Emotional Bravery Is Not About Being Fearless

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Episode Transcript

Monick Halm (00:02.488)
Hey Julianna, welcome to the Fun and Bliss Show. I'm so excited to have you here.

Joanna (00:06.318)
So excited to be here. Thank you.

Monick Halm (00:09.72)
So you have an incredible bio. You're Harvard trained, six time founder, private advisor, master coach. But I know that there's a very human story underneath the resume. So can you take us back and share a little bit about your story and what pulled you into the work you're doing right now?

Joanna (00:28.322)
yes. my really what I am doing today is what I needed this whole time growing up, as a young woman in the world. my subplot while I was building all these things was just trying to be like a valid person. You know, feeling a lot of self doubt. Really self, you know, we're gonna go deep pretty quick, but

I I see a lot of women and clients I work with who do the same thing. We go out and build and they're really suffering on the inside from just some questions about am I enough? when am I going to graduate from the feeling that I can just have proven myself and finally? Or who's gonna like who's gonna be approve of me? I've come through a big journey of self healing. I can take you to any chapter you want, because there are many.

and it's just identity about who I am I in the world, the skin I walk in, the the work I carry, who am I serving. Yeah, it's great to go out and change the world, but how's your world? You know, how are you working with your own assumptions and and biases and what are you really valuing? that's a long way to say. It's all about becoming the woman that we needed. And so I created a method that brings clients into the

under the layer b below the layer work in safety. to be feel like safe and trust that someone like me really is here to do it with you and have your back to go to those places and come out into your elevated vision of who you want to be in the world. that's I'll leave it there.

Monick Halm (02:11.244)
That it's such yeah, it's such important work because people see successful people and then they and they think that they just got it all together, right? And there's still often so much pain, so much isolation underneath all of that. When did you, Joanna, realize that this is the work that I'm here to do? Like was there a a defining moment or a transformation or something that happened that def that that was the moment?

Joanna (02:39.468)
You know, it's funny, I'm smiling because I go back to being a child. Like many of us go back to where did it all begin? And I do this with clients, Monica, by the way, which is a great question. Where did it start for me? I was just a too much kid. I was in trouble. I couldn't o like obey is the word that always would come up in my household. I just I was not a blueprint person. And thank God, like many of us, I find like, okay, if I'm not a blueprint person, I can't follow the blueprint blueprint.

What if I'm the one who makes the blueprints?

Monick Halm (03:11.2)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joanna (03:13.122)
So I struggled through building my first nonprofit. It's the stage that found me theater. So it's my defining moment I guess would be just painful moments as a young person, in my home feeling, you know, it's not my story to tell with my family, but I you know, I I don't tell it in public. But there's you know, everyone has their personal moments at home where you're like, you know, if I'm not enough, what are my choices? I can hate myself.

Which I did that. You know, or I can find places where I can become who I wanna be in safety. So the theater found me at 13. And then I watched other people on stage, right? Like a performance environment usually creates a lot of anxiety, but I loved it. Cause I was like, I can be big and I can be expressive. And actually this is like you major in being big. So finally I have a place where I can be a fully expressed person and yet.

People around me in theater and you know, all these productions I've done over the years, I'd see people just really comfortable and natural. And I still was possessed by feeling embarrassed, like kind of like, don't embarrass yourself. Don't get it wrong. So I made a lifelong journey to find out how to overcome that. I did it in a lot of bad ways for a while.

Then I learned Reiki and did a lot of self-healing and then got into deeply into meditation and did meditation guide training. And that really was, I think, the beginning of a path of being willing to sit with the pain instead of try outpace it. And that led into a lot of other stories in my life, like marriage, building businesses, learning about money, learning how to have my voice as an adult.

How to not make myself sick, become sober. There's a lot of fun stories in there.

Monick Halm (05:11.982)
I can rel I can relate to so much of that. What did you have to learn about yourself in order to support leaders, founders, and public figures at the level that you do now?

Joanna (05:25.516)
You know, Monique, it's really what we're saying is that I don't need to be perfect to be powerful. That's what I had to learn. Yeah. You know, like done is better than perfect. So when I finally accepted that I will never be perfect and actually the perfect game isn't my game. That's where it all shifted.

