Balance & Beyond Podcast

Uncover the hidden dynamics of corporate culture and its profound impact on women with Coach Sabina.

Have you ever achieved something substantial, only to hear that nagging whisper inside saying "this isn't enough"? That moment when you realise the success you've built—even when it's working beautifully—no longer fits who you've become?

I recently had this profound realisation about my own multi-million dollar business. Despite changing thousands of lives, winning awards, and creating beautiful retreats, I discovered I've been filtering myself, hiding parts of my authentic voice, and playing within boundaries that felt "acceptable" rather than aligned. This isn't burnout—it's evolution.

The turning point came when I noticed my most authentic moments—like a LinkedIn post that reached 1.6 million views—happened when I stopped censoring myself. When I showed up raw and honest instead of careful and curated. I've made the declaration that I would rather lose people than lose myself, and this means burning down old personas that no longer serve me.

What's emerging is a vision for a movement where women can pursue ambitious goals without sacrificing their wellbeing. Where feminine-aligned success can thrive. Where we value intuition alongside strategy. Where we can be messy, vulnerable, and seen in an era dominated by AI, perfection, and sameness. This is about creating a community of women who are done playing small, done playing by rules that never served them in the first place.

If that whisper inside you saying "I'm meant for more" has become impossible to ignore, perhaps it's time to join us. The world doesn't need more women hiding their light—it needs your full, magnificent self. Stay close as we embark on this evolution together.

Episode Transcript

INTRO: Welcome to Balance and Beyond, the podcast for ambitious women who refuse to accept burnout as the price of success. Here, we’re committed to empowering you with the tools and strategies you need to achieve true balance, where your career, relationships and health all thrive, and where you have the power to define success on your own terms. I honour the space you’ve created for yourself today, so take a breath, and let's dive right in…

I've built a multi-million dollar business that's changed thousands of lives, but recently I realized it's no longer big enough for me. This isn't burnout — it's something else. And if you’re someone who has ever had that little voice inside of you — even if it's just a whisper — saying "I'm made for more, there’s something else here, there’s something else I’m meant to be doing in the world" — then this episode is for you.

I’ve had this moment recently — facilitated by AA, believe it or not — through the amount of reflection and self-awareness deepening I’ve been doing, on top of all my own work. And I’ve realized: I’m done.
Something has shifted.

This was an awareness I didn’t even know I had. It wasn’t conscious behavior in the slightest. I could have sworn — blue murder — that everything I was doing was completely aligned and absolutely fine. But I am done playing small. I am done shapeshifting for what I believe people will tolerate — for giving them a filtered version of what I think is acceptable, in a version of the world I believed was okay to operate in. And I’m done pretending that the success I have right now is enough.

This moment — it was when I realized I’ve outgrown the business I built from scratch. Pretty scary thought, right? Because this business has worked. We’ve got hundreds of direct clients. We’ve impacted tens of thousands through our content. And the thought of burning it all to the ground is absolutely terrifying — not because it failed, but because it worked.

And still... I know there’s more here. Something shifts inside a woman when she makes that internal declaration: "I’m done playing small — and it’s time for me to step into a version of myself I didn’t even know was accessible or possible." So I built this big, beautiful business called The Balance Institute — through a lot of blood, sweat, and tears over the past six years. Like I mentioned, we’ve worked with hundreds of clients.

We’ve held the most beautiful retreats — twelve in-person (can you believe it?), plus virtual ones.
We’ve won awards. Gone viral — in the millions. Our podcast has reached over 50,000 downloads.
We’ve been given all these accolades...

However, over the past — particularly the last 12 months — I’ve noticed something shift.  As more and more people start stepping into this space, the market is becoming increasingly crowded. The barriers to entry are low. Anyone can slap on a badge and say, “I’m a life coach,” or “Come join my program,” or “Let me help you.”

Now, I’m not for a second saying we don’t need more people — because the market is growing, and more and more women are feeling burnt out. But I also know, deep down, that many of these people simply aren’t capable of doing what we do here.

They can offer great band-aids. They can give hints and tips. But I know — truly — there are very few places in the world that can provide the depth of transformation that we do. And that’s because of a number of things: Our team, the way my brain works, our combined experiences.

But as I’ve built this business, and as more people rush in, there’s been this whisper growing louder: Am I playing small? These questions have been circling: What makes me different in this sea of sameness? Especially now, when so many are using AI and everything is starting to sound the same.

