Reiki from the Farm™

Reiki Business Skills - The Reiki Business Book Chapter 6 with Karen Harrison, LRMT

March 16, 2022 Pamela Allen-LeBlanc / Karen Harrison, LRMT's Season 3 Episode 12
Reiki from the Farm™
Reiki Business Skills - The Reiki Business Book Chapter 6 with Karen Harrison, LRMT
Show Notes Transcript

The Reiki Business Book Launch - chapter 6 with Karen Harrison, LRMT

This series of podcasts will bring us through "The Reiki Business Book" chapter by chapter.  The book I was inspired to write to help people share the gift of Reiki is almost ready!  

Karen Harrison has thriving Reiki, counseling, and essential oil businesses while Pam has successful Reiki, horse, and essential oil businesses.  They discuss what they have learned and outline some of the steps that may help you with your business.

Pam's Information
List of ICRT Classes:
https://www.reiki.org/users/pamela-allen-leblanc#classes
Website: https://www.reikifromthefarm.com/
Register for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dFm-19
Book a Reiki session:   https://squareup.com/appointments/book/7dvtqlfp939e8g/LPSC51C92BN20/services
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/reikifromthefarm/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/hiddenbrookfarmReikiHorsesOils
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW5ScR7ObSiPIpgnDkWkiQA
email:
pam@reikifromthefarm.com
Register for our monthly Reiki share:  http://eepurl.com/hWruP5

Karen's Information
Website:  Whole Life Center
Email: karen@karenharrison.net
Articles:
Reiki Business Practices:
  https://www.karenharrison.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ReikiBusinessPractices.pdf
Developing Clients and Students for Your Reiki Business Part 1:
https://www.karenharrison.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Build-and-Maintain-your-Reiki-Client-Relationships.pdf
Developing Clients and Students for Your Reiki Business Part II: https://www.karenharrison.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SocialMedia.pdf
Things to Consider When Starting a Business:  https://www.karenharrison.net/things-to-consider-when-starting-a-business/
Reiki for Tax Time: https://www.karenharrison.net/reiki-for-tax-time/


thank you to Music from Pixabay for the intro music

Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, a businesswoman, and a Licensed Reiki Master Teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training.  She is an internationally renowned speaker and one of the co-authors of the ICRT Animal Reiki training manuals and courses.  Pam teaches Reiki, Animal Reiki, and Animal Communication online and in-person

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pam@reikifromthefarm.com

Pam:

On this week's podcast. I am talking with Senior Licensed Reiki Master Teacher, Karen Harrison, about Chapter six of"The Reiki Business Book", Business Skills. Welcome Karen. Welcome.

Karen:

I'm glad to see you happy to be here and I read your chapter and you've got a lot of great information on.

Pam:

Thank you so much. I, I'm excited to talk about it and talk about it with the listeners and the readers. before we begin, I just want to let anybody know, everybody know that we've got some online and in-person a hybrid class that you can attend either online or in person at the farm in may, in June, I've got a full, a lineup of level one and two and Master Licensed classes. I also have. It's being followed by ICRT Animal Reiki Training Level One and Two and Master. And that's all being followed by the Karuna Reiki Class, as well as an Animal Communication Class. So I hope you can join us in. Those are all a combination of Online and In-person, I know some of you want to, make it to the farm. That those will be the first in-person classes. I'll be teaching since. I guess since my last class in the United Kingdom, just as COVID was happening. So I'm really excited to start seeing people again. I also, One to let you know that if you don't already get our newsletter, go ahead and check out the link in the podcast and just stay up to date, as to when we will have that pre-order available for the, for the book. And when the book will be available, I'll be letting people know in the weekly newsletter. And also in July, the classes in may are all in the Atlantic time zone, which is an hour ahead of Eastern the Eastern time. And in July, I'll have another lineup of Level one and two, Master, Animal one and two, and Master only online. And those will be also in the Atlantic time zone. So I'd love to have you join us for any of those. Karen, what do you have coming up?

Karen:

I have a Reiki one and two classes. Coming up in April, they're going to be hybrid classes. I have a Reiki master classes coming up, August and October. They're going to be hybrid classes, figuring out that technology.

Pam:

What fun

Karen:

I am looking forward to that too. Yes. And then I've got a, an In-person, Animal Reiki One and Two class coming up in June that I'm going to co-teach with Sabrina Whiteman working with horses. And then I've got a Animal Reiki Master in March with Karen Caig. So thank you for your contribution to all that material. It is so fun to work with and teach. I love the energy and it just suits my inner animal.

Pam:

I love it. I, it was one of the great honors of my life to, work with Colleen and Robin and Sioux to create the Animal Reiki courses for the ICRT. And I learned so much, and it was just amazing. just witnessing and listening to that energy and bringing it in. So I'm so glad that it resonates with so many people. Yeah. I know. I love teaching it. I know the animals that participate. Just love it. And, so it's really fun. yeah, before we go too much further, I'm just going to invite everyone to join me in a brief in vocation to activate their Reiki energy and, and just help them get the most out of this podcast this week. So I'm going to invite us all to bring our hands together in Gassho. And breathe. Just letting go of the busy-ness of your day and have everything you need to think about later this time that we're together is about you and for you. So give yourself this time to focus your attention on you. And just letting go of any stress or overwhelm that you may experience when you think about some of the details around starting a Reiki business, calling in your symbols and just asking for their assistance and letting that all go, understanding that a Reiki business can work and can come together in divine timing and that we don't need to finish every step immediately. Some of what Karen and I will be talking about, it's going to be out in the future. Some of it you may have already done and you may have already gone past and that's okay. Just listen with an open mind, willing to learn, to grow and to consider other perspectives. And we thank you for being the great light that you are in the world today for shining so brightly and for considering a Reiki business in one form or another, that will help you reach more and more people. And that helps Reiki reach more and more people. We appreciate you, Ah0 Mitákuye Oyás'iŋ. Namaste and A men.

