In this heartfelt and wisdom-packed episode, Jeffery Ross welcomes five-time author, cancer survivor, and heart-centered leader Janice Muir to The Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. Together, they explore the deep lessons forged through adversity, caregiving, grief, and reinvention. Janice shares her journey of navigating breast cancer, caring for a partner with Alzheimer’s, and how she transformed pain into purpose through writing, dance, and leadership. With honesty, humour, and soul, she reveals the power of living from the heart, letting go of ego, and building legacy one day, one step at a time.
“Fortitude is the inner strength of knowing who you are, even in the chaos.” – Janice Muir
“You don’t know what you don’t know… until you live it or hear it from someone who has.” – Janice Muir
“I never asked, ‘Why me?’ Instead, I kept walking. One step, one day, one breath at a time.” – Janice Muir
Janice Muir
🌐 Website: janicemuir.com
Jeff Ross (02:49) All right, legends, it's time to get into it. This is Hero Makers Season 3, the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show, the Hero Makers Season. And this season is where we're shifting gears. We're done with just learning the tools. We've got to still cover a little bit about AI and social selling and content and funnels and attraction marketing and all that other gear.
But here is it's time to go a lot deeper. Here in this season, we're going to explore what it means to lead from identity, to build not just businesses, but movements, and to find the voice inside you, then raise up others to help them to find theirs. Hero Makers are born in the spotlight. They're forged in the trenches of sacrifice, consistency, courage, and love. They make leaders. They pass the mic.
They build legacy. So if you're ready to step up to rise above the hustle, beyond the noise, beyond making just profit and build something that endures, well, welcome. This is exactly where you need to be. And in here today, I have the beautiful Janice Muir here joining us. And so we're just going to dive in Janice. And the best place I've found for people to dive in is for our audience to connect and get to know you.
And the best way to do that is to get to share your story. So, you know, in five to 10 minutes or less, you know, some people can go into a long story, but I like you to keep just the short version. Janice, what's your story?
Janice Muir (04:24)
Thank you for having me, I truly appreciate being here. My story is probably five compartments. One, I was an athlete as a child and stood on the diocene first as Victorian champion. Two, I had the exploration to get out and really enjoy life and move from Melbourne to Darwin and live 30 years in Darwin. Loved every minute of it.
Jeff Ross (04:52)
Fascinating.
Janice Muir (04:53)
Yeah, three, ⁓ I moved from Darwin, no, I then went through the process and coping and managing and my dear partner for 35 years with Alzheimer's dementia and that was a harrowing experience. And then I moved from ⁓ Darwin to Brisbane and then four years later I'm diagnosed with breast cancer.
Jeff Ross (05:10)
Oof.
Yeah, well.
Janice Muir (05:23)
I'm coming up 20 years next year, clear of breast cancer. And then the next thing was ⁓ my journey in and around writing. And I wrote five books in 10 years.
So that's a short succinct overview because there's varying points, right, and I draw a reference from all of it.
Jeff Ross (05:41)
Absolutely fascinating.
Cool. Well, thanks for sharing. you know, first off, from my heart to your heart, I'm sorry that you had to go through your, your trial by fire, your, your dark forest, as they call it, the hardship of life. But what I find though is every leader has gone through something like that, right? It's the, the hero's journey sort of conversation. You know, we all sort of find our abyss moment, you know, like 11 years ago, I tried to
you know, commit suicide and I'm very grateful that, you know, love interrupted the pattern. And ever since then, I've just been a student learning how to love myself and love others and love something bigger than myself. And so I want to go into that side of the story, if that's okay. And I did give you a bit of a warning going into this, this would just go many different directions, but I'm actively listening, right? I'm actively listening and I've been attentive to where we need to go.
Janice Muir (06:39)
Don't lie to me!
Jeff Ross (06:48)
The thing I want to dig into is some of the hardship you faced around looking after your husband with dementia and also your breast cancer journey. You know, in that hardship, what was some of the character building stuff that you walked away from? Like what you went through the hardship and you you you've sort of found this grit, this determination, this resilience, this character.
that you probably didn't know was there, but now is there for you to go through rest of life. What did that look like for you?
