So You Want to Be an Online Tarot Reader

Here’s what you need to know.

More and more people are discovering tarot, and tarot readings. There has perhaps never been a better time to share your tarot reading skills with the world.

Yet, every day I hear from people who are frustrated in their attempts to build an online tarot reading business. And, I hear from others who are doing it successfully.

What are some of the differences? What do you need to know  and  to do to be one of the successful ones?

First, you have to think about what success means to you. Making some extra money every week on Fiverr is not the same as a full-time income. It’s not even the same thing as building a decent side job.

So, are you building a career, a side-hustle, or a hobby that buys your decks, books and classes?

If you want to build a career, you will have an easier time if you have a local presence as well. If it just isn’t possible for you to do in-person readings, your path to success is possible, but will take some serious skill, patience and effort.

The next question you need to tackle is about your actual skills. How do you deliver your best readings? How do you most enjoy working? Do you like to do readings by email or text? Do you prefer delivered videos? Or, do you like to meet with your clients on screen or phone?

If you haven’t done enough readings to know the answer to this question, you aren’t ready to go pro.

The best way to get ready to go pro is to give a lot of readings to strangers online, trying a variety of methods. Many social media tarot groups offer free-reading exchanges, where you can get practice and feedback. The problem is that, in many cases, I hear a lot of complaints that folks give the reading and don’t receive the feedback.

The thing is, if that happens to you, lack of feedback IS your feedback. Clearly, you didn’t excite your client enough to make them feel compelled to say something positive. You will learn that, when you give a great reading, people can’t wait to give you their feedback.

Once you have worked with a number of strangers and gotten great feedback from them, you will be ready to venture into the world of pro online reading.

The next step is to choose your platforms. Will you use a website and social media to arrange clients on Skype, Facetime or email? Will you work for an online psychic service?

Whatever you choose, the way to gain clients is to gain visibility. The way to do that is to be very present, and to provide a lot of free content. Write blogs, make videos and advertise.

Remember, too, that there are many new sorts of platforms being developed. Recently I discovered Instantgo and thought that if I needed a new venue, this would be a good one to try.

Whatever avenue you choose, remember to be present, provide content and spend money on advertising.

As with all business, it takes more than talent to be successful. It takes tenacity, consistency, money and patience. Success comes to those who are willing to put energy into building their practice.

Uncommon Business Advice: Let Your Niche Find You!

“I can’t succeed in my business until I find my niche!”

How often I’ve heard that statement from talented but frustrated entrepreneurs.

Often, these hardworking hopefuls have paid huge money to “business coaches” to help them find this elusive niche.

So, let’s talk about the niche. First of all, it’s pronounced neesh, not nitch. There is no such thing as finding your “nitch”.

Merriam-Webster defines “niche” as a place, employment, status or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.

In business, the “market niche” is the small, profitable segment of the public that you specifically target.

Niche marketing goes way beyond the study and understanding of demographics. Niche marketing advises us to narrow our services, and our demographics, so we are not trying to be all things to all people.

That makes sense, and in many cases, is really good advice for a lot of reasons.

However, with some careers, like mine, it doesn’t necessarily hold true.

My greatest success has come from casting my net wide, and seeing what happens. For instance, I didn’t set out to be a reader and mentor for other professional readers, but a publisher asked me to write a book of lessons from my lengthy fulltime tarot career. Suddenly, I had found a niche as a mentor, that I didn’t expect or chose, but enjoy very much.

Early in my career, I was the go-to tarot entertainer for the local LGBT community. That was because I happened to land a great gig in a gay bar. I love reading for drag queens in the club environment, and I love being a trusted, supportive consultant to those who have not always received the support they need.

Those were two niches that found me, and there have been many others.

Before you pay a business coach to help you find your niche, think about what you might need to do to let your niche find you.

It can simply be that we find our niche by avoiding certain types of work that we don’t enjoy, and pursuing the gigs we like.

I think, too, over time, our niche can change, as our needs change.

Sometimes, it feels that a niche is more like branding, like a tarot reader only doing relationship readings, or a counselor only working with children.

Finding your niche can mean finding a place where you a truly comfortable and happy. Looking for your niche can be frustrating and disheartening.

If your niche isn’t obvious, maybe it doesn’t need to be. Cast you net wide, and see what happens. Don’t let an inability to narrow your services or demographics keep you from hanging your shingle.

The Casual Way Medicine Tries to Kill Us

I’ve always been a bit wary of modern medicine, but I trusted the professionals and the technology enough to become a living kidney donor in 1997.

