Welcome to Tried and True with the Dash of Woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach, and professional photographer. At your service, we are all about getting creative, diving into your business, and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey, hey, welcome back to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo. I'm your host, Renee Bowen. Okay, so today we're going there. We're talking about why manifestation culture has become kind of a trap and why the thing that's actually gonna get you unstuck in your business and your life is not waiting for signs. It's not endlessly journaling, and it's not meditating yourself into clarity. It's deciding. Okay. So this might feel a little contradictory. And before you clutch your pearls and your crystals, don't get me wrong. I love the magic. Low, you know I do. I believe in energy and vibration and frequency. And I use hypnosis and the unconscious mind with my clients every day. But I've also watched way too many brilliant creatives, entrepreneurs, and coaches sit on the sidelines of their own lives because they're waiting for proof instead of creating it. So here's the deal The manifestation industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Vision boards, workshops, apps, everywhere, right? But here's the dark side of that. The more we obsess over waiting for the universe, the more we actually reinforce the unconscious belief that we're not in control and that we have to wait to be chosen. It keeps us in this victim mentality. And let's be real in this economy, waiting is the most expensive choice you can make. Inflation is rising. AI is disrupting entire businesses and will continue to do so at a rapid rate that most people are not ready for. The landscape is shifting faster than it ever has before in our lifetimes at least. So playing passive is keeping way too many entrepreneurs broke, burnt out, and invisible. And yeah, I'm talking about photographers here too. Manifestation without decision is just daydreaming. Okay. And there is some value to that, but here's the thing: neuroscience backs it up. When you make a decision, your brain literally reorganizes itself. There's a study from the Journal of Neuroscience that shows how decisional commitment reduces anxiety because your prefrontal cortex can finally stop spinning in loops. In other words, clarity is not something you wait for, it's something that you generate through choice. That's why in my clarity method, the very first step is create, get curious, create your vision. But then you have to live it with action. And that's where the magic really meets the strategy. I did a whole podcast on the clarity method. I will link it in the show notes for you guys so you can go back and listen to it. It's a really good one. This is the basis for all my coaching, how I live my life, how I run my businesses. Um, I've done talks on this. I have some speaking events next year about this as well, where we're gonna go deeper. And I go actually pretty deep with it, obviously, with my one-on-one clients because we can really dig into how this looks for them in their business. But let me give you a real example. Years ago, I was stuck in that exact loop. Okay. I was an early adopter manifestation girl. I had the vision board, I was listening to all the meditations, but I wasn't deciding, okay, taking action. I wasn't raising my prices. I wasn't putting my offers in front of people consistently enough, showing up consistently. And what I got was exactly what I decided unconsciously I deserved, which was not much. So it wasn't until I made this uncomfortable decision, raising my rates, cut out, you know, free sessions, favors, I invested in my own coach that things actually started moving. And the thing that was really interesting is that these signs from the universe they showed up as I was taking this action and even after. So it was like a confirmation. So let me coach you here for a second. Where are you sitting in indecision right now? Is it your pricing? Is it whether you should launch something new that's been sitting in your Google Docs for six months? Are you sitting on a book? Is it whether you should finally hire someone to help you with editing or outsource things or admin? Because here's the truth: indecision is still a decision. It's a decision to stay stuck and it's a decision to keep playing small. And I know that's hard to hear. But if you're listening to this, I trust that you can handle that truth. Manifestation is really powerful when it's paired with decisiveness. Okay. The energetics are real. Your frequency matters. The frequency without action is like static. Decision is the activator and it tells your unconscious mind, your nervous system, and yes, the universe. I'm in. Think of it like Wi-Fi. You can have all the bandwidth in the world, but unless you actually connect your device, nothing's going to download or upload, right? Decision is the connection. Look around you. We are in what I call the courage economy. The entrepreneurs who thrive in the next few years will be the ones who choose faster, take bolder risks, and move with clarity. Playing small is no longer an option. There's a lot of noise in our industry, in every industry. And waiting is really costing you clients. Indecision is costing you money. The reason that you're sitting in the spot of indecision, though, is because your unconscious mind just wants to keep you safe. Okay. I want you to keep remembering that. Its only job is to keep you safe and alive. That's it. So if you keep listening to your unconscious mind, you're going to stay exactly where you are. So here's my challenge