Podcast
Bullied Into Brilliance: Overcoming Office Bullying And Dealing With Obstacles That Hinder Your Dreams With Joanne Martin
Have you ever experienced office bullying? Have you ever felt trapped in a toxic environment and felt unhappy despite having a stable job? That was the dilemma encountered by today’s guest, and overcoming that catapulted her on the path to achieving her dreams. Joanne Martin is an author, a writing coach, and the CEO and Founder of Golden Earth Publishing. As a writing coach, she now helps clients get on their path to achieving their dreams. She joins Janet Hogan to talk about how she left a stable corporate job because of an office bully and how it became the catalyst to finding her calling. Joanne discusses the disparity in her well-being before and after leaving her corporate life. She also talks about the signs that perhaps your current job is not right for you. Tune in for some great tips on writing and finding the motivation to get into action. Joanne’s story will inspire you to make the right changes in your career.
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Bullied Into Brilliance: Overcoming Office Bullying And Dealing With Obstacles That Hinder Your Dreams With Joanne Martin
Have you ever experienced office bullying where someone in your team is so toxic, it leaves you feeling sick to the stomach? You’re waking up at 3:00 AM just from the very thought of having to show up for work the next day. That’s what happens to the person you’re about to meet, to the point where her doctor advised her to leave the job or risk a nervous breakdown.
As it turned out, this was the best piece of advice she could have ever received, and so it’s with great pleasure that I introduce our inspirational guest, Joanne Martin, who can now take this office bully for helping her to wake the F up to her untapped genius as an international best-selling author and book writing coach.
As she is about to share with you, there’s a lot more to becoming a bestselling author than penning some compelling words and hitting send. Joanne, welcome to the show, and let’s start with your toxic office experience because I’m sure there’ll be a lot of readers who can relate to this. What happened, and how did you make the leap to where you are now?
I was working in a very high-profile role. I had a team I was leading. It was my direct boss and he and I, just from a personality perspective, did not connect. He went out of his way to make my life more difficult, to the point where other more senior people were saying, “That relationship is broken,” and I’m like, “Yes.” It’s not for lack of trying to make it work. I recommended somebody for an award within my team, and he then went over my head and recommended somebody else who was on a career management pathway. They weren’t even performing in their role, and it just made my life extremely difficult.
Can you describe the point that you came to where you were feeling very stressed? What was going through your mind and what was the action that you took at that point?
I was at a bit of a crossroads with what I wanted to do. I was at that point where I was thinking I might like to have kids and how did the career fit into that and work was just stressful. I was getting to work at 6:00 in the morning. I was leaving at 8:00 at night, sometimes later. I was working when I was at home and I went and saw my doctor and started talking to her about having kids and what the implications would be.
After I’d seen her a couple of times, she was just like, “You need to leave that job. It is far too stressful and that is not going to make a good platform for wanting to start a family.” That was the trigger and I did. I just went, “That’s it. I’m going to resign. I have no idea what’s going to happen next.” I took a much more junior role somewhere else just to be doing something. It wasn’t sitting around and that’s probably one of the best things I ever did because it gave me the spaciousness to think about what I wanted from life. I was only in that other role for probably six weeks.
What was going through your mind? I get the impression that you made the big leap, but you weren’t very clear on where you were leaping to. Is that right?
It was, “I just need to get out of this very toxic situation, away from this person who is going out of their way.” It was almost like it was their daily mission to make my life difficult and be free of that. I started reading things like books by the Dalai Lama and other such books while I was in that short-term role. That’s where I realized that my core strength was in communication and in writing and I’d always been interested in books. It was a good opportunity to start exploring things in that realm. I did find that as soon as I made that decision, things just fell into place. It’s almost like a domino effect. Something turns up and the next thing turns up and then you’re like, “Okay.” This is the right path. There was no resistance.
That’s interesting because so many of the support office kids, we gravitate towards the humanities or the arts, painting, drawing, writing and the first thing we’re told is, “You can never make a living from that.” Did you have those words ringing through your ears while you are holding up the possibility of becoming a full-time writer?
