May 28, 2025 • 28 mins
🎙️ Episode Title: A Bold Decision from the Heart with Michelle Walters
🎙️ Episode Summary:
In this episode of the Bold and Brilliant Podcast, host Tracie Root sits down with Michelle Walters, marketing coach, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and author, for a conversation about following intuition, creating momentum, and boldly shifting careers. Michelle shares how a single moment of inspiration—a novel!—led her from a 20+ year career in digital marketing to launching her hypnotherapy practice and stepping fully into her calling.
From science to strategy, and from mindset to marketing, Michelle brings a unique blend of curiosity, leadership, and grounded spirituality. Her story will inspire any listener who's ever considered making a bold pivot—especially in uncertain times.
✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
🔹 How a novel sparked Michelle’s life-changing career pivot – And how she turned that inspiration into real-world action.
🔹 The powerful intersection of decision-making, marketing, and mindset – Drawing from her experience in business consulting and creativity.
🔹 Why conscious leadership and intention are key to success – And how Michelle integrates these principles into her new book and her coaching practice.
🌟 Memorable Quote:
"I’m more about what works than getting hung up on the how." – Michelle Walters
đź“š About Michelle Walters:
Michelle Walters is a marketing coach, clinical hypnotherapist, speaker, and author who helps her clients align their mindset, message, and momentum. A former decision consultant and longtime digital marketer, she now leads transformational work at the intersection of conscious leadership and subconscious change. Her latest book, The ABCs of Conscious Leadership, blends real-world leadership tools with insight and intention.
She was named Best Professional Business Coach of 2024 by Oakland Magazine.
đź“Ť Connect with Michelle:
- Website: michellewalters.net
- Books: Alignment of Spirit and The ABCs of Conscious Leadership
- Upcoming Program: Magnetic Marketing Collective launching June 2025
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Your host,
Tracie Root
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tracie (00:00):
you ready to take bold action and live a life of
brilliance?
Welcome to the Bold andBrilliant Podcast, where women
leaders share inspiring storiesabout daring decisions that
shape their businesses, theirlives, and their careers.
Today I'm with the fabulous andamazing Michelle Walters and
(00:25):
Imagination advocate.
Michelle Walters writes andspeaks on themes associated with
the power of mind leadership.
Positivity and the law ofattraction.
Michelle is a marketing coach,clinical hypnotherapist,
speaker, and author.
Michelle helps her clients withmindset, message, and momentum.
(00:50):
She is the winner of OaklandMagazine's, best of Oakland,
best professional business coachof the year 2024, and author of
two books.
Alignment of spirit, findingwork you love, and most
recently, the ABCs of consciousleadership.
(01:11):
As we talk, you'll hear Michelleshare her journey of
entrepreneurship, including onebold decision that has created
her path of what was next.
Her story of resilience, risktaking and transformation will
inspire, encourage, and supportyour personal and professional
growth.
(01:32):
Please join me in welcomingMichelle to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
Michelle, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited that you're here.
Michelle (01:46):
Thank you for having me, Tracie.
​I'm delighted to be on yourshow.
Yay.
Okay.
I am thrilled to kick off thisconversation because we have
been connected in community forseveral years now.
We've traveled together.
(02:07):
We were just able to do thatrecently and spend some real
time together as people, as wellas talking about business.
And while I know that that'strue for me, I know it's not
true for everyone who's gonna belistening all the.
Throngs of people who arelistening to this episode.
So let's start off, before weget into the, what's the bold
decision that changed everythingfor you.
(02:28):
Before we get into that, let'stalk about what you do, who you
serve, and maybe a little bitabout your journey to get here.
Sure.
So I take it so I am in my midfifties.
I have loved my time on thisplanet and I'm looking forward
to a lot more time to come.
I have always been somebodywho's, who's multi-talented and.
(02:51):
Extra curious, super, supercurious kind of person.
I started off in your neck ofthe woods at uc, Santa Cruz
where I was a biology major ofall things.
And I think part of the reasonwhy was when you're a bio major,
you get to do a little bit ofeverything.
You do a little bio, you do alittle chem, you do a little
math, you do a little arts, youdo a little science, some of
everything.
(03:12):
Then from there I somehowmanaged to find my way into
working in decision consultingand got an MBA talk about what
that is.
Yeah, so I consulting, is thatwhat you said?
Decision consulting.
I worked for a company in PaloAlto in the early nineties
before I got my MBA calledStrategic Decisions group.
(03:33):
And we helped people make, wehelped companies make huge
decisions like multimilliondollar decisions.
If you are the electric company,do you wanna be focused on
generation, transmission, ordistribution?
I.
Big stuff.
Okay.
But it was fascinating and whatI loved about it was that we had
a process and we thought a lotabout how people make decisions
(03:55):
and how to make qualitydecisions, how to get the right
information, how to trade offthe values.
Like I thought all this wasfascinating.
It was so fascinating.
I decided to go to businessschool.
And in business school I learneda lot about marketing and
mindset and creativity andpersuasion, and all of these
were really important things forme.
(04:15):
I realized I was a really prettycreative person, but I also
liked metrics and business andkind of being able to figure
things out.
So a little bit of a left brain,right brain person even then.
I wound up working in digitalmarketing for over 20 years, and
what I loved about that was thatI could blend this, what's a
(04:36):
good business decision withwhat, something creative and
persuasive that will make peoplelove my brand or make people ask
more questions or use my couponor try it out or whatever it is
we were, we were working on.
So I did that for years andyears and years.
And loved it, but I was, it waskind of like, get a job, lose a
job, get a job, lose a job,because all those creative
(04:57):
agency jobs, that's that's parfor the course.
It seemed to work out for methough, for the most part.
And yeah, so I've been a studentof life and the way people think
for a very, very long time.
Passionate about it.
So interesting.
I, so I've heard, I the, this isthe first time I've heard you
(05:18):
mention the decision makingconsultancy, which I find a
really fascinating piece of thepuzzle that I hadn't heard about
before.
To go from right, biology, likeyou said, you, you, you're,
you're studying life, whichincludes everything.
