1. From Snow White to Ariel: Taking Back the Reins on Your Life

In this premiere episode of Star Potential, I revisit my childhood dreams and the deep desire to move others with the power of my voice. In a quest for authentic expression, we introduce moving beyond survival mode and removing our masks, no matter what "roles" we play in life, recognizing our capacity for creativity and intentional living. 

Welcome to Star Potential — where we explore what it means to live your evolution in real time.

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✨ Take the “Are You In a Soul Shift?” quiz here: juliejohughes.com/quiz 

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Transcript

Welcome to the very first episode of Star Potential. I'm your host, Julie Jo Hughes. I will go by Julie or Julie Jo.   I am really excited to be here. I think I've always wanted to have my own show. I definitely created radio shows with my friend Katie back in the nineties.

And this is definitely like a full circle moment for me. I'm really excited that you're here   and to share with you what is driving me to move forward with this podcast.  When I was a little girl, I really always felt this connection between my voice and nature, and it was my way of communicating with my world and the people in it.

 I grew up on a farm in Iowa, and while I always felt that I was going to leave the farm, I'm so grateful for that kind of a childhood   and upbringing.

I am so grateful would stand outside where it was completely quiet, just sounds of nature, and I would outstretch my arms and I would just sing,  I would sing up mostly made up melody and lyrics, whatever would come to my little six, seven, eight year old heart at the time. And I thought.

that if I could really connect and somehow communicate telepathically with the birds  I didn't know what telepathically meant, but I thought if I could somehow communicate to these birds that I am a safe, loving, warm presence that I'm non threatening, that they would come and land on my shoulders and they could tell me all the secrets of the animal world.

And I could share that with the world and bridge our two worlds and help us come into harmony with each other. And so I would stand out there with my arms open, waiting for that to happen. It never did, but I didn't lose that spark of really wanting to communicate with others. And my audience back then was mostly the horde of stray cats that we had hanging around the farm.

My audiences have grown over the years. In addition to Stray Cats, I often sing in real performance houses all over the country and the world. I have done lots of different genres of performance, and we'll talk a little bit about that as we dig into stories throughout the episodes. But this is not really a podcast about Who I am and why I'm qualified to talk to you based on my resume.

In fact, it couldn't be any further from that. This is actually a podcast about not adhering to any kind of labels, which I believe only limit us in our experience and our potential in the world. in this human existence. I actually believe that it's about stripping away all of these labels and titles that we put on ourselves.

And when we do that, we begin to tap into the infinite potential that we can tap into in the quantum field. So we're going to talk about metaphysical things, we're going to talk about energy, vibration, I find that is one of my superpowers, is my energy. I have a very special force, powerful force of energy that comes out when I'm on the stage.

And until just very recently, honestly, I thought that who I am when I'm on stage was my alter ego. I thought that was my persona, that there's something magical happens like Michael Jackson or Beyonce. Like they talk about when they would step onto that stage, they would step into this alter ego. Other persona that allows you to just channel the fiercest power and really have that magnetism that draws people in.

And while that is absolutely true. And that feeling is like none other in the world. What I'm discovering is that is actually the real me.  These other personas that I have, those are the masks that I put on to people please, to try to belong in the world and to feel like I can relate to others.

 And do you ever find yourself doing that? Do you ever dim your light so that you can fit in the crowd? I have always been a person that loves being different. I love having my own unique things. But, like you, I often Would dim the things that make me different just for social belonging. And some of that is evolutionary, right?

We want to choose belonging because it often meant safety. It often meant we're accepted by the tribe, which gives us more protection. Maybe it gives us better mates. There are many reasons why we might want to choose belonging over authenticity. But The voice that is often driving us to belonging, that is merely a voice of survival.

And so this podcast is not about just surviving. I'm speaking to the person who wants to thrive. I'm speaking to the person who is tired of letting life rule things for them. I'm speaking to the person who is ready to accept full responsibility for your experience in this human world.

Are you ready to understand that life is happening for you, not to you? Once you can really, truly embody that understanding, you will see how your free will is creating the experience that you have every day. So we will dive into many stories that will tell you how I arrived at this point, but by trying on lots and lots of masks and costumes and having fun with lots of different personas, I can tell you that I am learning that fierce power I have when I'm on the stage, that is who I really am.

And I want to bring more of that into everyday living because when we are brave enough to step into our full authenticity of who we truly are, that is what is inspiring to other people and That inspires them to be the truest version of themselves. And I don't believe that we're all supposed to be the same.

