Faith, Starting Over & Building A New Life with Juliet Wright

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The first words of the Bible is in the beginning, God created. Now we usually go on to say the heavens and the earth and everything like that, but if we really just think about those first five words, in the beginning, God created. And I just think God is a creator. And if we were made in his image, then we are creators. If you're feeling burnt out, if you're feeling stale, if you're feeling stagnant, if you're feeling overwhelmed, it's like we were made to create. Whether you're a mom or a teenager or an old man, like create something. I feel like that's what got me out of some dark times, or just it's like I knew that I could create.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Because her beginnings will inspire so many people right now because I know there's a woman out there that needs this story. And so I'm so honored, Juliet, Juliet Wright. Yes. And dear friends.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

So I'm so excited to have you on here. Oh, I'm so glad to be here. And I just, you're one of my very favorite people, Melissa. And I just love that we've spent not only hours together, but like days and weeks together. And I just love watching you and everything that you've got.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Well, you are so gifted. And you and your husband, Dana, too, are just the most heart-centered, gifted. I don't know how you do it, but you you can handle so many tasks all at once with such a cool calm presence. So I feel like there's so much I need to share about you, but I think you, your, your story, your story of just, I'll let you kind of explain it, but just of leave it, people need to understand the picture of who you are now. Now you're this businesswoman entrepreneur in so many companies. Yeah. But at one point you left with, I think five, five dollars in your pocket.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

$3.74. Yeah. So to really go back on my story, and now as an adult, I've been kind of unpacking it. But yeah, I've really always have had this big capacity, I think, out of necessity. Um, growing up, um, I my mom got remarried and I was a six of seven. We had a pretty chaotic household. I just told my daughter yesterday how our household was really, you know, filthy to the point of embarrassing and just a chaotic state. And at 15, I moved out to help a sister, a stepsister of mine raise her daughter. My stepsister tried to take her life, and someone had to step in. And at 15, all eyes looked at me. And so, really, um, yeah, moving out at 15, having two full-time jobs while in high school, raising a newborn that wasn't mine. I got married young at uh 20 years old, had my daughter at 20, and really um always looked like I had it together from the outside. I've always really been this steady, calm. That's how people describe me most. They say, you know, you just really have this steadiness about you. And I felt like I handled that well. I had four kids by the time I was 25. I was volunteering on boards, I was running businesses, I was volunteering at church. And from the outside, I really looked like I could handle it all. Um, but inside, a lot was breaking, a lot of there was a lot of cracks in my marriage. There's a lot of um pain that I was holding inside that even I was trying to deny. I know we've talked about before it really came up in physical symptoms. Um, I ended up having a lot of neurologic, neurological pain that was I couldn't figure out until finally I had to admit to myself that um what I what people saw from the outside wasn't real. And I know we connect a lot on that. And so yeah, about 12 years ago, I made the decision to leave and uh it was my four kids. We left for $3.74 and started over.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

And you were leaving it to you like in an abuse, right? Yeah, yeah. But is that something you wouldn't want to see as well?

SPEAKER_01 4:43

It was a lot of control, yeah. And and um, again, from the outside, you can make excuses. I was really good at justifying or blaming myself. Um, but really it was a lot of suppression and a lot of control, and and I knew that I could do great things, and I knew that I had this big calling on my life, and um, but I knew that I couldn't I couldn't grow to my potential, I couldn't raise my kids to their potential in that kind of environment. And so yeah, I decided to start over. It was the scariest moment of my life. I could imagine because you you had how many kids at the time? Four kids. Four kids and three dollars. And three dollars, yeah. I didn't have a reliable vehicle, I didn't have a cell phone, I didn't have a credit score, I didn't own a credit card, um, I didn't have my own bank account. Um, I really this $3.74 in cash um was really what I had. I didn't have I had family that could support me emotionally, you know, support me with hugs, but couldn't support me as a co-signer or financially or anything like that. And so it really was that digging deep and and um just trusting God and trusting that just because you had your faith, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

