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Balance & Beyond

Jo Stone

Balance and Beyond is the podcast for ambitious women refusing 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.

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Yesterday · 8 min
How Do You Know When It's Time to Give Up? (Jo Moment)
What if the thing you’re calling perseverance is actually stubbornness in disguise? We unpack the moment where “keep going” stops being brave and starts being a way to avoid admitting a plan isn’t working. If you’ve been pushing hard, second guessing yourself, or feeling whiplash from constant pivots, this one gives you a clean lens for making calmer decisions without trashing your confidence. We talk about why failure can feel so personal for high achievers and perfectionists, and how that emotional sting keeps us locked into proving we were right. When a mistake becomes a verdict on your capability, you either cling to the same approach or bail the second it gets uncomfortable. Instead, we shift to a more useful mindset: failure as feedback. In business, careers, projects, and even relationships, the world is moving faster, information is messier, and experimentation is unavoidable. The aim isn’t the “right” decision; it’s the next best decision based on what you now know. You’ll also hear a practical framework from Seth Godin that helps you decide whether you’re in the dip (the tough middle that leads somewhere better) or stuck in a cul de sac (effort without real movement). We finish with one question you can use today to work out whether to persevere, pivot, or stop pouring good after bad. If you get value from this, subscribe to Balance and Beyond, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find these bite sized breakthroughs. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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Tuesday · 11 min
The Wobble Nobody Warns You About
That wobble you feel when a bigger role lands, the visibility ramps up, or the stakes suddenly feel higher? We’re not convinced it means you’re failing. We think it might mean you’re growing. We talk about the difference between branches and roots: the external markers of success we can all see, and the internal strength that actually holds you steady when the wind blows. If your “old way” of succeeding relied on white knuckling, perfectionism, over-functioning, and proving yourself, it makes sense that those habits come calling the moment things get hard. They worked before. The problem is the price you pay: long hours, broken boundaries, second-guessing, and that 3 am ceiling-stare where you suddenly feel like you need another qualification to be “enough”. We also dig into a tricky dynamic in women’s leadership and corporate culture: when someone successful tells you how to do it, their certainty can overpower your own emerging self-trust. That’s where self-abandonment can masquerade as being strategic or professional. We share practical ways to build internal evidence through real-world reps: letting work go out imperfectly, delegating without rescuing, holding a boundary when breaking it would be easier, and taking feedback while still deciding what belongs to you. If you’re navigating career growth, imposter syndrome, burnout risk, or a shift towards more sustainable success, press play. Then subscribe, share this with a woman who’s levelling up, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation. What’s one “root” you’re building this week? Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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September 4 · 7 min
The Donkey That Died Trying to Have Both (Jo Moment)
You know that moment when two things you care about collide and your chest tightens because either choice feels like proof you’re failing? I had it this week: my child was in tears needing me, and I had an urgent client deadline for an opportunity I genuinely wanted. The pressure wasn’t just the clock, it was the story in my head about what each choice meant about me. I found clarity through a blunt old parable about a donkey stuck between water and a carrot, unable to choose and collapsing in the middle. It sounds dramatic, but it perfectly describes what happens when we believe there must be a “clean” third option where nobody waits and nothing gets neglected. For many of us juggling parenting and career, partners, ageing parents, health, friendships and our own needs, that belief becomes an inherited rule: a good woman never lets anything important drop. The truth is harsher and kinder at the same time, because a full life guarantees uneven priorities. We also talk about the hidden cost of taking the middle with us: being at work while mentally parenting, being with our kids while mentally writing emails, trying to rest while running a silent checklist. That’s where mum guilt and the mental load show up as a constant tax. Guilt doesn’t give more care to what’s waiting, it steals presence from what you chose, which hurts your focus, your connection and your wellbeing. If you’re craving real work life balance strategies, boundaries without shame, and a calmer mindset when everything feels urgent, this bite-sized episode will help. Subscribe to Balance and Beyond, share it with a friend who’s stretched thin, and leave a review. What’s the one thing you need to let wait today so you can truly show up where you are? Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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September 1 · 14 min
When Everyone Has AI, What Makes You Valuable?
