About Us
Hi! I'm Jo! I almost blew up my life in the search for balance.
I had it all! The successful corporate career, the brand new house, the wonderful husband and two gorgeous children. Yet, on the inside, I was burning out and wondered why I wasn't happy.
This is how I found true balance and my purpose. While it's my story, it sounds familiar to many others like me.
Climbing the Ladder
I spent 20 years in the corporate world, rising quickly to become a global organisation's Asia Pacific Chief Marketing Officer at 32.
I spent much of my career in financial and professional services, often working in global roles. I have a deep first-hand understanding of the pressures, expectations and workload that come from fast-paced environments.
One of the defining moments of my career was when my Chairman called at midnight to advise a hostile takeover from a competitor was being announced before the stock market opened at 9am the next day. I needed to be in the boardroom by 8am, with a long list of deliverables. I was four months pregnant and in another country. Needless to say, I delivered.
The Juggle
I juggled this rapidly escalating career with raising two children, staying healthy by doing triathlons between babies and constantly pushing myself to be the best I could be.
While there were wonderful times, the juggle is real. Sick children. A husband with mental health challenges. Sudden deaths in the family. There was never a time when life was easy.
To add to the chaos, I bought a house, knocked it down and built my dream house.
I was constantly busy, felt guilty, struggled to switch off and was exhausted. Yet I was so full of adrenaline that I didn't even realise it.
The Great Blow It All Up Moment
I had everything I ever wanted. I had used my intellect, grit and willpower to achieve what I thought was success.
Yet, something was missing.
I wasn't happy.
And I couldn't put my finger on why.
I should be happy! I looked happy, yet deep down, I wondered if something was wrong with me because I wasn't meant to feel this way.
So I started changing everything.
I sold the dream house after only 18 months without anywhere else to live.
I left my well-paid job without another and no way to bring in money.
I almost blew up my marriage because it wasn't what I knew it could be.
And after all those changes, I still wasn't happy. Something was missing.
What I didn't realise was that I was burnt out.
I thought blowing up my life was the answer, assuming that changing my circumstances would make it all better.
Turns out, the common denominator in everything was me.
A New Era Begins
Realising it was me, I started a long, soul-searching personal development journey to understand how to break this burn-out cycle and learn to be happy.
I wanted a fulfilling career, to be a great mum and to have the energy to enjoy everything I'd worked so hard to build.
I changed my mindset and unlocked emotions that had been numb for years. I reset my nervous system and gave it the nurturing it needed. I tamed the behaviours that no longer served me, including my perfectionism, constant search for external validation, and obsession with logic and intellect.
I found the best mentors and coaches worldwide and invested in what it took. I was the family's only breadwinner, and time was not on my side.
It worked. Things shifted very quickly.
Despite thinking I was alone, I realised others felt like me. Those who looked like they had it all on the outside secretly knew there had to be more to life than this.
Others needed the toolkit I had discovered. They too, didn't have time on their side and didn't want to walk this journey alone.
Thus, the Balance Institute was born.
Today, we are blessed to have helped thousands of ambitious women break their burnout patterns without blowing up their lives!
You don't have to choose between your family and your career. You can have it all.
You need to decide what your all is and create what balance means for you.
Our Team
Jaclyn Urban Luna - Mindset Coach
Jaclyn has a beautiful complimentary skillset as a Body-Based Transformational Coach.
Her expertise is in helping clients get out of their heads and into their bodies, where they're able to access deep inner wisdom, let go of disempowering emotions and reclaim their power.
Jaclyn employs an integrated approach of creational and healing work, informed by psycho-spiritual and neuro-somatic principles, to support her clients to align their subconscious with their conscious body-mind, to create a life they love.
Jaclyn and her husband, Miguel, had their first child, Alejandro, in late 2022 and like all of us, is on her own journey to figure out how to live her best life with balance.
Jaclyn lives in Los Angeles, USA, and works with clients across all our programs.
Sabina Lawrence - Mindset Coach
Sabina is passionate about helping high-performing women in leadership create more meaningful impact by bringing more peace, purpose and passion into all facets of their lives - not just at work.
Throughout her corporate career and her own private coaching practice, Sabina has developed a unique approach to meet her client's needs, beautifully complimenting Jo's corporate background and Jaclyn's neuro-somatic expertise.
Guiding her clients through the mind and heart and inner and outer work, she blends practical experience and intuitive wisdom to help create transformation that is sustainable and gentle, yet potent.
Sabina has worn many professional hats over the past 30 years, including Kinesiologist, Hypnotherapist (RTT), EFT and QHHT practitioner, and most recently, a Global HR Manager and mix-media artist (after releasing the belief that she wasn't creative!)
Originally from England, she now calls the lush surrounds of Byron Bay home alongside her entrepreneurial teenage son and sweet-natured pooch.
Sabina works with clients across all our programs.
