EPISODE 107: How to Create Your Own Card Deck-Behind The Scenes Secrets: Ann Théato interviews Ayesha Hilton

Join Ann Théato as she sits down with Ayesha Hilton, an acclaimed artist and tarot deck creator, for an inspiring conversation about the magic behind designing tarot decks. In this episode, Ayesha takes you behind the scenes of her creative journey, revealing how she weaves together intuition, symbolism, and artistic vision to breathe life into each card. 

Discover the challenges of crafting a tarot deck, the significance of building a personal connection with the cards, and tips for creating a cohesive and meaningful deck structure. 

Whether you’re curious about how tarot decks are made or dreaming of creating your own, this episode is packed with valuable insights. From the first spark of inspiration to the final masterpiece, Ayesha shares her expertise and practical advice to guide you through the entire process. 

Tune in for an in-depth exploration of the creative world of tarot deck design and take the first step on your own tarot journey!

 This Week’s Episode

"There’s so much beautiful technology and it can be very scary for a lot of people and it is going to change how we work and how we live." – Ayesha Hilton 

Episode 106 Resources

Here are some resources which you may find helpful.

Connect with Ayesha
Ayesha Hilton Website: https://www.ayeshahilton.com
Ayesha Hilton Academy: https://www.ayeshahilton.academy
Ayesha Hilton Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ayesha.hilton
Ayesha Hilton Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ayesha_hilton/

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CREDITS: Reach by Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Licensed by Enlightened Audio

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Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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EPISODE107
You’ll Learn:

• The process of designing and creating a tarot deck.
• Ayesha's journey into tarot and her inspirations.
• How tarot decks are structured and what makes each one unique.
• The role of symbolism and imagery in tarot deck design.
• The challenges and rewards of creating a tarot deck from concept to completion.
• How Ayesha combines her artistic and intuitive skills in her deck creation.
• Tips for aspiring tarot creators and enthusiasts.
• The importance of intuition and personal connection in working with tarot cards.

Transcript

VO: Psychic Matters with Ann Théato. The top ranked spirituality podcast.

Ann: Today we welcome Ayesha Hilton, a truly remarkable individual who is joining us all the way from Australia. Ayesha is a bestselling author of several books, a spiritual preneur and a course creator. She has a deep passion for helping individuals express their unique brilliance, and she has become a guiding force for those daring to dream and take inspired action. Her life journey so far has been a tapestry of diverse experiences from being a farmer's wife to a globe-trotting advocate for various causes. Ayesha is a lover of card decks, and currently her focus lies in empowering and supporting her clients to create their own inspiring card decks. And Ayesha herself is an avid learner, constantly weaving personal development and spirituality into her life and her work. And she's here today to share with us the transformative power of creativity. Ayesha Hilton, welcome to Psychic Matters.

Ayesha: Thank you, Ann, that was such a lovely introduction. I need a copy of that to use elsewhere because that isn't one that I provided. You sort of put that together and it's really lovely.

Ann: Oh, bless. It's so fantastic to have you on the podcast and thanks for, making time to talk to us all. Your work inspires me so much. And I know that your journey as a spiritualpreneur and creator and bestselling author is just, it's just so inspiring. So, Ayesha, maybe you could take us back to the beginning and share with us how your mission to inspire others first took shape. 

Ayesha: I think it probably started in childhood, like most of our things that we, you know, have this golden thread through our lives. So, I grew up in a very interesting way in Melbourne, Australia, and my mom was one of the first Buddhists in Australia. And so, she was the housekeeper to the first Tibetan llamas that came out to Melbourne. Um, so I used to live with the Geshelas and, we went to live in India when I was a child and she studied with the Dalai Lama while we were at school and I guess that sort of, I saw then, you know, working, like living with refugees, just the suffering that they experienced, and then obviously living in India where there's a lot of poverty, um, and, and, and, and, and, Um, I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be an aid worker. So, I went to university and then I was an aid worker. I worked with Thai sex workers in Thailand initially, and then with Burmese refugees. So, I guess I was always doing things that mattered to me and aspiring, I guess, rather idealistically to change the world. And when I was an international aid worker, I realised that I wasn't actually having the change impact that I wanted because, you know, it's quite hard to change the world. 

