From Daydreams to Business Breakthroughs: Get Visualising to Grow your Small Business!

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What if your imagination could become your business strategy?

In this empowering episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on one of the most powerful tools I use daily to grow my fashion business, QueenMee Accessories: visualisation. Whether you’re dreaming of your first sale, your next big milestone, or building a brand that lights you up — your imagination is more powerful than you think.

I’m sharing:

• What visualisation really is (and why it’s not just for elite athletes!)
• How I used it to create this very podcast (yes — this one you’re listening to!)
• The deeply personal vision that’s driving me to take bold, brave steps — including my dream to join Amy Porterfield’s Millie Club
• How visualisation helped me create not just one, but two transformational digital programs: From Stuck to Sparkling and Styled to Sell
• And how you can start small — even just visualising getting through your to-do list — and build from there

Plus, I’ll walk you through my favourite visualisation practice: the Dream Jar — a beautiful way to make visualisation part of your everyday routine, even on the busiest days.

You’ll Learn:

• Why your brain responds physically to vivid imagination (yes, there’s science!)
• How to tell if a vision is aligned — or if it’s not right for you
• The difference between wishful thinking and powerful, belief-fuelled visualisation
• How to use your senses to make your dreams feel real (and actionable!)
• Why small visualisations can help you stop procrastinating and start doing

I'd love to hear about your visualisation journey. Tag me or send me a message on Instagram: @AmandaWaterstone 

And if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review — it helps this podcast grow and keeps the light shining for more creative business owners just like you.

