When we last spoke with Michelle Villalobos, in our very first month of producing this podcast, she talked about how sometimes you need to quiet the noise and listen more carefully inside to figure out who you are and where you're going. Recently, that voice from inside woke her up to a new message she couldn't shake. In this Revisited, find out how letting nature take the lead can show us that everything has its season.
When we last spoke with Michelle Villalobos, in our very first month of producing this podcast, she talked about how sometimes you need to quiet the noise and listen more carefully inside to figure out who you are and where you're going. Recently, that voice from inside woke her up to a new message she couldn't shake. In this Roads Taken Revisited, Michelle talk about how that has manifested into a book that is growing its own wings but not precisely on her imagined timetable.
In this episode, find out from Michelle how letting nature take the lead can show us that everything has its season…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.
About This Episode’s Guest
Michelle Villalobos helps empower people to share their gifts, grow their impact, and “monetize their magic” as she puts it. She offers courses and retreats through her Superstar Activator brand. Her newest creation is But I Want to Fly: An Adventure Book for Dreamers of All Ages. Check it out, along with all of her other wisdom and offerings at SuperstarActivator.com. (174)
For Michelle’s first appearance on Roads Taken, listen to our episode Superstar Activator.
Michelle Villalobos: You know, one of the things that I've done in my life, especially since we last spoke, has been bringing my life into greater alignment with the rhythms and seasons of nature. I've moved things around in my business so that the winter is a season of introspection and reflection and possibility and dreaming.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: When we last spoke with Michelle Villalobos, in our very first month of producing this podcast, she talked about how sometimes you need to quiet the noise and listen more carefully inside to figure out who you are and where you're going. Recently, that voice from inside woke her up to a new message she couldn't shake. Find out how letting nature take the lead can show us that everything has its season...on today's Roads Taken Revisited with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley.
Today I'm here with my friend Michelle Villalobos and we are going to have a wonderful, fun, Revisited Roads Taken. Having spoken, I think Michelle, you are my fourth guest or something right in the front because you were so game to reconnect with our classmates and everyone else that's listening about our roads taken. And this time we get to talk about where you've been since that conversation. So thanks for joining me.
MV: Yay! It's my pleasure. I'm excited.
LJR: All right. So, in that first conversation, we got rid of all of the really heavy, big, long, weighty stuff of how we got through our, my goodness, our 20s, our 30s, our, you know, other, other decades to where we are, we are headed now. And you had built this empire really of helping other people do what you allowed yourself to do, which is find your inner voice and who you are meant to be in your authentic self and how you can use that to help others. So remind us your company and what that has been like. And then let's dive into what's been happening the last few years.
MV: Yeah, yes, the company is called Superstar Activator, and it's kind of what it sounds like. I help people awaken their inner superstar, their, their fullest expression in the world, identify why they're really here, what they really care about, what they're up to, and how to propagate that in a way that, that creates a lifestyle that's enjoyable.
LJR: Great. And you had had a lifestyle that was enjoyable at times, but not so much in all the times. But now it seems like you are doing that work that feels really authentic to you and helping others, kind of paying it forward and doing all that. But you're propagating, to use your own word, other creative aspects. So I know in addition to the kind of one on one work and workshop work and all of that, you are now a published author. So tell us about that journey.
MV: Yeah, well, it's sort of, I've always wanted to write books and publish books, and I certainly have a number of outlines started and incompleted and half-finished books. And so it, the way it came about was really different than I'd planned. You know, the way I'd always imagined doing it was, hey, here's a book I want to write. I'm gonna write an outline for it. I'm gonna fill it in and, Take a year or two to write it and create it and all that. But this particular book actually is completely different. It's called But I Want to Fly. And it's in the style of a children's book. It's called, But I Want to Fly: An Adventure Book for Dreamers of All Ages. And it's based on a five minute long poem that I woke up and wrote in the middle of the night in December 2020.
LJR: All in one. You had the whole thing?
