West Coast Women Rising for Women Entrepreneurs, Business Growth and Self-Development

In this honest and fiery conversation, JJ Flizanes and Tawney Noriega explore what happens when women in business overgive, undercharge, ignore their boundaries, and try to help people who may not actually be ready to change. Tawney shares her journey from trauma-informed support and mindset conversations into more integrated business work, while JJ brings in powerful insights about self-worth, client fit, pre-qualification, and the energetic cost of giving too much away.

This episode is a must-listen for women entrepreneurs, coaches, healers, creatives, and service providers who have ever felt drained by clients, guilty for charging, or afraid to say no.

JJ and Tawney discuss:

• Why business brings up survival, fear, worthiness, and capacity
• The difference between people who want help and people who are ready to change
• Why boundaries become more important as you grow
• How overgiving leads to burnout, resentment, and energetic depletion
• Why free help is not always helpful
• How pricing reflects self-worth and client commitment
• The importance of knowing who your ideal clients are — and who they are not
• Why you will outgrow rooms, communities, offers, and versions of yourself
• How to protect your time, energy, and emotional bandwidth

You are not for everyone — and everyone is not for you. As your business grows, your boundaries, standards, pricing, and client criteria must grow with you.

• Where am I giving away too much of my time, energy, or expertise?
• What kind of clients do I truly want to work with?
• What are the red flags that someone is not a fit for me?
• Where am I negotiating my worth?
• Am I in the right room — and are these my people?

“Stop giving your shit away for free.” — JJ Flizanes

In this heartfelt and inspiring conversation, JJ sits down with Gia Ilole, founder of Seasons of Life Celebrations to explore the healing power of ritual, intentional community, and honoring life’s transitions — both joyful and painful.

After experiencing profound personal loss — the death of her sister followed just six months later by the sudden loss of her husband — Gia discovered a deep need for meaningful, secular ceremonies that support people through grief, transition, and transformation.

Together, JJ and Gia discuss:

• Why ritual matters more than ever in modern life
• How intentional ceremonies help people heal and reconnect
• The emotional importance of community and shared experiences
• Why transitions deserve acknowledgment — not just weddings and funerals
• How grief can uncover purpose, service, and a new calling
• The role of celebration in milestones like divorce, retirement, career shifts, menopause, empty nesting, and personal reinvention
• Why many people need support creating ceremonies that truly reflect who they are

Gia shares how her business helps individuals and families design customized ceremonies, memorials, and celebrations that feel deeply personal and healing — whether in person or remotely.

JJ also reflects on her own love of ritual, community-building, and creating memorable experiences through intentional gatherings, traditions, and ceremonies. The conversation expands into:

• Love languages and quality time
• Creating annual traditions and meaningful gatherings
• Estate planning beyond finances
• Leaving loved ones guidance for memorial wishes
• The growing need for community-centered healing

One of the most powerful themes of the episode is this:

Gia explains how rituals — even simple or symbolic ones — can psychologically and emotionally help people process change, grief, endings, beginnings, and identity shifts.

• Grief & healing
• Secular memorial ceremonies
• Ritual & spirituality
• Community building
• Empty nest transitions
• Menopause & identity shifts
• Divorce & career transition ceremonies
• Intentional living
• Celebrating milestones
• Death doulas & end-of-life planning
• Entrepreneurship after loss
• Service, connection & purpose

Gia Ilole is the founder of Seasons of Life Celebrations, a company devoted to helping people create meaningful ceremonies and intentional rituals for life’s biggest transitions. Services include:

• Memorial planning
• Celebration officiating
• Ceremony design
• Obituary & eulogy writing
• Memorial mapping
• Customized rituals
• Life transition celebrations

• Website: Seasons of Life Celebrations
• Instagram: @seasonsoflifecelebrationsvc

Life is made meaningful through intentional connection, shared experiences, and rituals that honor who we are becoming — not just who we’ve been

• Setting a bold goal to induce self-growth
• Committing to what you desire
• Why do we experience resistance?
• Learning to listen to your intuition

• When you set a bold goal, it activates untapped resourcefulness in your brain and it allows it to go outside of its current paradigm, creating new ways, new ideas, and new processes. Eventually, it will result in creating a new you, someone who is capable of manifesting that huge goal.

• Being committed means being all-in. It means you’ll do whatever it takes to get there. Be pulled and empowered by passion and purpose rather than pain or fear. Focus on the energy of the joy you’ll feel when you attain that goal rather than the hardship or discomfort you might have to endure to get there.

