You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 83.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove podcast. The all inclusive podcast that teaches mindset and business tools. We'll help you rise as your authentic self. Be unshakable with your emotional freedom and unstoppable in achieving any goal and living your purpose. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. If you want to put your mental health first in life, relationships and business, you've come to the right place.

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Finding Your "Soul Sisters" and "Soul Brothers"

 

Hi, my strong friends, I am so incredibly grateful for all of the friends that I have met over my very long personal and business growth journey. I started years and years ago and started going to some self-help workshops and retreats and classes and all sorts of stuff.

Two years ago, I met a wonderful woman named Pam. And this last weekend, she came all the way over here to Mendocino coast to spend the weekend with me. We got to have such a great time. The thing is when you have a shared interest, you can have such great conversations.

Now, my husband's super supportive with all of my mindset stuff and all of my business stuff, but he doesn't really want to talk about it that much. Like maybe a couple of minutes a day. When I get to have friend time with someone who loves this stuff as much as I do, gosh, it's so much fun.

Pam and I spent all Saturday talking about everything mindset and business, and self-growth and all of the good stuff. Oh my gosh. It was so much fun. So she's someone that I would like to call a soul sister. And for some of you listening to this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Cause you are my soul sister too. And there are some soul brothers out there too. You know who you are.

My guest today is another soul sister. I met Sarah Grace Powers this year and we live just a few hours away from each other. We're both along the California coast. She's up a little bit more north and I can't wait until we can get together in person because it's going to happen.

In fact, when I do those collaboration retreats, there's a very good chance she's going to be right there with me, helping me to do those. Give you some fun when you come out here.

Sarah is a life and weight loss coach. She specializes in unleashing the brilliance of women in the second half of their life. Yep. We are talking about menopause time. All of us in our forties and in our fifties, we know what we're talking about. Things in our life start to change. We're going to talk about all that stuff. This is Sarah's specialty.

She has a free workshop coming up next week that I'd like you guys to go check out. This is her Wise Women Path to Dream Fulfillment. She's going to teach you the five simple steps to manifest any goal at any age. I want to make sure that you're able to get over to the Facebook event page so that you can sign up with her to do this free workshop next Thursday, September 30th, from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific standard time. And don't worry. I'll give you all of the links to it.

First, you have to actually meet Sarah. You have to see how great she is. Sarah has been a successful entrepreneur for over 20 years. She started with a brick and mortar shop that specialized in herbal healing and self-help products. Her coaching now includes multiple modalities.

You might've heard me talk about modalities before. So there's lots of different ways that we can help with coaching either for business or for life, any kind of healing things. Sarah combines a variety of them, including EFT, which is emotional freedom technique. Also known as tapping.

She uses cognitive coaching, which is also some of the ways that I do it. We have a similar training on that part. And she also does something called matrix reimprinting, which includes quantum physics. All right, hold onto your hats. You're going to hear some pretty neat stuff.

Sarah is going to go into some details about those three different types of modalities. And she's going to give you some specific examples of breakthroughs that she's had with clients. She also knows her stuff when it comes to business. I mean, she's been in business over 20 years y'all.

So she's going to graciously share with us some of the things that she has tried over the years, including different coaching containers, some of the niches and how it has evolved over time, and even some of her offers and how those have evolved over time. Including when you should just trust your intuition in business.

So grab a warm, cozy drink and join us. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Sarah Grace Powers.

 

Meet Sarah Grace Powers

Gretchen Hernandez:

Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. It's so great to have another coach that lives close by. We have the coast stuff in common. Can you introduce yourself please?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Sure, sure. Thanks so much for having me Gretchen. Yeah. My name is Sarah Grace Powers and I'm a double certified life and weight loss coach. My background is in natural health and herbalism. So I'm kind of a serial entrepreneur. And right now I mainly work with women who are around midlife, maybe approaching menopause in menopause or past menopause.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And they're kind of waking up to realize like there's a lot more, they want out of life. And you know, a lot of them may be just did the whole thing for 20, 30 years of taking care of kids and taking care of everybody at work. And it's like, wait a minute. Like, what about me? It's my life. It's my time now.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And sometimes they're thinking though, my gosh, is it too late? Now my body's breaking down. They're frustrated with changes in their body. So, you know, I help them to sort of cultivate that self-confidence and that self-love, that gives them that courage to maybe take a big leap. If that's what they're wanting to do or, you know, maybe do some work with their health and their body. Sometimes a lot of it starts there for many women. Or really just, just make those moves, you know, like figure out what they want and go for it and feel like that confidence to do it.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh my gosh. I wish that I had found you in 2017, I needed you so bad. I was definitely at that point in life where I wanted a different life is what I would say. I want a different life. Everybody at home needed me and I go to work and everybody needed me. And I still had this old belief that it would be selfish to take any time for myself.