You know, I've studied the best thought leaders like the Brene Browns, and you watch the moguls like Oprah and Melinda Gates, who's using her capital to really shift society through her capital, through her investment. Cause I remember we're talking about investment earlier. these women kind of set speaking of sp setting blueprints, they show us what's possible. And none of them, guess what? None of them do try to feel act like they have it all together.

You know. So I right now meeting with you all, I'm in a place in my brand and my work and serving clients and training women to speak and lead from their voice. I'm actually in a brand shift because we've built a lot of the credibility. So I'm talking to audience people who are watching and listening right now. We've I've learned I am, yeah, like an expert, but not accessible because it's too

seeming like I have it all together. So this conversation is timely for any of us who are putting our content out there to really learn that the way to reach people and connect and actually make a difference is to show that you don't have it all together. And so I'm really working on letting my brand breathe into that.

Monick Halm (07:00.096)
It's so special. I love for me the the the way that I live is all about bliss. You know, I'm kind of the bliss piece of this, the bliss and fun piece, bliss and fun show. But when you hear a blissful life, what do you think about in real everyday terms?

Joanna (07:22.668)
Well, I would love for you to answer that too, by the way. Yeah. I I'll give my answer, but I want to hear what you have to say. the more I have achieved and received, the more I realize that the indestructible things that will never go away are the most simple things, which is here in my home with my children, my family. It's the things that you don't need money for. I mean, it sounds crazy. People are chase and chase and chase, and like in the end of the day.

What I really feel blissful in is what happened this morning, waking up and playing Uno with my kids.

Monick Halm (07:57.676)
Mm-hmm.

Joanna (07:59.648)
It doesn't get better than that. I mean, it really doesn't. That's what I live for. I live for those core memories, being with the people who I love most. and just remembering how lucky, you know, we are that we get to enjoy this life. It's it's not it's not cheeky to say this because I have friends, I was at an event last night with a colleague who learned her sister has terminal cancer. And so

You know, we we all have a story, we all have stuff that we're going through, and you just hear this and you just it puts things into perspective just so fast. Like if you want to enjoy life, you don't need to look around, just be with like l love what you have. And the bliss word I think of, because I knew I was going to talk to you all today. I think of play and music and that freedom I talked about on stage is just to be really comfortable and be in your skin and in your life and your body.

with no conditions, just to really enjoy it. That to me is being present with my family in my home and dancing and playing.

Monick Halm (09:05.784)
Well, ironically, or maybe not ironically, that's pretty much how I would define Blist. Yeah.

Joanna (09:11.049)
Yeah, say more. Say more.

Monick Halm (09:13.518)
So for me, so the way I actually define bliss for our audiences, and I've been doing this for like nine years, is it's a deep state of joy and contentment and the true belief in yourself that you can handle anything that comes your way and that the universe has your back, right? So it's a state, but to get to that state

We live a blissful life. Like we have the blisciplines. Fun is one of them. It's a big one of them, right? Fun and play, just bringing those little bits of joy into your life. And that can look in a lot living a blissful life can look a lot of different ways. Like you say, so many people are chasing happiness. That's not what this is about. This is about really being present in your life, landing in your own footprint, owning who you are.

The fact that you are this beautiful God-sent being. and that bliss resides inside of you in every single moment. And that we can see it expressed outside of us in so many ways, whether it's in the laughter of our child while you're playing Edo, Uno, the wagging of the dog while you're going for a walk, making eye contact with my husband is one of my very favorite bliss moments.

Mm mm, some of it can cost money. Going to Hawaii last week was truly blissful and that cost money. But sitting across the table this morning with my husband was also blissful and that didn't, right? So there's a whole range of ways that we can experience it and we can choose that, but in the end, it's about really being fully embodied in yourself, in your own joy, and knowing that you carry that around with you. You know what I mean?

Joanna (10:58.208)
I sure do. I sure do. I mean I love

Monick Halm (11:00.642)
Did you wanna did you wanna share? Yeah, well, I I love Ditto. Everything you just said. I I the show is a lot about the blisciplines. Right. So what do we do on a day-to-day basis towards having that blissful life? Cause it's you know, bliss is the state, but then there's the activity. And for me, a lot of it is

Fun is doing bliss, fun is doing joy. And so my question for you, Joanna, is what do you do for fun these days?