Karen:

Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you.

Pam:

Thank you, Karen. Karen to start with, I just want to let everyone know that I have so much respect for you as a business woman and business woman to business woman. And one of the things that I really struggled with, even though I had a strong business background was putting business. Tools and techniques together with Reiki and yet not only have you done, not only have you made that into an art form, but you have done that in a way that, and then you've created all of these wonderful articles and you've actually stepped into a role as the, the co-director of the licensed teacher program. And you've just done your best to reach us and teach us how to do that. And, I've just been, I'm blown away by your success by how many people you teach every year. You really are. you really are amazing. I just, I really enjoy watching you. Do your thing, watching you reach people, watching you, teach people, watching your beautiful spirit. you're an inspiration and I'd like to include, we will put some links to some of Karen's articles, both in the podcast and in the book, because I didn't see any sense of recreating. A lot of those, Karen is very astute. with her business, she's a lot more organized than I am. And so we're going to show you that there can be both ways of doing things. You can be a little less organized, like I am, or a little more organized, like she is in it. And it all works. that it's just a, such a joy to have you here. And I knew from the start, this is the chapter that I wanted to talk with you about. You have so much experience with this and you've inspired so many of us, I know that you had a chance to have a look through the chapter. And I just wonder if you can share with the listeners, some of your thoughts about it and anything that may have stood out to

Karen:

you. Sure. let me start by just saying blessings back to you, Pam, and all that you've created and, Pam gets inspired and then she just takes something on like, oh, let's write an Animal Reiki course. And oh, let's just go teach in Australia, New Zealand and in England. And, yeah, if we want someone bold that swollen to try new things, Pam's your woman. So she's out there leading the way and you know, what a, what a leader taking on all sorts of things like writing a book. I mean, I've thought about writing a book, but like, Hm, nah. Pam'll do it.

Pam:

Thank you, Karen. I have to admit writing a book. It's a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. And I thought it was going to be a lot of work. So it's, but it's also such inspired work because of Reiki. And the fact that when I sit down to write, I just opened to my Reiki guidance and I let it flow through. And even in the editing process, which is very left brain, I just allow Reiki to flow and I listen. And, so it's so thank you so much, but yeah, it's, it has been a lot of work and I, when I outlined with one of my rake in one of my Reiki shares, I outlined what I had in mind for timeline as far as when the book would be available, but I did so with the caveat, I didn't record myself on that. And they did so with the caveat that this is my first book. So I might be very naive putting together this rough timeline. I am hoping it will be available to people before summer. I don't know if that's going to happen. It's it looks to be on track, but every time I move forward and finish one section, I realize, oh, there's this whole other new thing that I hadn't thought about and that I have to then tidy up. So it's been

Karen:

such a learning curve, but I love it. Yeah, thank you.

Pam:

What did you think of this section? This is the section, Karen, that I feel you, like I said, I feel you've moved it into an art form and the way that you manage your business. And, and I also know we have very different styles. but so what did, what stood out to you and what did you think?

Karen:

gosh, Pam, I don't know that we have time to talk about all these categories. I might have a need to, it's wow, boundaries, business consciousness, worthiness, open to success, current and future clients keeping the conversation current. What do you do if you have disgruntled clients or students embracing technology, hiring assistance, record, keeping getting paid accounting, bookkeeping. it's wow. Okay. Which I mean, one of the things that I was thinking about, is when I've had students wanting to start a Reiki business, many of them are so excited about it. They want to just quit their job and start on it. Full-time. And if you're independently wealthy, that's a great idea. And if you're not, it's not such a great idea, because usually to create a new business, it's going to take 18 months to five years to produce the kind of income that you need to live on. and starting at part time is a really great idea. so that's one of the things that I've been talking with. Some of my students about recently who were wanting to start their Reiki business, it's oh, this would be so much more fun than my current job, which is not fulfilling while yes it is. And it takes some time to develop that, cause there are so many category.

Pam:

I agree with you a hundred percent, Karen and I actually wrote in some of the earlier chapters, and I know that I just sent you the one before the podcast, just about possibly weaving Reiki into what you're already doing and the end. And also the idea of when you are ready to do a business starting part-time because there's probably a reason. Yeah. You were probably passionate about what you're doing at one point. You just might be burned out now and this sort of thing. and so just allowing Reiki to heal that for you. But I think when you jump right in and need to have an income from your business, that puts an awful lot of pressure

Karen:

on.