Everybody’s got advice for you and I think as well many is that might be, they’re not the ones walking in your shoes and they’re not the ones living with the consequences of those decisions. I really think that for me, I had to stay true to myself in what was going to make me happy. I thanked everybody for their advice but just kept moving forward with my path and now everyone’s like, “That was such a good decision for you.” It’s interesting how people come on board once they can see that it is working.
Just from what I know of you, you are an action taker. What were the kinds of steps that you were taking to progress yourself along that path?
I did some courses to improve my writing. Even though I was naturally a good writer and I had written for the school newspaper years ago and I’d written for other newspaper products also and that type of thing, I did some courses. I started learning about self-publishing and I looked at different genres of books and how you can write well for that genre.
It gave me much more knowledge than what I had. Initially, when I wrote my first children’s book, which is I haven’t published to this point and I am refining to publish a bit later, I realized that I had a good story, but I didn’t have any idea of what was going to appeal to my target audience. The young readers and the parents. Some of those short courses that I did help me refine the product that I have to sell.
If I can just summarize that transition point, because that’s the critical piece here. I know myself when I got stuck in so many different businesses I was running and I had to crash to go, “What am I doing with my life?” I would have loved to have known what the steps were to get me out of that dark place, but it sounds like you did do some introspective work, reading the philosophers and the thought leaders like the Dalai Lama. You also did some courses to brush up on your skills, and it sounds like you, might’ve also done some reflection on your past, noticing that this was showing up in your childhood as well.
I did a lot of mindsets work as well. I’m working on my mindset, clearing programming and beliefs that you basically learn over time to get past some of those things. I did dabble in the healing arts, so energy clearings, crystal healings and different things like that just to shift that energy away so that it wasn’t a recurring pattern. That was something I was conscious of. When you’ve been in a workplace bullying situation, often that becomes a pattern.
I wanted to make sure that I broke that cycle and that I didn’t live that again, and that has been a good decision to do some work around that. Some people might choose a more traditional path and see a psychologist or something like that. I chose to go down that mindset instead of the more alternative healing route. I think that really helped me. It’s helped with what I do as well in being more mindful of what I do.
Was that a path you’d explored in the past, the alternate healing route?
Not really, because I had some friends who were energy healers at the time, and I didn’t give credit to what they could do, because they were friends and they do a few healings on you. I’d always say, “That was nice, but am I getting any benefits?” It wasn’t until I did some more research and started learning a bit more about it but I understood the inherent value of that work.
If you could share with us, what were some of the beliefs that you realized had been keeping you in this nonproductive, recurring behavior pattern? What were some of the things the insights that you got, the programming that you’re talking about?
I believe that I had to have a high-flying job to be successful. The more you climb that corporate ladder, the more money you earn and the more you are out and about, that was a measure of success. I was out every night for dinners and drinks, but what I realized when I stepped away from that world was that a lot of those people just disappeared from my life anyway. There weren’t genuine friendships as such. It was more just you happened to work together and everybody wanted to go and do something after work. There was a lot more to life than that work hard, play hard lifestyle that I had thought and believed that I needed in order to be successful.
It’s hard. When we’re the fish in the fishbowl, we can’t see how murky the water is or how toxic it might be. Now when you look back, how would you describe the difference between how you felt day to day back then and how you feel now?
I was unhappy. I thought I was happy because I had ticked all these things off and I have my university degree and I turned that into a career. I was earning good money and I was out and about all the time and I could afford to do the things that I wanted to do. Part of me believed I was happy, but if I look at myself now, when I’ve walked down the street, I’m smiling. When I walked down the street back then, I was probably glaring at everybody who walked past me, thinking I’ve had a rough morning and just get out of my way. That’s the reality of being in that environment.
When you walk through the city, I noticed personally how many people are wearing black or gray and they carry these scales. We don’t even realize that we hate looking in the mirror in the first place, but if we could catch ourselves, we’d probably be horrified. I deal a lot with people who are stuck, who were probably where you were in that corporate world and didn’t know how to make that transition. You can’t envisage making that leap.
We see people in the writing sphere who gets suck. We’ve got a name for it. Writer’s block. How do you help get people through that? Is there a magic formula? What do you do when someone says to you, “We’ll get more to what you’re doing now, but I know you’re working with people to help them get their books out?” How do you help them get over this thing we call writer’s block?
