Five Minute Friday: The Vision Board Effect: How to Design Your Dream Life
Ashley Alderson shares how vision boards helped her manifest a vacation, business wins, and foster opportunities since 2016. She walks through creating one, where to place it, and why focusing on who you want to be matters as much as what you want to achieve.
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Foreign. Business can be a lonely game. But it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hi. Let's talk about it. Vision boards, all things vision boards. Do you create a vision board for your life and for your business? I'm so curious if you do. I want to hear from you this week and I would love to see a picture of your vision board. I'm not going to post it, I'm not going to share it, it's just between you and me, but I would love to see it and how you do it. I've got to tell you guys this story. So several years ago, I'm gonna say the year was probably 2016 if I remember right. It was the first year that I hired a big business coach to help me figure out my life in business. And we, we just like did a great deal of study on my mindset and the words I was speaking into existence in my life and you know, vision boards and I'd never done a vision board until that year. Anyway, long story short, so many lessons learned just in that journey of self discovery. But the biggest lesson around the vision board that I learned was basically this. And it comes from the movie and the book the Secret. But what you focus on, you'll find more of. That's a simple lesson of a vision board. Like that's it. What you focus on, you'll find more of. So in our daily life there's a lot of things that we're focusing on, right? Like could be good, could be bad, could be a lot of negative energy, right? Like, oh, I just constantly see people doing this to me and it makes me so mad. And the more we talk about it, the more we see more of it. And you know, it just like perpetuates in our life. So it could be negative, it could be kind of neutral. Like I'm thinking about buying a black Yukon. I really want a black Yukon. I really want a black Yukon. Well, when I drive to the grocery store, what do I see? All the black Yukons. When I drive down the street, what do I see? All the black Yukons. What I focus on, I find more of. And then the same is true in a positive sense, right? If I see the things I am so grateful for in my spouse, I'm so grateful for. I just have a hot spouse. Like, he's so good looking. The more I focus on that, Eric Alderson. I know you're not listening. The more I focus on that, the more I come to appreciate it, the more I focus on the kind words that he says to me, the more I find it, it becomes evident to me what you focus on, you'll find more of. And so this concept is really what the concept of the vision board is all about. How can you sit back and decide, what do I really want to live my life, like, in the next year? Who do I want to be? I think there's a misconception with vision boards sometimes that it's about what do I want to have or what do I want to achieve. But I would encourage you to think about it like, what do I want to be? Who do I want to be? How do I want to live? And the things and the achievements of whatever, like, those things can come and be a part of it. But I think you have to start internally first. And so vision boards can be set up a couple of different ways. I'm a fan of the old school vision board. Mine's actually sitting in front of me right now, and it's a big pin board that I think I bought at Hobby Lobby. And some of you make your vision board your phone backdrop, and some of you make it your computer backdrop, and some of you, like, it's all digital. It just depends on what works for you. But the most important part of the type of vision board you create is making sure it sits somewhere where you see it every day. It is a constant reminder of who you want to be and how you want to live. And so that's why mine's in my office. It's a big board so that I can see all the things that I put on it. All right, so here's how I look at creating the vision board. A couple things. I look at the words and the affirmations that help me understand, like, this is a trigger for me. This is who I want to be. Something that in the next year I've really wanted to focus on is I turned 40 in 2025, and for the last three years, I've been telling myself, you know what? I'm going to be in the best shape of my life when I'm 40. And I have not gotten there yet, but I'm going to, I'm committed to. And so there's A lot on my vision board around health and habit stacking, and every month this year, just, like, focusing on one habit that I really want to enhance, whether it's movement and closing my rings on my iPhone every day or drinking more water or whatever it might be. So all of those healthy reminders are on there of who I want to be this year. I also have some reminders that help me just to, like, dig in and get gritty in business. So the center of my vision board has always been something that a CEO said to me a few years ago, and it was, good luck with your little project. I was telling him about the boutique hub, and that's literally what he said, good luck with your little project. So I use that to motivate me, and it's at the center of my board. I always look at it and I'm like, yep, I'll show you. So I kind of like the spite of that saying, being on the board. And then, of course, I have how I want to live as a wife, as a mom, as a woman of God and a woman of faith on my board as well. So I've got photos of my family. I've got some scripture and some photos and some words that just remind me of being in that space and being clear about who I am on earth outside of owning a business. And then finally, like, the last, like, you know, dessert, the sprinkles on top of the vision board are some of the bigger things that I really want to attract this year. So I want to go on a vacation to Europe. I've never been to Europe. I want to go to Greece. I want to go to Italy. I want to go to Germany. Probably not all at the same time, but those are three trips that are on my vision board because I've never been there. And so you'll see those things on my vision board. You'll see a financial goal on my vision board and things that are related to what I want to achieve this year along with who I want to be. So my question for you is, did you create a vision board? And if you have any questions on creating the vision board as you go along, reach out. I would love to help. This is one of the most powerful tools that I've ever had. Like I told you back in 2016 is when I first was introduced to this in May of that year, I created my first vision board. By September, I want to say all but, like, two or three things on that board had happened. Crazy things. Like, I put a beach vacation on my board that Year, I'd never been to the ocean. I'd never been to Mexico. I just thought, like, man, it's time. This is what I want to do. And it's so funny because guess what happened that year. Eric was working in this, you know, high pressure sales job that he, you know, truth be told, hated, but had to do because our business was not, you know, successful enough yet to afford both of our incomes. And he won top salesman in the company that year and was afforded this Mexico vacation. And so we went to Mexico, but it's something like we focused on it. We found an opportunity and an avenue to get there. And every time you see that little vacation on the vision board, our brains were both like, okay, how can we get there? How can we get there? How can we get there? It's a constant reminder of where we want to go and who we want to be. So that came true. We had some charity opportunities that year that came true for us. I had something about foster care on the board that I really wanted to help some families that were fostering because my best friend had just gone through the process. And sure enough, we hired someone that year who was a foster parent. Had an opportunity to foster and adopt a child that year. Actually, two children, two siblings. So those little things, it's funny how when they stay top of mind, how you'll find more of them. So that's it. Five minute Friday. I hope you choose to create a vision board. I hope you make it a family project. It's something. Now, Eric and I both have a board, and we do a board with our kids every year in January as well. It might also be something you do with your staff and you create a vision board for the company and include your staff in that dreaming process and keeping all those thoughts, goals, top of mind so that they soon can become a reality. All right, that's it for five minute Friday, guys. I hope I see you in January the sixth through the eighth for best year yet. And of course, I hope I see you coming up soon in retail bootcamp and as always, inside of our membership groups here at the Boutique Hub. Have an awesome rest of your week and I will see you soon. Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show. Head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.
