Stefanie (00:00.409)
Hello and welcome to the Alive and Abundant podcast. If you've been following on this feed for a while, it used to be called Life Changing Manifestations. So hold on, you're in the right place. I changed the name and I want to share with you in this particular episode a little bit about why the name change. I'm recording this whole conversation in a different way. It's completely unscripted because I just wanted to feel like you and I are sitting down having this conversation.
And I'm just sharing with you how I'm feeling in a response to you asking, Stephanie, why, why did you make this change? First of all, the name, because that's the simplest question to answer. I changed the name because after working, and I will put the word tirelessly, like I did not give up. I was posting consistently. was brainstorming research and ideas, putting together content and posting the podcast.
filmed directly to a camera so that I could post it on YouTube as a video and then take the audio and put it here on the podcast. I was doing all of that for since the end of December and at the start of April I was like something just doesn't feel right because I am smart enough and I know I'm on purpose and I know that the effort that I'm putting in it matters.
Because I do believe you put effort first before you see results just like you would plant the seed you would nurture the seed you would take care of the garden until you could actually reap the harvest That's in the Bible like that analogy for a reason because this is how so many things in our life work and operate and so I believe in the put in the effort do your due diligence do your effort throughout and be persistent stay the course and you will see the results, but the results
were not coming and I was not getting the traction that I felt that the first quarter of the year should have had. I have a lot of business and marketing background doing this for other people. And I was like, something's not working here now for me. And so I decided it was time to get help. So I hired a coach and in the very first session of her looking at my YouTube channel, she
Stefanie (02:21.994)
immediately asked me why I had this name. And the name, as you know, if you've been following the podcast for our is life changing manifestations. And before I could even answer her, she said, let me tell you why I'm asking. She says not to open a big can of worms, but, and then she goes into it and this was done on a group call. And I share that because multiple people felt triggered by the name as well.
and felt the need to respond and concur with what she was saying about that name is not in alignment with the audience that I am serving, which are Christ followers, Christian women, Christian women who are 40 and above. So who have grown up either in the church or have had more traditional values than say somebody who's in their twenties and maybe growing up in a more contemporary style. So there's a different life perspective. And I bring that up because
People who have grown up, I've been a Christian for 20 years. It's not like I was in the church all the time as a kid. I became a Christian in college. But even then at that stage of the game and all the changes I've seen, people did not use the word manifestation. In fact, it wasn't until I was really in the last few years that I even started to investigate, okay, just straight up, just dictionary definition, what does this word even mean?
Let's take all the aspect of new age or spirituality or woo woo out of it. What is just this word mean and how does the Bible even use the word manifestation? What is it about? And I'm using the word just to say that we're creating. And so I wanted to create life changing results. I wanted to help women to change their lives because I got to a stage where I turned 40 and I came to a place where I was like, what is going on?
I wouldn't say I was miserable in all aspects, but that was a very hard year. There was a lot of changes, plus it was the year of COVID, but COVID to me was such a minute detail. I mean, I didn't like the masking thing, like when I left my house, but COVID was not the impact that I felt. I was feeling the effect in my life, my marriage, my career with the children, like so many different things. I had the weight and the impact and the pressure that it was just a challenging year.
Stefanie (04:39.574)
And that was the year I turned 40. That was also the year that I undertook a year long process of certifying and becoming a life coach. And I can look back and see how I made that decision in February and began like the week after. And a month later was when a lot of the struggles began. A month later was when COVID hit the United States and everything started to shut down. And so I can see how God prepared me.
to have the strength, the resilience, the understanding to have these principles to be able to have a thought that was making me feel miserable and be able to identify it. But up until that point, I hadn't had that skill. And I didn't know that the way that I was thinking and the expectations I had about where my life should be at this stage in the game, how my kids should be behaving.
what my marriage should be like, all these different things. I had so many shoulds in my life, like things I was saying, it should be this way and these people should be doing this and I should have this. You hear all those shoulds and those are all my expectations I was living with and I had excuses around them for why I was suffering because these were not being met, but these were my unmet, unspoken expectations I put on other people trying to force other people to do what I wanted.
There were so many different things that I came to realize in that year through all that life coach training that I did. I I was a great student. I dug in and I was doing lots of coaching practice. I was learning how to be a legitimate coach. I noticed a lot of people who say that they are life coaches and they watched a YouTube video and nothing against watching YouTube videos. I'm all for it, but one video does not make you a coach. Or some people just have a natural knack of teaching out of experience.
and they're just kind of sharing their knowledge with you. And that's different too. I'm talking about being able to self examine your thoughts and feelings and notice the impact that they're having on you. And I say it's both. Some people believe the thought creates a feeling, but I also believe that there's stuff that's stored in you. And even before you can have a thought about it, you have a feeling.
