Tasha and Brandon Skillin, founders of Rules and Rebellion, smiling together — guests on the Podcasting Problem Solver podcast episode about vision board for high achievers.

Vision Board for High Achievers to Stop Abandoning Your Own Goals with Tasha and Brandon Skillin

You’ve got the vision. You’re doing the work. But without something anchoring you to what you actually want day to day, it’s easy to drift back into the to-do list, back into other people’s expectations, back into the swamp. If you’re a high achiever, that’s exactly what this episode is about, and how the vision board for high achievers that Tasha and Brandon Skillin share today is the tool that changes it.

This is part two of our conversation with Tasha and Brandon Skillin, founders of Rules and Rebellion. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, go back and start there. They lay the foundation that makes this conversation land, and today is where it gets practical.

Tasha and Brandon are a married coaching team who help high-achieving entrepreneurs break hustle culture patterns and build something sustainable by getting unshakable in their boundaries and capacity. And in this episode, they’re breaking down the tool that holds all of it together: the vision board, but not the magazine-collage version you’re already rolling your eyes at.

Here’s what we cover in part one:

Why vision boards for high achievers are a nervous system tool that trains your brain to stop treating your own goals like a threat
How vision board neuroscience works, and why sensory familiarity with your goals is what actually makes achieving them feel inevitable instead of activating
The difference between a vision board that collects dust and one that becomes a daily practice, and the simple placement strategy that makes it actually work
Why overcoming perfectionism is one of the biggest barriers to even starting this process, and how that same perfectionism shows up disguised as “I just need to work harder”
Who this work is really built for: high achievers with ADHD, chronic illness, complex lives, and a lot of spinning plates who need a way to come back to themselves without adding another thing to the list
How to stop abandoning yourself, not as a concept, but as a daily, repeatable practice you can actually build into the pockets of time you already have

The vision board isn’t a shrine. It’s a tool. The moment you stop treating it like something precious and start using it like something practical is the moment it actually starts working for you.

“I’ll be damned if I am going to let somebody else tell me how I’m going to show up in my day-to-day life.” — Tasha Skillin

Find Tasha and Brandon at Rules and Rebellion and follow them for more on their work with high-achieving entrepreneurs who are ready to stop performing and start building something that’s actually theirs.

If you’re ready to stop chasing goals that were never really yours and start building toward the version of yourself you actually want to become, check out their workshop Boldly Becoming You at rulesandrebellion.com/boldlybecomingyou.

Meet Tasha and Brandon Skillin

Tasha and Brandon Skillin are a married coaching team that helps business owners break hustle culture patterns so they can build a business that they can actually sustain by becoming unshakable in their boundaries and capacity.

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Boldly Becoming You

4 Perfectionism Patterns Keeping You Stuck

Transcript

Welcome Back to the Podcasting Problem Solver

Leah Bryant [00:00:03 - 00:00:35]:
[00:00:03] Welcome back to the Podcasting Problem Solver. [00:00:05] I'm Leah Bryant, and this is part two of our bonus series this week. [00:00:10] If you haven't listened to part one, please go back and do so. [00:00:13] Tasha and Brandon built this whole foundation there, and you're really going to want to go hear it if you're all caught up. [00:00:20] Today is where it all gets practical. [00:00:23] We're getting into the tool that holds everything together that we talked about in part one and who this is really for. [00:00:29] And by the end, Tasha and Brandon have something coming up that I really want you to hear about. [00:00:34] So let's get into it.

Vision Boards as a Practical Productivity Tool

Addressing Vision Board Skepticism

Leah Bryant [00:00:35 - 00:01:27]:
[00:00:35] I would love to talk about the tool that you use to hold all of this, because this is also a part of the process that I think that people underestimate. [00:00:49] Yeah, Vision boards. [00:00:51] And I know that that phrase is going to land very differently depending on who's listening and also who you're talking to, because some people are either all in. [00:01:07] You have some people who are quietly skeptical, and I would love it if you could talk to them. [00:01:16] Like, beyond the, you know, magazine collage version that we all grew up with, how do you think about the vision board and what it's doing?

Tasha Skillin [00:01:28 - 00:02:21]:
[00:01:28] So I also, when I hear the term vision board, cringe a little on the inside because of the early 2000s introduction that I got to them. [00:01:38] The craft project that never ends. [00:01:40] There's stacks of magazines half cut up in the corner for a lot of people that I knew at the time who were doing them. [00:01:47] It was looked at for about three weeks, and then it kind of fell behind a desk or it fell behind. [00:01:51] It got dust on, like, never looked at it again. [00:01:53] So it makes sense to me that the word vision boards is, like, a little tweaky for a lot of us, or people feel a lot of pressure with vision boards, which is what my experience was for the most part before I kind of revisited the idea and the intention of what it's supposed to be doing. [00:02:10] I just ask that you be open to it turning into a tool that you use to carry you through the swamp. [00:02:17] Essentially a tool that keeps you focused on.

