IEP023: How to Balance Your Business Chakras with Ashley Leavy

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 the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. Today I'm talking with Ashley Leavy, who is the founder and educational director of the Love & Light School of Crystal Therapy. Her mission is to share crystal healing with people all over the world.

And she's here to teach you about using crystals to make positive changes for yourself, your friends and family. Or even your clients, whether you're new to crystal healing or an experienced practitioner.

She's proud to offer a broad range of training programs and free resources to support you in creating a life that's fully aligned with your soul's purpose. And you can find out more about her and her business at loveandlightschool.com.

Now, in today's interview, Ashley and I first talk a little bit about her journey towards becoming an intuitive entrepreneur. And Ashley isn't one of these overnight successes. She's been online almost as long as I have to and has had a really established business for over 10 years now.

And her business, which is in crystals, is getting very close to becoming a seven figure business. This is real, my friends, we can create amazing and thriving businesses from areas that other people might consider as a little bit niche. But Ashley is a living example of having created huge success with her business.

Now we also talk about business chakras. I have never thought of this, but it is a fantastic way of looking at your business, but through the chakra system, and Ashley's going to talk more about how you can tune into the chakras of your business and then start to balance them so that you've got more of the energy flow happening.

Then we do a bit of a behind the scenes with Ashley's business, and how she's working with her team, and allowing her creativity to flow without disrupting the strategic plans that she has in place and making sure that she's channeling her energy into the right aspects of her business. So without further ado, let you get into this interview.

Brigit:                    All right, welcome Ashley. It's such a pleasure to have you. How are you doing today?

Ashley:                 I am so good. Thank you so much for having me today.

Brigit:                    Oh, I can't wait to hear what you've got to talk about today in terms of the business chakras, but first, I would like to hear a little bit more about your journey and what got you to where you are today.

Ashley:                 Sure. So I have an online school, it's the Love & Light School of Crystal Therapy, and we offer crystal healing classes to people all over the world. It's something that I'm so passionate about doing and I honestly, if you'd asked me 10 years ago where I thought I'd be, I would not say here, but I'm so glad it worked out that way.

Ashley:                 I really got into this when I was going to college, I was finishing up my degree and I took a job part time at a metaphysical store. It was just something I was interested in. I thought it would be a nice place to work to take some of the stress off of my studies, and I'd always had a fascination in connection with crystals and really learned a lot about them growing up.

Ashley:                 But it wasn't until I got that job at [Memosa 00:04:11] books and gifts at that little new age shop that I really learned that people did this work professionally, that you could actually be a crystal healer. So I started to really learn more and more about crystals. And in 2007 I believe it was, I had the opportunity to take my first professional Cristal training.

Ashley:                 And at that time I really took it more for personal development. I thought it was something that would just really help me with my own spiritual growth and journey. But when I took that first crystal training, I had the most profound, amazing experiences, and I knew right then that I had to share this work with other people.

Ashley:                 I wanted other people to have that same unique, transformative journey that I did. And I thought that that would be through being a crystal healer myself. So I started learning more and more about crystals, offering sessions professionally at that very shop that I worked at.

Ashley:                 And eventually I found that really the part of doing sessions that I enjoyed the most was at the end of the session. I do a little recap with my clients and I would teach them a few ways that they could work with crystals on their own so that they could continue that journey. And I really liked how I felt like I was empowering people to be in charge of their own healing work.

Ashley:                 Although, that's not the greatest business model because you're really getting rid of all of your clients, for me it felt like such a magical thing to get to share. And that really led to me starting to develop some courses and workshops.

Ashley:                 And at first, again, this was back in 2007, 2008, 2009, online courses weren't quite what they are today. The technology wasn't quite there yet. And so I was traveling around to teach, I was driving anywhere I could drive on weekends, really sharing a lot about crystals, and at that time I was part of this big online community group.

Ashley:                 It was one of those like chat groups, I don't know if you remember the Ning groups, but way back in the day-

Brigit:                    Oh yes.

Ashley:                 ... before Facebook groups, that's what there was, that's what we had. If you had a niche interest, that's where you'd hang out. I was talking to all these people all over the world about what I was doing and teaching, and people kept asking me to bring those classes online because they just didn't have anything like that in their area.

Ashley:                 And although I'm totally not tech savvy, had no idea what I was doing, I vowed to make it happen for those people and started offering some courses. The first iteration of my crystal healing certification program, just actually the very first one out there, and I was doing that all through email correspondence.

Ashley:                 And then eventually when the software caught up, I started offering as an online video course. So it really-

Brigit:                    Fantastic.

Ashley:                 Yeah. It took a lot of twists and turns and I didn't think that I'd end up teaching, but I'm so glad that I did. That was probably back in 2010 that I started offering that as a video program.

Ashley:                 And from there over the last 10 years, it has really just continued to grow, and develop, and change, and now we have almost a seven figure business. So it's something I'm really proud of.

