Be The Wolf

The sacrifice wasn't a choice. It was a survival strategy. And it has been running your life for a very long time. Genea Barnes doesn't talk around the hard stuff. In this episode, she goes straight to the root of one of the most painful patterns she sees in high-achieving, emotionally intelligent people … the ones who give everything, hold everyone together, and quietly wonder why they feel so far from the life they were supposed to be living. She traces her own sacrifice through every area of her life. The jobs she bent herself inside out for. The relationships she worked two jobs to support. The body she managed to keep everyone else comfortable. The business she almost destroyed by saying what she thought her coaches wanted to hear instead of what was actually true. And the moment … broke, maxed out, in full meltdown — when she finally stopped. This isn't an episode about being nicer to yourself. It's not a self-care conversation. It's the deeper one. The one about the parts of you that learned, early and completely, that love and safety came with a price tag. And you've been paying it ever since. The stories inside this episode go places most podcasts won't: 🔹 Why the sacrifice showed up in her relationship, her job, her body, and her business … all at once, all from the same wound 🔹 The forbidden part of herself she had buried since childhood, and what welcoming it back made possible in her life and business 🔹 How she kept attracting incompetent bosses, a failing business, and partners who left … and what it all had in common 🔹 What it felt like to let things crumble … and why that crumbling was the only path back to herself You are not broken. You are not too much. You learned to survive in a world that didn't always make it safe to exist fully. This episode is the beginning of something different. Come listen.   About Genea Genea Barnes is a mentor, coach, and speaker whose early life was rooted in deep trauma and neglect. To stay safe, she learned to make everyone else feel good and put their needs first. It worked to survive, but it came with a cost. She lost her ability to discern what was truly right for her. And getting what she wanted came with the anxiety that it would be lost or taken away.  She was great at making other people’s dreams come true, but when it came to what she truly wanted, she self-sabotaged and procrastinated … always putting something else first.  She spent decades exploring and studying every modality under the sun to break free from those patterns and create a life that felt like joy, ease, and freedom.  Today, she empowers people to move away from and resolve conflict rooted in trauma, generational trauma, and sacrifice of self … so they can create the life they crave and access greater peace and freedom in all areas of their life.  This gives them access to loving, authentic relationships, consistent healthy habits, and success in business, finance, and career that feels like fulfilment and freedom.    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes     

The wound that's been stopping you might not have happened to you at all. Genea Barnes has spent years doing the work. Clearing money blocks. Healing abundance patterns. Trying every approach that promised to change her relationship with finances and freedom. And underneath all of it, a fear she could never fully reach. A sensation so old, so embedded, that she had no story to put to it. Because it wasn't her story. In this episode, Genea traces the invisible thread from her grandmother's childhood right after the Great Depression, through her mother, and into her own body. She explains why the most stubborn fears often have no lived experience to explain them, and why that's exactly what makes them so hard to shift. These are wounds that travel not just through behavior and modeling, but through the nervous system itself. From womb to womb. Generation to generation. This episode is for anyone who has tried, again and again, to break through a ceiling that makes no logical sense. Anyone who has felt a fear far bigger than the situation in front of them. Anyone who has done everything right and still can't get free. The reason might be simpler than you think. And older than you know. Here's what this episode cracks open: 🔹 The science of inherited fear, what caterpillars, butterflies, and their babies reveal about the patterns running your decisions right now 🔹 The moment Genea realized her healing had been pointed at the story, not the sensation, and what finally shifted when she found the root 🔹 Why the rebel child and the controlled child are both living inside the same wound, and what the middle way actually requires 🔹 What it means to be the cycle breaker, and the real reason it feels like the world is disintegrating when you try If that hum inside you keeps saying there is more, this episode is a place to start. Listen when you're ready.   About Genea Genea Barnes is a mentor, coach, and speaker whose early life was rooted in deep trauma and neglect. To stay safe, she learned to make everyone else feel good and put their needs first. It worked to survive, but it came with a cost. She lost her ability to discern what was truly right for her. And getting what she wanted came with the anxiety that it would be lost or taken away.  She was great at making other people’s dreams come true, but when it came to what she truly wanted, she self-sabotaged and procrastinated … always putting something else first.  She spent decades exploring and studying every modality under the sun to break free from those patterns and create a life that felt like joy, ease, and freedom.  Today, she empowers people to move away from and resolve conflict rooted in trauma, generational trauma, and sacrifice of self … so they can create the life they crave and access greater peace and freedom in all areas of their life.  This gives them access to loving, authentic relationships, consistent healthy habits, and success in business, finance, and career that feels like fulfilment and freedom.    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes     

