S5E5 - Molly Mandelberg
This week’s guest is Molly Mandelberg, founder of "Wild Hearts Rise Up" and the creator of Magnetic Influencer Collective. She is also an Artist having been an art major in school.
Her business is Wild Hearts Rise Up, is home to her podcast and her six month group program, Magnet Influencer Collective. She works to help people build courses and programs they can scale to go from a one-to-one to one-to-many business model.
Her work is built around energy (energetic marketing) and strategy. She works with clients on overcoming limiting beliefs and changing their lives, in turn changing their businesses too. They learn marketing tools and automation in addition to addressing personal obstacles.
As part of her upbringing, Molly learned a lot about the laws of attraction and consciousness. She also spent her 20s traveling to over 30 countries and working in non-career jobs while finding herself. After her healing experiences at a five day workshop with Dr. Brian Weiss, past life regression therapist, she decided to pursue hypnotherapy and became certified.
In starting her new practice, she became an entrepreneur. She also had to face all of her feelings of shortcomings and in that process transformed herself. She also found that she needed to do more than the one-on-one work that she was doing. Molly learned the technology, tools and marketing and found that she could help other healers and coaches so she started the career she is in now.
We chat about all of this including why she called her business “Wild Hearts Rise Up” and who she loves to work with. We also talk about another concept she is passionate about, the energy of peace with money, and how she incorporated practices around that into a program. Find out who she got inspiration for when she was transforming her own thoughts around money! She shared her views on taking personal responsibility and how powerful that is.
Molly still creates art. After 13 years as a nomad, she decided on pursuing van life four years ago. He biggest project has been the tiny house she built in a van which she lives in primarily taking herself to the multiple locations where she wants to live. She also paints, creates posters and does tie dye which she is selling on Etsy. It is important to her to carve out this time for herself.
Her advice at the end is super valuable to hear. You’ll hear it at the end of her podcast when you listen to that too!
Note from Rabiah (Host):
I really enjoyed speaking with Molly. It was easy. I can see how she helps people believe in themselves both form a skill and energy space. We chatted a little about the Laws of Attraction and she had a great answer when I asked her what she says to people who don’t believe in it. I really loved that part so listen up for that!
Rabiah and Molly chat from their mothers’ respective homes on the West Coast over the 2021 holidays!
Transcript
Rabiah (Host): [00:04:13] This is More Than Work, the podcast reminding you that your self worth is made up of more than your job title. Each week, I'll talk to a guest about how they discovered that for themselves. You'll hear about what they did, what they're doing and who they are. I'm your host, Rabiah. I work in IT, perform standup comedy, write, volunteer, and of course podcast. Thank you for listening. Here we go!
Hey everyone. So I am recording this right before I head off to my first set in a couple of weeks, comedy set. And it's the first time I'm going to be going on stage with what I described is going on with me from my COVID actor effects. In the last episode, I'm not going to get into it more, but if you listened, you'll know and doing okay.
And I just, I think what was cool is I sometimes have these moments of synergy or synchronicity or something that happen with certain episodes and certain [00:05:13] weeks. And that certainly happened this week. My guest is Molly Mandelberg. I was actually on her podcast. I'll be posting a link to that if you haven't seen it already seen it, meaning it's on YouTube or heard it meaning you can hear the podcast. But, it was a good experience.
It was fun for me to get to talk as a guest and really talk about what I do outside of this particular podcast and just with comedy, but talking to her, I mean, she's really evolved on the levels of like energy and laws of attraction and positive kind of manifestations. And even if you're not into that, that's not your thing,
I hope you'll enjoy the episode and really listen to what she says because I did question her about laws of attraction. I think if you've been with me for long enough, you know, that I am going to ask about the ideas that the people believe, um, whether they're the ones I believe or not. I happen to believe that we do manifest things in a certain way, but I think that there's work involved. I don't think they just come. And we talked about those ideas.
One thing that's not in this episode, but that's cool that Molly and I found out was we [00:06:13] have a mutual contact that we know named Jennifer Mason out in San Diego and she teaches comedy and she's also a, an acupuncturist and she's worked with Molly, and also, Molly took her comedy class. And I did one of my first gigs was with Jennifer and she used to go to this one open mic I would go to we'd run into each other and we're still connected on Facebook. And it was just a cool small world thing that was really nice to have when we met, um, on the phone or really on SquadCast when I was in California for the holidays.
