Episode 9 - Determination AND Devotion with Meg Casebolt

Struggling with balancing your feminine and masculine energies?

In this week’s episode, I’m diving into conversation with Meg Casebolt all about discovering how embracing your unique disposition, aligning devotion with determination, and building heart-led communities can fuel your journey towards a fulfilling life and career.

Here’s what we talked:

🌿 The Power of Your Unique Disposition: Embracing individuality and using one's unique masculine/feminine polarity to further the collective feminine rise is essential and celebrated.

🌿 The Sacred Union of Devotion and Determination: The fusion of feminine devotion and masculine determination forms a unique force that brings soul-led purpose into the world.

🌿 Community Building and Values: The importance of building a heart-led community based on shared values, both in personal and professional spheres, stands as a central trait of the sacred feminine.

Guest Bio:

Meg Casebolt is founder of Love At First Search, an agency singularly devoted to helping online businesses get found in search results (like Google, YouTube & iTunes) & turn those new readers into leads, subscribers and sales.

Meg’s clients are entrepreneurs who are too busy changing the world to worry about things like website conversion rates and search traffic … but still want their websites to get found on Google for their brilliance and turn readers.

Meg lives in Rochester, NY with her husband, 2 boys and 80lb pit bull. She has an insatiable appetite for s’mores, Broadway musicals and romance novels.

Website: https://loveatfirstsearch.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveatfirstsearch/

Personal Website (Info on book): https://megcasebolt.com/

Show Notes:

Sister, welcome to episode nine of Rooted Feminine. It may sound a bit echoey as the house is officially empty and we're in the process of a cross-country move. So, if the audio quality isn't up to par for this episode, please bear with me. We'll return to our usual quality as soon as possible.

I'm thrilled this week to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Meg. Meg is a contact from the business world. On the surface, she appears driven, determined, focused, and poignant - all traits often associated with masculinity. But throughout this episode, you'll discover how Meg is significantly embracing her feminine side, not only in her business but in her personal life too. As a mom, a wife, a community member, and more, Meg incorporates her femininity in all aspects. I sincerely hope you'll enjoy Meg's episode, so let's dive in.

Marissa: Hey, sister. Welcome to episode nine of Rooted Feminine. I'm delighted to be here today with one of my good friends, Meg Casebolt, whom I've connected with through my other brand. It's exciting to introduce her into the Rooted Feminine space where she'll share her wisdom. Meg is not only superbly savvy in business but she's also made significant changes in her business and personal life to incorporate more femininity and flow. Meg will share more about this journey with us today. So Meg, could you introduce yourself, describe what you do in your business, share some personal details, and then we'll dive right in.

Meg: That's quite a list! Hello everyone, I'm Meg Casebolt. I am the founder of Love At First Search, a search engine optimization marketing firm. Our aim is to help businesses get found on Google, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and even Amazon. I host my own podcast called Social Slowdown, which explores the relationship between social media, entrepreneurship, and mental health. In 2024, I'll also start publishing romance novels. I believe we small business owners have brains that love trying new things and aren't content doing just one thing at a time. Personally, I live in Rochester, New York. I am married and have two neurodivergent sons, and I'm learning all about special education and related topics. I also have a 90-pound pit bull who I walk every day.

Marissa: I love it. I think one thing I've learned from you, as we've been in programs together and built a friendship, is your impressive capacity to juggle many things at once. You have a capacity for your family, your business, and self-care. Some of us might feel overwhelmed, but you handle it with grace. Can you speak a little about how you've worked to expand this capacity?

Meg: Absolutely. I've worked hard at time management, setting boundaries, prioritization, saying no, and delegating. Just a few days ago, I had to postpone our recording because I simply didn't have the energy. My father-in-law passed away, and I needed to step back. Thankfully, I have a supportive team that stepped in and covered for me. My team is very feminine, and by that, I mean supportive and communicative. When someone needs time off, the rest of us step up and cover for them. This give-and-take has happened so often that we can quickly adapt when someone needs to step back. I've tried to model this behavior for my team, and it's led to an environment where we can all ask for help when we need it. As a result, when someone needs to step away, I don't panic; I simply consider what needs to shift in my business priorities and who on the team can take on the role. We all have our job descriptions, but at any point, these can shift and flow, which is why we hire the team we do.

