Reiki from the Farm™

The Reiki Business Summit & the Power of Collaboration

Pamela Allen-LeBlanc/Karen Caig/Christian Stone Season 4 Episode 14

In this special episode of Reiki from the Farm™, join Pam Allen-LeBlanc, Christian Stone, and Karen Caig as they explore the transformative power of collaboration in the Reiki business world. As they prepare for their upcoming presentation at the Reiki Business Summit, November 22-25, Pam, Christian, and Karen dive deep into the significance of working together to create thriving Reiki practices.

This episode also includes a guided meditation led by Pam, designed to activate the Reiki symbols and support you in embracing collaboration as a pathway to success.  Tune in to elevate your practice and align with your highest potential through the power of partnership.

Christian Stone:
Christian Stone of Standing Stones Healing, is the founder of the Reiki Business Collective, host of the Build Your Reiki Business podcast, and creator of the Build Your Reiki Business membership program to help you build the Reiki business of your dreams.
 
Reiki Business Ready:  https://standingstoneshealing.com/ready

Reiki Business Summit:  https://standingstoneshealing.com/summit

Karen Caig has been an LRMT with the International Center for Reiki Training since 2020. Passionate about helping others find relief from stress and pain, she continues to be guided on her own healing path by Reiki. Karen's mission is to train at least one Reiki Master for every family, promoting deep healing and making the world a better place.

Get in Touch with Karen Caig:
Websitewww.Reiki-Institute.com

Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, businesswoman, and Licensed Reiki Master Teacher (LRMT) with the International Center for Reiki Training. 

Get in Touch with Pam:
Email: pam@reikifromthefarm.com

A special thanks goes out to Music from Pixabay for the intro music and to Nate Miller for the meditation music. 

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pam@reikifromthefarm.com

hi and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm podcast brought to you by me, Pam Allen Leblanc from Hidden Brook Farm. I am a scientist, a businesswoman, and a licensed Reiki master teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. Each week in this podcast you'll be entertained as you learn about a wide variety of relevant Reiki topics, helping you become a more knowledgeable and effective Reiki practitioner. We caution you though, this podcast may also dramatically improve your life, and we are so happy that you're here.

Pamela:

On this week's podcast, I am talking with Christian Stone and Karen Kaig about the Reiki business summit that is coming up in November. Welcome everybody. Just to let you know some of the things we have going on at the farm in the next little while. We have an animal Reiki masterclass in an Asian and European. friendly time zone, August 19th to 23rd. So that's coming right up. And that class will be offered in both English and Mandarin. Also with some Cantonese. We also have all of our classes going on online in an Atlantic time zone in October. And originally I. had planned those classes to be also in person at the farm, but we have had to shift those to just online. I was informed it, I actually start teaching the day of the election the 21st of October, and I was informed that and I'm starting to see it now with the pace that is going to be required from me from now until October 21st, that I am going to be exhausted. And so the only way I think I'll be able to offer those classes is online, but would love to have you join us. We've got Reiki level one and two. Monday and Tuesday October 21st. That's followed by three days of a Reiki master class, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The following weekend is an online animal Reiki level one and two class and that is followed by an animal Reiki master class. So would love to have you join us. And already. Up on the website and online. So go ahead and check out the January and February classes. If you can't make the October ones would love to see you there. And hopefully you can also join our Reiki shares. I've got one actually this coming. Wednesday evening. So hopefully you can get there for that. Christian, what do you have coming up that you'd like people to know about?

Christian:

Yeah, Pam, thanks so much. I do just want to mention that my book Reiki Business Ready, Six Ways to Know You're Ready for a Reiki Business is ready for pre order. And so that book is available. It will be available on September 7. But it is available right now for pre order. Pre order and you can learn more at standingstoneshealing. com slash ready

Pamela:

All right. And we'll put, we can put that link to Christian in the in the podcast notes, but that's a lot of readies in one sentence. I'm getting, I'm definitely catching your theme there. He's ready. He is ready. And on top of that, Christian, you're hosting this wonderful Reiki business summit as well. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Karen, what do you have coming up?

Karen:

I have in September, I have regular Reiki 1 and 2 and Reiki Master. You can check my website. It's Reiki Institute. com. And then in October, I have Animal Reiki 1 and 2 and Animal Reiki Master. And in November, we're back to regular Reiki 1 and 2. I alternate every other month. Yeah. And So regular Reiki in November and then December. I'm offering a Karuna class the first week of December and Animal Reiki 1 and 2 and Animal Reiki Master. So three classes in December. Wonderful. And those are all in

Pamela:

what time zone, Karen? Those are in Central Time Zone. Okay. And I should mention that my October classes are in the Atlantic time zone. And then the January classes are in the Eastern time zone. Yeah. Guys, let's go ahead and chat a little bit about the Reiki Business Summit. Karen and I are part of the Reiki Business Summit. We're going to be talking about collaborating with your Reiki business. But Christian, I'd like to start with you. What inspired you? You know that Reiki business is really important to me. I wrote the Reiki business book and and, there's no such thing as competition with Reiki. We're all in the same field, but we all work together and our students will move. among each other. There is no such thing as competition, but it's really important for, I think, the three of us to help others start Reiki businesses so that more people can get access to Reiki, the more people that, that stretch and teach. And also it causes people to grow. So there's just so many reasons why you support your students in stepping out of their comfort zone and doing this, but what. inspired you to organize this online Reiki business summit and what are your main goals?

