For our 82nd Deep Dive (and our final interview of 2023!) we sat down with business coach and money-manifestation-queen, @Maria_K_Tan!
Maria is one of our Fairy Godmother’s of Business. She combines spirituality and business, breaking down money manifestations and manifestation in general. Maria uses her experience to help entrepreneurs and shop owners change their mindset and own their difference. In this interview, we talked about her Livestream series, where she got her start, how to properly manifest, and more!
Keep reading this Deep Dive to follow this creator’s inspiring story. Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 5pm CT on our @ClapperCreator account to listen to the bonus questions that will only be available on our live Radio show: Clapper Talks.
Tell us more about your business credentials? How long have you been in this industry?
I started my entrepreneurial journey at six. Coming from a Filipino family, I had a big family and one of my aunts would take my cousins and I to the arcade to play the games. And I was there to win! The games I’d choose were the ones that could give me the biggest tickets. But within 30 seconds, all my tokens would be gone. So I would be there, waiting, watching my cousins play their games, wondering how I could get more tokens.
I had all these trinkets in my room, just stuff I didn’t even want. I started selling them to people and using that money to buy my tokens. My older cousin took me to a marketplace where I could buy stationary wholesale to sell in school. Later, one of my aunts introduced importing to me. I was only 12 or 13 when I imported goods from Thailand to sell to local stores. This was the 90s: compliance was not what it is today. Back then it was easy to go to a local store and supply it.
But because my audience was people that go to school, during the summer there was no business for me. So around 14 or 15, I started consulting, selling my service. I started freelancing for one of my aunts for the summer and got involved in some parts of her business. And I was also top of my class, so a lot of my classmates wanted me to tutor them. Then later when I was 18 and went abroad to study, I started selling my services, I did translation, market penetration services, and consulted with companies wanting to work in Asia.
What an interesting start! It sounds like you’ve just always had this drive to make money. It was born in you!
As a child, you don’t think “I want to make money”. I just wanted more tokens! To the entrepreneurs listening, and I strongly encourage you to remember why you start. Back then, I just wanted tokens, to have fun! That was it. And now, if you look at the best entrepreneurs, the best businesses, the money comes because money is part of the equation, it’s not the reason. When you’re coming from there, it feels more natural. Things happen faster because you’re in a state of flow. But when you just say “I want more money,” oftentimes you’ll be more confused. What do I sell, how do I sell, who do I sell to?
Taking a look at your content, it’s clear that you specialize in business coaching, specifically money manifestation and mindset. Could you tell us more about how you feel into this niche?
I started business very young and again maybe it’s because of that, that I see business and money as spiritual. In my mid twenties, I was very depressed. Something was missing in my life, even if my life was good materially. I was introduced to new kinds of spirituality, started joining different spiritual sessions, and all of that opened something new in me. That journey started off as a hobby because I had my own consulting company. Then my business partner had a stroke, which was followed by a really bad falling out with family. I decided to just do something else and started my journey as a spiritual coach.
And one of things people talk about in spirituality is money. So it all just kind of fell together. I started exploring the different implications of money in our lives, the different money energies, the money codes, it just came together. Maybe because I’ve always seen money as spiritual, I’ve always loved money and the way we perceive things, and manifestation – it’s all conditioned in us. It’s self-taught sometimes and we can also get out of.
Tell us about your social media experience! What made you want to join Clapper?
I’ve been in the social media space for a while, before it was even popular in Asia. Back then it was quite easy to reach your target audience. And it’s not that in Asia what i talk about doesn’t sell, it’s just different. Over the last few years we’ve been spending money on ads and putting a lot of effort and resources into growing on other platforms. For some reason, something’s not clicking. That doesn’t mean you’re not good at business: you may just not be good at social media! It’s not a condition to be a social media superstar to be good at business. There is something there I feel I was missing. Then lo and behold someone from the UK was talking about Clapper. I decided to come on the platform, try it out. Then I started joining the Groups, and it went from there.
We noticed you’ve partnered up with @IantheMauro to host weekly Livestreams on Thursdays called “The Fairy Godmothers of Business.” Elaborate on how this partnership began and what this Livestream series consist of?
It all began at Clapper, because of Clapper, on Clapper! I met Ianthe in a Group. I was looking at her stuff, she was looking at my stuff, we’d comment or message each other. Later Ianthe commented on a post and said she wanted to go Live together. And I loved that idea! I sent her a DM and invited her to hop on a call. We talked and there were so many similarities between us. She told me she preferred to be called a Fairy Godmother of business. And I thought that was so funny because one of the first questions I ask a client is “if I were your Fairy Godmother, what could I make today the best day of your life?” That allows people to stretch their imagination, and in business that’s important. We decided to do a regular Live on Clapper and call it Fairy Godmothers of Business. Before we go Live each week, we pause to see what people are asking and choose a topic for the Live. Both of us are coming from a place of adding value. We’re not here to compete and we don’t always agree, but I think that’s the important part of social media. To give us space to be seen, be heard, listen, to add to the conversation.
For anyone in the audience who doesn’t know much about money manifestation, can you explain what that means and how they can get started?
Money manifestation is how you manifest around money. How you materialize a reality around money is based on your most dominant belief system. If you believe that money is a reward, then the opposite of that is true: the lack of money is a punishment. To get better at money manifestation and manifestation is to simply direct manifestation to your advantage. It’s not a magic wand or a button you click. You must direct your intention and your focus every single day. What are the words you’re using to describe your current reality that’s creating the opposite of what you want? How are you responding to situations, and are you taking it personally? That becomes your reality and when you grasp at that, it becomes very easy for you to direct your manifestation.
Maria took the time to actually walk one of the hosts through manifestation! We used her goal of landing a literary agent as the example. Use this as you start setting goals and manifesting for 2024.
You used the term “goal.” A goal is a result of something you do. But let’s think about taking a shower. When do you take a shower: at the end of the day, to feel refreshed. Let’s say today, you feel so tired and it’s been a long day. Will you still take a shower? Yes, but let’s say a pipe bursts in your house and there’s no water. Will you still take a shower? No, and regardless of that you’ll still take a shower at the next convenient time. But you never see that as a goal. You never make a goal to take a shower, and you never go through a hard day thinking “it’s okay, at the end of this I’ll take a shower!”
If the one thing you want to manifest is a literary agent, that has to be a reality for you right now. That the right literary agent is going to come to you, is part of your reality. Maybe you didn’t do all you said you would, the internet is broken, the novel sucks, it doesn’t matter. Those have nothing to do with what you want to manifest. Don’t internalize them as good or bad – it just is. When you start operating from “the right agent is mine,” it’s not a goal, it’s a fact. Even if you get rejected 100 times, it doesn’t matter because you know you have the best already. It’s just a redirection.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know Maria – if you haven’t already, give her a follow! To meet the other Fairy Godmother of business, @IantheMauro, check out our last Deep Dive.