And I did come home a bit dispirited, to be honest. and it was sort of a wakeup call and I realised, firstly, you can't help people that don't want to help themselves. We all know that. And we've all been futile in our attempts, you know? So now what I love to do is work with people who really want to create something beautiful.  I'm very passionate about having more beauty in the world. More joy, especially now when we live in a time where if you turn on the news, you know, it's not very pleasant. So, I try and avoid the news is I don't consume mainstream media unless I want to look up something. And people always tell you what's going on or you see it on Facebook, so it's not like you're totally disconnected, but I choose to live in my bubble, as much as possible because I get too depressed if I see all that suffering.  And the more, you know, beautiful things we put out into the world with our energy and our work, the better the world will be.

Ann: I'm so with you on not consuming mainstream media, just enough to know what's going on. I'm totally with you there. So, I've worked with you myself. You've mentored me, in creativity and it was just so fabulous. You helped me create a card deck, which I'm really proud of. And it's only a tiny little card deck and it was just a little try-out card deck in a way, but I'm so proud of it. And I absolutely love it. and I know that you work one on one with people and you create all these courses tell us a little bit more about what that is, and how that works.

Ayesha: So initially it was before COVID. I created my own deck and I've always been interested in publishing and self-publishing. I used to be a book coach and stuff like that, but I'm very creative. And like many of you, like to create things. And it just sort of happened from there that people wanted to learn from me. So, I just, I call it the golden thread. It's like you're responding to what people want from you that you actually enjoy, right? So, it's not things that I dislike. Like I've tried so many things in my business and if I don't like them, I just let them go. I don't mean like accounting, like, you have to do your bookkeeping, but the things that bring you joy, I think also can bring you good money and help you support people. And yeah, I first created the Card Deck Creators Toolkit, and I was selling that through Facebook ads. So, I was able to reach people around the world. I mainly advertise to obviously Australia and then the UK and the U S and Canada. So, I have a really beautiful community around the world that I get to support and, they take my courses. And then I also have. I'm really into AI, but ethical AI. I'm a techno buff. I've had 20 years in technology alongside this creative career, and I have been using that technology and teaching people how to use that technology and also having a stock image membership for spiritual artwork that people are using on their decks and in their social media and their journals. So that's been lots of fun as well. And it's cheap. I like things that people can access without, having to, I was interested in saying the other day and they're like, oh, we provide finance. And I'm like, I don't want to get finance for a water filter. So, that sort of concept, oh, don't worry about the money, but you know, I want things that are accessible to people as well.

So, I sort of have different things at different price points.

Ann: Yeah, I mean, it's brilliant. Let's take that a little bit at a time, a little chunk at a time because, your courses are so beautifully laid out. They're downloadable, are they not for people to learn at home in their own time?

Ayesha: They're not downloadable. They're in a course system, but yes, I have a background in online learning. and I have a degree in weirdly, what's it called? Professional writing. I couldn't even remember for a second. So, it is all about structuring information in a way that people can just, follow steps. Like one of my first jobs out of uni was writing online help systems for software. So, you can bring that skill into creating courses, not boring online help systems, much more interesting what we get to play with now.

Ann: So, your Card Deck Creators Tool Kit, talk us through that, would you.

Ayesha: Hey, that's my little passion project that I made and it's now helped over a thousand people. So, it walks people through the creative process as well as the printing and publishing process. And the thing that people most struggled with was how to size their deck. So, I have all these beautiful templates in Canva for the various sizes. Most people do a three and a half by five-inch deck, but I have like a square one and, you know, poker sized and whatever people want, basically. 

Ann: but I've taken that course myself and it's so simply laid out. The steps are really simple and you give so much support to your students as well and really encourage them all the way. You're like this beautiful nurturing, oh, come on, it's easy. Let me help you get there. Let me help you get there. Cause sometimes you take a course, don't you? And you think, oh, I just can't be doing with it, it's too complicated. And yours isn't like that at all. It's just so beautiful. yeah, so the Card Deck Creator's Toolkit, I highly recommend it myself to everybody. and then you spoke, Ayesha, about ethical AI. Say a little more about that. I mean, people have heard of AI, but just in case they haven't, maybe just explain exactly what that is. 

