Episode 216: Choose Joy Over Prestige | Julie Hartigan | Chef, Coach & Culinary Travel Guide
What happens when you stop chasing the career you're "supposed" to want and start building a life around food, joy, and connection? Julie Hartigan made that leap. After a decade in tech and engineering, she became a chef, wellness coach, TV personality, and now a food-focused travel entrepreneur. In this episode, Julie shares how she pivoted careers in her 40s, what it means to make food an act of self-love, and why she's now creating global experiences that bring women together through cooking, wine, and culture. From healthy eating habits to launching dream businesses, this conversation is packed with wisdom, warmth, and inspiration for anyone craving a more meaningful life.
“I always wanted to work in food and it took quite a bit to give myself permission to leave a prestigious job to do what I love.”
-
-
Follow along using the Transcript
00:00 From engineer to chef: Julie’s unconventional journey
01:15 Why she left a “prestigious” job to chase joy
03:00 Choosing food as a career, even when no one else understood
05:30 Starting over in her 40s with young kids at home
07:10 The power of self-permission and trusting your gut
10:00 Rebuilding her relationship with food and her body
12:15 How she helps women untangle emotions around eating
14:45 Childhood roots: Italian food and family traditions
16:10 Why food is self-love, not punishment
18:00 Sunday lunch in Rome and the culture of connection
19:30 Building women's culinary trips in Italy and beyond
21:45 Why she focuses her work specifically on women
24:00 Creating a business that includes your favorite people
26:00 What “Powerful Ladies” means to her now
29:00 Setting limits in entrepreneurship and redefining success
32:30 Saying no to hustle culture, yes to joyful business
35:00 Getting on camera in her 40s and working with brands
38:00 Her mission now: more joy, more women traveling, more great food
I had a really hard time letting go of that image of myself that I had built, that I was smart and I was capable, that I could do anything men could do in graduate school. It was 12 men to every woman in my class. I would be the only woman in a classroom with hundreds of men. And I was again, very successful in this career.
That's Julie Hartigan. I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
I am really excited to talk to you today and welcome you to The Powerful Ladies Podcast 'cause you have what seems like a very fun and delicious life.
Oh, I thank you. I do, I really do enjoy my life. It's been, um, there have been some twists and turns to get where I am now. Um, but the whole, um, the path and all the decisions all the way, um, have brought me so much joy and I'm so happy to be where I am now.
Well, let's tell everyone who's listening, your full name, where you are in the world, and what you're doing to, to change, especially for women and how they're eating.
Sure thing. So my name is Julie Hartigan and I live in Jersey City, New Jersey, which is right outside of New York City. And, um, you know, I've had a lot of twists and turns in my career path, um, starting out as an engineer working in tech in the nineties when a lot of women didn't do that.
I've a master's in engineering career changed into the culinary world. When my two daughters were toddlers, I always wanted to work in food and it really took. Quite a bit, um, for me to give myself permission to go after what I loved and leave a field that was considered prestigious, like a lot of flack, right?
People didn't want me to leave this, this thing that I was, um, representing women in, but I wanted to choose joy and choose work that would be gratifying to me. So since then, I was about 12 years ago, I've. Gotten into publishing thousands of recipes. I do TV share healthy cooking tips, create cooking and coaching programs for women.
And most recently, my my favorite pet project and the thing I'm really gonna be working, um, towards, I'm an empty nester now. My girls are in college and I'm creating women's food, wine, and culture trip with a very you go girl group, eat, pray, love, kind of a vibe. And the first trip that I'm hosting is this May in Tuscany.
Amazing. Coming right up. You know, I think I wanna kind of go back to that pivot point because you mentioned that you wanted to choose joy. Is that something that you'd always prioritized in your life, or is that something that, like the pressures of where your life had taken you, you're like, you know what?
Like I've, I've gone down this path far enough, I need to kind of come back to me. Like, what happened in that moment when you decided like I, you had to choose joy and choose yourself.
Well, I think for a lot of us, for so many people, um, you fall down a trap of, especially when you're young, oh gosh. Like, who knows anything, you know, my daughters are 18 and 21.
I'm like, oh, babies. Like, you know, so I was 17 years old. Um, didn't come from a lot of money. I was very good in math and science. Um, and for me, an engineering career was a way out and a path, and I was good at it. I, I was good at it, but I had felt like I had an alter ego, so it was like, mm-hmm. I'd be at work and doing the things.
I was on partner track doing really well, but on the side it was like helping cater, helping friends with their catering business or planning all the dinners for the engineer for like everyone we were traveling. I was like a management consultant, road warrior, and I would even dabble in food, but I just, I had a really hard time.
Letting go of that image of myself that I had built, that I was smart, that I was capable, that I could do anything men could do in graduate school. It was 12 men to every woman in my class. I would be the only woman in a classroom with hundreds of men. And I was, again, very successful in this career. But um, finally, and it wasn't because of September 11th, because I know for a lot of people that was a big, pivotal event.