I don’t think there’s the magic formula as such to overcoming writer’s block because it’s different for everyone and everybody has different triggers or different obstacles they’re going to come up against when they are writing. Depending on the person and what it is, I recommend a variety of things. Some people I just say to them, “Just leave it and go for a walk and come back to tomorrow. It’ll still be there. Just clear your head, and as you’re walking, you start clearing some of those beliefs you have around the writing.”
I have a very short phrase that I give people, which is, “I clear all positive and negative emotions with,” and in this case, it’s writer’s block. They would be saying to themselves, “I clear up positive and negative emotions with writer’s block,” and then I get them to clear any other words that come up in relation to that. For some people, that works. For others, that could be where they’re trying to write in the house.
Personally, I find that I do my best writing sitting in bed at 3:00 AM. That’s just how I work. If I sit at a desk, I find my creativity is stifled and it just doesn’t happen, but if I’m editing, I need to sit at a desk. It can be the time of the day. It can be the location that you are writing. For others where they’re just not sure where to start, then I always just say to them, “Just start, just write and the words will flow.” Sometimes they give them something like, “If money were no object, I would,” and then just start writing with that. They’ll find then that will flow and they can then start writing about the topic they’re trying to talk about because quite often, the block is on the first word to put on the page.
People get very caught up in that. I always advise new writers, particularly, to create a plan. A lot of people say, “I just want it to flow and I don’t need a plan,” and I’m like, “You don’t need to write a 60-page document. You can have a mind map on a page that is, what your key topic is. What some of the sub-topics are. It’s just some things for you to spark your memory around some of the examples you might want to include.” That is another way just to start writing because you’re creating something that will then guide you in that writing process, but it is different for everyone. Some people meditate and it works for them.
I like that it’s almost an alternate approach you have to helping people verse their books. Just to back pedal a little bit, when you left your corporate career and decided pretty much that you were going to commit to being a writer, what was then the transition to, how much are you a writer and how much are you a writing coach now? What happened there?
There are ebbs and flows with that. Sometimes I’m much more of the writer and other times, I’m much more the writing coach. At the moment, I’ve got a multi-author book that is being developed. Everybody has been writing their chapter. I’ve been very much in that writing coach space and doing the initial, not full edit, but reading through what they’ve got and picking things out and highlighting where they might need to make that story stronger or loop back to the key idea was.
However, now that those chapters are in and we go into that editing phase and I do use other people to do the editing so that there’s a different lens on the work. We go more into that promotional phase for the book. I’ve got more time to write. What I’ve been finding now is that I’m doing more writing of my own. It’s almost project-based. My idea is to have a good balance between that, maybe 50% writing coach and 50% as the writer. That’s the thing I’m striving towards at the moment is to create genuine balance there.
Just describe for me what’s that moment where you light up mostly because we all have this little inner spark. I think it’s when that inner spark gets extinguished that we feel, we might feel sadness or frustration. I’ve experienced all of this when I was in the wrong job and I never knew why. I never knew where that came from. I only realized later that it was the pain of self-betrayal that I wasn’t living up to who I was supposed to be. When you’re in that space where you are living up to who you are supposed to be, what are you doing exactly? Can you define that moment?
For me personally, that is helping other people shine at what they do. Something I discovered when I first started my publishing company was that there are a lot of people out there doing amazing work and nobody knows about it. Their local communities might know or their tribes that they have might know, but fundamentally there’s a lot of good work being done for humanity that no one knows about, and that’s what the trigger was for creating the multi-author book that I’m working on at the moment, Innovation Secrets.
There’s a lot of people out there who are innovating and doing things differently and creating a better world. I want it to be able to showcase them. For me, the part I love in the publishing space is watching the transformation and the journey that those authors go on and the realization within them that they can make a difference and that they have a platform and that they have a voice.
If you think about the media right now, it’s very sensitive. It’s very agenda-driven and often, the true meaning of things is not conveyed. The true meaning of everything is just rolled it out under whatever the agenda at the time is. The beauty of authoring a book is you can speak with authenticity. You need a true voice, and there is a transformation point. I’ve had a lot of emails from my co-authors telling me that they’ve been on an amazing journey and they could hear my voice in their head as they were writing and realizing that transformation that was happening as they were telling their stories. I think it’s that piece.
