Lessons from Wildlife on Abundance (Part 1) with Julie Steelman
Join host Tessa Lynne Alburn and financial freedom trailblazer Julie Steelman as they discuss the importance of tuning-in to intuition and connecting with the wild instinct within. Julie shares experiences from her encounters with wildlife, emphasizing the role of instinct in guiding her decisions. They explore the idea of expanding beyond the limitations of conditioned thinking and societal norms to embrace one's unique path.
The conversation delves into the concept of feminine prosperity and the need for women to recognize their worth, value, and the multifaceted nature of their talents. Julie highlights the importance of owning one's uniqueness and embracing the full spectrum of who they are.
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One Woman’s Soul Work: Julie reflects on her childhood fascination with wildlife and the profound knowing that she needed to go to Africa before she died, emphasizing the inner experience of soul work.
Julie shares her journey of breaking free from societal expectations, including overcoming challenges as a woman in corporate America.
Maintaining one’s personal sovereignty and making choices aligned with one's soul is of the utmost importance.
Julie talks about her mindset shift during her corporate career, realizing her worth and the archetype of the “Prosperous Feminine,” and the importance of owning one's uniqueness and value.
Julie and Tessa discuss the significance of tuning into instincts, understanding subtle sensations and expanding or contracting feelings as indicators of soul guidance. Julie shares personal experiences of instinctual knowing, drawing parallels with her encounters with wildlife.
About Julie Steelman
Julie is a financial freedom trailblazer who ditched corporate life to become a wildlife photographer and start a business called the Prosperous Feminine for midlife entrepreneurs who want income and financial stability so they can live life on their own terms.
Connect with Julie
Website: www.JulieSteelman.com
The Prosperous Feminine
Connect with Julie on Social Media:
@juliesteelman
Julie’s Free Gift:
Open up your inner prosperity and accelerate your income with Julie’s Five Fast Mindset Shifts! https://juliesteelman.com/free-offer
* About the Host *
Tessa Lynne Alburn believes that every woman has the ability to learn to express their true voice, be heard, and fulfill their dreams.
As a Feminine Energy Coach and Soul Connection Mentor for women, Tessa supports you in having the freedom you crave and strong connections with others, as you live powerfully with joy and a sense of adventure.
Tessa’s Free Gift: If you want to be freer, happier and more courageous in life, get your free Roadmap to a Soul-Connected Business and Say YES to Your Soul!
http://www.tessafreegift.com/
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May You Say YES to Your Soul.
Transcript:
Tessa:
Hello. Hello. Hello. I am beyond delighted to introduce this amazing woman to you today. She has been one of my mentors over the years. I was very fortunate to meet her years ago, and we've, we've had some common interests, but her mentorship really helped propel me into becoming more confident and running a prosperous business. So I'm just super excited to have her here. And I also love our spiritual connection. So she is Julie Steelman. She's a financial freedom trailblazer who ditched corporate life to become a wildlife photographer and start a business called the prosperous feminine for midlife entrepreneurs who want income and financial stability so they can live life on their own terms. Julie, welcome to Say Yes to Your Soul.
Julie:
Hi, Tessa. I'm so excited to do this with you, <laugh>.
Tessa:
Yay. I know we've been talking about this for a while and it's just like, okay, now's the right time. Yeah. So, great. So Julie, I know you've just had such a rich and diverse life and you've got so much you could be sharing. I think the question that I wanna begin with today for you is what does soul work look like for you?
Julie:
Ooh, no small question there, <laugh>. You know, I think when people hear that, they think about the output, right? Like, what's the form doing what? And when I think about soul work, to me anyway, I think about the five-year old that was watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom that got completely catalyzed by videos of lions and elephants and zebras and giraffes. And this message dropped in, you need to go to Africa before you die. And somehow being a little girl looking around the room at my mom and dad and my three older brothers and they went, yeah, they ain't gonna make this happen. I have to <laugh>
Tessa:
<laugh>,
Julie:
Right? It was like, really about I need to make my own money so no one can tell me no and no one can stop me and I don't have to rely on anybody else to pay for it. Literally, that's what happened.
Tessa:
Oh my gosh. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. How old were you around that time?
Julie:
I was five.
Tessa:
Oh my word. That's amazing. Okay. I'm excited.
