Get in the Photo: Embracing Your Inner Child with Disney Cast Member Julie Voris

0:01 When you say no. You think it's just say no to a photo. What I see is you just told your child that Joy has an expiration date, that Wonder has an expiration date, that magic has an expiration date. That now I'm a grown up, I don't need to do the silly thing and get my pack. You think it's just a picture that you're saying no to, It's not that big of a deal. It's a bigger deal than you.

0:53 Hello, Julie Voris, welcome to quick before you forget. Thanks for having me here. Really excited to be here. I am so excited. So before I launch into your bio for our friends, I just needed to share the truth, which is that I went with my family to Disney World about two months ago, and I have never It's only my second time there, and I had not spent the money on the photography pass until this time. And I came home and I was so grateful that I did. There's so many fun there's so many miracles. There's so many amazing things that happened from that photo pass from people just like Julie. But Julie's story is a lot longer and a lot more exciting than that, So friends, I'm going to just share with you a little bit about Julie. She's someone who reminds people that it is never too late to become who you were meant to be, which is right in our wheel house here at Quick before you forget. Julie is a mindset and habit coach, speaker, and wellness entrepreneur who has inspired thousands of women to live with more purpose, confident and unapologetic truth. From speaking on stages of more than ten thousand people to helping midlife women reconnect with themselves and build lives they actually want to live, Julie blends practical strategy with real life wisdom in a way that feels deeply empowering and inspiring.

2:17 She now lives right next to Walt Disney World with her husband, is the proud mom of three grown daughters, and recently added Disney cast member to her already incredible dream kit catching resume. Julie, I'm so excited to jump into your story today. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. I am so pumped because while people seem to think that a lot of their life is behind them, like their most exciting chapters are over, you seem my friend determined to prove the opposite. So I want to know where that mindset came from and how exactly we start doing that.

2:58 You know, I don't know that I have a really good answers for you on that. I will say that my parents had me in their forties, so my brother and sister were in high school and I was born. My parents were older than everybody else's parents when they had me. You know, my parents were the ages of everyone else's grandparents when I was growing up. So I think that that has given me a different outlook on time, a different perspective on time. I don't know that I can define that, but I think that I've always had that. You know, I grew up really just being me in the house. My brother and sister were pretty much gone by the time. I remember, they were having children and having their own families, and it was just me and my mom and dad. And then, you know, my dad retired and they moved to Florida, and all these things that happened generally to everybody else's grandparents were happening to my parents. And then I lost my dad twenty five years ago. That no one was experiencing that at my age and my mom. It's interesting that we're talking about this given the Mother's Day was yesterday. My mom and I have always had a very challenging relationship, more so especially with my dad being gone and then with her getting older. But she is ninety eight, So the girl has some good genes that I will accept because because the trade off has been the generational baggage that she's

4:29 given me. But I will take the good genetics at the long life, you know, as a little bit of the trade off. And I just think there's been something in having older parents that has given me a different perspective. And I say that also saying it wasn't like my mom had another career. It wasn't like my mom had a career. It wasn't like my mom had big goals and dreams. It was like I was seeing that. I just think that the loss of my dad young, the age of my mom, and the different experiences that I had growing up different than my my friends, my childhood friends, simply because my parents were in such a different season of life. You know, when I'm I'm in high school, my dad's retiring, this is that's a very different season of life. They also had to worry less about money, that we could travel more. You know, there was just different pieces that then informed who I was. So I think I got to see a lot more of the world, which helped because I wasn't necessarily seeing that in my own home or seeing that in my own tiny little town. So, you know, I don't know that that's a really good answer.

5:50 I just I think having older parents helped me have a different kind of perspective on aging. I often say that people are put in your life. Sometimes they're putting your life to learn from, and sometimes they're put in your life to learn what you don't want to do. And I'd certainly have had all of that. I'm sure everyone has in there with both their parents to some degree. And while I'll take the good genetics, there's a lot of the stuff from my mom that I don't want, but I get to watch that actually play out in front of me and can know better and do better. So as I watched her sort of decide her life was done when my dad passed away, which is very generational, but doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be every day. As you said, I work at Disney, I see plenty of people there that are older, and they are skidetline and skittering around that part dressed in their Disney merch so that it does not have to be your story. But you know, I did see that, and I just thought that's probably that's probably not story that I want, probably not what I want. And I think that informed sort of this next, this second chapter, this idea.

7:08 I just kind of lived at my life and thought, well, if I'm gonna live to be one hundred and twenty, which I've already decided that I am so, and I have a lot more life in front of me that I have behind me, Like cognitively, don't you just know that? So why are we acting like life is over? Just because just because your kids grow up, it just means that part of your life has shifted. It doesn't mean that you're done. I don't know that's a really good answer, but that's kind of where that's kind of what's in my head. It's a great answer because tomorrow is not guaranteed. I think a lot of people need reminding of that, Like we have this gift of today and tomorrow. Life is so short and we don't know when Honestly, a lot of us don't know when we're going to be saying goodbye to somebody for the first time, or hack when our twelve year old son is going to grab our hand for the first time or the last time. I mean at a the You know, you just don't know when these moments are so fleeting sometimes what you want to hold on to. Which is interesting that that is such a core thing for you, because I know that on the flip side of all of that, that is this this hunger and thirst and creation of joy, and I like that is my love language. I have been doing this thing on the Internet that I call joy from the ground up for a while now, where I put my phone on the ground and it's a it's a visual hook. I will admit that I'm trying to get people hooked, and so far it hasn't. It hasn't really hooked that well. But it's a visual hook. I put my phone on the ground and I pick it up, and I ask people what they're grateful for today, And

8:41 you know, just finding something to be grateful for to me, sparks a joy in your day. And it doesn't have to be fancy or big. It could just be Gosh, darn it, I love this sparkly pen and it makes me happy, you know, like it could be that simple. So how did you start to figure out that when you're you know, looking at time as gift and time being so fleeting, When did you start to embrace joy as part of your everyday life. That's a great question. Well, I think I started to. Well, you know, I've been talking about Disney my whole life. My first trip was at age three. Like you can see it in the background. That's my ticket from my that's my ticket from my trip at age three. That's me sitting on the monterail with my mom at age three.

