We were lucky to catch up with Amickoleh Imani recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amickoleh, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My business is in the wellness space. Personal growth, energetic strategy / energy healing, and soul medicine for high-level conscious creatives and entrepreneurs. My background is in fashion design. I’m also a photographer and a singer/songwriter and have pursued these avenues as well, photography as a business and singing as a creative expression and soul passion.

In December 2018 I was activated into my path of spiritual re-awakening as I like to call it. I had always felt like I was called to be on the big stage. I’ve always had big dreams and big goals. Which is why I pursued my life-long dream of singing, and photography. I thought one of those avenues was going to lead me to the big leagues.

I was working in the fashion industry and feeling quite purposeless in my role. I had been in my new role for less than a year after being un-employed for 5 months from a previous layoff. And I could feel that tension coming up in the back of my mind informing me: you are not happy. You’re actually quite bored here. I also had a bad habit of finding fashion jobs that didn’t believe in giving their creative teams raises.

Regardless, I was feeling called to leave my position as an assistant designer. I craved something deeply more fulfilling. What I was re-awakened to was figuring out my purpose. I started learning about how to use my intuition and was enthralled by it. I was really big into podcasts because it was a great way to escape while still being able to do my work.

I began looking up every podcast I could find on the topic of intuition, manifestation, and self-healing. I had always loved astrology but I was going even deeper, learning how to read my natal chart, I started learning about reprogramming my subconscious, shadow work, Human Design, anything that could tell me more about my Self, and even more, my Soul.

I wanted to get a solid understanding of who I was and what in the heck I was on this planet to do. The first risk I took was taking a 6-month intuitive coaching course with an intuitive coach I had met at a panel discussion about letting go of the stories that keep us rooted in our trauma.

Coming from a deeply religious household, this was a big “no-no”. You’re not taught to follow your intuition, your taught to “seek God” by going into the Bible and getting your guidance from there. Anything outside of that was the “occult”. So to say the least, I was scared. I didn’t want to go to hell, but my resolution for that year (2019) was to take God out of the box, and I meant that. I felt like God had to be bigger than any one religion. It just seemed so constrained. You’re telling me the creator of the whole universe can only take form in ONE singular religion? That just didn’t make sense to me. So my first declaration to unravel that truth was to learn more about myself, outside of the confines of religion.

I took that 6-month course and it completely changed the trajectory of my life. The course was great, yes, but to be honest I didn’t even finish the course. It was the coaching, the community, and my accountability partner that really supported me the most. It just unlocked a level of trust and confidence that I was on the right path. Why in the world would my intuition steer me wrong?

The second risk I took was quitting my job. About 3 months into the intuitive coaching course I felt the strong nudge to quit my job. I sat on it for a while because I thought, I’ve been here less than two years and I’m already bored? So I asked for a sign. Something I usually don’t do. I said, if I’m meant to quit my job show me a lizard. I lived in NYC, where the heck was I going to see a lizard?

Maybe two to three weeks after asking for this sign, I was wrapping up a late night at work and one of the colorways of a brand I was working on was called Lounge Lizard. I thought I was looking for an actual lizard. Maybe on a billboard, or on someone’s jacket, and I was looking! Yet it was sitting right there in front of me. I gave myself until the end of the week to tell my supervisor that I was putting in my two weeks.

As scary as it was, I followed my heart. And I’m glad I did. I took out a small personal loan which covered my expenses for a month, and took on two part-time jobs; at a juice shop, a well known event space, and also doing retail brand activations for a staffing agency. I needed something low maintenance that gave me the space to figure out my next steps. Welp, six months later the pandemic happened. Had I not followed my gut I would have been stuck in that fashion design job because although they did shut down initially, they stayed open during the pandemic remotely.

Choosing to freelance instead allowed me to get unemployment for the full duration of the pandemic and I started my business On The Cusp Wellness during that time. First as a podcast, On the Cusp of Something Beautiful, then I launched a course Activate Your Soul to support creatives in their self-healing journey through emotional and energetic wellness so they can connect deeper to their purpose.

All I knew was that I wanted to support creatives who were also craving more soul, more truth, and more wisdom in their life by connecting deeper to their unique purpose. The worst thing we can do as human beings is give all our time, energy, and effort to a job that sucks the life out of us. Sure, it’s risky going out on your own. Not having a backup plan or a “safety net”, but having more life is a risk I’m willing to take. And even though we’re taught that traditional jobs are safe, that’s also not guaranteed either. Layoffs happen all the time.

As an energy healer and soul guide, and a creative that’s the medicine I want to share with the world. To give your Self more like by doing what you truly love and enjoy. That’s how I want my work and legacy to impact the world around me. I call it bringing your “whole A.S.S to the function.” Your whole authentic soul self. Every day, every week, every month I’m figuring out this journey of life. And it’s a beautiful unfolding, even with the highs and the lows. And to me, that’s worth the risk.

