IEP001: How I Created a 7-Figure Business (in Tarot!)

Brigit:  Welcome to The Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast, I'm your host Brigit Esselmont, intuitive business strategist and mentor. As the founder of Biddy Tarot, I turned my love for tarot into an abundant seven figure business. The secret to my success? Making intuition and strategy my entrepreneurial superpower. And now I'm inviting you to do the same. In this weekly podcast I'll be sharing advice, tools and real life examples from some of the best intuitive entrepreneurs, to show you how you can trust your intuition, align with your purpose and create a positive impact through your work. Let's make it happen. 

Brigit:  Hello and welcome to episode one of The Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. Now, to kick things off on this podcast, I thought I would turn the tables a little and invite my good friend and Biddy Tarot marketing manager Katie Tassone-Milligan to come and interview me, so that I can share a little bit more about my entrepreneurial journey and my personal story. 

Now, as I said Katie is a friend and she's also the marketing manager within Biddy Tarot. And she looks after all of our social media and the connections that we have with our clients and customers and community. And she just brings such a positive energy into the Biddy Tarot team. Now, Katie doesn't just work at Biddy Tarot, she's also a yoga instructor and a Desire Map facilitator. 

Now, in this conversation today we talk about how my entrepreneurial journey began and also how I went through my corporate career and finally reached that point of saying, "I quit," and starting up my own business in Biddy Tarot. We then talk about things like how we bring intuition into business and whether we should have more of one. More of the intuition side or more of the business strategy side of things. And we talk about how that experience at the corporate world has evolved and spiraled through into this entrepreneurial journey as well. 

And then we wrap things up with a chat about what's coming up in this intuitive entrepreneurship world. And what I see that is possible for us as intuitive entrepreneurs. I hope you really enjoy this conversation, it was super, super fun. And, hey, let's just get straight into it. 

Katie: All right. So Brigit, how are you today? 

Brigit: I am good. It does feel a little bit odd to be on the other side ... oh I don't want to say, "The other side of the microphone," 'cause I'm exactly where I am normally. But to be the one being interviewed. So it's a pleasure. How are you doing? 

Katie:  Yeah. I'm really excited about this opportunity to chat with you about your story. And also excited about this new podcast. 

Brigit:  Me too. 

Katie:   Yeah. 

Brigit:  Yay. Very excited. 

Katie:   Cool. Should we get started then? 

Brigit:  Let's do it. 

Katie:  Okay. So let's actually start with ... obviously we're talking about entrepreneurship here on this podcast. So let's talk about your entrepreneurial journey, Brigit. How did it begin? And what sort of ... it's funny starting with the, "We know where you're at now, but did you always have in mind starting your own business?" 

Brigit: Yeah. It's interesting, I was flashing back to when I was a kid and I would try and sell tickets to a piano concert I would be running for 50 cents, to my parents of course. Nobody else. And I remember even setting up little stalls on the corner of our street and neighborhood street, which wasn't very busy with foot traffic or anything, and trying to sell maybe little posies of flowers or something I found in the garden and so on. And even as I became a teenager I remember creating fliers with a friend, we were going to be dog walkers and we were trying to get everybody to let us walk their dog. 

So I feel like I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. Albeit in kind of a kid-like fashion. But that said, when it came to deciding what career I would take, you know when you're 16 and they have all these expectations on you to know exactly what it is that you're going to do, I started thinking, "Okay, well, maybe I need to work in a regular job and I need to go and get my university degree," and so on. 

So from that point I really flung myself into the corporate world and I did my bachelor of commerce with honors and I later did a masters degree in human resource management. And my sights were set on this whole journey of climbing the corporate ladder. That said though, one of my first real jobs was working as a management consultant. And I think this was one of the absolute highlights of my working life because the partners in the business were so fantastic at putting us, younger consultants, at the forefront of contract negotiations or client meetings and so on. 

So there I would be as a 22 year old negotiating a contract with a large financial institution, for well over a million dollars. Also while thinking, "Where's my cut of this?" 'Cause I'd still just get my regular salary. 

But I think even while I was working in corporate, it was allowing me to be in an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, I think they call it intrepreneurial, right? So how do you mean an entrepreneur within an organization? So I think I was certainly being fostered at that point. But going back to your original question, did I plan to have a business of my own? Not really. Not at that stage. What was in my vision at that point was, "I am going to scale this corporate ladder and I'm going to get to the top and set my sights on being a GM, a CEO," not actually realizing that it would manifest but in a very, very different way. 

Katie:  Yeah. Wow. And so, for those of you who don't know, you were working for one of the Big Banks, as we call them in Australia. So a major banking corporation with that so-called security and just knowing that working there you've got a career path, there's a ladder that you can work up, there's prestige, there's respect working with one of these organizations. So what happened? You were on the career path, you'd started working your way up, what were the steps that led you from working in this corporate career to then basically running your own seven figure business in Biddy Tarot? 