What happened for me, I was reporting to a president of my company, um, right around nine 11. So it was a very, uh, the head of sales was a woman, small tech firm, very, um, female empowerment. They loved me, I loved them, but I still wanted to do this food thing. But when nine 11 happened, I was pregnant with my first daughter and I was actually, luckily I worked in downtown Manhattan.
I was lucky to be home morning, sick that day. Morning sicks like the worst thing ever. And meanwhile, I thank my daughter all the time for making me sick. Um. The company I was working for went under, uh, nobody was hiring or training and you know, so it wasn't a nine 11 driven thing. It was just a really good, logical breakpoint for me.
Mm-hmm. And, you know, we can't go back and question our paths, but I do wonder like, you know, how much longer would I have just hung on making the good money doing the thing and always dreaming of it. Um, so I'm just. It's, it's interesting how something so horrible mm-hmm. Can turn into a, a decision. Um, the biggest thing I think for me was.
You know, it made no sense to go pay a nanny all this money. So I'd be on the road with this job. I didn't really like to leave a baby at home, like it just, so I just threw myself at it. Um, I worked at a culinary school in Manhattan. I worked for my master's degree as a teaching assistant in engineering.
And then I worked at a culinary school in Manhattan to get free tuition to go there. Um, and I learned a lot. I'm a big believer in like learning while you're working. And then, yeah, I worked at Food Network and cooking magazines. The rest is history. So I guess like the pivotal point for me was like, I've been waiting long enough.
Um, you know, the decision, the break point was almost like gifted to me to do this. Mm-hmm. And I loved, I stayed home with my girls for three years. Um, 'cause I didn't wanna pay for them to be in daycare, for me to work for free, to get, you know, it was all about making it work. And I have to tell you, like as a, um.
You know, type a engineering woman. I wasn't someone who was always super maternal. I wasn't sure if I even wanted kids and my daughters know that. And, you know, having this gift of a few years to just be a stay-at-home mom and enjoy them and taking all the little music classes and hang out, it was, you know, I feel like my life has had all these really, um, amazing chapters to it.
Yeah.
Well, and I, I love that you have given yourself space to have those chapters. Because there's so many people who have been on this podcast, or I'm sure that both you and I know who have heard that whispering voice and have said, I think I should do this right now. But logic takes over or fear takes over and says, yeah, but you're gonna walk away from the money or the career path or what you're supposed to be doing.
Mm-hmm. Um, has listening to yourself or your intuition been something you've always done, or is that something that you've had to adapt to?
Oh, wow. Have I had to learn that? I, I think I used to bury it all. I feel like, feel like the older I get, the better I get at listening to my heart and what I really need and what I really want.
You know, I'm, I'm divorced and I initiated that, that needed to happen. Um, I've gone down past, even in the culinary world, and so that's not the right direction. So, you know, and I also, um, again, type a engineer, math person. As I've gone through life, I've gotten into like meditation and tapping and journaling and all of those modalities that really can help you stay grounded and stay in touch with where your true calling or your true joy is.
I loved looking at everything you're up to and how you keep bringing back the joy and the deliciousness and how exciting food can be to also making sure that it's. Healthy because there's so many food people out in the world who will give you amazing recipes that you're like, I have to lock that in a box because I can't have that be part of my regular life.
And everything that you are up to seems to be safe for regular life every day. This will keep me on the right track. Mm-hmm. Was that an intentional choice of, oh, sorry.
Oh, no. No. Yeah. Um. I'm sorry, you finished. I didn't mean interrupt, didn't mean to interrupt you.
I was just asking if that was an intentional choice on your side to keep it, keep it delicious and healthy and things that actually benefit us from a food perspective versus don't.
Mm-hmm. For sure. Um, so growing up, it's funny, my dad was a welder, steam fitter, very blue collar, but he kept a garden and he, he can't, and he's not like some sweet little old Italian man. It was not in his nature, if you will. It was just something that he really believed in. So I always had an approach to food that it is celebratory and something to be enjoyed, but something that requires balance because I, I, I'm not, I'm not really sure.
I mean, maybe it was him with his garden and his veggies. My mom, uh, was a young, when I was like growing up in the seventies, she was like a Weight Watchers member. And I'm not into restrictive or tracking diets, although I think that plan helps people with their, um. Portion sizes and things like that. So for me, it truly was always a balance.
You know, I would get teased. Mm-hmm. One of my first engineering jobs, uh, out of college, a guy friend of mine dressed as me for Halloween and he wore a blonde wig and he carried a giant salad bowl and he had on like workout clothes and I think a drink in his hands. And it's like, I've always just believed in this level of balance.
You know, you can enjoy all of the good things in life, you know, no matter how decadent, as long as you're balancing it and mm-hmm. I think the key that I've seen for myself and for a lot of women, and I, I definitely haven't always had a completely healthy relationship with food. There were times in my life when I got really restrictive and I was falling into those societal expectations of body type or weight when I was younger.
And to me a lot of it is about self-love and perceiving health and healthy eating as a way of taking care of ourselves, not deprivation and punishment. Mm-hmm. And also loving our body at all ages and stages and shapes. It's going to keep changing at the vessel that we're, we're in. Right. And if we're all hung up on some level of perfection or some outside definition of what we should look like, you can fall, especially women, you can fall down such a slippery path.
