Balance & Beyond Podcast

Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads, torn between the comfort of cold hard facts and the whisper of your intuition?

Join me as I recount my own evolution from a staunch executive to a spiritual seeker, finding that the embrace of 'woo'—those mystical, less tangible aspects of experience—can yield profound joy and success. This episode is a candid and vulnerable exploration of breaking free from long-held stereotypes and conditioning, where I reveal how tuning in to feminine energy and inner guidance has enriched my life and decision-making processes. It's a heartfelt conversation meant to inspire and resonate with any soul curious about the transformative power of integrating intuition into their personal and professional worlds.

Today's narrative weaves through the enchantment of life's synchronicities, inviting you to consider the magic in every 'coincidence'. I'll share the serendipitous tale of how an impulsive trip to Norway and the determination to own a new home were milestones on my path, guided by intuition. We celebrate the fusion of feminine power and spiritual insight with entrepreneurial grit, discussing how embracing our full range of abilities—including those labelled as 'woo'—can accelerate success and fulfilment. Whether you're a sceptic or a believer, this episode promises to offer a fresh perspective on the power of the unseen forces that guide us.

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…

It's time to get personal. And by that, I mean, I want to share with you a side of my evolution and personal journey. That isn't something I talk about very often. In fact, it's something that the old me would have completely thought was bonkers. That I'm even talking about this. Because I was very, very anti-this-particular-thing, but it has been so instrumental on my journey, as a key to my success. There's a chance that it could be for you, too. 

What am I talking about? I am talking about what I call the, “Woo” or the “Woo-Woo”, or “the witchcraft”, or “the spirituality”, or whatever it is you want to call it. Now, there's a chance that you've heard me say the words “Woo-Woo and gone, “That's it, Jo.” “I'm out.” “Not interested.” “Not talking about that stuff.” And that's okay! I would have been the same. 

I used to, when I first started my business, pitch myself as the “Anti-Woo” person. I was all about facts, logic, and neuroscience, and we're not going to get into any of this “woo stuff” because it's all crystals, and it's people floating about in Philly-shirts, and they're not real serious people. Well, I have changed my tune. And I've changed my tune, because it has made such a difference. 

I haven't changed my tune because it became trendy. I share this, and it may be relevant for you, because it has unlocked a side of me that actually has been full of so much joy, and it was a side that actually was longing to be released. So, if you want to bow out for today's episode, not a problem, have a wonderful day. But, if there is a little part of you that's curious how a very senior executive, who was very into logic and neuroscience, could actually now start embracing the “woo” and be seeing miraculous results from it. Well, let's keep going. 

Now, to define what I call “Woo” or “Woo-Woo”, or whatever you want to call it, the technical definition is around things that are outlandishly mystical, or supernatural, or unscientific. And this is the key thing I want to hone in on the word “unscientific”, because that's what the woo really is. It defies logic. And, I have so many examples of things that I've done where I've collapsed time. I've done the impossible and that's all it is. We can't put logic to it. 

But, if you're someone like me who loves pushing the boundaries of what is possible, define logic and beginning to play in the world of magic and miracles is actually a really fun place to be, because if I was able to be successful with my logic, with my reasoning, with my prefrontal cortex, well then what if you can be as well? What if there's a whole other opportunity for you here to really be more successful, to have more joy, to even have more logic? 

So I used to believe that “Woo-Woo” was very much a bunch of BS from “airy-fairy hippies” who danced to the moon, had no money, and spent their lives living in a commune, in a commie van. I thought they had no goals. I thought that they didn't really have any material possessions, because they were so high on life, that they didn't need anything. And as someone who wanted success, and wanted that fulfillment, and for a long time was very much on that corporate path, that felt very, very alien. Not to mention, there was a huge amount of judgment. Right there, talk about stereotyping. 

And there was me, someone, especially in my corporate days, who prided herself on intellect, logic, and “everything making sense”, and project plans, we would grit, and we would push. I had a strong work ethic. I was like, “Nothing is down to magic, this is all hard work.” “None of this got gifted to me.” “None of this, you know, landed in my lap.” I had to really work hard for it, because I had so much conditioning around working hard, and “Things had to be hard.” I had to prove that I did them, and that they had to make sense. 

