The Power of Intent: How to Make Sh*t Happen.

Makena: Welcome back, everyone. We are here today. Gigi and I are both here. 

Gigi: Welcome, everyone. It’s nice to see you again, hear you again, or you hear us. 

Makena: We’re going to talk today about intent, but first, we want to set a little bit of context for some of the stories that Gigi will share today.

Gigi: Yeah, we were talking the other night, you, me, and Sunny, your husband. You both shared that you really thought I should share a lot of my stories and a lot of these stories that I share—you know, some of them are old, right? They’re over 30 years old. They’re experiences I had, but they are also ways that I developed my work. 

A lot of the principles that we share came from those stories because they were my defining moments when I saw something or had an experience that I really shared with my clients and everything. 

That’s what we’re going to do in several of the episodes. Sometimes they’re going to sound very foreign because, again, they’re old. But I think if you listen, you can always get a little nugget of something out of it and apply it to your life. 

The other thing I want to say is that my personal development journey was a very unusual journey. Again, I think it was unusual because personal development was so new 38 years ago. It was back in the days of Est and those things. Some of the ways we learned were actually through Zen practice. 

When you hear some of the stories, you’ll think, Why on earth did she do that? So you just have to go along with me, be curious, and not agree with the stories. It’s just my experiences and the way that I learned.

Makena: Yeah. We’ll be talking about intent today and sharing how this applies to you, but we’ll do it largely through stories—a lot of Gigi’s stories and also some client stories about people who really learned this, took it and created incredible things in their lives. 

Just keep in mind that it was a different time in the world 38 years ago. It’s going to be fun. As we’ve shared before, we learn best through stories, and that’s why we love to get on here and share in this way. 

So, just giving some context around what is intent or more so, when would someone use intent? Why should people who are listening to this episode… how does this apply to them?

Gigi: Well, you know, when you really want something badly, we’ve all had that experience. We want something, and we create it, right? And that, in my opinion, is intent. 

But why don’t we have that all the time? 

So we’re going to share different stories. Sometimes, it’s about financial goals. It can be about selling a house or renting a house. I had a couple who really wanted to move internationally. I walked them through how to really create that and have the intent to do it. 

Makena: So, we’re going to talk about the difference between wanting something and taking action, but maybe also waiting and leaving it up to the universe, versus really going out for what you want.

This applies to you if you have something in your life you really want and feel like, well, maybe it’s not going to happen. I think that’s kind of the energy. And that’s when intent comes in. It’s like, “Let’s go for it.” 

So Gigi, how did you learn this? Let’s go back to some of those early stories you were talking about. Would you share a couple of those around where you first really understood what intent was?

Gigi: In my early years, when I went to the workshop that I shared my origin story, I started assisting and helping to bring those workshops together. 

They had an assisting team, and we were a team in the back of the room. We would go in early and set up the workshop. The way we set it up was always kind of this Zen practice. It wasn’t just going and setting up a room. It was setting it up so that every chair was exactly the same distance apart. 

When you walked in, you had this experience of no distractions. I spent years in the back of the room learning and training. During the training, I could not get involved. When the trainer was talking about something, I had to keep my mind out of it. So, I learned this practice of staying in almost a meditative state with my awareness of the room. That was part of my training. 

Another piece of it was anytime I walked in and was kind of prissy, I was young, I was 28, and trying to get attention, the logistics head of the team would send me out of the room. He would give me these incredible tasks that seemed almost impossible. I would use and learn this principle of intent by going out and making these things happen.

Makena: Before you share this story, can we rewind just a little bit? I think you covered a lot of different things there, and a lot of people are going, what? 

Why were you sitting in the back of the room, and you had to keep your mind out of it? What’s that about?

Gigi: If my mind engaged in the process, you have to understand I was basically holding the space for the trainer to be able to really do their job of attending to the participants. We were there attending to all the other details so the trainer could do that. But if my mind got into the process and I started thinking about, “Well, I don’t think he said that last time he was in the workshop, or I’m going to try that out in my life next time I go out,” then what would happen is basically I’m involved in the process. I’m like a participant. 

