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Welcome to the Joy Broadcast. I'm Ali Mortimer, joy coach, mentor, and life confidant, and I'm here to tell you something that might surprise you. Joy is not fluffy. Joy isn't frivolous. Joy is not the reward you get after you've ticked all the boxes. Joy is the only strategy you will ever need. It's your competitive edge, your antidote, and your super attractor. It's the power that creates miracles and makes life feel like magic. In my life, joy is the acronym for just on you. Because you matter. Your joy matters, your life matters, and it's time to act like it. Whether you're in the dark with nothing or at the top with everything, and it's feeling so overwhelming, joy is always the answer. Joy is a strategy for every era of your life. And this podcast is the space for women in the boardroom, in business, and those women who are running the show at home. This is your reminder to choose Joy not as a reward, but the strategy that gives you your competitive edge, the energy that will expand to give you the capacity to hold everyone and everything. Now, before we begin today's broadcast, I have an invitation for you. If you would like to go deeper to prioritize your joy, come and join me in the Joy Rebellion. It's my membership where I invite you to align to Joy every single week and where I support you in clearing
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the path when it's hard.
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Or work with me in Brilliance, my mentorship for women who want to bring brilliance to the boardroom because they feel fabulous in the bedroom and in their body. But right now and every week on this podcast, I. I'm going to be bringing you the ideas, the stories, and the strategies to make Joy your lifestyle, your strategy, your North Star. This is the Joy Broadcast. Let's go.
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Hello and welcome back to the Joy Broadcast. We are in the middle of our Easter series, and I wanted this Easter to be really all about inspirational stories from women who inspire me. And I wanted them to come on and share their stories so that they can inspire you, because I think the more joy that we can feel from inspirational stories, the absolute better. And. And I've got a wonderful guest here today. Now, we met through the wonderful powers of social media and Instagram and through a mutual friend, Kimberly Gallagher. And I was fascinated by the name of her Instagram handle, 9lemons Feng Shui. And I messaged her, and I said, what on earth has nine Lemons got to do with feng shui? And we started up a lovely conversation and just got to know each Other. And in the last few months, I've literally watched this beautiful, gorgeous woman sitting scale her business to an incredible. I don't know, what would we say? An incredible audience. It's been absolutely magical to watch. And I wanted to invite her to come onto the podcast, not only to just talk about that wonderful growth and that scale and the visibility, because April is all about visibility in feng shui and the fire horse energy, but also because I know that she's got an incredible backstory to share. So, Steph, welcome to the joy broadcast.
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Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Ellie. It's such a joy to be here. I put some red lippy on just to, like, really just pump up the joy. It's something that I do that just always makes me feel a little bit joyful. So it's. Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here.
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Red lippy, red nails. It's anything that just makes us feel a little bit better. I want to start with the nine lemons. Steph, please, please can you tell the story of the nine lemons? Because I just. You've had me talking to my nine lemons for the last six months in my kitchen.
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Love that. I love that. Yeah. So nine lemons. So when I decided that I wanted to start this feng shui business, Feng shui is very, you know, it's, you know, 6,000 years old. It's been around forever. A lot of it is very traditional and, you know, steeped in so much history, which I absolutely love. But I wanted a name that really represented sort of the fresh approach that I have. And, you know, when life gives you lemons, put nine in a bowl. And that's what I feel like I did with my life. I had all of this stuff happen. I was working in, you know, a really full on corporate role, and I just decided to throw it all in and just start afresh. And I love nine. So nine is a really, really powerful number in feng shui. We're currently in cycle nine, and nine is just a beautiful number of prosperity and abundance. And then lemons. I've always loved lemons. I love limoncello. I love a bit of, like, the zest and all of that kind of stuff. And I thought, you know what, I just love it together. And then it was also a little cheeky wink, Ellie, because I also love myself a little bit of the Real Housewives. I'm a trash TV fanatic, and one of the Real Housewives always talked about feng shui, and she often had nine lemons in a bowl. So it was sort of like a secret wink, like a secret insider joke to myself.
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A secret wink. I love it. Yeah, I just. I just think you're so right. Nine lemons. I've loved having them in my kitchen, but they just look so beautiful. You don't need flowers or anything. It's just nine lemons. Light, bright. I also love the. The number nine. I know Cycle nine is so prevalent, especially in feng shui and all of those teachings. But just before we came on, we were talking about fear. And one of my favorite books, when I was the same as you, leaving my corporate job, one of the books that I read, or I was advised to read was Suzanne Jeffers, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. Have you read the book?