And God was pulling you, you know, with you said that you had physical symptoms, but God was also telling you you need to leave.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, I just knew that you know, I had a peace beyond understanding, and I think, and even though on paper it didn't make sense, like I knew that I knew I could do it, and I knew that God would be with me, and I knew that he would put the right people in my life. And after I made that decision, story after story of people who showed up through introductions, through people, through little uh, you know, maybe white lies. I remember I went with a friend to a car dealership. I needed a vehicle. I was buying a minivan and I didn't have a credit score. I didn't have any money. And my friend said, you know, just come with me. I know this car dealership, this is where I buy all my cars. She was very well off. And she just said, just come with me. And I was so embarrassed. And I said, I'm never gonna get approved. And she said, just trust me, just trust me. So I did. We left our kids actually at a play place, like an indoor play center. My mom was watching them, and her and I went to this car dealership, and I didn't even want to go because I just knew I was gonna be embarrassed. And um, you know, sure enough, the guy was, you know, he said, Oh, your credit score. I see it's, you know, 758. And he kind of winked at me, and is and I was like, That's that's not, and and she was just kind of like, you know, and he entered it in the computer, and I had keys, and it was just moment after moment of that, with a lease, with a vehicle, with a cell phone, where God just put the right people in my life. These little miracles, you could have a lot of people. Little miracles. No, I thought there's no way I can get an apartment. And again, like cut through these silly stories where things didn't line up and paperwork was lost and things like that. It's like piece by piece, my life started rebuilding. And that was 12 years ago now. And to look back, and um, it's I have to remember that. And my kids and I, we do talk about it. We talk about the different houses we had, we talk about what it took because it wasn't just one clean jump from that night to now. Um, it took sacrifices from all of us, but um, yeah, with resilience.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Keep trusting, right? Yeah. Did you find that every time there was a little door that opened that you were never thought, and that was I call them little god wings, little miracles? Did you did it make you kind of like trust even more when you had to do another scary step?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then every step built on the other because it's like, okay, now um I didn't know how I was gonna get a place to live. And and again, by a God wink, we got this duplex, and it was not a great place at all, but it was a stepping stone. And we lived there for about nine months, and it was just a couple doors down from my sister, and it's what we needed in that time. But then when I needed to move to be closer to my ex and closer to one school district and you know, live in the same town again. Um, now I had renter's history, so I could rent the next place. And so it was like every single step got easier, but these god wings had to happen at the beginning. Yeah, and you had to trust them.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

And I had to trust them to surrender and trust them. And that's I think the hardest part for people is they know they're getting that pull. Yeah, but they start spiraling in the unknown, right? So I think that's why having a strong faith and a strong just kind of just go. Just go is is shows your strength and maybe your your upbringing, as hard as it was, it provides you with that strength because from early on when you were very immature, yeah, right, taking care of a young baby at 15. And so, because people need to learn now who you are now, right? Because not only that too, you've told me you've dyslexia, yeah. But you're an author, right? How many books have you written?

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah, I've um been in four different, I've written two books myself. I'm writing my third right now, and then I've written compilation, I've been in three compilation books. And yeah, so growing up, um, I've always been severely dyslexic, undiagnosed for most of my life. But growing up, I had um an incredible speech impediment. I was not, people could not understand me as a kid. And I grew up in a pretty small rural school, so they didn't have any kind of therapy for that. And so it wasn't until I moved in fourth grade, I moved into a bigger town and a bigger school, and they didn't know what to do with me because I couldn't read, I couldn't write, and I couldn't speak to the point of being understood. So here you have this fourth grader who, in some ways, a small school had kind of failed. And so I was immediately put into, you know, speech therapy, but then I'd miss math class, so then I'd fail math. So then they'd start pulling me out of science class, but then I'm failing science. And I could um, I never got an answer right on a spelling test. I remember, you know, you'd pass your spelling test to a neighbor and you'd get it back. And mine would say zero out of 12 every time. And so it was this thing where um I didn't know at the time why, but I couldn't spell, I couldn't read, I had a really hard time writing, and then I couldn't speak. And so it was interesting that I just remember the look. Teachers liked me. I tried really hard. Um, I have really good handwriting nowadays, and I think it's because I tried, like I would write my nicest handwriting and still get a zero, but I tried. And um, but teachers just didn't know what to do with me. And and again, thinking of God's grace and miracles, now I'm an author and a speaker, and I write and read and speak for a living. And those were the things that back then, um, you know, were the hardest for me.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

And actually, and probably created a story for you for a long time saying, Yeah, I can't write, I can't speak. So I'm not gonna choose any career that that's but you didn't do that again. Yeah, you did the complete opposite. You're a fantastic speaker. I've heard you speak. You you have such a presence, and you are an incredible writer. You're also a businesswoman, so you had you know Tally Creative, yeah, and which was the branding, a branding company. And then what else and then you also own an ice cream shop, a whole block in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

