A 56-Minute Masterclass on Manifestation for Skeptics | Sarah Perl @ Stella

0:00When you start saying something enough times, you start looking for evidence. And when you have evidence that something is possible, you start to believe it's true. So, I think that's like what manifestation really does at its core is it forces you to look for evidence that expands your capacity, your belief of what's possible. From [music] viral tarot content on Tik Tok to founder of Stella, the number one AI powered manifestation app on the app [music] store. She is Sarah Pearl with

0:22millions of followers across Instagram. She turned mindset and manifestation into a movement. So much of me and what I've manifested [music] in my life comes from every version of me that has ever existed. I was like make really connecting to the version of me who had nothing. And I'm like the version of me who started with nothing and ended up with this empire is in me right now. At the same time though, I always steal confidence and belief from my future self. I genuinely think I could become a billionaire if I wanted to because nothing I [music] believe I can't

0:50accomplish. It's more just do I want it. I love that the quality of a founder isn't how they operate on their best day. That's how they operate on the worst day. It's like you could be the best soccer player in the world and then we're in penalties. It should be the easiest shot in the world and yet you can't get it in cuz the pressure breaks you down. So, how do

1:07you move when everything is going wrong? [music] How do you move when you're not getting the amount of users you want? Your MR is going down. When things are going wrong, I always try to move my focus back to [music] what's going right. You can hack reality, right? I'm always asking myself, what can I do today to make me more obsessed with what I'm building? [music] because I know naturally my revenue is going to increase as a byproduct. I'm going to want to promote it more. I'm going to want to reach out to users and spend

1:30time [music] on it more. I think that's the only edge and then that's why I win. Yeah. I just don't do something I'm not obsessed with.

1:42Thank you for coming on another podcast. Yay. I'm so happy to be here. So my first question for you, there's an Einstein quote. It's a persistent illusion. And you talk a lot about like manifestation. And for me as a founder, having sold my companies and built a bunch of different businesses, I've always felt that I'm connecting with either past versions of myself or future

2:02versions of myself. And I'm very curious how much of that is tied into your manifestation. It's everything. I so agree with you. I mean, for me, I think so much of me and and what I've manifested in my life comes from every version of me that has ever existed. And literally just yesterday I was like making this like hypnosis for myself where I was like really connecting to the version of me who had nothing. And I'm like [clears throat] the version of me who started with nothing and ended up with this empire is in me right now. And every day that I forget that I'm like

2:33holding myself back. And when I remember who it was that created everything that exists in my life, that's when I operate out of the best frequency. Right? At the same time though, I always steal confidence and belief from my future self too. Right. And on the days that I'm like, I've never done this, I'm like, well, future me did, right? She knows. So, yeah, I connect with like every version of myself and borrow

2:57pieces of that version of me to help me. Yeah, it it's crazy. Like the first time I did a company, I tried to brute force it and it like didn't go completely well. And for now, I'm trying to stay completely in a flow state. Yeah, flow state is huge. And I think the best work, at least for me, has always come out of like when I'm

3:13operating from complete obsession. Yeah. I just don't do something I'm not obsessed with. I think that's the only edge. Yeah, I think that's a way way to put it. But I I put that like your love is the only edge in what you're trying to do. And in my world, whether you're raising a lot of capital or whatever, like the biggest venture funds in the world will come in and put more capital than I can ever access and they'll go find like the smartest person at Harvard to run the business. And the only edge I have is that I'm in a flow state and I like

3:40probably love this more than they do. Just like when push comes to shove and then that's why I win. Yeah. And I mean like when hits the family, that's the one thing that's going to carry you through is your obsession. It's also so palpable. Like people feel it and they believe in what you're building when they can see that you're genuinely obsessed with it. I feel like so many people are building companies that they've lost love for and you know, you can feel it. You feel it and then their MR is going down and we're like, you know, and it's like I think the moments that I've had the

4:08greatest successes in my businesses has always been what can I do? I don't optimize for strategy. I optimize for obsession constantly. I'm always asking myself, what can I do today to make me more obsessed with what I'm building? Because I know naturally my revenue is going to increase as a byproduct. I'm going to want to promote it more. I'm going to want to reach out to users and spend time on it more. So, how can I optimize for obsession rather than

4:30strategy? How do you do that? For me, sometimes I'll build something like even with my app right now. I'll build things that like maybe my co-founders are like, I don't know if we need that. Based on the strategy or like we look at the analytics and the data and like past apps they've built and they're like, that doesn't typically do well. And I'm like, but it'll make me obsessed with the app. It'll make me want to use my own app every day. And if I'm using my own app every day, I see results with it. I'm going to like my energy is going to naturally magnetizing on camera,

4:59right? And that has helped us grow to where we are now. So I think if I only optimized for like this is going to be, you know, strategically the best way to do it. This app just like would not be what it is. I think too like if you go back and try to look at what's worked in the past, like that won't work in the future. And Steve Jobs was huge on this like iPhone screen. He took it home and it scratched in his pocket and he's like, "We can't have this." And he was like obsessed and they were like, "This doesn't make any sense." It's like, "No, we can't have

5:26this." And now it's like I don't know, man. And like the whole screen on iPhone's like a pretty big deal, right? Literally. And to be innovative like that too, to be able to think of something I think something too that's like undervalued or not people are like founders are not doing as much is like how can we create something that genuinely has never existed. Like how can we truly think from first principles and I think the fastest way to grow a company is obviously to, you know, dupe an app or like copy what other people are doing. But like there's a reason

