From Psychic to CEO: Building a Soul-Aligned Online Business. With Rachael Rawnsley

From Psychic to CEO:
Building a Soul-Aligned Online Business.
With Rachael Rawnsley & Samia Bano

Want to #buildabusiness that truly supports your life, not just your income?

Are you a #spirituallygifted #entrepreneur wondering how to align your purpose, business, and #intuition?

Listen now to this interview with Rachael Rawnsley, #BusinessMentor for Spiritually Minded Entrepreneurs. Rachael shares how she transformed her #spiritualgifts into a thriving #onlinebusiness after COVID changed everything. We dive into how to combine grounded #businessstrategy with soul-led purpose, and why alignment is the real secret to #sustainablesuccess.

Gain wisdom on how to build a business the #funandeasy way. Learn:

-- the real differences between building a business online and offline, and how to choose the path that actually suits your personality, lifestyle, and goals

-- how to grow your presence from podcasts and voice notes to community building and email lists in a way that feels natural, human, and sustainable

-- how to be a service-first business, pre-selling, and creating offers that truly support real people at real stages of their journey

-- how to choose mentors and coaches who genuinely serve your growth and your values

-- And so much MORE!

This episode is a powerful reminder that sometimes disruption is actually divine redirection guiding you into your next chapter!

Learn more and connect with Rachael now at: https://rachaelrawnsley.com/

PLUS, check out Rachael's Aligned Sales Activation training/challenge (happens every quarter!):

https://rachaelrawnsley.com/product/aligned-sales-activation/

To Book your Free HAPPINESS 101 EXPLORATION CALL with Samia, click: https://my.timetrade.com/book/JX9XJ

#buildabusinessyoulove #enterprenuerlifestyle #enterprenuermindset #enterprenuership #businessmentoring #businessmentorship #onlinebusinesstips #soulledlife #soulledbusiness #soulledsuccess #liveyourbestlife #liveyourpurpose #liveyourvision #liveyourcalling #liveyourtruth

Here's the audio version of this episode:

Transcript generated automatically

SAMIA: Hello, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour, Buna, Privet, Mabuhay, and Dzień Dobry. It's so good to be with you guys again. And I know you'll be so happy to join us today because we have a very cool guest with us. And that is Rachael Rawnsley, who is a Business Mentor for Spiritually Minded Entrepreneurs.

I'm so happy to have you with us, Rachael. Welcome.

RACHAEL: Thank you.

SAMIA: Rachael, please tell us more about who you are and what you do.

RACHAEL: Okay. So I am a Psychic Medium. I'm a Reiki Master. I'm a Past Life Therapist. And up until COVID hit in 2020, I was very happily doing my palm readings and my Reiki healing, and my Past Life Therapy face-to-face. And some people online, I taught a bit of Reiki here and there.

But I could count, I kept count of the Reiki healers I taught in those years because they weren't probably 50-ish. And when COVID hit, nobody could come and see me anymore. So I needed a different way to work and quickly.

Yes, some clients came online and that was fantastic, but I needed a fresh outlook to my business. So during the summer of 2020, when it was really nice in the UK, and I used to live in a city right in the middle of England, I don't now, I set up my psychic development membership site. And from there, I taught people every aspect of psychic development.

And I started doing some courses and some programs, and everything stepped up a notch, professional-wise. I had a new website done. And then members started to ask, how do they do this?

So they've learned how to use their abilities, and they've learned how to do Reiki. Now, what's next for them? How can they make this into a business?

So, it kind of like morphed into a spiritual business membership. I still teach psychic development because I love doing that. But these days, the membership is five years old next month.

And I now teach psychic development and spiritual business. So it doesn't matter if you don't have a spiritual business, but you need to be spiritually minded for me to work with you, else you won't get my, the language that I use, such as spirit guides, angels, et cetera. So these days, I mostly teach how to set up and grow online businesses, spiritual and otherwise, as long as you're spiritually minded.

And I run courses as well. So live courses, usually, but some courses are online as well. And yeah, it's going really, really well.

I have my one-to-one clients. I have my membership still, and I have my programs. So it's been going very well.

SAMIA: I love it. I love it. And you know, what you're sharing in terms of your experience, I can relate to that at so many levels.

