The Self Sourced Podcast: Episode 4

Transcript: The Self Sourced Podcast, Episode 4 – ‘When Identity Is the Only Real Strategy’ with Claire Messett

FRANKIE: Welcome to The Self-Sourced Podcast. I'm your host, Frankie Saycon, and this is our portal to have untethered conversations focused on creating soul-rich empires with thriving love lives, family freedom, and a life that feels richer than it looks.

Claire, I'm so excited to be connecting with you on The Self-Sourced Podcast, and we've just had an amazing day together. We've been talking about how sometimes in life you connect with people, and then you go in different paths. And the universe has a funny way of bringing us back together at the point that it's meant to, and it definitely feels like that with you.

We connected a few years ago on another mastermind that we were both participating in, and we've reconnected a few months ago. Every conversation that I have with you, I feel like I learn so much about myself and about the world actually, and the life that you've lived. The more that I get to know you, the gifts that you have, I'm just like, wow.

It feels like the way that I felt when I read Dr. Joe Dispenza's book Becoming Supernatural. It really blew my mind because it showed me the science of the work that I do, and the conversations that we have had have really blown me away. I know that we're going to get into all of that in this conversation, which I'm so excited about.

But I would love to just open up and invite you to introduce yourself.

CLAIRE: Well, thank you for the lovely introduction. I've had a very adventurous life — from spending years teaching English in Japan and hitchhiking all over the place. I even had a Kawasaki motorbike that I used to go off on.

My background is actually zoology. I went off to the Kalahari Desert to study meerkats for a year for Cambridge University. And then just lots of different things — I got into expedition leading and led expeditions all over the world.

I've always had a fascination with the human brain. Part of my zoology Bachelor of Science Honors degree included two years of psychology as well. And within the zoology education, we touched on neuroscience, epigenetics, and human evolution. All of these things have shaped and influenced who I've become today.

A couple of years ago, I knew I couldn't keep leading expeditions. I was at that stage in life where I thought, if I don't settle down now, it's not going to happen. So I started really manifesting — meeting the right person that I could settle with, and if I was lucky enough to have a family, then that would happen. I feel very blessed that it did. I have a little boy that's just about to turn four.

Before all this happened, I knew I had to pivot. I was either leading expeditions or freelancing as a camera operator. I discovered a modality that really intrigued me — it's all brain-based neuroscience. As soon as I read about it, I didn't just want to experience it. I actually signed up for the year-long training before I'd even experienced it for myself. It was like, you know how sometimes you just know, and it's this full body "yes, this is it, this is the next step."

I did that, and then I wanted to continue and explore further. Instead of only looking into the past, I wanted to help people move forward with their lives in a really exciting, inspirational way — not only looking back and doing the kind of healing and releasing, which can be like this eternal never-ending onion. Sometimes you just gotta get off the Ferris wheel of healing. Though it is still really important as well.

FRANKIE: Such a powerful story, and what I love about you is how uniquely you embody and sync the science background — you're so scientific, and you also embody such a depth of spirituality. We're talking about manifesting, I know you're into all things woo. You really do embody both. As the identity alchemist, as the neuropsychotherapist, this is what you bring into your work. When you told me what you called yourself, that blew my mind. So what does that even mean to anyone listening? The identity alchemist, the neuropsychotherapist — how do you sync it? 

CLAIRE: I feel that because I've had so many different careers and experiences in different parts of the world — so many different identities, if you like — but of course identity isn't just about the job you have or the people you know. You can't help but identify with the careers you've had as well.

The alchemy part — one of my favorite books was The Alchemist, which I read about 20 years ago. I always loved that word and that idea, the energy shifts. I've lived and worked in Antarctica as well, and I did so many different things. I found it very easy to shift into completely different parts of the world — going from living in Tokyo for a few years to living in the Kalahari Desert for a year, where the nearest place to get food was a seven-hour round trip.

I loved this idea, and I was living it — that we can set our mind to something that feels really exciting and inspirational, and then you can just make it happen. Things are obviously different when you've got children.

So the identity alchemist — identity alchemy is really reflecting all the different ways that we can live our life, and how nothing is fixed. It's only fixed if we believe it's fixed. And I've just caught myself in that right now, thinking "it's different now that I've got a little boy." But it's not different. It's all available now.

The neuropsychotherapy part — there are so many different modalities, and it's absolutely about finding something that is aligned with you as a person, because there's no one size fits all. What really drew me to neuropsychotherapy was that it wasn't about reliving experiences or having to heal everything or find the initial sensitizing event. This was a very different way of working with people to clear the strong, entrenched behavioral patterns that were keeping someone looping and stuck.

