You Are the Magic

This week's guest has opened yoga studios across three states, survived a full ego death when she sold everything and started over, and taught herself macrame and acrobatics just to remember what it feels like to be bad at something new. Claire Villalobos' whole story is proof that you do not have to have it all figured out to build a life you actually love. We talk about letting things fall apart so they can come back together, the audacity it takes to chase a dream, and why messy is where the magic happens.

KEY TOPICS

• Falling in love with donation-based yoga and walking away from a "real job" after one month
• Opening studios across Houston and Dallas, then selling everything during COVID as new parents and newlyweds
• The ego death of releasing a business you built and starting from scratch
• Manifesting her current studio (riding bikes past the building years before it became hers)
• The visionary and integrator dynamic that makes both her marriage and her business partnership work
• Why she will look straight into the camera and beg you to get a partnership agreement
• Getting sober and what it unlocked for her energy, clarity, and creativity
• Picking up hobbies you never intend to monetize
• Being genuinely friends with the people who work for you
• Unlearning perfectionism and giving yourself permission to be messy

TIMESTAMPS

0:01 How she fell into studio ownership and left corporate life after a month

3:20 COVID, postpartum, and the decision to sell the Dallas studios

4:32 Choosing St. Pete sight unseen off an Instagram story

5:45 The manifestation moment with the building on LoopNet

8:00 Ego death, non-attachment, and every iteration of a business

12:02 Delusion, audacity, and being told you are "too much"

17:20 The visionary and integrator dynamic with her husband

19:36 Her one big piece of business advice

21:59 The COVID pivot online and the police officer who showed up

26:20 Nine months sober and what it gave back to her

27:18 Macrame, crochet, and hobbies you refuse to monetize

36:53 Being friends with your team and the superpower of holding space

43:29 The first baby step for leaning into your own magic

52:41 The single greatest thing yoga taught her: get out of your own way

RESOURCES & LINKS

• BeachtownYoga.com
• Claire: Instagram.com/clairevictoriavillalobos and tiktok.com/@clairevictoriavillalobos
• Sarah: Instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso
• youarethemagicpodcast.com

Claim your spot in the You Are the Magic Retreat this October in Clearwater, Florida: social-moguls.com/retreat

Owning the Good, the Bad, and Your FULL Magic

My first ever in-studio guest, Dr. Andrea Gleim, stole Betty's spot on the couch, sat down, and we went straight into the deep end. We got into what it actually takes to own your whole story, the good, the bad, and the ugly, so no one can ever weaponize it against you. From money wounds to mom guilt to the identity reckoning that hits every business owner eventually, this one is a reminder that you are already enough, exactly as you are.

KEY TOPICS

• What "owning your story" really means, and why the parts you're not proud of lose their power the moment you claim them
• The lotus flower framing: growing something beautiful out of the muddy water
• Breaking the "don't air your dirty laundry" conditioning many of us were raised with
• The identity reckoning, or "dark night of the soul," that hits when your business no longer feels like yours
• How our insecurities show up as triggers (the "cringe" selfie story) and what changes when you own them
• Facing more scrutiny as your visibility grows, and how owning your story shortens the recovery time
• The worthiness wound, the psychology of money, and how your earliest money memories shape your business
• Mom guilt, showing up for yourself first, and the self-care bank account
• Resilience through pregnancy, a partner's layoff, and a two-week maternity leave
• The pressure on new moms, the stress response, and remembering you are already enough

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:01 Welcome and meet my first in-studio guest
• 02:06 The meaning behind Mindfully Mine and owning your story
• 03:18 The lotus flower: beauty grown from the muddy water
• 04:16 Breaking the "keep it in the family" conditioning
• 09:58 When your business no longer feels like yours
• 36:43 The "cringe" selfie and insecurities as triggers
• 38:42 Growing visibility, scrutiny, and faster recovery
• 43:09 The worthiness wound and the psychology of money
• 45:11 Earliest money memories and inherited scarcity
• 14:20 Mom guilt and showing up for yourself first
• 21:12 The self-care bank account
• 48:12 Resilience through pregnancy and a layoff
• 54:44 The breastfeeding stress response and pressure on new moms
• 59:30 You are enough, perfectly imperfect

