August 19, 2025 • 53 mins
Resilience emerges as a pivotal theme in our discussion with Brigette Panetta, a formidable advocate for social justice who has navigated profound adversities. As the co-founder of Media.com, she transformed personal and professional turmoil, including false allegations against her family's investment firm and significant health challenges during the pandemic, into an inspiring narrative of empowerment and change. Media.com is a platform where people and businesses can tell their true stories if they have faced injustice or false allegations by government regulators. Through her experiences, which include enduring 26 legal hearings and the loss of her family home, Brigette exemplifies unwavering determination and the ability to rise from adversity. Her commitment to aiding others in their battles against injustice is manifested in her efforts to establish a foundation for litigation funding and to promote holistic healing practices among women, which she talks about. This episode serves as a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the transformative power of resilience in the face of life's trials. Tune in as Shelley Johnson and Kathy Tuccaro talk with Brigette.
https://media.com/brigettepanetta
https://www.brigettepanetta.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@brigettepanetta
https://www.instagram.com/brigettepanetta/
https://womenroadwarriors.com/
https://womenspowernetwork.net
Brigette Panetta, Media.com, Women Road Warriors, Shelley Johnson, Shelley M. Johnson, Kathy Tuccaro, social justice, women empowerment, resilience in business, overcoming adversity, holistic healing for women, self-care strategies, women's stories of success, social justice advocacy, legal battles and solutions, breathwork for stress relief, meditation for healing, women entrepreneurs, personal development for women, building self-worth, navigating life challenges, support systems for women, empowerment through storytelling, creating a positive mindset, emotional healing techniques, community support for women, finding inner strength
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
This is Women Road warriorswith Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
From the corporate office tothe cab of a truck, they're here
to inspire and empower womenin all professions.
So gear down, sit back and enjoy.
(00:23):
Welcome.
We're an award winning showdedicated to empowering women in
every profession throughinspiring stories and expert insights.
No topics off limits.
On our show, we power women onthe road to success with expert and
celebrity interviews andinformation you need.
I'm Shelley.
And I'm Kathy.
(00:44):
Resilience is something thatnot everybody realizes that they
have to weather life's adversity.
It takes sheer determination,intestinal fortitude and resilience.
It also requires self care,especially when you're in business.
Bridget Panetta is an exampleof this.
She's a powerful advocate forpeople facing social injustice and
(01:04):
adversity.
As co founder of Media.com,she suffered false allegations on
her family's investmentbusiness, Mayfair 101 in Australia
by government regulators.
If that wasn't enough duringthe pandemic, she gave birth only
to find herself in the ICU andended up supporting her business
partner through 26 legal hearings.
(01:25):
She lost her family home andsuffered personal and professional
setbacks that now drive her tospeak out and assist others who've
battled injustice.
She's committed to creating afoundation to offer litigation funding
for people in the same circumstances.
Bridget is also passionateabout holistic healing modalities
and internal healing.
She wants to educate womenabout self care and the benefits
(01:48):
of breathwork, meditation,kinesiology and Reiki to overcome
trauma and stress.
Bridget's certainly beenthrough her share of all of that.
We have her on our show tohear more about her incredible journey
and what she's doing to makepositive change for women and women
entrepreneurs.
Welcome, Bridget, thank youfor being on the show with us.
Shirley, thank you so much forhaving me.
(02:10):
And that introduction was just amazing.
I was actually gettingemotional all over again.
Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
We're the ones who are happyto have you.
Yes.
You're an incredible lady.
Bridget, we want to hear moreabout your story.
What all went on?
What have you learned?
It seems like in the course ofjust a couple of years, life really
(02:32):
threw some boulders at you.
It did.
It did.
And it's at the time youreally don't understand why such
a massive challenge is comingin your direction.
But it takes a few years foryou to accept, process and learn
the tools, I guess, and evolveto match that challenge.
(02:54):
Challenge and to then be ableto see why came to you.
And I feel like I'm definitelyat that point now, which is amazing.
And I'm able to find peace inthe chaos which still kind of surrounds
us a little bit.
But yeah, it's, it's been ajourney what all happened.
So my partner and I ran aninvestment business, a private investment
(03:17):
company in Australia and theregulator took issue with our marketing.
We, there was a proceedinglodged on our business to say that
we were misleading anddeceiving the public with our marketing.
Which, you know, isinteresting because all of our marketing
had legal sign off.
You know, we did all of thethings that you require to do running
(03:39):
a business and running acompliant business.
So it was, it was a big shockto us.
As you mentioned, it was alsoin the pandemic and it was also.
It happened two days before Igave birth to my daughter.
Oh boy.
Yeah, it was, it was a lot.
And you know, mentally I wasthinking, no, no, you know, this
is just going to be a bit of amisunderstanding because we can provide
(04:02):
our legal sign off, we canprovide our tax advice for everything
we've done and then it shouldblow over.
But I think my body knew thatwas a bit of a roller coaster coming
up and went into a completestate of shock which then in turn
affected my birthingexperience heavily.
I wouldn't, I just wouldn'tcooperate and my, my blood was actually
(04:22):
septic in the end and no one knew.
So I was kind of sitting inthat for a while and that's when
I ended up in icu.
And as soon as I had Emerald,as soon as I gave birth to Emerald,
it was basically, you know,we're in a bit of a, a conflict zone.
Since then.
It was straight into survivalmode, straight into, how are we going
(04:44):
to handle this?
What are we going to do?
We lost most of our staffbecause of the proceedings and a
lot of them were in sales orin marketing.
And because it was a marketingproceeding, they didn't want to be,
I guess, linked to that,which, you know, is understandable.
But I was working in thefinance team so I kind of went straight
(05:04):
back into that role as soon asBob had arrived.
And I just remember saying tomyself, you know, you can have a
breakdown later and right nowJames and Emerald are your priority
and I just need to do whateverI can to make sure they're one, you
know, healthy.
So making sure everyone'seating and getting looked after there,
but also providing anything tolawyers and things like that that
(05:26):
I needed to, from a financeperspective and Just, you know, cleaning
out James's emails if I neededto, or just helping where I could,
I guess from a high level tokeep the bull rolling and support
where I could.
Wow.
To deal with all of that andto be a new mother at the same time
and have had a.
Having had health issues alongwith it, that requires more than
(05:48):
tenacity.
And the problem is, and a lotof businesses run into this, they
don't anticipate governmentregulators, they're bureaucrats,
they're sitting behind a deskand they can throw something at you
you didn't see coming.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
It's a bit scary, the powerthat they have, especially when you
(06:08):
can look into certain things,you know, like the investigation.
You know, James has never beeninterviewed, he's never been spoken
to.
And so that's why it was evenmore of a shock, because usually,
you know, they'd come to youand say, these are our concerns and
we can address them before it,you know, ends up draining a business
of their.
Their funds and affectingeveryone involved.
But we.
(06:28):
We didn't get the liberty ofthat, that process.
So that's why it was just evenmore of a shock.
So we're still, you know,we're still in court at the moment,
trying to get to the verybottom of it, because James is a
very, very determined andvery, you know, I've learned a lot
of my resilience from him,admittedly, because he has been able
to weather this storm really,with such, you know, integrity and
(06:51):
grace almost, you know, like,he's never.
I've never seen him falter orI've never seen him be rattled.
So I could see him goingthrough that and I thought, okay,
if he can do it, I can do it.
You know, like, we're a teamand we're going to get through this
together.
And, you know, because therewas moments where I just thought,
you know, I could just walkout that door and, you know, all
this for me will be, you know,not over, but I won't have to feel
(07:15):
this pressure because everyday I'd wake up and there would be
some form of bad news.
And it was like, on top ofbreastfeeding, looking after a life,
it was just.
It was like a war zone.
That's what it felt like in my house.
And because we were stuck inCovid, we couldn't leave.
So we were trapped in this.
In this chaos.
Well, and that impactedbusiness, too, with all the shutdowns,
(07:37):
and Australia was reallystringent on the shutdowns.
Yeah, A lot of businessesdidn't survive.
And the fact that we've stillsurvived through that and having
26, you know, lawsuits thatwe've had to battle along the way,
you know, I, I, I, I wouldhave hoped that people would see
that, you know, we, if, if wewere, if there were, you know, truth
in these allegations andthings, we would have just shut up
(07:59):
shop and we would have just,you know, we wouldn't have gone through
all of this.
James wouldn't have missedtime with his family and, but he
chose to, you know, prove thatand clear his name, I guess, and
protect the people that wereheavily affected by, by this, like,
heavily impacted by this,which were our lenders and things
like that.
(08:20):
So he thought they shouldn'tbe the collateral damage in this.
And he wanted, he wants tokeep continuing to fight to make
things right.
So I'm really proud of him for that.
It takes serious courage andit's very costly when you're entangled
in legal battles like that.
And then by the time you'redone, how do you get your reputation
(08:40):
back?
Because that's also somethingthat's seriously compromised when
you've been wrongfullyaccused, especially.
That's, yeah, that's one ofthe biggest things that we've struggled
with this whole time.
Because, you know, even if wedo win and even if we do clear James's
name, you know, that, thatdamage is done and that sits there
with him forever.
You know, he struggles a lotwith, with creating relationships.
(09:03):
And we, you know, we've beendebanked in Australia five times
because of the adverse mediaand things like that.
So that's where media.com was born.
And that's where we could seethe gap in the market and the opportunity,
I guess, because for us, if wehad a platform like that where we
could actually speak our truthand not have to go through the legal
(09:26):
proceedings because noteveryone can afford it.
And we couldn't afford it.
That's why things have gottenso bad, because at the initial stages,
we were defunded, so wecouldn't actually bring any money
into our business through acourt order, so we couldn't actually
fight our cases.
So they won, essentially.
And so when we were able tosource funding, which James, you
(09:46):
know, worked tirelessly to, tobe able to arrange and to be able
to, to work out, he was ableto appeal the cases.
And one of them was overturnedon the basis of a denial of procedural
fairness.
And now it's kind of in courtagain now.
So there's only so much I cankind of speak on about it.
But sure, there's, there's somuch funding, there's so much, you
(10:09):
know, time that goes intotrying to defend yourself.
And like I said, not everyonecan afford it.
So, you know, with media.comyou could potentially lose a court
case, but you can have theability to, to speak your truth.
And because when you know thisis happening, the, the journalists
pick a narrative and if you'renot on their narrative side, they
(10:31):
don't want to talk to you.
So we didn't have a voicethrough the media, but you know,
the government obviously wouldand did.
And so we weren't able to, tosay our piece and that reputational
damage carries into everythingand everywhere.
And so we thought, whywouldn't we create a platform where
(10:55):
people can actually have their say?
They can provide evidence,they can substantiate what they're
saying.