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Yes.
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Yeah. But in there, one of my. My memories was reading, she got me to write a grid of the nine grid. Do you remember? It's like a nine. It was just like.
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It's.
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It feels like such a whole number, a solid number. And she said, if you only have one thing in your life, if that one thing disappears, I. E. Your job, you've got nothing left. She said the purpose is to fill the 9 grid, or the 9 boxes of your grid with all of the things that you love. So that's family and hobbies and a career and purpose and your health and friends. And just. She said, fill your 9 grid so that if one thing gets taken out or removed, your career, you still got eight that are surrounding you. And I just thought that that was so powerful. So nine to me is just such a beautiful number. And lemons in a bowl. Zesty fresh. What's not to love?
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And you know what, if you're making a gin and tonic, you can put it in there, you can make some lemon curd, like, I love a bit of a lemon meringue pie. It's just also a useful fruit. Useful something to have on hand.
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Good for your digestion too, isn't it?
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Exactly, exactly. Just chop some up, put some in some water in the morning. But also in feng shui, we've got the Bagua, which is, you know, something that we use, which also has the nine areas. So nine comes up a lot in that. So I love that. And I didn't actually connect the dots between the grid either, so I love that too.
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Well, it's the same, isn't it? It. That is the bagua. Map the nine and talk. Okay, so for people who don't know what you're talking about, what we're talking about, about the Bagua map, Could you talk us through those nine squares then, of the bagua map and how do you use them? Because I know that this is so useful. You work with incredible women and you're helping them lead their lives, grow businesses, have a great career, and you take them through that kind of like, cleansing exercise of the nine grid. So perhaps, perhaps we go there. Should we go there?
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Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to go all and everywhere, but it is a really nice place to start. It does really. Yeah. Nicely, I think, introduced feng shui and the bagua. So the bagua is essentially the nine different areas of your life mapped to your home. So if you have a floor plan, ideally you've got a rectangular house, Ali. So it's nice and easy. Most of us don't, so that's fine. It can be adapted. But you essentially overlay the nine different areas of your life over your floor plan. And those nine areas are knowledge and skill building, career and life's purpose, helpful people and travel, family and community, health and vitality, children, creativity and new beginnings. Then we've got wealth, abundance and prosperity, fame, recognition and reputation. And then last but not least, love and romance. And it's so, so interesting because when I'm working with clients, I'll look at, look at their home. A lot of people I work with are female founders or entrepreneurs or growing businesses, but also a lot of them are going through a major transition in their life. So they've either left their job, they're starting a new business, they are divorced and wanting to move forward in their lives just, you know, at that transition point, or their kids have just moved out. Yeah. And so we look at the map and it's amazing when you overlay it. I can tell so much about someone's life just by looking at what areas are missing, where they are. Like, if you've got an area that is just full of bathrooms or like a big bathroom and laundry, you know, that is a drainage area of the house. So I'll go, okay, how, what's, what's going on in this part of your life? And it really can be a bit of a map to go, okay, what's going on? And where do we need to focus and where do we need to find and give more support? But we can also use it as almost like a 3D vision board to support what we want to do in our lives. So I know upfront, you mentioned about the growth that I've had on Instagram. Yes.
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Talk to us about that. Yes, yeah, yeah.
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Because. Because I activated the fame Visibility and recognition part of my home.
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Very, very intentionally, I suppose.
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Intentionally, yeah. So it was last November and I was working with a friend who also has a PR agency and she's like, oh, Steph, I love what you're doing. I had about 3,000 followers at the time. But she's like, I love the way you talk about feng shui and have a business lens. Would you be interested in talking to this group of women who are looking to raise their visibility? And I said, sure, let's do it. And sort of put together this presentation which was all about how you can activate your influence using your home. And as I was writing it, we had just moved house, so we're renov house at the moment. And we've just moved into my in laws beach house while we're doing that, which we're so grateful that we've got this space. But I hadn't done any Feng shui yet because we'd literally moved in like a few days before. And I thought, okay, I'm talking about this. But I haven't done it myself in this house. I need to really drink my own medicine before I talk to anyone about it.
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Drink your own Kool Aid, right?
