500 Episodes In: Hard Truths & Breakthroughs That Changed Me

Today’s episode is a special one as we celebrate the 500th episode of the show and over 11 million downloads worldwide. I’m joined by Jess Giacobbe from my team, who turns the microphone around and asks me the questions listeners have always wanted to ask about my journey, my work, and what I’ve learned along the way.

We talk about how this podcast began, the real behind-the-scenes moments that challenged me, the times I almost quit, and how learning to trust my intuition changed everything. I also share what “downloads” actually feel like, how triggers reveal unconscious beliefs, and why real change can happen faster than you think when you shift your response.

Transcript

Hello, Everybody, And welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the Michelle Chalfant Show. Today's a very, Very special day. I can't even believe I'm going to say this out loud. We are on podcast number 500. Today is a milestone day, Because not only have we now done 500 podcasts, We have also had, This is a little bit of the emoji mind blow going on over here, 11 million downloads. My brain is like, What? So I'm so, So, So excited today to be joining you. It's been 11 years of doing this podcast. I remember the party we threw in 2020. It was the week before COVID. In March of 2020, Before the entire world shut down, We had just hit 2 million downloads. So that was so, So exciting to hit 2 million downloads in 2020. And here we are in 2026, And we have now crossed 11 million and counting. So we have a very special show for you today to celebrate this. My team has been very sneaky, Doing some things behind the scenes to celebrate this very special day. And today we're going to do a podcast with someone that works with me. Her name is Jess Jacoby. So she's joining me today. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. It's so fun to have you. So the team has gotten together some, How do we say this, Jess? Some questions, I guess, That they wanted to know. And they said, You know, We want to know this. So we think your audience is going to want to know all these questions. So they compiled questions. And Jess is going to be on with me today, Asking me questions. And I don't know, Jess, How do you explain what we're doing today? You explain it. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. And I've been working behind the scenes with you and your team for a little over a year now. But before this, I've been a longtime listener of your podcast. So I have to admit, It's very surreal to be here with you right now for the 500th episode. Yeah, The show has very much impacted my life. And I know it's impacted so many people's lives. So I think it's important to take a moment to reflect on the growth and the evolution of your podcast, But also your business and also you. I'm wondering if we can sort of time travel back to the very beginning. Can you take us back to the moment you decided to start this podcast? And tell us a little bit about where you were in your career and what was going on in your life. Oh, My gosh. OK, OK, OK. So back in 2012, 2013, I was seeing clients one-on-one as a therapist and a coach. I remember Graham, My husband, Talking about in the early years, Like maybe 2012-ish, He started listening to these things called podcasts. I was like, What is that, Like a radio show? I was so confused. I had no idea. Had no interest whatsoever. And by a series of very, Very, Very synchronistic events, I was put in touch with someone to help me with some marketing, Very light marketing. Again, I wasn't doing very much. I had a full-time one-on-one practice with people. And his name was Pete, Pete Wright. And he and I hired him to do some marketing with me and also to redo my website and like help me with like a newsletter. Like I wasn't really doing very much except for my clients. So in probably the early 2014, He said to me, You know, You've got something really good here because he had done my whole website. He had redone it. And he says, You've got something really good here. You need to get on a podcast and talk about the adult chair. And I was like, Wait, What's a podcast again? Graham mentions these things. I don't know what the heck a podcast even is. He's like, Well, It's like a radio show. And I'm like, I don't want to get on. What am I going to do on a radio show? I was like, No, Really pushed against it. And for most of 2013, He kind of, You know, Was on me about it. He kept going, Come on, You need to do a podcast. Well, He was a podcast producer for several other shows. And he says, I'm telling you, You've got something here that would be helpful. So he wore me down. I remember laughing with him about it. I said, Fine, How often do I have to do this thing? He's like, Well, Listen, I'll get on with you. And we'll just talk about various subjects that you love to talk about. You know, Everything from, You know, How to improve relationship and boundaries, All the stuff I'm still talking about, By the way, And triggers and all the things. And he said, You know, Let's just try it out. He says, Let's try it out. I said, Fine. And I thought my thought was, Well, You know, If anything, It's a great way to give my clients that I'm seeing like a free resource so I could turn around to my clients and say, Hey, I just did a podcast. It's number seven or whatever it was on boundaries. And we just talked about boundaries in our session. So go listen to this because I really break down how to do boundaries. So that's how the whole thing started. So I started out and I just thought, Well, I'll do this for a few months and I'll be done with it. And I remember we started, I think it was the week after Thanksgiving or somewhere around Thanksgiving 2014. And I remember we had, You know, We were having a meeting about something and he said, You know, Your podcast is really taking off. And I said, OK, Whatever. I