RESOURCES & LINKS

• youarethemagicpodcast.com
• Sarah: instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso
• Andrea: instagram.com/dr.andreagleim
• TheraBoss: instagram.com/_theraboss

Come find your magic in real life. If this episode stirred something in you, the Social Moguls retreat is where we go deeper together. Details at social-moguls.com/retreat

Back in January of 2024, I was walking home from my office during one of the roughest months of my life, listening to Demi talk about hitting her first $200,000 month, and something cracked open in me.

"If she can do this, I can do this."

That one thought was the door to $50,000+ months and everything after it, and today the woman who coached me through it is here to talk about the exact thing most of us get talked out of: being too much.

KEY TOPICS

• Why the thing she is most proud of has nothing to do with the money she has made
• How being called "too much," too fast, too loud, too direct, too pink, became the source of her magnetism
• The quick-start way she built her business by getting ideas out before she overthought them
• Why she fell in love with failing and treats every flop as data and a win
• What actually happens before a high-ticket buyer pays you, and why the years-long binge is the real work
• How she handles the triggers, hate comments, and unfollows that come with being visible
• Giving yourself permission to evolve and even contradict your old beliefs
• Her advice for anyone who knows exactly who they are but is scared to let the world see it
• What is changing about the way she shows up now that she is about to raise a daughter

TIMESTAMPS

1:42 The January 2024 turning point and the "if she can, I can" moment

7:03 The thing she is most proud of, and why it is not the money

9:50 How the people who know her best would introduce her

17:37 The "too much" list: too fast, too direct, too many offers

25:47 Visionary versus integrator, and the Rocket Fuel framework

31:11 Falling in love with failure and reframing every launch as a win

34:00 Why buyers binge your content for years before they ever pay you

44:01 Swearing, tutus, and pink branding as a filter for the right people

47:06 "Who the f*ck do you think you are," and the triggers that come with visibility

58:13 We get to do this: gratitude for the free platforms we get to share on

01:01:19 Advice for anyone scared to let the world see who they are

01:03:05 How motherhood is shaping the way she shows up now

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Follow Demi: Instagram.com/yourbizcoachdemi
• Follow Sarah: Instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso
• Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters: https://amzn.to/4wN1QXG
• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert https://amzn.to/3Tt5nft
• youarethemagicpodcast.com
• The You Are the Magic October retreat: social-moguls.com/retreat

My work wife Lauren Herman is a former medical speech language pathologist turned author, published researcher, and copywriting agency founder, and this turned into our longest episode yet because neither of us wanted it to end. We dig into why sitting on the fence, the exact thing people kept telling her to quit doing, became her real superpower for research, writing, and staying steady when everyone else wants to pick a fight. If you have ever fired off a comment or an email you wished you could take back, this conversation is for you.

KEY TOPICS

• The three-year journey to publishing her book "But My Speech Is Fine," why she self-published, and how responsibility to the other SLPs who trusted her with their stories got her to hit publish
• Going from clinician to published researcher, getting her work into a radiology journal, and having it picked up by a major radiology publication
• Starting a copywriting agency for healthcare brands with no business or marketing degree, then scaling it into a small team
• Why being called a "fence sitter" turned out to be her superpower, and the difference between emotional, cognitive, and compassionate empathy
• The college philosophy class and the Plato versus Aristotle essay where she first claimed the middle on purpose
• How she knows when she has researched enough to speak on something, and how she prepares for every counterpoint before she posts
• A death row story that shows how cognitive empathy can completely reframe who the real problem is
• Why people crave human-made writing, music, and content more than ever right now
• Her tactic for the moment your emotions want to fire: type out the whole novel of a response, then sit on it for 24 hours
• Exploring film and journalism as her next creative medium