A lot of the time it comes back to relationships that we've had in the past — when we were growing up as a child. Up until age seven we are a sponge, and the part of the brain that deals with consequences hasn't been formed yet, so we are learning from everyone around us. But a lot of our behaviors are also shaped from relationships that we've had as adults.

The people that were coming to me — because we've all had these relationships in the past that have been disempowering or negative — even decades later, when you're not even thinking about that relationship, because of the way the brain works, these neural pathways have been formed in the ancient part of our brain, the cerebellum.

The cerebellum has lots of different functions, however, when I'm talking about it, I'm talking purely about the way I help people clear things. You've got around 86 billion neurons in our brain, and up to 80% of them are jam-packed in the cerebellum.

So if you imagine your wrist is the brainstem, and then you make a fist — that's your cerebellum. You stick your thumb out, and at the end of it is your amygdala, the emotional center. Whenever something happens, the cerebellum is a pattern-matching device, and it will instantly recognize that you've been in a similar situation. It's all about feelings, not logic. It will instantly recognize a situation you were in maybe as a child and fire off the same neural response to the amygdala, which will release cortisol and adrenaline into the body. Then a split second — about a third of a second — later, the neural response continues up to the prefrontal cortex, just behind your forehead, where conscious decision-making, rational planning, and conscious awareness live.

What happens with so many people is they are trying to change the way they feel about something after the body has already reacted. By creating change in the cerebellum, the person is no longer triggered by whatever the situation is.

Say, for example, someone has a really extreme, debilitating fear of speaking in public. A little bit of nervousness is fine — it's human, and it helps. I'm talking about where it's truly debilitating.

By locating the root cause — the situation that produced the worst response — I can ground this with an example of a client. A very talented lighting designer, amazing, who had worked with people in many different countries. But when it came to pitching, she would — and I can mention this because she's given a video testimonial, so she's already shared this publicly. She talks about how she had a stammer that would come up, she would feel intense dread, her breathing would be affected, all of these things. The result was she was losing clients for the company because she just wasn't able to pitch.

It only took one session. It was so obvious. It all stemmed from when she was at high school and had two lines to say in the school play. She went on stage, fluffed the lines, everyone laughed at her, and at that point a neural response was created in the cerebellum — basically, if you're in a situation where you're going to be expressing yourself in public, do not do it because you're going to end up feeling humiliated. And this was showing up in her business.

We cleared it — it was basically rewiring how she felt about that particular experience — and then that was it. She was free of it, and able to pitch with ease.

She didn't have to relive any of it. People don't even have to give all the details, because it's about accessing the feeling and changing the feeling.

FRANKIE: This is such a powerful story, and what a transformation for your client. One of the things we've talked about — and one of the similarities in how we both work, in a totally different way — is our belief and approach that you actually do not need to go into that trauma. You do not need to dig and dig and dig. And I know that in your work, people get results that they would spend years in therapy over. You do not need to go back over old ground, you do not need to relive that trauma. I know that is something we are both so passionate about.

I'm sitting here geeking out because you're going into the science and I do it in the energetic realm. We're each following our own intuition and our own guidance. The path is different, but the alignment is the same.

I would invite you to talk into that whole concept, because I want as many people as possible to know — you do not have to relive your trauma to get over it, to come out through the other side, to pivot. And it breaks my heart to see so many people going through that. I did that for years in my own personal development, and I took clients through that journey until I evolved and realized there was a better way. We can get results that way, but there's a more ease-filled, faster way to do it. Nobody wants to spend hours in therapy crying. So tell us — how do you take clients through that transformative healing experience without being neck-deep in the trauma?

CLAIRE: It's the foundational work that I do with my clients. Thinking about this a lot before coming on this podcast, it's like the archaeology phase — where you're going in and seeing the key events that are causing or enabling these looping protection patterns. Because ultimately our brain, our lovely cerebellum, is just there to keep us safe. Even if a response isn't helpful, there is no judgment in the cerebellum — if it worked before and you're still here, it's a valid response, so it'll fire up the same neural response.

It's literally finding the key events in the person's life that have caused these patterns that are still holding them back in some way, and then creating change by asking how they would prefer to feel. There's obviously a technique to it, but ultimately it's: what was the key event, how would they prefer to feel, and then doing this process with them.

The interesting thing is, you don't need to address all the events that come up. You literally just go for the worst ones, and they only feel it for one breath. The rest of the time you're actually focused on how they'd prefer to feel — something completely different. It could be feeling relaxed, like having a bubble bath or going for a walk in a forest. It has nothing to do with the thing that happened to them.