Christian:

Yeah, great. Thanks, Pam, very much. I want to first and foremost say thank you both so much for joining the Reiki Business Summit. As I was thinking about the summit, and I'll talk about its origins in a moment, but as I was formulating it, the two of you came to mind. And Pam, you and I had talked about on my Reiki Business Collective series about the Reiki Business book when the Reiki Business book was coming out. And of course I know that you are very interested in talking about Reiki business topics. And so I definitely wanted to include you as part of the Summit. And then of course Karen. You and I talked for the Reiki Business Collective about networking, also had a great conversation, and of course you are always such a wealth of information and fun and laughter and lightness, and so I wanted to include you on the summit as well. So I wanted you both. And I also know that both of you collaborate together. And as I was conceptualizing the summit, I thought it would be wonderful to have you two together to collaborate on the summit. Now, when the summit popped into my head. So this was back in the spring. I want to say it was maybe April, late April. I just really, of course, I talk about Reiki business topics all of the time. I have the Build Your Reiki Business Program. I have the Build Your Reiki Business Podcast. And I just, as we have the experience, intuition just hits us. Messages just hit us. Things just come to us. And it was one morning. I had been out on my morning walk. I came home. I was looking at my flowers and I was like, we need to have a Reiki business summit. There needs to be a Reiki business summit. because of course we have lots of Reiki business conferences. We have of course the online Reiki Reis Global Healing Summit, which is an awesome summit that also happens in November. We have lots of in person Reiki conferences and summits. Many of those do include Talking about Reiki business in some way, shape, or form, as Pam, but we don't have a specifically Reiki business focused online summit, and I thought this is something that we need to have my goal for it was My vision for it is to really bring together Reiki practitioners, business owners across the world where we can really come together and support one another and to do so in a live kind of way. I founded the Reiki Business Collective, the Facebook group, and we've got thousands of members there. It's a wonderful supportive group. Sometimes we have live monthly gatherings, but I thought we really need something that is much more like a conference, a summit, a venue, where we can come together, learn from one another, support one another, connect, share our experiences and information, and really support one another. And so the reason for the Reiki Business Summit is to bring us together and to help us share resources and support one another as we serve the world with Reiki.

Pamela:

Oh, I love it, Christian. And did you have any challenges or anything? Tell us a bit about the planning process and how that's coming together for you.

Christian:

Yeah, Pam, thanks very much. Anytime, I don't know about you, but anytime I say yes to something in my Reiki business, I'm saying yes to a whole heck of a lot more than I realize. I will just jump right in and get started. And then it's what did I say yes to? I do that

Pamela:

with politics, Christian. Yes. Yes. I hear you.

Christian:

Yes, exactly. Or like with my book I had the guidance for that last year. And as I'm working on it and finishing up, it's Oh my gosh, this was a lot of work. I knew a lot of work, but it was more work than, I knew it would be a lot of work, but holy cow, same thing. With anything that we do in our Reiki business, we get into it, we get into the weeds, and we realize, oh my gosh, I need to whip out the machete. And so the thing with the Reiki Business Summit is that my original vision for it was for it to be two days. It was supposed to be a two day weekend summit. And then as I started thinking about the people who I wanted to invite to speak at the summit, I was like, we're going to need to have more days, because everyone I asked said yes. When you ask people to participate in a summit, a conference, You're going to expect to have people who are going to say no, it doesn't work for them. But everyone I asked said yes. And so as people were saying yes, I was like, we're going to need more days. So I needed to expand it to Friday and Monday to accommodate all of the amazing speakers that we have at the summit. And so it's, it became a. Four day event. Very quickly.

Pamela:

we're speaking on the Monday. We're the, we're bringing it all home. We're wrapping it up. I always wind up being the last speaker at most events and I love that because, we bring it home.

Christian:

I really thought that ending with the two of you would just be a wonderful way to wrap it up because you've got the great energy, you've got the experience of collaborating with one another, and I just knew it would be a great way to end the summit on a high vibe. It's a, it really is a great way to end the summit and I'm really excited that you two are on Monday. So thank you.

Pamela:

Thank you. I'm excited too. I, any chance to hang out with Karen Kegg, I'm going to take. Karen?

Karen:

Yeah. And I love that you have the opportunity after the presentations to ask questions. I'm in the whole breakout room where we get to interact and. And actually give people answers to specific questions that they have. I think that's brilliant. Yeah.

