We were lucky to catch up with Debra Driscoll recently and have shared our conversation below.

Debra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Hindsight is a powerful thing. I can see now through the lens of the past 5 years of my entrepreneurial journey that I have, more than once, fooled myself into believing that safety was in the structures built by others, not in my internal guidance system. As a business owner, the learning curve is constant. I am thankful to the coaches and mentors who have taught me vital skills that create structure within my business. And, I am very grateful to myself for a moment that changed the trajectory of my business.

One day while in a group coaching session with a business coach, I was trying to express my discontent with my business and its development and I spontaneously said, “Am I playing the game I want to win?” As soon as it was out of my mouth I knew the answer was NO! I knew that I had spent time and money developing my business based on other people’s ideas, success models, and methods, and I had ignored my greatest asset, my intuition. I had spent more time listening to others rather than listening to myself.

After that call, I decided to stop trying to build my business and seek the pathway and direction that would lead me to answer YES when asked if I was playing the game I wanted to win. It felt risky to do so, yet it also felt like the best next step. The first step was to stay with the question and not grasp for an answer. I explored my business as an adventure and a game, rather than simply hard work and a list of tasks to complete. I permitted myself to let go of the things that did not feel aligned or fun. I invited others I trust into conversations with me so I could expand my thinking and curiosity. I welcomed possibility, imagination, and play.

A few weeks into my exploration I was in New York City, house-sitting at my friend’s Manhattan apartment. She lives on the 34th floor in the financial district. The apartment is up high looking out over buildings of abundance in Manhattan. As I look over the landscape of dreams that have come true I know that it is time to tune in and listen without edit or limit.

Every morning while staying there, with a cup of coffee, I sit down to conduct an important meeting with my business and my intuition. I journal, ask questions, wait for answers, meditate, and dream. Over the first few days, my old thinking and limits start to untangle and melt away. Days into this ritual I heard it, what I needed to know. I am directed clearly by my intuition. I heard what needed to change and what was to remain, and I heard the soul-anchored permission to build the business I wanted. One of the biggest shifts for me was seeing that I am NOT my business, and in fact, my business has a spirit of its own.

This experience led me to create a digital product called, Tap into the Magic of Your Business. I realized that I was not the only entrepreneur listening to others and denying the most valuable voice of our intuition. I invite others to welcome their intuition into their business and to tune into meetings with the spirit of their business. It has been a game-changer for me, and many others. I now hold regular meetings with the spirit of my business and my intuition is a valued team member of my business, Big Life Magic.

It can feel risky to listen to the quiet voice inside you. It doesn’t always make sense or seem safe. Yet, I would say, not listening is a lot riskier!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a woman the mystical realm and the potential of our spirit and the universe have always fascinated me. My curiosity has driven my studies in varied modalities of spiritual practice, healing, applied theater, storytelling, and personal development. For 30 years I have been both student and teacher, researcher and subject. I anchor into the belief that we are spiritual beings having an earthbound experience and are here to explore and expand.

This was a journey of discovery and delight until my earthbound life shattered and my spirit stepped up and showed me why I was really here.

In the days before my heart shattered, a guide visited me in my dreams. He sat on the edge of the bed dressed in his Middle Eastern attire with his elaborate hat that completed his look of authority. He shared, “I know you do not want to listen as you have chosen to forget every other time I have come, but we are running out of time. I need you to remember… the research is important.”

Three days later my son, Sage unexpectedly died one month before his 11th birthday.
It took me years to understand the guide’s message. The research is not only important, it is my life’s journey and work.

Surviving Sage’s death has meant I have been on a research path to discover why our hearts break and what that has to do with our spiritual path and our souls.

My research is not limited to the grief we feel when a loved one dies. My research expands to all hearts, all who seek heart repair after a loss, all those who feel ready to amplify their magic, and all the spaces in between. There is a pathway from your big life loss to your big life magic. I have found the way and I seek to share this research with others so they can also activate their heart repair and alchemize their potential.

I am the author of, A Series of Surrenders: A Memoir of Grief and host the You Are The Magic podcast.

My business Big Life Magic supports women across the extremes of our heart vibration; from loss to magic, magic curious, and magic mastery.
The heart of Big Life Magic is the virtual community, The Big Life Magic Makers. Inside the community, I teach mastery classes and offer community events that align with what magic means to you. The community has been co-created with the women and is responsive to what women need, which is a safe space to reconnect with their magic.
In my 1:1 intuitive guidance work, I support people on a loss-to-magic journey. I also offer Elite Energy Alignment for women who identify as living a big life and seeking energetic support to align and maintain the magic they create in the world.

I have the delight and privilege of living with my husband on the island of Tobago where we are building our BIG LIFE MAGIC dream of an expanded sheep flock (I love being a shepherdess!) and an island adventure and magic retreat business.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Fulfilling my dream of writing my first book led me to an unexpected meeting with my business partner in a faraway place. In 2018 I decided it was the year I would write my book. I had been edging towards this narrative adventure in the five years since April 2013 when my grief journey began after the unexpected death of my 10-year-old son, Sage. I knew quite early in my big life loss journey that I would write a book about my spiritual journey and heart repair, what I didn’t know until 2018 was how the book would be shaped and shared. I felt, finally, that I was ready. I knew I could now write from the scar and not the wound. I sensed that it was time to craft a narrative that would be a tool for all hearts.

I spent the early winter months of the year in a memoir writing class and each week in class my story developed into a bigger story than I intended it to be. By Spring I knew what I wanted to share and set myself to task. The stories were ready to be written but were not flowing in the city. I needed a wide horizon and the sea.

