Faith, Failure & The Future: Hard Lessons in Health Tech

Michelle Stephens, co-founder of OathCare, set out to revolutionize healthcare—only to face the brutal realities of scaling in a broken system. She opens up about the highs, the hard lessons, and what it takes to build (and rebuild) with purpose. Now embracing faith and reinvention, Michelle shares what’s next and the future of digital health.

👉 Connect with Michelle Stephens on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michelle-stephens/

Learn about Acts 17 at: https://acts17collective.org/

Follow us on Tik Tok @shesambitiousaf for more content and episode teasers!

Transcript

Angelica Maestas (Host): [00:00:00] Welcome to She's Ambitious AF, the bold and empowering podcast that turns up the volume on female entrepreneurship. Join us as we dive headfirst into the wild world of boss babes, where we spill the tea on all things, ambition, success, and the occasional hilarious disaster. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Welcome to another episode of She's Ambitious AF. Today I'm joined by guest Michelle Stevens. Michelle, why don't you say hello to our listeners?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Hi, everyone.

Angelica Maestas (Host): All right. I'm excited to have you on for many, many reasons. Of course, when I meet with founders who have a healthcare, health tech background, it makes the conversation extra special for me.

Angelica Maestas (Host): But for listeners who don't know you, why don't you share a little bit about where you've been and what your current role is?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Sure. I am a nurse. I started out as a pediatric ICU nurse, pediatric nurse [00:01:00] practitioner nurse scientist, pursued my Ph. D. In nursing, and from there, I really wanted to, affect change not at the academic end, but at the scientific level, but at the clinical consumer level felt called to start a company called OathCare. And so I became co founder and chief nursing officer of OathCare and wound down that company at the end of 2023 took some time to rest and play and reflect. And then Started a role at felt digital health company as their chief revenue officer, and then most recently started a nonprofit act 17, which stands for acknowledging Christ in technology and society, which aims to really bridge the gap between faith and technology so that [00:02:00] we can help folks in the tech and entertainment industry, especially redefine success for those that define culture. to leverage the temporary for the sake of the eternal.

Angelica Maestas (Host): awesome. I'm excited to to dig into all of it. And I think the natural starting point would be to start with Oath. Was that your first foray into entrepreneurship yourself?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Yes. I mean, maybe my first foray into entrepreneurship was being a first born of four. I actually lost my brother to a congenital heart defect when I was seven. so I very much felt like the oldest at that point, leading And caring for my sister and my other sister that came after my brother and leading teams that I have been on a collegiate tennis athlete. [00:03:00] and yes, in terms of entrepreneurship, officially oath care is My first pursuit,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Well, I, you know, I'd love how. You share about the background because all of those things do build up a skill set to become a good entrepreneur. You have an interesting background given who your husband is. So for listeners who don't know, Michelle's husband is Trey Stevens. And obviously by virtue of that, you've been exposed to the founder ecosystem and you know what the highs and lows look like.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Did any of that ever scare you or is it because you saw the winds that you thought, Oh, you know, this is worth giving it a shot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): of [00:04:00] being in tech. he started out at Palantir and he was. Basically like a very, very early employee. And so, yeah, I was like eating pizza at midnight while they were playing video games and occasionally taking breaks to write code and, have strategy sessions.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): And it was like a family that I was brought into, And there are friends still to this day and seeing them work as hard as they did and the high highs and the low lows and everything in between was definitely all attractive. all of the learnings that I feel like my husband had extending. of his education, and even extending outside of the industry and workplace, was really wonderful to see how he could apply those skills to tech. and then, yes him becoming a [00:05:00] tech investor and an entrepreneur himself, Anduril I would say yeah, that's when it starts to become a little bit more downside. I, you know, I don't know how he says no so much and I can still continue on. I think. 95 percent of his job being an investor is saying no. So that's not very appealing to me. Like the one that says yes and more more is more. And so that would be difficult. And I think from the side of of starting a company yes, it's all very exciting.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Especially at first, Oh, man, there's just that grind. That feels unceasing, that I definitely saw in him. So I would say like, are highs and lows and attract attractions and non attractions around entrepreneurship.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): but my. Real pull. I [00:06:00] never wanted to be an entrepreneur. I never had it in my life plan or even thought honestly to,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Same. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, I, I cannot live another day without this existing in the world. I've looked at Google and Apple and biotech companies and they are just not willing or ready to build what I want to build. And, and I guess that means I have to build it myself. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): So you took that leap? 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): the approach.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, well, I always say that I also never planned to be an entrepreneur. I was I went in fact the exact opposite. I majored in finance when I was an undergrad because I just wanted to know I could have stability and that was all that I, that I ever cared about. And then working in healthcare, you see the opportunity to transform.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And for me, I saw that via better use of data. I understood the challenges of it but I was just a very mission [00:07:00] driven person and I had that, I developed that degree of delusional optimism that I think every entrepreneur has to have. Like you have to have that because it goes against the grain of like, of anything sensical.