Julie:
I remember it distinctly because every Sunday night was popcorn and apples, and my mom was like a rigorous heck no. That Sunday night she's not making dinner. Someone else is popping the popcorn and someone else is watching the apples. And she sat herself down in front of the TV and it was like her only hall pass of the week. And as a family, we would watch Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. And because I was the youngest, I was the one who always had to get up and change the channel. So any of our younger people that we're speaking to don't know the days of non-voice remotes. Right.
Tessa:
<laugh>. That's right. We had to get up off the sofa or the floor.
Julie:
We had to get up. Yeah. We had to take steps to change the channel <laugh>.
Tessa:
That's right.
Julie:
Yeah. But it was this thing that just dropped in like this epic knowing that was, couldn't be more crystal clear and like this unfathomable truth that it was just okay. And that's so, and somehow, you know, that became very aligned in me. It became my prime directive that I would figure out how to have my own money, how do I have my own life, how to live life on my terms, be fulfilling the things that I felt called by implicated towards and felt really truly of meaning and alignment and like, it was an inner experience. I was too young to be able to articulate any of that. But looking back and unpacking it, it's kind of like, wow, you know,
Tessa:
It's very Wow, Julie. Like, I didn't even know this about you, because I've heard, you know, so many of your other parts of your life. But not this and to be that young, and I love the whole mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom thing. Of course. <laugh>, I'm right there with you girlfriend. But I did not get this download <laugh>
Julie:
Yeah.
Tessa:
Around the money, right? You got a clear message and it just filled you. And there, it just sounds like there was such a tremendous resonance for you and your being, your spirit and who you are.
Julie:
It was absolute resonance. And what I didn't know now being 60 something and looking back is that that alignment, that inner agreement that like audacity to go, I can't unhear that that is truth, led to my choices in college, my choices in corporate, my how do I earn my way out of this because sitting in a cubicle for the rest of my life on someone else's terms was not gonna cut it. And you know, that I had these other passions in me that in the seventies, eighties, nineties and two thousands weren't kind of as acceptable as they are now to be like this radical woman who goes to Africa and walks with cheetahs and hangs out with lions. You know, not your typical safari stuff was like kind of, you know, you were breaking out of the norm. You know, our moms were raised under the guise of if you were doing anything other than white picket fence and kids, you are gonna get a scarlet letter. You are gonna get shamed for it. You are gonna be ostracized from society. And so I'm so grateful that I gave birth and incarnated at the time where we could do this feminine rising soul work where we get to say, now bug off if you don't like it. You know,
Tessa:
<laugh>. Exactly.
Julie:
And to me, the soul work is about listening to that wild instinct inside that is free, that is directly connected to divine knowing. That is the channel to that. That's the work there is to do not the output of the shaping of something into physical world reality where yes, we need to do that and we need to make money and we need to systematize and monetize and all those things. But without that inner leadership of soul knowing what's true, what comes through in a particular type of resonance, we'll always be unsatisfied.
Tessa:
Hmm. Here, here, to me, you really get that wild instinct inside in everything that you do and all the causes that you uphold, all of this, I know you have a deep appreciation for the environment and so a lot of things like came together for you. Yeah. This isn't just about like making money, it's connected Right. To something much more bigger than that.
Julie:
You know, what you're speaking to is, you know, I work with entrepreneurs, right. And so, especially those that I identify with the feminine and it's like a, everything is kind of oriented around, productizing or shaping things. And we do need to do that. But one of the things that I see really missing is the conversation around if you are fully realized soul, which has been one of the things I've heard you say before.
Tessa:
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Julie:
It's a summation of all the things that you are not the one thing that will make you the most money.
Tessa:
Exactly.
Julie:
Like it's a multifaceted diamond that, you know, I could do a crystal ball sound bath right now. I could give you an income breakthrough right now. I could take you on a big cat money medicine journey right now. I can take you to the mountain gorillas right now. And so this pain that I've found in the last five years was around this, what's the one thing is such the wrong question because we're everything and we're all that we are. And our soul work is really the task of owning everything that we are and being that and shaping that and owning our uniqueness and our divergentness and our eccentricness and our traumaness. You know, that there's this makeup that is irreplaceable that is only you in this incarnation at this time. Like, we like that because, you know, as I am with wildlife a lot, and I'm with wildlife in extreme situations and exotic environments, other people should not do what I do <laugh>.
And it's okay with me because I know what I'm doing and I know where I'm at and I've made peace with being in particular environments. And the animals are that totally fully acknowledged soul presence. They never wonder who they are. They never wonder about their value. They never wonder if they deserve a meal. They aren't so conditioned that every single day if something changes or pivots in their habitat that they have a breakdown over it. Right.