Christian:

That is something that I think is really often missing with online summits. For instance, the Reiki Rei Summit. It's a wonderful summit. I'm a big fan of Reiki Reis. And there's real no opportunity to connect and to really feel that you're part of a community. And so when I was putting together the Reiki Business Summit, I knew that this had to be a part of the summit, where yes, It's definitely awesome to have the speakers. It's a big part of the summit. It's an important part, but it's also really important for the community to be able to come together and to create connections and meet people. who are on the same path that they are to share their challenges and frustrations and joys of the Reiki business journey, whether they're just considering starting a Reiki business or they've been in Reiki business for years. And so it was really important to have that discussion and connection and networking component as a big part of the summit.

Karen:

I was really happy to see that, especially as it pertains to our topic about collaboration, because we're going to tell people like, you need to collaborate with other people. And they're like, what people, so you are providing an opportunity for them to connect with people so that they can collaborate. So I'm super excited about that.

Pamela:

Yeah. forward to that too, because it's one thing to give a presentation, but I just love having the opportunity to answer people's questions, specific questions and interact with them afterward. And yeah, that's awesome. And so that's one of the things that does make this a little bit different than some of the other summits and Reiki related events. What is there anything else, Christian, that I am, that it makes this unique?

Christian:

Yeah, thanks, Pam. This summit brings together more than 100 years of Reiki business experience. And so if you take all of the speakers and you add up all of their Reiki business experience, it adds up to more than 100 years. That's a lot of experience all at one summit. And when you attend the summit, you are getting the knowledge of 100 years, more than 100 years of Reiki business. And that's pretty darn special. And that's really exciting. So that's something that's special about the summit. Of course, that connection component, that ability to create connections that ability to chat live it's something that you just really don't see much of. There was someone outside of the Reiki community who I was explaining the summit to when I was creating it in its early stages and envisioning it. And this person is a yoga practitioner, yoga teacher, Qigong instructor. They go to a lot of Qigong retreats and conferences. And they said, as far as like the online space, that's so unique, that doesn't exist. And so it's really exciting to bring. to our Reiki community something that doesn't exist in that online space to be able to connect live and network and really make friends. My goal is that people will leave the summit with new friends, new connections new accountability partners, new practitioners to collaborate with in all kinds of ways all over the world. And so that's the goal of the summit, but some other ways that the summit is unique, it is a four day summit. So it's four days that really functions a lot like an in person conference, except it's in an online space. People can come and go as they please. So there's no requirement to spend the whole four days with the summit. But people can pop in and out as it works for their schedule. They can see the speakers that they want to see, go to the discussions they want to go to and take a break and then come back. Zoom fatigue is a real thing. And I wanted to keep the days short enough that they weren't, it wasn't stretching on and on all day, but at the same time to. be enough to have something where if people couldn't join for one part of the day, that they could join for another part. And so that's an exciting aspect of the summit as well. So

Pamela:

they'll receive the recordings afterward, Christian, or?

Christian:

Yes, Pam, if you register as a VIP, so the summit has two tiers, and there's standard registration, which is, access to all four days, and then there's VIP registration, which is access to all four days, plus two live Reiki business Q& A sessions with me after the summit so they get an additional way of connecting, getting questions asked and answered, and participating in Reiki business stuff two times after the summit and as a bonus the recordings as well.

Pamela:

Nice. Okay. And what are the costs for those two? It's affordable. I love

Karen:

how affordable it is. Yeah.

Christian:

Yeah. Thank you, Karen. Yeah. I also wanted to make sure that it was affordable because I want to bring together the community. And so I worked really hard not to price people out while of course, recognizing that it is a four day conference and recognizing that we've got. more than 100 years of experience and incredible speakers who are joining us. And not just yourself, but yourselves, but we also have Colleen Bonelli. We've got Mary Raposo, Andrea Kennedy, Michaela Daystar. I'm speaking as well. And it, needed to have a price affixed to it that was not astronomical, but yet at the same time honored the fact that this is a pretty special event. And so early bird registration, is regular registration is only 98 for the four days, and that's access to everything for the four days, and then VIP registration with those two additional Q& A sessions with me after the summit, those are in December, and the recordings of all of the speakers is 148. And so that's early bird pricing. That ends in September. So definitely I recommend getting in on that early bird pricing ASAP.

Pamela:

Fantastic. And last question Christian, how do you think this summit is going to help people? What do you think people are going to take away from it?

Christian:

