As a successful, Effy-winning brand strategist, award-winning poet, women’s, sexuality, and minorities advocate, as well as an up-and-coming entrepreneur, Julia Vanderput is a woman who truly does it all, showing us how to find the ‘golden thread’ in our lives by connecting our passions, purpose, and mission into not only a successful career but a meaningful life.
Hearing all of Julia’s accomplishments, it’s natural to wonder how she finds time for it all. Julia takes a unique approach to work-life balance, seamlessly translating her passions into her day-to-day work.
“The problem with the discussion of balance is that it’s very binary,” said Julia. “People have a split like a graph, and they’re like, okay, I spent half my time doing work. I’m gonna spend half my time relaxing, and it’s like a measurement.”
Julia urges us to create a life filled with flow, aligning everything we do with our passions, morals, interests, and values.
“Whenever there’s a project, or thing that I want to do that I desire, I’m excited to be there. I want to work extra hours. I want to wake up early. I am energized by it, and that’s a big one being energized by it and coming out of it not feeling drained, but feeling fulfilled, being excited for more of it. I think that’s worth paying attention to, not just in a career sense, but also just personally because what that means is you are doing something that’s in alignment with what you want out of life and who you are, you’re not tracking how many hours you spent doing that because you’re just sort of naturally aligned. You’re sort of in harmony with what you want out of life and what life’s giving you,” Julia explained.
Julia preaches ‘preserving your energy’ rather than sticking to the conventional structure of work-life balance that society imposes. She stresses being picky about what you pour energy into. While we often feel pressure to fill our to-do lists with a long list of ‘should do’ tasks, it is important to take a step back and ask yourself, Do we really need to do them? Or do we simply feel obligated? By preserving our energy, we’ll have more enthusiasm to pursue what truly matters to us and aligns with our passions.
“I don’t feel resentful when I need to do a lot of work, because I have chosen to do work that really makes me feel good, and then when I rest, I don’t feel guilty because I know that that’s in service of the work I’m gonna be doing.”
Julia has instilled these values within herself from a very early age. Growing up alongside her mother, who was a writer, Julia grew up engulfed in the rich, fun, artistic, and creative side of poetry, inspiring her early pursuits. She was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by the International Library of Poetry at 14-years old.
“When I started writing it was very natural to do it because it was very fun. It brought me to life. It was an art form that really connected me with other people.”
Julia has continued with her poetry career into adulthood contributing to both Mother Tongue and Feministing publications as well as publishing her own piece, “To Walk Through Oneself”. But, published work isn’t the only thing Julia carried with her from poetry career. In all her future pursuits, She infused her work with her love for human connection.
Hailing all the way from Brazil to study Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, Julia found her niche for storytelling, driven by empathy and human connection. The art of storytelling has launched Julia’s successes in brand strategy, advocacy work, and now, business and community building.
When it came time for Julia to find work after college, Julia utilized her knack for journalism and storytelling to build a successful career in brand strategy. Julia currently works as the Director of Brand Strategy at Live Nation, a global leader in live music events, which she was drawn to because of their cultural resonance.
Employing her storytelling prowess to effectively and authentically narrate a brand’s story, Julia showcases the value, culture, and community of a brand to their audience.
Along with her work for Live Nation, Julia finds herself aligned with lots of advocacy work, specifically for women, children, and minorities.
“Going back to journalism and also the work that I do within branding is really finding that golden thread that ties us all together. When you have that as a part of who you are, it becomes really difficult to be exposed to injustices and not feel compelled to do something about it.”
In college, Julia began working as a companion at the Rape Crises Center. Working in a hospital, she supported rape victims throughout the exhausting, greuling process of reporting a rape, she witnessed firsthand accounts of the terrors that women go through after experiencing a rape.
Some of the victims that go through this center would get pregnant, Julia explained. There was one case where a victim was supported by a birth doula throughout her pregnancy that specifically moved Julia. She was touched watching how the support of the doula brought this woman that had been through a terrible, traumatic experience back to life again.
“You could not mess with this woman, she was back,” Julia declared. “I realized the connection with women while being there for their transformational journeys, and how being there for their moments of hurt, can really alchemize that pain into power.”
Today, Julia is devoted to supporting and empowering women, searching for that ‘golden string’ within their stories, She has become a trained DE&I Change Agent, as well as serving as the Executive Board of Director for Compass Center for Women and Families.
Julia also resonates with the stories of people within the LGBTQ+ community, motivating her to advocate for their community. This connection sparked her newest business venture, Bi Dinner, a community for bisexuals to feel seen, connected, and celebrated.
While bisexuals are the largest population among the LGBTQ+ community, their representation in society is limited. Through being exposed to stories that illustrate the impact of their underrepresentation, Julia’s empathy ignited the urge to build a community where bisexuals could feel celebrated and supported.
“This is a really important missing piece of queer communities. There is no bi-bar. There are straight bars and there are gay bars, but there’s no place that you can go as a bisexual and feel like, hey, everyone here is just like me. Bisexuals experience biphobia and erasure in both spaces. Going to a gay club does not necessarily mean that we don’t experience the same biphobia that we experience in straight areas.”
Julia and her partner, Julia Zsolnay, started hosting Bi Dinner with a very small group of people in her front yard with the idea of celebration and community building in mind. Now, Bi Dinner has grown into a large community of support and recognition, with elaborate events put together with the help of international brand partnerships.
As Bi dinner grows and expands, the tight-knit atmosphere remains, keeping dinner tables intimate with no larger than groups of 10 people per table. Julia plans on continuing to grow Bi Dinner, enhancing events to create exceptional experiences for bisexuals.
“We don’t feel like bisexuals should just get a front yard dinner. We want to throw a total FOMO event that’s really just about bisexuals and celebrating us.”
Julia Vanderput is living proof that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Thriving in many different career realms and advocating for the greater good of society, Julia ties together her drive, motivation, success, and happiness by understanding and empathizing with other people’s stories. She urges you to find your ‘golden string’ too.
“Don’t be afraid to say no, don’t be afraid to really stick with what aligns with you. Be the good that you want to see more of. If no one has shown you how to do this in a nontoxic way, be the person that tries it out in a nontoxic way. You don’t know who’s watching and who might get inspired.”
Connect with Julia and bidinner:
instagram.com/juliavanderput
instagram.com/bi_dinner
bidinner.com
