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Formerly Creative Business Mindset Podcast™
Welcome to Business Therapy™ with Joké, where we separate the math from the drama so creative entrepreneurs can build profitable businesses with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Joké Durojaiye, is a mom of three, Certified Life Coach, Author, serial entrepreneur and a business strategist who has lived through the real, messy middle of building businesses from the ground up. This podcast goes beyond surface level success and into the honest conversations around fear, visibility, burnout, reinvention, leadership, and what it actually takes to grow something sustainable.
If you are tired of guessing your way through business, overworking, or feeling stuck between your talent and profitability, you are in the right place.
Here, we talk about the mindset behind the money, the systems behind the success, and the emotional patterns that can either move your business forward or keep you playing small.
Whether you are a creative entrepreneur, home stager, designer, coach, speaker, or someone building a purpose driven brand, expect candid conversations, practical strategies, and real life stories designed to help you attract aligned clients, increase your income, and grow without losing yourself in the process.
This is not about overnight success. This is about building a business and a life that actually fit together.
Powered by Creative Business Network™.
Disclaimer: Business Therapy with Joké™ and Creative Business Network™ do not guarantee specific results and are not responsible for any business, financial, or personal decisions made based on the information shared on this podcast. The content reflects the personal experiences, opinions, and insights of the host and guests and is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only. Please consult qualified professionals for financial, legal, tax, medical, or mental health advice specific to your situation.
Can I tell you something?
I feel like I've lived an entire life
since this season started and I want to
invite you on this journey with me because
when I started writing this episode and I
started putting down my voice notes of what
I want to talk about it started as
a roundup of this season of the episode
but I found that it has evolved and
I allowed God to take me wherever He
needs to take me with my messages and
this time it has landed me in examining
the season of my life that I started
with at the beginning of this year where
I am now and where I'm going and
the common denominator the common theme that I
see is that it has become my season
of yes I've said yes to so many
new things that I never did in the
past and He has brought me into a
certain kind of newness and I'm embracing it
all and I am soaking it all in
and I'm growing into the person that I'm
supposed to become because of those yeses.
I'm talking hormone replacement therapy, GLP-1, all
the things and we're going to get into
it.
Welcome back to Business Therapy Podcast.
My name is Jokei if we haven't met
and if you've been here all along welcome
back and thank you for coming back again
and again.
Today I want to invite you into my
world of becoming and I also want to
invite you to consider the season that you
started with this year.
We're crossing into the second half of the
year and I want to invite you to
also examine when you're coming from where you
are and where we're all going together.
Let's talk about all of it.
Hey friends welcome to the Business Therapy Podcast
with yours truly Jokei.
Business is like jigsaw puzzles but it is
no child's play.
The excitement of creating something of your own
until you realize half the pieces are missing.
Being there done that.
Fell flat on my black behind with scars
to show for it.
I wear many hats.
Mom, author, certified life coach.
At the core I'm just a Nigerian girl
in America navigating the glorious mess of entrepreneurship
while living my soft life with a side
of crisis.
I've figured out a few things along the
way and I've got the Join me as
we separate the math from the drama one
small business at a time.
Let's go.
One of the things that shifted for me
this season is being a mom of adults
because my last born child became an adult
turned 18 and suddenly I have three adults
as my children.
They still act like children sometimes even though
they want to be adults but it's a
season that has so many mixed bags of
emotions, excitement, heartbreak and just being scared of
where they're going.
What does that mean for them?
What does that mean for me?
And it all exists.
All of these feelings they exist all at
the same time in the same body and
I'm embracing it and I'm navigating it.
I'm also closing chapters, stepping away from roles,
some that I expected, some I didn't see
coming and so this is where we are
now.
And when you change as a person, as
a leader, it also changes and it spills
into your business and it has spilled into
my businesses in beautiful ways.
For a long time, my calendar used to
belong to everyone else.
My clients, meetings, projects, deadlines, I never scheduled
myself.
