Wear the Damn Dress: How Getting Ready for Magic Changed Everything
"Who's gonna have the best day EVER?!"
That's how Emily Shimwell wakes up her kids every morning. And before you roll your eyes and think "oh great, another toxic positivity mom," hear me out.
Because Emily isn't selling some fluffy manifestation BS. She's talking about something way more practical: being ready.
Ready for the spontaneous two-week road trip to Oregon that starts with "should we go to the aquarium?" Ready for the last-minute podcast invitation that shows up three hours before recording. Ready for the magic that only happens when you're not wearing yesterday's sweatpants and subsisting on sandwich crusts.
I sat down with Emily recently—just three hours after she responded to my Instagram story asking if anyone wanted to fill a canceled podcast slot—and what unfolded was one of the most transformative conversations I've had on this show.
Emily is the founder of Dine Wilder, where she creates intentional gatherings and long table dinners in Squamish, BC. She's British, she's a mom of two boys, she's married to Dean who is possibly the most spontaneous human alive, and she has this uncanny ability to make magic happen constantly.
But here's the thing: it's not magic. It's strategy disguised as spontaneity.
The Real Story Behind Selling Out Feast
Let's talk about what happened with Feast.
Emily created this 110-person event—the highest price point Squamish had ever seen for a gathering. Beautiful forest venue. Velvet tablecloths (yes, she insisted on the velvet even when it made zero financial sense). Intentional dress code. The whole thing.
And for weeks? She sold basically nothing.
She called her mom. "Should I cancel this? Postpone it? What do I do?"
Her mom said: "Do you have the facts? The financial facts?"
Emily didn't. So she sat down with her bookkeeper, looked at the actual numbers, figured out her break-even point, and got strategic. She talked to her coach about what postponing would look like. She got excited about the story of postponement being just as valuable as the story of success.
And then? A friend's husband told her: "Get in your car. Go sell door-to-door. It's totally inefficient, but it's gonna work."
So she did. She got up from Starbucks (didn't even grab her coffee), got in the car, and started selling in person. The first person bought a ticket for his wife.
From that experience, Emily learned that you can't sell to everyone the same way you like to be sold to. Some people needed every single detail—the schedule, the speakers, the gift bag contents, the exact timeline. Others (like Emily) just needed the vibe.
By the time Feast rolled around, there was a waitlist. Sold out. 1 million views on social media.
And now she's 40% sold out for next year's event—without even announcing the speakers.
Why Emily Never Leaves the House Undressed
Okay, let's address the elephant in the room: Emily is always dressed.
Heels in the forest. Full face of makeup gardening (okay, "gardening" means the kids are digging). Hair done at the coffee shop on a Tuesday.
And before you think "well that's easy for HER," let me tell you what Emily told me: this has nothing to do with how she looks. It's about how she feels.
After she became a mom, Emily slipped into the uniform everyone else was wearing. Top knot. Athleisure. The whole "you lose yourself when you become a mom" narrative.
And then she realized: "Why am I accepting this story?"
So she started getting up earlier than her kids. Putting herself together. Not because she needed to impress anyone, but because she's a better mom when she feels put together.
When you're dealing with spills and fights and the 47th request for a snack before 9 AM, how you feel in your body matters.
But here's the deeper thing Emily said that made me tear up: "I want my kids to see that I'm not just mom. I want Jack to watch me be a woman."
She doesn't mean this in some weird way. She means: her kids need to see her as a whole person. Someone with friends, with passions, with a life outside of mothering them.
And yeah, sometimes that means hosting a dinner party where the music is shaking the house and there's wine and laughter and the kids are running around at 10 PM thinking this is the best night ever.
The Psychology of Being Ready
Here's where it all comes together.
Emily told me about going to Zara with her kids. This older woman kept staring at her. And Emily's brain immediately went to: "She thinks I'm a terrible mom. I should explain that we're from Squamish. The kids are normally in the forest. They're nature boys. We don't usually shop."
The woman walked over. And do you know what she said?
"You are doing the best job on this planet for those kids."
She'd been watching Emily engage with her boys—counting together, having fun, being fully present even while shopping. And she wanted Emily to know.
Emily broke down. Because she'd made up this entire story about judgment that wasn't even real.
This is what Emily does differently: she expects good things to happen.
Not in some woo-woo way, but literally. This morning, walking into a meeting, she filmed herself saying "I feel like something awesome is gonna happen today."
And then it did. Six things transpired from that meeting. Including an event on December 16th (not the 11th, because that's my date night and she moved it because that's the kind of friend Emily is).
What This Has to Do With You
You might be reading this thinking "okay cool, Emily's life sounds amazing, but I don't live in Squamish and I'm not British and I definitely don't have time to put on heels before school drop-off."
Fair.
But here's what I want you to take from this:
Being ready isn't about looking perfect. It's about being open.
Open to the podcast invitation that comes three hours before recording. Open to the person at Zara who wants to encourage you. Open to your kids seeing you as more than just "mom."
Emily wakes her kids up asking "who's gonna have the best day ever?" because she genuinely believes they will. And more often than not? They do.
Not because she's manifesting it. Because she's paying attention to it.
The magic is already there. You just have to be ready to notice it.
Want to hear the full conversation with Emily Shimwell? Listen to Episode 118 of the All Figured Out podcast, where we dive deep into selling out high-ticket events, living in anticipation, why getting dressed makes you a better parent, and what it really means to stay ready for magic.