Great. Thanks, Pam. I think they're going to take away a lot. Like they're going to need a really big bag for the takeaways. So first of all they are going to be able to take away. All of the information in the the amazing topics from our speakers. So Mary Raposo is talking about visibility in your Reiki business. If you identify as an introvert or an HSP, an empath, visibility can be something really challenging. And so Mary Raposo is going to help you being visible, with being visible in your Reiki business on your own terms and how it feels right to you. Andrea Kennedy is talking with us about clients. Always such a big question, how do I get clients? Andrea is going to help us out with that for sure. We've got Colleen talking about creating our Reiki business identity. And this is something we might think, Oh, I'm not a new Reiki business owner. I don't need that. But we know that our Reiki business grows, it changes and evolves. And always making sure that we have an aligned Reiki business identity is important at all stages of our Reiki business. And so Colleen is going to walk us through that process of creating an aligned Reiki business identity. Michaela Daystar is talking with us about having a trauma informed Reiki business. This is something that is so important, and not many Reiki business owners are trained on being trauma informed, and it's something that we all really need, and we need it increasingly. I don't know about you, but I see lots of clients who have some really big challenges with trauma, and making sure that we aren't doing anything that contributes to trauma for our clients is really essential to our clients and their own well being. So Michaela Daystar is going to help us out with being trauma informed in our Reiki business. I'm talking about community, the importance of community in our Reiki business, the importance of Having a tribe, how to find your tribe, and how to create your tribe as well, and how that moves us forward in our Reiki business. And of course, the two of you are talking about that very important topic of collaboration. Now, I don't know about you, but at this point, you might be thinking, I don't need a bag, I need a dumpster to fit all of this stuff, right? Because that's a lot of amazing takeaways. In addition to all of that information, There is also the connections that you just, you know, can't you can't put the value of that down on paper. The connections that you'll make, the friends that you'll make, the insights that will be sparked through the conversations that you'll have, And, maybe lifelong friendships will be formed. This is something that happens in my Reiki Business Collective group where people meet in the group and end up collaborating together, end up being accountability partners, end up being friends. And that's what I want from the Reiki Business Summit as well. And so those are a lot of takeaways. You're going to need a whole dumpster.

Pamela:

I'm getting excited about that summit. I'm looking forward to it. That should be really nice to take in for sure. Karen, we've got some plans to talk about collaborating and What are some of the, I know that I've collaborated all the way through my business. I even for the Reiki business book, I asked my own students to collaborate with me with their success stories. I asked the licensed teachers to collaborate with me for their Success stories, and that added so much, I believe, to the book. It made the book what it is. You and I collaborate all the time on these events, and I find that I wind up collaborating with other Reiki practitioners. Sometimes my students, sometimes other people from other modalities that there's just so many opportunities. How do you define, what's that collaboration look like for you?

Karen:

As you just said it can be with anybody who can hold you accountable, help you work. Give you ideas. There's something about connecting with another person, especially for me, and I am a student of human design and I did learn that I'm a projector, meaning that I don't really have good sacred energy to work work, like you do Pam, I don't know how you do what you do. That's just not me. And I discovered that collaboration is helped me enormously in getting things done. And I've collaborated with students. My very first Reiki shares that I held I wasn't a licensed teacher yet. I was in Central Arkansas and one of my students, one of my master's students had a massage studio in Little Rock and I collaborated with her. That was one of my very first collaboration efforts was with a student.

all:

And,

Karen:

I was like, She was like, girl, I was like, yeah, we need some more clients. I said, we need to do a Reiki share. She said, what's that? And I said, Just sharing Reiki. And I really had never been to a Reiki share before. I had heard about them, but we just collaborated and put together our own. And then we discovered later that the Unity Church in Little Rock did a type of a Reiki share. And we never did reach out and go that far because ours took off, but that was my very first experience. I was scared to do a Reiki share. I wasn't really sure what I was doing and she sure didn't. She was my student. So the thing about collaboration is like you've got to not. Feel one, intimidated. And also not Oh my gosh, I'm the teacher. I've got to be, I need to know what I'm doing. Cause I didn't. I said, I don't know, but let's figure this out. So we started a Reiki share and a once a monthly Reiki share in Little Rock. I would drive, it was only an hour away. So I would drive to Little Rock and she got clients and students cause she started teaching and it was a way for me to expand my teaching ability. That Reiki, as you guys know, is Reiki masters. The Reiki master class is just the beginning of a student's journey. They need that support. That's why I love what Christian does so much. So I was able to help support her but she was getting students down in the Little Rock area and I was getting more students and clients and so it benefits everybody. To me, that's success. If you can get financial benefit, mental, emotional benefit. From the nerves of trying to do something new, it's that fear that holds us back. But if you've got, somebody else to hold your hand and go Do you know what you're doing? Let's just, like kind of Thelma and Louisa, let's just go and try it. If you've got somebody to help you, you'll do more things. You will get out of your comfort zone more. Yeah, and you'll learn what Pam, what you said at the very beginning, that there, there's enough to go around collaborating really teaches you about abundance mentality, in, instead of scarcity mentality I don't know if I do this with her, she's probably going to get all the students, or she's going to get all the clients. And you learn, even if you've got, you don't want to say that loud, but if you've got that in the back of your head, You will see it unfold no, there's plenty, the right students, the right clients are going to come to you and the right students, the right clients are going to go to whoever, your flat, whomever you're collaborating with.