When you address the top, worst events and change them, the other ones just lose their power. It feels like magic. I sometimes describe it as a mountain range — the top mountain is the worst experience. When you rewire that unconscious emotional response on that top mountain, sometimes there's another one you need to address, but basically all the others beneath it just lose power.

FRANKIE: Is that how you find it with the work you do? Yeah, it kind of feels like — do you remember that game from the '80s, Kerplunk? That's how it feels with belief systems and the dismantling of beliefs. I always visualized it a little bit like Kerplunk.

You said something else — you said it happens like magic. And I'd love to talk about that, because your approach is very scientific, and I know you have a deep spiritual practice. In your experience, how do you feel the divine power works with you in your work, and where do you feel it sync with the science?

CLAIRE: After I've done that foundational work using that modality, it's the second phase — where they're embodying their ideal next-level identity, this ideal version of themselves. That's where I get to be more intuitive with it, because this is looking into the future about how they want to be.

Actually, I can answer your question about the first phase too — I get goosebumps. Sometimes through a conversation, you're hearing this person's story, and sometimes it's just so obvious, "oh yes, that's the thing." Other times it's not so obvious and you have to have more of a conversation. And again, they're not having to give you the details — it's more just headlines. You don't need to know all the gritty details unless they want to talk about it, which can be cathartic, but that's not what's going to heal them.

When their beautiful subconscious mind brings something up — quite often it's to do with a mum or a dad — and when they give a little bit of detail, I'll get goosebumps. And when I get goosebumps, I know that's it. That's the intuition, the energetic intelligence coming through. You just know, but you don't know how you know, but you know. The body tells you.

FRANKIE: It just becomes undeniable that there's a co-creation — it's us, our client, and the greater power, whatever we're calling it: God, the universe, Allah, the divine, source. We feel it at such a deep level. Tell us about the third phase, the life architect phase, because this phase feels like a dance with life.

CLAIRE: It's where the person is ready to integrate. They've done the inner work, the inner clearing. They've gone through the process of really embodying their next-level identity, this next version of themselves. And then it's about integration and taking action from a place of alignment. All the really serious stuff has been dealt with, so now it's more things like fear of failure, imposter syndrome, fear of success — things like that that you can work with.

And the neural manifestation — I never actually use the word manifestation myself. I always follow the synchronicities in life. I really do see them as the universal bread crumbs. So it's about really creating that space for the person to tap into connecting with their higher self, with other versions of themselves.

Whether or not listeners believe in parallel universes, it doesn't necessarily matter — because as long as you can imagine something, you're creating some kind of connection with it. And the imagination is so important — there's that famous Einstein quote, I can't remember the exact wording, but it's about imagination being the most important thing. I believe that if we can dream it, if we can imagine it, it's because we're tapping into another reality, another timeline. If it's coming through our heart, through our soul, it's the universe. It's a nudge, one of those synchronicities coming through for a reason. Unless it's ego — "I want this to prove a point." But when it comes through as a synchronicity and through the heart, it's divine.

It's about connecting with the essence of who you are underneath the ego, and tapping into potential and possibilities. I've got a question for you, Frankie — I just wonder what your take is on manifesting.

It always just happened for me. When I was living in Japan it was really easy. Things like — I lived in Nagasaki for a couple of years, and I knew I wanted to do something with zoology and also experience living in Tokyo. A friend at Nagasaki University connected me with a journalist at the Japan Times in Tokyo, and it turned out Jane Goodall was giving a talk at Tokyo University. He invited me along.

The journalist asked what I wanted to do, and I said I really wanted to get back into my zoology and work for the Meerkat Project in the Kalahari. And he said, "Oh, is that run by..." — I can't remember the name now, this was over 20 years ago — and it turned out he had done his PhD with the man running the project, and he offered to put me in contact.

I came back to Scotland and called this contact, not expecting him to be there, but it turned out he was Scottish, from Glasgow, and was back for Christmas. We actually met in Glasgow on Boxing Day. I got the position, then he went back to South Africa, I went back to Tokyo for six months, and that's how I got the job at the Meerkat Project.

There were just so many experiences like that. It was literally just putting the thought out there, not knowing how it would happen, but really feeling that it was going to.

Same with Antarctica. I knew when I was a teenager watching David Attenborough — and I was incredibly shy growing up, painfully shy, to the point where my guidance teacher said, "Claire, I think you're too shy to even go to university." But I knew I wanted to travel, live in lots of different countries, work all over the world. So I decided I had to do something about that.