In late April I flew away from the city and deep into the Caribbean. I was destined for my writing spot, a place I had seen in a dream. Earlier in the year while unsuccessful in my writing attempts in the city I dreamt of a writing spot that overlooked a large body of water with many fishing boats. After I woke from the dream I googled places to stay in Trinidad. I planned to visit a friend who was working on a project in Trinidad and I had carved out three weeks to visit her and then spend days upon days writing away from the noise of the city. To my surprise, the search offered pictures of a guest house with a verandah overlooking the sea with fishing boats. It was uncanny how similar the images looked to my dream. I emailed the guest house asking if they had availability for the dates I would be in Trinidad. The reply was quick and not what I expected. “Yes, we have availability, but we are not in Trinidad, we’re located on the sister island, Tobago.” As a woman committed to following my intuition and winks from the universe, I followed the dream guidance and booked a three-week stay at the guest house. I remember vividly stepping onto the verandah and looking out to the boats bobbing gently in the sea. I remember feeling that I had just stepped into my dream.

On the third morning of my stay, I woke at dawn. With fresh coffee and my journal, I shifted from my room to the verandah for some early writing. I notice I am not alone. Standing on the jetty below is a tall man with long dreads. He has his back to me and his shoulders move swiftly as he carves an edge to his fishing hook. He senses me watching him, turns to see me, and waves hello. I wave back. We are the only two people awake in the sleepy fishing village and despite the distance of the verandah to the jetty the moments we share catching glances feel intimate. It had been a long time since my heart skipped as it was dedicated to my grief journey, but on the third day at dawn inside the scene of my dream, my heart skipped in the undeniable way a skip shifts you into attraction.

Over the three weeks I was on the island we spent time together. I let myself skip and it felt good. I allowed the skip but did not venture to the edge that invites the leap. On my last day we sat by the sea in a surrendered goodbye. When he dropped me at the airport for my flight home I said goodbye to him and to the island. I was sure I would not see either of them again.

And that’s the thing about our stories…we think we know what’s going to happen and then life surprises us with the clear navigation towards the heart of our dreams.

Weeks later on a video call, I saw his face pop-up on the small screen of my phone and I knew it. I knew I had not said goodbye and I would soon fly to see him and the island again. And I did, more than once. I flew south three more times that year to write more of my book, and each time we developed from attraction to connection to commitment.

As my dream of writing my book unfolded by the sea, I fell in love. I thought I was writing a book, not writing a whole new story for me. The threads of connection were deeper than love bonding, we discovered we also shared a dream. We both dreamt of building a retreat business to connect people to nature and healing. For him, it was about the island and the healing it offers freely to those who sit with her. For me, it was about finding a place where hearts could lay open and feel held. Our dreams matched and we began to craft and create together.

My book, A Series of Surrender ~ A Memoir of Grief was published in January 2020 and in December 2021 we were married. In January 2023 we held our first retreat for 9 women. We are now developing ideas, laying foundations, creating connections across the island, and activating the expansion of our shared dream. My business partner is my life partner and I found both in paradise.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

The global pandemic was the twist in the plot no one expected. For me, it meant my book tour was canceled, my love and life partner was behind a locked border, and the dream of our retreat business seemed far far away as no one was jumping on a plane for a retreat in paradise. The unexpected twist that has proven to be abundant and expansive was all of these delays and disappointments led me to launch my business, Big Life Magic in November 2020. The pandemic had agitated my desire to share spiritual practice with people on a larger scale.

I left Tobago in late January 2020 believing I would return in early April. I did not fly back across the border into Tobago until July 2021. By July 2022 I was a married woman and a full-time entrepreneur. And then our dream swirled back into focus. Over the summer of 2022, we created the plan, and in September we opened the registration for our first island magic retreat.

Were we ready? No. Were we eager to try? Yes.
Trying was better than sitting on another year of our dream not coming true.

I had run the numbers. We had selected the venue and island partners. The deposits were made.
We invested our money into the possibility that this dream could come true.

Did it feel risky? Hell yeah, it did.
Did it feel riskier to not go for it? Absolutely.

The first three days of open registration were successful with more than half of the retreat booked and we could breathe deeply again knowing that at a minimum our expenses were covered. Over the coming weeks, the final spots were secured and the retreat was fully booked. The women had flights booked and were excited to arrive in tropical warmth and leave the January winter behind for a week.

On New Year’s Eve of 2022, I boarded a flight bound for Australia. This was a flight I did not want to take and was not expecting to take so soon. I flew home to be with my family as we honored the life of my elder sister, Kathleen, and her surrender after a warrior effort and fight in a 10-year cancer journey.

The loss of my sister, the days away from the island just before our first retreat, fresh grief, and heavy sustained jet lag was the setting for our first retreat.

Against all odds; a pandemic, a new marriage, deep loss, and grief, we successfully hosted our first island magic retreat. Truthfully, we learned more than we expected. The lessons were thick and fast!

Our dream is big. Some days it feels like it will be forever before we stand on the land of our retreat center with developed buildings, a payroll for local islanders, and a full list of retreat attendees. And, the dream is developing now. That is what I learned when we risked pulling off the dream band-aid and hosting our first retreat…it is better to be in it than on the outside looking in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://biglifemagic.com/
• Instagram: @biglifemagic
• Youtube: Big Life Magic + You Are The Magic Podcast (Available on YouTube)
• Other: You Are The Magic Podcast ~ Also available on Apple + Spotify

Image Credits

Headshots of me: Andreea Burciu-Ballen

Photos from the island I own.