Joanna (11:37.794)
Yeah. I am a huge believer in flow state. So believe it or not, I learned about this at Harvard. You'd think like, what does Harvard know about fun? but it was Chex Chickscent Mahai. He's a you know who he is. Thank you. he has a theory but thank you. Chickscent Mahay si Chickcent Mahai. Do not ask me to spell that name. he talks about flow state and I

Mm, out coming out the pandemic had like at at forty hits and like serious autoimmune challenges. I thought I was tired, irritable, depressed, and you know, boggy because I had two toddlers under two, but turns out I had an autoimmune condition and I was drinking and I had a huge shift in my life at that time and was like, what could I lean into?

that would bring energy back qi flowing into my body again and just as part of the healing, not just through food. Cause I I had to heal us through food. I chose the natural path to do that. Cause I wanted root cause healing, right? returning to pla to do ceramics. I did ceramics in college, all through high school and college. I'm also a musician, so I play guitar, play piano for fun. Just kind of

Tinkle the keys like I did last night, playing some Torre Amos music. She's a master piano player. you know, and that's that gives me joy. I mentioned music because I think

the field of play, the energy of play coming through the senses, through the hearing sense, you know, really affects me. The way I'm built is the sounds. so I make the sounds. It's really bl blissful for me.

Monick Halm (13:35.838)
Love that. Monique and I can totally relate to all of that we just said. We're big music and dancing people. Totally. Yeah. We've been having lots of fun making music. Yeah. Lots.

Joanna (13:48.792)
That's so good. How do you do that? I mean you get together and play like jam.

Monick Halm (13:52.758)
No a lot of AI music. Creating just really fun, creating the lyrics and then having fun is creating the music. I do play some piano, but not really well enough to like. Yeah. It's mostly all AI assisted though. So but we're having we really do have a lot of fun. I just created a song called Mahalo on My Lips.

While I was in Hawaii. I'll share that with you sometime. But anyways.

Joanna (14:23.928)
Great. I love that. I'm really curious about how to do that. I've been listening to a lot of Bob Moses because my husband and I like to listen to dance music. And coming up, we're going to Burning Man with our kids.

Monick Halm (14:36.91)
so much fun.

Joanna (14:39.672)
Fun and bliss. Yep. People are like, Why are you bringing your kids to Burning Man? Can you imagine what it'd been like? Yeah. What what are we gonna say, Monique? A hundred percent. There's a kids camp in a like any city. People are like, What about the drugs and the sex? It's like, well, you don't go to those places and do that if you don't want to experience that. You go to these places and do this. And so you can have everything. We when my husband and I went to Burning Man before we had kids, we saw

Monick Halm (14:47.928)
There's a kids' camp at Burning Man.

Joanna (15:07.476)
The camps that tell you how to make your R V hundred percent solar run and then there's the TED Talks over here and then there's the neuroscience like lab over there and yeah, it's

Monick Halm (15:17.354)
And making beads and fans over there. Absolutely, yeah. You know, you have so you've done so much work, right? On yourself and in the world. How has your relationship with with fun changed with your own work and your leadership and as your visibility has expanded and you've expanded?

Joanna (15:39.266)
Well, I'm gonna be honest. I talked about ceramics and I was back in it for three years. And then about three months ago, I just stopped going to class and I text my teacher. I'm like, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. it became Tuesday. I it's about time. And so I can share vulnerably because we're all on this journey of where are you on the dial with fun. So I made a spot intentionally.

as I built my business to take time every Tuesday to go to that studio and get my hands in the clay and build here, I'll show you what I built.

Monick Halm (16:12.864)
Show and tell. I love it. Yay! For those of you listening, come over to YouTube and take a look. Yeah.

Joanna (16:20.046)
So these are I I yeah. These are my meditation guys. I have about 20 of them lined up. Just throw a vase and make the faces, face vase. And they're just very meditative. so I I really just stopped.

Joanna (16:39.148)
I don't love that. I don't like admitting that. But there are some there's some you know, excuses, I guess, like business it gets busy and I gotta serve my clients. I'm also the president of a women's business association here. I have a foundation, you know, I have a business, a family. So sometimes you know what I'm gonna say about this? You're gonna drop a ball once in a while.

