#BEYOUROWN MEETS HALEY REESE

Haley Reese, otherwise known as ‘The Manifesting Queen’, is a licensed neuro-linguistic programming master practitioner, certified hypnotherapist, certified transformational nutrition coach and certified advanced theta healing practitioner who specialises in empowering entrepreneurial women to master their mindset and harness the power of manifestation, so they can finally make their business dreams a reality. The clients that she works with are on a mission to build businesses that make a positive impact in their communities and the world as a whole.

Haley has cultivated a community of women enthusiastic to develop their ability to consciously create lives that fulfill their life’s purpose and deepest desires. In her signature program, ‘Become A Manifesting Queen’, Haley teaches her proven process to manifest your desires on-demand.

Hey Haley, can you introduce yourself to us?

I’m a mindset & manifestation mentor that helps entrepreneurial women create feel-good, freedom-based businesses from a state of ease, fun, and flow. My work is built around three pillars: mindset, emotion, and soul. I believe in the innate wisdom and limitless potential that resides within all of us, and I work with my clients to fully claim their power, so they can be, do, and have everything their hearts desire. I don’t subscribe to the cultural and societal conditioning that is in place to keep us small, our creativity stifled, and our dreams forever a far-off fantasy.

I work with my clients to:

Escape paralysing perfectionism
Remove limiting beliefs, blocks, and phobias
Eliminate bad habits and addictions
Discover their deepest desires
Create well-formed goals and effective strategies
Reconnect with their innate feminine gifts
Understand their signature energetic blueprint
And harness the power of their mind

The ultimate goal is to achieve personal freedom. I combine every facet of my unique background for a holistic mind-body-soul approach in order to create permanent, life-changing transformation from the inside out.

On a more personal note, I currently reside in San Francisco with my fiance. He’s my partner, my soulmate, the love of my life and every day I am deeply grateful for the divine masculine and unconditional love and support that he is. Food is a major passion of mine – before my coaching career, I spent years working in the culinary industry. Whenever I’m not working, I love spending my time intuitively creating new dishes, exploring restaurants in the city, and pursuing unique culinary experiences. We also travel just about every chance we get – to Hawaii, Lake Tahoe, and Italy is on the agenda for next year. In addition to being my career, personal development is also my #1 hobby – I’m always juggling about 5 different books or taking courses to learn new skills. The rest of my free time is filled with yoga, hiking, listening to jazz, going out dancing, enjoying time with my friends, and collecting all things “woo” (think: crystals, candles, and essential oils.)

Can you take us through your journey to where you are now?

It has been quite the adventure and not at all a straight path. Upon graduating from university with a B.A. in Communications I did the reasonable thing and instead dove headfirst into the culinary industry. Throughout the 13 years of college prep school (K-12) and a 4-year university, I’d always felt pressured and expected to take that path up the corporate career ladder all the way to the top. Attending culinary school in Florence my senior year was a huge turning point in my life because it was the first time my eyes were opened to the possibility of going down a less traditional, but far more soul-aligned path. I explored every area from fine foods to cooking to working as a personal chef as I pursued my heart’s true desires.

About 3 years in, I developed a repetitive strain injury that resulted in abstaining from the work I’d been doing and going on disability. I was highly encouraged by my doctors to find a new type of work that was less strenuous for my right arm and hand. By chance, I stumbled into the recruitment industry, where I spent the first two years working at an agency with a very masculine and restrictive work culture, and the third year at a recruitment tech startup. I was great at what I did, but the work-to-live culture and focus on dollars over people was soul-sucking for me. However, I never regret these experiences because they illuminated what was important to me and taught me the persistence I needed to do what I do now.

What is a day in the life of you like?

I love flexibility and freedom (a huge part of why I pursued the solopreneur path) so it’s rare that any two days look alike. I am also huge on energy efficiency – taking advantage of my highs, and resting and restoring in the lows – this has been one of the keys in increasing my productivity and output while staying joyful in my work. The one exception to this is my morning ritual – I make sure that is consistent every day. It is always evolving the more I learn, but the purpose of it is to energetically, mentally, and spiritually set me up for a successful day. Currently, my ritual includes having my morning coffee while reading a personal development book, then taking a walk in the parks or to the beach near my house as I listen to something uplifting like Abraham Hicks. I finish with a combination of yoga, meditation, and energy practices in my home. The rest of my workday typically involves client meetings, between-call support, creating content, developing training, building my programs, or attending my own mastermind and coaching calls. In the evenings, I focus on spending quality time with my fiance and/or friends, cooking dinner, playing board games, watching Friends (you can never watch it enough times), or adventuring in the city.