MV: The whole thing. Almost the whole thing. I did make some tweaks to it. I did add a few stanzas later once I, you know, realized what it was. But the original poem was all…I honestly can't call it anything other than a divine download. It was a middle of the night stroke of inspiration. I've never written a poem before. I've tried writing one since. I can't explain it. And so it was such a powerful experience. I mean, I tried to go back to sleep. I woke up and had this sort of line going through my mind and I was trying to put it out of my mind so I could get back to sleep and it wouldn't let me go. So I finally, it's like four in the morning, got up and said, I'll write it down so that I can get it out of my head and go back to sleep. And so I started, I wrote the line down and just kept writing and the whole poem came all in one go. Pretty much. And then a day or two later, you know, I was taken with it. It was really good. I was like, I can't believe I wrote this. I can’t belive this came out of me. It reminded me of like a Dr. Seuss kind of vibe. It had it rhymed and it was very meaningful. And, you know, I was as a child, I was a fan of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein and Where the Wild Things Are, you know, those were all part of my, I don't know, my subconscious mind. And here I was feeling like, wow, I created something that that's reminiscent or evocative of that. So I shared it with a couple people and people really responded to it. I read it to my crew, my mastermind group, and people cried and they said, Oh my God, this is amazing. You should do something with it. And of course I didn't. Yeah. I just sort of sat on it for a few months and, and this is an interesting thing that maybe we'll come back to, we'll talk about the seasons and how the seasons kind of impacted this, but dead of winter, the thing came through. Through the spring, the idea started to percolate of what if I did do something with this? What could it be? And I was on the phone with a colleague who invited me to do a keynote in front of his huge community, his, you know, hundreds of people. And I told him in Verle, I don't have a keynote for your audience, you know. What I do is for a different audience and he said, well, you could always just, you know, I had a guy come in here and he had a children's book that he wrote and then he just gave us a keynote about the children's book and the children's book had a, an adult message and something about poop, like cleaning up your poop or cleaning up your dog's poop or something like that.I don't know if you've heard of this book.
LJR: No.
MV: He's like, you could, you could do something like that. And I was like, wow. You know, I do have this poem that I wrote that seems to. Resonate with people, and it does seem to have a really powerful message, and it's very meaningful to me, and I, I said, thanks, Verle, let me, let me think about that. And the idea started to evolve and develop over the spring and summer, and by summer, September, I had found an artist on Upwork to illustrate the poem. I'd sent her an outline of it, and, you know, we started working on the art direction of it, and so, that started September 2020. No, December, September, 2021. So this poem came to me in December, 2020. By September, 2021, we had, I had a deal. And it took about a year to put it together and ultimately, you know, put it out there. And I, I did the layout of it and art directed it. She produced the artwork and yeah, now I have this incredible book that, that honestly, I went back to Verle, I said, I'm ready for you, my friend. I'm ready to come and do this keynote whenever you are. So I'll be ready to deliver it this. year.
LJR: Oh, fun.
MV: If he hires me. We'll see. We'll see. It doesn't matter. At this point, he did the, the real gift he gave me already was in inspiring me to do this.
LJR: Yeah, exactly. And I love an adventure book for dreamers of all ages. So what have you found? I mean. You already, before it was even a book, you had people saying, this is impactful and I'm feeling things through this. So what are, what are your readers now—Who are they? And what are they telling you about it?
MV: Yeah, you know, it's funny. I went into all the logistics of how I made it before even telling you like what it is. It's an adventure book. So the, the, the impact that it's having on people is it's inspirational, I think. And it addresses It's sort of the dark side of being a visionary and a creator and someone who wants to make something meaningful and impactful. So it speaks to the journey of that and the shadow side of that, the doubt, the self doubt, the worry, the ridicule, the fear, the anxiety, the past failures coming back to haunt us.
I mean, the story is the story. Of, there's a character, her name is V, and she, basically, in the beginning of the book, or the beginning of the poem, she recognizes that she's out of alignment with her own self. You might recognize this story. You know.
LJR: V. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
MV: I wonder who you that could be. And so she has that moment of awareness, she, and then the, the desire starts to build for more. Like, and that's a big part of my message is desire as sort of a calling card of destiny, you know. Desire being the seed of what's possible for us. And I honestly believe that, at least for me, and I see this a lot with my clients, there's a lot in our culture that sort of tamps down desire, deep desire. Like we're, there's a lot in our culture that encourages like surface level desire, like for cars and for makeup and for fashion and all these things that I've desired and that I've pursued in my life at points. But, but not a lot of focus on deep desire. Like what is your calling? Who are you meant to be in this world? What do you really care about? And so in this book early on, she starts to feel that calling and there's pain there. There's resentment, there's regret, there's fear. There's all these emotions of like, why haven't I done the thing? Why did I put away my desires? Why haven't I followed my dreams and passions? So she has to come to terms with that.