Brigit:                    Oh, that's fantastic. I love hearing stories like that for sure. And at what point did you realize that intuition was an integral part of your business? Obviously not just in what you're teaching, but in the way that you were operating your business and strategizing in your business?

Ashley:                 I consider myself actually really lucky because I had a major lesson in listening to your intuition pretty early on. So that new age store that I mentioned, the metaphysical shop that I worked at part-time while I was finishing school, my employer there was getting to be close to retirement age and she started looking for a business partner.

Ashley:                 And at that time, like I said, I was doing these crystal healing sessions, and I loved being in the shop, I loved the energy of it and connecting with people, and the opportunity to become a business partner came up.

Ashley:                 She was looking for someone to start to take the reigns, work with for a year to really train them on how to run the business, and then ultimately retire. But I was really young, like I said, I was finishing up school, I had no money. I had no idea how I'd make any of that work.

Ashley:                 So even though was something that I felt so called to do, and in my heart I wanted it more than anything, I didn't speak up, I didn't stand up and say, I want to do this, how can we make it work? Because I let all these fears and ego based thoughts get in the way.

Ashley:                 I rationalized away my dreams, which is about the saddest thing I think a person can do was a really big mistake on my part. And just a few weeks after my employer there started looking for a business partner, she ended up partnering up with someone who wasn't very much older than I was at that time.

Ashley:                 I think I was 21 or 22 and she ended up with someone who was just a couple of years older than I was, who also had no money, who also didn't really have any experience managing a shop like that, and I just could have kicked myself for not saying something.

Ashley:                 And fortunately, unfortunately, I guess depend how you look at it, the partner that she chose didn't actually end up working out. It wasn't something that that person really wanted to do longterm, so this time I knew that I had to speak up. I felt like the universe was giving me a second chance.

Ashley:                 I hadn't listened to my intuition, to that inner feeling that this was something I really had to do as part of my journey, not just my personal journey, but my professional journey, and the universe was giving me a second chance, which doesn't happen very often. And I vowed that I was not going to be quite so foolish the second time.

Ashley:                 And then I was going to have just a really real candid conversation about my situation, my goals, my hopes and dreams with this person who owned the shop. And to my surprise and delight, she said, “I wanted to ask you from the get go, but I didn't know what your response would be. I was afraid to come to you with this because I know you're finishing up school and all these things.”

Ashley:                 And I was just so grateful for that opportunity. So even though I didn't think that I had the means, or the resources, or the knowhow, because I really followed through and listened to my intuition, and because I took that chance on myself, and didn't let myself kind of logic and reason it away, I was given with the most amazing opportunity and we became business partners.

Ashley:                 Diane was her name and she allowed me to work off my shares of the business with a whole lot of hard work, and hours, and elbow grease. So I was working quite long weeks and that sort of thing, but was so, so grateful for the opportunity, and I became sole owner of that shop when she retired.

Ashley:                 And that's something that I do in addition to the school. And it's something that I think about often, and I think has really guided the way that I approach both of those businesses going forward.

Ashley:                 I really pay attention to how my body is feeling when I'm making a decision. I think about how I'm feeling emotionally and I ask myself a lot of questions like, okay, if I'm having an objection to something, where's that objection coming from? Is that my intuition trying to give me a warning?

Ashley:                 Or is that just like that fear-based ego part of myself stepping in and maybe it's afraid of failure so it's trying to protect me for that. Or maybe there's some other reason that's more logical. But if I really feel strongly about something intuitively, I really don't second guess it at this point, I just go with it.

Ashley:                 Because you can always course correct later, but I'd say nine times out of 10, if you're feeling something intuitively and you act upon it, chances are you're going to end up much better off than if you had talked yourself out of it.

Brigit:                    Absolutely, yes. Have there been times in your business life or your entrepreneurial journey where your intuition has given you a nudge or a message, but you've chosen to ignore it? What happened?

Ashley:                 Yeah. There was one time where we were going to launch a new program, and we were partnering with someone who is a launch coordinator and she was giving us a lot of advice about how to move forward with things, and she really recommended that we reach out to some potential affiliate partners to help promote this new program that we are really seeing.

Ashley:                 And she came to us with a list of people that she thought would be a really good fit, and there was one person on that list that I had not a great feeling about, and I couldn't put my finger on why, there was no logical explanation for it. I just felt like it wasn't a good match.

Ashley:                 And so I decided to do some little meetup calls with each of those people from the list, and low and behold, I found this person really was not a good match because they had very different core values, and beliefs, and it would have been I think for myself and my brand, almost a little embarrassing situation to have that person promoting our program.

Ashley:                 So I was really glad that I listened to my intuition in that instance and did these little connection calls just to feel people out. And I did them for everyone and everyone else, everything went smoothly. It was great, perfect matches, but it was that one person that I had the off feeling about to begin with it, and that was really confirmed in our call.