Brigit:  Well, I think it was a huge change and shift for me to go from the management consulting world, where we had huge amount of ownership and freedom and flexibility to do things the way that we thought, and we were thought leaders, we were coming up with white papers, new ways of thinking and so on. And then I thought, "Oh great, I'll move into the real corporate land," because they actually had a really good maternity leave policy. And I thought, "Okay, it's time. I'm ready for babies anyways. So I'll move somewhere where I can get a good mat leave." 

But what I quickly realized was the corporate world just wasn't for me. So what looks like it's all shiny and rosy on the outside like, "Yes, you progress up the ladder and if you do a good job." It actually takes you being like a real, "Yes," person. And, "I will do anything you ask of me." And really working within the box and what's expected of you and so on. And anything outside of that box was an annoyance almost to your manager, because maybe it might make them look bad or something. 

So I started to feel really stifled in that environment. And it really got me to start questioning this career path that I thought I had in my mind about being a GM of HR somewhere. I started to see this organizational culture that was out of alignment with how I wanted to operate. And I want to be really clear about this, I'm not saying that the corporate world is wrong and it's messed up. It's so in alignment for some people. Many people will find a place in the corporate world that feels so good. But for me it felt so bad. 

And I knew within a few years that I needed to make a huge change and a huge shift. And I think actually one of the turning points was ... oh, maybe it was when I was still pregnant. But anyway, I had some days off work. And I remember just walking around Tuesday at lunchtime and thinking, "Holy moly, there's all these people out here enjoying themselves, smiling, loving this sunny day. What am I doing hold up in an office with freezing cold air conditioning? Look at all of this freedom that's available." So I think that was a turning point for me in the journey. 

Katie: So was it the experience for you ... you had to actually go through it to realize that, "This doesn't feel right, this doesn't feel congruent to what I want," and you had a little bit of experience of what freedom and that thinking outside the box could be, which made you feel like, "This is a good path," when you were doing your management consulting. And then when you moved into the other roles and started getting the pushback, that's when you started to feel it and realized, "Oh this doesn't feel right. This isn't what I thought I signed up for," and moving outside of that. 

Brigit:  Yeah, that's it. And even ... you talked a little bit about the security and safety. So we have this ... what is sometimes this odd perception that if we work in a large corporate, we will be secure and safe. But within six days of me arriving into this new corporate job, I was informed that the whole company was going through a massive restructure. And I had signed up for that role because it was a manager role. I had a team. That's what I really wanted, my next step. 

Brigit:   And within six days that was being taken away from me. And six months later, again, another restructure. Another six months later, another restructure. And this concept of safety and security, I could see through it very much. 

Katie:  Yeah, just- 

Brigit:  And I didn't like what I saw on the other side. 

Katie:   Oh wow. Is that real sense of feeling like, "I'm actually just a number. I'm just a cog in the machine." And realizing that you're replaceable. 

Brigit:  Yes. And you know the other interesting thing that would happen as a part of these restructures, is you have to reapply for your job. You don't actually get to apply for a specific job, you just get put back into a pool. So and then they could allocate you into the next job. And they'd allocate you into that job and then they would say, "Oh congratulations, you made it through. You're still employed." And you're over in this division doing something completely different looking at spreadsheets all day. And you're meant to be joyous and happy. And I'm like, "This is warped. You're not in control of my career. I'm in control of my career." 

And I knew at that point the only way for me to maintain the control was for me to get out of that system. 

Katie:  Yeah, wow. 

Brigit: Because that was not the right environment for me. 

Katie:  So when you first started exploring tarot, it began as a hobby for you. Learning it and just documenting what you did. Was this happening at the same time as you were realizing that the corporate world wasn't for you? Or did it happen a little bit beforehand? What was the timeline like? And did you start planning your escape from the corporate world strategically? Or how did it happen? 

Brigit:  So Biddy Tarot really started in 1999. Which, it blows my mind, that's 20 years ago now. 

Katie:   Wow. 

Brigit:  And that was a convenient distraction from my university studies because I could learn how to do HTML, create a website, add things, what I was learning about tarot, because I'd just started learning tarot at that stage. And I tried to experiment with putting up professional readings and so on, purely for the fun of it. Not to be creating a business. But then fast forward to around 2009 and that's when I had my first baby. I had this time away from the business, which actually helped me to give some perspective on where I was at in my career. And during that time I started reading The 4-Hour Workweek. 

Brigit:  And that was a huge game changer for me because that just showed me, "Okay, this hobby and this passion I have for tarot is something I can actually convert into a potential business or an information product. That's the Tim Ferriss language, the information product. And that's when I started tinkering with, "Maybe I could turn this into an ebook, what would happen if I started selling that ebook?" And even, "What would happen if I did some search engine optimization to my website?" 

