Balance & Beyond Podcast

Struggling to find harmony between your deepest desires and your daily grind?

This season of Balance and Beyond is your ticket to transformation, where I open up about my own quest for alignment and how it's reshaping my approach to success. The journey begins with a heartfelt reflection on the swift evolution of our lives and how vital it is to ensure that our internal compass is not just acknowledged but followed. I'll take you through my personal story, discussing the power of realignment in our personal and professional endeavours. By embracing growth, we can align our actions with our beliefs, and I'm thrilled to share how this shift has revolutionised not only my life but also the core of my coaching program.

As we venture into this episode, we unpack the enchantment of intuition—how it can guide us toward decisions that resonate deeply with who we are, often resulting in outcomes that defy traditional success metrics. Remember the excitement of being so engrossed in a project that time just seemed to flow? That's the magic I felt while crafting the new Balance & Beyond Executive Coaching Program, with each piece falling into place as if by serendipity. It's this sense of alignment that can turn our pursuits into a graceful dance rather than a strenuous climb. So, gear up for an expedition through the transformative power of alignment and intuition, where we'll explore how aligning our inner voice with our outer actions can lead to a more fulfilling, frictionless path to success.

Episode Transcript

INTRO: Welcome to Balance and Beyond, the podcast for ambitious women who refuse to accept burnout as the price of success. Here, we’re committed to empowering you with the tools and strategies you need to achieve true balance, where your career, relationships and health all thrive, and where you have the power to define success on your own terms. I honour the space you’ve created for yourself today, so take a breath, and let's dive right in…

Welcome back to 2024! I am so excited to be kicking off season two of the Balance and Beyond podcast, and a huge thank you to every single one of you who have listened to these episodes. I was delighted to find out that we were in the top 25% of all podcasts in 2023, which, for a brand new podcast, for a very niche audience and without a huge social media following, I was delighted. 

So, thank you to everybody who has given us a star rating, who has forwarded this onto their friends, who has recommended others listen to it. We are eternally grateful for this beautiful platform, which allows us to share our messages with the world, and to ensure that women don't burn out in record numbers, because there is a better way to lead this life. I hope you are prepared for an action packed and jam packed season two. 

I have so much to share. Things have been evolving with me personally, with the business, at such a rapid, rapid level. And I'm excited to share what is coming through for me, what wisdom I have to share, what we are learning through our clients, and knowing that this is going to really help you level up, too. You will notice a pattern. With my podcasts, and with all the content I do, I want to be able to take, let's say, stories. I want to be able to take words of wisdom, and help you translate this into something that's going to impact your day. 

I am very much a person who doesn't want things to simply be intellectual. I don't want you to just know something because, let's be honest, every single person in the world knows what they need to do to improve their lives. This isn't a knowing thing, this isn't an intellectual thing. You don't lack the knowledge or the strategy, you lack the mindset. And so, the more you can pause after I ask you the questions here, the more you can take the time to reflect on what is coming up for you, the better results you're actually going to get. 

And I know I've had many people contact me and they have said, “I've binged the entire series!” And they listened to lots of episodes. That's awesome! I love that you're doing that, but I also want to make sure that you're taking something away from this. I want you to make sure that, from every episode that you listen to, that you say, “All right, what was my learning from that?” “What am I going to do with that?” Because, otherwise, I'm just somebody else in your ear. And I love being in your ear, do not get me wrong. But, I want to make a difference in your life. I want to ensure that you are changed, because of what I have shared. 

So, that is my request of you this year, is that you take the time and space to pick a nugget. You share it on socials. Tag me, you know, share it with a friend and share your nugget of wisdom. This is how we change, this is how we break convention and this is how, as women, we get to create. A new narrative is when we turn around and say, “We're not just going to know stuff anymore, people!” “We're going to do something with this knowledge.” 

So, once again, thank you so much for getting us here. Do share this with a friend. I've had so much positive feedback. This has been a beautiful way for me to launch into new audiences, and for people to rediscover more about the Balance Institute, and what we do. So this year will be a game changer on so many levels. And for today's episode, I want to share with you what has been one of the biggest game changes for me. 

Over the past four months in particular, and when I talk about game changers, it all starts with one word. And that word is “alignment.” It's a bit of a buzzword, it's a fluffy one that's thrown around. But, I want to share with you what alignment means to me, why it's been so important in my evolution, especially over the last little while, and, importantly, how you can cultivate alignment in your life, and to give you some inspiration as to what can happen, when you get in alignment. 

