0:03

Welcome in to the Subconscious Mind

0:05

Mastery Podcast. Thomas Miller, thank you

0:07

so much for joining us. We've

0:09

got a treat today for your

0:11

ears and for your eyes. We're

0:14

going to talk about vision board

0:16

magic with my friend Gene Vanthul,

0:18

right here from Asheville, North Carolina.

0:21

Gene has written a new book and

0:23

in fact, it popped out as number

0:26

one in the category of mixed media

0:28

on Amazon. So congratulations to her on

0:30

that. The book is freshly out

0:33

just a few days ago as this

0:35

is being recorded in our interview and

0:37

you can find it on hightimelinebooks.com and

0:39

support the podcast if you buy it

0:41

from that link. It's right there on

0:43

the front page, at least as this

0:45

is being released and make it easy

0:47

for you. You know, as the winds

0:49

of time and of our lives blow,

0:52

sometimes they gust you into something really

0:54

good. And that's what happened when I

0:56

met Gene. I was in the van.

0:58

I was doing podcasts from in the

1:00

van and it was my

1:02

first three months in the van and

1:04

I was basically down in Florida and

1:07

she knew that I had come back up

1:09

to North Carolina and she sent me a

1:11

random email. She didn't know me. I didn't

1:13

know her, but she gave

1:16

an invitation to house-sit for

1:18

her two precious little cats

1:20

in Asheville while they went on

1:23

spring break. What Gene does

1:25

still probably not fully grasp is

1:27

how little time it took me

1:29

to say yes. Her

1:32

home was beautiful and it had a wonderful

1:34

sunroom. She mentions it in the interview. It

1:37

came from a vision board and I

1:39

slept for four solid days.

1:42

I was exhausted. Well, wisdom said, Thomas,

1:44

you need to find a home base.

1:46

You can do this van thing, but

1:48

you need to do it from a

1:50

base. And I started looking around and

1:53

realized that I was sitting in as good of

1:55

a place as any and I started looking and

1:58

found where I am now. All from changing. litter

2:00

box and making sure food was down at

2:02

five o'clock. Well Jean had

2:04

an online business that she had sold

2:06

in the past that was helping parents

2:09

and kids come together around art projects.

2:12

She did art projects with her own

2:14

daughters as they were growing up, but

2:16

that translated and transferred into vision boards.

2:19

So she has an artistic eye, she

2:21

has a good eye for details as

2:23

well, and you put all of that

2:26

together and the new book, Vision Board

2:28

Magic, is truly pure magic. So

2:30

without further ado, let's meet this wonderful

2:33

lady who has had such a profound

2:35

impact in my life, Jean Van't Hall.

2:38

Jean welcome to Subconscious Mind Mastery.

2:40

Thank you Thomas, glad to be here. Yeah, it's

2:42

a long overdue first, isn't it? Well

2:47

you hit number one in a category, you had

2:49

a great launch. Why did you

2:52

pick vision boards to write about? Well

2:55

I have been making

2:57

and using vision boards for

2:59

over 20 years myself

3:03

and absolutely love the process,

3:06

find it really enjoyable, just the

3:08

creative process of making vision boards

3:11

and also effective,

3:13

like I've had awe-inspiring

3:16

results from making vision boards.

3:19

Over time I started sharing how

3:22

to make vision boards with other people

3:24

through blog posts and then vision board

3:27

workshops and parties

3:29

and just one-on-one and

3:32

have heard great stories

3:35

and results from people I've worked

3:37

with as well. I'm passionate about

3:39

vision boards and really

3:41

want to help people to

3:43

live their best lives, to create

3:45

the lives that they want to

3:47

live. You know with

3:49

that much experience and doing it so much

3:51

and you have an artistic eye, so you

3:54

have that visual as well to

3:56

add to it, that what

3:59

do you suppose works with a vision board?

4:03

There are so many reasons why

4:05

vision boards work, but as

4:08

humans, we are highly visual

4:10

creatures and more than 80%

4:13

of the information that we take in

4:15

and process is through our visual senses.

