Chingona Revolution is hosted by Erika Cruz, a rebel who left a 6-figure tech job to pursue her own unconventional path to success by following her passion that led to her purpose. Every week, Erika will bring out of you that BADASS LATINA through her experiences to overcome self-doubt and family expectations and lead with COURAGE.
Strategy is a very important part of running your own business. But so is manifestation, and oftentimes, it’s easier to execute than strategy. I know it sounds woo-woo but it’s true! You need both to get the results you want, especially if you want to build a better life for yourself.
One of the main reasons manifestation is easier is the fact that you are manifesting all the time. Whether you are aware of it or not, you are always manifesting. It’s a law of the universe! So if you’re already doing it, you might as well use it to your advantage.
In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the reasons why manifestation is easier than strategy. I’m going to be teaching you how I implement manifestation into my business strategy and why both work better together. Tune in to hear how you can start manifesting your best life today!
Follow Erika on:
Instagram @theerikacruz
TikTok @theerikacruz
LinkedIn
Website:
http://www.theerikacruz.com
How to work with Erika:
Sign up for the Magnetic Method Webinar here!
Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina here.
Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.
Hello, and welcome back to this week’s episode of Ch*ngona Revolution podcast. In today’s episode, I want to talk to you about why manifestation is actually easier than strategy. And I can already hear some of you saying, this girl’s crazy. She’s just. Talking about positive thinking. I need a real strategy.
I can’t just sit around manifesting. I need to work hard. I can, I can hear you all. Even if you haven’t, you know, sent it to me directly, you may have your reservations and that is totally, totally okay. So let’s go through. the points that I have to share with you today. And then at the end I’ll talk about just like some common objections I hear around manifestation.
And then we’ll talk a little bit about like the neuroscience behind, why manifestation works and why manifestation techniques do work. So whether you are a business owner, a content creator, or somebody who’s looking to make their way up in their career, or somebody who’s interested in dating, whatever it is You desire, I want you to take into consideration the different points that I share today, because even if you’re not a business owner, even if you’re not a content creator, this is still relevant to you because we all want to manifest something in our lives, right?
And as a coach who’s coached over 200 and I want to say 250 people at this point, the common theme is that people come to me and they’re like, just tell me what to do. How do I do it? Like people just want the step by step strategy and they want to know all of the details of the how. But the thing about manifestation is manifestation sometimes can give you something better than you even imagined and I’ve talked about this, I feel like I talk about this every podcast episode, but I left a tech job and before I left the tech job, I knew the intention was set, I knew I wanted to leave the tech job, but I applied to so many different places and this was me trying to strategize, right?
I applied to Google, I applied to Facebook, I applied to Tik Tok, I applied to all of the tech companies because that was the industry that I was in. I let, I enjoyed content creation. So I was like, if I could go work at one of these companies, that would be great. And I ended up getting rejected by almost every company except Google.
Google sent me to the next round of interviews and then they canceled the position. So it was literally like all of the doors were being closed in my face. And I was trying to strategize my way through and it wasn’t until the pandemic when I started to work from home and I stayed at the existing tech company I was at, but I started to work from home.
I started to create content. My followers went from 10, 000 followers to 20, 000 to 40, 000 to like a hundred thousand. And I was like, Oh my gosh. I should do something with these TikTok followers. And that’s when I started hosting these free workshops. And then people started asking me if I provided coaching and that opportunity literally came to me like that was a manifestation.
I didn’t strategize. I’m going to go start a coaching business. I was trying to strategize something else that didn’t even end up working out. But the reason I’m bringing this particular story up is because When we are using only strategy, we sometimes are thinking pretty small, right? And we’re pretty focused with what it is that we are looking to create.
But whenever you open yourself up to opportunities, a lot of times the manifestations will blow you away because they will be bigger than you. ever imagined. Like, I didn’t think I was going to end up interviewing Luis Fonsi, be on the front page of the New York Times, be a podcast host. I didn’t have the confidence, Freddie, of this.
