If you prefer a video version, here you go! (It’s very listenable too) If not, just scroll down.
If you’re here you’re probably into cards. Maybe you’ve been reading cards for a while and you love it! You’ve been practicing, pulling spreads for yourself and maybe ventured into reading for others. You may be feeling a bit nervous about branching out and taking the next step…but you would like to gain more confidence in your reading abilities and maybe even make an income from your readings.
Imagine having a card reading side hustle that feels rewarding to you your clients. You are not only growing your card reading, intuitive, and psychic abilities but you’re helping others while being well compensated for your time energy.
But…I know this can seem a bit far away. If you’ve spent any time down the google rabbit hole of starting a tarot/card reading business online, then you KNOW how confusing it seems to start. What is even the first step? There is SOOO much noise it’s hard to know what to focus on. Do I start a Tiktok, a Youtube channel? A podcast? Do I have to learn Instagram ads?!?! It’s overwhelming to say the least.
So…let’s STOP and breathe. Here, I’m going to share your first 3 steps to get started with your card reading business. Some of these are basic, but after mentoring various new tarot readers, our brains can skip over these very basic things and jump 20 steps ahead. I also have a freebie you can snag with a game changing worksheet.
Many of you know me but I’m Emily Rose. I am a Lenormand teacher and card reader. I’ve been reading cards since I was 12 years old. Although I now have a full time business reading and teaching Lenormand, it started as a side hustle. For about 5 years, I grew my reading clientele while holding down a 9-5 job. Over the years, I’ve learned a bit along the way that I want to share with you here.
As always, the advice here is not meant to be legal advice. Please use these as ideas and use your own logic, intuition and discretion.
Make sure you stick around for all 3 points. I wish someone would have told me these steps when I first started! Okay, let’s get into it!
Step 1
Make your practice readings count
It’s pretty basic that if we want to read professionally, we need to have a strong grasp of the cards we are using and a strong understanding of our abilities. Although courses are great and important to learning the foundations your craft, at some point it’s time to get your hands dirty and start reading for others. These can be friends, family, anyone who wants to practice with you.
Now I get it, this can be a bit scary at first, but you can be transparent with people. You can say something like…hey I’m learning how to read tarot. Would you like to help me practice? This way, you’re being honest about where you’re at in the process and the person can give full consent to the experience.
After you have a basic foundation of your craft, whether that’s Tarot, Lenormand, Oracle, Astrology, or something else, I do recommend reading for other people as soon as possible. I teach a Lenormand course called Lenormand Foundations and I can always tell the students that are reading for others because they improve quickly and add in nuance to their readings that can only be gained from experience.
Once we are reading for others, we may start noticing some readings feel GREAT and light us up. This can be because we are genuinely helping the person or maybe we LOVE the questions that they bring the experience. And on the flip side, some readings may feel…not so great and we are drained after the reading.
At first glance it may be tough to pin down why some readings are so great and some aren’t. So that’s why it’s CRUCIAL to reflect on the readings you do. Why did this reading feel amazing or why did this one feel draining? Overtime, you’ll begin to notice commonalities that will grow and improve your practice over time. The more on top of it you are about collecting your experiences, the faster and easier your practice will progress.
Now, reflection is really only helpful if you have the right questions to ask yourself. So, I created a free worksheet and audio lesson for you with the questions I wished I would have asked myself from day 1 of reading for others. The worksheet is called client iq which stands for ideal querent and you can find it at this link.
This worksheet is designed to be used after each reading you do to collect your experiences so you can review them holistically and notice the commonalities. There’s also an accompanying audio lesson that where I teach a big perspective shift that helped me to further grow my own reading business.
Once you have a good number of practice readings under your belt, you have a fistful of Client IQ worksheets filled out and you’re starting to feel a bit of confidence, it’s time for step 2.
Step 2
Create a streamlined booking process for your clients.
What I mean by this is set up a way for people to schedule with you, pay you, and receive their reading.
All these steps are important but THIS one I learned later on and I would have saved myself sooo much time and headache if I would have implemented this sooner. I mentor emerging readers and when they get to this step of actually charging for readings, I notice some get a bit resistant to this step they may think…people can just email me to set up a reading or text me and I’ll manually set a date and time. I don’t have a system to do this because I don’t have a giant business.
But I HIGHLY recommend creating a streamlined booking process. And here’s specifically what I mean by that. Take the time to set up a basic calendar app so people can schedule a time with you, a way for people to pay you, and a consistent way to deliver your readings. I highly recommend setting this up as soon as you begin accepting money for readings. And you want to make this as low touch for you as possible meaning you want it to be seamless for yourself and your client.
If you don’t have a process set up…reading for clients gets inconvenient REALLY fast.
