Entrepreneur Spotlight: Julie Lucas
I never stop marveling at the amazing students I have! To witness the beautiful website Julie created from my Squarespace Express template was truly awesome but I myself could not have described the actual process of launching a website as well as Julie did with the words above. I am very excited to see where her business takes her in the years to come, her vision of bringing yoga nidra more to the forefront sounds like the perfect combination of her talents and passions. Thank you so much, Julie, for this wonderful interview and for your very kind words about my courses. This is why I do what I do.
Curious by nature, Julie Lucas is a Portland based designer and yoga instructor. The first decade of her career was focused on designing shoes for a handful of performance and lifestyle brands. In 2013 Julie launched her own studio, Within Wonder, to collaborate with solopreneurs–honing and amplifying their message through branding, product and web design.
Along the way, Julie began to integrate design with her love of yoga nidra, a step-by-step method of meditative self-inquiry. Through classes and individual sessions, Julie guides people in remembering their innate wholeness–uncovering a life aligned with their heart. She weaves together body sensing and meditation practices that are especially helpful for meeting emotions, uncovering limiting beliefs and tapping into creativity.
1) Please tell us a little about yourself and your work
Growing up as part of a large, animated family in Ohio, I was the shy, imaginative one... always crafting a new gymnastics routine or convincing my brothers to sing show tunes with me. In college, I studied industrial design at the University of Cincinnati where I met my husband of now 20 years (also a product designer). A footwear position in Portland, OR was the motivation for our move to the Pacific Northwest in 2001. I spent 10 years designing shoes for brands like Columbia Sportswear, Mizuno and OluKai. Travel was a big part of the job and while I would not trade the global perspective I gained from those visits to Asia, Europe and Australia, it didn't take long for the jet lag and long weeks away to catch up with me.
Along the way, I fed my curiosity and healed my worn-out body with trainings in posture therapy, yoga, and energy work. With these tools at the ready, I shifted to designing as a consultant, focusing on footwear and graphic design projects.
Today my work continues to evolve in scope to include branding, websites, packaging, marketing assets and illustrations. I love the variety of clients that come my way and how the creative process unfolds uniquely every time.
2) What made you decide to sign up for Kerstin’s courses?
Initially, I actively avoided web design because coding seemed like too big of a beast to tackle. Then I stumbled onto a blog post from Kerstin and I was magnetized. Here was a voice I could resonate with. Her teaching style was gentle, yet confident... not at all scary. I was in. Reading about her experience as an HSP and her diverse business background inspired both curiosity and trust within me. Needless to say, I signed up for Squarespace 201 (now retired) and learned to love code (a little bit).
Since then I've taken several of Kerstin's other courses and refer to her BizBox, SEO Plus and Express courses (now retired) as invaluable resources. Early on, Kerstin used a yellow, pillowy star icon in place of her cursor in her course videos. For some reason, I found this so endearing and a prime example of the extra care Kerstin took to be exceedingly clear and thoughtful. I continue to be amazed by Kerstin's ability to gather, filter and organize content. I find what I need in no time and it's always beautifully presented. Her courses have provided me the know-how and confidence to take on new challenges while enhancing my business systems.
3) How do you feel about your (truly stunning) new website now?
Oh, thank you! There's a surprising amount of emotion that comes with launching a website. Excitement, fear, vulnerability, and joy all jump on board. I find that bringing heartfelt content forward in a way that feels meaningful takes a great deal of work and fine-tuning. In that dedicated process, and especially at the time of launch, I think it's important to welcome all that emotion. To let it be here and not resist it. All that to say, I'm really excited about the new site. I was certainly inspired in many ways by Kerstin and her courses. Even though my design portfolio isn't the main show, I'm particularly proud of the way those pages came together, showcasing my collaboration with clients and their missions.
During the build, I considered designing all the vector artwork for the site (like I had for a previous client), and then two things happened. First, I realized what an enormous task it would be to create new imagery each time content changed and grew. Secondly, I came across the digital art of Marina Zlochin and could not imagine a better way to visually communicate the yoga and meditation offerings I wanted to share. So, I decided to incorporate her imagery as the main framework, making edits here and there to fit the feel and content. I'm happy with how it came out and my ability to make changes relatively easily.
4) What would you say to someone who was thinking about taking one of Kerstin’s courses?
You are in excellent hands. Kerstin and her team are on the pulse of what is happening at Squarespace and in the web design landscape. Her offerings cover the broad strokes of design and business while navigating the details of legal and project management. I love that her courses are so quickly accessible and linked by topic right in my dashboard. Kerstin's website and blog are also essential guides to meeting this evolving terrain, with intention, perspective and humor.
The Facebook support group is an amazing resource, as are all the forms, checklists and templates that come with the courses. When I've run into tricky, custom code needs, I've worked with Kerstin's team member Chris Schwartz-Edmisten 1:1 to make those happen.
5) What’s next for you and your business?
As you'll see from the website, my design portfolio and offerings are not front and center. In this newly launched version of my site, I'm pivoting to highlight the yoga nidra classes and sessions that I've been offering over the past few years. This meditative practice isn't on the radar for many and I feel called to bring it forward in a bigger way through the site.
My hope is to create a balance between my design work and sharing these teachings. It's an experiment... and I'm excited to give it some space to grow. Also coming up are more blog posts and classes. I'm brand new to blogging and it's been fun and wildly vulnerable to share reflections on this platform. I'll also be offering yoga nidra in small groups this Fall at a local yoga yurt.
