Ep #207: Manifest a Great Race Experience with Cassie Parks

Welcome to the Not Your Average Runner podcast. If you’re a woman who has never felt athletic but you still dream about becoming a runner, you are in the right place. I’m Jill Angie, a certified running and life coach, and I teach women how to start running, feel confident, and change their lives. And now, I want to help you.

Jill: Hey Rebels. So I’m here this week with one of my favorite people on the planet. The one and only Cassie Parks, master manifester, and just all around law of attraction expert and badass. And a good friend of mine. Hi, Cassie.

Cassie: Hi, Jill, I’m so excited to be here.

Jill: Oh my God, so everybody who is listening, get prepared for a lot of giggling because that kind of happens a lot when we get together. Cassie, so you were one of my first podcast guests way back Episode 40, where we talked about how to manifest your dreams. And so I’m kind of excited that we’re going to roll back around and just kind of dive deeper into that whole discussion.

So I don’t think I’m going to do justice to an introduction. So I would just love to hear from you. How would you describe yourself? Tell everybody all the things about you.

Cassie: Oh, I love that. So my new favorite way to describe myself is as the fairy godmother to those who can’t figure out how to manifest more than a parking space.

Jill: I love that.

Cassie: And we’re going dive into more of the law of attraction later and what is it. But if you are already familiar and you watched the secret, that seems to be the one thing everybody took out of it. And they got really good at that, but they can’t manifest the new car to go in the parking space.

And so that’s where I come in. I help people manifest money, and live their dreams, and really just start to live in alignment with who they want to be and create all the fun things they want.

Jill: Okay, I love this because I actually have been in a car with you and watched you magically manifest parking. It’s amazing. You’re just like, “I think I want to park over there.” And like, viola, a spot will appear. But I know there’s people thinking like, “Okay, that’s all fine and good, but how does this apply to me?”

And what you just said about living kind of in alignment with who they want to be, like we talk about that so much here on the podcast. It’s like creating your identity as a runner. And the concept of the law of attraction and manifesting really tie in well with that, right? It’s like kind of the basis for everything we do.

So you and I were chatting before we started recording about how the CTFAR model that I teach a lot on the podcast is basically the law of attraction. So can you just kind of talk about what that means and why it works that way? Because people probably have no idea that they’re literally manifesting shit all day long.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: Okay, I’m going to shut up and you tell us all the things.

Cassie: So I always go back and I am definitely more the science side of LOA. I think there’s a lot of ways people come to the law of attraction. But for me, I’ve always been about the science. I learned the law of attraction in eighth grade. Like, like attracts like.

And that seems so simple, but it’s who we’re being. People probably know somebody– You just said parking spots, right? You know that person who always gets the parking spot or always gets the table, that happens a lot with us, or whatever it is seems easy, right? Those people attract that.

Versus somebody who might always be complaining, always have a problem is getting the crappy waiter, can’t ever find a parking spot. And then it starts raining as soon as they find the furthest parking spot, and on and on and everything in between. But we attract who we’re being. And that beingness is very much tied to our thoughts, which is very connected to the model.

One of the stories that I wanted to just kind of highlight too is you talked about your wedding dress, right? You couldn’t have found this most beautiful wedding dress until you had the thought, “I get to be beautiful on my wedding day.” And that’s the way it works because our brain is looking for the evidence to prove us right based on our thoughts.

And then those become beliefs and then they become the way we live our life sort of in an unconscious manner. And so really coming back to that conscious place of choosing those thoughts, choosing those beliefs, choosing how you’re going to behave every day, creates what you want.

Jill: I love that. So literally the law of attraction is kind of like you think it into existence. But, hey, that’s what the model is, right?

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: You think a certain way, which drives an emotion. And that emotion drives an action, and that action drives a result. And it’s not magic. It’s science.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: It’s psychology. It’s like literally how the world works.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: It’s so fun. And for those who don’t know the story about my wedding dress, so by the time everybody’s listening to this it’ll be after my wedding. But before, when I was shopping for dresses, I had this kind of story in my mind that like, “Oh, I don’t need a fancy dress. It’s a second wedding.”

That’s what I was sort of telling myself on the surface. And so guess what? The dresses that were available to me were okay. They were adequate. They were acceptable. But it wasn’t until I shifted my thinking from, “Yeah, you know, I probably shouldn’t get a nice dress because I’m too fat right now.” That’s really what was going on, is I was saying I’m too fat to be a beautiful bride so I’ll just get a nice dress.

