Going Pro: How To Take The Leap To Becoming A Professional Tarot Reader

February 2017
Going Pro: How to Take the

Leap to Becoming a
Professional Tarot Reader
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our February Community Masterclass, which is all about how to
Go Pro as a Tarot reader and how you can make that big leap to becoming a
professional Tarot reader.
And, of course, this comes at a really good time, because we also have the
doors open to the “Grow Your Tarot Business Online” program right now, as
we speak, so if this is something that’s really resonating with you, then you
might also consider that program. We’ll talk a little bit more about that later
on.
WHAT WE’LL COVER TODAY

Now, here is what we’re going to be covering for today:
• How you know when you are ready to go pro as a Tarot reader
• How you can get started online or offline
• The six essential pillars for a thriving online Tarot business. These pillars
are exactly what I have used in my business to create it into what it is
now, and I strongly believe that these are the same pillars that will help
you build your business, if you want to really take it up to that next level
with being a professional Tarot reader.
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1 Copyright © Biddy Tarot
COMMUNITY WEBINAR MASTERCLASS
• And, of course, I’m going to be sharing my personal journey of
becoming a professional Tarot reader and growing a business. Now, of
course, we’ve all got unique journeys and experiences, but sometimes
it’s just nice to hear how other people have gone about their journey, so
I hope that piece will also be helpful.
If we have time at the end (which I’m pretty sure we will), you’ll have the
opportunity to ask me anything about starting a Tarot business, becoming a
professional reader – whatever it might be, whatever is top of mind for you
right now. I really want to support you in how you can take it to that next level.
ARE YOU READY TO “GO PRO”?

This is something that people as me a lot, and oftentimes it’s actually a bit
earlier than you realise. I know for many readers, you’re thinking, “Is it now? Is it
later? Have I don’t enough?” But these are my little checklists for how you
know when you're ready to go pro.
YOU KNOW ALL 78 TAROT CARD MEANINGS WITHOUT HAVING

TO REFER TO A BOOK.
Look, it’s OK if every now and then you go blank in a reading and you can’t
remember what a card means in relation to the question. That’s OK. We all
have those kinds of moments. What I want you to be thinking about is “Am I
familiar with all of the 78 cards? Do I know how to interpret in different kinds
of readings? Do I feel a connection to each of those Tarot cards?”
And again, just be patient with yourself. Over time, over the years, you’ll grow
that connection with those cards, but your checkpoint is “Do I really
understand these 78 cards, and therefore am I ready to become a
professional reader?”
YOU KNOW WHAT TAROT SPREAD TO USE.

It’s kind of funny that I get asked this a lot. “How do I know which one to use?”
Does it reflect back on what the question is? Then choose the spread that
matched that question.
Many people think, “Oh gosh, I’ve got to remember this spread. I’ve got to
have that one.” I certainly remember when I was starting to read Tarot, I
thought, “Oh, I’ve got to remember all the positions of the Celtic Cross,
otherwise I can’t possibly be a professional reader.” I kept forgetting them. I
would have to write them down and start wrote learning them. Then I would
want to do a horseshoe spread, and I’d halfway and go, “Oh man, what were
the other positions in there?”
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Look, it is a good idea to have a few of those traditional Tarot spreads
memorised and on hand, but I think what’s more powerful is if you know how
to do a Tarot spread on the fly. Sometimes it could be as simple as just
drawing a few cards and seeing what the story is and how that plays out. It
might be that you have done our Tarot Masterclass on Do-it-Yourself Spreads,
and you learned how you can quickly create your own customised spread
based on the question that the person has asked. You just need to have that
confidence around Tarot spreads and know what it is that you need to do in
order to do a reading.
YOU CAN TELL A “STORY” FROM THE TAROT CARDS.

This is so important. As beginners, we start reading the Tarot by going, “Hmm,
Card 1 means this. Card 2 means this. Card 3 means this. Tarot reading done.”
Right? That’s kind of how beginner level is, and that is absolutely great if you're
a beginner. The next step from there is to go, “Card 1 means this. Card 2
means this. Oh, and look at that connection between Card 1 and Card 2. OK,
and Card 3 means this, and wow! Look at this big story that’s coming out of all
three cards!”
When you're in that place and you're able to actually tell the story from those
cards and bring them together in a meaningful way, then you're probably
ready to go pro.
YOU RARELY GO BLANK IN A TAROT READING.

Rarely. Not never, because I think it would be pretty hard to never, ever, ever
go blank in a reading. But basically, you can do pretty much any reading, and
the messages are coming to you fairly easily. That’s when you know you can
go pro, because just remember that people are paying for your skills, and you
want to make sure that you know what you're talking about, and you can
keep a reading flowing with that client as well.
Now, for those times that you do go blank in a reading, you need to know
what to do if you go blank in a reading. What are some of your strategies? Is it
that you just need to pause, take a deep breath, and ground yourself first? Or
maybe it’s that you just start describing what you see in the card, and you wait
for your intuition to kick into gear. Make sure you’ve got some strategies just in
case you do go blank, so your client is saying, “Oh, this is just part of the
reading!” In your head, you’re thinking, “Oh my God! I’m going blank! OK, no, I
know what to do!”
YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE READING TAROT FOR PEOPLE YOU