I didn’t have the knowledge of how to do this. I literally couldn’t, my brain couldn’t comprehend that this is what was going to happen. I almost feel like things were happening and my brain was still trying to catch up. All I knew is that I was showing up to serve. I was showing up to, to make an impact because that felt good for me.
And now that I look back, I’m like, Oh, I was totally manifesting. And it doesn’t mean that I didn’t have a strategy, right? I chose to focus on Tik TOK for a long time. And then I have chosen to focus on women and specifically women of color. So it’s not like there’s no focus or no strategy or like I haven’t been taking action, but there’s a difference between only Looking at strategy and then whenever you’re allowing yourself to manifest and then taking aligned action, which is that action that feels very aligned with what you want to manifest, not just doing things to do things or not just hustling to try to get things done.
So, okay, let’s. Let’s talk about the difference between manifestation and strategy. So when we think about traditional strategy, it can be things like step by step plans. It could be like a rigid process. It could be, hustle. So like if you’re an entrepreneur, it could be a business plan, a super detailed business plan.
Plan, setting KPIs, constantly going to events to network, but like having, you know, in a very structured way. If you are like on a weight loss journey, it could even be, having a super specific meal plan or having to hit your calories to a certain number. Well, manifestation is a process of aligning with what it is that you want to create.
Like it’s almost setting the intention and then allowing things to flow and you’re still again taking action, but you’re taking intentional action. So an example of that would be, okay, I have the intention of creating a coaching program. I know who I want to help.
I know the purpose behind this. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work, but I do know that right now showing up on Tik TOK or recording podcast episodes is exactly what I need. Or let’s use the weight loss example again. So a form of manifestation there would be like, okay, I am looking to let’s change weight loss.
Let’s just say becoming healthier because I don’t even like weight loss. So let’s just say, the, the goal there is to become healthier. And you remember the traditional strategy was like counting calories, having a very specific meal plan, maybe having a specific gym schedule. While the version of that for manifestation would be like, okay, my intention is to be healthier.
I’m going to do this first by making sure that I’m doing the things that I desire. So I know I want to move more and I really like dancing. So I’m going to start taking dance classes and I’m going to try to go as many times as I can. You know, you’re not super rigid with it, but you have set that clear intention.
And then you’re still Aligning with your desires. You’re still taking action, but it’s that action that feels like, Oh my gosh, I can’t wait to go to Zumba. I can’t wait to go to salsa. Instead of, Oh my gosh, I have to go lift weights or go for a run. And I hate running just because, you know, I’m in this for the result.
Manifestation allows you to also enjoy the journey. Okay. Ooh, something else, something good is coming to me. That was not on the outline, but earlier in Magnetic Mastermind, we’ve been talking a lot about this and Magnetic Mastermind is my mastermind, which is a group program for entrepreneurs and creators who are looking to manifest three core opportunities by becoming magnetic and not hustling.
So it’s very much in alignment with what this podcast episode is about. But I was coaching somebody earlier who has a coaching business and she was so focused on, I have to post content to get clients. And we were talking about cause and effect and how every cause has an effect, right? I mean, just think about, I don’t know, is it physics?
If you push something, it’s going to move. Cause like the cause was that you pushed it and then it moved. So what we were talking about is that she had kind of been showing up, kind of wasn’t showing up, but she was so focused on getting clients that she was almost blocking that abundance from being able to get clients.
As we were having this conversation about what could be going wrong, like, where in the manifestation method framework is, um, maybe there, where is something maybe falling through the cracks? And what we realized is she was taking actions.
For a specific result, like she didn’t even care about the posting because she was so focused on I have to hurry up and get clients. So it’s almost like if you want to become healthier, but you’re just hyper fixated on the scale and all you care about is the scale. So what manifestation allows you to do is it allows you to take a step back and ask yourself, what is the cause?
What is the cause? Leading to the effect. So for the scale, the cause would be maybe your movement, your nutrition, the quality of sleep, how it is that you even think about yourself, right? Like, are you going to allow yourself to go out for the walk today if you’re feeling horrible about yourself or going out for a dance?
