Speaking on stage can be more than sharing information. For experienced spiritual practitioners, coaches, and facilitators, it can become a transformational container.

In this Sacred Business Calibration, Kelle Sparta works with Carole Hodges, the Life Change Navigator, as Carole shifts her business away from traditional coaching and toward paid speaking, writing, and a smaller number of private clients.

What begins as a business-model conversation quickly moves into something deeper: the difference between being the bridge for other people and becoming the person who simply holds the door open.

Kelle explores how transformational speakers can create experiences that invite people across an internal threshold without forcing them to change. She explains how discontent can become fuel for transformation, why an audience must be allowed to choose its own depth of experience, and how a speaker's intention interacts with the attention in the room.

The conversation also explores the energetic dimension of speaking. Kelle describes how speeches can function like spells—not through theatrical mysticism, but through focused intention, language, attention, and the ability to hold a coherent transformational container.

For spiritual coaches, facilitators, speakers, and practitioners who want to create deeper impact from the stage, this episode offers a practical framework for moving beyond presenting information and into embodied transformational leadership.

What You'll Learn

• How to transition from traditional coaching into paid speaking
• Why being the “bridge” can become exhausting
• What it means to hold the doorway instead of carrying people across
• How to recognize when someone is ready for transformation
• Why crystallized discontent can become fuel for meaningful change
• How to direct emotional energy toward transformation instead of reaction
• Why intention is central to energetic facilitation
• How audience attention amplifies the intention you hold
• Why transformational speaking requires embodiment, not just preparation
• How to let intuition guide what happens on stage
• Why a transformational container must allow both shallow and deep participation
• How group dynamics influence the depth of an experience
• Why transformational speaking can command a higher fee than informational speaking

References Mentioned

• Sacred Business Calibration
• Transformational Speaking
• Public Speaking
• Paid Speaking
• Life Change Navigation
• Menopause Millionaire
• Toastmasters
• Musical Theater
• Initiation
• Threshold Experiences
• Crystallized Discontent
• Tony Robbins
• Energetic Facilitation
• Intention
• Transformational Containers
• Group Coaching
• Embodiment
• Lumos Gate
• Spiritual Coaching
• Intuitive Speaking

Resources Mentioned

Kelle Sparta

https://kellesparta.com

Carole Hodges — Life Change Navigator

https://lifechangenavigator.com

Five Questions for Deeper Purpose

https://lifechangenavigator.com/5questions

 Welcome back to Spirit Sherpa, where spiritual practitioners learn to master their gifts, grow their businesses and change lives. I'm your host, Kellee Sparta, transformational shaman and spiritual business coach. Please remember to like, subscribe and share to these episodes. It's how you help us grow and we appreciate you.

So today's episode is going to be a spiritual business calibration. If this is your first time here, this is a combination of practical spirit or practical business knowledge combined with spiritual insight so anything that might be impacting the business from past lives, from ancestral lineage, anything along those lines.

Okay? And so if you're interested in getting one of these you can find them on my website at kellesparta.com spelled K-E-L-L-E Sparta like the Greek city state .com and you can find it in the services section under spiritual business or sacred business calibration. Yeah, I can speak. Okay, so today we have a lovely guest who has agreed to come on and, and let us talk about her business and so Carole Hodges is here.

So welcome to the show, Carole. Oh, I'm so delighted to be here. So tell the listeners a little bit about your business and what you do. Sure. I am the life change navigator and what that means is I began working with women particularly after menopause. I wrote the book The Menopause Millionaire and what I find is that's a time of life when everything changes.

Your kids are generally grown up but your body is giving you all kinds of new messages that things are changing, and this has continued on to recognize that my gosh from the second half of life you're in a time of change and that change will be what you choose. I love that you point out it's where you focus because what I find is my clients generally recognize that they--things are changing.

They may be approaching retirement. They're recognizing that we are on a human life adventure, and they're here for the second half, and doggone it, all of sudden becomes very important whether you're leaving a legacy or just saying, "I came here for a reason. Let me know what that is and let me live it fully."

And surprisingly enough or really not surprisingly that they find that businesses relationships begin to work even better when people are raise their frequency and they feel free to be themselves fully So that's a transformation that I love, and I love to speak about it anywhere. I love to speak to groups Okay.

