Reiki from the Farm™
Reiki from the Farm™
Reiki, YouTube, AI and Growing with Grace with Andrea Kennedy
Have you ever wondered how to grow your Reiki practice in today’s digital world without feeling pushy or inauthentic?
In this week’s Reiki from the Farm™ episode, I sit down with my dear friend Andrea Kennedy, who has built a thriving Reiki community through her teaching, practice, and her blossoming YouTube channel.
Together, we’ll talk about her journey, the lessons she’s learned about visibility and vulnerability, and how Reiki has guided her growth every step of the way.
We’ll also finish with a Reiki meditation to help you step more confidently into your own authentic presence—online or offline.
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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:
pam@reikifromthefarm.com
www.reikifromthefarm.com
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Andrea Kennedy is a Reiki Master Teacher, energy intuitive, and spiritual channel with over 25 years of experience. She teaches Reiki worldwide, hosts the Mainstream Reiki YouTube channel, and hosts the Beyond the Reiki Gateway podcast. Andrea is also the founder of the Mainstream Reiki Community, a global membership space for Reiki practitioners to learn, grow, and connect.
Get in Touch with Andrea:
https://www.mainstreamreiki.com
https://zaap.bio/andreakennedy
https://www.mainstreamreiki.com/blog
Learn about her courses:
Reiki Business Success Course page: https://www.mainstreamreiki.com/reiki-business-success-course
Channel Your Divine Self Course page: https://www.mainstreamreiki.com/channel-your-divine-self
her newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dbdVDr
Register for our newsletter!
hi, and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm Podcast, brought to you by me, Pam Allen LeBla 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. So welcome everyone to this week's podcast. This week I have Andrea Kennedy here, and we're talking about growing your business with grace. So welcome, Andrea. I'm so happy you're here.
Andrea:I'm thrilled to be here, Pam. Thank you so much.
Pam:Thank you. And before we go too far, I just wanna let you know about some of the things we have coming up here at the farm in October. Both online and in person at the farm. I have a Reiki level one and two class that's followed by a masterclass. So the one and two is the 18th and 19th, the masterclass the 20th and 23rd to the 23rd in, its online in evenings. I also, the following weekend, have animal Reiki training on October 25th and 26th. And then the master teaching is online on the, in the evenings the following week. And we just set up a new healthcare Reiki class. And I know our current class is full. So I know people have been looking for these dates. November 15th and 16th. In the evenings. It's a Tuesday, Wednesday evening or Monday, Tuesday evening, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the 22nd and 23rd the following week in the evenings. So I'm excited about that. And we also have healthcare Reiki coming up February 7th and eighth as a weekend class. And then I'm finally teaching Una for those of you who are interested in an advanced Reiki masterclass. November 17th to 20th in the evenings, I am just getting rolling on my animal communication book. So do look for announcements about that. And we do have animal communication classes coming up. There's a weekend class, November 22nd and 23rd online, swallowed by. A, a master practitioner class, the 24th to 25th over three evenings, and then a master teacher class December 1st to third online in the evenings. And so that's the week after our American Thanksgiving. One of the projects that I'm really excited about to, you know about is in February we finally have the dates nailed down. I am going to be teaching a level one and two class, followed by an animal breaky one and two class in Kenya, February 19th to the 28th. And so if you've ever wondered about. Going to Africa, I think this is going to be a lovely way to go. And so people will arrive the 19th just have a day to settle in. The next day we're going to be going to a giraffe sanctuary and then long got links to a market. Then we have four days of class. And then on day eight we will go to or day seven an elephant orphanage and spend some time in Nairobi National Park, which is where Jane Goodall did her great work. And that following that wheel head just a, an hour or so away to go to Nasha, to the Nki game Park and have a few days there with an animal experience. So I am just super excited. I'd love to, it's a destination trip. So if you've ever wanted to go to Africa, thought that it might be a bit difficult to navigate because I think it is, this is a really great way to get that trip in. And for anybody who's reviewing those classes with me, as always, you can do that at half fee. So that might be really neat. So there'll be more information coming, but I do just want you to hold those dates if that's something that you're interested in. Andrea, I'm going to introduce you in a minute, but before I do, what do you have coming up that you'd like to tell people about?
Andrea:Oh I'm really excited because I have just released after all these years, my Reiki business success course. So it's a self-paced course and. It's phenomenal. I think it demystifies a lot of the steps and it helps people grow or refine their business if they've already started one. And I first released it in my mainstream Reiki community for those members. And now it's available for everyone. And so that's on my website, mainstream Reiki dot com. And I am apparently teaching a channeling class in January. You're kidding. No, I'm, I did a channeling class gosh, it's been over a year ago, just for a small little group of people and I just invited them to it and it was great and the feedback was wonderful and then I didn't really do it again. But lately all that part of my work, that part of what I'm offering. Publicly has just really gotten a lot more prominent for me. I've noticed
Pam:it in your newsletters, Andrea.
Andrea:Yeah. And so apparently I'm teaching this class I'll have a lot of help. If they read my newsletter, they know, the Emissaries of Light, they're also on my YouTube channel.
Pam:I love that
Andrea:it's really their class. And I'm showing up for it, but it'll be called Channel Your Divine Self. Nice. And yeah. And a lot of the things I'm doing are shifting right now. Even my own podcast when this airs. We'll be in season six and we'll have a new name. How about that? So whatcha
Pam:doing it now?
Andrea:What resonates?
Pam:I love it.
Andrea:And, before all the listeners here that we share. They know it as beyond the Reiki Gateway. Gateway.
Pam:Exactly.
Andrea:Yeah. And it's been a wonderful journey, but what resonates is speaking to the future, because for me, this new dawn that we're in is all about individuals tuning into what resonates for them.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And that's the be, that's the foundation for their decision making in their life. And my philosophy is, when you follow what resonates, how can you not live a meaningful and purposeful and joyful life? So that's what we're doing. We, I'm rebranding everything at the moment, but it'll all be live. I believe our first episode is coming out the 8th of October of the new season. So what resonates? Yeah, so nothing stays the same at mainstream Reiki and the podcast, I have to say.
