March 26, 2025 • 37 mins
This week’s “How She Finds Purpose” insight comes from Sabine Schoepke. She says:
“My biggest advice is don't try to get all of the answers. Like, do one tiny little step at a time. Take inventory of, okay, what's feeling good? What's feeling good for me physically and what's not? Change that. Because I really do believe that our feelings are our superpower, are the greatest power that we have. The feelings that are good and the feelings that don't feel good because they show us what's not right. So check-in. Take little steps into the directions that feel good and take a step back from the ones that don't feel good. And you will see that when you take little steps, the next one is gonna present itself. Things are gonna magically fall into place or show up in your life when it's like, oh, wow. So it doesn't need big leaps, and it doesn't need all of the answers. Don't wait for that. Take initiative, take inventory, and take action.”
Sabine Schoepke is a dynamic entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience now dedicated to helping others redefine midlife and create aligned financial freedom. A trailblazer and disruptor, Sabine sold her latest company and retired at 51, shifting her focus to guiding others. Her journey spans seven businesses, a best-selling book, and professional bodybuilding, all of which fuel her unique, authentic coaching style. She empowers clients to embrace true success, grounded in alignment, purpose, and joy.
Here are 3 reasons why you should listen to this episode:
-
Hear Sabine's remarkable journey from homelessness to building seven successful businesses, and the powerful mindset shifts that made it possible.
-
Discover the simple yet impactful steps you can take to find greater purpose and alignment in your own life.
-
Learn how Sabine’s bold decision to leave everything behind and seek clarity on a mountain reshaped her life, and how her insights can inspire your next move.
Connect with Sabine at:
Website: https://www.thepowerlifecoach.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabineschoepke/
Would you prefer to watch or listen to the podcast on YouTube?
Head on over to https://www.youtube.com/@leadershippurposepodcast
Want to connect? Connect with Dr. Robin on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinlowensphd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robinlowensphd
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinlowensphd/
Email: Robin@LeadershipPurposePodcast.com
Thank you for listening! Rate, review, & follow on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. Talk to you soon!
This episode was produced by Lynda, Podcast Manager for GenX Creative Entrepreneurs at https://www.ljscreativeservices.co.nz
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Leadership Purpose with Dr Robin podcast.
I'm your host, Robin L Owens, PhD. I'm a college
professor. And when I'm not doing that, I am teaching others
how to find and stay in alignment with their true purpose.
And this is where we talk with women who've made bold career
transitions in search for more meaning and purpose in
(00:24):
their work. So if you're feeling that pull toward more meaning and purpose in
your work or just curious about what's possible when you
pursue purpose over position, then these
conversations are here to encourage, inspire,
and guide you. Okay. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Leadership Purpose with
(00:47):
Dr. Robin podcast. I'm so glad you're here and you take
time to listen into the podcast. And because you've been such a
faithful listener to the podcast, you helped us get ranked in the top
5% of all podcasts globally according to
Listen Notes. So thank you for doing that. Really appreciate you. And if you
would, please, it makes a difference. Rate,
(01:09):
subscribe, review the podcast, it really will help us keep
going. Alright now today I'm very excited about our
guest for today. I'm talking with Sabine
Shubke. She is a dynamic entrepreneur with over
thirty five years of experience now dedicated to helping
others redefine midlife and create
(01:31):
aligned financial freedom. A trailblazer and
disruptor, Sabine sold her latest company and
retired at 51, shifting her focus to guiding
others. Her journey spans seven businesses, that's right,
seven businesses, a best selling book,
and professional bodybuilding, all of which fuel
(01:53):
her unique, authentic coaching style. She
empowers clients to embrace true success, grounded in
alignment, purpose, and joy. Welcome,
Sabine. Thank you so much. Thank you for having
me. So glad to hear you. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited
that you're here. Okay, so now you heard me just give a sort of official
(02:14):
bio introduction, but why don't you tell us in your own words
two things, a little bit about you and then the work
you do currently. So, I'm originally
from Germany. I left Germany when I was 17 and went to Canada
on my own and I went to school there. And by the time I
was 20, I was homeless. And
(02:39):
I started my first company about when I was 21 on a park bench in
Toronto on Yonge And Bloor. I started my first business,
and I've been going ever since I
fell in love with, you know, seeing opportunities, connecting the
dots, and, doing one business after another
and starting scaling and selling companies. And
(03:02):
then at 51, I, sold my
last company, and I kind of hit a wall a little bit, like,
of realization. My kids are twins, and
they graduated high school, and they both left for Europe. And
so all of a sudden, I felt like I was without an identity.
I had no more business, and I had no more kids. The house was
(03:25):
empty. And I there was no lack
of opportunities that I saw, but I was burned out.
And so I decided to stop it all,
and I got rid of everything I owned. And I sold my
house, all my belongings I gave way. And six months later,
I put myself on a plane to Europe, and I put myself on a
(03:46):
mountain into isolation for ten months
to reassess, redefine, realign my
life and to see what I wanted to do with
that second half of my life. And,
I came back, last October
and with a really clear vision of wanting
(04:09):
to help others do what I have done in my life,
which is I know how to make money. I know how to see opportunities
and how to do that with great passion
and yet not burning the candle from both sides,
you know, because that easily happens and it happened to me on numerous
occasions. But I've developed frameworks,
(04:32):
which I only really realized once I gave myself a time out and I took
a step back. And I was like, what did you do? Oh my gosh. How
did you, like, how did you get here? So,
I've I've put it all together, and I thought, oh my god. I can share
this lived wisdom with others to help them get to where
I'm at, to a place where it's like you're in alignment
(04:54):
and you're free, whether it's financially free or emotionally free.
And, yeah, it's a it's a really good place to be
in and to share that with other people. And I'm very passionate
about that now. Yeah. What a tremendous gift to be able to
give people. But I mean, you said a lot there. So let's let's back up.
I know. A lot of
(05:16):
nuggets in there. You know, the thing that stands out, I'm imagining somebody's
listening say, Did she say she left everything? It went away
for $10? Yes. So let's talk about that. Let's talk
about the moment well, maybe not the exact moment, but how you came
to that decision. You kinda said it quickly, like, yeah. I made the decision
and I did it. But talk about that process. So I I
(05:39):
just I realized I actually what was the decisive
moment for this was I found an old vision board. I
was underneath a, like, a console, and I pulled it out. And
I found this vision board, and I looked at that, and I realized, oh my
god. Everything that's on there has been checked, and then
some. And instead of feeling, like, really happy
(06:01):
and, you know, celebrating, like, oh my god. Look how far you've come from a
park bench to all of this. And I got
depressed. I was really depressed. I I got really
upset, and it took me a moment to realize because I it became
clear that, like, my North Star, you know,
my my vision, my dreams that I
(06:22):
had were like they were like soap bubbles. All of a sudden, it was all
gone. I I didn't know what to strive for anymore, and I realized that
everything I had achieved really wasn't that
meaningful. Like, sure. Yes. Like, I wasn't
homeless, but, you know, there there's there's a lot of gray
between being homeless and, like, having it all and
(06:45):
then some. You know? Like like, when is enough
enough? And I really I really struggled with that, and
it took me a little while. I then became really, for a few months, really
obsessed with with bodybuilding because, like, oh, there's another goal. Oh my god. You can
look like Iron Wonder Woman in your fifties. You know? So I really
put but then I also I was like, this is crazy. Like, why am
(07:07):
I doing this? And that was really the decisive moment. And
then I realized, you gotta let it all go. Like, strip
it all away, all of it. That fast cars I
love, the nice big house. Like, it was meaningless. So why not let it all
go and say, okay. Like, put yourself
somewhere without all because it's distractions. It's like, that's what
(07:30):
I realized. All of that was distractions to, like,
just walk into a dealership and buy yourself a new car because you're bored. You
know? Like, that's basically what happens. Right? Like, nobody needs a new car
like that. It's ridiculous. So I I was like,
I'm gonna give it all away. I'm gonna start over.
