Welcome to Trust Your Sacred Feminine Flow.
Each month on the podcast, I share intimate conversations with (r)evolutionary women about their journey to embody their sovereignty and change the world.
The tables are turned in this special anniversary interview. I sat down with my podcast coach and producer, Shann Vander Leek to revisit my podcasting journey over the last four years and to celebrate a milestone 100 episodes. I reflect on lessons learned and the woman I’ve become through birthing my vision for the Trust Your Sacred Feminine Flow podcast.
We discussed:
- Sacred feminine flow
- Loving and tending our younger selves
- Recognizing and opening to support
- Trust & the upcoming Trust Talk Sessions
- Supporting you in getting your wisdom into the world
Listen to Building a Vision by clicking the play button on the audio player below.
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Read the Full Transcript Here:
Shann
Hi, I’m Shann Vander Leek award-winning podcaster and podcast coach at podcastbath.com and today I have the pleasure of interviewing Joni for her own podcast, Trust your Sacred Feminine Flow. Joni partnered up with me many moons ago to dream up her popular podcast and here we are, four years and 100 podcasts later to discuss her awesome body of work. Hey, Joni
Joni: Woo!! Hey Shann! Woo!! I’m doing the happy dance.
Shann
No doubt. Congratulations. I can just really teleport myself back to our very first training session when you were still uncovering your voice and how much time and it’s gone by so quickly of course, but to be where we are a hundred episodes later and to have the benefit of listening to your body of work as, as you’ve been developing it because I produced your show. So it’s fun for me too to be here and to be in this position and to talk to you about this milestone. And I’d love for you to share how your podcasting journey has changed the way you show up personally and professionally. Because I’ve noticed a big change over the last four years and I know that you must have.
Joni
Well, it’s so interesting because I think back even earlier too, when I was listening to your podcast, before I even dreamed up my own podcast and I could feel this passion rising in me and this desire to be a part of the conversation.
And at the same time having this, I’m going to say like wet blanket of fear and that whole piece about owning my voice, trusting my voice, sharing my voice and the way that stepping forward and saying, I want to throw my hat in the ring to be a part of this conversation despite the fear and to work my way through the process reflecting back on my episodes, I can really see my evolution and the evolution in our collective based on based on those guests that I had. And so for me personally, I am showing up owning who I am on apologetically
Shann: Aho
Joni
Oh yes. And if you, you know, if you know anything about my story, you know that’s a big effing deal.
Shann: Yes, it is.
Joni
It is. And professionally it’s same thing and it’s, I feel like I have a unique perspective to help those women who I called them kind of the either reluctant leaders or those who not that dissimilar to me know there’s something that they’re meant to share but they don’t necessarily think of themselves or the world may not even see them as leaders in the world per se, but, but they have tremendous wisdom. I’m the champion for, for those women.
Shann
Yes you are. And you’ve had so many wonderful conversations over the years. You have just come into your own as an interviewer and you can really tell it’s like a fireside chat and it’s just very real. And, and you know, that’s, that’s important.
It’s very important to me as a listener for all of us. If, if we are going to take the stage to be as transparent as we can be to show up where we’re at. And you’ve done a beautiful job of that, of not trying to fill a persona but too just show up who you are and with whom you invite and to, to have a, the conversation that can support many. And then of course you’re teaching podcasts as well. Your own wisdom teachings that come forth. I wonder, is there a particular interview question that continues to come up for you with each conversation that you have that you love to ask? And if so, I’d love to know why. And of course what that is.
Joni
Well, I don’t always ask it in the way that I used to, but one of one of the questions that I love to ask is to hear what my guests would tell their younger self whatever version of that younger, whether it’s last week or quite a bit, quite a bit younger.
There’s something about that vantage point of the wisdom we hold today and our capacity to really go back and I would say tend and mend, the hearts of our younger selves, those wounded places within us or those are still, I’m going to say choked by the lies or the constraints that you know, have been placed on us. So I always love the wisdom. It’s, there is a purity and there is like a heart resonance that always comes through when someone answers that question. So I love that. Yeah, I do too. And especially when you start to see the softening, how much softer we become, the more we accept ourselves, the more we step into that, that space of, of sovereignty and understanding our value. You can be so, so much sweeter to your inner child. Like you said to the woman you were last week too, whenever and wherever you are and how you show up, it’s there’s just this lovely sweet, nurturing energy. At least that’s been my experience.
Joni: Yes.