This is a word that I use with my clients a lot and I'm helping them get in alignment. And my gosh, the magic that happens when we get out of our own way, when we're able to step through things! Everything changes. The goodness comes faster, the suffering dissolves, and this is what I want for you. I want you to live a life of alignment and to help you understand what alignment means to me. Alignment, to me, is where what is happening on the outside is in alignment or congruent with, or in coherence with, what is going on the inside. 

And by the inside, I don't just mean what you think you want. It means that my actions match up with both my conscious and my subconscious mind. In order to get into alignment, we have to rip out the weeds. We have to address the limiting beliefs where we might be saying externally, “Yes, I want wealth and abundance.” And your conscious mind says, “Yes, I would like to be wealthy, and I would like to fly business class, and I would like to own a castle in France.” And your subconscious mind goes, “You're not worthy of money.” “You have to work really hard for money.” “You're never gonna have any money.” “You can't really deal with money.” 

That is misalignment. Because you are not mind-body, spirit, conscious, subconscious, energetically aligned. You are not all singing from the same song sheet. And so, what happens is, when you're out of alignment, there is friction from an energetic, let's call it, a signal perspective. There's static in the line, and so things are harder. And the universe is always listening. 

Whether you call it the universe, whether you call it God, whether you call it mother earth, you call it the source, whatever word you want to wrap around this. If you believe that there is something out there, that there is a collective consciousness, even if it's bigger than you. Well, it's always listening, and so is your subconscious. Your subconscious takes everything in, even when you think you scrolled past that thing, or you think that that thing that got said by your parents, it didn't sink in. It's all there. 

And until we do the work to bring ourselves in alignment, where what's happening on the inside matches up with the outside. And by outside, I mean our behaviors, our actions, our intentions, even our emotions. Then, my goodness, everything changes. So, let me share with you a story about how I have understood better what alignment means. And because I'm someone who evolves very quickly, it's very easy for me to get out of alignment. 

Now, alignment doesn't have to be a bad thing. I'm not saying that, “Oh you're out of alignment.” “You're a bad person.” I'm saying alignment is a beautiful problem that you have to solve when you are growing. And this is what happens in the containers that people come to me with. They come into these programs, and they evolve very rapidly, and so it's very easy to become out of alignment because your beliefs have shifted. And it becomes a wonderful journey of life, to say, “All right, I'm going to put alignment as a principle, as a value, that's important to me, and this is what it means to me.” 

To me, being in alignment is almost the same as being in integrity. And I know I've done so much work on myself that, when it comes to integrity, at a subconscious level, I feel like I have no choice but to “be with integrity.” And by that, I mean, it's not just a value that's important to me. I literally cannot function as a human if I'm out of integrity, which means if I'm saying something that I'm not doing, there is mass friction. I will experience all kinds of, “I don't say bad things”, but suffering and angst when I am out of alignment, and so I've made one of my life goals is to identify where I'm out of alignment, and how do I bring that back into place. Because I have evolved so much over the last few years. 

I started to recognise, into the second half of 2023, that the things I was teaching my clients, particularly those in my top level, masterminds. I looked back at what I had initially created as my signature eight week program and thought, hmm, like this program is amazing. We've had close to 350 women go through it. We have changed so many lives. I can hand on heart 100% be in alignment with that comment. 

But, I also started to reflect on the woman who created that program and the woman I am today, and they felt so very different, the way that I even created it, the things that I believed about myself and the way that I was taught, the things that I believed about myself and the world, the way that I believed others had to operate. It now feels night and day from where I am. And so, I recognised that I had now become out of alignment with what I was teaching. It’s not that the principles aren't the same. But, it was more that the energy in which it was created doesn't align with who I am now. 

If I was to make this again, yes, the tools and everything are foundational, but the way I would present it might be different. The stories I share might be different, the way I incorporate different elements might be different. And so, I made the really tricky decision to say, “I am going to put down, somebody might use the word ‘burn’ the thing, the foundation of my business, that I have created, and I'm going to do it again.” It sounds nuts, right? It's almost like I decided to burn down my business. 

But, I felt like I had no choice. And it absolutely, without question, felt like the right thing to do. When I started to stare into 2024, I realised that this next level of growth that is opening up for me is going to require me to bring the business in alignment with who I am now. And I had all kinds of people saying to me, “Jo, you're nuts.” “If it ain't broke, don't fix it.” “Leave it alone, it's fine.” And, yes, it's fine. But, I know it could be better. This isn't the easy choice. It's a lot of work to go and recreate a program, to rebuild it, to build all the content, to record all the videos, to build all the automation. This is a lot, a lot, a lot of work, and not something that you take on lightly. 

