Divas That Care Network
The #DivasThatCare movement is a dynamic force of positivity and progress. It's a collective of empowered women united by a shared vision: to pave the way for future generations. These women are not only breaking barriers—they’re also committed to equipping the next generation with the tools, resources, and confidence to lead with purpose.
By discovering and defining your purpose, you unlock the power to uplift those around you and contribute to a better world—every single day.
The Divas That Care Change Makers lead by example. They’ve walked the path, and now they’re using their voices to inspire others—one intentional day at a time.
Divas That Care Network
Stand On Your Story, Not In It
What happens when women finally stop settling for what's left over at the end of the day? Jo Dibblee, breakthrough expert and eternal optimist, takes us on a powerful journey of self-discovery in this transformative conversation about unleashing your true purpose.
From her own remarkable path—growing up without food, running water or electricity to becoming an award-winning author and global change catalyst—Jo reveals why so many women struggle to identify and embrace their unique gifts. "Women in particular are taught community first and self-service last," she explains, highlighting how this conditioning leads us to believe that prioritizing ourselves is somehow selfish.
The contrast between generations becomes strikingly clear as both Jo and host Teresa Sims reflect on their delayed "coming of age" in their fifties, while acknowledging how younger women seem more comfortable prioritizing self-care earlier. This generational shift opens fascinating possibilities for mutual learning and growth across age groups.
Perhaps most powerful is Jo's transformative concept of "standing on your story instead of in it"—a distinction that has helped countless women turn painful experiences into platforms for positive change. As Teresa shares, this simple perspective shift helped her process trauma and speak openly about difficult experiences without being controlled by them.
The conversation offers practical wisdom too, including why your "sum of five" closest associates should challenge rather than merely support you, and why relying on family for business guidance often backfires. Jo's insights on building effective mastermind communities provide a roadmap for anyone seeking accountability and growth.
Whether you're just beginning your entrepreneurial journey or looking to expand your impact, this episode delivers the rare combination of deep wisdom and practical guidance. Connect with Jo through the links in our show notes and discover how you might be the key that opens the door for others waiting to hear exactly what you have to share.
For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com
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Speaker 2:Hi and welcome to Powering Through Life. I'm your host, teresa Sims, and my mission is to share with you the wide range of strategies that people use, discovered and have adopted to power through their lives when difficult things happen. Today, my very incredible guest is Jo Dibley, and Jo is a breakthrough expert, eternal optimist and change catalyst, but most of all, she's dedicated to helping women entrepreneurs live their legacy and share their message of talents in the world. Jo, welcome to Powering Through Life.
Speaker 1:Oh well, welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm so excited, thank you. I feel like I'm stepping into a lovely, warm path to just connect with others of like mind. There's nothing more that I love than to be with others that are doing the work of change and helping others rise up. It's just an honor to be here, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, thanks, and I have experienced how you are a change catalyst and I think it's an incredible journey that you're on and you are changing lives, and I happen to have first-hand experience at that with you.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you. Well, you know, the work that you're doing is phenomenal and I think, like attracts, like I mean, I don't think that I know that we are all drawn to each other when we are on this path or on this journey.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It's very much the law of attraction, isn't it Totally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so today I know that you wanted to discuss unleashing you and your purpose. So, jo, what does that mean to you? How would you?
Speaker 1:describe that. You know, over these last five and a half years, when I launched our company, prokof, what I started to see more and more. I guess I'd been seeing it since 2001. I left Corporate Canada in 2001 and I had launched my own business or had gone into business a different business than what I do now but what I saw in women was this taking what was left meaning settling for what was left over.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, women in particular give to the point of exhaustion. I'm not saying every woman, so I don't want to paint everyone with the same brush, but I will say that women in particular are taught community first and self-service last, and what that ends up meaning that we've been taught that to take care of self first looks and feels selfish, although it's not because we've also been taught that if you want to fill another's cup, you have to fill yours first. Now, if you don't know what your purpose is, how do you do that? How do you unleash you when you don't actually know what your purpose is? Mark Twain has a great saying and many of you listening will know this that the two most important days in our lives are the day that you were born and the day you know why. The day you know why for me means the day you know your purpose in life. Now again, how do you know what it is you are to do and how do you do that and how do you unleash that?