Shann
Where before it would have been much more judgmental and harsh and insecure and I’m trying to validate somebody or somebody else, you know, someone else.
Joni
Yes. I know that one. Yes. And I would also say that many times it’s only through later reflection that we can see the parts of us that I felt most judgemental towards were really, in a way, our greatest gifts or our greatest gems. So to be able to celebrate the ways that perhaps we were different or didn’t quite fit the mold the ways we made others uncomfortable, those are really the most awesome parts of who we are. Yeah.
Shann
They really well, they absolutely are. Yes. And those blind spots become a vision when you can see that picture. It’s just such a blessing.
Joni
It is. And, and to be able to fully inhabit that and to celebrate it. And, and I remember hearing you speak about, um, I think it’s, it’s safe to say, or you don’t mind me saying that you are a big presence and a big personality.
And I remember you sharing in on your podcast about how you got messaging around that, that that wasn’t okay, but you have come to own that and revel in it. It’s part of what I appreciate about you and it’s part of what makes you terrific at what you do.
Shann
Well, thank you very much. The excavation of that one in me. I’m so very, very grateful she’s unearthed now and yeah, when I hear the term motor mouth, it doesn’t send me to my third grade teacher in the corner getting my knuckles cracked with a ruler.
Now I can find humor in that and then also learn how to, to have that much energy in the end, take up that much space without dwarfing the people that I share time with because you can have that big energy and you can fully be fully present in that without taking anything away from anyone else.
Joni
Yes, it is that learning and I think that’s true for most of our gifts, that there is this, honing of them or this refining to bring them to their greatest ability to contribute. But yes, like you have, you had a lot to say and you have a lot to say and we welcome that.
Shann
Right. Well I’m glad. Thank you. My husband and daughter might feel differently some days, but that’s all right.
I’d love to know who were some of your favorite interviews with? I know that you love all of them and yeah, some fancy, fantastic, fascinating women that you’ve shared time with, but I got to think that there’s a few favorites that come forward for you.
Joni
Yes. Well, it’s interesting because one that comes to mind is a mentor of mine, Janet Evergreen and her episode was number 039. I interviewed her at one of the most challenging times of my life and I remember questioning whether it was right or not to do the interview. So, as you’re bringing up this idea of showing up as transparent or being real or authentic, I think that was a breakthrough interview for me to be so kind of broken open and vulnerable and also in my capacity to do the interview and to be with her.
I wasn’t a puddle on the floor, but there was the space of the both and sure. One of the pieces, I still remember from her interview, was her stating that the value of society or community or family holding the space for us as women to go into retreat or sanctuary.
Shann: Yeah.
Joni
And her really being both a model of that. And it’s fascinating because she just came out of a three month silent retreat.
Shann: Wow.
Joni
Just days ago that she started before this whole Covid thing unfolded. I have been so plugged into her and tuned into her throughout the course of these last three months. And her husband has been the one holding the space for her and two others to do this three month long silent retreat. And there’s something about that that to me feels so groundbreaking and so huge.
Shann: Oh yeah. The longest silent retreat I ever did was four days. And I thought that was a big deal and it wasn’t, it was a wonderful experience, but three months. Wow. Wow. Wow.
Joni
Yes. There’s something about that just to know that there are women, there are beings in the world that are holding the space in a way for the rest of us through that kind of service.
Shann: Yeah.
Joni
Feels really meaningful and important. Mmm. So there are many interviews that have touched me deeply, but that was the one that just said I need to share about that.
Shann
Sure. Speaking of holding space and the way women are showing up right now, okay. One of the things that I’ve noticed over the last two months is the so much generosity and the willingness to hold circles and to do things because there’s this deep knowing how much we need it and how much we need to be able to stay connected even if we are silent and to have a place to rage, to have a place to cry, to have a place to laugh.
Whatever it may be. The gamut of emotions have been really all over the place for most of the women that I’ve spoken with. And I suspect it’s been the same for you as well and how we have come together as a soul community. It just seems like one woman after the next, at least in the, in the virtual circle and in my community has, come forward at times, like almost exactly when I needed to hear whatever they had to say in that moment or whatever they say just been, it’s been really something and I’m grateful for it. And for every bit of it.
We have been in the pressure cooker and it’s bringing pieces to the surface, but it’s also like the diamond that becomes a diamond through the pressure. Right, right. So it’s that, yeah, it is that both the reaching out and the digging deep into resource that we didn’t know we had in us and accessing support from around us as well seems so vital, but also natural in a way, as you said, as women have been coming forward and being, being present.