And just remembering that connection now, too is nice because you never know how these random connections are gonna come up. And it made me feel closer to her and kind of get her more in a way, cause I'm just having that connection with Jennifer, but shout out to Jennifer too. I think this is a pretty light episode. Molly is cool. I mean she lives in a van. She does the van life thing and she's built her own business and kind of gone through different phases of being what she describes as a vagabond. So that's not my words for her, but I really [00:07:13] did connect with her on many levels about not being rooted in one location and stuff like that, but also, just the fact that she did build her own business, but she's still pursuing her art, which is something that she went to school for.
And I don't want to give the whole episode away, but I'm just telling you that. I just think that this is a really nice episode. I really liked talking to her and it kind of brightened me up this week when you know, things have been difficult. And I think things are difficult on different levels for everybody at different times.
Um, I'm doing fine. So I want to make sure everyone knows that, but also just was really open to kind of hearing some of the messages I got to hear back. And that's one of the cool things about the podcast for me is I have the conversations. I don't always get to take in everything when I'm having them. And then I get to reflect on them when I edit.
So there's this one again, you know, like share, subscribe, all that. I, I always say I appreciate it, but I really do. I do look at when I get. I do want to hear from you. So please follow on, [00:08:13] on any of the social media channels and get in touch too. I really want to know what people are thinking and I'm going to maybe include an audience element to this podcast. I haven't sorted out exactly how, but I do want people to get involved if they can. And so thank you so much. And here's the episode. Let's do this.
Rabiah (Host): Hey everyone. So today my guest is Molly Mandelberg The founder of wild hearts rise up and the creator of magnetic influencer collective, which was harder for me to say than I expected. So thanks for being on Molly. Um, Where am I talking to you from?
Molly Mandelberg: I am tuning in today from outside of Portland.
Rabiah (Host): Oh, nice. Nice. And so last time I talked to you were in New Mexico, I think, or something
Molly Mandelberg: I think I was in California, or maybe
Austin, Texas. Yeah. I, I get around.
Rabiah (Host): yeah, Yeah. So, so first of all, Magnetic Influencer Collective let's just chat really quick about what that is to some people can [00:09:13] understand kind of what you're doing.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah, Magnetic Influencer Collective is my six month group program that so Wild Heart Rise Up is the name of my business. And I work with coaches and holistic practitioners, people who trade in wisdom and guidance and want to run their businesses better. I help them with marketing and strategy and automation and online tools.
I help them create courses and programs so that they can move from one-to-one business model to one to many. And I also do that from sort of a energetics of marketing angle. So I help people with like getting out of their own way, overcoming limiting beliefs and lining up with their vision of the future so that they can reach more people and make a bigger difference and make more money with less time spent and Magnetic Influencer Collective is my, like my baby, my favorite program that I run, it's a six month program with a really tightened.
Group of women usually that we do all of that work, both the energetic side of how do we show up in our business? How do we be the leaders we want to be? How do we [00:10:13] become what we hope to become? And also how do we set our businesses up in such a way that they're supporting us and that they're running smoothly and that we use automation and tools to take some of the work that's usually on our plate every day and make it a lot more streamlined.
So we do that. The energetic side and the strategic side together for six months and people build like a whole new hub habit framework in their lives and in their businesses so that they can yeah. Do all of that with Maurice.
Rabiah (Host): Well, because when you think about, and there's a lot of people who are solo preneurs, just to use one term, that's floated around a lot, but people who are different kinds of practitioners and stuff who aren't necessarily business people there, and they have to become that, unless they're part of a, some kind of practice that's bigger or something like that.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's the thing is a lot of the people that I work with are, you know, I don't want to say touchy feely, but you know, they're more sensitive [00:11:13] and empathic and like creative and the technology that we have access to now, that's actually pretty easy to use is often a hang up.
And also those really conscious and aware and empathic people are usually pretty bad at talking about what they do because they are not accustomed to selling them. And unfortunately, when you're a solopreneur and you're the face of your business and you're selling services, you're kind of selling yourself.
And so that's an uncomfortable sort of hang up that we have to get over in order to reach the people who need our services and make the difference that we're here to make. So I help them figure that part out.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. I think that's, that's really cool. And It's a good group of people to focus on probably. I've been reading a new earth by Eckhart Tolle. A
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. It's a great book.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. And just what you're thinking, what you're saying, and I haven't finished it, but what you're saying reminds me a lot about just his different things he talks about with ego and it's almost like hard, their ego is going to affect them negatively in doing that, but then they're also doing this [00:12:13] other practice that kind of helps other people with theirs.
Right. So.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. There's a lot of meta stuff in this process.
Rabiah (Host): What's your background as far as energy and holistic, those kind of, that kind of work?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. So I, I was raised pretty awesomely in my opinion, with a lot of beliefs about the law of attraction and about consciousness and about mindset and that we can create anything we believe. So I had that as sort of a foundation. And I spent a lot of years in my twenties as this sort of wandering vagabond.
