As much as I’d love for something like the success of my business to stay consistent, it’s just not going to happen. It’s part of the human experience. So instead of lamenting about the slow season I was in, I went back to my manifestations, and manifested a newer version of my business – tweaked a few things and overhauled some others – so that I could serve even more people. 

Because not everything is going to work all the time. My last version of Courage Driven Latina worked because of the pandemic. Everyone was inside, and many courageous women wanted to pivot. My clients wanted to change their lives for the better, and I got a ton of clients from all walks of life. But as the world started opening up, my clientele changed, so I had to change too. 

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the truth about manifestation from a 7-figure business owner. My business has been successful because I took action during a slow season of business. So if you’re trying to manifest success, maybe because you’re in a slow season too, this episode is for you. 

Tune in to learn more about my manifestation framework and how I turned my slow season into a profitable one in just a few weeks. 

How to work with Erika:

Join the waitlist for the Magnetic Mastermind program here!

Join the waitlist for the Courage Driven Latina program here!

Resources Mentioned:
Click here to claim your Manifest Your Marca bot! https://theerikacruz.com/manifest-your-marca 

Follow Erika on:
Instagram @‌theerikacruz
TikTok @‌theerikacruz
LinkedIn

Website:
http://www.theerikacruz.com

Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, hello. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution Podcast. Today, I do not have a script, I do not have an outline. I just had an idea, and I thought it would be interesting to record this and share it with you all. If you are into manifestation, as I am, you have probably heard, [00:01:00] “Decide who you wanna be and show up as her.”

And while I think this is really good advice, I think there’s a big misconception around manifestation, and this misconception is that things will come to you, and it gets to be really soft and it gets to be really easy. And sometimes things do happen that way. usually things happen that way after we’ve put in some effort.

And I’m not telling you that in order to be successful, everything has to be really hard work because I think a lot of women of color, a lot of women in general, are unlearning this belief that things have to be really hard or really difficult or else they can’t happen for us, because that’s not the case either.

But what happens when we really get into this manifestation phase is we almost have this belief that we don’t have to put in as much effort or energy. And I thought it would be really fun to [00:02:00] share the story about when my business started and why I think it might have blown up so quickly. And then I wanna share with you where I’m at now, where I’m making a lot of changes and a lot of pivots to my business.

And my business grew really quickly, and then it didn’t grow. Uh, as in, instead of, I wanna say between year one and two, it grew by like 100%. So let’s say that I did $100,000 in sales the first year. By the second year I did $200,000, and then by the following year it was almost at $500,000. And then it went down, which the average small business ends up closing within the first five years.

And that’s because five years is a good span of time in which the economy evolves, right? Year by year. AndIt’s just a good indicator as to whether or not the business will survive. But as I think about [00:03:00] the manifestation aspect of things, I think it’s really interesting because I have a framework called the BFF method.

I have podcast episodes on it. B stands for belief. Do you have the belief that you can do this? Do you have any competing beliefs? And then the F is for forget reality, forget what is, because if you’re manifesting something new, then that means it’s not here yet, so you can’t look to what is right now.

And then the last F is all about focus. Focus on what you want and why you want it, and forget about exactly how it’s going to happen and trying to control it, but rather focus on your plan, focus on these other things. And I, I actually think we’ll come back to the BFF method. But it is really interesting because when I first started my business,

I was doing a lot of work upfront for it and putting in a lot of effort. And I think sometimes when we think of manifestation, we think it doesn’t require a lot of effort And effort is still required. The reps are still required.

You still have to [00:04:00] develop skills. You still have to become familiar with what you’re doing. You still have to practice it. You still have to get better at it. You still have to fail at it sometimes, and that is exactly how we learn. And when I was starting to create content at the end of twenty twenty and then took it way more seriously at the beginning of twenty twenty, I was posting every single day, like twice a day.

It wasn’t like I was sitting there saying, “Oh man, I want a business,” and then I wasn’t doing anything. So what I was doing from the manifestation side is I was working on my belief every single day, and I was journaling, and I was challenging my own thoughts, and I was working on my mindset. And then the other thing I was doing is every day, because this was during the pandemic that I really started to take this seriously, so I had a lot more time on my hands.

During the pandemic, it was just such an odd time because everything was closed. I was in California. All the gyms were closed. My office was [00:05:00] closed. My family didn’t live close to me because I was working in the tech industry, and I was working about an hour and fifteen minutes away from where my mom lived and where my cousins live.

And what ended up happening is I ended up creating almost this, this environment in which it was like a self-development bubble. It was almost like a time of hermiting. But one of the skills that I really started prioritizing was visualizing my future, and I kept imagining my future, and I would get really excited about it.

And I didn’t even know what my business was going to be at the time, but I would see myself helping people. I would see myself making money. I saw myself leaving my job. And I did this every day. Mind you, this is during the pandemic, and there was nowhere to go. So I was diligent about this practice, and then I would journal about it, and any doubt that would come up, I would, I would write it out.

