Episode 17

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Published on:

10th Sep 2025

Midlife Reinvention: Killing the Hot Mess Identity | Michelle Burke | Transformation, Self-Sabotage & Freedom

I built an entire brand around being a hot mess—and then I had to kill her.

This episode of Hot Mess Magic isn’t about inspiration. It’s about exposure. Michelle Burke gets brutally honest about identity death, self-sabotage, and fear of success—and why sometimes you have to bury the version of yourself you created just to survive.

From car repossession to sexual assault to nights of not knowing where she’d sleep, Michelle reveals how her survival identity became a cage. She burned down her first podcast (Wine, Whiskey & Life) after 10 episodes, sabotaged Hot Mess Magic twice, and finally realized the real reason: success felt scarier than failure.

Inside this raw episode, you’ll hear:

  • The psychology of why we sabotage our own success
  • What it means to go through an identity death
  • How Human Design as a 3/5 Manifesting Generator plays into trial-and-error growth
  • The terrifying moment Hot Mess Magic Media revealed itself as something bigger
  • Why the new RAW anthology series (Real Audacious Women) is exposing survival stories with no filter

This is Michelle at her most unpolished—processing growth in real time, announcing a massive pivot, and refusing to filter the truth.

👉 Want to share your own survival story? Applications for the RAW: Survival, Trauma, Resiliency anthology are open. Submit here

Stop filtering. Start exposing.


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About the Podcast

Hot Mess Magic
Raw, honest conversations for anyone done pretending. Drop the facade. Own your mess. Discover the magic in being human.
Hot Mess Magic is the podcast for anyone ready to stop pretending they have it all together.

Because here's the truth nobody's saying: We're all a mess. Every single one of us. The difference is most people are hiding it, performing it away, spiritually bypassing it, or pretending their way through life.

Hosted by bestselling author and keynote speaker Michelle Burke, this show gives you permission to drop the facade. To own where you actually are instead of where you think you "should" be. To stop hiding your humanity and start discovering the magic that's been there all along in the mess.

You'll hear raw, unfiltered conversations with people who've stopped performing: the business owner who walked away from success that looked perfect but felt hollow. The woman who finally admitted her marriage was over. The high achiever who burned out trying to prove their worth. The person who looked "fine" on the outside while falling apart on the inside.

This isn't therapy. It's not coaching. It's truth.

Truth about what it actually takes to transform. Truth about how exhausting the performance is. Truth about the fact that you're not broken, you're just finally ready to stop pretending.

The mess isn't something to fix. It's where you learn, grow, and expand.
This show is for the ones who are done with:

Spiritual bypassing and toxic positivity
Performing perfection while dying inside
Pretending they're fine when they're not
Waiting for permission to be human

If you've ever felt like you're the only one struggling while everyone else has it together, this show will remind you: We're all falling apart. We're all figuring it out. The only difference is who's willing to get real about it.

New episodes every Wednesday. Subscribe and discover that your mess was always your magic.
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Michelle Burke