I was sort of like dead set on not going into a career path or a job that didn't light me up. And so I kept working little jobs here and there restaurant industry here or. Working at a hostel or bartending and Just full on avoiding anything that wasn't it. And in the process I was exploring, I was traveling around the world.
I've been to over 32 countries and I'm just trying to [00:13:13] figure out who I wanted to be. And then I was reading books all the time. I was writing a book back then that was a fiction novel I've yet to publish, but we'll probably do that at some point. And I ended up at a workshop with Dr. Brian Weiss, who's a past life regression therapy expert.
And in that process, I had a bunch of healing experiences on that five day workshop. And I left there thinking I want to learn how to do hypnosis because that induction part of the process I would like to master if I want to play with this tool that I've now learned with more people and, you know, have.
Ability to help people heal some of their stuff. So I did an intensive hypnotherapy certification program. And then I was afterwards living with my boyfriend at the time in this tiny apartment, like 350 square feet. And I was like, well, there's no way I can practice this new tool or the skillset in this space.
So I rented this little tiny office and in the process of renting it, I was like, I need to have liability insurance, which [00:14:13] means I should have a business name, which means I should have a website, which means I need business cards, which means, oops, I'm an entrepreneur. So in the span of 11 days after finding this office, I like accidentally popped into entrepreneurship.
Okay. That's what I'm doing now. And for the first few months there was an identity crisis of like, who am I as a professional? What does that even mean? I was showing up to networking events, wearing like all black looking way, more like a caterer than like. Facilitator of any kind. So I had a lot of figuring out to do, and one of the beautiful and uncomfortable things about becoming an entrepreneur, especially this kind where you're trying to help people is all of your stuff is going to come up because when you're selling yourself as the business, you're going to be faced with everywhere. You've felt unworthy or you've doubted yourself, or you're not sure you can do it, or you're not sure you know enough or who would listen to you anyway. There's like a lot of stuff that comes up that you're going to have to overcome. So I went into this couple of years.
Radical [00:15:13] transformation and growth to just be able to stand on my two feet and say, Hey, I'm someone who can help people. And this is what I do and learning how to do that effectively. And yeah, and that process I realized there was this glass ceiling on how many people I could help in a lifetime of doing one-on-one work.
And I didn't want that glass ceiling. I wanted. Do more than that. I wanted to make a bigger difference than that seemed to allow. And so I started voraciously studying, being a knowledge geek and a reader and a "student of life", I guess you could say I started studying everyone. I could get my hands on and taking programs and courses to learn about business, to learn about marketing, to learn about program and course development and how to launch those in this online world.
And in that process, I got kind of good at it. I got kind of good at just the technology and the tools. And I also found myself suddenly in community with a lot of coaches and healers and people who. We're amazing at what they do, but they sucked at the marketing and the technology. And so I started helping them, my friends, my [00:16:13] community, and that just kind of took off.
So I didn't go to school for marketing. I have a degree in art but my passion and my curiosity and my interest for these tools in these sort of techniques to put things together- strategies for business model that works online was met with a lot of people who loved me and wanted to work with me and then wanted those skillsets.
So it's been great.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. that's good. That is great. And I, well, we did talk a little bit before just to see about being on each other's podcasts and all that. And I will be on yours too. So we'll just so listeners know if you want to hear more about what Molly does, there's going to be an episode with me, but also many other episodes she's done.
But one thing we talked about is I just switched to marketing and I'm not formally trained. And it was really just hearing you say that you've gone through that helped me a lot. Just even after that conversation, I was like, okay. Yes, I remember I have the tools I can.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): And I think the people you're working with too, some of them probably just need a reminder.
You learned your practice, [00:17:13] you learned everything else. You can learn these things and the technology doesn't have to stop you from having a business or a practice or anything.
Molly Mandelberg: Right. And you can learn them and you can go and learn them yourself, or you can learn them even faster with somebody who's been there before. Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. And then as far as just Wild Hearts Rise Up, I liked the name. It's powerful. So how did you come up with that? And what does that mean you now versus then.
Molly Mandelberg: So when I was doing hypnotherapy, I started after a while. I don't know if you've noticed yet, but I talk kind of fast and to do hypnotherapy, you have to talk really slow for part of the session to put people into that induction. Meditative translate state. So I was getting tired of talking really slow, and I was noticing that a lot of the transformation and change was happening before we ever went into the hypnosis part of the session, just through the questioning and the coaching and the sort of interview part of the process
so I knew where we would go and hypnosis. A lot of big aha moments and transformation was happening then. So I started sort of recognizing, I could shift my focus and give up the hypnosis [00:18:13] thing and start being a coach. And as I did that, I was trying out a lot of different things and sort of trying to find my niche, you could say. And I was trying to figure out who I wanted to talk to and what their greatest desire was. And I knew that as I was renaming my business from it was called Full Spectrum Hypnotherapy cause I didn't want to niche. I was like, "I can help anybody change anything with hypnosis." I was casting a very wide net, which means very few people could find me.
