The BOLD and Brilliant podcast with guest Michelle Walters

🎙️ Episode Title: A Bold Decision from the Heart with Michelle Walters

🎙️ Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, host Tracie Root sits down with Michelle Walters, marketing coach, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and author, for a conversation about following intuition, creating momentum, and boldly shifting careers. Michelle shares how a single moment of inspiration—a novel!—led her from a 20+ year career in digital marketing to launching her hypnotherapy practice and stepping fully into her calling.

From science to strategy, and from mindset to marketing, Michelle brings a unique blend of curiosity, leadership, and grounded spirituality. Her story will inspire any listener who's ever considered making a bold pivot—especially in uncertain times.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🔹 How a novel sparked Michelle’s life-changing career pivot – And how she turned that inspiration into real-world action.
🔹 The powerful intersection of decision-making, marketing, and mindset – Drawing from her experience in business consulting and creativity.
🔹 Why conscious leadership and intention are key to success – And how Michelle integrates these principles into her new book and her coaching practice.

🌟 Memorable Quote:

"I’m more about what works than getting hung up on the how." – Michelle Walters

📚 About Michelle Walters:

Michelle Walters is a marketing coach, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and author who helps her clients align their mindset, message, and momentum. A former decision consultant and longtime digital marketer, she now leads transformational work at the intersection of conscious leadership and subconscious change. Her latest book, The ABCs of Conscious Leadership, blends real-world leadership tools with insight and intention.

She was named Best Professional Business Coach of 2024 by Oakland Magazine.

📍 Connect with Michelle:

• Website: michellewalters.net
• Books: Alignment of Spirit and The ABCs of Conscious Leadership
• Upcoming Program: Magnetic Marketing Collective launching June 2025

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

Find this episode and more on your favorite podcast platform.
 Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share with your bold and brilliant friends!

Thank you for supporting The Bold and Brilliant Podcast!

Find out what's up with Tracie by connecting on your favorite social media channel, and with The Gather Community by joining us at an upcoming online event or receiving our mailing list. Go to:

https://www.tracieroot.com/links

to find upcoming events, workshops, courses and more!

We're just getting started, so I hope you subscribed, and please leave a review so we can start building some podcast-momentum!

xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root

Transcript

Tracie: 0:00

you ready to take bold action and live a life of brilliance? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, where women leaders share inspiring stories about daring decisions that shape their businesses, their lives, and their careers. Today I'm with the fabulous and amazing Michelle Walters and Imagination advocate. Michelle Walters writes and speaks on themes associated with the power of mind leadership. Positivity and the law of attraction. Michelle is a marketing coach, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and author. Michelle helps her clients with mindset, message, and momentum. She is the winner of Oakland Magazine's, best of Oakland, best professional business coach of the year 2024, and author of two books. Alignment of spirit, finding work you love, and most recently, the ABCs of conscious leadership. As we talk, you'll hear Michelle share her journey of entrepreneurship, including one bold decision that has created her path of what was next. Her story of resilience, risk taking and transformation will inspire, encourage, and support your personal and professional growth. Please join me in welcoming Michelle to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. Michelle, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here.

