Episode 59: Unleashing Your Inner Wild Woman with Michelle Etchison

Michelle Etchison is a business coach, self-expression guide, and breathwork facilitator. She’s on a mission to liberate women entrepreneurs. From the bedroom to the newsfeed, her clients shed “good girl” conditioning & reconnect with the wild seductress within.

Transcript

Michelle: And just recognizing how going on that journey with my sensuality opened a door to money and wealth identity and claiming that for myself as an Asian woman as well. So, it's just funny looking back to my own story and recognising like, all these pieces just kind of fell together in a way. And like, looking back on, past Michelle with such gratitude that she was willing to go to those places. Because sometimes they're sticky and crunchy and itchy and every part of you is run the other direction.

Emily: Thank you so much for sharing that because it really is true. There's so much reconciliation and identity work that we get invited into when we wanna step into more pleasure. When we wanna step into more wealth.

Hello, beautiful souls. Today's episode is so, so good. And before we jump in, I have some exciting news to share. If you've ever wondered where you're blocking money, this is for you. I've created a free quiz to diagnose your money wounds. So you can heal them and unblock yourself to receive more money. Just go to money wounds quiz.com and answer six quick questions to get your insanely accurate and potent results. And if you're loving my vibe and want to work one on one to call in more feminine energy wealth, I would love to hear from you. You can shoot me a DM on social media or go to emilywilcox.com  to learn more.

Hello and welcome back to the Em Makes Money show. I am so excited for today's episode. I have Michelle Etchison joining me. She is a business coach, self-expression guide and a breathwork facilitator. She's on a mission to liberate women entrepreneurs. From the bedroom to the newsfeed, her clients shed good girl conditioning and reconnect with the wild seductress within. The result, more money, more influence, and way more pleasure. Michelle, welcome to the show. 

Michelle: Thank you so much for having me, like, even as you were just started talking, I just instantly felt my heart's face expand. I just felt this like a rush of energy, just getting to be in the room with you today based in our sacred time. So thank you for having me. Thank you for that beautiful introduction. 

Emily: You are welcome. I'm so happy that you're here and actually for everyone listening, I would recommend watching this one on YouTube. If you feel so inclined because Michelle, you're such an embodiment of your work, anyone who follows you on social media, which will make sure that they have the links. You're always dancing like a wild woman  on Instagram. Reels and then just to see you before we even hit record, you're like, this feels so good, my heart's open. I can't wait to be here. Just so fun to see the congruency, like you are who you are. And then the fact that you really help other women embody their unique, self-expression just feels like such a gift.

Michelle: Thank you so much for that reflection. That means the world. Even just like what you said, it's like you are, if you are, my soul is, receiving that so deeply. 

Emily: And I'm curious if that has always been true or was there a time when, like you sort of knew you had this inner wild woman, but she was all locked up and you had thrown away the key, or you only gave her like a few little safe spaces to express herself in your life.

Michelle: First of all, you like, nailed it right there. Absolutely used to be the case in that there was this inner wild and there was this inner seductress, but she was scared and she very much was under the lock and key. And actually just to like go back in time for a second here, I actually originally started my business back in 2018. It was, and I was a nutritionist. Believe it or not I tell people that and they discarded my business as a nutritionist. Well through my own journey with healing onto immune disease. That's what kind of led me down that, like real food path. But the thing that I realized about a year into my business, I was like, this is my inner good girls' business.

This nutritionist is running. This is the safe path for me. Because being a nutritionist felt like a normal enough job. Right? I don't know, like you go to the dentist and they ask like, what do you do? You're like, I'm a nutritionist and they get it. Versus if you go to the dentist. You're like, what do you do?

And you're like, I help women unleash their secret, to love and embrace their impression online. They're like, and I was scared to be that person to open a new conversation, to be the person, to make people kind of, like lean in a little bit. What is this woman saying? I was scared to that part of my truth. And so the first evolution of my business was very much this inner wild woman was under the lock and key, and even an example, it's dropping through like tangibly. 

What that looked like in my business, for example, would be like. I would go to record Instagram stories or something like that. And I would like, pick up my phone, like, Hey guys, LA LA LA LA LA, the things, but I would sit there and then I'd rerecord it again because I just, I didn't feel comfortable in my own skin. I didn't feel safe in my own body, I didn't feel embodied in my own voice. And therefore there was always that perfectionist thread of needing to make it look right or get it. And there was this lack of just realness and rawness and truth in my business, even though there certainly were many threads of truth, it was like there was a, a little veil over the top of it. People were getting a filtered version of me versus. The version of me that I am now all of me. 

