Business Innovators Radio - Jo-Anne Ross – International Speaker – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Jo-Anne Ross, from Savour the Moment in Serenity, is a multifaceted individual. She is an international speaker, teacher, coach, and a 2 X international best-selling author. Jo-Anne possesses a unique blend of skills, experience, and expertise in both the business and wellness domains.Connect with Jo-Anne Ross below – all in the process of being professionally revised and updated:Website: https://www.savourthemomentinserenity.ca/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savourthemomentinserenity/ Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Welcome to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have a wonderful guest today, Joanne Ross, who works with dementia, which is an incredible, credible thing to do. and she also is an international bestselling author, speaker. So I'm super looking forward to a conversation with Joanne. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the E360 TV network.

We're also on USA Global Radio, Television and Network. We're also on Business Innovators Radio Network. And we're also streaming through MSP Newsglobal.com. Let's bring in our incredible guest, Joanne, welcome to Brilliant Business TV. Mark, you're making me cry already. I'm listening to what you're saying and I'm going, how did I get here? Oh my God, he's talking about me. You have got here, Joanne, with all the odd work, that is very, very well deserved.

so I'm really looking forward to a conversation with you. Now, you work with dementia families and caregivers, which is an incredible thing to do. So rewarding. Why are you working with dementia families and caregivers, Joanne? My mum suffered from dementia, and she passed away almost exactly a year ago. And I lived with her for nine months as her primary caregiver.

and I learned a lot and I made a ton of mistakes. And I really came to realize that there's not much out there that can show us the way and teach us how to take care of ourselves first so that we can be in the best position to take care of our loved one. And so my mom really lit a fire under me. But I have to tell you, that's not where it actually started. When I was in my 20s, I used to visit my grandfather in a personal care home, and we played cribbage. And he was fabulous at cribbage. I actually inherited his cribbage board, so I feel quite privileged.

But I would go week after week and play cribbage with him. And one week, I walked through the door, and he had no idea who I was. And my little heart shattered. And you know what? Never really healed. So when I think back, that's really what started everything. And then my mom lit a fire under me. So that's where it's all started.

I think that's beautiful. And it is such a shame when, especially when they're close relatives that have knew you all of your life. And then they don't recognize you because it's not them that are suffering. Is it really? It's the people around them that have always. knew them that it's such a big loss, you lose them as they are, which is, it's such a hard thing to go through. Why are you focused on wellness strategies, Joam? I have come to learn, again, through my own experience, that being less than well and in good health, you can't give

to your loved one. You can't serve. There's a quote by Eleanor Brown, self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel. I adore that quote. It's brilliant and it is so true. So in the beginning, when I was with my mom, I was also ill. And I noticed that I would be so tired and I wouldn't have the energy. And here came that same story or the same question for the 30th time.

and I just, not that I ever snapped at her, but I ran out of patience. It was really hard. I found that I was drained physically. I was drained mentally and I was drained emotionally, which didn't promote health in me. It just made things worse. As years went by and I learned to take care of myself, I realized that I could give from a place of patience, of compassion and love. And our loved one deserves that. It is, it's hard when you're in that state of panic and confusion and you're afraid to look at this person who looks like your loved one, but the disease has taken over and you're like, I don't, I don't know, have goosebumps. I don't know who this person is anymore. And we have to be able to put ourselves in their shoes.

and remember this was a contributing member of society. This person loved. This person was strong. This person gave so much of themselves. And we can't lose sight of that just because they're asking the same questions 20 times, because they've lost their keys again, because they don't remember how to brush their teeth. That's the disease.

It's not them. We have to keep that in mind. and when we're healthy, it's so much easier to calm ourselves down and not come from a place of stress and anxiety. That's why the caregivers and families are important. I understand what you're saying, Joanne, and you have to give to yourself before you give to us. It's a bit like when you're on an aircraft, you have the oxygen yourself and put the life jacket on yourself before you look after other people so that you can look after those properly as well. That makes perfect sense. And it is such a delicate topic as well.

Can I add something to that? Yes. We've been, we grew up with a lot of beliefs depending who you were born to, where you were born, when you were born. And a lot of those cause us a lot of guilt. So we think that we have to do everything. There are other resources out there. There are other resources out there, you don't have to do everything. Yes. So you really have to remember that. And I can't stress that enough that really taking care of yourself and being your best is going to be the best for them. Absolutely.

I agree totally because it's going to be very emotional on you as well and taking a lot of time, energy. and then also the side on your emotions and things like that. It is a real, real thing that people go through and I just love that you're supporting people with this. What are the most important aspects of working with someone with dementia? I think we just asked that one, didn't we? I do apologise. That's okay.