I knew I wanted to work in Antarctica at some point, with elephant seals. And I did. It was through an ad inside a folder that a camerawoman had been given at some event — advertising the Antarctic Heritage Trust. I responded to it and ended up getting one of the positions that way. You just never know where those opportunities are going to come from, and that's what's so beautiful.

So I'd love to hear your take on manifestation, Frankie.

FRANKIE: I love these stories — they just light me up so much. So to answer your question around how I feel about it — there are lots of tools around manifestation, lots of ways we can amplify and activate it, like environment. Environment is a huge factor in manifestation, contributing to around a third of our vibration. When we place ourselves in expansive environments that are a match for us — like Japan for you, with that feeling of freedom — it absolutely amplifies that.

But at the core of manifestation, it's not about the mantras, the vision board, or the life script. I love those tools, but that's not manifestation. Manifestation, to me, is a co-creation between us and the universe. When we are open, we hear that loud and clear. There's no one special person — we all have this open channel to source. We're hearing the intelligence, following the nudges. It's a co-creation between us and the universe that's always there, but sometimes gets clouded by our ego, our stories, by conditions, by society. And we always have the choice to open that back up.

I believe it opens through the heart. That's at the core of my work — tapping into that open communication with the universe. It's a two-way energy flow. Information comes through as downloads for me, just that knowing. And then it becomes my job to clear any resistance around that knowing.

I'm actually in the process of moving back to Dubai, as you know. But when we were moving from Dubai to Scotland at the end of 2020, I was working with a Joe Dispenza coach who asked, "What will be your manifestation?" I said, "Offer received on the 13th of March." This was July 2020.

I came home with my two daughters, who were one and two years old. My husband was still in Dubai. We had ten months apart. I thought, "I'm not viewing more than five houses." He found this house from Dubai, and I nearly didn't go to see it — I'd just set up a new business, I was staying with my mum, the kids were so young, it was lockdown, nursery was closed.

But I went to see it because I trusted the guidance. We put an offer in the morning of the 13th. The market in the UK was crazy — everyone was fighting over houses. I thought, "I'm not doing that." I sent everyone else love, put our offer in, and that was it. We got an offer received on the 13th of March. And the whole time, I had no doubt. I had to literally ignore all the aunties, the cousins, the family saying, "Oh, you'll never get a house," "everyone's paying over asking, I know someone who's put in 20 offers and been rejected." I just wasn't tolerating it. I wasn't viewing more than five houses, and I knew. There was never any doubt.

CLAIRE: That's incredible. And how were you able to stay so focused on "it's done, it's happening," when you had such a specific day in mind and everybody around you was saying otherwise?

FRANKIE: To be honest, I wasn't attached to the day. The outcome for me was a done deal — I just knew we were going to connect with the right home. And I'd actually forgotten about the specific date. If I had been attached to it having to be that day, it would have created resistance.

Going back to something we talked about earlier — I don't have monthly money goals in my business either. When I used to have monthly goals and reached the end of the month, it would create this feeling of catching up. But it also feels like it caps us — if we hit the goal, unconsciously we sit back and relax. I prefer to stay open.

So I wasn't attached to it being that specific day, but I did know the manifestation was a done deal. Going back to that desire in my heart, and also that internal knowing — when you just know, you just know. And then it becomes our job to clear the resistance around that knowing. The soul always knows. It's the human part of us that creates the resistance, and that becomes the experience.

I would love to hear from you as a woman, a business owner, a mother, a spiritual being — how do you embody the alignment of your soul's work? Because I know that translates into your purpose in your business, your purpose with your clients, your purpose as a mother, and the way you are in the world. You're a very high conscious woman. What is your experience of doing the soul work and your mission in this moment here on Earth?

CLAIRE: A couple of things are coming up for me. I definitely found it so much easier to create the results I was looking for when I wasn't attached to them. I've found it far more challenging doing it with something I feel deeply connected to. With the things I was manifesting in Japan, South Africa, the Kalahari — it was just easy. It didn't really matter whether it happened or not. I just thought, "Oh, I want this to happen," and then I would let it go.

It's something I'm definitely still working on. What I do is clear any resistance that comes up. When resistance arises, that's a clue — something to sit with. One thing I do is work somatically. If it's a more trauma-based experience, I would use the foundational modality I use with clients. But for resistances that come up day to day, it's about allowing and welcoming everything as it is.

Emotions only take about 90 seconds to move through the body, unless you get stuck in the stories in the mind. So it's having that conscious awareness — "Oh, I'm feeling resistance to this, I feel a bit of fear here" — and then consciously welcoming all the emotions to be there exactly as they are, really feeling into them. Dropping out of the stories in the head into the sensations in the body, and breathing into any contraction.