Emily: Well, I suspect, like you were getting a filter version of you too, so it wasn't like you were fully self-expressed at home and then you turn on Instagram and all of a sudden you're buttoning it up. It's like you had to learn and create safety for that, for yourself and you're married. So, I'm curious. What this journey was like for your husband? Did he always know the inner wild woman or was he like, oh wow!  I got a really different deal of an I bargained for. 

Michelle: I love this question so much. My partner, his name is Neil, and that's funny because I think we've been together for 11 years now. A long time we met in high school, little nuggets, but it was this funny thing where he like met the perfectionist, like, high achieving college version of me. He met the, the sick version of me, where it felt like I was just this shell of the person that I once was when I had a little autoimmune crisis. And he kind of saw this retreat into this version of myself that he couldn't recognize, and it was scary. And then the pendulum kind of swung the other way. And as I healed, all of a sudden it was being a little more wild. I was like dancing in the dark. I'm screaming and like raging or doing anything that sounds like I'm being murdered. Don't worry, honey. I'm fine. 

I think for him, he was a bit surprised at first that there was this very sensual creature that lived within me. I think he was a bit surprised. And even, I know when I started to unleash more of that online and started to share a little bit more of my central expression on Instagram, there was a few moments of friction in our relationship where he was. Are you gonna share that? Isn't that too intimate? Isn't that, just for me? For example, if I was dancing in a piece of lingerie at that moment, he had this almost protective, but also he admitted like kind of like a possessive energy of no, like that body and that lingerie, like that's only for me, that's only for us, like how could you put that online? And so it definitely, we got to navigate beautiful activating and triggering moments together where he, I give him just the utmost credit that he just with such grace and compassionate and love shared his trigger. And his experience of witnessing my evolution and growth, but at the same time, he was like, I'm triggered, but I'm also proud of you, like holding, you know, the polarity of both. And it was actually really beautiful to witness him kind of grapple with the version of me that he thought he knew. And then the different person that he was like, I don't think I know who this version of you is, but I'm actually, once I got over the initial trigger, I'm like, I'm really excited to get to know her. She's power attractive, she's magnetic. My God, I didn't know that that's who I'm married. But I think he was genuinely just so supportive every step of the way. 

Emily: I love that so much. And it's a testament to the fact that when feminine desire leads, it's an invitation for the sacred masculine to rise. And I think there probably was an element to him of unsafety because there is for women too. One of the wounds that we have to heal, if we want to step into more self-expression is the very legitimate ancestral trauma, not to mention any lived trauma that tells us that is not safe to take up a lot of space, to be loud, to be overtly sexual, like that will get you the wrong kind of attention and will have very dire consequences.

Michelle: As you spoke that I just, I got chilled. I feel that on every level of my being, and I definitely feel like, and as you were speaking, what was dropping through is even thinking about my journey. And it's funny, like even the, just the connection between the central expression and my world and the money expression, the wealth identity expression, they were so intimately tied together. And I remember for me, one of the biggest pieces to allowing that like, central seductress wild woman to come alive was actually a lot of healing with my grandmother, my Korean grandmother, my home. And I just remember when I would like, dance in the dark. Because I didn't feel safe to dance in the light yet or posted on social media yet.

I remember thinking of her and thinking that she is rolling over in her grave. She's gonna be so disappointed in me. If I put this out there, she's gonna be thinking we move to this country so that you could do this so that you could be this grace to our family. And I was just like this very visceral, just almost like this fear of being hated by my own lineage, by my own Korean heritage. And I was already in this kind of reconciliation with my identity and my race and my heritage that it just, to me, it felt like I was taking two steps forward and like starting to learn the Korean language and, and be in that space. Well, simultaneously I felt am I taking two gigantic steps backward by expressing in a way that is deeply and congruent with what is traditionally Korean culture and Korean heritage. And so a really big piece of allowing my central expression to come forward was reconciling with the guilt and the shame that I felt was coming from my bloodline and, such a deep, such a powerful journey to go on.

But again, just recognizing. How going on that journey with my sensuality opened a door to money and wealth identity and claiming that for myself as an Asian woman as well. So it was just funny looking back on my own story and recognizing like, all these pieces just kind of fell together in a way and like, looking back on, past Michelle with such a gratitude that she was willing to go to those places. Because sometimes there's sticky and crunchy and itchy. And every part of you is the run the other direction, but right. That, like moment of self leadership where you step in and you're like, I'm gonna be the one to go first here  and it was.

