Faith, Grit, And A Second Chance | Jessica James

A quiet morning ritual becomes the fuse for a radical life reset. We sit down with Jessie—entrepreneur, mother, and mindset guide—to trace how faith, grief, and a shocking brain tumor diagnosis rebuilt her relationship with work, health, and leadership. What unfolds is a story about courage that doesn’t deny fear, but moves anyway.

Jessie takes us through her blue-collar recruitment career in Australia, the confidence that came from learning every rung of the ladder, and the month in 2019 when everything changed: losing her father, discovering she was pregnant, and entering a season of constant reset. When the pandemic hit, she chose calm over panic and designed motherhood around joy, sunlight, and presence—proof that pace is a lever, not a life sentence.

The diagnosis arrived after months of migraines, brain fog, and dead ends. An MRI exposed a tumor—and with it, a new operating system. Jessie’s response in the hospital is a masterclass in triage and leadership under pressure: secure care for her son, make hard legal calls, trust the surgical team, and lean into faith. On the other side, she rewrote success. Health is wealth. Money is a tool, not the point. Inspired action beats rigid planning. Keep big ideas sacred until they’re sturdy, and protect your authenticity from the algorithm’s pull.

We also talk about sonder—the realization that everyone carries an epic—because compassion changes how we lead. Jessie prefers leader to boss: go first, set the standard, and cheer for growth at every level. If you’ve felt the tug to pivot, to slow down, or to finally build a business that can hold you when life hits hard, this conversation is your permission slip and your plan.

If this resonated, follow, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review so more people can find these stories.

Connect with Jessie on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/pivotingwithjoy/ 

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Transcript

Welcome & Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to She's the Boss, the podcast where female wellness entrepreneurs talk ambition, money, and ownership out loud. I'm your host, Lee McSwan, a certified holistic nutritionist turned wellness business coach. This is where conversations are unfiltered, the roles of entrepreneurship get rewritten, and nothing is off limits. Money, motherhood, friendships, legacy, wealth, power, and what it really takes to build a life and business on your terms. Let's get after it.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Okay, today's guest is Jessie Jeans, an entrepreneur, creator, and guide in the world of mindset, energetics, and intentional living. Her work centers on helping people heal from the inside out while building lives rooted in faith, clarity, and purpose. Jesse's story includes profound loss, motherhood, and a life-altering health diagnosis. But what makes her perspective so powerful is how she translated those experiences into leadership, self-trust, and a new way of showing up in the world and in business. Welcome. So great to have you.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Thank you, Lee. Thank you for that beautiful introduction. I really appreciate coming on.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yes, I'm happy to have you. And just so everybody knows, Jessie is my first podcast guest. So this feels extra special in that way. So I'd love to kick off with an icebreaker. This is how I'm starting off the podcast with my guests, just so that there's an immediate connection that happens between the two of us, between you and the audience. So I know that you're a wellness girly. I want to know what your given that it is 3 a.m., 4 a.m. Australia time. Jesse's in Australia, 10 a.m. mountain time where I'm at. I would love to know what is your morning routine?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

My morning routine, I actually did it this morning when I woke up. I set my alarm for an hour earlier. And I always go God first. Well, in the last few years specifically. And I feel like that's such a term that can be kind of maybe looked at as used loosely. But every morning when I wake up, I've got a Bible app on my phone. The first thing I do is I have my phone on flight mode. So I close my eyes when I turn my phone off flight mode so no notifications come up and distract me. And then I go straight into my Bible app and that'll show me a scripture. And then I'll do a bit of a meditation on the scripture and a prayer. So that's 99% of the time I'm very disciplined at that, unless I'm having a day where I've got to get moving very quickly. And I feel like that's something that I've developed a lot more over the last year, where I really put God first and foremost in everything. And so that's how I start my mornings. It can go between five minutes to 20 minutes, you know, that's an approximate time. And then lately I've been jumping in my kitchen 50 times up and down.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

That left moving.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

And because I don't have one of those rebounded trampolines, but I feel like that does very similar. I that just gets the body moving and the energy going through. And then I'll always, I'm still, I'll go into this a little bit more, but I'm on a medication that I'm indefinitely taking at the moment. So I essentially have a glass of water with some green and red powder, a little bit of Celtic salt, some apple cider vinegar. I then put some lion's mane in there, and then I have my tablet drink that. And then go stand in the sun normally when it's up for about five minutes or so. So that's a very basic morning routine.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I love that. Especially, we actually connected a little bit over lion's mane's in our coffee, which if anyone is listening and doesn't know what that is, it's an amazing medicinal mushroom that works so well for me for focus and concentration, but the research on it is so solid. So it's a really great one. I love a good morning routine, and I love that you've cultivated one that is specifically for you. So can you explain? I know faith is a big part of who you are today and probably has helped you a lot on your journey to where you are today. What does your morning look like or feel like, I guess, when you have that time to go into your app to find the scripture, to meditate on that, and to to pray? Do you notice a difference in how you show up for the day?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yes. I very often wake up with a rock in my chest. And that has been something that has been a lot heavier this year. And I feel like that allows me to lighten that load and just to relax into the day and to feel grateful for the fact that I've even woken up. And that's one of the prayers that I have when I do meditate and speak with God in the mornings. Just the gratitude to still be here on this earth today is something that is able to bring me peace straight away, and to know that I get to choose again each day. And I feel like it has been really grounding. And some days it doesn't always shift as quickly as others. And yeah, so I think that's been a very important part, and something that I have, like I said at the beginning, yes, I feel like I've always had a connection there, but I didn't really embrace it so much throughout my life. I was more spiritual in the new age kind of mindset, and I haven't let a lot of that kind of all go. I feel like everyone's different. And to be able to integrate God first and then have those other areas that I had interest in still, you know, float through has really helped me.