Speaker 1:When you're so busy filling another's purpose and you're not filling your own, we can often understand and get behind somebody else's purpose, but when we have to turn our focus inward and focus on ourselves, there's somewhat of a disconnect in our society and where we will step back and say, well, what does that look like and how will I be perceived? And that is why I think it's so important for us today and I do think our society is shifting, but there's still a little bit, and maybe it's age or ageism before I say this, but maybe there's a perception, because I noticed that some of the younger generations and I'm dating myself right now, I'm 57, so, before I continue on as a 57-year-old woman, what I'm noticing that millennials are a little bit better at saying you know what? I need to practice a little bit more self-care so that I can identify and take care of myself, so that I can serve others.
Speaker 2:I would agree with you. I you know personally as well. I'm slightly a bit older than you today actually, so I can understand that. You know, when we were brought up, it was more about becoming wives and mothers, and doing for everybody else. And then there's elder care and all those other things that we had heaped on our shoulders.
Speaker 2:That you know. I know for myself I wasn't even on the list, let alone being at the bottom of the list, until you know. It took me in my 50s to figure out. Wait a minute. I need to be top of that list because I can't give to anybody else if I have an empty tank. Yeah exactly?
Speaker 1:And isn't that almost the coming of age for our generation is really when we're hitting our 50s, whereas I'm seeing it in younger generations that it's 30s and maybe even younger where they're coming of age saying whoa, wait a minute, if I am to do what I am to do in this world in my lifetime, I need to figure that out sooner whereas for us I love what you said. Where was I on that list? Was I even on that list? Because you and I heard about the sandwich. We were the sandwich generation. It was expected, it was required, it was not a if.
Speaker 1:Then you were told this is how it was, and so you know to be the good girl, the nice girl, the girl next door this is how it was, anything else was seen as, dare I say, the B word right, I didn't say it, but we both know what I'm talking about. It wasn't the beautiful word either, it was the B word with a capital B, and we were seen as aggressive and self-serving. And so how did we fit time to do that? And if you were a mother and the b word, oh my goodness, what did that say about us? Right?
Speaker 2:so very different, very different, you know yeah and I think we could take a good lesson from the younger generation to learn you know how how they go about setting this process of of finding the purpose and standing up for themselves versus. You know they can also learn from us, so I think it's a mutual thing.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:I think conversation is really important to have with those younger generations. And, yeah, move on with what our purpose is now. So how would you go about finding what your purpose is, Jo?
Speaker 1:Well, I think one of the things that happened for myself aside from my past, and you know some of the things that I had to go through as a younger person, just in terms of my childhood, which was quite different, you know and I share I can share a little bit about of that. Later I had to, and I believe that most of us in this generation have to go through a sort of a, I would say, a quest, and I think that happens at any in any generation. But the quest, I think for most women in our generation, begins with some steps. So I often suggest to people to read the passion test. The passion test asks some very basic questions and if you're not familiar with the passion test, it was written by Janet Atwood. It's still for me a time, a time tested, proven process that walks you through just a, you know, a very basic process that says is this what resonates with you? Because I think we get overwhelmed trying to figure this all out and especially we are way too close to it all out and especially we are way too close to it.
Speaker 1:Also, I went to others and I asked them what they saw in me. That I seem to do, naturally, because when we're too close to it, what seems easy to us, that we discount as our natural gifts where others are going my goodness, joe, you're so good at this. But we don't see it as something that is a natural. We don't see it as a gift because we think everyone can do it. But it isn't what everyone can do right. Like clearly, for you, being on this, doing what you're doing right, this very second, this ability to interview others is a natural gift. I see it in you each and every time we're on a call like this or doing an interview, doing a podcast it. I see it in you each and every time we're on a call like this or doing an interview, doing a podcast. It's clearly something that you naturally it's innate in you to bring out someone to share their natural gift. This isn't what others can do naturally, and yet for you it just flows.
