Regenerative Business with Sam Garcia

Watch this episode on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0pbJaDqjw8

I wanted to do something a little special for our 11th episode of Business as a Magical Practice. I put my feelers out on what would be a fun turn from our standard teachings & interviews and this is what you requested. Some behind the scenes and a Q&A session!

I have a mercury dominant chart so my practices change a lot. Surprise surprise.

I actually ran my kundalini numerology once & it told me my biggest spiritual practice would be doing a single practice for 1000 days in a row. But that hasn’t happened yet & I haven’t even attempted that challenge yet. 

So… I’ll keep you posted.

And really I think there’s such a stigma in the spiritual space that things need to be perfect to be effective.

And I know from experience & from seeing the backend of some very successful online businesses, that that does not need to be true for you if you don’t want it to be.

People want real. They want relatable.

And a lot of, if not most of, business and marketing is just building relationships and forming connections.

So back to my spiritual practices.

Different phases of my life required different things. 

My daily practice this month (ha) has been really basic and low key because we’ve been pretty swamped with client work. 

But it’s essentially been filling half a page with gratitudes - free writing morning pages style:

I’m grateful of eddy, I'm grateful for Olly, for my home, for my team, for living on Maui…

Until I hit half a page

And I’m trying to really really feel the gratitude in my heart and in my body

And then in the second half of the page I’m writing out my desires - feeling into the excitement of simply wanting those things:

I desire to own a home, for it to rain, to visit my family in Michigan, to make $X this month, to feel fully of energy all day long, to write a killer podcast script, …

After that I’ve written a little 1-2 minute script that encapsulates the energy of the goal I’m currently working on & I read it.

I probably don’t need a script but when it’s early in the morning or I’m in a mood, being able to read something just makes it doable & makes it so I can shift my energy quick.

Which is a real blessing on challenging days or weeks.

So for example. (with goal in mind)

Omg I did it. It worked. I can’t believe it worked but it did! It was easier than I thought it would be. It happened quicker than I thought it would be. I didn’t know how this would happen but it did…. And on and on for 1-2 minutes.

And THEN I’m feeling really good so I sit & think about and visualize my desired end result. The goal is done. I did it. I imagine myself doing the things I’d do with that desired end result.

So - look at the spreadsheet I’ve been tracking numbers on & see the number hit - get up and freak out and tell my husband who’s in the other room.

Text my best friend What the actual fuck?!

And I also identify all the feelings I’m feeling in my body now that I achieved my desired end result.

For me it’s been - overjoyed, in awe, grateful, proud, and powerful

So all of that takes less than 10 minutes. Super simple & right now I’m really loving having something I can do every day that makes me feel good.

And I won’t go into the specifics of results but this pairing of writing with the emotions with the visualization and speaking it...

Has been insanely effective in terms of what’s happening in my physical reality.

I also often do EFT or emotional freedom technique or tapping. I generally just pull up a video from Gala Darling on youtube & follow along.

Kundalini yoga is often a regular in my practice. Not this month, but I’m actually thinking I need to pull some kriya back into my day to day bc it just makes me feel so good.

If you’ve never done kundalini yoga it’s definitely weird as fuck, but it’s way more on the breathwork side than any sort of yoga you’re familiar with.

In terms of daily stuff I love ego eradicator & their version of cat/cow & left nostril breathing.

Those are super quick practices.

I’ve done quite a few 40 day kriyas of 11 minute practices that made me feel really sparkly but not currently.

Those ones take a few days in a row of practice to get into but man they feel good.

Since this is my first time doing this & I could talk about things I love for… hours. I’m just going to choose 3 things that I’ve loved forever.

Toggl. - 

it’s how I track time. It’s how I make my team track time. It’s free. & even if you don’t work for clients & you’re not in a service-based industry I really really really recommend you start tracking all your time now.

Knowing how you’re spending your work time & learning what’s most effective in your business is so important to transitioning your business as a job for you into an actual business where you can delegate to a team & where you can make really informed decisions.

Thredup - 

so coming from an environmental background I’ve held a lot of guilt around buying things. About creating more waste on the planet. Even though I’ve really loved clothes and fashion and the fact that as women we can adorn ourselves & that can be apart of our self care & I really believe that it can assist in collapsing time and stepping into a future version of yourself.

So Thredup is great because it’s essentially a virtual thrift store. They have so many things, even designer clothing, and you’re buying used so at least you aren’t adding to the evil behemoth that is the fashion industry.

Blue blocker glasses -

If you spend long hours on your computer these are great. I’m sure you can dig into all of the science but I just know that I’m less frazzled at the end of an 8 hours on the computer day when I wear them.

I got mine off of Amazon for $15. THey’re really cute. They’re called “”

Coffee? Haha

There’s a technique called the Pomodoro technique that’s pretty cool. There’s a whole background story about a guy in Italy & a tomato shaped kitchen timer, but you essentially set a timer for 25 minutes. Work on ONE THING with zero multi tasking for those 25 minutes. And when the timer goes off you take a 5 minute break.

Then you repeat that 3 times & then do a longer 15 minute break.

I don’t do this often but I find that when I practice it I feel so much more rested at then end of a work day. Those 5 minute breaks seriously help. And you get a lot done because you aren’t multi tasking.

Because who can’t do focused work for 25 minutes? You also get to race the clock which I find pretty motivating.

When I do this I actually do 45 minute on & 10 minute off bc I find that it usually takes more like 45 minutes for me to finish a project, and getting cut off at 25 minutes makes me frustrated.

I take a break. I go outside or lay horizontal for 10 minutes. It usually helps. Or just go for a walk or do 3 minutes of breath of fire or ego eradicator.

Sometimes you just need to get your eyes off the computer.

I get to do it all my way. I get to make the rules. And I’m getting better and better at that!

Another aspect is I get to build a team. It was such a big desire of mine to give someone work. To create a job for someone out of thin air. I think a lot of people work crap jobs for crap people & I just love that I can give what I think is really cool work to people who are into it. 

That’s all for today, folks!

Thanks for being with me for 11 whole episodes. I hope you had fun with me today - I know I did!

_

Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Want strategy that respects your nervous system—and business growth that feels like a spell, not a sprint?

Join the Regenerative Business Ecosystem: my entire library of courses, live monthly calls, personalized onboarding, and a whole community of magical misfits building world-changing businesses—without selling their souls to the algorithm.

🎟️ Grab your spot now at https://learn.thedirtyalchemy.com/rbe

LET'S STAY IN TOUCH!

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Web: http://thedirtyalchemy.com

SHOW NOTES

When I first met Carolyn, she was running a multiple-6 figure business with just herself and a part-time assistant. Without a fancy website or a perfect social media presence, she created a brand that is totally unique, true to her higher purpose, and completely transformative to those of us who have been lucky enough to be introduced to her work (myself included!).

Since then, she's achieved the overflowing abundance of a 7-figure business, a loving husband and family, and a wealth of beauty and success in her life.

Today, Carolyn is sharing about her journey from barely scraping by to having overflow, including her tips for entrepreneurs who are just starting out (and trust me — some of them are surprising!). 

“When I’m writing and trying to convey ideas, I need to go to where I’ve already been astrally.” — Carolyn Elliott

Things we learned this episode:

How to work with your spouse without wanting to kill each other. (6:30)

Carolyn co-founded WEALTH: the virtual alchemical community with her husband Taia Kepher. In running this community together, they don’t always agree on everything. But they’ve found that the best way to prevent and de-escalate conflicts is to embrace any uncomfortable dynamics in ways that are silly and playful, confronting the energy head-on so that it can be released. In true shadow work fashion, they don’t run away from the challenges, they roll with them!

Going from not having enough to having an overflow. (10:00)

Carolyn discusses her transition from just scraping by with her business to her current state of abundant money, love, and success — and the unexpected shadow side of overflow.

Carolyn also shares about her relationship with the planet Jupiter and how that helped her get to this point. To learn more about Planetary Magic, listen to episode 9 here.