Marissa: I love that you're on the show right now because, a lot of what people might pick up from this conversation is masculine energy. But I want to point out a couple of ways that the feminine is actually working here. The first one, and what we're really aiming at Rooted Feminine, is to have this ancient wisdom, have this energetic shift, but to still live modern lives. You can't just step out of it. So what you've done, and this is just my observation, is the first thing I noticed is you have created your village.

The village doesn't look the way it used to in ancient times where we're all raising each other's kids together. And a lot of us want that and are trying to emulate that in our modern lives. But you've created it in a very modern way in terms of this is a community of women. Coming together, empowering each other, caring for each other, asking for their needs to be met. And doing that for each other. And that's incredibly feminine. Community. You're not out there trying to forge this by yourself.

Meg: I have a Post-it note on my desk. I only have three post-it notes on my desk. One of them says, build the village. Where do you get the support to feel thriving? Like we have to build our own villages to create our own support, to give other people the support that they need to thrive.

Marissa: If you were building this in a masculine way, you'd be saying, I'm going to do this all myself.

Meg: Right. Or nobody can step away. You have to get your work done and you have to get it done by this deadline, and there's no flexibility. Everything is rigid.

Marissa: The other thing that I want to point out too, that's actually a feminine trait is the boundaries that you set. When we're working in our solar plexus, our third chakra area, on our power, there are masculine archetypes here and there are feminine archetypes here. And the difference between them is masculine is power over others or power over situations, and feminine is power over the self.

So you're setting boundaries. You're stepping into Queen and Warrior S instead of King and Warrior because King would be out there trying to conquer stuff and Warrior would be out there fighting. Whereas Queen establishes the queendom within herself, and Warrior S protects those boundaries. So it's very interesting. When people are talking about the feminine and they only talk about the sexy stuff or the sweet stuff or the receptive and radiant stuff. Yes, that's all feminine, but so is power. And that's what I love. That's what you bring to the table. And what our listeners can learn is that it's not, there are different aspects of this energy.

Meg: Right. I think also, to speak from romance novelist coming out here, I think that there's this expectation of feminine being submissive and masculine being dominant in a lot of ways. Even within feminine conversations. This feeling of you have to remove yourself, you have to be less than, and being powerful can be seen as being overblown. Or bossy or it's really this negative thing.

And then if you want to go into being powerful, then you have to be like girl boss. You know, like that sort of over feminized caricature of power.

Marissa: Yeah. And there is, so I have a previous episode on this that you guys can go listen to. There's a difference between immature, mature and toxic. And this is true on the feminine side and the masculine side. Immature is really, there's no consciousness, it's happening without our awareness of it. And then mature and toxic are both conscious, but toxic is conscious manipulation.

So using our power like that would be immature, feminine. It could still be feminine, but it's not being used in a mature way, which is conscious change making. So it's, you're still intentional, but it's not to manipulate somebody else or to manipulate the situation. It's conscious change making, conscious problem solving, conscious boundary holding. Conscious empowerment, conscious reinforcement of the boundary that would be mature queen or mature warriors..

Meg: I love this. I love that so much. I'm starting to think about what would be the toxic feminine.

Marissa: So power, women will use sex to manipulate to get what they want. Oh, I want a car, let me go. Whatever. Right? I'm just using examples we've seen. Yeah. Movies, books, TV, that kind of stuff.

Meg: And I think in the business space, this is something that Kelly deals was talking about a lot a couple years ago around the like feminine lifestyle empowerment brands of like, look at this picture of me. And it's not like, oh, I'm a dude with a Lambo. It's like, look at me and my shiny hair and my family looks perfect and my big house, and look what I can do, even though I still wear pink. You know? Like it can still be, it doesn't have to be overtly sexual for it to be feminine, like kind of toxic feminine. I think that's a real thing.

Marissa: We also observe this in scenarios like a toxic maiden. For instance, in a situation where you and your partner have a disagreement, instead of addressing it directly by saying, "That was upsetting. Let's discuss this, let's resolve this," you might opt for a more indirect approach. You might pick up a jar of spaghetti sauce and ask, "Can you open this for me? I can't manage it." This is an attempt to smooth over the conflict, but it's employing gentle, maiden-like energy in a manipulative way. This is another manifestation.

All the archetypes of femininity can be seen in a toxic, mature, or immature form.

Meg: Fascinating.

Marissa: Before we began recording, we discussed your business. You've made some strategic hires to allow for more space, more freedom, more flow, more femininity. You've mentioned that you're consciously nurturing this energy in your personal life as well.

Meg: In my business, we make intentional decisions about who and when we hire. My right hand person, Megan, and I have similar names and even live in neighboring towns. We meet every Thursday morning for coffee. This provides some groundedness as we run our online business. Megan handles all the operations, ensuring everything runs smoothly, allowing me to focus on other aspects.

Although Megan also serves as the PTA president, this isn't her full-time job, and neither of us want it to be. However, with her kids now back in school and her looking to re-enter the workforce, she's gradually expanding her role. Our goal was to prevent a lengthy employment gap on her resume while also benefiting from her growing skill set.

When we identified gaps in our business, we devised a job description. Despite it being unconventional, we invited people to apply if they thought they fit part of it. This approach provided us the flexibility to mold the role around the right candidate.

Marissa: That's impressive. It's not about meeting every specific criterion to be considered. It's more about the potential for creating something collectively.

Meg: Absolutely. We noted in our job description that it described our ideal candidate and tasks but that it was not a strict requirement to fulfil all of them.

After interviewing many applicants for a position that was part research, part SEO, and part community driven, we decided to split the role into two and hire two different people. We chose those candidates who were passionate about our company values of flexibility, transparency, inclusion, honesty, and curiosity.

Interestingly, half of our team consists of military spouses, and the flexibility we all learned from that lifestyle is reflected in our business. We accommodate our team members' needs and personal circumstances. For example, we decrease the workload of our content marketer during the peak season of her retail business.

We believe in adjusting our plans and timelines to accommodate the team rather than imposing a rigid structure. Our approach rejects the traditional nine-to-five, 40-hour work week model that was set by the industrial revolution, and instead acknowledges the cyclical nature of our personal lives.

Marissa: What you're doing also exemplifies the balance between masculine and feminine energies. The act of defining what your business needs is analytical and goal-oriented, typically considered masculine activities. But when choosing the candidate, you rely on intuition, sensing the energy, a more feminine approach. Here at Rooted Feminine, we value both masculine and feminine energies, and the power lies in calling upon them as needed.

Meg: Yes, you don't activate them. As Megan and I were having these conversations, we were ranking the applicants. We approached this in a masculine way, but also with qualitative, empathetic feelings. That night, she sat down with her husband who works in hiring for Amazon and assists with their hiring algorithm. He was surprised we didn't ask applicants for disc assessments. While we did have people go through a test project with us, we made decisions based on our hearts and our guts. Her husband questioned this approach, and she simply explained to him that while Amazon, with its billions of employees, needs certain structures, we only have seven. We need to enjoy working with our colleagues and look forward to interacting with them. We're not just looking for the smartest people, but those who are smart, compassionate, and ambitious.

Marissa: Yes, often, when our businesses reach a level where we can step back a bit, we struggle with regulating our nervous system. In my case, I often find myself starting another business whenever there's a lull. We're so used to being active, and we don't know how to live an energetically grounded life. But I believe you're doing well because you are pursuing passion projects. Even though you may monetize them, you are really listening to what you've always wanted to do in terms of writing and pursuing things outside the business. I'd love to hear how your business is affording you more time and energy and how you are harnessing that.

