Rebel against anti-fatness by creating your own fat-positive project.
Build something real alongside a handpicked group of changemakers as passionate as you are
If there’s one thing every big-dream project needs more than anything else, it’s people.
People side-by-side in the messy, creative process with you.
People who believe in fat liberation and also want to create better fat futures.
People who make you feel safe to not have all the answers and support you in the hard moments.
People who know that cozy and courageous community is how we get shit done.
People who will not stop championing & cheerleading you.
Because so much of our fatphobic world does not want you to succeed. They want you quiet and small. But you want more.
You want to challenge the status quo, spark conversations, and see just how much of a ruckus you can make.
Fat Joy Creation Lab is a place where you can bring your loud, your bold, your tender, your smarts, your rage, and your playful, and channel it all into creating something real: a minimum viable project (MVP).
The truth is you’ve been indoctrinated into diet culture, harmed by anti-fatness, and marginalized by weight stigma.
Creation Lab is a wisdom circle for moments when…
Existing in the world as a fat person feels emotionally and mentally exhausting
The straight-sized people in your life just don’t get it
Your sorrow and rage at systemic oppression leave you feeling helpless
You see other fat folks creating, thriving, and making waves, and you want to be part of that too
You’re ready to move through indecision, impostor syndrome, and feeling “not enough”
Creation Lab is where you’ll turn that longing and frustration into momentum so you can bring your own fat-positive project to life with clarity, confidence, and community at your back.
Let’s change the fat experience together
Wake up each day channeling your heart and soul into something that truly matters, feeling fully “on purpose.”
Catch that sparkly, giddy feeling of taking your idea and making it real.
See the people whose lives your work will touch- their gratitude, their excitement, the ripple of change you create.
Soak up the thrill of a brilliant, supportive group cheering you on, celebrating your wins, and lifting you through the tough spots.
Unlock new tools, strategies, and resources that clear stuck points, let you experiment fearlessly, and give you clarity and confidence in your creation.
Your project could take many shapes…
Or something beautifully weird that doesn’t fit any category!!
Workshop
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Advocacy Initiative
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Coaching Offer
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Writing Project
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Podcast
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Creative Art Piece
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Community Project
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Expansion of Existing Offer
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Business Start-Up
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New Side Hustle
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Workshop · · · Advocacy Initiative · · · Coaching Offer · · · Writing Project · · · Podcast · · · Creative Art Piece · · · Community Project · · · Expansion of Existing Offer · · · Business Start-Up · · · New Side Hustle · · ·
Introducing:
Fat Joy Creation Lab
A six-month live, online mastermind for fat liberation dreamers ready to create their own fat-positive project and disrupt diet culture along the way.
What’s inside:
dotStyleCardsList
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Creation Calls
→ Twelve bi-weekly, 2-hour live calls via zoom
→ Curated conversation + tools & practices + spark sessions (rotating, hot-seat-style where each member gets focused time and feedback)
→ Members agree to attend all calls
→ Call time is Tuesday at 7-9pm Eastern Time
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Coworking Calls
→ Six Monthly, 2-hours via zoom
→ Flexible working, masterminding, and body doubling
→ Attendance is optional
→ Call time is Friday at 1-3pm Eastern Time
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Enneagram Assessment
→ A professional iEQ9 Enneagram Assessment with accompanying report and insights into your core motivations and how best to action your ideas and collaborate with others
→ We’ll talk about the Enneagram in one of our Creation Calls, and you can also dive deeper in one of our coaching sessions.
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Individual Support
→ Two 60-minute one-on-one coaching sessions with Sophia
→ Personalized support for whatever you’re needing at the time
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Community Space
We’ll use Slack as a cozy, supportive space for connection, collaboration, and resource sharing between calls.
If you’re really wanting to join this program but the dates/times don’t work for you, please email me directly and let me know. We may be able to put together a second cohort that would work, or I’ll keep your preferences in mind for the next time I run Creation Lab.
Sophia strikes the balance between powerhouse coach and compassionate ally. Working with Sophia is always enlightening; she can peer into my soul, see where I need to go and support me on the journey to uncover my greatest happiness.
I’m damn lucky to have been coached by Sophia.
