The Sober Butterfly Podcast

Rebirth of the Butterfly: Why I’m Rebranding the Show 🦋

• Nadine Mulvina

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In this honest solo episode, host Nadine Mulvina shares an exciting update—The Sober Butterfly is evolving. After nearly four years of documenting her alcohol-free journey, Nadine opens up about feeling pulled toward a new chapter, one that still honors her sobriety but expands into the full richness of her identity.

She reflects on the inspiration behind The Sober Butterfly (metamorphosis and transformation), what sobriety has given her, and why it's time to shed her old skin. From feeling constrained by the label 'sober' to expressing a desire to expand the scope of her content to include topics beyond just sobriety, such as travel, creativity, spirituality, personal growth, and dreaming about new creative directions (hello, Silent Summer 👀), Nadine invites listeners behind the scenes of her rebrand process.

This episode explores the tension between outgrowing an identity and honoring the journey that got you here. If you’ve ever felt the desire to evolve but were afraid to let go of who you once were, this one’s for you.

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the-sober-butterfly_8_05-14-2025_071935:

What happens when your whole identity becomes the thing you left behind. Everything I do feels like it is sober, blank. Sober travel, sober sex, sober brunch. Sober joy, sober pleasure. And it just feels like it has to be prefaced by the word sober. I am sober. Like that is implied. So just to make this abundantly clear, my why for rebranding is this desire, this strong pull for full expression because I want to talk about travel without the asterisk, and I wanna talk about sex without needing it to be a PSA. And I wanna be creative and talk about spirituality and all the things, right? The textures of who I am. And still, sobriety is a part of me still. I owe so much of this life. To my sobriety, it will always be that way, but it is not all of me.

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hello, hello, and welcome back to The Sober Butterfly, or maybe soon to be former sober Butterfly. Okay, let me back up. I'm not saying I'm changing the name just yet, but today's episode is probably gonna be one of the most honest conversations I've had with you because I'm talking all about evolution, identity, sobriety, branding, and what it means to grow in public and to be real. I've been feeling. This deep pull lately, I mean this whole year Q1, we're in Q2 of 2025. I have just felt this tug towards something bigger, more layered, more nuanced, basically more me, and I felt that for the greater part of 2025. And I think even going back to the 34 lessons learned by 34, my birthday episode I did this year back in March, feeling that like birthday, blues, or depression, quite frankly, I'm realizing now. A couple months later that a lot of that was connected to just me feeling disconnected with myself. And so I want to bring you with me on this journey because if you've been listening to this show, you already know that I can't and will not sugarcoat my experience. This episode is going to be very raw and real and I'm gonna yap. That's what I do best. And I am not gonna have a filter. I'm not gonna hold back. So just keep that in mind as you listen today. I have like a clear outline of everything I wanna share with you guys because I have to with my A DHD brain. However, I am gonna be jumping all over the place because today I am talking about identity and my identity is very multilayered, as I'm sure yours is, so I'm gonna be jumping from different points, but I promise it all will make sense. This is just something that's been sitting in me that I need to share. So thank you so much for being here, and let's get into today's topic.

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I wanna start by saying sobriety not only changed my life, it saved my life. I cannot emphasize that enough. When I got sober coming up to four years ago. I was unraveling. I had no choice. I truly believe now I had no choice but to pour every ounce of myself into my healing journey, getting sober and then staying sober discovering who I was, my identity without alcohol like that. Consumed me. It was all consuming for a good, for a good cause, basically like to save my life. And I did that. I built that version of myself and, you know, then created the So Butterfly Instagram page. And then a year later I. I created the Sober Butterfly Podcast after my one year sober anniversary. I created community, you know, I've hosted events. I healed out loud on this very platform, and in connecting with other guests and hearing their sober journeys and stories, I gave voice to struggles and triumphs, and I'm now realizing that sobriety doesn't have to be the only way or the only lens that I used to tell my story.