Emily: Thank you so much for sharing that because it really is true. There's so much reconciliation and identity work that we get invited into when we wanna step into more pleasure. When we wanna step into more wealth, when we really wanna permanently change our lineage and our family tree. There is something scary about that because we're saying I'm gonna do it differently. I'm gonna go first. And while we might feel like we're honoring where we came from and using it to reach new heights. Others may not feel that way or at least initially. And so we have to be brave enough to go first and just do it, even if everyone else thinks that we're crazy and then hope they come around.

Michelle: That was definitely part of the journey is, learning to be okay with people thinking that I had just lost my marbles, that I was absolutely crazy, insane, weird out there. And there's something so magical when you can. Kind of like drop those last remaining fucks and just yourself,  just your full self, but it does like you, I think you said this before, it does take a lot of that sourcing safety within yourself that I choose myself. If other people don't choose me, I'm still gonna be okay. Really anchoring that in for myself. 

That was, I think one of the biggest pieces that actually created that space for evolution to happen was just, like ruthlessly having my own that, at end, like every single part of me, like my inner child, my inner perfection. It's my inner people. Please are all these different parts. Just like with my full every cell of my body on board with a look, I know that we're terrified. I know that we're scared. I know that my inner child is scared to be seen. I know my interper perfection is just scared to get it wrong. I know my inner people believe there is terrified of that one person being like, I don't like you, but letting each chart know. And that's okay. 

Emily: I don't think this gets talked about enough, but reclaiming our role and our ability to parent and create a safe space for the inner child and all of the different ways that that expresses and making a fearless commitment to have your own back. And I remember when I started doing the inner child work saying like, I will never abandon you. I have got you forever. There is nothing you could ever do or say that would change that. And it still brings tears to my eyes saying it now, because there's something so healing about that because the truth is we have abandoned ourselves in the past. You freaking psycho. Why did you do that? Why did you say that thing in front of the cute boy? And so really to just be like, you know what, now, like we can get it wrong. Space to mess up. It doesn't matter. Whatever we do or say, I've got you. I choose you. We're good. 

Michelle: When you speak, I'm like woo. Chills. I felt like the tears starting to go in my eyes as well, because I love that you used the word abandoned, that word like, popped into my head as well. And I think one of the pieces was forgiving myself for all the times that I had abandoned myself because you're day after day, time after time. That one moment when you bit your tongue, when you didn't speak up and say the thing that you wanted to say, that one moment you even like, saw an injustice happening and you didn't say anything cause you were too scared to bring attention to yourself or get it wrong. Or the one time when, like you said, even if it's a small thing where you like, abandon yourself over a cute boy at school, it doesn't matter. 

It's all those small moments recognizing and making that devotion and commitment of every single time I ever bit my tongue in the past. It fueled this fire of abandoning myself and recognizing that for so many of us. That's our default. We are bolted into something's happening in our life. Okay. Put everyone else first abandoned myself and it, it actually can take some kind of like, almost like titrating in your nervous system. Getting used to what it feels like, what it looks like, what it tastes like to actually choose yourself and put yourself first. And I know for me, it was journey of becoming comfortable with no longer abandoning myself, which sounds it's like, that sounds so weird in a way, but it is this journey of getting comfortable with choosing yourself, having your own back when so many of us did not grow up in that kind of environment or in that kind of space.

Emily: Well, I honor the hell out of you because I feel like the way you show up is such a permission slip to so many women that you can show up self-expressed that when you choose yourself, when you decide I'm good enough for me and what I have to say matters. And my way of being in the world matters, it sets so many other women free. I'm positive of that. 

Michelle: Oh yes. I know. And I feel like that's also one of the pieces that in a way. Of course, we do it for ourselves first, but recognizing that beautiful ripple effect of simply you showing up as more of yourself is the walking, breathing permission slip for other women to see you perhaps at first, be like, who does that bitch think she is to do that? But then very quickly coming around to say, well, if she can do a wide. Why couldn't I? 

Emily: So, of course I wanna talk about money and we've been alluding to the ways that money is so intricately tied into sexual shame and sexual expression and exploring pleasure. And I actually have a theory about this that I'd love to share with you while we wouldn't wish it upon ourselves. I think as women to have a lot of sexual shame and guilt and conditioning around what's appropriate. You get to be a little bit sexual and you get to desire it a little bit, but only in the confines of a monogamous heterosexual relationship and only in the ways that your husband enjoys. And, and if anyone took it from you without your permission, you are now damaged and all of this.

Heavy, we would not wish that upon ourselves. And yet the silver lining is that when we heal this also so much money can come. Could you imagine if we put together a program for men that was like, have more orgasms, make more money? It wouldn't work. It would not work for men. Pleasure is not the portal to more money, for women when we heal our relationship with our desire, with our sexuality, with our pleasure and the byproduct of that is, by the way, money can start flowing to you.

