WEBVTT - Julia Haart: Her Unorthodox Life 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:03.320 Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Julia Hart. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.360 Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.680 women who dared to pivot out of one career and 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.079 into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:32.920 these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Welcome back 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.159 to she Pivots. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. You 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.639 know when you meet someone and you're immediately enthralled by 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:45.159 their energy. That was me with Julia Hart when I 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.560 watched her reality show My Unorthodox Life, I honestly wasn't 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.720 really sure what she would be like in real life, 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.640 and it turns out she is exactly the same. She 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.040 is undoubtedly herself, and as someone who has struggled to 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.240 feel like my serious energy is welcome in a world 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.320 demanding us to be more serious, I can't help but 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:09.640 feel inspired by her, especially since Julia hasn't always been 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.360 a snappy, fashionable, bold woman. Julia was born into an 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.360 ultra Orthodox Jewish community, but after having her daughters, she 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.640 became increasingly uncomfortable with how they were treated and how 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.960 the community made women conform. In search of a life 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.280 of more freedom for both herself and her daughters she left. 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.880 She used what skill she had as a former teacher 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.600 to go on to make a series of incredible pivots, 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.120 from starting her own shoe line, to become a creative 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.080 director of La Perla and Italian luxury lingerie line, to 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.440 becoming CEO and co owner of Elite World Group, to 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.200 landing her own reality series on Netflix. The two seasons 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.880 of the show feature the contrast between the glitz and 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.200 the glamor of their lives now in the fashion industry, 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:57.520 and their decision to leave behind their former religious lives, 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.200 from a life and a community that barely allowed or 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.800 to express herself or to dream of a bigger life. 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.000 Julia has embraced this new phase of her life with vivacity. 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.640 Here's a woman who has been through so much but 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.400 has truly come out on the other side, determined to 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.960 make a life that is truly and uniquely her own. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:26.720 Enjoy. My name is Julia Hart. I am the executive 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.520 producer and star of My Unorthodox Life. I'm the author 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.240 of a best selling novel, Brazen, and i am the 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.160 CEO of my new shaper brand Body by Julia Hart. 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.840 So lay the groundwork for us a little bit to 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:43.280 understand a little bit more about the community that you 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.440 grew up in, married and raised your children in for 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.280 most of their lives. Tell us more so you know, 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.560 my community is again a very very small part of 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:58.639 the Jewish people. It's a very extremist sect, right, And 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.880 I raised to be a. 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:03.919 Wife and a mother. That was my purpose in life. 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:08.040 My high school education was just a joke, a complete 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.120 cham and we were taught that our purpose in life 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.919 was all the same. So I guess the simplest way 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.760 to explain it is your biology to find your destiny. 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.560 You're born a woman, your purpose is to be a 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.000 wife and a mother. You're born a man. Your purpose 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.640 is to become a great rabbi and become a Torus scholar. 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.000 Every morning in my world they say thank you Gud 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.520 for not making me a woman, right, And when you 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.960 ask why, they say, oh, because men have more positive commandments. 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:36.160 Right. 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.760 They're supposed to go to synagogue, they're supposed to learn 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.600 Torah and women aren't. But then when you ask the 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.440 question of why aren't women allowed to do that? And 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:50.200 then the answer you get is because if a man 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.480 her husband, who is her master and commander on this 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.480 earth tells her to make dinner, and at the same 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.440 time God is telling her to go pray. Who's she 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.760 supposed to listen to? Which master comes first? So therefore 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:05.680 she doesn't have to go to synagogue. So she only 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.240 has one master and commander, and that is her husband. Okay, 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.880 So that is that's the world I grew up in. 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.760 And you know right now as you see, you know 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.840 everything that's happening to the Jewish communities all over the world. 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.719 And people ask me all the time, how can you 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.880 yell about this and then stand for here? And I 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.039 to me, I honestly, I never I don't understand the 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.960 question because I love my community. I always say there's 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.800 no villains in my story. There are only victims. But 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:35.320 the laws have to change. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.120 Julia lived in Atlanta at the time, and on top 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:41.479 of raising her kids and caring for her family, she 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:43.200 was also required to work. 