how do you become a professional intuitive?

[Bingjie]

Hi all professional psychics / intuitives / healers

I'd really appreciate any advice in getting from.. realizing you're an intuitive, to getting paid for readings.

I'm kinda stuck at the giving free readings stage. I do have occasional paid clients for soul cleansing sessions every now and then.. but that's it..

any advice / tips are much appreciated!

[Erin Pavlina]

There are several people out there teaching courses on how to become a professional intuitive, including my own program. From Doreen Virtue, to James Van Praagh, to all kinds of other people through online courses or hands-on in person courses. Find someone you want to train with and go.

If you want to be more intuitive or learn how to give readings to people, that's one thing. If you just want help with sales and marketing yoru services than you may not need an intuitive but rather a business coach or consultant, or read books about marketing and sales and business.

[Bingjie]

Thanks for your reply Erin!

[Anna Conlan]

Hi Bingz,

There are lots of things you can do to get more paying clients. If clients find you online, then you need to bring plenty of traffic to your website - a blog helps to do that. Blogging regularly on topics that people want to read about is good.

If you get lots of clients through word of mouth, then ask people to refer you to friends. When I first started out, I told people that if they refer two friends, they got a free reading. I know some people who set up an affilate program for readings. And it's good to set out to overdeliver on what you provide so people are impressed and refer you anyway.

That's just some general advice, if you have more specific questions maybe I can help further.

[Bingjie]

Thank you Anna! I don't have specific questions, but it really helps to get great advice from different people who've already achieved success in this.
And yes, i find that reading blogs really help me understand the service provider better. I intend to blog more than the time I spend reading others' blogs now. ;-)

Btw, love your new website! congrats on this new milestone!

[Bing Wu]

Build traffic and build your profile... somehow.

I'm choosing to go the blogging/e-book/podcast/create-content-to-give-away-for-free route. Still learning SEO, how to use social media, guest blogging, etc., I'm not sure I want to stick to purely being a psychic and also want to do life-coaching, PD-stuff and make content. Figuring it out slowly

My instinct tells me there's another way, if you just want to do psychic work more directly. Start your own radio show. Do salons like Erin is doing. Basically, really put yourself in the public eye doing readings. That would probably work really well if you have enough courage and want to focus on doing readings.

[SarahJaynee]

Don't forget to keep up having readings for yourself too and keep yourself in the community of all the other metaphysical and esoterical light-workers out there.
I have found that if I keep my readings to 1-5 questions/issues/topics per reading then I (a) get to showcase my accuracy and (b) ensure a further reading at some point.
I used to offer general readings and cover many topics, however after this I would be quite drained if I had covered topics of Higher Self, past lives and Life purpose!

Like any other business you need to set out first what you want from it. For me I only ever want to do a max of 5 readings per week so it wouldn't be useful for me to advertise so I just rely on my accuracy bringing my clients and their friends back again.

Like in any other business, know where you want to be and then you can better equip yourself to get there.

Love, Light and Laughter
SJxx

[Bingjie]

thx for your ideas and advice Alex and SJ!

I think it's great that we're living in this wonderful age, with great freedom to express our unique gifts. It would seem that all of us are in competition doing psychic readings, but we are all comfortable with our different takes on it. yeah!

right now I'm giving free readings once in a while during monthly Tarot card meetups, and online occasionally. I'm working on 'upgrading' my free report too, on how negativity can heal one's life.

my current niche is on people who are having occasional emotional outbursts, and are starting to affect relationships with their loved ones. I can definitely identify with that, since I realized I used to treat my boyfriend (now-husband) as an emotional garbage can. It's pretty amazing what energy healing and akashic record clearing did for me and my clients

all the best to all our different paths to abundance and freedom of expression

[Bing Wu]

Be sure to gather testimonials from your free services - and watch your energy levels with the free readings. People don't get as much out of a session that they don't pay for - they're not as committed to it if they offer no value in exchange.

