Evoke Greatness Podcast

Becoming the Creative Director of Your Life with Chelsea Clarke (Pt. 2)

• Sonnie Linebarger • Episode 197

Share episode

Send us a text

🎧 Episode 197: Becoming the Creative Director of Your Life with Chelsea Clarke (Pt. 2)

In Part 2 of this empowering conversation, Chelsea Clarke and I move from foundation into execution…from who you’re becoming into how you actually start designing a life, business, and future on purpose.

This episode is about stepping fully into ownership. Not waiting for clarity, permission, or perfect timing…but actively scripting the life you want and then aligning your actions to support it.

Chelsea breaks down what it truly means to become the creative director of your own life…and why reinvention isn’t about wishing or manifesting alone, but about combining vision with disciplined, aligned action.

Together, we explore how creativity, money mindset, and self-reliance intersect…especially for women building something meaningful without a traditional roadmap.

Chelsea offers insights on:

• Why scripting your future is a powerful first step to getting out of a setback

• How writing your life “as if it’s already done” reshapes belief and behavior

• Using creativity and tools like AI to expand vision and unlock new possibilities

• Building digital income streams and treating online businesses as real assets

• Why having an offer, an email list, and focused platforms matter more than perfection

• The biggest mindset blocks that keep people stuck during reinvention

• Why you don’t need to follow anyone else’s rules to succeed…you get to create your own

• Habits that actually move the needle when building new wealth

• Making room for fun, curiosity, and joy as part of sustainable success

🔑 Key takeaways:

You don’t need fancy tools to redesign your life…just clarity and commitment

Scripting creates belief, belief fuels action, and action creates results

Wealth is built through skills, systems, and consistency…not noise

You are allowed to design success in a way that fits your life

Following what excites you often leads to opportunities you couldn’t plan

đź’ˇ Quotes to remember:

“You are on your own rescue mission.”

“Scripting is designing a future timeline you’re willing to step into.”

“If no one is doing what you want to do…you might be the one meant to create it.”

“Chase what feels fun…that’s usually where the magic lives.”

If you’re tired of waiting for the right moment…

If you’re ready to stop consuming inspiration and start creating momentum…

If you want to design a life that feels aligned, energizing, and truly yours…

This episode will remind you that you already have more control than you think.

Part 2 is where vision becomes action…

and where you step fully into the role of creative director of your life.

A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!

Check out my website: www.evokegreatness.com

Follow me on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnie-linebarger-899b9a52/

https://www.instagram.com/evoke.greatness/

https://www.tiktok.com/@evoke.greatness

http://www.youtube.com/@evokegreatness








SPEAKER_00:

