#people will say phone calls are more efficient because you get an immediate answer. they're fucking lying.

[draconicace]

been waiting on a phone call all day and still waiting on it. this could have been an email. and if it was an email i wouldn't have to watch my phone like a hawk

[coldespy]

Plumbers Can Use Social Media to Help Their Businesses

Plumbers Can Use Social Media to Help Their Businesses

Plumbing has long been a face-to-face profession, with technicians visiting people's homes, standing in front of the problem, and remaining to remedy it. However, business does not always take place in person. Because 54% of social users explore products and services on SEO & digital marketing agency before purchasing, having a strong social media presence is critical to developing your plumbing business – especially if you're a one-man show.

Here are a few strategies for making social media work for you so you can take your business to the next level.

1. Listen to what your customers are saying and act on their feedback.

Plumbers frequently receive evaluations on social media, notably on Facebook. As clients post about their experiences and assess your business, you can learn what makes them pleased and how you can improve any potential weak points in your service.

78% of consumers trust internet reviews as much as a referral from a friend, colleague, family member, or acquaintance, and 57% will only utilize a business if it has four or more stars. Knowing what your consumers think can help you improve your business, resulting in more favorable evaluations and a larger client base in the long term.

2. Online Customer Support

Every customer does not have time to make a phone call. Help clients identify their problems online and provide advice on how to maintain their plumbing system working efficiently. If necessary, explain your plumbing services in further detail. A modest amount of time spent answering someone's inquiry can go a long way. And, as any business owner knows, any complaints should be handled immediately and sympathetically.

You can better control your reputation and portray yourself as a friendly and proactive plumber by nurturing consumers with good customer service online and in person.

Tip: You don't have to answer to every remark or review, but you should contact someone if they need help or write a nasty review. Remove the chat from public view by providing a customer support email or phone number.

3. Make it easier to connect with the right audience

One thing to consider is where your target demographic spends their time online. You want to make sure you're not wasting your time, money, or both on the sites they're on.

Are your clients getting older? Instagram and Twitter might be your best bets. If they're more mature, they could look into Facebook. Promote deals and share photos of your staff and craftsmanship. Inform them of the poster's identity. People enjoy connecting with other people and enterprises to whom they can relate.

[devouredbyflame]

Yes, Loki definitely can be confusing intentionally. He has led me down endless spirals that go nowhere only for me to realize they're going nowhere and I back up and see that it was all one big misunderstanding. That went on for years, of course, until I finally understood things I needed to and He didn't need to do that as much anymore.

I also meant to say that using your instincts instead of immediately jumping to divination is much better in the long run. Use divination to confirm your instincts due to previous biases but not determine whether or not you should do things. Experiencing the Divine is intensely empathetic. You're going to want to get in touch with your own feelings before relying on other devices to tell you these sorts of things. I know Loki gets annoyed whenever I used to make too many tarot spreads about the same question or use the pendulum to answer instead of my own mind.

He does understand, I think, if you're fuzzy or anxious and in my case, I get inside my own head. It's easier for Him to unravel if you yourself know what you're experiencing and why you're experiencing it. He can guide you, but only if you're willing to know yourself.

Also in regards to setting up your shrine - it's not that He's not going to hear you until you build it properly. He will listen. He tells me it's like knowing the difference between spam and a real phone call - once His name is on your lips, He's listening. But whether it goes to voicemail is another thing entirely. Like you can imagine how many spam calls He gets a day because of the MCU among other pop culture, but He's more involved when people speak His name and want Him to be aware.

If you think of His vibes before making a shrine as a cloud, where the molecules are spread out over a vast space, a shrine would be more like a storm cloud. Each time you use it, it builds pressure and it forms into rain given the right temperature and eventually that rain makes a puddle and the puddle forms into ice. The ice doesn't go anywhere unless the environment becomes inconsistent and the cycle starts all over again unless the environment below is stable. It could also go back and forth between being ice and a puddle, or it can go back and forth between being a puddle and being rain.

You can't touch a cloud - though it's there and if you did, little tiny droplets of water would form on your hand if you stay there long enough. If you've ever flown through a storm cloud, you'd know the windows get very wet. And if you're walking in the rain, you'll also get wet. Once it starts to snow, it can create more palpable things you can hold in your hand and then ice, obviously.

