What does it take to build a resilient spiritual business when the economy changes and clients become more cautious about spending?

In this episode of Spirit Sherpa, Kelle Sparta explores how spiritual entrepreneurs, coaches, healers, and transformational practitioners can adapt their businesses to thrive in uncertain economic conditions. She explains why changing markets require new strategies, how to evaluate whether your local market is still viable, and why business owners must think like entrepreneurs while staying aligned with their mission.

Kelle shares practical guidance on communicating value, creating scalable offers, and shifting from one-to-one services into group programs that better serve both clients and practitioners. She also discusses why charging appropriately creates stronger client commitment, how free sessions can unintentionally reduce transformation, and why burnout has fundamentally changed what today's clients are looking for.

Whether you're launching your first spiritual business or refining an established practice, this episode offers grounded, actionable advice for building a sustainable business that can weather changing economic conditions while continuing to make a meaningful impact.

What You'll Learn

• How economic changes affect spiritual businesses
• How to determine whether your local market is financially viable
• Why communicating value matters more during uncertain times
• The benefits of scalable group programs
• Why charging for your services improves client commitment
• How burnout has shifted client buying behavior
• Why lighter, more accessible offers resonate in today's market
• How to build systems that create consistent client enrollment

References Mentioned

• Spiritual entrepreneurship
• Group coaching
• Group healing
• Business systems
• Pricing strategy
• Client enrollment
• Burnout
• Value-based marketing
• Welcome to the Woo

Resources Mentioned

Welcome to the Woo

https://learn.kellesparta.com/welcometothewoo

Sacred Profits Mentorship

https://learn.kellesparta.com/sacredprofits

Kelle Sparta

https://kellesparta.com

Note: Inner Peace 101 referenced in this episode is now called Welcome to the Woo.

Hello, and welcome to Spirit Sherpa, the show that helps and encourages you on your journey to unlock your magic mojo. I'm Jules, your co-host. Our topics have evolved to correspond to different levels of individual spiritual practitioner growth. Beginners should start with episode one, intermediates episode 98, and episode 200 starts advanced topics.

With me as always to share her insights and wisdom is the spirit doctor Kelle Sparta. Hi, Kelle. How's your day going? Hey, Jules. Well, it's going pretty good so far. I got to hang out at the Tuesday market this morning, which is a little local place. It's, it's kind of like a farmers market meets a craft fair, and it happens every- Ooh, I love those

yeah, it's every Tuesday in, uh, Boquete here in Panama. And, uh, so we went there and hung out for a little bit and talked with a new couple that we met while we were there and saw three people I knew before I walked in the door before we even got out of the car. You know, that's the wonders of living in a very small town is that, you know, you're like, "Jane, how are you?"

You know, she's like, "Hey, Dave. How are you? Where'd you go? Blah, blah, blah." You know, you're, you're, you're just in it. And, uh, you know, we've been here for almost a year now. It'll be a year in the 14th of July. And, uh- All right ... yeah, so very close to a year. And so we're now at the stage where we're, like, seeing people we know and whatever.

And so, and I, I did karaoke last night, as per ushe. I run karaoke on Monday nights at the Tap Out Bar. And, um, and my, my crowd is growing, and my regulars are regularing and you know? And, uh, one of my regulars told me last night that he actually teaches Spanish, so I'm probably gonna go take some Spanish language lessons from him 'cause I'm, I'm actually sane enough now that we've landed, and I've gotten everything oriented and figured out where everything is and recovered from the move and everything else that I'm finally feeling like I could take in some Spanish language lessons, so, uh, especially since I'm talking to mostly Panamanians on Monday nights.

So I, I- it would be good for me to be able to speak a little more Spanish than I do. So, um, yeah, so all good, right? Monday's my happy day. That is all good. That's excellent. Yeah. So Mondays are my happy day. We're, we're recording this on a Tuesday. We usually do Thursdays now, um, because Tuesdays I'm usually drag-assing because I'm up very past my bedtime on Monday nights to do the karaoke.

But we're back to a Tuesday today because I'm out of town on Thursday and Friday. We're going down to Boca Chica. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Now, what is that place like? Well, so we've... So funny story, right? So, uh, when we first arrived here, they were having a raffle to, to, uh, benefit dog camp, which, you know, this is the place that rescues the strays and things like that and where you can board your dog and stuff like that.

So- Um, so we bought tickets, you know. Who knew, right? And we won. We won a two night stay at a place called El Regalo Resort in Boca Chica. And it's a s- it's a, um, it's a beach town. And so I thought, "Oh, it'll be a beach town like any other beach town," right? You know? Mmm, well, not all beach towns are made the same, right?