Incredible supplies that you never would've imagined. It's like, well, alright. That is actually kind of cool that we can orgasm our way to more money. 

Michelle: Oh my God, Emily. I love theories so much and it rings so true. 

Emily: So, tell me about your journey with money and pleasure and like how it's been intertwined. 

Michelle: My body's like dancing right now. 

Emily: Let's do this. We're ready. 

Michelle: It's funny. So for me, again, like towards the beginning of my business, and even just to, like backtrack for a second. Actually my partner and I had this interesting dynamic where I live in Michigan. I moved to Michigan with him after college because he had a job and I didn't know what I was doing with my life.

And then almost instantly upon moving here, I got sick. I didn't get a job, which was the, our original plan was for me to get a job as well. And so for the first couple years of being together, my partner exclusively paid all of our bills. He paid our rent, he bought our groceries and I felt a lot of guilt and a lot of shame around that of not being able to take care of us as well.

But for me, it was then this journey through, out of immune where, when you're in survival mode, when you're just like, I need to survive this moment. And then the next. I need to exist for this day. And then the next pleasure is in another galaxy. Hasn't exist for me at that time in my life, pleasure was not something that I even felt safe to access, nor did it feel like anything that was at the forefront of my mind. So, I started my business in this place of me and pleasure. We're on polar opposite sides of the earth right now. And that showed in my business, in my income. It's funny, I was actually going to write a post about the income that I had for my first year of my business. 

So I have this number on the top of my mind, but I think it was like the first year in our business, we made an income like $3,000, like 3000, I don't know, 51 or something like that. And it was just like, looking back at these different evolutions of my business, I can realize. Wow! Part of the reason that our income was, and again, really wants to disclaim this with any amount of money you make in your business is miracle and worth celebrating. Every penny you've ever made in your business is worth celebrating. Whether you've made also $3,000 in this year, your business or $500 or two sets is just any amount of money is worthy of celebration.

Emily: Totally, the first money is representative of the bravery. The hard work, that 3000. Oh my gosh, what you had to do and become to even claim it. It's like we so honor it. We honor the money and we honor the version of you that made it.

Michelle: Exactly. So, I feel like that piece is really, really deeply important to me, cause I do know sometimes in the coaching world it can just feel like everyone is celebrating the 10K month and the six figure year. And I'm like more of those celebrations and sometimes it can feel like the women who did make the $3,000 a year, it feels like there's no space for me to celebrate embarrassing or that's shameful or like clients wouldn't wanna work with me if they knew that I only that much. So really just right off the bat, dissolving that shame. And like you said, like, go past Michelle. Everything she had to overcome to make that $3,000 in the first year of her business, but looking back and recognizing the reasons of, why did I not make more money and not again, to say that I needed to, but recognizing one of the biggest pieces was there was no pleasure in the room.

Even thinking back to the times of selling and launching in my business. At that time, it was all stress. It was all fear. It was all scarcity of like going to open doors to a program and like the entire launch, just like going to sleep at night, like having troubles. Sleeping being so afraid, like, no one's gonna sign up. Only one person is gonna sign up. That's gonna be embarrassing. And there was just a dissociation with myself and the experience of pleasure versus the tables started to turn the tide started to turn the more and more I heal chronic illness. And again, it's so funny, this, like really dark portal in my life that felt like it just, like sucked everything from me, looking back.

I'm like what a beautiful time in my life that invited me in so much expansion, but part of healing disease in my body was reclaiming pleasure, remembering aggression, and being able to drip in the ecstasy of my fullest expression. And remember this truth of my own voice. One was part of the piece that allowed me to heal disease, but then two was the piece that allowed money to open up because all of a sudden it was, I created more safety in my body to receive love and pleasure, right? And underneath money. Love is pleasure underneath a client, depositing money into your account to work with you. Is another human being saying like, yes, I feel this intuitive knowing I trust you to be my next guide. 

I'm ready to enter into this space of co-creation and love together. And for me, part of what allowed my business to explode it and, and move with this momentum that I had never expected, or even when it arrived, I was like, am I ready for this? Oh my God, it was this like grounded embodied. How do I describe it? It's as if, like, if I place my hands over my wound space, it just felt like there was this portal that was opened to actually be able to feel. Safe to receive versus the start of my business. It was that,, there was like a brick wall with a summit. Wall with a gate around that portal to pleasure. And it's, I could start to slowly dismantle that and break it down and kind of like remove the armor. It was just money and I could become intimate together being this desperate grasping thing. It was just this intimacy relationship with money and identify as a wealthy woman dissolving the guilt that I felt around that. 

Emily: Amen. So how much money do you make now?