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.800 So I always worked. I was teaching pretty much every 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.600 Judaic subject there is. I was teaching Clumbish, which is 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:57.000 Bible navim, which are the prophets, hysteria, Jewish history, Parsha 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.919 which is like the weekly toer reading, plumation, Gillows, which 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.359 was oh gosh, how do I translate some of these things? 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.520 I don't know, but like the Book of Esther, stuff 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.160 like that. I taught pretty much every Jewish subject you 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.000 could get your hands on, except for the Hebrew language. 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.840 I never taught Hebrew as a course. And so you know, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.440 I taught in two schools, and I had to do 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.400 all the preparation. And again there's no workbook, there's no 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.479 you were literally sitting there and compiling classes. It would 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.200 take me like four to five hours to create a 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.320 class because I didn't want any of my students ever 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.680 looking at their watches. I always wanted to end on 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.960 a cliffhanger. I'm a perfectionist. I'm gonna do something. I'm 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.520 gonna do something. So usually from ten to like two 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.520 in the morning is when I prepared the next day's things, 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.600 and i'd be up at seven. I'd make breakfast for 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.720 my husband when I had kids, who was change diapers, 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.719 Get everybody off to school, Go teach in one school, 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.320 find a time to eat at some point while you're 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.159 going from one school to the next school, come home, 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.520 make dinner, get ready for you know, I always had 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:02.919 guests all over the house, so make sure everybody's in 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.880 a room and they have food, and then when everyone 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:08.800 put everyone to bed, and then when all the kids 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.480 are asleep, start all over again at ten o'clock at night, 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.880 start marking papers and preparing for the next year. How 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.640 did you manage child's care? So when I was teaching, 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:24.039 we had this very lovely woman who it was the 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.680 mother of one of my best friends, and so she 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.440 was there nanny. So when I was teaching, she babe. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.760 Us at the community she lived in has been described 0:06:32.800 --> 0:06:36.600 as ultra orthodox. They keep a stark divide between men 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.679 and women, Like Julia said, the main job of women 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.120 was to have and raise children, and oftentimes women and 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:47.480 their mothers had kids simultaneously, so much so that Julia 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:48.919 even nursed her own brother. 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:52.200 I mean I was a cow like to them, I'm 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.599 just a body. It doesn't matter, Like I'm just a 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.240 feeding machine. I could have fed thirty other people. Because 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.520 if your biology defines you, your destiny, who you are 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:03.039 as an individual is irrelevant. 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.359 How did you did you start to test boundary? He's like, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.160 what sparked for you to think, oh, maybe there's something 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:10.320 outside of this life? 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.880 My daughter Miriam, so my entire life there From the 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.840 day that we moved in until the day I walked 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.200 out the door, I was fighting this internal battle, this 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:28.559 unsolvable dichotomy between who I am intrinsically as a human being. 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.600 I'm not try I'm not quiet. I love to study 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.920 and learn. I am very entrepreneurial. I you know, I'm 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.280 good at organizing things, like I had so much here 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.040 on one hand and the other hand, being told Julia, 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.360 stop talking, stop reading. What's wrong with you? Why can't 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.160 you be like other women? If I tell you how 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:49.360 many times I got called into the raba's office and 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:54.000 just say, Julia, why can't you behave? Behave? And what 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:55.400 do they mean behave? It's not like I was wearing 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:57.520 miniskirts there because I wasn't. I was covered head to 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:01.000 toe behavian. Stop arguing with men. Stop reading books you're 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:04.800 not supposed to read. That was my misbehaving, right, educating myself, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.520 that was a problem. So there was this constant dichotomy 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.840 between who I am intrinsically as a person and who 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:12.720 I was told I had to be to be loved 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.960 by God. But I thought that that was my fault, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.080 like something was inherently wrong in me. I was somehow 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:21.720 flawed because all the other women around me were happy, 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.640 Like what was Why wasn't child rearing enough? Like why 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:29.480 did I need more? And so I blamed myself. And 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.600 then my daughter Miriam comes around, and first of all, 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.520 she's a newdist This kid I could not keep clothes 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:40.320 on her body for love or money. Literally, I'll never forget. 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.160 I was in Alanta and I'm walking with my stroller 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.640 and NeiMa Marcus, and I've got, you know, the bugaboo, 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.400 like the fancy stroller, and I'm feeling good. I've got 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.320 my nice wig on, and everybody's looking at the stroller 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.040 and I'm like, oh, my daughter is just so beautiful. 