Ask Your Guides - Live - "OG" Edition! 8/9/24

Ask Your Guides - recorded LIVE - 8/9/24: Learn about the early days of Insight Timer from the people who were there. Discover how the app found its amazing teachers. Connect with the original teachers who helped build the Insight Timer community! An unscripted collaboration among teachers, addressing questions from the Insight Timer community. This was recorded LIVE and might have some background noise.

The following teachers were in this LIVE session: James Anthony Walker, Tom Evans, Dakota Earth Cloud Walker, Judy Unger, Barbara Faison, and Josephine Sorciere. Please check out their profiles on Insight Timer and follow them!

Host teachers: Melanie Underwood and Violet 108

Please join our Insight Timer Group "ASK YOUR GUIDES" to continue interacting with the teachers and the community.

Transcript

I know everyone's super excited because Byla and I have been getting so much feedback from everyone,

So I just want to welcome you all,

Dakota,

James,

Josephine,

Tom,

Barbara,

And Judy.

We really,

I know as a new teacher on Insight Timer,

I am grateful,

Each and every one of you,

For what you've brought to Insight Timer and sort of paved the way for the rest of us,

So I thank you.

And I would love it if you all could do an introduction,

Just telling us a little bit about yourselves,

Share whatever you'd like us to know,

And certainly if you have any lives or any new tracks,

Courses,

Audios,

Share that with everyone.

And Barbara,

I'm going to start with you first,

And we'll go around as to who's on my screen,

And if you're in the audience,

If you have questions that you'd like to ask,

Please drop them in there,

And I'll get to asking everybody.

Well,

Greetings,

Everyone.

My name is Barbara Faison,

And I've been on Insight Timer,

I think,

Since 2018.

And how I got here was,

I don't know if you all know Mary Maddox,

Who is definitely an OG.

She has Meditation Oasis,

And I connected with her,

And we were tweeting,

And she said,

Barbara,

Why don't you put your meditations on Insight Timer?

I'm like,

What's that?

So I've learned to listen when people give me guidance,

Especially people who have such wisdom and background and experience as Mary,

And that's how I got on Insight Timer.

I had no idea what I was doing,

But I was able to put it out on Insight Timer.

And then around,

I think,

2019,

2020,

I started doing a daily meditation.

That's how I met Violet.

I was doing daily meditations every day on Facebook,

And then I would do every Thursday on Insight Timer,

I would do a live.

And so I started doing that.

But I'm also an author.

I have a book called Why Struggle?

Life is Too Short to Wear Tight Shoes.

And I created my own cards called Relax,

Listen,

And Trust Your Inner Guidance.

I've been in this space of meditation since the 90s and teaching probably since the late 2012-ish.

And just grateful to be here and grateful to be in a sea with other people who appreciate the work that we do.

So that's what I think Insight Timer is,

Fishing in a pond with the people that like what you like.

So that's me.

Thank you so much.

That's amazing.

Judy?

Hi,

Everybody.

I joined in 2016.

Before that,

I hadn't really done any kind of healing work.

I started to play the guitar again in 2010.

I had lost my son Jason,

My firstborn,

Five years old,

In 1992.

And when I started to play my guitar again,

At the age of 50,

It changed my life.

So I started to remember all my old songs.

I wrote new songs.

And I began to heal and feel joyful.

It completely changed my life.

So I recorded songs.

And then I got this email from Maddie Gerard.

And I almost deleted it.

I thought it was spam about,

You know,

We would like to use your songs.

We'll give you credit.

We don't pay anything.

And I thought,

Sure.

And one day,

I checked out the app.

And I had these messages and people thanking me for my healing music.

So it just became a blessing that I could not only celebrate that I was healed from the grief over the loss of my son,

But he lives on.

He lives on in my music.

And sharing the joy that I have found helps other people and gives purpose and means to his loss.

So I love the lives.

I have always loved sharing my music.

And usually,

Most of the popular tracks are instrumental.

I don't consider myself to be a great singer,

But I'm very heartfelt.

But I was so surprised that when I started doing lives,

That people really want to hear me sing.

And they want to know what the lyrics are and how it helped me.

So it's a fantastic opportunity to be authentic.

And mistakes in all,

Sharing the truth and honesty of what I went through in my life.

Recently,

I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

And during my live,

I shared that.

And one of my wonderful audience members wrote me later and said,

Maybe there's somebody listening that's putting off a mammogram.

You know,

You never know how he's life.

So I'm grateful for the platform.

And I plan to continue.

I continue to grow my songs heartfelt inspiration.

Sure,

You're welcome.

