Not all vision boards are created equally. Some of them work, and they help you manifest everything you’ve ever wanted, and some don’t do anything. So why is it that some vision boards do work and others don’t? 

The truth is that a vision board is just like manifesting. There’s a formula that I use to get everything I want. That formula removes limiting beliefs and sets me up to take courageous action. The manifestation formula that I use can also be used to create vision boards, and this week, I’m going to share it with you!

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the secret to a vision board that actually works. I’m sharing my step-by-step process on how to set your intention, release limiting beliefs, and manifest everything you want in your life. I even took a look at my old vision board and what I’ve already manifested from it. Listen to this week’s episode to create a vision board that actually works for you! 

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Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, friends. Happy 2026. I cannot believe we are in 2026 already. 2025 flew by. I’m not sure how the year was for you. It was a rough year for me. I am excited for the new start and in today’s podcast episode I want to cover something that is top of mind for a lot of people. It’s kind of been all over my feed, and that is vision boards.

How do you create one? How do you make sure you don’t. Make common mistakes, and how do you create the most effective vision board? I have had many things on my vision board come to life. I’ve also had many things on my vision board not come to life just yet, and I’ve been creating vision boards for the past five years.

So I’ve learned a thing or two about the vision boards that are the most effective and the ones that haven’t really worked for me. So. I know that on [00:02:00] Instagram when we are browsing around or on TikTok or on Pinterest, vision boards look very aesthetic, and I think that’s the vibe we all go want to go for.

And there’s nothing wrong with it being aesthetic. I’m, I’m not saying that, but it doesn’t work just because it’s q or aesthetic. It works when it changes who you are and. In today’s episode, first I’m going to share with you the different things that might prevent your vision board from being as effective as possible, as well as different tips that I do have to make your vision board the most magnetic vision board possible.

And then we will end with just a step by step process that I would walk you through if I was leading you through. Creating your vision board. So let’s get into it. So why is it that most vision boards don’t work well? One, it’s that people treat vision boards like Pinterest mood boards. So it’s more just aesthetic, but it’s more [00:03:00] passive.

So it looks great to look at, but it doesn’t make the person feel much when they see it. Uh, another thing that people do is they, dream really big, and there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big, but if you dream so big to the point where you don’t believe it’s possible for you, looking at that vision board isn’t going to motivate you.

It’s actually going to do the opposite. It’s going to make you feel like your dreams are so far away.

So when your dreams are too big on your vision board, and if you’re not doing the work to expand your capacity for those dreams, then your brain will subconsciously reject it. And then last but not least, actually I have one more to add, but last on my list, is that without belief in energetic alignment, it becomes more of a wishlist than. A goal that you’re aiming for it. It’s required that you do the belief work. That you take action. And then the last part that I want to mention of why they don’t work is sometimes people will create them and then they will forget about them.

They’ll keep [00:04:00] them in a folder on their computer or they will put them somewhere in their closet and never look at it again. And that as is actually the mistake that I made last year. I made a beautiful and very. Thoughtful vision board. I actually created it with my friend Liz. We had such a good time.

We did it in Mexico City and this was like shortly after her wedding. And I loved the vision board, but I created it on Canva and I never did the simple step of putting it as the background of my computer. And there’s a lot of things on there that still haven’t manifested. So my. Goal for this year is just to edit that vision board, but this time I’m actually going to go print it out so I can put it somewhere in my room and frame it.

But I’m also going to make it the background of my computer so I can constantly see that vision board. So almost like the wallpaper that would go on my computer, because I spend so much time on the computer, that’s literally my office. So that [00:05:00] is why most vision boards do not work. The real secret, which you’ve heard me say many times before, it’s that we don’t manifest what we want. We manifest what we believe we are worthy of. So it’s not even about what it is that you put on your board. It’s more about who you believe you are when you look at it. It’s more about how you feel when you engage and interact with that board. I kind of mentioned this in the last point, but if you don’t feel worthy of the things that you put on your board, then you will not feel safe receiving it and you will block it. So let’s say that you want to, I don’t know, make six figures this year. But you don’t feel worthy of making six figures, or perhaps you have beliefs that say something like, people who have money are evil.