Like you said, chemistry andphysiology and all those
(05:38):
different things, and then youwent from all of the things to
maybe what makes people's brainstick and how to help them make
decisions and then you go tohelping people make decisions
about buying stuff basically.
Yes.
So and, and I'll share that I,as a young person and a creative
(05:58):
thinker as well, always thoughtI was gonna go into advertising.
Do you remember watching 30something when we were young?
Did you watch that?
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah.
It was Mad Men.
It exactly.
It was Prem Mad Men.
But it's the same idea in thatit's, we were in our twenties
and it's like the 30 somethingshave it figured out in there and
advertising and isn't that cool?
(06:20):
And all similar to Mad Men,although whole different story.
But I love that because it just.
I can see the evolution of allof the things that you were so
curious about and it's now I'mcurious about this other piece
of the human condition decisionmaking, whatever thought
(06:41):
process.
And then business school, whichof course, like you said, the
metrics and all of those detailsabout why they, after they made
those decisions, then whathappened?
It's fascinating.
Okay.
I love all of this and I knowthat coming into the deci
digital marketing story thatwe're coming up on this bold
decision that you alluded towhen you said the digital
(07:07):
marketing.
Like you come and go, differentjobs, creative agency, so
something was about to happenthat changed everything for you.
So tell us about this boldchange that happened in your
life.
So I was literally inspired fora career change from reading a
novel.
I read a novel by one of myfavorite authors called the
(07:30):
Hypnotist Love story, and Irealized, love a love story,
don't you my friend?
It doesn't, yeah.
It was, it's a, it's a funnybook set in Australia about a, a
female hypnotherapist who has alove story and all these other
crazy characters and things shedoes in, in her life, right?
Anyway I read this book and Ithought, this lady has the
coolest job.
(07:51):
I wanna do that.
So I, I've Googled it and Ifound a school to go to, and I
went on the weekends and I, Itrained and got a certificate in
hypnotherapy.
I didn't really expect that'swhat I was gonna do, but I did.
And then the pandemic hit.
Hmm.
Oh, so this was, I keep feelinglike you've been a
(08:12):
hypnotherapist for a long, longtime, but literally six years.
At this point?
Yeah, about five actually.
Yeah.
Wow.
So I started my training, Istarted my training for, I had
completed my cate like one levelof hypnotherapy training prior
to the pandemic, and thencompleted another level actually
at the, be early in thepandemic.
(08:32):
Gotcha, gotcha.
But I, I had trained, but I hadnever really.
I anticipated that I would gothat direction.
It was just a fascinatingsideline to have and made for
really interesting conversation.
You meet all kinds ofinteresting people when you tell
them you're a hypnotherapist.
Yeah.
Anyway, so I I, my lifecratered, I guess is a good
word.
Mm-hmm.
(08:52):
During the pandemic, like a lotof people's, but I, I had sold a
house and my, my, the love of mylife second love of my life, but
the second love of my lifepassed away during the pandemic.
And we were, my son and I wereliving with my mom and then my
job ended and everybodyremembers how crazy that time
(09:14):
was.
I was like if I'm ever gonnaswitch jobs, this is the time to
do it.
And so I did something.
I'd never done anything likebefore.
I found a little office and gota logo and a shingle as they
say.
And.
And hung my shingle and, andstarted working in doing, doing
(09:38):
hypnotherapy for people.
And I never would've seen myselfdoing that before.
It was really a bold move thatnot.
Not a lot of other people do.
Not a lot of people go tobusiness school and then decide
to become a hypnotherapist.
Yeah.
I had to explain that to afellow I met this week.
(09:59):
He's what?
And I'm like, Hey, it works.
And I'm really more about whatworks than getting hung up on,
on the how.
Yeah.
And on the labels and all ofthose things.
Oh, at the end of the day, my,my work in hypnosis works most
of the time for most people.
It's amazing.
Without any, without any drugs,without any negative
(10:19):
repercussions.
It's, it's, I'm not gonna sayit's a cure all for everyone,
but.
It works for a lot of things,and I love being able to help
people like that.
It's a very different feeling toput a smile on somebody's face
or to wipe off the tears and seethem in a much better space
than, to say, Hey, we rocked thecampaign for Clorox.
(10:42):
It, it's a, it's a differentfeeling.
Yeah.
They're both good.
But this one is very personaland, and, and that feels.
It feels good at this moment inmy life.
Yeah, I bet.
I it's, it is so interesting.
So I loved the kind of thejuxtaposition of.
Helping someone not only withthe problem, they're struggling,
(11:03):
but to feel good about how itwas solved versus, maybe the
more stoic business strategytype of thing.
And, and what I know is thatoften, because this is the
circle that you and I share, isthat often we're talking about
business issues or personalthings that are holding us back
from business issues.
(11:24):
And so I love my favorite thingabout.
All of that story for you is howyou can combine them all and
combine, your curiosity, yourlove of understanding the, the
like track trackableimplications and the personal
human component that, came fromnot only the hypnotherapy, but
(11:49):
also even the digital marketingpart, the marketing part of
convi, of helping people makedecisions.
Yeah, it's such a, it's such agreat blend and that's really
helped you had so much successtoo.
Like I really am justunderstanding you outside of
clear strictly hypnosis, right?
I've attended your courses,which were more personal based,
(12:11):
but now I'm understand, and, andwe can see here for those of us
who are watching on YouTube,your book in the Corner about
the ABCs of conscious leadershipand that.
Really feels also, and I wantyou to talk about it, like that
blend that you're talking about,the mind and that those
conscious and unconscious andsubconscious things, but also
(12:33):
that history of your Maxwelltraining and leadership and all
of the different things.
So talk about, talk about yourbook, which is not, I mean I
didn't tell you we were gonnatalk about your book, but talk
about your book and like whythis book, like why this?
Combination.
And what does it bring forpeople?
Because I do think it like wrapseverything that you do together.
(12:55):
Yeah.
So my new book, my new book, theone out this year is called The
ABCs of Conscious Leadership.