Pam:I love that though. And I think you're absolutely right. We've and Colleen Vanilli and I talk regularly and we've been talking about that for a while. The fact that we're moving out of that age of an outer authority and into an inner authority and what you're saying is exactly right. And I, it just occurs to me, we have so much in common in this, in the way that, we want to help other Reiki practitioners get their businesses out there and learn from learn more efficiently from some of the things that took us longer to sort out and get through. And and that's the reason for this podcast as well, is to see if we can help people there. So thank you so much for being here, Andrea. I just, my
Andrea:pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me.
Pam:Oh my gosh. This is it's always fun. I always enjoy it. And so I do want to just tell people a little bit about you, Andrea, before we jump into an invocation and some questions. And you are a Reiki master teacher and also an energy intuitive, a channel like, that's another thing we have in common. With over 25 years of experience, you teach Reiki around the world. You host the mainstream Reiki YouTube channel and beyond the Reiki Gateway podcast, which is becoming what resonates. And you've got a mainstream Reiki community, which I think is just brilliant and a global membership space for Reiki practitioners to learn, grow, and connect. So I am really excited to have you here with us today. Thanks. Thanks
Andrea:again. Thank you.
Pam:So folks I'm just wondering if I can just invite everybody to go ahead and activate Reiki today, whatever way that works for you, and maybe place your hands over your heart or your voice, your throat chakra, or wherever you feel guided, and just breathe into taking the messages from this podcast that are meant for you. What resonates, and the purpose of this podcast is to just encourage you to consider stretching yourself and to use technology in a way that helps you get the word out. And so if there's any resistance. To stretching and growing, to allowing your voice to be heard, to speaking up and showing up in your truth. And I just encourage you to look within and notice where in your body or in your mind, your spirit, your emotions that the resistance exists, and just allow it to release from you. Now, just notice that the Reiki energy is floating around you. It's everywhere, and it just te gently teases any fear, any tension, any resistance that's there for any reason, any conditioning. It just gently teases it out of your body and your being, and just lets it go so that you can be open to the possibility of sharing your voice and sharing yourself and sharing your truth today. And we take a moment to just thank you for being here. We appreciate how precious your time is, and we're so grateful that you choose to share it with us. And we thank you for being the light that you are in the world, just being you. You make the world a better place. So thank you, Aho. Andrea, I've watched your journey for a while now. I guess we've been friends for some time and I just, you just never cease to amaze me with all of the things that you're constantly doing and, we have so much in common with our science background. Our, the sort of, the ways that our businesses have evolved. They've almost done so in parallel. And sometimes you go this direction and I go that. And yet there they're so similar. And so I thought, you know what a perfect guest to have on to talk about this subject. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey? What inspired you to start your YouTube channel? What happened when you did, what resistances did you come up with along the way? I'm just gonna lob this back over to you and ask you to tell us all about that because I know YouTube really I remember when it really took off for you and I thought you'd be an excellent person to tell us about that.
Andrea:Oh yeah. Thank you so much. I will say that, honestly, YouTube was a happy accident. Really. I was seeing clients in person here. I'm in Michigan, and this was my second Reiki business because I used to live in Idaho, and so I started a business there. It started with animals. That was a whole nother lifetime ago it seems but when we got here to Michigan and got settled, I decided, now's the time. So I started my Reiki business here. From total scratch. I didn't even know a one person when we moved here. Wow. And so I started it and things started well. So my clientele picked up and, that there's so much I could say. But things grew. And then by the time it was, I would say early summer of 2019, I was pretty busy. I had a full schedule. I had clients that were coming regularly. I had a really good foundation. I was teaching Reiki classes in person, and my office was actually in a facility with medical offices. It was a dream. It was a dream. And so I was really happy. And then one day I came home from seeing clients all day, and my husband says, you should start a YouTube channel. I thought, what are you even talking about? I didn't watch YouTube except to fix my dishwasher one time,'cause my dishwasher broke. So I had looked on YouTube for if I had a need, like that. Yeah. But I never thought about YouTube and Reiki and me. So I have learned though, that my husband, he's pretty good. He is pretty tuned in himself. And he's a wise individual.
Pam:So
Andrea:I never just write off stuff that he says. So it struck me as weird and a little crazy, and I thought, what would I do on YouTube? That was my initial reaction. And then over the coming weeks, I guess I started looking on YouTube and I thought, what's out there? And some of the things I saw. I will say I reacted to,
Pam:I remember those days.
Andrea:Yeah. Be I reacted to those things because I thought that is not how I would present Reiki to the world. Yeah. And it's not that there's anything wrong with the other people out there, that wasn't my thing, but it was like my feeling inside was, I think I have something I could say that would be a little bit different or, I think I have some helpful information. And I would say that was the total driver is trying to be helpful. If I do this, I could help people. I didn't know anything about the platform or how to make videos or what was important or an algorithm. I didn't know anything. And I would just say I followed each step because it just felt like it was in resonance, it just felt like a good idea. It felt like, yeah, okay. I could take the next step, and, but I didn't know where it was going. I had no grand plan and I made the first video and I just used my cell phone, I think. Yeah. I had an old iPhone.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And the microphone there. And so it was very low tech and I started and then I would say that December was December, 2019. I had 320 something subscribers.
Pam:Wow. Which is a lot to start off with.
Andrea:Yeah. Yeah. I think the first video came out in June. Or so, June or July of 2019. And I know it was about 320 because I, my heart skipped a beat one day because my subscriber count went down like 20, like at one time. And I thought, oh wow, things have changed. But we could probably all relate, because remember social media, like when we first got started and the light count might go down. Yeah, I know. In those days I was like oh no.
Pam:Yeah. What did I do? Yeah. And what could I do better?
