Sage Voices: Exploring the Path to Living Magically with Gillian Viljoen | Interview Series | Magical Michelle Orwick

Embark on a transformative exploration with Magical Michelle and her guest, Gillian—a personal development coach with an engineering past and a heart full of dreams. Together, we unravel the threads of living an authentic life and the profound impact of our cross-continental magical Monday meetings. With Gillian's shift from the structured world of engineering to the flowing currents of personal growth, she illuminates the path for others seeking alignment in their intentions and actions. Our soul-stirring dialogue uncovers the transformative power of "love leadership," a beacon that guides us to reignite passion and purpose in our daily lives.

This heart-to-heart isn't just about professional journeys; it's a celebration of crafting a life that's as magical and unique as you are. Breaking free from societal molds, we discuss the importance of personal leadership and making choices that resonate with your innermost joy. From the enchantment of everyday miracles to the rhythm of natural cycles, we share ways to harness balance and progress. Listen closely, as this episode is imbued with synchronicities and the unconventional magic of accountability, reminding us that despite the distances that may separate us, we're all connected in our quest for a dream life that's unapologetically ours.

Are you ready to dive deeper into the wisdom and teachings of Gillian Viljoen? Explore further here: https://linktr.ee/gillbedragon

Transcript

Magical Michelle Orwick: 0:18

Welcome to Living Magically. I'm your host, michelle Orwick. Some of you know me as Magical Michelle. I'm your host, Michelle Orwick. Some of you know me as Magical Michelle, and if you don't know me, you should go to MagicalMichelle. com and get your free gift 22 Days of Magic. And for those of you who are joining in, this is my favorite weekly accountability buddy, Gillian, and if you loved 22 Days of Magic, it's actually her that inspired me to do that series and so I really wanted to bring her on. She does this incredible coaching and for years, years now, since 2020, January of 2020, she and I have met weekly as Magical Accountability Partners, and I'd really love to introduce you to Gillian, and I'd love you to give a little brief bio about yourself and how they can get a hold of you.

Gillian Viljoen: 1:21

Yes, thank you. I'm Gillian personal development coach coach, who was an engineer and project manager, so I've walked on the side of corporate and big companies and I really just believe that life is for living authentically and as easily as we can make it, even though sometimes it's a bit challenging. I'm on Facebook with my name, which I'm sure you'll post Gillian Viljoen, so probably not the easiest surname. And yes, I love coaching people to create their own life and the life that they love, and to enjoy it while they're creating it. So that's really my passion project.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 2:06

I love that. She also has really inspired me over and over again and I kind of want to take today's interview sort of through what she and I do every Monday, and so my shtick is, of course, magical Mondays. But every single Monday I get up before I normally do and I get on a fun Zoom call. Now everybody know that she and I are in completely different continents, so, like right now, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning on a Monday, but for her, what time is it there in South Africa?

Gillian Viljoen: 2:47

Yeah, it's four o'clock in the morning on a Monday, but for her, what time is it there in South Africa? Yeah, it's four o'clock. So different season, different time zone, different hemisphere, different continent.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 2:57

And yet the magic's the same right Absolutely. And what I love about it is I'm having my morning tea and she's like it might be ready for a cocktail or getting ready for dinner, and as far as I'm concerned it doesn't really matter. But a lot of times what will happen and this is what I think is so much fun about it is that we bring ourselves really authentic to the table. And that means on a bad day, if one of us is like, oh my gosh, I don't want to do this work anymore, or I lost my magic, or oh my goodness, this has happened in my personal life and it's it's throwing off my work life, this becomes a reset button. This situation that's not a situation, this magical event that we have every week, becomes a reset point, wouldn't you say?

Gillian Viljoen: 4:01

Yeah, and I think also, um, I mean, if you research and google sort of traditional accountability partners, it's a lot more rigid and a lot more structured, a lot more like school so yeah, we don't.