By me holding the space of being out of the process, I was able to be super aware of what people needed, almost to the point that if somebody was going to sneeze, I knew it before they sneezed. There was a tissue there. It was learning to hold space, which we do as coaches and mentors. This was my beginning practice there.

Makena: And then with the moods part, similar, but something a little different there. What was going on there that you couldn’t have your moods or, like you said, be wanting to get the attention? I don’t think you were consciously going like, I want everybody to look at me, right?

Gigi: It’s just how I went through the world, right? It’s drawing attention. 

So, with my moods, it was great training to understand. Again, coming into this place of being in service, supporting the participants, and creating an environment where they could really get in there, learn, and be present, I had to set my moods aside as one of the team members. 

You’ve heard that when you walk in the door, put your moods aside and be present. Many people have experienced that. So, in this practice, when I came in and maybe I was moody, I would be sent out of the room for a while. I’d be given a task to distract me. 

This is such a beautiful way that I learned. This is how I learned to hold space for clients and coaching. This was my beginning training.

Makena: Not only that, but I think for people listening—we haven’t bridged into intent just yet—I did just want to go a little deeper here so people have a bit more understanding. What you’re talking about here and how it applies to people listening is that it’s really hugely about your impact, like your energetic impact on other people or your environment. 

People think they just go through the world and are just in their own experience. What you’re describing is that you were taught through this almost Zen training how to be aware that even the thoughts you think when you’re sitting in the back of the room impact the room in some way or the way your energy is when you’re walking through the room. 

I think that’s just such an interesting thing. So much of when people work with us too, is starting to become aware of their impact and the ripple effect that has on all parts of your life. If you’re listening to this and you’re like, I have no idea what you’re talking about, just think about when your partner’s in a really bad mood, and you walk in the room, and you know immediately that they’re in a bad mood. They don’t have to say anything. They don’t have to. There’s an energy. 

So that’s kind of what we’re describing here. And then that gets into you, and then that gets into your kids or whatever. There’s a ripple effect. 

Moving on to this part of the intent that you were talking about, you said that they gave you these impossible tasks. Can you give us an example of one of those?

Gigi: I don’t remember so many of them, but one time I had to get a certain drink. All the stores were closed. Remember, this was 38 years ago. Stores weren’t open all the time. You couldn’t just get what you wanted, order it online, or anything. 

It was late, and the stores were closed. I had to go out and see if I could create and figure out a way to do this. I finally found the store on the outskirts of town, actually closing. I knocked on the window and said, “Please, please, please, will you let me in?” I really need to get this drink. They opened the store, I got the drink, and I brought it back.

Makena: This is pre-internet.

Gigi: Pre-internet.

Makena: She was not able to research online what store had this drink. She was probably calling in a phone book, trying to figure out if anybody was open, and then running across town. 

It was really this thing of like, there shouldn’t have been any stores open. You went, and you figured out a way to get that drink anyway.

Gigi: I had so many experiences like this. I started to learn that “Oh no, I can’t do this” was often baloney. It’s just that I didn’t want to put the energy and intention into doing it. 

I started to learn how to navigate life in a very different way and saw that it was almost like making the impossible possible. It was such a powerful experience and skill for me to be able to create out of nothing.

Makena: Yeah, I think you really trained me on this in a lot of ways too. If I was trying to get in touch with someone at a hotel, let’s say, and in the past, before you really taught me this, I would just call them, leave a message, and wait for them to call me back. 

Then you would say, use your intent, right? You walked me through, “Okay, if they don’t call you back within 24 hours, maybe you call the front desk, maybe there’s somebody else you can talk to.” 

Then you would say, “Use your intent. Is there an email address?” Not pestering people, but just being proactive and not just going, “okay, I did this one thing, I’m going to wait and see. Like, oh, I called the one store, and they’re closed, so I can’t get the drink.” 

So what’s another example of a time that you really, because that was somewhere where you were being told to do something or taught intent through “to make this thing happen.” 

But maybe there were times for you when you really wanted something, and you felt like, “Oh, I don’t know if it’s going to happen. I feel like people have that happen a lot. It’s like, “Oh, I really want to do this thing or really desire this material thing,” whatever it might be. 