What are the most important aspects? I would say it. What have you accomplished? what have I accomplished? Oh my God, you gave a lot of things that was amazing to me. But what I am going to say, I am the, oh, no, I'm proud of a lot of things. But I designed dementia village and wellness center. It's hanging up behind me.

And it is going to, my mission is to change the landscape of long-term care. So that is one component of it. And I have to tell you, since the last time that we spoke, things have changed. And I've become very spiritual through my learning and my growth. And I have learned that if I listen to my gut, if I listen to what I have to tell myself, and I look for synchronicities around me, that there's always messages for me. So I just took part in a wellness expo in Winnipeg, which was fantastic. I had the opportunity to speak on stage.

And I had people in tears, which I don't like to make people cry, but I had people in tears. And I had some feedback. I asked for feedback. And one gentleman said that I had totally wasted his time. And in the past, that would have haunted me for all. ever, and that would have defined who I was, and that would have stopped what I wanted to do. But I have learned that that is one person's opinion, and it's a reflection of where they are on their journey.

But I had dozens of people in tears. I struck a note. They heard what I was saying. And I had brought my books, so I have my three books behind me here. And as you said, two of them are international bestsellers. One of them is with Les Brown. It's just my life is so amazing. I love my life.

And I had bought many books. I was hoping to go back home with empty boxes. But I came back home with full boxes. I only sold a handful of books for which I am very grateful. I was also promoting my workshop, which we can talk about some more if you'd like for families and caregivers. And I sold zero, not one. and I had actually set things up to put a limit of 30 participants and no more. So I went home and I was, you know, thinking about all these different things and going,

oh, what am I doing? I spent so much money on this. Oh, I can't believe this. And then I remembered my daughter-in-law was helping me. And she said, Joanne, everybody asked about this dementia village. You had a million lovely compliments about this. dementia village. And I'm like, oh, okay. And then I met these people who were all my neighbors at the wellness facility, which is funny when I think about how they all fit in with my dementia

village and wellness complex. I had somebody who is a death doula and does palliative care, which is part of my dementia village. Another one had content. with people who could help fund my dementia village. And I had somebody else who offered services that fit really well with my, my wellness strategy. So I slept on it, woke up the next morning and did my meditation, and I just went, oh my goodness, message received. Yes, I will continue with my one round of my workshops,

but I need to focus my attention on my dementia village. message received loud and clear. I don't know, did I answer your question? Great, great accomplishments. And I was going to talk about the dementia village, but we just discussed that a little bit. So we'll talk about your books as well. But I want to go back to the original question.

So I realized we didn't actually go into detail of that. So it was, what are the most important aspects of working with someone with dementia The most important aspects of working with people is to have them realize the self-care is important, but also to realize that they need to put up boundaries. And boundaries aren't only to keep people out. Boundaries are also to keep safeness and wellness in. So here's a silly example. When I get caught up in my work and I have to go to the bathroom, I don't go to the bathroom.

That's not taking care of myself. That's bad for my body. It's a very simple boundary. Listen to your body. When you're tired, rest. When you're not emotionally up to going to visit somebody, don't go visit. Maybe send your brother to go. Send your daughter to go.

I just can't go today. could you please step in for me? I think boundaries and tearing down of, I call them restricting beliefs, but limiting beliefs, you don't always have to be the good girl. You don't always have to be the one that's caring for others. There are others that can help you. I think that's the most important. I definitely think that's important.

And definitely working on limiting beliefs, I think is so, so important. because we've all been programmed from the ages naught to six to seven and that programming can affect you later on in life. So it's about observing those old programs, replacing them, not believing every thought. And yeah, really working on our belief systems is really, really important. Now, Joanne, tell us a little bit about your latest book and all about that.

That would be amazing. Okay, so the, oh, there's a cat that's about to join us. My latest book is Your Story Sells, and it's about successful coaching. It talks about my illness. It talks about all the lessons that my illness taught me. It discusses getting together with my mother and living with her, the lessons that we taught each other. and it follows through her dementia journey.

And it points, there's different tips and tools in there. Like I say, lessons that I learned, things that I would do differently. And right up until the very end, there's also a poem that I wrote in that book, which is also in the soulful poems book. And it's called The Death of My Mother. And what I did is when I would. go and visit my mom and get back in my car. If there was something that really struck me, something unique about our visit, I would write it down on my phone. And then after she passed away,

actually before she passed away, I kind of put it all together and made a poem. And it's the, to me, it's the perfect depiction of what the person with dementia goes through and what their caregiver goes through. So in my case, I lived with my mom. Then I just, I got to the point where I couldn't anymore. And so she went to assisted living. That's what we call it here in Canada, is assisted living. And then she couldn't stay there anymore.

