Advice Column
Uplifting reminders to connect with the best in yourself, others, and the world!
With so much negativity in the world, we can use some inspiration. Join us as we spend a few moments reflecting on the wisdom and beauty around us.
If we are just meeting, thank you for stopping by!
I’m Lisa and I’m glad you’re here. When I was just an eight-year-old kid, my dad used to play motivational stories on cassette tapes as we’d zip around in his sports car on the weekend. From that age I have been drawn to inspirational stories.
Today, with so much negativity in the media and increasing disconnection with one another as a society, I’m more convinced than ever that we need positivity. I created Advice Column to remind you of the virtue you possess.
Join me for a bi-monthly newsletter and podcast conversations that inspire you to connect with the best in yourself, others, and the world!
Advice Column is a nonprofit 501(c)3. Thanks for joining me in this project so we can encourage one another along the journey!
Warmly, Lisa Liguori
Advice Column
Create your Life Vision
Do you feel overwhelmed when you try to create life goals? Jennifer Hudye will help you create a vision + message that inspires people to take action. She does this through a combination of direct response marketing, discovering what the company's unique message and vision is they are here to share, and the belief that marketing should leave people better than when we found them.
If we are just meeting, thank you for stopping by!
I’m Lisa and I’m glad you’re here. When I was just an eight-year-old kid, my dad used to play motivational stories on cassette tapes as we’d zip around in his sports car on the weekend. From that age I have been drawn to inspirational stories.
Today, with so much negativity in the media and increasing disconnection with one another as a society, I’m more convinced than ever that we need positivity. I created Advice Column to remind you of the virtue you possess.
Join me for a bi-monthly newsletter and podcast conversations that inspire you to connect with the best in yourself, others, and the world!
Advice Column is a nonprofit 501(c)3. Thanks for joining me in this project so we can encourage one another along the journey!
Meet the Advice Column Panel
Justin Reden
Justin is a husband and the father of two wonderful daughters. He owns a law firm in San Diego, CA, and his many hobbies include mountain biking and beekeeping. Reden enjoys strategy, including pondering life and has a great love for people.
Brad Tunis
Brad left his career as a hospital administrator to support people through his training as a highly sought after Hypnotherapist and Mindfulness Coach. He enjoys surfing and riding gravel bikes with his wife, Sarah.
Lisa Liguori
The founder of the Advice Column Podcast, Lisa is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and adventurer. She loves to host game nights, pilot a small plane, and write in her journal. She loves hearing what others are learning in their life's journey and to share what she is working through.
Rico Molden
The producer of Advice Column's live steam events, Rico is a filmmaker and storyteller. Rico and his wife have two young children and are actively involved in their church.
Meet Advice Column's Guest
Jennifer Hudye
Vivid Vision Expert, Jeniffer helps entrepreneurs and business owners create a vision + message that inspires people to take action.
Link to the Vivid Vision Mindmap
Connect with the host, Lisa Liguori:
Website: https://lisaliguori.com
Connect with us at Advice Column:
Website: https://advicecolumn.com/
Instagram: @advicecolumnpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAdviceColumnPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChYmoafMFOeL7HCNWrXPkJQ
There's plenty of negativity in the world, so at Advice Column, we share uplifting reminders and tools to connect with the best in yourself, others and the world. Welcome, friend. Hello, I'm Lisa Ligori and, on behalf of Justin Reeden and Brad Tunes, we want to welcome you to Advice Column, where we share uplifting reminders to connect to the best in yourself, others and the world. If you're thinking about making any kind of change in your life maybe because it's New Year's time or your birthday or a major life transition you might be thinking about the sort of traditional approaches to goal setting or setting resolutions. But our guest today has a really fun and powerful way of helping people create a vivid vision for their future, and it's a different kind of approach.
Speaker 1:The reason I think it's so neat is there's a saying that everything happens twice first in your mind and then in reality. So she's going to help us, walk us through how to create that vision that then gives us the motivation and the clarity to move toward those changes. So if you find yourself asking what's next or what am I meant to do, and you're in that flux, this is going to be a great episode for you. One of the things I'm really excited to learn from her is how to unblock the things that, once we have that vision, could get in the way of us achieving it. So let's dive right in.
