Ep 1: Alison DeNicola and Signs from the Universe
January 4, 2022
Alison DeNicola is a yoga & meditation teacher, energy healer and award-winning author. She began on her spiritual path almost 20 years ago with the study of yoga, yoga nidra and hypnotherapy. She has continued to expand into other mind-body healing practices which include shamanic, sound and angelic vibrational healing and chakra work. Alison is the author of 6 inspirational card deck and book sets including the award-winning "Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body," "Mudras for Awakening the Five Elements," and "Divine Feather Messengers."
You can connect with her on her website www.alisondenicola.com or on FB at Alison DeNicola or FB Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body.
Abridged transcript, mostly for readability, spelling, and grammar. Time marks are approximate, therefore.
[00:00:05] Sue Wilhite [SW]: Hello everyone and welcome to the Sweet Sound of Success. This is my new platform and my new format for my weekly Facebook lives. I'm going to be interviewing entrepreneurs on their hero's journey and sharing how amazing life can be as an entrepreneur and what the interesting changes and challenges and calls to action and how that all works.
And so my guest today is my soul sister Allison DeNicola, who is an amazing deck creator. She's created five decks to date now. Four of which are in print, one is to come (and we'll talk about those in a little bit) and she's a yoga teacher, she is a meditator. She is just one of the most amazing people. We met at Book Expo America many years ago, I don't want to say how many years ago! and we met at her booth at US Games where she works as a marketing rep or is a marketing coordinator. Right?
[00:01:38] Alison DeNicola [AD]: Yeah, I'm the one.
[00:01:43] [SW]: She works for US Games, she's an important person. And then we met in line for this in this incredibly long line at B.E.A. waiting for heroes and just really hit it off really connected on a soul level. And then years later we met at the international new age trade show when a fellow vendor had her booth crash and Alison and I were there holding up things and trying to prop up books and just all three of us really bonded that that afternoon. So that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship with Alison and we've known each other for years now, and we've been roommates at conferences, and we've exchanged emails and pictures and all of this sort of stuff. Alison, how did you get started in all of this? What was, what was your beginning of your journey?
[00:02:51] [AD]: Awesome. Well thanks for having me, Sue. That was a great memory. I remember that, I remember all of those things with Greek food, and the crashing booth and everything.
So, it's funny to wind back in time. I think that the first switch for me was back in 2003 actually: my father passed away. He was only 71 and it was a very quick thing, it was really jarring for our family. We were all really close, my kids were young. After that I went on this intense seeking journey of “there has to be more,” there is life, there is more: my intuition was telling me that. A lot of it came through his passing like I was having a lot of lucid dreaming, a lot of connections to him, a lot of messages, all sorts of things.
And at that point in time I went and I took my first Tarot reading class. When we went to the local high school and there was a woman doing Tarot and I went to learn Tarot. I got so into the idea of opening up my mind to this vehicle that I felt somehow right. I mean I felt somehow I knew it, but I was very frustrated at the beginning because I was feeling, “I know this, I know I know this somewhere,” but I don't know it up here, like my mind didn't know it.
So I had to really go and like learn all the symbolism of Tarot, the colors and numerology. The Major [Arcana], the Minor [Arcana] and then practice readings which I was practicing on anybody and everyone . Any of you have read cards for people before, you know that's a dangerous place to go doing readings for everybody and anyone, because the truth comes out, and it was remarkable that I could do a card read things and lived in just the turn of some cards, you know, it was like whatever was just underneath the surface popped up for people. so I was fascinated with that I started a lot of different things in the beginning of that Tarot also, you know, I did Reiki certifications and I was going around to different things, exploring.
My one fateful day I'll call it, it was about 2008, [I] have been practicing for for several years, and had done a yoga teacher training and I was getting into this other realm of just exploring things that I was interested in. I was looking on Craigslist, looking for something to do. I wanted to work, I was a stay-at-home mom, and my kids were in school, --
[00:06:02] [SW]: Her kids by the way, definitely shared some amazing creative genes in her kids, but we'll talk about that...
[00:06:03] [AD]: Yes, later. So yeah, so I answered a job ad for US Games Systems, that was in Stamford. I remembered on the bottom of my Tarot deck that had said, you know, published by US Game Systems, Stamford, Connecticut, and here was a job, part time sales job for US games. So, I applied for the job, went down there, interviewed, got the job, no problem. And, you know, was off like a shot. you know, immediately successful because they didn't really have anybody that was... they had some sales people, but they weren't really into the product. I was so enamored of the first day I walked in and there were just racks, you know, the warehouse filled with every Tarot deck and every inspiration deck and it was like, you know, kid in a candy store. So, I was really, really enamored with that world and with my boss who I'm still enamored with, and that was like the beginning for me, that little entry, the Tarot into US Games. So that's, that's really how it all started.
[00:07:30] [SW]: Not only are you learning it on an intellectual level, but you're learning it on a production level and what works and what doesn't for people.
[00:07:43] [AD]: Right, I was learning it on every level and I, in fact, so at that time, the entire Tarot collection of Stewart Kaplan's, which was the largest Tarot collection in the world, in our offices. And so I would go home at night and I would be dreaming like esoteric, it was like I was just absorbing the information. I wasn't reading it or touching it or looking at it, it was like just by being there, I was like absorbing, or re-absorbing. Somehow I started to understand or remember things that I already knew on a soul level; I started to learn a lot and and so I worked there for about a year and a half. Then my husband went to open his own business, and he said I need your help, I can't do it by myself. So I left.
And they didn't want really want me to go. But you know what was it was a nice parting. They were always like, you need anything, we want you back or whatever.
And then once my husband got settled, I ran into Lynn who's our director of PR, Publicity, and she's our main editor. I ran into her in the supermarket one day, and she said, oh we really miss you and I said, you know, I'm free, I kinda have a lot of time. And so the next week they called me and I was back again, this time in a different capacity, so I wasn't selling for them per se, I was managing the sales people. So they hired me back and I have been back there now for 11 years. And I'm now the national sales and marketing manager there, so I'm in charge of all the outside sales groups as well as marketing efforts, and I'm a little bit of the “face” of US Games. So I go out, do trainings and do workshops and things on their behalf, Aand so there was this development in my professional life, which has enhanced all the other parts of my life.