And I know you have another onebefore and I have another one.
And they, they, they're verydifferent books.
But in some ways.
They both, I think, hearkened ita lot of the same principles, a
lot of the same way I view theworld.
My first book, not ConsciousLeadership, but my first book is
(13:17):
called An Alignment of Spirit,finding Work You Love and it is
really a law of attraction book.
About getting a job, whichsounds really bizarre, but maybe
again, that's just me beingbold.
But putting together two ideasthat people don't usually think
about, which is really thefunctional, like, how do I, how
do I find great work?
(13:37):
But it's really more aboutmanifesting.
I.
It's focused on manifesting.
And and a lot of people thinkthat's super woo, but like the
way I talk about it in my bookis not super woo.
It's really look, there's allthis science that supports this.
Yeah.
And if you think, I, I lovescience.
I.
I, I think science just hasn'tcaught up to explain what is
woo, that'll, that'll happeneventually.
(14:00):
The but that book really, Ithink, appeals to people who are
trying to look at things fromtheir subconscious and what's
going on in their subconsciousor they drawing the things to
them that they want to draw.
And if they don't know, read thebook because it'll tell you how
to get what you want.
The second book, the one Ilaunched this year, the one here
on my screen, the ABCs ofConscious Leadership is not so
(14:22):
much written for somebody who isplaying in the land of their
subconscious, but somebody whowants to play in the land of
their conscious mind and focuson what are the things that they
can do to emphasize theirauthentic leadership traits.
And I feel I love this world.
(14:43):
I feel like it could be better.
And the only way it's gonna getbetter is if we all put out our
best foot to be the very bestleaders that we can be.
Leaders in our businesses,leaders in our communities,
leaders in our in ourgovernment, leaders in our
churches.
What leaders?
Wherever.
Yes.
And so the ABCs of consciousleadership is really.
(15:07):
A reminder for people and a wayto help focus on what are the
things that you can do to bemore clear and conscious and
directed about your leadershiptalents and gifts.
Yes, because I believe that aswe build and strengthen those,
we are going to, we are gonnahelp get ourselves from where we
(15:28):
are now, to a better placewhere, where we can be.
Is that, is that so clear?
Hundred percent.
And the word that keeps hummingin my mind is with intention.
Yes.
Like you, you're doing, and thisis what I talk about all the
time with, and I, when I talkabout bold leadership, it's the
same thing, right?
What decisions are you makingthat with intention are leading
(15:51):
you where you want to go,regardless of whether or not
you.
Have seen anyone do it before,like you just know it's the
right thing for you based on whoyou are and what you want and
where you wanna go.
And it, so it's the same kind ofidea that intentional personal
self-leadership toward yourfuture.
(16:12):
Yep.
Yeah.
It's, it's awesome.
You and me, we got this super,super powerful.
Yeah.
It's, and, and it, it.
It provides the fuel and theenergy for people to get where
they're trying to go.
I think I, I think, I think alittle of it is being a woman,
not that's, I'm not trying tosay that's the only piece of it,
(16:33):
but I think to some degree I.
You have, that would be reallyhard to be Michelle.
Yeah.
We tend to be more tied into ourintuition and our feelings about
what that looks like.
Where I could say my husband andwe talk a lot about his work
because it's I can't evenimagine living in his little
(16:54):
work life.
It's insane to me.
But the idea of, of.
Getting to make decisions.
And part of this is being anentrepreneur too, I think.
We get to make decisions thatare, because we know what we
want, we can decide how we wantto attempt to get there.
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of times the, the guysare sticking with the, this is
(17:19):
what I'm supposed to do thing.
Yeah.
And I think we have, havestarted and are more likely to
break away from this is what I'msupposed gonna take off that
coat.
I'm gonna take off the coat ofwhat I'm supposed to, you should
decide to do something orshould, and I'm gonna look at
this differently.
I, I remember when I was a kid,my, my parents took me on a trip
(17:41):
to Washington, DC and my, thet-shirt that I, I chose, that I
wanted to wear from.
From Washington, DC says, everywoman has a place in the house
and the Senate.
That was, that was what Ithought was the right thing to
win.
How old were you?
How old were you at that point?
I was probably 11 or 13.
Awesome.
Yeah.
That junior high.
(18:02):
Yeah.
Middle school.
I was that junior high age.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They still do Washington, DC atabout eighth grade in the
schools, so it's right aroundthen.
Yeah.
It's when we started torecognize that we have thoughts
of our own that we want toaffect the world with.
When we're eight and we're inelementary school and we're
(18:25):
still like just surviving theplayground.
And then you get into middleschool when, when you start
learning about things more, inelementary school you're
learning science, but you don'treally know what's science.
You just like, oh, look whathappens when you mix these
colors.
But that's science too.
You get further along and we getto start to recognize our own
(18:46):
strength and power of thoughtand intuition and belief in
ourselves.
And there's just a huge amountof.
Of, of energy, of force behindcreating an intention and then
setting up the game plan to, tohave the milestones to get
there.
Yep.
And I don't mean to say thatthat's easy.
(19:06):
It is not easy.
But it is doable.
Yeah.
It takes, it takes focus, ittakes direction, it takes
consistency, and it takes a lotof self-power.
Yeah.
And that is one of the thingsthat I like to bring to my
collaborators, my clients, ishow to build that self-power.
Yeah.
And the don't forget, it'sself-power and it's also the, a
(19:31):
little bit of accountability,self-accountability and support,
right?
Because you're talking aboutthis, and now we go into the
coaching brain where these arethe things you need to have
success.
You need to know what you want.
You need to make a plan to getthere.
And I teach it.
And you teach it, and we allteach, those kinds of things.
But it just shows how the, it'snot because.
(19:54):
That's just, what we were taughtto be a coach.
That's because that's the wayhumans work.
And, and going from an idea to aprocess to having that idea
realized is something thateveryone can relate to.
And then when you have someonelike yourself who can actually
(20:14):
distill it into the facts thatcame before, like sometimes we
just go through and we're thereand we don't even know the steps
that we took along the way.