First of all, you know, at the level of being someone who actually went through various trainings myself in terms of just getting knowledge and skills that I really wanted to be able to share with people in the world. Like things that I had found so helpful for myself. I was like, I want to share this out with people.

But when you go out on your own, you know, and you start trying to actually do that work, you realize, oh, it's not enough to have the skills. It's like a whole different ball game to actually be able to sort of make a business out of it or something that, you know, will actually provide you with income. So you can do this work, especially like if you wanted to do it, like full time and have it be the primary thing that you do.

It's like a whole different ball game. And I realized pretty quick that one of the big reasons so many people fail, like people who are like really excellent in terms of the skillset they have, they're never able to really make a living out of sharing that with people and teaching that and stuff, is because they don't know the business side of it.

RACHAEL: That's correct, yes. Yeah, yeah. So I combine the strategy with the song, so you're totally aligned, so you find something that you're good at, you find something that you love, you then do whatever course you need, and then you need to know how to market that and sell it.

SAMIA: I mean, I think probably the marketing and sales aspect is the biggest challenge, but there's also just other little big things that go with having your own business, that oftentimes you don't even think about, and they're so important. I know for me, little things like just setting up systems to keep track of the money coming in, going out, how to have databases that you maybe can need to create to keep track of who your clients have been and who you have worked with on what. So, you know, there's like all of this background organization that you need to do.

At the end of the year, you have to pay, you have to prepare and pay your taxes and things as well.

RACHAEL: Yes. Yes, that's right. Yes.

SAMIA: Oh, gosh. You know, and then, yes, there's just so many different aspects to having that.

RACHAEL: There is. There's a lot. Initially, when you do set up your own business, it's not just about the tax.

It's about the systems, like you say. And online working is very different to offline working. So online, you need to get visible.

You need to have a visibility strategy. You need to have a content strategy. You need to have a sales and marketing strategy.

Everything has to be very fine-tuned. And that can take a while if you're doing it on your own from scratch. So somebody like me will say, OK, right, we'll start with this, this, this, this, this.

Those are the steps to take. And you decide, like, which of those you don't want to do or which of those you do want to do. You can miss out something if you want to.

I'm not saying you've got to do it this way, but this is the simple way. So I give you step by step.

SAMIA: Yes. And the point that you just brought up about being a different experience doing being a business person who's primarily online versus offline is so important because actually, this is something I've also experienced because just like you, prior to COVID, I was primarily offline, I mean, so before I actually start talking to myself and being like, oh, here's what I thought was different, tell me more from your perspective, what is like a major difference between being offline and online?

RACHAEL: Okay, so offline working means you have to go out of your house. Basically. So offline, you have to go out of the house to actually get those clients, or you have to advertise somewhere.

So it involves flyers, booklets, leaflets, business cards, and you have to put those out where you think your ideal clients could be, which is a bit of like hit and miss, so to speak, because you could literally put flyers through 10 streets in the post boxes and get one person. That's a numbers game, so online, it's more targeted. You can actually speak to your ideal clients online with the content strategy that you actually use.

For instance, if you are selling something spiritual online, you wouldn't join a hair and makeup group and promote it to them, because they may not be spiritual. If you are going to advertise something in a spiritual group online, it has to be on brand. You can't sell a car, for instance.

Do you know what I mean? So I don't tend to use the local groups to sell. For instance, in the UK, we have local Facebook groups that are relevant to your area.

I don't sell on groups like that because it's just trawling through the numbers. I target my clients online with my content. And visibility strategies like this, podcasting, that's a visibility strategy.

And being a guest expert in other people's memberships and groups, that's another strategy I use. I do go into other people's Facebook groups. And I do have Facebook groups that I monetize myself.

I have three Facebook groups that I monetize. And what's most important as well is an email list. So you can call those your actual clients, if you have an email list.

Whereas clients from, let's say, Facebook or a Facebook group, those are not actually your clients until they buy. It's a case of being as visible as possible online. Whereas offline, you have to go and physically find those customers offline.

But offline, you see, the offline business world works a lot by recommendation, which is pretty good. For, let's say, for 25 years, I did minimal, and I mean minimal. Marketing.

Offline. Most of my clients over those 25 years, either came from recommendation, psychic fairs that I visited, the odd business card and flyers in shops and things like that. And then, of course, what I did a lot of, I didn't know till years later what it was called, was I did a lot of upselling.