Brigit:  Literally, a couple of weeks invested in doing some very basic things, got Biddy Tarot into the top search rankings within a couple of months. And we've stayed there for 10 years. That's crazy pants. 

Katie: That is amazing. That is amazing. So you started out just dabbling. And it was while you were at university. You've fast forwarded 10 years, pregnant, realized that there's a whole 'nother lifestyle out there for you, realizing at the same time that maybe the corporate world isn't for you. What was it like then to move you to the next stage of this business to the point where perhaps you realized you could walk away from the corporate world all together? What was that like? 

Brigit: So I'm quite conservative and risk-averse. And it was important to me to be sure and certain that my financial wellbeing wouldn't be severely impacted by making a decision to quit my corporate career. So what that really translates to is I wanted to be certain that I could make the same amount in my new business as I could in my corporate job. And I needed to feel really confident that it wasn't just a fluke, that that could happen over a steady period of time. 

So I even recall like when we were going through all those restructures in the corporate world, no one would have enough work. So everyone's kind of milling around, having a whinge, having coffees and, "What's your role going to be? Oh this thing's happening." Just stupid stuff. Like massive energy leak. While they were doing that, I was booking a meeting room for a couple of hours. And I was typing out my ebook. I was looking at Pat Flynn's guide to creating your own ebook and your own business and so on. 

So I was really leveraging that extra time that was in the business to focus on what my next step would be. And, look, no plan ... I want to be really clear about that. Because I think a lot of people think, "For me to start a business I've got to have that really fancy business plan and I need to know exactly what it will look like and then I can start it." I just started doing it. And going, "Oh look, that thing's working. I'll do some more of that." Or, "Oh that's not working." Or, "I don't enjoy that. I won't do that anymore." 

So it was kind of- 

Katie: So let's talk about some of the things that you did actually start doing. So you obviously ... you optimized it so you were getting traffic, you were building an ebook after the idea of a product came up. What were the other things that you were doing to start generating some income for yourself on the side? 

Brigit:  Yeah, at that stage I also added advertising to the website, partnering with [Arenem 00:15:58]. And that really did play a significant role in me being able to leave the corporate life. 'Cause that represented a good amount of revenue for the business. And look, I think the thing with that was, I saw that opportunity. I saw that we had traffic coming to these tarot card meaning pages. And I thought, "How can I leverage this?" And by adding the advertising, that was a great way to leverage the traffic. In a fairly non-invasive way. 

So there was that. There were the ebook, there was readings. And ... well, actually, it wasn't really until like after I left my corporate job that I started introducing things like teaching and courses. So at that point, yeah, main income was through ads, eBooks and readings. But it was enough for me to be able to go, "You know what? I can do it. I can leave. I can leave the job." 

Katie:  How did it feel? 

Brigit: Oh man. 

Katie:  Actually walking in and letting them know, leaving? Yeah, talk us through it. 

Brigit: It was crazy. So, again, it was after another restructure. And because I'd been away in Spain with my family for six months just traveling and building up my business at the same time, I walked into this office with a manager I've never met before, I've just been assigned to them on paper, like that's the stupidity of it all. And I walked in and I said, "Look, thanks for the role but I'm not working here anymore." And she asked me, "Okay, where are you going next? Is it another consulting firm? Is it corporate?" I'm like, "No. I'm starting my own business in tarot." And she just looked at me horrified. Like, "Are you insane? How could you leave ... ?" what was a six figure job, a six figure salary, " ... to go an do your own business in tarot? What are you thinking?" 

But I tell you, there was something ... I can even picture it being in that staff office afterwards and some of my colleagues coming up to me and asking like, "What happened? I heard a rumor." And I felt this really strong feeling of confidence that what I was doing was so right, even though I couldn't make sense of it. It made no sense at all, going and starting a business in tarot, thinking that it would surpass anything I could've ever dreamed of in corporate. But it happened. It totally happened. 

Katie: But it wasn't on a whim either. I think that's really important for a lot of people who are in a similar situation to what you might've been, they get fed up, they get frustrated with the logistics of working in corporate maybe and that sort of thing. But you did, you took your time, you built it up, you thought about it and you made the decision when it was right for you as opposed to just reaching that point one day and being like, "I can't handle this." And walking in and quitting. It was still very strategic for you, wasn't it? 

Brigit: Yes. And this is something that I advise like with my coaching and mentoring clients. Like, "Do not ... " well, do whatever you want but, I would strongly recommend that you don't just quit a job and then start a business. Because the energy that happens, you're in that more ... perhaps striving, needing, wanting financial rewards instantly because you've got bills to pay, lifestyle needs to meet and so on. It's not necessarily the right energy for starting a business. I think the more that you can start up a business that's in that more experimentation mode whilst you're working with regular pay check coming through, I think that's a much safer route. 