Joni
I was sick for two weeks at the start of the Covid crisis and I wasn’t certain if that’s what it was, it was very atypical symptoms. But the whole passage for me was really about receptivity and allowing myself to open to receive, whether it was healing or love or support or assistance in ways that I probably had never done before because I don’t get sick. That’s not my MO.
Shann
Two of my dearest friends had symptoms and things going on right at the beginning as well. And my Anxiety Slayer partner, Ananga and her daughter both had it and have healed and are on the other side of the experience. And my friend Jennifer locally, isn’t a hundred percent sure she wasn’t tested but is pretty sure she also went through the experience and it’s just one of the things that it came up for me and is I felt very prepared for this in a way that and I don’t mean that in, Oh, I have my shit together.
I’m so prepared. I don’t mean it like that. I mean the herbs that I already have on hand, essential oils that I already have on hand, my practices that I already take part in. All of the, everything I needed was right here.
Joni: Yes.
Shann
And I was so freaking grateful for that, Joni, because it was just like, Oh yeah, I’ve been harvesting this and I’ve been making this tincture and I’ve been doing these things. This is just my way. And now I have these things and I can help my neighbors and I can help my family and right. At least offer supportive tonics and things as well as just having a fire and safe distancing with our neighbor. You know, in the ways that we talk over the fence and support each other in the ways that we show up as neighbors, which we live in a very small community and are very blessed to have that old school neighbor connection with every home like directly around us in a circle.
We pretty much know everyone and we’re not in each other’s business all the time but we all, we all know each other and like each other and on occasion get together and checking in, just checking in and what do you need and how can I be of service and knowing and having what somebody else needs and them having something that you might need. And it’s been, it’s been pretty awesome in that regard.
Joni
Yes. And what strikes me is, is that idea of A, that it’s all right here that you had it and B that your, we’ll say your younger self or your past self was putting up the preparations for you that you would need for this time. And for me that is the essence of sacred feminine flow. It’s that there is both the inner wisdom, which is operating many times just out of our conscious awareness that has us have the instinct to do this or the thought, Oh, well I’m going to take care of that.
And the external, like the external or the larger sacred feminine flow, which is the flow of resources and wellbeing and grace and right timing of the person you need is right there. At the right time.
Shann: Yeah. Yeah. So much synchronicity. So much.
Joni: Yes
Shann
When I think of that, when I think of sacred feminine flow, I do. I of course that was going to be a question that I was asking to ask you is, is what, what does that mean to you? Cause I know what it meant to you four years ago and I, and I know that it’s become an even richer version of itself since then, but uh, that, Oh my gosh, I mean I just think of, you know, I’ve been collecting Springwater for eight years. Seven or eight years. Yeah. We have a spring on our land and then we have a favorite spring that’s not in our land anyway, just to constantly have Springwater, you know, and living water and just, anyway, like, okay, this is so cool …
Joni: It’s baffling.
Shann
It is baffling. To have Lake Michigan nearby, to have the spring water, to have the herbs that just show up in the wild that I need exactly when I need them.
The motherwart that showed up for a number of years that said, okay, I’m here. Are you going to make some tincture? Are you going to do, have you looked into motherwart? Boy, it might be something that would be really good for you right now. Or, the next day. How did that wild comfrey get in my yard? Thank you to the birds or whatever, they put it there. I could go on and on and on about these synchronicities and this flow and just allowing for it. And being open to it and knowing that, that if we allow ourselves to be still and invite it in, it’s going to show up. It is easy to miss. But that allowing piece is so, so, so, so big.
Joni: It is. The allowing. And also I would say the trust.
Shann: Oh yes.
Joni
Because just being predisposed to the assumption that it will be there, you know, which is the trust.
Shann
Which is such a big, big, big part in all of our journeys is that trust piece for each one of us.
Joni: Yes, huge.
Shann
I remember many years ago being in conversation and saying something like, I don’t trust anyone. And being really proud of that. Like I don’t trust anyone. Hmm. Yeah. I trust myself and I can say that now and giggle and whatever. Cause I know that that was a form of, of insecurity and protecting myself. And, and it was also from being betrayed and all of the things that, you know, the things that happened in their lives or whatever. And now that position on trust has changed so very much and I’m incredibly, incredibly grateful to becoming much more from a trusting place then I ever have been before. And that’s not to say that it’s an everyday thing because there are still things that come up and, and I think to a degree that are good that I don’t just completely drop all boundaries and let everything in.