I was listening to audiobooks. I was going out on walks because it was the only thing I could do. I was creating [00:06:00] content two or three times a day. This is when TikTok was really becoming popular, so I suddenly blew up on TikTok. And from there I was like, “Okay, I should probably do something with these followers.”

So I started hosting these free classes, these free workshops, and I started getting people on an email list. And from there, people started asking if I could coach them, and that is how my coaching business began. But let’s say that I was just doing the journaling and I was doing the visualizations or the meditations, but I never once posted.

My business wouldn’t be here today. So I think sometimes we almost have gone very far to the feminine energy side, which is amazing, and I think it’s very important, but every single human being has both masculine and feminine energy So that doesn’t have anything to do with how you identify. It doesn’t really have much to do with genders.

It’s really just that we all have the energy of doing, and we all have the energy of being and receiving. The doing [00:07:00] energy, the leading energy is the one that is the masculine energy, and then the feminine energy is like receiving, creativity, softness. But we can’t be 100% soft, and we can’t be 100% just driven, right?

We, we need a balance of both. And what I learned is that I was bringing a balance of both through my visualizations, through my journaling practice, through my mindset practice. I was receiving knowledge with my walks and while I was listening to these audiobooks. And then on the masculine energy side, I was creating content.

I was getting better at my skill. I was working on these presentations. I was hosting these classes. So do you see how it wasn’t like there was no effort involved? And I think we really underestimate how much effort is required in manifestation. I’ve heard people say that they are manifesting something, and [00:08:00] my immediate reaction to that is, okay, well, if you are manifesting something, have– are you currently working on feeling worthy of it, right?

This is the belief thing that I mentioned earlier. And what, what physical actions are you taking? Because if somebody else can’t see the action you’re doing, then you’re not actually taking action. Writing in your journal about it and thinking about it is not action. Somebody outside of you needs to see that action, and that is when it counts.

And we get so caught up in this, like, passive learning where, “Oh, I’m just in the research phase right now. Oh, I’m just observing people.” And I was in this place when I had a food blog, I actually overthought starting the food blog for two years.

If you’ve listened to any episode, you probably have heard me say that a bunch of times. But the intention here is not to shame. It’s not to tell you, “Oh, you need to hustle,” or anything like that. The intention here is to pull back the curtains and kind of share with you what it was [00:09:00] that led to me having a business. And as I mentioned earlier, my business Kind of blew up. I had way more demand for my coaching business than I could even serve, than I could fulfill.

And that is when I decided to leave my tech job. Thank the universe, whatever you believe in, thank God, thank source for giving me that, that intuition and, and for me trusting that intuition to leave that tech job because six months after I quit, everybody got laid off. So not to say… I mean, hey, if I would’ve stayed, maybe getting laid off six months later would’ve given me the ultimate push, but my intuition was definitely in the right place to leave that job behind.

And, that’s a common question I get a lot from clients, and I never advise people leave a job, especially if they haven’t built a business yet. I would never suggest, “Oh, leave your job to follow your dream.” I get that from a purpose [00:10:00] perspective or even a manifestation perspective that might make sense, but we also live in this capitalistic society where we have bills to pay, and we need a place to live.

 we need food to eat. We have people who depend on us. And what happens is that whenever you’re like, “I’m going all in on my dream,” and then you completely ignore the fact that you have bills to pay, you put so much pressure on yourself. So the reason I don’t suggest that is because your nervous system will freak the F out, and you are not going to be creative if you are in survival mode.

You are going to be reactive. It’s going to be very difficult for you to start a business. I highly recommend that people start while they currently have stability. So earlier, I talked about how my business blew up, and then it kind of took a dip, and I feel like I’m at the beginning stages of it expanding again.

And the amount of effort and the amount of time that this is taking [00:11:00] is a lot. And when I first started my program, Courage Driven Latina, which is my foundational program, it was first all about helping people find direction and find their purpose, which was exactly what people were struggling with during the pandemic.

We all felt so lost. But that’s not where people are anymore, and things evolve and things change. And even though I manifested this amazing business, I now have to manifest the new version of it, and it does require a lot of effort. So what I realized was once people found their purpose, it wasn’t just about finding their purpose or finding clarity, it was all about building the courage to actually follow it.

So then I introduced something called the Courage Project in my programs, where I would support them with a courage project that was helping them do the thing that scared them, whether this was launching a podcast or pivoting in their career or working on their confidence or starting the business or creating content on social media.

And people were able to [00:12:00] pick their paths And while that worked and served for a while, it wasn’t working anymore, and I really had to take a step back and say, “Okay, I’m talking to people who wanna be business owners, but I’m also talking to career pivoters, and I’m also talk…” And I was just talking to so many different people, and I had to really take a step back and look at, okay, who are the most successful people in my program?

And the people who had the most success… And not successful, I mean who got the most amount of results, who benefited the most from the program, and it was always the people who were building their personal brand or creating content to start a business. So I decided that is what I’m going to focus on.

So a few months ago, I pivoted CDL to now be a content/personal branding program, which required, oh my gosh, so much effort. It required that I pretty much threw away the curriculum that I spent so much time developing. We had a whole courage project plan. I had to throw all of that away, and [00:13:00] that came with grief.

