Bring intuition to the surface this season with mythological and Earthy animal decks
Learn how to attract more customers by hosting deck authors & artists in your store
Let’s say hello to spiritual connection this season! In this issue, we’re celebrating the practice of seeking the unknown and learning how it can impact our souls and give meaning to our lives. By accessing divine wisdom from decks or using tarot to create powerful affimation, you will learn how to find the answers you’ve been looking for by seeking them within.
Plus, discover some great tips on digital marketing and a series of insightful articles dedicated to help you understand your business to create sustainable growth, and some basic business practices that every business should learn – you don’t want to miss out! And have you considered hosting deck authors or artists in your shop this season? Read some of our ideas, and more!
Have an insightful reading,
Roberta G.Editor-in-Chief
Retailing Insight Magazine is a bimonthly trade magazine specializing in the conscious living retail market. The magazine is published exclusively for qualified retailers and small independent businesses in the United States. Our mission is to share one on business advice, product reviews, advertisement from top sellers and makers in the industry, and exclusive topics to help business continue to thrive.
Editor-in-Chief
Roberta Gazzarolle
Copyeditor
Sean Ruck
Designer
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Digital Media & Sales adsales@retailinginsight.com
Contributing Writers
Melinda Carver
Tracee Dunblazier
Dudley Evenson
Dyan Garris
Megy Karydes
Catherine Grace Landry
Linda Mackenzie
©2023 New Way Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved. ISSN 2372-7977. Volume 37/ Issue 3/May-June 2023. The magazine is published bimonthly/ six times a year (January, March, May, July, September, November) by New Way Publishing, LLC. 4117 Park Road, 12252, Charlotte, NC 28220. Periodicals postage paid at Charlotte, NC and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER send address changes to Retailing Insight Magazine, P.O. Box 12252, Charlotte, NC 28220.
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Retailing Insight Magazine is published by New Way Publishing, LLC. P.O. Box 12252 Charlotte, NC 28220 circ@retailinginsight.com
May-June 2023
7 Taking Advantage of Omnichannel Marketing
Discover how your brand can interact with customers today
15 Insider Success Secrets, Part 1
Learn basic business practices to help your business thrive
26 Four Pillars of a Successful Business, Part 1 - Strategy
49 Accessing Divine Wisdom from Your Crystal Allies
Access the knowledge, resources, and experiences you are seeking through divination
34 Reflective Stories, No.3 Wonder, discovery, joy
43 Turn Your Daily Tarot Draw into a Powerful Affirmation in Four Steps
20 The Playful Human Spirit Exclusive interview with author Jena Dellagrottaglia
54 Tuning into the Spirit of Music 38 Summer Loving
Bring intuition to the surface this season with mythological and Earthy animal decks
One of the most relevant marketing strategies that any retailer in 2023 can engage in is omnichannel marketing. This strategy involves the cross-functional use of various marketing channels, which help business owners to turn their one-time buyers into repeat or loyal customers. Omnichannel marketing combines often disparate marketing channels where potential customers can interact with a brand or business to create a cohesive brand experience. This includes physical channels – your own store – in combination with online channels such as social media platforms, websites, text campaigns, and other forms of digitized marketing content.
Many marketers and business owners have already been using an omnichannel marketing strategy, especially during the recent pandemic, to offer customers and potential customers a way to interact with their brand and business through offering alternate user experiences, including fulfilling online orders at the store or curbside, or through delivery services such as Door Dash.
According to a report by McKinsey & Company, since the pandemic began, three-quarters of US consumers have changed something about how they shop, including one-third who have tried a new shopping method such as delivery or store pickup and nearly
About the Author: Karen Stuth is the founder of Satiama Publishing. She is also the award-winning author of A Speckled Stone, The Wisdom of Tula Card Deck, a co-author and co-developer of the highly awarded board game Quintangled: A Game of Strategy, Chance & Destiny, and an author-contributor to Life Wisdom Word Search: Yoga for the Brain . She provides business and marketing consulting to a variety of businesses and to self-published authors. To learn more, visit: www.satiamapublishing.com.
R l !
It has always been true that a potential customer interacts with many touch points along the buyer’s journey before deciding to purchase a product or service.
Does this mean that brick-and-mortar stores will become obsolete? Not likely, and those retailers who have already established a relationshipbased marketing strategy continue to prove that brand loyalty will continue as long as retailers continue to meet the changing needs of their customers. But it may also mean that retailers must expand their business model to accommodate the new and various ways consumers research and purchase. The key to successful omnichannel marketing is enabling your customers to engage with your brand on their terms. This leads to a more meaningful and memorable customer experience, which is the foundation of brand loyalty.
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one-third who have tried a different retailer. During the pandemic, digital adoption across sectors also increased dramatically. In 15 days, virtual appointments for services multiplied by 10. In fi ve months, Disney+ built a subscription base that had taken Netfl ix seven years to achieve. Remote working, learning, and shopping likewise have surged. Reliance on digital was growing before the pandemic began, and a meaningful amount of this online penetration is expected to persist.
This underscores the importance of employing omnichannel marketing as we all move forward beyond the pandemic to a world where shopping, for many, has fundamentally and permanently changed. To address this, many retailers also added a fully online customer experience through their website or even Facebook stores to allow consumers to order from them and receive their purchases either for store pickup or by mail. Today, organizations across industries successfully leverage omnichannel strategies, including retail, fi nance, technology, and even healthcare.
It has always been true that a potential customer interacts with many touch points along the buyer’s journey before deciding to purchase a product or service. This includes online research, making price and feature comparisons, and perhaps most important, reading reviews that provide the all-important word of mouth. This means it would be wise to reach a customer through various channels during each buying cycle stage. For example, digital advertising, websites, and social media are all ways to reach your potential buyers. Do you know all the ways your customers research their purchases before purchasing from your business? If not, use short polls on your website or social media (including the URL to your short survey on receipts) to gather the necessary information. Ask them what channels they visited or consulted before deciding to purchase. Inquire about what features or factors they juggled and whether friends recommended their purchase. Understanding their purchase decision process will inform your omnichannel marketing and allow you to create a model that responds directly to what your customers are already doing by taking advantage of their preferences and shopping habits. This method will create a seamless buying experience for the consumer and increase the
probability that they will become a repeat customer.
If you are considering an omnichannel marketing strategy, consider quickly incorporating any of the following:
1.
Use text campaigns offered by your POS provider, such as Square, to give your customers another channel to purchase.
2.
Create an online store on your Facebook business page and highlight and rotate some of your most popular products. Some consumers who prefer online shopping will welcome this as an alternative to visiting your store.
3.
Use social media to feature a product of the week and offer a way to order the product before or instead of visiting the store.
4.
Use a newsletter service to regularly communicate with your customers about what is new, unique, different, or
5.
6.
popular among your customer base.
Feature store reviews in all communications with your customer base.
Consider a meaningful customer loyalty program that would offer consumers a reason to choose your brand over another.
7.
Continue to offer delivery or curbside pickup to enhance ease of use with your store or brand.
While integrating all your marketing channels toward a more extensive customer experience, always offer a visit to your retail location as the ultimate brand experience. By reminding consumers that your online and social media product offerings are only a sliver of what your store offers, you will also create curiosity among many about what else you offer that they have yet to experience. Many consumers will, at some point, want to visit ‘the mothership,’ where they can experience the broader offering of your products and experiences.
There is a quote I have taped to my desktop that I reference daily: “Find the courage to ask for what you want. Others have the right to tell you yes or no, but you always have the right to ask. Likewise, everybody has the right to ask for what they want, and you have the right to say yes or no.”
Manifestation is about attracting something tangible to your life through your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, emotions and actions. It’s not just about positive thinking, but it is about believing you’re worth whatever you’re trying to manifest.