I wanted to get really specific and make my business sort of call out of who I want to come in and what I know they're desiring. And that was the wild hearted people that people with a passion that people with you know, the energy that they know, they want to change the world. They want to make a difference and what do they want?
They want to rise up. They want to overcome their limitations. They want to exceed all expectations of who they can be in what they can do. And so. Wild hearts raise up, seemed like the right combination of words to encompass that.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I mean, [00:19:13] it's very powerful. If you're listening to podcasts with that name, or you're going to talk to someone with that name you're already kind of giving yourself that boost
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah, it gets the vibe. We want people who match the vibe.
Rabiah (Host): One thing you're passionate about is peace with money as a concept.
And I had someone on the. Relatively recently named Bob Wheeler and he was talking about he's a CPA, but he was helping people kind of deal with their trauma around money and stress, anxiety around money. And I really liked talking to him about that just because I know even for me, there's a generational thing, probably. But for you, what does that concept mean?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. So I have a long history. Like I said, I was kind of a vagabond hippie. I was very much a starving artist, archetype and broke for many, many years of my life. And when I started my business, And when I have been working with clients for years now we can do all the right things. We can show up. We [00:20:13] can go to work, we can do our best to pay our bills and whatever, but there's often an energetic quality to people who are willing to have money versus people who will always believe they don't have enough.
And I started recognizing in myself when I did this little practice that I started tapping into what I would call the energy of peace with money. And as I tapped into that energy, that like concept vibrationally, that my tangible physical reality around my finances change, and I started receiving more of it.
I started having less debt. I started investing. I started just being someone who had money around and that was not my existence before. Started using this practice on a regular basis, I would forget to do it. And then money would get weird in my life again. And then I would remember to do it or start doing it again, and things will get different.
And after a while it was like, okay, you're onto something. And this is something people should probably know [00:21:13] about. And so I did the practice in my different group programs and memberships, and every time I would do. People would message me days and weeks and months later, like I've been doing that and oh my God, all this miraculous stuff is happening.
And look at this. And this just occurred right after we got off the call and like, look at what's different now. And so finally I was like, okay, I have to make this into its own little program because this is helping people and it's, it's very much helping me. And it's obviously not just me. It works for other people too.
So I decided to put it into a little four week program. Called peace with money that people could play with in or interact with that is basically just giving them that daily practice. And when people do it, miraculous things show up in their financial realities. And I think, you know, it is coming from the energetic standpoint.
It's not a financial training course about how to invest or how to get out of debt, but it is at the same time because so much of how we receive money and have [00:22:13] money and spend money is based on our inner beliefs. And so it's a inquiry into looking at that and then a sort of habit to build, to stay in tune with the energetics of money that you'd like to be having.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. And one thing around energy, I'll just say, I know I have certain beliefs and they're more aligned with you, but probably not as evolved with yours, but then other people will maybe listen and say, oh, so if I just think about money, I'll get money and that's not the point, right that you're making?
Molly Mandelberg: I mean, it's not exactly, but it kind of is. If anybody's like listening and thinks the law of attraction is bull.
Rabiah (Host): Right. That's what I'm saying,
Molly Mandelberg: yeah.
Yeah. There are plenty of people who believe that. And my favorite quote from Richard Bach. It says, "if you argue for your limitations, sure enough, they're yours." And so it's, it's only, you can only disprove that concept by not trying it, if you full [00:23:13] on attempt to change your energy around something and you don't see it actually change your reality, then you will have proven that law of attraction is not true.
But usually the people who don't believe in this kind of stuff or who don't. I think it has any merit are also not willing to actually full-blown try it.
So I would say for anyone who's a skeptic prove us wrong, but actually giving it a shot. And if you're right then awesome. Congratulations. You're right.
And the alternative is you try it and something energetically shifts for you. And you notice that in evidence, in your reality, and then you might have to try on a new belief. So.
Rabiah (Host): Well, and I think from my understanding and what my experience has been is thinking about it in a negative way. Isn't gonna get me what I want either. So.
if I just think about, I don't have money, I want money. I don't have money. I want money to do I have money.