And this can creep in, even get the
best of us because if you know me,
you know that I've always been about this
self-care, taking care of myself, scheduling myself
but somewhere between the dentist appointment and the
never maybe, self-care has been competing for
whatever space was left over.
I didn't know, I wasn't conscious that that
was happening.
In my mind, I'm scheduling myself, I'm enjoying
myself but now I have decided to create
what I call my CEO calendar.
And for the first time, I am scheduling
myself first.
My time, the me time on the calendar,
actually schedule it, put it on the calendar,
non-negotiables, wake up first thing in the
morning and pray to God before I speak
to any human being.
I am not returning calls, I'm not reading
emails, I am not looking at Instagram, I
am not doing anything.
I pray, I stretch and do my exercises,
I drink my water, I do all the
things that I want to do for me
first.
And then from that abundance, because I have
soaked up and enjoyed myself in the first
few hours of the morning, got my natural
light, my sun, the first light in, drank
my water and done all the things I
want to do.
It gives me so much more energy to
offer myself to everyone else.
So nothing makes it to my calendar.
I'm not scheduling any phone call, any human
beings on my calendar until all of those
things have been fulfilled.
Nobody warns you about what middle age, midlife
can do to your body, to your psyche,
your brain, your mind, your mental health.
So this year I finally said yes to
hormone replacement therapy.
Now I am not preaching hormone replacement, I
am not the expert here.
I actually have an expert that's coming on
the show soon, so look out for that.
But I have embraced it.
I actually went to a women's midlife conference
where I learned about the whole thing and
how it...
and I realized that I had been short
of hormones for the last 10 years.
And once I got on this therapy, the
hot flashes, the brain fog, all of those
things, the weight gain, and I also said
yes to GLP-1.
Yes, yes, yes.
And let me tell you something, I don't
want my 20s back.
I don't want my 20s back.
What I am feeling is like I am
finally getting back to me.
My energy, my clarity, the way I carry
myself, the way I feel when I wake
up in the morning, my sleep pattern, my
well-being.
I am no longer fighting with my own
body and biology every day and I am
loving how I am feeling.
Again, please do not come at me.
This is not an opinion thing.
If you are on the HRT, I want
to know how it's feeling for you or
the GLP-1, I want to know.
Again, I'm not an expert so I'm not
going to be answering any specific questions about
that.
But I welcome any input, any comments, any
feedback, anybody that's feeling like they're getting something
out of this.
And because all of this is going on,
I'm getting more clarity.
I'm more aligned with my vision and where
I'm going.
And you know what that also does is
that I've created a simple filter of how
my life is supposed to go.
A filter that things come through.
If it doesn't bring me peace, joy, or
money, or all of those things all at
the same time, it won't make it onto
my calendar.
I will RSVP no all day long, even
though I'm saying yes to a lot of
things.
But it's also me learning to say no
to everything else.
Because a healthy, rested, clear thinking CEO is
the whole business as we know it.
If you're running on empty, naturally you're not
winning.
Nobody's winning and you're blaming everybody else.
That is the calendar.
Now let me tell you the hard decision
behind that.
Because if you're still in the season where
you are navigating self-care boundaries around your
time, another thing is a confessional.
I've spent so many years teaching people and
coaching women how to separate the math from
the drama until life handed me the microphone
like, yeah, it's your turn.
It's rude, but it's fair.
So I listened.
Recently I got together with my team and
we made a decision and it packed together.
I will talk to charge your PT and
Claude.
If I bring anything to you and it
doesn't align with this vision, please challenge it.
And what is it?
If it's not going to pay the bills
or create revenue in the next 60 to
90 days, he has to wait.
Sometime it needs to go away indefinitely.
And now you know me that that sentence
probably hurts me more than it hurts you
because I love ideas.
I come up with new ideas all the
time.
I have notes full of them.
I have Google doc.
I have a creative brain like you do.
And he has incredible vision and it's always
going off, you know, on all tangents, but
it also has very terrible boundaries.
