The Guru is Dead

Have you ever felt you are losing pieces of your identity, or perhaps your very soul, as you craft an online image for your healing business?You aren't alone. It's a modern day conundrum. We're all at risk of buying and selling some seriously empty promises. It’s completely human to hear that siren song, yet conforming to any preconceived image of success is not the way forward. In fact, it's a proven track toward misery.Whether it's the promise of a successful career via an Ivy League education, or the image of a "sexy, spiritual goddess" as the path to enlightenment, we're completely over it.Highly curated, image-driven personal brands are being sold everywhere. And we're concerned that too many young healer-types are struggling to create a professional image in this environment, or worse, wasting time creating a false image on social media.This empty promise — that if you could just find the right spiritual or branding guru or craft the right image or demonstrate that you're the expert, you can find success — is the antithesis of HoloBeing's offerings.Here at HoloBeing, we co-owners, Alexandra and Lesley, seek to help healers elicit their own inner wisdom. We firmly believe this: your wisdom, your guru, already lives within YOU.  Make no mistake about this: Your guru is within. Believe us, you don't have to emulate the stereotype of a "sexy, spiritual goddess" to have a successful, holistic practice. You don't need to cultivate that image in your life or sell yourself under that image. You don't need to look outside yourself at all.Your offering is only as solid as you are willing to be your truest self.Your healing business will be fragile and unsustainable if you are looking outside yourself to sustain any kind of image or ideal.You must feel comfortable and confident that YOU are everything you need to build a successful practice... that your work can feed your soul as well as your bank account. To do work that nourishes you and feeds your family, you'll want to tap into your true, authentic healing gifts.Feeling deficient or unworthy “as you are”?As an attachment therapist, Lesley has seen so many healer-types feel sorely deficient when a story is kicked up about having to offer something that others need. This happens when their marketing portrays "how you perceive me to be," or “how I’d like you to perceive me,” rather than "how I perceive myself to be."Coaching healer- types in intuitive marketing, Alexandra has also repeatedly witnessed this phenomenon first hand. New holistic business owners go thru expensive coaching programs and come out with skills and insights, but not enough personalized knowledge or support to put it into motion. Practical tools become impractical if they can't be applied. You need self-awareness and insight to turn the steps into your own success.We don't want to be your gurus or your role models. We're facilitators and fellow travelers. We seek to bring out your true gifts, in a way that feels good to both you and your clients — rather than help you achieve some deceptive image of perfection.Facilitate your own inner guru Unlike coaching or facilitating that focuses on bringing out the best of YOU, guru-branded programs can lead you down a path of insidious self-deception.According to Dr Casey Conroy, author of “The Sexy Successful Spiritual Woman is a brand*,” we should all steer away from the following.Emotional red flags: Feelings of shame and inadequacyFeeling a sense of urgency or scarcityHope or excitement to be something other than yourselfWishing to model yourself after a glamorous salespersonProgramming and sales pitch red flags:Disproportionately expensive trainings and imbalanced pre-payment rewardsFluff or excessive BS in the sales pitchStories and testimonials that seem too good to be trueMention of “secrets” to success or promises to fulfill your “dreams come true”Extreme focus on individual status improvement (making you rich, beautiful, and desirable) without regard for any wider social good  or public benefit.Most of us have been lured in by such marketing ploys at one time, seeking to live up to a specific image we admire. Substitute the “Sexy Successful Spiritual Woman” brand with brands promising perfect fitness, corporate success, or luxury lifestyles, and you get the idea.If you hear yourself thinking something along these lines: “Maybe I'll have the water she's drinking and then the genetically impossible will happen —I'll be confident, be loved, become rich, finally belong, have those shoes…” we hope you’ll realize that’s a that’s a guru-based pitch. Give yourself time and space to evaluate what “the guru” is really offering and what you may be giving up to get it.* * * * *How do you feel about this topic? Want to discuss how to create a more authentic and empowered professional image or brand? If so, learn more about our fellowship circles, where relevant topics like this are explored on a weekly basis:https://relationshipmatters.us/fellowship/We hope you'll join the ongoing discussion in our psychotherapy informed, professionally facilitated Fellowship Circles.* * * *Want to read more about this topic?Kelly Diels - The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand (FLEB)http://www.kellydiels.com/female-lifestyle-empowerment-brand/*Dr Casey Conroy - The Sexy Successful Spiritual Woman is a brandhttps://livingnow.com.au/sexy-spiritual-successful-woman-ideal-hurts-us/Laura Matsue - The New Deception.https://lauramatsue.com/2019/01/16/the-new-deception-the-sexy-spiritual-successful-goddess/

Warmly, Lesley Glenner  Lesley Glenner MAOwner, Coach, Psychotherapist