On Saturday, August 14, 2010 I hosted my first spiritual salon, which is basically a small, intimate gathering of people who want to ask me questions and get a question answered by their spirit guides. This was my first live solo event, and I learned a lot from putting it together. Since a lot of people asked me how the salon went, I decided to write a recap of the event and share some things I learned.
My aunt Susan graciously agreed to host the event in her home in Los Angeles. As we worked through the logistics, we realized her chairs and couches were too bulky so I made arrangements to rent some chairs from a party rental company. We ended up being able to fit 27 people in her living room, but just barely. We were pretty cozy in there!
The feel of a salon is supposed to be personal and intimate, so I decided we’d serve light refreshments after the event so people had time to mingle and get to know each other. I definitely saw people doing just that as they munched on their vegan cookies, chocolates, fruit, nuts, coffee and tea. That was really gratifying to know that connections were being made among strangers.
I arrived at my aunt’s house two hours in advance to help her set up. It’s a good thing I did. There was a lot to set up! I always run a little warm so we set up a desk fan that would blow on me during the event. I was so grateful we did that and will have to remember to have one at future events. We set up my Flip camera to record the event, but the batteries died half way through so I’ll also have to remember to show up with a fully charged Flip! We also had to set up the music that would accompany the 2 brief meditations I led the participants through. And we had to set up the food, bottled water, registration table, make nametags, and a host of other tidbits. In the future, I’ll probably bring an assistant to handle those details for me so I can concentrate on my material.
I was super grateful to find that everyone arrived early and on time. As a toastmaster, I am used to starting and ending exactly on time, and so we did. My twin sister was there to introduce me. We had a lot of fun bantering with each other. I was expecting to feel nervous, as I do before any speaking engagement, but I was surprised to find that I was just happy and excited to get going. Oh, there were a few butterflies, but nothing like the terror I used to feel when speaking in front of groups. 😉
I did a brief meditation to get everyone’s energy up and open. Then we launched into questions. I loved the questions. They were all over the place, so it was nice to touch upon so many topics. I could do a salon where I pick the topic we’re going to discuss but then people can’t comfortably ask questions outside that topic, so I think keeping it a free for all was great. I answered questions for about an hour and a half. Then we moved on to the psychic reading portion of the event. I asked if anyone had a question to ask their guides and many hands went up. I knew I wouldn’t have time to answer everyone so I just let the guides select for me and picked who I felt drawn to.
Normally when I do a reading, I spend at least 30 minutes with a client, and the first thing I do is tell them all about themselves and their current life situation so they know I’m legitimate and accurate, then they get to ask questions. But in the salon environment, with so many people wanting to ask questions, I couldn’t do that. I had to be content with letting them ask a question and getting their answer without me being able to provide as much validation and confirmation as I like to do. So that’s something I’ll have to think about. If I just do one long reading with one person I fear the rest of the audience will be bored. So I think I’ll either skip doing the group readings or just keep it to one question per person and get to as many as possible.
I did notice my throat becoming strained and tired after projecting my voice for 2 hours. So that’s also something I’ll have to work on. I kept drinking water but I think hot tea might work better.
Some of the questions people asked included:
- How do I guard my energy when people around me are negative?
- How do I achieve astral projection after separation?
- Can your life purpose change over time?
- Can guides be deceased relatives?
- What is the difference between guides and higher selves?
- How do I trust my intuition?
I really liked the questions people asked. I could have kept answering all night! Well, if my throat was more cooperative!
We ended the evening with my gratitude meditation from my audio program, Raising Your Vibration. I greatly enjoyed having a small number of people attend so I could personally greet them at the beginning and chat with them all afterward. I sold my CDs in the back of the room, and also sold readings at a special event price. I spent the next day doing all of those readings! In the future I think I’ll have to limit the readings to phone calls or not do so many in-person because I was exhausted by the end of the day.
One of the young women there decided to write an article about the salon for an L.A. magazine. Her editor-in-chief thought a review plus an interview would be great, so she met with me on the 16th to interview me for the piece. It’s not published yet, but I will post a link when I see it online.
I am planning to do this event again but in Las Vegas. I’m not sure when yet, but I will be keeping the gathering small again so we can maintain the cozy, personal, friendly environment we created at the first one. I had a lot of fun, enjoyed the experience, and definitely want to do another.
This was my first, live, solo event. While I did a 90-minute presentation on intuition at a joint workshop with me and the ladies of my mastermind group, this was the first event where I was the “headliner” act. No Steve, no other speakers, just me. It was a great challenge for me, and a great reference experience. If my 4th grade self, who was terrified of public speaking, knew that someday I’d be doing my own workshops, events, and seminars, I’m not sure she would have let me get any older. 😉
I look forward to seeing you at the next workshop! People subscribed to my newsletter will get first crack at tickets, so if you’re not signed up to receive my newsletter yet, get on it.