And that came with like, “Damn, there’s all this effort that I had already put in, and I’ve gotta let it go now.” But this is part of being a business owner. You have to be able to pivot. You have to be able to transition. You have to be quick with it, too. And honestly, I waited way too long. I should’ve probably done this a long time ago.

But as we speak, I have about 80% of the new curriculum recorded, and dang, is it good. And dang, do I wish I would’ve done this sooner. And now I’m so grateful that I’m doing it now. So even though I’m in the process of what I would consider manifesting this new version of the program, this isn’t me just lighting candles and wishful thinking.

No. This is me, yeah, journaling in the morning. Yes, meditating whenever I’m getting stressed out. Yes, working out and maybe going on walks, but I’m also actually recording the new curriculum, and I’m letting it be done imperfectly, and I am just so excited about it because it has a framework that I know works [00:14:00] because it has worked for me.

And I think the difficult thing for me was that Over the last couple of years, I’ve actually been losing followers because I started off as a creator, and then I started a business. So then all I was doing was working on the business and not creating content as much anymore, so I was losing and losing followers.

And this year, I’ve probably gained over fifteen thousand followers. I wanna say, like, twelve thousand of those happened within a forty-eight hour period. So the tools that I used and the frameworks that I used for myself are what I am giving to my clients, and I cannot wait for them to have this. And even though it took so much effort, I’m like, “Oh, man, human beings are so interesting,” because we want to stay in the familiar.

We want things to feel familiar, and anything that feels uncertain or like change, we resist, but yet we are very unfulfilled if there’s no challenge. And if something is too big of a challenge, then we feel very overwhelmed. But I [00:15:00] feel like I’m in that stage now of, okay- I’m going through these changes, and it is a lot of effort, but it’s also possible for me, and it’s challenging me to think bigger, to get my clients better results.

And I already see my clients getting amazing results. And once this new curriculum comes out, it’s only going to be that much better. So all of this to say that manifestation is not just wishful thinking. It does require some effort. I have had to have longer nights than I wanted, and it’s not like this is what I’m doing all day, every day, and this is a lifestyle.

It is a season. And I think that is what has supported me in navigating this, going through different seasons. I just wrapped up a season of enrolling in my mastermind. I’m now in the season of updating the curriculum for CDL, and then next I’m updating the curriculum for Magnetic Mastermind. And then after this, I have some vacations coming up, and I cannot wait for that.[00:16:00] 

So as human beings, it’s really easy for us to look at our current situation and think of it as a permanent situation. But where you are right now, if you are in a stressful or an overwhelmed moment or even a happy moment, it’s probably not going to last, and that’s okay. And that’s a good thing, right?

Because it, it’s human nature to go through cycles like this. We’re constantly going through new realizations and new rebirths and new deaths of letting things go, just like I did for my curriculum. And that was pretty much all I wanted to share with you all, that manifestation is not just wishful thinking.

It does require effort. It does require reps. It does require time, and it doesn’t have to be hustly, where you are depriving yourself. I do think there’s a time and a place for journaling, for meditating, for all of these different things, because if I wasn’t doing those regulating practices, it would take me so much longer to create content, so much [00:17:00] longer to update this curriculum for my clients.

I would just be delaying and delaying and delaying. So if you are in a phase right now where you are knowing that you want to manifest something, I would have you consider the BFF method. What beliefs do you currently have about yourself, about your ability, or if this is even possible? Is there anything that makes you feel unworthy of this manifestation?

And check that. Journal on it, challenge it, reframe your thoughts around it. And then the next one is forget reality, because what’s happening right now is almost old news. It’s a manifestation of the actions and the thoughts and the energy of the, of the past. It’s almost like planting seeds, right? If you go outside and plant seeds today, you’re not going to see the crops come out today.

It’s going to happen in maybe a week or maybe a month So keep that in mind. Forget what’s happening right now because it’s not evidence of what’s possible. It’s just evidence of [00:18:00] what has passed. And then last but not least is focus. Focus on what you want and what’s in your control to do it. So if you know that you want to grow your personal brand, post the damn content.

And then why do you want it? Get really clear on your why. Why is this important to you? And then don’t focus on exactly how it’s going to come. Don’t try to create a plan with like, “Okay, I need 50,000 followers by the end of the week or else I don’t deserve this manifestation.” No, no, no. That is us trying to control, and us trying to control and man- manipulate is the fastest way to push away a manifestation.

Because when I started my coaching business, it was because I was taking action, I was creating content, I was hosting these free workshops, but imagine if in my mind I was supposed to have a different business. I wouldn’t have even have been open to the coaching business, and the reason the coaching business came to my space, is because somebody asked if I offered coaching and I was like, “What’s coaching?”

And then I looked it up, and then [00:19:00] I joined a program, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing. I want to do this for my community,” and that is how CDL was born. Okay, friends. I hope you found this podcast episode helpful and valuable, and I will see you in next week’s episode