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

Hi Tina, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

This Story is very much linked to why i decided to start a wellness center, community store and is the main purpose not just of my life, but of the space im trying to create.

Ive been blessed to have many opportunities in my life; very varied, and different from each other. Looking back, the common thread was always helping others in some shape or form.

My biggest revelation was when i was working as a horse trainer, riding all day, and i would do online readings on the side.

An elderly lady asked me for a reading, and as i pulled her cards i picked up on her loss of her husband, and her depression, but as a passed thing, because the cards by the end of the spread spoke of happy endings and joy for life, and a brighter future.

As I communicated this, she became very emotional, and when i was done, she explained about her loss of her husband and how she could feel him with her. I picked up on him, his hobbies, and before i knew it, my 1 hr session, went to a three hr session, where i feel half way though it wasn’t so much channeling as just holding space, and listening to a woman who was very loved by her family, but was immersed in her grief, and had lost her anchor.

I learned how she was a very compassionate soul, feeding and sheltering the homeless, even caring more about the ambulance people having to drive 1hr up the mountain on an occasion to help her, that she decided to drive to the hospital.

Not understanding that when we allow people to help us, we are giving them a gift; we are allowing them to feel they are useful to others, they can help the ones they love, they are important.

I don’t remember much more details about the conversation, but i couldn’t forget how somewhere along the way, there was a radical change in her. She lit up, and starting talking about her garden she wanted to do, and which plants to buy, and maybe shed move with her daughter, but there was hope for life and the future.
Suddenly I connected the cards with that moment, the sun card, the ten of cups.

She thanked me for dedicating so much time to her, and I assured her it had been a pleasure for me, but I don’t think I even knew how much that conversation had meant to me even then.

It was only a week later, when i was in the barn, getting a horse saddled, and I received a text from her, she was thanking me again. She expressed how my conversation had helped her get through one of the most difficult moments in her life and find happiness again.
I remember sitting down on a dusty bench and crying, thinking to myself: this is what Im meant to do, if Im gone tomorrow I’ll be at peace, because I know Ive helped one person. Thats when i knew, this is what i wanted to do for the rest of my life, this was what filled drove me, to be of service.

It wasn’t long after that, that the universe opened up a way to start a wellness center/school where we could offer a space for self-healing, communion, sharing and learning. A space for others to share their skills in connecting with the universe, and sharing its messages, something that was hard for me and my peers because we had to start online or at home.

I can truly trace it back to that elder, that just needed a helping hand. I don’t think she knows how much more she gave to me, much more than she received.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born in Florida, but raised in a small country in South America, with big hearted people. I was always a very intuitive child, and my family on my mothers side, were of cuban descent they were catholic, but they were very much open to intuitives, especially my grandmother and her sisters.

As i grew up as early as my very first high school years i began to feel curious about the metaphysical side of life, becoming trained as a Reiki Teacher, Akashic reader, learning about energy work, practicing manifesting, meditation, looking back life was getting me ready for the work Im doing today.
I did many things, learned in martial arts, went to vet school, trained endurance horses, became a reining horse trainer for many years, and on the side my intuitive hobby grew.
I never stopped learning and I never will, currently now setting myself up for future skills i want to acquire.

At a certain point when I was at a crossroads, I once again asked myself if i could do anything in the world, what would i be doing, and how, before I blinked the opportunity was presented; I dreamed of a school, a safe place a spiritual community, and a place for people to find like minded individuals and share their story, feel understood. I found a like minded spirit that had a similar vision, Deanna Baza, partnered up and Sacred Journey Experience was born.

Sacred Journey Experience is a growing wellness center, that offers courses, retreats, experiences, and items that will help you in your spiritual journey, however that path looks like.

We are on the process of moving, and in doing so offering a space where you can also read a book or simply enjoy a quiet moment, and even a safe space where you can do your own spiritual practice if you need one.

There are many wonderful spaces in this community, most of these hubs are shops and they all offer space and knowledge in their own unique way.

SJ aim is to maintain an atmosphere that is welcome to every path in life. It doesn’t matter to us where you come from, where you are going or where you are, you will be respected and welcomed.

It’s to be a place of learning, and we take great pride in our courses. We try to work with people that have the years of experience, or the skills that can provide a richness in knowledge, and can go in depth in the subjects they are teaching.
That is very important specially to me, because in my journey, all i could find until i found my Reiki Teacher was foreign books, and had to practice on my own, without knowing if i was in the right path.
That experience was enriching on its own, but for a long time i felt lost, confused and very alone.

So now we strive to build community, that is the legacy we wish to create.

A community that supports each other, that protects each other, and that helps each other grow. Remove the focus from others can heal me, and empower the individual; there is no healing that isn’t self healing, and show that others are just there to facilitate and support you in your journey if you ever need it.

One of my happiest moments is when i hear people come into the store and say
Ive found my people!
It first happened in our opening, and kept being said to me over and over from different sources. I take that as a sign, that we are moving in the right direction.

We aim to join with practitioners in the community so that SJ becomes a place of sharing and embraces collaboration and not competition. This goes for other stores and centers in the community who are full of their own unique wealth in knowledge and experience.
Our desire to help also goes towards supporting causes that help our local nature spaces, people in need.
We’ve been open not long ago, so we are growing into our purpose, but we’ve already taken the opportunities that have presented themselves to us and gotten involved with them, and we will be seeking more of them.

Because of this, we want to take in as much contributions from the community as we can and are open to their ideas of what they’d like to see, learn or what they’d like us to improve. This is something SJ will always have present, because this space is for all of us, and thats how i want it to feel.