And she had to move into a personal care home, but it all happened during the pandemic. So there was a point in time where I lived with her. There's a point in time where I didn't see her for a year. and then it talks about after she was in the personal care home, she wanted to be right until her passing. So it shows all the changes that happened over that time and the impact of being present, being absent, and then being present again.

So it's kind of a, you can follow the journey and see all the different things that can happen and really get an understanding from the person with dementia point of view as well. They may not be aware of a lot of things. They may not remember a lot of things, but they're still a human being with emotions and feelings. And there are points in time where they do remember.

They just may not be able to communicate it and share it with you. So you have to remember those as well. So out of the three, I really, that book I really is my favorite because it covers my journey with my mum to the very, very end. And that was really important to me. And I think for people who may be going through that journey, that book would be such a great read. And I'm sure there's plenty of people out there going through that journey. It reminds me of a beautiful clip I've seen on social media, actually. And it was a ballerina who used to do, I think, Swan Lake. And she had dementia. And they planned.

the music to her and as soon as the music starts playing, she switches to ballerina and she starts doing all the hand movements in her chair but she goes from having dementia to hearing the music and she just switches to ballerina doing all of the dance in a chair. That's a beautiful clip. If it ever pops up, I'm going to tag you. I'm sure you may have already have sort. but it just goes to show that there's still memory there from their past and things like that. And I would bet you anything is. Who should connect with you and why should they connect with you? Anybody who would like a signed copy of my book should connect with me because I would

love to sign a personalized copy of my book. And as you said, there's a story in there that they can connect with. The other books are a little different one is poems from people around the world. So if it's only the poem that interests you, that's a good one. The other one is called Becoming the Manifesting Diva. So it has much more of a spiritual tone to it. And those are, again, 13 authors from around the world. So if that's more of an interest, that is a good book as well.

I have developed a workshop, which I am in the middle of right now. So we've done week one, which is about mind power. Next week, we are doing emotional intelligence. So I developed a methodology called Me First, which I thought was quite appropriate. And it's for caregivers and families. So mind power, emotional intelligence, flow and ebb, which is we're feminine, masculine, yin, yang, rest, being productive. We have to learn to listen to our bodies and be able to flow between the two.

then it's instincts and intuition. So we all have a second brain, which is called your gut, and your gut never lies. Your brain, on the other hand, lies all the time, but your gut never lies. Then we talk about restricting beliefs,

so limiting beliefs, and I have a fabulous exercise. I'm so excited to do. So as you talked about before, you know, sometimes that's a big barrier to tear down. And spirituality, signs, symbols, synchronicities. I never disparage any religion because religion is beautiful and it's a huge part of spirituality.

But there's more beyond if that interests you. And I share my opinion and my experiences. And the T and me first is the total package, mind, body, spirit. it's all one. It's all linked. I'd like to think of it as an infinity signal, symbols. So you have your mental, your physical, your emotional, and your spiritual. And they're always flowing one into the other and they all impact one and the other. So at any point in time, if one of those is gunky and sick and smelly and gross, so if your emotional aspect is not well, it's going to impact your physical, it's going to impact your emotional and it's going to impact your spiritual.

So we have to take care of all of those components. So I have, I'm only going to do this live once. I'm recording it and then I will offer it online. And later on I may also do some online. I would also love to grow into retreats so that I can delve more deeply. Emotional intelligence is a great example. My workshops are two hours per session. but you really need a full day, a couple of days a week even just to discuss that one topic.

And so, and anybody interested in helping me with my dementia village, either financially, ideas, things that have worked, suggestions, what they'd like to see, I can't do this alone. I'm one person, but I am determined that this is going to be a constant. where people are lined up to work, not to live, so that it is, there's dignity, respect for everybody. And so I guess those are the main things that people, there would be something beneficial to both of us to connect on any of those. And I love to speak.

That's another thing. I would encourage everyone to connect with Joanne, learn more at her website, get her amazing book, connect with her, savour the moment in serenity.ca. That is savor the moment in serenity.ca. I'm going to say that once more, savor the moment in serenity. dot CA. Joanne, I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you today and I think you're doing incredible things in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you.

You are such a sweetheart, Mark. Thank you. It has been a real pleasure having the opportunity to speak with you and keep doing what you're doing. I love your program and your support of so many people in so many different areas just to make this world a better place. We all have our part to play and you do yours very well. So thank you. Bless you. I appreciate that. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovators.com today.