10 Business, Marketing & Mindset Lessons for the Spiritual Entrepreneur
What does it take to run a full-time spiritual business or operate as a full-time conscious or spiritual entrepreneur?
By spiritual entrepreneur, I mean anyone in the field of healing, consciousness, health, and wellbeing including practitioners, facilitators, teachers, guides, coaches, intuitives, and creators. In this post, I share an overview of the 10 Lessons I have learned on my journey to spiritual solopreneurship - aka running my own soul-guided spiritual business full-time.
Firstly, who am I? Hi, I’m Niki, and in 2019 I become a KAP - Kundalini Activation Process facilitator in Australia, later adding Yoga and Vedic Meditation teacher, Akashic Records Readings, and Spiritual Guidance (via Mystic Being App) to my offerings. Over 1.5 years I transitioned from a full-time role as Digital Marketing Manager to “working” full-time on my soul path (all during that thing that happened in 2020 which shall not be named 🙃). Here are some of the mindset and spiritual business marketing lessons I picked up along the way…
10 Lessons for the Spiritual Entrepreneur
Lesson 1: You Must Self-Care to Soul-Serve
When you become a practitioner, teacher, or facilitator in any capacity, naturally you move from a chapter where the focus is predominantly on your own healing, receiving, and opening, towards a chapter where YOU are the one that is “holding space” for others’ healing, receiving and opening (I know I know “holding space”... cue eye roll 🙄 and vision of someone peering into your eyes with uncomfortable intensity, ease up Ruth… but sometimes it’s the most fitting term for what we do).
You’re able to take this transition as your capacity to serve and hold others in their process has substantially magnified, because you, dear comrade, have commenced and traveled on your own healing and awakening journey (side note: can confirm, it wasn’t all white linen and mala beads📿😵❌) .
And now you have gained embodied wisdom from firsthand experience (aka the utter shit storm💩⛈️ of purging unprocessed pain + illusion blasting + ego shattering the healing and awakening journey brings 😱🔥🤮🤯).
As such, you’re now in a position to be a more authentic and embodied guide and wayshower, or practitioner, facilitator, coach, teacher, etc for others on their journey.
i.e. “I’ve walked through the burning gates of hell, with a few delightful detours like existential dread, dark night of the soul, and various shades of ego death... so let me offer some light to help you through traversing these dark passages.”🕯️
Naturally, as we become practitioners, especially in the early stages, we start to direct more of our time to holding events / workshops / sessions / healings / circles / programs / retreats etc for others, rather than attending these types of events ourselves.
There was a period in my journey when I would regularly go to women’s circles, yoga classes, workshops, courses, retreats, you name it…. (And honestly, I never expected or intended to transition from participant to practitioner in those early days).
In my first year as a KAP facilitator (back in early 2020), I started to neglect my own need to receive and be held and nourished… and I had bouts of very low energy or kind of being wiped out for days and unable to move my body because I was so depleted.
Other times I just felt alone, like I had to carry my whole experience of this transition and responsibility all by myself.
What can also happen for many facilitators and teachers as they develop and advance, is the forming of this egoic belief that “I’m past needing help or support because I’m awakened now” or “I have all this experience and these tools…” or “if I need support / healing / receiving then that makes me a fraud or an imposter…”
These beliefs are really dangerous and why so many healers, practitioners, and guides will suffer burnout or find it difficult to navigate the 3D realm of the relative world.
It can also lead to individuals in this position not seeking help or support in dark and difficult times in their life and unnecessarily suffering alone. As an individual in the health, healing, or personal development space, you’re not immune to life challenges and hardships!
Sadly I’ve heard of teachers like this who have had a severe breakdown or even chosen to end their time here because they weren’t comfortable with getting help and support. The point is, no matter how advanced you are in your field, no one is beyond seeking help and support!
For our own well-being, and the best interest of those we serve, we need to maintain the balance of receiving and rest when we start to hold space for others.
It's why many coaches will have coaches, therapists do therapy, bodyworkers have others work on their body, healers receive energy healing and tune-ups, yoga teachers will take yoga classes, and so on.
It’s not because they aren’t amazing and skilled and talented at what they do, but it’s because you drop into a different zone when you are on the receiving end.
And undeniably, it’s just easier to surrender and be held by someone else than it is to try and hold yourself in it. It’s not impossible of course, but it tends to be a much deeper and more transformative experience, because we all have our own self-protective mechanisms (and these actually get sneakier as you progress in your healing and awakening journey).