But really, all that was so much of my conditioning. That was my conditioning and what we call, “Masculine Energy.” I had a great hustle muscle. I could outwork anyone. I can go off a very, very small amount of sleep and I'm still fine. However, “Is that how I really want to live?” And, as I progressed on my journey to unlock myself, and to grow my business, and to continually step into fear, I noticed that the more I did things, the more I couldn't explain them with science. 

And what really happened is that, as I progressed on my journey and started looking beyond, “Is there another way for me to be?” “Is there something in this, in good feelings, that I had pretty much numbed?” But, you know what? If you want calm, if you want joy, if you want fun, they are in your feminine side, or your flow side. And that is where you really want to be able to access all of this intuition, and really, intuition was the thing that I was going for. 

If there was a way that I could make a better, faster decision, where I backed myself 100%, well, maybe that was something that I should be exploring instead of dismissing. And so this was the way that I came into the woo going. Well, here's these people, knowing that they got that this is the right thing to do, having instant responses, and I actually did have access to my intuition. 

But I would have a feeling, and then I would research the heck out of it. I would go down a rabbit hole to ensure that everything that I could justify, even if it came to me, well, I had to make it make sense, and so that's what a huge amount of all the work and effort I was doing was simply to back up a decision that I had already made. And instead, if I could actually back myself and believe that I was going to make the right decision, well, wouldn't I eliminate a huge amount of work? And that's what I started doing. 

I realised that, “Actually, what if there's a better, faster way to live life with more joy?” And, “What if I can actually park the “judgement” I had about it, in air quotes, “Those kinds of people”, and recognising that maybe they're onto something. That there may be a life full of joy, and a life full of calm, and a life full of faith, and I don't mean “faith” in a religious context, but faith in yourself, faith in the universe, faith that it's all going to work out. Actually, what if that's not a bad thing to have? And I can put down some of my beliefs about the grinding, and the hard work, and the “things having to make sense”, and unlock something else? 

So, here's what I did. This was my journey to really start embracing the woo and where I started to see huge benefits of this I mentioned. I came to this from an intuitive sense or, as in, I wanted to start training my intuition. I have always been very big into self-help and “What are ways that I can better myself?” And my intuition kept coming up. 

And, I was listening to a podcast, and somebody said, “As part of the way to almost reconnect to your intuition, reflect on all of those times that you had that feeling, whatever you want to call it, that sixth sense.” And when you followed it, what happened? That sixth sense? Even if I went down this path of, kind of, researching it, and asking other people, and double checking, when I followed that feeling, I've never been wrong. And then, the times that I overrode that feeling that I had with logic, or with somebody else's perspective, it typically went bad, or it didn't feel good. It felt “bleh.” It felt “icky.” 

And this was when I began to say, oh my gosh, what if that feeling, what if that intuitive hit that feeling nudge, whatever you want to call it? What if that was actually the path I was meant to be taking? And what if I could speed up access to get it so that the signal would become clearer? So it wasn't this. Oh, I think I want this. This was my challenge. So much of what I wanted I didn't actually give myself permission to want. We talk a lot about desires and how we unlock those. 

So, no wonder I couldn't tap into my intuition if my intuition was saying do this. But I was too afraid to do that because what would that mean about me? Well then, trying to give you an intuitive hit, but at the same time you're blocking it. So it's like you got your fingers in your ears and someone's trying to talk to you and you're like no, no, no, no, no, I can't hear it. Can't hear it. Well, of course, it's staticky and it's blurry. 

So I decided that the way I do things is I throw myself into them, and while I didn't necessarily go full throttle to this one, it was really an etched journey that started with you know different people coming into my lives. Like this is a crazy synchronicity, or connection with people that felt almost otherworldly, that you've met somebody, but you're like I've known this person before, and all these people started coming into my life for the reason of helping me step into myself. 

And so, some of the things that I have done on my journey is, I have tried Reiki. The best way to describe it is it's something like an “energetic massage.” They usually don't touch you very much, but it's all about, “How do we actually now start to shift, and unlock all your chakras?” Which are your energy centres through your body. And again, I'm like, “Oh my God.” I came back from my first session with an amazing healer, and my husband looked at me and said, “You've been smoking crack.” I look like I was high as a kite. 