When I had my daughters, I really realized something. I, I was stress eating one day and my older daughter was like a toddler. I don't know what was going on. I was stressed, you know, blah, blah, blah, like eating at the counter. It was some, it was a behavior I had from watching my mom do it, and I probably, a lot of women have done this and she looked at me and she said, oh, it looks, what are you doing?
Can I do that? She was like three or four, and she was reaching for like the ice cream or whatever it was, and I had this. I was like, oh gosh, like you're modeling this for these little babies. And also with them right away, I eliminated the words like fat. I, I don't even, I can't even, it's like, to me, that's one of the worst things to say or, you know, do, how do I look fat?
This, do I like beating up my body? I just decided a flip, a switch foot for me and I said, I'm raising these two young women. I wanna be the best role model I can for them because I've seen so many of my adult women friends and family members who've gone through life miserable and unhappy beating themselves up.
So. You know, recipe writing wise and teaching people how to cook wise, my tagline has often been where Happy meats healthy. So even the healthy food that I help people make or write recipes for has a really upbeat edge to it. Like where you don't even know that it's healthy and it's never with a deprivation mindset.
It's with a way of like, let's make it joyful again. Joy to eat healthy. Mm-hmm.
Well, and there, as you mentioned, there's so many habit and hidden unconscious or subconscious psychological relationships that we have with food eating too fast, um, eating alone, eating in front of a tv, um, making food be something that we have to do versus something that we actually take time to be present with.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and I've been going down a journey of, of trying to tap more and more into just intuitive eating in general. Um, you know, the other day I was like, I'm craving oatmeal. I'm like, well, that's a weird thing to crave, but okay. Like, it's not bad for me, so we'll go for it today.
Exactly. It's untangling the emotion around food, I think for us and yeah.
You know, men too, but definitely for women, you know, whether it's stress or deprivation or loneliness or, there are a lot of, I've done wellness coaching with women, coached hundreds of women nationwide and you know, often for me it's helping them untangle. Where did you get that relationship from, or that definition of yourself or that feeling of yourself?
And to your point, intuitive eating definitely works because I think sometimes too, we're ritualistic about eating, right? We just say, oh, I have to have this because I always do. And do you know, you know like every time you go to Starbucks you have to order the scone? Like are you really hungry or is it just like a.
Yeah, you do to think mm-hmm. To apply. I mentioned meditation. I started, a guy, friend of mine turned me onto it. He's in my book club. I wasn't sleeping well a few years ago. He had, he had other reasons why he got into doing it, and he is the least likely person to meditate. I use an app to meditate. I, I'm not the kind, I, I'm learning to quiet.
I wanted, needed to learn to quiet my busy mind, but I find that having a daily meditation practice, even just using an app at bedtime like I do. Tune me more into mindfulness, including mindful eating, where it builds, I call it a pause. It, it's like you press pause on your thoughts or on your, your, uh, your instinct or your reaction, and you can go.
Hold on. Am I reaching for that other, that second cupcake or that like third piece of pizza? And I'm not judging anyone for how much they eat, but meaning? Mm-hmm. Personally, am I reaching for this outta habit or just because it's there or because I'm bored? Angry, sad, stressed. There's so many reasons why we turn to food and tuning into ourselves to really decide when and why we eat is so important.
Mm-hmm. When did you know that you loved food? Cooking. So
on my website, I, it's actually an every waking memory. I grew up, my grandparents helped raise me. Uh, it was an Italian American household. I would be helping my grandma make her pasta fa helping my grandpa shred the mozzarella for the ziti Italian American food.
And my other grandma loved to bake, and apparently I stood next to her. I vaguely remember this. On a step stool watching her bake and she was making rhubarb crunch, which is not something that most seven year olds would really be into. Rhubarb is kind of especially way back then. And I wrote, I rewrote her recipe from my palate at age seven to extra sugar and twice as much topping.
And the little greasy recipe card is on my website. It has margarine in it. I'm dating myself. It's the seventies. They were telling us that margarine was. I was seven. I didn't know better. But anyway, yeah. So I think it's just always been there and I, I grew up in an area with lots of different, um, cultural influences.
Mm-hmm. When I'd be hanging out with kids in high school talking to their grandma. I always call it grandma cooking. Like, to me, I'm like, what does your grandma make you for the holiday or for your birthday? 'cause that's like the interesting, cool recipe. Mm-hmm. It was just mm-hmm. Always there for me. I joke, you know, some people, especially men, maybe they have like.
Cars memorized or baseball cards. And for me it's just always been flavors and ingredients and cultural influences of food.
Um, but yeah, so like it's amazing to see how traditions and cultures are, are so often passed down through food. Um, what have you learned about yourself and the clients you've worked with because of food?
Oh, gosh. Let's see. I, I think genuinely at the heart of everything I do is I want. To be happy and I want others to be happy. I want them to enjoy their lives. I think I learned really young, and I don't know why this inherent like life is short. Don't squander it, really live it well and enjoy it. And to your point, food is like a thread.