Gillian Viljoen: 4:19

We're not traditional, anything, neither is our work, yeah, and that and that's what I wanted to emphasize is like unconventional works well, it works really well to every week. I love it as well because it's we set our intentions and we accept that. Sometimes, yeah, our life goes on its own little path during the week, but how often does it happen that we're on the same page as well, that very similar things have happened across the ocean? We both had like a bad conversation with someone, or we both lost all energy and focus and what we want to do, or we both suddenly in full of doubt. We're suddenly on fire because so many things have happened.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 5:03

Often, it often happens that we're we're actually riding the same wave oh yeah, sometimes we're like we both have created a whole new program in a week. You never know, um. And so one of the things we do is we always pull cards. We pull from this um, I usually pull from the beyond lumeria deck and we always pull a card and then we kind of analyze where that is in our lives. I love this. This is the luminescence and she's holding her heart, like just shining with her heart, and so I feel like that for this week really illuminates something that I'm going through. So this is kind of how we do it.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 5:51

I'm going to say where it kind of illuminates for me is that I've come up with a new term for myself, which is love leader. I'm not necessarily a thought leader, I'm a love leader and I want to lead with my heart and I want to lead with love, and there's been a bit of reinvigorating my heart lately and really working on that brain, heart coherence. So that's kind of where it landed for me. How about you, jillian?

Gillian Viljoen: 6:20

well, first of all, I absolutely love that. I've always thought of myself as lead with love, so I really love the thought of the name Love Leader. Yeah, the luminescence for me is also, I mean, even being on this call. I mean, you know me, three years ago I couldn't have done this interview that's going to be on YouTube and broadcast to your entire community, because I was nervous of being on camera, and this last week and this week I'm really committed to showing up in lives and Facebook and showing my authentic self, and because I really am passionate about attracting the kind of clients that I know I will be great with, which is, the people who are changing their lives and really serious about it, so that that luminescence is exactly that.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 7:15

And you do have this. You do have this light inside of you and and I think that anytime you have soul based entrepreneurship, which is what we are and what our clients are and what our audience is we're always wanting to lead with love and miracles and magic. And she was very helpful A couple of years ago. I was I wouldn't say I was ready to quit, but I certainly had this moment where I was like, am I doing the right thing? And she led me through this journey. Of these magical questions, there's nothing I can say other than they were magical to reset what my real, authentic truth was and to help me get my North Star. So she's very practical and yet helps me bring back my magic.

Gillian Viljoen: 8:21

Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's something I believe and so um profoundly and have seen happen in my life, which is this idea that um well, we, we need a north star. We and I always think of migrating um. I live in Cape Town, we get, we get the whales come past um on their annual migration from the south pole, and I always think of having the North Star is like having the migration route. You've got to know the direction you're going, you've got to know where you want to go and why, but the day-to-day actions can often be unclear.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 9:02

Sorry, I hope I'm not like babies much. They're always. They're always joining the calls don't they?

Gillian Viljoen: 9:10

um, but one of the things that I found and this is where the magic also happens is that sometimes we're not really clear on what we need to do right now, but I always believe we must take. There's always some direction we can go, whether it's metaphorically just clearing brushwood off the path. And what I found so often in my life, as you've witnessed, is that sometimes we work really hard at something because we don't know what to do. So the only thing we know to do is say one thing.

Gillian Viljoen: 9:42

And I'm thinking of when I first came to Cape Town and I was looking for work and I filled in I don't know how many resumes and had interviews with all these different agents, and then I ended up getting a job with a. It was my father's cousin's, friend's son-in-law. It was some strange connection, but it's that magic of sending out the word to the universe through your actions and activities. So you've got to be taking action, because that's the only way you learn and decide what you want and get the idea clearer in your mind. And then strange opportunities, magical opportunities open up, and that's why you need that.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 10:29

Sorry, mindset Right Absolutely and up, and that's why you need that health star. Sorry, like it's mindset right absolutely. And I know what you're really good at is taking a project and helping someone actually get clear on how to do it, when to do it and how not to be overwhelmed while doing it yeah, and the sequence, because it's so easy to want.

Gillian Viljoen: 10:47

I do as well, we both do so. We want to do everything all at once because we want, we want it done already and yeah, unfortunately 3d time is a reality and we just there's sometimes we just need to get this piece done before the next piece yeah, marissa and I came home from a conference and we were so excited because there's, it's this new thing, and we're like, and we're going to do this and we're going to do that and we're going to do that.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 11:14

And we had to look at each other and go and we're going to do it one at a time, aren't we exactly? So we had to lay down on paper what order our priorities were.

