Michelle Villalobos: Unleashing Your Superstar

I’ve been a sports broadcaster for decades, and have watched hundreds of players step into pressure-packed situations. Bases loaded, full count, crowd roaring…even high-stakes World Series games with championships on the line. But I’ve also come to realize that many of those moments are actually defined before the play.  

Pitchers take a breath before the windup and batters step out of the box to reset. The game never stops, but there’s power in those seconds of pause. As often as I see this in baseball, I see it prove true just as often when keynoting to leaders and organizations. Taking time to pause isn’t a weakness. It’s where strength is built. 

I talk a lot about resilience and the mindset of high performers, but over the recent All Star Break, I was reminded just how necessary it really is to slow down. It was a mid-season reprieve that also happened to align perfectly with a recent podcast interview that reframed growth not as a constant climb, but a process that requires pause as much as it does push. 

Her name is Michelle Villalobos, a trailblazing expert in the art and science of transformational communities. She’s so much more than a speaker. She’s also Founder of the Superstar Activator and an international authority bringing mission-driven strategies to high-vibe individuals. Showing them how to add purpose to profits, from the big stage to the board room. 

SINGLE: clarity from the quiet

Ten years ago, Michelle went through a time that changed her life as she knew it. You can call it a breakdown, a breakup or a breakthrough. She actually calls it all three. What matters is that in her darkest moments, she could have chosen to jump back into familiar work and routines. Instead, she paused…something few are willing to do. And in that stillness, she found a sense of clarity. 

“I definitely have had my moments, my low points,” she shared. “That’s an important thing, I think, to acknowledge and be with in order to also have the bandwidth to have those joyful high moments too.” 

I’ve interviewed athletes at their worst. Some are recovering from injury, others were traded unexpectedly. Again and again, they’ll say that in hindsight, that pause saved me. It gave them the space to refocus and find something deeper than stats or status. Michelle’s pause wasn’t about quitting. It was about finding energy to listen, something we often forget how to do when we’re caught in a constant state of motion. 

“There’s a version of me that I still encounter that doesn’t know how to be still and peaceful and graceful and easy,” Michelle said. “The difference is now I allow myself to feel them, and I hold myself in that.” 

When we’re intentional about taking time to pause, we relearn what excites us…and identify those that no longer serve us. It’s an unmatched sense of clarity that becomes a compass towards the bigger, better things that are waiting. 

DOUBLE: owning your past

Michelle’s next move didn’t come from a marketing strategy. It came from finally telling herself the truth about her burnout and desire for more purpose-driven work. In her pause, she realized that owning her story was the first step to writing the next chapter differently, even if it meant including the struggles. 

“A lot of people’s stories, the idea of like, losing ourselves and then coming back,” Michelle explained. “It takes courage. It takes facing fears and rejection and all the things.” 

I’ve seen this play out in postgame interviews. When a player finally get’s honest about their slump or behind the scenes self-doubt, audiences lean in. Why? Because people connect with vulnerability more than perfection. When Michelle did the same, the authenticity of living in alignment afforded her the confidence to move forward with purpose. She started showing up differently in the world, and the world started showing up differently for her as well.  

“Once I started to focus on in here . . . life really did start to reorganize around that,” she said. “Around me taking care of myself. Around me honoring my values. Around me, you know, starting to imagine the possibility that, what if I can be happy?”

Every one of us has messy parts to our story, and it takes strength to really own them. But that’s the power of the pause. It doesn’t keep us stuck, it gives us context to own our evolution, so we can move forward stronger than before. 

TRIPLE: a Prereq for sustainable momentum

Michelle has always been a high achiever, and has an impressive list of accolades to prove it. But she eventually realized she needed to recalibrate to pursue something beyond money. It wasn’t a realization she had until the climb came to a halt, when she was forced to reckon with the fact that even though her business looked successful from the outside, it was draining her on the inside. 

“I didn’t ask those questions when I started. I didn’t say, how many hours a week would I like to work. I was like, I’ll work however many hours it’s going to take,” she told me. “And there was never enough.” 

I’ve spoken to executives who hit every milestone but still feel disconnected. Alignment is almost always the missing piece, and pushing forward from that place only creates more friction. Michelle found that by pausing to reevaluate her purpose, she had the power to design a business model that supported her soul and her bottom line. 

“Aligning with your lifestyle, aligning with your values . . . aligning with some sort of vision of the future. There’s all these layers,” Michelle shared. “And I believe it starts with that. And then secondarily from a business perspective.” 

When your next steps are in sync with your values, you don’t need to force momentum because you create from a place of conviction. The pause is what makes it possible to clear the noise long enough to figure out where it is. 

HOME RUN: seasons of business

Just like nature, business has seasons. Spring and summer are when your business is blooming, but our lives and work were never designed to operate in a constant state of productivity. There’s a rhythm to sustainable success and sometimes, the most important growth happens underground in the quiet of winter. 

“There’s something that get’s lost when we’re not in communion with nature,” she explained. “When you start to align with the natural rhythms and season of life . . . it makes sense.” 

This idea is so often missed in high-performance environments. We’re taught that to win more, we have to push harder or scale faster. To always do more. But the opposite is where real transformation hides. 

“We start to build our life to accommodate this new vision,” Michelle shared. “It’s changed my life and business in profound ways.”

