Your Biggest Vision Ep. 1: Welcome to Your Vision!

Your Biggest Vision is designed to support you in defending the unique vision you have for your life- including your business, your lifestyle, and most importantly, your vision of what’s possible.

I believe that we all have a vision for our lives. But, that doesn’t mean that vision is clear all the time or that we know how to make it happen. Our vision also can stand up against some pretty aggressive opponents: society, family, the corporate world, our own self-doubt, and so on. But even when all the odds are completely stacked against you, it’s up to you (and only you!) to continue standing up for that vision. That’s what this show is here to help you do.

Podcast Version of the Episode

Or listen to the show on iTunes.

Transcription of Your Biggest Vision Episode 1

Hey, welcome to your biggest vision episode one. My name is Leah Gervais, I am the founder of urban 20 something calm and your host of the Your Biggest Vision Show. I’m very excited to bring this show to you. Whether you have known who I am for a while, or you’re brand new to me. I hope that you enjoy this first episode where I really share from the heart what the show is about, why I decided to do it, and what you can expect from it.

You’re listening to your biggest vision. I’m your host Leah Gervais, and this show is designed to expand your vision of your business, your lifestyle, and of course, what’s possible. Enjoy the latest episode and thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to the show, you guys, I am so excited to have you here and to be sharing this first episode with you. My name is Leah I’m the founder of urban20something.com and just over two years ago I started my website to be a blog to document a confusing time in my life when I was going through a career change, I had thought I was going to go to law school. I ended up not going to law school, I didn’t know what in the world I was going to do instead.

And through a lot of trial and error, a lot of different things that I’ve tried, and quite the journey, I have ended up at a place where the blog I started “for fun” has become my full-time job making me over $10,000 a month in revenue every single month. And it has exceeded my wildest dreams in terms of my career, my finances, my lifestyle, and most importantly, my sense of self and my confidence about what is possible for me. So I wanted to come and share with you, from the heart, what this show is all about, what you can expect, why I decided to pursue the piece around vision above everything else, and what’s next.

So, this show logistically will have two episodes per week. One will be on Mondays and one will be on Wednesdays. The Monday episode will be live every week. So you can join me live for it on Facebook Live at 10 AM EST, 7 AM PST. And the reason that it was important for me to have a live episode every week is because I love connecting with you guys in that authentic way every week. And I also really wanted to have an opportunity for you to ask questions in real time every week. So if you ever want to join us live, we’d love to have you. Like I said, it’s at 10 AM EST/ 7 AM. Now if you can’t join live, no worries. Every episode will be available on iTunes as well as on YouTube by Tuesday. And then the normal podcast version of the next episode will be released every Wednesday. So I realized it might be slightly confusing that there’s different mediums for this show. And it’s intentionally called the Your Biggest Vision Show and not the podcast or the channel or anything else and the reason for that is that I was far more concerned or curious about the content then what platform I was pursuing next.

And so rewinding a couple of months here, I had been just honestly looking for, and curious about new ways to share what has happened to me. And what I’ve seen happen to so many of my clients when they have gone in pursuit of their bigger vision, even when they haven’t always known how I have seen people’s lives change, people’s bank accounts changed, people’s careers changed, and yet still, more often than not, I hear from people daily about how they do want to start something new or they do have something that they would love to pursue, but they’re not doing quite yet. And the common theme behind them not doing so is because they don’t necessarily believe that they can. They don’t necessarily believe that even if they have a vision it would work out for them. I understand that I have felt that myself, I would imagine that everyone has. So, I really wanted to come share more of the stories of the successes and more of the tools that I have for how you can pursue that vision in ways that make it less scary because I know and have seen firsthand that when you know you can do something, when you have the power to stand up for that vision, even when everything else feels like it’s working against it, you can make it come true. And when we have visions for our lives, when we have big dreams, a lot of times it can feel like things are working against those dreams. It can feel like your family might not think it’s a good idea or society isn’t quite sure what you’d be doing by breaking the status quo. Or maybe your friends don’t really understand what you’re going for, and you feel like an outcast. Or, maybe it’s just yourself and self-doubt and you not thinking that you have what it takes and a lot of those times it’s really hard to see your vision as something that’s possible and as something that’s truthful for you, and sometimes we don’t even know what our vision is. And that’s okay too. And I think there’s a lot of pressure around feeling like you’re supposed to know what you’re meant to do with your life. And we don’t always, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something bigger for us. And so we’re also going to talk about ways to find your vision, even when it feels like you can’t see it.

