VISIONARY SPOTLIGHT
Photo: Sarah McCready, illuminatedjoy.com
Some people walk into a room and instantly make it brighter. Sarah is one of them.
A few years ago, I walked into a local healthy café expecting a quiet coffee and a salad, when this glowing woman sat down beside me and struck up a conversation (my son Freddy gets partial credit as matchmaker). Sarah was so genuine and kind that we swapped contact info on the spot, and we've been in each other's orbit ever since, supporting each other, working together, and showing up at each other's events. So for this Visionary Spotlight, I'm pulling from our conversation on the Rain or Shine podcast to bring you her journey, in her own words.
Where does your gift for connection come from?
For years, Sarah told herself she was shy. Then, more than a decade ago, a friend at dinner pushed back. "I think you need to check that story, because I don't see that at all." At the time, Sarah was dealing with a lot of social anxiety and had only just started going to networking events through her corporate job.
So she asked her mom if she'd been a shy little girl. Her mom laughed hysterically. Sarah had grown up in a literal village, and at four and five years old she would walk the streets, say hello to all the neighbours, and visit them on her own. She had even charmed the village grump.
"I came into the world with this curiosity about connecting with other humans, getting to know them, and bringing light into the world."
Tell us about your business and how it started.
"There's an expression that says those who shine the brightest have experienced a lot of dark, and I am no exception to that rule." Sarah spent more than 20 years in corporate financial services, in a high-stress, male-dominated environment. Personally, she went through four long-term toxic relationships, and the end of the fourth brought her into the darkest chapter of her life, what's often called the dark night of the soul.
She went inward to understand why the same pattern kept repeating and how to shift out of feeling like a victim. "I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was ready to heal it, resolve it, dissolve it, and create a new life."
Along the way, she became an early adopter of red light therapy. She invested in a system in 2016 and started using it for facials and physical healing while still working in corporate, then began pairing it with Reiki energy work in 2019. One day, a client told her she was saving Sarah's name in her phone as "lights and joy, because that's what I feel after a session with you." When Sarah left corporate in May 2020 and needed a business name, that story came right back to her. With a little help from a thesaurus, "lights and joy" became Illuminated Joy.
How did you navigate a major setback in your business?
Illuminated Joy was supposed to be Reiki and light therapy, full stop. But in every session, something deeper was happening. "It was Reiki and conversation. Then I realized it was coaching, mentorship, transformation, and expansion."
Then the lockdowns hit, and for much of 2020 and 2021 she couldn't see clients in person. "I recognized that I needed to become an online business or there simply wouldn't be a business in another year or two." She built a mentorship program from the patterns she kept seeing in client conversations and launched it in 2022. By the end of that year, she closed her private Reiki practice to focus on mentorship exclusively.
Why are women so open to talking about energy and intuition right now?
Seven years ago, this conversation was dismissed as "woo." Today, Sarah says, there's far more talk about nervous system regulation and the science behind the mind-body connection, and how it shapes our performance. "If you're not learning about your nervous system and how it drives roughly 90% of your reactions, you're going to be swept up into high-stake emotions."
She also believes most people have no idea what entrepreneurship will stir up. Hidden beliefs, old wounds, triggers, grief, and past hurts all come to the surface once you're running your own business. Add a 24/7 hustle culture, and you're always in one of two states: a powerful state, or a primal one where your nervous system is dysregulated and you never get the chance to go within.
When 2020 forced everyone inside, "literally and figuratively," many people were confronted with themselves for the first time. For Sarah, thinking beyond the five senses means tapping into that inner knowing, whether you call it intuition, your higher self, God, the universe, or source (or GUSS, her acronym). And the only way to hear it is to give yourself space, silence, and time.
"It is the biggest personal development journey you will ever go on."
-Sarah McCready, on entrepreneurship
What are some simple practices to start with?
Start by getting out in nature. Sarah has advocated for it since day one of her business, and there's science behind it: trees release negative ions into the air, and breathing them in helps regulate your breath and nervous system. A daily walk on the trail is ideal, but even once or twice a week is a great start. In winter, listening to birdsong or putting your hands in the soil of an indoor plant can have a similar effect. The key is to pick one thing and commit to it for a month.
If you can't get outside, start with your breath. Most of us are shallow breathers, and hustle culture makes it worse, which keeps the stress response going. Breathe deeper than you normally would, all the way down into your belly like a balloon. It can help you break through a funk, see a work problem differently, or find the words for a tough conversation.
And movement itself helps. "The right-left-right-left rhythm of your footfall recalibrates the brain, bringing both hemispheres online together."
Photo: Sarah McCready, illuminatedjoy.com
Why don't more people make generous connections?
Sarah has a real gift for introducing people who should know each other, and she didn't fully realize she was doing it until I pointed it out. She thinks what holds most people back is insecurity. "We're always so worried about ourselves: what we're saying, how we look, whether we sound professional. And that self-focus leaves no room to wonder about the person in front of you."
For her, it's always been about approaching people human to human, with service as a core value. She found deep joy serving pensioners during 13 years at a large pension plan, and that same spirit carried into Illuminated Joy. She also holds onto a lot of what people share with her, like an ongoing database in her brain, so she can spot when someone she met three years ago should meet someone she met today.
What’s something you always do?
Wash her face before bed, every single night, even though she can't stand it. "I get water all over the sink, all over my shirt. I'm not someone who can wash her face without making a mess." She does it because she hates waking up with mascara on even more, and because it's a nightly reminder that she can do hard things. "These are habits you're never going to want to do, and you do them anyway because you want that feeling on the other side."
Advice for other entrepreneurs having a rough day?
If putting yourself out there feels uncomfortable, you're not alone. Sarah wasn't comfortable either when she started going to networking events 15 or 20 years ago. "It took a lot to get in the room, and a lot to stay in the room once I got there. But after the first half hour, things always settled down, and I was always glad I went."
It's a muscle, and you have to choose to build it. Set the intention to get to know just one person.
“I'm always looking to find out about you rather than wondering what's in it for me.”
-Sarah McCready
A resource that’s added value to her journey?
Sarah's go-to tool for regulating her nervous system and hearing her own intuition. Whether it's walking the trails, getting your feet in the grass, or simply stepping outside for some fresh air, it's the simplest place to start.
Sarah's full story, including her mentorship program, workshops, and masterclasses, can be found on her website and Instagram.
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