And activating in the heart the feelings of safety, love, and connection — you can pop back into your head to think of a place you love, a person you love, a four-legged furry friend — something that activates those feelings. Then dropping back into the body. And you're able to breathe into the contracted part of your body and kind of titrate between the two — keeping in the body, breathing that love and safety into the contraction. Long, slow breaths in, long, slow exhalations out. I do mine out through the nose.

You can also imagine there's an opening in the back of your heart, and once the contracted energy starts to soften and shift, imagining it going out through the back, and really filling your body with the safety or love you've activated. You can work with the energy somatically in your body that way.

It's about being really conscious of what's coming up, being aware of it. There are so many different ways to work with contractions — inner child work and many more. But the key is doing that inner work to clear it, and then from that place of alignment, taking action.

FRANKIE: When you just dropped in there and felt the energy shift, I felt myself going into the theta brainwave, into a meditative state. I hope that translates in the podcast. Whoever is meant to feel that magical transmission — I'm sure they'll feel it in this moment, because I definitely did. My heart is so expanded. So potent, so powerful. Thank you.

And so when we're then focusing on setting an intention for what we want to consciously create in our life, it's doing it from that place of alignment. There's no point just thinking about what you want when your solar plexus is contracted and you're feeling fear. That's putting your foot on the brake and the accelerator at the same time.

And you can stress hustle and get results in all areas — in fitness, in business, with your relationships. But is that really how we want to do it? When that seed of intention is squeaky clean, it's aligned, it's potent — and that's the energy behind what we're doing, the conversations we're having, how we're showing up, because everything is energy — that's when everything responds to us.

So it's not strategy or energy, it's not action or aligned energy. It's both. And when we have both — moving with energetic alignment and precise action — that's when we can skip timelines, create results faster. That's the space that you and I love to play in.

CLAIRE: Something was coming up when you were talking there. I can't remember the name of the experiment, but it involved lots of little chicks. With the imprinting that birds have, there was a very simple robot that would move randomly in an enclosed area, and the chicks were in a cage. The chicks believed the robot was their mum, and they would be calling for it. Even though it moved randomly, it had a pen on the bottom. Everywhere the robot went, you could see the lines it traced. Definitely Google this — because the chicks' intention to get to "mum" was so strong that you could see how the robot was actually drawn towards them. I know you know the one.

It's such a powerful example of how strong our intention is. And if chicks can do that with a little robot, then as conscious, awakened women — the sky isn't even the limit.

FRANKIE: Oh my goodness. I'm so excited for the work you're doing, for your mission, for the legacy you're creating. I know for sure there are going to be so many women tuned into this podcast who feel the nudge to reach out to you, Claire. There'll be so many women who really feel that energy translate, who have been awakened by this conversation, who are curious to get to know you and your work more.

And I know you have some exciting things coming up in May. Should we talk about your immersion?

CLAIRE: Yes! In May, I'm hosting an online immersion where I'll take people through a way of timeline shifting, and also a way of experiencing a bit of this neural manifestation technique. They're not just getting clear on what they want to manifest in say 90 days, six months, and within the year — it's a way of really embedding it into the brain through a lovely journey that reinforces it repeatedly. It's like a speeded-up process for creating the life and the results you're truly wanting to create.

There's also a magical box experience that'll tap into the subconscious and give the person a clue into how they can speed up this process. I won't say any more than that. I would love to invite people to come along to this immersion. The date — I'd need to check my diary, but I believe it's the 19th of May, since the 21st is my little boy's birthday. All the links will be below wherever you're tuning in.

I'll also take everyone on a quantum journey — you meet the version of you who's already living the life you're creating. And for listeners of this podcast, I'm gifting the ticket for whoever is listening, plus two friends to bring along as well. The more the merrier — it also helps create more of that energetic container.

FRANKIE: What a gift! And I know there's something else you're offering exclusively for listeners of The Self-Sourced Podcast — sessions that you usually charge for. You're offering an alignment coaching call, around an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes?

CLAIRE: Yes, an alignment call for people listening to this podcast exclusively. If you're interested and curious to find out more, please get in touch.

FRANKIE: What a gift. Well, Claire, thank you so much for joining me in this conversation. It's been an absolute pleasure getting into all things spirituality, the science, the manifestation, and just the co-creation of what we can do when we come together in our power, in our mission, and in our purpose. Thank you so much for the woman that you are. It's a pleasure to be connected, and I can't wait to see where you're going with everything.

CLAIRE: Thank you so much, Frankie. It's been wonderful.