People choose to manifest different things – from meeting someone you’d like to spend your life with to changing jobs. It could be to get into better shape or for a new opportunity to open up.
While I do believe speaking our intentions is powerful, I’m also a firm believer in putting things into action whenever I can. Hence my quote on my desktop.
What is it you want to manifest? Is something stressing you out so much that your health is suffering? Or you’re dreaming of opening up a second business but the timing seems off right now because of finances or some other reason?
Take the time to visualize what you want and how it’ll be after it comes to fruition. Use tools at your disposal whether it’s to journal about it, create a vision board, collect images that speak to you.
To help you, try to answer the question: What if…? What would happen if what you manifest happens?
If you’re constantly thinking negative thoughts or you’re not worthy of what you’re trying to manifest, those negative thoughts will become reality. It’s hard to manifest something if you’re engaging in negative self-taught.
However, if you believe you’re worthy of what you’re manifesting, those positive thoughts translate into positive actions and this includes being grateful for what comes your way.
Take the time to journal or recognize the things for which you’re grateful for at the end of the day. It could be for small things like you a customer paid you a compliment or a vendor took care of an issue so it didn’t snowball into something larger. It could be larger things that add up like eating a healthy lunch and having great energy in the afternoon to go for a nice long walk after you shut down for the day or you resisted the urge to doom scroll for an hour and used that time to read a book or talk with a friend you’ve not spoken to for some time.
Being mindful and thankful for the good that is happening rather than focusing on everything that went wrong during the day can go a long way to manifesting the life you want.
Remember the quote I mentioned earlier? What I’ve learned over the years is that saying no to myself is one quick way to block what I’m manifesting.
What would be the worst that could happen if you asked for something? You could get rejected, of course. But what if you didn’t get rejected? What if the person says yes?
This is the power of helping to manifest what you want –you keep working at it. You believe in yourself. You are clear with your intention and what you’re seeking. You can see yourself having achieved what you are manifesting. You’re thankful and grateful for the abundance you already have in your life and you are not afraid to ask for what you want because you deserve it.
Rejection is part of life, but too often we reject ourselves because we don’t believe we’re worthy of whatever we’re seeking. It’s unfair to expect something good to happen to us when we don’t believe it ourselves.
Others may have the right to tell you yes or no, but don’t say no to yourself first. Let them say no because you never know – they might say yes.
You have to say yes to yourself. Say yes to yourself and allow yourself to manifest the life you want.
You have a vision to enlighten or help people, the planet, the Universe. That’s great. But here’s something that you need to know: To be successful, you had better tamp down any ego as well as a focus on just wanting power or money. We are all connected and here to be of service – and people today know the difference. In fact, the latest marketing trends and studies show that people want to buy and be associated with socially responsible companies. So, it’s no longer all about the ego of ‘ME’ – It’s about the ‘WE’!
I’ve had a rich, full life filled with all modalities of business from datacom engineer to sales to marketing – from a data consulting company to a metaphysical wholesale catalog company and
About the Author: Linda Mackenzie, Founder/ GM of Creative Health & Spirit, a media and publishing company, which includes HealthyLife.net - Positive Talk Radio is a globally known radio/TV psychic, bio-energetic healer and award-winning author who appeared on almost all TV networks and in several award winning documentaries. Linda just released her 4th book Symbols of You: A Self-Discovery Reference Guide this year. To know more, visit www.lindamackenzie.net
to a president of a dietary supplement manufacturing company. For the last 21 years, I’ve owned a media company. All this while concurrently being a psychic, radio host, author and lecturer. I have over five decades of experience running all aspects of successful businesses.
One thing learned through my business experience is that every job you have contributes something to the skills you need. The trick is to recognize and use the skills you learn. Remember, doing the same thing in the same old way and getting the same result is the definition of insanity.
Hopefully this article gives you insight and new ideas to help your business soar. Why? Because when you are successful, we are all successful. Let’s remember what constitutes success can be different for everyone. However, in any business it’s important to stay positive. This way you contribute positive energy to your business and collective consciousness, which helps the greater good of all.
Plus, it ultimately supports you and just by staying positive you’re being of service to not just yourself, but to those you encounter in your daily interactions.
Being committed means you believe in your goal and have the dedication to do what it takes to achieve it. You totally feel, know and trust in your commitment. However, committing to your business does not just come from the heart. Committing to your business is also a mental process, which means you learn about all the aspects of managing a business.
No matter what the type of business, there are six management principles needed to run that business successfully:
These are the nuts and bolts of managing any business. Learning about them, how they apply to your business and using them will not only set you up for success, but put you ahead of your competition.
Focusing energy on your business is tantamount to success. If you have a flower in a garden and don’t water it, it will die. If you consider your
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“ Make fear your friend because in the end, it teaches you how to be free.”
business like that flower, then the water to grow your business would be your focused energy. Business takes energy and where you focus your energy is where you will get results. Your business requires mindfulness and focus of your energy every day to help it continually grow and flourish. The bottom line is if you’re not committed and focused on your business, then find something else to do. You’re wasting your most precious commodity which is time.
The environment that a business resides in is never constant. There are always going to be negative obstacles in your way. There are two keys that I have found helpful to overcome negative obstacles, not only in your business, but in your life.
First, there’s perseverance. When something negative gets in your way, find a way over, under, around or through it. Don’t give up or make excuses. Don’t use negative words – I can’t, I won’t, I shouldn’t, I couldn’t. Persistence and perseverance WILL make your business a success. Statistically, more businesses are successful
because of persistence and perseverance than because of money or magic.
The second key is the ability to overcome fear. Make fear your friend because in the end, it teaches you how to be free. When you find fear, get rid of it as soon as you can. Denying it won’t work. The more it stays around the bigger it gets. The only way to get through fear is to face it straight on and walk through it. Take a positive action. Don’t hesitate. Find what to do and do it and fear will not have a chance to stop you.
I studied fear for many years and found the root of all fear comes from the fear of loss or the fear of death. That’s it. Both reasons are insubstantial in the spiritual world. We come into and go out of this world with nothing except the love we give and receive. So, in essence we have nothing to lose. I have been to the other side many times. Death is just a transition to another energy form and place. There is no death. So fear, in itself, has no real basis. Fear comes into our life to show us our next step in spiritual growth, or within context for this article, our business growth.
To overcome negative obstacles in your business welcome fear in as a friend, find out what it is trying to teach you and get rid of it as fast as you can.
The term ethics usually refers to the philosophical morals of right and wrong. However, it is also any system or code of moral rules, principles, or values. We can assume that the first ethical ideas were probably passed down by word of mouth from elders and parents. In business I have found two good business ethics that matter for success.
The first is truth. You know what that is. That inner voice that nags you until you accept it. When you follow truth, you can’t make a mistake. If you don’t totally accept truth it will be repeated over and over again until you get it right — although not exactly in the same way because you have learned something new each time. The lessons continue until you finally accept the
truth and then those lessons disappear forever.
On some level, no matter what, people feel, know and touch truth. When they touch truth, it resonates with them on an invisible level. This is an invisible reason why people are drawn to buy your products and services.
So, make sure your business always walks its talk.”
New Books from “Using truth and integrity will set your business up for success.
Integrity is the quality or state of being of sound moral principle of being upfront, honest and sincere. Why do you want to use integrity in your business? Because people resonate to this frequency and buy from companies with integrity. Using truth and integrity will set your business up for success. So, make sure your business always walks its talk.
In conclusion, business success includes cultivating the right energy, at the right time, in the right place with the right people. Good business practices will help you set the correct energy framework to amplify the frequency of success in your business.