Gretchen Hernandez:

So I was always putting everybody else's needs ahead of mine and looking for love from the external sources instead of my own internal. And I had all sorts of body image stuff. And you know, so it's like, I've worked through a bunch. Of course I still have more to keep going, but I love that you're doing this.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah, we're always on the journey. And you know, what you're talking about is just so common. I mean, it's such a common thing where we just. You know, we were raised to believe we have to take care of everybody else. I mean, it's part of the patriarchal culture that, you know, girls and women are supposed to just do things for everybody else. And then also just kind of soothe things over and make things good for all the other people.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And, yourself is supposed to come last and it's like kind of supposed to be more noble to be that way. You know, to be self-sacrificing and the truth is it eats away at us. And so those beliefs that then we need to kind of unravel and unwind. Sounds like you've doing a lot of in your own life.

 

A Feminist Coach

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. Well, it's interesting. So I saw that you have recently, you were very bold, I loved it. Saying that you're a feminist coach. And I was like, this is so great. I grew up in the seventies in Oregon and during the feminist revolution. And my mom was definitely all in it.

Gretchen Hernandez:

She was a carpenter in an all-male industry. She was a woman carpenter in the seventies. This is so cool. So she taught me, women can do anything. And so I was like, yes, I'm a woman. I can do anything. I started doing a lot of the things that men traditionally do. Including being like the breadwinner for my family. The problem was is that I still had all of the female roles too. So now it's like I have all of the traditional female roles and I have all of the male roles and it's a lot for one person. It's too much.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Totally. And that's like the kind of call that the second shift, you know, that women deal with. The whole feminist movement was kind of getting started when I grew up in my mom was like, kind of wanted to do it, but she didn't really know how. But by the time I came of age, you know, in the late seventies, I was like, oh, you know, we're feminist now! Everything's taken care of! Like, there's no more of this, you know, men over women, we can do anything we want.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And I believe that because compared to what my mom had had, or my grandmother, it was, you know, somewhat true. But then now as all the years and decades have passed, I really realized like, not so much, I mean sure. Like my husband changed diapers and that was really nice. My dad never changed any diapers, but there was all of that other kind of emotional baggage that the women have to carry. You know, even if they're splitting the housework somewhat. There's still just so much more that the women carry.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah.

Sarah Grace Powers:

You do the second shift, do all the housework, all the cooking, you know, and go work and bring home bacon.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. One of the struggles that I would have from working in corporate, I'd be standing up giving presentations or leading workshops or classes or something. And the teachers are calling me about my kids. Like, oh, you have to do this. And it's like, I'm at work right now. Like if I was a man, would you be doing this? Would you be calling a man at work?

Gretchen Hernandez:

And guess what? There's a man also listed on that roster for that you can call about the kids, but they don't. They default to calling the mom. And it's hard cause it's like we're working women. We have a lot of stuff on our plate too. But having that transition in later life, we start to think about that we want a different life. We want something different and then, you know, kids get older and we have those transitions.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Exactly. And it's really a time to reclaim yourself. And you do start to wake up. For me, you know, as I was in that stage, like late forties, just coming on to 50, I had kids pretty young so that my youngest was almost grown and out of the house. And, you know, I would just wake up at night sort of in a cold sweat, just going like what's happening? Like what's going on? Like now what?

Sarah Grace Powers:

And as I was going through that and becoming a coach was like this is who I want to help. And because of the fact that we are the sort of the responsible ones, like most women handle all the doctors and dentist appointments, like you said. Deal with all the crises at school, kind of coordinate the whole family.

Sarah Grace Powers:

For some women when that ends. It's like, it's kind of like what people face when they hit retirement. You know, it's kinda like, well, like, am I useful anymore? Yeah.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Now what, what do I do now?

Sarah Grace Powers:

And the thing is like, this is the point where like, sort of all opens up to like, there's so many, like bigger ways that you are more than useful where you can make a huge impact in the world. And really grow yourself as a person.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah, absolutely. And so it's like some of those struggles that we had start to automatically resolve themselves. Right. Cause it's like, we don't necessarily have all of the kid commitments anymore. I know I went from three years ago, I had five kids at home and as of next week I'll be down to one kid. It's a huge change in my workload.

Gretchen Hernandez:

It feels weird talking about kids as a workload, but it is. You know, it's like, yeah, that's those things that we don't feel comfortable talking about out in public that it's like, yeah, it's hard. But some of those start to resolve, but what are some of the things that we need help with that a coach can help us to resolve that just don't naturally resolve on their own?

 

Struggling With Body Confidence and Change

Sarah Grace Powers:

Some things do naturally resolve on their own for sure. I think in general, we become a little more grounded in who we are, you know, as we get into our forties and fifties and a little less worried about like everyone else's opinion. Or at least that maybe it's less intense than it is when we're in our twenties.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But some of the things that I think women still struggle with, I mean, it really varies, but we struggle with body confidence. There are changes that happen or for a lot of women there are hormonal changes. So whether it actually shows up externally on their body, which for many people it does. Or they just feel different.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Sometimes your energy level drops. A lot of women deal with adrenal fatigue because of exactly what we're talking about, you know, the second shift and all the work and having, and just pushing and thinking you have to be perfect.

Sarah Grace Powers:

This feeling like we still have to be perfect, this feeling like I have no one to take care of. You get this kind of little nudge that there's more. And there's like maybe a purpose that you're here to fulfill and there can be a little confusion. Like what is that? And what am I supposed to do? And a coach can be really helpful and just sort of helping you connect to your own inner wisdom and our guidance and deal with all that in mind clutter that's getting in the way. So that you can really access that.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But then even if you already know what it is, then it's like that courage to take those steps into the unknown. And that's where I think it comes really, really helpful to have a coach in your corner who sees your potential, sees your light, like is cheering you on. The way the kind of coach I am is not this like butt kicking, like, come on rara, you know, you can do this. And you know, here's all the accountability benchmarks. I mean, there's a little bit of like, let's set some goals, absolutely.

Sarah Grace Powers:

The coaching container that I've experienced and that I offer is, you know, a much more of a loving container and one where we're able to process whatever issues and traumas might've happened so that we can move past that and then really go for what we want.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that because yeah, 50 years on the planet or longer brings up a lot of stuff. We've gone through a lot of stuff and there's a lot of trauma and we might not have ever dealt with it because it might not seem like it was enough to go to a therapist or a counselor. And people like me, I didn't even know that coaches existed. Like I had heard about it for executive coaches or football coaches, things like that.

Gretchen Hernandez:

But to realize that no, there's actually coaches that help the everyday woman with whatever stuff she's going through. And it doesn't mean that there's anything seriously wrong with them. It just means that they could use a little extra support. And there's all of these different modalities for how coaches help their clients and you have several different modalities. And so can you describe all the different things that you do? How do you help people?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I totally agree. I mean, just to go back to that around how we all do have so many small and large traumas that have happened in our lives and some do require a psychotherapy or counseling. And coaching is different than that because you're kind of working from the assumption of you are already whole. But some of that stuff is just kind of like hanging out.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I say in your energy field sort of, and it's still there and it's getting in the way and just talking about it and going back and dredging up. Well, my mom did this and this happened, I mean, that's useful to do in a therapy setting, but then after a while, it's like, okay, how am I going to move forward? But these things will emerge at the stage of life.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And there's a thing called like the trauma capsule. Something will happen to you. And you get stuffed into this capsule where you can just go on and live your life, like when you're a kid. And then as we get into our forties and fifties, sometimes that capsule starts to leak a little bit and that's when it's time to start working through the stuff in a safe way.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I'm a life coach and I use a lot of just life coaching cognitive tools that I think are really powerful for learning your mind. But then, I personally felt like I understood kind of why I did the stuff I did, but I kind of kept doing it like the things I didn't want to do. My unwanted behaviors.

 

Unblocking Your Energy

Sarah Grace Powers:

And so I started getting interested in EFT, which is emotional freedom technique. Even before I became a coach, but then the early days of when I was a coach. And so I found that to be, and that is basically tapping on certain Meridian points to help release energy. And there's a whole technique for it where you tap through specific Meridian points that are similar to acupuncture points.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And what it can do is like clear out what is in the way, like blocking you emotionally. So that's why they call it emotional freedom technique. I don't know if we want to take up all the time right now to go through exactly how it works. And there's actually now, I mean, there's a traditional sort of original way it was created that I was trained in and I use, but there's also some modifications that I also use sometimes with myself and with clients that are quicker.

Sarah Grace Powers:

It's basically a pretty quick though. The great thing I love about EFT is it's kind of that teaching someone to fish. I mean, if you have some pretty deep trauma capsules that are starting to leak, it's really good to work with a practitioner and like really get it all out and basically clear it out of your system. But on your own, you can easily learn it and you can do it pretty much anywhere. I mean, sometimes in public you want to like go find a little private spot because you're tapping on your face.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But you can use it for anxiety. You can use it for all kinds of different things that are coming up for you to calm down your system. What it does is it tells your nervous system when you're tapping on your point that you cannot be in fight or flight. Like there's no danger cause our brains go into fight or flight at the slightest little provocation in our modern world. And we're back into that part of your brain is back into prehistoric times thinking that there's, you know, a large animal chasing you. When actually he just got cut off in traffic or, you know, your boss like gave you a funny look.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Our bodies go into this response, which is causes so many other problems in our life. But when you tap it calms that response to put you into that other side of your nervous system, which is more about rest and digest. And then your brain opens up for solutions at that point.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Is there an example that you can share of a client that used this? What did it look like before for them before they started doing tapping? And then after they started doing tapping, what did it look like for them?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah. It's different for every client and for some clients, they get what we call like the one-minute wonder and you know, and you just get this like huge shift, like in like one or two tapping rounds. And I had that happen once when I was teaching a workshop and a woman was super upset. I asked for a volunteer. And I said something that's not like really, really intense. You know, you kind of don't want to tell a group, but she, she got very charged up and was like crying and everything about like a family issue that was happening.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And I was like a little worried, but we went through one round and it was just like the one-minute wonder. She was like, wow, it's gone. I feel so much different about the whole situation. She stopped crying. She was calm. That was really cool.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah. I had another client. This is actually a guy. A friend was interested in doing some EFT with me and was having a lot of struggles with work because of some reorganization. Had lost his job at the place he really wanted to work for. So we did an EFT session. And then the place he was working at now, he was having conflicts.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And he did that session. He had like a really great week at his new job at work. And then several months later, he contacted me again and we did a little more EFT and he did it on his own. And he got offered a new job that he was about to take that was way better. But then his old job contacted him and he got an even better offer from them. And he credited it to doing the EFT. He was doing it on his own, every day and really working through all of his resentments and anxieties and things like that, that he was having with it. So yeah, it can be real helpful.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Who knew that it could help with career stuff?