How did you launch your career?

For as long as I can remember, I knew my purpose was to help people. I’ve always been the type of person who people feel comfortable opening up to and having deeply personal conversations with. I would light up anytime I could offer guidance or advice to resolve their challenges.

I first encountered coaching during the downtime I had while on disability leave. I had a desire to find a way to marry my passion for food with my life’s purpose of helping people. That’s when I discovered The Institute of Transformational Nutrition, where I then trained to become a Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach.

But the true origin story starts back a bit further. For the first 20 years of my life – from around the age of 4 onward – I had chronic depression and anxiety. I’d seen countless doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists over the years, but none of them offered me a real solution. Extremely frustrated by dead-end after dead-end, I committed to figuring it out on my own. Through many hard-fought years of experimentation with changing my diet, seeking out energy healing, and studying mindset and emotions, I healed myself from depression. It was overcoming this personal struggle that had me gravitate toward helping people with mental health issues, as I had done for myself. Once I was certified, I began working with women who desired to find relief from depression with the support of holistic and natural methods. In most cases, nutrition would have a significant impact when the new lifestyle changes were followed consistently. But that was the challenge: most women I worked with who was in the midst of debilitating depression found it nearly impossible to muster the energy and motivation to stick with the changes. I’d been there myself, so I understood, yet I yearned to help them do better. I had this internal knowing that there was something out there that could be even more effective and efficient in fostering the transformation my clients sought. My intuition launched a rocket of desire that led to me to learn everything I could about mindset, emotions, and energy. After years of research, I encountered Neuro-Linguistic Programming and, through having an experience with ChangeWorks myself, I knew it was the modality I’d been seeking.

Today, helping women lead healthier and happier lives is the core of my mission. My audience and purpose have evolved from purely focusing on depression into teaching how to design a life by your desire – this feels like the culmination of my own journey up to this point.

As a Licensed Neuro-Linguistic Programming Master Practitioner, Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified Transformational Nutrition Coach and Certified Advanced ThetaHealer, what training did you undergo and where did you study?

The first training I completed was my ThetaHealing (Basic & Advanced DNA) certifications under Anjui Sherin, LMFT in the San Francisco Bay Area. This training took place near the beginning of my own spiritual awakening in 2013.

My certification for Transformational Nutrition Coaching was completed through The Institute of Transformational Nutrition (ITN), which offers a comprehensive holistic program that covers the science, psychology, and spirituality of nutrition, as well as coaching and business building skills. Since graduating in 2014, I have enrolled in ITN’s new advanced specialist certification to become a Mental Health & Emotional Eating Specialist.

In the fall of 2016, I attended the Clarity Institute in Los Angeles where I was trained by Pam Castillo and received my Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner License and Hypnotherapist Certification. I returned the following year to complete my NLP Master Practitioner License.

Can you talk us through how you are helping entrepreneurial women to escape the realms of ‘paralysing perfectionism’ and master their own mindset?

The first step is awareness. Once we are conscious of our limiting beliefs, habits, and patterns we regain the ability to change them. The use of perspective is also a key component. Most of the time when we are trapped in perfectionism, our focus is turned inward on ourselves – “What will people think? What if I fail?” When we instead shift this focus to those we are here to serve, we reconnect with our big WHY, and getting things done suddenly seems much more important than making sure everything is perfect.

Mastering your mindset is first and foremost about recognizing that you are not a victim of your endless stream of thoughts – and making the choice to take back control. Growing up, I was constantly told that “you can’t help how you feel,” or “you just feel the way you feel,” and that’s simply untrue. As human beings, we of course experience a wide range of thoughts and emotions – this is completely natural. AND we have the power to influence our behaviors and choose how to react.

I use a combination of NLP, hypnotherapy, energy work, and mindfulness techniques to make changes in the unconscious mind directly, and to bring the unconscious up to the level of consciousness, so they can make new choices and create more successful patterns of behavior.

Can you give us your 3 favorite tips or practices for manifesting?