And for this specific client, for her, it was creating the content was in her mind just to get this result. So then we switched it. Well, what if you created the content because you wanted to help people learn about this thing you’re teaching them, which is so, so important. I have clients who are. A self love coach, a sex coach, somebody else who’s an accountant, like all really important things for our community, right?
We all need self love. We all need to learn more about sex and overcome shame. if you are, somebody who’s first gen, chances are you weren’t taught about money growing up. Like all of these things are so important. So then what manifestation allows you to do is it allows you to set the clear intention, like, yes, this For my clients, for example, I want to grow the business, but what is going to help me get to that result of growing the business?
And that’s going to be showing up, creating content, providing value and working on the cause, right? So the content creation is the cause, the effect is landing clients. So in the example of weight of the scale, the effect is the number on the scale. Like you, I mean, sometimes what strategy tries to do, if we’re just looking at strategy, is you’re just trying to change the number on the scale at some way.
But manifestation allows you to, again, take that step back and say, okay, what’s going to get me here? So a misconception with manifestation is that you just sit around and hope that things are going to come to you. No, no, you are taking action, but you’re taking very intentional action. You’re enjoying the process, and then you’re opening yourself up to available results.
Maybe some that you didn’t even think about in your strategy.
Okay, my next point is all about why manifestation feels better when you’re doing it. And this goes back to the point we were just discussing with how you get to enjoy the process of manifestation. And, uh, Let me just kind of explain it. So with manifestation, you have less pressure and you have more flow when you rely on manifestation.
You let go of the pressure to constantly control every outcome, and that just feels a lot easier. You’re not trying to control everything because guess what? We legit do not even have control, even if we tried to have it. So a lot of times strategy can be really stressful because strategy is depending on things going a specific way.
Strategy is not flexible. Manifestation Is flexible.while strategy could be like, let’s say that we’re in an ocean strategy could be like, Oh my gosh, all these waves are coming. I didn’t schedule these waves. I didn’t calculate for these waves to come at this time of the day.
The waves are supposed to be only a foot or smaller. And now we’re on this raft and the waves are 5 feet long, for example. Manifestation for this same analogy would be like, okay, we’re in the water. We anticipate the waves will be like a foot, but you know what, if they’re not, we’re ready to go with the flow.
And it doesn’t mean that you control the waves, but it means that you learn how to surf the waves, right? You learn how to navigate the waves. And that’s the thing about manifestation. It is very, very flexible. So I remember with one of my first enrollments for Courage Driven Latina years ago, I was working with a coach who was very strategy focused.
So we created a very detailed plan for my enrollment. And instead of going into the enrollment, With full belief in myself, I was more worried about things in the strategy and in the planning. I was more worried about that working out. So it can really be overwhelming whenever you have a specific strategy and then things don’t go according to plan, which we all know life is gonna freaking life, right?
It really is. And there’s a difference between Alignment so like aligned action and then external hustle manifestation focuses on aligning your beliefs your energy and your desires while strategy can sometimes feel disconnected from who you are and what feels good. And when we are.
disconnected from authenticity. That’s when we feel resistance. We feel like I’m putting my two fists together, right? That’s when we feel like, Oh, this just, this isn’t flowing. Like this isn’t really working out. And it really is important for you to have, um, aligned action, like me showing up at this podcast.
This is like, I can’t wait to tell you all about this because I love this stuff. I love anything around neuroscience or manifestation or law of attraction. This, I mean, if I was sitting here like, Oh, strategically, it makes more sense for me to talk about sales. And like, that does not align with me. You wouldn’t even be listening to this podcast.
Right? So the best strategy is manifestation in the end. Oh, I should have ended with that. See, I’m just going with the flow right now. Do you see how we, we’re just going with the flow and things are happening? But I, in conclusion, I’m not even done with this podcast. I still have like four more points or three more points, but in conclusion, manifestation is The best strategy that you can implement, because manifestation is alignment, it is authenticity, it is, uh, working on, on your beliefs, it is staying open.