Andrea:Yes. And so it's all a journey, right? Yes. But I remember the count went down and my younger son said, oh, mom, he's it's nothing. He says, that's a YouTube thing, they'll probably reappear in a couple of days. And I thought that doesn't make any sense. Sure enough, there they were. And I was like, oh. And that taught me, don't worry about the numbers. Just the, I obviously couldn't rely on them very well. And then then what ended up happening was yeah, what ended up happening was I had made the first distant Reiki video on my channel, and I never had the plan to do that. And honestly, Pam, I didn't know if it would even work, and I did not go on YouTube, and I did not have sessions from other Reiki people on YouTube, to try it out, because that didn't feel right to me. But one day I was at my office and it just came in oh, just do one of those videos. And I thought, okay, whatever. But I had some time and I just used my laptop. It was. The microphone picked up all kinds of extra noises. It sounded terrible. The camera in my laptop wasn't good, so it was grainy. And the last time I'll say this, the whole time that I'm have my hands up and I'm doing Reiki, in my mind I'm thinking, is this even working? I look ridiculous. And so I'm having this whole doubting thing while I'm supposed to be offering the viewer Reiki. And I had no idea if it would even work. It was ridiculous, the level of mental chatter I had going on and self-doubt and all the things.
Pam:But what I, but it was new. It was new. You would be thinking all of those things like,
Andrea:yeah. Yeah. I think so. But here's the weird part. The last time I looked, and it was a while, it was a while ago, it was over 700,000 views on that video. And for the quality of that video, it is astounding to me that out of every video I've ever done for YouTube, that is the number one video I, at least the last time I checked, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. And I like to, I like that story, because one of the things I wanna say isn't it great that Reiki just works? And it doesn't depend on your self-doubt, and it doesn't depend on the mental chatter. It just works. And thank goodness, because without that video would've been a disaster. In the next March, though. We had the pandemic start.
Pam:Yes.
Andrea:And they closed my office because there was a assisted living in that same one wing of my building.
Pam:Okay.
Andrea:And those rules and regulations were really tight. And so they actually closed down the whole facility. So I didn't have an office, so I took everything, home. And we were all in a strange place at that point. And then somebody contacted me because I was doing a monthly Reiki share for my students and the public at that point. But someone contacted me in the midst of all of the pandemic uncertainty and at the beginning, and they said, what are you gonna do for us? And my knee jerk reaction was, what do you mean what am I gonna do for you? I'm, I don't know which way is up either,
Pam:yeah.
Andrea:And then I sat with that and I thought, wow what can I do? Is there something I can do? And the thing I came up with was the livestream, the weekly livestream. And in those days it was every week. And I didn't wanna do it, but I thought, I wanna be helpful.
Pam:Yes.
Andrea:And that's just always been the driver for me, is if I can be helpful and I have the capability, I wanna do it. So I started those live streams. And again, the tech was terrible. I would. Spend all this time writing something or finding a meditation, and I get so nervous beforehand and I would be shaking. I sat on my floor right over there and I had my camera and oh, I was so relieved when it would be over, because oh, it was scary, to put myself out. I remember
Pam:my first podcast, Andrea, and probably the only reason I've got, I think, 190 podcasts out now. But I think the only reason I did it was I promised people that I would, yes. And I went on and I did an introduction and I said, my first podcast will be out next week. And then I had to figure it out and I was, you are, you're so scared to stretch yourself like that, but Reiki said to do it. And so you, you do it and
Andrea:yeah. It was so I'll never forget one of the, one of the viewers on YouTube, and I even remember his handle. He made a comment and he says something, he was complimentary, but he said. Turn your phone sideways. Oh. Because you, I was vertical on YouTube. And so that just, that just illustrates how much I didn't know, but I was doing it anyway. And that's what I would encourage people to do is just move. Just move. And the universe will support you. Because when you're in motion energy moves, you're creating a current, you're creating a path. And I think one of our biggest stumbling blocks is we often wanna know the destination. Before we set off on the journey. Because why wouldn't we? That would be nice. But here's my thing. It's I want us to revisit that because you don't wanna know the destination. You really don't because when you create on the fly, when you create, based on what happened five minutes ago yesterday in what comes to you in this moment, that is alive, that is dynamic and that is the most leading edge kind of way to show up in the world. And so I don't wanna know my destination, I just really wanna know the next thing that I'm doing. And if I resonate with that and I just keep doing that, I'm gonna end up in a place that is really phenomenal feeling, at least to me. But that's how I roll.
Pam:I agree with you completely. I I'm still at a loss about why I was told to run politically. I still don't understand that and I, but I go back to and so often I do jump off the ledge without knowing where I'm going. And I think that is important to I love that, just keep in motion and keep those waves going because yeah, I still don't know why, but I'm sure that in a few years I'll look back and go, oh, okay. That was a building. Block or a step to something else. And so you just listen, I think, and I think Reiki can take you there. And I keep going back to something William Rand said Andrea, he said that he just receives the next step and the next step. And because he can't it isn't, he isn't capable of envisioning where he's going to. He looks back at his life and he says, if I had known where we were going, I would've shut it down. I would've thought, no, that's not possible. So I think in a way, we're going to a place that we don't have the context to understand, or that's beyond what we can foresee.
Andrea:Yeah, I totally agree with that. Totally. And the world is changing so quickly now. It's funny, I was just having a conversation the other day. And we were laughing about floppy disks and dial up internet,
Pam:and
Andrea:remember dial up, internet
Pam:dial up.
Andrea:Oh my gosh. That's, but the weird thing is, we for dial up, it's crazy to think that's, we thought that was so great and we'd sit there and we'd wait and it would ring and the whole thing, and now look at where things are. But we could never have sat there at that moment and known we would be at this place technologically, where you can just type in to a website and have all of this information brought to you. Like with AI, I guess is what I'm talking about. But from Dialup, what, 20, 30 years ago? I think we were at Dialup time for internet connections. And now look at us. Smartphones in our pockets.
Pam:I know ai, it's more information on your phone than what used to be in a library. Yeah. At your fingertips.
Andrea:Yeah. In real time
Pam:like that. In real time, yeah. Yes.
Andrea:It's phenomenal. So we, the children of today, they're gonna be doing things in the world that we have no concept of right now.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And that's a wonderful thing. That's a, we don't wanna, we have no way, because we'd be limiting ourselves by setting goals based on what we know today.
