Meet Jo Martin, founder One of many
I’m Jo Martin, founder of the women’s leadership organisation, One of many. One of many trains, coaches and supports women around the world - empowering them to step up and lead the change they want to see without burning out.
After qualifying as a doctor I spent a number of months in oncology. It was there that the death of a very dear patient served as a wakeup call to get my life “on purpose”. Within 6 months I had swapped medicine for acting, and was accepted to the prestigious Actors Centre Australia, where alumni include Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman - although sadly they were not there at the same time as me!
Restless and increasingly curious about how people could be encouraged to transform their lives, I retrained in human psychology, behaviour and growth. In 2003 I launched and built a thriving coaching practice before I was headhunted by a leading global personal development company.
Fast forward several years and I had got married and had a baby. One of many was conceived in the uprush of creativity that often arrives at the birth of a new child - just when you have no time to do anything with the ideas!
What inspired you to launch your business and what is the end goal?
I was spending many hours breastfeeding my son in a darkened room pondering the world he was being born into. I could see that great change was needed, and I felt intuitively that having more women in leadership was critical to unlocking these changes. But most of the women I knew were tearing around like headless chickens, with no spare time to step up into roles where they were needed – in politics, organisations or community.
Yet it felt critical that we did step up. We needed a new, more sustainable way to balance the strong call to lead, with the multiple calls on us as wives, sisters, daughters, friends, mothers...
And so ‘One of many’ was born, with the mission is to unleash the bold, grassroots leadership of women, empowering them to step up and lead the change they want to see without burning out. To date we’ve trained, coached and supported over 70,000 women around the world, and One of many is the fastest growing global leadership community for women.
I’m shooting for parity of leadership where there are as many women leaders in the world as there are men. But many women currently don’t want to participate the way things are, so they are opting out. If we want women in leadership positions then the culture needs to change - across politics, business, society - and those cultural changes will create a far better world to live in for everyone.
I don’t expect this is going to happen for a generation, but I’m sowing the seeds now by supporting, encouraging and training this generation of women to step-up and inspire the next generation of women leaders.
Do you have a morning routine or ritual to get your day started on the right foot?
I have two morning rituals. One is the ideal ritual and the other is the ideal with the addition of two small people (I have two children under six) who interrupt the ritual almost as often as it gets executed!
On an ideal day I start with three pages of journaling. It’s something I learned from Julia Cameron and her book ‘The Artist's Way’, and we now teach it to all our women in the One of many community.
After journaling, I spend time with my kids. It's the usual breakfast routine and I try and get as much time with them as I can before work. Thankfully I have a commute that is only up the stairs to my home office and that makes all the difference in the world.
If I get to spend time with myself and my kids then that’s a good start to the day. If I can get outside and take a few deep breaths then that works for me too, but all my other practices, my meditation etc, takes place at the other end of the day when the kids are in bed.
How did you conquer those moments of doubt that so often affect entrepreneurs or stop many with great ideas – what pushes you through?
When I first started in business I did have to push myself through because I wasn't as aligned to my purpose as I am now. But I now know my purpose and I have a vision for the world that I deeply care about. So in those moments where it gets really hard - and there have been a lot of those, especially in the last six months - they don’t last. It’s like almost as soon as I’ve had the feeling of doubt I hear the voice in the back of my head that says “come on, you’re sowing the seeds for a cultural paradigm shift!”.
Because I do my business in order to impact the world in a powerful, positive way - for my daughter and my son, for my friends and family, for everyone - doubt doesn’t get much breathing space these days.
I wish I could teach people not to doubt, but it's not something you can teach.. What I can say is that since I’ve known my purpose, I don’t doubt. I don’t have time to doubt, I’m not allowed to doubt, the slightest hint of doubt and that voice in my head starts shouting at me about the need for a paradigm shift, and I get on with it again.
Keeping an eye on the numbers in any business is important. How do you ensure that you’re always up to date?
I’ll confess, I’m not great at the numbers, but thankfully I have an extraordinary person - Sam - who is. She provides me with monthly reports and we have regular meetings, in fact my meetings with Sam are amongst the most important I have. Sam makes it incredibly easy for me to understand how we are performing and where we need to focus, and that means I can focus my strengths where they’re most needed…
We also have weekly marketing meetings where we review and track our performance in terms of growth and engagement in the One of many community; and evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing in reaching prospective community members and take-up of our training events.
I’m not recommending it as a full-time strategy, but I also have pretty good instinct for how we’re performing. So even when I don’t have visibility of the figures I‘ve found I can go on instinct - though I don’t think Sam would be too happy if I did it on a regular basis!
Is word of mouth working to your advantage?
Our business is one where we find it difficult to explain to prospective clients what we do. However, as soon as they have experienced it they become the most voracious ambassadors for One of many. The zeal with which our graduates and members of our community share what we do with their friends, their sisters, their mothers, their daughters and their co-workers is unstoppable. So yes, word of mouth isn’t just working to our advantage, it's a critical part of our expansion strategy.
We’ve also worked to create a beautiful ambassador programme. Our ambassadors were doing an amazing job spreading the word anyway, but the programme now supports them and, very importantly, thanks them.
Word of mouth has been an extraordinary part of our growth. Most of our new clients have been introduced to us by someone who has done the work or really believes in what we do.
What social media channel would you say has worked the best for your business and why?
Hands down Facebook. We use Twitter and LinkedIn, and we’re starting to do more on Instagram, but the women we predominantly work with fall into the 30-60 age bracket and most of them are on Facebook.
Facebook has been really key for us. We started at a time when Facebook ads were affordable and that really helped us grow and build our online community. I’ve recently started doing weekly lunch and learns, and since March this year the One of many Facebook group has grown by 20%.
That said when Covid-19 hit we did drop our FB spend. I know a lot of people say “keep spending, but for us we didn’t have a choice, we absolutely had to. However all our organic Facebook groups have been incredibly active both during and since lockdown and that has really helped maintain and grow the interest in what we offer.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurs wanting to get their business out there?
Know what your personal strengths are.
A lot of people say “you’re the founder, just get out there and sell yourself, you’re the best ambassador for your business”. But you might not be. In my case I am the best ambassador for my business because my personality strengths lie in communications and public speaking.
But if you’ve come up with an amazing piece of software technology and you're an introvert then you’re possibly not the best person to communicate and excite others about your software. So “Just get out there” is not the best advice.
The best advice I can give is, know what your strengths are, and build a team around your weaknesses.
What are your thoughts on failure?
Like every entrepreneur I do not like failing or the feeling that comes along with failure. But I’ve learnt over the years that it's better to try something and fail at it fast, than to avoid it.
The more aligned with my purpose I've got, the clearer I’ve become that my business is an expression of my life’s purpose and the less that failure matters. Because provided I’m making decisions for the right reasons, it’s easier to chalk it up as life’s lessons. It’s not about me and my personality, it's about being of service to One of many and what she wants. As a result failure definitely has less of a hold than it used to.
The other thing I’ve learnt is that my success in business is in direct proportion to the velocity with which I make decisions, and I think that's the case with entrepreneurs the world over. Provided you’re making decisions quickly you can't really know if it's the right decision. You’ve just got to make the decision, get the feedback and adjust.
I now find failure isn’t as nasty as it once was. You’ve just got to get on and be of service to your purpose.
Any new product launches we should know about?
If you’d asked me this question at the end of last year, I would have given you a completely different answer. But 2020 has brought many unexpected changes.
Our annual One Woman Conference was scheduled for the 14-15th March, just as concern about Covid-19 was rapidly growing. Over 500 women had booked to attend, but I was increasingly concerned about their safety and with less than 36 hours to go, I cancelled the conference and completely restructured it as a free online event instead. Within 24hours, we had created a brand new, two day, live streamed event: ‘Clarity in Chaos’; offered it to disappointed delegates, our entire community and beyond; built a livestream studio in my house; and created an entirely new product ‘Living the Chang’ - an online coaching and training membership programme.
Five months on Living the Change is now an essential part of our offer and over 500 women have signed up to receive online training, coaching and support. Our focus for the next 12 months then is both to grow 'Living the Change' and to shift our highly successful coaching certification programme online.
We are also determined to become more vocal advocates for women and to empower their voices to be heard. At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, I asked the One of many community to share their experiences of the pandemic; their observations on the Government’s response and their recommendations for future action. We combined those words and experiences, with our own research into the unique position of women in the midst of this crisis, to form One of many’s first ever submission to a Parliamentary inquiry.
This piece of work was a milestone for me and for One of many. Not only are we continuing to support, educate and coach women to grow, and make a difference in the world, we are now using our collective voices to guide political leaders to create the change we want to see.
At the start of 2020 it wasn't on my radar to submit evidence to a Parliamentary Committee but this crisis has made it clear that we have a responsibility to raise up women’s voices and to ensure that they are heard. We plan to keep doing so.
What’s the most important question entrepreneurs should be asking themselves?
We live in a time where there is a huge lack of sustainability in every area. Our political systems, the corporate world and our societies, all require cultural change. The most important questions we should be asking ourselves are: ‘how does what we do impact the world for the better?’ ‘How am I making the world better?’ ‘How am I making a contribution to making the world better and more sustainable?’
If you’re not doing something that will make the world better, more sustainable, then it just doesn’t have longevity.
About One of many
Founded in 2016, One of many is the fastest growing global leadership community for women. One of many trains, coaches and supports women around the world - empowering them to step up and lead the change they want to see without burning out.
One of many has supported more than 70,000 women across the world, and has an active community of over 12,000 members.
About the founder - Joanna Martin
Dr Joanna Martin is a renowned visionary, coach and catalyst; supporting women into the new global paradigm. Her message and work have directly impacted over 120,000 people on 4 different continents.
Jo is also a committed financial investor in the work of The Hunger Project, as well as a diplomatic wife, a sometimes-too-tired mother, a protective sister, and loyal friend.