Transcript

Amanda Waterstone: 0:00

Welcome to Bright Lips, Brave Heart, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs, bringing you inspiration and actionable steps to help you grow your business. I'm your host, Amanda Waterstone, and I'm on this journey with you. I've grown my product-based business, Queenly Accessories, from scratch whilst raising my two young daughters. I had a creative flame to design accessories burning inside me that I just couldn't put out, and so I left my corporate job and embarked on a rollercoaster entrepreneurial journey. Quite Quite a few highs and lows later, and here I am with the beautiful six-figure business of my dreams that spreads joy as I help women feel colorful and sparkling through their accessories. I'm always learning as I go along, and I'm excited to share what I've learned in Growing Queen Me with you every week so you can build your dream business perhaps a bit more quickly than I've done. My mission is to help creative entrepreneurs like you build a profitable business so you can shine your light bright I've created several free checklists and guides for you. These are the resources I wish I'd had when I was starting Queen Me. You can find them on my Instagram bio, at Amanda Waterstone. So let's dive in. Get ready to be curious, brave, and shine your life bright. Hello and welcome to this episode on a topic that is so close to my heart and I draw on all the time and I'm so excited to share it with you. It's visualisation. Now I've touched on this in previous episodes but I feel like it's worth really delving into it with you fully today because it's been such an important part of my journey and it's something that I'm consistently using every single day to help take me forwards. So do you visualise where you want to be either in a couple of months or a couple of years from now. And perhaps you don't even know what visualization is. Well, it's basically using your imagination to create a really vivid scene in your mind and taking really small details from that. So perhaps like what you're wearing or thinking about what you can hear in the background or the smells that are there, taking all those little details and creating a vivid scene. And having the feeling of how you want to be in that scene taking shape in your mind so that it starts to feel real. So Oprah Winfrey has a beautiful quote that I have been thinking about a lot recently. It's really stayed with me. It's very simple. It's just, you become what you believe. Now, Oprah is so inspiring, isn't she? I mean, she's such a brilliant example of what incredible things are achievable if you have the right mindset. And I love the fact that you become what you believe is just so beautifully simple and direct. And I believe it to be entirely true. And that idea has been really sitting with me recently. I've been doing lots and lots of visualisation. And this podcast, for example, is something that I've had to do a lot of visualization around. It's a new side venture for me. It's very challenging, completely a new direction. And in order to keep going with it, I've had to keep visualizing because I have so many challenges in my life, just having a family with two young daughters and running Queen Me Accessories and keeping growing that, keeping my customers happy. There are so many challenges with that. And so that's just my basic life. So in order to fit in this podcast and to keep going with it, I've had to keep visualizing where I want to be. six months from now with it, two years from now, and so on. And I love doing the podcast. I've had such wonderful feedback and I'm so grateful to my listeners. Thank you so much for sharing this special time with me. Honestly, it's been amazing. I love creating it and I, most of all, when I get amazing feedback, it's just so special knowing that my journey can help you in your journey. But even though I love it, the reality is I'm having to carve out time to create it from a very packed schedule and so the visualization part of it is just so important the belief that I'm actually going somewhere with this podcast is completely essential to keep me going and to keep me showing up and keep me creating with it and so if you're just starting out in your small business you might be in the same place that I am with this podcast you know you're already super busy you've got so many things going on you're wondering how why possibly you're doing this, how on earth you can make your business work, you know, how can it all come together. But maybe your instinct is just telling you that you need to keep going. You've got a desire to do what you're doing. You've got a desire to create your small business, to keep moving forwards. And so in order to keep taking action and carrying on, you know, in my experience, you have to keep visualizing as part of that work. Okay, so what is it that I'm actually visualizing with this podcast? What is the vision that's keeping me moving forwards? Well, I'm going to let you into my personal visualization world now. I haven't shared these details with anyone else. So I'm totally trusting you on this. You're coming deep inside my world. I've been very inspired by Amy Porterfield, who teaches you how to run digital courses. And in September, I completed her signature program, Digital Course Academy. I've always loved her. And I followed her pod and all of her content. And it was her that really inspired me to start this podcast. It's her inspiration that has kind of helped me create my vision. And doing her signature program has helped me move forward with Queen Me. I've created a styling program with Queen Me to complement my products, which has been an amazing experience. And it's helped me to kind of work in a really deep way with my customers So going much deeper than just choosing a hairband for them, which I love. I love helping them choose the perfect accessory, but really going beyond that. So the styling course that I'm running at the moment covers mindsets, of course. It covers... colour and then makeup and hair and fashion styling. So it's really, really all-encompassing and it's helping me to work with my customers in such a meaningful way and help them achieve real transformation. So I'm absolutely loving it. And I'm also working on a new course for my small business audience, which I'm so excited to share with you. It's called Style to Sell and it's going to help you grow your sales consistently. There will be a beta program in September and you can enroll in that in the next couple of weeks. As it's a beta, there will only be five spots available. There will be more information to follow. But the reason I'm sharing this is because I would never have been able to come so far with creating these digital programs. From Stuck to Sparkling, my new styling program for my Queen Me audience and my new program for my small business audience, Style to Sell, that I am so excited about. These have been huge, huge leaps for me with all the challenges I have already