When it comes to consulting a psychic, medium, tarot card reader, fortune teller (or what ever else you want to call us), it is undeniable that we want to seek out the services of someone who is good at what they do. No one wants to pay for a reading from an idiot that is constantly referring to a book of interpretations (and yes, I have seen it done!). You want one who you feel comfortable with, someone who you connect with, and someone who is popular…

So it would seem that one way to choose the person to read your tarot cards would be to go with one that is regularly busy, right?

Possibly…

I’m seeing more and more fortune tellers advertise that they are “so busy that there is a waiting lost for readings”. That is fair enough. That is, until they are claiming that it will take up to 4 weeks to deliver your reading!

Four weeks? That’s 28 days! A month! By the time they get round to reading your future, it may as well be a reading about your past! I know that when I want particular answers from the tarot cards, I want the cards to give me something contemporary. Paying someone at the beginning of the month for answers about something that is happening right now is pointless if you aren’t going to get a reading until the end of the month. By then it might be too late. And meanwhile, the reader has probably already spent the money paid for the reading!

The marketing experts (or more likely the authors of self published books on marketing) have probably advised that advertising a 4 week waiting list indicates that you are extremely popular, with a huge backlog of readings from previously satisfied clients. In certain industries, that may be a valid marketing ploy. And I suspect it is only a marketing ploy for the vast majority of those who display that on their sites.

If you wanted a family portrait taken at a photography studio, then a wait of a month isn’t unreasonable, and would suggest that the photographer is very busy, because they are very good and sought after. But if you urgently needed an appointment with a chiropodist to deal with an ingrowing toenail that was almost crippling you, and they told you to cope with the pain for a month, you would probably start shopping around for someone who could see you earlier and provide the relief you wanted.

It is a similar concept when someone wants to consult the cards about something.

I’d consider myself to be busy with tarot card readings. A typical reading will probably last about 25-30 minutes on average. On a busy day, I will happily spend up to 12 hours recording readings if required. That is a maximum of 25 readings in a day. And I will read 7 days a week if needed. So if you do the maths, that works out at a potential maximum of 175 readings a week that I can manage if I work really hard. But lets be more realistic with the numbers. I like to take at least one full day off each week, and on occasions 2 days off a week (but never consecutively!). As I promise to deliver readings within a 24 hour time slot, that is still quite possible, as long as I put in the hours when I am working. So I can still record 100-125 readings a week.

These readers who claim to have a 4 week waiting list are either a) reading 40+ hours a week and so popular that they still can’t cope with the demand, b) listening to the so-called marketing experts and lying on their site to make it seem they have 400-500 clients waiting for readings for 4 weeks, or c) not actually putting in the hours that their clients deserve, possibly because they are only reading part-time, and have another source of income.

Let’s briefly analyse those three scenarios… essentially we have Fortune Tellers that are a) unable to tell how busy they are in the future, b) lying to potential new clients or c) either very lazy or so unsuccessful at what they do that they have to earn money elsewhere! None of these is a trait I want in my fortune teller, and they are certainly not strategies I would encourage my students to employ!

It is essential that clients who are paying for readings receive their readings at the earliest possible opportunity. If you are genuinely unable to cope with the number of enquiries and bookings coming through for readings, and you are reading full time, then either bring in staff to help you out with the admin, uploading of videos etc, or stop taking people’s money whilst you clear the backlog. If you are unable to do either of these things, perhaps the business of fortune telling isn’t for you.

A four week queue of readings isn’t a sign of success, it is a sign of failure. As a reader you have failed to deliver readings to your clients until it is potentially too late. You have taken their money but left them without the answers they want.

If as a fortune teller you genuinely are working 40+ hours a week and have a 4 week backlog of readings, do yourself and your clients a favour; work harder, and refund some of your clients. If you aren’t working 40 hours a week reading cards, but do have a 4 week queue, then put in the extra hours, and temporarily shut down your payment and booking system whilst you catch up. And if you are claiming to have a 4 week queue for readings but are sat on your backside eating ice cream paid for by your clients, instead of giving them what they have paid you for, then do everyone a favour and find something more suitable as a career!

If you are looking for a tarot card / rune / crystal reading and are tempted by the idea of having your reading done by someone who is supposedly so successful that you will have to wait 4 weeks to hear back from them, have a look around and see who else is available. there are plenty of hard working very successful fortune tellers out there who won’t leave you waiting for the answers you want!