Creating Balance Through Vision Boarding

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to the Balance Code Podcast , a place where you have permission to step outside the hamster wheel of day-to-day life and learn tools to create more balance . My name is Katie Russell . I'm a licensed therapist and burnout and hidden grief specialist . I support ambitious , goal-driven people who are ready to get off the one-way train , to burnout and start to enjoy life again to the fullest . Oh and , by the way , I'm a mom of three , an ex-pat living in Germany who's still learning the language , and an entrepreneur Living . My Balance Code is what keeps me able to work in incredible ways without burning up . So let's find your Balance Code . Hey everyone , welcome back to the Balance Code Podcast .

Speaker 1 0:50

In today's episode , I'm going to be interviewing Mel Larson , who's a business growth mentor , guiding entrepreneurs and CEOs to measurable results . She has coached thousands of entrepreneurs around the world to finally trust their big vision and joyfully grow the business of their ultimate dreams . It was such a pleasure interviewing Mel , and I know you're going to enjoy listening to her share her wisdom today about how we can start creating better balance in our lives through simplifying , using the tool of a vision board . So let's get into it . And today I have a very special guest . Mel Larson is here and we're going to be talking about some ways that we can simplify things in our lives in a particular tool that's really helpful to do that , so that we can create better balance . Mel , thank you so much for being on the podcast , and I already know you're going to share so much wisdom , so I'm going to thank you ahead of time . Thank you for the wisdom that's coming .

Speaker 2 1:48

Thank you so much , Katie . I am absolutely thrilled to be in your space , really excited about having a good old chat with you .

Speaker 1 1:56

Thank you . So we met at the 15 seconds festival and , really briefly , I had written you on LinkedIn . We wanted to connect . We saw each other , but it felt like an instant . Yes , this is someone I want to talk to , and when we started to talk online , I realized your work in vision boarding and helping people really look at the future and not be so scared of it , be really excited by it , be really driven by it is something I think not only entrepreneurs can benefit from , but everyone , and this podcast serves ambitious and high achieving people not just women , but men as well are listening , who are in that place where how they're living their lives is leading towards burnout or they've already hit it . So tell us a little bit about what you do and let's dive into your own journey of creating balance in your work and in your personal life .

Speaker 2 2:49

Thank you . So , yeah , I help entrepreneurs that are committed , caring entrepreneurs , to finally trust their big vision and joyfully and strategically grow the business of their ultimate dreams . And I say business and entrepreneurs , but I also support anyone who wants to lead on something . So sometimes it's not just entrepreneurs that work with me , but people who have a passion project , something they want to make happen . And , by the way , I just love how you described the work I do and I just made a little note when you talked about being excited about the future rather than being scared of it . That's such powerful phrasing . I love you . Thank you for that .

Speaker 1 3:33

You're very welcome . I mean , I listened to your talk at 15 Seconds Festival and I was like this is a woman who is about being in the moment and seeing the future and celebrating it Like it's wonderful , it's glorious . Thank you . What has been your own journey to get to that place ?

Speaker 2 3:48

Oh , my goodness , how long have you got ? I mean so you know I'm going to be celebrating my 60th year next year , so there's a lot of life to talk about . But the kind of summary version is when I was much , much younger , I didn't have great self-esteem . I was ambitious . I would you know where my ambition came from is I have a mother who is really , really into life , very experimental , has traveled a lot , and she used to read Cosmopolitan magazine . Do you remember that magazine ? Yes , when it arrived I would just devour it and it was , you know , one of the first sort of feminist magazines and really sharing with women . You can have what you want , you can go for it , and I'm talking , like you know , 45 years ago , when that was a very , very new , somewhat radical message . So , even though I had this , I was very shy , I wouldn't speak in public very much and I , you know , would look at other people think they're amazing . I wouldn't be like that .