Because if you don’t stand up for that vision, and you don’t fight for it, the truth is that no one else is going to do it for you. It’s yours. And so my intention with this show is to make it as easy as possible. I don’t even know if he sees the right word because I don’t think there’s anything easy about it but as accessible as possible and as exciting as possible to continue to stand up for that vision and be really powerful about doing it and not let the things that are opposing it actually bring it down. So, that’s what came to me when I thought of this show.

And that’s why I didn’t want to keep it to one medium. I really wanted it to be a way that you could digest however you want. Whether you want to join us live, you love listening to podcasts, you’d rather watch the YouTube replay, or every episode will have a transcript on my website, Urban20something.com and so you could always read it that way too. So whatever way makes more sense for you will be there for you. And if you have any feedback for me along the way of your favorite way to digest this, or different types of things you’d like covered then please let me know I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Leah@Urban20something.com and just so you know where to go with every live episode on Mondays, it’s facebook.com/Urban20something. If you sign up for the Your Biggest Vision newsletter, then you also can get the reminder every Monday to join us live and hop on over there and ask your questions in real time. So we have lots of different ways for this content to come to you in the way that is most exciting to you.

So when I say vision that might seem a bit vague, and I do want to differentiate the piece around vision versus maybe goals, or your dreams, or your “why”, or even business itself, and it’s important that I do I feel. So, I love goals. I’m very task oriented. I like to do lists. I have one of those personalities where I like things to be very organized. And a vision is quite abstract. And sometimes it feels like there’s nothing organized about it and that you’re just, you know, running all over the place to get there.

But what I have seen consistently throughout the nearly three years I’ve done this, and what I’ve seen consistently with my clients and mostly myself is that the vision always works. Goals are great, but they don’t always happen. Even big dreams can feel sometimes too far away or somewhat purposeless. But if you have a vision and you can truly see yourself in it, that will trump the fear, the uncertainty, the self-doubt every time. It doesn’t always feel easy. And sometimes self-doubt can knock you down quite a bit. Sometimes all of those obstacles will set you back quite a bit. But the stronger your vision is, the harder it’s going to be for any of that to get in the way. And that’s what this is for.

Now, my business has seen many different forms that were the years. It started as a blog. And when I first started it, I was traveling throughout Southeast Asia. That’s a story for a different day. But it had a phase of being somewhat of a travel blog that I started really focusing on helping people start to freelance, then as my income started to pick up, I really wanted to empower people to start side hustlers because I’d seen the power of seeing my own life transformed by having a side hustle that made more than my day job. And so through all these different phases and things I’ve tried and ways I’ve been able to reach people, the commonality that has stayed the same for me, has been the vision for myself. And so taking this back a little bit, the the vision, the overarching vision I’ve had for myself has always been to live in New York. It’s always been to have a fulfilling career, and it’s always been able to have a financially abundant life. And those may seem, you know, pretty generic who wouldn’t want that for their life, but I was able to see it in my head in a pretty specific way.

Now, going back to when I was 13 or so very young. I had in my room, my teenage room, one of the walls a complete mural of the New York City skyline. I wanted my whole life to move to New York, it was not an option. I was very sure about it, even though this sort of “how” changed in the middle several times, I’m sure you’re sensing a pattern here, where the “how” and the actions all can change. But the overarching vision stays the same. I wanted to come to New York to be a ballerina, I wanted to go to why I wanted to get NYU and I did. I wanted to be a lawyer here. So it’s always changed. But that vision never left me. And I always say that that mural was the very first vision board I ever had in my life before I knew what a vision board was, because I looked at that skyline every night before I went to bed. And now 12 years later, the view outside of my apartment on my balcony here in New York is not all that different from the mural that I had all those years ago, growing up in a small town in Colorado.

So, that vision is what kept me going through saying no to law school through getting into NYU and when I started my website and called Urban 20 Something that name was about me. I was the twenty-something living in a city and it was about my journey to find that life that I had envisioned for myself for so long. So even when I haven’t known how I was going to get there, I still don’t have all the answers all the time and I’ve come to a place where I don’t even want them all the time, that would be not as exciting, but having the vision has always propelled me forward. And it’s always given me the courage when things seem scary. And so I know that having the vision works and that’s why the more we can strengthen it, and the more we can focus on it, and the more we can truly see it for ourselves, the more likely we are to take the actions necessary to get us to where we need to be and to get us to where that vision is our own life.