for you today. I want you to decide. Okay. I want you to decide whatever it is that you're sitting on. Decide that you're going to raise that rate. Decide that you're going to stop discounting your genius. Decide that you are worthy of being fully booked, fully paid, fully supported. Because once you decide, the strategies do fall into place. Your nervous system calibrates. The universe aligns. And remember, the universe is not on a budget. Okay. She's got the cash. She's got the goods. You really need to be asking for more. So if you have a hard time asking for more, that is something to look into. Like, why is that? Why are you having a hard time asking for more? The universe is not thinking in terms of like, oh, well, so and so is not worthy. So I'm only going to deliver so much to her and this other person gets more. It's it's not like cake, right? Just because somebody else in your market seems to be doing really, really well and getting what they want doesn't mean there's less for you. We live in an abundant universe. But you have to decide that you are going to look at it that way because it is a choice. You can you can choose whether you want to look at it that way or you want to look at it as, oh, there's really not a lot going on right now. People aren't spending money. People are absolutely spending money. If you're not seeing it, you're not looking for it, and you're probably not talking to the right people. That's a whole messaging thing, and we're not going to go into that in this podcast. I just want you to realize that you are going to find whatever you're looking for because, yeah, I'll say it again. It's the reticular activating system in your brain. It's a filter and it's part of why we do what we do. Okay, if you have decided that nobody is spending money, that no one is booking, you know, luxury photo shoots or no one is signing up for coaching or whatever it is, then you're gonna find more proof of that because that's the filter you've created in your brain. But I want you to actively start looking for proof of the opposite. All you need is like one or two examples, and then you're on your way. Okay. The other side of it too is that you can't look at these examples and get into that place of unworthiness and not good enoughness because a lot of people do that. They see people out there making a lot of money, and the what's the first thought? Jealousy, well, must be nice, that she can do that. You know, there's this little spite or cynicism that pops up. And here's the thing that is not something to judge yourself on, that is information. If you can step back and say, huh, that's really interesting. I wonder why I'm having that reaction to seeing someone succeed. Right? If I were to tell you right now, I had a client this this summer who spent right almost at$10,000 for their senior portrait experience. And I did, what's your first thought? Is it that's awesome? Go, Renee. Good for you. I I wonder what she bought. That's so cool. I want to know more. Or does your immediate reaction go to she's lying? That didn't happen, nobody's spending that kind of money anymore. Or, yeah, that's good for you. You live in California where all the rich people live. I don't have that where I am. Because I hear that a lot. One of my coaching students lives in middle America in a pretty small town, and she consistently makes$5,000 sales. That's because we created a really great system and she knows what she's doing. You obviously have to be good at what you do. Okay, so you have to be good at what you do. Let's not gloss over that. But then you also have to believe it, and you also have to look for what you want in your universe, in your world, in your immediate environment. You have to look for it and you have to tell your brain that you're going to get it. That's why Tony Robbins always says you got to be like super obsessed with it, right? Like become obsessed with what you want. Okay, that's what he means. It's like, yeah, no, I'm gonna have this. It's happening. It's already happened, it's already mine. That's that, you know, quote unquote manifestation piece of it. But it's really tricking your brain into, it's neuroscience, tricking your brain into thinking that it is already yours because your unconscious mind is going to believe whatever you tell it. It's just that most people tell it what they don't want because they focus on what they don't want. If I ask you right now, what is it that you really, really want? Can you tell me that in the affirmative? Or do you immediately go to, well, I know I don't want this or I don't want that? First of all, again, no judgment. It's good that you have that starting point because that's contrast. Because if you know what you don't want, you do lead yourself to what you do want. But I want you to start thinking about it in more affirmative terms. And in the terms of it is mine, I want it, it's mine. Simple as that, right? Yeah, right. That's where that consistency comes in. Okay, you can't let yourself off the hook. What are you doing every day to support it? That's the other piece of it. What are you doing? What are those non-negotiables every day that you do and do not fall off the wagon, or at least not very much, that are going to keep you in that place of not only manifesting and dreaming, but taking action. Okay. Because once you decide, strategies fall into place. Your nervous system calibrates and the universe aligns. So if you're sitting there thinking, yeah, Renee, but I don't know how. Okay, well, that's exactly what I do inside of coaching. My clients don't just walk away with strategies, they do, and they're customized for them, which is the beauty of one-on-one. But they also walk away rewired to trust themselves, to move faster, to actually build the businesses that they've been manifesting in their journals. Because I bet you have. I bet you've been doing this for a while. And if you're sitting there thinking, why hasn't it happened? Okay, that's why I wanted to do this podcast because there's a lot of people sitting in that place. It's because you're keeping yourself there. Listen, journaling is amazing. And you guys know I love all of these exercises that keep us grounded and moving forward. Journaling has always been something that I love. I also love doing voice memos now because like sometimes I just have these amazing thoughts where I just want to kind of verbally process something. So I open my voice notes and then later on you can get it transcribed. It's really cool because then you can look back on all this and you can use AI to help you. If you've got journals or voice notes, you can transcribe things. You can feed it to ChatGPT and you can ask it, okay, these are my journals. Where have I been? What are the patterns I've done? What are some things that you can pull out of this that will help me move forward, right? I don't really think you need to be using ChatGPT as your coach because it's not a human, but you can have it look for patterns. It's really great for data and like things like that. And then it's up to you to take action because chances are you're sitting on something that you either have wanted to do for a while, maybe it's like go all in on your business, right? Or maybe it's start a podcast, or maybe it's go into something completely different, or start a side hustle, something that you feel passionate about. And maybe it doesn't even have anything to do with making money, but it it has to do with helping other people. Maybe it's a passion project, but every time you try and move forward on it, something will pop up, pull you back. That is your unconscious mind keeping you safe. That's not an intuition. There's a difference, and I've done episodes on that too. Because if you had the idea and you had the dream, it is already happening in another timeline. It is already there. You wouldn't have had the thought, but you have to take some action to get there. So if you're done waiting and you're ready to move from manifesting to deciding and to getting what you want, I'll drop the link in the show notes. Book a call with me. It's free. 30 minutes, we'll chat and see if coaching is right for you. We're gonna go through some of the things in your business, some of the things that you want, some of the things that you've been doing that you know are not working, and I'll let you know if I can help you. And if I can't, I'm gonna point you in a different direction. Believe it or not, I don't offer coaching to everybody I have on a call with. Not everybody's ready for it. And maybe there's a different option for you that would be better. Okay, that's really what I want for you is to find what's right for you. But let's get you in the room. Let's start creating the life in the business that you already know is yours. Stop just manifesting, start actually deciding and taking action because the version of you who has everything she wants already decided. Now it's your turn. Okay, and if this episode struck a chord with you, if it triggered you, that's a sign. Just information for you to look at. Why did it trigger you? Why did it make you lean in? Why did it make you annoyed? Why did it make you go, hmm? Where am I sitting with this? Okay, that's just information. The chances are you've probably been waiting long enough. Okay, before we wrap up, I'm gonna remind you guys real quick about the AI stuff I've got going on right now. I have I'm involved in summits, bundles, you name it, and there's some really, really good ones. Okay, so first of all, if you are a photographer, you really need to jump on this. It starts tomorrow. The link is below. It's from sync, and it is all photographer-related AI. It's a summit for two days, and I know it's busy season. A lot of you guys are super busy, but you can upgrade for 97 bucks, which is super inexpensive, and you can get access to all the replays and you can watch it as many times as you need to. And then the Her AI era summit is also happening right now, and that is for more women in the AI space. It's all female centric and some really cool out-of-the-box trainings. Again, it's free, but you can upgrade for an all-access pass. The link for that is below. And then there's also a free bundle, completely free. And it's just a bunch of really awesome resources called the Ease and Alignment AI Summit. That link is below as well. And listen, I'm gonna also drop a link to I have a master document, if you will, of all the testimonials that I've gotten over the years from one-on-one coaching clients. And I think it's really, really important that you see proof that coaching works. Okay, you got to go deep. If you got to vet people, if you're thinking about investing in a coach, you need to make sure it's gonna be the right fit for you. So I'm gonna drop that as well. You can look at it, it's just a PDF. You can read through it. And if that feels something like, hey, you know what? She sounds like somebody I'd want to work with, you need to jump in. I've got two spots open going into fall because I'm going into my busy season as well. But I'd love to work with you and I'd love to help you take that business to the next, next level. All right. Because you've probably been waiting long enough. So let's just make it happen. All right, I'll talk to you guys soon. Love you. Bye.