The Universe Conspires With You Part 2 ft. Chelsea Riffe

In part 2 of my conversation with Chelsea, we explore the importance of embracing one's passions and the shadows that can accompany success, such as overworking and the fear of not deserving luck. We discuss the significance of intuition, synchronicity, and taking actionable steps towards manifestation, while also addressing the need to decondition from corporate mindsets that equate hard work with success. Our dialogue emphasizes redefining what luck and fortune mean in the context of personal fulfillment and growth.

Topics discussed:

• Passions Matter: Follow your passions for a fulfilling life.
• Identity and Luck: How the world sees you can bring good luck.
• Proving Yourself: Overworking to prove your worth isn't necessary.
• Manifestation: Take action, don't just dream.
• Corporate to Entrepreneur: Our shifts from corporate hustle to a balanced life.

This episode was produced by Six-Two Studio

Find Chelsea: Website, Instagram, Threads, Supernova, Pitch Perfect, Newsletter, In My Non-Expert Opinion Podcast, The Art of The Ask Podcast 

Chelsea Riffe is the host of the hit podcast In My Non-Expert Opinion, a Top 1% show known for asking the bigger questions around the cultural zeitgeist, our inner worlds, and what's this all FOR? She's a Cultural Philosopher, obsessed with understanding how we think, and how seemingly unrelated things relate HARD (her favorite threads to pull are how reality TV is the ultimate mirror for our psyches—don't get her started).

Mariama Roberts is an Energy Healer, Psychic Guide, and Lifestyle Mentor with over 15 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit world. She helps high-achieving women rise above the grind, find deeper meaning, and live into their most fulfilling life possible. Through energy healing, coaching and private mentorship, Mariama places focus on healthy activations that welcome more balance and joy.

Resources:

Matrix of Destiny Reading

1:1 Mentorship

All Other Offerings

Website

Find Mariama:
Instagram - @kalo.mariama
Linked In - @mariroberts

Transcript

Mariama (00:02.126) You deserve to have the life that you desire. Your passions are a part of you for a reason. And when you don't follow your passions or listen to your call, things can get rough. You don't have to take some massive intimidating leap. One small step each day leads to lasting change. So let's get started by accepting our passions are here in the first place, because this is Life Activated. I'm your host and guide, Mariyama, here to help you recenter life on your passions and purpose.

so you can feel good inside because you deserve it.

Mariama (00:42.456) talk about the shadow of that ten energy, but I do also just want to mention where it is in your chart because I'm a geek and I had to look it up because now that I'm into the Matrix of Destiny. Also, I think I said this before, but I want to just say it again. Chelsea and I were just geeking out over Matrix of Destiny from readings that we had with Michelle Pels on Lipstick. It was way before I even went down the road of getting trained by Michelle on this system.

But the synchronicities even in our conversations around it and why it was showing up is also kind of interesting and odd, right? But you have 10 in your extrinsic identity and that is how the world sees you. The thing that is interesting, it's also could be why people hire you. And when you have an extrinsic identity, you can also take it on. So the world already sees you as a person who is inherently lucky and you actually

also are because you step into that. So I just put that out and I think that's really interesting. Yeah. So the shadow to this energy can be overworking to prove ourselves and it's proving that you deserve luck. So here you are, here we are, people who are inherently have elements of luck in our chart. And then we think that we can't deserve it.

There's like a shadow of feeling guilt. So then we think, gosh, I have to do so much more to prove that I deserve these things coming to me. And it's interesting, I'm curious from, even as you know, we're talking about the mastermind, did you ever run into elements or glimmers of feeling like you had to prove that it was okay to like move forward with?

100%, the whole time I was putting the mastermind together, I remember thinking, like, I am going to have to really over explain and justify this pivot and show people why I'm doing this and give all this evidence and a portfolio and this and that. And I did work myself to the bone. I was not sleeping. I wasn't eating properly. There were nights where I would wake up in the middle of the night and change the sales page and update someone and frantically message my coach. like, and it was just actually coming from

Chelsea (03:00.608) this exact shadow that you're talking about is like, who am I to do this? Even though when you zoom out and you look at the mastermind, it's it's such an obvious thing for me to do. But because it's not my public facing offer, like it's not something I've fully embodied yet in the way that I'm selling it. I felt this need to like really prove that I was the one to lead this experience. And it almost got to the point where I was like, I don't know if I should do this. Like maybe I should just stick to what I know.