Pam:I think that's such an important concept, Andrea, and that kind of leads us into a question of AI because personally I do use it and I know that there are people, it's relatively new, and there are people who have some fear around it. And and I can understand that, but I keep thinking back Colleen and I had a conversation around social media and the fact that because there was fear about social media, years ago, and the fact that. It's important to put high frequency, high vibration energies into technology. And you got started with technology because how can I help? And that's exactly the same conversation that was going on with me. Only I was really resisting technology. And when I was in London in the airport, and flights were being grounded and borders were closing and everybody was freaking out. And I was cool as a cucumber. I just knew oh my gosh, everybody needs Reiki at times like this. But then I got overwhelmed. I thought, I'm only one Reiki teacher. How can I impact? How can I help if I'm just one person? And that's when I heard, yeah, but you're in a position of leadership. You have an MBA, and yet it was still really difficult for you to start your business. So help other people. With their businesses and you've gotta get over your fear of technology because that is how you reach people. So did any of those fears show up for you? And I guess I look at ai, I am a creative as well, and a channel, but I can get very scattered. And I love AI because I'll put my ideas in and it will organize'em for me. And it's oh, there, now it makes sense to everybody else what I, what my daughters do have diagnosed me with A DHD. But I think that might be aI is really useful for providing that structure around these creative ideas. And I also believe it can be really useful to put that high vibration energy into it. And so I've got a few ways that I use it, a few tips and tricks, but did you find any resistance with the technology? It sounds like you were really trusting did you run into any obstacles and then how did you deal with them and how are you working with AI now?
Andrea:Yeah technology I guess in general, I've been on board with it because for me there's better living through technology. Yes. If we look at just, this is a little off track, but in medicine. Oh my goodness. Technology has completely revolutionized what is possible for our healthcare. We have devices and different things like that now that can be used. There's so much technology in that field, but what we're talking about with applications for Reiki people and people who wanna help, in, in a field more like this, I would say for myself I was, I've had intimidation and what's funny right now is I have a really fancy camera over there. Because, shouldn't all YouTube cha, shouldn't all big YouTube channels have the fancy camera? So I have the fancy cam. Do I use it? No I'm intimidated by it, so I still use my camera. That's built into. My iMac Pro because I'm comfortable with that using too. Yeah. I'm comfortable with that. Okay. Even my iPhone would have a better camera than the one I'm using. I think it goes to maybe my main message when it comes to my relationship with technology and maybe even broader than that. And it's, I'm gonna utilize what I can, whether it be social media, YouTube technology, ai. I'm gonna use all of it my way. So I'm not going to do the norm or what's expected. I'm gonna use it my way.
Pam:And
Andrea:I get to decide how that is. I get to feel good about it. And for YouTube, for example, the main thing, a lot of people join YouTube and the thing is, I need to get enough subscribers and hours watched and all of that so I can monetize and do ads. And I didn't do that because I thought wait a minute. I want the experience to be the best for the people who will come to the channel, because that's most helpful. And, I did a Reiki meditation once on YouTube, which yeah, I told you a few minutes ago. I never went before I started my channel. I never, really went and did that. There came a time and I thought, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give this one a try. And an ad came right in the middle. I said, you know what? Never again, because my energy was so in such a beautiful place.
Pam:And my
Andrea:eyes were closed, and then an ad hit me and I went, whoa. And I said, forget that I'm never gonna have an ad on a healing video. I just never will do it.
Pam:I didn't even, I've never even attempted to put ads on my YouTube.
Andrea:Oh they'll put it on for you. Seriously. Okay. Oh yeah. If you haven't looked at your cha. So what I would suggest is get an in, don't be yourself when you go to your YouTube channel. Go incognito browser or something like that. And look at it like a viewer
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:Who's not subscribed. Yeah. And go play some of your videos and see if there are ads
Pam:where they Oh yeah. They put ads. Just, okay. Yeah. Because they can.
Andrea:And my early time on YouTube, it was strange because. I was going to, I wasn't opposed to ads at the beginning'cause I didn't know enough at that point. So I started the application to do ads when I could be approved. But it was this weird technological glitch and it wouldn't let me finish because I thought, at least if I have the ability to do the ads, then I can still sign up and still choose not to do them. That was my thinking. I could have maybe choice, but there was this glitch in the process of when I applied and I couldn't figure it out. And in hindsight it was the universe. It was my guidance coming through to help me.
Pam:Yeah,
Andrea:to help me know at that time. But here's the weird part. I think it was the glitch in the process. It made YouTube ignore my channel. It was like it put me in the waiting no way, queue or something. Okay. And so no, no ads were appearing on my channel and I was like, wow, this is cool. And I thought it was like that for everybody, but I learned later. No. So it was just this really weird glitch. And then when I reached a hundred thousands subscribers, I think this was like last November, oh, somebody noticed my channel in the YouTube universe and went, holy cow, we have not been making any revenue on this channel. And I was at the hair salon and I picked up my phone and somebody in all caps said that they were just interrupted on a healing video with an ad. And I went, what? That can't be right. So as soon as I was done at the salon, I came home and I looked, oh my gosh. I had been discovered by YouTube and they were putting ads on my videos and I freaked out. And I, I tell you, Pam, I think I was in tears a little bit. Not it was just so unsettling because to me, yeah, it's
Pam:unsettling for me. I didn't know there were ads on mine.
Andrea:And I'm not saying that
Pam:there are, but there probably are. Could be. Probably are. Yeah. I had no idea. And and I don't do ads on my podcast'cause I don't like that
Andrea:yep, yep. I'm with you on that too. But I, yeah and I freaked out a little bit and so I thought, oh my gosh, what do I do? And I thought I have to join the partner program. And so then I went and the glitch was still there and I thought, ah, what do I do anyway? Like lightning speed, everything worked out and I was approved within 48 hours, which. They often will tell you it can take at least a month to get approved. Once the approval came through, I was able to choose. That's why you wanna join the partner program. Okay? So you can turn off ads or you can decide you can turn them off.