And I really I was in isolation. Like, I
(07:52):
went into this tiny little village high in the
mountains in Germany. There was no street names. There
was nothing. There was no stores. There was there was nothing.
And I sat there, and it was really hard at the beginning. I
cried. I cried for me, like, on and off for six weeks. I was like,
what did I do? What did like, but I think it was more
(08:14):
withdrawal from the life that I knew, like, the
social stuff, you know, the fun I have, the
but that's still a bottom line. It was also temporary. You know?
Like, I knew it didn't fulfill me, but yet I remember when I got there,
the first thing I asked the person who rented the place to me, I
said, why is there a gym? And she's like, a gym.
(08:37):
And it was, like, way far away. And I actually drove there,
and I was like, what am I doing? I'm just
relocating myself geographically, but now I'm, like,
recreating the life that I had. Or went out and I bought a bottle of
whiskey, and then I came home and died. And I looked at that whiskey, and
I'm like, we're not doing this. We're not distracting
(08:57):
ourselves anymore. We're gonna sit with the pain,
and see what comes up from that. And that was yeah. It was
needed. It was so needed to let it I took the bottle of whiskey, I
put it down the drain. I didn't go work out like that anymore.
Like, I it just yeah. It it was needed to kinda get to
the bottom of it all and say, okay. You know what? Yeah. How'd you find
(09:19):
the house if it was up there in the hills with nobody around?
Like, how It was I found it online. Okay. No. It was funny
because I went to the next bigger town, and I said, I need a rental.
And they just started laughing at me. And they're like, who are you? Like
and they could tell by my accent. Even though I speak German fluently, but I
have like, after thirty some years, it has a little bit of an accent. So
(09:41):
they're like and they looked at my hair and my tattoos, and they're
like, no, lady. There's like somebody needs to
die before something becomes available, and then there's it's kinda the
locals waiting for a place. But somehow and
that's just, I think, like, in my life, like, things just work out,
and I found this little furnished part of an old
(10:03):
farmhouse in online. And I remember I took the
train and the bus to it, and I showed up, and I was
like, yeah, that's fine. It's whatever. And yeah. She's
like, okay. That's amazing. That's amazing.
Okay. Now I wanna I wanna go back to some we might come back to
this too because, you know, I'm fascinated by the whole story, and we've had
(10:25):
some of this conversation before. But, all right, you said in the
beginning, because some people might be wondering, because you you there's so
much in there that you kinda said it quickly. Yeah. You said that at one
point you were homeless. How much time between being
homeless and being in, you know, in that house
by yourself on the top of the hill and journey? Oh, that was
(10:47):
decades, months, weeks That was like thirty
some years. Okay. So that was a your journey had brought you.
So you had gone you learned success. And then when you got to the
point where the success sounds like it was felt excessive to
you, You were kind of I mean, there was you know, there's, like,
peaks and valleys and all of it, but, generally, it was up. But there
(11:09):
was times in between where I really hit rock
bottom where we had a massive house fire. We lost
everything. And that, like, it started over again, you
know, or I left the father of my children. I left
him, and I left him pretty much everything. And I said, just take care of
the kids financially, you know, but I don't want anything from you. And I started
(11:31):
over again. So there was, you know, peaks and valleys to
this and just the way life goes. You know? Like,
things happen. But I recently did a little exercise, and I did,
like, a timeline of my life. And I looked at all of the
different various events of my life from what I just mentioned
to cancer to a home invasion where I was brutally attacked,
(11:53):
and I suffered from PTSD for a while. Like, there were so many events,
and I listed them all to and then what? And
I realized I looked at this, and I connected the dots, and I was like,
wait a second. Because of what happened,
this came about. And it wasn't despite of it, but
it was because of that. So, like, the very beginning
(12:16):
with sitting on this park bench and being homeless and,
like, there was no question in my mind, I will gonna do
something. Okay. What am I gonna do? And I had ideas that
popped up, and the most tangible one was like, okay. I'm gonna
do that. There was no question in my mind that I was gonna do something
or that it was gonna work. Like, no. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna
(12:38):
do, and it's gonna be fine. You know? So there was always
every single major event in my life led to something
amazing. And so, you know, people often say to me, oh, whatever
you touch turns to gold. Well and and then they say, oh, you're
still lucky. It has nothing to do with luck. I believe that today
because as I really did the research on my own life and, you
(13:01):
know, what got me through and to understand how my brain works
and how I respond to disaster
or catastrophe is I realize is often
very different than how a lot of other people respond to it. You know?
Like, I might be down for a moment, and I might not be happy with
what's going on, but I'm really quick to be like, okay. So what are we
(13:23):
gonna do with this? Like, not the victim mode of,
oh my god. I just got beaten up and, like, attacked in my
own house. But, like, yeah, that sucks, and that really hurt.
But I am not gonna go down. Like, I've started to.
I had PTSD. I started drinking really heavily. I didn't know how to deal with
this. I've never experienced anything like it. You know? But then there came a point
(13:47):
where it's like, I'm not gonna let them win. No. What
am I gonna do about this? Yeah. And because of that, I
discovered working out, like, really seriously working out, and I
became a professional bodybuilder at 51. I was in the best shape
of my life, you know, and I turned my whole life around when it comes
to lifestyle and living healthy and, you know,
(14:08):
so yeah. It's really amazing to Yeah. Like, really take
a step back and see the full picture and say, wow.
Okay. So it sounds like you're saying part of your
ability to just be resilient after those major
events and the way you chose to bounce back
or act helped you move forward each time.
(14:30):
Now if you could say, if you feel comfortable saying, what circumstances
led to you being homeless? Because I think many people don't hear
from anyone who's been homeless in any way. Right? And so
just how does that happen or how did it happen for you? If you feel
like talking about that, you don't have to. Yeah. I mean, there was
circumstances in Germany that
(14:52):
I had to leave at 17, and I had
to really save myself. So I I
left. And it wasn't by choice. I was never a
rebel. In, you you know, really hard situations, I probably drank
too much, but I've never done drugs, anything like it. Like, it wasn't
anything. I didn't have, like, mental health issues that I, you
(15:14):
know, ran away or anything like that. It was nothing like that. It was really
like, you're you've got to take care of yourself. You've got to get away.
And so that's yeah. Led to that.
How long after that to your first business? So I
left at 17 and then I went to a high school there in Canada and
then I started to put myself through university
(15:35):
and so it was I want to say four years in
Canada when I started my first company. Yeah. That was a short amount of time.
Yeah. How did you come to start a company because you could have gotten a
job and I would No. Because I had no work permit
in Canada. Ah. So I I I could do little
at the beginning in university, I did a little TA jobs in
(15:57):
the German department. You know, like, I was allowed to do that.
And I I help people with their German homework and made some
money with that, but it wasn't enough. You know? I had a scholarship at the
beginning because I did really well in school. But then I was like,
okay. Now what? Like, where am I gonna go? What how is this gonna go
on? You know? And so for me, it was like, well, you gotta make lots
(16:18):
of money. Like, just make it yourself. And if you have a
company, then you're gonna get a permit, like, your
green card kind of thing. You know? And and that's what it was. So I
I started that, and then everything changed. You know,
I became, like, legally working and all of that.