Or if I make money, my community may not see me like them anymore. Maybe I’ll lose my friends if I get too [00:06:00] successful. And there’s, that’s. Essentially a block. So if you are like, okay, I wanna make money, yet I believe people who make money are bad and I might lose my friends if I make money. Can you see how that’s almost this competing and conflicting belief that is preventing you from reaching the goal of yours?

You may from your logical mind. Want that six figures. But if you subconsciously feel like it’s not safe to receive, your subconscious is really what’s running your. Life and our subconscious is something we can become aware of through things like journaling, meditation, essentially, when we are in a calm, relaxed state, it’s a lot easier to access the subconscious, but a lot of us are running around like, oh my gosh, I’m running behind.

What’s the next thing I want to get to? What are my goals for this year? What do I wanna accomplish in the first quarter? And we’re just running to the next thing that we don’t give ourselves a moment to really sit and reflect on, okay, what is it that I want?

And [00:07:00] then what are some possible fears that come up? So a good question that you can ask yourself to figure out if you are blocking something because you subconsciously don’t want it, or it subconsciously doesn’t feel safe. I will have you ask yourself this question. I want insert the thing you wanna manifest, but, and then don’t even filter yourself. Just let it all come out. So like for me, I want to double my income. My, in my business and double my impact. So I want to essentially have growth, right? So like I want double the revenue, but I also want double the impact.

But some things that come up for me are, can I handle two times the amount of clients? Can I, do I have the systems in place? Do I have all of the frameworks? And that in itself is giving me so much clarity on what it is. That still gets to be worked on or with the [00:08:00] revenue piece, like I want to double my revenue, but I have this belief that it’s going to require me to work twice as long and to not have a social life, and that I’m just going to have to be.

In my room, the way that I was in 2020 when there was nothing else to do and I was building a business because that was my creative outlet. So do you see how asking yourself that question of, I want this, but, and then letting yourself just kind of fill in the blanks. That is the best way to identify different blocks.

And you may need to meditate on it, right? You may need to go for a walk, you may need to go for a walk and say like, okay, I want insert manifestation, but, and then go for a walk and let anything. That comes up. Come up. Or when you’re writing, allow yourself just to write it as is no filtering, and you will be surprised with the things that come up.

Okay? So let me give you now some tips to make your vision board as magnetic as possible. And then again, as I mentioned, we are going to go through the different steps on how to actually create a vision board. Super [00:09:00] side note, when I was getting ready to record this episode, I was like, oh my gosh, this is going to be like not even a 15 minute episode. It’s going to be so quick. I should add more things. I am not even halfway through my different outline that all the different outlines that I have, and I am already at 10 minutes.

So, obviously starting a podcast was the best thing for me because your girl likes to talk. So I just wanna thank you for listening, and if you’re new around here, welcome. If you’ve been with us for a while here at ING Revolution, thank you for spending time every week or every other week or however often you come visit.

If you haven’t yet left an Apple Podcast review, or if you’re listening on Spotify, if you haven’t rated the show, please do that because that is the way that podcasts grow. And this year, one of my intentions is to really focus on growing the podcast, on improving the quality of the podcast. So if you have a specific suggestion as well [00:10:00] for the podcast that you’d like for me to cover a specific topic, or if you wanna submit questions, you can always do that.

Through DMing me on Instagram, I’m at the Erika Cruz. That’s Erika with a K. And then we also have an Instagram for the podcast, which is at Ana Revolution. Alright, back to tips for making your vision board magnetic. So the first thing is mock up your vision board, like it’s already yours. What I mean by this is, can you add, let’s say you wanna manifest money.

