Episode 58 transcript: Raising Your Energy and Overcoming Doubts with JJ DiGeronimo

Podcast Introduction:

[00:00:00] JJ: I do think it has to do with frequency and I'm a big advocate of raising your own frequency. And I talk a lot about specifically how to do that in the book. But I do think that I have to show up as bright of light as I can create, and that's why the energy workers have been so instrumental because they've helped me remove the darkness, the stories, the experiences that are no longer serving me because I see our bodies as really a container. That holds our soul and our ego together and having them work in correlation or combination is really just such a beautiful thing.

[00:00:33] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breadth depth, and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention. Gratitude and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.

Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. I am so excited for this week's episode. My guest is JJ DiGeronimo. She is a light worker, a businesswoman, and an author who creates a bridge for people to tap into tools, practices, and mindsets. And she has a new book. It's called seeking, 74 key findings to raise your energy, sidestep yourself, and your doubts, and the line with your life's work.

And it's making a splash with everyone who's reading it. I love this book and I really suggest that everyone get a copy of the book. It is just amazing with three award-winning books for women and an online community together, we seek, her provide action-based strategies to unleash her wisdom with an exciting combination of energy practices and key insights.

J. J is a unique approach. She works with you to create an interactive discussion to dig deep, release guilt, and align with what you know is true to guide listeners to rediscover brightness within their own natural gifts. She's often quoted in numerous publications, including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, The Glass Hammer, and Working Women Magazine.

She's a woman in tech turned award-winning author who shares energy practices and empowering strategies that listeners can use to create more impact on her own podcast. And with new levels of awareness, JJ shares a more spiritual side of her life that undeniably strengthens her mission to empower women at work and in life.

She is no stranger to navigating the twists and turns of moving from entry-level positions to leadership. And now she's focusing on unleashing these leadership and insights from within. We had such an amazing conversation. We found out that we both have been on parallel journeys in our lives.

And so we talk about what it was like working in corporate, the desire to leave, the desire to actually go on this mission and searching, like, who am I within? And the ways that she's been able to do that, how she found guides and energy practitioners along the way to help her. Talked about her new book and a lot of the lessons learned in this book, which are so impactful and practical.

And also we just talked a little bit about retreats, how the home for the retreats found her and so many other things in her life that happened sort of serendipitously. It was such a great conversation. I really enjoyed our time together and I know that you will pick up so many wonderful lessons from JJ's story. So take a listen.

Podcast Interview:

Aneta: JJ, I am so excited to have you here on the show. Thank you for joining me today.

[00:03:42] JJ: This is a long time coming. I think we have a lot to discuss.

[00:03:45] Aneta: I think you're right. I just want to start off and just acknowledging how excited I was for today because you and I had an opportunity to connect, I think it was during COVID in 2020, when a dear friend of ours, Leslie Carruthers connected us and I followed you through.

I've known and heard about you for years. And so we had such a great conversation then and now, Leslie reconnected us, I believe, or somehow we got reconnected again because we were both spending time with Leslie and there are no coincidences or accidents. And I'm so excited because you have a new book that you just wrote that I love so much.

I'm in the middle of it, I'm almost finished with it. So I was hoping to power through this morning, but this is so exciting. I want to talk about it. And before we begin for those that maybe aren't as familiar with you, I would love for you to just share a little bit about your journey that you want to share just as an intro for those that are just hearing you for the first time.

[00:04:45] JJ: Thank you so much. Well, I definitely did not think I was going to be an author. I have dyslexia. So in my early years, I got D's and F's on my papers because I wasn't great with grammar or structure S's or Ed's with that I was really strong in math and science. And so I pursued technology, which took up the first 2 decades of my career and I really loved it.

I love technology. I really traveled the world and had amazing experiences. But I think once I started having kids in my mid-30s, I started to realize how difficult professional life is for women specifically women that really want to make a mark on the world. And that's most women in most cases I've found since I left corporate America, but I wrote my first book really as stories for my daughter because we are often told we can have it all and that is possible, but there are a lot of things you have to know to kind of keep everything going in the right direction.

And that story kind of took me to speaking to many women's groups. And once I was doing that, the women were saying, I do want to get promoted. I do want to be on boards, but they're really is a distinct difference between working in your career and on your career.