What I’m hearing is a way you light up now is helping others to shine their light and to make their contribution to the world. You’re doing what you love, but what it seems, what drives you is the ability to catapult others into their relevant spotlight so that their work is seen and heard on a platform where they’re not censored.
They can honor that work that they’re doing without having to frame it in a different paradigm that potentially it shouldn’t sit with in any way.
I’ve noticed, in my own past, when you have that thing that’s bigger than yourself, it’s much easier to get out of bed every morning. Have you noticed that?
It absolutely is. I find that even with my writing. My writing now is much more inspired because of the people that I’m helping on a daily basis. Seeing them rise then triggers something within me as well, some more of a passion or a fire to be more authentic around the work that I put out there as well.
Possibly, that’s the key to writer’s block too. It’s because of that fear of judgment. “What are people going to think of me? Am I going to get a terrible review?” It keeps us in this fear space, and of course, that’s just our ego trying to protect us and say, “Do not put a word on that blank piece of paper or you will meet your judgment day.” The moment you get into that bigger space of, “It’s not about me. It’s about something beyond me,” the fear seems to dissipate, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does. I’ve had one author who’s gone from, “I’m in my career here and I think I need to stay here for five years, and then I’d like to write a solo book, and that is my pathway. This is setting that up.” I was like, “The runway for that is far too long.” If you’re going to write now in a multi-author book, you want to be publishing a book next year because you’ll already have momentum.
I didn’t hear from her for a couple of weeks, and then all of a sudden, I received an email saying, “I’m inspired. I’ve written half my chapter. I’ve now registered a business name. I’ve got a web developer. We’re working on a website.” It’s almost like it expediated what was coming for her anyway because she started doing something that was like a dream.
Writing or being part of a book was the dream for her, and then the momentum happened and everything just fell into place. If you compare it to my experience working in the corporate world, I was like pushing a wheelbarrow uphill every single day. Nothing was easy. You had to fight for everything, particularly as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
It was hard and you had to work hard, but now I work hard, but I work hard in something where there’s flow. I’m not pushing a wheelbarrow uphill because it has momentum of its own and I’m attracting the right people and working with amazing people. There’s something that I wanted to add. People will often ask me, “Do you just take anyone on as an author?”
I always answer that question with no because I do interview everybody. I only work with people where I feel there’s a values alignment. I don’t just take people on for the money. I know there are a lot of publishers out there who will do that. I don’t do that. I think that my previous experience drives that to some extent because I feel if they’re difficult when I talk to them, they’re going to be even more difficult to work with and that’s just not a match or fit for me in terms of clients.
How would you describe those values? What are they? What are you looking for in a person that you know you’ll enjoy a good working relationship together? What are those values that cement that relationship?
It’s based on mutual respect, understanding and acknowledging that the value that both of you bring to that relationship because it is a relationship when you’re working with someone on their solo book or even in a multi-author book, you have a lot of interaction. You’ve got about to build that relationship and respect each other’s opinions. Be able to take no for an answer and tweak what you’re doing. For me, it’s integrity, trust and respect are some of the key values that I look for and that comes with people who are in a certain stage within their journey as well.
I imagine a relationship where you have to get to know someone at a fairly intimate level and level with them whenever they show any resistance to the work. You’ve got to be having their back for them, I imagine. I was intrigued. In your notes, you make this claim that you can go from the idea to the finished product in 60 days. How is that possible? I wrote my memoir years ago and I was pretty diligent with it, but 60 days sounds remarkable. Talk us through that. I’m curious to know how you can do that.
Basically, it’s how I set up the program. We will do some mindset work and it is about getting super clear on what that idea is. What I find is people have 50 ideas and then they’re trying to start writing a book using all of those ideas. It’s narrowing it down to that one core idea. What is it that they get to write about? What is the objective? What do they expect the outcome to be and what they’ve got that supports that in terms of their story? How will they position that? It’s like creating a plan. We do a brainstorm and we create the plan. I have writing prompts for them, so they get weekly writing prompts. Basically, I’m like a project manager. Every week, we’ll be checking in and seeing what the progress is.
