If you’ve been through my introductory experience–Positively PrimeTime: The 7-Day Revolution–then you created a “perfect day” visualization. I love this exercise, because it’s a way to play the “long game” with a real sense of clarity.

My perfect day drives everything I do right now. It’s the fuel for my fire. It’s what brings me back to task when disappointment or fatigue sets in. And it provides my sense of purpose—the WHY—to nearly every one of my strategies…

You may or may not know that I’ve been madly in love with my hubby for 20 years. He lights me up and turns me on in a way that makes me feel like the luckiest girl on Earth. You may also know that we live apart about 70% of the time. This wasn’t our plan—but it’s our current reality. He works and lives in Arizona during the week—I in California—and we’re creative about how and where we spend our time together.

In my perfect day, Jan and I are living our dream: the “endless summer.” In increments of six weeks to three months, we live in cities where it’s summer. Always, endlessly summer. A perfect year might look like this (starting in January):

Sydney, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
SAN DIEGO
Barcelona, Spain
SAN DIEGO
Caribbean Cost of Costa Rica
SAN DIEGO

You see that San Diego plays home base. And because the sun shines here most of the year (and we own a house here), we return between adventures to take care of business, connect with our son, and plan our next adventure.

My understanding of my “perfect day” started with a desired feeling… a state of being. But now, I can show you what it looks like in full detail…

Let’s say we’re in Lisbon, Portugal:

It’s before 7:00 a.m., and Jan and I are sitting in the day’s fresh new sunshine at an outdoor coffee shop, eating delicious food that’s every color. We’re fully at ease… laughing and talking and discussing news and events and our plans for the day. After he leaves the coffee shop to continue on HIS OWN perfect day, I have a scheduled meeting with a woman there. She’s someone I barely know, but I’m about to get to know her better…

This vibrant and fascinating PrimeTime woman is a new client. And for the next six-to-twelve weeks, I’m going to guide her through creating a life and a brand that sets her soul on fire. I feel butterflies in my stomach about our first solo meeting—it’s like the first day of school. I cannot stop smiling.

I met this woman in a two-day workshop that I hosted in Lisbon. There were about fifty women there, and together, each one of these women uncovered her “essence” through a series of deep and rewarding exercises. Each woman came to understand who she was and what she truly longed for—there were tears and a-ha moments and true new friendships forged—as I gently pushed her toward self-discovery and ownership of her dreams.

The women signed up for the workshop because they saw me give a talk. Maybe a TED-style talk at a local lounge or pub. Maybe a motivational speech at a local concert hall or convention center. But I gave this talk just days after I set foot in Lisbon. And it set the stage for everything I’m to do there during my stay.

There are four or five more women like the one I’m about to meet who’ve signed on to work with me in this way. Each has different dreams, desires, goals, and circumstances. But all of these women are leaning into PrimeTime. They are all designing lives and/or businesses that totally turn them on. I feel blessed—honored—to be part of this. And I can’t wait to get started…

In my perfect day, I am always living within a SET OF CONDITIONS that were carefully created through a tested and proven STRATEGY:

I’m in a city that’s not my own.
I’ve been exposed to a thousand women in this city through a speech.
I’ve gotten to know 25-50 of them over two days’ time in a workshop.
I’ll get to know 5-6 of them intimately over a few months.

I am rooted in this city—even though it’s new and not my own—because I’ve bonded with these women. I’ve created true connection and community (my heart’s deepest desire) through a message of love and power that I believe it is my purpose to deliver.

I am far away from home and right at home, all at the same time. As I walk through the streets, grocery shop, sip Sangria at dusk, or dance to local music… I run into women who recognize me and trust me. We strike up conversation. I feel whole.

Once or twice a year, I bring women from ALL of these cities (and more) together at a retreat in San Diego. I go home… and bring the most vividly beautiful souls of each city (its powerful PrimeTime women) to share my own city.

