Life-Changing Challengers
Dive into the heart of transformation with "Life-Changing Challengers," a podcast that inspires listeners to turn their challenges into opportunities for growth. Hosted by Brad Minus, a seasoned endurance coach with over 13 years of experience, this show brings you compelling stories of resilience, ambition, and personal triumph.
Brad and his guests share their journeys of overcoming obstacles through endurance sports, personal development, and pursuing passions. From completing Ironman triathlons to conquering personal and professional hurdles, "Life-Changing Challengers" is your guide to breaking barriers and achieving your dreams.
Whether you're looking to incinerate your limits, find inspiration to chase your big passion or enjoy motivational stories of people who've transformed their lives, this podcast is for you. Join us to explore how embracing challenges can lead to a happier, more fulfilled life.
Subscribe, review, and share to be part of a community dedicated to making every challenge a stepping stone to success. Follow "Life-Changing Challengers" to ignite your desire, push your boundaries, and embark on your journey to the extraordinary.
Life-Changing Challengers
From Homelessness to Million Dollar Entrepreneur with Sabine Schoepke
From homelessness to entrepreneurial success, Sabine Schoepke's story is nothing short of remarkable. Imagine relocating to a new country at 17 and facing the daunting challenge of homelessness, only to rise above and launch your first business at 19. Sabine takes us through her incredible journey from her roots in Nuremberg, Germany, to navigating the streets of Toronto, and ultimately establishing a thriving import business that funded her education and set the stage for her entrepreneurial achievements.
Join us as Sabine shares her philosophy of a "no-options" mindset, a powerful approach that leaves no room for failure and drives relentless pursuit of one's goals. Her experiences span across multiple ventures, including e-commerce and legal battles, showcasing the significance of adaptability and persistence. You'll hear firsthand accounts of Sabine's financial struggles, the importance of a supportive community, and the creative solutions she employed to overcome adversity.
But Sabine's story doesn't end with business success. She opens up about personal challenges, including health issues, traumatic events, and the path to recovery and self-discovery. From creating a top-selling jewelry business on Etsy to her dedication to fitness and mental well-being, Sabine's journey is a testament to resilience and inner strength. Tune in to explore the transformative phases of her life, her bestselling book "The Love Odyssey," and her collaborative podcasting efforts, reminding us all of the profound impact of following one's passion and the true meaning of fulfillment.
(CORRECTION: The episode incorrectly stated that Life Changing Challengers releases on Mondays. It actually airs on Wednesdays. Our apologies for the confusion.)
Buy Sabine's Book: The Love Odyssey: An Adventure in Relationship Exploration
Listen to her Podcast: The Power Life
Contact Sabine
Instagram: @sabine_power_life
LinkedIn: Sabine Schoepke
ThePowerLifeCoach.com
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Contact Brad @ Life Changing Challengers
Instagram: @bradaminus
Facebook: @bradaminus
X(Twitter): @bradaminus
YouTube: @lifechangingchallengers
LifeChangingChallengers.com
And welcome back to another episode of Life Changing Challengers. Again, I'm your host, B brad Minus, and I am very lucky to have the queen of life coaching, S sabine Schoepke. She's a life coach, she's an author, she's a podcaster, she's an entrepreneurial coach. The woman does everything and she's a bodybuilder who would have thought right. So welcome, sabine. How are you doing today? I am so good.
Sabine Schoepka:Thank you, it's so nice to be on your show. Thanks for having me.
Brad Minus:Oh, I appreciate it and thank you for joining us. So let's just dive right in. So can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, your background, where you grew up and like the compliment to your family a typical day, growing up, hardship, successes any of that stuff into your family, a typical day, growing up, hardships, successes, any of that stuff.
Sabine Schoepka:So I'm originally from Germany. I left Germany on my own when I was 17 with the desire to learn another language and I went to Canada by myself and I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed being on my own and learning the language and being challenged like that, and I decided to stay, which my parents said nope, you have two other siblings. We can't afford it because it's very expensive to send your kids into international schools. And you got to come back and I said, no, I'm not coming back. And so I figured I tried to figure it out myself and I got a scholarship after the first year that tied me over for a couple of years and then I wanted to go to university in Canada. I had big dreams of becoming a businesswoman and going to business school in Canada. So yeah, Hang on.
Brad Minus:Hang on one second. We are. You're starting me off at 17. At 17, I got one more year and you're an adult. I asked you about your childhood. I know but You're talking about Germany. You're talking to Americans here. We want to know what it's like to grow up in a different country.
Sabine Schoepka:It was pretty uneventful. I have two brothers that are younger and my father, especially, was always very much into languages, so he supported me going overseas. I grew up in southern Germany, in Nuremberg, which is about an hour north of Munich, and I spent all of my summers and winters actually in the German Alps, which is going to be significant later on when we talk about the rest of my story. And yeah, I love the German Alps, which is going to be significant later on to when we talk about the rest of my story. And yeah, I love the German Alps. And yeah, and then at 17, they're like go?
Brad Minus:you lie. They decided to go to Canada. So, growing up, what did your dad do?
Sabine Schoepka:My dad was pretty much a consultant. Both of my parents were self-employed, they had various businesses and he was a consultant for international companies and he, yeah, he loved the travel, he loved the languages and always tried to instill that in us and the entrepreneurial spirit really was instilled through both of my parents, was instilled through both of my parents and so, all right, that's great, just to give us a little bit of a taste, you know what I mean.
Brad Minus:Okay, so you decided to go to university, and where was that that?
Sabine Schoepka:was in London, ontario, so that was about two and a half hours west of Toronto. But so because my parents did not want to really or couldn't financially support this, I said I'm going to do this on my own and I didn't really share much with them how I did it, but I ended up starting my first business at 19. And when I started it, though, I was completely broke. I was homeless in Toronto, in a park in downtown Toronto, and I started my first business on a park bench. And the thing is, because of my upbringing and because, seeing my parents, I feel like I always had the mindset to see opportunities and at that point I knew what it is that I wanted to do.
Sabine Schoepka:I saw opportunity by traveling back and forth between the two continents, in buying merchandise in North America and bringing it over to Europe. And really all of my friends at the time were like can you bring me a pair of Levi's? That was really the decisive thing, the Levi's. And then I was like, how about I bring a lot of Levi's and I sell them over there? So that was my idea back then and I started to set up a network of buying branded goods in, at the time in Canada, buying them from retailers and then filling entire aircrafts with that and sending them over to Europe. And then I got my parents involved in that and I said why don't you distribute this over? So that's really what I did at 19.
Brad Minus:So you basically did retail arbitrage.
Sabine Schoepka:I did what they call gray market. So gray market is when you purchase goods and you don't have the official, like I didn't have the license to sell them overseas, but I didn't really care. I was like, okay, stop me, which they did along the way. As the business grew, they did try to stop me and because it became so big that I really I was very disruptive in the European market and then I spread it out into different goods, into from Levi's to other clothing brands, to workout equipment, to bicycles, to barbecues, like whatever you can think of.