Sarah Grace Powers:

It can help with anything under the sun that's going on with you. It's not just all trauma, it's like things that are happening in the present right now, which is why it's such a great tool to just have with you.

 

Matrix Reimprinting

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow. Wow. And so you also do something called matrix reimprinting, I've never heard of this before.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I love matrix reimprinting, it's actually, it's an even newer modality that was created based on EFT by an EFT master. It's much more well known him in Europe and the UK where it was created. But basically it's like a combination of inner child work and working in the quantum field.

Sarah Grace Powers:

It sounds a little woohoo, but it's all based on like quantum physics, but we're all the realities are different. You have a situation going on and a memory comes up, and I work with the client to basically visit that younger version of themselves in the quantum field as the wiser self that they are now. It could even just be a few weeks ago, but usually you go back a longer time.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And with EFT and you help that younger you to feel better in that moment of trauma, whether it's a big, giant thing that happened, or some of the smaller things that can really affect you moving on. And then what we do is then we can basically shift the memory, like kind of create a new memory. That's basically like an alternative reality memory. So it doesn't mean the original one didn't happen, but there's another one now that you focus on. And then you're carrying a new belief forward into the present.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Instead of the belief I'm not good enough, you carry the belief like I'm strong and powerful because you created a whole new memory. It's really fun. It's really effective. It's one of those ones where sometimes there's just this like instant shift and something like external in your life can really change right away. And then other times it's like, after a series of times of doing it, you start noticing, oh, well that thing that I used to worry about all the time, I was always so stressed out about it. It's like, that's gone. But it's so subtle you don't even notice it until it comes up. And that's how it's worked for me personally.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, that is so powerful. I've done something similar with some of my clients, although, it's not exactly the same. When you can change that thought from way back then all of a sudden, like I saw a visible lift in their energy. Like almost like a dark cloud just lifted off and it was like this brightness that emerged. And it's like where did it go? It's like all that pain and struggle. Having that one shift in the memory and that new belief or the new thought, all of a sudden it can change everything.

Sarah Grace Powers:

It can just evaporate. We know that all of it is just kind of created. It's just clusters of neural pathways that are created in our brain. Something about that work with the tapping and kind of clearing it out from the past, just sort of dissolves all those neural pathways much faster.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that you've combined those together because I've never tried tapping. I know my mom's tried it and it has helped her a lot. I would love for her to actually experience working with you to combine these two things that I think you have some magic going on there.

Gretchen Hernandez:

As coaches, we're trying to create all of these great services for folks and there's different formats that we can offer to people. There's one-on-ones that we do sometimes there's group programs and stuff, and you have been in business for quite awhile. And so I'm really curious, what are some of the different formats that you have tried with your clients?

 

Coaching Containers

Sarah Grace Powers:

I've mostly done one-on-one and for a lot of my time I was doing as a kind of either one-off sessions or sort of three sessions at a time. And what I've discovered is that my clients get way more sustainable results in a longer container. Now I do one-on-one in a six month container. And I also have found that coaching once a week is ideal for results. Because life just happens. There's so much going on.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I have done some small like short-term groups as well. I did one on manifest and get it done early one year, which was really fun. I think it was 2018 maybe. And that was good. But again, it was just that four weeks. And so then just sort of things that don't kind of stick as well.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I've really come to the conclusion and it's different for everybody. Also in groups it's, you can use EFT, but it's a little bit trickyier. And then matrix, I still haven't quite tailored into a group setting. One-on-one is especially for clients that can benefit with doing some of that clearing work with the matrix and with the EFT. I really like the one-on-one.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Those are the main ways I've really worked. For the weight loss, I've done a detox program in a group program, and that's been pretty successful and fun to do. I haven't tried as many as some coaches do. And one of the things I've learned as an entrepreneur and I'm really trying to implement is to simplify more. Because it's very tempting get into so many different things, but I find a bit distracting for me.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I can, I can definitely resonate with that. There are so many things that I want to do. And then I have to remind myself that I'm a solopreneur. Eventually I'll probably have some employees, but for right now solopreneur. I want to do all of these things and create all of this stuff, but Nope. We have to take care of our mental health first and make sure that whatever we put on our plate is something that we can handle.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And that is a good fit for us and for our family, if we still have a family with us and that it serves our clients really well. Because if we over commit, we're not going to have energy for our clients. And they're the whole reason we're doing this.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Right. And even if you don't have a family, it's like, you need to have that commitment to yourself and your own health, mental health, physical health, and your selfcare. And that is one of the changes that when you're in your twenties and thirties, there's still a lot more that go, go, go, just keep doing it. And your body can take it a little better. And maybe that's just a thought, just a belief. But I think for a lot of us, it's important to have that balance. That balance is different for every individual. So it's like finding what that is for yourself.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But if you're not set up to have staff yet, or to have a helper, then you do what fits into what you can do and still be functioning at your optimum level.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. And one of those great things that we get to do is invest in ourselves. And so we want to leave some room for us to go and get education or to work with other coaches or to try out different modalities or to go to mastermind events.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I saw that you just got back from Chicago area, you went to a three-day mastermind event. And so even as coaches, like that's another container that could be created. Can you share, what was that experience like for you?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah. I'm so excited about this mastermind. This is actually the first mastermind I've joined. And the mastermind is pretty much geared for like business. It's a business coaching container. I mean, I suppose it could work possibly in another setting. That was like kind of the kickoff to a mastermind I joined with a live event. And then we'll be meeting for six months as a group and they can be small or large groups. This is a small group, which I chose intentionally.

