Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Asal Shokati. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Asal, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the best boss, mentor, or leader you’ve ever worked with.

The humanity and wisdom of my very last boss when I worked in corporate America has been strongly etched in my memory. Jim Recer, a high level banking director, exemplified great leadership and was very well respected for his acumen as well as interpersonal relationships. Often quiet, he would speak when necessary and was intuitive enough to understand the needs of his extended team. While I was in the midst of showing signs for what became known as an auto-immune disorder, he and the managers in his team very patiently worked around my needs so I get the necessary rest. I was invited to several visits with him and other managers where they listened to how my condition was developing and the latest discoveries by the physicians seeing me. What struck me the most was when he asked if I would prefer to take a medical leave of absence which was partially paid for or I would rather voluntarily leave the organization if having to make a commitment to coming back would cause me additional stress and would interfere with my recovery journey. And the last thing he said was I should be aware that if I leave my position, as long as he is employed where he is, the door is open to my return, and I could resume my previous position. He genuinely cared about my well-being and it wasn’t an isolated incident. I saw other instances of such behavior towards other team members. I am forever grateful to his immense understanding and great compassion for human-beings.

Asal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I love to paint, cycle, walk in nature and play the mystical Persian instrument of Setar. A native of Tehran in Iran, I’ve lived in Texas for over 20 years. I am an Ayurvedic practitioner and a certified yoga teacher with additional training in Restorative Yoga. In daily life, I practice the Scaravelli inspired as well as Hatha yoga with emphasis on the importance of body’s connective tissues.I also love the art of Qi Gong for the health of body, mind and beyond.

In working with clients, I have utilized the Ayurvedic art of pulse reading, intuition, healing modalities such as regression techniques, emotional blockage release as well as a deep restorative meditation to offer a truly holistic healing experience. I am currently only teaching and lecturing to the public, writing and providing intuitive consultations to fellow holistic professionals.

With over 15 years of previous experience in the business world, holding a BBA in management information systems and an MS in finance, I have served a variety of roles in the arenas of finance, lending, space architecture, technology and business consulting and have worked with hundreds of small businesses and startups as well as educational facilities.

My passion is to spread practical and ancient knowledge to holistic professionals and other individuals and I also take heart in guiding others on their unique healing journey.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was in the midst of growing my practice and was little by little seeing more private clients. People were showing interest in the practices of Ayurveda and natural healing modalities and I was, due to the circumstances in my life, working out of an office. Things were not going at the speed I wanted but there was flow, yet I felt I was sabotaging myself here and there and as much as I was spot on with most of my clients and their remedies and could see them leave their sessions very happy, I also felt resistance in seeing new clients. I didn’t feel comfortable either charging or with the amount I had set up as the fee and there was a constant inner struggle about my practice.

At the same time, I was working with a celebrated business coach and a very spiritually aware business mentor at the same time. We had beautiful plans put together and had worked out the details of a plug-n-play mechanism for an online teaching platform. But, it felt to me I was following fool’s gold.

It literally took me quitting out of sheer frustration with ‘things not feeling right’ to delving deeper, tending to my lesser nourished parts such as my artistic and creative side, facing the truth about several important relationships in my life, and then I allowed my practice to come back to me in a new form and that is the dedication to Teaching and Empowering individuals to take charge of their health holistically and also providing intuitive business consultations to fellow holistic health practitioners.

Looking back, that is what I’ve always liked to do but kept putting up restrictions on myself as well as trying to follow ‘tried and true models.’ Life is not a one-size-fits-all model, and I had to remember that as a part of my efforts in living more authentically.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

It may only be relevant to me but I have a feeling there’s a good group of people out there in the holistic health field working as solopreneurs whom would have an a-ha moment similar to mine.

Developing passion for lesser travelled roads, one would come face to face with deep and raw inner desires that have been waiting to unravel and if we chose a more service oriented field the path can get more complicated when we find ourselves at crossroads of staying true to our mission at the same time following protocols to grow and expand the practice.

If we are following a more spiritual path, there are many moments when deep rooted beliefs and deep seated fears come face to face with each other. Strategies such as finding your ideal client avatar and the urge to serve any and all won’t mesh well together and the entrepreneur may find her/himself conflicted.

Sometimes the best course of action is to break the norm, and I mean the new norm that has been defined in recent years for coaching practices, subscription models, you name it and simply go with what feels right as those events have a bigger tendency to open up doors to many unknown delights of life and for one’s practice.

I firmly believe at this point in time that what feels open, given we have gone through some serious soul searching, is the right path. I follow my bliss in responding to invites for interviews, classes and lectures. And for now, I don’t provide private health consultations as I feel teaching larger audiences in more interactive setups is more aligned with my philosophy about expanding one’s intuition and trusting to the messages of the body and life in general.

Know Yourself Really Well and respond to your higher calling. Let’s say it’s failproof.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AsalShokati.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mystically.asal/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asalshokati/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_xNJzOhl2TTXkwoI9B-UQQ

Image Credits
Chai Workshop Herb Society Photo Collage by Karen Cottingham