AI is getting very good at sounding certain, and that is exactly why we need to talk about the one thing it cannot replace: your judgement. When a tool can produce an impressive argument in seconds, it becomes tempting to hand over your decision making, your confidence, and even your inner voice to whatever sounds most authoritative in the room. For women who have spent years chasing validation, perfectionism, and “doing it right”, that pull can hit hard. We unpack how AI can keep us stuck in our heads, and why the most valuable workplace skill is shifting from knowing more to discerning better. Judgement is the ability to read what is happening under the words, to notice the tiny hesitation, the human signals, the customer impact that is missing from the risk register, and the question nobody is asking yet. That “hang on” moment often arrives before you can explain it, which is why high achievers can talk themselves out of saying anything until it is too late. You’ll hear practical ways to speak up without complete certainty, how to sit in the discomfort when the room does not immediately agree, and how to use AI for cognitive load without letting it override your inner wisdom. We also explore how to marry intuition with data so your gut becomes something you investigate, not something you suppress or blindly follow. If you’ve ever swallowed your words because someone else sounded more sure, press play. Subscribe, share it with a woman who needs to hear it, and leave a review to help the Ripple Effect reach the right listeners. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 28 · 6 min
Why Being Bad at Something is Good (Jo Moment)
When was the last time you were genuinely bad at something, not “stretching”, not “challenged”, but properly clumsy, slow, and unsure? I’m teaching my 16-year-old to drive, and it has been equal parts hilarious and confronting. She walked in confident because she’s watched driving her whole life, then met the real-world reality of steering, blind spots, speed, and a body that won’t yet do what the brain understands. That messy gap is what I call beginnerhood. What surprised me most wasn’t the wobbly lane keeping, it was how quickly her early excitement faded once she realised she would not be good straight away. That’s the moment many of us start negotiating with ourselves. As high achievers, especially women who have spent decades becoming capable and dependable, competence can turn into a comfort zone. We build careers and routines around what we can already do well, and we avoid anything that risks looking mediocre. I talk through the two classic escape routes when beginnerhood bites: turning the new skill into an intense achievement project, or quietly deciding it’s “not really my thing”. Both protect the ego, and both limit growth. Real learning often cannot be solved with insight alone. You still have to do the reps, even when nothing impressive is happening, and accept that embarrassment is sometimes the entry fee for anything worth doing. If you have been playing it safe inside your existing competence, this quick episode will help you spot what you are avoiding and why. Listen, then share it with a friend and subscribe to Balance and Beyond, and if you can, leave a review so more people find these bite-sized breakthroughs. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 25 · 11 min
Why Your Cognitive Load Is So Hard to Put Down
You can look fine on the outside and still feel like your brain is running a thousand tabs in the background. I’m talking about cognitive load: the remembering, anticipating, noticing, double checking, and quietly carrying the responsibility for outcomes at home and at work. And here’s the harder truth: sometimes the load feels so heavy not because you have too much to do, but because you’ve become the person who holds it all. I tease apart why “mental load” doesn’t capture the full picture, and why two women with the same life logistics can experience wildly different pressure. We go into the emotional weight attached to tasks, the identity rewards of being the competent fixer, and the way hypervigilance becomes a dominant brain habit after decades of practice. If you’ve ever thought, “If I don’t manage this, everything will fall apart,” you’ll recognise exactly how safety can get tangled up with control. We also talk about the “ANTs” that drive overload: automatic negative thoughts that spiral from a small mistake into fear, shame, and worst-case stories. From there, we look at how perfectionism and constant auditing can accidentally train the people around you to stop noticing, leaving you with even more mental ownership. The shift isn’t lowering every standard, it’s learning which balls are glass, which ones are plastic, and what it would mean about you if you didn’t carry it. If you’re ready to loosen the grip without losing your edge, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so this reaches the women who need it most. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 21 · 5 min
You’re Allowed to Change Your Mind (Jo Moment)
Twenty minutes into a run, I catch myself doing something ridiculous: negotiating with my own brain about whether I’m “allowed” to stop a podcast and put music on instead. It’s such a small decision, yet it exposes a huge pattern many of us live by, especially high achievers who pride themselves on follow-through. We talk about the sunk cost fallacy in everyday decision making, and why time already spent can start running the show. When we’ve invested effort, earned qualifications, built a reputation, or told people “this is who I am”, changing direction can feel like invalidating the whole past. But it doesn’t. A choice can be right then and not right now. New information includes the fact that we’ve changed, and that matters. We also name the key distinction that keeps this from becoming an excuse to bail: discomfort versus a genuine change of mind. Sometimes the hard thing is exactly what we need to stay with. Other times, we’re only continuing because “past us” chose it and we don’t trust ourselves enough to pivot. The real permission is simple and powerful: our present information gets a vote. If you’ve been stuck in a loop of “I should keep going”, come listen, then ask yourself where you’re choosing consciously and where you’re choosing by sunk cost. Subscribe, share this with a mate who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find Balance and Beyond. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 18 · 15 min
The Pick-Me Girl Grows Up
If you’ve ever watched someone else get the opportunity you knew you could handle, the sting might not be about your capability. It might be about conditioning. We’ve been trained to chase gold stars and wait for a shoulder tap, and for high-achieving women that pattern can run for decades because it keeps “working” right up until it starts costing us our freedom, fulfilment, and energy. We talk about the system that rewards being picked and why it creates a life that looks successful on the outside but can feel strangely flat on the inside. When the old scoreboard stops motivating you, new questions get louder: Do I even want that next role? What do I want my days to feel like? How much of my career have I consciously chosen versus simply said yes to? We explore the grief and anger that can surface when you realise you played by the rules, yet still don’t feel like you’ve won. We also get practical about what changes in midlife, especially for the “safe pair of hands” who gets things done, keeps everyone steady, and says yes by default. When you start wanting boundaries, delegation, spaciousness, and time to think, the workplace and the people around you may keep inviting the old version of you back. Choosing yourself can mean re-weighting internal measures like meaning, vitality, connection, and control over your time, even when there’s no applause or clear next ladder. You don’t need a dramatic reinvention to start. You can pick yourself in micro moments: asking for what you want, creating opportunities, and making choices before checking what everyone else thinks. If this lands with you, subscribe, share it with a woman who needs the nudge, and leave a review so it reaches the people it’s meant for. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 14 · 5 min
I Said I'd Never Go Back (Jo Moment)
You know that decision you made with absolute certainty, the one you swore was final? Today we hand you a permission slip to revisit it, without shame, without guilt, and without needing to justify yourself to anyone. Jo Stone shares a familiar “every few years” season where she starts questioning everything: who she is, what she wants, what she values, and whether the paths she ruled out still deserve a hard no. Here’s the twist: Jo feels pulled back towards the corporate world after once saying she’d never return. Not as an employee, but as a consultant whose zone of genius is spotting the pattern before the room does. She talks about listening to someone’s story and reflecting back what’s really going on underneath, the invisible rules, identity scripts, and the leadership dynamics that shape behaviour. With so many workplaces stuck in restructures, disengagement, and fear, she argues that clear-eyed pattern recognition and honest feedback have never been more needed in a boardroom. We also dig into a practical mindset shift: staying curious instead of staying loyal to a decision made by a past version of you. If something you thought you’d outgrown starts “knocking” again, Jo invites you to explore it, ask the question, and open the door just enough to see what’s there. No dramatic reinvention required, just a willingness to learn what’s true now. If you’re navigating a career change, returning to corporate, leadership challenges, or workplace politics, this bite-sized reset will land. And you can DM Jo at any of the links below if you want to talk about how she might be able to help you, your team or your organisation more broadly. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 11 · 15 min
You Can’t Think Your Way Out of This One
Save Your Spot at Get Your Brain Back in 5 Days https://www.balanceinstitute.com/brainback You know that moment when the meeting ended hours ago, but your brain is still sitting at the table? You’re making dinner, driving the kids, lying in bed and somehow you’re also replaying the look someone gave, rewriting what you should’ve said, and rehearsing tomorrow like it’s already happening. If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t switch off, we get right to the point: your mind isn’t broken, it’s doing what it has been trained and rewarded to do. We unpack why overthinking and rumination feel like “being responsible” for high-performing women, especially when work uncertainty, economic uncertainty, and constant change crank up the pressure. Thinking has delivered results for decades: planning, anticipating, problem-solving, staying three steps ahead. So when life gets wobbly, the brain reaches for the strategy that’s always worked and does more of it. The catch is that another lap around the thought at 3 am doesn’t create better outcomes, it just keeps your nervous system activated and pulls you out of your actual life. We also talk about why common work-life balance advice can miss the mark. You can set boundaries, put your phone in another room, even meditate, and still run a full meeting in your head with no keyboard in sight. The real shift is learning when thinking deserves your attention, and building the skill of interrupting the pattern in the moment it shows up, at the sink, in the car, mid-conversation. If you want to practise with support, I share my free five-day WhatsApp series, Get Your Brain Back, starting 24 August, with one tiny five-minute practice each morning. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s stuck in the loop, and leave a review so more women can find a calmer way back to presence. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 7 · 5 min
Who Is in Control of Your Brain? (Jo Moment)
Get Your Brain Back - A free 5-Day Experience to interrupt the spirals that steal your time, energy and attention. We start 24th August. 🧠 Click here to save your free spot Your mind can be sharp enough to solve big, gnarly problems at work and chaotic enough to obsess over bananas five seconds later. We’re talking about that relentless, background “thinking” that so many women carry every day: the mental load, the distractions, the spirals, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from never truly switching off. We dig into why the usual tips don’t stick, because they rarely touch the real driver underneath overthinking. Our brains are incredible at producing thoughts, but they’re not designed to filter for what matters most or to dwell on the good stuff. Left unattended, they catastrophise, run wild “what if” chains, and keep us staring at the ceiling at 3am. If you’ve ever felt your mind hijack your calm, your sleep, or your presence, you’ll recognise this instantly. Jo shares a brutally honest moment of being “off with the fairies” while her daughter is talking, which lands as a reminder of what distraction actually costs us: the moments we can’t get back. With more inputs than ever and a new era of outsourcing thinking to AI, we explore a practical question that cuts through the noise: are you in control of your brain, or is your brain controlling you? Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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August 4 · 12 min
The Workplace Shift Nobody's Talking About
If you want to know which patterns are showing up for you in light of this shift, take our brand new free Success Strategy Assessment. Work feels like it is speeding up while the ground keeps shifting underneath us. One minute we are told to move faster, take more risks, and “fail forward”; the next minute we are trapped in red tape, risk aversion, and a culture that rewards visibility over real value. I unpack what I am seeing across workplaces right now: low-growth pressure, restructures and acquisitions, return-to-office mandates, and the growing uncertainty of AI and automation, especially for white-collar roles in middle to senior management. When that pressure hits, it does not just change workloads, it wakes up old patterns. We talk about the urge to overdeliver so you feel indispensable, the way perfectionism spikes when stakes feel higher, and how boundaries collapse through after-hours emails, constant notifications, and never truly switching off. I also name the “invisible work” so many women carry: picking up what falls through the cracks, holding team emotions, and absorbing the impact of company decisions as if they are personal responsibilities. You will leave with language to recognise what is happening in your body and behaviour, plus a clearer lens for sorting strategic effort from survival mode. If you are noticing people pleasing, micromanaging, procrastination, shame spirals, or decision paralysis creeping back, you are not broken, the rules have changed and you can adapt without burning out again. Subscribe, share this with a woman who needs it, and leave a review so the Ripple Effect reaches the people it is meant for. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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July 31 · 6 min
No One Tells You How Hard It Is To Be Yourself (Jo Moment)
“Just be yourself” sounds empowering until you realise it gives you nothing to do. If you’ve spent years being the capable one, the reliable one, the person who can carry everything, you might not even notice how often you edit yourself to stay safe and loved. Jo Stone unpacks why this common advice can feel hollow for women in midlife, and why the real work is less about thinking your way into authenticity and more about living your way there. We talk identity shift and reinvention as a series of tiny experiments: saying the thing you’d normally swallow, wearing what feels a bit bold, letting someone be disappointed, and practising boundaries without a colour-coded life plan. Along the way, Jo shares how self-discovery often begins with small “hang on” moments, like realising your default answers are just old habits. That simple noticing becomes a powerful tool for personal growth because it helps you collect evidence of who you are now, not who you were trained to be. The deeper layer is the part many people don’t say out loud: the fear of being too much. Too opinionated, too bossy, too weird, too fast. We explore how your nervous system can treat honesty as a threat to belonging, and why the uncomfortable middle of change can feel unsettling even when you’re moving in the right direction. If you’re in that in-between space, consider the reframe: maybe you’re not lost, maybe you’ve stopped pretending you’ve already arrived. If this lands, subscribe to Balance and Beyond, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these bite-sized breakthroughs. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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July 28 · 20 min