So I remember when I was in high school I went down to Baja, California, and we drove... We, we went down to, uh, ugh, what was the name of the place? I don't even remember, but it was in Baja. Had one street with anything on it and the beach, and that was it, right? And it was like a three-hour drive from T- uh, Tijuana.

So, uh, but the, this town I did a little research a couple days ago when we were over to the... We have a couple that, uh, we're friends with who are gonna be going with us on this trip, and I did a little research while we were there to figure out what do we need to know, do we wanna do anything fun, blah, blah, blah.

I found somebody who had done a blog post about it. Turns out it's a one-street town. There isn't even an ATM in the entire town. There's no grocery store. There's no convenience store. There's nothing according to this blog post. There's just, there's one restaurant that is not inside of a hotel And that's, uh, there's like, there's nothing, right?

So, uh, and you know, you could drive 20 minutes to get to the next town and get some other restaurant choices and things like that. But if, but this person didn't have a car, and so they were sort of stuck there, right? Um, and they talked about the things to do, mostly is sport fishing and visiting the islands off of the coast.

So it's, it's a mostly untouched tourist town. I mean, there's, there's tourist stuff, but it's not very strongly tourist, right? There's, people go other places. So we're, we thankfully were going... My, my husband's birthday was in May, and he wanted to go tuna fi- tuna fishing for his birthday. And so we had to wait until Katherine's husband, Robin, came back, uh, from, 'cause he works in Madagascar.

And so he's gone for two months, and then home for three weeks, and then gone for two months. And so we had to wait for him to come back so that he could be here to go sport fishing with Jeff, 'cause I wasn't gonna do it. And no thank you. And so- No fishing for you ... no fishing for me. I did it once, that was enough.

Um, and so, so, uh, you know, they're going out on the boat for a day, and then the rest of the time we're just gonna hang out at the resort, swim in the pool. Uh, I assume there's a pool. I think there's a pool. I don't know, but I'm bringing a bathing suit. Maybe go to the beach, who knows? And we're bring- bringing games and cards and, you know, f- snacks because there's no place to buy snacks.

You gotta bring your snacks. We, we're bringing a cooler. And so, which we found out, you know, we found out from this, right, and from the blog post. So, you know, this is gonna be quite the adventure, 'cause Thursday morning we're driving down to David to go and buy big coolers because the, the fishing thing we're going to doesn't provide a cooler.

And if they catch a f- a tuna, and those tuna can be, you know, 60 to 400 pounds. So- Oh, yeah ... yeah. I've watched Wicked Tuna. Yeah. I know this. So we're gonna... Well, these are yellowfin, so they're smaller than the big, big tuna. They're smaller, okay. Here we go. But yeah. But they can be up to 400 pounds, so- Um, so we're buying two big coolers and which we'll fill with snacks because they're going fishing on the last day, so.

And, um, and so, you know, it's gonna be an adventure. Because we're like, "Oh, okay." This definitely will be an adventure. Gotta... And, and every place takes cash, but there's no ATM machine. So they only take cash. They don't take credit cards in most of these places, supposedly, according to the blog posts. All right.

So today we're gonna be talking more about spiritual entrepreneur and what it takes to be a successful spiritual practitioner and coach, right? Yes. This topic has come about because I've been talking to a bunch of people about this. Um, I've actually been doing an informal survey on LinkedIn recently.

I've been reaching out to different coaches, LinkedIn and Facebook, and saying, you know, "What's, what's the market looking like? How does that feel? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah," right? And so everybody I've talked to has had a pretty similar experience. So if you're a practitioner or a coach out there, uh, listen up.

So that seems to be what's happening across the board, even across the pond, as they say. I talked to somebody in the UK who said that, that they were having the same experience. Uh, uh, uh, one person in Boston said that they, they had a friend in California who was not having that experience, so California may be the outlier.

Go figure. That tends to be the case in spiritual stuff for California. So, uh, but that is pretty much what's happening across the board. Now, so, uh, you know, and we're facing the... In the US, we're facing the all, you know, blah, blah, blah, s- um, uh, recession fears and everything, right? Um- And so the, you know, the thing that I wanna talk to people about is how do you know if you have a viable business when the market is declining, when ref- recession may happen, when the whole thing, right?