They put a little energy there, but they don’t know if it’s going to happen. Do you have any stories like that?

Gigi: Yeah, I had one early on, my first time before I ever went to Maui. I ended up moving there and actually lived there for six years. That’s where you were born. 

The first time I wanted to go, there was a retreat there, and I wanted to go so badly. It was a yogi, Gary Kraftsow, who many of you may know. He’s written several books now. I didn’t see any way to get there. I’d quit my job. I’d flown out to my friends in California. My kids were with their dad. I just didn’t have the money at that time. 

I talked to my mentor, and he said, “Really think about it. If you really want to come, just be open to it happening in any way. Is there any way that you could see it? Is there someone you could reach out to? Can you borrow money?” I didn’t feel like I could do that, so I sat there for a couple of days, and again, my desire was strong. 

A couple of days later, I got this FedEx, and it was a check from my mother because I had gotten my real estate license. My parents, my dad was a developer, my mom was a broker, and I had started selling real estate with them, but not full-time. This house had closed, and she didn’t tell me, and she surprised me. I got this check in the mail. It was more than enough to get my ticket. 

The whole thing was that if I could get my ticket, the seminar and my accommodations would be free for me. So I had the time, I got my ticket, and I went to Maui. That was my first experience on Maui and my first experience in any kind of retreat.

Makena: That one’s interesting because it’s a little different in that your desire was very strong, and at first, you were thinking, this isn’t going to happen, right? 

You had a strong desire, but you didn’t have the belief in that happening. 

What you’re saying is, in this case, you really looked, and you couldn’t see any other actions you could take, but you opened yourself up energetically and said, how else could this show up? Is that right?

Gigi: Absolutely. Yeah. I had been learning this, and I just left it open. People knew. Maybe I even talked to my mother; I don’t remember. All I know is that out of nowhere, I did not know this was coming. It was the perfect timing, and it came.

Makena: Great. I want to break down a few of the steps here. We’ll go into some more stories, but I feel like the first step is a strong desire or a strong intent. 

“I want this thing, I’m going to go out and do whatever it takes.” Is that right?

Gigi: The second example, where I shared about the check coming in, is a little different from the intent. When I teach this to clients, it is very much about it. It’s something you want or something that you’ve been trying to do. You kind of halfway through it. 

It’s finally owning it and going, “I’m going to make this happen. It’s going to be up to me. I’m going to make this happen.” That’s that step of ownership and responsibility too.

Makena: You helped me do this in university. I went to a private university. It was a big investment to go and had different ways that that was possible, but then they increased the tuition every year, and I didn’t know that. 

One year, I couldn’t cover it with all the different ways that I was making that happen. I felt like I’d looked into the options, and I think I had even maybe gone and talked to the student aid department, and they had said, there’s really nothing else we can do. I wanted to cower, basically. I was like, “Okay, well, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” 

Do you remember what you said to me?

Gigi: I think I just said, “If you really want to do it, there is a way. There’s absolutely a way.”

Makena: You were like, “What do you have to lose, right? Go for it a hundred percent. If you had nothing to lose, if you were fully going to go for this, then what would you do?” 

I thought about it, and I said, or maybe you even helped me come up with this plan. I was a straight-A student. I got my transcripts of my straight A’s. I was an honors student. I went to the head of the honors department. I went to two or three of my favorite teachers and got letters of recommendation from them. I went to where I had my job on campus and got a letter of recommendation from them. I got this whole packet together. 

I walked in to meet with the head of student aid, and I walked into his office. I handed over this folder that I created, with my own letter in it, too, talking about why I wanted to continue to go there but couldn’t. 

He said to me, “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He didn’t even look at the folder. He said, “We’re going to make sure you can come back.” 

They increased my aid. I got more grants to go, and I was able to continue going there for my entire four years. 

It was such a powerful experience, and you really taught me. It was a pivotal turning point for me, going like, “Wow, if I want something bad enough,” they could have said no, right? But I went after it so much that he didn’t even need to look at the folders. 

He was just like, “I’ve heard all about you because everybody’s talking about you going around to all these teachers and everything.” So that’s maybe an example of when you want something.