Pam:Okay? You can
Andrea:turn'em off. And you get a lot of flexibility. But anyway, you just don't know what you don't know. And that's okay. And I'm sorry that kind of took us off the detour, but No, this is
Pam:exactly what I wanted to talk with you about. I'm like, I'm sure, because I haven't even been, I've, this is embarrassing, but my podcast I was interviewing William one day and we were just about to start the podcast and I said, yeah, William, I'm thinking of maybe. Do you know, it was suggested that I do the podcast in video as well and put them on YouTube and he goes, great, let's start today. And I didn't have makeup on. I didn't, I was like, did I comb my hair today? And, but I wasn't gonna say no to William Rand. And so I was like okay. I had no idea what I was doing. That was my first video, was that one. And then I just, I continued with it. But recently I used DS script to just put the, put my intro and the music and stuff with my podcast. And recently it's, it change. They're always changing. And just as I get used to how something works, it changes. And I'm not great at adapting to new ways of doing things. It takes me a little, a few minutes. And so I haven't been able to figure out how to get my podcast onto YouTube. I'm way behind. Oh no. And I just figured it out last week, but now I have to go back and take all the podcasts that I've done for the last few months and get them over to YouTube. I don't know. This is embarrassing. I don't really know how YouTube works very well
Andrea:you know what's interesting too about YouTube is and I haven't fact checked this, but I have heard they have never taken down a video
Pam:really.
Andrea:Unless they're, unless it's goes against their violence policy or something like that, maybe. But the very first video published, I think is still there. You could still find it, and that's pretty remarkable. As far as all the platforms go, I really love YouTube because. You can put what you want there, and it lives, and people can visit anytime they want to. The algorithms on Instagram and Facebook, it's a constant churn and burn, as a creator on those platforms, it's rough, because it's what was your last reel? What was your la everything's fast moving on there. So I really have enjoyed YouTube. There's a lot with YouTube that I could do that I have not done. They give you so many different analytics and things, and they have even now put AI in so that it will give you inspirations about future new videos to do for your channel. It will generate for you thumbnails, the whole nine yards that, so YouTube in and of itself has ai. I haven't used that really. I went and clicked on it a little bit and, but what I was saying about AI and all of these things is, I don't have a fear about these things because to me it's up to me.
Pam:If I
Andrea:put garbage into chat, GPT, I'll get garbage back, yeah. If I give my power to chat GPT and let chat GPT run my life, that's my choice. I use AI to help me, number one, brainstorm because I only have my perspective and I wanna know a wider range of topics that are of interest to people or different ways to look at something. And so I use AI to brainstorm for things. And I have to tell you, it's hugely helpful because I only know what I know, and that's pretty limited, aI's very helpful and it'll organize things. That's what
Pam:I love.
Andrea:Yeah. It's very organizing.
Pam:It'll organize them. Yeah.
Andrea:Yeah. And so there's huge potential. Somebody on YouTube you, me mentioned people sometimes have fear about it.
Pam:And
Andrea:I've seen that too on YouTube in comments that people make on my videos. One of the popular formats that I have are the eight hour videos. And one just came out this morning, but I just take a shorter video and then I have my video editor. I used to do all of this myself, and I have to tell you, oh my goodness, what a joy it is to have help. I don't have that yet,
Pam:but I'm working on it.
Andrea:Yes. And so what he'll do is he'll take it and he'll loop the video he'll edit it a certain way, and then he'll loop it basically. So the original beginning is there and the original ending is there, and in between it's a looped segment.
Pam:And it
Andrea:extends it to the eight hours. And a lot of people really appreciate having that extended version. But it's interesting to me because people will say, I can't believe that you gave Reiki for eight hours. And I put right in the description. It's an extended version of the shorter loop too. It's I'm not trying to say I am doing this for eight hours, but the funny thing is to me that some of'em, they think it's ai and it's and they're put off by it, or they, criticize me like, you shouldn't be doing ai. And it's I'm not doing ai, but I think we need to understand that AI can be any number of things, but not everybody is utilizing AI for negative purposes or to fool you. Or it can, it's, isn't it like everything, Pam, it's like you can use it for help. Yeah. And positivity and you can also use it for other reasons and other motivations, but that's everything. So as long as we bring ourselves and our authenticity to whatever it is that we're investing our energy into, I just don't see a problem with that.
Pam:No. It's like a match can burn a house down or cook your food. So which do you want to use it for? And I just thought this would be a great place to share a couple of my tips or some of the ways that we have used it. And that is oh, sorry. I just had to look outside for a minute'cause it looked like there was smoke, but they're actually doing some cleaning and we've had some wildfires in my region. So it's dust, not smoke. But yeah, it's one of the things I've done even with healthcare Reiki, is I'll record my channeling, our channeling with Tracy. The energy comes through with all kinds of great information. And so I record our Zoom meeting every Friday, and then I use the transcript and I get chat to summarize the transcript. And so then when we're trying to put things together I'll say, okay, give us all the information about this section. And we might have talked about it in six different meetings that were scattered and it just pulls everything together so that we can, we can utilize it and. I'll tell it like, okay, I wanna create this meditation and here's what I want in it, and here's what I want it to do. And I've also taken and downloaded several meditations that I've just channeled and really been proud of and said, look, this is, memorize this as my style of meditation. And so then I'll say, Hey, this is, I'd like you to use my style of meditation and I want you to create a meditation, and we're going here and we're doing this. And we're like, and so I'll just outline it all, but it can be in any helter skelter order and it just pulls it together for me. And is it the final meditation? No, not usually, but it's a starting point so that I'm not starting with a blank page. And then I can go in and occasionally, like you said, brainstorming occasionally it brings in something that I'm like. Oh, I never thought of that. I really like that. And then occasionally it brings in something that I'm like, I would never say that. And that's not even what I asked it to do. Yes. Yeah, and I'll fix it, but I know recently I was really specific in everything that, that, because the meditation had come through in a session and I was, but it wasn't one that I had recorded. And but I just, from memory, I was really specific in what I wanted the meditation to do from what I recalled. And it pulled it together so beautifully as we read it. There were tears in our eyes. We were like, yes, that's exactly what we, that organized it perfectly. That's exactly what we wanted it to do and say. So I love that about it. And I find that even downloading some writing in and saying, memorize this as my writing style now write me an outline about this and then I can fill it in. So yeah, there's so many things that AI can help us do.