My vision of my perfect future day (laughs in the morning sunshine, lazy afternoon sex with my hunky hubby on white cotton sheets with the ocean in our view, interesting new friends, exotic flavors, sites, and sounds…) drives the business strategy I’m designing and perfecting TODAY:

>>Speech>>Workshop>>Transformational one-one-one coaching>>Deep-Dive Group Retreat

When Jan and I first began to discuss the “endless summer” it was simply a phrase and an unidentified feeling:

Wanderlust played out in a glorious sun-shower.

But we’re only 18 months away from a little “test-run” now when we’ll take a longish vacation… And I can see and taste it in a way I never have.

I hear lots of business mentors and coaches say, “You’ve gotta know your WHY.” And I think that’s true… in a very basic sense.

What I believe is that you’ve gotta know your DESIRED STATE. Your PERFECT DAY. What TURNS YOU ON. What SETS YOUR SOUL ON FIRE…

You’ve gotta know what pure joy LOOKS LIKE if you’re gonna pursue it.

And then, you need a workable strategy to get there.

Many of you have watched me for years—introducing and testing new programs, expanding my skill set and stretching, putting myself out there in ways that might seem risky…

I do these things not because I’m bored, or because I simply desire to go “next level.” While things were admittedly murky when I  began… over time I’ve become uber-specific in my objectives.

I developed my business STRATEGY because it’s filled with moments that I LOVE, that will take me to the perfect day that I LONG FOR.

My vision (the endless summer with my honey) and desire (deep and meaningful connection in exotic locations) drive my strategy (speech>>workshop>>coaching>>retreat).

Can you close your eyes and see an element of your perfect day? Something that makes your heart skip a beat? Something that feels so rich and utterly sublime and REAL that you can’t get it out of your head?

If not, I implore you to start imagining. Because believe me, it’s a helluva a lot easier to get up and push through the day when you see the possibilities on the other side.

I started typing this message at 4:00 a.m. And I was excited to do it…

Let your dreams define your strategies.
Let your strategies drive your tactics.
And design a life that makes you leap out of bed each morning.

Will you share in the comments below a snippet of your dream day? Just a taste of what pure satisfaction looks like for you?

Because it all starts as a tiny, hot little spark…
And before you know it, you’re on FIRE.

P.S. If you’re a PrimeTime woman and your DREAM DAY is something you’ve never considered, join us in the 7-Day Revolution. I’ll show you how to DARE to dream… to SEE your perfect life. So you can create strategies to live your perfect day. Click here for full details.

It took me forty years and 12 weeks to write a book.

Forty years to think about it, talk about it, tell other people I was going to do it… 

Forty years to stress about it, hate myself for not doing it, hate other people for stealing my ideas…

Forty years to wonder if the world would like it, hide from the potential criticism, and tell myself I wasn’t good enough…

Forty years to beat around the proverbial bush. (Which, by the time I was nearly 50, had grown to the size of a redwood.)

>>I spent the first ten of those years telling myself I wasn’t old enough. I wasn’t ready.

>>I spent the last ten of those years telling myself I was too old. No one would want to hear what I had to say, and there wasn’t enough time left, anyway. 

>>And I spent the twenty years in between telling myself I had more important things to do—a son to raise, a career to foster, a business to manage, money to make, houses to buy, a marriage to serve and protect, parties to plan, vacations to take, sh&% to do around the house… I actually convinced myself that writing a book would be “irresponsible.”

And then one morning, I had a massive realization. A shift that changed me forever.

No one warned me about what would happen in middle age.

That the shape of my body would change, but the shape of my dreams wouldn’t.

That I’d nurse both of my parents through soul-wrenching illnesses while raising a son, and that I’d lose all three of them.

That I’d feel more sexual, but worry that I wasn’t as sexy.

That I’d finally master a 25-year career, and then grow entirely bored with it.

That I’d hear a calling to do something grand—something magnificent—but be terrified to answer that call.