But you can help to like.
Show them that these are all thethings that they did and they
can do it.
It's important.
It's important.
And whether I'm doing work withsort of a business person or a
collaborator or a client, oftena huge part of what I I need to
(20:39):
do is, is show people theevidence.
Yeah.
That they have the experience todo what it is they're setting
out to do.
Yep.
I, I I taught a class last nightand my class that I teach a, a
few times a year, your OS waslast night?
Os was last night.
(21:00):
Awesome.
Stop overeating sugar.
And that's an interesting classbecause I use the decision
framework for the first half ofthe class, and then I use
hypnosis for the second half ofthe class.
Yeah.
The hypnosis part, part of whatI have people doing is
remembering how they've.
They've, they've done thingsbefore.
They can do this, do it again,yep.
And, and and that is a powerfulmessage and especially powerful
(21:23):
when people are, are relaxed andin a state of hypnosis.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
And I, I've attended that classand others of yours, and I,
that's exactly what I get fromit, that the, the power of
hypnosis in my experience fromyou, I, I may have.
Had a hypnosis experience withone other person in the past
(21:45):
before that, but several timeswith you is a such a profound
sense of relaxation.
It's like meditation times 20and which is so wonderful and
yeah, but it's, there's aconsciousness to it.
Even though you're reaching thesubconscious, there's a
consciousness to it that helpsyou recognize that, oh yeah, I
(22:06):
have actually had this thoughtbefore and I can have this
thought and this experience andthis success again so
meaningful.
I love it.
I, I love what I do, what I by,by being an entrepreneur, by
being, by doing what I wanna do.
I get to do things in thecombinations Yeah.
That I think are gonna beeffective and help people.
(22:26):
Yeah.
And it's a, it's an absolute joyto get to do the kind of work I
do.
It's beautiful.
What do you see as if you'rewilling to share, do you have
little other potential bolddecisions ruminating that
you're.
Thinking or like on the verge ofI'm launching something new.
I'm launching a marketing groupcoming up in a month or two.
(22:51):
So that's my next bold ish.
So what's that gonna look like?
Tell us a little bit about it.
It's gonna look, it's gonna, I'mcalling it the Magnetic
Marketing Collective.
Oh, I like that.
Magnetic, magnetic.
Magnetic Marketing Collective,and it's gonna be a group that
I'm leading.
We're gonna meet three times amonth and I'm gonna teach people
a little bit about their digitalmarketing.
(23:12):
I'm gonna ask people somequestions, and then we're gonna
have a little bit ofaccountability and working time
to get marketing done becauseI've, I've realized that as I
meet many different smallbusinesses and solopreneurs.
A lot of people don't know thebasics, and while I don't know
all the details abouteverything, that would be
impossible.
I know a lot of the basics and Ican help people make some good
(23:34):
decisions about where to puttheir initial energy and
intention after.
Yeah.
And I, I also have realized thatwhile I've met a few people who
are maybe as well versed as meor, or better, versed than me,
at least in certain aspects oftheir marketing chain.
They got no accountability.
(23:54):
They ain't getting this stuffdone.
And so I think by having, by byleaning into the value that you
bring to your community, I cancreate a little community that
is gonna focus on thisparticular aspect of things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So community is a very, verypowerful thing and I think that
what you've done with Gather isamazing.
Thank you.
(24:14):
And it is.
It is wonderful to see such athriving, vibrant, rich.
I mean there's like somethingfor gather almost every day.
It's, it's pretty amazing.
You do a lot.
Thank you.
It, it is, it is a lot.
And it's it because.
(24:34):
I just keep coming up with morestuff to give people because I
think that they're gonna, findit useful.
And what I was thinking when yousaid your magnetic marketing,
collect collective.
Collective, yes.
Collective.
I love collective.
And I was thinking if you end uphaving like a social thing or an
in-person thing, you can call itthe magnetic marketing mixer.
(24:56):
Because, we love a goodalliteration around here.
Absolutely.
I'm very into, I'm very intothat, but I, I chose the word
collective.
Yeah.
Because I want to convey, I'mgonna be the leader of this
little group, but but we'regonna share back and forth
because it's.
(25:16):
Digital marketing was one thingwhen I started in 1997.
It's a little more complicatednow.
Yeah.
And by working together a groupcan accomplish so much more,
that from gather.
Yeah.
And you know what I, what I feelwhen I hear the word collective
is really that everyone else isdifferent from each other.
It's a, it's, it reminds me ofthose stores, like the antique
(25:39):
stores that are really like,everyone has a nook.
And they all bring their ownstuff, right?
Yeah.
That's a, to me, that's a verygood definition of a collective.
Like we collected these people.
Yeah.
And they came from everywhereand brought them together to
offer or whatever.
So I see that for yourcollective as all different
businesses, all differentexperiences, and that's what's
(26:02):
good about it.
Like you said, you can.
Lead them, guide them to a topicor to, having an accountability
session or whatever.
But each one of them is gonnabring something different to the
party and every single one hasmassive value.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Sounds great.
Sounds great.
That's my next, that's my next,that's my next move.
(26:24):
That's the boldest thing I'mdoing, I think for 2025.
I love it.
I love it.
And we're recording this in May.
When is that gonna start?
Like when can we put this on ourradar?
It will be available in June,2025.
Okay.
So yeah, so just not very longfrom where we're not very long
from now.
Okay.
That's exciting.
(26:44):
I can't wait to support you ingetting the word out about that
and all of the things that youdo.
I know you, you're a VIP here inour community.
I know that you've been talkingabout the things that you've
been doing, but for those peoplewho haven't met you.
I just wanna say that I really,really enjoy how you show up and
coming to your things, and we'lldo whatever I can to continue to
(27:06):
support you going forward.
Me too.
Tracie.
Let's go see more farmers and onmore cruises.
Yes.
More cruises, more fun, moreeverything.
We love it.
More bold decisions too.
Know more bold decisions andhelping people make them.
Yes.
Yes.
And helping people make them.
Okay.
I love it.
Let's, I think it's time for usto, to.