We are already having activities and events that have no cost of participation, and those will continue to grow in number.
I promised myself that even though to be able to dedicate my full time to this, some aspect of it should be run as a business, nothing can stop me from creating a space where people who need the healing can participate without any cost involved, and i will create those opportunities.

We opened our doors barely a yr ago and we are slowly but surely making good on that promise.

We strive to serve, if theres something you are searching for, we’ll guide you as best we can, or help you find it, be it things, people, or knowledge.

I hope this gives a clear view of who we are, and what we are about, and for those out there that are seeking, come meet us!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I feel this is interesting because the way we started was a bit unique.

It was December of 2021 and me and my business partner had decided to go after our dreams. We had met by coincidence, (some would call it destiny) after she came to me for a reading, and I found the candle maker i had been searching for earnestly.
After 6 months we found ourselves talking about putting up a school and we decided that starting with a retail store, to call people in the spiritual community was going to be the best stepping stone to grow our school.

This set my gears into motion, I created my own logo from skills I had learned in high school, using photoshop and learning to use illustrator, self taught when creating my own logo for my tarot reading business.

Once, we agreed that we had found our logo, i got to working on how to put our business out there.

I was lucky enough that I took a college course in high school from Oxford College, Business introduction, and this has been the single most important course ive taken in my whole life. Ive gone back to things ive learned there, and of course built from that, but if i have one piece of advice, its: if you don’t know what to do with your life, learn business. Life will show you what youre passionate about, and once you know, your business skills will be the tools you use to build your dream.

Our challenge was money. We had never run a retail store before, so we had no knowledge if we were going to be succesfull, how hard it can be, and there is no information out there about inventory, techniques on how to keep it, or how to run a store. A few on how to start a store, but nothing more.

So neither of us felt good taking a huge risk, and conventional retail spaces where too expensive, and everywhere i called they required a business to have at least a few years under their belt. It was the same issue as the minimum experience required for a starting job. It was frustrating but i wouldn’t take no for an answer. The beauty of never having done this, is that i had not structure, so thinking outside the box wasn’t that hard.

I starting looking at shared work places, and before i knew it I found a building offered monthly suites, mostly for hair dressers, but i inquired, some lawyers, and tech companies, psychologist ( even a neurology center), i asked if they had a problem with starting a store, or boutique there; none at all, and the price was perfectly acceptable!

Not only that but it had flexibility in case, our business didn’t prosper (I have a thing where i always to plan for the worst and expect the best).

We decided to do this the final days of December 2021, by Feb 2022 we had rented a space. We opened our doors in March 22nd 2022. Two months later we moved to 2 suites. A year later, we are planning our move to a space three times as big.

Not only are we excited, but by not giving up, and not being scared of the risks we were taking, we discovered we were fully capable of doing something new.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I can tell you how i started to build my social media presence in my business Tinas Tarot Readingz and what i learned form it, firstly, my most important lesson is when you start you have EVERYTHING to prove.

You may have a product or in my case a skill that I know i had grown to proficiency over the years, but social media, is nothing more that direct access to people.

If you put yourself in other peoples shoes, you realize that theres plenty of reasons for them not to trust you; they don’t know you, you might be hiding behind a brand, an image, and be ready to scam them. You are a stranger, and in a way to gain access to you or your product they need to make the big leap of faith and spend their money on you.

That was what i perceived as the big challenge that people have in social media, and virtual spaces.

So my approach was, i need to allow these people to get to know ME, so I made myself accessible to them, and I started allowing them to sample my service. Like I said, i had to show them how i could help, so I tried to offer them that experience at very low risk. It was a no brainer for me, many in my position get attached to the idea of, ” I’m allowing people to take from me” but for me that wasn’t an issue, because If this never grew into a business i was happy to be able to help people. Giving was a reward all on its own, and i was confident on my skills and what i brought to the table.

My other big lesson is Social media is all about exposure and collaboration. I found a group big enough (exposure) and i went live (becoming personable) and giving readings, full blown readings, to my hearts content, at no cost at all. I did this for months, (and i still do it when i have the time, because i enjoyed it so much). My lives would go on for hours, 6 sometimes 7 i would be cut off sometimes and go back in.
I started having success, people would become regulars, just have me in the background and listen to readings, my viewers grew in numbers, and every live, I would have people that would ask for a paid session even after receiving a full message fro me.

I started gaining supporters, had my pages, when i started with a profile, and then I decided to find others like me, and go live together. Thats when the algorithm started really helping me.
See theres a group of people that is really interested in that service, and even though Im not an influencer, most of the people that followed me where interested in supporting me and my services. I was giving something of value, I was honest, and I was me.

My aim is never selling but helping. I was trying to honestly show how I could be of service to people that needed it. I wasn’t trying to sell my product, that never works, and it looses peoples trust.
Selling is never my goal in anything i do.
The number of followers isn’t important, the quality is, Ive had people who hired my service from all over the world and I love that.

So if I to narrow it down, offer something of value, take away any challenges from people experiencing this valuable thing, and show it to the world. Social media is built to connect with people, connect with them first. Put your face behind what you do, allow people to get to know you.
Invest in yourself, it will return to you later, but if you don’t believe in it enough to invest in it, then what makes you think anyone else will?

The only reward of staying in your comfort zone is that nothing will change from the way it is, and even that cant be promised; because if you’re not driving, someone else is.

So be the driving force and don’t be afraid to be seen, being redundant: social media allows you to be seen, so let them see you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SacredJourney111.com
• Instagram: SacredJourney111
• Facebook: @SacredJourney111
• Youtube: TinasTarotReadings
• Other: TikTok: SacredJourney111 TikTok: TinasTarotReadingz www.TinasTarotReadingZ.com