So yeah. Alright. So you decided that you decided, well, I have to
(16:41):
I have to live and the way to live is to start my own
company. How did you decide what company you was what kind
of company you would start? Oh, that was easy because, you know, I had come
from Europe and I was in North America. And, like, every
time I had gone back to Germany to visit, people would
my friends in Germany would be like, oh my god. Can you bring me Levi's?
(17:02):
Can you bring me this? Can you bring me that? Can you bring me peanut
butter? And I was like, wow. Like, especially when it came to
Levi's, the pricing was so different. I
saw opportunity there where I was like, wow. The a pair of
Levi's retail in Canada is cheaper than wholesale
in Europe. That makes no sense. Like, I could buy
(17:24):
retail like crazy and just ship it over there and still
make a great profit. And that's what I started doing. Like, I
initially went from store to store to store, and then I started to make deals
with, Levi's retails and say, okay. Can you sell me a little
more? Like like, it comes in a fall. And,
so and then I I was looking for partners to help me
(17:46):
out. And I was very lucky always that I found people who
believed in me and were like, yeah. I'm gonna support you.
I'm gonna help you. And, like, the forwarding company, I
remember I had an appointment with them, and my goal was to,
like, get a little space at the airport in Toronto.
Back then, it was different. You know, like, that was a long time ago. So
(18:07):
the security wasn't like it was today. So they ended up giving me a
little space at the airport, like, right by where the airplanes
were to put all my merchandise to collect it and repackage
it. And then they would ship it for me and they would wait until I
would get paid so I could pay them. Like Oh, wow. I I was very
lucky that I always met the right kind of people
(18:29):
to, you know, like I said, to believe in me and support me a little
bit. And years later, I went back to the gentleman I
talked to back then. I said, oh my god. Like, why did you believe in
me? And he's like, you had a good idea, and you sounded like you knew
what you were doing. So he's like, it wasn't a big
risk. Yeah. Of course. So yeah. He believed your
(18:50):
belief in your company. He did. Yeah.
That's amazing. Okay, so that was your early company. Let's fast forward now to
the most recent one, before you took off to go to
Germany. Yes. What were you doing then? So that one came
about because we had a house fire
and, of a house we were building to sell. And
(19:12):
Oh. We had all of our money in there and,
like, all of it and other people's money. And just
when contracts went out, kids broke into it, had a party in
there, and by accident, put it on fire, and the whole thing burned down.
And so everything, all of our money, everything we
had was in there, and that was that. And then the insurance, they
(19:35):
allowed to take 365 days to get back to you. At three hundred sixty
four days, they got back to us and basically paid off nothing. It was
because there was a clause in there under which they were hiding and, you know,
insurances are not meant to pay really quickly, I found out.
And so that was that, and it was it was devastating.
And it was just when just it was happened in
(19:58):
02/2007, so a year before the bubble the whole real
estate bubble burst. And so we lost
that and then money on other properties, and we were
completely bankrupt. And we had lawsuits because of the fire, because it was
such a big fire and affected so many people. And it was
it was such a hard time. It was so, so difficult.
(20:20):
And my kids were really little. And for myself,
I started to create these little pendants that, like, every day I
could pick from a pendant that I had hand stamped and that, like, with
words that were really meaningful to me and reminded me of how blessed I was,
of how blessed I was that I had these beautiful children
and how blessed I was to be healthy. And so I
(20:43):
could count my blessings with these pendants and I I
wore them. And then people started to notice them. And I said, where did you
get this? And I said, oh, this is just I mean, I made that for
myself. And then people, like, in school, when my kids went to
school, they'd be like, can you make me something? I'm struggling with something. Can I
share with you? And you make me something. And I said, sure. And that's
(21:04):
how it became a a map. Like, it it was
just a beautiful passion project of mine that, you know, where I
realized, oh my god. I can't help other people with that. I can
make their burdens a little lighter by giving them something
to hold on to. And, it was beautiful. And I
created a workplace where women where family comes first, where they can
(21:26):
take care of their kids and yet have a job they're passionate about.
We created works, like, in our office areas for the kids where
they could come and, like, do homework or play groups.
And so it was a beautiful, beautiful passion.
But, again, see what happened. I mean, I went from, like,
bankruptcy losing everything to, wow.
(21:48):
I built this business because of the pain that I was
experiencing and whether to make money or
to be able to do a job where I would still be there for my
children to raise them. You know, like, it's just it was beautiful.
And I I know it had a huge impact on hundreds of thousands
of people who we created jewelry for and, and the people who
(22:10):
have worked with me over the years. And so, yeah, it was
the last That's amazing. Last one I had. Yeah. And it sounds like you had
a beautiful location. You are I mean, you went from just kind of making them
at home to going to the point where you had an
actual company with Oh, yes. Local location with people working
in it and their kids invited to join them. Yeah. At some point, I think
(22:32):
I had 10 women working for me and, they were all
moms and, you know, and they all had each other's back.
Like, all positions were double stacked. So if one had to stay home because
a kid was sick, the other one would take care of that load.
And it was really a beautiful group of people.
And, yeah, it was it was it was awesome. It's absolutely
(22:54):
amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, your story is, I mean,
it's inspirational to me, and I'm imagining it's
inspiring people who are listening right now. I mean, it's absolutely amazing. I
know I've said this to you before, and I'm not the only one, and And
I'll probably say it to you again at some point, at least three or four
times. This is amazing. And your heart your
(23:14):
heart and your your compassion and generosity
and just ability to say, I'm gonna I'm gonna make I'm gonna not stay
here. I'm gonna move forward. It's it's absolutely amazing. Alright.
So would you say in the midst of all this or let's say where you
are now, do you feel like you have purpose in your work? Oh my god.
Yeah. Oh my god. Like, I it's, I came
(23:35):
back off this mountain, and I was like, I'm gonna help people. I'm gonna share
everything I know. And it was funny because I came back, like,
South Of LA. I came back here, and I'm like, oh, wow.
This is not that easy. Like, there's so many coaches out
there. People are so jaded. You know? And
I had to I'm like, okay, I gotta find my way of
(23:56):
doing this. Alright. There's a whole new project. This isn't just
handing out, you know, free advice. This is like people
are like, they don't trust in, like, even free advice. You know? They're
like, woah. What do you want? What are you trying to sell me? And I'm
like, nothing, actually. Nothing. So that was
interesting too. And I initially, I was like, okay. I gotta take
(24:18):
I had never done social media. None of my businesses relied on social media
or advertising. It was all word-of-mouth, organic, me showing
up at events and sharing with people. So,
I was like, oh my god. Now I need to learn social media. And I
started all these different platforms. And I was like, I don't like this.
I don't wanna do this. This is so superficial. I don't wanna make stupid
(24:39):
videos. I wanna share, like, value and from my
heart and my soul. And, long story short, I
ended up wasting a lot of money on programs that did nothing for
me and that really only showed me that this
wasn't for me except one platform. And it was
LinkedIn. And I fell in love with LinkedIn.
(25:02):
Like, literally, I I discovered how much I
love to write. And, I it
was so in alignment with creating, like, heartfelt,
soulful, long form content through me to
share that. And it took me a little bit of time to open
myself up to that and really share from my heart
(25:25):
because I was always, like, under the impression that nobody cares.