As soon as I shifted my thinking into like, “Oh my God, I just want to be absolutely gorgeous on my wedding day. I don’t really care what size I am.” As soon as I flipped into that way of being, this most amazing, perfect dress literally presented itself to me unexpectedly.

I was not shopping for a dress. I was helping a friend and they brought out this dress that was my size. And my friend, they brought it out for her, and she’s like, “I don’t think that’s the right dress for me.” And I was like, “Why don’t I just try it on?” It fit perfectly.

I would not have been able to see that dress if I had still been thinking, “Oh, that’s not for me. That’s not for me.” So really, it’s amazing. It’s amazing.

Cassie: It is amazing.

Jill: Super fun. Well, so what are some other examples that, you know, I’m kind of putting you on the spot here, but what are some other examples for you in your life where you shifted your thinking and the exact thing that you wanted appeared as soon as your brain changed?

Cassie: Oh, if I go way back, this is one that just popped up. It was literally about lipstick.

Jill: I love this. Okay.

Cassie: I have an allergy to red dye and so very often when I would use lipstick, I would get a cold sore or a blister, whatever you want to call it. Because my body didn’t like it. And so I just had this story about, “Oh, you couldn’t.”

And I remember the day, I was just like, “No, you can have lipstick if you want it. If that’s what you want, you can wear it.” And it wasn’t like a couple days later and I found this lipstick that didn’t make my lips breakout. It wasn’t like I looked at the ingredients really hard or anything like that. And it might have been before I was even conscious of the red dye allergy thing that I have. And I just remember like, “Oh, yeah, I deserve lipstick. And here it is so easily.”

Jill: So good. It’s magic, the way that happens. I even think back to when I was dating after my divorce. And most people were like, “Oh my god, you’re 49 years old and you’re going on Tinder? It’s just a bunch of hookups. You’re never going to find anybody.” It’s like, “Blah, blah, blah.” Like all the stories. But my mind was just like, “Oh no, my person is out there. I’m just going to keep showing up.” And my person found me and now, Yay, wedding, right?

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: So it really fucking works. But let’s kind of dive into how would you define manifestation and law of attraction? If you were just explaining it to somebody who had never heard of it before and was like, “Wait, what? You think of things and they happen?” There’s more to it than that.

Cassie: Absolutely. Because we can’t think. I talk a lot about the difference between wanting and being. We can want something a lot, and when we go back to the law of attraction, the more we want, the more we become ingrained in wanting. And we create even more wanting because that’s where we’re at instead of in becoming the person who’s going to get that. And so basics of the law–

Jill: Wait, I just want to stop because you just explained it so beautifully. There’s a difference between wanting and becoming the person. So I want to make sure everybody heard that. You can you want, I want a Tesla real bad, I have not yet become the person who has a Tesla in my mind. And therefore ain’t no Tesla in my parking lot. Right?

Cassie: Exactly, yes.

Jill: Okay. All right. So, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I wanted to make sure that we didn’t gloss over that. Okay.

Cassie: Absolutely, because it’s one of the things that gets misconstrued about the law of attraction. Oh, if I just think about it. And it’s not the thinking and the wanting, it’s the thinking and the becoming. And so I would– Back to your original question, I would describe the law of attraction and manifestation is, I mean, the law of attraction is like attracts like at its most basic form.

And I would say manifestation is the process of bringing something that you desired into your reality. Which sometimes it involves thoughts. It often involves changing your behavior, it often involves going through a process where you can believe you can have that. I’m not a fan of just believe it, there’s more to it.

There’s more that builds up and backs up that belief. Because all of our beliefs are generally backed up by evidence that we’ve gathered. And so there’s a lot to the process of manifestation. But I would say bringing a desire into your reality.

Jill: Okay, so let’s talk about in terms of the model, which my mathematical brain likes to take law of attraction and put it into a spreadsheet. But if your thought is, “Oh, I want that, I want that, I want that.” The emotion that you feel is very often lack. Right?

It’s an emotion of, it’s a thing I want that I don’t have. And we feel like we are lacking. And when we feel that emotion of lack, the actions that we show up for are not the actions that create a Tesla or a parking spot with a hookup for said Tesla, right? Or the partner of our dreams, right?

So when you say, “Okay, you need to shift your beliefs into becoming the person.” So if I wanted to manifest a Tesla, what would I need to be thinking and feeling to be taking the actions that would put a Tesla in my parking lot?

Cassie: So I would do this a little different than the model. And I would say, “Okay, when you’re driving the Tesla, what are you thinking?”

Jill: Love it. Like, my result is, “I’m in a Tesla.” What am I thinking that created that result? So you put yourself in the future and you start thinking like the person who already has that result?