Sabine Schoepka:Whenever I saw an opportunity'm like I'm shipping this. And I did. And yeah, it was a phenomenal business and it paid for my schooling and it. I got my brothers involved and then they came over and I helped them to get started over there. And then I realized I went to school, I went to business school, I graduated and four years later and then I was like I don't need a job, I have a job.
Sabine Schoepka:And so I got job offers and I never took a job. I thought it was crazy, Like the money they offered me, I'm like, oh, I'm not doing this, I'm way better off, I'm traveling, I'm doing whatever I want to do and I have the freedom already and the money is a joke, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. And then I expanded the business from Toronto into North America, into California really, and I started to actually build my own, because before I was just buying from retailers and I was like what about cutting out the middleman? And so I started to set up my own retail locations and I bought it directly from the manufacturers and expanded into pretty much the entire West Coast.
Brad Minus:Oh my God, All right, so we got to step back another minute. All right, because there's a lot of questions. All right, how does a 19-year-old, broke and homeless get capital to start buying, retailing and shipping it overseas?
Sabine Schoepka:So that's the beautiful thing and that's at the time I didn't know this, but I always followed my heart and I followed my gut. I think that's what really helped me. Like, looking back now, I think that was really crazy. I look at my kids that are now almost 21, but even like a couple of years ago, I'm like gosh. I can't imagine like like just letting them run loose and do this on a different continent. But I never.
Sabine Schoepka:I remember sitting on that park bench and like not knowing how am I going to get to the appointment. I was like just walk. So I would walk for hours, I would walk to appointments. And then I remember going to a freight forwarder at the airport in Toronto and saying, okay, this is what I need, I need rates from you for shipping stuff. And then they were like okay, and then how are you going to pay for this? And I said, oh, I need credit line shipping stuff. And then they were like, okay, and then how are you going to pay for this? And I said, oh, I need credit line. And then, by the way, I also need part of your warehouse because I don't have a warehouse and I need to store this stuff somewhere and I need to repackage it.
Sabine Schoepka:And I was very lucky because I always found people who believed in me and gave me a chance. And I really, today, I know that life just works like that when you, when your heart and soul is in something and it really was, because I never for a moment, looking back, I did I think what if this doesn't work? Like I'm not going to be able to go to school next year because I have no money, like I never thought about this. I'm like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do. Like there was never a safety net, there was never anything where I thought, okay, there's a plan B. There was never. And I had my heart and soul in it and my faith as in not a religious faith, but my faith in yeah, of course, this is going to work.
Sabine Schoepka:I told my parents a few months later and once I came to them, I said, okay, can we do this together? Do you want to do this? Do you want to distribute the merchandise for me? And I remember my mom breaking down, crying, said oh my God, how did you do this? My poor child. And I said, no, it was fine. She said you should have called us. I said, no, there was no way I was going to do this on my own. I didn't want help.
Brad Minus:That is a testament right there to a different, to a mindset and I know this is probably something that you teach in coaching but the mindset of no, there's just no other option. This is the way I'm going to do it and it's going to work versus people like and I'm one of them, I'm totally one of them, I'm like all right, I'd like to do this, even this podcast. It took me a year to get this podcast off the ground and finally I just said what am I waiting for? And I got it done. And you just didn't do that. You just were like okay, I'm broke, big deal, I got college bills to pay. Big deal, I'll figure out a way out of it. And you did. It's just, there was nothing else. That's a mindset within itself. Yeah, if other people have done it.
Sabine Schoepka:I can do it. You just got to push through it. And yes, of course there's moments where it's very uncomfortable. You're like how do I get there? I work for hours and where do I stay, I don't know. Like back then we had no cell phones. Like I would sit there and they like grab a yellow page or somewhere or something and like go through the phone book and say who, who do I know? Who did I go to school with? Who lives in Toronto? Like where can I couch surf? I slept on floors but I was so focused I'm like I'm going to do this, I don't care how.
Brad Minus:So yeah, like you said, you had a lot of people that believed in you, and that's part of it, right, some of it. Part of it is you've got finding some place to sleep and finding some place to crash, and when people believe in you, they're going to do that because they're probably going to get it back somewhere down the line situation after our meeting.
Sabine Schoepka:He said, okay, let me walk you down to your car. And I'm like, oh God. I said actually I came with the subway. And he's like oh, you walked quite a bit from the subway. And I'm like, yeah, that's okay, I enjoy walking, I'll walk back. And he was like no, let me take you to the subway. And I'm thinking I don't even have money to take the subway.
Sabine Schoepka:And in Toronto you drive into the subway area, into the drop-off area, and I'm like I don't want to go there, I don't have money for a ticket. So eventually I told him. I said, okay, listen, I'm going to be really honest. I walked, he's like for more. I said downtown. It's like are you serious? I said, yeah, I'm going to make this happen. And so he ended up giving me money for a subway and he was like here, go take a couple of bucks, please go home. I'm like, but? And I asked him a couple years later. I said, god, I thought when you were like I'll take you to your car, I'm like I don't have a car, like, I seem like such a loser. But I was like now, this is it either? What am I gonna do? And he's like no, I believed in you. I could tell you were determined to make this happen. And he's like I had nothing to lose. Give you a warehouse for a month, see what are you going to do with it. And I became one of his best clients.
Brad Minus:I filled entire aircrafts with crap and it worked and they got paid. So, of course, their risk and your risk together came out and you got rewards out of it, right? Risk reward? Yeah, that's amazing. How long did you do that for?
Sabine Schoepka:Until they changed the laws where you could no longer import stuff. That was one of the reasons they did, because Oakleyley went to the highest court in Europe and said this is not right. People can't do that. They can't import our goods if they don't have a license. And they shut it down in what was it? 96 or 97, probably something like that.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I was like, okay, and at that time I had a life partner, him and I, we did it together. We split up the world into different parts. We're like we're going to do this all over the world. And so I had Europe and he had Switzerland and Japan, and, funny enough, all of Europe fell away for me. But Switzerland is not part of the EU, so he kept working and Japan is fine, you can still do that there. So we continued doing that.
Sabine Schoepka:And then my responsibilities shifted into okay, I'm going to be more behind the scenes and let's just build the retail operations so we can source more goods. So I did that for a couple of years. And then, oh yeah, when that happened for a few months, I was like, maybe I should get a real job, maybe. So I have no regrets, this would be a good opportunity. Maybe I should get a real job. And I ended up working in marketing and market research for it and I lasted six months and then I realized this is the biggest BS. No way I can't do this, but at least I did it. And I lasted six months and then I realized this is the biggest BS. No way I can't do this, but at least I did it. And then I quit and I went back to doing oh, I started a company with oil painting reproductions.