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:01 Welcome and introducing Lauren
• 01:09 "But My Speech Is Fine" and the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspiration
• 05:49 Her three proudest accomplishments: the book, the research paper, the agency
• 13:17 Being told to pick a side, and the three types of empathy
• 20:08 The philosophy of happiness class and choosing the middle
• 29:00 How she knows she has researched enough to speak
• 43:50 Why human-made content matters more in an AI world
• 1:11:09 The "type it out and sit on it" tactic
• 1:14:05 Her venture into film and journalism

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Lauren's book, "But My Speech Is Fine"
• Follow Lauren: Instagram.com/slp.writer
• Follow Sarah: instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso

Loved this one? Come find the full library at youarethemagicpodcast.com, and if you are craving a few days to actually practice the pause instead of just talking about it, the details for the retreat are at social-moguls.com/retreat.

Emily Rose and I got into what it actually means to create your own universe, why she teaches wealth as the byproduct of tapping into your own creatorhood, and how loosening your grip on the outcome is the thing that lets the good stuff flow in. If you have ever been told you are too wild, too woo, or too much, this episode is going to feel like the green light to let every bit of that be your magic.

KEY TOPICS

• What "create your own damn universe" means and why wealth is the byproduct of creation
• Quantum wealth, wealth energetics, and the science-meets-spirituality approach to money
• The reticular activating system and how changing your beliefs changes what you see
• Fractal loops and the one degree decision that puts you on a whole new timeline
• Human design, the manifestor generator, and turning "too much" into your superpower
• The Surrender Experiment and how releasing your grip lets you actually receive
• Why relationships and money trace back to the same worthiness work
• Being her now and rebuilding your business around identity and energetics
• The rise of in-person retreats and why offline has become the new luxury
• Manifestation, the music industry, and following your excitement as intuition

TIMESTAMPS

02:04 Emily's bi-coastal life, luxury short-term rentals, and building a cross-industry empire

06:18 What a quantum wealth mentor actually does, and "create your own damn universe"

08:40 The reticular activating system, the quantum field, and how beliefs build your reality

11:31 Getting into the music industry through manifestation

21:18 Bougie Hippie Properties, the retreat center vision, and why offline is the new luxury

31:09 Retreat breakthroughs, breath work, and the Costa Rica moment that changed everything

32:41 Fractal loops and the one degree decision that changes your whole timeline

35:24 Too wild, too woo, too much, and how human design turned that into a superpower

41:16 The Surrender Experiment

43:30 The yoga body scan, releasing the grip, and how to actually receive

44:37 Why relationships and money come from the same underlying worthiness work

47:07 Being her now, and why Sarah is rebranding her mastermind

54:17 Energetics-first containers, frequency tuning, and mediumship

56:13 Identity and energetics first, strategy second, and why the sequence works

RESOURCES & LINKS

• youarethemagicpodcast.com
• Emily: Instagram.com/theBoldBougieHippie
• Sarah: Instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso
• The Surrender Experiment: https://amzn.to/4eFotHx
• Joe Dispenza's You Are the Placebo: https://amzn.to/3QVSVnJ

This whole conversation reminded me that the real magic happens face to face, and that is exactly what my in-person retreat is all about. If you want to do the identity and energetics work first and then put strategy on top of it, come find all the details at social-moguls.com/retreat.

Anna Hernandez had a golf ball sized brain tumor she never saw coming, hidden for years behind migraines and sinus infections she kept finding reasons to brush off. The day it caught up with her, she was crawling on her office floor in the dark before a seizure sent her to the ER, and what followed was a recovery of her own making using what she knew as a speech-language pathologist and a years-long obsession with neuroplasticity. This conversation goes deep into how she taught her own brain to heal, why being weird is the whole point, and how she stopped asking "why me" long enough to build a life she's proud of.