Speaker 1:So asking others what is innate in them or in myself helped me learn more about myself and yet still I just counted it. I don't want to make it sound like it was an easy process, but that one book helped a lot in getting clarity, asking others and then noticing that what I did over and over again and what brought me joy and what was deeply, you know, meaningful in my life. Those are things that draw you over and over again and that give you signs of what your true purpose is. For me, philanthropic work is it's a core value of mine. The more philanthropic work I did, I often joke that I aside from and I'm not slamming the Catholic church. Before I say this, okay, there's no nothing being said here about the Catholic church, but, aside from the Catholic church part, I could have been mother Teresa's sister. I love all the work she did, all of it all of it.
Speaker 1:I didn't really want to be in Calcutta, though, either. So but inherently in what she did, in the service she did, I love that work. I feel connected to her service, so, if that makes sense. So I'm drawn to the deep service work she did, which is why I love working with women who are in need and children who are in need. So you know, just getting down to the nitty gritty and helping women rise, especially women that have been through deep trauma. Those are the women I know will change the world, because they understand, they have that empathy.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would agree with that, and drawing out those talents that those people have and giving that opportunity to the children to learn what that that means at a young age you know can change their path. They won't take them as long as what it took possibly you and I. They wouldn't be in their 50s before they decide like this is what my true path is, so we can get them started so much younger and really create change in the world.
Speaker 1:And generational secrets will go away and they won't repeat Right, absolutely, which you know and I know right.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what it's all about, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Totally so. When you did your journey, what did you find were your talents other than being philanthropic? What did? You discover about yourself.
Speaker 1:What I could see that to me, I thought was such, it was every. I thought everyone could see this. I could work with a woman in business and see the void, the you know, the loopholes or the gaps that she couldn't see. Within usually two to three minutes of talking to her, I could see why she was struggling. Easily, In a moment, just a five-minute conversation, I would be able to go okay, what about this and what about that? I thought everyone could do that. I thought that was just a, it wasn't a judgment, it was that, oh, and I would get so and still do to this day.
Speaker 1:I get so excited when I hear about other people's businesses because I can see such a huge opportunity for them to grow, whether it be if they have this desire to go local or global. I can see it, I can see the vision that they hold, but yet are stuck and I thought I actually truly thought everyone could do that. Now I could understand why the person that was doing the business couldn't do it because we're too close right, so we put our own blinders on, or, or we get stuck in the story of oh, but how? Because that's the, that's the human experience. We start asking the how versus looking at where we want to go. We put our own fears and anxiety or we put stopgaps in place.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to others, I just assumed that every single person outside of that business could do that and help them get there. But I realized later that's not how it works. So for me, that was such a huge breakthrough for myself, which now seems funny because I am the breakthrough expert but sometimes we need to be, you know, a two by four needs to come just to kind of remind us oh wow, this is an absolute gift, and so helping these women rise up and take their businesses to the next level just became such a way, and to be part of their story. What a huge gift that is to me. And I don't mean from an ego standpoint, but to stand and say, oh my goodness, to see them rise and help the ripple that they create for themselves, you know, the ripple that they're doing and creating out into the world, that is, that's a legacy for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely Absolutely, and I think you do an incredible job at that.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I've watched you do it, and I think it's a beautiful thing that you do, and I think it takes a bit of an intuitive nature. And I think it's a beautiful thing that you do and I think it takes a bit of an intuitive nature, and I think that's what one of your talents is and that's how you can see so quickly what the person is representing and what they're missing or lacking or not confident in. And, yeah, it's fantastic watching you do that. So tell us how you, how we would enroll others, or you would enroll others in this journey. How do you make all of this come together for them?
Speaker 1:Well, I think one of the things, just to one of the challenges. I think that happens as an entrepreneur and as a woman in particular. We tend to turn to our families and our very close friends, looking and seeking their support and them to be our cheerleaders, and that is actually the worst possible idea we can have.