Speaker 1:Well, jennifer. This time of year, people are really thinking about their future as well, as if they're in a major milestone in their life or their birthday. Sometimes people ponder about this, but it seems like some of the methods of goal setting are very structured and kind of hate to use the term left brain, but kind of left brain, and you've got a really interesting approach that's very different. So how did this come to be and how do you share with people a kind of more creative way to envision their future?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the process that I use and I teach, we've guided thousands of leaders through over the last seven years, is called the vivid vision process, and it actually came about back. The origin of it is back in 1998, there was this entrepreneur named Brian Scootamore who is the founder of a company called 1-800-GOT-JUNK, and he was plateaued in his business for about eight years in a row and attended this mastermind group where there was an Olympic athlete that came and spoke to the group of business owners and this Olympic athlete went on to share how he had won multiple gold medals over the course of his career and the single most potent tool or process he used was visualization, and there are now a lot of studies at Harvard, at Stanford, that actually back up that there's a part of our brain that are subconscious part of our brain doesn't know the difference between what is imagined and what's real, and so we can start to program our brain into our desired future. So a lot of athletes were using this process of visualization, but they were using it in the sense of visualizing them performing the sport and visualizing themselves with precision and doing it. But this Olympic athlete thought well, why wouldn't I just visualize myself on the podium with the gold medals around my neck as the anchor to the actual result that I want. And so, for Brian, this light bulb moment went off for him and he thought, wow, I should use this for my business.
Speaker 2:And so he went on and, although he had plateaued at about a million dollars a year, eight years in a row, he developed this vivid vision for his company and mapped out exactly what he wanted it to look like in vivid detail, from his culture to his team, to their, the products and services and everything. Really asking the question if I was to go into a time machine three years into the future and paint a vivid picture of exactly what I want the business to look like, what does it look like? And so fast forward. He went on to build. They reached over a hundred million dollars in revenue in that three year time period. They were featured in Oprah. They were named as one of the top companies in all of Canada for company culture.
Speaker 2:But they used that vivid vision as an anchor, and so I ended up learning about best concept back in 2015. And I applied it to my own business and also my own life and just saw extraordinary results. So I am an entrepreneur, so I was bootstrapping my business. I was, I had, I didn't have a team, I was virtually unknown in my industry and I took the time to really imagine what I wanted my business to look like three years into the future.
Speaker 2:But I also imagine what I wanted my health to look like, my relationships, and really painted the picture and vivid detail and within I would say about six months, so much of that vision started to come true in the ways that I could at least expect. One of the examples was I wanted to really work with some of the top thought leaders in the personal development space and within six months, even though I was virtually unknown in my industry, I had had all of those people. We came clients, so I became a firm believer in it and then, over the last seven years, partnered with different entrepreneurs to help thousands of leaders across the world with not only their businesses but their personal lives with this vivid vision concept.
Speaker 1:When someone is trying to create a vivid vision, do you ever have with your clients that they kind of feel blocked because it seems so expansive to be able to imagine anything?
Speaker 2:All the time. Yeah, so many of so much of the world has grown up in society being told that you can't have what you want. You got to be realistic, you got to follow the path of whatever parents, teachers, larger authority figures deem as whatever that path is. And so I've found that there's I mean there's a lot of baggage that comes along with this idea of wanting what you want and casting a vision for the future, and we've sort of codified it into seven. There's seven key blocks that we see people run into that stand in the way of them getting clarity of their vision. That, even before going into those, the an important piece to think about it or a lens to look at it through, is that oftentimes people think of the vision as something somewhere out there, like someday, one day I will arrive at this thing, and they go looking to looking for their vision as if they lost their keys somewhere.
Speaker 2:And I solely believe that our vision is already inside of us. If you look at an acorn and an oak tree, that acorn, even though you can fit it in your hand, has the exact codes and insights in order to develop into a large oak tree. It does not mean that every single acorn is going to become a big oak tree. Right, it needs to be planted. It needs the right water, the right sunlight, a lot of organization to ensure that it can become what its potential is. And I believe the same is true for human beings, as we all have that unique vision inside of us, and when it comes to removing the blocks, it's less about looking for that, looking outside of ourselves, but rather of okay, what are the blocks that are just standing in the way between me and my vision that's already inside of myself, and viewing it as that.
Speaker 1:That's a really neat way to look at it.
Speaker 4:I have a question Lisa. Yeah, Jennifer, you said there's. I think you said there's seven blocks usually, or seven groups of blocks. I'm actually trying to do the vision thing myself, like I'm in the process and I blocked, and I think, one of my blocks and I don't know if it's one of the sevens. Maybe you can just use my situation as a talking point. But I'm like afraid to envision what I think I want, because I'm like, well, what if I don't achieve it? Right? It's like it's like this self-limiting block and so it's like I feel like I know what I want it to look like, but I don't really want to vision that, because then I don't want to commit to it, because then I don't want to fail at it right?
Speaker 2:Is that common or common? Yeah, and I do it. Can I ask a couple of questions around that?