Sarah Grace Powers:

You're working with a coach and then also this kind of posse, which I like, you know. In this case, it's women and we're supporting each other and lifting each other up as we journey forward on our businesses and create what we want in our businesses.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But of course life coaching probably will be coming in as well. Because everything is everything in my opinion. Our lives affect our businesses, our businesses affect our lives. And that's the way it works. And everything in our life is intertwined.

Sarah Grace Powers:

The event in Chicago was amazing. It's immersive, but in a balanced way. So we stayed at a really fun artsy hotel. It was actually an art museum and also a hotel. And met each day. And there was teaching and sharing and some hard work of like brainstorming your goals and that sort of thing. It was very, very powerful. I love that immersive experience. And of course, some people did participate on zoom because of our current times and what's happening and some of them were actually overseas.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Wow! I love that that coach was able to be so agile and I assume it's a she. Am I correct? That she was agile, that she was able to do an in-person event and have a virtual component because that's something I haven't experimented with yet. I've always done either all in person or all virtual. The combining of the two, I'm really curious to see how that works. There's a lot of pieces, a lot of moving pieces.

Sarah Grace Powers:

There are some tech challenges. Some coaches were already doing live events and then, you know, the pandemic hit. And then they started doing just zoom. And then a few have started do the hybrid. It's a little tricky with sound and everything. The first day we were in a different room that, so that day wasn't as good for sound for everybody. But then we were in a room where she had it all projected on a big TV screen and we had mics and stuff.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah, no, she was able to make those adjustments on the fly that, oh, that's so great. Yeah. Cause we just, we figure out ways to make it work.

Sarah Grace Powers:

The first day was more informal. So I think that was sort of planned that way. The first day was a little less, we had a brunch and then, yeah. And then the second two days were like the real - all right, we're studying, we're doing our worksheets.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Nice. And so now we get to talk about all of the shifts that you had as a result of going to that mastermind because you seem like you were just beaming afterward. And I can't wait to hear all about everything that came up for you. All of the inspiration that you have. Tell me all the stuff.

Evolving Niche and Offers

Sarah Grace Powers:

There's something so powerful and like setting your stake in the ground of where you're going and what you're doing. And getting really clear on what you stand for. The last two years, I had decided to narrow my niche to focus on weight loss and body love for the women over 40. And I have a whole program that comes with my coaching called the menopausal weight release solution. That's a combination of actual tactics and strategies that are geared specifically to losing weight at that age, which is different than when you're younger. There's some things that are different than when you're younger.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And then also a whole lot of mindsets, probably more mindset. I believe it starts on the inside out. It used to be called love from the inside out.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Before that I was focused more on this reinvent yourself in your second half. And feel good and look good in your body when you're 45, when you're 50, when you're 60. And show up in the world confident and sure of what you want to do. Like radiantly. But I narrowed that because I was like following advice of business mentors that I just thought they must be right.

Sarah Grace Powers:

You know, because I thought I need to make more money and that must be the right path. Instead of really listening to my heart. So the whole time it was like, well, this is fine. And I'm helping people and this is good, but I always sort of wanted to talk about all the other stuff. So, at the mastermind. I really had that breakthrough because we were talking about what's your one offer and what are you really focusing on.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And I'm like, well, like I should keep focusing on this because this is what I've been doing. And they said, well, what lights you up? I said, well, I used to do this. And everybody's like, you sound like so much more, like your voice is deeper. You're stronger. Like this is who you are and what you want. That was the power of that mastermind, it wasn't even just one coach giving me one advice or the other, but just the whole room could feel it and then reflect that back to me.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And, I thought, okay. But I still went and did the homework about each niche, so to speak each focus. And, I did that, but I was very clear really, right in that moment. I'm like I need to just expanding back. I had narrowed and I'm expanding back and I'm at a stage in my business where that makes sense.

Sarah Grace Powers:

There is an argument for getting more narrow. But that's for when you're making a higher level of income and maybe competing more on a different market. But even then, I mean, you know, really you got to follow what's inside of you, I believe for all entrepreneurs. And there's always going to be experts that tell you one way to do things, but then over here, there's gonna be another expert that's going to tell you the opposite. Right?