4:18

And so having a visual representation

4:20

of your dreams and goals is

4:24

extra effective. It makes achieving

4:26

your dreams and goals easier

4:29

and quicker. And

4:32

when you create a vision board, the

4:35

process of creating it, creating it with

4:37

intention is part of it. Like that's

4:39

part of the magic. But

4:41

also having that vision board that

4:43

you can then see regularly, whether

4:45

you hang it on your wall

4:47

or you have a digital vision

4:49

board that you have on your

4:51

laptop or your phone. I do

4:53

all three, by the way, where

4:56

you can see it regularly reminds you

4:58

of what it is that you're going

5:01

after, what is important to you. And

5:04

even if you walk past it

5:06

and don't consciously register it

5:08

after the hundredth time that you walk

5:10

past it or whatever, you're

5:13

still subconsciously registering that. And

5:16

it's a reminder. It's

5:18

like a map and a

5:20

compass for where you want to

5:22

go to help keep you on

5:24

track. It's pretty

5:26

amazing, actually. I had

5:28

kind of the biggest vision board

5:30

story was when I was just

5:33

coming out from my other life

5:35

into this life. And

5:37

I really, truly had no self

5:39

confidence. And

5:42

I did a vision board, heard about it. This was 2009. Late

5:46

2009, early 2010. And

5:49

I put on there a microphone, a

5:52

radio microphone symbolizing

5:54

radio show. Yeah.

5:56

Do you know within six months I was on the

5:59

radio on a big station in Dallas.

6:01

Yeah, it's coming from nowhere. Like

6:03

didn't think I should have been

6:05

in the building, right? And

6:08

that turned into over 10 years of working

6:10

with them on various shows. Yeah.

6:13

And there are so many stories

6:15

like that. I

6:18

have stories like that. People

6:20

that I've worked with have stories like that. It's

6:22

just incredible. What the power

6:25

of intention combined with that

6:28

visual affirmation of

6:30

your dream or goal can

6:33

do. Now you, as

6:35

I understand, have been doing some events,

6:38

like some classes, to help corporations. And

6:40

people have been asking you, hey, can

6:42

you teach us this? Yes,

6:45

I do vision board workshops for groups,

6:49

for individuals as well, but also for groups,

6:51

teams, and companies. I've done them

6:53

for LinkedIn,

6:56

Uber, Old Navy,

6:58

lots of teams. I got another request

7:00

this morning, actually. Congratulations. They're a lot of

7:02

fun. I love teaching

7:04

people, sharing this with other people,

7:07

helping other people make vision boards.

7:09

How are they receiving it? Are they having

7:11

fun? I hope so. They seem

7:13

to be. I get great testimonials.

7:17

They say that they really enjoy the

7:20

workshops. Yeah. I'll bet. And then they

7:22

have stuff happen, and they're going, oh, wow, this

7:24

lady's onto something here. Cool. Now, I'm sure it's

7:28

very hands-on. So you probably make

7:30

a board, right? Everybody gets to

7:32

make one. In my virtual workshops,

7:34

usually, sometimes we do physical vision

7:36

boards, but usually in my virtual

7:38

workshops, we create digital vision boards.

7:41

And I help people create vision boards

7:44

using Canva, which is a

7:46

very easy to use, intuitive

7:48

graphic design software. And

7:51

then you can either print it out to hang

7:53

on your wall, or you can use it on

7:55

your phone or your laptop. Is

7:57

that how you're doing them now, or are you still magazineing?

8:00

clipping. I do both. You do both.

8:02

Okay. All right. I love both. I

8:04

still love the process of flipping through

8:06

magazines and choosing images and also

8:09

it is so easy

8:13

to find very specific images

8:15

online. Like Canvas for example

8:17

has a stock library and

8:20

you just use keywords to

8:22

search what you're looking for and then

8:24

scroll through the different options and

8:27

find something that really resonates with you

8:29

and sort of captures the

8:31

essence of that dream or goal rather

8:34

than flipping through a magazine and maybe

8:36

you come across something that sort of

8:38

fits maybe not. I

8:40

do like the like both of them both processes.

8:42

All right. Where do you get the

8:45

magazines? Different places. That's the

8:47

question I get asked a lot

8:49

actually and you know some people

8:51

just have some magazines lying around

8:54

but I often go to a

8:56

libraries have free magazine exchanges. You

8:59

can pick up magazines at thrift

9:01

stores like Goodwill. You can

9:03

order them like on eBay

9:06

you can get a order Etsy. You can get

9:08

a used magazines

9:10

pretty cheap and then

9:12

of course you know there's the Barnes and

9:14

Noble or whatever the news stand.

9:17

The current stuff. Yeah. Do you

9:19

have like a stack of magazines just

9:21

for this purpose? I do.