5:52Steve Jobs became who he was, you know? And yeah. So, can you tell me a bit about the first time that you talked to yourself that you were paid to exist? Because I come from a background where it's like my dad sold John Deere tractors. Like a lot of my family's in oil and gas like uh I was born in Louisiana and then uh I grew up on the

6:10west coast in Oregon. Oh, nice. Um and then I ended up in New York cuz I always had this hair and like some guy in Oregon with this hair and I was like I need to be here and I'm like never leaving New York. And so for me, having an abundance mindset and manifesting not a poverty mindset, it was a huge unlock in my business. I still struggle with that every day. And so I'm very curious like what was it like the first time you were like, I'm paid to exist? M the first time I started saying affirmations and I started like rewiring my mindset. I

6:40think it was like when I was going into college and I [clears throat] was like listening to the way my parents and my community would talk about money and debt and going away for college taking on all this, you know, these loans. I just felt so defeated constantly. I hated the feeling that money gave me in my life. And then I went to college and I was like, "Oh, I'm surrounded by so many wealthy kids who do not operate

7:03from that frequency." They love money. They love what money can give them. They love the feeling that money gives them. And it's kind of like a chicken or the egg thing of like what came first. But I in that moment was like, I just don't want to be a victim. I don't want to have this victim mindset. It's not going to benefit me in my life. Some of the things they were saying about money, I actually started to believe. I was like, you know, everyone says money doesn't grow on trees, but I'm like, well, money is made out of paper and paper grows on trees, so like it's all perspective,

7:29right? And I was like, it's not going to benefit me to have these limiting beliefs. It's going to continue to hold me back. And I just wanted to feel empowered by my own mind. Like, all I have is my own mind, right? That's the only thing that's operating me every single day. It's like installing a

7:43software, right? And I wanted to install a software that would operate best for me and produce the best outcomes, right? So, you literally like train yourself like a LLM model. Literally, like literally. And I honestly did it kind of as a thought experiment. I was like, I have nothing to lose. And also, I'm so desperate. I will do anything for money. So, you know, I'm just going to say these affirmations. And then like literally one after the next, you know, things started happening. And I think it's literally just because when you start saying something enough times, you start looking for evidence. And when you have evidence that something is possible, you

8:18start to believe it's true, right? And the fastest way to like 10x your life, I mean, I'm sure you've had this in your career, like you meet the right person, you meet someone who's accomplished it before and you're like, "Oh, this is possible. Like, if that guy could do it, I could do it." But you're not even going to see the guy if you're not looking for him, right? And so I think that's like what manifestation really does at its core is it forces you to look for evidence that expands your capacity, your belief of what's possible, and rewires your subconscious mind. Yeah. In the financial world, I

8:46think compounding is like the eighth wonder of the world and I think manifestation is like our mental compounding towards what we want to have. Yes. Right. Yes. I always say like I was just talking to a founder of mine yesterday. I was like I feel like mindset and the subconscious mind. It's the highest leverage thing you could do for the lowest amount of effort. It just literally impacts every single thing in your existence on autopilot. So like why not optimize for that? It's kind of like when you're like building an app, you want to first work on getting a really high conversion rate rather than like

9:15attracting a lot of users. You could attract all the users in the world. If you're conversion rate sucks, like you're not going to make money. And the same goes with manifestation. Like you could have all this abundance in your life, but if you're not optimizing your brain to attract it and hold it and receive it, it's never going to persist,

9:31right? Yeah. I'll like literally punch an investor meeting because I'm not in a flow state because the way like you make people feel the way you want them to feel and that's that's why I love what you do and what you talk about. This podcast is a bit lovefest but like I just think you do such a great job of articulating what I think a lot of people like very

9:50successful founders do. Yeah. That's the thing. I feel like you hacked your way into it, right? Well, what's crazy is I feel like I discovered it from a very like girly astrology whatever whatever community. Like when I talk to super successful founders, I'm like we're all just manifesting. We're all have conviction in something that doesn't exist yet, right? Like that's the basis of what creates an amazing entrepreneur. So it's like whether we call it manifestation, whether we call it brain biohacking, like there's a million ways we could look at it, but fundamentally it's

10:17required for success. A lot of us feel like we're willing things into existence, whereas a lot of investors feel like they're betting on people trying to strike oil. and and I sort of like sit at both those intersections and I'm like, "Yeah, you need to find like the fertile oil or like the fertile ground to plant the seeds, but I do think that the operator, the founder can like will things into existence." Like, how much do you believe in the ability to like will

10:37things into existence? There's actually like nothing I believe I can't accomplish. It's more just do I want it? Like I I genuinely think I could become a billionaire if I wanted to. I don't I don't know if I do at this point, but like I I know that everything I just That's such a wild statement,

10:52right? I love that. I know. like a lot of I'm just like it just makes sense to me. I'm like it's not like so crazy. But granted, it did take like a long time in my life to get to this point of belief, right? It wasn't like I woke up one day and I or like I was born with that belief, but like over the course of time and over the course of like an abundance of evidence. Yeah. Obviously that could

11:11happen. Like it's not so far-fetched. And I think with everything in life, like you just really break it down to like there does exist a version of you that is a billionaire. Yeah. Every version of you exists in the future with a certain set of actions, right? decisions. It's just like, do you make the decisions that your billionaire

