We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Burke a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michelle, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
That moment in 2012 was the first time I truly bet on myself. It wasn’t the last.
I had the life I was supposed to want, a great job, a beautiful condo, financial stability. But inside, I was falling apart. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I cried more mornings than not. My personal trainer could take one look at me and know I was barely holding it together. By November, I was already done with a school year which had only just begun. By March, I was blasting Kundalini mantras on my way to work, just trying to get through the day, and crying on my way home. By April, I had made up my mind, I was leaving. I was moving to the beach. And I didn’t care who knew.
Everyone thought I was crazy. My mother flat-out said it. My boss tried to convince me to stay. But I knew in my bones, if I stayed it would destroy me. So I quit my job, packed up my life, and moved with nothing lined up. No job, no safety net, just a deep knowing that I had to do this. Oh, and I also decided to join a network marketing company because why not add more chaos to the mix?
Then, three weeks before I was supposed to move, my new landlord backed out. He and his wife weren’t “comfortable” renting to someone without a full-time job, never mind that my rent would be half of what I was already paying, and I still had my adjunct professor position lined up for the fall. Didn’t matter. I was out.
So there I was… no place to live, no steady income, and my bank account looking at me like, girl, what are you doing? I wanted to crawl under a rock and cry forever. And for a moment, I did. But then I pulled myself together and figured it out.
I found a place to live. Yeah, I had to do the housemate thing for the first time since college, but whatever. We ended up becoming great friends. I picked up a part-time job and kept going. Then in October, I landed a maternity leave teaching position. So now I was working full-time, running my network marketing business at night, and pushing myself harder than ever.
By March, I had my next big realization: I was done with teaching. Teaching to the test was crushing my soul. Schools are a toxic environment, don’t even get me started on the teacher’s room. The bureaucratic BS was exhausting. I wanted more, so I walked away from the career I had spent years building and went all-in on my business.
People thought I was crazy, again. But that risk? That leap? It cracked my entire world open. It led me here. It gave me the freedom to build a life and career which actually aligns with who I am.
That first risk taught me a lesson I’ll never forget: Security is an illusion. The only thing that’s real is your ability to figure it out, over and over again. And I always do.
Michelle, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Michelle Burke, author of the international bestseller ‘Hot Mess Magic’, host of the ‘Hot Mess Magic’ podcast, keynote speaker, and founder of Hot Mess Magic Media. I work where soul meets strategy, where spiritual clarity crashes into raw, messy humanity.
I didn’t choose this work. It chose me.
After decades of shapeshifting, people-pleasing, high-achieving, and torching perfectly good lives every few years (my fellow 3/5s in Human Design know this dance), I hit a wall. The breakdown wasn’t optional anymore. I was in the void, the brutal space between who I used to be and who I wasn’t quite yet.
This is where the real clarity hit. Not the Instagram-quote bullshit, but the soul-searing, shadow-confronting, “burn it all down and rebuild from truth” kind.
Hot Mess Magic was born before I even knew what the words fully meant. As three months after they came to me, I lost everything. My car, bank accounts frozen, my apartment and was sexually assaulted. I had two choices to make, I could either get back up and discover the magic in this mess or let this all define me as a person. Anyone who knows me, knows I don’t stay down for long. In the uncertainty. In the ashes. In the void. I rose. I fell. I processed. I rose again only to fall again. To rise again. As it’s in our messy low points, we learn, we grow and we expand.
How I Got Into This Work
I didn’t wake up one day and decide to do this; it was born out of my own chaos. As I mentioned before, I had a “successful” life: a stable teaching career, a beautiful home, and a life that looked great from the outside. But inside? I was miserable. I woke up every morning dreading the day ahead. I was exhausted, uninspired, drinking way too much and stuck in a system which was draining the life out of me.
In 2012, I hit my breaking point. I quit my job, packed up my life, and moved to the beach with nothing lined up. This crazy decision changed everything. It forced me to trust myself, figure things out as I went, and build something real.