Sarah Grace Powers:

It's the same thing with food and dieting and you know what's your best food for your body and all of it, you know, what's best for your health? If someone's going to say this, someone else is going to say this. And ultimately it's like, you have your own particular truth.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Exactly, Exactly. Cause you can tell from any of the experiments that you do, does it work for you or does it not? Only you get to have that experience. Someone else from the outside, they are not experiencing all of the parts of that experiment, but you are. Find what works for you.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I just believe that if we especially, I mean really everyone, but especially women and especially women at this stage of life can slow down enough and get quiet and connect to that internal guidance. You know that why is there a self inside of you? Your answers are really there. And sometimes maybe they sound scary or you don't want to hear them. Or you'd just rather follow someone else's blueprint because it seems easier.

Sarah Grace Powers:

But in the end, like the way you're going to find your best success and you're going to shine the most, especially if you're an entrepreneur and you want to be successful, it's through connecting, I believe to that. That guidance inside of you and for women, you know, I like to call it that divine feminine essence, that's you.

 

Divine Intervention

Gretchen Hernandez:

One of the things that you and I talked about like in the last week is divine intervention. That sometimes things happen along our journey and especially in our business journey that our signs or indicators in some way that it's like, oh Nope, here's your path. Or if you think you're going down the path and all of a sudden the universe comes in and nudges you and goes, oh Nope, you're getting a little bit off that wasn't quite exactly it. It's like, no, you're going to go this way instead. Have you experienced any of that kind of divine intervention?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah. I mean, I've had, you know, different ones all through my life and a knowing that has come to me. That's always really strong and I always somehow know that that's when I have to follow it. Previous to this business, I had an herb shop that was like a healing center. And in addition to sort of like healing herbs and supplements and all that, we also had lots of books and tools for personal development and spiritual growth.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And it was a beautiful business. I had it for many, many years and it really became part of my identity. And then I started getting little signs, like about 15, 16 years in that it was time for a change. It was time for me to do something else, but I was that store. I felt like it was herbs and I'm in this small community here in the redwoods, you know? So, I just sort of kept ignoring it.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And I even had a huge divine intervention that I ignored, which was the place caught fire.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh no. How do you ignore that?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Luckily, I'd had an employee who was working late and put the fire out before it was too bad. But all the inventory was destroyed by the smoke. And that was the time of walk away? I mean, whatever, everything happens at the right time, but I could have walked away at that point. But I was just too scared. So I recreated the whole thing and then just kept getting smacked on the head by the universe left and right.

Sarah Grace Powers:

It was like you're just on the wrong path. You're on the wrong path. So sales were down. This was early two thousands and online shopping was really getting big. And so finally it was just like super obvious to me that it was time for a change. And, I ended up being able to sell that story to an employee.

Sarah Grace Powers:

So it is still there. I mean, part of my reluctance was like leaving that void in the community. But so the store is still there. It's kind of a different iteration of itself, but so it's still there, which is amazing. But yeah, so that was a divine intervention that I ignored.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And then I've had other ones in my life... I had a very, very strong notice when it was time to separate from my husband. And that was what really got me on my journey of reinvention in my early fifties. And ultimately becoming a life coach and coming back to the healing arts and becoming a life coach. Nothing as powerful as I think I've heard you talk about.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I don't know if I've actually mentioned it on a podcast. So it's the beginning of this year, January, 2021, my Facebook business account got hacked really bad where they got all the way to my bank account and they were charging me for ads for wigs in Thailand.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And I had been working for over two years building up the business and I was ready with launches. I was ready with all of my ad campaigns. Okay. Well some of the ad campaigns, not all of it, but all of a sudden I had a choice of, do I leave this open so that the hackers can continue to spend my money in my bank account so that I can continue with my path? Or do I pause? And so I went through all of the things and when I contacted bank of America, they said, the only way that we could protect your funds is to shut down your whole account, send you a new card.

Gretchen Hernandez:

But now everything that I have on auto-payment and stuff like that, I have to redo all of it. And so I was really stressed out and I went to my hairdresser that day. And she kept swiveling me around in the chair and she kept putting me right in front of this statue of the Buddha that has his hand up. And at first I was resisting and it's like, you know, my brain's still going of, how can I figure out there has to be some way that I can figure this out so that I can still keep going.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And then she had swivel me around to a different part. And I'm looking at, you know, pictures of the Redwood trees and beautiful ocean pictures. And then she'd swivel me right back and look at the Buddha again. And it was like, okay. So it's like two hours in the chair and enough of staring at Buddha telling me to stop and pause. And it was like, okay, okay. The universe, I get it. Okay. You're making it as hard as possible. And here's this peaceful figure telling me, no, no, no, this is in your best interest right now.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And it's not what I wanted to hear, but it's exactly what was right. And so after a pause, like all of a sudden there's a shift in my business and things have just really taken off and it hasn't even included Facebook business ads.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And what I love about that story is that none of us in this culture in this day of age likes the idea of pausing and stopping., usually if we're on a roll. But you had the insight and the willingness to listen and say, okay, I'm going to go ahead and do this. I'm going to take this pause. I have this knowing this is a sign for me. And, and then like, that's when things really kind of came together and probably a much less pushy hustley way for you.

