Becoming a Professional Astrologer with Dana the Self Help Witch

Transcript:

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. Today I am sitting down with a recent graduate from one of my programs named Dana to talk about her journey to becoming a professional astrologer. She has a really inspiring way of reaching people on social media. I thought it's really cool and thought you guys would enjoy meeting her and kind of getting some wisdom from her on what her journey with astrology has been like both as a student and now as someone who's developing a practice. So I'm really happy to have her here today, and I am very glad to be joined by now. The former student and now colleague, Dana. Dana, thank you so much for being here.

Dana 2:54
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk.

Acyuta-bhava 2:57
Yeah, yeah, well, and I like hearing you talk, I mean, the thing that I like to look for, you know, students who have come through my programs which probably, you know, have studied not just in my program, but have been studying astrology for a while and are doing cool things. And you make me laugh like I love your Instagram, your Instagram work, the videos that you make. You're hilarious and insightful at once. And I think you provide a really good model for people on how to create a social media game that's not like, like, I watch your videos. And I think I can do a little bit better. I can be myself and be fun, and like you, just inspire me because you look like you're having fun in the way you create content too. So, and there's a lot more, but anyway, I'm just really happy to have you here.

Dana 3:41
Well, thank you so much. And you know, we're all on social media all the time, especially those of us who are trying to build a business, so we might as well make it fun. Have a little fun while we're doing it.

Acyuta-bhava 3:51
Yeah, yeah, totally. I got the feeling like every time I watch one of Dana's Instagram videos, I guess I would call them reels. They're informative. They're intelligent, and they're smart on astrology. And it feels like I'm hanging out with like one of my friends that's making me laugh. Like it's a very comfortable, familiar feeling. So, to me, that's like, you know, that's something that we can all learn from if we're trying. Not all of us are going to be called to develop a social media platform for our astrology offering. But if you are, I think Dana makes a great case study; like, go check out her videos, and I'll tell you how to do that more later. But Dana, I'm glad to have you here. And I want to start with a question that I asked everyone, which is like, you know, how did your path with astrology begin? Where did it get started? Where did the love or interest begin? How old were you, you know, just set the stage for us.

Dana 4:46
I'm going to start by saying I have a Gemini stellium, and I'm probably going to be long-winded, but I'll try not to be so. I knew about astrology growing up like I would read my little sun sign and my Cosmo girl magazine, but I didn't really get it. I didn't really ever resonate with my sun sign which was Pisces. And so it was just kind of a novelty thing that I was interested in but didn't really like know anything about really. So fast forward through my 20s. And I get to my Saturn Return. And my Saturn Return happened in my fourth house, which is also where Capricorn is for me; Saturn and Pluto conjoined during my Saturn Return. And I just kind of had a tower moment, like the tower card from Tarot, where my life had gotten totally out of control. And so, I stopped drinking. That was like a huge part of my Saturn Return. And in doing that, I really realized that I didn't know who I was. And that was a really powerful, scary moment. It actually happened when I was reflecting on what I like to do for fun because when you stop drinking, you often have to replace what you were doing for fun, right? Like you're not going to the bar anymore. Or you can, but most people don't want to, right? And I couldn't answer it; I didn't know what was fun for me anymore. And that really troubled me because I was already in therapy; I'd been in therapy for a while. So I knew that I needed a different way to get to know myself. And I had been exposed to my chart at that point by a friend. But it didn't really resonate as something I needed to explore. Until that moment, I remember my charter that time, and I was like, You know what, maybe this is an avenue for me to reconnect to some truth that I'm missing about myself because I really felt that I was living my life for other people to the point where I had no identity. But I knew that it was still there somewhere. So I started studying my birth chart in an attempt to get to know myself again. And I was able to really identify why I felt that way. And then, at the same time, reflect on how that came to be and then move into a more true expression of how I feel.