DON’T KNOW.
As a community member, you're in a very good position, because you have
access to the Free Tarot Readings platform, and it is the most valuable way for
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you to get that real-life practice with strangers. It’s one thing to do readings
for friends and family. “I’m getting really great feedback. I’m loving it! It’s so
much fun. Oh, I think I’ll become a professional!” No, I suggest that you
actually start reading for people you don’t know first for free, and then
consider going professional from there.
Now, the reason for that is 1) for strangers you don’t know their background, so
you’ve really got to rely on your intuition, and 2) strangers come up with
strange questions and strange responses and strange situations, and it’s really
important that you go through that experience, like someone asking you the
same question three times in a row, or someone asking when they’re going to
die, or someone asking when if their dad has cancer or not. You need all of
these kind of weird and quirky situations so that when you do become a
professional reader and you get this situation presented to you, you’ll know
because you’ve been through it before and you have your strategies in place.
YOU’RE A TRAINED AND CERTIFIED TAROT READER.

Now, I need to be clear. You don’t have to be a certified reader to go pro. It
does give you an advantage, because I think it gives you 1) a lot of credibility
with your clients, but 2) it’s probably more having that confidence that you’ve
covered all the bases with reading Tarot. I know that when our readers
become certified Biddy Tarot readers, the number one change for them is “I
know I can do it. I’ve become certified, which makes me feel really good
about what I know about Tarot.” I think getting the training is very important,
and certification is also important but not obligatory.
“I do readings via premium-rate phone lines, and I have to be fast and it can
be difficult.”
We’ll talk a little bit about how you can go about starting to earn money with
Tarot, and certainly the phone lines are one way to do it. I think working on
the phone lines… I haven’t done it before, but I can only imagine it must be a
bit like initiation by fire, because it’s a very specific kind of environment to
those Tarot readings.
HOW I KNEW I WAS READY…

I just wanted to share with you how I knew I was ready to go pro. For me, at
the time, I was doing a lot of free readings. The Biddy Tarot Community
wasn’t around then, but what I did was I read for many, many people on the
Free Tarot Readings Network, and I just did reading after reading after
reading, because I wanted to just get better and better and better…
Until I got to this point where I was getting a lot of great feedback, and it just
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felt so natural, and I could just do the reading. Everything would just come
naturally and easily, and I thought, “Hmm, maybe I’ll start charging for my
Tarot readings.” I also knew that I had dealt with many different kinds of
people. I had used many different kinds of spreads. I had experimented with
short readings and long readings. I had started to figure out where some of
my boundaries were as a Tarot reader, and I felt like I was in a good position
to really give this a go as a professional reader.
I want to just check in with you right now. Where do you feel you are at? I
know that some of you are already reading professionally, and even then,
maybe you’re thinking about what your next step as a professional Tarot
reader is. Or maybe you’re on the cusp. Maybe you’ve been doing the free
Tarot readings and you’re pretty good, but you're not sure you're good enough
yet. I’d love to hear. Let me know in the chat. Please, feel free to ask questions
as we go.
“Did you know that you were always meant to do this? Did it feel like a
calling?”
Yes. It’s been such a joy. I just then of when I was working at corporate, and I’d
get home from a busy day in the office, and I’d get back and I’d have three
Tarot readings I needed to do. “Yeah, this is good!” For me, it just felt fun and
enjoyable. I think that calling has changed over time. Now I don’t do
professional Tarot readings, because I’m directing my energy into growing our
community and teaching people how to read Tarot, but my calling is still
most definitely around Tarot and using Tarot in really fun and interesting ways.
“I’ve been doing the free Tarot readings since late November or early
December, and only two a week, because I take a long time to do a single
reading, but my clients seem to like what I do. I’m on the cusp.”
– Diane
Yes! You know what, Diane? I would say you might even
experiment with just a couple of shorter readings, see how that
feels for you, and then when the opportunity starts to present
itself, maybe start charging a small amount for your readings. You
might be a little bit more ready than you realise.
“I’ve been reading on your network, and I’ve done 225 readings. I also read at
local events with money going to charity. I do have a space in a small shop,
and the ones at the shop come from word of mouth.”
– Tina
Way to go, Tina! I would say after 225 free readings, you are most definitely
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ready to get out there and start charging for your readings. Yeah, go for it.
“I love doing it, but I’m busy building my own website, and I do about four
free readings a day.” – Paul
Wow, awesome!
I think for the folks who are reading on the free Tarot readings quite a lot and
regularly, it’s really fabulous. You’re building up your experience, and you're
getting ready to start moving into that professional space, if that feels good for
you.
The thing that I often recommend people on the free Tarot readings platform
is do it for a specific amount of time, and then check in with yourself at the
end of that time and go, “Hmm, am I ready? Have I got enough experience
yet?” Because there will be a time when reading on the free Tarot readings
platform is no longer needed. Your energy and focus might actually go
towards building your business in Tarot. I just want to encourage you to think
“When is it time to let go of free and start doing paid readings?”
That said, you can sometimes do both. I’m pretty sure that when I was starting
out, I loved doing the free readings, and I was charging for my Tarot readings
as well, because I just enjoyed doing it.
“It might not be even needed, but can we still read on the network?” – Tina
Absolutely, yes. Sometimes just reading Tarot is a fun hobby, isn’t it? It’s
something that you just like doing. Absolutely. Keep going, but just keep
checking in with your energy. Is it still fun and enjoyable? If so, keep doing it. If
not, you might ask, “Am I ready now to start charging or my readings and
focus on that?”
Paul says it’s addictive. I know! I used to do the same thing! I’d say, “OK, I’m
only going to take one reading today,” and then I’d change my availability,
and I would go, “OK, now I’ve got 10!” and then that’s all I did for the day.
HOW TO GET STARTED LOCALLY…

