Finding Your Way Back to Joy with Joy St. John

What happens when you reach a career milestone you worked hard for—and realize you may be called to take a different path?

 

In this special BOLDLY Breakouts episode of the Moving Forward Podcast, Melissa Harrison sits down with Joy St. John, founder of The Joyous Edge, to talk about success, calling, and the courage to slow down when the life you are living no longer feels aligned with the one you want to lead.

 

Joy was thriving in her career at KPMG. She was on the partner path, developing leaders, advising clients, and helping grow a global community of women in risk. Yet as her responsibilities increased and her hours stretched, she began to sense that something was off. “I was doing everything right,” she recalls, but the work had started to feel more like a grind.

 

A serious car accident, followed by health challenges, forced Joy to stop pushing through. She describes the realization plainly: “My body was crying out and I wasn’t listening.” In the space that followed, she began to pray, reconsider her priorities, and ask what God was calling her to do in this season.

 

Joy shares how that process led her to create The Joyous Edge. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience in risk and compliance, she developed a framework to help leaders step back, evaluate what is on their plates, and bring their choices into closer alignment with their purpose. She also talks about making room for sleep and prayer, noticing her reactions instead of suppressing them, and allowing herself to ask for help.

 

For Joy, community was an important part of finding her way forward. She remembers how isolating it felt to navigate questions about faith and work while living in New York and traveling frequently. The connections she found through 4word gave her people she could turn to during a difficult season—and reminded her that she did not have to figure everything out alone.

 

This conversation is an invitation to pause and ask honest questions: What am I working toward? What needs my attention right now? And what might become possible if I make room to listen?

 

In this episode, we get into:

Success can be a signal to pause.

Reaching a career milestone may clarify what you want your life and leadership to look like next.

 

Pay attention when the pace isn’t sustainable.

Joy shares how she learned to make room for rest, prayer, and the needs she had been pushing aside.

 

You don’t have to find your next step alone.

Step back, listen for God’s direction, and let trusted community support you through change.

 

Joy also introduces her EDGE framework, which begins with evaluating your priorities against your purpose and vision. At BOLDLY, she will guide women through parts of that process and help them identify an initial step toward greater alignment.

 

Her encouragement to the woman who feels stuck is simple: slow down, listen, and reach out. As Joy shares, it took time for her to say, “I need help. I need somebody to talk to about this.”

 

4word is excited to welcome Joy as a BOLDLY breakout speaker this October in Dallas.

 

Learn more about BOLDLY at 4wordwomen.org/boldly/.

About Joy St. John

Joy St. John is the founder of The Joyous Edge and host of The Joyous Edge podcast. After more than 25 years working in risk, compliance, banking, and consulting, including a leadership role at KPMG, she now helps leaders and organizations evaluate their priorities, find greater alignment, and move toward their goals with intention. Through her podcast, Joy shares conversations about leadership and the challenges people face in work and life.

 

Joy invites listeners who would like to connect with her to book a free conversation at freejoycall.com.