Healer Q&A: Navigating expansion in the digital age with Kalisa Augustine.
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.
In this episode of the Heallist podcast, host Yuli has a profound conversation with Kalisa Augustine, a multifaceted holistic health practitioner, creative force, author, sound artist, and devoted mother. Kalisa's holistic approach to healing merges neurophysiological and mindfulness techniques, intricately interwoven with vibrational medicine modalities such as sound, color, and light therapies. Renowned for her insightful work, Kalisa's expertise has graced the pages of prestigious publications like Vogue, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, MindBodyGreen, and Marie Claire, among others. Her influence extends beyond the printed word, having collaborated with esteemed celebrities and partnered with global brands including L'Oreal, Nike, Soho House, and Google. Kalisa’s THE ENERGY BOOK is available on Amazon and her album SOUNDS OF THE MYSTICS: crystal healing music in 432 hz is on Spotify.
Throughout the episode, Kalisa and Yuli explore a myriad of topics, from manifesting authentic brand identities to the delicate balance between spirituality and mainstream acceptance. They touch upon the fusion of esoteric healing practices with creative expression, the evolving landscape of social media, privacy, and trust, and the alternative paths to success in the digital age. Kalisa's insights illuminate the importance of hard work and authenticity in business, the significance of self-awareness and trusting one's abilities as a healer, and the paramount importance of prioritizing self-care and fostering authentic relationships in the bustling realm of entrepreneurship. Their conversation dances gracefully through themes of creativity, spirituality, and personal growth, offering listeners a profound journey into the heart of holistic healing and digital entrepreneurship.
Manifesting an authentic brand identity
Yuli Ziv: I like to dive right in. We don't know each other long, but your website and everything you've done is very professional and polished. It looks effortless and perfectly aligned. After a quick Zoom chat, I saw that you were just you—so real, and all of this was manifested organically. How did you manifest all of that?
Kalisa Augustine: Thank you so much. Making it look easy is an art form, and I appreciate your feedback. The presentation needs to be organic, authentic, and evolving. I don't have big marketing teams or a brand machine behind me, but I've put a lot of work into my own strategy.
As I evolve, so does the expression of the work. This is my third iteration, each time focusing on what I'm trying to say. I love beauty and am deeply involved in the work and aesthetic. I enjoy bridging abstract concepts into something beautiful and palpable. I don't like formulaic appearances. Authentic fluidity and energetic aliveness are key. Authenticity requires work, but it's important for people to feel your heart and trust you.
We spent a few years in different phases, including a girl boss wellness pop phase, exploring and creative directing. Each iteration of my website and presentation has reflected this journey. The latest version is cool and less accessible, aligning with my current state. It's evolving, just like we are, along with the art and expression.
Spirituality and mainstream acceptance
Yuli Ziv: You mentioned making yourself more or less accessible. Can you explain? What was the path? The trend is to be accessible, especially on social media. Why did you decide to be less accessible?
Kalissa Augustine: There's a time and a place for everything. You always have to know what is right for you in your work as a healer, especially if you consider it to be spiritual or sacred in nature. First of all, filter everything that anybody is going to tell you because it's between you and God. I've listened to people and tried to understand how to build a business. What does this look like? What is the formula? What is the structure? And as technology evolves, you keep up and do what they say, but I'm not going to do what they told me to do. It’s not in my DNA, my genes.
If I were that person, I would not have figured out anything about how to do what I do: the talent, work, ethos, and creativity. I have a little bit of that renegade archetype, which I’ve learned to honor instead of feeling nervous about. I have no idea what people are telling anybody to do at all.
I’m not a marketing guru at all. I had a background in the arts and in fitness. I always have been what I am. You learn it’s not safe awareness. You learn your perception of the world is a little bit different. I kept that under wraps for most of my life because it would offend or scare people. You get exhausted from the feedback you receive or from people’s reactions. It was not necessarily mainstream when I was coming out with this stuff. At the time, I felt there was a really big gap between people holding wisdom, but I guess my part was to bring it into the mainstream in a new way.
Social media, privacy, and trust
Kalissa Augustine: I was living out in LA when the pandemic hit. There was so much noise. There’s so much fighting. When things get really crazy, when people start yelling in a room, I get quiet. I’m really about balance. That was a time to really listen. I couldn't listen to myself or study or take in the truth I needed to be the best person I could be with all this noise. It was just chaos.
The tech gods kept changing algorithms. If you're putting a lot of energy in and it's not yielding, something's off. I saw less direct ROI in my bank account. I'm a mom, so I don’t have time to mess around. I'm a provider. I'm not here to just spend a lot of energy if it's not going anywhere. This social media stuff and the economy of attention is not cheap. I'm not here to spin and churn.
