For today’s blog I sat down with my sister Ruane Sibley. Ruane has been part of the solu/n.o.w. team nearly from the beginning, and is integral to our success in helping people understand and use the simple, profound, life-changing tool of the n.o.w. Tones. And, it’s nice to get a perspective other than my own every once in a while!!!
HEY Ruane! First, tell us when you started with solu.
2017. When I was approached to become part of solu, still in its very early stages (the first production run was being manufactured then), I was ready for a change! I was looking for work that would actually give back to others, work that was more in alignment with how I wanted to show up in the world.
The previous job I was in as a retail manager, I had to create ways to show up authentically. The shift to solu just felt like moving into a natural part of my being—it was pretty incredible. My sister Alene and her partner Michael approached me with this new and exciting, no-guarantees opportunity, all of us putting ourselves on the line—it was an unintentional startup and, with the addition of me, we became a team of 3 people. Three people on a mission.
How would you define your position with solu?
It’s so interesting. We call me a lot of different things… and I am so many different things. First of all, I completely run the shop—the ecommerce. The simplest title for me is Customer Connector, however this is an ever-changing and evolving job that is not really a position at all. I am Michael’s primary support person, I run the store, do any voice-over work required, I work in PR and retail connections, and I also voice and work one of our solu puppets!
It’s fun for me that every day is different. I could be doing voice for a commercial, or working on our next product, or talking to a doctor about best use practices for the n.o.w. Tone System. It really goes on and on.
What is one of your favorite aspects of the job?
I LOVE talking to customers and connecting—it is really my favorite part. I have some of the most touching, meaningful conversations. It actually is super moving to hear how their lives have opened up since starting with the Tones, or where there has been release of pain, release of limitations, and just the introduction to peace for so many.
Customer communication includes smoothing out issues for someone who is frustrated, for example a shipping issue gone awry. To really engage with that person to the point that by the time we hang up there is joy between us, where before they had a level of buyer-stress—this is an amazing feeling.
What does an average workday look like for you?
An average workday—they all look different. But every single day starts with customer care: answering questions, calls, emails, shipping, then I talk to our partners. First Michael and I check in with each other, always, for our daily brainstorm session. Jeff, our CFO (and who has grown into an integral team member in all aspects of the business), and James, our tech and security expert, are often needed; they hold keys to areas of expertise that I just don’t have. They are always available to me, and are amazing.
Alene and I check in pretty fluidly. No structure there, never has been since the day I was born, completely open-ended, natural and without expectation.
Tell us something about your personal relationship with the Tones.
Ohhh…. Okay. Super interesting. At the beginning I certainly could hear why they were so special, and for the first year or two I would listen to them sometimes. Yet I always believed in their effectiveness 100%. Then, after about 2 years of working with them, suddenly another level of understanding opened up to where every time I listened I was having a personal relationship with the Tones.
To this day new understandings, and things that never happened before during listening sessions, come to light. And it’s always exactly what I need.
It’s crazy that I can still be surprised by them, but I am. Every day.
Can you share some of your interactions with customers?
There is a general essence to customer stories—first in that n.o.w. users want to share successes and surprises with us, unsolicited. Like, a customer who wears a Fitbit told me that she can see that her blood pressure has come down as a direct result of listening to the Tones. There was a Hospice worker who told us about someone’s parent who was passing; the family laid the n.o.w. Tone Therapy System on her chest let the Tone’s play as they all listened. I was told how peaceful and beautiful it was that she left the earth while the Tones played—this affected me deeply.
Though difficult, one of my favorite stories of all time is from an extraordinary social worker who is a customer of ours. She handed the speakers to a teen girl who was emotionally shut down and uncommunicative due to trauma. While the girl held and listened, apparently she began to visibly relax and became able to try speaking and sharing. This actually had given me tears.
Another good one is from a grandmother who was really excited to share that she had brought n.o.w. as a gift to her family. They had a new baby who had trouble sleeping. On this visit, the baby was restless and making noises. She played the Tones, and suddenly the baby had gone to sleep.
Recently, there has been a new trend in feedback: I am hearing more stories of how people are using the Tones with consciousness-work, as in journeying beyond the mind. This is very exciting, and is independently happening more of the time now. Interesting.
From your acquired sage position, where you actually talk to people who struggle in the myriad of ways that life can present, what advice can you give to people?
I would say that my main advice for people is to know that they have everything they need inside of them, to completely trust themselves. What I tell them about n.o.w. these days is that it is opening them up to what they already have within them, it’s bringing them back into this—it’s giving a doorway to access those points and then they can take over. It is more of access to what they have than it being that n.o.w. is giving them anything.
I believe that is the answer, really, for everybody. We need these tools right now to open to these deeper places in ourselves.
n.o.w. is a tranformative product, and you work with it very closely. Is there anything different about you now than when you started with the company four years ago?
I guess I did not know, back then: I am the creator of my own experience. This is something I definitely did not know then that I know now. The more peace I carry within myself is the more peace that I can bring through my work and my personal interactions as well as in my own space.
I am grateful.
And we are grateful too, to have Ruane with us. Thank you Ruane! And thanks readers, for reading!! –Alene
Please try a 3-minute sample experience of the n.o.w. Tones for yourself by clicking here.