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Exclusive Interview with Author Jena Dellagrottaglia
Courtesy: Rockpool Publishing
INTERVIEW
We met with Jena Dellagrottaglia, the best-selling Haye House illustrator and author of the newly released Human Spirit Oracle from Rockpool Publishing to discuss her latest deck, where she derives inspiration, and how divination plays a role in her life.
Olatundji Akpo-Sani – Why did you choose the title Human Spirit Oracle?
Jena Dellagrottaglia – We landed on this title because it really sums up the idea behind the deck. We are all human, driven by our spirit, our essence. What we do, the choices we make. That is our free will. Are you making the decisions that best serve us as a collective, or are you just swept up in your own experience?
OAS – What is the message behind Human Spirit Oracle?
JD – Basically, don’t be a ‘dick’. What I mean by this is that we are all trying to get by in life. How can we coexist better, how do the choices we make effect others around us? Even those we may not really know. Are you having the best human interactions you can have?
OAS – How does divination present itself in your life?
JD – I try to pull cards at least three times per week. The deck I choose will depend on my intention and question for the divination session, my mood, my place in the world at that time, and which deck is calling to me. The messages from the cards may be a red flag from spirit or just something to stay aware of. In this way, I use divination as guidance, not strict rules. Then throughout the week I pay close attention to the moment I am in and what signs may be presenting themselves.
I also dream wildly vivid moments that act as a kind of foresight, as well as creative ideas that inspire my waking world. In dreams my spirit connects my conscious mind to
my imagination. I feel like this is the deepest connection I get to spirit, as not only do I see art, but I do get premonitions sometimes, which are undeniably a sign, a vision from spirit, and a form of divination.
Regardless of how I connect to spirit on the day, it takes patience, understanding, and awareness of the present to allow these processes to influence my life in positive and transformative ways.
OAS – Is pulling a card in reverse always a bad sign?
JD – Absolutely not, reverse can be a lesson we need, something we already knew but didn’t want to admit to ourselves. Sometimes reverse is a bigger gift than upright. It may make us look at things from a different perspective, helping us to fi nd the message or the insight we need.
OAS – What types of issues can divination assist a person with?
JD – I believe divination can guide us with many things. From making us take a different route home and fi nding we avoided a pile up, which would have caused us delay and stress, to seeing the opportunity in the challenges that life is placing before us. In addition to divination, I tend to seek deep inward guidance through slowing down and meditation. As powerful as it is, I do not believe that divination is a cure all. It is merely a tool in our tool boxes as humans to seek guidance or insight from our own spirit or the spirit of creation.
OAS – The art in Human Spirit Oracle is just beautiful. What inspired the creation and design of these images?
JD – Thank you so much, I really appreciate that. I wanted to create art that felt somewhat surreal, fun, wild and vivid. The eyes are big because this deck is about opening our eyes to how we live life, and seeing things with wide eyed wonder, and awe.
“Each deck, whether it is the same author or different authors, has its own language, its own energy and vibe. I will normally meditate on the deck and the messages I get through this time will guide me almost fully. How do I want to present this message to the world in picture? How can I draw someone in to receive this important message from spirit? That is usually how I begin the process.”
OAS – Each one of the images in the deck has a playful side. Is this on purpose? And how do you fi nd playfulness presents in your work and divination?
JD – HA! Everything I do for art has a bigger meaning. We as humans can tend to take ourselves too seriously. Getting caught up in the minutia of the daily rituals we do. When
I say rituals I mean the work we do for ourselves and others, being a caregiver, etcetera. The art is meant to remind us to lighten up a smidge, and not get so caught up in the minutia. Even though it may feel important in the moment (and sometimes is) we must never forget the playfulness of existence.
OAS – You have illustrated quite a few oracle and tarot decks over the years. How do you tap into that connective realm that appeals to spirit and the subconscious so well and so often?
JD – Each deck, whether it is the same author or different authors, has its own language, its own energy and vibe. I will normally meditate on the deck and the messages I get through this time will guide me almost fully. How do I want to present this message to the world in picture? How can I draw someone in to receive this important message from spirit? That is usually how I begin the process. Sometimes midway through the deck, the art will move and change in a slightly different direction, this is an evolution of the message.
OAS – What’s been your favourite deck to create?
JD – Yikes! This is a hard question. Because honestly, each deck meant something deep to me during my process of creation. I try to gift each deck with its own style, its own visual language if you will, because each deck has a message for the user unique to them and their interpretation.
I can say this much, I am usually hired for my vision. So, it is always a wonderful way to create when not micromanaged, or given a million changes. I feel like when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, and I am trying to please three or four different people, the art becomes contrived and not as soulful as I wish it to be.
But The Human Spirit Oracle being fully mine, I am so beyond proud of the art and how it has turned out. It is very different from any other deck I have done before. I hope it is well received.
OAS – Do you have a favourite spread you like to pull?
JD – I usually mix it up a bit, but I tend to do a three-card pull most times.
The fi rst card represents the upcoming week. The second card represents guidance from my spirit, and the third card represents my guidance from my humanness.
It acts almost like a spiritual forecast.
So, for instance, for this this coming week I might pull: Card Name 1, which might mean a challenge will pop up. As I move through my day or days I will be on the lookout for challenges or behaviours or whatever that may present a challenge to me.
Whatever moves you to read, seek knowledge, gain insight, or connects you deeper to spirit is a beautiful thing.
Card Name 2, will guide me to how this challenge may affect my soul, how will it resonate with spirit, and how my spirit would like to handle it?
The third card, with help guide my humanness. As a human I know that, even though these messages are in the cards, it does not mean I have to take any prescribed path. We always have the power to change things up. That is the beauty of our humanness.
OAS – What’s your process of creation when it comes to cards?
JD – It is a lot of pre-meditation, honestly. I will ask the author what are three things they MUST see in the cards. This way I can have some idea of their vision as well. I will then read the manuscript and feel my way to the cards and the message they should convey. I ask myself what is this deck asking for? Then I will dive in and create the two or three sample cards that come easily, because they resonated so deeply with me, the text, and the author’s vision. If approved, I carry on in that way.
OAS – Do you read oracles and/or tarots and do you have a preference?
JD – I do read cards, though I tend to steer clear of the tarot. I have had some pretty intense things happen while reading. I also feel that, while I appreciate the tarot, it is something written centuries ago, and a lot has changed evolved or even devolved since.
I feel like it is hard to truly make a tarot your own, in essence it was literally written in the cards hundreds of years ago. With a much stricter structure than Oracle cards. Oracle cards can always be relevant, as each one has a specific message behind the deck. Each deck also has the ability to change with the times to add a different perspective or a new path.
But absolutely to each their own. Whatever moves you to read, seek knowledge, gain insight, or connects you deeper to spirit is a beautiful thing.
Published by Rockpool Publishing
ISBN 9781922785176
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This deck is an inspiring culmination of art, soul, and insight from one human to another to elevate our collective consciousness through kindness, compassion, and connection.
The art is bold, vibrant, symbolic and wildly abstract calling the diviner to reflect on the universality of the human experience which the art invokes.
Most oracles are tools for self-transformation, this oracle is meant to delve into our collective consciousness. The Human Spirit Oracle provides a message of hope, unity, and harmony and is intended to reflect and inspire everyone in this journey called life.
Living your business strategy is the first article in a series that explore the four pillars of a successful business. These pillars, based on the book, Scaling Up by Verne Harnish helped me increase my revenue and profits 10 fold. With the business roller coaster ride of the past three years combined with the unsteady retail economy, this is the perfect time to get back to basics and I am bringing you with me.