Amickoleh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a chakra healer, soul guide, and creative collaborator. I support female founders, creatives, and entrepreneurs with designing deliberately soulful lives, and building deliberately soulful businesses. I really love creative ideation and soul-based strategy. That usually organically comes up in my sessions with clients because it’s easier to see creative ideas for someone else, than it is for them to see it because you’re looking at their experience from a different perspective. I’m also a creative; photography, singer/songwriter, writer, and podcast host.

I am self-taught in almost everything I do, aside from my fashion background. I went to school for that. Most of the courses I’ve taken are all business related. Everything else as it relates to my chakra healing and energy work has been podcasts, books, more books, articles, workshops, YouTube, Google, community, and of course my intuition and soul guidance.

When I began my healing journey I was deeply committed, obsessed even, to figure out who I was authentically. By working with my chakra system I was eventually able to connect my challenges with depression, social anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, ideations and fantasies to the collapsing of my authentic Self. I didn’t feel safe growing up to be authentic. At least not full blast.

So when I hold space with people in my 1:1 sessions like my Soul Readings, Chakra Healing sessions, or even in group workshops I want them to know our container is a practice ground for them to exercise their authenticity. I’m going to challenge them to explore their soul and their truth: what do you really want? How do you really feel? Why do you feel like you have to comply to the needs of others? Why can’t you honor your truth?

Those are the questions we’re sifting through in my sessions, because we all deserve wholeness, but you don’t just wake up whole one day because you had an ah-ha moment. It’s a practice. A daily practice of piece by piece putting yourself back together again. And same with my course, Activate Your Soul. It’s a combination of energy healing, emotional care, and soul discovery. Being that much of my trauma was emotional it’s quite the journey of unraveling because your wounds aren’t physical. It can be difficult to trace back to the one experience where the trauma started because it’s so deeply nuanced and layered. And so much of energy work is the emotional component.

I’d say one of the biggest problems I solve for my clients is providing them a safe space to meet their truth. They’ve usually built their reality from a place of compliance or people pleasing in order to feel safe and accepted. And this is something I’ve struggled with in the past as well, and it still creeps up sometimes just in more nuanced ways. When people come to me, what they’re usually seeking unconsciously is the confirmation that it’s ok for them to show up authentically in the world, and I hold them accountable to that. Life is too short to be playing by someone else’s rules that more often than not are actually steeped in insecurity or oppression. That’s a losing game.

What I want people to know is that you deserve to not only have a whole life, but to have MORE life. Question all the ways you settle and dilute your truth, your self-expression, your creativity, everything. If it’s not giving you more life then it’s siphoning your energy.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Shortly after starting my business (during the pandemic), I had saved up close to $10,000 to move from NYC to Santa Fe, NM. I had been in NYC for almost 8 years and was really ready for a slower pace of living, cleaner streets, and cleaner air.

Three months after my move, between rent, and furnishing my apartment so I could, you know have a couch and a bed to sleep on. I hit a financial rock bottom. I had only been able to land one client during that time and had no prospects in sight. I tapped deep into my intuition and realized we’d need to secure a job, quick. So I wrote out my manifestation list of the most ideal job I’d want to call in.

I was completely done with fashion so that wasn’t an option, but throughout the duration of starting my business and hosting moon circles, Clubhouse talks (remember Clubhouse?), and very impressionable experience of attending a money workshop by Natalia Benson and her spotlighting her community manager I knew that’s what I wanted to do. Being a service-based business and my love for helping people, it felt the most aligned. Within two months from writing that list to applying to a job I found on Create & Cultivate, I landed a role as a community manager the course community of a wedding photography giant.

It was probably one of the most challenging roles I’d ever had, but I learned so much about community, running a small business, entrepreneurship, and leadership. I like to joke that I got my MBA working at that job because I learned so much about business. At first, taking on a 9-5 felt like a failure, like I was giving up on my business, but it really amplified my gifts and allowed me to develop some new skill sets, unfortunately it also burnt me out.

If you’re considering a 9-5 to keep your business afloat be mindful of that. Make sure the role will add value to your business down the line, be sure to advocate for yourself. Let your supervisor know when the workload becomes unmanageable, and for the love of God ask for a raise! Even with all of that, I’ve been in Zoom rooms with legends in the wedding industry and in business, and it’s boosted my confidence a lot. I also learned the value of my presence and my energy. :)

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes! I love books. Some of my favorites are The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles, Energetic Boundaries by Cyndi Dale, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, The Twelve Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters, Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang, and We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers to name a few.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/onthecuspwellness
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onthecuspwellness/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amickoleh-imani/
• Other: On the Cusp of Something Beautiful podcast links –

  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-cusp-of-something-beautiful/id1546556508
  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1A0VFkPikhEIQ47lZXVK0e?si=9c5deb03ea9d4f1a&nd=1&dlsi=dbdd2b857f444217

Image Credits

All portraits are by Amickoleh Imani, graphics are by Amickoleh Imani / On The Cusp Wellness