Brigit:                    Neat. So that's certainly had time when you're listening to your intuition. Has there been a time when you haven't listened to it? Like you're ignoring it, and like when your brain goes like, oh, no intuition, I don't want to do that. That sounds too hard, or I really want it to be this kind of way. So have you had a time like that in your business?

Ashley:                 There are definitely those times even still. And I think it's when that ego side of you gets the better of you and tries to talk you out of doing something because exactly like you said, maybe it sounds like a lot of hard work, or it sounds really complicated.

Ashley:                 I have to say fortunately, even if my intuition is leading me in a certain way, and I try to ignore it, I am really blessed to have a super amazing team, and they really keep me in check that way, and they'll ask, “Well, what does your intuition say?”

Ashley:                 And I think in a lot of businesses we aren't lucky enough to have team members that really value that part of us as well, but I think that probably I have them to thank for not ignoring that part of myself, and I can't really think of a time where I have ignored that, and it's been detrimental.

Ashley:                 Other than that initial time many, many years ago when I ignored that urge to speak up and step into a partnership role in that metaphysical shop.

Brigit:                    Just going back to the team element, I think that's actually really smart strategy almost to set up your team to challenge you anytime it looks like you're going off or out of alignment with your business. Because I know my team do that too as well.

Brigit:                    So I do a good job of communicating, all right, this is the vision, this is the strategy, this is what this year's going to look like. For example, I started this year saying, “Yep, the word of the year is spaciousness.” And then within a few months, it wasn't really looking that spacious, so my team, we're going, “Brigit, is this really spaciousness that we're doing right now?” Like, oh, damn you.

Ashley:                 And that is something to be so grateful for, right? Yes, it's great to have people that keep you on track with your revenue goals, and your business vision and mission, and that's all relevant and pertinent.

Ashley:                 But yeah, with those ideas and feelings that you want to create in your business, it's equally as important to have people that do challenge your decision sometimes because they know you and they know you well enough to know when you're not listening to your intuition or when you're ignoring it.

Ashley:                 And have them speak up and really keep you in alignment with that is something that is pretty priceless.

Brigit:                    Absolutely. And how would you define the intuitive entrepreneur? Because I think we all have different ways of looking at this so I would really keen, Ashley, to hear your interpretation of intuitive entrepreneur.

Ashley:                 For me, this is really about taking a look at the bigger picture of your business and making sure that you're just staying in alignment with what feels right. I think so often we make decisions in our businesses because we feel pressure internally, or we feel pressure externally, or we feel like there are things that we should do.

Ashley:                 And really this is just about how it makes you feel. For me, if I'm working on something, and it's really in alignment with me, and the energy that I've created for my business, then I know I'm really honoring my intuition by letting that energy flow.

Ashley:                 But it's really easy to pick up when you're not feeling in alignment because things feel difficult. They feel hard, they feel like a struggle, and for me that's usually because I haven't maybe 100% listened to my intuition, or because I have let myself get distracted from checking in and seeing how I feel about something.

Ashley:                 So for me this is just looking at that overall flow and energy in your business, and seeing how you resonate with it, seeing how it feels to you. And often for me at least, this really has to do with checking in with my body and paying really close attention to that.

Ashley:                 Do I feel tense because I'm stressed out? Do I feel like I have a headache, or some neck pain because I'm rigid and locked in my decisions rather than being open to the way things are flowing.

Ashley:                 So for me this idea of being intuitive is really just being more mindful about the energy that you're creating in your business and ultimately surrounding yourself with.

Brigit:                    I love that, being more mindful and being more conscious because it's so easy to get caught up in the busyness of our business, unintended I guess. And we do need to slow down so that we can reflect and pause and feel into things. Beautiful.

Brigit:                    So I'd love to switch gears a little bit and talk about a concept called business chakras. Now, I have never thought about chakra system in terms of the business, so I am so fascinated to hear about how these two can really work together.

Ashley:                 I think this idea first came to me because of my work as an energy healer. I was so concerned with the energetic wellbeing of my clients, and keeping their chakras balanced, and keeping them aligned and healthy and whole.

Ashley:                 And as I started doing less and less sessions, and was focused more on myself as a teacher, and my online courses, I started to think about my own chakras and staying in alignment because I think that's really common for many entrepreneurs. We have to find that work life balance.

Ashley:                 I don't even know if 100% that truly exists. I think just like everything is kind of an ebb and flow, but I do think that I became more mindful of my own energy centers. And one day in meditation there was something in my business that was feeling really out of alignment for me.

Ashley:                 I couldn't even tell you what it was now, but I just went into meditation to really clear my mind and think about it from a fresh perspective. And I went into meditation and doing this visualization that I do quite frequently where I visualize all of my chakra centers opening up and awakening, and it dawned on me, you know what was really off in my business wasn't any one particular thing.

Ashley:                 It was that my business is this energetic being as well just like I am. And so I thought of my business as having its own chakras. I wanted to really look at what exactly was feeling out of alignment and how could I fix that.