Molly Mandelberg: Right. There's that contrast. And that contrast will continue because there's that voice in your head saying, but I don't have it, [00:24:13] so it's not true, but I don't have it. And that I don't have it is what you're broadcasting into the universe. And that's what you're going to see. So the beauty of this piece with money practice is if you have no place in your life where peace with.
Is evidenced or is shown. Then you can crawl into someone else's reality who you think has that experience of peace with money. Get ahead of it and then pull that back into your reality. So for me, when I was like in scarcity and I was like, I don't know what this piece with money is, but I'm aware that it's a thing that exists in this reality.
And if it exists somewhere in this reality for someone that is probably something I could also have. So what I did is I chose Oprah, who in my opinion is rich as fuck, excuse my language.
Has a lot of money and has no like, drama about it from what I can perceive. So what I would do to start out with, as I would crawl into Oprah's reality, I would just sit there and think about Oprah.
And I would like try to be in her world in my mind. And I [00:25:13] would go, okay, Hey Oprah, like, what's it. Like I would ask her questions about her money, reality, how she interacted with the energy of money. I'd be like, what's it like, you know, when the end of the day your assistant or somebody comes in and like, lets you know how much money you made.
Or, you know, that same person comes in. Cause I'm assuming she's not doing any of this herself. So somebody comes in and lets, you know, you know, there was a big bill or this is what you on taxes or you find out what money you have to spend today. And what I got was for Oprah, both of those things happening, the money needing to go out or the money that came in were big numbers and they were not a huge emotional spiral for them.
And so I got a hit, a hit of that. There's a calm to it. There's a peace, there's like a trusting that like, sure we can pay that. And like great more money came in. Of course, of course more money came in. That's who I am. I'm someone who money comes to. And so I pulled whatever I could from all of that away.
And brought it back [00:26:13] down the wormhole of time and space to me in my body and just thought, okay, if I was that person who had that calm with thousands of dollars have to go out and, you know, thousands and thousands are coming in and like, of course it's coming in, who would I be holding that energy? And I would just try to hold that awareness for a minute, a couple seconds, as long as I could, until I got distracted.
And that alone, that simple practice crawling in Oprah's world. Getting the idea of peace with money coming back to my life and my body feeling it for as long as I can muster. If you do that once a day, your money will really change. And that's basically the whole practice. And so the program that I built is getting people into a habit of doing that process and then adding in.
So. Other aspects that have also helped me of transforming who we're blaming for our financial world, not what the hangups are looking at your actual habits, what it actually costs to be you and your life.
Lots of little practices like that, that add up to [00:27:13] perhaps creating a different reality around money, you know?
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
And I think accountability being part of it is important because I know, even, I mean, I'm in my forties now and I'll hear sometimes people still and I've done it, but you still blame your parents for something. It's like, I'm 40. At some point it's not on them. And I needed to
do something about it.
I mean, it could be on them in the sense of the root of it is there, but it's like, I needed to do something by now.
Molly Mandelberg: Exactly. And that's just a sign that, that thing is still unresolved. If we're putting it over there. The beauty is when you recognize you're blaming someone else for literally anything in your life, that's an opportunity for you to take your power back because as long as it's someone else's fault, and this could be why you are the way you are in relationships, it could be why you ended up in a crappy job.
It could be why you don't have enough money or don't know how to do money, or why. You're physically unwell or unhealthy in some way. And it's your parents' fault because it's genetics or because they raised you that way or because, you know, you absorbed their habits as [00:28:13] long as you're blaming someone else for anything in your life.
You don't have the power to change. Because it's not, you're not being at, cause you're not responsible for that aspect of your life. When you pull back your responsibility from that, when you're willing to give up the story of they're wrong and that's why you're wrong, you're then able, you're then empowered to choose to change that aspect of your life and to create something totally new and different.
And how much better could it be than you ever imagined?
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
no, I agree. And I think that's exactly what people are missing when they don't understand the law of attraction. That part, that there is some thing you're doing still. It's like, if I don't work, well, I'm not going to get paid for my job. You know, that's it. that's just, it's same if you don't work, you're not going to get something.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree with you. And I think that's a missing component for a lot of people in the law of attraction is we think, oh, I'll just think this enough. And it's like, no, sometimes there's an action involved too. And sometimes that action is energetic where you [00:29:13] actually are making a habit out of it.
And sometimes that action is like showing up to the opportunity that's coming to you. Like that story of some guy there's a flood and some guys on the roof of a house and he's like, God is going to save me. And you know, a boat comes along and he's like, no, I'm not going to take the boat. Like God's going to save me.
Then a helicopter comes and then like, no, no, I don't need the helicopter. God's going to save me. And he dies in the flood and goes to heaven and God is like, I sent you a boat. I sent you a helicopter.