Pam:

To make money and be successful right away. And it can take the fund rate out of it and the joy and the magic. And even with my business, I was actually, I had two other businesses. I, when I started my Reiki business, I was also teaching, horseback riding lessons with my Hidden Brook Farm herd of horses. And on top of that, I had an essential oil business. So no one business had to, make all the income. and I found it so interesting because some months I'd, most of the income would come from the oils and other months, most of the income would come from the horses and other months, most of the income would come from the Reiki classes and sessions and it really went back and forth for awhile. Did you, when you started, did you see. radar full-time or did you have another business on that? Paid the bills.

Karen:

So I, I began my counseling business in 1993. I started off in private practice and, to make sure my private practice worked, I had contract work with other places and at one point my son said to me, mommy, want anybody give you a full-time job? So then I started my Reiki business in 1998. and I already had all the structure in place for the business. I had the office, I had the bookkeeping system all set up. I had the payment system set up, all the things that I needed were already in place. And so I really didn't need to add much in for my Reiki business. I just started doing my Reiki business alongside my counseling business. So that made it easy for me. I'd already had, four years of working with the structure and putting that in place. And one of the, one of the things that I think helped me a lot is I had spent nine years in finance. now I'm really not all that great at it. but. my joke is that I did finance to overcome my math phobia. So anyway, one of the first things I did was, have a bookkeeper come help, set me up on QuickBooks and then. I, she taught me how to enter things. And so I did that for about three years. And then finally I hired somebody to do that because that's one of my other secrets of success is hire it done. Those are my three little magic words. Hire it. Yeah. So there's lots of different ways of setting up your books and in your book, you talked about a simple way to do it, which I think is probably, perfect for someone beginning a business, keep it as simple as possible. but as you have more transactions going forward, it's super helpful to have an accounting system set up and having one online means that your CPA can check it remotely. Your bookkeeper can enter transactions remotely. You can have your bank accounts linked to your program and have the transactions automatically downloaded into your accounting program, which makes the whole reconciliation process much quicker and easier and gives you these nice reports that you can. Check on your income and your expenses and see what your net is. And, I don't know. I think looking at those reports is fun and I dunno, maybe I geek out on that a little bit, it is interesting that you say that because I haven't done that with my, I just once a year, take my receipts and organize notes to my accountant and or my bookkeeper who organizes them for my accountant. And, but my accountant team just retired. So I will have a new accountant this year that I haven't met yet. And, I may need to start doing things differently. I may need to get a little more organized on that side, but I really like the way that I've been able to do it for the last several years this way. But one of the things that I do like to do with my clients who are planning to start out is give them an Excel spreadsheet, to create a cash flow. Because one of the things that. Is, there's a, there's an expression in business. Cash is king and it doesn't matter how successful your business is. If you can't cashflow it, it won't work like you, you know, there's a, there's a good chance. It won't be successful. And so as you say that I, that made me think that I, that I, anybody that I'm coaching with a new business or any kind of business, I get them to fill out their expenses, their exp anticipated income and work it all through and make sure that it's going to work for a year or not. So I think that it's a great idea. Yeah. Thank you. And, but I think you're, with your, reports, I think you're really able to stay on top of things that way. and you use a few softwares with that. Don't you Karen, What did you say? Stock words,

Pam:

sorry. You use some different software with a software.

Karen:

Yes. Yes. So I use that QuickBooks online. I've got my whole company set up in there and I looked at all my categories of income and expenses. And then with the bookkeeper, she helped me choose the categories, and create my chart of accounts. and so then those, all my income and expenses go into these different categories. And then that creates the nice report on a profit and loss and the, the assets, that I get at the end of the year. No. So I've got all the information that I need to take to my CPA, to do my taxes. Yeah.

Pam:

That's I expect my CPA would appreciate it. If I would do that too. I haven't started doing it yet, but, that I can see the benefit of it. Now tell me about hire it done. And that's something that, as we went through the licensed teacher program, It's very intensive. there's, it's over a thousand hours of training. It's very busy. And, as we went through it, I know that was some of the coaching that I received was to bring in assistance, that you can't do everything yourself. And I talk about that a little bit in the book that, you know, even if you don't have money to pay for different types of assistance, you may be able to find somebody who's willing to trade for Reiki classes or Reiki sessions. but it is, if you do find the money to pay for people to help you, it is usually money, very well spent. And I didn't myself personally, I didn't want to hire people to answer my emails. I'm a very fast typist and, I wanted to keep, and I didn't want anybody to create my newsletter. I want it to do that. And so what I did was actually looked around the farm and said, what are the things that I don't enjoy doing anymore? And actually, I love the horses that I wasn't enjoying teaching, riding lessons anymore. I've just done it. So many years that, so I hired, my apprentice, who she agreed to step up and teach the riding lessons and she's, she does a fantastic job with them. She's she finds them a lot of fun. And, she puts a lot more into it than I was putting into it. I looked at the grounds and the gardens and I said, yeah, I don't enjoy. I'm not enjoying, like I can't stay on top of those. So I hired, somebody to look at via groundskeeper and look after the gardens and the grounds. And, and I really don't enjoy my housekeeping. So I hadn't hired, I hired somebody that helped me with that, and it's just been, and even, grooming the dogs. I wasn't able to stay on top of my long hair dogs enough. So I started bringing them to a groomer. And, so it was really interesting. I just made a list of the things that I did on a regular basis. And I decided to hide. not necessarily the things around my business, because I like doing the things around my business. I had decided to hire some of the other stuff out, but you've made this into an art form. Can you tell us about, because you have assistance and they work like it's like an orchestra the way that you have it sorted out. So tell us how you do that.