Just like athletes use the off season to recover and sharpen their game, Michelle used hers to rebuild from from the inside out. She created a business modeled around purpose-filled retreats that with deep engagement. It’s a powerful case for the growth that can happen in the stillness of the pause. And now? She’s operating in a new season that’s more authentic and aligned than ever. 

Listen to the full interview here or tune in to Rounding the Bases every Tuesday, available wherever you get your podcasts.

LEARN MORE ABOUT pausing before the push FROM JOEL 

Book Joel Goldberg for your next corporate event. He draws on over 30 years of experience as a sports broadcaster. In addition, he brings unique perspectives and lessons learned from some of the world’s most successful organizations. Whatever your profession, Joel is the keynote speaker who can help your team achieve a championship state of mind.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Joel Goldberg 0:15

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Rounding the Bases presented by Community America Credit Union. I am Joel Goldberg, and a shout out, as always, to my friends at Community America Credit Union: Invested In You. And to my good friends, and you'll you'll see videos that I do once a month with with my good buddy, Casey Wright and their firm Chief of Staff Kansas City. And you know, I so often have guests on the show that are from here in Kansas City. I'm in my home studio right now, or from around the country, or, for that matter, around the world too. But whether you're in Kansas City or you're somewhere in the United States, Chief of Staff, you're looking for just a great resource in the hunt for a job, looking to hire someone, they've got great energy. They believe in culture. That's why I do so much with them. So check them out. chiefofstaffkc.com. Making Connections That Matter. Connections really are everything. I always love to go from Chief of Staff into my guest, because it's almost always, not always, but almost always, some kind of connection that I've made along the way. And actually the, in this case, my connection happened through the National Speakers Association. The Kansas City Chapter, which I'm involved with, and and a board member, although I would say not the best of board members, they know this during baseball season. But, but an organization that I love and believe in. And my guest today is someone that I I heard last year when she came in to speak to our group, and I was incredibly inspired in many ways, including wanting to have her on the podcast. So my guest today really is more than a speaker. She's a trailblazing expert in the art and science of transformational communities. Say hello to Michelle Villalobos. She's founder of The Superstar Activator and an intentional authority, or if I could read right, international authority, but she is intentional in what she does, in bringing mission driven strategies to everyone, from the big stage to the boardroom, by empowering high vibe professionals to level up purpose and profits. And she leads the way to monetizing your magic, adding a new kind of purpose to your work and your world. That'll all make sense in just a little in just a moment. But really, more than anything, you're going to be blown away by the energy of Michelle, who joins me right now. I didn't even ask, are you in Florida, Texas or who knows where you're at.

Michelle Villalobos 2:35

I'm in Florida. Hi, Joel.

Joel Goldberg 2:37

Hi. How are you Michelle? You know I was gonna say, like, we could just edit that out. I said intentional instead of international. But you areintentional, and your work is international, and you are high energy. I don't know if you're ever low energy. I'm sure we all have our moments,but, but for me, the first impression I got from you is this woman brings it. Have you always been that way?

Michelle Villalobos 3:01

My mom says I have been. She claims so. But like you said, I definitely have had my moments, my low points, and, yeah, that's an important thing, I think, to acknowledge and be with in order to also have the bandwidth to have those joyful high moments too.

Joel Goldberg 3:18

You know when I try to describe you, and we had the intro that we wrote. You're, you're one of the type of guests. And I've got a bunch of these where it's never really clear, cut or simple to say, what do you do? You know, the WHO ARE YOU question is usually the harder one. But the what do you do is, for a lot of people, it's okay, I'm fill in the blank, you know, I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor, I'm a broadcaster. I mean, I know mine's complicated, too, a broadcaster, speaker, podcast, host, but it all kind of fits into a bucket. And for yours, it's like, yeah, I could say you're an incredible speaker. That's not even scratching the surface. How do you describe who you are, professionally, not as a person.

Michelle Villalobos 4:01

I mean, it honestly depends on the day and its evolving every year. Every year with, you know, with each cycle around the sun. If you know, I change, I grow in this moment, I would say I'm an artist on some level. I'm a writer and a coach, you know, mentor, a guide, a leader.

Joel Goldberg 4:24

Yeah, and a mentor of of mine as well. Not in being an artist, by the way, because I will never have your art skills. I can write, but, but certainly not, I mean, there's, there's so much that you do that all becomes part of of who you are. I even look at, you know, the the shot that you have right now with the flowers behind you and the good backdrop, and I'm just saying, I don't, I don't think there's anything that you do that is just blah. And I know we all have our blah moments. I don't mean to overhype it, but I just sense in getting to know you that there's such a creative energy to you, that without that creative energy, you're not yourself. And whether that's pouring into to the people that you're mentoring, or whether that is into the creativity of writing or art or exploring exploring new things that that is your fuel. Am I right on that?

Michelle Villalobos 5:14

100%. Yeah. Yeah, you know, the the journey that I've been on over the last, I guess 10, maybe 15 years is one of kind of rediscovering myself and I, and that's what I help other people do too, you know, as a mentor, as a coach. You know, I think as children, we have these certain ways of being that sometimes get, you know, programmed out of us by schools or by parents or society, culture, fitting in, belonging, all these things. And then, you know, somewhere in our mid, midlife, many of us, including me, have you know that that classic midlife crisis of like, who am I, who you know, how did I get this beautiful house? And, you know, how did I get here, and did I choose this? Was this intentional? And so I had that kind of break up, break down breakthrough in my late 30s, early 40s, and and have spent now the last, you know, 10 years or so, rediscovering who I am and that artistry piece, it's like, yeah, it was there when I was a kid, but I forgot about it for so long, and now it's coming back.