They can copy in articles,they can highlight sections that
are misleading, false, youknow, incorrect, inaccurate, you
know, whatever, however youwant to label that, that statement
about you and your life andyour actions.
(11:15):
And you can actually supportit with evidence and substantiate
it just so it's on the Internet.
You can actually create yourown profile from, from the source
of truth, not from ajournalist who doesn't know you or
hasn't spoken to you.
Well, and the problem is, andI've seen this, the evolution of
journalism, it's gone frominvestigative reporting and reporting
(11:37):
both sides of the story tovery one sided spin just because
there's so much competitionand they don't always even know what
they're writing about.
It's very frustrating.
And people's reputations,their whole lives can be ruined by
that kind of thing.
So what you're doing withmedia.com makes total sense.
(11:59):
Now is this just for peoplewho are involved with litigation
on media.com no.
It'S, it started like that,but it's actually gotten bigger and
bigger and bigger as we'vebeen building.
So it's now a whole platformthat you can create your story on
there.
You can put your, you know,your previous workplace, you can
(12:19):
put any kind of feed.
There's like a news feed soyou can post things about other journalists,
about other media that youwant to say your piece on.
But you can also postpodcasts, videos.
So it's kind of like bringingall of the platforms into one as
opposed to having to spreadyour information across, you know,
LinkedIn, YouTube, like everywhere.
(12:40):
So really get all into one space.
So it's a neutral platform,which is good.
Yeah.
Yes.
And all has to be verified.
So there's not like no bots,no unverified accounts, you know,
no keyboard.
We're hoping to remove thekeyboard warriors in one section.
And then we're also looking towith, like you said, having both
(13:04):
sides of the media because noone's paid, no one's paid to post.
And there's no incentive of,you know, financial gain if you have
a big headline, you know, toget those clicks kind of thing, that
paywall element.
So we're trying to remove that.
So there's just truth, there'sjust honesty.
And people are just writingbecause they generally love to write.
(13:25):
That's refreshing and it's so needed.
People assume everything thatthey read on social media is gospel
truth, when in fact it's not.
You know, I've read somepretty crazy stuff on the Internet.
It's like, really?
Okay.
No, I don't think so.
Exactly.
Yeah.
People just want eyeballs.
And I get it.
You know, people have beenable to make good money doing that.
(13:46):
But it's also, you know,people are confused this.
Oh yeah, there's an oversupply of information now.
And now people aren't surewhere to go, what to read.
And everyone just wants toknow what's really going on in the
world, you know.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
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Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
(15:16):
Kathy Tucaro.
If you're enjoying thisinformative episode of Women Road
Warriors, I wanted to mentionKathy and I explore all kinds of
topics that will power you onthe Road to Success.
We feature a lot of expertinterviews, plus we feature celebrities
and women who've been trailblazers.
Please check out ourpodcast@womenroadwarriors.com and
(15:39):
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Check us out and bookmark our podcast.
Also, don't forget to followus on social media.
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(15:59):
and other sites and tellothers about us.
We want to help as many womenas possible.
Resilience is one of thosequalities we often don't realize
we have until life tests us tothe core.
Bridget Panetta knows exactlywhat that's like.
She's a powerhouse advocatefor those facing social injustice,
and her own story reads like amasterclass in determination.
(16:21):
As co founder of media.com,she endured false allegations from
government regulators againsther family's investment business,
Mayfair101 in Australia.
That's how Media.com was born.
It was a place to convey thecorrect information to the public
and for those falsely accusedto speak their truth, where they
can tell their side of the story.
(16:42):
Bridget has had nerves ofsteel throughout the entire process.
During the pandemic, she gavebirth, landed in the ICU, and still
managed to support herbusiness partner through 26 legal
hearings, losing her familyhome in the process.
Bridget turns her setbacksinto fuel for change.
She advocates to fight against injustice.
She's now working to build afoundation to provide litigation
(17:05):
funding for others in similar battles.
And she's passionate aboutteaching women the power of self
care.
Through breathwork,meditation, kinesiology and Reiki
to heal from trauma andstress, she's been sharing her incredible
journey and the positivechange she's making for women and
women entrepreneurs everywhere.
Bridget, I commend you fordoing all that you're doing.
(17:27):
You're committed to battling injustice.
And unfortunately, we gothrough life, we all experience some
form of it, some people morethan others, and it comes when you
least expect it.
And certainly women can runinto that.
And I love how you'reempowering women.
This is to teach resilience.
(17:48):
That's something you don'teven have to be in business to need
to know how to do.
How do people find their resilience?
How did you.
Yeah, so when all of this washappening, I, I went into that survival
mode.
And then once we moved and Iwas out of that routine that I'd
created, like a really strictRoutine, my body just kind of gave
(18:10):
way.
It was like, oh, okay.
The robotic side of me justkind of collapsed, I guess.
And I had a child to protectand to provide strength to and.
And show up for.
And I was finding I wasn'table to do that.
And we were still kind of incovert, so I didn't have the village,
I didn't have the support.
(18:31):
And all my family were on theother side of Australia, so all majority
of them were.
So I really had to find a wayto be able to show up for Emerald.
And I actually, at one pointhad a panic attack because of some
of the headlines that I'd readin the paper.
And I'd also seen Emerald'sname mentioned in a court document,
(18:54):
which absolutely floored me asa mother.
I just could not believe thatthat was my life.
And so I was offered Valium atthe hospital.
And I thought, no, this ishow, you know, people get hooked
on things.
And.
And I wasn't going to give,you know, our opponents the satisfaction
of me getting some form of,you know, addiction or just hooked
(19:16):
on something that I wouldnever normally take.
And so I was just scrollingonline and I found a kinesiologist
that was in my area.
And I went to the appointment.
She was available the next day.
I thought, okay, amazing.
And I got James to watchEmerald, and I went to this appointment.
And I went in as a verybroken, broken person.
(19:38):
Someone who I just didn'tknow, you know, how I was going to
make it through the day, letalone, you know, have a beautiful,
healthy, happy life.
And so I went in and I did anamazing forgiveness practice.
She kind of talked me into it,and I just never.
I never thought of forgivinganyone because of the damage and
the pain that I had just gonethrough for the last kind of few
(20:00):
years.
And doing that forgivenesspractice was one of the most freeing
things I've ever done.
And I was just like, from thatmoment onwards, I was just so consistent.
And I was seeking any type ofhealing modality, you know, outside
of, you know, going to see adoctor about depression or anything
(20:23):
like that.
And as I started doing thingslike that and looking more within
and trying to work out how torelease, like, the anger, the frustration,
the resentment and thoseemotions that I was carrying.
I found as I was removingthese layers, I was hearing this
beautiful inner voice of, youknow, this.
(20:47):
You're gonna be okay.
You've got this.
And, you know, this is for abigger purpose.
And I just started to alignwith this really beautiful energy
that was, you know, Myselfinstead of seeking external, you
know, help, it was all comingfrom within.
And I've never heard anythinglike that before.
I'd never connected with thatlevel of myself before.
(21:09):
And from those moments I just,I just started to feel better and
happier and lighter and I was very.
From that moment onwards, Iwas very committed to, you know,
clearing anything that wasinside because that's what was holding
me back and that's what wasdrowning me.
You know, no one was forcingme to carry any of this hatred or
(21:30):
anger or this sadness.
It was me.
I was choosing to do that.
And so I feel like theresilience really came from just
trying to look after myselfand self care.
And I had to tell James, look,I can't help you as much now.
I need to protect me becausein turn that will help both of you
(21:50):
because I will be, you know,able to cope better.
Because when you're kind ofspiraling, it was, it wasn't helping
anyone, but I felt like thatwas the only way I could tell, like
ask for help essentially.
But when you can learn to helpyourself, I think that's the most
powerful thing and can helpyou overcome anything really is.
(22:13):
Kathy, you've experiencedsomething similar with your experiences?
Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know.
In my case, it came fromliterally decades of repressed inner
trauma and, you know, sexualabuse and extreme violence and not
saying anything to anybody andcarrying on.
(22:35):
I was a nurse and, you know,it was very easy for me to take care
of every, everyone else's problems.
And when it came crashing downwhen I was finally at the age of
40, I mean, I couldn't evencomb my hair.
I couldn't put one foot infront of the other.
I couldn't function.
And it literally took me tolosing everything I own and being
homeless and, you know, I wasdrinking alcohol a lot.
(22:58):
And it took me to stopeverything I was doing and turn like,
like you say, turn inwardlyand figure it out from the inside
out and start plucking awayall those layers of pain.
And it took me a total of twoyears to actually dig to the, to
(23:19):
the very core and find andfind out what it was.
It was just like, it took alot of different, different kinds
of treatment and differentways of seeking out.
Yes, I was doing meditation,Yes, I was doing, you know, I had
counselor, I was doing a lotof art therapy, I was doing writing
therapy, I was doing innerworkbook stuff.
(23:40):
I was, you know, exercising.
I'm, I'm, I'm meditating, I'mdoing all these Things.
But, I mean, change and growthand healing, it takes time.
It doesn't happen overnight.
And now it's been, let's see,12 years since those moments, since
those two years.
And my gosh, like, the.
(24:00):
The.
If you'd see me now, asopposed to what I was back then,
you wouldn't even recognize me.
Like, the change is so dramatic.
It's so, you know, caterpillarto the butterfly.
It's just wonderful.
And through those stages,through every single step of the
way, builds resilience.
You don't see it.
(24:20):
It's not something you canjust say, oh, I have resilience today.
It shows up in a way that whenyou're faced with a new problem,
it's the way you respond toit, that you're.
You respond to it better thanyou would have back in the day.
You know, that's how I see it.
Would you say, Bridget, thatthis has helped you respond better,
(24:40):
more proactively, and maybenot get drowned by the chaos?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And.
Wow, Kathy, that's such anamazing story.
Like, that resonates so muchwith me.
I know yours has been on sucha longer scale, but it's so.
It's so amazing that you wereable to, I guess, pinpoint what the
root cause of that was,because that's.
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
(25:01):
It's like the shadow work thatI've done has been incredible for
that.
And I guess when you work outwhat the triggers are, you can.
Every day, you can see thetriggers coming up, but you can be
aware of them.
So you do react differently.
So after doing a lot of thatinternal work, when the same kind
(25:22):
of conversation or the sameissue does arise, I am able to handle
it a lot better because I'mlike, okay, I've reacted to this
before.
This was the consequence orthis was the outcome.
You know, I got sick, or there was.
There was consequences that Inecessarily brought on myself, I
guess, because I wasn't ableto see it for what it is and, like,
(25:43):
not attached to it the way Iused to and see it as such a big
issue that it's just asituation we need to handle and just
flow through it a bit easier.
An analogy I like to kind ofuse now is just last year I started.
I started training on thebiggest dozer in the world.