Sabine Schoepka:I worked together with studios in Europe and we created reproductions of oil paintings and I started selling these online and that was really the beginning of e-commerce online. I remember Yahoo had like Yahoo Shopping, so I started a shop on there and I started with. I called it the bread and butter of like, the Monet's and the Van Gogh's and all of the famous paintings, and I started that. And then people started to order like custom paintings of things they saw at the Louvre or whatever, and I started to do that. And I started to do corporate work for, like, I worked with Norwegian Cruise Line. We outfitted all the suites, like the nicer ones, with actual hand-painted reproductions. So I did that for a. That was fun because I traveled a lot to Europe andI worked with the studios and I loved art and so that was cool.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I finally became pregnant. That was a challenge, that was probably one of my biggest challenges, and I ended up getting pregnant with twins. And that's like even me. I was like, oh, I can do anything, I'm superwoman. I was like this is killing me. I can't do this, this. I can't run a business and take care of two babies. I can't. I never sleep anymore. I can't do this. And I ended up selling the business and took care of the babies probably.
Brad Minus:Yeah, you see, so you decided to. You started just to enjoy motherhood. How long did that last for somebody that's a go A-type and serial entrepreneur?
Sabine Schoepka:I think it lasted for about three to four years when they were really little. Yeah, it was hard. It was really hard, but I realized I'm like I can't hand this over to somebody else. I tried for so long and it was such a hard, it was such a struggle to get there and I'm like I can't hand this over to somebody else. I tried for so long and it was such a hard, it was such a struggle to get there and I'm like I can't. I need to enjoy this.
Brad Minus:You were thinking about getting a nanny or an au pair or something. You just decided that wasn't going to happen.
Sabine Schoepka:Well, at the very beginning I tried to be a superwoman there too and I tried to do it all on my own. And then superwoman there too, and I tried to do it all on my own. And then, after six weeks of never sleeping anymore, I was ready to run away and abandon everybody and everything and I was like, oh my god, this is getting to me. I never sleep anymore. And then I got a night nurse for six weeks who helped me put these kids on a schedule and at three months they were both sleeping beautifully through the night. I'm like, okay, I'm okay again, I can, I can function. And then I pretty much did it on my own for most, yeah, for the most part but you still had a partner at that time yes, I did.
Sabine Schoepka:And then we ended up moving to new york and got into like construction, buying properties, building homes. I went into real estate and then the big burst of the bubble happened and at the same time one of the properties our main property at the time which was like I don't know five, six million dollar property, was put on fire and the insurance didn't pay and we lost everything. We lost everything we had ever worked for, and so that was a big bump in the road and it really divided us because I, after the initial shock and like I was like, okay, what are we going to do? Like, let's just start over. Insurance paid nothing. No, they paid very little, very little. All of our money was in this and like multiple, seven figures, everything we had ever made. And then they paid very little because there was one of the boxes. We had switched insurances halfway through or towards the end, a little bit more, and one of the boxes wasn't checked, that the curious part of the building was also insured with. That. You know how, like, the insurance policies have like pages and pages of fine print and we trusted the agent who sat down with us and said sign here, and we did, and then the insurance was hiding behind that and they're like no, we're only gonna pay for like the last I don't know month of construction. And it was nothing.
Sabine Schoepka:It was one of the biggest fires long island ever had. It was unbelievable. It just it melted everything. It was a beautiful property overlooking the long island sound. Even trucks that were parked in front of it melted, like it was just. It was crazy. They just had to let it burn out. And I remember standing there in the middle of the night with the police and fire department and there, and I was like, oh my god, this is unbelievable. And they were like, oh, don't worry about it, insurance gonna pay and to pay. And I'm like, okay, no, they did not.
Brad Minus:Wow, were you able to sell the land.
Sabine Schoepka:Yes, they did. Then, right after that, the whole bubble burst and nothing was worth anything anymore. And yeah, it was we, my partner and I. We dealt with things very differently and, like I said, after the initial shock I was like okay, you know what? Let's look at it this way. This is exciting. We're going to start over, let's do something new, let's tackle a new project. We've both done this. We both have come from nothing. Let's do this. And he just looked at me and he's like you're crazy, no way.
Brad Minus:And that was the beginning of the end. Yeah, oh, what else were you gonna do, especially you who went from nothing to something and did it while you were in school and just kept going at it, selling businesses coming back being a success, coming back somebody's being a success. So what else could you possibly do? I'm shocked, actually, that somebody like this, who knew you that this was a yeah, for him it was very.
Sabine Schoepka:There was a lot of shame attached to it of failure, which to me it wasn't. It was like, okay, it happened. Okay, I'm sure things could have gone different if we had read all the pages of this insurance thing, but we didn't, and most people don't, and there's no, there were kids. It was kids who put it on fire. They broke in there, they had a party, they smoked and they put the cigarette butts into a big bin where there was like stuff from painting and it caught on fire and it was like a big chimney and it just the whole thing burned down. Okay, it, it's life. And, yeah, he was, he felt very ashamed for what happened and that we lost it all. But I didn't see it that way and I was like, oh, let's do something new, let's find a new project. We're good and you know.
Brad Minus:So let's pause right here for a second, let's see if we can get a lesson learned in, because I can feel it, it's like it's here, it's. Pause right here for a second and see if we can get a lesson learned, because I can feel it, it's like it's here, it's like right there, I can feel it because that. So so I don't know if you read or anything, but I'm an endurance coach and I get people crossing finish lines at marathons and Ironman and 135 mile races and Sahara desert races and all that stuff. That's my thing, but there's always that there. For me it's an injury, but there's sometimes there's an illness, there's something that's going on and that people take that same reaction that your partner took.
Brad Minus:So here's that lesson. It's like so for you, again down to nothing, what have you? What kind of lesson can we learn? Can we give the folks to sit there and say, hey, you know what this happens, it's life. Here's the mindset we need to take to go forward.
Sabine Schoepka:Number one life happens, stuff is going to happen. It's going to happen to all of us, whether we're sitting homeless somewhere or broke, or we lose something. Life happens and that's just part of it. And but there is a. For me, there's always this beauty in that, because there's always opportunity, that it's like a rebirth that comes out of that. It's like what do you say? The phoenix rising from the ashes. There's this beautiful opportunity to start something new. That is so exciting.
Sabine Schoepka:And I feel like when we can focus on that and which I've always done in my life, always then it fills that void that's inside of us where we're like, oh my God, I don't have this or this thing that we could get hung up about. That void of the lack that we feel gets filled with this beautiful feeling, this excitement, this passion for something we can focus on. And that's what it feels like to me, and like when I look back with everything I've gone through, I can redirect my focus. I take it off of what's missing or what's lacking or what went wrong. I'm like, okay, it happens, it happens to everybody. That's life. And then I shift and I'm like and now what? And I get super excited about it and yeah, it's just, it always works out. That's the thing Life always goes on, it always works out would be okay.
Brad Minus:Like you said, all right now, what I don't have, what am I going after? And you focus there, whereas a lot of people are like, okay, wait a second, I'm not going to pay my next mortgage bill, I'm not going to pay my next rent bill, I'm not going to pay the utilities because I just lost everything. And you say, yeah, don't worry about that, focus on the creation.