It's like a a through line for that. Right. Whether it's what your family makes, what you are, I'll tell women who I coach. I'll say, make it beautiful just for you. You know, I have a whole healthy cooking program for women who are cooking for one with videos and meal planning and the whole thing. And in it, I'm constantly saying, make it beautiful for you.
And I show them how to garnish it. You know, it, it, uh, it pains me that I have a lot of single girlfriends, divorced friends, empty nester friends, you know? We won't always take as good care of ourselves as we will of others. And I'll say to them, you know, why will you go out of your way to make your food look beautiful when you're hosting, but not for you on a Tuesday night?
Don't you deserve that? You do deserve that. It's sending yourself a message that you don't matter. Mm-hmm. So. I think for me, and then on the flip side, that's the everyday cooking, right? On the flip side, the culinary tourism I'm hosting for women in Italy, I'm bringing them to meet these really inspiring, badass women, Michelin star Italian women chefs, women wine makers.
To hear their story, to have their, their food to. You know, when you travel to me food travel or experiencing the, the food culture and the place you are is one of the best ways to really dive in and feel like you've been there. You know, you can get on a double decker bus or get, you know, check off boxes and not really experience a culture.
Mm-hmm. But if you hang out with locals and eat with them and let them tell you what the specialties are, you're really gonna feel like you, you, you, you experience that place. It's transformative.
I was in Rome a few weeks ago and I was staying with a friend of mine and I got invited to Sunday lunch at his parents' house, and I was so excited because I knew that's what it would be.
And they do a multi-course Sunday lunch. And it was, they, I kept taking photos of the food and the mo the mother's like, why are you photographing this? This is so boring. I'm like, no. It's, to me, it's so fascinating. Like, this would never be Sunday lunch at my parents' house. Mm-hmm. And I wanna know like, where did this, is this traditional?
Is this Roman? Like, is this just what you like, you know, do you make this every Sunday? And she was cracking up at me. She's like, no one has come to Sunday lunch with this many questions.
Meanwhile, I'm like, send me your pictures. Send me your pictures. What's so cool about Italy too? You know, we forget in America we think of it, you know, Italy is Italy, but I think until the 1850s it was city states, it was completely separate cultures.
Mm-hmm. So each region had its own type of food, type of ingredients, and you know, even though it's not that large of a country, it really had. So, mm-hmm. It's just such an interesting place for somebody with a curious and a food and wine loving mind to go visit because you can really start to understand the nuances of that Southern Italian versus northern Italian.
Mm-hmm. And lots of, there are also, and I love this kind of thing, I think it's so fun how, you know, different towns will have specialties and will kind of like fight over who's is the best. You know, whether it's some certain pastry for some saint day, like, I just think things like that are so, you know, it gives you, it makes you feel like you.
You've known the culture for a while because you know that that thing in Hoboken where I lived for a very long time, I just moved to Jersey City last year. Hoboken's very Italian American. There is a church that does, uh, st. It's St. Ann's, they do a St. Ann's Festival, and they make the, that they've. They brought over and the, the oldest women in the church have the recipe and they guard it and they won't tell anybody how they make it.
And it's like, things like that are so cool.
Yeah, no, I love that. And you know, this family that I was staying with, they're not just Italians, they're Roman, they're like nine generation, and not just Roman, but from the exact neighborhood. Wow. They're like, I was like going to some other restaurants to try food.
They're like, why would you go there? It's, I'm like, it's 10 minutes away. They're like, but you don't need to leave. We're fine here.
Oh my gosh. I wanna know what, I wanna know what they eat. Now you're gonna have to put in touch with them.
I'll send you, I'll send you the list of the entire menu for the day.
Um, you know, when, when did you decide that you wanted to bring this to women specifically? Because I think people ask me all the time, like, why powerful ladies and not powerful humans? And I battle with it because I work with all sorts of people and all my other businesses, and sometimes I have men on here because I can, right.
But there's, I think there's something special. So I'm always really curious why you've also chosen to focus on women to, you know. Do your magic with
For sure. I, so it's funny, some of it was inadvertent. I think I, a big client of mine actually happened to be Weight Watchers corporate. I never worked there.
And like I said, I, I actually feel like I always have to caveat it with, I don't ascribe to diet, culture and tracking and, and those things. They were a client and I worked with them a lot, but I helped them launch this. These wellness cruises, which were really fun and cool. This was in like 20 17, 20 18, and we served my recipes onboard a cruise ship to thousands of people, and it was mostly women.
Mm-hmm. And you know, these are women who maybe have been struggling with their body image their entire life, or their relationship with food their entire life. I hosted five of these cruises. I would be in the ship theater with the Janet Jackson headset on doing my demos, and I just realized. I, I remember here, I come from like going to college and working with all men.
Mm-hmm. Right? Engineering tech, all men. And I always had a lot of male friends. I still do. And I, I experienced, I really think it was these cruises and I said, you know, these are women who. Love themselves, love their lives, get to enjoy food, get to release themselves from all of these things that are holding them.