We want to bring all of the beautiful spectrum of colors to our world, to our collective experience. And when we all bring our unique colors to the table, what a beautiful tapestry we create. We're not all supposed to be the same. We are supposed to be who we uniquely are. And when we do that, we inspire others to do the same thing.

Can you imagine if we were all tapping into our infinite potential? We can raise the evolutionary consciousness of our collective. How exciting is that? I definitely want to be a part of that. I don't want to be the weak link that's keeping us at a lower vibration because I'm stuck in my head.

No, I want to live from my heart and inspire others to do the same so that we can go out in the world and create, we can explore things together and we can rise to new heights all because we weren't afraid to bravely stand in who we are. So if that speaks to you, you are in the right place.

I always considered my gift to be my voice. I thought of myself like Snow White, standing out there  holding my arms out, waiting to connect with the birds. But, actually,   if we're going in the Disney princess world   , I started out like Snow White, and ended up a little bit more like Ariel.

  you know, in the Disney version, she ends up with the prince and happily ever after and all those glorious rainbows and unicorns, right? But in the true original story of the little mermaid, Ariel actually loses who she is. She sells her soul.

Basically, she trades who she really is in order to please another, to appease another. another. And in doing so, she actually loses herself. And because he doesn't recognize her anymore  without the essence of herself, he ends up with someone else, and she ends up floating off into the sea with her sisters to die.

Did you know that? That's the true story of Ariel.  I found myself  on this path where I was quote unquote selling the essence of me selling my soul to try to make a higher buck to try to prove my worth in the world. I kept seeking external validation for my internal worth. And anytime we're searching outside of ourselves to fill something that we think is lacking on the inside, spoiler alert, it doesn't work.

And it can actually be a very. painful journey. You can experience a lot of suffering from it if you're not getting the picture, , if you're not learning from the catalysts along the way. So once you see that these things and these patterns occurring in your life are happening for you to try to help you see something and evolve, that's when you can begin to take action.

Back the reins in your story and coming up in the third episode of star potential. I'm excited, excited maybe is a funny word, but I guess I'm eager. Yes. I'm ready to share with you how I lost my voice, which truly was my identity. My identity was my voice. I saw that as my purpose in the world. And when it felt like it was taken away from me, I really came to a place where I had no choice but to surrender.

And in that surrender was where I began to do the internal work. I began to examine some of my shadows. I began to examine some of my patterns. And I discovered that what I had always been seeking outside of myself was here all along. You know, Another princess who discovers something like that is Elsa.

You are the one you've been waiting for all of my life. So, There are many things that I have learned from Disney princesses, haven't we all? Do you ever notice how deep Disney stories really are? Like they are really spiritual. If you're tuned into that, you go, wow, they are really tapped in.

Like they know what the matrix is all about. But yeah, my story is a little more like Ariel's. Somebody looking at my journey from the outside, Might see me as more like the part of your world story, Lookin around here you'd think, Sure, she's got everything. And, I would agree with you that I've got a pretty good life.

But, Inside, what I didn't let anyone see was this deeply held belief that I wasn't worthy, that I didn't really deserve true happiness, but I couldn't even admit that to myself. I didn't realize the self sabotage that was happening, and I didn't realize how much I was relying on myself. On my achievements and kind of career goals and  this evidentiary support that I was seeking in the world to validate my existence and my worth.

And it caused me a lot of pain and suffering, including losing my voice. And I will tell you that story in more detail in the episodes to come. when my voice returned. I vowed to honor that return by using my voice for something deeply meaningful. And , I bring you Star Potential.

A lot of my journey has been about reaching for my potential. When I was a little girl, people would say things like, Oh, you're so talented. You're going to go far. You're really going to be something big one day. You're going to be famous or whatever. And I really took that to heart. I spent the majority of my adult life trying to live up to that potential and always feeling like no matter what I did, no matter what I achieved, or no matter what I accumulated, it was never good enough.

It didn't qualify as greatness. And That's the ego's job, right? If we listen to that voice that tells us over and over could have done better. That was okay, but that wasn't your best work.  What about Sally down the road? She did it ten years ago. What about your friend from college?

They're already making double what you're making. Look at this person. They're doing much better than you, don't pat yourself on the back too hard. Don't celebrate because you really don't have anything to celebrate. You could have been much further than this along, but you made the choices you made because you're not very smart and on.