Now, I’m dividing (for the purposes of this show), the topic of your vision into three categories. Of course, these will have a little bit of ebb and flow, but just so you know, concretely, what to expect we’re going to be talking about how to expand your vision of what’s possible in three different ways. First, is going to be your business. Now, if you’re listening to this, and you’re not an entrepreneur or you don’t have a side hustle, that’s okay, there’s still going to be so much that’s applicable for you. We’re still just going to talk about what’s possible for you financially creative ways to earn extra money, what it takes to really be someone that you know, does get that raise, or does get the job that they want. The core concept is expanding the vision for what’s possible in your career and in your finances, without getting into too much detail… I’ll do a whole episode on this later on. But, when I started my side hustle, I did not have this vision for it. I did not know it was going to become this five figure per month business that’s my full time job that I have employees for and that I get to work with people all over the world from my laptop to do, it’s truly amazing what’s happened.

I’m the first to admit that my vision did not start out like that. I just wanted to make a little bit of extra money, to pay for some utilities, you know, maybe have a happy hour in New York a little bit more, pay back my student loans a little quicker. I was just at an entry level salary job here in the city, and that was my bigger vision at the time. That was what was exciting to me, was just being able to go out sometimes and not feel concerned about spending money or pay back my student loans a little bit sooner than I was on track to do and that was my vision, and that’s okay. It’s okay that I didn’t have this huge vision at first. It’s okay, that that’s what it was at the time. But, if I hadn’t really pushed myself to think of what could be even bigger, or what more could be possible, or how could I do more? Or, what really would this look like if I questioned my own ceiling that I put on myself. If I hadn’t done that I would not be where I am today. So, I think we all can use daily, weekly at least, exercises in asking ourselves what more could we do with our business and finance? What more could we envision for ourselves? Especially when we get into the flow of your to do lists and your day to day tasks and doing what quote works, and really staying in that zone.

When we do that, we’re not always asking those bigger questions. This podcast, this show in general, is really meant to help you continue asking those questions at every step of your journey. The second type of vision I want to expand always, is your lifestyle. As I mentioned, when I started this, I didn’t really have this huge business vision, but I did have a little bit of a bigger vision of how my lifestyle could be improved. I wanted to go out more and enjoy New York a bit more. I wanted to be able to, you know, not have to budget so intensely and I wanted to be able to pay back my student loans a bit earlier and work for that financial freedom sooner. So, it did start out with a little bit more of a vision for my lifestyle, but just like with business, I had not really thought about how growing a business would not only change my finances, but really changed my life in general. It might seem intuitive that the two go hand in hand, you have more money, you can do more things. But, what this show is really about is not just thinking, “well, once I have more money, I can do more”, but really getting excited about what you want for your lifestyle and what it means to get to design your days, your months, your life, how you spend your money, what types of things you really love to do, what you would do if money weren’t really the bigger question or the bigger deciding factor.

We get to be really intentional about that, it isn’t just about what we do with our time or money but what that means about who we want to be, and the kind of friend we want to be, and the kind of family member we want to be or spouse or child or parent and how we get to intertwine our newfound, you know, freedom that we can achieve with really showing up as who we want to be in the world, and how that does influence our lifestyle. So, it’s more than just being able to live, you know, in a more financially comfortable way. It’s getting intentional about the vision of who you want to be, and how you want people to perceive you, and where you want to invest your time and money and how you want to impact those people, those businesses, those ventures, and we can get really creative with this.

It’s a lot of fun to really realize the power that you do have as an individual, as a citizen, as a family member, as a friend, to change the lives of so many around you. I found that when you do focus on your lifestyle vision, the ripple effect you can have on everyone around you is truly incredible and not to sound too ambitious, but, that really is the star of how we as individuals, as visionaries, can change the world. You don’t know how many people you can impact by just getting into about how you spend your time, money and the way you act, and if you don’t have a vision for that, if you don’t really spend time thinking about it, then you don’t necessarily have the intention. It’s not that you impact people poorly, but it’s an opportunity missed out. So, we want to make sure we’re not missing that opportunity and that the vision is alive and well in that aspect of our life too.

The final pillar of vision that we’re going to discuss, and my personal favorite is the vision for what’s possible from you. This does tie in a little bit with the other two, you know, your business and finances, as well as your lifestyle and who you’re showing up as. But when I really talk about the vision for yourself, this is about potential and about empowerment. This is so important to me because I think that this is where we really change generations and where we really step into what I think is the biggest ask that God gives us each. Which is to be the most of ourselves, and to make the best versions of ourselves and to push ourselves and to get out of comfort zones that we build for ourselves every day, in every way.