KEY TOPICS

• The sudden diagnosis and the symptoms Anna explained away for months before her seizure
• Rehabbing her own brain after surgery with no prescribed therapy, using lists, structure, and self-directed neuroplasticity
• Telling your brain what to think, and how repetition rewires your thought patterns over time
• Flower walks, morning sunlight, anchored sleep, and the brain health practices that carried her recovery
• Being the weird kid in two countries and how that became her magic
• Self-advocacy in the workplace when your brain has a daily energy budget
• The friends who showed up for the dramatic part and the ones who stayed for the long recovery
• Winning SLP of the Year at the NSA conference and the stranger who told her she was running from something
• Habit stacking gratitude and how five seconds can be a fork in the road

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:45 Anna's background and the teaser of everything she's overcome
• 06:35 The morning at school when she couldn't remember the kids' names or her password
• 07:43 The diagnosis, the ICU week, and the surgery
• 09:01 Going back to work one month later
• 12:17 Rehabbing herself with no prescribed therapy
• 18:23 Recognizing she rehabbed her own brain
• 19:08 Breath work, flower walks, sleep, and what felt good to her brain
• 22:14 "This is hard, but I'm doing it"
• 24:11 Growing up between a village in Mexico and a small town in Texas
• 26:02 Being weird is the magic
• 29:14 The people who left and the people who stayed
• 36:14 If we're not growing, we're shrinking
• 38:02 "Do you ever wonder why me?"
• 41:02 Winning SLP of the Year
• 46:15 Working less, raising her prices, and building self-respect
• 51:45 Why the fulfillment is in the work, not the reward

RESOURCES & LINKS

• The Brain That Changes Itself: https://amzn.to/4fYi3UY
• Rao, R. P. N., & Ballard, D. H. (1999). "Predictive coding in the visual cortex: a functional interpretation of some extra-classical receptive-field effects." Nature Neuroscience, 2, 79–87. DOI: 10.1038/4580.
• Anna: Instagram.com/adultstuttering
• youarethemagicpodcast.com

Ready for more magic? Come find your people and your next level at the retreat: social-moguls.com/retreat.

Sarah Weiss shares how she went from burnt-out speech therapist to full-time TikTok and social media expert, building two thriving brands while navigating chronic illness, infertility, and new motherhood. She breaks down the power of duality, the art of doing more doing, and what it really takes to show up as your full, unapologetic self. Get ready for a deep dive into betting on yourself, holding two truths at once, and owning your magic.

KEY TOPICS

• Leaving a speech therapy career to bet on herself with zero formal marketing training
• Replacing a full salary with social media clients in six months
• Why betting on yourself feels like the safest bet, even when it doesn't look that way
• The power of duality and holding success alongside hard seasons
• Navigating male factor infertility and the IVF journey to her daughter
• Building a business around chronic illness with fibromyalgia and chronic migraines
• Doing more doing as the antidote to overthinking and waiting
• Refusing to shrink and showing up loud, sarcastic, and fully herself
• Rewiring your brain through hypnosis, tapping, and energy healing
• The mere exposure effect and leaning into neuroplasticity
• Naming your inner critic and working with your brain instead of against it

TIMESTAMPS
02:18 - From speech therapist to social media in six months
05:01 - Why betting on yourself never scared her
06:50 - The $10,000 move that proved business ownership gives you control
09:02 - Being relentless in the pursuit of what she wants
10:04 - Doing more doing instead of talking and planning
11:39 - The hard things happening behind the scenes
12:41 - Duality and two things being true at once
14:58 - Creating something from nothing and the magic of it
17:59 - Fuck around and find out, and giving yourself permission to play
21:01 - The infertility journey and male factor diagnosis
24:32 - The biggest lesson IVF taught her
27:58 - How growing her family grew her business
31:56 - Refusing to shrink and showing up as her full self
37:35 - Being the same person on every platform
40:51 - What chronic illness taught her about solutions over complaining
44:12 - Toxic positivity versus deciding to be an optimist
46:24 - Energy healing, hypnosis, and tapping during infertility
49:52 - The Stella app and rehearsing your future reality
52:18 - Naming your inner critic and the mirror exposure effect
54:16 - Her number one piece of advice for owning your magic

RESOURCES & LINKS

• Stella app:
• tiktok.com/@OnBrandbySarah
• tiktok.com/@SarahandBabes
• youarethemagicpodcast.com
• instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso

You're Invited!