Like, nobody cares. And it was funny. Like, even
when I I went to Germany and I visited my
parents, and my father said to me, he said, oh, I saw you on
LinkedIn. Like, what are you doing there? Like, nobody cares what you
think. Nobody cares what you have to say. You should get a real job. And
(25:46):
I was like, sure. Okay. So I had to
overcome that and, like, and I feel like I had
to lean in, like, with every article I I or post that I wrote, I
had to lean in a little bit more into being
more vulnerable, you know, like, opening myself up more,
sharing more from that place, like, this
(26:09):
personal place of how I felt about things and things
I've experienced and perspectives, you know, what they were
based on and so on. So and even to this day, I feel
like like every day there's just another
percentage when I'm like, okay, let's be courageous. Let's do
this. And, yeah, I I I tried different things,
(26:31):
and, initially, there wasn't really much that I got from that,
like, response wise. But I then I was very
lucky. I was very fortunate again. The right person came into my life as
somebody who had read my content. Oh my god. I love your content. I wanna
work with you. Can I support you? Can I help you? And I
hired her as my assistant, and she's
(26:53):
now really I consider her my partner in this because she can finish my
thoughts for me. We're on the same wavelength. It's just
beautiful. And it was something I said, if I whatever I'm
gonna do next, I'm not gonna do it alone, but I didn't know who I
was gonna find, you know, in this. And so,
she's amazing. She's absolutely wonderful, and we can bounce
(27:15):
ideas off each other. And we really in November, we
started. We, like, bit our teeth into LinkedIn and said, this is it. We're gonna
figure this out. Together, we're gonna figure this out. And so
now, like, three, four months later, you know, it's like, oh my
god. This is working. And the beauty of it is,
yeah, I get leads from it. Sure. Yes. But what's
(27:37):
even much more meaningful to me is
all the messages I get from people who were like, oh my god.
You have no idea how you impacted my life or you
have no idea what this meant to me. Like, to hear somebody
else share this or struggle the same way, or your
insight helped me. Like, the feedback I'm getting on a really
(27:59):
personal level is just so amazing. It's so
beautiful. It's like, oh my god. It's amazing.
It's just the best. And I know my choice to do
what I'm doing right now is is the right choice. I know I'm on the
right path. And you know, I'm very excited to
see where else it's gonna take me. And I have
(28:22):
little dreams and visions of what I want to do. But you
know, we'll see. That's wonderful. And so it
sounds like because we started this when you I asked, do you have purpose in
your work? And that's why you were sharing that. And it sounds like it's very
meaningful for you and it gives you a sense of purpose to share from your
experience in a way that touches the heart of others because you're
(28:43):
sharing from your own heart in a real way and helping others
to to make the changes that they wanna make. I think that's absolutely beautiful.
So now let me ask you to share some
you have such a wealth of wisdom from all the years that you've been
learning, living, learning, living, learning, living, learning, any from
your personal or professional life. What's some piece of
(29:05):
advice or encouragement you would say to
a woman listening? And I'll describe who I think is listening, at least for the
who the podcast is for. She's a high achieving woman, and by
that, I mean she's responsible doing lots of
things, good at lots of things. People in her personal
life come to her for advice, whether it's related to anything she knows or
(29:27):
not. People in her professional life come here, wanna ask you advice,
whether, you know, she knows anything about it. She's the one that people come
to or support, and she's happy to do it. And she
also is feeling like there must be more. You know,
I I have the success, but I'm not fulfilled. And so
I invite people like you to share your story and hoping that
(29:50):
it inspires others because there's lots of things we can learn from
other people's the journey that they go on. And so now,
specifically, what's some piece of advice she's saying? You know,
everything looks good on paper, checked all the boxes, but there's
something missing. What would you say to her? So I am
somebody who is willing to jump off a pier
(30:13):
or into the deep end. Right? And what that brings with
it is that I don't have all the answers.
Like, I don't know. When I left for Europe to find
the more for life, I didn't know where this was gonna take me. I
got rid of everything. I didn't know if I was ever gonna come back to
The US. A lot of people held that against me. I said, how can you
(30:35):
do that? What are you gonna do? And I said, I don't know. I just
know this one step I'm gonna take right now. I know I need to
disconnect from all the crazy, from all the distractions. If I
really wanna go deep and find out what is really next for
me, purposely, meaningfully, fulfillingly, like,
what's next? And so my biggest
(30:58):
advice is don't try to get all of the answers.
Like, do one tiny little step at a
time. Take inventory of, okay, what's
feeling good? What's feeling good for me physically and what's
not? Change that because I I really do believe
that our feelings are our superpower, our
(31:20):
the greatest power that we have. The feelings that are good and the feelings that
don't feel good because they show us what's not right. So
check-in. Check-in with yourself in three areas of your life. Put it
into buckets and say, okay. What feels good physically
and what doesn't? Maybe I need to take better care of myself.
Maybe as in, you know, like, get more rest,
(31:42):
get more exercise, move more, spend more time outside.
Check-in with yourself and see what needs tweaking. And then look
at your emotional and purpose part of your life.
What feels good? Do more of that. What's
not good? What's draining you? Start taking little steps,
and you don't have to be radical like I did. Like, you don't have to
(32:04):
get rid of everything and go sit on a mountain. You don't have to do
that. You can take tiny little steps that are really
obvious. I need to drink more water, Or
I really enjoy volunteering here.
Let me do more of that. But this thing over here that I'm
doing, I dread it. And don't do it. You're not the
(32:26):
one for the job. If it doesn't feel good, you don't. And, yes, there's
certain things in life we need to do, like but even there, we can
find the joy in it, like taking care of our families. Sure. It's draining
sometimes, but there there is a blessing in those things. I'm not
talking about those things. You know? And then the third bucket is
relationships. That's a big one. Because often I
(32:48):
feel like we're surrounding ourselves with people
maybe who we feel like we should surround ourselves because the
family or they've been in our lives for a long time, you know, and
we're like, oh, no. I can't let go of that. I have to go let
go of family. It's so hard. But you know
what? When it's not good and it's toxic and people bring you
(33:11):
down or weigh you down or try to keep you small, you gotta
let it go. At least put boundaries into place where you
don't expose yourself as much, where, you know, there's little
steps. Again, you don't need to be dramatic about it. Take little
steps. And so look at those three buckets. Take little steps
into the directions that feel good and take step backs in the ones
(33:33):
that don't feel good. And you will see that when you
take little steps the next one is going to present itself. Things are
going to magically fall into place or show up in your life where it's
like, oh, wow. So it's it doesn't need
big leaps, and it doesn't need all of the answers.
Don't wait for that. Take initiative. Take
(33:55):
inventory, and take action. I mean, we don't have
to say anymore after that. No, I guess. Okay, we're done.
That's right. That was a mic drop moment right there.
All right. So I'm imagining now that whoever's listening, they're inspired. They
want like, well, I wanna hear more. How can I find about these LinkedIn posts
or all the things that you're doing? Where can people be in touch with you?
(34:17):
So I have a website, which is the
powerlifecoach.com. And at this point, like, I I
registered this website a long time ago. If I could do it over again, I
wouldn't put coach on there because it's not really about that. It's
about really, at this point, just, like, giving,
sharing, doing what we're doing, having conversations,
(34:38):
having any impact. So I encourage
anybody who's listening who wants to know more, reach out, have a conversation,
send me a message. You will make my day. You don't have to sign up
with me as a coach. You know, just let's do what we
all craving, which is build human connection
and share our stories with each other because somebody out there
(35:00):
who might need my perspective on something
will have something that they can give me in return, a perspective,
or if it's just the joy of communicating with them.
So thepowerlifecoach.com. And then I'm on
LinkedIn under my name Sabine Schoepke
as it's on your podcast. And Ok. So spell your name for
(35:23):
the people who are listening in the car or outside. It's
so it's Sabine, s a b I n e.
And then my last name is s c h o e,
p as in Peter, k e. And they can find you on LinkedIn
there. Anna Yeah. On LinkedIn.
