Today Patty is talking with Joanna a self-described accidental pastry Chef, baker, passionate food lover, visual artist, and former dance fitness instructor for over a decade.
She is a passionate student of life, devoted to growing spiritually and connecting with others who are on the same wavelength. She is currently working on expanding her pastry business as well as being involved in women empowerment centered projects.
Joanna shares that a few years ago she struggled to make a list of 21 things that she really wanted. She realized that some of the things she wanted felt out of reach, or impossible for her to receive.
Then the most surprising thing happened. Something she wanted “accidentally” appeared.
She also explains how learning to accept the things she doesn’t want has been key to releasing them. This is such a powerful shift in mindset and Joanna explains how she’s made the change.
Her real-life experience learning to receive is going to inspired you.
“I know things are good and they are just going to get better.”
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0:00
Things really have been showing up big time. And I think, why No, the receiving school made a big difference. It’s not just in that I learned to receive and, you know, establish blocking. What is the term you use? resistance? Resistance? Yeah. And I think something that became the receiving school made a big difference. There are a few things. One is, I used to resist things that I didn’t want. And this is why we connected this is something where we met at that first conference study. This is what made the biggest impression on me.
0:47
Welcome to the space for magic podcasts where people who are led by their hearts come to learn the secrets to receiving all the gifts the universe has for us. I’m your host, Patty Lennon. I’m an X type a corporate banker turned intuitive coach, using a blend of common sense brain science and just a dash of magic. I’m here to help you create abundance in every area of your life, and business. Welcome.
1:20
Hey, everyone, welcome to this episode of the space for magic podcast. I’m your host Patty Lennon and today, I have a wonderful guest with me her story is so darn cool. Joanna Shearer is what she calls an accidental pastry chef and wait till you hear this. She’s a baker passionate food lover visual artists and former dance instructor for over a decade by the way, she was born and raised in Poland. She lives in New Jersey, which is actually where I met her at a conference enjoying life being an entrepreneur and a mom to a 20 year old daughter and an eight year old son, who that is a big age difference. Overcoming traumatic childhood and becoming severely hearing impaired in her late 20s made Joana adaptable and resilient and those are definitely two words I would use to describe Joanna. She is a passionate student of life devoted to growing spiritually and connecting with others who are on the same wavelength. She is currently working on expanding her pastry business as well as being involved in a women’s empowerment centered projects. So with that, Joanna, welcome.
2:31
Hi, Patty, thank you so much for having me.
2:34
Thank you for being here and willing to share your story. So I am going to start us off by just talking about something that was just so impressive to me when I first Well, I met you at a conference the SOAR women’s symposium down in New Jersey. I think that’s where we first connected, right? Yeah. But then you took part in a free event that I had done online, like a an internet, web based event. Oh, my God, I’m doing like I’m recording in 1990 an internet based. So I was doing a webinar. One of the free webinars I gave this was years ago. And Joanna, I was so impressed because there’s something about free content that so many people kind of, don’t expect to get a big result. And I think don’t put 100% effort in. Which is such a shame. Because when there’s really good free content out there, if you use it, you can really have powerful results. And that’s what I saw with you. So do you remember that? Can you go back in time with me? And to that first event where I I think I was guiding everyone to write down what they wanted?
3:52
Yes. So that was when you were doing a webinar on the receiving method. Uh huh. And so I’ve always been following that whole, you know, jump and the net will appear idea, but I never actually asked myself what is it that I really want? And I remember you did this exercise. I think it gave us a homework or you said write down I think, I don’t know if I remember correctly. It was write down 20 Things that you wrote anyone? Yep. 21 Was it okay? Yeah, write things that you want. And I remember, just be stunned, like, what do I want? And then my problem my biggest issue was that I actually realized because because I kept stopping myself, I want this, but I want this but I felt like well, that’s not gonna happen, and I don’t deserve this. And everything kind of seemed that everything a few points on the list. Seems kind of impossible, far fetched. And then I started asking myself You know, like I have a deserving issue and you talked about, you know, just deserving and that whole idea. So is that does that answer the question?