[00:10:04] [SW]: Right? And so you're also a deck creator. I mean, you had an “in,” but I know how these things work: just because you work there, doesn't mean they automatically approve you, right? Because you have quality go out; US Games is very attached to the quality of the stuff that goes out. They don't want to put out schlock, I can't imagine Stuart wanting to put out schlock. So yeah, and I can safely say that none of Alison's decks are schlock.
[00:10:39] [SW]: She has partnered with some amazing artists and come up with some really stunning deck. So, why don't, why don't you show them off? Alison?
[00:10:51] [AD]: I will, I will and I don't, unfortunately, I don't have all of them here with me at home. But so the first card deck that I did, was this one: Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body. That was really the light bulb moment for me. I'll just tell you a little bit about that and I'll show you the others.
So I was in my office and I have been doing a lot of yoga teaching, a lot of different trainings, doing personal training, being out there in the world. And so I was really involved in the world of yoga. And we were distributing a, classic yoga deck, a Mudra deck by Gertrude Hershey, which has been around for like 25 years and it's published in Germany and one of our distributors, the publisher in Germany who does it said, “we're not gonna print this anymore.” And so, yeah, so somebody came in to me, I don't know if it was Stuart or somebody said, or do you want to write a Mudra deck? It was like, you know, in the cartoons with the little light bulb thing goes off and I said, yes, I would like to do that. So I was really familiar with the topic. Yeah, that was a call to action and it was just like synchronicity. And so it happened really quickly. They said, why don't you come up with the outline or concept how you would want to do it. And then, I found Sabina Espinet online, who had already painted several of the featured movements, and I reached out to her to say, would you be interested in working on this project with me? She was totally on board. And so we got ourselves together and made the proposal and as far as US Games goes, yes, it's not just because you're there, you're just gonna get whatever approved; everyone has to approve. We have a creative committee. So it went out to the creative committee and they were all like, yeah, let's do it, let's see how this goes. So, it was it was amazing. This card deck has just been an amazing gift to my life. It's so beautiful. It's really beautiful, it's really vibrant. There's really nothing else like it. I had to really dig deep because I was feeling so resistant to coming out and doing the writing. You know, it was really hard for me to get started. I had a beautiful outline. I had this great partner in this part of the hero's journey. All of a sudden you face the resistance, right? You face the wall. What is that thing that makes you stop? We've all been there. Right? We've all been there. There was a lot of challenge. And the challenges were internal because when you start a creative project, this one especially can look back to it. When you start a creative project, all of your insecurities, all of your inner feelings, all, all sorts of things that are unresolved are going to show themselves to you, which happened to me on writing this deck. I was doing everything I could to avoid sitting down and doing the writing.
[00:14:26] [AD]: So the Divine stepped in. I said, okay, I'm going to devote Mondays, they are gonna be my writing day and I'm just going to write on Monday, that's what I'm gonna do. And then it snowed every Monday for 10 weeks. The Universe conspired!
[00:14:50] [AD]: When the Universe conspires, you are not going anywhere. And so I was like, okay, here I am. And once I got into that rhythm of being like, this is my day, my writing day, it's Monday, I'm going to start, you know, finding my own way to do it for me. I'm putting on instrumental, all different kinds of instrumental music. So I can go in the zone, finding my place. I did find my place by the window, you know, looking out into nature with all of my resource material and I started to write. And yeah, it was a huge upheaval and I did have to mine through some of that stuff. But I got to a halfway point with it and I could see now the other side. I was “I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm at the halfway point.” Then I could go back, finish and then go back and refine,, do a lot. I like to do a lot of my own editing and rewriting, which I did. That was very very, very intense. I would say for me, that first deck really was the turning point. There's no turning back. I wanted to; I missed the writing when the deck was done!
So as for the card decks that I've written so far, I have five that are in print, the newest one I don't have with me. And then two more that I'm working one more that's in the edit line right now, which will be coming hopefully by the end of this year [2020], and then two more that I'm working on right now.
So, you know, there's a period of time that you have to devote when you are doing creative work, you can't be busy in your mind with everything; you have to carve out the time because that creative action, whether you feel like you channel it or you're internally creating it or however you want to see it needs space, right? Are you need space, you have to have freedom.
[00:17:00] [SW]: Stephen Pressfield calls that “invoking the muse” and you have to create the space for them. Inspiration, which one of my favorite words, it literally means “breathed upon by the gods.” For that to come in., you can't be thinking, “oh, I've got to pick up the kids,” “oh, I've got to clean the toilet,” “oh, I've got to feed the cats, I've got to walk the dog,” I've got to, you know, do this, that and the other thing that's not creating space for the creativity, for the muse to come in. You want to say, “okay, I'm writing on Mondays, we're gonna sit down, we're going to write, boom, there we go, invoke the muse.”
[00:17:47] [AD]: Exactly, I had to teach myself how to do that because I was an expert at I got to just go over here for a minute and do this. So yeah, that was in 2000 and this deck came out in 2016, so I wrote most of it from like November through February, took about four months to write. There's a lot of specific Sanskrit words, there's a lot of specific directions in here. So it was a very intense: it wasn't so much creative writing, but there was a lot more specific instructional writing that I had to fact check a lot of, so that was, that was my first card deck.
And then, when it came I was saying, I'm going to go out and teach this now. And then “oh, I forgot about that part.” So I had to learn that part of how do I translate this and, how do I share this world. It's only been four years. Yeah, it's new people are still discovering it. And, and so I've been teaching, be teaching this weekend, there's a World Divination World Conference that's happening, Tony Puhls in England is doing it. And so I'll be doing a Mudra segment on there for that.
The second deck was the “Mudras for Awakening the Five Elements.” I was very much into the Five Elements as a yoga teacher and teaching that. So this is a companion deck, we did that pretty quickly, we're right on a roll, let's do it, let's keep going. So those two were the Mudras. And they're still giving me a lot of joy and pleasure.
