Compassionate Courage:
a free workshop
We're always being told we need more resilience.
Big girls don't cry
Face the world with a bold heart
Just be brave
But there’s a particular kind of terror that doesn’t announce itself dramatically.
It creeps in quietly, dressed up as procrastination or perfectionism or suddenly being very busy with other things so that somehow you never get to it.
It’s the terror of doing again, something that felt like it failed; even when, if you look closely, it didn’t actually fail at all.
It’s the terror of facing again, a world full of tumult and chaos which feels increasingly dangerous (in part, because it is).
If this sounds familiar,
you are not alone.
I know this territory well.
A while back, I was running some group coaching programs I genuinely believed in. Actually, not just ‘believed in’ but was passionate about, because I KNEW they were potent and effective.
And the participants did get real results; deeply transformative ones, in some cases.
But my marketing? That was another story: limp at best, apologetic at worst. Yikes!
Unsurprisingly, the programs didn’t fill the way I’d hoped.
And here’s where the twisty part comes in.
Before I could properly assess what happened, the bitey brain weasels in my head (aka long-standing, unconscious, self-criticism patterns) had already filed their assessment: the programs aren’t good enough. You’re not good enough. The evidence is right there. You should quit now.
It was bullshit, of course: not evidence at all. But exhausted, depleted, and running on fumes, I didn’t have the resources to push back.
The thought of running those programs again became genuinely terrifying.
My courage-trust cycle got broken, and I didn’t even know it.
The WHAT cycle?
Moving forward into new territory - marketing a program, navigating life - requires two things, and they’re not interchangeable.
The first is courage: the willingness to step into the unknown, when there are no guarantees. This is what we use when we’re starting out, when we’re trying something new, when the data isn’t in yet. Courage is what carries us across the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
The second is trust — the foundation we build from experience. When something works, it becomes evidence that we’re on track. Evidence becomes belief. Belief becomes the thing we lean on to keep moving forward. When something doesn’t work, it becomes useful data to say ‘hmmm, not that way’ and that guides us in that direction. Whatever the result, we acquire data that helps us build trust.
Courage gets you to the evidence. Evidence builds the trust. Trust makes the next act of courage easier. This becomes fuel for sustainable joy in our purpose.
The trouble comes when the cycle breaks down.
If you’re in the habit of discounting your wins and over-counting your losses, the evidence doesn’t accumulate properly.
If you misread why something didn’t work (blaming the product instead of the promotion, the messenger instead of the message) you’re trying to build your trust on faulty foundations.
And if you’re a woman, or from any historically marginalised community, you may already be burning through courage just navigating ordinary days. The baseline courage tax is higher. The tank empties faster.
It’s exhausting
And if you’re like most people, you’ve already tried loads of things to reduce fear - like ‘just do it’ or ‘push through’.
Maybe you’ve tried meditation or a visualisation technique.
Or maybe you’ve tried something more ‘practical’, such as shutting yourself away from the world, avoiding the mall or the internet, or yelling at everyone around you to JUST KEEP QUIET.
Or maybe you’ve simply kept pushing through, hoping things will somehow change all on their own, and doing your best to ignore any growing feeling that there must be something wrong with you if you can’t get brave (or stay brave).
You may have had some temporary relief along the way, but the brutal truth is, the world feels increasingly chaotic; and when you think about doing The Scary Thing again, it’s like someone glued your feet to the floor and you just. can’t. move.
Sweetheart, it’s not you.
It’s the system, messing with your courage/trust cycles and charging you far higher rates of courage than you ought to be paying.
Courage is a finite resource, and draining our ‘courage tanks’ can leave us bereft and confused (and thinking we’re broken - we’re not)
There are four simple principles underpinning this project:
The system in which we were raised is fucked, and it installed unconscious habits of thought and behaviour in you (eg ‘it has to look a certain way’ and ‘anything worthwhile is hard work’ and ‘someone else knows better than I do’ and ‘protecting my own energy seems hard to grasp’)
That crap in your brain is absolutely not your fault, and it’s not a character flaw - but it is now your job to retrain your own brain and clean up the mess
Brains are superbly designed for retraining, when you have the right tool pointed at the right problem, and they do MUCH better when we weave in playfulness, fun and delight
Magic turbocharges the process at both an esoteric and somatic level
When you’re seeking a solution to the problem of ‘how do I even BEGIN to feel courage when the world is chaotic and my life needs more courage than I have to give and I have that task I keep putting off…?’ - the answer is not YET MORE self-punishment and self-criticism.
