Fascinating Women
Here is where fascinating women get comfortable. Chatting with Mark they reveal their journey, both the highs and lows, the events that have shaped them. These women share their values, their insights, their dreams, and accomplishments.
Fascinating Women
Joanne Neweduk - Nurse - Business woman-Inspiration-Entrepreneur
Joanne has an interesting arc; she has entwined her entrepreneurship into her love of helping people. More of a passion. She explains how that works, how she grew through the loss of a marriage—taking us on the road of avoiding being a biz person to finding a way to make it fit. She has some of her own personally created quotes to keep her focused.
Joanne Neweduk
Joanne Neweduk is the CEO and Podcast Host for Fabulous at 50 a community of women changing the aging narrative, and Founder of FabulousHealth.
She’s a registered nurse, author, speaker, facilitator, and integrative health practitioner, certified in multiple healing methods, including Metabolic Balance, Belief Re-patterning, and Sound Wellness.
Joanne empowers women in midlife who want to feel fabulous at 50 and beyond by giving them the tools to navigate menopause with ease, lose unwanted weight and release the emotional stress that is weighing them down so that they can confidently enjoy life.
Joanne is all about having the courage to choose adventure, accept support, and know you deserve to be cherished. Nothing makes Joanne smile more than supporting a client to move from feeling stressed, wired and tired to relaxed, calm and energized.
You can contact Joanne: Joanne@fabulousat50.com
https://fabulousat50.com/
Website has live chat/text direct to Joanne.
Free Gift: Make Mine Fabulous - 21 Ways to Energize Your Life https://lp2.fabulousat50.com/emailList
Podcast LinkTree. https://linktr.ee/_fabulousat50
About Mark Laurie - Host.
Mark has been transforming how women see themselves, enlarging their sense of sexy, and expanding their confidence in an exciting adventure that is transformational photography. His photo studio is Inner Spirit Photography.
http://innerspiritphotography.com
https://www.instagram.com/innerspiritphotography/
Sound Production by:
Lee Ellis - myofficemedia@gmail.com
You're listening to fascinating women with Mark Laurie. And now, Mark Laurie. Hello, everyone. It's
Mark Laurie:Mark Laurie here from fascinating women. Now usually, as I've said before, I am behind the camera photograph these incredible women, but they always have such great stories. So I thought this would be a great time to break some little stories out. And today I've got Joanne and she has a very diverse life. That's, that's kind of been rolled around. And I thought this is a great person to include in a very fascinating conversation. Hello, Joanne.
Joanne Neweduk:Hey, Mark, thanks for having me on today.
Mark Laurie:Welcome. This has been great. We've actually started we had a little bit of a background here. Now we're gonna dig right back into it.
Joanne Neweduk:Do share what happened? Honestly? Yes.
Mark Laurie:Yeah. Yeah. So we, we got into this conversation really quickly. I got so enraptured. I forgot to the record button. So it will be a replay for us. So we're, we're old friends by now. It wasn't practice run. So first, we're going to give you a little bit of a sense of, of Joanne. So let's just do a quick, I guess time capsule of what you have done, because you started off with your medical, you're kind of on the medical helping world. And let's, let's talk a bit about that how you got there. Okay.
Joanne Neweduk:Absolutely. So I think I was sharing that I became a registered nurse 35 years ago. And I can't believe we're celebrating our 35 year union this September. So it's, in many ways, it seems like a lifetime ago, which in a sense, it was, but it also just goes like that, you know, making real, real acquaintances with some of the other women that have gone through now. Many of them are looking at retirement, which is really while they're moving on to the next phase of their life. So when I graduated from nursing, I immediately went into oncology, inpatient medical oncology, inpatient, at foothills Hospital in Calgary. And then for a number of years, I worked at Princess Margaret in Toronto, some ambulatory care. I, at the time, was married to a doctor. So I worked the doctor's office serve it. And then I used to write down on when it said occupation, I would just say, are in and hiding. So I had a number of years where I was privileged to be a stay at home mom. And but I still use all my caretaking or caregiving skills, because I had three children, I had a mom that wasn't doing so well. And a workaholic husband and I was still doing all of that kind of stuff. And I found that my outlet sort of to feel like a grown up as well was to sink a lot of my time into volunteering. So I've always had this sort of entrepreneur type mentality of doing things but it wasn't entrepreneur in the sense of raising money. Maybe it was. Maybe there's another name, but it was we were talking I know earlier about I often what I do is a bit of a go getter, make things happen, run events, do fundraising, but in the in the with the theme of supporting others put it that way. So for you know, I think I said for over a decade, I sat on the board of directors for medical mercy, Canada, Calgary based humanitarian charity, and I would I would support them with their fundraisers or after a while actually, I ended up sitting in the role of president for No, so you're going to have this happen. I'm like, you know, at the time. Actually, it was really good. This is fascinating, because at the time it I think also as women, we often underestimate what our what value we bring to the table sometimes for our other skills. So I went through a period of time where I left my career, I was happy, you know, raising my children. I love that. But I felt a little let's just say I felt a little intimidated. When I come to the table. I'm sitting around engineers and lawyers and doctors and all these other people, they're holding paid positions that way. But that doesn't just because you're holding a paid position doesn't mean you don't are not holding that doesn't mean you don't have the skills. After a period of time, I ended up getting elected into the role of being President, which I was kind of like what it but it was because I would speak up and I'd advocate for others and I was, you know, or you're on a board. It's like, oh, I don't want that job. You could be a bit of both in there. But it was really cool. I think it's certainly helped my confidence in wanting to do stuff. And then we talked about how I in my 40s late 40s actually check my soil but in debt not sorry. About my menopausal brain, let's say my causal brain into gear, and went back to university to reinstate as a nurse. And that was tremendous. Like honestly, if you have people out there that are wondering oh are saying I'm too old to go back to school, you're not. It's really interesting how, how it evolved. It was really interesting. I was way more of a studious student in my 40s, whatever was right.