Like, what do you think was going to happen?
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. It's not always going to be in the form that you were thinking about. That's what I've noticed. I mean, Yeah.
Even in my career, even. I've wanted to write for a career forever. And I didn't do the things I needed to, or I didn't, well, for me, it was just, I wasn't brave enough. I don't think signed up in it, you know, but now I'm getting to do that, but it didn't come as I thought it would, but it came through work and through conversations And stuff like that.
Right. And I
think, right,
Molly Mandelberg: [00:30:13] And how cool is that you
Rabiah (Host): And that's very cool. Right. But it's not like, you know, I just sat And thought, oh, I just want to write. And then I didn't write.
Molly Mandelberg: And then you got a book deal out of thin air. Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah,
Molly Mandelberg: that could happen. Who knows?
Rabiah (Host): it could, but, you know, I did hear an interesting one about Oprah. So my sister was telling me that she read some article or some Tik as it was probably TikTok, and the woman is a waitress and I guess Oprah was at the restaurant and she had to focus only on Oprah's table and no one else's because that was our big person. And as a tip, Oprah left her autograph, instead of money, And I'm like, so don't, don't do all the Oprah things.
Molly Mandelberg: No, no, but also like how much could you sell Oprah's autograph
Rabiah (Host): I have, I, you know, honestly, I don't even, I don't know.
Molly Mandelberg: that would be worth e-baying, just to check.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. I hope she, I hope she did sell it And and made something off of it. Cause she probably just needed 20 bucks, but
Molly Mandelberg: And that is pretty arrogant though. I
Rabiah (Host): So you went to school for art. Are [00:31:13] you doing R at all in your work or outside of work?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. So we're not on video, I guess right now, but, and I'm not in my van right now, but I built a tiny house in a van and do that van life thing. I've been doing the van life for almost four years four, it'll be a couple of weeks from now, which will be four years since I bought it. But that's been my biggest art project for the last four years.
And in addition to that, yes, I also. Make a lot of art. I just finished a painting a couple of weeks ago. I'm working on a poster for a concert I'm going to soon, which is how I used to make art back in my hippy vagabond days. But I also got into tie dye this year. So there's a bunch of stuff on w I'm trying to update my Etsy shop and actually trying to get my boyfriend to do it while he's on break from work.
But yeah, I make art all the time. I would say I find when I'm not as happy when I'm not as fulfilled. When I feel like I'm really in the grind, I have to like carve out hours and days to just [00:32:13] make stuff because making stuff is what my brain loves to do. It's what my heart likes to do. Okay. It's funny to call the van project and our project, but it totally was, and it fulfilled this need in me to be like, okay, I'm literally doing solar panels and like giant batteries and like electrical wiring myself.
And I would go to sleep wondering like, how am I going to connect that part and have this part of my brain? Just so. Turned on by having to problem solve and understand something that I don't know how to do. And how's it going to go together and what do I need to get different? And it was very much like an art project having to put the pieces together and make it all work.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. And so what, what made you say I'm going to do the van life? Because it's something people talk about
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): you're doing it. What, what made you do it?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. I mean, I've been nomadic for 13, almost 14 years. I used to travel abroad in a backpack and around the country in a Subaru. And when my business started to take off, it was like, okay, well, You've gotten [00:33:13] out of needing an office. You now are, I was able, I shifted my business model so that I was working online already.
And it was like, okay, you have enough money. Now you can like choose where you want to live. Finally, after all these years of being a nomad,
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Molly Mandelberg: And like pick a place. And I was like, no, I still don't want to pick a place. Like I still want to be everywhere. My, my family is in Oregon and California and Colorado and Austin, Texas, and my friends are literally all over the planet and I like to go and visit people and spend time with them.
And I like to be outside in nature. So. Picking a place was still too hard. And instead of doing that, I decided, you know, how could I actually upgrade my life and make it easier to be me and run my business and have the comforts of home? Cause I love to cook and I love having a kitchen and I love a real bed.
And after all those years of car camping and a Subaru, I was like, I need a real mattress with me and we're going to do that. And I went and test drove an RV. And it was just [00:34:13] not for me. It was too big. I knew I would have to camp in campgrounds, which would cost more money. And people would know I was living in there which just felt a little less safe as a solo female traveler.
And so I started looking into this thing called vanlife, which was not as well known or popular four years ago or five years ago when I was thinking about it. And. Yeah. Started doing some research and kept trying to get my hands on a van and they kept getting bought before I could find them. And then finally got my hands on one and it took about two and a half years to really finish the whole build.