Do you have a voice like that too? I'm just going to tell you right now. Yes, you do. I just hope that you don't allow it to live and to lead your life because That voice, while it does keep us alive, it does not bring you inner peace. And while a lot of times we think what we're searching for is some kind of milestone or owning a certain amount of things or making a certain amount of money or earning a certain title, beneath all that, what we're really seeking is.

And we think that when we achieve or accumulate those things, that somehow peace is going to be there waiting for us. And if you've ever achieved anything, you know that often it's the opposite. You get there and you have this kind of feeling of emptiness somehow I thought it was going to feel different when I got this, but I just feel the same as I did yesterday.

So what I'm here to help you do is to tap into that deeper voice, the one who's always with you, the one who is always loving, the one who is always there watching everything you do without judgment. That voice has inner wisdom.

has the true energy. That source that it's coming from is so much bigger than you and your little brain can imagine. Nothing you could dream up with your mind could be so much bigger. As big as what the heart is capable of, when you truly come from that place of deep inner wisdom, anything is possible.

That's the place where miracles happen. That's the place where you set a clear intention from love, not from fear or lack. And then you just watch as the synchronicities magically happen in your life and people go, wow, you're so lucky. And you go, yeah, , it took a lot of work and diligence and consistency for me to be this lucky.

But when you're doing things from that place, it does feel effortless. When you're doing things that light you up, you don't even feel like you're working so hard at it. And that's what I was doing so wrong. I was working so hard that I thought the universe was going to reward me for my hard work.

Don't you see how hard I'm working to make this happen? Don't I deserve something good to happen? But there was this giant gap between my intention and these outcomes I was Seeking, and that's the inside, believed that I was lacking something. I believed that I wasn't worthy. I believed that I was flawed.

And if that's truly the belief that you're holding, then you don't have limitless potential. So what I want to do is to help you tune out that voice that's just keeping you alive. There are times when it's very helpful, but in this modern day society, we don't need it. As often as we're relying on it, more often than not, we need to come out of our head and come down into our heart and let the miracles happen.

I've always seen my voice as my gift to the world. But with the launch of this podcast, we're going to do things a little bit differently. Instead of wearing a mask, playing a role, which I love to do, don't get me wrong. I'm coming just as I am. Flaws and all. I'm coming as the truest version of me, and I'm not here to assume any kind of title, I'm not going to tell you I'm an expert, except that I have lived through this stuff, and I want to help you, I want to help pass along some of the lessons that I'm learning along the way, but we're walking through this together.

We come together. As we are here, we don't pretend to be anything we're not. So I'm not here telling you that I'm perfect. I'm not here telling you that I'm an expert. Actually, what I'm telling you is, can we stop trying to live up to these limiting labels that we self impose? If I don't tell myself I am a professional singer, then how do I express differently when I'm singing?

If I don't feel like I have something to prove, if I don't put on the label that I am the perfect mother, then how do I just express myself differently when I'm just mothering? So instead of being the perfect this or that, what if you just express as that thing with an I N G? I am baking. That doesn't mean I'm the world's best baker, but I sure do enjoy it.

I'm singing. I might not be the best. singer for you to someone else, maybe I am, but I'm just singing because I love it. And it makes my heart shine. It lights me up when I do it. I love to communicate with my voice because I love to connect with others. So I am speaking. I might not be the perfect speaker.

Do you see the through line here? No matter what hats you're wearing, can you just express with an instead of being the expert ER. Do you know what I'm saying?  I've always had this inclination to entertain other people. But I think honestly, it was coming from, I just love when I can make someone feel something with my music.

voice or my expression. So when I was in second grade, this is one of my earlier memories of this. Our teacher had to step out of the room for a minute. And I remember that everybody felt a little bit uneasy. We kind of weren't sure what to do. And we knew that there was no one watching and no one was in charge.

We really weren't sure how long the teacher was going to be gone. And. This kind of dull roar started among the second graders and I don't really know what possessed me to do this, but I just felt yeah, this is my time. Like they need me. And I stood up in the front of the classroom and I just started impersonating Elvis Presley.

I think I sang jailhouse rock, but I did everything. I did the lip curl. I did the voice,  I swiveled my hips. Still swiveling the hips a lot in performances today to be honest, there's a lot of power in the hips, but I digress.  When the teacher came back in, she was so shocked.