The Neuroscience and Psychology Behind Vision Boards

Tasha Skillin [00:02:21 - 00:03:06]:
[00:02:21] As cheesy as it sounds, your North Star keeps you focused on getting to the other side of the swamp. [00:02:27] And for me, that's what it's become. [00:02:28] Over the years. [00:02:29] I've done a lot of research on neuroscience just for my own recovery. [00:02:33] And what I've learned about the brain and how human behavior works is that the more familiar we are with something, the more our eyes, our ears, even our Smell all of our senses. [00:02:44] The more sensory familiarity we have to something, the less activated we get. [00:02:50] So we don't have a stress response, we don't freak out, we don't shut down, we don't go into panic mode when something's familiar. [00:02:56] When you think about goals, which is what the vision board is intended to like represent a visual of where you want to go and the things you want and the experiences you want to have.

Vision Boards for Managing Stress and Achieving Goals

Tasha Skillin [00:03:06 - 00:05:04]:
[00:03:06] If you're looking at this vision board and its goals and it's beyond where you are, everything's unfamiliar. [00:03:13] So a lot of the time it's going to activate stress response. [00:03:16] And for me, who was already living in a chronically dysregulated state of being high achievers who are hyper productivity based people pleasers, it immediately went from ambition and excitement, enthusiasm within a day or two of designing them, to pressure and anxiety. [00:03:33] And when I redid the whole thing for myself and create, not even thinking I was creating a vision board, it's just I need to be reminded of what I want so that I can start practicing being someone who doesn't abandon myself for the expectations and the obligations that Brandon was talking about. [00:03:50] And so the vision boards became a representation not of just of where I'm going in the near future. [00:03:55] Because that's the other part. [00:03:56] You don't need to have vision boards for something that's 10 times further from where you are because that's too activating for most of us when it comes to nervous systems. [00:04:03] It also needs to serve as a day to day practice of supporting the skills, habits, environment that I want to have, supporting the thoughts that I need to rewire.

Tasha Skillin [00:04:12 - 00:05:04]:
[00:04:12] So if you have a limiting belief like I'm scared of disappointing people, I'm scared of disappointing my parents, an example would be on your vision board having something that says it's safe to disappoint everyone but myself or something along those lines. [00:04:26] And the wording is important because it needs to resonate with you, it needs to be in your own language. [00:04:29] Some of our clients who do vision boards in our workshop have sassier language, which is great because it needs to speak to how your internal thoughts actually happen. [00:04:38] But the intention is for the vision board to be essentially a guardrail for those of us with adhd. [00:04:44] Right. [00:04:44] The guardrail keeps us focused on the things we have prioritized rather than 85 different ideas that we have along the way. [00:04:50] And also a pep rally for your inner child, you know, the 6 year old, the 12 year old, the 17 year old who was told you're too much, you're too big. [00:05:00] You need to perform, you need to be productive, you need to be useful in order for us to give you support.

Breaking Free from Societal Expectations

Tasha Skillin [00:05:05 - 00:07:39]:
[00:05:05] That's where that overachiever was born. [00:05:08] That's where we learn to prioritize the expectations and obligations and the rules of the outside world rather than what is our inner guidance guiding us to. [00:05:17] When we are reminded every day throughout the day that I don't want to abandon myself more than I don't want to do anything else more than I want to not disappoint somebody else, it becomes normal and familiar. [00:05:31] And achieving your goals just becomes inevitable because you're essentially training yourself to be the version of you who already has those things through the visual component, using them as a tool of like intentionally looking at them, reading the language you have on there, helping your nervous system feel safe in those experiences. [00:05:47] And there's multiple layers of how to actually integrate that concept into your day to day life. [00:05:52] But just having the visual reminders, actually, I was thinking I shared in our stories today. [00:05:56] I was in the bath last night doing some downregulation before bed and I was watching a great interview with Amy Poehler and Kerry Washington having a really good conversation. [00:06:05] And literally within 35 minutes of this episode, seven ads came through YouTube.

Tasha Skillin [00:06:12 - 00:07:39]:
[00:06:12] Okay, fine. [00:06:12] That's my price that I have to pay if I am not going to be paying for YouTube. [00:06:17] Right? ... [00:07:56] And so that is, that is the passion I have for vision boards being reinvented as a tool to hack your brain, to not abandon yourself, and to really make sure that when you're 120 years old, living on your deathbed, looking back at your life, you're thinking, left nothing on the table. [00:08:14] The, the whole thing was just me living my full, full, full life.