(27:27):
Quiet ourselves down andfinalize everything.
Do you have give us like a finalMichelle message to listeners,
like they listen to this wholeepisode, they've come here to
the end.
What do you want them to know asthey leave this episode?
That what I love to help peoplewith is their mindset, their
(27:48):
message.
Their momentum and whether thatis something that feels personal
or professional for yoursolopreneur or small business, I
would love to be in touch, havea chat and see if there's a way
for us to work together.
Fantastic, fantastic mindset,message and momentum.
(28:08):
You got it.
Beautiful.
Thank you again, Michelle, forbeing here.
I'm so thrilled.
Yay.
Alright.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Thank you for listening to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
I'm your host, Tracie Root, andI wanna invite you to check out
the show notes, find out whereyou can connect with our guests,
find out more about what I andthe Gather community have to
offer you, and be sure tosubscribe to this podcast on
your favorite platform.
Thanks so much.
you ready to take bold action and live a life of
brilliance?
Welcome to the Bold andBrilliant Podcast, where women
leaders share inspiring storiesabout daring decisions that
shape their businesses, theirlives, and their careers.
Today I'm with the fabulous andamazing Michelle Walters and
(00:25):
Imagination advocate.
Michelle Walters writes andspeaks on themes associated with
the power of mind leadership.
Positivity and the law ofattraction.
Michelle is a marketing coach,clinical hypnotherapist,
speaker, and author.
Michelle helps her clients withmindset, message, and momentum.
(00:50):
She is the winner of OaklandMagazine's, best of Oakland,
best professional business coachof the year 2024, and author of
two books.
Alignment of spirit, findingwork you love, and most
recently, the ABCs of consciousleadership.
(01:11):
As we talk, you'll hear Michelleshare her journey of
entrepreneurship, including onebold decision that has created
her path of what was next.
Her story of resilience, risktaking and transformation will
inspire, encourage, and supportyour personal and professional
growth.
(01:32):
Please join me in welcomingMichelle to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
Michelle, welcome to thepodcast.
I'm so excited that you're here.
Michelle (01:46):
Thank you for having me, Tracie.
​I'm delighted to be on yourshow.
Yay.
Okay.
I am thrilled to kick off thisconversation because we have
been connected in community forseveral years now.
We've traveled together.
(02:07):
We were just able to do thatrecently and spend some real
time together as people, as wellas talking about business.
And while I know that that'strue for me, I know it's not
true for everyone who's gonna belistening all the.
Throngs of people who arelistening to this episode.
So let's start off, before weget into the, what's the bold
decision that changed everythingfor you.
(02:28):
Before we get into that, let'stalk about what you do, who you
serve, and maybe a little bitabout your journey to get here.
Sure.
So I take it so I am in my midfifties.
I have loved my time on thisplanet and I'm looking forward
to a lot more time to come.
I have always been somebodywho's, who's multi-talented and.
(02:51):
Extra curious, super, supercurious kind of person.
I started off in your neck ofthe woods at uc, Santa Cruz
where I was a biology major ofall things.
And I think part of the reasonwhy was when you're a bio major,
you get to do a little bit ofeverything.
You do a little bio, you do alittle chem, you do a little
math, you do a little arts, youdo a little science, some of
everything.
(03:12):
Then from there I somehowmanaged to find my way into
working in decision consultingand got an MBA talk about what
that is.
Yeah, so I consulting, is thatwhat you said?
Decision consulting.
I worked for a company in PaloAlto in the early nineties
before I got my MBA calledStrategic Decisions group.
(03:33):
And we helped people make, wehelped companies make huge
decisions like multimilliondollar decisions.
If you are the electric company,do you wanna be focused on
generation, transmission, ordistribution?
I.
Big stuff.
Okay.
But it was fascinating and whatI loved about it was that we had
a process and we thought a lotabout how people make decisions
(03:55):
and how to make qualitydecisions, how to get the right
information, how to trade offthe values.
Like I thought all this wasfascinating.
It was so fascinating.
I decided to go to businessschool.
And in business school I learneda lot about marketing and
mindset and creativity andpersuasion, and all of these
were really important things forme.
(04:15):
I realized I was a really prettycreative person, but I also
liked metrics and business andkind of being able to figure
things out.
So a little bit of a left brain,right brain person even then.
I wound up working in digitalmarketing for over 20 years, and
what I loved about that was thatI could blend this, what's a
(04:36):
good business decision withwhat, something creative and
persuasive that will make peoplelove my brand or make people ask
more questions or use my couponor try it out or whatever it is
we were, we were working on.
So I did that for years andyears and years.
And loved it, but I was, it waskind of like, get a job, lose a
job, get a job, lose a job,because all those creative
(04:57):
agency jobs, that's that's parfor the course.
It seemed to work out for methough, for the most part.
And yeah, so I've been a studentof life and the way people think
for a very, very long time.
Passionate about it.
So interesting.
I, so I've heard, I the, this isthe first time I've heard you
(05:18):
mention the decision makingconsultancy, which I find a
really fascinating piece of thepuzzle that I hadn't heard about
before.
To go from right, biology, likeyou said, you, you, you're,
you're studying life, whichincludes everything.
Like you said, chemistry andphysiology and all those
(05:38):
different things, and then youwent from all of the things to
maybe what makes people's brainstick and how to help them make
decisions and then you go tohelping people make decisions
about buying stuff basically.
Yes.
So and, and I'll share that I,as a young person and a creative
(05:58):
thinker as well, always thoughtI was gonna go into advertising.
Do you remember watching 30something when we were young?
Did you watch that?
Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah.
It was Mad Men.
It exactly.
It was Prem Mad Men.
But it's the same idea in thatit's, we were in our twenties
and it's like the 30 somethingshave it figured out in there and
advertising and isn't that cool?
(06:20):
And all similar to Mad Men,although whole different story.
But I love that because it just.
I can see the evolution of allof the things that you were so
curious about and it's now I'mcurious about this other piece
of the human condition decisionmaking, whatever thought
(06:41):
process.