Andrea:Oh, completely. I mentioned rebranding the podcast. Yeah. So what was, I used AI for that because I knew I wanted to change it. I felt that very clearly, but I didn't know the name for it and what I decided to do, I had done what you had already mentioned too, where I gave it different articles I had written. Yeah. And I taught it who I was. Yes, I'm on YouTube. Here's my channel, here's my, this, here's my podcast, here's this. And so I educated the platform chat, GPTI educated that about who I am, how I write. And then that was earlier. But when I went to do the podcast, I told it what I asked it, tell me everything you know about my podcast. And so it, it told me everything. It remembered from my podcast. I said, okay, here's where I am. I feel like I wanna change my, here. I want a whole brand shift here. And so there's mainstream Reiki and if I had a parent company name Pam, I've never said this publicly, it would be called Mainstream Resonance. That would be my parent company name. And now this new podcast is what resonates with a question mark, because that's the listener or the viewer on YouTube. That's the question for them. What resonates? And so what I put into chat GPT though, because I didn't have the podcast name yet, was my brand philosophy.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:What is coming up for me right now? What have I done? What is really pulling me forward? What is the vision that I have? What's got my heart's attention? And I told it all of these things. What I know today about who I am, what I do, and where I feel I'm going. And then I asked it to, suggest names for the podcast and they were all very chat GPT sounding. And I looked, this is the cool thing because it's it's like a dialogue, right? And anytime we're in a dialogue with a person or even chat GBT, you're gonna get input. So the AI is giving me ideas and I'm going, oh, no. That's not right for this reason. I that a little bit. That word's totally wrong. But you see it, it ignites that process in my own mind of discernment. And I, it helps me feel my way forward to what is really true for me. I'm not relying on it to tell me the truth. I'm allowing it to have that dialogue so I can arrive and decide at my own truth. And you know what is funny? It gave me all these things and I just kept answering back. I'll, I never would use that word. And it'll say, it was like thank you for the input, or whatever. But it was just really cool. And it was about 4:00 AM when I was doing this with my laptop. And then all of a sudden what resonates came to my own mind. It wasn't a chat GPT thing. And I was like, huh. So I typed that in. I said, what about, what resonates with a question mark? And it was so cool because it comes back something like, this is a brilliant idea. I have to admit. I just was like, oh, yay. It thinks I had a brilliant idea. So it's fun, but that's what I just don't take it too seriously. It's just, it's like having a team member.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And it, it doesn't, it only has the power you give it, it only has the power you allow it to have. So I just don't think it's anything to fear.
Pam:At
Andrea:least not how I engage with it,
Pam:yeah.
Andrea:And I can't control what other people do, the government or other people, if they wanna create videos that are fake and, it's like AI is here, they're, and it's like the floppy disc and the dial up internet. Do we really wanna, do you wanna stay stagnant? I don't. I'm not gonna get a typewriter out that doesn't plug into the wall because, for whatever reason I'm gonna stay in the current, literally. So what's current and the current of energy I'm surfing, I'm gonna ride those waves and I'll use it for my own purposes.
Pam:And I think, Colleen, working with Colleen as my mentor in the licensed teacher program, she's a decade older than I am, and this woman embraces technology and her philosophy is, look, it can help us reach more people. And when I looked at it that way, I was like yes, obviously I wanna help more people, so if it can, and it is funny though because it's not, technology has never been natural for me, and I do find that when Holy Fire upgraded and we did start teaching online, I love teaching online now. It's probably my favorite way to teach because it's just, everybody's so comfortable in their own environment and everybody, when it's lunch break, you actually can take the dogs for a walk or, and it costs, it's got a lower environmental footprint. It takes, it, it costs people so much less money and they're able to access classes that they might not have been able to access. So it I do love teaching online, but I certainly, I resisted that in the beginning. So have you found any resistance as as you've been getting into these things? Because it does for me, it takes me a while to figure it out and, although my husband has always said, just go to YouTube. There's it'll teach you how to do anything. And he like your husband, he's a little more in touch and so he's often helping me with things. I found that Reiki has just really helped me overcome the resistance and shown me that you know how to find things. And what have you noticed with that?
Andrea:Yeah, I would agree. There is so much out there that you cannot possibly learn it all or know it all. And even if you do learn it, you already mentioned with DS script when I first Dscr is a great program for anybody looking for that kind of thing. And it has come so far. But anyway, they change it all the time. And so I agree with your husband. Just as I
Pam:get used to it, they
Andrea:change it. Yeah. And. Even on YouTube, sometimes you can't find the most UpToDate, help videos because, they gotta learn it too and then put the videos out. But, for me I guess what I would say is what my relationship with technology and learning what I need to learn, it's always just been driven by what I need right now. I think in the old days, I'd probably remember when we bought the discs at the Best Buy store or something, and then you went and installed them. Wow. And isn't that, the old model, oh, I need a program. I'm gonna go buy the program and learn this program. And now it's just a snippet here and a snippet there, and this platform and that platform. And so I don't, honestly, I have very little. Comprehensive knowledge about any one major software program or anything. I just know what I know to get by doing what I wanna do, right? So I have an issue I remember I started it was YouTube and I was, I think it was my first chakra series that I did. And back in those days it was IGTV, like Instagram, tv. I don't even think they have it anymore. But I had this vision in my mind, that's so common. It's probably common for you too. But I see it in my mind and I go, Ooh, yes, that's what I wanna put out there. And then I go, okay, how do I do that? How do I do that? Yes, exactly. And so then I'm like, okay. So what do I know that I need to do? What are my first steps? And then you start there and it's okay, but now how do I do that? And then I wouldn't, I didn't know how to do a lot of these things. And so when I would run up against that, then it's search it online, watch a YouTube video. That kind of thing. And I remember that series. I was trying to put it on that Instagram tv. And then once I found, I actually found a video where a lady was walking through a certain process. It was a workflow, and it was so helpful. And I just kept her video on one side of my screen and I would follow along. So it was so helpful. And then because it was a chakra series. I had seven, I was doing the seven videos. It like lived on my computer screen and it was me and it would be 11 o'clock at night. I work a lot and, but I don't mind because it's all about who I am and what I'm here to do. So I would sit in here in the wee hours and I would work on it and it would be exciting to me. But that's really my relationship with it. And I don't think I hesitate with technology. I'm not overwhelmed that much with it. It's just one thing at a time. One thing at a time. But it's frustrating though when they change it and then
Pam:I just figured out how to do that. I
Andrea:know. Yeah. You change. Yes.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And I think that maybe for people getting started with this or they wanna do more with technology, I do want them to realize. If they haven't already, wherever they are with it, it's fine. But like I said earlier, just move, just keep at it and it gets easier. Or you get new ideas and no, you don't have to know it all. You only have to know what you need to know to do what you envision. That's it. That's it.