running pop-up shops and my e-commerce business and my social media and having two young kids as well. So many things going on. And if I hadn't been visualizing along the way, I would never, ever have been able to get this far with my digital programs. So what is it that I visualize? Well, this is the secret I'm letting you into. I would love to join Amy's Millie Club. And it's a program for people that are further along in their businesses than I am. but it's an achievable goal. It's within reach of where I am now. There's a turnover milestone that you have to reach to be eligible to join her Millie Club. And so that's what I'm aiming for. So it's a really clear goal, but I visualize going to the Millie Club. I just, it makes me get goosebumps whenever I think about it. When I first read the email from Amy Porterfield about the Millie Club, I felt so excited when I opened it and I knew that's something that I was aiming for. So the visualization feels fun and exciting and it is spurring me on. It's helping me to take action consistently in my business. So in this visualization, it's become so real in my mind. I love thinking about it as well because I'm so excited about joining the Millie Club eventually. In my visualization, first I have a car picking me up from my home because part of the Millie Club is in Nashville, Tennessee, because Amy Porterfield is American. So part of it is actually in person. Obviously, some of it is online as well. But I love the visualization of actually going to Nashville to meet her. In my visualization, I've got a car, like a taxi, coming to pick me up from my house and take me to the airport. And then I'm getting on the plane. I can even imagine the bag that I'm carrying I've already picked out the bag because it's one that I designed and there's a purse I have with my boarding passes and then I imagine sitting in the seat and the captain or the pilot rather of the plane saying you know we'll be cruising at an altitude of 39,000 feet this is a flight from Heathrow to Nashville I can imagine all of it and I even have a schedule of the flights from Heathrow to Nashville saved on my phone so I can look at that so it kind of makes me feel as if, yeah, I'm going next week. It's all happening. So as far as I'm concerned, this is happening. I am eventually going to join the Millie Club because I've been thinking about it so much now and it all feels so real. And maybe it will be next year. Maybe it will be the year afterwards. But I know it's happening. And that is because I have visualized it constantly. So when I first opened that email and I saw what Amy... you know, what the criteria was for joining, I thought, okay, that's doable. But it also felt like a big stretch. And I thought, oh, you know, maybe I'll get there. Maybe I won't. And obviously a lot of it is about digital courses. So that at the time for me was something completely new. But through constantly imagining all the details of this trip, it's starting to become so, so real. And I know it's happening. I know it's happening. And so that is the power of visualization. It turns your dreams into something that you know fully are going to happen and that you completely believe in your ability to make them happen as well. And so Carrie Green shares an Esther Hicks quote a lot that I love, which is all about this. And I've drawn on this quote a lot. So thank you very much, Carrie. The quote is, use your imagination until your big dream feels so familiar that its manifestation is the next logical step. So what you're visualizing might be something that you desire in your personal life or in your small business life. So my visualization of joining Amy's Millie Club is obviously a business one. But I have other visualizations about my personal life too. For example, going on holiday. So you can do this with anything. It can be about work, but it can also be about your life goals as well. Maybe you'd like to renovate your kitchen. Maybe you would like a special holiday for a milestone birthday or to spend time with one of your parents or your family. Whatever it is that you are desiring, whatever your life goals are, you can create a vision for those. And the more you visualize them, the more real they become in your mind and then the more real the actual manifestation of them is as well because your mind starts to find ways to create them. I think it's also really important that you follow your instinct with this as well. I think you need to go with what feels right and easy to imagine. Sometimes it works the other way. So I can think of an example when I was thinking about getting funding for Queen Me a couple of years ago, external funding. And I was writing a teaser document and writing out a business plan. And I was on the cusp of contacting some of my network that I had built up in my previous business about getting the funding. And then I tried to visualize going to the funding meetings, but I couldn't fully visualize them. I tried to visualize them, but it just felt wrong. It felt like they didn't feel exciting. It didn't feel like they would be aligned like they would be something that I would feel positive in. So I could just about imagine them, but they kind of felt wrong. They just didn't feel right. I didn't want to keep visualizing them. So I followed my instinct and decided not to go down that path. That's when I resolved to keep on bootstrapping and to get Queen Me as far as I could before I looked for external funding. Now, maybe the time will be right to get external funding in the future, but I believe that the time now is for me to concentrate on growing organically and to keep on bootstrapping, keep on using the resources that I already have to keep growing. So I think in your case, it needs to feel exciting. What you're imagining needs to feel good. You need to know that it's a good goal, that you feel excited thinking about it, and then just go with that feeling. Now, I can't recommend visualization enough. It has been such a key part of getting me to where I am today. And it's not a technique that I have always used, though. I'd never really thought about it or heard of it before. I think I just thought it was something that like Olympians did. And, you know, it sounded a bit crazy and a bit delusional, really. I think about when I started out on my entrepreneurial journey, I never really thought about practicing it, you know, that doing it regularly and really being intentional about doing it. But, you know, before I started visualizing, I went around in circles a lot of the time. I often didn't have a very clear idea of what I wanted. I knew I wanted to move forwards, but sometimes that would just kind of take me around in circles. And so I think for me, certainly practicing visualization every single day has been completely fundamental in kind of moving forwards in a strong direction. So my question to you is, even if you already do visualization, do you do it enough? I think every single day is good, maybe even multiple times a