Why you should do the hard stuff in your business before you get a fancy website . (14:15)

When I first started working with Carolyn, she was pulling in multiple 6 figures with one assistant and not spending much time on her website branding and styling. Instead, she was putting way more attention on the hard stuff: impactful coaching, powerful writing, and making sales. She put her energy into the things that mattered the most to her, and it allowed her business to flourish.

How to gain knowledge about your next business moves from your Higher Self. (18:00)

When you’re thinking through your next business decisions, do you tend to hop online or talk it out with someone else? Carolyn shares her process for gaining potent insights by taking time to sit back and meditate internally on what she wants to accomplish with her teaching. And how feeling into her emotions has helped her convey the ideas and images she wants to write about.

How holding paradoxes activates a new level of awareness and creativity. (21:00)

When you hold two seemingly opposite ideas at the same time, you activate a new level of awareness, something Carl Jung called the Transcendent Function. It allows you to see from a different dimension and reconcile things at that other dimension. So dwelling with paradox is a great foundation for creativity, because there are so many creative ways to express paradoxes.

How to deal with the days you feel unhappy and unmotivated with work. (32:00)

Most people don’t talk openly about the really challenging days of running a business. But for many business owners, there are days when getting out of bed and doing what needs to be done is really hard. On days like that, Carolyn motivates herself by reminding herself of the Bodhisattva Vow she took during a particularly dark period of her life. This vow helps to remind her that the work she does is for others, not herself.

The Bodhisattva Vow goes like this:

“Beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them.

Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.”

Advice for taking your business to the 7-figure level. (40:00)

What are qualities you have that you’re deeply ashamed of? That’s the unexpected first question from Carolyn about how we can all take our business to the next level. Shamelessly rejoicing in all parts of who we are can help us develop a “Page Turner” persona version for ourselves that we can consciously allow to be as wildly successful as we’ve always secretly dreamed. Liberating this energy can give you the boost to start and run a business!

_

Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

More from Carolyn:

Carolyn's website: http://carolyngraceelliott.com 

Carloyn's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carolyn-Elliott-PhD-367818316599523

Carolyn's Instagram: @carolynelliott_

Order Carolyn's bestselling book Existential Kink

Order Carolyn's cult favorite book Awaken Your Genius

Join the WEALTH community

Resources mentioned:

Listen to episode 9 of Business as a Magical Practice on Planetary Magic here.

Learn more about your magical name gematria here.

Learn more about Carl Jung's Transcendent Function here.

Learn more about the Bodhisattva Vow here.

Want strategy that respects your nervous system—and business growth that feels like a spell, not a sprint?

Join the Regenerative Business Ecosystem: my entire library of courses, live monthly calls, personalized onboarding, and a whole community of magical misfits building world-changing businesses—without selling their souls to the algorithm.

🎟️ Grab your spot now at https://learn.thedirtyalchemy.com/rbe

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

How to Enchant Your Audience & Put Them Under Your Spell: https://thedirtyalchemy.simplecast.com/episodes/006-enchantment

Keep the conversation going!

Instagram: @thedirtyalchemy

www.thedirtyalchemy.com

Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Sun:

The sun aligns with the energy of consciousness, well-being, confidence. This is the planet that can help you with strengthening a positive sense of self and purpose in life. It’s also the ruler of vitality and health.

Colors: gold & yellow

Day: Sunday

Symbols and offerings: incense or essential oils like amber, cinnamon, and citrus fruits. Tiger’s eye, citrine, and gold. If you want to offer food or drink, start with sun tea (that’s tea that’s been steeped in the sun’s heat), cider, orange juice, and sunflower seeds.

Moon:

The moon holds the energy of the unconscious, emotions, and the soul. It’s perfect for magic that increases psychic intuition, feminine energy, and happy home life.

Color: white

Day: Monday

Symbols and offerings: eucalyptus, amethyst, quartz, salt water, any kind of milk, edible flowers, and seafood. Because the moon controls the tides, she is very connected with all things from the sea.

Mercury:

Mercury rules communication (including writing and speaking skills, and branding), technology, and travel. Mercury is also associated with fast cash & marketing, so that’s fun ;)

Color: orange

Day: Wednesday

Symbols and offerings: lavender, carnelian, jasper, honeysuckle, and any adaptogen. If offering food, offer coffee, tea, wine, bread, and olives

Mars:

Mars is the planet for motivation, beating the competition, and sex. For lighting a fire under your ass and going after what you want. 

Color: red

Day: Tuesday

Symbols and offerings: garnet, red aventurine, and ruby. And any spicy food, like cayenne, chili powder, and ginger.

Venus:

Venus rules love, enchanting your attractiveness/desirability, and being charming and irresistible. She also rules artistry and success in creative endeavors. She’s the planet most associated with luxury, so if you’re interested in high ticket sales, she can help you with that.

Color: pink

Day: Friday

Symbols and offerings: roses and rose quartz, fancy perfumes, red wine, chocolate, and all foods lush and fancy

Jupiter:

Jupiter loves laughter, fun, and community.

Color: blue

Day: Thursday

Symbols and offerings: sapphire, turquoise, blue agate... plus plants like oak, chestnut, nutmeg. And expensive food and drink like fine whiskey and roasted meats. 

Saturn:

Saturn rules the energy of law, reality, karma, fear, and mastery.

Color: black

Day: Saturn

Symbols and offerings: vetiver, lead, obsidian, and poisonous plants like belladonna and nightshade

Planetary Magic.

If you don’t know what that is, planetary magic is working with the planets to assist in our desired outcomes & desired realities here on earth. 

Since ancient times, humans have worshiped the visible planets as deities, as gods and goddesses. You can imagine a time where there was no artificial lighting and the night sky was full of stars. Us as humans had a very real, and very meaningful relationship with the sky.

The stars move for the most part, together as one. But the planets, as you look in the sky, moved seemingly on their own volition. They had a mind of their own, a spirit of their own.

Shamanic practices would allow these ancient societies to commune with the energies of the planet. To know their essence. Their nature. Their desires.

And they would use these very large energies to empower what they wanted in their lives. To find more love, to build wealth, to expand psychic abilities, to protect their family.

This is very much a part of our human ancestry. Our evolution. We may have lost touch with our disconnection with the natural world & our disconnect from the night sky. But it is something immediately accessible (and something I’ve loved using myself). SO I’m so happy to be talking about this with you today.

In Planetary magic, each planet has its own unique energy. It’s based off of the idea that each planet rules over certain areas of our lives. Even if you’ve never heard of planetary magic before, you’re probably familiar with the idea that Venus symbolizes love & sex & often the feminine.

You can work with any of the nine planets (and yes, we’re including Pluto as a planet, because it’s part of our solar system). But the inner 7 planets are in general the most applicable to work with in our business because they govern our physical reality.

Plus they are what we can see with our naked eye in the night sky so we as humans have a longer tradition with working with them.

The first seven planets used in planetary magic are the Sun, moon (yes, the moon), mercury, mars, venus, jupiter, and saturn.

Any of the planets past Saturn are not visible to the human eye, so humans didn’t know about the other planets until after the invention of the telescope.

We recognize Magic through synchronicities. So when you’re invoking a planetary deity, you’re inviting those synchronicities into your life. You’re manipulating your vibration to reflect the energy of the planet you want to emulate. So you’re moving into that planet’s sphere of influence.

Maybe You’re thinking, “I want to improve my financial situation. Jupiter is the planetary deity most associated with money and expansion. So I’m going to talk to Jupiter and give him offerings and gratitude, I’m basically going to wave a big flag in his direction and get him to notice me. And when he does start to notice me, energetically, I’m going to make a lot more money.”

This is a little cheekier than what you’re actually practicing. You’re actually starting a RELATIONSHIP with Jupiter. Inviting his favor. As we talked about in episode 8, you’re a lot more likely to get $20 from your best friend when you ask them versus randomly asking a stranger on the street...

Maybe it sounds simple broken down like that… but that’s actually how it works. As long as you have the habits in place, working with the planetary deities can help you expand different parts of your life in whatever ways you can dream of. It’s something I’ve seen work for myself, but I’ve also seen lots of other people improve their lives in this way.