5:09
Yep. So I want to talk about so then you wrote down at the time you were the job that you were doing was with a terrible? Well, can you say that, like, you’re you’re pretty unhappy. But
5:25
I would be lying if it wasn’t terrible. I was working as a legal secretary. And I wouldn’t say it was terrible, but it was kind of felt like it wasn’t going anywhere. I just got my paralegal degree. And I was going to school, you know, I know still going to school to be a paralegal because that was early spring, late winter. I was graduating in May with my paralegal degree. And I was working for a family lawyer at this point for three years, I think. And I was going to get promoted to full legal and I was going to get a raise, and it kind of just wasn’t going anywhere. And I started to feel stuck. And then that’s when I one of the things I wrote on my 21 answers was, I want a job and I want somewhere where I can use my talents, and I can have more freedom and have spend more time with my kids. And, you know, I just wrote things that just seemed far fetched for me. And at the time,
6:25
you were thinking it would be a paralegal job, maybe with more flexibility and more money.
6:31
I figured that’s what was gonna happen. Yes. 100%.
6:35
And then what happened? This to me is fascinating. So then
6:39
in May finally, you know, my son was home, he was little trouble getting babysitting, and I’m like, Oh, my God, I’m gonna lose the job. I’m not making enough money. So I’m just going to leave this job for the summer. And then he’s going to school in a forget kindergarten, or pre K. He was going to school in September. So I thought, Well, Dan, I will go and work for a better lawyer. In September when summer’s over, I’ll just spend summer with my son, and then I will go get a better job. And as I was sitting home with my son, I was sitting on a couch. One day, it was like, I just graduated. So this was May, I graduated with my paralegal degree, I quit my job. And I was ready to have a summer at home. And I was sitting on the couch, and I was looking on social media. And someone added me to a some group. I forget what it was. And I forget, there was absolutely no reason I go, What is this group and I started flipping through it. And there was a posting that a golf club, 15 minutes from my house is looking for an assistant pastry chef, and it said, willing to train. And I’ve been baking and cooking my whole life. I had a little baking side business. And I was like, Well, I’m gonna try. And I literally got in a car. I know I called them. And I said, yeah, come now. And I went there, and I walked out with a job. And so I walked over the job. And it was kind of crazy, because I thought, well, that’s going to be summer job. So I’m just going to get some extra money for weekends and nice. And then the September, I still was thinking in September, I’m going to go back or an AFO and work for a lawyer. And it was crazy. The job initially gave me more money that I was making, from the beginning. hours were super flexible. And I realized that a lot of those things that I’ve put down on my list that that Job was offering. But what happened is COVID hit. And as COVID hit, you know, the we had less members, we had less employees. So we were off, we closed down for I forget how long for a little bit. And then chef head chef was bringing back people, he only needed one person in the pastry department. So they actually fired the head pastry chef, and asked me to come and become a head pastry chef. And then I was became a head pastry chef, accidentally, which
9:20
it’s to me, it’s so amazing, because it’s such an example of like, we can limit ourselves so much because we can’t imagine how a particular desire might be met. And because you were in the place of not saying like you and your mind do thought the way your desire will be met would be with a paralegal job. But in fact, it was saying using my talents and being able to be available for my kids that ultimately resulted in the universe delivering to you something completely different and more spectacular.
9:58
Right. So So,
10:00
I don’t think we’ve talked a lot about your early life. Do you feel like, you know, becoming so severely hearing impaired at such a young age set you up to? Or maybe a better way to say it is? Is there a connection between that experience and your willingness to continue to show up in your life and make space for miracles?
