In this episode, I sit down with my wonderful dance teachers, Aaron and Gabriela from Salsa Oconee, to explore how following your joy can transform not just your Tuesday nights, but your entire relationship with yourself and your community.

What We Talk About

The Dance Journey

• How Gabriela rediscovered her love of dance through Zumba and pushed through the terror of not being able to do a single turn
• Aaron's origin story: from being too uncoordinated to dance at junior prom to proving his Panamanian cousins wrong
• The moment Aaron finally said yes to bringing salsa to Oconee County (spoiler: Gabriela didn't give him time to change his mind)

What Dance Teaches Us Beyond the Steps

• Why dance is the ultimate practice in healthy masculinity and feminine trust
• How the panic of "I should already know this" shows up on the dance floor AND in life
• The difference between toxic and healthy assertion (and how leading in dance taught Aaron the difference)
• Why creating safe, boundaried spaces for expression matters more than ever

Building Community Through Joy

• How Salsa Oconee became an answer to prayer and softened a skeptical heart
• The moment it went from "this will last three weeks" to "wait, I have eight dance children now"
• Why devoting yourself to what brings you joy—even without a plan—creates purpose you never saw coming
• Finding your people in the most unexpected places (yes, even in Oconee County)

Real Talk

• What it's actually like to practice a "romantic" routine (hint: lots of "I hate you" and "your foot is wrong")
• Why the unsexy technical moments create the magic everyone sees
• How dance becomes a fountain of youth and why older dancers are goals
• The importance of making mistakes and getting comfortable with not knowing

Quotable Moments

"For these three minutes, you gotta trust me."

"We manifest many of the things that we are when we dance."

"When you follow joy and that path laid out for you from God, from the divine, whatever you want to call it, good things do happen."

"It is so good for the soul to have an art."

Want to join us? Salsa Oconee meets every Thursday at 7 PM at the Oconee Heritage Center (113 W. Main Street, Walhalla).

No partner needed. No experience required. Just show up and let yourself follow the joy.

Guest: Joanne Starkman, Founder of Innersense Organic Beauty

Episode Theme: Living on passion without a roadmap

Episode Highlights

Join Chloé as she kicks off Season 12 with an inspiring conversation with Joanne Starkman, the visionary behind Innersense Organic Beauty. This deeply personal episode explores the intersection of wellness, self-love, and the unexpected paths that lead us to our purpose.

Key Topics:

• How a daughter's rare genetic diagnosis sparked a clean beauty revolution
• The powerful connection between hair health and nervous system awareness
• Why the mirror is one of the most powerful places for self-reflection
• Building a business partnership with your spouse while staying mission-driven
• The importance of treating your hair as a living extension of yourself

Memorable Moments:

• Joanne shares how her daughter Morgan, diagnosed with Williams syndrome at 22 months, became the inspiration for creating truly clean hair products
• The shocking discovery about ingredient quality in beauty products (hint: not all shea butter is created equal)
• Why Joanne sees hair as "antennae" with its own blood supply and nervous system connection
• Morgan's current role as "Director of Joy" at Innersense headquarters

Wellness Practices Discussed:

• Meditation and presence
• Infrared sauna
• Dry brushing and lymphatic movement
• Sound baths
• Being in nature

Product Recommendations for Curly Hair:

• Clarity Hair Bath & Conditioner
• Sweet Spirit Leave-In Conditioner
• Quiet Calm Styling Cream (perfect for air-drying)
• New Repair Mask (natural bond builder)

Joanne's Message: "You are perfect, whole, and complete exactly the way you are right now. You don't need to change yourself in any way. Just show up and love yourself."

Connect with Innersense: Follow the brand for clean, intentional hair care with inspirational "inter-flections" on every bottle

Moment of Flow: A powerful poem about the curly hair journey - from childhood trauma to radical self-acceptance

This episode airs on the Winter Solstice, making Joanne's message of self-love and releasing expectations perfectly timed for the season.

What happens when you discover that the "maybe" you've been holding onto for years is actually the thing keeping you small in every area of your life?

In this deeply vulnerable solo episode, host Chloé Cofresí shares one of the most significant perspective shifts of her life: the decision to definitively say no to motherhood—not from fear, but from alignment with her optimal design.

Through muscle testing work with her practitioner Ana, Chloé discovered she was one of the 80% not optimally designed for parenthood. But more importantly, she realized that waiting to "no longer be alone" and holding space for the possibility of motherhood was keeping her from fully stepping into her writing, her business, her art, and even her readiness for the sacred partnership she desires.

This episode chronicles Chloé's complex journey—from teenage observations of exhausted parents, through a marriage where she adopted someone else's reasons, to tying her tubes out of fear after divorce, to reversing that surgery, to finally arriving at a choice made from knowing rather than fear.

Key Moments
The Revelation - How muscle testing revealed that waiting for partnership before taking action was keeping Chloé small in her writing, performing, and business

The Maybe That Was Killing Her - Realizing that the uncertainty around motherhood was affecting every other area of life and ambition

The 20% Concept - Understanding that only 20% of people are optimally designed for parenthood, and what that means for individuals and communities

Joey's Wisdom - Her cousin's profound insight after watching her play: "You already answered this seven years ago. You're a storyteller. Be the mama to everybody by telling the stories."

The Unlocking - How making a definitive choice opened up her business (after 2 years of struggling), her writing, and her entire life path

From Fear to Alignment - The difference between decisions made from trauma and PTSD versus decisions made from optimal design

About the Host
Chloé Cofresí is a storyteller, playwright, Brazilian lymphatic drainage practitioner, and the creator of BEAM&Flow—a framework for aligning Body, Energy, Awareness, and Movement. She's the writer and star of "La hija del pirata/The Pirate's Daughter," a play about five generations of women descended from Roberto Cofresí, the famous Puerto Rican pirate. After years in New York, she now lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Seneca, South Carolina, where she's building her online coaching practice teaching women hormone optimization, lymphatic drainage, and nervous system work.

Content Note: This episode discusses the deeply personal decision not to have children, tubal ligation and reversal, divorce, childhood trauma, and complex feelings around motherhood. Chloé shares with tremendous vulnerability and invites listeners into their own exploration of optimal design.

#PerspectiveShift #OptimalDesign #ChildfreeByChoice #Motherhood #MuscleTestinng #AuthenticLiving #LegacyBeyondChildren #Storyteller #VulnerableLeadership #WomensEmpowerment #LifeByDesign #AlignmentOverExpectation #CreativeLife #PuertoRican #PlaywrightLife