Janice Muir (07:19)
if I told you everything I'd have to tell you a very big secret. One of the things I think was, I love the word fortitude.
Jeff Ross (07:24)
Hehe.
Mmm.
Janice Muir (07:31)
I've only come to realise that fortitude is the inner strength knowing, being, what we are, who we are and how we manage things. During the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, know, I was a mess.
Yet I still had to hold the job, still had to manage my child, I still had to ⁓ get everything organised in ways of doing tangible things and there is something about the inner self.
Jeff Ross (07:50)
Yeah, of course.
Janice Muir (08:07)
of being strong, as they say, the backbone of the journey, that really is probably what I just stood grounds in. Did I understand it then as I appreciate it now? It took writing out the journeys that gave me the awareness of the understanding.
Jeff Ross (08:14)
Mmm.
fascinating. So it took writing out the journeys to become aware. They say in alcoholic anonymous the first step to recovery is awareness and then the next step is taking ownership right? So it's fascinating that you've sort of did that in your own way. What did you learn through that experience about yourself with going through that?
Janice Muir (08:44)
Correct.
correct.
What did I learn? ⁓ there's probably tangents of things. But I think the biggest thing was, I want to say this, I followed through on me. had all out here, so much happening, and then I would just get into a place and just be still in my moment. And sometimes that meant getting on the dance floor. That's a secret, okay? I'll just tell you.
Jeff Ross (09:21)
Yeah, I love
that.
Janice Muir (09:23)
getting on the dance floor and really giving it my all, you know? ⁓ That was the release, that was the journey, was the aha moments I didn't know I was having but I had to have to get the awareness and understanding now.
Jeff Ross (09:30)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's fascinating. I've just read the book, ⁓ Happy Money by Ken Honda. And he talks about being grateful for money, even when you spend it, when it comes in, you know, it's, it's arigato. Thank you. You know, he's from Japan, right? So this whole concept of being attitude of gratitude and having fun with life and living life full out excitement. That's why I use words like boom source and awesome town and, you know, really lean into the flavor of it, right?
Janice Muir (09:58)
Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Ross (10:11)
But leadership is easy when you've got people looking at you. I find leadership is really hard. it's, you know, this whole conversation around leadership, it isn't just about what you do and who you are when everybody's watching. It's more about what you do and who you are, especially when no one's watching. So how has character and identity shaped your leadership more than ever than your strategy ever could?
Janice Muir (10:37)
Do you want to know something? I think it's being me. I think it's being absolutely still in the moment. And when the stuff and the excuse the expression, shit was hitting me. And I mean that in the positive senses.
Jeff Ross (10:44)
Mmm.
Janice Muir (10:56)
who in their right mind understands and admittedly my partner was a few years older than me so losing him after 35 years was very hard but I had to come to understand what the hell was going on around me and then sit with that and learn across the board how I led myself forward and one of the things I used to say two steps forward one step back
Jeff Ross (11:19)
Yeah.
Janice Muir (11:25)
And sometimes it was three, one and a half, four, drop two. ⁓ shit, I'm in the poo today. But I used the latter methodology in my head. That was the only way. ⁓ climb again and I'll climb again and I'll climb again. ⁓ crap, I've just slipped down again.
Jeff Ross (11:32)
Right?
Yeah.
Janice Muir (11:49)
Now I see that from a leadership point of view, we watch, we observe, we see other people struggling, but they don't necessarily get that awareness. I got it. And I'm grateful.
Jeff Ross (11:50)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's absolutely, yeah,
absolutely beautiful. Like sometimes we, you know, we never wish the things that we go through on our worst enemy, right? But you come out the other end of it and you do become grateful for it because it's helped shape you, the person you are today. Yeah. Yeah.
Janice Muir (12:21)
Let me put that another way.
I've never said, why me? Listen to question. Why is this? Why is that? Right? I never said that. And right in the middle of breast cancer, losing the breast, six months of chemo, seven weeks of radiation, I never once said, why me?
