IEP028: Sacred Leadership with Julie Parker

Brigit:                    Welcome to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host Brigit Esselmont, intuitive business strategist and mentor. As the founder of Biddy Tarot I turn my love for tarot into an abundant seven figure business. The secret to my success? Making intuition and strategy my entrepreneurial superpower. And now I'm inviting you to do the same. In this weekly podcast I'll be sharing advice, tools, and real life examples from some of the best intuitive entrepreneurs to show you how you can trust your intuition, align with your purpose, and create a positive impact through your work. Let's make it happen.

Brigit:                    Hello, and welcome to the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. Today I'm speaking with Julie Parker who is the founder of the Beautiful You Coaching Academy where she passionately trains and supports heart centered people to become life coaches. The editor in chief of inspired COACH Magazine, a published author, and an in demand speaker, Julie has inspired thousands of people on stages all over the world, and she's the recipient of numerous leadership and women's business awards. She's the co-founder of the Priestess Temple School, and a host of the top ranking Priestess Podcast. She's a modern day priestess with a focus on her Celtic, Balkan, Iberian, and Greek lineage. And Julie is really committed to contributing to a world where qualities of intuition, presence, social justice, and service are truly honored.

Brigit:                    She lives in Melbourne with her husband, step-daughter, and two much loved, adopted cats. I got to tell you, I am so excited to be talking with Julie today. This is a beautiful conversation where we open up with Julie's journey into the entrepreneurial world and Julie is not a new kid on the block. She has been doing life coaching for the past 17, 18 years, and we talk about some of that journey and how her intuition has guided her on that journey. We also talk about pricing in the coaching industry, and what I love is that Julie has a slightly different angle on pricing, and that is that this high ticket pricing is not always the best answer. We then talk about sacred leadership and what that means, not just in our businesses, but also in our personal lives and how we interact and engage with our world. Finally, we chat about Julie's new book that is coming out in September 2020, and that is the Priestess book, it just sounds divine. It is so good. All right, so let's get into this conversation.

Brigit:                    All right. Welcome, Julie. It is such a pleasure to have you here today. How are you doing?

Julie:                      I am so well, Brigit, thank you so much for having me on the show.

Brigit:                    Oh, I can't wait for our conversation, and as I shared just before we got on to the recording, your work is something I've followed for a while now, and little by little, all these little threads are starting to connect us more and more. It's a joy to have this conversation with you. I'd love to just get straight into your entrepreneurial journey and what has led you to where you are now, and particularly, what role has intuition played in that journey?

Julie:                      Oh my goodness, that's a big question to begin with. I've been in business for a very long time now, about 18 years in the online world, which makes me a little bit of a dinosaur, particularly in relation to the coaching industry, which can be such a new business for so many people. I'll give you the CliffsNotes version, Brigit, otherwise we might be here all day, particularly if we want to get on to talking about intuition. I'm the CEO and founder of the Beautiful You Coaching Academy and we train gorgeous, heart centered people from all over the world to become life coaches. My work there is something that I come to after many years as a mental health counselor, and also having a very successful life and business coaching business of my own for a long time. I'm also a modern day priestess, and I work with women to help them explore their spiritual gifts and leadership.

Julie:                      That's something that's become increasingly important and a wonderful devotion for me in the last five to six years of my life. In relation to my intuition, it truly has been, and continues to be, one of the greatest guides of my life. It is the greatest guide of my life, in fact, because it's me. You know? Sometimes I think when we talk about things like intuition, we do so in such a way that can see us think that it's something external, or outside of us, or it's something that everybody else has, but we don't. But in fact, that of course, as you very well know, is not the case at all, and that our intuitive self is our highest self, it is our best self, it is our most wise and loving self, and therefore, for me, it's played an incredible role in so many different ways throughout my lifetime as a business owner. It's an ongoing relationship. It's something that I have to continue to work at, and nurture, and love, but it's a joy to do so because of the incredible results that it brings to me.

Brigit:                    And at what point did you realize that intuition was an integral part of how you were doing business?

Julie:                      It came to me like a smack over the head, or a lightening bolt, probably a little bit of both actually, at a time very early in my coaching business, so we're talking 16, 17 years ago now when I failed to follow and listen to it. So it was that first experience of turning away from it, turning away from my own wisdom and my own guidance, and doing something that I thought should be done, or was the right way to go about it. And was a little bit of what everybody else was doing, and listening to everybody else's voice except my own that then made me realize how incredibly powerful and important my intuition was. I'm happy to share that example or story with you if you-

Brigit:                    Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Julie:                      Okay. If you want me to.

Brigit:                    Yes, please.