Mark Laurie:Party Party, yeah, there's a party element, when you're in your 20s, a little bit
Joanne Neweduk:or this FOMO, they have to be off doing something else. Like, don't get me wrong, I studied, I got good grades, but it was it was different. But there was a challenge, I had to study differently. But what it did is it put me back into the field of I was a registered nurse still am now and I worked part time in the outpatient Cancer Center. But around that time, I had also started to see that there were other possibilities, you know, I kind of went back to university because I thought, well, that's just what I do. That was my career, I'm back at it. But I started to have my mind open up to this other things, I could take some of these other skills that I've always been doing in a volunteer capacity, and use them maybe in a more entrepreneur capacity. And so that's when I was presented with the opportunity to come on board with the fabulous 50 team. And, and things grew from there. And then I very much if I find something in the complementary world of health, because I think nurses have, most of the nurses I know are very open and many doctors are they just have to stick with what is peer reviewed and accepted, even if they even some of the other stuff. Anything that helped me that was separate from the medical, but I felt had a science base to it. I then wanted to learn more, and I dive into it. And as you know, you don't have to go into a right now. But I've added many other things like sound light food, energy work to my toolbox. And that's what I use wit hin my private practice now.
Mark Laurie:So you become kind of an odd combination, because most there's a purist thing, right? So if you're a purist and you're helping people it's sort of viewed as a selfless you actually shouldn't be getting compensation for it Mother Teresa kind of syndrome, I guess. And the other hand you got the entrepreneur, which is usually usually like okay, hardware bill of business, we're gonna make money, we're and that's the two worlds and you blend them together. And that's unusual mindset. How'd you wind up with that? That blend?
Unknown:Yeah, interesting.I actually think there's more of me out there, then people realize there's a lot but there is a battle. Like often people that are in there. Like it's a weird combination. We think nothing while we do think a bit of it, but we think nothing. We go to see a lawyer may hand over hundreds of dollars go in, there's lots of things we pay for. Why do we think it's wrong to pay for something that helps us on a physical or emotional level? Or why do we think it's wrong to receive it? Why are we supposed to be just doing it as a self sacrifice? That's a whole? Like, that's a big, big story. Yeah. And there's a lot of courses out there and programs out there to help people who are natural healers, and are gifted healers to also recognize that there needs to be an energy exchange. And yes, people can pay you for that. How did I come to that? Because I'll be honest, the very first time I was doing life coaching, that was the first sort of little branch of something a little different, because life coaching and nursing go well together, because nurses don't just look at one thing we try and you know, nursing care, take the the whole person more about. And so I thought life coaching and having those skills would be good. The first time I I offered a session and I'm like, What are you will be like it was there was an angst in there. It was really weird. And I had to take a look at it. And what I realized is, I had always been paid like third party, I go in and work long hours, 12 hour shifts, and they work in the hospital. But then it's the hospital or the government that pays me.
Mark Laurie:Yeah. And they've negotiated that price as well. Yeah. So they've done all the crochet and they work this stuff out. That's the whole accounting department.