And then by the time you finally can quit, you have confidence, you have momentum, you're taking action already in the business. And I think that just sets you up for success so much more. 

Katie: Yeah. I think Elizabeth Gilbert talks about that a lot in her book Big Magic, and on her podcast too, about that concept of ... in the spirit of that creative space where something is being birthed, you don't want it to have to make money as well. It's like it's a totally different energy, to be into that space. So if you know that it's being taken care of, and then you can give all that energy for it to become what it needs to be, it's a totally different space for you to be in. 

So I love that that's what you did and that it took time. You started it in 99. It was 2009 by the time you started taking it seriously. That's some good time. And then it's evolved to where it is today, which is a totally different beast, right? 

Brigit: Absolutely, yes. And I think oftentimes what might look like the overnight success is 20 years. And I think ... is it Chris Gillebeau? He has something like, I don't know, 298 Days to an Overnight Success or something. That's a probably completely wrong number but ... I don't know, I think that's' just so true because people might see the Biddy Tarot business as it is now and it's awesome and I love it and I'm so proud of it, and think like, "Oh that'll never be me." But look how far it has come and where ... it started at zero, just like everyone starts at zero. 

Katie: Yeah. Absolutely. So going back to that moment that you quit corporate, is there any advice that you'd give yourself? Differently maybe something you would do? 

Brigit: Yeah. I don't think there's anything I would do differently. I know that I made mistakes along the ways. There are moments that I in some ways regret. However, those mistakes were massive learning opportunities. And I've seen it happen time and time again where I've gone back to a painful experience and thought, "I will never do that again. That was so painful, I will not do that again." And so it's got me to ... each time something similar has presented itself, I know now to take a step back and go, "Hang on, not going to make that same mistake." And had I not had that mistake I would never had had that opportunity to step back. So I don't think there's anything I would change. I think I would just really give myself words of encouragement just to trust. 

And that's really what this intuitive entrepreneur piece is about is the trust. Because I felt that real strong urge within me going, "Come on Brigit, just leave corporate life. I know it sounds insane, crazy, like how could you do this? But there's something so good waiting for you on the other side." And, again, I couldn't rationalize it on paper necessarily but I could feel it and I really had to trust that. So yeah, confidence. 

Katie: And especially, I love the fact that it was a tarot business. Something a bit strange. It's a bit unusual for people to understand, and so that trust piece is so much more important in this example. But for other people it could be anything that they're starting and they know in their gut, with their intuition, they know that this is something special, something that they're building. Up. But to know that not everybody's going to understand it, not everybody's going to get it. And some people need to see it to believe it. So it's a matter of ... it really does, it comes down to that trust piece and trusting yourself, really isn't it? 

Brigit: Absolutely. And even when everyone else thinks you're insane. Even ... I think my mom was probably a little bit shocked when I said, "I'm quitting my whole corporate career to go and read tarot." But once I started to show her like ... I had to show her from a financial perspective that this is going really well. She's like, "Oh, okay." And these days she just flips out about how well the business is going and I think she's really proud too of that journey. But initially I think she probably thought, "Oh dear, what is my daughter doing?" 

Katie: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So then, for anybody who was in the same position as you, so you touched on this fact of like obviously you need to trust where you're at, but don't take the leap too soon. Make sure that you're in a position where you feel like you'll be supported financially so that you can build this up. When is the right time then? How do you know when the right time is to leave a full time job? 

Brigit:  I think it's really important to know or feel comfortable that you have financial security for at least the next six to 12 months. Because I think you have to go into a business with the assumption that the first 12 months you will not make much money. If you do, that's awesome. Icing on the cake. And oftentimes it might be a bit of extra pocket money. But if you go in there with that assumption your first year in your business, you will not make money, you'll be so pleasantly surprised when that first $100 comes through. But also you won't be in that grippy, grasping, desperate space. 

And so ideally that first year of business is happening whilst you've got a regular job as well so that you do have financial security. Now whether it means doing a full time job and after work, like in the evenings and the weekends you work on your business, which is exactly what I did. I hustled hard. 

Katie: Booking at a meeting room. 

Brigit:  That's it. Using my work time. Don't tell my previous employer. But yeah, I think if it's not full time then go part time if you can. And use the extra day or two to work on the business. But I do think having financial security in the first year of business is incredibly important. Until you're making enough money in your business where you're consistently getting enough that will cover your monthly living costs. Sort of a practical part of it. 