But, as I started unlocking myself, as I started tapping into all this energy, all these things that old me would have said were “weird”, new me says, “Amazing experiences!” And radio frequencies started opening up. I also have a kinesiologist that I moved into, which is again, where you start talking about “science” and “woo.” “How do I access my deepest subconscious?” When you understand more about neuroscience, and quantum physics, and vibration, and even things like manifestation, you start going, “Well, rather than this being some lofty thing where I'm going to sit on my couch and say, ‘I wish this to happen, a million dollars to just drop into my lap.”’ 

When you learn more about quantum physics, and how this works, you realise that so much of the quote, unquote “woo” is actually grounded in science. That it's not a “woo thing” that somebody made up, that it is so proven that these things are actually active in our lives. I even started bringing to life some of these concepts. Disney is a beautiful place and whether it's movies like Inside Out, or even Disney have a great movie called Soul, where they bring some of these esoteric concepts to life around our soul, and “Where do we go?” 

And consciousness and universal intelligence and what are all of these things? So all these guides started to find me in different modalities. It's like I put up a signpost saying, “Willing to learn about this.” And all these people started coming into my life. And not only that, I was actually open to them rather than closing them off and saying, “No, I'm not that kind of person.” I went, “Ah, you've knocked on my Facebook feed three times, I wonder if there's something in that.” So I started seeing everything as breadcrumbs and guides to what is meant to be my path, and even understanding the science of manifesting. 

And there's a school of thought called human design that again knocked on my door for a year. It kept knocking and it kept coming up and it kept coming up. I'm like this is hocus pocus. This is really putting it out there, there's no way. And I completely dismissed it until it came up once again and I'm like, “Oh my God, here it is again.” “Okay, let's look.” And, straight away, I was ready for it. And it has been one of the most “woo things”, I guess you would say that has very much changed my life. 

It's aligned to so much of my identity. It's helped me understand how I'm built, how I'm wired, and given language to parts of me that I couldn't previously pull together, and it helped me really see myself as others saw me. I even had a friend take me to a crystal show. I'm like, “All right.” “I'm all in.” Thankfully, Stella, my youngest, is all in, too. So she's like, “Mommy, we're going to a show full of pretty rocks.” And she's a bowerbird. She's like, “Oh my God, take me there.” 

So it's been a journey and I continue to explore new guides, new modalities, new mentors who are constantly now flying into my world, and I see this all as a really important part of my journey is, being open to, “I don't know where this is going to take me”, but I recognize that if life is happening for me, which has become one of my fundamental beliefs, you'd almost call this a “universal belief” about who I am, and what I believe in, then it's all happening for a reason, and it's become this almost “magical journey.” 

Now, I wouldn't have shared all of this, and if you know me at all, you'll know that I don't do anything unless I'm seeing some results. I wouldn't have kept going down this path if I wasn't getting some signals that said “Hmm, this is quite good, Jo.” “This is working for you, you're seeing some benefit.”

If I was knocking on all these doors and I was going down all these rabbit holes and I was benefiting and there was nothing coming out of it, I would have gone woo, not for me, somebody else's stuff, nah, I'm out, and I would have found something else to go down. 

But the results, and the shifts, and the changes in my life, the coincidences and the synchronicities have blown my mind. Synchronicities have blown my mind, and when you hang around, and come into one of my containers, there's often a saying, “People start drawing pages in their journal, and it's called, you can't make this stuff up.” Coincidences, everyone's like, “There's no such thing as coincidences.” They're like, “No.” 

So, whether I now think about somebody, and they pop into the park, I look at an appointment in my diary, and think, “Gosh, I'd love it if that one moved over here.” And then, a few hours later, it moves over here. Somebody decides, I decide, “Oh, I can't get in touch with so-and-so.” Or, you know, I'd like that appointment to be sooner than it is. 

And the amount of times that those things now are happening in my world. You call that manifestation, you call it what you will, but it gets to be easy and it gets to be fun. So much so that even when I bought my current house, we were actually heading overseas and we were trying to move in before we flew overseas and settlement wasn't happening until after we departed and I said, “I don't care, I'm getting the keys to that house before we leave.” 

And everybody around me is saying, “But you haven't bought it.” I live in Sydney. This is a multimillion-dollar house and it's not that much of a flash one. No one's going to give you the keys to an asset that is worth millions of dollars without you having paid for it. And I said, “Yes, they will.” I'm also very stubborn, and I know that when I want to make something happen, I can make it happen. No surprise, I got the keys. We found a way to make it work. 

