Ask Not What Your Community Can Do for You, but What You Can Do for Your Community. Then Go DO IT.
Plus, a cool new feature of $HMEDIUM Mag that centers community-coming in the Q3 drop.
Welcome to the $HMEDIUM Magazine newsletter!
$HMEDIUM Mag houses diverse articles, media, strategies, readings, etc. for those looking to incorporate mindset, esoteric or spiritual alignment into their work all via an online newsletter and Notion Quarterly Zine.
The internet has been solidified into the current wellness, spirituality, and astrology industrial complexes-whether the old bag hag witches like it or not.
Where small businesses used to connect with each other based on who else owned a shop or studio in the neighborhood, or who showed up to networking events, the internet has alchemized our communities in much larger virtual ways-extending the definition to one that encompasses much beyond a physical location. In lots of witchcraft or spiritual business spaces, local hangs with other biz owners may not be possible-either due to lack of others in the same market, or differences with the local beliefs of the communities they are in.
A lot of figures in these communities are often part of underserved, marginalized and oppressed peoples. If we were to put up a list of everyone doing care work-physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, cultural-chances are we could close our eyes, throw a dart and hit a biz or brand owned by someone who’s neurodivergent, disabled, Black, AAPI, BIPOC, LGBTQIA2+, or a woman/femme or a combination of all of the above. This means that often times the most accessible, cheap, efficient, accommodating and safe spaces are the virtual ones.
The unfortunate part of this? How hard it is to vet service providers, and leaders who are actually invested and backed by the community.
Anyone can claim to be a “master,” or “guru” when they themselves are the only thing there to separate fact from fiction.
I remember a friend of mine who’s big in the Black African spirituality scenes tell me once that the number of online “Voodou Queens” of wherever is literally hilarious. How many queens can one PLACE HAVE!? Take a social media bio for example. I could easily go edit mine to claim whatever I wanted. I could be the frickin’ queen of Genovia TO.DAY.-but that’s a role best suited to Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi. I can’t think of anyone else capable of tasks like getting Raven-Symoné to mattress surf down a regal flight of stairs.
While anyone can post client reviews-which do help a lot-how can we be sure those are real unless posted BY the reviewer themselves? Nothing beats word of mouth and great references. Most people are much more likely to invest time in something or someone new, when they hear about it from someone they already have established trust with. This is even more important when topics of work involve cultural practices; ancestral beliefs; relationship with body. Back when I went by my adopted, Americanized (aka colonized) name, I talked to Vice, about the effects on the industry when WitchTok “baby witches” tried to hex the moon. In 2020 I said-and not for the first time:
It “sheds a light on how unregulated and problematic the witchcraft community can be, to a certain extent”. [I] felt disappointment at people’s lack of research and the lack of respect for the craft, including themselves.
And here we are in 2023, where I am still on that soapbox. I’ve planted my flag on that hill, to die on, comfortably.
Many of us who began our forays into these professional worlds, have come to a threshold that many businesses must navigate intentionally-if they hope to stick around.
That, my dear friends, is the threshold of sustainable scalability.1
It’s one thing to have a fun little time, earning some extra cash, with the virtual equivalent of a lemonade stand. Once we realize we’ve moved past that cute little stand-boasting red solo cups, a hope, and a dream-we find that running our businesses (without going broke or crazy) requires features like payroll programs; email campaigns; some form of time management system; social media correspondence; professionally geared subscriptions. Stuff nobody prepared us for-especially if you’re from marginalized communities; or, generally didn’t have access to someone who actually knew the in’s and out’s of running a business. There’s no manual for how to do these specific jobs either. It’s not the same as owning a restaurant; being a private practice doctor; or, really being in any industry of work that doesn’t include psychics, astrologers, energy workers, healers, and witches. These jobs have roots in family lines; cultural histories; and, a lot of verbally passed down traditions-not commercial commerce, and mainstream industry.
We’re all on different journeys of course, but a lot of the “first” rounds of very active social presences in wellness and philosophy have solidified their businesses to the point where they now now need assistants, social media managers, PR teams, graphic designers, mentors, and more. We’re finding ourselves with nearly nowhere to turn for these aspects, provided in ways that fit the type of work we do. This leaves us to practices that are a lot less secure than we would like. Posting on our social stories, or crowdsourcing recommendations from our audiences via direct messaging; timeline posts; or attempting to go to profesh networking sites like LinkedIn. This is a waste of our precious time; and, time really is money when we could be “spending it” on that which will give us better return on investment- at least compared to the evil of sorting endlessly through job listings meant for tech bros, hoping to stumble upon the miracle of one real person equipped to help you with your crystal selling business.
The internet makes the world a lot smaller in our ability to connect; and, a lot larger in what we learn through those connections.
Because it’s so easily accessible, the internet has created a lot of space for anyone to say just about anything, regardless of whether or not what they are saying has factual merit, “holds up,” or is safe. All of these of course are all “in the eye of the beholder”. Except safety…but one would be surprised at how that’s even debated in these spaces that often claim authority/leadership/guru titles. Furthermore, safety through vetting isn’t just important for those whom we serve. As business owners and creators in this “everything on the internet lives forever” situation, we have to be very conscious and careful about who we collaborate with. I don’t know about everybody, but most of the people I know won’t work with a business or brand that also affiliates with ideals, or practices, that they fundamentally find harmful or unsafe. Yes, this does mean that if I see you following someone who’s promoting things like “twin flames,2” diet culture, or perpetuating god awful myths around important topics like vaccines, or birthwork3 (something my partner and I got the privilege to speak in depth about with
of and ).Sure, we can put a lot of that vetting labor on those who are consuming content or working with a brand/business.
