Resilience on Trial: Brigette Panetta’s Fight for Justice and Healing

This is Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Cassie Ticcaro from the corporate office to the cab of a truck. They're here to inspire and empower women in all professions. So gear down, sit back and enjoy. Welcome. We're an award-winning show dedicated to empowering women in every profession through inspiring stories and expert insights. No topics off limits on our show. We Power Women on the Road to Success with expert and celebrity interviews and information you need. I'm Shelly. And I'm Cassie. Resilience is something that not everybody realizes that they have. To weather life's adversity, it takes sheer determination, intestinal fortitude and resilience. It also requires self-care, especially when you're in business. Brigitte Panetta is an example of this. She's a powerful advocate for people facing social injustice and adversity. As co-founder of media.com, she suffered false allegations on her family's investment business Mayfair 101 in Australia by government regulators. Media.com is a place where people in businesses can tell their true stories if they've been victims of government overreach and injustice. If that wasn't enough, during the pandemic she gave birth only to find herself in the ICU and ended up supporting her business partner through 26 legal hearings. She lost her family home and suffered personal and professional setbacks that now drive her to speak out and assist others who've battled injustice. She's committed to creating a foundation to offer litigation funding for people in the same circumstances. Brigitte is also passionate about holistic healing modalities and internal healing. She wants to educate women about self-care and the benefits of breathwork, meditation, kinesiology and Reiki to overcome trauma and stress. Brigitte's certainly been through her share of all of that. We have her on our show to hear more about her incredible journey and what she's doing to make positive change for women and women entrepreneurs. Welcome Brigitte. Thank you for being on the show with us. Shelly, thank you so much for having me and that introduction was just amazing. I was actually getting emotional all over again. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. We're the ones who are happy to have you. Yes. You're an incredible lady, Brigitte. We want to hear more about your story. What all went on? What have you learned? It seems like in the course of just a couple of years life really threw some boulders at you. It did. It did. And it's at the time you really don't understand why such a massive challenge is coming in your direction. But it takes a few years for you to accept, process and learn the tools, I guess, and evolve to match that challenge and to then be able to see why it came to you. And I feel like I'm definitely at that point now, which is amazing. I'm able to find peace in the chaos, which still kind of surrounds us a little bit. But yeah, it's been a journey. What all happened? So my partner and I ran an investment business, a private investment company in Australia, and the regulator took issue with our marketing. There was a proceeding lodged on our business to say that we were misleading and deceiving the public with our marketing, which is interesting because all of our marketing had legal sign off. We did all of the things that you required to do running a business and running a compliant business. So it was a big shock to us. As you mentioned, it was also in the pandemic and it was also, it happened two days before I gave birth to my daughter. Oh boy. Yeah. It was a lot. And mentally, I was thinking, no, no, this has just got to be a bit of a misunderstanding because we can provide our legal sign off. We can provide our tax advice for everything we've done. And then it should blow over. But I think my body knew there was a bit of a rollercoaster coming up and went into a complete state of shock, which then in turn affected my birthing experience heavily. I just wouldn't cooperate and my blood was actually septic in the end and no one knew. So I was kind of sitting in that for a while and that's when I ended up in ICU. And as soon as I had, and as soon as I gave birth to Emma, it was basically, you know, we're in a bit of a conflict zone since then. It was straight into survival mode, straight into how we're going to handle this, what are we going to do? We lost most of our staff because of the proceedings and a lot of them were in sales or in marketing. And because it was a marketing proceeding, they didn't want to be, I guess, linked to that, which, you know, is understandable. But I was working in the finance team. So I kind of went straight back into that role as soon as Bob had arrived. And I just remember saying to myself, you know, you can have a breakdown later. And right now, James and Emerald are your priority. And I just need to do whatever I can to make sure they're one, you know, healthy. So making sure everyone's eating and getting looked after there, but also providing anything to lawyers and things like that that I needed to from a finance perspective and just, you know, cleaning out changes emails if I needed to or just helping where I could, I guess, from a high level to keep the bullmoth rolling and support where I could. Wow. To deal with all of that and to be a new mother at the same time and having had health issues along with it, that requires more than tenacity. And the problem is in a lot of businesses run into this. They don't anticipate government regulators, their bureaucrats, they're sitting behind a desk and they can throw something at you. You didn't you didn't see coming. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, it's a bit scary, the the power that they have, especially when you can look into certain things, you know, like the investigation, you know, James has never been interviewed. He's never been spoken to. And so that's why it was even more of a shock. Because usually, you know, they'd come to and say, these are our concerns and we can address them before it, you know, ends up draining a business of their funds and affecting everyone involved. But we didn't get the liberty of that, that process. So that's why it was just even more of a shock. So we're still, you know, we're still in court at the moment trying to get to the very bottom of it, because James is a very, very determined and very, you know, I've learned a lot of my resilience from him, admittedly, because he has been able to weather this storm, really, with such, you know, integrity and grace, almost, you know, like he is never, I've never seen him falter or have never seen him be rattled. So I could see him going through that. And I thought, OK, if he can do it, I can do it, you know, like we're a team and we're going to get through this together. And, you know, because those moments where I just thought, you know, I could just walk out that door and, you know, all this for me will be, you know, not over, but I won't have to feel this pressure, because every day I'd wake up and there would be some form of bad news. And it was like on top of breastfeeding and looking after it alive. It was just it was like a war zone. That's what it felt like in my house. And because we were stuck in COVID, we couldn't leave. So we were trapped in this in this chaos. Well, in that impacted business, too, with all the shutdowns in Australia was really stringent on the shutdowns. Yeah, a lot of businesses didn't survive. And the fact that we've still survived through that and having 26, you know, lawsuits that we've had to battle a lot away, you know, I would have hoped that people would see that, you know, if if we were, if there were, you know, truth in these allegations and things, we would have just shut up shop and we would have just, you know, we wouldn't have gone through all of this. And James wouldn't have missed time with his family. And but he chose to, you know, prove that and clear his name, I guess, and protect the people that were heavily affected by by this, like heavily impacted by this, which were our lenders and things like that. So he thought they shouldn't be the collateral damage in this. And he wanted he wants to keep continuing to fight to make things right. So I'm really proud of him for that. It takes serious courage. And it's very costly when you're entangled in legal battles like that. And then by the time you're done, how do you get your reputation back? Because that's also something that's seriously compromised when you've been wrongfully accused, especially. That's yeah, that's one of the biggest things that we've struggled with this whole time, because, you know, even if we do win and even if we do clear James's name, you know, that that damage is done and that sits there with him forever. You know, he struggles a lot with with creating relationships. And we, you know, we've been debunked in Australia five times because of the adverse media and things like that. So that's where media.com was born. And that's where we could see the gap in the market and the opportunity, I guess, because for us, if we had a platform like that, where we could actually speak our truth and not have to go through the legal proceedings, because not everyone can afford it. And we couldn't afford it. That's why things have gotten so bad. Because at the initial stages, we were defunded. So we couldn't actually bring any money into our business through a court order. So we couldn't actually fight our cases. So they won, essentially. And so when we were able to source funding, which James, you know, worked tirelessly to be able to arrange and to be able to to work out, he was able to appeal the cases. And one of them was overturned on the basis of a denial of procedural fairness. And now it's kind of in court again now. So there's only so much I can kind of speak on about it. But there's there's so much funding, there's so much, you know, time that goes into trying to defend yourself. And like I said, not everyone can afford it. So, you know, with media.com, you could potentially lose a court case, but you can have the ability to speak your truth. And because when, you know, this is happening, the journalists pick a narrative. And if you're not on their narrative side, they don't want to talk to you. So we didn't voice through the media, but, you know, the government, obviously, would and did. And so we weren't able to to say our piece. And that reputational damage carries into everything and everywhere. And so we thought, why wouldn't we create a platform where people can actually have their say they can provide evidence, they can substantiate what they're saying, they can copy in articles, they can highlight sections that are misleading, false, you know, incorrect, inaccurate, you know, whatever, however you want to label that that statement about you and your life and your actions, and you can actually support it with evidence and substantiate it. Just so it's on the internet, you can actually create your own profile from from the source of truth, not from a journalist who doesn't know you or hasn't spoken to you. Well, and the problem is, and I've seen this, the evolution of journalism, it's gone from investigative reporting and reporting both sides of the story to very one sided spin, just because there's so much competition. And they don't always even know what they're writing about. It's very frustrating. And people's reputations, their whole lives can be ruined by that kind of thing. So what you're doing with media.com makes total sense. Now, is this just for people who are involved with litigation on media.com? No, it's it started like that. But it's actually gotten bigger and bigger and bigger as we've been building. So it's now a whole platform that you can create your story on there. You can put your, you know, your previous workplace. You can put any kind of feed. There's like a news feed so you can post things about other journalists, about other media that you want to say your piece on. But you can also post podcasts, videos. So it's kind of like bringing all of the platforms into one as opposed to having to spread your information across, you know, LinkedIn, YouTube, like everywhere. So it's really all into one space. So it's a neutral platform, which is good. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yes. And all has to be verified. So there's not like no bots, no unverified accounts, you know, no keyboard. We're hoping to remove the keyboard warriors in one section. And then we're also looking to with, like you said, having both sides of the media because no one's paid, no one's paid to post. And there's no incentive of, you know, financial gain if you have a big headline, you know, to get those clicks kind of thing, that paywall element. So we're trying to remove that. So there's just truth, there's just honesty. And people are just writing because they generally love to write. That's refreshing. And it's so needed. People assume everything that they read in social media is gospel truth. When in fact, it's not, you know, I've read some pretty crazy stuff on the internet. It's like, really? OK, not on this. So exactly. Yeah, people just want eyeballs and I get it. You know, people have been able to make good money doing that. But it's also, you know, people are confused. This is an over supply of information now. And now people aren't sure where to go, what to read. And everyone just wants to know what's really going on in the world, you know. Stay tuned for more of Women Road Warriors coming up. Dean Michael, the tax doctor here. I have one question for you. Do you want to stop worrying about the IRS? If the answer is yes, then look no further. I've been around for years. I've helped countless people across the country and my success rate speaks for itself. So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems. What are you waiting for? If you owe more than $10,000 of the IRS or haven't filed in years, call me now at 888-557-4020 or go to mytaxhelpmd.com for a free consultation and get your life back. Industry movement, Trucking Moves America Forward is telling the story of the industry. Our safety champions, the women of trucking, independent contractors, the next generation of truckers and more. Help us promote the best of our industry. Share your story and what you love about trucking. Share images of a moment you're proud of and join us on social media. Learn more at truckingmovesamerica.com. Welcome back to Women Road Warriors with Shelly Johnson and Kathy Takarov. If you're enjoying this informative episode of Women Road Warriors, I wanted to mention Kathy and I explore all kinds of topics that will power you on the road to success. We feature a lot of expert interviews. Plus, we feature celebrities and women who've been trailblazers. Please check out our podcast at womenroadwarriors.com and click on our episodes page. We're also available wherever you listen to podcasts on all the major podcast channels like Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, Audible, you name it. Check us out and bookmark our podcast. Also, don't forget to follow us on social media. We're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and other sites. And tell others about us. We want to help as many women as possible. Resilience is one of those qualities we often don't realize we have until life tests us to the core. Brigitte Panetta knows exactly what that's like. She's a powerhouse advocate for those facing social injustice and her own story reads like a masterclass in determination. As co-founder of media.com, she endured false allegations from government regulators against her family's investment business, Mayfair101 in Australia. That's how media.com was born. It was a place to convey the correct information to the public and for those falsely accused to speak their truth where they can tell their side of the story. Brigitte has had nerves of steel throughout the entire process. During the pandemic, she gave birth, landed in the ICU and still managed to support her business partner through 26 legal hearings, losing her family home in the process. Brigitte turns her setbacks into fuel for change. She advocates to fight against injustice. She's now working to build a foundation to provide litigation funding for others in similar battles. And she's passionate about teaching women the power of self care through breathwork, meditation, kinesiology and Reiki to heal from trauma and stress. She's been sharing her incredible journey and the positive change she's making for women and women entrepreneurs everywhere. Brigitte, I commend you for doing all that you're doing. You're committed to battling injustice. And unfortunately, we go through life. We all experience some form of it. Some people more than others. And it comes when you least expect it. And certainly women can run into that. And I love how you're empowering women. This is to teach resilience. That's something you don't even have to be in business to need to know how to do. How do people find their resilience? How did you? Yeah, so when all of this was happening, I went into that survival mode and then once we moved and I was out of that routine that I created, like a really strict routine, my body just kind of gave way. It was like, oh, OK, the robotic side of me just kind of collapsed, I guess. And I had a child to protect and to provide strength to and show up for. And I was finding I wasn't able to do that. And we were still kind of being covered. So I didn't have the village. I didn't have the support and all my family were on the other side of Australia. So all majority of them were. So I really had to find a way to be able to show up for Emerald. And I actually at one point had a panic attack because of some of the headlines that I'd read in the paper. And I'd also seen Emerald's name mentioned in a court document, which absolutely floored me as a mother. I just could not believe that that was my life. And so I was offered Valium at the hospital and I thought, no, this is how you know, people get hooked on things and and I wasn't going to give, you know, our opponents the satisfaction of me getting some form of, you know, addiction or just hooked on something that I would never normally take. And so I was just scrolling online and I found a kinesiologist that was in my area. And I went to the appointment. She was available the next day. I thought, OK, amazing. And I got James to watch Emerald and I went to this appointment and I went in as a very broken, broken person, someone who I just didn't know, you know, how I was going to make it through the day, let alone, you know, have a beautiful, healthy, happy life. And so I went in and I did an amazing forgiveness practice. She kind of taught me into