The Brave and Balanced Fundraiser

Your Nervous System IS the Fundraising Strategy, with Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

• Erin McQuade-Wright

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The “state” shift that turns scarcity into abundance… fast

In this episode, Erin sits down with Dr. Pollyanna Chavez, hypnotherapist and NLP trainer, to explore why your state might be your most powerful fundraising tool. Pollyanna shares the surprising origin story that led her into hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming — a wild mustang that mirrored her internal anxiety — and then guides Erin through a simple, practical exercise to shift from scarcity and constriction into abundance, joy, and play.

You’ll learn how to “anchor” a resourceful state (using thumb + index finger), why donors can sense incongruence even when you’re saying the “right” words, and how to give your high-achiever mind an on/off switch — so you can show up calm, connected, and magnetic.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The wild mustang that became a “thousand-pound emotional thermometer”
  • Why your nervous system broadcasts louder than your fundraising script
  • “Every machine needs an on and off button” (and how to install one)
  • A guided state-shift exercise you can replay and practice at home
  • Anchoring abundance, joy, and play before donor meetings
  • “Be happy for no reason at all” (and why it’s not suppression)
  • “If you don’t know how to run your mind, your mind is gonna run itself”

Try this:
Before your next donor meeting, press thumb + index finger together (your anchor), recall a vivid memory of abundance/joy/play, and let the feeling expand through your body. Notice what changes in your presence.

Find Dr. Pollyanna Chavez and her NLPI (Next Level Pro Institute) here: https://linktr.ee/nlpi

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Erin McQuade-Wright

Welcome to the Brave and Balanced Fundraiser, the podcast I wish I'd had during my 15 years as a professional fundraiser. I'm your host, Erin McQuade Wright. This is your space to breathe, realign, and reconnect with a part of you that chose this work for a reason. Together we'll explore tools and practices that help you show up less stressed and spread thin and more grounded, brave, and on purpose. I'm so glad you're here. Let's get started. What of the most effective fundraising strategy isn't another script, another email sequence, another goal tracking dashboard, but your nervous system? Today I am joined by Dr. Pollyanna Chavez, a hypnotherapist, an NLP trainer, whose entire career pivot started with a literal wild Mustang. When her horse became unpredictable and anxious around her, she eventually realized something humbling. The horse wasn't the problem, her state was, and that discovery sent her into hypnotherapy and NLP. As a way to calm her body, direct her mind, and change outcomes, not just with a horse, but with people. In this conversation. Pollyanna guides me through a simple, surprisingly powerful practice. You can try yourself right along with me. One that helps you shift from constriction to expansion from, "I need this donor to say 'Yes.'" To a grounded, open magnetic presence. Instead, if you're a fundraiser who's tired of white knuckling confidence, this episode is going to feel like exhaling. I really hope you enjoy it. I am here today with Dr. Pollyana Chavez, and I'm really excited to bring her to you. We met in a lunch line at the podcast conference 2026, and she started telling me her story. And you guys, I just had to say, I want you to come on to the podcast and share this amazing story. So Pollyanna, welcome.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Erin. It's a pleasure.

Erin McQuade-Wright

So I would love to hear your background and a bit about what you focus on today.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Okay, perfect. So, well, as you said, my name is Pollyanna Chavez. I am actually a hypnotherapist. I'm also a trainer of neurolinguistic programming and I do have an institute where we teach neurolinguistic programming. And my journey to get here was, um, when people ask me, so. How you decided to do hypnosis or n lp and, you know, and, and I said, oh, well, it all started with a horse, you know? And, and so I had, uh, always

Erin McQuade-Wright

a literal horse.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

A literal horse. Yes. Yes. I've always loved animals. But I grew up in Barcelona. I'm originally from Peru, and so my parents didn't let me have pets. Um, they said that I used to be allergic, so and so, that's why I was always diving into books and I would love to read books and stories about animals. And once I came to the United States and I have my own daughter, and my daughter starts. Showing interest in horses and stuff, like, oh, well, let me find you a barn. And, and that's how we got both, you know, back in the world of horses. Oh, back meaning from my own imagination, because that's how I had met them first. And one thing led to another and I ended up, uh, getting this mustang. It's, uh. It's a Mustang that had been, uh, trained. He tamed, you know, domesticated. And when I got him, he was really good. And for two weeks he was very good. And then suddenly he started acting really wild, unpredictable, uh, very anxious. A

Erin McQuade-Wright

wild Mustang.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yes, yes, yes. So precise.

Erin McQuade-Wright

So normally when you say you got a Mustang, we are thinking of a car. So you're talking about like original. Oh, of course. One horsepower Wild Mustang. I'm already a little scared. Okay,

go

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

ahead. Okay. No, and, and so No, he was a sweetheart. I mean, the reason why I got him is because I had seen a video. Of him competing with his trainer. And what I loved about these horse is like, he would actually help the trainer get on him. Like he would do a little bit of put his weight, you can see how he was, you know, positioning himself so the trainer could get on easily. And so when I saw that little, it was like a two minute video, I was like, wow, that's a really nice horse. And then I got the chance of getting him, uh, the trainer was, uh, no longer needing him. He was looking for a home for him. So I was like, I'll take him. So I bought him from the trainer and as I said, he was, um, a wonderful horse to me. But even from the beginning, he was always a little moving away from me. He was so interesting. And then it got really dangerous. I was out to the point, I was in tears every day that I would see him. It was not fun anymore. And, and then, um. They send me for work. I, I work also at the CDC, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They send me to help out in the Zika response to Puerto Rico. I was gone for 30 days working. When you go in the response, you're working nearly all the time. And I was leading a team there, so it was a lot of responsibility. So 30 days, I probably took two days off. And when I came back I was exhausted. I was physically and emotionally exhausted, tired, and my whole energy was quiet as a mouse. And I distinctly remembered that day that I opened the gate. And the other horse, you know, he goes running to his bucket, it's 400 feet away. He knows where the food is, have prepared the food for them. And when I close the gate, I notice that my Mustang is right beside me. And, and I'm walking and he's walking right beside me, like matching my pace, you know, and s it's like we are one and I'm think, and I had been thinking before going to Puerto Rico, I'm gonna sell you. And then I decided, oh wait a minute. You want to connect? So there's nothing really wrong with you. So what's different? Right? And these kind of reflecting questions that you ask yourself and the response that bubbles up is like, I was the one was different, right? I was quite like a mouse. And he liked that energy, you know, the other energy, whatever. The other thing was he didn't like and you know, through a lot of, um, going to, talking to other trainers and stuff and especially I have to give credit to dancing. Pete Rodda, he was amazing trainer who's really has good connection with horses. He's the one that told me, Ana, you are. Vibrating like in not a good way. Like you're literally shaking. It was this micro ooh, like that. And I was so good at not listening to my body. I was, it was obvious for people. He also feels a lot of energy. So for him I was like, too much. And, and he was like, you are messing up your horse and it's, it is you. And I was like, wow. And so, you know, this sense of responsibility that what. You are doing. What I am doing is having an effect of another being. Well, that prompted me to start looking for ways of calming myself down. And I came across this course of hypnotherapy and that was the promise. At the minimum you would learn how to calm yourself. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna join. And it's true. I learned that the first week and then I had another four months to go on and study. And it was amazing. I was, uh, it was the beginning of this new law affair with hypnosis and how easily I could help others. And it started like because of my horse. Go ahead.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Wow. And I'm curious about what is the biggest takeaway that you got from that hypnotherapy course? Maybe it came in the first week or maybe it came later. What was the most empowering thing that you learned?