In fact, in Ayurveda (one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems and sciences) it's believed a physician should be treated by another Ayurvedic practitioner, rather than self-diagnose or treat themselves as surrender is considered a key component of the healing process.
Ironically as you become a healer, guide, facilitator, or practitioner for others, you start to behave as though you need LESS support and nourishment when the reverse is true… you will need MORE self-care, rest, and nourishment to serve others and hold space for this very potent healing and transformative work.
Something I remind myself is that if I don’t serve myself first, I can’t serve others at my highest capacity. So when I'm serving from an overflowing chalice (aka I've tended to my own needs and self-care), I am able to serve more people (and I can show up as my brightest and most powerful and luminescent Self (which has much nicer manners and better hair).
So today, I make it a point to make time for what I consider daily rest, healing, and balancing, like spending time in nature (trees are crying out for hugs atm 🙃), my Vedic Meditation practice, taking yoga classes or doing my own home practice, having healers work on me, having a coaching or mentoring session when the need arises, getting some form of bodywork done like massage and so one.
This is actually what enables me to hold the space that I do and maintain the clarity and purity of my own channel as a facilitator.
Finally, as a side note, you may find that the type of self-care you require shifts. Personally, what I find is once you become a facilitator / guide / teacher yourself you desire more 1:1 support or intimate group support and guidance that matches your level of need and surrounds you with others in a similar frequency.
The support and guidance that helped you when you first started out, probably isn’t the same that you need now. Some of the practices might stay the same, but the depth and guidance you need from them with will likely shift and evolve to meet you where you are now.
A little example of this is when I first started yoga back in my uni days... it was actually from a set of DVDs I borrowed from the library. Yes, DVDs from the library 👵 (can’t get more old school and basic than that).
I actually have no clue what drew me to borrow these at the time and I hadn’t practiced yoga before, but I remember getting quite turned on by what these wholesome shiny discs offered and my lil’ covert at-home practice, in my bedroom “studio”.
This evolved to joining some live open yoga classes, to eventually joining various studios over the years. At first, the studios I gravitated towards were more vinyasa oriented and it was all about the “workout” and detox effect of the practice (take me to sweaty annihilation plz).
So the first one I joined I think was a hot yoga studio (which I still enjoy on occasion, maybe it’s my Catholic roots #penance 😅... nah I genuinely do love a good sweat induce coma / savasana).
When I moved to Sydney I was exposed to a different flavour of yoga at various studios in Bondi and fell in love with the breadth of yoga and its postures, but more so the weaving in of philosophy and wisdom (wait, so every full breath is a like a mini death and rebirth… ah profound ✌️).
Then post-KAP I felt more drawn to slower styles of yoga like Hatha and Yin and I actually did my yoga teacher training around that time. Again, I was drawn to a more intimate setting to be amongst people who were also wanting to deepen their practice of yoga asana and its philosophy.
Over this period, yoga became much more of an embodied and intuitive practice vs an activity for athletic and physical gain.
Today I continue my own little practice over the week, usually in shorter windows, but there is still something so divine and nourishing about stepping into a 1hr yoga class in a yoga studio where I don’t have to think or anticipate or even self-guide my practice… I get to completely let go and be guided, instructed, and held through the practice. This is my self-care, not holding the space, but receiving.
So if you’re a facilitator, medicine woman/man/person, guide, teacher, or instructor who’s fallen off your own self-care regime, try to bring this in more over the next month and see what happens to the quality of your own offerings and your capacity to (ahem..) hold space for others 😉.
I'm a fan of creating your own personal "White List" of Medicine People (functional docs, energy workers, coaches, body workers, naturopaths, herbalists, etc) you can call on in times of need or routinely pay a visit, for the ultimate pay-off (your prime WELLBING + VITALITY).
Lesson 2: Keep up Your Sadhana (Disciplined Practice)
Sadhana is a Sanskrit term that can be translated to a “methodical discipline” or spiritual practice that is used to attain a desired objective or knowledge.
In some circles, the term "discipline" has become somewhat of a dirty word, but I'm a fan...
There is so much value in cultivating self-discipline, especially in a world of social media and endless distractions! You will never taste a more expanded version of yourself without some level of effort.
This ties in with another of my core teachings which is that an EXTRAordinary life is built on the ordinary EXTRAS, and this is what cultivating discipline assists us with. It's the seemingly small, ordinary, every day "extras" that enable us to enrich and catapult our life to something extraordinary.
Ordinary things like sitting down in silence every day, moving your body, noticing and influencing your breath and your thoughts, giving someone a hug or smile, putting your feet on the earth for 10 minutes, and noticing the beauty around you.
