Empowering Transformational Leaders: Celebrating and Supporting Positively Powerful Women

In this inspiring episode of 'Seasoned Women, Serious Business,' host Isabel Alexander is joined by Jackie Wszalek and Dr. Joel P. Martin. They discuss the impactful journey of the Positively Powerful Women Education Summit and Awards, celebrating women who make significant contributions to their communities. Emphasizing the importance of smashing stereotypes and the transformative power of collective wisdom, the conversation explores personal growth, overcoming limiting beliefs, and building supportive networks. 

They share personal anecdotes, reflecting on Dr. Joel's book 'Positively Powerful Women's Way,' and outline plans for future collaborations, including a book signing and retirement party. The episode concludes with gratitude, mutual admiration, and a motivational call for listeners to thrive and live their legacy. Listeners are encouraged to subscribe, share, and engage with the show's content.

00:00 Welcome to Seasoned Women, Serious Business

01:41 Meet Our Guests: Jackie Wszalek and Dr. Joel P. Martin

02:36 The Positively Powerful Women Education Summit

05:02 The Journey of Transformational Leadership

07:59 Celebrating Women and Their Achievements

11:17 Global Reach and Personal Growth

16:42 Transformation and Mindset

19:18 Smashing Stereotypes: Personal Stories

20:12 Introducing 'The Positively Powerful Women's Way'

21:27 The Journey of Writing and Publishing

21:56 Empowerment Through Self-Belief

24:08 Creating a Supportive Network

26:31 Transformation is a Continuous Journey

29:50 Final Thoughts and Future Plans

31:55 Conclusion and Call to Action

Biography

Dr. Joel (JP) Martin, President of Triad West Inc. and Founder of the Positively Powerful Education Summit and Woman Awards, is an author, training designer, facilitator, and executive coach with over 30 years of experience as a Transformational Leadership and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion specialist. 

Dr. Martin's commitment to developing successful leaders, aligned teams, and empowered women executives has led her to engagements before Fortune 500 corporations, educational institutions, and business owners in 13 countries and across the US.

She has earned a Ph.D. in Communications and a Master's in Psychology, admission as a Wharton Fellow of Wharton Business School, and membership on the Forbes Coaching Council. She is a member of the African American Women's Giving and Empowerment Circle and launched the 501c3 Positively Powerful Business and Community Development Organization (PPBCD) in January 2024.

Dr. Martin, a recognized figure in her field, has appeared on the Today Show, ABC's Sonoran Living, the NY Times, Black Enterprise, Essence (cover and feature), and Fortune. Previously, she owned and operated a full-service advertising agency specializing in multicultural communications.

A native New Yorker, who loves the “work” that she does and refuses to even consider retiring, now lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with her husband, Bob, a fine artist and oil painter from the Bronx. They are the proud parents of their daughter Cybel Martin, one of the few women who are members of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

City: Scottsdale, AZ 85262

Web address: https://positivelypowerful.com/Insights/

Email address: jpmartin@triadwest.com

Instagram Handle: @pospowjp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjpmartin/

Crossroads Clarity Solution

Everybody, buckle up, because this is guaranteed to

be an exhilarating ride here on Seasoned Women, Serious Business.

I know I am wise enough to want more.

I have in studio with me, one wise witch, and her name is Jackie Wszalek and we

have the pleasure of virtually inviting

Dr.

Joel P.

Martin

into our living room today.

Woo!

So may I say, another wise and wonderful witch here.

I

Dr. Joel P Martin: feel it today, yes.

Yeah, now when I say witch, you know what that means, right?

It's something like wonderful, intelligent, terrific.

How about Woman in Total Control of H erself?

Oh, all right.

That's a witch.

Jackie.

Tell me about this amazing woman.

I've known Joel for quite a few years,

probably 10 or 15, I'm guessing.

We are sisters from another mother, as we talk about often.

She's dear to my heart and she puts on the most fabulous event every

year called Positively Powerful Women Education Summit and Awards.

The beauty of it, and I'll let you talk about it, Joelle, is that it

recognizes women in our community who are doing amazing things.

Joelle comes from it with a heart of service and a heart of recognizing

very humble women who may not always get the recognition they deserve

for what we put into the community.

With that said, feel free.

Thank you,

Dr. Joel P Martin: Jackie.

You nailed it.

Yeah, this is my sister from another mother and father.

Can I be adopted by you two?

Dr. Joel P Martin: Of course.

Yeah.

Dr. Joel P Martin: As with any friend of Jackie's, a friend

of mine, and vice versa,

I'm sure.

Absolutely.

I've met so many cool women on Friday.