I went on to do to other card decks: if you're familiar with the yoga cats, yoga dogs series, which were the calendars, we did two card decks, and I did that writing to go along with them. They're fun. They're inspirational, but they're much more light hearted and a little bit more commercial feeling. It was a great process for me because then I could really get into the flow of doing my writing; I did a lot of that writing actually at work because it was the US games project they asked me to work on. I was doing this, and in my world that I was doing as part of my work process. And that became comfortable too. So I was starting to really accept myself as the author. That was another part, I think, of any challenge. And so if you have something that you're working on, that you want to manifest, that you want to bring to life, there's a part of you that means to say I embrace this, I am this now, right? Not “I'll be that next week.” You know, it's really helped me to move into this role to say, oh yes, I'm the author.
And, I felt one of the challenges I face might be relatable to some listeners, was my family. They didn't see me as that person, right? They just saw me as however they saw me.
[00:21:26] [SW]: Yes, many artists and entrepreneurs struggle with the folks in their lives, whether it's family or coworkers: who you are going through a transformation. You are coming out as a butterfly, and they're saying, no, I don't think of you that way. What wings where? Yeah. And, they try to keep you grounded, they think, and you're trying to fly, you're trying to take off,
[00:22:02] [AD]: They're trying to keep you where they're comfortable with you. And so as you start to open up and as things start to change, you know, I get it. And with compassion. When people see you changing, it's like, oh, now I'm going to have to change, right? That's what is threatening. And so that was an interesting thing.
Not my immediate group here, my husband and my kids are always so supportive, but I found that my siblings, even up to a year ago-- my brother said to me one day, we were all at a get together and he said to me, “what do you do?” And I thought is this crazy? This guy is asking me what, he has no idea. He doesn't even know what I'm doing. It wasn't so much that I was insulted. I just was incredulous. Like you have absolutely no idea what I'm up to. That's so bizarre. But so you might find people, I feel like that they're themselves, they're not thinking about what you're up to.
I think the part of the intention for me was the visioning of who I wanted to become and then starting to embody that, like I am that now, that was important for me. So yeah, I did some good work on that. I did a lot of energy healing trainings, all sorts of different kinds of shamanic training. I had a mentor for a long time who was very much into Native American spiritualism, and medicine and feathers, and things like that. So I had that part of me that was not reflected in this yoga life. I had these four yoga decks, these two and the dog and cat. But I had this whole other interest that was really about earth based spirituality. And the angels; I have big angel connections. So I had another one of those lightning bolt moments with Lynn; give her credit for this one. She said to me “you should do a feather deck.” And you know, you're right, I should because I had been really working with feathers and doing feather healing and doing all sorts of different kinds of healing modality with feathers. And so I set out to find my feather artist to start before I pitched the idea. I did right away find David David Scheirer, who is this amazing watercolor artist. These are some of the most beautiful cards.
[00:24:57] [SW]: They're just, they're just so beautiful and delicate and and evocative of a feather. You know, that sort of strength that a feather has well soft and, and they're gorgeous. They're beautiful.
[00:25:17] [AD]: So I found David, and he had already been painting lots of birds and feathers and things. He had no idea what I was up to. He was just like, yeah, I'd be interested in working on this project with you. And so the Divine Feather Messenger was created, and Nora who's our art director did the box, which I think is so beautiful. And you know just speaks to a lot of people.
So I wind back to when my father passed and I was walking every day, that was my soul soothing thing. And I was finding feathers, like crazy. I had one summer where I found about 50 or 60 hawk feathers. I mean that amount of hawk is really unusual and the birds of prairie, you know you can't buy them; you can keep them if you find them. So, I was very inspired. I have a huge collection of feathers, huge. I have many, many feathers. So I worked with David and at that time I was doing doing getting certified in a practice called Integrated Energy Therapy, which is an angelic vibration healing and it has various levels. And so I've done the master master training and that with the principal, the gentleman who actually channeled that whole body of work. And so these cards are imprinted with those symbols. That's a good geometry from the angels. So that my intention was to the idea of finding feathers as a connection to spirit is really present for so many people.
[00:27:11] [SW]: They're divine messengers, you know, the birds as divine messengers and their feathers as being symbolic of that.
[00:27:22] [AD]: So this was really like that. Now I was really getting into the heart of things for myself. This deck became like another little turning point because now this felt very personal. This topic especially felt really personal to me. It was really connected to these feathers that I love: the bird kingdom and the angels and the idea that we are always connected and we just need to look outside for science. You know, just like finding a feather will give us that inspiration or give us that instant message or maybe as you see here in Connecticut, we have a lot of red tail hawks. So if you're thinking about something very often you're outside walking the hawk will be like a confirmation right? If you see the hawk flying, it's like a yes. And so I wove a lot of that in plus, you know, little bits of folklore and different connections to the birds. Just interesting for people: the seasonal connection is, what their color connection is, what the symbolism is. The birds as medicine, the feathers as messengers that hold specific vibration. I'm still always enjoying always playing around with this. So there's 44 different feathers in this card deck. And I'm teaching online actually, for Body Mind and Soul[store] in Houston, Texas coming up. I've been doing workshops and stuff based on that card deck that's more of an energy practice. More of a meditative type of practice.
[00:29:10] [SW]: You're just so creative. I mean it's like you opened the door and all of this creative...
[00:29:19] [AD]: ...and wonder rushing out
[00:29:21] [SW]: Yeah. You uncovered the well!
[00:29:26] [AD]: Exactly. And the thing I think is that I can impart about it, is that each of these things has made me push my comfort zone each time. So, with the Mudras, I physically have to go out and teach about it because people wanted to learn, tell me more, why is this, why is this good for me to use in my life? And there's a lot of practical aspects. And and then, you know, the feathers really, it's about, wow, you can really connect to spirit, and really notice things that are happening outside, just pause, and watch, and listen. This is a good time right now with what we're going through to do those products.
So I have a new deck that's coming: Nature & Soul Yoga Wisdom Cards, which is based on animal totems and yoga blended together. So that's like full circle. Just behind that is a really amazing chakra deck that I wrote with beautiful artist, Dhira Lawrence, who's up in Portland, Oregon, a visionary artist, very much like Kyle Gray. I don't want to take away from her, but that feeling. And then I have two new projects that I'm working right now, one with Sabina; we're working on something new together. Yeah, exciting.