Julie:                      Way back in the early days of my coaching business, which really was right at the cusp and start of the coaching industry, the coaching industry is only just a little bit over 20 years old, and I've been in it for 17 years, so I wasn't right at the very start, but certainly was an early adopter. And in those days, because coaching is an industry it comes from a very corporate, very masculine background. That was, even in the training that I received, even though I felt that I could make it my own, and go on to develop something that was very me. I still felt to be taken seriously that I had to really be like one of the boys, basically, and so when it came time to build my first website, which was a very different experience back then, Brigit, to what it is now, there was no such thing as DIY templates, or having a crack at it yourself. It was like you had to pay someone $10,000, usually a nice tech geek called Kevin, or something, to build it for you.

Julie:                      It was like you didn't have... there was none of this DIY stuff. It was a very expensive undertaking. They looked terrible. I mean, in comparison to what they look like now, which is so clean and beautiful, they were awful websites back then, and not very user friendly. But it was what it was all that time ago. And even though, if you have a look at my branding now, in both of my businesses, my personal one and the Academy, people can see that it's very soft, it's very gentle, it's very feminine. I really felt like I had to be very navy and beige, and very corporate for people to take me seriously. Even though my heart, and my intuition, and my guidance was telling me to buck that and really put it out there as me, I collapsed on it. I collapsed on myself and went down that route of being very navy, very beige, very corporate, very boring. Got photographs taken that make me look like a real estate agent. You know the type. I wore this stupid suit, and I had never worn a suit in my life, and it's ridiculous. I just completely went against everything that I was and put it out there, and lo and behold, nobody came. No clients, no nothing.

Julie:                      Then a girlfriend of mine who worked in a creative industry, I was talking to her about it one day, and she said, "Look, I looked at your website." She said, "Can I pour you a glass of wine and actually tell you what I really think about it?" And I went, "Oh, okay. I suppose so." She said, "It's terrible." She said, "It's not you." She said, "Where are you in this?" She said, "Where's the bright, smiling, fun loving, gorgeous Jules that we all know that wears floral frocks, and sometimes there's a flower in her hair?" And was like, "Where are you?" She said, "You're nowhere." She said, "You just need to do it all over again." And as much as I didn't want to, my ego was like "Argh." Really railed at me, and the money, and all that sort of stuff.

Julie:                      I knew that she spoke the truth because it was my own truth, and so cut a long story, I did and that's when my business really started. It's when people started to flow to me. I changed the copy on it, I made it much more loving and caring, much more me. Had another photo shoot, much more relaxed. Me at home just wearing more clothes like me, all of those sorts of things. And finally followed my intuition to put out there what was right for me, and really that's when my business began, and it grew, and grew from there. Of course, that's not a coincidence.

Brigit:                    Yes. And I'm curious for now, I mean, obviously you have worked with hundreds, maybe even thousands of different coaches.

Julie:                      I have.

Brigit:                    And bringing, basically, midwifing, birthing these coaches into the world. I'm curious in terms of what you've seen around this balance between wanting to do the best practice, and wanting to learn from all of the great stuff that's happening out there, versus doing what is true and authentic for you because I think it's easy as a coach, or even as any kind of online business owner to go, "Oh, well they're doing that. I better go and do that. They're doing that successfully." Versus actually what feels in integrity for me. I'm curious what insights you have of what you've been observing.

Julie:                      What a great question. No one has ever asked me this question and I absolutely love it because the answer to it, I think, is on one hand quite simple, from my perspective, and on the other hand it's quite complex. The first thing is, is that following along with what anybody else is doing, even if they are highly successful, is fraught with danger in many, many ways, especially if all that you're seeing is the surface of that person. You just may be following their Instagram account, or possibly reading their website, or following them in some way, but if you actually don't know what the back end of their business looks like, you can really, really know whether you attempting to copy... well, copy's not the right word. Whether you attempting to emulate what they're doing is genuinely possible for you, let along whether it's right for you or not because we can see things out there all the time and not realize that someone has a full-time house keeper, nanny, cook, chef, and a whole lot of other things behind the scenes. Then we try to do what they're doing, and collapse in a heap of adrenaline, fatigue, and stress, and we go, "I'm a failure." Which of course is absolutely not true, we don't actually know the reality of what's going on behind the scenes.

Julie:                      That's the first thing, is that trying to emulate anyone when that's all that you know about someone is not a good idea at all because you just don't have enough information to know whether it's really the right path or not for you. What I do think is the right path is a combination of education and intuition. In other words, following what you believe is right for you, listening to your heart, your inner GPS, your wisdom, your highest self around how is best for you to do what you want to do as a business owner. But combining that with getting yourself really educated about best practices, to go about doing certain things, from people that you feel you can trust, and that you feel connected to in some way, and that you've maybe had the opportunity to ask the right questions of to really know that they're going to be a great teacher, trainer, guide, or coach for you. Because there are absolutely opportunities out there for you to not have to do things alone and for you to learn from people that are really amazing at what they do.