Speaker 4:Yeah, please, I hope you fix it here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you said you're afraid to cast a vision, because what if you cast it and it doesn't come true? And so I'm curious what you know? There's that sense of just that big F word failure. Well, what are you afraid would happen if you quote unquote, failed. What's underneath of that?
Speaker 4:Just personal feelings probably. It's not like I'm not worried that I'm going to like fall and hit the ground or other people are going to be injured by it financially, I'm just. It's just a personal failure thing.
Speaker 2:And what would that mean about you, that I'm insecure. Possibly anything else.
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 2:And so the invitation there would be really getting to like getting under the hood of that of you know, because oftentimes and I see this a lot in my work as people will put blanket statements over things and then just avoid it. So one of the other blocks and I'll round back to yours in a moment is simply just saying, or I don't know what I want, and by people saying I just I don't know what I want, that oftentimes avoidance is a really convenient confusion, is a very convenient cover up for avoidance. Really, they do know what they want. But if they stated what they want, then there's the fear of rejection, there's the fear of what others will think, the fear of failure, and so much of the work is getting underneath of you know, okay, failure, okay, it would mean something about myself. Well, what would that mean? And then when we clear that block, then we can go after the vision without the baggage.
Speaker 2:And another perspective that I view and I really lead our clients through is when you cast a vision, there's a or. Let me back up there. There is this physicist. His name was Eli, I think was Eli protege, and he was a Nobel Prize winner, and he basically codified what was happening in thermal dynamics, and he codified a lot of the balance between order and chaos and this idea that when anything in the universe is cat, it goes to a higher order of being.
Speaker 2:So, even for us, if we cast a vision, anything that isn't a match to that is going to rise up to be released and transformed, and so, anytime we cast a vision that is outside of our current identity and reality, everything that isn't a match to that is going to boil up, including beliefs, including external circumstances, and all of that is actually the raw material required in order for us to build the vision. So I would actually say that whatever that block is of failure that is presenting itself, because that needs to be transformed in order for you to bring the vision to life. So it's actually good news that it's coming up. If you choose to face it, if you choose to allow it to weigh you down, then, yeah, you're going to continue to operate in the identity that feels safe and familiar.
Speaker 4:Thank you, I think you cleared it.
Speaker 1:What are the seven blocks, jennifer?
Speaker 2:Yeah so the first one we touched on, which is just the casting of confusion of saying I don't know what I want, and it's simply the avoid, oftentimes not all the, but an avoidance of the knowing. The second one is being concerned of what other people will think. And so often, if you were a dreamer and you imagine growing up and you had your parents or a teacher say you know, just be realistic. Or who are you, who do you think you are to do blank. And so there's a fear that if you go after what you want, that others will boot you out of the tribe, and it's a very primal fear that can keep people blocked and not actually owning what it is that they want.
Speaker 2:The third one is not allowing yourself to want more. So if you have a belief that it is greedy to want more, that by wanting more you wanting more means other people are going to get less, or that somehow gratitude and desire can't be in the same room together, which isn't true Then oftentimes I'll see people just say hey, I'm good with what I'm at, with where I'm at. You know, I don't want anything more, and it is fantastic to be content and to be grateful for what you have, and as human beings, we are wired to continue to grow and expand. If you look at nature, the trees are always, and all of nature is always, seeking to grow and evolve, and so that desire is a very normal and natural part of our operating system.
Speaker 2:And then number four is getting stuck in the how. And this is probably one of the most popular ones is dreaming and starting to imagine what you want and then getting caught up in well, how am I going to make it happen? That left brain comes online, it starts to get stuck in the steps and then the desire or the dream just fizzles out. And that's why, in our programs and our vivid vision retreats that we lead, I often say we're just going to focus on the vision first and allow the whole design to be mapped out, and then the how. It is important, but the how is step two, and if you try to do both steps at the same time, you're just going to loop around and get stuck or blocked. Any questions on the first four before we continue.
Speaker 1:Well, I can imagine that there's some pushback, perhaps in someone who's listening to mind on while dreaming with what is the expression like? Dreams without a plan is a goal, without a plan is a dream, and I hear you saying that that's an important second step. Is there a process for translating the vision to a plan, or is that individual? Afterwards, how do you get involved, if at all, in that part?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the coming up with a strategy is absolutely important. I love like that's how in even in my own operating system, that's how I often will think and plan. However, the example that I give is let's imagine that you're going to go on a cross country trip somewhere and you need to get an airplane to get there. Yeah, and so you pull up the airline site. What are the first three questions that the airline site is going to ask you in order to be effective at getting you to your destination?
Speaker 1:Where are you going when, yep, what's the?
Speaker 4:other one. When you coming home.
