We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Klettke recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I’m very fortunate that I was able to live out my childhood dream before pivoting career-wise. When I was 8 years old, I named my future business Sesroh or ‘Horses’ spelled backwards. I dreamt of becoming a famous rider, one day making it to the Olympics and put all my efforts into riding and learning about how to care for and train horses. At 12, I opened my first bank account with the intention it would be a savings account to purchase my own farm one day.

Attending Depaul University, I studied Anthropology, eventually focusing on Museum Studies as art was my second love. While in school I also volunteered for a non-profit where we ran an afterschool program in an inner-city high school centered around teaching healthy communication skills as well as writing and public speaking. My experience in this non-profit informs how I plan for the poetry readings I do currently. College was my break to do “normal life” after spending most of my youth competing at horse shows across the country. And because of my interest in Museum Studies and art, decided that as a backup plan maybe I could one day own my own art gallery.

Fast forward through years spent working for other professionals, I finally had the opportunity to move to St. Pete, Fla and start my own training business named Sesorh. If I were to give advice to those newly starting out in business, it would be this: don’t get diagnosed with cancer 4 months later.

The day I was officially handed my diagnosis papers I was also called up by the barn owner and fired.

Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor.

Thankfully, St Pete is the Sunshine City, has a thriving art scene, and close to one of the top cancer centers in the country, Moffitt. While going through my treatment, surgery, and recovery I leaned into the arts scene here and resurfaced another childhood passion of mine: writing poetry. I’ve now been writing, performing, and hosting for around 7 years at events in local art centers and galleries and served on the board for the Friends of Jack Kerouac Group. I am also one year in to hosting Open Mic at the Imagine Museum in downtown.

In retelling my cancer story, I often say that cancer was the easier part. Losing my career and my business was the most difficult. Even though I was diagnosed with a super rare cancer that my doctors had not seen before (only 10 case studies presented at the time for the tumor in my location), it felt like I could take action on how to get healthy again. Whereas being fired and having to tell all my clients I needed to step away felt like a forced spiral out of my control.

An appreciation for St. Pete being a safe healing space, the arts, and a conviction to help others is part of my drive within my career now as a financial advisor. I’m able to help creatives and small business owners have access to information around financial stability that I wish I had when I was just starting out. I believe this is a way for me to support my community and do meaningful work around allowing creatives to put their energy into their craft.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Every time I call my mom and say “guess what I’m going to do?” she understandably has no idea yet knows it’s going to be meaningful and exciting for me. I’ve studied anthropology, taught horseback riding lessons, worked with animals, solo hiked to write poetry for the Walker Sisters at their cabin in the middle of the Smokys, composed haikus on an island inhabited only by birds outside of Dublin, decorated homes with custom glass art installations, and host open mic in a contemporary art museum. But at the heart of it all is a desire to center the work I do around connecting with others.

For a few years I was able to settle into my second niche of working in an art gallery as a Glass Gallery Coordinator for a non-profit. However, I needed to find a better balance between supporting artists and leaving room for me to grow within a career path. Which makes my pivot into the financial planning sphere feel natural. Ironically, the office building I work at is next to the arts center.

I also continue to host Open Mic Poetry at the Imagine Museum every other month. It’s a beautiful way to honor and hold space for everyone’s experience. If you haven’t been to a poetry night before, I recommend you go. It uplifts your heart to hear people bravely sharing their unique kaleidoscope vision while others listen with intent and support with applause.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I feel one of my greatest challenges in life is to accept the concept of not forcing perfection and realizing that even if I go about setting all the details, it may not go according to plan. Often, it’s for my betterment. Call that faith, trust, going with the flow.

Losing a client, let them go. I’ve always had two or three replace them who were better aligned with my brand. Travel plans don’t go according to schedule, settle in and be present. You might otherwise miss the best part of your trip. All your meetings cancel for a day, spend that time focusing your energy back on yourself so you emerge even more ready for the next.

This concept reminds me of the image of the 5 of Cups in Tarot. Two cups are filled, three are overturned. It’s a choice of where to place your energy and focus: on the two who are potentially nearly overflowing or on the three lost….perhaps the three spill water which nourishes the Earth and allows flowers to grow in its place which you’ll never notice if your mindset is on what’s out of your control and temporarily feels like a setback.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For as long as you can define a moment of beauty in the world, you will be ok. Here is my poem from my first solo hike through the Smokys:

The Sisters Cabin

Metamorphosis of sandstone and shale
slope to pool the sunset
We lay, ringed by jagged ridges, stargazing
at continental collisions who reach the heavens
High up on summits, old-growth hardwood and hemlock
stand as embalmed reminders of the eternal
forests stripped bare as matchstick effigies
Bark kissed by soles walking paths carved out by families
whose saccharine voices reverberate, sending
pine needles and stardust combusting against the apex

Down in the holler winds whistle through the flue
phantom steps creak old boards, sturdy
from the wrinkled-knowing hands of generations
On the rustic timber portico, shaded
from the sun with mountains-view
framed between the trees and the spring house
exists a single, envailed tulip-poplar bench, we sit
Engrained eons of chronicled bloodlines
for this was always meant to be their home
Always leave room for the ghosts

Contact Info:

• Instagram: laetoli88

Image Credits

Mic pic- Denzel Johnson-Green
Glass Goblet- Stephanie Agudelo