11:27self would make? How do you tap into that? For me, it's a lot of visualization. I will visualize myself in the future. You'd be surprised how connected to that version of yourself you already are. Fundamentally, like who you are today and who you would be then isn't so vastly different. Your environment might be different. The people you interact with might be different, but like you at your core is capable of making that happen. You just have to like visualize that version of yourself there. That self-concept. I think a big part of it is confidence. So like that version of you just moves with less hesitation and

11:59more confidence and intuition around uh certain decisions too I think is a big one. I spent a lot of effort trying to actually get back to like my pure child form before like traumas and things were imparted onto it because like then I think at that pure form like I'm basically the same person I was when I was 8 years old. That persona makes much better decisions than like the fearful

12:17adult in some ways. Right. Yes. Yes. Acting from fear is like what kills a business I think. Like acting from a place of scarcity. I think that's why manifestation is so powerful in entrepreneurs is because when you act out of desperation, you will attract desperate results. Like you're going to start lowering your prices. You're going to start, you know, seeking out investors you don't need. And then you're, you know, and then you're attached. You made a decision that you regret or like what have you. Same in dating. Same in everything in life, right? I was actually going to go. I met my wife cuz we work together and it was

12:47like we had to both like heavily opt into being together and she's the love of my life now and we have a little daughter. We had to both like heavily opt into each other. It's a hard thing to describe where it's like you have to literally like get to a point where you're so confident you don't give a Um but you deeply care like you're present but you also like I don't know like that's the best way I can talk

13:03about it. What have you found? I'm curious like what's the mindset shift for you that was like wo I can like actually create massive success that it's irrelevant that the end state is irrelevant and I'm that person already and essentially I get an immense amount of joy from doing so I'm playing like Jordan game six or I'm like in a flow state like I get a ton of joy from being in a flow state like that's kind of why I did this podcast cuz I have a lot of cool founder friends like you and like other people and for me it's like I just enjoy making really good content. I

13:31enjoy making great businesses and like I think that's what it's all about. Oh my god. Yeah. And it's also crazy when you're moving from that state, when you do something you purely out of just passion and love and flow state and whatever, what comes from that? Like I don't think I ever expected to be where I am. I just did it for fun. And I think a lot of people are optimizing for the outcome and then they wonder why they never get it because like I think most a lot of very successful entrepreneurs just did it for fun and then the outcome revealed itself. It's like a natural

13:59byproduct of doing something from a state of pleasure. I think yeah, you attract the best people, you attract the best capital, like you can get customers, like all these things flow together. I actually was really into like your your stuff on astrology cuz my daughter's a fire sign and my wife's a Virgo and I'm a Taurus. And what's funny is like we were digging into this before we had her and we're like, "Oh, what are these personalities?" Whatever. And then now she's 7 months old and I'm like like it's it's like freaky. It's like freakishly accurate. Like she's like

14:26fire sign energy. Oh my gosh. Oh, and you're a Taurus and she's your wife's a Virgo. Earth sign energy also makes sense. It's successful. I'm a Capricorn, also an earth sign. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, that's crazy. Yeah. I love astrology. I don't like live and die by it, but like it's always something I'm like paying attention to because like I think with everything in the world, I'm very much into patterns, you know? Like I love patterns. Like history. I was a history major in college. Like I love noticing the patterns that happen. I think even like for women, like we have a cycle that's different than men. and

14:57like I followed that pattern. So it's not like this is the end all be all, but it's you start to notice things. Ancient civilizations like studied the cycles of the moon, the cycles of the sun, all of this stuff was incredibly important since for thousands and thousands of years. And it it's funny to sort of like write it off and be like, okay, this is like hokeyp pokey, whatever. But then when it's like, okay, no, like there's personality traits and there's things that are interesting and all that, right? And I also love it because I'm like it gives me permission

15:25to be who I am and like I'm a Capricorn. Capricorns are known for being like workaholics and like the CEO of the zodiac. I'm like okay I'm going to [laughter] own that. So I don't know but yeah [snorts] astrology and another clip I've watched of of you like and and we talked like you're talking about ADHD and people with ADHD make epic founders and I talk a lot about like being neurode divergent and you know I have uh very high anxiety and I used to view that as man I'm never

15:49going to be the same as other people. It's something I have to control. And then I realized it's my secret weapon and it actually like 10xes me as a CEO and that's like why my current business like I'm very good at what I do. Like all these epic founders I know have different neurody divergent edges. Can you tell me a bit about your beliefs

16:04around that? Oh my god. The like hire only neurode divergent people honestly because they are the best. I don't even view it as a bad thing at all. I just think it's a different operating system and there are so many pros to being ADHD. Like I've been gifted so much in life for being ADHD. I just live in a world that wasn't optimized for it. That's it. It's not that I am fundamentally broken. It's I live in a world that doesn't accommodate to who I am. And the other thing I realiz is like so many people I think take substances to feel what neurody

16:33divergent people feel. Say more about that. Like people will take Molly to feel what I feel when I'm hyperfixated on something. I think it is such a gift to have a heightened attunement I think to things like even anxiety. Yeah. All it really is is you're just hyper aware of what's going on around you. Sure, it can hurt you in a lot of ways in life, but also that's going to help you notice things that other people don't notice, right? With ADHD, I'm late to everything. It sucks. But that forced me into working for myself, right? And being a solo founder for so long, which created, you know, the companies that I