I know for many of you, you might be thinking, “OK, I’m ready to become a
professional Tarot reader, but how? How do I make this thing happen? I want
you to know it’s actually easier than you think, and some of these ways are just
easy hacks to get started and get paid for your Tarot readings.
5-MINUTE READINGS AT THE HAIRDRESSER

One idea is go to your local hairdresser and say, “Hey, I would love to do a
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short, maybe 5- or 10-minute reading for your clients while they’re under the
hair thing, waiting for the dye to set in, whatever it might be.” You want to
offer 5- to 10-minute readings, and maybe organise with that hairdresser that
you’ll take half and give them half. Those readings might only be $10 or
something, but it’s a way to just get started.
START A TAROT NIGHT AT THE LOCAL CAFÉ

Another thing might be go to your local café, somewhere you go a lot and
you’ve got a good relationship the café owners, and you can start a Tarot
night. When I was in Melbourne, I saw a handful of places that were offering
Tuesday night Tarot, and you would set yourself up at a table, and you would
take Tarot clients. It’s benefits the café, because it’s something a little bit
different, and you can give a cut of your takings to the café owner. It also
means that people might be buying a coffee or a tea or a piece of cake or
something while they have a Tarot reading with you.
READ AT THE LOCAL MARKET

A lot of towns and cities have psychic fairs and festivals that you can read at,
or even just craft markets. There are markets in your local area that you could
easily get a table and start reading.
READ AT A CHARITY EVENT

The think I like about charity events is if you’re having some funny feelings
about taking money for your Tarot readings at this stage, then you know that
you're being paid, but it’s going to a charity. That probably would feel good for
you. It’s also a lovely way of giving back and using your skills to help the wider
community and society. You can’t go wrong with that. At a charity event, you
can do it by donation as well. You’re not necessarily saying, “It’s $20 a reading.”
It’s just, “Pay what you think this thing is worth.” It shows you that your Tarot
reading skills are actually worth something. People are paying for it, so it’s
good for the confidence.
OFFER TAROT PARTIES

Now, it might be with some friends or friends of friends, and you say, “Hey, can
you get together five of your friends? I’ll set up in the back room and do Tarot
readings for each person, maybe have an afternoon tea or something, and it’s
$300.” You get paid for that. That’s fabulous!
When I was traveling in Spain, I met a group of English ex-pats, and I said I
would do a Tarot party for them, and that’s exactly what I did. I did 15-minute
readings in a back room. Everyone was eating tapas and having a chat – tapas
and Tarot!
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Lots of different ideas for how you can bootstrap it and get started. Let me
check in. For those of you who have started doing professional Tarot readings,
what are you doing locally? What’s been working for you? I’d love to hear.
Oh, the rain is coming! I wonder if you can hear that in the background. It’s so
refreshing. We’re here now on the Sunshine Coast, and it’s usually quite hot
(about 30° Celsius, 90° or something in Fahrenheit), and then you get the rain,
and it’s all nice and cool. Beautiful.
Well, let’s move on.
HOW TO GET STARTED ONLINE…

Now, of course, reading online is kind of my domain. This is where I love to
read Tarot and teach Tarot and so on.
Oh my God! Daphne is saying it’s -5. Well, it won’t be that cold when I get to
the U.S. It won’t be that cold, but it will be cold, and I am not excited about it.
Paul, I’ll get into charging as well. Let me move through this, and then I’ll have
a quick chat about charging for your readings.
CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

Look, all you need to do for that is your $6 monthly hosting via GoDaddy or
BlueHost. You install, Wordpress on your own domain, and you get a free
theme, and you just add in your page title and your content. It does require a
little bit of time and a little bit of tech savviness. It’s oftentimes not a great
deal of money, unless you want to get quite specific with your designs and so
on. If you're thinking about starting a Tarot business, rather than just a hobby
that you're getting paid for, then having your own website is definitely
something you should think about.
CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE

You could go the easier route, which is just start a Facebook page. Now, I
think having a Facebook page is a great way to begin, but if you're creating a
really solid business, you’ll want to move to your own website. The reason for
this is I just get a bit icky about building a business on someone else’s
platform. It happened with eBay, I think, back in 2012. They said, “You know
what? No more Tarot readers on eBay.” A lot of people lost a lot of business
because of that. Who’s to say that Facebook might not just go, “OK, no more
Tarot readers,” and all of your pages are gone, and you don’t have any access
to your customers. It’s just disappeared. It is a good way to start, but it’s not a
great way to build a business long term.
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READ ON A PSYCHIC WEBSITE

Now, you could read on a psychic website or phone lines, like Paul had
suggested before. For example, Biddy Tarot, we’re often promoting Oranum.
You can read with Oranum. There are other things like California Psychics.
There might be some local websites where you can read. You really have just
got to choose what feels good for you. They each have their own different vibe
and energy, and sometimes it fits, sometimes it doesn’t.
The neat thing with reading on a psychic website is as soon as you apply and
you’ve been accepted as a reader, you can start earning money straight away.
They do take a huge cut, oftentimes 50% or more, and you might be sitting
on your computer for 8 hours and only get a paid reading for just a few of
those hours. It’s a bit of a give and take.
CREATE AN ETSY STORE