Meg: During the early pandemic days when we were all under strict lockdown, I immersed myself in romance novels as a healthy alternative to drinking and binge-watching TV. Everyone I knew was participating in Zoom meetings and drinking wine, but it was too much for me. I then began reading more, and I started dreaming complete novel stories. Upon waking, I realized that I had dreamt up an entire novel. I started writing these stories down and discovered that I enjoyed the secondary characters so much that I wanted to give them their own novels. Suddenly, I found myself with a hundred thousand words. These characters appeared in my mind, fully formed and insistent.

Marissa: That sounds like mysticism, like channeling. This is your own unique mysticism coming through.

Meg: I had no idea. This was completely unplanned for someone analytical like me who prefers seeing a progression and having a plan. It was almost magical how these characters alleviated my anxiety about global issues and personal worries. Instead of lying in bed worrying about the pandemic, I found myself contemplating what these characters would do or say next. They provided an escape, a secondary world in my mind.

Marissa: This is where we discuss the difference between mysticism, magic, and medicine. Mysticism involves opening up to something meant for you, like channeling. Magic pertains to the synchronicity in your life, and medicine provides relief for your anxiety or similar feelings. That's essentially what it's all about.

Meg: Being pragmatic, I always seek a process. I contemplate how to make my time management more effective. I incorporated it into NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, starting from September, October. I had to decide what I needed to accomplish to dedicate an hour a day to this project. September involved planning my launch schedule and figuring out how to create more time, more white space, more ease in my life to dedicate to this thing living within me, longing to be expressed.

By October, I started to plot it out and gather ideas. These characters were eager to emerge. I have a Miro board that my writer's group refers to as my murder wall, reminiscent of detective shows with strings and pinpoints. This tool helps me create intricate narratives that span across multiple books, and it feels wonderful to get these ideas out.

Marissa: That's amazing. Discussing polarity is a great example of how masculine and feminine energy are not necessarily gendered. I assume you identify as female, right? If I were to guess your polarity, I would say you are likely 70% masculine, 30% feminine. Some days, perhaps even 80-20. You seem comfortable with this disposition, but you're also capable of calling on your feminine side when needed, for support, community, or other characteristic traits. If there ever was a time where you needed a shift, your polarity might change to 60-40 or 50-50. However, knowing you, I don't see you ever leaning towards 70% feminine, 30% masculine.

Meg: Honestly, I don't think I would know how to operate that way.

Marissa: It's simply not your nature. But that's the beauty of it. We're all unique individuals walking a collective path.

Meg: Day to day, it varies. Even within a given month, my cycle influences how I'm feeling. This affects my lifestyle, and my analytical nature leads me to maintain several calendars: work priorities, family matters, my mother's schedule, my writer's group, and even my menstrual cycle. This helps me adjust my life accordingly. For example, during my luteal phase, I might plan for more takeout dinners. My husband knows what to expect, and it has become a part of our shared understanding.

Marissa: So, would you say that cycle thinking has helped you connect more with your body?

Meg: Yes, it has. Especially when I'm planning in advance. I use my cycle as a guide for my writing process. During ovulation, I focus on the more sensual scenes. Menstrual week is time for writing conflicts, while during luteal, I focus on creating rifts. The rest of the time is spent developing backstory. This structure helps me overcome resistance. I prioritize my business tasks first thing in the morning and reward myself later with leisure activities like a long walk or writing a chapter in my book, or simply relaxing in a hammock when I feel the need to.

Marissa: Exactly. Because you have empowered yourself to be able to do that, right? And I love the way that your values come through in the business, but also in your personal life. So are these elements of curiosity, transparency, and vulnerability things you're embodying outside of the business as well?

Meg: I would say that I am, particularly in how I parent. I encourage my eight-year-old to ask me any question that he wants. For example, we recently lost a close family member, and we both sat down with him to explain that he's going to have a lot of feelings and questions. We emphasized that any questions he has are okay to come to us with at any time. Our family has core values that are strong, even if they're not explicitly articulated or displayed on a family crest. You can feel it in our house, especially during our conversations. Curiosity and honesty are probably our top values.

Marissa: And I feel like that's another way that you lead in a feminine way. There's the possibility to be a leader in your feminine energy. This isn't just about masculine leadership; there's also compassionate, heart-led leadership. Would you say that represents feminine leadership?