I mean, manifestation is just the key to unlocking the world that you desire.
So, um, as I was mentioning, it’s the key to Unlocking what you desire. So it really does open space for opportunities. Whenever you manifest, you focus on receiving instead of trying to do everything. And this creates space for unexpected opportunities to come your way. So one of my clients in Magnetic Mastermind, her name is Clara.
And by the way, we’re only four months into this round and so many amazing things have already happened. And it’s because we’ve really been focusing a lot more on manifestation instead of traditional strategy. So, and it doesn’t mean again, we don’t do things, we do things. We’re just very intentional about how we do them.
But back to Clara, Clara is a real estate broker. She’s a mom, she’s an entrepreneur. She’s a, um, has like a nonprofit sector of her business. I mean, she’s a total badass, total chingona to use the podcast name. And when she joined her big thing was like. I’m not sure what to focus on. Do I keep doing the real estate thing?
There’s a lot of shifts going on in real estate. I also, really, you know, I homeschool my kids. I care a lot about being a mom. There was just a lot of different directions that she could go. But the beautiful thing is that she ended up manifesting an opportunity that almost encompassed all of these different things that I didn’t think of.
She didn’t think of it literally came to her, but it came to her because she was open to receiving and it actually came to her when we were doing the abundance activation, which is something we do inside of Magnetic Mastermind. It’s a month of activating abundance as a group. Freaking cool. Cool. What’s not we try not to call it a challenge.
It’s a cool activation. There we go. And this opportunity landed in her lap and now she’s been teaching real estate classes. It is. in Spanish and I’m sure she’ll get more opportunities in English. So being bilingual was a big part of, of her purpose. But being so knowledgeable as a real estate broker, she ended up getting into this like education space.
So now she’s leading workshops and presentations and doing public speaking and talking about maybe speaking at the next state conference, like things we couldn’t have even thought of. Like when she joined, she was like, it’d be cool if I could just get, you know, a percentage from like this car seat I’ve been using or like products placement type stuff.
And I’m like, that feels like too small thinking for you. But I didn’t even know that this was going to be an opportunity and neither did she. But when we allow ourselves to be open to opportunities, manifestation can really blow our minds. Okay, so why is it that strategy alone can fall short? Well, if we think about having the perfect strategy, right? Like me, when I was enrolling in Courage Driven Latina years ago, when I was so focused on the strategy. Whenever we have strategy without belief, it’s not going to work because you can have the best strategy, but if you do not believe you are worthy, of success or worthy of the result, it’s not going to work.
Belief in yourself is so much more important than the strategy. I’m going to give you another example. So I had a client who was in magnetic mastermind, um, around like, not this, not this existing round, but the previous round. And she was very focused on strategy and wanted me to give her sales scripts.
So she was like, I want the script for, to know what to say when somebody books a consult call with me. And I said, you know, the reason that I’m not providing you with the script is because I care more about how you show up to that call. If you show up to that call with full belief that I know how to help this person, I’m the best person to help them and they are my ideal client, you are more likely to close that sales call.
You’re more likely to convert them than if you have a script. Well, she asked and she asked, and I was like, okay, I’m going to let you go through with this. I’m going to give you a script because I’m going to deliver what it is that you’ve asked for. And I’m going to let you learn because sometimes we, we learn a lot more by experience, right?
There’s been many clients who’ve decided to not take my coaching. And I’m like, that’s okay. Let’s see how this goes. And then we can, after, after it’s done, we can reevaluate and see if what decision you want to make going forward. So the, the client, I gave the client the script. And she went to one of her consult calls and then she came back and she said, I had the script.
I was really nervous, but I had the script. So I felt better because I had the script. But then the call started and then the client went off script. I’m like, yeah, because your client’s a human being, not somebody who was rehearsing a script on the other side. This doesn’t mean maybe think about questions you might want to ask.