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You know, the thing is, I did not name this podcast or create the Instagram, the Sober Butterfly by accident. Okay. The whole premise has always been, I. Around transformation. I started the sober butterfly because I felt, you know, similar to how I'm feeling now, like this deep internal pull, quite literally, I cannot emphasize this enough, like it felt like my soul was screaming for a change and I had spent so much of my life, so basically late teens throughout my twenties, so 10 plus years I spent. In my extreme wild party girl era, I'll say it was more than an era. It was an identity, quite frankly. Always chasing the next drink or the next chaotic moment night, the next blurry escape. And then I hit a wall, you know, four years ago. I felt lost. I felt like really, really lost. Like where am I? What planet is this? How am I going to continue living like this? And I knew I couldn't. So I made that change. And that change was pouring everything into my sobriety, right? Like my energy, my creativity, my healing. Into getting and sustaining sobriety. And that season of my life required absolute total focus, and I needed to shed everything that wasn't aligned to that to survive, which I did. And I built this life, this beautiful life that I love in sobriety. Once again, that's how I created the show. How I created community, how I reinvented myself, and I've always been the queen of reinventions. Like even back to like middle school days, every year we're showing up to school with new school supplies and a new attitude and new outfits. Like I am the queen of reinvention. I even shared, I think, was it last week when I was chatting? No, it wasn't with Nick. It was the week before. I don't know. I was talking recently with one of my guests on the show around like how I even changed my name in college, first semester to London. That is a true story. Like I have always loved reinvention. And here's the thing, butterflies like this is what I'm reminding myself like. It is about evolution. I have to keep evolving. Like I didn't just become the sober butterfly and that's it. Period. I've hit this pinnacle of self-actualization at the top of Maslow's pyramid. No, I need to keep growing. I am just gonna circle back to now I'm feeling like I've plateaued. You know, not drinking amazing. I don't want to drink. I, God willing, will never drink again because I'm making the conscious choice and I'm aligning my lifestyle and I've done so much work around why alcohol will never suit my lifestyle. But I also feel like I. I'm not giving myself the opportunity to stretch and to evolve into an even greater version of myself beyond the sober butterfly. I want to share my life beyond just sobriety and not because sobriety isn't important to me or important in general. In fact, it's the foundation, but it's no longer like the only thing. And so I want to use this platform and the various platforms I have talking about. Things that matter to me and I feel are more aligned, which is talking about creativity, love, travel, spirituality, failure, rage, softness, ambition, all of the things. I want to also invite guests. On this show that, you know, don't just talk about their sober stories, but also their whole stories because sobriety gives us access to this richness of life. Sobriety is the foundation. But it should not feel like a limitation, and it has felt like a bit of a limitation if I'm being real. Everything I do is prefaced by sober, right? So it's the sober butterfly. So everything I share is like sober travel, sober sex, sober adventures, sober things to do, and I want people to know when they see me, like I don't have to say sober sex. I can just say sex, like I don't wanna have to always announce that I am the sober girl in the room and therefore everything I share is going to be about sobriety. No, I want to exude like this. Woman who is on a journey and not afraid to share her past fuckups, right? A big part of this is like not feeling like I'm ashamed of anything I've done in life because I'm not, more recently I just put together my sex list. I told you I'd be yapping I you guys this weekend. Okay, this is off topic, so stay with me here this weekend. I went to Florida to visit my mom and my family for Mother's Day weekend, and I had the worst experience trying to get to Florida because of the air traffic control situation at Newark. So I was supposed to fly out of Newark, 6:00 AM flight direct to Orlando where my family lives, right? And I literally had to change my flight because of the air traffic walkout strike. Um, and so I then flew out of LaGuardia and then had a layover in Dallas, and then there was like the storm in Orlando, so all the planes were grounded. So I didn't get to Florida until like 1:00 AM is the point I'm trying to make here. Usually my family picks me up from the airport, but because it was late. I was like, I'll just get an Uber. Right. So I Uber and my family live in the boonies. Okay. They live in the country and I love that for them. I don't know how they do it, but they do. So it's like an hour away from the airport and I had some time, you know, so I'm in this Uber and I start for some reason thinking about all of the people I've had sex with. Don't ask me why, and I'm not ashamed, by the way, this is how this even got started. This is why I'm talking about this. Like I'm not ashamed of my number and I wanna do a full episode about my sexist. Um, but yeah, I put that on paper or really in my phone app on my notes. Um, and I was like, I wanna do an episode about this, but how can I connect this to sobriety? Because so much of this was drunk sex,, like the majority of my sexual partners happened before I got sober. And I've already shared on this podcast, I've never really had sex with anyone for the first time without being on a substance. Before quitting alcohol. So I was like, how can I tie this in? And so once again, it's just an example of me feeling like I have to like. Distort not to even distort truths because I'm always gonna keep it real with you guys. But I have to like present things in this neatly packaged like, Hey guys, like here's my sober sex list. And oh, I'm gonna make a comparison to like the before times, here's the drunk people that I slept with and like I kind of just wanna like talk, like, I kind of just wanna like share things because. It will either help someone else or make you laugh or whatever It may be like I want to still show all of the sides of me the silly and the serious, but like not necessarily have to work so hard to like fit it into the brand. So I feel limited is why I was sharing that sex list with you guys and I want to experiment. I've always been an experimental gal. My mom would say I am hardheaded, but like I have to sometimes like learn the hard way. I have to experience things, and so I am not interested in being a perfect person or being a role model for you guys. I'm 34. I'm just a baby. Please don't hold me to this ridiculously high standard. Like, oh, she's the sober queen. I'm still a mess. I'm a, I'm a better mess, but I'm still a human. I'm perfectly flawed. That's one of my favorite things in recovery spaces. Yes, I am perfectly flawed and I don't want to be held to the standard. That's impossible for me to be my authentic self and deliver the quality that I want to. Quality messages around. Just being human, just being myself. I believe alcohol is the worst. I believe that. So long as I don't lose sight of my why and my purpose and like my growth, I will never drink again. I really wanna say I will never drink again, period. But I also don't wanna delude myself into believing that like my addict brain can't spiral and I can't convince myself one day that maybe I can have a drink, Focus Nadine. Focus Nadine. But for the purpose of this episode, I will never drink again. Period. That has not changed. I'm not promoting people doing drugs or being caly sober or suggesting anything for anyone, but I've also learned in my sober time and you know, and having conversations with people outside of the show and quite literally on the show, friends of the show, like Sophia who came on a few episodes ago and talked about things like Ayahuasca. You know, I'm interested in those things. Like I felt like even in that episode, I had to hold back. When I was editing, I was like, I. I wanted to say this. I wish I could have said that, but like also I feel like I have to like balance my guests and I don't want people who are listening to feel like I am promoting Ayahuasca. And I don't even know if I am ever really going to do ayahuasca, but the fact that I didn't feel like I could say that on air makes me question why I even have the show to begin with. By the way, I'm not saying I'm doing ayahuasca or I'm doing it tomorrow. I'm just saying I want a space to talk about it. Maybe this can be like the catchphrase for this podcast because I'm always changing it, but sobriety looks different for all of us, and that's okay. That's more than okay. I wanna celebrate and lead into how my sobriety can evolve with time as well.