Ashley:                 So I broke down all the different parts of my business, and really businesses as a whole, and then I related each of them to the different chakra centers. So if those who are listening aren't familiar with the chakras, these are these seven major energy centers that we all have and they relate to different parts of our physical body, different parts of our life, different kinds of emotions.

Ashley:                 And for your business, this is really similar concept. So we have the root chakra, which is found on a person at the base of the spine, and in your personal life it's really about your survival instinct, your life force energy, your career, protection.

Ashley:                 So in your business, this really corresponds to things like planning strategy because that's what provides a lot of the stability in your business. It's about bookkeeping, and accounting because that really has to do with your finances and your business' financial wellbeing.

Ashley:                 It also has to do with legal protections and insurance because that's where we get our feelings of security in our business. And also with accepting payments from customers and being comfortable with that money flowing in and out of our business.

Ashley:                 So if something feels off in my business in one of those areas, then I know that that's a root chakra imbalance for my business. So then I'll take an appropriate action to energetically boost things a little bit, clear them up in that area in my business.

Ashley:                 So for example, if I had an issue with one of those root chakra areas of my business, I might create a crystal grid to help me boost my business revenue if it was related to finances, or I might create a crystal grid that would help create more protection and security if I felt like there was something off with my legal protections and insurance.

Ashley:                 Now of course this isn't like the only thing I would do. You still have to take action on those items in your business, but it's something you can do to energetically support you and your business because your business is really this energetic being as well.

Ashley:                 There's a holistic approach that you can take to bringing your business back into alignment rather than just those day to day tasks and to do's. And for me, that really helped me

Brigit:                    I love it. Yes. How do you tap into these chakras? Is it through your visualization, or is there a different way that you do this?

Ashley:                 For the root chakras specifically, I normally work with that idea of creating a crystal grid, which is basically a sacred geometric arrangement of crystals. So crystals placed in a particular pattern to help get the energy flowing...

Ashley:                 ... because normally if there's an issue with those root chakra things like planning and strategy, bookkeeping and accounting, accepting payments or the legal protections and insurance, it's because there's a breakdown somewhere.

Ashley:                 Energy has become stagnant, and you need to get things moving again. So in order to do that, my go to is that crystal grid. Then we have the sacral chakra of our business, which is the emotional center of our business.

Ashley:                 So that's related to things like networking with your colleagues, creating those heart to heart connections. Connection to your customers and your audience, or expressing that purpose or the really big why of your business.

Ashley:                 And it's also about your creative influence in your business, especially when it comes to the development of your products and services or your content. So if something feels off in one of those areas, I'll work with a piece of selenite or another really cleansing crystal like a clear quartz to go through and cleanse the physical space of my office or wherever your business is located, cleansing out that energy.

Ashley:                 But you can also do this with sound like with a cymbal, or just keeping a little bell on your desk to ring. It just helps get rid of that stagnant emotional energy that's weighing down your creativity, and your heart opening ability to connect with your customers and your colleagues.

Ashley:                 And for the solar plexus, this is that mental powerhouse of your business, and it's related to things like making tough business decisions, things that feel really draining mentally. It's also about delegating tasks and managing projects and your team.

Ashley:                 It can be about scheduling appointments or ordering inventory, all those really logical and analytical things. And it's also about putting your plans into action and implementing strategies to get things done.

Ashley:                 So if you find that something's off in this area, I personally really like wearing crystals because a lot of times when we think about the force behind that energetic powerhouse in our business, it's us as entrepreneurs, and we find that maybe we aren't meeting deadlines, or getting projects completed on time, or accomplishing our tasks because we're a little worn down.

Ashley:                 So I love to just bring in the energy of something like Golden Tigers Eye or citrine, which relate to that solar plexus and wear them as a pendant, or a bracelet, or a ring because they'll give you that boost of energy that you need to get through those tasks.

Ashley:                 But they also provide a lot of mental clarity for some of those deeper decision-making tasks like which direction to go with your strategy or something like that.

Brigit:                    And say if a chakra is either... I'm imagining it as being overactive or underactive, then the thing to balance that out, is it the same, or do you do a different action if it's overactive versus if it's underactive? I hope that makes sense.

Ashley:                 It does. That's such a great question. You definitely could do that. I find any time the energy is overactive somewhere, it's because you're probably paying too much attention to that one area of your business and neglecting another area.

Ashley:                 So I would say re-channeling, refocusing or redirecting that energy to another chakra that's underactive would be the remedy or cure there. And if you find that the energy is underactive, that's where these extra little energetic tasks, or little to do is that I'm giving you, these little rituals for your business.

Ashley:                 That's where these really come in handy to help give you a little boost in that area. But I'd say if you feel that there's one area that's really overactive, that you have too much of those decision making tasks on your plate or too many appointments, then chances are that's because you've neglected a different one of the chakras, and look at a way that you could support that chakra instead, and refocus that excess energy there.