[00:31:07] [SW]: Wonderful! So, I just have two more questions. One is, you talked about challenges and you talked about one of the challenges being friends and family, the folks in your life, but there's got to be people who supported you, your allies. And that's one of the things that I think entrepreneurs tend to discount, They see the folks who are in their face and trying to get in their way, but we as entrepreneurs have this tendency to go, no, I can do it myself. You know, I don't need any help. I can do it all. And, and in truth, we actually need allies. We need people who can give us a hand or give us a boost or, you know, put us on the sled and push us down the hill. Yeah. Get the momentum. So who were some of your allies?
[00:32:07] [AD]: Well, I would have to say, through work [US Games]. I mean that whole crew is my allies because they were, even though maybe I had to do some convincing or, I had to show myself and prove myself in terms of my writing abilities and stuff. There was never a time that any person there didn't fully believe in what I was doing. It's a really creative group of people, so they're already in that mindset. My children, my kids were like, yeah, go go mom. If I felt like I conquered hurdle or something that was really pushing me, and making me uncomfortable, and then I pushed through it. They would be the people I would go to to say, “hey, you know what happened today?” Like, this thing happened, and I pushed through this thing that I was feeling resistance at. So, don't discount the people in your life. Oh yeah, my kids love me and they accept me, but they were really great champions for for keeping me feeling like these guys are really on my side, good friends, you know what I mean? There's people in your life, whoever is in your life that wants, that rejoices at your success.
We need to see people out. Sometimes, old habits will keep us in these old relationships where the people, like we said before, might start to feel threatened if you change, they're going to have to change. take yourself out of that as much as you can; put yourself with the people who want to see you succeed or are happy for you. You can really talk to him, be yourself and bounce your ideas off her, because it's silly to think that you are going to go out and do everything all by yourself.
There needs to be this fluid thing where you get input and then you can, you know, change your mind and you don't have to accept, well this is the way it's going to be. The more flexible you can be, the more opportunity you'll have, right?
And then you can just just say, oh, you know what, you're right, thank you for pointing that out to me, or maybe I could do this a little bit better, what do you think about this? So I had support network and then I did have, let me tell you, plenty of people that want to bring it down, right? So there is a necessity to become like the turtle, you know, or the porcupine or whoever you want to pick that has a good filter and boundaries: go into your shell, you need to put your armor on. Don't let people come into that place if they're not in your highest and best good, and that's just working on your boundaries, you say no thanks, thanks, but no thanks.
[00:35:31] [SW]: Yeah, well, my favorite phrases, thank you for sharing. You know, you can say that with a very genuine voice, “wow, you know, thank you so much for telling me that. I really appreciate that. That is what's going on your mind. Thank you.”
[00:35:49] [AD]: Yeah, absolutely. And then move on and move out of there. So really surrounding yourself as much as you can with people that believe in you, or even if they don't know exactly what you're doing, want to support you and want to see you succeed. I think not everybody is going to understand why you're doing what you're doing. Like not everybody knew what I was doing, I would be talking about esoteric things or intuitive things that would be coming into my mind and I could tell my family and they'd be okay, but they, but they believed in me as being able to interpret that and bring it out into the world.
The last thing I think is just to start to celebrate your small victories, whatever they are. It could just be you, you said it out loud, I'm going to do this or you put it down on paper. This is my intention. I set an intention several years ago; I decided I wanted to be a bigger presenter. I wanted to go out in the world and I wanted to present. That was my intention. And I can tell you that the most unbelievably synchronised things happened. That's a whole other story. Each piece all have these incredible challenges to them that challenged my ego, and who I thought I was, and all different kinds of things that I had to push through and work through. A year and two months later, I got a contract to go and teach my first program [at Kripalu]: a year and two months. That was a pretty short manifesting time period job. That was a good job, right? I had to do a lot. Had to do a lot of personal work to get through that to get to the other side of that intention. So, if you have something that you really is, your heart's desire and you dream about: that's the beginning. That's just the beginning; be be willing to open your heart and get out there and do it.
[00:37:59] [SW]: Yeah, and be who that is!
[00:38:01] [AD]: Be who that is.
[00:38:15] [SW]: So the next question, the last question I have for you, Alison, is how would people get in touch with you? And I'm going to put this in the comments. I'm going to put this in the description as well. But how would people get a hold of you if they want to get some of your Divine Mudra Yoga Dogs?
[00:38:35] [AD]: Okay, perfect. Yes, lots of ways to get in touch with me. Go to my website which is www dot AlisondeNicola dot com. That's pretty easy -- just my name. You can Facebook friend me; I'm on Facebook under Alice DeNicola. Just send me a friend request. You can go to the Mduras for Awakening the Energy Body page on Facebook. I post updates and stuff on there. You can send me a direct message on Instagram. @AlisonDeNicola on instagram. It's all straightforward--just my name. I answer all of my messages all the time. So no worries. Reach out to me. I'm doing a lot of online classes these days, zoom classes, teaching yoga weekly meditation, restorative yoga, those things. I have my have my yoga peeps here in Connecticut that have been together for a long time.
I'm leading a retreat to Peru next year and that is of course dependent on you know, world things settling down. But I have the highest hopes that by next April will be absolutely on the other side and it'll be a trip to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu; lots of different things wrapped up in that. I love it. The mother energy there is incredible. It's a beautiful, beautiful place to go, to connect to nature. To really open up your intuition and spirituality. We will be doing a lot of different kinds of things there, intuitive development and all sorts of guided pieces to awaken your inner light. That's the theme of the, the retreat. So yeah, reach out, we're happy to hear from everybody.
[00:40:51] [SW]: Yeah, wonderful. Thank you Alison, bless you. Thank you.
[00:40:56] [AD]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
[00:40:58] [SW]: You know that I'm just so delighted that Divine put us together and then said no, really get back together, over and over and over.
[00:41:01] [AD] Right. I know we finally got happening that way. Isn't that great? Love it! Thank you for having me on. And I'll look forward to seeing you in person soon.
[00:41:25] [SW]: Yes, yes please. Absolutely.
[00:41:28] [SW]: So bless you, Thank you all of the folks for watching and listening and please do reach out to Alison and enjoy her version of the Sweet Sound of Success. Thank you.
