📸 Photo by Wout Vanacker on Unsplash
Happy birthday, Tarot by Hilary DOT COM!
This past weekend, tarotbyhilary.com turned SEVEN! If my website were a kid, it’s old enough to play Little League and skin its knee hopping fences and climbing trees.
On my website’s birthday, I like to look back and see how far it (and I) have come with my tarot business. Would you believe that I’ve been reading for money since 2005, but didn’t have my own URL until 6 years later?
Walk down memory lane with my biz.
And now:
I used to give readings for free over email, and had a geocities site. It looked like crap. It did. Nothing like what you see now.
I’m so glad I resisted that voice in my head that said I wasn’t good enough to enter the Tarot Apprentice Contest!
10 things I’ve learned owning and operating tarotbyhilary.com:
- Don’t hide your talents. It’s what makes you unique to this world.
- If you are not happy, take the steps to change the situation. If you cannot change the situation, change your perspective.
- Examine your excuses so you can find out where your fears lie, and where they are not real. I was afraid I was going to get in trouble with the IRS for my tarot business, so I did nothing. Don’t do nothing. Learn the laws. Educate yourself and you may end your fears.
- Imposter Syndrome is a very real thing, and has long-reaching effects and consequences. It usually keeps even the brightest and best of us playing small. Don’t listen to the lies that your Imposter Syndrome is telling you. You are capable of more.
- You gotta spend money to make money. A cliche, but true nonetheless. But if you keep up to date with your bookkeeping and use a spreadsheet… who knows what success you can have! There are also plenty of ways to advertise for free or on the cheap. Applying a creative brain to it helps. And the phrase “I’m just not a business person” is… guess what? Yup. An excuse.
- The time you put into your business is well worth it and usually results in huge ways.
- A mentor is a wonderful thing. They push us so much further than we ourselves are willing to go. A mentor keeps you accountable when you’d rather hide under the covers and not do anything. They allow us to grow and flourish under their watchful eyes. They can help us avoid costly mistakes because they’ve been there before us.
- No one’s going to do your work for you. In business. In life. I’m one of those tarot readers that loves to give homework before you leave my table. Yes, I’m your reader, so I’m invested in you: but not as much as you have to be in yourself. It’s surprising how many people want me to wave a magic wand for them. That’s not how tarot works. That’s not how [insert tarot, being psychic, intuition, prediction, etc.] works.
- My existence is not your parlor trick to walk around or put on display. It is always my choice who I read for and when. Including who I read for for free. But it’s at my discretion. Always.
- Stop being jealous or envious of other people that you perceive as “ahead” of you. We all have our own timetables and timelines. Some of it shared, and some of it unique. Our perspective is always going to be unique, even if the experience shared.
I’ll sum up the biggest lessons.
- Keep your ethics intact. You can’t fake integrity, and you can’t fake ethics.
- Treat your business like a business.
- People are weird.
Much love and blessings,
~*~Hilary~*~
www.tarotbyhilary.com
hilary@tarotbyhilary.com
Book your reading here.
HILARY PARRY HAGGERTY is a tarot reader, witch, mentor, editor, and teacher. She has been reading tarot for over 21 years (13 years professionally). She was the winner of Theresa Reed’s (The Tarot Lady) Tarot Apprentice contest in 2011, and has taught classes on tarot and spell-work at The Tarot School’s annual tarot conference Readers Studio and at Brid’s Closet Beltane Festival. She writes a weekly blog on tarot at her website www.tarotbyhilary.com and has been featured in Maxim Magazine and BuzzFeed.
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© Hilary Parry Haggerty | Tarot by Hilary
Happy Birthday Hillary! Congratulations. You are an inspiration. My, you’re getting better with age.
Awwww, thank you, Susan! You are pretty awesome yourself!
Hilary recently posted…Happy Birthday, Website! 10 Things I’ve Learned Owning and Operating tarotbyhilary.com