Julie:                      For example, one of the things that we provide our coaches in the Beautiful You Life Coaching Course is a script for them to be able to use for things such as complimentary calls that they have with someone that is thinking about working with them. How to go about supporting someone to set really beautiful feeling, heart centered goals and how to guide a session forward. Because if we didn't provide that level of support and education, then someone just might not necessarily know what to say or do. But in providing that, we always, always say to people, "Use it with your intuition. Use it with your own words. Use it with your own guidance and way of doing things that feels right for you." Because, especially when you're starting out, if you use a combination of both of those things, you'll fly. Right? Then eventually one day you might find yourself using nothing of that script. It might be a pale, watered down version of your whole self that you've brought to your coaching, but you had something there to begin with.

Julie:                      Of course, there are many other ways to go about things like that too, Brigit, how to use social media, how to launch something, all of that sort of stuff. So emulating, for anything on the surface is a no, not a good idea, but a combination of getting yourself educated and using your intuition to really cheery pick the best parts of that for you, super smart.

Brigit:                    I love it. Because I think one of the risks of say having some very popular programs around how to build your online business is that you end up with a bunch of cookie cutter businesses where you can see if they've come from a certain program or not, because it just-

Julie:                      Yes, you're so right.

Brigit:                    ... they all look the same.

Julie:                      You can. That is so true. You can see it's like, "Oh, she's been trained by... Oh, she's been coached by..."

Brigit:                    Yes.

Julie:                      You can see it, yep.

Brigit:                    And I think if you stay in that place where you've just followed the templates and the scripts only to the T and you haven't added in your own flavor and authenticity, then you don't... you're not differentiated from others and you haven't breathed your soul into your work. And layering in that level of intuition and realness is... that's the strategic advantage. If you haven't got to that point, you haven't found the strategic advantage in my opinion because that's the little thing that then just... it makes everything different. And just even I just think of the energy flow that comes when you have infused you into a template, or a script, and so on. It changes the whole game.

Julie:                      Absolutely. Absolutely it does, and it's so important. And for anybody that is wanting to start an online business and is listening to this now, or is looking to grow one, please know that you have to bring yourself to it. There is no business in a box here. And anybody that tries to tell you that they can just hand you a business in a box, which I do see some people doing sometimes is just be careful of that. Be really, really careful of it because it's just not like that. If you don't bring you, then how do you stand out? As you say, strategic advantage, it won't be there and it's so important that it is.

Brigit:                    And look it's a little bit harder, right? Because you can't just take the easy path and go, "All right, just tell me what to do and I'll do it." You've really got to get clear about who you are and how you want to infuse that into your work. I always think of the lover's card in tarot, of course I think of everything in tarot, but the lover's is really about, you know, that choice between, "Well, I can go the easy way and just take the quick way, or I can go the longer way and it's a higher path, it's a higher level of consciousness." It does take a little bit more effort, and energy, but the outcomes are much more elevated, I suppose.

Julie:                      I agree. Yes.

Brigit:                    Kind of piggy backing off of that, something that is quite prevalent in the coaching industry too, is this concept around pricing and pricing your packages like, "10X your pricing, and then you've got the right... you've landed on the right price." And, "You can sell six figure programs." and so on. But I know that you have a different perspective, so I'd love to hear your thoughts in this space.

Julie:                      Okay. Well, watch out. Here we go. Yeah, look, I do. For starters, I absolutely am very much not a believer in any message that tries to tell people that they should charge what they're worth, because as a human being, let alone a business owner, you're priceless, infinite, there is no price that you could charge that would be commensurate with your value as a human being. And the reason that I say that is because this is where I think a lot of people, especially a lot of women, get very, very tangled up between money, and their self esteem, and value. Because as soon as you start thinking that you can put a price on your worth, then it's inevitable that at some point in time, if someone is charging more than you, you're going to think that they're worth more than you. Of course, that's just simply not true.

Julie:                      I think the language around how we talk about pricing in our businesses, particularly service orientated businesses where we are putting so much of our heart and soul, sometimes even our body as healers, and masseuses, and Reiki masters, and things like that into the work that we do is fraught with danger and I think we really need to change that. And I really think that common sense is sometimes something that's missing a bit around the charging and money conversation online, and this is a huge topic in and of itself, Brigit, but you and I were talking. For example, one of the things that I have a problem with is people encouraging very new business owners, or ones that are not very established and really don't have an enormous amount of experience behind them to leapfrog into charging high end and high ticket prices for lots and lots of different reasons, it's not just simply about the fact that it's unlikely that they're going to be able to actually deliver what should be delivered for high four, or high five, sometimes even six figure sums.