10:28
Hmm, interesting. I haven’t thought about that. I think, because I’ve had a lot of hard experiences in early childhood, mostly, and the younger years, and I think I just always, this is something that I realized as I was older, you know, I think I always had this feeling of not being in a difficult spot, by walking through a difficult spot. Like I keep, I’m trying to, you know, this is not a question I thought about recently, but maybe, you know, a definitely result is the same thing to practice, for sure. So
11:13
as things start to develop, because you’re not in that head, pastry chef role now, tell me a little bit more. So since that free training, you have taken receiving schools, you’ve done a lot more of the work at a deeper level. And as you’ve been going along, what I’ve seen from you is just this, again, this willingness to engage the miracle, engage the magic at a level that I find really breathtaking, like you show a level of courage and faith and trust, that sometimes I can’t wrap my head around. And the miracles show up at that level for you. At least that’s been my observation. So what else has kind of shifted for you and shown up for you since then? Okay. So thank
12:05
you are saying that, and things really have been showing up big time. And I think, why No, the receiving school made a big difference. It’s not just in that I learned to receive, and, you know, established blocking, what is the term you use? resistance? Resistance? Yeah. And I think something that became the receiving school made a big difference, there are a few things. One is, I used to resist things that I didn’t want. And this is why we connected. This is something where we met at that first conference, buddy, this is what made the biggest impression on me, because you were in the beginning of your receiving method. And I remember, you made a big impression on me, when you were speaking about receiving, you were also talking about, you know, resistance, and to receiving. And I remember, you put your you said when you know, when things that you don’t want are coming at you, you’re putting your hands up, and you block it, but then at the same time, you’d like good things. And that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life, I would ignore the things I didn’t like, I wouldn’t look at that. And I would just plow forward. And that was something that I had to unlearn. And that is something that I learned from you. And through the receiving school. And, you know, like, for example, I knew I had bad credit for many, many years. And I knew I had, you know, some debt, and I wasn’t looking at it. So at the same time, in the last couple of years, when all these amazing things are flying in, I also have been looking at the you know, I got my credit app, and I checked my credit card for a couple days, and I pay things on time. And I just know that money is going to come in to pay those bills and to do and I just have this belief, you know, another thing is, you know, there’s things you teach and receiving school, like, take your time or doing your 100% or you know what it means to you and there are some exercises, you know, some morning exercises or some some routines, all these little things are when they are you know, I catch myself on becoming a human doing instead of a human being when I start just doing too much. And another thing which helped me with the resilience and everything is just accepting like I was always okay if things weren’t going my way because I always knew they would get better. But now I have this very it’s like there isn’t a desperation, there’s just peace, that if something isn’t happening for me, it means it’s not for my highest good. And I’m okay with I believe that Divine is the beautiful being divine loves us. You know, I just learned a lot of things to the receiving school and, and from, you know, work, even connecting with everyone in your magic lounge and other people who are on the same wavelength. And it’s just, I have this new mindset, I have a different, completely different mindset in the last couple years. So I think that makes a huge difference.
15:42
Wow, that’s big. And so you know, you I want to go back because this is something that I find is the hardest for people, when they start the receiving school is receiving the stuff they don’t like, right? And you’re looking at maybe a debt number, a credit score number that doesn’t look like what you want it to look like yet. What has that done for you by just receiving it, because when we what we talked about is you receive it to release it, you don’t receive it to hold on to it. And what happens now, when you look at those numbers and see them shifting and changing.