Angelica Maestas (Host): It's the most irrational thing you will ever do.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Yes.

Angelica Maestas (Host): if you have that, then it makes total sense to you to jump ship and build the thing. I'd love to talk a little bit about what the mission was with Oath, you know, what was it that really made you take that leap?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh so many things personally and professionally are tied to oath. The overall mission was to really radically support parents, in decreasing their stress, so that they could decrease their child's stress. In which would then massively reduce the chronic health outcomes that we are seeing in the U S today. So [00:08:00] my PhD is an understanding early childhood stress physiology and its connection to health outcomes.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): And I studied a bunch of biomarkers, but the one that I studied most specifically was the autonomic nervous system. And what we know from biomarkers of stress is that Stress early in early childhood has a dose response correlation to seven out of the top 10 chronic illnesses we face today in the United States.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I'm talking hundreds of percent correlated

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): the adult health outcomes. And so this very thing and seeing it in my own research and seeing the 40 to 50 years of research that has already been done in this field has really driven me to be like, okay, like this research needs to come out of academia and come out of research and [00:09:00] really be implemented in,

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): in clinical at the bedside. And I just didn't see anybody doing it. And so really that was where I wanted to, to really affect change. I wanted to see Resources for parents change. I wanted to see support for children change. You know, there's so many statistics around parents and children just getting missed or underfunded under researched. And so that was really the

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): to, to create oath. And the mission of oath was to really see this new model of healthcare.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): many

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): many model of health care where you're not delivering care one to one anymore. That's the days of old

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm. Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): need to understand health in community,

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): health at a, you know, single time point from a single [00:10:00] person in a single location from a single doctor is so narrow minded.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yep.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Is, is actually very biased and not getting the full picture of health. And so the way that we structured our model was that we put many providers in one place at the same time, providing care to many. Parents, many people. And so what this looked like was doulas, nurses, doctors, midwives, health therapists, speech and language lactation consultants, sleep consultants and many more all in this social platform space other parents that are going through a similar experience of parenthood.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So maybe they live in a similar location, maybe they have similar age children or pregnancies or in a [00:11:00] similar fertility experience. So we matched them based on some common characteristics so that they can all support each other with that tried and true anecdotal wisdom

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): important. In health, along with the scientific evidence based knowledge from the clinicians and so together, the parent could make the best decision for themselves and their family and the clinicians can also learn so much more from each other and be able to enrich their practice.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, I mean, what you're talking about was transformational and, and that's what health care needs. I mean, those of us in it, we, we get that, but transformation in health care is extraordinarily hard. What were the what were the biggest challenges with that?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, how much time do you have? I'm not even kidding you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Cliff's [00:12:00] nose, yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I'll give  

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Oh. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Yeah, exactly. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): is underlying these that have been put in place from the beginning that are actually creating harm to people, to populations. And so really wanted to come at it from a systems level change. Yeah, maybe that's a startup's but like we got funded by venture capital and, and venture capital funded us in their typical venture capital structure and, and it took a lot for us to even get a 6 million seed round. That's crazy. [00:13:00] know, a lot more than a typical seed round. But we had a real big vision. And we, I would say arguably even needed three times as much capital at that point to really, to really get it off the ground and help us overcome the barriers that we were facing. There were so many levels of change that needed to happen from the payer level to the system, the health system level to the providers that needed to break out of their normal ways of delivering care and and how they would show up digitally this was during a time where, like, telehealth was just taking off as well. And thankfully, the tailwinds of Cove, it really helped folks. Adapt to delivering care online. And then from the individual level to really feel like they could, you know, share these intimate private moments of their lives to other [00:14:00] people that they have never met or never even seen before.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So Yeah, it took a lot of levels of change to happen to make this work, and it actually worked. We had a very lovable product. We had a very lovable product across these stakeholders, but our problem really was with scaling. So we had advice from all sorts of folks that would say, you got to pick one channel and you just got to double down on it and, be willing to kind of risk the business on that one channel. we chose D to C. We did have the option to go B to B or B to B to C with a health system. And we actually denied that contract because we were also too afraid of how they were willing or wanting to integrate with our technology, integrate their IT and their records. And we're like, but no, we're Then you're just going to make it this more of the same. [00:15:00] and so if we really want to create the change we want to see in the world, we have to build, you have to trust us to build what we're going to build and then we'll integrate it into your system accordingly. So there was a lot of stubbornness on both sides and learning what I've learned now.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): There's. Definitely more. I think that needs to be done around building alongside of the existing system, not building outside of the existing system and then coming in. You know, there was a lot to do societally around, you know, how parents are treated and and how parents have access to this of technology.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So even getting people to be convinced that parents are underserved, that, you know, moms are stressed,