Michelle: That's so funny again. I feel like I answer all of your questions with these beautiful stories, but right now we're averaging 10 to 15K in income per month.

And it's really beautiful actually, because. I would say it was maybe last summer, like in the June time when we actually hit our first ever five figure month. And I remember it was such a, again, not to place a lot of emphasis on these like certain milestones that I think a lot of women can beat themselves up over. I haven't hit a 10K month. I'm not a real business yet, and that's just not the truth at all. But I actually remember that in my business earlier this year. I remember there was kind of like a dip in our income where we dip below a five figure month for the first time in seven months, eight months. And I created a story around that being bad and wrong and scary and all the stories and the, all of the mind drama that happens.

But it was actually so beautiful because I currently still do all of my own bookkeeping. And so it's kind of up to me to be checking all that. Going on in our world. And I realized that the, he was back in March, I actually had a miscarriage and it was a time in my business where I deeply took a step back and kind of stopped, actively showing up outwardly in my business. And I recognized looking back, I was like, wow! we crossed the six figure, like not in a calendar year, but in a 12 month period in March as happened. And it just felt like this, describe, it just felt like this deepest gift of my business and money. Saying "we've got you". Were you, it doesn't matter that the income has dipped.

It doesn't matter that, like on paper it looks like there are things that are changing or even creating a story of going backwards and really reclaiming my power and sovereignty around money and business, and as an entrepreneur and allowing myself to celebrate and just be in relationship with all of it. And I just wanna reflect back to Emily. I love that podcast, like we started at the beginning. The fact that you bring in both of these dynamics, let's talk about the limiting stories or let's talk about the energetics of money, but it's like, let's also talk about the tangible that I think can not be a little bit taboo where people are like, I don't wanna share how much I make, or I don't wanna share the kind of safety and just transparency and just beautiful space that you create on this podcast it's really.

Emily: Thank you, thank you.

Michelle: Thank you for allowing me to share.

Emily: My pleasure and it's my own medicine too. I do think that sometimes people project on me that it's so easy for me to talk about my numbers because. I do it. And it's like, I actually meet myself at my growth edge often with that. And so I really honor you for recognizing much earlier on in the journey that all numbers are good numbers. And that they're all worthy of celebrating and that with any milestone, we can choose a healthy perspective or we can choose an unhealthy perspective. And I actually didn't learn that until I had my first a hundred thousand dollars plus cash month. 

So I had been feeling hollow in all the milestones running my agency, but I was like, no,no. This will change when I get to a hundred thousand dollars cash. And like, what do you know? It felt even worse because I had added all this extra meaning to that milestone. Only to get there and not have it feel good, but it's like, here's the thing. Our numbers are always gonna be too small for some people. And they're always gonna be too big for some people and for our soulmate clients, they are just right. It's like Goldilocks, you know, like let's, let's like pick the chair and pick the bed. That feels good. And trust that we get to grow and expand and our audience gets to grow and expand.

Michelle: Yes. I feel like every time I like, I resonate with something I'm like pretty much.

Emily:  Gyrating for anyone who's not watching on YouTube. Michelle is gyrating right now. 

Michelle: I just like what you said, just ranks so true. It is that claiming and that recognition that everything about you, the amount of money you've made in your business, the way that you express yourself, the words that you choose to say everything about you is right for the right people. And I feel like once that starts to click in. Business becomes a lot more free and a lot more fun when you're no longer trying to fit the mold of what you think your clients want you to be, or the amount of money. Your clients think that you need to have made in order to be worthy of hiring you. It's like, I mean, I.

Emily: Totally.

Michelle: Hire coaches who have made less money than me who are newer coaches than me, but it's recognizing money metrics. All those milestones are not a measure of the magnificence and the wisdom that lives within you. And I feel like when we can really anchor that in it's like, I feel like that's the piece when like the floodgates to money start to open because you're no longer fixated on. If then once, then, then I can celebrate. Then I'll be able to.

Emily: Yes. 

Michelle: If then once, then it's like, I just, I see like a, I don't know, like a house of cards, just like collapsing, as soon as we can collapse that house of cards. It's like, we started these businesses to have fun, deliberate ourselves to play, more preciousness. It's like where somehow along the way, I feel like for all of us, I know for myself like that enchantment and delight in money and business can start to, like float away a little bit. And it's just kind of bringing it back, like, pulling it back. And I feel like that's something that you do so beautifully Emily, just even on this project, I'm like, I'm having so much fun talking about money versus. I feel like a couple years ago talking about money was like.

Emily: Throw the chakra.

Michelle: Totally. I was like, probably immediately start what's happening to me, like coughing, like I don't know. What's happening to me? I think I'm choking on my water. 