I call myself a parallel entrepreneur. So I started, I started, I knew college wasn't for me. Um, I knew that that was just outside of what I could, I just wasn't book smart in that way. And so I really had to fight my sophomore in junior year high school and really convince my counselors. I had a lot of counselors with best intentions saying, if you don't go to college, you're not gonna amount to anything. And um, and I really had to say, you know, I think I can do this, you know. And I had one teacher who really connected eyes with me and said, Yeah, I think you can. His name was Mr. Keller, and he made a huge impact on my life. And um, so after high school, two weeks out of high school, I got my first tax ID number. I can think back to businesses I started when I was, you know, six, eight, ten years old. But I got my first tax ID number when I was 18, two weeks out of high school, started a photography business. That grew to a branding agency. That grew then to now I do a lot of business consulting, I do alignment consulting. I help people see their whole ecosystem, which I think is a gift of my dyslexia. I've always seen this world as kind of this 3D Rubik's Cube rather than a straight line. And um, so I do a lot of consulting. We have a co-working space, we own Airbnbs, we have an ice cream shop that's locally loved. Um, I have a mentorship program where I mentor young adults. Um, yeah, so my days are full. Every day looks a little bit different. And then writing, speaking, holding my own workshops, attending a lot of workshops. Um just anything that I can do to um support others, I think that's my favorite thing is to just come alongside, see a vision, and see the potential in it, whether that's people, whether that's a business, whether that's a historic building. While they seem very different in my eyes, it's all about seeing something where it is and knowing the potential that's the potential, which yeah, just like you mentioned, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:35

It was it uh Mr. Keller, is that what you said? He saw you and you saw the impact. You just needed one time somebody to see you, say you can do this. Yeah, said the right words. So you are gifting that back to many. Yeah. And I know I've been there with you, and you're like, I see you in the beginning of all this, right? When it's uncomfortable, get in front of the camera. It's uncomfortable to feel vulnerable, and you're like, no, I see your potential, the big vision, and I'll help you get there. Yeah. And I think that's so important because so many of us are, you know, playing small, and maybe that was a limited belief from childhood. Yeah. But no, they're so gifted, and you're able to see that, but also help them mentally get organized. Yeah. You know, because I I feel too, I'm very creative and I have a lot of ideas, but it's like, okay, but now I need to get organized and see a path forward. And you are very gifted in doing that.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Thank you. Yeah. I see, I think a lot of people see everything that they're doing and they see them as different things. So they might see their podcast here, their book here, their business here. Maybe they run retreats and they think that's here. And everything's kind of separate. Maybe they're still working a corporate job, or and I feel like people see them all as completely separate things. Um, I feel like my true gifting is I see how these dots connect and I see people's giftings and I see why they're working here and why they love this and why they love that. And so I feel like people are often overwhelmed. Either they're overwhelmed or they feel stagnant because they just feel like they have all of this stuff and it doesn't make sense. And so often they beat themselves up and they say, Why am I even doing this podcast? Or why am I writing another book? What I love to do is connect those dots. And my gifting is really to say, oh no, these aren't six or eight or ten individual things. This is really one ecosystem. And once they can see where one thing feeds the other thing and this feeds this, whether that feeds it through finances, through referrals, through connections. But once they start connecting the dots, it's like then you have an ecosystem working together. You know, if you picture a rainforest, every piece is feeding the other piece, and then you're like, oh. And I just love my favorite thing is to see that relief and see people be like, oh like, because they love all these things. But from the outside, people often hear, you know, I'm tired just watching you. I don't know if you ever hear that. Yeah, I'm tired just watching you.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Yes, right. Yes. I have people going, she's got a lot, a lot of I'm like, Yes, I wear many hats and all this stuff, but I really try and balance it out. But it's it's so when it's purposeful and it's it gives light back, it gives me energy and yeah, and once you kind of connect your ecosystem, then you're like, Yeah, I am doing a lot, but it's all for the same purpose, for the same mission, for the same, which is a lot different than if I was just gonna randomly pick things.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

