The Truth About Manifestation and Reclaiming Your Intuition
Release Date: 04/16/2026
Are Facebook Ads Still Worth It in 2026? with Claire Pelletreau
Play It Brave Podcast
Facebook ads have made me millions, and they've also cost me sixty thousand dollars in a single agency contract. After a year and a half of mostly not running them, I'm turning my ads back on, so I sat down with Claire Pelletreau, creator of Absolute FB Ads and the teacher my team learned from, to ask everything I wanted to know before spending my own money again. We talk about her one simple ad, why complicated targeting has given way to ads that do the targeting themselves, why cheap leads are so often the wrong leads, how long to leave an ad alone, and how a luxury wedding photographer with...
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Twenty Wool Throws and a Midlife Crisis: How Christina McGarvey Built Millcreek Manor
Play It Brave Podcast
Christina McGarvey grew up in a dilapidated Victorian farmhouse in Petersboro, Utah, watching her mother hang wallpaper, lay floors, and carve her own four-poster bed on a lathe. Decades later she built her own dream home, lost her sister, her mother, her father and her uncle in a single year, and somewhere inside that grief started selling the things she loved on Instagram. Today Millcreek Manor fills a 7,000-square-foot warehouse with antiques shipped by the container from England and Scotland, and a 440-piece container sold out in one weekend. We talk about whether good taste can be...
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You've Changed. Has Your Brand?
Play It Brave Podcast
For years, I recognized Pamela Anderson without knowing much about the woman behind the image. Seeing her differently made me question what I’d overlooked—and how often people do the same with us. In this solo episode, I explore what happens when your brand keeps introducing an earlier version of you. I share my own evolution from photography into coaching and writing, a lesson from helping rebrand a client, and three questions to help you see whether your brand reflects the work you want to do now.
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Your Talent Isn't the Problem. Your Brand Might Be.
Play It Brave Podcast
You can be extraordinary at what you do and still have a brand that makes strangers scroll right past you. In this episode, D'Arcy sits down with brand strategist and researcher Dr. Chelsea Shields to show you what a brand actually does, and it's a lot more than a logo, a palette, or a pretty website. They walk through real before-and-afters: a beauty brand that renamed itself so it could grow, a billion-dollar health company that traded its muscle-man logo for a story nobody can argue with, and the leadership brand D'Arcy and Chelsea rebuilt together, down to the one word on the homepage her...
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Healing the Collective Fear of Being Seen
Play It Brave Podcast
If your brand feels beige, the question may go deeper than fonts, photographs, or a new website. What happens when being unmistakably yourself still feels unsafe? After visiting Glastonbury, D’Arcy explores the fear of being seen through the archetype of the “dangerous woman,” the patterns women may carry through family and culture, and the ways we edit our gifts to remain acceptable. She offers a different understanding of safety: trusting yourself to meet criticism, misunderstanding, or rejection without abandoning who you are. For the artists, healers, intuitives, and women building...
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Stop Playing It Beige: 3 Brand Mistakes Making You Invisible
Play It Brave Podcast
There are more tools than ever to create a beautiful brand — so why are so many businesses starting to look exactly the same? In this episode, D’Arcy sits down with anthropologist and consumer researcher Dr. Chelsea Shields to unpack three mistakes they see even incredibly talented businesses making: playing it too safe, building from inside their own perspective instead of understanding the buyer, and creating a brand that may be beautiful but isn’t distinctive enough to be remembered. They talk about why your greatest differentiator may be the thing you can’t see in yourself, what...
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She Made Hundreds of Thousands—Then Walked Away: How India Earl Reinvented Her Business & Life
Play It Brave Podcast
What happens when you build the business everyone else dreams about—and realize you don’t want to live that life anymore? India Earl had become one of the most recognizable photographers in her industry. She traveled the world, had clients waiting years to work with her, built an enormous audience, and created an education business capable of generating hundreds of thousands of dollars. From the outside, it looked like extraordinary success. Inside, she was exhausted. India originally hired D’Arcy because she thought they were going to make the business even bigger: better funnels,...