Cassie: Yeah, so when I work, either I do it a little more short term when we’re doing manifesting $10,000. When we’re doing future life, we go five years out. And then we start to ask the questions. So when you come up against anything in your life you’re really choosing like, “Does she think this? Does she believe this? Does she own this?”

And that means both physically but also someone else’s shit. Does she own the mom stuff? Does she still carry that baggage around? Does she own it? And then does she do this?

So it’s really like, does she get all upset about not having a Tesla and how long it’s taken? No, because she has her Tesla. And as soon as you have the Tesla, you forget how long it took. The same with a relationship. You know, the minute you have that person of your dreams, or you realize that, you generally forget how long it took. Which is different than when you’re trying to get there.

Jill: Right, right. Like when you want something and you’re in that place of wanting it, it doesn’t feel great. When you’ve got it, you’re not thinking like, “Oh man, it took me like three years.” You’re like, “I got a Tesla!” Right? Or, “I’ve got the partner of my dreams!”

And it’s so funny, when I was dating post-divorce, I don’t think I was ever like, “I can’t wait to get married again. I can’t wait to find my person.” I was just like, “Oh no, they will show up at the appropriate time. And meanwhile, I’m just going to live my life and have a lot of fun.” And they showed up way faster than I expected. I was like, “Oh, it’s going to be at least five years, maybe 10.” And then like six months later, here’s Andy.

But it’s so different because I wasn’t like, “I need to find somebody, I need to find somebody.” It was just a very relaxed like, “Oh, I’m just have all the fun in the world. And the person will show up when they’re supposed to.”

Cassie: Absolutely.

Jill: It was very relaxed, it wasn’t like, “I want this.” I think my thought process was I’ll have this when the time is right. And it just gave me such a relaxed, calm feeling.

Cassie: Absolutely. And as your friend I can attest to that, absolutely. There was none of that. I was literally there, not everybody could say, “Oh, yeah, absolutely. You’re right.” But you didn’t have that, it was all about, “I know this is coming. I’m going to have a shit ton of fun and let’s go.”

Jill: Yeah, for fun. Okay, so I know a lot of people are like, “Okay, that’s all great. I really don’t want a Tesla. How do I apply this to running?” And so maybe your goal is, “Oh, I want to win a lottery spot for the New York City Marathon.” Or I want to be able to take the trip of my dreams to do a Disney race or something like that. Where would you say somebody should go to kind of manifest an opportunity to do something that they want to do?

Cassie: So I’d start with what that opportunity feels like. And I would even go– I’m a little bit different than I think most people, I’d go to coming home and telling your best friend about it.

Jill: Aw.

Cassie: Yeah, a little bit more than start of the race, right? I would go to that completed place where you’ve already had that experience and you can fully look back. Because often our brains will play with us a little bit and won’t fully go into the process if we go to that start line. If we imagine like, “I’m at the start line today.” Our brains will fight that because it looks around and like, “No, I’m in Ohio. I’m not from California.”

But when we say it in the past tense, so we imagine having that conversation with our friend at the coffee shop or calling her from the airport on the way home, our brain isn’t arguing with what we say we’ve already done. Which is a super interesting thing and a trick for manifesting.

So I’d go to that place. Who is that person? What are you describing? What was it like? How much fun was it? If you had a time, were you just excited to finish? Was it your best time ever? Did you meet some fun people on the way? Did you have a goofy cheering squad? Is there some family all dressed as Goofy, that was like cheering you on? And really tap into not just “I got that race.”

But again, even though I’m still going to go back to the Tesla even though we switched, right? Not I want a Tesla, but I’m driving the Tesla every day. And so you go to that place where you’ve already ran that race, you’ve already had that amazing experience.

Jill: Right. And so you basically are living that experience in your mind before it even happens. That’s what I’m hearing.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: Okay, I kind of love that.

Cassie: It’s so fun. And it takes that, going back to what we were just talking about in the relationship, in that amazing place where you were where Andy could show up so quickly. When we go to that place in our mind and we give ourselves the joy of that experience instead of the wanting of that experience, there’s no resistance to it. We’re like, “Oh yeah, I can relax into the process because I know I get.”

Jill: Yeah.

Cassie: And when we’re feeding that into our brain, our brain is like, “Oh yeah, of course.” Your brain thinks you’ve already had it, so of course you get it.

Jill: Right, because our brains are dumb. And they don’t know the difference between reality and what we are thinking, right?

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: It’s mind blowing. This is why humans are terrible eyewitnesses, because they create a story and then it becomes true, and it could be wrong.