Stefanie (06:50.158)
both consciously aware and subconsciously unaware. So I share all of this because all of this is what I discovered in 2020 when I was in my, year I turned 40 and that was a big year for me. And so that's when life changing manifestations was born because I just wanted to help women make the life transformation that I had just been experiencing in that year. But
here's what I came to realize. So one, all this time that I've been putting content out and especially in this last three months that I've been so heavily concentrated, why is it not hitting? Why have I run ads? Why have I posted content on the podcast, on the YouTube channel, all these different places and it's not connecting. And when that coach that I hired said it's because of the name.
And for her to have some awareness of my brand, of what I've already have been doing, the content I'm publishing, awareness of my ability to speak, to communicate, to share, to coach, all these things, like she has some awareness of me. And she goes, you are a great speaker and you have a great message, but you are not connecting because of the name. And that was what she said was the can of worms. And she seriously opened that up and other people in the group.
just all started unmuting and all weighing in. And I'm sitting here for like, I want to say it was like five minutes, just listening to all these people jumping in and giving their feedback and her responding to them. And everybody just kind of big picture brainstorming over this name, life changing manifestations and saying that they would not listen. They would not even take the time to listen to the message because of the name of the channel.
because they would think that somebody who is going to talk about anything to do with God is coming from a spiritual new age perspective if they use the word manifestation. Now, is that where you're coming from? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, if you're already listening to the podcast, then I would think that that is not, and you have a more open-minded perspective of the word manifestation like I do. But I have to consider that the message that I am trying to reach
Stefanie (09:10.794)
is more important that I can reach the right audience, the right woman who needs to know and be able to connect with how her thoughts are impacting her to understand her relationship and where she's at with God and where she's walking away, where she's wavering, where she's not strong and how she can improve her life and literally be able to have that transformation, be able to create the change.
and impact that she wants to have to make her life mean something. Because that was a big part of me turning 40 was feeling like, I don't know what my life means outside of being a wife and mother. Like, what does my life mean? What have I created? And so for me, it was about this transformation that I wanted to undertake to become more. And I had to evaluate who am I? What is more for me? Because it's not just a career. I'd had a career. It wasn't just another job. It was like, I am here to serve a
purpose. God designed me at this time and place in history to be able to have a voice because I do feel like my platform is about my voice and how I get to share and to be able to speak freely in this time in this country is something that women in generations past have not had. So I don't take that for granted and I do acknowledge it as a part of my journey. And so to be in that place, I needed to make a change. I needed to move from living in the routine.
the excuses, the mediocre, the letting my thoughts dictate my life and not realizing what I was doing, to be able to take my thoughts captive and to be able to fix my thoughts on the things that were good, the things that were right, the things that were strong, the things that were powerful. And those are just my words, but in the Bible, God tells us what to be thinking on and how to control our thoughts.
at the root of it, our heart, which is our subconscious, our like, it's not your organ just pumping your blood. Your heart is spoken of as your subconscious, of destroying your feelings, your inner programming. Who that makes you to be, this is why the Bible tells us it's so important to guard what goes in, because what goes in is what goes out. This is what we harvest, this is what we reap. And so I want you to be able to have all of these conversations, and I'm having these conversations if you've been following along for any length of time, I so appreciate you.
Stefanie (11:28.854)
and being willing to be here and engage with me in this way. But I know that there's more. I know there's more to say, to do, and to reach out to other women who need this message, who feel so stuck like I did and want to get out of that. And so if it's as simple as just changing my name, the name that I'm using, which I never even went, is this a side note? I never used my.
personal name as the name of my channel because my first name which is Stephanie and spelled with an F instead of a commonly spelled name pH gets must smelled always Unless I tell somebody exactly how to spell my name like they always spell it s t e p h and that's the wrong spelling and so I wasn't going to use that because I thought that would be a deterrent to somebody being able to find me and follow my channel
So I came up with that name, life changing manifestations, and yeah, it just didn't land. The last thing I will say about why the name changed, but not the change in message is because I realized I was creating an uphill battle, trying to use a word and convince and educate women on why I use the word manifestation even in the first place. What that means, like I'm...
having to spend time just trying to convey that idea. And that's not even the main point of what I'm trying to teach. I'm trying to teach you how to create a change in your life. And yes, I do use that word manifestation because that means something to me in that way. But it could be creation, it could be achieving results, like however you need to say it, that it resonates with you. So I am going to work on using multiple words to define how
we manifest, which means to create, and how we get the results that we do in life and doing it from a spiritual basis grounded in scripture and intertwining life coaching principles that I have learned in how we think and how we feel once again, rooted from biblical concepts and taking what I study in the Bible to write out Bible studies, to create content that goes onto the podcast and to the YouTube channel and
Stefanie (13:46.913)
be able to put out content that enriches you, helps you to make even a tiny, small change in your life. But just to have that shift in the right direction, and I might say right direction, only you and God know what that right direction is for you, but I'm just saying the direction where you're not in pain and suffering emotionally and feeling stuck and feeling burdened and not knowing like, why am I here? How have I ended up here in my 40s that I'm feeling this way?
