I’m Shutting Down My Award-Winning Website She Takes on the World After a Decade

*Yes, it’s true. And I’m going to share the backstory and all the details in this post. Buckle up. It’s going to be a ride, and one that I believe will serve you in honoring your deepest truth and highest calling if you take the time to read all the way through.*

I’ve been avoiding this for a little while.

I feared what you would think if I move in a bit of a different direction. Am I making a mistake? Is this a bad business decision? Will I be abandoned by the community I’ve been connected to for years? These are some of the questions I’ve been asking myself the past year.

After deep contemplation, I arrived in a place where I know following my own truth and honoring the calling I feel is the only way forward for me. If that means losing followers, having people unsubscribe, or not having as big of a business, I’m at peace with it.

And in case you feel fear around honoring the callings on your heart, a funny thing happened when I started making adjustments to align with what I know to be true for me: My business has skyrocketed, without attachment and without any big online announcements or campaigns.

I am working with the dreamiest clients, I landed an incredible new book deal and opportunity to share my work with the masses, hosted an event for powerhouse women entrepreneurs on Necker Island that featured Sir Richard Branson, and so much more.

This morning I woke up with these words on my heart, and a readiness to step fully into my next chapter.

Before I get into the big changes I’m making to my business and what’s coming next, I want to give you the backstory on how I arrived here because I have a feeling you’ll be able to glean some lessons and gold for your own life and business from my process. Okay, here we go!

The Whisper

You know the whisper: when the Universe is asking you to create massive change in your life. I first remember hearing this powerful yet quiet voice back in 2015.

It told me it was time to move me + my businesses to the United States. The challenging part? That same whisper told me: Everything from the current chapter must be cleared away. It will be painful and it’s what’s required for the new path you’ll walk. You’ll leave your home, your relationship, and your work as you do it now. All is going to be new.

That terrified me. I could feel seismic shifts within me and around me. Suddenly, the comfort of the life I had created for myself felt suffocating. Have you ever gone through a time like this?

Slowly, I let go of the things that I knew in my heart I had to let go of, and slowly I could feel myself breathing deeply again.

The Unraveling

There was one thing I could not fathom letting go of though: my website She Takes on the World. It had been over a decade! There were thousands of backlinks, tens of thousands of followers, and accolades like the Stevie Award for “Best Website for Women” and Forbes’ “Top Sites for Entrepreneurs.”

I could feel deep down that it was a big part of my journey *and* that I was meant for so much more. More sharing of my magic and gifts, more services and programs I was meant to teach, more depth, more books that went beyond entrepreneurship and business alone.

What many people don’t know about me, except those who have been on my retreats, is that I have trained in a lot of modalities and techniques over the last fifteen years like kundalini meditation, neurostrategic coaching, tantra, Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping), NLP, gestalt therapy, breathwork…

In 2018 I started clearly seeing how all of these weave together into a methodology that can transform every area of your life and business. As I brought all of my training and all of me into my work with entrepreneurs, I saw powerful shifts. And as I witnessed women step into their power and unleash their unique expression, I stepped into my own power and expression.

By the end of 2018, I could clearly see the future of my work. Since I was a little girl I’ve had a powerful connection to my future self. My future self was guiding me into the next stage of my work, and that next stage would be at nataliemacneil.com instead of shetakesontheworld.com. I feel an expansiveness of using my name and expressing the wisdom and magic and medicine within me that wants to be shared.

Want to try the process I use to stay connected to my highest path into the future? I recorded my Futuring Ritual for you and you can download it here.

I figured it would take awhile to make that transition (it’s a big move after a decade of building that digital home) but the decision felt like a bold declaration that I was ready to bring all of me to my business. So I ended 2018 feeling amazing about what was coming, and feeling fired up to create my future.

Then, 2019 rolled in like a dark storm.

The Heartache

My best friend, world-renowned tantra teacher Layla Martin, and I describe the first quarter of 2019 as being very gritty. There was a lot of clearing out to do and challenges to work through. I’m so grateful the two of us have each other and the depth of friendship we’ve built. This year I experienced some of the deepest pain I’ve ever experienced.

The new year started with my cousin passing away. We were only a few weeks apart in age, and while we had grown apart as we grew up there was something about his passing so young that dropped me into a web of contemplation.

At the end of February I was sexually assaulted. The experience shook me to my core. My “life as usual” came to a complete halt. I canceled dinners and speaking engagements and pretty much anything that required me to leave my house. I will share more about the healing journey that took me on another day since there’s a lot there. (BTW, if you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted and need support, visit https://www.rainn.org and know you’re not alone).

Then I went through the heartache of a breakup. All the while, I had not one but two manuscripts coming due to my publisher for my upcoming books.