Sabine Schoepka:I mean, isn't that right? Yeah, I think there is worrying about it, which is going to no-transcript and that what's next? But then it's real yes, we have to pay those bills. And somehow I just always made it like, even after everything burned down in New York, and then I knew we had to sell a house to get out of there and I was ready to go back to Europe. But the father of my kids, my ex-partner I, was like no, we're not going back to Europe, we're going back to California, we're going to continue doing, we're going to get back to what we used to do. And but in the meantime I was sitting and then he took off. I was sitting there with the kids. I'm like and now what? Like, he's not here, there's no more money.
Sabine Schoepka:So I started selling off stuff. I started selling clothes and furniture and whatever else and started I'm like okay, the fat days are over, let's, there's no more lobster, anything let's have. I remember we ate a ton of sausages and beans, that's it. But you make it through it, it goes on. Yeah, it's tough for a while, but okay.
Brad Minus:Yeah, I know, I had lean days too and it was literally it was hamburger helper and potatoes, you know. So I get it, I totally get it. The hamburger helper at the time was like 69 cents for the box. I found a ground beef. A pound of ground beef was like three bucks and and a sack of potatoes was three bucks. So literally for the week. I was good for the week at that point, but so I get it. Yeah, I've been there as well. All right, so that's our first lesson here. So all right. So he went to California and you were still in New York. You started selling things off. Obviously, you were able to take some of that. And then what did you do from there?
Sabine Schoepka:And then we sold the house. I sold the house and and then I which is funny because it was just when everything was going down on the stock market and everything and one of the people, one of the top executives of lehman brothers, ended up buying a house. And, as lehman brothers was like, are they going to be saved, are they not? Are they going to be saved? Contracts were out to him and every day it was like, okay, I'm going to buy the house. And then he was like, I don't think I can buy the house. And then he ended up buying the house. I'm like, oh my God, he ended up buying the house and we got out of there and whatever else, whatever we had left, we put into a little truck and my ex actually drove it back cross country and the kids and I got on Southwest at Long Beach airport and I remember standing at the airport with my two kids one kid on each hand, and they were like four maybe at the time and I looked at them and I started crying, but crying out of like gratitude. I looked at her and I thought this is all I need. This is all that is important. Nothing else matters. Everything else comes and goes and that's fine, but those two kids and they're healthy. I won, let's go nice.
Sabine Schoepka:And I got on that plane and we flew back and you know, we crashed at friends houses for a little while until we could get an apartment and it was a tiny little apartment. And today somebody asked me the other day it was like, what's your favorite place you ever lived at? And I was like, oh my god, it was a tiny little apartment. And today somebody asked me the other day it was like what's your favorite place you ever lived at? And I was like, oh my God, it was this tiny little apartment right down the beach. Yeah, out of all the big houses, the beautiful views, it was that I felt so safe and it was just so, just the kids and I, and it was beautiful.
Brad Minus:It's my favorite place.
Sabine Schoepka:Wow, so just you and the kids at this point, because you said that you're, he was there for a little while and then he was like I can't be with you, and and then he moved out and you know, so you were letting him couch serve no, we at the beginning did this together and then but then, yeah, this wasn't, it was too much negativity and I then tried to get a job.
Sabine Schoepka:That's the second time in my life. I tried to get a job. I'm like I need to job fast, so like I need to make some money, and I got a job with deutsche bank in downtown la because of my language and my background, my mba and all of that, and I drove home after the interview and it was pretty clear that I got the job. And as I got home and then I saw my kids and I'm like no way, I'm not taking the job. I will never see my kids again, never. They're going to be in daycare. I'll drop them off at 6 am so I can drive to downtown LA and I come back and I just feed him and put him to bed. This is not it. I got it wrong. Something else is going to be, it's going to fall into place, something else will happen and that's when I started.
Sabine Schoepka:Coincidentally, I started my next business without even knowing it, and it was jewelry I made for myself, because there was still a lot of lawsuits going on with all the damages and the money we owed on the property and everything. And it was so stressful and I made these necklaces for myself and I hand stamped them with words that were meaningful to me and it was a little bit of a lifeline to remind myself that it's okay, it will be fine. And I started making those and as I dropped my kids off in school I picked them up. People were like, what are you wearing there? And I said, oh, it's just something I made for myself. And so they asked me and I said it's about celebrating the blessings in our lives, like focusing on that, shifting our focus, and people really, really resonated with people.
Sabine Schoepka:And I got one more person can you make me something? I said, sure, what resonates with you? And then somebody said to me you should make these like and sell them. And I said really, yeah, okay, and that's when Etsy just started. So I went on to Etsy like, oh, this is that doesn't cost me anything like 20 cents, just list something. Let's do that. And that was like 15, 16 years ago and I started doing that and I went from just me doing this while the kids were asleep or they were in school for a little bit. And today etsy is big. It's publicly traded as 3.8 million vendors and my little company is today is like number 40 in the world of all the vendors of 3.8 million vendors.
Brad Minus:So again, she goes from nothing. Someone says that she likes her jewelry that she makes privately for herself, and you turn it into a multimillion dollar business because you make a couture, customized jewelry shop or basically manufacturing.
Sabine Schoepka:So I made it like every piece was handmade by me. People would share their stories with me. They either knew what they wanted or I would help them figure it out. And I said, ok yeah, and I would make that and. And then I was like, oh yeah, and I would make that. And.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I was like, oh my God, I have a dream. I have a dream to create a workplace for women where women can be, follow their passions, do what they love to do and still be moms. Because for me, like that whole thing of having to choose between a job and my children, I was like that's horrible, we shouldn't have to do that. And so I created a workplace for women for that. And then my other thing was I said, and then I want to give back. I want to give back to homeless children and here in Long Beach, 30% of all kids that go to college here in Long Beach are homeless. So I started to tap into that and I started to give back to different organizations and college students that are homeless, because it was near and dear to my heart and this whole thing became this beautiful love child and I felt like I could and I ended up getting back together with my ex and for like a couple of years.
Sabine Schoepka:But then when I really wanted to focus on this, and because he started to do better, and he was like you don't need to do this anymore, and I said no, but I really want to do this, this, I am very passionate about this, I want to continue this business. And he continuously was like why do you want to do this? For your ego? You want to have a street named after you. And I said no, you don't understand. Like this is important to me. There's a cause in this, like there's a bunch of causes in this and I'm very passionate about so many things about this. And when he really didn't get it and he constantly tried to undermine me, I said this is it, I'm done, I need to get out. And that time I left and I said I want to focus on that and I also wanted to show my kids that we got to follow our hearts, we got to do the things that are important to us and now to you, you can unpack that, yeah.
Brad Minus:No, I don't know how to unpack that. I think you gave it everything that you that we needed from. That is just again overcoming the obstacle. So, wow, so did you get out of that one that one room apartment. After that, it's just yeah.
Sabine Schoepka:So then because it was we did, we did better and we got back together and to like, we moved back into the lifestyle that we were accustomed to and things went well, except the relationship didn't. And then when I decided to leave, because we were never married, so any of the businesses we shared, the real estate we shared and so on, I had no right to there's no in California. If you're not married, you have no right to that. And I walked away and I told them. I said I don't care about the money, you can keep it all.
