Tracey Jewel is an Australian reality TV star, online coaching leader, self-help author, and a panelist on the new reality series Witches of Wall Street. Yet while she’s often been the star of the stage, behind the scenes she started with holistic welfare advice offering help to fellow practitioners in the online coaching space.
Mother-of-two Tracey is a go-to voice for women juggling motherhood and careers but, she says, a major demographic in her life coaching was wellness professionals because “they’re looking after everyone else, and if they don’t fill their cup up first, they’re going to burn out”.
Some self-help practitioners, Tracey says, try to take on all aspects of the business themselves; trying to keep all the plates spinning in the air simultaneously in their own and their clients’ lives, which can and does lead to the occasional broken plate.
“I have a lot of help. I’m a big fan of delegating,” she says.
Develop your strengths
“I like connecting with people, so I’m the one managing my Instagram and writing comments and sharing. I like to be the one showing up for my clients and my professional group, but in terms of everything else like the business accounts, maintaining my databases, and all that stuff, I’m not afraid to ask for help.”
She says even the most committed practitioner doesn’t need to “wear all the hats” and assume a “monkish” persona to fulfill their obligations in helping others.
“Develop your strengths. Don’t worry about your weaknesses. Because you can’t balance it all out. I’d rather focus on my strengths and what I’m good at and delegate the rest.”
Tracey, who was originally inspired by life coach guru Tony Robbins in 2004, also highlights the value of collaboration with people, especially women, who are walking the same paths in the self-help space.
She is busy readying the launch of her self-care platform Upself and her fourth book, Decoding the Wellness Mantra, which she describes as a collaborative effort that dabbles in different wellness modalities that help women raise their vibration and live a high-frequency life.
“All my previous books were just me and I really want to help empower as many women as I can. So, the reason I chose to co-author was to give more value to the readers and because we wanted to be a powerful female team that helped our sisters achieve maximum potential in their lives,” Tracey says.
Hard rows and TV shows
Tracey Jewel’s latest foray into TV sees her among the six Witches of Wall Street – a powerful group of successful businesswomen helping to empower other women – many of whom feature in Decoding the Wellness Mantra. The cast Includes fellow ‘witches’ Leah Steele, Taryn Lee, Michelle Patrick, Rhonda Swan and Soraya Garfield.
“It’s a dabble into different wellness modalities that women might not have come across to raise their vibration and live a high-frequency lifestyle,” Tracey says.
After drawing inspiration from Tony Robbins, Tracey started writing books about female empowerment after the birth of her first child, Grace, who is now 11. Her trilogy started with Goddess Within and Don’t Mess with the Goddess.
“They all have a flavor of feminine energy and personal power in your life. About having a side hustle, running your own business, developing your career – balancing life and business,” Tracey says.
Her third book This Goddess Means Business launched in 2018, on the back of Tracey’s appearance on the popular reality TV show Married at First Sight – Australia, which propelled her into the glare of the media spotlight. The show was touted as one of Australia’s biggest social experiments and has been successful in numerous other countries.
Tracey’s onscreen ‘marriage’ to Dean in season five didn’t work out in the end but, at the time, she was crowned the season’s most empowered bride for the way she handled herself.
“I took my power back and found my self-worth through the process,” she says.
Life under the media microscope hasn’t always been – and still isn’t – kind to Tracey, who treats her detractors with far more compassion than they might deserve.
Asked about hurtful experiences, both with the press and social media, Tracey says there were some low moments during her second pregnancy and in recently-born son Frankie’s first few weeks.
“I had a hard pregnancy and I found being pregnant and becoming a mom is when you’re most judged. I get to see the whole spectrum of opinions across my 160,000 Instagram followers and, sadly, in my extensive experience of being trolled online, the majority have been women.”
Her advice to anyone dealing with bullying, on- or off-line is that you mustn’t give those people the power to hurt you.
You have the power
For most people, COVID lockdown really brought home the reality of juggling career and family, mixing working from home with home-schooling. But for Tracey Jewel, it made her realize that you can enjoy motherhood and a successful career at the same time.
“I think COVID has proved you can work from home and manage to balance it all. You don’t have to commit to a nine-to-five anymore and put your child in expensive childcare. You can actually make it work for you and your family,” she says.
“Life has changed so much for moms – it’s no longer prescribed that you have a baby then go back to work full-time. There’s a beautiful balance now where working mothers can decide how their lives will look. That’s a part of professional self-care, that we get to choose how we want our lives to look.”
Bursting bubbles
Tracey is clear about defining and expanding the definitions of self-care for women in general, as well as self-care for women in business and other wellness professionals. “Too often, in marketing and on social media, self-care is all cosmetic – it’s about getting a facial, a massage, and getting your hair done. Self-care should cover all aspects of real life,” she says.
“Women need a safe space to share their experiences and find their own way, which inspired me to start Upself.”
Self-care has many facets, from emotional to financial, setting yourself up for wealth, and from professional to social self-care – making sure that you’re not isolated, and you’re staying connected to friends and colleagues. The glut of how-to information can be overwhelming. Moving away from the how-to approach, Tracey says support should be about getting together and having conversations.
“That’s what Upself and my self-care approach are all about – creating safe spaces for people just to be able to vent about where they’re at and keep it real. We touch on all the aspects of self-care, not just the look-good-feel-good, fluffy stuff.”
Photo Credits: Tracey Jewel
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