Harmonizing Spirituality And Individual Paths

Pre-Grief Career And Corporate Identity

SPEAKER_01 6:02

That's so beautiful. It's that harmonization, that individualized harmonization. And it sounds like there's a lot of acceptance and grace for other people when you know some things can conflict the Christian view with a new age kind of view. But I love how you kind of just say, you know, we're all on our own journeys, and we can take and pull from what we want and what doesn't resonate we leave behind. So I think that's really beautiful. So I'd love to start before the version of you that people see online. Tell me about who you were before your life kind of began to unravel. Because for listeners, Jesse has such a beautiful story, which we're gonna get into, but it's one that is also paired with a lot of grief. So before the grief, before motherhood, and before your health challenges reshaped everything, who was that version of you and what did your life look like?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

I was very much at that point, I thought I was living my best life.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

This episode is sponsored by Ignite, my immersive mastermind for female wellness entrepreneurs who are ready to stop playing small and start leading their six, seven, and eight-figure businesses with intention. Ignite is where we shift how you think, decide, and build so that your business supports your life, not the other way around. It's linked in the show notes if you want to explore more. Okay, let's jump back into the episode.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

I really felt very empowered in what I was doing, who I was. I was I worked in a corporate environment in a recruitment-based company where it was, well, it still is a national, very successful company. And I spent about eight years in within that company, and I really loved what I did. I was well, the company itself is based around mining civil construction recruitment. So blue collar, which is uh such a big industry here in Australia, and I had the opportunity to go in completely entry-level into the role. I actually applied for a dump truck operator position, and the lady said, I don't really want to put you forward for that. I think you'd really be good at what we do.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah. And I said, I know nothing about recruitment. She said, We will teach you.

2019 Loss, Pregnancy, And Resetting

SPEAKER_02 8:31

So I feel like I've always been someone who just goes, Okay, I have no idea, but I will learn along the way. And that's been really empowering with the choices that I've made. I was able to work around different office locations around Australia. I did go overseas and did a working holiday in London as well. And so when I basically resigned from my job and did that, and then I came back, I was able to come back to the same company and then got a business development role within Sydney. So, and I was there for about three years, assisting with a lot of major projects. I had over a hundred stuff that I was helping managers across the location, so it was a very good position, and I really enjoyed what I did. A lot of stuff shifted, leading up to when my dad passed away and I found out I was pregnant, and then yeah, I guess the story continues from there. But I was really in a place where I just felt very content in what I was doing and had a lot of passion for it.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

What year was it when you found out that you were pregnant and also found out about your father's passing?

SPEAKER_02 9:56

2019.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Okay. And what did what life look like after that? Tell us, take us back to that year and that that day that had been hard.

Pandemic Motherhood And Choosing Calm

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Life at that point, and thinking back to it now, and it there was a lot of confusion, there was a lot of uncertainty. I think that month, three major things happened in my life, and I was just holding the weight of everything while also working out how I would restart again, but also with a child on the way. Yeah. So it really I unwillingly I've become the master of resetting over and over again. It's been something where I've had to really step into the unknown and say, I don't know how this is gonna work, but I'm gonna do my best to work it out along the way. So, yeah, so there were three major things that happened in that month, and I just really embraced the change. And obviously, from that point, that was mid-2019, it kind of led into Australia ended up into a massive bushfire season at the end of that year, and I was living in the place where I am now, that was very, very much in the the midst of how intense it was. And then that led into 2020, which is when the pandemic rolled through, and I had my son at the peak of the pandemic in March, so it was when I'd just say it was the I had him on the day that Australia went wild, and it was toilet paper Armageddon.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

And you just her thing was going all the way to Australia. We had that in Canada. Yeah. Oh, it was wild.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, no one understand it. No, no, no one does. Well, I mean, well, some of us do, but I think that that for me again, it was just I felt, you know, I'm as one thing after another, you'd catch a breath and you'd come up, and then next thing you'd be pushed under again. So it was just kind of this whole snowball effect where I just felt, you know, I was getting a little bit under everything. And the thing was, once I had my son, I just had this whole sense of, you know, as soon as I have my son, everything's gonna be peaceful. And it was, and I think the benefit was of, I mean, I look back at it now and it was scary for everyone at the time, but that pandemic also really reset me and re-prioritized what I held dearly to me, and also I had plans to go back to work within six months. And as soon as I had my child, I I said to myself, this is my priority now, being a mum. And I was able to extend my maternity leave up to two years. Wow. And yeah, it got extended to a year, and then the second year, and so that I I mean, it was very negative for a lot of reasons for a lot of people and a lot of things that happened. However, it really allowed me to realign and really focus on what was most important, and that was my boy.