Acyuta-bhava 7:07
That is, could be like a textbook, you know, like a couple of pages of a textbook on Saturn returns for a lot of people, you know, like, I found the false me, you know, and, and had to like, reconfigure to, you know, get in alignment with the real me. And I never even think of the fact that Saturn, as you know, is called The God of feigned appearances, you know, and that Saturn Return hits, and there's me, that's when I became an astrologer. That's when I sort of made a commitment to start doing astrology professionally. And it was because I just couldn't go on pretending like my favorite thing in the world was astrology. And a lot of what I was doing in place of that was was about other, you know, other images or expectations that I had for myself, or maybe I had taken on from different aspects of my upbringing or my past. And it's like, that's, that's such a core part of a Saturn Return for many people. Is that sense of like, Is this me? Isn't this me? And sometimes, you know, like, yeah, if you're, if you're drinking or something, and you go like, well, the drinking is covering up. You know, it's a, it's something that's keeping me from a more authentic expression. Yeah, that's it sounds like that was a really pivotal time. So in that period, somehow, you had already had a background being interested in astrology. But weird, like in that process? Where did the light bulb go off and go astrology? Like, how did that happen?

Dana 8:38
Well, that's a really good question. Because I thought I was good. Like, I actually stopped drinking cold turkey and was fine, which is really weird. Like not a typical experience. But part of it had to do with the fact that I stopped right before COVID happened. So there was no social gathering where I had to explain, like, oh, I'm just having water. And like, I didn't have to deal with any of that because no one was going anywhere. So I was able to really focus on my health and wellness, which was always something I wanted to focus more on. But, you know, like, all of us, we're just busy. And we don't make time for it, whatever, whatever. Also, I was drinking a lot. So it was hard to really prioritize that. So I was able to do that. And I actually started like a little farmers market business with like, healthy cookies, with almond flour and stuff. And that kind of got to a peak moment where I realized even that was for other people. So here I was, like, several months after quitting drinking, thinking, I'm killing it. I feel great about what I'm doing. And I started a business in just a few months. And really, I realized that none of it was for me. So I had to really like get serious with myself to that point and say, okay, you've done everything you could do to better your life, and it's still like, there's still this disconnect. So what is it? And I just came to realize that it was a spiritual part of my life that was missing. So I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school through fifth grade. And I had a bad experience with being Catholic and with the church in general. And so I felt really like spirituality was like relegated to religion and, therefore, not something I wanted to partake in. But once I got to that part of my life, where I'm like, Oh, shit, even this is not for me. I just kind of realized that that was the piece that was missing. I needed to cultivate a spiritual life. And I thought that really I started with Tarot, because I also was, well, sort of similar to you was like, I felt like I wasn't good enough for astrology in a sense. And it even took me a lot of time after I knew I wanted to learn astrology to get over my own inner critic that was like, you can learn this, like, no one's going to want to learn from you. No one's going to want to get a reading from you. But it really started with, like, the desire to cultivate a spiritual life.

Acyuta-bhava 10:57
Hmm. Well, I think that's amazing. Because, you know, I feel like, you know, for a lot of people, astrology is like a gateway drug that leads to spiritual life. You know, because it's, it's about getting to know yourself. And for a lot of people, that's a gate that's like a gateway, you know, or it's about just being curious. And it's kind of magical and mysterious. And then you know, before you know it, you're chanting ohm or something. And, you know, it kind of creeps in. And, but I think it's, um, it's remarkable that in your case, there was this, I need the development of my spiritual and also, it sounds like, you know, something that probably is not making me feel bad or guilty, or that doesn't contain that spirit of judgment, which I think a lot of people experience in, you know, not just Catholicism, but many, you know, institutional religions, you know, and that's, sometimes that's just an unfortunate byproduct of institutions and humans. And I feel like when people, especially around their Saturn Return, start needing to develop a spiritual core, it's also because we realize there's something about spirituality that, you know, it's like the feigned appearance thing again, the religion was sort of like this, something about it was hollow, or it was an appearance of spirituality, but it wasn't getting down to the essence of what I'm looking for. And so, I need that, and it's so good that that came to me anyway; I'm just reflecting on this. It's so nice that that came alongside the recognition of, you know, I can't drink alcohol anymore. You know, it's like you're replacing spirits. Alcohol and spirits with the spirit or something like that. And so that's a really, that's a really profound shift. And, and I think, you know, whether that happens in that order, or not, if we can get if astrology is something that takes us there, that's a good thing. That's, that's the aim behind pretty much, you know, all of the ways in which I produce content, as you know, so that's really cool. So, okay, so where did you like what were? What were the first, I guess, channels through which astrology started coming? What was that? Did you get a reading? Did you mean how did it start becoming more placing more of a demand on you psychically saying, I need you to do this?