The Hidden Strategy Behind Your Success
Discover your dominant Success Strategy here. You can be capable, reliable and wildly productive, and still feel like your life no longer fits. That tension is often not a motivation problem. It can be a success strategy that worked brilliantly for years, then quietly started costing more than it gives back. We dig into how patterns like over-helping, over-planning, over-working and over-perfecting become default settings in the brain. When a strategy brings rewards like validation, promotions or praise, it can shift from something you do into something you believe you are. The tricky part is the blind spots: we stop noticing the emotional labour, the cognitive load, the resentment, the constant vigilance or the fear of stillness that rides along with the “success”. I walk you through five common success strategies I see in women’s coaching and leadership work: the Sponge, the Controller, the Hustler, the Achiever and the Pleaser. You’ll hear what each one looks like at its best, what it costs over time, and the key question each strategy needs to face when life gets more complex. We also break down why generic productivity and mindset tips can fail, because two women can share the same symptoms, like overwhelm and exhaustion, but need completely different solutions depending on what is driving them. If you’re ready to stop playing whack-a-mole with your wellbeing, listen now, take the free success strategy assessment in the show notes, then subscribe, share with a friend and leave a review so more women can find what they need. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S4 · E71
July 24 · 5 min
When Your Whole Life Feels Like It's at a Crossroads (Jo Moment)
We talk about why so many of us feel stuck at multiple crossroads at once, from work and relationships to health and identity. We share a simple filter that cuts through overthinking by separating irreversible choices from decisions you can test and adjust. • feeling overwhelmed by interconnected decisions and too many options • why more information and more choice can create decision paralysis • using the one-way door vs two-way door framework • examples of reversible decisions in career and health choices • treating two-way doors as experiments so outcomes become information • giving ourselves permission to make mistakes and move faster If this resonated, share it with a friend who needs to hear it today. And don't forget to subscribe to Balance and Beyond for full episodes and more of these bite sized breakthroughs. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S5 · E157
July 21 · 15 min
Why So Many Successful Women Are Questioning Everything
If you feel like you’re holding a dozen competing problems and somehow still making no real progress, you’re not broken, you’re overloaded. Jo Stone speaks straight to high-achieving women who look fine on the outside but privately know the old model of success no longer fits. The cultural conversation used to centre on burnout and pushing through. Now it’s fractured into a “soup” of questions about career change, perimenopause and hormones, neurodiversity, parenting pressures, ageing parents, and even how AI is reshaping work. We talk about the quiet grief that can hit when you finally “arrive” and realise it doesn’t feel the way you expected. That emotional clash often sends us searching for certainty through more books, more specialists, more podcasts, more hacks. The twist is that knowledge isn’t the main problem anymore. The real challenge is deciding what applies to you, first, and resisting the temptation to outsource your judgement to the loudest expert voice, the most convincing algorithm, or the latest trend in women’s health and wellbeing. Jo unpacks how decision fatigue shows up as productivity, how perfectionism keeps you gathering information instead of making change, and why “fixing” your hormones or routines won’t automatically solve a toxic workplace or missing boundaries. The goal is to find the one question that will move the needle most in your life right now, then take small, deliberate steps that rebuild trust in your inner knowing. If this resonates, listen through, then tap “send a message to Jo” and tell us what question is on repeat for you. Subscribe, share with a woman who needs it, and leave a review to help the Ripple Effect reach the people it’s meant for. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S4 · E70
July 17 · 5 min
The Most Valuable Failure I've Had This Year (Jo Moment)
I cancel a workshop after ticket sales fall flat, and I unpack why that “public failure” ends up being one of my most valuable lessons this year. I show how to separate disappointment from self-doubt so we can move faster, learn more, and stop paying the hidden cost of personalising outcomes. • cancelling a workshop after strong early signs but no sales • perfectionism wounds and the urge to make it mean something • how personalising failure becomes expensive over time • why speed matters and self-doubt slows us down • the difference between disappointment and losing confidence • treating outcomes as experiments to protect self-worth • using feedback and data to refine and try again • the question that reveals what we are ignoring If this resonated, share it with a friend who needs to hear it today. And don't forget to subscribe to Balance and Beyond for full episodes and more of these bite sized breakthroughs. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S5 · E156