Joel Goldberg 6:23

So what were you before the rediscovery?

Michelle Villalobos 6:27

You know, I was a high achiever. You know, the path that I chose, and that kind of chose me was, you know, immigrant parents, Cuban American. Cuban parents grew up in the United States. In the 70s, 80s, it wasn't cool to be Cuban or Hispanic back then, so it was a lot of it was about kind of like fitting in, getting along and following the path, uh, you know, for me and for my parents, it was achievement. You know, you do good and you do well in school. You get great grades, you go to a great college, you get a great job, and you just pay your dues, hustle, hard work, and things will work out. And don't take too many risks, because we already took all the risks we needed to take to get here and to be here, you know, just do the things and stay in the path and that, you know, for someone like me, who really, truly was born like with this desire to create and express, and, you know, all that.Perform, even. I did it, but, but couldn't find fulfillment or happiness there. And so I had, like, this great job, made all this money, was, you know, doing all these things, and was driving to work in the mornings in tears every day.

Joel Goldberg 7:39

And I think a lot of people can relate to that, right? I mean, how many people are, are where they're they think they're supposed to be, but it's not where they want to be. And this is a different discussion than, you know, some people, and a lot of the people that I speak to, and that you do too, they're just, they're in it for the paycheck, because they have to be. And those are, to me, the hardest ones, because you have to be able to find a way to help them find their purpose and and it might be survival mode, and they may not have the luxury of going beyond that, right? Ultimately, everybody does, but I think that if you're surviving and just trying to put food on the table, then I tell people, okay, there's your purpose, and then what could you find in it. But, but yours is almost the reverse. It's like you're making the kind of money that that I'm sure your parents dreamed of you making when they came over. And you know, how could you be dissatisfied with that when they made all those sacrifices, and it's so much more than they ever had growing up and that. And that's fair, right? I mean, that's that's totally understood. It's very much, I think, not not just an immigrant way of thinking, but it certainly is an immigrant way of thinking that, hey, you know, we never had this, and now you do, and that there's an assumption that, okay, that must be enough. So it's got to take a lot of strength to say, You know what? Yeah, I appreciate this, but it's not what I was looking for. How did you find that?

Michelle Villalobos 9:09

Yeah, well, I mean, it would be nice if I had the strength to wake up one day and say, This isn't it. Let me go change this. It was. I had to have the full on breakdown for this to happen. And I think a lot of us, you know, because I resisted those lessons, and I think the universe was trying to wake me up for a long time. And I, you know, I had a lot of ways that I was bypassing what I call, now divine dissonance. The Divine dissonance is that feeling, that nagging feeling that there's more, there's, there's something out there that you want, that you desire, but it's, it's just, you know, it's, it's easier to drink it away, or shop it away, or whatever, you know, eat it away. And I did all the things. I did all the things, until finally, it just sort of my life literally fell apart around me. Not by choice. And I found myself in this kind of, what I call the dark night of the soul and and that's what my book, you know, ended up being an allegory about. It's like, it's when it when you can't keep it together anymore, and you're still trying, and then it just it falls apart, because that's the only way life is going to get your attention and bring you, I think this, my belief, bring you to who you're meant to be and what you're supposed to be doing.

Joel Goldberg 10:30

It's, it's so interesting, because if, if anyone were to look at your credentials and everything that you have done, I mean, I could, I could rattle it off in the 4.0 GPA at, you know, Masters of Business Administration at the University of Miami, and graduating, you know, on top and, I mean, as you said, all, all of the things, right? 2013 Miami Herald, Top 20 Under 40. I go on and on, and you've been all over the world, studied abroad in London, like that. People would think that that would be enough

Michelle Villalobos 11:09

Well...

Joel Goldberg 11:10

And...

Michelle Villalobos 11:11

Oh yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Joel Goldberg 11:12

No, I was just gonna say that. Like, it shouldn't have to take a breakdown. Obviously, for you, it did. And maybe that ends up being a blessing, because you now can use that to help other people until they get there. I guess that's where I was going. Is that no one should, should get to a point, to a breakdown. Obviously, it happens, but, but I'm just curious what, what that did for you. Obviously, it was a turning point.

Michelle Villalobos 11:35

Well, yeah, I was, and there's so much to talk about here. Joel, I love this conversation. First of all, the problem was that, and the problem is for everyone, honestly, this is my belief that, that the problem is that it isn't about what's external. I did have all the things, and the problem wasn't out there. It was in here. And once I started to really focus on in here, and there's a lot to talk about there, then life really did start to reorganize around that. Around me taking care of myself. Around mehonoring my values. Around me, you know, starting to imagine the possibility that, what if I can Be happy and I can, I can want something just because I want it, to experience it, not because I've earned it, or I deserve it, or I'm good enough, right? Cuz that's a big thing, like my programming, and I'm sure a lot of people too, it was like, if you are work hard enough and you do well and you achieve, then you will, you will receive love, right? Because that's, that's kind of like as a kid, gold star on your homework. You come home with a straight A report card, and everybody's happy. It's like, Oh, I see how this works. Let me do more of that. And the problem is, then we externalize all those rewards, those external rewards, put our happiness out into our circumstances, rather than in here as a practice of you know, and there's a lot to that too. So I don't want to get on a soapbox or go off on too many tangents, but the idea was, you know, had to come back to myself and really honor who am I really? Yet, and that meant going back to childhood and saying, like, you know, what do I love? And it's like, Oh, I love to create, and I love to play with other people, and I love to perform. And, you know, I used to do talent shows in the basement as a kid, and I'd invite all the kids in the neighborhood, and I put them on stage, and I'd write the little invitations and get all the parents and set them up as the audience like, this is what I did when I was eight years old. And full circle moment, this is what I do now.