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

The most empowering thing was being able to realize that it was not a complicated thing. It's something that everybody can do, and with a little bit of education, people can learn how to take control of their states. Um, it was very, uh, sobering for me being able to have this ability of using words and seeing the change in people. Like really simple words that I use. I mean, English is not my first language, and yet I could piece them together. These words make sentences that could actually create change in someone's life, like a really good, so it was, uh, it, it's been a great experience not only learning hypnosis, but also moving into neurolinguistic programming, which was more like a. Let's say that first hypnosis course was like this. Like you go to college and you finish with your bachelor's, right? And then I really wanted to continue my master's and, and, and, you know, go in depth and be able to be more effective even. And so that's, that's what surprised me. How actually simple it was. It was not complicated. It was pretty simple, very structured. I'm a scientist, so for me, structure works very well. There's patterns and, and then it was very results oriented, outcome oriented, and also direction. It's all about giving good direction to the mind so that it goes and that's what it has to be to do.

Erin McQuade-Wright

And so it sounds like in the first week that you were in that first course mm-hmm. What you were experiencing a difference in yourself. Yeah. And, and I'm curious about what that was like. What were you noticing about yourself?

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yeah, no, I was way calmer. Like it's how, I mean, the first week they teach us how to create. Good visualizations of calmness and just doing that, it was calming me like, oh, okay, here I was thinking I was this horrible anxiety carrying it from all this past experience and I just had to imagine it. Imagine myself being calm in a nice place. I'm not saying that it's going to be that easy for everybody. I've worked with people with, uh, really deep-seated traumas and things like that and, but that's the thing like. In that situation, it gave me enough for me to be like, okay, I'm a believer in this. I, this is my convincer, this is working, it's helping me. And, and the more you practice, the easier it becomes to come into a very calm state. To the point that now I can go into my posture, I get into really a very calm, relaxed state, and then all the horses are, Ooh, they zoom, they're like, coming with you, and they just, you know, like, Ooh, okay. We like that. You know? So my horse is really nice. I mean, Chucky, but Mustang is like my dog, you know? He, he's like my dog, or puppy dog. Mom, mom, mom, follow me. He's annoying. He's like talking to you. And so, you know, it was beautiful to develop that relationship. Also in the middle of that calmness. You know, allowing

Erin McQuade-Wright

that to blossom. That's really interesting. I hear you saying two different ways of achieving that calm happened and the, the one that you were talking about most recently is a choice that you make to put yourself into that calm state. Yes. Using the tools that you have. Mm-hmm. But the other one happened after you got home from Puerto Rico, and it was such a, it sounds like it was such a pouring out that you did. Yes. That you were not nourished, you were not refreshed with enough sleep, but the end result was that you kind of appear, even though you weren't like happily in a zen state, you were exhausted. The result for the horse was the same thing. There's. Enough of you. That is not overwhelming to me. The horse might say it's not to you. It's you're not, you're not too much right now. Exactly. Whether you're poured out and exhausted mm-hmm hmm. Or actively putting yourself in a relaxed state, the result is the horse is like this.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yes.

Erin McQuade-Wright

So interesting.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

No, I know. It is. And, and, and that's what I'm always making fun of, right? Is like I have a thousand pound emotional thermometer. Like if I'm off a

Erin McQuade-Wright

thousand pound emotional thermometer, I love that.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

If I'm off, uh, they tell me. Especially the Mustang. He is really sensitive to emotions. Some horses are put up with all our emotional crap. That's why some horses are really good for therapy. But my Mustang is one that if you go with the wrong energy into the pasture, he will protect that pasture. It's like, you will not come with that thing here. He will not allow it in his pasture. He doesn't like it. You know, he's, oh wow. He's very opinionated like that. And I like him that way. He keeps me honest. I'm not saying this is the best type of horse to Yeah, but like, it's not like a safe horse, you know, that people's like, oh, this is a babysitter horse. No, no, no. It's not a babysitter. Yeah. But he's, but he is someone that made me think, you know, like many times the main, uh, problem that I had was I was not listening to my body. I was not listening to the things that were going here somatically, um, and. The thing is, when he intervened, I always think how my life would have been if I had kept this level of anxiety for more years and more years. The fact that he came in, that's why I always call him, you're like my angel, because he intervened. You know? He, he made me, this is what I needed. Like he, it was like he grabbed me like, you will stop. And, you know, like he shook