Karen:

wow. so I do some of the same things that you do as a single woman business owner. I have all the things around my house hired, done that I can including balancing my checkbooks. That's not something I enjoy. having a maid and, someone to take care of the lawn and, just whatever there is to do. Of course the maintenance I don't do that. That's not my skillset. So anything that I'm, don't enjoy or I'm not good at, or, if I just think that this will allow me more time to devote to my Reiki business, then I hire that done. Now in my Reiki business, I've got someone who handles all the administrative parts of my Reiki business. So the processing of, students after they register. entering them into reiki.org to get their certificates, tracking the payment system. And since COVID, she's been working remotely, so she created these really cool online tracking sheets for me, and I can enter information into it. she can enter information into it, it's all kept online and up to date, about what they've paid, how much their balances, if they're requesting, the continuing education paperwork and so forth, if they need any special accommodations for class, so all of that. As tracked, including, she's created sheets for transfer students. So students that sign up for a class, but then at the last minute aren't able to take the class, then we have got transferred tracking sheets for that. And, and then I have somebody processing, my payments, my checks, someone handling all of my QuickBooks, entering all of that, helping to order. supplies. and then when I had my in-person classes, I have another assistant come over and help me set everything up, put everything out, cause I, I set my house up differently for classes, with the TV trays, the chairs, the COVID staff, individual towels for everybody, a sheet for everybody, to, for their tables so that, we don't have to take the time to wipe the table down between. We just put it, their sheet on that they use for the weekend and forms and everything. and then, helping to put all that stuff away. and then I also have an essential oil business. So I have someone coming and helping process all of that. information and paperwork, and then, helping with technology, like when I decided to do a mass texting program, she researched which programs were out there and then how to use it. And then she trained me on it and then I've taken it from there, but she uploads information into it for me. and then recently I decided to get online scheduling. So similar thing she did the research presented me with the spreadsheet of all the different kinds. There are, how much they cost, what they could do, what they couldn't do. And then, she trained me how to use that. So I've got that set up. I just, I find, okay, what do the assistants like to do? I've got I don't know, five different ones and each of them does a piece of it. One reason I haven't given it to just one person is different. People have different skills and abilities and one person may not want to, or like to do a certain task, but maybe somebody else does like it. And then also, I've been in business long enough that I've had times where my assistants have gotten sick and had to take anywhere from three to 10 weeks off. then I have them write procedure manuals for their positions, hopefully before they get sick. So that then another assistant, or I can read through it and try and figure out, okay, how do we do this? so that these tasks are still getting handled and done while the person is off work. So that is definitely one of my big secrets to success is hire it done. And so that is really good more for, maybe not right in the beginning of your, your very beginning business. you may not be able to hire as much done, but as your business gets more established, the more that you can hire done, the more that allows you time to teach the classes post to Reiki, circle, write articles. Now do all the things that only you can do.

Pam:

Yeah, I think that's brilliant. And, I think that was the advice my accountant gave me. I was trying to figure out whether I was going to try to do my taxes on my own or, and he asked me, what is your. What is your rate? What is your hourly fee? And when I told him, he said, okay, so how many hours do you think it's going to take you to do your taxes? And I didn't want to do my taxes. I was just looking at it as financial and I was just getting started and, could I afford to have somebody help me? And he just really made me see, he said, I told him how long it was going to take me. And he said, this is how much I'm going to cost. And it was a fraction of what it was going to take out of my potential earnings. And not only that, but he is so much better at it than I am that, that he. he taps me into programs and things that I wouldn't know to do, and he knows, so it not only saves time and headache, but it just frees me up to do what I'm doing now, when people just get started that they might think, I can't afford an assistant. I can't hire an assistant, in my Reiki mentoring class, one of the things that was a common theme was there were people that didn't feel comfortable creating their own websites. And I said, so don't, there's a good chance. You can send energy to finding the right person to help you. And if you don't have. The financial means, send energy to finding the right person to help you, who will take trade for Reiki classes or sessions. And that really helped a lot of people get off the ground with some of the, because there are even when you start, there are going to be some skills you're not great at. And so how do you find your, the assistance that you need when you go forward and interestingly looking at all your assistance? I think that what that might tell our viewers and our listeners is that it is possible to be very successful in this business so that you can have a number of assistants helping you, but how do you find the right.

Karen:

that is a really good question. So first of all, I think about, okay, what sort of things do I need done? what sort of task? And, and then I think who do, I know that might be open to doing that. And interestingly enough, most of my assistants are either my friends or Reiki students or, a friend of a friend. Nice. I've been through several different. Assistance, at this stage, in my career, after having been in business, with my Reiki business since 1998. but, I don't know, working with my friends. that can be dicey and challenging, but it can also be rewarding. I don't know, as a single woman business seminar who loves her business, I spend a lot of time doing my Reiki business. So when I get to work with my assistants, it's also part, this is partly my social time. So they come over and work and, we get to work together and, catch up with each other also as part of what we're doing. and so that's mostly what I've done.

Pam:

That's really fun, Karen. I love. Is there anything else in the, in the chapter that you'd like to, that you'd to mention or add to.

Karen:

sure. How about that worthiness issue?