Thepowerlifecoach.com. Thepowerlifecoach
(35:44):
Com. Sabine, this has been just as I thought it would be.
Absolutely wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for
sharing your heart. Your heart is very clear. We
feel it. I feel it. I'm sure others feel it. And your
generosity of wanting to give back after your your hard won
experience, hard won experience and success and now
(36:07):
purpose. So thank you for being here and sharing with us. Thank you. I appreciate
it. Thank you so much, Robin. Okay. Everyone, I'd
love to hear your response to this conversation,
and you can find me at LinkedIn. That's where I spend most of my time
on social media. I'm on all the channels, but mostly LinkedIn, at
Robin L. Owens PhD, at Robin L. Owens PhD.
(36:28):
Just send me a DM and just let me hear from you. I'd love
to, to hear your thoughts about this. And until
next time, this is Dr. Robin.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Leadership Purpose
with Dr. Robin podcast. If you enjoyed it, head on
over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an
(36:50):
episode. New episodes drop every week, and
I can't wait to hang out with you again soon.
Meanwhile, this is Dr. Robin
signing off. See you next time.
Welcome to the Leadership Purpose with Dr Robin podcast.
I'm your host, Robin L Owens, PhD. I'm a college
professor. And when I'm not doing that, I am teaching others
how to find and stay in alignment with their true purpose.
And this is where we talk with women who've made bold career
transitions in search for more meaning and purpose in
(00:24):
their work. So if you're feeling that pull toward more meaning and purpose in
your work or just curious about what's possible when you
pursue purpose over position, then these
conversations are here to encourage, inspire,
and guide you. Okay. Let's get started.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Leadership Purpose with
(00:47):
Dr. Robin podcast. I'm so glad you're here and you take
time to listen into the podcast. And because you've been such a
faithful listener to the podcast, you helped us get ranked in the top
5% of all podcasts globally according to
Listen Notes. So thank you for doing that. Really appreciate you. And if you
would, please, it makes a difference. Rate,
(01:09):
subscribe, review the podcast, it really will help us keep
going. Alright now today I'm very excited about our
guest for today. I'm talking with Sabine
Shubke. She is a dynamic entrepreneur with over
thirty five years of experience now dedicated to helping
others redefine midlife and create
(01:31):
aligned financial freedom. A trailblazer and
disruptor, Sabine sold her latest company and
retired at 51, shifting her focus to guiding
others. Her journey spans seven businesses, that's right,
seven businesses, a best selling book,
and professional bodybuilding, all of which fuel
(01:53):
her unique, authentic coaching style. She
empowers clients to embrace true success, grounded in
alignment, purpose, and joy. Welcome,
Sabine. Thank you so much. Thank you for having
me. So glad to hear you. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited
that you're here. Okay, so now you heard me just give a sort of official
(02:14):
bio introduction, but why don't you tell us in your own words
two things, a little bit about you and then the work
you do currently. So, I'm originally
from Germany. I left Germany when I was 17 and went to Canada
on my own and I went to school there. And by the time I
was 20, I was homeless. And
(02:39):
I started my first company about when I was 21 on a park bench in
Toronto on Yonge And Bloor. I started my first business,
and I've been going ever since I
fell in love with, you know, seeing opportunities, connecting the
dots, and, doing one business after another
and starting scaling and selling companies. And
(03:02):
then at 51, I, sold my
last company, and I kind of hit a wall a little bit, like,
of realization. My kids are twins, and
they graduated high school, and they both left for Europe. And
so all of a sudden, I felt like I was without an identity.
I had no more business, and I had no more kids. The house was
(03:25):
empty. And I there was no lack
of opportunities that I saw, but I was burned out.
And so I decided to stop it all,
and I got rid of everything I owned. And I sold my
house, all my belongings I gave way. And six months later,
I put myself on a plane to Europe, and I put myself on a
(03:46):
mountain into isolation for ten months
to reassess, redefine, realign my
life and to see what I wanted to do with
that second half of my life. And,
I came back, last October
and with a really clear vision of wanting
(04:09):
to help others do what I have done in my life,
which is I know how to make money. I know how to see opportunities
and how to do that with great passion
and yet not burning the candle from both sides,
you know, because that easily happens and it happened to me on numerous
occasions. But I've developed frameworks,
(04:32):
which I only really realized once I gave myself a time out and I took
a step back. And I was like, what did you do? Oh my gosh. How
did you, like, how did you get here? So,
I've I've put it all together, and I thought, oh my god. I can share
this lived wisdom with others to help them get to where
I'm at, to a place where it's like you're in alignment
(04:54):
and you're free, whether it's financially free or emotionally free.
And, yeah, it's a it's a really good place to be
in and to share that with other people. And I'm very passionate
about that now. Yeah. What a tremendous gift to be able to
give people. But I mean, you said a lot there. So let's let's back up.
I know. A lot of
(05:16):
nuggets in there. You know, the thing that stands out, I'm imagining somebody's
listening say, Did she say she left everything? It went away
for $10? Yes. So let's talk about that. Let's talk
about the moment well, maybe not the exact moment, but how you came
to that decision. You kinda said it quickly, like, yeah. I made the decision
and I did it. But talk about that process. So I I
(05:39):
just I realized I actually what was the decisive
moment for this was I found an old vision board. I
was underneath a, like, a console, and I pulled it out. And
I found this vision board, and I looked at that, and I realized, oh my
god. Everything that's on there has been checked, and then
some. And instead of feeling, like, really happy
(06:01):
and, you know, celebrating, like, oh my god. Look how far you've come from a
park bench to all of this. And I got
depressed. I was really depressed. I I got really
upset, and it took me a moment to realize because I it became
clear that, like, my North Star, you know,
my my vision, my dreams that I
(06:22):
had were like they were like soap bubbles. All of a sudden, it was all
gone. I I didn't know what to strive for anymore, and I realized that
everything I had achieved really wasn't that
meaningful. Like, sure. Yes. Like, I wasn't
homeless, but, you know, there there's there's a lot of gray
between being homeless and, like, having it all and
(06:45):
then some. You know? Like like, when is enough
enough? And I really I really struggled with that, and
it took me a little while. I then became really, for a few months, really
obsessed with with bodybuilding because, like, oh, there's another goal. Oh my god. You can
look like Iron Wonder Woman in your fifties. You know? So I really
put but then I also I was like, this is crazy. Like, why am
(07:07):
I doing this? And that was really the decisive moment. And
then I realized, you gotta let it all go. Like, strip
it all away, all of it. That fast cars I
love, the nice big house. Like, it was meaningless. So why not let it all
go and say, okay. Like, put yourself
somewhere without all because it's distractions. It's like, that's what
(07:30):
I realized. All of that was distractions to, like,
just walk into a dealership and buy yourself a new car because you're bored. You
know? Like, that's basically what happens. Right? Like, nobody needs a new car
like that. It's ridiculous. So I I was like,
I'm gonna give it all away. I'm gonna start over.
And I really I was in isolation. Like, I
(07:52):
went into this tiny little village high in the
mountains in Germany. There was no street names. There
was nothing. There was no stores. There was there was nothing.
And I sat there, and it was really hard at the beginning. I
cried. I cried for me, like, on and off for six weeks. I was like,
what did I do? What did like, but I think it was more
(08:14):
withdrawal from the life that I knew, like, the
social stuff, you know, the fun I have, the
but that's still a bottom line. It was also temporary. You know?
Like, I knew it didn't fulfill me, but yet I remember when I got there,
the first thing I asked the person who rented the place to me, I
said, why is there a gym? And she's like, a gym.