said, Well, What does that even mean? And he said, Your numbers are really growing, Being that nobody knows you. You're like a no name, You know, Someone seeing clients, Et cetera. And I said, Whatever. That's great. I couldn't have cared less. I just kept going. And they kept growing and growing and growing and growing. And this is, Again, No one really knew what a podcast was. I certainly didn't. But I'm doing this thing. And he was on the show with me and he would ask me questions and we would dialogue about different things. But I was on there, You know, Teaching and talking about all the things I talk about. A lot of what I talk about now, But a little in a different way, A little bit. So that's how the whole thing started the way back in Thanksgiving 2014. And then there was a shift. I'm not sure exactly what the time frame was, But you started to do the show solo. Can you talk about why that was important to make this a solo show for you? Yeah. So and I loved Pete. We had a great relationship. And what I found was over the course of the podcast, So I kept doing them and then I kind of I kind of got a rhythm going like, I like this. I kind of like this. And I went from doing solo episodes to having some guests here and there. And it was almost like the training wheels just started coming off. And I could feel myself like a galloping horse saying, I can do this. I don't need anyone else on here with me. Not that I needed him in the beginning, But it's really fun to have another someone to kind of bounce things off of when we laughed all the time. But it felt as though it was. It was just this evolution and something that I still say to this day, And I'll probably say the rest of my life is I follow the energy. And I felt very, Very guided to do this solo. And I remember starting to have these download moments. In fact, We used to call them way back when dry. I think it was called like drive time downloads because I'd be driving down the street. This is how I really did it. I'd be driving down the street and I would get a hit. And in fact, I remember doing one on triggers. I can remember it. And I pulled off on the side of the road into the TJ Maxx parking lot. I said, Wow, I'm having so many ideas about triggers. And I grabbed my cell phone and I started recording. And I said, Wow, That was 30 minutes. That's a podcast. So I'd go back and I go, I got another one. I got another one. Can you produce this one? And he said, Sure. So it just felt as though we were just evolving. And it was a natural progression into doing a solo show. So that is what happened. It was exactly podcast 100. I think was either the first show I did completely by myself or it was right around show 100 or something like that. But yeah, Yeah. And you just spoke briefly about the Michelle downloads, Which I have been lucky to be witness to doing recordings with you and just seeing how this happens. Can you talk about that and talk about what it feels like to someone who doesn't necessarily feel like they have downloads or doesn't understand what that means? Can you elaborate on what that feels like? We're really going there today, Jess. And I know you've seen me because Jess is someone that gets on video with me for YouTube and she just rifles questions and I just go. You know what? I would say it's when I feel the most connected to my higher self source, God, Whatever you'd like to say or whatever your language is. I can it's an energy that comes in, Down and through me and I'll say all the time, Wow, That what was that? That was really good. And it happens when people ask me a question or when I'm sitting with someone, It's just this automatic knowing. So I personally believe we all are very, Very intuitive. But in fact, All children are born extremely intuitive. But if we don't nurture it and work that muscle, It starts to fade. Well, I've been someone my whole life that just naturally always worked that muscle. I was very tuned in to being an empath on top of that. It was just very tuned in intuitively to what was going on around me. So to this day, I'll just feel this energy. Sort of sits on top of my head and then it comes in through my heart. And it's it's not me. It's so beautiful. It's it is me, But it's not me, If that makes sense. But we all have that ability. We've all had intuitive. We call it hits. I call it hits. We just have these knowings. Well, I'll get a stream of knowings that comes through me. And that's what I mean by download. And it's information that almost feels like it's just down like a river of thought that comes downloading through. And I know everyone that's listening. You know what I mean when you'll have this knowing I need to do this or I need to do that or I shouldn't do this or wow, I was just talking to my child, To my partner, To my best friend. And the words just came through you. And you'll think, Wow, That was really, Really good. That's what I mean by download. We all have this ability. I am not special. It's just I pay attention to it. Like I said, I really do follow the energy. I trust the energy. I follow the energy of the heart and expand that energy. And I do my best to live in my heart to keep that connection, The communication open. Does that make sense? Of course, It makes sense. And I'd say it certainly has paid off for you. I'm so glad that you've been recording these for so long. And it's been 11 years since you started this podcast. I just want to be really real for a second and ask you, Was there ever a moment where you felt like you might want to quit or that you didn't want to keep doing this? Oh, My goodness. Several times. So many times, Yes. And, You know, I have to say with the podcast came the growth in the building of my company, The Michelle Shelfont Company. And so because of the podcast, What happened was as the messaging really wrapped itself around the world, People started reaching out for sessions all around the world. People wanted