Monick Halm (17:03.372)
Yeah, but fun doesn't have to be the same thing every day, right? I I heard that you played Uno this morning. That's right. That sounds like fun. That sounds like

Joanna (17:13.793)
So it's like it's like right. Like how are you gonna use fun to beat yours like don't I tell people with meditation, we can't use that to beat ourselves up with, right? So while I don't love that and that was so this was my my my fun time. I this is my fun time now. I stop work at three thirty every day and I stay with my kids and hang out. I get them from school. So we have people who help us, right? Occasionally we

I never let them take my I don't ask anyone to take my kids to school or pick them up because I really value my time with my children. So I pick them up when we go to the library or we play Uno or we make cookies or brownies or read Harry Potter or, you know, we play tag. So that is my fun. But I'm gonna add something else because it's not enough to have fun for just for, you know, it's like I'm more than just a mom, right? I have to remember this too. So I like to

dance a lot. And I will play music as loud as possible. and dance. I dance. Yep. That's what I do.

Monick Halm (18:24.536)
I love I really love how you stepped into the different pieces of that. Like first you were sort of like, I had this sacred time that was gonna be fun for me. And I've dropped the ball on that. But then also and that's you know, that's a thing. We do need that sacred time and sometimes we can't.

Right. And so then you have those other pieces. Time with your children. I dance. I played Uno with my child. Like, and I really want the audience to hear this because you're a perfect exemplification of what we're trying to talk about here. Is that fun doesn't have to look a certain way. Fun can show up in so many beautiful ways, big and teeny teeny tiny. Right. alone and with people we love.

it can just show up in so very many different ways. So thank you for that whole story of kind and sort of your journey, even through the conversation as we

Joanna (19:18.614)
Thank you. You know, Monique also, she taught me something. Remember, I don't know if you remember you said this last week when we were talking, Monique, but you're like, you take yourself on a date. You said something like this, and you you really illustrated sp setting time with the intention of being in play and bliss and fun on purpose. Like n it's not on the way to something else. It's that's what we're doing. And I really

Monick Halm (19:38.497)
And

Joanna (19:45.952)
Like I heard you at the time, but I've been continuing to hear it. that's the end of my sentence. It's just a powerful, it's a practice. I now understand what blue discipline means, right? Dedication to flow and play as part of our life design. That's how I understand what you were telling me.

Monick Halm (20:08.042)
It is, but it doesn't mean it has to be distinct. So it so for me when I'm having fun every day, it could be when I'm you know on the drive on the commute with my daughter and we're singing at the top of our lungs a song while we're driving in the car and we're having fun. It's just noticing, ooh, I'm having fun right now. I've had fun today. That's it. So it that it doesn't have to be

Joanna (20:11.094)
Mm.

Monick Halm (20:36.268)
I set aside this hour where I went, you know, and I went to and I did the fun thing, which can be that too, but it doesn't have to be. That's the thing, right? I've heard so many fun things that you've done. It's just acknowledging. I have played Uno today. I had fun. I played on the piano. I had fun. All right. Like all I take it. I put the music up up like at the loudest setting and I dig it like nobody's watching. Yeah.

Joanna (21:01.71)
Let let it go. That's it. Can I take this into a philosophical place for a minute? You just pointed something out that I think for me is a practice I want to share with people because I don't think we emphasize this enough, which is what we choose to put attention on.

Monick Halm (21:09.537)
Go for it.

Joanna (21:24.694)
something I do on purpose with my children, because it's part of what I've had to learn how to do for myself, because I've studied manifestation for decades like the everyone else, and I practice it, is to speak acknowledgement about this is so much fun. Are we having so much fun right now? I say I mean my kids probably hear me say that a hundred times a day, but I I'm like, you know, I say these things first of all because I mean them and I notice them.

And second of all, I want to program in my environment with the people around me just the ability to appreciate what's going well and what we want to receive. And I've been in plenty of environments, like probably we all have, where that's not always happening. There's complaining or there's concern or worry or detracting, like there's a detracting, putting attention on that.

That wires the brain to look for that and then guess what's happening? Object fixation. You can't do anything but create the thing that we're saying, talking about, putting attention on. And I know what I want to experience. So I just really wanted to bring that piece on my end to the significance of naming and saying and speaking into being and appreciating that we're actually having fun right now. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Beautiful.