If they have writer’s block or they’re not sure what direction to go in, we then work through that. We clear any blocks around it and really focus on the outcome. I often say to my authors, when they’re complaining that they don’t have time, and I’ll say to them, “I’ve seen you on social media. You’ve been in there. You’ve been getting caught up in whatever. If you’ve got time for that, you’ve got time for writing.”
It’s about having some discipline, setting a time each day that you write, getting into that flow and not being distracted by life, social media or any of the other stuff that’s going on out there. Personally, I find it very easy to waste my whole day mucking around with my social media. It’s setting that time aside. It’s a bit like you get up in the morning and you have your morning routine. You always brush your teeth, do your hair, have breakfast and whatever you do in the morning. Writing needs to be part of your day. Where does it fit in? You dedicate that time to that.
It sounds like you’re quite a driver if we’re talking behavior types. You’re someone who does get things done. You like taking action, and that’s probably a very good compliment to a lot of people who may be more in the dreamer space. The problem is when we embark on a project, we think we have to be all things. We think we’ve got to wear seven hats, but for something that’s as an extension of the self as writing, you want to stay as true to your true self as you can.
This is a case where having someone who is a driver, which might not be for the people reading who might be wanting to write a book. You might not be a driver and you go, “How do I get this done?” There’s nothing wrong with getting someone from the outside to do that aspect of the work for you. In fact, it’s probably essential so that you then have the luxury of keeping in your creative, imaginative writing space where that dreamer can emerge.
That makes total sense how you would bring a lot of value to that writing space. Is there anything you would like to share by way of message to leave with anyone who’s reading who might be either in the transition, sitting on a role in a career they’re not happy with? Maybe also they’re thinking of writing a book but going, “Does the world need another book?” Can you talk to those two people, please? What’s your advice?
My advice, if you’re sitting in a career that is not in alignment with you and you’re not happy and you’re just doing it for the money or you feel like circumstances are forcing you to be there, look at ways that you can change your situation or change the environment. If you’ve got to be in a job, perhaps there’s another organization where your values are more in alignment.
I’m very about taking positive action. There is always hope and there is always some solution. If you realize that you need to make a change, it’s then just about taking small steps and that you can be incremental steps. It doesn’t mean quit your job tomorrow and then work out how you are going to pay your bills and leave.
It’s more around what things you can do today to set you up for a better future tomorrow. It might be that you need to do some upskilling. Upskilling doesn’t mean going and doing a university degree for three years. It could be that there are some short courses that you can do that would fill that skill gap that you have or it might be that you need to find some interests outside of work that you’re just purely focused on that environment.
If you’re happier outside, it might bring more happiness inside. There are a million ways to tackle that. For the people who want to write a book, but they think there are too many books out there or they don’t have time, 1% of the population gets published. Many people write books and never go anywhere other than their laptop or their handwritten notes.
There are plenty of spaces, a massive market out there for the right type of books. There’s a reader for pretty much anything you could write. If that is one of your dreams and it’s in your heart and you want to do that, but you’re not quite sure where to start, then it’s programs like the one that I’m running at the moment, Write Your Book in 60 Days. There you get started, keep you accountable and get you taking action.
I do speak to a lot of people who’ve been working on their manuscripts for ten years. If that’s a fiction novel, then it doesn’t get dated, but if it’s something where you’re going to write nonfiction and it might be some self-help thing, then you need to get that to market much more quickly than a ten-year timeframe because things change so quickly. We’ve only got to look at what’s happening in the world at the moment and the world has changed a number of times in the last couple of years. I feel like there’s never a good time. You just start and it will happen. Everything will open up when you take action.
I feel like it’s your motto. You’re the embodiment of that. Just take action is so important. I always like to fast forward to the end of my life. Not that I’m being necessarily a grim or melancholic, but the worst possible outcome would be to sense that you come to the end of your life and look back and go, “If only I had written that book or whatever it is,” that would be the saddest thing to live with that regret.
Thank you for sharing your story and your experience because we need people like you. People like you are the leaders who show other people the way and that it is possible because there are so many doubters, cynics and skeptics out there that say, “You’re just dreaming.” It starts when we’re young. We need to see living proof that we can do it and understand the consequences of not doing it.
I hope you’ve inspired some of our readers that writing a book doesn’t have to involve a gestation of years like an elephant. It can happen in just 60 days. You’ve given this great gift of your story to our readers. In return, I’d like to give you a gift in the way of a reading, if you’d like, on what your future holds for you.