Joanne Neweduk:It's a little bit different and it's not coming directly from the person so it just felt like a weird energy. And also a Sorry, I lost my train of thought there. But just that where it was the direct more the entrepreneur that I'm going to do this. Oh, I know what it was is when I work within volunteer situation, or I would put hours into help planning a an event, a fundraising event. I was always promoting and I had no problem asking people to hand over money for the charity That was then going to help. So I was using all of these skills, but it was always in a volunteer capacity. So it was quite a bit of a mindset for me to switch into, okay, now I'm going to run an organization, right, and ask for some money to be a member, or you know, and keep that actually steal that side of me. It's like, it's dirt cheap. Like, it's so affordable. I mean, people who have up to four meetings, five meetings a month, they can choose and pick and it works out to less than $20 a month for the year. So that is just, it's just meant to like give people a sense of community. But then when we move into my health practice, and I put people through a six month program, or they work with me just one on one for like, one off programs, I have it set similar to what you know, going for massage or something like I have it set with what I feel is appropriate for the amount of education and training years of training that I've put into it. And I know that I get good results with people. But that's been quite a bit of a journey to get to that. That was not the initial maybe this amount, like I literally was sweating and feeling horrible. I didn't grow up as the entrepreneur. I did grow up a little bit more as the caretaker.
Mark Laurie:You mentioned your mother was nurse wannabe? No, that's wrong.
Joanne Neweduk:Well, sort of. So my mom was one of six children. She lived in Manchester, and grew up during to as a teenager during Second World War, which is her older sister had become a registered nurse. I think my mum wanted to be at the time, it just wasn't. I mean, there was too much upheaval going on in the world, then for her to go through the training. So she was what they called a Red Cross volunteer. So I don't know what's an old term, kind of like a candy striper, someone that was hoping, maybe not treating the wound, but helping to roll up the bandages, something along those lines, and every cute picture. So it's not so much I was it's not being pressured into doing something. But it's just that when somebody talks about something, that's what's in your psyche, as opposed to if somebody. Yeah, it's a role model. If somebody was in a household where they're always talking about engineering stuff, well, mind you, my dad was he was civil planning and engineering. But if someone was in I don't know, a shopkeeper, then it is natural that that's kind of the world that you get socialized into. So there, it's a bit of what is my personality, and then also what what was I socialized into where I thought, oh, that's going to be a good life, career. And nursing is it's a wonderful career, there's so many different things you can go in. And now that I'm doing some of it as in my own private practice, I love it.
Mark Laurie:What is an inspirational quote that you live by?
Joanne Neweduk:Ah, ah, so it's my own code. And it goes along the lines of the greatest obstacle you will ever overcome is yourself.
Mark Laurie:That's profound. That's, that's. So how'd you come across that construct? You
Joanne Neweduk:know, that's a good question. Um, I'm trying to think it's probably been over a decade that I've been going to that I think I was in a course where we were challenged to come up with what's our What is something that you have found, and I found that that was a lot of the stuff that was going on in my life, a lot of the angst a lot of the itty bitty shitty committee going off and right brain is nobody else can force that on you. It's there's influences, absolutely, that sometimes people feel are bombarding, but it's what we make of them. And so when I started learning, and doing some personal development courses, or doing some belief, free parenting, and learning that we are in control of what's going on in our minds, and, and the obstacles I had were my own obstacles, it was overcoming my own beliefs. It was, you know, my own perspectives of things, and developing new ones. So that's, that's my go to quote. There's lots of wonderful quotes out there. That is my go to quote to go, Okay. What are you going to do? If this is if this is hurting emotionally, physically, you know, energetically, spiritually, whatever? What is it that I have control over that I can actually make this a better outcome?
Mark Laurie:What was lines what trait you wish you didn't have?
Joanne Neweduk:Hmm. All right. So if you'd asked me this a number of years ago, I would have had this whole big grocery list is there is especially I had come out like in 2008, my 18 year marriage at the time ended. And I think by the time depending, you know, like, by the time I'm in marriage ends quite often both parties are, we're not at our best, right? Like, there's stuff going on and, and especially as a woman and I really wanted to save the marriage, I think I twisted myself into a pretzel. Do you like me now? Do you like me now? And I lost myself? And now I'm not blaming him? He's one of those things probably at the time. He did. Absolutely. But now it's like, no, I was making the choice to change and be different and not as true to myself, I didn't really know who I was. At that point, I had lost myself in the classic. What a lot of women do, I some men do as well. But it tends to be women that often lose themselves and over giving, over giving and forgetting that we need to fill ourselves up and give from our overflow. So it's very different than what I live now. So traits that I didn't. And the other thing that I learned along the way is that often a trait that we don't like about ourselves is, is almost a it's a gift that we have to dialed up. Right. So I and and what we like about ourselves and don't like about ourselves is often mirrored in the other person. So things that my husband didn't like about me or irritated him anymore. We started not liking about myself. Here's what's pretty profound mark is that the wonderful man I'm with now, you know, Ron, is some of the most profound healing moments where him simply saying, Oh, something that he loves about me. And it turns out, it was something that I previously didn't love because it had been shamed in the other relationship, but not in this one. So I had to take a long hard look at what did I really love and not love about myself. And so now instead of choosing to not like something about myself, a trade or look at okay, if this is not getting me the results I want or I'm not happy about this, I take a look at it or try and repattern it. Now if we do it on more the lighter fun side, a wave magic one. I know if I could wave a magic wand change traits and other people. For myself, I tend i I know for myself, I tend to I like things neat and orderly however, I'm often I can organize things like events, but I don't I say do it in an orderly way. Like don't look around my office here. It can be a bit of chaos. But I'd like it neat. Do you remember the odd couple Felix and what's his name? Oscar? Yeah, a little bit like Oscar in some ways, but I like it neat and orderly like Felix. So I just need to Felix to tidy everything up for me all the time. And I'm very much if if I if it's nice, I can keep it there. But once it's in chaos, I feel like a bit of a deer in headlights. So I don't know what trait that is. But if I could magically change that I would be that that'd be the thing. Yeah, like if I don't act, the minute I get home, I will leave case and I'll be stepping over it a month later living out of it still.
Mark Laurie:What's the most spontaneous thing that you've done? I'm
Joanne Neweduk:still spontaneity. I can't think of something that's a big spontaneous thing. However, I have been told that I'm spontaneous, but I don't even think about it. Because I'm very much I'll wake up in the morning. And it's like, what a gorgeous day I can see right to the mountains. Just go for a hike today. Right? And I guess a spontaneous because we hadn't planned that we had to go for a hike. I might have it in my mind that I wanted to do some hikes this summer. Or let's go and do something or somebody phones me up and goes, Hey, we have we have tickets to a concert tonight. And we're thinking of going out for dinner and this other people can't go can you guys go? And I'm very much like, yeah, sure I'm willing to drop stuff, especially if it's house cleaning. I'll drop it like, like, the dust will be here. The dishes will be here when they get back. So that type of spontaneity, but I'm trying to think of something that was I haven't done something necessarily where I wake up that morning and somebody says, Hey, let's go jump out of an airplane. Like I'm not quite to that level, you know, or fly around the world. But I'm I'm pretty game to shift. I can pivot very quickly.
Mark Laurie:There you go. That's that's the 20th century term. I've noticed though that first spontaneity is it's if you're always spotting a spontaneous person, if that's kind of like your way of life. You don't see it as such. Because it's something you're always in the moment I think is a good phrase. Whereas other people who aren't always in the moment go oh my god, you're like always doing spontaneous stuff. And you're thinking, you're thinking you're looking for the big spontaneous moment that says wake up and go for an airplane ride someplace like that, that big leap with it whereas you conduct your life in the moment. So every moment is kind Spontaneous and that that's a shake up for other people. That makes sense.
Joanne Neweduk:It does. And I think it's a lot of it. And the more I I've been studying energy medicine with the Eden energy medicine method. We have different elements, like people talking about elements or as she talks about rhythms and so in a sense, different personalities. And some people need things laid out. I know somebody that literally if you want to do something with them, you need to give them a whole week, there's no way that you could go, it's beautiful tomorrow, let's all get together for a barbecue, they would not be in because that is not on their radar, they literally need to go. And there's nothing wrong with that. I am just very much like, barbecue. Okay, I'm in.
Mark Laurie:Yeah, but yeah, we talked earlier about an idea of what's daring for person. So some person is, can be a daring famously with an airplane. That's a bold, daring move. Young person daring is we're gonna bring our Red Hat today. That's my contract stuff. Yeah. That makes sense.