Monick Halm (22:44.076)
Just noticing it.

Joanna (22:49.474)
Yeah.

Monick Halm (22:52.694)
Monique, you want to do the next question? Sure. I wasn't sure who was next. Okay, so Joanna, what is really exciting you right now, personally, professionally, or creatively?

Joanna (23:05.366)
Okay. Well, I will share personally. you know, as we get to know each other, you'll learn that I have a different speaking of being a blueprint person, my husband is someone who's influenced me greatly. I thought I was a big thinker and then I meet him and he's like, You don't think big enough. Let's go bigger. So we moved to Costa Rica and had got married there and had our daughter there, and we have a home there. And we lived there for a period of time. And next week we're going back.

And we will be walking around barefoot in the ocean, listening to the birds, eating bananas off the tree. And I am very excited to be back in our it's our home in Costa Rica that our kids we ask. I mean, here in Phoenix, Arizona, suburbia, you know, got all the conveniences, but Mother Earth is really a strong force and I don't have a strong connection to it here.

And so I'm really excited to just sit in with my children and feel that next week. Excited.

Monick Halm (24:12.404)
So beautiful. Costa Rica is so amazing for connecting with animals and nature and Mother Earth, all of it. I just love it. I love that there too.

Joanna (24:24.648)
I have an aspiration to create a retreat there because part of my work is to create allow my my life to be a platform and a container for the w for the people who were on the journey together. And so I have I think in January a retreat for women leaders to come talk about their story and practice speaking it and capture footage and all those things. so I'm excited to actually share it. Mm-hmm. You know, share it with other people.

Monick Halm (24:51.798)
Yeah. Love it. All right. I'd love to talk about your true influence method. I that that is places emotional bravery at the center of leadership and visibility. But what does emotional bravery mean to you?

Joanna (24:54.712)
pura vida

Joanna (25:10.754)
Good. Okay. Let's do this.

It's great to want to speak and lead, right? It's that's that's a great way for any business owner or any of us to go out and and share and build. what matters when we get into that space, whether it's stage or on social media or in a networking meeting, anywhere you're speaking, right, about what you do. It really matters to be able to feel authentic and connected to why you're here and what you're doing.

It's not just a script. It's not just a brand message because we want people to receive us. And if it feels scripted or in any way inauthentic, they subconsciously just, I've heard it before. This isn't special. I want more for us. I want the moniques and the monikas of the world to major in what we do differently in your core genius, which is unique to you. So I created this because I needed it.

What do I do differently? I used to have an acting studio where I trained actors professionally, and the method I studied was called the emotional honesty technique. Think method acting. People know more about method acting, except this is in the imaginary realm. So you're rehearsing emotional states that are imagined, not real memories. the brain cannot perceive the difference between real and imagined. And the reason why in my studio I trained thousands of people, and I I've had people who have major success stories, like famous, on the cover of magazines and things, who came through my studio.

Studied with me. They were not studying acting. They were studying listening to their gut in front of others. They were studying being intuitive and in truth in front of hundreds of faces, thousands. That's being a natural leader. So then I applied this, I I study this technique. I was an actor and then I st taught it because I have a gift for teaching. That's one of my things I love to do.

Joanna (27:13.324)
And now I brought it with business owners and I created methodology around building this skill set inside of your voice.

And the journey the true influence method takes you on is the emotional, undercurrent, subconscious dialogue that we're always in in the background, whether we realize it or not, that self-worth, can I do it? Who am I? Who wants to hear my story? Why me? What happens if I get visible? Who's gonna hate me? All of those stuff run in the subconscious background. Your audience will receive it. They will know the second you open your mouth whether you're real or you're you're you're forcing it.

And so since I want to bring people into just really being authentic as an authority, your author your authenticity is your authority. I I have a program of insight building. So through questions that get into the subconscious, how did this begin? What does it mean to you? Why? We go beneath the layers, but I can't get anyone to feel authentic if they don't have a realization. Right. So it's realization from phase one to phase five of my programs about what defined you.

How do we communicate it, mastering that communication, getting capturing on high level visibility with assets and the right network? And then the f phase five is a global leadership where you've actually leveled yourself up, but not on the outside, on the inside. How you sound and how you've become the voice. How'd I do? Okay. Great. That's how it works. What they get is keynote, TED Talk, professional footage.