In this analogy,

the weather = the way you work while using the shrine (given that you stay there, light the candle, speak to the Gods there),

how fast weather changes = the quality of time you spend at the shrine

the temperature = the amount of energy and time you spend making it mean something to the Divine (because energy+time=manifestation)

consistency of the water molecules = the kind of manifestation that forms as a result of all of the above

Hopefully that makes a bit more sense. The point being, He's always listening, there's just different variables that ascertain the quality of His experiencing you and your experiencing Him that depend on other environmental and circumstantial factors. Efficient vs. inefficient - not moral vs. immoral, good vs. bad, love vs. hate.

Good morning! It’s Ari, again.

I might drop by to DM sometime, but since I’m about to work, I didn’t want to be rude and just DM/start a conversation to throw questions at you and run off lol I’d rather DM to get to know someone if that makes sense. I thought it might be more appropriate to drop little questions here if any really drive me nuts while I’m reading your blog in the meantime.

If I ever ask anything you don’t want to share, feel free to say so! I’m trying to understand what I’ve read you say about finding your path yourself and avoiding echo chambers when you should be learning from the Divine, so I’m gonna try to limit my questions, but between my having ADHD, anxiety, and just generally being kind of detail-oriented, I still find myself fixated on specific details a lot

So with that ramble out of the way (sorry, I’m kinda long-winded, I’m sure you noticed in my email lol) my actual question(s) for today!:

(I see how long this got, so for a summary, this jumble of questions is about the likenesses of Deities you mention putting on altars)

In your first post about altar creation, I saw you say one of the things you need is a likeness of the Deity you’re making it for. It might be a silly question, but what really counts as a “likeness”? Is it just anything made with the intention of being His likeness? Or are we supposed to make an intuitive guess? I could see maybe going by personal UPG, but assuming we’re just starting out and not confident in anything like that, trying to make the altar to connect in the first place, I’m wondering how we know what we’re looking for.

Since I’m not able to practice openly at home, but my family knows I was a bigger fan of Hiddleston Loki than the MCU itself, I was thinking of finding a good/affordable figure of MCU Loki. So if the owner of the household rifles through my things, as she’s prone to do, and she finds a candle, a marvel figure and a couple of (to her) random things in a box, she’s more likely to think it’s just a box of knickknacks. But I’m afraid this will be seen as some kind of joke, I don’t want to be too familiar, in case I’ve been wrong about my connecting to Him so far.

Final thought- do Deities even really have human-looking appearances? I see Loki appearing differently to different people, especially as a shapeshifter, but is it really a thing that any of Them look a certain way? Like I’ve read you talk about meeting Him face-to-face when He has possessed people in front of you, and how He’s your roommate/in-and-out-of-your-body way of being with you now. But is there a way you “see” Him? And is that a way He’s appeared to you, in a dream or meditation or something, or is it just kinda a creative idea of how He looks?

Sorry for the length, and any errors! I’d stop to edit it down and fix run-on sentences, but I’m already kinda late starting work (oops). So I hope you have a good day! Hopefully I’ll have time to actually chat this weekend, if you’re open to that!

Hi Ari! You're totally fine. I love answering questions so give me what you got and I can do my best to further clarify for you. And also, I am ADHD so I 100% understand the need for detail-oriented clarification. My numerous questions is how I got to where I am today because I would ask Loki so many things about how stuff works so I can better grasp the nature of the concept. I am more than delighted to share what I've learned, how it works, and why it's been successful and that's kind of the point of my being here.

My answers are also really long-winded and mostly because I have a lot of knowledge and experiences and very few places to share it so bear with me.

So, in regards to the likeness question, I would say anything that is made with the intention of it being the Deity in question would be the best point of reference. However, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be an obvious representation, just something that is synonymous with Their energy. Like, if you had a candle vaguely in the shape of the Deity in question or a clay model, a doll, or a picture that reminds you of Them, that also works. The purpose is to draw the energy of that particular Deity into the shrine which means you would need to "open the door" to both sides. Like, the Deity would need to know it is for Them as well as you so you can look at it and go, "ah, yes, that is the God in question." You would think They wouldn't care because They know your heart and your intention, but it is easiest when the object is designed with the God in mind.