Yes,

Absolutely.

I came on to the insight chamber platform in 2016.

And as with others at that,

At that stage of the game,

I'm sure I was contacted by a lovely woman manager and she emailed and we'd love to have you upload some of your tracks here because we think it would be a benefit all the way around for you and we're not paying right now.

And that was not an unfamiliar comment to me being in the music business for so long.

But it was definitely a time when if your heart was in what you were doing,

Your expectations were that you would feel fulfilled from doing that.

It was a good time to be joining the platform and with hopes for a financial future with with the end of the way that I went.

Over the years,

I had formal training in composition and in a style of music,

Which was very angular and edgy and quite frankly,

Ugly.

Over a period of years,

I said,

You know what,

I'm throwing this all of it.

And I had quite a lot of it.

I don't I don't like it.

Nobody else really likes it.

Usually,

If you had a premier performance of something,

It was probably your last performance as well.

So over time,

I,

I really had the calling,

I think,

To find something more spiritually directed.

And my partner Constance and I became inner spirit,

Ordained inner spiritual ministers over a number of years.

And so it started to become clear to me that there was meant to be some sort of wedding of the music and the spirituality.

I found that Insight Timer,

Coincidentally,

Was was probably a really good place to do that.

So I'm happy to say that today,

It's,

It's evolved and grown as have I and all the other teachers.

So I think the future is really bright.

I'll leave it at that for now.

Hi,

There.

I started using the platform myself in about October 16.

And by August 17,

I just had this sort of calling to create a recording.

And off I went,

The days before pay,

Etc.

I've had my own healing business since 2014.

And my work has morphed incredibly over that time.

And it's been reflected in my teachings on Insight Timer as well.

To begin with,

It was quite what I call sort of the light grid teachings.

And then in about 2020,

I got very involved in the dark feminine energy and the goddess energy.

And I did a series on that.

And that was very popular on Insight Timer.

So I've combined talks with,

It's not so much meditation,

I do more activations,

Energy,

Encoding of your DNA at a high level with that and deep wisdom as well.

So after,

Since about 2020,

I hadn't done too much on them,

I'd really sort of taken my focus offline and working one on one with high end clients,

Which I still love to do.

And then at the end of 22,

I got reintroduced to the Gene Keys work.

And I find that a fabulous tool to help people understand themselves from that shadow through to the gift through to the highest frequency level.

And that's what I've been working with teaching people shadow alchemy for a number of years.

So I really enjoyed that as a tool.

So since the last six months or so,

I've been introducing courses back on Insight Timer,

They're called Ignite the Zodiac Frequencies,

Where yes,

I talk a little bit about,

You know,

I've just created Virgo and Mercury,

But I go into the Gene Keys aspects of them as well.

So for people that are looking for their own unique coding and a deeper understanding of themselves.

And from that,

I've also done some mini courses on each of the facets of frequency as I call them 64 through the year.

And I've just started back doing some free tracks as well,

Which I haven't done for a very long time.

So building up that momentum of from a free to a mini course to a more in-depth course.

So I love the platform.

I use it daily myself.

Meditation is a massive part of my life.

And just very grateful to be in the community here with with like-minded teachers and being on a live for a long time since I did one.

So firing me up to do one of my own again,

I think.

Thank you.

Tom?

Hi.

First,

I'd like to say,

Violet and Melanie,

What an amazing job you're these Ashley guys.

Inspired thing where you get tapped a course into the water element,

As you are.

So I'm a,

I was another Maddy Gerrard recruit.

She found me in August 2015,

So I got it to my ninth anniversary.

And at that time,

I was an author who had meditations as accessories.

I used to write books,

Awakened Consciousness,

And I thought rather than just writing about it,

Why don't you experience these?

She found me,

I put a track up there.

I didn't know there was a back end on the app where you can look at reviews.

So she emailed me after a month and said,

Have you seen the 6,

000 listens you've had to this one track?

So then I was just hooked,

Started uploading loads of more stuff.

And within a very short space of time,

I became a,

Instead of being an author with meditations on the side,

I became a meditation teacher who's never been in an ashram or on a meditation course with books on the side.

And since then,

I've put loads of my books up there,

Which is great.

RT Premium is great for that.

Inspired by people like James,

Amazing composers,

I thought,

Well,

Listen,

I must try and learn how to do it.

I have my go at ambient music as well,

So I've done that,

Did that as my lockdown project.

And right now,

It's just been a blast,

And I'm 100% committed to Insight Timer.

I think it's a great platform.

Happens to have all the people that resonate with my work on it,

And people who I resonate with,

So what a lovely,

Thanks again.