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm. Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): postpartum depression is, is such a huge issue. so we had a lot to do with even just branding and having folks notice that this is a problem that's worthy. I think. know [00:16:00] there's no pointing fingers here, but even parents themselves have a hard time kind of rectifying the issue and, and coming to terms with the issue and

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): yeah, there can be so much more done

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): you know, create this support and to create this understanding.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So lots of, lots of. Barriers. Lots of things that I wish we did differently to really, you know, possibly change the outcome and

Angelica Maestas (Host): I think you hit the nail on the head. you, you built a product that people loved, but it wasn't scalable and it needed to be built alongside. the existing system. And that is a challenge in healthcare because we have like this most convoluted, broken, clued together system of payers, providers, everything.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And then you introduce a new way for community to interact with each other, which it sounds like it was great for parents, but it's [00:17:00] also brand new. And so it's, it's not yet norm. And it just takes, it takes time. Everything in healthcare takes time. Innovation takes time. And investors and Venture often maybe kind of get that, but Venture wants things fast, and that doesn't happen in health care.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): the big vision. They want it all. It's

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): if we weren't being fully vertically integrated, you know, that that that's not something that it's not big enough. It's not, you know, backed

Angelica Maestas (Host): Right.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): And So that's, that's like the thing too that broke us is, you know, we did way too much. We were the health app audience.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): We were the app itself and we were the provider network.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): out a 25 person provider network that in and of itself is, is its own company. There are tons of provider

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It's [00:18:00] true. Yeah. Good. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): apps that are out there, you know, didn't have the beautiful branding and, and ease of consumer use and, and even the, the health records that are out there that we could possibly integrate with didn't allow us to do this sort of communal style of care. And then when you think of the app audience, it's like now we have to gather this entire community of people to, you know, gather and be grouped and that, I mean, community apps. They exist all amongst themselves to just building community around commonalities. and we took that on as well because that's how you actually deliver care through these individuals and communities. And so, oh,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I could

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Heh.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Create a way to make the company as simple as possible. Because of healthcare in particular is so fragmented, is so broken

Angelica Maestas (Host): [00:19:00] Mhmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Yeah, trying to own the full stack is just impossible.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm. And the, the unfortunate outcome was that, like you said, it wasn't scalable. And so you did wind down OathCare. And I did see your post on LinkedIn. And it, it resonated with me because I had done something similar. So, After getting acquired and two years with the acquiring company and things ended in a way that were not at all what I had planned for.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And it was heartbreaking. And I I put a letter out on LinkedIn. I think it's still out there. And I basically said, Hey, I'm mourning this loss. Like that business was my baby and it's gone and there's no recourse and so I don't know what's next for me and so some people post things and they say, Oh, you know, but greatest lessons and I'm on to this new thing and I didn't know what my new [00:20:00] chapter was going to be it, you know, it took two years and it's unfolded beautifully, but it was painful at the start.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And so your post like really like got at my heartstrings. I'm even like choking up thinking about it. But I appreciated the vulnerability and the authenticity entrepreneurship is it's, it's a painful thing. And so to be open and honest is okay. It's okay to cry and it's okay to be sad.

