Ep.101 If You're Done With Ordinary Turn Your Voltage Up

You can have the life that looks exactly like it should and still feel something is off. Not falling apart, not a crisis, just a low-level hum that will not go away. That is why I am starting House of Voltage: for the quiet rebels who have ticked the boxes, built the “good” life, and then realised they are done with life feeling flat and ordinary.

Episode 101 is a return and a turning point. I tell the truth about the thing I used to downplay: how The Mischief Movement mattered more than I admitted, and how calling it “just a hobby” was a way to protect myself from disappointment. If you have ever made yourself smaller so that failure cannot reach you, you will recognise the pattern. We talk about aliveness, identity, and the moment you stop playing it cool and let the electricity run.

I also share what House of Voltage actually is: a place where I think out loud, pass on the books and philosophies that are lighting me up, and speak honestly about what I am figuring out in real time. You will hear the foundations of my work as an aliveness and identity coach, especially for people in their 30s, 40s, and beyond who are not in crisis, just flat.

Then there is the speakeasy: Voltage After Hours, a private members-only podcast where I go deeper, get more personal, and coach through listener questions on air. If this hits home, listen through to the final question and sit with it for a day. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels “fine but faded”, and leave a review so more quiet rebels can find us.

Transcript

When Life Looks Right But Feels Off

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You've done everything right. The job, the relationship, the life that looks exactly like it should. And yet, something's off. Not crisis level off. Just quietly, persistently off. Like a song playing in another room that you can't quite make out. But you can't stop hearing it either. If that's you, welcome. You found the right place.

Meet Zoe And The Quiet Rebels

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I'm Zoe, and this is House of Portage, where we talk about what it actually means to feel alive. Not the Instagram version, the real one. This is for the quiet rebels. The ones who know there's more. They're just not sure they're allowed to want it yet. Ordinary is optional. Let's get into it.

Episode 101 And A New Chapter

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Hello. It's been a while. If you've been here from the beginning, thank you for waiting. If you're brand new and this is the first thing you've ever heard from me, well, you've arrived at exactly the right moment. Because this is episode 101. And everything changes from here.

Why Minimising What Matters Hurts

SPEAKER_01 1:31

I want to tell you something I probably should have said a long time ago, and that is that the mischief movement really mattered to me a lot, probably more than I ever let on. And I had this habit of really playing it down and laughing it off and calling it a hobby. And um I told myself and everyone else that it was just a bit of fun, nothing too serious, and I don't mind, you know, don't mind me over here with my microphone. And in a way, that was a bit of a lie. The kind of lie that you tell yourself when something means so much that the idea of it not working feels, you know, unbearable. So you protect yourself by pretending that you don't really care that much. But my goodness, I cared. And I I still do. And I think that that's worth saying out loud because I suspect that some of you do the same thing. You minimize the things that light you up, you make yourself smaller so the disappointment can't reach you. Well, I'm done with that. And if you're listening to this, I have a feeling that you might be too. So, 100 episodes. I did say I'd get there. I did. And then I went quiet. But not because I ran out of things to say, because I had something to figure out, um, something that needed to be built properly and not just slapped together. What came next needed to be real. So here's what I've been building.

House Of Voltage And What It Is

SPEAKER_01 3:00

House of voltage. It's not a rebrand, it's not a pivot. I guess it's just what happens when something finally grows into itself. The mischief movement was definitely the spark, but house of voltage is what happens when you stop playing it cool and let the electricity run. You can hear the whole story, where I've been, what I've been building, why I believe the ordinary is optional. But the short version is this I'm an aliveness and identity coach. I work with people I like to call quiet rebels, people in their 30s, 40s, and beyond, who've done everything right, ticked every box, but then woken up one morning feeling quietly, privately done with ordinary. They're not necessarily in crisis, just flat, like the spark has been turned down low for too long. That was me. For years that was me. And this House of Voltage is the place I'm building for all of us who refuse to let it stay that way.

How The Podcast Will Work

SPEAKER_01 4:15

This podcast is where I think out loud, where I share the ideas, the books, the people, the philosophies that are lighting me up, where I'll occasionally bring someone interesting in for a conversation, where I'll be honest about what I'm figuring out in real time. I'll also be reading some of the articles I'm writing on Substack. There isn't really a strategy at the moment, it's just voltage. And then there's something else. If

Voltage After Hours And How To Join

SPEAKER_01 4:49

this resonates, if you hear this and think, oh God, that is for me, there's a door. Inside House of Voltage, there's a private space. Think of it as a speakeasy, no fixed address. You have to know it exists to find it. It's called Voltage After Hours. It's a secret podcast available only to members where I go deeper, get more personal, and create something that feels genuinely intimate. Think of it like a lock-in in your favorite bar. Short episodes, honest reflections, ideas I'm consuming, questions from listeners that I coach through on air, and the occasional surprise guest. It's the kind of thing you listen to on a Tuesday evening when the working day is finally done, and you just want to remember that there's more to life than the to-do list. If you want in, the links in the show notes, come on find us. I'll

The Question To End Every Episode

SPEAKER_01 5:50

leave you with a question. I'm gonna ask it at the end of every episode from here on in, because I think it's the most important question I know. Who would you be tomorrow if you turned your voltage up? Sit with that, and I'll see you in the next one.