Navigating the void space
Everything has a ripple effect. There’s a content creator I really enjoy watching who calls herself vanillamace. Her real name is Emily, but we’ll call her Vanilla here.
One fated day last summer, the Tiktok algorithm blessed me with one of Vanilla’s posts. The universe said it was her time to shine, and shine she did. Her post reached me just before she absolutely blew up and became a full time content creator. In just a few months, I watched as she captured the heart of the internet girlies far and wide, me included.
There was something fresh about her; something just so delightful about her energy. It was in her giggle, her sense of self-awareness, the way she freely shows up as herself. Her aura was simply magnetic in a way that cannot be faked or replicated. Dare I say - she taps into our collective yearning to heal our inner child? Put it all together, and she’s irresistible.
Funny enough, I remember coming across a podcast clip where Vanilla shared it wasn’t even her video that initially blew up - it was a fan edit. Out of curiosity, I began digging deeper and dipping my toes into her library of old vlogs and podcasts and started forming a bigger picture about her manifestation journey.
Some tidbits I picked up, relevant to what I’ve learned about manifestation:
For one, she knew streaming was something she always wanted to do. She would stream to like three of her friends back in 2017 playing Fortnite and have the absolute best time. And even though she dropped out of high school, she always had a knowing that financially, she would always be okay.
Eventually she moved to Boston and started working at a strip club as a waitress, which led to her joining the industry as a stripper. While working as a midnight ballerina, she began streaming again around 2021 and grew a ton in just a few months. A few times, she made enough to pay her rent with Twitch and starting going into work less and less. I’m sure looking back, this was a clear sign from the universe that she was headed in the right direction.
Then, a year and half before the famous video blew up, a psychic told her she was going to be famous, and to “get ready.” (She was like, get ready for what, bitch?!!). Shortly after, she began doing the Artist’s Way. I don’t know if she finished or not, because I didn’t watch all of her podcast videos, but I’m sure it helped a ton (as it did for me, too). In one of her vlogs close to her turning point, she shares that she knows content creation and streaming is going to work out for her, and that you need to be a little delulu about it.
The craziest part of her story was when the strip club she worked at BURNED DOWN one day. If that’s not a timeline shift, I don’t know what is!!
as someone who’s spent a significant amount of time in the void, it’s empowering to witness another woman succeed.
I’ve been actively practicing the art of JUST DOING whatever I’m called to do, without questioning why it’s lighting me up. Whether it’s working on blog posts, going live on Tiktok for the first time, taking a walk, treating myself to the snack I want, creating a voiceover Reel, showing up for myself even on the darkest, most confusing days - this is all part of the valuable work of moving through the unknown. Even though it seems arbitrary watching a content creator blow up, I’ve learned a surprising amount about myself and the universe just by watching her do the randomest things.
1. Own the void with confidence
Watching Vanilla’s old vlogs before the huge blowup, I witnessed a version of Vanilla existing in a state of complete trust in the universe: having fun at Ikea, going to the renaissance fair, hanging out with friends, completely unaware that her manifestation was around the fucking corner. At times I wished I could reach into the screen and scream… YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!! ME WATCHING THIS IS PROOF OF IT!!! YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE SOOOO FAMOUS!!!! But to be so real, she didn’t need it at all. It was a reminder to myself that all I need to do is keep showing up the best I can, and enjoy the process for what it is.
2. Every moment is progress, even when it doesn’t feel like it
By the time Vanilla went viral, her fans had a year’s worth of content to pull from. There were probably days she didn’t have energy to make content, and that’s completely by design!! The stage of her manifestation where her 3D hadn’t caught up to her was so crucial to her current success: to practice consistency without external validation, to sustain her future self mindset, to slowly integrate her nervous system to be able to accommodate an enormous influx of energy. If she’d gone viral right away, she wouldn’t have had a system or foundation to sustain the success long term. Success is a cumulation of every single day you have existed - whether or not you believe it was productive.
Back when I wrote this post (this is a rework of an old post I made on my Substack), I had been in the void for over 14 months. Time lost all meaning at that point. There were days where I felt like I didn’t make any progress at all, and yet I was a completely different person than I was 14 months before. Every single one of those days were valuable. They got me to that point, slowly and imperceptibly.
3. In the future, we will all get paid to exist
Lately I’ve been pondering the idea of getting paid to exist. People love to throw that phrase around, especially in the manifestation community… but what does that actually mean?! Something about watching Vanillamace made it click for me. She loves to yap, and we love when she yaps. Perfect!
I believe our future holds this possibility - that we will all get paid to exist. Not necessarily the way influencers currently do (I have thoughts on how that industry is about to get restructured), or that you will get paid just standing around in your house doing nothing, but in the sense that when we allow ourselves to exist in our truest expression of self, we become the person capable of embodying our wildest manifestations. In that vibration, “work” becomes something intertwined with who you naturally are. Getting paid to exist is completely aligned from this framework.
4. Your impact is greater than you’ll ever know
Something about the way Vanilla is helped me, and something about the way I am has done the same for other people. Everyone has something about the way they are. The point isn’t to know what that is, necessarily, but acknowledging that your existence is impactful to the collective plot in incomprehensible ways.
In the following weeks after hosting my free advice tables, I’ve heard from multiple people that my lighthearted advice has genuinely helped people. I really wasn’t expecting that, but every time I’ve gotten that feedback it’s kinda magical! We are frequency beings!! We are constantly exchanging, alchemizing, giving, and taking energy. and energy never dies! You may not always see the impact, but it’s always making a difference.