Gillian Viljoen: 11:26

Yeah, and and that's all.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 11:29

It just all comes together sometimes there's this like little bit of organic planning that allows for the foundation of magic. So it's it's kind of I tell people when you're creating magic, there's, there's two, there's there's two ways. There's that thing where you follow a recipe to the tea. And then there's that other way where you know the recipe so well that you can look at and go, oh but here let's take those chocolate chips and sprinkle those on top of that recipe. That'll make it better.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 12:06

And oh, and maybe, maybe I want some coconut, and that's how they, you know, get one of those cookies that's like an everything cookie. It's an oatmeal cookie, but oh, but we're going to sprinkle some chocolate chips and we're going to sprinkle some, some coconut, and now we've got a magic cookie. And I feel like that's kind of what we do, is we help each other and our clients get a structure and then we sprinkle in the magic to make it better.

Gillian Viljoen: 12:40

And to make it more personal. I think that's the other key ingredient. The other key ingredient because the more conventional, mainstream, shall we say, the strict recipe followers will also not accommodate for intuition and not accommodate for personal capabilities. And I don't know like I like to wake up in the morning and you like to work late at night. Something as simple as that can affect, like how you want to implement something, or what you dream of doing, or what your dream life looks like. I mean, I know we both love travel, so we've got that for sure in common.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 13:51

Oh yeah, we both now made our lives available to travel and do work from wherever we are and make our I don't even know if I want to call it work, but our passion, make it transportable and be able to do our passion wherever we are, have it fit into our lives and our lifestyle instead of having to meet a traditional standard. And I know we can help people and we do help people get that life freedom. I think freedom is the word that you and I meet on that. That's a true value for both of us absolutely.

Gillian Viljoen: 14:06

Yeah, that's the freedom. Freedom and a sense of purpose I think those are the two sort of most most important um to me is like living authentically and having my freedom to do so because I think that's probably where the freedom is is curbed when we, when we're not creating our own life, we can end up having to live by other people's rules and then not be fully self-expressed yeah, so living authentically, soul, purposely, with our freedom.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 14:39

And and yet the only way to do that and this is, I think, the big thing that you and I have given each other and that we give other people is consistency is key, right, creating routine habits and, like I may be able to work from anywhere, but I still have to get up and I still have to do my meditation and I still need to get on the internet and check my social media, like certain consistent things that allow for the freedom to actually be possible.

Gillian Viljoen: 15:14

Yeah, and I think that's such a common. I think we all well, not all, but a lot of the people I've worked with it's a limiting belief and a subconscious belief that we grow up with is that responsibility and commitment and consistency are the opposite of freedom, whereas actually, if you have some structure and it doesn't have to be consistency like the military, every single day, forever and ever I mean, you and I work in seasons, so if it's a travel season, the consistency might look different from the consistency if it's an at-home planting season, but there's still the structure that you agreed to, whether it's for the next two weeks or the next three months, and I think that's what's so important. That gives you freedom. Otherwise, you're actually just floating around and letting life let you land wherever it does you say this?

Magical Michelle Orwick: 16:17

but that's exactly the structure that I'm talking about, because I'm getting ready to be gone for a month to Egypt and so here I am, in my structure, in my plan, doing these interviews so that I can be prepared to literally be off. So that's exactly what you're talking about with the structures. How do you come up with with these concepts and build in?

Gillian Viljoen: 16:48

I'm going to just say this build in success and make it inevitable, and that's what I think is is one of our, one of our secret, magical superpowers yes, and helping other people to see theirs, because I mean, for someone else, perhaps having a nice little cottage at the ocean where they never have to leave it at all could be their dream success, where they can just sit in that cottage and write, and hibernate and so on and and farm and live with the land. And I know people like that. And the idea of having to leave home every few months to go travel would feel stressful. And it doesn't matter what your dream is, but it does matter that your dream is actually your dream and not your parents or your society or the old one that you've maybe outgrown. And I think we work with a lot of people who, coming to terms with an outgrown idea and really learning to commit fully and embrace and sort of charter from the rooftops their current dream- To create their dream life, whatever that dream is.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 18:09

So I think that's our advocacy, I advocate and Jillian advocates for figure out what joy means to you and go seek that with like like a thousand flying dragons are behind you are behind you, absolutely, yeah, and I actually did a live today on this as well.