And Dakota.

Hello,

Everybody.

It's good to be in this space with.

I'm usually on live solos,

So to have Maddie's name,

I could not remember her name for the longest time.

And you guys think who was invited me in 2016.

I would love to know what she's doing these days.

But anyway,

She,

Like all of you,

I got an email one day,

And I thought it was spam also.

And this chick,

What is this little app called Insight Timer?

Who knew that it would turn into this?

And I'm so happy that I had that opportunity to hop on here and share my work with people.

I don't do meditation primarily,

It's not my full time gig.

I actually teach the medicine,

Shamanism and spirituality.

I'm working on a new program that will launch in October for years for I've been teaching this stuff for about 30 years.

So last 20 years have been focused on the medicine wheel.

Love the medicine wheel.

It's a very powerful paradigm to use as a blueprint for your life.

And meditation was something that I just kind of naturally fell into.

And ironically,

For most of my life,

I hated the sound of my voice.

And I did a meditation for a retreat one time and I thought,

Well,

I'll give it a shot.

And then I started a shamanic journeyers club,

Which then I was recording living in the mountains,

North Carolina at the time,

I recorded a meditation every single week.

I had people that were signed up and members blew up from there.

That's where Maddie found me.

If you listen closely to some of my earlier meditation,

You'll hear my dog Maya snoring on the side or somebody walking above me.

I've since now I have a go and do everything a little bit more professionally.

But yeah,

It's it's it's great to be here in the longevity of it.

I love insight timer.

I'm part of other platforms as well.

And insight timer takes care of its teachers.

And I think that that's the big difference for for me anyway.

And it's not about the money.

It's more really about they have such a pulse on how the teachers are need to be treated and should be and what's happened for us.

And then there's the people there's these guys who are here today,

The hundred and 20 some I'm at least one of these 127 people who are here today.

I just get so much energy from the people who are a part of insight timers platform.

That's me in a nutshell.

Ask me anything though.

Violet,

We all know Violet 108 is amazing.

And she does beautiful scripting work.

So I'll speak on your behalf,

Violet.

It's like accepting an Oscar for someone.

And I think you most of you know,

I do mindful cooking and intuitive baking.

Welcome.

So I got a couple of questions already.

And I'm just going to throw this out because this one came very specifically for James.

It's a James your track floating has 17 million plays and 71,

000 reviews.

What's it like to have created something that reaches so many people and that others use as a template for a track?

It's like dreaming,

You know,

It's I don't get it to be quite honest.

Because having having been a classically trained composer,

If I let my ego seep into the equation,

I want to say,

Well,

You know,

It's probably not by far my what I think is my best work.

But it it's so to me,

Understated and so easy to float into a state that it's had an incredible acceptance,

Which I'm incredibly grateful for.

It's become and I think from the on without knowing numbers,

Statistics about my work on the platform,

It's become a central part of my ministry,

Because I really feel that very unique community that is interactive.

How many other platforms can you go on,

Have a conversation and even develop a relationship with your listener,

You can count them on one hand and probably so it's been incredibly gratifying.

Thank you for asking.

So these are some questions that also came in.

Has it helped anyone in their own healing journey?

You spoke a little bit about that earlier.

Curious if anybody else has had similar experience Dakota,

This actually just happened yesterday.

I I've been driving lot this past week across the United States.

And so last night,

I was driving from Ohio to Connecticut.

And Judy,

I'm going to tap on Judy for a second,

I wanted to listen to tracks from all the two.

And for many people who are here that know me,

I'm very transparent.

And my mom passed away a year and a half ago.

And she always told me we were very candid about her death.

And because I teach shamanism,

So mom,

When are you going to come back as to let me hear?

And she says,

I'll come back as a blue butterfly.

So I'm looking at Judy's tracks,

And I see a blue butterfly like,

Oh,

I gotta listen.

Now I'm driving.

So I don't know what to do.

And my mom was a pianist.

And I turned on that track.

And for 16 minutes,

I bawled my freaking eyes out.

And Judy,

Just listening to you today in your introduction,

It made it even more meaningful that you also create from that space of the heart.

So I think there's like little moments like that,

That,

You know,

There's not anything that's like,

I do so much work in my life that that's what I sit around.

But there are moments and that was one moment just gave me the opportunity to have a message was random.

Thank you make my day.

Yesterday,

That's actually my most heartfelt,

Meaningful piece of muke.

I worked on it feel it six months every note.

And I feel like the name of it beside me always.

That's how I feel with Yes.

How beautiful that you shared that with me.