9:27 So I've been talking about Disney all my life, and I think Disney has informed it has formed and informed me my entire life. I've always looked through my business, my life, my parenting, my house, how I want my house to feel like through a lens of Disney, Because to me, it's not about the cartoons, although my girls grew up with that, or the music, although we've all grown up with that, or the rides or that's not Disney. To me. Disney is about that a human beings stood in the middle of a swamp land in Orlando and saw something and then and he saw it in his mind, and then he created it, which has been insane to me, and then created an entire culture of experience and immersion and excellence around it. So when I say Disney has formed and informed me, it's always been those pieces that have been part of my life. How can I raise the standard in my business? How when I taught group fitness for two decades, how can I make this feel like Disney from a group fitness you know, standpoint? How can I make a talk I give feel like Disney is always informed and informed me. So I've been talking about Disney for a long time. I say all that because I've also talked about joy in a lot of ways.

10:58 I've always talked about habit, I've always talked about positivity. I've always talked about choice always. When I started working there and I started putting the two lenses together, which I probably always have, It's just something that stops your scroll. When you see a cast member doing it, people are like, wait a minute, where you been doing? What? How? Oh? I'm like, you know, it's it's funny. It's like, oh, you're new to me. But I'm not new to this. You're new to me, does not? I mean I'm new to this. I've actually been talking about this. Like my first post on Instagram was February twenty twelve. Okay, I've been on this platform for fourteen years talking about much of the same thing. I have a really good friend who's a videographer who's sen so many of my videos over the years for my business and such a message reason until be like, girl, you literally said this same thing ten years ago, I'm like, I know, I am stupidly consistent. It was when I was in a cast member coustume that people started paying attention to it because now I had the lens of not just being a guest and having Disney inform me as a guest, as a person who's experiencing it and wanting to bring some of these pieces into my own life or what I offer.

12:17 Now I have the lens of a cast member and actually being on the other side of the camera and seeing how people interact in this space, and I'm able to shine a light on it. And for some people that's uncomfortable, and for some people they're like, I've never thought of that. You know, for example, every day when I work and I, let's say I have the great honor of getting to spend some time with Mickey or Minnie or Goofy or any of our amazing friends. And the family comes in, the kiddo goes up. They let's just say, they have an amazing interaction. Kiddo gets their picture taken. Immediately, I turned it. Whatever grown ups? Or with that and say, grown ups, you want to hop in when you say no, you think it's just saying no to a photo. What I see is you just told your child that Joy has an expiration date, that Wonder has an expiration date, that Magic has an expiration date.

13:19 That Now I'm a grown up, I don't need to do the silly thing and get my You think it's just a picture that you're saying no to. It's not that big of a deal. It's a bigger deal than you think. And as I started to watch these interactions, and as I would talk to guests and have conversations and what are you celebrating? Tell me what's going on? And you know, let's get in the picture. I don't want to get in the picture. What are we doing? Oh? I don't need to all these dots of stuff that I have been talking about over the years started to converge and connect. And as I started talking about it on the internet, because that's what I do, that's just what I do. I just share what's ever happening in my life life on the internet, people started paying attention differently than they had before, because now I'm coming at it from a cast member, not a cast member that speaks for the company, just a cast member that notices, and that's a different perspective maybe than just a guest.

14:17 For whatever reason. I don't know, it's just because I'm on the other side of the camera and I see and I have a different perspective. But people start paying attention to that, and it's just been a really interesting phenomenon to watch it sort of take off and grow, because again, you might be new to me, but I'm not new to this. But however, it brings people into the ecosystem of thinking about joy and understanding that it's not that complicated and much more in our control than we think it is. Then I'm happy for it. Julie. I don't know if you could tell, but I was getting choked up and emotional because what you were saying about the example we set for our kids. And that's a I think is visceral, and I think overlooked a lot of in a lot of cases, because there's a lot of reasons that somebody would be like, no, I don't need the photo with you know whoever, But I, as we shared, I was just there and I got my picture taken with Joy. And I have been chasing Joy for two years and I three years. Three years.