I went all-in on entrepreneurship, first in network marketing, then expanding into speaking, writing, and guiding others through their own transformations. In the process, I learned life isn’t about waiting for the perfect plan, it’s about choosing yourself, again and again, and figuring it out as you go.
Who I Work With & What I Do
I work with women (especially over 40) who are navigating massive life upheavals. Women who are done performing perfection and ready to trust themselves again. I don’t do the pretty stuff. I live in the messy middle, the raw place between the life that’s falling apart and the one that hasn’t shown up yet.
My brand is built on one thing: Transformation. Helping people break free from burnout, self-doubt, and perfectionism so they can embrace their mess, reclaim their power, and create they life they’re actually meant to live. I don’t do surface-level motivation. I do real, lasting change.
What I do:
Keynotes & Workshops: I deliver high-impact, no-BS talks about transformation, identity, and navigating the void. With clarity, humor, and edge. I shake people awake and help them reconnect with their purpose by cutting through the noise, clearing out the mental and energetic blocks, and taking unapologetic action toward what they really want.
Podcast: Hot Mess Magic features real stories, raw conversations, and insights for embracing the mess without needing to tie it in a bow. I dive deep into unfiltered conversations about transformation, authenticity, and breaking free from societal expectations.
Books & Writing: My debut book ‘Hot Mess Magic’ is part guide, part memoir, part mirror for anyone unraveling and rebuilding. I write for women who don’t need more self-help, they need self-trust. My book isn’t just a title, it’s a movement. A rallying cry for those ready to stop playing small, break free from societal expectations, and own their unfiltered brilliance.
Media Strategy & Thought Partnership: Down the road, I plan on expanding Hot Mess Magic Media into a platform for messy, meaningful voices.
Who I Connect With
Women whose old life doesn’t fit but the new one hasn’t shown up yet. They’re in transition, in question, in resistance. People who feel stuck, burned out, or like they’ve been living by everyone else’s rules. They’re craving something real. They want to break free from the pressure to have it all together and start creating a life aligned to them.
Through my work, they start to see breakdown as initiation. They find language for what they’re going through. They stop trying to fix themselves and start trusting themselves instead.
What Sets Me Apart
I crack you open like Humpty Dumpty, yet unlike all the kings horses and all the kings men, we put you back together again.
Most people in this space are either handing out spiritual bypasses or trying to fix you with pretty frameworks. I’m not here to make you feel better about your mess, I’m here to help you see that your mess IS the point.
I don’t do the Instagram-quote bullshit. I don’t pretend breakdown is beautiful. I don’t sugarcoat the void or make transformation sound like a weekend retreat. I tell you the truth: sometimes you have to completely fall apart to become who you’re meant to be.
And when you’re lying there in pieces, wondering if you’ll ever be whole again? I’m the one who sits with you in the wreckage and helps you rebuild, not into who you were, but into who you’re becoming.
I’ve been cracked open so many times I’ve lost count. I know what it feels like when your perfectly constructed life implodes. I know the terror of the void, the exhaustion of pretending, the relief of finally letting it all fall apart.
That’s what I bring, not theories about transformation, but the lived experience of rising from the ashes again and again. Not because I’m special, but because I’ve learned that breaking apart isn’t the end of the story. It’s the beginning of the real one.
I don’t teach you how to avoid the cracks. I teach you how to let them become your light.
What I’m Most Proud Of
I’m proud of the messages I get from people who read *Hot Mess Magic* or listen to my podcast and finally feel seen. I’m proud of those I’ve worked with who walked away with more confidence, clarity, and freedom than they ever thought possible. And I’m proud of the woman I’ve become through this journey, discovering new layers of my own authentic self.
It hasn’t always been easy. I’ve watered myself down at times to fit in and play by the rules, only to realize that’s not who I am. I’m a rebel with a cause, and helping people break free, own their truth, and create a life fully aligned with who they are drives everything I do.
Fitting in once felt necessary, but it only led to losing myself. I refuse to play by rules designed to keep people small. My greatest pride lies in the lives changed, the voices reclaimed, and the unapologetic authenticity unleashed.
