January Donovan's Movement Toward Mastery: Awakening Feminine Strength Through Faith and Self-Discovery

When I first met January Donovan, her unwavering resolve and vision struck me profoundly. She's the powerhouse behind the Women's School, and her story of transformation from personal struggles to championing women's growth is nothing short of a beacon to those of us seeking to anchor our lives in faith and purpose. Our latest episode is a treasure trove of insights and empowerment, as January joins us to share her own tale of self-discovery and how it fuels her dedication to helping women realize their God-given potential. Together, we tackle the hard questions about identity, worth, and what it truly means to be a woman of substance in a world that often blurs those lines.

The cultural battlefield women navigate today demands a resilience rooted in self-awareness and unconditional self-love. Drawing parallels between an athlete's discipline and a woman's journey to personal excellence, January and I dissect the continuous learning and skill honing necessary to emerge victorious through each season of life. We discuss the critical role of self-knowledge in equipping women to inhabit their roles with grace and impact, aligning with God's vision for their lives. This episode is an open invitation to embrace the self-mastery that can redefine our presence in the world, weaving together the threads of spirituality, culture, and personal growth into a tapestry of true feminine strength.

In our closing chapter, January offers a glimpse into the life-altering New Woman Masterclass, with a special coaching call designed to unlock every woman's latent potential. This isn't your run-of-the-mill pep talk; it's a strategic session to dive into life design, identifying obstacles and unleashing the unique gifts bestowed by a higher power. The invitation extends to all women poised to step into a grander version of themselves, echoing January's unwavering belief that embracing our callings can profoundly transform not just our own lives, but the world at large. Join us in this conversation, an embracing of growth and wholeness, and discover the art of becoming the women we are meant to be.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the Bite Size podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, former EMT and nursing assistant, now business owner and wild entrepreneur. I walked away from over 15 years in medicine to pursue my passion and my God-given talents. Now I get the honor of helping other women discover their passions and purpose. If you're feeling stuck in life, unsure where to go or what to do, welcome. If you're exactly where you want to be great, you're welcome here too. If you have faced any kind of hardship or setback, you have found a safe place here. In other words, no matter who you are or what you've been through or what you're going through, this is the space for you. On the Bite Size podcast, we'll discuss life, business and faith. There's something for everyone. So grab a cup of coffee and something to take notes with, because there will definitely be things you won't want to forget. Welcome back to the Bite Size podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Friends. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, and today I am so honored to have such a fantastic and godly woman with us. Her name is January Donovan and she is a wife, a mom of eight and a two times best-selling author. She's the founder of the women's school. She's a speaker, an entrepreneur, a woman of God. She has coached women for over 20 years now on mastering the skills they need to expand their dreams and to cultivate a life of meaning. I had the pleasure of meeting January last year at a conference back in Atlanta and I was just captivated by her being. The way that she carried herself, the way that she presented herself and the things that she spoke about was just so incredible. So I am so honored to have January on the show today. Welcome, I'm so happy to have you, january.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Thank you, Lorraine, and thank you for those kind words. It's very humbling. I'm very honored to be here. I'm very grateful and thank you for the opportunity, so I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Awesome, awesome. Well, I would love for you to share how you got started with the women's school, what led to this, because this movement is incredible and I love what you're doing and what you're teaching women and how you are encouraging women. To me, it feels like a Proverbs 31 woman. We're just training them how to walk in our calling, our gifting and really how God created us. So tell me, how did you get there? How did you start this?

Speaker 2: 3:08

The best way I can sum it up is that my wound has become my compass towards this work, and I'll say that to you because nobody ever showed me how to be a woman. Not because my mom wasn't a good mom, but because her mother left seven children for another man and so she really had to raise herself and she was an immigrant doing the best that she can. So in some ways I really was sort of scraping for role models. I didn't see my parents for five years just so they could come to the United States. So I think I've had to kind of figure life out on my own and I was that good kid who nobody showed how and got herself into a place of anxiety and depression and really a very low self-worth. So my journey is because of my own wound and I had a conversion by the grace of God after so many traumatic experiences at the end of my high school years that I think led me to discover what my faith is. Who am I as a woman? What is a woman? It sort of propelled that journey for me and really what propelled it, because I wanted to find a great man and I had crushes on these guys and I realized the guys I had liked, that I really had crushes, were actually a man of God. I'm like I remember thinking to myself, lorraine, that man would never want me. And I remember thinking to myself, how could I ever be that woman that a man would actually want in honor? And so I went to college and providentially just said, I was invited to a Proverbs 31 Bible study.

