We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Viola Murrone a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Viola, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
My early days have been full of confusion. I had already practiced reiki and crystal healing for a while and my greatest and deepest desire was to be a healer, however that felt too “woo woo” and not “promising enough”. I decided therefore to do a health and life coaching course and start helping people in a more pragmatic way, if this makes any sense. I would still practice reiki from distance as I was living in New York while my friends who loved my reiki were back in Brazil where I had started practicing in the first place.
Slowly I had people in New York asking about reiki sort of randomly (it really felt like they were people sent by the Universe), despite I barely new anyone and before I even knew it, I started having tons of reiki clients and fewer for coaching.
Slowly I started proposing coaching to the reiki clients and vice-versa being able to convert only two at first… but the results!!! When I realized how good the results were when I started mixing the offer the way I wanted it to be and not the way my clients wanted me to deliver and to pay for, my world changed. I start feeling extremely confident in really leading the programs and the sessions as well as charging the right price, while before I was so insecure it was painful.
If I was to give a tip to young professionals, it would be not to dim their gift and build their own practice on what they really love and know, more than on what the market might need or what could be more profitable. The moment I felt confident in offering what I love and do best, things changed incredibly!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
ABOUT ME
– I grew up in a very small town in Italy between sea and hills. We had veggie gardens, vineyards, olives. My family made our own wine, oil and we had fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs and some meat from our own production. This did teach me a lot about the nourishing connection with nature and with healthy grown food. We’d use natural remedies and the first time I have been introduced to reiki I was 9. All this has always been inside of me, but I never thought this could have been such a great inspiration for what I do today.
– I have a strong connection with nature, particularly with water. I feel nourished and empowered when I am next to water.
– When I moved to London, despite trying to stroll by the Thames as often as I could, I lost a bit of this connection with nature, I started eating less healthy, feeling more stressed and I started having health issues which lasted for many years until, when I was already living in Brazil, I managed to heal myself in a few months thanks to learning and practicing reiki myself as well as a healthier lifestyle.
– I always enjoyed my jobs from waiting and bartending, art galleries and finally CHANEL for almost 9 years. But now I don’t only love what I do, I feel like I was born for it and that this is a big part of my purpose in life.
– the economic stability was something hard to give up, but suddenly within few months I had a miscarriage, lost my grand-father and my father, and my husband has been offered a job which would make us move from Brazil to New York at the end of my second pregnancy.
– I’d say that this mix of losses, having 2 little kids, moving country and suddenly a pandemic that really made me feel that if I
was not gonna try then, I would have never made it.
A BIT ON MY BUSINESS
– I have changed my offer a bit the first year and a half. At the beginning, despite nice results I was still feeling unsatisfied. Then I finally fine tuned it in a way that makes me feel unstoppable now.
– My offers are:
3 months programs where I mix health and life coaching, with reiki and crystal healing
Talks/workshop for individuals and companies on stress management, how to boost productivity through self care and balance, some companies has also already enjoyed some group crystal reiki which always turn out to be incredibly bonding and powerful;
I occasionally offer in person or online events, normally following the moon phases with reiki, crystal tips, workshops and exercises to surf the energy of the universe as well as boost our life quality;
I also do manifestation workshops and teach reiki courses.
PROBLEMS I SOLVE
I help women get more done while enjoying more and freak out less.
People that work with me learn how embrace the imperfection of their life, boost self care (sometimes they don’t even have to add much!) and end up boosting their productivity and efficiently incredibly without feeling exhausted or burned out.
WHAT SETS ME APART FROM OTHERS
I think that the mix of health&life coaching together with crystal healing and reiki is already as unique as powerful.
My clients always tell me how easy I make things that seemed almost impossible before, but my favorite thing is that they can feel how much I care and how much love I put into every single thing we do together.
One client wrote to me in a message “Thank you for today! I have worked with 2 other health coaches and you have been my favorite by FAR. You have a gift my dear 🤍 Many gifts!”
I live for messages like this.
MY MISSION
My greatest desire is to “light up the world one woman at a time“. Women are so pivotal for the environment they live in wether it is family, work, neighborhood… I feel that each time I help a woman and touch her heart (and her life) the light I help her built can bring light to so many people/places!