The results were good. My recipient is only just now losing function of the kidney I gave him – that’s a good long run away from dialysis. During this time my recipient went to college, started a career, got married and became a father!

My health has been quite good during this time as well, and my remaining kidney has functioned brilliantly.

My husband recently reminded me of a cautionary bit of advice given us by one of the transplant surgeons at Hartford Hospital. The doctor told us that his peers would, from time to time, try to give me medication that could harm my kidney. I was instructed to be vigilant about this.

Truly, I had forgotten this sage piece of advice. I had grown complacent enough with my good kidney function and decent medical care to trust the doctors a bit too much.

A few years ago, after some routine diagnostic imaging, my pharmacy called to tell me my prescription was ready. “What prescription?” I asked.

My doctor had called in a prescription based on the fact that the imaging revealed I had a small hiatal hernia.

Mind you, I had never complained of symptoms, nor asked for any help in that particular department.

Dutifully, I took the medication. That was my bad. Intuitively, I didn’t feel that I needed it, or wanted it.

However, subsequently, two other doctors affirmed my need to be on this drug. One gave me an upgrade to a stronger, more powerful version. He seemed to feel that if I really experienced the benefits, I would come to appreciate the medication.

Each doctor was aware that I was a living kidney donor, and was aware that I had not complained of these particular symptoms. Regardless, each doctor felt I needed this particular type of medication.

Fast forward to this year’s annual check-up. My routine blood-work caught a problem that labeled me with “chronic kidney disease stage 3”. At that point, the doctor took me off the medication that I had been questioning for two years.

A recheck two weeks later showed my champion kidney functioning beautifully.

I had dodged a bullet.

That bullet was fired directly at me by three different doctors.

Why do doctors push medications to the possible detriment of their patients? There are probably many economic and political reasons for this. The lesson I learned, however, is that I cannot count on my doctor - any doctor - to have my best interests at heart.

It’s my job to be vigilant, to get the help I need from the medical community, and, at the same time, to question even more stridently each thing they suggest.

But, that’s the tough part.  What more can I ask than “Are you sure this won’t hurt my kidney?”

I’ve asked doctors this question about prescriptions and OTC medications regularly for almost 20 years. Never has one of them taken my question seriously, until they could see the damage they had done in my blood-work.

This is an especially interesting question, given my profession as a tarot reader. Many times, in readings, clients ask me about their health issues. Of course, I always respond first with the disclaimer that “your doctor is your best source of health information”. That this statement often gets a laugh and a story suggests that I am not the only person who is frustrated and befuddled by their doctors.

Often, tarot gives helpful insight for navigating the path toward treatment and healing. It was tarot that actually suggested I donate a kidney to the brother of the young girl for whom I was performing a reading.

Nonetheless, there is something that has seemed to me inappropriate about asking the tarot to help me decide which medications would be in my best and worst interests. However, given what the medical community has done with the same questions, I think it can’t hurt to pull a few cards on any new meds going forward. I may bring my crystal ball and a pendulum to my next doctor’s appointment.

The primary medication that caused the alarming blood test is one of a group that has recently gotten a lot of press for (wait for it) causing kidney disease.

When I asked my doctor why she prescribed it, and insisted I take it, knowing I only have one kidney, her answer was, “It’s only just recently been proven to cause kidney disease.”

This begs two larger questions.

How many other medications are doctors pushing that have significant unknown dangers?

Why are these dangers not discovered during the testing phase, prior to release?

I’m grateful to the medical community for the research, treatments and medications that can save our lives, and improve the quality of our lives. They did a splendid job on the transplant surgery, increasing my recipient’s quality of life substantially.

At the same time, my recent experience suggests that blindly trusting doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to not take risks with our health is naive and unwise. 

It would be equally unwise to consider that I could figure out health issues and prescribe treatment solely with my tarot cards.

After this recent experience, I clearly believe that using divination and intuition to weigh medical options and check in with higher self on issues of well-being seems less random and more helpful than the cavalier way the medical community now prescribes dangerous drugs. 

Lowdown and Unworthy: Upworthy Takes on Psychics and Misses the Point

I usually enjoy Upworthy, a clickbait site that featuring interesting and heartwarming stories. I know that at least some of the stories are real, because friends of mine had videos featured on the site.

This week I lost faith in Upworthy. They ran a story that tells half-truths and perpetuates harmful stereotypes about my professional community and me.

The lengthy title of the story is “She dressed up like a psychic and told them what they wanted to hear. Guess what they believed?”

You can imagine the premise from the title. A psychologist with a particular skill at “cold reading” dons some makeup, black garb and cheesy jewelry, and gives readings to people who completely buy in to what she is saying.