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Yeah, exactly, drink my kool Aid. And so I thought, okay, I've got a few months until I'm doing the presentation. Because we sort of. She wanted to do it in the new year. And I said, okay, I better do this now, I better do this now, and then we'll just see what happens. So I found the fame, visibility and recognition area in my home and this area of the Bagua alley. So there's just to be complicated. There's over 140 schools of Feng shui. So there's a lot of different types of ways you can map your home. A really simple way that I use is called the three door Bagua. And I can put like a link to your show notes where people can download this. But essentially you lay the bagua against your front door, right? So you use your front door as the main point. There's also ways you can do it with your compass. People like to do it in different ways, which is, which is absolutely fine. But I find that this version is very effective and a little bit easier for people to understand. So using this system, your fame is like the back third, middle third of your home. So if you're standing at your front door looking at your house, it's your back middle third. And this was in the kitchen where we are.
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Oh my God. Mine's all the toilets.
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All the toilets are going to close. Those doors. Doors we want to close.
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And I live in a house full of men so that all the doors always left open and the toilet seats up. You can imagine I'm just, like, running around like a headless chicken going, shut the toilet door. Put the seat down.
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Yeah, I can. I can. Do you have. Are you on two levels, Ellie?
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Three.
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Three. Okay. Okay. So you can just choose a different level.
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Okay.
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If. Or are the toilets on all three levels?
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They're all on all three levels because it's an old Victorian house. So all the pipes are all in one place.
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I was gonna say offered the plumbing spot. Okay, all right, well, we can talk. We can talk about that. We can talk about that. But, yeah, so I. I went to that area of the home, and I thought, okay, I put a plant there because this was an area I wanted to grow. I was also repositioning myself, and I'm happy to go into that story a bit later as well. Ali. So I'd been working in corporate marketing and comms and was leading Asia Pacific for a global consulting firm. And I was like, okay, I need to move. Moving into this. But I'm relatively new in positioning myself in this feng shui arena, even though I'd been in and around feng shui for many, many years. So I put a plant there, and I was like, okay, this plant represents the growth that I'm wanting to have in my business. I said words to it, I spoke to it. I also wrote our intentions and was really, really specific around what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it and put it there and thought, okay, great. Looked at it every day. I put it in a really visible spot so I could really see it. And every time I looked at this plant, think about my plans and what I'm wanting to do and whatnot. And it was almost like magic. Like, I got so much clarity. So a few days later, I just had so much clarity with what I was doing in the business and how I wanted to be talking to women, because before that, I was sort of talking to everyone, and I thought, no, no, no, I really want to talk to these women. And then I changed my positioning, and then my Instagram BLEW up from 3,000 people to 30,000 people in three months.
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It was insane. It was insane watching it.
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It was insane. Yeah, it was like three to ten thousand in a week. It was crazy. And then I had all of these newspaper articles. I was on the morning show in Australia. I had lots of pot. Like. Like, everything Sort of. I was on radio stations. Like, just everything sort of blew up at once and I was just going, oh, my goodness, this is amazing. Amazing, but also, like, it's a ride. And I know you've had a lot of growth as well, Ellie, on your Instagram, which I love seeing, but it's also like, you've got to regulate your nervous system a little bit. Don't you just have to laugh?
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It is it, you say. It is a roller coaster. It's like you've just got to go on this wild and crazy ride. You don't know where you're going. You're going to go up, you're going to go down, you're going to get slotted this way and that way, and then you're going to come out the other end and you go, oh, my gosh.
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Oh, my goodness. Exactly, exactly.
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It's just fun.
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And it is. And it's. Yeah, it is fun. It is fun. And I think with Instagram, like, one thing I do is I just don't take it seriously. Like, it's just. It's just fun. And I think sometimes we can really overthink it. So, yeah, it was just. It was just wild. And I also did a few other things around, like, making sure the windows in that area were always clean because you want to be seen. If you've got your windows there and they're dirty, then that represents, like, not actually being seen. Making sure that the light bulbs were actually working and they weren't dull and they weren't like a really low light, you know, so because you want that visibility, so it's reflecting.
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You want the visibility being seen, isn't it? Yeah, Correct. Correct.
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Yeah. You could look at the windows in every other area of our home and they would be dirty as. But in that area, they were pristine.
