From Welfare to Award-Winning Entrepreneur
Living her soul’s purpose, Inspirational Publisher, Speaker and Conscious Entrepreneur Linda Joy is dedicated to inspiring women to live deeper, more authentic and inspired lives. She is a passionate advocate for leading, encouraging and inspiring women to rediscover and reconnect with their inner wisdom while providing them with the tips, tools and inspiration to do so.
In her twenty year journey from single, welfare mother to award-winning entrepreneur Ms Joy knows first-hand the power of passion, courage, faith and perseverance in overcoming obstacles to achieve your dreams. She has walked the walk, believes there are now failures in life just lessons to be learned and shared. Her personal journey encourages and inspires other women to believe in themselves and the power of their dreams and to show them that …anything is possible.
The Power of Love
Niki at 3 1/2 Years
In 1989, as a single welfare mother of Niki, her beautiful five year old daughter, Ms Joy knew she wanted to provide her daughter with a better life and entered a state funded job training program which she credits as one of the key turning points in her life. During the 26 week program she discovered consignment shopping as a way to afford the office clothing that the school mandated. Unbeknownst to her at the time another key life chapter would unfold from that simple discovery.
As low-income mothers, Linda and her classmates could barely afford the electric bill never mind the additional expense of purchasing office clothing. Determined to ‘do what it takes’, Ms. Joy begin inviting classmates who did not own a car to join her on Saturday field trips to area consignment shops in search of inexpensive office clothing sometimes with as little as $10 each to spend.
The Power of Belief
One day in the midst of modeling outfits for each other Linda became aware of a powerful transformational moment happening around her. As one of her classmates came out of the dressing room wearing her ‘new’ professional outfit – Linda noticed a gleam in her eyes, how she held her shoulders back and held her head up high. Though she couldn’t name it at that time, Ms Joy knew she was witnessing a woman who for that one moment in time ‘BELIEVED” in herself and the possibilities ahead of her.
The following few years brought changes and further stability to Ms Joys’ life. Upon graduating she accepted a job in the corporate office of an international manufacturing company bringing speaking requests from both the welfare department and the training school to share her success at turning her life around. She soon met, married and was gifted with two wonderful step-children. Through these years her memory of that day in the dressing room always followed her. She wanted all women to believe in themselves in the same way she was learning to and she knew that all they needed was someone to believe in them.
Bringing a Vision to Life
With that vision of giving all low-income women the belief that they too could turn their life around, just three years after graduating from the training program Ms. Joy opened her first business, a quality resale shop. This decision opened more doors to speaking to women in transition and Ms Joy soon began holding workshops at her shop teaching women a variety of life skill classes to prepare them for entering the work force after their transition. She became a well-recognized face in the community when a mother or child needed emergency provisions after domestic violence or placement in a shelter and worked closely with area women’s shelters and the Dept. of Social Services donating much-needed clothing.
With no business experience or formal education and just a passion to make a difference in the lives of women Ms Joy’s business grew from 750sq. ft to over 4,800 sq ft in less than six years and hit yearly sales of over $200,000. Throughout that journey she discovered not only her passion for being an entrepreneur but found she had a gift for heart-centered marketing and promotion and was soon being contacted by other small business owners for guidance and support on growing their business.
Ms. Joy believes that when a woman discovers her true passion, in her case – inspiring women to believe in themselves and they take inspired action to move forward and create a business around that passion only success can follow. It doesn’t necessarily mean that one will never experience ups, downs or failures –it means that when you do you it will be your passion that gives you the strength to get up, brush yourself off and start again. Through those years of self-discovery Ms Joy’s business continued to grow though her five year marriage did not.
From Welfare to Beverly Hills
In 1999 she was awarded the SBA’s Welfare–to-Work Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the state of Massachusetts opening doors to larger speaking engagements. Ms Joy also received other community business awards and press for her tireless work with welfare and low income women and local shelters.
February 2000 Guest Appearance NBC Talk Show
Ms. Joy has been featured in regional and national publications including a 2000 guest appearance on a national NBC talk show taped in Beverly Hills for her passion and commitment in overcoming obstacles to achieve her dreams and for her dedication in reaching out to women and assisting them in achieving theirs. She has been an inspirational and motivational speaker at colleges and women’s groups and continues to inspire others through her passion and energy.
From Resale to Healer
After a little more than ten years in the resale business, Ms Joy’s journey of self-discovery led her to enter massage school and start studying a variety of holistic and spiritual practices which she credits with bringing her back to center and as the catalyst to reconnecting and trusting her inner wisdom. That journey continues to this day and is an important tool to her professional and personal success. Throughout each issue of Aspire she shares the wisdom of leading visionaries along with the sames tips and tools that she personally uses to enhance her life.
Journey to Inspirational Publisher
Continuing her journey as an inspirational catalyst, Ms. Joy launched Aspire Magazine in 2005 with the same passion and an even stronger mission to inspire women to live deeper, more authentic and inspired lives. With no publishing experience Ms Joy jumped in with both feet and brought the magazine to life from concept to first issue in less than eleven weeks.
Aspire Magazine is now a well-respected brand in women’s inspiration and is reaching women across the world with six interactive, digital issues per year. With the launch of Aspire’s “Mission to Inspire 100,000 Women” campaign Aspire has committed to giving away 100K free one year subscriptions to women across the globe over the next year.
Ms Joy credits Aspire’s rapid growth on her collaborative business model that she calls “The Feminine Conscious Business Model for Abundant Success” based on the five core principles that she operates from: Relationships, Collaboration, Intention, Service and Abundance.
She is passionate about collaborating and connecting with other conscious business owners and believes that she and Aspire have been given this powerful global platform as a tool to be of service to others by assisting them in sharing their wisdom with a larger audience. She is a true believer that ALL women have an innate wisdom to share and her desire is to give them the platform and voice to do so whether through the pages of Aspire or with the launch of her newest company.
The Journey Continues
In keeping with her vision to give women the platform to share their wisdom Ms Joy recently founded Inspired Living Publishing, LLC (ILP) with the mission of providing women with traditional (print) and non-traditional (digital) publishing methods to share their wisdom with the world.
Whether through the release of ILP’s upcoming print anthology A Juicy, Joyful Life: Inspiration from Women who have Found the Sweetness in Every Day or their inspirational eBook anthologies, Wisdom for Women eBooks, ILP is dedicated to providing women with the publishing platform to bring their stories to life.
A Personal Note from Linda: Coming Full Circle
The past twenty years has been an amazing journey of self-discovery as I moved through a variety of life experiences that at times filled me with moments of intense joy and gratitude and others that brought me to the lowest depths of self-doubt, despair and pain. Like many of you I too have fallen, struggled and got back up many times after life has hit me with its cosmic two by four.
Life is about experiences and learning the lessons contained within them. It is about living, learning and most importantly SHARING the insights and lessons we’ve learned with others that gives meaning to our lives.
If in sharing my life lessons and experiences can inspire even one woman to BELIEVE that she too can overcome any obstacle then how can I possibly look back with regret on ANY of my life experiences.
Today, life is full of joy and my beautiful, compassionate daughter is now a 26 year old woman who blesses my life with her presence. And yes, I have met the man of my dreams, Dana, who has been in my life for fifteen years and has blessed me with a step-son and an amazing ten year old grandson.
I believe it is in the sharing of our stories that we give others the power, inspiration and encouragement to persevere. I look forward to bringing your stories to life and in doing so inspiring women across the globe that they too can live an inspired life.