Scaling Up as well as Traction by Gino Wickman became my how-to guides over the past 12 years for building a business that is sustainable and scalable. The things that I have learned allowed my store to weather the Covid shutdowns and the wild swings in sales that followed. I am revisiting Scaling Up this year to inspect my business’s foundational pillars. Those pillars are:
STRATEGY — Creating a business growth strategy that you can live every day.
About the Author: Jacki Smith is the co-owner of Coventry Creations. Her passion for personal empowerment and small business has been the driving force in her success and her journey of lifelong learning. Jacki is a regular contributor to the magazine and loves sharing her experience, successes, and cautionary tales.
PEOPLE — Leading is about letting go and building a team – How to foster A players.
EXECUTION — The plan is only as good as the execution.
CASH — Manage your cash flow, manage your growth.
Without a goal and strategy to get there, it is hard to purposely grow and sustain that growth. Ideas and opportunities that crop up can lead you in confl icting directions, to the point where you lose your identity as a business. Unfocused businesses fi nd themselves expending too much energy for little effort, having too many projects going at once, the team is apathetic and not in line with the company vision, and the principle of the business is drained of energy. When you have a strategy, aligning your goals to your everyday actions and decision brings clarity and energy
“The personality of your business and your value s define your vision and mission.”
that makes your strategy a living one. That creates a strategy for growth.
Building a strategy for your businesses doesn’t take a master’s degree, it doesn’t even take a business class at a community college. What it takes is a bit of deep diving and lots of honest conversation with the key people in your organization. You may even have a strategic plan tucked away in your brain and it’s time to bring it out and put it on paper.
The most challenging part of creating your strategy is defi ning your business. Who are you and why are you doing this?
The personality of your business and your values defi ne your vision and mission. From there your strategy is born — not the other way around. If you go in the wrong way, you will fi nd yourself making decisions that are counter to why you are in business and the passions that got your there. Do not skip this step!
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and fear.
In the insightful industry, odds are you know the emotional heart of what your do and the next step is to connect that to why you started this business, understand what you really care about, and what you and your business contribute to the world. All of these factors add up to the core of your business, the seed that you grow from, that sets you apart from your competitors, and the energy that keeps you going when you want to give up.
Your core purpose can also be seen as your “Why.” Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, has the most watched TED talk “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” where he talks about getting to your why, or your core purpose. It is important to know what you do and how you communicate it, but understanding and communicating why you have your business is the heart of it. It’s the glue that holds everything together and will inspire your staff, customers, and growth.
Getting to your core purpose is a simple concept but may not be an easy process. It is one question that you ask yourself about what your company does to get deeper and deeper into your core answer. Do the following exercise and ask the second question at least five times to get to the core why. When you get to the answer that can go no deeper, ask it one more time. What does your company do? Why is that important?
Once you get to your why, it’s time to visit your core values. Your core values are what will keep everyone connected in the difficult times and the high energy, high growth times. The core values, when your whole company lives them, will keep your employees focused when you are out of the office for extended periods of time. Your
values are not a lecture series of moral tales, but a short series of words that describe what is most important in your company. For example:
CORE VALUES: Move fast, think big, own it. Zillow Group is a team sport, turn on the lights, winning is fun, act with integrity.
–Outstanding service, H – Honor, A – Anticipate, N – Nimble, A –Active.
Values are what you are already living in your business. Before you start the list of values you think you have, ask your staff and maybe your best customers, what values you show (good or bad) as a business. Now compare that to what values you desire to have and how they measure up to your why. What needs to change to represent the core values that are most important to you and the why of your business?
It’s time to officially start recording your strategic plan by writing out your why and your values. Now on the next page, get real about your strengths, your weaknesses, and the trends you are seeing in your market (SWT). This may seem a little backward from other business guides, but I like to get a little real before I get a little dreamy. If I do this exercise first and then do it again after the next few steps, a light will shine on my blind spots. I learn so much about what I have not been paying attention to.
START WITH writing what you see trending in your market. This is a brain dump, a Google search, and a conversation with others in your field. What are the trends? What are customers buying/not buying? What are the new products on the market? New colors, economic factors, local issues?
CREATE TWO COLUMNS and record the strengths and
weaknesses of your business. Make sure to include your own strengths and weaknesses, those of your staff, your location, the economy, your market, your business model, etc.
Once you have your SWT, you have an easier path to see what makes you different from your competitors. This gives your “what” and “how” and helps you marry it to your WHY, creating your unique value proposition or X factor.
Flip to another page in your plan and start recording the next steps: Who your customers are, what you are selling to them, how you are delivering your brand (products) to them, and your X factor (your competitive advantage).
Who are your customers? Mission critical here. Knowing your customers is as important as knowing your why. Your customers must match your why, they must hold the same values, or they won’t connect with your products. Take a moment and write out the story of your core customers. Hub Spot 1 has some wonderful resources for creating customer profile templates.
You will be profiling three areas: demographics, psychographics, and behavioral makeup.
Demographics are the age, sex, job, income, education, and family status. Psychographics or their psychological makeup entail lifestyle, goals, pains, habits, values, and interests. Depending on your business model and the maturity of your business and customers, you may also want to define their behavioral makeup which consists of engagement, readiness to buy, purchasing history, product usage, satisfaction, loyalty or account age, and attention required.
Review your product mix and best sellers, classify what you are selling your customers. Does this
match your why and your customer demographic? Is there anything out of scope? Is there anything missing from your product mix?
Every business has a brand promise, implied or expressed. This is how your products are delivered. Own your brand promise or it owns you. What is your brand promise? What is the public expressed promise? What is the implied hidden promise that your customers have come to expect? It may be your store is a refuge from daily stress, it may be your staff is knowledgeable, or it may be the variety of products or the specificity of products. Understand how you are delivering your why to your customers.
Let’s say the restaurant around the corner has the best Greek salad. Their manager and owner know they have this reputation, but the new cook doesn’t know and they forget to tell them. The new cook is more focused on making the average Gyros top-grade and is not giving love to the Greek salad. Over time, sales drop off because the Greek salad lovers are not coming back due to a poor quality salad. Customers didn’t say anything, they just didn’t come back, and management was confused and scrambling to bring customers in. The implied brand promise silently was broken.
To find your X factor, you start by comparing yourself to your competitors. That may feel vulnerable. You may feel you have to chase every weakness and beat your competition on every front. Release yourself from the fear of missing out. This competitive advantage — X factor — helps you pinpoint what you are amazing at and keep your focus there. People, products, operations, and pricing are the four areas to review in comparison to your competition. What makes you unique in each of these areas? Pick one competitor to compare to each area and how you are different. Commit to three to five
differentiators as part of your strategic plan to hone in on and invest in.
Now that you have dug into your who, what, and how it’s time to add them to the first page of your strategic plan. Now flip back to your strength, weaknesses, and trends SWT page and see if they still ring true. Are there any more trends that you missed the first time? Are there strengths and weaknesses you didn’t see initially? Are there weaknesses that are actually strengths and vice versa? Adjust your list or make a new one and compare. What was in your blind spot? What did you learn about yourself?
From the first page of your plan and the SWT, you will quickly find the three objectives you must do in the next 12 months to fully align your business to your why and grow to the next step. A best practice is to have all of your other goals and projects aligned with these three objectives.
This is the tip of the iceberg for creating a robust strategy for your business. In Scaling Up there are more parts of the strategic plan and every year I would add another aspect to strategy building. Trying to do it all at once without a coach caused me to fail immediately. Doing one thing well will get you 100% farther than trying to do too many things and failing at all of them.
If you like what you read in this article, do yourself a favor and grab the book Scaling Up by Verne Harnish, and visit the site to download the one page strategic plan 2 referenced in the book. You may even want to get yourself a business coach to help you organize your thoughts and dig into how you can work on your business instead of just in it. This investment usually has a big payoff
There are also many resources free and paid where you can learn more about growing your business:
• SCORE3 is a group of experienced mentors who volunteer to help small businesses like yours.