What I asked Jo to do was complete a quiz that I put together. The name of this show is Wake The F*** Up! After all the years that I’ve been in business, I find my greatest satisfaction is in waking people up to their true potential because I lived with the pain of playing small. I feel our passion comes from whatever it is that’s been the most painful experience in my life. My painful experience was keeping myself small, not allowing any of that flourishing that you talk about to happen.
That’s why I love what I do now, helping people see their greatness. I put this quiz together. It’s very simple called the Magic Triangle Quiz and I invited Jo to take it. I’m just going to go through with her results so that if you’re reading, you can see how simple it is to start getting clarity on what it is that’s important to you. If you’re in that space of being stuck in a job or if you’re thinking about writing a book and you’re not sure how to do it, there’s probably a part of you that’s a yearning that is wanting to be expressed.
In this process, what happens is that three core needs emerge. In Joanne’s case, her three were adventure, wisdom and financial freedom and financial freedom emerged as the most important one. If you think of this like a triangle, at the base, you’ve got adventure and wisdom, and then at the top, you’ve got financial freedom.
What I’m going to invite Jo to do now is speak to each of those core needs to share with us what they mean for her. We’re going to start not with the most important one but the one that comes at the base of the triangle, adventure. Jo, just share with us why did adventure come up for you as one of your top three? There are so many ways of interpreting each of these needs. What does adventure mean to you?
It means getting out there, living life, having new experiences and trying things, and if it doesn’t work, then finding it another way to do things. I’ve always been an avid traveler and I’ve had many adventures on my travels. I could probably write a whole book about my travel adventures. That was all about trying new things, doing new things, doing them differently and just experiencing things that were outside your comfort zone.
That’s for me what it is. It’s that whole new experience and constantly learning. That’s part of what I’m about that lifelong learning, but lifelong learning through experience rather than reading out of books and I’m studying at university. While I start to gain a lot of knowledge and things from doing that, and I like reading, I like to get out and do stuff as well.
What I’m hearing is an adventure on many different levels, prompted by physical adventure, and of course, that’s been stymied for a lot of us, but through travel, but the adventure doesn’t have to be limited to the physical world. Adventure is also a deep dive into what’s potentially the most exciting frontier, the frontier of the self. Would that be like what you can discover about yourself by taking risks and being curious and courageous?
Yes. The wisdom that we hold within ourselves that is suppressed in the way that we’re schooled and things like that is amazing. It’s not valued. In some cultures, inner wisdom and intuition are valued much more highly than it is in the culture that I grew up within. You are right about that process of self-discovery. I did set an intention years ago now that every week I wanted to go somewhere I’d never been before.
Whether that was a new location, a coffee shop, a business or a different beach, just so that I was always learning, growing and having adventures because you would meet random people along the way. Something that’s interesting that I found since I have followed my true path is that people would just talk to me. I can be walking down the street or just going to get a coffee and random people come up and start talking to me. I find that quite intriguing because that would never have happened in my corporate life. In fact, they probably would have been like, “Don’t go near her.”
She’s wearing a suit and a briefcase and she’s got shoulder pads. What I’m hearing there is that adventure also is stepping into the unknown. Getting out of your comfort zone, whatever that means, taking action to put yourself in a new space and get some form of stimulation from that emotional serve or whatever. It’s injecting excitement. Let’s talk to the next core wisdom. You mentioned that just before. Tell me about wisdom. Why is that so important? What does that mean to you?
I have always had an inner knowing that I ignored for quite a long time. I lived in Sydney for quite a long time and I would always say to people, “My destiny is not in Sydney. I know it’s not in Sydney. It’s somewhere else. It’s not here.” It was like the inner knowing and I’ve found that I would just know stuff for no apparent reason. There’s no reason why I would know it, almost like that old soul knowing about things. I did ignore that for a long time. To my detriment, I remember if we put it into a practical example, I was walking along while I was over in Denmark and on the way to a wedding.