Am I really owning and claiming that which makes me different and unique? Because here’s the truth: If you don’t know what makes you different and unique — If you haven’t even owned and claimed that part of yourself — Then there’s no way you can possibly share it with the world. I’ve mentioned before: I used to avoid anything remotely “woo” like the plague — at least publicly. But lately? That side of me has been opening up in ways I can’t ignore.

At one of our recent retreats, we were sitting in circle when I got a strong, intuitive nudge to pull a card from the tarot deck on the table. Now, if you’ve known the corporate version of me, that probably sounds ridiculous. Someone even looked at me and said, “Wait—Jo’s pulling a tarot card? What’s happening to the world?”

But I trusted the hit. I shuffled the deck, pulled a card—and it landed perfectly. It reflected the exact transformation we were all circling in that room. Four lines. Total resonance. It was like the universe dropped the mic in that moment.

A year ago, I wouldn’t have shared this. Let’s be honest — I wouldn’t have even had access to that intuitive hit. And probably even a couple of months ago, I might not have shared this publicly. But I’m done hiding the parts of me that don’t fit neatly into logic.

Because the truth is: I’ve seen what happens when women start trusting that part of themselves — when they stop overthinking and over-functioning, and begin accessing the kind of knowing we were never taught to value.

It feels like a crime to keep that part of our intelligence hidden. And it’s time we start awakening it — unapologetically. It was through this process — a deep, four-to-six-week journey of reflection — that I began to realize: Oh... I’m being really selective about which parts of me I show. Those who have been clients in my world have probably seen more of — I guess you’d say — the real me. More of the woo sides of me.

On retreat, I do all kinds of interesting things — and so does my team. But those who were, let’s say, more external — those who hadn’t yet come into our ecosystem — they hadn’t seen that side of me. I was still trying to fit into a version of myself that I thought was acceptable. Palatable.

You can be a little bit edgy, but don’t be too edgy. You can be bold and speak up, but you can’t really speak up. And the more I found myself craving strength, power, visibility — the more I wanted to step into my true self — the more I realized: I had built this little box for myself.

A box that defined how I believed I was allowed to be perceived. Sure, I show up with the makeup on. I don’t do my hair. I don’t wear fancy clothes.
And I can own all of that.

But there are parts of what make me me that have stayed hidden for a really long time. So here’s what I’m burning down: I’m burning down old personas — versions of myself that were created from a place of who I was at the time. What I believed was the right thing to do. What I thought was necessary to find people, serve them, pay my mortgage, keep the business alive — all of it.

But now, I’m burning the version of me who softened, who hid parts of herself. I used to be completely woo-free — all logic, all talk, very corporate. And over time, I’ve realized: that’s just not who I am anymore. Sure, that was me six years ago — but not now. So I’m also burning down anything — whether it’s programs or parts of the business — that no longer reflect who I am today.

And I’m building something new. New containers. New spaces. Ones that reflect the version of me I’ve grown into. Your business is simply a reflection of you. The size of your business reflects the size of the challenges you can hold and the problems you can solve. So if I want my business to grow — if I want to have a bigger impact — I need to get better at solving bigger problems.

I need to build a bigger container, one that holds more of me — energetically — so I can hold more. And I also need to move away from — not that I really leaned too heavily into this — but move away from the performative. How do I bring the soul back into marketing? How do I stand out in a sea of sameness without sacrificing myself in the name of an algorithm, or chasing clicks, likes, or virality?

And then I look at that LinkedIn post — the one that went viral: 1.6 million and counting. That was just me, having a rant. Raw. Honest. Uncensored. Not trying to act like a good girl. And look what happened!  As part of this burning down, I’m also burning down — and releasing — the fear that if I evolve, I’ll be too much.

It’s a fear I’ve held for a really long time: that if I speak in my true voice, I’ll lose people. That I’ll alienate people — people who perhaps came to me for who I was, or people who think I am something that maybe… I’m not. And yes, there’s a chance I will lose people.

There are people who will listen to this podcast — or see the emails about the evolution of what we’re doing — and go, “I’m out. That’s it.” But I’ve decided — and this has become a declaration — I would rather lose people than lose myself.

So, as I step into this new season, what I am becoming is not a business that has better offers or better programs. Of course, we will still support people, but this is about how do we tell the truth louder, how do we start thinking and creating a movement of women who are done playing small, done playing by the old rules?