Cassie: Right. And they base that story, because our brains try to fit our current reality into an experience we’ve already had based on a memory. And so our brains are literally trying to create the same thing over and over again.

Jill: Yeah. Well, and it’s like, I mean, have you ever sat down with your siblings and talked about something that happened when you were a kid? And everybody’s got a completely different story.

Cassie: Right, yes.

Jill: Because we’ve all built that story in our brains differently and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But if we can do that, if we can like literally rewrite history in our brains and be super convinced that it’s true, let’s use that power on purpose.

Cassie: Absolutely.

Jill: That’s a thing. I love that. So what are some tools that you use? Because you help people make money, right? You help people make money–

Cassie: Yes, attract money.

Jill: Yeah, attract money. See, I’m not even using the right language. So I want to talk about how people can apply this to running and we’re going to do that in a moment. But I’d love for people to– Like I don’t think there’s anybody on this call that’s like, “I don’t need any more money, I’m good.” There’s nobody listening to this podcast that is saying, maybe subconsciously they’re saying it, and that’s why they don’t have enough money.

But what are some of your top three ideas or tools to help people attract more money into their life?

Cassie: Get really clear about what that money is used for. So often we’ve trained ourselves to walk around, “I need more money, I need more money, I need more money.” And two things happen when we do that.

Number one, we don’t notice when we get it because our other stories, speaking of stories, I go a lot into money stories. But our story is playing out. So depending on our story, we might just be getting rid of it as fast as possible so we never notice it’s here. If your story is survival, you do what I call hot potato money.

So one of them is getting really clear about what you want. And I use $10,000 because it’s big enough that our brains can’t figure out how I can make that happen. But also not so big that it’s spins us into like there’s no way I can become that person.

And so we start with $10,000 and we make a list. All right, somebody hands you today an envelope of cash, $10,000, what are you going to do with it today? Not what do you wish you could do with it? But what would you actually do with it?

Because if you have bills to pay, you’re probably not going to go on a trip to France. You might if that’s who you are, and that’s fine. But for the majority of people they want to go too far out and they want to be like, “Oh, I’m a millionaire” with $10,000. No, be you today. What do you do with that $10,000? And get super clear.

How many massages is that? Is it a vacation which is awesome? Is it investing to pay down something that you’ve already paid for? Is it to do a run program? What is it for when it shows up?

Because when you have that list, it’s like a shopping list. When you go to the store with no list, you’re bound to miss something that you wanted if you just go wander around the store and kind of buy things. Which can be fun sometimes, right? But you’re often going to miss the things you want.

And so when you make this list, it gives your brain a checklist to say, “Oh, I wanted–” Let’s just say, “I wanted to go to this restaurant with my friend, and I was going to use $100 to invest in that.” Well, when you get that gift card randomly, that literally came out of nowhere for that restaurant, you’re like, “Oh, it’s happening.”

So get clear and then pay attention and track things. You’ve been unconsciously tracking things for so long that aren’t powerful with money usually or are I don’t have enough money. And so really, we start tracking every penny that comes in to tell our brain like “It’s happening. Here it is, here’s money, and here’s money, and here’s money.” And so that you can actually see that it’s happening, that our brain is picking up that thing.

Going back to the wedding dress, right? Noticing I’m getting a beautiful wedding dress because I had that thought. Oh, I wanted more money, and more money is coming in.

Jill: Yeah.

Cassie: And so those are two, get clear, track of the evidence that it’s coming in. And really like my third is a sort of overall technique. It’s don’t try to fix it. Let the process guide you. Become the person instead of trying to fix your way to that person.

Jill: Well, okay, can you say more about that? I think I know what you mean by that, but can you say more about it?

Cassie: Yeah, so often somebody will go, “Oh, I want more money because I don’t have enough.” And then it goes into those thoughts again like, “Oh, because I’m bad with money.” Or this or that, or because I need a budget. And so they try and start to fix all of those things.

But really, you’re just moving around the stuff that’s already in your life. And looking at it different. I mean, if you use the model, that’s a little bit different. But in general, people are just trying to fix. They dig up all these things that are wrong, and that’s why their life is this way. And if I can go fix them it will be better.

Instead of saying, “No, I want to be somebody with $10,000 extra. And I want to be able to go on this vacation, put this down payment on a car, and pay this other thing off.” And so if you can step into becoming that person instead of trying to fix the things you think are wrong, you’ll get there a lot faster.

Jill: So can you give us maybe some specific examples? Because I know a lot of people are like, “Okay, how do I become that person? Because I don’t have the money.” Like they’re thinking, “I can’t become that person until I have the money.” And you’re saying, “No, you can put the cart before the horse.”