Brigit:                    That's interesting. Yes. Because as you've been talking, I've been tuning in just mentally and energetically to the chakras of my business. And when I saw the base chakra, it looks like this, it's like on fire. It's like it's burning up like fire wheels spinning around, and I'm thinking, gosh, I think that is a little bit over active.

Brigit:                    And particularly because I've been thinking a lot about our finances and meeting revenue goals, and growth, and all that sort of thing. And certainly in the last couple of weeks I've been feeling like maybe I'm channeling too much attention into this space, and it's becoming an agitation to the system versus energizing, right?

Brigit:                    So that's really curious then about shifting some of that energy perhaps into other chakras along the system. Is that just then a matter of tuning into each of the other chakras and seeing that one feels like it has less energy around it?

Ashley:                 Yes. And you can do this energetically, or you can do it logically by really analyzing these different areas and going, okay, where am I dropping the ball? Or where is my attention not flowing?

Ashley:                 I'm actually really glad that you brought this point up because it's okay for one of those chakras to be a little overstimulated temporarily. So say you were doing a big launch in your business or something like that, of course for that time you might be a little bit more focused on those root chakra energies like your planning and strategy, and your revenue goals, and that all make sense.

Ashley:                 But what we can't do is stay in that energy for an extended period of time, or we're going to experience burnout in that area, or those other areas are going to become truly neglected rather than just put on the back burner for a short period of time.

Brigit:                    Beautiful. And I'm also seeing it from looking at things a little bit more logically or a bit more consciously versus energetically. This could be such a beautiful like audit that you do on your business each month.

Brigit:                    For example, I do something called a CEO day every month where I really take a step out, and I look at our overall strategy, and I makes sure that all of our projects are aligned with that, and I know what I need to do and what the team needs to do.

Brigit:                    Perhaps these could be really good times too to just check in around the seven chakra systems, how am I feeling about safety, and security, and money within the business? How am I feeling about creativity and connection and so on. Do you use these on a regular basis in your business?

Ashley:                 Absolutely. For me, this is something that comes up pretty regularly, and I would say this is one of those ways that I really incorporate intuition into my work is anytime something just feels off or it feels like something's really not flowing, say there's something...

Ashley:                 For example, my team and I just we're wrapping up a launch right now for my crystal healing certification program, and we were trying to implement a new strategy that was a content driven strategy that related to our launch.

Ashley:                 And it was like no matter what we did, we just couldn't get all the pieces figured out, we just couldn't get it to work. And I thought, geez, why is this so challenging right now? Why is this so off?

Ashley:                 So those are those times, especially to do one of these little audits, one of these little check-ins, and just go through about that specific issue that you're facing, and you can even look at the chakra centers or energy centers for that specific issue and look at that, break it down piece by piece and go, okay, what is it specifically that's not flowing about this project or this procedure or way of doing something?

Ashley:                 Or this team member, or this relationship that I have with a colleague. You can really apply this to something really specific or take that monthly day, your entrepreneur day and do a little audit of your whole business and look at all these different areas, and what's getting a lot of intention? What's doing great? And what could use a little boost of energy? What could use a little improvement?

Brigit:                    Neat. I love it. The example that you shared with a new content strategy and having lots of moving parts to it. I think this is really interesting because I think as intuitive entrepreneurs and in intuitive business you can say, yep, awesome. We go with the flow with, everything is of ease, and simplify and all this good stuff.

Brigit:                    However, I believe once you've grown your business close to that seven figure mark and beyond, I do think complexity really starts to infiltrate the organization. It is part of the growth. So I'm curious around how you personally go about balancing the complexity that seems to be associated with further growth and further scaling of the business with also that intuitive need to simplify, be in flow, create the space.

Brigit:                    Have you got a solution? Have you got a way of doing things?

Ashley:                 I think that's something I'm definitely still figuring out. In my business, we've really grown very, very quickly over the past two years, especially in the past year. And for me, I think the way that I handle that best is by really stepping into my CEO shoes, and taking those really complex issues to my team, and asking for some feedback and going, okay, here's where we're at with this specific issue.

Ashley:                 I would love some feedback about this. What's everybody feeling logically and what's everybody feeling intuitively? And I'll just check in with each of my team members because as you know, when you have a very complex business, chances are you're not doing it all on your own anymore.

Ashley:                 And I really, really value the input and opinions and feedback from my team members, so I'll take all of those different points of view and thoughts into consideration because sometimes I'll discover that the reason maybe our new content plan isn't working is because we were only thinking about it from the perspective of the people who work on marketing and not the people who work on community management or something like that.

Ashley:                 And so usually it's just that there's a piece of that puzzle missing, and for me it's just about letting everybody express where they're at with something. And like I said, stepping into those CEO shoes, evaluating that problem from a bird's eye view, really kind of scaling outward a little bit and looking at the whole big picture, and then kind of making a decision to move forward from there.