But here’s the thing: when you want to create a movement, when you want to have a bold vision and a big dream, I have to go first. That’s always been my role in life. I have always been the bridge. Take me back to primary school. I was the one carrying notes between the boys and the girls. I have always been the one facilitating conversations, creating the space, holding the space, interpreting for people, helping people take this thing and understand this thing.

In this community I want to build, I have to believe and have faith that the right people will come to me in far greater numbers than I would lose. And those people who choose to step away and find another container, somebody else to follow, someone else to listen to, who better aligns with where they are right now, then that’s the best thing for them and it’s the best thing for me.

What does a movement mean? I’ve been asked by a number of people, and this is a collective of women who are craving deep connection. They want community in an era of AI and sameness and inhumanity and a lot more perfection. How can we be vulnerable? How can we be messy? How can we be seen? How can we show up and get evidence that it’s possible to have a life more than they currently have, a life more than they currently have?

And I don’t mean a life of more stuff or more doing, or more awards, or more cars, or more houses, or any of that stuff. I mean a life where you can, sure, have the bank balance and the title, and if that’s what you want, great, go for it. But it’s not at the expense of your peace, or your fulfillment, or your nervous system, or your safety, or your health, or your relationships. Because you can talk to many a billionaire, and they have all of the external things, but inside they’re a shell of themselves, and they are miserable.

They would give it all up in a second to find peace, fulfillment, happiness — whatever the markers are for you. And so, my job has always been to be that lighthouse, to be that bridge, and shine a light on what could be possible. So I have to go first. So, in building a new version of my business, of claiming a different space in this market, I have to start with myself. I have to go first and declare that I am ready for more. I'm not willing to sacrifice, I'm not willing to push and hustle and white-knuckle my way there.

This is not about saying, "I want more," and great, I'm just going to work 80 hours a week, thrash my health, push my body, and not sleep, because that's just what we need. This is about creating a movement where feminine, aligned success can thrive, where we value intuition, where we value our bodies, where we cultivate a nervous system that is safe and regulated and, in doing all of these things, allows us to collapse time, make faster decisions, and conserve energy for what matters.

Because when you are in deep, deep alignment, the world speeds up, but you don't have to do as much. So, this is what I want. I want a world and a movement where women can climb the ladder. They can climb to whatever they want, in corporate or in their own businesses. They can leave corporate and start their own businesses because they're not confined to this box that they have decided is safe.

I have to be a good girl. I don't have to rock the boat. I can't want too much. I can have just this much, but not more than that, because that would be ostentatious. No, we have to start asking for more. We have to start declaring that it’s okay for us to shine. We're not at risk, we're not going to lose everything, and we are not going to be too much. We're not going to lose everything, and we are not going to be too much.

So, if this episode has stirred something in you, if there is a part of you that is realizing that maybe you've outgrown parts of your life, parts of yourself, and that you no longer want to settle or live in fear or worry about being too much, too big, too bold, too ambitious—whatever your "too" is—and I know that it can be scary to burn it down, but there’s also usually a whisper telling you that you can’t stay where you are anymore, then maybe it’s your time too.

Maybe you're ready to find a movement, to join a community of women who are up for big things in the world, who are ready to smash stereotypes, who are ready to lead differently, to love bigger and bolder, and prove that we can live a life on our terms, where we can have alignment with comfort, where we can have our freedom, where we can have our peace.

So, if this has stirred something in you, then stay close. Watch this space. We have all kinds of things coming. You will notice we talk in a different way now. We are infusing more soul into what we do. We are fusing more emotion. We are starting to talk to the woman buried under the exhaustion, the shame, and the to-do list.

Sure, we can talk about surface-level stuff, but I'm done with that, because that's not really where we want to play. You can go to the school gate and have a chat about how busy you are, and you've got this on and that on, but that's not what we're craving. Your soul is craving deep human connection, and from now on, the Balance Institute is going to stand for that depth—for the women who are willing to stand arm in arm and move into the future deeper, brighter, and bolder. I hope you come with us!

OUTRO: Thank you for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond Podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who might need to hear this today. And if you're feeling extra generous, leaving us a review on your podcast platform of choice would mean the world. If you’re keen to dive deeper into our world, visit us at www.balanceinstitute.com to discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women avoid burnout and create a life of balance, and beyond. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast.