Welcome to Autumn. I am not going to say ‘how did that happen?’ because I know how it happened and so do you! The most important questions is, are you happy about where you are at as you flip the page of the calendar?
Any of you who have been with me for a while or who know my story understand my last 18 months were dominated by a shock stage three melanoma diagnosis which saw my specialist say, “Julie, you’re in for the fight of your life.”
Fight, consider yourself fought!
For now, anyway. While I’m still on my cancer journey and always will be—I’ll be taking medication daily and experiencing the ‘scanxiety’ of regular MRIs and other tests forever—I’m thrilled to say for the first time since October 2021 I’m so back in the game. After 3 ‘no activity and nothing to see here’ scan results I’m pretty damn happy!
I feel I’ve finally gotten on top of things. I’m feeling a whole lot better, emotionally, physically, mentally. I’m back at the gym, back at the movies, back at shows, back having [early] dinners out. Invite me to your party—I’ll come! I have the energy to be the new me and people are noticing my new vibrancy. I love it.
One thing I’ve really missed and can’t wait to kickstart again is being back in front of people, speaking about what I know. This time around, my keynote is more personal than ever and highlights the business lessons I learned from a huge life challenge. Yep, this is my big comeback after injury!
Within weeks of announcing it, three major clients including two Big Four banks signed on to hear it … thank you to them and everyone who might consider having me talk to their teams. Means a lot.
It sounds ambitious but I’ve learned life can be short and you never know what’s around the corner so I’m just going to come out with it and hope you understand. I think what’s different about my speaking now is I’d love to potentially inspire people to change their thinking around various situations. I’d love to potentially save a life by sharing my story—someone who doesn’t know they have melanoma might get their skin checked.
I’m pretty sure I’ve always given value as a speaker. Now I’d like to change people’s lives by telling them through my story that regardless of the situation you face, including your own mortality, you always have a choice as to how you live and lead.