Joni
Right. Discernment,
Shann: Huge
Joni: discernment and trust need to go hand in hand.
Shann
Yes they do. Yes they do. Oh man. So you have a number of really cool things coming up that we ought to talk about today. You have of course your podcast promotion and celebration of the hundred episodes. I know you’ve got some Trust Talks coming and some giveaways and, you even have a new ebook. So tell us all about all of these wonderful things that you’ve been dreaming up.
Joni
Well, speaking of trust. Yes. So for the final two weeks of June, each day I’m going to release a new episode of Trust Talks, which is bringing together some of my old guests and a couple of my future guests to just speak to trust and the issue of trust in their lives and in their journey. And particularly because we are at this crossroads collectively and all that is stirring up for each of us individually.
I do believe that faith and trust is central to how do we move forward? And so to really immerse ourselves in that question and, and just see what gets broken free, what gets through that. So I’m so delighted to have some of my former guests joining me. They came forward gladly and a number of them are also sharing some, they have amazing gifts that they want to share.
Shann: Cool.
Joni
We are going to be raffling off as we help spread the word even further about trust your sacred feminine flow. And so if you join us, you can, you can follow me on Instagram is one way to do it or on Facebook, both at Joni Advent. Maher, I have a dear friend who has an Egyptian oil set. It’s a set of eight Egyptian oils. They are her formula of Bloom essential oils that she works with, an Alchemist in Egypt.
She’s been to Egypt, 3 times now and someone from an ancient lineage. And these are oils that connect with each of the main seven chakras. So we have those, we have a beautiful bracelet from the Awaken collection that my dear friend Keira Poulsen donated. We have some amazing books. Lucy Pierce is donating a copy of Burning Woman. And other books and lots of sessions. So, there are just incredible gifts that are still pouring in.
Shann
That’s so cool. Good for you.
Joni: Yes.
And what a way to celebrate, celebrate, and give back to your listeners, your community, and to also bring forward these women who have made such a difference. And to reintroduce them to some of your newer people in your community and listeners. That’s so cool. That’s so cool.
Joni
Yes, and I feel like one of my great passions, and it’s part of why I love doing my podcast is I’m going to say being in the river, like standing in the river and what’s coming through to get to sh all. So you know, the prosperity that’s coming through to be able to share it generously with my listeners and with the women of the world is, is when I’m in like the most joy.
Shann: Right on. And you’re also developing a new Ebook at the same time.
Joni
Yes. Yes. It’s so funny. I had this download at the beginning of the year that it was like, it’s, it’s time to create a book. It’s time to write a book. And I love it. It’s called the Radiance Equation: the Visionary’s Guide to Coming out of Hiding, Owning your Wisdom and Creating your Greatest Impact.
Shann: That’s Awesome.
Joni
Yes, it is my, it is really my love letter to all of us. It is my love letter about really owning, owning who you are and the brilliance of who you are. And it came together so easily. It really is like divine downloads coming through me. So it’s less me writing it and more me being the conduit.
Sure.
I’m super excited and women can access it actually for free.
I’m giving it away for free right now at theradianceequation.com.
Shann
Oh, that’s fantastic. Congratulations. So much to celebrate. Before we close out today, Aww, what message would you like to leave all of your lovely listeners with?
Joni
Certainly, I love you and I’m so honored and grateful to have you be a part of my journey. And also to say my deepest prayer for you is that you can know that you can see and accept and allow and embrace the brilliance of who you are just as you are without needing to change, improve, fix. Just, just as you are in this moment, no matter how together or messy, you happen to be
Shann: Right on.
Joni: Yes.
Shann: And of course, to always trust.
Joni: Yes.
Shann: what your heart knows.
Joni
Yes. Thank you. Always trust what your heart knows. Right, and it’s back to the trust.
Shann: Yes.
Joni: and your heart does know.
Shann
Thank you so much. I’m, I’m really, really flattered that I had the opportunity to interview you for your own show and I look forward to the next hundred podcasts of Trust your Sacred Feminine Flow. Grateful to be in partnership with you and yeah, producing and supporting you in your journey. Thank you so much for all that you do and all that you are.
My pleasure and thank you. I’m doing the deep bow. Thank you for all of your support over these years and your wisdom. And being just a champion for all of us getting our voices out. That is part of what you are leading the charge and I so appreciate it.
Shann: Mm, my pleasure.