Julie Fairhurst - If Your Version of Success Requires You to Break, It’s Bullsh*t

What if success stopped sounding like a checklist and started feeling like a life that actually fits? Julie unpacks a new, saner playbook for women who are done with proving, pleasing, and sprinting on fumes, and ready for a success that feels grounded, honest, and deeply theirs.

Instead of measuring yourself against someone else’s timeline, Julie leans into seasons: building, healing, resting, and reimagining. That shift dissolves the illusion of being late and makes space for strategic patience. 

From there, Julie explains how your story as a career asset, your lived experience, builds trust faster than any title. She dismantles burnout as a false badge of honor and shows why sustainable success allows room to breathe, think, and live. You’ll hear how a clean “no” becomes a power move, why confidence follows action, and how clarity emerges through motion rather than overthinking.

She chose depth over approval and built the support systems that growth requires: mentors, coaches, and honest communities that can hold space while we stretch. Julie talks about the grief of letting go of versions of ourselves that once kept us safe, and the freedom that follows. 

If you’re craving a practical, human path to meaningful work and a steady life, this is your guide to building without burning out and leading without leaving yourself. 

Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a new definition of success, and leave a review to tell us which principle you’re claiming next.

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Who Is Julie Fairhurst?

Speaker • Author • Business Strategist • Founder of Women Like Me

Julie Fairhurst is a force of nature disguised as a woman with a pen and a business brain built for impact. As the founder of the Women Like Me Book Program, she has opened the door for women around the world to share their truth, heal their past, and rise into their power. Since 2019, she has published more than 30 books and over 350 true-life stories — without charging a single writer a dime! Why? Because women’s stories deserve daylight, not gatekeeping.

With 34 years in sales, marketing, and successful business leadership, Julie knows how to turn storytelling into influence and influence into income.

Her mission is clear and unapologetic: break generational trauma one story at a time and help women elevate both emotionally and financially. She doesn’t just publish books, she builds brands, confidence, and possibility, giving women the tools to rewrite their futures, grow their businesses, and lift their families with them.

Julie's Website

Chapters

• 0:24 Rethinking What Success Means
• 0:48 Ten Transformative Success Principles
• 1:56 Seasons, Story, And Burnout
• 2:48 Boundaries And Moving Before Ready
• 3:32 Depth, Support, And Letting Go
• 3:47 Speak Unpolished And Redefine Success
• 4:33 Final Charge To Choose Your Life

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Success for women doesn't come from doing more, being nicer, or proving ourselves harder. Most of us were taught to be agreeable, capable, grateful, and quiet about the cost. But real success, it's quieter, deeper, stronger. And it often begins the moment a woman stops pretending she's fine. Here are my top 10 success tips for women, not the glossy kind, but the type that actually change lives. One, stop measuring success by someone else's timeline. If you're still comparing your chapter three to someone else's chapter 20, you're going to feel behind forever. Success is not linear, it's seasonal. Some seasons are for building, some are for healing, some are for resting, regrouping, and reimagining. You are not late, you're becoming. Two, your story is an asset, not a liability. Women are taught to edit themselves, to hide the messy parts, soften the truth, and sound more professional. Here's the truth: your lived experience is your credibility. Your story builds trust faster than any title ever will. When you stop hiding where you've been, people lean in. Three, burnout is not a badge of honor. Exhaustion does not equal success. If your life only works when you're running on adrenaline, something needs to change. Sustainable success feels grounded, not frantic. It allows room to breathe, think, and live. Rest is not quitting, it's recalibrating. Four, learn to say no without explaining yourself. Women overexplain because we've been conditioned to justify our boundaries. You don't owe anyone a story to support your no. No is a complete sentence, and every time you honor it, you reclaim a little more of your power. 5. Stop waiting to feel ready. Confidence does not arrive first. Action does. Most women wait until they feel certain, prepared, or validated before they move. Successful women move while they're still unsure. Clarity comes from motion, not thinking. 6. Choose depth over approval. Being liked is easy. Being respected and aligned is different. When you stop shaping yourself to be palatable, you attract people who actually see you. Not everyone needs to understand you. The right people will. Seven, invest in support, not just strategy. You don't need another checklist. You need people who can hold space for you as you grow. Mentors, coaches, communities, conversations that tell the truth. No woman builds a meaningful life alone, despite what hustle culture suggests. Let go of the version of you that no longer fits growth requires grief. Sometimes success means releasing old identities, outdated roles, expectations that once kept you safe. You don't need to become someone new. You need to stop clinging to who you were. 9. Speak before you're polished. Perfection silences more women than fear ever could. Your voice doesn't need to be flawless to be valuable. It needs to be honest. Speak anyway, write anyway, share anyway. Someone is waiting for the version of you that hasn't been cleaned up yet. 10. Redefine. Success on your own terms. Success is not just money, milestones, or applause. It's waking up with peace. It's living in alignment. It's knowing your voice matters and using it. True success feels like integrity, not pressure. And if you have to abandon yourself to achieve it, it's not success. Final thought. So many women say, I'm fine while quietly carrying exhaustion, ambition, grief, and dreams that won't stay quiet. You don't need to become more. You need to be more honest about what you want and brave enough to build it. That's success, and it's yours to define.