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I was going to ask especially around the intentional setting piece, because I know that that is such an important part in terms of speaking to your home, but the process of just setting those intentions, like you said, you were very, very specific on the people you wanted to be seen by and how you wanted to help them. I think that's part of the magic of Feng shui as well, isn't it? It's. It's your home supporting you and you supporting almost like your home. This is what I want. Being very, very clear, very, very specific, being very deliberate. And you talked about kind of like the repositioning of who you were, who you are helping, and even just that practice of this is what I want is so incredibly Powerful. Can you talk to us a bit about that and the intention setting and how. How do. I mean, people have never set intentions before. What kind. How, what. How does your thought process work in terms of. Of that?
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How does my thought process work? Yeah, I love that. Because, yes, so much of things, like, is about intention. It's not just like putting nine lemons in a bowl and just putting them on the bench and going, okay, I've done it. Like, it' going, okay, what do I want my life to look like? And it doesn't have to be. We don't have to go 10 years, five years, one year. It could just be like today. I want to feel freer, I want to feel more flow. I want to feel lighter. I want to be happier. And then talking that into your lemons, talking that into your plant, talking that into your crystals, you know, even talking that into your water before you're drinking it. And something that you can do, Ali, is you can use the, those nine areas of the home to really look at these different areas of your life and go, well, what do I want that to look like? And we don't have to set intentions for every single area. It might just be asking yourself some questions, like, what is feeling really good right now? And let's celebrate that and let's, like, supercharge that even more. But then what's feeling difficult? What's feeling stuck? What has changed? Like, what's shifted? And what is just feeling a little bit heavier to work through? And then I would start there and go, well, okay, what are the things that I can do to shift this? But also, where do I want to call in support? And you can do that through these different items in your home and through your house itself as well. I talk to my house a lot. I say good morning, I say good night. I ask it to support me.
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I've been doing that as well. My family will call me weird. But I have to tell you'll love this story. I don't think I've shared it online before, and my sister doesn't know either. But having obviously gone through quite a lot of feng shui process and done feng shui for our home and been indoctrinated in the feng shui world, I started to take it quite seriously. All of my energetic stuff has always been just following a curiosity, whether that's been with human design, feng shui, tarot cards, anything. It's just been, oh, let's go and see what this is all about, and let's just try it. And one of the things that I recognized for my sister. She was struggling to sell her home. Things kept falling through and I was like, do you know what? I'm just going to go and speak to her home. And it just so happened that I ended up in her home in January this year. And without her knowing, I just put my hands on her, on the walls of the home and I said, please let her go. Please let her go. Please welcome in a lovely new family. Let my sister go. And within a week she said, I've got someone who wants to buy my property. And I was just like, oh my God, I haven't told her. So if she's listening to the podcast, but she doesn't, she'll hear me say that, but she'll be, because she doesn't believe in any of this stuff.
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I'm just like, but you know what the beauty is? You don't even need to believe in it. That's, that's what I love. My husband thinks that I'm bonkers half the time as well. My three year old son, though, he does say hello to the home. He loves our home so much. So he does. He's like, hello, good morning. But it's, it is, it's so funny. And I wouldn't, it's not funny. It's so interesting that I often. That's one of the first things I will, you know, encourage clients to do is to go to a place in the home that feels, feels nice. You know, often this will be sort of around the center of the home, which is the heart of the home. And you can either sit on the ground, put your hand on the ground, or put your hand on the wall, or it might be, you might be drawn to another place which is like your place, your sacred place in the house, and just have a conversation with the home and start with gratitude if you can. I know not everyone. I had a big resentment to my house, which is sort of what really pulled me into feng shui. I had a lot of complicated feelings about the house. Nothing that the house did, it's just the time we were going through when we were living in the house, right? And so I had to have a really open, honest conversation and apologize to the house for how I didn't, I didn't treat it badly, Ali, but I just didn't like it. But, you know, and no, I didn't love it and just also have that gratitude and thanks for the shelter that it provides us. And straight away the energy really softened. And when I talk to my clients, they Feel the same way. But absolutely, when you're wanting to sell your house, that is an excellent thing to do, is just say, hey, like, we love you, but we are going to a new house, and I need your help and your support to find a new family. Because otherwise that energy with the home, the home wants to protect you like it wants to support you, and it will yet cling on to you.