• SBA 4 has many free programs online and in person to help small businesses grow. They can also help connect you with the economic development organizations in your state.
• Goldmans Sachs5 has a grant program for online and some in-person programs around the country.
• EO Accelerator 6program has a reasonably priced year-long entrepreneur training program.
1 https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-profiling
2 www.scalingup.com
3 www.score.org
4 www.sba.gov
5 www.10ksbapply.com
6 www.hub.eonetwork.org
“ Wonder opens us to infinite possibilities.”
Imagine if we taught our children to keep their sense of wonder; if we taught them that wonder is the natural state of a mature human.
Imagine life if we focused our mind on the wonder of all that has been, is, and could be created. What sense of wonder was in the eyes that observed the earth and imagined it was either flat or round? What curiosity is in the mind that ponders if deep space particles are part of us and seeks to prove it? When we look at the trees in our yard, can we be still for a moment to marvel at the process of cell replication that causes it to produce more and more branches, and then at some point to reverse the process to decay?
What is this sense of wonder? It is not the flighty, naïve deer-in-the-headlights perception of everything around us. Instead, wonder is a higher frequency answer to the question “why?” “Why” is an intellectual inquiry that keeps us in our minds. Wonder not only allows us to inquire intellectually, but also to dream of the possibilities beyond philosophical inquiry. Wonder opens us to infinite possibilities.
Wonder simultaneously opens the mind, the heart, and the solar plexus, the seat of our will. Wonder allows our mind to relax its functions of logic, reason, and process to instead float in the illuminating infinity of our hearts. It will enable our hearts to relax, fully expand, and transcend the preconceived or predetermined. It grounds us.
In a state of wonder, our physical bodies change. We reflexively breathe in life-giving energy and are transported to an altered state, where we access the full power of our imagination. This frequency opens golden tunnels to other dimensions where we can absorb the unknown of never-before-imagined understandings and knowledge and allow the sharing of information back and forth.
Wonder allows us to expand our consciousness. Think of a balloon filled with air going from a narrow to an ample space. In this larger space, we fly free of restrictions to the joy of discovery. It allows us to exercise our courage to take risks in our thoughts. As we allow our minds to float unfettered, we are freed of mental gyrations like rules and boundaries. We discover something new - possibly only new to us - but unique. Along the way, our confidence grows as we unconsciously expand our belief in our strength. With this expansion comes a sense of peace that we allowed ourselves to travel that path.
Perhaps what we want is freedom from the known? It sounds strange but ponder a bit. How often do we step outside what we know to be “true” and look back at it? Do we tend to loop around in a restrictive circular fashion within our logical, rational mind, unable to see past it? Perhaps we are compromising our ability to make correct decisions if we step away from a long-held belief. If so, have we lost the wonder of experiencing, imagining, and creating?
Are we becoming so jaded that we believe we know everything there is to know, that there is nothing left to wonder? Have we decided that our collective memory, our filing cabinet of a brain holding thousands of years of experiences, is all there is? When we witness a tree bowing in the wind or the wiggling of a newborn baby, do we settle into a sense of awe and wonder? Do we allow our imaginations free rein to ponder how is this possible, what element exists outside of us that could create this, how was this made, what can do this, could we be as creative, what do we not know about our human selves and our birthrights?
Have we become so tired that fantastical imagining is the purview of only a few so-called gifted humans? An exhausted mind is a dead mind; dwelling in barriers and boxes is a regressive mind, a devolution of Self. We do not have to believe everything we imagine or make it a solid structure or set of rules. It is fine to allow our imagined concepts to stand on their own, percolate and shimmer within us,
reviewed or discarded, or pieced together over time into something to which we alone relate. The following steps in the evolution of human consciousness will not come forth by creating more concrete belief systems.
I often wonder if much of what is currently happening in our world is due to a deeply buried sense of resentment. At the individual level, it pours out as judgmental criticism of that which does not conform to a human-made set of averages and norms. I might suggest that it has seeped from the individual into the entire collection over the past thousands of years of restrictive thought and systemic controls on the essential elements of human nature. Could the cause of this be centuries of damming the flow of mental expansion through the imposition of boxed-in societal structures of conformity?
Above and beyond resentment of what is happening to us as a collective, could there also be a voice inside us that speaks of resentment of our very own self? A voice that says there was a time I could have, should have, would have? Over millennia the fear of reprisal, punishment, and banishment attached to our most vital belief systems has overshadowed the courageous heart of the individual. Is this small voice within that whispers of our resentment desperately trying to reach the forefront of our consciousness? To remind us, we can create a society, government, and systems that allow
wonder-infused essence will create altered thought patterns, behaviors, and actions.
for the equal exercising of the rights of both the individual and the collective using courage, integrity, and kindness.
Wonder is another part required to leap us out of this entangled matrix of the current collective. Wonder is a technology of the psyche. Like technology, it requires us to activate the correct set of codes within our being. Where it was once effortless as children, our world and its social conventions have systematically buried the codes. Our inner essence informs the motivation, which then makes a choice and decides the action.
A wonder-infused essence will create altered thought patterns, behaviors, and actions. These will automatically influence how we develop our social systems and structures.
Can we imagine we might make a better world if we looked through eyes filled with wonder?
Picture yourself hovering on the outside of an ancient circle of standing stones. Tall, majestic, solid. Inside this circle is another space in time, another way of being, thinking, and feeling. It seems foreign to you — yet achingly familiar. To step into it is an act of power. You hesitate…you wonder… what is this power? The ability to feel the miraculous complexity of patterns and connections in what has already been imagined and brought into form. The power of silent awe. The power of amazement. The power to lift above the negative. The capacity to discover what truly lies within our hearts, to find out what depth of strength we hold within our will, and the power to explore the creations that lie waiting within our imaginations. Even during deep pain, we can acknowledge the wonder of the transitions and cycles that make up our journey.
As we tune to wonder, we become so fundamentally altered by its frequency that all that is created to pull apart our world will necessarily cease. It will collapse under its lack of reason for existence. Let’s be curious, open our minds, and discover our personal unknown. Let’s peacefully explore the depths of ourselves and swim back up to the surface of our lives with a pearl of wonder-filled wisdom. Take the step. Bathe your heart in creation’s pulse and joyfully revel in the wonder of it all.
Dive into new worlds of wondrous beings, mythological lands and Earthy animals to bring intuition to the surface. Floating through the realms will be a breeze for your customers in search of entertainment and clarity. They will be singing “Tell me more!” to each deck.
By Jessica Rollar, Author & ArtistPublished by Rockpool Publishing
ISBN: 9781922785091
78 Cards, 184 Page Book
$19.95
A terrifically cheeky fun twist on the Tarot de Marseille, this light-hearted deck features ink and watercolor cakes, snails, octopus and more. The full-color book provides guidance via key words and a description of each card. Rollar succeeds in providing a dose of humor to divination readings. Quirky deck collectors and teens will adore this deck!
About the Author: Melinda Carver is a spiritual business expert and an award-winning author, psychic medium and speaker. She is the president of the Church of Radiant Lights located in Cleveland, Ohio. To know more, visit www.PsychicMelinda.webs.com
Published by Bear & Company
ISBN: 9781591434047
52 Cards, 128 Page Book
$30
Spanning the globe, Gordon-Taylor connects you with heart-based frequencies of pandas, doves, lions, otters and other animals. Her deeply informative guidebook provides keywords, insights and affi rmations to tap into each animal’s compassionate wisdom. Animal lovers of all ages will benefit from this deck!
Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
ISBN: 9781646710751
78 Cards, 72 Page Book
$26.95
Blending nature and fantasy, Ikeda’s artwork features diverse genders and at times androgynous figures among the tribes, warriors, winged and amphibious beings within. The booklet is fi lled with the author’s creation of a special mythological background for this deck. Showcase this Tarot for customers in search of a LQBTQ+ friendly deck!
I trust in the present .
When I was just starting to get comfortable with reading tarot cards, I found myself struggling to connect the abstract meanings of a card with the practicality of everyday life. I knew what it was supposed to mean when I drew the Six of Cups in the morning, but how could I apply that meaning when I was drowning in a complicated task at work later in the day?
One of my favorite methods of incorporating my card of the day is by turning my card into an affirmation. It’s a relatively quick and loweffort activity, and the result is a ready-made intention to whisper to yourself when your day gets challenging or unpredictable. For my new book with Llewellyn, Your Tarot Toolkit, I created three affirmations for every card in a traditional tarot
About the Author: Ru-Lee Story is a non-binary and disabled author, tarot practitioner, and witch. They are a professional tarot reader and a certified spiritual coach through the Life Purpose Institute. To learn more, visit: www.ruleestory.com.
deck. But maybe you’d like to go a step farther than having a prebuilt affirmation from a book–maybe you want to develop your own affirmations. If that’s you, read on!
Grab a notebook, a computer, or a voice memo app, and start freewriting some of the words and ideas you associate with your card. You can certainly jot down items that resonate from any guidebooks or reference materials you use, but make sure to add some of your own ideas, too. You may associate the card with a person in your life, or a period of time from your past. Even if it seems opposite of the card’s traditional interpretation, it’s worth making note of.
Is there an energy that you’d consciously like to invite into your daily life? Is there a person in your orbit who you’d like to spend more time with or learn more from? Is there a memory or even a hurt that the card calls to mind, something that you’d like to make more space for? Make note of anything you can think of.
Are there more negative, unhealthy, or dangerous aspects to the card that resonate with unhealthy patterns or behaviors in your life? Does the card remind you of someone in your life who you’d like to take a step away from, or build some boundaries with?
Take a look at the list of words, phrases, and ideas you’ve assembled. Do a few of them jump out at you, or feel particularly relevant to your current circumstances? Begin by turning those words or phrases into affirmations. The best affirmations, in my opinion, start with a strong, firm opening. I like using phrases like, “I am,” “I have,” “I believe,” etc. Take a strong opening like that, and pair it with one of the concepts from your list.
“Don’t give energy a space to wiggle out of your intention sideways. Be firm and confident in the affirmation you create.”
A few notes as you craft your affirmations. Like intentions, affirmations work best when they are phrased positively and in the present. To that end, I advise against starting with something like, “I want to” or “I plan to.” If you’re working with an element that you want to cultivate, begin instead with, “I am capable of” or “I will.” Don’t give energy a space to wiggle out of your intention sideways. Be firm and confident in the affirmation you create.
What if you’re working with something you want to avoid? You should resist beginnings like “I won’t” or “I don’t.” Instead, make your affirmation a positive statement of how you will navigate around the potential roadblock. For instance, rather than framing an affirmation as, “I won’t let distractions keep me from working,” you might say, “I am focused and mindful in my work.”
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Let’s do a few examples! I mentioned the Six of Cups above, so let’s stick with it. For step one, some traditional Six of Cups words might include nostalgia, past, family connections, and memory. When I draw the Six of Cups, I always picture my family Christmases/ Hannukahs growing up. So, I might write down family holidays.
No one is at their best during these turbulent times of life, and so the affirmations you write could aim to cultivate the energies needed to survive.
For step two, the Six of Cups encourages me to make regular time for my ancestor worship. It’s also a reminder to be thankful for the incredible, warm family in which I grew up. And as for step three, the Six of Cups can warn against living too much in the past. I want to make sure that I’m living in the moment as much as possible, while still learning and drawing from the past.
Now let’s create an affirmation from all of this! A theme that emerged during my brainstorming was the connection to family and ancestors. That’s what I’m going to work with for our example. Here are a few affirmations I might write:
• I am connected to my family.
• I have roots made of love.
• I believe in my ancestors’ presence.
What if you draw a card that tends to have more negative than positive associations? Take, for instance, the Tower. What affirmations could you write from a card that speaks to crumbling foundations and
overturned plans? (And particularly, how might you phrase it in a positive way that focuses on the present?) Well, the Tower all but demands that we be flexible, patient, and understanding–with ourselves and with others. When you experience a huge shakeup of any sort, it’s more important than ever to practice grace. No one is at their best during these turbulent times of life, and so the affirmations you write could aim to cultivate the energies needed to survive. For example:
• I can weather ups and downs.
• I will be gentle with myself when things are difficult.
• I have more resilience than I know.
There are as many possibilities for tarot card-based affirmations as there are cards and people to draw them! Affirmations are a form of what I call “Tiny Witchcraft.” They are small, low-energy spells of sorts, words you can whisper to yourself as you get ready in the morning or in the midst of a difficult meeting at work. They don’t require any materials, and the time commitment is minimal. As a disabled practitioner, I love this kind of magic, and I hope it can be a useful tool for your toolkit as well! And speaking of toolkits, there are tons more activities and ideas for incorporating your tarot practice into your daily life in my book with Llewellyn, Your Tarot Toolkit
ISBN: 9780738774114
Published by Llewellyn $24.99
TURN YOUR DECK INTO A TRUSTY TOOLKIT WITH DAILY ACTIVITIES AND INTUITIVE WISDOM
The Card of the Day is the most common practice suggested to new tarot readers. Yet, even with a clear theoretical understanding of a card, beginners like you sometimes struggle to nail down how they can apply it to their personal life. Serving as both a companion and reference, this handy guide offers a variety of tools to help you build familiarity with all 78 cards and make the most of their messages.
Your Tarot Toolkit presents fast and effective ways to work with your daily draw. Each card has its own entry that includes inspiring affirmations, reflection questions, and activities to accompany its message. These activities help hammer home the core energy of the associated card, and they can be as simple or in-depth as you choose. Ru-Lee Story makes it easy to begin a daily tarot practice and raise your confidence one card at a time.
FEATURES
In the world of divination there are thousands of ways to forge a path of communication with your ancestors, spirit guides, and Creator—spiritual integration—being the purpose of accessing different plot-points on the divine matrix for further comprehension. As we seek this deeper understanding, the journey leads us to historical Earth wisdom, telepathic communications with our higher-selves and others, and connections to other beings along the way.
One of the most profound paths I’ve walked has been with the stone kingdom. The repetitive sacred geometric patterns inherent in the habit of gems and minerals connect us to our world in unique and potent ways. Companionship with these crystal allies support all our human timelines on every level, and bring us untold knowledge, compassion, nonjudgment, and unconditional love.
Your Crystal Allies: 44 Sacred Altar Cards & Oracle Set is the perfect opportunity to begin or nurture your relationship with forty different stones and their unique vibrations. The first step to working with Your Crystal Allies is the creation of your sacred space. The act of choosing a place in your home, office, garden, (or heart) and clearing it of personal items or clutter—then cleaning it well. This initial task energetically anchors your commitment to the subject or reason for creating an altar space.
This area is now called the “altar”—the table on which you place your sacrifice. The energy or element you are willing to relinquish to clear energy in your mind, heart, or life to
About the Author: Tracee Dunblazier, GC-C is a Los Angeles-based spiritual empath, shaman, and eleven-time national award-winning author, publisher, and President of COVR: Coalition of Visionary Resources. As a multi-sensitive, Tracee’s blend of intuitive information combined with different modalities, has provided the opportunity for many to achieve deep healing and create the success and peace they seek in their lives. Her latest bestseller is Conquer Your Karmic Relationships: Heal Spiritual Trauma to Open Your Heart and Heal Your Soul.