Joanne Neweduk:Exactly. So I was sharing about that, because I've done a couple of talks on that. And, and sharing because daring people have a different threshold of what daring to me. And when you look up the definition, it's not just about overcoming fear, right? Going to the dentist. And you're scared of it isn't really daring. It's like you're overcoming here. You gotta go and get it done. Yeah, if you come out with maybe, I don't know, you get like, what is it a diamond Step Put in for Terry. But here is when there's this an element of adventure, as part of what you're doing. So you're overcoming fear, it's good. But there's an element of adventure as well. And so honestly, I will dare women, sometimes I'll have a client and if they are sort of shrunken back in their energies a little think of the wallflower somebody that is maybe they're starting to feel a bit marginalized, or they've marginalized their own contribution to the world, right? Derek for them, as you said, might be wearing a red hat, it might be putting on a bright lipstick. So it's just stepping out a little bit of that comfort zone to to be a bit more bold, right Darren can be when when you choose to take a bold act. And so for myself, I'm daring. I started daring myself a number of years Oh, quite a few years ago, because I'm scared of heights. And being scared of heights hold you back, I you know, has held me back from things like walking or the worst is walking across like a rickety bridge and waters rolling underneath. And I'm like, my legs, it's not just a mental thing. It's a it's a physical thing, my legs just freeze. So one of the most daring things I did to overcome was we were in Turkey, and I got my wobbly little legs to stand in a hot air balloon and go and it was perfect. Because I didn't need to walk. It's not like walking over a bridge, I just had to stand there. But if I hadn't been willing to dare myself to push me myself out of that comfort zone, I wouldn't have experienced it. And to this day, I can still picture you know, going over to kappa Doha in, in Greece. Greece in Turkey is where it looks like the drip castles, you know, like standard castles, that terrain and taking pictures. It was phenomenal. And so I have dared myself and push myself out of my comfort zone for some of those things. Whereas other people would be is kind of like, I can do that no problem. And other people would be paralyzed and go never, you know. So I think I'm somewhere in the middle with that.
Mark Laurie:I think it's advantageous for a person to dare themselves to recognize that. That is one phrase if it scares you, you should do it. I think I pushed the envelope a bit much but but yeah, I think it's pretty valuable.
Joanne Neweduk:What you say with daring you would have a lot of experience with Derek because what you do the boudoir shots and and the just the gorgeous nudes that you do. I would imagine although there's a few women that probably walk in no problem. I would imagine that the majority of women that walk into your studio, this is a huge dare to themselves. A huge leap of faith and challenge and then they go through and I'm going to have you on my podcast as well. Looking forward to yes I want to go through kind of take us through the stages at some point in time of you know, like from petrified to Yes, I'm gonna do it to how they are when just that sense of accomplishment is tremendous.
Mark Laurie:It is we get to see the actual transition. There's a moment where they where they're gonna slip as switches flipped and and they break through a barrier and you can see it physically. It's really It's pretty what's the best Advice someone's given you
Joanne Neweduk:best advice, I've, again, I always have the trouble with superlatives the best. It's like there's many different that I like to listen and learn third party. I remember when I was growing up, sometimes people are like being the youngest of children, we don't always have to go out and do the crazy shit because we learn vicariously from our older siblings. And it's not directed advice that they're giving. It's more I'm observing and racial advice, I don't want that outcome. I'm not going to do that. Um, you know, what I had, actually, I had a really cool, interesting Sunday school teacher. So I grew up, you know, going to the Anglican Church, so a little more progressive than many churches, and she, she always gave us really interesting insights and interesting faiths. You know, the sounds. I'm trying to think of exactly what she said, there was two things that that pointed out. One was to this day, I still remember her is this is we're talking back like, I would have been pretty young in there. So it's like the late 60s or early 70s. And she goes, so according to the Bible, who's the first person that Jesus actually appeared to and spoke to Mary Magdalene, she meant was the start of women's love back then, like this was all in those moments, but she was just like, don't ever underestimate your contribution in the world kind of thing. And the other was, enjoy every age that you're at. So I have this distinct memory of being about 13, or 14, maybe 13, riding in the car with a friend of mine. And then I think there might have been an older sister or something. And then they're the parents. And I think my friend was one that was always pining wanting to try and almost be 16 When she's 13. Right. And, and, you know, the parent said something to me asked me a question about that going, can you hardly wait till you're 16. And to this day, I can remember going, Yeah, I can wait, I'm 13. Right now, I'm only going to be 13 one. So I'll be 16 when I'm 16. And I think they almost crashed the car. They were like, I don't know where it came from. I don't know. Like, you know, maybe it might have gone back to the Sunday School teacher remembering that, but I do my best to try and just really delight in just living and Oh, normal, not really caring or thinking about what age I am. I just keep on doing what I can do. Keep on going.
Mark Laurie:It makes good sense. It's it goes back to your in the moment philosophy of the future we're talking about kind of earlier.
Joanne Neweduk:Yeah. Well, it very much ties into you know, the fabric 51 in their message that we give that you know, if not now, when and, sure, you might be plus 50. But if you want to go back to school, go back to school, if you want to do this, that it's not about your mindset, like stop attaching a number that I'm too old for something, you know, you might not be able to do it. Like, let's be honest, you're not going to be 55 years old and start training for the Olympics likely. Now you could probably if you were doing horse jumping, you could probably be better. Think of Ian Miller, right? You can do that. But But what is it? Is it that there's a sport you like or there's something you want, do it at the level you can do and just keep building up your capacity and get the thrill and the enjoyment out of it.
Mark Laurie:That makes good sense. Do you have any heroes, people that you admire, aspire to?