However, I knew that, for me to step into my next level of evolution, this is something that I had to do. And, whether you call it “woo”, whether you call it “spirituality”, whatever you want to call it, there were so many signs that started to come to me, as I had this thought of, “All right, I feel like there's a program coming.” “There's something coming through me, that we are starting to talk about magic and miracles.” 

The things that started happening in my life just blew me away. And this is when you start following your intuition, and you start prioritising alignment, that life becomes so much more enjoyable. There's so much less suffering, and it becomes fascinating, because you never know what is going to come your way. And, when I talk about bringing things into alignment, for me, what was really important, and I ended up calling my new program, what felt really right, was actually the name of this podcast. 

And my new program is called the “Balance and Beyond Executive Coaching Program”, because it's not just about balance now. It is about going beyond that. And when we talk about alignment, I also wanted to even create this program in a way that represented the person that I am today. When I built the last program, I was still consulting full-time. I was recording things in my closet, because that was the only place that didn't echo. I created it as I got my clients, so I was very much on the fly. I wouldn't say I was reactive, because it's a brilliant program, but it was cultivated in the old masculine paradigm of, “All right, let's do it.” “Let's stay up until 1am.” “Let's make it happen.” 

And in reality, I was determined that not only was the output going to be elevated and upgraded, I was incredibly intentional, and wanted to be in alignment with how I wanted to create this. I wanted to create a program in a way that represented who I am now. And this is where I refused to force this thing through. I wanted to be inspired by, “How could I build this in a way that is better, but also faster, with a lot less suffering from me?” 

And the way that I did this was I knew that if I've got really big creative things to do, I can't do it at my desk in my office, because this is where I get stuff done. This is where I have transactional work to do, and, while my office is beautiful, I need to get myself into an environment that inspires that creativity. So, when I did, I took myself off to a hotel. Thankfully, I have millions of frequent flyer points. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, for the amount of money that I give you. 

And I took myself off with points to a hotel and, again, incredibly intentional, it wasn't just any hotel. I chose a hotel where I had a view over the water and I could see the horizon. Because I need to feel expansive. As I did this, I bought all my favourite foods to take with me, and I opened myself up to, “All right, I feel like it's time to evolve.” “I feel like it's time to upgrade.” “What have you got for me?” What can I drop in? 

Whether you call it inspiration, or you call it a light bulb moment, whether you call it a download. What if I could literally download this program? If you've seen the matrix, I love it. There's a scene where Trinity is in a helicopter and goes, “I need to learn how to fly the helicopter.” And back in the 3D world or wherever you get outside the matrix, literally, the person goes and plugs in a SIM card and uploads how to fly a helicopter into her brain. And then she's like, “Right, we're good.” “Let's go.” 

And the more you tap into your intuition, and the more you get in alignment, the more I have found that these things start happening to me. Literally, I download things and it's what other people would call “inspiration.” Even the idea for this business, you could call it “a download.” 

At the time, I called it a light bulb moment. I was running and just went, “Oh my god, what is this thing?” “This has been happening for centuries and there's different language people wrap around it, depending on what you're receptive to.” So I sat there in this hotel room and went, “All right, let me start writing.” “What are my dreams?” “What do I know?” “What have I learned in the last little while?” And initially, I pulled out my laptop and I felt a nudge “Put your laptop down.” “Get pen and paper.” “Okay, this is a bit weird.” “All right, I've learned to trust these.” And this has been a huge part of what I've cultivated over the last few years. Is this intuition, this knowing. 

And as I was cultivating this program, I was very much out of hustle masculine energy, which is push, grind about the results, about the money or about how many people I can help. And this was more about, “I'm gonna sit in the joy of this creation.” “I'm going to be receptive.” “I'm going to sit in my feminine.” “I'm going to sit in flow.” Athletes call this “the zone.” Where you are so laser focused that nothing can distract you, and time collapses, because everything just feels genius, and everything comes too easy. You become magnetic as to what's yours. 

And so I sat there, thinking, “All right, I'll get my laptop out.” “No?” “All right, pen and paper.” And I had these little cards, almost like palm cards, and I started writing down, “What are all the tools that I know?” And because there's probably, I don't know, 50 to 70 if you were to pull them out as individual tools in my existing program. But, I've at least doubled or tripled that over the years, with what I've learned, with how I've learned to expand, to deepen all the tools that I have. 

And, really importantly, what happens when you put all these tools together, because that's the genius of what I do, it's not these individual tools, it's what happens when you overlay A with B, and then layer on Z and Y Whoa. This is when they become so incredibly potent. And so I Ended up, over a two hour period, as I was writing down all these pieces, I was looking at all these cards and it almost was like I became possessed, if you could use that word, or I just became so incredibly inspired that I started laying out on the floor these cards with all right, well, what? 