And what's your website? My website is lifechangenavigator.com. Okay, great. So tell me why you booked the call today. What is it that you came on for? What's, what's going on in your business? Well, I booked the call because I just had a sense... And you caught me in the middle of a, a major transition, but, um, honestly, I listen to my intuition.

So I heard about you, and frankly, it's one of the only things that I scheduled during the middle of a move between San Diego and Spokane. Wow. And I had to... W- I, when I looked for dates, it's like most of them I kept saying, "I can't do that. I'm in the middle of a move." So I, I put it out, and here we are. I got moved in, let's see, Thursday.

Last Thursday night, I arrived. Okay. That was less than a week ago. S- so I'm happy to be here. It's only been a week, so yeah. So, um, so totally intuitive. So let me just dig into your business then. If you don't have something specific that we're gonna focus on, I'm just gonna ask you some questions, okay?

Sure. So, uh, what's your business model That is shifting Okay That is shifting So my business model, I was, uh, writing and reaching out to people on LinkedIn, and I have gotten clients that way and people who know me. And I began to look at my own life of, uh, 25 years doing musical theater so feeling very comfortable on stage, and then doing Toastmasters- I'm a Mamma Mia girl too.

I just have to say that Oh. I did Mamma Mia two years ago- Yes ... so I feel you. I love that. I love it Vibes? Vibe with that. Yeah Okay There, so there, there's something, there's a freedom that I f- I find on stage. And then I've done Toastmasters. F- formed a club and gone all the way through everything, and I've done that for 24 years, not because I haven't learned how to speak yet but because I feel more alive if I have an opportunity to get up in front of people every week I get that So I looked at that and said, "What am I doing?"

I love to write. I love to speak. So my business model is shifting, and it is, it is shifting to being paid to speak on stage- Okay ... particularly to, you know, to business owners, to, uh, professional groups about how to manage change Okay, and so, so w-... You're transitioning out of a traditional coaching model?

Is that what you were doing before or...? Yes, yes Okay My ideal- Yeah And this is where I think I got brave enough to say, "What would I actually love?" Mm-hmm "What would just make me so happy to get up every morning?" And I realized that having no more than four, two to four private clients and that's it, and getting paid to be on stage which is like a dream, and writing another book because I realize that's, that's where I'm just naturally called Okay It's like you can't stop me.

I need to write, and I need to speak Yeah and the coaching comes along with it  okay, so they're giving me two visuals and the visual, visual number one is what you've been doing and it's you being the bridge. So- Mm ...and what the visual image is, is you've got-- And, and it's literally uphill. So your feet are on one set of rocks and you're uphill leaning across an expanse and people are walking across your back.

Hmm. So that's the vision that they've given me of what you're doing now and what they're inviting you to restructure to is holding the door open Oh Okay? So that you aren't, you aren't the g- the gateway itself. You are not the bridge. You are the person who invites people across the threshold I am smiling because it is that one phrase is something I have used for myself for a long time, I'm a bridge.

Because there are ... I was raised with, you know, traditional religion and I believe there is something more above that traditional religion. And so I speak in language that I've always said I am a bridge so that people can reach spirit. Right. And so that is fascinating because to be, to hold open the door means not the door to the bridge but the I'm on the other side.

Now it's just people ha- In other words they already ne- need to be coming this direction to go in the door. Right. If they're going the other direction they're not coming in the door. No. So it's, that really reframes what I have been saying about myself for many years. Yeah. Well, and the important thing is, is that what the part that they were showing me is you were literally being walked across.

Yeah. They were walking on your back and that's, that's exhausting. Mm-hmm. Right? So whereas standing at the doorway and saying... You know, so here's the thing about a threshold, and, and this is the, the nature of the beast when you're doing initiations which is what standing at the doorway is, is that is you're the initiatrix, right?

The, the initiator. And um, the thing about standing in the doorway is that people will ask you over and over again what's on the other side because they're desperate to know. Hm. Because they're afraid to walk across and they know that everything changes when th- when they do. And what you have to be comfortable with as the initiatrix is you have to be comfortable with looking at them and saying, "I could describe it for you all day long and it's not gonna make a difference."