Monick Halm (28:42.263)
Could you

Joanna (28:52.618)
getting in the rooms that they want to be in, making six figures, seven figures more within a year in some cases. speaking opportunities, obviously. yeah, it's good for business. I'm starting to work in team frameworks because my expertise is actually in learning. I've understood myself a lot better. I'm a learning expert. I understand how people learn through the emotions. And so I don't answer the emotional bravery qu conversation now that you know what I do. It

You once you learn something about yourself, why do I do what I do? How does it work? What does it mean to others? You're vulnerable to ask those questions. You get vulnerable. So that's the emotional bravery. It to go under the surface requires the willingness to be vulnerable. I cannot ask anyone to do this if they don't feel safe.

Because we're going to painful stuff. But what we never did was go back to painful traumatic memories with the question about how does it connect to my purpose? We usually go back in the story, the victimhood. I'm not enough. But if you say, well, I'm building this thing that really matters. So why did this need to happen again? Well, let's go find out. Then it breaks through some of these dialogues. It breaks that conversation. Now you're in a different conversation. It's a shift in perspective. That takes

Honesty, vulnerability, and the willingness to then as you go take a risk and go out and and speak on behalf of your mission.

Monick Halm (30:18.85)
I love that. Talk to us a little bit about the difference between emotional bravery and confidence.

Joanna (30:28.674)
Ooh, yeah. So I really love talking about confidence because I think it's sort of this mirage. I don't believe in it so much. I'm not a big believer in confidence. I think it's something, it's a ski it's a muscle set. Think of it as a muscle set you cultivate over time. Like you've got to go to the gym, right? But going to the gym to become a bodybuilder, let's say, as a confident person, happens with the one repeatable step, which is bravery. That's picking up the weights.

Day after day. And I train my clients to be brave. Because what I see a lot of women leaders do, and my clients are CEOs, founders, executives, they're holding back from taking the step, whatever it is, the ask, getting on stage, speaking their story, you name it. They don't feel confident. And I'm like, We're playing the wrong game.

That's gonna take time. It's it's what happens when you've tried something and you succeed and then you can repeat it rebu reliably. That takes a lot of time. But what we can do, I don't want you to hold back because you don't have that. What if you're brave enough to take a risk on behalf of your potential? This is what a lot of men do. Stats show that men don't wait to be an A plus student. They can be a C plus C student, don't have the qualifications, and they go anyway. So I just take a page from that book. I'm like,

Let's be brave. You might fail, but we can fail without shame.

Joanna (31:56.514)
We can do that because you're gonna learn something. You know what learning gets you? You're gonna be better next time. Yeah.

Monick Halm (32:08.108)
Love that. Yeah.

Joanna (32:09.784)
Bravery feels like confidence. That's the magic. Yeah. It feels like confidence. You can be brave. Right?

Monick Halm (32:15.704)
Yeah.

Why do you think so many high achieving women maybe look confident on the outside, but feel disconnected, uncertain, or overly guarded on the inside?

Joanna (32:29.996)
I need you to ask me that a different way so I can really understand what you're asking me.

Monick Halm (32:33.868)
Yeah, so there might be women that seem confident, right? on like on the outside, but in seem brave even. Yeah. Yeah. Or like inside it's there's disconnection, uncertainty, fear.

Joanna (32:44.204)
Mm.

Joanna (32:51.532)
I have to you know, I just receive that so differently 'cause I read people di very deeply. I maybe it's because of work I've done, I just see th three layers in, four layers in. You're not

Monick Halm (33:01.848)
Yeah.

Joanna (33:04.162)
It's hard. It's hard to I just I see something that I think other people maybe don't. I've been told this and I'm like, every you can see this. Like, I no, we don't see that. Like, what? No, it's right there. But I I think I've trained myself to look so much for authentic truth that that's where I go immediately. So I I can see where the struggle is. And I listen, I am not one to judge. So I want you to say when I receive others in their struggle.

I align, I lie with them. I ally because I know a lot about that. And I think that's the safety is is me when I speak with people. I'm doing this with you. I'm holding you, I'm holding your back up. I'm not standing out here like a show or an example. I am in it with you because we need something. We need something to start, get to the root cause.