keep it easy, keep it breezy, keep doing podcast stuff, pitching stuff, like let this other thing go. And almost thinking like this won't even happen in my lifetime. Like I'll just do it in another lifetime. Like that is how spirally I was getting over it. And then another thing that I noticed that was really interesting is the overworking thing. I tend to make things complicated for myself all the time. Even with this mastermind, I was like, I'm gonna launch a private podcast. I'm gonna do 10 episodes. I'm gonna send

50 DMs people, I'm gonna do an email sequence campaign that's like very sophisticated. And I remember thinking this is gonna be a lot of work, but you know, we have the holiday break off. I messaged my podcast editor, I was like, hey, I'm gonna do a private podcast. I need to know if you have the capacity, because I need to get these episodes out. I need to set up a funnel. I hired my VA for extra hours. Like I was like, this is a thing, you know, this is a project. I posted one series of stories about AI and the like,

mental glitch I had using it one day and then I was trying to prove a point of like, this is why we need modern philosophers. Three people enrolled in my mastermind that day from one story series. And I was using pictures of like the ocean that I took in Lima. No fancy equipment. was typing. There was no talking to camera, nothing. Three freaking people in one day. The next week, two people enrolled. was 50 % sold out. And I was like, this is insane. But I still felt that thing that you're talking about, this weird guilt of like, that was too easy.

that was way too easy, it can't be that easy. This is a high ticket mastermind. It's the first time I've run it. Everyone is projecting onto me that, know, just be careful, it is pretty new. How are you gonna sell it? How are you gonna position it? Where I am internalizing those things and being like, this should have been harder to sell. Like I should be working my ass off for the next month to fill those five spots. When in reality, I have the proof and evidence that I can post a few stories and send a few DMs and people will enroll.

Chelsea (05:24.674) but it is definitely a shadow I have that I have to kind of like do this uphill battle to prove how hard it was. And even when I posted that like, three people joined today, I had this weird feeling of like, I think people are gonna be like, what the fuck? Like how did three people join? She's barely talked about it. And almost trying to, like again, prove like the work, the input matched the output. And that is a huge, huge narrative that I'm still to be quite honest, like brushing up against and I have to work on quite often.

Yeah, the other thing that shows up in the shadow can be like laziness or entitlement. I don't see that for either of us in any way, but it can be something that shows up. But I do question myself even sometimes like, am I being lazy and not trying to like be out there in the business more? Or am I trying to actually allow myself to go with flow?

I'm using these words not very well, saying trying. I don't want anyone to be like trying or pushing. That's such my old corporate speak. But am I allowing for flow and taking action? Or am I sitting too far back and thinking that just me being me is going to cover everything? And when I do healing work, you being you is enough, PS by the way, full stop. And if we do wanna be paying attention to flow and synchronicity and actually

It's making me think about my intuitive circles that I started doing on Mali here. I was, for the first time, truly answering the call of doing these events. it was a couple of new people I was talking to about how I came into my intuitive gifts and one of them was going to an intuitive, there it was called an intuitive jam. And more than one person saying, I would go to one of those if you put that on. And then sharing it with a couple other people.

And same sort of thing like knock, knock, answer the call. So there was these synchronicities in the timing that it came up. It was something I always was interested in doing. But I didn't just sit there and say like, OK, I'm going to now do nothing about it. Or I'm just going to tell someone I want to do it and not do anything. It's still very grassroots. I post on Instagram, but I also print flyers. I'm a Maui. I print flyers.

Mariama (07:49.902) post flyers up places, you know, but the first one, seven people attended. The second one, it was, I think we had 17 people. I think it was one more chair left. Like there was no more space left. And to me that is fully showing how you have to answer the call, be in synchronicity, but you can't also be entitled to think, okay, people are telling me they will come and I'm not doing anything about it. I don't have to.

pushed to make it happen, but I have to do a few things, you know? Actually share.

Exactly, exactly. Like I thought about this one time when I went to the farmers market where there was this huge market. I mean, it was, it looked like a mall outside and I was leaving and I passed this beautiful sunflower stand and they were actually in the center of the market. And I was like, that's really smart that they're in the center because no matter what lane you go down, you're always going to get led back to the sunflower market. However, there was no sign pointing to it like, sunflowers this way or like...

Right here for sunflowers, they just had the sunflower stand, they had the thing in the front, but they were smart about their placement. And that's what I think about a lot. What you're talking about is like your placement of, put the flyers up, I talk to these specific people, and just being in the right place at the right time with the right placement, it's like people buy the sunflowers. And that's what happened. Like these people weren't loud, they weren't hunting me down. And I remember being like, these are so beautiful. And as soon as I'm leaving the market, of course I want to leave with some fresh flowers.

So I bought this huge bouquet of sunflowers. That's how I think a lot about business is be the sunflower stand and like make yourself visible, but trust that when people come down the right aisle, you have your stand ready to go and you're there and you have the placement set up, but you don't need to be like casino lights flashing all over and being like a jackpot, like, I'm right here. It's like, no, people will see it because you're in the right spot.

Mariama (09:47.41) Mm-hmm. It's very much like deconditioning, and we've talked about this too, like deconditioning from the way we think we're supposed to be doing business, deconditioning from the corporate world that tells you you have to keep pushing to make stuff happen versus can you listen a little bit closer? Can you pay attention to the synchronicities? Can you allow for the flow? Doesn't mean you do nothing, but still allow for something. think...

One share that I'll put out there too is when I went to Majorca. I knew it was gonna go for two weeks. I knew that I would love to meet some people and I thought it would be really cool. But I didn't just, actually I should take a step back. I made a list, what if list. Like wouldn't it be fun if, what if I had these things happen? So I made this list. What if I got to see a part of the island that I hadn't seen before? What if I...

went on a date in Majorca with a Spaniard. There's some other things, I can't remember all the what ifs. But I didn't do nothing about it again. I went on Facebook, and I know Facebook, but hey, that's where groups are. I went on Facebook, I joined the, I think it's Americans in Majorca, and I posted, I'm gonna be in Majorca, these dates, if anyone's available for coffee, I'd love to meet you. I met two people, one person.

is friends with someone I used to work with, who I actually adored. So we met for cocktails, not for coffee. The other person I met for coffee, she was amazing. And she literally, when we met for coffee, she asked me if I had been to this one part of the island that I hadn't been able to get to. And she's like, let's get in my car. We're going to drive over there. She took me to see basically ruins, burial ruins, ancient, Majorcan burial ruins. And then she took me to

another part of the island to the water to see this other area. Those are things that were on my list to have happen. I also did meet a myochord man who took me to dinner and wine and dine me. was quite lovely. But it wouldn't have happened if I didn't put it out there and if I didn't pay attention and do something about it.

Chelsea (12:00.782) 100%. That is the whole issue that we experienced a few years ago with manifestation where people just thought like, I'm manifesting. Why has nothing happened? And I'm like, I don't know what cog happened in the wheel, but manifesting doesn't mean, I want to, yeah, go to dinner with a Myorican man. Why isn't it happening? It's, well, I need to put some effort in and make it happen. And I also think manifesting got completely confused with like,

People think you just like sit and think about it hard enough and then it just falls in your lap. And I'm like, I don't know where that came from because you're manifesting all the time. You and me manifested this podcast by taking action, saying, hey, I want to do a podcast together. Reach out, get a booking link, set it up, get the Zoom link. You manifest doing laundry. If you wake up and you're like, huh, I think I want to do laundry. And you put the laundry in the machine and you're done. You've manifested doing laundry. But for some reason, people think like, manifesting this amazing My Oregon adventure.

means I need to sit and vision board and journal and this and that. it's like, yes, do those things, but also just take a simple step, opening the Facebook app and saying, maybe I'll check out this My Oregon Facebook group, or maybe I'll join the WhatsApp group and see what's up and just let people know, hey, I'm here for the next 10 days, if anyone wants to hang out. But for some reason, I think, yeah, we got, we complicated that whole process a lot where I'm like, all you have to do is make it known, like the sunflower stand, put yourself in the right spot, let people know you're here, see what happens.

And I think too, to bring it back to what you said too about the deconditioning is I do think if you come from A, an American background and then B, even further than that, a corporate American background, you do have the mindset of like, you better put some elbow grease in if you want to see any type of result. If anything, you need to work 10 times harder than everybody else to prove your worth. And when you go solo and leave that world, it is so hard to detach from that. I used to work in sales. We had to send.

Yes.

Chelsea (13:56.174) 80, eight zero emails a day, outreach emails a day. We had to try and book like 20 calls a week. This is from five years that I was at this job that constantly were being reviewed. We had a screen that would show literally how many emails people sent, how many calls they were doing. It was like a competition leaderboard so that you could get activated to like send more and more and more.

And it's so crazy because talking about it out loud, now I'm like, this is actually insane that that was my life for five years, but it was so normalized. That was sales, right? It's high input, high output. And so coming out of that and starting my own business where now you have to make things work and you have this free time and you are on your own, that is how I got by the first few years was like very high input, making sure I was like grinding to the bone. And that is why sometimes it is so hard to be like,

Can I really sell a high ticket offer with a few Instagram stories because it doesn't match the reality of corporate America where it's like you need to get on six different one hour calls to even close a contract and send 80 emails. It's like, well, those are two different realities. So I think for anybody listening that's in that corporate American reality, it might help to find expanders. Like that is truly the thing that has helped me is just finding one to three other people that are doing it a different way.

As soon as I have one example of someone doing it differently, I'm like, it exists, it can happen. My mind has now opened a new neural pathway that I can see. I don't have to do it that way. And then I just latch onto that and try to find more evidence. And I think that can help you get out of that, like work hard to succeed spiral because yes, you have to, you have to work, but I don't think work means working to the bone and burning out.

No, and literally I was talking to a client about this today because there is something in the consciousness right now that we were both feeling this like pull back to having to do a lot. She owns her own business in Greece, having to do a lot of that. And no, that is not living. That is not the way life has to be. And that is not the way that we have to define who we are and the way that we deliver our gifts to the world.

Mariama (16:10.058) just does not have to be that way. But we also have to not only find expanders, like you said, but be willing to have the courage to think differently about the possibilities of our life.

Yes, and actually visualize that. That has helped me a lot is literally visualizing what would it be like to have all this, to have the 10 people in the mastermind, to go to Mallorca and actually be at dinner with someone and riding around in their car and feeling the salty air on my skin. Like you have to put that experience in your body before it happens because then it actually, to me, you're practicing for when it happens. It's like I'm already ready for it. Which brings me to my point earlier of like,

things will fall on your lap, but you have to be ready to catch them. Yes. A lot of things fall on my lap that I probably haven't even noticed that I just, cause I didn't catch it and it probably slipped right through my fingers because I wasn't clocking it. And that's something I think people get so stressed out over the outcome that they actually do miss things sometimes. And it just falls right through their fingers. And again, I know this has happened to me, but I think it's important that when you are thinking of your ideal outcome and what you want to happen,

Also thinking a little bit after that too. So this is something I don't really hear people talk about. It's like, yes, you got it. And then what? And this is something my therapist always challenged me with is like, okay, and then what? And then what? Not to think bigger, but to start acting like that this is gonna be a natural part of my life. know what I mean? Of course I'm gonna go to Mallorca and meet the amazing person. Of course I'm gonna have 10 people in my mastermind because then you can expand even more so that as soon as those things do happen, you don't self-sabotage. Cause that happens a lot too.

There was a period where, and I don't know if you've experienced this, but with all this luck and fortune sometimes, I can feel almost guilty where then I self-sabotage it of like, let me hot potato it out of my hands and give it to someone else, because I don't want all this luck and fortune, because then I equate old stories with people with a lot of luck and fortune are also people that people will put on either a pedestal or they'll come after them or they'll try to take their luck and fortune. And so I subconsciously can be like,

Chelsea (18:17.814) I don't want that anymore. Fortunately with the landlord, again, I was able to work that out, but that could have easily been a self-sabotaging situation where even the text I could have positioned as like, no worries if not, if you don't wanna do this, it's totally fine, we can keep the same agreement. That would have been me already planting a seed of doubt. So do start to think ahead of like, this is a natural part of my lifestyle. What am I gonna do when I get all these things that I desire? And then I think it will feel more natural. So yeah, you don't push it out of your hands when it comes.

Mm-hmm, it's so true. And one of the shadows of the ten energy is also fear that you're gonna lose it, right? Fear that luck and fortune will run out. And I think that's where self-sabotaging can come in, because I think at a subconscious level, there's this fear that, well, it's not gonna work out, so help it not work out.