[00:41:44] [AD]: Nameste.
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To learn more about Alison DeNicola:
Website: AlisonDeNicola.com
Facebook: Alison DeNicola
or
Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body
For info about Alison's decks:
https://www.usgamesinc.com/MUDRAS.html
(all her other decks are listed there too!)
[00:00:05] Sue Wilhite [SW]: Hello everyone and welcome to the Sweet Sound of Success. This is my new platform and my new format for my weekly Facebook lives. I'm going to be interviewing entrepreneurs on their hero's journey and sharing how amazing life can be as an entrepreneur and what the interesting changes and challenges and calls to action and how that all works.
And so my guest today is my soul sister Allison DeNicola, who is an amazing deck creator. She's created five decks to date now. Four of which are in print, one is to come (and we'll talk about those in a little bit) and she's a yoga teacher, she is a meditator. She is just one of the most amazing people. We met at Book Expo America many years ago, I don't want to say how many years ago! and we met at her booth at US Games where she works as a marketing rep or is a marketing coordinator. Right?
[00:01:38] Alison DeNicola [AD]: Yeah, I'm the one.
[00:01:43] [SW]: She works for US Games, she's an important person. And then we met in line for this in this incredibly long line at B.E.A. waiting for heroes and just really hit it off really connected on a soul level. And then years later we met at the international new age trade show when a fellow vendor had her booth crash and Alison and I were there holding up things and trying to prop up books and just all three of us really bonded that that afternoon. So that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship with Alison and we've known each other for years now, and we've been roommates at conferences, and we've exchanged emails and pictures and all of this sort of stuff. Alison, how did you get started in all of this? What was, what was your beginning of your journey?
[00:02:51] [AD]: Awesome. Well thanks for having me, Sue. That was a great memory. I remember that, I remember all of those things with Greek food, and the crashing booth and everything.
So, it's funny to wind back in time. I think that the first switch for me was back in 2003 actually: my father passed away. He was only 71 and it was a very quick thing, it was really jarring for our family. We were all really close, my kids were young. After that I went on this intense seeking journey of “there has to be more,” there is life, there is more: my intuition was telling me that. A lot of it came through his passing like I was having a lot of lucid dreaming, a lot of connections to him, a lot of messages, all sorts of things.
And at that point in time I went and I took my first Tarot reading class. When we went to the local high school and there was a woman doing Tarot and I went to learn Tarot. I got so into the idea of opening up my mind to this vehicle that I felt somehow right. I mean I felt somehow I knew it, but I was very frustrated at the beginning because I was feeling, “I know this, I know I know this somewhere,” but I don't know it up here, like my mind didn't know it.
So I had to really go and like learn all the symbolism of Tarot, the colors and numerology. The Major [Arcana], the Minor [Arcana] and then practice readings which I was practicing on anybody and everyone . Any of you have read cards for people before, you know that's a dangerous place to go doing readings for everybody and anyone, because the truth comes out, and it was remarkable that I could do a card read things and lived in just the turn of some cards, you know, it was like whatever was just underneath the surface popped up for people. so I was fascinated with that I started a lot of different things in the beginning of that Tarot also, you know, I did Reiki certifications and I was going around to different things, exploring.
My one fateful day I'll call it, it was about 2008, [I] have been practicing for for several years, and had done a yoga teacher training and I was getting into this other realm of just exploring things that I was interested in. I was looking on Craigslist, looking for something to do. I wanted to work, I was a stay-at-home mom, and my kids were in school, --
[00:06:02] [SW]: Her kids by the way, definitely shared some amazing creative genes in her kids, but we'll talk about that...
[00:06:03] [AD]: Yes, later. So yeah, so I answered a job ad for US Games Systems, that was in Stamford. I remembered on the bottom of my Tarot deck that had said, you know, published by US Game Systems, Stamford, Connecticut, and here was a job, part time sales job for US games. So, I applied for the job, went down there, interviewed, got the job, no problem. And, you know, was off like a shot. you know, immediately successful because they didn't really have anybody that was... they had some sales people, but they weren't really into the product. I was so enamored of the first day I walked in and there were just racks, you know, the warehouse filled with every Tarot deck and every inspiration deck and it was like, you know, kid in a candy store. So, I was really, really enamored with that world and with my boss who I'm still enamored with, and that was like the beginning for me, that little entry, the Tarot into US Games. So that's, that's really how it all started.
[00:07:30] [SW]: Not only are you learning it on an intellectual level, but you're learning it on a production level and what works and what doesn't for people.
[00:07:43] [AD]: Right, I was learning it on every level and I, in fact, so at that time, the entire Tarot collection of Stewart Kaplan's, which was the largest Tarot collection in the world, in our offices. And so I would go home at night and I would be dreaming like esoteric, it was like I was just absorbing the information. I wasn't reading it or touching it or looking at it, it was like just by being there, I was like absorbing, or re-absorbing. Somehow I started to understand or remember things that I already knew on a soul level; I started to learn a lot and and so I worked there for about a year and a half. Then my husband went to open his own business, and he said I need your help, I can't do it by myself. So I left.
And they didn't want really want me to go. But you know what was it was a nice parting. They were always like, you need anything, we want you back or whatever.
And then once my husband got settled, I ran into Lynn who's our director of PR, Publicity, and she's our main editor. I ran into her in the supermarket one day, and she said, oh we really miss you and I said, you know, I'm free, I kinda have a lot of time. And so the next week they called me and I was back again, this time in a different capacity, so I wasn't selling for them per se, I was managing the sales people. So they hired me back and I have been back there now for 11 years. And I'm now the national sales and marketing manager there, so I'm in charge of all the outside sales groups as well as marketing efforts, and I'm a little bit of the “face” of US Games. So I go out, do trainings and do workshops and things on their behalf, Aand so there was this development in my professional life, which has enhanced all the other parts of my life.
[00:10:04] [SW]: Right? And so you're also a deck creator. I mean, you had an “in,” but I know how these things work: just because you work there, doesn't mean they automatically approve you, right? Because you have quality go out; US Games is very attached to the quality of the stuff that goes out. They don't want to put out schlock, I can't imagine Stuart wanting to put out schlock. So yeah, and I can safely say that none of Alison's decks are schlock.