Speaker 2:Sometimes. But you can take a one way there. But it's where are you coming from Right, where are you taking off from? What is your destination and when?
Speaker 2:And the same process is critical for designing your future is in the work that we do.
Speaker 2:We always start with that step one of where are you at and having awareness and honesty of where you're coming from, or like where your current location is, but then really making sure that you're crystal clear of the destination.
Speaker 2:Because if you decide, okay, I want to go to Europe, and you keep it very general, well, there are so many different places that you could get dropped off and there's going to be more variability for failure if you're casting too wide of a net.
Speaker 2:But the more specific you get, the more effective that the airline site can share with you all of the different routes to get there. But if you just say here's where I'm coming from three years and you leave the destination up to the server, you're going to get infinite amount of possibilities of the how. So this again the same thing happens with business, with life, with anything is if we just start obsessing on all of the different routes but we don't know where we're going, we're going to get caught up in a loop. So that's why step one is getting clear of that vivid vision and then from there we have a whole process we call it the vision driven operating system where you take that three year vision and you boil it down into a one year focus, into quarterly focus, so that you all then you have that clear blueprint of where you're going to take action.
Speaker 1:first, yeah, so you have a mentor who always says as soon as you're clear, all the options kind of present themselves, because you get very creative as soon as you are know exactly where you're going. And it sounds very similar to what you're saying. Yeah, justin, do you think that you know what you want?
Speaker 4:No, I don't think I have. I don't think I have a clear, a Really clear picture of where I'm trying to go. I think I kind of like know the country I want to go to, but I don't know the airport in the town. So that was really helpful, that really. Thank you for that, jennifer, because that that analogy, like I wrote that down so. I think, I'll know next week, lisa.
Speaker 2:And what are the what? What are the other what? Where are the other places that you're getting held up, or really any of you? Because I'm happy to share, because I can imagine to be supportive for the listeners as well. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Me, I Don't know. I mean, I think I've been held up, or, brad, I'm sorry, did you want to go? Oh, please, okay, I think I've been held up on all the, on different levels of all the four you just described, on, you know, on very on variations of that. A Lot of it is the how to like. Okay, I've thought of this great, this great place, I want to be here, this goal, but that seems so unrealistic and how would I really achieve that based on what's going on, you know, in today's world and in my world? So, but I think you've, generally, by walking through them, I think you really helped me and probably the listeners, get a good framework for how to think through this.
Speaker 1:I Think for me, a couple of the things. Number one I get kind of overwhelmed, like I was looking at all these different areas of my life and I was just thinking. I Almost felt anxiety. There's so many things and I want to do them all, and usually my problem is picking a focus. Yes, and so I was torn between the, the sort of vision, and the Reality, if you will, which might not be the right way to be looking at it. And then also I had a lot of sheds in there, like I was thinking when I looked at my list of kind of my commitments for the next year, there were several in there that aren't part of my ideal vision, but they feel like responsibilities, or they're in there because I want to support someone else or make someone else happy, which I don't think there's anything wrong with, so I'm not complaining about that, but it not all of them are really exciting, and I don't. I don't know if they all should be Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, you know, I just thought of.
Speaker 4:I have a friend who just called me and was like I need help getting my whole life together, like I need help getting my business together and my life together, and I'm totally lost and I Feel like I'm running out of time, like just total, like ground zero mm-hmm and Maybe for someone like that, like what's your advice? Like what is, if you're that person, what is your first step towards this? Like, just like, literally, like the next first step mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I will answer. I'm happy to answer that, and then I'll also loop back around and I can imagine and I'll share those final three blocks of the seven which may be floating around for some people. So, as With the analogy that we went through of the airline site, right is, the very first step is always starting with Taking an honest assessment of where you're at, and I Believe that a lot of clarity comes from radical self-honesty, which a lot of people aren't willing to face. They aren't willing to look themselves in the eye and say, hey, this, this is where I'm at. But until we are Fully honest with ourselves and where we're at, wherever it is, there's a, there's a lot of attachment and and feelings of being stuck but not knowing why, and so, for your friend, I would Encourage them to just sit down and say okay, let me take an honest assessment on a scale of one to ten, one being the worst, ten being extraordinary.
Speaker 2:And the area of my health what would I rate myself of? Not just what it looks like right now, but how do I feel? Like I'm showing up in the category of my health, on a scale of one to ten, what's working, and then and then journaling out what's working, what's not working, what are my results, what are my feelings about these results. And Then going on to relationships same thing what are my relationships honestly look like right now? What's working, what's not working, what are my results and feelings around that? And then doing the same for business and career, for Personal finances and then for overall lifestyle lifestyle being where you live, where, where you travel to, how you give back in the community, what your hobbies are, and just taking a whole life review as a pause. And that is the plugging in. This is where I'm at.