And I was telling this to Shelly.
You don't realize what it isuntil you're actually in this ginormous
(26:06):
piece of equipment.
And it's literally, you are pushing.
You're building a road fromthe edge of the Grand Canyon cliff.
And you got to build a roadfrom the very top all the way down.
And so you're on a very, verysteep edge and you're pushing and
you don't see.
The blade is so big that youdon't see until the whole dozer is
over the edge and you tipforward and it's terrifying.
(26:28):
Right?
So, but doing this everysingle day and learning this piece
of equipment at 55 years old,I mean, hey, it's got its challenges,
but.
And half the time we'reworking in the dark and you can't
see and it's terrifying andit's working through my own inner
struggles is fear and this,like, no, I got this.
Well, now that I do that, that.
(26:49):
Kind of a job.
So when things come my way,like in my day to day life, I'm like,
huh?
Nothing.
You said I did last week, right?
It's a zip.
Oh, I got this.
Like, don't worry about it.
Like seem so bad or so big.
When you face your fears, youknow, nothing bothers you after that
because you're like, I've got this.
I can look at you right in theface at this.
(27:11):
Nothing's going to bother meafter this.
Like the adult and it's like Iwalk, I stand taller, I walk straighter.
I shoulders are squared.
You know, I feel better aboutwho I am and every single thing that
I've overcome and I look backand I'm like, damn, look at you go.
You're such a badass.
That's right.
Yeah.
I mean like if you imagineyourself in 10 years time looking
(27:35):
back at everything that you'regoing through now or what you went
through in the last fiveyears, you know, you're going to
be just so proud of yourself.
You're like, holy crap.
Let's.
You know, it's a really goodfeeling that you can't buy that you
can't.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's, it's somethingthat you won't be able.
Unless you do that work.
You won't be able to achievethis feeling that you have.
(27:58):
And that's just like that selfempowerment that you're like, I did
this all by myself.
I, you know, I, I wasdedicated to myself and you know,
that self love, which I, youknow, didn't have before.
And yeah, I do that as well.
I put my shoulders back whereif I have a, something, you know,
put on my plate or ifsomething comes to me and I have
to deal with it, you know, Ipull my shoulders back and I'M like,
(28:19):
got this, like, it's thatreminder, reminding yourself that
you can do it.
I've done it before.
It's okay.
That's right.
Just remind yourself.
But your biggest cheerleaderand your biggest advocate, and you
can get through anything.
Well, like the song, whatdoesn't kill us makes us stronger.
It's so true.
And to be able to actuallyrediscover ourselves and the intrinsic
(28:43):
strength we all have, I thinksociety has a way of extinguishing
that.
And certainly when you'redealing with unfair adversity like
you were Bridget, you don'tknow how to navigate.
Not everybody, especially withthe regulatory systems and legal
systems, you're not skilled in that.
You're not schooled in that.
What am I going to do?
(29:04):
Where do I turn?
And so many things come at you.
And people deal with this indifferent ways all the time to stay
focused.
How do women in business andeven in life, even if they're not
in business, how do they graspthat inner strength?
I think having a goal is whatgot me through.
(29:26):
Emerald was my, my, like, myinitial, I guess, priority.
So just making sure she wasgrowing and I was giving her all
my love and attention, like,that was my guiding light at the
time.
But then as things went on, Icould just see, you know, if I did
a meditation or if I didsomething, I could just visualize
(29:48):
this future that I was building.
And even though right at thatmoment I was just doing small little
steps, I felt, you know,sometimes you can look at that as
a negative, like, oh, I'm notdoing anything to achieve my goals.
But if you look at it as ifthese little steps are building towards
something really big in thefuture, and if you just manifest
(30:10):
and, and try and visualizethat future that you want to build,
every little thing that you'redoing, you'll end up putting your
time into those things thatare actually going to be benefiting
you.
So instead of, instead of me,you know, losing the plot, I could
have gone out drinking with friends.
I could have gone out andescaped all of my life.
(30:31):
I could have got a babysitterfor Emerald and gone out and, you
know, gone shopping and doneof the things that I used to do to
kind of, I guess, drown mysorrows or make myself feel better,
but instead I was putting itinto things that were making me more
educated or more feeling in,aligned with who I really am.
And I was reading more books.
I was doing more just courseson, you know, self mastery or understanding
(30:55):
the human body orunderstanding the mind and things
like that I was.
When you feel like you'reactually progressing, I feel like
that's what gives you that.
That strength to keep going,because you're like, oh, my gosh,
I'm actually evolving.
I'm learning.
I'm using something negativeand turning it into a positive.
And that is the most amazingfeeling for me.
Instead of going to victimmode, I've gone into.
(31:18):
This has happened to me for areason, and I feel like I can't let
that opportunity go.
I really need to transformthis into something special and turn
a negative into a positive.
That's really the way tosurvive and conquer life, if you
will.
There's so many negatives wecan encounter, but if we can turn
those into a positive, andpeople hear this all of the time,
(31:42):
it's a process, and we aremore resilient and stronger than
we think and being able tohave a focal point, I think you.
You had your goal to be ableto visualize that goal and the future
in a positive light.
People lose sight of that, I think.
Because everyone's like that.
Instant gratification iscurrently, you know, really prominent
(32:03):
in our society, where everyonewants everything right now.
And they're not.
If they've done one thing andthey're not seeing a result, it's
like, oh, it's not working for me.
I'm just going to give up now,you know, And I kind of was like
that for a little while.
I was doing things and Iwasn't seeing the results.
But I'm so much more patientnow because I can.
I trust in my journey.
(32:24):
I trust that it's coming, andI trust that every little thing I
do because I know it's inalignment with who I am.
And I'm doing it because Ifeel it's right, not because I have
to show on Instagram I'm doingthis, or I have to show people I'm
doing this.
It's.
It's like, I don't mind beingan outlier because that.
I know that that's what'sright for me.
So just being in alignmentwith yourself is what's going to
(32:48):
just keep you achievingtowards that goal that will come.
You know, you just need tohave trust and have faith in the
universe or in yourself andknow that everything that comes to
you is in divine timing.
And it's easy to losealignment with social media.
And when you're talking aboutinstantaneous, instant gratification,
we do live this way.
(33:08):
I mean, human beings havebecome a lot more impatient in the
past 15 years.
It's just crazy.
Yeah.
I was definitely impatient.
I was like, we're doing allthe right things.
You know, it's been five years of.
Of this legal battle and along time.
Oh, and it's.
Yeah, still going.
So we've got something, anopen case now, and then we've got
another one coming up.
(33:28):
And it's just like, when thiswas happening, I kept saying to James,
like, when is this going to be over?
Where are we in this?
You know, in the time range,like, where are we?
And he would try and, youknow, sugarcoat it for me and say,
we're a lot further along thanwe were.
But if you would have, youknow, said to me back then that this
was going to take five years,like, I don't know how I would have
(33:49):
processed that.
But now I think because I'veaccepted that this is my life, that
this is happening and there isa bigger reason for it, I guess I
can just live in peace knowingthat it's still going on.
And James, you know, he dealswith a lot of, you know, a lot of
the.
The chaos.
(34:09):
And I'm.
I can, you know, I'm luckyenough I can remove myself when I
need to, if I need to re.
Energize and do all of those things.
Whereas before, I was kind ofcarrying a lot of his pain for him,
but that wasn't my job, andthat wasn't helping him or me.
So I think, you know, when youlearn that, you just need to worry
(34:30):
about what you can control andwhat's on your plate and what's in
front of you, which for me isemerald and my career and just supporting
James where I can.
That's all I need to worry about.
I don't need to, you know, fixeverything in the world.
I don't need to fix everyone'sproblems for them.
That's their stuff, their journey.
And I just kind of can worryabout what I can control.
(34:50):
And it just made things a loteasier, a lot lighter, you know,
not worrying about whateveryone thought about reading the
media, like, who cares whatpeople think?
You know, if they're myfriends and my family, they'll contact
me if they want to know what'sgoing on.
So that was really difficultfor me to handle because I'm very,
you know, your identity isbeing judged by people.
And so therefore I was takingthat personally.
(35:12):
My ego was getting bruised.
But when I removed a lot ofthat, I just.
I don't care anymore.
There are a lot of programsthat teach that sort of thing, and
certainly in Recovery.
A lot of people will saythings like let go and let God.
Essentially, you have to letgo of the things you have no control
over.
Because human beings do liketo think that they can control the
(35:33):
world.
They really can't.
Mother Nature reminds us ofthat every now and then, you know,
and you may have the best ofintentions, but what you're doing
is just creating more internal conflict.
And certainly what you've beendealing with with five years of legal
wrangling, oh, my goodness.
It'd be like in the middle ofan ocean and you're trying to come
(35:53):
up for air, and you're able tocome up for air, and all of a sudden
there's another tidal wave andyou're down, back under the water,
and then you're coming back up.
I mean, to be able to grasponto some sort of serenity amid all
of that, that's a real accomplishment.
Yeah.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it was tough.
And that analogy is, like,spot on.
(36:14):
Like, spot on.
Like, every time you think,okay, I've got this, and then something
else happens, and you're like,when is this gonna end?
When is this?
When, you know, when are these.
Like, it was just waking up tobad news every day.
And so I didn't wanna wake up,but then I had a child to look after,
so I was like, you know, I hadto persevere.
But it was just.
Yeah, taking those hits wasjust relentless for a few years until
(36:39):
I was able to just accept thatthat would happen.
Stay tuned for more of womenroad warriors coming up.
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Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson.
(38:03):
If you've ever wondered whatit really takes to stand tall when
life knocks you down, you'llwant to lean in for this.
Bridget Panetta is livingproof that resilience isn't just
a buzzword, it's a survival skill.
As co founder of media.comwhere businesses and people can tell
the real stories aboutthemselves, she faced false allegations
from government regulatorstargeting her family's investment
(38:26):
business, Mayfair 101 in Australia.
Then came the pandemic.
She gave birth, ended up inthe ICU and still stood by her business
partner through 26 legalhearings, all while losing her family
home.
But instead of breaking,Bridget rebuilt.
She found resilience andstrength she never knew she had.
(38:48):
She works to help peoplebattle injustice, and she's on a
mission to help women reclaimtheir power through holistic healing,
things like breathwork,meditation, kinesiology, and Reiki.
Her story is raw, inspiring,and a reminder that adversity can
forge the strongest leaders.
It also requires a focal pointfor each of us.
(39:08):
Bridget, what do you advisefor people who may not be able to
find their focus, their focalpoint, the bright spot on the horizon?
I would just, in turn, like,just use yourself.
I see this a lot because I dothink that same thing, you know what,
what would have happened ifEmil didn't come into my life?
Because she's helped meovercome a lot of triggers and things
(39:29):
because children do that.