Angelica Maestas (Host): So,

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Thank you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): what prompted you to even do that?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, I just so appreciate empathy and seeing me. And, I just think the world needs more of that. So thank you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): was communicating with people. wanted to bring out that vulnerability, but in order to do so, you have to go first. wanted to be able to have people express. their [00:21:00] emotions and, and not have it, you know, be any needed to be any different, that okay to not be okay. It's okay to not know what's next. And so partly I just wanted to kind of give people one last of oath. And then, yeah, the other part was, I just honestly, in this life, want to be deeply known, yet loved. And so if I'm really about that, people have really got to know me. And can you still love me, even though you really know me? And so honestly, that was really like the test. And I mean, my goodness was I surprised the outpouring of love, of gratitude was [00:22:00] abundant. Yeah, I'm just really I'm I'm really surprised.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Because of to your point, everyone has their closing message of I'm so grateful. These are all

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): next thing. This is, you know, the greatest thing that I get to do next.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I think we need more of this.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yes.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): the reality is, that maybe you're not looking at the failure and maybe you're not willing to sit in the pain and in the grief. and, and honestly, I can, I can say after doing this for the first time ever, Taking the time to really rest and reflect and even play, because I've never had this sort of break in my career,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): really had me thinking about [00:23:00] things very differently. And in a way that I honestly think I have more aliveness, more energy, and I am more me, truly

Angelica Maestas (Host): that.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): me.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love that for you. And it sounds like it led to the opportunity with felt. Would love to hear a little bit more about what you're doing there.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Yes. So after that post I realized that, okay, now I'm also seeing that people aren't really sharing their failures. Like truly like what

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): lessons learned, like I have nine plus million dollars of lessons learned and that's just not all for me. Like I want to get Give this to the world

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): whatever comes next, like maybe they can learn, learn from it and do it differently. So I posted a series of lessons learned, kind of like a, a segmented post mortem, if you will, of oath as I was realizing these, as I was journeying myself,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. [00:24:00] Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): of rest and reflection posting these kind of whenever they, they came to me.

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm. Ha ha ha! Oh, wow. Yeah. Ha ha ha. Yeah. Oh, wow. Ha ha 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I want to buy oath. So I at his profile. I saw that he lived in San Francisco. He had some affiliation with the deal network. He has some like Christian. Like posts background. I'm like, okay, we have like enough commonality at your OG health tech. I will, I will take a meeting with you. and so we met up just outside of golden gate park one afternoon.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): It was a beautiful sunny day. We met for coffee. It was supposed to be in a half hour long coffee meeting and it turned into two and a half hours. And it was just like, energetic to be able to share like our [00:25:00] market observations. Well, first we just started sharing personally about our lives and living in San Francisco with his four kids, my two kids, and just talking about, you know, religion and. Politics and you know, it was like no holds barred. Just kind of like went right into it. So really appreciated that depth. And then yeah, the depth of of the health care experience that he had. And I think he really saw how, even though he's had multiple health tech companies, my 1 health tech company, kind of like, so.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Spend me up to his like, you know, decade plus learning. So I'm like, okay, great. Love that. And so, yeah, we were having even conversations you know, about me taking, a more significant role at and it really made me think about, wow, I am so not ready to jump back into that,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): know, co founder type

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): And it really had me thinking about like, what is [00:26:00] My genius. What is the thing that lights me up? That feels like breathing.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): thing that I really want to be doing? in this world? What am I really good at to? What can I really leverage? So I took a working genius assessment actually while at oath.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): It was was sandboxing this at oath for sure. But Really realized my gifts are in galvanizing and enablement how much I love doing those partnership calls and meetings, those sales meetings at oath. And so like, you know, what, I gave him a list of things literally of what I want to do. And, and, you know, I want to do a little culture stuff.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I want to do a little sales stuff. I want to do some partnership stuff

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): yeah, created a role really based on that. And I even gave him a list of like what I definitely don't want to be doing.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love it! Yeah. Ha ha. Oh.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): it really became clear. He really respected that and, and created that. So [00:27:00] I see how much of what I did at Oath really is helping fuel Felt, which basically what Felt is doing is connecting health consumer apps. With providers so that any,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): consumer health app that is tracking metrics delivering products or services around health, would have a way of instantly connecting a provider within that app. So, Take Owlette, for example the baby sock company. They're tracking heart rate, respiratory rate, O2 sat. And they are tracking all of these metrics and parents are seeing these metrics go kind of all over the place. Don't really know what it means. Is my kid sick? Are they

Angelica Maestas (Host): hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): What is going on?