Speaker 2:And then from there it is Casting a vision for the future in all of these categories and crafting that vivid vision of where do I want to be and and there will be some areas that are crystal clear and then there will be other areas that maybe aren't as clear. But Focus on the areas that are clear first. Start there, because oftentimes once we just begin, then other areas will reveal themselves and they'll be more clarity when we're in action. But when we're, it's kind of like Google Maps you know when, when you plug in a specific, specific destination and maybe you're not moving around anywhere and it you know when it's like.
Speaker 2:It's like turning to the left and turning to the right Because it's trying to figure out, well, where are you in relation to this? And then if you just start walking, then it'll let you know. Okay, now turn to the right. So I really believe once we take that honest assessment just being an immediate action, because that's when we can get real-time feedback of, okay, if what I'm doing, working or not working, and all, all of life is simply just feedback for us. Wow.
Speaker 4:Mm-hmm, that's cold right there, mm-hmm, I'm gonna share this with that person. I think this is like they're gonna be so grateful that that you provided this feedback and I had this opportunity. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you want, I can route round back and just loop to those final three blocks without work, That'd be great awesome.
Speaker 2:So Number four we went into the getting stuck in the how right.
Speaker 2:And then number five is A common one, especially for highly ambitious people, which is feeling like you're capping yourself, that by setting some sort of vision, you are capping yourself of what's possible. So maybe if you say hey, I want to, you know, generate this amount of income in my, in my business or my career, well, am I capping myself of anything more than that by writing this down and the? The belief to shift to in this is you will get more insight as you take forward motion. But you got to plug in some sort of destination. And so that's why, with any vision, even that I create in my own life, in my own business, I'll always get, I'll always paint it as clear and vivid as I possibly can from my current reality of where I'm at. But then I always say this or something even better still I'm open to this possibility, but I'm also open to it being way better than I could imagine. And and that's the way you're not holding and gripping and in controlling exactly what it needs to look like, you're saying this is what I would love or something better, so feel like you're capping yourself.
Speaker 2:And then number six, which you touched on, lisa, is the block of too much to choose from. I joke that this is vision FOMO, a fear of missing out on other things, and this is common if you have a lot of different dreams, a lot of different possibilities, and then you get this feeling of overwhelm that sets in because you're like how am I gonna do it all this? How am I gonna create this? And in the, you know, in our online courses and our in-person retreats, I walk everyone through. It's a process, it's like a recipe where in that first step, you don't, you're not Determining the how, you're not determining the strategy. So you just you want to open up all of the possibilities and then from there, there is a process for saying, okay, out of all of this, what am I gonna focus on first? What would be that first domino that, if I was to pour my time, attention, energy into this is gonna create a momentum for those other areas of my life too. And and just beginning, and oftentimes we don't even realize how interconnected life is by, by going after one Vision, that others end up clicking into place in ways that we could least expect. So number six is too much to choose from.
Speaker 2:And then the final one, number seven, is the fear of responsibility, of fear of, or a feeling of afraid to know what the vision is gonna be. And this I noticed us a lot in the work that I do with entrepreneurs and CEOs, where they may say, well, I want to Expand and grow my company, but the responsibility that comes along with that is immense. You know the responsibility of Supporting a lot more employees, a lot more customers. There's a lot more complexity that comes along with this, so that's a lot of responsibility. Do I really want that?
Speaker 2:And or you know, if you have very ambitious Goals around the impact that you want to make in the world, and, yeah, the responsibility that would come along with that. And that's where I think it's so important to get clear of who, who is it that you want to be in the world, and getting clear of the, the identity that you want to step into, because every identity that you, or every version of yourself, it's going to have a certain level of responsibility, but each one of us only has one life and so if you're avoiding doing something that you know in your heart that you really want to do because of a fear of responsibility. Is that really the reason not to do it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, brad, do these resonate with you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, very much.
Speaker 5:So I was just thinking and processing some of this, because this is similar work, obviously, that I do on a very individual level, and I was curious if, in this vivid vision process throughout, if you take your clients through, so, one of the things I'll run into especially with, like the blocks and that is, people get really stuck in the analytical mind and you don't have access to the creativity in the subconscious and and your feelings.