Joanne Neweduk:Heroes or heroines? Not overly I, you know, lots of times in school people are like just absolutely Gaga and they have posters all over and they're fans of different. That was not me. I admire stuff about that. But I never got gung ho about any one thing. There's certainly an arrange of women and actresses or high profiles that maybe I I admire or I admire music but but it's I've mentioned actresses there but that's just like the those are the high profile ones but I admire Yeah, you know, what I would say more over the years is people that I've I've met in real life that I think are doing something that's phenomenal. So when I was working with medical mercy, Canada, my heroes were Elaine and Myron some kool aid because of what they did. They took they They literally went over to Burma with the suitcase to bring some supplies to some village that that you needed help. And Elsie James who did incredible work in Nepal. So it's not necessarily the celebrities that I find as heroes. It's more like real life heroes, some of the women that I interview on my own podcast, I'm just like, wow, in this moment, you are my inspiration. Yeah,
Mark Laurie:I find you right, I find there's more drive from an average person's quiet accomplishments. In some cases, you look back and go, I love the way that person lives their life, okay with and they're not, you know, some person's game of autobiography movie out of them. But they do change the world on a regular basis as they move through the life in their own way.
Joanne Neweduk:Yes, yes. I really admire people that recognize that are willing to look at I have a skill and they share it with the world like musicians. Yeah. So a lot to go through. Yeah, we see the ones the big, you know, like the Taylor Swift's that feel 1000s upon 1000s of people, which and she is quite phenomenal. And one of the reason she's doing that is she has shown along the way to be a good person and kind for her staff. Like I heard something like she set aside I don't know, whatever it is, like something merely in the millions to to bonus her staff. Like I think all of the truck drivers, I don't know how much their team is. Good, right? Yeah. Yeah, like the whole crew. But I even think I just was at, you know, recently was at the Kenmore Folk Festival, and, and just watching people on stage, sharing their talent and bringing joy to other people. To me, people like that are heroes.
Mark Laurie:Yeah, like, that's the beauty of, of, I guess, of artists in general. But there's the people that they're when they enter a room that light through them up, and they do it unselfishly, like they're just the kind of the kind of attracted to them because there's a joy about them. It's just really, really kind of pleasurable things you want to sort of sit back and meet? What kind of things you're curious about right now? Where's your curiosity taking?
Joanne Neweduk:So my curiosity right now is taking me and every couple years or so is I start delving into a new healing modality, I love the curiosity, of learning about the human body as a human being, shall we say? Because there's the body, there's our mind, because when you think about it, we have, we have our brain, that's the physical anatomy. And then you have the actual physiology, how did the synaptic, you know that synapse fire. So you have the physiology of what's going on when the brain is alive, working. And then we have our mind this intangible, what the heck is our mind? Like, that kind of stuff just blows me away. I honestly felt like I had some of the most spiritual moments. When I was studying anatomy and physiology. Again, when we go down into cell biology, and get right down to little, you know, the, the ion exchange and the cell level, like it blows me away. So, over the years, I've delved into, you know, how our mind works, abet and use that belief returning that curiosity. Sound, how sound impacts us how vibration impacts us, and frequency impacts us. So training as a sound practitioner, as you know, and then how does food impact us and how we can ship that? So right now, my curiosity is to learn on a deeper level how our energies work. So that's why I'm training with the Eden energy medicine or Eden energy method. And I think they're rebranding to method. And, and just learning so many of us understand it's almost common knowledge now I find at least in the world of people that I relate to, is we talk about chakras, right? Most people even talk about they understand like, you know, a punch to the stomach or punch to hit to my solar plexus, or your crown chakra and connection. Well, that is just one of multiple energy systems. And, and when people go, Well, how is there more than one energy system? How does that work? I go, well think of our body. When we look at each other at first glance, we're one we're one body. We have our circulatory system. We have our lymph system, we have our digestive it's a whole bunch of systems all together. So people you know, and and even that I always love when people like, oh, I don't believe in that. And I'm going well, that's a bit like saying, I don't believe in the sun. It's still there. You know? Like, do you think that it's woowoo to have a magnet? We know that there's North Pole and South Pole and there's that energy field? Do you think that an ECG is woowoo? Because an ECG All it's doing is measuring the electricity, the electrical impulses of your heart And when we we put the electrodes some of them are on your ankles when we're doing a you know a 12 lead, but it that has become mainstream. EEG measures our brain waves that is my will so we have other energies. So acupuncture deals with the meridians, acupressure deals with the meridians. But we have our aura we have our chakra system we have like there's, there's, in this particular program, we study nine different energy systems, and how can we impact them? And so right now my curiosity is how can I take my skill, have someone on a table, do an hour session and have them stand up and they're like a wet noodle of relaxation. Because especially as a nurse and and I've seen it over the years is stress or unmanaged stress because there's going to be stressors in our life, but unmanaged stress, low grade stress response in our system, is what's killing us it is what is the root of more than 90% of all illness and disease in the world.
