JoAnna Ferrari or “JJ” as she prefers to be called had the kind of professional and personal life, we all dream of. Then the dream ended, and the nightmare began when she openly told the world about starting her gender transition.
JJ has transitioned or reinvented herself personally and professionally over 21 times during her life. None of her transitions were as big a change or challenge as the one she encountered at 53 when she committed to transition her gender from male to female.
JJ recalls, “Once I began my transition, my world exploded. Reality hit quickly and I realised, it was going to be a treacherous trek with no map, no guides, no support and no going back.” JJ had to start life and career completely over. The lessons she used to survive in her new life are what she now feels an obligation to teach others so they can survive and succeed at their own lives and businesses.
JJ has degrees in Biology, Nutrition and Nursing. She has had a 15-year background as a Transition and Performance coach and become a well-respected inspirational and strategic speaker on both sides of her transition. She has written and taught “High-Speed Selling” in the US, Canada, UK, New Zealand and Australia and created ‘The Selling You’ book and course for the State of Illinois working with people specifically unemployed for more than 1 1⁄2 years.
She trained, coached and consulted to over 1800 business with her Business Prosperity Course and grew an Australian telecom business from $10 million to $80 million in under three years. She is the former CEO for Anthony Robbins [and three other companies].
” Today JJ is happy in life and has again become a well-respected business coach, transition/performance consultant, requested keynote speaker and author. As JJ puts it “If you succeed once in your life, people will call you lucky. But when you do it twice and transition your gender on top of it all, well, they call you talented, agile, resilient and authentic.” JJ