And so my 2nd book really kind of dives into the differences but also gives you a road map of how to make that next professional step or reality. And I was following along with my readers with my friends, people who are supporting me as I was working through each stage of my life through these books which really landed me into this third book.

Because in 2016, I just had a real awakening, a tower moment, as many people would call it, that does any type of tarot. I just, was so tired and overworked and stretching so much outside of me. I lost my way in my own life and things around me started to crumble and it kind of brought me to my knees to a point where I had to do my own seeking.

I had to figure out who was I really without all these accolades, without all these levels of measurement that are outside my body. That journey has been very insightful and created so much real growth and alignment for the work I'm really supposed to do here on the planet now. So thank you for having me.

[00:07:15] Aneta: And the third book, I just want to, for those that are going to Google it and buy this book, it's called 74 Key Findings to Raise Your Energy, Sidestep Yourself Doubts, and Align with Your Life's Work. How did you come to that title? Were there other working titles and how did you decide on this one?

[00:07:36] JJ: The working title for the longest time was Off The Side Of Your Desk, it was interesting because that's sort of like things you're working on off the side of your desk that give you the passion that is energizing that you really love doing because that's generally the work that you came here to do at some level.

It might not be your main work, but it is the work you are often guided to do when you're inspired or when you get a whisper that was a working title for a long time and I had about 400 words I was playing with and one day I was doing a meditation and the word seeking just came to me in bright purple letters.

And I was like, that's really what I've been doing. I've been seeking. And I think a lot of people are feeling overworked and self-doubt and Not sure where they belong. They are starting or in the middle of seeking to.

[00:08:29] Aneta: I love the title because reading the book, I love that it's such a mixture of talking about your spiritual journey. A lot of the energetics, a lot of the healers you were working with. So doing that, talking about the things you have overcome that you are releasing, surrendering to. And then of course, your life's work, this mission is what you talk about, and it is what all of us are seeking to do and define. The other thing that I really appreciate, and we talked a little bit before we hit record on this, is you were, and you are vulnerable in this book, so there are definitely pieces of you that you share.

And so it's you sharing your story for others to learn from it, and then also having questions for the reader to journal, to spend time in reflection to really ask yourself, what do you do with this? So often there are so many books that you can consume quickly. You get through it, but to actually do the work and to stop in between and do the work for yourself.

Is so much a part of the actual growth and doing something with it, right? You want it to be like a manual. So did you always know that you were going to include sort of these questions or prompts in the book, or did they just sort of organically happen?

[00:09:48] JJ: So I would say that the books and questions are pretty consistent on what I even do in my speaking. I feel like stories and lessons are really only to invoke thought. And if you put something together you can create thought, because when I read a ton of books, if anyone follows me on Goodreads, I'm a huge consumer of books, but oftentimes I'm always like, okay, what am I going to do with this? And so for me, I feel like if you don't put the questions, you lose the opportunity to make it your own.

[00:10:21] Aneta: I agree with you. And that's why I loved it so much. And I wanted to go back to something else you said, and maybe just for us to kind of talk through this. This idea that as girls, maybe we grow up and maybe men too, but as women, especially people say, well, you can have it all.

Like we're suddenly given this permission, but what is it all? Is that a universal assumption that is out there that, it's having a family and a marriage and a full-time career and an education? What do you think people mean when they say you can have it all? Or what did you think it was?

[00:11:00] JJ: That's a great question. I'm sure it's different for everybody, but I felt like at some point in my life, I would feel like it was all worth it. And so, yes, you could put tons of accolades or measuring milestones or things to it, but at some point, I thought I was going to feel enough. Good enough, happy enough, have joy.

And I feel like when I was well into my 40s, I was kind of at a point where I thought I should be feeling that. Instead, I felt depleted and I feel like it's perfectly orchestrated to have us reaching outward. I think there's a real energy on the planet that wants women to forget how powerful we are.

And so there's really something happening energetically. It has been for centuries that started by some organizations have continued to make us feel less than and also make us feel like we have to be masculine all the time. We all have that feminine masculine energy.

And so I believe now obviously with the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, the shifting from the fifth son to the sixth son that the feminine energy and the balancing of the masculine-feminine is coming, it's coming and books like these are really just tools for the people on the right frequency that are ready for the messaging to really tap back into the feminine energy, the knowing the wisdom, the connection to mother earth and the work of the soul.