LJR: The ‘but.’
MV: Yes.
LJR: It's such a beautiful word. It says so much.
MV: So much.
LJR: If it weren't there, it would be a different title, a different story. Yeah.
MV: Right. Exactly. And so she gets to face that shadow. It's dark. So that's why it's not really for children, even though it looks like it's for children. It can be. And, and so she faces that, that shadow and she moves it through, she alchemizes it. She does the work to face it, be with it, transcend it, process it, all the things, transmute it into action. And so then she starts to cultivate the dream and she starts to explore it. She starts to share it with other people and people shoot it down, but she keeps going. And, and so it turns into a story about her creating something for herself that she deeply desires and what that process looks like she goes into the workshops. She starts, you know mapping things out and designing blueprints and building and ultimately, you know She builds a set of wings and gets to go on an adventure and that's you know the story is that adventure and also the inner journey of finding herself, connecting with herself, building the inner resilience and strength to do the thing, to face the, all the things that she faces, and then ultimately to come back to herself. And the, you know, I don't care if I give it away because you'll either want to read it or not or, you know, whatever. But the ending of it is that she's basically, of all the things that she learned and did and saw and experienced, the best thing was finding herself in the process.
LJR: Yeah. So, Michelle, you said that a line woke you up and then you developed it into the arc really quickly. Was the line, do you remember, was it one from the beginning of the arc or one from the end?
MV: Right from the middle. One from the middle. Right from the middle. Isn't that weird? I know, it was like, it made no sense. There was no, I had no context for it because I'm not an aviator. I'm not a flyer, like, but the, the line was like, I changed the line slightly, so I forget what the original line was, but it's the line that ultimately became, “She checked her wings one more time, will they hold me steady? She packed her gear and climbed the hill. The time is now. I'm ready.”
LJR: And you had to sit up at four in the morning and say, what does that mean? What is this?
MV: Yeah.
LJR: Wow. And so that must hit home for a lot of people who have actually been in that dark place in the middle of like, I feel like there's something, my bags are packed and I don't know what they're, they're packed for. And what am I doing? What am I doing?
MV: Right.
LJR: So, I'm guessing people, you did talk about seasons or you brought up the word seasons. I'm guessing people that are maybe in this season of our lives where we've gone through a few falls and a few winters. And maybe even some summers and springs, but we keep cycling back to what's next, what's next, what's next. Yeah?
MV: Mm hmm. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the things that I've done in my life—especially since we last spoke—has been bringing my life into greater alignment with the rhythms and seasons of nature. I don't think we talked about that last because I was just starting that journey back then. But I've moved things around in my business so that the winter is a season of introspection and reflection and possibility and dreaming. And now I call that The Dream. That's like the season of the dream. And it's a time to slow down, to get still, to reflect, to ideate, to create, but not necessarily to build anything new. And it's funny because this book, concept came to me in the dead of winter. So that's why it's like, wow, I didn't even realize the arc of, of how this came about, right?
So then the spring I've moved in my life, my business, you know, I've, it's become a season of building. It's a season of, of doing the work of creating agreements and standards and boundaries and having conversations and, and building the new website or building whatever it is. The spring is a big time. There's a lot, there's a lot of energy in the spring, right? If you think about nature, the winter is a season of hibernation, in most places, many places. And the spring is a season of creation. It's a season of seeing, like, the actual 3D out picturing of, you know, whatever has, was, was being ideated or created in nature in this, in the winter, right? Like, you know, they've done, they did an experiment—I saw it on Instagram, so don't quote me on this—but, like, something where they tried to put trees, redwood trees skip hibernation for a year, for a season. They lasted one year, they died. These redwood trees that had lived for decades, maybe centuries, I don't know how old the trees were, but they, they, they skipped one season of hibernation and they died, right?
LJR: They hadn't stored up enough energy.
MV: I guess. I don't know. Who knows what hibernation is, right? We don't actually, I don't think, I'm sure there are people that know a lot more about it than I do, but in our common knowledge, what is hibernation for? You know, what does it do in nature? It doesn't do anything. So why do we need it? Well, apparently, we really do.
LJR: Well, it's like sleep for us. Like so many people think we don't need sleep, but sleep is, as I'm telling my teenagers, that's when you grow and that's when things consolidate in your brain and all of those things. And so why not have this season of that growth and, and like dormant growth? It seems hyper, yeah
MV: Germination, hybrid, like it's, it matters. But in our culture, we don't value that as much as action and activity and doing. And think about how we relate to winter a lot. Like complaining about it. It sucks. We have to be inside and…then right? So anyway, the, the, so back to the, the book kind of came in the winter and then I started, you know, ideating it and talking to people and looking for an artist and all that in the spring and then the summer I found the artist and I put her to work and like, you know, summer is a season of like, launching something and you know, being in a lot more action and activity and being visible. And ultimately this book took me two cycles to come all the way around because I didn't publish it till last December, 2022. But the, the seasonality of it, it's just interesting that like, you know, come full circle, you know, took two cycles to complete. But what normally, you know, in my mind, I was like, I should be able to get this out right away, you know, but I didn't.
LJR: Life doesn't happen that way.
MV: No, it doesn't. And so, yeah, so bringing my life into alignment with the seasons this summer, I've moved a lot of my more public facing, all my real public facing events moved it. My big one moved it to the summer. It used to be in the dead of winter. Just funny, right?
And so bringing that into the summer and then the fall being a season of harvesting, you know, cultivation of, you know, harvesting the bounty, the blessings, you know, Thanksgiving is in the fall. It's when, you know, we, we kind of reap what we've sown over the course of the year, and we get to look at what we've created and, you know, either we could bless it, which is a wonderful energetic to cultivate gratitude, Thanksgiving, all that. And often we end up, we curse it, you know. We're like, Oh, it wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't good enough. You know, it didn't go the way I planned it and all that. And I think that for me, the work has been really, no matter what I've experienced in the year, coming back to gratitude and blessing it and trusting that it's part of a grander unfolding. And that, that good or bad are, are completely irrelevant, you know.
LJR: I love, I'm going to try to extend this metaphor: Kind of the defoliation, you know, as trees that have been in full flower and full leaf, they need that time to kind of, they're going to have that burst of color and you get the good and then it feels bad because you get, you're losing it. But you can't actually, if you, if those leaves stay on during that winter cold, you know, it kills the tree, right? So you actually have to let some of that stuff go, take the judgment part out of it, and say, okay, it's going to be what it's going to be. Let me go back into my introspection time and see, does it feel enough? Does it feel like it's it needs something new? It feels something else. And maybe that's why I mean, I know publishing is why you had that circle, but maybe you also needed that extra time around to kind of evaluate.
MV: Indeed. Absolutely. You nailed it. Like, that's what I'm realizing is that in that fall season of the harvest, you know, it's essential to come back into gratitude for everything that was and wasn't. And that's the energy then we plant into the next cycle. So if we're coming from the energy of, Oh, that sucked. My year wasn't what I wanted. It wasn't good enough. Oh, like, let me make some goals for next year. We're creating from the energy of not enough, you know, not being grateful. So I think it's so important in the fall, no matter what we experience to process it, move it through, come back into gratitude, and then create again. And sometimes we're creating the next version of the same project. Sometimes we're creating something new. But, you know, we always, every year is a cycle. Around this thing.
LJR: Yeah. And I love this notion that it's so small, kind of. This, like, annual idea. Rather than Kind of what we've typically been feeling, like, okay, we have this grand life cycle, and we had our spring in our youth, and then our very fecund summer where we were, you know, everything was bursting, and we just were create, create, create, and now we're kind of at the top of that hill, and what is fall gonna look like? That kind of makes it feel like ugh, wait, I only have fall and winter left?! You know? But if I'm regenerating all the time, and maybe, actually, you're regenerating the full seasonal schedule within a period of our autumn. We can read that into, okay, we've, we understand that we need to be grateful all the time. We understand the things that we're losing and that are ending are that plant food regeneration for the next thing that we're going to blossom. I really like that metaphor.