Speaker 2: 4:44

It was my sophomore year, I think, and at this beginning I've already been sort of on my quest of learning to know who I am learning to know who God is, and it was sort of a young my journey. I went to Proverbs 31 conference. It was six months long, I think. Roughly it was once a week, and we packed into this basement of this woman's house which is Dr Scott Hans' wife, kimberly Hans' wife. He was a theologian and she, line per line, broke down every single Proverbs 31. And I think it was like I've never heard any of it.

Speaker 2: 5:13

And so I just went on a quest and I met this mentor in my college. Her name was Elena. I talk about her all the time in my work and my first, I would say, month in school she was meeting with all these women and including myself. And she said general, what kind of woman do you want to be? And I remember looking at her and laughing kind of like, leilene, you don't have a choice. And she said, yes, you do, let's design you.

Speaker 2: 5:37

And so for the next three and a half years I met with her almost every single month. She would give me homework. I would do it because I was so broken, and that, I think, began my journey of interior growth. That led me to say how can I then serve other women around me who's never been privileged to know what it meant to be a woman who got themselves into a lot of trouble but also frustrating situations? So how did this all began? It began my own wound and I dreamt about how could we then equip women today with practical skills on actually becoming who God wanted them to be?

Speaker 2: 6:12

And it was so clear to me that when I did this, I did it sort of in the eyes of faith. But what I realized is that our world is so broken, god is so taken outside of our school system or government, every part of the world, that I couldn't win people with theology anymore. I actually had to begin with our humanity. And so I kind of kicked in, scream and you know, god sort of placed in my heart 20 years ago, a school for women. It was a dream, like I was. I'm actually about ready to see my friend Chelsea, who she was there when I drew the school out for women. I dreamt about it, I talked about it. I'm about speaking in Michigan and it was a dream, right. And I was like what if there was a school on how to be a woman? Because I could have used that, yeah, and as I would meet with women, I would train women, I would have like many conferences in college.

Speaker 2: 7:02

I did it. After college. I thought, gosh, so many women today are suffering because nobody is showing them how. We're told what to do but not how to do it. Go for your dream. How do you dream? Set goals? How do you set goals? Make sure you have a beautiful family, make sure you're that Godly proverbs 31 woman. How we don't even have routine training in school, we don't have decision making.

Speaker 2: 7:25

We make 35,000 decisions a day and we don't get training on how to make decisions, how to find the right person in your life, how to find quality friendship. So what am I saying to you? This work began because I saw that there was such a void in women's hearts, and not because they want to, but because they know how to, and they were blamed and shamed for the choices nobody ever showed them how to make, and it's a shame, and we need to have, you know, the right person. You know, the woman's school was born because it was a dream, and so what if there was one place that taught women how to become a woman, but how to fulfill their unique and irreplaceable purpose in a very practical way? And I think that's really where my passion comes from, and I've been doing it for almost 25 years.

Speaker 2: 8:15

And I tell you, it keeps me up at night. I still passionate about it. I think our work has just begun.

Speaker 1: 8:21

Yeah, oh, absolutely Just in the state of how the world is turning and, like you said, how God is being pushed out of every facet. Right now, I and it's so. It's so discouraging to me to see it, and you know, as a woman of faith, a woman of God, and seeing how women are being treated and how the term is just so loosely thrown around and other people are claiming to be it. It's hard, and so I commend you immensely for doing this work, because it's very cold and unique. How can you equip a woman who is feeling discouraged, who maybe is, doesn't know, like you know how they say, the God-sized whole? She knows there's something missing, but she doesn't know what it is. Maybe she's not a believer, but she doesn't know. And she sees this world, how, what it's turning to, and it's icky and just really wants to be called up, if you will, but doesn't know where to go, how to go about it. What would you say to that woman?