17:06have now. I was forced into that. But it's it's a gift. Almost every founder I know is some type of nerd divergent because like we all like you have to be like a stray shot of DNA to like do this doodle. Yes. Yeah. [laughter] Like to be that crazy. Um literally it's also like the other thing is you just have to optimize for who you are. I think like at the core of all the stuff I teach, including just being ADHD or being neurode divergent, is like you will become a millionaire or a billionaire if you fully own who you are and you don't change it. Like one thing about me is I

17:40don't clean my apartment. Like I don't, right? I've just optimized for my life around that or I tell my friends I'm like, "Hey, I'm always late. If that's a problem, we shouldn't be friends." And I've just like lo I've lost a lot of things in my life to it. I know that the best version of me exists when I fully accept who I am. And I think it comes with a lot of pros, too. Right. I'm late to everything, but then I really care

18:00about what I do show up for. It's virtually impossible for people with ADHD to do something they're not really passionate about. Exactly. That's like a huge founder hack. It's a blessing. Monetize what gives you dopamine. Monetize what excites you. You will make millions. The problem is ADHD people work against their ADHD. And this is like what's going to hold them back forever is they try to live like a neurotypical person and they will never succeed because you are not neurotypical. And that is okay. That's actually your superpower. If you're

18:28ADHD, you have to only do what you love. The way I think about it is I'm like, the way I feel towards my company, the reason it's grown at the rate that it's grown completely bootstrapped is literally because I feel towards my company, the way neurotypical people feel scrolling TikTok. Like you could just do it forever. You're obsessed with it. You're doing it in the morning, in the night, like on the train, like

18:48you're just always thinking about it. You always want to scroll on TikTok. You feel this constant temptation. That's how I feel about my company. I mean, I've started coding again for the first time in forever because of Claude Code. And isn't it so fun? It's like Farmville for tech bros. Like, yeah, [laughter] literally, I'm like, the amount of web apps I've built just

19:04for no reason is so fun. For me, I feel the same way, but about anxiety. And I used to really resent it. And I used to try to be like, oh, I need to like be like this or whatever. And then I realized I'm like, hm, I can actually hold 20 different scenarios in

19:16my head at the same time. And I'm probably in the top like 1% of context switchers you'll ever meet. Um, and I don't degrade. Like I actually like ramp up with context switching. And so it was about finding the right job with that type of context switching. Now I'm like talking a lot about the way like the same way you talked about HD, I'm talking a lot about anxiety. I'm like you can hone into it and you can tap into it. That just means you're really analytical. That just means you can problem solve in a lot of different dimensions and that's useful. Like you don't every scenario in your head,

19:43right? So, you already know every outcome that could possibly exist and that's a superpower in a way. Yeah. The unlock and why I really wanted to have you on the podcast is the unlock is staying in the flow state. Yes. You tip out of the flow state, it doesn't go good. Yes. How have you found like with anxiety like how do you work with it as a founder when you're in like super high

20:00stakes environments? Presence. Presence. How do you stay present? What do I see? What do I smell? What do I feel? Like literally like my skin feels cold right now. I look at the walls. They're green. I feel this table that hacks me, right? Like I can basically hold a bunch of scenarios in my head and then that brings me into

20:19into reality with the person. I love that. Yeah, you practice that for sure. Like literally, if you just ask yourself those three questions, it like immediately will bring you out of anything. Wow. Yeah. And you do that. That's a good hack. I mean, we're all anxious. So, you know, here and there. But that's because it's like we weren't

20:33evolved to fully be in this environment. And I think if we were all like in the plains like hunting or building in nature like it would be different, right? That's what I'm saying. I feel like ADHD was actually it's like back in the caveman days, right? Like I mean if there was a bird, you know, or like some animal stepping in the background, like

20:50my ADHD would have noticed that, right? Whereas a you know, someone without ADHD might not have. So I think there's a reason we are the way we are. You know, it's not I thought the same thing about anxiety whereas like no, you're anxious because there could be a tiger in that bush and like you should be kind of nervous there's a tiger in the bush, but like you can run a bunch of scenarios around how to maybe not go near that bush or like the tiger emerges like maybe it's not going to come at you. Like the presence is the hack on that whole

21:13thing. 100%. It's so funny like my younger brother has a lot of anxiety and my mom always says she's like he would be the best like assistant or whatever. He would have every detail sorted out. He would just know like what you know and I'm like it's there's always every negative Hasbro. Yeah. In the age of AI, I think it's made for nerd American

21:29people and like we need to embrace it. Yes. Like without AI, like you literally never could have like built your big business and that's epic. And this is something I think not a lot of male founders even know, but there's like AI is very demonized around women like in just discourse like with my

21:46friends when I post about it. No, most of my viewers hate it. Yeah. Like like it's it's deeply deeply unpopular with like almost every audience. Yes. And I think like the conversation we're not having is holding back marginalized communities. It's holding back neurody divergent communities. It's holding back women who couldn't like didn't learn to code for whatever, you know. So it's just like I think we're not having a larger conversation around that. And I think as a neurody divergent person, AI has literally been revolutionary. I don't know if you've

22:13used texting agent called Poke. It's like an AI agent that like texts you reminders and like stuff like that. I want to check it out. It's so good. It's so good. And you can like ask it like, "Hey, find me." Like blah blah blah, whatever. It's like OpenClava for texting. So cool. Very cool. The first time I used it, I was like, I literally have wanted something like this my whole life and never could access the kind of support and accommodation this tool in my phone, in my hand is giving me, no much as this tool that someone built. And I don't even think it was for, you know, ADHD,

22:41but it's just like naturally will help someone with ADHD. But it's just like the world of possibility that has opened to me because of AI is insane. Yeah. Silicon Valley I think is incredibly consensus driven and what's nice about that is like they can be consensus on a non-conensus thing like an AI and a lot of capital can flow to that and then it can be created but then what happens is it gets so consensus that a lot of the messaging lacks empathy for a lot of different communities and it's like AI is going to eliminate all your jobs and I don't know like good luck and no it's not and you

23:11should definitely be going out there and like playing with it. For me like if I had this when I was like 15 I would have built like 30 different businesses already. I know. I know. I think about that all the time. You know what this reminds me so much of? Like I have this familiar feeling of when I first got on TikTok back in like 2021 or whatever. It

23:28was like co times. Um this is when everyone was going viral. This when I started posting and all every everything I posted went viral. It was like the highest leverage time that you could ever enter that industry or like you know social media was like that moment. And I think we're in it right now. And so if you're like not in it, you know, you're going to look back a few years later and you're going to be like, I wish I learned, you know, how to use cla code 3 years ago versus now. Everyone who didn't post on TikTok, you know, four years ago is

23:57like, damn it, I missed my opportunity. And it's true that, you know, videos aren't going as viral now. So I think, you know, you can either roll with it or look from the outside. I completely agree and I think you're a great example of that is like you went from classes to an app and you're a solo founder and built an app. Um, can you tell me a bit about why you built an app because you moved from

24:15classes to an app? Yeah. So, I had two businesses. I was doing courses and I also have an e-commerce brand which is random side project that I was doing that like turned out to be super successful. Right place, right time with Tik Tok shop and everything. And then I noticed that at the core what I was like super skilled at was distribution. And every time I'd meet someone who was building a consumer product and especially like in tech, the one issue they all struggled with with was they were like, I don't know how to distribute this product and I, you know,

24:42distribution is so hard and whatever. They would build an amazing product and it just wouldn't get in the hands of people because they didn't know how to do distribution, right? And I was like, [snorts] wait, but that's like the thing I'm really good at. So yeah, I started meeting all these like, you know, I believe the universe and all that. So, like it just felt like the universe had made it so abundantly clear that this was something I was meant to do cuz I was meeting all all of a sudden all

25:03these like tech founders. I love this. Like this is so cool. You can think of an idea and then create a product that hundreds of thousands of people get to use every single day. You can invent something a piece of software that didn't exist. So cool. At the time, I had been using Claude and Chhatbt to generate stories about my future self because I do this practice called scripting where I write about a day in the life of my future self. The day that I like, you know, make X amount or blah

25:29blah blah. I also love Marcus. Same with me. Have you read memoirs? No, I haven't. It's so cool. So, literally, there was a book that he put every story that he was told through his whole life. It was never meant to go public. Not meditations, though. Meditations. Oh, meditations. Okay. Love meditations. Yeah. So, it's like I call it like memoirs. Like it's like cuz it all has all these like

25:48memoirs in there. Yeah. It should be cool. That's so good. I might be dyslexic so I like flip words around too. So there you go. [laughter] Oh, there you go. But anyway, like that's like one of my favorite books, right? Like Yeah. You were talking about being a solo founder and then the time like why you were creating an app and how you didn't need people's permission to do it and so then you felt like that was like

26:04the moment in time to do it. Yeah. So the opportunity just seemed so obvious to me and at the time I was doing this practice with AI where I had it generate these really specific stories for me and I loved the concept and I was like why is this not an app? Like you have comm app, you have headsp space, you have all these meditation [clears throat] apps that are very general. I'm listening to some meditation about me on a beach or whatever. Like I want to hear about the day my app hits number one on the app store. I want to hear the story of the

26:29day I get married to the love of my life, you know, like specific to me. It knows everything about me. me and I was like, nothing exists like this. And I'm taking these stories that an LLM is writing, putting it into 11 Labs and listening to it. Why is this on NAP, right? It just seems so obvious. And then I That's brilliant,

26:47right? Cuz like my issue with all the meditation apps, like I don't want to like listen to like a babbling creek and like some British guy like talk to me. Like yeah, I meditate on my own that way. And that's the other thing is because I'm ADHD, I've always struggled to meditate because it's like it requires so much focus. The thing about the Stella method or my the app I created is it's very like neurody divergent friendly because it's highly dopamine inducing cuz you're listening to this story about you about everything. It knows everything about you, right? So I was looking for someone technical to help me build the app. And honestly, one

27:20of the reasons I even thought to build this app was because there was a Twitter thread that was going viral like consumer app pages posted. They were like, "This girl generated a billion views on Tik Tok. someone should make a manifesting app. And all the comments were these dudes being like, "That's the next hop I'm going to do. I'm going to do an astrology album." I'm like, "If these boys can do it, I'm going to do it. This is my thing." Like, this is my thing. Why are they going to profit off of something that I popularized on the

27:44internet, right? So, I was like, "Duh." Well, turns out one of the hardest problems is distribution. So, you got them beat. Exactly. Exactly. So, I was like, you know what? I'm going to make this happen. And one thing leads to the next. I I do have co-founders on this, but they're also not very technical. We hire a lot of engineers to help with the app and everything, but all of the front end