We found it a win-win for everybody. I got the keys, and I went overseas three days later, and then I paid them 10 days after that, when the banks were ready. And it's because I know, in my body, I know how to listen to my gut. And that is not something that the old me would have ever said. I would have said, “It makes sense.”

But now, I know when I'm like “No, I know when something feels off.” “I know when I'm misaligned, because I've now attuned my body, and my brain, or my head, and my heart, to a broader range of radio frequencies.” So this has made decision-making so much easier, even down to. I was getting nudges. 

At the end of 2022, we planned a Thailand holiday, and I said to my husband, I came down one day, and I said, “We need to go to Norway.” And he looked at me and he said, “What?” “Now?” I'd sent my husband and one daughter to a cutting edge health clinic in Norway at the start of 2022, just as we were coming out of lockdown after COVID, and I knew that we all had to go back, at some point. But, I wasn't quite sure on the timing. 

And my husband looked at me and he said, “We've just paid for Thailand, we're going to Thailand.” And I said, “I've got that feeling that we need to go to Norway.” And he looks at me, and he's now so conditioned, because I've got so much evidence. He looked at me, and he said, “Is this one of those feelings? Or one of those feelings, feelings that you're not going to budge on?” 

And I looked at him, and I said I've sat on this for 48 hours, and I said, “It's getting stronger.” And he goes, “All right, I'll call the travel agent in the morning.” And we found out things there that fundamentally changed the course of our lives, and actually saved my husband's life. It's a pretty good chance that he might have been dead within the next 12 months, had we not gone there and got the diagnosis, and got the support we needed. So, there was a reason. It didn't make any sense. 

I was trying to sell a house at the time that was costing us a fortune. I was growing my business. We had some challenges with my younger daughter. I had my parents sit me down and say you shouldn't be going to Norway. This is a crazy thing to do. You're going to a clinic on the other side of the world that you've been to once you don't have an appointment, you don't know if you can get in, you don't know what they're going to do, you don't know what they're going to say and you're going on a hunch. 

And I sat there and I said yes. I said you're nuts. And I said I know, but I'm backing myself and I'm backing that this is the right thing for me and my family, and it was so. Not only do you get to back yourself and you get to be so confident in your decisions that nobody around you can shake you. That's such a beautiful thing to have, and likewise another big, big result. 

I can be a little buzzy, but by collapse time, I mean. when I built my first program, which was called “Blissful Breadwinner”, that was something that took me about, I don't know 9-12 weeks, and I must've checked the content with 17 people, and I second guessed, and I researched, and I went, “Oh, I don't know, is that right?” And then I'd check in with someone, and I'd read like a million books, and I'd check articles, and when I decided it was time to upgrade my program, I could feel it coming. 

And this is what happens when you start tapping into the woo. I could feel that I was out of alignment with what I had. And then it was time for something new and I knew that I had to make some space. I knew that I had to make some space for it to land or to drop in or to download. So I took myself away for the weekend and literally in the space of two hours, the entire thing dropped in and I'm not kidding, I'm talking about. I wrote a whole stack of cards. 

If you'd have looked at me, I reckon it looked like I was in fast, like in fast motion, almost running, like going like the flash, but I was so calm and it was as if it wasn't me. So I was coming from a higher source and it landed and it dropped in and after two hours I stood up and went oh my God, that's it. Okay, I've made some tweaks, but it was 80% there and it came in in two hours instead of 12 weeks. 

Who would not want to be embracing something that can help you take 12 weeks into two hours and be so certain and be so landed that this is the right thing for you? And so, as I've seen, these results of collapsing time and certainty and making things happen that everybody else tells me are impossible. This has now become part of my identity. 

I would never have considered myself a spiritual person at all, and it's not something that I have so far been very open with, or shared with many people, because I know that there are many people out there like me, who would judge me for what I'm saying now. The old me would have been judging me going, “Oh my god, what happened to you?” “What happened to the logic?” But, the beauty is you can have it any way you want. You don't have to suddenly start dressing in floral skirts, and wearing headbands, and dance to the moon. 

If you want to embrace the “woo”, if you want to collapse time, you can do it with this beautiful understanding of neuroscience, and of logic, and reasoning, that is actually now complemented with collapsing time. It's complemented with the level of certainty that you don't need to go and research anything anymore. You don't need to go and research anything anymore. You don't need to go and second guess everything. 