Pam:

that's so

Karen:

common, isn't it? Oh, I know. I know it is. And, whenever I talk to people who are new at offering Reiki, they think, my Reiki is not good enough, and then they're worried about themselves. But what I like to tell them is focus on being of service to someone else, just focus on someone else, not on yourself and your own issues and get yourself out of the way. my only goal is to do the best job I can with each session to help the person in the best way I can, am I going to be able to perform a miracle? Probably not. Can I provide some comfort, can I provide some help and support? that is my goal. and so just focusing on the, being a service rather than your own abilities and your own worthiness

Pam:

and, Ricky isn't about us. And that's one of the things I definitely struggled with the worthiness issue. I've said it a few times in this series of podcasts that when I met William Rand, I was, I mispronounced my name three times and I said, I'm sorry, Mr. Randall, I'm just so nervous to be here. And he said, why? And I blurted out with the honesty that impacts are so in viewed with, because Reiki, masters are wonderful and amazing people and I'm not, I'm just me. And so I think, I think we all struggle. With that at some point in the, in that and, worthiness and, success consciousness, that's something you've written about Karen. And, I deliberately didn't read it prior to, because I wanted to talk about success consciousness and hopefully not plagiarize your work. but it's, it's so interesting. I have noticed this in my journey. I've noticed this with my students. When you look at it, we are as worried about, there's just as much fear usually. And just as much resistance around success as there is to failure, you would think that, okay, I'm so nervous about this because I'm worried I'm going to fail. No, a lot of us are worried about it because what if we succeed and that shows up just as prevalently, because it can be difficult to, be open to success consciousness. What do you tell people about.

Karen:

focusing again on being a service rather than someone else. And just trusting that you'll be able, with the help of Reiki, two. Do the best job that you can with your session with your teaching, that, to start off small with your teaching, for example, start with just teaching Reiki one, you don't need to take on Reiki one and two at the same time, and then maybe find someone to share the teaching with you. Maybe each of you brings a friend and each of you teach us half the material, then that makes it easier. you don't have to get together the whole class or here's another easy way to do it. defy the material up for Reiki one and two over three or four nights. And that way each week you just have to prepare, two or three hours of material and, try it out first on your friends, have them be your Guinea pigs, have them give you some feedback about it. And. charge a lower fee, or maybe you offer your first classes, for free or trade or something. and you just get out there and you start and then try, and you're going to get better with time, but if you don't start somewhere, you won't get better. I know when I started, there were so many experienced Reiki master teachers and Kansas city where I lived and that was rather intimidating. So I thought, I just want to be the best Reiki teacher I can be. And so I took, the ICRC classes, I reviewed my classes that helped a lot because I learned so much when I reviewed with the nice CRT teacher, things that I hadn't learned in my first Reiki went into class. And then that gave me, more help and information about, teaching and the manual is so good. just jump in, try it and, be brave, they bring it, but yes,

Pam:

it's true. by starting, we know. People are going to stick with it because it is addictive. Isn't it? When you know, it's such a fulfilling experience, it's so rewarding to help somebody in a Reiki session. It's so rewarding to connect somebody with Reiki and bear, witness to what they do with it in their lives and the beauty that they create with it. and it's just incredible. Isn't it? I know one of my students and, I'm gonna, I'll try. I'll have the quote in the book, I think, that I'll paraphrase it for right now, but one of the things she said. To me from the Reiki mentoring course, because a lot of my students took it in different directions. They took it in whatever direction was right for them. And she was actually, it gave her the confidence to create her own Reiki mentoring course. And it had a very different direction than mine had. It was an in fact, it sounds fantastical. I've written about it in the Reiki business book. And, but her comment was, I don't know if you realize how much, how many people you have reached, because you reach someone and then they reach someone and it just expands. And that's what I want for my students and my clients and the people who read this book. I want that incredible feeling of just being able to reach out and make a difference to someone. and then knowing that. That difference is just going to stretch and expand and continue, throughout the world. It's just so rewarding. Isn't

Karen:

it? Karen? Yes. And having it all in a book, is it's so convenient rather than having, an article here, an article there, YouTube here, YouTube there, and having your personal experience shared in there. I think helped bolster people's confidence, that you just start small and, build from there. and some people are going to be more drawn to sessions and some are drawn to teaching. if you're gonna teach, then it's also important to do some sessions to inform your teaching. So there's so many different ways to go with it. like you said, adding Reiki to your current business, but I think brings up the whole idea of boundaries. That's been another interesting thing that I, you know, coach people on when they are starting off doing Reiki sessions. because a lot of times I'll see people want to give now and an unlimited amount of time in their session. And, that can be a challenge, both for you and for the person receiving, so if you've scheduled an hour time and then pretty soon your sessions gone to an hour and a half or two hours, you have to figure out, okay, now what did I really earn for that time? And also what about my client and respecting their time commitments, they may have an appointment that they are now running late for, because I've gone over.