Ayesha: I'm very passionate about it. I love technology and, you know, our life has changed so much because of it. When I was first at university, I had to handwrite my assignments and get it to uni and pop it in a box by 4 pm, right, on a Friday afternoon, but now, there's so much beautiful technology and it can be very scary for a lot of people and it is going to change how we work and how we live. And that's why I think we do need an ethical approach so I do a lot of work in Mid Journey, and I don't reference living artists because out of respect for their incomes. But then at the same time I've got some, I've got an art space over in my office. And I take courses from artists and learn their style. So, it's an interesting conundrum and the industry is not regulated. You can't get copyright, even though like when you generate an image, you can actually spend hours fine tuning that prompt. And it does actually involve, you know, human contribution, right? You can't just create, like you can put any prompt in, but whether it's beautiful and useful or not is, you know, not always going to be the case. And we've just had a lot going on in the past. In November with Chat GPT, and them firing their CEO and then hiring him back. And it's, you know, this is the year of AI where it's coming into the public domain. We've always had AI for, I don't know. since computers started, right? Like even you think about, you log into Netflix and it suggests films, that's actually an AI algorithm looking at, based on what you watched in the past, making suggestions. So, it's just taking it to the next level. And a lot of people that I've worked with, with their card decks, just writing their bio for their deck or for their website, can be really challenging. Like you wrote a really nice bio for me at the start of this podcast, but you know, if I tried to write that myself and I'm not confident, or it's hard to see your own gifts, using Chat GPT can actually really help people. And then you've of course, got to put your own flavour on it as well.  So, I think we're going to see a lot of change. And within the card deck industry, there is a bit of a division between people who hate AI and people who love AI or are using it for their deck images. And I've been able to create, I'm about to release this beautiful animal deck and it looks like art. And every time I look at it, I get uplifted and excited and it is AI generated.  And I would not be able to create that art, even though I love art and I paint at home. I can't create that artwork because I'm not that level of skill in art. So, I think there's almost like a democratization, if that's the right word, of people who have a vision in their head, but haven't been able to create that in reality. This technology is opening up the creative process for people who aren't artists. And I don't think artists will go away. We've had them for the entirety of the human race. There's always been artisans. I just think it's going to take a different form. And a lot of artists are actually embracing the technology and working with it, with their particular vision. So, I think it's a real opportunity for people who want to create card decks, but, you know, I've seen some pretty shoddy ones as well. So, you know, we want to do a good job with the artwork as well. Like you can scan Facebook, you know, on your feed and you'll see nearly every second ad has got an image that's generated by AI. And one of the things I'm quite interested in and do a lot of is generating stuff that doesn't look like it's AI. 

Ann: Beautiful. So, if you're someone listening to this podcast and they want to create a card deck but they just don't know where to start. How, how does your course or how do they find the inspiration to start that process? Where, where are they going to get their ideas from to put a pack of cards together? 

Ayesha: I think a lot of people already have an idea. most people who come to me, they've either got too many ideas. Or they've got one idea, I very rarely encounter someone with no idea, but if you have no idea, one thing you can do is look at the things that you love in a deck and, emulate that. Like if you're into affirmations or you want to do one on developing your intuition or tying it in, like if you're a coach and a, a medium or something, what’s something that you already do that you could translate into a deck. A lot of people are putting their course content or, I've got one client, Trish McKinley. I'm just holding up her deck for those who are listening. She's got the Goddess Unleashed deck. She has a whole, I don't know what you call it, intellectual property around four or five goddess types. And this then ties in with that. And she has a quiz and you can see what sort of goddess, you are. I'm the Goddess of Order, which makes sense. I'm very organised, but that works well for me. So, I think the harder thing is whittling them down. Like you've done one deck, you'll learn a deck of how to learn the process, but I'm sure you've got more Ann, that you want to create as well. So, I always suggest like people come with these really complex deck ideas. And then a few simpler ones. And I'm like, start with the simple one so that you can learn the process. And then you've, you've developed that muscle of creating and formatting and working out your printing and stuff like that, and you can apply that then to your other deck ideas. So, I've got some decks in my office and one lady's up to deck 10, another lady's up to deck 12. So, you don't have to limit yourself to one deck. 