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I think you're so right. Is bring that gratitude from the shelter. Or if you're trying to move, it's like, thank you for everything you've given us, but we're now ready to move on. And we're so grateful for everything and all the memories that we will always have. And we're looking forward to finding a new home to support us. And you're going to look after a new family. I think that's so beautiful, isn't it? It's all about a relationship. I mean, I talk a lot about relationships, but I think. I think any relationship is always going to be stemming from, like, the one we have with ourselves. And then if we can bring that love for ourselves into where we're putting our physical self in a home and then create that love with the surroundings that we have. And when I first found feng shui, do you know what I loved about it the most? I started to fall in love with my home again because I went on this decluttering thing, which I think most people have to do when you start, don't you? It's like every room I went into, and I didn't make it to too big or too burdensome, it was that she'd, like, go into this room, set a timer for a few minutes and just clear a few things that I no longer love or that are broken in the room. And it was just like, okay, if I can do that for a few minutes every day. I did it in January last year, and by the end of January, the whole house felt lighter. Then I'd had my analysis done and I started to understand about the remedies. And that's what I love. And I even loved it again this year, you know, when we changed the cycle and you put in new remedies
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for the New year year.
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I love what's happened in our house because where I had fire elements, we've now got water elements. So last year everything was very colorful with the reds and the yellows. And this year it's all, like, blues and greens. And I'm like, I get to change the interiors of my home. And every room just feels Different. And I've fallen massively in love with our home again. And just taking care of it feels so very powerful. I'm. I'm honoring me by looking after my home because it creates a beautiful space for me to live in.
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Yeah, I love that. And I think often our home is an afterthought. Like we do all the other things, but we don't. It's a very transactional relationship that we have with our home. So yeah, I completely agree. I think my journey and deeper study into Feng shui just made me appreciate my house so much. And yeah, when you, when you work with the energies, so when you work with those annual energies you do, you give, you breathe fresh life and fresh love and fresh commitment into your home every year. And I know that I used to begrudge like cleaning the windows and doing this and doing that. And now I really see that it's just an act of, of care and tenderness and love to my home, which
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ultimately is also then for, for ourselves.
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For you.
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For you.
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Exactly.
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One thing I wanted to ask you and talk to you about is the sense of empowerment that I have felt through understanding feng shui. Because sometimes and especially I mean just before we came on talking, you were talking about everything that's going on in the world right now, which is kind of a little bit scary, a little bit worrying. We're not really quite sure where we're going with this. We can't influence a lot of what is going on in the globe right now. But actually saying how can I find peace, how can I create peace in my home is truly self empowering. I can't influence what's happening, but I can influence what's happening inside my home and create that. So going back to that 9 grid, it's just like, okay, there's stuff going on in. My boys are doing their A level. So it's like, what can I do in order to help them with skills and knowledge? Right. I'm going to go to that area of my home. How can I go and whisper to the home and how can I help support it? I think one of the things that I know that you do is really help women. Especially as you've been talking about founders and places is really looking after the practical spaces where they work. So while we don't know what's going to go on with the economy, we can take some sense of control back by where we do our work and how we do our work. Can you talk a little bit about that and how people can or women can empower themselves in their workspaces.
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Yeah, absolutely. And just going back a step as well there, Allie. Like, I think in these times that are uncertain, it's even more important that our home is supporting us and that our home is energetically, you know, working with us instead of against us. And it really is that sanctuary, and it's that place that we can go when the rest of the world. It's just like, what on earth is going on? Like, we can just come home. We can, you know, we can walk into the room, walk into the door, our shoulders relax, and we can just sort of breathe a sigh of relief and go, okay, I'm held here. Here. I'm safe here.
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Yeah, that sanctuary. Yeah, yeah.
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And then the workspace is so interesting. I work with, you know, so many amazing women, and I talk to them about their workspace, and all of a sudden they're like, oh, Steph, I don't want to show you where I work. And I'm like, come on, show me.
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I don't want to show you where I work either.
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These women who, you know, have got multi, six, seven figure businesses, they're doing all of this stuff. They're like absolute badasses, but their workspace looks like an absolute tip. And there's just stuff everywhere. And there's, you know, and I'm like, I'm not to judge anyone. I don't judge anyone right now where we're living because we're in, like, this transient location. I don't even have an office. I don't have a workspace. So I'm. I'm sort of just channeling myself when I put together all of my content, when I put together my materials, when I talk about it, because half the time I am working from. From, you know, a spare room in a desk in the corner, which is not well positioned. And it's funny because so many women I talk to do work from the spare bedroom, Ellie. And they. I say, okay, so where's your desk positioned? And it is in the corner. They've got their back to the door. It's like the smallest possible area that they could take up in this room. And I say to them, I say, okay, so you've got your guest bed here. Like, how many nights a year does someone stay on that bed?