Speaker 2: 9:48

Gosh, this is a loaded question. So I'm going to start with second commandment Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Self love requires self knowledge, and so so many women today because of the way the infrastructure of our world has dramatically shifted in the last 50 to 100 years. Really, it's faster, it's busier, internet has changed when we communicated. It's louder, it's, I would say, noisy. There's no time for interior reflection, but also the infrastructure of mentorship, of family around you that are role models. Actually, women are alone. They don't know where to begin, who to discover who they are, how to discover why they're here.

Speaker 2: 10:39

So I think we have the crisis of the world shifted, the crisis also of nobody showing women how. But the crisis, I think, of evil imploding, evil in the world. It's just not only are we being devalued, we are being undefined and being reduced to a costume. That what it means to be a woman. So I think there's a lot of forces against us to actually become who God wants us to be, to actually fulfill that God hold, to actually want to fulfill our unique and irreplaceable call in this world and this human history. So why am I saying that to you? To validate the fact that women right now are struggling because the forces are against them. So, number one we have to identify the forces against us, because you can't fight a battle unless you know you're in one. So who's our enemy? The shift of the culture, the world, lack of training on knowing how to be a woman and, really, I would say, a sinister agenda to devalue women, period, whether it's music, whether it's in Hollywood, whether it's promiscuity, everything. So we need to own that, we need to give language to it, because then we know what battle reigns.

Speaker 2: 11:59

So but the reason why point that out? Because then women are saying, oh, what is wrong with it isn't my fault. I'm saying look, what's what you're up against. Yeah, no need to stop, no need to keep blaming and shaming yourself because it's like a David and Glythe, okay. So this, I think, gives them permission to not feel sorry for themselves. Realize that that what's up against them is a spiritual battle.

Speaker 2: 12:35

So now the question is what can we do? And the reason why I think that's important? Because sometimes we feel like, oh my gosh, there's nothing I can do. Well, it is challenging because of what you're up against. So I'm going to go back to my first point, which is love your neighbors you love yourself. We have to, as a woman, understand that to truly, fully, kind of fulfill this God whole, we need to know who we are. We need to know how to honor our value. We need to understand what do I want, what do I not want. Who am I? Why am I here? What do I love, what do I not love? We have to actually what get to know ourselves. Like so good, he said you know, know thyself, but to what end? To love thyself, what does it mean to love yourself, to honor our value?

Speaker 1: 13:27

Now, why is that?

Speaker 2: 13:27

important Because that's a prerequisite of what loving our spouse, our neighbor, our children, our friends, our community apart from self. If you don't know how to know, if you don't have to love yourself, you actually can't love the other, which is what fulfills you, which requires you to know thyself. So what's the first step? If you have this God whole, you have to build self awareness, you have to study who you are. That's what we do in the woman's school. Is that so much of what we do is a formation of women? We all want transformation, but we don't formation.

Speaker 2: 14:06

Formation isn't and is in some ways the cross, it's the shaping of the Proverbs 31. It's the discipline, it's the how. It's that you're chiseling, you know, like a sculpture, and then you'll have the masterpiece. But the question is, how do you do that? Well, that's why you have to have training at. You know, Olympians don't go receive the gold medal without training, without coaching, without feedback, without studying the way they're tumbling others. I mean, can you imagine an Olympian going in there without the infrastructure? Well, it's no different. We are in the Olympics of our lifetime. This is the only life God's given us.

Speaker 2: 14:51

I was just reading Steve Bose quote you know God's gift to us is as many gifts and talents that we could ever possibly imagine, and our gift to God is to cultivate our gifts and our talents so we can give it back to him. That's how we fulfill that God whole. The only way we fulfill the God whole is what to do God's will Right? I tell women all the time how do you God's will when your will is not formed?

Speaker 2: 15:15

Yeah yeah, it becomes so big, Lorraine, like it's like, oh my gosh, where do I begin? So I tell women, the first next step is to get to know yourself, and so that's why you need training, and I just think we need training for the rest of our life. You know, I've built a business, I have a mom of eight. I still train on a daily basis.