Pamela:

So it occurs to me that we collaborated when you edited my book. Yeah. And I

Karen:

would love to write a book but I wanted to, help get that going because it was good to, and,

Pamela:

Yeah, no, I love it. And it just, it does make me think of other times that I collaborated. I had a, I went to two different yoga studios and one of them was owned by a Reiki master from another lineage. And I just checked with them both Hey, would you like me to come in and offer a Reiki meditation once a month? And one of them never really responded. And then the one that had the Reiki master from the other lineage, she said, I would love for people to have access to Holy Fire. And the funny thing is first of all, it was wildly successful. She and I told her, I said, I don't even care if you pay me, I just, I just really want to get, Holy Fire was fairly new at the time, and I wanted to get it out there to other people and give access to it, and I always love to offer now I offer my podcast that's free I always love to have a lower cost, or a lower priced offering for people, an opportunity to reach them, even if they don't have the means, and But then it was that, because for 18, they could come and get and, have the healing meditation. And she loved it. She actually got more Reiki students herself because she was a teaching Reiki master. And then some of them were really drawn to the holy fire and came to me and we had, we usually had 40 people. It was like, they filled the room every month because in every month I would do a different meditation. So these, there's just so many wonderful opportunities to collaborate,

Karen:

isn't

Pamela:

there?

Karen:

And there's something about the two coming together, two or three or whatever coming together it's more energy. It just creates more enthusiasm for something.

Pamela:

It does. But I and I love what you said, too, about you don't even really need to know what you're doing. But together you support each other and you figure it out. And it's so much more fun to figure it out with somebody else than all on your own. So anyway, I love, for instance, Karen, we collaborate when we do podcasts. Together on a regular basis, although I've missed you, our schedules haven't aligned recently and people always say that they love it when you and I are together

Karen:

that's, it's a different energy. It's a different energy that's created when two people come together. And not to go back to human design again, but like when I looked at my chart and other people's charts that I work with, like I have, I may have like half of a line of something and they have the other half, it just works better.

Pamela:

Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? And it's nice to spread the work out and so on. What strategies or tools do you, and actually, before I go off of that, Christian, do you have examples of collaboration that you'd like to mention?

Christian:

Oh, thanks, Pam. I'll just mention that the Reiki Business Collective Discussion Series, on which both of you have appeared and the discussions that we've had there have just been a great form of collaboration. And, those discussions are available for anyone to listen to for years. And I think that's something really beautiful about collaboration is that when you know, we collaborate with other practitioners or anyone else we might collaborate with, we're able to create something that is greater than if we were just doing it by ourselves. And so the collaboration really is a beautiful thing. And, like with those Reiki business collective interviews, those are available for years and years to come to support Reiki practitioners. Same thing with the podcast, Your discussions with Karen, your collaborations with Karen, those are available for years and years to come for anyone who might listen to them and be encouraged and inspired. So the collaboration really does allow us to create something greater than we would be able to create by ourselves. The Reiki Business Summit would be really boring if it was just me for four days.

Pamela:

Yeah, it is. It opens things up, doesn't it? It creates a synergy. There's a synergy that's created when you collaborate.

Karen:

As he was talking, I was seeing like a puzzle. When there are more people, like we all have our little pieces and we put them together, and the more people there are, yeah, you can have too many, what did they say? Too many cooks spoil the broth but you get a richer picture, more depth, more, more perspective, more, just a bigger, more beautiful picture through collaboration. So that's, yeah, it's amazing.

Pamela:

It makes me think of the reason that I started this podcast in the first place, because in a conversation that I was. holding with God or source, whatever name that you use. I could see that the energy that I call God, it was this huge ball of light. And I could see that The seven billion at the time, I know there's eight billion now, but seven billion people on the planet at that time, that each of us was looking at one dimension, like one aspect, and it just the energy showed me that if, as we listen to other people and listen to their perspective, we then learn more about Source, or God, or Reiki, and all of that. And I thought, if I can bring on all of these guests, and I think we've recorded at this point more than 300 podcasts. It's, yeah, we've, it's been going for a while. It's up there 200 maybe, but between two and 300. And I realized if I could bring on all these guests, we it gives us access to all these perspectives. And then we know it so much better. And there's a description of blind people attempting to describe an elephant and one is touching the ear and one is touching the tail and one is touching the foot. And so obviously they're describing the part of the elephant that they're touching, they, they don't really have the whole picture until they begin to collaborate. And yeah, just a thought. I thought that might shoot in there. That's it. I was getting that same picture. That's perfect. Yeah, I love it. Do you guys have any advice for Reiki practitioners who are hesitant to collaborate with others?

Karen:

Let me go first. I would say don't compare yourself to the people you're collaborating with because I got intimidated. I got intimidated by, okay, I'm just going to say this out loud, Pam. I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you have an MBA and I don't know when I start collaborating with somebody, I start, Asking myself what do I bring to the table? And then I start looking at the people I'm collaborating with. I'm like gosh, they've got this and that and so much more experience. And and then you just start, it's Pam and I did a podcast about this, like imposter syndrome, but I don't even need to be in this circle. I should not even be here collaborating with anybody because I don't know anything. And then you get in your head, thank you, Reiki. So I would advise that you remind yourself that This is the, I think all collaborations when they come together, like when you get these, I'm a projector so that meaning when I get an invitation like would you like to do this and I get it. Yeah, I would. That didn't happen on accident. There's a reason you're there. You do have. something to offer or you wouldn't be there. And don't get caught up in that mind trap of, gosh, Pam's been practicing Reiki longer than I have, or she's got more business experience than I do. Don't do that. Just go with what you've got. You're there for a reason. So bring to the table what you've got and and show up. Show up. So much of life is just showing up. Like you just, you have to get past that fear and just show up. And then maybe that's where the. The bond comes in collaborating because you do show up so vulnerable. And then you realize the other person might be thinking the same thing. Oh I'm not as talkative as Karen. Karen really was like, I'm not as much fun as Karen. I don't know. They may be thinking the same thing. So you have to, you show up with what you've got to the collaboration and and add your part.

