Episode 11: What’s Woo Got To Do With It?

We’re talking about where business and “woo” actually meet – no clichés, no crystal balls. From intuition-led decisions to the rituals that keep us visible and energised, we unpack how spirituality, energy and a bit of magic thinking can work alongside strategy and common sense.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to Awesomely Off Topic, the podcast that refuses to stay in its lane. We're Asha and Taz, ex-journalists, now coaches, creators, and chaos-embracing business owners. Each episode, we'll dive into the worlds of books, branding, visibility, content, business, and wherever else our ADHD brains take us. This is unfiltered, unscripted, occasionally unhinged, and totally us. So here we are again, episode 11. This one is What's Woo got to do with it? Ooh, exciting. But before we dig into that, Asha, what have your learnings been about this podcasting experience since last time? how quickly because you have to do a batch of them we don't have to but it's recommended that you do a batch at the beginning so uploaded all at once yeah so we put six out straight away didn't we so people could binge listen and so we're kind of always working ahead quite a bit which is good what else have I learnt I've learnt just to try and enjoy the experience because if I enjoy it then I'll give more hopefully and it will make a bit of sense we've had some lovely feedback from people so thank you if you have done that I hope you're enjoying them so far sometimes thinking what the hell are they talking about I have moments like that too as you can probably gather but that's all part of it what about you that you can do it anywhere so we've now recorded in our car in an office and we've in the back room of a garden centre.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33

In our lounge.

SPEAKER_00: 1:33

In our lounge. Complete with snoring dogs. Absolutely. And with a couple of them, we've run them through an audio balancing app just to make sure that the volume's all level. But other than that, again, still no high-tech kit, still no massive studio. And yet again, on this one, we're recording onto a single blue ice snowball microphone because the others aren't charged at the minute. And it's all good. We overcomplicate things way too much. Let it be easy as somebody wants, right? Absolutely. And the amount of people who've said to me since, oh, I'd love to do one, but I just don't think I'd know where to start. I don't think I have enough tech knowledge. Hold on. Have you actually listened to us? Yeah, but you do. You're really good because I was having this conversation with somebody the other day that you do geek out on things. And I think that's where the hyper focus comes in a bit. That's really useful for us because I know for me with the tech, it would put me off as well. So to actually have somebody that's willing to give it a go, that helps. So you give me confidence. So thank you. Thank you. But again, we're keeping this as low tech as possible and making it accessible. Anyway. Okay. What's Woo got to do with it? I don't know. What has it got to do with it? What does Woo even mean?

UNKNOWN: 2:45

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 2:46

Because the whole woo-woo thing, I reckon that the things we call... Who invented that? I don't know. I reckon the things... A marketeer, probably. Probably. I reckon the things we call woo, a lot of them aren't really woo at all. They're just stuff that science hasn't explained yet, or we're a little bit cynical about, or they're not tangible so that we can't see them. Um... It freaks people out and so they dismiss it as woo. Or, you know, I frequently refer to the stuff I do as hippie shit, which became a hashtag. Well, what I love about it is that it can come up in any conversation. Great example yesterday, we were on your lovely mini mastermind that you did yesterday. Oh, the AI program. Yeah, and it came up there, didn't it? Because somebody was talking about spirits in their home and talking about their experiences in the middle of, I think it was towards the end of the session, wasn't it? And it just came out of nowhere. And we all started chatting about it. And it was really cool. But it can just come up. And I've had moments like that. So let's go back to what is it for you, Taz? What does it mean for you? Woo. Woo is the publicly acceptable term for the things that we don't have an explanation for. So for me, woo might include intuition. In air quotes, psychic ability. Yeah. Knowing, it might even go as far as connecting with nature, being aware of the energies around us. being aware of different spiritual paths so a lot of the stuff I do relates back into medicine path and animism sorry to interrupt you I'm just for anybody listening I'm just looking out the window last time when we used this room we didn't have the blinds open but today we have and it's a lovely outlook because we've got trees that we can look out onto a little seating area and two magpies have just flown past so I immediately look for those signs and what that could mean and those of us might think well it's just two birds flying past yeah it is but for me magpies what do they represent and sometimes for me there's little clues as to what i need to be looking at in my life in that moment and what can i gain from their wisdom um because the way i look at life is to and i'm very woo is that we are all one and that means whatever that animal may be they have just as much right to be here as we do without getting too political about it foxes um badgers badgers yeah leave them alone but You know, so therefore, what can they teach us? Who are we to think that we have dominion over everything when in fact there is so many things to learn from the beautiful wildlife around us and in nature? And Taz has just put the timer on because we forgot to put the timer on. So she's doing that now. So Ash, just to call you on that then. Go for it. What do magpies mean for you then? One for sorrow, two for joy. Yeah, but what do magpies actually signify for you? For me, it's a really positive thing. For me, it's an anchor for family. And I know that's not kind of the overarching theme of, you know, if you looked up, a lot of people go to a book and go, well, it must mean this. I often, we always say to people, what does it mean for you? And in this moment, it reminds me of family because when my mum and dad were still with us, They had a couple of magpies in there back on that would appear and there would always be something going on around family issues and stuff around that. So it was always, they were always fascinating to watch. And why had they dropped in in that moment? What could they teach me in that moment? So for me, it says that, but also they, I mean, they're carrying, aren't they? So they pick over the bones, whatever's been left for, you know, that's decomposing. They clean up. They're feisty birds. They're really feisty. They're very territorial birds. What else? So how could that change your business? Oh, goodness. Feisty. I need to be a bit more feisty in my business. Now, look at that. Now, it's come back down. And as we're talking, there it is on the grass. It's looking at me through the window. Thank you, Magpie. For me, I need to be a bit more feisty in my business. Sometimes a little bit. I'm a bit too wussy woo. What about the picking over and cleaning the bones? What's that to do with your business? We had a discussion only this morning over breakfast, didn't we, before we started recording these, about... looking at working being sometimes you're in your business not on your business and i need to be doing more of that so the picking over the bones is looking at what i've got to offer now and how i can refine that how i can clean things up and the magpie cleans things up they'll pick at things that a lot of us wouldn't touch we just go but a magpie's in there cleaning up after us they do that very well don't they they're opportunists as well yeah they'll just dive in at a moment when there's an opportunity to have something to eat or to clear something away and they will do that they're not afraid to dive down into the space of the human to get what they want and i really admire that they're also well known for their love of all things shiny aren't they oh yeah oh shiny shiny yeah shiny shiny object syndrome yeah exactly and that can be a huge distraction and there's somebody that can get distracted with magpies out the window um but Yeah, you have to be aware of that in your business, I guess, because otherwise you can go down all sorts of paths that actually aren't going to get you very far. They're actually going to hold you up from your mission, take you off mission. And that's something for me to be aware of because I can go there. But the flip side of that is that also we must not be afraid of going for the gold in our business. A lot of people won't go for it because they think they're not good enough. Who am I to do that? Or they've had all these crazy ideas and old... limiting beliefs around money that have been plugged into them since they were knee-high to a grasshopper let's not go into grasshopper medicine

