Balance & Beyond

Twenty minutes into a run, I catch myself doing something ridiculous: negotiating with my own brain about whether I’m “allowed” to stop a podcast and put music on instead. It’s such a small decision, yet it exposes a huge pattern many of us live by, especially high achievers who pride themselves on follow-through. 

We talk about the sunk cost fallacy in everyday decision making, and why time already spent can start running the show. When we’ve invested effort, earned qualifications, built a reputation, or told people “this is who I am”, changing direction can feel like invalidating the whole past. But it doesn’t. A choice can be right then and not right now. New information includes the fact that we’ve changed, and that matters. 

We also name the key distinction that keeps this from becoming an excuse to bail: discomfort versus a genuine change of mind. Sometimes the hard thing is exactly what we need to stay with. Other times, we’re only continuing because “past us” chose it and we don’t trust ourselves enough to pivot. The real permission is simple and powerful: our present information gets a vote. 

If you’ve been stuck in a loop of “I should keep going”, come listen, then ask yourself where you’re choosing consciously and where you’re choosing by sunk cost. Subscribe, share this with a mate who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find Balance and Beyond.
Send a text message to Jo
The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute
For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.
We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.
If something landed today, there's more where that came from.
And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.
🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
📷 @therealjostone

If you’ve ever watched someone else get the opportunity you knew you could handle, the sting might not be about your capability. It might be about conditioning. We’ve been trained to chase gold stars and wait for a shoulder tap, and for high-achieving women that pattern can run for decades because it keeps “working” right up until it starts costing us our freedom, fulfilment, and energy.

We talk about the system that rewards being picked and why it creates a life that looks successful on the outside but can feel strangely flat on the inside. When the old scoreboard stops motivating you, new questions get louder: Do I even want that next role? What do I want my days to feel like? How much of my career have I consciously chosen versus simply said yes to? We explore the grief and anger that can surface when you realise you played by the rules, yet still don’t feel like you’ve won.

We also get practical about what changes in midlife, especially for the “safe pair of hands” who gets things done, keeps everyone steady, and says yes by default. When you start wanting boundaries, delegation, spaciousness, and time to think, the workplace and the people around you may keep inviting the old version of you back. Choosing yourself can mean re-weighting internal measures like meaning, vitality, connection, and control over your time, even when there’s no applause or clear next ladder.

You don’t need a dramatic reinvention to start. You can pick yourself in micro moments: asking for what you want, creating opportunities, and making choices before checking what everyone else thinks. If this lands with you, subscribe, share it with a woman who needs the nudge, and leave a review so it reaches the people it’s meant for.
Send a text message to Jo
The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute
For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.
We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.
If something landed today, there's more where that came from.
And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.
🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
📷 @therealjostone

You know that decision you made with absolute certainty, the one you swore was final? Today we hand you a permission slip to revisit it, without shame, without guilt, and without needing to justify yourself to anyone. Jo Stone shares a familiar “every few years” season where she starts questioning everything: who she is, what she wants, what she values, and whether the paths she ruled out still deserve a hard no.

Here’s the twist: Jo feels pulled back towards the corporate world after once saying she’d never return. Not as an employee, but as a consultant whose zone of genius is spotting the pattern before the room does. She talks about listening to someone’s story and reflecting back what’s really going on underneath, the invisible rules, identity scripts, and the leadership dynamics that shape behaviour. With so many workplaces stuck in restructures, disengagement, and fear, she argues that clear-eyed pattern recognition and honest feedback have never been more needed in a boardroom.

We also dig into a practical mindset shift: staying curious instead of staying loyal to a decision made by a past version of you. If something you thought you’d outgrown starts “knocking” again, Jo invites you to explore it, ask the question, and open the door just enough to see what’s there. No dramatic reinvention required, just a willingness to learn what’s true now.

If you’re navigating a career change, returning to corporate, leadership challenges, or workplace politics, this bite-sized reset will land. 
And you can DM Jo at any of the links below if you want to talk about how she might be able to help you, your team or your organisation more broadly.
Send a text message to Jo
The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute
For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.
We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.
If something landed today, there's more where that came from.
And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.
🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
📷 @therealjostone

Save Your Spot at Get Your Brain Back in 5 Days
https://www.balanceinstitute.com/brainback

You know that moment when the meeting ended hours ago, but your brain is still sitting at the table? You’re making dinner, driving the kids, lying in bed and somehow you’re also replaying the look someone gave, rewriting what you should’ve said, and rehearsing tomorrow like it’s already happening. If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t switch off, we get right to the point: your mind isn’t broken, it’s doing what it has been trained and rewarded to do.

We unpack why overthinking and rumination feel like “being responsible” for high-performing women, especially when work uncertainty, economic uncertainty, and constant change crank up the pressure. Thinking has delivered results for decades: planning, anticipating, problem-solving, staying three steps ahead. So when life gets wobbly, the brain reaches for the strategy that’s always worked and does more of it. The catch is that another lap around the thought at 3 am doesn’t create better outcomes, it just keeps your nervous system activated and pulls you out of your actual life.

We also talk about why common work-life balance advice can miss the mark. You can set boundaries, put your phone in another room, even meditate, and still run a full meeting in your head with no keyboard in sight. The real shift is learning when thinking deserves your attention, and building the skill of interrupting the pattern in the moment it shows up, at the sink, in the car, mid-conversation.

If you want to practise with support, I share my free five-day WhatsApp series, Get Your Brain Back, starting 24 August, with one tiny five-minute practice each morning. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s stuck in the loop, and leave a review so more women can find a calmer way back to presence.
Send a text message to Jo
The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute
For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.
We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.
If something landed today, there's more where that came from.
And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.
🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
📷 @therealjostone

Get Your Brain Back - A free 5-Day Experience to interrupt the spirals that steal your time, energy and attention. We start 24th August.
🧠 Click here to save your free spot
Your mind can be sharp enough to solve big, gnarly problems at work and chaotic enough to obsess over bananas five seconds later. We’re talking about that relentless, background “thinking” that so many women carry every day: the mental load, the distractions, the spirals, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from never truly switching off.

We dig into why the usual tips don’t stick, because they rarely touch the real driver underneath overthinking. Our brains are incredible at producing thoughts, but they’re not designed to filter for what matters most or to dwell on the good stuff. Left unattended, they catastrophise, run wild “what if” chains, and keep us staring at the ceiling at 3am. If you’ve ever felt your mind hijack your calm, your sleep, or your presence, you’ll recognise this instantly.

Jo shares a brutally honest moment of being “off with the fairies” while her daughter is talking, which lands as a reminder of what distraction actually costs us: the moments we can’t get back. With more inputs than ever and a new era of outsourcing thinking to AI, we explore a practical question that cuts through the noise: are you in control of your brain, or is your brain controlling you?
Send a text message to Jo
The Balance & Beyond Podcast Hosted by Jo Stone, founder of The Balance Institute
For women who are already succeeding, but beginning to wonder if they're willing to keep losing themselves in the process.
We know high achievers, because we are one. This podcast draws on Jo's 20 years in global leadership and thousands of hours coaching executives and ambitious women: the patterns she sees, how to untangle them, and what it actually takes to keep your success without paying for it with yourself.
If something landed today, there's more where that came from.
And if you know a woman this would resonate with, send it her way.
🎙️https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
🔗 www.balanceinstitute.com
💼https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
📷 @therealjostone