And then I felt like, oh no, I'm in trouble. I wasn't supposed to do that. But then everyone was laughing and it felt so powerful. And I wanted more of that. I liked getting a rise out of people. I still have that desire to move people with my performance and my words. But here, I want to move you to tap into the highest potential that you have.

I'm not here performing for you. I'm not just here to entertain you, but I'm here to help maybe stir up something in you that's gone a little bit dormant. 

So who is this podcast for? If you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, this is resonating. I feel like there's something more for me. There's a higher purpose, but. God, when would I even do that? I don't know how to find my unique gifts. I don't know how to tap into my higher potential. And my God, when would I do that?

I don't even have five spare minutes. I just, if you constantly feel like you're chasing life, trying to keep up. Then stick around because I have felt just the way that you have. I have been where you are. I felt like there was no way I could be called to a higher purpose. I'm just trying to get through the day, but if you're ready to move from survival mode and listening to that voice, that's just trying to keep you alive and to start moving into a deeper voice, the voice that knows that you were.

Meant for more. A voice that knows that you have these gifts that you really want to share with the collective. You really want to do something that would truly light you up from inside. Then stick around. I'm gonna help you move through that. And I will tell you it's a journey, not a destination. I'm not gonna give you secret keys to the kingdom and you suddenly walk into this room where everybody has it all figured out.

None of us has it all figured out. There is a difference between just going through the motions of life and thinking that you're a victim to everything that happens. there's a difference between that and recognizing that you are the creator of your experience. You have free will to choose what kind of an experience you're going to have.

And this is not about our circumstances. This is about what conscious choices are you making on a consistent basis? What is the intention that you're starting your day with every single morning when you wake up? And have you never even thought about setting an intention for your day? Then that's probably a good place to start.

This is a podcast about living on purpose. This is a podcast about living with intention. Tapping into the inner wisdom that we all have, and being able to recognize you were always tapped in. You always had access to the keys to the kingdom. You were never actually in a prison. There was an open wall behind you all this time.

You just never turned around. You didn't realize that the prison you've been in, That was one that you put yourself in. You didn't realize that you could have turned around and walked out at any time, but you didn't know how. Nobody pointed behind you and said, it's right there. So I'm here to help you with that.

I'm extending my arm by way of your ears, and letting you know that there is another way. A way that feels right. Joyful. Abundant. Free. Exciting. Exhilarating. Energetic. All we have to do is learn how to tap into it. And then we practice. We practice every day. I'll be giving you tools like how to quiet your busy mind.

But just so you know, having a busy mind is completely normal. That's its job. So I'm not going to teach you how to turn off those thoughts. I'm just going to help you tune your radio station to a different dial. We're going to tune into a different signal. We're going to go deep within, sometimes we find some icky stuff in there, but we're going to be brave enough to face it.

We're going to be brave enough to own up to the limiting beliefs that we have that are holding us back. We're going to look squarely at our excuses and see them for what they are, which is excuses. So if you're not ready for that kind of self transformation, That's okay, I understand that. Not everybody is at that place in their journey, and I respect where you are, no matter what.

We all have our own kind of timeline and there is no right or wrong here. It's just the decisions that we make offer us different lessons. And so if you're ready to start taking ownership of your own experience, then I invite you to stick around and walk through this journey together.

Sometimes we laugh about silly stuff. I do kind of have the. Humor of a teenage boy at times, but I do love to go really deep as well, and we're going to talk about all kinds of fun stories. Sometimes we'll laugh, sometimes we'll cry, and that is the beautiful palette of colors that we get to experience in this human life.

It's a beautiful thing. It's not always easy. It's not always effortless, and it definitely comes with Dedicated consistency and practice, but it's so worth it. It's such a beautiful life when we allow it to be. When we notice all the beauty that is around us. It's magical. I hope you'll stick around for episode two when we're going to dive into the topic of play.

This is one of my favorite things. I sing and dance for a living, so you know, I'm into that sort of thing. But no matter what roles you are playing in your daily life, I'm going to show you how tapping into the power of play , can bring you back to the present moment, So much the key of understanding how you affect your own reality and your own experience.

 📍 So I hope that you'll stick around and dive into that with me. Thank you so much for being here for the first episode of Star Potential and see you next time.

 Thank you for tuning into star potential with Julie Jo Hughes. If this episode resonates with you, please share it with a friend or shout us out on Instagram with the tag at the Julie Jo that's T H E J U L I E J O. I made you a gift. Please visit us on Instagram to receive my grounded in gratitude singing meditation.

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