Jeff Ross (12:29)
Mmm. That's powerful. That's powerful. Yeah, that's powerful.
Janice Muir (12:43)
because there was something inside of me that I listened to the source above and I got the awareness that said one day, one step, one foot in front of the other.
Jeff Ross (12:43)
Mmm.
Wow, that's powerful. It actually says in the Bible, right? And one of the lessons that I hold very close to my heart is to learn to be grateful for our trials and tribulations. Right? It's a hard thing to do, but this is what we're talking about here in this whole conversation, Is, is, ⁓ okay, you know, God, source, whatever you want to call it. We're going through this today. What is it? The lesson that I meant to be learning in this, what can I gain from this to build my character and strengthen me? And, you know, everything happens for us, not to us.
Janice Muir (13:03)
Correct.
Very.
And then from the leadership element, because I've already done that, people when I share the story to them, and there's variable tangents on that, they get, ⁓ my gosh!
Jeff Ross (13:39)
Hmm
Janice Muir (13:43)
And I said, you know, the thing is, they don't know what they don't know until they are in it themselves and they have to hear it from somebody else. Now, from the leadership point of view, we lead by example, but not everybody wants to listen because they think they know best. OK, I'll let you do that. Right. me. Correct, correct.
Jeff Ross (13:44)
Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah, and that's that's that's the ego and pride, right?
Janice Muir (14:12)
So that leadership element for me, at the moment I'm in a group of people and trying to keep them motivated, we're all on the same page but we're not on the same level. Right? We've all got the same interests but we've all got new engines of this. I grant that. Getting them to even write a testimony about their journey has been like drawing bloody water out of a thing. Correct. Correct.
Jeff Ross (14:23)
Hmm.
pulling teeth sometimes, It's like
pulling teeth. Yeah.
Janice Muir (14:39)
So I share
the knowledge, I then take them on the journey and I just change the whole dynamics and say we're doing this, this and this. So I lead them through and they go, ⁓ that wasn't so hard after all.
Jeff Ross (14:53)
Yeah, My mentor, Dr. Joseph McLendon, he actually works a lot with Tony Robbins. He says basically change your story, you change your life. Right? So, you you can change that story, that monkey chatter brain that you're telling yourself, you can change the direction and change your life and your results will follow. I think this is a really important conversation to go a bit deeper here. ⁓
Janice Muir (15:12)
Correct. Correct.
Jeff Ross (15:17)
A lot of new leaders, aspiring leaders, people stepping into this space of entrepreneurialism and whatever that looks like. One of the big things that I see that has blocked many and myself included in my early days is that imposter syndrome, you know, that the fear of it is so real, especially for people stepping into bigger roles. How do
We help leaders work through those voices in their head and stay anchored to their truth, stay anchored to their calling.
Janice Muir (15:49)
The words that came up while you were speaking were, not my monkeys, not my need to be concerned with what... Correct. I don't need to listen to the chatter. Really, that's the box you have to get into. The lot that's happening out here, right, is not your monkey because you've got to go within yourself and be true to yourself. That to me is one of the...
Jeff Ross (15:55)
Not my monkeys, not my circus. ⁓
Yeah.
Janice Muir (16:16)
hardest things to come to awareness. Now imposter syndrome, I looked at it, I thought about it and I said be off with you. Those were basically as simple as I could get but everybody wants to go deep.
Jeff Ross (16:27)
Yeah.
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah. So for me, when you had talked about imposter syndrome, for me, I had to realize that it wasn't necessarily a pasta syndrome. It was me trying to perform and be someone who I was not. It was trying to fake it till I make it type of and conversation, right? The moment I stopped performing and I started serving and got out of my head and got into my heart. That's where the real Jeff shows up.
Janice Muir (16:33)
Thank you.
Yes.
I couldn't speak it more clearly than that. This is where my journey is at the moment. I went through a period of trying to coach and I say trying in a very enduring way, right? ⁓
Jeff Ross (17:02)
Mm.