So, a client would come to me with one problem. They may need a palm reading. I did the palm reading.

And then I may have sold them a psychic, sorry, a Reiki healing or a past life therapy, or they wanted to learn Reiki with me. So, I taught them Reiki. So, over the years, before I went online totally, I did a lot of upselling.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And then, roughly about 2020, 2021, I realized what I've been doing all those years was upselling. I never knew the name for it.

But it depends whether you can work offline and online. I teach people how to do both. If they have a spiritual business and they want to do, let's say, hands on Reiki, and they want to go to psychic fairs and events like that face to face, then that's great.

I have one of my clients who is making great money doing these psychic fairs every week. And that's fantastic. Some people don't want to work totally online.

So I've done both. So I've got the experience of both. So, you know, it just depends what you, what depends what aligns with your life.

That's how I work. If it aligns with your life, then that will work for you. If you enjoy what you do, then that will work for you.

SAMIA: Yes, I agree with you on that. You know, continuing to talk about differences of being online versus offline, because I also started, as I mentioned, primarily offline. One of the things that I found when I was still offline is, first of all, you know, I started off offline. So I was starting out, right? And so I wasn't polished. I was like, especially when I first really, really started out, I didn't have a very clear sense of, oh, here's my ideal client and here's how I talk to somebody and stuff.

And so there was a lot of, you know, like, let's say trial and error that I went through in terms of how I approach people, how I spoke to them. But, you know, the thing was it, because I was in person connecting with someone, that was actually not really that hard for me to do. It's like there's so much that someone reacts to when you're in person with them, your body language, your energy and the space that you're in, oftentimes, you know, sets the context of how you even start the conversation with them.

Things like that. And so then, you know, it's sort of like, I felt fairly free to be myself. Like occasionally, you know, I'd be like, oh, could have done that better.

But for the most part, like, as long as I was being genuine, people seem to respond to that authenticity and genuineness, even if I wasn't saying things just right. And over time, of course, I got better and I made fewer what in my head felt like mistakes. But it was like, you know, that, that there was like this, a lot was like about developing that relationship with folks, which like, you know, we, most of us, we know how to do it in person, face to face.

And then the big difference that I found when I started to shift things online is that most people online, like, you need to present, like, with the content strategies and stuff, it's like, you have to, a lot of times have to have it kind of already figured out. I mean, you can still do some testing and refining. And I mean, you will end up doing that anyway.

But you have to have more of an idea already of what you're doing and wanting to do. And you can't depend on, you know, that personal warmth and stuff as much to, because initially, if, like, all someone is seeing is an ad or a video, and especially, like, if you're not personally, I mean, it's just different. Like, you know, a lot, depending on how people are engaging with your content, they may or may not actually get a good feel of you as a person.

And so that's not something you can utilize all the time.

RACHAEL: What I tend to do is I love meeting people over Zoom.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: I'll always encourage over Zoom.

And when I do, like, a master class or a challenge or something like that, I always make sure they can see me or they can hear me or both.

SAMIA: Yes.

RACHAEL: So you get the energy from your voice.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: Even if somebody messages me now and I don't know them, I won't just send a message back. I will send a voice note back. Because it's the energy from your voice.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: The passion you put into that answer.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: I don't think words are enough sometimes on a text. I think people need to hear you and see you.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And I think that works very well online.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And just, okay, it's not... You don't get the full face-to-face effect, but it's as good as.

SAMIA: Yes. Yes, I agree. So that's actually so true.

I mean, it's... And things are changing online as well, because in terms of what we're able to do, I remember back when I started my coaching, training, sector, practice, since back in 2012. I mean, there was already social media existing at that time.

But for example, video capabilities, being able to just record yourself, put yourself out on video, that was not so easy to do necessarily.

RACHAEL: I remember using Skype.

SAMIA: Yeah, I mean, there was like all kinds of limitations that used up a lot of memory and space. And most services didn't provide you with enough space to just keep uploading videos. And the quality of videos was relatively low and you had to keep things short.

But you certainly didn't have, you know, like with Skype even, there were, yeah, I mean, there was just a lot more limitations. And now you are, you know, technology is improving exponentially fast, actually, especially now with AI.

RACHAEL: Yeah, and I'll tell you what I've noticed. The sales psychology from 2020 to now, have you noticed the difference? In 2020, all you needed to do is put out a post, people were bored, people were on furlough from work, people were not working.

