Why Good Mediums Never Feel Good Enough — and Why That's a Sign You're Doing It Right
- Hannah Macintyre
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Why is it that you can give a sitter twenty pieces of accurate evidence, watch them leave genuinely happy, and still walk away convinced you didn't give enough?
That's the question Jody sent in — a practising medium who's brought through healings, turned sceptics into believers, and racked up validation after validation, yet keeps feeling that without a single mind-blowing "eureka" moment, none of it counts. Is it low self-worth, she asks, or would more have come through if more were meant?
It's one of the most relatable questions a developing medium can ask, and Hannah's answer flips the whole thing on its head: that nagging not-enoughness isn't a flaw to fix. It might be the very thing keeping you good.
Listen to the Episode
Welcome to Mediumship, Jody
Hannah's first response is warm rather than corrective — an arm round the shoulder, not a fix.
"Welcome to mediumship. And I'm not being snarky by that."
Because Jody isn't alone. Not-enoughness rears its head in mediumship far more often than it should, and almost every medium worth their salt knows the feeling intimately. Hannah once asked her Elevate students to actually count the pieces of evidence they'd given in a reading — and the results were startling. What felt like "not enough" in the moment turned out, on the page, to be twenty specific, accurate hits.
"You look back and you think, bloody hell, that was 20 bits of specific evidence I gave that sitter."
The Mediums Who Think They're Good Enough
Here's where Hannah says the thing most teachers won't. She'd love to phrase it in a more love-and-light way, but she can't, so she says it straight: in her experience, the mediums who are quietly certain they're good enough are very often the ones giving rubbish readings.
"The mediums I have met that think they are good enough, quite often, have given me really rubbish readings."
She's quick to add the caveat — there are exceptions, so nobody needs to fire off an indignant email — but as a general rule, the hunger to do better is what keeps you on the leading edge. The moment you decide you've done well enough, you take your foot off the gas. And isn't the best work always found in the striving — in pushing past your own boundaries to reach for that one specific, breathtaking piece of evidence?
So not-enoughness is genuinely dual-purpose. It will rob you of joy if you let it, because you'll pick over every reading wondering if you could have done better. But it's also the engine that makes you work harder and refuse to settle.
The Energy of a Yes
Before assuming the dissatisfaction is all hers, Hannah raises something she wants Jody to check: is she actually getting her sitters into the energy of a yes?
Because people have a habit of going quiet in front of a medium. They'll nod, they'll smile, you can read the recognition in their body language — but a nod is not the same as a spoken "yes." And something genuinely shifts in a sitter when they say it out loud.
"When people sit in front of a medium… they can nod, they can smile… but that is not the same as them saying yes."
That spoken stream of yes, yes, that makes sense does something to a person. They start to truly register the value of what they're receiving — and that's the very space a sitter needs to be in to create the magic. So the question turns gently back: is it always Jody who's unsatisfied, or is she sometimes longing for her sitter to step into that out-loud, can't-believe-this energy?
The Trouble With Eureka Moments
Then there's the eureka moment itself — and Hannah completely understands the craving for it. There is nothing more gratifying than handing someone a piece of evidence so right, so specific, that it's like they've been struck by lightning. You feel the electricity too; it gives you a huge hit of energy.
But here's the catch: lightning bolts don't strike every time. They're actually rarer than the ordinary reading where someone says a quiet thank-you and leaves. And once you've tasted that high, you start chasing it everywhere — which she illustrates with one of the most charming asides in the whole series.
"It's like me with chocolate. I've always loved chocolate. I probably should never have had that first taste, because ever since then, it's never been enough."
She tells the story of being given an unexpected Easter egg at school as a child, not telling her parents, smuggling it home, and curling up in the gap under her dressing table where the stool went — devouring it in seconds. No chocolate has ever tasted as good since. That, she says, is exactly the problem with eureka moments: once you know you're capable of one, you want one every single time.
The Quiet Sitters Who Change Their Lives
But — and this is the heart of it — a reading without a thunderbolt is not a lesser reading. So much of it comes down to the sitter's personality. Hannah describes the casual sort who meet everything with a flat "yeah, that makes sense, yeah," until it feels like you're reading a shopping list rather than blowing their mind.