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Which leads me to something new. I am still workshopping in my mind, but I'm going to announce it here for accountability. So I have created something called silent. Summer this summer. I'm proposing, and I am going to figure out all the logistics because I want this to be like a real challenge that people really do, and it involves basically taking intentional breaks from social. I feel like I need to recalibrate. I cannot be the only one that needs to reconnect with myself to really listen and not just consume blindly. I, I feel like I spend a sickening amount on social and I can kind of blame it on, oh, work, like this is me doing market research or me, you know, creating content because. That's a part of my brand and I need to do that to X, Y, Z. But a lot of it is just me like doom scrolling, to be honest with you guys. And it feels less inspirational is the point I'm making. Like I would tell myself, I'm looking for inspiration to create content, but the reality is I think I need to disconnect to really learn who I am and what my brand entails so that I can create things that will help other people and may become rival because it's original. Is there such thing as an original idea? I don't know, but I think you get where I'm going. So silent summer is about pulling back from all the noise so we can hear what is next. Not from the algorithms, but from our intuition. And if you've been feeling that pull too, maybe this is something you can join me in. Maybe you can unplug for a weekend or for a week or for the whole summer. I plan on podcasting all summer long. I have so much going on you guys. I have not even touched the surface of all of the things I'm working on and will continue to work on, but there's a lot of amazing things coming your way, so I need to focus on that is another reason why I wanna do like a silent summer. And I know myself, I'm not gonna like fully be off social for the entire summer, but I wanna be intentional, I wanna post less. I wanna live more. I want to consume less content, be more conscious,, and I'm giving myself permission to unplug a bit this summer. Not fully disappear, but reflect. I have been on social delivering content since. I started, so like four years. I never miss a beat. I have posted something. I should have pulled up my stats before this, but I know I've posted at least three times a week for four years almost. Like, that's crazy. I have not taken any breaks and I just feel like my voice is lost a bit and I want to find it and hear it and be present. All of the joys of sobriety basically that I lament on. I want to actually practice more of and feel that in this next season without trying to like perform it for other people online, if that makes sense. So, like I said, if you've been feeling burned out or if you've been feeling overstimulated I invite you to join me. Your version of a silent summer might look different, I, first of all need to like lay out what mine will look like, but I will share that with you guys. And it's okay basically to give ourself a pause, right? A reset.

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Okay, so winding down today, here is what I know. I know I don't have all the answers right now, and that's okay. I'm figuring it all out real time, on air, and I know that I want to build whatever comes next with you. I wanna co-create this next chapter, this Metamorphosis of the Sober Butterfly Podcast together, and i'm also working on asking for help, collaboration. So if you've made it this far into the episode, thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of this journey and please help me. I need to figure out what topics you guys want to hear more of. You know, what parts of the show have meant the most to you? What version of me do you want to know deeper? These questions will serve as a guide for me to figure out some of the dimensions I wanna tap more into. Because as much as I love creating this show, I'm doing it for you. I wanna help people. I could just journal or yap with my girlfriends if I wanted to talk about my life and what I wanna talk about all the time. So I definitely want to co-create this next season. So let me know. Email me, DM me, tell me what you want to see. What conversations do you want to have? Butterflies. Let's build this together.

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Okay. Final thoughts for you before I let you go? Until next week, I'm not abandoning sobriety. I wanna make that clear. I'm not abandoning you, I'm just stepping into a bigger version of myself and that might mean changing the name maybe. It might mean changing the vibe, the format, or maybe not, but I'll just be honest with you in every step of the way. Honesty and transparency is what's helped me. I. Get sober and stay sober. And so the sober butterfly is just growing new wings. And wherever we fly next, I'm bringing you with me on this beautiful journey. Thank you butterflies for growing with me. I'll see you in the next evolution, AKA. I'll see you next week, but I love you so much and stay tuned for more updates. Bye.