How I Got To Here...

Several clients have asked how I got from Corporate America to energy work. For those of you who don't know, I had a great first career in corporate IT sales. I loved sales. In fact, my mom says I came out a natural salesperson, never knew a stranger and got my first sales job at the age of 4. That's right, 4! I was more of an entrepreneur back then though, picking vegetables out of our garden and selling them for $.50 per bag at Safety Town. My brother would help me pick them (he was 5), I would do all the selling, and we would split the profits!

After college, I started my career in sales at Cincinnati Bell. About 5 years in, I had excelled to be a National Account Director and wanted to start a family. I went regularly for acupuncture to continue functioning under the stress and to try to stay balanced. It helped tremendously, but now I also had the goal of getting pregnant. I wanted a baby so bad, it was all I could think about. After about 9 months of trying without success, my mom told me that my art teacher from junior high, Alma, was coming to Mansfield to offer BodyTalk, a "woo-woo, Eastern medicine healing modality." She asked if I would be interested in coming home for a session since I was into that sort of thing. I said, "absolutely!"

When I got that session, my whole life changed. It was like I remembered something about myself. Alma felt it happen too, and as we hugged and cried happy tears, she suggested that I might be a healer in this life. Her words rang true to me, but I couldn't imagine leaving my sales job or changing lifestyles to start over. I agreed with her though and the seed was planted. I set the intention that I would investigate, study and learn more about the art of healing.

Two days later, I conceived Isabella and became a mom! Now, I knew there was more to energy work than I previously thought. I started studying and took Reiki classes from Alma when she was in town. In late 2012, I started working through The Artists Way by Julia Cameron. It guides artists back to their art in a brave way. As I wrote in my morning pages day-after-day, I wrote things about being a healer, helping others and making it a full-time career. By June of 2013, I had become a Reiki-Master Teacher and had taken my Accunect training along with several other energy technique classes. As I practiced on people, they encouraged me to consider starting a practice. I did 99 sessions that year on friends and family with great results. I started working on people's hips, headaches and ennui at work. All the while, wondering how to make the transition and discussing it with my husband.

I was praying for financial security since we had two young girls by this time, ages 2 and 5, and I was making a wonderful living with full benefits, 5 weeks paid vacation and fantastic sales award trips to places like Paris, Ireland, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. So, then I did something I don't usually recommend. I made a deal with God. I said that if I made double what I had made in 2012 in 2013, I would quit and start a practice. The deals started coming through, my intuition was helping me bring the right deals to the right people and when 2013 closed, I had made double what I had the previous year despite being part-time to spend more time with my girls. I was amazed, grateful and in awe.

What if I could keep making that kind of money? Wouldn't it be wonderful! We could save, buy a lake house and a boat, travel more and the list went on. While my ego wondered if it was really from the "deal" I had made, my intuition knew it was time. As God read my mind and my heart came to grips with leaving my perceived financial security, January brought a huge shift . My sales funnel of $1.2 Million dollars went to $300,000. Deal after deal postponed indefinitely, people chose to do it in-house rather than outsource, my sales funnel stalled and my new territory was Detroit, a 4 hour drive from home. I knew in my heart-of-hearts that I had to quit to honor the commitment I had made and follow my soul's guidance and desire.

I talked with my husband saying, "What if one person's life is changed forever for the better? What price would someone put on that?" He told me I had to try it and that we really only regret the risks we don't take. Then he said he didn't want to discuss it anymore until I told him when I was quitting. I was agonizing over the change, so afraid of the "what-if" scenarios I made up in my mind. Just because my intuition knew that leaving and starting a practice was right for me, it didn't mean that my ego was in full agreement.

In April of 2014, I came home from a sales award trip to Puerto Rico, mustered up all my courage and resigned from my career. My boss was shocked but supportive. She said she knew I was healing people around the office, but she thought she had a few more years with me. She asked me to close several final agreements and follow through on the installation of my sales from 2013. I was thrilled, and we made a transition plan so that I had time with my replacements, clients and projects, ensuring that everyone felt good about the changes. By September of 2014, I was only working 1-2 days per week for my corporate job and opened my first office inside Modo Yoga.

The career change was a giant leap of courage! It took listening to my intuition when many thought I was crazy. And I had to continue to trust that God would guide me and send me people who were open to healing. Now, four years later, I am in a larger space, feel grateful daily that I get to watch miracles happen and can't imagine ever going back.