Of course, there's a few things that I've gone, “Oh, that's a little bit outlandish, Jo.” “Okay, how about we go and do some research, and see?” So, there's occasions, but it's done not from a place of,  “I'm checking that this is okay.” It's a, “You're pushing the limits on what actually is outlandish.” “Let's go and see if this is actually real.” 

And so this becomes a beautiful part of the journey. It’s being able to blend “woo” and science, and being able to embrace your feminine and being able to flex and being able to tap into greater wisdom, being able to just feel more fulfilled and feel more whole. Because when you tap into your feminine and whether you call it embracing the “woo” or not, when you access that intuition, there is so much more fulfilment available to you, there is so much more fun, there is so much more joy, because you've got access to that side of your body, you've got access to that part of who you are. 

Whereas, when you spend your life in your head and it's logic and reason above all else, and that's all that you value, and you dismiss or diminish anybody who talks about anything that you can't explain, you're missing out on so so much, and part of this comes down to finding the right teacher to help you go on that woo journey. 

And, ironically, there are many of my clients who are now on this woo journey too. They're having downloads, they're making all kinds of shit happen, they're working in magic and miracles, and they love it. Who isn't just being a floaty person? I can talk about the neuroscience, I can talk attest to what it's done for me, and I can bring it to life in a way that doesn't feel too mystical, it feels grounded, because that's the way I've had to learn and this is when you find your path to the woo. 

My wish for you is that you can find your own path. You don't have to go down the stereotypical, “Give away all your possessions, and go live in an ashram.” And that's not reality for some people, but you also don't have to stay suited and booted, and super corporate in your head, and everything makes sense. 

What if there is a path in the middle that women are craving? This link to intuition, which we have greater access to, this link to our feminine power, this link to intuition which we have greater access to, this link to our feminine power, this link to empathy, to really the intuitive side and the joy and the fun and leveraging our emotions and letting them go. There is so much goodness if you can embrace it and this is such. 

I mentioned my clients have come on this journey, but it's such a common journey that I have seen so many of my fellow entrepreneurs take. I'm in very big entrepreneurial communities and as you begin to learn that as an entrepreneur, you have to have faith in yourself, because there is no boss, there is nobody else to tell you if you're making the right decision, and there is so much fear that you have to face into so it's almost like on a regular basis you're coming face to face with your demons, and your business will never outgrow your identity. 

And, so if you want to continue to grow, if you want to continue to grow your business, and especially for mission-driven entrepreneurs like myself, heart-led, who want to have a big impact in the world, this isn't about me filling my bank account. This is me finding women who need my help, who are stuck, and I know that there's a better way out there. We have to face that fear, and we have to leverage all the radio frequencies. 

Why only stay tapped into half of your gifts? And, if you've managed to create the life you have with one hand tied behind your back, imagine what could happen if you could open up these other avenues? If you could get those intuitive hits? If you could instantly know, “What's the right or wrong thing for you?” If you stop second guessing yourself, if you could collapse time, if you could unlock levels of joy and fun that you didn't know were available. 

And so, where does this path lead me from here? Well, I don't know, is the honest answer. I don't know where this is going to go, because that's the whole point is that there is no destination. It's a continual journey of evolution and unfolding. I don't know what other guides are going to find me, who is going to knock on my door, and I don't know who I'm going to pass these gifts onto. 

I'm gradually revealing more and more of this side to my clients that are ready for it, and they are laughing it up. I keep getting told more of the woo, joe, bring in more of the woo. And so it's for this reason that I've decided it's time to bring more of the woo to the outside world as well. 

So, while you might not be a client in my ecosystem, as a listener of this podcast, I really encourage you to perhaps revisit some of the judgments that you have to think about what could unlock if you are ready to access intuition, if you want to find more fulfilment and, ironically, if you want more success because there is a direct correlation with the work I do on myself. 

And, you could call it my spirituality, you could call it unlocking my gifts. There's a direct correlation between either how much time, or how much you could say, intentional progress I'm making on that front and my business success.

So why would you not follow, or explore something? Whether you own your own business or not, that is about tapping in and finding the fast track to fulfilment, joy and so much success. So, whatever your pathway to the woo is, may the woo be with you and may you have a wonderful witchy day. 

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.