How do you know when to go? I think there's also that piece. There's something in you that just calls you. And you could ignore it for as long as you want but it just gets louder and louder and louder. That's intuition for you. And I just think it's really important to hear it. 'Cause, again, you can ignore it and then you might go, "Oh okay, well I'm going to go into this other job," and then you get frustrated. "Oh, none of these jobs are working out. I'm not as successful in interviews." Or maybe that's 'cause the universe is trying to shove you into that new place that you're going to. 

So yeah. I think there's the practical side of it, the financial side, I really emphasize that. But also there's that calling that you just can't ignore anymore. 

Katie: And it's this combining of this logical, strategic side and also listening to this inner knowing, this beautiful intuition that gets louder and louder and louder if you ignore it, that this is really the intersection that is your passion right now. It's the whole reason for this podcast, for this new venture, is really talking about that. Because I think there's this tendency for people in entrepreneurship, especially if you're working in some kind of intuitive business. Not even if we're talking in the woo woo space or anything. It's just really stepping into that place of creating the freedom to create the business that you want and living in flow. That as if somehow there's no space then for anything that you learnt in the corporate world to fit in there as well. 

It's almost like if you're leaving the corporate world you're leaving everything else behind. Like there has to be a separation between the two. But even everything that you've started talking about today and obviously I work with you so I know lots of the things you have. You've taken a lot of those skillsets and the pieces that you learnt through the corporate world and applying them to your business. You still take it very, very seriously in that there's a space for intuition and this to sit together. Like how do you see that really merging into the business? What does it look like? Talk to that for us. 

Brigit: So when I left my corporate career I was deeply concerned that I was throwing away a 15 year investment in both my university studies and, like I said, masters degree. Like that takes a lot of time and effort to get to that point. And 15 years investment in the corporate world. I thought, "Gosh, what am I doing? Like just letting all of this go, is this stupidity?" And stepping into the tarot business at that point, I didn't need any of those skills that I'd learnt in corporate. They weren't relevant at that point. So it was a massive contrast. 

But there was something in me again that just trusted the process because within a few years I'd hired my first team member and now we have 14 people on our team. So hello HR coming back. And being aware of things like leadership and culture and engagement and so on. Everything that I'd done in my corporate world, that's all starting to come back into play. Other things like project management. I did a lot of project management as a consultant, and you'll know ... you know now Katie, we have project management in our company. And granted, when I introduced a project management framework, it was fairly corporate and we've scaled back and we've found our flow with that. Which I think is really neat. 

And I think that's the core essence here is all of those skills I've learned in corporate, I'm not reapplying them. But I'm applying them in a very different state of mind. And one that probably is a lot more fluid and flexible, where I can adapt why I learned from that time in my life. And now we can apply it but apply it in our own way, which is super, super fun. And I think it was Rebecca Campbell who said that many of us who've gone through a corporate career in our 20s and maybe early 30s and are now branching out more into that healing space. And I think that we've learned, and Rebecca's saying this as well, that we've learned those corporate skills so that when we come into a healing-type business or a spiritual business, we've got the skills to really push that forward and to put it out into a really big audience in a professional way and in a way that has maximum impact. 

Katie: Yeah. Reach more people. That's what it's all about. Yeah. It's that you don't have to be ... to be intuitive you don't have to a have a small business. It doesn't have to be a quite little side project. That it can be a large scale, reaching many people, having a huge impact. In which case, yeah, of course you're going to need these skills to manage it. It's a huge organization in itself when it gets to that point. And I think that's really special too, because even though you had formal education and it's very easy for people to look at that and say, especially when you first left and were working in tarot, it's like, "What a waste. All that formal education you did is such a waste." I know I've heard that among sorts of people. But that did you get your degree in again? That's not what you're working in though. 

When in reality we've always, throughout our lives, been learning and accumulating all these skills in education whether it's formal or it's through the many different jobs we've had or through even the relationships we've had, the experiences we have. And that all comes with you into these things that you're creating, into the businesses you have, the relationships, the way you manage it all. It all accumulates together, which is really neat actually. And it's the kind of the fun of this podcast even talking to you right now is we get to look at all this stuff in hindsight. When you start it out you don't always know those things. 

Brigit:  That's right. 

Katie:   You don't- 

Brigit:  I know. And, again, that's where this, "Trust the process, surrender to it," does come in. Because at the time you might be like, "Gosh, I can't see how this is going to work." But if you can just trust, it will all unfold and emerge in the most perfect way. It often does. And if fact, just as you were talking, I was thinking, "This is the next evolution too," because it really is coming full circle when now I'm talking a lot more about business. And intuitive business. And it's the perfect blending and alignment of what I've learned in the tarot space, particularly as it relates to intuition, and then what I've learned in corporate, particularly as it relates to business. And hello, here they come together. 

And now I feel like I'm the fullest expression of myself as I am in this present moment. 

Katie: Wow. I'm just going to let that settle in for a little bit, 'cause it's kind of big deal Brigit. 