There's a version of disappearing that nobody talks about. It doesn't look like falling apart. It looks like getting it all done. The matching sweatsuit at preschool drop-off. The perfectly managed household. The birthday party with the Etsy decorations. Eva Angeloff looked like a woman who had it together. And she did. She had everything managed. Everything except herself. Her husband finally said it out loud. "Do you think we'll ever be intimate again?" She didn't see it coming. Because she hadn't meant to close the door on him. On her body. On any of it. It had just happened. Slowly. The way these things always do. One disowned need at a time. What followed was one of the most honest conversations about desire, control, and reclamation you'll hear anywhere. Eva is the founder of Women's Lib … a brand centered on women's vitality and sexuality. But before she could build it, she had to become the woman her brand is about. Here's what cracked open in this conversation: 🔹 The therapy session where three words — "you have a control problem" — sent her to the floor and changed everything she thought she knew about herself 🔹 Why her need for clean countertops and her loss of intimacy were rooted in exactly the same wound 🔹 How the woman who manages everything is often the woman who has disappeared the most — and what it looks like when she finally comes home 🔹 The generational pattern behind people-pleasing, lost desire, and why you can't think your way out of programming that lives in your body If you've been managing your life beautifully but feeling flat... this episode was made for you. If any part of this felt familiar... you already know what to do.   About Eva: Eva Angeloff is the founder of Women’s Lib, a women’s wellness brand created to bring desire, pleasure, vitality, and sexual well-being into the center of the wellness conversation. A wife, mother of three, and lifelong believer in embodiment, Eva built Women’s Lib after recognizing how many women quietly lose access to parts of themselves while being responsible, capable, useful, and “good.” For Eva, Being the Wolf means reclaiming the wild connection to Self - the part of a woman that wants, feels, desires, questions, and refuses to disappear. Her work centers on one belief: pleasure is not frivolous. It is part of being fully well.   Connect with Eva: Website:  www.womens-lib.com  Instagram handle:  womenslibco  Promotional Link: https://womens-lib.com/discount/IMAWOLF20  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-angeloff-410838353/  Email: [email protected]    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes 

You've built a life that looks right. So why does it feel like nothing? You're not someone who gave up. You've worked harder on yourself than most people will in a lifetime. Therapy. Coaches. Books. Retreats. You've rebuilt yourself more than once. And you're still here. In the gap. Between who you know you're supposed to be and where you actually are. Still waiting for it to feel the way you always knew it could. What if the reason nothing has fully worked isn't about strategy? What if the parts of you that you learned to hide earliest in life are the exact parts your business, your relationships, and your sense of aliveness have been missing? Genea Barnes gets into all of it in this episode. Using the story of the Yellowstone wolves and a seventh-grade classroom moment that changed the course of her life, she traces exactly what happens when the most essential parts of a person go quiet. And what becomes possible when they finally come back. Here's what's waiting inside: 🔹 Why the life you've carefully built might belong to the version of you that learned to survive, not the one that was built to thrive 🔹 The moment she said something true out loud and paid for it with every friendship she had 🔹 How a collapsing national park became the most accurate map she'd ever found for what was happening inside her own life 🔹 What it actually looks and feels like when the real you starts coming back online If you've been waiting for something to finally name what's been quietly wrong, this is the episode. Listen now. About Genea Genea Barnes is a mentor, coach, and speaker whose early life was rooted in deep trauma and neglect. To stay safe, she learned to make everyone else feel good and put their needs first. It worked to survive, but it came with a cost. She lost her ability to discern what was truly right for her. And getting what she wanted came with the anxiety that it would be lost or taken away.  She was great at making other people’s dreams come true, but when it came to what she truly wanted, she self-sabotaged and procrastinated … always putting something else first.  She spent decades exploring and studying every modality under the sun to break free from those patterns and create a life that felt like joy, ease, and freedom.  Today, she empowers people to move away from and resolve conflict rooted in trauma, generational trauma, and sacrifice of self … so they can create the life they crave and access greater peace and freedom in all areas of their life.  This gives them access to loving, authentic relationships, consistent healthy habits, and success in business, finance, and career that feels like fulfilment and freedom.    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes   

She could have died. And the first thing she felt in that hospital bed was relief. Not because she wanted to die. But because for the first time in years, no one could ask anything of her. Erin Keating was a high-powered television executive …smart, driven, decorated …and completely running on empty.  Her marriage was crumbling.  Her identity was her job title.  She worked through COVID until her lungs gave out.  And it wasn't until everything fell apart at once … the illness, the divorce, the layoff …that she found her way back to herself. In this conversation, Genea Barnes and Erin Keating talk about what it costs to be the woman who does everything, holds everything together, and quietly disappears in the process.  They talk about midlife unraveling, the lie of having it all, and what it actually looks like to rebuild a life from the inside out …as a single mom, a solopreneur, and a woman finally done “being good.” This episode holds the kind of truth most people are too polished to say out loud: 🔹 The marriage fight that happened over text as she was being discharged from the hospital …and the clarity it gave her  🔹 Why the career that gave her everything also helped her hide from everything  🔹 The podcast she started to find her voice back …and the business that was bubbling up from it  all along  🔹 What it feels like when the feral, untamed version of you finally gets to lead If you've been wondering how to get to the other side of a life that stopped fitting… start here.   About Erin: Erin Keating is an entrepreneur and creative leader passionate about empowering women to live their best lives over forty. Erin spent 20 years as a television and mobile content executive, producing Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series for platforms including Comedy Central, NBC, IFC TV and Snapchat before turning her attention to her own underserved demographic.   Today, she’s the Host of the Hotter Than Ever podcast which helps women 40+ imagine a second half that is freer, happier, sexier, and more satisfying.  She's also the co-founder of Broad Collective, a membership network for professional women building businesses in midlife.  Her mission is to help women  own their professional destinies, grow their power and influence through impactful content, and live successful lives of their own design.   Connect with Erin: Email: [email protected] Instagram: @broad_collective  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinkeating/  Hotter Than Ever podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hotter-than-ever/id1680976062    Connect with Genea: Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes      

He had the money, the girlfriend, the travel, the fancy dinners. And he felt absolutely nothing. Ed Reay didn't know it at the time. That's the thing about building a life for everybody else … it looks like living …  You're moving.  You're doing.  You're showing up.  But there's no YOU in any of it. And the moment the external reason disappears, you realize you have no idea what you actually want. This conversation between Genea Barnes and Ed Reay is one of the most honest explorations of identity, meaning, and the cost of people-pleasing you'll hear anywhere.  Ed shares how he spent years latching onto other people's certainty because he had none of his own … and what started to shift when he finally stopped performing and started listening to his body instead. Here's what lives inside this conversation: 🔹 The girlfriend who gave his life meaning … and the identity crisis that hit when she was gone 🔹 Why making a lot of money never once made him feel like enough 🔹 The firewalk event that gave him the first "hell yes" his body had ever felt 🔹 What adventure actually is … and why most people stopped being it long before they stopped doing it If you've ever wondered why the life you built still feels flat... this episode might be the conversation you didn't know you needed. Listen now. Connect with Ed: Website: https://www.edreay.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edward.reay5477 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ed.reay/ About Ed: Ed Reay is in the business of helping people feel alive again. After growing successful businesses, careers, or not knowing “what’s next” in their life… people from all walks of life consult with Ed on the secrets to discovering a fun, fulfilling, and meaningful life. These secrets came at a cost. Ed grew multiple of his clients’ companies to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Only to discover a life of luxury isn’t what makes for a desirable life  

She got everything she worked for. Then she quietly walked away from all of it. Genea Evola dreamed of being a news reporter from the time she was a little girl. She wanted to be seen. She wanted to tell the truth. She wanted to matter. Then she got the job. And the first thing it asked her to do was use her voice to harm people. That moment in a Flint, Michigan newsroom didn't just end a career. It sent a signal straight into her nervous system: being seen is dangerous. And she spent the next decade hiding behind every corporate brand she could find, executing brilliantly for everyone except herself. In this episode of Be the Wolf, Genea Barnes sits down with Jenna Evola, founder of Evolve Systems, for a conversation that starts with AI and personal branding and goes somewhere much more honest. Because you can't talk about building an authentic brand without first asking the question nobody wants to answer: Who are you, actually? And when did you stop letting people see it? Here's what this conversation pulls into the open: 🔹 The newsroom moment that made being seen feel like something to survive, not embrace 🔹 Why she married someone she didn't fully choose, and what that decision finally forced her to look at 🔹 How hiding behind corporate brands became the most sophisticated form of self-protection she'd ever built 🔹 What it really means to use AI without losing yourself, and why that starts long before you open any app If you've ever built something that looks right and still feels hollow, this one was made for you. Listen now.   About Jenna: Jenna Evola is a brand strategist and founder of Evolve Systems who helps small and mid-sized businesses build the kind of customer loyalty that survives algorithm changes, market shifts, and the rise of AI. She brings nearly a decade of experience producing large-scale brand activations for Lincoln Motor Company and General Motors, where she designed live experiences for hundreds of product launches, auto shows, and national campaigns. That work, spanning thousands of direct customer interactions, gave her a front-row seat to what actually drives buying behavior and brand loyalty at the human level. Today she applies those lessons to digital brand strategy, helping business owners use AI as an operational tool without losing the human layer that makes their brand worth following. She is also a long-time GoHighLevel power user and builds out AI-enabled marketing systems for small business clients. Jenna speaks and consults at the intersection of brand psychology, experiential marketing, and AI-driven growth.   Connect with Jenna: Website https://jennaevola.com/  Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/jenna.evola  Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/jenna.evola/  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-evola/  YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jennaevola  Appointment Link https://link.evolvesystems.co/widget/bookings/meet-jenna-evola   Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes     

She thought her communication was fine. It was the one thing quietly dismantling everything she was trying to build. Genea Barnes was likable. People loved being around her. She was warm and easy to be around. And for years, she told herself that meant she was a good communicator. But her art career never took off. Her business kept shapeshifting to match everyone else's opinions. The man she was falling in love with remained a near-stranger after months of being together. And she didn’t understand why. The answer wasn't a skill gap. It wasn't confidence. It was something older and quieter than either of those things. Somewhere along the way, she had learned that saying what she truly thought, asking what she actually wanted to know, and letting people see the real thing inside her came with real consequences. So she adapted. She filled the silence with the “right” words while keeping the true ones locked away. And that one learned pattern cost her more than she knew. This episode goes inside that pattern and what finally changed. Here's what's waiting in this conversation: 🔹 The art show moment where Genea realized her career wasn't failing because of her talent... but because of what she couldn't bring herself to say 🔹 How she spent months falling for someone and learned more about him in 10 minutes of her aunt's questions than in all that time together 🔹 The childhood moment that made asking questions feel like a threat to her safety, and how that decision followed her into every room she ever walked into 🔹 What shifts in your body, your business, and your relationships when you stop communicating for survival and start communicating from truth If you've ever felt like people hear your words but miss you completely, press play. This one's for you.   About Genea Genea Barnes is a mentor, coach, and speaker whose early life was rooted in deep trauma and neglect. To stay safe, she learned to make everyone else feel good and put their needs first. It worked to survive, but it came with a cost. She lost her ability to discern what was truly right for her. And getting what she wanted came with the anxiety that it would be lost or taken away.  She was great at making other people’s dreams come true, but when it came to what she truly wanted, she self-sabotaged and procrastinated … always putting something else first.  She spent decades exploring and studying every modality under the sun to break free from those patterns and create a life that felt like joy, ease, and freedom.  Today, she empowers people to move away from and resolve conflict rooted in trauma, generational trauma, and sacrifice of self … so they can create the life they crave and access greater peace and freedom in all areas of their life.  This gives them access to loving, authentic relationships, consistent healthy habits, and success in business, finance, and career that feels like fulfilment and freedom.    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes   