Speaker 2 4:50

When I read this magazine , it started to say the seed of you know what you can do anything you put your mind to . And then , to cut a long story short , I discovered coaching in various different forms , like the personal development world which I just found utterly fascinating , and I experienced myself the power of being coached , of mindset work , of realizing that we can notice and observe our thoughts and habits and , you know , question , does this serve me in my life ? And then choose whether we want it to change our thoughts and habits . And that led to getting into leadership and being coached as to be a leader , which , again , I never thought I would ever call myself a leader and it still feels a bit weird actually to say I'm a leader , you know . But leadership comes in so many different shapes and forms and starting to get amazing , amazing results and seeing , wow , I don't have to live inside this box of my current reality , I can keep expanding what is part of my world . And although I'm saying I can keep expanding it , you know , I know you're all about the balance and simplification in life . What I discovered was , as I expanded my world , my life became easier , because when we sort of worry and concerns , it makes life really complex .

Speaker 2 6:06

So you know , to cut a long story short , I founded three festivals in South London where I live and saw and this was all voluntary saw the power of bringing people together in communities to make changes , and I was working as a marketing consultant and successful at the time . But I got more and more into coaching , so also developed a coaching business and now I have clients from all over the world . I have three programs that people can join , you know , depending on which level they're at and where they want to go . And my work still connects me internationally and I'm just really happy . I just love what I do and I love making a difference and I love stretching myself and helping other people to , as you put it . I'm going to start using that a lot now . I feel excited about their future rather than feeling scared of it . Can I have you to be my marketing person , Katie ? Can you just write my copy for me ?

Speaker 1 7:00

Me too . It's always easier to write for other people than myself . So , yes , happy to . So when we , when we talk about looking like you just said that ease that is something I hear a lot of people talking about wanting more in their life . Ease , relaxation , a flow the word flow comes up a lot too . That doesn't happen when we're filling up our plates with more and more and more . What is a tool that you can give us ? And really looking at the life we desire to have and how we go from where we are right now to like getting to where we want to be .

Speaker 2 7:36

Well , so many tools , I'm going to focus home in on a core one that I share with people who encounter me and work with me for the first time , which is vision boarding . It's very , very simple and what it requires is to well . First of all , let me explain what a vision board is . It's , in its simplest form , it's a collage . It's just a collage , which can be digital or it can be images ripped out from a magazine or a set of postcards stuck together , or photographs , and it represents visually your ideal future , your dream future . And I just wanna say , before I talk about why it works , I always quote the world-renowned neuroscientist , dr Tara Swart , who endorses vision boards , because I know some people think they're a bit woo-woo . You know , I know , when we were talking before and we were talking about how vision boarding can kind of rise and fall in popularity , people can critique it , but for me , if neuroscience says it works , that's good enough for me , and actually I know it works because I've been doing it for decades anyway . But I know some people are like , what is this ? How can a collage change my life ? But it's incredibly powerful because visual language is one for those of us who are born sighted as one of our earliest languages , and it's not just about visuality , it's also about feelings , deep feelings . So what really works is to calm yourself , getting to a good state , and I always think you know there's two ways to do that . You can either , like meditate and get really still , or you can get into a heightened state , like I went for a run this morning and I just feel really buzzy and fantastic . Or you can dance until you feel you know your heart pumping and you know just basically a state where you feel really , really good . It can be ecstatic state , or it can be a very deep , calm state , and those are good states for visioning in , because you're feeling good , your body feels good and really thinking about what do you want ? And one of the things I use with my clients to guide them into that is guided visualization , or I'm increasingly calling it guided manifestation . You know .

Speaker 2 9:34

So I'll encourage people to really imagine their future , use all the different senses and to really think big , because we are growing creatures . We grow as we live , we grow as we go through life and we , you know , you and I are not going to be the same people in even six months time , let alone a year or five years . We're going to keep learning and growing . So it's a good idea to set a goal that stretches you a bit , you know , so that you've got something to grow into . And then , when you're imagining what you'd like and I tend to encourage people to think about one core thing you can create your collage about that .

