Healer Q&A: Amplifying your voice as a conscious leader with David Trotter
The following interview is a transcript excerpt from The Heallist Podcast episode. Listen to the full audio version below and subscribe to get notified of new episodes.
Can the power of a professional headshot transform your career? Join us on the Heallist Podcast as we chat with David Trotter, a life transformational coach and publisher of Awakened Magazine and a Life Transformation Coach with 25 years of experience helping people in the areas of healing, spirituality, and leadership. At the age of 18, David sensed a call into ministry and completed his undergraduate and seminary work in preparation to become a pastor.
After 10 years of starting and growing churches in southern California, he was burned out from trying to fill an internal hole of not-enoughness, which resulted in burnout, implosion, healing, and a new chapter of life. He is the author of a dozen books including Empowered to Rise and Superconscious Conversations, producer/director of four feature films on important social issues, and a Certified Breathwork and Guided Meditation Facilitator.
How the Idea for Spiritual Leaders Magazine was born
David Trotter:I have stepped into this world of spirituality, coming out of more of a conservative Christian background. But I began to meet over the last five to seven years so many incredible leaders, speakers, healers, lightworkers, and as I met them, so many of them are hiding behind the modality, really passionate about people and can be nervous about promoting themselves. Since this is stepping into this three-dimensional world of marketing, it kind of can feel like a game.
They've got such an important message, such important work that if I could use my background the last 16 or so years I've served clients in the area of marketing and help them amplify their voice by giving them a boost of credibility and visibility, they would be able to impact people that I personally would never be able to impact or reach. They would be able to bring more healing, more love, more transformation, more awakening to our planet than I could.
If I could find a way to promote them in a really beautiful, engaging way. That's what I'd like to do, and so I started seeing some other digital magazines on the market, and everyone has a different vision and a great niche. But if I could create something for the niche of people that I believe in so strongly and do it in a way that was both very aesthetically pleasing, beautiful and engaging, that would help people and a lot of the magazines that I see maybe aren't as aesthetically pleasing as I think this group of people deserves in order to get their message out. And so that's why we've worked hard to create something that is both beautiful and engaging for healers and leaders.
Staying True to Holistic Marketing
David Trotter: It's a constant question. Locally, my partner, she owns a meditation and breathwork studio in Southern California called Behind the Lids, and so we do certifications, breathwork certifications, a guided meditation, and all these things and there will be some people that we work with that go, “I'm going to put on my Instagram there's one spot left,” and I go, is there only one spot left? If there were two people that signed up, would you take the second one? “Well, of course I would”. Okay, well then, why are we saying there's one spot left? That's out of alignment with our values. You're lying to people like that. So that's a question that I'm always bringing to the table: is this really true? Is it really what we would do? And I think that's a good exercise because it keeps me honest with how I'm presenting things.
People will even ask me that with the magazine, they'll go, “okay, do you have statistics on the people that participate as executive contributors in your magazine? Do you have statistics on the number of leads that they've gotten by doing that?” and I go, “No, I don't and I never will, because I'm not going to utilize that to over promise something. I can't promise you anything. What I can promise you is I'm going to present you in a beautiful way and here's the audience that I'm going to present you to and in large part, the results that you get are dependent on how much you leverage the branded content that we create together.” But I don't want to be in a position where I'm over promising and under delivering. I will always want to under promise and over deliver.
I just get so nervous about overstating the potential result, because I want people to know I'm here to serve. Our organization is here to serve, and so here's what I can promise. Here's the unknown, here's the desire, here's the vision. I can cast the vision and go, “this is what we're going for, but I can't promise this thing. Here's what I can promise.” I think that that's true even with healers and facilitators of different experiences.
The Importance of Presentation
David Trotter: Some individuals do come to the table with a very clear message and here's what I do and how I do it, why I do it, the benefits of working with me. One of the challenges for a lot of healers is they start with one modality. So let's just say, somebody had some sort of issue, they received some Reiki treatments or sessions and they like to be a Reiki healer. So they go through the Reiki process - all of them. And then now they like sound healing. “I'm going to add that because that would be really helpful. And then I should get breath work, and so on.” They come with like 10 modalities and they've got all these amazing tools. But then the challenge is how do you communicate what you do. And so helping them choose a certain niche that they primarily focus on, “Let's focus on that niche, and then let's focus on what is the primary result that you're trying to help them with?” We try to help them narrow that down and hone in on one particular thing.
One of the things that I always ask them during our consultation calls is if you could use publicity in order to grow one aspect of your work, what would it be? I want to focus more on one-on-one clients that are women, that are dealing with this. Or I really want to grow this group program - that's a one-year program, so we try to hone them in on what that thing is that they are wanting to see results on, and then if they're featured on the podcast, hone in on that as the specific part of the conversation.
Psychologically, I'll have people that join us as executive contributors. “I'm so nervous about the podcast, I've never done one before.” I have interviewed hundreds of people. I'm great at helping you share your story because I'm genuinely interested in your story, at helping you share your story because I'm genuinely interested in your story. So I give them six to nine questions ahead of time to let them know the questions that I'm going to ask. Would they like to add any questions? Would they like to subtract any questions? Let's make sure that the questions are going to really set you up to win in terms of communicating your message, and then you can hear them take a sigh of relief. That's the whole reason why we're doing this. I'm going to set you up to win. Then really asking them questions that help them hone their message.
Awakened Magazine and Its Vision
David Trotter: Awakened Magazine is a platform to amplify the voices of conscious healers, leaders, teachers, coaches, authors, facilitators, and we hone in on that niche and essentially, how we can take what you do, your work, their wisdom? We just package it in a beautiful and engaging way. The way that we work with individuals is actually through two different membership options: they're 12-month memberships because we want to work with people over a protracted period of time and see the impact and growth in their business - those memberships is more entry level, where they have the opportunity to present an interview about themselves and publish it through the magazine and also be able to publish monthly articles through the magazine, anything that's focused on spirituality, personal development, health and wellness relationships. And then also there's more of a premium publicity opportunity where they are featured on the cover and the podcast and presented it through video and audio and the written word. All of that is just a way to present them to the world.
We have an audience that we present them to via email and social media, but then our goal is taking this branded content that we've created together that's beautifully engaging, and they're presenting it to their audience through email and social media, and I see it every week. We have a different executive contributor on the cover every single week and I see them post it and tag us, and it's comment after comment. Credibility goes up even with their own audience, which means, ultimately, they'll be willing to work with them or share their content. So that's how we're supporting healers, teachers, leaders by just presenting their content in a beautiful way, and the ultimate goal increased credibility, so that they would be more trusted by their audience and ours, and then increased visibility, so that they would be able to reach more people who would want to work with them.
David’s Words of Wisdom to the Audience
David Trotter: I would just remind you the world needs what you have to offer. It's desperate in need of whatever that service is, that thing that's pulsing in your heart that you know you want to bring to the table. Our world needs it. And then, I would just encourage you to find ways to get the word out, to get people's attention about that, in ways that align with your values. Hey, if that's signing up with Heallist or working with Awakened Magazine or the plethora of other opportunities and platforms, or using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tiktok, get the word out, because our world needs what you have to offer.