[00:10:39] [SW]: She has partnered with some amazing artists and come up with some really stunning deck. So, why don't, why don't you show them off? Alison?
[00:10:51] [AD]: I will, I will and I don't, unfortunately, I don't have all of them here with me at home. But so the first card deck that I did, was this one: Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body. That was really the light bulb moment for me. I'll just tell you a little bit about that and I'll show you the others.
So I was in my office and I have been doing a lot of yoga teaching, a lot of different trainings, doing personal training, being out there in the world. And so I was really involved in the world of yoga. And we were distributing a, classic yoga deck, a Mudra deck by Gertrude Hershey, which has been around for like 25 years and it's published in Germany and one of our distributors, the publisher in Germany who does it said, “we're not gonna print this anymore.” And so, yeah, so somebody came in to me, I don't know if it was Stuart or somebody said, or do you want to write a Mudra deck? It was like, you know, in the cartoons with the little light bulb thing goes off and I said, yes, I would like to do that. So I was really familiar with the topic. Yeah, that was a call to action and it was just like synchronicity. And so it happened really quickly. They said, why don't you come up with the outline or concept how you would want to do it. And then, I found Sabina Espinet online, who had already painted several of the featured movements, and I reached out to her to say, would you be interested in working on this project with me? She was totally on board. And so we got ourselves together and made the proposal and as far as US Games goes, yes, it's not just because you're there, you're just gonna get whatever approved; everyone has to approve. We have a creative committee. So it went out to the creative committee and they were all like, yeah, let's do it, let's see how this goes. So, it was it was amazing. This card deck has just been an amazing gift to my life. It's so beautiful. It's really beautiful, it's really vibrant. There's really nothing else like it. I had to really dig deep because I was feeling so resistant to coming out and doing the writing. You know, it was really hard for me to get started. I had a beautiful outline. I had this great partner in this part of the hero's journey. All of a sudden you face the resistance, right? You face the wall. What is that thing that makes you stop? We've all been there. Right? We've all been there. There was a lot of challenge. And the challenges were internal because when you start a creative project, this one especially can look back to it. When you start a creative project, all of your insecurities, all of your inner feelings, all, all sorts of things that are unresolved are going to show themselves to you, which happened to me on writing this deck. I was doing everything I could to avoid sitting down and doing the writing.
[00:14:26] [AD]: So the Divine stepped in. I said, okay, I'm going to devote Mondays, they are gonna be my writing day and I'm just going to write on Monday, that's what I'm gonna do. And then it snowed every Monday for 10 weeks. The Universe conspired!
[00:14:50] [AD]: When the Universe conspires, you are not going anywhere. And so I was like, okay, here I am. And once I got into that rhythm of being like, this is my day, my writing day, it's Monday, I'm going to start, you know, finding my own way to do it for me. I'm putting on instrumental, all different kinds of instrumental music. So I can go in the zone, finding my place. I did find my place by the window, you know, looking out into nature with all of my resource material and I started to write. And yeah, it was a huge upheaval and I did have to mine through some of that stuff. But I got to a halfway point with it and I could see now the other side. I was “I'm happy, I'm happy, I'm at the halfway point.” Then I could go back, finish and then go back and refine,, do a lot. I like to do a lot of my own editing and rewriting, which I did. That was very very, very intense. I would say for me, that first deck really was the turning point. There's no turning back. I wanted to; I missed the writing when the deck was done!
So as for the card decks that I've written so far, I have five that are in print, the newest one I don't have with me. And then two more that I'm working one more that's in the edit line right now, which will be coming hopefully by the end of this year [2020], and then two more that I'm working on right now.
So, you know, there's a period of time that you have to devote when you are doing creative work, you can't be busy in your mind with everything; you have to carve out the time because that creative action, whether you feel like you channel it or you're internally creating it or however you want to see it needs space, right? Are you need space, you have to have freedom.
[00:17:00] [SW]: Stephen Pressfield calls that “invoking the muse” and you have to create the space for them. Inspiration, which one of my favorite words, it literally means “breathed upon by the gods.” For that to come in., you can't be thinking, “oh, I've got to pick up the kids,” “oh, I've got to clean the toilet,” “oh, I've got to feed the cats, I've got to walk the dog,” I've got to, you know, do this, that and the other thing that's not creating space for the creativity, for the muse to come in. You want to say, “okay, I'm writing on Mondays, we're gonna sit down, we're going to write, boom, there we go, invoke the muse.”
[00:17:47] [AD]: Exactly, I had to teach myself how to do that because I was an expert at I got to just go over here for a minute and do this. So yeah, that was in 2000 and this deck came out in 2016, so I wrote most of it from like November through February, took about four months to write. There's a lot of specific Sanskrit words, there's a lot of specific directions in here. So it was a very intense: it wasn't so much creative writing, but there was a lot more specific instructional writing that I had to fact check a lot of, so that was, that was my first card deck.
And then, when it came I was saying, I'm going to go out and teach this now. And then “oh, I forgot about that part.” So I had to learn that part of how do I translate this and, how do I share this world. It's only been four years. Yeah, it's new people are still discovering it. And, and so I've been teaching, be teaching this weekend, there's a World Divination World Conference that's happening, Tony Puhls in England is doing it. And so I'll be doing a Mudra segment on there for that.
The second deck was the “Mudras for Awakening the Five Elements.” I was very much into the Five Elements as a yoga teacher and teaching that. So this is a companion deck, we did that pretty quickly, we're right on a roll, let's do it, let's keep going. So those two were the Mudras. And they're still giving me a lot of joy and pleasure.
I went on to do to other card decks: if you're familiar with the yoga cats, yoga dogs series, which were the calendars, we did two card decks, and I did that writing to go along with them. They're fun. They're inspirational, but they're much more light hearted and a little bit more commercial feeling. It was a great process for me because then I could really get into the flow of doing my writing; I did a lot of that writing actually at work because it was the US games project they asked me to work on. I was doing this, and in my world that I was doing as part of my work process. And that became comfortable too. So I was starting to really accept myself as the author. That was another part, I think, of any challenge. And so if you have something that you're working on, that you want to manifest, that you want to bring to life, there's a part of you that means to say I embrace this, I am this now, right? Not “I'll be that next week.” You know, it's really helped me to move into this role to say, oh yes, I'm the author.