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And they're like, oh, maybe like Christmas and Easter, maybe. Yeah.
C
And taking up your space like, you were the CEO, you were the queen of. Of your arena. Like, we do not want you shoved in a little corner. We want you to be in a command Position. So command position is something we talk a lot about in feng shui. And it essentially means that we've got our back against a solid wall, like a solid wall behind us, a solid wall behind us. And then we can see what's coming in front of us. So we can, we can see the door and there's space in front of us. And I like to think of like cave, cave woman time. So if we were in our cave, we are never going to have our back to the opening of the cave because who knows what could come in. A saber toothed tiger could come in, someone else could come in. We will always have our back to the cave wall or, you know, the wall behind us. So we can see everything that's going in. And that's what we want. We want the back behind us to support us and to like have our back. And we want to be able to see people coming in, but also opportunities coming in. So it's really important that we have space in front of our desk. Desk for the opportunities to land. And when I talk to my clients about it, they're like, couldn't change it, couldn't change it. And I'm like, let's just like, I know it's a little bit of a logistical piece. It might be getting rid of this queen size bed. I'm like, let's just give it a go. Let's just push the bed over to one side. Like, no one's coming. Let's just move your desk and let's just see how it feels. And 99% of the time, Ali, the desk just gets bigger. The spare bed moves, it changes into a sofa bed or they like turn it into like a Murphy bed because you feel so much better. And there's studies about this saying that your cortisol levels lower and that. Yeah. And you just feel so much calmer. Because even though we know a saber tooth tiger is not going to come and get us, our subconscious doesn't. We're still sort of like, oh, is there someone behind me? Oh, is there something coming? So the position of the desk is really important because if we are stepping into this role or if we are, you know, the CEO of what we're doing, doing, we need to make sure that our space is reflective of that. So that's the number one thing I look at. And then I'll also go, okay, well, what have we got surrounding our desk? What have we got on our desk? And how can we. Again, if a client was to walk into your office, like, would you feel how would you feel about that? You know, how would you feel about that? And are there steps that we can take to make sure that your office space and your workspace truly reflects who you are now? So part of that is going, okay, look at all those books in your bookshelf. Are they supporting the version who you want to be, or are they back from when you first started your business seven years ago? And all the self help books that we don't need their help anymore, like, without growing that. So it's even looking at that stuff Ali like really going through. And again, no judgment. I say this with no judgment because I get it. I get it. And we put things there and then we forget about them. But it's really examining all of these different things that we're surrounding ourselves with, making sure that we're not pulled back in the past, but we're also anchoring ourselves into this future. Abundant, you know, badass. Who, who is right there just waiting for us to step in.
B
Do you know that is, again, I get back to that word, empowering. Empowering ourselves to do something that can help ourselves. And again, it goes back to what we were talking about before. The intention of doing it is this. I am claiming the fact that I am only a CEO, that I am a business owner. Or even if we're speaking to women who work from home but are part of a corporate office, you're claiming it, aren't you? It's like I'm, I'm taking up space. That's one of the biggest things that I think that women struggle with is like the visibility piece. Who am I to be seen? Who am I to take up space here? And actually there's that transition piece of just saying actually what I do, what I have to say is really important. And how very dare I keep that to myself? Like, I'm sure you and I have both been through that. Kind of like, in our minds, it's like, who? Very dare. How dare I keep joy to myself? How dare you keep the secrets of Feng shui to yourself when we know the absolute benefit of actually doing this work. So I think it's really powerful. I've just been taking notes because I'm obviously sat in my window with no back towards me and I probably need to move it. And I've been thinking about it for the whole time I've had feng shui in my life and it's like, I need to move my desk over there. I do. It's time. And also today I've been sat in the Window. And it's so hot. I'm like, right, it's not going to be good. It's not going to be good in the summer. I'm sat here sweating away. I need to move. So that's my reason.
C
And you know what, though, Ellie? You can just test it out. And you can, because the people go, all the chords. You'll see the chords. I'm like, who's gonna see the chords? But also, like, you can do things to hide the chords.