Brad Minus:Yeah, but that was just from the real estate holdings, the real estate and business your business was. You still had your business.
Sabine Schoepka:My business was my business. California is very expensive and my kids at that point were going to private school. Like there was a lot of costs associated with and my business which I wasn't really. I couldn't really until then focus a hundred percent on like at that point it was doing well, but it wasn't doing that well to support that entire lifestyle. So I walked out and out of the beautiful 4,000 square foot home overlooking the Pacific and a private beach to a one bedroom apartment. So I took my kids, the dog and I went back to the one bedroom apartment. I'm like, okay, we're starting again, All right, and now we're going to kick some ass. And that was like seven, eight years ago and I started again.
Brad Minus:Yeah, and so did you, ramped up what you already had.
Sabine Schoepka:Yes. Well, you said yeah, you didn't get number 40, so yeah, so I really kicked some butt and I grew it like in every aspect. And, yeah, in the meantime I had some cancer. I dealt with that.
Brad Minus:Okay, hold on, that's huge. Don't gloss over this stuff. This is big right. All right, talk to me about the journey through the cancer.
Sabine Schoepka:So one of the things I didn't share was when I was seven years old, my much younger brother, who was three at the time. He by accident, swung a construction shovel into my face and it broke my face. It broke my nose and my chin, and back then my parents were like stop crying.
Brad Minus:Fucked up.
Sabine Schoepka:Get over yourself, you'll be fine. And I remember they used to say by the time you're married you'll be okay. I'm like okay. So they didn't really do anything about it. And then over the years my nose had been broken and it started to really droop and my chin was pushed in. And only when I really started to make some serious money, which was about maybe like 10 years ago, I went to a plastic surgeon because I had a little virus in my face and my dermatologist said go to a plastic surgeon. I'd never been to a plastic surgeon before. I was way down to earth. I'm like I go to no plastic surgeon. But was way that to like down to earth, like I got into no plastic surgeon. But then I went and then he looked at me. He's like oh, that in your face is fine, I'll give you some cream. But he said, what happened to your face? I said, oh, I got a shovel swung into my face and he's like and he's like we can probably fix that. And I'm like, oh, okay, ended up. He ended up fixing.
Sabine Schoepka:It was the biggest, most challenging health issue I ever had. It took me a whole year to overcome that from like they fixed my nose, put it back together. They did entire open tracer and took everything out, took all the cartilage out, scraped off all the scar tissue and put it back together the way it originally was meant to be. But they couldn't save my chin so they actually ended up putting like a silicone chin in it to fix that. So I'm back to the way I originally would have looked, and then like a couple no, probably like I don't know, I get the time like four years later maybe I noticed a spot on my nose and it turned out it was skin cancer and I had dealt with skin cancer before, so I dragged my feet for a little bit. It got bigger and bigger and then my daughter was the one who's like mom, you really need to go. So I went to get it looked at and they were like, yeah, this is skin cancer, we need to remove this. And it turned out they did this mole procedure where they cut and then they freeze it, and then they cut and cut, cut and freeze, and cut and freeze until they have all the margins and they ended up removing this entire side of my nose and I was like, okay, this is way bigger. Holy crap, this whole side was missing. I'm like I'm going to go back to my friend the plastic surgeon. He's going to fix this. He fixed my face before he's going to fix this. So I went, they covered it.
Sabine Schoepka:I went home, I ate lunch and then I got back in my car and I went to his office and I said I need to show you something, can you fix this? And he took it off and he was like, oh, my God, spade. I said yeah, they, they had to like. I told him and he's like okay, we need to fix this. So he ended up taking cartilage out of him in the office right there. We never even went to the hospital. He did local anesthesia. I have never been in so much pain in my life. They took the cartilage out of my ear, from the back of my ear, and he rebuilt the cartilage up the side of my nose and then he took skin out of my cheek and flipped it over. I still had to keep it attached so it wouldn't die off. It took, I think, four surgeries after this to complete this whole thing. It's an nightmare, but it looks fine.
Brad Minus:He did an amazing job If you you didn't tell us we wouldn't know no, it, it is a little uneven, but it's nothing.
Sabine Schoepka:And all this, what they had to take out of my cheek and stuff, he's, he's a true artist, he's amazing and yeah. So that was a little debilitating for a little while. At that time I was was supposed to go onto the home shopping network and sell my stuff and I had to cancel. I was like I can't be looking like this, I cannot, yeah. So, and it scared me, it really scared me because I was like, oh my God, I got my face back only a few years ago and now this, why? And it was a downer, it really it took me with all the surgeries I needed. Afterwards. It took me a little while to really like get my energy back and, um, go full force again, but I did, and so yeah, that was that.
Brad Minus:So you got through that and at this time you're still doing the jewelry yeah, I was doing the jewelry and that was that.
Sabine Schoepka:So you got through that and at this time you were still doing the jewelry. Yeah, I was doing the jewelry, and that was all good. And then I want to say, probably a year after that, I got surprised in the middle of the night, sleeping in my home. Somebody had broken into my house and attacked me in my sleep and that, emotionally, was the biggest challenge in my life, the biggest one. He strangled me and then dragged me out of bed on my throat and beat the crap out of me like badly, and then I thought I got my senses back and I was on the third floor of my house. I went downstairs and I thought he was gone, but he was sitting there waiting for me and then he continued to beat me up and then tried to rape me and because it turns out he was intoxicated, I ended up getting away.
Sabine Schoepka:But I lived in a new construction and I was 52 units and it was only two units occupied. So while I was screaming my head off, nobody could hear me because there was nobody there. And then the other couple that had moved in also saw the other unit that was occupied. They did end up hearing me and they came to my rescue. As I ran out, they came to my rescue and that was tough. That was really tough. I had terribletsd. I started drinking and it sent me into darkness. That was very scary.
Brad Minus:Did they catch the guy?
Sabine Schoepka:yeah, I knew him. Actually I knew him. And then what came afterwards was actually even harder because the legal system is not on our side and I had to prove that he did what he did. And the thing is, once I went to the police, I finally went to. It took me a couple of days to go because my head was so I couldn't even think straight. And I remember the next morning I woke up curled up in a corner like in fetus position and I was like oh my God. And I remember calling my plastic surgeon friend because I was worried, like I couldn't feel anything and I'm like what's wrong with me, like how bad is this? And somehow I ended up driving myself. I don't remember any of it, but I ended up driving myself to his office. It was on a Saturday morning, like 7 am. I texted him. I said I need help, you need to look at me. He said okay. He didn't know. He said okay, come on in, I always look at you. And he was like oh my God. But it turns out he looked at me. He said I don't, I didn't, not for two days until I was.
Sabine Schoepka:I remember driving my daughter like the next day to a tennis match and she was sitting next to me in the car and she said, mom, what are you going to do about this? And I said I don't know. I don't know. And it still makes me emotional thinking about this, because she then said to me she said, mom, what would you do if this had happened to me? I said I would kill the guy. And she said no, seriously, what would you do? And I said, okay, seriously, I would go to the police. I would make sure he pays for what he did to you. And she said why don't you love yourself enough to do the same for yourself? And then I dropped her off and I ended up going to the police.