(08:37):
And it was, like, way far away. And I actually drove there,
and I was like, what am I doing? I'm just
relocating myself geographically, but now I'm, like,
recreating the life that I had. Or went out and I bought a bottle of
whiskey, and then I came home and died. And I looked at that whiskey, and
I'm like, we're not doing this. We're not distracting
(08:57):
ourselves anymore. We're gonna sit with the pain,
and see what comes up from that. And that was yeah. It was
needed. It was so needed to let it I took the bottle of whiskey, I
put it down the drain. I didn't go work out like that anymore.
Like, I it just yeah. It it was needed to kinda get to
the bottom of it all and say, okay. You know what? Yeah. How'd you find
(09:19):
the house if it was up there in the hills with nobody around?
Like, how It was I found it online. Okay. No. It was funny
because I went to the next bigger town, and I said, I need a rental.
And they just started laughing at me. And they're like, who are you? Like
and they could tell by my accent. Even though I speak German fluently, but I
have like, after thirty some years, it has a little bit of an accent. So
(09:41):
they're like and they looked at my hair and my tattoos, and they're
like, no, lady. There's like somebody needs to
die before something becomes available, and then there's it's kinda the
locals waiting for a place. But somehow and
that's just, I think, like, in my life, like, things just work out,
and I found this little furnished part of an old
(10:03):
farmhouse in online. And I remember I took the
train and the bus to it, and I showed up, and I was
like, yeah, that's fine. It's whatever. And yeah. She's
like, okay. That's amazing. That's amazing.
Okay. Now I wanna I wanna go back to some we might come back to
this too because, you know, I'm fascinated by the whole story, and we've had
(10:25):
some of this conversation before. But, all right, you said in the
beginning, because some people might be wondering, because you you there's so
much in there that you kinda said it quickly. Yeah. You said that at one
point you were homeless. How much time between being
homeless and being in, you know, in that house
by yourself on the top of the hill and journey? Oh, that was
(10:47):
decades, months, weeks That was like thirty
some years. Okay. So that was a your journey had brought you.
So you had gone you learned success. And then when you got to the
point where the success sounds like it was felt excessive to
you, You were kind of I mean, there was you know, there's, like,
peaks and valleys and all of it, but, generally, it was up. But there
(11:09):
was times in between where I really hit rock
bottom where we had a massive house fire. We lost
everything. And that, like, it started over again, you
know, or I left the father of my children. I left
him, and I left him pretty much everything. And I said, just take care of
the kids financially, you know, but I don't want anything from you. And I started
(11:31):
over again. So there was, you know, peaks and valleys to
this and just the way life goes. You know? Like,
things happen. But I recently did a little exercise, and I did,
like, a timeline of my life. And I looked at all of the
different various events of my life from what I just mentioned
to cancer to a home invasion where I was brutally attacked,
(11:53):
and I suffered from PTSD for a while. Like, there were so many events,
and I listed them all to and then what? And
I realized I looked at this, and I connected the dots, and I was like,
wait a second. Because of what happened,
this came about. And it wasn't despite of it, but
it was because of that. So, like, the very beginning
(12:16):
with sitting on this park bench and being homeless and,
like, there was no question in my mind, I will gonna do
something. Okay. What am I gonna do? And I had ideas that
popped up, and the most tangible one was like, okay. I'm gonna
do that. There was no question in my mind that I was gonna do something
or that it was gonna work. Like, no. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna
(12:38):
do, and it's gonna be fine. You know? So there was always
every single major event in my life led to something
amazing. And so, you know, people often say to me, oh, whatever
you touch turns to gold. Well and and then they say, oh, you're
still lucky. It has nothing to do with luck. I believe that today
because as I really did the research on my own life and, you
(13:01):
know, what got me through and to understand how my brain works
and how I respond to disaster
or catastrophe is I realize is often
very different than how a lot of other people respond to it. You know?
Like, I might be down for a moment, and I might not be happy with
what's going on, but I'm really quick to be like, okay. So what are we
(13:23):
gonna do with this? Like, not the victim mode of,
oh my god. I just got beaten up and, like, attacked in my
own house. But, like, yeah, that sucks, and that really hurt.
But I am not gonna go down. Like, I've started to.
I had PTSD. I started drinking really heavily. I didn't know how to deal with
this. I've never experienced anything like it. You know? But then there came a point
(13:47):
where it's like, I'm not gonna let them win. No. What
am I gonna do about this? Yeah. And because of that, I
discovered working out, like, really seriously working out, and I
became a professional bodybuilder at 51. I was in the best shape
of my life, you know, and I turned my whole life around when it comes
to lifestyle and living healthy and, you know,
(14:08):
so yeah. It's really amazing to Yeah. Like, really take
a step back and see the full picture and say, wow.
Okay. So it sounds like you're saying part of your
ability to just be resilient after those major
events and the way you chose to bounce back
or act helped you move forward each time.
(14:30):
Now if you could say, if you feel comfortable saying, what circumstances
led to you being homeless? Because I think many people don't hear
from anyone who's been homeless in any way. Right? And so
just how does that happen or how did it happen for you? If you feel
like talking about that, you don't have to. Yeah. I mean, there was
circumstances in Germany that
(14:52):
I had to leave at 17, and I had
to really save myself. So I I
left. And it wasn't by choice. I was never a
rebel. In, you you know, really hard situations, I probably drank
too much, but I've never done drugs, anything like it. Like, it wasn't
anything. I didn't have, like, mental health issues that I, you
(15:14):
know, ran away or anything like that. It was nothing like that. It was really
like, you're you've got to take care of yourself. You've got to get away.
And so that's yeah. Led to that.
How long after that to your first business? So I
left at 17 and then I went to a high school there in Canada and
then I started to put myself through university
(15:35):
and so it was I want to say four years in
Canada when I started my first company. Yeah. That was a short amount of time.
Yeah. How did you come to start a company because you could have gotten a
job and I would No. Because I had no work permit
in Canada. Ah. So I I I could do little
at the beginning in university, I did a little TA jobs in
(15:57):
the German department. You know, like, I was allowed to do that.
And I I help people with their German homework and made some
money with that, but it wasn't enough. You know? I had a scholarship at the
beginning because I did really well in school. But then I was like,
okay. Now what? Like, where am I gonna go? What how is this gonna go
on? You know? And so for me, it was like, well, you gotta make lots
(16:18):
of money. Like, just make it yourself. And if you have a
company, then you're gonna get a permit, like, your
green card kind of thing. You know? And and that's what it was. So I
I started that, and then everything changed. You know,
I became, like, legally working and all of that.
So yeah. Alright. So you decided that you decided, well, I have to
(16:41):
I have to live and the way to live is to start my own
company. How did you decide what company you was what kind
of company you would start? Oh, that was easy because, you know, I had come
from Europe and I was in North America. And, like, every
time I had gone back to Germany to visit, people would
my friends in Germany would be like, oh my god. Can you bring me Levi's?
(17:02):
Can you bring me this? Can you bring me that? Can you bring me peanut
butter? And I was like, wow. Like, especially when it came to
Levi's, the pricing was so different. I
saw opportunity there where I was like, wow. The a pair of
Levi's retail in Canada is cheaper than wholesale
in Europe. That makes no sense. Like, I could buy
(17:24):
retail like crazy and just ship it over there and still
make a great profit. And that's what I started doing. Like, I
initially went from store to store to store, and then I started to make deals
with, Levi's retails and say, okay. Can you sell me a little
more? Like like, it comes in a fall. And,
so and then I I was looking for partners to help me
(17:46):
out. And I was very lucky always that I found people who
believed in me and were like, yeah. I'm gonna support you.