Think about how much time you would spend going back and forth with someone trying to decide when and how you are going to do the reading. And then with payment, fumbling around with cash and what if you don’t have change or they want to pay you with venmo but you only have cash app.
Also, it gets confusing if you have 5 different ways for someone to receive a reading from you. If you sometimes conduct your readings via Zoom, but then you also do Skype or email or by recorded video. A client can become overwhelmed when trying to book with you if all these things are up in the air and becomes time consuming for them to schedule. People’s lives are busy and if you’re asking them to make a lot of decisions in the booking process, they are going to get decision fatigue and fall off.
You will be doing yourself and your clients a FAVOR by creating an easy streamlined process for them to schedule, pay, and receive their reading.
Although this could be a whole separate video, here are some places to start when it comes to scheduling, paying, and receiving a reading. None of this is sponsored by the way.
Many scheduling softwares have a free option such as Acuity or Calendly. You can set your availability on your calendar and your client can simply go in to schedule. It really doesn’t matter which apps you choose as long as you jive with it.
If you pay for a slightly more premium version of a scheduling software, clients can pay directly through this app. It’s really convenient. Of course there are many other options as well.
For delivering your reading: although there are many ways to do this and you may change it over time, I recommend selecting one or two methods of delivery to start. This doesn’t mean you can’t change it, I think I’ve over the years offered readings 5 or 6 different ways before settling on the platforms I enjoy using.
Let yourself get GOOD at how you deliver your readings.
Picking one or two options is going to be SOOO much easier then letting your client pick between every possible option. For instance, if you use Zoom exclusively, you will become proficient quickly in using it after you do a handful of readings with it. You’ll learn the ins and outs, what problems may or may not occur, how to troubleshoot with your client. You don’t want to have to learn this for every possible video conferencing software right? Reading cards is hard enough - you don’t want to constantly switch your tech and add difficulty that doesn’t need to be there.
Spend the time it takes to set this up, it will be the best time you have spent for your reading business.
So that’s step 2, create a streamlined booking process for your clients. Once you have this set up it’s time for Step 3…
Step 3
Tell people about your offer, again, and again and again.
This is often where the overwhelm sets in because this is where the wild wild west of social media and the internet comes into play. I see 2 scenarios with readers. They either pour their heart and soul into their social media and get caught in the loop of giving and giving and giving your beautiful content away for free without seeing the results you want. OR I see people get completely overwhelmed and they think that they are bothering people by sharing their offer and then they kind of shrink away. I get it.
The overwhelm is REAL. I mean there are probably millions of videos out there about which social media platform is best, how to work an algorithm to your advantage, blah blah blah and we can get stuck in the researching loop forever and never take action…I was here before so NO shade if this sounds like you.
But here’s the thing…I’ve grown a great business with a pretty SMALL social media following. How is this possible?
Most of the clients I read for, I retain. They come back year after year, again and again. They then tell their friends and family and that’s the highest compliment I can receive. When someone refers a loved one to me. The chain continues and over 5 years, I have a beautiful client base.
But this did NOT start by going viral on social media to get clients (of course you can do that, that’s awesome).
The main way I grew my client base is by simply telling people in my circle that I do readings, what problems I can help them with, and what they can gain from a session with me. I told friends, family, people I would meet out and about. I then told them explicitly HOW to schedule a reading with me through my streamlined booking process.
Eventually, I got fancy and started a website and a blog but for the first year, I simply promoted my readings by word of mouth and by signing up to do in person readings at a local bookstore.
Of course an email list, social media, and all of that can factor in. These are great ways to share what you do. But I get it, it can feel SUPER cringy to promote yourself. And even though you told your audience last week that you’re offering readings, guess what? You need to tell them again!
People are SUPER busy. Let me tell you, they probably don’t even remember that you told them before. Or perhaps they meant to book with you but then their baby started crying or they got an important work call and they forgot all about it. Perhaps they need to see your posts 5+ times in order to actually have an opportunity to hit that schedule button.
But what if I am annoying people? If folks do get tired of seeing your stuff, they’re not your people. They’re probably never going to book with you or provide you with positive comments, or actively engage with your material, so they are welcome to see themselves out. It can sound harsh, but it’s true.
Overall though, we truly don’t know what people are thinking. So we need to make the offer again and again and again and give people the opportunity to actually understand what you’re offering and decide if it’s right for them. Some people need time.
Okay, so now you are equipped with what your first steps toward beginning your card reading business. BUT, have you grabbed your Client IQ worksheet yet?
This worksheet will guide you through the questions to ask yourself after EVERY client reading you do and can be instrumental in making your client readings more fulfilling and down the line, more lucrative.
You are smart. You have gifts to share. You can do this!
Thanks for being here with me :-) Pop your questions in the comments below!