My brain, if I let it run wild,
it thinks that every idea is exciting.
Always an assignment it's due immediately and there
are no extensions.
But this season I've had to disappoint my
own creative mind many, many times.
Most of the ideas are really good y
'all, but that was never the issue.
Good ideas, they come dime a dozen, but
I'm finally learning that every idea, even the
great ones, they deserve consideration.
Not my commitment, not all at once.
That has been one of the biggest hits
of this season.
Finding my filter of peace, joy, making money,
it goes right into this.
So anything that I'm giving my energy to,
it needs to be bringing me money.
So that gift has led me somewhere that
I did not expect straight into the yeses
of my life.
If choosing what deserves your energy is something
that you're wrestling with too, I've given you
an episode to listen to if you're struggling
with your time management and boundaries around your
time.
And if you're also in the season where
you're trying to choose what deserves your energy
and you're still wrestling with that, I'm also
recommending the power of strategic neglect that you
can add to your queue right now.
I've become someone who has said more yes
this year than I ever in my life
to a lot of things that I would
normally be like, ah, no, I'm not doing
that.
This year I threw myself a party, my
first party that I've ever thrown myself.
And it took me 54 years to get
there.
It was my book launch and it came
after a year that I've had a lot
of hard times.
And for a while it felt like things
were just happening to me.
So I decided to celebrate a milestone with
the people I love most on purpose.
Nothing was fixed.
I simply understood that happiness is something that
you choose, not something that you wait for
permission to have.
I wanted to start the year on my
own terms, celebrating on a celebratory note.
And it turned out to be the theme
of the whole year because I said yes
this year to more social invitations than I
ever have in my life.
Hey, quick word before we continue.
If you are afraid to start a new
venture or you're ready for the next step,
but not sure how to get there, I
want to invite you to join me inside
Business Therapy at jokedurujie.me. This is where
we take it to the next level.
We talk it out and map out your
next steps so you can move forward with
clarity and confidence.
jokedurujie.me. I'll leave a link for you
in the show notes.
All right, let's get back to the episode.
If you've been following me on Instagram, you
will see that I've become the social girl.
I did a winery photo shoot.
I was drinking wine straight from the bottle
with a straw because why not, right?
I said yes to modeling in a fashion
show.
Look out for the photos on Instagram.
I went to a 20s themed gala, dressed
head to toe in roaring 20s, feather and
all.
It was the most fun I've had in
a long time.
I am connecting and networking on my own
terms, stepping into new spaces, meeting new people
and doing it my own way in my
own time.
I also said yes to something that surprised
me.
I went to a financial literacy conference.
I simply wanted to understand money differently and
it has opened my eyes to entirely new
ways of thinking about wealth.
And some of the most generous, fascinating, big
thinking people I've met in a long time
were in that room.
And that's when it really sunk in that
the rooms that you choose, they shape the
person that you become.
You've heard it before.
You are the sum of the five people
that you hang around.
I realized that I'm living one room and
I'm going into another room.
The rooms were never the issue.
It was just me that changed and found
myself in the right place.
If financial literacy is not a room that
you've stepped into yet, go and queue up
my conversation with Pacha of Afia Legacy and
add it to your playlist next to this
one.
Another thing that I've said yes to is
an impromptu getaway with my girlfriends.
And I learned to say no more easily
to the things that do not serve me
just to do different things.
And the pattern is showing up again and
again.
When I say no to something that is
not serving me or something that I've outgrown,
it opens up my time and my energy
to receive the things that do serve me
and to do the things that I'm supposed
to do as part of my assignment.
Yes to my family, yes to peace, yes
to rest, yes to building one thing well,
yes to protecting my energy, becoming the woman
I've been encouraging all of you to become,
I'm finally doing whatever the hell I want
to do.
That sounds so simple and maybe it sounds
childish a little bit.
Like, well, of course you are, you're a
grown woman, but are we really?