Gretchen Hernandez:

It's a lot easier. Yeah.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah. That's why it's just, it's really important. I think, to be open to those signs and that guidance. Even when it's not quite what you think you want. And then be like, let me just experiment with following this and listening. If I had done that with that fire, I would have walked away with a whole bunch of insurance money. I would've been way more set up financially than I ended up being in the end, you know? So, so funny. Yeah. We learn from the mistakes and then we can learn from when it really works as well.

 

Expand Your Impact

Gretchen Hernandez:

Yeah. And so you're now at this shift, so you're talking about broadening the scope again, what does that include?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Well, it's so new honestly, cause I just got back, you know? It's really just being a little more authentic to what I really feel like talking about when I'm sharing what I do and going with. Clients have come to me, not just for weight loss the whole time anyway, so it's probably not going to be all that different. What I do know is that for a lot of women who are in this phase of life and are looking to really step more into what they know they can do, sometimes they do have body stuff they want to work on. So it may really actually in the coaching relationship be very similar because we coach on what's up, and they can, if they want use the weight loss program.

Sarah Grace Powers:

The foundation is always cultivating first the acceptance of exactly the way you are right now. And then growing an actual appreciation and love for your body, with the aches and pains. With the menopausal symptoms, with the shape, the thickening waistline, whatever it is that, that you don't like. And, it's a journey to get there.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Using the tools that we know with life coaching and with EFT, we can totally get there. You know? It's an expansion, it's a pivot, but it's not a huge like, oh, everything's different now. I've always been working with the same people that I love and whose light I want to see grow.

Sarah Grace Powers:

I mean really my original vision way back when was this idea of helping women have that confidence, have that self-love. Feel their radience so they can go do the things that they're dreaming up that are gonna make a difference in the world in a way bigger way than I even can. Because I don't have the skills and the talents and, and I'm just not them. And that's this like ripple effec that's just like going out there and making a difference in the world.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And like right now, you know, we need that more than ever. We need everyone onboard on deck, you know, sharing their gifts.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, I agree with you a hundred percent. I love that word radiance that you use because even as you're describing that ripple effect, your arms are out like raised because it is radiance and it's starting with you as that coach. You might not feel like you have all of those skills. There's more skills that you have that you haven't tapped into yet that you don't even realize, but you're helping to help all of these other people. And so that extends your impact on the world.

Sarah Grace Powers:

That's it extending the impact? I have skills I haven't tapped into. I have things I can still learn, but every woman, by the time you reach your forties and fifties and sixties, you have life experience that can connect you to places. I mean, there's so many other ways that I can then really broaden my impact. And that's the real vision. It's kind of a little cliche sounding, but it's, you know, changing the world one mind at a time.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Well, even you coming on to podcasts to share stories, like the story about the fire. That in itself, now it has reached a, another group of people that haven't met you before. And it has nothing to do with weight loss. It's a fire and a business. Right. And what does that change in your life? And so you sharing those stories. Now, someone else who's going through a struggle like that. Now they've heard yours. And your story of how you went with it. It's like either you accepted it and you had all the insurance money or you resisted it and it's like, okay, you still ended up on your path. It just looked different.

Sarah Grace Powers:

That was a little more windy now.

 

Leverage Your Natural Abilities

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that we have different ways to share our stories. And so I use a podcast as a way to share my story, share some mini lessons and to also bring on other coaches who can share all of their stories. And in our business models, like we can choose those different things. So I choose a podcast, you've have blogs and you have them for 10 years. I was blown away. I have never seen another coach that has that large of a library. And so I always like to go back to like episode one or issue one. And I don't think it was exactly issue one, but it was like somewhere in like the first five and it was on smudging. And I was like, oh, this is so neat. I've never learned about this before. And that you could smudge on a person.

Gretchen Hernandez:

What made you choose blogging as your thing you wanted to do?

Sarah Grace Powers:

I am a writer. I had that store for all those years. So, I wasn't writing a whole lot there except for my newsletter that I had, but I love writing. And so I've actually been blogging longer than that. Like I started blogging when I was just looking at an empty nest, I had a blog called Grownup Mom. It was just fun blogs, but some personal growth stuff.

Sarah Grace Powers:

And then I had a website and blog called Wellness, the Natural Way that was all herbal blogs. But then I would put in some things like, I guess think the smudging blog is from that. So then when I went to more coaching website, which was originally Holistic Hot Sauce

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love it!

Sarah Grace Powers:

