Do you ever struggle with big decisions? I sure do. When I really need to think about the possible futures that will happen depending on what I decide. The metaphor I use is to try on each option and walk around in it like you would a pair of shoes or a jacket. What does that identity, that reality, feel like? Hey, it's Samantha with my final encore episode of this season. I'll be back with with an original episode, our season finale next week. Be sure you've subscribed so you don't miss it when it drops. This one's actually an abundance meditation about manifesting success in your business, an exercise I call the Million Dollar Dress. Since this episode came out a few years ago, I've heard from clients, podcast listeners, and people I barely know about how meaningful this exercise has been for them, how it's really helped them tap into what's possible for them and at the end of the day, to bring way more money into their businesses. Now, don't get hung up on the dress part of it. A male colleague shared that his version of this is a sleek black bespoke suit for someone else. It's a wooden chair at the end of a dock on a spacious still lake. The key is surrender to the exercise. What would it be like? Allow yourself to be immersed in your imagination.

Welcome to Profitable Joyful Consulting, where you'll discover how to multiply your revenues without exhaustion, working with perfect clients on transformational engagements. I'm your host, Samantha Hartley. If you're a woman consultant ready to increase your profits and enjoy your business more, you're in the right place.

We're talking about consulting business ideas and I have a really cool one that I wanted to share with you. I use this exercise with my clients all the time to create an amazing year. You are a powerful creator and I know you are going to turn this year into something amazing for yourself. One of the ways that I help my clients to do this is with the exercise that we're doing today. The idea for it came many years ago. I attended a seminar and the person who led it asked the question, what would $1 million business owner do? And she came back to that constantly as a refrain. If you were doing something in your business and you're trying to make a decision like should I keep doing this or should I delegate this to somebody? Or is this even worth my time anymore? The thing that she would ask is, what would a million dollar business owner do? And it really stuck with me because I was doing plenty of things in my business that a million dollar business owner would not do, as are many of us, even today. So when I have someone come to me and they say my goal is a million or my goal is 2 million a year, and we create a plan for that, there are tangible things that we can do, we can make that plan and write down those things that we're going to be doing and our intentions and our tangible goals and all of those kinds of things. And energetically, I also just want you to have an experience of what it's going to feel like when you reach those goals. And so the exercise that I do with my clients is called putting on the million dollar dress. I would love for you to do this along with me. No matter where you are and what you're involved in. Just don't close your eyes if you're driving. But I'd love for you to imagine yourself putting on a million dollar dress. I did this with one of my clients years ago who had a multimillion dollar goal for her business. And so we put on her million dollar dress. And from that place she was different. She had different perspectives on the business, she had different ideas. And that's because when you put on this million dollar dress, as with any dress, there's going to be things that go with it and things that don't go with it. So you've got to choose accessories and shoes and am I going to be able to eat dinner when I'm wearing this dress or is this a champagne only kind of dress? Let's just think about what things are possible. So just take a second to be with me. Take a deep breath, Open up your imagination. Open your mind to possibilities. Think about all of the things that are available to you and possible for you. Allow those things to kind of float into your imagination. And I want you to imagine yourself in this wonderful, beautiful salon where they have wonderful, beautiful dresses for you to try on. And incredibly helpful person is bringing you dresses to try on and they've brought you one. And this is the absolute incarnation of your dream dress. So as you put it on, you feel it laying on your body in just the absolute most perfect way. Like it fits you, like a hug from a person you love. It's embracing you in all the right places and it's flowing or not flowing, however you choose it to be in all of those places. And when you look at yourself wearing this dress, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and you look like a million bucks. It's just, it makes you look amazing. Nobody could wear this dress the way that you can wear it so you look incredible in this dress and you begin to get some ideas. So as you move around in the dress, as we're doing this, I want you to picture like, what color is your dress? What are the qualities of your dress? Do you feel like you want to put some shoes on? Do you want to feel like you want to choose some accessories? What feels like something that you want to do in this dress? Might you sit down? Is there a chair that you want to sit down on? Or is there like a divan or a sofa that you might recline on? As you are in the dress, what I want you to think about is your business. How does your business look and feel to you from this place as you are in the dress, does it feel heavy or light? Or how does it suit you? Does it feel like a million dollar business? What are the things that you, from the perspective of you in the dress, want to see, want to change? How would you like the business to be? Are there things in the business that are distinctly not a fit for a million dollar business owner? And what are ways that you can align and bring those things more to fit the million dollar business that you clearly are wearing? So the business needs to fit you like this dress. It needs to accentuate everything that is positive and strong about you, and it needs to minimize those things that you don't want to spend time on. What things come to mind when you think about it in that way? What things have you been tolerating in the business that it's time to release? What are things that you cannot imagine doing in your business while in a million dollar dress? For goodness sake, someone else needs to be doing that. What needs to happen for you to release anything that does not align with you as you are in the dress? And what things are exciting to you? What things feel possible? Do you feel braver in the dress or more motivated? Do you feel more aligned with your goals from this place? Is it easier from here to say no to overwork, to say no to doing tasks that you know you should not be doing? Is it easier to leave your office at a reasonable hour when you're wearing a million dollar dress? What are the work hours, ideally of the person in this dress? And what are the things that you spend time on when you're in the dress? Take a moment now and I want you to pull one thing from this experience. So maybe it is an accessory that goes with the dress, maybe it's a shawl, but I want it to be something that you can actually put on in your everyday life while you're at your desk so that you can access this feeling when you're back at your desk, when you are back in your workaday self. And sometimes you're overwhelmed with what the work is, or sometimes you are deep in the zone of what you need to be doing. I want you to be able to access the feeling of yourself in this dress. It suits you. You make this thing look great. How do you pull this feeling into your everyday work? So again, it might be the right chair, it might be an accessory, it could be the way you sit in the dress. Maybe it's an undergarment that you can add and wear during your workday. So think about that. The million dollar dress exercise can help you in a planning time and a visioning time, in your daily meditations. And it can also help you on a day to day basis as you're making decisions in your business. And I want you to return to the refrain of what a million dollar business owner do this or how would a million dollar business owner decide it isn't about the money. In this case, it can be a $500,000 business you're building or it can be just hitting your next goal. What I want you to access from here is the things that are possible to you when you are being a different way, when you were thinking as your most expansive self. And there are just things that we can do in certain outfits that we can't normally do. And there are certain things that we can't do in those outfits that we would normally do. And those possibilities and constraints make the exercise powerful. So before we leave this completely, I want to segue this into another exercise that has been really, really important for me. And it was shared to me by one of my spiritual teachers. So I was in the kind of the goal setting and I was thinking about what I wanted and what I wanted to create. And I came to him and shared, these are the things that aren't working. And this is kind of the struggle. And this is kind of where I am. And he said, write a story in which you succeed. So what I'd like you to do now while in the dress and while thinking about the possibilities and the potential for yourself, I want you to write the story of how your million dollar business succeeds, how it comes into being. And I would love for you to write the story in present tense. And what's really interesting is you can consider writing it in third person. So there's a version of this in which you write it is the end of the year and it's been a fabulous year and I've achieved all my goals. It's far exceeded my expectations and those kinds of things. So you can write it as yourself from the present moment in the future. There's another version of this in which you can write. The brilliant consultant has ended her year successfully. She surpassed all of her goals and I think it's an interesting observation to write it in third person and just see what happens for you in those different versions. But I would love for you to practice writing a story in which you succeed. Right now, we're doing it for the whole year. And keep in mind you can do this for every month and every week and even every day. You can write the end of the day success story for yourself. So I hope that the Million Dollar Dress exercise and the experience of you writing a story in which you succeed, especially while you're wearing the million dollar dress, has helped you to access ideas and possibilities and even one tiny insight that can make all the difference in this year being all that you want it to be. I know it's going to be a big year for you. I know it's going to be your best year yet and you have all of the power you need to make that happen. You have everything you need to succeed and be massively wealthy and successful. You already have everything you need for that. So with gratitude to you and the highest expectations for a brilliant year, I'm wishing you a profitable and joyful consulting business.

Thanks for listening. As a thank you for being part of my community, I'm sharing free, exclusive resources to help expand your consulting business. Head to samanthahartley.com super to access bonus content and tools from the show. For a complete transcript of this episode and all profitable Joyful consulting episodes, visit SamanthaHartley.

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