“How can I do this?” “How do I group these?” “If I wanted to teach these, what would be a better way?” If I could start from scratch, and I'll start here and there, and that I was having a jelly bean here, and I was having a corn chip there, and I had all my favourite foods. And I was so fuelling myself and keeping myself going and I sat back. It felt like two minutes. It's actually two hours later. And I had the complete outline for a brand new program. Literally in two hours, and it felt effortless. I was doing all the things as, “Oh no, that one there and that one there, and then this idea would be like ‘what about this tour?’” Yes, I could put that there. “What about this?” And “You could do this.”

And so I was writing things down again. Pen and paper when you're in these Flow states is so much better than a computer. As complete silence, apart from the odd corn chip that was crunched and munched. And it was so beautiful that I was allowed to download this information, and to really tap into my intuition as I looked out, at the sun setting across the screen, at the sun setting across the water, as I was able to really sit and look, and I literally just stood up at the end to put my hands on my hips and just went, “That is freaking amazing!” And it literally didn't feel like I'd done it. It felt like it had come through me. 

You might have heard me use this language before, and it was. You know, you could call it a lightning bolt idea. But, to be able to stand there and look at something and go, “That is brilliant.” And to just know that that is what you were here for, to know that all the work I'd done on my intuition, or the feeling about, “I feel like I need to redo this program.” It all came because I had decided I'd prioritised alignment ahead of revenue, or ahead of status quo, because that is something that is so important to me. 

And, no surprise, when you decide that it's time for alignment, then everything else starts to shift. All right, “How do I bring my other programs into alignment?” “What can I do with how I deliver this to bring this more in alignment?” And magic happened. I can say it again. It's really hard to put into words and I know for some people who can be very intellectual and who are very evidence-based, this may sound a little woo, it may sound a little bit witchy. But I tell you what? This is where all the fun is. 

Now, the challenge that I used to have with finding the time to get in alignment, was that my brain overrode everything that I did. I have been an incredibly logical and practical person. I have been very much in my hustle and masculine energy for a very long time. I questioned everything and it was always my intellect, and my intelligence, and my ability to problem-solve, and logic, and get evidence that got me a lot of my success. 

When everybody else would flounder, I was able to find the words to convince them that it could be this way. And to actually decide that I'm going to put that to the side and I'm going to start trusting that if I have this nudge, or I have this feeling, that that's the right thing, or that's what I need to do. Even if there's evidence to the contrary, well, I'm going to follow that nudge, I'm going to follow that feeling. 

And that was something that took me a really long time to accept, because I didn't really believe in intuition. I had always had it, but mine disappeared for a really, really long time. And I think, to be honest, the corporate world can bash this out of us. Because while I would sometimes I'd go to hire someone and think, “Oh, my instinct says this.” Well, HR told me I had to have evidence to back it up, and I shouldn't be relying on my instinct, because that's got unconscious bias in it. 

Well, yes, but it also told me to dumb down and not to listen to my gut, or that voice inside me that said, “Something's fishy here” or “Something feels off.” And every time I ignored that voice, it never worked out well. And I realised that this inner guidance system that I actually had needed reigniting. It needed cultivating. And the more I have focused on it, and built it like a muscle, the more I have trusted that, “That's going to knock.” When it's time to knock, the easier everything gets. And this, to me, is what this alignment becomes. It is when my subconscious mind says “Go” and my gut says “Go.” Well, then I can step into the behaviours that I know how to do, and I'm in alignment. So, it happens much faster. 

Another example of what this alignment has looked like for me is I had been sitting on the idea of a podcast for probably 18 months or more before I started it. Possibly two years. I knew it was something that I always wanted to do, but every time I was like, “Hmm, should I start a podcast this quarter?” My instinct was like, “No.” It didn't feel right, it wasn't aligned. I had some resistance to it, or it didn't feel like the right time. 

I can't even remember what it was that triggered me. I woke up one morning and went, “It's time to start a podcast.” And everything inside me just lit up and went “Yep!” Because, I was now in alignment. My spirit was saying “yes”, my body was saying “yes” and my mind went “Okay, yeah, it's a lot.” I've got work to do.” But, I could see the fear for what it was and go, “No, this is aligned with me now.” “This is what I’m meant to be doing, so I'm going to step into it.” I stood up the first episode in two weeks, because everything flowed from there. 