Because this is not something we're taught in the spiritual world. You know, we're taught, go, well, you know, go out and charge money per hour and blah, blah, blah, and that's how you do it. And, you know, figure out how to get your clients, you know? Well, do some samples and, you know, that'll be it, right? So first off, the first thing you have to understand is that if you are relying on your local market, you need to be paying attention to the disposable income level in your local market Because with the inflation and with all of the stuff that's been happening in the last few years, a lot of the, like, um, Boston, where I used to live, the inflation is insane.

I mean, we're talking $1,900 for a one-bedroom unit, right? Insane inflation. And so, you know, when you look at that compared to the disposable income in the marketplace, then you, you start to look at it and go, "Hmm, it could be a little painful to try and sell services here," right? So the way you do that is you look online.

You do a search online, and you say, what is the, the average income for the town that you're in? And then you go and you say, "What is the average cost of living for the town that you're in?" Two separate searches. And then you compare them, and the difference between the average income and the average cost of living is your disposable income.

That's the money that people have to spend on things that are not food, rent, car, y- insurance, that sort of stuff. And so if that number is less than a few hundred dollars a month, you'll get an annual number, so you'll have to divide it by 12. But if that number is small, then this is probably not a viable market for you to be working in.

And so that means that you need to start looking at working online more. If that number is large, if it's several thousand dollars a month, then you've got plenty of room, right? And look at it not just for your own town, but maybe for one or two towns over where you could go and travel to, right? Because sometimes, you know, you may not live in the most affluent section of town, but you're, you're adjacent to the most affluent section of town, right?

And so if that section of town has plenty of money, well, then just start marketing over there. And, you know, before you go getting intimidated going, "Oh, all those posh people," blah, blah, blah, posh people have problems too, okay? Let me just say that right now. In fact, they often have more problems because when you don't have a lot of money, you don't have to worry about whether your friends are friends with you because of your money and your power and your influence.

That's an additional problem that people who have a lot of money have that, that people who don't, don't have, okay? Because they have to worry about whether or not they're, they're being friends with someone who's using them, right? So You know, they have, they have all of the same problems we have plus that one, okay?

So don't go, don't go getting all up in your head about whether or not you can sell to them, all right? So that's the very first thing you have to look at. And, and I would encourage you, even if your, your market has been reasonable for all of this time, uh, you know, as the inflation's going up, as the potential recession is setting in, as, you know, the markets are changing and people are moving.

I mean, people are moving at a ridiculous rate. I mean, many cities are losing population As that's happening, you need to reassess what's going on in your marketplace. And I know that none of this sounds spiritual, but you know, it's a spiritual business. It is a business. You must treat it like a business, right?

Or else you will not have anything to eat, right? We like to eat. Look at me, I like to eat, right? So this is the thing, right? The... I married a chef for a reason, damn it. All right. So here's the deal. You've gotta do these, this analysis and figure out whether or not there's money out there. Now, the second piece of the equation is you have to figure out if that money is available, because the other thing that's happening or that I've been hearing about, is that even people with disposable income are starting to reserve that cash into savings for, you know, rainy days, right?

For worse, you know, what could be coming down the p- the pike, right? And so then what it becomes is you have to show that your value is high enough to justify them giving up some of that cushion. And so that means that you have to really be good about stating what your value is. And if you're not very good at that, go back and listen to the episode.

We- we've done episodes on stating your value and pricing and all of that, so go back and listen to those. But you've gotta be, you've gotta be right on top of it, right? And then the other thing you have to look at is how do you make things more affordable if you've got a declining disposable income base or, you know, people who are stashing it away instead of spending it.

How do you make offerings that are more affordable without stressing yourself out, wearing yourself out, exhausting yourself, all that? And that's when you start to look at groups, right? How do I do healing groups instead of individual healings? How do I do classes, uh, and group coaching sessions instead of individual coaching sessions?

These are the ways that you make it more affordable without it being more taxing for you. Now, here's the benefit. When you do that, you actually work less hours, and you make more money if you enroll enough people, because while everyone's paying less per hour, you're getting all of that at the same time, and so you're actually gonna make more per hour in that regard, right?

So if you usually charge $150 for a healing session, and you instead do a group healing where you put 10 people in the room and you do individual work, you do a, a, you know, overall healing on the group and you do individual work around the, the circle and you do an hour healing that way and everybody pays- 35, 40 bucks.

Now, if we charge 40 bucks, that's $400 for the same hour that you would've spent doing the $150, right? So... And it's much easier to sell somebody into a $40 healing than $150 healing, right? So that's the sort of thing. And, you know, if they love what they get in the, in the $40 healing, then they may come back for a private healing session on top of that, right?