Dana 13:22
Well, I So a friend of mine showed me my chart. That's how I kind of got the awareness of it at all, to begin with. And then, once I was like dabbling and Tarot, I decided to look up my chart; I think I looked it up on Astro charts or something. And I just research. I love to learn. And I just went down every rabbit hole; I could go down with my chart, which I don't recommend. First of all, I don't recommend that strategy. But I couldn't help myself; I just wanted to consume, like, I wanted to know everything the chart could tell me, which was not possible. But I didn't know that then. I started learning about like evolutionary astrology; I was very intrigued by the North Node because it's conjunct my mercury, which is in Pisces. So I felt like there was something really important to understand about that. And from there, I was just like, Whoa, there's more than one way to practice astrology. That's when I kind of started to realize how vast the system is. So I joined astrology hub at that point because I wanted to get like a breadth of teachers and information. And that was really great because it connected me with a community that was something I was looking for as well. This was, you know, a year into COVID. And I was like, I need some friends that like, care about this kind of stuff. No one in my real life is really into these kinds of things. So from there, I found out about Nightlight Astrology, and then like six months later, I was signed up for your class.

Acyuta-bhava 14:52
Was it a podcast that it was Amanda?

Dana 14:56
No, somebody suggested you. I forget what the actual question was, but it was something about like if I want to learn the deeper symbolism of everything, like where can I go, and that I didn't know at the time, but that was really what I was after. Because, you know, I'm an English teacher by trade, I love abstract thinking and symbolic thinking and archetypes, like all of that, just is like, my favorite stuff to think about. So as soon as somebody asked that question, I was like, that's what I want. And then I started listening to your YouTube videos. And I was like, This guy really knows what he's talking about. I can tell he's well-read; I can tell he has lived experience. And I'm not just trying to talk you up. I'm just saying, like, that's why I chose your class. Because as somebody who teaches, like, a good teacher was really important to me. And I also didn't want to invest in a class that would maybe come from someone who didn't have that lived experience or didn't have that really deep, like, foundational symbolic knowledge.

Acyuta-bhava 15:54
Well, thank you. That's, yeah, that's really, that's wonderful feedback, especially since we have, you know, we've both studied English, like, that's my background before I got into astrology. So I feel like sometimes I'm, you know, I'm finding that in my classes that people who have some kind of English background, you know, there are like, creative writing background or something, find some resonance. It's true that there's, there's a space where usually the inquiry begins, and the inquiry, it's like, you get bit by the bug, you know, and you're like, Okay, now I need to, I need to start drawing some water from the well, and reading and, you know, taking in talks and finding community and, and then it's usually from there that a deeper commitment of some kind, a teacher or a few teachers will, like, sort of appear. And that's how it happened for me, you know, I mean, when I look at the teachers that I found that, you know, spoke to me is very similar. It's like, I felt like certain doors had been open, they'd expose me to things, and then I wanted to go deeper, but then you have to find the right fit for, like, Who do you want to go deeper with? And I think one of the things that I ran up against was early on, you know, it was like, the feeling also of like, well, there's, there's going to be one, there's going to be one way of doing astrology, that's absolutely perfect. You know, and it's, it's going to have all the real true answers. And in some ways, I did land on a tradition, like Hellenistic is like, that's my jam. But I've learned over the years that there's, it's almost more important to find that fit of a teacher or a few teachers that the way they practice, the way they teach speaks to you and you can, you can take aspects of it on but make it your own. There's room for that. And if you have a few like that, over the course of your career as an astrologer, I think you're very fortunate basically that then that's how I feel with you know, the way that I've learned because the system is always going to have holes, there's always going to be some questions even though I find Hellenistic to be like the complete package. It's really the humaneness of who you're learning from and who you're studying with and the community that that allows for those holes to be like, filled, or allows for the question mark to just exist in a meaningful way. Anyway, I'm rambling. So, Dana, so you started studying? You started taking my program. Was the intention, I mean, you're a teacher. So what was the intention? Like, like, I don't want to be a teacher. I want to be an astrologer. Or was it like, I don't think even I don't have I have any idea if I want to be an astrologer. Or I want to do it part-time or like, I want to do it full time. Like where were you at in your intentionality with taking a program? You know?