And I find that people, most people, whether they have connected the dots themselves or not, internally they know their intuition knows that everything is working for the good and everything's working together. So sometimes all I do is shine that flashlight and literally on paper connect to the dots. And then once I do that, I just see their nervous system relax. I see their confidence build because it's like, I thought this all like I feel my body like this is all right, but I didn't know how to explain it. I didn't know how to justify it. Yeah, and sometimes that's all we need.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yes, yes, it is. It is a big role. You're kind of being held, you're being seen. Yeah. And someone to just kind of relieve a bit of that weight when it just seems, you know, you need to someone to piece the puzzle together to help you launch your businesses or to see more clearly, okay, am I spreading myself too thin? Where and so I think that's an incredible gift that you have. Thank you. And it allows people to truly be seen. I've seen the transformation that you've had, you know. I saw, remember when Teresa was there. Yeah. Just the tears people feel when they're being held in that space. And I'm just curious as to what's next for Juliet. Because I know you always, you know, love to evolve. And and I actually have to kind of circle back just how incredible of a mother you are. Thank you. A mother, a wife, because you know, I just had Jada on as well. And she's she's 17. She wrote her first book, now writing her second. But you have to recognize that you allowed her to feel so confident to do that, and that's what you're changing generations for your lineage. Yeah. Uh seeing a strong, powerful mom, yeah, and who who just dives in no matter what limited belief they were born with, or whatever upbringing. And so your children are following now in their own footsteps, and they're gonna, you know, help inspire so many other people because they're just living to their true um gifts.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah, I had four kids in five and a half years. So I had my fourth kid by the time I was 25. And most of my friends at that age were in college, they were at partying. Everyone thought I was just crazy, you know. But I I knew I wanted a family. It wasn't um, and I felt so old and mature, you know, I'd been on my own for 10 years at that point. Like I felt we owned a home, like I was married, like I felt very mature. Um, but when I look back, I mean, my kids and I, we really did grow up together. I mean, my first daughter, Jocelyn, I opened my first portrait studio when she was an infant carrier. And I remember like signing the lease papers with her in a carrier. And I remember like putting her in a swing as I did my photo shoots. And it was really like it was her and I for a lot of it. And now she's 20 years old, she's a pilot and um put herself through flight school and is just doing incredible things. My next daughter, Tessa, she just got married, she's about to move to Italy. Wow, she actually landed in Italy this morning and um is just strong and brave and confident. And then Jada's going into her senior year using her gifts, and she just has the biggest heart. And it's been incredible to see her use that heart for good and to just make an impact with her words and everything she's doing. Then my son Ty, we call him our little mascot. He's uh 15 and finding his own way. He's very into music and his musical, maybe not the traditional path, you know, and but it's it's what lights him up. Yeah, and it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

I think it's important for parents to understand it doesn't have to be the traditional path, especially nowadays. I feel let them thrive in their gifts and then truly find a purpose. Because unfortunately, if you're gonna be chasing just the money, yeah, then then they're gonna you we know both of us, we've seen it day and day, that if you just chase money, there's gonna be a lot of emptiness inside. Yes, we need money to provide, but I'm telling you, if they are following their gifts and true life purpose, yeah, there's gonna be a lot more peace, joy, and abundance. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

We've had a lot of conversations as they were growing up of like, um, you know when you think of career path, it's like, yes, money's a piece of it, but freedom's a piece of it. How are you gonna, if you want a family, like what does that look like when you have a newborn? What does it look like when you have new new? Have a family. Where do you want to live? Do you want to live in one place? Do you want to have the freedom to move? And so I feel like, yeah, having those conversations of it doesn't have to look like anyone else. Um, here's what to say at a graduation party because everyone's gonna ask you what you're gonna do, and you don't have to have it figured out, but sometimes you just have to say something. Um, but then also, yeah, it's like hopefully cheering them on in whatever they're doing, and but having those conversations of of just a quality of life as a whole and thinking through all of those pieces. What climate do you want to live in? Do you want to work from home or do you want to go to an office? Um, how are you gonna surround yourself with community, you know, and really thinking through all those pieces that who you choose to surround yourself with?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Your companionship, your partner, right? That makes a big impact on, you know, your health. And and so I love that you're teaching that. And I know you're yeah, teaching that to young youth as well, part of your community.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah, I have one gal that I mentor, and I actually met her at a coffee shop because she was she is a website developer and she was having a client meeting with her one-year-old on her lap, and she was trying to juggle her one-year-old as she's trying to have this meeting. And finally I walk over to her and I just said, Can I hold your baby so you can finish your meeting? And you could see the relief in her eyes of like, that would be great. And afterwards, we ended up talking. Now I've been mentoring her for six months or so. But again, I've been trying to be that belief to her of you can be a young mom, you can run a business, you can do business meetings, you can edit at nap time. I did it for eight years, and you can do it, you know, and just try and still follow their dreams.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

I think as a mother, we often put our dreams to the side. I hear that all the time from friends, from girlfriends. Like they they have, you know, the husband, they have the young kids, but they're like, oh, you know, every the husband has his dream job. The kids are got all their sports, their social life, but mom, mom still needs to be in her creative outlets as well. Yeah. I think that's important.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