I’ll be the first to say, I’ve done a lot of scary things over the past couple of years, almost nearly every day, I do something that pushes me out of my comfort zone and I still get scared all the time. Every new time I try something new, I have that element of fear. So it doesn’t go away. It’s always there. But, with community and with discussing it, and with seeing the bigger vision for how this could help my potential, it keeps me going and that’s what we’re going to do here. We’re going to consistently remember that stepping out of that comfort zone and that fear doesn’t go away, but it does help you get to the highest version of yourself. It helps serve that vision that you can have for yourself as being the absolute best version of you and making the most of yourself and really fulfilling your purpose here in this life.

So that’s a short recap of what you can expect coming up. We have some amazing interviews already lined up from people that have really gone after their visions. They have tips for us on what they’ve done to stay in service to it. Even when the vision hasn’t always been clear, the path certainly has been far from clear and how you can do it too. The more I hear from these people, the more out you know, even interviewing them for me has been hugely fulfilling because it’s always a reminder that we all can do this. We all have the capability within us right now to go for our vision. Our vision of our finances, our vision of our life, our vision of ourselves. We are ready, and I hope and I’m excited about bringing content to you all that will remind you of that and we’ll make some tactical tips at your disposal. So you can you know, really put pen to paper, or whatever it looks like to you, one foot in front of the other to get to that vision and know you’re not alone in doing it.

The final thing I want to note before we wrap up this introductory episode is that this show is dedicated to my Dad. My Dad’s name was Paul Gervais. He passed away very suddenly at the time of this recording about 11 months ago. So, it hasn’t even been a year and it was very shocking as I said. It was very sad and it’s been certainly a difficult year in a lot of ways every day since he’s passed away. I have asked myself and thought, “how can I bring him into this journey with me? How can I bring him into my business, my work the content I create, what I talk about to my clients, my followers and how can he even co-create with me in a way?” I have never been, you know, race to answer these questions.

These are obviously heavy questions, but I’ve always known that it needed to come to that my dad was also an entrepreneur. So I’ve always felt like he’s been on this journey with me, both when he was here and even now that he’s not.

And still, I wanted to be intentional about him being on it with me in a really obvious way. My dad was so many amazing things and he impacted everyone in his life in so many ways. He wasn’t perfect, none of us are. But one of the things that I really think he did so well was be a visionary and held on to his vision. I’m sure I’ll sprinkle some more stories about him throughout this show, but he never lost sight of what he wanted out of his life. He had built an amazing business, he fought really hard to be one of the most successful businesses in his field in Colorado, which is where I grew up, and where he lived.

Even with that business, he always knew that the business was there to be the vessel for the vision of his life, overall, and I mean that in so many ways. I think for the last 15 years of his life, he had gotten himself to a place where he was mountain biking to work every day through our mountainous town in Colorado, and he would sometimes go ski at lunch, he still loved his work. So he really had a clear understanding of what it means to have a vision for your life, and how holistic that should be. Your business should complement your lifestyle, your lifestyle should complement your business, they should all be pushing the vision of who you are, and who you can be. All of this is very intertwined and when we understand how complimentary it all can be, you get an incredible synergy of all of them, propelling forward even faster because they all can work together. So this one’s for him.

I just knew when I thought of focusing on vision and I realized that that’s really what was calling me. It was him, calling it to me himself and him knowing that this was something he and I have always been passionate about together. It’s the way I can continue to carry on something he managed to do so incredibly well. So he is not only my inspiration for a lot of this and so much of what I do, but he’s sort of my, my co-pilot on the direction of creating this show, because he’s given me already so many insights and I just know that he’s with me.

So this is for you, Dad, and for anyone out there who has been inspired by people that have paved their vision. I also just want to remind us all to continually feel grateful for those that have paved the way before us to now give us the chance to pursue even bigger visions for ourselves. So with that, I am very excited for what’s next. Like I said, episodes are every Monday and Wednesday right now.

You can already go listen to some replays from some previous Facebook Lives I did, just to give you an idea of what to expect. We have some great interviews coming up and as I mentioned, if you have any recommendations or requests I’d love to hear from you. You can email me at Leah@Urban20something.com and I would love if you would subscribe to this podcast if this resonates with you. If you’re excited to hear more and share it with a friend, if you think that this would be helpful for them too.

Until next time, I’ll talk to you later visionaries! Have a good day, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of your biggest vision, I’m so happy to have you here and hope that you enjoyed it. If you want to learn more about my journey and how specifically I got my income from my side hustle above the income of my nine to five job, I created a whole case study as well as some really strategic questions to make you do the same leap that you can download for free. All you need to do is go to urban20something.com/income-boost and there, you’ll see what was different about my side hustle when it was making hundreds or thousands, what I did to upgrade it, and what you can do as well.