Take a blank check and make a check out to yourself. Jim Carrey did this back in like the nineties. He was literally living in his car in la. And he wrote a check to himself for $10 million and dated it like the day of Thanksgiving. A year or two from the moment he wrote the check and he ended up, I’m not sure if it’s the movie Dumber and Dumber that he was in or the [00:11:00] movie mask, but he ended up landing one of those films and found out he was projected to earn $10 million from that movie.

So giving yourself something visually to look at, because remember, the brain doesn’t know the difference between something that is vividly imagined and reality. So what you’re doing is you’re creating new neural pathways in your brain.

In other words, you’re making new connections in the brain and you’re making it seem familiar that that manifestation has already happened. If you’re constantly looking at this check and it has your name on it and it has that amount, and you’re seeing it every day, it no longer becomes as scary, it becomes to build familiar pathways in your brain, and the brain loves familiarity.

That’s why every time we are TA trying to change the brain pulls us back into the familiar, even if it’s something we’re not happy with. Whenever you feel super stuck in life, that’s why, because the brain loves familiarity. So you are [00:12:00] constantly being pulled back to what feels familiar and by creating a vision board and mocking it up with things like.

Check with your name on it, maybe screenshots, and maybe now with the world of ai, y’all, you can literally mock up yourself in any setting. If you want to be this like world famous chef, upload a photo of yourself into AI and ask it to make you, to mock you up like a chef. You can do so much. Now in the world of ai, obviously there’s a lot of dangers with it, but let’s use it in a positive way because obviously it’s here, it’s not going anywhere.

Another thing you can do to really make it. Yours and personalize this vision board is through adding. For example, something I’ve done is I’ve done screenshots of my podcast and then I’ve put it on top of the chart. So what I do is I take a screenshot of Apple Podcasts, I take a screenshot of the Chin Revolution podcast, kind of like cover art, and then.

For the top podcast, I’ll just cover like one that’s there with [00:13:00] mine. You can do all of this inside of Canva. If you don’t know how to do this, go to YouTube University. You can totally figure out. You can also use Canva to, or Photoshop to put. Yourself in the vision. So like, let’s say that you want to put yourself on a TEDx stage, or maybe you want, a TEDx stage with like your name on it, or perhaps you’re looking to manifest dream partnerships with brands.

You can put the logos of the brands there, or you can use, again, AI to do a little mockup of you holding the brand, doing a brand collaboration or something like that. So. Make it yours as much as you can. I’m looking over at one of my vision boards that I’ve had up in my room since I started my business, and it’s crazy how much has come true as I look at it.

But one of the things that I have is. Spotify and I have Spotify under my brand partnerships. And last year that was the one brand partnership I did. [00:14:00] I worked with Spotify. A lot of these haven’t come true yet, but some of them came true in ways that were even better than I imagined. I wanted to have an online course that happened.

I wanted to have a podcast. I have like a little, it’s called The Self-Discovery Show with Erika Cruz. That’s what I thought my podcast name was going to be. I think Ana evolution is so much better. And then I have a grow on TikTok chorus, which seems so far fetched now. I don’t even sell that thing. I sold it back in 2020.

And, yeah, there’s like, as I’m looking at it, I mocked up all of these different things. I even mocked up, I took a screenshot of my, of my. TikTok and I put the amount of followers that I wanted on there. So get creative, use Canva. Use AI to mock up things to make it you like. Use photos of yourself in your vision board.

Make it feel familiar that you’re already the person who has these things. [00:15:00] [00:16:00] [00:17:00] Tip number two, to make your vision board super magnetic, add things on the vision board that you’ve [00:18:00] already manifested. Because this builds credibility with your subconscious. Remember I was telling you that your subconscious is really what runs the show?

So you want to give it evidence, kind of like, if I did this, I can do the next thing as well. So include things that you’ve already done. So for me, things with like Telemundo or My New York Times feature or things that just kind of remind me of like the badass I am. So allow yourself to celebrate yourself and find evidence and show your brain evidence that hard things are possible, that you can manifest different things. Tip number three is use photos that feel emotionally true. I’ve said this a few times. It’s not so much about the way that the board, and I’m saying bored, but it could be digital, it could be physical, and I’ll get into that in a moment when we go through the step by steps of how to create one.