SPEAKER_02: 8:38

no

SPEAKER_00: 8:38

so there's that as well and we talk an awful lot about people who are afraid of lack but there are also a lot of people who are afraid of success it's not always being afraid of failure yeah a lot of people stop themselves because they're afraid of success because who would they be If they had money, money is the root of all evil, isn't it? And also that's, you know, that's your dialogue, isn't it? If you get used to talking about the fact that I'm down to my last, you know, hundred quid this month, it's really been a tough month. You know, a lot of us do it, don't we, in business settings. Yeah, it's been a tough month this month. And you might have been, but we can get stuck in that. you know, that thing around negative spin, around, yeah, woe is me, woe is me, and stay in that negative mindset, and suddenly we're missing out on opportunities because we're looking too much inward and not enough outward focusing. Absolutely. Does that make sense? Yeah. I hope it does. And the other thing about magpies, of course, is that they have the ability to gain perspective. They can fly high, high above everything else and see what's really playing out rather than diving down for the shiny thing on the ground or the... Dead thing on the ground. I'm getting caught in the drama of the situation. Well, actually, hang on a minute. So dead thing on the ground. Yeah. How many of us have maybe... That leads quite nicely. It's a bit of a spurious link. I'm going to go for it. A tangent, but... we can go for dead things on the ground maybe with business inverted commas opportunities and actually it's not an opportunity it might be a really good ego massaging thing but actually where's that going to take our business longer term are we just going over old stuff because it feels good and it feels comfortable and again I'm sure we've all been guilty of that at various times I know I have so again there's so much look at that from seeing two magpies who have now literally just this minute flown off so maybe that's their way of saying get I hope that's been useful because to me that's what we can learn so much just by looking into nature around us. big part of what i would define as woo interestingly the first thing that came up for me with mad pie rather than going into the traditional lore around mad pie which would say they're actually quite a trickster bird um yeah there's an awful lot of of old spiritual lore around lots of black and white animals pied animals that ties into trickster energy but for me number one tricks to teachings can be some of the best in the world. Think about, if you're listening to this, some of the mishaps you've had, some of those things that have left you feeling a bit embarrassed or a little bit, oh God, I hope nobody saw that. They can be some of the best teachings coming from those situations, can't they? The times where we actually end up with egg on our face can teach us an awful lot. But the black and white, the pied element, what immediately dropped in for me is beware of being stuck into that rigidity of black or white thinking i.e. far left far right I have to believe in this I have to believe in that the magpie carries both quite easily it doesn't get caught in the black it doesn't get caught in the white it carries both and actually there's more to it because when you look at them in the right light it's not actually black at all there's an entire rainbow in that sheen of the blackness on a magpie in the same way that there is with the crow with the raven with the rook The black's never a black, it's a rainbow. I love that. So cool. Thank you, Magpies. Thank you very much for that. So, to come back to this, what's the real role of spirituality, energy, intuition in our work? Oh, everything. For me, anyway, without it, I wouldn't be the person that I am. And the person that you are, aside from being this awesome... content coach and book editor and book publisher yeah just for anyone who doesn't know where do you sit when it comes to all things woo what is it that you have in your kit bag that would be seen by many as in inverted commas well um i'm a reiki to reiki practitioner um i've done a lot of healing work um shamanic work i'm a shamanic practitioner um not a shaman but One of my things. I hate that. I am not a shaman. That is so disrespectful to those that truly are shamans. What was I going to say? What else? Well, I've done lots of things like that. I've done mediumship training, so I can... Speak to people on the other side. I see dead people. Yes. I'm more likely to hear them or get a sense of them. I don't terribly see. They say predominant senses, don't they, with that as it comes to as you work through. And for me, it's mainly hearing. I hear things. There you go. This is where they

SPEAKER_01: 13:36

come around.

