She didn't stay because she was weak. She stayed because leaving felt like throwing away everything her family sacrificed to give her.

Alenka Kyslik is the daughter of Soviet immigrants who fled in the middle of the night for a better life. That story became her nervous system's operating code. Opportunity meant safety. Achievement meant survival. And saying no to either felt like a betrayal of everything they crossed an ocean to build.

So she stayed. Through the body disconnection. Through the out-of-body driving moments. Through the week she couldn't get off the floor. Through the boss who told her, "I could give you a green card, but I know you'll leave." She stayed, because her nervous system didn't know there was another option.

This isn't a burnout story. It's a story about the belief underneath the burnout. And what becomes possible when you finally see it for what it is.

Here's what Lenka's story quietly teaches you about your own:

🔹 The moment her body stopped working before her mind caught up with why

🔹 How a green card became a carrot, and seven years became a cage

🔹 What building a business on her own terms actually feels like when the pattern starts to shift

🔹 Why building her new company slower and more intentionally isn't taking longer. It's collapsing time.

If you've ever stayed somewhere longer than you should have, and told yourself it was loyalty, this one is for you. Listen now.

About Alenka:

Eldest daughter, overachiever and recovering people pleaser Alenka has gone through a series of health issues. After years of searching for answers, she found a new version of herself. She saw how challenging it is for so many to find answers for their health and decided to do something about it. With over a decade of experience building software Alenka decided to build an online platform that uses custom matchmaking to connect people with holistic experts based on shared values and current needs. The mission is to give people back control of their health initially focusing on burnout of all kinds.

Connect with Alenka:

Website: https://sahacollective.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saha.collective/?hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sahadotcollective

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

If you want a life massively different than the one you grew up in, you're kind of f^cked. Unless you know how to dismantle the cage.

Genea doesn't hold back in this one. She walks through the brutal truth most people don't want to hear: the dynamics you learned in childhood … how you got safety, love, attention, needs met … are the exact dynamics you're replicating in your business, relationships, and health.

If you grew up scrambling for needs that were always slipping away, you're still scrambling.

If you grew up keeping things casual and safe because commitment felt dangerous, you're still doing that too.

The way you dealt with the world as a kid is how you’re still dealing with the world.

And it's why your business feels stuck, your relationships feel hollow, or your success never feels like enough.

Genea shares her own story … growing up with an unpredictable mother who told her hunger was "a figment of your imagination," and a stepdad who brought stability but stayed casual, never fully showing up.

That became her model: casual equals safe but incomplete, committed equals anxious and never enough.

And she repeated it everywhere … in romantic relationships, in jobs, and most devastatingly, in her business.

In this episode, Genea reveals:

🔹 Why she kept five part-time jobs instead of one full-time commitment … and how that pattern was protecting her from the anxiety of "the one"

🔹 The moment she realized her business was playing the role of her stepdad … casual, safe, but never enough to meet her needs

🔹 How anxious energy chokes the growth of everything you're trying to build, and why you can't grow a business while chasing it to save you

🔹 The flea-jar metaphor that explains why your programming might not even be yours … it could be from three generations back

This isn't about mindset. It's about dismantling subconscious and generational patterns at a level so deep most people never touch.

Connect with Genea

Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regis...

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

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.

Peace and harmony looked like an empty apartment and a recliner. That's when he knew something was wrong.

Dave Shotgun Shell spent decades chasing adrenaline … football, MMA fighting, even karaoke when his body couldn't take the hits anymore.

After multiple concussions and near-death experiences starting at age two, he subconsciously became addicted to intensity.

But when the crashes started outweighing the highs, he swung hard in the opposite direction: two hours of meditation daily, seeking peace and harmony.

What he got instead was an empty apartment, a divorce, kids who lived elsewhere, and an isolated existence with nothing but four white walls and a recliner.

He had achieved perfect peace. And zero impact on the world.

This conversation with Genea digs into the cost of extremes, and what happens when you finally stop escaping into either adrenaline or spirituality, and start living from the middle.

Dave and Genea explore:

🔹 The childhood trauma of a cinder block dropped on his head at age two, and how it set the trajectory for a lifetime of seeking near-death experiences

🔹 Why meditating two hours a day gave him exactly what he focused on … nothing … no wife, no connection, no impact

🔹 His friend who told him to join a monastery … the moment he realized he'd escaped too far

🔹 The mantra that changed everything: "I do. Either things will or they won't. But that doesn't change who I am."

If you've been swinging between grit and escape, intensity and isolation, or giving until you're empty … this episode will show you there's another way.

About Dave:

As the founder of BlueVantage—a company forged in the ashes of 9/11, now thriving under his daughter Adrienne's leadership—and DCPacket, revolutionizing power distribution through Digital Electricity, Dave has built a legacy of value creation. His ventures also include partnerships like R.B. Akins, enabling mission-critical infrastructure. Yet, beyond business success, Dave's story is one of personal renewal,anchored by his wife Gretchen's discovery of neurofeedback therapy, which silenced the ghosts of his past Traumas.

Connect with Dave:

Website: https://shotgunschell.com/

Free Gift Link: https://shotgunschell.com/about

Connect with Genea

Weekly Clarity Call - Wednesdays 7a PST/10a EST - Join the call here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regis...

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