[00:12:40] Aneta: Yeah, I agree with you. And it's interesting for me, as you were talking about the accolades and continuing to strive in that sort of distorted masculine energy when we are constantly seeking more.

So it's an accumulation of more, but It's not satiating because more isn't what we are seeking. It's not what our soul is seeking. We are seeking the right things, the things that add value. Like you said, the legacy, the purpose, the balance, all of these things. And until you can go inward, not externally, you know what you were saying before, until you go inward and you tap into that feminine energy and figure out exactly what it is, who you are in order to tap into that you will never be satiated.

And that's why I think when so many of us achieve these things that we thought were supposed to somehow fill us up or make us feel good or satisfied, it might last a fleeting thing, but it's not permanent. And so what were some of those moments where you finally got to a place where you're like, huh, I think I'm going to try something else because to go from corporate and tech, as you said very male-dominated field and energy to starting to explore in the book, you talk a lot about the healing communities and the healers you worked with and your solo trip out to Sedona. What were some of those things that you want to share that really made a huge impact on your own self-discovery?

[00:14:16] JJ: I mean, I remember being in Pennsylvania, like the book, the bus would leave. My kids would get on the bus and I would jump in the car and drive two hours to Pennsylvania to work with this woman, Paula. And I remember laying on the table one day thinking how am I going to share this with women?

Like how am I going to help women get the tools and access that I've been literally running around to achieve? And then I learned in my human design that I'm a three and I'm a big trial and error person, three, five. So I have to try everything and then I bring the best back.

So I would say that there were key moments in my life where things were just crumbling, like projects I had that then just kind of evaporated things that were happening. My dad was super sick, things that were happening inside my household. It was like the universe took me like a tree and shook me so hard that all the nuts fell off. I was just so alone. I think that's how I felt. So alone. And I think it was completely on purpose.

And even though I wasn't physically alone, I wasn't, I had people all around me as you do, as we all do, but inside I felt so alone because I couldn't find my way. I felt like I was on a path that kept getting darker and darker. And I'm like, surely this is not my path. And so I started going to a center here in Ohio where I just kind of showed up for a class and the woman's like you're not registered. I'm like, I know, but I just need to be here.

She became one of my first teachers and from her, I was researching and listening to YouTube videos reading books, and finding ways that I could really figure out who I am. At the deepest core because I've been so busy stretching and doing and I think you know you don't have to do what I did by any means but I think what I capture in the book seeking is several things that you can dive into whether it's a relationship with your mother how you view money are you.

And active or recovering perfectionism or perfectionism. Do you have to get out of that ego energy? Because hopefully, you don't have to do everything I've done, but maybe pieces of what I've done will illuminate your path.

[00:16:28] Aneta: And one of the things that really resonated with me too, as you were talking about, I'm going to your solo trip and you knew that you needed to go and to do this for yourself, but you had some trepidation in talking to your husband about it.

You had some guilt about, do I want to, even though you could and you were working and you had the funds to do it, you still felt a little bit of guilt. Like, do I want to pay for this, make this investment in myself? So tell me a little bit about the old way you used to think about that because I think that probably resonates with a lot of women.

And then tell me how you've shifted in terms of your approach to money and investment.

[00:17:06] JJ: Oh, money. So money is a big thing for me. I've worked through most of it, but I still have lingering stories with money. And most women I talk to money is part of the story. So if they want to start a business or they want to explore a course, or maybe they want to go explore an area that's calling them.

Generally, the 1st, 2, or 3 objectives have money and I probably heard about money a long time ago because I used to watch Oprah back in the 80s and early 90s and Lynn twist was on then.

But it was a repeat that I heard on Super Soul Sunday that I heard Lynn twist really just talk about how we give energy or frequency to money. And often it's lacking, the lack of money, the fear of not having money, the fear of using money the wrong way. And I think for many of us, we have to do some investigation about how we view money because the work that I've done over the last five years around money is now I really see money as a frequency or a tool to help us further what is important to us.

And I feel like when I was asking to go on this solo trip, not only did I have to worry about the money, but I also had to worry about taking time away from my family at a time that they wanted to celebrate getting time off, even though I have plenty of PTO and I really feel like it was really a time that I remember of just picking myself.