They bring out all of your triggers.
And I think, how would I havedone that?
Or why didn't I do this beforeshe came?
And I think it was because Ididn't value myself enough before.
I didn't have that, like,strong self worth.
I, you know, loved myself.
I presented well.
I always looked after myself.
(39:49):
I went to the gym and did allof those things.
But there was still somethinginside that was telling me I wasn't.
I guess there wasn't thatdrive to be able to evolve and improve
myself unless I got knocked,which I think that's why this happened,
so I could really evolve intowho I'm meant to be.
So I think if you can justhave that self worth and use that
(40:13):
as I deserve everything that Iwant on this planet.
And how, who, who do I need tobe today to achieve that?
Like, if I want to achieve A,B and C, what does that person look
like?
You know, and if that persondoesn't look like who you're operating
as every single day, thenthat's a good chance for you to start
auditing your life.
Auditing every single thingyou're doing.
(40:35):
You know, if you're waking up,checking your phone, if you're waking
up and having a coffeestraight away instead of, you know,
looking, getting some sunlightor having some fresh water and, and,
or having vitamins and thingslike that, you know, is that affecting
your energy to be able to bethe most, you know, abundant person
that you should be, to be ableto achieve the things that you ultimately
want in life.
(40:56):
So I think it's just usingyourself as that guiding light and
knowing that you're wortheverything that you've dreamt of
having.
You can achieve it if you juststart evolving your, your habits
and your actions and thingsevery day.
I like how you describe selfaudit, but that's a good description
to take a step back and say,okay, what's going on?
(41:17):
What am I doing?
Too often we don't do that.
Yeah, it's hardest starting.
It's easy to sit there andbrew in our own misery.
The hardest part is doing onesmall thing for yourself.
Even if it's just getting up,getting out of bed.
Well, at least you did something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's,it's so true, you know, and just
(41:39):
that one change.
I remember, I remember when Iwent and saw someone, what did I
say?
It was like a Reiki session.
And from that moment somethingjust switched in me and I would wake
up, I'd go sit outsidestraight away, I'd get up like probably
5am Because Emerald would wakeup at 7.
So I was like, I need twohours to myself in the morning.
(41:59):
Because when she was waking meup, I was, I wasn't able to have
the mindset that I would if Ihad just, you know, even half an
hour to myself before she woke up.
So I was getting up earlierand I was just doing a five minute
YouTube exercise, like anabdominal workout or a leg workout,
just five minutes.
And then I would do ameditation, I do a Deepak chopra
(42:22):
meditation for 15 minutes.
And just those two things, Idid them consistently for 21 days
and I was, I just kept going.
And I thought 21 days was my,my limit to try and create a habit
of some sort.
But just those two things, Ifound I just changed because I felt
so much more in control, Iguess, of myself.
(42:43):
And I felt like I was gettinga bit more of a routine and just
having that routine just kindof changed my mindset for the day.
Then I was reading moreinstead of watching a show.
You know, like I was wantingto do more productive things than
Feeling a bit more thanfeeling flat.
By doing this, I think thatthey've discovered that this actually
(43:03):
develops new neural pathwaysbecause you're developing new habits.
Habits are hard to break.
So you have to kind of rewireyour brain, if you will.
Yes.
And I feel like thatdiscipline of the mind, it's so much
easier to be disciplined whenyou have more energy and you've had
more sleep and I guess you'veoptimized your rest time.
(43:27):
That was a big thing for mebecause I wasn't sleeping because
of Emerald was waking upduring the night.
So I found, you know, whenyou're not sleeping, you don't have
that discipline because you just.
You don't care.
You know, you're like, just,whatever I need to get through the
day, I will do.
Parents are really sleepdeprived, especially when they have
infants.
Yeah, yeah.
(43:48):
It's unbelievable.
You don't.
You don't think that, but you don't.
You know, you hear thatphrase, sleep like a baby, your life,
and you get a baby like, oh,my God, they don't sleep like, what?
Where did this phrase come from?
Yeah, every four hours.
And if you have a colickybaby, then you got a even less sleep.
Yeah, yeah.
(44:09):
It's brutal.
It can be pretty tough, thoseearly stages and that's.
Yeah, I did get a really goodsleep routine for Emerald at the
start just because I felt likeI had to because I was working in
between her sleeps.
But, yeah, then they keepregressing and changing.
So it's like, you know, thathelped me to release control as well,
because you just have to gowith it.
(44:31):
Whatever the baby needs, thebaby needs.
You can't get them on too muchof a strict routine.
You know, it's just life.
Well, and if you're a new mom,there's no tutorial that comes with
that infant.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Right.
And.
And I was in lockdown as well,so I didn't really have, you know,
anyone over.
I didn't have, you know, themother's groups.
(44:53):
I couldn't do any of that.
I think we did one mother'sgroup over a zoom call, and I just
didn't go back because it justwasn't the same.
So it was isolating.
That's a tough one.
And that's what a lot ofpeople talked about with the pandemic
and all the shutdowns, theterrible isolation and people need
(45:14):
people.
They need a support system.
And, you know, if you want togrow as a person and you want to
exercise self care, you alsoneed to Have a good support system,
not people who are going towork against you.
You need to have, you know,people who are going to say, hey,
I can help you with this andthat kind of stuff, you know.
And so you were kind ofweathering the storm along with this
(45:36):
unchartered territory of legal wrangling.
Oh my.
Yeah, it's a bit of a contrastbecause in one way it was Covid for
me come at a good time becausewe were under so much pressure that
we could not have a life at all.
And so by having lockdowns itdid, it made me feel like I wasn't
(45:57):
missing out on anything.
But then on the other side itdid make things really sticky because
we couldn't like go out andmeet with people and you know, have
one on one conversations withpeople about the business and grow
it and, and try and find solutions.
So we were trapped in it.
But then it kind of gave usthat focus.
(46:17):
Time to be able to say, right,I'm going to just focus on Emerald,
get her in a really good routine.
Because we weren't going outfor lunches, we weren't going out
for catch up.
So it wasn't interrupting her sleep.
But then we were able to justfocus on work.
But then, yeah, we didn't havethe village at the same time to be
able to help, help us just, Iguess navigate the storm that we
(46:41):
were in.
I really like what you'redoing with media.com you're giving
people a voice and that'sreally important today in social
media because even thoughwe're able to connect with lots of
people, a lot of people don'thave a voice.
It's like they can't telltheir story and they should have
a right to do that.
I love the fact you're anadvocate for social justice.
(47:03):
What do you want to seehappening with media.com and how
do people.
Do people just click onmedia.com is that available around
the world?
Yes.
So it's going to be launchedin the next few weeks.
We're being in beta stage forthe last probably three weeks and
it's going to be a globalplatform and yeah, anyone can start
a profile and there's a readonly section, then you can.
(47:26):
There's other elements if youwant to be like a thought leader
and things like that.
So different tiers to it andit's just gonna be able to give people
that voice, give people thatsafety of having a space to be able
to post your thoughts, postyour, your story, post your life
I guess and control Yourreputation, control your.
(47:46):
Your image in the world.
In a space where, yeah, youdon't have those keyboard warriors,
the bots, and the need to justget a lot of likes or the need to,
you know, have a lot ofcomments and things like that.
It's not about validation.
It's not about status.
It's about just sharing your truth.
And just.
(48:06):
That's kind of the purity of it.
And that's what we wanted to.
To give people thatopportunity to just have a safe place
to share their story and.
And, yeah, just create acommunity of people that can follow
their story.
Share your truth.
I like that.
That gives, you know, and whenpeople are facing injustice, that's
a lot of it.
(48:27):
They're accused of something,they can't speak, nobody wants to
listen, they don't have a forum.
Because there's always theother side of the story.
Exactly.
And we also, at the time, wedidn't have a.
We didn't have social mediastatus because that wasn't our business
model.
We didn't really need it for that.
We were just focusing on ourbusiness, building our website and
(48:49):
things like that.
And so when we didn't have theplatform or the status or the followers,
it really, really was hard forus because we couldn't, I guess,
share our story anywhere.
So we did go to Twitter at thetime, this was nearly five years
ago, and we had all of thesepeople creating fake accounts with
James's name and, you know,and so they were then writing and
(49:12):
people didn't know who waswho, and it was like, it was such
a mess.
So I guess with our platform,it's all verified, so, you know,
it's the trusted source, youknow, that people can't create fake
profiles.
That's good.
That's very good.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's like we just wanted toclean up the area and the space a
bit just because we struggleda lot.
(49:32):
And I feel like, yeah, thatdid trickle into so many.
It affected us in so manyways, reputationally.
So hopefully in the future,you know, if there is a breaking
story, if there is someonewho's been criticized, you know,
people can think to go tomedia.com to see if that person actually
responded to that on their platform.
(49:53):
Do fact checking.
Excellent.
Yes.
This is so needed in socialmedia to be able to actually find
a place where people can seeboth sides of the story and see what's
really going on.
Things can go viral.
It doesn't mean it's true.
Exactly, exactly.
It just depends, you know, ifthey can get enough bots onto that
account to be able to createthat viral.
(50:15):
And then, you know, people,the retail just follow.
That's right.
Trend is happening.
So it's very manipulated.
And it's also, you know, forkids, they just, they're getting
the wrong start to life, Ifeel, you know, with all of viral,
you know, who cares?
They should just be focusingon themselves and it's just another
way for them to disconnect andget caught up and sucked into to
(50:39):
things that probably like, youknow, that aren't even true or real.
Amen to that.
So people can go out tomedia.com can people reach out to
you if they have any questions?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I am on media.com at the moment.
Media.com Bridget Panetta.
I'm on Instagram as well.
Just Bridget Panetta on Instagram.
(51:00):
And I'm so happy for anyone toreach out who might obviously want
a profile on the platform thatI'm happy to discuss that with anyone.
And also anyone suffering withany kind of injustice.
I've looked to, I've got awebsite, a landing page up at the
moment, so people can go onto there.
But anyone needing support,anyone just wanting someone to speak
(51:24):
to, I'm so available at anytime to help anyone suffering from
anything like that or any kindof adversity.
It's definitely a passion ofmine and I really feel like I want
to help as many people as Ican in that space.
So wonderful.
Thank you for paying it forward.
You truly are making apositive out of a huge negative.
(51:46):
Yeah, I feel like that's,that's what I need to do now.
I just, you know, I want to bethe person that I wish I had at that
time.
There you go.
Well, that's, that's, that'show things improve.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Bridget.
This has been phenomenal.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome.
We hope you've enjoyed thislatest episode.
And if you want to hear moreepisodes of Women Road warriors or
(52:09):
learn more about our show, besure to check out womenroadwarriors.com
and please follow us on social media.
And don't forget to subscribeto our podcast on our website.