So this is how, how you look at it, and it's also how you scale. So you can use the, the inflation, the recession, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, anything that you're, you know, people are perceiving as, oh, it's negative, right? You can use it to grow and scale your business, and that's really what you wanna do because adversity forces us to be better, to be more efficient, to be higher quality, to be more successful, right?

Because we gotta do it to survive. So let's embrace it, right? And so the other piece of the puzzle Is that as you're working your way through this, you're going to need to get better with your systems, get better with your enrollment process, get better with all of that so that you make sure you get enough people in the room to be making more money, right?

'Cause if you only enroll four people at 40, well, you're still making 160. That's still better than you were making for the one-hour treatment. But if you only get two, now you're making 80 for the same hour you would've gotten 150 for for a private session. So you wanna make sure you're getting enough people in the room, so you gotta get more efficient at that.

You know, this is for the established entrepreneurs out there, right? So you guys have been up and running this for a while. You know, we, we wanna make sure that you're, you're still going, right? I wanna make sure you guys are still going. I wanna make sure you're doing well. And part of this is having systems in place to make sure that your recruiting process, your prospecting process is consistent, and that you can say, "Okay, if I do X, Y, and Z, I guarantee you get a co- customer," right?

You wanna make sure that's true. If that's not true, you need to be working your systems until it is, right? You need to be very clear about how do you get your business, and so, you know, how you get your business is gonna depend upon what you do, right? But you can do sample sessions, but here's my warning, okay?

Here's the warning with sample sessions. Don't do monthly sample sessions because then people will only come to the monthly sample sessions 'cause they don't have to pay for them. They can get them for free every month, okay? Put yourself on the other side of anything that you put out that's a freebie because you wanna make sure that you wouldn't look at that and go, "Well, why should I pay for it?

I get it for free every week," right? And then that becomes your challenge. So the, the sample sessions that you do should be no more than, like, quarterly or at specific events or stuff like that because that's how you're gonna stay engaged with what it is that you're doing, uh, and not have that problem cr- creep up, right?

You want people to miss you if they don't pay, right? That's the idea because otherwise you're running a charity and not a business. And don't look at me and say, "Oh, but they need me." It's like, well, but can they receive it is the question because lots of people need you. Not all are actually open to receive it, and in terms of they're not even interested in what you have even though they desperately need it.

Um, and if they are open to receive it, they may not actually be available to receive it. You know, they may be open to the idea of it, but they won't let it in, right? And this is one of the reasons why I am so adamant about making sure that you charge for your services because it gets buy-in from the client.

When they put their money down, they open themselves to the work. Not to say that you can't open yourself to the work if you don't pay for it, but I will say it is significantly lower percentage of people who actually open to the work if they don't pay for it. Okay? It, it is like maybe 30% of the people actually get the value if they d- get something for free because inherently we have an energetic mismatch with that.

It's like I'm getting something for free and, uh, and, and now I feel g- because who, who do we attract? The people who are just like us. When you get something for free, do you feel a little guilty about it? Do you feel like you owe that person something? Do you feel like, oh, you know, or, or do you devalue it because you got it for free, and therefore it's okay that you got it for free?

Are any of these things you wanna be on the other side of? No. None of these things are anything you wanna be on the other side of, right? So this is the sort of thing that you've gotta pay attention to as you do this process. As we go through this period of readjustment... And I, this is the other piece I have to tell you I was asking people what they, what they attributed the change to, and, and some of the people said the economy.

But I think it's actually another piece altogether too. And I believe that part of the challenge is that people are burned out. And when you're burned out, the idea of trying to do healing work is overwhelmed, uh, is overwhelming. It's just like, "I, I just can't do more. I, I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't."

Right? And so I would highly encourage you, if you're listening to this and you're having some challenges with enrollment, and you've checked and there's, there's disposable income still in your area, and, you know, you're just not getting the people enrolled the way that you used to, I would highly encourage you to go from a done with you process or a coaching process where they, you know, lead themselves and you're, you're just helping them along, to shifting to a done to you process.

Because, uh, w- things like Reiki healings, ritual work, and things like that, things that are experiential, you know, guided meditations, things like that, I would really encourage you to shift to that as your starter point because people don't have the bandwidth for the b- for the greater stuff yet. And if you get them through your entry offerings into a space where they do have the bandwidth, so you're doing healing work, you're doing soothing work on their energy field, you're taking them through guided meditations that make them feel good, not challenge them Then they can get to a place where they can feel like they can actually have the bandwidth to do some work.