Courage, Action Mode, And Mindset

SPEAKER_01 13:31

That that's such an interesting perspective. And I want to kind of ask you this. Do you think that that you had mentioned choices at the start of this podcast? You said, you know, I get to choose every day. Do you think that that was an intentional choice? That you saw that recalibration, that reprioritization of yourself and your son when really you could have taken a very negative route towards, oh my gosh, my son is being isolated to some degree. He's not going to have the same experiences and you know, playgrounds don't look the same, all of this. What allows you to choose that positive side of even basically the entire world shutting down? How do you get there?

SPEAKER_02 14:17

The first few months it was hard. I because I was with lived in a different state in comparison to my close family and friends. So what was planned for them to all visit when I had my son, that couldn't happen because we all had all of our state's borders closed. So for those first three to four months, we were very isolated. I was living with two housemates at the time and they were able to go to work. So we were all on high alert with things on the in those first couple of months. And I just I just knew that in my mind that I didn't want my son to come into this world feeling fear. And so I did everything I could in my own mindset to stay calm, to provide him with joy, to be able to get outside in the sun, to go for our daily walks and things that. Because I had friends who were pregnant. We were all planning to, you know, do this together as mums, you know, raise our children in in those first couple of years together. And that disconnection, I think I I really just looked at my boy and I was, you don't this this is something that I don't want to hang on, let me try and reword the reword this. So I got to a point where I, if you meet my son, you will look at him and go, he was never a pandemic baby, right? There's nothing that has ever showed that he has any social anxiety, he's underdeveloped in any way, he's not shy, he's outgoing, he's joyful, he's cheerful. And I think a lot of that came from me not being afraid or not allowing that fear to sink in and then because babies feel everything, what we feel, they feel. And I don't know if I'm really making sense here. So I'm just trying to explain it. I really just I I I don't actually know how I did it. I just I made a choice to not let it overcome me because I didn't want my son to grow up in a world full of fear.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah, yes, I love that. And and speaking with that theme of not choosing fear, not succumbing to what fear can really do to us, how does that then translate into that next chapter of your life when you got a very scary diagnosis?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I think a lot of this comes from my dad as well. And I didn't really think I had a lot of traits from you know them until these things happened and you think, oh yeah, these are things that, you know, I got from my parents when I was younger. And I definitely was fortunate to have beautiful parents growing up and uh, you know, and some might say not normal, but normal childhood. My parents were together, you know, my dad, my mum and dad were together until he passed. So and that can be a rarity sometimes. And I always feel courage is contagious, and I I don't think being being courageous is not being afraid at all. It's about knowing that there is fear there, but choosing to take action and you know, being courageous in the face of that fear and doing it anyway. And I really I I feel I'm always ingrained in me that when something bad happens, I just go into action mode, or bad I mean that's a loose term, but when challenges happen, I I'm a master, again, potentially unwillingly, of you know, being able to look adversity in the face and just go, okay, what do I do now? And just being calm in the chaos and really just taking steps to everything is energy when it comes down to it. So if you put your energy into what can go wrong, then that's where your mind will lead. And if you put your energy into how do I make this go right, then I feel that is a powerful mindset to put your perspective into rather than focusing on the what ifs, focus on the how can I? Or it does that make sense?

Symptoms, Misdiagnoses, And MRI Discovery

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Sorry, I'm really off track a little bit here. It's almost you you can fall into one of two categories because at the end of the day, the facts are going to be the same, the situation is gonna be the same, the only thing that we can control is the outcome. So do we fall this victimhood mentality, or do we fall into this empowered, almost autonomous, I can I can get through this, I can conquer this, or do we succumb to essentially the fear, right? There's fear in everything. And I think with your your case in particular, your fear was it's valid. It's so valid because what you were faced with was it's the worst possible news that a human can have, right? It's it it can take you easily into victim mentality, and it can easily be that identity that you take on. But I feel you are the polar opposite of that. And I'm I I love what you said about courage because it it doesn't mean that we don't experience the fear, it's what we choose to do in spite of the fear, essentially, right? Yeah. So take us back to what led you into that doctor's office or that into that clinic where you ended up going for a scam.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Well, it was about when I look back at it now, there was the there was telltale signs that were happening over years, however, really got to a point of intensity when I got my first migraine hit me at the end of towards the end of 2023, and I'd never experienced migraines before. And it was something that I knew was really, really impacting in my brain area where I'd never had a headache so intense that I, you know, I couldn't function. I had to pull over and I vomited on the side of the road. And then I essentially, you know, went back, took four panodol, and then passed out for 12 hours. And that was the start of probably the most intense symptom period as it led up to when I got the diagnosis. And over time I was taking steps to figure out why this was happening. And a lot of that was linked to this other outside stress and challenges that I was having at the time. And anytime I had a stressful situation involving that, I could feel inflammation coming on in my head. And then I knew at that point, okay, there's potentially migraine going to happen. And I was seeking medical advice. I got sent by my doctor to get a CT scan. However, that showed nothing at that point. They essentially said, I entered. Transfusion because I was really fatigued. I was lacking strength in a lot of areas. I was trying to lack cognitive ability, unable to string sentences together sometimes. I would leave cupboard doors open to the point where my son was, Mom, you've left the cupboard door open again. And he's only four at this point. And I had to say to him, if I do that, make sure you tell me and I'll shut it. And he got to the point where he would just go over and shut it. We still joke about that today because we were, oh, that's why it was happening. But a lot of the medical specialists I was seeing, they were saying, you know, you're under a lot of stress, high cortisol levels. Let's get you an iron transfusion. Many people said that that was going to be such a great benefit. You'll feel so much better within a couple of weeks. Nothing changed. They did mention, let's get you on some antidepressants. I'd never been on antidepressants my whole life. And I'd, you know, had situations where I'd been recommended them. And I said, no, thank you. I can I can figure this out. And I tried them for three weeks. I didn't feel anything. If anything, I felt numb. So I was at that point where I thought, I'm not going to refill the script because it doesn't feel right for me. And if I go down this road and continue on, it's going to be harder for me to get off them in the future. So, and then I was going to osteos, acupuncturists, chiropractors. The only thing that was helping me was natural supplements a lot of the time. And drinking golden milk, which is a turmeric milk to help calm my inflammation and my migraines, having a bowl of warm water that I put my feet in that was helping with the migraine pain and things like that. So I was fortunate to live next door to a woman who had studied nutrition at university and she had a garden of Eden, everything but apples in her little hobby farm.