to work with me. And back then, Not everyone was doing Zoom. It was more, Can we just get on the phone? I want to get on the phone with you. I did a lot of Skype sessions with people from Australia and Germany and Spain and Italy and I mean all over the world. They all wanted to learn. They wanted to learn this adult chair model. They wanted to work with me, Et cetera. So because of that, So many things happened. So, Yes, There were many times I wanted to quit and walk away as I built the company. So it wasn't when I was seeing clients one-on-one and frankly, Having a one-on-one practice, That was cakewalk. That was so easy. And what I've built now is a company. And that's it's a very, Very different animal. And I am not someone that had ever, You know, I worked for a company when I was like 23. I worked for a mortgage company. So that's about all my training. I had a business. I had a really great individual, You know, Session business with clients. But building the company, That was when I said I would like to quit many times through tears, Through throwing a pillow across the room or something else and frustration and stress. But I got to tell you, It's all about growing. You know, That's I really believe we're here to grow and to expand the comfort zone that we're living in. And that's what happened with me. And I was and I stayed with it. And I say that, You know, With our coaching certification program, When you're an entrepreneur, A true entrepreneur, You figure things out and you keep going and you feel that energy inside of you. And it's like you just keep going no matter what, Even when you fall to the ground right on your face, When everyone feels like they're turning against you and the people you're hiring. It's like the whole thing. So, Yes, There were several times I can give you very specific examples, But it wasn't because of the podcast and it wasn't because of my individual clients. It was more of when I started building this new company. Because so many people wanted sessions with me, I started to expand. That's when I in 2019 started a membership. The first membership, The Tech Tribe. And that was when I started hearing that mantra. It was like, Talk about the downloads. The voice just kept coming through me saying, Because I kept saying, How do I help people, So many people around the world? My waitlist kept building. It was like almost a year waitlist. And I said, I got to help everybody. And I don't know how to help everybody. Not that I have to, But I wanted to. And I could feel this inside of me saying, I really want to help these people. Help me, Show me how to do that. So that was why I created the membership. So I could really work with people more, Not on one-on-one, But I certainly did some coaching and I still do it in the membership we have now, And a lot of teaching. But also I kept hearing, If you really want to expand what you're doing, Teach others to do what you're doing. And I heard that, Oh my gosh, Jess, It was all the time. It was like, Teach others to do what you're doing. Teach others to do what you're doing. In other words, Multiply myself. So I said, OK. Not that I wanted to create clones of myself. So that's why then I created the Adult Chair Coaching Certification Program and then the Master Coaching Program, Because I really wanted to create people that could do this work and do the type of coaching that I was doing with clients, Because it's unique. It's in between therapy and coaching and teaching. It's like a hybrid kind of thing that I teach in the Adult Chair Coaching Program. So yeah, So building all of that was hard. And yeah, I can give you specific examples, But I fell on my face way more times than just once and even twice. But I kept getting up and I kept walking forward and I kept getting up and walking forward. And it's because I had that mission. I was like, Oh, I need to help the world heal. Like, I'm one person. And I know there are, I'm not saying it's just me, For God's sake, But I'm one person and I want to contribute to the healing of this planet. I want to end suffering on this planet. So yeah, I know that's a very long answer to your question, But yes. Well, You've had a very complex and long building of this company so far. So it makes sense. But I want to touch on what you just said at the end. And I've heard you say this before, That there's so much unnecessary suffering happening. Can you talk more about what do you mean by that? And how can we shift ourselves away from that unnecessary suffering? Yeah, I do say that. I've said that for years, That we unnecessarily suffer. And I say that because I did. And I say that because I worked with, I mean, At this point in time, Thousands of people that are suffering. And I say unnecessarily. And what I mean by that is we have a really hard time sometimes in life because we just don't have the tools. We don't know where to turn. We don't know where to go. So what I felt really a passion for was to provide tools and help for people that are suffering. So for example, If you're stuck in a relationship and you just don't know where to turn, Like I don't know what to do. You know, That's why I have produced several podcasts on healthy relationships and what you do. That's why I created the relationship course. Like this is what I'm talking about. I think that we suffer unnecessarily. I certainly did. I mean, In college, I was a mess. I looked pretty on the outside. I could put my hair together and my makeup and I had the boyfriend and everything was great. But inside, I was depressed. I was drinking a ton. I was getting high every day. It was like bad. But you would have never known it if you met me. I was suffering. I was depressed. I was absolutely depressed and I was anxious. It was on my insides and everyone looks at the outside and they project how great they think our lives are. But when I was in college, It was not like that. And I was suffering big