If you have psychic gifts, are a medium, or work doing any other type of heart-based service (healer, massage therapist, spiritual mentor, etc.), the topic of money can be really uncomfortable.
It can be so hard to accept money in exchange for helping others, can’t it? Ugh!
One thing I’ve noticed with many of my mentoring students and fellow soulpreneurs is that they desire to make a living using their spiritual gifts, but the thought of actually charging money FREAKS them out.
Believe it or not, this feeling is totally normal. Working through our heart-space is something that we are called to do in a very genuine way, and money is never what motivated us to pursue our calling.
For most of us, we just followed our joy, and it led to helping others.
With that said, everyone needs money to live. If the only thing that’s stopping you from charging a fee is the uncomfortable feeling associated with it, here are some practical tips that will help you in a jiffy:
1. What Are You Getting Paid For?
For the first 10 years I did this work, I did not make one cent.
Actually, I lost money.
Each time someone needed help, I would pay a babysitter to take care of my children so that I could focus completely on whomever I was helping. I gladly gave my time and energy to anyone who needed me for intuitive guidance, or to connect with their loved one in spirit.
Friends kept encouraging me to charge a fee, but the thought of it made me uncomfortable. I felt like if I took money from people who were in need, it desecrated the work.
Then one day, I had a revelation: I was rushing to drop off my kids with the babysitter so I could scoot back home to meet a client. And I thought, “This isn’t working.”
As much as I loved helping people, I was constantly putting my own family on the back-burner. My husband would come home to find dinner wasn’t ready; and my promise to be back in an hour to pick up my kids would often stretch out to two hours or more. One day when I picked up my daughter, she said, “Where were you mom? You promised, one hour.”
I was so torn as to what to do that I almost gave up altogether. And then a friend said something to me that really helped,
“Think of it as getting paid for your time, not for your gift.”
Thinking of it in this way did help me, and I started accepting a small fee.
2. An Exchange of Energy
I’m sure you’ve heard this before: there should be an exchange of energy when offering your heart-based services or using your psychic gifts.
One way to do this is to accept money in exchange for your services. Money is energy.
Of course, if you are called to occasionally help someone at no charge, or discount your fee, that’s OK, too. Listen to your Inner Being and do what makes you feel comfortable.
Soulpreneur Tip: If someone offers to trade services with you, make sure you feel it is an equal exchange of energy.
3. Believe it or Not… People Are Happy to Pay
When I realized this, it was a total shock-aroo!
People are OK about paying for what you offer.
One day many years ago, a woman handed me a $50 bill at the end of her session. I handed it back to her and explained that I didn’t expect anything. She said, “Honey, I insist you take it.”
She went on to explain that she would like to become a regular client, but felt as though she was taking advantage of me if she didn’t pay… it would make her uncomfortable.
Wow! I had never thought about it like that!
I mentioned this to a friend of mine and she said that she had felt the same way! What a shocker!
My friend explained that she wanted me to give her a mediumship reading, but she had been holding back asking because she didn’t want to take advantage of me.
We ended up working the whole thing out and she became my first paying client!
4. Developing Psychic Gifts Costs Money
Things like classes, books, and mentoring cost money. For those of you who are called to tarot or crystals, you have the expense of those supplies as well.
And often, we have to travel to take a particular class, or study with a particular mentor, so there are travel and meal costs. It all adds up.
Most professionals I know (myself included) have spent many thousands of dollars to develop their psychic gifts or pursue whatever dream calls to them.
Accepting a fee for the work can help offset some of those costs – and give you the funds you need to further your spiritual education. And when you further your spiritual education, you have more knowledge to help others. :)
5. People Are Paid for All Kinds of Gifts
Each day, people get paid to use their natural talents and abilities. Doctors, athletes, musicians, carpenters, and designers are just a few that come to mind.
It just so happens that your gift is of a spiritual nature – and this is what trips many people up.
Ask yourself this question:
How wonderful would it be to support myself financially while doing what I love and helping others at the same time?
And plus – we do need to eat, have clothes, and shelter :)
6. Other Expenses
If you would like to work full time using your soulful or psychic gifts, you will encounter business expenses such as:
- business cards
- hosting for your blog or website (if you get a lot of traffic, hosting will cost more)
- website and logo design (professional design can cost thousands of dollars)
- advertising
- cost to rent an office
- business and marketing courses
- spiritual business coaching
- other graphic design (ebook covers, Facebook covers)
- membership to spiritual business groups
- designated telephone line
- massage table (for healers)
2013 was my first full year as a psychic medium blogger and my expenses were in the thousands of dollars. For 2014, the costs to run my two blogs exceeded $5,000.
Once again, the fee you receive for your work can be reinvested into helping your business grow, which means more people that need help can find you!
Bottom Line
If you decide to start charging money for your psychic gifts or other heart centered services, the fee you set is entirely up to you. If you’d like to get your feet wet and see how it feels, start small. You can always increase your rates as you get more comfortable.
I hope these tips have helped you gain a new perspective on charging for your psychic gifts :)
Yvon says
June 22, 2015 at 9:59 amI would agree that anyone giving a good or service should be compensated for that, everyone has got to make a living. I was wondering how one would become a psychic, do you just realize one day you have a gift? How would you differentiate that from just basic human intuition, and are there schools to hone your skills? I’ll look for posts on these topics, but if you haven’t already written about them, I would be curious to find out.
Jessica says
June 23, 2015 at 3:33 pmThese are such great questions! First, I think that the path to discovering if someone has a “gift” is different for everyone. Some just know there whole life and others, like myself, discover it at some point in their life. For me, I began having precognitive dreams and became fascinated by psychic ability. It’s different from basic intuition in that, I see intuition as something we mostly use for ourselves and psychic ability as a bit broader – reading the energy of others. And yes! There is a wonderful mediumship school in the UK called the Arthur Findlay College. :)
Sibu says
January 24, 2016 at 2:41 amgood day
I also have the calling how ever I do not really understand. in south Africa you attend classes then when you are done you are on your own. I feel like I havent really reached the point of doing hu fully. how can you help me
Jessica says
February 10, 2016 at 12:17 pmHi Sibu, that was how it was for me, also. When classes were done, I was left to “figure it out” all on my own. I invested in one-on-one mentoring and did that for years. I also gave TONS of practice readings, which helped tremendously. So even if you are on your own, you can still commit to practicing a couple of times a week until you get super comfortable. Even committing to just two practice readings per week is 104 readings a year. After 104 readings, you’re sure to feel more confident than when you started. Lots of love, Jessica