Speaker 2: 15:35

Yeah because every season of my life requires training. I always tell women overwhelm means you're underskilled. We can't solve the same problem with the same mindset and skill sets of somebody saying they're like oh God, just feel unfulfilled, I don't know what I want to win life. Well, you have to learn a new skill to solve that problem.

Speaker 2: 15:52

You have to learn a new mindset to solve the problem. Because right now you're it's almost like I am, it's put it this way Every season of our life. It's kind of like being you're a vice president of a company and now you're being promoted to the next season of your life, which is maybe president. But if you don't learn the skill of what it means to be president and you sell vice president skills maybe vice president planning skills or goal setting skills, skills you're going to be demoted. You're going to quickly lose that job. You're going to quickly see that motherhood is hard. You're going to quickly see that being married is hard, which is every you know.

Speaker 2: 16:26

I see it's, it's what's being advertised, it's like a propaganda and I honestly cannot stand it because I do not believe that's the way God designed it. Marriage should be so expansive and beautiful. It should be so rich. It should be inspiring. It should get better with years. It should age like wine. Why would God, who loves us, design a marriage that's going to be a perpetual cross the cross for resurrection not so we can agonize for the rest of our life? It's the same with motherhood Motherhood should be rich. The problem is that how do we live that when we don't have skills. Managing our mind, managing our home, pivoting, holding boundaries, raising a standard, no headbuild routine, knowing how to simplify these are skills we are not born with.

Speaker 1: 17:13

Right.

Speaker 2: 17:13

We have the potential to. You know, my skill with a teenage son needs to upscale myself when he was 13, now that he's 16. I can't be sold by my 16 year old teenage boy of a lesser version of himself. Too many moms do that. They cater to their sons and this is so hard, mom and you? No, no, no, no, no. Life is gonna be hard if you don't make your bed and honor your word. I'm not buying it, but who teaches us that level of strength? I'm like sales skills. Every mother needs to have it. You know how much work it is to sell your son in life of virtue. It's more than any other sales. You know it's.

Speaker 2: 17:56

They said the most lucrative profession in the world is the salesman. I'm like that is the most profound skill set as a mother is your ability to sell to your children a life of virtue, eternity, discipline, a fulfilling life, a beautiful marriage. But here's where I get so passionate about it. Where do you go? You'll dabble into like, oh, I'm gonna get you know training on exercise. I'm gonna get training, maybe on you know how to have a career.

Speaker 2: 18:27

All we're doing is dabbling on this disintegrated version of ourselves. There's one thing I want your audience to hear is that we have to start designing a life that feels whole, because you know that's what our mission is in the woman's school. Is woman fully alive? What is one fully alive? Every part of her is what Living in abundantly overflowing. You can't just design your exercise without designing what your home feels like. You can't just focus on your career without understanding your marriage, because it doesn't matter how much money you make If you're unhappy with your career, I mean with your intimacy, with your home life, with your because you're mentally stressed. We need a new model of a woman, yeah, who's integrated, who's alive, who's full of grace, who's fierce. I think the new wave of feminism, if we can create a grassroots effort, is a woman that is in doubt, with both freedom and responsibility.

Speaker 2: 19:27

The freedom, that was given and the responsibility to become who she was created to be. She's not taking a back seat to her call and her life. She's training day in and day out, like athletes train. She's training day in and out, greater than athletes train. She's on her knees, but she's training. She's looking for feedback, she's studying. She has no time for nonsense.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:51

That's how you fulfill your life.

Speaker 1: 19:55

When you were speaking of the wholeness and the different areas. Is that and I remember you going over it at Ken's conference the wholeness arena? You broke down the different? Is that something that you go over in the women's school?

Speaker 2: 20:17

So our foundational course, which brought us to 43 countries and that's, I went from zero to a million dollars in a year, pretty much, with a sustainable mom, knowing what, not knowing how to pay, and that was the class that changed the world, and that class reintroduced the whole woman. Because I think, for the first time, because I've done this work, there's a practical blueprint to say how do you design every arena of your life, your self-image, which is the woman that you wanna become. Who teaches us that? That's what Elena did for me. Who do you wanna become? January? You know what she did.