15:23 I've been chasing Joy for three years. And I say that and I mean it in every way. I don't just mean like, I mean literal, I mean figurative, I mean philosophical, I mean spiritual, all of it. I've been chasing Joy for three years. Tried to find her at Upcot, couldn't find her at Upcot three years ago. So I finally found Joy this year at the Yes at the Pixelar Place. It was magical and amazing and like a full circle dream come true moment for me. But that's not the point. The point is then I went and saw Sully, and Sully was really fun. And then I like, then like I am on a roll now and I'm walking. Up incredible and then. Yes, yes, and then and then we were over at Hollywood Studios and there's Mando and the storm Trippers and all of it, and I'm just all in. And my kids are less. So I have two boys there are ten and twelve, and they have not ever really been into the Disney realm as much as I grew up an aerial girl. Okay, and Belle Ariel and Belle were my princesses. So I got to meet Joy, I got to meet Sully and we're walking out of Hollywood Studios and I am just like this mess of tears and happy and just like but like good tears, like happy, just all the things. And my ten year old son grabs my hand and he looks up at me and he goes, mom, I love that you're so childish. And I was like, oh, that could have hurt, that could have been like it reminds me of my friend Sharon, who just shared a story online about her six year old digging her face into her belly and saying, I love your squeehy, squishy, fat belly. I'm like, do I

16:56 want to be called childish? Yes? Yes I do? Because you know what it was. It was the most magical moment for me because I realized that, Yes, I am putting that is the example that I am choosing to set for my kids, is that we have this unique chance to actually just feel the feelings and be happy and have the joy. And it does kind of take a little bit of like not caring what people think about you sometimes. So how I find that, Yeah, I find that really interesting too, because no one's thinking about you, right, Like if you're in line for Mickey, Goofy and Minnie. You're in line for Mickey, Goofy and Mini, as is everybody else, So no one's looking at you. They're looking at them, and you getting in the picture is what you're supposed to do. Could you just sit in lines to meet them for thirty minutes? Why are you not getting in the picture? Right? You know? It's so silly to me.

17:48 I also noticed it's very often this is my mission that I'm on, because it's very often the grandma, Oh no, I won't get in the picture, Like, get in a freaking picture. Get in the picture. One hundred percent of the time. The person who whether it's the son or the daughter, but it's usually the daughter for whatever reason, it's usually the daughter whose mom is with them, says to me as I'm scanning. Thank you for having her do that, Thank you for getting her in, thank you for doing that. I'm like, why are we not getting in the picture? Grandma? You're here with your family, what are we doing? They want you in the picture. And here's what I want grown ups to understand. You think it's not that deep, it's just a picture. You think, oh, I'm sweaty, I don't look good. What the picture's not for you? It really is that deep. The picture's not for you. And you think it's not that big of a deal. But I'm telling you, in a nanosecond, you have just shown your child that you're too old to get in a picture with Mickey Mouse, which has just shown your child that at some point all outgrow this.

18:57 You've just shown your child that you think it's just a picture. It's never just a picture. You think the pictures for you. It's never for you, it's for your kid. Because who hasn't been, you know, in that situation where you've lost someone and you're searching for every picture you can find of them, and they are never enough. No one will get to the end of their life and say I wish I took less pictures. No one will ever say that. No one will ever say that. So, you know, I use this opportunity, this little, tiny platform of capturing moments with people at Disney to notice and then kind of reflect out to people these bigger lessons that are happening in the world because I see every day people coming there to celebrate big and small, you know, retirement.

19:48 One lady shirt on last week it was like, I'm celebrating retirement. I'm like, you graduation. She's like three years. I've been retired for three years. I'm still wearing my shirt and like, yes, you are a girl. I love it so much. Get it here, you know. Or it's cancer free, it's I had a couple that was probably their last trip because she's battling stage four cancer and they come to Disney to celebrate. You could go anywhere in the world and they come to Disney. That says something about this place that it's deeper than just the rides and the snacks and the music and the cartoons. There's something deeper happening here. And while people watch my content in the comments that will go all my next trips in twelve days, my next trips next year. What I'm working to do is get them to understand that this isn't just about Disney. This is truly about life, and Disney's just a microcosm. Disney is the laboratory that I happened to be in that has formed me. But it could apply to life. You know, if I'm teaching a group fitness class and I see that person that is standing in the back row, they don't want to be in the front row, and they're kind of going at about sixty percent instead of giving They're so worried about what everyone else is thinking. No one's watching them.

21:06 It's the same concept as the person not getting in the picture of Disney. You know, all of these little bits and pieces that I happened to notice, the celebrations of everything, the participation in the joy. Yesterday, I was working yesterday and there was a family who came up and they had a little baby. And it's notoriously hard to get the little ones to look at you. You know, we're just trying to get hey, you don't need to smile. But if we could just get everybody's eyes putting at the camera for mom and dad BOYD, that would be awesome. I just immediately turned around to my line, I'm like, we're gonna need your help. Let's go. You know their name is, whatever their name is, and let's go. And now my line is participating trying to get the baby to look at them. How much more fun do you think they're waiting in line was because they participated in the joy. They absolutely took ownership in that picture. When he finally looked at the camera, they're like, yes, yes, they put it in the joy. They could have very easily decided not to. Now that is something you can take in the rest of your life. Where else can you participate in a joy? It's not just an aligne at Disney, But where else are you able to participate in the joy for other people when they're celebrating something, when you know you're out and about in the real world.

22:18 Where else can you do that? Because I guarantee you the people who have lives that are more fun are creating that. So have you always created that joy for yourself? Like what was your younger self like, Like, what would you think of your life? Now? Well, I had a dad who noticed things. So I think my my tendency to notice came from my dad because he would you know, he would be the one out in the yard. I'd be like, hey, get out here and look at the sunset. You know, Hey, you know, look at the sunrise, or hey, you know whatever, or you know. They when they retired, they bought a house in Florida, close to Fort Myers, and he would say, out on the Llinois and he would be drinking his coffee and doing this little crossroord puzzle on the sudden would be coming in. He'd be like, just another day in paradise. Could not be more simple. A cup of coffee, a crossword puzzle, and the sun on allanni in Florida that he still felt for as long as he was there, that it was surreal that he was even still there from you know, where he came from a little tiny farm in the middle of Illinois to being able to be in Florida in the winter drink a cup of coffee and do a crossroord puzzle. And he would notice that.