We were in lockdown for most of 2020 from March the 23rd onwards. And people wanted something to do. So it was so easy.

We were those of us that set up online businesses purely online. I mean, I had a business anyway, but purely online from 2020, 2020, 2021, very easy. But then you come to set up an online business these days, and it's not as easy.

People have gone back to work. They have less money because of cost of living and all other outside factors, et cetera. And you just need, you have to be very, very, very much smarter these days when setting up a business and running a business.

The sales psychology in those five years has changed enormously. And if you don't keep up, you don't sell these days. And that's where a lot of people have come and done.

They've set up these fabulous businesses 2020, 2021, and a lot of flopped online.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: They haven't kept up with the trends in the buying psychology. And these days it's more about what can I do for my client? How can I serve my client better?

What does my client need? It's all good to set up this program and write this fabulous program. And I never do that.

Never, ever. I always pre-sell. So I'll put out a poll to my audience, ask them what they want, ask them how I can help them.

And then I will go from there and actually write a course or a program with what they've been asking for.

SAMIA: Yes.

RACHAEL: And then I fill that to them. So I always work backwards when I'm actually writing and designing my courses.

SAMIA: Yeah. That is really, really smart. That is really, really smart.

Because there is this definite urge, and maybe something even like a different word that may be better. But because for me, I know I love to keep learning for myself all the time. And every time I learn something new that I find is so helpful for me, I'm like, oh, I want to share this with my people.

RACHAEL: Yes, me too.

SAMIA: But it's like, oh, let's do another, throughout another new training or whatever. But the thing is that it's like you really have to sort of know where your clients are at, who your clients are. Because like for me, like most of my clients that I work with, we have to start at a very 101 level.

And then, you know, slowly, slowly over time, there's like a relatively smaller minority of them that will go to the more advanced, let's say, courses and stuff. But it's like you have to really think about how many clients you already have that would be ready for the more advanced training that I just received for myself. And now, I'm like dying to share that out.

But do I have...

Not every place my day. Not every place my day.

No? Because, yeah, it's like really... I mean, you can go out and try to send, sell that advanced thing directly to a new audience or something.

But it's like that in some ways, it's a lot harder to do than working with the clients you already have and being like, hey, we had a great experience working on this. Do you want to try something else new that I'm offering that will help you take the next step with me? I mean, and so that's like been one of the challenges that I found in terms of just really needing to rein my urges, throwing out all these like different trainings.

RACHAEL: And that's one of the reasons I've my membership has been successful all these years, because I've had a group of warm people that just want to roll with me and want to buy everything that I sell kind of thing. So, I think it's very important to have like a group of people that not necessarily stay with you forever, but there's always someone there that you can pitch an idea to and sell. And if you know them, they'll give you an honest answer about is this something you want?

Is this something you think will work kind of thing? I use my members for a lot of my market research.

SAMIA: So, this is like really nice once you already have sort of like a pool of folks that you know, you can work with, but when you're like first starting out, I mean, that's one of the big challenges that you, I mean, like on an online context, we can think about it in terms of building your list, like whether it's your email list or building out your group and stuff. In person, it's like a similar thing. You have to like establish some kind of community of folks that, you know, love you.

Love comes later, but know you, trust you, like you, that kind of thing.

RACHAEL: For dream clients, yes.

SAMIA: Yeah. So what are like some of the... I mean, you obviously start with people right from the starting point and take them...

RACHAEL: I do, yes. I do.

SAMIA: What are some of the challenges they should be aware of when they're more in the beginning stages of establishing their practice? Just so, you know, I feel like if we know what to expect in terms of challenges, we can endure them better.

RACHAEL: Yeah, of course. So one of the problems that I see a lot with new clients is they've been told 50,000 things by 50,000 different people and they are confused. Okay, they are confused.

And one of the first things I do is simplify everything, break everything down, ask them several questions. What do you love doing? How do you love doing that?

What platforms are you on? What platforms do you love? What platforms do you hate?

What's your favorite thing to do? Is it admin? Is it tech?

Is it being present? Do you like videos? You know, are you one of these people who is happy on video?

Or is that not for you? Because it's no good me designing a strategy for them that matches their lives if they don't like a part of that strategy.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And if they've been told by so many other coaches and mentors that you must do this and you must do that, they're not going to enjoy it and they're not going to do it. So you have to be aligned with the practices that you decide you're going to incorporate into your business.