That’s why I suggest it to business owners looking for magical practices to grow their business. Because when you feel like you’re treading water (and I’m sure we’ve all felt this way)... it’s often because you need a bit of an energetic push in the direction you want to go in. The planets can give you that energetic push.

As I mentioned - Each planet rules something different, and we’re going to get into which planet rules what soon. But right now, I want to make the point that it’s easy to want to work with allllll of them at once. When you first discover planetary magic you might feel like you have so many different areas of your life or your business that need help (money, confidence, writing, business savvy) that you want to just go ahead and work with all the planets.

But that actually isn’t the most effective way to get started with this. Because you don’t want 7 half-hearted relationships that aren’t really going to make a notable impact in your life. You want to start with making one really strong relationship that can completely transform you. If you focus on multiple planets, you’ll just end up spreading your energy too thin and not making much headway with any of them.

It’s like having one best friend you tell everything to, someone you would trust with the world, versus having 7 friends you kind of know but don’t really spend much time with. That one relationship is going to fulfill you so much more.

Plus, let’s be real. Doing legit weekly rituals with 7 different planets is a lot less likely to happen than starting with one, proving to yourself that it makes a difference. You’re likely to continue that relationship in the long term instead of getting overwhelmed and dropping off after a few weeks.

So start with one planet and build a working relationship. Start with whichever can help you with your most pressing need (we’ll discuss in a few minutes how you can determine that). And build a really energetically powerful relationship with that planet.

The more energy you channel into the planet of your choice, the more it will return the favor and help you, even in areas that aren’t technically its area of expertise. So even if writing and communication belongs to the realm of Mercury, if you have a close relationship with the moon, you’ll discover that the moon can help you with that too.

I’ve found that this is a really incredible lesson in focus. In prioritizing. To look at your life or our business and say, these 12 things need to change, but which is the most important right now? 

So let’s talk about deciding which planet you want to work with.

I recommend using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Ne

Want to work with my magical marketing team? We're on a waitlist through February of next year, but if you know that you’ll be needing help with your online launches in 2021 or need help optimizing your sales funnels, get on the waitlist: thedirtyalchemy.com/apply

Blog mentioned:

“How to delegate when you’re a control freak (written by a recovering control freak)”: https://thedirtyalchemy.com/blog/delegating

Tools mentioned:

Later App: http://later.com

Convertkit: http://convertkit.com 

Active Campaign: https://www.activecampaign.com

Keep the conversation going!

Instagram: @thedirtyalchemy

www.thedirtyalchemy.com

Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

We’re going to be talking about Externalized Energies today & How to access more power in your business without burning out.

As magical business owners we have more than our own energy. We have a myriad of external energies to draw upon.

There’s the magically obvious — our rituals & spirit. The forces that we communicate with through our craft and our consistency.

But we also have the very mundane external energies within our business. Our team. Technology. The systems we have in place. Automations.

Both of these aspects - the magical & the mundane - are so powerful and important to have in place. They multiply our impact.

Because of course we should be working on our brains and our intuition to amplify our personal power. But our business is a separate entity from ourselves, so we can design it to act as a house for energy to build up on its own.

It builds up its own assets. It’s own identity (that’s what branding is 👹). 

And soon enough it has a power of its own, energy of its own, that we can draw upon & we can have working for us.

So we have our internal energy. The energy within us. Our personal power. Our wisdom. Our brilliance.

And the externalized energy is energy that is ours. That we can rely on. But it is outside of us. 

SO if you can imagine a series of concentric circles. The inner circle is us. And there are more and more circles of energy that we can add out from ourselves to our business that is helping our business have more and more power.

When I started working with one of my clients in 2019, she had already gotten to about $500,000 per year in her magical online business. This is an impressive feat in and of itself but the real jaw dropper was that she got there all by herself with just a part-time virtual assistant.

Fucking rad, right?

This is a great example of a woman who is really tapped into the externalized energy of magic. She has daily and weekly rituals that were magnifying her personal power. She’s relying on the tried and true support of planetary deities, shadow work to increase her power by unifying her conscious and unconscious, and other esoteric practices to make her reality really juicy.

But she hadn’t built a team or systems. And Because she was just relying on the spiritual side of externalized energies, she was dreading Ever launching an online program again. It was stressful and overwhelming and she just wanted a break. So when I was able to come in and add the team and tech side of externalized energies, things got a lot easier for her to scale.

Yes, she was then able to scale beyond seven figures, but more important than that, in my opinion, is she could stop doing the part of her business that she hated, and start doing things she never began to begin with because it seemed out of her wheelhouse. She could spend more time with her friends, her family, and doing things that filled her up so she could show up more fully to her audience, students, and clients. And have the space to have a clear vision for the future of her business that was big and bold and turned her on.

Obviously, systems are a huge part of externalized energy. This is tech like automated email responders, sales funnels, and just your straight up website, and it’s also your SOP’s, standard operating procedures, which I actually wrote in detail about in a blog, so I won’t go into here. It’s called “How to delegate when you’re a control freak (written by a recovering control freak).” And we’ll link to it in the show notes.

But before we dive into more, I want to add in a little Warning label.

The thing that I see people trip up on the most, when they’re starting out… Is that they try and rely on externalized energies when it really doesn’t matter for them. When you’re just starting out, having the perfect evergreen funnel or building a team are not important and can actually be detrimental. If you do not have the revenue and profit margin to actually support a team, and you haven’t spent the time going through the fire of learning the right messaging to make people want to work with you or buy from you, then hiring copywriters or graphic designers or people to delegate to is not your answer.

Having the perfect website and A beautifully designed sales page and all that stuff that all of the bro marketers on the Internet are telling you to do… Are not going to help you.

When you’re just starting out you actually need to be focusing on your internal energy, your personal power. 

Before you hit six figures or multiple six figures, as an online business, you are still learning. You are still building. It is still all about you. You don’t need to worry about the outside but the inside. You shouldn’t be looking outwards but inwards. 

This is when working on your mindset, doing your shadow work, just getting over all the bullshit that is holding you personally back from success. 

This is also when you’re learning about your customer. So many people try to rush through this stuff. They start trying to manipulate the outside world, those externalized energies, instead of doing the inner work and their own work. 

When you’re starting out, You need to focus on showing up each and every day and giving value. You need to focus on writing or broadcasting every day. You need to be learning and observing what is actually resonating with the people that you want to work with. You need to get customers and clients and learn from the process.

This is when you need to learn to do all of the things on your own.

If you're just starting out and you’re already creating an online program when you have never worked with someone online before… Stop. You are going to have such a hard time. Harder time than you need to. You need to get experience under your belt and you’re using creating an online program or course as the means for procrastination. Or even more likely as a means for not doing the uncomfortable thing of selling one on one. Selling yourself, selling your value, really standing behind yourself. In the beginning it is uncomfortable.

So that was a bit of a tangent but I just wanna be really really clear about this - that a lot of this externalized energy stuff, beyond your own personal work, should not be your focus until you hit a certain level of success and income.

And if you’re really drawn to working on the external when you haven’t built your foundation, ask yourself why.

What are you avoiding?

You cannot delegate learning how to sell to your ideal customer. That is on you. That is a part of this journey. That is what is going to make you grow as an online business and set you up for success in the long run.

OK, so another side of externalized energy is your actual business, your brand. When you’re just getting started it’s all about you as I said. But as you keep showing up and you keep building your business, your business has a life of its own. Your business has a soul of its own.

On the physical side of this, this is your actual visual branding, your fonts, your colors the way that you write. The pictures you use. It is the name of your business that has traction beyond you. It is people knowing the name of your programs, not even connected to you.

As you consistently use the same branding, and you consistently promote the same programs, you’re building the energy of this external asset. Your business.

You can lean on this asset for energy. It starts being able to create energy, to create profit, to create customers, without you even being there.

On the spiritual side your business has its own soul. The sooner that you accept this, the sooner that you can actually tap into the energy of this and use it for deep wisdom.