Pamela:

That's my biggest piece of advice. I think it's excellent advice. We're stronger than the sum of our parts when we do that.

Karen:

Yeah, you're just a part. So don't put so much pressure on yourself. You're just a part of it. See what you've got to offer. Oh,

Pamela:

yeah. And it makes it easier to not have to, like Kristen said, like not have to do the whole thing. And

all:

yeah.

Pamela:

It occurs to me that something that I would give for advice is that sometimes you will hear no, that other people maybe don't want to collaborate with you. I know I got my feelings hurt recently by somebody who didn't want to collaborate. And I think that's just an important part of it to realize that, It's okay to have no, and even with the yoga studios, one yoga studio said no, and one said yes. And so just not to let the nose get you down. It doesn't mean that, it's just probably, and it doesn't even mean that it's the wrong fit. It just might be the wrong time or something like that. Or maybe a misunderstanding or of what you're offering or, we don't know what's going on in that other person's life. So I think that My advice is that occasionally somebody will say no I don't want to collaborate with you and that's okay like just take that as okay that one doesn't but maybe somebody else will and carry on don't get too stuck on the what is it we say in Reiki you know don't get attached to the results. Just know for now. Yeah, for now and, or maybe no to this one thing or whatever have you and but it will, it doesn't mean no to all collaborations or maybe that there isn't a better partner that maybe you weren't thinking about. So this will help you there. What about you, Christian, would you have any advice for somebody?

Christian:

Yes, thank you. I love that you both said what you said because it really matches nicely with my thoughts, which are that so often when we are looking to consider collaborating with someone and we're being held back and we're feeling hesitant, so often it's because we're afraid of looking foolish, or we're afraid of failing. And so I think that in terms of collaboration, knowing that, part of the reason that, that we might feel challenged with collaboration is that we're afraid to be vulnerable or to feel vulnerable, to open ourselves up to maybe potential partner that we're collaborating with doesn't like the way that we're doing things or like our ideas on certain things, that they're going to bring their own ideas and they might not like all of ours. It's that fear of, quote, failure, that fear of opening ourselves up to being rejected and the criticism. And I think like Karen said, absolutely knowing that you have valuable things to share is really important. No matter where you are on your journey, we all have valid and valuable things to say. I don't know about you, but my Reiki level one students teach me all of the time. That, that act of being in in collaboration is a learning kind of experience. And the level one students. you might think, I've got nothing to teach Christian. I learned from my level one students all of the time. And along with what Pam said, that idea of people are going to say, no, yes, indeed, you're going to have rejection. You're going to have a partner you're, you want to collaborate with who you bring up an idea to them. And they're like I don't know how I feel about that. And so knowing that Those feelings of feeling vulnerable, that fear of failure, is just a completely normal part of the experience. And to know that rejection is going to happen, the no's are going to happen, but yet, it doesn't mean that what you have to share isn't valuable. It doesn't mean that it's not helpful. It doesn't mean that it, it doesn't have value. It just means that, it's part of the experience.

Pamela:

I love it. Sorry, I was listening so hard to you. I forgot that I need to ask another question. Oh, wait, that's me. What would you guys define as a successful collaboration?

Karen:

You go first, Christian.

Christian:

Okay, sure. One, one that feels good. One that feels good. And that feels good to all parties involved. And one that feels positive. I don't know about you, but I'm really enjoying this conversation, and I feel really positive in it. And to me, that's a successful collaboration. Whatever happens after this, doesn't matter because to me this is a positive collaboration. I'm enjoying it. I'm getting benefit out of it. I hope that you are too. And if you are too, then I would say that this collaboration is successful. It's been a success. And that to me is what really matters, that it feels good and feels positive to all parties involved. That's a successful collaboration no matter what the outcome might be. When we collaborate, we might have this vision of, Oh my gosh, we're going to have just all of this amazing Outpouring of response, it's going to be incredible, it's going to be crazy. Now listen, I don't know about all of you and your Reiki business, but I always think that it's going to be amazing, and it's usually not quite as amazing as my vision. But if it's if there's enjoyment in the experience and in the process, that's enough. That's enough for a successful collaboration.

Pamela:

I love that. I love that. And I always say if it helped one person, then I'm happy. If whatever I did helped one person, then it's working. It's enough. So yeah. Karen, what about you? What are

Karen:

your thoughts? I would say But you learn something from it that makes it successful. You may collaborate with a fellow Reiki practitioner and maybe do a health fair or something. And they're like, Christian will be like, this is going to be amazing, and you get your booth all set up and you know what you're going to do. And you're going to give some Reiki, some sample Reiki and pass things out. And it's, you're going to get so many clients and students and maybe you don't.