Pam:I'm reading a book with by Tara Moore right now on thinking Big or I can't think of right now the title, but Big is in the title and it's for women. And so often we over prepare. That's almost, it's a delay tactic. Of, not getting your voice out there. And and I often teach people in my classes, to teach before you're ready. If you wait until you're ready you'll never do it. So I like, I really like your advice there, but tell me something. It can be a bit nerve wracking and both you and I have done it with our podcasts with politics, with all of your the number of things that, that you have out there. You're really have a wonderful online presence and and we do show up with our whole heart. And that can be nerve wracking. And it's not that we've never received criticism because I, you have, I have. And it can be difficult sometimes. I found that I had to learn. How to how to handle or manage the criticism because, you might have one person that didn't like something that you did but you have a hundred people that it helped or, something like that. And so just keeping that in mind but what did you, do you know, what made it easier for you to show up in your authenticity?
Andrea:I think I have kept part of myself out of it.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And what I mean by that is probably in the early days I'm sure I used to wear my wedding ring and things like that. But what I ended up coming to is that. I put things out and I have, I'm very clear now in my mind that isn't all of who I am. Because if I felt that I was really exposing all of myself out there, I don't think I could last. Because if we just think about YouTube in and of itself with all of those people, the statistics are, I can't even wrap my head around it. How many millions of hours have been watched on my cha? It's crazy. And if I think about that, imagine all the energy coming at me from the viewer. Whether they're, we are sitting here talking right now. There are thousands of people around the world watching my videos right now, and they're having reactions, they're having judgements, they're having their stuff, their energy react and respond to me. But I have this sense of a boundary that I'm still myself and I'm sovereign in my energy. So I'm gonna allow them their process. I don't need to convince other people of anything. I'm just gonna put my thing out there. My, my vision that I've had for many years is a lighthouse. The lighthouse. That light is just putting out the message, putting out the message. And the lighthouse doesn't chase down a boat and say, Hey, but wait.
Pam:Yeah. There's danger
Andrea:there. Yeah. They don't do that. They just, the lighthouse just puts the light out and then it's on is a responsibility. That's right. And so that's how I have tried to remain in a neutral place and, not take on things. When we first started, I mentioned the Facebook thing and the light count going down, or then my YouTube count going on and it's hard. And I acknowledge that, and it's been quite a journey for me in that, I used, it used to bother me a lot, and then I reached a point where I just thought, I unsubscribe from things all the time. Yeah. Yeah, me too. And I don't, and I don't do it'cause I can't stand the person or whatever. It's like my inbox is too full or whatever. And so if I try to put myself, in their shoes too, I think that's helpful. But I don't know if I answered your question, but, I did also, I took off my personal stuff on my social media. Yeah. And I like, don't wear my ring. And and it's not I would say that it's really more about keeping some things to myself.
Pam:Yeah. This is, great advice.
Andrea:Yeah. Yeah. The other thing I would say, and this is a little bit odd maybe, but it comes up to mention, somebody reached out to me and she had gone on YouTube. She was a Reiki person.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:Then she started to get harassed. And so she reached out to me, she sent me an email and she was like, she wants to go back out, but she's not sure. And this person or a couple people maybe had said some things to her online. And I just encouraged her. Look at your videos, see what you think about your videos, see how you feel. You're showing up and make any changes that come to you, not based on criticism or unwanted attention, or whatever all of that was. But you look at your videos as though you are new to you, you are another person. How are you showing up? What do you like about how you're showing up? What do you maybe think could be better? Then adjust because you want to, not because somebody else tells you how to be. And I think that's important. I also think it's very important to be authentic. I, for myself, I show up very neutral. Meaning I don't show a lot of skin. I don't, things are purposeful for me in how I appear. I don't use crystals in my Reiki sessions and things. And all of these are choices that I've made that are in alignment with me and how I wanna show up and the message about what I'm doing. So everything. There's a method, but the thing is, be mindful of how you're showing up and why you are showing up as you are. I just think that's important. So that's a above and beyond any kind of criticism. We know in our minds, we'll never please all people.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:We know that intellectually, but emotionally sometimes we're not quite there. And it, and things do hurt and things do all that. But just remember, you can't let it change you because if you do, then you might allow yourself to veer off course.
Pam:Yeah. You'll lose a bit of you. And that's the whole point. And is showing up and I think that. Different people resonate with different people yeah. Yes. And so it's important for us all to be out there teaching and Yes. Sharing and because, the people that will resonate with you the people listening are not necessarily the people that will resonate with me. And so we all need to be out there and I think the world needs more of us showing up just in our own truth with our authentic voice. And I'm reading a wonderful book right now. The Let Them Theory with Mel Robbins, and it was helpful like when with politics, because I don't know why, but because there's not a lot of advantages to running politically. It's very demanding and very difficult. And and yet, it seems to it makes a lot of people feel that they have a license to, criticize or harass. And my team didn't even let me look at the comments and and that was good. I didn't need, they might say, Hey, we're gonna do this differently the next time. Yes. But they didn't even let me look at the comments. And I appreciated that actually, because, it's, it, it is a whole different. Ball game. And, but I think, I think the let them theory is that I can't control, I just have to show up authentically. And that's all I've ever tried to do and I can't control how people receive it. It may trigger something in them that's unhealed. It may, hopefully not because we, nobody wants to hurt or harm another person. That's not why we do this. We do this to be helpful. Like you said, it's, it is a lot of work. But it's rewarding in that it can be helpful. And but you do, you cannot control how other people respond and it's really a waste of energy to do that. So you just have to. You just have to consider how you want to show up. So I just love all the advice. Did anything surprise you? How have you stayed true to you? You've talked, a lot about how you've stayed true to your heart and your Reiki values. Has anything been unexpected in this journey for you, Andrea and what advice would you like to leave the listeners with today?