WHAT I WANT MY POTENTIAL CLIENTS TO KNOW
As my business coach once said “I am trying to save my past self”. I do not approach my clients from a pedestal, but I walk their path with them and I feel honored of being able to do so.
I strongly believe that I am not helping people but I have the privilege of holding their hands and give them the support, strength and help they need to heal themselves.
Also, I never suggest anything that I have not tried myself. In this way I feel like I can really deeply pass to my clients, for as much as we are all different, any benefit success as well as challenge and difficulty that any habit or practice might bring. It is so rewarding to see how my professional together with my personal experience can help someone understand better and feel more comfortable with newer practices.
Also, all my programs and offers are very versatile. Having worked for an incredible international luxury house for many years I have learnt the importance of tailor-making everything with sophistication, love, know-how and attention to detail.
I had the pride of giving a speech about “light”at the London College of Contemporary Art a few years back mixing my knowledge in art, fashion and holistic health and this comment from one of the student filled up my heart:
“I was very delighted that someone of such calibre was into holistic health and almost spiritual. […] Honestly, I thought the talk was too short! […] It is not every day one meets an intellectual who is grounded and into holistic wellbeing at the same time.
Hopefully, we have another talk/visit sometime in future!”
This comment and others from clients (I attached one more below*) made me understand how unique can be this mixed approach that I have. Instead of feeling the contrast and confusion this used to create inside of my heart and mind, I now see it as a strength and since I embrace it, it has brought a lot of light in my life and in the life of my clients.
*Google review from client mentioned above:
Viola is simply the best. She’s not some airy fairy dingbat trying to move your chakras into her pocketbook. Rather, she’s smart, intuitive, PRACTICAL, thought provoking, full of good guidance, direction and perspective. Even though I live in LA and have had my fair share of experiences in this realm, NO ONE compares to Viola. She doesn’t need to be in the same room or even nearby to just “pick up” on what you’re feeling, many times when you can’t even pinpoint it yourself. I don’t know what else to say, just freaking book her and be done.
A LITTLE MORE ABOUT ME AND MY BUSINESS
I started my business in NY during the pandemic which has been a challenge, particularly for reiki as many people struggle o understand how reiki can work from distance and also because I didn’t know anybody. As a very sociable Italian I need connections, I seek a tribe, a community. Despite so I managed to create both: a group of amazing clients which I am so grateful for and a community of loving and supporting mamas in Brooklyn that fed my mind and soul.
My family and I moved to Miami during the summer and now I am facing new challenges in adapting to a new lifestyle, way of transportation and the need of building a new community, tribe and list of local client.
Being close to the beach though is so nourishing and also I keep on practicing as much as I can all my healthy habit and rituals.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I certainly would choose to do what I am doing now and I would redo everything the same with the same other professions and timing. Not only because I believe that everything happens in the right way and at the right time, but because I feel like I can prove it. Because every single job I have done, every single course and every single encounter that i have had in the past is helping me today execute with excellence what I do and have helped me see my strength as well as my challenges and helped me embrace both as well as understanding that at time my strength can make my life harder and my challenges can actually be the source of my success. Also I have lived in different countries and done different job which makes me feel that I am fine and I don’t regret not having tried something. This also gives me a strong drive and a great sense of fulfillment with what I do. Last but not least, to see how your support can improve the life of someone and the one of those around them is such an amazing feeling, I wouldn’t change it for anything on earth.
Since I started working as a coach and a crystal reiki master when I finished my sessions I always have this voice inside of my head that says “I was born to do this”. Often times people ask me if it isn’t tiring, but I actually find it more energizing that tiring!
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I’d say that more than 90% of my clientele came from word of mouth. I know that technically business experts might argue that this is the slowest pace growing strategy, but to me this is what really works and at the same time what makes me understand that I am doing things right. There is nothing more satisfying that someone telling you that you really need to work with someone you know because they are sure you can help them or being called by someone who tells you, this client of yours told me about you and how amazing you are.
It doesn’t only fuel the business, it fuels my motivation, my resilience, my drive to do anything I can to help these women make the best of their life and enjoy it fully as they deserve to.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @feelandheal.me
Image Credits
All the pictures attached have been taken by myself or a family member.