• The more committed you are to a bold goal, the more intense the resistance feelings that come up and that’s when you know you’re on the right track. The unconscious mind doesn’t want things to change, it’s job is to keep you safe and the more you’re stretching the more you’ll hear its objections.

• Trust the vibrational alignment of what you are called to do rather than what you think you are supposed to do. Learn to listen to your intuition and recognize the signs that your body, soul, spirit, and the universe is giving you.

Melanie is an Authority Amplifier, Revenue Strategist and Money Mindset Coach for expert-preneurs (coaches, consultants, course creators and service professionals who are building a successful business around their expertise.) With over 12 years experience in corporate America and 21 years as an entrepreneur and coach, Melanie specializes in transforming wisdom into wealth through powerful mindset shifts, influence boosting strategies and aligned visibility that generates an endless supply of clients and opportunity.

JJ Flizanes is an Empowerment Strategist and the creator of the Empowering Minds Network. JJ Flizanes works with conscious, spiritual truth seekers who want to remove emotional blocks to success. She helps people identify sabotaging patterns and transmute struggle into joy. Through a series of clarifying exercises, she is able to curate a personalized roadmap to emotional healing. JJ is passionate about empowering people with the knowledge and awareness of how they can live the life of their dreams. https://jjflizanes.com

In this deeply personal and expansive conversation, JJ and Tawney take the healing discussion to the next level—exploring plant medicine, addiction, emotional trauma, and true integration.

Tawney shares the raw story of her first mushroom journey and how it became a turning point that shifted everything—from how she saw herself, to how she built her business and community.

JJ expands on the role of psychedelics in emotional healing, the nervous system, and why most people stay stuck—even after years of personal development work.

• How plant medicine can create breakthroughs when nothing else works
• The difference between intellectual healing vs embodied transformation
• Why addiction isn’t about substances—it’s about what you’re avoiding
• How trauma shuts down parts of the brain (and how to reopen them)
• What “ego death” really means—and why it matters
• The role of integration (and why most people skip it)
• How your inner world directly impacts your business and success

1. Healing Isn’t About Learning—It’s About Experiencing

You can study healing for years and still stay stuck.

True transformation happens when the body integrates what the mind already knows.

2. Addiction Is Deeper Than Substances

Addiction isn’t just drugs or alcohol—it’s:

• Control
• Workaholism
• People-pleasing
• Avoidance

3. You Can’t Heal in Survival Mode

When your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight:

• You can’t access healing
• You can’t think clearly
• You can’t change patterns

This is why many people stay stuck—even when they “know better.”

4. Plant Medicine Can Bypass the Noise

Psychedelics (when used intentionally) can:

• Quiet the analytical mind
• Open new neural pathways
• Allow suppressed emotions to surface
• Create direct connection to truth and source

5. Integration Is Everything

The breakthrough isn’t the end—it’s the beginning.

Without integration:

• Insights fade
• Patterns return
• Nothing actually changes

Real healing happens in the weeks and months after.

6. You Always Have a Choice

One of the most powerful realizations:

• You are not stuck
• You are not powerless
• You are choosing—consciously or unconsciously

This episode isn’t just about psychedelics—it’s about:

• Why people stay stuck in pain
• Why awareness doesn’t equal change
• And how to move from knowing → embodying → becoming

You don’t need more information.

You need integration, experience, and truth that lands in your body.

Healing isn’t about escaping your pain—

…it’s about finally facing it, feeling it, and choosing differently.

• Women doing “all the work” but still feeling stuck
• High achievers with hidden emotional patterns
• Anyone curious about plant medicine and deeper healing
• Those ready to move from coping → transformation

In this deep and honest conversation, JJ and Tawney unpack the popular phrase “you are your own healer”—and why it’s both empowering and incomplete.

They explore the balance between self-awareness and external support, breaking down when inner work is essential… and when you need guidance, coaching, or new frameworks to actually create change.

• What “being your own healer” really means
• Why self-awareness alone doesn’t create transformation
• The difference between healing, coaching, and integration
• How early programming (ages 0–7) shapes your patterns
• Why most people can’t see their own blind spots
• When it’s time to stop doing it alone and seek support

1. You Have to Be With Yourself First

Healing begins with learning to sit with your thoughts, emotions, and body—without distraction or avoidance.

2. But You Can’t Heal What You Can’t See

Even highly self-aware people miss their own patterns. Without new perspectives or tools, growth can stall.

3. Your Patterns Were Programmed Early

Most of your beliefs were formed before age 7—meaning your reactions today are often unconscious and automatic.

4. Healing = Change in Real Time

True healing isn’t just understanding your story—it’s being different in the same situation.

5. Coaching Provides What You Can’t Access Alone

A great coach doesn’t heal you—they:

• Reflect your blind spots
• Offer new frameworks
• Help you take aligned action

“You are your own healer” can feel empowering…

but for many, it’s overwhelming without the right tools or support.

The real growth path is:

➡️ Learn to know yourself

➡️ Integrate what you learn

➡️ Get support where you’re stuck

You are responsible for your healing…

but you’re not meant to do it alone.

• Women who feel stuck despite doing “the work”
• High achievers ready for deeper emotional integration
• Anyone wondering if they need coaching or support
• Those ready to move from awareness → transformation

In this inspiring conversation, JJ sits down with entrepreneur, coach, and community builder Julie Kraschinsky to explore what it really takes to trust yourself, take bold leaps, and build a business aligned with joy, intuition, and purpose.

Julie shares her journey from corporate sales, to 30 years in direct sales leadership, to building a thriving coaching practice rooted in faith, possibility, and what she calls Joyful Momentum.

• How Julie’s entrepreneurial journey began unexpectedly through direct sales
• The lessons she learned leading teams, earning 14 career cars, and developing as a leader
• How divorce, uncertainty, and personal hardship became catalysts for reinvention
• Why “the bigger risk may be staying where you are”
• The role of intuition, faith, and taking leaps before you feel fully ready
• Why life and business can’t be separated in true coaching and growth
• The emotional patterns that often hold entrepreneurs back more than strategy does
• Why community, support, and surrounding yourself with people who elevate you matters
• How COVID unexpectedly expanded opportunities for connection and business growth
• Julie’s GPS — Genius Power System and how listening inward creates momentum
• Why money should not be the reason you abandon a dream
• Julie’s belief that make the decision first — the money can figure itself out

“You’re always believing in something — either it can work, or it can’t. Why not believe it can?”

“Don’t let your bank account tell you what your dream is pulling you to do.”

“You are not doing business alone. Lock arms with people who help elevate you.”

“Make the decision first. The money figures itself out.”

Julie’s Entrepreneurial Assessment

🌐 juliekcoaching.com/assessment

Gifted Coaching Session with Julie

🌐 juliekcoaching.com/gifted

Learn More About Julie

🌐 juliekcoaching.com

(Use Julie’s website as your main connection hub for socials, events, and the Joyful Momentum Collective.)

🌐 juliekcoaching.com

🌐 https://jjflizanes.com

Free Feelings & Needs List:

🌐 https://jjflizanes.com/feelingslist

Learn more about the Empowering Minds Network

🌐 https://jjflizanes.com

West Coast Women Rising features conversations with women leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers sharing honest stories, practical wisdom, and the mindset shifts that help women rise in business and in life.

If this episode resonated, share it with a woman in your circle who may be standing at the edge of her next leap.

In this episode of West Coast Women Rising, JJ Flizanes sits down with Pauline Torrey-Magret, an integrative medicine practitioner based in Ventura, to explore the deeper layers of healing beyond conventional medicine. Pauline shares her extraordinary journey from growing up on a holistic farm in France to becoming a doctor of Oriental medicine, weaving together bodywork, acupuncture, functional medicine, and spiritual inquiry.

Pauline began her career in the pharmaceutical industry, where she quickly became disillusioned with a system focused on symptom management rather than true healing. A pivotal moment with a cardiologist-rabbi sparked a life-changing question: What existed before Western medicine? This question launched her lifelong quest into natural, ancestral, and integrative healing modalities.

Her path led her from France to California, where she immersed herself in somatic bodywork, psychology, and energy healing. Over decades, Pauline studied:

• Traditional Chinese Medicine & acupuncture
• Functional and nutritional medicine
• Herbal medicine (Eastern and Western)
• Comparative religion and spiritual philosophy
• Meditation, including intensive training in a Thai monastery

This diverse background shaped her belief that healing must address the physical, emotional, mental, energetic, and spiritual bodies simultaneously.

Unlike many practitioners, Pauline emphasizes that medicine is an art, not a formula. She rejects one-size-fits-all “standard of care” approaches and instead focuses on deep, individualized healing through:

• Presence and intuitive listening
• Somatic awareness and body-based healing
• Emotional processing and trauma acknowledgment
• Energetic alignment and consciousness work

Her work is rooted in relationship—helping clients uncover root causes rather than just treating symptoms.

Pauline highlights the often-overlooked importance of touch as a primary human need. Through her early bodywork training, she discovered how people’s history with touch—healthy or traumatic—can be felt and addressed through the body. She emphasizes that learning how to receive safe, intentional touch is just as important as giving it.