Andrea:Wow. About unexpected. I think I had an aha moment, and maybe this would be helpful kind of, I think as an extension off of what we were just talking about. And I had this aha moment that was pivotal and there was a comment online. This was years ago, but there was a comment and. People are always gonna comment. They are empowered behind their keyboard. They are faceless and they can get away with it. All of that. And also just on an aside, there are a lot of bots out
Pam:there. There's a lot of bots and trolls and bots. And we found with the politics. Yeah.
Andrea:And a lot of the, a lot of those accounts aren't even real.
Pam:But
Andrea:what they're doing is they're distracting you and that is with purpose
Pam:and under. So if you confidence, right?
Andrea:Yes. And so if you give that too much energy, then you are allowing that motivation to succeed. Yeah. And so a comment is just a comment. But anyway, this person commented, this was years ago, and boy, I was emotionally charged. So first piece of advice, never respond to a comment when you're emotional. Walk away. Walk away get some perspective.
Pam:I always like to sleep before.
Andrea:Yes. Because we wanna respond and not react. We're at our best when we do that.
Pam:And
Andrea:so this comment came in and I was emotionally charged and and I was gonna type something back and all of a sudden it hit me with such clarity. And that was not everyone is interested in the truth.
Pam:Oh, interesting.
Andrea:And when that registered, it changed everything because I thought, oh, that is absolutely true. Not everyone really is interested in the truth, they're in their own. Or they're in their own set of beliefs or they're, whatever it might be.
Pam:Yeah.
Andrea:And there's nothing wrong with that, but it is not my crusade to fix people or convince people or whatever. And when I had that moment, I just put the phone down and I was like, wow, yeah, I don't have to give that my energy anymore. But I would say too, along those same lines I would hope everyone would receive the message that they're in control of what they do. They're in control of how they respond to people online. So please don't be afraid to speak up, to put your heart out there to put your message out there. You are completely on point. I think when you were talking about more people need to be active and put themselves out there. It's, and stop comparing yourself to everyone. It doesn't matter if somebody else's thing does better than you or what, it doesn't matter. Because if you reach somebody in a way that changes them in a positive manner, how is that not wonderful? So just do what you do and enjoy it and put yourself out there because there, this is not a time to have four people, 10 people, a hundred people singing around the world. This is a time for the choir to raise up. And every member of that choir is going to be singing their own version, singing their own words, their own notes, their own style in their own voice, and the people you need to reach you will reach. It isn't about reaching everyone. It's just about putting it out. I always said, and I will continue to say forever and ever, I do not want every client, and I do not want every student. Yeah. I only want the students and clients that are in my highest good to meet and to know, and that has been beautifully met every stage of my journey. So be yourself. Put your message out there. Don't let comments derail you or opinions, because that's just a part of it. You can always delete a comment. It isn't, we're not out there making a place for people to, we don't owe them a place. If we put content out and they put something on there that's hurtful or nasty or whatever, guess what? Delete it.
Pam:Yeah. If you don't
Andrea:like it, you, we don't owe every person on the planet a microphone on our content.
Pam:Oh, that's true. Thought of it that way.
Andrea:Yeah. Yeah. And you are, you're in control. So I hope people won't be in fear. They're in control.
Pam:I love that, Andrea. Thank you. I'd just like us to maybe help the listeners release any fear that they may have. About stepping into their authentic selves and just allowing our light to be seen, whether it's in business, online, or even in our everyday life. So I'm just gonna invite everyone to just close your eyes and take a deep breath, placing your Reiki hands comfortably on your body. And just imagine Reiki coming down from above and up from the divine earth, filling your crown, your base, your heart, your whole body. Your feet are connected to the earth, deeply grounded and supported, and with your hands on your heart, I. Just invite you with every exhale, just to release any fear or doubt or hesitation that you might have about showing up as your authentic self. And with each inhale, just invite Reiki to flow into your body, activating your love, your courage, your inner wisdom. And we're just gonna breathe here for a few moments together. Yeah, just imagine. This beautiful light in your heart. This is your authentic essence, the essence of who you are, and just notice it expanding and expanding with Reiki until it completely fills your body and then begins radiating outward. This can be your true presence and it can shine brightly and effortlessly, and let's just breathe into that growth of that ember, that spark. I know we're just going to imagine sharing your light. Just imagine sharing Reiki wisdom or even just a kind word, a smile. One person and then another until eventually you've shared with many and if it feels all right for you, you can imagine your energy stretching out to the clients or students or friends that you're meant to share it with. And you may not know who they are, but the distance symbol can act as a homing beacon. It can find them. And so just allow those tendrils of light to reach out and just brighten the day. Those people that you're meant to connect with to work with. To impact, to share with, and we'll breathe here for a few moments, allowing this to take place. Just notice how your light attracts the people who need it the most naturally joyfully without effort. And if it feels right to you, you can just silently repeat the following affirmation to yourself. It's safe for me to be seen. It is safe for me to share my light. Reiki guides my presence with grace. It is safe for me to be seen. It is safe for me to share my light. Reiki guides my presence with grace. It is safe for me to be seen. It is safe for me to share my light, and Reiki guides my presence always with grace. Just allowing these words now to settle into your being and just coming back in your own dime whenever it feels right to you, into the room, into the present moment. Just knowing that your authentic self, your light is always here. It is always accessible. Thank you. Andrea, I just wanna say thank you for joining us today for sharing your wisdom, your guidance, and thank you to the listeners for stepping into your authentic presence, your authentic beingness with us today, and whether you decide to share on YouTube and your business in your daily life, just know that Reiki is always here to support you in just being fully and joyfully you no matter what you do. So thank you. Thank you, Andrea.
Andrea:My pleasure. Thank you, Pam.
Pam:Namaste, everyone.