And the guilt did not go away after I got the yeses and the approvals, the guilt traveled with me to Sedona and back. But I knew at a soul level that I had to figure out who I was. And I feel like so many of us are going through our lives doing what other people expect of us every week, sometimes every day. And through every one of those yeses, we're almost adding a layer over our soul’s work because we're so busy saying yes to so many other people's asks that we never make time for the work that we're here to do.

[00:19:11] Aneta: And in this process, your own journey, who have you discovered that you are? Like, who do you say that you are now?

[00:19:20] JJ: That's a great question. So every morning I have something in my calendar that is a reminder to myself that I am working to raise my frequency and work at the highest level possible to integrate and elevate with the people that I interact with. And so every day I read that on my phone before I start the world, and I really just feel like I'm part of a bigger whole that's here to remind us that we have so much more important work to do than the work that is often marketed to us.

And that there are so many beautiful souls on the planet. And there's really no reason to be fearful. So I've had to really work to raise my frequency to learn and love and I still catch myself being afraid to even last year, I was taking my son to a PT appointment and I was walking to my car and there were these people and I would feel right away. I feel myself and I'm like, no fear. Love. Whatever happens is going to happen. Love. And I feel like I'm constantly training myself to pick love over fear.

[00:20:28] Aneta: It's so interesting. I think Marianne Williamson is the one who said there are two emotions. There's fear and love. And I'm not sure if she said it, or she was quoting a course in Miracles, but do you feel you're at this point where you feel it's fear and love and everything else stems from one of those two emotions?

[00:20:43] JJ: 1000%.

[00:20:44] Aneta: So do you feel like you've identified your life's work and what you want your legacy to be? Is it tied to what you said before is helping to raise your own vibration and frequency to allow others to be able to elevate as well to theirs?

[00:20:58] JJ: Yeah, I do think it has to do with frequency and I'm a big advocate of raising your own frequency. And I talk a lot about specifically how to do that in the book. But I do think that I have to show up as bright of light as I can create, and that's why the energy workers have been so instrumental because they've helped me remove the darkness, the stories, the experiences that are no longer serving me because I see our bodies as really a container. That holds our soul and our ego together and having them work in correlation or combination is really just such a beautiful thing.

I used to be like, Oh, no ego. But the reality is you need the ego and the soul to co-create and co-exist because they're both in our human body. And with that, I believe that my work is really stemmed with raising the feminine energy and to raise the feminine energy. I believe that more of us women have to lean into what is calling us.

[00:21:56] Aneta: Can you share maybe some of those practices, the things that you do personally, on a regular basis to raise your energy and frequency?

[00:22:05] JJ: Yeah, so I'm definitely a huge meditator. I meditate various times throughout the day with him without videos. I use YouTube all the time. I love Steve Noble. He's probably my favorite. I listen to him on a regular basis, but I also. Just sit at my desk and wiggle my toes and tap my fingers and really try to be in the present moment as often as possible.

If I catch myself chewing on things from the past or planning too long in my head, like, I really try to get back in the moment. Especially when I'm grocery shopping or out in the world, I used to plow through life on my cell phone, getting that next thing done, doing the text now regardless of where I'm going like I am. I'm engaged. I'm making eye contact with the person I'm talking to. I'm feeling their energy. I'm sharing my energy. Like I am in the moment and life is so much more joyful.

[00:22:56] Aneta: My life changed when I started consistently meditating and it's the daily thing. It's like washing my face, brushing my teeth, meditating. It's just at that point and it makes such a huge difference. So do you want to talk a little bit about the types of meditations that are important to you?

[00:23:14] JJ: Absolutely. Yeah, so I had to do some really serious training on this. This is not something that came easily to me. I am a plus energy player, whatever. I was all about getting stuff done all the time. And so it really took me a while to get a handle on meditation. It did not come quickly to me.

What I thought it was and what it is are so different. I thought it was a time to plan and do and be and explore what's in my head. But in reality, I had to take mindfulness training. And most people can get it out there somewhere in their town. Mine was based on Jon Kabat Zinn. It was an eight-week course and it really helped me understand that I am not my thoughts, which to me was mind-blowing because my thoughts, my mind what got me to where I was and to have to unwind was so kind of just really difficult for me because what made me successful was the exact opposite of what has allowed me to like really dig deep.

