The Sidler Digest Podcast

Chelsey Sidler

If you've ever felt like you're too witchy for the tech crowd and too tech for the witchy crowd — hi, same. I'm Chelsey, and this is where I talk about all of it. Home, soul, business, technology, money, life. The candle is already burning. Pull up a chair. sidlerstudios.substack.com

Episodes

  1. Aug 12

    New Moon in Leo, Solar Eclipse, and 11 Minutes of Real Talk

    Why hellooo! I'm Chelsey, the founder and lady behind Sidler Studios, a boutique web design, digital strategy, and AI consulting practice. The Sidler Digest (on Substack) is where I write and talk about tech, business, labor, systems, and the human stuff that lives underneath all of it. No hype. No guru energy. Just honest takes from someone who's been working in the digital world for over a decade and has opinions. This episode is a live recording from August 12, 2026: the New Moon in Leo and a solar eclipse. Good enough reason to check in. What we cover: A quick intro to who I am, how I work, and what this publication is What's changing at Sidler Studios: I've been building quietly for years and I'm now letting people in A two-week astrological forecast, useful whether you're a believer or just someone who notices when the current shifts The Leo solar eclipse: creativity, identity, the courage to be visible Virgo season starting August 22: time to implement what just came up The Pisces lunar eclipse on August 28: intuition, clarity, things revealing themselves A personal astrology transit map I've been testing, written in plain human language, no degrees or jargon A small fall learning cohort: 12 people or less, you help build the curriculum, very much not a generic course If any of this sounds like your kind of thing, come find me. I don't charge for conversation. 🌐 sidlerstudios.com📬 sidlerstudios.substack.com If you want more conversations like these, come pull up a chair! If you want to read any other paid posts, join the Substack! Here’s 2 weeks free on me. Also, if you ever want to pick my brain, come do so! About astrology, SEO, AI, ethics, business strategy, or whatever it be! Slide into my DM’s, book a time with me, or find me wherever I am online. Get full access to The Sidler Digest at sidlerstudios.substack.com/subscribe

    New Moon in Leo, Solar Eclipse, and 11 Minutes of Real Talk
  2. Jul 28

    To The Ones Who Never Quite Fit In.. This One's For You.

    I grew up internally witchy/hippie in a Mormon family in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. Then, went to an even more conservative college. Then, I spent my young adulthood wandering through identity questions and mental health terrain that nobody could have prepared me for. Along the way, I spent a lot of years trying to be palatable to rooms I was never going to fit in. Softening the edges. Leaving things out. Camouflaging the parts of me that would have raised eyebrows or started conversations I didn’t have the energy for. I was good at at making myself smaller. But it’s not a great skill long-term. Who was always underneath Underneath all of it, I was collecting rocks (or pinecones) every time I walked near water. Making my own cleaners and tinctures color-coding my to-do lists deep diving into software just for the pleasure of understanding how it worked cooking from scratch because the process matters, not just the outcome listening to podcasts in Spanish to make my brain hurt just enough to flex my language muscles. I know who I am. I love who I am and all my nuances. In my later years, I track the moon, wishing my clients Happy New and Full Moon whenever I can, and I very much enjoy reading birth charts for fun. I was, and have always been, a ridiculously nerdy and kind of ambitious witch. I just wasn’t saying it out loud. The Part Don’t Dilute Anymore I spent a lot of my life trying to end it. And then, somewhere in my 30s, the dust settled. Not all at once. Not cleanly. But it settled. I’m still here. Somehow, by some weird twist of fate, gratefully.. I’m still here. And what I show here on this Substack and everywhere else online/in-person is not a cleaned-up version of myself. It’s just me. Just a bit tired, with a plethora of forehead wrinkles that are usually covered by bangs, a coffee or sparkling water in my hand, and most likely surrounded by notebooks and plants. Here is who I am, for the record. I love astrology, tarot, and the moon. I love ancient wisdom and I love new software. I love cooking and I love building things. I love plants and I love aesthetics and I love ritual and I love a good Enya dubstep mix on a slow morning. I connect to my ancestors. I feel a lot of things. I have a big heart, have put it through a lot, and somehow it keeps growing softer. I love a good 90’s Shania Twain album or a ridiculous Trap remix involving a rapper yelling their name on occasion (shoutout Lil’ Jon and Soulja Boy). I make my own condiments & candles. I’d make everything from scratch if I had the time/skills. I still can’t resist picking up rocks and other nature tidbits. I light candles when I work. I believe in magic and I believe in systems and I love a clean UX/UI interface. I am a website designer and a digital strategist and a heart centered entrepreneur coach and a witch and a homesteader and a writer and if you’re reading this, now you have the full picture. I don’t have to shout who I am. You don’t either. We just have to be it. That’s what took 35 years and a lot of grueling initiations and some genuine darkness to arrive at. I’m not performing it. I’m not building a brand around it. I’m not asking for anyone’s permission or approval. I don’t need anyone to validate who I am deep down. I’m just done making myself easier to digest for people who weren’t hungry for what I was actually offering. This is the Sidler Digest. This is who/what you get. and I am truly honored to share this space with you all. Thank you for being so welcoming. I am here for you, my fellow humans, so don’t be shy. Come have conversations, share ideas, and let your freak flags fly alongside mine. Also, I genuinely want to know and am opening the floor: Introduce YOURSELF!! The quirks, the passions, the beauty, the human-ness. I want it all. It’s all welcome here. Who are YOU? If you liked this article, there’s a chance you might want to peep at these as well ^-^ * How I Became a Woman in Tech (Without Realizing It) - over on Code Like A Girl * Coming Out as a Nerd. Yes, During Pride Month. Yes, On Purpose. * I Speak for the Humans. And the Humans Are Lonely, Disconnected, and Glued to a Screen. * Nothing About My Journey Was Pretty, and I’m Not Hiding That * I Built My Tech Career Alone. This Is the First Place I Haven’t Felt Lonely Also, if you ever want to pick my brain, come do so! About astrology, SEO, AI, ethics, business strategy, or whatever it be! Slide into my DM’s, book a time with me, or find me wherever I am online. If you want to read any other posts, join the Substack! Here’s 2 weeks free on me. Get full access to The Sidler Digest at sidlerstudios.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jul 23