The only way to truly know what's on the other side is just walk through Yeah Right? And, you know, you know what's on the other side because you've been there and you walked back to be able to open the door, right? But- ... but sh- y- you could tell them all day long, but it, it, it, their experience of it is not gonna

They're not gonna understand it until they're in it, right? Right. It's like learning how to read. You're never gonna be illiterate again, right? You- Mm But you cannot ... When you're, when you're illiterate, you cannot understand what it's like to read. You know, you can- Mm ... conceptualize it, but you can't ... There, there's no knowing what it is, right?

It's like being married. If you've never been married, you can talk to people about what it's like to be married, but it's not at all the experience of being married. Right? Yeah. So it's the same thing, right? So as an initiatrix your job is to just open the doorway and issue the invitation and provide the enough

So, so people cross doorways when they have crystallized their discontent, when the pain of staying the same is greater than this pain of changing. That's a Tony Robbins favorite- Yeah ... favorite phrase, right? Um, but when they've crystallized that discontent, when they've gotten really clear about what they're unhappy with so that they can be like, "This sucks!

I am changing it," right? Because, you know, if you don't look at it enough you don't, you don't notice it a lot. Yeah You, you think oh, this is a little annoying here. That's a little annoying there. That's a little annoying there. And then all of the little annoyings becomes big annoyance and then that's the motivation, right?

And the key is you gotta not let them, uh, not let them dissipate that dissonance. Mm-hmm. So that they can use it as fuel for change. Yes. And so in a speech that would look like getting them all riled up and not letting them come down from it. Right? And instead directing it towards a choice, direct them towards an outcome.

You know, you're using the same mob mentality that gets people riled up and violent but you're using it for transformation instead. Right. Right? You're not directing them towards violence. You're directing them towards inner change. Mm-hmm. Right? So the, the upset gets redirected towards what is it inside of you that you're no longer going to allow.

Right? Wonderful question. Yeah. So anything else? Hold on

Okay. So, um, right now a lot of the ways that you've been responding to me are about, you know, thought processes. And when I'm describing energetic processes, you're, you're responding with thought processes. And so what they're saying is that there's a not an understanding that the magic is already there.

Right. Okay? So the magic is already there. You don't have to... We, we, we make magic hard. There's, there's one thing that I say repeatedly in this podcast, and I haven't done it for the last six months because I did it ad nauseam for eight years. Uh, but, you know, m-magic is intention. If you can intend it, you can do it.

That's, that is magic. Mm-hmm. And it- that's all it is. It is not harder than that. It is not more complicated than that. It is simply intention. Now, are there ways that language can mess with it and whatever? Yes. But the energetics that you're doing, you're not, you're not writing spells, although your speeches are gonna become spells.

Uh- But you understand how words matter, and so I'm not gonna worry about that. They do, yes. So, um, for other people I would be like, "This is how you craft something in a way that's safe," but you get it intuitively. You understand that. I don't need to go through that with you. But the, uh, the, your, your, your speeches are gonna become spells, and so you just need to make sure that as you're speaking that your intention is clear, that you hold the focus of that intention because that allows it to expand, right?

Once you focus on expanse, right? And that as the energy of the attention in the room k- hits the energy of your intention, it fuels the transformation that you're holding

Oh, that, what you've said now just really hits the place that I'm coming from As opposed to, and 'cause I'm, honestly I'm, I'm trusting that I will take the next step I'm inspired to do, and that audience will lead me to the next step. And that yes there's f- there are things to do and people to reach out to, but the more I follow my intuition in doing them- Yeah

the more it's going to be successful because will everybody want to hire me? Probably not. Right. But that's okay. That's how I find the ones where I can make a difference, where I'm meant to be. Right. And it's, and, and it's, it's trusting. It's taking action, but it's, it's also trusting. Yeah. Well, and if you embrace this new level of speaking, you're gonna be able to charge five times what you're charging now.

Yeah. Because you're not just having ... You're not just giving a speech. You're, you're giving, you're providing an experience. Yes. Right? And that experience is not just a hey we had cool id- experience of making it rain for instance which was really cool and profound and I remember it 20 years later, but you're actually providing the opportunity for transformation.

And so I'm gonna give you one last piece of information, um, then I feel like we're, we're gonna be complete, but the last piece of information I wanna talk to you about is, uh, w- when Cathy and I were running our Lumos Gate events, um, which were transformational retreats right? And we would describe to people the, you know, l-, uh, this event is kinda like you know those moments in your life where you have an experience where you know if you make a decision one way or another your whole life changes irrevocably for the rest of your life, and whichever direction you go it's totally different, right?