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.200 Everybody's staring at her. At some point I go around 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.320 to pick something, a clothing like up and she was 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.880 stark naked between somehow between the door of Neem and Marcus, 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:09.600 And when I got into the middle of the store, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.040 she had literally slowly taken off all her clothes. She 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.120 was two, so but it was very embarrassing. So here 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.800 was this little independent spirit who wouldn't be confined in 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.480 any way, shape or form now in my clothes. And 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:26.280 then when she was a little bit older, she wanted 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.080 to play soccer, and my husband told her, you can't, 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:34.160 and she asked why. He said, well, if you play soccer, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:35.959 you're playing in a skirt, right, because when I WoT 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.560 to wear pants, if you play soccer in a skirt, 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.600 a man could be walking by the field and he 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.160 may see your knees and get turned on and have 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.880 inappropriate thoughts, and that will be your fault. So you 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.920 can't play soccer. And I'll never forget Miriam. She was 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.400 five or six years old. I mean, let's not talk 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:58.960 about the kind of man that gets turned on by 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.000 women's knees, but a five year old's needs. But okay, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.920 let's leave that alone for a minute. She looks at 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.960 my husband and she says, okay, Well, if he's responsible, 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.679 if I'm responsible for his sins, is he responsible for mine? 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.480 And that was all it took. Hearing that from the 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:19.960 mouth of a five year old. They had convinced me 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.199 that I was somehow flawed for not being okay with it. 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.480 Hearing the just sound reasonable logic coming out of the 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.040 mouth of literally a five or six year old, that 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.080 changed it for me because I realized it wasn't me, 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:34.880 it was these laws, these rules. 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.520 So after Miriam, did you make a plan at that 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.439 moment to say I have to leave because you did 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:43.080 have another child afterwards? 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:45.720 That was when the beginning and the first eight It 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.960 took me eight years between when I decided I wanted 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:53.520 to leave and when I walked out the door and 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.680 I became a voracious reader. I was completely ignorant. I 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.839 didn't know anything, so books saved my life. Whenever people said, like, 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.120 what if you could pinpoint one thing, I always say books. 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:13.200 I just read, read and read Euripides, Voltaire, Descartes, Spinoza, Pantheism, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.000 you name it, I've read it. And that's how I 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:20.400 educated myself. That's how I changed my vocabulary and learned grammar, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.400 all through reading books. That's all I had. And then 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:24.920 I found a way to make some money so I 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.920 could have because I wasn't leading without my children. And 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.560 then eight years later I got up and I packed 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.040 my blankety blank, and I walked out the door. Not 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.760 a single human being knew what I was doing, nobody, 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.400 because I was so afraid that if someone knew, they 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.840 would tell on me. And again not out of a 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.880 sense of cruelty, out of a sense of responsibility, because 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.360 in their mind, I'm taking my children away from the 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.360 source of holiness and beauty, right, so in their mind 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.040 it would be their duty to tell on me. So 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.600 I just didn't tell anybody, not a single soulnu, not 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.680 one of my friends, nobody, not my siblings, nobody knew. 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:05.280 So where did you go? Like, what did you tell 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.760 your children when you were walking out? And where did 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.640 you literally go? So I didn't tell my children anything. 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.120 My daughter was already married and in Israel, my son 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.040 was in yeshiva in Israel, so it's just Miriam and 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.600 our own and Miriam I was like, let's go on vacation, 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.520 and then it was really just you're going to make 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.959 a fun of me here. So I'd never slept in 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.959 a hotel by myself ever, right forty two years old, 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.840 I'd never rented a hotel room and slept her alone 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.679 like that just had never happened. I get in a can. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.560 I have no idea where we're going. It's the day 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:42.680 that we left was not planned. The day we left 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:47.679 was because again Miriam, the night before she got accused 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.360 of cheating because her essay was too good to have 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.600 been written by a woman. She must have gotten help 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.960 from somebody, and she was devastated. She's like, I worked hard, 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:02.320 it's so good that I'm all like what. And that 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.760 was it. That was the last straw. I literally packed 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.240 our stuff and we walked out the door. So it 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.720 was not planned, completely not planned. I got in the 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.080 car and I look, Okay, where are we going. I 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.160 have no idea where we're going. And we drive into 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.880 the city and I was more comfortable in like the 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.840 forty seventh Street area, because that's where the diamonds are, 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.800 That's where a lot of Jews are. That's like the 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.720 place I would go when I would come into Manhattan. 