Ann: And of course we had Nick Kellett on from Deckible, who you introduced me to as well. And, Deckible has opened up the world of cards as well. So maybe you could say a little bit about that because we don't have to just have a printed deck these days, do we?

Ayesha: I think Deckible is going to change a lot for card deck creators and users. So, if you didn't hear the call with Nick or the podcast with Nick, Deckible is a digital app where you can have hundreds of decks on your phone ready when you need them. And it's, it's not like a 2d deck, like a physical deck where you've got a side a and a side B, you can have tons of sides, you can have audio and video, you can even journal as well. So, you do your daily reading and then you can take notes and reflect and stuff like that. So, I think. I've been a big supporter of Deckible and it's been a slow burn for the last year, but we're finally getting some traction now. And it's like anything new when Audible started and even eBay and Amazon, the early adopters, we knew that it was going to be good, but we had to wait for the critical mass of people to see the value as well. So, I have nine decks on Deckible and I only have a couple of decks printed because during 2020 we saw a steep increase in the price of printing. So, I'll hold up this tiny deck for those, listening. It’s fits in the palm of my hand. This is my first deck and the original box, it's very cute. It's called Permission Slips based on Brene Brown's work. And this deck is tiny. And I used to be able to buy it from China for 9 dollars shipped, including the box. Now it's over 20 dollars for the same product. And that doesn't even include shipping. So, the opportunity for Deckible is that we can provide a deck without having to post it and print it and all that stuff. I don't know about other people, but I really hate posting things. If someone buys one and then I drag my feet down to the post office. So, I love anything that's sort of automated and Deckible automates the whole process. And obviously Deckible take a cut just like Audible or KDP and deliver it.

And the other thing is that we get to open up to a worldwide market. So, there is a lot of people around the world that wouldn't Buy decks, especially, we live in a very US-centric marketplace. So, if you are in India and you wanna buy a deck and you buy it from the US and then you've got the exchange rate and then you've got the shipping, it just doesn't really work that well. And another trend I'm seeing, I don't know if you have it in the UK, but the Temu app. It's a terrible app. It's from China and it's basically ripped off most card decks that are available. And I've seen a business that's only an hour away from me. She's actually closed down printing of one of her decks because it's been ripped off and they're selling it for 3 dollars and she sells it for 30 because it's a beautiful deck, right? It's presented lovely. And then you've got this ripoff version. I don't feel like it's the same with Deckible, you can turn off screenshots. They can't download the images. So, for people worried about their intellectual property, it gives them a bit of security as well.

Ann: Yeah, that's fascinating. Gosh, I hadn't even thought about, hooky copies of things. so, go back then you also speak of the work that you do with AI and creating AI imagery, but you also have created a library of these images for people to purchase have you not, could you speak a little bit about that? Because a lot of the listeners on this podcast might be very interested in using some images for their Instagram accounts, for their Facebook, for their website, maybe say a little about that aspect of your work, Ayesha.

Ayesha: Well, it's been very exciting, actually, and I've totally over delivered. So initially, I started in April 2023, and I was promising two collections a month of 30 images, but I pretty much give like 500, nearly 500 images a month, which is too much, I think. But I just can't, they're all so beautiful. I can't choose.

So, I've done like celestial types of ones, angels, all sorts of beautiful things that you don't get in a normal stock image membership. And it's not like you can't go on and create these yourself with Mid Journey if you want to, or, you know, even Chat GPT, if you have a paid account, you can use Dall-E as well. But I think it's nice just to have them all ready to go. And so, people have been really loving that. And I put a lot of effort into them. People get them as print versions and digital versions. So, if you are wanting to use them in a book or, in your marketing and print them out, you get them at a high quality. And I also provide them in Canva files. Cause sometimes you can't handle multiple files everywhere. So, you can just actually look up that collection, in Canva and just copy and paste it into your project. And the images, they do stop the scroll. And sometimes I'll be looking on Facebook and I'll go, oh, that image is really nice and I like that post. And then I realise it's one of my images. 