Meg: Absolutely. As a woman raising two boys (even my dog is male), I aim to be a role model. I want to show my children what partnership should look like—the cooperation and communication that happen within a partnership. We want you to see how conflict can be handled maturely and resolved, even if it isn't always an even 50-50. Sometimes it's about saying, "You get this one, I'll get the next one." I also strive to break traditional gender roles in domestic tasks. I'm not the main cook in our house, but I do mow the lawn. We arrange our domestic tasks based on our personal preferences and schedules rather than traditional gender roles.

Marissa: Gender roles are very much a patriarchal concept. When you remove these assigned roles, you're guided by what you enjoy, your strengths, and what you're good at. That's a feminine approach—seeking the pleasure in something or seeking the ease in something. So it's not about the actual role but rather the motivation for the role.

Meg: Completely. My younger son is on the autism spectrum, with a condition called social pragmatic communication disorder. It can be difficult for him to use the correct pronouns, to identify male versus female. Sometimes he gets the pronouns wrong, and I remind him of the importance of respecting people's chosen pronouns. It's an ongoing conversation. They may play with traditionally masculine toys like Legos and superheroes, but we also encourage emotional intelligence and feminine behaviors.

Marissa: I think that's where we differentiate between the difference between femininity and the sacred or divine feminine. Femininity is societal expectations—how we're supposed to dress, behave, or play. The feminine is emotional intelligence. It's knowing how you're feeling, being in tune with your body, sourcing your wisdom and energy from within. Being able to articulate how you're feeling, and acting accordingly. These are all feminine traits that everyone, including men, could benefit from.

Marissa: Exactly. Because you have empowered yourself to be able to do that, right? And I love the way that your values come through in the business, but also in your personal life. Are these same things of curiosity and transparency and vulnerability embodied outside of the business as well? Would you say you are?

Meg: I would say that I am, and I think a lot of that is in the way that I parent. Really encouraging my eight-year-old to ask any question. We just lost a close family member this week and so we both sat down with him and told him he might have a lot of feelings, a lot of questions. That's okay. Any questions he has are okay to come to us. We have core values of our family that aren't hard articulated, they're not on a family crest or anything like that, but they're there and they're strong. You feel it in the house when we're having conversations - curiosity and honesty are probably our two top values in our house.

Marissa: And I feel like that's another way that you lead in a feminine way. There's feminine energy in leadership. Not only leadership is masculine. It's about compassionate leadership, heart-led leadership.

Meg: Right. And especially as a woman raising two boys. I try to be a role model to my kids of what partnership should look like. The cooperation and the communication that is happening within a partnership that we are going to do in front of you. We're going to fight in front of you and we are going to make up in front of you, because we want you to see how conflict can be handled maturely and resolved. It's like, okay, you know what? You get this one, I'll get the next one. I don't do most of the cooking in my house, he does because he is a better cook. So I want him to have some of those traditionally feminine tasks while I go out and mow the lawn. It doesn't have to be this traditional gender role. Domestic choice can be what works best for our personalities, for our time. How can we role model that to these young brains that are sponges?

Marissa: Gender roles are absolutely a patriarchal step. Because when you zoom out from this assigned role, what you're doing is going from what do I enjoy? What are my strengths? What am I good at? That's feminine, right? Seeking the pleasure in something or seeking the ease in something that's feminine. So it doesn't matter what the actual role is, it's what's the impetus or the motivation for the role and for you? It's ease and pleasure and fun and enjoyability, and those are all feminine traits.

Meg: Totally. My younger son is on the autism spectrum. He has a condition called social pragmatic communication disorder. It's difficult for him to know the right pronouns, to identify male versus female, boy versus girl. Sometimes my five-year-old will say, I'm a she and I'm like, great. You get to choose now. Your older brother has selected that he will be a he, so I need you to call him by his pronouns. You get to choose your own pronouns. We have to respect other people's choices. Even though they are very masculine boys, they play with Legos, they love their superheroes, they love their dinosaurs, but we can still have feminine traits and behaviors and emotional intelligence.