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.600 And so I'm driving by forty second and I see 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.880 this big w and I'm like, oh my gosh. That 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:34.640 hotel is called Welcome. This is amazing. And so I 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.480 drove into the Double Hotel because it felt like New 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:39.559 York was welcoming me. And so that's where I stayed. 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.360 The first night was at the w Hotel. 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:45.800 We're going to take a short break for some ads. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:55.600 Now back to the show. Barely knowing how to navigate 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:59.320 the quote real world, Julius stayed in hotels for the 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:00.880 next four years. 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.760 I didn't know how to rent a place I was 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:08.600 too in Mayar's task. I was so new to world, 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:10.760 like to the world. I didn't know, and I didn't 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:13.160 understand how anything worked. I really didn't. I had no 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.120 idea how anything worked. Obviously, it is not economical to 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:20.040 stay at a hotel for four years, no to self. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.080 But at the time, it just seemed like a really 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.680 simple solution, you know, And we were living out of 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.280 our suitcases anyway for so many years, because you know, 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:32.840 we basically went to Mars eleven years ago, that's what 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.920 it felt like. It felt like journeying to Mars. So 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.240 you started the shoe company pretty within weeks. Yeah, how 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:42.840 did you know how to start a business? Like know 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.320 how to start a shoe company? And where did you 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.160 know that you had such a flair for fashion? Well, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.800 the religious communities are not known for their fashion. That's 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.560 a mild understated. I remember I once wore this yellow 0:14:55.760 --> 0:15:00.000 suit to school completely covered. I mean we're talking about 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.280 the collar bone, below the elbows, below the knees. They 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.480 get called into the rabbi's office. He's like, Julia, Julia, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.960 what is this? What is this? And I said, what's 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:12.040 wrong with it? I'm covered head to toe and He's like, yes, 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.320 but it's yellow, and I'm like, okay, wearing the toe 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.080 doesn't say you can't wear colors. And he says to me, 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.480 it's too noticeable. You're attracting attention. And I responded and 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.640 I said, look, the day that God stopped making colors 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.200 in flowers and in the rest of the world, you 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:30.440 can tell me black and gray until then, you're not 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.520 going to convince me that God hates color. So I'm 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.640 going to continue wearing color. But I got in trouble 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.080 all the time. So in terms of fashion sense, I 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.800 was drawing clothing and shoes since I was like five, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.640 just hiding them. I just didn't have a knee training, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.280 and I would hide them in my underwear drawer where 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.280 I knew my husband would never look. But I'd been 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.080 drawing really since I was five years old, Like, I 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.640 taught myself how to sew and how to make patterns, 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.960 and I started making my own clothing there. So basically 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.720 what I did is I followed the letter of the law, 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.000 but not the spirit of the law, because yes, I 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:06.640 was covered head to toe, but by the time I 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.400 was out, I was covered head to toe, but the 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.640 clothes I was wearing were so tight, like you could 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.320 see every you know, curve over there. So I figured 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.840 out a way how to be fashionable, which I got 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.720 in trouble for all the time in my world. 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.360 So did you think about trying to get a job 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:26.280 in fashion after you are now living in Times Square 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.080 in the w hotel, like or was it always like, No, 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:30.720 I have a vision I'm going to create, Like, how 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:32.520 did you take that first step to create a shoe company? 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.960 Honestly, I never thought about working for someone because I 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.040 did everything by myself. You know, I left the community 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.360 without help. I'd never heard of Footsteps, which is, you know, 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:44.920 a program that helps women leave my community. I'd never 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:46.640 even heard of it. It didn't occur to me to 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.720 ask for help. And so to me, it was kind 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:51.080 of the same thing if I was going to start 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.560 a shoe company, if I was going to create shoes, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:55.840 because I had this idea to make comfortable shoes that 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.640 you shouldn't have to choose between fashion and comfort, and 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.400 I knew that if I wanted it done, I had 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:03.280 to do it myself. 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.119 In twenty thirteen, she launched her footwear brand, and in 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.240 true Julia fashion, she started her shoe line as a 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.400 way to redefine the idea that beauty and comfort can't 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.000 go together. Her signature platform pumps that she wears to 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.960 any and every occasion put her on the map, opening 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.240 her career to even bigger opportunities. So one of the 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.480 things that I like to think about when talking with 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:28.640 women who have gone through something and then are making 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.480 a pivot, is how all of the skills of the 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.720 thing we did before actually set us up a. 