SPEAKER_00: 13:37

Clairaudient as opposed to clairvoyant. Yeah, the padded cell will be waiting now after I've said that. Yeah, but think of the conversations you can have with other dead people in there. Yeah, that's true. So... Yes. So lots of work around that that I've done over the years. And I grew up in a very traditional Christian household. So anything like this was seen as just a bit weird, maybe potentially a bit threatening, a bit worrying, a bit just strange, really. So let's just pause that there for a moment. What for you is the difference between spirituality and... Organised religion. How long have you got? How long have we got on this? I've only been going for nine minutes. We're all right. So much. For me, the work that I've found with my spiritual work is there's a freedom in that. There's a being true to you. There's no doctrine. There's no, you must do it this way. This is the God that you need to worship. And that's what's said with all love and due respect. I've met some incredible people that are Christians and But it wasn't for me. And I made the decision to... I can still go into a church. I've been to services and I can have an incredible, beautiful space to be in. But for me, it was just a little bit too controlling, shall we say. Can I say that? You can say whatever you like. It's our podcast. Well, you're not saying that in any disrespectful way, is it? No, it just wasn't for me. I tried really hard for it to be for me. Yeah. But all I saw a lot of the time was a lot of division and judgment. And some might say, me saying this, I'm being in judgment. I think I'm being in discernment rather than judgment. Maybe my brand of religion wasn't right for me, and it is right for others. And I do respect that and appreciate that. But for me, shamanism was the right thing for me. And medicine path work. And the medicine path work, because... It brought everything together. I've never, ever seen people from different religions, different ways of life coming together to work in that way. Because there is no dogma in that way. No, dogma is the word too, I think. And what was the original question I've lost? I've gone somewhere. What's the real role of spirituality, energy, intuition in our work? I think for me, it supports me. It gives me a place to be me. It gives me the confidence to be me and to do the work that I do. And it does come into all the work that I do. I've had the most incredible conversations with people when people have been writing books. you're really bearing your soul. In my opinion, if you're doing it well and you're doing it in the right way for you. Depending on the kind of book they're writing as well. If somebody's writing one about double entry bookkeeping, they might not be bearing their soul. Hang on a minute. No, but I would question that. I think they would be. They could be. Because there might be things that you're including in that book on. What was it? Double entry bookkeeping. There you go. But you might think, can I talk about that? Could I actually? Because that's a little bit controversial in my way of working. Maybe it's not. Some people might find that a little bit. It's a bit contentious. So I would say sometimes it is that. Even with something like that, you're pushing yourself. When you're worrying if that's going to, how's that going to be reflected in the industry that you work in? But there's still a difference between a more left brain business book and something that's semi-autobiographical, for instance. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. You're going to give more of yourself in that semi-autobiographical. Of course you are. But there's still an element of that. should I really be saying this in this way? Yeah, well, it's still your energy being poured into it. Yeah, so I think all of that is part of it. And whenever I work with anybody, sometimes it will come in with that. People know me as a bit woo, and I see that as a compliment. It's not woke, it's woo. I hate that phrase as well, woke. I don't have a problem with the word woke. I think where I have an issue with woke is the amount of people who... decry it when they have no idea where it comes from and what it means. That's the issue. Why on earth would you... Would calling somebody woke be a bad thing when it literally means having an awareness of the world around you and what's going on? Well, we've been very woke this morning, haven't we? Because we've done exactly that. We were aware of the world around us, and the world around us is this beautiful outlook with these trees and two magpie. And look at the teachings they've given us in just a few minutes. Sorry, I've bashed the desk then. Apologies. So I think for me, one of the biggest roles in my work for the more spiritual, intuitive side of things... is being able to have that deep insight, where we might not know where that insight or knowing comes from, but it enables us, particularly in my work as a coach, and as a trainer, actually, particularly from training somebody on speaking and sharing their story, for instance, to just prod and, I don't know, say something like, what happened when you were eight? What's that about? And they might not have mentioned any childhood stuff, to me but it will just drop in and they'll go how did you know have I already said that no you haven't my favourite was when I was still offering energy healing work I very very rarely do that now unless we're in a workshop setting and we're teaching people on the big one or the big one our 13 month and 3 year spiritual empowerment programmes but I remember somebody called up wanting a healing and I asked for a name and this lady on the phone said Well, you tell me. If you're that psychic, you should know what my name is. And I hadn't said, I hadn't said woman psychic or anything like that. She'd just seen energy healer. And I don't know how I managed it, but I just put a call out to the guides that I know I work with and went, just help me out. What is it? What is it? And I forget the name, but for the sake of it, let's say Linda. And I just said, is this Linda? And she knew straight away. It was her name. Of all the names I could have chosen, it might not have been Linda if she'd picked a random name there. But that immediately was like, how do I book? How do I book? And in the end, I don't think I did the healing. But yeah, it's interesting. It does that ability to sometimes pull things out of the ether and to know when to push and when not to push. Sometimes that's, call it spirituality, call it intuition, call it having... spirit guides or angels or energies around you that are supporting, allied helpers, whatever you want to call it, that little something that tells me when to push, when to pull back, when to drop in a specific, when somebody needs soothing, when somebody wants soothing but actually needs more of a pink sparkly boot at the backside to grab one of the phrases my clients use an awful lot, that is... I couldn't do my work anywhere near as well as I do without that. What's interesting for me, what's coming up is the word rapport, because we use that a lot, particularly when you're talking about your marketing and your content. and what is rapport building rapport what if it's that being on that same frequency as your client your potential client and when we're in a face-to-face situation how many of us have ever noticed that we there's an energy around that if we believe everything has an energy and so those relationships that we're building has an energy of its own unique energy that energy between you and that client or potential client and getting on the same wavelength as them as that rapport build so does the frequency the energy build as well and I think that's part of it so why would that not work that things are going to drop in because as you get closer to somebody and start to learn more about them you're more likely to pick up on all those little those nuances those little things around somebody is that EQ is that about being more you know on on you know trend with an on trend what's the word i mean i've no idea you've lost me i should intuitively you should well you're not doing a job then toes you should know this after nearly 27 years i haven't done my rituals this morning oh dear but you know so that whole thing around rapport what if that is just even if we're doing that online i mean how many of us have had that situation or is it just me One of the first things I noticed when I started doing healings online for people with my shamanic practice head on. Healings online? Surely that's snake oil. Well, exactly. I thought, can I still connect with people? Yes, I could. And how does that work then? For me, it works. And all the feedback I have says it works for clients. So what's going on there then? You know, if distance isn't a thing, how many times have we all had that moment where we're thinking about somebody, maybe they're poorly or somebody they know is poorly, they're going through bereavement, whatever that is. You just tune into that person and you kind of just know that something is needed, something is there for them. I call that my spidey senses. Yeah, the phone rings or something happens or they just come up in a conversation with somebody else. Yeah, and then suddenly they just need that one sentence from you. Sometimes it might be a hug, but sometimes it might be simpler, something... innocuous to you has been said, and that's what they needed to hear in that moment. What's that then? If that's not woo, I don't know what it is. It's fascinating, isn't it? Because when we think about rapport, of course, that can be seen as being quite left brain. So those of you who were into neuro-linguistic programming into NLP or psychology, I'm trained in NLP, but that still doesn't mean that that I don't see the energy to rapport as well. So of course I know about matching and mirroring and body language in different ways to help you get into a faster rapport with someone that you're trying to do business with or just support or help in some way. But there's also that little something extra. So for instance, for anyone listening, have you ever been in a situation where you meet someone for the first time And you just feel like you've known them forever. Yeah. Or you've known them before. Yeah. There's just this connection. Yeah. Between you. Oh, it's like us two. I know. In more of a woo setting, you might be thinking about, is this a member of my soul clan? Is this a past life reincarnation in someone I know? There's all kinds of different pathways you could take to that. But I think intuition... is again, oh, it's 11.11, angel number on the clock. Intuition is another one of those things that can sometimes be used interchangeably as the acceptable public face of all things psychic and unknown. So if we're talking about intuition or clairaudience, clairsentience, clairvoyance, and psychic phenomenon, psychic ability... Aren't we actually talking semantics a little bit? So we now know that high levels of intuition are associated with ADHD. Yeah. And for a moment, I had a little bit of a wobble when I first read about that. Did you? Yeah, because I went into this... You haven't told me that before. No, I haven't. I think it's because I went into this place of, oh my goodness, does that mean all the spiritual work I've been... doing for ages is a nonsense have I made all that up is it actually just this intuition that comes with ADHD and it's nothing to do with having spirit guides and being able to sense somebody's auric field and all of that jazz and then add a word with myself isn't that the same thing so so many people who don't believe in anything remotely witchy and wooey might be quite comfortable talking about intuition is it the same thing Mmm. Ooh, you've stunned me with that. I'm just like, wow, that must have been quite a moment for you when you realised that. Yeah, it was. Having that kind of, yeah, is it intuition? Really dug me a wobble. So it's almost like that's the bridge, that's the acceptable bridge, isn't it? Yeah. Between woo and more kind of traditional kind of thinking, as it were. But again, back to that magpie, black and white thinking, do we need to be either or? So if we think about our 13-month and three-year spiritual empowerment programme, Yeah. Pretty much most of the years we've run that, and we've been running it for, what, 13 years now? proper scientists not like Dr Emmett Brown from Back to the Future I've got that vision as well they don't have the mad wiry hair I want the car though the DeLorean the DeLorean is very very cool I think that would hurt my hip though I was using Leonardo to try and get some pictures of you in Back to the Future