Thank you.

And what's interesting is just now I can't remember the name of the track.

But that right there beside me,

It was my side me.

It's beside me always.

And it's actually the name of a book that I wrote describing the actual moments of my son's death and how it affected me.

And it was a really cathartic book to write.

And that was what I did to find my was to write beautiful.

And that is so beautiful.

That means so much more now.

And so that is now one of my favorite tracks into a lot.

Thank you,

Judy.

You're quite well.

Anyway,

That's fine.

Anyone else?

Barbara?

Well,

I'll just share I feel like healing is a continuum,

Right?

For me,

It's like constant things are happening.

And just being able to create just like James just said to create something and to be able to connect with the people that are listening to what you've created that is that and they're sharing how they feel about what you've created.

Because I mean,

The truth is,

I think as humans,

When we're creating,

There's always a level of some level of doubt to some degree in terms of how it will be received,

Although we just put it out there.

But I mean,

Just connecting with people like Violet,

I connected with Violet,

And there's still people that will send me messages.

I started doing my Why Struggle podcast,

Which is out on YouTube,

But I have the five minute version out on inside time or just on a whim.

And there's still people that I met in my lives,

Five,

Six years ago,

That will send me an Instagram message or email me to say,

Oh,

I listened to your podcast about when your mom when your mom passed,

Right,

And it just really connected with me.

So those are the times I think that we're healing on a different level,

Because it's validation,

And confirmation that we're doing the work that we're intended to do while we're here.

Okay,

Josephine.

I was just gonna say,

You know,

Meditation is very much part of my life.

It has been for 20 years on a daily basis.

I go to see what's coming up on the feed.

And I love to listen to new people,

Whether I know them,

Whether they're brand new,

You know,

There's no discrepancy to see what are the offerings there.

For me,

It's been very much part of my healing process.

But I do like what Barbara said,

You know,

When we,

When our work is received at the deepest level,

And you receive that feedback from people about how it's moved them,

It is that,

You know,

Egos out the way,

It's just that connection at the heart to,

To know that it's,

It's,

It was needed at that time.

And we follow the instinct on what we're creating.

And I highly encourage anybody that gets on to insight timer to just follow the heart with what they want to create,

And bring forward something that they can talk about in their sleep or something to create in their sleep,

Because that's when we're true to ourselves.

And I think when I hear people,

You know,

And I hear teachers that are doing the same,

Then that can be nothing but healing for all parties.

So it's a beautiful contribution and platform for I mean,

I feel like I can attest to that very much so because I think mindful cooking and intuitive baking isn't something that people often think of when they come to insight timer,

But I decided to do it because where I'm the platform I was on,

They weren't really into mindfulness.

And so I think no matter what you as Josephine said,

You really love follow your heart.

Okay,

So Dakota,

I know you saw that question in the chat that came specifically to you.

And I don't know if you want to address it about the teaser of what's to come.

I can tease everybody.

Okay.

Yeah,

Actually,

Well,

My work is always evolving.

And I've always told my students that when I get bored with something,

I will quit,

Like,

And so I get bored very easily.

And I changed things a lot.

But in the most recent year,

Ever since mom's death,

I've kind of hit a burnout moment.

And so I took a sabbatical and went to Scotland.

And I spent 16 days doing some really deep work and healing and ritual and ceremony.

And out of that came the clarity that I am moving forward with a program that's gonna be based on really kind of embodying the Celtic priestess medicine woman.

And so it'll be a monthly kind of subscription thing.

And we'll be going into the goddess energy,

Ohem,

Plant medicine,

All kinds of different things,

There's gonna be different ways that you can join in.

It'll be actually here in Connecticut for the next two weeks,

I'll be finishing up the first book that will come out for that.

And that'll be hopefully published 30th.

I'm gonna be really in bad shape.

So the teaser is,

Is that I'm moving my work,

It'll still be with the medicine wheel.

But the focus is going to be on empowering the feminine.

And that includes men and women to really embrace what's coming.

And also to kind of weave in some of the Celtic spirituality,

But in a way that is easy digest.

That's the key word,

Because what I hear from a lot of people is,

I have no energy,

I have no focus and time.

And I tend to give people a lot of work.

And so I'm bringing it down to a place where,

For those of you who follow me with medicine wheel,

I'm bringing East and West into the equation.

So it's gonna be a lot more structured,

But easy tidbits to follow.

That's the best that I can do for right now.

It's going to be awesome.

That I do know.

I'm having a lot of fun actually making.

And that excitement,

For me,

That excitement kind of translates.

But thanks,

Barb,

For asking.