time. I really suffered and I didn't know what to do. So I think about as I create so much of my content, I think back to myself, My younger self. But I also again, I think about so many clients when they've come into me and said, I just don't know what to do. I'm really stuck or my relationship is ending or I don't know how to set a boundary and it's really hurting me and I don't know what to do. So that is what I mean by we unnecessarily suffer. We just don't have the right tools. And when we do or guidance, That suffering, It starts to lift is what I have found. Yeah. And you have this energy and this light about you pretty much all the time. And you talk about so many different topics and a lot of which are sort of what's the word like shadowy or maybe uncomfortable, Hard for us as humans to sit with. But you do it in such a way that makes it makes me feel like change is attainable. And you just said in a recent video that change doesn't necessarily take years. It doesn't necessarily take months. Change can happen in moments. Can you speak more about what that means and where that belief comes from for you? Yeah, For sure. Change can happen in a moment. And it's when we learn and when we learn, Number one, Like, What is the ego? I think about, You know, In the adult chair model, It's like, What's your adolescent chair? Like, Who's in there? Like, What comes up for you? Which we've got the inner critic. We've got the judger. We've got the part of us that wants to be right. And you're always wrong. We've got all of those parts. So when we learn about ourselves and how we're showing up in the world, We are and when we're living more in this adult chair perspective, Which is that conscious perspective. For example, I know with my husband, This just happened just the other day. I can tell you this. He and I were having a conversation and he was really triggered by something. And he was like, Well, You this and you this and you this. He's going on and on. And I said, OK, Thank you for sharing. In that moment, I was able to not react. The old me would have reacted. The old me would have screamed. The old me would have gotten in a fight. The old me. But we've done and I've done a lot of work around learning my egoic parts, My defenses, My control. I know what those parts look like. And I know now because I have so much energy in my adult chair, I can reel them in. And it is about choice in that moment. So in that moment, I made the decision. I thought, I'm going to let him go because everyone needs a safe place to vent. Isn't that true? Who doesn't need a safe place to vent? Everybody needs a safe place to vent, Even if that person is projecting on me. Because ultimately, I know so deep in my soul and every single fiber of my being, If you are pissed at me and you are angry and you are yelling and screaming at me, It's not because I've done something wrong, Mean or to provoke that anger. I know how triggers work backwards and forwards. And I know if you are doing that to me, If you're sharing all that and screaming at me, It's not mine. It's not mine because I don't show up with my friends or my family or any human to be treated that way, Number one. And I've had a friend that, Oh, My God, She raged on me one day. And in my body, I said to my and my thoughts were like, I'm so glad she's raging. She was never able to do that with her own family. Get it out, Honey. I'm saying that to myself. So in those moments, These are these little choices that we make. And then later, You could talk to people about it. And then, You know, Graham and I talked about it. It was fine. We talked it through. And guess what? He thanked me. I said, Here's my perspective. Later, You know, That was not my stuff. It's yours. You're triggered. And the way you're speaking to me, I knew it was yours. My friend, Same thing. So these are the little moments where we in that split second, You have a decision. Now, If someone's screaming and yelling in my face and it's uncomfortable or scary, You better believe it. I'm going to walk away. But if it's someone that I know very well and I know that they're triggered and I know they're going through something and I know they're not going to strike me or do anything crazy, Then I'm going to sit there and go and be with it because we don't have people like that that we can do that with. And that is a very healing process. And I know that's hard for people. I really get that that's hard. But that is what I mean. That's an extreme one, Really, Of these little moments. But when we get to know the egoic part of who we are and how those parts of us show up, We have the ability to make a choice. And that choice feels like, Hmm, Am I going to go left or right? I'm going to say this or not say this. Am I going to sit for a moment and take a deep breath? I'm going to jump into something else. That's what I mean by those little baby, Those little tiny moments. And it can change your life. I find that so interesting because what I'm hearing is it's a choice and it happens in the moments that aren't necessarily very comfortable. It's not like a dreamy, Sunny, Easy, You know, On a beach like experience. It's in a really hard moment that you're making that decision to step further or stay in your presence or your adult chair. Yeah, Well, Here's the thing. You've got to make the decision that you want to hold that what I call the higher self state or sit in your adult chair state, Whatever you want to call. I want to sit in the seat of consciousness. And we talked earlier about the downloads, Right? I want nothing or no one out there outside of Michelle to disconnect me or pinch the hose off from getting these downloads. These downloads are simply a result of staying very connected to source, To God, To the higher self, To your spirit guides, Whatever you want to call it. It's all the same. It's all up there. It's a very divine guidance. No doubt about it. I don't ever hear