But it’s more important how you feel when you look at it than how it looks. [00:19:00] And obviously if it can look cute, but also feel great, great. Right? Great. Then follow that. But we wanna use photos that feel emotionally true. So how is it that you can choose photos that feel like home? Not just because something’s trendy, but something that really feels authentic and true to you because your nervous system needs to recognize it as safe.

And as possible, this is also, again, for example, let’s say that like you want a designer bag, but you, don’t believe that you can have one yet. Like, so maybe using a photo of a designer wallet or something that feels more accessible to you might be easier on the nervous system. It might feel like, oh yeah, no, that’s possible for me.

Yeah, I can buy, like maybe I can’t buy a Chanel bag yet, but maybe I can buy Chanel lipstick. And put that in my bag and start to get familiar with the brand and start to feel like it’s more accessible for me. Or maybe, [00:20:00] um, the goal of yours is to have like an award-winning podcast, right? Or, or a business that makes X amount or has this amount of impact or a nonprofit that wins these awards.

What is the steps? What are the steps that are eventually going to help you get there? Because you don’t go from where you are now to the ultimate dream. There’s usually different steps, so maybe adding the steps. To the vision board. And what I mean by this is, let’s say that the goal is to, I already forgot the examples I just gave.

Oh, the award-winning podcast. Done is better than perfect. So like, just getting started is better than waiting until it’s perfect. So maybe it’s a photo of you with the podcast, Mike, like you just getting started, right? Not necessarily like the award-winning podcast just yet, but it’s you starting and that probably feels more accessible.

Or maybe a little mock-up photo of three different, your first three episodes of your podcast. Another thing that you can do with your vision boards is you don’t just wanna include things, right? You also want to include [00:21:00] the. Feeling that you’re going to have the emotion, and you can do this through imagery, but you can also do this with phrases and different things like that. So maybe you wish to have a morning with no alarm clocks, right?

Like what visually appeals to that? Or maybe you can even write, within a quote again in Canva. I’m so grateful for my easy mornings that aren’t woken up by an alarm clock, right? You can even write phrases like that if you can’t find the images to support you, to support the things that you’re looking for. And a good thing to ask yourself is, okay, I, you know that you want. Certain things in life. How does it feel when you have those things? Because we all think we want the business because the business is going to make us feel a certain way, but it’s actually not even about the business. It’s really just that we want the feeling.

So I remember seeing a video on Instagram a couple of years ago. Or maybe it was just about a year ago and [00:22:00] it was an interview for a podcast and the guy was talking about how you don’t want the beach house. You want the feeling that you think the beach house is going to bring you, so. Let’s just say the soulmate, right?

You don’t, you don’t want the partner. You wanna feel the love that you’re going to feel when you have the partner, or you don’t want the business for, for the money. You want the business for the freedom you’re going to feel when you make money, or for the purpose you’re going to feel when you make an impact.

So don’t just think about the things you want, think about the feeling behind those things, and also add that to your vision board. Then last but not least, make it interactive. This is where I went wrong last year. You want it to be in a place where you see it daily. You want to maybe include affirmations, and you read out those affirmations when you look at them. You also want it to remind you, like if you’re meditating or if you’re journaling, how can you use your [00:23:00] vision board as a reminder, like a quick, just quick.

Little visual of what it is that you wanna create so that you can leverage it and use it in your visualizations, or if you’re journaling and you’re constantly reminded of what you are calling in. So those are my different tips that I have for making the vision board as magnetic as possible, as effective as possible.

So now let’s talk about the steps to create a vision board.