SPEAKER_01: 26:48

I think it would hurt my hip though getting in and out of that car

SPEAKER_00: 26:50

well the ones that Leonardo did were ok because it had the DeLorean and you sit in the DeLorean but it didn't give it the wing door it just had the normal opening door oh no I'd be disgusted Disappointed though, that's half the... Didn't we do that at one of the... We did, yes, it was universal. I don't know if that ride's there anymore. I got a bit claustrophobic. Yeah, but not as claustrophobic as the guy in the seat before you where they had to stop the ride and get him out. I know, I nearly did that. Anyway, sorry. On tangent, there you go. Tangent, tangent, tangent number one. Yeah, see, time travel, that's another woo element. Yeah, we've got a story about that, haven't we? We have. Anyway, we'll talk about that in a bit. We might as well do it now. So we were once driving along in the car one day. At the time, we had the lime green fiesta. Oh, it was so cool. When I first left my corporate work and through... choking back the tears, handed back the keys to my beautiful... That wasn't the first one. It was. It wasn't that long ago. It was. It can't be. It was. I don't think it was. It was. I handed back the keys to my beloved Audi A6 that was souped up to the high hills. That was a nice car. Beautiful car. And I remember saying, if I've got to go down to an, in air quotes, ordinary car for a while until I build up my business, I want one that colour. And I set my heart on going and getting a bright lime green Ford Fiesta, of all things, because at the time it was affordable. Affordable, get it? Affordable. Yeah, it was... I'm glitching now. My brain's glitching. So we're talking about that because we're talking about... Right. I didn't even finish the sentence. She knew what I meant, I hope. We got the lime green Ford Fiesta.

SPEAKER_01: 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 28:35

And we were driving along one day and we looked in the rearview mirror and no word of a lie, we both saw it at the same time, didn't we? Yeah. So neither of us had prompted the other. No. We saw behind us another lime green Ford Fiesta with us sitting in it. It was weird. And looked again. It was our number plate. It was our car. It was us sitting in the seats. So classic doppelganger scenario. And it followed us for quite a while with us keep checking. Are we both in the middle of some weird brain fart? What's going on? And then eventually it just... Just disappeared. So that sort of stuff, though, really fascinates me. Yeah. I'm just like, how does that happen? And what's going on in your brain for you to see that? It's a bit like, you know, when it's playing on one side of the brain and then the other. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. There'll be a reason for that. There are various places, aren't there, around the world and quite a few in the UK. In Scotland. They're renowned for having these kind of time lapses. Yeah. Is it Glasgow or Edinburgh or somewhere? There's a few different places. I know. Where people just literally look around and suddenly they're in a different time zone. Ooh, it's all timey-wimey. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. Yeah, I love Doctor Who. Okay, so where were we? So what does energy and spirituality and intuition have to do with our work? You know, I've talked before about... being able to get an idea and just run with it straight away i think i mentioned project artemis on one of the other podcasts which is the the program i run every year for a small number of um invited coaches to work with me for a year to build their practice to hone their skills to plug into my brain and my knowledge Are they still all right? Are they okay after that experience? Yeah, they're okay. Sorry, it's not a good sales technique saying that, but I say it with love. Some of them are running successful coaching practices and everything. Wow. But that came as what I refer to as a download. That idea dropped in to my head one morning, fully formed, well, pretty much. And I don't know where the idea came from, but it felt like it was literally dropped in. It felt like it was downloaded from someone or somewhere or something. Yeah. And that's been running ever since. Now that's interesting because when I was writing that story for your first Whispers book, Whispers from the Earth, I got a story dropped in. And it was literally, it was like, I wrote it in, I mean, I can write things pretty fast when I'm on it anyway because of my background, but... That just dropped in. I don't remember how that happened. One minute it wasn't there and the next minute it was there and I just had to write it there and then. So what's that? But that's the whole point, isn't it? That whole book, Whispers from the Earth, and the next one's coming out soon. That's all about this practice. I've got one in that as well. It's about a spider. That's all about this practice of going and sitting in meditation or going into a shamanic journey state or speaking with your guides, however it works for you, and asking for a teaching story and then sharing that. And that for me was another element of proof. In fact, the way I got the publishing deal for that first book, most people think Unleashed, You're Awesome was my first book. It wasn't. It was Whispers from the Earth. And I'd been engaging in this project for a while where I was working with some of our spiritual students, trainees, tribe. I can never think of the right word. Friends, soul friends.