Think about the flow. That doesn’t mean that, right? You can have some structure, but if you have strategy without belief, you yourself will block your own success. So for all of the people who’ve come up to me virtually, right, or in person at a conference and have said, I just need to need to know what to do. My response is always, no, you don’t need to know just what to do. It’s almost like the, um, have you all heard of be, do, have? Like you first have to become the person and then you can do the actions and then you can have the result.
So for this particular example, she had to become that version of herself who knew she could help the client on the other side. And then she was going to do that by showing up and providing. the details, asking the correct questions in a confident way. And then that’s when she was going to get the result that she wanted. And the last point that I have here is that combining manifestation and strategy is actually amazing. And that’s exactly what we do inside of Magnetic Mastermind. It’s important that you manifest first and then strategize. And here’s why, because manifest, manifestation doesn’t mean that you’re abandoning strategy or action, but rather you are ensuring that your strategy is aligned with your goals and with your desires.
And when you are practicing manifestation, it’s actually going to give you clear strategy because when you are practicing manifestation, you are authentic. You’re in touch with your intuition. And honestly, intuition is legit. The best strategy. It is. Even with my clients, I’m like, you listen to your intuition first and then you listen to me.
You’re probably thinking, well, what about that one client who wanted the sales script? I don’t know if that was so much for intuition, but that’s why we let her explore it, right? Because there’s never really any mistakes. There’s just learning opportunities. And after that, she built her belief and started closing sales calls. The reason that combining manifestation and strategy works really well is also because when you are taking aligned action versus hustly action or just random action is that you are you leveraging your time a lot better rather than just taking action to say, Oh my gosh, I’m busy. I’m doing things when you’re practicing manifestation.
Uh, it really encourages you to take aligned action and to be very intentional with how it is that you’re spending your time. Be sure to join us. for the magnetic method webinar, because we were talking all about the magnetic method and that is happening on October 21st. I’m so excited about it. I did mention that I was going to call out some of the objections that I’ve heard and just respond to them about manifestation. And this is specifically around people who are like content creators or business owners, but I’ve heard, Oh, manifestation is way too woo woo for business.
And here’s the thing. Manifestation techniques are actually backed by psychological and neuroscience principles that focus on the mind, focus on mindset, as well as behavior change. And all of that is very critical for business success. Let me tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever met a CEO who doesn’t have.
A strong mindset who isn’t confident, who isn’t focused, who hasn’t, you know, had to do behavior change, who has maybe looked at, had to look at failure as an opportunity for growth. Literally every CEO has experienced some form of, of failure. Okay. Another one is I can’t just think positive and expect results.
So here’s the thing. Manifestation is not about passively waiting for your results. As we talked about, it’s actually about aligning your mindset with intentional and aligned action. And it allows you to create opportunities by leveraging both mental clarity and practical steps. Like the brain is busy AF y’all.
Like if we, we literally can’t even focus on everything that’s happening around us. Like if you’re driving, like obviously try to keep your eyes on the road, but there’s so many things you can focus on. You can focus on the car in front of you. You could focus on the way that the lanes are painted. You could like, there’s so much for you to focus on, but the safest thing for you to do is legit to keep your eyes on the road, right?
Right? Like sometimes I know, I know I do, whenever there’s a full moon, I’m like, look at the moon! Or if there’s like a dog in the car next door, like at the garden next to me, I’m like, look at the dog! But in general, our focus is, is on the road ahead of us, right? Or if you’re sitting in your room or anywhere else, like there’s so much that you can turn around and look at.
Our brain is really busy whenever we focus on something like positive results and expecting positive results, what we focus on grows, right? It’s like a self fulfilling prophecy. If you’re just focused on everything that’s going wrong, you’re going to keep finding evidence of things that are going wrong.
But if you want to look at everything that’s going well, you’re going to find more of what’s going well. So thinking positive and expecting positive results isn’t just wishful thinking, it’s literally allowing your brain to focus. Okay. Manifestation. Another one is manifestation. Sounds like magical thinking and it’s not realistic.