A practice I often do when starting with new clients is to take them through a guided meditation so that they can tap in to the soul of their business. 

This is so they can actually realize that their business is separate from them. And the sooner that they can realize this, the sooner they can tap into it as a resource, and actually ask it it’s own opinion.

This is something for larger businesses… If you’re just trying to create yourself as your brand then this is obviously not that thing. 

But if you’re trying to create this larger entity that is an empire beyond just you, then you need to start communicating with it. You can actually ask it what it wants and needs. You can ask it wh

SHOW NOTES:

Bees fanning their wings to distill honey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOZ2h8Ugfdw&feature=emb_title

Download the FREE 8 Phases of a Numinous Launch guide: https://www.thedirtyalchemy.com/phases

Get 2 Hours to Launch: the project plan template for a magical launch without the burnout: https://thedirtyalchemy.com/2-hours-to-launch

Keep the conversation going!

Instagram: @thedirtyalchemy

www.thedirtyalchemy.com

TRANSCRIPTION:

Today’s episode is all about distillation.

And if hearing that immediately makes you think of chemistry and science and you’re not really into that right now… don’t worry. This is all going to tie back into your magical online biz, and it’s really powerful stuff, I promise.

Distillation is one of those words that has multiple meanings across different fields. But essentially every definition says the same thing: when you distill something, you’re breaking it down until you have extracted the central meaning or the most important aspect of what it is.

In chemistry it means that you have essentially broken down a liquid through alternate heating and cooling, to a point where it is completely refined, purified and highly concentrated.

And this is actually a central process in alchemy. Whether you’re talking about literal metallic alchemy, or you’re talking about spiritual alchemy, alchemy of the self.

The fundamental processes of alchemy are distillation and coagulation. Purifying a substance and then, when it’s in that highly concentrated and potent refined state, joining it with another substance to create your desired end result. So when we talk about spiritual alchemy, we’re talking about distilling ourselves, refining our own insights until we start tapping into the central essence of who we are as a person, as a soul.

When we concentrate hard on the parts of ourselves we are trying to distill — maybe a certain belief we have that we want to change — the energy of that belief becomes volatile, and the powerful creative forces behind that energy are able to be released. 

Then you can coagulate that distilled energy into a new force, to shape it how you want, creating deep spiritual change. But if you want to get there, you first have to go through that period of purification and refinement.

If that all sounds a bit too scientific for you, think of it this way… you’re probably already using distillation in your daily life.

It’s why distilled water is more expensive and sought after than tap water. Because it’s purified. All the unwanted additives are taken out, so you know that what you’re getting is the pure essence of water.

Like the honeybee who transforms nectar into honey. When bees bring nectar from flowers back to their hives, the whole hive gathers around to fan their wings really quickly, a process that evaporates out the water. This actually distills the nectar to make it into its purest form -- honey. The purest form of flower nectar. If you haven’t seen a video of this before, it’s really cool to watch. We’ll put a link in the show notes.

Another good example is essential oils. They’re extractions from a plant that are distilled. That’s why they smell so strong and their effect is so potent. They’ve gone through that refinement process where anything extra is taken out, so you’re left with only the most pure and potent parts of the plant.

So. Maybe you’re wondering how this applies to your business.

I see a lot of online business owners who are building online programs or online courses, who are tempted to dump as much info as they can into their course or program. Maybe it’s to overcome their own fear that their program isn’t good enough, or that they themselves aren’t good enough. Maybe it’s because they have residual money blockages they need to work on before they feel like they really deserve to be paid for their program.

Whatever the reason, they keep giving more because they think it will make their program better. More valuable.

But MORE can actually be detrimental to a program. And hear me out if that seems counterintuitive.

More means... more. That’s it. As an online business, more content does not mean better content. More lessons are not better. More videos don’t make your programs more valuable. More elements don’t make them more effective. 

As the expert, the business owner, the teacher, the coach, it’s your job to distill your brilliance into a minimum effective dose, or into the exact process to produce the result your clients & students want.

And this need to keep adding more might actually be laziness. It might stem from an unwillingness to sit down and put your brain into high gear and think about what is truly effective. This may be a self-worth issue, like I mentioned before. The “I’m not good enough” message that makes you think you have to keep giving.

But what ends up happening if you add too much is that your audience becomes lost in all the different messages.  They lose track of the goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the program in their scramble to do everything. 

Because if your program really is as incredible and transformative as you think it is… your audience doesn’t need more, more, more to have it change their lives. They just need a super-potent, refined version of your powerful teachings.

If you just keep adding and adding and adding without distillation, without refinement, without separating the truly useful from the fluff, you’re not being of service to your customers, clients, and audience.

Worse, you’re going to waste your students’ time, because they’re going to end up spending a lot of time and energy figuring out what to focus on instead of having a clear path forward toward their desired end result, the whole reason they’re in your program. Instead of focusing on your brilliant idea or teachings, they’re going to feel confused and anxious that they aren’t doing enough. Which is definitely not what you want.

So. The key ingredient to a super-successful program is to have your customers go through a massive transformation. 

Did you get that?

The key ingredient to a super-successful program is to have your customers go through a massive transformation.

That’s what your audience is paying for. Your audience isn’t paying for the specific offerings in your program, they’re paying for that transformation. So you don’t need to give them half a dozen half-assed ways to get there: you just need to give them one really powerful way, and if it massively transforms their lives then they’re going to love you.

If you want your online programs to be successful, it has to be about more than just what you create for it, what you add to it. Because you can add a hundred new elements to your program and that doesn’t mean your customers will have a deeper transformation. It just means they will need to commit more time and energy to it. And for a lot of people, that means they’ll decide they aren’t able to fully commit, so they’ll drop out and ask for a refund.

The most important thing to remember is that your clients want one thing: a life-changing transformation, fast.

So to make your impact as powerful as possible, you have to do what you can to help people get results ASAP. The better results they get, and the faster they get them, the more likely they’ll be to continue on with you. To go deeper with you. To totally fall in love with you and your business, and to recommend your program to their friends.

But if they’re inundated with way too much information and too many assignments to stick to... you’re gonna lose them. They won’t recommend your program to other people, they won’t share about it on their social media, they won’t give you testimonials, they won’t become your cheerleaders.

And  a big barrier to all of this is… them not finishing your program. Them not going through it at all. 

If your customers are overwhelmed by the amount of material and they do not see the rhyme or reason, and they don’t get early results… Then you are most likely going to lose them. Even if they stick with your program, they might not fully engage with your central teachings in a powerful, transformative way because they’re too busy trying to take everything in.

So get used to taking time to distill. Start by taking a time block that you usually reserve for brainstorming new content or creating new ideas in your program… and use that time instead to distill the brilliant idea you already have, the idea your program is based on. Think through it. Meditate on it. Imagine your brilliant idea going through those chemical processes of purification and refinement. It might help to visualize your idea as a liquid whose essence is slowly dripping from a filtration system.

As you’re working to distill your ideas, ask yourself: Is there any fluff you’re keeping in your course or program because you’re falling into the “more is better” trap? Is there anything that doesn’t directly relate to that minimum effective dose that might be a distraction from what’s really important?

You can also practice training your brain to distill information. This means turning off all the inputs — television, music, even pausing this podcast for a moment while you think — and just sitting with an idea. Not thinking about all the things you can do and make with that idea, but sitting with the idea itsel

Download the FREE 8 Phases of a Numinous Launch guide: https://www.thedirtyalchemy.com/phases

Get 2 Hours to Launch: the project plan template for a magical launch without the burnout: https://thedirtyalchemy.com/2-hours-to-launch

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TRANSCRIPT

Hello again!

Are you having a wonderful August so far? Other than starting a podcast, we’re keeping it easy over here in preparation for a pretty jam-packed fall with preparing for some big online launches for three of our clients.

It also just feels quiet on Maui with all of the travel restrictions. Maui’s main industry is tourism with only around 150,000 year-round residents versus over 3 MILLION tourists visiting each year.