Speaker 2: 20:57

Every time I met her, she's like oh, you wanna be simple. Yeah, I wanna be simple. I wanna be beautiful, but not the physical beauty. Great, she would give me homework. You know, I wanna be kind, she would give me homework. So our self-image, which is a foundation of our choices, our health, which is integrated, our thoughts, our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual, our thoughts are not apart from our emotions. Our emotions just impact our physical body and our spirituality. Like if you're hijacked in anxiety, is it easy to pray? No Right, you're in prayer and you can barely focus.

Speaker 1: 21:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:34

Right, Our friendship, which means that we have to understand the purpose of friendship, the depth of friendship. A lot of people, loneliness is an international epidemic right now. I mean, can you?

Speaker 1: 21:46

imagine.

Speaker 2: 21:47

I've broken act of social media world because there's no depth.

Speaker 2: 21:51

There's no depth, there's no purpose. The way we see friendship right now is hanging out. You could be with somebody for 10 minutes and have such a deep conversation, be out for two hours and feel empty, and you come back, sure, you have a good time dancing, but it's void. You're. Intimacy, that fourth part of the wheel, the arena, that part that fulfills our life. What does it mean to have that sacred space? I mean the promiscuity. Right now there's more only fans model than teachers.

Speaker 1: 22:19

I mean what is this?

Speaker 2: 22:20

world. That tells you the void of a woman, our contribution, which is what? The extension of our purpose, our careers, in every season of our life, as a stay-home mom or both, or working mom, whatever that is, that's unique to all God. That's the problem of 31. Our environment, which is a physical space composed of both people and things. We need to understand that our environment influences the way we live our life.

Speaker 2: 22:46

Are we taking responsibility to create our environment the way God gave us right, the Garden of Eve? Are we taking our responsibilities of women, our wealth which is how we describe it as an abundance of time, treasure and talent for the sole purpose of contribution? Not so we can hoard it for ourselves, because that's not fulfilling. And obviously our family life. So that's every part of the arena, and so what I do is I take that apart and I say what is your purpose in every arena? How do you want to design it? What are the deepest desires of your heart in every arena of your life? Because desire is a North Star. It reveals to you our purpose, you know.

Speaker 2: 23:21

Mother Teresa why did she end up with what she did? Because the desire was in her heart. Why do mothers want to? You know who you want to get married. That's the desire of your heart. We need to study the desires of hearts. So I walk women really through a 16-week journey of not fluff. We go deep, and women that are in a masterclass they go through the course five, six times. It's a blueprint for every season of your life. So that's really what the wholeness is and I just think there isn't anything to me out there which is why I was so passionate about creating it that has both depth and also practicality and it's also comprehensive to the whole woman.

Speaker 1: 23:59

Yeah, yeah, and I love how it's very individualized, how you ask the woman what is the desire of your heart, and every woman's desire is different, you know. So it really gets down to revealing exactly who God created that individual woman to be, which is what we're called to do. I wanted to know what do you think is the thing that holds women back from really stepping into their gifting and their calling and living their life as their true self? What do you see is that barrier or that miss?

Speaker 2: 24:46

Gosh, that's a great question, I think. Number one the friends that they surround themselves with. We are the average of the five people we are surrounding ourselves with. If the people around us are not studying, they're not receiving feedback, they're not cultivating their gifts, then that's going to be our influence. So protect your sacred space of the people that are of great influence to you. Ask yourself the five people of the influence are they actually ushering you to who God wanted you to be? Are they growing? Are they dreaming? At? Number number two they just don't know how. Women don't know how. So if I tell you, go out there, fulfill your purpose, go out there, create a plan, women don't know, how to plan, go out there and decide what you want to do.

Speaker 2: 25:32

Women don't know how, they don't even know. And is it their fault? No, they don't know. They've never been taught. So I really think the crisis is a skill. You know the way I describe skill in the woman's school, because our work is a rich ministry. It's just virtues broken down into bite-sized pieces. That's what it is. I mean, how do you learn the virtue of temperance and fortitude and judgment? You have to break it down, boundaries and making decisions and knowing what you want and don't want. So I think, not knowing how. I think also, women lack, I would say, the infrastructure in their life for quiet and silence. So they're going, they're just going every day. They're serving their families. They're going, going, going. At the end of the day they're so tired they don't actually know how to reflect. So the infrastructure in their life is so busy that there's no time and I think the last I would say, they don't know what they want.