I didn't like stay put and like build it in a month. I like put the floor in, I put the first layer of installation in, and then I got on the road and I built the bed in Colorado. I built put the solar panels on in Minnesota. I wired in the fan. Finally, when I was in Asheville, North Carolina, because it was getting too hot.
Yeah. And just built it piece by piece as I was traveling in it full time. So it took a long time, but what was great about that was every single piece of it, I [00:35:13] appreciated so much because I had lived without it. Like I lived without a fridge for a year and a half. I was living out of a Yeti cooler. I was great at using a Yeti cooler and not letting my food go bad or get soggy.
But when I finally invested in, got around to installing the fridge, that was like a huge life upgrade.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
totally. Have you heard that Johnny Cash song one piece at a time or something like that? And he, yeah, that's what it reminds me of, but not as many years of parts.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): That's great. My nephew just got a van. He's he's 14, but he's gonna be working on it for a couple of years until he can drive and his term, he uses now as "bussin'", like, "oh, that's bussin'". meaning "that's cool".
I don't know if that's a
Molly Mandelberg: I love that. I'm going to use that.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I use it. It's good. But he, like, I'll say, "oh, how's your food?" "Bussin'" I just love it. You know, he's already that chill chill dude.
You mentioned you've been to 32 countries. Is there any way. That you are thinking about, oh, I want to go there next that you haven't gotten to [00:36:13] see?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. The one I, yeah, the been at the top of the list for a while is spending some time in Bali and I'm sort of, I want to lead a retreat in Bali also. And so I'm sort of in this in-between of like, am I just going to go for it and lead a retreat before I've gone and scoped it out? Or do I want to just go and spend some time there, but yeah, that's, Bali's the top of the list.
I also want to spend some time in Japan. But yeah, there's a couple of places that I sort of saved when I was younger and less spiritually evolved and less financially capable.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Molly Mandelberg: that would be more fun now.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, that's true. Yeah. If you don't, if you're not financially capable, as you said, which is a nice way to put it it would not be fun.
to go to Bali and.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah, well, Bali is probably cheaper to hang out and get around, but I used to be more of a partier and now I'm more attuned to treating my body well, and I think I was saving Bali till I was a little bit more evolved as a human being. And I was saving Japan because it's a little bit more expensive to travel around Japan.
Rabiah (Host): Of [00:37:13] cool. That's great.
One thing I like to ask people is and, you've talked quite a bit, but about different things that could be construed as advice or mantra, but do you have any advice or mantra that you'd just like to share that either you go to, or that you'd like to share with others?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of something called access consciousness, which is kind of like law of attraction, but like way more tangibly useful in my opinion. And one of the big things. That they preach is asking questions and living as a question. And one of the questions that I recommend people start asking and asking all day long and every day is how does it get any better than this?
And the key is you don't answer the question, you just ask it and let it hang in the air and see what shows up next. And oftentimes you'll find that something awesome shows up. And my big, like, Tweetable advice that I give at the end of every podcast that I run is ask big questions like that one and take bold action because you're here for a reason.
So for anybody out there listening, don't give [00:38:13] up hope on your dream being possible on your next level of being reachable, that you are capable of so much more than you believe you are right now. And it's okay to keep wondering what that looks like and moving toward it.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
And that reminds, that reminded me too, of just something I've learned is just to be open, like kind of like that guy didn't that we, in that story, didn't see the boat as a thing, or didn't see the, the be open to those things, not looking how you imagined. Right. But Yeah.
Hmm. Okay, cool. I love that.
Rabiah (Host): So I have a set of questions to ask.
And I guess that's how you guys all become a control group for something, who knows. But so what's, this, this'll be interesting for you since you're living more in a nomadic lifestyle, but what's the oldest t-shirt you have?
Molly Mandelberg: I literally I'm visiting my mom for the holidays right now and so I was literally just [00:39:13] cleaning out the drawers in my closet and her house because this stuff needs to go. I haven't seen it in years. That workshop I went to where I was studying past-life regression therapy and it became the beginning of my business,
I just found that shirt and decided that was keep it. I don't really wear t-shirts that often. And it was from Omega Institute and it has a big three entre on the front. And then I like
it. So I'm keeping that one. I mean, if we're going really far back, like. All my shirts from like playing sports as a kid.
And I just found my old cheerleading uniform from high school. Those things still exist in this closet here, but I don't wear it.
Rabiah (Host): Cool. All right. And one thing, especially like when everyone was really was isolating and stuff, it felt like Groundhog's Day, like in the movie. Everything was the same, so song would you have your alarm clock set to play every day if you were in Groundhog's Day, basically?
Molly Mandelberg: My favorite song of all time that I can't get sick of is called [00:40:13] San Jose by a band called the String Cheese Incident.