Speaker 1:I agree, because the reason that that is such a challenge is the people that we are turning to love us so much and they're so afraid of us getting hurt that they will actually become the number one obstacle to our success. It's not that they want us to fail. They're afraid we might fail and so they want to protect us so much. They put up obstacles in order to protect us, and this seems so counterintuitive, but it is exactly why they're doing it, and I too have done this, by the way. I've turned to those who I thought would be my biggest fans, only to have these weird things thrown up along the way. So for myself, when I'm looking at support along the way I build up and you've heard this, we've all heard I'm sure that anyone who's been in business for a while has heard the importance of the sum of five. I wish it was my saying, but it's not my saying. The sum of five is critical in our lives, so enrolling others in our journey is critical, but the sum of five is not your five best buddies, it's not your five cheerleaders that you would go to the spa with. It's not your five people that you go and have a glass of wine with, although you may end up having business friends that you might go and celebrate and have a glass of champagne with if that's your thing. But these are people that will call you out when you say you're going to do something and you don't do it. These are people who will stand with you when you have, you know, succeeded, and they will stand and cheer at the top of the mountain. But they will also say hey, teresa, you said you were going to get this done and you haven't done it yet. Why is that? They will also lead the charge with you when there's something that needs to be done, meaning they will give you ideas. They will be your confidants. They will be the ones because, let's face it, as an entrepreneur, it can be a lonely journey, but it can also be the highest of the highs and also the lowest of the lows. And so you know, I tell people join a mastermind group. We host, we have our own mastermind group and you and I've talked about those before. They're online, but find a mastermind group and I'm not talking about okay, so I'm going to put something out there and some people get offended by this, but you get what you pay for. So join, right, join a mastermind group. There are some free groups out there but join a group that you put. You invest some money in because there's expectations when you're investing into groups. I'm not saying that free groups don't have some value, but I'm saying put some money in because there's an expectation you're going to get some return. But also create a group of women that you can be accountable to Make sure that you're not the smartest person in that group.
Speaker 1:You don't need to be the smartest person in that group. You need to be. You know, you want to be pushed, you want to be challenged. So this sounds a little preachy, because it is. I make sure that in my mastermind groups that I'm not the sharpest. I'm not the sharpest one in that group. I want to be pushed and I want to be called out. I want what I? Yeah right, do you know what I'm?
Speaker 2:saying I do Absolutely. I think if we're not being challenged, then we just assume that we know everything, and then there's no room for growth and exactly for anything else. So you know this, that you were talking the sum of five, we just assume that we know everything, and then there's no room for growth, exactly, and no room for anything else. So you know you were talking the sum of five. It is important to have those people that will challenge you. Be honest with you, number one, and you're right, family doesn't always want to be honest or best friends, because they're afraid Well
Speaker 1:they're afraid, right, yeah, they're afraid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and I mean they could be the extended five if you need that, but or just as the support five, Exactly Boosting up your ego or something like that. But I mean, when you're in business, you need that honesty, you need that accountability, and that's how you grow, and that's how you move up and keep going, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that's incredible and I, you know, I look forward to being part of your mastermind group, because I know this is going to change for me. It's going to create an incredible link with people that I can learn from, and possibly someone can learn from me as well.
Speaker 1:So well, they will they will, and this is the thing, right. This is. This is where the for lack of a better way of saying this, hun this is where the rubber meets the road, because when people step in fully and are willing to share openly and there has to be a level of trust, that's the other thing that's very important. In a mastermind group, you know, you obviously have to have people coming from different fields. It can't be two of the same industry. It doesn't work, because then people aren't being as open.
Speaker 1:But there has to be a level of sharing and support for each other and also a level of just making, you know, just rising up and having that sense of accomplishment, because otherwise we don't move forward as a whole. And the truth is, when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. It is a collective thing and there is no way around that, right, because for an entrepreneur, the difference between us and working in a corporation is that we have to do this with self-discipline, right, but when you create a sense of community with your sum of five, there is that level of success. Now we raise the bar for each other and there is a sense of I'm going to say competition for each other to say, hey, I can do that too, and also a level of confidence that comes to say, if she could do it, I can do it. It's not a level of tear each other down, it's a level of lift each other up.