9:24

Yeah. For myself and

9:26

also for my workshops for

9:28

like in-person workshops or one-on-one.

9:30

Yeah. No that's cool. You know

9:33

as you're talking about that I think what

9:35

I did is found the clip art microphone

9:38

or a photo of a microphone and I

9:40

printed it out like at the local printer print

9:42

shop you know. So it was a good quality.

9:44

Is that what you do with the like

9:47

you could pull an image from Canva and then take

9:49

it up to a printer and have them printed if

9:51

you don't have a good color printer. Absolutely.

9:54

Yeah. And if I'm making a

9:56

physical vision board I'll often combine

9:58

like images that I find. in

10:00

magazines with images that I find online

10:02

and print out. And I just

10:04

use my own printer, but for sure you could

10:08

have them printed at a local

10:11

printer and then just add them

10:13

to your vision board. Somewhere

10:15

in my 50s or maybe 60s,

10:17

I developed a paper aversion, just

10:20

like everything online, you know? And

10:24

so I think I would opt for the

10:26

finding the images and taking them up to

10:28

staples or wherever and printing them out, you

10:30

know, would be a good way to do

10:32

it. Yeah, it's definitely

10:35

a viable solution. And if

10:37

you make a physical vision board, you can

10:39

still have a digital version for your computer.

10:41

You can just take a photo of it

10:43

with your phone and use that as

10:46

like the wallpaper on your computer.

10:49

I was going to ask you, you said that

10:51

you do all three, so you have a physical

10:53

vision board up at home and then

10:55

you have it on your phone. Where is it on

10:57

your phone? Just as

11:00

the wallpaper or the background of

11:02

my phone. So when you, every

11:04

time you fire your phone up, there it

11:06

is. Yeah, exactly. And same on

11:08

my laptop. Yeah. Okay, so

11:10

it's the desktop. Yeah. All right,

11:13

cool. Awesome. Good. And

11:15

then what about for you, what's

11:17

been the experience of how fast

11:19

things tend to manifest? It

11:22

varies. You

11:24

know, I've put things on my vision board that haven't

11:26

come true, you know, years ago, but still haven't come

11:28

true. But I've also had,

11:30

and my life isn't perfect. That's

11:34

my disclaimer. But

11:36

I have had so much manifest

11:38

or come to life through through

11:41

vision boards. To

11:43

give some examples, a few

11:45

years ago, or maybe six years ago

11:48

now, I wanted to find

11:50

a home for myself and my daughters

11:52

after divorce, I was living in a

11:55

tiny little rental and I wanted to find

11:57

a place we could call home. put

12:00

a photo or

12:03

a magazine image of what

12:05

felt like the perfect home

12:07

for us on a vision board. And

12:11

shortly after, like within a couple

12:13

of weeks, my realtor called me

12:15

with a listing and

12:18

the home looked almost exactly

12:20

like the one that

12:22

I put on the vision board. It had

12:24

a big porch. It was

12:26

surrounded by nature and trees. And

12:30

that's the home that you

12:32

know that you came and cast

12:34

that for me at. And that

12:36

just happened beautifully, magically. And

12:39

it is a beautiful home. Wow. That's

12:42

amazing. From a vision board. Yep. I'd

12:45

like to be technical for just a minute because

12:47

I imagine some people, and of course we'll talk

12:49

about the book itself and the things that you

12:51

go into in there, but I'm just curious. The

12:54

resolution, if you do the image in

12:56

Canva and then print it, what

12:59

kind of size can you blow those up

13:01

to? I imagine it's not like a big

13:03

poster board. You mean

13:05

if you create your entire vision board on

13:07

Canva? Yeah. You

13:09

can do it as a poster in

13:12

my workshop. And also for

13:14

readers of my book, I

13:16

have templates, Canva templates, for

13:19

creating a vision board specifically sized for

13:21

phone, creating one size for

13:24

printing out on the computer or using on

13:26

your, I mean, print it out or

13:28

using on your computer. I also have one size as

13:31

a poster, like 18 by 24 inches. And

13:35

you can have that printed by Canva,

13:37

for example. They do

13:39

print services. You can take it to your local

13:41

Staples and have it printed poster

13:43

size. I've done both. And

13:46

it works beautifully. Okay. Good.