And that's that's my favorite band. And that's, that's my jam.
Rabiah (Host): Okay, cool. That's great. Coffee or tea or neither?
Molly Mandelberg: T I don't really drink caffeine, but I've gotten hooked on tea in the last couple of years.
Rabiah (Host): Is there a specific to you like, or
Molly Mandelberg: I'm really into Tulsi rose. And I like, I'm a two teabag per cup kind of person. So I usually mix in another thing, like some lemon or some something else to like, add to the Tulsi rose.
Rabiah (Host): cool. All right. And can you think of something that just makes you crack up when you think of it or maybe the last time you laughed so hard, you cried ?
Molly Mandelberg: I am really into jokes and telling jokes and hearing jokes and puns are my like favorite thing. The last time I laughed really hard. Like I couldn't stop laughing. it was really dumb. I was in the backseat and my boyfriend and my best friend were in the front seat and they were talking about something.
I wasn't really listening, but we had passed someone with a bunch of art in their yard [00:41:13] and they said like yard art. And then my boyfriend said "Yart!", and I don't know why, but I lost it and laughed about that for probably half an hour.
Rabiah (Host): those are great. And Yeah
it's tricky because you don't know how they're going to hit. My mom this morning. Maybe you'll like this. If I can remember it. Oh, she saw on some online, there was some, she was going to food like for holidays and someone had put in a wreath formation, like meats and cheeses and nuts.
And she's like oh, this is really cool. And I'm like, yeah, it's like a charcute-wreath.
Molly Mandelberg: Charcute-wreath, that's good.
Rabiah (Host): Thank you.
And this episode will come out in the new year, and it
won't be holidays anymore, but thank you because I'm going to even tell my mom, someone laughed at that.
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. We've been watching the old TV show of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm a big fan of the original movie, but I've been talked into watching the original series and there is this one scene where she's talking to her professor at college saying, you know, she's the vampire slayer and her [00:42:13] professor's like, oh, I thought you were a myth.
And she says, were mythstaken.
Rabiah (Host): perfect. Perfect.
Molly Mandelberg: I love it.
Rabiah (Host): That's great. All right, cool. And the last one, who inspires you right now?
Molly Mandelberg: Who inspires me right now? Great question. A lot of people. I mean, everyone that I work with right now, who's like persevering to show up and do great work in the world when the world is like chaos and destruction and fear and so much grief and pain. My clients inspire the hell out of me. And more locally, my best friend who I live with.
She's working full time and pregnant with
twins and. Has a two year old and is doing the mom and the life and the house and has her in-laws in town. Like I'm very much inspired by who she is and how she's running her life. Yeah, I'm not choosing to have kids and do all of that right now, but I'm inspired by the way she handled it.
She just finished [00:43:13] her PhD with a toddler and then got pregnant again.
And
yeah. Playing a big game. Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
exactly. Okay, cool. Well, this has been great. Is there anything that you want to promote where you I'm going to do show notes, I'll put your Etsy link and your website, but just, if you want to just tell people to look for you, if they want to do that right now?
Molly Mandelberg: Yeah. I mean, my website is Wild Hearts Rise Up dot com (wildheartsriseup.com) and if you go there, there's a tab with offerings and there's a bunch of free stuff. If you want to get a taste of, you know, the kind of content that I put out, there's a couple of quizzes. If you're thinking about peace with money, being fun for you, you can take the peace with money quiz.
It's called "What's Your Money Mindset Flavor?" and you get a little recipe in there. And then there's also a quiz for thought leaders. So if you're a entrepreneur who trades in wisdom and guidance, you want to reach more people and master the art of, you know, sharing your message and bringing that magic to the world.
That thought leader quiz is a great place to start. And there's also a link on my website that you could book a consult with me if you want to talk about working together one-on-one.
Rabiah (Host): Cool. All right. Well, thanks so much for doing this, Molly. It's been really fun to talk to you. [00:44:13]
Molly Mandelberg: thank you so much for having me and thank you everyone out there for being a podcast listener. We love you.
Rabiah (Host): Thanks for listening. You can learn more about the guests and what was talked about in the show notes. Joe Maffia created the music you're listening to. You can find him on Spotify at Joe M A F F I A. Rob Metke does all the design for which I am so grateful. You can find him online by searching Rob M E T K E.
Please leave a review if you like the show and get in touch if you have feedback or guest ideas, the pod is on all the social channels at, at more than work pod (@morethanworkpod) or at Rabiah Comedy (@rabiahcomedy) on TikTok. And the website is more than work pod dot com (morethanworkpod.com). While being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.