SAMIA: Yes.

RACHAEL: And once you start off on that foot, you can build your business from there. But there are basic principles that you have to establish with your new client first as to how they are going to run their business.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: So everything is very unique. All the strategies are unique that I give to clients. Because there might be something in, it's not a cookie cutter approach.

And there might be several different strategies that they totally won't align with. For instance, if they're not very technically minded, a five-day strategy and having a five-day challenge where you have to spend two weeks sending the emails and setting it up and then a week doing it and then two weeks selling it and then another week publicly selling it. That's like six or seven weeks out of your life with major tech.

Now I have ran these five-day challenges in the past. I started the technical way. I now do not run five-day challenges.

I've simplified my technical side of things so that I don't mind tech. I've learned an awful lot in the past five years. Absolutely learned loads.

I can do almost anything now. But if somebody comes into my world and they are technically challenged, I can't teach them how to run a five-day challenge. They would run off.

They would think, I can't do this. No. So teach them something simpler that they can do.

And if they don't like being very visible with their video, you don't have to do videos to be present. Choose a different visibility strategy to start with. And as the confidence builds, they will want to show their face eventually.

But at the start, this is something that you just have to take baby steps with.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: So there are lots of challenges. People come to me with lots and lots of challenges. Tech is one, confidence is another.

But I think the most, the one that I hear the most is, I'm confused. I've heard so many things from so many different people and I don't know where to start.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: Lots of mentors have said, oh, just do this, this and this and this and this without actually telling them, right, number one, do this. Number two, do this. Number three, do this. Actual practical steps.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And not everybody gives you the actual practical steps. I simplify things in a big way, but I always ask what you're aligned with first, what are your do's, what are your don'ts. I like to know a teensy bit about their family life, because if I'm going to suggest a strategy that takes 15, 20 hours a week and you've only got five, again, that won't work.

So I always ask just a few baseline questions and then we work on from there. I had a lady today, she has minimal time, she's okay with tech, so we designed a set strategy. We designed a strategy that would use a telegram, the telegram network and voice noting and doing a challenge that way and then sell something off the back of that.

And she absolutely loved it, absolutely loved it because it just meant that it's simple, everything was simplified for her. And she's one of these people that came to me who has heard, you must do this, you must do that and got frightened. It's not going to work for her if she's going to be made to do something that she actually doesn't want to do, has no time to do or cannot do.

SAMIA: Yeah. So that actually makes me also think about this idea of growth in terms of your own abilities but also growing your business over time. Because a lot of the times what I find is the advice, the very varied advice that you're getting from different folks about, do this, do that.

A lot of it depends on where you're at.

I may, for example, be technically challenged. And so there's things that I cannot handle if I'm on my own and I'm working on my own. But as I grow in terms of, you know, I start, you know, using the simpler non-tech dependent methods.

And I start getting clients. I start generating an income. Now, maybe I can set aside a little bit of a budget to get some help with the tech stuff.

And so then I can maybe start to work with a virtual assistant or something like that. And then now my capacity is increased. And now I can add on doing something that I wouldn't have been able to do on my own, but with some help and support, I can make it happen.

You know?

RACHAEL: I did it the other way around. So I hired quite a few people to do lots and lots of tech. And what I did was I learned from them.

So now I need minimal people. And I can even use like CRMs like ActiveCampaign. Now ActiveCampaign used to be one of the most hardest email systems to use, but they've simplified all that now.

And I was like, oh my God, this is so easy to use. But is it? Or have I learned?

So I've grown so much in the last five years. I could send an email, okay? I had no idea how to send an email to a group.

So there's the difference there. Okay, so I was kind of like, I could use a PC. I could use a phone kind of thing.

But what I can do these days is I can run a business from a PC or a phone. And the tech that I use these days is very, very simple, very simple. I have a WordPress site.

Actually, I have two WordPress sites because I have two businesses. And I've even learned, now, a WordPress site to me five years ago, show me a WordPress site and how I would have ran a mile because they looked hella confusing. But these days, I can go onto my WordPress site and add something, take it away, amend stuff, make a program, do loads.

I can do lots. I can do a link. I can do a landing page.

And it's nonstop what I can do. But five years ago, that frightened the hell out of me.