Ashley:                 And just allowing yourself the space to go, okay, I'm making the best decision I can right now with the information that I have. I'm letting my intuition fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and just know that you can always course correct if it doesn't work out.

Ashley:                 So normally my biggest thing that makes me so sad is when I see other entrepreneurs just get stuck, either afraid to make a decision and go forward, or feel like they have to have everything perfectly figured out before they put something into practice.

Ashley:                 And I'm not saying make your decisions willy-nilly, or start like a full charge, full speed ahead forward on something that you haven't really thought through. But if you have that plan that's good enough, sometimes you just have to go with it and allow your intuition to guide you the rest of the way.

Brigit:                    Yes. And do you have an example of that?

Ashley:                 Oh boy, that is a good question. Yeah, I think... Okay. Here's an example. I suppose it's not something that's really fully out there yet, but I've been so connected with the moon for the past two years or so, and I actually just released a book about working with crystals and lunar energy called cosmic crystals.

Ashley:                 And I really wanted to create a monthly membership around this idea where we would have full moon circles. We would all connect as healers, as light workers and do little moon rituals and ceremonies together.

Ashley:                 So I was really feeling like this was the direction to go with my business, but we started to put the pieces into place and started to move forward with figuring out what would be included with the content, how it would be delivered, getting our branding person, and our website developer on board and all of these different things, and then realized we were in one of those places where it just wasn't flowing, it wasn't in alignment.

Ashley:                 So when I talked with all the members of my team, what really came out was that although yes, we could do that, it would really be difficult at the timing that we were looking at to do that for the people that work on marketing with the school.

Ashley:                 Although it worked and flowed and a lot of other areas, it wouldn't have exactly been in alignment with our marketing team, or with the other launches that we were trying to accomplish. There actually just wasn't enough space like you were talking about spaciousness, we did not have that.

Ashley:                 And so yeah, by really looking at that, I had to go, okay, even though I felt really ready to go and move on this project, and it wasn't that I was necessarily stopping or not going forward. I had to realize that what was coming out of that was that it wasn't the right timing.

Ashley:                 And sometimes you have to give yourself permission to take a step back from something, even if it's something you're so excited and passionate about. And so for me, that was a big one of those times where I had to listen to my intuition and go, okay, even though it's something that your heart wants and that your mind really wants, the intuition was saying, you know, the energy isn't flowing, it's not going.

Ashley:                 It feels a little bit like an uphill battle right now. And then upon further discussion with my team, I uncovered later the reason why that was, and it was that lack of spaciousness. So I had to just be okay with that intuition that was telling me that this wasn't flowing like it should, so it must not be the right time.

Ashley:                 And sometimes that can be the hardest thing actually saying no to an idea that we have. But that was a challenge for me because it was something I was so excited about. And instead creating that spaciousness gave us time to come up with a better plan.

Ashley:                 We're now rolling out those pieces a little bit at a time, but because it didn't happen how I had initially planned strategically, I'm allowing myself that space to be a little bit more in the flow and let my intuition guide each next step as it feels right.

Brigit:                    And I'm thinking very much of this contrast between when you first start your business, because I know that when you first start, you get these ideas and you can implement them in like a weekend and you put it out there, and yay, 10 people just bought it, and you're like, yes, I've done it.

Brigit:                    And then growth happens, you start to grow a bigger team, you're reaching a lot more people and things start to stretch out in terms of how long it takes to implement and that you need to be patient. You need to look at all of the different moving parts. You can't just get that single burst of an idea and do something with it.

Brigit:                    I'm curious how that's playing out for you in terms of I don't know, managing perhaps your creativity. Also you being very multi-passionate, how do you make sure that you're nurturing your creative needs while also nurturing the needs of the business and the team and your community?

Ashley:                 This is such a good question and I'm really glad that you brought up this dichotomy that exists between when you are a solo entrepreneur and you're doing everything on your own, and things move very quickly to having a team.

Ashley:                 You'd think that a team would make things move faster, but I think there's such a difference that I see in the growth of the business from where I first started where, yeah, exactly like you said, if I had an idea, there was something I wanted to do, I could really just be inspired and in the moment by that creative process, go through it and promote it a little bit.

Ashley:                 But now if there's something that I want to create, there's probably a good six month lead time, like no joke between when I have it ready to go and when it actually is released to our audience and our community.

Ashley:                 And that can definitely be difficult when you are really excited and passionate about something, but I think it's the difference between doing it and doing it well. So before when I was doing everything on my own, I was doing it, and I was making these great things, and I was sharing them, but obviously my results were nearly the same in terms of our revenue goals and that kind of thing.

Ashley:                 And just the number of people that you get to reach and touch with what you're creating in your business. Whereas now, even though there is this longer lead time, our team really does everything very well, and that's something that I'm so proud of.