“Companionship with these crystal allies support all our human timelines on every level, and bring us untold knowledge, compassion, nonjudgment, and unconditional love.”
access the knowledge, resources, or experiences you are seeking. This is where Your Crystal Allies: 44 Sacred Altar Cards & Oracle Set comes in. The card set comes with four crystal layout grids to choose from, for the foundation of your altar. You can select the Sri Yantra, Triquetra, Medicine Wheel, or Merkabah to begin your layout.
The next step is to become clear on the intent you hold or the question you have, for your crystal grid layout. Write it out succinctly, in as few words as possible. Put the paper with your intention underneath the grid you’ve chosen and prepare to pick your cards. This is the time to gather an offering to represent your gratiude for what is to come, anything natural like dried corn, cornmeal, tabacco, or beans.
The forty Sacred Altar Cards are much larger than most oracle decks, so you’ll want to spread them out on the floor or a table, or simply cut the deck into three piles and choose a card from each. You may lay the cards across the grid on your altar or use an altar card holder for all of them.
The Crystal Allies can be worked with in many ways. Once you’ve selected your card or cards, you will embark upon the spiritual relationship of a lifetime. It will do three things: connect you with the specific stone in the Ally Card, deepen your relationship to the stones of the same kind that you have in your possession, or lead you to the stone specimens who can best serve you.
You do not need to steward any stones of your own to work with the cards and to get to know the crystals and minerals embodied in them. Take a few minutes each day to take four deep breaths and meditate with the Crystal Allies on your altar. Journal any impression you receive directly after your altar session.
Each stone ally pictured in the set is a crystal with whom I have cultivated a relationship over several months, and some over many years or decades. All were delighted to be shared and worked with in such a powerful way. The most important elements of working with the Crystal Allies is to surrender to their vibrational communications
You do not need to steward any stones of your own to work with the cards and to get to know the crystals and minerals embodied in them.
to you, be consistant in spending time to reflect on their messages, and to embrace the self-trust they will develop in you. All by transmitting their ancient Earth history and wisdom, they can connect us to ourselves, each other, the ancestors that support us, and the Earth and cosmic beings that are leading us into the future.
Chanting voices mingle with the sounds of an ancient culture as soft light from the setting sun filters through the haze of smoke and incense. In this timeless scene, a crowd of worshippers flow in a clockwise circle around the perimeter of the temple and twenty monks in their maroon robes sway back and forth to their own harmonic prayers. A man with a long beard takes out his flute and joins them in a moment of spiritual connection that seemed to bridge language and culture.
My camera was rolling, capturing this mystical moment on video. The year was 1994 and the flute player was my husband, Dean Evenson, who was gathering material for his album Ascension to Tibet. We had recently attended a workshop with His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet and were inspired to travel to his ancient homeland to experience the majestic Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains, and to celebrate our 25 th wedding anniversary. How time flies as we have now surpassed our 50th anniversary! This was just one stop on a spiritual
About the Authors: Dudley and her husband Dean Evenson are sound healing pioneers. They founded their record label Soundings of the Planet in 1979 with a mission of sharing Peace Through Music. Learn more at www.soundings.com
journey that has spanned a lifetime as we have pursued our mission of peace through music. The path has led us to explore many cultures and traditions and to collaborate with musicians from Ukraine, Russia, China, India, Tibet, Europe, Australia, and Native American cultures who may have spoken little English, but who were able, through the universal language of music, to communicate in ways that transcended our differences and brought us closer together.
We are grateful that the music we create can contribute to this realignment on deeply spiritual levels.
worrisome and stressful thoughts and even chronic or intense pain. Music that is peaceful yet uplifting, joyful but not imposing, can be a great support in reaching that centered state. We live in such a materialistic society that we sometimes need an extra assist to unwind from the stresses of our lives and reach that place of inner peace. Music is the perfect bridge to the spirit.
What we discovered along the way has helped us to understand how deeply intertwined the essence of spirituality is with the healing power of music. Our initial impulse to create peaceful music in 1979 had come from our being part of the ‘60s generation that realized war is not an answer to our problems. When we reached into the depths of peace, we found the spirit and from there, the essence of healing could begin to unfold. Somehow the music of flute and harp in harmony with the sounds of nature that we began creating in those early days seemed to give people something they were also yearning for – a quiet space for contemplation and meditation. As the feedback came in, we learned that the music also supported the healing process. We wondered how this was happening and began to do the research that would allow us to understand the process better.
One of the fi rst things we sought to understand was the nature of a quiet mind. Through the meditation process, the mind is better able to direct the life force or chi energy to enhance the natural healing processes of the body and strengthen the immune system via the spirit. One’s attitudes and thoughts set the tone for the rest of the body and either block and restrict the energy or relax and let the system flow in a natural balance. Peaceful, instrumental music that does not have repeated refrains and musical ‘hooks’ does not engage the mind by giving it something familiar to attach itself to, yet at the same time, it can give a soft focus to distract the mind from
Sometimes what is created intuitively with sincere intention can be even more significant than what might come about through scientific research and double-blind studies. Even though Dean had received a master’s degree in Molecular Biology and understood the scientific process, it was the spiritual and creative aspects of life that he wanted to understand. We didn’t start out to make ‘healing music’ but rather we wanted to bring forth a message from the earth itself. From our contacts with Native American spiritual elders, we had developed a strong concern for the planet we saw being threatened by modern progress. The peace we were striving for was also a reaction to the stresses of this modern society which had lost touch with nature and was running rampant, leaving dis-ease and illness in its wake. As we have come to realize, healing is much about re-aligning the body with its own already-existing divine plan and returning to a dynamic state of balance from a temporary state of imbalance. We are grateful that the music we create can contribute to this realignment on deeply spiritual levels.
Your Tarot Toolkit
Your Tarot Toolkit presents fast and effective ways to work with your daily draw. Each card has its own entry that includes inspiring affirmations, reflection questions, and activities to accompany its message. These activities help hammer home the core energy of the associated card, and they can be as simple or in-depth as you choose. Ru-Lee Story makes it easy to begin a daily tarot practice and raise your confidence one card at a time.
$24.99 • 9780738774114 336 pp · 7½ x 9¼ · Trade paperback @tiny_witchcraft @UnRuLeeStory @ruleestory
(Atlanta, GA) is a non-binary and disabled author, tarot practitioner, and witch. They are a professional tarot reader and a certified spiritual coach through the Life Purpose Institute. Visit them online at RuLeeStory.com
Divination decks remain a hot seller at metaphysical stores and are even available at national retail chains.
To counteract lost sales from chains, your store benefits from your ability to offer a vast selection of decks for your customers to choose from. Most of you also offer customers access to psychic readers and host Tarot classes. Another option for you is a spin on the author visit — host the artists and authors of divination decks! Organizing special events featuring these artists and authors will attract new customers and a return of long lost customers.
Place a call to the publisher’s marketing department. You should inquire whether any of their Tarot or Oracle artists or authors lives near you or in your state. Inform the company where your store is located, the size of your space, and provide a general outline of possible activities. If locals are available, an appearance contract will be negotiated for their appearance at your store. If none are nearby, you will need to determine your budget to cover author expenses for travel and hotel as part of their contract.
About the Author: Melinda Carver is a spiritual business expert and an award-winning author, psychic medium, and speaker. She is the president of the Church of Radiant Lights located in Cleveland, OH. To learn more, visit www.psychicmelinda.webs.com
Some of the authors have multiple decks while others have only one. Start with a deck signing to assist with store sales. You should make arrangements with the publisher
for enough copies of all of their decks for this event. Customers will want to take photos with the author and to talk for awhile, so have an employee managing the line if it is large. An author meet and greet with refreshments can follow the signing.