Lots of people on Etsy are offering Tarot readings, which is kind of good and
kind of not so good. The not-so-good part about Etsy is that most people are
offering very low-priced readings, so if you're comfortable with charging $5 or
$10 for a reading, then Etsy might be a good place to start, but if you're
looking for a higher end, maybe $100 or $150 readings, it may not be the right
place for you.
WORD OF MOUTH
And, of course, there’s word of mouth. Let your friends know that you're taking
Tarot readings professionally. Do a few shares on Facebook, on social media,
and so on, and just get started that way. It’s a really quick way just to get on
with it.
“You’re getting 25 pence a minute.” – Paul
What is that in even U.S. cents? Is that about 40 or 50 cents? Maybe a little bit
less per minute? Reading on the phone lines, when your customer is being
charged by the minute, you’ve got to be very mindful about how you're
managing those minutes, right? You probably want to be giving some pretty
solid insights within a few minutes, and maintaining their attention, and
being fairly succinct, but also balancing out… Goodness me, there are
probably all sorts of strategies that you’ve got there in terms of you want to
give some great insight at the start, but you want to also make sure that they
stick with you for a longer period of time on that call.
“What is Etsy?”
– Daphne
Google it! It’s basically an online store, where anybody can sell their crafts,
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homewares, crystals. It’s a little bit addictive. I’m on Etsy quite a bit, finding
cool stuff.
“It’s high pressure with the time element.” – Diane
Yep, and you get a lot of people who ask a question, and then you get the
one-minute warning. There are certainly specific strategies that you’d have to
put in place when you're doing phone readings versus something like an
email reading.
And, in fact, yes! Good, let’s talk about types of online readings. Paul, I’ve got
you with the charging for readings. I’ll make sure to add that in.
TYPES OF ONLINE TAROT READINGS

There are lots of different ways to do it, maybe more ways than you realised.
EMAIL READING
For me, I’ve always done email Tarot readings. It’s my preferred method,
because it means I can do the reading in my own time, and the client gets a
written report of the reading that they can refer to at any time. That works
really well for me, particularly with a busy lifestyle, a family, a business, and so
on. Also, I should mention I’m quite a fast typer, so for me, doing an email or a
Word document is super easy.
AUDIO READING
However, not everyone is a fast typer, so you might prefer an audio reading.
With an audio reading, you might just do your reading, and you record
yourself and then send that MP3 through to your client so that they can listen
to it.
VIDEO READING
Jump on a video and send the MP4 to your client. Now, with that I suggest
not posting it on YouTube, because you’ve got to manage issues of
confidentiality. Instead, you might use Dropbox or some other kind of file
sharing app or service.
SKYPE READING
You can do Skype readings. They’re probably the closest thing you’ll get to a
face-to-face reading. I have done a couple. I enjoyed it from the perspective of
having this beautiful interaction. I didn’t enjoy it, because sometimes there
were technical issues, and it would really wreck the flow and the energy of
that reading. Also, I don’t love having to be in a certain place at a certain time.
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I find that a little bit limiting sometimes. I didn’t really enjoy having to set
appointments and so on, but it might be the thing that works for you.
SOCIAL MEDIA
And finally, social media. What I mean by this is social media is obviously a
shared platform and a very public platform. You might say to your
community, “Hey, I am going to do a free reading every month, so long as you
don’t mind me sharing it on YouTube or Facebook,” and the reason for doing
that might be so that you can show others what your reading style is like.
Another way of using YouTube for readings is to do a general, say, weekly

reading or a monthly forecast, like we do, and post that onto YouTube. It’s not
strictly a one-to-one client kind of reading, but it’s something to think about.
“How do you overcome the downside of not getting an immediate reading

with email? I love email readings, and I want to make that my main
method.” – Dawn
I’m very, very clear. When someone goes to book a reading, what is the
timeframe that they can expect between booking the reading and receiving
the reading?
Earlier on, I was able to do it within 2 or 3 days. Later on, when I was getting
quite busy and I had quite a bit wait list, a strong demand for readings, it was
up to a week, sometimes two weeks. I’ve seen other very popular psychics or
readers who have a waitlist of three months or six months long. You put your
little reading in, and you get it later on.
I think so long as you're clear about when your customer can expect to get
that reading back, then that’s OK. That said, you might charge a premium for
emergency readings. I had a quick-answer reading, and you were guaranteed
a response within 24 to 48 hours. You could probably do less than that even.
You create a higher price to get an emergency reading. That’s another way of
doing it.
“I am surprised at how much I took to the free tarot readings. I find that as I
type and consider the wording, I end up with more insights about the
reading, and it opens the reading up much more than I feel face to face.”
– Diane
Yes, yes, and yes! When I was more of a learning phase, I found email readings
great, because if I did get stuck, I could just stop and go, “Hmm, what does
this mean? How does this all come together?” Or I could walk away and come
back. When you're in a face-to-face reading, you’re on the spot, and you’ve got
to have an answer, it’s a bit more of a pressure as well.
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“I guess weeding out the drive-by clients who need an answer now might
be a good thing.” – Diane
Yes, it might. One of my good friends here in Australia is a very well-known