Tessa:
Exactly.
Julie:
You don't operate like that. And I find that to be soul medicine.
Tessa:
Oh, that's amazing. So they have, you've really had that energy around you. You've been in it, you've seen it, you've witnessed it. Yeah. You've photographed it, you can, you've felt it, that energy of, I I'm just, I'm here, I'm living.
Julie:
Yeah.
Tessa:
Uh, there's like a certainty, a confidence. They're not thinking about tomorrow will I find that rabbit or whatever it is that they're. The Muir Catt and the planes Yeah. <laugh>, you know, they're just in it. I 100% fully engaged, present to everything that's happening right now. And they are not devoid of love. They just exude it. Everything they do is love. And it's for the continuation of the spirit of that species. It's beautiful. Alright. I'm really curious, like along your amazing resident spirit pathway, to feminine prosperity, like what was one of the challenges that you found yourself needing to really overcome?
Julie:
Yeah. I remember after starting corporate America, because my dad was like I actually really wanted to be a rock star and a musician. And there were some things that happened and my dad was like, you'll never get paid. And then somehow inside of me, I knew that if I went down that road, it was gonna be a dark road that I wasn't gonna make good choices and it was gonna really set me on the wrong path. And so his nurturing was, you know, you work your way up the ladder, right? You earn the right to earn the right. And so I went into corporate America and within the first two weeks I was like, I better figure out how to earn my hell way outta here. <laugh> <laugh>, you know? And so then what I did was I knew that I needed to find a way out other than just having a desk job.
And so I went into sales and you know, in those decades and years of doing that, I was the only female in large corporations and it was all men. And you know, I will give them men credit, they didn't know any better at the time. There's more emotional intelligence now. But at the time it was like, well, we're not gonna invest in you. You're gonna get pregnant and you're gonna leave. I'm not spending any training dollars on you. Women leave money on the table. They're not good at client relationships. You don't know how to strong arm people into closing a deal. Like, I remember them saying things like that. And I just was like, what are you talking about? And I realized that I had something to say and that I was working with big household brands. They were my clients and Apple was one of my biggest clients.
And that, they would show me their business models. I was under a lot of NDAs and I would see what products they were gonna launch. And I'd always studied the psychology of marketing and buyers. Like what appeals to people? What makes someone have the impulse to say yes or put out a credit card was fascinating to me. And so I would work with them on their marketing and then we're launching the internet at the same time. And there's this freedom trail they know nothing about 'cause they're all steeped in buying television ads. And, you know, I realized that if I listened to this onslaught of male input, of their misunderstanding of the power of a woman, of their misunderstanding about a female superpower being relationships, being in the related field, being of service, that I would go into my clients and I would solve their problems. That that was what I wanted to do. And that felt like a ministry to me. I found my sweet spot and I realized that if I didn't change my mindset and I didn't stay focused on the leadership of my dreams and my visions, that they were gonna impact me and minimize me to a place where I had no sovereignty. And that five-year-old that said, we're doing this, we need to make our own money, was my first statement and a stake in the ground for personal sovereignty. And that I had to create my own ecosystem, my own think tank inside myself to stay away from this toxic thinking that would never have me be empowered or free.
Tessa:
Oh my goodness. So you literally were able to self resource and create these thoughts. It's not like you were you know, you had some mentor who was guiding you the whole way or, and then an apprenticeship program. You were really doing this from within yourself.
Julie:
Yeah. This is why I'm so hyped up and key on women attuning to that wild instinct, which requires some definition to understand it. But at the end of the day, I was being a leopard, I was being stealth, I was being strategic. I was maintaining my own mindset. Listen, I did not know what I was doing at the time. It's looking back and unpacking it. I can say this to you, but I knew that if I bought off on those belief systems, it wasn't that the possibility of going to Africa before I die could never happen. The possibility of having my own money was not possible in this other mindset. It just wasn't gonna happen. I was gonna be beholden to the golden handcuffs with them telling me what to do and when and how far I could go. And that's the, I just saw that I'm a visionary. I saw there's no pathway out there. There's no pathway. And my dad taught me to be very strategic and very smart and taught me how to think. And I am grateful to him for that. And he also nurtured me financially. He didn't treat me differently than my brothers. And he empowered me that I later learned was like unique, you know, that not a lot of fathers did that for a daughter. And those things really became the lens through which I oriented and my clients became my focus, not my colleagues. They could say whatever they wanted. I wasn't listening to them because they were gonna kill my dream real fast if I listened to them.