Cassie: Absolutely. So one of the things goes to your thoughts, and you guys have gotten a lot of training into your thoughts, right? So that person doesn’t think, “Oh, I don’t have the money for the things I want.” That’s not a thought that’s running through their head 24/7, “I can’t afford that. I can’t afford that.” Right?

So there’s a couple of reasons. Number one, you can change even just the words you say, “Oh, I’m choosing not to buy that today, it is my choice.” Because if you can’t afford it, there’s still probably a way you could get it, right, if you’re consciously doing it.

Jill: Theft is always an option, right?

Cassie: Right, there’s always an option. But when you put that choice on you, you’re really choosing what you want and how you want to live. And so you can do that. But if you find that thought, “I can’t afford that” you could take it through your model as well and come up with a different space, and a new thought, a new emotion, all of that.

But it’s really about catching the things that would be different. You know, if I had this money, if I could go on that vacation, I wouldn’t be looking at everyone jealous of their vacations. I would probably be celebrating because I’m on the same level.

Jill: Right, and so you start celebrating now and then the vacations come.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: Yeah. And I think, like I was just having this conversation with Elle Russ not two days ago.

Cassie: Yay!

Jill: And we talked about how, it was in the context of confidence, but we talked about how somebody who’s confident isn’t mad because other people are getting stuff because they believe that there’s enough for everybody. And it’s this exact same mindset, right?

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: That if you’re focused on what you don’t have, you’re going to get more of nothing. And if you’re looking at other people and saying, “It’s so awesome that she went on that vacation, or she got that Tesla.” I wish one of my friends would buy fucking Tesla so I could be happy for them.

Cassie: I’ll start sending you when Teslas show up in our life.

Jill: Cassie, okay, go get a Tesla.

Cassie: We’re waiting on the truck.

Jill: But like that being genuinely happy for somebody else’s good fortune, it’s never going to hurt you. It’s always going to reflect positively on you and your life.

Cassie: Yeah, and it automatically stops thoughts. If you want an easier way, you’re like, “Oh, whatever, I just want it to be easier and quicker.” Celebrating is the quickest way to shut down your thoughts about what you don’t have. Because when you’re celebrating someone else you automatically shift into that person that believes you can have it.

And that’s where a behavior can transport you and you can kind of skip the thought and belief. If you just start behaving like that person you cut out a lot of the work, which is fun. The work is awesome, but if you can do less of it and get further faster, I’m always about that.

Jill: Right? Who wouldn’t be, right?

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: So let’s kind of talk about how we can apply some of these tools to running. And I think in my mind I’m like, okay, the concept of visualization seems to apply pretty easily. But what tools do you recommend for people who are either trying to manifest a great race experience, or apply it in their training, maybe even use it to keep themselves motivated to train?

Cassie: Yes, I love this. And I know I said we’d talk about visualization first, but I want to go here. Who do you want to be as a runner in five years? Because I know your people, sometimes it’s 10 seconds. You start today with 10 seconds, right? And so it’s weird, but like a year out can feel so far and like there’s so much to do.

But if you did want to be a half marathoner or a marathoner in five years, automatically your brain is like, “Well, that does take a lot of work.” You’re not judging that, “Oh, it takes a lot of work to be able to do a 5K.” Your brain is like, “Yeah, people train for a while for that.”

So automatically you’re kind of taking a little bit of that pressure. And I think sometimes we’re not motivated because we don’t believe enough. We’re like, “Where’s that going to get me and?” If I do this for a year, I’m only going to be, I don’t know what’s a realistic thing, running for five minutes at a time or whatever, right?

But when we put that out, “Okay, who can I become five years from now?” And if you can see yourself as a half marathoner, if that’s what you want to be, or somebody who does a ton of 10K’s, whoever that is, right? You start to think like a half marathoner. A half marathoner automatically trains because they’re not going to go to a half marathon with–

Jill: 13 mile won’t run themselves.

Cassie: Right, that’s not something you show up and kind of fake it, right? That’s a test you study for.

Jill: Yes. I love that, I’m totally stealing that. A half marathon is a test that you study for, so good. I love that. Because I think a lot of what bogs people down in the moment when they’re thinking, “I have a training run” is their brain says, “Oh, if you miss one training run it’s not going to make that big of a difference.” And you know what? That’s actually true.

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: But when you think that thought you feel it’s kind of meh. We don’t feel super motivated. Yeah, and then it becomes this cycle. But when you have the identity of, “Oh, I’m a half marathoner.” And maybe you’re not yet, but you’re like, “I have the brain of a half marathoner.” That’s a totally different place to be. That’s the person that gets up and does their training run so that they don’t show up on half marathon day under trained.