She scaled to $9 million. Then watched it disappear in three months. And she spent six months trying to rebuild the exact same broken thing. Tara Stubbins didn't plan to be a CEO. She left high school at 15 to chase rock bands across Canada. Two decades later, after managing world tours with the Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, and Drake, she fell backwards into entrepreneurship. And she built something real. Then she lost it. Fast. What came next was harder than the collapse. It was the six months of brute-forcing a restart, blaming everyone around her, and refusing to look at what was actually happening. The market was different. The time was different. She was different. But she kept trying to run the same play. And it kept breaking in the same place. The moment she stopped asking "whose fault is this?" and started asking "how did I create this?" is where this episode begins. Here's what nobody tells you about rebuilding a business that failed: 🔹 The six-month restart that proved the problem was never the strategy 🔹 Why she kept saying yes to the wrong clients, and what scarcity was really costing her 🔹 The moment her inner voice told her to go back to her roots, and why she almost didn't listen 🔹 How money became the flashlight that finally showed her the truth she had been avoiding If you have ever tried to fix something from the outside that was broken on the inside, this conversation will stop you in your tracks. Listen now. This is the one you needed.   About Tarra: Tarra Stubbins is the visionary founder and CEO of two multi-million-dollar service-based organizations, built entirely through her dedication to goal-setting and unwavering determination despite having no formal business background. With over two decades of diverse experience, she has managed the lives of and worked alongside legendary musicians like Mick Jagger and Drake and high-profile CEOs such as Richard Branson.   Known for her no-nonsense, purpose-driven approach, Tarra specializes in empowering individuals to achieve their personal and professional goals. She transforms daily lives by eliminating ineffective multitasking habits and introducing proven techniques utilized by the world's most successful people. Passionate about helping others unleash their inner potential, Tarra continues to inspire countless individuals to live the lives they've always dreamed of.    Connect With Tarra: Website www.takeiteasygroup.com  Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/tarrastime/  LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarrastubbins/   Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes   

There's a version of success that looks like you're winning and feels like you're drowning. This episode is about that. Genea Barnes just returned from hiking to Everest Base Camp. She trained. She paced herself. She chose slow and steady when everyone else was sprinting. And still, at altitude, her body said no. Her oxygen dropped to 62. She got helicoptered out. But here's what she came home knowing: the way she showed up on that mountain was the opposite of how she’d spend her life showing up in our businesses, our relationships, and our health. Push, crash, recover, push again. Call it hustle. Call it drive. The body knows what it really is. Instead, she showed up steady, consistent, and she was willing to listen.  This is not an episode about giving up. It's about what becomes possible when you stop performing endurance and start building real momentum. The altitude stripped everything back and left four truths that are going to stay with you: 🔹 Why consistency has nothing to do with pushing harder and everything to do with the pace your nervous system can actually sustain 🔹 The tortoise and the hare story, lived out in the Himalayan Mountains with real altitude, real sickness, and real consequences 🔹 How taking her foot off the gas in business always cost her more than keeping a slow, steady pace ever would have 🔹 What it means to play the infinite game in a world that keeps selling you finish lines If you're tired of the crash cycle and ready to move differently, this one is for you. Watch or listen now.   About Genea Genea Barnes is a mentor, coach, and speaker whose early life was rooted in deep trauma and neglect. To stay safe, she learned to make everyone else feel good and put their needs first. It worked to survive, but it came with a cost. She lost her ability to discern what was truly right for her. And getting what she wanted came with the anxiety that it would be lost or taken away.  She was great at making other people’s dreams come true, but when it came to what she truly wanted, she self-sabotaged and procrastinated … always putting something else first.  She spent decades exploring and studying every modality under the sun to break free from those patterns and create a life that felt like joy, ease, and freedom.  Today, she empowers people to move away from and resolve conflict rooted in trauma, generational trauma, and sacrifice of self … so they can create the life they crave and access greater peace and freedom in all areas of their life.  This gives them access to loving, authentic relationships, consistent healthy habits, and success in business, finance, and career that feels like fulfilment and freedom.    Connect with Genea Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes   

She sat down at a piano at seven years old and played a song she had never learned. Both hands. First try. Every adult in the room went silent. That was the moment Debby Meadows discovered what she was made of. And it was the moment other people decided what that gift was for. In this episode, Genea sits down with artist, musician, and educator Debby Meadows for a conversation about what happens when the most alive part of you becomes someone else's resource.  Debby grew up in a high-control religious environment where her extraordinary musical gift was celebrated and claimed in the same breath.  She gave everything she had, for free, to a system that called it holy. And somewhere along the way, the music stopped being hers. Then it stopped altogether. For almost twenty years,  Debby didn't touch an instrument. Not because life got busy. Because owning her gift had become too dangerous. This is the conversation for the creative, the over-giver, the devoted one who has quietly wondered why the thing that once made them feel most alive now feels like a distant memory. Here is where this episode cracks open: 🔹 The moment Debby's father tore up a job offer from Kings Island and threw it in the trash … and how that single act became the blueprint for every upper limit that followed 🔹 How a televised praise and worship stage, an unwanted marriage, and government housing while giving away $200 a paycheck, taught her body that her gift, her money, and her choices were never really hers to keep 🔹 The nearly two decades she spent unable to touch a piano … and what the silence inside that absence was actually trying to say 🔹 How a cervical fusion surgery, a YouTube rabbit hole about Steve Perry, and a single morning of stillness in nature cracked open a creativity she had believed was gone forever If you have ever given the best of yourself to something that couldn't hold you, this episode will meet you exactly where you are. Come listen.   About Debby: Musician. Artist. Writer. Educator. Multi‐instrumentalist and visual artist turned memoirist, exploring what happens when performance becomes a cage, and what it takes to walk out. I spent 15 years in creative exile after high‐control religion and relentless service broke my relationship with music. Now I’m writing about reclaiming the gift, healing the mind/body that carried it, and creating from sovereignty instead of obligation. Currently writing Tell Me Something True: The Perry Parallax—a memoir about creative burnout, religious trauma, and recovery that doesn’t skip the shadow work. Using Steve Perry’s archetypal journey as a mirror for my own 15‐year exile from music, I’m mapping what it really costs to step away and what it requires to return whole, owning your art, your story, and your life. I write at the intersection of embodied creative practice, somatic integration, and deconstruction: how to listen to the nervous system, metabolize grief and shame, and make work that’s authentic instead of merely performative. My lens is part musician, part artist, part educator, part mystic, part farm‐raised Kentucky girl who refuses to abandon either rigor or wonder.   Connect with Debby: Website: Substack.debbymeadows.com  Instagram handle: debbymeadowsstudio TikTok: debbymeadowsstudio   Connect with Genea Weekly Freedom Calls - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr9xoteOSj-pYabKDTNBRA  Inquire about Events, Firewalking, Coaching, being a guest on Be the Wolf LIVE or Be the Wolf Podcast https://bethewolfnow.com/connect/  Website: http://bethewolfnow.com/  Instagram:   / geneabarnes      Facebook:   / bethewolfnow    TikTok:   / geneabarnes