Speaker 1:And that's the beauty of it, right, and that's what women can do, because we do build community and we are great collaborators, which is something that I think women need to build upon more often the mothers, the sisters, the grandmothers.
Speaker 2:You know we were talking about our family and where we came from, and you know that was our original generation, how we explored life. And you know, now it's coming back as the sum of five, but it's changed dynamics. And how can we?
Speaker 1:leverage this right and it's as you said, if we learn from the younger generation, because really aren't we a symbiotic relationship? If we look at the millennials which I have great respect for and we look at our generation and we combine that and say, look at the advantages that are happening right now for women, because it's the best time for us to have our own businesses, this is the best time in the history of mankind, womankind, this is the best time. And so if we look at those two advantages and we say, okay, what is the best of the best here and what is the best of the best here, and we combine them, them, we are so powerful right now oh, absolutely, rather than than putting up a block and saying, no, the younger generation doesn't understand us and they need to do this, or the younger generation saying those little people have nothing to contribute.
Speaker 2:Honestly, we do, they both do, we all do, and we can grow from each other and learn, and we all bring something unique to the table and we can all excel from working together. And you're right, symbiotic relationship is the way to go. So, Jo, what else do you have going on? Are you still writing? Because I know you've written a couple really incredible books.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited.
Speaker 1:Well, since writing, writing frock off, which is the original book that launched everything, and I have to tell you I just still get emotional about this. And you think, after you know, coming into six the sixth year now of launching the book, and the and the company, I, oh I mean, I'm basically pretty much a sap. I'm going to say hard ass as I am, I'm sorry about that, but in a way, yes and no, I get emotional, I think, just seeing the changes that have happened and really feeling so blessed to work with so many amazing people like yourself and the women around the world that I've seen, just really lead the change and be the change and lead it and see this ripple right, but see so many other things happening. So then, you know, frockhoff went international and we're now, as I said, in our sixth year and it's been so many international awards. That's been amazing.
Speaker 1:And then Best Kept Secret came and I'm finishing my fourth book, which is Bella's Dash, and it's coming out in the fall, which is that's a whole different story and a totally different genre, has to do with PTSD, so kind of similar, in the sense of you know, with what happened with Frockhoff, but has to do with adoption of rescue animals and the impact with those with PTSD, and I don't know if we've talked much about that, but you'll be hearing more about that, so I'm super excited about that.
Speaker 2:Amazing, that's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, super excited.
Speaker 2:And so that's coming along. There are so many people that experience post-traumatic stress, me included, and you know. You know, when we come from backgrounds that we have experienced in our lives, it's hard to come out of those lives with not having post-traumatic stress.
Speaker 1:So and working with animals, and yeah, animals are just incredible.
Speaker 2:To help heal and to grow, that that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, that's exciting thank you, thank you, and you know we've been picked up um again by the publisher, so that's really exciting and and actually sponsors are starting to really show an interest in this book, so that's been amazing.
Speaker 1:It just speaks to the level of post-traumatic stress that's actually being dealt with in our society. Both. My husband's a retired firefighter, so first responders have a lot of problems with this as well. So I'm very excited about the good work that's going to help create more awareness right and also helping with rescue animals. So there's a lot of good that will come of that and it falls in line with my philanthropic work. So again, it's going back to knowing what really moves that needle for us that really helps us and working with more and serving more people, but also our live events that we continue to do and working with women in business, helping them get their message out to the world and taking the stage. Our next two that are coming up are in Edmonton and Portland, so it's just you know we're taking them into Mexico and looking into Europe this next year. So holy cow.
Speaker 2:And isn't that articulate, it's amazing. Well, you know, when I did my authorship course, there was a little section that you had to deal with, a purple cow. Oh wow, there you go. You know, if you're driving down a road and you see a purple cow, what does that make you think it's wow? And you have to write those feelings about the purple cow. So, holy cow fits perfectly, doesn't it? Doesn't?