Ashley:                 And I think in the end it just goes back to that adage that patience is a virtue, and ultimately when you have that patience and you can see what the end goal is, and what it will look like, how many people you're going to be able to inspire and touch with your work and what you're doing, it really makes it all worth it.

Ashley:                 And I think the way that I've been dealing with this is, we're really broken down in my team into pretty succinct roles. And of course there's always a lot of crossover and blurred lines, especially because we're a pretty small team and we all kind of need to be in the loop about what's going on with a project.

Ashley:                 But for me, I think just having those distinctive roles has really helped that execution for that larger scale project management. And it's been a really interesting process watching that shift happen.

Ashley:                 And so in terms of me staying in the flow of my creativity, I think that's where the benefit of having a really well organized and role-based team comes into play because I have the support for the marketing, and the community management, and the media and PR that I really need, and it allows me more time to focus on those creative aspects.

Ashley:                 Whereas before, yes, I got to be a little bit more doing things on a whim, but then I also had all the responsibility of making sure that our work got delivered and it got promoted correctly. And I think that that really did cut down on my creative time.

Ashley:                 And even now that I still have quite a bit of time managing my team, they are so supportive in taking some of those other things off of my plate so that I can really be in that flow. And I have time blocks each week, and they're not always set on the same day or at the same time of day, but I do have a schedule that's... This is going to sound so strange to share it out, but it's sticky note based.

Ashley:                 It is a sticky note based schedule, and I just have different things written down that I like to work on like business development training for myself for creative projects, whether that is content creation, or developing something new for a course, or deciding to just spur the moment, do a pop up class for my existing students.

Ashley:                 I have these little creative blocks of time, and so all these things are written down on sticky notes, and at the beginning of the week I just decided, okay, what do I feel like working on? What feels really in the flow for me right now?

Ashley:                 And I'll take that sticky note, which has maybe bookkeeping that's an hour, and I'll get that checked off my list and move it to my finished board. And then I'll maybe move into my creative time.

Ashley:                 And I have four creative blocks of an hour each that I allow myself so that when I'm feeling like I really want to do something creative and fun and really be in that flow where it doesn't necessarily feel like a chore, I can pull that off that board and still feel like I'm working towards something in my business even if it's something that... It's really just nurturing for me.

Brigit:                    Oh, love it. I'm going to be doing this because just yesterday, I was working on my schedule for the next month, and I literally scheduled down to the hour so I know exactly what I'm doing like on the 29th of September, which is in a month from when we were recording this, and I start to feel really trapped by it.

Brigit:                    But I really like this idea of having the sticky note. So it's still like scheduled spontaneity in a way. You've got these blocks of time where you've got the freedom to choose what you put in it, but you know that it's in there, and so you have still that structure around it.

Brigit:                    I really like it. I'm going to try that out.

Ashley:                 And it works because if you get to the end of the week and there's those like two things that you really don't want to do, you'll at least know what you still have on your plate. And the thing that I found is if you get to the end of your week and you consistently have those same two or three things that you always put off until the last day, those are the things to start delegating to other people.

Ashley:                 They're obviously not your passion, they're not in your genius zone, and it feels so good to get them off your plate. But for me, I've tried, I so desperately want to be that person that can have my schedule broken down hour to hour, but I just know me and I'm such a rebel.

Ashley:                 And if that is something that I don't want to do in that moment, I'm just not going to do it at all, and instead this gives me a little bit more freedom so that I can manage those tasks and tackle those tasks when it feels okay, or when I feel in the flow of that.

Brigit:                    Brilliant. I love it. I know what I'm doing this afternoon. I'm going to shift around my schedule a little more.

Brigit:                    Excellent. So Ashley, what's coming up for you over the next six to 12 months?

Ashley:                 Oh my goodness. We have so many things. We're taking my crystal healing certification program, which is our flagship program. There's something we've been launching twice a year for I think three or four years now.

Ashley:                 It used to be a completely evergreen program, and then we switched to launches, which I think were so good, but I've really been seeing a big shift and I think lots of my colleagues have too in the way that launches are behaving, and in the way that our audiences are responding.

Ashley:                 So we're actually going to be switching that over to a semi evergreen model, which I'm very, very about. So we'll have an opportunity for new leads to enroll in that program based on a deadline funnel timer, and then we'll still launch twice a year, but we'll have these other opportunities for people to get into the program for the people that just simply don't want to wait around, they want it now.

Brigit:                    Yes.

Ashley:                 So that's exciting. And then we'll be taking a few of our other programs, revamping them, doing updated content. That's one of the things that's so important to me. I love my community and I love creating new things for them.

Ashley:                 And there've been a few programs that have been sitting on the shelf for just a little bit too long at this point and really needs some TLC. So some brand new content, videos and all that great stuff.

Ashley:                 We've actually just completely revamped our content schedule and calendar as well, so we're going to be incorporating a lot more video into our work.

Brigit:                    Yes. It's funny, I'm seeing so many parallels because we're certainly shifting away from the launch model and more into the evergreen. I think like why have we got everything on white list when really why can't someone just start now? If they want to start now, like let's welcome them in.