That being said, I personally had MCU Loki on my altar for a year or two when I first began, knowing Loki probably was aware of my situation and that I needed to be closeted until I had my own place to live. I don't think it would necessarily be a problem if you have Tom Hiddleston instead of Loki Himself. When I got my own place, I got Him a statue carved out of wood and quite a bit of art by various artists I've found who I think draw Him really well.

The whole debate about whether or not Loki cares for MCU Loki itself is complex and I can possibly get into that in more detail if anyone is ever interested. But based on my experiences with Him, He has indicated that no, He doesn't really care for it to be on your shrine. It's fine if that's what you need to be conspicuous. He only really seems to care if you don't ask Him if it's okay. The point, I think, He wants to make is that by asking Him His opinion, He will make it okay because you gave Him your reasoning and didn't just assume. Which makes sense considering a shrine is a Deity's possession and not a devotee's after the point of making it a shrine. So, as long as you're asking His permission to use it on His shrine, I think that's absolutely clear with Him.

I cannot speak for Him, but I sincerely doubt He would ever wish to put you in the way of any danger when it comes to His shrine being made. However, I know Him to be very possessive of His belongings and prefers giving His consent with certain things. If you invite Him when creating a shrine, He will more than likely give you a sense of what you need to be doing for Him and whether or not it's okay. If you don't trust that, using a pendulum, flipping a coin, or other "yes/no" random generators are helpful. I wouldn't worry too much that you are afraid of insulting Him just because you don't have an option.

Just don't ask Him multiple times the same question because that's when He starts giving false answers. It can get aggravating but typically He doesn't like having only one-sided answers and would prefer to say both "yes" and "no" because He tends to swing both ways when talking about the nature of Himself as well as the Gods since it's never only ever just one single way.

I think He does mind Tom Hiddleston being used as His likeness if you have no reason to hide your shrine and if you don't ask His permission to so so He may say "no" but then "yes" later on given His consent and an explanation of your reasoning.

Now, I don't know your situation, obviously, and there's no reason for you to get into more detail about it to some random stranger on the internet but I will point out that having a shrine is a lot less obvious than you would think. People won't know what they are looking at if they are not pagan. I kept my shrine on my desk for the years I was closeted and my ex who was an atheist as well as my Christian parents did not know what they were looking at unless I specifically told them what it was. Even then, they were confused. I think unless the people you live with know what a pagan is or what a shrine should be, you likely are going to be fine even if they go through your belongings.

I recommend keeping it in a shoe box somewhere or an even smaller box that's tucked away somewhere no one will get to it even if they are looking. It's probably for the best regardless because it would keep other energy from getting to it that would be less than savory and could interrupt the energetic transaction between Loki and yourself.

Also, in regards to appearances, no, Loki does not have a physical appearance whatsoever. He is energy and energy does not have a form that we can see clearly with our two eyes. He likes to call Himself an "orb of light" and that He "floats around all day and does not do much of anything on this physical plane except wait around for stuff to happen."

I have seen Him manifest physically before but it is not human-like nor is it remotely something that is a common occurrence. It looks like glimmers of golden light that shines in the corner of my eye and flashes before it can ever be seen fully. My cats see Him all the time, actually, and watch as He zooms around the apartment and plays with them since cats have a keener sense of vision than we do.

So, no, He does not have any actual human-like qualities. However, it is my understanding that the way we perceive Him is translated by various triggers in our brain. Just like how we visualize a person as they are described that we haven't seen before, Loki essentially has a means to assist people with seeing Him who may have trouble recognizing who He is so He gives a common appearance. He's explained to me that when it's important for someone to know who they are looking at, He will appear to them as a lanky ginger with long red hair, golden eyes and pointed ears. But if it's not, then He can show up as anyone He wants to in any way.

So I suppose it's both the way He wants to be seen and also our own brains piecing together visuals that He triggers and we conceptualize as vaguely human but very obviously not given the amount of energy that resonates off of Him. So it's both intentional that He looks the same way to a lot of people while also being intentional when He doesn't. Regardless of where, how, and why He manifests, though, He feels the exact same way all the time and you'll know who He is just by being in His presence. So, I suppose, also, it doesn't truly matter about what He looks like on your shrine.

I hope that answers your questions (probably more info than you ever asked for) but I'm always open to clarifying things here and otherwise and that goes with anyone who stumbles on my blog. That's why I'm here. Also, yes, please DM whenever you want! I love meeting people. It's my favorite. Talking about this shit is my jam.