Guest Post from Fiona Benjamin : How to use Financial Sorcery by Jason Miller to build your small business
Presenting the first guest post on Strategic Sorcery, from Fiona Benjamin of Modern Fortune Teller fame.
I built my business using both mundane and spiritual means, with the guidance of Financial Sorcery by Jason Miller. Starting a small online business is absolutely terrifying, especially if you have zero background in business or entrepreneurship. When I took the plunge to become a professional fortune teller, I didn’t know the meaning of ‘customer service,’ how to write copy, how to create a launch sequence, bookkeeping, or budgeting. All I knew was that hey- I could read cards and I have a handful of positive reviews. Why not make a business out of this? I’m a spirit worker! How hard can it be?
A lot of friends that I have are in the same boat as I was four years ago, when I began my entrepreneurial journey. The beauty of a book like Financial Sorcery is that it is catered specifically to people like us- magical people who know that monetary circumstances can be changed with sorcery. However, if we are not sure what parts of our businesses are suffering, we can hardly begin to find the solution.
Idea and purpose
One of the first major problems that I had was the fact that I wanted to do it all. I wanted to work magic, read the cards, perform elaborate rituals, set lights, write a tarot deck, write a book, write a course- so I did. I did it all. I crashed. I burned. I failed.
The issue was that I was attempting to do way too much. If I was confusing myself, you can bet that my audience, too, was confused.
Financial Sorcery suggests understanding the idea and the market, through invocation or meditation, but to also pay special attention to omens and signs. I opted to use the tarot to figure out where my focuses should be. I had a major and a secondary focus- because if I burned out or failed with one, there is a backup I can work with. It is also a “way out” if I ever decide to leave my primary focus.
Examples:
Primary: Card reading
Secondary: Spells to ameliorate issues found in the card reading
Primary: Selling occult supplies
Secondary: E-course to teach specific uses of these occult supplies
Primary: Spells and rituals
Secondary: A book of spells and rituals so clients can DIY themselves.
How I implement this into my own business:
Primary: Fortune telling
Secondary: E-courses
Life is currently taking time away from my fortune telling aspect of business, so I have my e-course income to fall back on. If I was to completely quit fortune telling, I could bump my e-course up to my primary focus and source of income and bring in a different second- perhaps, writing a book or selling products.
If I needed a mental break, I could switch e-courses to my primary and bump fortune telling down to my secondary.
Having two focuses satisfies the need to do several things at once while gives more than one way for income to stream through.
Social Media and Marketing
The glyphs that can be found in Financial Sorcery are one of my favorite things to use, because of how easy it is to create and how versatile they are when it comes to doing the work.
It doesn’t matter how high quality my content was or how amazing and budget friendly my services were if there was no traffic coming to my website. People needed to know that I existed and they had to know that I am valuable. I needed to network with those in similar niches while grabbing the attention of those who could potentially be interested in my services.
The Viral Marketing glyph was perfect for this. I created a master copy of this glyph and placed it inside my cell phone case (it had a compartment for credit cards so there was no fire hazard). I chose my cell phone because I did the majority of my marketing through the apps on my smart phone.
I created virtual copies of this glyph and placed them into the headers of my Facebook page, Twitter page, and business card. Charged with the glyph, my business cards found its way to hands that were interested in paying for my services. On my social media pages, the glyph put my posts in front of eyes that were eager to hit “share” or “buy.”
Keep in mind that sorcery does not snap its fingers and create miracles out of thin air. As the sorcerer, you walk through a hallway of opportunity and the work bangs doors. It acts as a boost, strokes of luck, and/or an extra pair of eyes, ears, and hands. Glyphs will not do the work for you, but will assist you.
When selecting a glyph, be specific about why you are using the glyph and what it will be used for:
- Gain followers
- Create sales
- Networking
- Becoming an authority in your industry
- Protecting your business from income loss
You may think, “Fiona, I want ALL of the above!” Let your workings be specific to a purpose. It is better to use a “Viral Marketing” glyph specifically to gain followers than to use it to both gain followers and protect your business from income loss.
Vagueness has no place in business or sorcery. Dissect, pinpoint, diagnose, remediate.