Tom,

I think you had your hand up and I missed you.

It was to tell Anita about the Facebook group,

Lovely support group.

So more than what anyone is even thinking about getting on to Insight Timer as a teacher,

Even if it's a year out,

Two years out,

You just want to know the basics,

Then it's called Teachers with Insight.

We can say that,

Can't we?

And so even if you're just a teacher with Insight,

Who's not on Insight,

You're more than welcome to join our wonderful group.

And it's a great group,

Wonderful people and resources.

Okay,

This is a question for everybody.

What is the biggest and the best change you've seen on IT?

And what has been the biggest challenge you've started?

Probably something,

Yes,

Tom.

I'm going to answer two questions in one there.

So the first is,

I know what Gerard is doing now.

So I was fortunate to interview Christopher Plowman recently,

And he mentioned that I asked him about specifically,

How can new guides come out of the noise floor when you've got these OGs like us that have had 18 million listens in the case of James and stuff like that?

And how do we get new guides out of the noise floor?

And she's heading up an initiative that's putting AI,

They call it ambient intelligence,

Not artificial intelligence,

To look in the background,

Not just the words in our meditation,

But how we describe it,

How people react to it.

So I haven't put any healing meditations out there.

But I've had lots of people that said they've been healed as a result of it,

Or their cat's been healed as a result,

Or their dog or something like that.

So it's great.

I love that story,

Dakota and Judy,

About the butterfly.

And I love how we can make these soul connections through a static thing like a recording.

So that's what Maddy's up to.

So the best thing I've found is the ability to put courses up there and more structured works.

So you are limited to having individual tracks,

And then they have this thing called playlists,

So you can group tracks together,

They're not very well used,

But they are there.

Then to put courses together,

And what have you,

And to have different flexibility in what you can put up there.

So people like James can put an album of music,

For example,

As a body of work in a playlist.

Or I put my books up there as I take audiobooks from other platforms that can't be named onto Insight Timer,

And I put them up as a playlist so you can listen to the chapter by chapter.

So what's great about it,

Which you can't do on Amazon or these other platforms we can't mention,

Is if someone puts a review up on Amazon,

That's it.

But when you put an audiobook up there or a series of works,

You can interact with a listener on a chapter by chapter basis and go along with the story.

Now I'm about to put my third novel up,

And what I want to do is,

I've only written about ten chapters of it,

I want the audience to say where they want the story to go,

To make this sort of almost collaboration with it.

It can be a great lot of fun.

And there's no other platform in the world for you.

Tom,

I don't know if you know,

That was something that I was working on too.

I think we talked about that.

I think that is such a beautiful thing about Insight Timer,

Is that it's really interactive,

And that we have so many beautiful people on here.

So this,

Two questions came in related to animals,

And one of them is,

Do any of you have an animal that you feel the most connected with?

Dakota?

All of them.

If they have four legs and fur,

They're awesome.

Now,

Being a shaman,

Animals are really important.

So I have many cats,

Dogs that I love,

But today I had three crows who were demanding food.

A friend who's on crow medicine today,

And they're needed.

The saints in this world.

Yes,

Jessica,

They are.

James,

Do you have your hand up,

Or no?

Do you have your hand up,

James?

No,

You do,

Josephine.

No?

I did.

What was I going to say?

Oh,

To me,

The most encouraging and important aspect of what's been happening over the years since we've become involved is just the extensibility of communication as in between teachers,

And how it continues,

And I hope it continues to go in this way,

That it continues to distinguish the platform,

Not only as a means by which teachers may have some financial reward,

But also as by which teachers can have community and really develop relationships.

I tend to beep that to death these days,

But if I were to make a comparison to a couple things,

Disney just announced a new,

They just released a movie trailer for a new movie,

Animated feature,

And in the first 24 hours,

They had about 180 million.

That's incredible.

What interaction have I had with that entity?

None.

On the other side of the spectrum,

For many years and many years ago,

I had an associate at the University of Chicago where I'm a graduate fellow in teaching electronic music.

I got to know her very well,

An Israeli composer by the name of Shula Mitran,

And we've kept in touch over the years,

And I don't know,

Last year or so,

We had some emails back and forth,

And she said,

So how's your music going?

And I said,

Well,

You know,

It's perplexing.

I have,

I'm in this community where I have all these plays of my music.

She said,

Really,

How many,

How many plays are we talking about?

Millions.

And she kind of typed back to me,

She said,

Really?

And she said,

You know,

The most plays I've had for orchestral work of mine are in the 200,

Two zeros,

And the work she was referring to was a work for orchestra that she had written in 1990,

And the following year won the Pulitzer.