Gigi: That’s intent. You took responsibility and went for it, had the belief, and absolutely went for it. If he had said no, you still would have gone and done other things. You hadn’t cowered.

That is my favorite quote, that Goethe quote: “Until you’re really committed and you have that intent, when you finally have that providence move, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, opportunities start to happen.”

Makena: Yeah, actually, that quote is W.H. Murray. Goethe has a small part at the end. It’s attributed to Goethe, but it’s, “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.” 

And then it goes on to say, see if I can find the rest of it. 

“A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.” So that part is W.H. Murray. 

Then it’s often added on the Goethe part, which is, “Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” 

In that quote, they’re talking about committing oneself and then a stream of events happening, like you’re saying.

Gigi: That you could have never imagined. The check showing up in the mail, the man not even looking at your papers after everyone said no.

Makena: I know you had another example from when I was young and you wanted to buy a house. And you didn’t have the ability to do that at that time.

Will you share that story as well?

Gigi: There was a certain time in my life. We had a training facility and lots of land, but I really wanted my own home. We lived in the place there and really thought it would be wonderful to have a home at that time. I didn’t see at that moment how to raise the money for it, in addition to everything else that we had. 

At that point, I was leading workshops all over the world and had been for years, but I hadn’t really developed a one-on-one relationship with clients. Of course, I did in different experiences. We did a 30-day training. And so I would talk to people and work with them, but not in packages.

I was trying to figure out how could I get this down payment I needed, which I think was like 25, 000. And what could I do to create this outside of everything else? So I was doing. 

So I sat down and did that exercise: remember 20 ways to make 25,000 or create 25,000 by a certain time.

I came up with the idea, and why not? I would also work with the clients one-on-one. A lot of clients had been working with me for years, and they would really get value out of that. So, I created these six-month packages. Before that, I would do a one-off session here or there, but I created a six-month package. It was $3,000. I remember. I went out and sold those, and I had my money. 

I may have made enough. I think it was about 10 packages. The numbers might be wrong here, but the fact was I also made the money to buy the beautiful furniture I wanted. I got both. So I went out and bought the home and had the beautiful furniture. 

Makena: I love that. I remember that. I remember that house. We were renting more. We owned our property, but we rented other homes. Then that was the one you were like, “I want to buy this and buy this gorgeous pillar bed and amazing furniture.” 

That’s such an interesting one of just being like, how can I create this? Which is really fun.

You can do this in different ways, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not, but especially for those of you who are entrepreneurs, it’s like thinking outside the box there. 

You weren’t doing phone coaching at that time. The Internet didn’t even exist, barely. I don’t think so, but you were doing in-person seminars, working with people in a very different way.

And you thought, “Well, sometimes I coach over the phone and do these one-off sessions, maybe I could create these packages.” 

I just love that feeling of really expanding your mind and thinking, “I want this bad enough. How do I make it happen?” 

We also wanted to discuss the story you touched on at the beginning of the episode, which was about some of your clients who wanted to move internationally.

Will you just share a little bit about that? 

Gigi: I had been working with clients, coaching both of them. They lived in a certain country and really wanted to move internationally, specifically to Thailand. The man didn’t know if he could get a job there, but they felt strongly about moving their family there.

I remember sitting down with them at a hotel, talking them through it, and breaking it down. I asked, “Do you really want this?” They said, “Yes.” I told them, “I want you to think about what moving to another country means. You’re far away from your family, so really connect with every part of this decision.”

Often, people say they want to do something, but they haven’t really thought it through or made a plan in their mind of what it will mean and what it takes. 

They said they absolutely wanted to do this. I said, “Okay, if you want to do it, then align with each other, talk about it, start to dream, and start looking at places.” 

They did. They had a conversation and realized it was something they absolutely wanted to do. Within a few months, they had an opportunity to go there out of the blue. They ended up saying yes. To this day, they’re still there and have really grown their life there.

Makena: It was an amazing opportunity, where they moved, and it was incredible. I love that. 

Your first point is interesting: Do you really want this? We all have many desires, and we say, “I want this or that.” 