Cassie: Yes, and so there’s a couple ways to step into that, right? So most people’s brains, going back to what we talked about a minute ago, like, “Oh, how do I get there? What do I need to fix?” Immediate list, right? But if you can stop that and you can go into that half marathoner person and you go, “What does that look like on my half marathon?” And I would go–

If you just want to run one, cool. But if you do want to run more than one, I’d go to your third or your fourth or your fifth one because then you’re definitely a half marathoner. And so think about that day five years from now, and it might come sooner. What I find is if you put it out five years it usually comes sooner. If you try to make it next week, it doesn’t happen.

But give your brain the space to grow and help you. So you can imagine and put yourself think about, “What does it mean when I’m running my third half marathon? And it feels good. I know what to expect. I know how to take care of myself before, I know how to take care of myself. I know who I call when I’m done or who’s holding a sign at the end.” And start to go through in your mind.

And so there’s two ways to do this, which we’ll talk about. But go through in your mind, “Oh, what is mile one feel like? What does mile two? What does my 3, 4, 5? How does it feel once I get past seven? How does it feel when I’m in mile 12?” And really go step by step into that experience.

And so you can either visualize that, and before you would close your eyes and visualize that I’d write it all down. Even if it’s just notes, so that your brain already has that script. So when you close your eyes, you’re not both trying to think of what it’s like and visualize it. You’ve kind of outlined it for yourself so you can see it more like a movie.

Jill: So is this the technique of scripting that you’ve talked about a lot? Where you’re literally writing the script of your event.

Cassie: So this is a little bit different. So if you wanted to do it in a full on writing form, then I would script it out. And when you script it out, I always script from when you wake up in the morning. Especially for a run like, don’t go straight to the start line.

What does it look like? Because a half marathoner has a morning, right? They don’t wake up, they’re not putting their sleeping bag at the start line. They wake up somewhere, whether it’s in a hotel, right?

Jill: It’s not like they just suddenly gain consciousness for the day, and boom, there they are.

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: Although I think a lot of us wish that that would happen that way because it sucks to get up at 4am.

Cassie: I totally get it. We’re probably creating a new running experience right now with this conversation.

Jill: Right, you just airdrop in.

Cassie: That’s awesome.

Jill: Yeah, so good.

Cassie: And so those things like, are you waking up in a hotel? Are you waking up in your bed? Are you driving to the start line? Are you parking and walking to the start line? All of those add to the true reality and make your brain see, “Oh, yeah, I’m in this experience. This experience happened.” Again, your brain will fight you a little bit if you just show up at the start line, like I started running.

Jill: Yeah.

Cassie: So if you’re scripting, you’re writing this out. And so you’re starting in the morning, I would do the same with visualization as well, start in the running. You’re tapping into what you see all of your senses. So often, we just want the thing so much that we go into like, “Oh, I ran, I crossed the finish line.” And we don’t get a lot of benefit from that visualization.

Jill: Yeah, because we’re not really imagining it. We’re just imagining the result and not all of the events that led up to it. So we’re not giving it a full experience. It’s like we’re seeing the last five minutes of the movie. And it doesn’t make sense because we haven’t watched the first 90 minutes.

Cassie: Right, exactly. And our brain is like, “This doesn’t help.” And the early studies they did on visualization, they did on top performing athletes. When they really started to find like, “Oh, your muscles fire the same, the same places light up in your brain.”

But as I’ve grown, I used visualization, or tried to use it when I was playing softball, and I never found it successful. And as I got older and I started studying this I’m like, “Of course not. I was taking my current self and trying to see myself hit the ball.” All the studies they did about visualization improving were people who had already been successful, they’re just trying to make themselves a little more successful.

Jill: Interesting.

Cassie: And so if you haven’t run the half marathon yet, you got to do the whole experience. Because we’re talking like a top athlete who’s running I don’t know how many races a year, they already know what all that feels like. But if you’re stepping into that person, you have to tap a little more, like what does that feel like? Because if they were to visualize, they already know all that. Their brain fills in the whole movie. They could probably start further down because their brain knows what’s happening.

Jill: Yeah. I love that. Okay, so if somebody wants to try the technique of visualization to help them, first of all step into that identity, and then improve their performance on race day. Is this a once a week thing, once a month, once a day, twice a day? What kind of frequency do you recommend and how would you set it up for people?