Joel Goldberg 13:54

Yeah, and it's, I mean, getting back to, you know, what it is you do, I think that's one of the coolest things, is that, yeah, you might be working on art, you might be working on a book, you might be speaking, you might be coaching. There's obviously, as I've said, a ton of energy to it, but there's also, I mean, this is what I've gotten to know about you, is that there's a method to all of it, but there's so much of a holistic approach and a belief in in how do you could help me describe this? I know how firmly you believe in the seasons, you believe in the signs, you believe in all of that, which, quite honestly, a guy like me would say, that seems a little Woo, woo, a little bit hokey. But then, as I've gotten to know you, and I've experienced it. That's, wait a minute, there's a little something to it. Now, I don't, I don't believe in the blind faith of just like, Okay, close your eyes and, you know, meditate, and it's all going to happen. Yet, what I'm coming to learn is that it happens better when you do meditate. It happens better when you're in touch. And I'm wondering how you got to that place?

Michelle Villalobos 14:55

You know, that breakdown. So what happened was, like. Literally, chronologically, I had the breakdown. My life fell apart. I got sick, I got unengaged in a very dramatic way, public and dramatic way, and then my business crashed because I took my foot off the gas and I wasn't putting the effort into the, you know, the hustle. So the business stopped making money. So three things that I was very highly identified with, and I thought were me, my career, my relationship, my body, my health, gone right? So that was like, that's, that's kind of like, you know that that moment of like, it's, okay if I'm not those things, then who am I? And I happen to meet a mentor, and that mentor, his name's Jake Merriman. He, he, I wanted him to teach, help me build my business back up. I hired him. I invested in that so that I could make money. And I needed to make money because I was, you know, broke now, and so he was so fantastic, because he let me come in with that premise that he's going to help me make money and strategize. But once I was in he forced me to look at myself. He forced me to face the shadows, face the all the ways that I'd sold myself out, face all the decisions that I had made. He forced me to take responsibility for my life. He forced me to meditate. He forced me to do all this stuff, or else he wouldn't strategize with me. And I was like, well, I need this guy to help me make my business work. So I'm going to do the meditation, and I'm going to do the things, and I'm going to show up. And over the course of two years, my life, my business, came back. My life improved. My you know, all I got healthy, I I started healing. You know, all the things started changing, and it really was the inner work that that catalyzed all that, and that has been the foundation of everything ever since. That was 11 years ago.

Joel Goldberg 16:52

What? What were you doing when the breakdown happened? I don't mean physically, but what, what was and beyond the the disengagement? What? What was work? What was life like then and then, what was it? What was it after?

Michelle Villalobos 17:04

It was hustle. I mean, it was BNI networking every week, getting up at five in the morning, getting there at seven. It was volunteering at the Miami Beach Chamber. It was leading a committee. It was, you know, speaking workshops, consulting, anything that I could do to make a buck. It was just like, you know, there was no strategy, there was no system. There was no real clear business model, which is ultimately what I came to speak to your chapter about, was the model that enrolled, that that unfolded, or the model that developed from that. Simplifying from that, doing that inner work. The model was basically a community driven model, you know, leading, bringing people together and having and leading these transformational experiences.

Joel Goldberg 17:50

It reminds me a little bit I met a woman recently here in town by the name of Lindsay Howerton. And she speaks and consultant and all the things, the many things and she talked about, you can often essentially with your with the way you're going about your business and your life, be getting in a car and driving around the block over and over and over again, and all you're really doing is burning gas. And it really resonated with me, because, you know, I've thought about that a lot, especially as someone that is so busy with baseball, and it's like you're just kind of throwing without whatever out there sticks. And then I watch how you do it, and so many that you've coached, and there's a system and a rhythm to it. And not, it's not a this is how you do it. This is the Michelle formula. It's this is what resonates and feels right with you. And so much of your work is digging in deep the way you did with yourself or others. I mean, the people that work with you sing your praises to the end of the world, and I'll tell you even people that you know, mutual people we have, and you and I will be doing work together as well. But you know our good friend Lauren Schieffer, who is was an early mentor of mine, and speaking said, if you're doing something with Michelle, it's worth every bit of your time. We she's been a guest on the show before I met you, but but a couple of guests that have come on the show since meeting you, Leanne Webster, Dave Rosenberg, and these are all people that have figured it out, too. And so I'm just curious what that means to you. Not the compliments from them. I mean, that's we all, we all love to hear those. But you know, on on your website says, "Discover how to live and work with more grace, ease and flow." They're they're all experiencing that at a level where they've got more business than they've ever had before, but I think more peace, understanding than they ever had too, right? It's like, yeah, there's this assumption that you have to work. You have to keep doing more, more and more and more and more. If I want more, I have to do more. And you've kind of pulled the covers back on that and said, No, you don't, you don't have to do more. You have to do it, right? It's so hard, isn't it? Maybe it's not.