Anyhow, in the context of this lesson, I’m using the term Sadhana a little more loosely to describe your own disciplined practice, whatever that consists of… yoga asanas, meditation, chanting, qi gong, Pilates, strength training, cold plunges, earthing, pranayama, breathwork, journaling, reading spiritual texts, intuitive dance, prayer at your altar...or I dunno offering a sensual stroke to your crystal collection as you down your reishi-laced cacao.
When you become a teacher or facilitator in a field, because you are so focused on offering this to others, you can start to fall off or lose touch with your own practice.
For instance, a yoga teacher who no longer has their own yoga practice, a personal trainer or Pilates instructor who barely gets their own weekly training sessions in, a therapist who never receives counsel, an art teacher who stops painting her own work, a guitar teacher who stops playing for their own enjoyment, a tarot reader who never receives a reading or reads for themselves, an energy worker who doesn’t receive energy healing tune-ups…
Now of course we may go through seasons where we don’t need to be on the tools and practices as much, but in my experience, it’s so important to maintain that connection to your practice of whatever it is that you offer by continuing to engage with it on personal level.
This keeps your own personal relationship to the lineage / tool / practice alive and activated.
So what does this look like for me…
KAP - Kundalini Activation Process:
I will aim to receive KAP anytime that I can! As I’m based in Perth where there are no other KAP facilitators, any time I travel or if there are online sessions I will strive to receive.
This keeps me connected to the powerful effect KAP has on my whole system and experience of reality over time, so that I have a very intimate and firsthand understanding of what my community is experiencing too. Not to mention I want to continually deepen my own experience and integration of this unique transmission.
Yoga:
During and after I completed my Yoga Teacher Training I went through a period where everything yoga related became about sequencing classes, learning cues and prompts around anatomy and alignment, and working out novel ways of saying things like "now, return to your breath"🤔.
My own personal practice slipped away at that time.
Now I aim to both maintain a self-guided practice and attend classes by other teachers, which continue to inspire me and demonstrate the infinite ways this profound practice can be guided and led.
I have gained such an appreciation of the unique signature each teacher brings to their class and I’m reminded of the potency and effects of a yoga practice for myself and why I fell in love with yoga in the first place.
And finally, by continuing to attend classes I’m perpetually exposed to different ways of guiding, instructing, and holding space that I find really powerful and nourishing so that I can infuse this into my own teaching (and respectfully "borrow" other teachers' ways of offering cues like "return to your breath" 😅).
I have a daily Vedic Meditation practice that allows me to burn off stress, clear my channel, reconnect to my True Self and essential nature, and enjoy moments of transcendence or touching the infinite, everpresent, unchanging unified All That Is.
I’ve maintained this practice for about 7 years, with the last 4 years being the most consistent and disciplined… mostly because I actually love it and it helps me integrate and process everything else going on in my life.
On occasion, I will also jump into the weekly call with my own teacher to receive their wisdom and perspective.
Self-Inquiry Practice:
Every week I listen to a range of podcasts on topics in the field of spirituality and well-being. I’m always reading books on these topics too and generally have some program or course on the go to deepen my understanding.
I also enjoy a journaling practice almost every day using my prompt method (shared in Mystic Being) to heighten and amplify my level of self-awareness so that I am always orientating myself to my highest and most aligned and embodied path of evolution, expression, and service…
In other words, living from my WISDOM and WORTH, not my WOUNDS and WORRIES, which is the essence of what I teach in my programs.
So essentially what this lesson is about is that the best way to LEARN and EMBODY and ADVANCE in your field of offerings is to actually practice it yourself (maintaining a beginner's mind) to deepen that intimate connection and relationship to it - whether it’s practicing it on yourself (if that’s possible with your work) or continuing to be a receiver of it.
If it’s not your own modality you practice for yourself, a Sadhana / disciplined practice ensures you are reconnecting to yourself daily, in whatever form that takes.
In my remaining spiritual entrepreneur business lessons, I get a bit more personal and candid with some BTS shares 🤫!
For instant access to all 10 lessons (as listed below), head on over here.
Lesson 3: A Beginner’s Mind Begets Self-Mastery
Lesson 4: Wait for Worthy Inquiry
Lesson 5: You Can't "Heal' Anyone
Lesson 6: Serve From Your Own Experience & Essence
Lesson 7: You Must 100% Back Yourself & Know Thyself
Lesson 8: Your Biz is One of Your Mightiest Spiritual Assignments
Lesson 9: You Must Redefine Your Professional Boundaries & Personal Rhythm
Lesson 10: You Must Treat Your “Business” as a Business
