108. How Entrepreneurial Thinking Aids Resilience And Recovery with Jo Muirhead - a podcast by Amber Hawley

How do you find strength and resilience during challenges to your physical and mental health? Does your work provide meaning to get you through these tough times in life? What’s the signal that you need to take a pause for rest and recovery instead of laboring through it all? (And is your business set up to allow that—or is it all YOU?)

My guest on the podcast this week is Australian force of nature and business coach Jo Muirhead. A rehabilitation counselor by training, Jo was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in 2020 and discovered the flip side of dealing with chronic illness as a patient, not just as a practitioner. 

A compassionate communicator who loves a good carefrontation as much as I do, Jo is brutally honest about the physical and emotional trauma of her cancer experience and the impact it had on her business. As half of us will suffer health challenges affecting our work at some point, this is a necessary conversation, especially for entrepreneurs, about how the same type of thinking that we apply to pivoting our business can also assist us in times of personal recovery and change.

Aside from all the fun we have, there are some really frank reveals and, dare I say, deep insights in this chat—about work, health, life, and finding meaning in it all. I really hope you’ll listen in!

About Jo Muirhead:

Jo Muirhead is all about connecting people to purpose through inspiration and innovation. Author of The Entrepreneurial Clinician and creator of The Book Of Evidence, she is also the Founder and CEO of PurpleCo—a team of specialist allied health consultants dedicated to helping people who experience injury, illness, and trauma reclaim their lives through work.

Jo graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Health Science, Rehabilitation Counselling in 1994.

Jo is passionate about the health benefits of work and truly believes that everyone has the right to meaningful and rewarding employment including health professionals who choose to work in private practice. She is a much sought after international coach, mentor, consultant, and speaker on how private practice, when done effectively, will be the change to health care that we are all seeking.

Visit Jo’s website and find her on Instagram and Facebook.

Links and Resources:

• Jo Muirhead Business Coach
• Purple Co Australia
• Purple Co Australia on LinkedIn

Time Stamps:

[4:15] - What is rehabilitation counseling after illness or onset of disability

[6:01] - Entrepreneurial thinking has helped Jo in her recovery from bilateral breast cancer

[6:50] - What Australia has been through since November 2019

[11:53] - Jo’s discovery, diagnosis, three surgeries, and grueling chemotherapy treatment

[18:11] - When your treatment is finished, that’s when the real recovery starts

[22:03] - Jo was too ambitious about working and should have allowed more time for recovery 

[24:13] - Clients still thought of Jo as the business, even though she had a team

[29:08] - Entrepreneurs are often aspirational leaders, not management leaders

[32:58] - Amber’s son’s scary accident and unexpected recovery

[36:27] - Jo say working professionals should stop looking for the miracle self-care hack 

[40:29] - Health professionals are risk managers with intuitive contingency plans

[45:19] - How cancer and PTSD changed Jo’s priorities for her business and work

[54:33] - One day this will all be history

Further episodes of The Easily Distracted Entrepreneur

Further podcasts by Amber Hawley

Website of Amber Hawley