Marissa: And I think that's where we differentiate between the difference between femininity and feminine or sacred feminine or divine feminine. Because feminine is what we've been told. We're supposed to dress a certain way, look a certain way. The feminine is that emotional intelligence that you just brought in. Knowing how you're feeling, being in tune with your body, sourcing your wisdom and your energy from the neck down. Being able to articulate how you're feeling, being able to act accordingly to how you're feeling. Those are all feminine traits that more men need, right?

Meg: If we're going there, right? My older son is very rigid. We have him in therapy for his anxiety. Even his play therapist notes how well he can express, "I felt really anxious but also frustrated and really confused." That's incredible how different it is that the expectations have shifted so much in one or two generations.

Marissa: So we know that you have a really activated power center. But I'm curious if you ever feel wisdom come from the heart space or wisdom come from any of these other centers in your body or does it feel like you're predominately in leadership?

Meg: I think it's a lot of head work, but my gut is also very involved in my decision making. We'll have a lead come into the business and I'll look at the lead and think, I don't want to work with this person. I can't always articulate to the team member why, but the first thing that happens is my gut reacts. My shoulders go back, I tense up. I can feel that body compass and I am trying to train my team to feel the same. When we're teaching people the marketing strategies around search, it's a lot of hard work. We're really mapping out a customer journey using empathy mapping and then matching the empathy mapping to the keyword research. So I'm writing a book about that, the empathy of SEO. Even with this idea of what's coming down the pipeline and trying to follow the intuition, I also know that I need to hold the space for the ideas to come, but I also need to have the deadlines because otherwise it will just extend indefinitely.

Marissa: I love that. A word you used a while ago was devotion, and devotion and determination are two sides of the same coin, right? Determination being masculine and devotion being feminine. We need both of those because we need to hold in our heart, in our soul and spirit, we need to hold that devotion. Paired with determination, that's how something that is soul-led happens. That's how something that is purposeful happens.

Meg: That's beautiful. When I wrote our mission statement, I wrote, we are singularly devoted. I didn't say dedicated, I said devoted

Marissa: You're still devoted to your soul, though. You're devoted to your mechanism of improving the world. So you work on yourself, improve yourself, pour into yourself so you can pour into the world. Your mechanism of doing that may be analytical. Your mechanism of doing that may be masculine flavored, but the devotion to it is feminine. This is why there's polarity. This is why the ultimate intention is sacred union, and that's not just sex. It's talked about in sex, but it's about the sacred union between your masculine and feminine, having them be integrated. I think you're more integrated than you might think you are.

Meg: You're probably right. Living in a masculine world, as a woman in the patriarchy, running a business in a capitalist society, we're always having these hierarchical systems of oppression telling us how to behave. Anything more natural or rooted feels counter-cultural, even if it is more closely integrated with the ways we've traditionally run our lives. So, it's possible I've internalized those stories. I've had to prove to myself that I have the results to back up what I'm trying to tell people. Especially in the industry I'm in, it's results-driven. I've put a lot of structure and infrastructure into the business so I can have creative space while having focus and determination to get things done.

Marissa: Is there a synchronicity with Love at First Search? Because it's like the person falls in love with the company that you represent when they search them, but there's also this whole values piece.

Meg: The brand name came when I was writing an email one day. I was talking about the origin of the business and how much I loved spreadsheets even as a kid. I was playing in Excel and graphic design software. My dad was an engineer. It was very technical in my house. But my mom's a social worker. She has her MPA. She was a teacher, quite the polarity. I was just writing an email and I said, "I've always loved Google Analytics. It was pretty much love at first search." I pulled back from the love and connection-based language at first, because I didn't want to lean too far into the feminine. As I did more work on the company values, started to think about the productized services that we have, I leaned back into that feminine, empathy, romance, connection language. I had been resistant at first because I didn't want to seem unprofessional.

Marissa: As someone who runs two companies and is trying to embody my feminine as much as possible, what a way to stand out. What a way to differentiate yourself from the market. When I need SEO help, I know exactly who I'm going to because it's going to communicate to me on an intellectual level, but it's also going to help me drop in and be able to say, yes, this is the right place for me.