I got this clear idea that I needed to take a different path, but I was running a bit late. I didn’t take the different path. I kept getting that, “You should go straight ahead rather than turning left here.” It turned out that I slipped and I broke my wrist when I took that left turn about three seconds after that left turn. I didn’t trust my inner wisdom or in guidance in that scenario. It meant that I spent most of the wedding going between hospitals in Copenhagen rather than at the wedding. I guess it’s that wisdom and understanding some of the work of the old masters, but some of the people who’ve gone before us had some amazing insights and things that still apply.
That’s a great metaphor, that idea of not listening to the inner voice and then being punished for it. The universe gives you a whack on the side of the head and you end up missing out on the main event, the wedding, the show or life. Tell me about financial freedom. That’s the core need. Tell me about that. What does financial freedom represent for you and why is that so important?
It represents, for me, moving to the beat of my drum and being on my path, not being reliant on an organization or somebody else’s agenda or a boss for the stability of your income and your career. In creating financial freedom, I know that I’m responsible for the relationships that I build. The network that I create around me helps create that financial freedom and there’s that energy change. Money changes hands, but people receive exactly what they need out of that. It’s not that money-hungry, “I need to get all the money,” which some people have. There’s a definite energy exchange around the service that I provide for people that then facilitates the lifestyle that I want for my family.
I don’t want to be going to an office and working 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM and never seeing my kids and being too tired on the weekends to do anything and not wanting to take them to their sport after school and all of that stuff. Financial freedom facilitates being able to travel, which I’ve already mentioned that I love. Being able to have new experiences and go new places and do things and just live a life that’s more balanced. I know that people talk about work-life balance, but even that is limiting. It’s more that concept of you never work another day in your life because you love what you do, and therefore, you’re creating freedom in many areas.
One of the things about these core needs is it’s very important to remind ourselves of how vital it is to achieve them. To do that, we have to almost go to the opposite of what that is because we know the lack of the core need is what defines our path going forward. It’s that pain that propels us forward. I’m just going to invite you to do that right now. If you were to come up with a word that was the opposite of financial freedom.
Imagine doing a 180-degree flip from financial freedoms is at out on your right-hand side, that’s your direction, your North Star, what’s more important to you than anything else. Now flip it 180 degrees to go to the opposite. If you could sum that up in one word, what would the opposite of financial freedom be?
I feel like I’d be trapped in the system.
What does that mean? Maybe describe that.
I would feel like I need to escape absolutely from that life. Having lived that life, I felt very trapped in my corporate career.
Is that an option for you going forward to risk that financial freedom and go back to that corporate life the way you’re perpetually trapped?
No, because I think everything would change, then I’d be unhappy. I wouldn’t be fulfilling the needs of my clients. I wouldn’t be meeting the needs of my family either. I’ll be here stuck with something that would be very lackluster and uninspiring.
How would you feel at the end of your life looking back if that were the course of your life? We have to do this as powerful beings. We have to always look at that worst-case scenario. How would you feel if that was the path your life took?
Probably like I’d failed and I’d failed myself more than anything because I hadn’t honored my true purpose.
Thank you for sharing that because I agree, that’s the worst scenario, that level of self-betrayal. You knew your path and then, for whatever reason, you didn’t take it. Why we call it the magic triangle is it describes what you need to do to make sure you do get that financial freedom. Do you want me to share that with you?
Absolutely. I need to know.
You do know. That’s the thing. As you’ve already said, it’s when you ignore that inner knowing that travel happened. Essentially, how the triangle works is that the two things at the base describe the path that you must take in order to achieve financial freedom. It’s almost like a very simple, personal mission statement, and here’s how it goes for you. It’s through adventure and wisdom that I achieve financial freedom.
In other words, you must stay loyal to this path because these are your core needs. They’re coming from your intuitive self. You already know what you need to do and now here it is, just in writing. It’s now being globalized. Getting out of your comfort zone as much as you can, pushing yourself into areas where you’re not comfortable, but where you know that you light up, whether it’s physical experiences or maybe it’s to do with your work but keep it an adventurous ride.
Not getting sucked back into the comfort zone as we all do at points. We go, “I don’t want to pick up and make that call,” or whatever. You are pushing yourself, treating it as an adventure. What the triangle is saying is the more you do that, the greater your level of self-awareness, also known as wisdom, is going to be. You’re going to be able to tap into that intuitive self. The more you discard here through adventure, the more self-awareness would rise to the surface and this is what your clients are coming to you for. This is your gold.