You are the magic, my girl, and this retreat is where you finally own it, embody it, and never shrink from it again. See you in St. Pete, October 2026. social-moguls.com/retreat

Audacious Magic: Somatic Clearing, Burnout Recovery, and Owning Your Worth

Lynda Stretton had a boss she genuinely loved, and one day he sat her down to help her out. She was a big person, he told her, with a big personality, a big energy, and a big smile, and she walked into rooms and intimidated people. Could she find a way to make herself a little smaller? Lynda had been hearing versions of that her whole life. She got told she was too tall, too direct, too fast, too much, and for a long time she believed it. In this episode she tells me how those exact qualities turned out to be the foundation of the work she does now, helping high achieving women own their worth and stop shrinking to keep everyone else comfortable.

Lynda spent 17 years in corporate marketing, running a £45 million budget as a marketing director for three different brands, before she walked away from a six figure salary to be fully present with her kids. That choice became the start of her own healing and the method she teaches now, somatic clearing, with a goal of touching and transforming one billion lives. We get into trusting your intuition and following the energy, why lived wisdom will outlast knowledge in a world full of AI, the honest conversation around money and worth, and the way so many women lose themselves in their relationships and then carry that same smallness into their businesses. I loved this one, and I think you will too.

KEY TOPICS

• Walking away from a six figure corporate marketing career to be a present mum
• Somatic clearing and healing what the body holds onto
• Burnout recovery and rebuilding a business with strong boundaries
• Owning your worth and charging premium prices
• Trusting your intuition, following the energy, and acting on an idea without overthinking it
• Why wisdom and lived experience outlast knowledge in a world full of AI
• The qualities women get told are "too much" becoming their real superpowers
• Losing yourself in a relationship and how it shows up in your business
• Female success, being the breadwinner, and navigating partners who feel triggered

TIMESTAMPS

• 01:16 What Lynda's work looks like now and who she helps
• 04:00 The origin of the Audacious One Mastermind
• 05:30 Transforming one billion lives with somatic clearing
• 06:48 Humble beginnings and a first job at £1.76 an hour
• 14:10 What Lynda is most proud of and the choice to become a present mum
• 20:38 Why people will pay for wisdom over knowledge
• 23:35 Trusting intuition and the Money May download
• 35:14 Being told she was too direct, too tall, too much
• 41:39 Women losing themselves in relationships and in business
• 50:26 Lynda's takeaway and the free breath work journey

RESOURCES AND LINKS

Find Lynda on IG: instagram.com/lynda.stretton/

Lynda's free breathwork: https://youtu.be/AVitwaN3gHA

Find Sarah on IG: instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso

Pod Site: YouAretheMagicPodcast.com

Come join us for the You Are the Magic retreat at social-moguls.com/retreat

Money, Magic, and a Bag of Skittles

"You're not a CFO, you're not a money manager, you're a financial dominatrix." Lou's first reaction was to ask if that was a good thing. According to her client, it was. She whips six and seven-figure entrepreneurs into shape around their money, reading their patterns in minutes and telling them the truth about what's actually happening with their cash. In this episode, I sit down with my good friend and my own money mentor to talk about what it means to be a money medium, why money doesn't play favorites, and how Lou stopped shrinking the loud, vibrant, bag-of-Skittles version of herself to fit into a box other people built for her. It's a conversation about money, energetics, and the magic that shows up when you stop performing for an algorithm and start showing up as the real you.