Mark Laurie:That's scary stat. is huge
Joanne Neweduk:when you go back, because there's the stress of, if it's something if you think about it, if you have something going on with you, that is related to your metabolism, right, or metabolic syndrome. So diabetes, you know, digestive issues, that is stressors on your system with what you're eating. So literally, for most of that you change what you're eating, you can change the stress within your system. That is highly but what we're eating is also linked often to our socialization and our mindset. So that's why I do a very comprehensive it's not just saying this is what you need to eat. So I support people in their bio individual what what are they going to eat that's going to support their physical system? What's going on with their mindset, so that that relates to it what's going on in their energy system? So you need to roll it all together? Because it's really can't separate the whole being so when I work with people, my curiosity is how can I take my knowledge and experience and give someone hope and support them to be a healthier better them healthier, happier better than that's my curiosity?
Mark Laurie:That's your curiosity, trying to find that path? So you're you're a fairly complex individual with these opposing positions from the the healing thing and the mercenary, Trump maneuver and so on. Do you find that people understand you easily or a lot of people just don't get you?
Joanne Neweduk:Oh, good question. I would say both I would say over the years maybe in my younger years, sometimes people didn't quite get me or some of that was because I didn't always show up showing all of me and now I just fill my world with people that get me I did have somebody wants it she goes I'd really be interested in living in your brain for a couple of hours I'm on a roll where my energy is up I have just so many ideas like people can come to I'm excited to give ideas and feedback to them. How can they do their business better? How can they because they just get these intuitive? Oh, this is what you could be doing and I just get to them and but also when my energy is down myself I'm like anyone else I just want to lie on the couch and watch TV. Um, I just find that I've I've as I get older you know I have naturally attracted into my life people that we have mutual love support and and admiration for each other.
Mark Laurie:You find that quite a bit as you don't suffer fools
Joanne Neweduk:yes i Yeah. If I'm it Yeah, yeah, I'm just going to say yes to that when I can if I am going to collide with somebody that can make a gig where I try and kind of just go okay, they're just on their journey but yeah, I don't production me
Mark Laurie:I find that with with older people as we get old lines, like you know, that I'm at time that kind of nonsense. You're just we're moving on.
Joanne Neweduk:Obviously smart I on my podcast, one of my favorite questions at times is to ask what, what shifted around the time you got into your 50s and beyond. And so many of the women almost all of them go oh, well the filter fell off. Now, that doesn't mean you have to be cruel, but it's like, don't bite your tongue. Long as often like, you know.
Mark Laurie:So when When did you shift? how that how that shift appear for you?
Joanne Neweduk:Well, I think I'll be sharing a bit about this. But I'll highlight is around the time that my divorce was happening, that I, you know it, I'll be honest, it pulled the rug carpet from under me. And I needed to kind of look at, okay, who do I want to be? So on one hand, there was aspects of me that went, Okay, I'm super determined, I was super determined to go, I need to make myself the best I can be, because they want this to impact my children as little as possible. But of course, at other times, like it drew me down in other ways. Thankfully, I did not get depressed I did, I have a pretty high happiness set point, or at least I've set it high. So I can have sadness. But to me, sadness is different than depressed. Does that make sense? There is a difference. And so I'd have I mean, I had wonderful friends that I solved on their shoulders, and so forth. But then one day, very fortuitous. It's like a weird chain of events, I was invited by a friend to come over because she was having someone do a talk, and she goes, Oh, and bring your bring your camcorder at the time like this before. You know, cellphones were videos as well. She goes, I want to record it. And mine's not working. So I did that. And then I met this person, and we got to hit it off. Long and short of it, I got invited, they said, Oh, I'm going to do this personal development course, on a weekend. And I'm allowed to bring somebody would you like to be my plus one. And again, this was the spontaneity. I was, well, I just said, Okay, I've never done something like that. It's worth going. And it's a weekend, I wasn't gonna have my kids. And I found that tremendously hard. I was like the caregiver to not you know, as it turned out, you really have the kids all through them at some time. But this was a one weekend off where I did. And it really opened my eyes to look at myself. Because I think I was getting into the victim mindset, a little bit without realizing it, because it's always like, what's been done to me and what was like, you know, and I haven't really looked at my part of it, not that I caused it, but we co create everything that happens in our life, how can we not by simply being present we are part of that? It is, you know, it's like, it's a recipe. It's like, what happens there? And how do you perceive it and what what story, you know, like, if, when you're five years old, the story that you tell around something happening is very different than what it would be if you saw that same thing at 50 years old. So that I think was a very pivotal moment where it started me down on a path. And so I actually did this personal development work for a while, and it hugely shifted my mindset. And I met some incredible friends, some of them that I'm connected with to this day. And then that leapfrogged me into, as I mentioned, then training in the belief repairing or and then that led me in, then I got introduced to somebody in sound. And then and I just, you know, some people will go to a session when they like something. I'll go to a couple of sessions, and then I want to train in it. Right, because I just I love that. I guess. I love being a lifelong learner. I think it's the best way to ward off Alzheimer's.