I kind of feel spoiled right now with how quiet the island is. Where beaches are usually packed all day every day, it’s been so much more mellow. And bumper to bumper traffic at certain times of day have transformed into sleepy beach town vibes.

But… that’s not what we’re talking about today.

We’re talking about Enchantment! and how to use it in your magical business. How you can actually enchant your audience into falling hard for you.

So let’s take a step back for a second… because we hear this word a lot but often don’t stop to think about what it means. To enchant someone is to give them a feeling of delight, happiness or excitement… so powerful it feels like it’s caused by magic. You may think of being enchanted as being captivated or charmed... but it can also be used to describe something bewitched, spellbound, or hypnotized.

The word “enchant” comes from the Latin root word "cantare," meaning to sing. To sing, to repeat, to chant… like a mantra. Or a spell. In Middle English, it was used literally to mean that someone had been put under a spell. In episode 3 of the podcast, I talked about the power the word holds in esoteric traditions (make sure to listen to that if you haven’t, I’ll link it in the show notes) and that’s the same thing we’re seeing here. The power your word has to manifest your heart. 

When you enchant someone, you are charming them with the strength and potency of a magical spell. It’s moving past more ordinary sensations of wanting something, like we experience on a daily basis, into a state of being totally captivated and entranced by something. 

For example… I regularly feel enchanted by my cat. She’s so annoying and meows nonstop when her food bowl is empty or she wants to go outside. But she does whatever strange movement & energetic shift that enchants me and I feel like I’m put under her spell. If you’re a cat person and own a cat you know what I’m talking about. When they want love or attention or pets, you have no choice but to give them what they want. It’s like a magnetic force drawing you in.

So when you enchant someone, you’re moving past the idea that they like, or even love, who you are and what you’re doing, and into the idea that they desperately want and need who you are and what you’re doing.

It makes you irresistible. 

And this is what you want from your audience, right? Especially when your program or product is so out-of-this-world and you know it will change the world. You want customers who are going to be so totally captivated by what you’re selling that they have no choice but to say “hell yeah!” and jump on board.

Having an enchanting business means your business can not only capture your ideal audience’s attention and hold it…. But it actually draws those customers in like a magnet.

And your product or service is so dazzling that your customers can’t help but fall for you.

So today, we’re talking about how you can be enchanting as a business owner and how you can enchant your customers.

Every aspect of your business is part of your enchantment. The spell you’re using to bewitch your audience into becoming your customers and falling in love with your. From the life-changing product or service you’re providing. To your copywriting, social media posts, even the colors you use and images you use on social media. These are the chants, the spells you captivate your audience with.

So treat your business like a powerful magical force. Because it is one! Your business has its own powerful energy, and as the business owner you can change that energy to be more high-vibe and pull money and clients in. So meditate on how to make your product the most perfect thing your audience needs right now. Give offerings to your business. Surround yourself with magical items that make you feel in touch with your business goals.

Citrine is an excellent crystal for business and power. If you’re focused on pulling in money right now, keep green aventurine crystals by your workspace and drink ginger tea. If you want to communicate with your audience better, try lapis lazuli crystals. Allspice is great for communication, compassion, and wisdom, all qualities that will make your audience love you.  

If you give tribute to gods or goddesses as part of your spiritual practice, now is a great time to spend time getting to know which of them can help you raise your vibration to hit your business goals, and give offerings of gratitude and appreciation for your business success.

Another good trick for bringing enchanting energy to your business is to figure out what colors make you feel powerful. For a lot of people red is a power color, and you might find that especially if you work with attraction, seduction, or Venus in your business. Or if your business is about self-care and mental health, you might resonate with the bright and cheeriness of yellow, like the sun & the solar plexus chakra. If you want to calm your audience, blue might be your color. Figure out which color makes you feel aligned with your business goals this month. And then wear it!! 

This is you rhyming with the universe. You’re communicating archetypally & subconsciously & amplifying your intentions through the actions you take in the real world. You’re rhyming your words, actions, energy AND using powerful magical items to amplify your energy and fully align you with your goals.

When I sit with the word enchanting and feel it in my body… Snow White falls into my head. You can't deny that Disney princesses are enchanting, whether or not you think that they're horrible patriarchal constructs. Snow White brings her magic to everything. Everything she does is casting a spell - note the small woodland animals that follow her around, completely enchanted by her, willing to do whatever she wants. Her presence is bewitching.

To be enchanting involves believing in your bones your power as a business owner, the efficacy of your program, the essence of your future self. It's not just about doing enchantments, it's about embodying enchanting with every part of you. It’s about meditating on your biz every morning AND putting that insight into practice. Feeling that power and moving into that space.

So let’s talk about what else you should be doing to make your business enchant and resonate with your audience.

Don’t be afraid to get SUPER specific with what your business and products are about and who they’re for. A lot of business owners try to keep their language and offerings vague because they think it will appeal to more people and they’re worried about being too “niche”. But all that does is make the people who would otherwise really resonate with your business feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Allow yourself to let go of anyone who isn’t your ideal customer (trust me, there are still going to be tons of people interested in your business and products!). By letting your ideal customers know that you “get it” and you have exactly what they need, they’ll start falling in love with you.

We’re honestly looking for our 1 in a million clients and customers. I like to call them my unicorns. Because math doesn’t fucking lie. Think about 1 in a million. When I tell you that you’re trying to enchant your 1-in-a-million person. You’re most likely going to think that you’re going to go broke. Have to shut down your business. And go back to the 9 to 5.

But… as I’m recording this there are 7.8 Billion on our planet. And guess how many 1 in a millions are in 7.8 Billion. 7800 people. Not too shabby of a customer base, right?

And even if you’re working to enchant your 1 in a million magic unicorn client, there are other people that will also be captivated by your work that don’t fit the bill, so it’s actually more than 7800 people. But anyways… that’s just a fun little math aside.

Communicating with the world is part of the enchanting. You’re capturing their attention by being charming and giving them something of high value, something they really want. Your words, your branding, your whatever, is infused by your intentional energy & is selected carefully to pull together a spell.

But there’s another key to enchanting your audience. A more subtle one. But it’s key.

To make your spell as powerful as possible — to really make your audience fall in love with you and grow your business — you have to be enchanted by them as much as they are by you.

I think of Mists of Avalon where the priestess Nimue is put on the task of seducing Merlin and getting him to fall in love with her. And for the most potent spell

LET'S STAY IN TOUCH!

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SHOW NOTES

Astrology is about so much more than just your birth chart. It’s about all the cosmic energies that influence every aspect of your daily life, including your business. What are the keys to using astrology to make your business a success? How can you plan your big business decisions so that they’ll be supported by the cosmic energy? And what actions can we all take as business owners to ensure that our business evolves with us as a powerful spiritual practice?

On this week’s episode, Sam is joined by CEO and founder of Astrology Hub, Amanda ‘Pua’ Walsh, who shares her journey as an entrepreneur and a deeply spiritual person whose business changes the lives of thousands of people for the better.

“The more we infuse who we are and what we stand for in our work, the more the people that resonate with that vibration are able to benefit from us.” – Amanda ‘Pua’ Walsh

1. Sometimes, it takes a major shift to help us realize what’s truly important to us.

It can be easy to get sucked into the ebb and flow of ordinary life without stopping to think about what we truly want — until a major shift happens. After a significant life change, we’re often asked to look inward and find out what’s really important to us. Where do you want to be spending your time and energy? Are you leaving behind the legacy you want to create? Big shifts bring introspection, and with that comes clarity. We become more in touch with what we actually care about and value, to find order in the chaos and meaning in what is happening in our lives.

2. Spiritual businesses need a balance of energies to succeed.

It’s easy to get sucked into having a business that’s either completely yin, based on intuition and flow, or completely yang, based on logic and data. To have a successful business, we need to trust in the universe to bring us what we need and have a set structure and boundaries. As Amanda explains, you first need to know what the script looks like for a successful business, and then after you’ve learned the choreography you can discover how to flow within it. 