Meg: So, yes. I think some of the marketing tactics I've used have also made this shift. I spent two years with a YouTube channel, focused on technical tutorials, explaining how to do these things, why they matter. It was very structured, organized communication and trainings. Then, I started the podcast about a year and a half ago. These are conversations with people from my community about their life experiences, which may or may not directly lead to sales for my business, or even mention it. But that's the community that I've built.

Now, the people listening to the podcast are different from those watching the YouTube channel. The YouTube audience wanted to learn, but the podcast listeners are curious. The customers and clients who come to me after listening to the podcast are doing so based on values, not skills. The sales cycle is longer, but the satisfaction of myself and my team is high.

When we land a client, my team is thrilled. By the time clients get to us, they're not looking anywhere else. I don't believe we have competitors because we're not just talking about doing these five things. We're discussing marketing strategies that work for your life and your business. If search is one of them, here's how we can help, but from an empathetic perspective. This isn't the approach most people take.

Marissa: Yes, and I find that magical.

Meg: Thank you. I know that word means a lot to you.

Marissa: Some of our listeners are business owners and will resonate with the business side of these things. Others are not, and they'll resonate with the personal side of your story. If you could speak to both audiences, what would your biggest takeaway be, or do you have a piece of advice or wisdom for those navigating between masculine and feminine?

Meg: I would say it really is a dance. It's a tango. There are times when you might lean too far to one side of the spectrum and feel out of balance, but it's okay to find your balance. I'll never be 100% feminine, and I don't think any of us are 100% anything. Everything is on some sort of spectrum, and if you can find the sweet spot that works for you, that's key.

In marketing and business, we call this the blue ocean. Instead of being in the red where everyone's competing for the same thing, find your own space, your people, and build your village. You don't need many. Dunbar's number suggests you can only maintain stable social relationships with about 150 people.

These villages we're building don't have to be massive communities. You can still have depth in your relationships. I think that's why social media has messed with our heads—we feel like we always need a larger audience. But, I don't need 150,000 or 150 million. I need about 150 people. If they love what I'm doing and I can be true to those people, and they feel comfortable being true to me, we can find synchronicity. Research shows you can be successful with 150 people, with a hundred great clients. They send referrals, they talk about you—it doesn't always have to be bigger. You can be intimate, successful, and very happy.

Marissa: I love that. That intimacy over striving would be in our feminine wheelhouse. Meg, thank you so much for being here today. Could you share a few links for those interested in following up with you?

Meg: Sure. For business, you can visit Love@FirstSearch.com. For the podcast, go to SocialSlowdown.com. For the novel, which is still in progress, you can check MegCasebolt.com.

Marissa: Perfect, thank you so much.

Meg is high energy, fun, and brings a lot of wisdom to share with us. A few things stood out to me, especially her emphasis on values and heart-led missions, which are absolutely feminine traits. She also has a profound connection to the community that she builds, not only in her business, but in her family and her community as well. I think that is part of Meg's magic in the world.

My biggest takeaway is how Meg talked about devotion and determination. This is the key to bringing soul-led purpose into the world. It's the sacred union between the feminine devotion and the masculine determination, creating a third force that helps birth, co-create, and bring to life purpose-driven ventures in the world.

Another key point is that we are all individuals making up this collective. For the feminine to rise, each one of us has to do our part. So, settling into your unique polarity, your unique personality, and your unique soul's manifestation in this lifetime, and tapping into your magic for the betterment of society is all that the feminine asks for.

If you're someone who says, "I'm not a hundred percent feminine and never will be," remember Meg's point: we're never a hundred percent of anything. Moreover, your unique disposition is exactly what the feminine needs to rise.

I hope you've taken something away from this episode. All of Meg's information will be below in the show notes. If you want to follow up with her personal passion projects in romance writing, or if you need business help and want to show up in search engine rankings, head on over to the links provided below.

We'll be back next week with more episodes here at Rooted Feminine. See you next time in Temple Space.