SPEAKER_01: 31:55

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 31:55

that's a good one. To go and work with the energies in whichever way felt right to us. and ask for these teaching stories, and sure enough, everyone was getting these stories channeled right through. But I'd written just a few of mine down, and I remember sitting at my desk one day, upstairs in the office, back in the days where we could actually get into that room, and it hadn't turned into an ADHD junk room. We must sort that out. We just need to be able to get into it first, or open the door slightly safely without worrying about being squashed. Preferably before we get to pensionable age. Yeah, preferably.

UNKNOWN: 32:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:31

Anyway, so I was sitting there and this voice dropped in and I recognised this voice as one of the, what I would refer to as one of my guides. And it said, those stories you've been writing, send them to a publisher. And I was doing something I didn't want to be doing at the time. I don't know, maybe accounts or something. Sorry accountants listening, we love you. I'm so glad for my accountants and bookkeepers. Thank you so much. I am too. I remember that I kept trying to brush this thought away because I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD then, but I assumed that it was just any other thought coming in to distract me from having to do a job I didn't want to do. I'm not about the I don't know, 5th or 6th or 11th or 12th time of this voice saying send them to a publisher. I remember slamming my tools down on the desk. Your tools? What were your tools? I've got you with spanners and... At the time it would have been a mouse. Remember when we used to actually use... Oh no, that's the guinea pig again. I'm back to guinea pigs. Oh, you're bra squeaking. Is that your squeaky boob again? Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm doing tangent again. Carry on. We've not got a hairy mic plugged in today, so it's not a hairy mic. So, downing tools, i.e. it would have been, I don't know, pen, notebook, maybe even a mouse, back in the days when we used a wired mouse. Yeah, God, remember those. Not a mouse that's been on loads of coffee. A mouse, stop it, tangent. A mouse that's been on loads of coffee? What do you mean? A mouse that's been on coffee, a wired mouse. A mouse that's really wired because it's had too much caffeine. Oh, I'm with you, wired. Wired. I am an old fart when it comes to language, you know. Sometimes these youngsters, honestly.

UNKNOWN: 34:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 34:01

What's it like being married to an older woman? Tangent. We're already on 28 minutes and we've got loads to cover here. This might be one of our longer podcasts. Go on then. Remember, it's not the length that counts. Or maybe it is. But anyway. It's the girth. Okay. Shh. And I said, right, if this is real, which publisher? And straight away, clear as a day, Moon Books. And I went, don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as Moon Books. Let me prove it. And started to Google. And oh, there it is. Moon Books. which was a division of John Hunt Publishing. Yeah. So proper, whatever that means, publishing company. So I sent a couple of these stories off, just pasted them into a Word document, pinged it off. Within no time at all, I'd had a message back saying, we're really interested and we'd like you to submit a formal publishing proposal. I did that. And within no time at all, I'd got a publishing offer. And it wasn't self-publishing. It wasn't hybrid. It was a proper publishing deal. that they'd taken from me in terms of books and unknown at the time, which is rarer than rocking horse shit. And so that, how did that come to be? It was meant to be. You know, those who are desperate to dismiss everything will be saying that, oh, well, you must have been subconsciously aware of that publishing. You must have seen it at some point and filed it away into the deep annals of your mind. Annals? Annals.

SPEAKER_01: 35:28

Good word.