I just, I'm, I was bubbling with the wonderful.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Every year, it seems like it gets more intense and more

exciting and elevating, and Access.

Keyword, Access.

I know the event for 24, included, and I had the privilege

of participating in half of the day, but, I will include in the show notes.

your contact information, and all about the history, the legacy of

Positively Powerful, because I would love to see more of that, just a

wave of it sweeping across the world.

Jackie, I think it was just so emotional, so powerful, so uplifting, and there were

moments of Sadness that what many of these women had gone through to accomplish what

they have in their lifetime, but then the joy overcame again because they're

paying it forward by doing what, my, my life mantra is lift as you climb.

And that was definitely evident in your room Friday because all those women were

there generously lifting each other.

In your words, like how did you begin this and what is the

journey that it's taking you on?

Dr. Joel P Martin: It began when Bob and I, Bob's my husband, we moved to Arizona,

and I started meeting women and speaking before them, like banks and women's

organizations, and I was invited to be a speaker for judges and attorneys, and as

I'm speaking, and I'm thinking to myself, these women seem very tired, very burnt.

And I tend to be fairly intuitive.

So what I asked them is how many of you give to yourself

the way you give to others?

From my heart, I really want to know, because, at that time when I moved here,

I'd been doing transformational leadership development training around the world.

And as a training designer and one who works with a lot of different

kinds of folks I give myself permission just to trust my gut.

So I ask that question and only one woman in that body of women who deal

with issues on our indigenous people's lands, who deal with youth, who deal

with social justice, and who have taken a stand for elements of our society,

of our world to make them better.

We women, we take it all, those tolls on ourselves sometimes.

And I thought to myself as a training designer, as a facilitator, I have

got to do something about this.

There was also a side of me that was thinking whispering in my ear was my

mother and my godmother, Aunt Ida, who were my first positively powerful women.

They brought me up.

I had the first event in 2008., And it was with the first part of it, very similar

to how it is now, Jackie, the first part of it was on transformational leadership.

Then there were the awards, and my philosophy is, I want women to experience

the connectedness, the access the joy, and the sharing of the knowledge experts.

That's what they are for me, and philosophically, again, I

believe every human being is a positively powerful person.

And I repeat this every time we do a session, every time we have an event, all

right, and that frees up me, it frees them up, even though they don't realize that's

what's going on, to be with them in such a way that I honor them, that I care about

what happens to them, that their visions and purpose and missions matter to me.

That's a little bit about the history.

I'd started out with women attorneys, judges social workers, in that line

who care about others tremendously.

I wanted them to feel like queen for a day.

I wanted them to feel happy.

Even in the early days, we used to get these little crazy hats.

Remember those, Jackie, the crowns?

Maybe I should do that again.

I think I will.

I think I will.

I will never forget, this is a little sidebar of joy.

Speaking of joy, the Rev.

Sherilyn Curry Hodge is one of our honorees, and I think she was 2012 or

14, nevertheless I never will forget.

She walked around there, and she had her crown on her head, And it was

one of the ones with a swirly thing on it; here we have a woman who is

now an AME church presiding elder over so many states, and it's just,

that's the beauty of the honorees.

I want women, and men who happen to be there with us to have a sense

of knowledge, to get information and this year I thought, we were

over the top with information.

I know, right?

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I was so really excited brand experts telling us what it is like to be

working with the CEO of a multi-billion dollar global company and giving women

those kinds of tips, over 20 minutes.

Bam!

It was like that.

And that's what I believe in.

I think there is so much knowledge available, so much knowledge available

that rests within ourselves that deserves and needs to be shared.

And I'm on a mission to make it happen.

My mission is to acknowledge the accomplishments of women in ways that

empower all people, and that's so key to me because, it's not gender specific,

but I say that I honor women first as the landing place for all of us who,

when we are born, but in any event, to acknowledge the accomplishments of

women in ways that empower all people to live their dreams and will change

lives and businesses for the better.

The knowledge experts are part of that.

I have a grounding every time we get ready to go, meaning to start an event.

That comes out of my training and development as a transformational

leadership development.

We always ground our teams to make sure that we're aligned.

Once we're aligned, when that stuff hits the fan, as it will in those kind

of intense trainings, we, I need to know that my people leave my trainings

whole, complete, full of themselves, meaning joyful feeling cared about.

And when it doesn't happen I hang back, even when it's working

with the city of Chandler on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

So that's that's how it started.

That's the context of it, and it's 15 years old.

So I hope I have answered your question.

I love and it comes as no surprise.

Jackie and I were just talking a few minutes ago about the threads

of wisdom throughout our lives and the communities that we gather and

to your point we've all learned through experience, career, education,

hardships throughout our life, but to bring that all together and take those

threads and start to weave a tapestry.

