We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Strivelli. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Rachel, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Permission to Pivot: I didn’t know that I would love business or be an entrepreneur until my late 30’s. Environmental education was my passion and my career. I was ever seeking ways to make a difference in regards to how people treat the environment. Through my ever questing for the most impactful place I could use my skills and interests, I went to graduate school to study soil science & sustainable agriculture. People eat 2-3 times a day on average, so the production of food is a big place to impact the environment, health, etc.
My plan after my Master’s was to mentor and support farmers. I took a business class because I knew that farming is a business as well as a passion and I wanted to be able to support the farmer’s the best that I could.
Even though my grandfather and dad were both in business for themselves, I characterized business as either huge faceless corporations or one-person operations, neither of which held any appeal to me.

The Agribusiness class ended up being my favorite graduate class of all. Every week I kept showing up to class amazed that we got to discuss all of these different issues that intersected with business.
Suddenly I realized that business is the place where creativity, problem-solving, and real-world applications come together. Add to that the idea that you can have a business doing work that you feel skillful and interested in and you start to wonder why isn’t everyone in business?

Several years later I started teaching organic gardening classes & coachnig clients 1-to-1 on their gardens. Over time I listened to the inner pull of my gut, which told me to go bigger than helping people with only their gardens.

I realized that the coaching and mentoring aspect of organic gardening appeal to me as much as the gardening component. I pivoted to life coaching and worked with clients on self-care, listening to their inner voice, and giving themselves permission to start new ventures.

Over time, my inner voice spoke up again to go deeper in the way that I worked with people and to hone in on my zone of genius. Time and time again, clients praised my clarity, unconventional ideas, and ability to get to the heart of the matter as why they kept coming back or referring me to others.
I decided to doubledown on using my psychic gifts in sessions with clients. A part of me struggled with what others would think of the pivot, if I was still honoring my environmental education roots, or the question of would this fly.

Ultimately, I recognized that any work I do to help people feel more whole also benefits the planet, because we are nature and anything that helps/heals humans will also help the planet in one way or another. As a psychic, because of my deep connection to the planet and creatures living in alignment with their natural tendencies, I pick up on and share how people can live in alignment with their individual tendencies as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a psychic business consultant and author of the book Talk to the Trees. I work with people predominantly in 2 ways. First, I work with mostly business owners, helping mentor them with psychic & strategic insight as they develop and execute their newly formed ideas into a full-fledged existence. Depending on the scope of the business, clients work with me to clearly define and explore their innovative idea, as well as get feedback when they’re off-track or wasting time with things that do not serve them in business and soul purpose. What this looks like is a client may come to me with a marketing question about a new program or how to develop and sustain community. In session, they receive psychic ideas and the mentoring support & exploration to use those ideas in a way that feels reasonable, expansive, and affirming. Another client may come because business has stalled, but they don’t know why. Together we identify the energetic/emotional reason for the block as well as how to address the situation and remove the block from being a hindrance.

Secondly, I work with small groups on bringing forth their creativity voice in writing. Writing can be immensely transformative. Self-publishing is more accessible than ever and I help to guide and coach people to start their book or blog. My background as an English teach as well as life-long writing habit and experience, combined with my experience in the personal growth world means that writing workshops and programs with me are approachable, easy to begin, creative, fun, and transformative! Its a great time and you would be surprised by the insight and ideas that pour out of you when you allow your creative voice to flow.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Growing up I was a straight A student through most of my school experience. I don’t ever remember it being a push from my parents or even teachers. I was driven by the need to excel, as well as probably some anxiety that drove their push too. In business, you rarely get to create the perfect execution of an idea or product. I had to learn year after year to strive for excellence, but to recognize that getting feedback from clients earlier on in the process was better than waiting until I had a finished product that I felt so proud about that I didn’t want feedback. The most clear way that this showed up was with my writing. Part-time over the course of 4 years I wrote a 80,000 word dystopian novel. I was very proud of having completed the book, but didn’t ask for feedback from readers until it was done. By the time I got feedback from readers, I didn’t want to go rework the entire book. I decided to put that book aside and start fresh.
My latest book, which is published and available on Amazon, I wrote more quickly- in 6 months total. I asked for feedback from beta readers when I was halfway through the book. The beta readers gave very helpful feedback, which I incorporated immediately and vastly improved the book.
I learned that it was better to accept help and do my best, but know that incorporating other feedback early on is more productive both for the project and for managing all the emotions that arise in the creative production of a piece of work.

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

Two things are incredibly effective at growing clientele for me. 1st- Strive to be the best that you can at what you do and to be open to improving the various aspects of your business and the customer experience. Any time that I make a mistake, I give myself the grace to review and be open to what is the lesson in this mistake and how can I use it to improve moving forward. If there are aspects of what you do that you aren’t great at, either nicheing down to not do those OR getting better at those areas if you do offer them is key to having customers who are happy with your service/product. Happy customers will grow your business and come back again.
2nd- I always return back to the know, like, and trust factor. So many times someone has hired me not because I was marketing myself to them, but because we had already built up the know, like, and trust factor in other ways and it made it easy for them to say yes to working with me because they already trusted me. Clients who trust you deeply will also want to refer you and share about you with their friends, which also grows your clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: rachelstrivelli.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelstrivelli/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoulPioneer/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelstrivelli/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/RachelStrivelli
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/

Image Credits
Vannah Company, image credits