How to Visualize: Use This Subtle Tweak for 10x Better Results

Marie: What up, what up, what up? You are watching Marie TV, business and life advice that works, and today is a very special edition. You all are asking me to do more book reviews and gosh, darn it, I’m doing one today. Today is the most exciting book released that I have been able to talk about in a long time. That is because it is Ms. Danielle LaPorte’s, The Fire Starter Sessions. Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes. Now, before I tell you about how much I love this book… Well, I’ll just tell you right now. I absolutely adore this book. But we’ve got a special treat today because we are going to talk to the author herself and we’re going to talk about something that I’ve quite frankly thought was woo woo for a long time, and it’s about visualization and business. Does it work or is it just airy, fairy caca? We’re going to find out in just a minute. Stay tuned.

Marie: Hello, hello, hello everyone. I’m right here again with you. And as promised, I have Miss Danielle LaPorte with us, oh my goodness, the author of this incredible book, The Fire Starter Sessions. I was just telling Danielle before the recorder went on, that Josh has been coveting this book. He’s like, “Marie, where’s Danielle’s book? I want to read it.” I’ve known Danielle for a while. I have the incredible pleasure of having her as one of my dearest friends. And the other night, I was just up probably close to about 2:00 AM in the morning. And I’ve even read the manuscript before, that’s how good this book is. For me to be up that late in it a second time, you have to get this book. And I’m honored today that we’re publishing this interview on the very beautiful day that it’s released into the world. Right, D?

Danielle: It’s pub day. It’s pub day.

Marie: It’s pub day. It’s pub day. It’s pub day. So let’s get into it. I opened the segment kind of teasing a little bit saying that we were going to talk about a topic today that I personally was a little resistant to earlier in my career, the whole idea of visualization. And the reason why I was resistant to it was that it was prior to me understanding all the underpinnings of living in the moment. So I used to visualize, and I was what our friend Gabby Bernstein calls, future tripping. I was so grasping at this future reality. And I think I was making one of the mistakes that you’re going to talk about just a few minutes. But now, I am a believer.

Marie: But I know that many people watching Marie TV… We have our audience in 188 countries around the world. We often give very pragmatic, practical step-by-step advice. So if they may be thinking, “Girl, did you go a little woo woo when we’re talking about visualization in business?” But no. So D, can you school us? Give us a mini sermon about visualization and what is it and why is it even useful for us, especially entrepreneurs?

Danielle: Yeah, I think everybody visualizes. If you’re thinking to yourself, “I’m going to get that fat check. I’m going to get the keys. I’m going to get the gig,” you are on some level in some way visualizing. So the trick is to like really optimize it as a tool for creating for you. And what I see going wrong with the ultra woo teaching of how to visualize is that it just gets us to this foreplay state. It keeps us in this fantasy zone. And you know, we all want to get beyond a foreplay. So I went to this big speaking event once and they did this guided visualization for the 2,500 people that were there. And the woman got on stage with the best of intentions, all like twinkly music and see your dream, and you’re walking down this path and know that your dream is possible. Now open your eyes. And I turned to my girlfriend and I said, “Possible? My dream is a done … deal.” And she said, “Ditto. Me too.” So here’s why you want to get into the state of, done … deal.

Marie: Yes.

Danielle: It calms you down. So first of all, let me say, nothing is ever a done deal. This is not about manipulating the universe. Nothing is certain. There’s going to be change. You’re going to fail. You’re going to succeed, twists and turns. But when you get in the state of done deal, your nervous system goes, ah, and you remove the anxiety of it could, it should, wouldn’t that be nice? I mean, everybody right now just think, “Oh, wouldn’t that be nice?” And now think, “Isn’t that great?” It totally changes your body.

Marie: It does. And I can think about that with a few projects that we have in our pipeline. As you were speaking and you were saying that, I was trying on the possibility of it versus, oh, this thing that we’re creating, that’s a done deal. And I could literally feel the cells of in body. I could feel my shoulders going down. I could feel everything just relaxing and also my heart opening up, a sense of confidence and a sense of power just from trying that idea on. So I love this.

Danielle: So you get the chill. And then something will happen where in that chill space, that dream of this is done, strategies will start to come in. You get in that space of, you reverse engineer, oh, it’s done. So if it’s done, this is what I need to do to actually walk into that dream. So you get more strategic. And then, and I love this part because I’m all about the stop doing list. And I know that you’re all about getting on the no train. This will help you get on the no train.

Marie: Yes.

Danielle: When you’re in done deal state, you get closer to your dream and you can see the shape of it. You can see all the implications of it, that things are going to happen when it’s real, when you get there. And you may get close and you go, that’s not what I want. That’s not how I want to live my life. This is not the right time. So you get empowered to back away from your dream. And you’re never obligated to a dream. You’re never obligated to a visualization. So done deal, assess yes or no, and then reverse engineer.

Marie: I love it. So let me ask you this, just a personal question because I’m curious, and I’m sure my audience is curious too. When it comes to how to visualize… Wow, I apparently need more coffee. When it comes to actually how to do it, is it a daily practice? Do you find yourself doing it every morning or is it one of those things that ebbs and flows and it’s just a natural occurrence and you’ve trained yourself rather to visualize a possibility, you’ve now created the habit to visualize something that’s a done deal?

