If you’re just coming to my website for the first time, you might be a bit curious about who I am and what I might have to share with you.
I’ve been on this journey for a long time. Don’t believe me? Google me! Jana Beeman or Jana E. Beeman, or Balanced Life Today (the wellness side of my business). I’ve been online since the 1980s, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, so let’s just start here:
That’s my late hubby Mike with me and a baby lion 🙂
When I was 7, I was hit by a drunk driver on my bike, landed face down on the curb, broke out a bunch of my permanent teeth, shattered my jaw, my knee, and three little bones at the top of my spine. That in itself is a huge story, but I’ll save that for another time.
That year I got my first migraine, and from that point forward, I got them about 25 days per month. For 40 years. Devastating, disabling, crippling pain. And back when they first started, no one believed me, even though I was throwing up it hurt so bad. No one really believed there was an issue for a few years.
Finally I got to a doctor, who x-rayed my neck and saw the powdered bones in there, and he said it would always be this way. Nice. They tried me on drugs to ease the pain and relax my muscles, but I always felt sick on them – I didn’t even get the few days off a month that I used to, and I still felt awful.
I figured out I had to find my own solutions.
By the time I was 16, I was meditating. I got a little control.
By my mid-20s, I discovered hypnosis and got certified in it. Got a little more control.
Qi Gung, Tai Chi, restorative yoga… I was there. I even created a yoga practice that stopped the pain a while.
When EFT (Tapping) came to California, I learned as much as I could. Got a bit more relief.
I became a Silva Life master, a Sedona Method practitioner, and have continued to learn processes and protocols that help body, mind and spirit.
So using everything I learned along my journey, I was able to get some control, a bit more relief, and combined with better drugs and more effective pain control methods, I got a bit of my life back.
So in the middle of all this, there are more complications in my life. I left home at 12. I started a business, then another business – anything to have a place to live and be able to stay in school. I made some money, I graduated high school early, went on to 9 years of college and countless professional trainings and classes. I’ve had at least one business going all the time since I was 12, one of them an entertainment company I’ve run successfully for almost 35 years.
Then I was recently (a few years ago) crippled when my ankle joints completely broke down – the cartilage completely gone. While I was sitting on the couch (and doing REALLY painful physical therapy on my own), I decided to go to nutrition school online. Within a couple of months, I discovered more keys to my pain, and since that time have been completely migraine free. Yep – you heard me. Zero ‘classic’ migraines and just one or two visual ones in all the years since I turned that corner.
It was like getting a whole new life – almost for the first time!
So I started a health coaching practice with a focus on migraines. I did everything I knew about business and everything they talked about doing in school, and I got one client.
Hmmmmm… not the way I thought that would go.
And so I did what I know how to do best – I studied, I took classes, I read everything I could find on how to run a coaching practice. I found the best coaches and worked with them – I even coach with Jack Canfield Coaching! I’ve taken workshops, gone to many events, self-studied and really immersed myself in how to run a coaching practice that serves people and makes money.
Then, at the urging of my coaches, I’ve shifted my focus from health coaching to business coaching. I’d been doing some all along, but it was time to hang up my shingle as a business coach. It’s where my true passion lies, and helping the coaches and practitioners who heal others is much more in alignment with my path. Teaching and coaching around business is so fun for me, and so rewarding watching my clients grow.
I had just decided it was time to make that shift, had no website or even a business card, and immediately got two clients. And I was off and running. I got so busy, it took me a while to get back to working on my site and getting those other pieces set up. But I have a thriving coaching practice.
Now, even though I’ve always been painfully shy and introverted, socially anxious and agoraphobic, I run two networking groups here in Vancouver: The National Association of Professional Women and the Holistic Chamber of Commerce. I am a leader within the Evolutionary Business Council, an invitation-only international mastermind of thought leaders and visionaries. I am an international speaker and business trainer for several coaching schools and organizations. I’m even a published author.
So what does that mean for you?
It means I not only understand your human struggles, your business struggles, your fears, blocks and obstacles, but I know how to move you through them quicker and easier than you can ever imagine. And I am completely human – relatable, compassionate, able to call you on your excuses, but gentle and effective. Yes, it IS possible to be both!
What would it mean for you if you had someone to follow who already knows the way, the shortcuts, the ways around the quicksand? How much sooner could you be achieving your goals and dreams?
I know for me, finding the right coach was huge. I now am with two master coaches, because each one gives me something I need to stay on track, to be big and powerful in my business and in my life.
Yesterday I got an envelope in the mail from Washington State University. The card started out “Dear Community Leader”. I totally teared up over that. Me? A community leader? But I am. I show up, I contribute, I am heard.
Someday I’ll share more of my story around why that is SUCH a big accomplishment for me.
For now, let’s just say that I can help you have that too.
What’s your dream?
Where’s your path?
Come on, let’s start walking.
I’d love to hear about your story too. Want to talk? Email me and let’s find a time! Jana @ createyourdreampractice. com (without the spaces 😉
Ok, so a couple people have asked, and I will share about my animals here.
First, I donate a portion of all my business income to my animal charities. I’ve done that for decades. Even when I wasn’t working due to my ankles and had no income, I still did it. I’ve been in animal rescue and wildlife activism for my whole life. I’ve petitioned, I’ve braved bites and freaked out animals in order to help them. I’ve taken over feral cat colonies. I’ve taken in abandoned animals and found them homes. I’ve watched out for as many of them as I can, and have worked with local and international animal groups in order to help more of them.
I support every zoo and wildlife center, at least by visiting every one I can and buying goodies in their gift shops, which also supports the animals.
I’ve had hands-on experiences with animals that would just floor you. Petting tigers, cougars, bears, playing with red pandas. I’ve rescued and lived with ferrets, a bobcat, wild birds of various kinds as well as reptiles and other critters, plus of course the more domestic ones.
I don’t have human children, but I have 4-footed, pawed, hoofed, winged and scaly children. No, I do not claim bugs. I have my limits!
In my lifetime, I’ve contributed to saving two species – the California Condor and the Black Footed Ferret. I’ve not only worked in veterinary at wildlife rescue and raptor rescue stations, I’ve signed and circulated thousands and thousands of petitions, I’ve shared everywhere about what animals are facing, and I want to produce a documentary film on the wonders of endangered wildlife and why we need to protect it, and when this film is done, I’m going to make it my mission to see that as many children and adults as I can reach with my massive network see it, so they can spread the message.
Every day, more animals, plants, fish and insects leave this planet for eternity. It kills me. And we are so much poorer for their loss.
If you are an animal person, please join with me in stepping forward, taking action, and letting our government and the governments of foreign nations know that this is not ok.
Here are a few of the groups that are doing great work that you could easily support:
- Defenders of Wildlife
- International Fund of Animal Welfare
- Humane Society of the United States
- Care2 – a great place to sign petitions for local issues as well as global
There are hundreds of others, but this is just a start. Support your local animal shelter or zoo. Adopt an animal. Do whatever you can. Take a stand now, while there are still species that can be rescued.
A unit of life is a unit of life, no matter how small. All life is sacred. Period.
Here’s my soul-bonded baby, Mizmar.
My friend, a bengal tiger named Rocko
I lost my Schmww-cat a few years ago. I still miss her.
Epona, my Celtic Horse Goddess 🙂
One of my past feral rescues, Khan
Ok, he’s grumpy here, but he’s a lovebug.
I wouldn’t trade one of my babies for all the money in the world. And, in my opinion, every animal on the planet is one of my babies.