Do you ever have a moment where everything feels like it's coming together? Like when you thought you'd never find the perfect outfit for an event, but then the day before the event you find it, and it's on sale, and you become best friends with the salesperson? That kind of small moment–that's magic. My guest on the podcast this week, Chelsea Chung, believes that we can cultivate these kinds of moments in our daily lives. She calls this “living the magic life.” So what is living the magic life all about? Read on for a condensed version of my interview with Chelsea Chung.
Natalie: Where are you in the world and in life and what are you up to?
Chelsea: Great question. I'm still figuring it out every day.
Well, before I talk about where I am now, it might be helpful to give a little bit of context of where I was, because my life looks dramatically different than it did a little over a year ago.
So I was working in corporate America. My career was always in different areas of marketing and basically ever since I started my career in corporate America, I just knew that it wasn't in total alignment for me.
And I always had this little nudge, you know, this little calling to step outside and do something else. And I never really knew what that looked like. A year ago, a little over a year ago, I finally got the courage to take that leap. And I thought I had a clear answer of what I was going to do.
Like I had it all figured out my platform ready to step onto. Then I took the leap. I quit my corporate job and jumped into the unknown and it completely swallowed me up in the most beautiful way and really said like, “Hey, we're not doing anything that you thought you were going to do. And we're just going to toss you into the cosmic flow and watch you figure it out.”
So that's kind of what I've been doing for the last year. My one year exit anniversary was in August.
It's crazy how that time has just flown by, but where I am is I'm still really just surrendered to that flow of figuring it out day by day. And I call it living the magic life, which is perfect, right?
To give a little bit more structure around it, I work as a truth embodiment guide and a marketing coach. So what that really means is I help people. I help entrepreneurs in their business really make sure that their messaging and their work is aligned to their truest essence and to their core so that they can show up fully in their work. I'm also a shamanic priestess, meaning that I work with different energies, priestess, energies, archetypal energies, and also have begun doing some plant medicine work, which I'm really passionate about of incorporating that.
I didn't know this was going to be part of my path, but I'm also a cryptocurrency investor now. And that has really shifted my world at a really big way. It's really caused me to question everything about my life. Really questioned my beliefs, question, my relationship to money, look at my internalized capitalism. It's really shifted a lot of things for me. So I'm just kind of doing all those things and really just doing whatever lights up my soul on a day-to-day basis.
Natalie: I feel like we could go so many directions from that lovely, lovely intro. And I would love to dive into money mindset stuff sometime with you, but let's talk about magic.
And I am also, I spoke about this recently, I think on I G T V or something, just about this idea of shifting my approach and working with you and having these conversations with people, but that intuitive approach to what you're doing, deconstructing a lot of the sheds and the how-tos and, and recognizing that we all have what I call truth magic, your own aligned creative expression, wellspring.
That was my thought about magic, but what's your definition?

Chelsea: I mean, I, I totally agree with what you're saying of just this wellspring of our, it really is our true nature. So I love that you call it truth magic, right? Because it is.
Magic really is our truth. It is our birthright. It is, I believe our most natural way of embodying this human experience of existing in this earth plane. In harmonic flow with the universe around us. So magic is really working with everything that we have available to us in all the dimensions and in all planes, even beyond the logical mind, but it's not exclusive of the logical mind, it includes so much more.
It is our ability to navigate this world of infinite possibilities and really use that to create that which we want to see in the world.
Natalie: Oh, I love that to create that which we want to see in the world. I really love that. And you were talking about living the magic life, as you say, what does that mean to you? And how does that kind of, how can we look at that through a business lens since, you know, we're around a business podcast.
Chelsea: Well, what I have found so freeing, especially since leaving the corporate world and stepping onto this entrepreneurial path is like, there really is no separation between me and my business and the things that I'm creating and the things that I'm doing.
It's just all part of this natural flow and these different aspects, like weave in and out of me. I'm not saying that I have to be showing up in a business mindset all the time, but it just kind of flows in when it's meant to, and then something else flows in and I just kind of like ride this wave and that's really what living the magic life is.
Mostly, it's getting out of my own way. Mostly it is surrendering to whatever is most alive in every single moment. And following that and following the desires of my heart and really also just exuding my own personal vibration, which really is our truth magic. I think our truth magic and our essence is really this energy that only we have the ability to cultivate in our own unique way.
So living in that expression, living in that vibration and frequency really just magnetizes like so much to us, or it opens up so many doors that are just meant for us. And so walking though, or living the magic life is just walking this path of alignment, where things just really fall into place and opportunities present themselves and things really just work out.
Things just happen to me where, you know, something doesn't seem like it's going to go the way I wanted to.
I was trying to get to this festival in Costa Rica and it was sold out festival and they were releasing a limited amount of tickets on a specific day. You know, they had like a mix up with a time that they were releasing the tickets.