I just spoke at a woman's group, um, a women's conference a couple months ago, and and it was a brand new keynote, but it was really heavy on my heart. And it goes back to in the Bible, the first words of the Bible is in the beginning, God created. Now we usually go on to say the heavens and the earth and everything like that, but if we really just think about those first five words, in the beginning, God created. And I just think God is a creator. And if we were made in his image, then we are creators. And so if you're feeling burnt out, if you're feeling stale, if you're feeling stagnant, if you're feeling overwhelmed, it's like we were made to create. Whether you're a mom or a teenager or an old man, like create something. Yeah, no matter how old you are, if you're 99, yeah, still create a recipe, a picture, a a whatever it is, a meal for someone, like just create. Because I do feel like no matter where you're at, whether you're at your highest high or your lowest lows, I feel like that's what got me um out of some dark times, or just just it's like I knew that I could create. I could create businesses, I could create friendships, I could create ideas and promotions and campaigns and marketing and messaging. And I knew that no matter what, even if I had to start over today, I would be okay. Because I know how to create.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

I love that. I love that you said that because that's it. I am creating nonstop. And sometimes we oh, they create too many things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it it provides me so much joy and it's exciting. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I get this other idea. And so God does plant these ideas in you to create those for a reason. Yeah. And I you gotta really trust that. And I think it is a juggling for for moms, right? Say, oh, well, maybe I should just focus on being mom. But no, I feel fine, find a balance, be in your creative outlet, however that is, because I do feel then you kind of stay stagnant and you feel like, oh, I'm not as happy, maybe, you know. So I love that you mentioned that. Now, if anybody wants to work with you and how do they get hold of you?

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Yeah, the best way, just julietright.co, JulietWright Co. on Instagram. JulietWright.co is my website. But yeah, right now it's like I'm working with just a handful of clients and I really call myself an ally because it looks different for everyone, whether it's with a book or a podcast or whether it's with a business they're doing. Um, but just having that ally, that's what I wish I would have had. I feel like a lot of times in my life, if I wanted to create something, someone came in and they wanted to be a business partner or they wanted equity or they wanted a piece of it. And oftentimes all I needed was just a running mate. Yes. You know, it's like I was willing to do the work, I was willing to do it. I just need someone. Entrepreneurship's a lonely road. Mothering can be a lonely road. And so I think I truly do now what I wish I would have had, which is really just coming along as that, as an advisor, as that ally, as that cheerleader for someone, and not taking equity, not taking ownership, um, but truly just saying, you know, you have someone, I see you, I witness you, you can do this, I can offer some tips and tricks and shortcuts along the way. But ultimately, it's like everyone has a power within themselves. And I think we have too many people saying, You're doing too much, you make me exhausted, slow down, do less. But I do feel like if creation is what's lighting you up and giving you life, we just need someone to blow a little bit of air on that fire.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

I like that, but I think I needed that message because I do hear that. You do you're doing a lot, you're doing too much. There's so many things going on. But uh, so I think I needed to hear that, and I know a lot of people needed to hear that. And you have such a beautiful space and office, and you do feel like you integrate to the family. I mean, you live above, you know, the big office, and it is such a beautiful place, and I think you feel held the whole way along. And I think starting a business is very lonely, and but you can't do it alone. I don't feel life is supposed to be alone. Like it, I always say it takes a village to raise kids, it takes a village for entrepreneurship as well, is to start a business and to learn from people that started with three dollars in their pocket and just where you're at now. Yeah, this is who we need to learn from. And that's why I'm so honored to have you on. And I know people listening right now, please share because we need to aspire so many people to start being creative and know who to trust. Yeah. And I love you, are so heart-centered. You have God by your side, and you have faith that holds you grounded, but you're also very confident in your gifts. And I love that. And you are very gifted. I've seen you, seen you work, and she works magic. I don't know, really fast. Magic something. Yes, yes. I know I now I'm always like, how does she do that? I don't know. But that's why we need people like you. So thank you for coming on the show today. Thank you. So if this show today really resonated with you, please reach out. I will have Juliet's contact information down in the show notes, but you can always DM me. I could put you in contact or follow Juliet. And you will now, if you're really looking for someone you can trust and being held in the journey of entrepreneurship, mentorship, she has been such an important role for myself, for a lot of uh fellow authors that I know and friends. And I'm so honored to have her on. So thank you for listening. Please like and subscribe so we can help people globally. Thank you.