Julie:                      But also, one of the things that is just not spoken about at all, is the fact that when you do start to charge very high prices for what you do, you have to be prepared for the fact that people's expectations of what it is that you will deliver sky rocket. And you better be ready for if you're going to charge really high prices, high problems, high questions, high email volumes, high complaints, and so much more because as soon as people start spending a lot more money with you, the pressure that they feel as a result of that will be put on you. Make no mistake about it, it will be transferred to you. If you are not ready to be able to deal with that and how you manage that energetically, physically, emotionally, everything, you're not ready to charge high prices. You're not ready for it. So I think that slow, steady, measured, common sense, and they're all big words, I know, but yeah, I think a lot of people think, "Charge more money, get more money, solve all of my problems." It's like, no, it doesn't work like that and it really is a case of new level, new devil.

Brigit:                    Well put. I think also there's a lot of responsibility that comes with the way that you price, and the prices that you choose. And yeah, I'd like to hear your thoughts about what that level of responsibility looks like. Particularly if you do choose higher end pricing, what is the level of responsibility that comes with that?

Julie:                      Well, it's huge. At least from my perspective, and I know your perspective as well as entrepreneurs and business owners that want to absolutely deliver and over deliver. And make sure that every person that has contact with us walks away feeling as though they've been seen, they've been heard, that they've gotten what they've paid for, and hopefully a little bit more as well, or even a lot more. So people have to understand that if you want to charge big dollars, you need to really, really look at what you're delivering. And I believe you need to be very, very clear, and be able to stand behind the outcomes that you can help somebody get. Now of course, they've got to do the work, there's no question about that, but you also have to really, really stand in your power and be able to say, "If you work with me in this particular way, you will get this, and this, and this, and these will be delivered to you. These will be the outcomes that you can expect."

Julie:                      If you're not prepared, or you can't stand in that, once again, you are not ready to charge the prices that you're charging at a higher level. Now of course, I think it's really important to say that this does not mean that if you're charging less than higher prices that that somehow or another means that you can't or shouldn't deliver, you absolutely should deliver, no matter what you're charging, but it comes with a higher responsibility when you are charging higher prices. One of the things that I know that some higher ticket coaches do is VIP days, or they have shorter periods of time to connect with them but they come at very high prices. It's like I've actually never done one of those. I've never offered one of those myself, I'd never say never. But I've also never participated in one, but you can bet your bottom dollar if I ever did, I would be wanting to absolutely be very, very clear with that person around what they were going to deliver to me for that amount of money. What the outcomes were going to be.

Julie:                      And a lot of this as well, high ticket prices, I think it needs to be said is that once you're at that stage, you better have support. You better have customer service all set up and ready to go. You better have systems in place that mean that those people get very, very high touch boutique service. All of those sorts of things. If those things aren't in place for you, then you're not ready to charge those higher prices either, because that's the level of expectation that I believe people should have. If you're going to drop five figure sums on a VIP day with people, you absolutely, there should be a level of service that goes above and beyond for you as a part of that experience.

Brigit:                    Because I think it's starting to become a little bit too normal of just, "Oh, well, I could just spend a day with a client, and I could just talk to them about how to do their business." And so on. And, "Oh, I'll just wack on a really big price tag to that because I can." Versus looking at, "Okay." You know, that full experience, and just like you said, "How do I make sure that there is that support, that it is a really high value service and experience for the client?" I love your suggestion about getting very clear about what deliverables or outcomes do you want from that session, because I think sometimes we can get wrapped up in the hype of like, "Oh, VIP. Oh, I'm the VIP. Oh, so special for me. I'm just lucky to be able to have this person's time." And actually, no, you are... remember you are the customer and client and you need to know that you're going to get that return on investment.

Julie:                      Absolutely, it's yes, you are a VIP, and you're paying for it. So whatever amount of money you're paying, $8,000, $10, $15, $25, $50 thousand dollars, whatever it may be-

Brigit:                    Yeah.

Julie:                      ... you better be really conscious and really clear about what are you going to get for that? What... yeah. What are you going to get for that? And to ask about that. And to be really clear. If anybody can't answer you, or is a bit... run. Seriously, run, because it's marketing.

Brigit:                    Yeah. Yep.

Julie:                      I've got no doubt that there are incredible people out there offering amazing value for these VIP days or high end coaching packages. I know it. I also know that there are a lot who are not. This is where we have to become conscious consumers, we have to use out intuition, we have to really, really dive in and to our own inner world in making these decisions around what is best for us. Because ultimately, in the end, we're the one that spends the money. And therefore, that's... yep, that's the thing that we've got to be conscious and careful of.