Speaker 5:If you're all tensed up and you're kind of oh and Lisa, you said it, you know I get into it and it's like there's this, it's like almost anxiety and and and what I would Say to a client is okay. Well, first off, we have to deal with the anxiety. We need to soften and relax around it so that we can even open up the pathway for these things to come, because a lot of people don't know what's blocking them, but they can feel it, and so it comes a shift of let's move out of the analytical mind, and then how do we really feel about this? And then kind of take it from there and start working From the feelings up to then be able to label it. And I can't label it, but I can feel it and I was curious if in your process, in working with clients, if you do any of this kind of Softening, I guess we can say yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 2:I Totally agree with you. It is so key because 95% of our operating system is is based on our subconscious mind, which is our subconscious minds, basically the body, and it is all feeling based, and so one we will do a lot of somatic work, feeling based work in in our programs and are in our retreats and our one-on-one work to help the clients really identify what's underneath of it, because the the example we give is right. When we're in that analytical mind which all of us are right now, our brainwaves are in that high beta state where the only thing that we can retain is our five senses of everything that's around us.
Speaker 2:It's a very difficult to Be extremely creative, especially then layering on with stress, if there's anxiety, overwhelm, depression, frustration, a lot of things, you know, a lot of states that people live in, and so the main modality that we use is Process. We call the vision amplifier experience, and it is a combination of breath work and guided visualization with a certain Audio tracks linked to it that help people get from that high beta brain state Into an alpha and theta brain state where they're relaxed, open, awake, they can be more present, their right brain, their left brain start working together and then tapping into their creativity from that place, also tapping into what may be standing in the way of that clarity in their life. So that is the main one that we use, but it's critical, you know, and there's many other ones, whether people are, you know, go out in nature, meditation, different types of hypnosis, etc. To get them out of their head and into their body.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's why I was curious. I Don't. I am a hypnot therapist and so when I work with people around a lot of this it's a lot of subconscious creativity work and in like listening to what comes up. So it a lot of this resonates with me and it just got me the thinking, especially as Lisa made her comment. I was like what you do and it sounds like you do all the things to help people to keep soft, because even the idea of moving to this other thing Because of your first point, the mind and the body don't know what's imagined and what's real the thought of moving into something unfamiliar or this big goal can all of a sudden bring in this, you know, neuromuscular contraction, loss of the breath, and as soon as that happens, we know we've kind of lost access to that deeper wisdom that's in that creativity that's there. So I was just kind of curious about how that looks in your, your workshops and things like that. So that's super cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's an example of one of your favorite stories, jennifer, of how this has transformed somebody.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm man, there are so many you know. One of the more recent ones is there was a leader that came to one of our last retreats and he was really stressed out, kind of a dipped into a depressive state. He has a wife, a new baby girl at home, built a couple million dollar company, but the year prior it went through a lot of different challenges, especially in his case, in his business, where there was a lot of challenges with different team members and a lot of stress, lot of just being stuck in the day to day and just losing sight in direction on when it was that he was headed and what he was doing and why he was doing it. And so he came to one of our vivid vision retreats and over the course of three days we we do a lot of experiential work. So getting out of the head into the body Daily, these vision amplifier, breathwork, journeys, a lot of also just connection with other Like-minded individuals that are there for the same intention of clarifying their vision for the future. And he went through this process and had so many insights throughout the retreat of really seeing that because he was feeling a lot of the depression, anxiety, because so much the the past few years. He was driven to create this goal and he had arrived at the goal, but he hadn't set a new goal, and so there was a little bit of this emptiness and like lack of excitement and drive for what was next.
Speaker 2:But a key piece at the retreat that we focus on is is this holistic, integrated vision was.
Speaker 2:So it's not just career, it's not just business, but really clarifying what he wanted His life to his, his family life, to look like, how he wanted to be showing up on a day to day with his wife and his baby girl and how to really start taking even greater care of his health and the vision for what that look like.
Speaker 2:And over the course of the past nine months, I mean, there's been a complete transformation where not only has his business grown exponentially and completely transformed His team and how he shows up in his leadership, in the ripple effect that that has created with with his team and in creating a really healthy culture and environment, but also the relationship with his wife and her feeling more seen and connected To him and how he gets to show up in their family and prioritizing himself and his health, because he had a big realization that when he focuses on his health, then that spills into all of the other areas of his life and I really believe that we are not, we're no liver, no longer living in a reality where we can really silo things and assume that.
Speaker 2:You know, we can just compartmentalize All of these areas of our life. You know, when we show up For ourselves and our health are a mental, emotional well being, of course our career and our businesses are gonna have an effective course. Our relationships are gonna have an effect because they're gonna get the best parts of us versus this drain, stressed out, overwhelmed, anxious part of ourselves. So that is one of them that has been like so meaningful to me.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's pretty neat, I would have to imagine you have a lot of probably some of your the coolest stories are these transformations that come secondary to what the person may have even come in for. Because the idea that when you take on something like this, like a vivid vision to meet a certain goal, it's always interesting when people have this realization that this is an embodied sort of thing, you can't Silo it to one. Well, I want the business to go like this, but my home life and physical, personal, physical life is a disaster. How are you ever you know, how are we ever gonna get To this embodied state of where you want to take your business if everything else around is not, and so that sometimes it happens first, sometimes it happens secondary, but in your role to see that happen, I bet this is probably pretty neat. I'm sure you have a lot of those Instances where benefits that people experience are far reaching them what they originally came in for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because it all is.