One of the first things I teach nearly all of my clients is meditation. Meditation is extremely powerful for quieting the ego mind and reconnecting to what you genuinely desire, eliminating all the external noise we deal with on a daily basis. I suggest meditating for 15 minutes each morning, using zazen meditation or non-verbal, binaural beats audios. This practice will connect you with your higher self and create tremendous clarity around your desires so you can pursue them with confidence.
Second, you have to actually fully believe that you can and will get what you desire – on both a conscious and unconscious level. That’s why it’s so important to bring awareness to your limiting beliefs and patterns, so you can eliminate the ones that are holding you back. There is a whole host of different methods for doing this, but my favorite is an NLP technique called Limiting Belief Release that works directly on your unconscious mind to ensure the limitation is gone for good. Since this technique has been so effective for myself and my clients, I created a video tutorial that you can find on my website, where I walk you through the process as if you were my client sitting right in front of me.
Lastly, I think people often don’t have success using manifestation in their own lives because they believe it’s a purely metaphysical process, but in fact, it is both metaphysical and physical. If you are not taking the aligned, physical actions that are required to bring about your manifestation, then it will not come forth into your reality. You need to do your part and take the actions that are in alignment with what you are creating. Ask yourself “what’s the next most important action for me to take?” over and over and follow through on the answers you receive.

Who does the team involve behind you?

Currently, I’m a one-woman show when it comes to my business. However, I have been grateful to build an incredible support team through hiring my own coaches, mentors, and healers, as well as participating in business masterminds with other like-minded women entrepreneurs. I see 2019 as my year of team-building, starting with hiring a tax professional and accountant who specializes in small online businesses and a virtual assistant to help with day-to-day tasks.

Where can you see yourself within the next 3-5 years?

Three years from now, I will have expanded my company to run smoothly without needing my constant involvement as it does now. I’m looking forward to being a mother one day, so having a business that gives me the freedom me to spend time with my children and family is critical.

I really enjoy teaching, so I see myself creating more online courses on the topics of manifestation, mindset, wellbeing, and designing your life by desire. I also wish to bring these teachings to people through in-person retreats around the world, and, more generally, I see myself traveling internationally much more often. I intend to live in Europe again for another extended period of time because Florence still has a piece of my heart.

Other things on the agenda include: writing a book, growing my online community, yoga teacher training (I’m obsessed with restorative yoga and it’s incredible benefits!), and one day, more likely in the 10-year plan, opening my own holistic healing and retreat center. Think of a high-end hotel & spa, blended with a breadth of healing modalities, classes, workshops, coaches, thought-leaders, and mouth-watering farm-to-table food.

I also have a vision of creating partnerships with charities, such as the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and connecting them with the mindset tools I’ve learned so they can better serve their communities. I think it would be incredible to empower their crisis line volunteers with NLP, hypnotherapy, and mindfulness techniques in order to provide immediate relief to those in states of emergency.

What strategies do you have in place when looking at the expansion of your business?

Lifelong learning and personal growth are what I attribute to my success, and I will never stop seeking to improve myself and my business. As an avid student of Human Design, I use my own unique energetic blueprint, including Type (manifestor), Strategy (To Inform), and Authority (Splenic), to make decisions in my business and life so I can create the success that is aligned with my authentic nature.

On a more practical note, I focus on organic marketing, referrals, social media marketing, and in-person connection to grow my business. I constantly share original content, have a mindset and manifestation blog, and am developing a podcast. I am excited to start building my team because I strongly believe in collaborating with people who compliment my strengths with their own, and know this will expedite the expansion of my business.

Can you tell us what areas you have struggled in professionally?

Oh boy, there have been many! One of the first was in acknowledging and accepting that I had a very different calling than most of my peers, and then mustering the courage to actually pursue it. The people-pleaser in me had to learn to be okay with not only being different but actually using my differences to stand out so that people who needed my work could find me. My natural rhythm is much slower, more conscientious, and deliberate than that of the corporate world – something I really struggled with in recruitment – but I have since evolved to see this as a strength instead of a weakness. Holding my vision and believing in myself even when few else did has required an incredible amount of resilience. Taking risks and doing what I knew I needed to do, even when it appeared to make no logical or financial sense to my friends and family, has been pretty terrifying. Ultimately, I can honestly say all my challenges have created deeper self-reliance and trust that is invaluable to my business and myself.