SPEAKER_03 24:09

So all the fruits and vegetables.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Yeah. It was a beautiful place that I was living in. So she was very helpful to recommend different things that could help. And over time, towards the end of 2024, I got a really bad sinus infection. And then started to lose a lot more physical ability, cognitive ability. Really, really sometimes finding it embarrassing to have conversations with people because I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn't figure it out. And then I started to lose my eyesight in January. And fortunately, I was very, very proactive with making sure that anything felt off in my body, I would go and see a doctor or a specialist.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Did you have any internal knowling?

Hospital Chaos, Motherhood Logistics, And Surgery Risks

SPEAKER_02 25:03

The one thing that I think back now is my body was trying to tell me so many things, and I was just so out of alignment with the stress that I was enduring at the time that I just thought it was that. I didn't ever comp I and I said this a few times to some people. If I had a Google doctored every symptom, it was every single symptom that this tumor had. And I ticked every box. However, because they were all gradually coming on, however, not necessarily all at the one time, I just felt, oh, okay, now I've got an eye problem, now I've got a sinus infection, you know, now I've, you know, losing, you know, my ability to string a sentence together. So it was, it was a it was an ongoing sense of has my body just got a stress response and have I just got extreme amounts of brain fog from what's going on. So I feel really my body was showing me signs and it was, hey, there's something that you need to be actioning here, but I just wasn't in tune enough to really listen to it properly. But I was taking the steps that ultimately led me to a migraine specialist chiropractor that said to me, Let's see if you can get an allied health plan from your GP. And I said, Okay, I'll go and figure that out. And an allied health plan here in Australia is you go see your GP, and if they deem that there's something that uh an allied health specialist can help you with, our medical system allows you to get a treatment plan that can be given to a chiropractor or a you know other allied health professional of your choice, and then they'll give you a 10 kind of package plan, essentially. And so I did that, and the GP was very good because she wanted to make sure that my migraine could be treated by going to just a basic chiropractic surface, a server specialist, and I was sent to have an MRI, and that's the day that they found my tumor. So it was it felt it was going to be a routine MRI because I had said, you know, I had had symptoms, but I had no awareness of anything brain trauma-wise going on. And when I was at the appointment, I actually felt really relaxed in the MRI machine because it was just, you know, beautiful scenery, beautiful audio, you know, laying in a dark room. Now that it's actually I feel like I'm going for the massage. And it the the thing that kind of threw me when I got out of the machine is that the women looked slightly concerned, and then there was another, what I deemed at the time to be just a consultant, not a consultant, uh, another operative in the scanning place, but she was actually a specialist, and she essentially asked me to come out and have a chat with her, and that's when she delivered the news of what they had found, and it was very I I vividly remember that moment, and I will for the rest of my life, how we sat down next to each other, and she gently put her hand on my leg and looked at me, and I kind of looked at her and smiled, waiting for okay, what are we gonna talk about? And she said, I am extremely happy, however, very surprised with how well you were looking and functioning with the ginormous tumor we've just found on your brain. And was that delivery perfect? Absolutely not, but how do you tell someone that information? Because, you know, it was actually a soft delivery because she's saying you're doing really well. And that took a lot of you know, weight off of hearing that because she didn't sound she was fearful for what was going on, so that immediately made it feel lighthearted to me. But a lot of people probably think, oh wow, that was told to you really intensely. But however, I did not take it that way at the time. And my first response was my son, right? And then it all kind of just moved quickly from there. I had to uh contact, you know, my family to get my son picked up from school. They had arranged for an ambulance to come pick me up and take me straight to the hospital, and I was booked in for emergency surgery within three days.

unknown 30:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

So, and those three, four days that I was in hospital were just a whirlwind of everything happening. And I, like I said earlier, I I very much was calm in the chaos. I was okay, how do I sort my son out? How do I make sure that he's cared for? How do I make sure that he's still, you know, going to school, keeping his routine as normal as possible. At 10 o'clock at night, I was on the school app ordering him new uniforms and lunch at sushi for lunch that Friday at school.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

I was really just, you know, focusing on what needed to be done whilst I was always also in the midst of what people were needing to do for me to get me better.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

And being able to hold so many things all at once, I think I as a woman, I think is one of our superpowers to really hold on to what's going on within you and also be there for everyone else. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, so it there was again, there was a lot of other challenges going on, not just the fact that I had a tumor that I was dealing with at that point, and I had lawyers that I was speaking to, and I essentially was told you need to get everything in order because there's a possibility that once you go into this surgery, you may A, you may not wake up. B, you might not wake up how you are today, you might wake up better, you might wake up worse. Yeah, there was absolutely they they they literally have to tell you that they will do everything they can. And I had the head surgeon, I had the head anetheist, anaestist at what I deem to be the best neurosurgery department in Australia, in Brisbane, and many people have confirmed that, but they just still have to tell you the risks and associated, and they said we cannot morally let you leave here because of the impact of the tumor. And at that point, it was hemorrhaging a little bit, so I just said, You do what you need to do, you tell me what you need me to do, and I will do it. I just want this done, and I had to really lean into my faith a lot at that point, and I had to do everything to get, you know, I had to write a will, I had to get a power of attorney, I had to do all of these things. I had to go through the questions of what if, what if, what if, what if, you know. And I was very fortunate that my family was a pillar of strength for me at that point, especially my sister and my niece, who I was leaning on a lot. My niece and I have been very close, almost growing up as sisters. And without without them and my mom and a lot of my lifelong friends, I probably wouldn't have necessarily maintained the strength that I did through that period. However, many of my my main concern was I've never this may sound really bad, but I've never been afraid of dying. It's not really, I and I know I have a son now, and no, I do not want to die whatsoever, but my fear was what happens to him if I do pass. Right. And I know that I know obviously his father was able to be there for him, but I also wanted to ensure that my family were able to help support him, and they really showed me that they would and they could, and all my friends did the same. So I was very confident that if anything did happen to me, major or minor, that there was that support network there for him as well as me.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

And and there's a lot of trust that has to go into that, trust in other people and you know, putting your son's well-being and future in somebody else's.

Community Support, Faith, And Facing Mortality

SPEAKER_02 34:21

Yeah. It reminds me of that whole thing you stand in a room and on a table with people behind you, and you have to fall with blind faith that they'll catch you. Right. And I had to, I had to have blind faith. And but I also had such certainty once I got into that position. And I think back on it now, and I think I actually feel so blessed to have seen the support that came out for me in that time that you might it it's almost, and this sounds very deep, but it's almost like I was able to attend my own funeral.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Can you blame it?

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Because what was that? Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Can you explain that? What did that mean?

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Well, you don't know how people are going to necessarily perceive you until after them. And sometimes I feel experiencing my dad pass away and the support that was there for him after that point, and the beautiful things that people said to us as a family about my father. And you know, I wrote the eulogy at my father's funeral. One of my beautiful nieces, she just got up, she, you know, and she was maybe 10 or 12 at the time, and she's, I want to speak about grandpa too. And to hear all the beautiful things that was said to my about my father after he passed and the support that he had, I got to experience that in real life.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

I see. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

And I'm still experiencing it today because it's this, it's it's the whole thing, you don't know you you really hope that when you pass away you will have an effect, not an effect, but you would have left an uh an imprint for lack of a better term in people's hearts. And I felt that.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

You think that that love carried you through in many ways?

SPEAKER_02 36:27

Yes, definitely. Definitely. And this is so bizarre, but I had a friend who I've connected with this year, and she the other day she told me, she said, Jesse, you're a golden retriever. And I I've never felt so complimented by being called a dog before.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

But I'm I feel like a golden retriever.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

If you were to look up the character traits of what people deem a golden retriever to be, it's you know, and it's it sounds so bizarre me saying that. Essentially, I was just saying, you know, you you hope and you pray that you've built relationships in throughout your lifetime that you feel just as much love for them as they do for you. And I felt just as much love back from the people that I held dearly. And that to me was just something powerful that I said, you know, you might not never know until you've actually passed away. And then you're not the one who gets to hear it, or your loved ones do. And those stories are shared between the people that are left behind. Whereas I feel I am so blessed to have experienced that close-to-death experience where I felt that love resonating within me from the relationships that I've built.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

I I don't think I've ever had so many chills in a short because it's so true. We don't we don't give people the the appreciation and the love that we have for them almost. It's too late. It's interesting and they never hear how important they are to us and how much they've changed our lives. And I think that maybe that's a really important thing to reflect on is how can we show our gratitude and our love and bring people up as if we were at their funeral already.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

I feel like people are sick of me telling them how much I love them. You know, I want to share how I feel about everyone. And you know, I want to be kind. I want to show my love. Every I'm a hugger, always have been, and I always say, I'm a hugger, are you? And if they say no, I'll go, okay, it's a good thing, like you. And I just, I just can't not end a phone call with I love you. I it's just absolutely impossible to me. And yeah, there's limits, you know. I'm not gonna be telling someone that, you know, I've just met.

Gratitude, Expressing Love, And Everyday Grace

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Love you.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Then some, you know, me and you, as we build our bond, I'll be like, hey, love, you got this, you know. And I feel like there's so many things that go left unsaid because you're just worried that how someone will receive them. But I feel the truth will set you free. If you were to tell somebody that you loved them and they actually really felt that resonated with them, that's not gonna hurt them. That's not gonna hurt your relationship with them. That's only gonna strengthen it. And if it does hurt it, then that's okay. You know, I've said how I feel. If you don't feel the same or you don't reciprocate it, then maybe that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

What was that?