Pam:

Yeah. I love that in, something, I think I talked about boundaries, but I didn't talk about boundaries with time. And I think that's really good. That's a really good

Karen:

subject. Yeah. Time boundaries, because that's pretty easy, if you talk a little bit before your session and then after the session and and how much time are you really allotting for the session. And so a lot of times I'll find people have allotted an hour, but they're really taking an hour and a half for at least their first session. It's then, advertise your first session as an hour and a half then. And, get compensated. accordingly for that, if you're going to spend an hour and a half, I noticed

Pam:

that I am probably going to need to do that because I have an hour and a half and I also have half hour sessions. And in the half hour sessions we have to get right to it. There's no time for chitchat. We have to get, what are the issues and get any energy. but when I have a new client, I also, I struggle to keep them within the hour time limits. So I'm, I noticed I'm probably going to have to do that too. Karen is for new clients. the first session needs to be a bit longer. Yeah. What else was there anything else that stood out to you? Karen?

Karen:

gosh, all sorts of things. How about, I think technology is probably one of the bigger things, because we are constantly changing with technology. You mean who knew that we would be teaching classes on zoom, and then keeping up with things like, okay, online scheduling and, texting programs and the ever-changing world of email marketing and search engine optimization and ever changing websites and then Facebook and Instagram algorithms changing and figuring out, okay, now how do I beach people? So staying current with technology and making technology, your friend and your ally. Is important, learning, okay, what webcams do I need? What microphones do I need? I've got my nice, huge a Yeti microphone here. And I'm like, Hey Yeti too. Yeah.

Pam:

oh, I think you hit mute when you picked up your microphone. Karen. Oops.

Karen:

There you go. there you go. There you go. That might can do all sorts of things.

Pam:

No, I agree with you about technology though. And I have to admit that technology is something I was not comfortable with and going through the licensed teacher program. It's impossible to go through that program without your weaknesses coming up to be healed. And that, that kept coming up to be healed. And my mentor Coleen Benelli kept saying, Pam, you have to heal that because you can reach so many more people, if you will only embrace technology. But I have to admit I did not embrace technology until I was in the Heathrow airport and seeing the panic and distress all around me. And I finally listened to her words and said, she's right. I need to help people the best way to help them right now is I sat down in the airport and tried to figure out how to do my first Facebook live. And I literally said, I had my, I have my tablet. Cause I D I didn't even, I had just bought a new computer. My, my old computer was getting transferred over while I was in England teaching. So I was just teaching with my tablet and, and in-person class. And, I had my earphones in and I remember saying, okay, I don't know if you guys can hear me, but I think I have Facebook live figured out. And hopefully you can hear me and, a couple people type we can hear you. Great. Okay. Let's do our, my first Facebook live. And, it wasn't long after I got back. I think it was the very next day. Cause it, it did take me a few days. The airports were closing, the borders were closing and, we had our ELA RMT, licensed breaking master teacher meeting with the ICRC. And William said, we're going to begin teaching online. And you know what it just in, in the time between the airport and getting home. I had decided to embrace technology. I, all the resistance that I had yes. To embracing it was gone. And I can't believe now that I, that I create a podcast that I have an editing software that takes that, that I've learned to use. It automatically takes all the ums out with, I figured out how to host a podcast. And that was a big learning curve. Like I, I can't believe how I've been able to embrace technology. I do find in our masterclass since we've gone online, there's one experience that we do the empowered in the river of life. And I do find that aligns you a little bit more with technology. I found it did for me like it. And so now I'm a lot braver. Okay. No a ton about technology, but every week I take on a new, I decided to learn something new and I look up on YouTube, Hey, how do you do this? And figure it out. But you've embraced technology from the beginning

Karen:

having you, oh, it's been a slow process. It's, it's probably not my favorite thing either, it's necessary and staying current with technology is important. I still didn't know how to edit my podcasts. I haven't done that. there's still more of course to learn. I'm always working on it and just open to seeing, okay, what am I going to learn now? I have to admit, I had my scheduling software ready to go and it probably took three months before I finally, okay, I'm going to need some more Reiki to face this and figure out how to use it. and I know I've been resisting it and, I had all these made up fears about how it was going to be difficult and stuff. And it's like now, oh, okay, oh yeah. I can just easily schedule a client. I was eating my lunch and a client called, One of the schedule. And boom, put it in there so that I don't end up double booked. Was one of my main fears, paper, calendar, and online scheduling. And it's oh no, I, anyway, Okay. So a lot of people have had online scheduling along time. I've just had mine in the last, maybe. Four months. I put

Pam:

mine in, in December

Karen:

and started. That's pretty much. Yeah, mine. That's about when I got mine started November, December, and

Pam:

I love it. I actually did all the work in November, but I already had clients fully booked into the middle of December. So I didn't start accepting new clients until I think it was December 17th. And, oh my gosh, I love my online scheduler. One of the things that it really helps me with is I offer a free 15 minute session to people who want to ask about the classes or ask about, their Reiki journey, where should they go next? And because that can sometimes be a little confusing or a little daunting. And sometimes people say, you're offering Usui, Reiki, masters, and Karuna. which one should I take? Karuna's and advanced masters. You have to have the Sui first, but not everybody understands that. So it was trying to fit in those 15 minute sessions and trying to, and getting back and forth to people. It was starting to take a lot of time to manage for my, and I was double booking people. Sometimes when I had a paper schedule, I was sometimes just not writing something down and missing it. And so now I can just send people the link to my schedule. They can pick a time that works for them. It converts the time zone for them. So they don't have to guess because I'm in the Atlantic time zone, which most people don't know. Even understand that it exists or even realize that it's a thing because it's, it is one hour difference for me. I have people all the time tell me, we'll arrange to meet at a certain time at Atlantic and they'll show up at that time Eastern and they'll say, no, there's no such thing as it landing, actually there is. But anyway, I've learned to put the equivalent of Eastern time in a lot of my things, but I love that online software. And now I don't even worry about my paper calendar. I just have the times that are booked out and. In my online software booked out on my calendar and I don't even, I just open it up online and see who I'm seeing that day. And it's beautiful.