psychic. She reads for a number of celebrities here, and I don’t know how she
does it, but she’s open to people ringing her in the middle of the night with
an emergency issue. She charges a high fee for it, but she allows people to
call her at any time. That kind of thing freaks me out, because I have very
strong boundaries around my time, but my friend is happy to do that, but she
charges for it, that’s for sure.
“Diane and Diana are the best names ever!”
Yes, they are! Along with all the other names that we are all named.
“What’s your reason behind asking each client to wait a month before
asking another second reading again?” - Daphne
Ah, good. In the free tarot readings platform, the reason we do that is because
the demand for free readings is so high. If we had no limitation on that, we
would get thousands of requests a day, and we would have to turn people
away. It’s really just to manage our flow of demand.
BUSINESS OWNER OR EMPLOYEE?

Now, another thing to think about when you're going pro is do you want to be
a business owner or an employee? Let’s talk about the difference there.
BUSINESS OWNER
As a business owner, you might set up your own business (obviously) as a
website, maybe have a home office where you do your Tarot readings, or you
might even rent a room at a local new age centre or community centre.
Now, when you're renting the room, you're typically collecting the fees, and
you're responsible for finding your clients, but you pay a certain amount to
that place for the rental of the room.
EMPLOYEE
Now, as an employee, you’re being paid by an organisation obviously. It’s
employee or contractor, really. The organisation is responsible for finding your
clients, taking care of payments, business admin, and so on, and you're
responsible for just doing the reading, but typically you're going to get a lot
less income that way, because the employer organisation is taking a cut for
what they’re doing as well.
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This might be an online psychic website, phone line, or even a new age store,
but instead of renting a room, sometimes it could be that they bring the
customers in, and then they pay you a certain percentage of what they
charge for that reading. Again, you have to think about “Am I ready to create a
business?” because that requires you to get business skills, not just Tarot skills,
“or do I simply want to do Tarot, but that I’m going to get less money for
doing so?” It’s just something to think about and weigh up.
Let me just check in.
“I keep getting clients asking for updates.” – Paul
No, no, no, and no! Some of our customers can be a little bit sneaky, right?
This is what the expectation is: You do that first reading from that original
request. If they have a question about the reading that you’ve done, that’s OK
to answer it, so long as you are not expected to draw any new cards. You only
clarify what you’ve done in the reading.
If they come back to you in three weeks and say, “Well, I thought we were
going to get back together now or not? This other thing has come in – can
you tell me what’s going on?” “No. Please sign up for another reading.” That’s
your response, OK?
The reason I really encourage you to do this is because as a professional

reader, these are probably going to be your boundaries as well. If someone
has paid you $100 for your reading, you are there to clarify on that reading
and provide a response on that reading, but if they came back two months
later and said, “Oh, all these things changed! How do I deal with this?” you’re
probably going to say to them, “That’s another reading, so click here.”
Maybe your boundaries are a little bit different – who knows? I respect that
everyone has different boundaries. From my perspective, set those firm
boundaries up front. Free updates? No, don’t do it. That’s setting an
expectation that other readers will do it, too. Just be really firm. Have a
template response that you use. If they don’t leave you alone, you stop
responding.
I really work on a two-reply rule. I’ll only reply twice, and if that person keeps
emailing back, that’s it, because if you start going into your third or fourth or
fifth reply, you've got problems, and you're starting to engage in this back-
and-forth that really doesn’t go anywhere. If people are asking you for
updates, ask them to do a separate question.
HOW I GOT STARTED…
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I want to share how I got started. I talked about when I knew that I was ready
to go pro, but now I just want to talk about how I got started with actually
charging money.
MIND BODY SPIRIT FESTIVAL

One of the biggest things that I did was I signed myself up to read at
Melbourne’s Mind Body Spirit Festival. To put this in context, this is thousands
and thousands of people congregating in this one place, learning about
spirituality, learning about all sorts of mind-body-spirit things, and there’s this
massive room with 60 psychics and readers, all lined up in tables and rows.
You’ve probably been to one of these kinds of festivals before, and you can
picture it.
I said, “OK, I’m going to do it.” I signed myself up for two full days. I set myself
down and thought, “What am I doing? What am I doing? Everyone is going to
know I’m a fraud! I look too young.” But I just did it.
That first reading was super scary. The second reading was a bit scary. By the
third reading, I felt pretty good, and I was just on a roll. I was getting some
really great insights. I thought, “Oh wow, I can do this, and people are actually
signing up to have a reading with me!” It gave me that extra confidence that
this was legitimate and I could do this.
CREATED A WEBSITE
I also created a website. I had BiddyTarot.com very early on. When I first set up
my website, the idea was to share what I was learning as I was learning Tarot. I
was putting my Tarot card meanings up on the website. Then later, I thought,
“You know what? Maybe I could do online readings here as well.”
$10 ONLINE READINGS

So I started charging $10 for a Celtic Cross reading, which freaks me out right
now, because there’s no way I would even suggest anybody else charge only
$10 for a reading that probably takes an hour to do.
But nonetheless, that’s what got me some clients, and I had it set up so that if
you're a first-time client, you would pay $10 for a reading. It was from this idea
of “try before you buy, and if you like it, great, come back.” I can’t remember
exactly how much I charged, maybe $50 for a reading.
TRIED DIFFERENT TYPES OF READINGS