July 14 · 13 min
What Your Escape Fantasy Is Really Trying to Tell You
Your feed isn’t random. If you’ve been obsessing over chateau renovations, Tuscan villas, eco farms, bookshops, or van life, it might not be wanderlust at all. It might be the clearest signal you’ve had in years that the old model of success no longer fits and that something in you is asking to come back online. I talk through why so many high-achieving women in their 40s and 50s are having an “escape fantasy” moment, even when they have the career, the family, the home, and the life they once wanted. We pull apart the classic midlife crisis narrative and name what the quieter, heavier version can look like for women: back-to-back meetings, constant notifications, school logistics, emotional labour, and a creeping numbness that makes you wonder where the fun went. Then we get practical and honest about what “France” really represents: lightness, freedom, presence, aliveness, and a life that feels like yours again. Instead of the false binary of blowing it all up or sucking it up, we explore how to use your fantasies as a signpost, uncover what you’re truly longing for, and make space for change that’s real and sustainable. If you’ve been thinking, surely I’m made for more than this, you’ll feel seen here. If it lands, subscribe, share it with a woman who needs to hear it, and leave a review so it reaches the people it’s meant for. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S5 · E155
July 7 · 23 min
Why Work Doesn't Work Anymore
Work is louder than ever, and plenty of us are calling that “progress” while quietly wondering why we’re exhausted. I sit down with Dr Kat Page, organisational psychologist, leadership adviser and author of Good Work: Transforming Your Work from the Inside Out, to name what’s actually broken and what we can redesign so women don’t have to keep paying the price with their health, time and identity. We talk about the modern intensity trap: constant interruptions, longer days, and the very real second and third shifts many women carry. Kat unpacks why “be more resilient” is the wrong default, how Australia’s psychosocial safety focus can help shift responsibility back to workplaces, and why we need to stop measuring productivity as hours. With AI changing what work looks like, the new benchmark is value: judgement, creativity, learning, problem solving and the quality of conversations, even when that doesn’t deliver the dopamine hit of ticking a task off a list. We also go deep on the inner work. How do you hear your own voice when the collective definition of success is so loud? What does it take to build boundaries in a boundaryless world, tolerate the discomfort of disappointing people, and make brave career choices like moving to a purpose-led role or building a portfolio career? If you’ve been asking “Do I even want to be here anymore?”, you’re not alone. Subscribe for more honest conversations, share this with a woman who needs it, and leave a review to help the Ripple Effect reach the people it’s meant for. Want to learn more about how to redesign your relationship with work? Connect with Dr. Kat Page here: https://www.drkatpage.com/ Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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S5 · E154
June 30 · 17 min
The Day I Stopped Filtering Myself
Doors are now open for the July 6 intake of Balance & Beyond! If you've recognised yourself in the patterns we've explored in this episode and you're ready to move beyond awareness into real change, we'd love to support you. Find out more and book a conversation with our team here: https://www.balanceinstitute.com/balance-and-beyond You can be wildly capable and still feel like your life doesn’t fit anymore. If you’re the woman who keeps everything running, explains yourself three times, softens your truth, and carries everyone else’s emotional load, this conversation will hit. I’m Jo Stone, and I’m sharing the real reason so many high performing women feel stuck: it’s not a lack of tools, it’s loyalty to an identity that once kept you safe and now keeps you small. We unpack “Friday Night Jo”, the version of me who stops cushioning, stops apologising in advance, and just says the thing. What shocked me wasn’t backlash, it was relief. Directness took less energy, not more, and it became more useful for my clients because it landed cleanly. We talk about over responsibility, people pleasing, and the fear under the fear: if you stop being the helper or the reliable one, what if the version that emerges is “too much”, selfish, or a bad mum? You’ll also hear Lindsay’s story and her “Crazy Craft Lady” identity shift, a grounded example of how confidence and boundaries aren’t a performance, they’re a bridge back to who you actually are. We call out the most believable trap of all, “not a good time”, and why ready isn’t a feeling, it’s a decision. If you’re searching for balance, burnout recovery, better boundaries, and a way to feel like yourself again, this is your nudge. Subscribe, share this with a woman who needs it, and leave a review so it finds the people it’s meant for. Send a text message to Jo The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process. We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself. If something landed today, there's more where that came from. And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way. 🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast 🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com 💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne 📷 @therealjostone
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