it. And I just never I never thought of forgiving anyone because of the damage and the pain that I had just gone through for the last kind of few years. And doing that forgiveness practice was one of the most freeing things I've ever done. And I was just like from that moment onwards, I was just so consistent and I was seeking any type of healing modality, you know, outside of, you know, going to see a doctor about depression or anything like that. And as I started doing things like that and looking more within and trying to work out how to release like the anger, the frustration, the resentment and those emotions that I was carrying, I found as I was removing these layers, I was hearing this beautiful inner voice of, you know, this you're going to be OK. You've got this. And, you know, this is for a bigger purpose. And I just started to align with this really beautiful energy that was, you know, myself instead of seeking external, you know, help. It was all coming from within. And I've never heard anything like that before. I'd never connected with that level of myself before. And from those moments, I just I just started to feel better and happier and lighter. And I was very from that moment onwards, I was very committed to, you know, clearing anything that was inside, because that's what was holding you back. And that's what was drowning me. You know, no one was forcing me to carry any of this hatred or anger or this sadness. It was me. I was choosing to do that. And so I feel like the resilience really came from just trying to look after myself and self care. And I had to tell James, I can't help you as much now. I need to protect me because in turn that will help both of you because I will be, you know, able to cope better. Because when you're kind of spiraling, it was it wasn't helping anyone. But I felt like that was the only way I could ask for help, essentially. But when you can learn to help yourself, I think that's the most powerful thing and can help you overcome anything. Really is. Kathy, you've experienced something similar with your experiences. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. In my case, I came from literally decades of repressed inner trauma and, you know, sexual abuse and extreme violence and not saying anything to anybody and carrying on. I was a nurse and, you know, it was very easy for me to take care of everyone else's problems. And when it came crashing down, when I was finally at the age of 40, I mean, I couldn't even comb my hair. I couldn't put one foot in front of the other. I couldn't function. And it literally took me to losing everything I own and being homeless. And, you know, I was drinking alcohol a lot. And it took me to stop everything I was doing and turn like like you say, turn inwardly and figure it out from the inside out and start plucking away all those layers of pain. And it took me a total of two years to actually dig to the to the very core and find and find out what it was. It was just like it took a lot of different different kinds of treatment and different ways of seeking out. Yes, I was doing meditation. Yes, I was doing, you know, I had my my my counselor. I was doing a lot of art therapy. I was doing writing therapy. I was doing inner workbook stuff. I was, you know, exercising. I'm meditating. I'm doing all these things. But I mean, change and growth and healing, it takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. And now it's been, let's see, 12 years since those moments since those two years. And my gosh, like the the if you'd see me now, as opposed to what I was back then, you wouldn't even recognize me. Like the change is so dramatic. It's so, you know, caterpillar to the butterfly. It's just wonderful. And through those stages, through every single step of the way builds resilience. You don't see it. It's not something you can just say, oh, I have resilience today. It just it shows up in a way that when you're faced with a new problem, it's the way you respond to it. You that you're you respond to it better than you would have back in the day, you know, that's how I see it. Would you say, Bridget, that this has helped you respond better, more proactively and maybe not get drowned by the chaos? Yeah. Yeah. And wow, Kathy, that's such an amazing story like that resonates so much with me. I know yours has been on such a longer scale, but it's so it's so amazing that you were able to, I guess, pinpoint what the root cause of that was. Because that's yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's like the shadow work that I've done has been incredible for that. And I guess when you work out what the triggers are, you can every day, you can see the triggers coming up, but you can be aware of them. So you do react differently. So after doing a lot of that internal work, when the same kind of conversation or the same issue does arise, I am able to handle it a lot better because I'm like, OK, I've reacted to this before this was the consequence or this was the outcome, you know, I got sick or there was there was consequences that I necessarily put on myself, I guess, because I wasn't able to see it for what it is and like not attached to it the way I used to and see it as such a big issue that it's just a situation we need to handle and just flow through it a bit easier. An analogy I like to kind of use now is just last year, I started I started training on the biggest dozer in the world. And I was telling this to Shelley, you don't realize what it is until you're actually in this this ginormous piece of equipment. And it's literally you are pushing, you're building a road from the edge of the Grand Canyon Cliff, and you've got to build a road from the very top all the way down. And so you're on a very, very steep edge and you're pushing and you don't see the blade is so big that you don't see until the whole dozer is over the edge and you tip forward and it's terrifying. So but build doing this every single day and learning this piece of equipment at 55 years old. I mean, it's it's got its challenging. But and half the time we're working in the dark and you can't see and it's terrifying and it's working through my own inner struggles is fear. And there's like, no, I got this. Well, now that I do that, that kind of a