345. Joy as a Default Setting — with Roberta Ravella, Founder of The Joy Experiment
The Game On Girlfriend Podcast
Release Date: 08/11/2026
The Game On Girlfriend Podcast
If you run a business, you have to know how to sell — and yet so many of us do this thing I call the mom voice the second it’s time to say a price out loud. Something like, “It’s $300,” in this careful, coaxing tone, like we’re convincing a kid to tie their shoes. Meanwhile we’re talking to a fully capable adult who actually wants to work with us. This week I’m joined by Nikki Rausch, a sales strategist, speaker, and the founder of Sales Maven. Nikki spent 17 years in corporate sales, mostly in a male-dominated, technology-driven world, before she started coaching women...
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My guest this week had a childhood nickname: Muscles. She wasn't the smallest kid on the block, but she could always outrun the boys and knock a softball clean out of the park. Somewhere along the way, that name got buried — and stayed that way for decades. Mary Ellen Loranger is a 56-year-old entrepreneur, author, and wellness leader who’s spent the past eight years, alongside her husband Wayne, coaching thousands of women through nutrition, health, and lifestyle transformation. A former Ironman athlete, she’s spent the last few years building Midlife Strong®, a strength training and...
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My guest this week spent forty years studying death — first as a pathologist doing autopsies, later coaching people from inside her own pathology office. What she found in that work wasn't morbid. She found more life force in the morgue than she usually found walking around on an ordinary day, and that contradiction sent her looking for why. Sabine O'Laughlin calls what she found the mother line: the idea that everybody has one mother, whatever your relationship with her looks like, and that mother gave you exactly one thing — your life. Until you can accept that fully, Sabine says, you...
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Lindsey Busfield’s resume doesn’t look like it belongs to one person. Starbucks barista. English teacher. Auditor of Amish chicken barns. Now she’s the vice president of one of the country’s top legal marketing firms. None of it was the plan. For years, Lindsey figured she’d eventually run her own business, the same way her entrepreneurial parents had. Then a two-day aptitude test told her something different: she wasn’t built to be the visionary founder. She was built to be the expert, the organizer, the person who makes the pieces actually run. In this episode, Lindsey and I talk...
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Most of us think certainty means confidence — that bold, "everything always works out for me" kind of energy. It doesn't. Confidence is built on evidence: you earn it by looking back at what you've already proven. Certainty is different. It's a deep inner knowing you can access before you have any proof at all, and it's one of the most important skills for building a genuinely wealthy life — not just a life with more money in it, but one where you trust your next move even when you can't yet explain why. In this solo episode, I break down the real difference between certainty and...
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Roberta Ravella spent 25 years in mortgage origination. She was good at it. She was also, by her own account, a classic case of burnout. She tried coaching. She tried marketing. She even opened an AI business with a friend. Two months in, something in her said no, and she couldn't push past it the way she used to. So she stopped. Her mentor sent her on a six-week break with one rule: shut it all off. What Roberta found on the other side of that break is what she now calls The Joy Experiment. This conversation is about what it took to get there, and what her mornings look like now that she's...
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Most of us don't actually have trouble making money. It's the keeping of it — the receiving of it — that's the problem. If you added up how much money has passed through your hands over your lifetime, the number would probably surprise you. It comes in, you manage it, you pay bills, and then it's "gone," so you never really see how much you're circulating. That's not a money-making problem. That's a receiving problem, and most women were never taught the skill. In this solo episode, I break down what receiving actually is, why we were never taught to do it, and how you can start practicing...
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For years, Abi Horton believed real estate investing wasn't for her. Not enough money, not enough experience, not the right background. So she stayed on the sidelines and told herself it was something for later. Then things shifted, not through one big moment, but through a lot of small, unplanned ones. Voice acting taught her she was capable of running a business. That confidence opened a door she hadn't been looking for, and stepping through it eventually led to Aros, a real estate investment technology company built around mid-term rentals. Abi is candid about what that process actually...
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Some days you do everything right, and by 3 p.m. you're still completely wiped out. That's not burnout from working too hard. It's the specific exhaustion of doing tasks that were never yours to carry in the first place. In this solo episode, I walk through the exact questions I ask my own clients when they tell me they should be further along by now, or that something feels harder for them than it looks for everyone else online. Grab a journal, because I want you to actually answer these questions as you listen. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN The exact question to ask when a task drains you,...