Michelle Villalobos 20:17

It's, it is and it isn't. It's, you know, what's hard is that so much of this is just learned behavior and patterns, and it's mindset, and it's mindset that gets programmed into our being, into our nervous system. Like there's a version of me that I still encounter that doesn't know how to be still and peaceful and graceful and easy. There's a part of me that sits down and starts to feel that and gets like, Wait, that's not I can't do that. That's not okay. I have to be doing something. So it's easier, obviously, to do less, but it's hard to override the programming, you know? And I got emotional when you were talking because, yeah, you know, it's very there's two things I want to say about that, like, I found my groove, I found the way that I work best, and I'm sure I'll continue to do that over the years. You know that that evolution has brought me to a place of, like, I'm super grateful for my life, and I also, you know, part, one of the things that that's so hard to do is that I had that I have to still be very mindful about doing, is to feel the feelings I have and cultivate the ones that I want, not just cultivate, cultivate the rainbows and unicorns, positivity and all the things. There's darkness, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's shame, guilt, envy, I mean, all those things, I have them. The difference is now I allow myself to feel them, and I hold myself in that. And there's always a gift to those feelings, and that always leads to something that that helps me grow. And so that's, you know, like, part of the work that I've done with those people that you mentioned, and I'm sure they would say it is to help them, like, be with what's true that they hadn't wanted to be with before.

Joel Goldberg 22:17

That's so interesting. It really, yeah, I'm learning a little bit of this too, that you have to embrace those darker feelings, those negative feelings, because life's never going to be all unicorns. That's true for for any of us as well. What, at what point were you able to scale all of this to where it's at today. I don't want to, I don't want to give away all the secrets, but there are a lot of people that are listening right now saying, Well, wait a minute. Who? Who does this help? What is this? This for? And I mean, certainly speakers, but business people, and anyone that that is involved in in some type of program or building something, or entrepreneurs. But where like, I don't know how to explain this, where you have this thing at right now is such a well oiled machine with great people involved and curriculum and courses and like you, when I look at the work you've done, you have a library of just nothing but expertise, whether that be in people, modules like that, does not happen overnight, right? I mean, you want to learn how to be better on YouTube? Check out Michelle. You want to learn how to be a better speaker? Check out Michelle. You want to on and on. I gotta go on and on with this. How long did that take?

Michelle Villalobos 23:39

I mean, it's taken, I've been in business 17 years, and the but the first seven were like the old way, and then the last 11 have been, you know, over time, the new way. I will say, I mean, my, my, my word. And, you know, it is alignment.

Joel Goldberg 23:55

Yeah.

Michelle Villalobos 23:55

Bringing things into alignment with your personality, like who you are really, and there's a whole bunch of dimensions of that, and that's why we do personality tests, and that was my that's what I studied in college before business school. So it's like, you know, aligning with who you are, aligning with how you want to live your life, right? I didn't ask those questions when I started. I didn't say, How many hours a week would I like to work? I was just like, I'll work however many hours it's going to take to make the money I want to feel like to make enough. And there was never enough, right? Um, so, aligning with your lifestyle, aligning with your values, like what matters to you, aligning with some sort of vision of the future, aligning with you know, how does your body feel good and what you need to do to take care of yourself, like there's all these layers and levels of alignment, and I believe it starts with that, and then secondarily. From a business perspective, the big breakthrough for me was recurring revenue. It was busting through this idea that I had to hustle for gigs and sit you know. Know, yeah, gigs and proposals and workshops and one offs.

Joel Goldberg 25:05

One and dones.

Michelle Villalobos 25:06

One and dones. And so it was cracking the code on building community that allowed me to do that. And that took a while. My first 11 years ago, I launched that first, my first retreat, which is kind of what people know me for on YouTube, at least, like this retreat model, this idea of a small event. 10 people, very deep, very impactful, and then invitation to stay, to work together for a whole year, and from that first year, then potentially having people stay for years and years and years at a time, which I've but, you know, I've now kind of figured out, figured out. But 10 years ago, 11 years ago, only one client, Leanne, who you met, stuck around I, you know, I burned through clients because I hadn't, you know, learned the the art of holding community and culture and all of all that goes with that. Which is a lot. But that's the big, for me, the big breakthrough was community building and the recurring revenue that can come with that.

Joel Goldberg 26:10

I want to encourage everybody to check out the website. I'll mention it again, and it'll be in the show notes. Superstaractivator.com. It's not just for speakers, anyone wanting to build and I think that you would agree with this, and I love the use of the word superstars is great, because I think you see the superstar in everyone. And I'm wondering how you came to that word being so important?

