Welcome back to Winging It with Wendy.
Yes, we are finally here with a crossover episode I have been looking forward to for a long time.
For those of you who follow more than one Angel podcast, you are in for a treat this week. My guest is Sue Elliott, author, entrepreneur, and the woman behind the wonderful podcast and book both called My Angel Coach. She is, in the very best way, my kind of people. And this episode is one of my favourites so far, because it is not just a conversation about Angels. It is a conversation between two people who have both built their lives around listening to them.
But first, this interview wouldn't have come to fruition had I not listened to my own Angels.
Here's how it happened.
How We Found Each Other
When I started getting serious about Winging It with Wendy, I did what I always do: I followed my curiosity. I started listening to other podcasts in the Angel space, just to see who else was out there, what they were saying, how they were showing up.
And I found Sue.
Within a few episodes I was absolutely certain: this is my girl. So I sat down and wrote her a letter. A proper, thoughtful letter, asking if she would consider coming on as a guest. I sent it off, and then I waited. Now, I will be honest with you, I was a little nervous. I was brand new to podcasting. I thought maybe I should get ten episodes under my belt before I went after someone like Sue. But I wrote the letter anyway.
About two weeks went by. Nothing.
And then I heard it. That quiet, clear nudge. My Angels said: email her again. But this time, do it from your Gmail account.
So I did. I sent a short note. I mentioned that I wasn't sure if my earlier message had reached her, and that I was following a nudge from my Angels. I want you to know that within about ten minutes, I had a reply. Sue wrote back to say she was so glad I had listened to that nudge.
And that, right there, is the whole lesson. It doesn't matter how small the instruction seems. Email her from your Gmail account sounds like nothing. But that was the message. And I listened to it. And it brought one of the most joyful conversations I have had in a very long time.
From Car Magazines to the Angel Coach
If you had told Sue Elliott twenty years ago that she would one day be known as an Angel Coach, she might have raised an eyebrow.
For more than thirty years, Sue was a magazine editor, writer, publisher, marketer, and entrepreneur. She worked on automotive magazines (real ones, hands-on, hardcore car enthusiast publications) at Peterson Publishing, the company that started Hot Rod and Motor Trend. She was also a spokesperson for the automotive aftermarket. She created a magazine called Law of Attraction that was sold on newsstands across the country and internationally. She is, in the most unexpected and wonderful way, someone who has spent her career following her passions wherever they led.
And somewhere along that road, the Angels started to get louder.
She describes herself as a recovering intellectual. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from an Ivy school. A lifelong overthinker. And she says it with such warmth and humour that I immediately wrote it down, because I could relate to every word.
A recovering intellectual. I love that.
Stop Saying "I Can't Afford It"
Early in our conversation, something came up that I have to share with you because it is one of those small shifts that sounds almost too simple, until you feel the difference in your body.
Sue was at a ladies' tea, one of those lovely informal gatherings she used to attend with fellow magazine editors. And one of the women in the group said something like I can't afford that. And the moment those words landed, Sue heard something clearly in her head:
Tell her never to say that again.
So I'll pass that along to you too. Stop saying I can't afford it. What you can say instead is:
That's not how I choose to spend my money.
Feel the difference. The first sentence puts you at the mercy of your circumstances. The second one puts you back in the driver's seat. It's not about pretending money is no object. It's about the story you're telling yourself, and whether that story feels defeated or empowered.
Sue said it so well: if the words don't feel calm, or peaceful, or, and I loved this word she used, yummy in your system, then play with them. Try different ones. The words are malleable. You get to choose the ones that open something up rather than close it down.
Dream Cars and the Angels Who Deliver Them
This is where the conversation got really fun.
Sue spent twenty-some years in the automotive world. Her dream car, for years, was the Bentley Continental GT Coupe. If you don't know it, look it up. It is one of the most beautifully designed cars ever made, all hand-assembled, every stitch of leather done by one person so it all matches perfectly. It is spectacular. And for a long time, it felt completely out of reach.
Not long before our conversation, she found one used. For about fifty thousand dollars. Which, she pointed out with a laugh, was roughly the same price as the Subaru she had been looking at.
But here's where it gets interesting. She looked at this car, this dream car she'd held onto for decades, and asked herself honestly: can I be that person? And she realized, maybe not right now. She lives in rural Appalachia, where the roads are salty in winter and currently torn up with gravel. She thought about what the tires on a Bentley cost to replace, and she let it go. Not because she couldn't have it, but because it genuinely wasn't the right fit for right now.
The Angels, she told me, were laughing through the whole thing. Because what they had actually done was brilliant: they had brought it to her at a price that made it a completely fair choice. No financial excuse. Just: which would you choose? And she got to choose freely. That is the gift.
I shared my own version of this story, because I couldn't help myself.
A lifetime ago, when I was first starting to connect with my Angels, I told the man I was dating at the time that I wanted a Jaguar XK8 convertible. And he looked at me like I had completely lost the plot. He said something along the lines of: you are practically on welfare, how on earth are you going to get that car?
And I said: that's not up to me. That's my Angels' decision.
Which irritated him, I will tell you, to absolutely no end.
But I also told him: I am going to have that car before my 40th birthday.
Six months before my 40th birthday, living in Scottsdale, Arizona, I walked into a dealership and paid cash. Silver, black top. And when I drove away in that car, I felt something I can only describe as a deep, settled knowing. Yes. I knew this. I always knew this.
I still have a little model of it sitting right here in my studio.
Your Angels are not limited by your bank account. They are not limited by your timeline. They are not even limited by what you think is possible. The only thing that limits them is whether you stay open enough to let them work.
How Do You Know It's Your Angels Talking?