If we want to reach any type of goal or try something new, whether it's maybe start a business, write a book, take on a new like cooking skill, dance, something that puts you out of your comfort zone, you really have to know that no one is gonna just come and make you do the work. No one's gonna wake you up early and make you go to the gym or make you write your manuscript. It's all on you.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Evoke Greatness, the podcast for bold leaders and big dreamers who refuse to settle. I'm your host, Sonny. I started in Scrubs over 20 years ago, doing the gritty, unseen work and climbed my way to CEO. Every rung of that ladder taught me something worth passing on. Lessons in leadership, resilience, and what it really takes to rise. You'll hear raw conversations, unfiltered truths, and the kind of wisdom that ignites something deeper in you. Your courage, your conviction, your calling. This show will help you think bigger, lead better, and show up bolder in every part of your life. This is your place to grow. Let's rise together. What if the reason you feel stuck isn't because you don't know what to do, but because you haven't given yourself permission to take the lead in your own life? In part two of Becoming the Creative Director of Your Life with Chelsea Clark, we talk about what it really means to step into ownership. Writing the script, editing what no longer fits, and aligning your actions with the future you actually want. This isn't about waiting for the right moment. It's about deciding. Let's hop into part two. For someone sitting in kind of a setback moment right now, what's the very first step you'd have them take to become the creative director of their life again? Like to actually step into that role for themselves.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I think that if you can sit down with just a pen and paper, you don't need any sort of fancy apps or Pinterest boards or anything like that, although that's fun to do the visuals. The most important thing is to script out the version of your life that you want to create, writing it pen to paper. Scripting is a really powerful manifestation technique. When you're writing something out, you are creating it. You are creating that potential future for yourself. It's like a timeline that you are literally designing and it's an opportunity for you to go that path. And if you want to sit down every night or every morning and just script in the way that you're saying it's already done, like if your goal is to have$10,000 saved up for an emergency fund, you'll be scripting. This feels amazing that I just, I just put the full$10,000 into my savings. And you're talking about it like it's already happened. That's what scripting is, and it's so powerful. So that would be my first step. It doesn't cost anything and it can have huge, huge results. But of course, we don't just manifest and wish. We then take action to do step to take steps forward to make it happen. So maybe that's taking on an extra shift or cutting back on shifts so that you can create your own revenue stream from home. So that could be creating a blog or monetizing your Instagram by maybe if you're you like, if you're into fashion, you could have some photos of yourself in different outfits and then you monetize it with LTK or another affiliate program. You know, you just start thinking about different ways that you can earn money, and then you just go all in on trying things until something really feels right in your heart, and then go all in.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I I have a mentorship call with someone monthly, and this person, he is ready to kind of step into the next tier in his career. And it was really interesting as he was mentally exploring what does that look like? And I said, Do you use chat GPT? He's like, Yeah. And I said, Okay, I want you to do something. It's gonna sound crazy, but if you use it, it's already learned some things about you. And I said, I love to go like this super creative flow with Chat GPT, as if I'm having a conversation with someone and I'm like, put in there, based on what you know about me and me moving to this next level in my career. What are the things that you think I need to know? Like, give it specifics, but like play with it. Go back and forth and help it create, you know, if I were to take over X business, like what would that look like? Ask me all the questions you think I would need to know to start getting visionary and creative around this. And it was so funny. By the end of the call, he was like, that's really like, I can't wait to go do that. But it's almost like we give ourselves permission to kind of step back into this play, this creativity to evaluate what can be possible for ourselves. And so I I love, as you had talked about those different roles, like there is you can weave that into every single one of those to get yourself excited about getting out of the setback or maybe getting to that next level.

SPEAKER_00:

I am a big fan of Chat GPT and having those conversations and brainstorming with AI. It's so much fun. And the like the more you do it, yes, it remembers the conversations that you had. And then when you come at it with a new question, it can back its answer based on what it already knows about you, which is just such a great experience when you're trying to creatively brainstorm and figure out where you're taking, you know, where you're taking your life and your business and your goals. The AI can be an incredible, incredible tool.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you help creators build and sell online businesses. So almost like getting back to kind of that first time that you found that you could do this, right? It was like what you made possible. How did how did your journey shape the way that you now teach others to build these new streams of income?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I started as a content creator way back in the day on Tumblr when I was not making any money. I was just posting photos and videos and having fun. It was a hobby, it was a creative outlet. And I did not think that it could be a business, an actual career that could replace my nine to five or my waitressing job, right? At the time. And then I got a job in marketing. So I finally did get to put my degree to some use. And it was at a business brokerage. And the brokers there were only focused on brick and mortar businesses. And I thought, hey, there's room for this in the digital space. Buying and selling online businesses, I think that's the future. And when I started my business, this business, I launched it as a platform where content creators and bloggers could safely buy and sell businesses. And I had bought and sold my own sites for a couple of years by then before I launched the platform. And I did it because people in my audience at my the creative blogs were asking, oh, how did you do it? Like you sold your blog? What's the process like? Where do I even get started to do something like that? And that led me to create a space for our community. And then it grew further outside of just our community. And it's something that an industry that has had a lot of changes, especially in the last few years, because there have been algorithm changes with things like Google, more traditional SEO has certainly changed. So something that I always teach and I believe in is Pinterest marketing. So if you're trying to grow your business, marketing it on Pinterest, depending on your niche, can be really, really powerful. It is a free, organic traffic source. And there are millions of monthly users of Pinterest. I think it's something like 400 million, maybe even more per month users on the platform. That is a huge, huge market. So if you're focusing your efforts on promoting your business there and you're driving traffic back to your website, that increases the value of your website. More organic traffic, more sales. Ideally, you're actually selling something to or earning from ad revenue. All of these things come into play to increase the value of your website. And then to a buyer, they'll pay for that. So I'll give you an example. If your online business is earning about$1,000 a month in profit, it could potentially sell for anywhere from$20,000 to$40,000. And that's because an industry standard multiple is 20 to 40 times a site's monthly profit, is usually where things are priced. But every business is different. So I always say get a business valuation. We give them away for free at nicheinvestor.com. And that will give anyone who's interested in finding out what their business is worth, just more information on a suggested asking price and then the next steps if they are ready to sell or not. And no pressure. It's always just good to have that education.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, would you have any guidance for someone who may just be like they're just starting out, not really quite sure. Maybe they've just secured a website and they're trying to figure out like, how do I take this kind of from zero to one in building a presence?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So the first thing is you need to have an offer. You need to have something for sale. Maybe it's a digital product, like an ebook or a course. Maybe it's affiliate links. You work with brands for sponsored deals or promoting their products as an affiliate. Maybe you offer services or coaching, or you have your site monetized with ad revenue. So that could be like Google AdSense, Raptive, Media Vime. There's a lot of different platforms you can use for that. So you have some sort of way that money can be made from your website. And then you're focusing your effort on to creating really great human-written content, so blog articles, or if you're just doing sales pages, you're just driving traffic to those sales pages from things like Pinterest or Instagram or TikTok. I would advise don't try to be on every platform to build an audience. Just pick one or two. And then make sure wherever you're sending that social traffic to, if it's your blog, your sales page, wherever it is, make sure that you have some sort of free lead magnet that you can give away so you can get people onto your email list. Because if you do decide to sell down the road, having an email list adds a lot of value to your business. And it's also just good business practice for you, whether you want to sell your business or not, because you can make a lot of sales through your through your newsletter as well. So that would be my like very quick things to focus on for anyone who's just getting started with monetizing a website.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think that's a big miss for people is not feeling like either they know how to or that they should build an email list. But to your point, that can add to the monetization side of things.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Because otherwise, you're just sending all of that traffic to web pages and then people just leave. And then, especially if you're paying for ads, they go, maybe they don't buy, they leave your website and they never go back. But if you're paying for ads and they go and they can sign up to your email list while they're there, then the next time you can reach out to them directly in their inbox for free. So it can really, really be good on your pocket. But then also just around your brand of the community that you're building, you can tell stories in your email newsletters, you can let them know about new offers you have or special sales. You really kind of build a rapport with your email subscribers, but you don't really do as much with just a blog or just an Instagram account. There is something that feels exclusive when someone gets an email from you that they just don't get if they just see a picture on their Instagram feed.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you see as the biggest? We talked a little bit about kind of the things that people need to do. What do you see as the biggest mindset block that keeps people stuck when they're trying to reinvent themselves or glow up?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think the biggest thing, and by glow up, I I mean inner internal glow up and external business glow up, goals, everything. It's not just how we look, not just aesthetics, but actually the internal glow up too and what that means for our bank accounts, our relationships, you know, everything that comes into play when we want to have a great life. And the biggest thing is that people either they don't believe it's possible for them or they don't see examples of someone that is where they want to be. So they don't even think that it could happen because they don't see someone else doing it. So that's why I think it's so important to get out of your house, you know, go for a walk, meet people, meet different characters, watch a lot of different YouTube videos from people that don't look like you, you know, get different perspectives from people from different cultures, and read books from all different people. And I want to say too that you do just have to take everyone's advice with a grain of salt. And I say this as someone, if someone's listening who is maybe a new mom and they're trying to start a business and they're seeing these YouTube gurus and you know the the big names, the big guys in business who are saying, just get up at five and work all day and don't take breaks. They don't have kids. They might even have a wife or a partner that takes care of their whole house so they can just focus. So we can't always just take the advice of these guys because they may, they may not have the exact circumstances that we have. And I and as a mom, that's a big one because it can feel very overwhelming when you're trying to build a business in between nap time. You don't have much time in your day to focus on it. You can't really get into the creative flow all day like maybe someone else can. And that's okay. You just have to make it work for yourself and don't get discouraged if someone's telling you advice. It doesn't make sense for your life. You get to, this comes back to creative director, you get to design the right type of flow that works for you and you get to make up your own rules.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And to your point, there's so many videos out there. There's so many books, podcasts. The resources are literally at our fingertips more than they've ever been in the course of mankind, right? We have the ability to have a one-on-one mentor of people that we may never have met before, but we can absorb so much of their knowledge and their experience. I just encourage people like lean into that, absorb everything you can from that that will help you along. But also, it's like sometimes if we've never seen that, it's because we're gonna create it. Like we're the first ones. And I'm a firm believer that there's somebody waiting out there. They're waiting in anticipation to hear your story, right? Everyone's story is a little bit different. There are our lived experiences are a little bit different. But if we are not showing up and sharing that, like there is potentially somebody out there who's just waiting for someone to share something similar to the story that you have. So you may be the one in the making to actually be the first.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, that's it. And that's an exciting way to look at things too, because if someone is not doing the thing that you want to do, that doesn't always mean that it there's no market for it. It just means that you have to be the one to create that market.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