And, I felt one of the challenges I face might be relatable to some listeners, was my family. They didn't see me as that person, right? They just saw me as however they saw me.
[00:21:26] [SW]: Yes, many artists and entrepreneurs struggle with the folks in their lives, whether it's family or coworkers: who you are going through a transformation. You are coming out as a butterfly, and they're saying, no, I don't think of you that way. What wings where? Yeah. And, they try to keep you grounded, they think, and you're trying to fly, you're trying to take off,
[00:22:02] [AD]: They're trying to keep you where they're comfortable with you. And so as you start to open up and as things start to change, you know, I get it. And with compassion. When people see you changing, it's like, oh, now I'm going to have to change, right? That's what is threatening. And so that was an interesting thing.
Not my immediate group here, my husband and my kids are always so supportive, but I found that my siblings, even up to a year ago-- my brother said to me one day, we were all at a get together and he said to me, “what do you do?” And I thought is this crazy? This guy is asking me what, he has no idea. He doesn't even know what I'm doing. It wasn't so much that I was insulted. I just was incredulous. Like you have absolutely no idea what I'm up to. That's so bizarre. But so you might find people, I feel like that they're themselves, they're not thinking about what you're up to.
I think the part of the intention for me was the visioning of who I wanted to become and then starting to embody that, like I am that now, that was important for me. So yeah, I did some good work on that. I did a lot of energy healing trainings, all sorts of different kinds of shamanic training. I had a mentor for a long time who was very much into Native American spiritualism, and medicine and feathers, and things like that. So I had that part of me that was not reflected in this yoga life. I had these four yoga decks, these two and the dog and cat. But I had this whole other interest that was really about earth based spirituality. And the angels; I have big angel connections. So I had another one of those lightning bolt moments with Lynn; give her credit for this one. She said to me “you should do a feather deck.” And you know, you're right, I should because I had been really working with feathers and doing feather healing and doing all sorts of different kinds of healing modality with feathers. And so I set out to find my feather artist to start before I pitched the idea. I did right away find David David Scheirer, who is this amazing watercolor artist. These are some of the most beautiful cards.
[00:24:57] [SW]: They're just, they're just so beautiful and delicate and and evocative of a feather. You know, that sort of strength that a feather has well soft and, and they're gorgeous. They're beautiful.
[00:25:17] [AD]: So I found David, and he had already been painting lots of birds and feathers and things. He had no idea what I was up to. He was just like, yeah, I'd be interested in working on this project with you. And so the Divine Feather Messenger was created, and Nora who's our art director did the box, which I think is so beautiful. And you know just speaks to a lot of people.
So I wind back to when my father passed and I was walking every day, that was my soul soothing thing. And I was finding feathers, like crazy. I had one summer where I found about 50 or 60 hawk feathers. I mean that amount of hawk is really unusual and the birds of prairie, you know you can't buy them; you can keep them if you find them. So, I was very inspired. I have a huge collection of feathers, huge. I have many, many feathers. So I worked with David and at that time I was doing doing getting certified in a practice called Integrated Energy Therapy, which is an angelic vibration healing and it has various levels. And so I've done the master master training and that with the principal, the gentleman who actually channeled that whole body of work. And so these cards are imprinted with those symbols. That's a good geometry from the angels. So that my intention was to the idea of finding feathers as a connection to spirit is really present for so many people.
[00:27:11] [SW]: They're divine messengers, you know, the birds as divine messengers and their feathers as being symbolic of that.
[00:27:22] [AD]: So this was really like that. Now I was really getting into the heart of things for myself. This deck became like another little turning point because now this felt very personal. This topic especially felt really personal to me. It was really connected to these feathers that I love: the bird kingdom and the angels and the idea that we are always connected and we just need to look outside for science. You know, just like finding a feather will give us that inspiration or give us that instant message or maybe as you see here in Connecticut, we have a lot of red tail hawks. So if you're thinking about something very often you're outside walking the hawk will be like a confirmation right? If you see the hawk flying, it's like a yes. And so I wove a lot of that in plus, you know, little bits of folklore and different connections to the birds. Just interesting for people: the seasonal connection is, what their color connection is, what the symbolism is. The birds as medicine, the feathers as messengers that hold specific vibration. I'm still always enjoying always playing around with this. So there's 44 different feathers in this card deck. And I'm teaching online actually, for Body Mind and Soul[store] in Houston, Texas coming up. I've been doing workshops and stuff based on that card deck that's more of an energy practice. More of a meditative type of practice.
[00:29:10] [SW]: You're just so creative. I mean it's like you opened the door and all of this creative...
[00:29:19] [AD]: ...and wonder rushing out
[00:29:21] [SW]: Yeah. You uncovered the well!
[00:29:26] [AD]: Exactly. And the thing I think is that I can impart about it, is that each of these things has made me push my comfort zone each time. So, with the Mudras, I physically have to go out and teach about it because people wanted to learn, tell me more, why is this, why is this good for me to use in my life? And there's a lot of practical aspects. And and then, you know, the feathers really, it's about, wow, you can really connect to spirit, and really notice things that are happening outside, just pause, and watch, and listen. This is a good time right now with what we're going through to do those products.
So I have a new deck that's coming: Nature & Soul Yoga Wisdom Cards, which is based on animal totems and yoga blended together. So that's like full circle. Just behind that is a really amazing chakra deck that I wrote with beautiful artist, Dhira Lawrence, who's up in Portland, Oregon, a visionary artist, very much like Kyle Gray. I don't want to take away from her, but that feeling. And then I have two new projects that I'm working right now, one with Sabina; we're working on something new together. Yeah, exciting.
[00:31:07] [SW]: Wonderful! So, I just have two more questions. One is, you talked about challenges and you talked about one of the challenges being friends and family, the folks in your life, but there's got to be people who supported you, your allies. And that's one of the things that I think entrepreneurs tend to discount, They see the folks who are in their face and trying to get in their way, but we as entrepreneurs have this tendency to go, no, I can do it myself. You know, I don't need any help. I can do it all. And, and in truth, we actually need allies. We need people who can give us a hand or give us a boost or, you know, put us on the sled and push us down the hill. Yeah. Get the momentum. So who were some of your allies?