SAMIA: Yeah. You're so right. And, you know, like one thing that I ended up doing was this was also during, well, we were in the midst of COVID and I was like shifting everything I was doing online or most of what I was doing online is that's when I first, for the very first time, I hired a virtual assistant.

And I actually, because I was okay with tech. Like you said, I knew what to do that I needed to do for like my everyday tasks. But especially if you ran into a tech issue, if something wasn't working just as it was, it was very frustrating and not happiness promoting at all for me to try and figure all that tech stuff out and trying to problem solve those things myself.

And so I was like, okay, I'm going to hire myself a VA and then try to just be as strategic as possible in terms of how I use their time and what I use their time for. And so I had first, I did some research. I got some recommendations on, okay, what platform I wanted to sort of make my home beyond just having a website, because you need all these different features, right?

To be able to have like a proper community, if you want to have an online community, like you need an ability to email people, you of course need your website, but then you also need certain amount of integration with your social media and stuff like that. And the good thing is that even like five years ago, there was like so many options that had already come out in the world, where there are like these platforms that bring all of these different things together. So instead of signing up for 10 different things, you sign up for one platform that gives you all of these different services.

And so I actually went through this process of I actually signed up for one and we tried it out and it was like not as easy and fun to use as we had anticipated. And so I actually switched and I was like, I tried a second one and then I tried a third one. And now I'm using that third one.

RACHAEL: Yeah, so I started with a a Podia platform, OK? So before I had my WordPress designed exactly as I wanted it, I started with a Podia platform. I had help loading on Podia.

I had a bit of training for the Podia site. It was brilliant, really good. It had its limitations, obviously.

But that served me very well for about 15, 16 months. And then I was able to pay for an actual custom built WordPress site that I can do exactly what I want with these days. But these all-in-one platforms are actually a really good place to start.

And, you know, there's Kartra, Kajabi, Podia. There's loads now, absolutely loads now. But it's a case of finding one that works for you within your budget.

SAMIA: Yes.

RACHAEL: And go with it. Even if you want to keep it, that's fine. I myself have this vision of all of my services under one umbrella. rachaelrawnsley.com. That was my vision. Okay. So it's www.rachelrawnsley.com.

And I had that built exactly as it is. Had that built.

SAMIA: So, yeah. Yeah. So again, there's like this progression that you can go through. Growth.

So you like to be really aware of, where am I in my growth process? So sometimes that's where the strategy that you use really matters, because it needs to also, not just match your temperament and your desires of what you would love to have, but also needs to match where you are at in your process of growth.

RACHAEL: That's right, yeah.

That's right. I mean, my podiac site five years ago wouldn't suit me now, because I've grown so much. It had its limitations back then, and it wouldn't serve me now, business-wise.

So I love learning for myself, I love learning for my business, but also my business has to change as clients dictate that. So my clients want different things to five years ago. So my systems have to move, you have to move with the times, and that includes your business, the systems you use and your own learning.

If I don't keep up with the learnings of business and the learnings of psychic development and everything that goes with that, I wouldn't be running my business the way I am doing now.

SAMIA: Yeah. Okay. So that's another really, really important insight.

It makes me think of the next question I want to ask you.

How do you sort of divide your time or let's say maybe balance between these different aspects of what it takes to have a successful business? So there's the actually working in the business part. And when I say working in the business, I'm thinking of things like actually working with a client, actually teaching.

RACHAEL: In the business and on the business.

SAMIA: And the versus working on the business where you are like learning about the business side of things or you know how trends are changing, as you know, or you know, like what changes you need to make in the system that's set up, you know.

RACHAEL: I run my business how I run my life, okay? And everything, everything is aligned, okay? So I have a diary Monday to Sunday, and then I have a notes page.

And then I have my calendar on my phone, okay? So if it's not in my phone, if it's not in my diary, it's not happening. And whatever must take priority that day or that week must happen, whether it's personal, family, or business, okay?

So I give just as much time to my personal life, you know, my nails, my hair, as I do learning about my business, right? And everything is perfectly aligned. What needs to happen that week happens.

So I always say to people, when people come to me, and this is another major problem people have, I haven't got time to run a business, or I haven't got time to learn this, this, and this. I have no time to myself. I said, okay, right.