Erin McQuade-Wright

you by the

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

lapels. He shook you. Like you'll stop or you'll die. You know? I mean, and I thought I was gonna die by riding him because we were gonna, you know, have an accident and stuff. But if you, if I had kept this level, you know, I would have died as well. Right. I mean, so he prevented me from getting even worse. And, and right now I have a very happy body. Because one thing I also learned through this whole experience is to listen to my body. I talk to my body all the time. I say, oh, I, I love you. And you know, it's like, so good. And, and that's the thing, you know, it, it's, um, it would never have happened without him, you know? And Yes.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. It sounds like he's a very powerful teacher for you. And it, you know, we live in a society that really prizes what we know in our head. It's like a, I call it like a neck up kind of society. Mm-hmm. It's like, what do you know? What did you score on the test? Like what do you remember? What can you articulate? These are all very, um, cerebral things that we, we do with our brains and. Horses really see things differently and they, it, I think it's, I am another person who was really tuned into what was going on in my head and not so interested in what was going on in my body and really kind of annoyed actually in, you know, and earlier in my life about what was going on in my body. That it was just like, it was almost a sense of, oh, this is dragging me down. And thankfully today I've woken up beyond that misunderstanding. But it can be pretty easy. To get by in life. Mm-hmm. And to get the gold stars and the promotions to just focus on what's going on in your head. And of course the downside of being brilliant is it can lead to overthinking, it can lead to being up at night with our minds racing. It can lead to made up problems. I'm so good at using my mind. You know, they say that the, the people who are chess masters, uh, have. A high preponderance of becoming paranoid because they can see steps ahead about how things could go wrong. Yes. So they have a very active imagination about what could go wrong and how they could be harmed or, um, and, and it, and we can trend toward para paranoia when we build up our brain and we focus so much on our mind and what we're thinking. And a lot of the people that I'm working with as clients have reached a point where they really use that active mind to get them somewhere in their career and their. Um, in their adulthood, in, you know, maybe in midlife, having trouble turning that off when they get home and being present with their family, breathing, feeling into their body, going to sleep and staying asleep at night. You know, these things that you do so well during the day can kind of leak into the nighttime and people often wanna practice that can help them come back to themselves. And when I hear you talking about somatic work, which means work inside the soma of the body. Mm-hmm. What do you find is possible for people who are maybe overthinkers or who are real achievers that they can do with either hypnosis or NLP? And tell us a little bit about what NLP includes.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yeah, thank you for that. And what you summarized. It's actually something that we see so often, especially among people that are considered overachievers and really successful. Um, if you grow up in, in a household where they are like praising you for the way the exams, you know, the, you know, that's, that's where you, you're getting your rewards. I was like, oh yeah, this is what I, I prize this thing. No one is praising you for, Ooh, you did such a great meditation, right? Some friends are so, hey, keep on doing that. That's good. You know, we should, we should teach these things to kids. Um. But, uh, but what you're saying is exactly right. Everything now from the point of view of NLP and hypnosis, if we, we don't see this as an issue, as a problem to fix. We just see as like, you're really successful at doing this thing of being, you know, being able to see all these possibilities. For example, um. It's, let's call it a strategy. Sometimes we say machine and every machine needs to have an on and off button, right? And so it is a really good place where these, you know, you can have these machines where you can see these movements if you're in a chess player that you can see ahead and stuff, turn it on when you're in a competition, right? But then it's time to turn it off when you are with your family, when with your friends and stuff. Maybe there's another machine, a good, another strategy that you want to do instead. So when I am helping my clients, that's, that's what I do. You know, like, first of all, identify what is it that they're doing? And maybe it's something that they're doing in their minds, a pattern or, um. Strategy that is really helpful in one area of their life. And, okay, let's keep it there. Maybe we need to put an off button and instead of doing this, what else do you want to do? Because when you remove one thing, you need to put something instead. Right? And so we would work that way. Um, I, I love the simplicity of it for, with NLP, I never know what is it that they, the content of. What is it that they're doing? And as you know, they want to tell me, I'm a little nosy, so I always ask my clients, but usually it's not like necessary, especially if a good thing, I want to hear the, the good details. Um, but, but it's, but it, once you figure out what they're doing, let's say, oh, well I imagine this movie here and I play it here and it's here and it has a color and it, or it is going really fast or it's going slow. You know, what happens if we slow it down? What happens if we move it of position? You know, it's very structural and it is so powerful because that's the way we think. You know, we think by either visualizing, imagining things, we think by hearing things either inside our mind or when we talk to ourselves and all those ways of thinking or, or even, you know, remembering a smell or a taste, right? All those are the ways that we perceive reality. And so when we go back in a memory. We're gonna be memoriz remembering it with either a visual component, an auditory component, an olfactory component, gustatory component, right? Or maybe a kinesthetic wood. You know, those, the sun, how it feels when you go on the beach. If you like the beach and you feel the sun here, like I was walking to my house to come here, it's very cold here, but I still remember how when the sun hit me, this is a Georgia sun hit me here in the hand, it felt warm. And I am like, if I go back right now to 10 minutes, well 20 minutes ago, I can still feel the warmth in my, in my hand because it's so close to me. And that's how I encoded that memory. So when people create strategies, they, they do it using these five senses, uh, in their minds. So once we figure out how they do it, maybe it's. Time to optimize it. Maybe it's time to, let's put up off pattern so we can move this strategy here. Let's use it only here. And when you are in with your family, let's say, or having dinner, what would you like to do instead? Oh, I would like to be looking at my wife or my husband or my kid. I would like to be having a good strategy of having a conversation. I don't know. Maybe it's a good strategy for sleeping, right? So we can turn this off and turn the good sleeping strategy for sleeping on. Right? So it's, that's why, I mean I'm simplifying obviously, but that's kind of, um, how we approach it with NLP and hypnosis. And you were asking what is the difference, what is it? So. NLP was created by Dr. Richard Bandler and John Grinder, and they were modeling success excellence on people, especially, um, on successful therapist like Milton, Dr. Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir, who was a social worker and the mother of family therapy. And they model Dr. Milton. He was, um, Milton Erickson. He was one of the greatest hypnosis. He was a psychiatrist, so he were able to model the way that he was doing hypnosis. And that's why NLP and hypnosis are like twins, Iami sisters. They share the same heart. So for me, it's in the same, for me, the way I think about it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so, so that's coming, bringing it back a little bit to the technical part, but Yeah.

Erin McQuade-Wright

And, and one of the things that. My audience that I'm bringing to my audience, uh, through this podcast really is strategies to be able to raise money from a place of abundance rather than from a place of scarcity. And I have decided that this is important, right? I'm not being asked to do this. This is the podcast I wish I had had when I was in fundraising because that's how I was doing it from anxiety. I was doing it from scarcity. I need to raise this much and I need to hit my goal. And I had a feeling, uh, just that it was a misunderstanding, but it was a feeling that I would be okay if my bosses were happy with me, if the board was happy with my work, if I was reaching my goals, then I was okay. And if I wasn't doing that, then something was wrong with me. So I. Made a really common mistake, which is to make, not hitting the goal, for example, to make that mean something about me as a person. And one of my goals with this podcast is being able to bring that power back into ourselves rather than giving it away to the goal or giving it away to the boss or the board. Mm-hmm. Or things like that. And it's a really, uh, very compelling statistic for, for me to share that the average fundraising professional lasts in the job 16 to 24 months before jumping ship to find another job. This is an incredibly high rate of turnover, and I read into that just from my own experience, that there is some anxiety there about. What the expectations are that are put on fundraising professionals. There's some anxiety there about how, how we reach the goal and really good organizations mm-hmm. Will understand that more than one person is responsible for fundraising. It's the board's job too. It's the executive director's job too. But we can get kind of, if we're not in an organization that is aware of that we can get kind of all of the fundraising dumped on us. And I think the profession tends to attract people who are helpers, who wanna make a difference, who wanna further a mission that they care about. And to show up in a place like that and have unrealistic expectations put on you is really painful. And you know, I always say if somebody. Tries to insult you, and there's no part of you that believes what they're saying in that insult, it's gonna bounce right off of you. But if a little part of you believes is already insecure like I was, or is already feeling that they are letting people down, then any kind of criticism is gonna hurt. Like somebody slapping you on your sunburn. And so I wonder what your tools might be able to offer if there's something you can teach us now that we could do, or something specifically that you think could be helpful for people who are under the pressure of raising money for a living.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Thank you for that. Um, two things come to mind. I love when you use the word abundance, right? And so when we think about a word like abundance, it has many meanings, right? Like you have an image, a feeling, a perception of abundance. Like that might be something very different to many of your listeners today, right? I mean, you know, what is abundance?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. And let me say what I mean by that. I think that's a really good point. When I mean abundance, so I contrast that with scarcity. When I think of scarcity, I think of a tightness in my chest. I think of a constriction. I think of a closing in. My shoulders are rolling in and I'm kind of hunching over, like I just got punched in the gut. When I think of abundance, I think of expansion. So my body opens up, my chest lifts, my arms go out, and it's like. The story that goes with that feeling in my body is, there is plenty. My value is inherent no matter what the donor's answer is to my request. There are plenty of donors who want to give to my mission. I'm excited to connect with them and to find them. And I know that as I shine my light in the world, I become magnetic for those donors to find me. That's what I mean when I say about this.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Beautiful. So let's play a little, if you want to play with me.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Sure.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Because I already saw you. Woohoo. Very excited about this. I want you to think about a time where you felt, or you felt this abundance, like really clearly in your life and in your body. Can you remember it? I.

Erin McQuade-Wright

I feel like

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

this and you don't, you don't have to tell

Erin McQuade-Wright

me. I have now.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Okay. And now is good. I mean, it can be now because you know you're abandoned now. Okay. So you can close your eyes. So you can come back to this feeling of abundance. And I want you to, I know that you're thinking about expansion and stuff, and I want you with your, maybe with your left hand, I want you to let me know where are you feeling it? Is it in your chest? Is it in your there? Okay, good. Is it in your chest? Very good. And open your eyes a little bit now because I want you to look at my hand and you see how my hand is moving, like in a spinning motion? Forward or backwards? Yes. Or I'm moving it to one side, like a left or to the right? Yes. So I want you to put one hand in your chest where that button close your eyes and I want you to move your hand, maybe start forward, like spin it forward like that. And or now maybe move it backwards. Tell me if the abundance feeling is changing with either movement, where does it feel more

Erin McQuade-Wright

forward?

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Forward? Okay, good. So keep on moving it forward. Don't do it. Backward it forward. There you go. We want more abundance. Yeah. And so now I want you to spin it and I want you to imagine that you're spinning this feeling from, you know, all over inside your body. Do you know the meridians is like the middle of your body? I want you to make them go through your meridians. You close your eyes. So you can imagine that spin going, yeah. Up your, your head all the way down to your toes. Just make that spin really big. And that's feel that abundance growing inside of you. That feeling of abundance even more and even more, you can feel it more now. Does it feel good? This feeling of abundance? Yeah. Is it increasing now? Can you make it stronger?

Erin McQuade-Wright

It's you. Yeah. I'm trying not to hit the microphone.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Oh, that's okay. That's good. You can, you can relax your arm and use your imagination like you can imagine it spinning inside of you like a big spin. I want you to feel it going from the middle of your body all the way up the top of your head, out in front of you, all the toes, and I want you to keep on spinning it and maybe spin it faster with a larger diameter. When you spin it faster, is that feeling of abundance stronger?

Erin McQuade-Wright

It feels like a lightness in my head. That's what I notice.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Is it a good feeling?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Okay, so feeling better. Okay. Then keep on spinning it. You can spin it even stronger and faster. Some people like it really fast. It everybody's different and unique, you know, and just make it better. I can see her, she's smiling and she can, I can see it in your skin. Color has changed even. Very beautiful. And I spin and spinned. And you know what the most cool thing about this is? When you imagine this is spinning in your thing, I want you to give it a color. Just give it a color and notice how it's spinning all through your body. You're giving it a color and now you're making it so big that you can even throw it. To someone in front of you, like you can make this a spin so big that when you are with someone, you can spin this feeling that you have here and you can spin it to the person that, I mean, I can even feel it now. It's like a heat. Right. Very good. That's right. Good. And now like I want you to take your thumb and your finger and press them lightly. Yes. You go. Just press them lightly. Ooh, very good. And open your arm, your hand. Open your hand. That's it. Take a deep breath in and si loudly. Ah, very good. And open your eyes and smile. Very good. What did you have for lunch today?

Erin McQuade-Wright

I had a wonderful beef.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Ooh, that's really good. Okay, so what you did here, because you were at the height of like, ooh, feeling right? You know, I want you to, this is what you will do. You will press like the same way that you had pressed your finger. Your thumb and your finger. You're gonna press them and then you're gonna, when you press it, you're gonna bring back this feeling. Feel it.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Mm. Thumb and index finger together.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Okay. Yeah. Like that's an anchor. Like

Erin McQuade-Wright

saying, okay, yeah,

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

that's an anchor. You can feel it spinning again. Okay. You can open your hand and relax it. Good. You can still feel the spinning. Now it's up to you. And now I want you to slow down this feeling, you know, and calm down. Take a deep breath in. And sigh. Ah, because every machine needs an on and off button so you can sigh and turn it off. But if you want to, and you need to, imagine you're meeting on, I want you to see yourself meeting someone. Like you need to be, um, a, a sponsor, right? You're meeting a sponsor and you can press your button, press your fingers, and bring back this abundance feeling on the man. And then you can spin it really big. And then when you're spinning it, you can spin it towards your sponsor. Why not? It's a really good feeling. That's how we share feelings. Remember when you have. Two pianos, two grand pianos. Right. And you press one of the keys, bing, the other piano string will vibrate. That's right. Because they're, they're the same frequency, right? We have the exact

Erin McQuade-Wright

same note.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Exactly. We have neuron images. So when you are feeling abundance and you're spinning that feeling of abundance and you're spinning it to a sponsor, he's also gonna feel abundance. You get to share it with other people.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. And I recently did a podcast episode about this, about going to a coffee shop and meeting a donor, and I talked about nervous system co-regulation. And so if the story inside me is I really need this donor to say, yes, I really need this donation, I really need this sponsorship for my event, whatever it is that I can be. Really convinced that I'm cool and placid on the outside, but on the inside I'm freaking out. And what I didn't know when I was active in the fundraising game is that the donor can feel that. The donor can feel what's going on on the inside. They might not know it on a conscious level, but their nervous system feels your nervous system, just like the piano that's not being played vibrating on the same string of the piano that's in the room and is being played on that same note. And so the donor might think, Hmm, there's something off about her. I don't know, I maybe I'll, I'll, I won't give to this campaign or something like that. But what's happening is that. Communication is going on beneath the surface. And when I learned that, I was like, oh gosh.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Well you are being inc congruent