SPEAKER_00: 35:29

And... I don't know. That for me is one of those little proof elements that sticks with me. And there's so many of those synchronicities. Those things that are too coincidental to be coincidences. Yeah, definitely. So we've touched on how it works with our business. Yeah. What about visibility? So I talk a lot about visibility. Yeah. You talk a lot about visibility with your publishing and getting your authors out there. Are there any... for want of a better word, rituals that we would do that help with visibility and how would they fit into our day-to-day language. What do you mean by rituals? Well, that's an interesting point, isn't it? Because what is a ritual? Well, yeah. Well, I can go really woo with that. When I think of rituals, so if I'm talking about my shamanic practice, I have rituals around that. So before I work with a client, We had our garden redesigned to work with some of the spiritual elements of our work, which is we've got a beautiful, like a compass, haven't we, built into our patio. We drove them mad insisting that the compass points were actually accurate. We did, and it had to be exactly in the right place. But then it won't level up with the house. It doesn't matter. We need the compass points to be accurate. So part of my ritual for that, am I right to talk about that? Yeah. So you can get some weird visuals if that's what turns you on. I promise not to leave you with too much scarring. But if I'm doing something like a healing online or in person, before I do that, to get me into the right place, I'll go outside, I'll work with all the directions. We do what we call the dance of the directions in the morning, which is greeting all those directions, asking them to work with us in the spirit around that. Which is a medicine tool for balance and connection, which was taught to us by Chris Lettershow from Northern Drum. Amazing, amazing man. If you ever get a chance to work with him, please do. I've worked with lots and lots of different medicine teachers over time, but I would I would always credit Chris as being my greatest teacher of all. I've worked with him closest and longest and it's always beautiful when I see him now, even if it's briefly. And a brilliant author too, so look his books up. So I start with that and I start greeting the directions. I then call him my... I send to balance myself, ground myself, make sure that I'm fully protected. So we talk about building a kind of auric shield around us to deflect anything that we don't want coming in, that we don't choose, and only allowing in what we want to allow in. So that's part of my kind of homework before I start. I then call my guides in, which is to work with me. I ask the universe to help me to work to the best and use me as a channel. It's not me doing the healing. It's the energy, the spirit's working, the hollow bone to allow the energy to come through so that I So I do that before I start. I cleanse the space that I'm in. So usually I use sage because that's something that I use, but you can use all sorts of different things. We should say there are lots of smudges and herbs that are native to the UK that we can use for that as well. I love lavender. Lavender for me is a fantastic one. Woodruff can be a beautiful alternative to sweetgrass. Yes, sweetgrass is beautiful too. So I cleanse the space, get all my tools ready. So that might be a drum, a rattle. What else? What else will we have? Feather. Feather. Yeah. And then I start working with the client. So I would do the same with that, whether I'm working with them in person or online. And for me, that's my rituals. And actually, my rituals for more kind of other work. So if I'm doing shamanic... Book work... Working with people with content and stuff... Sometimes it's exactly the same... Because it grounds me... But there might be something else added in... Like I'll sit and I'll just spend the time... Tuning into the person I'm going to be working with... To see what's needed... So I can get into the right space... To greet them if you like... So it's a real mix of things for me... But that is the bedrock for me... If I haven't done that... For whatever reason... And sometimes I don't... Anybody listening that's doing our work... We'll know that. I'm really honest about that. I haven't grounded and shielded today. That's why I'm feeling rubbish today. Will everyone listening know what you mean by grounding and shielding? So go on then. so it's a practice to keep your own energy body safe really and to not be dropping bits of your energy everywhere else so it's the good old imagining you're sending roots down from your feet deep deep down into the belly of mother earth not just straight down but with roots coming off the sides as well to really anchor you and the shielding is working with the aura or the auric shield there's this an energetic like an egg that surrounds us all and it's about making sure that is the right distance away from you and is intact with no bumps cracks or spikes and there's there are lots of different and also i did talk about a little bit when i said about shielding because it's it allows in only what you want to allow into energy you want to allow into your space and deflects anything that doesn't serve you that's not good for you it's your shield but if you have your shield too far away from you the edges become more porous yeah which means you can let any old load of

SPEAKER_01: 40:37

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 40:37

stuffing you don't want and if you have them pulled in too tightly then it can become really brittle and you can start to feel a little bit suffocated well it's really interesting though talking about this bringing this into our day to day work so if I don't know we go into London fairly often for client work and stuff as well on some of the other stuff that we do not necessarily medicine path work but we'll go into London and sometimes I'll get into I'm not good in smaller spaces like places like the tube I really struggle with quite a bit particularly when it's really busy so what I'll do is I'll do my grounding and shielding but if I've forgotten to do that I'm feeling a little bit out of sorts I've got a really short shortcut to that that I do which looks like I'm just having a bit of a stretch I don't need to explain myself and look like I'm one arm up one arm down earth and sky I'm not sure that came from a book that one of our friends was reading on Something to do with North American cultures, I think. So Joe McHugh, if you're listening, thanks for that one. Yeah, but it's great. It's something that you can do if you're out and about and you haven't got a lot of time. It's a shortcut to do that, and it helps a lot. So whatever we make of that, whether you think, what, a load of old bunkum, or whether you think, actually, I might give that a go, is finding what works for you. So that's my rituals. What about you? Well, I think the word ritual is an interesting one, and I kind of... was being a bit of a trickster myself by dropping that one in there. Oh, you do surprise me. I know, I know. No wonder my back's throbbing after the gym this morning. Nothing to do with me. That's to do with the bench press, the chest presses you were doing, I think you'll find. I know. So a ritual is actually anything that you are doing with a clear intention to create something that's something out of the ordinary. Ah, okay. So, you know, if you are... Making a big deal of Christmas, for instance, and going out of your way to create a beautiful Christmas meal, you could be saying that's a ritual. You know, sometimes if someone has some soul retrieval work and they're told to go and do something for the piece that's come back, if you cooked a meal that you knew that piece wanted... That would be a ritual. If you just sit in a prayerful state before you do something, that will be a ritual. But of course, when we think of ritual, we tend to think of somebody skipping around in all kinds of fancy garb and chanting and speaking in tongues. I don't do that. I do sometimes do my dance directions in my pyjamas. Does that count? That's okay. but a ritual is literally something that you are doing that is out of the ordinary for you not necessarily something that is not an ordinary thing something that's out of the norm for you with a specific intention so if we think about that and we look at spells and prayers So again, when we think of the word spell, we immediately conjure up... Bobbidi-bobbidi-boo. Oh, I have newt and wing of bat and toenail of... I need to grow wool on my nose. Yes. Yeah, okay. But really... Stereotypical. Most of the stuff you look at when it actually comes to... God, what if I can actually change that, because that could be quite dangerous. For goodness sake. Sorry, I'm sorry, calm down. Most of the stuff, when you actually go to real-life spellcasting, which we don't do an awful lot of, you know, I used to, before I found shamanism, I used to practice wicca, but shamanism and the medicine path is much more of a home for me now.