It’s like when someone says they want a million-dollar business. There’s the dream of what that is, and then there’s the reality of what it takes to run one. 

I heard it said recently that your problems don’t go away when you get what you want; you just have different problems. Are you up for those problems or challenges? Anyone who’s ever gotten something they really dreamed of knows that life didn’t magically stop being life. It was just a different experience.

When we’re talking about intent, we need to ask, “What do I want? Do I really want it? Can I put myself in the place of having this and be clear that this is the experience I want, with both the good sides and the challenges or problems that might be there?” That’s really interesting.

That was a great story because many people say they want to travel or live abroad. We often hear this about travel, too: “I want to travel more.” 

But what’s interesting is that people don’t usually know what that means. They say they want to travel, but they haven’t really thought through what that actually means. How much do you want to travel? Where would you go? How would you do it?

Gigi: Most of the time, people think it’s more complicated than it is. Traveling with your family is a good one. We did that. A lot of times, people say they want to travel with their family but haven’t thought through the whole process. 

When I work with clients and encourage them to travel with their children, I tell them to really think it through and how to travel together as a team. There are a lot of pieces to that puzzle.

Makena: When people come to us, we talk to them about what they want and really clarify and break it down into different pieces. Otherwise, it’s this thing in your head, and it’s hard to align and have intent behind it if it’s not super clear. 

You need to be a full yes to this. This is what you want. With that level of clarity and desire, plus action, the universe often aligns, and things start to show up.

One more example I think we should give is renting or selling a house because we’ve often had this come up with clients as well. They’re trying to sell or rent a house and struggling with it. 

Often, you really walk them through intent and how that works. Could you share one of those stories?

Gigi: I had a client that had a home in another country. They had moved to the U.S. They had been trying to sell it, and it kept falling through. 

Finally, I just said, “Do you really, really want to sell it?” 

She said, “Yes.” I said, “Then, if you do, let me walk you through how intent works. You go after it and see what it takes to get there.” 

I think one of the coaches told her that she should take it on before her husband was handling it. Again, it was a little watered down. If you have two people trying to sell something and nobody fully has their intent and their attention on it, the probabilities decrease. 

The minute she took this on, I said, “Listen, if you really want to do this, it means you have to get in touch with that realtor. Let them know, “I want this sold.” Then you have to do whatever it takes to talk to those potential clients. She did. She took responsibility, and it was the first time she had ever done this. 

All of a sudden, they had a contract on the house. Timing-wise, I don’t remember, but they sold it. They absolutely sold it. Then they had other houses in the U.S. They wanted to move to a different house. 

They were currently in a home, and she was like, we can’t really do this because we have to sell this home. They had somebody come over for dinner, and he said, “I would love to buy your home.” 

Magical things happen when you know what you want. She started to learn how to use this intent. She did this, and she was amazed. It was like, “Oh my gosh, this is a different world.” 

She had this new skill that she could practice in many different areas.

Makena: So intent is clarity about what you want, the desire, and really aligning yourself behind that. Then, taking on responsibility, like you’re saying, ” Whatever this takes, I’m up for it. I’m going to create this.” 

Often, it’s not about hard work or pushing or pressure. It’s about action with that energy behind it, and then incredible miracles, synchronicities, and things like that can happen.

I don’t know why that happens, but it just seems to be the way.

Gigi: I have story after story after story. Many times in life, people can get from the stories that, like you said, it is ownership and then taking action. It’s not a pressured action. 

It is, if this is going to happen, I’m going to make it happen. It’s a fun energy. It’s a great way to create in your life. It’s a great way to be in your business. 

I’m not going to wait for these people. I’m going to get out there, be present, and move this forward. It is intentional. It is not being distracted by trying to do 10 things at once, but taking one, making that work, and then taking the next one and making that work.

Makena: This is often how we work with the women in our mastermind and our different business programs: going for their goals or their game, what they want to create in their businesses and careers, and doing that in such a way. 

Often, women come in and, at first, they pressure themselves. They make it stressful. They think they’re supposed to work harder. But that’s not it. 

As they work with us over time, we really see this shift: They’re not coming from that place. They’re coming from the fun and the action, and this kind of flow comes into it. 