Dana 18:48
Yeah, well, I would say right around the time I started listening to your podcast, I guess, January of 21. I was kind of talking about my healing more openly. That's really what my Instagram started as I wanted to, like, I had the idea of like, real self-care, like not a bubble bath. Not I mean, if you want, that's cool, but it's really about reconnection to self, you know. And so that was really what I was like, after at first, but I kept feeling like I didn't really have anything to offer people. So then I was like, You know what, I'm going to support people who are sober curious. And so I kind of was doing that for a little bit. But also, I was like, you know, I'm not a therapist. I don't know if that's really an appropriate thing for me to do. At least, like professionally, and in the meantime, I was going back to school, back to in-person learning, and I did want to leave teaching, and I mean, full disclosure, I still do. It's tough. It's very difficult to be a teacher, and I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I just never really knew what I wanted to do. So a part of me deeply felt during that springtime of last year that, like, I knew I could help people. I know that offering my experience and offering what I've learned is valuable, but I don't know how to do it. I feel like I need some kind of modality, and astrology was helping me so much. So really, that January to probably April was me allowing myself to practice astrology, like saying to myself, You know what, you can do this, you have something to offer. And this will not only help you, but it will help other people too. So I kind of had to get over myself. But then, once I was able to believe that I could really help people with this, I kind of I jumped in. So I mean, do I want to leave teaching and practice astrology full time? I don't know if that's possible, you know. But yeah, I know, I want to help people. And I know that astrology has been such a powerful tool for me that that's what I'm doing right now. And it feels great to do that.

Acyuta-bhava 20:50
Right? If you were to look back prior to your Saturn Return, you probably wouldn't have guessed that you'd be, you know, sober. And like, having gone so deeply into astrology and practicing for others and sharing your story on Instagram. Like, you probably couldn't have really guessed any of that. So it's, you know, what I always tell people just as an encouragement, is keep doing astrology, keep knocking on the door, so to speak, and keep doing what you love. Keep expressing what you love, keep learning, and get opportunities to learn by doing charts and so forth. And every single person I know who's done astrology, that's been the path that it just keeps opening incrementally. Sometimes it opens that, you know, big steps are taken, and sometimes there are more gradual ones. And if you just keep doing it, you know, oftentimes, the transition is somehow just made. And it just, it just ends up happening. So that's just an encouragement to keep going with it because you're doing a great job. I want to talk a little bit about the approach that you take. For those who want to get to know Dana's work, check out Selfhelpwitch.com or on Instagram. She is selfhelpwitch, so you can follow. And I personally like, you know, and you're on YouTube now to I think you just did you just start a YouTube channel as well. Right. Yeah. And that is that selfhelpwitch as well?

Dana 22:13
I think it is. Yeah.

Acyuta-bhava 22:15
So consistent. That's good. Yeah. I mean, I love you know, I love watching your content on Instagram. Your first, I think it was one of your first episodes or maybe your very first that I watched on YouTube and loved it. Describe the approach you're taking to creating content? Because I think it's really it's unique. And what were you influenced by? And how did you decide to take the approach you've taken?

Dana 22:39
Well, all of this started because I had a very tumultuous, difficult healing journey that resulted in the fallout of many of my closest relationships and a total 180 for the life I was living. There was so much change. So suddenly, and I felt very alone. So I knew what I wanted to do was make these tower moments less painful for people through offering like, hey, you know what, I know what it's like, it's gonna get better. So I wanted to bring some levity to healing. Because often it's like, such this like, heavy thing. And like, trauma is heavy, like, yeah, it's hard to heal, it's hard to come back to yourself when you have to face the decisions you made that took you further away from yourself, to begin with. That's not easy to do. So I kind of just want to be a source of hope, a source of like, let's just have fun with this because it's a never-ending journey. So let's keep it fun. Let's keep it light, and let's be in community. So that's sort of my approach. I just tried to think of, like, what would former me have needed?