Karen:

Yay. Yay. so that's the thing, we just have to keep staying current with, what is the new technology and what can it do? And.

Pam:

lot of technology I've had to learn to use to write this book. Karen, there's a Grammarly that goes in and just checks my grammar for me to try to make Karen kegs job as my editor, just a little bit easier. And, as when she first started doing my editing, I said to her, clearly I needed, I always thought I was a pretty good writer and pretty good in, in, in English and, but I would see her 400 edits or more in a chapter, I would say clearly I need a lesson in commas and, in punctuation and capitalization and she laughed and said, most people do. And, so Grammarly now cleans up a few of the mistakes before she has to clean up the rest. And, I've learned to use Hemingway to just idea

Karen:

that's a good idea for my Reiki articles.

Pam:

Yes, it's a free software. I actually paid for the pro version, B because I write so much now and I really like it. I actually employ, I'm using something called a Hemingway, just the free version to analyze my sentence structure and see where, where, You have too long of a sentence or that sort of thing. And then I've also, I haven't started using it yet, but when it is time to, I was struggling to find somebody to do the copy for my book. And there's actually a software for that as well. And so I love technology. It can, once you learn that it can make life so much easier, Qantas.

Karen:

Yes. Yes. just like my texting program, that was quite a bit more challenging, to set up mostly because with my essential oil business, we set up classes on it. And so we set up these drip campaigns. so you know, learning how to do that was a little bit more daunting, but now that I know how to use it, it's oh, this is really fun, And the different things that we can do with it. And

Pam:

I agree honestly, those programs may. My editing fun and they don't do all the editing. Obviously I have to go in and do some as well, but they, yeah. And it's a sense of accomplishment, isn't it?

Yes.

Karen:

It's wow. I finally, I've been resisting that online scheduling thing.

Pam:

It was Jules Davis, who said, Pam, you have to do this. And she told me the one she used and she just used square online scheduling. And I already use square for billing and things for, in some instances, both with my essential oil business and Reiki. And so I, I thank her for giving me the nudge to get that in place. Cause I tell my husband now I'm like, I love that program. It's just makes my life so much easier.

Karen:

Yeah. Yeah. So that's a big one, because a lot of times Reiki, practitioners are high touch, but not high tech, and maybe they don't like the marketing, maybe that I'll like the technology part. And if we're going to be entrepreneurs, you have to have a different mindset than the employee mindset. And so that's another big part of success. Consciousness is learning to make that shift from employee consciousness, to entrepreneur consciousness and being a business owner and thinking about it and learning the aspects or. As we talked about hiring it done, for the things that are going to be hard or difficult, like creating your own website. I

Pam:

don't, I, my, I'm in the middle of shifting my website right now, or I will be as soon as I get a little bit of space from the book, but, I could never, my web guy is so good. I could never do what he does.

Karen:

I'm not

Pam:

even going to try. I just tell him what I want and he does it.

Karen:

Yeah. Yeah. So I think, there's so many good things in your chapter to go over. I don't know how long you want to talk about this, we've hit about, oh, I don't know, a third or a half of what you've got in there so far.

Pam:

there's a couple of things. and I. naming your business in an earlier chapter, but one of the things that, I probably I will add to this chapter or the earlier chapter is once you have a name or maybe it's already there, I can't even remember now, but once you have a name it's usually important to go and register your name, and one of the things you and I chatted about earlier, and we're going to link to one of your articles about that. It's an article that you wrote with your CPA. I believe. About just how to set your business up. And there's things like starting a bank account. And, how do you want to set it up? Do you want to set it up as a sole proprietorship or a corporation, an LLC. So what do you, is there any suggestions you would have for people around some of those things and around like registering the name, that's usually something that, it's usually your state or your province that you, once you have your business name, you need to go in and hire someone to do a name, search and make sure nobody else has got that name. And then, and then you register it. So anything like that, that you want any advice or anything like that you'd like to,

Karen:

okay. Sure. one thing that I did for my website, just probably purely by accident when I started off my website for my business back in, I think 1993, long time ago was I just made it my name and I am so glad that I did that. because for many years, the main focus of my business was counseling. and I still love counseling, but now the main focus of my business is Reiki. And so by having my name, then I had total flexibility to shift that focus and redo my website. And

Pam:

their website is Karen harrison.net, right?