So that's my purpose. That's what mission drives me. I, yeah, so I'm just not gonna let the name be a hindrance anymore. That's the bottom line. The other part that I've done is I have separated out. If you look back long enough on my channel, there have been times that I've intertwined some business concepts because my background is so much in business and I love creating. And now I'm in a stage where I'm not creating for other solo entrepreneurs.
but I am becoming my own solo entrepreneur, building out my own brand and creating content that I can sell. So I'm launching my own business. I'm going to put that on a separate channel and create what I'm calling a creator studio, just a place that women can come, women who are in my age range in their 40s, and come and have a safe place to strategize and to brainstorm and get ideas and work through concepts and really to build
in a live active community and having me at, you know, helping to integrate into their business without the huge expense of hiring me to come be in their business. Because that's what I've done for thousands of dollars. I've worked in people's businesses, like as their right hand person, helping them to strategize, helping them to build out and to do the marketing and their campaigning, their content creation, all these different things. So I have all these years of experience.
But I want to be able to do it where instead of me doing the work, you get to do the work, but you can have a safe place to come bounce the ideas, brainstorm, strategize, do all that stuff. So that is what the creator studio is about. It's going to be all on a separate channel. And I'm also going to go into what I'm doing, just showing behind the scenes as I'm figuring it out for myself. Because like I said, I have done it with others and
Stefanie (16:12.137)
and volumes that they're making the money and I've worked for big businesses that are making the money. Now I want to make the money and fulfill this so I can be staying at home with my son and have this life that I want to live. Because that matters to me. So many changes that I can see happening over the next five years and I want to be hands on for that and I want to be engaged in ways.
that I get to live my life and see and experience and in five years I'm going to turn 50. So what's going to become of me? I want to build that over the next five years. And so a lot of those conversations are going to go over on that other channel because I want to keep this channel here alive and abundant about talking about how you can get out average. And the word that I like to apply to all of this is mediocre because you're not living a great life. You're definitely not in abundance.
and to feel alive, to feel lit up. You know what that feels like when something gets you really excited, you're super passionate, you're all in engaged on it. And that's so easy from that place to be like, yes, because you know what you're saying yes to you from a place of lifeness. I want you to have that and have that more and more on a daily basis. Imagine if you can have that kind of feeling where you were saying yes to the things that light you up, that you are saying yes in relationship.
that you are walking with Jesus, that you actually feel connected and you feel this passion for what you are living for the rest of your life. Not that the first half of your life from this point, like if we just mark it now, like the first half of your life or the second half of your life and let today be that turning point, that it doesn't disvalue what you've had before, because there have been great moments that you've experienced. There are the moments that got you here. We appreciate that. But now looking forward,
What are you going to create? Who are you going to be? What is the life you're going to live for the legacy you're going to create, not just for yourself, but to bring glory to God, which is what we are called to do. Our lives are not just for our own pleasure. That is a huge misconception. Our lives are created to glorify God. We are to use our lives to do something, to be something, to share something, to create something, and to move for the kingdom of God.
Stefanie (18:27.287)
for God's glory. And by doing that, it's like when you do something really amazing and wonderful and generous and out of just a kindhearted spirit for somebody that you love. And because you adore them, you want to do this and it lights them up and they get so happy and their happiness brings you happiness. You glorifying God is going to bring you more joy. And because that's how we're hardwired, he is our creator. And when we tap in,
to his presence and his power and we are creating and being to please him. Not that we win his approval, but we do great things like we would. It's not like we're trying to win the approval of somebody. We're doing a, give a gift giving or doing something with them because it brings us delight to make them happy, to bring them joy, brings us joy. That community that we can have with others, that communion, that tightness, that love is what you can have with God.
That is what I'm so excited to transform. Average Christianity that just says we believe in God, but we are not activated. We are not alive and we are definitely not tapped in. The average Christian is not tapped in and living into abundance. But we have the Holy Spirit. We have access as a believer to the Holy Spirit. We can live a bigger, grander life. We can actually achieve in ways that only God can do it by working through us.
And so that is what is to me has always been life changing, fully transformative. That's what we're going to continue to talk about on this podcast, just under the new name now, Alive and Abundant. And I will continue to be here. So I had to take a couple of weeks off. I appreciate your patience as I did so as I was doing this reframing and restructuring, what does this look like? So hang with me here for deeper conversations that are scripture based conversations.
around the questions and the intrigue that we have with God, understanding that. And yeah, I even have an episode coming up about what happens when you love God, but you're not in love with the church. And these are things that I've had in my own life that I know that I'm not alone on. And I wanna bring up these questions to you because these are a part of the things that can be excuses and burdens and hurdles that can stop us from living our best life in a life embedded in faith. And so I want to be able to address sometimes these topics.
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that are blocking us from living in the faith. And so that is the conversation coming up and just other things. So there's so many different conversations that we can have here, but it's about you stepping in, living your best life for God's glory. And that is the root of all we're gonna do here on the live and abundant. Have yourself an amazing day.