MV: Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. And it's, and it is the meta, I mean, it is what we're made of nature. Like we are, we co evolved with everything around us. So why wouldn't it make sense to align more with that, you know?
LJR: The problem is you're a tropical baby and you're actually all over the islands And so you could be in a perpetual summer if you wanted to be right?
MV: Right. And it takes something to actually cultivate it when because I by the way, I just moved back to Florida.
LJR: I didn't know you had left.
MV: Oh, girl, I left nine years ago. I think we did. I don't know. I left nine years ago during, right after that dark night of the soul. I went on a road trip around the country.
LJR: Yes, I remember that.
MV: And I bought a house in Colorado and all the things. In fact, it's really funny this timing because I just wrote an email to my list sort of explaining why I moved again and why I'm back home, why I'm back in South Florida.
I think part of it was to have the experience of winters and snow and falls, so, you know, I feel like that, that I needed that, to feel that and have that again in my life after 15 years in South Florida. Coming back, you know, I kind of carry that, I think, wisdom with me now. I hope so.
LJR: It sounds like it. It sounds like it.
So, okay. So now you've. birthed this thing out, and you're kind of now figuring out, how else do I use it for good? How do, am I going to use it in these talks? Or, you know, however, and are you taking these seasons, one season at a time, or are you still looking at a bigger goal? What else is out there?
MV: Oh, definitely, all of the above. I mean, right now, we're back in winter. And I'm on my third cycle with this book in some form, right? It's published. It's out there. It's beautiful. People are starting to notice it. You know, I got a keynote and they bought a copy for everybody in the audience, which was so fun.
LJR: You get a book, you get a book, you get a book.
MV: Yes, exactly. So now I'm in the winter again, right? So I'm like, well, what is it? Instead of being attached to what I thought it might be before, it's sort of, well, what does it want to be now? And so, what I'm in right now is just that space of possibility and inquiry. Like, I don't know. I'm in the winter. I'm in, dancing in the mystery of the unknown. I feel the calling. I feel a desire to sell a bunch of copies and for people, for it to make its way into the world. I want it to be seen and be recognized and used and loved and you know, performed and I want to perform it and I'm actually working with a keynote director right now to turn it into a theatrical keynote, which will be, you know, something I've never done before. So I'm in this season of possibility to dream, desire, and just sort of allowing myself to imagine what it could be, what it might want to be, what I want it to be, what I want to be. And then I'll know more in the spring and I'll let you know, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to start to put the marketing in place and the build the systems to get it out there more. So that's kind of this last year, 2023, a big part of the cycle was literally getting it on Amazon. That was more complicated than I thought it was going to be, you know, things like that. I had to build the infrastructure to produce it and sell it. And now that that's in place, you know, because there was a part of me that was like really impatient wanting it to be all over last year, right? Like, why didn't that happen? Well. Because I wasn't ready for it to. If a million people had bought it, I wouldn't have been able to do it. I don't know that I can meet a million orders right now, but I don't think we have to worry about that just yet.
LJR: Well, I don't know after this podcast, who knows?
MV: Oh, yeah. Exactly. Well, I just think this is great, and I love that you've found a way to keep seasons in your life, even if you are in sunny Florida. It sounds like you're going to fly and no buts about it. So we're so thrilled that you're a part of our family here and you get to keep us posted with your doings and beings and all of that. So Michelle, we wish you all the best.
MV: Oh, I appreciate that, Leslie. It's always so good to connect with you. Thank you for doing this beautiful labor of love and this contribution to us and to the world.
LJR: That was Michelle Villalobos, who helps empower people to share their gifts, grow their impact, and as she puts it, “monetize their magic.” She offers courses and retreats through her Superstar Activator brand. Her newest creation is But I Want to Fly: An Adventure Book for Dreamers of All Ages. Check it out along with all her other wisdom and offerings at SuperstarActivator.com.
And calling all superstars. If you were a previous guest on this show and would like to update us on where your roads have taken you since we last spoke, do get in touch. And all you other superstar listeners, we'd love to hear from you, too, on any topic. Just use the Contact Us link at roadstakenshow.com. We want to incorporate your ideas into all our next episodes with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley, on Roads Taken.