Pamela:

And maybe nobody shows up to the fair. Exactly.

Karen:

Bye. But if you learn something like, okay maybe. Maybe maybe it starts making you think about what is, why do people walk by and they didn't want Reiki? What is it about our branding? What is it about, if you learn something, like how could we do it differently next time? Or even, is this worth our time? Maybe this is not a good business expense, one thing about collaborating on things like that is you can share the cost of the booth or whatever, but you may come to the conclusion that, Maybe this isn't worth our time. Maybe we should try something else. So if you learn something, then I think that's a. a successful collaboration. And then also because you're collaborating, you have someone to commiserate with if you fail. That's right. You can go to dinner

Pamela:

with.

Karen:

Yeah, exactly. Let's take this three dollars we made and go go get a smoothie or something.

Pamela:

You just reminded me of something that I wanted a collaboration that I totally forgot to mention at the beginning of the podcast, and that is that I've been asked to attend the Fredericton exhibition, which is happening just after Labor Day weekend. And so I have, I'll have a booth there. I'll be speaking at the exhibition and I'll have a booth there that I'd like any of my Fredericton area Reiki practitioners of any, and Animal Reiki Practitioners, if you'd like to come and share the booth and use the booth to even promote yourselves to just reach out and let me know because I'd love to have you join me there. And so that's, yeah, there's always opportunities like that. And I won't be able to man the booth the whole time. So there's there are going to be hours that some of the rest of you could have to promote your businesses. So I just like to encourage that. That's just a great

Karen:

idea. See, that's a great collaboration invitation.

Pamela:

Yes, thank you. So do you guys have any strategies or tools? Our final question that you'd recommend for effective collaboration and communication between Reiki practitioners?

Karen:

Google Drive.

Pamela:

Yes,

Karen:

Google Drive. Google Drive. That's how you and I did my book. Exactly. Absolutely. But that was it. But that's amazing because you can, I could be. making a comment in real time. We could collab, and she's in Canada, and I was in the United States at the time, but, look, the three of us, we're on three continents I guess you guys are on the same continent, but we're in three different countries, and through Google Drive, we can share. I also work on a project here with the Kichwa Indigenous Spiritual Center, and we use Google Drive. We can upload videos, we can do that for social media, and it's. It's really helpful. And I also have used in the past with larger groups a free app called Trello, T R E L O. I don't know if you guys have used that, but but you can like assign tasks and you can click when it's done. You can move things over, move it through The workflow it's very business y but it's helpful, to get stuff done.

Pamela:

I love the Kermit the Frog voice that you used there for the business y. Yeah, sorry.

Karen:

No, I actually did really love it. Yes, it feels it feels very business y. You'll need to change my voice for that.

Pamela:

No, and I'm thinking, ooh, Trello. Maybe that's something I should use with my campaign team. So I'm going to have my daughter check it out. Thank you, Karen. And what about you, Christian? Anything you'd recommend?

Christian:

Yeah, I do, Pam. Thanks. So if there's someone you're considering collaborating with, thinking that you might like to do some kind of joint project, collaborate in some way, I encourage having an idea of how you might like to collaborate with them when you reach out. So I don't know about you, but I've gotten people who have messaged me, contacted me and say, Christian, I'd love to work with you. We should collaborate sometime. And that's it. That's all they say. And it's okay, so then I'll ask them, okay, do you have anything in mind? Anything in particular in mind? No, we should just do something together. I have no idea what your vision is, so I'm going to say sorry, no thanks, because there's nothing to say yes or no to. But if you reach out with someone with something in mind, and you don't have to have the full vision, so you don't have to know exactly what it is, what it's going to be, how it's going to go, but just have some general idea. That gives the person you're reaching out to something to latch on to in terms of something to say yes or no to, give them something to reject or to think about, even if it's not a yes right away. And that involves having something a little bit more concrete than, we should work together sometime. That could be a million different things. So approach them with some kind of idea, even if it, of course, is not fully formed, but just something for them to think about and accept or reject.

Pamela:

That is a

Karen:

really good point.

Pamela:

Yeah, that is. And then not being too struck on the outcome. Like it has to be exactly like this or anything like that. Being flexible once they like have the original idea with some detail, but not being so struck on it. Because if somebody says I wouldn't feel comfortable with that, but what about this? Or, Oh, great. And, or maybe they take your idea and they run with it and they go in a completely different direction than what you originally had. Some divine intervention. Maybe that new direction is just where you need to go.