3. How to balance the energies of the planets and bring their energy to your business.

Each planet is a key to unlocking new insight into yourself and your business. And whatever you want to bring more of into your life — introspection, pleasure, fire, communication — there is planetary energy to help you get there. Bring the moon into your business by taking time to be introspective. Commune with Mercury before you write an email or do a podcast to make sure your message is coming through clearly. If you need a spark of energy to get stuff done, talk to Mars for visionary focus. And of course Jupiter and Saturn, the planets of expanding and pulling back, can strike a powerful balance to ensure your best ideas are always advancing but not getting out of hand.

4. How to use astrological weather in your business

The astrological weather is all about timing. It’s basically a weather report for what energies will be present at a certain time. The universe is always moving - think of it like a celestial clock. Understanding this timing is helpful as a business owner because you can time your big decisions to coincide with the astrological weather. It’s a means of influence, another datapoint to help you understand how you can time your business decisions. And we always have a choice about how we’re going to dance with that cosmic energy. 

5. What a Spiritual CEO teaches her daughters about entrepreneurship

Being a boss is about more than just telling people what to do. It’s about showing up every day in the way you want the rest of your team to show up. Amanda takes her daughters along for the ride on every aspect of what goes on with Astrology Hub, from teaching them about launches/opens to reading them emails and showing them the numbers behind the scenes. Her daughters are always included in the conversation — and sometimes they even give their own advice!

6. Advice for business owners who are just starting out 

Ready to take your first step toward having a successful business where you’re working less and more effectively? Amanda’s advice: Learn to play. Get in the ocean with a bougie board and ride the waves like a kid. Play board games with your kids. Put on a quick song and have a dance party! Think about what makes you feel playful now — or what made you feel playful as a kid. In those moments of rejuvenation and pleasure, your best ideas will come. And your life will become much more rich. When you bring that playfulness into your work, your audience will sense it and love you so much more.

Guest Bio

Amanda ‘Pua’ Walsh, M.S., is the CEO and Founder of Astrology Hub, an online platform for astrological guidance and education reaching over 90,000 astrology lovers worldwide. Amanda is the host of the to-ranking Astrology Hub Podcast, featuring conversations with the best astrologers in the world today. Amanda blends her diverse background in business leadership, psychology, digital marketing, and media with her passion for astrology, spirituality and personal growth.

Prior to Astrology Hub, Amanda was a co-owner of a successful technology consulting company in New York City. She left NYC and her career to embark on a more heart-centered life in Hawaii, 9 years ago. She then navigated an extremely challenging period of time in her life in which Astrology became a lifeline, inspiring her to create a platform for the wisdom of high-quality astrology to benefit the lives of many. 

Amanda served as the Co-Host and Co-Producer of both the Mindful Leadership Online Training Conference and the Servant Leadership Training Summit with Ken Blanchard. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Suma Cum Laude on a full academic scholarship from San Francisco State with her Master’s Degree in Psychology. Amanda lives on the island of Maui, Hawaii where she loves swimming in the ocean and dancing hula with her two daughters. 

For more information, visit www.astrologyhub.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/astrologyhub

Instagram: astrology.hub

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Episode 3 of Business as a Magical Practice on the powerful magic of keeping your word

Other resources:

Jan Spiller's New Moon Astrology
Alison Armstrong's The Queen's Code and Keys to the Kingdom
Michael Beckwith's Agape
Anita Briggs
Kryon channelling 
Hank Wesselman's Bowl of Light
The Art of Peace
Ano Ano's The Seed: Zambucka, Kristin
Driftwood Maui: A Lifestyle Boutique

Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

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SHOW LINKS:

Download the FREE 8 Phases of a Numinous Launch guide: https://www.thedirtyalchemy.com/phases

Get 2 Hours to Launch: the project plan template for a magical launch without the burnout: https://thedirtyalchemy.com/2-hours-to-launch

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TRANSCRIPT

Hey there, magical business owners.

The question I have for you today is: Do you feel like your online launches have you on a roller coaster of burn out?

If you’ve ever launched an online course, program, or membership before… you probably answered yes.

Because launches can be insanely stressful.  Something as simple as “I have this amazing idea that will absolutely change people lives!” morphs into a 3 month project with hundreds of hours of writing and webpage creation and video production… and that’s only for the course promotion! 

That doesn’t even include the backend of a launch -- delivering the program, giving live Q&A calls, managing an online community, and whatever else you are planning on doing within the program to blow your customers minds.

If launching is a significant part of your business’ revenue, then you know it’s kind of like childbirth. (I have not birthed a child by the way, but the stories from my mama friends goes a little like this -- When you’re in the middle of another wave of contractions you may swear that you will NEVER do this ever EVER again. But then a few months later with your beautiful baby in your arms, you’re already thinking about the name of your next one.

In the middle of your launch, making last minute changes to an email going out to a whole bunch of people in just a few minutes… you may be feeling haggard. Exhausted. And just fucking done. Desperate to find another business model than an online business reliant on quarterly or monthly online program launches.

And trust me, you don’t want your next launch to have all that negative energy when your awesome new product is just barely out in the world.

So today, I’m sharing a tool that I use to make launches more in the flow for the businesses we work with.

It’s called the 8 Phases of a Numinous Launch, and I think it’s a total game-changer. It completely rewrites the story of launches being a time for high anxiety, burnout, and turnover rates.

And by turnover rates, I mean the fact that you can’t keep people on your team because you’re burning them out expecting them to be “on” 24/7 during launches.

All of these things are actually preventable. The main reason why they happen for so many businesses is that most business owners only look at and prepare for HALF of an online launch… and without the other half you will continue with an endless cycle of push, push, push! burn out.

The 8 Phases of a Numinous Launch uses the phases of the moon to help guide you toward a launch with built-in time to evaluate your progress, congratulate yourself and your team on hard work, and have time to rest and decompress. And I think you’ll find that building these into your launch in an organized way can actually make your launch bigger and way more successful than you believed possible, because you and your team will be coming to the table with way more energy, excitement, tapped into your juicy magic, and able to do the hard work.

If you want this all written up for you go to thedirtyalchemy.com/phases And grab my 8 Phases guide, totally free.

From my own experience and the experiences of the businesses I work with, I know this can be a deeply transformative tool that can save you so much time, energy, and stress.

Whether you lead moon circles, or you only know about the moon from 4th grade science class and randomly staring up into the sky, most of us know that the moon cycles from new to full and back again.

The cycles of Nature were once inherent in our culture and somatically known by every member of society.

Decades of electric lighting in our homes, heating and cooling to buffer from the weather, and global shipping of food & any item under the sun, this has all divorced us from nature and our deep connection to her cycles.

But if you’re listening to this podcast then you are most likely already making strides to connect your body, mind, and spirit back to our earth and sky.

When we base our online launches on the cycles of Nature, we give ourselves and our teams what is truly needed in our physical plane. Though the internet is always “on,” our bodies and minds need rest. 

Factoring this into our businesses and our project plans allow us to have sustainable growth, instead of extreme growth followed by burn out 

(and what is burn out other than rest that our body forces us to take because we didn’t make time for it in the first place).

So if you have experienced adrenal fatigue, burn out, or have had continual turn-over in your team because “they aren’t fast enough” or “committed enough” or they think you’re a crazy person…

This is for you.

While a typical moon cycle is 29.5 days, Your launch will most likely be much longer than that.

Online launches from first design to completion are usually 2-3 months, or 2-3 moon cycles, so the New Moon phase of your launch will take 1-2 weeks, versus a few days like you see it in the sky. 

So you’ll be Expanding each phase to your needs, but the importance here is to not skip a phase.

And again, you can get this all written up, calendar & dates of lunar phases & all at thedirtyalchemy.com/phases

The new moon is a seed planted under the earth, bursting with life. It is dark and unseen but it is full of potential. Now is the time to dream and vision. this is the time to reflect on your past launches with sober eyes. This is also a time of retreat. Take time to be with yourself & make your plans from your own deep knowing instead of searching Google or asking a friend.