Speaker 1:it. It just feels amazing. Who'd have thought Who'd? Have thought the little girl that grew up with no food, no running water, no electricity, I really, I mean, I guess that's why I still get emotional, because it's just really, you just never know. You just have to keep believing and stepping forward and and you know, don't give up like a whole. It and stepping forward and you know, don't give up Like a whole, just don't give up. Standing on the story is the best thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 2:And you know I've heard you say that stand on your story instead of in it. I heard you say that a couple years ago at one of your events in Ontario that I was luckily able to attend, and you know that made all the difference in the world for me for standing on my story and not in it and you know, that simple little statement actually created such a change in me and writing my book.
Speaker 2:It took the emotional baggage that I had experienced and it just put it away. So I now do stand on that story.
Speaker 1:Yes, you do.
Speaker 2:I own that story. I can talk about it without, you know, being afraid to talk about anything that's involved in that story. I mean, I've met a few women recently, some younger and some older, that have experienced sexual abuse from the same doctor I did, and they had never spoke up about it until I wrote it in my book.
Speaker 1:But now I can talk about it.
Speaker 2:It is. It was just life changing and life altering and you know I hope you're going to come back to Ontario.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because I would love to attend one of your events again. They're fantastic and I highly recommend them.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and I definitely need you speaking and sharing more, because what you're doing you know what you've done, and what you're doing is so powerful. It's just so powerful and the story, just when you stand on it, you change so many lives. And for so long you and I both we stood in it, we didn't know, but once we stood on it, I tell you it's so different. Thank you very much for what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and I know that it took both of us to be in our 50s before we could stand on it. Absolutely us to be in our 50s before we could stand on it. You know and it's. I would encourage anyone who has a story, something similar or any kind of a story, to start now, because don't wait if it needs to be out.
Speaker 2:it has to be cleared and you know. Work on your business and grab everything that you can and do it from a place of honesty and integrity and love, absolutely, and don't settle.
Speaker 1:Don't settle for less than because we're put here for a purpose.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and when you find that and discover that purpose and accept it you can hear it, you can hear it, you can hear it, but until you accept it, it's nothing is going to happen. And I think that's the key. And doing all that self-care work, self-love, self-compassion is really part of the journey, really needs to be part of the journey, because that's how we get put on that list and we get to be top of that list when we do that self-love and self-care work.
Speaker 2:So Jo is there anything else you would like to leave the listeners with today? Is there a message that you would like to share and leave with us?
Speaker 1:Just know how very impactful each of us really is, because we are not the key that opens the door for everyone, but we are the key that opens the door for some, and we need to stand. We do, we need to be that person for those that need us, and I'm happy and thrilled to talk to anyone, and I've sent the information for how to get a hold of me. So please, teresa, if you wouldn't mind, share that with any of your listeners. I'll leave that with you and also just to thank you again for the opportunity to share. You know my journey and my what I love, what I absolutely love, which is just being the change. In any way I can, and if I am the key that will help another open the door, and if I'm your key, please reach out to me, because there's nothing I love better than helping someone rise up and just being part of your story.
Speaker 2:And thank you again for this, oh thank you and, yes, we will have everything, all of your links, posted and we'll have it on the divas that carecom network and I'll also have it on my website as well. So all of your links will be posted. And, joe, I really want to thank you. It's always a pleasure talking to you and sharing your story and I hope we can do this again. So that will be number three. Hope we can do this again, so that will be number three. But I would love that series. I think it's going to become a series.
Speaker 2:So, thank you, joe, and thank you, divas, for joining us today, and I really can't express enough how much you need to get in touch with Joe Dibley. I think she is an incredible woman and if she is the one that fits best for you that can help you be the change in this world, go for it. So, to contact Jo again, I said we will have her links for social media and everything posted on the website and I look forward to sharing more stories with you. So, divas, thank you and check out Powering Through Life on the DivasThatCareNetworkcom. Thanks so much, take care.