Have you ever had any other mentor? If so, how has this benefitted you to grow?

Absolutely! Tons in fact. As a coach, I don’t just think other people need this work – I believe it’s been a key to my own growth. Whenever I find an area of my life I want to develop, I look for who I can learn from what’s already an expert. I’ve hired mentors to teach me business building strategies, best coaching practices, heart-centered marketing and sales, mindset techniques, energy work, and healing, and I’m sure there’s more… I wouldn’t be the woman and business leader I am today without my mentors.

What outlets do use to market your business?

My primary focus has been on organic marketing through social media, mainly Facebook and Instagram. Publicity, podcasts, interviews, emails to my list, and referral partnerships are my other outlets. To me, the most important thing is to show up consistently, give value, and be authentic and vulnerable.

Which methods are you using to build your own support network?

I honestly don’t know if I could do this without my support network. My mom has always been my #1 believer and cheerleader. My dad has consistently supported my crazy dreams and risk-taking even when he hasn’t necessarily understood what the heck I was doing. My fiance is someone I never have to be anything but 100% myself around, he accepts all of me – the good, the bad, and the really ugly. My best friends are some of the most inspiring, ambitious, and powerful women I know. My coaches, mentors, and business besties really get what I go through as an entrepreneur and are there for me on a daily basis. I am eternally grateful for all of them.

What do you believe are the common misconceptions about being an entrepreneur?

That it’s going to be easier than working for someone else. That success happens over-night. That there’s some elusive “secret” that will catapult you to success. All of these are far from the truth.

You can eventually build a business that feels better than working for someone else, but to get there you have to face all of your own issues head-ons and overcome them. I like to say that becoming an entrepreneur is the best self-development program you can go through. It’s not for everyone, and certainly not what it’s romanticized to be in pop culture.

As for the secret? I believe that it’s all about reconnecting to your own inner guidance and wisdom, learning what works for you, and never, ever giving up.

What would you like to see changed for millennials in business?

Something I’ve already started to see with millennials is the penchant for activism, social justice, and the environment – I think this is so important. I think there’s real potential for this generation to establish a new paradigm for how we care for each other and our world. From a business standpoint, this looks like more conscious companies that aren’t solely focused on the bottom line, but also on their social and global impact. I really like the business framework that Gary Erikson, founder of Clif Bar, mentions which is the triple bottom line: people, planet and profit. I would love to see millennials trusting their intuition and using their voices to help lead the companies they are a part of.

What is the best piece of business advice you have received to date?

The only way you can fail is if you give up. All other “failures” are only feedback – learn, adjust, and keep going.

What is the number 1 critical lesson you have learned in your career so far?

Love, embrace and trust yourself completely. Only you can truly know what’s best for you. Following your instincts and showing up authentically will magnetise your ideal clients and business partners to you. To do anything else is to shortchange yourself and your clients.

How do you create an evenly balanced work and personal life?

Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. I believe in filling up your own cup first and serving from the overflow. Quality time with my friends and family each week is a top priority, as is having time free from electronics – turning off all push notifications on my phone has been a major sanity-saver. Self-care is non-negotiable – this includes nourishing my body with healthy foods (except for the occasional, nourishing-in-another-way dessert!), regular exercise, mindset, and energy work, time for pleasure, Epsom salt baths, massages, and resting when I’m called to rest. Having a business and personal brand that is so deeply integrated with my life’s purpose means there’s always more than I can and want to be doing. By consciously creating a balance between my work and personal life, I am able to fully show up to work each day inspired and energized – two essentials in a creative, service-based business.

The highlight of your career so far?

Creating and running my signature group program, Become a Manifesting Queen, has been a huge highlight. The experience of taking women who were fairly new to manifestation, guiding them through my process, and seeing the spectacular results they got in a matter of just two months was incredible and deeply fulfilling. We had women who decided to change careers and received new, more aligned offers; women who got clarity and made positive changes in their relationships; women who generated thousands of extra dollars, including their dream car, designer handbags, and new laptops; and women who left their 9-to-5 to pursue their own business full-time. Seeing these results and how much happiness it brought these women is why I do what I do.

What gives you ultimate career satisfaction?

Helping women create more authentic, aligned, fulfilling, passionate, and joyful lives on their terms. After living so many years of my own life in darkness, nothing brings me more satisfaction than cultivating happiness and personal freedom in others.