Our theme for the new moon phase is: Setting Intentions

So what this looks like in a launch is:

• Taking time away from outside influences (like social media, friends, your team)
• Naming your intention
• Reflecting on past launches
• Writing down your goals (making it measurable)
• Designing your project plan
• Setting your timeline

With the excitement of a new project, you may be tempted to get started before the plan is fully formed. Take the time to really tap into your intuition and see what you’re trying to create through this project, and how it fits into your 3-year vision.

Our Theme here is: Taking Action

The waxing moon is gaining energy. Now is the time to start taking actions on the intentions that you set. Just as energy is flowing in your projects, it is time to start teasing your upcoming launch to your audience.

To Do’s here are: 

• Starting on your project plan - writing, building pages, graphic design
• Teasing your upcoming launch to your audience
• Giving value to your audience that is relevant to your upcoming launch
• Your Facebook ads may start promoting your launch-relevant lead magnet

There’s a lot of energy during this time, so make sure you connect back to the intentions and plans you made during the new moon phase instead of letting your enthusiasm take you off course.

With the Theme: Continued Action, Facing Challenges

So You’re halfway to the full moon and gaining momentum in your project plan. With half of the moon in light and half in shadow, now is when obstacles start to pop up that you must face. The best way to handle this phase is to be flexible. With your original intentions in mind, make decisions that are aligned with your inspired goals.

The aligned actions are:

• Making a daily to do list & crossing things off as you do them
• Finishing first and second drafts of all copy, pages, and funnels
• And as challenges pop up, making decisions quickly
• Be vigilant with your project management system (whether that’s Asana, or Trello or some other thing) so that you can use your launch as a template for future launches, and so your team has structure in place as tasks get more complex or when plans change
  • And you can actually purchase the project plan template we use for all the launches we manage for clients - check the show notes for more info on that
• And then also in this phase - Facebook ads may start promoting your webinar, video series, or challenge or whatever other launch event you’re doing to give value for your launch

You are likely to push yourself pretty hard during this period, so make sure to have systems in place to lighten your load in other areas of life. Look into healthy meal delivery, hire a house cleaner, and ask your husband or mom if they can lend a hand with the kids.

This is all about: Refining, & Patience

This is The final phase before the full moon, it’s time to focus on editing and refining our goals, tasks, and projects. Plans don’t always work out how you originally designed them to, so this is the time to make changes. And with your launch going live soon, this is the time to do final checks on w

We’re talking about how the elements of earth, air, fire, and water play a huge role in the success of your business, and how you can figure out where you need to balance yourself as a business owner.

8 Phases of a Numinous Launch: www.dirtyalchemy.com/phases

Keep the conversation going!
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Music: Gaena by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Hey, spiritual catalysts and badass business witches.

Welcome to the very first real episode of Business as a Magical Practice! I’m so excited to share everything I’ve learned in my last decade of doing digital marketing for spiritual businesses with you. So here we go...

The question I have for you today is: Are you building a naturally balanced business?

Businesses, even online businesses, are built within the constructs of the laws of nature: earth, air, fire, water. These are all the natural elements we experience every day in the physical realm, but they’re also the internal elements that we have to grapple with as people and as business owners.

So, depending on where your own personal elemental balance is — that means the balance of you as the business owner — is going to have a huge impact on how your business plays out.

For example, if you’re a fiery person like my husband, then you’ll put your energy into expanding on the fiery element of your business. Starting projects, sharing your passion and truth with everyone you come into contact with… But that means the other elements are more likely to get left behind.

So you need to focus on intentionally increasing the other elements of your business – or hire people with other capacities to balance you out. (You know the classic warning to not hire a replica of yourself? This is the elemental explanation for that.)

So let’s look at each of the elements to help you identify where you’re at and where you may be off-balance…

Starting with Fire. Fire is your passion. Your heart. Your why. Fire is the parts of yourself that drove you to start your business in the first place. It’s the driving force behind what you do, and it’s there to keep pushing you forward even on the bad days when you feel stuck. When You’re wondering if being an entrepreneur is just too damn hard to be worth it… Fire helps you remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Fire (and water, which we’ll get to in a bit) is also about your cash money. You can spend money on certain things to flood more energy into your business (advertising is a great example of this). But you can also “burn money” by throwing money at things that aren’t working.

Also, you don’t want to be burning the candle at both ends, having that go-go-go fire mentality that’s going to lead to burnout (and ultimately kill your passion).

(By the way - side plug, if burnout, stress, and high turnover rates are killing your online launches, or even just making them a little more chaotic, check out our 8 Phases of a Numious Launch guide to see how we plan our online launches in a way that prevents burnout. And yes, that is actually possible! Links in the show notes or at dirtyalchemy.com/phases

Anyway, an imbalance of fire in your business might mean you’re bored, or that after hitting certain big goals you’re CONFUSED about what to do next because your Why isn’t deep enough. That means it’s time to stoke that flame and see where it guides you!

Here are some questions to consider as you’re trying to figure out where the fire is, or isn’t, in your business (and yes, you should totally be writing these down to reference later - if you[re not driving or doing the dishes!):

• What do you feel most passionate about your business? Do you have a big Why that is fueling your business growth and actions?
• 
   
• Are there times when you feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends?
• And of course what can you delegate or straight up stop doing if that’s the case.
• 
   
• How is your cash flow? Are you throwing money at things to fix problems? Do you even know where your money is going, or are you burning through it unintentionally?

I really encourage you to dig into these ideas and spend some time journaling your answers to these questions. Even if you think you’re all balanced out, you might actually learn something you didn’t expect.

Okay, onto air. 

Air is your ideas, your words, your teachings. Your brilliance. This is your intellectual property – the courses you make, the emails you send, the concepts you develop. How you communicate with your people and your audience.

This is also how you came up with your genius business idea to begin with. Fire might be your why, but air is your what: what exactly is your business idea and what does it look like?

The imbalance here may be the business that switches new offerings or niches every month or two versus giving your audience structure and a foundation to flourish. If you’re always trying to change up your brand or your offerings instead of allowing your loyal base to thrive in the programs you’ve already created, you’re leaning heavily toward Air, without the balance of the other elements.

Here are some questions to consider as you think through the air aspects of your business:

• Are you creating intellectual property?
• 
   
• Are you regularly and consistently communicating with your audience and your customers?
• 
   
• What original, life-changing ideas have you had with your business?
• 
   

Now, let’s move on to earth.

Earth is your structure and foundation, your assets, your systems and team. All those things that could make you feel grounded… or groundless.

The earth element is the grounding element of your business. It takes all your ideas and passion and puts them into a structure that allows your business to continue on WITHOUT YOU!

(And if you’re a little addicted to work and hustling… don’t freak out about the idea of building your business for other people to run without your constant attention. You have to be okay with this if you want to build a thriving business that will last in the long run!)

Earth is having a sound team that supports you and your customers. It’s the funnel that’s taking traffic from happening once and turning them into repeat buyers.  It’s the course that houses your teachings so that people can buy them and learn from you.

Earth is the how: How are you making your killer business idea into a reality? What structures do you have in place that might be supporting your ideas — or holding you back?

(Not gonna lie… as a triple Virgo who runs a digital marketing agency, the earth element is my jam. My fave. I put a lot of time and energy into my organization and structure. And I LOVE helping other businesses build incredible teams and systems that allow them to scale and grow without the headache! It kind of makes my job perfect.)

Having your earth element out of balance might mean you’re a liiiittle too practical. Maybe you’re a bit of a control freak and you have trouble delegating projects, even if it will help in the long run. 

Maybe you’re so caught up in structure that you lack the passion and inspiration that drives people into action and transforms their life. And without that, you won’t ever have the level of impact you truly crave.

If you’re wondering about earth and your business, here are some things to consider: 

• Do you have structure and foundation in your business, or are you switching offerings and niches so often that you can never truly establish yourself in your industry?
• 
   
• Do you have structures in place so that your business can run without you? Think: the right team, an optimized sales funnel, standard operating procedures…
• 
   
• Why are the specific courses/programs/products you’ve chosen to offer the best ways to get your awesome ideas and teachings to people?
• 
   

Now let’s talk about water.