23:33 So I grew up watching him notice that, and so then I just noticed that, you know, and he would have he and I would have conversations about that. I'm like, look at the flowers growing up this wall. That's amazing, you know, so I grew up with that, and I I feel like I've passed that on to my daughters in some way. I think I've also passed it on to my husband, who I think notice is much more now because of living with me. But there's to me that is more accessible than gratitude. I think gratitude feels weighty.

24:15 I think gratitude can breed complacency, but just noticing breeds awareness, and that brings intentionality, and that can breed joy. Because if I'm noticing the sunrise, I kind of want to notice it the next day too, and I kind of want to notice it the next day too, and I kind of want you know, I don't ever walk out of work with Space of Earth lit up and not turn around and go. Can't all believe I get to work here. I have been looking at Space of Earth at Epcot for as long as Spaceship Earth has been open at Epcot, and I still notice it. That to me feels less. I think gratitude can have such a heavy weight to it, and it can lead to this feeling of well, I should just be grateful for what I have. Maybe you can be, maybe you can also want more. And I think noticing and then letting that create more joy because the more joy you notice, the more joy you notice, it just kind of feeds on itself.

25:23 It's like a flywheel. I think that feels less weighty and more accessible to people. So what your kiddo was noticing was you in joy? Yeah, enjoy and enjoying. He was noticing that. His word for it was childish because that's just a word that he knows. But he was just noticing you enjoy. He wasn't oh, I'm so grateful that my mom isn't joy. You know he was, and you're not, like, I'm so grateful that my son. No, No, we were just like, we just noticed. So we were having this moment. How amazing is that? Okay, Now, if you start to pay attention to that, I think you'll notice more of those moments in life. And I think life gets really cool when you notice more of those moments in life. And that doesn't mean the bad stuff's not happening, just helps you navigate the bad stuff.

26:07 I was gonna say so yes, because I do think that you can. This is a skill that takes practice, and the more you what you said about, the more you do it does seem to it like a snope like flywheel or snowball or whatever. It seems to show up and start to become almost like, you know, we could start off as like a ninety nine percent hard, one percent joy, but like I feel like I'm running right now at about eighty twenty eighty percent joy twenty percent hard. And it's possible that both things exist at once. And sure you said something really cool about it being contagious, like your daughters have felt it, your husband's feeling it.

26:48 And I think that that is one of the things that we underestimate is just how when we choose to notice and choose to essentially let that noticing light us up from the end side, we essentially illuminate everything around us in the most beautiful, contagious way. So, but you did say, you did say the truth, which is that those hard things still happen, and that's when things get very challenging, I think for people, because I have learned through again practice and diligence and discipline, that grief and joy can coexist. Yes, how though, like that is such a like we say yes, so confidently, I'm so confident, I'm so sure, But it's so to me. I want it.

27:34 I want you to talk through that with me, because I feel like it's it's so it's easier for folks who have practiced and understand, but for people that are like listening to us, thinking we're a couple, you know, like, well kool aid are they drinking? You know, like and they're drinking the Disney kool aid And now you know, I guess we need to go to Disney Hunt, you know. But there there's how do you work through those hard things and recognize that those little things in the hard well? Number one, we make life much harder than it has to be. And number two, we have grief because we have joy. We have joy because we have grief. Yeah, period, like you know joy because you've had grief. You have grief because you have joy. It's really not that hard.

28:19 I mean, we want to make it very woo wu psychoanalytical, hard, complicated, complex. I don't know why why do we want to make our life harder than it has to be? There are already hard situations in life. Why do we as humans want to make life harder for ourselves and for others? It's not that hard. You have joy, You notice joy because you've experienced grief. I have grief because I've experienced joy. The two are the same. There are two sides of the same coin. It really is that easy. It's not. Oh my gosh, how do I wake up and spew rainbows and unicorns and puppy dogs out my ears when the world feels like it's burning down around me? That's not no, no, no. You are experiencing challenge and grief over the hard stuff in life because you've experienced joy.

29:11 Now what if you immerse yourself more deeply enjoy so that you feel like a better version of yourself? Are you now not more likely to do something to help the hard stuff. I can't do anything to change the world if I don't change me first period. So I can be a doom scroll and look at the world burning down around me. Or I can think, Okay, what can I do to get myself into the higher version of myself where I can actually do something in my teeny tiny, little infantesimal smidge of the world. What can I do? So? For example, this whole Bagel dog rest situation that has been going on with out of Wisconsin, with the two thousand dogs that were in the animal testing and all of that. Like, I can't watch any more video of it because I mean, we have a beagle, yes, but we're we love animals, we're dog owners. It makes my stomach turn. I can't do it. Now I can sit in that and I can think about that, and to be honest, I woke up a couple of mornings sad about it, like it really bothered me to my core.

30:28 And I can sit in that, and I can doom scroll and I can watch that, or I can get myself into a higher level of myself. Okay, what can I personally do? I can't change the world, but I can change What can I personally do? Well? The first thing I knew is give more attention to my own dogs, love on my own dogs. Okay, what else can I do in my house? I can take a good look at in my house every single product I'm using? Does any of it have animal testing? Let me make a change. Okay, Now what else do I have? I have an Instagram account and email list. Now I can go on my Instagram account and my email list and I can talk about that. So in my teeny tiny little infantesmal, he said, the Internet, rather than doom scrolling I can make a difference rather than sitting and grief. I can get myself into a more a higher version of myself. Maybe it's not exactly joy, but it's a higher version of myself.