Speaker 1: 26:35

That's a big one.

Speaker 2: 26:38

And I'll tell you, like when I teach women about their purpose, about discovering their dreams, because dreams are not the same as goals and women confuse them and women without a vision, with hair.

Speaker 2: 26:47

So if women are not dreaming, they're carrying a heavy burden, yeah. So how do you discover that? You need to know what you want and don't want. No, our desires are not mature. I could want to eat ice cream all day, right, I need to mature the desires of my heart, but the first step is discovering what I want. What do I want in every arena of my life? What do I no longer want to put up with? So I think those are the things, and the one thing I would say the bonus that blindsides women is how every part impacts every part.

Speaker 2: 27:23

So let's just say you're not eating healthy, or you know your health is suffering physically, or you've never been taught. Like, I suffered a lot of physical health because I never taught, was never taught to study what I ate impacted how I felt. So I had a lot of junk food and I had some major back inflammation issues, but I didn't realize that I also impacted the way I showed up at work. I was so tired, I was always yawning, I couldn't fully focus, and then that impacted my ability to actually discover my purpose. And then it also impacted the way I actually showed up with my friends because I was more cranky. So every part impacts on the other, and this is one of the biggest.

Speaker 2: 28:04

There's a lot of, you know, huge cornerstones we teach in the woman's school. This is one of them is that there's if you're not designing a life that's integrated and you don't realize that every part impacts the other. Your marriage impacts the way you show up to your children. It impacts the way you go up at work. It impacts the way you take care of your body. If we don't see with eyes of wholeness, we are eventually going to suffer unnecessarily. It's only a matter of time. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:33

It shows up definitely. It manifests in different ways and it definitely shows up. A lot of what I talk about is mind, body, spirit in my coaching, how it's all connected and you can't. You can't have one without the other because they're all interconnected and they all affect each other. So, making sure that you're healthy in you know your thoughts, you're healthy in the way you move your body, you're healthy spiritually, you're talking to your creator and you're spending time with him, it's all connected. So I absolutely agree with that and love that. I have another question and this is probably going to be a loaded one how do we balance or how do you help teach women the balance of the femininity, right and showing up as a virtuous woman, but also walking in that boldness, in that confidence? So balancing the the virtuous and the submission, but yet the confidence in who God created us to be and how we are called to show up and lead, teach and train up our children.

Speaker 2: 29:56

Yeah, it's a good question. I think how would qualify the fact that a lot of this understanding of femininity is almost then you can't be fierce and then you can't have sort of this strength. And I think this idea of masculine, feminine energy sometimes could be very convoluted. I actually not. I avoid talking about it simply because I think it is convoluted. And what I want to say is that our feminine genius doesn't mean that we're not strong, but let's define what's strong is.

Speaker 2: 30:25

Our feminine genius doesn't mean that I don't lead. There's a feminine way to lead, and if femininity allows me to not have to worry about, you know, is this, is this a man way to do it? Is it what I do? It's, I think there's sort of the fullness of our feminine genius where that's no longer really to me, the issue is how could we, you know, do it in a way that doesn't, you know, rob us of mass? We become more masculine, more feminine.

Speaker 2: 30:57

I think to me that doesn't solve the problem and it's sort of more confuses women. So let me give you I think the best way for me to give you an example is that I have to lead my children. I have to lead a team of 30 people right Now. When I show up, I show up. I need to know how to plan, I need to know how to be fierce, I need to know how to be accountable. And it matters in my tonality, in my purity of intention, it matters in my sincerity, it matters my ability to see them as good. And if I focus on the that essence of true good and beautiful and I think it's not, you know, it's not that we're sort of, that's not does not make me a man, it does not make me sort of into this masculine energy. A woman must lead, A woman must be strong. I think this idea of femininity almost is seen as sort of like this meekness and like kind of the backseat. That's not the problem of 31 women, right, you know. And so I have to know which skill, which tone to use at what moment. Right, I need to know what's my role in this particular situation. I need to know what's my goal here and at every moment, I never lose sight that my role in this present moment is to be a walking light of contribution, because that is God's commission for me.