– J., OntarioKind Words
You see possibilities everywhere and can’t help but imagine something better
You have a bold, imaginative streak and aren’t afraid to dream big
You notice injustice and want to take action in ways that matter
You thrive in collaboration and connection, knowing that great ideas grow in community
You love to experiment, play, and learn as you go, even if it feels messy or uncertain
You crave clarity and confidence but also embrace the journey of discovery along the way
You hold joy, creativity, and liberation as essential
Fat Joy Creation Lab may be for you if…
You’re ready to shape your ideas into something real, a Minimum Viable Project (MVP), that carries your vision into the world.
Envision it
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Get Creating
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Make a Ruckus
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Envision it → Get Creating → Make a Ruckus →
Here’s what your 6 months in Fat Joy Creation Lab will look like
Each month is designed to nurture your ideas so they can grow and take shape, all within a circle of caring, insightful peers who magnify each other’s ideas and brilliance.
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Month One: Clarify Your Vision
You’ve got the glimmer of something beautiful inside you.
This month is about giving that spark room to breathe. You’ll ground your project in your values, your joy, and your lived experience.
Together, we’ll uncover what you want to create and why it matters.
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Month Two: Give Form To Your Idea
Now we turn that spark into something real. You’ll start shaping your idea into a form that feels true to you—whether it’s a workshop, art project, podcast, offering, or something brand new.
We’ll make it doable, joyful, and aligned with your capacity.
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Month Three: Create The Heart Of Your Project
This is where your project begins to breathe.
You’ll play, test, and tinker- drafting, designing, or prototyping the heart of your creation.
We’ll talk about how to make things good enough instead of perfect, and how to keep the process joyful.
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Month Four: Be Seen & Share Your Voice
Visibility can be tender. This month, we’ll explore what it means to be seen on your own terms.
You’ll find ways to share your work that feel aligned, not performative, so your story and your voice shine through.
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Month Five: Build Systems That Support You
Joyful work deserves sustainable care. We’ll talk about systems, structure, and support, but with heart.
You’ll learn how to organize your time, energy, and resources in ways that honor your body, your brilliance, and your boundaries.
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Month Six: Reflect, Refine, and Celebrate
You did it! You dreamed, built, and shared something rooted in fat joy.
This month, we gather to celebrate your wins, reflect on your growth, and imagine what’s next. We’ll share our projects, our lessons, and the deep knowing that your project is part of collective liberation.
Six months of creation, coaching, and community
What You Receive
Inside the Program —
12 x Creation Calls (2 hours)
6 x Monthly Coworking Calls (2 hours)
2 x Private 1:1 Coaching Session with Sophia (60 mins)
1 x iEQ9 Enneagram Assessment + Report
Slack Community
Investment
Pay Once —
One payment of $3500 USD (save $400)
Pay Installments —
Six monthly payments of $650 USD
Call Schedule
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Tuesdays, 7-9pm ET
Mar 3, 17, & 31
Apr 14 & 28
May 12 & 26
Jun 9 & 23
Jul 7 & 21
Aug 4
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Fridays, 1-3pm ET
Mar 13
Apr 24
May 15
Jun 5 & 19
Jul 17
“Sophia brings a great deal of intelligence, compassion and warmth to her work as a coach.
She has a hard-won personal sense of confidence stemming from her own evolution and experiences, and this has made her both a strong person and a relatable coach -- someone in the trenches, as we are, and who has developed a remarkable knowledge base of coaching techniques and processes to walk us through.”
- M., New YorkWhat makes Creation Lab different
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Everything inside Creation Lab is grounded in research, coaching mastery, and lived fat wisdom, but we don’t grind here.
This is a slow, spacious space built through an anti-oppression lens and shaped by practices of equity, care, and accessibility.
We rest, we reflect, we laugh.
We make room for your nervous system to catch up with your dreams.
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This isn’t a one-size-fits-all program.
Together, we weave a rich tapestry of tools and practices: professional coaching frameworks, leadership development, Enneagram insights, inner critic and saboteur work, visibility and influence exercises, time and energy flow strategies, neuroscience tools for behaviour change, creative and writing practices, mindfulness, and so much more.
Every modality is chosen to support your unique way of creating.
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I’m a large fat person who’s been doing this work from the inside out.
I’ve worked in startups, built fat liberation offerings that have changed lives, and now run my own thriving coaching business.
With over 3,500 hours of coaching and thousands more facilitating groups, my life’s work is to create brave, joyful spaces where people show up fully.
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In over a decade of fat liberation work, I’ve never seen anything like Creation Lab.