[00:32:07] [AD]: Well, I would have to say, through work [US Games]. I mean that whole crew is my allies because they were, even though maybe I had to do some convincing or, I had to show myself and prove myself in terms of my writing abilities and stuff. There was never a time that any person there didn't fully believe in what I was doing. It's a really creative group of people, so they're already in that mindset. My children, my kids were like, yeah, go go mom. If I felt like I conquered hurdle or something that was really pushing me, and making me uncomfortable, and then I pushed through it. They would be the people I would go to to say, “hey, you know what happened today?” Like, this thing happened, and I pushed through this thing that I was feeling resistance at. So, don't discount the people in your life. Oh yeah, my kids love me and they accept me, but they were really great champions for for keeping me feeling like these guys are really on my side, good friends, you know what I mean? There's people in your life, whoever is in your life that wants, that rejoices at your success.
We need to see people out. Sometimes, old habits will keep us in these old relationships where the people, like we said before, might start to feel threatened if you change, they're going to have to change. take yourself out of that as much as you can; put yourself with the people who want to see you succeed or are happy for you. You can really talk to him, be yourself and bounce your ideas off her, because it's silly to think that you are going to go out and do everything all by yourself.
There needs to be this fluid thing where you get input and then you can, you know, change your mind and you don't have to accept, well this is the way it's going to be. The more flexible you can be, the more opportunity you'll have, right?
And then you can just just say, oh, you know what, you're right, thank you for pointing that out to me, or maybe I could do this a little bit better, what do you think about this? So I had support network and then I did have, let me tell you, plenty of people that want to bring it down, right? So there is a necessity to become like the turtle, you know, or the porcupine or whoever you want to pick that has a good filter and boundaries: go into your shell, you need to put your armor on. Don't let people come into that place if they're not in your highest and best good, and that's just working on your boundaries, you say no thanks, thanks, but no thanks.
[00:35:31] [SW]: Yeah, well, my favorite phrases, thank you for sharing. You know, you can say that with a very genuine voice, “wow, you know, thank you so much for telling me that. I really appreciate that. That is what's going on your mind. Thank you.”
[00:35:49] [AD]: Yeah, absolutely. And then move on and move out of there. So really surrounding yourself as much as you can with people that believe in you, or even if they don't know exactly what you're doing, want to support you and want to see you succeed. I think not everybody is going to understand why you're doing what you're doing. Like not everybody knew what I was doing, I would be talking about esoteric things or intuitive things that would be coming into my mind and I could tell my family and they'd be okay, but they, but they believed in me as being able to interpret that and bring it out into the world.
The last thing I think is just to start to celebrate your small victories, whatever they are. It could just be you, you said it out loud, I'm going to do this or you put it down on paper. This is my intention. I set an intention several years ago; I decided I wanted to be a bigger presenter. I wanted to go out in the world and I wanted to present. That was my intention. And I can tell you that the most unbelievably synchronised things happened. That's a whole other story. Each piece all have these incredible challenges to them that challenged my ego, and who I thought I was, and all different kinds of things that I had to push through and work through. A year and two months later, I got a contract to go and teach my first program [at Kripalu]: a year and two months. That was a pretty short manifesting time period job. That was a good job, right? I had to do a lot. Had to do a lot of personal work to get through that to get to the other side of that intention. So, if you have something that you really is, your heart's desire and you dream about: that's the beginning. That's just the beginning; be be willing to open your heart and get out there and do it.
[00:37:59] [SW]: Yeah, and be who that is!
[00:38:01] [AD]: Be who that is.
[00:38:15] [SW]: So the next question, the last question I have for you, Alison, is how would people get in touch with you? And I'm going to put this in the comments. I'm going to put this in the description as well. But how would people get a hold of you if they want to get some of your Divine Mudra Yoga Dogs?
[00:38:35] [AD]: Okay, perfect. Yes, lots of ways to get in touch with me. Go to my website which is www dot AlisondeNicola dot com. That's pretty easy -- just my name. You can Facebook friend me; I'm on Facebook under Alice DeNicola. Just send me a friend request. You can go to the Mduras for Awakening the Energy Body page on Facebook. I post updates and stuff on there. You can send me a direct message on Instagram. @AlisonDeNicola on instagram. It's all straightforward--just my name. I answer all of my messages all the time. So no worries. Reach out to me. I'm doing a lot of online classes these days, zoom classes, teaching yoga weekly meditation, restorative yoga, those things. I have my have my yoga peeps here in Connecticut that have been together for a long time.
I'm leading a retreat to Peru next year and that is of course dependent on you know, world things settling down. But I have the highest hopes that by next April will be absolutely on the other side and it'll be a trip to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu; lots of different things wrapped up in that. I love it. The mother energy there is incredible. It's a beautiful, beautiful place to go, to connect to nature. To really open up your intuition and spirituality. We will be doing a lot of different kinds of things there, intuitive development and all sorts of guided pieces to awaken your inner light. That's the theme of the, the retreat. So yeah, reach out, we're happy to hear from everybody.
[00:40:51] [SW]: Yeah, wonderful. Thank you Alison, bless you. Thank you.
[00:40:56] [AD]: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
[00:40:58] [SW]: You know that I'm just so delighted that Divine put us together and then said no, really get back together, over and over and over.
[00:41:01] [AD] Right. I know we finally got happening that way. Isn't that great? Love it! Thank you for having me on. And I'll look forward to seeing you in person soon.
[00:41:25] [SW]: Yes, yes please. Absolutely.
[00:41:28] [SW]: So bless you, Thank you all of the folks for watching and listening and please do reach out to Alison and enjoy her version of the Sweet Sound of Success. Thank you.
[00:41:44] [AD]: Nameste.
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To learn more about Alison DeNicola:
Website: AlisonDeNicola.com
Facebook: Alison DeNicola
or
Mudras for Awakening the Energy Body
For info about Alison's decks:
https://www.usgamesinc.com/MUDRAS.html
(all her other decks are listed there too!)