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Most of us have been told, at some point or another, to just be happy. Just let it go. Just choose joy. And if you've tried that and found it completely unhelpful, you are in very good company. Dr. Peggy DeLong is back on the podcast for her third visit, and what she shares in this episode about how to increase your capacity for happiness is not what most people are teaching. It's not about ignoring what's hard. It's not about thinking positively until the feeling kicks in. And it has nothing to do with luck or your current circumstances. Peggy discovered the power of gratitude while sitting...
info_outlineRoberta Ravella spent 25 years in mortgage origination. She was good at it. She was also, by her own account, a classic case of burnout.
She tried coaching. She tried marketing. She even opened an AI business with a friend. Two months in, something in her said no, and she couldn't push past it the way she used to. So she stopped. Her mentor sent her on a six-week break with one rule: shut it all off.
What Roberta found on the other side of that break is what she now calls The Joy Experiment. This conversation is about what it took to get there, and what her mornings look like now that she's arrived.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Why Roberta calls her old business model "golden bricks" she couldn't build anything out of
- The real difference between a priority and an energetic value, and why mixing them up keeps you stuck
- How years of chronic stomach pain led Roberta to nervous system work she didn't know she needed
- Why she says "your definition of easy needs to grow up," and what that looks like in practice
- Why joy doesn't have to be something you earn at the end of a long to-do list
ROBERTA'S FREE GIFT FOR GAME ON GIRLFRIEND® LISTENERS
Roberta's book, Open for Business: How To Build A Business You Love Without The Hustle And Grind, will be free on Kindle for 10 days starting on this episode's publish date of August 11, 2026. Get your free copy here https://a.co/d/0dwpxoqg
CONNECT WITH ROBERTA RAVELLA
- Linktree: https://linktr.ee/robertaravella
- Website (The Joy Experiment): https://thejoyexperiment.live/
ABOUT ROBERTA RAVELLA
Roberta Ravella spent 25 years in mortgage origination before stepping away to found The Joy Experiment — the heart and science of creating your life and business in joy, ease, and flow. Her work now centers on energetic values, nervous system healing, and helping women build businesses that don't require self-punishment to succeed.
READY TO BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE?
There's a reason we talk about mindset on this podcast just as much as strategy, because what's happening in your nervous system shows up directly in your business results. If this episode had you thinking about a business you've been white-knuckling your way through, I'd love to spend 30 minutes with you.
As my free gift to Girlfriends, I offer a 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk about where you are right now and what might be getting in the way.
Book here: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=13047670&appointmentType=2244195
FREE GIFT FROM SARAH
Get Sarah's Freedom Calculator and discover how much your business needs to make to finally be free. Download at https://sarahwalton.com/freedom
LEARN FROM SARAH
Explore Sarah's online courses and free resources to start building your business with confidence.
- Online Courses: https://sarahwalton.com/online-courses
- Free Resources: https://sarahwalton.com/free-resources
CONNECT WITH SARAH
- Website: https://sarahwalton.com/podcast
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSarahWalton
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesarahwalton
ABOUT SARAH WALTON
Sarah Walton is a wealth consciousness coach, strategic advisor, podcast host, and mentor who helps women entrepreneurs build businesses they love.
Her mission is simple: to put more money in the hands of more women.
She's the creator of the Abundance Academy, The Art of Receiving, and the Game On Girlfriend® podcast.
Sarah teaches authentic, heart-centered business strategies because when women have more financial power, they don't just keep it — they use it to take care of their families, support their communities, and build something bigger than themselves.
RELATED GAME ON GIRLFRIEND® EPISODES YOU'LL LOVE
- Episode 307: Stop Hustling & Start Leading with Grace: The Grace Codes, with Dr. Kelly Martin Schuh — https://sarahwalton.com/grace-codes-feminine-leadership-women-entrepreneurs/
- Episode 313: But What About the Money? Why Your Nervous System Determines Your Income — https://sarahwalton.com/money-mindset-nervous-system-income
- Episode 285: Creating a Multi-Million Dollar Franchise Business Out of Joy with Rhea Lana Riner — https://sarahwalton.com/joy-based-business
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