Janice Muir (17:08)
Did I get clients? No. So now I've stepped right back, I've reframed myself and I now come from my heart because I've come across products that work for me. So now I serve in a completely different way because I'm evidence of the products.
Jeff Ross (17:08)
Mm.
Yeah.
Right? Right. So, and this is really important because at the end of the day, this is a sales type sort of conversation, but I figure if you stop selling and you start serving and you start leading from that heart space, all you're doing is a transfer of belief, right? It's a transfer of energy and get into that space. I'll have to love for you to unpack that a little bit deeper from your perspective.
Janice Muir (17:42)
Correct. Correct.
I've never given myself credit to be a marketing style person, but I share from my heart when I share. And I share the story with empathy, with total involvement. And people have cried listening to me, so I know I've touched them. Having said that,
Jeff Ross (17:58)
Mmm. Mmm.
Hmm.
Janice Muir (18:11)
the emphasis of being able to lead others is they have to be not with a closed mind, they have to be with the lid open. And that is one of our biggest problems in society that we have that element of closed mind, they're not open. For some unknown reason, I have this mind that is absorbing. So.
Jeff Ross (18:21)
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
Janice Muir (18:37)
Give me the question again because I know I've gone on a tangent there, but that's okay.
Jeff Ross (18:42)
No,
no, I think this is a good conversation, but the tangent was going on, you know, coming into that space of stop selling and just start serving and going into that space. And I just want to hear a bit more about your perspective on that.
Janice Muir (18:49)
Yes.
To come into the space of serving, I only have to share it from my heart.
Jeff Ross (18:58)
Right? There is no sales anymore. It's just a, it's a guiding type conversation. It's just a leadership conversation.
Janice Muir (18:59)
I don't
It's not about you cook, you wood,
you shoot, all of those elements, it's now what it's done for me. I've felt this, this has happened, I can share that person's story or can share those different elements.
Jeff Ross (19:12)
BLEH
Move.
Janice Muir (19:20)
and I don't know how it's going to work for you, it's up to how your body responds. I can't force anything on you because it's working differently with each and every one of us. We've all got to a certain point in life after, in my case, 69 years, right?
Jeff Ross (19:27)
Hmm.
Janice Muir (19:42)
other people are 70, some of are 35, they've got to that place where ⁓ they close their mind because they think they've got to go in pharmaceutical way, we'll just call it that, when in fact they listen to what is happening inside the body. The body is screaming, giving you the awareness, giving you the understanding, giving you mindset.
Jeff Ross (19:59)
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Janice Muir (20:10)
Try this, try that, look at that, shift that, turn that around, find another recipe, go and ask another question, get more information. That to me is bringing it in a completely different perspective that we don't have a closed mind, we have an open mind.
Jeff Ross (20:29)
Yeah, Absolutely fascinating. And I just, the thoughts come to my mind as you're talking through a statement that I heard from Mark Cuban, from a tank, you know, what he said basically is, creation is creating his life, consuming his death. Right. So for a very, very bluntly, and that's a very poor, you know, very poor paraphrase of what he actually said, but that's my interpretation of what he said. And when we stop creating, when we stop getting curious, when we stop learning,
Janice Muir (20:46)
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (20:59)
And we've just become consumers and we just become, for better words, I'll put it very bluntly, brainwashed. And we just follow the crowd and be sheep bull. That is where we're actually basically giving up and we're on our road to, and I'm getting very, very blunt for a second, we're either ripe or rotten or we're green and growing. doesn't, age has nothing to do with that conversation.
Janice Muir (21:04)
Yes.
couldn't agree more and I cannot stand ripe and rotten, but I can stand growing, green, expanding, knowledge, awareness, understanding. I'm hungry for that. I won't let myself go to the other side because to me, I'm a set of scales if you look at that aspect from the Libra ⁓ symbol.
Jeff Ross (21:25)
EW
Hmm
Mmm. Yeah.
Janice Muir (21:48)
So I have to stay balanced. I rise, I tip, I have moments and yet we all do, I agree. However, as the true Librarian, I have come to my own awareness through my journey. I am very strong in the positive side. So I'm always looking up.
Jeff Ross (21:49)
Yeah.
Yeah, we all do.
Hmm.
Yeah, I love that. And positive side to me is just optimistic. know, and optimistic to me is, is always looking for options, right? There are always options, right? So
Janice Muir (22:24)
The
opportunities, what is it said by, quickly what's his name, the guy that flies the aeroplanes, thank you, yes, an opportunity is you don't say no to it, you grab it and work it out later.
Jeff Ross (22:34)
Richard Branson.
Right, everything's
figure outable. That's one of my favorite sayings. Yeah. Yeah. So.
Janice Muir (22:43)
As
the leader we have to be seen to be trying new things or stretching. Just quickly I'm stretching myself because something's come up and showing me I can do that but I'm not that smart. But you really could do that. Should I, would I, could I? Well I'm blowing myself away because I've tried.
Jeff Ross (22:52)
Yeah, well said.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Janice Muir (23:14)
I've created
reels, yes I've been inspired by others, but as a leader I'm leading my clan to see the difference.
Jeff Ross (23:23)
I love that. And the fact that you're doing something uncomfortable and excited about that, that's where the real growth lies. And I love that. So the hero makers, right? It's a term that's been thrown around here in our community. Basically what it means is hero makers are leaders who create other leaders. So hero makers are also about legacy impact. So what does leaving legacy look like for you personally? know, legacy and faith, family impact and
Janice Muir (23:31)
Correct.
Mmm, mmm!
Jeff Ross (23:52)
And how can everyday leaders start building legacy now? Cause I don't believe legacy is something when you're gone and that's your legacy. Now like this conversation right now is part of my legacy, right? And your legacy. So what does legacy look like for you and how can leaders start building legacy right now?
Janice Muir (24:10)
Question, times have changed quite a bit over last 10, 12, 15 years but at the point in time when I wrote my books that was my legacy. Right, so I shared elements that were around the well-used key that was about parts and things that happened in my life as a way to ⁓
Step into places that I hadn't realised I'd done and the values key gave me all the steps. Not listening to negative talk, writing out things in a positive vein, getting better school grades. There's an exercise how to do that. The next one was sharing the elements around a vision to win. So this is my legacy, it's completely different. That's my gold medal on the cover of when I was 11. So the vision to win, we go into a magical
Jeff Ross (25:01)
Rude.
Janice Muir (25:05)
spiritual world and we're listening to spirit giving us the idea that we can run faster. The next one being, you know, ⁓ let me get this off my chest.
Jeff Ross (25:12)
Mm-hmm.
I love how you live lessons into books. It's a beautiful way of really leaving your legacy and your insights behind. That's beautiful.
Janice Muir (25:22)
Correct.
Correct, know, coping with breast cancer alone. I didn't have my partner at this point in time. I had a couple of friends, but the majority of it was alone. And I told the oncologist, you can't give me any medicine that's going to make me sick because there ain't nobody at home to clean it up. Right? And thank God he listened.
Jeff Ross (25:45)
Yeah. Wow.
Yes
Janice Muir (25:50)
And the other one,
yeah, the last one being forget me not. This is the journey around managing and coping ⁓ with Alzheimer's in my partner. Because it wasn't just an instant fix, it was a journey. So the legacy for me is leaving that awareness, leaving that understanding. Absolutely, absolutely. from that point of view, ⁓
Jeff Ross (26:06)
Yeah.
That wisdom, that that wisdom, I love it.
Janice Muir (26:20)
Others will have paintings, others will have craft. I also do tapestry, know, 700,000 tapestry.
Jeff Ross (26:28)
Very cool. My mother does tapestry. Yeah, yeah.
Janice Muir (26:31)
Beautiful.
the legacy is already within us, we just have to bring it to our, I want to say our art, whatever that is, for each individual.
Jeff Ross (26:43)
Yeah, that's beautiful.