Speaker 2 10:11

Sometimes it can be a specific goal , sometimes it can be more like a feeling , like I want my life to feel peaceful Is a really powerful one to do . Or I want a romantic relationship , or I want one of the things I've envisaged and it's started to happen , which is so amazing is having more holiday time . You know , when I first envisaged that , I really felt like how is that going to be possible ? Because my life is busy , you know . I have a lot of demand for my work . How am I going to find that time ? The magic of envisioning is your subconscious mind will fill the gap for you . It will find a way and I have found a way to make more time in my life so that I can rest more , which is just incredible . It still feels incredible

Vision Boards and Manifestation Power

Speaker 2 10:53

to me .

Speaker 1 10:53

You know I mentioned the neuroscience behind this and I think it goes without saying there's enough science behind the power of visualization . This is why athletes do it , this is why people in high leadership position to do it speakers . But then the vision board part of it is exactly what you said . Subconsciously , your brain looks for where's the opportunity to make that happen . I've put this on paper . I want this , and we don't like that cognitive dissonance of I put it on paper but I'm going to do everything against it , like then we would go okay , well , I don't want that vision anymore . I don't have that board for me anymore . I've ripped it up and put it away . We want to be coherent . We want it to work .

Speaker 1 11:32

Your brain does . And so when we talk about manifestation people , if you're not into that word and you're like , oh , that's a little too woo , it's playing with your brain . It is literally teaching your brain to work for you and not against you .

Speaker 1 11:45

And I love the idea of going through magazines or going online , kind of like a Pinterest board , right , and like pulling everything together on that focused area , like you said , and go this is what I want , whether it be around peace , or maybe you start out with I want more balance in my life , and then you pull what that would look like in your work world and your personal life and your relationships and your own health . I've been using vision board and welfare a while and it is such a powerful tool , almost to a point where it scares people . I think that's when they get into the like oh , this is woo , and it's like no , your mind just was really good at picking it out , cause you told it what you're looking for . So what are some wild stories that you have experienced in your own life or in your clients lives of ? Like they put it on the board and they were like no , there's no way , you know , it'll take five years or whatever . And then , oh , there it is .

Speaker 2 12:33

Oh , so many , I'll just share the ones that just jumped straight into my mind . So from my own business growth , you know , I really wanted to hit that kind of mythical six figures . It's kind of you know , it's sort of a almost like a rite of passage , if you're a business coach , you know and it seemed really out of reach . And I created this vision board that had the number six on it . It had all these different images that represented reaching that , but with real ease . And you know , part of my mind when I was making that vision board was thinking , yeah right , how on earth is this going to happen ? But I got really excited about it and I was kind of rocking and rolling and then COVID hit and I remember thinking this is never going to happen now , but what actually happened was my business took off because of course , lots of people were pivoting , lots of people were going online and so , although it was already successful , it just like really took off and I went into six figures and well beyond , actually , with a lot of ease . And that taught me to never doubt , never , ever doubt , the power of a vision board . And then , once I was in that space , I was able to hold that space for my clients because you know , I've done it , I'm living it .

Speaker 2 13:39

And one of my great clients , who I adore , helen , came to me , you know , joined my year long program and she wanted to take her business into six figures and we reckoned , okay , it's going to take a year , and she did it with . And she created a vision board and she said to me you know , I always thought vision boards were a bit kind of fluffy . You know , she's a very strategic thinker , she's actually a CRM expert . She said , you know , I'll give it a go and she hit her six figures within three months , which was just amazing . And then I'll give you a kind of left to center story , which I absolutely don't promise this result it's actually out of outside of my expertise . But one of my clients she had just a few coaching sessions with me actually and we were working on working out what kind of a business she wanted to create . But she was also trying to conceive , you know , get pregnant , and she credited her vision board . She created a vision board for her business . She created one about having a baby and she'd been trying for like literally years and you know , she fell pregnant and was overjoyed and she called me to let me a message actually and said thank you so much , you helped me conceive . And I was like I can't claim credit for that . But you know , vision boards are , the mind is magnificent , it is incredible . You know , I've also had clients who said I put a house on the vision board and I hear it is several months later I've got , I bought that house , you know quite . And sometimes people come back to me years later and say , like there's a client of mine who now lives in New Zealand and she used to live in the UK and her dream was to move to New Zealand and she has this amazing house , amazing life , amazing job . And you know , again she contacted me saying I'm living . Remember , I put this on my vision board and I'm now living it .

Speaker 2 15:19

So for some people it can manifest very quickly and for other people , you know , I say manifest , maybe you could say transpire , transpire , achieve , happen , whatever word works for you . It can take years , depending on what kind of a person you are , what kind of mental challenges you need to work through , etc . Etc . But you know , it does , it works . The mind is so powerful , so magnificent . And you were saying earlier you know , tell your mind what you want . And I always like to say your mind is your subconscious . Mind is like the best personal assistant ever , but only if you tell it what you really really want , and then it will . It only wants to serve . You know , it wants to keep us safe and it wants to serve , and if we get those two things handled , it can be the most incredible partner in your success .

Speaker 1 16:07

The key to what you shared in the very beginning about coming to a peaceful place or being in a very high vibe energy place is that we are coming to your visioning not from a place of wounding , because often when we go like , well , I really want this in my life , I want , and it's grasping because of scarcity or fear or something like that , that is why those visions don't get created , because they're not from your true , authentic self , and so it was so important . You pointed that out in the beginning . So , listeners , remember , come at it from a very peaceful , calm , relaxed state or that you know , endorphin , dopamine , excited , like , yeah , I'm going to create my life state . When we come at anything from either of those levels , that's much more clarity and I think that adds to simplification . So if I come to you , mel , and I'm like I'm just I'm doing too much , I have too much , I have committed to too much , too many people expect too many things

The Power of Vision and Focusing

Speaker 1 17:02

of me . Will this vision board actually help ? What would your answer to it be , and how and why ?

Speaker 2 17:08

Well , I would definitely say yes , it will help you because it will help you to focus on . I usually encourage my clients to focus on the one thing , and it's usually like take a year to focus on the one thing that's going to make a difference , like one goal , and then there are lots of other things that support that happening . I'm a very , very big advocate of adding community or team to your vision , so not going it alone . I know you run programs , katie , where you're either having it's good to either have a mentor or a coach or a community finding team . But I think , going back just to the pure visioning part , it's not just visioning the end result . You can vision along the way . Sometimes I call it micro visioning , so it could be envisaging .

Speaker 2 17:58

Well , what does my ideal day or week or month or year look like ? Because if we're focused on what's not working and the complaints , it doesn't give our inner virtual assistant much to go on , whereas if we said you know , like for me , with my holidays , I want to have much more holidays during the year , because I do give my all to my clients and I need to rest and recover from that , and it's also when I have my holidays , I have some of my best ideas and I feel like I'm really rewarding myself . I get to spend really great time with my husband . So if I think about all those gorgeous things and I only have to just imagine , like the sea and the sun and the beach and I'm already motivated , you know , to make that happen Whereas if I'm focused on oh my God , my life is so hard and I barely have a moment to think , guess what I'm going to get . I'm going to get more of that Because that's all I'm focusing on . I'm going to feel more and more drained and negative . But if I'm focusing on , okay , what are the things that are going to have this vision happen ?

Speaker 2 18:52

Yeah , actually having a team , or actually putting it in my diary that you know , one of the big breakthroughs I've had , katie is not working weekends , so and that happened simply by putting writing in my diary on Saturday and Sunday in big letters rest and recover . It's incredibly simple , but it was like this , not exactly a vision board , but a reminder . This is what the weekends are for , because before how I was visualizing weekends was it's an overflow bucket for all the work I didn't get done in the week , and then you can guess , what happened was my Saturday in particular became this overflow , and we all know what the word overflow can also , you know re , you know re associate with . It's just all this mess that I was putting into my weekend , which was just not making me happy .

Speaker 2 19:36

And what's really amazing and powerful and miraculous is when you create this vision for what you really want , you find the answers . Like I would have said to you , it's impossible for me not to work on Saturdays too much work but when I really made it a non negotiable , suddenly I found the time and the energy to make the week work . It was like I hadn't really realized that . It was almost like , because I had that overflow bucket , I would just rely on it . So you know , there's like micro visions that you can create , like really visualizing , like literally visualizing how does my week look . That can be create amazing results .

Speaker 1 20:10

I really enjoy after the alarm goes off in the morning . Sometimes I hit this news button but sometimes I don't , laying there and going visualizing what I want my day to look like , you know , going through the steps , and yesterday I completely forgot my daughter's that they have brought site boxes here , so snack box basically in her water bottle and it's like . Oh , and so this morning I lay there and it's like I will remember the boxes .

Speaker 1 20:34

I will remember you know it was like just that , it was like positive self talk , and it's exactly what you said that personal assistant reminder . We're going to do this today . We're going to make sure we do this . So those micro visionings are so important and so easy to do at different times in your day . I love what you shared as well about the focus . That's what we lose sight of when we're stressed and overwhelmed .

Speaker 2 20:55

Yeah .

Speaker 1 20:56

Stop focusing , because we're just like you know , it's like splatter paint here and here and there and this , and that's often why we feel like we're constantly putting out fires . So being able to say , let's focus in what is it ? One core area of your life for this year which feels like , oh , that's so long , but also it's so short ? How do you want to grow ? I think is an awesome way to look at it . A good reminder , mel . This was wonderful .

Speaker 2 21:23

Do you have ?

Speaker 1 21:23

any other pieces of wisdom you want to impart on us before we finish up .

Speaker 2 21:27

Oh gosh , other pieces of wisdom . I would say , yeah , you know , life is for living . If someone like me , who started out just feeling so inadequate and so hidden and almost wanting to be invisible , can grow a multiple six-figure business , have the rest that she needs , the love , the joy . Anyone can do it . We have the inbuilt capacity to grow . So anyone who's listening , who feels maybe a little down or feel like you're failing , please don't give up . You know there are people around who can support you and you can always grow into what you want to be and what you want to have and what you want to do .

Speaker 2 22:06

And I also want to say you know , katie , the time we had at 15 seconds , I just got to see how big your heart is and what a beautiful , generous , caring person you are . I love your vision for people . And to anyone listening , you know Katie's the real deal . I've met her in person . I felt the heart vibration and I would just say connect with Katie , work with her , because I'm a , I think I'm a great judge of people and people always say to me wow , you have amazing people around you and I just think the work you're doing , katie , is like so , so needed in this world . It's , it's like one of the core foundations , I think , of a transformed world .

Speaker 1 22:42

Thank you , Yep . You got me emotional . Thank you very much . I really appreciate that and I'm grateful for you coming on here and sharing this wisdom and a reminder to all of us that we can really create the life we desire versus fall victim to it . If people would like to find you or be a part of any of your programs and things you have going on , where can they ?

Speaker 2 23:02

Oh , thank you . So it's easy Just go to dreamprojectcoachcom I'll say that one more time , dreamprojectcoachcom , and right on the first page there's a free beyond offer . It's a six minute guided visualization so you can do that calm thing and I'll talk you through thinking about your future . It's only six minutes and there's some lovely music in the background made by my husband , and you just download that and get started on thinking about your future . And , of course , on the website you can find out more about me and my clients and the kind of things I do .

Speaker 1 23:41

I'll make sure the link is below in the show notes . Thank you again , Mel . Thank you so much for being on here . I feel like we could have many other conversations , but this was the perfect one and very timely right now for many of the listeners . So thank you very much .

Speaker 2 23:54

Oh , total pleasure . Thank you , Katie .

Speaker 1 23:59

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode . If you have a moment , please leave a rating or review so that others can find this podcast who are looking for support just like you . Let's connect on Instagram at katierussler or at balance code podcast , or check down in the show notes to find ways that we can work together and see other offerings that I have for you at this time . And , as always , here's to finding our balance code .