If you know this is possible, just get in the room with people who are doing the work alongside you who cheer cheer you on and you can be vulnerable with and and that really is what begets growth is the vulnerability combined with genuine support. That's a magical combination. I love creating those rooms. Yeah, really, I I really value it because I've needed it. It's a different, it's nice to b know you belong when you walk in a room.

Monick Halm (34:28.022)
Yeah. Yeah. I believe that's true. And it's amazing that you create those spaces for people, but those aren't the spaces that we all walk into all the time. Right. So what do people misunderstand about visibility? Because we if we're if we're going for visibility, we're going for visibility everywhere, right? Whether it's a supportive room or not a supportive room.

Joanna (34:49.646)
I used to be allergic to visibility, that word. It felt like it felt misaligned, but I've grown enough into my mission where I've I've simply accepted that I I need to be visible to achieve what I'm called into for the work I want to do. visibility, like leadership, is not a show, actually.

It feels like you're supposed to have this like I'm I'm here to show you what's happening. I think it's about embodying what you value most in front of people because that's magnetic. But it takes a lot of self-trust to get into like what do I value? And people have these questions like who's gonna want to see see that?

Who wants to see me? I love getting in that conversation because that's one of those subconscious conversations. It's really worth getting into it before you go out and be visible because they're gonna see you. They're gonna see you faking it. And I'm like, it's not worth it. Don't discredit yourself. You wanna go big and go high, you've got to go deep first. And I am like I tell my clients this all the time.

You're with me. There are no stakes here. We have a closed door. We can go there, see what's there, find out the dialogue, have the tears, have the moment, have the breakthrough, and then apply it to your visibility. And so that's the magic in the in the method of the true influence method.

Monick Halm (36:16.842)
I love that. All right, we're gonna switch gears a little bit because on this show we talk about blisciplines, which we mentioned before, like the habits, the rituals, the ways of being that help life feel more joyful, more aligned. So what are some of your personal disciplines?

Joanna (36:36.398)
dance, playing music, listening to music, sex.

food.

being outside. Like it's all the simple stuff. Being in this human body, it's like what gets your senses to come alive. So for me, it's those things. And also I just say conversation. I am in a bliss flow state when I'm connecting with people in in truth and what matters. So that's another bliss for me.

Monick Halm (37:10.402)
We're definitely feeling that. So in every episode, I'm so glad. In every episode, we ask our guests to talk to share with us and invite our listeners to do one small meaningful experiment during the week that will bring more bliss into their lives. We call it a fun spark. I kind of want to start calling it a fab spark. Fun and bliss. Spark. Fab spark.

So so if you had a fab spark that you wanted our our listeners to try as an invitation, what would you what would you recommend?

Joanna (37:49.568)
I need to hear yours first. I need I need to think about this. Will you please share yours so I can see where we because I I'm now I'm gonna come up with mine after I hear yours.

Monick Halm (37:57.304)
Go ahead, Monique, you start. Well, this week in our fun and bliss collective community, we like one of our dare, we have fun dare, is to l say say yes to the unexpected invitation, like something that's fun and light. So it's you know, that stay for one more song or go to that, go accept that invitation that you might not otherwise have.

have accepted, go go and and do something fun. Or it could be something that you know about. Like we I'm doing for a film I'm producing, we have a table read and I know my producer wants to write me into the script. And I've been a no so far, but I know he's gonna ask me to do a read. And I am going to be a yes because of this invitation. Yeah. So that's that was our fun spark. So what's one like little experiment?

That somebody can try this week to have more fun and blessings. So

Joanna (39:01.326)
We're gonna assume that fun is connecting is fun. Okay. I challenge people to all right. So I'm talking to you, listener. Next time you're in a conversation with someone and there's curiosity and you might just kind of float past because you're like, I don't know if I want I you just don't have the practice of going there, go there. Say more. Tell me what you mean by that.

Monick Halm (39:04.91)
Mm-hmm.

speaker-2 (39:28.142)
Wow, why do you think that is?

Joanna (39:30.344)
Ask a question that takes them deeper because two things will happen. One, you get more of them. And people love to share. And when you have listening ears to receive them, it's love. They feel love. Okay. The second thing is it's incredibly fulfilling to not leave potential on the table. So you fulfill the potential for a deeper connection. It would it it leads to so much more love inside of you in your body.