B
That was so what I was thinking. I was like, oh, my God, the
C
chords, the chords, the ones, the chords, the chords. I just said, let's give it a go. Let's just have a play. Let's have a play and see what it feels like. And I know when I moved my desk, I was like, I felt like a different woman. Like, I felt so much calmer. I felt so much clearer. Like, even just, you know, the cognitive difference was really interesting because again, we don't. We don't sit there going, oh, someone's behind me, someone's behind me. Someone's behind me. But our body does. So you can really fully relax into it. And then a lot of women say, but, Steph, I need good lighting because I'm on zoom all the time. So that's also. We're like, okay, well, let's look at how we can position the desk.
B
So I find a solution.
C
Exactly. We can find a solution. And if you can't move your desk, because again, like, sometimes it's just not possible, then a way that you can create a backing is have a higher back chair.
B
Right.
C
So if you have a higher back chair, that sort of comes up to where you're like the back of your head just above your head. So there are those office chairs available, then that will give your body a bit more of a sense of relief. And that is a backing.
B
Yeah.
C
Or a plant. Like a plant. Again, we want it just to be taller than we are when we're sitting down. But yeah, there's always workarounds. And that's also what I love about feng shui. I love about feng shui that, like, no one's house is perfect, no one's set up is perfect. But there's always workarounds.
B
There's a solution to find it. Tell me, Steph, if people have been inspired by this conversation today, how can they come and find you? How can they work with you? Tell me a little bit about what's on the horizon for you. Tell me a bit about that.
C
Yeah. So, Ellie, as A manager. I've always got a million different things that I'm working on at any one time and I just have to sometimes just calm myself down and go, Steph, like, just calm down. It's going to be.
B
No, don't calm yourself down. You're here to be all of it.
C
I know, I know, I know. So it's just. Or just, you know, let's just think a little bit before we just act. But you know what? I find that when I just do act, it always turns out incredibly well. So what have I got on at the moment? So if people want to find me, the best place is on Instagram. So I'm in lemons, spelled out N I N E lemons, Feng shui. And I've got a number of different ways people can work with me. So I've got my initial offer. I've got a seven day container called Let It Go, which is all about letting go of things in your life. So releasing, I call them past self anchors. So I don't look at it as decluttering. I look at it as every single thing in your home has got a frequency and energetics. And if we want to raise the frequency, raise the vibes of the house, you know, how can we let go of these things that are not serving us anymore? So I've got Let It Go, which I absolutely love.
B
That sounds amazing.
C
Oh, it's so much, it's so much fun, Ali. I love it. It's like a private podcast that people, you know, get if they get a new day every day. And so, yeah, it's a fun one. And then I've got other programs. I've actually launching one just this week called Reclaim youm Space. And this is something that I've been sitting on Ali for since August last year. It was originally called Heal youl Home and it sort of inspired. Well, it's completely inspired by the journey that I had with our home. So we bought our house just after our son had passed away and it was a sanctuary for us, but also it held us in that, you know, in our darkest times, in our darkest hours, in our grief. And it, our home held a lot of grief. You know, that was where, where we were. And when I was ready to sort of move forward, I felt really stuck and I felt like the home was holding us back.
B
Did you feel like the home still had that energy that you were almost like in. Yes, it was that, isn't it? It's like you were in a container of grief that you couldn't get out of. Yeah, yeah, okay, I get it. I understand.
C
Yeah. And it was so interesting because the gentleman who he bought the house from, his wife passed away when they were living there. So one of the things in feng shui that I've learned is that you are often a vibrational match for your home home. So whatever happened at that time, when you bought the house, it's really interesting to understand the history of the other owners or even the land that you, that you have bought on, because it might be that a new house has been built since, but there's often a vibrational connection. So the house had held this energy for a long time, not just with us, but also with the previous owner. And yeah, I did feel like it was, it was sort of supporting us and holding us there for our own good. Like, I don't think it was done, it was done for our own good, but I just felt like I was walking through mud and just like us very, very slowly going forward. So I, that's. That pulled me into feng shui and to understand it more because I was like, what else can I do? I'd done so much mindset stuff. I'd done all the healing stuff. I'd sort of knocked on every other door. And I'd previously lived in Singapore. And over in Singapore, feng shui is like second nature. It's business strategy. It's used by the biggest organizations in the world. So I had knowledge of feng shui and I thought, oh, maybe I need to, maybe I need to look into this. And so I used a whole, you know, bunch of different processes and systems and healings that I did on my home. And so that's what. Sorry, a very long answer to a short question. That's what reclaim your space is all about. It's just a four week container. We don't go into the specifics of like the Bagua. We don't go into things like flying stars, which you've mentioned before. It's more like, okay, how do we almost like shake the energy in the house? We honor the past, we always honor the past. But how do we sort of almost have a clean slate? So this, this would be relevant to not just grief and loss, but like new job, career change, divorce, or like redundancy.