This is not original. I’ve seen this shtick done as a gag, as a science experiment, and everything in between.  It’s an interesting study, and one worthy of discussion.

The cold reader in the Upworthy video is a psychologist. She calls herself a scientist, but she makes a serious scientific mistake. She presents herself as someone who wants to prove all psychics to be frauds. A scientist with an agenda is always a dangerous thing.

The Upworthy page ends with this over-generalization. “If you want to ask a psychic a question, try a life coach or a therapist instead. You're much less likely to get ripped off.”

Wow. Just, wow.

I do not deny that there exist many psychic frauds, con artists and criminals. I have written about the psychic scams prevalent in my homes states of Connecticut, Florida and New York.

The Upworthy article uses “Miss Cleo” to call to mind one of the best-known psychic frauds of the past few decades. The entire premise of the article is that every professional psychic is a fraud.

There are crooks and incompetents in every profession, Upworthy, not just mine.

There is a lot of controversy about the word “psychic” in the professional tarot community. One well-known tarot professional was recently quoted in a controversial article saying that all people who call themselves psychic are frauds. Clearly, both Upworthy and this tarot professional have jumped on the psychic-hate bandwagon.

Over the past few decades, I’ve seen the word “psychic” come in and out of favor amongst tarotists and other spiritual seekers. Right now, apparently, it’s out of favor. Not to worry, it will be back soon.

Many professional tarotists prefer the word “intuitive” to “psychic.” Many diviners do not claim to be psychic at all. As a professional tarotist myself, this is my thought. It doesn’t matter whether I call myself “psychic” or not. You will find the information I give you extremely helpful. There are good, helpful readers in the world, and I’m one of them. What word you use to describe my talent doesn’t matter.

That brings us to the topic of cold reading. People think of cold reading as a psychological trick, rather than a psychic experience.  I would suggest that, to some extent, folks who are good at cold reading are people who have a good sense of other people. The cold reader in the video is a psychologist. Why is “having a good sense of other people” not the same thing as “psychic” or “intuitive?” If cold reading were simply a trick that anyone could do, well, then anyone could do it. The truth is, some people are very good at cold reading, and then announce that they “aren’t psychic.” To me, it’s a matter of perspective and semantics.

In the video, the cold reader explains that reading body language and facial expression is a huge part of cold reading, and therefore, part of the way that we “psychics” “trick” our clients. The majority of the work I do is on the phone, where I cannot see body language or facial expression. Many other great readers work by telephone. Determined to discredit psychics en masse, this video does nothing to address this obvious discrepancy in the psychologist’s theory that all “psychic” reading is actually cold reading.

Upworthy is a site that promotes inclusivity. And, yet, for all their noble goals, Upworthy has treated my community with prejudice and propaganda.  

As one who works as a professional psychic, I want to say this to Upworthy. Describing someone’s outfit as “dressing as a psychic” is an offensive stereotype. The actual get-up that the reader is wearing in the video adds insult to injury. I can guarantee you, that is not how I dress for work, even when a costume is requested.

Finally, Upworthy’s assertion that a “life coach” or a “therapist” is always a better choice than a psychic is just laughable.  First, these are completely different job descriptions. You wouldn’t want to hire a therapist to entertain at the prom, would you? Likewise, a person who needs a therapist may not be a good candidate for a psychic reading. Second, there are good and bad in every profession. You can’t know that the life coach you get will be ethical, or that the psychic you hire won’t be.

As with all professions, the potential client needs to do the research. You’ll regret hiring a bad lawyer, a bad auto mechanic, or a bad psychic.

Shame on you, Upworthy, for taking a cheap shot at my community. Psychic frauds have been the bane of my twenty-plus year career. Good people are taken advantage of by slick swindlers in a way that makes every psychic professional look bad. I do everything I can to educate potential clients about the differences between con artists and legitimate professionals. When you paint my peers and me with the same brush you paint Miss Cleo and her ilk, you make us another of their many victims.

Give Yourself a Promotion

If you are a solopreneur, you probably have a pretty varied job description. Like any career-minded professional, you probably also have goals for the future; things you would like to accomplish and ways in which you would like to challenge yourself.

In the corporate world, there is a structure in place to encourage us to think about our professional development. If we excel, we are given new, more interesting responsibilities, and more money. When that happens, some of our lesser responsibilities are taken on by other people, so we have time to address our new tasks. When this happens, it’s called a promotion.

While we solopreneurs may have goals for professional growth and development, there is no structure in place to help us get there.

Certainly, if we excel, our business grows and we make more money. That part of promotion happens naturally.