Brigit:  It's exciting, 'cause I feel like ... and you've watched this journey too. I feel like I've been sitting on this for years. And it just wanted to come out. And now I finally get to really express it. And I mean that whole heartedly. This is this fullest expression. So it's very exciting. 

Katie:  So let's talk about how this evolution has really come about. So within Biddy Tarot, we talked about it started out as almost like a hobby. And eventually you started doing professional readings for people. And then after you were doing readings, what happened? Did you realize maybe there was only so much you could do if you were reading for people? And so what did that lead on to? 

Brigit: Yeah. I got to a point where ... talk about the dollars for hours, I mean a number of people talk about that. And there's always a limit to how much you can earn when you are trading hours for dollars. And I don't like limits. So I started seeing the opportunity to try something else. Something else that was limitless and fullest potential and so on. And that's really where the teaching side came into it. Now I didn't go ahead and sink in six months to create a course. What I did was, I thought, "Okay, I'll experiment with this. I'll do a one hour master class." It took me a couple of hours to prepare, sold some tickets to it, did the class, loved it, people who showed up, they enjoyed it. And I thought, "Great, I'll do a couple more of these. 

So a few of those happened. And then that was the point where I said, "Okay. This is a really good opportunity. How can I expand it?" And then it started turning into a five week live course. So I actually, I produced that course just in time where ... and I did it intentionally. Each week I'd produce the course, the material, maybe on the Monday, deliver it on the Wednesday. And then get ready for the next week. And my intention was to feel into the flow of how it would evolve with my students instead of necessarily having it all perfect. 

And I just wanted to get on with it. I didn't want to wait until it was all perfect and locked in. 'Cause I knew it would change anyway. And so then from that point then it started to evolve into our two main courses that we have in Biddy Tarot. And that's what's really stuck now. And it's the lifeblood of the business. 

Katie: And so then it was teaching people how to read tarot for themselves, and then that natural evolution came to how to read tarot to other people. And then there was a group of people who then wanted to read professionally. And so of course, you've done this, so then you've created a program to teach them how to create their businesses, how to market them, how to build it from there. And then the natural evolution came to then just coaching other intuitive businesses around taking it forward and moving on from there. 

And so from this coaching places where you started to see this missing piece between that intuitive business, this intuition element and then this combination of strategy and how the two are needed to work together to create this powerful and successful organism, really, on its own. Like really taking it forward. And that's where you're at now? 

Brigit:  Yeah. So I think it's interesting in the space of perhaps also spiritual entrepreneurship or intuitive entrepreneurship. There are coaches that do business coaching in this space. But the sad thing is a lot of those business coaches don't necessarily have the results. They haven't built a business of a very substantial level. And then they're coaching in business. Or they might be really awesome at the intuitive side of things but not so awesome at the business side. 

And even the people that I would start talking with and chatting with about their business. Again, great at maybe calling in their guides or grounding in or connecting with universal energy and have something beautiful to share in the way that they work. But when it came to running their business it was like, "I don't know what to do." 

And so I found there's this beautiful gap between how we're intuitively lead and then how we run our business as a business. And for me that's the intersection of those two. That's my zone of genius. I am so passionate about business. And I really understand the space of intuition and more of that spiritual entrepreneurship and so on. So that's something that's been evolving and emerging over the last few years and supporting a number of business owners who are struggling, perhaps, a little ... I don't even want to say they're struggling, 'cause I think they're actually doing an awesome job. And it's really helping these clients do even better in their business and see those opportunities to really grow and expand and ultimately get their message out in a really big way. 

'Cause here's the thing, so I think it's so important that we blend intuition in business together in order to really maximize reach and impact. So if you're only in the space of intuition and you're in flow, you're trusting the process, it's beautiful and it's lovely but you don't have the grounding in marketing strategy or you're not on top of your finances, you don't have systems and processes in place, I believe that your reach and impact will be limited. But if you start to blend these two together, that's where the magic happens. And, look, likewise if you're in the space of just business strategy. "Oh, do the latest marketing strategy." You end up looking like everybody else that's gone and done these blue print or formula or what have you. 

And there's no soul, there's no spark, there's no passion in that. And you just fall back into the mush of this, what can be a flooded market. So when you integrate the two, that's the strategic advantage. That's where the magic happens and we can really stand out. 

Katie:  Yeah. It's like the uniqueness can really just become elevated, really, to the point where ... yeah, that unique selling point that people in business are always talking about, that's where it really comes into it. It's like, you've got your marketing down pat, you know how to build a team, set up your team, become scaleable, so that this beautiful gift that you have, this thing that you can do, that only you can do so well, can actually become available in a big way that people can find you, really. 

Brigit:  Yes. 

Katie:   Yes. 