16:21
Like I said, it’s a different mindset, like you like what you just said, you can’t release something, if you so I’m a visual person. So everything I do everything, how we operate, and my mindset has a visual to it. So the way I look at it is like I’m grabbing it so I can let it go, you know, physically almost like I’m grabbing my debt, I’m looking at it. So now I have this knowing this inner knowing that it’s going to go away. And actually, I think I wrote about it in our group. One day, this amazing thing happened and I was crying in my car on the way to work. This was this summer, when I went back to the receiving school because you know, once you enroll in receiving school, you have access to all those materials. So I went I occasionally here and there, I go back and I looked through it again. And I was setting my intention. And because I was redoing the process early summer, and I was setting my intention, I thought, well, I need $5,000. But were three years ago, if I thought of that I need $5,000 That would have seemed like a such a far fetched number, where now with a different mindset, knowing that universe is flowing things to me, as I’m taking into my hand, things that I don’t want. And I’m letting them go and freeing my hands to allow good things to come in. So I know they’re going to continue coming in. So this time when I was setting my intention this summer, I was looking at the number 5000. And I said well, that’s not enough. That seems too small. I need something bigger. So I said okay, how about 10000 for now. So I said my intention for 10,000. And I literally, I don’t want to I don’t within like two days, I went to my mailbox on the way to work. And I got this envelope. And it was an all debt that I had. When I see that envelope, it always like just feels like someone just threw something really heavy at me. And I took this envelope and I opened it. And it said that my debt has been canceled. And the debt was $10,800 just happened this summer. And I can I texted my daughter the picture and I was crying in the car like I can’t believe this just happened. You know. So yeah, it’s an ongoing process, like I’m not afraid of anything at this point. And you
19:01
know, it’s just as you’re telling the story, I started to tear up again, which I do. And there was a conversation I had with Shari Teigman that ran on this podcast a couple of weeks ago. By the time your podcast drops, they’ll have run I think two weeks before, and that I had said that, although my faith is rock solid, although my faith is boundless with the divine. My heartbreak still exists. Like when I see someone really show up for themselves in faith and courage and things don’t like work right away. It can break my heart because I know what it took for that person to show up that way. But then the divine does come through. And it’s like all those cracks that happened from that heartbreak just make my heart bigger, and they make my faith more expansive and more encompassing. It gives me more stories than that I can share it to others, you know that it’s not just my story. It’s other people’s stories. It’s one of the reasons why I mean, this hadn’t even happened. I featured you in the book, make space for magic, because of the earlier story. But you continue to show up in your life, Joanna. And it’s just, it’s astounding. And you’ve had your heart broken, you know, in different ways, too. I know that.
20:36
Yeah. Yeah. And thank you for saying that. Can I tell you really quick about what’s happening now? With Yeah, yeah. So actually, so this job has been amazing. And it has been wonderful for, you know, for what I need it. And with time, this job gave me health insurance for the whole family. And but it became a kind of started sucking my life out of me, and not the work itself. But the hours because we are going through this time where it’s really difficult to find people. And so my boss had was saying, you know, we’re going to be your assistant, we’re going to be an assistant, and it was a year. And you know, it was 2020, season and 2021, season and 2022. And I was the only person running the pitch to deployment. So I was doing pastries for weddings and our cards and making everything from scratch, and these fancy wine dinners, by myself. And sometimes you have a 200 people wedding and you know, and the team was amazing. And they will throw you some help, you know, whenever you need it, like absolutely incredible people. But because I started as an assistant, as an assistant, I had that flexibility. As a head pastry chef, I lost a lot of that flexibility, because that became all my responsibility. So I started doing job of two people. So what happened is I started spending every weekend ever holiday, Thanksgiving, you know, away from my family away from my kids. So I started feeling like, okay, so divine showed me that I’m really good at this divine showed me what the space that I want to be in. But I felt like now it’s time to grow a little more. And this summer, which is why I left his job, someone reached out to me and offered me to manage his restaurant. So he gave me a great deal. And I did that because the only reason I wasn’t leaving that pastry job just yet was because my son had health insurance through me. But I couldn’t refuse this even, my boss said, this is a great opportunity, you have to go and you have to take this job. So I took this job. And my husband immediately got health insurance for Salem. And you know, and so that thing that I could release that burden at this point. And I took this management job, and it became a nightmare within a month, I knew that I have to get out of there as soon as possible. But it helped me to get out of this club. And it also showed me that I’m really good at managing. And under I find things that I’m good at, but I didn’t have belief in myself yet. So I felt like this was all just to pass, you know, this one thing to the next thing. So I always wanted to do my own business. And I know you know this, because I started it a year ago, what couple years ago, but I didn’t have time for it. And now I do. And orders have been flying in every weekend. And I’ve been super busy. And so I feel like this, you know, things that just keep coming up. Good things that just keep coming in. And I just listen to my listen to my inner voice.