31:26 And I can do something to make a difference. But I can't do that if I'm sitting over here just in grief. Do you ever use physical activity or movement to kind of jettison that into. I's a fitness instructor. I've been a finish instructor for twenty five years. Talk to me about it. So here's the thing, so quick Before You Forget is a personal development podcast aimed at helping people build their unreal life from the ground up, using tools like music, mindset, and movement to remember who they are while they build who they were meant to be. So we're talking my lane with the joy stuff. But you, I think, with your work at Disney and in your life, have managed to do the three those three things a lot.

32:09 And I know that when you move your body, you change your mind. I know this, but talk to us about that like I because I know that when you when you actively are in that doom scrolling place, sometimes one of the best things you can do is go outside and touch some grass, you know, like so, like, how do you? How do you walk? Walk us through the movement part of how we lean into that mindset of noticing. Well, I think once again it's being made too complicated. I love it. It's it's let's make it simple, then, right, let's make it. It's really not that hard. Right. We are all grown ups, and sometimes we are all grown ups, and we all have agency over our lives, and we are all fully aware of when we are doing habits and activities that are not making us feel our best. Girls, boys, them's you are fully aware of when you are doing activities that are not helping you feel your best in your life. You are fully aware of that. You are fully in control of putting down your phone and going for a walk. Here's what you may not be aware of. You don't need to go run a marathon to feel better. Please stop the madness and just go walk around your block for ten minutes.

33:33 And what will also help you do that is to get a dog. Go to your local rescue, do not buy one, adopt, don't chop, and go get a dog because you'll be forced to get outside and you'll be forced to think about something other than yourself. That's the key. You know, when you're doing activities that are not making you feel your best or leading to your best self, you know that. Let's not act like there are all kinds of people spending all kinds of money trying to keep you on every single app. Okay, there's a lot of money being spent to try to keep you in those places, because if they keep you in those places, you're not doing anything that can change the world. So number three, don't give them that power because you have agency over your life. And once you costively know, oh right right, there are people that are actively trying to keep you on this app. So I don't do anything productive with my life. I don't become a better person.

34:31 Let me just put that down. Let me just put that down, and then I'm just gonna go out. I'm gonna go walk for ten minutes. It's really not that complicated. We have to stop making everything be There are things in life that are deep and complicated. Moving your body is not one of them. Moving your body is a ten minute walk. Oh you have you're in a wheelchair. You ten minutes with some hand weights, ten minutes with some stretches. Oh, you have an injury. Ten minutes doing some flexibility work that you can do. Moving your body is not that difficult. And like that flywheel, the more you move, the more you want to move because the more moving gets easier. Now, once again, I have an example of the opposite of that playing out in real time with my mom, who is not a mover, never been a mover, does not move, and she did at one point and then after my dad did not and she's in a wheelchair now and has been for a while.

35:43 But I watched her movement completely decline over the past twenty five years, which meant her life quality completely declined over the last twenty five years, much of which was preventable simply by going for a walk. She just chose not to. She just chose not to, so now she can't. And that's what happens with movement. It is kind of a use it or lose it, but it doesn't. It's not use it and go be an ultra marathon her, it's just go for a walk. And you're so much more capable of hard stuff then you might think you are. And it's okay if something's uncomfortable. I had a good friend who was kind of resetting her nutrition. And you know, on day one she messaged me, she's like, it was like eleven am. She's like, I'm so hungry. I'm so hungry.

36:33 Like A, you're probably not, but B it's okay if you are. It really is okay. If you are. You live in a country where you, giving your economic status and white privilege all that, you probably have access to food pretty quickly. You're you're trying to meet some health goals, so you're you're doing something different to try to reset your body. At eleven am, you're probably not hungry, you're probably dehydrated. B. And if you are a little bit hungry, it's okay. You can be a little bit uncomfortable. It can be a little uncomfortable to go for a walk, and you'll be okay because what you're doing is just acclimating your body to that movement. And the more you move, the better you feel, the clearer your mind gets. I mean, fight me on this, but your best thoughts will come in the shower. Why because you don't have your phone in the shower, and your brain can think and when you're moving your body, when you're moving your body, when you're in the shower anytime when you're not necessarily putting something into your brain, when you're just giving your brain some space to think. I try to give my brain space to think. On every walk. I also listen to a really great audiobook, So I love that. I love the continuity of an audiobook. But I also try to start every walk just me and me and Sawyer. You know, we just go out and the birds are chirping, and we listen to the words and we kind of notice things or happy. I try to give myself some some of that. There's no air pods in, no nothing, just

38:07 some space for your brain to be before you put the air PUDs in and start putting the stuff in. So we just overall have to stop making everything so complicated. Yeah, I mean the you're so right about the ideas in the in the working out, like I work out an innoculus So it's one of those like VR headsets that covers my face and then I'm swinging targets like I've I've joked around that like I could, I could kick an alien's butt when the aliens turn on us, Like I'm ready, like I got those lightsabers on training and unlock because I've been doing Supernatural for four years and it's how I've changed my whole world. I've changed my whole mindset around movement because it's been life changing for me, and I get so many good ideas that get lost in that thing headset because then the second the headset comes off, I try to try to like care for it all, and there's capturing it all. But then the world doesn't need all the ties crazy idea, it's just some of them. But no, I appreciate you walking us through, you know, and honestly level setting a little bit, like it doesn't have to be so complicated, and we make it so complicated, And why why do we do that?