Brigit:   And [crosstalk 00:38:32]. It might not feel sexy to feel about processes or ... and to have all this documentation. But it's in the structure that allows that flexibility to happen. And even when I left my corporate job I thought, "Oh great, I'll just work whenever I want and when I feel like it." But it just messed up with my family. They were like, "Are you on or are you off? Which one is it?" And I was like, "Oh okay. No, I probably do need a bit more of a work schedule here." And then that allowed me more freedom and flexibility personally as well. 

Katie: Absolutely. And even just, I mean, you say it's not sexy and it sounds like it's not ... people can be afraid of that aspect of it, that responsibility, the planning, the [inaudible 00:39:17]. But the way that you do it, you still are blending constantly that intuitive element, that flow, that personality into it. So business meetings, tarot cards are being pulled, conversations are being had. It's not all very serious, no-fun. Like you get to ... this is the beauty of having your own business. You still get to create it how you want. But it doesn't mean that you can't infuse that strategy and that grounding like you talk about. 

Katie:  And what really is sexy is being able to go on a retreat, like you just did, and have a team that you know that can run your business, that can get ... getting to that point where everything can still operate and you know that you're still getting that reach and that things are happening, I mean, that is cool. 

Brigit:  Yeah. That's, I feel, where you fully step into being an entrepreneur or an owner of a business versus having set up a job for yourself. Because I think when we start our businesses we're great at creating a new job for ourselves. And some folks are very happy staying in that place. My vision has always been, "Build a company and have that company do awesome, amazing things, and ideally do it without relying on me to a huge extent." I think it's important to have the energy injection into that company. But I want to be able to set up the systems, the processes, the structure, that enables absolute freedom. 

Katie: I love the way that you worded that too, because oftentimes people are running away from a job. So don't create one for yourself in this new thing that you think you're running away from. Yeah. It's about creating that freedom for yourself. Awesome. 

So what's' next? 

Brigit: Oh gosh. I feel like it's just this magical unfolding, and it's fascinating because in this new business, I feel like it's very intuitively led. So instead of, again, instead of having a plan and knowing, "Okay, well this is going to happen I and this month and ... " to be true, I do have a little bit of that. But ... That's my nature. But I do feel like there's this unfolding that's happening. And even a few months ago I was led to work with a speaking coach who helps with TEDx talks. And I thought, "Oh gosh, I think this feels very premature. What am I doing?" But I could feel it going, "Go on, go on, do it." And I'm not starting to see it really open up in that doing this program around building a keynote around intuitive entrepreneurship is helping me to really clarify my message and do it in a way that gives it real weight and robustness ... is robustness even a word? But you know what I mean. 

Because I want to take this beyond just the light and fluffy, "Trust yourself, go with the flow." I want to make this like ... this is real solid business strategy, incorporating intuitive processes and elements into your business. So the keynote's helping me to clarify my message. It's also starting to show me all these possibilities of course for causes, coaching frameworks, a book ... I'm really feeling a book coming through maybe next year. But more so in the immediate term, 'cause you know how my brain goes, it's very dream and starts envisioning into the next few years. 

In the more short term, certainly this podcast has been a dream of mine to get out. I'm also working with a select few business owners to coach and mentor them in their business. And later in 2019, and hopefully over the next few years, I am curating a group of female entrepreneurs who are doing at least 100k revenue in their business each year, and I'll talk a bit about what that is, who also want to include, want to bring more of their intuitive self into their business. So I'm curating this group so we have this beautiful group mastermind and can learn and grow together and create that yuminess and that support that happens when you have a mastermind. 

Now the 100k piece, sometimes it can feel a little bit triggering. Like, "Oh well if I'm under 100k does that mean I'm not successful?" Not at all. This is more about having a business that already has some of those structures and systems in place that allows you to comfortably attract revenue and so on. And then there's ... I know that my ... like a zone of genius is helping people from that point to then grow up to the million dollar mark or beyond. 

For those folks who might be more in the startup phase, I know there's so many people out there who can support startup businesses much better than I can. So that's why I have that criteria, I suppose, of the 100k. But anyway, lots of yummy stuff coming out. And I'm so looking forward to supporting, in particular, female business owners to really expand their reach, expand their business, and do it in a way that is so in alignment with their intuition, with their purpose and is something that just feels deeply enriching. 

Katie: Yummy. 

Brigit: Yeah. 

Katie:  Sounds fantastic. Well I'm really excited to see how it evolves as well. Like you said, I heard this new venture was coming out. I knew it was brewing there for a while and it's beautiful to see that the timing is right now and it's starting to evolve and grow wings, if you like. Just starting to become of its own. So it's exciting to see where it's gonna go to, it's exciting to see how many lives are gonna be impacted by this work that you're doing, this ... I know that the research that you've been doing for the talk that you're preparing for as well, like you say, that's gonna have this weight about it, this credibility. Because it is about a very serious element of business. It's not just the strategy but it' also this intuition and how do you truly use it to your advantage to grow these businesses that these beautiful people are creating, and how do we make them even bigger and better and sending them out into the world? So it's very exciting. 