That's what I felt was happening in the room when I witnessed your

event this week because Thank you.

It was like everybody was wrapped in this beautiful, supportive blanket.

It was so awesome.

Dr. Joel P Martin: What is your home?

Where are you from

isabel?

I am born in Canada, spent my adult life in Canada, and then moved to

Arizona much, much later in life.

But I consider myself more of a citizen of the world because I love the diversity,

the education that I get, how enriched my whole life is by meeting other people

and learning from their perspectives.

She has a daughter in Dubai, so she was there for a while.

Joelle has done things in China, in Russia.

She has done trainings all over the world.

So her reach is extremely large.

And

okay.

Now I haven't been to Dubai yet.

Ooh, I think we need to take positively powerful to Dubai.

We're talking!

I've had two sessions in Malaysia.

One of the women from the Island Liaison family has said, we're going to Guam.

I'm ready to go.

I have a bag that's got all my stuff in it, just, boop!

But in any event, I've been to 13 nations I love my work, and I think

that gift that I have to surrender to that, is a gift that I have, a

curiosity and a love for people.

This is so perfect because the wisdom part, it's a

responsibility to lift as we climb.

Becoming the best version of ourselves means that we can increase the

influence and the impact that we have for good for others, right?

So why wouldn't you want to spread that to every country in the world?

Yeah.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

And we have a baby among us.

Isabel headed back to Canada to celebrate her 70th birthday.

Oh,

Dr. Joel P Martin: wonderful.

Happy early birthday, you youngster.

That's what I said.

I do, I love this that I am now, I feel like I've got all

these big sisters and what incredible role models for me going into this new

decade and now thinking, wow, not only are we not done, we are picking up speed.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Yeah, we are.

We are.

Don't you think though, it's always been that way, like Jackie cracked me up that,

like you have done so much in your life.

And I'm going to tell you, our friend over here, Isabel, she's

very humble and very modest.

And I have to compliment her.

Ask her.

Okay, so Jackie, tell me about you,

And she's what a, the president of this, the president of that, she started women

owned businesses and she is awesome.

That's why she's a positively powerful woman too.

So I was able to receive the award one year

and it was just such an honor.

But again, it's that honoring people who don't necessarily show up to

say, I did this, I did that, right?

No, they don't.

That's the reason any of us do the work we do.

We do work because we feel it's a responsibility.

It is our pleasure to do.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Yeah, I agree.

I think most of the women feel this way.

To your point, though, they will say I don't do this because I want an award.

And I'd say to them, I understand, but I am asking that you receive this awards

because there's going to be somebody in the audience who will identify with you.

Exactly right.

You are channeling for women.

And then, what touches them.

They speak from their heart with the receiving of it and what it means to

them and the people that came for them.

And then what we get to is.

Basically we're all living life's journey the best we can and doing the best we can.

And when we're not doing the best we can, that's when I say the positively

powerful person has gotten amnesia.

Absolutely.

They need a little wake up call, a little tough love.

Eloquently in your keynote for the day of: we start as these little babies

and then everything gets piled on us and then we take the second half

of our life to get rid of all of the Garbage that's been dumped into us.

Yeah, we do.

So creating that step one that we do, Jackie of the Education Summit.

That's one step after what typically happens when people get to

learn what transformation means.

Not the coined phrase of transformation now, but what it means exactly.

Jackie, when I say the word transformation, I see you go like this.

Could you just say your words on it?

What do you think of transformation being?

Transformation for me is to stop doing and to be.

So when we are being, and I think that was reiterated a couple times, actually I

talk about often my yoga journey being one of muscling my way through yoga for the

first 10 years, where I do any posture.

You tell me I can name it.

But it's a doing and you take it into your heart and you actually

show up in the world in another way.

That's transformation.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

You

Dr. Joel P Martin: got it.

Rid of your soul from the tips of your toes to your hair.

There's no other way to be.

That to me gives me chills and I live it 75 percent of my life, right?

That's pretty good.

I want to show up as that transformed person, that one who can be in

the world for you and me, right?

Dr. Joel P Martin: Yeah, absolutely.

Because we have so many folks that are involved in STEM and

technology, I say transformation is you re engineering your mind.

Your mindset, rather.

Your mindset, not your mind.

Your mind is what you got, but it's your mindset.

Yeah.

All of us grow up in a thing also, what I at least grew up in a

family where it is good to be right, man.

It's just, my favorite words are not, I love you.

You were right.

Those are my three.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Oh, my.

Okay, now we're gonna go there, huh?

My family was, you will learn, and you are wrong.

Meaning not wrong, but good girls keep their legs together.

Don't get pregnant.

Good

Dr. Joel P Martin: girls are I don't want to sign sound too pejorative, but

there were a lot of stereotypes that I grew up in as a girl to womanhood.

And I don't think it is just me or my family or you or your family.

It's societal things.

That's why my book has smashing stereotypes.

And those stereotypes are societal.

They're everywhere, right?

I grew up with that.

One of my friend's parents, every time we left her house, her dad would

say, don't come home with a package.

I got that.

A teenager.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Oh

shoot.

. Dr. Joel P Martin: No package

here.

No here.

Promise you no deliveries.

But we all have those stories and those things.

And you told the story about the teacher, right?

My sister had a teacher who told her she couldn't do math.

She just was not created to do math.

It took her till she was 40 years old.

She took a math class at community college so that she could overcome that.

That's crazy.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Yeah, I hear those kinds of stories

all, quite a bit when I speak.

Jackie mentioned a book.

Would you tell us more about that and repeat the title?

Dr. Joel P Martin: It's called The Positively Powerful Women's Way.

Creating a Vision and Soaring to Success.

Those words are really what resonate for me when I think about every woman, all

70 plus to 80 of the previous honorees, each one in their own way has needed to

smash a stereotype; like women should not own big print major printing companies.

And you do, you get those silly stereotypes and I couldn't sing

because someone told me I can't.

Mouth the word darling.

We word , so you know you have to smash all of that.

Yeah, smash that thinking.

And the stereotypes could be out there, but when we start living the stereotypes,

it's the one that does us harm.

So that's the name of my book and it's the Positively Powerful Women's Way.

One of the pages, it's going to be the back cover of it, is the

listing of every woman who has won a Positively Powerful Woman Award.

The forward is written by Fatima Helene.

Oh, how sweet.

It's gone through about five years of iteration.

So I'm finally at the point where I'm saying, okay, I get it.

I get it.

I know what I need to have in here.

So many rewrites, but I think that's the journey.

It's not quite as, as easy as my first book: how to be

a positively powerful person.

When is your book going to be available for purchase?

Three weeks.

I'm going to consider that a birthday present.

I, cause I'm going to buy that for myself.

Thank you.

Excellent.

I loved the smashing stereotypes.

Loved that.

And where my head went to was, I guess it starts with me first.

If I, and I have, bought into those stereotypes myself, and I've

convinced myself that must be correct.

And so nothing will change until I personally smash my own

beliefs around those, right?

You got it.

Yeah, that was also included in my keynote, because I said, now, how was

it possible that I was told that I couldn't write, that I didn't write

this poem, that somebody else wrote it.

So then I have to lay it out.

How could that be true if I have, and I included all of my education?

Something happened in that pathway and the pathway was, to your point,

Isabel, I smashed that stereotype for myself that I was not dumb.

I'll always be black, but, that's a gift.

That's a gift.

There were some stereotypes that went around with that school teacher too

and I lived and dealt with and smashed, but yeah, it starts with us first.

So is that where the powerful part comes in the brand?

Dr. Joel P Martin: Powerful, more from source, more from being in ownership of.

Yeah.

Dr. Joel P Martin: Positively powerful.

If I were just to say we are powerful women it's not the same sense that I

have when I say positively powerful.

We're here to make the world a better place.

We're here to leave a legacy.

We're here to contribute, which is the positive side of it.

Do you know what I mean?

We got some powerful people out here.

I don't want them in my space.

I don't want them to wear my brand, per se, until after I work with them.

They'll be getting a little serving of transformation.

Oh, you bet.

Dr. Joel P Martin: And it'll be with love.

And the thing about the work that I do, there's always a group of people who

have taken on the mantle of coaches.

So that let's be real.

A lot of the things that have happened to me in my life, or to you, and to

you, I can't speak for your childhood, but for many of us, like when I was

working with Youth At Risk for one of the foundations, or when I worked with

the kids from Cabrini Green in Chicago to go to work in Magic Johnson Studio.

You've got to be aware that these young folks, these teenagers and the grown folks

that are still living with that, go home to a place where they may not feel safe.

And it's very easy when you don't feel safe and somebody say, this

is how you can be in your life.

And yeah, you may feel safe to be it in that room, but when you leave, you

need you get a network of support.

That's the kind of work that I believe in.

I want people to have a network of support.

The adults, executives, I am their network of support.

The young folks that have a learning circle, they may have a buddy,

and that buddy has a commitment.

They have a commitment to each other.

So there's some really juicy bits in the transformational programs.

None of us do it alone.