Emily: And it's like, when we think that we're doing something for money, right?  In the start of your business, you were doing the things that you thought you needed to do to get the money. And by the way, that's fine. There are seasons for that. And yet when we can get to a place where we really align our beliefs and our feelings around the more self-expressed I am, the more money I make, the more I speak my truth, the more money I make, the more I'm willing to step into my power. The more money I make, the more I'm willing to grow and expand and evolve.

The more money I make, the more I'm willing to say. The thing that I'm scared to say that I think is the reason the client won't hire me. The more clients will hire me.

Michelle: Yes. 

Emily: Have you had this? I've had client, you know, it's like when I started coaching, I, so badly. Wanted people to see me as a coach. And yet most of my entrepreneurial career had been as an e-commerce business owner and as an agency owner. And that's where I had most of my success. And I thought, well, if people see me in that identity, then they're not gonna hire me as a coach. Because, whatever the whole story. And then wouldn't, you know, and this is even,like after months of working with certain clients, you know, like I have a client who's an incredible, like psychic medium. And she coaches on mediumship and like brings business. Sensibilities to that industry. And she was like, you know, I don't know if I ever told you this, but part of the reason I hired you is because you had that agency. And I felt like she's a real CEO.

Michelle: Yes. So here you were thinking like. This is part of the reason people won't wanna hire me as a coach. And it was things at opposite.

Emily: Yes. Have you had those moments where like the things you feel disqualify you once you're brave enough to share them? It's actually the thing that magnetizes clients to you?

Michelle: 100%. And actually the first example that dropped into my heart was I remember at the beginning of my business, again, like bringing back like my partnership for a second, I, I felt these kind of threats of shame and embarrassment of like, I'm not a real business. Because I wasn't like working my nine to five job to help support myself. So many other women are like, I had a man standing behind me paying my rent and therefore the money that I've made in my business, is invalid, because it was, you know, made by a man.

Emily: It was subsidized by.

Michelle: I felt so much shame. And recognizing now it's just like, no, that was a gift of support. And I get to own that and honor that. But I remember earlier on in my business, I think maybe like even, it was maybe like two years ago, the first time, maybe even like only a year ago. I can't remember the first time I ever, I think, I think on the post I said something like talking about my fear about earning my partner one and then on the other side, talking about the fact that I felt this guilt and this shame of like, can I really claim myself as this like sovereign business owner when there was someone else's dollar paying my bills as I was building my business. And I remember one like, feeling so much fear around sharing that I was afraid to outward my partner.

Cause I was like, what is this gonna do to our relationship? What is this gonna do to love is me becoming a wealthier woman, going to threaten my relationships. And I remember feeling like. I still remember, like hitting share on this post. I think it was like a graphic that said, like, I'm afraid to outearn my partner or my husband or something like that. And I, and it was like on purple background and I like, you know how sometimes you post something vulnerable and you like hit share, and then you like hit your bone across the road and through your back.

Emily: And run away.

Michelle: Exactly. Not that until tomorrow. That's, that's kind of what I did, but I remember. One of my clients, like when they filled out, I think it was my one to one application. They actually referenced that post and they were like, that post was so expensive because I felt the same, just kind of fear in my dynamic with my husband of, well, I have all these big visions for big money. And if I start making more money than him, is that gonna disrupt our relationship? Is that gonna threaten love? And it was just this kind of moment of recognition of like, wow! And even one other piece that was dropping in and I feel. This is something that I've heard a lot from clients. They were like, Michelle, I was scared of you when I first found you.

I found you to be very scary and not even using the word triggering, but scary. And at first I was like, that's a bad thing. My God, they were scared of me. But then going on to read, it was like, I was scared of you because you represented all of the parts of me that wanted to come alive that were still under lock and heat. And seeing you unfiltered talk about the relationship between sex and money on Instagram, or seeing you talk about your relationship with pleasure or, you know, share about your pleasure toys and different things like that. The pieces where I was like, oh God, this is too much. This is too far. My client's gonna be like, oh my God, she just shared about her, like crystal wand on Instagram.

That's like way too much versus recognizing again, coming back to that idea that our too much. Things that even we think are too much. For those pieces, those human elements that make your soulmate clients think, that is the coach for me. Where has this woman been? All of my life and really gifting, you know, all of us that permission to be too much to share the thing that we're afraid to say, like you said, and I remember a past mentor of mine, refrained money for me. And, and they said something like Michelle, more money in your bank account. Equals more centrally expressed and empowered women in the world. 