UNKNOWN: 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:04

But most of the spellcasting is actually to do with setting an intention. So you might use some beautiful perfumed oil to anoint or to cleanse the candle before you use it. You might use a different coloured candle. You might light a candle and speak through the flame. You might burn some incense. And then you are literally asking whoever is listening, the powers that be... Dragonfly, just gone past. Dragonfly medicine, the ability to see beyond the illusion, see past the veil to what's really possible, including our own illusions. I like that. Beautiful. I've got dragonflies tattooed at one of my arms for exactly that reason, for the reminder. Anyway, so spells. It's very often incense. It's a candle. It's a flame. It's scented oils. It can be... creating a piece of artwork, all kinds of things. So then when we look at a prayer, what is a prayer? It's setting a real intention and asking whoever is listening to please help us and work with us to grant this thing, which very often includes incense, candles. Hang on a minute, it sounds familiar, this. Doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah, furifer. Yeah. Yeah. So which came first? Does it matter? No. Which came first? Which came... Oh, that needs to be on a badge, maybe. Yeah, maybe, or a T-shirt. Yeah. But that's the point. So, so many of the things that we now connect with being part of organised religion that now claims them, if we actually follow it back to the times before organised religion, like so many other things, it's following a path that's existed for a long, long time in the same way that we know that lots of our... old, old churches were built on the sites of pagan worship. because that was how, when they were trying to convert the masses into Christianity, that's how they would get them to come into the churches. Isn't there that thing around Celtic crosses as well? Wasn't that kind of something to bring the two communities together? No, I think that was something I made up. Was it? Really? Well, I didn't make it up, but I did once point... I'm sure I've read about that. Well, maybe you did, but I remember pointing out to you that the top circle of a Celtic cross is actually a medicine wheel. It wasn't that. I thought... I thought it was part of the thing to try and bring the pagans together with the Christians. I think you are thinking of the Vikings. I don't think I am. Thank you. I think you might be thinking of the Vikings and the people from that part of the world. Anybody listening, can you let us know, please? That would be good. We should have done some research. When they were invading and coming over here, they very, very carefully crafted various different amulets and tools which could either display more of a Celtic symbol or if it was turned another way, it could look like a cross. I think there's something else. I'm going to go and research And for the next one, I'm going to find out. Well, I hope that you're right. I really do. For anyone wondering what a medicine wheel is, by the way. I know. For anyone wondering what a medicine wheel is, number one, go Google it. Number two, it's imagine the face of a compass. And there are lots of different indigenous cultures, particularly in the Americas, but not only there. that worked with the medicine wheel, and the energies of each direction carry different teachings. So when Ash and I are talking about working with the directions, that's what that's about. So let's just run through, because before each one of these episodes, we note down some bullet points we want to cover.

SPEAKER_01: 47:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 47:47

So practical ways that woo thinking can guide creativity and strategy. Well, I think there's an obvious one with people writing books. because you've got to get into that space of dropping down into your core the true you to kind of pull out all that wonderful information that you have inside you so sometimes going into quite a calm state just a space of peace if you can a bit of meditation can really help sometimes that's all it is five minutes in fact why aren't I doing that more with my clients would you like that clients let me know or would you think that was a bit too weird for you but sometimes we do do that so we'll stop and we allow in the same way that when we were journalists we would allow the silence to speak for the client does that make sense so it because in that silence comes the opportunity for the client for the person writing that book or writing that content to really tune in to think about what is happening now for them and what they can bring forward for that speak yeah because nature abhors a void and it's the same with human beings we hate the silence so you know when we were journalists if you just went quiet nine times out of ten the person you were interviewing would fill that space and also normally that would be the sweet spot the real part of the story that is the bit that you really want to drill down into that's that's where you begin and that's the same with books that's what i found some silence the power is in that silence just for a moment it might be 10 seconds 30 seconds but that 30 seconds is rich with opportunity for content and for And that's the same with coaching, actually. Fairly frequently, a client will say something to me and I'll just smile and go quiet. And in the going quiet, they start to answer their own problems and solve their own challenges. And all that's needed is somebody to sit there, listen, hold space and provide that opening, open that door for them. So often we have the answers within ourselves, we just aren't always brave enough to start to explore that. So yeah, silence, space can be a brilliant healer and actually silence can be one of the best communication tools.