And then business school, whichof course, like you said, the
metrics and all of those detailsabout why they, after they made
those decisions, then whathappened?
It's fascinating.
Okay.
I love all of this and I knowthat coming into the deci
digital marketing story thatwe're coming up on this bold
decision that you alluded towhen you said the digital
(07:07):
marketing.
Like you come and go, differentjobs, creative agency, so
something was about to happenthat changed everything for you.
So tell us about this boldchange that happened in your
life.
So I was literally inspired fora career change from reading a
novel.
I read a novel by one of myfavorite authors called the
(07:30):
Hypnotist Love story, and Irealized, love a love story,
don't you my friend?
It doesn't, yeah.
It was, it's a, it's a funnybook set in Australia about a, a
female hypnotherapist who has alove story and all these other
crazy characters and things shedoes in, in her life, right?
Anyway I read this book and Ithought, this lady has the
coolest job.
(07:51):
I wanna do that.
So I, I've Googled it and Ifound a school to go to, and I
went on the weekends and I, Itrained and got a certificate in
hypnotherapy.
I didn't really expect that'swhat I was gonna do, but I did.
And then the pandemic hit.
Hmm.
Oh, so this was, I keep feelinglike you've been a
(08:12):
hypnotherapist for a long, longtime, but literally six years.
At this point?
Yeah, about five actually.
Yeah.
Wow.
So I started my training, Istarted my training for, I had
completed my cate like one levelof hypnotherapy training prior
to the pandemic, and thencompleted another level actually
at the, be early in thepandemic.
(08:32):
Gotcha, gotcha.
But I, I had trained, but I hadnever really.
I anticipated that I would gothat direction.
It was just a fascinatingsideline to have and made for
really interesting conversation.
You meet all kinds ofinteresting people when you tell
them you're a hypnotherapist.
Yeah.
Anyway, so I I, my lifecratered, I guess is a good
word.
Mm-hmm.
(08:52):
During the pandemic, like a lotof people's, but I, I had sold a
house and my, my, the love of mylife second love of my life, but
the second love of my lifepassed away during the pandemic.
And we were, my son and I wereliving with my mom and then my
job ended and everybodyremembers how crazy that time
(09:14):
was.
I was like if I'm ever gonnaswitch jobs, this is the time to
do it.
And so I did something.
I'd never done anything likebefore.
I found a little office and gota logo and a shingle as they
say.
And.
And hung my shingle and, andstarted working in doing, doing
(09:38):
hypnotherapy for people.
And I never would've seen myselfdoing that before.
It was really a bold move thatnot.
Not a lot of other people do.
Not a lot of people go tobusiness school and then decide
to become a hypnotherapist.
Yeah.
I had to explain that to afellow I met this week.
(09:59):
He's what?
And I'm like, Hey, it works.
And I'm really more about whatworks than getting hung up on,
on the how.
Yeah.
And on the labels and all ofthose things.
Oh, at the end of the day, my,my work in hypnosis works most
of the time for most people.
It's amazing.
Without any, without any drugs,without any negative
(10:19):
repercussions.
It's, it's, I'm not gonna sayit's a cure all for everyone,
but.
It works for a lot of things,and I love being able to help
people like that.
It's a very different feeling toput a smile on somebody's face
or to wipe off the tears and seethem in a much better space
than, to say, Hey, we rocked thecampaign for Clorox.
(10:42):
It, it's a, it's a differentfeeling.
Yeah.
They're both good.
But this one is very personaland, and, and that feels.
It feels good at this moment inmy life.
Yeah, I bet.
I it's, it is so interesting.
So I loved the kind of thejuxtaposition of.
Helping someone not only withthe problem, they're struggling,
(11:03):
but to feel good about how itwas solved versus, maybe the
more stoic business strategytype of thing.
And, and what I know is thatoften, because this is the
circle that you and I share, isthat often we're talking about
business issues or personalthings that are holding us back
from business issues.
(11:24):
And so I love my favorite thingabout.
All of that story for you is howyou can combine them all and
combine, your curiosity, yourlove of understanding the, the
like track trackableimplications and the personal
human component that, came fromnot only the hypnotherapy, but
(11:49):
also even the digital marketingpart, the marketing part of
convi, of helping people makedecisions.
Yeah, it's such a, it's such agreat blend and that's really
helped you had so much successtoo.
Like I really am justunderstanding you outside of
clear strictly hypnosis, right?
I've attended your courses,which were more personal based,
(12:11):
but now I'm understand, and, andwe can see here for those of us
who are watching on YouTube,your book in the Corner about
the ABCs of conscious leadershipand that.
Really feels also, and I wantyou to talk about it, like that
blend that you're talking about,the mind and that those
conscious and unconscious andsubconscious things, but also
(12:33):
that history of your Maxwelltraining and leadership and all
of the different things.
So talk about, talk about yourbook, which is not, I mean I
didn't tell you we were gonnatalk about your book, but talk
about your book and like whythis book, like why this?
Combination.
And what does it bring forpeople?
Because I do think it like wrapseverything that you do together.
(12:55):
Yeah.
So my new book, my new book, theone out this year is called The
ABCs of Conscious Leadership.
And I know you have another onebefore and I have another one.
And they, they, they're verydifferent books.
But in some ways.
They both, I think, hearkened ita lot of the same principles, a
lot of the same way I view theworld.
My first book, not ConsciousLeadership, but my first book is
(13:17):
called An Alignment of Spirit,finding Work You Love and it is
really a law of attraction book.
About getting a job, whichsounds really bizarre, but maybe
again, that's just me beingbold.
But putting together two ideasthat people don't usually think
about, which is really thefunctional, like, how do I, how
do I find great work?
(13:37):
But it's really more aboutmanifesting.
I.
It's focused on manifesting.
And and a lot of people thinkthat's super woo, but like the
way I talk about it in my bookis not super woo.
It's really look, there's allthis science that supports this.
Yeah.
And if you think, I, I lovescience.
I.
I, I think science just hasn'tcaught up to explain what is
woo, that'll, that'll happeneventually.