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Sorry, peace, grace, and acceptance, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Yes, yes, and yes, I feel sometimes I can be very drive for life is so much. I know time is fleeting, every every minute is precious, and I say yes to everything these days. If it's in alignment to me, you know, and um don't if I if I can be there, I will be there. It's not a question of are you gonna be tired on the day? Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Yeah, you're you're harnessing your life force, your energy, yes, and seizing every moment and every opportunity. And so after you've gone through a life-altering evolution of this chapter of your life, how does that influence the decisions that you make on a daily basis on your one-year plan, your five-year plan? How do you decide what you want to do going forward with your business, with your mothering journey, with your friendships, with your family? How do you make these decisions now?

Planning After A Health Shock

SPEAKER_02 40:51

I I've had every day is unknown to me. You cannot plan ahead too far. You it's good to have goals and aspirations, but understand that it's not always gonna go that way. And, you know, expect the unexpected, I feel is something that I've really had to train my brain and rewire my mindset to be prepared for that. I could have so many plans in place, but you know, you might get a phone call that completely throws you off the game. And I I don't rush the process anymore. I really feel and the same with getting up in the morning, you know, when I'm getting my boy ready for preschool and stuff that. Um we yes, we, you know, we have a routine, you know. I he's very, very, I've, you know, my boy is very time aware. I've tried consciously to not say, just a second, when I know it's gonna be five minutes. Oh, 10 minutes, and I know it's gonna be, you know, one minute. I very much have got him into a point where he goes, Mom, that wasn't 20 seconds. And I'll say, You're right, actually. And I'll say, Okay, well, how long is this? He'll say, How long? And I'll say, Will you count to a hundred? And then I'll be doing my best to make sure that he really understands the perception of time. Because I think that's very important. Because right now, time doesn't exist for me unless I make it exist for me. And really, time doesn't exist for everyone unless you actually have to make it exist for you. So I feel not rushing, but being aware of time is something that I'm, you know, both in line with. It's a balance, it's a bit of a pendulum. I have a plan for my future, but I'm also know that the things that I've planned in the past haven't always worked out as planned. So when I'm leading in motherhood or just in business, I really go, okay, so here are my goals, here are the things that I want to look at, and I'll be intentional and take action, but I'll also leave myself open to say, hey, maybe this isn't the right way to do it. Maybe I can be doing something a little bit differently. Maybe this is where I need to keep my focus on. This is where the 80% of my you know time should be spent. And then maybe those other 20% I can maybe look at and change it around a little bit. And I feel I've I take on so much at the moment because again, I go back to I feel like I'm not running out of time, I feel there's so much I want to fit into my time.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

Only got one late.

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah. And you know, some people, how you how do you do this? Um, I don't know. I just feel every day I can't waste it. And yes, I had to, I do, you know, I have my downtime, but my downtime. Downtime is also, you know, relaxing, but then also going, hey, I've got this idea, let's just kind of run with it. And or I I take it at this is it, this is a good summary. I choose inspired action on a daily basis. Yeah. So I do have a plan and I do stick to routines as best as possible. But however, just we were speaking about earlier, about you know, you had an inspiration, you chose to look at it, you chose to speak to other people about it, and then you put it into action. And that's kind of how I like to live not only in my business life, but also in my everyday life as well. Does that answer that question? I probably have gone off traffic a little bit there.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

What are some of those big ideas that you've got running through your mind?

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Um there's lots, and there's a lot that I want to keep sacred at the moment because I'm a big believer of you know, you want to put your ideas out there to the world, but also I don't want anybody to say that you know that's not possible.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

Yeah. And take me away from it. I agree with you. I always tell people to keep your goals very close to you because it's so easy and it's so quick for outside influence to affect us and derealize it. So I have a policy where there's very few people that I share my next steps with. It's the people that maybe this is for you as well, too. Maybe it's the people that you know are gonna be supportive, but gonna be honest and see your blind spots. 100% and and that inner circle, I think as we get older, it shrinks down more and more. So I love I love how you you you said that like I've got it, I keep a lot of it, and it's special, it's sacred. It's it's yours, and then when you release it into the world, then it's for everyone to experience.

Inspired Action, Pivots, And Boundaries

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Yeah, yeah. And a lot of it can be based around my health is my main priority, and I've always valued health as wealth, and in particular this last year has shown me that when that goes, what do you do? And I am I am fortunate that I am here today and having this conversation with you because things could have been so different. And I believe that with with understanding, sometimes it's really hard for me to put into words how I feel now in comparison to how I felt a couple years ago about goals and business and what I wanted to achieve in life. Uh, what I want to achieve in life is just to live a happy, healthy, joyful, peaceful life. And my goals aren't materialistic. I do believe that we need more um financial abundance in the hands of good people, 100%. Um, however, is money going to be my end goal over everything else, including my health and the love and happiness that I can share with other people? No. So I choose what lights me up. I sometimes I'll think something is gonna light me up, and it does for a little while, and then I might go, hey, this isn't actually bringing me the same sense that it was when I first started it. So then I'll pivot. And I think so many people are afraid to make changes because they get locked into something, and the fear of the unknown is um harder to deal with than the fear of letting go.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