And I think at your event, it's also so beautiful to see each and

every speaker, I feel like I'm safe.

I can say this.

I've never said this before.

It's whoa, right?

Yeah, we're in a group of 200.

I love

Dr. Joel P Martin: it.

I love it.

, Jackie, you're part of what has the safe environment be present.

You're a very important part.

Thank you.

I remember when I was coming up as a transformational trainer rookie.

I was working with a woman who was a Caucasian woman.

We called ourselves Salt and Pepper.

I was Salt, she was Pepper.

I love it.

I love the people I meet in your circle.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, that's a good thing.

Yeah.

I have to say that it couldn't be more perfect for

seasoned women to be talking about

Salt, and pepper.

That's good.

I have a question for you, Joelle.

Sure.

Is transformation a one and done?

Dr. Joel P Martin: Never.

No, the expression is, and I didn't originate it, but I

believe that transformation is a journey, not a destination.

You need to walk your talk and find a way to continue walking your talk.

This is my way, I learn with everything that I'm involved in.

It can't be a one and done because to say it's a one and done trivializes the work

and the leadership and the reconstituting of mindsets that goes into it.

And for anyone who wants to be a transformational

leadership developer, a trainer.

a coach as soon as they tell me that's their intention, my

relationship with them shifts.

If you want to go up in front of people and say you're a transformation,

I want to do my part in supporting you in your dream and your goal.

Never done.

I I wanted to ask you that specifically, although I

was pretty sure I knew what your answer was going to be, because

Jackie and I were just talking.

We just recorded a couple of episodes for the SOFA SERIES our

conversation about what it's like to transform through ages and stages

as

a woman and as a business owner.

And that was one of the parts that of course comes up when we talk about that.

Like how we didn't know yesterday we were going to be this great today, right?

Dr. Joel P Martin: Yeah.

And it's about finding what brings you joy, what makes you happy.

And that is positively powerful, making you happy.

And that means it, it goes outwards to the world, if you will.

And whether it's having a great family life, that can be transformational.

It's not like you wake up and you say, Oh, I don't love my family anymore.

No, you got to keep going or marriage or whatever.

or training internationally.

It requires growth and continuing.

There's a lot of women that are going through life stages, like my, one of

my friends Diana Gregory, for example.

She and I had some coaching sessions when she moved from

Anheuser Busch and she moved here.

She's a phenomenon.

And my Aunt Ida, my godmother, She told me something.

She was in a retirement community, still sharp, couldn't move so well,

but she was a hundred years old.

I said tell me, what is it that keeps you going?

How have you lived to be a hundred?

And she said, I have a good sense of humor and I'm always looking

forward to going somewhere.

So she was the first woman in her age when that went to China.

She went to China.

She went to Africa.

She married late in life.

She was having it all, so yeah it's ongoing.

It is ongoing.

Yeah.

It's a wonderful attitude perspective instead of, and we talked about this

earlier about expecting to retire and stop instead of shifting and shattering that

expectation to, my gosh, it's just opening up opportunities for more and different.

. . I wanna thank you so much.

I was, aside from the fact that you were already pre-qualified by Jackie, and

because what this woman believes in I, it, that's a credit to me, but I'm also,

I felt magnetized to you because of the positivity theme and the powerful theme.

And I, I recently wrote an article on LinkedIn about the StrengthsFinder

and my number one strength, according to Gallup, is positivity.

So girl I'm just,

That's exciting.

Yeah, my new friend.

So I would love to invite you to come back and join us after it's published.

I have a chance to read it and then let's talk about that if

you don't mind with the world.

I would love that.

Thank you so much.

You had mentioned that you would like my contact info.

Do you have all of that?

I do, and everything is going to be in the show notes because we're on all the

podcast channels, and also this is going to be on YouTube in spite of the strange

lighting, and it'd be in the description so that everyone can follow you and reach

out and as soon as you have the link for the book, we'll put that there as well.

So it's really easy peasy

For

Dr. Joel P Martin: people.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for this Jackie.

Thank you so much for recommending me.

Welcome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You

Dr. Joel P Martin: know what?

I think we should, maybe we could get together

and talk about a book signing.

Yeah, and my new Hokey Pokey Retirement Party.

Yes, that was

Dr. Joel P Martin: so wonderful.

All right, whatever y'all, whatever you want to do, let's get it on

the calendar and have it happen.

We will do that.

Thank you.

Put your whole self in.

Yep, you got it, my friend.

I love you.

Thank you, Joel.

Love you,

Dr. Joel P Martin: too.

for

Dr. Joel P Martin: your time.

All right,

Dr. Joel P Martin: bye.

Bye.

Bye.