And so that's the other piece that I would highly recommend that you shift to, and you'll notice that in our branding. We've just done that. So I practice what I preach. We just shifted the branding from Inner Peace 101, Mastering Spiritual Evolution, Mastering Inner Healing, to Welcome to the Woo, Woo Squared, Woo You.

It feels fun. It feels exciting. Same programs, okay? Same programs, but we're just bringing the magic forward because it feels yummy, and it feels fun, and it feels like something I could do. And, you know, if I get the personal growth stuff on the side, well, well, that's okay, but I get to learn how to be magic, right?

And that's something that somebody who's burned out can actually engage with, right? And it doesn't feel as heavy, and it doesn't feel as overwhelming, right? And, you know, whereas, you know, three years ago, before the pandemic, people were like, "Yeah, I wanna f- I want inner peace. I wanna dig in. I wanna, I wanna find out what my crap is and get rid of it.

That's what I want. I want a life free of my own crap." They wanted that, right? Now they're like, "Oh, my God, that feels like so much. Can't, can't we just have some fun with magic?" Yeah, we can totally do that. We'll do it while we do the other stuff. And the other stuff is useful. It'll be fine, okay? It's fine, okay?

They, they will get through it. I know that they'll get through it. They don't know that they'll get through it, it, with the old marketing, right? So that's why we've rebranded, because the market has shifted. So you have to pay attention to this as you're going through the process. And, and this is just feedback that you get from people.

Just listen to people as they're talking to you. If they're talking about being overwhelmed and exhausted all the time, and, "Oh, my God, I'm tired before I even get out of bed in the morning," and, "I, I just, I, I, I just can't. I just can't." And if they're going off angry, you know, that... An anger response is very much often a burnout response, okay?

So all of these things are tri- I mean, we've triggered the crap out of our trauma for the last three years. There's just been no way to get around it, right? And so now it's just a matter of we need to recover. And so, you know, retreats, although retreats are a commitment, so, like, an online retreat or a half-day retreat local to my area where I can come and just be pampered.

Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful? Right? That sort of thing. So keep that in mind as you are, uh, looking to offer up new things, because that's what people are looking for. They're looking for that, and they're looking for wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment being I want to be rich tomorrow, right? That's wish fulfillment, right?

I want to be enlightened tomorrow, preferably yesterday, right? Yes. You know, so it's- I need to be enlightened so I, so I find the winning lottery ticket so then I can be rich tomorrow. Yes. So, you know, you, the, the wish fulfillment piece. So, you know, if you offer something like money counseling, if that's something that you do, then that will probably be very popular right now because of the whole economy and everything else.

So, um, I, I'm, I have put Jewel to sleep. She's yawning over there. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a deep, deep dive business. This is a deep dive business podcast for spiritual people, but, you know, it needed to be said. Yeah. Oh, yeah, but I was thinking too, you know, when, you know, speaking from my, my own life, when, you know, you're going 90 to nothing at work, you have the family to deal with and, and then with all the going on in the world, it's like, I don't wanna think anymore, I want a distraction.

I want a happy, pleasant, wonderful distraction, and that's where the magic comes in, literally for me 'cause I'm like, "Woo-hoo, that's fa- you know, that's fun." So, so that- Angels, crystals, tarot cards- Yes ... wee. Wee. Right? Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, you know, all of this, and so these are the things to, to lean into as you're trying to get your business back up and, and running at the post-pandemic level- levels that you were enjoying, uh, you know, a year ago.

So, um, this would be the thing to really focus on and to bring in, bring to bear in your business to, to make it work. So, uh, if you are thinking about launching a business in this market, uh, I would definitely say that you should lean into the same things that I was talking about, and make sure that when you're offering your, your outcomes, that they don't feel too heavy.

Okay? They need to be solid, but they can't feel, ugh, heavy. It can't feel like, "Oh, my God, that sounds like a lot of work," right? It needs to be, "Oh, well, I walk you through these simple five-step process that gets you to this place that you wanna be, where you're not burned out, where you're easygoing," whatever, right?

Uh, but it needs to sound light and airy in your offer because anything too heavy right now is gonna get an automatic no. So just keep that in mind. Okay? All right. Uh, so this would be the moment where we do the Kelleism. Pay attention to what's true, not what you wish was true. And if you can stand what, in what is true, then the opportunities present themselves.

That's a good one. I love it. All right- Yeah ... folks, well, that's all the time that we have for this week. So tune in next time when Kelle adds another chapter into your guide to energy, magic, and the spirit world. I'm Jules here with Kelle Sparta, and you have been listening to Spirit Sherpa. So long, everyone.

Bye.