For every dollar that's added to your bank account, there are more and more women out there in their central empowerment and expression. And I was like, damn! when I put, when you put it that way, my bank account is a great thing for the world. So I feel like that can be a fun invitation to play with, is thinking about. For anyone listening. I'm curious, even for you, Emily, like what is more money in your bank account equal in the world? And we can put it in though in that way. It, it just feels like a window opens and light pours in. 

Emily: Yes. I love that so much. And thank you for the invitation on the question. That, the first thing that popped into my mind was like, more women set free, like financially, but it's not just financially. It represents so much freedom because I care just as much about how the money comes in as the amount that comes in.

Cause I have made money in the wounded masculine, and it's not as fun. And you burn the fuck out and you feel like you're trading. And so the women in my world are making more money while feeling more ease, more joy, more pleasure. There feeling less division between work and play. And that really matters.

Michelle: Yes, it does. My goodness, as you were speaking again, it's like my heart space. She's just active today, but I felt my heart space, like do like a summer soul or like she, like collapsed in the best possible way of just like the soul sigh of relief. I'm like, thank God. I'm always out there doing this work so that more and more women can feel free. And I love how you said as well, just we also care. We don't just care about the money, we care about the way the money comes in. Not only from our perspective. Are we burning ourselves out? Are we like hustling or are we like blending that just play and fun into our businesses, but also on the flip side of the coin, like thinking about the kind of money that we want to receive and it's like, we wanna receive money. That's like dripping and empowerment and sovereignty. 

Emily: Yes. 

Michelle: We have, like decided to invest in themselves from this, like delicious, juicy place. Even if there was like a little nervousness or fear in the room of like, this is like a big thing that I'm doing here, but receiving money that is drenched in this energy of improvement and sovereignty and just that like, holy fuck. Yes. I'm sending this money out with a prayer for transformation and evolution that I'm claiming for myself that I'm committing to for myself and just that. So, so powerful. 

Emily: Yes. I am not available for any convincing or manipulating to get money.

I want your sovereign. Yes. I want your sovereign dollars because those are the dollars that are going to make an incredible investment make you the ROI of a lifetime. They bring me so much joy as well. And I think for us, this message has continued to like come through, come through, come through.

So I'm just starting to speak it everywhere. We are the women that are changing the paradigm of wealth. On this planet. And what that means is we have to be willing. We have to be brave enough to have the projections of the old paradigm projected upon us. Meaning on our way to wealth. There may be people that judge us that think that we're doing something wrong for the money that we're lying, that it can't be that the money is coming this easily. And if it is coming this easily, then there must be something sketchy happening behind the scenes. We have to be willing to stay the course because how else can a new paradigm be birthed? We get to be the examples of women rising in wealth and power through pleasure, through alignment, through energetics. But only, if we're willing to be brave enough to like walk across the fire of the old paradigm projections. 

Michelle: Yes. And I'm actually, I'm curious for you, Emily, if you've received any projections, but two things like dropped in for me, as you were speaking in. And one was even on my journey to really claiming my wealth identity. I honestly had to unravel a lot of internalized misogyny within myself. Not only just in the, in the pleasure realms of being a woman, who's worthy of being in pleasure, not for some man, not, you know, for them, but purely for me. But then also the piece of, I definitely recognize there were parts of me that were like, money is not saving my hands.

I'm a woman. I'm this, I don't know how to do this. And I, so I feel like one, there was this element of other people's projections upon me as I super wealth, but there were also like my own internal projections where I was like, oh shit, that that's a program I'm ready to unravel and, and be with and release, but, just being willing, like you said, to walk through the fire and receive the sometimes an unsavory kind of DMS or things like that. And, and not to, you know, sugarcoat the journey to becoming a wildly expressed and wealthy woman. Sometimes there are people who shadows can't survive in your light. And sometimes that projections or, or triggers or activations, but again, being the ones willing to go first, that's how this paradigm is birthed and just.

Emily: Yes. 

Michelle: Thank you, Emily, for like really dropping that in for us that yes. We are building a new paradigm here and not always gonna be a fair land of rainbows and orgasms, but our willingness to stay the course and, and even come together like here in sisterhood and be reminded that, we're not the only ones who've experienced projections. And I'm curious for you. I'm not sure if we have time, but did you experience any projections on your way to becoming the wealthy woman that you are?

Emily: I have, and the ones I thought I would, the ones in my head, the imaginary ones were a million times worse. I've actually been blown away, time and time again. People have really surprised me with their celebrations of me, their acceptance of me, like all the people I was scared of, you know, like the people I went to high school. And I actually grew up in Michigan. So we've got, we've got the Michigan connection. I grew up in such a small town, very blue collar. 