Speaker 2: 32:47

Now, if I go into this meeting or I go into my, you know, meeting, hello everybody welcome. They will view that what? Not some masculine, feminine, but it just doesn't have that grace. So I still go there and say you know, cheap or what? I'm not cheaper, I use it to my children. I'm like I don't put up with cheap work. You know, if I go in there and I say quality work is non-negotiable, it is what is expected of you, is, and these are the deadlines, I'm still firm, Right, but I'm doing it never. Apart from being that feminine genius, Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 33:34

Yeah, absolutely yes. You said that's not the proverb. 31 women and I think that's the disconnect is so much of the world and society has tried to change and misshapen what is considered feminine and masculine, and this is why the women's school is so important and why so many people or women, I should say why it's needed is because we have let the world define what is a woman and what is, you know, feminine and masculine, and we got to get back to you know, as you said, the grassroots of it and what is biblical and what God called us to be an act and show up as, because it is. It's the ultimate Woman, you know, and like you had kind of touched on when you were saying that that's not a proverb 31 woman, like she was a boss, she was in the marketplace, she made clothes, she sold, she cooked, she cleaned, she made moves Like she was an entrepreneur to the fullest. And it's unfortunate that the world doesn't know that, but it's only because God is getting pushed out of everything right now.

Speaker 2: 35:11

Yeah, and I just because I think it's a very important point. So sometimes you know, this idea of like girl boss and I don't know, it's almost sort of a spite and a fruit of radical feminist movement that I don't need a man, even though that's not what they're saying, right, it's like I don't need a man, I can do it, I'm a girl boss. We have to be very careful because the period of intention matters, and so when I think of the Proverbs 31, she's not waking up saying I'm a girl boss, I got this, it's. I don't believe it is rooted in pride.

Speaker 2: 35:52

I don't believe it is sort of this woman who is incapable of paying attention to the way everyone feels around her. So it's not only you know. We have to be mindful that this Proverbs 31,. How does she embody her feminine genius? Does she wake up in the morning and does she, with a pure intention, say how can I, with deep humility, in genuine care, rise up earlier than before my servants do to study, to take care of myself? How can I serve my servants so that I can honor them? How am I? What is my conversation like? Am I shoving my success in front of them? You know, do I have this pride in myself that oh, look at my husband in you know being honored, or do I walk with deep humility, tenderness and reverence? My feminine genius can never be a part and I think there's a danger in this, you know, I would say movement of like I got me. No, I'm the girl boss and I'm like, be careful that your intentions.

Speaker 2: 37:06

Don't usurp your feminine genius. It's not what we do. It is how we do it. Yes, it's not that I'm not called to be the CEO of our company, but how am I leading the people around me?

Speaker 2: 37:21

Yeah, you know my brain our women's brain are different than men's brain. That we God designed it. I can pay attention to 500 things all at once, which is both our burden and also our great gift, right? So when I go into that meeting, I've got to be attention to somebody thirsty. You know what? They've had a long night, I can tell. I've got to be able to pull them aside. My husband can't see it, maybe the way I can see it, but that doesn't mean that he's not capable of it. You know, let's assume our rightful throne without degrading who we are. That's a skill. Nobody, I mean, unless you've got beautiful parents who understood how the world changed.

Speaker 2: 37:58

Most of us are not aware of how to do this. Yeah, how do you res? How do you keep your marriage sacred, as you know, with embodying your feminine gift, but also not be pushed over to your husband or your children? Do you know how many mothers are pushed over to their children Because they think that is what the godly thing to do? To just sacrifice, and you know, to offer it up, I'm like, offer up your courage to hold your man accountable, your children accountable to what is noble and what is right In the way you talk and the way you speak, and this is why a woman of integrity is so key, because you can do all the talking, but if you're not living it, it's inconsistent. Yeah, your children won't have that deep respect, nor your spouse.