Karen:

That's a really good point. I remember when one of my students in England, Duncan yeah, I've collaborated with him a lot, but he asked me, we had a conversation once about, this is before Reiki trails with your feet, but he said, Kyra, and he said, that part, that bit in Reiki one, we talk about Usui, giving Reiki with his feet. And I'm like, yeah, he said, we should do an article about, doing. Reiki with your feet. No way. And so that was very specific, but it wasn't like what about doing Reiki with your feet? And so I'm like, huh, that sounds interesting. Yeah, that's a good idea. And then I had, like Christian said, I had something to respond to, and then we came up with let's do some experimenting. Let's do different symbols. Let's try in different places. Let's try, and then we just went back and forth across the pond through what did we use? It's important to decide a good way to communicate. What's the best for you? Karen Harrison contacted me last night. I sent her a message through Facebook Messenger and she said, you need to send me a text, if you want a quicker response, those sorts of things are also Kathy Milanowski, she's always Facebook Messenger, but anyway, but we just communicated through Facebook Messenger and it worked that way. So yeah, but he gave me something to respond to, like Christian said. Otherwise, if he just said we should write an article sometime and be like, yeah, that'd be cool. And then it would stay with it. Yeah. I

Pamela:

love it. Good idea. That's really good. Guys, before we go into a meditation today, is there any last words? That you would like our listeners to hear.

Christian:

Yes, thank you for listening and thank you for being here.

Pamela:

Awesome. I'm going to invite you guys to join me in this meditation. And this is just a meditation to just help us embrace collaboration with Reiki energy. So I just want to invite everybody to make yourselves comfortable. You can be seated or lying down. If you're driving, just hit pause right now, and just close your eyes. Take a deep breath, bringing your hands into Gassho, just activating your Reiki energy. And just allowing your breath to anchor you into this present moment. We acknowledge the enlightened beings, the brothers and sisters of the light, the divine animals, the angels, the archangels who are standing at the corners of the land and on every side of us, always ready and willing to assist us if we just remember to ask. And we thank them for their divine assistance and ask them to help us even and especially when we do forget to ask. And just placing your hands comfortably on your body now. Just imagine that you're standing at the entrance to a beautiful, peaceful forest. The air is fresh and there are nature sounds all around you. And as you walk along with each step that you take, you feel more grounded and more connected to the earth beneath your feet. And as you walk deeper and deeper into the forest, you eventually come to a beautiful clearing that is bathed in golden light. In the center of the clearing is a circle of ancient trees. Their branches form a natural sanctuary and you feel drawn to enter into this sacred space. Once you're inside this circle, I invite you to sit in the center of it and just take a moment to connect with your heart space. And as you do, you. Notice the warmth and light of the Reiki energy inside of you. Expand, just filling your entire being, moving out beyond yourself, filling the entire clearing. I invite you to move your hands now to your heart and just invite the power of each of the Reiki symbols to awaken within you. And if you have symbols, I just invite you to visualize them along with me. And if you don't And we make our symbols available to you today. And just imagine the power symbol is in front of you, glowing with brilliant light, and as you notice it, you just feel its energy surround you, grounding and protecting you. Take a deep breath in, and on your exhale, just releasing any tension or worry, allowing the power symbol to bring you into alignment with your highest self. Now visualize the mental emotional symbol floating gently above your head. And as you notice it, just feel it activating your emotional and mental balance, allowing its energy to clear any lingering doubts or fears and just replacing them with a sense of peace and harmony. Now notice the distance symbol appearing in front of you, connecting you to the limitless potential of the universe. So often when we see one or two, maybe three solutions, the universe is aware of 18 or 20 or more. And so as you notice this symbol, just feel it creating a bridge between you and all of those whom you are meant to collaborate with in your life and business. Just allowing its energy to open the channels of communication and understanding. Fostering connections that are beneficial and fulfilling. And finally, if you have master symbols, just imagine all of them. The Isui Master Symbol, Holy Fire, Karuna Master Symbols, Animal Reiki Master Symbols, or any others. And just notice those symbols swirling around you, shining brightly and moving into your heart. And just notice how these symbols amplify all of the other symbols and everything that came before it and allowing these master symbols to merge their energies within you. These master symbols bring you into alignment with your true purpose. Empowering you to step into your role as a healer and collaborator, teacher, whatever it may be on your path that allows you to bring more love and more Reiki into the world. And that begins with each of us bringing it into our personal lives, our personal worlds, and then just allowing it to expand out to our loved ones, our acquaintances. our communities, and then beyond. And as you bask in the energy of these symbols, I invite you to consider any projects, partnerships, or collaborations that you are currently involved with or that you wish to manifest and send the Reiki energy to these and just see them flourishing with ease and grace guided. by the wisdom and power of Reiki. In fact, if you can just surrender them to Reiki and allow Reiki to lead and guide them. And just trusting that the universe is supporting you every step of the way. We'll just spend a few moments in silence here together today. You can stay in this space for as long as you'd like. Whenever you feel ready, just bring your awareness back to this moment in time. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, just slowly opening your eyes, knowing that you carry the energy of this meditation with you and being ready to infuse every aspect of your life and work with the power of Reiki. Thank you so much for being with us here today and I hope some of you decide to join us at the Reiki Business Summit so we can have an expanded conversation on this. Thank you. Namaste. Thanks everyone. Whoops, that's not what I meant to do.