Be The Wolf

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

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.

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

She did everything right. Followed every rule. Protected every job. And it cost her her friends, her freedom, and her peace.

Genea Barnes grew up in a home where the rules changed without warning. So she did what made sense … she became the best rule-follower she had ever seen. 

And when something threatened the structure of the rules, she controlled the people breaking them. She reported coworkers. She went around friends' backs. She maneuvered quietly from the background and called every bit of it doing the right thing.

It wasn't until decades later that she understood what it had actually cost her. Not just the friendships. Not just the peace. But the freedom she didn't even know she was desperate for.

This episode is one of Genea's most honest confessions yet.

Pull up a chair for the parts of this story nobody says out loud:

🔹 The doorman selling drugs, the cameras, and the friendship she lost before she ever made a conscious choice 

🔹 How a childhood built on unpredictable rules quietly wired her nervous system to control everything and everyone around her 

🔹 The moment she realized doing the "right" thing and feeling free had never once lived in the same place 

🔹 The afternoon at the park when she finally felt freet … not in a ceremony, not in a session, but watching strangers break a rule she no longer needed to enforce

If you've ever wondered why you hold on so tight, why letting go feels dangerous, or why being "the responsible one" has cost you more than it's given …  this episode was made for you. 

Listen when you're ready for a deep, honest look at what it takes to give up control. 

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

He walked out of that meeting and thought: this is a life sentence I never agreed to.

Young Han was a CFO in Silicon Valley, building the kind of startups that made people nod with respect. He had the title, the funding, the accolades. And he was quietly, deeply depressed. He didn't recognize it as depression. It just looked like going through the motions, gaining weight, losing his spark, and pretending everything was fine.

Then he sat across from a financial planner. Four hours. A responsible retirement strategy. And a slow realization that the plan amounted to: live a kind of shitty life for 25 years, hope to afford another shitty life for 25 more, and pray you die before the money runs out.

That was the crack. In this episode, Genea sits down with Young Han, CFO, entrepreneur, father of two, to trace the full arc from that meeting to a five-year sprint that rebuilt everything. 

They talk identity loss, the loneliness of evolving, and what it actually costs to stop performing someone else's version of enough.

Four moments from this conversation that don't leave you:

🔹 The financial planner meeting that made him realize the "responsible plan" was a future he'd never actually chosen

🔹 Why his brother's move back to San Diego to be judged on his favorite taco shop started unraveling the whole Silicon Valley identity

🔹 What four years of tracking every hour of his life revealed about where his time, energy, and truth were really going

🔹 The friend who said, "If we're gonna be friends, I need to know your gross margins,”  and why that was the most honest offer anyone had ever made him

If you've ever followed the plan, hit the milestones, and still felt like something essential was missing ... this episode names it. Listen now.

Connect with Young Han

Website: www.thesis.inc

Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/youngh/ 

Instagram handle https://www.instagram.com/youngsta/?hl=en 

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/younghan/ 

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+girl+dad+show  

Connect with Genea

Weekly Freedom 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 said the thing. You asked for what you needed. And somehow... nobody heard you.

That's not a communication problem. That's something deeper.

In this episode, Genea Barnes gets radically honest about a lifetime of feeling unseen … from a music teacher who shamed her out of singing, to a sexual assault at age seven that wired her nervous system to believe that using her voice was dangerous. 

She traces how that one belief quietly shaped every relationship, every sales call, every conversation … until she started healing it.

This is the episode that makes you look at your whole life differently:

🔹 The classroom moment that taught her silence was safer than being seen 

🔹 Why her voice was physically different before the healing … and what shifted when the fear cleared 

🔹 The sales call pattern that exposed the truth about presence and being heard 

🔹 What it actually feels like when the need for external validation finally stops

If you're tired of explaining yourself, over-communicating, and still feeling invisible …  this one's for you. 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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

She didn't just lose everything. She lost everything she'd spent her whole life trying to become.

Kirsten Franklin entered this world with the odds stacked. Adopted by white parents in a homogenous neighborhood in the 1970s. Neurodivergent in a world that had no framework for that. Straddling two financial realities after her parents divorced — one where money was easy, one where everything was a struggle. She made a decision early: she was going to make F-you money. She was never going to be poor again.

So she became a lawyer.

And then a colleague systematically dismantled her career. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit. Then her license was suspended. Then she found herself a single mother with an infant and no place to live.

The universe, as Kirsten tells it, had been tapping her on the shoulder for years. She just didn't listen. So it took everything.

In this episode, Genea and Kirsten trace the full arc … from a childhood of feeling unwanted and out of place, to the ego-driven climb, to the total collapse, to the woman who now wakes up like a kid on Christmas morning and helps high-achievers become unfuckwithable. 

They talk about control, denial, the difference between intellectual knowledge and embodied change, and why your leaky vessel has to shatter before it can hold anything worth having.

Four moments from this conversation that don't leave you:

🔹 The colleague who sabotaged her career from … and why Kirsten's denial of it was actually the more important story

🔹 What it felt like to be homeless with a law degree, an infant, and a suspended license in 2009 … and why she now calls it the best year of her life

🔹 The difference between checking a box and embodied change … and the moment she finally felt what that difference actually is

🔹 Why becoming unfuckwithable has nothing to do with not caring … and everything to do with being so at peace with yourself that nothing outside you gets to decide your worth

If you've been doing all the right things and still feel like something essential is missing ... this episode names what's actually in the way. Listen now.

About Kirsten:

She is a retired attorney turned founder, investor and elite performance coach who has helped thousands of high-achievers become UnF*withable in business and life. 

Connect with Kirsten:

Website https://kirstenfranklin.com/ 

Instagram handle @kirsten_franklin 

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-franklin/ 

Connect with Genea

Weekly Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok

She had hundreds of books sitting in her hallway. And she still couldn't let herself be seen.

Genea Barnes traveled the country photographing ghost bikes. She ran a Kickstarter. She finished the book. But when it came time to put it into the world... she couldn't do it. Not because the work wasn't good. Because being seen came with consequences she hadn't healed yet.

In this episode, Genea tells the full story of that project and uses it to crack open something most people never talk about. Procrastination isn't laziness. It's not a discipline problem. It's what happens when your nervous system learned that joy, creativity, and being fully seen weren't safe.

If you're a creative or entrepreneur who can do everything for everyone else but freezes on the things that matter most to you... this episode will change how you see yourself.

Here's what the ghost bikes taught her about all of it:

🔹 Why she could only finish the book when she locked it to someone else's expectations, and what that cost her 

🔹 The invisible cap on how good she was allowed to feel, and how it kept her art from ever reaching its potential 

🔹 Why operating from fear means you can only recreate what you've already done, never what you're truly capable of 

🔹 What it means to raise your set point, and why that single shift changes everything you build from here

If you've been waiting to feel ready... this is the episode that explains why ready never comes from that place.

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 Be the Wolf Call (no cost) – Wednesdays, 7:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM EST

Register & learn more about Be the Wolf In-Person Events

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

TikTok