anything scary or fearful. It's always higher guidance. So I have committed. I said this to myself probably three or four years ago, Maybe five years ago. I said, I just dedicated. I said, I will not let anything out there disconnect me from myself. I just won't do it. So I really check myself. And now am I perfect at this? No, I'm still human. Please don't think I'm perfect. I am not. But I work my butt off to stay connected to myself. So I don't, I really sit. Oh, I just had someone come at me the other day again. Someone was so ticked at me and they're going to come after me and all this. And I sat there and I stood up and I put my hand on my heart and on my belly and I said, OK, I might need to hire an attorney. Let me take a deep breath. Because I wanted the old Michelle from 20 years ago would have blown her lid and been even 10 years ago swearing and screaming and I'm going to mess all this stuff. I'm like, That's not who I am anymore. I don't choose to be that. That's that's leaking my energy all over the place that doesn't serve me. I don't want stress hormones in my body. No, I'm keeping my cortisol down like I'm so committed and I want to keep the connection to self. So I just took some deep breaths because I'm like, I got to keep that connection no matter what. That's my goal. Yeah, That's so important and a perfect segue into my this question I've been meaning to ask. So on the topic of staying connected to yourself and making choices in alignment with yourself, Even though they're hard, I want to talk about back in 2023. You told me this is prior to me coming on board, But you had to dismantle your entire company and it seems like it came from inside. It wasn't because something went horribly wrong. It was just something that you needed to do. Can you talk about that experience? Yeah, That was one of those moments. That was the second moment when I wanted to walk away and I want to go back and even talk about the first moment, Which was in 2019. But but in 2019, I had hired a market, A bigger marketing for a company to come in. I had saved up all my money in my business account when I was a therapist and a coach. And I said, I'm so excited, I'm going to hire this company to really elevate the brand. And this is when the membership was launching and we were just really going places like the company was really starting to take shape. We were starting to I was starting to create a company, Let's say. And I was like, OK, This needs to be more than just me seeing one on one. This is why I'm building all this out. So I had hired her, This company. And oh, My gosh, It was an absolute nightmare. I could give so many examples. It was horrific. I was up every night. I was losing sleep. I was crying all the time. I was like, I can't get out of this damn contract. It was a horrible experience. And I remember when the contract was over, I said, I am done. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm exhausted. Putting this work out into the world is way too difficult. I'd saved my money. It was a lot of money. I'd saved up all this money and I finally invested it in this company. I was so excited. And then it was horrific and I was trapped because I couldn't get out. And at the end, I said, Oh, My God, I just wasted all that money. And I went out to and there was a. I was he was an entrepreneur. My husband knew him very well. Multi-millionaire. And he consulted with businesses. And I said to my husband, I said, I need to go out and meet with Richard. I'm hanging everything up. I'm going to go back to just to see clients one on one. I don't want to do anything else. I don't even want to do this podcast anymore. I'm done. I am done. This is all costing too much money. Nobody cares. Yada, Yada, Yada. And I went out with Richard and I told him my whole story and I told my experience. At the end of breakfast, I said, So this is why I'm going to cancel my entire business. I don't want to do it anymore. I'm just going to go back to doing one on one clients. He looked at me and he said. How much money did you lose? I said, I lost, I said, In addition to all the traveling that I did and all this stuff, I said, You know, 40000 dollars, If not more, I said, Because there's so much I had to invest on top of paying them probably 50000. I said it was just it was a crazy amount of money because I and I was so proud of myself for saving. It was all gone. And he looks at me and he said. So what? You're an entrepreneur. He said, Entrepreneur, This happens to entrepreneurs. You can be like the ninety five percent that quit or you can be like the five percent that go on. What are you going to do? He goes, Michelle, I'm worth I can't remember how many millions I just I don't even remember. It was millions. He says, If I lost it all tomorrow, Do you think I would quit? And I said, I don't know. And he goes, Never, Because I love what I do. He says, I would just go make it back again. And I thought, Oh, I remember driving home. I was like, OK. And I sat there, I said, I am an entrepreneur and I will keep going. And he turned it around. I said I got back up and it was like I brushed myself off and I let all that go. I can't carry the amount of money that I lost. I can't do that. I'm just moving on. Move on, Move on, Move on. And I did. So that was 2019. And then I hired from that point. I started hiring people. A lot of people to help me run the membership, To help me run the back end. I had two administrative assistants. I had a coaching, The adult chair coaching program I launched. I had a master program. We had, I mean, So many different things that I was launching and creating. I love to create content and get it out into the world. And I'm creating all this stuff. And the company is growing very fast. We're getting, You know, All this stuff was happening. And I realized after three or four years with, You know, I think we had 10 people, You know, Whether they be, Some were full-time, Some