I also tried lots of different kinds of readings. What I mean by this is I tried
short readings, medium, and long readings. I tried different kinds of spreads,
and I also started experimenting (not so successfully sometimes) with
predictive readings versus more coaching-style readings, and I quickly realised
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that predictive readings are not my cup of tea, and instead I much prefer to
do coaching and consultative kinds of readings.
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Also, I started my weekly newsletter with the Tarot card for the week, and
originally that was set up as a way of showing “This is how I read the Tarot
cards. Get a reading with me.” Lots of different ways.
“I want to enrol in your course, but I’m afraid to go pro, partially because I
have a security clearance. I wonder if that matters to people who do
clearances.” - Diane
I don’t know, and what’s a really good idea is you need to find that out from
whomever the organisation is that has this security clearance, and what your
limitations are.
It’s the same also with, say, a psychotherapist or a psychologist that does have
limitations around using a tool like Tarot, and you need to keep the two very
separate. Also, you can’t use Tarot and hypnosis together. I’m being explicit
about it.
Sometimes it’s important to figure out where the boundaries are, but
oftentimes it’s workable. Even as a psychologist, all you need to do is say, “OK, I
have my psychologist hat on right now, and I’m doing a psychology session,
and now I’ve got my Tarot hat on.” You might keep them in separate
businesses. You don’t have to not ever do Tarot professionally ever because of
this kind of thing.
Please check it out, because I don’t know. I hope that there’s a possibility for
you to be able to do what you’re called to do as well.
5-MINUTE GUIDE TO STARTING YOUR

OWN BUSINESS
I want to give you a bit of a 5-minute guide to starting your own business. If
this has kind of piqued an interest and you want to get started, what should
you do?
BE “FINDABLE”
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What I mean by this is just have a website up and running, have a Facebook
page, have some social media profiles. You might like doing videos, so get
onto YouTube and so on. Make sure that people can find you, and if you're
reading locally, get a Google listing so that you appear on a Google search or
a Google Maps search. If someone is looking for “Tarot reader Eumundi,” then
maybe they might find me or not.
SHARE WHO YOU ARE

Again, I know for some of you, this is probably not going to be the right thing,
but the more that you can bring you into your Tarot readings, into your
business, by putting your photo on your website, by saying “This is me,” being
authentic, sharing your stories, all those kinds of things, you create a
connection with your potential clients. It’s a great way to create that
connection.
MAKE IT EASY TO PAY

Have a PayPal button that’s easy to find, instead of having to contact me, then
I’ll send you an invoice, and then I’ll send you another email about your
question. I’ve seen that many times, so make it easy to pay.
SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

When they’ll receive the reading, refund policy – those kinds of things.
BE BUSINESS-SAVVY
Remember that if you make this choice, you're creating a business, so be
professional. Turn up when you say that you’ll turn up. Be consistent. Answer
emails and so on.
GIVE, GIVE, GIVE

Before you say, “Hey, buy my Tarot reading!” make sure that you're giving value.
It might be valuable content on your blog. It might be doing group free
readings, a reading for everybody in your community. And then ask or make
the request to have a reading with you.
BE YOU
Ultimately, be you. There are many people doing Tarot business online, and
it’s great, because most of these folks have a different way of doing it and
have their unique style. Don’t go and copy what other people are doing,
because you’ll end up not being you anymore. Come back to what feels really
authentic to who you are, and bring that into your business.
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TAKING THE NEXT STEP: GROWING

YOUR TAROT BUSINESS
Now, you might be thinking, “Awesome. I’m pretty set with professional
reading. I’ve started to get paid for my readings, and what is the next step?”
Obviously, it’s about growing your Tarot business.
If you’re in that place where you're going, “You know what? I’ve got this great
hobby, but I want to actually turn it into a business,” then I really do
encourage you to consider the “Grow Your Tarot Business Online” program,
which is open until February 28, 2017. If you're watching this a little bit later,
you can go to the page at BiddyTarot.com/GYTBO. If you go there, there will
be a waitlist, so you can find out when it’s opening again.
Now, inside the “Grow Your Tarot Business” program, or even just as you're
thinking about how you grow your Tarot business, these are the six essential
keys to growing your Tarot business.
ALIGN YOUR GOALS

Align your goals with your soul purpose, and also be able to translate your
vision for your business into your goals and then into action plans, because it’s
fabulous to have a big vision for what you want in your business, but it’s a
whole other thing to ever turn that into actual actions you can take. That’s
where the rubber hits the road. That’s where things happen, and you manifest
things.
ATTRACT YOUR DREAM CLIENTS

Number two, you want to attract your dream clients. Now, when most people
get started, they think, “I just want to attract any client. Any client is a good
client!” But you start to quickly realise it’s hard to find any client, and it’s much
easier when you know who your dream client is, to go and hang out where
they’re hanging out. It might be a dream client is female entrepreneurs who
want to use Tarot and intuition in their business, and you really focus all of
your offerings on that group of people.
BUILD A THRIVING COMMUNITY

Things like having an email newsletter, having a social media platform, and
having a blog are all great ways of allowing people to be able to gather
around you, because there are many websites that have “Here are my Tarot
services,” and then that’s it, so people land on the site, and go, “Hmm, not
ready,” and then they leave and then they go on forever. But if you have
something like a sign-up where you can add your name and email, then you
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can actually stay in contact over the longer term
MARKET YOURSELF AUTHENTICALLY