It’s the first mastermind-meets-incubator built for fat people, by fat people.
A place where we get to dream, soften, and rise together while centering our fat joy.
What I’ve seen happen when you invite in fat joy:
I wish I had a crystal ball and could tell you exactly what’s waiting for you inside Creation Lab, but part of the magic is that we get to discover it together. Creating your project isn’t linear or predictable, which is often the way it goes with masterminds.
But, let me share what I’ve noticed over the past decade of walking beside folks as they build lives and projects rooted in their deepest truth.
A bit about Sophia
Hello lovely! For over a decade, I’ve been creating joyful, rebellious spaces for fat folks, from naked workshops and Fat Joy writing workshops to self-care cards and the Fat Joy Podcast.
With Creation Lab, I’m helping people turn their frustration with diet culture and anti-fatness into creative acts of liberation that make a difference to our collective fat futures.
One of my gifts is taking big, dreamy ideas and wrapping my arms around them, transforming them into something tangible, impactful, and delightful. My other gift is holding spaces that blend warmth and courage – places where people can exhale, show up fully, and trust they’ll belong.
I live on the lands of the Anishinabek Nation, the Attiwonderonk, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (what is now called Ontario, Canada). At home, I share life with my husband, two teenage stepkids, and a doodle named Beatrice whose name means ‘bringer of joy,’ and she certainly lives up to it.
What they’re saying…
“Sophia’s understanding of the neuroscience basis for human behavior has given me a transformative lens. ”
“Every session I have a breakthrough and leave with new strategies and insights about how my brain works with actionable guidance on how to pull some of my latent gifts forward.”
“Sophia, as a confident and compassionate facilitator, cultivated an environment where participants felt at ease sharing and learning from each other.”
“I’ve discovered pillars that will center my leadership as well as tools to uncover new perspectives.”
“She brings so much good to the table and helps me to realize the handful of tools I need to refine and shine.”
“Sophia’s particular strength is listening actively, connecting the dots, challenging and reframing as needed, and providing a supportive catalyst for self-knowledge and personal growth. ”
Your questions.
My answers.
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Beautiful!
The truth is, when we create with fat folks at the center- with care, imagination, and liberation baked in- everyone benefits.
Centering fat people doesn’t mean excluding others, it means building from a place of justice and joy that ripples outward.
So if your project will touch other communities too, that’s a win for all of us.
I learned this first-hand with the Fat Joy Podcast. So many non-fat folks listened, learned, and then took beautiful, tangible action- like the school librarian who removed anti-fat books from the shelves and secured a new budget for fat-positive titles. I still tear up thinking about that!
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You’ll be directed to an application form with some questions about your interest in Creation Lab, and then I’ll email you directly to set up a time for us to connect on zoom.
The connection call is for us to get to know each other, talk through the program, answer all your questions, and see if Creation Lab is a good match. Please know that this isn’t a sales call- there’s no special bonuses for booking immediately, no coercive sales tactics, no false urgency. Joining Creation Lab is an important decision, and it needs to be completely yours.
After we talk, and you’re feeling like this is something you’d like to move forward with, I’ll send you the payment link to confirm your spot in the program, and you’ll have three days to pay in full or by installments.
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Such a good question- I’d be wondering the same thing!
Here’s what I can tell you: if you’re drawn to Creation Lab, you’re likely thoughtful, creative, and committed to building more joy and liberation for fat folks. That shared vision is our starting place, and it means we’re already connected by something powerful and important.
And, because this is a real, human space, there will be differences. We each bring our own lived experiences, identities, and ways of thinking. Sometimes that means we’ll bump into discomfort or misunderstandings, not because anything’s wrong, but because growth and community are messy. You won’t have to navigate that alone. I’ve designed this space to hold both safety (as much as possible) and stretch, with community agreements, repair practices, and gentle facilitation so that care stays at the center.
For over twenty-five years, I’ve been leading groups through experiences just like this. My job is to tend the container so you can show up as yourself, whether that’s quietly, boldly, or somewhere in between. I’m not perfect, but I bring humility, humor, and a deep commitment to holding everyone with compassion.
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Creation Lab is built for fat people, especially for those of us who rarely find spaces that center our experiences, bodies, and brilliance.
That said, “fat” isn’t a number or a size cut-off, it’s a lived experience. If you move through the world in a body that’s marginalized because of size (whether you call yourself fat, plus-size, mid-fat, superfat, or you’re still figuring out what language feels right), you belong here.
