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Intuition training | Embodied Alchemy |  Business and Dream Actualization

The JOY Hour

Twice a month, I sit down with visionaries, artists, and leaders who are shifting away from hustle conditioning to create from a deeper, more intuitive space: exploring the messy, beautiful journey of living and leading on their own terms.

This podcast is for you if you’ve ever felt like:

  • Making a living means sacrificing your joy
  • There’s more to entrepreneurship than endless hustle
  • Your creative vision deserves a different kind of strategy
  • You’re ready to see what happens when joy leads the way
 
In each episode, we explore the real stories behind inspiring creatives who thrive through joy, authenticity, and aligned action.

I’m Ella Mesma (you might know me as Maya), your host, and I’ve spent over two decades creating: from stages around the world to the sacred spaces where transformation happens.

On that journey, I have also felt the pendulum swing of thinking “what next” after each show or company creation, the ache of not belonging, and the weight of never feeling good enough in an industry that is ever advancing.
 
And I have also discovered that when we choose joy as our compass, and honour our creative truth, EVERYTHING changes.

Did you enjoy the JOY Hour? Join Ella and Ama for 70 powerful journeys with amazing guests in the predecessor to The JOY Hour: PowerUp! Podcast:

Other podcast interviews with Ella:

The JOY Hour is a coming HOME to ourselves: an hour to discuss, to muse, and to laugh on our journeys: the dead ends, the triumphs, and the battles on our way out of listening to what the world is telling us and coming back HOME into the most unique and expressive version of our soul truth.

A Fortnightly Invitation New episodes drop fortnightly: with the new and full moon.
 
Ready to Transform Through Joy? Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and join a community of visionaries and intuitive creators who believe that joy is a choice.

Lineage

Of mixed Nigerian and white British heritage, with 20+ years in movement, 10+ years as a coach, I draw from ancestral and land traditions,  embodied movement and bodywork practices.

(Check out my training and lineage above)

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge my privileges, honour the cultures these practices come from, and share with you not as an authority, but someone transformed by these teachings. 

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  • © Maya Gandaia, 2025