With experience in both Western and Eastern systems, Pauline sees a major gap in modern healthcare: the lack of integration. While Western medicine excels in acute care, it often fails to address root causes. True healing, she believes, requires bridging both worlds—combining science, intuition, and consciousness.

When asked to define what she does in just a few seconds, Pauline says:

For those building a purpose-driven business, Pauline shares powerful advice:

• Start with a clear vision—see and feel the future you’re creating
• Develop consistency through practice—mastery comes from doing the work
• Find your tribe—not every community will support your growth
• Stay curious and committed—your evolution never ends

She emphasizes that success isn’t just about skill—it’s about alignment, resilience, and surrounding yourself with the right people.

• Healing is multidimensional—address all layers of the self
• Root cause matters more than symptom management
• True medicine is both science and art
• Consciousness and awareness are central to transformation
• Your environment and community can make or break your growth

Pauline offers both in-person and remote sessions, working deeply with clients ready for transformation at the root level.

http://i-am.care

In this raw and deeply honest conversation, JJ Flizanes and Tawny Noriega explore the real root of overwhelm—and why it’s often not about boundaries, but self-abandonment.

Through personal stories, emotional breakthroughs, and practical insights, they unpack how high self-awareness can sometimes mask unhealthy patterns, why telling the truth is the key to freedom, and how to stop taking responsibility for everything in your reality.

This episode is a powerful invitation to reclaim your energy, redefine your boundaries, and step into a more aligned, empowered version of yourself.

• Why overwhelm is often a symptom of self-abandonment
• The hidden trap of “being self-aware” while still avoiding truth
• How not speaking your truth creates resentment and burnout
• The difference between your responsibility vs. others’ responsibility
• Why taking ownership of everything in your reality can be exhausting
• How to discern what’s yours to process—and what’s not
• The role of truth-telling in emotional freedom and healthy relationships
• How to hold space for others without losing yourself
• Why clarity doesn’t equal speed in healing or manifestation
• How to stay aligned with your desired frequency—even when life isn’t resolved

Many people think they struggle with boundaries, but the deeper issue is saying yes when it’s not true—and abandoning themselves in the process.

Constantly internalizing everything as “mine to fix” leads to emotional exhaustion and an endless loop of processing.

Just because something shows up in your reality doesn’t mean it’s yours to own. Learning to distinguish between your work and others’ work is essential.

Avoiding honesty to protect others often leads to emotional buildup—and eventually, burnout or emotional explosions.

When you feel at the mercy of others’ needs or expectations, you lose your sense of control. Reclaiming your space and authority changes everything.

Compassion doesn’t mean overextending. Healthy relationships require mutual exchange, not one-sided emotional labor.

Processing quickly doesn’t mean outcomes will resolve faster. Learning to stay grounded in your state—regardless of timing—is the next level.

You cannot control the world, but you can choose how you show up in it. Growth requires deciding:

👉 Who do I want to be in this moment?

• “It’s not that I had a boundary problem—I had a self-abandonment pattern.”
• “I wasn’t telling the truth, so it kept bottling up.”
• “Just because it shows up doesn’t mean it’s mine to fix.”
• “You have to make peace with where you are before it can change.”
• “Who do I want to be right now, regardless of what’s happening?”

• Start noticing where you say “yes” when you mean “no”
• Practice telling the truth earlier—before resentment builds
• Ask: Is this mine to carry, or am I taking this on unnecessarily?
• Create boundaries around who you hold space for
• Focus on your internal state, not external resolution
• Choose your response consciously in each moment

Growth isn’t about fixing everything—it’s about becoming someone who no longer abandons themselves.

When you stop taking responsibility for everything—and start telling the truth—you free up energy, clarity, and alignment for what truly matters.

What happens when you’ve achieved everything you thought you wanted… and it still doesn’t feel right?

In this powerful conversation, JJ Flizanes joins Allison Lane to unpack the hidden experience so many high-achieving women face—but rarely talk about: outgrowing the very life they worked so hard to build.

From anxiety and burnout to the quiet feeling of “this can’t be it,” this episode dives into why success can start to feel empty—and what’s actually underneath it.

Together, JJ and Allison explore the deeper emotional, psychological, and subconscious patterns that keep brilliant women stuck, invisible, or second-guessing their next move—even when they know they’re meant for more.

If you’ve ever felt disconnected, restless, or unsure of your next chapter… this conversation will help you understand why—and what becomes possible when you finally listen to that inner call.