39:16 Like we know, I think I think it's an out. I think we're looking for an out for some reason. We're looking for an out. And so then the question you have to ask yourself is why do you want an out from making your life better? Why? Why is that? Why would you want to We all know people who are like that, We all know people who play the victim. We probably have them in our families, and if you don't, it could be used. So it's not a gut checked yourself because we all know people who are like that, Why do you want an out of creating the best life that you possibly can for yourself because you don't get a duel over on this. Yeah, this is not a dress rehearsal in any way, no matter what you believe, it's out a dress rehearsal. So I just don't understand why we want to make our life harder than it is when we know that there are already a pieces of life that are hard that we can't control, that we cannot control.

40:15 Yeah, that's massive too, So understanding what we can and can control. But take that back to Disney too, Like, take that back to Disney and the guests that come in to the park. The guest that comes in wearing the most expensive day Ever shirt, I'm going to tell you right now has a less magical day than the than the guests who comes in wearing best Day Ever shirt. I'm just gonna tell you, I've seen it happen. But when you come into the park already mad about the heat, it's Florida right already mad about the crowds. Orlando is at an all time high for visitor capacity right now in twenty twenty six, if you're already mad about the heat, You're already mad about the crowds, you're already mad about the money, already paid to be there. Why are you mad about it? Now? Your day has been decided for you, because that's how you're walking into the park. That's no different than any other day that you wake up in your regular, everyday life. If you wake up already mad about what's happening in the world, already convinced you can't do anything about it, already doom scrolling, already complaining, that's how your day's going to go. But the guests who come in and be like, Okay, it's hot and it's crowded, and I'm not going to see and do everything, because that's part of the magic of Disney is that it's designed so that you won't, so that you'll come back.

41:42 Of course, there's always something new. My husband, I've been coming forever. We saw something new just the other It just happens all the time. You know, those the people who will have the most magical time, those are also the people who will have the most magic in their life because they've just decided, Okay, I already know it's hot, let me figure out how I'm going to manage this. I already know it's going to be crowded, Okay, how am I going to manage this? And already going into the visit at the park, but also already taking that into your life, your day, your life. It's so much better. It's so much better. And so much more fun with people we care about around us. So I talk a lot about my yellow brick Road on the show, where I believe that I've kind of just been walking on this yellow brick road and God keeps laying down the bricks and I keep showing up. And the thing that makes the yellow brick road really fun for me is when friends and family and such show up alongside me. So I'm curious that because you have the energy, and because you have the enthusiasm, and because you have all the joy, who are the people that helped you believe that you could keep walking your version of the yellow brick road as you have.

42:57 Me? Amen? Yes, you, because you decide how I did? I. You know, I'm sure most people say their parents. I can't say that necessarily. I would say that I would say that my dad, more than my mom, certainly influenced me and believed in me, but not of a generation to necessarily verbalize that. You know, that was an undercurrent, but it certainly wasn't verbal. Did he show it in how he showed up to everything one did? I think he believed in me, valued what I did, and supported me one percent because he showed up physically. It just wasn't like verbalized all the time. So I would say, I would say my dad, and then different mentors throughout my life at different little seasons in life, you know, saying or giving me the the pep talk or the words or the wisdom or the tools or whatever that I might have needed at that one moment in life.

44:00 You know, life's a group project. No one's doing anything on their own. Life is absolutely a group project. But you have to take the stuff that you are offered along the way and do something with it. So I don't know. I think some of it's just DNA. Yeah, that's fair, And it's just DNA and deciding that you are worthy, which is for whatever reason, women in particular struggle with that a ton It is. Because we live in a patriarchy. My head went to a Taylor Swift song. I need to redirect myself because it's you're right, And I wonder how we can get better at it because I know that, like self belief is almost like a it's its own kind of muscle, and you need to start practicing that to actually, like, I believe in myself now. But three years ago, I would have thought that today me was cuckoo and like what did she doing? Like she's wearing that sweater? You know, Like I would have been analyzing everything about myself three years ago. And that stems back to that whole issue of us not being enough. So how do we decide to be enough? Like it's it's not like I know, it's I don't want to overcomplicate it because a lot of what we're saying seems very obvious to us. But I know that there are people that that's where they're getting stuck in all of this, because if they're not enough, why do they deserve joy?

45:26 If they're not enough, why do they even need to move their body? You know? Like, so, how do you get to the root of that issue in particularly knowing that you've worked with women so much. Well, I think that's a debilitating issue in someone's life that is for a licensed therapist to address. That's not for some rando girl on the internet on a podcast to give you life advice about you know, I think that that's that's some therapy, and that's some intentional personal growth work, and that's that is doing the work yourself. That's really what life is, doing the work yourself, find your generational baggage, going to therapy and figuring that out, doing personal growth on the daily on your own, really doing that gritty in our work that helps you shift your mindsets. And while podcasts can be a tool, you still got to do the other work, you know, the from a licensed person who you know has more tools than I do. Because I work so much with moms, because I am a mom, because I see moms all the time at the parks, I've always thought to myself, I don't get to tell my girls that they can go after any goals, or dream any dreams, or be anything that they want to be if they're not seeing me do that to some degree in my own life.

