more natural, more loving earth for all beings, now, and in the future. I envision lots of self-sufficient intentional communities, places with cob homes and treehouses in nature, where best friends live side by side, grow food together, raise children together, and have a deep connection with Mama Gaia.
That is my motivation in the grand sense. And myself, along with thousands, maybe even millions of other lightworkers, are helping to usher that, or a similar change in!
Is there any advice you would give to a young woman whose in the beginning stages of starting her healing business?
Yes, lots! And I have a free video training series coming out in a few weeks with a step-by-step process on how to start. The first step in the series, as well as the step I'd like to mention now - is get in touch with the why.
What is your greater motivation?
I know that you, like me, have probably woken up to the change you'd like to see on this planet. So now that you've got your eyes open - what would you like to create, both for yourself, and for the world?
Have a clear understanding of why you're starting, and why it's important. Get really deep with it (as you read above, mine has stemmed from my love of the environment) - and let that guide you.
The entrepreneurial process is intense. It's awesome - like really awesome - but it comes with it's challenges and it's roadblocks. If you have a deep, intrinsic motivation, you'll be able to bust through them just fine.
If you're interested in experiencing this free video training series (4 short videos, that give you instructions, 1 practical step at a time, on how you can go from nothing at all - to a webpage with products and services offered) - please sign up with your name and email below! I'll send them to you within the next few weeks!
Sign up for Free Videos on How to Start Your Healing Business:
About the Author:
Beth Katherine is a young mystic, author, and teacher, living off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Canada.
She conveys the message that we are lightworkers, and have come to give help, love, and light to this planet. Through intuitive coaching, blogs, v-logs, and free online trainings, she helps young women who are on a spiritual path to get their healing gifts out into the world.
Beth is also a passionate lover of the environment, and serves as an ambassador for the global organization, Women for Whales.