And I was like super bummed about it because I missed the window. Like the tickets went on sale an hour before they said they were going to, and so I completely missed out. And I sent them a little note on like Instagram or something and they wrote me back and they're just like, “we're so sorry, Chelsea, that that happened. We'll put a link together for you. Like how many tickets do you want?”
You know, it was just like this, like curated interaction where they created a website, like a little landing page for me. And it was like, “hello, Chelsea, your tickets are ready.” And then it was just like, I just look at my partner and I'm like, “the magic life.”
You know, this is magic life where the things that are meant for you just appear, they just fall into place. And that doesn't mean that there's not a struggle or challenge. That also means that there are things that we encounter on our path that are designed to help us grow and overcome.
You know, sometimes the greatest gifts and the most magical stuff comes in a form that we didn't expect, you know, and it totally on the surface could be a bad thing. Maybe it's… I don't know. Let me think of a really random example.
Like you get a flat tire, but like that puts you in contact with another person that like changes your life somehow, you know, that kind of thing. Can you trust that whatever is unfolding has some nugget of gold for you? The magic life, the magic life. I love the magic life.
And the way that that translates to business is, you know, like what you just said is we don't always know exactly what it's going to look like. One way to really stifle magic life is to control, right? Is to go out of your way to try to control the outcome, control what it is, control every little detail, which I think most of us are really conditioned to do.
We really grow up in a society that teaches us how to maintain greater control and the way that magic most greatly and naturally unfolds in business is when we release control and follow our follow our desire.
Natalie: I really want to just take a tiny step back and, and speak to the person who's listening, that's like “nothing good happens in my life. Like my business is not working for me. Like how do I find this magic stuff you speak of?” Particularly folks that are, first of all, possibly completely unfamiliar with just the idea of living in alignment or experiencing a magic life. What do you do when this all hits you for the first time? And you're like, “I want that, but I don't know what to do next.”
Chelsea: Yeah, great question.
I think part of it is just really getting honest with yourself is learning how to listen to yourself and truly letting yourself explore your deepest desires in a completely non-judgemental free way.
Natalie: I think one of the spaces I went through specific to my photo business is in the early days I was…there's value in looking at what other folks are doing and trying to adapt that to your own style. Like we do that in all art forms, music, writing, whatever. But I think getting caught in that web of the likes and the popularity and “oh, if I bring a couple up to the mountain top, that'll make me popular or that'll get a lot of likes”
When folks that know me really well know that would end my soul to have to hike up a mountain. I have no interest in doing that, but for a period of time, that seemed like one of the only things that was like, “popular.” Coming to that space where I was like, “well, that's just not what I do.”
I think when we're just trying to figure out like what our magic is, it can be overshadowed by like all of this other stuff, like with social media and, and creative expression that isn't aligned.
Chelsea: And I think that also maybe is related to that need to control, right. Or that it's like this idea of boxes, right. That like this sort of box hiking up to the mountain top, you know, getting that great shot like that's the box that gets attention and likes and engagement.
So I have to like put myself in that box where I'm going to try to control everything so that I follow this path and then get the outcome I want. Whereas what I have seen really be most successful in the long-term anyway is really just dropping into that space of authentic expression of unleashing that truth magic.
It's really living in that vibration and frequency where we are lit up, where we are in our most authentic and aligned state. And that becomes contagious. It really reminds me of that Marianne Williamson quote, you know, “it is our, it is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” It's a beautiful quote.
But in that quote, she says “as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give permission to others, for them to shine their light as well.” And I think that is what creates that spark of resonance is like someone so deeply living in their truth, magic that you just, you can't ignore it.
You know, it's just so contagious. It's just so vibrant. It's great. It feels great.
Natalie: Just something that dropped into my head was this idea of it's related to surrendering and relinquishing control. But this idea of stepping away from outcomes and really tapping into creative force, trusting that if I feel like carving a caterpillar out of a wooden stump today, that somehow that is what I should be doing.
It doesn't have to be a business. It doesn't have to have an answer. I don't need to be thinking about if people will like it or not, or even if I'm going to share it with anybody.
But it's like, I really feel like putting this energy into this thing. Would you say that that's a helpful way of thinking about stepping into truth magic versus, you know, if we can detach ourselves from outcomes?

Chelsea: Definitely. Yes and no. Yes, in the sense where, give yourself some space and freedom and flexibility, give yourself space to, to be joyful, to be playful, to experiment, like give yourself space to be for the sake of being and to really just exist, you know, just exist in your greatest joy.
Let that be the outcome that you're going for is just living a life of alignment and joy. And at the same time, you know, especially in business, when you're really trying to build something of sustainable value, there is room to also integrate these business concepts.
There is also room and it can be helpful to have benchmarks, to have goals that you want to strive for it to have little milestones that you can reach along the way to help you understand what does success look like? And I think maybe what's more important is, is not letting them go completely, but not being overly attached to hitting those benchmarks.