1. Why high-achieving women often feel unfulfilled after reaching success
2. The difference between burnout vs. outgrowing your current life
3. How subconscious beliefs and core wounds drive overachievement
4. Why “mindset work” alone isn’t enough—and what actually creates change
5. The hidden role of addiction to achievement, control, and validation
6. Signs you’re repressing your true purpose (and how it shows up physically and emotionally)
7. Why visibility feels so hard—and how fear of judgment keeps you playing small
8. The truth about needing more certifications, degrees, or “permission”
9. What happens when you finally align with your purpose, passion, and dharma
10. How to move from confusion and stagnation into clarity, energy, and momentum

1. Success built on external validation or compensation will eventually feel empty
2. Anxiety, burnout, and even physical symptoms can be signs of misalignment
3. You don’t need more credentials—you need clarity and alignment
4. You are not for everyone—and hiding keeps the right people from finding you
5. Growth requires stepping through discomfort, not avoiding it
6. When you align with your truth, life becomes lighter, more energized, and more supported

When you stop ignoring that inner knowing and start listening:

1. You feel lighter and more energized
2. Your nervous system begins to calm
3. Opportunities and alignment start showing up
4. You gain clarity on your purpose and next steps
5. You move from performing… to truly living your truth

If this episode resonated with you, you are not alone—and you are not stuck.

JJ and Allison are hosting a live masterclass to go deeper into this conversation:

📅 April 10

🔗 Register: jjflizanes.com/brilliantwomen

🎟️ Use the free VIP code JJFREE

Allison Lane helps accomplished women expand their visibility, authority, and impact—guiding them from industry experts to recognized thought leaders through books, media, and strategic positioning.

JJ Flizanes is an Empowerment Strategist, author, and podcast host who helps people heal emotional patterns, uncover core wounds, and align with their purpose to create lasting transformation.

If you’ve been quietly wondering, “Is this all there is?”

That question isn’t a problem.

It’s the beginning of your next evolution.

In this episode of West Coast Women Rising, JJ sits down with financial coach Louise Bretz to explore the deeply personal and often emotional relationship we have with money.

Louise shares her journey from running a dance studio and accumulating significant debt to transforming her life through financial education and ultimately becoming a coach who helps others do the same.

Together, JJ and Louise dive into the realities of entrepreneurship, the emotional blocks around money, and how shifting your mindset from “budgeting” to a “spending plan” can create both freedom and empowerment.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that financial clarity isn’t about restriction—it’s about creating choice, confidence, and peace.

1. Louise’s entrepreneurial journey from dance instructor to financial coach
2. The financial mistakes that led to $40K+ in debt—and how she paid it off
3. How money struggles impact relationships, communication, and self-worth
4. Why people feel shame and avoidance around finances
5. The difference between budgeting vs. a “spending plan”
6. Entrepreneurship lessons: marketing, ROI, and long-term thinking
7. Why visibility and messaging matter more than tactics
8. Finding the right clients vs. trying to help everyone
9. The importance of patience and long-term investment in business growth
10. Real-life success story: helping a widow gain financial confidence and freedom

1. Financial clarity creates emotional freedom

When you understand your money, you gain confidence, choice, and peace of mind.

2. Budgeting isn’t restriction—it’s empowerment

Reframing it as a spending plan helps remove shame and creates ownership.

3. Discipline leads to freedom

Just like dance, structure gives you the ability to express and enjoy life more fully.

4. Money conversations are deeply emotional

Many people avoid finances due to shame, fear, or lack of education—not lack of intelligence.

5. Entrepreneurship is always a test

Success comes from experimenting, refining your message, and staying aligned with who you truly want to serve.

6. ROI isn’t always immediate

The biggest returns in business often come from relationships, connections, and long-term momentum.

Louise Bretz is a financial coach who helps individuals and couples take control of their money, eliminate debt, and create a clear plan for their financial future.

After overcoming her own financial challenges—including significant credit card debt—Louise now empowers others with practical tools, education, and personalized coaching to build confidence and freedom with money.

Louise works best with:

1. Individuals who earn good money but don’t know where it’s going
2. People who feel stuck and unable to get ahead financially
3. Couples struggling to communicate about money
4. Those ready for structure, clarity, and accountability

1. Start with a free consultation call
2. 3-month foundational coaching program
3. Weekly (then bi-weekly) Zoom sessions
4. Ongoing support and accountability options

🌐 Website: moneycoachlouise.com

📧 Email: [email protected]

Everything in business—and in life—is a test.

Your message, your strategy, your finances… they all evolve as you do.

Give yourself permission to learn, adjust, and grow—because the clarity you’re seeking is built over time.