The Inconvenient Truth About Becoming a Channel in Your Spiritual Business
As a Spiritual Entrepreneur, Coach, Healer, or Therapist, your business isn't just work—it's an extension of your spiritual life, an expression of service and compassion in the world. You're not only navigating the nuts and bolts of running a sustainable business, but you're also feeling pulled to become a channel for something greater than yourself.
Whether it's wisdom flowing from your soul, guidance from your higher self, or messages from the universe, you sense a unique gift emerging—perhaps a powerful new way of healing, an intuitive approach to coaching, or a message the world needs to hear (See: What is Channelling? How Tapping into Higher Wisdom Can Elevate Your Spiritual Business).
But here's the thing: although you can sense something arising from within and feel intuitively directed, there's no clear roadmap to follow. You're moving one step at a time, learning how you're a channel through your business as you go, and starting to be intuitively guided in how you approach your work. And this organic, uncharted approach comes with its own unique set of challenges.
The inconvenience of becoming a channel
Becoming a channel in your business can be a significant inconvenience. You may have invested significant time and money in particular training, thinking, "Right, great, I can start my business now." However, something doesn't feel right about the practice—it just doesn't resonate with you. You sense there's more potential for impact, another way that feels more authentic or powerful.
I know this is what happened to me after training in Shiatsu and trying to build a business. As much as I loved it, and I loved the people I worked with, I just couldn’t fit into the modality enough. So I had to keep pulling at that thread that just said ‘yes, some of this, but not quite like this, there’s more’ which led to more study, more self-investigation, self-healing, and eventually leaping into something different, practising EFT and then again Channelling.
Or perhaps you've spent time and money on branding and copywriting for a specific business focus, only to feel it collapsing under your feet as it becomes clear this isn't the direction your intuition is guiding you toward.
Learning to trust the unfolding process
What's happening is you're being asked to work intuitively—to take the next stepping stone toward your destination, learn what you need to know, and move forward from there to the next stage. For strategic planners, this is a nightmare. You're being asked to allow something to unfold organically, by simply taking the next step.
As someone who likes to plan, I've had to learn to trust the unfolding process. I'm only ever told the next step (which might be a year in advance now), but after that, it gets vague and foggy in my mind.
You have to live with a level of uncertainty and maintain high trust in your intuition, which feels counter-cultural to how we usually plan a business. By this stage, you may have already had to tear up a life plan to become a spiritual entrepreneur, and the idea of doing it again can feel massively unappealing—we know how disruptive it can be.
However, your intuitive compass is locked onto the gold. If we want to listen to our higher self, to grow, to be our most authentic selves, rest in our true power, and deliver the message we're here to give, then we need to listen to know what we are here to channel.
Using Your Intuition in Business
Becoming a channel in your business asks you to take a counter-cultural approach. It means listening to your inner voice as the first port of call for all decisions, which takes practice and confidence. I recall speaking with helpful business coaches who could only take me so far because I didn't have the answer myself yet.
I had to learn that this wasn't a failing, that I wasn't 'behind' for not knowing. I was simply having to practice where I was, and the next stepping stone, the following answer would appear—as I changed, as my practice and skills developed, as I gained a clearer understanding. This simply takes time and testing.
When logic meets intuition
I recall a conversation I had with Caroline Leon, a lovely Strategic Business Coach, during her excellent year-long Business Mastermind. I had a niche, which at the time was focused solely on working with highly sensitive people. I had the desire to run courses, as people were coming to me to work on boundaries, and I had a strong response to a workshop I ran on the topic. So, logically, she suggested, 'Why not a course on setting healthy boundaries?'.
My mind said yes, but my intuition immediately kicked back with a hard no—at least, not yet. I didn't understand. On paper, it was the next logical step, and it was good advice (which I eventually followed!). I was being given helpful strategic support. However, I couldn't ignore how my energy evaporated when I thought about taking action. I didn't understand why; it wasn't convenient; however, I listened.
The importance of timing
Two years later, the Healthy Boundaries Course is back on the agenda. However, my business has had a massive evolution in focus and approach since then, so the purpose of the course will serve a very different function. This is why it's important to listen to both our intuition and take a strategic approach—to do both. Timing is really important. I wasn't ready yet, the work hadn't evolved enough yet, and that's what my intuition was telling me. However, I couldn't articulate why it was a no, as it wasn't a conscious decision.
The importance of timing should not be underestimated. Your intuition knows things that you don't consciously know—like lessons you are yet to learn that will help you evolve, or shifts in your practice that are yet to take place. Even if we don't know why it's a no, we can begin to learn to trust it's for good reason. Our intuitive sense, when we listen, saves us money, pain, time and energy in the long run when we learn to trust it. It takes practice to build the confidence to do things differently.
The Organic and Messy Process
Following your intuition, listening to your heart and your gut instead of letting your conscious mind lead the way, can feel like a messy business. You're being asked to take the next step without being given a 5-year business plan from the universe. Honestly, it can be infuriating at times.
Conversations with the universe via our intuition can sound a bit like this:
Universe: "No, don't do that."
Me: "Why? It seems like a good idea?!"