Made me sad to think that somebody would go through life so upset with the size of or shape of their body that they squander their life. It's, it's all about really maximizing that. So coming out of that, I, I definitely leaned more into creating coaching programs for women. To alleviate their pain, whatever pain they had about their wellness or about their self image as it related to food and eating.
And then with the travel, you know, I've seen so many women, including my mom and my aunt who, or other, other older women in my life who they never, they always wanted to travel and they never made it happen for themselves, even though they, they probably could have. They get to a place in life or a time in life.
You know, we're not all guaranteed a healthy tomorrow. None of us are. And if you don't seize those moments and make them happen for yourself, and I, I, I just find that men are more apt to like put themselves first and take care of themselves and women aren't. So I wanted to create this, these juice trips to support that mission, but also.
You know, if you're a, a woman, maybe an older woman, maybe you haven't traveled much internationally, one of the barriers could be that you don't feel safe and supported and secure traveling, right? You don't wanna join some group and have it be all couples and honeymooners and you're kind of on your own.
And, and I wanted to make it a, uh, an experience, like I said, like a group you pray love kind of an experience where. They joined my trip. I'm hosting them personally, taking them to meet inspiring women and they feel very supported and very empowered in saying yes to them to come on this trip.
And I just keep thinking of how fun it must have been to build this trip.
Like yourself like, because I love meeting people and I'm thinking like, you got to meet all these cool people at all these hotels and restaurants and the chefs and like you're just building. Like I tell people to. Lean in on businesses that allow them to hang out with all their favorite people. Yes. And like one of my rules is like my clients, I want to only have clients I would go on vacation with, and you're literally building that into your business.
That's pretty much the deal. I'm in love with the itinerary of my tour. Like I, it's very women supporting women every guide. Mm-hmm. We have a guide with us the whole week who's a local woman. Then at different locations that we go to special, little tiny towns in Tuscany. We'll have a local woman take us around who's raising her kids in that town.
Mm-hmm. We have women chefs like I, I am, I am truly in love with the women. Winemakers will women, all of oil makers like, and I mean, Italy's pretty machismo, so they're are even more. Empowered maybe right. Than, than we all are. So yeah, it was, it was a blast. And I'm in, I'm in several women culinary and wine, uh, hospitality networking groups, and it's international.
I'm actually a member of the Tuscany chapter. So it's been fun to get to know women worldwide to get to support them in their careers through the work that I'm doing. Mm-hmm. I'm supporting the women I bring with me and I'm supporting the women we go visit to.
Well, it's a perfect segue to ask you when you hear powerful in Ladies as Words.
Do their definitions change when they're on their own or when they're put next to each other? Hmm.
Hmm. Powerful. And ladies, that's interesting. Okay, so you know what I like about the two together? I'll start with that and then I'll break down each individual word. The lady kind of implies like ladylike, like, be a proper lady.
Don't, you know, don't be a, uh, what is it? Wild. There's a really funny quote about like, wild women will change the world. Or there's something like that. The lady to me, plus lady, like powerful, I think my brain immediately went to kind of like muscle militant masculine. So what I'm finding as I'm thinking, it's a really great question 'cause it's like, oh, uh, you're meshing the masculine and the feminine in one, which is the truth, I think.
Mm-hmm. Gosh, I can admit, you know, when I was a tech consultant engineer, I had to act like one of the guys. I, uh, I didn't necessarily enjoy it. It was a coping thing I had to do, I felt I needed to do. But definitely at the time and place, I think as I've gone through life, I've embraced my femininity so much more.
And that there is strength and power in femininity. When you're using it. When you're using, using it for good and you're using it that way. Mm-hmm.
No, it's, it's, it's, um, changing so much. Right? Like I think that there have been. So many terms that we have chosen to step into as women in terms that have been given and applied to us.
And it's really interesting as well from a. Cultural perspective where people have grown up and what their experience have been to, to see how those words affect them. Like I have some people who are like, I'm gonna be on your podcast, but I hate the name of it. And I'm like, okay, great. Let's talk about it.
What do they hate? That's so interesting. I, they're really triggered by the word ladies, or they think the fact that we have to call it powerful ladies is like. Some kind of rah rah something or other. So it's, I'm just really intrigued by the vast, interesting, um, definitions that people have. And I think, you know, part of for me having this podcast is showing how many, what the variety of what it looks like to be a woman and to be powerful.
And a lot of people also thought like they couldn't be on this podcast 'cause they weren't done yet. And I'm like, well, if you're done, you're dead. Like, aren't be able to talk to you. Just constant.
We're just, I think of my life as just a constant work in progress. Yeah. Continual improvement and a constant work in progress.
How can I do it better? Be better, find more joy, be more true to myself, and also accepting the twists and turns along the, the way. You know, I, I have a, a saying that I, I call back on a lot. It's not meant to be morbid, it's the truth. It's, I live, I'm living for my deathbed where I want to get there and whenever that is, and be kind of like laughing at the adventures I had and going, oh God, you did that too.