So unwinding took some time and meditation for me now is very simple. For me, it's just being an observer of my thoughts without hanging on to any one of them. So whether you do that silently, whether you do that guided, whether you just sit in journal for the 1st, 10 minutes and let your mind just rest after that. It doesn't matter. And it's not a certain time amount, but I feel like the whole idea around. Mindfulness is giving yourself that separation.

[00:24:38] Aneta: And did the meditation come before or after you already started on your journey?

[00:24:46] JJ: So the first thing I did when I started to see, well, one of the first things I did was go to that class, but I also went to a therapist because I was like, what is going on? I have no joy. And she's the one that really forced me to go to mindfulness. So I'm super grateful for that because that was a guide.

Someone in your life that guides you along your path, when maybe you're being a little stubborn or you're lost in your way. So mindfulness was a big step for me just getting like, recognizing that I was more than my thoughts. And I would say that meditation has evolved over time. I'm a much better meditator today than I was even a year ago.

And I can pop in and out a lot easier than when I started and it took years, so I don't want to act like this happens in months. For me, it was years to figure out how to just be. But I will tell you that I get a lot of really wonderful whispers. I get a lot of messages from other people. They come through in a big way, but also just out in the world when you can be in the present moment, and really train yourself to do that. There are so many things here to help you, which I blew through the first 45 years of my life.

[00:25:59] Aneta: And I love that you talk about guides. I think that was one of your key findings. If I remember you talked a little bit about guides and paying attention. And I do think that we get nudges all the time.

And if we are or whispers or downloads, but if you're present and you're mindful, you will recognize it. If you are not, you're going to just ignore those or not pay attention, and then it becomes louder. And that's when sometimes I think, it's like the universe sends you a signal that you can't ignore.

But for me, it feels like a knowing. It's just like I can hear the words and then it's like a knowing so deeply that I don't question it. What does it feel like for you? Whether you hear from someone else or in meditation or a book falls off the shelf what are some of those things that are fun that maybe you can share? So others who haven't experienced it can go, maybe that has happened to me.

[00:26:53] JJ: That's amazing. Yeah. It's funny. It's like my own thought, which I know it's not my thought because there wouldn't be any way that I would think that. So I went to a retreat and I think it was 21. And I was leaving Mount Shasta. It was so beautiful. I had such a great experience. I don't even know sometimes why I was there, but I was just called to go there.

And I was trying to go to another retreat and everything I did kept falling apart. And I ended up at this retreat. When I was pulling in, I thought I recognized some of the women, but once I got in my car, I didn't really know anybody, I had a really profound experience like I have known these women and another way.

And I was there to remind myself about bringing these women, like bringing women together. So, as I was leaving Mount Shasta, I was looking in my rearview mirror and I'm like, gosh, it's so pretty. I hear a thought, bring the mystics together. Now, that would not be my thought.

I knew it wasn't my thought, and I was like yeah, no, that's not me. Maybe that's the car behind me. That message is not for me. Three more times on my drive from Mount Shasta to San Francisco, bring the mystics together. And at that point, I was like, what, and I will tell you today, because of the book, because I ended up sharing all these energy practitioners, I created a space to bring all these energy practitioners together so that people could easily access them in addition to the appendix, but also see them, hear them, listen to their journey.

And I created a whole community for Together We Seek to accompany the book. Well, guess who's joining the community? It's not the professional women that I thought were going to come there to find the energy and light workers. It's all these light workers and energy practitioners and women that have all these healing modalities.

I'm like, I was not thinking that's what it was going to be. I thought it was, but it is. And it's so funny because sometimes. Not sometimes for me all the time. When I hear these crazy messages, my first response is, oh yeah, no, nope, not me. I'm not the right one, but the universe brings the pieces together and it's just magical on so many levels.

[00:29:00] Aneta: Yeah. Well, like attracts like. So as you just talked about it, I'm like, I want to learn more about that. That's interesting to me too. And so often I think maybe we get caught up in the how or the why, or we try to analyze and figure out why me and if we could just get out of our way and listen and take aligned action. It always works out. I would say it works out even better because sometimes I can't even imagine things turning out as well as they do.