Keep them coming back for more
Money and people are intimately tied. When the chords of desire are struck, we are eager to open our wallets, drain our bank accounts, and even go into debt in order to fulfill these desires. Therefore, your business must remain desirable.
Customer service was difficult for me to learn because I am painfully introverted. Answering e-mails used to give me cringing anxiety and make my stomach turn. If someone had a complaint or a question, I would take it the wrong way and apologize profusely due to lack of confidence. This turned off clients- “why is she so sensitive? Clearly she has no backbone to support her business.”
I almost squandered a whole year of success because I took to long to e-mail my clients back. This created a crappy experience for them and they moved on.
There are two glyphs that I enjoyed implementing to remediate this issue:
- Sweetening relations
- Entrepreneurial work
On the mundane end, I created office hours. These were hours that I was working, no matter what. My social media and all recreational websites were turned off. Break time meant opening up my e-mail account and answering them. I aimed for a 48 hour e-mail turnaround.
A sweetening relations glyph was drawn into an Ace of Hearts (for loving clientele). Then it was placed into a jar of honey with my personal concerns (saliva for speech, fingernails for the words I write, and my signature to seal the deal). Chime candles dressed with coconut oil (for the sweetness) and a pinch of sugar were burnt on top of the jar, weekly.
While this will not excuse poor actions, it softened the hearts of those who I came into contact with. Occasional miscommunications were forgiven.
The second glyph, entrepreneurial work, is important because most entrepreneurs are jumping into business blindly. Even today, there are issues that come up that I have no idea how to deal with because I don’t have any business background.
I drew it on a playing card I associated with riches and business success- the Ace of Diamonds. This was tucked into a file of papers that contained my LLC, certificates, licenses, and a copy of my business plan. When specific issues surfaced, I approached the glyph and asked it to guide me to resources, people, or other forms of aid to remediate it. Otherwise, I would also ask the glyph for assistance to work it out. Some issues that I had to deal with are:
- Growing too quickly- went suddenly viral on Tumblr and wasn’t sure how to deal with the attention or influx of clients
- Not having enough time to do everything I wanted to do
- Too many ideas, not enough structure
- Taxes… Asked the glyph to bring me an accountant per my specifications and budget
- Jealous competitors
While this glyph became a “catch-all” in times of need, I still remained specific with what I was asking for and how I would like the glyph to help me out.
Divination
It’s easy to speak from hindsight, but in the last four years, there would be times I felt like I was standing at the crossroads. I was confused about the next step to take. If I didn’t know what I wanted, I couldn’t strategically draft my plan to get there.
That’s where divination comes into play.
My divination tool of choice is cards- tarot, specifically. If you are brand new to tarot, you could hire someone to do a reading for you or you could attempt to read your own cards. Below is a simple spread to aid you in identifying blocks in your small business and how you can get past them. You can match up your answers to some of the solutions found in Financial Sorcery and use that as a starting point.
Card 1: Current actions. This is what you are actively or passively doing to your business right now. This defines the foundation that you have set forth for the business and the tone of the path that it is on.
Card 2: Difficulties. These are the issues that arise due to your current actions (card 1). Cards in this position, no matter the card, are highlighted in a negative light.
Card 3: Sorcery advised. This is the course of action that you need to take from both the spiritual and mundane side in order to remediate the difficulties that you face.
It’s not about being perfect… there is a learning curve and practice that comes with both sorcery and business. Don’t give up. Learn from your errors and allow yourself to stay humble with humility with these mistakes happen.
Since picking up this book, I cannot say that it has been smooth sailing (and quite frankly, any business person who says that magic solved all of their problems is most likely full of shit) but I have received help in unexpected places, gained attention at seemingly random times, and tapped into gold where only coal was to be found. When I took a misstep, sorcery was there to ease the blow and when I forged forward, sorcery unlocked opportunities in my path.
Sorcerers take risks. Starting your own small business is one of the biggest risks that you can take- it can compromise your day job, take away time from family, cost a large start-up fee, and take you for an unpredictable ride. Solidify your dream into a mundane business plan and take the extra step with sorcery as your business partner.
