About Julie

Hi friends! Here's a few things you might not know about me yet:

My first language is French. I was born in a suburb of Montréal, and grew up up outside of Toronto in a French-speaking home. My neighbors taught me to speak English when I was three.

I have a daughter who is 16 and I'm raising her on my own, with our beloved dogs Mouse and Scout.

I suffered from two miscarriages after I had my daughter. The second one lead to a life-threatening bacterial infection that almost cost me my life. After spending a week in a medically induced coma on a ventilator, waking up from the coma felt like a miracle and that's why I choose to wake up with gratitude every day.

Before I became a parent, I had completed three full Ironman triathlons, after overcoming debilitating knee pain from being a competitive gymnast as a child. The mental toughness I learned while training for Ironman is what gave me the fortitude get out of the ICU three days after I woke up from my coma.

I've always had a vision of living close to the water and the mountains. Our family moved across Canada to the West Coast several years ago. After struggling with our experience living on the mainland we moved to Vancouver Island only 10 months after moving out west. Now I live ten minutes from the ocean and have mountains in my neighborhood. Photo is me at three years old, enjoying the ocean in Florida. Note that I still like to wear socks and sandals.

I'm an early riser and love finding creative ways to capture the sunrise. When I moved to Vancouver Island, it became a habit which turned into a business.

My first business was a babysitting business when I was 12. I had a notebook with my clients names, phone numbers, ages of the kids and special instructions. I even had a babysitting box full of toys and books that I brought with me to each job. I've been an entrepreneur ever since!

I love the mountains and spent over two years living in Switzerland and France teaching French at International schools and camps. I learned how to ski in the back-country and surf the pow-pow. I also fell in love with mountaineering and overcame my fear of heights by hiking up a glacier my first weekend in Switzerland!

When I was in third grade, I won my first public speaking contest. I also had a contract with a local agency and auditioned for a few commercials - which I was never cast in. I still have the head-shots with my big fluffy permed hair. What used to make me nervous has turned into a speaking career on local, national and international stages.

I'm an empath and a highly-sensitive person. Which means that I need a lot of time alone and in nature. My daughter has similar qualities and that makes our relationship both special and frustrating sometimes. We both spend a lot of time outside, and when we're at the beach she's building sandcastles while I'm capturing the light with my phone.

I've had a nutrition and wellness business with USANA Health Sciences for almost 20 years and do my best to eat healthy, whole foods, drink lots of water, move every day, get some sleep and take my supplements.