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): no way to close the loop on that. Maybe they have to go outside. Of the app to a [00:28:00] provider network, either through telemedicine, maybe one medical or through their doctor in person. And then you get there and their doctor really doesn't even take these digital health metrics as valid. You know, they don't have the context.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): the you know, personal kind of issues around the family or of the home, the environment understand them. so what you're really left with is leaving parents on a lurch for all sorts of anxiety and misinformation. So we really created a very Smooth, way for consumer products, and apps to deliver care because

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow. Mm hmm

Michelle Stephens (Guest): are not aligned. You get like, there's some concession on quality. There's way too much risk and overhead with having a provider network. [00:29:00] And so, yeah, by disaggregating them by separating them and us just being really the infrastructure for care really allows for a beautifully seamless experience for care. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): I just what i'm hearing is A universal alignment unfolding. So everything it was just almost kind of as it was meant to be so I think that's beautiful

Michelle Stephens (Guest): as well. Yeah, thank you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): And in, so in parallel, you're also, you started Act 17 with your husband, right? What's, what's that journey been like? And tell us what is Act 17.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I think my husband's more of like part of the inspiration than the the, the builder or starter of this. You know, accidentally we were hosting a 40th birthday party for him at our new Mexico home. We called it the roast, the toast and the Holy ghost. So it was a three day event. We had over 220 people. And

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): we had like a remix Sunday [00:30:00] service. So in our home, we had caviar bumps and mimosas and breakfast pizza with DJ canvas remixing worship music in the background.

Angelica Maestas (Host): wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and Trey's partner, Peter Teal, as a favor we asked him to basically you know, give a talk, give a sermon, like do your best on,

Angelica Maestas (Host): my gosh.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): What would you do if you, if you were a preacher? And so, you know, Peter delivered an incredible message on miracles and forgiveness. And most of the room is filled with like tech entrepreneurs and, and venture capitalists, and most of them are not Christian. And so, you know, we were like, ha ha, how funny is

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah. 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): And people are coming up to us like I didn't know Christianity could look like this

Angelica Maestas (Host): Could be fun. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I didn't know Peter was a Christian. Like, how can you be gay and a billionaire and be Christian? Or like, [00:31:00] then the Christians were coming up to me and being like, did you just trick over 220 people to go to church? And then some of my Christian friends were like, that was heretical. And I was like, Okay. So I was like, okay, this, this feels like it got enough feedback that we got to test it again.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): felt like it would be fun to, you know, put it in the most honestly hostile city in America, the Christian San Francisco, where I'm from, where I live. Yeah, I was like, okay. We had our friends. around us.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Like, let's really test this with the, with the public. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Huh.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I wouldn't say like San Francisco is particularly hostile to Christians where, I mean, that could be true, but it's definitely the most unchurched city in America, statistically speaking. So,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, interesting.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): yeah, that we were like, okay, let's test this in, in San Francisco. Gary Tan the CEO and of, of Y Combinator. He has a converted church home in the Mission, in Mission District right [00:32:00] across from Mission Dolores.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh my goodness.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and so that juxtaposition checked the box of, you know, hosting over 200 people for this event. We served alcohol. It was on May 5th.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So Cinco de Mayo.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh. Wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and we had Peter and he talked about political theology two words that typically don't go together shouldn't go together, if you will. So all of these kind of juxtapositions or like, how I like to call them surprise and delights. Yeah. Created this event called Holy guacamole.

Angelica Maestas (Host): This just keeps getting better and better. I love this.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I mean, it was really fun. Like very entertaining. Very, I mean, at times a bit scary. We had some, you know, death threats on Twitter. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh god.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): were, there were definitely some, some hostile folks to, to the event but [00:33:00] thankfully we all stayed safe and the event was a wild success. We had like an over 400 person waitlist, mine down the block lots of feedback being like, you know, Oh, Peter's my idol.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So if Peter is. Worshiping Jesus. Like that kind of calls into question who I'm worshiping or yeah, can you come and do this in Toronto and the UAE and Miami and la so lots of interest to do this. Asking me like, you know, where do you go to church? Or like. Yeah. Like, where do you literally go to church in San Francisco?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): People were like, where

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): does this exist? And then asking about, like, yeah, what do you read? You know, what, what do you listen to?

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): just really thirsty for more.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and so that was the inspiration to really create this as a nonprofit and host these events and, really with the goal, with the mission of folks to take a next step on their faith journey.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm,

Michelle Stephens (Guest): [00:34:00] wherever they are on their faith journey atheist, agnostic, Christian, non practicing, even a Christian be able to deepen their experience or just deepen their walk on their faith journey.