As service or product providers-and yes your product is the content you create, even if it’s not being paid for-it’s our responsibility to find some semblance of precedent and standard. While stuff like spirituality, philosophy, body movement and wellness are extremely unique to each person, there can still be some form of rails or buffers to keep us ALL safe. While we might not all agree on whether a tattoo artist is talented, we can all agree that the artist should follow basic sanitation protocol(like using different needles on different people for instance). Not all of us like McDonald’s, but we ALL understood why that lady sued them because her coffee was so hot that it literally hurt her.
I believe there's a lot of ways to do our part. Many that I’ve found the hard way.
By taking clients that came from spaces not designed for my industry, I ended up with a lot of skeptics, trolls coming to my sessions that were just there to test me. In collaborations with other creators who were not ethically or generally safe for me, or my clients, to work with, I found myself in a lot of personal friendships and professional dynamics that ended up causing a lot of trauma. Without a way to see where my network could extend-and how-I was resigned myself to working with the network I already had. When I should’ve been distancing myself, I enmeshed deeper. I became very jaded about a lot of my industry’s community members, spaces, and opportunities.
And my business suffered. I lost some clients and colleagues. I lost some faith in myself-and my ability to actually help in the sea of people doing the opposite. I lost a lot of love for the skills I was working with-because I was around so many people who abused the way they used them in the name of “community.” I became a recluse online and in person, for what was honestly years.
This, at the core, is why $HMEDIUM was created. I’ve always embraced anger as a force of creation. I always think a little healthy bit of spite in the fire that fuels change, newness, to be the spice we need to actually do something meaningful to ourselves.
In this instance, $HMEDIUM was birthed out of my own frustration and anger over the community’s lack of standardized structure, and actual support for itself. The work of the magazine, and opportunities to learn; connect; showcase others who NEED to be elevated over the general babbling brook of WitchTok, r/Witchcraft, and Yogagram has been so fulfilling and healing. I can feel my ancestors smiling at the fact that I’m working with and IN the community again.
This upcoming Q3 issue of the zine, I’m rolling out a new feature that I’m calling the Kieu Co. Classifieds.
I've wanted to create a sort of virtual chamber of commerce for those of us who work in wellness, spirituality, astrology, yoga, tarot, and other businesses that center care for others.
I think a resource where someone can go if they want to see what new, innovative types of services/products businesses have; limited time offerings from their favorite creators; or if there are any job opportunities for people who want to work in these industries (either paid, trade, or volunteer work) can help us make our way towards huge strides in improving how we work as an industry-and ultimately bring more people in to work or be customers. I’m calling it the Kieu Co. Community Classifieds-if you’re a biz owner or brand, check the end of this newsletter to see more deets.
We always stress the value of authentic community for small brands or businesses.
Usually this focus is on engagement via social media.
Let’s be real though, we are all so fucking tired of being social online, and interacting for the sale instead of the connection. I hope this new part of the zine (which will also be on the KieuCo. website as a database) provides a quick, concise, and convenient way to strengthen our communities from the inside out-structure and scaffolding before aesthetics and posturing.
With that comes the acknowledgement that we are responsible for what the future of wellness, spirituality, philosophy and astrology industries turn out to be. We lead through action, not through words. We have to start taking that seriously. I think we have to stop focusing on what communities can do for us; because, though we might provide services, we also provide education. We could all use a little more focus on what we can do for the future of ourselves as a whole, our communities of both customers and colleagues. That is where I think our true power lies.
In evolution.
Kieu Co. Community Classifieds Info
I'm adding a new feature to SHMEDIUM and the Kieu Co. website called the Kieu Co. Community Classifieds! This will be a page of classified listings, submitted small biz owners who want to let the people know what services, products, programs, limited offers, etc. they're offering. It'll also serve as like a Spooky LinkedIn-where biz owners can find the perfect employees, volunteers, or collaborators for their biz-while specifying pay or exchange rate, and duration/scope of the work.
Each "round" of listings will correspond with the SHMEDIUM issues. So any listings for this round will be up from the July-September (which is the same amount of time that SHMEDIUM covers). Listings will be on my website (in their own designated section); in the SHMEDIUM Notion zine (via it's own page); and, on the SHMEDIUM Substack via a linked menu tab.
It's $22.22 for one round (three months). I'm only taking up to 17 listings for each edition. I know this month is on the wire of the release date, but I am beyond excited to roll this out.
To recap:
You Give Me:
$22ish dollars, and info/links about your offering
You GET:
Featured in the SHMEDIUM Mag for three months
Featured on SHMEDIUM Substack (171 subscribed readers) for three months
Featured on the Kieu Co. website (300 unique visitors per quarter-while I was on hiatus) for three months
Ability to advertise, offer deals, source employees or collaborators in a space specifically designed for magical money making
Access to multiple audiences and markets across platforms outside of your own
My love and devotion
Thank you for reading!
If you'd like to be put in the classifieds, click here to fill out the form and submit your listing fee. Worried if all the spots are full? Don’t. If the form doesn’t allow you to even start entering information it means this round has been filled and finalized.
If this round isn't doable for you (I know it's a little last min for this issue), but you want to be updated when the next round starts: join the waitlist here!
💲Pre-Order $HMEDIUM "Trail Blazers" July-Sept Issue for $5 before July 8th
🔥 Subscribe to my personal project: Social(Lite)
Sustainable Scalability refers to the ability to handle your businesses as it grows, takes on more clients, projects, content, etc.