Speaker 2:It's all interconnected, and that is so much of the message that I get excited to share and embody in my own life is that, yeah, we did.
Speaker 2:It isn't in silos that we can create these results, and I believe one of the gifts there's you know, there's a lot of Positive and maybe not so positive of this world of social media and and whatnot, but I think one of them is people are craving more transparency and authenticity, and, and we're also in an era where people care more about the people and the and the brands behind whatever the product or services. So if they're even you know, if they're purchasing A product, they want to know that that product was sustainable. They want to know that, where, where it came from and, in the interconnection of that, if someone is following someone online, they want to know. Even if they're getting support From a business sense, they want to know okay, how else do they show up? Do I line with their values? And that that goes, I think, across the board In the world that we're in right now is people are craving to connect with other people that are very aligned to their values and it living in their Full list expression.
Speaker 4:Jennifer, am I right that you're the visions on a three year track, primarily? Yes how did you, how do you pick three years, or how does the three years come up?
Speaker 2:This was something that I tracked in my own Research and just being in the trenches where I've studied over the years, I've studied with some of the top Spiritual teachers, I've studied with Olympic coaches, some of the world's top business coaches, and found that across the board they were all using typically a three year, some a five year, but more often three year time frame. And the reason why is because If we set ten years, that is so far into the future that it's very hard to get vivid with it. And we can set, you know, ten year. In the business world we call it a big Harry, audacious goal.
Speaker 2:But again, there's so much, especially in the world of AI and all that that we live in now, web three that so much is going to change in the next ten years, that it's hard to cast that vivid, clear vision, whereas if you do one year into the future, it is so close that you're likely going to cast a plan, not a vision, that with one year you are going to want to reverse, engineer that how, and it is hard to really stretch yourself in what's possible. So three years is that sweet spot where you can think far enough into the future To get vivid and really dream, but close enough where you can still get really specific Also.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think this is pretty no after you bad.
Speaker 5:I think this is helpful because I had, when I started, my private practice In breath work and mindfulness coaching and have no therapy, I was a hospital administrator and there were little things you know. You talk about the vision, down to the, the shoes I would wear, you know of a few years out when I had this Successful private practice. And what's interesting is that I kind of hit that that mark and I it's funny we're having this conversation is I'm taking a lot from this because I actually felt a bit of resistance, because I kind of hit the three year mark. Things went in this very beautiful way and then I started to get overwhelmed because it was growing beyond what I had envisioned and thought and I was having, all of a sudden, all of this anxiety and this overwhelming goodness night didn't really know which way to go, and people are kind of in my air and you need to hire this and you need to.
Speaker 5:And I've had to sort of reset and revision now because I didn't like I got there and then it went above where I had envisioned and so I've had to sort of like reset my vision now and it's I'm visioning things that I would have told you three years ago I didn't want to do and now I'm like, well, maybe I do and maybe I need to, and so this is a Personally a timely conversation, because it's like, ok, this is, this is right. Intuitively, I'm like, yeah, I need to like, set another three year mark, it sounds like versus five or something else. Just keep moving it in those increments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's beautiful to hear that. You know it grew past you, which oftentimes can happen, and the invitation there it's a it's again, it's like this or something better still. But when something starts to create momentum, sort of above and beyond what we imagine, there's two paths. When it's when it is our own personal life, we always have highest authority of the vision that we want to cast, and so, you know, not getting caught up in though this is what we should do, this is what we need to do. From others perspectives, it's really asking OK, what would I love Next and what? And really trusting your intuition, trusting your knowing of the direction.
Speaker 2:And then I believe in in other senses, when we're working on creative projects. Sometimes it's a business. I've had a lot of clients where they'll end up selling their companies because they're like the vision is beyond me and and they view the company is its own separate entity that has Sort of a life of its own, and sometimes it does need a new visionary to grow it into the next highest expression of itself. But for our own personal lives, we always have highest authority of what it is that we really want, and remembering that, even if people that are smarter than us think that are like quote unquote. Smarter say oh, this is what you should do, always analyzing, but is this what I really want to do?