Angelica Maestas (Host): yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and to really call into question the things that they maybe have previously assigned meaning and purpose and value to the things that they define as success. And we want to put speakers on the stage that are seemingly by the book successful, but have them really talk about their success in light of their Christianity.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm,

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and so, yeah, that's, that's what we're up to. We're just getting started hoping to run a bunch of events in San Francisco and one in L.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): A. This year we have a really exciting speaker panel. So yeah, excited to,

Angelica Maestas (Host): That's incredible. 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): around, around this idea.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, I would love to [00:35:00] get on an invite list and I don't suppose you'll do one in New Mexico, but Well, I love that it's it's inspiring curiosity, which which is good ask questions think about things But that you're also bringing the element of joy because growing up I did not associate joy with anything Religious anything so I love that

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, I'm so glad.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Awesome. Well, I'm going to transition us to some rapid fire questions. All right. Coffee, tea, or something else to start your day?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): black

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, wow. Oh my goodness. Favorite productivity hack? 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, man. I do not have one because my goal is not productivity and I am in this phase of life that is leading, being led the spirit, [00:36:00] being led by energy. And so if my energy is not there. I'm not forcing it. So I am like on the anti hustle train. I am on the anti grind train.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love it.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): sorry

Angelica Maestas (Host): That's,

Michelle Stephens (Guest): like,

Angelica Maestas (Host): that's,

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I

Angelica Maestas (Host): that's inspiring. Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I have a bunch that I have deployed and used in my past life, if you

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): but

Angelica Maestas (Host): Well, I like the, I like the track you're on now, 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Thank you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): If 2024 had a theme song, what would it be? 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): 40 last year and just one thing that you don't know is that like, I just wanted to inject more joy into my life. And also my word for the year was generous.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): So I the opportunity to cross off a big bucket list item and go to every tennis major last year. So

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and then U. S. Open. And I [00:37:00] took different people in my life. And some groups of people in my life to enjoy that with. And so those were just epic experiences.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I think, I think you're better than a theme song. You did like a whole meat and yeah, I think you, you're better than a theme song.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): a, a year's worth of experiences,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wow.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and then some, but that was, yeah, getting able, being able to cross off a bucket list item like that and experience it with just, you

Angelica Maestas (Host): People you love.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): and people that I have in my life was really special.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah, that's beautiful. Best thing about working with your husband?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Well, I don't really work with him,

Angelica Maestas (Host): No, even for the event staff, it's just the, no.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): he's not a part of it at all. 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): I mean, I would say he is a speaker, he's on the speaker panel. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): that's really the experience of of me working with him on acts

Angelica Maestas (Host): let's let's talk about parenting,

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): my experience working with him in the parenthood space [00:38:00] because we very much view parenthood as a job as like A duty that we have to raising our Children. and I think we have, like, a really great system framework way of delegating way of really things within our genius within our energy that like, you know, he actually loves the menial simple tasks that are typically feminine, you know, around like laundry or

Angelica Maestas (Host): Oh, really?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): cleaning and and that sort of thing.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Mm hmm.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Yeah, we kind of redefine stereotypes a bit with it. And so, yeah, I just really appreciate him being the partner for our parenthood.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): One thing you learned about yourself in the last year? 

Michelle Stephens (Guest): top of mind like really right now moment learning is that I can trust myself, that I can fully be in trust because that there is to fear is God. And so I don't, I [00:39:00] don't have to honestly fear anything else, anything that I'm trying to control or I'm trying to do. Because I believe in the God of the universe all things and has it all and out in my faith has already had it all done. So I get to kind of live in that love and, and yeah, and be able to Be redeemed through it all.

Angelica Maestas (Host): I love that. And last but not least, how can our listeners support you?

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Oh, wow. That's so loving. I just love to be in connection with people. So if people want to reach out on my LinkedIn, if they want to check out act17collective. org and see what we're up to, to, to maybe be in connection through that, reach out. I Actually answer you and actually engage if it's any like proof point around, around LinkedIn.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Yeah.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): so [00:40:00] yeah, reach out. I'd love to connect and see if I can be a resource be a listening ear. Yeah, just be in connection with you.

Angelica Maestas (Host): Wonderful. Well, it was such a pleasure having you on.

Michelle Stephens (Guest): Thanks, Angelica. 

Angelica Maestas (Host): And that's a wrap on another episode of She's Ambitious AF. Remember to dream big, hustle harder, and show the world that when it comes to success, we're not just ambitious, we're Ambitious AF. ​