Universe: says nothing
Universe: "Keep going down this route for now."
Me: "So this is my niche then?"
Universe: "No, not really."
Me: "What, I don't understand. For how long?"
Universe: says nothing
Universe: "Don't work with them."
Me: "But this is exactly what I was looking for?"
Universe: says nothing
It's really hard when you're feeling lost or financially stretched to keep being asked to "just trust" while being given unclear direction, especially when you need to make a plan or articulate what you're doing with your business to your husband! It can feel like a complete mess. You can feel like a failure because you're unable to be strategic like the rest of the world, as you're being intuitively led in your business, which by nature is organic and unfolding, step by step.
The universe also knows us very well. If we're a planner or a perfectionist, we might end up running off ahead and going down the wrong path when given incomplete information. Certain things need to be kept a secret—sometimes so as not to overwhelm us, even when good things are on the way. You have to get really good at just taking the next step and trusting that the next stepping stone will reveal itself, which it always does.
The niching journey example
A good example of this is the process of niching as a spiritual entrepreneur. I know for me, at the start of this business, I would sit for hours trying to consciously "figure out" who I served and where they were on their journey. Version 1, 2, 3…60, 100. I just gave myself a massive headache. It was painful—I was circling and going nowhere.
Once again my intuition nudged me and I thought, "I can't do it like this, have it all figured out—I need to just start somewhere and see who comes."
So I took the first step: EFT for anxiety and depression, my version 1. Then after a year, I noticed all these highly sensitive people were coming with anxiety and boundary issues. A year and a half later I suddenly started experimenting with this channeling thing, and then there was this big shift in my business. Less than a year after that I seemed to be attracting fellow channelers, mystics and healers waking up to their intuitive abilities and supporting them in this transition, to understand themselves and their business. Suddenly, I felt like I was on the "right track" finally. All of this in 4 years.
When I first sat down to "figure out" my niche, I wasn't a channel yet. It wasn't an experience I had gone through so I couldn't be of service to those people. That only came about because I started practicing publicly and out of experience, the changes happened. It's an organic discovery—you don't know who you will evolve into; it only happens from the learning during the journey of doing.
The niche, the audience can keep pivoting—at first it might be 40% there, then 60% with the next shift, then 70%. It's something you feel into intuitively, trust where you are at and allow to evolve. At least that has been my approach.
Embracing the discomfort
However, all of this figuring out and making changes so publicly can feel pretty uncomfortable, particularly if we're perfectionists who like to have things all tied with a bow and sorted out. But to quote Ed Latimore, "Embarrassment is the cost of entry. If you aren't willing to look like a foolish beginner, you'll never become a graceful master."
Your intuitive journey in business is to continually strip back who you think you are to discover the knowledge and skills you are here to share as your authentic self, to step into the unknown and trust, over and over and over again, which takes courage. You are being asked to live differently, to be intuitively guided so that your truth, wisdom, and power can unfold, be revealed and shared.
Shifting Sense of Identity
A significant part of the journey is about embracing change and personal growth as we listen to and follow our intuition. It may require us to leave communities or teams to start something on our own, change roles or titles, or explore a completely different approach to our work. Not only is moving into the unknown uncomfortable and disruptive, but it can also be triggering.
Alongside the practical work we need to do to set up our spiritual business, we often require support to heal the wounds that are surfacing or the mindset blocks we're encountering. We need to do the personal development work as well, continue to work on our "stuff"—yes, even if you've been doing it for 20 years.
The Intensity of Awakening
For some, this can even be akin to a crisis as they step into their channelling abilities, experiencing internal shifts like landslides. If this is you, sometimes you require time off and definitely support as your consciousness is making dramatic changes. However, this won't be most spiritual business owners.
It can feel scary to be really seen, to step into our power, to find our voice, to have a unique perspective and share it publicly—this can all kick up A LOT of fear and negative deep beliefs. All our "not good enough," "it's not safe to have responsibility," and "fill in the blank with your strongest negative beliefs!"
Living in Both Worlds
Alongside this need to work with your own wounding, we can have the tension of material responsibilities and learning to listen to intuitive messages whilst still doing the school run, paying the bills and managing your relationships. "Trying to be normal" is no small feat. You are being asked to have a foot in both worlds!
Holding your humanness in the midst of it all, as your sense of self changes, dealing with the uncertainty and loneliness of this mysterious journey isn't always easy. Still, it's deeply satisfying to step more into your authority and authentic self as each layer sheds, and as your calling—figuring out what you are here to channel—begins to emerge more fully.
The path of becoming a channel in your business isn't meant to be easy—it's meant to be transformative. Every moment of uncertainty, every identity shift, every leap into the unknown is preparing you to deliver something the world needs through you. Trust that you're exactly where you need to be in this process. Your willingness to be authentically and unapologetically yourself isn't just personal growth; it's a gift to everyone whose life you're meant to touch. The world is waiting for what you're here to channel.
Further reading
How to develop and apply intuitive intelligence to business as a soulful entrepreneur
If this is where you find yourself at and you are want support, I offer a 30 min gift session with me for Soulful Entrepreneurs.