I moved some of those blogs over and I just kept on blogging and I love writing. I love sharing information through writing. I feel like I express myself well in writing. Back then, blogging was more of a thing. It was just like what you did when you had an online business. And I was even blogging before I was trained as a coach. I was just doing more like health coaching because I was an herbalist and everything. I really loved the mindset stuff and always have very gravitating towards that. So that's why I decided to train as a life coach at which point my first life coach training, I said it was better than 10 years of therapy because I was getting divorced.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Talk about being able to just work with my thoughts and understand like the messages in my body and all of it was just so powerful for me. And I just kept blogging and just kept doing it. And now I'm actually mostly blogging on social media and then moving some of that to the site. And in my newsletter, I actually write blog type things for my newsletter. So I still love the writing. The online world has moved more to social media and videos and things like that. So I'm just incorporating as I can.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love though that you are still doing the blogging and the writing because everybody has their different learning styles. And so some people are auditory, some people are visual, but some people like to read. And even when we're looking at our social situations, quiet activities, when you're around other people is usually appreciated, right? Like we can't necessarily play a podcast out loud, so there might be earphones, but a lot of people read.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And so I think, you know, as business owners come in and they're thinking about what are the different things that I can do, don't forget that blogging still is valuable to a lot of people. And for all of my listeners that are listening, I know some of them go and look at my transcripts and it's like, okay, well I've got the audio and I have transcripts, but now they can come to you because this incredible library of blogs, there's so much good stuff there. How can they find those?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Most of my blogs are on my current website, which is sarahgracecoach.com. Some of the ones I did about herbs for menopause and things like that aren't there. So I'm figuring out now I might just put those on a resource on the website, holistic hot sauce, one got tech glitched to the point that I don't even want to deal with it anymore, it's inaccessible. But they're all on sarahgracecoach.com. And then, you know, I do post new ones there less frequently than I used to, but I still do. And you can find my writing too, though, on Instagram and Facebook, which is all Sarah Grace Powers. So @sarahgracepowers on Instagram and then Sarah Grace Powers on Facebook.

Gretchen Hernandez:

And so the ways that people can work with you now, so you talked about one-on-ones?

Sarah Grace Powers:

Yeah, the one-on-one coaching container is the main way I'm currently at this moment working. And I do a free breakthrough call. If someone's just curious and maybe they have just a few issues, they want to get some ideas about, we do a call for an hour and that's free, so they can contact me for that. I love doing those. I always like to reassure people that it's not a sales call to sell you my program. I mean, I will tell you about my program if you're interested, but it's really about you and getting to know each other and seeing if we can get you to some kind of breakthrough on that one call.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, that is so nice. How can they sign up for those calls?

Sarah Grace Powers:

There is a link on my website to do that. Yeah.

Gretchen Hernandez:

There will be a website page for this podcast episode with all of the links that you're sharing. So it will be super easy for our listeners to go and click on that and get to you directly. I want to ask you though, do you have one piece of advice that you would give to new entrepreneurs that are starting down this road?

 

Words of Wisdom for Newer Entrepreneurs

Sarah Grace Powers:

I would really say that it's kind of comes back to what I was talking about before. Your most important asset as an entrepreneur is you and who you are. And it's that trusting your own heart for your guidance and be discriminating and discerning about all the courses and all the advice. It's really easy to jump down that rabbit hole and then just get like inundated and overwhelmed and really lose your own GPS.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Choose a couple or very few mentors or coaches that can help guide you, but then even from them, do a check-in with your own inner wisdom and guidance. And then the only other thing is, just keeping it simple.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Focus on the activities that make you money. I and so many of my colleagues, we have to have like a special email thing. And there's all of these backend things you can get really lost in. And if you're starting out and you want to really get your business going, it's really about showing up in a way that tells people that you have a service to offer them. And offering it to them. Keeping the whole website and all that other stuff as simple as possible until you really get a little more momentum going.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Oh, that is great advice. I can definitely resonate with that. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for taking your time today to come and answer a whole bunch of questions and tell us all about you. This has been quite the pleasure.

Sarah Grace Powers:

Oh, I had so much fun and it's so great talking to you Gretchen, because what you offer entrepreneurs, I think is so valuable because you have that heart to you, but you're also very much a systems person. And that's so helpful. A lot of entrepreneurs are such big picture thinkers and you've got the amazing gift of sort of having both, where you can really break things down. I've seen that with you.

Gretchen Hernandez:

Thank you.

Sarah Grace Powers:

You're welcome.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I told you, Sarah was a soul sister. You will definitely want to go and check out her class. This is the five simple steps to manifest any goal at any age, she's offering that next Thursday, September 30th from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific standard time. It's online, no matter where you live, you'll be able to join in on this. You can register for this free class on the Facebook event page. I'm going to give you the link to that on this web page, because Facebook isn't so friendly with giving you really easy to memorize links. The link will be on the webpage for this episode. That's on myfreedomgrove.com/podcast-83.

Gretchen Hernandez:

I love that as coaches, healers, and educators, we can help each other to expand our reach. There are people out there that need us, that we haven't met yet. So when we can join forces and help share each other's information, it gets it out to the people who need them the most. I'd like to invite you to share this episode out onto your social media so that the women in your life have a chance to meet Sarah and to find out everything that she does and possibly sign up for that workshop.

Gretchen Hernandez:

This is how we are going to rise together in life, relationships, and business. Alright, my strong friends. Have a great week. I'll talk with you soon. Bye-bye.

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Thank you for listening to My Freedom Grove Podcast. I can't wait to work with you directly. I'll help you to be your authentic self, to have amazing relationships, and to live your purpose. I invite you to check out Unshakable Men and Unshakable Women. The unshakable programs will give you all of the tools, coaching, and the community to help you rise in life, relationships, and business. To learn more, go to my MyFreedomGrove.com/workwithme. I can't wait to see you there.