28:05I designed with cloud code. That's sick. Is that not crazy? It's so crazy. The thing we did need help with was some of the backend stuff and all that, but like the fact that like 50% of the app was made by me is incredible. Also, when it scales, this happens at every tech company ever since even before Claude Code is like you're refactoring the thing and building it out constantly. So like you used to create that app in the past for the viewers that like don't know that would have probably taken millions of dollars

28:30and maybe one to two years. It couldn't have even existed in the past because something like 11 Labs and Cartia and all these softwares didn't even exist. So that's also crazy. Like all of this stuff is so fascinating. But yeah, I talked to my engineers and they're like this would have taken so long to make and I'm whipping it up on the train on my phone or you know in a coffee shop on a Tuesday. Like it's so crazy. They can build literally usable apps in a day and so many people don't even know like the capability of what's

29:00in their pocket. It's crazy. So like you shipped it and then there definitely was some people that were like upset about that and I think you were like pretty direct around it. Like can you tell me a bit about that and like how you take low points and transform them into great. That's also a

29:14very good product moves. Yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh. Luckily a lot of people were really positive which was really good. People were so excited. Like the minute someone uses my app, they're like, "Oh, this is good." Like, "This is so good." But obviously, when you first launch something, there's going to be things that break. I mean, we also didn't expect so many users all at once. Obviously, to operate a product, you're going to obviously make people pay. Not everyone loves to pay, but that's not anything different than like something I would go through with any launch of anything that I've ever launched before. So, I was just very

29:42used to it. Again, everything in life is where you put your attention and what you're focusing on. And I just focused on the hundreds of DMs I was getting every day of what people being like, "Oh my god, this is life-changing. I just saw a version of myself I could have never dreamed of and now you made me believe. You gave me permission to dream big." And when I hear something like that, I'm like, all the negative stuff,

30:02it's fine. Yeah. I I definitely like chase like the customers I'm helping or the thing that I'm doing good, like the kernel of it, but I'm also like mining all the data to like of that other stuff to make the thing better. And that's hard for me to stay in a flow state with when there's like a bunch of, you know, if there's negative feedback or like someone doesn't close a sale or like, you know, you don't get the meeting you want or get the investment. That happens all the time for us as founders. Like, how do you stay in such a good focused flow state when you obviously like have

30:29things that aren't exactly what you want happen. Oh, this is huge. This is so huge because I think the quality of a founder isn't how they operate on their best day, it's how they operate on the worst day. In the same way that like we're watching the World Cup right now and it's like you could be the best soccer player in the world and then we're in penalties and it should be the easiest shot in the world and yet you can't get it in cuz the pressure of oh my god everything is riding on this breaks you down. And so I think the quality of a

30:54founder is like how do you move when everything is going wrong? How do you move when you're not getting the amount of users you want? Your MR is going down. An investor thing falls through. How do you move on those days? Can you operate like you're winning even when you're losing? That is how a good

31:08founder moves in my opinion. I think it's just like how a great person moves too, right? Like in the dating world or in anything like if you're trying to find a friendship, whatever it's like, you know, like you could break up with somebody and then the next day meet the love of your life. 100%. 100%. And it's like if you let that break up or that rejection take a toll on your mental health or, you know, take a massive toll on your mindset, then you don't go looking for that person and you wouldn't have found them the next day. So it's like for me I just

31:35know the power of attention and where I'm placing my focus. So it's like I just move like I'm winning when if I can. And so a big way I do that is through like nervous system regulation, right? Like knowing how can I make myself feel like I am a winner every day. How do I saturate my mind constantly with I am a winner? So something I do is I like in my apartment I'll have like framed things of like someone DM' me and they were like I bought an iPhone just to get your app and I have that frame. So, it's like

32:01every day I wake up, I remind myself. You know what I'm saying? Versus if you see like, oh, this, you know, got messed up and now it's all you're focused on. Now, you're moving like, oh, okay, let's work on this one thing that no one even cares about. That's going to hold you back. So, when things are going wrong, I always try to move my focus back to what's going

32:19right. You can hack reality. 100%. 100%. What have you done when things are like really going south? Like, how do you like regulate yourself? I've had a business go south and then I realized I didn't want to be the CEO of that business. So, I sold it. And it was actually my wife being like, "Do you want to be the CEO of an insurance company?" And I was like, "No, this this is boring." And I was like, "Oh my god, I'd wasted like years of my life building this." And I was like, at the best most manifested thing, like I don't want to be that. Like, I need to

32:45sell this business. And like that was really hard. But then it was immensely freeing. So, like I find those moments are very reflective for you on like what you want to do. It's like an asset test. Like, do you want to be doing the thing or not? And with my current business, I had like the hardest day ever like a couple weeks ago. And for me, I just like I love it so much. It's like what you're talking about. It's like I'm addicted to it. So I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to go like code a feature. Oh, I'm

33:06going to like go talk to this person." And then boom, a huge deal comes through. Or like, you know, I was able to like bring an awesome founder on to run one of our companies, right? Like that's things just unlock when you're in that place ready for them to unlock. And in venture investing, we're like always trying to find power law. Like the one out of 10 things that can pop 100x. Like that's how I view reality too. So, like in those moments, I'm going to like hit the gym, get myself. It's like honestly

33:28just doubling down to flow state. 100%. You know, as you're talking, it reminds me like of probably how parents feel about their children where it's like when you have so much love for something even on the hardest days when your baby's like yelling or whatever. It's like you still love it. You're still going to show up for your child. And