Acyuta-bhava 23:47
Yeah, you did; you always have like a little bit of a stand-up comedy act in you because your videos are funny. Is that something that's always been there?

Dana 23:59
So this is a real story. In second grade, we had to go around the room and say what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I said a comedian, and no one knew what it was. So apparently, it was already funny, then everybody got the joke, but no, I mean, I love making people laugh like Gemini stellium I'm, I just I love interacting with people, and I love having a good time. But no, that's such a compliment. Thank you.

Acyuta-bhava 24:24
Yeah, well, you know, what I'm refreshed by is that I'm not I'm definitely not like, oh, astrology, you know, it should be serious, especially ancient astrology, especially spiritual astrology. It's it to me; it's like, I just haven't seen a lot of people who are doing, you know, reels and short clips and videos that are educational, that might cover a transit or talk about something like what is divination or, you know, a lot of the philosophical pieces from, you know, Hellenistic astrology that you know, people are picking up in my program It is so cool to see someone repackaging the ancient practice in ways that are really funny and like fun.

Because I think, yeah, a lot of times when people get exposed to ancient astrology, I think there's this feeling like it's this. It requires almost like a stoic, you know, like, you should be very serious about this. It's about fate and karma and data. And you can tell you're an English teacher; you can tell that you've taught before because you have a really you have, you make things very accessible and easy to understand, and very concise. And then also you have videos that are really fun. And I think that's, that's what I'm hoping more people will do, who come out of my programs go on to start their own practices, people are always asking, you know, how should I start? Should I launch something on social media? And I'm like, Well, if you do, or you don't, that's kind of up to you and your own personality if you want to be a social media person. But if you do, like, I feel like requests for everyone, make it fun, and make it accessible, you know, because otherwise, people are going to have this impression of ancient astrology that like, well, that's the dry, serious corner, you know. And I just really appreciate that that's not at all what you're doing and how you are building a platform and a following. So the, all of you listening, the don't take my word for it; go check her out on Instagram, selfhelpwitch, or www.selfhelpwitch.com. I want to go to your website and actually ask you to take us through some of what you're doing or offering. Is that okay? Yeah. Okay, cool. Let me make sure I have it up over here. So did you what point did you know, like, I'm going to start offering readings.

Dana 26:43
So I actually started offering readings last summer; I did about 30 Practice readings last summer. And then school started, and I was like, Well, I don't really have time for this. So I kind of was just taking practice readings for a while. And then I launched my website, maybe in January or February. So I've been doing, you know, like five or six a month. And yeah, it's been a few months, basically. Yeah.

Acyuta-bhava 27:08
Yeah, a new one is like it was. It's been pretty fresh. If you go to selfhelpwitch.com, you can sign up for the scoop. And then you have. So there's a couple of things up here; I'm gonna go to the astrology services; first, the podcast, Instagram, check it out. And then astrology services. So go to astrology services, and this is where people can check out your readings. Correct. And I highly one of the things that are great about doing a reading with someone who is, you know, let's just say earlier on in our practice, is that it's you have a ton of enthusiasm. And you can see that when you check out your Instagram offerings. But you know, even though I do a million readings, and I feel like I, you know, everyone gets better with time and experience. But the other thing that's true is that when I first started, there's just, there's just such a freshness and so much enthusiasm in your first couple of years of reading. And it's really special to get a reading with someone who's smart and talented, and also like in that explosion of growth phase with reading, so I highly recommend checking it out. But tell us, what the reading looks like for you? What do you do with your clients?