13:49

Awesome. Can you walk us through the book? What are we

13:51

going to learn? How are we going to learn it? Well,

13:54

I think of it as

13:56

one part practical guide with

13:58

how to information

14:01

and how vision boards work

14:03

and one part, woo

14:05

woo. There's

14:08

mindset information in

14:10

there. There's manifestation

14:13

information. I have five different

14:15

vision board projects that you

14:17

can do with step by

14:19

step instructions. I think it's

14:22

hopefully inspirational. My goal is

14:24

that it's inspiring and motivating,

14:26

but also very practical to

14:28

help you figure out what

14:31

your dreams and goals are to make

14:33

sure that they are true to you,

14:35

aligned with who you are. They're not

14:37

someone else's goals, not what

14:40

society, you think other

14:42

people want for you or society wants for you,

14:44

but really true to who you are. And

14:48

goal setting

14:50

steps, ways to bring those

14:52

goals to life after you

14:54

create your vision board with, taking

14:57

action, making an action plan,

14:59

working on your thought processes

15:02

so that you

15:04

stay positive and

15:06

continue to take action and

15:09

really hold the belief of

15:12

what it is that you want to bring

15:14

to life. I talk about

15:17

curating your environment, setting

15:19

yourself up for success,

15:22

all kinds of things. Another

15:25

thing, the power of intention,

15:27

putting intention into a project

15:30

specifically. Absolutely. I

15:32

think that's where most

15:34

of the magic is. You're

15:36

creating this with intention. You're

15:38

creating a physical

15:41

version of what you want your

15:43

future life to be like. And

15:46

step by step, as you're choosing

15:48

your goals, as you're choosing the

15:50

images to pair with those

15:52

goals and pasting them on the paper.

15:55

You're doing it all with intention. And

15:57

I'm sure that you walk through all of that.

15:59

that in the book. Yes. And vision

16:02

boards, they harness both the subconscious

16:04

and the conscious mind in pursuit

16:06

of your goals. I

16:08

think that's partly why they

16:11

are so effective. They bridge

16:13

the left brain analytical thinking

16:15

and goal setting with the

16:17

creative right brain,

16:19

the subconscious, and the creativity of

16:21

the right brain. I'm

16:24

thinking, why would anyone not

16:26

have a vision board up? And

16:28

I think one of the big reasons is

16:30

it's just doing it. And you make that

16:33

easy for us. Right. Yeah.

16:35

And a lot of people don't believe in them. Or

16:38

a lot of people make vision boards, but

16:41

then they set them aside and forget about

16:43

it and don't actually use them. And that's

16:45

one of the reasons why I have a

16:47

couple of chapters in my book just

16:50

on what to do after you create your vision board,

16:52

because the vision board is just the first step. But

16:55

what I say is when you're

16:57

creating your vision board, say

16:59

this or something better. If

17:02

this is meant to be and is

17:05

in the highest interest of all concerns,

17:08

then let it be. Yeah,

17:10

absolutely. In your experience

17:12

doing this over years, what

17:14

frequency? In other words, how often do you

17:17

freshen them up or change them out? I

17:19

always make a new one every new

17:22

year. But being

17:24

who I am, passionate about vision boards, and

17:26

doing all these vision board workshops, I actually

17:28

create several throughout the year. I

17:30

usually do one on my birthday also. I

17:34

do one whenever I feel like

17:36

I am shifting

17:39

in my life at a transition

17:41

point where maybe my priorities are

17:43

changing, I'll create a new vision

17:45

board. I'll create a vision board

17:47

for a specific project or goal

17:49

sometimes. I've created a vision board

17:51

for a relationship. I've created

17:53

vision boards for my books, for

17:56

my businesses. You can create

17:58

a vision board for anything. part,

20:00

latter few weeks of 2023.

20:03

Let's all do one together for the year

20:05

ahead. What do you say? I just feel

20:07

it, don't you? I really do. I feel

20:09

it after talking to her about it. I'm

20:11

so psyched. All right, game on. Let's roll.

20:14

Start with the book and we'll go from

20:16

there and make them absolutely beautiful and, of

20:18

course, meaningful and intentional. I know

20:20

you'll enjoy the book and enjoy

20:22

the journey. I'm Thomas Miller.

20:25

Thanks for listening. The

20:35

stories and opinions expressed on this podcast

20:37

are independently those of the host and

20:39

guests and are not intended to be

20:41

taken as medical advice or to replace

20:43

medical care from a licensed professional when

20:46

appropriate.