24:09
And Joanna, I can see that people are loving what you’re doing because of the event we met at I have friends in your area on Facebook, and I always see them talking about what you create. So what is that, like having this successful business now, having gone on that long journey?
24:28
I don’t feel like I’m done yet. I feel like there’s more. So I just very the difference for me now is that there is no desperation within me. You know, I just know things are good and they’re just going to get better. I’m just very peaceful.
24:50
I love that and I think that piece is the most important part because it’s so often I see people you know, come In two receiving school, and they’re like, there’s a tangible outcome they want, they want a love interest, they want to shift careers, they want more money they want, whatever it is, which is totally reasonable. I have those desires to you had those desires. And the thing though is, it’s when you can drop into your body and walk each day on the planet, truly knowing your needs are going to be met, and that what is happening, really is happening for you and not to you, when you have that level of grounded peace. It really shifts. Yes, it does. And, to me, again, because I’m a visual person,
25:41
I literally visualize this wave, that I’m kind of surfing, and it’s a wave of energy. And if things and this is also where receiving score comes in, you know, like you have this decluttering exercise, where, to me, it was all about energy. I mean, not just to me, I think it was all about energy, energetically clearing your environment. And so where I’m going with this is that I’m surfing this wave, this energetic wave. And I’m only allowing to surf with me on the same wave people and things that share the same energy. And when I get out of balance when I fall off the wave, I can feel it. And I need to jump back on. I don’t know if that’s No, I love that. Yeah. So that’s that’s kind of how I’m, you know, operating. Now,
26:41
for those of you listening, by the way, receiving school has been closed for a while because we’ve been changing the structure of the program, it’s going to become a 12 month program. It is a 12 month program. Now the doors are not open yet. But if you are interested, you can go and sign up for the waitlist. If you go to www.thereceivingschool.com. I’ll just let you know that it will be later in October where you have the opportunity to join. But if you sign up for the waitlist, you will get access to some advanced pricing discounts probably I haven’t completely decided what the waitlist bonus is going to be. But people on the waitlist always get something extra and something special. And so be sure to put your name on the waitlist. Now Joanna, do you want to tell people where they can find your business if they are local to you? Or how would you like people to get in touch with you?
27:35
Sure. So I’m in New Jersey right now. I’m just operating from Instagram mostly, is called @OldSoulBaker. And I am in the process of, you know, expanding and building a website and all that. But yeah, Old Soul Baker on Instagram.
27:53
I love it. And yeah, check out Joanna’s Instagram feed. As you all know, I am an old lady and I do very little there and Joanna is not. And I guess they can message you in the DMS if they have any questions for you specifically, right, Joanna? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, Joanna, thank you so much for giving me this time. I know you are, even though you have a much more streamlined life right now. I know. You’re super busy. And I’m very grateful for you sharing this time with us.
28:27
Thank you so much, Patty.
28:29
All right. For you listening. Go check out Joanna on Instagram, we’ll put the link in the feed. And remember, Go sign up for the waitlist at the receiving school.com. And finally, just remember make space for magic. Thanks, everyone. Hey, thanks for listening. If you know someone who needs to hear this message, please share this episode with them. And if you’re feeling really generous, I’d love for you to leave us a review at your favorite podcast app. It helps us reach many more people and it fills my heart with so much joy. When I hear what you have to say about what I’ve shared. I’m cheering for your success. Have an amazing day. And don’t forget, always create space for magic.
29:25
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