33:46that's how I feel about my business. It's not a child, but like I'm sure that's how parents feel. I have a child and I have a business and my daughter, you know, has had some tough days in the last seven months, but she's like a sweetie and I'm like, ah, you're amazing. And it's like, you know, you just have this like unconditional love for the things that you're in and like sometimes you might be working on something or might be with somebody or might whatever be that is not that. And I think it's really important to have that reflection that that is not good

34:08energy. 100%. Can you tell me about the whisper method? The whisper method. This is one of the more viral methods that randomly went viral. And basically, it really is just a visualization practice. And that's why it's been so effective for people because you're literally just visualizing yourself in control of what you want. I think when you operate from a state of this is happening to me versus I'm creating my reality, you always lose, right? So, with the whisper method, you just envision yourself. I mean, a lot of people use it for dumb things, but like you're visualizing yourself in that moment. What is happening? What am I doing? Who can I

34:46talk to to make this happen? You know, what can I change? And what whatever whatever. I think the reason it's been so effective for so many people is because first of all, people believe it works. I think everything that you genuinely believe with everything in you will work typically works. I think second of all, it's because you're really visualizing that moment in so much detail that again, it's like the reticular activating system of the brain. Once you tell yourself something's possible, you will find evidence of it happening. There's all these methods, but at its core, it's

35:13just conviction. Mhm. Like, if you have conviction, it might take the whisper method, it might take my app, it might take whatever it is, but if you have conviction, that increases your odds of something happening so significantly. How do you find conviction? I was like, what have I done in my life that I truly believe like 10xed everything mentally for me, right? I think the biggest thing that has worked for me is just seeing evidence of what I want. Whether it's like the podcasts I'm watching, whether it's the movies I'm watching, whether it's the music I'm listening to, the people I surround myself with, the men I date, like

35:44everything contributes to your world view and your assumptions about the way the world works, what's possible for you. And so I follow something called the law of assumption, which is the idea that like your assumptions create your reality. Because at the end of the day, we always revert back to our subconscious mind. You're going to self-sabotage the thing that you want, but that subconsciously you're afraid of. You might want to go viral, but if you don't love being seen by the world, if you've always had a fear of being seen, that's going to subconsciously hold you back. I can't even name the amount of times like I haven't posted a

36:14real cuz I'm dating a guy and I'm like, "Oh, he's going to see it." You know, just these small things you don't even realize. And so, I think having that hyper awareness of like what is subconsciously running the show? And I create that conviction through just seeing evidence of like telling myself this is the belief I want to have. How

36:29can I find evidence of it in my reality? Who do I need to talk to to believe this? And I'm always optimizing for that, right? So, like, let's say the goal I want in my business is I want to hit like, you know, a certain number. I'm like, okay, who can I talk to who's done this before? How can I normalize this? Because when your nervous system feels like this is normal, it allows you to receive it. You self-sabotage

36:46anything that doesn't feel normal. That's why when people win the lottery, they lose the money, right? If it doesn't feel normal to your nervous system, if you can't hold it with complete, that's actually why I think with a lot of founders, and I'm sure you've related to this at some point, like you accomplish everything and you're like, "This doesn't even feel

37:01what I thought it would give me, right?" Like the arrival fallacy. And partially it's because to call it in, the um paradox is like in order to call it in, you have to normalize it. But the bad end of the sick is that once you get there, it's not going to feel as exciting. Yeah. I got to a certain point in my life that was like very meaningful for me after I sold my last company and I was just like I'm the exact same person I was like I [laughter] was like this nerdy guy that like played video I'm like I'm the same person I was like I'm

37:26really addicted to the learning cycle of creating businesses and like I do this for creating a businesses is the fastest vehicle for your own personal growth and I'm way addicted to that. that's really the root cause of what I'm doing. And I'm like, okay, if I live in a moment in time and I can go take a chunk out of a trillion dollar market. And you know, 500 years ago, like if I was a peasant growing potatoes, like I couldn't have created a huge business, right? And so, like, we're the one time in history that you can go and like take a huge chunk of the market and do something like that's

37:53immensely powerful to me. It is so crazy. I don't think we can even fathom it. It's the opportunity that's in front of us. And like you, I'm just like I'm addicted to this game. Like this is my favorite thing to do. It's my favorite game to play. Entrepreneurship. I could do it all day. It gives me so much dopamine. You

38:07got Brooklyn vibes. That's why. Yeah. Yeah. I got that Brooklyn girl. I also love what you said. Entrepreneurship is self-development on crack. There's nothing in the world that will reveal you. I always say who you are is always revealed at the extreme. It's always like the day before the wedding, you're like, he's not the guy. It's always the day you're about to sell your company, you're like, I'm going to miss whatever. At the extreme, everything is revealed. And I think entrepreneurship forces you to the extreme constantly. So, you're always revealing parts of yourself. you never

38:33would have met otherwise. I say to my team a lot, the team that sees reality the cleanest wins. And someone like very close to me told me that and that's a lot of what you're saying as well where it's like if you can see what you truly feel and what you truly want, you're able to get to it

38:45faster cuz so much is in your way. Yes. Clarity. They always say like if you write it down, you're already 50% of the way there or whatever. If you can clearly articulate what you want. So we have some of the friends of the podcast are fans of you and they sent me a couple rapidfire questions if you

38:59don't mind answering. I'm so excited. Awesome. Did you use any tools to manifest your dreams? Was it just tarot cards or using astrology and human design? Oh, what's one of the big secrets? A little bit of witchcraft if I'm being honest. I love lighting a little candle. Just like having the physical representation of what you're calling in is so nice. Like you have a little green candle, you light it, you're like, "This is my abundance candle." And then you come home and you smell and you're like,