Brigit:                    So I think we'll be shifting to that a lot more next year. And then also... Oh, what was the last point that you just made? I remember-

Ashley:                 More video.

Brigit:                    All the videos. Yes. We are looking at video as well. I feel like I'm a bit of a latecomer. Those that do because I've seen so many people jump on the videos in these last couple of years and I think, oh yeah, I probably should've done that earlier.

Ashley:                 It's a weird, I actually got my start with like building my little community online by doing video, like really bad, bad YouTube videos. You can still see them if you go to my YouTube channel, they are not good, they are not professional.

Ashley:                 But I used to host these when I very first started my business and I was trying to move things from in-person to online. I would host these, ask a crystal healer nights, and I just had a little opt in page. People could sign up for the event, they could come, it was totally free, and for one to two hours I would just sit and answer questions about crystals, and I would do this all live.

Ashley:                 And then I'd take those videos and chop them up, those events that were recorded, chop them up into the individual question and answer portions, and then pop those on YouTube. And this was like back in 2007, so 12 years ago, really long time ago.

Ashley:                 And I probably did it that way for maybe two years and I really grew my YouTube channel that way. I think that's obviously very different now. You can't quite get away with that quality on YouTube, but I think people went a little bit more to the extreme in the other direction and they came out with these overly produced, overly professional videos.

Ashley:                 And although I love that, I envy the people that have those resources and skills, which I just don't possess at all. I think that there's a big comeback in more personalized, authentic videos.

Ashley:                 We've actually been seeing a big uptick in just vertical videos that we do on Facebook Live and things like that. So that's given me a little confidence that I'm so glad that this is something that we share.

Ashley:                 It's makes me feel a little bit better about the way that we're shifting because yeah, I feel like I'm getting back into YouTube now, because we got away from it for so long and just had other focuses.

Ashley:                 But is something I'm actually really excited about, and it's one of those things that feels like a puzzle that I get to solve.

Brigit:                    Yes, indeed. And as you're looking forward to these next six to 12 months, what new aspect of yourself do you feel that you are expressing or evolving into?

Ashley:                 Oh, I guess there's two parts. There's personal and professional I think. On a professional... Well, I guess this is both on a personal and professional level. I'm so much an introvert and it's a challenge for me, but an exciting challenge to really be the face of my brand and my business, and really put myself totally fully out there.

Ashley:                 I'm fairly comfortable on camera, I'm fairly comfortable talking on podcasts and things like that, but when it comes to things like Instagram or these new kinds of YouTube videos, it's really intimidating for me.

Ashley:                 And I don't necessarily have a fear of being judged or anything like that, it's more just, I don't know, it's like scary doing all that. It seems like a lot of work. And so I'm really trying to step into this energy of being willing able to challenge myself and looking at the things that I don't necessarily posses as like innate skills or abilities and challenging myself to grow a little bit.

Ashley:                 So things that feel scary or outside of my comfort zone as an introvert, really looking at doing more to learn and grow as a person, and as a CEO of my company, it's something that I'm nervous about, but I'm looking forward to at the same time.

Ashley:                 I guess for the next 12 months, one thing I'm doing personally to really help me with that is I'm doing a ton of traveling. I'm an anxious person by nature and it is a little scary and outside of my comfort zone to travel...

Ashley:                 ... but also as an entrepreneur it's something that I'm excited about because it affords me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, to do some events and workshops in different locations, to get some beautiful photos taken for my business in lots of different places around the world.

Ashley:                 And although it's scary, it's something that I'm really excited about.

Brigit:                    I love it. Entrepreneurship is the best personal development course you'll be able to do.

Ashley:                 That is a well said.

Brigit:                    Fabulous. So Ashley, where can people find out more about you?

Ashley:                 The best place to find out more about this school and me and what we do is at our website loveandlightschool.com. You can find tons of great information, articles, videos, our podcast over there, especially of course, if you love learning about crystals.

Ashley:                 We also have our blog posts you might be interested in called Balance Your Business Chakras. It actually goes through all seven of the business chakras, what they relate to in your business, and what you can do to actually develop them.

Ashley:                 And there's even a little free ebook there that you can download and keep it with you and do it like a little workbook, which is fun. And then of course I am on Facebook at Love & Light School, and also on Instagram.

Brigit:                    Fantastic. Awesome. Well, it's been super fun to chat with you today, Ashley. I've really enjoyed hearing about the business chakras, and also a little bit more of that behind the scenes of the business side. So thank you so much for sharing with us. I really appreciate it.

Ashley:                 Oh, it was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Brigit:                    Thank you for joining me for today's episode of the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you love 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.

Brigit:                    And if you want weekly inspiration to help you trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create huge business success, then head on over to brigit.me and sign up for my free weekly emails. That's B-R-I-G-I-T.me.

Brigit:                    See you there.