We also have a selection ofpodcasts just for women.
There are a series of podcastsfrom different podcasters.
So if you're in the mood forwomen's podcasts, just click the
(52:30):
Power network tab onwomenroadwarriors.com youm'll have
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Check us out and please followus wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for listening.
(52:54):
You've been listening to WomenRoad warriors with Shelly Johnson
and Kathy Takaro.
If you want to be a guest onthe show or have a topic or feedback,
email us@sjohnsonomenroadwarriors.com.
This is Women Road warriorswith Shelly Johnson and Kathy Tucaro.
From the corporate office tothe cab of a truck, they're here
to inspire and empower womenin all professions.
So gear down, sit back and enjoy.
(00:23):
Welcome.
We're an award winning showdedicated to empowering women in
every profession throughinspiring stories and expert insights.
No topics off limits.
On our show, we power women onthe road to success with expert and
celebrity interviews andinformation you need.
I'm Shelley.
And I'm Kathy.
(00:44):
Resilience is something thatnot everybody realizes that they
have to weather life's adversity.
It takes sheer determination,intestinal fortitude and resilience.
It also requires self care,especially when you're in business.
Bridget Panetta is an exampleof this.
She's a powerful advocate forpeople facing social injustice and
(01:04):
adversity.
As co founder of Media.com,she suffered false allegations on
her family's investmentbusiness, Mayfair 101 in Australia
by government regulators.
If that wasn't enough duringthe pandemic, she gave birth only
to find herself in the ICU andended up supporting her business
partner through 26 legal hearings.
(01:25):
She lost her family home andsuffered personal and professional
setbacks that now drive her tospeak out and assist others who've
battled injustice.
She's committed to creating afoundation to offer litigation funding
for people in the same circumstances.
Bridget is also passionateabout holistic healing modalities
and internal healing.
She wants to educate womenabout self care and the benefits
(01:48):
of breathwork, meditation,kinesiology and Reiki to overcome
trauma and stress.
Bridget's certainly beenthrough her share of all of that.
We have her on our show tohear more about her incredible journey
and what she's doing to makepositive change for women and women
entrepreneurs.
Welcome, Bridget, thank youfor being on the show with us.
Shirley, thank you so much forhaving me.
(02:10):
And that introduction was just amazing.
I was actually gettingemotional all over again.
Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
You're welcome.
We're the ones who are happyto have you.
Yes.
You're an incredible lady.
Bridget, we want to hear moreabout your story.
What all went on?
What have you learned?
It seems like in the course ofjust a couple of years, life really
(02:32):
threw some boulders at you.
It did.
It did.
And it's at the time youreally don't understand why such
a massive challenge is comingin your direction.
But it takes a few years foryou to accept, process and learn
the tools, I guess, and evolveto match that challenge.
(02:54):
Challenge and to then be ableto see why came to you.
And I feel like I'm definitelyat that point now, which is amazing.
And I'm able to find peace inthe chaos which still kind of surrounds
us a little bit.
But yeah, it's, it's been ajourney what all happened.
So my partner and I ran aninvestment business, a private investment
(03:17):
company in Australia and theregulator took issue with our marketing.
We, there was a proceedinglodged on our business to say that
we were misleading anddeceiving the public with our marketing.
Which, you know, isinteresting because all of our marketing
had legal sign off.
You know, we did all of thethings that you require to do running
(03:39):
a business and running acompliant business.
So it was, it was a big shockto us.
As you mentioned, it was alsoin the pandemic and it was also.
It happened two days before Igave birth to my daughter.
Oh boy.
Yeah, it was, it was a lot.
And you know, mentally I wasthinking, no, no, you know, this
is just going to be a bit of amisunderstanding because we can provide
(04:02):
our legal sign off, we canprovide our tax advice for everything
we've done and then it shouldblow over.
But I think my body knew thatwas a bit of a roller coaster coming
up and went into a completestate of shock which then in turn
affected my birthingexperience heavily.
I wouldn't, I just wouldn'tcooperate and my, my blood was actually
(04:22):
septic in the end and no one knew.
So I was kind of sitting inthat for a while and that's when
I ended up in icu.
And as soon as I had Emerald,as soon as I gave birth to Emerald,
it was basically, you know,we're in a bit of a, a conflict zone.
Since then.
It was straight into survivalmode, straight into, how are we going
(04:44):
to handle this?
What are we going to do?
We lost most of our staffbecause of the proceedings and a
lot of them were in sales orin marketing.
And because it was a marketingproceeding, they didn't want to be,
I guess, linked to that,which, you know, is understandable.
But I was working in thefinance team so I kind of went straight
(05:04):
back into that role as soon asBob had arrived.
And I just remember saying tomyself, you know, you can have a
breakdown later and right nowJames and Emerald are your priority
and I just need to do whateverI can to make sure they're one, you
know, healthy.
So making sure everyone'seating and getting looked after there,
but also providing anything tolawyers and things like that that
(05:26):
I needed to, from a financeperspective and Just, you know, cleaning
out James's emails if I neededto, or just helping where I could,
I guess from a high level tokeep the bull rolling and support
where I could.
Wow.
To deal with all of that andto be a new mother at the same time
and have had a.
Having had health issues alongwith it, that requires more than
(05:48):
tenacity.
And the problem is, and a lotof businesses run into this, they
don't anticipate governmentregulators, they're bureaucrats,
they're sitting behind a deskand they can throw something at you
you didn't see coming.
Yeah, exactly.
Right.
Yeah.
It's a bit scary, the powerthat they have, especially when you
(06:08):
can look into certain things,you know, like the investigation.
You know, James has never beeninterviewed, he's never been spoken
to.
And so that's why it was evenmore of a shock, because usually,
you know, they'd come to youand say, these are our concerns and
we can address them before it,you know, ends up draining a business
of their.
Their funds and affectingeveryone involved.
But we.
(06:28):
We didn't get the liberty ofthat, that process.
So that's why it was just evenmore of a shock.
So we're still, you know,we're still in court at the moment,
trying to get to the verybottom of it, because James is a
very, very determined andvery, you know, I've learned a lot
of my resilience from him,admittedly, because he has been able
to weather this storm really,with such, you know, integrity and
(06:51):
grace almost, you know, like,he's never.
I've never seen him falter orI've never seen him be rattled.
So I could see him goingthrough that and I thought, okay,
if he can do it, I can do it.
You know, like, we're a teamand we're going to get through this
together.
And, you know, because therewas moments where I just thought,
you know, I could just walkout that door and, you know, all
this for me will be, you know,not over, but I won't have to feel
(07:15):
this pressure because everyday I'd wake up and there would be
some form of bad news.
And it was like, on top ofbreastfeeding, looking after a life,
it was just.
It was like a war zone.
That's what it felt like in my house.
And because we were stuck inCovid, we couldn't leave.
So we were trapped in this.
In this chaos.
Well, and that impactedbusiness, too, with all the shutdowns,
(07:37):
and Australia was reallystringent on the shutdowns.
Yeah, A lot of businessesdidn't survive.
And the fact that we've stillsurvived through that and having
26, you know, lawsuits thatwe've had to battle along the way,
you know, I, I, I, I wouldhave hoped that people would see
that, you know, we, if, if wewere, if there were, you know, truth
in these allegations andthings, we would have just shut up
(07:59):
shop and we would have just,you know, we wouldn't have gone through
all of this.
James wouldn't have missedtime with his family and, but he
chose to, you know, prove thatand clear his name, I guess, and
protect the people that wereheavily affected by, by this, like,
heavily impacted by this,which were our lenders and things
like that.
(08:20):
So he thought they shouldn'tbe the collateral damage in this.
And he wanted, he wants tokeep continuing to fight to make
things right.
So I'm really proud of him for that.
It takes serious courage andit's very costly when you're entangled
in legal battles like that.
And then by the time you'redone, how do you get your reputation
(08:40):
back?
Because that's also somethingthat's seriously compromised when
you've been wrongfullyaccused, especially.
That's, yeah, that's one ofthe biggest things that we've struggled
with this whole time.
Because, you know, even if wedo win and even if we do clear James's
name, you know, that, thatdamage is done and that sits there
with him forever.
You know, he struggles a lotwith, with creating relationships.
(09:03):
And we, you know, we've beendebanked in Australia five times
because of the adverse mediaand things like that.
So that's where media.com was born.
And that's where we could seethe gap in the market and the opportunity,
I guess, because for us, if wehad a platform like that where we
could actually speak our truthand not have to go through the legal
(09:26):
proceedings because noteveryone can afford it.
And we couldn't afford it.
That's why things have gottenso bad, because at the initial stages,
we were defunded, so wecouldn't actually bring any money
into our business through acourt order, so we couldn't actually
fight our cases.
So they won, essentially.
And so when we were able tosource funding, which James, you
(09:46):
know, worked tirelessly to, tobe able to arrange and to be able
to, to work out, he was ableto appeal the cases.
And one of them was overturnedon the basis of a denial of procedural
fairness.
And now it's kind of in courtagain now.
So there's only so much I cankind of speak on about it.
But sure, there's, there's somuch funding, there's so much, you
(10:09):
know, time that goes intotrying to defend yourself.
And like I said, not everyonecan afford it.
So, you know, with media.comyou could potentially lose a court
case, but you can have theability to, to speak your truth.
And because when you know thisis happening, the, the journalists
pick a narrative and if you'renot on their narrative side, they
(10:31):
don't want to talk to you.
So we didn't have a voicethrough the media, but you know,
the government obviously wouldand did.
And so we weren't able to, tosay our piece and that reputational
damage carries into everythingand everywhere.
And so we thought, whywouldn't we create a platform where
(10:55):
people can actually have their say?
They can provide evidence,they can substantiate what they're
saying.
They can copy in articles,they can highlight sections that
are misleading, false, youknow, incorrect, inaccurate, you
know, whatever, however youwant to label that, that statement
about you and your life andyour actions.
(11:15):
And you can actually supportit with evidence and substantiate
it just so it's on the Internet.
You can actually create yourown profile from, from the source
of truth, not from ajournalist who doesn't know you or
hasn't spoken to you.
Well, and the problem is, andI've seen this, the evolution of
journalism, it's gone frominvestigative reporting and reporting
(11:37):
both sides of the story tovery one sided spin just because
there's so much competitionand they don't always even know what
they're writing about.
It's very frustrating.
And people's reputations,their whole lives can be ruined by
that kind of thing.
So what you're doing withmedia.com makes total sense.
(11:59):
Now is this just for peoplewho are involved with litigation
on media.com no.
It'S, it started like that,but it's actually gotten bigger and
bigger and bigger as we'vebeen building.
So it's now a whole platformthat you can create your story on
there.
You can put your, you know,your previous workplace, you can
(12:19):
put any kind of feed.