Michelle: 1:46

Thank you for having me, Tracie.​I'm delighted to be on your show. Yay. Okay. I am thrilled to kick off this conversation because we have been connected in community for several years now. We've traveled together. We were just able to do that recently and spend some real time together as people, as well as talking about business. And while I know that that's true for me, I know it's not true for everyone who's gonna be listening all the. Throngs of people who are listening to this episode. So let's start off, before we get into the, what's the bold decision that changed everything for you. Before we get into that, let's talk about what you do, who you serve, and maybe a little bit about your journey to get here. Sure. So I take it so I am in my mid fifties. I have loved my time on this planet and I'm looking forward to a lot more time to come. I have always been somebody who's, who's multi-talented and. Extra curious, super, super curious kind of person. I started off in your neck of the woods at uc, Santa Cruz where I was a biology major of all things. And I think part of the reason why was when you're a bio major, you get to do a little bit of everything. You do a little bio, you do a little chem, you do a little math, you do a little arts, you do a little science, some of everything. Then from there I somehow managed to find my way into working in decision consulting and got an MBA talk about what that is. Yeah, so I consulting, is that what you said? Decision consulting. I worked for a company in Palo Alto in the early nineties before I got my MBA called Strategic Decisions group. And we helped people make, we helped companies make huge decisions like multimillion dollar decisions. If you are the electric company, do you wanna be focused on generation, transmission, or distribution? I. Big stuff. Okay. But it was fascinating and what I loved about it was that we had a process and we thought a lot about how people make decisions and how to make quality decisions, how to get the right information, how to trade off the values. Like I thought all this was fascinating. It was so fascinating. I decided to go to business school. And in business school I learned a lot about marketing and mindset and creativity and persuasion, and all of these were really important things for me. I realized I was a really pretty creative person, but I also liked metrics and business and kind of being able to figure things out. So a little bit of a left brain, right brain person even then. I wound up working in digital marketing for over 20 years, and what I loved about that was that I could blend this, what's a good business decision with what, something creative and persuasive that will make people love my brand or make people ask more questions or use my coupon or try it out or whatever it is we were, we were working on. So I did that for years and years and years. And loved it, but I was, it was kind of like, get a job, lose a job, get a job, lose a job, because all those creative agency jobs, that's that's par for the course. It seemed to work out for me though, for the most part. And yeah, so I've been a student of life and the way people think for a very, very long time. Passionate about it. So interesting. I, so I've heard, I the, this is the first time I've heard you mention the decision making consultancy, which I find a really fascinating piece of the puzzle that I hadn't heard about before. To go from right, biology, like you said, you, you, you're, you're studying life, which includes everything. Like you said, chemistry and physiology and all those different things, and then you went from all of the things to maybe what makes people's brains tick and how to help them make decisions and then you go to helping people make decisions about buying stuff basically. Yes. So and, and I'll share that I, as a young person and a creative thinker as well, always thought I was gonna go into advertising. Do you remember watching 30 something when we were young? Did you watch that? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. It was Mad Men. It exactly. It was Prem Mad Men. But it's the same idea in that it's, we were in our twenties and it's like the 30 somethings have it figured out in there and advertising and isn't that cool? And all similar to Mad Men, although whole different story. But I love that because it just. I can see the evolution of all of the things that you were so curious about and it's now I'm curious about this other piece of the human condition decision making, whatever thought process. And then business school, which of course, like you said, the metrics and all of those details about why they, after they made those decisions, then what happened? It's fascinating. Okay. I love all of this and I know that coming into the deci digital marketing story that we're coming up on this bold decision that you alluded to when you said the digital marketing. Like you come and go, different jobs, creative agency, so something was about to happen that changed everything for you. So tell us about this bold change that happened in your life. So I was literally inspired for a career change from reading a novel. I read a novel by one of my favorite authors called the Hypnotist Love story, and I realized, love a love story, don't you my friend? It doesn't, yeah. It was, it's a, it's a funny book set in Australia about a, a female hypnotherapist who has a love story and all these other crazy characters and things she does in, in her life, right? Anyway I read this book and I thought, this lady has the coolest job. I wanna do that. So I, I've Googled it and I found a school to go to, and I went on the weekends and I, I trained and got a certificate in hypnotherapy. I didn't really expect that's what I was gonna do, but I did. And then the pandemic hit. Hmm. Oh, so this was, I keep feeling like you've been a hypnotherapist for a long, long time, but literally six years. At this point? Yeah, about five actually. Yeah. Wow. So I started my training, I started my training for, I had completed my cate like one level of hypnotherapy training