That was crazy, Julie. Or, yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad I had that moment and I'm so glad I lived with peace with that situation or with forgiveness, or, I'm so glad, like looking forward to be able to look back with pride on how I did is how I live.
No, I love that part of my mission statement says to live a ridiculous and extraordinary life.
And I don't think we put the ridiculousness, the ridiculous part in enough. Mm-hmm. And we are so, we took so
seriously. We're so serious all the time.
Yeah. Why? And that's the exhausting part. And yeah, it really is. Um, so obviously with all the work you're doing, you create space for so many people and you have.
All of your clients, all of the guests you're hosting, this whole world that you're managing, plus being a mom and everything else that are all the different parts of you. You mentioned meditation and journaling and tapping before, but how active are you about scheduling time for yourself and how do you balance whatever that balance looks like for you to be a great entrepreneur, but also a great everything else?
Hmm.
There's a, a saying that my fellow entrepreneurial friends and I joke about where it's, you know, leave the nine to five to work 24 7. And I do think I'll say this. So something shifted even in my work in the culinary world, when I first graduated culinary school and started working, I was doing a mostly corporate client projects.
Mm-hmm. Recipes, videos, representing brands. Those actually gave me a, okay, I can close my laptop, I can close the door, the projects down. I build 'em. I can give myself time off since I've leaned more into create, running more of my own business and my own revenue streams, if you will. Mm-hmm. With coaching programs and cooking programs and travel.
It's a bottomless pit of work to do. Yes, you can let alone, I mean, you bring some social media into that fold. You know, Instagram's a bottomless pit of Feed Me, feed Me, and mm-hmm. It, I, it's taken a lot. I, I do use some tools and techniques where a friend of mine who's a life coach has everybody that she coaches, and she's, she does this herself.
She's very powerful and accomplished. She'll just. Jot down what she accomplished that day, at the end of every day, to remind herself that she accomplished things. Mm-hmm. It's also giving yourself permission to not have to be everywhere all the time. I, I do find, and I co, I coach, I actually do business coaching for entrepreneurs too.
Either helping them learn how to use Instagram and digital marketing for their space, or helping them figure out how to work with brands and do brand collaborations for revenue streams. Mm-hmm. And, you know. I always try to tell them, and this is so important for everybody listening or watching out there, social media is designed to be addictive to humans.
That's how they're making money. I worked in tech. They're just, they're developing these to give us a serotonin hit and make us stay hooked. Why? We all scroll. So I'll pick up our phone and lose an hour of our lives, just scrolling and you leave feeling kind of icky. You leave feeling, yeah, disconnected, a little icky, even if you're not falling into comparison culture.
And as an entrepreneur who uses it as a marketing tool, you really better beware because you have to always remember these platforms are just for marketing. They're not you and your life. There are lots of other ways to market yourself too. So I dunno if I answered the question properly, I'll be honest.
That's something that's definitely like a constant. I have a great partner. I live with my boyfriend. He'll remind me, you know, you've done enough, you're good. Um mm-hmm. There's a beautiful, beautiful flexibility in running your own business, but setting limits on that too, and saying like, I won't work past this time, or I'll work this weekend, but only because I gave myself a day or two off during the week.
It's just creating your own set of. New boundaries for yourself.
Yeah. I, I love that of, of what the boundaries and rules look like for you. You know, I'm constantly telling people to stop doing what everyone else says. You're supposed to, as you mentioned, like anything's a bottomless pit. You could always be ha you, your business could always be more sophisticated.
It could always have a bigger team, it could always make more money. It could always help more clients. And there's something really powerful about choosing that right size for you. Where it's like, you know, I asked a client the other day, I'm like, how much more do you need? Right? And they were like, I've never asked that question.
And I was like, okay. I'm like, because you know what? If this is perfect the way it is, like
Exactly. You're fine. Yeah. Like, don't. Don't. It's tricky because there's also, there's a lot of hustle culture out there. Mm-hmm. Being preached to women entrepreneurs in particular, or men I guess too. Another phrase that I really like is defining done.
Yeah, for yourself, whether it's done for the day, done for the week, I use a really cool planner that a friend of mine created where you assess your prior week and your week going forward and you really winnow down to, these are the top three things I need to work on. And it, it's actually like monthly, weekly, daily.
And it gets you to kind of really clarify and think like, what define done for today and you know. I do love the business coaches who say like, just pick three things. Honestly. If you do three things and make 'em really doable, then you can feel good about yourself instead of, no, you don't wanna build a business for yourself that you hate.
Why?
No? Yeah. No. That it's, it's why I was excited about talking to you today. 'cause there's so much vocabulary that you use in all of your platforms where I'm like, yep, we understand that we're on the same page. Like definitely we're here to have fun. We'll make as much money while we're having as much fun as possible.
But if there's not fun and that purpose and impact, like you said before, like social media will drain your soul. So what are we doing to fill it? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You know, I'm sure a lot of people listening are wondering how you got connected to the food network, how you got on tv, like was that a natural progression or was that something that you chased after?