were part-time, Some were contractors. And throughout the whole year of 2023, I said, Something feels really wrong. I could feel it in 2022. I said, I don't like, It was a chain of commands. It was a whole bunch of different things within the company. It just didn't feel right. And again, I follow the energy. I said, Something's not right. I was growing in this way. And it was just a lot of personalities. And we started clashing. And I'm like, But I love these people. And I don't know what to do. And again, I've had no training as a leader and entrepreneur. I'm like literally fumbling through this whole thing, But learning. And I'm hiring mentors to help me. I'm reading books. But this was an overall intuition, I have to say. It was, Again, The downloads coming through saying something's got to change. Everything has to change. Everything has to change. The money was going, Like the money was coming in and going out because I'm paying all these people. I'm like, There's a lot of people I got to pay. It was a whole thing. And I realized it needed to collapse to be rebuilt in a much stronger way. And I kept saying, I feel like we've built this beautiful airplane, But it won't fly. Like it's got to fly. It's not flying the way I know it can fly. So yeah, So at the end of 2023, I said, I got to let everybody go. And it was a voice that was so clear that kept coming in and saying to me, We're done. Shut it down. I'm like, Shut it down. No. It's almost like we hit the reset button. So I did one by one. I started letting people go. And I, It was so much grief and sadness that I had because I didn't want to, Because I loved these people that I worked with. I loved them. We had so much fun together, But I also knew something was really off. And yeah, And something I kept hearing, I heard one day in the shower, You know, The shower is like the place where they say, This is where God talks to you and your higher self comes in the spirit. You know, The holy angels will talk to you. They do. And I was in the shower and I remember I was crying and I couldn't breathe. And I said, I can't run. I don't even know how to send an email out. And I'm thinking, I'm letting all these people go one by one. This is insanity. And I also had this huge, Overwhelming feeling, Trust everything, Trust this. And it was in my heart. And I said, OK, I'm trusting it. I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm moving on. I have to let you go. And I'm letting you go. And then this person left. And then this person goes, Oh, My gosh, I can't believe it. My husband's moving and I got to move. So now I can't work for you. And I was like, The people I was going to keep ended up having to leave. Wow. And I was like, Are you guys kidding me? You guys meaning my spirit guides and God. I was like, Are you kidding me? So I remember it was it was a fascinating journey because when I was in the moment and I was truly in the present moment, I was peaceful and calm and I would laugh and say, This is the biggest cosmic joke. I don't even know how to send an email yet. We're dismantling everything. And then when I would go into the future, And this is why I love this model, The adult chair, Because the moment I would shift my attention in the future or the past, I would collapse and cry. In the moment, Though, I was like, I could feel the truth in all of it and that everything was going to be perfect. Anyway, I was in the shower one day and I heard clear as clear as a bell. And I still cling to this. I couldn't breathe. I was like, I can't believe all of these people. I mean, Everyone's I'm cleaning the slate with this company so I can rebuild in a very different way. And I heard and I said, OK, God, Spirit guides, Angels, I don't know who's out there, But I don't know that I can do this. This is really hard for me. And they said and I said, I need someone to help me turn this the Titanic around. This is not good. Clear as a bell. I heard. We don't want you to turn the Titanic around. We want you to sink it and climb into a catamaran. Keep going. I was like, Whoa, I clung to that. And I just and it was the greatest experience of living in the moment or living in the past and the future and then going back to the moment and then going to the past and future because the anxiety, I will tell you, Only lives in past and future, Because in the moment I was so freaking calm. It was crazy. Anyway, Long story short, One by one, Different people started showing up and said, Oh, I'm looking for something right now. And and it's another I mean, I felt like I had a wonderful team. I had an amazing team before. So I thought and I did. And now I have a different team and we're all just it's an amazing company now. And it was before, But it's just different now. And I don't regret any of it. It was such a learning curve for me. It was needed. And I've stepped into such a different leader. I'm stronger. I'm more empowered. I'm clear. I've learned so much about boundaries. I've retired from workaholic mode, Although you might say, Well, You do work a lot, Michelle. I do. But everything is set up so that I can take time away. I couldn't take time away before. I just had lunch today with somebody. I remember the old team like we would never take time away from the office during the day. Now I'm able to do that. I'm able to breathe. I'm able to live and I'm able to build this company. And it feels so good. So it's a very different experience. But yeah, I had so many learnings throughout that process. I wouldn't change it for anything. So much change. But it was led from here, Not from here. Nope. All from my heart and my body. And it would lead me. And my head would get in the way and say, Are you out of your mind? And you can tell when your ego's in the way because it starts speaking so fast. And my ego would come in and go, Oh, My gosh. I'd go chin up completely. Like, I can't believe we're doing this. This is insane. How