Sabine Schoepka:But what came then was at least as tough as everything else, because once they heard who he was, what his family members, who they were, all the evidence disappeared. They had taken pictures, everything disappeared, there was no case. And I started a horrible struggle trying to get help. Nobody wanted to touch this and at the end I found a female attorney who was like we're going to take care of this and we did. It never really got what it deserved, but that was okay, because for me it wasn't about revenge, it was about showing my daughter that you need to stand up for yourself, that this is not okay, self, that this is not okay. And so, yeah, it was fine.
Sabine Schoepka:It was fine and but it took me a long time to recover from this, emotionally and spiritually. I was afraid to go to sleep at night. I started drinking and and I didn't know how to get out of this. Yeah, and my family wasn't really all that supportive. My parents were like I'm sure you deserve this somehow. Like I was asleep in my house. They're like you should just forget about it. And I'm like, forget about it. I'm black and blue, my foot is broken. Like I can't forget about this. No, I was from a place of love, because they were afraid that he was going to come after me and do more damage. And but no, so I.
Sabine Schoepka:The way I got out of this and the lesson out of this was I turned it around and it became one of the most beautiful gifts ever. I discovered a new lifestyle because of it. So where I lived in the front, there was an F45 that opened up, and as they opened it up, they distributed flyers and then one of the guys was walking around. He said hey, have you tried this HIIT training? And I said no, he said you should come in try it out for free. So I ended up going and I realized after the session a that I was about to die because this was so tough but and I was in really bad shape at that point that I, even though this was only a few feet between f45 and my house, I crawled back into my house and I laid down in the entrance and I'm like, oh my God. And I had 911 speed dial. I was like I think I'm going to have a heart attack. Oh my God, this is going to kill me.
Sabine Schoepka:But then what came after that was beautiful. I felt better and I realized, oh my God, when I work out, I can actually function. And so I started to. I got a membership and I started to train every day. I went there, sometimes twice, sometimes three times a day. I'm like, oh my god, I need to get my head cleared again, I'm gonna go back. And then they had a competition, a global competition, and I ended up winning for female highest percentage body fat loss. No wonder, because I probably run more than anybody and I lost all this weight to a point where I was like barely 100 pounds. I'm 5'5 and I was barely 100 pounds.
Sabine Schoepka:And then covid hit and they shut down and I was like, what am I gonna do? And oh, because of the competition, in order to win this, like my competitiveness started to like come out. I had to change everything. I stopped drinking, I started to eat healthy, I worked out. It changed everything.
Sabine Schoepka:And then COVID hit, they closed and I called up a friend of mine. I said, oh my God, I need to train somewhere. I need to continue this. This is my lifeline. And he said okay, let me see what I can find for you. And he found a friend of his who owned a gym in LA and he said call him and see if he can help you. So the guy said come in, I'll look at you. And so I went in there. He said take off your clothes, I want to see what I'm dealing with. And I'm like okay. So I took off my clothes and I stood there and he was like I'm dealing with, and I'm like okay. So I took over my clothes and I stood there and he was like yeah, we can do something with this. And then he said but I'm not going to babysit you Either you want this or we're done. I said okay and it was like the movies, it was like Rocky. We went in there every day. The gym was closed, we couldn't have any lights on, we had all the blinds closed, there was no AC and he worked out with me every day in the dark for like two to three hours every day and I fell in love with bodybuilding, with the lifestyle, with lifting weights. Oh my God, it was the best and I never felt better before in my life. I never looked better.
Sabine Schoepka:I got into this community where people were so supportive and it turns out everybody was in there, had a story, everybody had a reason why they were there and we all had the same goal. We're going to feel amazing and we did Like. I went religiously. I got up at 4.30 every morning. Sometimes I went twice a day. I did like fasted cardio in the morning and then go lift in the afternoon. I was super strong. I leg pressed almost 700 pounds. I was one of the strongest women in there and it was amazing and people kept telling me you should compete.
Sabine Schoepka:I ended up going to gold's gym in venice and some of the big people um, big trainers, big names were like you need to compete. And I always said, no, I don't want to compete. They were like why not? And then I thought I did and I. And then we got closer and I'm like and then they try to tweak you. They're like oh, your traps are too strong, your shoulders aren't wide enough, we need to work on this. We need to work on that. I'm like ah, no.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I realized it.
Sabine Schoepka:I was like oh my God, this is the only place in my life where I truly do something just for myself, where I don't have to prove anything to anybody.
Sabine Schoepka:I'm not a boss, I don't like. I'm not a mom, I'm just doing this for myself and I don't want to pick. I don't want people to pick at me and say, oh, we need to change this and we need to change that and this is not perfect. No, and I swear to myself, I will never compete. And people would always say when are you competing? And I'm like I'm not. And they're like you're doing this just because I love it and because nobody's judging me. And I realized that at some point, I realized that I had this vision of seeing this guy standing on the other side of the river and I realized I made it through this and there was this raging river and in the middle and I realized I can forgive you because you have given me one of my greatest gifts change my life into something even more amazing wow, that now see, that's a story that is, oh, that, you, you're.
Brad Minus:You've gone into my side of my thing about fitness because I've had a lot of. I have my model. The model that I have is for my business is it's by the race. I teach, I, I, I coach endurance athletes, so it's the race. You know what I mean. Sometimes they go to the race and then they come off the roster and they'll come back later when they decide they want to pick another race again. But I do know of a lot of other coaches that have literally have clients behind clients and they're just there, like you said, for themselves, I, I for me, when that's part of what life change, life changing challengers is that challenge and that's part of what life-changing challenges is that challenge? You had this, you found the challenge through the process, and a lot of people that I found changed their lives. They changed their lives through the goal and the process taught them how to change and both ways work, obviously, obviously, but yeah, but that's incredible.
Brad Minus:You never did compete, ever no uh, good for you, because like a lot, that's a lot of people they'd be like they're at that level and people are telling them they've got a gold's gym on venice beach, that is like that's the mecca of bodybuilders, and you've got those people telling you you should compete.
Sabine Schoepka:Some of the biggest people, like Charles Ross, the god of bodybuilding. He would always jump in and say okay, now, when? And I'm like no, I don't care to do that. And a lot of women would be like what do you mean? You don't want to compete? Like, imagine standing on that stage and everybody's looking at you, you get your 20 seconds of fame. And I said I don't care about that, it's not about that and my ego is not in this. No, and it was such a relief when I realized what it was really all about to me and it made me even happier.
Brad Minus:Yeah, yeah, so did you ever seek professional counseling or anything for the incident?