Brigit:                    I wanted to change gears a little and talk about sacred leadership. This is something that I know that you're very passionate about and I just want to understand a little bit more about what does that really mean for you? What is sacred leadership for entrepreneurs?

Julie:                      Well, I think about sacred leadership, in truth, more as a way of living than I even do as something that is just for entrepreneurs or business owners. Sacred leadership is really about seeing yourself as a part of the whole of the entire world, and cycles, and ecosystem, and humanity that we're living in. It's understanding that every decision that you make or don't make has an impact, and sacred leadership is something that is very different to the quite masculine hierarchical form of authoritarian leadership that we see in politics, and global economics, and corporate business around the world. There are many, many examples of that. This is sacred leadership that takes into account the people in the world who have the least and are struggling the most. It's leadership that looks at how our decisions impact mother earth and the environment. Sacred leadership is about intuition, it's about understanding that our connection to ourselves and our own sacred and spiritual path is imperative when it comes to how we lead in the world.

Julie:                      Sacred leadership also is about understanding that the reason behind why we might be in a team with someone that the end goal of what we're reaching for is not the only thing that is important about why we are connected to the people that we are. That it's about what we can learn from each other. It's about how we grow together. It's about how we move through our ego stuff into our soul stuff together. That yes, we might be moving towards building something together, or creating something together, or an eventual outcome of some kind, but it's the relationships that we have along the way, and our emerging, and blossoming, and always changing relationship with ourself that is the most important thing of all. So sacred leadership is very intuitive, it's very spiritual, it's very humanity based, yeah, it's beautiful.

Julie:                      It's extraordinary, it's all encompassing, and it's about so much more than the leadership that we're sold to, or told to, in most contexts today. Especially when it comes to people who may identify as an introvert, or people who might identify as more quiet, reflective, or thoughtful because sacred leadership has got nothing to do with being out front and being the person who is talking all the time, or being the person that is traditionally, "I'm the boss, and you all will do what I say." Or is the superb networker, or mistress of a room, or anything of that sort. It's about so much more than that, and it starts from within.

Brigit:                    Love it. How is this being played out in your team? Because I have a feeling that it would be like this would just be infused and integrated into the way that you do your business.

Julie:                      It is, but it's also something that we can get better at. I must admit that the sacredness of leadership is really something that has only become prominent for me in the last, probably, year to 18 months of my life, especially when I've expanded more into my own spiritual work in the path of the priestess. So how our team becomes more sacred is something that is a constant work in progress for me. But firstly and foremostly, and I know that this sounds so simple, Brigit, but it really is and in so many teams though I think people will relate if they're listening, this base element is not even there. And therefore, if it's not there, it's where it starts. It's about seeing the people that you work with as people that you work with, not people who work for you.

Julie:                      And it's about seeing them not for what they can bring to you and what they do in exchange for the money that you give them for their salary, but who are they as a human being? What are their skills, and gifts, and talents? Is their mom well? What are the names of their pets? What are they allergic to? Like what could you never send them in a gift hamper that then has them give it to their next door neighbor or throw it in a bin? What's important to them? How do they want to contribute? And how can you meaningfully contribute to them as a person? Not as a worker, but as a person first so that they're seen, and heard, and that they feel valued. Because when we're able to do that for people, they shine. And when people shine for themselves, they then shine for you. And when they shine for you, that means that your ability to be able to create something extraordinary together for your clients and customers becomes magically infinite in its possibilities.

Brigit:                    Yes. And you know what I'm discovering? We've just rapidly grown our team, we've hired, I don't know five or six people in the last month or two, so we're experiencing a sense of urgency, I should say, around having an HR framework in place and being more consistent with the way that we connect with our people and our team. And I have a master's degree in HR, right? So I know-

Julie:                      So you know. You know.

Brigit:                    ... I know what I need to do. I'm doing research online going, "Okay, I have this particular issue. What do I do?" But I've got to tell you, this is uncharted territory in the way that you are speaking. There are so many processes, frameworks, ways of doing things that are so much more about compliance and the work, "These people are working for me. Well, they're paid, so they should just do what their told." Everything is centered around that. And so very-

Julie:                      Yeah, transactional.

Brigit:                    Yes. Yes. And so little of what's out there right now is about this new level of leading a team from a really authentic place. I think that... I just... I think we're traveling in uncharted territory and it's very exciting because we're creating it as we go and it's kind of a little bit scary because it's... there's not the frameworks there. When you said, "Oh, well, it's an evolving thing with your team." Of course it is, because this hasn't really been done before in this way, but it's so... I just get lit up by the opportunity available to integrate. And this is intuitive entrepreneurship, an aspect of it too, of integrating our intuition, our inner wisdom, and the way that we work together as well.