Even those of us who pride ourselves on
being independent, free spirited, the woman everyone assumes
do not care what people think, we still
carry invisible expectations.
We still say yes because we've always said
yes and it's obligation.
And we will show up because people expect
us to.
We will convince ourselves that we should want
things we've actually outgrown.
This year I started asking different questions of
myself, not should I, but do I want
to?
These days my decision making has become surprisingly
uncomplicated and I only have that one question.
Does it bring me peace?
Does it bring me joy?
If yes, there's not much time to spend
explaining myself anymore.
If the answer is no, that's a complete
sentence.
That is what true freedom looks like.
Not doing whatever you want to do because
you don't care, but doing what you want
because you finally stopped asking everybody else for
their permission.
I think that really is what this season
has been about.
Not becoming somebody different, but becoming somebody more
honest.
Honest about what brings me life.
Honest about what drains me and honest enough
to choose joy without apologizing for it.
Honest enough to choose peace even when somebody
else doesn't understand the decision.
If I were naming the invisible theme of
season two now, it would be the year
of yes.
Because as I look back over the season,
I don't see a list of accomplishments.
What I see are transitions, endings, and new
beginnings.
I see God gently closing doors that I
keep trying to prop them open and opening
windows I hadn't even noticed before.
I don't know what season you're in today.
Maybe you're becoming an empty nester.
Maybe you're grieving a friendship that quietly ran
its course.
Maybe you're living a career, a role.
Maybe you're starting a business but you're closing
a business.
Or you're simply realizing that the person you
used to be cannot go where you're headed
next.
Can I encourage you?
Do not rush to replace what just ended.
Sit with it.
Annoy it.
Thank it even for what it's about to
bring into your life.
Every season serves a purpose.
Every role touches something and every relationship shaped
you.
Even the ones that you outgrew, they were
there for a reason, for a season.
Every version of you, the hard part, the
messy middles, they got you here.
But not every version of you gets to
come with you to the next level.
And that's okay.
Actually, that is beautiful.
And that's what I hope for you.
And now here is what it means for
me.
I've spent enough years believing life starts after
the next school, after the next lunch, after
the next paycheck, the next milestone.
As if life has been standing on the
other side of when things settle down.
This year I am choosing different.
While I'm building, while I'm paying the bills,
while I'm creating what's next, I'm putting myself
at the top of the list.
I'm no longer waiting for life to be
perfect before I leave it.
I'm not letting life happen to me.
Life is happening right now.
It will always be life.
And it's not going to be on the
other side of a finished business, of a
solved problem, clear calendar, now.
That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward
to unplugging for a little while.
I am not running away from my life.
I am fully stepping into it.
I want to be present.
I want to celebrate.
I want to laugh until my stomach hurts.
I want to make memories with people I
love.
I want to experience this season instead of
rushing through it on my way to the
next achievement.
And I'm inviting you on this journey.
The community that we build together will always
be close to my heart.
You know me.
I'll be thinking about you.
I'll be praying for you.
I'll be wondering how we continue to grow
together.
But because I do not think business therapy
has ever been just about building better businesses.
I think it's always been about becoming the
people that we're created to be.
Our businesses just happen to be one of
the classrooms that get us there.
And this season has found you becoming.
Unmuting the parts of yourself that you've been
keeping quiet.
Pick up a copy of my book Unmute
Yourself.
It's on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
It might be exactly the companion for whatever
season you're stepping into next.
And I want to hear your feedback on
how it's resonating with you.
So as I wrap up this season, I
want to invite you to keep hanging out
with me.
I'll be on the socials.
Thank you for spending this season with me.
Thank you for trusting me with your time.
Thank you for growing alongside me.
I'll see you next season.
Thank you for listening and keep doing all
the things until next time.
You've been listening to the Business Therapy Podcast
produced by The Media Designers.
I'm your host and favorite business therapist Joke
Durojaye.
Remember to share, like and subscribe.
Thank you for listening and keep doing all
the things until next time.
It's a wrap.