In your experience, what habits actually move the needle for people wanting to create new wealth? I think there's a lot of noise out there. And so everybody probably has an opinion, you know, to my point earlier about like, or our point earlier around like YouTube videos, people may tell you a thousand different things. And it's it's important to understand like what to pay attention to. So, how do they drown out the noise and really focus if they're looking at new wealth? How do they really focus on doing that?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I can share some examples of what I do and what has worked for me. And this may be useful to some listeners and it may not be. But what I have found useful is I have non-negotiable CEO days. I make it Fridays, where I usually don't book any meetings with my team or any coaching calls. And that is just a day for content creation, or a day that I just need to sit down, create a new product, or I just need to go over the finances for the last month and make sure everything's looking for the month ahead. You can do anything you want on a CEO day, but the point, the key is to create a specific day, block it out on your calendar, and don't skip it. Just show up for yourself on those days. And that's where I've really found it's been really great for working on my money plans and creating new ideas for my business. Other things that have really helped is the mindset shift of, okay, I need to actually track my money. I can't just assume it's gonna be okay. So I'm treating my digital asset. So my website, my email list, I'm treating them as assets in my business, in my life. They're not just hobbies, they are actually important. Also, so like I said, tracking the money, so the income, the spending, keeping a profit and loss sheet. That is huge. That's been life-changing. It sounds so boring and nerdy, but it really is so life-changing to actually see what's coming in and what's going out when it comes to your finances. I also stick to the habit of saving or investing a percentage of the income that comes through my business. And I'm saving it usually with the intention that I'm going to buy another digital business. So I start a fund and I just kind of keep adding to it. And then when I see a website come up for sale that would be a good one to acquire, I have that fund ready to pounce on it with. Even when amounts are small, it doesn't have to be a big pile of cash. Even if I have a little bit left at the end of the month, it's still going to go into that investment savings fund. And then the last thing that's really helped me is learning new skills that actually compound. So whether it's marketing, writing, as we chatted about, I just wrote a new book. So that was a new habit. I've written thousands and thousands of blog articles over the last decade, but actually sitting down and writing a book is a totally different experience. And that was a skill I had to learn. Sales, tech, even investing, these are all skills that can be learned and they compound over time. They help you grow. They actually get you ahead faster because you are educating yourself into skills and things that you can use to improve your life in so many different ways. But that said, I also want to add that there has to be something that's just for fun, too. So all of that is like very focused on the goals and the future. You need something to just blow up steam too. Maybe it's binging Netflix. If you do it once in a while, there's nothing wrong with that. It's actually very good to be able to do that. Or if you have something that you like to do, like paint, or you'd like to do something run around with your dog, just make sure that you give time to do those things that are just for fun. They're not monetized. And having that balance is going to help you to reach the more monetizable things that you're trying to do in your life.