So,

Again,

This community and this platform is unique.

I cannot stress that enough,

That it's a way to a very,

Very special relationship,

If you want to,

With your audience,

And I don't see it anywhere else in the world,

And I'm not getting any younger.

So,

That's enough said on that.

Well,

I was just going to answer about the animals.

I'm currently house-sitting over in England at the moment,

And have done for four months,

And every house has different dogs and cats to look after,

And it's been quite an amazing experience to get to know the characters of the different furry friends as we go.

So,

It's really interesting when we,

You know,

Get to move into a stranger's house,

And you get to meet these people,

And see how their animals represent the owner's characteristics,

And it's quite,

Quite intriguing to see the environments and animals.

So,

Yeah,

I'm writing about it in a book at the moment as well,

Sharing the ventures,

And yeah,

I think it's fair that the animals sort of feature in there.

So,

They definitely bring,

You know,

An energy of the unconditional love to this world,

Which we so need.

So,

I'm grateful for the animals.

I've been fortunate to meet recently.

Oh,

Dakota.

I was just going to mention this.

I was in Colorado 10 days ago,

Or something like that,

And I was hiking in this wild canyon,

And this canyon is known for having lots of barren mountains,

And in that area,

They were being very aggressive.

So,

I had to self,

And I was filming a little shaman short,

Because I found just a squirrel tail,

Nothing else,

Just a squirrel tail.

So,

I'm bent down,

And I'm making this video.

I get up,

And I turn around,

And there's a bobcat sitting 10 feet from me,

Watching me,

And I turn around like,

Oh my god,

And I was so scared at first,

Because our first instinct is to,

And for about five minutes,

We just stood there and stared at each other,

And I could hear her lowly growling at me.

So,

I said,

I'm bigger than you,

And then once my fear went away,

I'm like,

So beautiful,

And it's just like these,

And I said it in the chat here,

Animals are such amazing messengers,

Because they live and reside in the spirit world as well,

And so they're constantly bringing us messages.

They're listening,

And so every animal has a certain medicine,

And bobcat medicine for me that day,

And for me,

It was that going back to my mom passing away.

It's this feeling of motherhood,

And protection,

And that even though we can be in fear,

And scared,

And all these emotions come up within us,

If we simply kind of surrender to it,

And just watch,

And listen for the message,

What we receive from that is this validation that we are all really connected,

Including me,

And that she is just as scared as I was just scared,

And it kind of eased into that moment.

We realize that there's,

And I love that about animals,

That they bring us back to what is most important in this life,

Unconditional love,

And awareness,

And simply surrendering to the fear,

And letting that fear kind of dissolve itself,

So we see what's there.

I still carry my bear spray,

But in that,

It's just a great reminder of that.

Thank you.

All right,

This is switching gears quite a bit,

But another teacher,

Greg,

Who is in the live,

Asked,

In the beginning of your journey,

How did you,

Of your business journey,

How did you support yourself while also doing Insight Timer Lives?

I'm sure that many people want to know,

Sort of related to that,

Because I get this question all the time,

Even about my own,

How you do Insight Timer Lives,

And support your business.

Tom?

Yeah,

I transitioned from an author into this meditation guide character that I am now,

Through author mentoring,

So I helped other authors write their books,

And I guess now that I'm repeating that somewhat again,

And helping people who want to be a meditation guide,

And supporting them on their journey too,

So it was kind of pulling yourself up with your own bootstraps,

And so,

You know,

I used to be a board IT consultant,

But when I wrote,

Started writing books,

It occurred to me,

I've got a business that supports me writing my books,

Which is in the publishing industry,

What a good thing,

And nowadays then,

I'm continuing that on into this world,

And so much so that I know quite a few people that I've made some of my ambient tracks available free for people to use as well,

So again,

Supporting teachers to give them the resources they want,

Some training resources,

And that sort of stuff,

You know,

A wonderful group,

The support you need,

Because it can be a bit of a lonely journey at times,

So that was my transition.

Okay,

Anybody else?

And also,

I want to add to that,

Because I had two questions come in at once,

So Greg's question was,

How did you navigate the ups and downs of the early phase,

And the other person asked about your business,

Sorry,

So if you want to add to that,

Tom,

About navigating the ups and downs.

For me,

There were no ups and downs,

It was just an up,

It just went up.

Anybody else?

James,

Did you raise your hand?

Barbara,

Go ahead.