Michelle Villalobos 26:38

You know, it's funny, Joel, because I didn't love the word at first, I kind of, I was looking for a title for an event that I was doing with a partner, and we brainstormed and landed on Superstar Speaker Academy, and are like, Okay, we'll use that. Long story, very short, it just kind of stuck. And over the years, I learned to love it and really align with it. There's a guy in our National Speakers Association community named Mark Levy. He worked with Simon Sinek on his Start With Why brand. I even hired Mark Levy one on one for four months to find my right brand, my new brand, my better brand, and we ended up right back at superstar. He's like, that is it. That is your brand. And you know, you might think of it. One way to look at it was, I wasted all that money and all that time, and in other ways, like, Oh, damn, I really validated. And feel very committed now to that term, which to me, is about letting your light shine and allowing yourself to fully express the brilliance that is within.

Joel Goldberg 27:44

Yeah, that's so interesting too, because it's sitting right there in front of you, and you can't quite see it until that light does shine and you realize, wait a minute, this isn't, I mean, I had a similar experience, and I'm still trying to find a lot of this out, but I'd worked with a speaking coach a year and a half, two years ago, and I was not running away from baseball, but I was really trying to prove that I'm more than just a baseball guy. And the advice that I've got from her, the coaching I got from her, and she's very much a non-baseball person, was you need to lean into the baseball more. And as you know, my stuff is really not about baseball. It is leveraging baseball as a storytelling mechanism. But she said, that's what makes you unique. That's what you are. And so, you know, I just bring that up because sometimes we're staring right at it and we want to either reinvent the wheel or think we have to reinvent the wheel, and it's like, no dummy. It's right here, and it's really good. We do that to ourselves, though, right?

Michelle Villalobos 28:42

Yeah. And it's funny that you say this now, because I'm thinking, I have a new website coming out, hopefully it'll be out by the time this podcast comes out. And I'm like, did we put superstar on there? So I gotta remember to look back and make sure that it's there.

Joel Goldberg 28:56

Yeah, go check it out. Go, go check that out and keep us updated on that as well. Tell me about the book, too.

Michelle Villalobos 29:04

Oh, the book, all right. Well, I've got a copy here. This is really special. This is, so, December of 2020, so the end of the first year of Covid. I woke up in the middle of the night, dead of winter in Colorado, I was living there, and I I'm not a morning person, and I woke up at like, four in the morning and could not get this little melody out of my head, this little song, this little rhyme, and I tried to go back to sleep, and I was like, I just want to sleep. And I couldn't, so I finally got up so I could write it down, so I could go back to sleep. And so I wrote the line down, and then kept writing. And I wrote a whole poem. I've never written a poem before. It rhymed, and it was just like a like a download, like, you know, it just came through fully formed. Took me two hours to write the whole thing, but, I've tried sitting down to write poems since, and I haven't been able to. And I turned it into this book, But I Want to Fly. So it's called an adventure book for dreamers of all ages. So it looks like a kid's book. It's a lot more than that. It's basically my story told as like an allegory. So this is V who finds herself, die, you know, she says waking up again on the hamster wheel of life. V was safe, secure and warm, but dying inside. So it's the story of how she lost herself, sold herself out. All about the mind and the hustle and the achievement and her heart was a little, was asleep. You can kind of see it there. And it's the story of how she dreams of flying, and so she faces all her fears, all her challenges, and she builds a set of wings and takes off.

Joel Goldberg 30:49

So good. It's so it's so you.

Michelle Villalobos 30:50

Thanks.

Joel Goldberg 30:51

Right? It's so your story. And, you know, people look at it, they'd say, Oh, that. You know that that's interesting, that that looks cute, that looks like a nice little kid story, which, which could be a kid story too, yeah? But the beauty is, is it's, it's your story and, and maybe bringing you back to your childhood a little bit too, right?

Michelle Villalobos 31:08

Yeah. And I think it's everyone's story, or a lot of people's stories, the idea of, like, losing ourselves and then coming back, and how do we come back? It's hard, you know. There's regret. So there's a whole part of the book where she gets to face like the feeling of regret, of having, you know, lost herself, and then coming back and rebuilding that relationship with yourself and and deciding to go for the dream. You know, it takes courage. It takes facing fears and rejection and all the things. So it's a, it's a really inspiring five minute long book. It takes five minutes to to read it. You know, it's fun. Kind of Dr. Seussy vibe to it.

Joel Goldberg 31:09

I love it. Okay, let's get to my baseball themed questions. They're not baseball themed because you're of Dominican Cuban descent, or they're not only not even baseball questions, but what is the biggest home run that you have hit professionally?

Michelle Villalobos 32:07

I would say this community, like having built this community that's lasted the test of time, that you know really transforms people's lives, their businesses, that, to me, is the biggest home run, I would say, and honestly I have to say, like my healing, journey of healing, my illness, my body, like I'm healthier than I've ever been. And honestly I that was a big deal doing that.

Joel Goldberg 32:34

Two great home runs, both that keep on giving and giving. How about a swing and a miss along the way. I know there were some, many, maybe you'd say, I don't know. We all have them, Swing and a miss. And what did you learn from it?

Michelle Villalobos 32:47

Yeah, well, that was that was that relationship, the guy that I almost married, the fi, the fiance who turned out to be a con artist. That was a big swing and miss. I spent a lot of, you know, a lot of months of my life trying to make something work, that that really, really was out of alignment, so that, you know, it's a big breakdown, and it was the exact catalyst I needed for my wake up call.

Joel Goldberg 33:10

So ultimately, a good thing, I mean.

Michelle Villalobos 33:14

A great thing. The best thing.