I'm gonna help you. And, like, the forwarding company, I
remember I had an appointment with them, and my goal was to,
like, get a little space at the airport in Toronto.
Back then, it was different. You know, like, that was a long time ago. So
(18:07):
the security wasn't like it was today. So they ended up giving me a
little space at the airport, like, right by where the airplanes
were to put all my merchandise to collect it and repackage
it. And then they would ship it for me and they would wait until I
would get paid so I could pay them. Like Oh, wow. I I was very
lucky that I always met the right kind of people
(18:29):
to, you know, like I said, to believe in me and support me a little
bit. And years later, I went back to the gentleman I
talked to back then. I said, oh my god. Like, why did you believe in
me? And he's like, you had a good idea, and you sounded like you knew
what you were doing. So he's like, it wasn't a big
risk. Yeah. Of course. So yeah. He believed your
(18:50):
belief in your company. He did. Yeah.
That's amazing. Okay, so that was your early company. Let's fast forward now to
the most recent one, before you took off to go to
Germany. Yes. What were you doing then? So that one came
about because we had a house fire
and, of a house we were building to sell. And
(19:12):
Oh. We had all of our money in there and,
like, all of it and other people's money. And just
when contracts went out, kids broke into it, had a party in
there, and by accident, put it on fire, and the whole thing burned down.
And so everything, all of our money, everything we
had was in there, and that was that. And then the insurance, they
(19:35):
allowed to take 365 days to get back to you. At three hundred sixty
four days, they got back to us and basically paid off nothing. It was
because there was a clause in there under which they were hiding and, you know,
insurances are not meant to pay really quickly, I found out.
And so that was that, and it was it was devastating.
And it was just when just it was happened in
(19:58):
02/2007, so a year before the bubble the whole real
estate bubble burst. And so we lost
that and then money on other properties, and we were
completely bankrupt. And we had lawsuits because of the fire, because it was
such a big fire and affected so many people. And it was
it was such a hard time. It was so, so difficult.
(20:20):
And my kids were really little. And for myself,
I started to create these little pendants that, like, every day I
could pick from a pendant that I had hand stamped and that, like, with
words that were really meaningful to me and reminded me of how blessed I was,
of how blessed I was that I had these beautiful children
and how blessed I was to be healthy. And so I
(20:43):
could count my blessings with these pendants and I I
wore them. And then people started to notice them. And I said, where did you
get this? And I said, oh, this is just I mean, I made that for
myself. And then people, like, in school, when my kids went to
school, they'd be like, can you make me something? I'm struggling with something. Can I
share with you? And you make me something. And I said, sure. And that's
(21:04):
how it became a a map. Like, it it was
just a beautiful passion project of mine that, you know, where I
realized, oh my god. I can't help other people with that. I can
make their burdens a little lighter by giving them something
to hold on to. And, it was beautiful. And I
created a workplace where women where family comes first, where they can
(21:26):
take care of their kids and yet have a job they're passionate about.
We created works, like, in our office areas for the kids where
they could come and, like, do homework or play groups.
And so it was a beautiful, beautiful passion.
But, again, see what happened. I mean, I went from, like,
bankruptcy losing everything to, wow.
(21:48):
I built this business because of the pain that I was
experiencing and whether to make money or
to be able to do a job where I would still be there for my
children to raise them. You know, like, it's just it was beautiful.
And I I know it had a huge impact on hundreds of thousands
of people who we created jewelry for and, and the people who
(22:10):
have worked with me over the years. And so, yeah, it was
the last That's amazing. Last one I had. Yeah. And it sounds like you had
a beautiful location. You are I mean, you went from just kind of making them
at home to going to the point where you had an
actual company with Oh, yes. Local location with people working
in it and their kids invited to join them. Yeah. At some point, I think
(22:32):
I had 10 women working for me and, they were all
moms and, you know, and they all had each other's back.
Like, all positions were double stacked. So if one had to stay home because
a kid was sick, the other one would take care of that load.
And it was really a beautiful group of people.
And, yeah, it was it was it was awesome. It's absolutely
(22:54):
amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, your story is, I mean,
it's inspirational to me, and I'm imagining it's
inspiring people who are listening right now. I mean, it's absolutely amazing. I
know I've said this to you before, and I'm not the only one, and And
I'll probably say it to you again at some point, at least three or four
times. This is amazing. And your heart your
(23:14):
heart and your your compassion and generosity
and just ability to say, I'm gonna I'm gonna make I'm gonna not stay
here. I'm gonna move forward. It's it's absolutely amazing. Alright.
So would you say in the midst of all this or let's say where you
are now, do you feel like you have purpose in your work? Oh my god.
Yeah. Oh my god. Like, I it's, I came
(23:35):
back off this mountain, and I was like, I'm gonna help people. I'm gonna share
everything I know. And it was funny because I came back, like,
South Of LA. I came back here, and I'm like, oh, wow.
This is not that easy. Like, there's so many coaches out
there. People are so jaded. You know? And
I had to I'm like, okay, I gotta find my way of
(23:56):
doing this. Alright. There's a whole new project. This isn't just
handing out, you know, free advice. This is like people
are like, they don't trust in, like, even free advice. You know? They're
like, woah. What do you want? What are you trying to sell me? And I'm
like, nothing, actually. Nothing. So that was
interesting too. And I initially, I was like, okay. I gotta take
(24:18):
I had never done social media. None of my businesses relied on social media
or advertising. It was all word-of-mouth, organic, me showing
up at events and sharing with people. So,
I was like, oh my god. Now I need to learn social media. And I
started all these different platforms. And I was like, I don't like this.
I don't wanna do this. This is so superficial. I don't wanna make stupid
(24:39):
videos. I wanna share, like, value and from my
heart and my soul. And, long story short, I
ended up wasting a lot of money on programs that did nothing for
me and that really only showed me that this
wasn't for me except one platform. And it was
LinkedIn. And I fell in love with LinkedIn.
(25:02):
Like, literally, I I discovered how much I
love to write. And, I it
was so in alignment with creating, like, heartfelt,
soulful, long form content through me to
share that. And it took me a little bit of time to open
myself up to that and really share from my heart
(25:25):
because I was always, like, under the impression that nobody cares.
Like, nobody cares. And it was funny. Like, even
when I I went to Germany and I visited my
parents, and my father said to me, he said, oh, I saw you on
LinkedIn. Like, what are you doing there? Like, nobody cares what you
think. Nobody cares what you have to say. You should get a real job. And
(25:46):
I was like, sure. Okay. So I had to
overcome that and, like, and I feel like I had
to lean in, like, with every article I I or post that I wrote, I
had to lean in a little bit more into being
more vulnerable, you know, like, opening myself up more,
sharing more from that place, like, this
(26:09):
personal place of how I felt about things and things
I've experienced and perspectives, you know, what they were
based on and so on. So and even to this day, I feel
like like every day there's just another
percentage when I'm like, okay, let's be courageous. Let's do
this. And, yeah, I I I tried different things,
(26:31):
and, initially, there wasn't really much that I got from that,
like, response wise. But I then I was very
lucky. I was very fortunate again. The right person came into my life as
somebody who had read my content. Oh my god. I love your content. I wanna
work with you. Can I support you? Can I help you? And I
hired her as my assistant, and she's
(26:53):
now really I consider her my partner in this because she can finish my
thoughts for me. We're on the same wavelength. It's just
beautiful. And it was something I said, if I whatever I'm
gonna do next, I'm not gonna do it alone, but I didn't know who I
was gonna find, you know, in this. And so,
she's amazing. She's absolutely wonderful, and we can bounce
(27:15):
ideas off each other. And we really in November, we
started. We, like, bit our teeth into LinkedIn and said, this is it. We're gonna
figure this out. Together, we're gonna figure this out. And so
now, like, three, four months later, you know, it's like, oh my
god. This is working. And the beauty of it is,
yeah, I get leads from it. Sure. Yes. But what's
(27:37):
even much more meaningful to me is
all the messages I get from people who were like, oh my god.