prior to the pandemic, and then completed another level actually at the, be early in the pandemic. Gotcha, gotcha. But I, I had trained, but I had never really. I anticipated that I would go that direction. It was just a fascinating sideline to have and made for really interesting conversation. You meet all kinds of interesting people when you tell them you're a hypnotherapist. Yeah. Anyway, so I I, my life cratered, I guess is a good word. Mm-hmm. During the pandemic, like a lot of people's, but I, I had sold a house and my, my, the love of my life second love of my life, but the second love of my life passed away during the pandemic. And we were, my son and I were living with my mom and then my job ended and everybody remembers how crazy that time was. I was like if I'm ever gonna switch jobs, this is the time to do it. And so I did something. I'd never done anything like before. I found a little office and got a logo and a shingle as they say. And. And hung my shingle and, and started working in doing, doing hypnotherapy for people. And I never would've seen myself doing that before. It was really a bold move that not. Not a lot of other people do. Not a lot of people go to business school and then decide to become a hypnotherapist. Yeah. I had to explain that to a fellow I met this week. He's what? And I'm like, Hey, it works. And I'm really more about what works than getting hung up on, on the how. Yeah. And on the labels and all of those things. Oh, at the end of the day, my, my work in hypnosis works most of the time for most people. It's amazing. Without any, without any drugs, without any negative repercussions. It's, it's, I'm not gonna say it's a cure all for everyone, but. It works for a lot of things, and I love being able to help people like that. It's a very different feeling to put a smile on somebody's face or to wipe off the tears and see them in a much better space than, to say, Hey, we rocked the campaign for Clorox. It, it's a, it's a different feeling. Yeah. They're both good. But this one is very personal and, and, and that feels. It feels good at this moment in my life. Yeah, I bet. I it's, it is so interesting. So I loved the kind of the juxtaposition of. Helping someone not only with the problem, they're struggling, but to feel good about how it was solved versus, maybe the more stoic business strategy type of thing. And, and what I know is that often, because this is the circle that you and I share, is that often we're talking about business issues or personal things that are holding us back from business issues. And so I love my favorite thing about. All of that story for you is how you can combine them all and combine, your curiosity, your love of understanding the, the like track trackable implications and the personal human component that, came from not only the hypnotherapy, but also even the digital marketing part, the marketing part of convi, of helping people make decisions. Yeah, it's such a, it's such a great blend and that's really helped you had so much success too. Like I really am just understanding you outside of clear strictly hypnosis, right? I've attended your courses, which were more personal based, but now I'm understand, and, and we can see here for those of us who are watching on YouTube, your book in the Corner about the ABCs of conscious leadership and that. Really feels also, and I want you to talk about it, like that blend that you're talking about, the mind and that those conscious and unconscious and subconscious things, but also that history of your Maxwell training and leadership and all of the different things. So talk about, talk about your book, which is not, I mean I didn't tell you we were gonna talk about your book, but talk about your book and like why this book, like why this? Combination. And what does it bring for people? Because I do think it like wraps everything that you do together. Yeah. So my new book, my new book, the one out this year is called The ABCs of Conscious Leadership. And I know you have another one before and I have another one. And they, they, they're very different books. But in some ways. They both, I think, hearkened it a lot of the same principles, a lot of the same way I view the world. My first book, not Conscious Leadership, but my first book is called An Alignment of Spirit, finding Work You Love and it is really a law of attraction book. About getting a job, which sounds really bizarre, but maybe again, that's just me being bold. But putting together two ideas that people don't usually think about, which is really the functional, like, how do I, how do I find great work? But it's really more about manifesting. I. It's focused on manifesting. And and a lot of people think that's super woo, but like the way I talk about it in my book is not super woo. It's really look, there's all this science that supports this. Yeah. And if you think, I, I love science. I. I, I think science just hasn't caught up to explain what is woo, that'll, that'll happen eventually. The but that book really, I think, appeals to people who are trying to look at things from their subconscious and what's going on in their subconscious or they drawing the things to them that they want to draw. And if they don't know, read the book because it'll tell you how to get what you want. The second book, the one I launched this year, the one here on my screen, the ABCs of Conscious Leadership is not so much written for somebody who is playing in the land of their subconscious, but somebody who wants to play in the land of their conscious mind and focus on what are the things that they can do to emphasize their authentic leadership traits. And I feel I love this world. I feel like it could be better. And the only way it's gonna get better is if we all put out our best foot to be the very best leaders that we can be. Leaders in our businesses, leaders in our communities, leaders in our in our government, leaders in our churches. What leaders? Wherever. Yes. And so the ABCs of conscious leadership is really. A reminder for people and a way to help focus on what are the things that you can