Erin McQuade-Wright

guy in a room being

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

so

Erin McQuade-Wright

awkward and

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

freaking out. Yeah. You were being incongruent, right? You were being incongruent. You know, you inside your in, you know your face. You was like, oh yeah, gimme all the money, blah, blah, whatever you say, and inside your trembling. Like your, your whole body's telegraphing this and they perceive it and they don't even know. It's like, I don't know why I don't trust this person. Right? Yeah, yeah. But see now, and that's what, now you can take control of your feelings. How do you do this? You just think about a beautiful memory. It's really simple. Anybody can do this because every time that we think about a memory, we go back there. Our mind doesn't know if it is a memory that happened in the past or something that we're thinking about the future, or is it something that's happening now? They, the mind lives here and the now. So if you're thinking about something amazing, see something that really brings you a ton of joy. Can you remember that? Maybe? Yeah. I don't know if you have kids or, you know, like a, a flower. I mean, that's an, everybody's different, right? And you just go back there to that moment. Mm-hmm. And you can even close your eyes. And imagine you're there in that moment and you can see through your eyes again, hear through your ears and feel again, how amazing it felt. This feeling of joy once more inside of you. And now you can feel it inside of your enteric system somewhere, maybe in your chest. And you can feel that it has a spin. Identify how it's spinning. And then you increase the spin. Ooh. And you can make it stronger now. 'cause now you learn and it's way easier now. You can feel this feeling of joy and you can multiply it. I want you now to make it double, double that feeling of joy to the point that you're laughing. You can even 10 x it. I love that word. Everybody's 10 xing things. Now why not 10 x joy. Yeah. And be happy about it. And then you get the giggle going on. Giggle, giggle, giggle. And the laughter. Laughter because that is how, and then you are already producing all these endorphins in your, in your brain. It's feeling so good. And now how you anchor it. You can anchor it by saying a word, joy in your mind. Or you can, you know, press your two fingers, you know, the thumb and the index finger once more. Now you have joy and the other feeling that you have an abundance in the same place. Ooh, now you open your hand because you're setting the anchor now. Yes, it's all set. Doesn't take long. And then you take a deep breath in to slow it down a little. You can slow it down to come back to being a serious podcaster. Hmm. Because you have a guest here. A come back woman. What's going on? Laughing in class. What's wrong with you?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Right. Thank you. Yeah. That felt beautiful.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yes. And now you imagine you can do this before the meeting with the sponsor. Yeah, because this, it's all about state. It's all about state. When you want to the other person to feel something, you need to go first. You go first. That's the most important thing. Controlling your state is one of the most amazing skills that everybody should have. They should she. See what I'm saying? It's so simple. They should teach this in schools how to control your state. They, they talk about emotional mastery. Yeah, exactly. What is the state? State is not only the emotion state is the way that you are. The way that you are, your face looks the way that your body posture is, that's the state, the, it's the emotion, the feeling, but it's also the way you're portraying yourself, the way that you are moving or twitching your eye or smiling or everything. Like you, for example, even the color of your skin change. I saw it change in everything because you know, you're like, and you were laughing and the sounds that you make all that part of the state, right? And so when you have to be in a good state and when you're in a good state and you have your good endorphins running there, guess what? The sponsor is gonna be in a good state too, because they're gonna be following you.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. I remember being a little girl in on the sidewalk in front of my home and I remember thinking, oh, the spelling bee in class is over. So I can feel good now. I can feel okay now. And then I remembered, oh, I have a, a test coming up at the end of next week. So I will not be okay until at least the end of next week. And then my dance recital is coming up in May. So once that's over then I will be okay. And this was a calculation that I was trying to do as a young person trying to make sense of my world because I felt feelings that were anxiety and, you know, some, some urgency around thing get doing well. And I had the misunderstanding that I needed circumstances outside of me to be. Good and favorable in order for me to feel good and favorable on the inside. And all you do is, that's a pattern, right? And all you do is fast forward 30, 40 years and there is, oh, you

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

were good at that. I can see,

Erin McQuade-Wright

yeah, you

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

were a professional at it

Erin McQuade-Wright

and there you are as a professional. And for me it was fundraising. Feeling like, okay, if I get this grant then I will be okay If, if I make it past the big board meeting and the budget, you know, whatever, then I will be okay. And it's like there's never an end to it. Exactly. There's never an end to this circumstances. So what if we just learned how to be okay?

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yeah.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Ourselves. What if we just learned how to call up that feeling that you just taught us so beautifully? And I thank you for that Pollyanna.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Be happy for no reason at all.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Because you're right. The brain doesn't know the difference between a fantasy and the real thing happening, and it starts to flood the body with hormones of everything is great.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Look at you just

Erin McQuade-Wright

right now. Everything's great right now, and people respond to that. You become magnetic. Donors respond to that. Exactly. Like this one's got something going on. This organization. Really? I don't know why. I just like them. I just like what they're doing over there. I think I wanna give, I wanna be a part of it. It becomes magnetic from the fundraiser first, being okay within and going into the ask from there.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

But I want you to be more than, okay?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Hmm. Tell me.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

I want you to be more than okay. I mean, okay is okay, but I'm not happy with, okay? Yeah.

Erin McQuade-Wright

I want you to be, this is where abundance comes

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

in. Joyful and happy in this moment. Why not? I want you to be abundant. Come on.

Erin McQuade-Wright

And did you have a, a misunderstanding from, maybe from a young age or at any point in time in your life that if you were happy and joyful and absolutely over the moon, happy that you would be, that there was something unsafe about that?

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Um, not that, but I had a lot of pressure to be the perfect student.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Hmm.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

So, so I was a little bit like, I don't know, my friends say, oh, it's because you're a Gemini. I'm like, I don't know about these things. Like, you kinda split personality, right? Like I could really find a lot of joy in the little things. I've always been able to do that really good. Also, I had, um, a very early experience with depression. My mom had depression. I remember. Very clearly how I would come back, I was probably five or six and would come back from school and I would go into this room that was super dark. My mom was laying in bed with the, the, the blinds closed. The curtains closed, everything's dark. And I would go there, hi. And I would give her a kiss and then my auntie would call me, Hey, you know, you have to do homework or dinner or whatever. And I would leave. But for whatever reason, that image is like, um, a power inside of me because it reminds me that I would never be depressed because I'm the one that can go into the darkness, kiss it with love, and then leave the room. Right? And so that's why I like to work with my clients because I don't mind how dark or they think they're dark their lives are because I feel that I can go in there. Love them and bring them back and, and get them to do something different, right? And so part of me had that growing up really strong. Another part of me, you know, for my parents, they were always pushing me for these, uh, discipline. I'm really, really good and, uh, great. I'm very, you know, using your mind, like you were saying at the beginning. So that was the pressure that I would feel. And, but I could do that and then later have my time of like calmness with my book. I would find joy in the words, right? In the little things. I would find joy in everything, you know? And so, um. Yeah, so it's, so I had both at the same time, but no, I was never cha chastised for being, um, happy. Actually, my dad, he is, um, uh, he used to be what we call here, um, like an MBA, like he had a, an accountant, you know, but he had a MBA, it was not called an MBA at the time. Um, he was a

Erin McQuade-Wright

business guy.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yes, a business guy. He was CEO of a company, blah, blah, blah, that stuff. But he always told me my legacy are my 1000 jokes, because this man could make anybody laugh, you know, all our Sunday meals, we would guess. And I would just sit down and I would laugh the whole meal because my dad was like a clown and it was joke after joke, story after story. So I would love that, you know? So I had that, and, and for the longest time I always felt like I'm not. Humorous enough, right? Because my dad was like so over the top and it was funny. Um, so yeah, no, it's like, but I, and I also, my name for goodness sakes, my name is Pollyanna. You know who poll is, right? Mm-hmm. Like, yes, exactly. I had to live up to that name, you know? So it was like, it was meant to be joyful. And, uh, you know, and I read the book and, you know, I got her strategy. Like she had a really good reframing strategy. I'm like, well, it works for her. It's gonna be working for me because I am poll as well, right? So, uh, I've had a really good life. But this is the thing, despite all that, right, you know, bad things happen. Bad things happen to all of us. Right? Yeah. Because at some point I found myself in a, in a moment of crude anxiety that my horse had to tell me, you need to do something about it. Right? Right. Like, so it, so in some ways it really doesn't matter what happened in the past. It's, you know, it sets you up for success failure, but at the end of the day, it's about the decisions that you make today. Um, and you made a really good decision, right? Like the things that you're doing, the, I commend you for all the work that you've put and all the programs that you put together to help others, you know, that are in a similar situation like you. So that's super good. Um, so it really, as I say, really didn't matter so much my past, but I think what's most important is like, as you did, like, make a decision of what to do with what you have right now. Yeah. And bad things are going to happen to us. Bad things happen all the time and we cannot control what happens outside. But what we can control is. This how we react to it. And if you don't know how to control this and, and you don't know how to run, you're to your head