Karen:

Yes. So I did that. And then also a few years back, I went from having, just a regular sole proprietor to forming the LLC. And my CPA told me how to do that. All I had to do was go to the secretary of state for my state and, register my LLC. And then I went to another, government website to get my EIN number, which is my employee identification number for my LLC. And all of that took me about 30 minutes to do it. Wasn't hard. I had to go back to my CPA to ask a few questions about how do I fill out this or that, but I got that and my checkbook is set up in the name of my LLC, from my checking account. And, I just ran everything through that. Also years ago when I started my business, I named it whole life center, but I didn't get that officially registered anywhere. I didn't make it the name of my website. So it really, it's not a DBA or for anything. what's it going to UVA DBA doing business as. So it's, a legal entity. I never did anything with that. So that's just a name I have out there, associated with my business. because I just didn't really know any better. And now I've switched over more to just using, Karen Harrison, LLC. I think meeting with, a CPA around all of that and possibly a lawyer, if you want to get some input about, the rules in your state or province or wherever you live so that you do it, correctly. I know another colleague of mine created an S-corp and that's another possibility, but it's a little bit more complicated accounting wise than an LLC. if you don't have many assets, you're probably fine to get along with just a regular sole proprietorship for awhile. But if at some point your business is making more money or you have assets that you want to protect, then an LLC, does give you some more protection for that. And

Pam:

an LLC in Canada, we would call a corporation will be the equivalent. and what's the other one that you mentioned? I don't know. I'm an S-corp S-corp

Karen:

I don't know enough to talk about an escort. now that article that you referred to my CPA actually wrote it and it was the handout to go with a podcast that we did on Reiki call, which is on my website@karenharrison.net. But if you, If you don't want to listen to the podcast and you want to just go right to the cheat sheet, with the notes, from the talk, then you can go to the article on my website. And I think Pam said that she would link to it where it talks about. all

Pam:

of this topic. Yeah. And I can link to the podcast too, if it's okay with you, Karen. Sure. So we'll link to both of those and you also have some other fantastic articles about, business success. And I'd love to, I can I'll link those to our podcast, as well as put some links in my book, Karen, this graciously offered to, to, allow that. And some of them you wrote on your own, some of them you wrote together with Colleen Benelli and she also has graciously agreed to, have those linked and I think that would be fantastic. Is there anything else, that you, what are some of the obstacles that you noticed to, business skills and business success? Is there anything that stands out to you?

Karen:

Obstacles, probably, our own mindset, our fears, things that we don't know how to do, thinking we're not good enough. Or, I don't know. I think the

Pam:

biggest obstacle

Karen:

is ourself really. I agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. But, I think having the resource of the book that you've written will help people to organize all the different things that they need to think about. And then, from the book, they can just create a plan for themselves. Okay. all right. I see. I need to do all these different things. What do I do next? and then just meditate on Reiki and ask, okay, what's my next step and who are the resources that I need to help me with that step and then meditate on that and then take the next step because meditation is good that in order to burn the business, we have to take action on our guidance.

Pam:

Yeah. One of the things that I encourage people throughout the book is to do as well is to just be gentle with themselves because sometimes we. I have a look at it and say, okay, I want a business. I want it right away. And and then maybe burden ourselves with everything that we need to do and so forth. But a business just like when we created the animal Reiki course, just like creating this book, you're bringing form to the formless. And William Rand helped us understand that, he talks about the formless realm that actually helped bring holy fire Reiki into existence. And when you are bringing form to the form, Some, when you have the thought it's already, or the ideas that it's already there, it already exist. And sometimes it just does take divine timing. It takes its own time to, to come in. So that's another thing, Karen, is there anything else you'd like to leave the listeners with before we,

Karen:

before we wrap up today? Sure. here's a little quote from our pack. You also wrote a book called, creating. no, I don't remember the title of it. Something like creating your Reiki business, but that's not the right title, but anyway, she just says, just feel the fear and do it anyway, Okay. Give yourself Reiki, just take the next step. guess what a lot of fears are gonna come up most likely, unless you have just a lot of prior business skills, there's going to be a big learning curve. That's okay. You just start small, part time and you build it up as you go and you look for resources and get help from people like Pam and her book, they, it's going to give you a lot of good guidance. you can also do a Reiki mentoring program. I know Pam also offers that. so all the resources are there. You don't have to do. On your own and you have Reiki to support you every step of the way. one of the, one of the things that I'm having a lot of fun doing and that, formless to the form is. Sorry, I've got to get a sip of water. Sure. Asking Reiki to put into my mind what the end product works looks like. so I do this one, I write my articles, I just ask Reiki. Okay. What do you want me to write about, give me the topic and then please just download that whole article to me so that all I have to do is sit down and type it up. And it often does work like that. that the whole thing does comes through. I'm really not having to put a lot of effort into it. It just, I just have to have the time, to sit down and allow those thoughts to come through. I activate Reiki before I start. And you can do the same with your business, just ask it to show you the next step and how that looks. And then you just go create that from the vision that you saw. and. Manifest

Pam:

it absolutely. You can use the distance symbol to take you forward into what is it going to look like? What is it going to feel like, and make it happen. I love that. Karen that's excellent advice. thank you so much for being here with us today. I want to tell all the listeners, we wish you well, if you do have any blocks or barriers or resistance around any, around the business skills or any of the stuff that we've chatted about today, I hope that the, your Reiki flowing as we've talked has lifted that from you. I just go ahead and invite the energy of confidence to flow through you. I think that every one of us is being asked to step forward now with our unique gifts and talents and, with our ability to work with the Reiki energy, or our access to the Reiki energy. And we're so grateful that you're here and that you're considering that.

Karen:

All right. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Pam:

Thanks for coming, Karen. I appreciate it so much. And we just want to say thank you to you, the listeners, and thank you for the light that you are in the world novice day. Bye bye.