With Instagram, people were getting addicted to more content. They were not showing up. They weren’t doing the work. They weren’t booking anything. I needed to attract people that needed me, and people that I could actually serve. I'm not here to get points on Instagram. I don't care about this superficial game. I don't equate popularity to truth.
I get that the tech Gods had a chokehold here. They change, so you got to change, and you got to work harder. It's like this hamster wheel. When you take a step back from the earth plane and go, "Wait a second, this is nuts. Hold on." I got rid of my Instagram, which had a following and connections. It made me feel terrible. I was never comfortable with social media from the beginning. I just did it for my daughter. I was like, "Okay, this is a part of business. This is what we have to do." But it's always been pretty inauthentic.
I'm not scared of being vulnerable, talking, or being out there. I just think privacy is sexy and exclusivity is elegant. My work and words are not cheap, so I'm not going to add to the noise. At that time, I focused on deep work like studying neurology, trauma therapy, and engaging in deep meditation without distractions. To maintain the level of work I aspire to, I couldn't afford any energy drain from technology or otherwise. It felt like a ruckus, so I shut it down to listen and learn.
As I reemerged with the expansion program, combining neuro-physical approaches with energy healing, I aimed for less but more quality. Trusting that those who needed me would find me, I managed a full online practice without Instagram, mainly through newsletters and moved most of my content to Substack for long-form writing, refusing to simplify my expression excessively. I believe in the value of long-form discourse to integrate complex ideas beautifully and give it to the reader when the time is right, not forced by technology or social media schedules.
I stay quiet if I have nothing to say. Offering truth regularly and trusting the right people will work with me. If it's slow, it means I'm meant to be doing other things. I'm not just a one-on-one practitioner; expanding and actualizing other parts of my gifts is crucial. My focus was on exclusivity and abundance, not chasing clients but seeing if we're a good match. My work is sacred, and not everyone is the right match for my energy. Finding balance, setting boundaries, and applying spiritual philosophies to my business as an extension of my gifts is how I operate.
Alternative paths to success in the digital age
Yuli Ziv: I love that you bring a very unpopular opinion that you don't have to do it all and you don't have to chase the more accessible platforms that everyone is chasing, and that you pave your own path. First of all, your newsletter was absolutely brilliant. The way you speak about energies and the quantum is just the perspective we need.
Kalissa Augustine: I do want to say, if you're on there, on Instagram or TikTok, and that's part of your jam, I'm totally not knocking it. My clients are not online. There's privacy, exclusivity, and a high touch. Once you are a client of mine, there's a level of self-care where I'm spending hours with people. I'm not doing 30-minute sessions. I'm not seeing eight people a day anymore.
Yuli Ziv: I also wanted to address people that feel the pressure to feel like this is the only way, feel like they don't have enough, don't have enough time, don't have enough energy, and you have to do it. It's just refreshing to see someone who is not following the traditional path yet having so much success in other ways.
Kalissa Augustine: When I did get online, I have a private one to see if I could do it again. I see these people churning out reels and stuff. I want to make art, but not this kind. It doesn't feel in alignment with me at this time. That may change in the future. It may feel aligned if I decide to talk about something later. But it doesn't feel right for me now. I keep trying to give it a shot, and I just don't think it's cool.
Yuli Ziv: It's cool that you realize this isn't you and not following the path because we see some people doing it just out of obligation or the popular opinion that they have to. This is where we see a lot of mediocre content that essentially turns to noise.
Kalissa Augustine: If you have that mindset of "I have to do it because everybody else is doing it," you're a follower, not a leader. If you're going to be a leader, act like one. There are many ways to express yourself. There are times to go hard, times for breaks, and times for evolutions. I'm in an evolutionary break, looking at everything and thinking about how I want to express myself and what makes the most sense for me. It's important to maintain that state of "I am abundant. I do not need to chase. I am not getting on your hamster wheel to make you money."
Creativity, spirituality, and personal growth
Kalissa Augustine: I don't identify as a business person. I'm a hard worker; if you start it, finish it well and create a cohesive system. I care about creating an idea and watching it from seed to fruition. I'm more about the process of creating with myself and God than about the product. We need to bring back some of those ancient, sacred, righteous, and integrity-filled ways. You are taking in information from the source, downloading data. The artist will interpret that and create a work that is meaningful. The healer uses that data to help someone in a disciplined way.
Healers and holistic health practitioners that just want to be with people and are not creative, and suppress their creative side, I see a lot of them. When you suppress the part of you that is creative—a performer, speaker, musician, painter—and helps you relate to the world, that is the empowered part of you that is less worried about the outcome and what everybody thinks. I encourage you not to suppress that. Bring that out. If you can balance your business with your mystic artist with some common sense, that's going to work really well for you, because I know many of you out there have creative souls as well.