Cassie: So with my clients I’m like, do it more than 50% of the week. So four days of the week if you’re really wanting to change. And you want this to be an experience you enjoy. So if it turns out not to be, put it down and find a different way to do it. Or go deeper into it. So I’d set it up like that.

If I was going to create my own visualization, or my own script, I would start with I woke up. I would think about all the things that go into race day. The things that seem unimportant, but those details are really important for your brain to build the story. What do your shoes look like? What do the laces look like? What do you wear? What color top? If you know what race it is, what do their bibs look like?

So that you can, in your visualization either, “I put my bib on, I saw the green stripe.” Right, of whatever race that it. Or whatever is connected to Disney, you know, if there’s a character on it. Really get clear about those details because that tells your brain it’s happening.

I would make a list of all of those from the time you wake up, like all the stuff. And include as many senses as possible. Our senses help with memory. So everybody knows when they have that smell of like a perfume or cologne of someone that was really important. And all of a sudden, you’re 20 years before, you’re back in high school.

Jill: Yeah. So like what did you eat? What did you drink? What’s the weather like? Can you feel the morning mist on your skin? All of that.

Cassie: Yeah. Did you see the sun? Whatever time of year it is, do you see the green leaves? Or are there no leaves? Or are there palm trees because you’re in a tropical place? What do you hear? Which is really important, because you’re not running a race in silence generally. You might be listening to your music. But you’re seeing people along it, you’re seeing water stations. Really make a full list of all of these things.

And then if you want to visualize it, I would record it before trying to do it for yourself. So I’d get whatever recording, I think you could probably do it on your phone.

Jill: Yeah.

Cassie: I woke up, I saw my shoes ready. I got up, I took a shower, I felt the water over me. I felt happy. You also want to include your emotions. How do you feel on the day that you’re running this? And just walk yourself through that from seeing it through your eyes. And then listen to it.

And one of the things about this is I know from a hypnotherapist, there’s two voices that are the strongest. They’re yours and your mother’s. And so the strongest voice to listen to is your own. Hypnotherapists are actually trained to start to mimic your voice if they’re going to hypnotize you because that is the strongest thing in your brain, is your own voice.

Jill: That’s interesting.

Cassie: I know, isn’t it.

Jill: Wait, but what if you got your mom to record it for you?

Cassie: I think that’d be awesome if you could get your mom. I’m sure there’s some Moms–

Jill: If you could talk to your mom into not criticizing you along the way and being like, “Oh, okay, well, then she wore the outfit that I really don’t like.”

Cassie: She put on a tutu.

Jill: So I just had another idea, when you’re doing this do you think it’s helpful to also listen to like– Because for runners the playlist that you’re going to play during your race is actually kind of a big deal. And a lot of us, I mean, I know I do. I have playlists that are just for races, and or really long, challenging training runs.

And so I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be helpful to record yourself over that music so that it’s almost like you’re right there on race day.

Cassie: Absolutely.

Jill: That’s kind of fun, I’m totally going to try that.

Cassie: Yeah, I think that would be amazing. Because that’s the real sound, right?

Jill: Yes, exactly.

Cassie: So then you’re hearing it as you’re looking around seeing all these other things in the visualization, as you’re feeling your feet bounce off the pavement. As you’re feeling that sweat bead down your back. Because all of those are things that make it real.

Jill: Yeah, love that.

Cassie: Yeah. And so then you could also put the playlist on and you could write it out. I woke up, saw my shoes. Just the same thing and go step by step through the day.

And the truth is, you can’t have too much detail. Because that’s what makes it real in your brain. Even if it’s not about the race. The things in the morning are just as important as running mile 7 or 10.

Jill: Yes.

Cassie: Same with the things afterwards.

Jill: Right, it’s the whole routine. And I always tell people, when you’re planning out your run, there’s the actual time you’re going to be running and then I call the rest of it processing time, right? Like, getting your shoes on, finding your outfit, driving to the gym, or the trail or whatever. And showering afterwards, and stretching, and refueling. And there’s so much that goes along with it. And then on race day it’s like exponentially more.

Cassie: Yes. Yeah. And so being in touch with all those, especially if that hasn’t been who you are yet.

Jill: Yes.

Cassie: Because your brain doesn’t know all that stuff, right?

Jill: Yes, exactly. Like when you are doing your training runs and you’re training your legs, and your body, and your mind. And then when you’re doing your visualization, you’re literally just training your mind. Although there may be like a physical effect that comes along with that as well.

Cassie: Yeah, I mean, they’ve proven that. So when, again, talking about the studies with professional athletes, the same things fire in your brain. Your muscles do have a way of firing when you are visualizing it. Yeah, so you’re getting that bonus of training.