Danielle: For myself, I have the big moment to visualization. And then that’s when I’ve got my mole skin and have my Paper Mate pen. I’m just I have my tools. And I write out the plan. I get very clear. This is so important. I get very clear on how I want to feel. When I hit the New York Times Bestseller List, this is how I want to feel. I want to feel free. I want to feel empowered. I want to feel affluent. I want to feel useful. And then, I think about the little seemingly just trivial playful things I’m going to do when I get into done deal is the real deal, which is, who are the first three people I’m going to call when this happens and what am I going to do? And I think I’m going to have a mani-pedi. I’m going to go out and have a cold Corona that night and I’m going to call so and so. I’m going to call Forleo and Chris and Kent. And Forleo’s going to say…

Danielle: And that’s all part of that visualization process and it gets the blood moving. And it also gets you thinking, whoa, maybe I should call it a Forleo right now because she’ll tell me what the … to do now.

Marie: I love it. I love it. So I know I can hear people, because I know people love step-by-steps and I know that’s not necessarily… You’re a very free flowing gal. Have you ever come across in your work, so I know you’ve worked with hundreds if not thousands of people. Do people create a habit around it in terms of doing it every day? I’m not. Besides my green juice and a little meditation and hopefully some nookie when mama can get it up. It’s not like I have a set formula and people always ask me like, “Do you do the same thing every day?” I’m like, “I’d probably shoot myself if I did the same thing every day.” So am I hearing that you don’t necessarily recommend that people visualize?

Danielle: Yeah, I don’t do anything every day because it doesn’t make me feel free, because I’m clear one of my core desired feelings that I want the most is freedom. So the whole point is that this has got to work for you. Just like time management, just like working out, visualization as a practice actually has to feel good because if you’re sitting there at 8:37 every morning and just like squeezing out your visualizations, you affect the outcome of the done deal. So you want this to feel good. However, to just get really teachy, I think when you conceptualize something, you’ve got to go full tilt with the visualization. And maybe that’s it. That’s sort of my style. That’s the visual. I know how I want to feel. I know my metrics of success for that. I’m done. And there’s something really empowering by that. I just hand it over to life, and then I show up. I meet life halfway. I go meet that vision halfway with my strategy and my phone calls and doing what I need to do.

Marie: Yeah. I love that. I absolutely love that. I want to just quote one thing before we start to wrap this up. On page 116 in your book, again, which y’all go out and get this right now. It’s the best book ever. I love this, and I feel like it’s a tweetable. You have to believe it to see it. You have to believe it to see it. And I read that and the hair stood up on my Italian arms and I was like, “Oh, I love it.” I just think it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Marie: And I know that we wanted to help people, as we always do with Marie TV, take action. So below this video, Danielle has been gracious enough to gift us some of the worksheets that are straight from the book to help you actually take what we’re talking about today, right, D, and really start putting all of your dreams and your thoughts down on paper and to start to get that clarity that we’re talking about so you can try it on to see as you get closer, does this feel good? Is this my truth? And if the answer is, yes, you’ll have it right there on paper. So you can have these clear, it’s a done deal type of visions and then start moving and shaking to make it happen.

Danielle: They’re super useful and super practical. These are not fluffy worksheets. The first one, Dream Analysis, is about really looking at why you want what you want. I think some of us inherit visions. It’s your mama’s dream. It’s the Jones’s dream. It’s something you saw on reality television, which is not real anyway. So really, really? Do you need what you think you need? And then the second worksheet is about really pushing yourself, get all that negative talk out of your system about why you’re so unreasonable and why the odds are stacked against you. And really, I don’t want to say combat. It’s not the best fit, but really meet that with some like some positive positioning. And it’s a call to action because everything’s got to be a call to action.

Marie: CTA’s. I love CTAs. Marketing and in life, CTAs.

Danielle: CTAs. It’s three things that you’re going to do, that may be outrageous, to put that dream into reality this week.

Marie: I love it. This is perfect. So all y’all, you have the wisdom from Danielle below. Again, I cannot stress to you enough. I’m not saying this because she’s my friend. Because y’all know I do not blow smoke up people’s … , not even my girlfriends … . I tell them all the time when I’m like, “That’s a … idea.” But this book, the reason I say this is this book is a must read for everyone on the planet. Anyone that you care about, get them as gifts. And Danielle and I, we always like to challenge you in these videos to comment and to talk to us. So what I’d love to hear from y’all, and hopefully Danielle would be interested in hearing this too, do you have experience with visualization and specifically, have you ever seen something in your mind’s eye and seen it so clearly that it was a done deal. And then whether it’s a month or two months or three years or five years, it becomes your reality.

Marie: We’d love to hear about that. So please tell us in the comments below your experience on this topic. If you have other great resources, insights, stories to share, questions you want to ask, lay it all down below because we always have such a rich discussion. And if you like this video, I’m not going to wrap up yet, if you liked this video, subscribe to the channel, share it with your friends. And if you’re watching this not on marieforleo.com, get your … over to Marie Forleo and sign up for email updates because they’re awesome. Danielle LaPorte, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule during the launch to do this with us. I love you. I love you. I love you. You’re amazing. If you guys don’t know Danielle, Danielle, where can they learn more about you, besides going on Amazon and getting Fire Starter Sessions?

Danielle: Daniellelaporte.com. I’m everywhere. You can find me there. I consider it my digital temple for love and livelihood. Facebook, Twitter, I’m there. And I love you and wishes to everybody, done deal. Beyond wishes, it’s just, I’m telling you, it’s a done deal for you.

Marie: Awesome. You guys thank you so much for watching Marie TV. Danielle, thank you. Everyone, have a great day and we’ll see you soon. Bye, everybody.

Danielle: B-school is coming up. Want in? For more info and free training, go to joinbschool.com. Maybe I should call it Forleo right now because she’ll tell me what the … to do.

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