Psychedelics have been helping humans optimize and evolve since at least 5000 BCE yet people are just now coming out of the psychedelic closet to join the rLOVEution. The truth is your stance on psychedelics is an economical stance, political stance, for some even a religious stance. Hell, I will go as far as to say psychedelics are my religious and political stance. If you are with me this article, is written just for you.
Window of Opportunity
There is big opportunity here and it doesn’t even matter what path you take because the opportunity is just that enormous. I am talking science, medicine, counselling, hospitality, tourism, farm-acy, education, nutrition, cultivation, conservation, religion and spirituality…
What I am saying is, there is a lot of work to be done here and people are hiring. In fact, the total estimated market size could be as high as $100 billion in the “pharma” sector alone. As more money is invested and as more people heal themselves from all sorts of disorders, even more markets will organically manifest needing someone to do the work that only a passionate human can do.
So, what is it your passionate about? What are your skills? What is the one thing that would bring you the most joy, when done from a place of free choice? When you have that answer check out my proven steps to launch your psychedelic business.
10 Steps to launch
- DECIDE: Make the decision to do this… Decide, product or service… Decide what social media you’re going to focus on… Decide on your messaging & details…
- CONNECT: Connect with the people who are living the life you want, the people doing the work you want to do, the people creating what you want to create. I am not saying that person exists because, there is only one you – and you have a unique dream inside of you to manifest. However, connecting with these people is a step in the right direction and you never know where their insights will take you next.
- GAIN AUTHORITY: Get certified in something relevant and share the journey on social media. If your already certified or getting certification is unnecessary, you can gain authority as a professional in other ways too; creating a vlog, publishing a book, speaking as a guest or even travelling to places relevant to the people you are helping.
- MINDSET: This brings me to mindset, the key that opens the door to success. For this key I am just going to refer you to Napoleon Hill, who wrote two amazing books (Think & Grow Rich and Outwitting the Devil) and my Coach Zander Fryer.
- MESSY ACTION: Being a highly driven person, I have no problem taking action. However, I am also a people pleaser and I would hold myself back. It was a consistent battle for so long as I would get stuck in Perfection Paralysis. What’s important to remember is we are all humans and with everything so automated today people are seeking an authentic connection. Owning your flaws and failures, as well as your success is in all reality what authenticity is all about.
- TRACK THE DATA: Taking action is so important because you can immediately start collecting data. Some examples would be; how many hours are you working? How much money are you earning? How many people are you talking to? How many people are you reaching out to? Who are these people? What did you talk about? How many followers did you gain? Why did they follow you? What was your top post?
- PROGRESS: Enjoy the process and believe you will progress more and more each day. This is actually how some of the best mantras begin “just for today…”. The truth is your only a beginner one and as long as you take consistent action you will progress naturally, so just do the work and enjoy the ride
- OPTIMIZE: Once you have some data and once you are seeing progress its time to optimize. Optimize on the data you collected by implementing necessary changes, if you don’t know what to change – get curious, ask questions, meditate, discuss and seek an answer that is authentic and true to you. The goal here is to take what’s working and build on it. The challenge is releasing what’s not working and believing that when it meant to be it will manifest organically.
- COLLABORATE: I have coached over 50 female founders outside of my private coaching practice and even wrote some pieces around “Collaboration Over Completion”. The bottom line is, we are all in this together and by working together we can turn a ripple effect into a wave, and a wave into a tsunami. If this doesn’t show you the big picture, think about your competitor making all the mistakes so you don’t have to, think about speaking to your competitors following, and for just a moment consider that there is someone else out there who cares as much as you do, because its true.
- DO YOUR HAPPY DANCE: Celebrate yourself, how far you have come, what you have created. Something we personally do in our own home is track our non-negotiables on a points system so we can feel our achievements whenever we hit 50 points. This also allows us to build even more momentum through positive reinforcement. If this is of interest to you let me know and ill dive deeper another time because it has been helpful for us in all areas of life.
How I Became a Psychedelic Professional
I was terrified when I felt so much passion around psychedelics! Because I am so driven by nature, I jump into things (like business ventures) head first… but I was a new mom, alone with no partner, not much money and fearful thoughts consuming me from the inside out. The truth is psychedelics did change my life for the better and I was more passionate about sharing natures messages then I was anything else including the all-natural, home-birth of my happy and healthy son… crazy right?!
Well, you see I had convinced myself that the gift of motherhood was from source for doing spiritual and medicine work. The moment I found out I was pregnant I felt blessed, I knew I was on the right track and for the first time in my life rewarded for it. So, what was I going to do? Could I really talk about how psychedelics allowed me to heal myself when they are illegal in my country? Would people think I am an unfit mother, or worse compare me to my parents and say things like “the apple doesn’t fall from the tree” or “she’s just like her mother”.
Still, I couldn’t shake this feeling and began taking action. I was still integrating my expierence backpacking South America and I was a single mom to be – naturally, I took this time of my life as an opportunity to retreat in my home. I became a real introvert reaching out to influencers and asking them questions online instead of scrolling or posting, I also would get my people fix by strolling my neighbourhood a few times a day instead of getting together with people who may not understand the decisions I was making.
When I would face a challenge like “I want to help people by sharing natures secret messages, but how can I do this when they don’t care?” I would follow it up by reaching out to someone who has mastered getting people to not only listen, but care whole-heartedly about natural alternatives.
For the answer to this specific question, I turned to Alyse Parker who helped me enroll into The Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and become a certified health coach. I also reached out to Ellen Fisher, an all-natural mom and influencer that encouraged me to share myself with the world “because that’s what stories are for, to be shared”. While I didn’t speak to these girls about psychedelic medicine, I did have a very personal journey and many miraculous stories to share with the people who wanted to have these conversations,
When I was in nutrition school getting certified, I was inspired to keep reaching out to people who were influencing people to get happier and healthier naturally. I wrote Joe Rogan’s team for a full year, Dr. Dan Engle’s secretary for three years, and Evan Carmichael too… of these three, Evan Carmichael did coach me, Dr. Dan and I have not only connected but I learn from him for 90min every Wednesday, and I have grown even more friendships just because I took consistent action to learn from others doing this work.
Once I was fully certified as a coaching master with additional certifications in nutrition, hormone health and Reiki, I felt confident in my skills but still wasn’t fulfilled. I was helping people yes; I even published a book with the help from my teachers but psychedelics were still my passion and I was still to scared to talk about them. I decided to email MAPS to see how I can volunteer and they sent me here, to you at Sociedelic, and The Zendo Project.
Then it happened, when I was doing the work and ready my teacher appeared – Zander Fryer. Zander and his team specifically help coaches launch their business so they can leave their “9-5” and make a High Impact. While I didn’t have a 9-5, I did have this burning desire to make an impact in the psychedelic space and knew I was in the right place, with the right team, at the right time, so I never looked back for a minute.
With a little help from all my friends, my mentors and teachers along the way I have done it… I am earning a really good income doing work I love so much I would do it for free until I am 100+. Still, I am on the pursuit of more knowledge and love learning from Dr. Dan, Oracle Dennis Mckenna, and Mycologist Paul Stamets. I am also coming into a new chapter as a biz owner now too as Elemental Growth is expanding.
So, what is next? Guess you will just have to keep holding on for that answer!
As always, I am sending you much love and positivity on your Elemental Growth journey, Ashley Michaud.