Speaker 2: 38:47

This is why we're training. You know, like when my children are not always honest, and like four years old, they're not always honest because actually their brain can't distinguish between reality and imagination, and so as they move into the six, seven year old phase, they start to, oh okay, that's not right, that's not true, that's Israel. And you have to teach them that honestly is a skill. Just have to learn it. Have to learn that being truthful is the best policy and that where they need to be aware when they're not truthful, they need to be aware the consequence of not being truthful. They need to be developed. It's a trade. It's a trade, it's a training. But if mothers are ill equipped with both the mindset and the skill set necessary to design every arena of their life, their marriage or family, how are they to give that to their children?

Speaker 2: 39:39

And mothers are suffering everywhere. Lorraine, oh yeah, and you know, overwhelming is underskilled not to fall to their own and this is why I'm passionate about. I'm like, yes, this is what we do in the woman's school. We train the woman how to be a woman. It is the foundational training that I truly believe and most of our thousands of students have actually affirmed it that this is the course that every woman needs. It should be in college campuses. I believe it's so much.

Speaker 1: 40:04

Well, who would be? Who I mean? Obviously, we know that this is for every woman, because every woman needs to be equipped. But for the woman who's listening right now and she's like I'm doing good, I'm fine, you know, I have, I'm a wife, I'm a mom, everything's fine, who would be the candidate that is gonna hear this and go, yes, this is what I need, or, oh, those are. Yes, that describes me.

Speaker 2: 40:33

I would say the best candidate is a woman who's saying I'm called to become fully who I was created to be and master myself. The hardest woman to teach is somebody who's unteachable. And I'm gonna tell you, the hardest woman to teach is unteachable as a woman that's comfortable. Everything is all good. The good is the enemy of great.

Speaker 2: 40:55

You're not made for goodness only. We are made for greatness, and so my family's good, I'm good, I'm good, it will be good for our time. And then they wake up one day and they're like midlife crisis. I don't even know who I am anymore, I don't even like myself. I don't have a dream. What is it you dream? I don't even know what I want anymore. I don't know. Our marriage is sort of like oh, we're just ah, ah, ah.

Speaker 2: 41:15

And here's the thing what we do with the first thing we do in the women's school, is that we actually give you zero to 10 rating in every arena of your life, cause a woman can't hide. So there's two things. Is that a life of wholeness means that you're living this fullness in every arena of your life. It feels fully alive. God's glory. Is man, woman fully alive? Why would he want that? Because that's the way he designed it he loves us. Number one. Number two if you're sitting out there and you realize you don't have a dream of a season, then eventually you will burn in your heart. Cause a woman without a vision perishes. So I would say a woman who's willing to grow and say God is not done with me yet and I hope and pray that it's every woman listening. Yes, because the hardest part of my job is to wake women up. That they're not done yet.

Speaker 1: 42:10

I love that. That is so encouraging as we're wrapping up here. How would one get in touch with you? This is something she hears. It she's called yes, january. I want to be a part of this. What are her next steps?

Speaker 2: 42:26

Just go to let me see here newwomanmasterclasscom and you can book a free coaching call and that coaching call alone will be life changing. It has been our testimonies from that one coaching call where we help you design every arena of your life. That's where you're gonna get out of it. Whether you want to proceed with a masterclass, it is your choice, but in that one call, our coaches are trained to help you design every arena of your life and see where the roadblocks are. So if you're interested and you want to learn more and you want to take action and say you know what, I'm just going to do, it it's complimentary, it is of no cost to you.

Speaker 2: 43:04

I encourage all women to do it in every season of their life, because every season requires a new dream and you design new roadblocks, new challenges and so and this is why women's school students have gone through it four, five, six, seven times. So that's where I would encourage you to do is just to do complimentary dreams, what we call a dream session, or designing your life session, and see what God will take it.

Speaker 1: 43:32

Oh, I love it Amazing. Thank you, january, so much for your time. Thank you for sharing your heart and your passion. Your calling God is definitely anointed. This and what you are doing I absolutely love. It is so needed in today's world and culture and society and the more people that are hearing this and equipped and really step into their God-giving gifts and calling the better that this world will become, although we know it's never gonna be as perfect because we won't see glory until we get there. But thank you, january, so much. It was an honor and a privilege to have you and, as always, everybody. If this episode has touched you, inspired you or you know someone that needs to hear it, please share and definitely tag us so we can connect with you and always remember you were divinely created for a divine purpose and there was no mistake in you.