(14:00):
The but that book really, Ithink, appeals to people who are
trying to look at things fromtheir subconscious and what's
going on in their subconsciousor they drawing the things to
them that they want to draw.
And if they don't know, read thebook because it'll tell you how
to get what you want.
The second book, the one Ilaunched this year, the one here
on my screen, the ABCs ofConscious Leadership is not so
(14:22):
much written for somebody who isplaying in the land of their
subconscious, but somebody whowants to play in the land of
their conscious mind and focuson what are the things that they
can do to emphasize theirauthentic leadership traits.
And I feel I love this world.
(14:43):
I feel like it could be better.
And the only way it's gonna getbetter is if we all put out our
best foot to be the very bestleaders that we can be.
Leaders in our businesses,leaders in our communities,
leaders in our in ourgovernment, leaders in our
churches.
What leaders?
Wherever.
Yes.
And so the ABCs of consciousleadership is really.
(15:07):
A reminder for people and a wayto help focus on what are the
things that you can do to bemore clear and conscious and
directed about your leadershiptalents and gifts.
Yes, because I believe that aswe build and strengthen those,
we are going to, we are gonnahelp get ourselves from where we
(15:28):
are now, to a better placewhere, where we can be.
Is that, is that so clear?
Hundred percent.
And the word that keeps hummingin my mind is with intention.
Yes.
Like you, you're doing, and thisis what I talk about all the
time with, and I, when I talkabout bold leadership, it's the
same thing, right?
What decisions are you makingthat with intention are leading
(15:51):
you where you want to go,regardless of whether or not
you.
Have seen anyone do it before,like you just know it's the
right thing for you based on whoyou are and what you want and
where you wanna go.
And it, so it's the same kind ofidea that intentional personal
self-leadership toward yourfuture.
(16:12):
Yep.
Yeah.
It's, it's awesome.
You and me, we got this super,super powerful.
Yeah.
It's, and, and it, it.
It provides the fuel and theenergy for people to get where
they're trying to go.
I think I, I think, I think alittle of it is being a woman,
not that's, I'm not trying tosay that's the only piece of it,
(16:33):
but I think to some degree I.
You have, that would be reallyhard to be Michelle.
Yeah.
We tend to be more tied into ourintuition and our feelings about
what that looks like.
Where I could say my husband andwe talk a lot about his work
because it's I can't evenimagine living in his little
(16:54):
work life.
It's insane to me.
But the idea of, of.
Getting to make decisions.
And part of this is being anentrepreneur too, I think.
We get to make decisions thatare, because we know what we
want, we can decide how we wantto attempt to get there.
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of times the, the guysare sticking with the, this is
(17:19):
what I'm supposed to do thing.
Yeah.
And I think we have, havestarted and are more likely to
break away from this is what I'msupposed gonna take off that
coat.
I'm gonna take off the coat ofwhat I'm supposed to, you should
decide to do something orshould, and I'm gonna look at
this differently.
I, I remember when I was a kid,my, my parents took me on a trip
(17:41):
to Washington, DC and my, thet-shirt that I, I chose, that I
wanted to wear from.
From Washington, DC says, everywoman has a place in the house
and the Senate.
That was, that was what Ithought was the right thing to
win.
How old were you?
How old were you at that point?
I was probably 11 or 13.
Awesome.
Yeah.
That junior high.
(18:02):
Yeah.
Middle school.
I was that junior high age.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They still do Washington, DC atabout eighth grade in the
schools, so it's right aroundthen.
Yeah.
It's when we started torecognize that we have thoughts
of our own that we want toaffect the world with.
When we're eight and we're inelementary school and we're
(18:25):
still like just surviving theplayground.
And then you get into middleschool when, when you start
learning about things more, inelementary school you're
learning science, but you don'treally know what's science.
You just like, oh, look whathappens when you mix these
colors.
But that's science too.
You get further along and we getto start to recognize our own
(18:46):
strength and power of thoughtand intuition and belief in
ourselves.
And there's just a huge amountof.
Of, of energy, of force behindcreating an intention and then
setting up the game plan to, tohave the milestones to get
there.
Yep.
And I don't mean to say thatthat's easy.
(19:06):
It is not easy.
But it is doable.
Yeah.
It takes, it takes focus, ittakes direction, it takes
consistency, and it takes a lotof self-power.
Yeah.
And that is one of the thingsthat I like to bring to my
collaborators, my clients, ishow to build that self-power.
Yeah.
And the don't forget, it'sself-power and it's also the, a
(19:31):
little bit of accountability,self-accountability and support,
right?
Because you're talking aboutthis, and now we go into the
coaching brain where these arethe things you need to have
success.
You need to know what you want.
You need to make a plan to getthere.
And I teach it.
And you teach it, and we allteach, those kinds of things.
But it just shows how the, it'snot because.
(19:54):
That's just, what we were taughtto be a coach.
That's because that's the wayhumans work.
And, and going from an idea to aprocess to having that idea
realized is something thateveryone can relate to.
And then when you have someonelike yourself who can actually
(20:14):
distill it into the facts thatcame before, like sometimes we
just go through and we're thereand we don't even know the steps
that we took along the way.
But you can help to like.
Show them that these are all thethings that they did and they
can do it.
It's important.
It's important.
And whether I'm doing work withsort of a business person or a
collaborator or a client, oftena huge part of what I I need to
(20:39):
do is, is show people theevidence.
Yeah.
That they have the experience todo what it is they're setting
out to do.
Yep.
I, I I taught a class last nightand my class that I teach a, a
few times a year, your OS waslast night?
Os was last night.
(21:00):
Awesome.
Stop overeating sugar.
And that's an interesting classbecause I use the decision
framework for the first half ofthe class, and then I use
hypnosis for the second half ofthe class.
Yeah.
The hypnosis part, part of whatI have people doing is
remembering how they've.
They've, they've done thingsbefore.
They can do this, do it again,yep.
And, and and that is a powerfulmessage and especially powerful
(21:23):
when people are, are relaxed andin a state of hypnosis.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
And I, I've attended that classand others of yours, and I,
that's exactly what I get fromit, that the, the power of
hypnosis in my experience fromyou, I, I may have.