Yeah, I agree with you. I see a lot of entrepreneurs that have stayed stuck in an industry or in a niche or even in a role that they've self-assigned and they've lost their passion for it. And for me, that's one of the most disheartening things that I can see from a woman is when she's lost her fire and she's lost her spark for the thing that she's doing. But it's because that thing is usually safe, it's predictable, it's and again, you've got all kinds of outside noise telling you, like, why would you pivot? Why would you make this change? You're successful, you've got stability, all these logical reasons that make sense. But if we're not lighting ourselves up with the work that we do, we're not gonna have the same impact on the world that we originally set out to have as entrepreneurs, especially like I would define you as a heart-centered entrepreneur where I'm the exact same way. Money in the hands of good people does great things. Is it my number one driving force? No. Is it important? Absolutely. It's so important, but it's not the why. It's the tool that allows the why to happen, right? And I I I agree with like you know, we all need to have abundance, but abundance is defined in so many more ways than finances. It's it's your health, it's your happiness, it's your peace, it's your ability to rest your head on your pillow at the end of the day and be like, that was awesome. Tomorrow's gonna be even better. And that that's really these are the conversations that I want to have with with women and entrepreneurs and people that are heart-centered. Is it this there's so much more to this that we get to do as entrepreneurs. And if we're not living in the thing that lights us up, we have to just be okay with saying I'm changing directions. I'm changing directions for myself, my clients, my students, the people that haven't even heard my name before, and I'm blazing a new path. This is all about this is what entrepreneurship is all about. Like I I look back at my own entrepreneurial journey over the last decade and a half. I've changed directions so many times because we're not the same person we were a decade ago. We weren't the same person we were a year ago. And I think you're the perfect example of that evolution and just coming into this new chapter, the unknown, and having to make these pivots and these changes based on what life is gonna throw at us, right?

SPEAKER_02 50:54

Yeah, I resonate with all of that, and I feel if you've got that entrepreneur spirit, and I like to it's it's a free spirit at the end of the day. Like that's what entrepreneur is in my mind, anyway. You know, you have that innate ability to look at something and see it in different ways. And I feel like so many of us are multi-ifaceted, however, we get stuck in a this is how I should be doing it. This is how this person is doing it, this is how I have to do it. And the same again with social media, like great online businesses are so good, but it's just another way to like put yourself in a box by having to follow this algorithm, this sales tactic, this kind of, you know, this works for someone else. So that will work for me. Yeah. However, I believe that what necessarily works for someone else isn't always going to work for you. Yes, you can take little bits and pieces, but I don't think, you know, I don't think following one strict plan is the right way for every single person on this earth to do things.

Health As Wealth And Redefining Success

SPEAKER_01 52:11

100%. I was actually just having this conversation with a one-on-one client that I have, and she was saying, like, I see this other person in the same niche as me doing things this way, and then I see this other person doing it this way. And and she was gravitating towards that. And I was like, No, you're losing your authenticity when you have the infiltration of other people's way of doing things into your own lane. And that's where we kind of make a choice, right? It's all back to choices. We have to choose what we pay attention to. We don't we we need to have blinders on in some ways because it's so easy for us to lose our authenticity because we're so captivated by what other people are doing and assuming that it's successful for them. I think success is defined in many different ways, but it's also just the illusion that we have. It's what we choose to see in that person when really social media gives us 1% of the story. It's so cultivated and curated. And I think this is really just this is an important conversation for women because we can so easily lose ourselves and we can lose our missions, and we can lose the importance of the work that we are doing that is true to our hearts by focusing on what's happening all around us. So when we come back to ourselves, we naturally have a unique business that nobody else can have because it is solely ours. And I just think that that's so important for women today because it keeps us happy, it keeps us peaceful. When it's ours, it's peaceful, but trying to catch up with what everybody else is doing, that causes a lot of chaos internally.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Keeping up with the Joneses super nervous, and 100% align with what you said. I I feel inside myself it is and I've I've worked within uh you know many um groups of people and women, um men as well, and everyone again, everyone is different, and staying in your lane is so important, and I know this has been said time and time again, but comparison is the thief of joy. There is there is no sense in comparing yourself to somebody else's journey because you do not know what they've been through. And that actually this cut leads me to a word that I learned the other day, and it's something that I really love that I've learned this word because over time I've always like looked at people, you know, who've either, you know, been like impatient or you know, just as you know, you know, minor things where they've you know rushed past you in the store to get you know whatever or something like that. And you can feel a little bit irritated at the time, but I've always taken a step back and it's gone, you know, maybe there's something going on. You know, you you can't make it about you. Maybe that's about them and they're just projecting onto you. And I learned a word the other day, I can't remember someone I seen on TikTok was going to get this word tattooed. And I believe everyone has a story, and especially since I've had this uh health um issue at the beginning of the year. If you walked past me on the street, you wouldn't think I'd just had a brain tumor removed 10 months ago. Absolutely not. Sure it felt, yeah. And I'd walk out into the world just being, you know, joy and you know, the light, and it it stuns people if we get into a conversation and I, you know, oh but it's like this, and they're like, What? And I think to myself, I could look at you and not understand that you've got these underlying things happening. We're all complex, detailed beings with our own stories playing out in our own lives. And uh the word that I'm talking about is a word called Sonder, or the the word is sonder. So Sonder is a profound, profound realization that every random passerby is living a life as complex, vivid, and detailed as your own, full of their own stories, struggles, and joys, making you just a background character in their epic tale. So it says here, coined by John Koenig in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. I'm not sure what that book is. However, I didn't think that my main character would be somebody who had a brain tumor.