It was so unexpected and fun. I, let's see. So Food Network was an internship right at culinary school and they actually wanted to hire me full time and I was, I was considering it and then I had someone give me some great advice and those advice comes from the funniest places. And they said, look, you just left the corporate world.
Do you really wanna go back to corporate right away? Because it's gonna be corporate if you work there. I took the leap right then and there to do my own. I called it like content creation, kind of consulting business. And honestly, I'm a great, I've always been a great people person and a connector. I have a curious mind.
I like to connect others, I like to help others and. Something I definitely did, and I mean, I graduated culinary school, I was 40. So for anyone out there who's debating some career change, you know, I, so I'm in my forties, I get in with some corporate brands and I'm slowly, I used my consulting skills.
Another thing for career changers, things you don't even think will come into play in your new career will help you. So my ability to navigate companies, to build consulting projects. I used my past engineering management consulting career in the food world to build all these corporate. Connections.
Connections. And they referred and all this. But it was funny, I kind of said right outta the gate, I was like, well, I'm not, I'm not a blogger. I'm not, that's just not my jam. I'm a business woman. I'm going to use what I know about food in the business world. And I started noticing that, especially with the Dawn.
It was just before Instagram really. But I started noticing that people who were building a personal brand were getting deals that I wasn't because they were bringing something to the table that I didn't have. I was a professional with all these skills, but I was kind of. Almost ghost writing, you know, just mm-hmm.
Giving brands content. And I realized, you know, I really better, I'm, uh, I'm definitely like a scrappy businesswoman. I always have been. I think that comes from my background. So I was like, I really need to build a personal brand in all of this. So as I started doing that, I took a leap and I'm really happy I did.
It worked so well. And you never would, I never would've thought I would, um, work with a publicist, but I hired one and she's a female entrepreneur who runs her business. So right before I started working with her. A client that I worked with who I loved, I did a lot of work with Bed Bath and Beyond.
Mm-hmm. And it was, they used to have a food blog as on their site and videos and all this content. And the woman who was running it, she and I just hit it off. I always find friends with my clients, my corporate clients. I'm all like, I won't, otherwise, it's like, it's probably not gonna work. We're either gonna be friends or, yeah.
And she loved me and she wanted me on video and I was like, I have no video experience. I've done some like business presentations, but I have no clue how to do a video. And my first video, I was like 43 years old. It was carving a Turkey one, Turkey one take, and I was terrified. And, you know, like carving a Turkey and you're on video and you know, I, I stayed curious.
I listened. My first few videos were terrible. I, I started just saying yes to more opportunities like that. I, I say yes to things before anyone tells me I'm ready. That's been a mantra my whole life. No one's ever going to. Rarely. If you wait around for people to tell you you're ready, you're never gonna get anywhere.
You just have to start saying yes and accept that you might screw up. You might, it might be cringey. There's a really hilarious Bed, bath and Beyond video. My daughters teased me for, I have like a big side pony and crazy makeup, and it's about wine glasses and I'm, I'm like, swirling isn't snobby. They laugh so hard.
But it was, you know, it was a way to get experience and mm-hmm. So I hired a publicist after this and I say, you know. I'm built. I'm doing all this great work with all these corporate clients, but I feel like I need to do more and leverage my skills on camera because I've been told that I'm good on camera, and it started so small I would do, and I was terrified.
The first time I did it, it was like a Facebook live show that some woman had that was so scared and so uptight, and I just kept at it. I wasn't afraid to work really hard, so I didn't go on TV and live TV till my mid forties. Again, for women out there who have any age, the other thing I'm very anti is ageism, especially with women.
We're really hard on ourselves as we age and, and our faces change. Society is terrible about it, so we have to consciously choose to not. Fall into that or believe it. So I would get up at like 4:00 AM and drive to Connecticut to do an unpaid tv. They don't pay you to do tv. You show up with all your food and your props that you set up, and I got better at it and better at it and better at it and better at it.
And then I'd out on bigger shows and bigger shows and national shows, and then. Brands started noticing me. They were saying, oh, hey, we can hire you and you can do a cooking segment featuring our thing. And suddenly it turned into this massive revenue stream. And now I've represented so many different brands on air.
So when it comes to saying yes to adventures, taking leaps, it is definitely important to. Know when to invest in yourself. So with this publicist, we worked together for a year or two. I loved her. We're still in touch. She's amazing. Mm-hmm. So we kind of plateaued. We worked together. She got me to a point, and then I took it and I moved from there.
Mm-hmm. And since then, I've definitely worked with, you know, different business coaches or different people. I hire people to help me, or I hire people, I coach people, people coach me. I think keeping your, your juices flowing with new ideas is really important and new connections.
Yeah, absolutely. So for everyone who wants to find you, follow you, come on your trip, where can they find all the things?
All the things? Well, I'm a personal brand.
I used to go by cooking with Julie, but I decided it was too limiting. It's not just cooking. So it's julie Hartigan.com and that's with A-T-H-A-R-T-I-G-A-M and Instagram. I'm Julie Hartigan. I think on YouTube I do have a YouTube show that might still be cooking with Julie, but just do julie Hartigan.com and you're gonna find everything.