KEY TOPICS

• What a money medium actually does, and why Lou separates patterns from "blocks"
• The story behind the financial dominatrix title, and what overriding the whole system looks like
• How energy, strategy, and spiritual connection all show up in Lou's money work
• Why entrepreneurs can hit $100,000 months and still have nothing in the bank
• The keynote where Lou found out there was no PowerPoint, and why it became the best thing that ever happened to her
• How the world unintentionally tries to put your magic in a box, and how to ask people to open it
• Sarah's Shavasana download that became this whole show
• Chasing algorithms versus showing up natural and unpolished
• The one trait Lou hid for 30 years that turned out to be her superpower

TIMESTAMPS

00:58 Welcome and introducing Lou Clarke
02:27 Money medium and financial dominatrix, what the work looks like
04:57 Energy, money patterns, and naming the pattern to shift it
05:56 How a client named her the financial dominatrix
08:39 Sarah on inheriting money stories from her parents 10:08 Being the magician, not the magic
11:05 The bag of Skittles
14:46 When God gives you different words than your slides
16:05 The conference keynote with no PowerPoint
18:10 The "You Are the Magic" download in savasana

20:48 Looking for the magic in the small moments

23:18 Why chasing the algorithm extinguishes your magic

24:33 Showing up natural and unpolished, the 40-minute IG live in pajamas

26:49 The trait Lou hid for 30 years
29:58 Money church and bottling up your energy
31:11 Where to find Lou

RESOURCES AND LINKS

• Connect with Lou on Instagram: @theLouClarke
• Follow Sarah on Instagram: @bcsarahsaidso
• Listen to more episodes: youarethemagicpodcast.com

RETREAT

Ready for more magic in person? Join us at the retreat this fall in Florida: social-moguls.com/retreat

Jena Castro-Casbon built her career helping speech-language pathologists and occupational therapists start private practices, and she's done it as an introvert with a late-recognized ADHD diagnosis who would rather batch-record video than go to a party. In this episode we get into how she went from wanting to be an FBI agent to becoming the go-to resource for an entire profession, what changed when she stopped seeing her ADHD as a set of flaws, and why building a business is really about building a life that fits.

KEY TOPICS

• How Jena started her private practice on the side at 26, back when nobody was telling clinicians that was even an option
• The "F words" behind why people start private practices: freedom, flexibility, fulfillment, and finances
• Reframing a late ADHD diagnosis, and the visionary-and-integrator concept that helped Jena understand how her brain actually works
• Practical tools that make a difference for ADHD business owners: object permanence workarounds, body doubling, batch recording, and time-boxing
• Being an introvert who built a public-facing business, and letting other people work in their zone of genius
• Coming out as gay and being openly neurodivergent in a field that hasn't always made room for either
• How showing up as your full self gives other people permission to do the same

TIMESTAMPS

00:08 Welcome and introducing Jena, the queen of private practice

01:33 From clinical fellow in Boston to starting a practice on the side

04:17 The FBI-agent dream and how Jena found speech pathology

07:04 What Jena is most proud of: impact across a whole profession

10:01 The flexibility to be present for her kids

11:00 The four F words behind why clinicians start private practices

17:35 "Look, I made a hat where there never was a hat"

22:19 A late ADHD reframe and the careless-errors years

24:57 The visionary and the integrator, and the flight that changed everything

29:36 Why so many entrepreneurs are neurodivergent

34:16 Object permanence, body doubling, and building systems for your brain

39:43 Being an introvert in a public-facing business

43:40 Coming out, being openly gay, and speaking openly about ADHD

50:24 Why being out about who you are normalizes it for everyone

55:13 Advice for anyone dipping a toe into showing up more authentically

RESOURCES AND LINKS

• Find Jena: Instagram.com/independentclinician
• Jena's free courses, resources, and paid programs: independentclinician.com
• Jena's book: The Path to Private Practice https://amzn.to/4tUY6By
• Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman https://amzn.to/42SDVcG
• Find Sarah: instagram.com/bcsarahsaidso

You're invited to the You Are the Magic Retreat this October in Florida! social-moguls.com/retreat

If this conversation resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear that their brain isn't broken. Follow You Are the Magic so you never miss an episode, and head to YouAretheMagicPodcast.com for more.