You have no idea how you impacted my life or you
have no idea what this meant to me. Like, to hear somebody
else share this or struggle the same way, or your
insight helped me. Like, the feedback I'm getting on a really
(27:59):
personal level is just so amazing. It's so
beautiful. It's like, oh my god. It's amazing.
It's just the best. And I know my choice to do
what I'm doing right now is is the right choice. I know I'm on the
right path. And you know, I'm very excited to
see where else it's gonna take me. And I have
(28:22):
little dreams and visions of what I want to do. But you
know, we'll see. That's wonderful. And so it
sounds like because we started this when you I asked, do you have purpose in
your work? And that's why you were sharing that. And it sounds like it's very
meaningful for you and it gives you a sense of purpose to share from your
experience in a way that touches the heart of others because you're
(28:43):
sharing from your own heart in a real way and helping others
to to make the changes that they wanna make. I think that's absolutely beautiful.
So now let me ask you to share some
you have such a wealth of wisdom from all the years that you've been
learning, living, learning, living, learning, living, learning, any from
your personal or professional life. What's some piece of
(29:05):
advice or encouragement you would say to
a woman listening? And I'll describe who I think is listening, at least for the
who the podcast is for. She's a high achieving woman, and by
that, I mean she's responsible doing lots of
things, good at lots of things. People in her personal
life come to her for advice, whether it's related to anything she knows or
(29:27):
not. People in her professional life come here, wanna ask you advice,
whether, you know, she knows anything about it. She's the one that people come
to or support, and she's happy to do it. And she
also is feeling like there must be more. You know,
I I have the success, but I'm not fulfilled. And so
I invite people like you to share your story and hoping that
(29:50):
it inspires others because there's lots of things we can learn from
other people's the journey that they go on. And so now,
specifically, what's some piece of advice she's saying? You know,
everything looks good on paper, checked all the boxes, but there's
something missing. What would you say to her? So I am
somebody who is willing to jump off a pier
(30:13):
or into the deep end. Right? And what that brings with
it is that I don't have all the answers.
Like, I don't know. When I left for Europe to find
the more for life, I didn't know where this was gonna take me. I
got rid of everything. I didn't know if I was ever gonna come back to
The US. A lot of people held that against me. I said, how can you
(30:35):
do that? What are you gonna do? And I said, I don't know. I just
know this one step I'm gonna take right now. I know I need to
disconnect from all the crazy, from all the distractions. If I
really wanna go deep and find out what is really next for
me, purposely, meaningfully, fulfillingly, like,
what's next? And so my biggest
(30:58):
advice is don't try to get all of the answers.
Like, do one tiny little step at a
time. Take inventory of, okay, what's
feeling good? What's feeling good for me physically and what's
not? Change that because I I really do believe
that our feelings are our superpower, our
(31:20):
the greatest power that we have. The feelings that are good and the feelings that
don't feel good because they show us what's not right. So
check-in. Check-in with yourself in three areas of your life. Put it
into buckets and say, okay. What feels good physically
and what doesn't? Maybe I need to take better care of myself.
Maybe as in, you know, like, get more rest,
(31:42):
get more exercise, move more, spend more time outside.
Check-in with yourself and see what needs tweaking. And then look
at your emotional and purpose part of your life.
What feels good? Do more of that. What's
not good? What's draining you? Start taking little steps,
and you don't have to be radical like I did. Like, you don't have to
(32:04):
get rid of everything and go sit on a mountain. You don't have to do
that. You can take tiny little steps that are really
obvious. I need to drink more water, Or
I really enjoy volunteering here.
Let me do more of that. But this thing over here that I'm
doing, I dread it. And don't do it. You're not the
(32:26):
one for the job. If it doesn't feel good, you don't. And, yes, there's
certain things in life we need to do, like but even there, we can
find the joy in it, like taking care of our families. Sure. It's draining
sometimes, but there there is a blessing in those things. I'm not
talking about those things. You know? And then the third bucket is
relationships. That's a big one. Because often I
(32:48):
feel like we're surrounding ourselves with people
maybe who we feel like we should surround ourselves because the
family or they've been in our lives for a long time, you know, and
we're like, oh, no. I can't let go of that. I have to go let
go of family. It's so hard. But you know
what? When it's not good and it's toxic and people bring you
(33:11):
down or weigh you down or try to keep you small, you gotta
let it go. At least put boundaries into place where you
don't expose yourself as much, where, you know, there's little
steps. Again, you don't need to be dramatic about it. Take little
steps. And so look at those three buckets. Take little steps
into the directions that feel good and take step backs in the ones
(33:33):
that don't feel good. And you will see that when you
take little steps the next one is going to present itself. Things are
going to magically fall into place or show up in your life where it's
like, oh, wow. So it's it doesn't need
big leaps, and it doesn't need all of the answers.
Don't wait for that. Take initiative. Take
(33:55):
inventory, and take action. I mean, we don't have
to say anymore after that. No, I guess. Okay, we're done.
That's right. That was a mic drop moment right there.
All right. So I'm imagining now that whoever's listening, they're inspired. They
want like, well, I wanna hear more. How can I find about these LinkedIn posts
or all the things that you're doing? Where can people be in touch with you?
(34:17):
So I have a website, which is the
powerlifecoach.com. And at this point, like, I I
registered this website a long time ago. If I could do it over again, I
wouldn't put coach on there because it's not really about that. It's
about really, at this point, just, like, giving,
sharing, doing what we're doing, having conversations,
(34:38):
having any impact. So I encourage
anybody who's listening who wants to know more, reach out, have a conversation,
send me a message. You will make my day. You don't have to sign up
with me as a coach. You know, just let's do what we
all craving, which is build human connection
and share our stories with each other because somebody out there
(35:00):
who might need my perspective on something
will have something that they can give me in return, a perspective,
or if it's just the joy of communicating with them.
So thepowerlifecoach.com. And then I'm on
LinkedIn under my name Sabine Schoepke
as it's on your podcast. And Ok. So spell your name for
(35:23):
the people who are listening in the car or outside. It's
so it's Sabine, s a b I n e.
And then my last name is s c h o e,
p as in Peter, k e. And they can find you on LinkedIn
there. Anna Yeah. On LinkedIn.
Thepowerlifecoach.com. Thepowerlifecoach
(35:44):
Com. Sabine, this has been just as I thought it would be.
Absolutely wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for
sharing your heart. Your heart is very clear. We
feel it. I feel it. I'm sure others feel it. And your
generosity of wanting to give back after your your hard won
experience, hard won experience and success and now
(36:07):
purpose. So thank you for being here and sharing with us. Thank you. I appreciate
it. Thank you so much, Robin. Okay. Everyone, I'd
love to hear your response to this conversation,
and you can find me at LinkedIn. That's where I spend most of my time
on social media. I'm on all the channels, but mostly LinkedIn, at
Robin L. Owens PhD, at Robin L. Owens PhD.
(36:28):
Just send me a DM and just let me hear from you. I'd love
to, to hear your thoughts about this. And until
next time, this is Dr. Robin.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Leadership Purpose
with Dr. Robin podcast. If you enjoyed it, head on
over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an
(36:50):
episode. New episodes drop every week, and
I can't wait to hang out with you again soon.
Meanwhile, this is Dr. Robin
signing off. See you next time.
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