There are lots of marketing strategies out there. Many of them feel yuck and
sleazy, but there’s also many that are very authentic and have you attracting
people, rather than having to be in this sell, sell, sell phase. That’s something
we go into a lot more detail in the program as well.
EXPAND YOUR OFFERS

What I really believe is that being 100% service-based as a business can only
take you so far. You only have so many hours and so much you can charge for
your readings, so it’s important to start thinking about how you expand your
offers so that you can create even more income in your business. It might be
e-books, courses, products of some kind, packages for your readings,
subscriptions, memberships, and so on.
BUILD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Think about “Can I start building up my team, people to support me, so I can
do the work that I love, and someone else can take care of the blog or dealing
with different tech issues and all that grumpy stuff?”
Also, building a sustainable future is putting in place systems and processes,

using templates to make your life easy, and of course, practicing self-care,
because if you want a business that lasts for the long haul, then you want to
make sure you're taking care of your best asset, and that is you.
Wonderful. Just to follow on from that, if you are interested, in fact, early bird is
open right now but will close in literally just a few hours, but otherwise the
doors will close for the program for this year on February 28. Go to
BiddyTarot.com/GYTBO to learn more. Even if you’re thinking, “Well, I’m not
sure if it’s now or later,” check it out, and it might just start to create a seed of
inspiration for you about what you can do to take this next step, whether it’s
now or later on. Do check it out.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Now, I want to get into your questions. I’ve been seeing a few popping up.
Let’s go back into charging for your Tarot readings. I can see we’ve got about 7
minutes left, so if you do have questions, please post them below, and I’ll
make sure I go through them.
A lot of people price based on maybe the number of cards, how long they
spend on the reading, or they’re thinking about being paid for all their
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experience and how much time you’re investing. If you’re hearing my
language right now, you’ll notice it’s all about “me, me, me” as a Tarot reading,
and building my prices around me.
Now, what if you were change it around your client and building prices
around your client? Not so much about can they afford it or what-have-you,
but more about “What transformation am I creating for my client, and what’s
the value of that transformation?”
Instead of saying, “It’s $50 for a 60-minute reading with me,” you might say
maybe in 60 minutes, you know that you can help someone improve their
relationship, so it might actually be… Well, what’s the value of improving your
relationship? I would probably pay $200 for that. If I could have a better
relationship? Awesome, he’s charging $200. So you start to change your prices
based on the transformation you create, and then obviously when you're
talking about that Tarot reading, you’re not saying, “I do an hour Tarot reading
for $200.” You’re saying, “I’ll help you improve your relationship, and it’s $200.”
Do you see there’s a transition there?
Another thing with choosing your prices, I know for many of you, you’re
thinking, “I can’t really increase my rates, because Betty down the road is
charging only $20 for a 30-minute reading, and I couldn’t charge $50 for a 20-
minute reading.”
But here’s what’s happening when we’re looking at what our competitors are
doing in terms of price: We’re buying into their mental model around money
and not our own. Who’s to say that Betty has a really different mindset about
money? Maybe she doesn’t need money. Maybe money is worrisome for her…
And you’re buying into that.
Why not set the prices based on what feels good for you? I hope that helps
with charging. And, of course, if you're working as a contractor or on a phone
line, it’s going to be a little bit harder to set your own prices, but if you're
running your own business, then it’s all up to you, which is fabulous.
“On my website, I have a divorce deal for people going through divorces –
five 1/2-hour sessions for £100.” - Paul
I really like this. Now, this is coming from my NLP training (neuro-linguistic
programming), and I haven’t seen your offer. Instead of saying “divorce,”
maybe flip it. What’s the positive outcome of a divorce? What’s the thing that
they’re working towards, rather than they’re coming away from?
When you’ve just gone through a divorce, maybe it’s about reclaiming yourself
again, so you might actually position it more around reclaiming yourself after
the end of a relationship or something like that, and that might actually have
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more value than £100 for five readings. What’s the in the U.S.? That’s probably
about $160 or something. I think you could definitely charge more than £100.
You might have an action plan. “Session 1 is this. Session 2 is this. By Session 3,
we’ll be covering this, and you might be experiencing these kind of benefits
or good feelings, and then Session 4 is this, and Session 5 is the closure. By the
time you reach Session 5, you're experiencing these kinds of things, and the
value of this package is £250 perhaps.
There are lots of different ways of approaching pricing. Pricing goes hand in
hand with how you present your offers and who you're presenting them to. If
you know who your dream client is, and you can match an offer that your
dream client really values, then you can typically charge a premium rate for
that. I hope that makes sense.
“How do you find your team, and how do you know that you need more
people to help you? What’s the tipping point?” - Daphne
OK, my trigger was my family and I went to Spain for six months to live, and it
was my intention to run the business while I was there, and I certainly did, but
I started realising that I liked hanging out at the beach with my family, instead
of uploading blog posts.
What I did was I advertised on Elance. I got lots of different applications, and I
had a few interviews, and finally I hired our first virtual assistant, Kim, who is
still with us 4 or 5 years later, and an incredibly important part of our business.
Kim had started by just doing things like uploading blog posts and our
newsletter, and just admin tasks. Now these days, she’s doing things like
managing our affiliates, our endorsed readers. She’s our programs manager.
She looks after all of the courses. She also takes care of our team, which has
now grown to 12 at last count.
The tipping point for me was I want to do more of the things that either I
really enjoy doing, like spending time on the beach, or I also want to do more
things where I offer the most value. At that time, it was doing Tarot readings,
but also starting to create Tarot courses, and by having Kim and, later, other
people on our team, it enabled me to get on with the work that I wanted to
do, and leave them to do the work that they’re great at as well.
For example, right now we have Laura (who takes care of the community and
also takes care of customer service), Molly (who takes care of our content –
blog, podcast, social media, and our newsletter), and we’ve got a group of our
admins who also work with the managers to make things happen. It’s just an
absolute dream team. It’s amazing. This is what makes Biddy Tarot what it is
today.
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“You set up a subscription service for a value of a personal Tarot reader
specialising in something?” – Mickey
Yes. I often encourage readers to go beyond that one-off reading and think
about how you can package your readings into something, all based around a
transformation that you can help create for your client. It might be “discover
your soul purpose,” and you have a full package available. It’s not just one
reading, but it’s a group of readings and maybe a meditation and something
else – a life coaching call, or a video tutorial, or something like that. You start
to package it up in a way that means you don’t have to put in all that extra
effort just to win one reading. Getting a client across the line can sometimes
take a lot of effort.
“How do you go about reading on your site?” - Paul
I’m so sorry, Paul. At this stage, we’re not accepting any new endorsed Tarot
readers. We’re really focused at this point in terms of teaching people how to
read Tarot. So sorry, Paul, but thank you for asking. I appreciate that.
“I’m trying to combine creativity coaching with Tarot as the main tool to
help connect artists to their creativity.” – Mickey
That’s beautiful. You know what’s great about that? You're very clear on who
your dream client is, and you know how to serve them, and that is such an
important part of building a sustainable Tarot business as well.
All right, I can see that I’ve just gone over time, so I don’t want to stretch this
out. I want to encourage you, though, to jump inside of our Biddy Tarot
Community Forums. Laura will be posting the Tarot Challenge very soon, so
please take part in that, if you’re watching this in February 2017, and you can
go into the running to win a one-on-one strategy session with me. We get to
talk for 30 minutes about you, your business, where you want to take it, or
even just your professional Tarot readings. “How do I get from A to B?” I’m here
to help you.
Also, I want to remind you that the doors are open right now to Grow Your
Tarot Business Online, and we would love to help you and support you inside
of that program to help you grow your business online. You can find out more
about that at BiddyTarot.com/GYTBO.
All right, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it, and I’m so
grateful for you being part of the Biddy Tarot Community. Have a really great
day, and I shall see you very, very soon.
Bye, everybody!
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Going Pro: How To Take The Leap To Becoming A Professional Tarot Reader