Okay. A vision board can be. Digital. It can be on your phone screen, it could be as your computer background. It could be the, Poster boards. It could be on a poster board with magazine cuttings. In today’s day, with technology between Canva and ai, I think you can kind of make a vision board that is. A lot more tailored to your likes because when we are looking at [00:24:00] magazines and clipping out things for magazines, we’re pretty limited, right? It’s, it’s hard to make it as customized the way that I’m suggesting you do. So Canva is going to be your best friend, and so is AI and use it to create. A digital board, which then you could add as your background, or you can then go get it printed out. That would be my suggestion. But if you’d rather get your hands on some magazines and clip those out and use some glue, you can totally do that as well. So step one. Is reflect and release. So before jumping into Pinterest, oh yeah, duh.

Pinterest is like another thing. So you wanna use Canva and Pinterest to help you find images as well as chat, GPT or a another AI tool to help you mock up photos with you in them. I’ve also, I think last year I used like. Cha PT to create, or No? I used Canva, the AI in Canva to [00:25:00] create an at home podcast studio that I wanna create, and it looked really cool.

So use it for different things like that. I was like, please create a podcast studio that is teal and gold, and it looks feminine, but also modern, and it came up with this really cool podcast studio. So don’t hold back with the technology that we have today. Allow that to support you with creating your vision board.

So, okay, step one, reflect and release. Before jumping into Pinterest, take a moment to pause and to reflect. What did you manifest in 2025? What no longer aligns with the version of you that you’re becoming? What do I want to feel in 2026? Notice there’s a big focus on feeling here, but that’s because that is how we manifest.

We manifest more from feeling than we do from our logical mind. So give yourself some time to reflect on these. Maybe you pause this episode, allow yourself [00:26:00] to journal about these and just kind of free write. Step two, again, you don’t manifest what you want. You manifest who you are, and you manifest what you believe you’re worthy of. So ask yourself, who am I becoming? What habits, beliefs, and boundaries support this version of me. And pause. Allow yourself to reflect on this. Step three is to decide on your goals and decide on the things that you want to manifest. So this isn’t just things, right? These are also. The feelings you wanna create, the experiences you want to have. So do a brain dump based on, you know, the two things that you’ve just reflected on. What are the things that you want? And write all of those down. So maybe this is a career that feels more aligned and pay you more. Maybe this is manifesting your dream partner. Maybe you have a [00:27:00] goal of running a half marathon. Perhaps you want to learn how to make a certain recipe and master it. Maybe you just want to call in more peace. All of these different things. So write out all of the different goals you have. Don’t really limit yourself. And then I want you to do what we had just talked about at the beginning of the episode, which was, I want blank, but, and then your job is to identify all of the limiting beliefs or all of the conflicting beliefs you have around this desire, because if you just put the desire on the vision board, but you’re not aware of the certain blocks that you have, then every time you look at your vision board, you’re subconsciously.

Going to think of the blocks rather than how it is that you can get to where you wanna go rather than getting to the manifestation that you want to create. So let’s say that, I think this one’s an easy one. So let’s say you wanna manifest your dream partner. So you would ask yourself, I wanna [00:28:00] manifest my dream partner, but. I feel like I’m running outta time. And then you write all the different things. I’m not sure if the person exists. I should have met them by now. Right? Like, and these are all limiting beliefs. And then the next step after that, this is like a substep of that main step. Because we want to identify the different goals you have and then identify any possible blocks that are getting in the way and overcome those blocks.

And then what you’re going to do. So let’s say that you wanna manifest a stream partner, but you don’t believe that that person is out there. Like maybe you believe that you are being too picky, or that your standards are too high, or this person doesn’t exist. We’re gonna challenge that belief. We’re gonna challenge that limiting belief and saying, okay, like what this, this isn’t real.

Like this is what my brain is telling me. What is a better feeling thought? And that’s what I want you to ask [00:29:00] yourself for every desire and every block that comes with that desire that you have. And I know this seems like a lot of prep work before creating a vision board, but I promise you this will make a huge, huge difference. So what’s a better feeling thought than, oh, I’m too picky. 

