3 Tips for Becoming A Professional Reiki Practitioner in the UK
Below are 3 quick tips to consider, which are taken from the ‘Ultimate Survival Guide for Solo Reiki Practitioners’, which is one of the supporting resources to the main 'How to Build a Successful Reiki Business' course. The survival guide alone covers 25 tips. Below are 3 of them in a condensed format, which are expanded in the resource itself. I have created these tips and published them there to help those looking to become a professional Reiki practitioner.
Tip 1. Know what animal you have
This tip is about understanding the ‘animal’ of self-employment. I was thinking about different animals eating different things, having different care needs, and needing to be managed in different ways. What I have noticed is that many approach self-employment as if it were employment. It’s a very different animal indeed, and you need to understand that. If you approach self-employment with the skills and mentality of employment, as I’m using animal references here, you might get bitten!
As an animal, you could think of Self-employment, well, as it’s an S, how about a snake? I’m thinking of a cobra. It’s not something you want to turn your back on or leave unattended for too long. You might feed it a big meal, then that’s it for a few days (variability in income). However, on the plus side, it’s extremely fast and can change direction in the blink of an eye. It can go along the ground, water, or up a tree. You can survive and thrive in a more local area. So, we can think of it as being able to adapt to a more targeted local market when an opportunity or a change in your market presents itself. Decisions can be made and implemented in the afternoon, not take a month. It’s on its own, so you are not held back or limited by the conciseness of the masses of an organisation. As you are completely self-reliant, if you get ill, you don't have others to cover you. As a Cobra, it could cause you problems, but you won’t see it coming if you are not attentive and aware of what animal you have.
If we think of an Employment as an E, yes, you guessed it, an Elephant. It’s pretty fast, but not as agile as a snake. Changes in direction would take a bit longer, plus it would need to check in with the herd and get permission for decisions. You feed it grass, let’s think of that as steady ‘grazing’ (money coming in regular and steady). It too could kill you, but you would likely see it coming and be able to avoid it. It needs to cover a wide area (so it is less honed in on local issues and opportunities). If it got injured, the herd would try to help support it and take some of the load from it (cover your workload if you’re off sick). This comparison has been a more light-hearted view; however, the biggest danger is trying to look after a snake as if it were an elephant. You can wave grass in front of it if you wish, but I would not advise it. So, the take-home point here is just to understand the position you are in, with both its advantages and its disadvantages as a solo Reiki practitioner. There is a ton of useful guidance to help you navigate this in the Building a Successful Reiki Business Course.
Tip 2. Create your Reiki business to your strengths, not your weaknesses
I believe that operating in your areas of strength is such an important point and a key to success in any area of life. I find this topic fascinating, and it baffles me why we don’t see it more in how we do things generally. We see this most nowadays in entrepreneurial and forward-thinking businesses. However, a great way to see it in a physical sense is in sports. A sprinter is great at 100m and 200m events, pretty reasonable at 400m, maybe a long jump, but then as they go into a 1500m race, it goes downhill fast, and on the 10,000m race, well, they would probably refuse to do it.
So, if you want to perform well in anything, lean towards your natural skill areas and away from weak areas. We all have different skills, ways of thinking, and ways we operate. Some can be grouped by characteristics in things like personality profiles, and others are more unique to us. Yet in so much of what we do, we try to do it in the same way as everyone else; please do not. So, in this context, what other Reiki practitioners do.
I think this way of thinking is nuts. You end up with everyone in an average range, their uniqueness dumbed down. A key consideration is that, as self-employed sole practitioners, we will need to operate in areas outside our natural skills, as we are trying to do everything on our own. However, I am saying as much as you can, to set things up to operate in your areas of skills and delete, or outsource areas that are not.
As an example, I am good at creating, have a very strong strategic rational mind, and think in the big picture, and am very solution-focused, the deep and meaningful interests me. So mentoring, coaching, and teaching in smaller groups or 1-1, settings is more natural for me. I am also very introverted as well, so busy social gatherings can drain me. So, if I want to promote something in person, I would tend to create a relaxed small group talk or workshop, which is very similar to a small teaching or coaching environment. Or speak to people 1-1 and answer their questions, not running around on some business network circuit.
There is a difference between stretching out of your comfort zone and something just not being the right way for you. It’s your Reiki Practice- so please set it up in a way that will work for you. I help you do this in modules 1-3 in the Building a Successful Reiki Business Course.
3. Rise above the Concept of Competition
This challenges our perception of lack, of limited supply. It can sometimes seem that everyone is selling Reiki treatments to what seems to be a limited pool of the public that is looking for Reiki treatment sessions. So how do you stand out? It’s understandable in this situation that feelings of competition can creep in. Added to this, many views around business are competition-focused. On one hand, we have looming bills to pay, and on the other hand, we have our Reiki view of the world of harmony, love, and more cooperation. So how do we get this all to match up and thrive in a manner that feels right and doesn’t jar our sense of ‘living Reiki’ or oneness?
For a start, try not to accept the idea of competition. Easy to do when it’s all going well, harder when it’s not, but it is a choice. As soon as I think I have let go of the idea of competition, the universe will test if I’m serious. Which might be a challenge or something where retreating into competition would be the easier thing to do. This topic is something those of us who are Reiki teachers have a double helping of. I advise most of my Reiki treatment clients to take Reiki training. When telling people about what I do, those who are business coaches or run businesses, especially in a more traditional or corporate sense, think the business model or concept of what I do is flawed from the start. “Why would you do that?” they say.
The business courses I have created for you are an example of this. Those that I have trained to be Reiki practitioners in the first place in the area I work, can then have access to a road map of how to do this themselves. All the business course series can be purchased for a relatively small amount (for those who have purchased or delivered quality coaching programmes, this information would be worth over £1000 easily). Trust me, it would be much easier to just deliver more Reiki treatments. So, for me, this is more living expansively, like expansion and positive impact in action. I do not fear competition, and I would encourage you to move beyond it in your own Reiki practice. Don’t worry too much about what everyone else is doing, or you can be pulled into making decisions based on what others are doing. I cover this topic in more detail and provide ideas of how to navigate it in my Effective Marketing Made Easy for Reiki Practitioners course.
If you have found any of these tips interesting, have a look at my comprehensive Reiki business courses specifically designed for professional Reiki practitioners, where you can find more.
I am mainly known nowadays for my work with Reiki, as a specialist in authentic Japanese Reiki. I am an experienced, Reiki teacher and practitioner with a proven track record of results. I offer Jikiden Reiki training courses, promoting authentic Japanese Reiki teachings. I am based in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, in the UK. I have a background in coaching and training in the areas of exercise coaching, holistic lifestyle, fitness, and performance coaching. I also have a BSc.(Hons) degree in Sport and Exercise Science, for more information visit: www.shaunmckeown.com
The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. Shaun Mckeown, disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.