When I talk about things speed up when you're in alignment, I had somebody put up a post about this new software they just found. Then I found a coupon code for it that landed in my inbox. And then the first topic came to me and somebody said, “Oh, there's this special on a design thing, would you like that?” And then somebody said, “You can use AI for this.” And I'm like, “Oh my God!” I could not believe how fast this podcast came together. And the most important piece, and the benefit of alignment, is that it wasn't hard. 

I didn't suffer, I didn't beat myself up, I didn't second guess myself. I’m not suggesting that the content magically recorded itself. Of course, there were things that I had to do as a human. But, all the suffering went, and it was like the pathway was cleared for me, and this is what has happened with this new program that I've created. It's like the path was created for me. 

It's been a lot of work, let me tell you. There's been some late nights, and there's nothing wrong with that. But, there has been so much joy in knowing that what I'm about to bring, it's not just about what it is that I have produced, It's not just about the output. It's about how it was created. It was about the way that it was done. It's about, “This now sees me in alignment on all levels of my business.” “And I know that, despite what others may think of me, going to all this extra work.” This was worth it, because if I'm not in alignment. I'm not going to grow. And this is the year for me to scale, to grow, to impact many more women, to break the paradigm that ambitious women have been lumped with. 

But to do that, I'm only going to be successful if I have this beautiful, clear signal that says, “This is who I am.” “This is what I'm teaching.” “Come and get it.” “It's time.” “It's time for this next level to emerge.” And I really invite you to have a think about, “Where are you misaligned in your life?” “Where is there a gap between what you believe on the inside, and what is happening on the outside?” Because I promise you, when you look at, “All right, well, I'm saying this about my health, and I'm trying to take these actions about my health, but when I think about it on the inside, this is what I really believe.” “This is what I really believe about myself.” “These are the weeds that are buried deep in my subconscious.” 

You are not going to be successful and anything that you try is going to be hard, and you're going to have to grind, and there is going to be so much suffering. Whereas if you can turn around and say, “I'm going to focus on alignment.” “I'm going to get myself matched.” “I'm going to have a clear signal.” “I'm going to do the work on myself to identify what it is that I really want on the inside.” “I'm going to clear out any fears.” “I'm going to get rid of any subconscious blocks.” “I'm going to stop any self-sabotage programs.” And if I can do this, and line it up with what I tell myself I want, then the behaviour is going to absolutely get you what you want faster. The universe is going to step in, and you're going to start playing with magic and miracles. 

I hear my clients say this all the time. “Jo, you wouldn't believe it.” “Oh my gosh, we had this conversation and then this thing just happened.” Why can't you attract what you want to yourself? Why can't the pathway be clear? Why must it be hard? It is only hard when you're out of alignment. And so, I am so excited about what 2024 is going to bring. Not just for this podcast, but for my business, for all these women who have been waiting to step into the next, best version of themselves. Because, in me becoming in alignment, in me stepping into this, what I'm actually doing is broadcasting a signal out there to say, “Anybody else who's out of alignment and wants to step into alignment, this is the place that you do it.” 

Because I've done it. I have, in theory, burnt my business to the ground. I have reimagined everything. I have taken, in theory, a very big commercial risk. But I know, 100% in alignment, that this is the right thing to do. This is the right thing for me, and this is the right thing for every single person who is now ready to step into my world, who is ready to perhaps go beyond the podcast, who is ready to say “yes” to herself on a level. She's done paying with time. She's done living in misalignment. She's done with a scratchy signal that is not clear on what she wants, because she's saying one thing and believing another. She consciously believes one thing but doesn't realise why she keeps self-sabotaging. 

If you are somebody who is ready to step into the next best version of yourself, if 2024 is the year for you to get into alignment, then I invite you to book a discovery session with my team. Talking about my program isn't something I do a lot, but this year it's time to share more about what I do. It's time to pull back the curtain and talk more about the tools in my toolkit and how I help women, because I'm doing a disservice to somebody out there who isn't sure that there is an option, who doesn't know that there is something that is right for them, that is ready for them whenever they are ready to say yes to themselves. 

If this is the year that you're going to become an avid podcast listener, it's amazing. It is lovely to have you here and I'm going to have so many insights to share with you. But, I encourage you to think about, “Where are you misaligned?” “Where are you ready to take out the friction?” “Where are you ready for magic and miracles?” And if that's the case, I would love to talk. I would love to welcome you into this beautiful new signature program, and let's see what we can unlock for you in 2024. 

OUTRO: Thank you for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond Podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who might need to hear this today. And if you're feeling extra generous, leaving us a review on your podcast platform of choice would mean the world. If you’re keen to dive deeper into our world, visit us at www.balanceinstitute.com to discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women avoid burnout and create a life of balance, and beyond. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast.