Hi, I'm Michelle.

A long time ago, I had a scary realization. I had just lived the same year twice.

And it wasn't even a good year. It was a mediocre one - to put it lightly.

So I did something really simple that ended up changing my life. Every Saturday, I packed up my pens, workbooks and printables and drove to a coffee shop in town. I would sit there for hours and work on my life. Pretty soon I was inviting other girls to join me. Then one of them wanted to bring a friend who could never make it on Saturdays. So I thought, what if I just put everything we were learning on a blog? That way she could still follow along.

That little blog became Secret O.W.L. Society.

Where it started

My whole mission back then was to take 100% responsibility for my life. I wanted every year to be ten times better than the last. Not a repeat.

I didn't start a business to change my life. I decided to change my life, and the business grew out of that decision.

That order has kept me grounded ever since. Life comes first. Business comes second. Inner work comes first. Outer work comes second.

So I don't need my business to grow for my life to get better. For me, it works the other way around. If I want my business to grow, I have to grow as a person first.

Where I am now

What has changed is what taking 100% responsibility means to me.

At first, I thought it meant trying harder. Then I realized it meant not taking responsibility for other people's lives. That one healed a codependency pattern I didn't even know I had. Then it meant learning to put myself first, and learning to feel safe doing it.

Now it means learning to love myself more.

Here's what I believe.

You deserve to feel good. Your well-being is not something to sacrifice to make a business work, or a relationship work, or an idea work. It's the thing that keeps you connected to your body and your intuition. It's what helps you make good decisions and notice when something isn't right. When you give it up, you lose yourself. When you honor it, you get clearer, braver and so much more powerful.

You can't get to a destination you love out of a journey you hate. So I care a lot about enjoying the journey.

I also let my business grow with me. When I outgrow something, I let it go. Last year I deleted almost all of my old content because it didn't reflect who I am anymore. I'm not building an archive. I'm building something that's true right now.

So here's where that leaves us

I still want every year to be ten times better than the last. I just go about it differently now. Instead of working harder, I'm taking ten times better care of myself and encouraging other women to do the same.

If you've ever felt like you're living the same year over and over, I want you to know you don't have to. And you don't have to push harder to change it. You can start by choosing yourself. By honoring your well-being. By believing you deserve to feel good, right now, not someday.

That's what the Secret O.W.L. Society is all about. I'm so glad you're here.