job. So when things come my way, like in my day to day life, I'm like, oh, that's nothing. You just make it last week. Right. It's a zip. I got this. Like, don't worry about it. Like, yeah, it seems so bad or so big. When you face your fears, you know, nothing bothers you after that. She's like, I've got this. I can look at you right in the face. It's nothing's going to bother me after this. Like the add. And it's like I walk. I stand taller. I walk straighter. I shoulders are squared. You know, I feel better about who I am and every single thing that I've overcome. And I look back and I'm like, damn, look at you go. You're such a badass. That's right. Yeah. I mean, like if you imagine yourself in 10 years time looking back at everything that you're going through now or what you went through in the last five years, you know, you're going to be just so proud of yourself. And you're like, holy crap, let's, you know, it's the really good feeling that you can't buy that you can't. Exactly. Oh, yeah. It's something that you won't be able. Unless you do that work, you won't be able to achieve this feeling that you have. And that's just like that self empowerment that you're like, I did this all by myself. I, you know, I, I was dedicated to myself and, you know, that self love, which I, you know, didn't have before. And yeah, I do that as well. I put my shoulders back. If I have a something, you know, put on my plate or if something comes to me and I have to deal with it, you know, I pull my shoulders back and I'm like, I've got this. Like it's that reminder, reminding yourself that you can do it. I've done it before. It's okay. That's right. Just move on yourself. But your biggest cheerleader and your biggest advocate and you can get through anything. Well, like the song, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. It's so true. And to be able to actually rediscover ourselves and the intrinsic strength we all have. I think society has a way of extinguishing that. And certainly when you're dealing with unfair adversity, like you were Bridget, you don't know how to navigate. Not everybody, especially with the regulatory systems and legal system. You're not skilled in that. You're not schooled in that. What am I going to do? Where do I turn? And so many things come at you. And people deal with this in different ways all the time to stay focused. How do women in business and even in life, even if they're not in business, how do they grasp that inner strength? I think having a goal is what got me through. Emre was my initial, I guess, priority. So just making sure she was growing and I was giving her all my love and attention. Like that was my guiding light at the time. But then as things went on, I could just see, you know, if I did a meditation, if I did something, I could just visualize this future that I was building. And even though right at that moment, I was just doing small little steps. I felt, you know, sometimes you can look at that as a negative, like, oh, I'm not doing anything to achieve my goals. But if you look at it as if these little steps are building towards something really big in the future. And if you just manifest and try and visualize that future that you want to build every little thing that you're doing, you'll end up putting your time into those things that are actually going to be benefiting you. So instead of me, you know, losing the plot, I could have gone out drinking with friends. I could have gone out and escaped all of my life. I could have got a babysit of Emerald and gone out and, you know, gone shopping and done of the things that I used to do to kind of, I guess, drown my sorrows or make myself feel better. But instead, I was putting it into things that were making me more educated or more feeling inaligned with who I really am. And I was reading more books. I was doing more just courses on, you know, self mastery or understanding the human body or understanding the mind and things like that. I was when you feel like you're actually progressing. I feel like that's what gives you that that strength to keep going. She's like, oh, my gosh, I'm actually evolving. I'm learning. I'm using something negative and turning it into a positive. And that is the most amazing feeling for me. Instead of going to victim mode, I've gone into this has happened to me for a reason. And I feel like I can't let that opportunity go. I really need to transform this into something special and turn a negative into a positive. That's really the way to survive and conquer life, if you will. There's so many negatives we can encounter, but if we can turn those into a positive, and people hear this all of the time, it's a process. And we are more resilient and stronger than we think. And being able to have a focal point, I think you had your goal to be able to visualize that goal and the future in a positive light. People lose sight of that. I think because everyone's like that instant gratification is currently, you know, really prominent in our society where everyone wants everything right now. And they're not if they've done one thing and they're not seeing the result, it's like, oh, it's not working for me. I'm just going to give up now, you know. And I kind of was like that for a little while. I was doing things and I wasn't seeing the results, but I'm so much more patient now because I can I trust in my journey. I trust that it's coming and I trust that every little thing I do because I know it's in alignment with who I am and I'm doing it because I feel it's right. Not because I have to show on Instagram, I'm doing this or I have to show people I'm doing this. It's like, I don't mind being an outlier because that I know that that's what's right for me. So just being in alignment with yourself is what's going to just keep you achieving towards that that goal that will come. You know, you just need to have trust and have faith in in the universe or in yourself and know that everything that comes to you is in divine timing. And it's easy to lose alignment with social media. And when you're talking about instantaneous instant gratification, we do live this way. I mean, human beings have become a lot more impatient in the past 15 years. It's just crazy. Yeah, I was definitely impatient. I was like, we're