Well,

I'll just share,

Insight Timer for me is extra income,

It's not my source of income,

I've worked in corporate,

I worked in corporate for PricewaterhouseCoopers and other companies,

And that's when I started doing meditation,

Because obviously,

In being in corporate America,

You need something to balance you out,

So I'm a fan of,

Unless you're really able to go out there and make enough money to support yourself without being,

Without struggling,

I just think that doing something like Insight Timer,

I never would have thought,

And I still can't support myself with my Insight Timer,

Even though I've been on the platform a long time,

I'm just being really honest,

I don't know what the expectation is for people,

But to expect to be able to go out and support your entire life from one source,

For me,

It's not realistic,

So I've always had some other job,

And Insight Timer was money that allows me to have a business,

Even though it's my business,

It is still on the side,

Because it's not supporting me full time,

And I think you can do that wonderful,

But don't stress yourself out in the process of trying to do that,

If it's not something you really are drawn to do,

That's just my take on it,

So right now,

I currently work part time at the local library,

And when I look back at my history,

My father was a librarian,

My mother was a teacher,

So I enjoy having that ability to go out and work with people,

It keeps me connected to the community,

It keeps me connected to a set of skills,

My technical skills,

And I still get to do my meditations,

And I can do lives if I choose to do that,

So I think for me,

Being a realist,

To expect to be able to live off of the money that I make from one source is not realistic,

But again,

That's just my take on it.

I just feel that my greatest reward are the friendships that I've made on Insight Timer,

And the connections.

In the beginning,

I used to put out a track and get thousands of plays on the first day,

And now it's quite different,

Now it's maybe one or two,

It doesn't seem to matter to me how many people I reach,

It's more about how deeply I reach one person.

That didn't change my life.

I have a friend in Greece that's a pen pal now for seven years,

Just because of Insight Timer,

And she left a comment,

Can you feel my tears?

And I wrote her back,

Tell me what your tears are about.

But in the beginning,

I had a lot of excitement,

Because I started in 2016,

And Maddie Gerard,

I was so glad you brought that up,

Tom,

She said that Christopher and her were going to be nearby where I live in California.

So I can share the screen really quick,

If that's okay,

Of a picture of us together.

It's wonderful,

I'll do that,

There it is.

So that's Christopher Plowman and Maddie Gerard,

And I just thought that was a fun one.

These are the joys that Insight Timer has brought me.

Greg also just wrote,

My question wasn't clear,

Not asking about IT,

Asking about business as a whole.

I mean,

I've had a business for almost 30 years,

And I know the ups and downs are going to come with any business,

Two businesses.

Sometimes you have to support yourself in another job.

I taught for adults who wanted to learn cooking,

I did nothing with mindfulness then.

And I really had no interest in teaching meditation,

To be honest,

But I became certified,

Because at the time,

I am very well versed in cooking,

I wasn't so much in teaching anything related to meditation or mindfulness.

And I felt like I needed that credential.

And I'll never forget,

One of the teachers said to all of us,

If you expect to make money teaching mindfulness again,

Which I thought was so funny,

But for me,

Because it's the cooking thing.

And I also I live in New York,

This is a conversation that I think many teachers have here on Insight Timer,

I am going to charge different amounts of money than someone who lives,

Say,

In Virginia,

You know,

Depending on what the market bears.

So I know it can be those can be parts of the ups and downs.

And if it's something you're truly passionate about not giving up,

Putting one foot in front of the other and also busting your ass,

To be quite honest,

I've been lucky that I haven't had to have more than one job.

But I have friends that have businesses that have had to maintain multiple jobs,

Just if that's what you want to do,

There it is.

Anybody else want to contribute to that one?

Oh,

Dakota.

And then just just quickly,

I think Insight Timer for me,

It's,

It was never and has never and probably will never be about the money.

But it is absolutely about the people and the connection that we make.

I teach what I what what you guys see me do here on Insight Timer,

I teach full time.

And I'm in school and have had my years.

And so that's the primary gig.

But one thing I've learned in all of my years of working in this field is that if the passion is there,

The money follows in whatever way.

And so Insight Timer for me is more of my Seva.

It's the way that I can give back,

You guys get meditations for free.

I only have a few that are on the plus because I want people to access my work in some way.

So it's more connecting for me,

James.

Yeah,

I have to agree with Dakota.

I mean,

It's not for me,

Necessarily about the money.

Initially,

It was kind of the rush of going from nothing to something on this platform.

And it was just a thrill to watch.

That being said,

I had sent something to Tom the other day,

Which from from music,

Musician perspective,

Has really been consistent over my life.

It was this infographic that said,

Only 1% of independent musicians have more than 500,

000 streams lifetime.