There's like a news feed soyou can post things about other journalists,
about other media that youwant to say your piece on.
But you can also postpodcasts, videos.
So it's kind of like bringingall of the platforms into one as
opposed to having to spreadyour information across, you know,
LinkedIn, YouTube, like everywhere.
(12:40):
So really get all into one space.
So it's a neutral platform,which is good.
Yeah.
Yes.
And all has to be verified.
So there's not like no bots,no unverified accounts, you know,
no keyboard.
We're hoping to remove thekeyboard warriors in one section.
And then we're also looking towith, like you said, having both
(13:04):
sides of the media because noone's paid, no one's paid to post.
And there's no incentive of,you know, financial gain if you have
a big headline, you know, toget those clicks kind of thing, that
paywall element.
So we're trying to remove that.
So there's just truth, there'sjust honesty.
And people are just writingbecause they generally love to write.
(13:25):
That's refreshing and it's so needed.
People assume everything thatthey read on social media is gospel
truth, when in fact it's not.
You know, I've read somepretty crazy stuff on the Internet.
It's like, really?
Okay.
No, I don't think so.
Exactly.
Yeah.
People just want eyeballs.
And I get it.
You know, people have beenable to make good money doing that.
(13:46):
But it's also, you know,people are confused this.
Oh yeah, there's an oversupply of information now.
And now people aren't surewhere to go, what to read.
And everyone just wants toknow what's really going on in the
world, you know.
Stay tuned for more of WomenRoad warriors coming up.
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Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson and
(15:16):
Kathy Tucaro.
If you're enjoying thisinformative episode of Women Road
Warriors, I wanted to mentionKathy and I explore all kinds of
topics that will power you onthe Road to Success.
We feature a lot of expertinterviews, plus we feature celebrities
and women who've been trailblazers.
Please check out ourpodcast@womenroadwarriors.com and
(15:39):
click on our Episodes page.
We're also available whereveryou listen to podcasts on all the
major podcast channels likeSpotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music,
Audible, you name it.
Check us out and bookmark our podcast.
Also, don't forget to followus on social media.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube
(15:59):
and other sites and tellothers about us.
We want to help as many womenas possible.
Resilience is one of thosequalities we often don't realize
we have until life tests us tothe core.
Bridget Panetta knows exactlywhat that's like.
She's a powerhouse advocatefor those facing social injustice,
and her own story reads like amasterclass in determination.
(16:21):
As co founder of media.com,she endured false allegations from
government regulators againsther family's investment business,
Mayfair101 in Australia.
That's how Media.com was born.
It was a place to convey thecorrect information to the public
and for those falsely accusedto speak their truth, where they
can tell their side of the story.
(16:42):
Bridget has had nerves ofsteel throughout the entire process.
During the pandemic, she gavebirth, landed in the ICU, and still
managed to support herbusiness partner through 26 legal
hearings, losing her familyhome in the process.
Bridget turns her setbacksinto fuel for change.
She advocates to fight against injustice.
She's now working to build afoundation to provide litigation
(17:05):
funding for others in similar battles.
And she's passionate aboutteaching women the power of self
care.
Through breathwork,meditation, kinesiology and Reiki
to heal from trauma andstress, she's been sharing her incredible
journey and the positivechange she's making for women and
women entrepreneurs everywhere.
Bridget, I commend you fordoing all that you're doing.
(17:27):
You're committed to battling injustice.
And unfortunately, we gothrough life, we all experience some
form of it, some people morethan others, and it comes when you
least expect it.
And certainly women can runinto that.
And I love how you'reempowering women.
This is to teach resilience.
(17:48):
That's something you don'teven have to be in business to need
to know how to do.
How do people find their resilience?
How did you.
Yeah, so when all of this washappening, I, I went into that survival
mode.
And then once we moved and Iwas out of that routine that I'd
created, like a really strictRoutine, my body just kind of gave
(18:10):
way.
It was like, oh, okay.
The robotic side of me justkind of collapsed, I guess.
And I had a child to protectand to provide strength to and.
And show up for.
And I was finding I wasn'table to do that.
And we were still kind of incovert, so I didn't have the village,
I didn't have the support.
(18:31):
And all my family were on theother side of Australia, so all majority
of them were.
So I really had to find a wayto be able to show up for Emerald.
And I actually, at one pointhad a panic attack because of some
of the headlines that I'd readin the paper.
And I'd also seen Emerald'sname mentioned in a court document,
(18:54):
which absolutely floored me asa mother.
I just could not believe thatthat was my life.
And so I was offered Valium atthe hospital.
And I thought, no, this ishow, you know, people get hooked
on things.
And.
And I wasn't going to give,you know, our opponents the satisfaction
of me getting some form of,you know, addiction or just hooked
(19:16):
on something that I wouldnever normally take.
And so I was just scrollingonline and I found a kinesiologist
that was in my area.
And I went to the appointment.
She was available the next day.
I thought, okay, amazing.
And I got James to watchEmerald, and I went to this appointment.
And I went in as a verybroken, broken person.
(19:38):
Someone who I just didn'tknow, you know, how I was going to
make it through the day, letalone, you know, have a beautiful,
healthy, happy life.
And so I went in and I did anamazing forgiveness practice.
She kind of talked me into it,and I just never.
I never thought of forgivinganyone because of the damage and
the pain that I had just gonethrough for the last kind of few
(20:00):
years.
And doing that forgivenesspractice was one of the most freeing
things I've ever done.
And I was just like, from thatmoment onwards, I was just so consistent.
And I was seeking any type ofhealing modality, you know, outside
of, you know, going to see adoctor about depression or anything
(20:23):
like that.
And as I started doing thingslike that and looking more within
and trying to work out how torelease, like, the anger, the frustration,
the resentment and thoseemotions that I was carrying.
I found as I was removingthese layers, I was hearing this
beautiful inner voice of, youknow, this.
(20:47):
You're gonna be okay.
You've got this.
And, you know, this is for abigger purpose.
And I just started to alignwith this really beautiful energy
that was, you know, Myselfinstead of seeking external, you
know, help, it was all comingfrom within.
And I've never heard anythinglike that before.
I'd never connected with thatlevel of myself before.
(21:09):
And from those moments I just,I just started to feel better and
happier and lighter and I was very.
From that moment onwards, Iwas very committed to, you know,
clearing anything that wasinside because that's what was holding
me back and that's what wasdrowning me.
You know, no one was forcingme to carry any of this hatred or
(21:30):
anger or this sadness.
It was me.
I was choosing to do that.
And so I feel like theresilience really came from just
trying to look after myselfand self care.
And I had to tell James, look,I can't help you as much now.
I need to protect me becausein turn that will help both of you
(21:50):
because I will be, you know,able to cope better.
Because when you're kind ofspiraling, it was, it wasn't helping
anyone, but I felt like thatwas the only way I could tell, like
ask for help essentially.
But when you can learn to helpyourself, I think that's the most
powerful thing and can helpyou overcome anything really is.
(22:13):
Kathy, you've experiencedsomething similar with your experiences?
Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know.
In my case, it came fromliterally decades of repressed inner
trauma and, you know, sexualabuse and extreme violence and not
saying anything to anybody andcarrying on.
(22:35):
I was a nurse and, you know,it was very easy for me to take care
of every, everyone else's problems.
And when it came crashing downwhen I was finally at the age of
40, I mean, I couldn't evencomb my hair.
I couldn't put one foot infront of the other.
I couldn't function.
And it literally took me tolosing everything I own and being
homeless and, you know, I wasdrinking alcohol a lot.
(22:58):
And it took me to stopeverything I was doing and turn like,
like you say, turn inwardlyand figure it out from the inside
out and start plucking awayall those layers of pain.
And it took me a total of twoyears to actually dig to the, to
(23:19):
the very core and find andfind out what it was.
It was just like, it took alot of different, different kinds
of treatment and differentways of seeking out.
Yes, I was doing meditation,Yes, I was doing, you know, I had
counselor, I was doing a lotof art therapy, I was doing writing
therapy, I was doing innerworkbook stuff.
(23:40):
I was, you know, exercising.
I'm, I'm, I'm meditating, I'mdoing all these Things.
But, I mean, change and growthand healing, it takes time.
It doesn't happen overnight.
And now it's been, let's see,12 years since those moments, since
those two years.
And my gosh, like, the.
(24:00):
The.
If you'd see me now, asopposed to what I was back then,
you wouldn't even recognize me.
Like, the change is so dramatic.
It's so, you know, caterpillarto the butterfly.
It's just wonderful.
And through those stages,through every single step of the
way, builds resilience.
You don't see it.
(24:20):
It's not something you canjust say, oh, I have resilience today.
It shows up in a way that whenyou're faced with a new problem,
it's the way you respond toit, that you're.
You respond to it better thanyou would have back in the day.
You know, that's how I see it.
Would you say, Bridget, thatthis has helped you respond better,
(24:40):
more proactively, and maybenot get drowned by the chaos?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And.
Wow, Kathy, that's such anamazing story.
Like, that resonates so muchwith me.
I know yours has been on sucha longer scale, but it's so.
It's so amazing that you wereable to, I guess, pinpoint what the
root cause of that was,because that's.
Yeah, that's exactly what it is.
(25:01):
It's like the shadow work thatI've done has been incredible for
that.
And I guess when you work outwhat the triggers are, you can.
Every day, you can see thetriggers coming up, but you can be
aware of them.
So you do react differently.
So after doing a lot of thatinternal work, when the same kind
(25:22):
of conversation or the sameissue does arise, I am able to handle
it a lot better because I'mlike, okay, I've reacted to this
before.
This was the consequence orthis was the outcome.
You know, I got sick, or there was.
There was consequences that Inecessarily brought on myself, I
guess, because I wasn't ableto see it for what it is and, like,
(25:43):
not attached to it the way Iused to and see it as such a big
issue that it's just asituation we need to handle and just
flow through it a bit easier.
An analogy I like to kind ofuse now is just last year I started.
I started training on thebiggest dozer in the world.
And I was telling this to Shelly.
You don't realize what it isuntil you're actually in this ginormous
(26:06):
piece of equipment.
And it's literally, you are pushing.
You're building a road fromthe edge of the Grand Canyon cliff.
And you got to build a roadfrom the very top all the way down.
And so you're on a very, verysteep edge and you're pushing and
you don't see.
The blade is so big that youdon't see until the whole dozer is
over the edge and you tipforward and it's terrifying.
(26:28):
Right?
So, but doing this everysingle day and learning this piece
of equipment at 55 years old,I mean, hey, it's got its challenges,
but.
And half the time we'reworking in the dark and you can't
see and it's terrifying andit's working through my own inner
struggles is fear and this,like, no, I got this.
Well, now that I do that, that.