Um, we manufactured those experiences. That's what Lumos Gate was. Right? Mm-hmm. And so s- people would come into these experiences, and they could be super deep or they can be, you know, a little deep. Yeah. And people choose to titrate their own experience within that container. Yes. Okay? And that's always gonna be the case, but you as the holder of the container you have to allow for that space to be as shallow or as deep as they can hold.

Mm-hmm. Because if you are forcing a depth that is beyond what people can hold, they will melt down or they will opt out angrily And if you're not allowing a container to be deep enough for as deep as someone goes, they will dissatisfied and cranky Yeah And so you need to hold the container deep enough that the depth of transformation that anyone wants is available with absolutely no requirement that they go any, any depth at all Right Right?

And so you need to be aware of that as you're opening the space to talk about it. Does that make sense? Yeah Yeah Well, that's where I think many years of coaching comes in because I... Coaching, I can only go where somebody's willing Yes. That- That's absolutely true. It's, it's, uh, in a group environment, and I don't know if you did one on one or group coaching but, um, did you do both?

I've done both Okay, yeah. So, and it's similar there. But, um, in, in group coaching, the group generally will go as deep as the first person goes Yeah It's, they, they set the, the criteria when they do their first share. And so that's why I'm very careful about who I call on first in any given environment because I'm like-

"I'm gonna pick the person who's gonna do a deep share," so that there's space for people to give as deep a share as they want, right? 'Cause people who don't wanna share deep will titrate up, but people who do wanna share deep will titrate up because they feel like there's not, it's not allowed to be deep, right?

So they'll, they'll account for that. Um, anyway, the-- We're a little all over the place here, but that's okay. Um, but the In a, in a coaching environment it's a little different than in a larger group environment, right? Yes. So you know, you're working with the energetics- Mm-hmm ... and not with the words to, with your- Right

you're not being able to get feedback from them to be able to take them where you need them to go so you're only getting energetic feedback from them which means you have to be able to feel into where you go next and it is where am I inspired to go? Okay. You gotta get outta your head on this one.

This is an embodied experience. Okay. So where does, where does your body say you wanna walk on the stage? Where does your head ... What, what random idea pops into your head and you just need to talk about that and even if it doesn't make sense, you know? Yeah. You're just like, "Oh okay, so this just occurred to me.

I'm gonna go down this road and we're gonna see where it takes us," right? Yeah. And that sort of thing so because that's m- that's the energetics talking to you and over time as- Yeah ... you practice you're gonna ... Uh uh, I know you already have a sense of this um but th- Oh definitely This is gonna be another layer right?

Just so you, just so you know. But yeah I know, I know a lot of this is not new But they're, they're saying that there's another layer that is available to you Yeah. And thank you. You're confirming what I have felt and not known quite how to do, and uh ... But I trusted it enough to move to an entirely different place.

My son does live down the street, but I don't know buddy if anybody else in Spokane, so Well, you're a talker. You'll meet people. I will ... about you. I will. I'm not worried about you So- You're like me. You're like, "No, I'll just, I'll meet people. It'll be fine," you know? Sure Yeah. Well tomorrow will be one week, so Yeah, and you haven't made friends yet?

I need people What the hell? You're behind.

I'm just teasing you, so yeah. Well awesome. Do you have any other questions for me before we wrap up? No, uh, Kelly this has just absolutely been marvelous. Fantastic. Thank you. . Yeah. So, uh, with that, um, remind people how they can find you if they wanna book you. Oh sure. Yeah. Um, I'm at lifechangenavigator.com, a website, and if you put lifechangenavigator.com/the number fivequestions, uh, what I offer is five questions that you can journal for yourself to go deeper within your own purpose.

Fantastic. So, and that's another great thing you could hand out at the end of your speeches, so- It is yes ... all these things. Amazing. Uh-huh. Okay. All right guys, so if this was helpful to you please share it with a friend. Uh, this is how we expand our reach and, uh, if you loved the, the episode, please also, uh, give us a review.

We would love to have a review especially if you're on Apple Podcast. Uh, we haven't had one of those in a while. We would appreciate that. And remember, what you focus on expands. What you intend is what you create so choose wisely