Well said. just quickly, so where can our listeners go and find your books? Where can they go access them?
Janice Muir (26:51)
They predominantly is on my website, sorry I just forgot my own name, jannismuir.com ⁓
Jeff Ross (26:59)
You're not the first person to do it.
Yeah, cool. All right. We'll make sure that that links in our show notes here for you as well. But make sure that you go over there and head over. If that one of those books has sparked your interest, I highly recommend going and grabbing one of those books. So let's look at wrapping this interview up, Janice, just quickly. And I love to always wrap up. We'll have to come back for a part two. But I love, you know, digging into this question here to wrap up, looking back with what you've taught, what you've led through, you know, what you've gone through.
Janice Muir (27:16)
Thank you.
no, I want more! I want more!
Jeff Ross (27:35)
What advice would you give someone to who's listening, who feels that they're not ready to step up and be a leader. They're not ready to essentially be the best version of themselves, but they believe in a dream. They have something that is going to inspire them to get up. What advice would you give to that person?
Janice Muir (27:55)
I didn't have that problem so I find that a difficult question as you could appreciate.
Jeff Ross (28:00)
Okay,
well, let's reframe it in this way. Rewind, you know, you've got, you knowing what you know now, going back to your 25 year old self version, what wisdom would you share with your 25 year old self?
Janice Muir (28:13)
In this very moment I would put the trust in my higher self to be the highest point of my reference. During that period of time I had lot of negative chatter.
Jeff Ross (28:24)
Buh.
Janice Muir (28:30)
and that was family people as well as some outsiders. I did have a lady in the office who said, Janice, you need to get on a path and follow it. And I didn't know what the path was at that time because I'm trying to go through everything. But it was about coming back and being true to me.
Jeff Ross (28:45)
Of course.
Janice Muir (28:52)
and that was one of the things. I didn't know it at the time but I used to jot down things from a journal perspective. The more you dump out in the pen the more you release it in a cathartic process. No maliciousness, no vengeance, you've bled it out in the word and then you go and you burn it.
Jeff Ross (29:01)
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, beautiful.
Janice Muir (29:20)
That's something that I did do during the journey. It wasn't every piece because I'm a forward thinking person. I don't look back a lot. But in that moment where I was at, the aspect of being able to find that energy to be in that moment, release it, burn it.
Jeff Ross (29:31)
Yeah.
I love that. And I love that whole thing about forward thinking person. It's actually very fascinating. It's the reason why I've got the, the kangaroo as my mascot. You know, the, you know, the kangaroo and the emu are the only two animals on Australia that can't walk backwards. They're always going forward. And that forward thinking is, is the reason why I've got the kangaroo there. So a little bit of a tidbit. ⁓ Yeah. Well, this has been absolutely a pleasure, Janice. And, and I like to keep these interviews short and sweet to the point because I.
Janice Muir (30:07)
God.
Jeff Ross (30:16)
We find that this is drive time. You know, people are driving from work to home and 30 minutes is that really awesome spot there. And also people go to the gyms and they put their podcast on in areas. It's not really their workout time. So awesome sweet spot. But I think when I just get started, we'll definitely have to have you back for a part two. So, Janice, before we wrap up, what's one final word of wisdom that you'd like to leave our audience with?
Janice Muir (30:35)
You're welcome.
In today's world, in everything that we are facing, endeavor to try not to let it absorb you, but you sit open to everything and then go within and follow that.
Jeff Ross (31:02)
Powerful advice. Thank you for sharing. And to our audience, thank you very much for listening. We truly, truly appreciate you. This is Geoff Ross. I'm a proud father of three amazing boys down here living down in Tasmania, known as the Laptop Lifestyle Dad or the Caffe D'Aida Gengar, if you will. This podcast has been hosted on YouTube, Spotify, and I've gone blank, oh, Apple.
And this has also been brought to you in partnership with the Los Angeles Tribune. Thank you very much for your time. We look forward to seeing you on our next episode, same time next week. Stay caffeinated, stay legendary and bye for now.