"Did you get eggs? Yeah. Bacon, yeah. Sunflower, yeah."
They're yeses — but with none of the crackle. And those, she's found, are frequently the very people who email afterwards to say their lives were changed, that the reading was beyond their wildest expectations. Some people, when they get close to that electric energy, don't radiate it back at you. They absorb it and sit quietly with it. The lack of fireworks in the room tells you nothing about the impact.
Nobody Knows the Secret Sauce
Then Hannah offers something genuinely rare in this field: an admission that she doesn't have it all figured out. Mediumship is an experiment. It's never constant, never the same two days running, and sometimes — for reasons of your energy, the sitter's energy, or how well you blend with a particular spirit's personality — it simply isn't going to be cooking on gas.
"There have been people that I have done 10 out of 10 readings for, and there have been people that I've done five out of 10 readings for, and I can't honestly tell you what the difference is."
There are people walking around who think she's phenomenal, and people who think she's distinctly average — and she calls that fair. She doesn't know what the secret sauce is. It's the same with audiences: the night she's sure will be electric falls flat as a pancake, and the room she dreads turns out to be the best of her life. That unpredictability is mediumship.
Why She'd Rather Demonstrate Than Read One-to-One
A candid moment follows that doubles as practical insight. After more than a decade with spirit — long enough that she's lost track of exactly how long — Hannah has, only in the last year, finally started to recognise that she's a good medium. Not that it's always phenomenal, not that she never gets a five-out-of-ten link, but that she knows she's capable of a ten when the alignment of time, space, spirit, sitter and self is there. It no longer holds her back.
It's also why she prefers demonstrating to one-to-one readings. With a difficult energy in a demonstration, you do your bit and move on. In a one-to-one, you're in it for the duration.
"There's nothing worse than glancing at the clock when you feel like you're 20 minutes into a half an hour and realising it's been six minutes."
That's not the sitter's fault — but it isn't hers either. Sometimes you just don't gel with someone perfectly nice, and the same is true of spirits. Without rapport, there's a ceiling on what's possible, because rapport with the spirit is the job.
Honour Yourself for How Hard This Is
So Hannah's message to Jody, and to anyone carrying that same weight, is to honour herself for how well she's doing in a job that is permanently, structurally difficult. People imagine psychics predict the future, but there's nothing predictable here at all. She walks into venues with no idea how the night will go; you sit down with a sitter with no idea how the reading will unfold.
"There is zero comfort in mediumship, but you can just and only do the best that you can do and forgive yourself being imperfect."
The not-enoughness, in the end, isn't the enemy. It's the price of caring enough to keep getting better — and the people who've stopped feeling it are rarely the ones you'd want to sit with.
Key Takeaways From This Episode
Feeling you "didn't give enough" is near-universal among good mediums
Mediums certain they're already good enough often give the weakest readings
That hunger to improve is what keeps you on your leading edge
Get sitters into the spoken "energy of a yes" — a nod isn't the same
Eureka moments are rare by nature; chasing one every time sets you up to feel you failed
The quietest sitters are often the ones whose lives are most changed
Even experienced mediums get five-out-of-ten readings and can't say why
Rapport with the spirit is the job — without it, there's a natural ceiling
Honour yourself, do your best, and forgive yourself for being imperfect
About Hannah Macintyre
Hannah Macintyre is an evidential medium, spiritual teacher, author and host of the Mediumship Matters podcast. She supports students around the world through mediumship training, spiritual development programmes and Spirit Social, her conscious platform for spiritual connection and growth.
Explore Hannah's books, courses and spiritual development resources through her website and online community platforms.
Listen to More Mediumship Matters Episodes
Explore more conversations around evidential mediumship, spirit communication, mediumship development, self-worth, imposter syndrome, evidence and validation, demonstrations and spiritual growth.
And if you'd like to deepen your own spiritual development in a grounded and supportive environment, Hannah also offers online programmes, workshops and community experiences designed to help developing mediums build confidence, resilience and trust in their connection with spirit.
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