Ann: Wow. Isn't that lovely? Yeah.

Ayesha: That's a nice surprise. I've generated over 70, 000 images. I am contributing to, uh, some trash in the ether, I guess, but sometimes like I create so many, it's quite a rush. Like when you, you learn how to prompt and you get this adrenaline rush or dopamine hit when you create something beautiful and you are co creating with this sort of algorithm, right.

And you don't know what you're going to get. And, I've been working last week, I was working with Chat GPT and Dalle to do a tarot deck because tarot is the hardest thing to generate in Mid Journey. Um, it just does all sorts of weird things. So, I still couldn't get it right in Dall-E, but I'm working on it.  So that's going to be a bit of fun as well.

Ann: What is that Dall-E? I've not heard of that. Can you spell that? What is that?

Ayesha: It's D A L L - E. And then there's, it's, it probably predates Mid Journey a little bit. It's created by Open AI, which was if anyone listened to any news, in November 2023, Open AI is the creator of chat, GPT and Dall-E and Microsoft is a massive investor. Like we're talking billions. so, I've tried to use it separately to Chat GPT and didn't have any luck. I thought the images were hideous, but I'm having more luck with Chat GPT. So, if anyone's tried Mid Journey and found it overwhelming because it's inside an app called Discord, which is basically a gamers app. then Dall-E in Chat GPT is more like a conversation. It has a lot of limitations. I prefer Mid Journey for bulk image creation, cause I can do a whole lot of things at once, whereas Dall-E I'm limited to sort of one conversation, one image. It used to give you four. Now it's down to one because there's just so many people using it. But the images are really gorgeous. I've got some really cute ones and a few extra arms and legs and fingers that's still happening. 

Ann: Yeah, they do tend to create 12 fingers or something, don't they? Strange hands, but I'm sure that will be ironed out over the months.

Ayesha: Every time I work on a collection, I've got to make sure I go through and count the right amount of limbs. And like I'm working on a unicorn deck at the moment, I've just got to make sure there's only four legs, not five.

Ann: I know it's crazy, isn't it? do you ever use Bing for AI imagery? I was introduced to Bing AI and that worked well for me.

Ayesha: Bing is owned by Microsoft. It's their little product. Well, not little, big. They all want us to use Bing. Bing interfaces for images with Dall-E as well. But it's really weird. I was testing them out for this tarot deck that I'm working on. And it would give me four images. But not of the same quality that I was getting in Chat GPT, even though they were both using Dall-E. So, it was very interesting. So, if you want to try Dall-E, you can do it for free in the Bing, browser, the Bing, just go to Bing. com, I think. and you can actually have a play with it. And it's totally different from using it in Chat GPT, but it is free. I get so many credits.

Ann: Oh, thank, thanks for that. That's really interesting as well. And here's the thing, listeners, if you, would like to have a look at Midjourney and you're a little confused, don't be too confused because Ayesha has a course and I've done that course too, and it was really useful. So maybe say a little bit about that course, Ayesha.

Ayesha: I forgot you've done that course.

Ann: Yeah, I have. I love your stuff.

Ayesha: I like to jump on things as they come. So, I think I, I first taught Mid Journey in November. So, it's a year ago, November 2022. And then I thought, oh, I'll just create into a course. Cause I find a lot of the information is very masculine, very, you know, computer nerd and, a little overwhelming for us normal folks. Yeah. So, I was able to just, same as for the card deck toolkit, just really lay it out in a simple way for people to understand and follow step by step. And I put so much effort into that. I've got so many different examples of prompt styles and art styles, and a lot of people now creating their own images based on that course and having great success, making card deck images, social media, whatever they want, really. And that's the advantage of learning it yourself. If you've got a vision in your head, you can make it come true. And I also work with people one on one. We have little sessions together where we prompt together and I, help them generate the types of images because I've generated 70, 000 images at time of recording this.  I have a lot of experience with prompts, like obviously there'll be people who know more than me, but I feel for our niche, the spirituality niche, I think I'm one of the better ones to be honest, just from doing so many and trying so many things and failing and fine tuning the prompts.