(26:49):
Kind of a job.
So when things come my way,like in my day to day life, I'm like,
huh?
Nothing.
You said I did last week, right?
It's a zip.
Oh, I got this.
Like, don't worry about it.
Like seem so bad or so big.
When you face your fears, youknow, nothing bothers you after that
because you're like, I've got this.
I can look at you right in theface at this.
(27:11):
Nothing's going to bother meafter this.
Like the adult and it's like Iwalk, I stand taller, I walk straighter.
I shoulders are squared.
You know, I feel better aboutwho I am and every single thing that
I've overcome and I look backand I'm like, damn, look at you go.
You're such a badass.
That's right.
Yeah.
I mean like if you imagineyourself in 10 years time looking
(27:35):
back at everything that you'regoing through now or what you went
through in the last fiveyears, you know, you're going to
be just so proud of yourself.
You're like, holy crap.
Let's.
You know, it's a really goodfeeling that you can't buy that you
can't.
Exactly.
Yeah, it's, it's somethingthat you won't be able.
Unless you do that work.
You won't be able to achievethis feeling that you have.
(27:58):
And that's just like that selfempowerment that you're like, I did
this all by myself.
I, you know, I, I wasdedicated to myself and you know,
that self love, which I, youknow, didn't have before.
And yeah, I do that as well.
I put my shoulders back whereif I have a, something, you know,
put on my plate or ifsomething comes to me and I have
to deal with it, you know, Ipull my shoulders back and I'M like,
(28:19):
got this, like, it's thatreminder, reminding yourself that
you can do it.
I've done it before.
It's okay.
That's right.
Just remind yourself.
But your biggest cheerleaderand your biggest advocate, and you
can get through anything.
Well, like the song, whatdoesn't kill us makes us stronger.
It's so true.
And to be able to actuallyrediscover ourselves and the intrinsic
(28:43):
strength we all have, I thinksociety has a way of extinguishing
that.
And certainly when you'redealing with unfair adversity like
you were Bridget, you don'tknow how to navigate.
Not everybody, especially withthe regulatory systems and legal
systems, you're not skilled in that.
You're not schooled in that.
What am I going to do?
(29:04):
Where do I turn?
And so many things come at you.
And people deal with this indifferent ways all the time to stay
focused.
How do women in business andeven in life, even if they're not
in business, how do they graspthat inner strength?
I think having a goal is whatgot me through.
(29:26):
Emerald was my, my, like, myinitial, I guess, priority.
So just making sure she wasgrowing and I was giving her all
my love and attention, like,that was my guiding light at the
time.
But then as things went on, Icould just see, you know, if I did
a meditation or if I didsomething, I could just visualize
(29:48):
this future that I was building.
And even though right at thatmoment I was just doing small little
steps, I felt, you know,sometimes you can look at that as
a negative, like, oh, I'm notdoing anything to achieve my goals.
But if you look at it as ifthese little steps are building towards
something really big in thefuture, and if you just manifest
(30:10):
and, and try and visualizethat future that you want to build,
every little thing that you'redoing, you'll end up putting your
time into those things thatare actually going to be benefiting
you.
So instead of, instead of me,you know, losing the plot, I could
have gone out drinking with friends.
I could have gone out andescaped all of my life.
(30:31):
I could have got a babysitterfor Emerald and gone out and, you
know, gone shopping and doneof the things that I used to do to
kind of, I guess, drown mysorrows or make myself feel better,
but instead I was putting itinto things that were making me more
educated or more feeling in,aligned with who I really am.
And I was reading more books.
I was doing more just courseson, you know, self mastery or understanding
(30:55):
the human body orunderstanding the mind and things
like that I was.
When you feel like you'reactually progressing, I feel like
that's what gives you that.
That strength to keep going,because you're like, oh, my gosh,
I'm actually evolving.
I'm learning.
I'm using something negativeand turning it into a positive.
And that is the most amazingfeeling for me.
Instead of going to victimmode, I've gone into.
(31:18):
This has happened to me for areason, and I feel like I can't let
that opportunity go.
I really need to transformthis into something special and turn
a negative into a positive.
That's really the way tosurvive and conquer life, if you
will.
There's so many negatives wecan encounter, but if we can turn
those into a positive, andpeople hear this all of the time,
(31:42):
it's a process, and we aremore resilient and stronger than
we think and being able tohave a focal point, I think you.
You had your goal to be ableto visualize that goal and the future
in a positive light.
People lose sight of that, I think.
Because everyone's like that.
Instant gratification iscurrently, you know, really prominent
(32:03):
in our society, where everyonewants everything right now.
And they're not.
If they've done one thing andthey're not seeing a result, it's
like, oh, it's not working for me.
I'm just going to give up now,you know, And I kind of was like
that for a little while.
I was doing things and Iwasn't seeing the results.
But I'm so much more patientnow because I can.
I trust in my journey.
(32:24):
I trust that it's coming, andI trust that every little thing I
do because I know it's inalignment with who I am.
And I'm doing it because Ifeel it's right, not because I have
to show on Instagram I'm doingthis, or I have to show people I'm
doing this.
It's.
It's like, I don't mind beingan outlier because that.
I know that that's what'sright for me.
So just being in alignmentwith yourself is what's going to
(32:48):
just keep you achievingtowards that goal that will come.
You know, you just need tohave trust and have faith in the
universe or in yourself andknow that everything that comes to
you is in divine timing.
And it's easy to losealignment with social media.
And when you're talking aboutinstantaneous, instant gratification,
we do live this way.
(33:08):
I mean, human beings havebecome a lot more impatient in the
past 15 years.
It's just crazy.
Yeah.
I was definitely impatient.
I was like, we're doing allthe right things.
You know, it's been five years of.
Of this legal battle and along time.
Oh, and it's.
Yeah, still going.
So we've got something, anopen case now, and then we've got
another one coming up.
(33:28):
And it's just like, when thiswas happening, I kept saying to James,
like, when is this going to be over?
Where are we in this?
You know, in the time range,like, where are we?
And he would try and, youknow, sugarcoat it for me and say,
we're a lot further along thanwe were.
But if you would have, youknow, said to me back then that this
was going to take five years,like, I don't know how I would have
(33:49):
processed that.
But now I think because I'veaccepted that this is my life, that
this is happening and there isa bigger reason for it, I guess I
can just live in peace knowingthat it's still going on.
And James, you know, he dealswith a lot of, you know, a lot of
the.
The chaos.
(34:09):
And I'm.
I can, you know, I'm luckyenough I can remove myself when I
need to, if I need to re.
Energize and do all of those things.
Whereas before, I was kind ofcarrying a lot of his pain for him,
but that wasn't my job, andthat wasn't helping him or me.
So I think, you know, when youlearn that, you just need to worry
(34:30):
about what you can control andwhat's on your plate and what's in
front of you, which for me isemerald and my career and just supporting
James where I can.
That's all I need to worry about.
I don't need to, you know, fixeverything in the world.
I don't need to fix everyone'sproblems for them.
That's their stuff, their journey.
And I just kind of can worryabout what I can control.
(34:50):
And it just made things a loteasier, a lot lighter, you know,
not worrying about whateveryone thought about reading the
media, like, who cares whatpeople think?
You know, if they're myfriends and my family, they'll contact
me if they want to know what'sgoing on.
So that was really difficultfor me to handle because I'm very,
you know, your identity isbeing judged by people.
And so therefore I was takingthat personally.
(35:12):
My ego was getting bruised.
But when I removed a lot ofthat, I just.
I don't care anymore.
There are a lot of programsthat teach that sort of thing, and
certainly in Recovery.
A lot of people will saythings like let go and let God.
Essentially, you have to letgo of the things you have no control
over.
Because human beings do liketo think that they can control the
(35:33):
world.
They really can't.
Mother Nature reminds us ofthat every now and then, you know,
and you may have the best ofintentions, but what you're doing
is just creating more internal conflict.
And certainly what you've beendealing with with five years of legal
wrangling, oh, my goodness.
It'd be like in the middle ofan ocean and you're trying to come
(35:53):
up for air, and you're able tocome up for air, and all of a sudden
there's another tidal wave andyou're down, back under the water,
and then you're coming back up.
I mean, to be able to grasponto some sort of serenity amid all
of that, that's a real accomplishment.
Yeah.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it was tough.
And that analogy is, like,spot on.
(36:14):
Like, spot on.
Like, every time you think,okay, I've got this, and then something
else happens, and you're like,when is this gonna end?
When is this?
When, you know, when are these.
Like, it was just waking up tobad news every day.
And so I didn't wanna wake up,but then I had a child to look after,
so I was like, you know, I hadto persevere.
But it was just.
Yeah, taking those hits wasjust relentless for a few years until
(36:39):
I was able to just accept thatthat would happen.
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Dot Com.
Welcome back to Women Roadwarriors with Shelly Johnson.
(38:03):
If you've ever wondered whatit really takes to stand tall when
life knocks you down, you'llwant to lean in for this.
Bridget Panetta is livingproof that resilience isn't just
a buzzword, it's a survival skill.
As co founder of media.comwhere businesses and people can tell
the real stories aboutthemselves, she faced false allegations
from government regulatorstargeting her family's investment
(38:26):
business, Mayfair 101 in Australia.
Then came the pandemic.
She gave birth, ended up inthe ICU and still stood by her business
partner through 26 legalhearings, all while losing her family
home.
But instead of breaking,Bridget rebuilt.
She found resilience andstrength she never knew she had.
(38:48):
She works to help peoplebattle injustice, and she's on a
mission to help women reclaimtheir power through holistic healing,
things like breathwork,meditation, kinesiology, and Reiki.
Her story is raw, inspiring,and a reminder that adversity can
forge the strongest leaders.
It also requires a focal pointfor each of us.
(39:08):
Bridget, what do you advisefor people who may not be able to
find their focus, their focalpoint, the bright spot on the horizon?
I would just, in turn, like,just use yourself.
I see this a lot because I dothink that same thing, you know what,
what would have happened ifEmil didn't come into my life?
Because she's helped meovercome a lot of triggers and things
(39:29):
because children do that.
They bring out all of your triggers.
And I think, how would I havedone that?
Or why didn't I do this beforeshe came?
And I think it was because Ididn't value myself enough before.
I didn't have that, like,strong self worth.
I, you know, loved myself.
I presented well.
I always looked after myself.
(39:49):
I went to the gym and did allof those things.
But there was still somethinginside that was telling me I wasn't.
I guess there wasn't thatdrive to be able to evolve and improve
myself unless I got knocked,which I think that's why this happened,
so I could really evolve intowho I'm meant to be.
So I think if you can justhave that self worth and use that
(40:13):
as I deserve everything that Iwant on this planet.
And how, who, who do I need tobe today to achieve that?