Joel Goldberg 33:16

Yeah, it helped you, propel you to where you're at today. You get the credit for that, not him, but a life changer for sure. Okay, how about small ball? What are the little things that add up to big results for you? I know there are a lot of them.

Michelle Villalobos 33:29

I would say meditating every morning. 100%. And I'm not doing the like, sit still, close my eyes and try to block out the world. I'm doing guided meditations right now for the last few months with Joe Dispenza audios, and they're great.

Joel Goldberg 33:43

I just use inside timer, and I look for a new one every day, or I save the ones I like, and sometimes go back to them. And if I if I don't have this is now the rule, other than this morning, where, inexplicably, I wrote up, woke up at 4:30 in the morning. I don't know what was bothering me, because nothing was but I couldn't get back to sleep, and I should have written a poem, but that wasn't there for me either. I don't know that I have that in me. And so then I started a little bit of this scrolling and finishing watching a show. My rule almost every day now is that you can't do any of that until there's a guided meditation. And whether that's a minimum of five minutes, generally 10, if not 15. And I'm telling you, I don't need to tell you, you know this, and I've said it on this podcast before, my day is different. I can't explain why. It's just different.

Michelle Villalobos 34:30

A hunder- I notice if I skip it, and I don't very often anymore. Because it used to be, it started as discipline, and now it's devotion. It really, really is something I love. And it wasn't like that for years.

Joel Goldberg 34:43

I think I said this on the podcast, but I got, James Clear has an app called Adams, and it's all about forming habits and and I just got that. I saw it on his newsletter, what is what a smart way. He's got a great, simple newsletter a couple of times a week, and he promotes his stuff on. It, but he gives you some great quotes and takeaways. Let me try this app and and it's got little streaks and encouragement and a little note every single day. And not that he needs my publicity, but, but that really took me from trying to do meditation when I had time, you always have time, by the way, to... no, I need to keep this going. I want to be accountable to this app. I want to see that number go up, and then suddenly the habit starts to form. And actually, I missed one day with a different habit I was forming, and it said, no big deal, but let's get back to it tomorrow. This one was about sending out X amount of emails in the morning as the touch base of my business. Okay, you missed yesterday. No big deal. Just don't miss two days in a row, and that won't become a habit. It's really interesting, really, really, I think, leads into the alignment the habits that that you're talking about. Okay, four final questions, as we round the bases, I like to have some fun with these. Some are serious. Some are not. But as a woman that has traveled the world, as a woman that was born in Colombia and grew up at times in the Dominican Republic, and has lived in places like Oregon and Florida and Texas. What's your favorite spot to get away to?

Michelle Villalobos 36:08

Italy. Italy, I love it. I love it so much. The food, the culture, the architecture, the people, the food. I love it.

Joel Goldberg 36:22

Okay, second question, let's stick to food. Then just because, oh, one, I'm hungry, but two, I'm thinking about a trip I will be taking a little after, a week after this podcast airs, we start after the All Star Break in Miami. So my hope is that I will be seeing you. I'll get you the dates on that if you're in town. So if we are going to go for good Cuban food, my spot usually has been the very well publicized Versailles.

Michelle Villalobos 36:54

Versailles, yeah.

Joel Goldberg 36:56

Is that the spot to go?

Michelle Villalobos 36:57

I think so you get the full experience. It's it's an institution. I love Versailles. Another option is to go to Little Havana and just go to a tiny, little spot there. You know.

Joel Goldberg 37:07

Maybe I'll do one for each day. I could eat Cuban food every day. Maybe I say that because there's not a whole lot of Cuban food available in in Kansas City.

Michelle Villalobos 37:16

Let me give you an order though, that you can get at any Cuban restaurant that you wouldn't know if you were not, yeah, Cuban It's, um, it's croquetas prepada, but preparadas and pandemic.

Joel Goldberg 37:28

So croqueta is prepared in what?

Michelle Villalobos 37:30

In midnight bread.

Joel Goldberg 37:33

Interesting.

Michelle Villalobos 37:33

It's a Cuban sandwich with croquetas smushed inside on midnight bread, which is different than Cuban bread, and better, if you ask me.

Joel Goldberg 37:43

Okay, I'm going to do that, or hopefully we're going to do that. I love Latin American food. And you know, with some so many of our players too, we get some of that influence and the Venezuelan food and and the one thing I've learned too about about that culture, the Latin American culture, very much like the Jewish culture I grew up with too, is you can never have enough. Like, you know, I've been to Versailles multiple times with a Cuban friend, Cuban American friend. He can't or- it's like, let's just get one of everything. Oh, by the way, I'm gonna diet. You try all this. Yeah.

Michelle Villalobos 38:19

Get the yucas with the green sauce too.

Joel Goldberg 38:21

They, oh my gosh, that green sauce is ridiculous. I'm getting hungry again. But now I wanted to ask about that, because that's one of the beautiful things of going down to Miami, is, is the food? You know, nobody should be going down there and getting a burger or whatever it is. You can, you can go get your good barbecue here in Kansas City or or whatever it is. So okay, third question, I'll move on from food now, because we could, we could certainly do that all day long. Third question is, what's the like? What's next? What you do a million things, but I don't think you're someone that's ever going to rest. So what's on the bucket list?