This is one of the questions I get asked most often. And I was so glad to ask Sue, because her answer was one of the clearest I have ever heard.
She says Angel guidance tends to come in one of two flavours.
The first she calls of courseness. It's completely neutral: not positive, not negative, not the voice of your worried mother or your inner critic or your inner cheerleader. It just is. And it carries the quality of truth with a capital T. It connects the dots in a way that makes your whole system settle. Of course. Obviously. Yes, that's it. Your mind might not have gotten there on its own, but the moment you hear it, it lands.
The second flavour is more like being called forward. A little pop of energy. A flicker of curiosity or eagerness. Your Angels point you toward something, you explore it a little, the energy builds, and then at some point it drops away again. That's your signal to let it rest for now.
In both cases, it never feels like your anxious thoughts. It doesn't trigger anything. It doesn't tighten anything. It is quiet and gentle in your nervous system, even when the instruction itself feels unexpected.
I'll add my own version of this: it's the thought that comes out of nowhere. The one that makes you go, where did that come from? The one that doesn't sound like you, but turns out to be exactly right.
The Room Went Black and White
Sue has many Angel stories, but the one she shared in this episode stopped me completely.
After her marriage ended, she moved to Napa Valley and found herself trying to figure out relationships (her words) as a mental process. Making lists. Working through it logically. Very much in her head.
And her Angels kept nudging her to relax into the journey instead.
Finally, she asked them to do something she called turning up the obvious knob. She thought of it like a stereo dial, and she said: turn it all the way to eleven. I need it as obvious as you can possibly make it.
So they did.
She was at a trade show, standing in a room full of people, talking to a longtime colleague. She turned around.
And the entire room had gone black and white.
Every single person, every object, the walls, the floor, all of it, in black and white. Except one man. He was in full colour.
She walked over and introduced herself.
She told me that experience was part of the journey, not the destination, but a step along the path toward where she was meant to go. The Angels, she said, are not delivering your final answer. They are walking you toward it, one step at a time, letting you grow into readiness for it.
And she made a point that I want to sit with you for a moment.
The way many of us approach the law of attraction is like placing an order at a cosmic restaurant. I would like my ideal partner delivered on Thursday at four o'clock, and I would like these specific qualities, with this particular characteristic, and a little of this on the side, thank you very much, ready go.
And the Angels, she said, love us so much that they gently giggle at this. Not because we are wrong. But because we are probably not going to be ready for that relationship at four o'clock on Thursday. We are on a journey. We are becoming. And the relationships that come along the way are not failed relationships. They are part of the evolution.
No ended relationship is a failed relationship. Every single one has something to offer. Sometimes the gift is clarity about what you want. Sometimes it is clarity about what you absolutely do not want. Sometimes it is a funny story you will tell for the rest of your life.
Thank You, Angels, for Taking Care Of…
Sue introduced something in this episode that I have already started using, and I want you to have it too.
She calls it the Angel delegation statement.
Instead of asking, pleading, or listing your requirements the way you might place an order, try this:
Thank you, Angels, for taking care of ______.
Fill in the blank with whatever you need.
Thank you, Angels, for taking care of bringing my ideal partner. Thank you, Angels, for taking care of helping me get ready. Thank you, Angels, for helping me find the gift in every date I go on.
The shift is subtle but it is everything. You are not asking from a place of lack. You are expressing gratitude for something that is already in motion. You are trusting that it is already being handled, the same way you press send on an online order and simply wait for it to arrive.
And if you don't know exactly what to ask for? Sue shared this: just say Angels, surprise and delight me today. That's it. Leave the rest to them.
Your Original Factory Settings
Sue has a book (also called My Angel Coach) and one of the concepts in it that I could not stop thinking about is something she calls your original factory settings.
It comes, of course, from all those years of working in the automotive world. Cars have computer systems, and if you want to improve performance, you have to reprogram those settings. The original factory settings were a starting point. Over time, with updates and adjustments, the car performs differently than it was first set up to do.
We are the same.
Our original factory settings are who we were before the world got involved. Before the rules. Before the shame. Before the limiting beliefs and the family programming and the moment someone told us not to cry or not to dream so big or not to say things like that out loud.
Sue showed me a picture from the book: a little child in the snow. Present. Curious. Open to everything. Not afraid of bugs or heights or uncertainty. Just showing up as themselves, completely.
That is your original factory setting. And the Angels, through Sue's work, want to help you find your way back to it.
What the Angels Want You to Know
At the end of our conversation, I asked Sue to leave our listeners with something. And she did something I have come to love about her: she stepped back, got quiet, and let the Angels speak.
This is what they said:
Wherever you are on your journey, whatever you have done or not done, whatever you have said or not said, there is nothing that would ever stop them from loving you. Their love is unconditional. It is divine. It is endless.
They are with you always. They never leave. There is nothing you can do to make them leave. And the more you delegate to them, saying thank you, Angels, for taking care of, the more they can do. The more they can surprise and delight you.
You don't even have to know what to ask for. Just say: Angels, surprise and delight me today.
And watch what happens.
Your Turn
This episode gave me so much to think about. The idea that guidance feels like of courseness. That every relationship is a step on the journey, not a verdict on who you are. That you can hand something over to your Angels simply by saying thank you for it, as if it is already done.
Pick one thing this week. Just one. Write it out:
Thank you, Angels, for taking care of ______.
And then let it go.
See what shows up.
Sue's book, My Angel Coach, is available now. I'll make sure the link is below. And if you want to keep following her work, her podcast is also called My Angel Coach and it is very much worth your time.
In the next episode of Winging It with Wendy, I have another story coming your way. Until then, stay curious. Stay open.
And remember: you are not winging it alone.
Get Sue's book: My Angel Coach
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