Julie:                      Absolutely it is, and it's every evolving, and there's no manual, and yes, it can be challenging, and it's not the way that a lot of people do business because they are coming from that very corporate, top down paradigm of, "Do your job. Do it. I'm paying you to do your job." How many times have we either had that said to us, or seen someone else say it to someone else, or just know that that's someone's experience. And yes, that's true, at a base level, but we can be better leaders than that, than a base level. Base level leadership gets based level results.

Brigit:                    Yeah.

Julie:                      And this is what we're seeing in global politics that's dominated by white men throughout the world. It's base, and therefore, the issues that we're seeing and experience throughout the world are shockingly base as well. Domestic violence, refugees, just yeah. Everyone knows. We could just go on, and on, and on. There is a level of humanity that is just absolutely lacking. And still, in this 21st century where we know so much, and we've achieved so many things, and we're so bright, and so smart, and we still can not seem to solve or make really big dents in impact into what should be problems that we can solve, like hunger, and homelessness, and violence, and education, and child and female slavery, and so many other things. It's like, "Hang on a second here. What's going on?" We need a new paradigm desperately. And sacred leadership is one of the pathways to that.

Julie:                      The challenging part about it most of all though is that it begins with a lot of internal work because you can not be a sacred leader if you don't have yourself under control in relation to your own ego, fears, jealousies, comparisons, all of that sort of stuff. It's a constant evolving work, you got to lean into your shadow. You got to not freak out when those tarot cards come up. It's like, "Oh, okay. Here we go. Let's dance." Rather than, "Let's hide."

Brigit:                    Yes. Yeah.

Julie:                      "Let's do this."

Brigit:                    Yeah, it's a beautiful challenge and opportunity at the same time. And it requires so much. It's so much good stuff.

Julie:                      So much. It's work. It's work. It's hard work. It's hard work.

Brigit:                    It is.

Julie:                      It all is, but it's worth it. It's worth it.

Brigit:                    Oh man, yes, because the outcomes feel so good. I know that when I... if I've navigated a particular team issue in a more elevated way, it's really hard getting there. I have to do a lot of the inner work, and I move through the emotions, the feelings, but I can feel it lock in. Once I know like, "Ah, yes. I have chosen the right path here. Yes, now this is feeling really aligned. Now I feel like we can go again." And it's nice just... and you can see that ripple effect too in the team once you've kind of discovered that path. When you said that there's no manual, thanks for the... that's the challenge, I think.

Julie:                      Sorry.

Brigit:                    No, well, there may be a manual in the next couple of years. I would love to see that. I mean, how wonderful would that be that we have the training and support for authentic leaders to be able to lead their teams from this place of sacred leadership and authentic leadership?

Julie:                      Yeah.

Brigit:                    One last topic I want to talk about is your upcoming book, and I just want to hear a little bit about how this book came about because it's all about your priestess work and how that is integrated into your life, and life in general. Tell me a little bit about the journey and what the book is about.

Julie:                      Well, I'm so loving and proud of this book, which is due out in Spring 2020. So thank you for asking me about it. I feel like I'm talking about my newest baby-

Brigit:                    Yes.

Julie:                      ... which is really exciting. And the book is about the wisdom of the ancient priestess and how it can be used for modern female sacred leaders who are also taking up the call to be priestesses in the world, which essentially means they're taking up the call to be a sacred leader. And it's really exciting, and the journey has been one that's been filled with enormous joy and creativity. It's also been filled with, unexpectedly for me, incredible shadow and darkness. I now realize that this was something that was necessary for the right book to come forth. And it was originally going to be published by a major publishing house, which was something that I was very excited about, and very engaged with, and looking forward to.

Julie:                      However, funny thing is given the interview that we're having today, I started to receive some very strong intuitive messages and clear direction from my own inner wisdom, much to my shock, horror, dismay, and disbelief to begin with that I should not publish my book with this publishing house. Which on the surface, Brigit, just seems stupid like, "Gosh, Julie, could you be any more stupid to throw away an opportunity of this kind to be internationally published throughout the world, to be invited on to speaking stages, to tour the world with some of the biggest named authors in the spiritual community? Come on now. No. What... no. What's going on here?" And just like anything with our intuition, Brigit, when it's right, it's right and it won't leave you, particularly if you've developed a strong relationship with it and you have come to learn to listen to it as I had at that point in time, it just wouldn't go away. And eventually I came to realize that the publishing house that was originally going to publish Priestess, the Priestess book was not right.