What challenges have you seen to have been presented during the growth of your business?

Truth be told, the areas I have been challenged most by have become what I am passionate about helping other women overcome. In the first years following my nutrition coaching certification, I had all of the knowledge and skills to help others, but I was terrified to actually put myself out there and be visible and vulnerable online. Instead, I toiled away on my website and program development work – but as you can imagine, this did not lead to a steady stream of clients. Thankfully, one of my good friends, Maria Pascucci, from my program was a confidence coach for highly-sensitive women and I hired her to help with the internal blocks that were holding me back. Making these shifts led to publicly sharing my own story for the first time, finally marketing the signature offerings I’d created, and signing my first clients! That’s when it really clicked how critical it is to have a mindset that supports your success, instead of one that sneakily sabotages it.

I’ve had to be relentless in shifting my own mindset out of doubt and fear constantly. I’ve had to learn how to ask for help and understand that it doesn’t make me weak to do so. I’ve had to trust in others, even after being burned. I’ve had to be resilient and pick myself up again and again, no matter what.

Which other leading entrepreneurs and pioneering game changers do you also admire and why?

Rebecca Rubin, The Content Queen. She’s a longtime mentor and friend who is a shining example of authentic business owners leading with integrity. She’s a brilliant mix of powerful coach, magic word witch, warm and fuzzy cheerleader, and humble human.

Paige Filliater. She’s another longtime mentor and business coach who introduced me to Human Design and has helped me embrace my unique energy so I can create success through alignment and ease. She’s an inspiring model of women having it all and the limitless expansion that’s available when we honor our desires.

Courtney Cope. Courtney was one of my first business and mindset coaches who then became a great friend. She taught me about NLP and helped me implement it into my business following my training and certification. She’s one of the most naturally joy-filled people I know and helped me see how incredible life can be.

What is a good article or book you have read recently?

I read ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho earlier this year and decided it should be required reading for all human beings. Not only is it a beautiful story, but it has helped me to more wholly embrace the rollercoaster ride that is entrepreneurism.

‘The Untethered Soul’ by Michael A. Singer is another book I highly recommend. It taught me the grace of letting go and how to create a deeper well of internal peace within me to draw upon during difficult times.

Top 3 go-to Podcast channels?

I typically devote more listening time to self-development books on Audible or, more recently, Abraham-Hicks on YouTube. But when I do go for podcasts, you’ll find me listening to ‘Manifestation Babe’, ‘The Angie Lee Show’, or ‘Live Iconic’ – those women are all powerful, badass, business bosses.

How do you measure your own terms of success?

I measure my success by how happy and fulfilled I am. Am I experiencing more joy than pain? Am I in integrity with myself? Am I proud of what I’ve accomplished?

The transformation I help my clients create is my other measure of success – the positive changes I support them in making, the obstacles they learn to overcome, and the happiness and wellbeing they expand into.

That’s really what matters most to me – the way I feel about myself, the impact I’ve made, and what I’ve created in my life.

What does #BEYOUROWN mean to you?

It means listening to your heart and soul and following your unique calling, no matter what anyone else thinks, to consciously create a life you’re head-over-heels in LOVE with.

Lastly, what is next for you?

Over these next few years, I’m focused on developing and optimizing my core offerings – a suite of services to meet entrepreneurs interested in learning about manifestation at their different levels of need. I’m currently enrolling for my mastermind, The Manifestation MavenMind, which will be a sacred sisterhood of support for entrepreneurial women building feel-good, freedom-based businesses through harnessing the power of manifestation and mastering their mindset. Also, I can’t wait to open the next round of becoming a Manifesting Queen this November! I plan to launch my podcast before the end of 2018 and will be hosting my first women’s empowerment retreat in Tuscany in the spring of 2019. I’m really looking forward to building out my team and being able to empower even more women to say “Yes!” to themselves and manifest their heart’s desires.

Lastly, it’s been a dream of mine to develop an original methodology that draws upon the most powerful tools and techniques I have, in order to facilitate radical expansion, abundance, and upleveling for my clients. It’s a huge vision and I’m so excited to bring it to the world!

Instagram: @The_Manifesting_Queen

Facebook: www.facebook.com/manifestingqueens

Free Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/manifestingqueens

Website link: www.haleyreese.com

Image by Saba Movahedi