Featured Practitioner: "How I Learned to Convert My Intuition into Rent"
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Violetta Pleshakova is this issue’s featured practitioner. With fire, stars, magic & her own brilliance, she shares a reflection of her own path and four lessons she learned along the way.
So, how exactly does one convert claircognizanse into cash, and transmute intuitive gifts into groceries and rent?
That’s the question that hit me immediately after I transitioned from “normal” life coaching into intuitive mentoring and other pursuits that are heavily loaded with mystery and magic. Here are the most important things I have learned while trying to find answers.
One: Being brave is irresistible.
There I was, in early 2016, staring at my computer screen.
The screen displayed a post I have drafted to announce my new offering: Akashic Records readings. Everyone and their hamster are going into the Records now, so it is not as exotic as it was just some years ago. I should probably claim my title as a prophetess, because the inevitable normalization and popularity of the Records was summarized by yours truly in that fateful 2016 post. The image that went with my post literally pronounced: “Akashic Records are the new coaching”. Am I right or am I right?
It took me a while to hit “post” on that offer, but within mere hours after I did that, I was booked out with the exact amount of clients I wanted to have! A miracle? A streak of good luck? Fortunate timing? Perhaps. But more than any of that, I attribute the success of that particular promotion to the fact that I had decided to lean into my edge and go all “woo” on the offering. The statement about the Akashic Records being the new coaching had a ring of boldness to it, and the wording of my offering was free from any trace of dumbing it down, or trying to make intuitive work palatable for the masses. I thought to myself then: if I am to do this, I am going to go all in, or not at all. So all in and full out I was – from then onwards. Even though it scared the living daylight out of me at the moment of posting (hello, witch wound). Even though I was nervously pacing my apartment thinking, what have I done, who on earth would want this, I will get burnt at the stake all over again.
Obviously, none of the above happened. My bravery was rewarded. Then and one hundred times over.
Did it get easier with time? Hell yes. I have zero problem posting “far out” content these days, regardless of the occasional snarky comments my mom gets from her church-going friends who (for whatever reason) read my witchy posts via Google translate.
I learned that it gets easier due to the fact that I have cultivated the ability to walk between the worlds and share my journey generously, without sugar-coating or editing it. I know it for a fact that highly concentrated unfiltered life energy is magnetic when shared, so I allow the totality of my commitment to this mystical path be felt through each and every word I say. I don’t do this only for myself in the sense of sharing my gifts and running my business – I do this for all those who were denied a voice, for all those still hiding their magic, and for all those who are currently summoning the courage to own it.
Two: Entrepreneurship is a spiritual path.
As life would have it, the initiation of my intuition-driven business coincided with my descent into the so-called “dark night of the Soul”. I found myself caught between the excitement of growing my intuitive business and the complete and utter demolition of everything I had known to be true (including a series consecutive deaths of all four of my beloved grandparents within the frame of 2,5 years). To give you a summary of how it all felt: I was depressed and nearly suicidal at times yet found myself deeply passionate about my purpose; driven to be the paradigm shifter I had always known myself to be while struggling to summon the energy to go full throttle; grieving and morning yet (re)birthing – myself as well as my offerings – all at the same time.
Looking back, I see those years as the hardest but also the most treasured time in my business. I am grateful for the fact that it has been that tough, because that’s how I discovered true commitment to my purpose and developed the ability to pursue it. It all helped me alchemize pain into wisdom that I can now share.
I learned to show up for my clients even when I did not want to show up for myself. A Course In Miracles was right in advising: “When you feel helpless, help someone”. Continuing to give to others contrary to the desire to collapse into my own pain was the best medicine I could have asked for.
Through those hard times I found my power core, my spiritual stamina, my undying devotion to the Priestess path. I say that entrepreneurship is a spiritual path, and I don’t say it lightly. This isn’t just a fact that I know, it’s a truth that I live.
Three: Inner work only works with outer action.
The ups and downs of my re-invention taught me to not get fooled by the New Age manifestation teachings, and to discern feminine energetical receptivity from dwelling in the shadows of avoidance, procrastination and helplessness.
I observed many colleagues spin in circles and never get their businesses off the ground (despite being insanely gifted psychics, healers, readers) all because of ignoring the masculine sides of business and getting too caught up in the quest for the Goddess. Nobody warns us that meditating with crystals is not a viable business strategy as a standalone, and that Full Moon abundance rituals are great add-ons but do not necessarily provide the foundations we need in order to build something stable in the 3D world.
My journey with this has been the one of arduous, at times uncomfortable, healing process of my inner masculine, and it is far from over. Yet I have come to realize that my path is the one of alchemy, where the mundane needs to marry the magical, where the human holds as much sacredness as the divine, and where Heaven and Earth get merged through cultivating solid foundations – as within so without.
Four: Success is non-linear.
Last but not least, I have to emphasize that authentic aligned success – the one that feeds your Soul while also inviting it to grow – does not come through taking shortcuts. That would be directly at odds with the path of a purpose-driven, heart-centered business. If I say that I am the real deal, I need to act like it – which comes with its own trials, lessons, initiations. Had I wanted to succeed quickly and made a load of money, I would have chosen a different path and a different industry altogether. I am not in this for glamour and glory, I am in this for my Soul’s truth. And that truth does not rest on a bed of roses.
I honestly don’t have the slightest clue how the narrative of straightforward linear success along the lines of “6 figures in 6 weeks” made its way into the service-based business space and managed to stick around long enough to mess with too many a brilliant brain. So I take it upon myself to dispel these myths through confirming one simple revelation: success comes from authenticity, and authenticity requires alignment. That alignment is a never-ending journey, a moment-by-moment calibration, a spectrum of sensations ranging from “omg yes this is it” to “something is seriously off here”.
And no external authority, expert, bestselling book, program or person can do this calibration for us. We have to dance this dance with the Universe, inviting dance more experienced dance partners (coaches, healers, mentors, consultants, other professionals) along the way to support us and guide us. We have to invent the dance moves along the way – our own moves, uniquely reflective of our Soul essences.
It is through engaging in this infinite dance, lifetime after lifetime, that we reach mastery. And yes, being able to pay rent through selling our “woo” is a side effect - but not the end goal - of this process.
Violetta Pleshakova is a transformational trainer, paradigm shifter, intuitive mentor, leadership coach, writer and creatrix of Temple of Starfire – the space where ancient wisdom meets modern magic.
She holds a PhD in cultural studies and has been leading personal development programs on three continents, with participants from over 30 countries., for nearly a decade.
Violetta’s work is powered by the mission of helping rising cosmic leaders own their magic, walk their brightest paths, and create authentic aligned success.
As a true citizen of the world, Violetta divides her time between South Africa, Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow and Southern France.
Follow her on Instagram @templeofstarfire and learn more about her work over at www.templeofstarfire.com
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