Allow yourself to set these things for yourself and then look at your progress in a non-judgemental way and be honest with yourself around like, “oh, I didn't hit this goal, but I had a really, really good time. So maybe this isn't the right goal, maybe I just didn't think about it in the right way” Or “for me that this goal over here is actually way more like on a path of way more joy and ease for me so I'm going to like shift gears.” So I think it's, I think it's the non-attachment.
Natalie: That's good because I do think there is for goals and things measurable outcomes on some level.
At what point, when you're operating from intuition, from alignment, from a truth magic space, at what point when stuff starts to feel kind of poopy do you step off that path? And at what point do you have a gauge for like, “okay, this might be teaching me something or I need to let this go and move on from this.”
Chelsea: Totally. Yeah. And thanks for bringing that up because especially when we get into concepts like self-development and, and doing the work and growth, there, there is this tendency to, it's kind of called like toxic positivity. There's this tendency to just like bypass all the poopy stuff and say like, “no this really, really shitty thing was meant for you and you should be joyful for it”
And it's like, actually, we are humans, with a full spectrum of emotion and sometimes life and sometimes business and sometimes things are just shitty. Sometimes it's just poop and you know what, it's also okay to take time to cry. It's great to take time to just lay in your bed under the covers and put on the sad movie or listen to the sad music with a box of Kleenex next to you, you know, and do all the things.

Like it's all valid and it's all okay. And I think, again, it's that checking in with yourself, right? You are the best person to hold yourself accountable, you really are. And so to ask yourself, “Okay. Is it still serving me to lay in bed and cry for the fourth day in a row?”
Maybe it is, and maybe it's not. And then maybe you say, “I'm not sure. It doesn't feel like this is a space for me to be in right now. And maybe I need to phone a friend. Maybe I need to reach out.”
Like working with a coach, finding a mentor, working with someone that you can bounce ideas off of. Sometimes we do hit roadblocks. Sometimes things are not going to go our way. And I think there's also a level of resilience that needs to come and being an entrepreneur because the reality is we are all going to face those moments in times we are all gonna feel burnt out.
At certain times, we are all going to feel like, “what am I doing this for?” We are all gonna feel like, “oh, did I pick the wrong thing?” These are normal experiences to have. And so again, part of it is like checking in and being honest with ourselves, like, “okay, hey, what am I feeling here? Where is this feeling coming from? Is this a temporary thing that I can move through? Or is this like truly not in resonance where I really need a big overhaul and then how can I find support? What tools do I have at my disposal to work through this.”
Natalie: Yeah, that's perfect. I think the idea of just checking in and being like, “is this still serving me?” And if there's a little energetic catch there where you're like, “well, I'm not quite ready to let it go, but I still don't know the next step.”
That's okay. Just as long as you continue to check-in.
I really, really encourage just finding a friend and having coffee or hiring a coach, or just getting your ideas out in front of someone else. Because a lot of times it's just the tiniest shift. It feels great to have co-creative kind of energy going into something to at least if you're stuck.
Chelsea: And to recognize that we are evolutionary beings, change is pretty constant and it's also a beautiful signal of growth right, of evolution. That's honestly why I shifted from calling myself a brand coach or a marketing coach into truth embodiment guide, because what I was doing with my clients over and over was “okay, what is your truth?
Where are you in life right now? What is most alive for you? What is lighting you up and getting you out of bed? How are we going to start infusing more of that energy into your business?”
Natalie: I want to ask you before we sign off, what is a piece of advice or a quote or some kind of thing that really helps you. It could be a mantra. It could be anything that you would like to share with folks that might brighten their day.
Chelsea: Yeah, I think in terms of a practice, journaling has just been super powerful for me. We talked about getting honest with ourselves, really exploring our beliefs and our desires and our needs, and really just letting that journal be the space where you are radically honest, and you can ask yourself questions, or you can even just stream consciousness. I believe there's a book called the artist's way that talks about this idea of the morning pages where every morning you just allow yourself to just free write. Like whatever is coming up for you and just see what kind of like ends up pouring out of the pages.
So whether it's the morning pages or another practice, I really, I'm a huge proponent of that.
Let me just read that full Marianne Williamson quote.
” Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
And that is living the magic life.
Natalie: I think that is an absolutely perfect and beautiful way to end this conversation. And I love that quote. So I think everyone should just keep reading that one. Thank you, Chelsea.
Chelsea Chung is a Shamanic Priestess and Aquarian rebel who is on a mission to embody a new template of sovereign human. After an 11 year career in Corporate America, Chelsea took the leap to walk the path of spiritual entrepreneur and cryptocurrency investor. She has surrendered to what she calls “living the magic life,” and prioritizes living in alignment with her truth each and every day. Follow her journey on Instagram @thechelseachung.