SPEAKER_03 57:02

You always go, Yeah, I want to be the main character. Like, get that main character energy. Be careful what you wish for.

Authenticity Over Algorithms

SPEAKER_02 57:10

And it's so true because everyone is just out there living such a complex life, just as we are today. And you know, you've got to give people grace. You've really got to give people grace. Like I had a woman come up to me and abuse me for having tattoos when I was getting veggies off a shelf in a local supermarket. Um, and here I am, two months post-brain tumor surgery and listening to the book of Romans in my earphones while she's having a go at me for having tattoo. And I just said, Oh, it's interesting that you feel that way. I'll pray for you. You know, she maybe she had a bad experience with someone who had tattoos earlier in her life, you know. So I don't take that onto me, you know, I'm just out here living my life, you're out there getting triggered by I don't know why, but that's just showing something in yourself that maybe, you know, I I I don't have any power over. So I feel like being able to look at yourself as your own like empowerment and still, you know, have others inspire you, but not let their story define the path that you should take or what they perceive about life become your story. I think that hopefully circles back to the point that you were made.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

That's almost poetic. It's so beautiful. And I just am so blown away by your story. I just think you're a ray of light, and I just am so grateful that we got to hold this conversation together. One last question that I have for you is what does it mean to be a boss for you?

SPEAKER_02 59:11

Um I like to say leader.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 59:15

Um, and I don't think bosses can be bosses without leading by example. Because I truly feel that if you aren't willing to do something, you shouldn't be expecting others to do it either.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Yeah, leaders go first.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Leaders go first. Yeah. And that yeah, and I've definitely worked with some bosses where they think that they're above anything that they want others to do. And I've worked my butt up from the ground. So I understand the levels of, you know, being down here at the bottom and working your way. I'm by no means at the top, but I feel like having to come from the bottom leaves you humbled, gives you, you know, gives you that ability to look at life through different levels. And being a leader to me means that you are responsible for growth in others. And okay, yeah, and showing them an example, but also telling them that it's okay if you want to try something different, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:31

Cheerleading for them. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:38

Yeah, beautiful. I love that. Yes, being a cheerleader, that is exactly right. You were you were spot on with saying that. And I used to have in my profile, like um, being a hype girl. I don't care where I am on the ladder, I will hype you up whether you're above me, I will hype you up whether like it, and I hate saying below me, but it's like, you know, you get into that point where you're in a corporate world, you have your, you know, your entry level, your superiors, your managers, your CEOs, you know, you can't not feel you know, some alignment in that. However, it doesn't matter where you are, I will hype you up.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

Oh my gosh, I know that. This conversation has hyped me up.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:22

Oh, it's actually really it's hyped me up, and it's only five in the morning. So are you going back to bed after this?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:30

Oh no, I'm actually puppy sitting at 6 30 this morning. So yeah, it's uh I'm an energized bunny.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:38

You are when is your zoniact brain?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Taurus. You're Taurus, okay. I'm a Taurus moon, so oh beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Mine's Aries Moon, so my stink stop it. Yeah, oh my god. Do you have any idea how many Aries friends I have in my life? It's insane to me that you're an Aries.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:03

My my youngest son is an Aries and he's an Aries through and through. It is like Wow, it is. Um, there's switch fire sometimes, but I I've known a few Aries women along the way, but my son is the first Aries man that or like boy that I've ever met.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:23

Interesting. Yeah, I can't think of an Aries man that I know actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

I don't feel like there's a lot of them in no, not in real life, anyway. That I've met. Yeah, interesting. I'd love to hear more about your son at another point.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:38

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, the fire. So much fire. Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Well, this conversation was beautiful. Thank you so much for your time. Where can people connect with you? How can they get more of you? Tell us where they can meet you.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

Uh, well, I have an Instagram and I really am re-evaluating everything that I'm doing at the moment. Uh, so you may come to my Instagram and say, hey, is this the same person? However, it's at Pivoting with Joy. And I also have a TikTok, the same um handle. And I'm just really, like I said before, you know, finding what lights me up, reigniting my passion in things, um, dipping my toe into different areas to see if that's meant for me. So I think if you were to pop on over there and have a conversation with me in the DMs, I'd absolutely love that. And yeah, I I've really enjoyed being on your podcast, especially as your first guest. So absolutely honored to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

Amazing. Well, I will make sure that all of your information is linked in the show notes. And thank you again so much for being here, my friend. The conversation was absolutely exactly what I needed to kick off my New Year's. It's January 1st here in Canada. Beautiful. This was just absolutely perfect, so thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:10

I love Canada. I cannot wait to come and visit you on the snowboarding. Yeah, sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

Oh, thank you, Lee. Thank you so much for spending a part of your day with me. I want to remind you to take a moment and notice what this conversation has stirred up inside of you. You get to decide what you want to do with that. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, continue to build boldly and own it fully.