are you going to run a coaching program? How are you going to send an email? It was the biggest thing for me. It was like, How do you send an email? I'm like, I don't know. And then all of a sudden, Someone that I had worked with previously, We bumped into each other. What do you know online? And it was so just synchronistic. And it was the biggest lesson in letting go of control. Like, Truly, It was letting go, Like dropping the reins of the horse and allowing life to show up with the right people at the perfect time. It could not have. Michelle Chalfant could not have planned this or done this in any other way. And everything like one by one, People kept showing me go, Oh, I can do that. I know how to do that. Oh, My God, I'd love to do that job for you. Yes, I have the time. OK, Here we are today. And it's stronger than ever. I'm so proud of where we are today. And the plane is actually flying now all around the world. And it feels so great. We're doing the first our first adult chair coaching program this May in London. Like everything is really I knew that the energy of the adult chair and this movement really wanted to expand in much bigger ways. And it's happening. This is the year it's already happening. So it's just really fun. I love the topic of intuition and the surrender that comes with that. So I want to ask you after, You know, A decade of the adult chair podcast, The adult chair model, You changed the name of your show to the Michelle Chalfant show. Can you talk about what that sudden shift was? Where did that come from and why? Yeah. Oh, Good question. Let's see. So it felt like an evolution, More of an identity for me. You know, I had written the adult, The adult chair came out in May of 2025. And along the way of writing, It was interesting. This model is such a core of everything that we do. But in writing, I realized how much I had from an identity perspective, Had expanded into more of my name. And the podcast had become more than just the adult chair, Which felt limited, Where what I talk about is so much more and bigger than the adult chair. So it felt like this almost like an expanded identity shift. So now it's called the Michelle Chalfant show. Michelle Chalfant show life from the adult chair versus only the adult chair. And I've said, Yeah, It's just again, It came through me. It was an energy that came through and said, It's just time. It's time for a shift. It's time for it's an evolution. It's it's almost as if someone if someone gave you like a name that didn't feel aligned with who you were and you change your name, That's how it felt. Because for all these years, It felt like the adult chair to me. And then it just felt like it's time to change the name. So we did. I love it. I love the the story of just like stepping more into yourself and your voice and your name and the expansion and the evolution. Can we talk briefly about the pillars and can you maybe share what pillar has been the most difficult for you personally? Oh, Yes. I love it. Yeah. So the pillars for me came from, You know, 25, 30 years of working with people and they would I realized these five pillars, This is what I taught all my clients over and over and over and over and over again. For me, The pillar that was the hardest and the most transformational over the last I'm going to say because I went hardcore with this probably over the last 15 years was triggers. You know, Anyone that listens to me on a regular basis knows that I say triggers are a gift. Triggers are a gift. And I say that because I've walked the walk of truly understanding what triggers really, Truly are and then how you work with them and how they can truly transform your life. Triggers show you your unknown, Unconscious beliefs that were planted inside of you that here's the thing, You made these up in childhood. Most of our core beliefs are from when we were zero to six years old. This all happens during the time when we're in the child chair. So when you're triggered, Those beliefs are revealed if you're willing to look at them. So for me, That was the hardest because let's face it, Owning and when you're triggered, It feels horrible. And then having to turn inward and ask yourself, Wow, How is this for me? Or what's coming up for me around this trigger? And it's not pointing the finger itself. It's that we look towards self with curiosity knowing this is why it's a gift because that trigger is revealing an unknown or unconscious part of who we are. It's an old wound. It's an old what I call program or belief, Mostly from zero to six. So to me, It's a fabulous way to really learn who you are and what your blocks are. When I started really going hardcore again, It was probably in my early 40s, Like hardcore with triggers because I said, You know what it was actually when I think back on it, When I moved to Nashville, When I was 40 years old, I was when I moved to Nashville, It was really hard. I was not accepted right away and I was really lonely and all this grief was coming up and all these triggers. And I kept turning toward and turning toward. And I look back over the years, I'm so stable now, Emotionally speaking. I know I just, I'm a different, People tell me all the time, You're such a different person than when I knew you before. I'm like, Yeah, I'm just, I'm embodied. My nervous system is more, It's a regulated nervous system and I was not regulated in my 20s for sure. 30s again, I was already doing a lot of personal work in my 30s, But yeah. So triggers for me, That was a game changer. And I love triggers because within trigger work are all the other pillars. So you've got to learn self-compassion. You got to learn how to feel your emotions. You have to learn how to own your stuff and own your reality. And then of course you learn boundaries. So it's all built within the whole trigger process. Which is exactly why I created, I just recently created for people, It's a free trigger kit. It's