Jill: Yeah, I absolutely love that. Okay, so I think you mentioned that you actually created a resource for everybody?

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Cassie: So I’m going to do– And I’ll probably ask you a few questions really quick, Jill. But I just thought it would be really fun to create an amazing running– Just to give you as a visualization to start from, if that feels really good. Which you could listen to while you’re stretching and warming up.

Jill: Yes.

Cassie: Or if you don’t want to get out of bed you can put it on and then likely you’ll get out of bed.

Jill: You can set it as your alarm. If you use your phone as an alarm clock, just use that as the alarm. I love that.

Cassie: I love it. Yeah. So tell me something that your runners, like who do they want to be?

Jill: Who do they want to be? They want to be somebody who is consistent with the running. Somebody who is confident with running. Somebody who doesn’t get up in the morning and have the arguments, somebody who just like gets up and is like, “All right, I’m ready to go. Like, this is who I am.”

Somebody who when the running feels difficult, doesn’t say like, “Oh, I should probably give up.” But literally goes deeper into that and is like, “All right, it’s getting hard. These are the miles I came for.”

Because that is the identity of a runner. And somebody who is proud of it and talks about it to other people and doesn’t have a lot of like, “Oh, I’m
too slow. I’m too fat.” Or whatever. They’re just like, “Fuck no, I’m a runner and everybody needs to know about it.”

Cassie: Yes, exactly. All right, cool. Yeah, it’s going to be an awesome visualization, you can just go download it. There’s not even an opt in, should you want to connect more that’s your option. But it’s just a cool gift that I thought would be really fun to give your runners.

Jill: Love it. So we’ll have a link to that in the show notes for this episode. You told me the link before and now I can’t find it, or I forgot it and I don’t have it in front of me. But we’ll have the link in the show notes for the episode.

But how can people find out more about you? Because you’ve got a podcast, you’ve got multiple podcasts, you’ve got multiple books. So to give us like the story on how we can get more Cassie.

Cassie: Absolutely. Yeah, so you can just type in Amazon, Cassie, C-A-S-S-I-E, Parks, like Parks and Rec. You could just type that into Amazon and all of my books will pull up. You could also go to cassieparks.com if you want to connect. If you’re looking to manifest money I’ve opened Pay After You Manifest back up, so you can join and you can pay after you’re successful, which is very fun. So you can go to payafteryoumanifest.com.

Jill: Literally you guys, you sign up for this program and then you pay later after you get the money. It’s a thing. It’s a thing. It’s so cool.

Cassie: Yeah, it’s a thing and it’s so awesome.

Jill: And I did it. I did it a few years ago. Do you remember that?

Cassie: I do remember.

Jill: I did it and I can’t remember what I manifested, but it was something I was struggling with in my business. And I manifested somebody who not only would handle the thing for me, but like saved me like a few thousand dollars. I was like, “Oh, all right. Here’s your cut of the savings that I manifested.” That was just so fun.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: I love that.

Cassie: I love that story because it happened so easily, right?

Jill: Yeah, it did. That was great.

Cassie: Yeah, and on your favorite podcast app, wherever you listen to Not Your Average Runner you can search Manifest It Now or Manifesting Success Stories.

Jill: Love it. Okay, so you have a podcast called Manifest It Now and a podcast called Manifesting Success Stories.

Cassie: That is true.

Jill: Perfect. I love this. And what do you have, like seven books out? I mean, there’s a lot.

Cassie: Yeah, I think it might be nine now.

Jill: Oh my God.

Cassie: Yeah, I know.

Jill: You’re just manifesting books all over the place.

Cassie: I am, yeah. Which, Jill, I will say if you want a fun read Jill loved Choose Me. I think she was the first person to actually get to read that book.

Jill: Was I really? That was such a good book.

Cassie: Yeah.

Jill: You guys, Cassie doesn’t just write about manifesting like how-tos, she writes novels as well.

Cassie: Yes.

Jill: So Choose Me and what’s the name of the other one?

Cassie: Own It.

Jill: Own It, that’s right. Go get all things Cassie because she’s delightful. And who couldn’t use more money and running in their life?

Cassie: Yeah, it’s a good combo.

Jill: It is a good combo. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate you coming back to visit us here on the podcast.

Cassie: Of course, anytime. Thank you for having me.

Oh, and one last thing. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you have to check out the Rebel Runner Roadmap. It’s a 30 day online program that will teach you exactly how to start running, stick with it, and become the runner you’ve always wanted to be. Head on over to rebelrunnerroadmap.com to join. I’d love to be a part of your journey.