Like, if I want to achieve A,B and C, what does that person look
like?
You know, and if that persondoesn't look like who you're operating
as every single day, thenthat's a good chance for you to start
auditing your life.
Auditing every single thingyou're doing.
(40:35):
You know, if you're waking up,checking your phone, if you're waking
up and having a coffeestraight away instead of, you know,
looking, getting some sunlightor having some fresh water and, and,
or having vitamins and thingslike that, you know, is that affecting
your energy to be able to bethe most, you know, abundant person
that you should be, to be ableto achieve the things that you ultimately
want in life.
(40:56):
So I think it's just usingyourself as that guiding light and
knowing that you're wortheverything that you've dreamt of
having.
You can achieve it if you juststart evolving your, your habits
and your actions and thingsevery day.
I like how you describe selfaudit, but that's a good description
to take a step back and say,okay, what's going on?
(41:17):
What am I doing?
Too often we don't do that.
Yeah, it's hardest starting.
It's easy to sit there andbrew in our own misery.
The hardest part is doing onesmall thing for yourself.
Even if it's just getting up,getting out of bed.
Well, at least you did something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's,it's so true, you know, and just
(41:39):
that one change.
I remember, I remember when Iwent and saw someone, what did I
say?
It was like a Reiki session.
And from that moment somethingjust switched in me and I would wake
up, I'd go sit outsidestraight away, I'd get up like probably
5am Because Emerald would wakeup at 7.
So I was like, I need twohours to myself in the morning.
(41:59):
Because when she was waking meup, I was, I wasn't able to have
the mindset that I would if Ihad just, you know, even half an
hour to myself before she woke up.
So I was getting up earlierand I was just doing a five minute
YouTube exercise, like anabdominal workout or a leg workout,
just five minutes.
And then I would do ameditation, I do a Deepak chopra
(42:22):
meditation for 15 minutes.
And just those two things, Idid them consistently for 21 days
and I was, I just kept going.
And I thought 21 days was my,my limit to try and create a habit
of some sort.
But just those two things, Ifound I just changed because I felt
so much more in control, Iguess, of myself.
(42:43):
And I felt like I was gettinga bit more of a routine and just
having that routine just kindof changed my mindset for the day.
Then I was reading moreinstead of watching a show.
You know, like I was wantingto do more productive things than
Feeling a bit more thanfeeling flat.
By doing this, I think thatthey've discovered that this actually
(43:03):
develops new neural pathwaysbecause you're developing new habits.
Habits are hard to break.
So you have to kind of rewireyour brain, if you will.
Yes.
And I feel like thatdiscipline of the mind, it's so much
easier to be disciplined whenyou have more energy and you've had
more sleep and I guess you'veoptimized your rest time.
(43:27):
That was a big thing for mebecause I wasn't sleeping because
of Emerald was waking upduring the night.
So I found, you know, whenyou're not sleeping, you don't have
that discipline because you just.
You don't care.
You know, you're like, just,whatever I need to get through the
day, I will do.
Parents are really sleepdeprived, especially when they have
infants.
Yeah, yeah.
(43:48):
It's unbelievable.
You don't.
You don't think that, but you don't.
You know, you hear thatphrase, sleep like a baby, your life,
and you get a baby like, oh,my God, they don't sleep like, what?
Where did this phrase come from?
Yeah, every four hours.
And if you have a colickybaby, then you got a even less sleep.
Yeah, yeah.
(44:09):
It's brutal.
It can be pretty tough, thoseearly stages and that's.
Yeah, I did get a really goodsleep routine for Emerald at the
start just because I felt likeI had to because I was working in
between her sleeps.
But, yeah, then they keepregressing and changing.
So it's like, you know, thathelped me to release control as well,
because you just have to gowith it.
(44:31):
Whatever the baby needs, thebaby needs.
You can't get them on too muchof a strict routine.
You know, it's just life.
Well, and if you're a new mom,there's no tutorial that comes with
that infant.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Right.
And.
And I was in lockdown as well,so I didn't really have, you know,
anyone over.
I didn't have, you know, themother's groups.
(44:53):
I couldn't do any of that.
I think we did one mother'sgroup over a zoom call, and I just
didn't go back because it justwasn't the same.
So it was isolating.
That's a tough one.
And that's what a lot ofpeople talked about with the pandemic
and all the shutdowns, theterrible isolation and people need
(45:14):
people.
They need a support system.
And, you know, if you want togrow as a person and you want to
exercise self care, you alsoneed to Have a good support system,
not people who are going towork against you.
You need to have, you know,people who are going to say, hey,
I can help you with this andthat kind of stuff, you know.
And so you were kind ofweathering the storm along with this
(45:36):
unchartered territory of legal wrangling.
Oh my.
Yeah, it's a bit of a contrastbecause in one way it was Covid for
me come at a good time becausewe were under so much pressure that
we could not have a life at all.
And so by having lockdowns itdid, it made me feel like I wasn't
(45:57):
missing out on anything.
But then on the other side itdid make things really sticky because
we couldn't like go out andmeet with people and you know, have
one on one conversations withpeople about the business and grow
it and, and try and find solutions.
So we were trapped in it.
But then it kind of gave usthat focus.
(46:17):
Time to be able to say, right,I'm going to just focus on Emerald,
get her in a really good routine.
Because we weren't going outfor lunches, we weren't going out
for catch up.
So it wasn't interrupting her sleep.
But then we were able to justfocus on work.
But then, yeah, we didn't havethe village at the same time to be
able to help, help us just, Iguess navigate the storm that we
(46:41):
were in.
I really like what you'redoing with media.com you're giving
people a voice and that'sreally important today in social
media because even thoughwe're able to connect with lots of
people, a lot of people don'thave a voice.
It's like they can't telltheir story and they should have
a right to do that.
I love the fact you're anadvocate for social justice.
(47:03):
What do you want to seehappening with media.com and how
do people.
Do people just click onmedia.com is that available around
the world?
Yes.
So it's going to be launchedin the next few weeks.
We're being in beta stage forthe last probably three weeks and
it's going to be a globalplatform and yeah, anyone can start
a profile and there's a readonly section, then you can.
(47:26):
There's other elements if youwant to be like a thought leader
and things like that.
So different tiers to it andit's just gonna be able to give people
that voice, give people thatsafety of having a space to be able
to post your thoughts, postyour, your story, post your life
I guess and control Yourreputation, control your.
(47:46):
Your image in the world.
In a space where, yeah, youdon't have those keyboard warriors,
the bots, and the need to justget a lot of likes or the need to,
you know, have a lot ofcomments and things like that.
It's not about validation.
It's not about status.
It's about just sharing your truth.
And just.
(48:06):
That's kind of the purity of it.
And that's what we wanted to.
To give people thatopportunity to just have a safe place
to share their story and.
And, yeah, just create acommunity of people that can follow
their story.
Share your truth.
I like that.
That gives, you know, and whenpeople are facing injustice, that's
a lot of it.
(48:27):
They're accused of something,they can't speak, nobody wants to
listen, they don't have a forum.
Because there's always theother side of the story.
Exactly.
And we also, at the time, wedidn't have a.
We didn't have social mediastatus because that wasn't our business
model.
We didn't really need it for that.
We were just focusing on ourbusiness, building our website and
(48:49):
things like that.
And so when we didn't have theplatform or the status or the followers,
it really, really was hard forus because we couldn't, I guess,
share our story anywhere.
So we did go to Twitter at thetime, this was nearly five years
ago, and we had all of thesepeople creating fake accounts with
James's name and, you know,and so they were then writing and
(49:12):
people didn't know who waswho, and it was like, it was such
a mess.
So I guess with our platform,it's all verified, so, you know,
it's the trusted source, youknow, that people can't create fake
profiles.
That's good.
That's very good.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's like we just wanted toclean up the area and the space a
bit just because we struggleda lot.
(49:32):
And I feel like, yeah, thatdid trickle into so many.
It affected us in so manyways, reputationally.
So hopefully in the future,you know, if there is a breaking
story, if there is someonewho's been criticized, you know,
people can think to go tomedia.com to see if that person actually
responded to that on their platform.
(49:53):
Do fact checking.
Excellent.
Yes.
This is so needed in socialmedia to be able to actually find
a place where people can seeboth sides of the story and see what's
really going on.
Things can go viral.
It doesn't mean it's true.
Exactly, exactly.
It just depends, you know, ifthey can get enough bots onto that
account to be able to createthat viral.
(50:15):
And then, you know, people,the retail just follow.
That's right.
Trend is happening.
So it's very manipulated.
And it's also, you know, forkids, they just, they're getting
the wrong start to life, Ifeel, you know, with all of viral,
you know, who cares?
They should just be focusingon themselves and it's just another
way for them to disconnect andget caught up and sucked into to
(50:39):
things that probably like, youknow, that aren't even true or real.
Amen to that.
So people can go out tomedia.com can people reach out to
you if they have any questions?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I am on media.com at the moment.
Media.com Bridget Panetta.
I'm on Instagram as well.
Just Bridget Panetta on Instagram.
(51:00):
And I'm so happy for anyone toreach out who might obviously want
a profile on the platform thatI'm happy to discuss that with anyone.
And also anyone suffering withany kind of injustice.
I've looked to, I've got awebsite, a landing page up at the
moment, so people can go onto there.
But anyone needing support,anyone just wanting someone to speak
(51:24):
to, I'm so available at anytime to help anyone suffering from
anything like that or any kindof adversity.
It's definitely a passion ofmine and I really feel like I want
to help as many people as Ican in that space.
So wonderful.
Thank you for paying it forward.
You truly are making apositive out of a huge negative.
(51:46):
Yeah, I feel like that's,that's what I need to do now.
I just, you know, I want to bethe person that I wish I had at that
time.
There you go.
Well, that's, that's, that'show things improve.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Bridget.
This has been phenomenal.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome.
We hope you've enjoyed thislatest episode.
And if you want to hear moreepisodes of Women Road warriors or
(52:09):
learn more about our show, besure to check out womenroadwarriors.com
and please follow us on social media.
And don't forget to subscribeto our podcast on our website.
We also have a selection ofpodcasts just for women.
There are a series of podcastsfrom different podcasters.
So if you're in the mood forwomen's podcasts, just click the
(52:30):
Power network tab onwomenroadwarriors.com youm'll have
a variety of shows to listento anytime you want to.
Podcasts Made for Women, WomenRoad warriors is on all the major
podcast channels like Apple,Spotify, Amazon, Audible, YouTube
and others.
Check us out and please followus wherever you listen to podcasts.
Thanks for listening.
(52:54):
You've been listening to WomenRoad warriors with Shelly Johnson
and Kathy Takaro.
If you want to be a guest onthe show or have a topic or feedback,
email us@sjohnsonomenroadwarriors.com.
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