46:47 I don't get the right to tell them to do that because I would be a liar to them, I would be a hypocrite to them. Right again, I saw that with my own mom, who would always give advice about college. She never went to college, so it didn't make sense to me that she was giving me advice about college when she never went had that experience herself. But my dad did so I could listen to My brother did so I could listen to them and have them kind of inform me on some of that, and that made a little bit more sense to me. I can't I could never look at my girls in the eye and say you can do anything you want to in this world if they didn't see me doing something like that too. And I think that's where moms in particular get off track. They have children, they think their life then so they think their lives, their lives get enveloped to get absorbed by their children, and now they start to live through their children. And then their children go off to college and live their own lives as they're supposed to as the mom did to get married and have them in the first place, and they don't know what to do with themselves because they become so absorbed in their own children. We are human beings before we're anything else in the world. For your a partner, an employee, a cast member, a parent, anything else you do, you're a human being, and you probably had goals and dreams, and you probably have stuff you did as a kid that you thought was pretty cool. There's no reason why you can't tap back into that at any point in your life. The worthiness issue, it's very much a female thing,

48:25 because I'm going to tell you that I don't my husband ever fast noself that question. So it's very much a female thing. The mom guilt. We made that up. My husband's never in the once in his entire life said dad guilt. Never once. We made that up to make each other feel bad, like we needed more of that. You know, at some point there just seems to be a decision that you're simply not participating in that narrative anymore, because if you don't want your children to then you have to say it has to stop somewhere. I don't want my girls to continue to carry the generational baggage that I have. Care Will I give them some? Of course I will, because that's just what that's just sort of the that's just what happens. Do I hope with every fiber of my being that it's lighter for them.

49:08 I sure do because of the work that I have done. I hope and wish that it would be lighter for them. I got gritty and have done some hard, gritty, frictiony work to lighten the load of them and been really honest with them around like, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm experiencing, this is the baggage that I have. Here's what I'm trying to do. Like I'm in therapy and I'm telling them about it because I want them to understand that I can't look at them and tell them to do X Y Z if I'm not doing that too. So if there's no other motivation in your life that is that's strong, strong enough where you like, look at your children, Like, if you are not reason enough to believe you're worthy, look at your children.

49:58 If you don't have children, look at your family, Look around you, at the world. Do something outside of the world. Newsflash is not wrong around you. And I think that's another piece where we get caught up. I just had a girl someone DM me on Instagram and she said I was talking about Mother's Day yesterday and just saying that is kind of a weird day for me. This. Her message to me was, Oh, I'm so glad you articulated this. I thought I was the only one who felt that. Girl, there are eight billion people on this planet, eight billion, and you think you're the only one that has issues. I would talk about empty nesting and how hard it was for me to transition to empty nesting message.

50:43 After me, I thought I was the only one a lot of eight billion people on the planet, you're the only one. So when we just get so insulated and isolated and think about ourselves and we become the center of our universe, that's what happens is I'm not worthy or I don't have enough for no one else in my life, so hard, no one else is going through this. And when you open your eyes and your heart and you look around, my goodness, the stories that are out there, the stories that are out there that will help you have perspective on your own and realize when you're talking about worthiness, there are far less qualified people out in the world, doing far more challenging things than any of us are, simply because they decided that they were just going to go out and do it it, just got out of their own way and just went out and did it. So I don't know if that answers the question, but it's just we have to get out of our own way. We have to stop thinking we're the center of the universe. We have to stop everything, stop thinking everything is so deep and so hard and so challenging for us, and realize everyone's carrying baggage, everyone's got a story.

51:58 I say that about the Disney people all the time. Everyone bought a ticket, Everyone's got a story, Everyone gets a picture with the character, everyone gets as much time as I need to give them to get their picture taken, because everyone bought a ticket. Where everyone bought a ticket to be here on the Earth today, and they have baggage and they've got a story. And if we stop thinking we're the only ones with that and start opening up and connecting with those stories on the planet, I think, wow, that's such a lightning of the load for us, and we start to realize, you know, maybe it's just really not that complicated. Maybe I can just go out there and do some things. Well, thank you for sharing that, though, because I think that, you know, people need reminding that we're not alone in any of this, and we all have the gift of connection to more people than we realize. So it's it's and the healing that can happen when you find when you figure it out. No, you're not alone, and there are people out there just like you, and go get them because they understand so deeply at a level. That's so, you know, that's different. So how old are you daughters?

53:02 Jenna just turned thirty? What Josie is twenty seven? And Jesse's twenty four? I don't know how that happened. But here don't know how that happened. I mean, I have the ten and twelve since they're going to be twenty next week, and it's crazy. So what have they taught you about joy and life and noticing that you didn't already know before you were a mom? They teach They teach me some. They teach me every day. What they teach me is about the world. They teach me about the world. They teach me about different perspectives, different ways to look at something, issues, to be aware of.

53:48 You know, the conversations that I have with my daughters I've never had with my mom or my dad, you know, to be fair, the conversations that we have, and sometimes they're uncomfortable, you know, as I'm learning, because you know, I do try to remind them every day is my first day being a parent to a daughter who's thirty one, and have many like every day is my first day on the planet too, you know, it's their first day, it's also my first day. And every time when they were younger, you know, and they would have a birthday, I'm like, first time parenting a fifteen year old, So we're both going to figure this out together, you know.

54:35 And I've tried to remind them that that, you know, I was, I was a pretty strict parent when they were young. Would not change that. And I think that even though I was very strict, they would agree that that kept them out of trouble and kept them safe. I was a very strict parent, but nobody knows what they're doing. And I would try to, you know, say to them, I don't know what. On the days where I really didn't know what I'm doing, or if I was having a bad day, I would try to be really honest and just go, I'm having a bad day today, so could we maybe not yell in the backseat, you know, And I would try to like verbalize that to them, So I wasn't I didn't get that right every time.