[SarahJaynee]

Hi! I have to say I disagree with you there Alex. When people get a free reading they usually have no expectation and are grateful when you get even slightly accurate.
Payment can bring out the "hardballers", you can tell them the name of their recently deceased pet and how old it was when they died and they can STILL be sceptical and say "oh well Fido is quite a common name and many dogs live until 8 years of age, what else can you give me!".
When payment comes into the factor it changes a reading implicitly from a friendly connection to a "value for money transaction".
I've been there myself when I have had average readings from a friend or associate but come away feeling immensely grateful and will recommend my friends to see them, and other very average readings when Ive paid money thinking "what a waste of time, I'll never recommend that person".

For me personally I prefer not to charge for basic readings (Tarot, Higher Self, psychic etc) and when further information comes to me and energy work can be done, THEN I may charge for energy work, but it doesn't have to be money I actually prefer bartering of skills and services to cash.

Doing a reading is one thing, charging for a reading changes the dynamic altogether. The whole "energy exchange" tag line has come to mean "monetary payment", but energy comes in many forms. Even someone being present and not paying anything is exchanging their energy with you.

[newmark]

Originally Posted by Alex Wu

People don't get as much out of a session that they don't pay for - they're not as committed to it if they offer no value in exchange.

This may be true of some people, but it's not true of me. I've paid for sessions, and had free ones, and I've appreciated both.

I offered some value though, in being a guinea pig, and in giving a good, and truthful, testimonial.

[Anna Conlan]

Originally Posted by SarahJaynee

Hi! I have to say I disagree with you there Alex. When people get a free reading they usually have no expectation and are grateful when you get even slightly accurate.
Payment can bring out the "hardballers", you can tell them the name of their recently deceased pet and how old it was when they died and they can STILL be sceptical and say "oh well Fido is quite a common name and many dogs live until 8 years of age, what else can you give me!".
When payment comes into the factor it changes a reading implicitly from a friendly connection to a "value for money transaction".
I've been there myself when I have had average readings from a friend or associate but come away feeling immensely grateful and will recommend my friends to see them, and other very average readings when Ive paid money thinking "what a waste of time, I'll never recommend that person".

For me personally I prefer not to charge for basic readings (Tarot, Higher Self, psychic etc) and when further information comes to me and energy work can be done, THEN I may charge for energy work, but it doesn't have to be money I actually prefer bartering of skills and services to cash.

Doing a reading is one thing, charging for a reading changes the dynamic altogether. The whole "energy exchange" tag line has come to mean "monetary payment", but energy comes in many forms. Even someone being present and not paying anything is exchanging their energy with you.

I guess it must depend on your experiences and every intuitive is different. mine sound different to yours. Some of my readings last one and a half hours which gets draining energetically if I'm doing several per week for nothing in return.

I do get incredibly grateful clients but I've given free readings to some people who never thanked me and were quite ungracious. One of them was really rude to me and then came back demanding more free readings. Don't know where I get these people from I have also had grateful practice clients though.

I agree that there is some energy exchange if you're learning and the other person is helping you to develop your skills by letting you practice on them. But once you feel confident that is not an exchange of energy.

If you feel confident, are constantly doing free readings but you're in debt financially, that is a draining situation.

It's also draining if you want to give up your day job but can't because you don't want to charge for readings.

Personally I much prefer the dynamic of a paid reading - experience has shown me that my time and efforts get taken much more seriously. Oh, and I get to quit my job and pay my bills

[Erin Pavlina]

I agree with everything Anna just said.

I know a lot of people gifted with psychic ability who don't feel comfortable charging for their services. And that's a choice. But if you're working a regular "day job" to pay your bills and doing readings on the side when you have time then you have to ask yourself how you can best serve humanity. By doing your day job or doing readings full time?

One of the most famous psychic mediums is in the UK, Gordon Smith. He runs a barber shop during the week and does readings on weekends. He loves being a barber and even though he makes more money doing readings, he still chooses to spend the bulk of his time doing people's hair. It's a choice.

You gotta do what's right for you.