Gillian Viljoen: 18:35

It's about when you said, a love leader. It's about taking leadership in your life, which also sounds sometimes quite heavy and like a leader and CEO of my life. It all sounds very back to structure. But a leadership in your own life means making those choices and saying you know what? I no longer want to live in a big house or I no longer want to have this job. That makes me mad and that, well, I no longer want to. And sometimes it's like be with that person or be in that organization or whatever it is, and you, and always, of course, that I no longer want is completely accompanied by because I want this. And I think I mean that's where it always starts with what is your dream and how does that really suit your soul? And once you have that in place, then the rest is kind of just, let's say it's the mechanics of going through the motions thing.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 19:31

It's eliminating everything that isn't your dream right if you have your clear-cut vision. It's getting rid of any habit that doesn't support that, getting rid of anything that you can complete or finish or is no longer serving you, and leaning into more habits and more experiences that are going to be a daily magical experience. And and that's how, every day I get to have some kind of fricking miracle magic happen. It's usually unexpected, Sometimes it can be expected, because magic can be very clear cut in that you know exactly what you're going to get sometimes, and sometimes it's even better that's my fun part is when it comes in, much more exciting and synchronistic and better than it could have even asked. And and I think that's that's the fun of it right Is waiting to see what, how your fun magical intentions are going to unveil themselves.

Gillian Viljoen: 20:45

And I think you've not just not touched on the third point. So if the first part is having a really clear vision and knowing that it's aligned to your soul and the second part is we're working out for what are the steps, clearing the path, what, what new practices do I have to put in place, then the third part is what you talked about now, which is the living magically while you do it, because the whole point of creating a life you love is, I think a lot of people that I've worked with get despondent, usually when I, when I get to them, they're getting frustrated and despondent because they went in naively, maybe listening to some people's marketing or their own marketing in the head and thinking, oh gosh, I'll just get this done. Six months, it'll be done, but it takes a long time. I mean, if you think of like studying, studying a course takes a couple of years.

Gillian Viljoen: 21:41

Changing your whole life completely, if it's a dramatic change, takes a while. Change takes a while, and so the best way to do it is to find out a way to blend in the new one with, as you, let go the old one and have fun on the way, and that's why I love your seasonal approach and living with the moon and the different seasons, because it reminds you to take a pause and look at this and look at that and put in breaks so that, since I've met you, I never I never did that before, um, but I'm now always aware of the cycles and that helps to remind you it's summer season, it's winter season, it's the full moon, it's the new moon, and just to put in breaks and make sure that it's. You're not, you're not trying to race, you're trying to create a life and live it and enjoy it and evolve it as you yeah, you don't have to wait until every one of your manifestations is happening.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 22:38

you actually have to live as your manifestations are already there to create the vibration and the frequency and the gratitude practices to allow it to come in, and that's that's. That's the joy of it. Thank you so much for for giving a little bit of your time, your your magical Monday, to come with us. I think this is actually going to air on a Friday, but I want to just thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do for me and just if there's any way they can get a hold of you, or if you have something to offer, go ahead and share that with our audience.

Gillian Viljoen: 23:22

Yeah, so the best place to find me is on Facebook. I'm always there, Gillian Viljoen. I'm sure we can share the link as well. And then what I'm offering now is it's a two-step. So I would really love to meet as many people as possible, and what I'm offering now is calls, called the Dream Life Dashboard, and we'll go through a call an hour. It's a complimentary call, and you'll walk away with an understanding of how yourself, your route, your vision.

Gillian Viljoen: 23:59

I've used the analogy of a journey, because it really is a journey um, your speed, your direction, your vehicle, how all of that is ranking, so that you know where to focus attention and energy, because that is a precious resource and if we spread it too thin, then it can just slow things down and make it not fun.

Gillian Viljoen: 24:24

So that's my fun thing that I'm offering at the moment is the Dream Life dashboard, and that leads in, for those people who want to work further with me, into the dream life liftoff, which is a process where we'll take you through everything we've discussed today the vision, check in with the vision, check in with your values, check in with what your soul really desires, check in with the plans that you've created, and then work together to figure out what is a practical and achievable and awesome way to reach the next milestone and that's completely aligned with the vision. And we'll work on some limiting beliefs along the way as well, because those are usually the things that cause friction. So, yeah, the dream life dashboard and the dream life liftoff are my two offers that lead into each other I love it and thanks again.

Magical Michelle Orwick: 25:16

And for all of you watching at home or listening on your on your podcast, I want to just remind you you can create a magical piece just by intention. You can make a cup of tea or you can make a magical cup of tea. It's your intention that creates the magic. It is your mindset and your intention and infusion of your thought that creates the magic. So, with all of that, I love you, I love you guys, I love you Gillian, and I'll see you guys all next week. Live magically.