Tessa:
This is amazing. So you really have, I love that your last name is Steelman. 'cause to me it sounds like you saw, you knew where you needed to be steel right. And still be able to focus on what you were really there to do and give yourself what you came there to give. But you put your clients first, right? Which is so often a problem in corporate, right? Everybody's worried about what this person's gonna say, that manager this meeting, yada yada y on and on. And the client gets forgotten. So you steeled up and you focused on your client. And you must have had some sorts of like daily affirmations or thoughts or like, what did that look like for you?
Julie:
<laughs> I love that you asked that question. I remember I was working at Microsoft at the time. I was one of two managers in a 200 person sales organization that was female. And I ran the LA sales office and we went to a meeting in Seattle and the Sanjay, the VP pops a slide up on the stage and he says, here's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna decide who gets deleted. I'm like, what? What did you just say?
What he meant was, we're gonna reorg and people are gonna get fired. And we had to decide who on our team was gonna go. And so he went through the teams and was showing people and their dollar performances. 'cause we were a sales team. And I remember thinking, oh my God, people have been minimized to a line item on a spreadsheet. I can't do this. Like, I can't, these are people with families, mortgages, car payments. And I realized that I needed to get out of there. And I went home and I realized that if everybody else was dispensable and could be deleted, so could I. And it really catalyzed me. And I went home and I booked a scuba diving trip and I went to Turks and Caicos the following week. 'cause I needed to reconnect to my purpose, my passion, and get really straight with myself about what I was doing. And so on that scuba diving trip, I had an encounter with four wild bottle nose dolphins when the moon was rising and the sun was setting this aqua marine blue water with light shafts in it. And I saw this elegant ballet that to this day I've never seen footage of. And in that moment it beat my like wild and freeness got reinstated and I knew that I could never be without a camera again.
And I knew that I needed to go back to corporate and fast track an exit strategy. And the mindset that got shifted in that whole thing on the flight home was I'm the talent. And wherever I go, I bring all of me and I bring the best of me. No one can take that away from me. No product that I represent, no manager that I work for, or no brand that I work for defines who I am. I define who I am. And that's when this mindset shift of I'm the talent, what it really meant was I'm the source, I'm the supply. And when I stay connected to that, I have all the answers. I have everything I need. And I use my knowing and my intuition to follow my path that everything flows. And I went back and I decided that every sales transaction I made, every deal, every client was as if it was for my own business, even though I didn't own one yet. And that's when I discovered this was the foundation of the prosperous, feminine archetype that owning my worthiness, my value, that I'm the talent that everything that I bring, it doesn't minimize anyone else's talent. It was just full ownership over they need me more than I need them. And it changed everything for me. And that's how I earned my way out at 47, financially free.
You know, so Tessa, I love the work that you're doing with Say Yes to Your Soul because you know, all of my stories and all of my wildlife encounters that are really unique stories that a lot of other people have never experienced or can tell, have everything to do with having said yes to my soul because it's my north star, it's my guide and it's my radar.
Tessa:
Hmm. I love that. So I really love that you know how to tune in to listen to the guidance of your soul. And I think there's a lot of women who would like to know that they're doing that, but they're not sure.
Julie:
Yeah.
Tessa:
Uh, so yeah, if you have any insights you could share around that, I think it would be really helpful.
Julie:
Yeah. I think a couple of things about that, I think you have to start to learn how you know your knowing. So what I mean by that is I am really clear that if something bubbles up or my heart does a little flutter or opens a little more, and when my full body is receiving something, what that feels like. And it's really subtle.
Tessa:
Ooh let's talk about that. Okay so it's subtle, but what is it like, can you describe some of those sensations or feelings that you get?
Julie:
Yeah. So, you know, part of really tuning into our animalness, because we are a species and we are a mammal, and we act like we're the superior species. And so we forget about being a part of nature, but the, that our nervous system is always scanning for cues, cues of safety, of security for information.
Tessa:
Yes.
Julie:
And so you can argue that it's the heart space that's doing that. I don't really know. But what I can tell you is that you, when you are, you pick something up and long before your brain recognizes it or your body senses energy, you've already picked it up. And when it's a knowing, when it's guidance, when it's what I would guess I would call soul speak.