If you are hosting the artist, request that they bring or ship artwork to your store to set up a showcase. Highlight their signed prints and other mixed media of their divination art. Make sure you have a clean and clear area for their display. You should discuss consignment sales with the artist prior to their appearance. The final pricing agreement should be part of their appearance contract. An artist meet and greet with refreshments can also follow the display sale.
Who better to teach “learn to read Tarot” classes than the authors themselves? If the author agrees to teach, ensure that you have enough copies of their deck available for students to purchase. The author will advise you of the class length, participant size allowed and the cost. Following your discussion, the agreements with the author should be part of their appearance contract.
To generate excitement, advertise! Create in-store fliers listing all of the author’s upcoming events. Post on all of the store’s social media and website. Produce a Facebook Event for each one with specific details, and list in the descriptions the full schedule of their visit. Place local ads and share in Tarot fan groups for those that will want to travel to meet the authors!
Manage these events within your budget, as you know how many customers attend each type of occasion that you host. Stand out from the chains by your ability to produce special events with deck artists and authors. These magical experiences that you create for your customers will keep them coming back to your store. In our ever-changing retail landscape, it is vital to recognize your differences from a chain. By focusing on your customers’ interests, you continue boosting a healthy bottom line.
THE BURNOUT WORKBOOK: ADVICE AND EXERCISES TO HELP YOU UNLOCK THE STRESS CYCLE
by Emily Nagoski PhD, Amelia Nagoski DMAPublished by Crown Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780593578377
Pages: 176
$18
Solve the cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion and empower yourself to create positive change. We all want to achieve wellness. But wellness is not a state of mind or a state of being — it’s a state of action. It’s the freedom to oscillate through all the cycles of being human: from effort to rest, sleeping to waking, autonomy to connection. Burnout, on the other hand, happens when we get stuck. The Burnout Workbook will help you notice when you get stuck and show you how to get unstuck. Feel better, minimize stress, manage your emotions, and live a more joyful life.
YOU ARE: 50 POWERFUL MESSAGES EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO HEAR
by B.L. LoganPublished by Titan Folio
ISBN: 9781733406628
Pages: 114 $19.99
The hug from a friend when you need it most. The love you give to everyone else but seldom to yourself. The self-talk you know you should be using but don’t. Or can’t. Or don’t know how. Whether you read them in one sitting or fifty, one time or ten, each succinct message in You Are: 50 Powerful Messages Every Woman Needs to Hear was curated to inspire, empower, encourage and uplift. Words matter — especially the ones we use for ourselves. You Are... makes them powerful. Come for the messages, leave with the motivation you need to thrive during the day, the night, and every moment in between.
THE QIGONG BIBLE by Katherine
AllenPublished by Octopus Books
ISBN: 9781841815589
Pages: 320
$19.99
The definitive guide to energy cultivation exercise. Includes expert tips on how to practice Qigong for health, spiritual development and martial prowess. This is the ultimate guide to practicing Qigong and finding a mental and physical balance in life, encouraging readers of all levels to make Qigong a part of their everyday routine. The ancient art of Qigong, the ‘seed of martial arts’, not only allows you to maintain your health but also heals the bodies and calms the minds of those who practice it.
Beautifully presented and fully illustrated with 300 postures from the main schools of Qigong, illustrated in step-by-step sequence, The Qigong Bible includes expert tips on how to practice Qigong for health, spiritual development and martial prowess. This is the definitive guide to energy cultivation exercise.
Published by Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780593652886
Pages: 432
$27.99
The Creative Act sits at the intersection of self-help and spirituality. With his extraordinary career in the music business, Rick Rubin has plenty to say about the art of being an artist and what it takes to be truly creative. Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.
The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments — and lifetimes — of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
Published by Octopus Books
ISBN: 9780593542446 (Audio Book Available) Pages: 160 $16.99
Walking meditation, also known as Kinhin meditation, is widely practiced in many forms of Buddhism, blending the physical experience of walking with the focused mindfulness of a meditative state. This can be done anywhere, from a few steps at home to a short walk on a bustling street, or a longer hike in a natural setting. Walking while meditating boosts awareness, improves sleep quality, offers mental clarity and facilitates a mindbody connection. It is a practice you can develop each time you leave the house, to help you refocus and come back to yourself.
This beautifully illustrated book will guide you through the process of finding inner peace while on the move, with a selection of meditations for every season, long and short walks in both a natural and an urban setting, and meditations for creativity, calm and focus. Walking Meditations will help you use your surroundings as a meditative tool so you can restore your energy, come back into your senses and find calm in your day-to-day life.
Published by Sounds True ISBN: 9781683647379 Pages: 304 $25.99
A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Healing Shared Trauma. Spiritual teacher Thomas Hübl has spent years investigating why it is that old and seemingly disconnected traumas can seed their way through communities and across generations. His work culminates in Healing Collective Trauma , a new perspective on trauma that addresses both its visible effects and its most hidden roots. Thomas combines deep knowledge of mystical traditions with the latest scientific research. “In this way,” writes Thomas, “we are weaving a double helix between ancient wisdom and contemporary understanding.”
Including essays contributed by experts such as Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Otto Scharmer, Dr. Christina Bethell, and Ken Wilber, Healing Collective Trauma offers not just an advanced look at community trauma but also a hopeful glimpse of the future.
As Thomas declares, “Together, I believe we can and must heal the ‘soul wound’ that marks us all. In so doing, we will awaken to the luminous possibility and profound potential of our true, mutual nature as humankind.”
David J. Peña, Wild and Free
www.davidjpena.com
David J. Peña is a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose musical journey began at the age of four. As time went on, he honed his skills as a drummer, pianist, guitarist, and bassist. Today, he composes primarily from the piano, where he brings to life scenes that spring from his imagination. He transposes this rich imagery into lush musical soundscapes that are wide, expansive, and distinctively cinematic. “The Journey,” is 10 tracks, 40 minutes of gorgeous piano along with stunningly beautiful orchestration. There’s also a melodic quality to every composition that creates an emotionally evocative and timeless vibe.
www.masako-music.com
Masako is an award-winning Japanese-born composer and pianist, with extensive training in classical music and jazz. At just over an hour and featuring 14 tracks, the piano and contemporary instrumental pieces on this album are all a good length. Co-produced by Masako, Will Ackerman, and Tom Eaton, who in addition to engineering and mastering, also performs on synth and bass. Eugene Friesen’s cello sweetens Masako’s excellent piano performance on some of the tracks, such as the opening track, “Calling.” A cast of other worldclass musicians join Masako here: Jeff Oster, Jeff Haynes, Noah Wilding, Premik Russell Tubbs, and Charlie Bisharat. A “must have” album.
Michael Borowski, Independent
www.michaelborowskimusic.com
With two previous solo piano albums released, Michael’s third creation, “Unlit Moon,” is as wonderful as the others, and here, we can feel him emerging and developing further as an artist. This kind of evolving is exciting to see and even more beautiful to the ear. The 12 gorgeous piano tracks, mixed and mastered by Tom Eaton, are each like stories. Each one goes somewhere, and the passion and emotional nature of the compositions speaks deeply to the soul. There is nothing boring, predictable, or pedantic here. There is much to immerse ourselves in in the shades of an “unlit moon.”
About the Author: Dyan Garris is an award-winning New Age recording artist, award-winning author, and music reviewer, who has recorded and produced 14 albums. Garris’ recordings include a series of independently tested music and meditation CDs that earned The National Health & Wellness Stamp of Approval. Her music is found on Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, SiriusXM, Muzak, Music Choice, airlines, website, and more. Visit www.dyangarrismusic.com to know more.
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