Had a hypnosis experience withone other person in the past
(21:45):
before that, but several timeswith you is a such a profound
sense of relaxation.
It's like meditation times 20and which is so wonderful and
yeah, but it's, there's aconsciousness to it.
Even though you're reaching thesubconscious, there's a
consciousness to it that helpsyou recognize that, oh yeah, I
(22:06):
have actually had this thoughtbefore and I can have this
thought and this experience andthis success again so
meaningful.
I love it.
I, I love what I do, what I by,by being an entrepreneur, by
being, by doing what I wanna do.
I get to do things in thecombinations Yeah.
That I think are gonna beeffective and help people.
(22:26):
Yeah.
And it's a, it's an absolute joyto get to do the kind of work I
do.
It's beautiful.
What do you see as if you'rewilling to share, do you have
little other potential bolddecisions ruminating that
you're.
Thinking or like on the verge ofI'm launching something new.
I'm launching a marketing groupcoming up in a month or two.
(22:51):
So that's my next bold ish.
So what's that gonna look like?
Tell us a little bit about it.
It's gonna look, it's gonna, I'mcalling it the Magnetic
Marketing Collective.
Oh, I like that.
Magnetic, magnetic.
Magnetic Marketing Collective,and it's gonna be a group that
I'm leading.
We're gonna meet three times amonth and I'm gonna teach people
a little bit about their digitalmarketing.
(23:12):
I'm gonna ask people somequestions, and then we're gonna
have a little bit ofaccountability and working time
to get marketing done becauseI've, I've realized that as I
meet many different smallbusinesses and solopreneurs.
A lot of people don't know thebasics, and while I don't know
all the details abouteverything, that would be
impossible.
I know a lot of the basics and Ican help people make some good
(23:34):
decisions about where to puttheir initial energy and
intention after.
Yeah.
And I, I also have realized thatwhile I've met a few people who
are maybe as well versed as meor, or better, versed than me,
at least in certain aspects oftheir marketing chain.
They got no accountability.
(23:54):
They ain't getting this stuffdone.
And so I think by having, by byleaning into the value that you
bring to your community, I cancreate a little community that
is gonna focus on thisparticular aspect of things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So community is a very, verypowerful thing and I think that
what you've done with Gather isamazing.
Thank you.
(24:14):
And it is.
It is wonderful to see such athriving, vibrant, rich.
I mean there's like somethingfor gather almost every day.
It's, it's pretty amazing.
You do a lot.
Thank you.
It, it is, it is a lot.
And it's it because.
(24:34):
I just keep coming up with morestuff to give people because I
think that they're gonna, findit useful.
And what I was thinking when yousaid your magnetic marketing,
collect collective.
Collective, yes.
Collective.
I love collective.
And I was thinking if you end uphaving like a social thing or an
in-person thing, you can call itthe magnetic marketing mixer.
(24:56):
Because, we love a goodalliteration around here.
Absolutely.
I'm very into, I'm very intothat, but I, I chose the word
collective.
Yeah.
Because I want to convey, I'mgonna be the leader of this
little group, but but we'regonna share back and forth
because it's.
(25:16):
Digital marketing was one thingwhen I started in 1997.
It's a little more complicatednow.
Yeah.
And by working together a groupcan accomplish so much more,
that from gather.
Yeah.
And you know what I, what I feelwhen I hear the word collective
is really that everyone else isdifferent from each other.
It's a, it's, it reminds me ofthose stores, like the antique
(25:39):
stores that are really like,everyone has a nook.
And they all bring their ownstuff, right?
Yeah.
That's a, to me, that's a verygood definition of a collective.
Like we collected these people.
Yeah.
And they came from everywhereand brought them together to
offer or whatever.
So I see that for yourcollective as all different
businesses, all differentexperiences, and that's what's
(26:02):
good about it.
Like you said, you can.
Lead them, guide them to a topicor to, having an accountability
session or whatever.
But each one of them is gonnabring something different to the
party and every single one hasmassive value.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Sounds great.
Sounds great.
That's my next, that's my next,that's my next move.
(26:24):
That's the boldest thing I'mdoing, I think for 2025.
I love it.
I love it.
And we're recording this in May.
When is that gonna start?
Like when can we put this on ourradar?
It will be available in June,2025.
Okay.
So yeah, so just not very longfrom where we're not very long
from now.
Okay.
That's exciting.
(26:44):
I can't wait to support you ingetting the word out about that
and all of the things that youdo.
I know you, you're a VIP here inour community.
I know that you've been talkingabout the things that you've
been doing, but for those peoplewho haven't met you.
I just wanna say that I really,really enjoy how you show up and
coming to your things, and we'lldo whatever I can to continue to
(27:06):
support you going forward.
Me too.
Tracie.
Let's go see more farmers and onmore cruises.
Yes.
More cruises, more fun, moreeverything.
We love it.
More bold decisions too.
Know more bold decisions andhelping people make them.
Yes.
Yes.
And helping people make them.
Okay.
I love it.
Let's, I think it's time for usto, to.
(27:27):
Quiet ourselves down andfinalize everything.
Do you have give us like a finalMichelle message to listeners,
like they listen to this wholeepisode, they've come here to
the end.
What do you want them to know asthey leave this episode?
That what I love to help peoplewith is their mindset, their
(27:48):
message.
Their momentum and whether thatis something that feels personal
or professional for yoursolopreneur or small business, I
would love to be in touch, havea chat and see if there's a way
for us to work together.
Fantastic, fantastic mindset,message and momentum.
(28:08):
You got it.
Beautiful.
Thank you again, Michelle, forbeing here.
I'm so thrilled.
Yay.
Alright.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Thank you for listening to the Bold and
Brilliant podcast.
I'm your host, Tracie Root, andI wanna invite you to check out
the show notes, find out whereyou can connect with our guests,
find out more about what I andthe Gather community have to
offer you, and be sure tosubscribe to this podcast on
your favorite platform.
Thanks so much.
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