[00:29:29] JJ: I mean, things now are just forwarding and they're moving at such a speed. I can't believe it either. So I have this space that like, because you and I both do retreats, I started retreats the same way.

So the message for the retreats was I was speaking up in Seattle, and I got the message as I was walking off stage, bring the women together outside. And I was like yeah, that's not happening right now. I've got this whole conference room of women. It's outside of so far. Like, no, this isn't going to happen. It came to me multiple times.

And that was really the message about starting the retreats about getting professional women out of the conference room into an event or something outside. And so I started the retreats two years after I got the first message because I was so fearful of what to do and how to do it. Until I worked with an energy guy that kind of helped me just work through the steps and now the universe is giving me this amazing location to have events that I could have never, ever, imagined for myself.

[00:30:29] Aneta: So every time you've had one this year, something has, I have been out of town. I couldn't do it. I'm definitely coming to a retreat. It has to happen. But the home, I saw pictures and I have friends that have been at your retreats this year and a couple of friends were like, the place is so beautiful. Can you just share a little bit about how you found this home on the water with all these windows and architectural details? How did you find it? And then how is it so integral to what you're building in terms of the retreats and the content and what you're hoping to achieve?

[00:31:04] JJ: Well, first of all, I did not find it. It found me. So that's the craziest piece. It came through other people that are connected to me. And even when it came into my scope, I shared it with another woman that I've known since I was 16.

She's a medical intuitive. And when I sent it to her, she said, I can see you there. And I'm like, what are you talking about? This was something that was part of a group of people and I just didn't believe it. And now I've had a couple of retreats there and now healers are coming there.

And I found out there's a vortex there. And I mean, it is unbelievable what is going on, but this is kind of to circle back on is don't worry about the, how just lean into what is calling you and let the universe guide you.

[00:31:45] Aneta: So tell us a little bit about the location, about the setup of the home. And then I do want to hear some details of what you cover, and what you share at the retreat. So people may be interested if they want to sign up and just to know what to expect.

[00:31:59] JJ: Well, it's interesting because every retreat sort of comes to me. So someone will call me or there'll be a message and usually comes to me in three. So three different things will happen around a specific date or something. So now I just kind of wait to see, I'm not actively planning my whole life. I've been planning my whole life. I've been putting to-do's together.

And in some respects to the work I'm doing now, I am saying, guide me, show me the work you want me to do. Show me the practitioners you want to bring together. Help me help you essentially get this off the ground. The gentleman that created the property, which is about 40, 000 square feet and it's a series of pyramids all around the property.

So it has a really crazy energetic feel to it. You can check it out at the Waterwood Resort on Instagram, it has pyramids popping up everywhere. I think it has a lot of really crazy energy there, but it's a natural healer. I mean, people come there and it like takes a lot of energy and grounds it.

I mean, it's unbelievable. So I feel like this has always been the case since I've been little. So I grew up in Buffalo. My parents, my mom started taking me as you know, to a Lillida, which was an energetic place early on. I moved all over the country and ended up back in Cleveland. And my husband was like, I told him I was going to take the kids to the beach.

He said we don't do that. And I said, well, I am, that's what I did. Cause we had no money. We always went to the beach and we started going to the beach back in 2009. And we bought a little place, very little like a thousand square feet that we go to most summers. And it's always been brought to our attention.

And there's an investment group that bought into this place. And I feel like this space for me has been being put together since I've been a child. The whole storyline, how it all came together. And now these retreats and just thinking about it makes my stomach turn over. It's kind of crazy, but I think the whole idea of bringing all the mystics together online.

This property, this book, it's all starting to triangulate and I will tell you when I left my corporate job at 14, I had no idea why I was leaving. I went to Sedona on my solo trip to get clarity and to make sure I wasn't crazy about leaving my awesome tech job in Silicon Valley. And she told me then some of the work I was going to be doing now. And I feel like I could have never imagined this for myself.

[00:34:38] Aneta: It's so interesting. I'm going to share something I actually never shared. This is kind of funny, but when I left my job and I was just starting my coaching business and really getting things off the ground and my daughter was studying abroad. My oldest was sitting abroad in Florence, Italy, and she was kind of homesick and it was March.

So I left in January and now this is March and Isabella said, Mom, can you come visit? I said, well, let's spend a long weekend in London. It's the easiest place for me to get to and you can easily get there.