SPEAKER_01: 50:09

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 50:09

love that. And also, of course, journaling. Journaling is a really good way because that's very accepted. It's become very popular now, hasn't it? We know the benefits of journaling. Anybody that's doing that or you've just maybe just started doing it, you thought about doing it, you know, 10, 15 minutes of journaling. one of the things I realised I'd got a bit of a block with my own creativity is because I'd stopped some of these rituals or some of these regular things that I was doing which we start the day with some journaling hadn't done that for ages I did that what two three days ago and already because I've got back into that habit suddenly guess what's happening things are opening up for me in terms of my creativity that were lacking a little bit over the last couple of weeks so simple things like that can be great only takes 10-15 minutes of your time but that can get you into the right space for dipping into that creativity that's within all of us that can be useful for your marketing I think it's also about giving yourself the freedom to take the blocks away so if there's something that you want to achieve and again some of this could be could go into the realms of NLP and hypnosis and visualization vision boards I'd love to pair a vision board with an action board by the way because action boards are carry the same kind of energy, but also include the steps you need to take to make it happen, rather than just waiting for it all to drop out of the sky. But the universe hasn't delivered it yet. Yeah. Oh, I've dined out on that one for years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's also known in some ways as procrastination, maybe. Yeah, absolutely. Where was I going with that? Sorry, Taz, I interrupted you. It's all right. Giving yourself the freedom to really sit and imagine... visualize. If you feel that you can't visualize, then feel free to swap that word for sense, smell, see, think, know. But allow yourself to imagine, in whatever form works for you, what it's going to be like when you achieve that goal, when you achieve that aim, whether that's writing a book, whether it's getting to your six figures if you want that, whether it's getting 10k a month, whether it's getting that new client. Allow yourself to really See it, feel it, taste it, be it for a moment and then break your state and come back again. And I know for some people that could seem woo, but I also know that there are an awful lot of people who are perhaps more left brain who would call themselves realists. And this is one of my pet hates that's perhaps for another podcast for another day. But think about it. If you say while I'm being realistic or if you foist your realism in air quotes again onto someone else. What you're saying is I know better than you and you can't achieve that. And you don't know. You don't know what's possible for you to achieve. You don't know what's possible for anybody else to achieve. So you're not being realistic. You're being limiting. So stop it. Just stop it right now. And there's a beautiful saying and I'm probably I'm only going to paraphrase it. I can't remember where it came from. But the man who does not realise that something is impossible might just go and achieve it. Nice. Silence. That was the mic drop moment there. Definitely. I love that. There's nothing worse than somebody knocking your duck off, as you would say. Pissing on your chips. Raining on your parade. I like knocking your duck off. You have to say it in the right accent. Bob off with your realism. And the last point we had on here actually was finding the sweet spot between belief, brand and bank balance. Do tell more. Well, I think for me, it's to do with really stepping into the truth of who we are and owning it. I remember when I was still in corporate publishing, a lot of the magazines I was working with were in the kind of pharmaceutical industry. And I remember trying to keep myself small for such a long time in terms of not talking about some of my beliefs, my spirituality, my energy. Because what would happen if people from the pharmaceutical trade knew that I was a bit of a tree hugger? And then, of course, I realized that, hold on, aspirin literally comes from trees. So it's finding a way to own who you are. And when you step into that place, all kinds of things become possible. You know, we can then... visualize what we want our bank balance to look like we can we can set our intentions on it we can use breath work to breathe in that abundance there's so much we can do we can light our little abundance candle if we want to and you know no longer do i try to separate brand from my beliefs i'm just my personal brand is absolutely me i can be very very corporate and you know I'm critical in a balanced way. I can help build businesses. I can help build brands and build your bottom line and lots of other Bs. But that doesn't take away from who I am, which is perhaps why we end up on our spiritual programs with scientists, teachers. um armed forces there was one one year we had somebody that was raf somebody that was navy and somebody that was armed forces all in the

SPEAKER_01: 55:25

you mean army Navy,

SPEAKER_00: 55:27

Air Force. Yeah, sorry. All in one go. Yeah. So those types of people shouldn't be on something spiritual. Who says that? Precisely. Exactly. No, but I think that's part of it, isn't it? It's keeping it real, isn't it? Yeah, and I find it much easier to hit desired bank balances, actually, since I've been far more aligned with my spirituality. I don't need all my clients to have the same beliefs. Not at all. But if they're interested... For me, it's about being down to earth. In fact, to come full circle, for those of you who've seen me use that hashtag, hippie shit, I've had all kinds of very, very woo people say to me, you can't do that, you're taking us back years, you're making fun of it, you're demeaning it. Actually, no. That came from me being at a business meeting, a networking meeting once, and somebody asked me about the things that I did with my business. We'd just come off one of our 13-month weekends. I started to talk about some of my work around that. And this starchy old dude said, that's a load of hippie shit, isn't it? And I said, you're absolutely right. Thank you very much. I'm having that as a hashtag.

SPEAKER_02: 56:31

Yay.

SPEAKER_00: 56:31

And I've used it ever since. And it actually. has allowed people who might otherwise be nervous about asking to come and say, tell me more about this hippie shit then. Because I've been really down to earth and grounded with it, it's opened the door for people who might never have been brave enough to stick a toe through before or even considered it. See, isn't that at the heart of it though, certainly at the heart of some of the spiritual work that I've done over the years and I've learnt from some incredible people, amazing people, is that that enables you to stay humble with it. to not be an ego too much to not be too up your own jacksy you know just because I light an incense stick and do a little dance in my caftan doesn't mean that I'm spiritual I don't think you actually own a caftan do you I don't but I'm just using the general tie bells well yeah all of that but it's just keep it real and we all go through stages without going down too weird a path now because I know I'm looking at the time I know but I think we all have I just dress like a dress now I used to have the animal t-shirts I still wear those sometimes because I love them it's not because I think I should wear them well if you're wearing a tie-dyed t-shirt with an animal on it then you must be very very spiritual but I haven't got a jumper made of lentils but I'm working on that one but the trouble is I eat the lentils and then yeah let's not go there let's not go there okay sorry Taz tangent but yeah I think it is who I am and I might be sometimes maybe I misjudge it a bit and sometimes I've been known to be a bit too woo is that me being a bit too woo can you be too woo or is that Yeah, actually, so what? That's part of who I am. I think the real balance is not disappearing right up your own root chakra. Yeah. And also in being able to recognise when you've got your broomsticks right up your backside. Pull that out and keep it real. Ow, ow. God, that hurt. Those bristles really hurt on the way out. Sorry. Well, if you're putting it up that way, it's going to hurt. Oh, yeah, I know. That's right. You've given your innards a good sweep out, though. Well, thanks. Yeah, I thought so. Is that better than having one of those? Does that make you Bess and Buddies? No, what are they called when it comes up? Bess and Buddies. You have a... What's it cleanse? What? What's it cleanse? You know when it goes up, you... I mean, you're only cleansing. No, you're not. You're talking about a colonic irrigation. Yes, thank you. That's the word. We should probably end the episode now. We should stop now. It's 53 minutes. This is almost a double episode. Maybe we'll split it. All three of our followers have just left now. They've gone off for the magpie, flown into the distance. No, they've just gone off to go and do a little ritual outside. Do you think so? I think so. Naked or clothed? sky cloud well we tend to always be clothed yeah because we've got neighbours and we really don't want to scare them okay so on that note shall we end it there so we hope you've enjoyed next time we'll get back onto more of a business track in fact I think our next episode we'll be talking about quickly scrolled through notes the stuff you asked us for sort of so we'll be answering lots of your questions so in the meantime we will see you next Tuesday music You've been listening to Awesomely Off Topic with Taz Thornton and Asha Clearwater. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to connect, you'll find us online. Just search for our names. Stay awesome, stay off topic, and we'll see you next time.