And that’s how most of us were raised.
Push harder. Bully yourself into doing the scary thing.
What if there’s a better (and easier) way?
My highest intention for you:
This free workshop is designed to help you begin to heal any hiccups in your courage/trust cycle. Here’s what I intend for you to receive:
you experience far more compassion and less condemnation, when things feel scary and you think you ‘ought’ to be able to just push through
you learn how to maintain better levels of courage in your tanks, by plugging the leaks and replenishing the supply
you begin to heal any wonky parts of the courage/trust cycle that has seen you struggling in the past, to trust yourself, trust your work, and even perhaps trust in any kind of positive future
you have fun and enjoy yourself in a group of like-minded people who are experiencing some of the same kinds of courage
Signing up for a free workshop SEEMS to be a no-brainer; but also, if the courage tanks are low even a free thing can feel scary. You have to give me your email address, and you’ve no way of knowing if I’ll respect your privacy or try to scam you or hardsell once you’re on the call. Ugh. I get it. (I can’t force you to feel safe with me, but maybe if you’re nervous you can check out my About page?)
So for clarity …
This is for you if:
you identify as a woman, non-binary or gender fluid human
you recognise that some days courage feels harder to find than you’d like
you’re not looking for a lecture, but rather a workshop to engage with where you get to design your own approach based on some proven concepts
you sometimes have a habit of dragging yourself forward using brute force, willpower and self-shaming
you HATE being on camera in a Zoom call (I’ll fight anyone who says you can’t engage unless you’re visible - pffft!!) - or you love it and you’re happy to engage (literally EITHER works just fine)
you believe in both science and spirit, at least enough that you’re happy to explore both
This is not for you if:
you’re a man - please know that I love you guys, but my work isn’t going to light you up in the way that I can do for the women-oriented or gender fluid folks
you’re actively cynical about either magic or brain science. I don’t mean you have to have 100% complete faith 24/7, I mean you don’t believe AT ALL. If this is you, my approach is going to be really frustrating
you are looking for someone to whom you can hand over your power and authority. While I am 100% in support of you, I also know that you are the sole authority in your life, so everything we do together is a collaborative partnership
What you can expect
A simple, fun, enjoyable gathering with like-minded humans in a safe space
Almost instantaneous relief from the pressure to be brave
Zero ‘dude-bro hustle’, zero rah-rah cheerleading, just a shitton of love and support
Begin to reclaim your actual natural courage (even if right now that seems elusive)
Expand your skill and capacity at compassion (the ‘secret weapon’ power so misunderstood and so effective)
Support from planetary ally Mars, along the way - an optional extra you’re invited to use if you’d like
Meet your host
As a late-stage boomer with a passion for social justice, I know what it’s like to try and manage the impacts of both perceived danger and real danger, in a world where we can be attacked simply for seeking to make the world a better place.
Ever since I was union rep on a TV production in 1995, and went into battle for child actors to get proper lunch breaks, I’ve helped liberate thousands of people from the toxic systemic BS that can play havoc with our own journey of life.
I’ve done it as a union organiser for actors and, later, academics; and since 2011, I’ve done it with thousands of coaching clients.
My core coaching qualifications included three years of training in total, alongside various additional training in positive psychiatry and positive psychology, psychological first aid, trauma, identity shifting, emotional intelligence, astrology, chaos magic, and diversity, equity and inclusivity.
I’m fiercely passionate about freeing women from those old toxic systems in our heads, so we can fall back in love with our own purpose and the passion for our important work in the world - because our joy is an act of political and personal liberation.
Helping you get a taste for how to protect and replenish your own courage tanks is 100 percent in my wheelhouse.
Lisa Hayes
Lisa Hayes Coaching
“Janette is intuitive in mysterious ways. She is a magic maker. She is powerfully compassionate and a fierce advocate for her clients. Janette is generous, present, and in my personal experience, almost always five steps ahead of me when I feel stuck or lost. Janette can see through the fog better than almost anyone I know.
Janette is a master at both creating a space to heal and grow AND holding that space without judgement in what feels like an infinite absence of rush. Janette‘s work feels like the calm, the storm, and the rebirth after the storm. All of those things can live in one session with her.”
The nuts and bolts
How we meet up
This is a free workshop, run as a live Zoom call (with recording available for folks who can’t make it).
Camera is optional, but I highly recommend attending via computer if you can - that way, you can participate in any chat-based conversations as part of the workshop.
I will guide you through a little teaching about courage and it’s sacred partner, trust, and how they work together; then we’ll do some fun and easy work together that will help you plug up leaks in your courage tanks, and begin to replenish them.
There will be plenty of time for sharing, and plenty of time for coaching, for those who want or need it.
And I can guarantee there will be laughter and love and fun and infinite compassion, all woven into our time together - because that’s how I most like to roll AND it’s the best way to learn.
I think you’re going to love it!
Timing
We'll meet up a few hours before Sun moves into Mars-ruled Aries, the place where courage is both a natural fit, and (sometimes) the biggest challenge if our tanks are low.
It’s a beautiful combination, just right for this kind of work.
Date/Time:
New York: Wednesday 18 March, 4pm
Los Angeles: Wednesday 18 March, 1pm
London: Wednesday 18 March, 8pm
Tokyo: Thursday 19 March, 5am
Melbourne/Sydney: Thursday 19 March, 7am
Brisbane: Thursday 19 March, 6am (sorry folks!)
Cost
Zero. Zip. Zich. Not a brass farthing. Nada.
You will need to register, because I’ll have some post-workshop goodies to send you. But there’s no cost.
And one thing I would love for you to do, is to invite a friend or two whom you know needs this. Send her the URL for this page, and get her to register separately, so I can send her the goodies too.
Let’s help women* tap into their (our) creativity and reclaim our natural gifts of compassionate courage.
* to be clear, in my world trans women are women - and gender fluid people are also very welcome.
FAQ
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This is not designed to help you gaslight yourself about what’s happening in your world, especially if you are in a literally unsafe or abusive situation.
Can this approach help you to feel strong enough that you can make the changes that create more safety? Yes, it can.
Can it build your resources so that your definition of ‘scary’ becomes more useful to you? Absolutely.
And this is not about pushing you into taking risks (the opposite, in fact!) - so you have nothing to lose by trying it out.
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Your to-do list, if you have one, in whatever form it's in right now (you will NOT be required to share it, and you won't be doing any of the things on it)
Pen and paper
A red candle and a way to light it (if it's safe to have a naked flame where you are - no drama if you can't do this bit, it's not essential)
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I would love that! In fact, feel free to bring as many as you’d like. The more, the merrier. 😁
All I ask is that you please get them to register using their own name and email address - that way, I can be sure they’ll get the post-call goodies such as the recording or any other resources I end up sharing.
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I’ve blocked out a full 90 minutes, because I want to be available for as many questions as people have.
However, I anticipate the workshop itself will take about an hour.
There will be a little teaching, so you understand the approach itself, and there will be plenty of time for you to do the fun, creative stuff (because it’s a workshop, not a lecture!)
My intention is that you leave with your courage tanks better protected, and a plan for how to replenish them.
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Good question.
No - there is no ‘fakery’ about this.
It will be a standalone workshop from which you will learn what I’m offering - which makes me happy because the more women who know how to do this stuff, the better!
I do have Season 2 of my podcast coming up after this, and I’ll spend about two minutes out of the 90 giving you the bare bones of that.
But the remaining 88 minutes will be workshop with time for Q and A, pure and simple.
Cathy O’Brien
(regarding paid program Your Abundance Identity)
“I cannot say enough about this revolutionary and life-changing program.
Janette approaches everything with seemingly endless amounts of compassion, understanding and never one tiny bit of judgment.
I know you will find this program as transformational as I did.”
Ready to Join the fun? Awesome!
Use the booking form below, and let’s get this party started 🥳
First, choose your own timezone to see the workshop timing for you (it’s right underneath the text ‘Select Class’, at the top of the booking section below)
Next, hit the ‘Book’ button and add your details, tick the box so I have permission to email you call reminders, recording and post-workshop goodies, then hit ‘book class’.
You’ll get a confirmation email with all the details of how to join the Zoom call, and a couple of reminder emails closer to the day.
I can’t wait to dive down the creative rabbit hole with you!
And remember - this is a fabulous thing to share with a friend, so please do send them this page and invite them along.