Tessa:
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>
Julie:
Is that there is a full body resonance with the information. And through our conditioning we've been taught to, well, it has to be a big brain aha. Everything has to be fireworks. You know, that it's like you think it, and I'm actually, it's more like you feel it and then you make space so it can clarify.
Tessa:
Yeah. So like, the brain is the last part that actually can make sense of it.
Julie:
Your brain will lie to you. It is not that <laugh>. <laugh>.
Tessa:
Yeah. So, I know for me, like one of the things that I, when I know I'm listening to the soul part of myself is I will feel a certain kind of a tingle. It's very, very light. I had to start really paying attention to that, like, what's going on? You know?
Julie:
Yeah.
Tessa:
Why is that happening? And now it just, it it almost feels like electricity, a soft, gentle current of energy running through. Yeah. Yeah. And when I tune into it, so I'm doing that right now, like with a deeper awareness, then it almost feels like I'm in and kind of a, it's not water, but there's an energy field that I can then feel, like around and in me. That's what it's like for me.
Julie:
I would agree with that. I think people really need to make a commitment and intention to come to really find out how, you know, how your sensory perception lets you know that you, I can tell you when I'm receiving a download, I can tell when it starts. And, you know, I think that the easiest starter practice is, was that expansive or was that contractive?
Tessa:
I love that. Exactly.
Julie:
Yeah.
Tessa:
Cause we know that everything must expand or contract. It doesn't sit there. And even a stagnant pond, I like to say, is not stagnant. So that feeling of expansion or the feeling of contraction, I think everybody can relate to that. Yes.
Julie:
Yeah. And I think you have to want to actually make friends with your instincts.
Tessa:
Mm-Hmm.
Julie:
We've been conditioned out of instinct. And I think it's your lifesaving greatest gift. And like, how I know I'm observing myself at a whole new level and how I knew what to do and what client and how to sell it and shorten sales cycles and do all that was 100% instinct. No one could ever teach me how I was doing what I was doing. They even threw hundreds of thousands of dollars at me to try to get me to train everybody. And I'm like, no. And they're like, why? And I'm like, well, first of all, you're not female. You don't know how to intuit and tune in like that. I actually said this to the CEO at that point. I was, I was not. I I knew what my ex's strategy was. I kind of didn't care <laugh>. And I knew he, I was fast tracking his mega million dollar bonus at the end of the year. So he wasn't gonna mess with me. Right?
Tessa:
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Julie:
You know, but I'd earned my right to be able to kind of go, you don't get to mess with me. And, but now the example that I'll give you is I have a spot where I have bobcats and I go there at least once a week. And what I started to notice was when I'm within range, or there was one near me, even if I can't see it, I started to notice my body slowed down. My body went into this other mode. Like I almost took on this other position. My shoulders dropped, almost went into like a cat-like mode, you know, when they're hunting, they dropped their head between their shoulders and I could feel my entire electricity slowed down. And I was like, oh, I've started to notice, because every time that happens, I find one.
Tessa:
Ooh nice!
Julie:
I've noticed that when we'd be on the river in Botswana and I'd be like, there's a lion and everyone's arguing with me. There's no lion. And within 30 seconds we drive and there's a lion. My, I knew it before I saw it. And so the reliance on site of humans over rely on site. Most other wild animals orient through smell first because they can smell two thousand times more than we can.
Tessa:
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Julie:
They listen, they actually sit and listen. And it's like there's a way that, you know, that you haven't yet discovered that it encouraged you to discover.
Tessa:
I am so turned on by this right now. <laugh>. I'm just <laugh>, you know, you're talking to me. And like, It's like, I believe when you're in that connectivity, it's like you're accessing another dimension of the quantum field and you just got outta way. You put away all the nonsense that's normally in the way obstructing it, right? You're in that pure being, you're really present. Your senses are probably more heightened without effort. Right. It's effortless, it's more beingness. And then you can sense those subtle shifts here or there. So whether you heard it or felt it or got a little, tap on the shoulder from spirit and an image floated through your mind, like it can come to us in so many different ways because we are multidimensional beings.
Julie:
I think that's really well said. And there's another kind of listening, which isn't, we're nowhere in our five senses or the minimal of what we are.
Tessa:
Yes.
Julie:
They're not the maximum of what we are. And for anyone listening, what's the thing that brings you the greatest joy or puts you in a place of the highest nourishment that will be your thing? Mine is wildlife. And I transcend domains when I'm with them.