Michelle Villalobos 39:01

Okay, I have a lot on my bucket list in this moment. Like one of them is I want to write a fictional novel. I've already started it. I'm nine chapters into it. It's really good. I already know the end, like I've mapped the whole thing out. And I also I want to, I want to learn how to make natural perfume. I want to I want to explore the role of scent in transformation and personal development and growth and transformation and meditation and like the scent connection for all that.

Joel Goldberg 39:34

We just got some of those essential oils we found the hotel smell, ones like, you know, when you walk into a really good hotel and you get that kind of Westin beachy type of smell. Now, my house smells like it. And I thought you feel different. I don't know why, but that's right up your alley.

Michelle Villalobos 39:54

Part of our brain.

Joel Goldberg 39:55

Yeah, that, I think that's what fascinates you, right?

Michelle Villalobos 39:58

I think so. No, it's just I can't get enough. I'm, like, obsessed with how things smell and dousing myself in natural perfumes, you know, no synthetics, because I'm moving away from all of that, you know.

Joel Goldberg 40:12

But, yeah, okay, final question to walk off. I saved this because I've heard you speak about it often. And, you know, gets back to the whole is this woo woo? Is it not woo woo? I know it's everything that you believe in, but you are a strong believer. I briefly mentioned this before, in the seasons. And you know what? When I first heard that from you, I was like, I don't know. And then I started noticing it to be true. We think of the seasons as the winter months. Not that you have those in Miami, but, you know, you had them in Colorado. We think, we think of the weather. We think of the scorching hot, humidity and heat in Kansas City in the summer. That's not what you're talking about. We're not talking about global warming. You're you're talking about something different. Can you explain those different seasons, because I think it'd be interesting for people listening to maybe pay attention to that a little bit.

Michelle Villalobos 41:06

Oh yeah. I mean, it's changed my life and my business in profound ways. The first thing to just acknowledge is that we look at the seasons mostly as some sort of inconvenience or something to be managed, right? So there's this relationship we have to, you know, the weather and the temperature and the light outside as like, Okay, if it's dark out, we're going to turn on all the lights inside. If it's hot out, we're going to make the AC come on. If it's cold out, we're going to, we're going to control our environment. And that's fine. I have my AC going right now, and I'm grateful for it. And there's something that gets lost when we're not in communion with nature, right, and when we are living completely separate from it, you know, fluorescent lighting and LEDs and things like that, it messes with our system. When you start to align with like the natural rhythms and seasons of life, beyond just temperature and light and all and dark, you know, it makes sense. So, for example, winter season being a season, you know, where there's less light outside, there's more dark, there's more night. It's a season for more rest. It's a season for more introspection. It's a season. I call it the season of the dream. It's the season where we slow down a little bit and we open to listening more deeply to the messages that we're receiving from within from around us. It's just like slowing down. It's a perfect season for ideation and possibility. The spring, as the days get longer, is a season for like, Okay, now that I have this kind of new possibility, this new dream, it's a season for like. Let me start to live it. Let me start to embody it. Let me change things in my life to make room for it. Let me open up my calendar or say no to certain things or Yes to other things. So we start to, like change the way we live. And that's the season. I call it the build. We start to build our life to accommodate this new vision. The summer is full bloom, the longest days, the shortest nights. It's the opposite of winter. We're out in the world. It's the season of expression and leadership and doing things and being out and about. And then this the fall is a season of harvest, right? It's the it's the landing, if we, you know, if the, if the summer is like the big launch out into the world, the harvest, we start to pull it in, and we start to gather. And it's a season of building relationships and connection and and gratitude and and receiving and and, you know, abundance and all of that. So what you know that looks like, for example, my business, I used to do my big performance Academy event in February. I moved it to the middle of the summer, where it makes a lot more sense. And I've made a lot of changes like that. Like in the winter, I take more time off and work fewer hours, and, you know, work later, like earlier, stop work earlier and start work later to have, you know, more of that downtime.

Joel Goldberg 44:16

It all resonates with me. And that doesn't mean that you're not listening in the summer, or you're not harvesting, you know, in the winter, but I think for me, at least, it's about being aware of it, paying attention to it and and yes, I'm still listening right now, but I did feel like, you know, in those winter months, there was a lot of listening going on, and right now in the summer months, amidst all the baseball trying to prepare for that fall harvest. I'm talking more about my business in the speaking but, but everything that comes after baseball as well. So it, it may be viewed a little bit differently for everyone, but I think there's, there's definitely something there, and we all can understand those shorter days and the longer days. And even as you're talking about that, I'm starting to think about those cold. Temperatures coming into Kansas City and and what that looks like, but, but there's more to it than just that. So that's, I know, so such an important piece of of who you are and how you coach and teach, and certainly not the only thing. But again, want to let everybody know, and we'll, we'll have the the new website in the links if it's out by then, but I don't know if it will. It'll be the same web address, though, right?

Michelle Villalobos 45:26

Yeah, it's always Superstar Activator.

Joel Goldberg 45:28

Superstaractivator.com. I know right now as we're recording, it says, align and shine. Become the superstar you are meant to be. And we all have that ability in whatever we do. So Michelle, I greatly appreciate you spending time on the podcast, and I've been really looking forward to this one. And your energy is always infectious. Your insight inspiration. Really appreciate you spending time today.

Michelle Villalobos 45:50

Oh, Joel, thank you so much for bringing me here and for having this conversation with me. It's very meaningful and beautiful. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai