Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Caroline Paradis, Founder of Clarity Wellness, located in Fairhaven, MA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I specialize in Integrated Energy Healing – which is a combination of Reiki, full spectrum energy work, sound healing, crystal healing, and meditation/visualization – to help people align with the highest version of themselves. This includes creating a safe space where they can explore the body-mind-soul connection and tap into their inner guidance and wisdom. Most of my clients are people who have been experiencing some discomfort in their lives (physical, mental, and/or emotional) and are ready to explore non-traditional methods of healing.

Tell us about yourself

Seven years ago, I had an outwardly fulfilling life with a successful career as a nonprofit executive, a happy marriage, and meaningful involvement in my community. But inside, I was drowning. I constantly felt a sense of stress and heaviness, whether I was at work or not. I was tired all the time, got sick often, and felt overcome with anxiety every day. My health was deteriorating, my relationships suffered, and my sense of joy was fragile and fleeting.

In January 2016, I began meditating, and shortly thereafter, I became certified in Reiki. After experiencing the incredible power of these modalities, I made the decision to leave my nonprofit career and launch my own Reiki and mindfulness business. Since then, I have added sound healing, crystal healing, and full spectrum energy healing to my list of modalities and have incorporated them into a unique offering of Integrated Energy Healing.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I’d say just taking the leap to leave my steady, full-time job and start my own business is my biggest accomplishment to date. But I am also very proud of the full client base I have cultivated, as well as becoming a teacher of Reiki One, Two, and Master levels. I’ve really developed a passion for teaching and am looking forward to leaning further into that space in the coming year.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

For the first five or so years as an entrepreneur, I joked that I was basically “living outside of my comfort zone,” referring to the fact that building a business required me to constantly push myself to do things that weren’t comfortable but that was necessary for the business and for my own growth as well. Even just putting my name on something that I had created and taking full ownership of it was incredibly scary. And I still find that being an entrepreneur often requires me to leap before feeling fully ready, so discomfort has pretty much become a way of life! That said, I’ve been able to reach a place where I’m comfortable resting inside of the discomfort, so to speak, and can recognize it for what it is – a sign of growth.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. One of the things no one told me about being an entrepreneur is that your business naturally ebbs and flows, often mirroring your own personal growth. I’ve gone through periods of time when my business has seen exponential growth almost overnight and other phases where I could hardly get anyone to attend a weekly meditation. Sometimes growth simply requires patience. Other times it’s about discerning which things align with your highest self at this moment and what needs to fall away.
  2. Understand that someone else’s measurement of success doesn’t have to be yours. When I first began my business, I participated in a business accelerator program. While I learned a lot of valuable information, the program required us to use traditional metrics to measure our success (number of new clients per month, quarterly revenue, etc.). While these are helpful in some ways, they made me feel very boxed into someone else’s definition of success and ultimately caused me to question myself. For me at that time, success was more about building a career that offered a sense of freedom and felt aligned with who I was as a person.
  3. Remember that you are offering something that no one else has! Each day more and more people are opening Reiki and energy healing businesses, but I never feel a sense of competition because I know that my unique perspective and skill set resonates with the people that I’m supposed to help. Likewise, each of my Reiki Master students who decide to open their own businesses has an energetic signature that’s unique to them, too. So try not to compare yourself to others in your field. Instead, focus on how you can build your business in the way that is most authentic to you and your vision. The rest will fall into place.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.claritysouthcoast.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claritysouthcoast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clarity.wellness/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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