Erin McQuade-Wright

for the listener.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yeah. So, sorry, I'm touching my head. Yes. I'm touching. This means my head. Yes. And if you don't know how to run your mind, you know your, your mind is gonna run itself. So you need to start learning how to, to run it.

Erin McQuade-Wright

If you don't know how to run your mind.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Your

Erin McQuade-Wright

mind is gonna run itself. Wow.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yes. And it's gonna do the, the crazy stuff that it was programmed to do by, for example, remember your story, what you were telling me, how, since a little girl, you already had a strategy to make yourself, you know, pretty overwhelming. Anxious. That was a really good strategy. You were a professional at that age, young age, yeah. To do that. And you carry it all your life until you decided, hey, I'm changing this pattern. I'm doing something different, right? Yeah. And so for me, I identify these patterns on people. I'm like, Hey, let's stop it. Pattern interrupt. Let's interrupt this thing here. What do you want to do instead? Well, I would just like to take a deep breath in and smile and laugh. Okay, great. That's a good strategy because how about we do that? You know, when we are feeling a little bit of, hmm, you know, like a bad feeling and you know, bad feeling, everybody knows what a bad feeling is it whatever it means to you, right? Anger, frustration, you know, something that doesn't feel good, right? So I do have a strategy for that, that I identify that I don't know if I install it in myself or is the one that I usually do is like every time I have a feeling that is not a good feeling, like what we can call a bad feeling, that I, the first thing I ask myself is like, okay, what am I seeing and what am I hearing? 'cause maybe I'm telling myself stupid crap that's making me feel this way. Maybe I'm imagining like you were imagining, oh, what I, I cannot be happy now until I'm doing this and da, da, da, whatever story or movie I make of myself. So I'm doing something in my mind that's creating this feeling. And like Dr. Bandler says, when you change the way you think, either visually, that's my dog. Thoroughly. Oh, I couldn't hear. When you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel, and when you change the way you feel, then you can change the things that you're capable of doing because that is probably one of the most important lessons that I got. And that's the basis of, you know what I do with NLPN hypnosis, just change the way you think. That will change the way you feel. When you change the way you feel. Then you changed your behaviors the way and the things you're capable of doing. You set it yourself. If you are able to put yourself in a great state. And you start feeling it. Ooh. And you feel playful because maybe you can add a playful feeling there. How about that? You know, and, and uh, you know, or playful, abundance, joy, whatever. Good feelings. You can even go there, put them all here like a coldron, you know, put your spices and ingredients and mix them all up. Spin them all around, increase that feeling inside of you, and then you go and talk to your sponsor.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. How

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

different could that be? You see yourself doing it?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. I have a, um, a try to do a word of the year, and I've been doing it the last couple years. And this year I chose a word that made me feel a little bit, and that's how I knew it was medicine for me. And the word is play. Oh, cause what I have easily available to me, the easy button for me to reach for is a level of intensity that can be really helpful in being, you know, getting things done. But it can get to be a lot like I need to, I can forget to take breaks when I'm in that mode. I can kind of go hard and my, my human design is not designed to do that without stopping. I design, I'm a projector in human design, so I need to build in breaks for lightness to be able to return. And so I thought, what medicine would it be for me to have my 2026 word of the year be play to look out for those opportunities, to lighten the mood, to lighten my spirit and to key back into who I actually am, which is. A light being of, of a divine origin who is having a human experience.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

I love that. I love that. Okay, so then easy. Close your eyes. Yeah, press your button. So you're getting a good feeling now, and I want you to, because now you realize how easy it is for you to go back to a memory where you were play when you got it. Not so I know that you got it.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Mm

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

good. Okay. So now I want you to go to that time, that moment I want you to see through your eyes. Hear through your ears as if you were right there again. And feel how it feels. This play. You can feel it bubbling inside of you. You can feel it how it's starting in this place and you can spin it. 'cause now you've become a professional of the spin. You know how the spin feelings really good now? So I want you to spin that feeling even stronger inside of me. In inside of you. Also inside of me. You can actually spin it so strong that you're throwing it to me and I feel even more playful as well. Yeah. And you can feel the giggle coming into you. Goo coming up and bubbling, bubbling, bubbling. And there you go. And you can make it even stronger now. 10 x that play feeling. Ooh.

Erin McQuade-Wright

I

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

love that. And now you can put it in your fingers again. You know, finger and thumb, you can put it there. Yeah. Play and say, play very good. And open it. Now. You don't have to press it so hard. There you go. And I want you to imagine this word play. I want you to imagine a button, a button in your mind. Maybe you can label it as play. And now you press that button and you can feel that feeling once more. Spin it strongly as if you were there. Feel it all over the body. 'cause this way you can even feel, even your cells are play, you can feel your bones are play. Even your your hair is play. All of it inside of you is play. And you can feel it even more. Even more. And the good thing is the more play you feel, the healthier your body is and the happier it is, your body's bubbly and play. You can feel it in your face.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Oh my gosh, my cheeks are so sore from smiling.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

And she becomes a chipmunk. Okay, very good. So now, and then, ooh, take a deep breath in. Okay. And now I want you to imagine in front of you a movie screen, because we're gonna kill this thing. I want you to bring a beautiful movie screen. Maybe I'm Max size, okay? And I, this is a movie where you are the director and the main character. So I want you to see yourself there. And I want you to see yourself in a situation that maybe with a, a potential sponsor, it can be a, it's a situation of the future. Okay? See yourself in the future talking to someone. And I want you to see yourself pressing your play button. Look at yourself, and you're pressing your play button, and you're also pressing your fingers. So you look at yourself, feeling that abundance. Look at your face, pay attention to your smile that you can see there. Pay attention to the glint of your eyes. You know, I want you to make it hd, colorful, and even if you can increase the volume so you can hear the giggles that are coming out of you. And now you can even see how that is affecting your sponsor because you, you can see yourself spinning that feeling and you're spinning it to the sponsor. And sponsor's also laughing. It's like, why am I laughing? You know? And so now I want you to go to another scene of the future. This time I want you to think about something that probably in the past used to cause you a lot of grief, or like, oh or something. Ooh, bad feeling. But guess what? Now you have your button. So press your play button and also press your finger. See yourself. In this new situation where you're pressing your play button and your fingers, and now look at yourself successful at this being all play and also laughing at yourself even. And look at yourself feeling that abundance that you had there. There you go. And notice what is different in this situation. Notice how you are changing and making this movie the best movie that you want to see because this is your movie, after all. And if you like it, make it even better. Make it even better. Now you go, you can even see yourself there spinning this feeling of play. Good. Very good. And now another scene. And this is a scene where I want you to see the best case scenario, the best case scenario where you're going to be in a situation and suddenly you are using your play button. And woo, what happens there? The best case scenario. There you go. And if you like it, do you like it? Do you like this airing that you can see there? Smiling with that leaning her eyes the way she moves. Notice how she's walking. Notice her hair. Notice the, the clothing that she's wearing. Notice while how she's interacting and talking to others. She's actually giggling too much. People are like, that's