Dana 28:25
So I try to make them really special and unique for each person, my kind of approach to the birth chart reading, and I talked about this a little bit on my YouTube video I just published, but I see the birth chart as a mirror rather than like a map. And that when we look in this mirror, it kind of reflects back to us what we need to see. And in that way, you know, we can always go deeper with whatever we need to learn about right now. And then when we look at the chart again, later on, we're going to see and notice something different, or it's gonna present itself in a different way. So what I try to do with the chart is I sit with it, I let it kind of reveal itself to me, and I take a lot of notes. One cool thing I do that I feel is unique to me is I make a birth chart wiki for each client. So I kind of turn my notes into this cool little wiki that has all kinds of information about the elements of the chart, like the signs of the planets, the houses, it's got a little table of all of their placements, and it's also where I house the recording. So all my clients get this really cool like again wiki of their birth chart with the recording, and then I offer a 15 minute follow up call as well because I found in the readings that I've had, I always have questions later I really need time to process and want to offer my clients that kind of support because really what I hope to do with these readings is help people go deeper with themselves, and if they need another you know call to do that. I'm happy to offer that.

Acyuta-bhava 29:53
So check these out. Again the website is www.selfhelpwitch.com. There are some other cool things to check out as well, the intentional course, design, and the custom systems for creatives. You also work just basically, if I had to summarize it in terms of my understanding as a kind of creative consultant, helping people unleash some elements of their own creativity. Is that how you would describe it? Maybe I'm not doing such a good job.

Dana 30:25
No, I think that's very accurate. I feel one of my like, strongest natural gifts is curriculum design; I love creating learning experiences and thinking about how to structure the content for maximum learning. And I see a huge need for one, people to get support with their systems when it comes to creativity. Because I think creative people tend to think like, oh, I don't need a system or like, systems are weird. And I don't, I don't want like like that. But actually, we need systems to create things that create the container for something to grow in. So that's what I hope to help people with is, what do you need to create? How can we make creation more fun and streamlined, and simple for you. And then I also want to help people create their own courses, because I think there's so much that goes into creating a course, as you know, like, aside from actually creating the course itself, that often that can kind of get pushed to the side. But actually, that's the most important part. So I'm right now, I have a waitlist for this course, intentional course design, creating evergreen digital courses, where I really want to teach people how to organize their course for maximum impact for the students. So it's all about leading with value. And it's all about being the best possible guide for your students. So that, you know, they become advocates for you, and you are really doing what you promised them you do.

Acyuta-bhava 31:52
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, some people, you know, like, they may say, like, oh, you don't need a class and how to teach a class, you know, it's like, well, if you want to, like all of my programs have any and all of any success, I would attribute to any of my programs, go back to the fact that when I was in graduate school, I, you know, multiple semesters of how to design and create curriculum, because I was going to be an English teacher. And so curriculum development, coming from someone who's been through that kind of training and can pass it on. I mean, again, I would say like 90% of what I consider to be the best features of my program came because I sat with people who were professionals and developing curriculum, and they taught me how to build curriculum.

That's exactly what you're doing. And especially for people who are already astrologers, or who are budding astrologers, you have a small friend group, or you have, you know, some audience built in that could take an intro to astrology course, even just one night. And it's something you want to be able to do every couple of months or something. I think offerings like this are really important. And to me, it's almost like a sub, because I mean, look, you know, what am I if people ask me, well, like, how did you learn to teach a course? What am I going to do say go get an MFA, you know, go get an MA in English? You know, that's where I got it from. And like, that's, you know, most people are not interested in that. So we need someone doing this kind of stuff, especially for people who are creative, the smart, but they may not know exactly what goes into creating a syllabus or a meaningful curriculum arc, you know, so I just love what you're doing. I think it's; I think it's fantastic. And I think it's probably the English student in me that was like, Oh, look at what she's doing. It's fun. And so I just love it.

Dana 33:42
Well, thank you so much.

Acyuta-bhava 33:45
Yeah, you bet. I want to move toward the conclusion of our interview by asking maybe one or two last questions. Basically, I like to ask every guest on the show after kind of sharing their journey and how they've developed so that people can just the more you hear stories, especially from people who are in those early stages of launching their career as an astrologer that transition has been made, or it's in the process of being made, maybe well, you know, you get a lot from hearing these stories. What advice do you have for people who may be where you were even just a few years ago, or maybe who is in the midst of trying to figure out how to use social media or trying to, you know, figure out how to, you know, what, just what advice if you had to give a few pieces of advice for students or young early developing astrologers, or people making the leap to professional astrology? What advice do you have?