39:22"I'm embodied in this." I like that. Um, if you could recommend one modality for people to start with, what would it be? I would say my app because I think the biggest thing is if you can see the version of yourself who already has it, you're already halfway there. What I love about my app is it gives you permission to dream big. It will tell you about the day it happens and it also reveals to you who are you

39:46when you are that version of yourself. Who's in your reality? It becomes very clear like what apartment are you living in? How are you getting to work? Like all these small things that you don't think about and it gets you to move different. So, like you start to listen to the Stella stories and suddenly you're noticing, oh, my behavior is changing and it's because you're feeding

40:02your subconscious your new identity. I love that she talks about breaking generational wounds like she was able to lose weight because she realized that she was keeping on weight because her ancestors were starving and needed to hoard food and she taught herself that it's not her reality and was able to lose weight and feel her best. How did

40:18she identify that? This is huge. I think everything is in the mind, right? Everything is subconscious. Something I noticed was I was like not losing weight and I I couldn't understand like why I was self-sabotaging my weight journey. And I was like, "Okay, it's clearly not a willpower thing because I have so much willpower in everything in my life and I'm trying so hard. I'm genuinely putting in the reps. I'm putting in the work yet I'm not seeing results." Then I know it's a mindset issue, right? So I start breaking it down. I'm like, "What beliefs do I have about food?" Well, I grew up hearing my grandma always

40:50telling me stories about how in the Soviet Union she was on bread line. she had to share one piece of bread with everyone and she's always feeding me all this food. There's a scarcity mindset around food and operating with a scarcity mindset in a very abundant world full of calories is dangerous because now you're hoarding on your mindset is programmed to hoard on food that you don't even need. Right? And I think that goes for money, too. It goes for dating. If you've been hurt in the past, you're going to be a lot more restrictive and you're going to be a lot more careful. You're going to hold on a

41:20little harder than you need to. not going to take as much risk, right? And so I think that's how I discovered it. It's the same thing as everything else, but you really have to learn how to go deep and be like, where did this belief originate? Like everything that in your life is going wrong originated from a belief that you have. I truly believe that if it's self-created, right, if something's not going well and you know this was created by my actions, it's because somewhere along the lines you created a belief that is operating the show. That's why I love AI because you work with LLMs and you're like, "Oh,

41:50everything's programmed, right?" And so your mind works the same way. Definitely. One of my favorite books is The Body Keeps Score. For those out there that don't know, it's about like traumas and how your body holds on to those traumas. And I've done a ton of work to like get past a ton of those early in my life. And they don't have to be like uppercase T traumas. They can be like someone yells at you when you're like 10, right? Like it's different, but it still causes you to react a certain

42:09way. Yes, 100%. Everything. That's a really cool story. What's the one thing you wish you could have done differently when building the app, Stella? Because they're very big fans of the app. I wouldn't have done anything differently because it all truly went the way it was meant to. I think one of the really sad things was I put off launching the app because I was with a partner at the time that like wasn't very supportive of this endeavor and was literally made me choose between dating

42:35him and launching this app. Wow. And I chose him and that was genuinely one of the biggest regrets of my life. But at the same time, Stella would not be what it is today if it wasn't for that. The universe probably put that though at the right time for you to launch it at

42:49the right moment. 100%. And you learned a great lesson about abundant mindset versus fixed mindset, which I audit. I hire people for abundant mindset. And then I far it out. Fixed mindset. How do you recognize that in people? Exceptionality. So like one of the top CEOs that works with me, he produces movies. Wow. just like on the side like horror movies and he's like super geeked out and he's one of the most successful people and so I look for that and I look for they haven't had the opportunity to like really prove themselves. So it's like those two things combined and then that usually creates like a wildfire

43:22that to me is abundance. Yes, 100%. Do you use crystals? If yes, which ones are your favorites? Ooh, it's so funny. I was just thinking about crystals because it was such like a trend a few years ago going back to that like physical representation. and you carry it with you and you're like, I am that girl, you know, it just like always reminds you. My favorite crystals were citrine. I love citrine and I love carnelian. So carnelon is supposed to be for confidence. So every time I leave the house, I'd go with my carelon and then suddenly, you know, crazy

43:54opportunity happens or whatever. But it just gives you that like that motivation. Yeah, I've got tiger's eye. Love tiger's eye. Do you have any manifestation rituals that you recommend? Like I know we covered the whisper method, but like are there other things? manifestation ones I recommend. I would say what I've been doing lately, and I might add this as a feature for Stella, is I create custom affirmations that I listen to on loop constantly. So, what Stella does is it creates these stories for you, which is great. But, I've been like identifying my limiting beliefs and then creating affirmations that makes me think differently. So, I've created these like

44:26loops of affirmations that I listen to all the time and that's been really helpful. So, like whenever I'm going on a walk, I will pop that in and I'm like, I'm my app is making this much. Like, I see this amount of downloads every day. I check the dashboard and it's like you hear that and then like you start moving different. So, that's been really helpful. Honestly, the big one was back in the day I used to say affirmations every day and it genuinely did help, but

44:47it was like a habitual thing. That is so cool. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Um, everyone should go download the Stella app. Where else can they find you? On Instagram, Hot High Priestess, Tik Tok. I'm also on LinkedIn. Sarah Pearl on there. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you for coming on.