SPEAKER_01:

Having built and scaled and sold selling your online businesses, I mean, I'm curious around what experiences or what did those experiences teach you when you think about courage and timing and betting on yourself?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great question. And it all comes from the experience of doing because the first time you sell a business or buy a business, you don't know too much, but you're going to learn so much simply by doing it. So I have learned that, and I actually now favor it, I prefer digital real estate over traditional real estate. So I would rather put my money into buying a business than buying a rental property. You're buying a rental property, it's very expensive up front. You've got Expenses to maintain it. You have to deal with tenants, maybe. There's a lot of kind of like effort and tears that go into that. Whereas if you own a digital business, you are in control of it. It can be a lot more affordable to get into it. You don't need a huge mortgage. You don't need a construction, you know, team to renovate your website like you do with a house. When you have a website, you can do everything yourself or you can hire it out just for like small project-based things that need to be done. And it's just much more accessible for people. So by doing that, I have really learned that that's where I want to put my focus on. Also, on that same note, I've also learned that I'd rather do website investing than invest in the stock market. I the stocks that I have, they haven't done very well, but I've had a much bigger return simply for buying and selling websites. So that's really it. I would add too, though, it's fun. And that's something that a lot of people probably don't realize. They may get into the business of owning a website and they think, oh, it's all work, it's no good. And then when money starts coming in, you get that, like you hear the little ch-ching come through whenever you get a sale. And it's that sort of adrenaline that really makes it, oh, okay, this is fun. If I add a little bit more time in my week focusing on this element of my business, it could make X amount. And knowing that I could sell it for up to 40 times what it's making, okay. So if it's making a couple dollars extra, I could sell it for a lot more down the road. So that's sort of a element of it that I like to focus on is the fun of it. Because if I focus on the parts I don't like, I'm not gonna do it and I'm not gonna be as successful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. And I love the way that you framed that around digital real estate. It's just interesting to think about it from that perspective versus the very labor-intensive kind of traditional real estate route. But yet it really is. You're looking at them and it's two viable businesses. It's just, I think probably the input is less on the digital side than the traditional side, but the output could be equally as beneficial from an upside perspective. Yeah. As we wrap up here, there's always a question I like to ask, especially someone who's gone through as much as you have and done all that you've done, is you know, if it were your last day on earth and of all of the things that you've learned along the way, you could impart one piece of wisdom with the world. What would that be?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm gonna stick with the the note about making it fun, because that is the thing that is the key element in my business, in my life. Whatever it is that feels fun, chase that feeling. It's that little spark of excitement. It doesn't matter if you think it's not going to be monetizable. It's not going to, you think it's not going to be worth it. If you feel that you're excited by it and you wake up in the morning looking forward to working on it, that is the thing that you should pursue. And you never know where it can take you. You just follow your excitement, and that's where the magic honestly happens.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. A little bit of joy makes your view on it very, very different when you actually enjoy the process. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Well, Chelsea, I want to for everyone who where can they find your uh find out more about you and what you do, find out about the book, the podcast. Where should we send them?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you so much for having me. This has been an awesome conversation. I'm so happy to get to chat with you. You guys, you can find me at herpayproot.com. That is my blog and podcast. It's all housed there. And if you're interested in buying or selling websites, or if you're just curious and you want to see what's out there in the market, you can find us over at nicheinvestor.com. Oh, and my book too. Great. My book is a book. Oh, that whole thing. It just came out last month. It's called Glow Up Yourself. And it has been a passion project for me to write my first book. It's been so much fun. And I hope that every woman gets their hands on it and wants to read it because I shared all of my embarrassing stories of all the mess ups that I made when I was a young person and also the mess-ups that I continue to make. So it's a lot of fun to read, even if you just want to laugh at me.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what the world needs more of, though. That was originally why I started the podcast was like, how I've learned so much. How can I share some of that? And then how can we share those embarrassing missteps? Because if somebody listens to us or or hears our stories and they can vicariously step, like not have to go step into the pothole that we stepped into, all the better. So I love that. The world needs more of that. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all that you've, all the lived experiences you've had and what you've done with that so far in your life. Thank you so much. If today's episode challenged you, moved you, or lit a fire in your soul, don't keep it to yourself. Share it with somebody who's ready to rise. Can I ask you to take 30 seconds to leave a review? It's the best way to say thank you and help this show reach more bold leaders like you. Because this isn't just a podcast, it's a movement. We're not here to play small. We're here to lead loud, one bold and unapologetic step at a time. Until next time, stay bold, stay grounded, and make moves that make mediocre uncomfortable.

Head Shot

Sonnie Linebarger

Host