So we spent, four or five days together, but we went into a store. It was kind of a mystic store. And I think it was in Camden. And I went in and I was looking at things and the woman, the owner just started talking to me and like, well, what do you do? And she was just really interesting and was interested in me.

And I was like, oh, did this and I'm coaching and whatever. And then she said to me, you're a healer. And I just looked at her and I said, no, I don't think that's, you know, she goes, no, you are. And so it was just like interesting. It was a little weird and eerie.

And I was like, okay. And we left the store and she chased after me, which was really interesting. And she said here, and it was like a box of lavender incense. And she's like, this is a gift for you. And she's like, you'll be back. Okay. It was so weird. We just kind of laughed it off my daughter and I was like, that was interesting, but when she said you'll be back, I think I thought she meant like I was going to come back to her store like then, but I don't think that's what she meant.

And so when you were talking about not knowing or not seeing yourself necessarily, or not even understanding what's going to unfold, I feel like that happens to many of us. And I just didn't even remember the story until right now. And so it was just one of those interesting situations.

So tell me what your intention was when you wrote this book and what you hope that every woman who reads it, and I'm encouraging everybody to go get a copy of this book.

[00:36:41] JJ: I really think the way that I put the book together is I think one of the biggest obstacles for women. And that's mostly what I work with is self-doubt. And I think if you have self-doubt, no matter what is put in front of you, it could take you years to really lean into it. And I hope by reading this book, you recognize that we all have self-doubt all of us.

Even I have self-doubt about things I'm doing today. I live and have self-doubt about it, and it's sometimes really big and I have to use the tools and techniques that I share in the book to sidestep my self-doubt too. So I think self-doubt is really kind of the hurdle that all of us women have to step around at some level to lean into what is calling us because it could sound really crazy to people, you know, or people you hang out with.

If I would sit down with some of my friends. And tell them 2 years ago, what I was doing or 3 years ago about bringing the mystics together and sitting inside a vortex to clear energies. I mean, they would think I have lost my mind. And now some of them still do, but at least I have more comfort with it.

but that's the 1st thing. The 2nd thing is raising your energy, raising your energy, changing your outlook. So it gives you the opportunity to figure out where your energy is draining. But more importantly, what stories and. Things are really just eating away at you. And I think three is just giving yourself an opportunity to check it out to check it out because we need more women at more tables.

We need more women to use their voices. We need more women leaning into their gifts because the planet is lopsided. And for all of our children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, we have the power to shift the planet in a way that can help Mother Nature. Can help our offspring and really create much more peace and love. And it's going to come down to the women.

[00:39:55] Aneta: Yes. Thank you for writing this book. Thank you for doing all the amazing work that you are doing. You have through your podcast. Through the retreats, through that you're speaking engagements, through every single thing that you were doing, JJ, and more that is yet to come.

So for folks who want to follow you, who would love to learn more about how they can meet with you or connect with you hire you, whatever it may be, what are the best ways that they can find you?

[00:40:22] JJ: Well, thank you so much for having me and I'll share the links with you below. You can include them, but you can find me on Google under JJ DeGeronimo in just about any way you want.

That's probably the easiest. Or if you do want to hire, if you do want to get the book, don't put the word just seeking in because you'll surely end up on a dating site. You need to put seeking the initials JJ and then the number 74 and that will really get you to the book. So whether it's a chapter or people are using it as part of their women's discussions, whatever it is, it's just something that I feel I hope has legs for a long time.

[00:40:57] Aneta: Yeah, absolutely. And the final question I ask all of my guests is what does it mean to you to live the width of your life?

[00:41:05] JJ:  To me, it's just like expanding myself, my actual physical self in the sense of living from my core, living from my soul, allowing my love and light to shine from my sacral outward, and allowing that energy to just permeate the people I'm supposed to connect with and the path I'm supposed to be on.

[00:41:27] Aneta: Beautiful. Thank you, JJ, for being such a bright light. And I look forward to future conversations with you. And I know we're, I think we're going to end up doing a retreat together. So we'll see if we can make that happen.

[00:41:41] JJ: I think so too.

[00:41:43] Aneta: Have an amazing day.

[00:41:45] JJ: You too. Thank you.

[00:41:47] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living.

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