like kind of like an emergency kit, A first aid kit. Like people need a trigger kit because I've worked with triggers for so many years with people and they're like, Yeah, This changed my life. I'm like, Let me just give it to you. So I have a free trigger kit for everybody that, Or anybody that wants it and needs it. And if you apply the steps to working with a trigger, It will change. I promise you, It will change your life. So I am living, Breathing experience right here that when you start working your triggers, Your emotions are more stable. Your mood is stable. You can handle things. Your stress level goes way down. You have more resiliency. And then you add to, Again, When you're working with triggers, You're more compassionate with yourself. It all creates a completely different reality. You will show up in relationships in a different way. You will parent your children in a different way. You will show up with your, I mean, It's just, It's your whole life starts to change. Everything starts to change. So that's why I, They were the hardest things because who the heck wants to look at this stuff, But the more you do it, The easier it gets. It's the hardest thing to look at. And it's the thing that will truly transform your life. That's the thing you got to get to the core. So then you can really correct that. Usually it's early childhood wounding of some sort or a misbelief or program. And you're really updating these programs so that then you can honestly live a life where you can thrive. That is what it did for me, Like really working with triggers. It's one of my favorite things. What an amazing resource again. Yeah. Just as this podcast has been such an incredible resource for, I mean, For me personally, For so, So many people, I mean, 500 episodes over 11 million downloads. Is there anything else you want to say, Michelle? I want to keep celebrating. What else do I want to say? Don't give up. Anyone that's listening, Life can always get easier. It really, Truly can. We are down here as these souls in our human suits, Walking around, Traveling around, Having relationships. Everyone needs to remember we did not come here for a boring life. If everyone looked exactly the same, We were all the same color, Hair color, Skin color, Same height. We all married the same person, Or we all had the same looking friends. We all loved football, Like whatever the heck it is. It would be so incredibly boring. So we come down here. We all look different. We all have different interests. We all like different foods. We get to choose every single day, A different experience, All of it. And it's delicious. Not just the food, But the whole darn life experience. So when we can remember that, That we're connected to something so much bigger than who we are, And it's down here just to play and have fun. But we have these egos, Too, That are here to lead us in a different direction. And when we learn how to manage that ego part and really start learning how to heal these earlier wounding, The earlier wounding that we had, And it really becomes a fun life. It becomes a life with ease. It really does. I remember this was a download. I'm trying to remember it now, Jess. What was it? I said, Oh, This came through in the live teaching I did a couple of weeks ago. The voice came through. God source came through and said, You did not come down here to have an easy life. You did come down here to experience a life with ease. An easy life is, Again, Where you have no hardship, Nothing. It's just nothing, No big deal. Everything's easy, Easy. But when we come down here and we have a life where we do have challenges, Because I don't know of any human that has not had challenges. Some have a lot more than others. We all have challenges, Though. We can learn to have a life of ease when we learn how to navigate those challenges in a different way. And what I say is when we learn how to live in our adult chairs, Man, That's when everything starts to turn around. It did for me. And it's, Again, This is what I've been teaching for 12, 13 years now. So, Yeah, And then some like in so much more. So, Yeah, There is a way to have a life with greater ease. And you know what? It's all about us. It's never to blame self, But it is about tapping into that part of you that's very much alive. I'm not the only one down here that has downloads, That has this heart that's ready to be connected to and intuition. We all have that. And, Yeah, You'll feel very divinely guided when you check in and tune into that part. And, Yeah, Life gets easier. Thank you so much, Michelle. This was great. And, Yeah, I can't say it enough that this podcast has just been such a gift. It has impacted so many people. Thank you. Thank you. And I also want to reiterate that this is not the last podcast episode. Oh, Gosh, No. There's many more coming. Yeah, I want to thank you today and my whole team for all that you guys do to make this podcast possible, Honestly, And get it out into the world. Thank you, Jess, And thank you, Everyone else on my team that's going to listen to this for sure. But also, I want to thank all of you that listen. It really, It means a lot, And it tells me that maybe you like some of the stuff we're putting out. So thank you for that. We always love suggestions and ideas about future shows that you want to hear from me or guests. So, Yeah, Make sure that you're messaging on social or emailing in. We love hearing from you. We love your feedback. We love five-star reviews. So wherever you're listening, That would be amazing. Five-star review. There is my peek into my life. Yeah. Life is sometimes not that easy. So, But you keep going. We do keep going. So I hope this show helps you do that. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you, Jess. Thank you, Everyone. Thank you, Michelle.

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Congratulations on 500 episodes Michelle!

Thank you so much! 😊🙏🌟💚