Erin McQuade-Wright

a lot of

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

freedom. People are telling her, Erin, why are you smiling so much? You're not usually this way. And look at Erin responding to that's like, oh, of course I am. 'cause I choose. I can choose to be happy for no reason at all. And now if you really like this, Erin, that you're seeing here, I want you to make her even better. And this is the time girl where you are going to align your conscious and unconscious mind. And as you look at this, Erin, I want you to love her with all your mind and all desire. And this is the time when you lip your lips lick your lips. Mm, there you go. That's right. Because that's how you align your conscious and unconscious mind. When you see something you like, you. Mm, that's right. This is how you're telling your unconscious mind. This is where we're going. There you go. That's right. Let's feel this freedom. You can even feel it from where you're watching. You're a watcher now. That's it. So take a la a long last look to Aaron. Erring that is using her play button the wisest way that she can do, you can still see her intensity, but whenever she feels that intensity, she can always play. And she can always be abundant because she has now the tools. And look at her and you, you want to be her. I want you to feel that desire inside of you and you spin that desire so you can even feel that pull towards her. You can, I can see you that you're about to go into the screen, but hold your rein, your horses ladies. Stay right there because this is the time where you take a deep breath in and sigh loudly. Ah, that's right. And we sis also a neurological response because we sigh when we complete something. When we feel satisfied. You can open your eyes. There you go. And do you know, do you have plans for dinner tonight? Oh,

Erin McQuade-Wright

no.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

How many cups of coffee did you have today?

Erin McQuade-Wright

One.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Ah, okay. Good. Good. Very good.

Erin McQuade-Wright

I had a tear in my eye though. That was really

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

lovely.

Erin McQuade-Wright

That's beautiful. Thank you.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

That's beautiful for taking

Erin McQuade-Wright

me through that.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

That's a really good sign because when you make neurological changes, stuff has to come out. That's really cool. And now if you were to take this tear and put it under a microscope, you would feel, you would feel it filled with all those neurotoxin. Neurotoxins good as me. No

Erin McQuade-Wright

plug in, tear

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

of laughter.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Ah,

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

you know the serotonins, all the endorphins. 'cause you had a blast.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Right. It was beautiful.

Erin McQuade-Wright

It was beautiful. Thank you. And I encourage our listeners to try this. Uh, if you're driving, don't try it. But, uh, when you get home, play this back and try it in your own, in your own memory as Dr. Polly is leading you through. Uh, really feel what the feelings are that come up in you. I encourage you to try this out for yourself because this was really delightful for me. So thank you Dr. Pollyanna.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Open and expansive. I see.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. Open and expansive for sure.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Even.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. In my body for sure. Well, I love this and I love, um, the, the ideas that you shared from the vibration of anxiety to the spin of possibility, of abundance, of play, of what it can be for us, when we allow ourselves, when we, I would say feel the safety of it's okay to feel joy. It's okay to feel happiness because I love that your. Youth, uh, included so much joy and happiness. Mine was a little bit different. And so there's more of a feeling of creeping out of the, the, you know, is it okay? Is it okay to be playful and to be happy? And yeah, it is. It really is. And, and so seeing where the stories shaped us, uh, and, and letting them go when we're ready to do that is a big part of coming into our birthright, which is joy and is freedom and is ease. And I hold true. The idea that fundraising from that place, doing any work from that place is going to be more effective. It's going to be more impactful than doing it from a constricted place.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Oh, absolutely. This is kind of like our true nature. Yeah. That's why it's so easy, because we're going back to what we used. We should have been from the beginning. It's just like we get, you know. How do you say this? Like you go in different directions. We get

Erin McQuade-Wright

off the path. Yeah.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Off. Wander off the path. There you go. Yeah. You get off the path.

Erin McQuade-Wright

We're coming back to ourselves.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

It's coming back. And that's why it feels familiar sometimes. I mean, it's not, so how easy was it for you, despite everything to find a playful memory? I mean, we had to build it up. Right? You already had abundance and you went to the next level. Yeah. And now And then once you were, that's why I was saying go there. Oh, and that was easy to find, playful. Right?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Well, grand Babies help with that.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Of course,

Erin McQuade-Wright

yes. They're always

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

so amazing.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Any little ones are living in the present and are ready to access play at any time. So that's where I went in my memory is beautiful being the one on the couch that they're running up to. It is grabbing them and playing with them as they squeal. Yeah. Yeah. Easy to feel joyful in that, in that memory. Well, I know my audience is gonna be excited to follow you and. Where can they find you? Where can they find out more about your work and learn from you? Tell me all the things.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Oh, thank you so much. Well, I shared my link tree, which I don't remember it. Yes. I'll

put

Erin McQuade-Wright

it in the show notes.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Oh, the show notes. It's NLPI, which is the name of my institute, next level Pro Institute, but it's N as in Nancy, next, L as in Lima, P as in Pollyanna. I. As in igloo. So, um, and it's a simple forward thing and four letter thing. And you can actually find me there. All my socials are there from the institute. This is where we teach other people to do this, you know? Yeah. So they can do it on their own. I mean, for me it's all about education. Like, even when my clients come, it's not remedial. It's, I always say, look, you're gonna learn this because I need to teach you how to fish so you can do it on your own. You know, I want to see you only once. You know, I usually want to see people only once, no more than two times.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Beautiful.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