When you take the conversation deeper. It is truly a skill set. I used to think it was like extracurricular. I'm a good listener and I'm patient. I was like, that's not a skill set. It totally is a skill set. It's very advanced skill set. Use it.

Monick Halm (40:13.438)
Love that. Awesome. All right. Now it's time for our fun and bliss lays around. So Okay. some quick, quick questions before we go. And nope. The questions you are good, but I want also for we're going to be going deeper into conversation after after we

Joanna (40:28.738)
Are we each doing one?

Joanna (40:41.118)
We are.

Monick Halm (40:42.312)
so that's gonna be happening in the community, but we'll tell you more about that later. But okay, so our first question is what's your go-to when you need an instant joy boot?

Joanna (40:52.074)
Music. Pull up that playlist. Bob knows this.

Monick Halm (40:58.082)
Finish this sentence bliss to me looks like

Joanna (41:02.754)
My family.

Monick Halm (41:05.592)
What's one thing that never fails to make you laugh?

Joanna (41:12.13)
Me

I'm silly. I make somet I make a joke and I laugh at my own joke.

Monick Halm (41:20.684)
That's so good. Joanna, could you tell our listeners how they can connect with you and learn more about your work?

Joanna (41:29.836)
yes. I would love that. Please do connect with me. I'm on social media like everyone else in the world. So just look my name up. I'm the blue check mark, Joanna Horton McPherson. I'm accessible all of the ways on the website. You know, find me, send me a message, ask me a question. I love talking to people. I love it. And I answer. So reach out.

Monick Halm (41:54.36)
Perfect. Thank you. Love that. we didn't ask you this before, but do you have a free gift, resource, event, or invitation? You'd love.

Joanna (42:03.098)
yeah, I do actually. I have a free safe space visit with me called the Vault. I will always make this free and available for whoever who can't do for whatever reason jump into my training. I have a retreat in September, have a course, tell your story. So you can actually sign up and join me in Phoenix for a three day live container and actually tell your story in the company of professional leaders like yourself.

that's in September. So you can find that course information on my website.

Monick Halm (42:34.968)
What's your we what's your URL?

Joanna (42:37.382)
true influence method dot com. Thank you. Perfect. Yeah.

Monick Halm (42:40.046)
True influence method dot com.

Joanna (42:42.03)
That's right. TrueInfluence Method.com. the vault, however, it's virtual. And so it's a one hour I it's live. I have some someone get in the hot seat and like do a deep dive with me. and then I have time for questions. It's pretty simple. I show what's available, it's coming. So if you want to join me in the vault, we have that available on the website. You just kind of click, get your name in there, and we'll see you in the calendar. Perfect. The next one's June 5th.

Monick Halm (43:08.854)
Totally.

Joanna (43:09.73)
I'm not when this airs, but yeah, it's every month. Mm-hmm.

Monick Halm (43:13.582)
And we will if you can go to the fun and bliss the fun and bliss dot com under that episode you'll find all the links that Joanna's talked about. All right. So thank you so much. This was awesome. and we're going to continue this conversation in our in our fun and bliss collective. So deeper. We're going deeper. We're gonna be yeah, we're gonna be we're excited about that.

Joanna (43:36.248)
We're going deep.

Joanna (43:41.417)
Yeah, juicy. All right.

Monick Halm (43:44.332)
All right. Bye everyone.

Go Deeper Inside the Fun & Bliss Collective

Joanna joined Moneeka and me for an extra bonus video inside the Fun & Bliss Collective, and the conversation is so juicy.

We go deeper into the divine feminine, our respective missions, and what it means to lead, create, and expand without disconnecting from softness, truth, pleasure, and joy.

This is the kind of conversation that reminds you that you do not have to choose between power and play.

You do not have to choose between influence and aliveness.

You do not have to choose between ambition and bliss.

Inside the Fun & Bliss Collective, we are building a space for women who are ready to stop postponing joy and start practicing it now.

Join us inside the Collective to watch the full bonus conversation with Joanna and connect with women who are choosing more fun, freedom, permission, and bliss in the lives they are creating.

Join The Fun & Bliss Collective Here