Last week, I had an extremely special treat. I had a reading with Allison DuBois. If you don’t know who Allison is; she is the real life medium that inspired the TV show Medium. She is also the woman who I went to see when she came to San Jose this past year. I blogged about it here.
Her readings are quite expensive, but my husband and I decided that while it was a bit out of our budget it was a good investment for my side business and to go ahead and do it.
First of all, if you get the opportunity to have her do a reading for you; I highly urge you to take it. Her husband is her booking agent and he is beyond gracious and just really nice to chat with. She is also spot on. Allison is really good at what she does and the reading is worth every penny.
The pieces that I will share are that she gave me advice as we started talking about my side business. What was really intriguing to me was that the advice that she chose to give was pertinent to me and the types of things that I needed to hear. Advice that would help me the most.
Her top suggestion to me was to “put a price tag on my time”. I have struggled with charging for my mediumship for, well forever. She insisted that I charge and that what I do is not something that just anyone can do. This also fascinated me because I downplay what I can do and often say that everyone can do what I can do. She insisted that I charge, that I was unique and that I have to draw a line and not help friends when they ask for “favors”. She said that they would drain my energy and even if I wanted to help, I had to draw that line. She said if they wanted a reading they had to pay for it; that everyone who wants a reading has to pay for one. She said I needed to draw that line. She ended with, “Your friend will have you on speed dial and call and ask you to find their keys or their cell phone. DON’T DO IT. You need to put a price tag on your time.”
The other item, she discussed with me was to make some policies about how and who I would read. She laid out that I don’t have to take everyone on as a client. I can pick and chose. If there is someone who I don’t think it would be a good idea to read that I don’t have to. This came in handy in a reading already. There was definitely an elephant in the room at my most recent reading and it was a question I didn’t want to answer; so I addressed the elephant and said that I really didn’t want to answer that question even thought I could and that I hadn’t even tried to answer it because I really didn’t want to know the answer myself; I didn’t feel comfortable delivering it. If that reading had been a week earlier, I would have just answered the question feeling that I was obligated. Allison had let me know that I was obligated to answer or read anything that I didn’t feel was right or that made me uncomfortable.
Her advice was plentiful; I have only shared just a couple tidbits here. She was kind, courteous, spent a little extra time with me and told me everything I didn’t know I needed to hear, but that has made all the difference in me moving forward with my business.
One of which was getting my website done – which she stressed big time – I have built my website. The new reading form is up and my URLs should all be redirected and working by Saturday; and my business will be fully functional.
Off and running,
M