Ann: Yeah, which is why we should go and buy your course because you've done all that hard work, so we don't have to. I think it's fantastic. Yeah. Uh, yeah, really, really brilliant. And while you were talking there, I was remembering all the books that you've written. And there was one that I was looking at yesterday and it was, forgive me, Ayesha, I can't remember the name of it, but it is about how the method of how to write a book. Could you, can you speak a little about that?

Ayesha: It's called fast book writing. I just wrote that, to help people because I've always wanted to write a book. And my first book that I wrote is really not representative of me at all. I was married to a farmer. He wanted to be a leader, in the farming industry.  And we were seeing a lot of people suffering when, farm succession planning was handled badly. So that book's called Who Gets The Farm? And I love that book. I'm very proud of it. It's helped a lot of farming families. We even sell to people in the UK, even though it's Aussie book, and obviously in America as well. And, once again, I was able to simplify complex information for people. And that's what I did. I did that and I wrote that book weirdly only in two days. I'm, there's two types of creators, well maybe three. People that never get started but have lots of ideas. People who need to do a little bit every day or regularly. And then the others I call the bingers. We're binge creators. I like to just get in and go hard and then I just fall in a heap and have a rest for a few days. So, I don't tell people to binge write their book in my book about book writing, but that just, having a background in writing and communication and technical communication as well.  And how to structure information. I wrote that book to help people. It's very simple. It's just an eBook. I don't think I've even got it as a print book anymore. and I have one more weird book. So, I haven't, I haven't written my soul book. I've been in lots of soul ish books, as a co-contributor, but my other book is on breast reduction surgery, because I find, I just respond to what people ask me. So, I had breast reduction surgery in 2015 and I went from like an I cup to a C cup. I have gone up a bit lately because I've gained weight during the COVID, I call them COVID kilos. 

Ann: Yes.

Ayesha: That book has also helped a lot of people. Like I had a beautiful young Indian girl, couldn't talk to her family about it. She read my book and contacted me and I always respond to people. So, it almost like doesn't matter what you do, right? Like everything you do helps people and, builds your skills. So, I've done lots of weird, weird projects. yeah. And at the moment, interestingly, I'm working, I had a bingy week. So that's what I feel like I can talk about. I was working on the weekend as well. I binge created a, flashcard tarot deck for Deckible, using the 1909 Rider Waite images and then explaining what they mean. So, it's to help people learn how to read tarot and it will be on Deckible. And it's like 200 cards. It's a lot of work and I'm so proud of it. It's really, I put my heart and soul into it.

Ann: That's amazing. When, when will that be available?

Ayesha: As soon as I do the Deckible spreadsheet, if I have time this week, um, so Deckible, I'm not sure when this interview goes live, but Deckible are having a relaunch So I want to have it up by then. And then I want to have a full Tarot deck as well. But as I found Tarot is a lot harder than just doing an affirmation or an Oracle deck because the images are so specific. And because I do like to use unique AI generated, but artistic images. It really, I've done most of a tarot deck, except it just doesn't like pentacles. So now I'm having, and I did the pentacles last in the process. And now I'm like, do I have to change the whole deck? Cause it can't get pentacles or redesign just the suit of pentacles. So, it's been interesting. And I think that that will help me help others doing a tarot deck as well.

Ann: Gosh, yes. All that frustration. Oh no. What a shame. And you left that suite till the end. Oh, my goodness. 

Ayesha: I know. And that's the thing. You never know, like even when you're doing a normal deck, you'll, you may hit a roadblock and have to reassess the whole project at times.

Ann: Yeah, I'm, I'm a sort of creator that if I want to get something done, I will binge it. that's the key for me. That's the way I see a project through to the end. But mostly, unfortunately, I get a project to 75, 80 percent done and then I Take my foot off the gas and my computer is littered with such projects. I don't, I don't know where to start and I'm thinking, Oh, goodness me.