Get a A4 size piece of paper, write down Monday to Sunday, and add in hours that you sleep, add in hours that you eat, wash, cook, clean, wash, iron, et cetera, family time, spouse time, work time, that you actually have to do a job if you do a job, and then what is left. I can challenge you. You will have at least five hours in that week, and with that, you can start a business, and I will teach you how.

SAMIA: Nice.

RACHAEL: Because I believe that I'm a mother, okay. I only have one child, and he doesn't always come first.

Some days, I come first. Some days, my husband comes first. Some days, my business comes first. So it's whatever needs top priority for that hour.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: Or that morning, or that day, okay. So everything is literally, I run my life like a business, I suppose. It's very, very scheduled and regimented.

I even have scheduled times to eat and sleep, okay. I'm extremely routine. When we go on holiday and we go out of routine, I'm like, oh, I need to get back.

I need to get back. I need to get back to my routine. I'm a routine kind of person.

And I think the only way I can be a mum, be a wife, have a personal life, look after myself, learn what I want to run two businesses and still look after the house and garden is because I have such an organized life.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: And I fit everything in and I still have time for hobbies.

SAMIA: I love that.

RACHAEL: Because of the way I structure my life.

SAMIA: Yes.

RACHAEL: And the processes I've put in with my business and how I've streamlined it.

SAMIA: Yes. Yes.

RACHAEL: And that's what I teach people to do. I teach people to align their lives with their businesses.

SAMIA: Yes. That is so important. So important.

Because one of the, you know, challenges I had for a while was, and this was a tendency that I've always had, where, you know, I get obsessed with something, and then I just throw myself all in to that one thing, and then my life gets completely out of balance because I'm not taking care of myself. I'm, my, my, my family members start complaining about how I'm ignoring them.

RACHAEL: It's all about, it's all about being aligned and all about balance.

SAMIA: Yeah, as more and more, in order for me to maintain my sanity, but also to be able to just stay consistent with doing whatever different things I wanted to maintain in my life, I've had to fall back on being really organized, being more, more scheduled. Like you were saying, I'm now so dependent on my calendar, that like you said, Exactly. If it's not on my calendar, it doesn't happen in my life now.

RACHAEL: No, no. If it's not in my calendar or my diary, even if people beg me, please, please, please, can we have a meeting today? No.

You wouldn't have to schedule. I have, my head is somewhere else right now.

SAMIA: Yeah.

RACHAEL: These people, these salespeople, whether they could be selling you something, whatever it is. My pet hate is this saying, can we just jump on a call right now? No.

No, we can't just jump on a call right now. My head is somewhere else. I'm probably thinking about having my roots done.

Do you know what I mean? My head space is not jumping on a call with you right now.

SAMIA: Yeah, it's like, and I understand the reason why they want to jump on a call right now. It's because that's what's best for them.

RACHAEL: Yeah, exactly.

SAMIA: You know, it's not best for me. Yeah, exactly. It's not what may be best for me because, again, especially if we are trying to live in a line life, a more balanced life, where we are doing all these different things, if it's my self-care time, like this was one of the big mistakes I used to make, is I was always so willing to sacrifice my self-care time, particularly in the context of my sleep. So important.

It's like, okay, okay, I'll skip on having a shower. I'll skip on sleeping the full eight hours that I need. I'll skip on this or that.

But it just starts to really pile up in terms of the impact that you experience. And then again, that's when you run the danger of burning out. You run the danger of writing off...

RACHAEL: And then you're not aligned with your values because you've pulled down those boundaries. You must have boundaries. If somebody says to me, can I book an appointment at 9 p.m.?

I usually say, are you swearing at me? 9 p.m., I die after 9 p.m.? You are joking.

I don't, now if you were to say 6 a.m., then maybe I might make a sacrifice because I'm an early bird. But anything past 9 p.m.? That's my TV time, thank you.

And even then, I'm in bed for 10 p.m. I'm very, very, very routine with my sleep. Very routine. Because you have to be, you just have to be.

SAMIA: Yeah, I think part of, I mean, we do have to also keep watching about how our needs change. Because, I mean, just as the needs of our business change over time, our personal needs change. I remember when I was in my 20s, and even a good big chunk of when I was in my 30s, I could actually function fairly well with relatively little sleep.