Speaker 5:Well, I wish I would have met you eight months ago, so I could have done with a lot of unnecessary suffering but that's necessary to get to your next destination. It is so.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of that brown brown thing where she analyzed. She was a hospice worker and she analyzed the top regrets of the dying and one of them was living the life that other people thought they should, instead of what they really wanted. So it sounds like this spending the time to reflect and get in touch with, you know, the acorns DNA is really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I believe it's such a powerful practice to be in with the little things but also the big things, and it's not to say not have thoughtfulness and respect and consideration for others' perspectives, but only those that you actually care about their perspective, like those in your inner circle, but do not allow people in your outer circle to dictate your life. You know, a quick example of this is this last year I got married and my now husband and I we've been together for almost seven years, and when we sat down and crafted what we would really love for our wedding weekend, my two main criteria, before we even started planning, is number one we are going to design the wedding that we absolutely would love, and nothing, nothing different. We are not building or creating this for anyone else but ourselves. And number two is we're going to have so much fun in this process, and if it's not fun, it's not worth it, because I've heard of so many horror stories of people forgetting the main thing being the main thing, which is an extraordinary weekend with the people you love, being in union with the person, you're saying yes to the rest of your life too, and so there was a lot of things that we said we're just not going to do that maybe are part of the cookie-cutter, normal wedding. We're like we're not going to have a wedding cake because I don't care about having a wedding cake.
Speaker 2:And there was maybe some aspects of family who wanted this and we analyzed it and said, hey, that's not aligned to our vision. And it was having some of those hard conversations but being unwavering and serving the vision that really mattered to us. And I think so many people get caught up in the fulfilling other people's dreams for them or what they think they should do, and they arrive to that destination and it feels really empty. I actually call it the golden jail cell, where you set out for whatever you think you should do and you usually fulfill on it, but it feels like you're now trapped because it wasn't what you wanted in the first place.
Speaker 1:Yeah that brings up a good point, your example of the wedding, and obviously in that case you had a shared vision with your husband. When it comes to your personal vision, do you recommend sharing that or keeping it private?
Speaker 2:How does?
Speaker 1:that work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I recommend sharing it with the people. Share your vision with the people who are deserving of sharing the vision. So if you know that there's people in your life that if you're to share your vision with them and they're going to stomp all over it and tell you all the reasons why it's not going to work, do not share it with them, because your vision is something that is sacred and, especially when you're getting started on it, it is like a little seed that is planted and at first it's a little sprout. And if you share it with too many people that are going to tell you all the reasons why it's too small or it should look different it should start to look like a peach tree and not an apple tree then you're going to question yourself. So I'd say only share it with the people who you know are going to champion your vision until you have enough strength in yourself to be convicted that you're moving forward in that path, no matter what, regardless of what other people say. That's great, that is awesome.
Speaker 1:Justin and Brad, do you have any other questions before we wrap up?
Speaker 4:I have so many, but not within this time slot, but thank you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I don't think so. This is awesome.
Speaker 1:How about you, jennifer? Is there anything else that we should cover? I have one final question, but I just wanted to check in with you. No, I think that's it Okay. Well, I have linked to this guide in the show notes, but I know it's more geared toward companies, which is wonderful, and you, listening, you might have a company. But if someone doesn't have a company, what would you suggest as a first step to embarking on this incredible process?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say you know. Going into the topic of getting out of the head and into the creative part of your brain, we have a free gift that is online and it is a morning and evening vision amplifier audio track and there are 15 minutes each. You can listen to it. It guides you through each step of the way to just start to be in the inquiry of what you want your vision to look and feel like, and so you can go to VAEDailyDosecom. That's a V as in vision, A as in accelerate. V is an excellent daily dosecom and you can download that morning and evening track to start to be in the energy of your vision.
Speaker 1:I can't wait to do that. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for being so generous with your time and for talking to us today.
Speaker 1:Yeah my pleasure. Thank you for spending time with us. I really hope you got a nugget or two that will help you as you envision your life going forward. And if you'd like to follow the link to Jennifer's downloadable guide to working through this process. It looks like this it's a very thorough and really great guide. You can find the link to that in the show notes, as well as contact information if you'd like to connect with any of us on the panel. So please check that out. And then if you'd like to sign up for the advice column email so you can get inspiration sent to you by email twice a month, you can find the link to do that in the description box as well.
Speaker 1:Whatever your vision for your future is, I hope that it is just a path of joy and learning and growth and all of the wonderful things that come with pursuing a dream. So we'll see you in the next episode and again, thank you so much for spending time with us. Thank you for spending this time with us. My prayer is that this conversation gives you ideas and inspiration for living the kind of life that is meaningful to you. See you in the next episode.
