Author Q&A with Jane Bellis

Jane Bellis is a Sacred Nervous System and Shadow Integration Coach, founder of Mojo School for Holistic Wellness, and author of Mrs. Mojo: The Art of Feeling Better – Healing, Purpose & the Rise of the Divine Feminine. Meet Jane:

You are an author, but is it your day job?I spend much of my time creating content and supporting my students within my Mojo School digital wellness space, as well as my group coaching and one-to-one clients. Of course, spending time with my family (especially my grandchildren) and growing my veggies in the garden are up there on the list too!  

Did you always want to be an author? It wasn’t on my radar at all until my early 20’s when I added ‘Write and publish a book’ to my bucket list. I’ve always loved to write since I was a child, and once the seed was sown, it germinated for many years until my kids were older and I could focus more. Once I started to write it, it literally just flowed out of me!

How do you hope your book uplifts those who read it? Oh, I’m so excited to share this piece of work. Right now, I’m finding a lot of women, in particular, gravitating towards my work as they move through challenges with identity, passion, and purpose, and try to work out who they are underneath all their labels. After a lifetime of ‘hustle harder’ and putting yourself last, this book really is an invitation to understand yourself fully and heal from a lifetime of wounds that have kept you completely held back. It’s such a powerful thing to hear an authentic experience that relates to what you’re going through, with a positive ending and a blueprint to follow. It’s exciting and liberating. 

What are you most excited about with this book? I think I’m most excited to finally embrace my authentic self and inspire women to do the same, fostering confidence and connection. But I know it’s finally the right time, and it’s going to help other women who really need this right now, and that excites me the most.

How did writing a book help your career take off? This is a great question! I’ve spent many, many years building my business and my platform and was already embedding my work into various spaces by the time it felt right to begin writing this book – so I feel I’ve done it a little back to front. BUT the feedback I’ve had so far and the credibility that comes from being a published author really does add a lot of weight to whatever industry you’re in, for sure. 

What advice would you give someone wanting to succeed in your professional industry? There are a couple of important things here. It’s crucial when you’re working in the mental health, coaching, and psychotherapy space to make sure you’re coming from a place of service, not a wounded place yourself.  Having a good support network and coaching/supervision yourself to make sure you’re not missing your blind spots and just projecting onto the people you’re trying to help accidentally is crucial.

Secondly, I would say authenticity (even when it’s scary) is the key to success. Being able to speak your truth even when it doesn’t fit the mainstream, and manage your own nervous system with a decent set of tools when subjected to criticism or ridicule, is also vital to longevity and success. There will always be those who don’t get you – but if you know your truth, have good boundaries, and are grounded in your purpose, you can’t go wrong. I would say that for any industry, actually. 

How do you handle setbacks and criticism? I used to really struggle with this – being a chronic people pleaser. Part of my own ongoing healing journey that I talk about in the book is that process of understanding my own truth – not the ‘labels’ and performances I used to throw out there to please others – has helped me massively. 

Once you’re on the right track and working with your body’s intelligence and intuition to move forward, it becomes a lot easier to handle setbacks and criticism as you see them as information and learning points, but they don’t throw you off course. Recognizing that not everyone is your audience – and that’s ok, will help to navigate this as it happens to everyone, it’s just life. 

Every day is a classroom, as they say – and you learn how to handle setbacks with confidence and discernment (sometimes you just need to pause and realize you’re going off path!), and criticism with grace and compassion, without taking it too much to heart. 

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage your publicity and social media and maintain engagement with readers? Another great question! I didn’t use to manage this kind of stuff very well at all, as I thought I had to do it all, and do it all 24/7! (Cue burnout!) I’ve really learned how to balance work time with family time and self-care time (because I’m also in work mode when I’m being mum and Nannie) 

I’ve leaned into tech in recent years and batch-create/schedule in advance, which saves a lot of time and stress. I’m really clear with my boundaries, and people know that they’ll only get responses during reasonable working hours (those who wanted immediate midnight replies have vanished from my radar – they weren’t my audience). 

Whenever I possibly can I prioritise budget for things like PR and SEO and outsource to the pro’s. It’s a crucial business strategy that keeps me loving what I do, managing stress and spending the majority of my time doing the things that I love. 

How do you hold yourself accountable and achieve the goals that you set forth? I’m actually a little easier on myself than I used to be – and that helps me be really productive and aligned. I used to set crazy targets and have really unrealistic expectations on myself, and while I always hit them – it came at a great expense to my health and my energy. The financial side has actually improved once I began to behave differently in this way too. 

I spend more time pausing and setting realistic, super aligned goals and properly planning timelines and support/outsourcing that I might need – and this pays dividends in so many ways, and these are some of the things that I now teach. 

How do you structure your day and make time for writing? This was really tough when I wrote my first book as my 4 kids were still quite young and I was neck deep in old behaviours around hustle and burnout so it was tough but I was super disciplined – my own self care time and rest took the hit massively. I can remember having no WiFi in the house and not a single moment of peace, so I would tag-team with my husband when he got home from work and spend a few hours in a hotel lobby, connecting for hours in the hotel, and writing in peace.

Now that I’m in a different space and the kids are older, I still have a busy diary, but I’m much calmer and more aligned with my purpose, which means greater clarity on goals and, therefore, prioritizing my time and energy. I set certain blocks of time for writing (I find I’m really productive for a couple of hours at a time, and then I need to step away and connect with nature, walk, bake, eat good food, and rest to replenish myself).

With that in mind, I can realistically plan how many writing sessions I can manage in a week whilst staying in the healthy and enjoyable zone, and this will dictate my overall publishing deadline. I used to set a date first and then, no matter how unrealistic it was, or what came up in the meantime, I would always hit it, just punishing myself in the process and then burning out massively after launching. 

I tend to block out morning writing when I’m at my most focussed and productive, after everyone else has left the house. If I’m feeling in the zone and have no clients or group sessions booked in I’ll go back and do another session in my office in the evening. 

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? Supporting other people to heal and find their true selves – hands down. I think I’ve always been meant for this work and have had various versions of it over the years – but as I’ve developed and grown on my own journey it’s become more and more apparent that this is what lights me up. 

Coming out of a career in fashion & beauty where I hit the peak of my career, yet felt completely unfulfilled is a stark contrast to where I am right now. It just feels totally aligned and fulfilling every day. 

Anything else you’d like to share with your readers? I’d love to encourage everyone out there to hit the pause button and do a little life audit. Where do things feel good? And where do they feel forced/misaligned?  There’s ALWAYS room for change and growth (especially when it feels scary – that’s when the best growth happens!)

If you’re looking to create big changes, or just to develop something in your life, whether it’s your health, your career, or your relationships (or maybe even writing a book yourself!) – you need to free up your internal bandwidth first.  You can’t keep adding new things on top of the load – it’s just not sustainable. However, when you free up some space and really work out what lights you up – you create the perfect conditions for new things to come into your life that are perfect for you. 

Don’t wait for someone to give you permission to be your true self. If you’ve been giving away authorship of your life to others – it’s time to take back the pen and rewrite the rest of your story your way. 

You can learn more about Jane and order a copy of her book from her website