How to Use Vision Boards Daily

Making Vision Boards Practical and Accessible

Leah Bryant [00:08:19 - 00:08:59]:
[00:08:19] Yes. [00:08:20] And I've worked hard for these 46 year old dark spots, thank you very much. [00:08:24] I don't want to get rid of. ... [00:08:38] Because I think maybe this is a selfish question because I think that building it is one thing, but the maintenance and like using it is where I'm gonna say most people, but really Leah is going to lose it and like is gonna end up on a shelf collecting dust and not being utilized.

Brandon Skillin [00:09:00 - 00:09:05]:
[00:09:00] So I'm gonna tell you to stop treating it as this precious thing.

Tasha Skillin [00:09:06 - 00:09:06]:
[00:09:06] Ooh.

Brandon Skillin [00:09:06 - 00:10:36]:
[00:09:06] And use it as a tool. [00:09:08] And so like when I print my vision boards out, I also postcard sizes and I fold it up and I put it in my wallet. ... [00:10:26] And as we hit things that were on the vision board, we physically on the vision board, like checked it off because it wasn't so precious that it became we were afraid to touch it, use it, interact with it.

Tasha Skillin [00:10:37 - 00:11:16]:
[00:10:37] I would just say if you have vision boards, put one at your bathroom mirror where you brush your teeth. ... [00:11:02] But how to just pay attention to that, that vision, the words, the images, the experiences, the feelings, the whole thing, just those two places, you're gonna see substantial change in your day to day decision making to become the version of yourself who is prepared for those goals.

Consistency, Focus, and Achieving Podcasting Goals

Leah Bryant [00:11:17 - 00:11:42]:
[00:11:17] I love that too, because time, energy, consistency. ... [00:11:39] So the vision board keeps you essentially from drifting.

Leah Bryant [00:11:42 - 00:12:05]:
[00:11:42] It's like you said earlier, not to be cliche, it's like that North Star that, like, helps you. ... [00:11:58] Obviously, we talked about a lot about high achievers, but other than high achievers, who could potentially benefit from this?

Who Benefits Most from Vision Boards?

Tasha Skillin [00:12:05 - 00:14:04]:
[00:12:05] So the people that we see need this the most that really benefit from that extra support of having that direction day in and day out are the people that have really complicated, complex, multi layered lives. ... [00:14:00] And it's those people that have those complexities that this is so, so important for.

Overcoming Mindset Blocks and Perfectionism

Leah Bryant [00:14:05 - 00:14:21]:
[00:14:05] I love that so much. [00:14:07] What do you think is the story that people tell themselves that stop them from doing this? ...

Brandon Skillin [00:14:23 - 00:16:04]:
[00:14:23] We talked about this on a live, I think earlier this week or last and when you're fed the line over and over and over again, that the way in which you get more is by working harder and Doing more after a while, like, well, what do I need to worry about where or how it's coming from? ... [00:15:58] And then we spend so much time working so hard for other people's goals that we don't have time for our own.

The Impact of Vision Boards on Personal and Professional Growth

Leah Bryant [00:18:10 - 00:18:29]:
[00:18:10] I would love to know, is there a moment that sticks with you from someone you've worked with, something that reminded you exactly why this matters? ...

Tasha Skillin [00:18:29 - 00:20:52]:
[00:18:29] So I mean we both could tell you dozens of stories, but one I think that we both come to pretty frequently. ... [00:20:47] So I think that's probably one of our favorite stories that we get to witness and feel so grateful.

Tasha Skillin [00:20:52 - 00:20:53]:
[00:20:52] We get to see and support.

The Boldly Becoming You Workshop

Leah Bryant [00:20:54 - 00:21:14]:
[00:20:54] What a testament to your work. [00:20:56] I love it so much. ... [00:21:10] I know that you have something coming up that might help them. [00:21:12] I would love for you to share it with our audience.

Tasha Skillin [00:21:15 - 00:23:34]:
[00:21:15] So the Boldly Becoming youg Workshop is coming up on April 24th and 25th. ... [00:23:33] Is there anything I left out?

Brandon Skillin [00:23:34 - 00:25:30]:
[00:23:34] The thing that I want to really make sure that everybody hears is your goals are not a finite moment. ... [00:25:25] And let's also make sure that the goals that you have fit into it so that you can have all of it.

Vision Boards and the Power of Purposeful Action

Leah Bryant [00:25:31 - 00:26:19]:
[00:25:31] Oh, my gosh, yes, please. [00:25:33] And thank you. ... [00:26:10] All right, everyone, remember, keep your podcast purposeful, keep showing up for what you actually want, and keep your growth seamless. [00:26:18] And I'll see you next time.

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Hi, I’m Leah

Your go-to podcast growth strategist, coach, and host of Podcasting Problem Solver

Podcasting Problem solver podcast by Leah Bryant