You can't make a living.

So Insight Timer has been a wonderful additional stream.

But I've always had it in the back of my mind that,

You know,

I love Steve Jobs.

But what happened with him when he introduced the iTunes concept,

That was the end of a lot of things.

All of a sudden,

People weren't buying albums or buying one piece for a penny or two.

So I mean,

As an encouraging revenue model,

It was never really there for most of the musicians,

At least that I know.

Many of them are quite good and better than me.

Yeah,

It's just been an important revenue stream.

And I'm delighted that it's maintained.

So we have about 10 minutes,

Eight minutes left.

And amazing.

We could all just speak again,

Because we now have 180 people here that weren't in when we joined and just sort of recap who you are.

And one question I always get is,

How can support teachers on Insight Timer?

And we all have different ways that that looks.

So I would love it if you could all share.

I'm going to start with Barbara,

Because I know Barbara,

You have a hard stop at 130.

So if you don't mind sharing first,

That'd be awesome.

Sure.

Well,

My name is Barbara Faison.

I do have two courses.

One is Five Mindful Ways to Struggle Less and Enjoy Life More.

The other one is Affirm Your Life.

And the first one is five days.

The second one is 11 days.

Maybe it's 12.

I can't remember.

It's 11 or 12 days.

But my thought on who I am and what I offer is to use my voice to heal,

Educate,

And inspire by sharing my experience and connecting with people.

And that's what Insight Timer allows me to do.

So how you can support me is to listen to my work,

Share my work if it moves you,

And to support the other teachers as well.

I think we're all here because we enjoy what we do and we feel called to do what it is that we do.

Money is always great.

And like James said,

It's a supplement.

So if you feel called to donate,

Donate to teachers,

Because it is encouraging to us when we get a donation that someone took the time to share their time,

Their energy,

Their effort,

And their money with us.

So that's what I would say.

And if you're thinking about being a teacher,

Just jump on out here and do it.

It's a wonderful platform to be on to feel supported.

And you can connect with any of the teachers.

I've not had anyone not connect with me.

And I think that that's so unusual from what I can tell on the other platforms as well.

So I thank you if you listen to my work.

If not,

Listen to someone else's work that resonates with you.

And I'll be listening to everyone that's out here too.

Thank you so much.

James?

I think one of the things that would be most beneficial to me,

And I've started to see some of it recently,

Great,

Is to me,

It goes back to this kind of theory of expectation,

Where I'm on the platform as an ambient music.

People expect a certain type of music from me,

And an associated support path.

So many of my listeners are sleepless on a regular basis.

And that support that I lend them has become the kind of work which is expected of me,

So one thing which would help me a lot going forward would be,

How can I stretch out in other ways and still have you have a dialogue with supportive of what I'm doing?

And how can I better support you by doing the kinds of things we have,

At least I feel sometimes we have a tendency to become pigeonholed with an audience.

And I'd rather not do that.

I'm grateful for the fact that I sort of am.

But to stretch beyond what there is currently would be a lovely thing to learn and be able to bring forward to the audience.

My premise is being the mystic Sherpa and leading people back to the truth of who they are.

And I do that through wisdom and DNA encoding,

And awakening the codes of remembrance within people.

And I feel that when I do the spoken word,

Or my written word,

As in my books that I've written,

It's a transmission,

And people receive it at different levels.

And my offerings range from free to more premium,

And especially premium courses now,

And then in-depth courses,

To awaken that inner knowing and that wisdom.

And your innate power is about empowering people themselves.

And I agree with James about not being pigeonholed.

My work has definitely morphed over the seven years I've been teaching and sharing.

So in terms of supporting,

You know,

I've got a very few people that love my courses that come back month in,

Month out,

And engage.

You know,

To follow the path to explore more work with me would be,

You know,

The offer is there.

We're not allowed to directly promote on Insight Timer.

But I encourage people,

If a teacher resonates,

Then follow their link in their bio.

Explore the more of what it is.

Even just get on their newsletter list,

Or whatever.

They might have other free offerings.

And I really encourage that to people,

Too.

Because,

You know,

Insight Timer,

When I was doing the Godess series,

That was a catalyst for people to come to my list.

I did a,

I've had many clients off the back of Insight Timer that have supported me and my business outside Insight Timer,

Which has been tremendous.

And I would love to reiterate that again.

And I'm hoping that when the Insight Timer rolls out the one-to-one offerings,

That that could be feasible.

So I really encourage people that listen that look to that,

You know,

When they find a teacher to resonate,

Look in a broader scope of how to connect and follow their work.

That would be great.

Thank you.