I Want People to Know.
Every single one of us is a hot mess, whether we want to admit it or not. In this world of filters and facades, it’s time to let them all crumble because it’s in the messy moments that we learn, grow, and expand.
You’re not behind. You’re in process. You’re not broken. You’re breaking open.
The cracks aren’t flaws, they’re where the light gets in. Your breakdown isn’t a detour from your path, it’s the path itself. That thing you’re most ashamed of? That’s probably your greatest source of power.
I’m not here to help you put your old life back together. I’m here to help you build something completely new from the beautiful wreckage of what was.
You don’t need to fix your mess, you need to mine it for gold. Stop apologizing for being human. Start celebrating that you’re brave enough to feel it all, messy and magical.
Your power doesn’t live in your perfectly curated highlights. It lives in your willingness to show up when everything’s falling apart. In your ability to keep going when you don’t know how. In your courage to start over when the old version of you no longer fits.
So if you’re looking for someone to help you get your shit together, I’m not your person. But if you’re ready to discover that your shit already IS together – just not in the way you expected, welcome.
You’re not a project to be fixed. You’re a masterpiece in progress.
And your mess? That’s where your magic lives.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My creative journey pulses with a singular obsession: shattering the suffocating myth life must be pristine, predictable, and perfectly packaged. I exist to obliterate the lie there’s a single “correct” path to fulfillment.
My mission lives in the spaces between what’s expected and what’s real. I’m here to excavate the buried truth your authentic self isn’t just acceptable, it’s revolutionary. Every fiber of my being knows we’re all walking around with raw materials to forge something extraordinary from our most chaotic moments.
What drives me is watching people remember they don’t need permission to be messy, complicated, or beautifully unfinished. I’m compelled to create and connect in ways giving others permission to stop shrinking, stop perfecting, and start celebrating the wild, untamed parts of themselves society taught them to hide.
I want to rewire how we see our struggles, not as evidence of failure, but as sacred ingredients of our most powerful creations. When someone stops letting their inner critic or outside voices dictate their worth, when they finally step into their own definition of success without apology, magic happens.
This isn’t about achievement or milestones. It’s about creating a world where people feel safe to be gloriously, unapologetically themselves. Where chaos isn’t something to fix, but something to dance with. This possibility ignites everything I do.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Absolutely. One thing non-creatives might struggle to understand about my journey as a creative is how much uncertainty, trust and messiness is built into the process. From the outside, it might look like I’ve got it all figured out, like there’s some perfect, linear path to success. But the reality is, being a creative means constantly navigating the unknown, trusting yourself through the chaos, and embracing the discomfort of not having all the answers.
There are times when the direction is unclear, when things don’t come together the way I thought they would, or when I wonder if anyone will even care about what I’m creating. It’s a daily practice of resilience. Creating despite doubt, continuing even when progress feels slow, and learning to listen to my intuition instead of relying solely on logic. The less sense it makes, the more likely I am to do it, as I know it’s my intuition guiding me and it’s normally guiding me out of my comfort zone.
Non-creatives often view the creative process as linear: inspiration, creation, success. Which is quite comical as it’s more like a series of messy, beautiful failures leading to breakthroughs. I have learned to trust the mess, the discomfort, the uncertainty, and the moments when things just don’t make sense. It’s in those moments where the real magic happens.
I think a lot of people who aren’t creatives might expect things to go in a straight line; however, the creative process, along with life, aren’t linear. Instead, it’s a journey full of twists and turns, growth, and constant reinvention. The trick is learning how to keep moving forward, even when you can’t see the next step, and trusting that it will all make sense eventually.
For anyone out there who feels like their path is messy or unclear, embrace it. Those moments of uncertainty are often where the most profound breakthroughs occur. Don’t be afraid of the mess; it’s where the magic lives.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/michelleaburke
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/michelleaburke
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@magickshell
- Other: Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/6xg2a7w4BXSnIk6jFHDpe8?si=7877a52abea54612 Apple – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hot-mess-magic/id1823422607
Image Credits
All images are by Michelle Burke