Amazing. I'm sure there are lots of women who would be excited about your trip. So you have one in May, and then do you have the next one kind of booked out and planned? Mm-hmm.
It's half full and I'm very excited about it. It's in October in Tuscany and we have a truffle hunt like where the puppies go, barking into the woods and you dig up the truffles.
And we go to, we visit spas, we do wine tasting, we're doing cheese making and olive oil press. So Cool. And I'll be adding on more locations, so. For Spring 2024, I'm adding on a Sicily experience for women more Tuscany, and I know it's such a bu I, I laugh. I like pinch myself sometimes. I'm going to be in France.
Spring in the Lair Valley, which are these Chateau that kings and queens used to live in with where Sun, air and Chaon, different wines are made. And I'm considering adding. I'm just gonna keep adding more itineraries as I go. Italy is just the start, so anyone listening or watching, I would love to host you and bring you and I something that I take pride into.
And the women coming with me are happy about. I, I help them get from their, their front door to where the tour starts. I don't just say like, you're joining my tour. See you there. Yeah. I help them figure out, 'cause that can be overwhelming if you don't travel a lot so
well and, and having all of that taken care of, it's such a, such peace of mind because you love the idea of this trip and you're like, I'm a yes, but there's so many steps before I get there.
So the know that you're gonna help with the whole thing is great. Mm-hmm. We ask everyone on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful Lady scale. If zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you could imagine, where do you put yourself today and on an average day?
Oh gosh.
Okay. Let's see. Today and on an average day. Well, I, I have to say like your, your line of questioning and just getting to chat with you made me feel more powerful. You know, you, you, I think you're really great at shining a light on people and their, their skills and their talent. So I felt like you brought that out in me and I guess I would say a seven I'll go with and on an average day, oh gosh, I think we all have our ups downs all arounds, right?
Mm-hmm. Like, I'd like to say that I do average at a seven and feeling very good about myself and powerful. Constantly striving to be a 10. I wanna feel so actualized and powerful. And like you said earlier too, there's power in saying I get to just kick back and rest right now. I'm not working. Power doesn't mean constantly working.
Power means a flex move of living life on your terms, the way you wanna live it with your definition of success and your definition of happiness.
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think being an entrepreneur, being anyone up to designing a life on your terms. I, I joke, I'm like, I think the number can change hourly based on what's happening in the day.
For
sure. I think weathering the storms, that's a, a continual life lesson to say, you know, if you have a setback or something happens, a, there's probably a lesson in it. It's all learning. So I'm better now when I do goof up or something doesn't go the way I want it to say, there's a lesson in here. It's all learning.
Mm-hmm. It's all just learning and just do it differently and better next time. Don't. Beat yourself up and kind of duck spiral about it.
Yeah, exactly. We've also been asking everyone, what do you need? How can we help you? This is a big, connected, powerful community, uh, and I really do believe that, uh, asking for what you want or need or what's next is the fastest way to get it.
Mm-hmm. Uh, so what is something that's on your wishlist? Sure.
So I'm very passionate about the, these women's travel experiences. As a solopreneur, I'm definitely marketing them and talking about them to large groups of women and networking groups and such. Mm-hmm. But I want to make sure I'm able to get the word out to a lot of women, like I won't be able just on my own.
Mm-hmm. To keep filling all of these groups that I can host. So what I'm gonna put out there to you and to the universe is help in spreading the word and saying, Hey, you know, I heard this woman speaking. She sounds really cool and fun, and I'm there to take care of you all the whole way through. I would love help in getting the word out so that people come to me and know that I'm a trusted, safe, fun person to travel with.
Yeah, I love that for sure. Uh, and I think we can talk offline too about some people that I would love to connect you with 'cause uh, there's some women who are right up your alley that, um, I think could be great. Um, great partners and not just spreading the word, but having more fun and eating more good food.
Yeah. That sounds perfect. Well, I am so glad that we got to connect today. Thank you for being a Yes to me and to powerful ladies. Thank you for sharing your story. And I can't wait to see you in New York or in Italy soon.
I would love that. It was so wonderful to meet you too. Thanks for having me on.
Thanks for all the work you do and put out into the world. You're putting a lot of positivity and. Support for women out in the world. So thank you too for what you do.
All the links to connect with Julie are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me. Visit Kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
Related Episodes
Episode 280: What If Food Could Heal Everything? | Whitney Aronoff | Chef & Starseed Kitchen Founder
Episode 304: Fighting Food Waste and Building a Mission-Driven Startup | Kari Morris | Co-Founder of Martie
Episode 267: She Launched a Gourmet Food Brand at 60 | Kristin Middleton | Founder of Bougie Gougies
Instagram: @juliehartigan
YouTube: @cookingwjulie
Facebook: @cookingwjulie
Website: juliehartigan.com
LinkedIn:juliehartigan
TikTok: @julie_hartigan
Email: hello@juliehartigan.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