Julie:                      And my decision around that essentially was about the fact that ironically, for a spiritual publishing house, I didn't feel as though they were being sacred leaders in the area of ensuring that diverse verses of color, those from the LGBTQIA+ community, and with varying levels of ability, both body, and mentally, and emotionally, were represented as a part of their author stable. I realized that what was going to happen for me in the future was that I was going to find myself on stages with all white, able bodied, heterosexual people, and given the fact that I had been talking about extensively the need for our spiritual communities, and the coaching communities to do much better to raise up voices of color and people with diverse and different backgrounds. I suddenly realized I was going to be a hypocrite if I published my book with this publishing house.

Julie:                      This was my personal decision in the end, not to go ahead with that, and I eventually found a much smaller boutique publisher to put my work out. And I did so of my own volition. It was just my personal decision. I was not pressured into it, I was not forced out of it, it was a decision that I made for myself. Initially, the fallout of that for me from a public sense was quite challenging. People couldn't believe it. But also, there was an enormous amount of support as well, and I'd do it all over again. It's been a rocky ride, a bumpy road, but it was the right decision for me. Interestingly, and very lovingly, I do want to say that since that time of making that decision I have noticed that that publishing house has started to make inroads into this area.

Julie:                      Now I'm not going to claim that that was me in any way, it was potentially just time for that to happen. And I'm thrilled for them about that. I am really happy about that, and I am happy to see that there are a lot more diverse authors that I believe... I think it looks like they're coming through, and that's absolutely fantastic. I still wouldn't change my mind though because the things that I had to go through, which was pretty much almost a dark night of the soul at times in writing this book, it would not be the book that it is without that, so I'm grateful for the experience.

Brigit:                    It's such, such courage, I think, to be able to say... to be able to way up the... kind of the bright, shiny object of those speaking stages, and the promotion, and that's... on one level it's absolutely about the reach, but on another level that's kind of the ego with saying, "Oh, I could be famous."

Julie:                      Yeah.

Brigit:                    And being able to say, "You know what? No actually, I have deeper principles that aren't being met in this agreement and I'm honoring those principles." I think that's just beautiful.

Julie:                      Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Sometimes I still wonder whether I've made a mistake, I do, and that's my ego talking. Sometimes when I think, "Oh, I could be on that stage."

Brigit:                    Yeah.

Julie:                      "Oh my goodness that was going to be me. There are 6,000 people in that audience. Julie, Julie, Julie, Julie, Julie." Then I go to sleep, and I dream, and I wake up the next day and my intuition chi says, "It's okay girl, we've got this."

Brigit:                    Yeah.

Julie:                      "It's all right. It's all right. Let it go."

Brigit:                    That it.

Julie:                      "You're cool." Yeah.

Brigit:                    And that is intuition in its most pure form because our minds can see those big things out there that are like, "But that looks really good." But your intuition knows.

Julie:                      "I want that." I know.

Brigit:                    It's the fear of missing out, too. Right?

Julie:                      Oh, yes. Yeah. And the fear of what could have been. The big audience, the big sales, the big this... the bigger... and it's like, "It's meant to be big in another way." It's the only thing that I can think at this point in time. It's meant to be big in another way.

Brigit:                    Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so spring... I always get annoyed when people say, "Oh, it's going out in spring, or like fall, I'm like which one is it?"

Julie:                      Oh, seven heavens, first of September. First of September unless something goes really pear shaped, Brigit, it's the first of September, so that is the first day of spring in Australia and that's been very deliberately chosen. It's, yeah, let's go for it. When the flowers begin to bloom and everything pops up out of the earth. So spring 2020, first of September.

Brigit:                    Oh, so exciting. And I know how scary and exciting at the same time it can be as you publish a book, and something that is so personal, and special, and even private to you. The writing of the book, and the years that go into that writing period, and then the expression of that, and then birthing that out into the world. What are your... What's going on through your mind and your heart right now as you think of that day coming up, the first of September?

Julie:                      Oh my gosh, just sheer joy, and excitement, and just love, creativity, is she here yet? How many sleeps? All that sort of stuff. She is with the editor at the moment being spit and polished, and all of those sorts of things, and made beautiful, and I'm excited for a photo shoot, and to do the book trailer. I feel like a giddy girl, in all honesty, because I just... I love this book so much. I feel as though it's one of the most important things that I've ever done in my life, and this book is for women. It's for women who are out there doing and creating beautiful work in the world on their own spiritual journeys and paths to say and share with them things such as their healing matters, they matter, everything that they do can make a difference, how they can use ancient wisdom and their own intuitive wisdom to expand their life and their leadership skills. It's my heart in a book. It really is. So yeah, that makes me very, very excited for everything that's to come.

Brigit:                    Beautiful. Where can people find out more or just follow the journey of the book? Because I'm assuming probably pre-order will be coming up a little bit later in 2020.

