For Anette Michelle, launching Inner Applause is less a career pivot than the meeting point of experiences that once seemed to belong to separate parts of her life.
Years spent producing events taught her how carefully a meaningful room is created. Community leadership showed her what happens when people gather around a shared purpose. More than a decade of personal growth work taught her something less obvious: even a powerful breakthrough can lose its grip once everyday life returns.
Then there were the experiences that changed her personally, including one that began 2,500 miles from home.
Together, those chapters became Inner Applause, Anette’s personal growth and experiential wellness brand centered on what she calls “The Space Between the High & the Habit.”
When Life Changes the Story
In 2015, Anette was 23 weeks pregnant when she unexpectedly delivered her son, Liam, far from home. He weighed just 1 pound, 5.9 ounces.
What followed were 130 days in the NICU.
Liam eventually made it home. Today, he is a happy, healthy 10 year old who keeps his 16 year old sister, Mila, on her toes. For Anette, however, those months never simply became a story from the past. They shaped how she thinks about resilience, community and what it means to stay present when there is no quick way through an experience.
Storytelling has since become an important part of her work.
Anette believes that when a woman hears someone speak honestly about an experience that changed her, recognition can happen before advice ever enters the conversation. She may hear something familiar. She may see herself differently. Sometimes that recognition is where change begins.
Creating Space for What Comes Next
Inner Applause brings storytelling together with movement, reflection and shared experiences. Its focus is not simply on creating an emotional high, but on giving women time to explore what resonated and consider what happens when they return home.
Central to the brand is Mirror Practice, a guided reflective practice Anette created to help people slow down, become aware of what is happening internally, regulate, reconnect with themselves and choose how they respond.
Her professional background supports that vision. Anette has more than eight years of event leadership experience, including planning and executing more than 80 luxury automotive events across California. She also brings more than a decade of community leadership and fundraising experience.
From 2020 through 2022, she served as President of the Sunset Hills Education Foundation and helped lead annual fundraising efforts generating more than $100,000 for student programs and opportunities. She is also trained as an NLP Master Practitioner and has speaking experience with Ronald McDonald House Hawaii, Helping Hands San Diego and community fundraising initiatives.
A Full Circle Partnership
On October 11, 2026, Anette will bring these threads together at the first Inner Applause Experience in San Diego.
The one day gathering will feature speakers, storytelling, movement, wellness experiences, Mirror Practice, reflection and connection.
Miracle Babies, a San Diego nonprofit supporting NICU families, will serve as the charitable partner. For Anette, the partnership brings her story full circle. Having lived through 130 days in the NICU with Liam, she knows firsthand what these families can face and wants giving back to remain part of what she is building.
Inner Applause may be a new brand, but its roots run through years of lived experience. Anette is now bringing those experiences together in one body of work and inviting other women to examine their own stories with the same attention.
Learn more: InnerApplause.com