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Going Pro: How To Take The Leap To Becoming A Professional Tarot Reader

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February 2017

Going Pro: How to Take the

WHAT WE’LL COVER TODAY

ARE YOU READY TO “GO PRO”?

YOU KNOW ALL 78 TAROT CARD MEANINGS WITHOUT HAVING

YOU KNOW WHAT TAROT SPREAD TO USE.

YOU CAN TELL A “STORY” FROM THE TAROT CARDS.

YOU RARELY GO BLANK IN A TAROT READING.

YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE READING TAROT FOR PEOPLE YOU

YOU’RE A TRAINED AND CERTIFIED TAROT READER.

HOW I KNEW I WAS READY…

HOW TO GET STARTED LOCALLY…

5-MINUTE READINGS AT THE HAIRDRESSER

START A TAROT NIGHT AT THE LOCAL CAFÉ

READ AT THE LOCAL MARKET

READ AT A CHARITY EVENT

OFFER TAROT PARTIES

Well, let’s move on.

HOW TO GET STARTED ONLINE…

CREATE A WORDPRESS WEBSITE

CREATE A FACEBOOK PAGE

READ ON A PSYCHIC WEBSITE

CREATE AN ETSY STORE

“You’re getting 25 pence a minute.” – Paul

“It’s high pressure with the time element.” – Diane

TYPES OF ONLINE TAROT READINGS

Another way of using YouTube for readings is to do a general, say, weekly

“How do you overcome the downside of not getting an immediate reading

Yes, it might. One of my good friends here in Australia is a very well-known

“Diane and Diana are the best names ever!”

BUSINESS OWNER OR EMPLOYEE?

Let me just check in.

“I keep getting clients asking for updates.” – Paul

The reason I really encourage you to do this is because as a professional

HOW I GOT STARTED…

MIND BODY SPIRIT FESTIVAL

$10 ONLINE READINGS

TRIED DIFFERENT TYPES OF READINGS

5-MINUTE GUIDE TO STARTING YOUR

SHARE WHO YOU ARE

MAKE IT EASY TO PAY

SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

GIVE, GIVE, GIVE

TAKING THE NEXT STEP: GROWING

ALIGN YOUR GOALS

ATTRACT YOUR DREAM CLIENTS

BUILD A THRIVING COMMUNITY

MARKET YOURSELF AUTHENTICALLY

EXPAND YOUR OFFERS

BUILD A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Also, building a sustainable future is putting in place systems and processes,

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

“How do you go about reading on your site?” - Paul

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