doing all the right things, you know, it's been five years of this legal battle. And after a long time. Oh, and it's still going. So we've got something, an open case now, and then we've got another one coming up. And it's just like when this was happening, I kept saying to James, like, when is this going to be over? Where are we in this, you know, in the time range? Like, where are we? And he would try and, you know, sugarcoat it for me and say we're a lot further along than we were. But if you would have, you know, said to me back then that this was going to take five years, like, I don't know how I would have processed that. But now I think because I've accepted that this is my life, that this is happening and there is a bigger reason for it, I guess I can just live in peace knowing that it's still going on. And James, you know, he deals with a lot of, you know, a lot of the chaos. And I'm I can, you know, I'm lucky enough, I can remove myself when I need to. I need to reenergize and do all of those things. Whereas before I was kind of carrying a lot of his pain for him. But that wasn't my job and that wasn't helping him or me. So I think, you know, when you learn that you just need to worry about what you can control and what's on your plate and what's in front of you, which for me is Emerald and my career and supporting James where I can. That's all I need to worry about. I don't need to, you know, fix everything in the world. I don't need to fix everyone's problems for them. That's their stuff, their journey. And I just kind of can worry about what I can control. And it just made things a lot easier, a lot lighter, you know, not worrying about everyone thought about reading the media like who cares what people think. You know, if they're my friends and my family, they'll contact me if they want to know what's going on. So that was really difficult for me to handle because I'm very, you know, your identity is being judged by people. And so therefore I was taking that personally. My ego was getting bruised. But when I removed a lot of that, I just I don't care anymore. There are a lot of programs that teach that sort of thing. And certainly in recovery, a lot of people will say things like, let go and let God essentially, you have to let go of the things you have no control over. Because human beings do like to think that they can control the world. They really can't. Mother nature reminds us of that every now and then. You know, and you may have the best of intentions, but what you're doing is just creating more internal conflict. And certainly what you've been dealing with, with five years of legal wrangling. Oh my goodness, it'd be like in the middle of an ocean and you're trying to come up for air and you're able to come up for air and all of a sudden there's another tidal wave and you're down back under the water and then you're coming back up. I mean, to be able to grasp onto some sort of serenity amid all of that. That's that's a real accomplishment. Yeah, oh, thank you. Yeah, it was tough. And that analogy is like spot on, like spot on, like every time you think, OK, I've got this and then something else happens. And you're like, when is this going to end? When is this, you know, when are these? Like it was just waking up to bad news every day. And so I didn't want to wake up, but then I had a child to look after. So I was like, you know, I had to persevere, but it was just taking those hits was just relentless for a few years until I was able to just accept that that would happen. Stay tuned for more of Women Road Warriors coming up. Dean Michael, the tax doctor here. I have one question for you. Do you want to stop worrying about the IRS? If the answer is yes, then look no further. I've been around for years. I've helped countless people across the country and my success rate speaks for itself. So now you know where to find good, honest help with your tax problems. What are you waiting for? If you owe more than $10,000 of the IRS or haven't filed in years, call me now at 888-557-4020 or go to mytaxhelpmd.com for a free consultation. And get your life back. Industry movement, Trucking Moves America forward is telling the story of the industry. Our safety champions, the women of trucking, independent contractors, the next generation of truckers and more help us promote the best of our industry. Share your story and what you love about trucking. Share images of a moment you're proud of and join us on social media. Learn more at truckingmovesamerica.com. Welcome back to Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Takarov. If you've ever wondered what it really takes to stand tall when life knocks you down, you'll want to lean in for this. Bridget Panetta is living proof that resilience isn't just a buzzword. It's a survival skill. As co-founder of media.com where businesses and people can tell the real stories about themselves, she faced false allegations from government regulators targeting her family's investment business, Mayfair 101 in Australia. Then came the pandemic. She gave birth, ended up in the ICU and still stood by her business partner through 26 legal hearings, all while losing her family home. But instead of breaking, Bridget rebuilt. She found resilience and strength she never knew she had. She works to help people battle injustice, and she's on a mission to help women reclaim their power through holistic healing. Things like breathwork, meditation, kinesiology and Reiki. Her story is raw, inspiring and a reminder that adversity can forge the strongest leaders. It also requires a focal point for each of us. Bridget, what do you advise for people who may not be able to find their focus, their focal point, the bright spot on the horizon? I would just use yourself. I see this a lot because I do think that same thing. What would have happened if Emerl didn't come into my life? Because she's helped me overcome a lot of triggers and things because children do that. They bring out all of your triggers. And I think, how would I have done that? Or why didn't I do this before she came? And I think it was because I didn't value myself enough before. I didn't have that strong self-worth. I loved myself. I presented well. I always looked after myself. I went to the gym and did all of