55:16 Please don't get that twisted. But I tried to do that because I didn't have that growing up. So I tried to do that because I didn't have that. They just bring my attention to everything that I didn't have any point of reference to before. Everything they did. Stephen talking about like the activities that they did every time they chose an activity, color guard, marching band, show choir, ballet, every time they chosen me, I'm like, okay, I'm learning about this now, you know. And now that was a whole new world that I got to immerse myself in. Well, all that then began to inform me who I was, not just as a parent, but as a human, you know.

55:57 And then you would travel and they would notice stuff when we would travel, and then that start to inform you. So, I mean, my daughters are so ridiculously smart. They're just brilliant young women who are doing brilliant things. And I am so glad every day that they keep me around because I just I learned so much from them, just about the world, you know, and different and they've certainly had a much Even though I traveled as a child some because my parents were older, they've had a much more expansive childhood and young adult than I ever had, and just their worldviews and stuff that they know. And if I have questions or thoughts, you know, I'll go to them like, hey, what do you know about this?

56:47 And then we have this conversation about it. I'm like, Okay, good to know. Let me do a little bit more research or whatever. And I think they they appreciate I think I don't know that they would be verbalized at but I think appreciate that that they have a mom who's willing to listen and learn, who doesn't say here's what I think you should be doing, or here's what I here's the rule or whatever, just someone who's willing to listen and learn from them. Well, there's a song you need to listen to with them by Alex Warren. I don't know if you've maybe you've heard of it, but it's called first Time on Earth and it's about that. It's about how when you're a parent, it is your first time on Earth too.

57:34 And you know that's that when my son said that to me at Disney, you know, it was like, it's my first time on Earth. I'm doing Disney and I'm going all in with all the big feelings it's that, but it's important that we remember that it is our first time on earth too. On a daily basis, honestly, on. A daily basis, every day. Absolutely, So what would you tell twenty two year old you if. You could, don't be in such a hurry. Slow down, Yeah, don't be in such a hurry. Because I came from a really really tiny town, tiny little farm town where most people married their boyfriend from high school and just stayed stayed in that little teen tiny town. And I knew that was not for me. But at that time in life, that those years and that culture, and you know, I went to college and in state, and everyone just got married so early. Everyone just got married and had children so early, and I got married young. And I would tell myself to like, don't do that. Not that I wouldn't still choose my husband or we wouldn't still be together, but just even he and I, like even once we were together, like I was like, Okay, now we've got to get engaged, and now we've got to get married. Like why why was I do? Why? It's a we could have just been dating for longer, We

59:06 could have been engaged for longer, Like why what was the rush? What was the rush? Yeah, that's what I would tell myself. Just slow down. There's plenty of time. If this is the right person. This will be the right person two years from now, three years from now. We don't need to Why are we getting you know? Just so I tell my girls all time, like, there's no please everyone, just slow down. You got plenty of time. So that's what you would tell yourself. What would you tell the world if I handed you a microphone or we have I have a microphone. But if I if I handed you like a megaphone and strongly encouraged people to listen to you for thirty seconds or so, what would you say?

59:47 I would say it's not that deep. I would say, it's not that deep. I love making everything so deep. I love it, honestly. It just it's refreshing and needs to be said more often by somebody that like you said, people listen to now that you're wearing the cast member shirt, well, people listen to, Julie. It's not that deep. It's not that deep. It's really not. There are deep things happening in the world. Get better at discernment and knowing what really isn't that deep? I think we all go through that at different points in our life where we're so rigid and we're so like, it's really not that deep. It isn't there There are pieces in life that are worth being having some boundaries around, and then there's a lot of life that just really isn't that deep.

1:00:38 And if you can get better at discerning between the two, I think life feels better. I think you're right. And what I know I mentioned Alex Warren, but do you have a song? You mentioned some music earlier, but like, do you have a song that you go to when you want to ground yourself or feel balanced or steady? I call it like a song of survival. Do you have a song like that? I don't have a song of survival. I have a song that I play before I go on stage to speak. I have a song. Let's say that that song is Happily ever After by Jordan Fisher. Oh that's appropriate.

1:01:19 Yes, that's been my song since that Fireworks that's the theme song of the Fireworks show up Magic Kingdom, And I don't know, there was something about that song that became such a begon to me in terms of creating your own life. And you know, I wanted to move to Florida so I could be near Disney, and it just that song just sort of became this lighthouse for me, and then it just contin It's the alarm song every morning. It's the first and hit. The first three words of the song are ready to begin. There's no better way to wake up every morning. That's what wakes me up every single morning. And I play that before I go on stage to speak and my headphones because I just think it's a lighthouse for me in terms of create your own life, write your own story. So if I had to choose one, that would be it.

1:02:09 That's a great one and a great message to end on. Unless you have something else that you want to share that I didn't ask you because I feel like I could talk to you for a really long time and I don't know that we can do that for a long time that people will stay with us. So is there anything that you want to add that I didn't ask. I don't think, So just get in the picture. Get in the picture, the picture at Disney and in life. Get in the picture. Amen. Thank you, Julie, and I appreciate you so much, and we'll see you next time. On Quick Before You Forget, Thank you, thank you for being here with me today on Quick Before You Forget. Please like, share, and subscribe as that helps the show so much and I really appreciate it. And I'll see you next time on Quick Before You Forget,