Sometimes I would think early on about like my high school friends, reading things and just cringe. And wouldn't, you know, like four months ago, probably I got the most incredible DM from someone I went to high school with that I wasn't even that close to. And she's like, you know, every time I find myself reading a post and nodding along and thinking like, I wanna hire this person. She's like, it's always yours and I'm so honored. We both grew up in this small town together and seeing you do what you've done. And, and it was like, everything I was scared of. I didn't actually allow myself to think about the other side of it, which is like, are people from my small town also allowed to grow and evolve? Are they also allowed to be inspired? Are they also allowed to be on this journey? But I was too wrapped up in like, oh my God, they're gonna send me a bad DM.

Michelle: Yes. And I love that you bring that up because our perception is our superpower. And like you said, it's like, in your mind, you were projecting upon these people that you went to high school with that like, they're probably like, not gonna like what I'm doing and they're gonna judge me versus. Allowing our brain to expand and see a different perspective. I'm like, what if the people that we went to high school with, are also like blooming and growing and maybe some of this stuff as well. Why can't we hold them high in that way? The same way that we would, our potential clients in our beautiful communities. It's thinking of how we view them and how we perceive them.

Do we perceive them as like, helpless and weak, and they just like, they're not capable of anything or do this them as powerful, sovereign, like we're willing to evolve beings. And it, I just love that you brought that piece forward of it's, it's really our own perception and availability for, for what's out there. And so often the way we perceive things is how we experience them. And I just, I love that. That makes me like, even like, like, how am I perceiving people from? How can I feed them in a higher light? 

Emily: Yes. And you maybe have this too. I still have moments where like my real life friends will start a sentence with, I was listening to your podcast and my whole body just like contracts. I'm like, oh God, I forget that, like, there are people that listen to my podcast that I wouldn't imagine. And what did I say? And so I wonder if people say, like, I saw your Instagram post and your brain goes, oh God, what did I say?

Michelle: So funny because I'm actually thinking of what I was like marketing a program. And like one of my friends for like a split second, she was like, she messaged me. She was like, I thought you were marketing a vibrator. And I was like, I was like, I mean, that could be in my future. I don't know.

Emily: So that's kind of on brand. Buy.

Michelle: I feel right. I was like, that's kind on brand, but it was just that kind of hilarious thing. You said, of recognizing like sometimes people we don't expect are reading our posts or reading our newsletters or listening to our podcast and being so open to receive them versus kind of being like, oh God, they probably owe something bad to say. But recognizing that actually being willing to be pleasantly surprised, I guess, is something that like, flips the coin a little bit of, I'm just willing to be pleasantly surprised by people from my past or people who I didn't think would enjoy my work are enjoying my work and having so many examples of that happening over the years, I feel like really softened the part of me that was like, for example, when I first started my Instagram, like absolutely terrified, horrified at the thought of anyone that I knew finding it.

I, I remember the first time it happened. I was like, should I just shut this down? I'm gonna make it private. Exactly. Versus the openness of just  allowing whomever is meant to receive our medicine, to receive it and not allowing our own projections of who our medicine is for to, to create like a closure route that it's like, no, the medicine is open and available for anyone at any point in that again, part of, part of the magic, I think.

Emily: And like honoring their sovereignty, like their grown, as adultness and ability to tune in or tune out whatever they desire. So we could go on and on and on. We may need a part two to this podcast, but in honoring people's sovereignty, I already know that everyone listening to this is going to want to walk themselves to your Instagram account and start following. And maybe there's other places that they would wanna connect with you as well. So can you put out an invitation. 

Michelle: Thank you for inviting me into that invitation. And yes, you can find me on Instagram. It's Michelle Etchison and that'll all be in the show notes. That's my main portal of communication and connection with my community. So, if you do hop over there from listening to this podcast, do send me a DM. DMS are very open. I'd love to hear if there were any, any fun takeaways or any moments that you resonated with, it would be so divine and beautiful. Beautiful to connect. 

Emily: Yes. Yes. Yes. So thank you everyone for listening. Go find Michelle, go connect with her. She will be your permission slip to step into more embodiment, more self-expression to reconnect with your inner wild woman, and then let us know what comes from that. So thank you for listening and we'll talk to you soon. Bye. 

Thank you so much for tuning into today's show. Before you go. I have something fun to share. Now, when you leave a review of the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, take a quick screenshot and send it to hi@emilywilcox.com. You'll be entered into a drawn to win a free one-on-one voxer coaching day with me and you help the show reach more new listeners, such a win-win. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram at Em Makes Money and to jump into my free Telegram community, The Money Club which is linked in the show notes. Until next time I'm sending you all the magic money vibes.