We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kari Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kari below.
Kari, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
I definitely stumbled into the adventure of running my own business. It started out with attending local vendor fairs for fun, and then clients began coming to me through word-of-mouth from friends and visitors of the vendor fairs. It wasn’t until the growth of my spiritual clientele began spreading me too thin to focus on my job in the mental health field that I decided to take the risk and open up my own practice. So my business was built piece-by-piece as I taught myself new aspects of the entrepreneur world and tried to meet client needs as they appeared. It was a lot of time spent googling, experimenting, and asking other business owners for advice.
For me, it was terrifying to step out of my comfort zone in that way – and while it was the most rewarding thing I ever could have done – there are a lot of things that I’ve reworked over the years. Never be afraid to refresh your business, it’s okay to realize you made a mistake or have changed and let your business evolve to reflect that. But, the biggest mistake I think I made was actually obsessing too much over providing anything and everything my client might need or ask for. There has to be a balance between meeting (and exceeding) your client’s needs, and ensuring that what you’re providing in your business is fulfilling for you. Just because you can do something for a client, doesn’t always mean you should. Find what your business can give to others that both fuels you and shares your unique spark, and it’ll always feel like an adventure.
Kari, 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?
My name is Kari, and I’m the founder and driving force behind The Energy Weaver Academy – a spiritual resource for embracing your inner complexity.
My journey into this work began through my childhood fascination with archaeology, zoology, and astronomy. As I got older, documentaries continued to be my favorite thing to watch anytime I wasn’t working through the mountains of books from my local library. With a B.S. in Psychology, a background working in the mental health field, and a passion for scientific research, I bring a holistic approach to spirituality.
But my most unique expertise lies in what I was taught by those without physical form, and the techniques that can’t be easily referenced in libraries. As someone who venerated the scientific method and scholarly research, it was honestly terrifying to find myself in a season of my life where my most profound experiences were unexplainable and intangible. When I began suddenly channeling, astral traveling, and connecting with these unfathomable metaphysical concepts it threw everything I thought I knew out of the window and upended my life. But, now I get to teach others how to embrace curiosity and authenticity in their spirituality while still maintaining balance in the more mundane aspects of their life.
Energy Weaver Academy isn’t just about teaching spiritual practices; it’s about empowering individuals to embrace what makes them unique and to help them nurture all of the complex facets of that. I try to always practice what I preach, so I embody that mission focus by sharing the unique perspective I’ve honed over the years about the modality of Energy Weaving, my experiences mapping astral realms, and the Primordial Soul Framework – a theoretical paradigm of understanding soul and universe mechanisms that I’ve been taught by several of my spirit mentors.
You see, spirituality isn’t a one-size-fits-all journey—it’s a deeply personal adventure that looks different for everyone. That’s why our teachings, services, community ritual facilitations, and mentorship programs are designed to empower you to explore your authentic soul journey, free from rigid rules or conventions. So that you always have access to grow at the Energy Weaver Academy, we offer free or reduced-price resources like The Curiosity Corner blog, our daily channeled email called Mini Morning Attunements, a Patreon for accessible energy work, and semi-monthly Webinars or Open Q&As. For those looking to dig deeper, there are options for 1-1 mentorship for practical guidance or Energy Weaving Sessions for more spiritual insight and transformation. Throughout the year we offer more comprehensive courses to expand potential in a safe and encouraging environment, and if you’re looking for communal education we are often found traveling around the eastern U.S. giving lectures, teaching workshops, and leading community rituals.
But what I’m most proud of here at Energy Weaver Academy is our commitment to helping you feel less alone by stepping outside of our comfort zones together. I’m constantly learning by teaching and facing my fears each time I connect with a new client. So, whether you’re just curious about these ideas or you’re a seasoned practitioner seeking new perspectives, we’re here to grow with you through compassion and understanding.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As someone with a pretty strong educational background in Western and modern scientific perspectives, it was pretty ingrained in me that any knowledge you share needs to have bulletproof references or at least historical precedence. Don’t get me wrong, I will always advocate the importance of those things. But with a self-led business that encourages individuality and centers on knowledge exchange, I found that this lesson had led to a habit of forced comparison that was actually harmful to the growth and authenticity of my business.
When I first started my business I found myself constantly comparing the unique modality I use, Energy Weaving, to other common modalities like Reiki as a way to set a precedence for my perspective. I’d try to use terminology or ideas from other mainstream spiritual concepts or buzzwords in popular spiritual trends to justify and segue into my work. But what I found was that it actually disconnected me from speaking passionately about what I had to offer my clients, which in turn disconnected my clients from me. It also put me in a position of feeling like I was constantly in competition with more well-established practices, which just made me feel defeated and like what I had to offer didn’t have a place.
Re-learning how to champion the individuality of what I had to offer in my business felt like re-learning freedom. Avoiding comparison takes practice, and for me, it required completely rebranding my business and re-introducing myself to my clients so that they could re-learn along with me. But part of the fun of a self-run business is the flexibility to transform it whenever you and your clients need it to.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I’m incredibly fortunate to have clients who have been with me since my business was just an experiment on social media and at local vendor fairs. They’ve been around through the early days of website development, a re-brand, and even personal health issues that led to hiatuses in my service offerings.
I think what makes the biggest difference in turning new clients into long-term clients and developing a strong reputation, is being authentic and respectfully transparent. My clients have seen me experimenting with service and marketing styles, answered polls to help me make content and format decisions, and read update posts about my challenges as both a human and a business owner. While I’m the founder and primary facilitator of my business, my business is an extension of the connection between myself and my clients. It exists because of that connection, so I try to keep that goal of connection as the center in everything I do. It not only helps hold me accountable in my integrity and the mission of my business, but it also shows clients that they’re safe to be vulnerable and authentic when they come to me because I did that work first. I know I’m more likely to return to a business over time or recommend them to someone else when I feel like they genuinely care about what they’re providing and are continuously challenging themselves to evolve; so I make sure never to hide those parts of my process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://energyweaveracademy.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/energyweaverac
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ7r7XeM-VZF5s5p1p9xZow