Your ability to be intuitive to guide them on their paths, when you do that, if you stay true to this, then that’s when you will achieve financial freedom because that’s the value that you’re giving to the world. Financial freedom, is it living in exchange? It’s putting out to the world what you love doing and receiving not just money in monetary terms but receiving on all levels. Does that make sense, that description of your path?
It absolutely does, and I’ve had a few folks in the road where I haven’t followed my intuition around what I should be doing, or I’ve done things and said, “I’m just doing this for the money,” where I’ve taken on jobs and it never works. I personally feel that I am not suited to working for somebody else. I’m much more suited to that entrepreneurial path. I probably should have wanted that much earlier, but I stepped in and out a number of times on my journey before I fully got there.
The level of pain describes the level of success and you just needed to experience more pain until you had sufficient reason to transition. Here’s the wonderful thing about this core need, because this core need, financial freedom, it probably ties into self-worth as well. It speaks to all of those things. Understanding your value, what you have to give to the world, and it might be financial, but it also might be other things. Giving a fabulous book to the world is an amazing thing as well. It can be freedom at a profound level, but let’s just speak to financial freedom because this was potentially what was stopping you from making that move earlier. That’s the nemesis. That feeling of being trapped is the thing that will propel you forward.
That’s the source of your passion because you’ve known the pain of being trapped. Here’s the twist. The thing that you most want for yourself, your core need or your highest value, let’s call it that, particularly, financial freedom, is the clue as to what you have to give to others. In other words, think about this. Your journey forward might be in the area of helping other writers achieve financial freedom.
Basically, it’s the journey that you know best. Where we really rise as teachers is teaching what we know, what we’ve experienced firsthand, and that’s your journey. That also probably describes your ideal audience as well. People who were aware you were out a few years ago. Does that give you a little bit more clarity going forward?
It absolutely does, and I feel like I can see the potential in a lot of the people that I’m working with at the moment. A lot of the aspiring authors, I can see potential where they don’t see it yet, and one of my authors has come quite a long way. I’ve been working with her quite closely on building her self-confidence about herself and herself as an author.
I could see the difference in her demeanor. When I was chatting with her, I said, “You look brighter, happier and more alive,” and she said, “It was amazing. I procrastinated for so long, but I started the writing.” We’d done all the planning. We’d done her bio and we’d done a lot of other stuff. She said, “As soon as I started writing, I could hear you in my head.” Another time she was saying, “I secretly go on the thread. I carried that idea right through and it just flowed. I felt so good afterward.” I said, “Yes. What you wrote was powerful.”
Thank you, Jo. Honestly, I can see that you’re on your path and I can see that you’re going to help many people find their freedom just as you’re finding yours, whether it’s financial freedom or just freedom from that feeling of being suffocated or trapped because you’ve playing life too small. We know we all know what that feels like.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and particularly, the struggle parts. Just going back to that, that period, that was probably the hottest point during that office bullying. For anyone reading, if you’re in that spot right now, just think of it this way. What if this was the best thing that was happening to you? What if this was a wake me the F up call in your life to start taking action and find out what you’re truly capable of? Joanne Martin, thank you so much for being such an inspiring guest and thank you for all the wonderful work that you’re putting out into the world.
Thank you for having me. It’s been great.
If you’ve got that inkling, that desire of could I, should I, at least get in contact with Jo. As she said, she doesn’t work with everyone, but if she senses a spark in you that’s waiting to emerge, I’m sure she can pick up on that. Thanks, Joanne.
Thank you.
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About Joanne Martin
Joanne Martin is an International Book Writing Coach and Best-Selling Author. She’s the CEO and Founder of Golden Earth Publishing, a bespoke publishing house specialising in building brand credibility for creative and innovative entrepreneurs.
Joanne helps create the ripple effect for future leaders to rise and realise success in all areas of their lives. She works globally with authors to share their stories, up-level their businesses, increase revenue opportunities and magnify their marketing impact through published literary works.
As a mother to two energetic and intuitive souls, Joanne is passionate about leaving a legacy for future generations through inspiring children’s books. She believes we have a unique opportunity to see our work in action, as we create a better world, for the generations that will come after us.