those things. But there was still something inside that was telling me I wasn't. I guess there wasn't that drive to be able to evolve and improve myself unless I got knocked, which I think that's why this happened. So I could really evolve into who I'm meant to be. So I think if you can just have that self-worth and use that as I deserve everything that I want on this planet. And who do I need to be today to achieve that? If I want to achieve A, B and C, what does that person look like? And if that person doesn't look like who you're operating as every single day, then that's a good chance for you to start auditing your life, auditing every single thing you're doing. If you're waking up checking your phone, if you're waking up and having a coffee straight away instead of getting some sunlight or having some fresh water or having vitamins and things like that, is that affecting your energy to be able to be the most abundant person that you should be to be able to achieve the things that you ultimately want in life? So I think it's just using yourself as that guiding light and knowing that you're worth everything that you've dreamt of having. You can achieve it if you just start evolving your habits and your actions and things every day. I like how you describe self-audit, but that's a good description to take a step back and say, okay, what's going on? What am I doing? Too often we don't do that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, your heart is starting. It's easy to sit there and brew in our own misery. The hardest part is doing one small thing for yourself, even if it's just getting up. Getting out of bed. Well, at least you did something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so true. And just that one change. I remember when I went and saw someone, it was like a Reiki session. And from that moment, something just switched in me and I would wake up, I'd go sit outside straight away. I'd get up like probably 5 a.m. because everyone would wake up at 7. So I was like, I need two hours to myself in the morning because when she was waking me up, I wasn't able to have the mindset that I would if I had just even half an hour to myself before she woke up. So I was getting up earlier and I was just doing a 5-minute YouTube exercise, like an abdominal workout or a leg workout, just 5 minutes. And then I would do a meditation. I'd do a deep-heat chaperone meditation for 15 minutes. And just those two things, I did them consistently for 21 days and I just kept going. And I thought 21 days was my limit to try and create a habit of some sort. But just those two things, I found I just changed because I felt so much more in control, I guess, of myself. And I felt like I was getting a bit more of a routine. And just having that routine just kind of changed my mindset for the day. Then I was reading more instead of watching a show. You know, like I was wanting to do more productive things than feeling a bit more than feeling flat. By doing this, I think that they've discovered that this actually develops new neural pathways because you're developing new habits. Habits are hard to break. So you have to kind of rewire your brain, if you will. Yes. And I feel like that discipline of the mind, it's so much easier to be disciplined when you have more energy. And you've had more sleep and I guess you've optimised your rest time. That was a big thing for me because I wasn't sleeping because of Emerald was waking up during the night. So when you're not sleeping, you don't have that discipline because you don't care. You're like, just whatever you need to get through the day, I will do. Parents are really sleep deprived, especially if they have infants. Yeah, it's unbelievable. You don't think that, but you hear that phrase, sleep like a baby, your wife. And you get a baby like, oh my God, they don't sleep. Where did this phrase come from? Yeah, every four hours. And if you have a colicky baby, then you've got to even less sleep. Yeah, it's brutal. It can be pretty tough those early stages. And that's, yeah, I did get a really good sleep routine for Emerald at the start just because I felt like I had to. Because I was working in between her sleeps. But yeah, then they keep progressing and changing. So it's like, you know, that helped me to release control as well because you just have to go with it. Whatever the baby needs, the baby needs. You can't get them on too much for strict routine. You know, it's just life. Well, and if you're a new mom, there's no tutorial that comes with that infant. Yeah, exactly right. And I was in lockdown as well. So I didn't really have anyone over. I didn't have the mother's groups. I couldn't do any of that. I think we did one mother's group over a Zoom call and I just didn't go back because it just wasn't the same. So it was quite isolating. That's a tough one. And that's what a lot of people talked about with the pandemic and all the shutdowns, the terrible isolation. And people need people. They need a support system. And if you want to grow as a person and you want to exercise self-care, you also need to have a good support system. Not people who are going to work against you. You need to have, you know, people who are going to say, hey, I can help you with this and that kind of stuff, you know. And so you were kind of weathering the storm along with this uncharted territory of legal wrangling. Oh my. Yeah, it's a bit of a contrast because in one way it was COVID for me come at a good time because we were under so much pressure that we could not have a life at all. And so by having lockdowns, it did, it made me feel like I wasn't missing out on anything. But then on the other side, it did make things really sticky because we couldn't like go out and meet with people and, you know, have one-on-one conversations with people about the business and grow it and try and find solutions. So we were trapped in it. But then it kind of gave us that focus time to be able to say, right, I'm going to just focus on Emerald get her in a really good routine because we were under so much pressure. And we weren't going out for lunches. We weren't going out for catch up. So it wasn't interrupting her sleep. But then we were able to just focus on work. But then we didn't have the village