B
Yeah, anything. Everything.
C
Yeah, anything where you're like, we just need to shake the energy of the house up. So, yeah, so that's, that's one near and dear to my heart. And then that's one literally, like it was two nights ago, Ali I was like, I'm Running this now it's time.
B
That's such a money gen thing to do, isn't it? My sacral says now, I wonder if you. Have you got in your. I wonder if in your human design chart you might be the same as me. I have a channel that's 5 to 15, which is you trust and know your own rhythm. Them, it's you don't know until you know. It's like I've sat on things like when I started the Joy broadcast, I knew the name six months before I launched it, but I was like, it's not the right time. It's not the right time. And then I was like, now's the right time. Quick everyone, go, go, go, go, go. We're launching next week. Go. It's just like now's the time and it's that, it's that feeling.
C
Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely have, I definitely have that one which is like, I'm sacral authority. But then I've got another channel. I don't know which I think it is that one which is like, no, no, no. You just need to trust your gut entirely. Call it heal your home. But I was like, no, no, I want it to be empowering. I want it to like we reclaiming. We are reclaiming our space.
B
It's the empowerment piece. You're all about empowerment and using your home to empower.
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then I've got, I work one on one with women. I've got a beautiful one on one package and also another program called the Energetic Advantage, which is six month. That is a super deep dive into all the things which is, is I'm launching that. I've got the next round of that that is opening up in May. So there's always a lot of stuff going on, Ali. But that's what's fun.
B
Well, it's options. It's about giving people choice, isn't it? I think I, you know, I, I think I love having choice. I love having the option and the choice. And I will put everything in the show, notes for people to come in and find you, to find out more about how they can work with you. Because it is a joy to have you in my life. I always love seeing all of your posts. I think, oh, I must go do that, that now. And when you come in my inbox, it's just, it's, it's, it really is a joy. So I so appreciate you spending the time and I know that you're on a completely different time zone to me being in Australia. So it must be really time for your bed right now. So I'm so, so appreciative of you joining me this evening, Steph. Thank you so much.
C
Thank you. Thank you. A joy to be here.
A
My mission is to spread love, joy, peace and abundance to as much of
B
the world world as I possibly can,
A
so that every person knows that they don't have to walk alone in their darkness. So if you've enjoyed today's podcast and this episode, I would be so honoured and happy if you would support my mission and share this with your network,
B
your friends and your family.
A
Please feel free to leave me an honest review on Apple or Spotify. And until next time, remember, the ripple
B
of joy starts with you.
C
Sam.
The JOY Broadcast
Host: Ali Mortimer, The JOY Coach
Guest: Steph McConachy, Founder of 9 Lemons Feng Shui
Episode: The Joy of Reclaiming Your Space
Date: April 11, 2026
This episode dives into the transformative power of creating joyful spaces—both physical and energetic—within our homes and our lives. Host Ali Mortimer welcomes Steph McConachy, founder of 9 Lemons Feng Shui, for a lively discussion about reclaiming your space, intentional living, decluttering, and how the ancient art of feng shui can empower women to live with greater joy, visibility, and authenticity. Steph shares personal stories, practical insights, and powerful mindset shifts about aligning your environment with your aspirations, plus a unique lens on moving through grief and life transitions with the help of your home.
[03:20 – 06:09]
[06:25 – 08:49]
[08:49 – 14:23]
[14:23 – 17:51]
[19:31 – 21:59]
[22:00 – 23:49]
[24:04 – 31:25]
[31:37 – 37:11]
[31:37, 38:10]
This episode beautifully weaves together the ancient wisdom of feng shui with modern aspirations for joy, empowerment, and wholeness. Whether you’re navigating transition, seeking greater visibility, or just want to feel more at home in your space and your self, Steph and Ali’s spirited conversation offers a fresh roadmap:
“The ripple of joy starts with you.” — Ali [38:42]