Mark Laurie:I think you're right. It's, it's a neat thing. We're coming up to the end of our time. This has been really, really cool. Yeah, it's been. It's been this fascinating. I love that.
Joanne Neweduk:Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you for having me on. It's been wonderful. And I'm looking forward to reciprocating because there's lots of different questions I want to ask you,
Mark Laurie:though, so you've got you've, you've shifted out of your nursing into your and Trump and everything. We haven't talked about that a whole bunch of LIS to come a moment to do that. Okay. So what is it you're doing these days?
Joanne Neweduk:Okay. You know, I still I still do a shift at the hospital just kind of keep my finger in the pot. Right? What I'm doing right now is so basically I run the fabulous brand, so fab 50 is kind of the umbrella and then and that is our we have the Fabaceae 50 sisterhood. So we have a Facebook group so people can look fabulous at five zero sisterhood. So that is a group so people can have a sense of community a sense of sisterhood. That also has because I live in Calgary. I have some live events that I run throughout the year, September to June. Typically we take the summer off mostly, and women come together like mindedness. Sometimes we have a guest speaker sometimes we just have a party, Halloween, Christmas, that type of thing. But it's creating a sisterhood of women that want to say, hey, so you know, we've turned 50 We're in our 50s we're in our 60s and we're still really enjoying life and I want other women around. So the women that show up up, fall into two categories I find three are the ones that are like yeah, I found my, you know, I found my sisterhood like this. Now I have like minded women, or they're kind of a little bit more like, oh crap, I'm 50 What's going on, you're like, fabulous, I can be fat. Whoa, I want me some of that. And they're like, drawn in because they're like, oh my gosh, I never, I never thought of this right, I was started to feel a bit marginalized and, you know, a wallflower. And so they get drawn into the energy of it. And then I have the membership. That's so this is where anyone around the world can join in, we have meetings on Zoom, Tuesdays right now at 7pm. Mountain Time. And the membership, as I said, is super affordable. If you buy the year membership, it works out to less than $20 a month. And that gives me I know, it's like less than $4 eating. And because I do a tasting, because one week will be self care. So that's when they bring in some of my fab health, I'll do a sound bath, or I'll do stuff that if you paid one on one, you'd be paying a lot more than that. We'll have a conversation one week, one week, I'll have somebody committed, we do some kind of movement. And then another week is a book discussion, which leads into talking about the latest movie or shows, it's just another chance for women to come together. And it's absolutely fabulous, especially for when they maybe live in rural areas, and they just don't have as much access to getting together with others. So that's on the social side. And one of the reasons that I'm so passionate about this, as we know that loneliness increases after 50 Many people, they have lost partners or they're no longer part of the hockey crew that their kids were you know, they're they're empty nesters, there's a lot that women go through in their midlife on a physical level on a social level on the emotional level. And we counteract that by having a sisterhood where we can come together. And there's different courses and things. So then on the health side, so it's kind of a little leg of of the fabric 50 Is the fabulous health is when people want to work with me directly. And this is specifically focusing on their health and wellness. And so people can work with me one on one on zoom in person, I've adapted for both. And as this year goes on, I'm going to be doing some more group coaching and courses. And I, as I mentioned, I put women through a program where they want to release the pounds and the stress that is weighing them down. And really, if they want to feel fabulous and increase their energy, it's a comprehensive program that they can go through over a four to six month period.
Mark Laurie:So listeners, we will have all that listed in the bio. So you'll there'll be links and whatnot. If you want to kind of pursue with your own sense of curiosity, you can find out what she's up to and how some of these things may resonate with you.
Joanne Neweduk:Yeah, yeah. And they can also tune in to the podcast, which we're done this month.
Exit speaker:This has been fascinating women with Mark Laurie. Join us on our website and subscribe at fascinating women dossier fascinating women has been sponsored by inner spirit photography of Calgary, Alberta and is produced in Calgary by Leigh Ellis and my office media.