Brigit:  And I think just on that, something that I've been really led to is to go slow. I know you'll disagree, you're like, "No Brigit, that went very fast." And, look, aspects of it did go very fast, but I'm feeling like there's a, "Go slow," as in build slowly and be guided along the way. So my little business brain goes, "All right, let's do the online course, let's create all this stuff." But under that I'm feeling like, "No, just allow this thing to evolve," because I strongly believe that I'm seeing now will be different to what is actually unfolding and emerging. 

And this is the same with all businesses. I think we can only see through the lens of now. But we can't necessarily see our fullest potential, we can't see our fullest possibility. Even if you take yourself back three years from now. Could you ever imagine three years ago that you'd be exactly where you are right now? No way. Yeah. So I feel like- 

Katie:  And- 

Brigit: There's a slow unfolding. But actually even in terms of the speed, the fastness, the speed at which this business came through is kind of ... I feel like there's been ... oh it's the bulbs isn't it? I feel like it's a bit like a bulb sitting under the ground. And it's been sitting under there for a number of years. And I felt it there for so long. And it, I don't know, it just was a really small trigger point that just got me to go, "Oh, time is now." And then suddenly, as if the sun had finally started shining, that little bulb just shot through the earth. We had a website up within three weeks. We've got this podcast coming out now. There's some really rapid growth happening. And then I think we'll slow it down and allow it to emerge and unfold. 

Because it's been there. It's ready to be birthed. And shebang, here it is. 

Katie: And it's funny because it's coming back to what happened with Biddy Tarot as well. Like, seems like it happened really quickly. Seemed like It happened overnight, but really there was this evolution of how it grew and you didn't know what it was gonna look like until it got there. And we don't know what it's gonna be like in the next five years either. We can't tell these things. 

Brigit:                    [crosstalk 00:47:45]. 

Katie: Which is just a beautiful lesson in itself for anybody else with their business as well, what you're doing with your new business is the same thing that anybody else is going to be going through as well. It's just letting it unfold the way that it needs to. And that's part of that intuition piece too, isn't it? It's building the strategy, building the framework around it, but then also giving it the space to grow in the way that it needs to. And trusting that it will. 

Brigit:  Yes, yes, definitely. 

Katie:   Very, very exciting. And I know that you've got some really exciting people coming up on the podcast as well, some people that you've been chatting to. So that's really great. And that's where it comes down to. Those people that maybe aren't gonna be ready for one-on-one coaching with you, or aren't quite ready for their mastermind. There's so many nuggets that they're going to be able to pull from just this podcast in itself as well, so many ways that they can grow their own business and combine that intuition and strategy piece too. 

Brigit: Yes. And having already had a few of these conversations and getting ready to publish them on the podcast, I know that there's just so much beauty in the way that these entrepreneurs are incorporating intuition in their business. And each one does it in their own unique and special way. So, so much goodness coming. 

Katie: Fantastic. Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap it up? 

Brigit: No. I'm just really excited to finally be expressing this and sharing this message. And whether it just touches one person and has an impact or 100 or 1,000 or however many, it doesn't really matter because I think just even one person being inspired to lead their business from an intuitive and strategic place, that's a win for me. So I'm looking forward to this journey. And thank you, Katie, for this interview. It's been super fun. 

Katie: It has been fun. And just on that, you pulled a card for us today, because intuitive business, right? And what was the card that you pulled? 

Brigit: So this is from Rebecca Cambell's Work Your Light Oracle Cards, and of course, yeah, I pull cards for our interviews. And it is the Play card. Which says, "Have fun. Celebrate. Hoorah. And don't be so serious." So perfect fit. 

Katie:  I love it. I think it's absolutely the perfect fit. You get to create your business the way you want. But you can infuse intuition and strategy into it as well. 

Brigit: That's right. 

Katie:   Fantastic. Cool. Thanks Brigit. 

Brigit:  Thank you Katie. Ciao. 

Katie:   Bye. 

Brigit:  Thank you for joining me for today's episode of The Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you loved this episode, please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. It really helps to get the word out and, of course, I read every single comment. Now, if you're an intuitive entrepreneur with a desire to build a business fueled by purpose, passion and profit, then you're invited to join me and an intimate group of female business owners in The Intuitive Entrepreneurs Mastermind. All you need to do is add your name to the wait list and you'll be the first to know when applications are open. 

So head on over to Brigit.me/mastermind. That's B-R-I-G-I-T, dot, me, forward slash, mastermind. I'll see you there and bye for now.