Ayesha: I've got to say, Ann, you're not alone. I have like six decks ready for me to do something with. Um, so I hear you and all I need is a 10%, right? and what I tell people is just pick one and finish that, then pick the next one. and I don't know how people structure their week, but I like to have some time usually on a Monday where I just work on my own projects when my tank is full and there's plenty of stuff in your business that you have to do that's boring. So, I save that for the afternoon and I really put all my creative energy into my, I'm a morning, I'm not an early morning person, but I'm an eight to eight. 8 am to 8 pm person, but I like to do my full creative work earlier in the day. And then in the afternoon, I just do the boring stuff, cut and paste, respond to this and that. So that would be my advice. Like whatever your peak peak creative, energy time is use that, give yourself that gift and don't put people in book yourself in.

Ann: Yeah, I think that's a really, really hot tip as well. And I've noticed myself, if I put myself first every day, I'm so enthusiastic about my day. I can't wait to get started on all the stuff I'm trying to do. And then all the things I have to do for other people, I do put off until later on. So, and if I do it the other way around and I think, oh, I'll just go. Do all this stuff for everybody else first. I kind of run out of steam and I, and things don't really get done, so I'm not the priority.

Ayesha: I feel depleted too, in that scenario, even with my business, I don't see clients till 10 o'clock unless they're in the UK, I see them at 6 pm, but I don't do a lot of UK time because of the children and I've got to feed them and put them to bed. I've already fed them before today's call cause it's early where you are and, it's 7.40 here in Australia.

Ann: Perfect. And you've got two children, Ayesha?

Ayesha: Yes. I've got a boy and a girl. 

Ann: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, a wonderful mother. They must be really lucky to have a mum like you so creative. You must be nurturing that creativity within them as well. 

Ayesha: Sadly, they're not especially creative. 

Ann: Oh, fair enough.

Ayesha: My son is very spiritual. I feel like, you know, some of those children, they're just born and he's an old soul. He looked like an old man when he was born, a cute old man, but still in looking for a baby, gorgeous thing. And like even today, so I started this, I watched, I don't know if anyone else has watched it on Netflix. They have a show called How to Live to A Hundred and it looks at all the blue zones around the world. And what, what helps people live a long life. And there's a lady on there. She's 103 chopping wood with an axe, which I can't do even now. My back would be killing, but the main thing, you know, they talk, they've all got different food and it's all very clean and they all, you know, do lots of activity.

But the main thing was social connection, right? So, I decided to get a volunteer job. Excuse me. and befriend an elderly citizen. So, there's a whole programme. I saw it on Facebook. so, I applied as a volunteer, got my police check. So, my son and I took our new friend out for afternoon tea this afternoon. And my son is just so kind. And I think that's the sort of people that we want to raise. Like kind, he hugged this lady. I don't force my kids to ever hug anyone, but he hugged her and she's probably, she lives alone. She doesn't have any family nearby. It's probably, the only affection she might get, in a long time. There's a reason I'm telling you this. but I see with my son that, he, we want these little spiritual warriors coming forward in the next generation. So, you might not be creative, but he's kind and he's, he's interested in the type of stuff that we are.

Ann: Yeah, that's just beautiful. And that is, that is a mother's job well done. If you can bring a childlike that into the world who is so empathic and kind, that's, you can rest easy after that, I think.

Ayesha: I think I say to my son, I'm not the best mother in the world. I'm not the perfect mother, but I'm the perfect one for him.  Yes. Yeah, that's beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Just the other thing I was going to say, which some people can relate to, I feel like my children chose me and that I chose them. And my son will go, oh, I'm so glad we chose each other. And, as you know, Ann, I've had it, my other child has been very sick mentally and physically. And for the first time in 12 years, we're actually in a really good place. And I think about all the things that I've done to try and get here, and we've had some sort of miracle that I don't really understand, but we have a very happy, calm home now. And I'm just, I know that we might not have got here We hadn't chosen each other to fulfil this path that has been very, very challenging. And I, I was going to show you and the listeners, they can't see it, but I've got this beautiful deck called Finding Grace in Challenging Times and, I binge created this after the worst time of my life and my daughter's name is actually Grace. and so, there's all sorts of ways to create a deck, right? And to put your lived experience in a way, in a format that can help other people. And I've had people that I didn't think we’re going through a rough time; use this deck every day and it helped them. So, I think that's one of the things I love about decks is they, it's the same as books. They live it. In a life of their own beyond you, I had a guy contact me via email, from a different part of Australia and he'd been in hospital in rehab and they'd been doing art therapy with my permission slip deck and he emailed me and ordered two and I never would have encountered this man. He never would have found my website or ordered the deck, but just through some sheer miracle, I guess he encountered the deck. So, if you are thinking of creating a deck, you never know who it's going to help, or where it's going to end up. 

