August Updates – I’m Back!

First up, I’ve changed jobs recently and have been rather caught up with work. It’s been a really good year for me and I’m really grateful. I got a really good pay raise for my new job and I’m really happy at my current work place. It’s an industry I never expected to get into but I’m loving it so far. The year has been extremely smooth so far.

I’ve had many serendipitous moments this month for both my full-time job and sideline. The reason why I’ve not updated this blog in a while is because I’ve been spending quite some time thinking about how I wish to move forward with this sideline given the recent developments I’ve experienced. I’m going to be very open with my thoughts in this entry like I’ve always been, so please pardon my blatant voicing of my thoughts. I believe in being open and I’ll always stay this way.

This sideline is something I definitely wish to continue doing, but due to my added responsibilities at work and now that financially I’m a lot more comfortable, I wish to strike a good balance between my personal life, full-time job and this sideline. (I’ve already spoke about why I don’t wish to do consultations full-time in a previous entry.) I think a minority of the people who stumble upon my website and blog may have come across discussions on a certain forum discussing my experience, authenticity of my knowledge and the reviews that were left on Facebook and my forums. I’ll take the opportunity to address a few things here:

When I first started doing consultations, I marketed and made myself known on various forums. I had confidence that it would work out because I know not many people out there read Chinese classics and that I could stand out if I were to explain my analysis in detail and quote straight from the Chinese clasics. I’ve stated in my testimonials page that I’ll request for my clients to leave a review if they’ve found the consultation beneficial, and I will offer an incentive of analyzing another chart in return for them leaving a review. It’s worked out pretty well because they were happy with their initial reading – this incentive I offer would not have worked so well if I didn’t do a good job for their paid reading. There’s no point getting a complimentary reading if it wasn’t helpful or accurate in the first place. A lot of my clients left reviews on forums and some of them had to create an account just for that, hence you’ll always see accounts showing just 1 post from the user. This, of course, has led to people thinking that I have been faking my own reviews which I have expected to happen eventually. I’m not bothered by it as I know I can’t please everyone be it in my full-time job or this sideline. It’s a little amusing as people doubt you when you have no testimonials and people still doubt you even when you do have them. I can understand why people would suspect reviews in the forums but the ones left on Facebook with the profile pics and user names should show that I don’t have to do something like that. I’m just glad that the clients who have had doubts at the beginning had them cleared during the consultation the moment I start explaining to them the theory, how I got the analysis and how things tied-in together. As much as clients learn about metaphysics from consultations, I learn a lot from them as well and I’ve always saw who I meet as a form of affinity. The positive experiences I’ve had has made this sideline very worthwhile, whereas the ones that weren’t so positive gave me a reason to look at how I am conducting this business of mine and how to improve it.

This metaphysics consultation sideline, as I’ve always mentioned, it’s a bit like a calling for me. I never expected to get into this because it started off as a genuine interest. As much as possible, this is something I wish to fully and thoroughly enjoy doing and it’s very fulfilling seeing clients benefit from consultations. As much as possible, I really wish to avoid ‘toxic’ clients who take away the joy from my work. No one enjoys dealing with ‘toxic’ people – they absolutely drain you and it’s best to just ignore and not engage them while they continually self-victimize and blame others. Successful and happy individuals will NEVER have such a mentality. Sometimes, not feeding their negative energy and ego is the compassionate and wise thing to do. To be honest, as much as I wish for this sideline to be about reaching people how to empower themselves and tap into their innate wisdom to lead a good life, people who don’t wish to help themselves can not be helped, and I would rather focus my time and energy on people who can be responsible for their own lives.

The new process which I have set up whereby I screen the chart of the prospective client first before agreeing to a consultation has been very successful. As mentioned, this is because some charts are not meant to be read because not everyone can take negative news well or they simply don’t get to point in tapping into such esoteric knowledge. The volume of consultations I receive has remained constant, and the consultations have all been very pleasant so far with clients approaching this with very positive mindsets. I wanted this new process to act as a deterrent for people who approach practitioners with unrealistic expectations hoping that we can give a magical fix and it has worked out really well. I don’t like turning people away, but recently I’ve come to realize that it is necessary in some cases and I’m glad I have the liberty to do that as this sideline is not my main source of income. I’ve addressed this issue in my previous blog entry and I hope everyone gives it a read if you have the time.

To the people who have engaged me recently, my sincerest thanks for your trust and I appreciate your patience when I take longer to reply at times. I’ll always try to make consultations a positive and enlightening experience for everyone.

Moving forward, I am looking to revise and adjust my engagement rates a little higher in the interest of maintaining quality over quantity, especially now that my full-time job requires more attention. I know this may make me feel like someone who’s into this for the money or that I may be getting greedier, but I think my readers know by now that I’ve always been honest about the monetary motivations when someone requests for my time and input in this esoteric field. My charges have always been very transparent and services included in the package are clarified before payment is made and there are no hidden charges. As much as this field is about helping others, I hope everyone understands that I face issues concerning practicality as well and I need to constantly maintain a good balance of everything that’s going on in my life.

On a more positive note, this sideline of mine has had some interesting developments recently as well. First of all, I got interviewed by HerWorld and will be featured in the magazine soon. It should be published in one of the next few issues – most probably in October. I’m quite excited and and praying the article is adequate enough in sending the right message across to readers and how one should approach Chinese metaphysics. Secondly, I’ve also met a few benefactors who really appreciated my service and knowledge and offered to introduce me to their circle of friends from the upper echelons of society who actively engage practitioners for advice.  All in all, I’m really grateful for the way things are at the moment and I really hope this sideline continues to grow and that more opportunities open up. Embarking on this sideline has been a really amazing ride and I hope it continues to grow and that I can continue to dispel misconceptions, myths, and let people really understand this field and what it’s truly meant for.

Anyway! I know my blog is a bit boring as there are hardly any pictures. So here you go (scroll down)! Pardon the amateurish photos. I did a feng shui audit over the weekend at a really nice condominium, Skyline Residences, that was launched recently along Telok Blangah Road. The view was spectacular. As always, I applied the 《阳宅三要》and 《沈氏玄空学》methods when analyzing the house. The client was really nice and put a lot of faith in my words and advice despite my age though he did admit he had some hesitation at first, but he went through my blog and decided that I was worth a try. I sat down with him and flipped through some of the books to show him where and how I got the analysis from after taking the measurements of the house, and proceeded to explain how the house and the family’s BaZi had parallels and what to look out for in the coming years.

Whoever is reading this, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on BaZi or feng shui. I’ll be happy to answer them and clarify your doubts before you decide on an engagement! That’s all for now! I’ll try to update my blog more often with interesting topics and insights!

Take care everyone!