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How to Multiply the Money From Every Job
Play It Brave Podcast
What if one job didn’t have to equal one payday? Most of us finish the work, get paid, deliver what we promised — and immediately start hunting for the next client. But there may be far more money sitting inside work you’ve already created. In this short episode, D’Arcy shares a simple way to look at every finished job through three lenses: NOW — the money it makes today. AGAIN — how the same work can be sold, packaged or used again. POSSIBLE — the referrals, reputation, relationships and future opportunities it can create. You’ll hear what this looks like for photographers,...
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How I Made $7,000 in Print Sales in One Hour
Play It Brave Podcast
I charged $4,500 to photograph the wedding. Then the mother of the bride logged into the gallery and, within about an hour, ordered $7,000 in prints. And she came back and ordered even more. That experience completely changed the way I thought about what happens after a photographer delivers the images. We spend so much time trying to book the next client that we often forget there is revenue, marketing, referrals and future business sitting inside work we've already created. In this episode, I'm breaking down how I've used galleries, physical prints, albums and vendor relationships to make...
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My Ode to Dolly
Play It Brave Podcast
What did Dolly Parton believe about herself before the rest of the world believed it too? In this tribute to Dolly, D’Arcy explores the beliefs underneath an extraordinary creative life: letting yourself want something enormous, refusing to tone down what makes you different, knowing when gratitude doesn’t require staying, continuing to create when the market moves on, and making something simply because it needs to exist. The question underneath all of it: what do you already know about your life that you keep asking the room to approve?
info_outlineOn this episode of the Play It Brave podcast, I’m taking a conversation I started on Instagram and going deeper into something I care deeply about: manifestation, intuition, and personal power.
Because here’s the truth, I don’t believe you when you say you don’t know who you are or what you want.
I say that with love.
What I’ve found, both in my own life and in working with so many of you, is that “not knowing” is often a protection mechanism. It’s a way we stay safe from the courage, change, and disruption that comes with actually claiming what we want.
So today, I’m breaking down what manifestation really is and what it is not, why your intuition isn’t missing, and how subconscious patterns may be quietly running your life and your business.
Key Takeaways
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Manifestation isn’t broken. You’re just stuck on the first floor
Writing lists, vision boards, and affirmations aren’t wrong. They are just the beginning. True co-creation requires stepping into your power as a sovereign adult, not staying in a childlike wish and hope dynamic. -
Most of what you think you want isn’t actually yours
Your dream life may be shaped by culture, family, religion, or social media. Real manifestation begins when you ask: is this truly my desire, or something I’ve been taught to want? -
You don’t lack intuition. You’re afraid to follow it
Intuition often asks you to make hard choices, face uncertainty, or let go of what feels safe. Most people don’t want clearer intuition. They want a version that guarantees comfort and certainty. -
“I don’t know what I want” is often a protective pattern
When following your truth feels too costly, whether emotionally, financially, or socially, you learn to shut it down. Not knowing becomes a way to avoid the consequences of knowing. -
Your power leaks in three key places
Will I still belong if I change?
Will I be safe financially, physically, or emotionally?
Will I be judged, envied, or rejected if I grow? -
Subconscious patterns shape what you believe you’re allowed to have
Whether it’s tying love to achievement, suppressing your needs, or making yourself smaller to be accepted, these patterns directly impact what you try to manifest. -
You can’t out-strategize a subconscious block
No marketing plan, sales funnel, or branding strategy can override beliefs like “I’m not allowed to be seen” or “I have to earn love.” This is identity work, not just business strategy. -
Receiving is often harder than giving
Many of us are conditioned to overgive because it feels safe. Receiving love, support, money, and rest can feel uncomfortable or even threatening to the nervous system. -
Transformation happens in the body, not just the mind
Real change comes from identifying and rewriting subconscious agreements you made long ago. It is not just about thinking differently, but embodying something new. -
You likely already know your path. You’ve just been choosing not to know
The real question isn’t what you want. It’s whether you’re willing to stop avoiding it and become the person who can hold it.
If there’s one thing I want you to take with you, it’s this:
You are not lost. You are not confused. You are not lacking clarity.
You already know.
Maybe not every detail, but the direction, the desire, the truth of who you are has been there for a long time.
The real work is having the courage to release the patterns that have been keeping you small.
Manifestation is not about asking for more. It is about becoming the version of you who can receive it.
Book your Receiving Map session here