    Did July Just Take You Out?

    Well, damn. Has this felt like you this month, specifically the last week or so? I don’t know if any of you have watched the documentary series Hundred Foot Wave, but I feel like we’ve all been faced with a huge ass swell of our lifetime and some big metaphorical hundred-foot waves. I think we have all collectively been going through experiences, internally and externally, that maybe we haven’t ever before in our lives, and never will again. Even if we had a little bit of a heads up or follow astrology, I don’t think any of us could’ve ever been fully prepared for this month. However, we didn’t have any option but to ride it. If you haven’t watched the series on HBO Max, I definitely recommend giving it a watch. As I explained it to my friend, there lies a town in Portugal (Nazaré) with monstrous hundred-foot waves that the world has never really paid attention to. That is, until two big-wave-loving humans came together. A soul in Nazaré connected with a soul in the States. Their love, wonder, and awe for these natural phenomena brought them together in a way that the world couldn’t see coming, especially both of their worlds and everything else that it affected, for the better, and for everything else. Without giving the whole story away, I wanted to relate the metaphor of the hundred-foot wave to something that I think we’ve all been going through recently. Specifically the second half of July’s astrological transitions. Whether you are into astrology or not, whether you think it’s woo-woo and ridiculous, or you respect it as an ancient mystical science, totally up to you. But I think that we cannot deny that there have been some huge shifts in energy this month. If you were somehow immune to any sort of disruptions, challenges, or complete shocks to your world, consider yourself extremely fortunate. When you see the waves on the docuseries, your mind will be blown, your soul will be humbled, and hopefully you will be in awe of these beautiful behemoths that we are fortunate enough to witness on our world. These things are massive. And that’s even just visually. I can’t even fathom what sort of physics are actually happening within the whole phenomenon. How quantitatively powerful they are. The surfers who dare to surf these waves are not for the faint of heart. They are courageous, beyond what most of us could ever imagine. They have dedication, mastery, unparalleled respect for the water and each other. Everyone who came near, witnessed, or surfed those waves came out a different person. Facing a literal huge ass mountain of moving water, maneuvering your little meat suit on a little board so that you can gracefully skate across it, is absolutely insane for most of us. Yet somehow, there are those who do it. Beautifully, majestically (or not so much), but they do it. And what comes after is never the same. The person they were before they stepped foot on that board is not the same person who left that wave. For better, for worse. Even those who, after their first attempt, decided that was way too intense and they didn’t want to do that again. Some came back around and wanted to do it again. It knocked them on their ass, but they wanted more. Some instead received inspiration that took them a different direction. Regardless of what the outcome was after, it was life-changing for every single person who got near or experienced those waves. So, as I sit here on the day that Mercury goes direct. While we are still not fully out of the swell coming from the cosmos, I wanted to zoom out and share these thoughts with you. I want to hear what this experience has been like for you. Whether you are into astrology or not. I want to open the floor to discussion. I really want to hear about these huge energy shifts. What has been coming up for you? What things came out of left field? How are you doing, truly? How are you walking out of this month versus how you walked into it? And also, if you have any thoughts on the docuseries itself, astrology, or anything else, drop it here. But really, I wanted to just check in and say hi, everyone. I hope you are okay. I know it’s been a rough go. And we are almost in the clear. You’re not alone. We are all sitting in this swell together. AI Usage Disclaimer: I used AI to catch my typos and help me land the title. The rest is just me, talking to you. Also, I finally launched my 1:1 Ask me Anything/Pick my brain service, so if you want to chat astrology, business strategy, SEO, AI, online marketing or anything else, come chat :) If you are a paid Subscriber, you get 50% off Just use promo code LUVMYSUBS. Otherwise, I love seeing you all here and thank you for being a part of this community. Come pull up a seat if you haven’t already. And if you want to try out my paid subscription, here’s 2 weeks FREE to try it out . Get full access to The Sidler Digest at sidlerstudios.substack.com/subscribe

About

If you've ever felt like you're too witchy for the tech crowd and too tech for the witchy crowd — hi, same. I'm Chelsey, and this is where I talk about all of it. Home, soul, business, technology, money, life. The candle is already burning. Pull up a chair. sidlerstudios.substack.com