Joanna Rajendran

My family has been the foundation of my success. I have a ridiculously close relationship with my siblings. My parents have been divorced 40 years and they're best friends. All of my family, while I was wildly different than everyone else and they didn't always understand me, they've always completely supported and encouraged me. As an adult, the family I've created with my dude who I've chosen as my partner forever, and the little humans he and I have made, the support that I've had from the family I was born into and the family we've made gives me the courage, the wings. I always know that I have this safe landing spot filled with love and support and joy, and that gives me the courage to go out and do it all and try it all.

Start now with what you have and where you are. Don't think you have to be any older, more established, different, or other. You have the unique voice this world needs, and it's yours to use. Procrastination is the only sin that tomorrow never comes, because one minute after midnight it's already today again. If you have that desire, this dream, this plan in your heart and in your mind, do it. The seed wouldn't have been planted if you weren't capable of cultivating it. You may benefit from mentorship of seeing those who have gone before you, and you may be the one someone is waiting to see go before them. We almost never regret the things we did, even if it seemed like an overwhelming failure. It's the what-ifs and the I wish I did that end up shitting all over yourself.

Love. Our words are shaping our reality, and when you feel with love and you lead with love and you trust those emotions, as women we're often taught to suppress our emotions or that an emotional response is somehow viewed as a detriment. They're so powerful emotionally and intuitively, and if we use those as dashboard indicators like check engine lights, they will tell us everything we need to know about if something's bringing us toward that version of our life or farther away. My core value is to listen to that voice, to trust that voice, to use my words to shape the world as I would love it to be, not as I see it. Everybody has a heart, a soul, a beautiful part of them, and they're just waiting for it to be seen, loved, and held, and nurtured.