There’s still effort, but it’s so much more relaxed and in flow. That’s when things really start to show up in a bigger way.

Gigi: It’s stopping to believe the circumstances.

There was another story about a client who had a home they needed to rent, and they were out of the country. They kept on getting from the realtor that this was a difficult home to rent because it was unusual in the way it was designed or something, and it was a little bit expensive. 

So they were having a hard time. Finally, I was like, “That is baloney. It is perfect for somebody. Somebody would love your house. You need to call that realtor. Let them know if they don’t take it, you’re going to handle it. You’re going to change the realtor.” They did. 

They took it on, and again, it was rented so quickly after that because they no longer believed the story and the circumstances.

Makena: Yeah, and this is so often, too, people will say, well, the economy is the reason why this isn’t working. All those factors may be true. There might be things going on in the world or in your industry, but there are some people guaranteed to thrive. 

So it is that I’m not going to believe the circumstances. “I’m going to go out there and really go for that anyway.” 

I think one other thing I just wanted to touch on briefly before we close is how fun it is to align with other people and your intent. 

One person, if you really have intent, you want to be able to get in there and create it, of course, on your own, not rely on other people. But like so much of the time you and I have done this, or me and my husband, Sunny, have done this when we really want something. We go in with our energy, align our energy and intent behind something, and take action. 

It just feels like it magnifies.

Gigi: I think you become 10x more powerful when you do that when you align with another person when you really align and say, this is what we’re going to do. There’s power in that. There’s power in a team. 

This is something I learned way back when I was assisting workshops. Our team spirit would be so aligned in being present for the clients, setting up the room, and having magical things happen because we all agreed on yes. Nobody questioned each other and said, I don’t think we should do that or, you’re not doing this right. We all said we believed in each other. We’re going to make this happen. Everybody’s putting their intent and energy into this.

Makena: I love that. I think intent and alignment is an energy of yes.

Gigi: Yeah, it is.

Makena: One final piece is something I’ve observed. I’m curious how you experienced this, but for me, as I’ve learned and practiced intent in my life, and you’ve taught me so much about this, I’ve observed that it feels like you can’t put your intent behind too many different things at the same time. 

Is that true for you? Of course, you can have different things in your life that are going and in action and moving forward. But when we’re talking about really aligning your intent behind something and moving it forward, I do feel like there’s sort of like you can do this in a couple of areas, maybe at any given time, but not five or ten areas. 

Has that been your experience, or is that just me?

Gigi: From my experience, there are times when I’ve really had this going on in my life, and there are times when it’s not so. It depends on our distractions and what’s going on in our lives. 

But I will say this: once you begin and practice, once you learn it, yes, you’re absolutely right. Really one thing at a time. 

But then what happens is you start to build momentum when you learn this as a practice. That practice starts to then generate it happening in lots of different areas of your life. 

Does that make sense?

Makena: Yeah.

Gigi: Because when you learn, and you do it here, and then you do it again, and you keep on practicing, things start working. 

The intent is then you know when something comes up, you’re going to have intent about that. It’s not so much having to stop and redo intent and start. You’ve already got your wheels, your plates in the air, whatever. The momentum kicks in. That’s in business. 

I often tell clients that once they start getting out there, they may be very successful and growing their business, but they’re still working hard to get things moving and do their marketing. 

Once they get it working, and they have this intent and go for it, they start to build momentum. Then people start calling, and things happen without them having to generate them.

Makena: I love that. Start to practice. If you’re listening to this, take a baby step. What’s an area of your life where you want something, but maybe you’ve been sitting back a little bit and believing the circumstances, thinking, “Oh, maybe I’ll get it, maybe I won’t.” 

Where do you really want to take your energy and your intent and align it behind that? Take responsibility and move that forward.

Gigi: Focus. That’s the thing. In the beginning, it is focusing on that one thing and going for it. 

Makena: We’d love to hear your stories. If we open something up for you and you have a powerful magical experience, you want to share with us, You can always email us at support@wayofthemuse.com. 

As always, please rate, subscribe, and share the podcast with your friends. We’ll see you in the next episode.

Gigi: Thank you so much.