Julie:                      It will be, yes. Pre-order we're hoping will be the first of June.

Brigit:                    Okay.

Julie:                      So it will start about halfway through the year. But just following along at my personal website, or social media accounts. I love Instagram, it's nice and visual to share things on there. Sometimes I talk about the ups and downs, and journey, and I'm trying to let people into the journey of writing the book and getting it out there as much as possible. Yeah, follow along and thank you for asking me about it, and fingers crossed that everything happens timing wise. It will, it'll definitely be out this year, but whether the exact dates or that, I'm not sure, but certainly hoping so.

Brigit:                    Yeah, awesome. Then a final question for you. As you're stepping into 2020, what aspect of yourself do you feel that you are now fully expressing?

Julie:                      Oh, gosh. That's a really beautiful and powerful question and it's making me think because I don't want to give you just a surface answer. The word that keeps coming to me is vulnerability.

Brigit:                    Oh, goodie.

Julie:                      I think it's very important as online business owners that we always keep parts of ourselves to ourselves. I don't believe that we necessarily, and in fact at all need to share everything about everything that we're doing, or who we are, or how we process things. But I feel so much more comfortable with myself now to share things that are not working, or didn't work, or a mistake I made, or how I've been feeling about something, which in the past, I might have been worried people might have read, and looked at me, and gone, "Oh, she's losing it." Or, "Oh, she's not as strong as I thought she was." Or, "I wouldn't work with her based on the fact that she's not coping with that." I don't care about that anymore. I used to a bit and it's like, "No, don't care." If I think that it might help someone to share it, or I feel that it's something that I want people to know, then I will. And so that, I feel, I'm really stepping into a much more powerful truth for myself right now.

Brigit:                    Yeah, that's beautiful. I think that really comes through when you are in alignment and ownership of who you are, and knowing that you can share all of you because you... it's almost like you believe... you just completely believe in you. Once and all. You know?

Julie:                      Yeah. Yeah, I don't need to censor myself really, really, really significantly. I will hold back what I want to hold back that's private for me, but I don't feel the need to sensor myself based on a fear or worry about what people will think.

Brigit:                    I'm feeling like it's because you trust yourself, like that feels like the essence of this. You trust yourself, you back yourself.

Julie:                      Yeah. Mind you, Brigit, I'm 47, you know? It's like, it's time. It's time. And if anyone out there, if there's any gorgeous soul that's listening, and you might be much younger than me, and you might be thinking to yourself, "Gosh, I'm not there yet." Keep working at it, you'll get there. This is a lifelong journey. It really is. I think I only came to terms with the very real and genuine fact that I can't control what other people think of me probably about five years ago. Up until that point in time I think I was a chronic people pleaser.

Brigit:                    Imagine that, 40 years of pleasing others.

Julie:                      Yeah.

Brigit:                    Yeah, it's crazy what we do to ourselves.

Julie:                      Absolutely.

Brigit:                    But it all serves a purpose, right? Because here you are, and you are not firmly rooted down into who you are, and that's a beautiful thing.

Julie:                      Yeah, and I can't imagine it changing. That's the thing, once you know what you know, you know what you know. And you can't go back, so I'm never going to go back. So keep going everyone, keep doing your work. Keep listening to that intuitive guidance of yours. It won't lead you astray. And I pray for you that you learn this before 47.

Brigit:                    Yes. Yes. And I'm going to sneak... I know I said one more last question, but one last question. Where can people find out more about you? What's your Instagram profile, and websites, and all that juicy stuff?

Julie:                      Sure. Well, if people are interested in the life coaching aspect of what I do you'll find us as beautifulyoucoachingacademy.com. If you're more interested in Priestess, and spiritual work, and sacred leadership, you'll find me at juliesuzanneparker.com. And on Instagram I'm @julesyparker. It's all there on the website.

Brigit:                    Fabulous, and we'll post those in the show notes as well.

Julie:                      Thank you.

Brigit:                    Oh, Julie, it's been an absolute pleasure to chat with you today. Thank you so much for bringing your energy and your goodness to this conversation. I appreciate you.

Julie:                      Oh, as I do you, Brigit. Thank you so very much for having me on.

Brigit:                    Thank you for joining me for today's episode of the Intuitive Entrepreneur Podcast. If you loved this episode please leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. It really helps to get the word out, and of course I read every single comment. Now, if you're an intuitive entrepreneur with a desire to build a business fueled by purpose, passion, and profit, then you're invited to join me and an intimate group of female business owners in the Intuitive Entrepreneurs Mastermind. All you need to do is add your name to the wait list and you'll be the first to know when applications are open, so head on over to brigit.me/mastermind. That's B-R-I-G-I-T.me/mastermind. I'll see you there, and bye for now.