The grit and pain paved a way to reaching depths of love and joy I’ve never reached before as the year progressed. Some of my greatest challenges have come right before the most beautiful phases of expansion.

The Reset

As the storm passed and spring began to bloom, I felt like I needed a reset. Instead of trying to push through like I would have done in the past, I decided to take a few months off. I only did minimal amounts of work and spent lots of time in exploration and feeling into what’s next for me. I deleted social media apps and disconnected from the world so I could really reconnect to myself.

Some magical and monumental adventures followed…

• I fell in love and entered a sacred partnership with one of the most amazing humans I’ve ever met. His name is Yossef, and you will meet him soon.
• I hosted an event for multiple 6-figure and 7-figure impact-driven women entrepreneurs on Necker Island. (If you’re a woman entrepreneur interested in attending our next Summit, email support@nataliemacneil.wpenginepowered.com to request an application to this exclusive group.)
• I traveled through Europe and also Israel, unfurling day by day, and completed my two manuscripts on the journey.
• I did a tantra training in Greece where I spent 16 hours a day creating space in my body and my being, returning to my sensual nature, dancing and meditating.

Below are the questions I sat with in meditation every day. They may be ones you want to contemplate too.

• What is my highest calling and my best use in the world right now?
• With my resources, network, gifts… where can I most be service?
• What does my future self want me to know?

As I contemplated those questions, more and more was revealed to me. It became clear that it was time to dive into the new brand. Fears, “imperfect” timing before a book launch, and all; it was time to share the fullest expression of who I am and the capacity I have. (Want to see photos from all these adventures? Check out my latest Instagram post.)

The Emergence

Mine and Yossef’s favorite art piece (photo below) at this year’s Burning Man, perfectly represented the Emergence I’ve been feeling. The piece by Chris Carnabuci is called Mariposita, meaning “little butterfly.” The artist describes it so beautifully: “It represents rebirth – of coming out of a shell, escaping confinement, and breaking through to a more meaningful and enlightening existence. The act of emerging, however, is usually not so simple. A rebirth requires power, curiosity, determination, and support, all characteristics that lead to revival and restoration. Mariposita is meant to inspire reawakenings and regrowth, beginnings and ends.”

It so brilliantly sums up this year for me and reemerging in the world after a multi-year transformation that rebuilt my entire life.

So… over the last three months we’ve been building a new digital home at nataliemacneil.com that JUST launched. We are still testing it but you can peek 😉

It’s built for the explorers, seekers, and trailblazers; those of us who choose entrepreneurship because we value sovereignty and freedom, and we have a desire to contribute to the world in a way the corporate path rarely allows us to. We are the coaches, teaches, speakers, authors, and healers.

I’ll be continuing my 1-on-1 work with clients, which I still love doing so much and where I get to be in my zone of genius supporting entrepreneurs to take quantum leaps forward. I am also launching a new group coaching experience later in the year that weaves together all the gifts I’ve unlocked within me and everything I’ve learned over the last 15 years.

And of course, there’s my new book. It’s called The Rituals and it’s full of practices to cultivate wellbeing, deepen relationships, awaken your aliveness, and bring you home to your true purpose and what you’re on this earth to do. This book is going to be EVERYWHERE. The retail partnerships we have for it makes my heart explode.

If you’re still reading this, thank you. I am so grateful for you and who you are in the world, and I am so grateful that we’re in each other’s orbits.

In Closing, Beloveds

I know change can be scary, and I know I’ve shared a lot of changes that are coming up with you. You may have been reading this and feeling like, “hmmm this new direction isn’t resonating” and if that’s the case, you can hop off the train at this station. Thank you for being part of the adventure. I love you. I wish you sumptuous success and overflowing abundance and radiant health and so so so much love.

I am crystal clear who I’m here to serve.

(This was a profound lesson for me: be loyal to you first, and to your soul and the callings on your heart. All my greatest successes and most joyful experiences can be traced back to trust and following what I’ve been called to even when it didn’t always make logical sense and even when it was maybe going to disappoint some people).

If you’re reading this and feeling excited about coming along into this next chapter, I can’t wait for our new adventures together and for you to get to experience the magic and medicine I’ve been afraid to share until now. If you’ve been afraid to share yourself fully too with the people around you or through your business, I see you. I understand how it can feel more like a burden than a blessing sometimes to not feel like you can conform or fit into the world. I believe we don’t fit in because we’re here to usher in a new paradigm and a new world.

If you’re coming along on the next stage of the journey, send me an email at support@nataliemacneil.wpenginepowered.com to introduce yourself or shoot me a DM on Instagram @nataliemacneil. We come to know ourselves through knowing each other. I want to know you, dear one. Yes, you. You mean more to me than you’ll ever know, and I believe in you and the contribution that only you can make in the world.

All my love, Natalie