What about the thought of. My love life turned out better than I could have ever imagined. And what we’re doing is we’re taking the limiting belief and we’re changing that to an affirmation. So maybe, um, another affirmation that you could say is, I know how to love myself so well, that regardless ofif a partner is in my life or not, I am good. Because remember, we attract what we are and what we’re being. So if you’re already this like fulfilled, loved version of yourself, you become a magnet for that as well. Or let’s say that you wanna start a business and you are worried that you don’t have enough experience, or you don’t feel ready yet, or you’re [00:30:00] scared of failing.

What if the affirmation becomes. Most people don’t even try. Regardless of if I win or regardless of if I’m successful or unsuccessful, that is still a win. That was obviously a longer affirmation, but you, what you wanna do is, again, just to recap this little section. This is like the subsets of step three. Identify your goals slash desires.

Ask yourself the question, I want this desire, but let yourself write everything down that’s coming up. These are limiting beliefs. These are blocks. Then change those limiting beliefs to affirmations and either add those affirmations onto the vision board or write them down somewhere so that you can reflect back to them and know that what you wanna create is totally.

Possible. And then step four is that you’re going to gather your visuals, and you’re going to do this [00:31:00] with intention. So you’re going to choose images that are aligned with what you want. Maybe you’re going to have to mock ’em up with your name, maybe your, maybe you even write an email to yourself. I’ve done that.

I wrote like. Seeking you for a $20,000 keynote. And this last year I did, I didn’t get a $20,000 keynote, but I did get a $16,000 keynote, and I feel like that was a result of my vision board. Totally forgot about that until right now. Um, another thing is, yeah, so using Pinterest chat, GPT ai. to create the images that are very intentional with what it is that you want to create.

And then, as I mentioned, adding maybe affirmations and different words like that, adding photos of things that you’ve already created so that you can show to your brain that it’s so possible for you to create amazing things. And then the last step is to create your board. Again, [00:32:00] I recommend starting a grant again.

I recommend, a Canva digital board that you can then print out because that way you can also make quick edits to it. You’re not limited by what’s inside of a magazine, but you really want to give yourself. Some time to create this. Like maybe you even invite your friends over and you listen to this podcast episode together and you create the the board, but you want it to be somewhere where you can see it all of the time, whether it’s your phone background, your desktop background, or you print it out and you put it somewhere in your room or in your office.

You want it to be visible to you. And then step, I don’t even know what step I’m on, but

The final step is to take action. Even if it’s imperfect, even if it’s messy action. So don’t wait for the vision board to do the work. Become the person who makes it inevitable. So put the vision board somewhere. You can see it. [00:33:00] Look at it in the mornings or in the evenings, like set time to actually look at your vision board.

Do the visualizations, speak it out loud, like if it’s already yours. When you’re journaling, ask yourself, okay, like, what would the version of me who already is living this vision board do today? How would she act? What decisions would she make? What thoughts would she think? And really tune into the identity of the person who’s already living that vision board, and that is going to support you in taking aligned.

Action. Even if it’s imperfect, even if it’s messy. So even if you are starting small, if you wanna create content, maybe you like just post that story. Maybe you share an idea, you pitch yourself, you go to the event. You just really begin to put yourself out there because that is how the vision becomes your life when you begin to ask yourself, okay, what would that version of me who already has all of these things do?

[00:34:00] What decisions would she make? What thoughts would she think and what feelings would she feel? Okay, friends, that ended up being a much longer episode than I thought, but if you create a vision board, take a photo and send it to me. I want to see it. Happy vision boarding. If on your vision board, one of the things that you want to, put on there is. Creating content or growing your personal brand.

Then I invite you to download my Manifest Your Marba, which is a 10 question series to support you in identifying your personal brand. We’ll have the link down below and if you are interested in working with me one-on-one on your personal brand, I still have a few spots left for my personal branding intensive.

We’ll link to that down below as well. Happy 2026. Happy manifesting. I wish you all of the joy, all of the success, all of the abundance this year. [00:35:00] Happy New beginnings. Happy 2026 and I will see you all next week.