Yes. my gosh. As soon as you said that, I was like, I totally forgot this was one of my biggest shadows and it still shows up is because I don't have a partner or kids or really like any other responsibilities out of paying the bills that I have. I tend to think of this as a very limited window that I have to maximize because I'm never going to get it again. And so I tend to, I just dealt with this last night where I almost run into this paradox of choice where I have so many choices. And with the fortune and luck thing,

When it happens, I'm like, we need to strike while the iron's hot. We can't let this go. We got to make it happen right now. But then what happens is that obviously causes me a lot of stress and pressure. I then do things out of integrity. I say yes to things I don't even really want to say yes to. I bite off way more than I can chew. And now I'm drowning in projects and collaborations and commitments. And I'm like, this all just came from this false idea that my luck is running out and that there's nothing left in the pot.

but it is a constant work in progress. I have not fully, I've not fully believed yet that the luck doesn't run out. And I also think this goes back to corporate America and my thinking of like, there's a specific pie and once those pieces of the pie run out, the pie is gone. And it's really like work I have to do constantly on myself to remind myself this is not the only window of luck you're gonna have in your entire lifetime.

Mariama (20:29.376) Yeah, that is very true. And say with like a Matrix of Destiny chart is we're never going to be in balance, which means one part of the garden might be watered, which means another part might get missed. So it's the ebb and flow of different parts of your life, different elements of who you are that will receive a little more intention than other times in your life. So.

You know, it's like giving yourself the grace in that knowing as well as the ever-present, constant deconditioning from being an American and having been in corporate world.

Ooh, yes. I feel like there needs to be a post-corporate world rehab center because for like entrepreneurs that are building their own thing because a lot of us left that world to have more choice and freedom and then we get it and then we're like, my God, what do do with it? And then when you have this 10 and this luck and fortune, when things are easy, you do run into that spiral of like, why is this so easy? I thought it was so hard, like my job, because my job was hard. And it's like, well, that's probably why we left because we knew it didn't have to be that hard.

Mm-hmm.

And it wasn't in alignment either. That's other piece, right?

Chelsea (21:44.362) Exactly. And that's a big thing too, alignment. Like, there's, I tell people this all the time, there was a period of my business where I'm like, I could have probably made five times as much money by adding all these different branches of my business, but I could tell that was going to block my like, almost field of possibilities of bigger things that could happen if I just committed to these things. And speaking of like luck and fortune, it almost made me think of putting a barrier up to the luck and fortune that could happen.

Even though, yes, on paper those things could have made me more money. I'm like, think there's, it's not, fortune also doesn't always mean money. Like that's the other thing.

I'm just always saying money.

So I realized I don't need to do this to make more money. I actually want to create more things. I want to go to an art school. I want to do podcasting more. I want to go to a philosophy school. Like that can also be luck and fortune is the fact that I get to have these options. So adding all these different things in my business suite, just to quote unquote, make more money and have more financial fortune. was like, that's not really the goal of my life. Like that's not what I want to do. So I think that's important to share too is not getting luck and fortune confused with financials.

1000%. On that note, because we could talk forever. I feel like we could have like 10 more episodes talking about this. really could. swear. Oh my gosh. There's so much we could talk about. So much. I know that people are going to take away so much from this conversation. And I really can't wait to hear from people, their perspective and their thought on what we're talking about. But in the meantime, can you tell people how they can find you?

Chelsea (23:22.37) Yes, absolutely. I'm at ChelseaRife on Instagram. I'm also ChelseaRife on threads. My website is ChelseaRife. My podcast is called In My Non-Expert Opinion, but it is getting renamed. The new podcast name is Notes From The New World. So be on the lookout for that because it is getting a full revamp and upgrade. And then if you are interested in working with me, you can always reach out just on Instagram or on my website.

and we can chat about either joining my mastermind or joining my pitch program or working together like Mari and I did. But I'm so excited we have this conversation. Thank you for having me.

know, I know it was so good. Trust me, if you work with Chelsea, your life will be easier. Just trust me, okay? Thank you for being here. I just so appreciate you. I appreciate the conversations. And please, as you're listening, message us. Tell us what you think about this episode and what resonated with you.

Mariama (24:25.144) When you start honoring your intuition and you're taking swings with no expectation, life becomes a conversation that is gonna help you to win. This is something that I help my clients with and I would love to see how I can help you take action during my free one-on-one illumination call. You're gonna find the details for that in the show notes from this episode.