The task-advancement aspect of promotion only happens for solopreneurs if we make it happen.

We can only try new things if we make it happen. We can only make time for new things if we relinquish the tasks that no longer serve our goals.

This can be a very difficult thing to do. To stop teaching a class because you need the time to write a book, for instance, can be a tough decision. To stop working street fairs because your time is better spent elsewhere may require a whole new business plan.

Solopreneurs are like sharks. If we don’t keep swimming, we’ll die.

We must constantly update our skills, offer new products and adapt to changing technology. We also need to be our own HR department, and our own supervision.

When you have your own business, if you are not moving up quickly enough, it’s because you forgot to give yourself a promotion!

Three Heinous Marketing Mistakes Made by Healers, Part Three

This is the third and final installment in my series about marketing mistakes made by healers.

To illustrate the third mistake, I will tell you a story about my friend who went to a new dentist. On his first visit, he felt very “upsold.”

Before returning for his next visit, he did some on-line research and found a YouTube video of the dentist being interviewed on a marketing webcast. In the interview, the dentist is proudly explaining how she is monetizing her practice, and the tricks she is using to make the most money from each patient.

This confirmed what my friend had felt; the dentist was more interested in his money than his mouth.

At his appointment, he told the dentist how he felt. She was offended, but couldn’t say much when mentioned that he saw her on YouTube claiming that she commonly did exactly the thing she was now denying.

My friend has a new dentist, one who care more about keeping her patients healthy than she does about taking their money.

The third heinous marketing mistake is caring more about marketing than you do your clients. That mistake is compounded if you, like the dentist on YouTube, brag publically about your unsavory practices.

The best advice here, is have ethical marketing practices. Don’t take advantage of people. Don’t be greedy. If you are inclined to take advantage of people, don’t be a healer. If you are a healer who takes advantage of people, don’t brag about it.

There is a crass edge to some marketing enthusiasts. In the first installment of this series we talked about not being shy about marketing.

Today we will add something to that.

Don’t be shy about marketing, but also don’t be crass.

Marketing people often freely talk about how much they make. They love to talk about six figures. “Six figures! I’m making six figures, and you can too!” I can guarantee you, people who make real money, and people who are worthy of the money they make, don’t talk about it quite that way.

When you give something away, give it freely.

I once interviewed a healer who is well-known for providing great free services. I commented on that, and asked her about her philosophy on business and freebies. I expected to hear something about sharing, or giving back, or even sampling. What I heard was a comment about generating hits for her website. She even told me, off the top of her head, the number of hits free offers were generating.

To me, that’s crass. It may be true, and it may be the kind of thing we talk about privately in strategy sessions. If you are a healer, service should be your top-of-mind priority always. Web hits and six figures are the happy byproduct of that, not the goal.

Three Heinous Marketing Mistakes Made by Healers, Part One

This is the first in a three part series about marketing mistakes. Each week I will address one mistake in detail.

The specific type of marketing I am addressing is the marketing of businesspeople who could loosely be called “healers.” In that category I include medical professionals, psychologists, tarot readers, life coaches and energy healers, amongst others.

Basically, I am addressing practitioners of healing arts, either allopathic or alternative. I am doing this both to help my colleagues benefit from some of my experience as a successful practitioner, and also to warn against some marketing problems that could be devastating to a new business.

The first mistake, and the one I will cover in this post, is so simple it is surprise that it’s a problem at all.

The first marketing mistake, and one that most healers make, is to be shy about marketing, or to not put any energy in to marketing at all.

If we wanted to be marketers we would have majored in marketing in college and we would be working in that field now.

We are healers because we are called to be healers. The problem is, we may know very little about marketing. We may easily fall prey to expensive rah-rah networking schemes that don’t work. We may truly believe that if we burn enough candles and visualize hard enough our angels will direct our clients to us. We may be uncomfortable talking about ourselves. Marketing may make us feel boastful, insincere and impolite.

Here’s what healers need to do.

Be honest and direct in your marketing. Be clear about your purpose. You simply want to make people aware of who you are and what you can do for them.

Decide who your demographic is, and how to best reach them.

If there is something you don’t know how to do, or don’t understand, research it. Don’t be afraid of technology, and don’t be afraid of learning something new.

Don’t let high-pressure ad execs talk you into expensive media campaigns or unnecessary “SEO.”

Believe in yourself, your ability to help people, and your ability to be successful.

Do the research you need to do to learn the best ways to market your practice.

Learn the technology you need to know.

And, most importantly, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. It’s not boastful to market. It is appropriate to make it easy for people who need your services to find you.

Next week, we will tackle the second heinous marketing mistake!