But now I'm in my 40s and I need my eight hours. Otherwise, I can literally feel the drop in my energy, and it's not just the drop in my energy, but the lack of clarity, the drop in my ability to just be as clear headed and happy.

RACHAEL: Yeah. I am nearly 52, Samia, and obviously menopausal, and I literally, 10 p.m., my phone switches off. I've got one of these phones that switches itself off from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. So that my head cannot even look at it.

I am literally not able to look at it at all. I'm not even tempted to touch it because it's not even switched off. It closes everything.

All the apps close down at 10 p.m. But if you were to ask me a question at 10 p.m., I think I'd like... Maybe I could answer, but, you know, in my 20s, I was clubbing at 10 p.m., going out at that time. And these days, I'm going to bed at that time.

Everybody changes. And until you do hit your 40s, and especially your 50s, things change, okay? It's like when you have children, things change.

In your teens, you sleep forever in your teens. I remember sleeping until like midday. I can't sleep past 6 a.m. these days.

Everything changes, and your business changes, and you have to take that into consideration too.

SAMIA: Yeah. Gosh, Rachael, I'm having so much fun talking with you, and I'm keeping an eye on the clock.

RACHAEL: Yes, it's been fantastic. Thank you, Samia.

SAMIA: Do you have any last parts you would love to share with us?

RACHAEL: I would just like to say, I always ask this question to my new clients. The passion that you have for whatever you're doing in your business right now, do you see that with longevity? Do you see yourself doing that in five years’ time? Maybe ten years' time? If the answer is no, this could be a fad. Think very, very carefully about, is this the right thing for you?

Does it align with your life? Can you literally switch it into your life and without making a hell of a difference, okay? Now, I've been into psychic development since I was little, okay?

Three years old when I first got my Spirit Guide. And I've always, always, always been absolutely blown away by my Spirit Guides, you know, all the psychic stuff. So if I was to ask myself that question, would I still be doing that in five years time?

Hell yes, of course I will. Because I've been doing it all my life. And I've been running a business for the last 25 years.

Yes, it was mainly offline. Now it's mainly, in fact, it's fully online now. But I did do a little bit of online probably about 15 years ago.

And will I be doing that? What will I be doing in the next 15 years? Well, I'll have to keep up with the trends, won't I?

You know, I'll have to keep up with AI and I'll have to learn how businesses keep up. And I will continue to learn. So in 15 years time, I am ahead still.

Or at least learning what's going on in 15 years time. Because you said earlier about Skype 15 years ago, we're all like, oh my God, I can't edit this video. What if I go wrong with this video?

What happens if I wanted to chop something out of this video? You can. So keep up with the trends in your business.

You wouldn't run a business today like you ran one in the 80s or the 90s. So why on earth do you think you can still run this business like it's 2020? Do you know what I mean?

Quite a lot of people online are still saying, oh yeah, it's really easy to run an online business. No, it's not really easy. But if you know someone that's been there, done it, got the t-shirt, ran an offline, ran the online, then yes, you can copy them.

So find yourself a great mentor or a great coach and ask them one thing when you find this mentor that you align with or whatever, ask them one thing. Ask them how they started, okay? Ask them what they did, how they set their business up.

And if you align with their story and you like, you know, how they, what their morals are, what their values are, if you like their story, and then go with that person. But if there are any red flags, then goodbye. Because I've met a lot of mentors and coaches with a lot of red flags.

And there are still lots out there that do not serve their clients to the best of their intentions.

SAMIA: Yes. Oh gosh, you just brought up another-

RACHAEL: Another kind of word.

SAMIA: I'm going to have to force myself to not ask you follow up questions on that. But that is a very, very critical point. And I'm so glad that you brought that up.

RACHAEL: And I would actually, if you are looking for a coach or mentor, I would actually say stalk that person for several months before you even think of buying something, or buy something low ticket from them. You know, really get to know them. Join their challenges, their free challenges, and their free master classes, buy a low ticket, something, and just get to know them.

And get to know whether you're aligned with them. That's what I would do. That would be my piece of advice for people starting a new business.

SAMIA: Thank you for that, Rachael. And I will just give my last thought right now, which is to our audience to please make sure you check the show notes, because for sure you can continue to learn and get the help and support you need from Rachael. And check the show notes to help you make that happen, because we will be dropping her links in there so you can stay connected.

And until we connect next time, I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy.

RACHAEL: Thanks very much, Samia.