This space is intentionally centered around fat folks’ realities: our joy, our challenges, our creativity, our leadership. It’s not the right space for people who don’t experience size-based oppression, but it is the right space if you’re seeking community, learning, and liberation alongside others who know what it’s like to be treated differently because of your body.
If you’re unsure or feel “in-between,” please reach out. I’m always happy to chat and help you discern whether Creation Lab feels like the right fit for you.
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Let’s talk in our connection call about how we handle Canadian currency requests.
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The twice-monthly Creation Calls are an essential part of Creation Lab because they’re where connection, accountability, and magic really happen.
That said, life happens! Should something unexpected arise, my hope is that you’ll listen to the recording and share your insights on our Slack community message space.
If you know you might miss a session or two, reach out ahead of time, and I’ll work with you to make sure you can stay fully engaged and part of the group.
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There isn’t traditional “homework” here, no busywork or assignments for the sake of proving yourself. Most exercises and reflections are optional, designed to support your learning, creativity, and project-building.
You can expect to spend a couple of hours between calls exploring your ideas, implementing what we talked about in the last call, or reflecting on what was meaningful to you. The pace is flexible, as this is about creating your project not burning yourself out.
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Because Creation Lab is a small, intimate group experience, there are no refunds after the program has begun.
If something comes up before we start, we’ll talk and try to find a solution, or perhaps find someone to take your place.
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Maybe, but that’s not the main goal (at least, not yet).
Creation Lab is an incubator space designed to help you bring an idea into form- to experiment, prototype, and create a Minimum Viable Project (MVP). What you make might eventually grow into something you sell, share, or scale. Or, it might stay as a personal or community offering that nourishes you in other ways.
Either way, you’ll leave the Lab with something tangible- a clear concept, a first draft, a pilot, or a living experiment- and the clarity to decide what comes next for you and your work.
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I get that, deeply. Many of us live with real financial limits and long histories of being told we’re not worth investing in. Creation Lab offers a monthly payment plan, which I hope makes it more accessible.
The program is a high-touch, small-group experience, and spots are limited. I researched other masterminds, and priced Creation Lab lower for accessibility as well.
If the cost isn’t something you can manage right now, then this isn’t the right time to join, and please know that’s okay. I hope you can return when it is the right time or explore other ways to build fat joy in the meantime. For instance, if you’re wanting inspiring stories from other fat folks dreaming big, check out the Fat Joy Podcast with Sophia Apostol.
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I feel this way too, a lot. It’s easy to look around and feel like joy or creativity are luxuries right now. The world feels heavy, unjust, and uncertain. But that’s exactly why this work matters.
Creation Lab isn’t about ignoring what’s happening, it’s about responding to it with imagination and care. When fat folks create, gather, and build joyful things, we’re refusing erasure. We’re practicing futures where we not only exist but thrive. And I want to be part of creating that future!!
Your creativity is an act of resistance. Your joy is a blueprint for the world we’re trying to build. And together, we make those blueprints real — one project, one brave act of creation at a time.
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Maybe? Creation Lab requires quite a lot of time and energy to run, so I may want to take a break, which would mean 2027 could be the next offering.
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I’m honoured! Here are some places to learn more about me and the projects I’ve created:
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Fat Elders & Teachers
A non-exhaustive list of the people who have helped me navigate my way out of diet culture and anti-fatness, develop liberatory practices, and have fat joy while doing so:
Jes Baker
Sonya Renee Taylor
Ragen Chastain
Tricia Hersey
Octavia Butler
Every person I interviewed on the Fat Joy Podcast
Elise Loehnen
Kaveri Patel
Dan Simmons
Emily Nagoski
Sabrina Guerin
Co-Active Training Institute (CPCC)
BeAbove Leadership
Lindy West
Aubrey Gordon
Virgie Tovar
adrienne maree brown
Dr. Brene Brown
Chris Kay Fraser and the whole team at Firefly Creative Writing
Danusha Lameris
Naomi Shihab Nye
Prentice Hemphill
Sabrina Strings
Tarzan Kay
International Coaching Federation (PCC)
Verve Group Coaching
iEQ9 Integrative Enneagram Solutions
This does not equate with an endorsement of the entire body of work of any of the names listed above, rather, each of these folks have deeply impacted me in some way.