That I’d care less what people thought, and at the same time believe I was worth less because I’d lived more.

That my hormones would shift… and that from moment to moment I could feel rage, love, wonder, despair… and then feel totally stuck.

No one warned me about what would happen in middle age.

But then, no one told me how amazing it could be, either.

A couple of months ago, my husband, Jan, flew us from Carlsbad, California to Yuma, Arizona. He’s a private pilot and we go back and forth between our home and our business in a little Beechcraft Bonanza.

I’ll be honest. I don’t love the little plane.

From the moment Jan said that he was going to get his pilot’s license, I resisted. So it was with more than a little trepidation that I yanked my head out of the sand on this particular morning as I sat in the passenger seat, in response to an urgent plea—through the headset during take-off—from Jan.

As he was steering the plane onto the runway, he looked at me (I was reading on my phone as I normally do) and said:

“Julia, I need you to pay attention here.”

My immediate thoughts?

What the fu&%??!! I don’t know anything about flying a plane! Why do I need to pay attention?? What is going ON? Something is WRONG. Continue reading

Nashville is presently the bachelorette party capital of the world.
Yes, I said it: the WORLD.

And during the four days I spent there in early October, I saw enough brides—and enough bridesmaids—to fill a hundred churches on a hundred sunny Saturdays in June. It seemed that every time I looked up there were bridal parties dancing by in the back of a pick-up truck. Or the back of a hollowed-out 18-wheeler. Or a trailer being pulled by a tractor. Or once, a chopped off milk truck.

I’m not being metaphorical here. In Nashville, the brides and their parties actually party while MOVING THROUGH town. It’s a thing. It’s loud and it’s messy and it’s not very traditional. But lemme tell ya something. Those brides? They’ve got it ALL going on.

They are OWNING Nashville. Right from the middle of the road….

Continue reading

I used to daydream about being a DJ.
Not when I was 5 or 17.
I’m talking about when I was in my 40’s. As a grown-ass woman.

Over and over, I had the same vision:

I’m in front of a room full of people. The bass is thumping and everyone is kind of rocking together in unison…Like the whole room is operating as a single unit. The lights are fuschia and violet and bright white and they’re panning over the crowd, and I can see arms in the air and smiling faces…

And as the music rises to a crescendo and the beat of the bass gets faster, the room rises with it and I hear the sound of screams and laughter and I can see all of the people transcending. Transforming. Becoming. And then going WILD.

Continue reading

In early October, I tumbled helplessly down a rabbit hole in a little bar called Robert’s Western World. I’d gone to Nashville to speak at an event, and that first night, my friend Carla and I were itchin’ to get a taste of the Nashville scene.

(Side note: this is the third of my four “Lessons from Nashville.” If you missed the others, you can find them here on the Strategic Juju blog.)

If you’ve never been to Nashville, you should know that one of the most remarkable things about Broadway—the street that runs through the center of town—is how CLOSE you can get to the music. Immensely talented musicians pour their hearts out just feet away from you in a beautiful transfer of energy that’s a gift beyond belief.

I’m not gonna lie, I am not a fan of country music. But the live music in Nashville is so good, that the genre is entirely irrelevant.

Robert’s is a honky-tonk. Wooden floor and bar, stools that are bolted to the floor. There are rows of cowboy boots for sale on dusty shelves and posters tacked to every inch of the walls. There’s a sign behind the bar that says: “Dumb-Asses This Way.” Back-to-back people—almost all of them shockingly friendly—in boots and jeans and leather vests, holding Bud Lights and nodding to the music, let out an occasional whoop or an “aaah, yeaaah.”

There’s nothing fancy about Robert’s. But it’s got a vibe that just won’t quit.

I fell down the rabbit hole that night at Robert’s when I saw a 19-year-old guitar player named Luke McQueary. And I went on a journey with him that shocked the sh*& out of me, and kept me thinking about it for days.

Continue reading