at the same time to be able to help us just, I guess, navigate the storm that we were in. I really like what you're doing with media.com. You're giving people a voice. And that's really important today in social media, because even though we're able to connect with lots of people, a lot of people don't have a voice. It's like, they can't tell their story and they should have a right to do that. I love the fact you're an advocate for social justice. What do you want to see happening with media.com? And how do people, do people just click on media.com? Is that available around the world? Yes, so it's going to be launched in the next few weeks. We're being in beta stage for the last probably three weeks. And it's going to be a global platform. And yeah, anyone can start a profile. And it's a, there's a read only section, then you can, there's other elements if you want to be like a thought leader and things like that. And it's going to be a different tears to it. And it's just going to be able to give people that voice, give people that safety of having a space to be able to post your thoughts, post your story, post your life, I guess, and control your reputation, control your image in the world in a space where you don't have those keyboard warriors, the bots, and the need to just get a lot of likes or the need to have a lot of comments and things like that. It's not about validation. It's not about status. It's about just sharing your truth. And just that's kind of the purity of it. And that's what we wanted to give people that opportunity to just have a safe place to share their story. And yeah, just create a community of people that can follow their story. Share your truth. I like that. That gives, you know, and when people are facing injustice, that's a lot of it. They're accused of something they can't speak. Nobody wants to listen. They don't have a forum because there's always the other side of the story. Exactly. And we also, at the time, we didn't have us, we didn't have social media status because that wasn't our business model. We didn't really need it for that. We were just focusing on our business, building our website and things like that. And so when we didn't have the platform or the status or the followers, it really, really was hard for us because we couldn't, I guess, share our story anywhere. So we did go to Twitter at the time. This was nearly five years ago. And we had all of these people creating fake accounts with James's name and, you know, and so they were really writing and people didn't know who was who and it was like, it was such a mess. So I guess with our platform, it's all verified. So, you know, it's the trusted source, you know, that people can't create fake profiles. That's good. That's very good. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, we just wanted to clean up the area and the space a bit just because we struggled a lot. And like, yeah, that did trickle into so many, it affected us in so many ways, reputationally. So hopefully in the future, you know, if there is a breaking story, if there is someone who's been criticized, you know, people can think to go to media.com to see if that person's actually responded to that on their platform. Do fact checking. Excellent. Yes. This is so needed in social media to be able to actually find a place where people can see both sides of the story and see what's really going on. Things can go viral. It doesn't mean it's true. Exactly. Exactly. It just depends, you know, if they can get enough bots onto that account to be able to create that viral and then, you know, the retail just follow. That's right. Reminded is happening. So it's very manipulated. And it's also, you know, for kids, they just, they're getting the wrong start to life, I feel, you know, with all of this viral, you know, who cares? They should just be focusing on themselves. And it's just another way for them to disconnect and get caught up and sucked into things that probably, you know, that aren't even true or real. Amen to that. So people can go out to media.com. Yes. Can people reach out to you if they have any questions? Yeah. Yeah. So I am on media.com at the moment, media.com slash Bridget Panetta. I'm on Instagram as well. Just Bridget Panetta on Instagram. And I'm so happy for anyone to reach out who might obviously want a profile on the platform that is that I'm happy to discuss that with anyone. And also anyone suffering with any kind of injustice. I've looked to, I've got a website, a landing page up at the moment so people can go on to there. But anyone needing support, anyone just wanting someone to speak to, I'm so available at any time to help anyone suffering from anything like that or any kind of adversity. It's definitely a passion of mine. And I really feel like I want to help as many people as I can in that space. Wonderful. Thank you for paying it forward. You truly are making a positive out of a huge negative. Yeah, I feel like that's just what I need to do now. I just, you know, I want to be the person that I wish I had at that time. There you go. Well, that's how things improve. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you, Bridget. This has been phenomenal. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. We hope you've enjoyed this latest episode. And if you want to hear more episodes of Women Road Warriors or learn more about our show, be sure to check out womenroadwarriors.com. And please follow us on social media. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. On our website, we also have a selection of podcasts just for women. There are a series of podcasts from different podcasters. So if you're in the mood for women's podcasts, just click the Power Network tab on womenroadwarriors.com. You'll have a variety of shows to listen to anytime you want to. Podcasts made for women. Women Road Warriors is on all the major podcast channels like Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Audible, YouTube and others. Check us out. And please follow us wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening. You've been listening to Women Road Warriors with Shelley Johnson and Kathy Takaro. If you want to be a guest on the show or have a topic or feedback, email us at sjohnsonatwomenroadwarriors.com.