Ann: Yeah, absolutely. It takes a little life of its own. So, we should all pull out of us that which is within and needs to be expressed, I think in some way.  So just finally, Ayesha, do you have any upcoming projects or endeavours that you're particularly excited about that you want to share with us?

Ayesha: I think the main thing is just, I'm still continuing to work with people one on one and in my course and, I have a beautiful Facebook group as well for anyone who's purchased anything of mine. I have 9-dollar image packs. So, if people only want, don't want to join the membership, which is only 7 dollars US a month, and you get like hundreds of images. But if they're not interested in that, you can buy image packs as well. You can have a session with me. I've got tons of things that people can do with me. And for me personally, I'm really wanting to get this tarot deck done. The firstly, the learner, the learner one flashcard type one, and then something really stunning. I'm really into Boho style at the moment. Um, so it's going to be a Boho deck very feminine. And, you know, I like pretty things and some tarot decks are a bit scary for me.

Ann: They can be can't they, they can't be a little bit threatening in the images. Hmm.

Ayesha: Yeah. So, and I know that's a whole niche in itself, but I want to make things that are really beautiful in the future. In a lighter way, that can be good too.

Ann: Yeah. And you also do this lovely monthly cup of tea with people where we just gather together on Zoom.

Ayesha: That's a bit... having a cuppa. Yeah. We have a creators cuppa. This is Aussies. Aussies love tea as well. And I used to have a tea business. So, I'm into tea, so I thought rather than calling it a Q&A call or something like that, I, it's just a cuppa and it's very casual and very informative though. And I learned as much from the participants as you know, I share with them because we've all got different experiences with different printers and stuff like that. So, 

Ann: Yeah, it is, it's fun. It's really interesting because you get to, you, you're really good as a facilitator as well. You allow everybody to express and you encourage everybody to take part equally and we're able to say what we're creating, what we're working on. And you also give a little bit of advice on that and other people can chip in and say, oh, try this company or try it this way, try it that way. So, it's a really supportive community that you've built.

Ayesha: It is very lovely. I've got to say, I feel very blessed and yeah, I do try and create an inclusive community, that where people feel safe to share their creative projects, because, when you're putting something out there and sharing with other people, it can be a bit nerve wracking for some people, but at the same time, we get it on the call. We understand what a momentous thing it is to have created a deck and we get to celebrate that with people. And often their own family won't understand it in the way that we do as fellow creators. 

Ann: Yeah, that's just beautiful. So, Ayesha, where can people find you? Give us your website.

Ayesha: So alas, I have a very hard to spell name. So, um, so you spell Ayesha, A Y E S H A and then Hilton, and then you can go just to dot com. I sort of run two websites in parallel. So, I have my Ayesha Hilton website. And then I have my Academy just because that's on a learning platform. And, you know, so if you can Google me, I come up like on the first three pages of Google. So, and I'm sure you'll put the links underneath anyway Ann, cause, uh, even my own family can't spell my name sometimes.

Ann: Bless you. Of course, all the links will be, uh, in the show notes for this episode. And do you have social media platforms as well? 

Ayesha: I have, I have them all except. TikTok, which I'm going to try and embrace, but yeah, you can find me, just on all the platforms. I really like Instagram at the moment because it's just more creative than Facebook in some ways, but you get better engagement on Facebook, so you got to do both.

Ann: Yeah. It's interesting, isn't it? Listen, thank you so much for coming onto Psychic Matters and just sharing all your knowledge and giving us so much inspiration that we can bring out our own creator within. Thank you, Ayesha.

Ayesha: Well, thank you. And I'd love it if we get a few people from your community to make decks and then we can have a little promo of your listeners. That would be fun.

Ann: Oh, that would be amazing. Yeah, absolutely. Come on guys. Get your decks made. Bless you Ayesha. Thank you. And I'll see you soon.

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