And then just go, and the mind generalizes, right? It can learn really mind

Erin McQuade-Wright

generalizes.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Yeah. It can learn really good. One thing, once it learns and it is a good thing, it's gonna start generalized. That's why it was so easy for you to spin, because you got it the first time, then the second time, then the third time, and, and, and you were lucky. Didn't say a hundred exit.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. I'm curious about what, um, if you can tell us a, a, a client success story that, that you have seen in your work. What's something that, I mean, I felt what I felt, and, uh, hopefully our listeners at home are having their own experience, but I'd like to hear from you what someone else did with this.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Wow. So, so many. I mean, truly so many. I mean, I, I can't, it's is, it's a lot. I mean, one of the, oh, well, the. One of the latest one that make me, you reminded me a little bit. 'cause he's also started tearing up, tearing up. You know, I was in Fest and, and this guy, Mike, he was there and, and I, I was actually told him, he was telling me something and I'm like, I'm not understanding what he's saying. It's, it's not confusing. He was going all over the place. I was like, stop, stop, stop. And I asked him, so do you have a goal that you want to achieve that you know what it is, but you haven't been able to do it just yet, but you kind of know what you need to do? And he's like, yes, yes. Okay. So he was like, okay, so where do you sit in your timeline? So we did timeline work. So he saw it really far away and stuff. And then I did this technique where he could actually experience the day after. Um, achieving this goal. And when he came back of this experience, which, you know, we were not even on deep hypnosis, it was like very similar to what you did. Just close your eyes so you can focus inside. Yeah. And the answer, when he came out of it, he was tearing up too. Right. And I was like, you were crying. He is like, 'cause I can see with clarity, right? And so I hear all these things so easy and it just took what, like 10 minutes in that case? Right? Of course it was, um. It, it was really fast. And some people, they need a little more time, more, more, um, how do you say, make it more unique, you know, more tailored to the experience of the person. That's why it's so good to do. I like to do one-to-ones. They are never the same, but it's beautiful to be able to help people. And I mean, I love my heart is to help women who are going through past traumas. You know, they have past traumas, abuse, whatever, survive, whatever it is. And, and just being able to get rid of that because the beautiful thing about the past is that it's over and the future in front of us. It's shiny. It truly is. And we, we just bring the past here all the time, and it doesn't let us see the beautiful future, right? And so when they're able to let go of that past, really get, you know, it's there, you know, it happens. You don't forget it, but it's like you kind of like, okay, it's done. I took my lessons from there, move forward. Those are the ones that are the most amazing. And the the beautiful thing, as I said is I don't need to know the content. And, and many times I really don't know how bad it is because I don't go on the content. But they do. Yeah. And they have this experience like you did. So being able to do that, but I love what we just did because yeah, thank you. The most cool thing is to be able to install these feelings, make you guys aware that you really can control your state. And it is a simple technique. Is something very simple. We already know how to do this. I'm not teaching anything that is quantum science or rock and science. We do this naturally, but we usually do it the wrong way. We know how to make ourselves really sad and really anxious. Right? Hmm. I was actually asking Dr. Bandler the other day, like, why is it not, uh, that it's so easy right? To, to get the bad feelings going instead of the good feelings. And he's like, it's just practice. Like you, you practice since you were a little kid to do that. But if that's a little kid, you had practiced this other thing, your life would have been completely different. Right?

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah,

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

exactly. So it's only practice. So now that you know not it's your turn to practice. Practice, practice, practice. Anytime you're like, okay, I think I'm gonna start doing my other thing, let me spin my good feeling. Yeah. And then get yourself in this mode and practice it. And then one day, very, very soon, probably tomorrow it's gonna be already automatic. It's like suddenly you don't do the other thing because your mind is like, wait a minute, this feels better. Your mind is always going to protect you. It's going to always, um, get you, make the best choice for you. That's what Virginia Satir said. People will always choose the right thing for them. It's the problem is that sometimes they don't have that option. 'cause they are on this horrible pattern of doing the behavior that makes them sad, that makes them anxious. Right. And they have no idea that they can do the other one. The only thing I do is I show you that there's a different option. That's it. And then you get to choose, this is freedom. That's why you felt this freedom. 'cause now you get to choose.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah. And it is possible for us to get addicted to the emotions of sadness and scarcity and loss. It's possible. And you know, I have a grandparent who I lost many years ago, but they lost their spouse and never got over it. And they lived for another 20 years, uh, after their spouse died, and they just were stuck. And it was really sad to witness that because there could be beautiful things happening. And there were in many cases beautiful things happening, but they couldn't really see it because they were stuck. They were addicted to the feelings of loss because I think it made them feel connected to their spouse to still be missing them and still be mourning. It felt like they hadn't really lost them in a way so. I love that you're pointing out that we can decide what we feel, we can decide what we want to feel, and that's not just sort of white knuckling it to think a

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

better thought. It's not white knuck, you cannot white knuckle it Uhuh.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Yeah.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

This is not, this is like profound neurological change. That's why you were crying. Yeah. That's the thing. You weren't, you're not white knuckling this because there's no way, because then you are like, when you white knuckle it, you're suppressing things and then it's gonna pop up. Mm-hmm. Yes. This is not it. Yes. This is not it. It's like, okay, acknowledge it. This is one way. I have this other one. Ooh. And now in you imagine that. Do you like superheroes? Do you know Superman, Batman, the Marvel Heroes? Do you know about them? Yes, I them. Okay. Okay. You know, so it is like we create this amazing superhero, right? Like, imagine you're a Collosseum, right? And the Red Hulk is there. The Red hu, you know, the Red Hulk? It is the hut, but it's red. It's a villa. Okay? You're not gonna send Shaggy from Scooby-Doo to fight the Red Hulk, right? Exactly. How about you send someone like, who has the powers of Superman, of Wonder Woman, Batman, Spider-Man, and you combine them all these, and then you send this Hulk and Thor, and you send this one to fight against the Red Hulk, right? Mm-hmm. So that's what it is. Now you have a superhero superpower here in between your fingers, between the thumb and this. Whenever you want, you can activate that. It's your choice. Right. Don't seem shaggy. Send this one.

Erin McQuade-Wright

Beautiful. Well, Dr. Pollyanna Chavez, thank you so much for being on our show today. And it was a pleasure talking to fundraisers everywhere and we just learned so much from you.

Dr. Pollyanna Chavez

Oh, it was my pleasure.

Before you go, let's lock in what matters. Here are your takeaways: Number one: your body tells the truth faster than your words. Pollyanna called her horse a thousand pound emotional thermometer. That's the point. Donors don't just hear your ask. They feel you. If you're incongruent on the inside, Trust gets shaky on the outside. Number two: state is the whole package, not just emotion. As Pollyanna put it, state is your emotion, posture, face, micro- movements, tone, all of it. This is why looking calm isn't enough. You wanna be calm. Number three: give your high achiever brain an off switch. Your overthinking strategy may be brilliant at work, but it doesn't belong at dinner, in bed, or in a donor meeting. Number four: Stop outsourcing your okayness to external outcomes. Be happy for no reason at all. Not because life is perfect, but because you can learn to generate internal safety and joy first, then walk into the ask from there. Number five: pollyanna's mic drop moment was "if you don't know how to run your mind, your mind is gonna run itself." Your patterns will default to whatever you practice the most, which is why practicing abundance, joy and play isn't woo-- it's training. If you try the exercise from today, the spinning visualization with the thumb index anchor, let me know what you notice. And if this episode made you realize you've been fundraising from tightness, urgency, or performance, no judgment. No judgment. You're not alone. You're learning a new way, one where your nervous system becomes an asset, not an obstacle. I wanna invite you to share this with a friend who is fundraising from urgency and tightness and is in your world. This will be medicine to them and I hope it is to you as well. Thanks for being here. We'll see you next time.