So here’s the thing. Manifestation works by priming your brain to recognize opportunities that already exist around you. I have, like, I decided that I was going to start this new project and I’ve been wanting to do this new project since I literally started my business. And it wasn’t until I made the decision, you know what, I’m going to do it.
And I think I could do it. And I think it’s going to go great. That I literally realized, Oh my gosh, I have three friends who’ve already done this and I could literally talk to them about it and learn from them. And I like met with them over the next week and got so much more clarity. And I’m like, these people were in my life for the last who knows how many years and I just realized it, right?
So it’s, it’s not just about like, Oh, opportunities are going to magically appear. It’s literally that when we prime our brain. we begin to recognize opportunities and people in our lives that can help us achieve these goals.
Another one I’ve heard is I need to be in control of my results. Manifestation feels too passive. This one’s big for women of color who are so used to like hustling and working hard. And the thing is that manifestation isn’t about like letting go of all control. It’s actually about setting clear intentions, trusting in your worthiness, and then taking deliberate action.
The control lies on what you focus on and how you align your energy and your behavior. So it’s not so much about like not working hard. It’s about shifting the way that you work hard Instead of pitching yourself to people and using your energy in that way, it’s about showing up, making yourself visible, right? Whatever it is that you want to do. Let’s say that it’s dating. If you want to start dating. So it wouldn’t be like sliding into guys DMs and like chasing them. No, no, no. It would be like allowing yourself to go to places where you could possibly meet somebody.
Maybe you go to a dance class, maybe you go to like a hiking group or a running group, or maybe you join an app, right? That could be. Like, you always have to think about what is in your control and what’s not in your control. You can’t control other people’s actions. You can only control yours. and again, it’s not like you’re not doing anything.
You are, you’re just being very intentional about the action you do take. Another one, this is almost one of the last ones. Manifestation doesn’t work for everyone. I’ve tried it before. Like I already tried it. It doesn’t work for me. Look, friends, you do not have to be like a super spiritual being or a specific gender or an age for manifestation to work.
Manifestation is like, if we think about law of attraction, it is a law of the universe. Just like gravity exists, so does the law of attraction. you’re literally already manifesting whether you consciously are aware of it or not. Let me say that again. You are already manifesting whether you are aware of it or not.
We are all creating the perception we have, the reality, right? The people who are in our lives, the people who are not in our lives. You created that. And of course, if you’ve experienced trauma, you’re not responsible for your trauma. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault if somebody mistreated you. It is your responsibility to do your best to heal from that, to get to the other side of that, right?
So that you don’t pass that down to future generations. But if you think manifestation doesn’t work for me, you’re already manifesting. And it’s easy to look back, like, think back to like, maybe, I don’t know, relationships tend to be pretty easy to see this. Like, did you ever have an ex boyfriend and you’re like, what the hell was I thinking about that?
Well, think back to that circumstance, right? Who was that version of you five years ago, 10 years ago, like whenever you were in that relationship, how did you possibly manifest that person? Well, maybe you had low confidence. Maybe you were focusing on. Um, lack instead of on abundance, maybe you didn’t feel worthy of somebody who’s going to treat you better.
I mean, you get the, you get the gist, but here’s the thing. Most people unknowingly make common manifestation mistakes, which could be like not setting a clear intention. They’re not really clear about what they want. Or like I was talking about earlier, they’re just focused on the effect on the result.
And if that doesn’t happen right away, they like immediately give up on it. But the magnetic method, which again, I’m talking about on October 21st. At the webinar, you can register with the link down below, I’m going to be talking about all of the common mistakes that we make. So make sure you come to that.
Another one is I need real strategy, not just positive thinking. I feel like this whole podcast episode answered that, but manifestation isn’t just about positive thinking. It is actually a strategic approach and it integrates mindset work with practical strategies like building influence, creating visibility and taking aligned action.
So in conclusion, the best strategy is manifestation. All right, y’all. I can’t wait to see you at the webinar. I’m so excited. Again, October 21st at 5 p. m. Pacific time. Tell your friends, and I’ll see you there. Bye.