Water is your traffic, your people. It’s the emotions you induce in your audience, the transformations you cause in other people’s lives. It’s your intuition.

Water is vulnerability. It’s sharing your story and emotions and giving others the space to feel their own emotions in turn. It’s about making your customers fall in love with you!

The water element is also about your stream of traffic/your audience members who interact with you on social media or your website.

Skillfully, leaning into water can cause monumental transformation:  it can make your business BOOM and help you impact thousands of people!

Being out of balance with water might mean not sharing or opening up to other people because you feel too deeply and you’re afraid to feel bad things like rejection, judgment and shame. Or not wanting to share any details of your personal life with your audience even though they really do want to get to know you (and you know businesses do better when they have a public figurehead they can connect to on a personal level).

Out of balance water can also mean building an audience but not monetizing it (AKA having a blog or Instagram with thousands of followers but you aren’t making offers for people to work with you deeply or to purchase the epic product you created). You have a lot of passion and creativity tha

If you’re overwhelmed by all the different marketing tactics, tricks, strategies, and shiny objects…  This one’s for you.

...

Follow us on social media!

www.instagram.com/thedirtyalchemy

www.facebook.com/thedirtyalchemy

Alexandra Roxo’s Morning Journaling Meditation: https://www.alexandraroxo.com/morning-writing-meditation/

Thought ladders: https://unfuckyourbrain.com/thought-ladder-2/

Kathryn Morrison Coaching: https://www.instagram.com/kathrynmorrisoncoaching/

Other stuff we mentioned in this episode...

Statement of Value: what it is & why it matters

Creating a solid customer value journey

How & why to retarget your potential customers

...

Because your business’ success — it’s next level — can be revealed and guided through your intuition.

… That’s right. We’re all about Intuitive Marketing over here.

Because let’s be honest… If you listen to alllll of the Marketing Advice on the internet, you’re bound to get overwhelmed.

Whether you’ve been marketing for one week or for many years, you’ve probably felt at some point like marketing was overwhelming.

Between all the different marketing tactics and strategies available, it can be hard to know what the best marketing techniques are for your super special unicorn business.

But I have good news for you: Once you understand the basics of marketing and you’ve started to track your numbers, your intuition can be a great tool to help you figure out how to move forward.

There’s a reason why Paramahansa Yogananda once said: “Intuition is the discriminant faculty that enables you to decide which of two lines of reasoning is right. Perfect intuition makes you master of all.”

So today, we’re talking all about intuitive marketing.

Don’t get me wrong: there are definitely tried-and-true methods for making your business a success, like having a concrete Statement of Value, creating a solid customer value journey, retargeting your potential customers, and a whole host of other strategies…

But after you’ve already set up the basics and you’re ready to move on to what’s next, and not be on the non-stop crazy train that many internet-based business owners feel that they’re on…

That’s when it’s time to turn inward.

And this is amazing! This means you have everything you need forward already within yourself.

So... how can you set yourself up to have a powerful intuition that you can trust?

It’s all about taking time to be mindful so that you can connect to your inner self, and then paying attention to the synchronicities that pop up.

A great way to become more mindful is by starting out each month with a work plan. Map out what the upcoming month will look like: 

• What projects will you be working on?
• What deadlines do you have to meet?
• If you have a team of employees, what will the rest of your team be working on?

After you’ve mapped out what the following month will look like, set up a mindfulness routine that you can follow on a daily basis. Setting aside just 15 minutes to an hour every day can completely transform your thought patterns.

If you need some more inspiration, our brilliant client Alexandra Roxo has a badass morning journaling meditation on her website that will jump-start your day and help you feel embodied and present. We’ll put that link in the show notes.

Anyway, essentially what you want to be doing is bringing yourself into a state of believing that you are guided and that you can't make a wrong decision with your business.

One of my favorite thought leaders Kathryn Morrison outlines a simple & effective process for  working on upgrading your beliefs, if “I can't make a wrong decision with my business” doesn’t feel at all resonant right now.

Here’s the gist of it:

• Meditate on a future version of you, maybe 3 years from now, that has the result that you want (e.g., easily hit the annual revenue that you want, with tons of flow)
• Identify what thoughts your future self thinks and believes (e.g., Money loves and supports me, My offerings are life changing, The more money I make the more time I have...)
• Feel into those thoughts & beliefs - do any of them resonate now?
• Start practicing consistently thinking the thoughts & believing the beliefs that already feel resonant -- take time everyday to find proof that those are already true

For the thoughts that don't yet resonate & just feel like a BS Law of Attraction mantra -- use a thought ladder: what are the steps down from this belief that you can start believing now?

If you currently believe that "Money is stressful" or "I have to work hard to make money" … then "Money loves and supports me" and "The more money I make the more time I have" will most likely feel like BS right now.

Instead try to focus on thoughts that are more neutral to work up to those Future Self thoughts, e.g.,

“I am open to believing The more money I make the more time I have”

“I am learning to believe The more money I make the more time I have”

“It’s possible my brain is not reliable when it tells me I have to work long hours to make money.”

And continue doing this every day ;-)

You really just have to take the time to work on your beliefs. Give space and attention to the beliefs that are helping you grow, scale, and improve your business. Move past anything telling you that you can’t move forward with your business, or that you don’t know what’s best for your company.

Pay close attention to what actions you feel guided to take. Note the synchronicities that pop up.

So to help you understand what you feel inwardly guided to do, I have some questions for you:

• What symbols or imagery are you seeing over and over, and what do they mean to you?
• Who do you feel drawn to working with?
• What mentors are you learning the most from, and why?
• Where have you focused your energy on your business in the past?
• Are you feeling drawn to focusing your energy on a new path?

Looking at those thoughts and feelings will give you clarity as you search for what you are intuitively guided toward.

You can even decide what synchronicities mean before they even happen. Seeing repeating numbers, certain animals, hearing a specific song… you can choose what things have significance ahead of time & watch the Universe SHOW UP and deliver more and more guidance.

(A big piece to this is to pay attention. If you’re so busy in your head or in your work… you may miss out on some clear communication -- Be receptive!)

The bottom line is this: Don’t make decisions purely from your mind.

I’ve talked to dozens of business owners who have said that after operating solely on intellect and hard numbers for a while, their business started to feel lifeless, less like they had a real voice in what they were going to do next, because they were relying so heavily on following the numbers & “rational” thinking. They felt out of touch from what was really happening to their business.

Following your intuition keeps your finger on the pulse of what’s happening energetically with your business.

When you follow your intuition, sometimes the best choices can simply be seeking out what you enjoy, finding out where your ideal audience is and what they’re doing, and having fun.

Yes, having fun! You’ll be shocked by how much enjoying the time you spend growing your business will help guide you in the right direction.

It’s important for you to have fun and do what feels good. 

Because businesses having fun with themselves and their customers are often way more powerful than whatever new algorithm change everyone is talking about.

So have fun. Use your joy as inspiration and guidance.

Like most things in business, if you want to succeed in your marketing strategy, you need to decide that failure is not an option.

...Because in truth, failure doesn’t exist.

When your marketing strategies start to fail you, when the numbers start a steady (or alarmingly fast) decline, that’s just more data for you to learn from going forward.

Only by seeing what doesn’t work with your business will you be able to see what truly does.

Also, it’s important to remind yourself that even though you should be enjoying your business and following your intuition: Don’t make this your excuse to procrastinate. This is not a passive process!

On the contrary, connecting to your gut instincts can be an intense process, especially at first. You should be actively working at developing your intuition through meditations, divination tools like tarot and astrology, journaling, or whatever else you need to do.

I really believe that business and entrepreneurship are some of the biggest catalysts for soul evolution. And we believe that intuitive marketing is part of that process.

The phrase “intuitive marketing” might make it seem as though we’re asking you to just sit back and see what happens… but it’s actual work that takes time and practice.

Intuitive marketing requires you to get to know yourself in a deep, powerful way. It requires you to truly love and trust yourself — even the ugly, complicated, fucked up bits. It requires deciding who you want to become an