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.760 One hundred percent one hundred percent I mean, think about it. 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.480 I was teaching two jobs, multiple classes, doing all the 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.440 prep work while cooking and cleaning and taking care of babies. 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:50.360 I learned a had a multitask be how to utilize 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.520 every minute of my day optimally and see how to 0:17:54.600 --> 0:18:00.000 keep my cool under extreme circumstances. And there's no question 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.160 that those skills have kept me through. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.359 Those are all through like the executive management kind of category. 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:11.199 Do you think there were actually like particular skills that 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.199 ended up transferring into either creating shoes or then I 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.359 mean from there you went to lapurla and then to 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:18.400 elite world management. 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.359 I think it's not actually a skill, it's I see 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:25.720 the spaces in between people see what is I see? 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.960 What isn't? I am fascinated by the unknown. Because every 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:31.960 industry I go into that, what do I do? I 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.520 literally turn it upside down. Right when I went into 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.320 the shoes, I made the first comfortable high heeled shoe. 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.960 It was beautiful, it was elegant. It was so comfortable 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.080 that at a certain point, I think we were going 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.280 to be carried in the four seasons in Hong Kong 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.600 in their spat even though it's a high heel, because 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.879 it was just so ergonomically designed. Then with Lapurla, I 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:56.679 made clothing with bras and all this stuff built inside. 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:57.959 No one had ever done that before. 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.760 She went on to become the creative director at La Perla, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.480 again challenging the status quo by creating a new line 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.080 that made lingerie more wearable. 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.760 An article recently came out that the only period that 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:14.320 they actually increased in sales was when I was creative director. So, 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.639 like everywhere I go, I turned things around. You know, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.520 the management company EWG, it was a modeling agency, was 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.639 an excellent modeling agency, and I turned it into a 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.280 media congomerate by recognizing that the talent, they're the new media. 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.119 They have the audience and treating them as such and 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:33.000 giving them autonomy in their careers and longevity in their 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.879 careers by making them into brand names on social media. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:40.200 So I think you know the one. I would say 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:43.920 there are two uniting threads in everything I do. One 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.280 is it has to help women somehow. I don't do 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.000 things that aren't female related. I just don't. It's not 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.639 where my head goes. Also, I don't know men. You know, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.879 like you guys grew up together. I started talking to 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.760 guys at forty two. I'm super clueless when it comes 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.560 to men. Women. They're my people. I understand them, I 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.679 love them. I want to make their world better, and 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.720 that's where it comes from. It didn't come from anger 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.119 my community. To the contrary, it comes from this massive love. 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.920 I want the women in my world. I want women 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.280 in every world, in Iran and Saudi Arabia. I want 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.119 every woman to have self determination and autonomy. The point 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:27.680 is everything I do is related and directed and geared 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.560 towards women. My followers are ninety two percent female. I 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.240 think the men who watched my show were either husbands 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.000 of boyfriends of sons of and their mom or their 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:41.320 girlfriend or their sister. Said, you have to watch the show. 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.960 So that's one continuous thread through everything I do, and 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:50.640 then the other one is finding something that's missing, thinking 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.800 how could I do something better, and then organizing it, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.360 streamlining it, and creating a system where it moves automatically. 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.360 That's been my sweet spot. And I think the biggest 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:03.720 part of that is I don't think I know everything. 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.800 I'm an eternal student. I'm always learning. I love the unknown. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.400 I'm obsessed with what isn't and I think most people 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:12.400 are afraid of the unknown. 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:15.280 I'm so happy that you're putting language to this because 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.880 I feel like the big pivot points in my life 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.320 have come from realizing that things that I didn't think 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.320 were skilled were just sort of like personality traits I 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.040 think were then realizing that they were skills. Like I 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.840 was not a good student, I did not excel in school, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.600 and then I worked on a political campaign and I 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:31.160 killed it. 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:33.000 That's success right there. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:35.959 I've never been able to put language to it, So 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:37.560