Dana 34:38
Well, if you're just kind of starting to learn about astrology, I would say pace yourself. It's really tempting to dive in, and like you can dive in. I would recommend starting with a specific element. So maybe you're really interested in moon signs. That's an avenue you can go down, and it's specific enough that it won't overwhelm you, and I think broad enough that you can really like get a lot of different perspectives. And then, from there, you can probably encounter a teacher or two that you resonate with. So that's what I would recommend books, all the books, read every book, especially books that, again, really speak to you. So don't feel like you have to start with a textbook or like astrology 101. You can, but it might be more meaningful and exciting for you, which like, isn't this the point? To start with something that you're really intrigued by?

Acyuta-bhava 35:32
Yeah, yeah, that's a great piece of advice. What about if people are learning astrology and they're scared to give readings? You've gone through that. What advice do you have?

Dana 35:44
You are your own harshest critic. Number one, don't stop yourself from getting better because you're afraid because what's actually going to make you better is doing it. And you can quote-unquote, expose yourself as much as you want. So start by reading for people, you know, if you're really worried about it, and if you don't know anyone that's into astrology, find a community, you know, like, find a place where there are other like-minded kind of spiritual astrologically inclined people. And you will find an avenue for some sort of given take some sort of situation where you can practice. But the main thing is you have to practice. You're not going to know if you're any good if you don't prove to yourself and actually practice and do it. Right.

Acyuta-bhava 36:29
Good. Yeah, that's solid advice. I think the other question that I have because I do think this is your strong suit, again, is as I mean, I'm sure you have many, but this is the one that popped out right away from me, was like, I'm scared to do social media, Dana, what do you have to what can you tell me if I want to do it, but I'm scared, I don't know where to start?

Dana 36:51
Well, I will first say that that was me too. And that might be hard to believe because of like what you're saying today. But truly, like, it's hard to show up. So first of all, I get that, um, second of all, don't feel like you have to be somebody else. Like, all you have to do is show up and be yourself. I think, especially with Instagram, people want to connect. They're not trying necessarily to be impressed by your knowledge, you know, like, it's really more about how you show up. And another kind of idea that's really helped me with this is the idea of embodying an archetype. So you said something earlier in the show about how you felt like you were hanging out with a friend, one of my archetypes that I really tried to like, think about when I'm creating is like a cool big sister. I am a big sister in real life; I have three younger siblings. And that's the energy I want to bring to my content. So that also helps me kind of separate myself like the selfhelpwitch is not Dana, right? Selfhelpwitch is something different. And I sometimes think when we're showing up on these really like, personal social platforms, we make the mistake of conflating our metrics or our likes or followers with our worth. And it's really not about that at all. Don't make it more pressure than it needs to be. Just show up and have fun, and good things will happen.

Acyuta-bhava 38:12
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, if there's anything I've learned, year after year, it's exactly that same thing, in terms of even getting a little bit better or more comfortable with it over the years. It's the same exact thing. Well, you make it look easy, and you have a lot of fun while doing it. I highly recommend everybody go check out Dana's work on Instagram selfhelpwitch she is one of the people that I follow, and the videos I have often I've shared a few of them with my wife and men like this is fun to look at what one of I have to brag and like one of the students who went through my program is doing this makes me feel really happy. And yeah, I'm really the whole purpose of this series is to expose the work and development of people who've come through my programs who are doing cool things, and there are tons of them. So I'm really happy that you could come here today and share some of your insights and the nature of your story. There are a million other questions. I'm I know I'm gonna wish I would have asked you know, as soon as we wrap up, but yeah, for for for now. This was a really great interview. Thank you so much for being here and talking with us.

Dana 39:19
Thank you for having me. It was so fun.

Acyuta-bhava 39:21
For sure. Well, on that note, everybody, don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments, and click the notification bell for updates. A big thanks to Dana for being here today. Again, transcripts of my daily talks can be found on nightlight astrology.com. You can find a recap of this talk there as well. And don't forget if you want to check out Dana's work again at selfhelpwitch and on Instagram selfhelpwitch. Alright, that's what We've got for today. Thanks so much, everyone. Bye.