Sabine Schoepka:Yeah, yeah, I did, but it really it didn't. I ended up going back to like spiritual mentors and because I've tried, there was other things in my life that happened when I was a kid and I had to deal with that and work through those issues. And I did a lot of therapy and I always felt like this is not working for me, this is not. And then I discovered spirituality and really more specifically, the science of mind, to really understand how minds work, and to me that was fascinating and it really helped me to understand myself better and really manage myself. And yeah, and so continue this journey to get us to where I'm today. A lot has changed. Again, just before COVID, I realized I don't want to do the business anymore and I wanted to sell it. And because I realized I had checked all my boxes, everything I wanted to achieve in life, financially and all of it I had checked and I realized nothing had changed. It didn't matter. And it really got me depressed. I was like you know what? Set the bar higher, make more money, drive even nicer cars, live in a bigger house no, I don't care. And I got so depressed that I was like so what is there? What is this all about? And so I wanted to get rid of it all, but then I couldn't because of COVID, and I hung in there and I actually COVID in itself challenged me and I enjoyed that because all of a sudden the business changed and I saw new opportunities and I came back to life for like two years and I built the business, I restructured it and rebuilt it and then a year and a half ago I was like okay, now I can sell it. And I ended up putting it on the market and I sold it. And last year in June I handed it over and I am still very active in it. I'm a consultant to them. I do everything that I really enjoy doing. Today I don't have to do the day-to-day stuff anymore. But then my kids left. They graduated high school, both of them went to Switzerland and I was like and now, what am I going to do? And again my daughter, who is wise beyond her years, she said to me one night she said, mom, you have worked so hard all your life and now the world's your oyster. Do whatever you want to do. And I said, okay. So the business was sold.
Sabine Schoepka:I went back to Europe. I had more skin cancer. That was really bad. But then I went back to Europe after that was done the end of last year, and I said I'm going to find a place I want to live. And I looked all over, I looked in Italy and I was like I don't know, this is a rough start, I don't know enough about it. This is a rough start, like I don't know enough about it.
Sabine Schoepka:And at the end I went back to my mountains, I went back to the German Alps and I said why don't I start there? So I looked for a place to rent and people were laughing at me. They were like nobody finds anything here, let alone a foreigner. I said I'm not a foreigner, I'm German. What are you talking about? They were like, no, somebody dies, somebody needs to die. And then there's 10 other people in line to find something to rent and I said, okay, see me do it. And a week later I had a place. I had permission to call this. I had a place and I went. I flew back to la and I said now I'm gonna put in my house on the market. I sold everything. I sold my house, I sold my cars, I sold all my furniture, gave stuff away and december 31st I had two suitcases left.
Sabine Schoepka:I got on the lustanza flight to munich and I left yeah, crazy, so I started over again, not not financially, but emotionally, and I faced my biggest demon, the one that I could not manage throughout all of this, it was loneliness. All my life I was so afraid to be alone All my life, all my life, I was so afraid to be alone All my life. It's what drove me to drink more than I should have. It's, I think, what fueled my dedication to work, spend every waking hour working. And I went to Germany and I remember landing on January 1st and I rented a car and I drove to the mountains. I couldn't move right away into my place. I had to spend 10 days somewhere else and I spent 10 days in a vacation home.
Sabine Schoepka:I got really sick. First time in like 10 years Never even had as much as a cold. I got really sick and I laid in bed there and I cried my heart out. I was like what did I do? What did I do? I'm so alone and I think it happened for a reason that I got sick. My body was like you think you can just continue that life and like you change locations, but you continue that life over here, because I was like I'm gonna find a gym, gonna keep training. Would I find something else to do and everything came to a screech. For an entire week I was laying in bed, fever and just so painful. And then I came back to life and I still try to get my old life back over there. And then I realized, actually, my boyfriend, who lives here in the US. He said you can, what did he say? You can change, you can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl. You have a lot of work to do and I did, and it was three months of. It was a struggle to face that to. Really, I'm like I can't believe I did this. I can't believe I put myself into a situation where I'm deep into the mountains, I don't see people for days and I put myself into solitary confinement to deal with this, the biggest challenge. And I did, I did, I learned to embrace my solitude and I filled that void of like that painful, and I started drinking again where I was like just a whiskey, make myself feel better.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I realized, oh my god, the band-aids got to stop. It's a band-aid to stop. It's a band-aid. We have band-aids, whether it's shopping, which I'm not a shopper and I wouldn't be able to do that. There's no shopping, there's nothing. There's no hairdressers. There's no shopping, there's nothing. And there's what people do drugs. I've never done drugs People do. They drink or they eat excessively. None of that. And for me it was always I'm going to drink whiskey. It's going to numb the pain. And then I realized that one evening and I took the bottle and I poured it all down the drain. I'm like, no, this has got to stop. You've got to face this. There's no running away from this anymore. There's no numbing the pain. Face it. And I did, yeah, I did.
Sabine Schoepka:And then I knew, once I was over this like, and now you can come back to LA and visit your friends and visit my son, my son's back here now. And yeah, and I feel like a different woman. And I came back here with very mixed feelings. I'm like I don't know if I want this anymore. I don't know if I and I stopped working out. I work out, but I don't train anymore. I don't know if I and I stopped working out. I work out, but I don't train anymore.
Sabine Schoepka:I canceled I had a membership at a gym. I'm like I'm going to cancel this. I'm going to find other ways to entertain myself and I ended up renting an E-mountain bike and I'm like, oh, I like that. And I ended up buying one and I'm zipping through the mountains now and I have a gym I go to, but only a couple times a week just to just have fun. I don't have a plan.
Sabine Schoepka:And that was hard too, because I looked at my body. I'm like what the heck happened? You went from like super strong and tight to menopause. Wow, holy crap. So it's been really interesting, really amazing, so amazing. And I discovered all the things that along the years I wanted to do and I never did because I was too busy working and focusing on all these other things. And I wrote my first book and I published it within. I wrote it within, wrote my first book and I published it within a month and I published it. And, as you said, I have a podcast that I love, love doing and I coach other people. I help other people to change their lives to the way they really want to live their lives. They really want to live their life.
Brad Minus:That's powerful, yeah, so her podcast is called the power life podcast, and she drops episodes every Monday. So now all of you know what to do. You first listen to life changing challengers and then you move over to the power life podcast. Okay, listen to Life Changing Challengers and then you move over to the Power Life podcast. Okay, and that's how we're going to do this, because Life Changing Challengers drops on Mondays too.
Sabine Schoepka:All right, there you go. Your Mondays are safe people.
Brad Minus:You're good. You're good On the way in. You listen to Life Changing Challenges to work. On the way back out, you listen to the Power Life podcast. We've got you covered, people.
Sabine Schoepka:Yes, back out. You listen to the power life podcast. We've got you covered, people. Yes, exactly bite size nuggets. I usually try to keep it between 10 and 15 minutes, but I'm very raw and I talk about all of this on how and also the stuff that's going on like right now and what I feel and how I work through these things, and it's very it, it's real, it's raw, it's authentic and, yeah, yeah, so that's a perfect, because what we want to do here is we want to highlight people that have done this and given some nuggets on okay, these are some ideas on how you could change it.
Brad Minus:Then you go over to the Power Life podcast and get into the details on how to do it. This is a partnership made in heaven. It is. It's been manifested when I saw your podcast.