do to be more clear and conscious and directed about your leadership talents and gifts. Yes, because I believe that as we build and strengthen those, we are going to, we are gonna help get ourselves from where we are now, to a better place where, where we can be. Is that, is that so clear? Hundred percent. And the word that keeps humming in my mind is with intention. Yes. Like you, you're doing, and this is what I talk about all the time with, and I, when I talk about bold leadership, it's the same thing, right? What decisions are you making that with intention are leading you where you want to go, regardless of whether or not you. Have seen anyone do it before, like you just know it's the right thing for you based on who you are and what you want and where you wanna go. And it, so it's the same kind of idea that intentional personal self-leadership toward your future. Yep. Yeah. It's, it's awesome. You and me, we got this super, super powerful. Yeah. It's, and, and it, it. It provides the fuel and the energy for people to get where they're trying to go. I think I, I think, I think a little of it is being a woman, not that's, I'm not trying to say that's the only piece of it, but I think to some degree I. You have, that would be really hard to be Michelle. Yeah. We tend to be more tied into our intuition and our feelings about what that looks like. Where I could say my husband and we talk a lot about his work because it's I can't even imagine living in his little work life. It's insane to me. But the idea of, of. Getting to make decisions. And part of this is being an entrepreneur too, I think. We get to make decisions that are, because we know what we want, we can decide how we want to attempt to get there. Mm-hmm. And a lot of times the, the guys are sticking with the, this is what I'm supposed to do thing. Yeah. And I think we have, have started and are more likely to break away from this is what I'm supposed gonna take off that coat. I'm gonna take off the coat of what I'm supposed to, you should decide to do something or should, and I'm gonna look at this differently. I, I remember when I was a kid, my, my parents took me on a trip to Washington, DC and my, the t-shirt that I, I chose, that I wanted to wear from. From Washington, DC says, every woman has a place in the house and the Senate. That was, that was what I thought was the right thing to win. How old were you? How old were you at that point? I was probably 11 or 13. Awesome. Yeah. That junior high. Yeah. Middle school. I was that junior high age. Yeah. Yeah. They still do Washington, DC at about eighth grade in the schools, so it's right around then. Yeah. It's when we started to recognize that we have thoughts of our own that we want to affect the world with. When we're eight and we're in elementary school and we're still like just surviving the playground. And then you get into middle school when, when you start learning about things more, in elementary school you're learning science, but you don't really know what's science. You just like, oh, look what happens when you mix these colors. But that's science too. You get further along and we get to start to recognize our own strength and power of thought and intuition and belief in ourselves. And there's just a huge amount of. Of, of energy, of force behind creating an intention and then setting up the game plan to, to have the milestones to get there. Yep. And I don't mean to say that that's easy. It is not easy. But it is doable. Yeah. It takes, it takes focus, it takes direction, it takes consistency, and it takes a lot of self-power. Yeah. And that is one of the things that I like to bring to my collaborators, my clients, is how to build that self-power. Yeah. And the don't forget, it's self-power and it's also the, a little bit of accountability, self-accountability and support, right? Because you're talking about this, and now we go into the coaching brain where these are the things you need to have success. You need to know what you want. You need to make a plan to get there. And I teach it. And you teach it, and we all teach, those kinds of things. But it just shows how the, it's not because. That's just, what we were taught to be a coach. That's because that's the way humans work. And, and going from an idea to a process to having that idea realized is something that everyone can relate to. And then when you have someone like yourself who can actually distill it into the facts that came before, like sometimes we just go through and we're there and we don't even know the steps that we took along the way. But you can help to like. Show them that these are all the things that they did and they can do it. It's important. It's important. And whether I'm doing work with sort of a business person or a collaborator or a client, often a huge part of what I I need to do is, is show people the evidence. Yeah. That they have the experience to do what it is they're setting out to do. Yep. I, I I taught a class last night and my class that I teach a, a few times a year, your OS was last night? Os was last night. Awesome. Stop overeating sugar. And that's an interesting class because I use the decision framework for the first half of the class, and then I use hypnosis for the second half of the class. Yeah. The hypnosis part, part of what I have people doing is remembering how they've. They've, they've done things before. They can do this, do it again, yep. And, and and that is a powerful message and especially powerful when people are, are relaxed and in a state of hypnosis. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. And I, I've attended that class and others of yours, and I, that's exactly what I get from it, that the, the power of hypnosis in my experience from you, I, I may have. Had a hypnosis experience with one other person in the past before that, but several times with you is a such a profound sense of relaxation. It's like meditation times 20 and which is so wonderful and yeah, but it's, there's a consciousness to it. Even though you're reaching the subconscious, there's a consciousness to it that helps you recognize that, oh yeah, I have actually had this thought before and I can have this thought and this experience and this success again so meaningful. I love it. I, I love what I do, what I by, by being an entrepreneur, by being, by doing what I wanna do. I get to do things in the combinations Yeah. That I think are gonna be effective and help people. Yeah. And it's a, it's an absolute joy to get to do the kind of work I do. It's beautiful. What do you see as if you're willing to share, do you have little other potential bold decisions ruminating that you're. Thinking or like on the verge of I'm launching something new. I'm launching a marketing group coming up in a month or two. So that's my next bold ish. So what's that gonna look like? Tell us a little bit about it. It's gonna look, it's gonna, I'm calling it the Magnetic Marketing Collective. Oh, I like that. Magnetic, magnetic. Magnetic Marketing Collective, and it's gonna be a group that I'm leading. We're gonna meet three times a month and I'm gonna teach people a little bit about their digital marketing. I'm gonna ask people some questions, and then we're gonna have a little bit of accountability and working time to get marketing done because I've, I've realized that as I meet many different small businesses and solopreneurs. A lot of people don't know the basics, and while I don't know all the details about everything, that would be impossible. I know a lot of the basics and I can help people make some good decisions about where to put their initial energy and intention after. Yeah. And I, I also have realized that while I've met a few people who are maybe as well versed as me or, or better, versed than me, at least in certain aspects of their marketing chain. They got no accountability. They ain't getting this stuff done. And so I think by having, by by leaning into the value that you bring to your community, I can create a little community that is gonna focus on this particular aspect of things. Yeah. Yeah. So community is a very, very powerful thing and I think that what you've done with Gather is amazing. Thank you. And it is. It is wonderful to see such a thriving, vibrant, rich. I mean there's like something for gather almost every day. It's, it's pretty amazing. You do a lot. Thank you. It, it is, it is a lot. And it's it because. I just keep coming up with more stuff to give people because I think that they're gonna, find it useful. And what I was thinking when you said your magnetic marketing, collect collective. Collective, yes. Collective. I love collective. And I was thinking if you end up having like a social thing or an in-person thing, you can call it the magnetic marketing mixer. Because, we love a good alliteration around here. Absolutely. I'm very into, I'm very into that, but I, I chose the word collective. Yeah. Because I want to convey, I'm gonna be the leader of this little group, but but we're gonna share back and forth because it's. Digital marketing was one thing when I started in 1997. It's a little more complicated now. Yeah. And by working together a group can accomplish so much more, that from gather. Yeah. And you know what I, what I feel when I hear the word collective is really that everyone else is different from each other. It's a, it's, it reminds me of those stores, like the antique stores that are really like, everyone has a nook. And they all bring their own stuff, right? Yeah. That's a, to me, that's a very good definition of a collective. Like we collected these people. Yeah. And they came from everywhere and brought them together to offer or whatever. So I see that for your collective as all different businesses, all different experiences, and that's what's good about it. Like you said, you can. Lead them, guide them to a topic or to, having an accountability session or whatever. But each one of them is gonna bring something different to the party and every single one has massive value. Absolutely. Absolutely. Sounds great. Sounds great. That's my next, that's my next, that's my next move. That's the boldest thing I'm doing, I think for 2025. I love it. I love it. And we're recording this in May. When is that gonna start? Like when can we put this on our radar? It will be available in June, 2025. Okay. So yeah, so just not very long from where we're not very long from now. Okay. That's exciting. I can't wait to support you in getting the word out about that and all of the things that you do. I know you, you're a VIP here in our community. I know that you've been talking about the things that you've been doing, but for those people who haven't met you. I just wanna say that I really, really enjoy how you show up and coming to your things, and we'll do whatever I can to continue to support you going forward. Me too. Tracie. Let's go see more farmers and on more cruises. Yes. More cruises, more fun, more everything. We love it. More bold decisions too. Know more bold decisions and helping people make them. Yes. Yes. And helping people make them. Okay. I love it. Let's, I think it's time for us to, to. Quiet ourselves down and finalize everything. Do you have give us like a final Michelle message to listeners, like they listen to this whole episode, they've come here to the end. What do you want them to know as they leave this episode? That what I love to help people with is their mindset, their message. Their momentum and whether that is something that feels personal or professional for your solopreneur or small business, I would love to be in touch, have a chat and see if there's a way for us to work together. Fantastic, fantastic mindset, message and momentum. You got it. Beautiful. Thank you again, Michelle, for being here. I'm so thrilled. Yay. Alright. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Thank you for listening to the Bold and Brilliant podcast. I'm your host, Tracie Root, and I wanna invite you to check out the show notes, find out where you can connect with our guests, find out more about what I and the Gather community have to offer you, and be sure to subscribe to this podcast on your favorite platform. Thanks so much.