day. Are you allowing yourself the time for it? I have to constantly remind myself to allow enough time for it, even though I love it and I think it's really important. It's so easy to get swept up in the busyness of the day, isn't it? If you have a family, you know, you're making packed lunches in the morning, like the second you get up, it feels like there's There's stuff to do. There's a never-ending list of chores. Or maybe you're holding down two jobs. You've got your normal job plus your small business. Oh, my word, you're so busy. You open your eyes and there's a massive list of things to do. How could you possibly fit a few minutes into a day extra to kind of just dream? Yeah. Or maybe you're even further along and you've got a team like me. And then people are wanting to know what to do in the morning. There's so many pressures and time just runs away during the day, doesn't it? There's so many things to do. But I have found that when I stop visualizing, then things can start to feel overwhelming. It helps me to know that that my success is inevitable and that it's all possible, that I just need to keep moving forwards calmly. If I don't visualise, things can start to feel impossible or just too much. And that's when I start thinking I should just give it all up and get a job. But my instinct tells me that's not the right thing to do deep down, that I need to keep going, that there are amazing things ahead and that I am meant to do this. As you are meant to do your small business, if you have the desire to do it, then you are meant to do this and you should keep on this path and just keep going. If you find visualization hard, start with something simple. Like if, for example, you can't face getting all your social media content planned that day, it all just seems a bit much, then just visualize how you'll feel at the end of the day once it's planned. Imagine that feeling of accomplishment, the sense of lightness you'll have once you've done it. Just imagine that. So just imagine your work done at the end of the day. Picture yourself sitting at your desk, putting the final finishing touch to those two weeks of content. And once you really start to imagine how you're going to feel once you've done it, you'll want to get that feeling and it will help you to take action now. That's what I find. I find if I visualize, it helps me to take action. So I think those small visualizations are really, really important too to stop us procrastinating. And once you get into the swing of those small visualizations, if you find visualizing your big dreams hard and Then once you've got the hang of the small ones, you can start to build it up. Think a little bit further ahead. Think a week ahead. Imagine yourself in a week once you've done all your tasks for the week. Or then you can start to imagine yourself in six months, how things would feel if you had taken some steps that would really help you to move the needle in your business. Think about how you would feel that further ahead, maybe even in a year or two years. So you can start to build it up. And it never ceases to amaze me how visualization helps me to take action. So it's like it's thinking and daydreaming. But at the same time, once I've stopped doing it, so I set a timer. That does help because I could easily get lost in those daydreams. I love doing it so much. But I set a timer. And it helps me to take action as soon as that timer goes off. And research actually backs this up. So Research shows that visualization activates the regions of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, decision-making, and interpersonal connection. How amazing is that? Just from daydreaming and thinking about things in detail. Visualization for physical exercise has even been found to strengthen muscles by activating specific neural responses. So that is extraordinary. So you can actually strengthen your muscles by activating by imagining exercising. That is how powerful the effect on your brain is from visualization. So you're not just deluding yourself when you daydream and you imagine these scenarios in the future. It's not a delusion. This is a scientifically backed sound exercise. And it is unbelievably powerful. So make sure that you take time for it and you work it into your routine. So my action point for you today is if you don't yet visualize, choose one goal. It could be big. It could be small. But start visualizing it daily in detail. So every single day. So go into all the small details like I do when I imagine joining Amy's Millie Club. Imagine... what you'll be wearing, imagine if you are eating or drinking anything in this vision that you have, or maybe it's a sales milestone in terms of revenue, so then imagine the numbers on the page, imagine seeing the numbers. Can you hear anything in the background? Set up a scene in your mind and make it as real as possible by using all of your senses in this scene. And if you do already visualize, are you doing it often enough? Make sure you allow enough time for yourself to do it because in my experience, it can make all the difference. So if, for example, you're already a visualizer, have you tried the dream jar exercise? And I am actually going to start doing this because it's one I've used in the past. But as I've been writing this podcast episode, I've been thinking, yeah, I do a lot of visualization, but I could do more because I know how powerful it is and I know how much it's going to move me forward. So the dream jar exercise is where you put a selection of your goals, write them down on a piece of paper and put them in a jar. So I, for example, have 11 goals that I'm aiming for. for they're very specific and in another podcast episode we'll dive into goal setting because I'd love to share my ideas on that with you as well but if you write down some of your life and business goals put them in a jar and then just pull one out a few times a day randomly so it could be twice a day it could be three times a day maybe one at lunch and spend two minutes visualizing that dream so set a timer you know if it's in the middle of the day you don't want to spend like an hour visualizing it so set the two minute timer and just Allow that time to really imagine all the vivid details of the scene you're creating in your mind, achieving that goal. And it makes you feel so great. It's such an amazing feeling. It's so uplifting. And if you're having a bad day, you know, do it several times a day because it just makes you feel good. It really, really does. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I would love to hear how you get on with the visualizations. Do allow yourself enough time for them. And let me know. I would love to hear from you. You can contact me at Amanda Waterstone on Instagram. Thank you for listening, Bright Heart. I so appreciate spending this time with you. If you've enjoyed this episode, I'd be very grateful if you could subscribe and write a review to help this podcast grow and spread the light. Thank you. Thank you.