Sabine Schoepka:I'm like, oh my god, this is it. Yes, yes, yes, we need to talk yeah, no, and I just like it.
Brad Minus:and also we're I think we're about in the same peer group too, and my most of my clients and this podcast is dedicated to that midlife 40s, 50s type of deal. Not that all of you in your 20s and 30s can't get something out of it, because there's a lot of life lessons learned in this podcast and in the Power Life podcast that you could learn before you get to a point where you're deciding that, oh, something's got to change. Now you'll have all these great lessons ready to go so that, if and when that happens, you're ready to rock. So that's amazing. And also, sabine's book is the Love Odyssey, right, and the quote there is are you ready to love again? So why don't you tell us just a little bit about that one?
Sabine Schoepka:So when I found I was working with a producer for my podcast and I remember going to him and he was referred to me and said talk to him, he can help you with the production. And I had a call with him. He said so what do you do? And I said I'm a life coach and life and business coach. And I looked at him and he goes oh, another one. I was like, okay, all right. And then he said okay, why don't you put something together? We'll do a test recording and see how it goes. And I said, sure. So we met online. He hit the record button and I started talking and then I was done and he was sitting there like this, he's like. And I was like done and still didn't move. I said, okay, I'm done. And he stopped it. And then he's an older guy and he stopped it. And then he's an older guy and he looked at me and he said I don't give compliments. I said, okay, I was scared at that point. I'm like, oh, this must have been really bad. Oh, my God, there goes that dream. And he's like this was freaking amazing. And I said, oh, okay, he's like, I'm taking you. I'm like okay. So I did a few and then every time he produced these and then I think it was like three or four episodes in.
Sabine Schoepka:He said to me he said you need to write a book. I said I know I always wanted to write a book, but I don't know, like I don't know how to do this. He said just start, just write a book. And I said, okay. So the first thing that came to mind, I thought this is easy. How about I write about the notes that I took throughout? After my ex and I split up, which I called my dating project, like I made that into a like a research project because I was so terrified to get back out there. I'm like, oh, I don't want to do this, this is a nightmare. And so I took notes and I was like I could actually finally write this and that was easy. And the moment I started writing it just all came out and it's a little book. It's like 69 pages. It's a really little book but it's written from my heart and soul of midlifers and the dating and it's fun. But it has a lot of insightful little nuggets in it and it's interesting the feedback. It became a bestseller in, like I think, three or four categories on Amazon and I'm like, wow, and it's one of my new discoveries of how much I love writing. I love to write.
Sabine Schoepka:I'm working on my second book right now, even though it's a little bit on the shelves because I had to get through these last three and a half months and it gave me a lot of new insights and I need to get back to that, but it's happening, it's gonna come eventually and, yeah, it's for me and that's. I feel like I have come full circle. I have discovered something new, something that I really love, love, love to do, which is the writing and the podcasting, which is also writing, and even social media. I'm on LinkedIn and I used to hate social media and write. I never even did it for my previous business, but with this it's different. It's like I can, it just pours out of me and I can write like raw and authentic, the way I am, and it seems to resonate with people and that's and it seems to resonate with people and that's A it's filling.
Sabine Schoepka:I learned to fill that void of what, like the pain from being lonely. I realized that the antidote to loneliness is purpose and I, over the last three months really four months now I have discovered my purpose for this part of my life and every time I deal with something where, like, my daughter came to visit me for a weekend and then she left and I was like, oh no, I was crying because I'm like I'm gonna miss her so much, and I'm back to my solitude and I walking up the stairs to my apartment and in the mountains, and by the time I got upstairs I'm like I'm good, all right, let's sit down. And there I am and I'm filled with joy and bliss and I'm like this is it, this is it, and that void, I know how. Again, like at the beginning we said, I can redirect my focus. I have learned to do that with other things now so, with the loneliness which was so dreadful for me, to redirect it to something I am so passionate about and that fills me with so much joy and bliss. And that's really.
Sabine Schoepka:I think that's one of the secrets to life to deal with the darkness to really, because we all have darkness and we all deal with things, but the darkness in itself is not dangerous. I feel like the darkness is actually. It's like it's information, it's like a red guide pole that comes up and it's like wait a second, something needs attention. And then, once we put light on that darkness, see okay, what's going on. What is it? What fear, what pain, what struggle is it? And once we put light on it, it actually becomes really beautiful. And that's where I'm at today. It's like there's no more band-aids, there's no more ignorance, there's no more trying to numb it. There's like, okay, what's going on? And then fill it, turn it into something beautiful and it's amazing, that's super powerful.
Brad Minus:Sabine, you fill me with light and I'm sure that anybody that gets to watch or listen to this is going to feel the same way. Just the fact that you coming being broke and then into businesses, and then broke again, and then have kids, and then your then cancer troubles and then broke again, and then, oh my God, and then broke again, and then, oh my God, and then going through some domestic violence and here you are on top of it, two great kids and you're living in a dream place where you dreamed about since you were a kid. I mean full circle. I can't say more about how amazing you are. You know what I mean. So, yeah, jump on the bandwagon. Kids, because this woman's got it.
Brad Minus:So again, the her, from her podcast to her book. Everything's going to be in the show notes. I'm going to have a link directly to the book. I will link directly to the to her podcast. Um, and she is are. Do you follow? Are you mostly on Instagram and LinkedIn, so if people want to get in touch with you, oh, linkedin is really my main thing.
Sabine Schoepka:I am on on Instagram also the power life coach. I don't post as often, but I'm there. I try to get myself to be active.
Brad Minus:Right, but the fact is that you are, you're a big portion of it is not life coaching and you're also a bit of business always grows on its own.
Sabine Schoepka:It always does, and that's the thing I realized over the years too, when it comes to business, when you lean into like I always say, the inner game determines your outer game. That's my thing, and it never fails. When you put light on the inside and you work on your inside and you get to really authentically lean into what you're doing, it always works. You get to really authentically lean into what you're doing. It always works, it always thrives, it never fails. So it's interesting because, yes, I have a bunch of clients right now I work with and they all came for business advice and then we realized, wait a second, where's the problem here? It's really not the business.
Sabine Schoepka:Let's look at this, let's start digging. And as we start digging and work on these things, they're like so weird Business is picking up. It's not weird, it's all connected. You're one person, it's all connected. So, yes, I do have the business background, I have the education, I have had seven businesses altogether. I know my crap, like I can be very helpful with that, but what's going on in here? That's usually top priority. And then we look at the other stuff. The other stuff is minor.
Brad Minus:It's like yeah, wow, you heard it here folks. All right, say it one more time the inner, your inner game determines your outer gain. There you go. Your inner game determines your outer gain. That is words to live by With that. I cannot end this podcast on a higher or better note than that. Sabine, thank you so much. It has been an honor.
Sabine Schoepka:Thank you. Thank you, it was such a pleasure hanging out with you and talking to you.
Brad Minus:Thank you again. All right, folks, we will see you in the next one.
