Embracing Change: Stefanie Julia Moton's Journey from Law Enforcement to Online Fitness Entrepreneurship

Today’s episode is about overcoming fear of uncertainty, getting out of your comfort zone and pivoting with purpose. 

My guest on Shades and Layers is Stefanie Julia Moton, a business coach for online fitness coaches who shares how she transitioned from a career in federal law enforcement to becoming the founder of Catch Flights and Fitness and Profitable Passion and Purpose (P3). 

Stefanie has always loved sports and she used this passion to create a thriving online business with clients who affectionately called her the Fitness Challenge Lady. At the same time, she was navigating a full-time job which came with a very busy travel schedule. She candidly shares how the global pandemic became a catalyst for her to address burnout and refocus on her wellness passion. Stefanie accredits mindset and self-care to her success as a side hustler. She also gives us a glance into her transition from solopreneur to organizational leader and the significance of a solid support system.

Among the issues discussed during our conversation, is the fact that only 10% of the online fitness and wellness market is owned by black women leaders. Stefanie shares her thought-provoking reflections on this fact, how she’s working to increase the representation and celebrate the success of black women in this space. We uncover the systemic barriers and mindsets contributing to this disparity, highlighting the need for increased support and representation. 

I hope you will be inspired by Stefanie’s career transformation and mission to bring about meaningful change in the fitness industry. 

LINKS AND MENTIONS

@thestefaniejulia - Instagram handle for Stefanie Julia where you can find a link.tree to all of her work
Catch Flights and Fitness - Facebook Page for Julia's online challenges

The Retreat Maven - Katherine Searcy is Stefanie Julia's life coach and credited with setting Stefanie on this path to becoming a coach herself. 

Profitable Passion Purpose - Facebook Page for P3, Stefanie's private group for online fitness coaches. You can connect with her here if you aspire to be an online fitness coach. 

Transcript

Kutloano Skosana: 0:02

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, guduan Oskosana Ritchie, and today we have a story about finding and pursuing new dreams, paying it forward and, most importantly, online fitness coaching. My guest is Stephanie Julia Moton, known among her clients as the fitness challenge lady. She is the founder of the hybrid one-to-one and group fitness coaching brand, catching flights and fitness, as well as a business coaching company for online fitness coaches, profitable passion and purpose P3.

Kutloano Skosana: 0:39

Stephanie was working in federal law enforcement when she founded catching flights and fitness for her community of 1,500 other frequent travelers. Her business became profitable very quickly and soon she moved on to coaching other fitness and wellness entrepreneurs on how to do the same. Everything was fun and exciting, with a high-paying job, a side hustle and a busy travel schedule. And then the pandemic hit and, like many of us, stephanie realized that, while she loved her work in federal law enforcement, she was burnt out, and when things started slowly getting back to normal, she leaned more and more into what she had started with P3 and, in January 2023, she became a full-time entrepreneur. In this conversation, you will hear how Stephanie Moton transformed her career and transitioned into her new journey, as well as how everything from the past connects, to create this new path for her.

Stefanie Julia: 1:40

I am a business coach for fitness coaches who want to create, launch and scale their online fitness coaching business Wonderful.

Kutloano Skosana: 1:50

So if, in a nutshell, you could describe that kind of work and the deeper meaning you attach to it, Excellent.

Stefanie Julia: 1:58

I actually love that question. Just let me know the deeper meaning. Every time you say it, I'm like I keep thinking of a phrase that one of my life coaches said to me years ago and I have been saying it more and more nowadays because it's not only a reminder for myself but for my clients is that you weren't given this purpose unless it was meant to take care of you, and I feel like it's my duty, it's my mission, to show people how to monetize their passions, move in their purpose in a way that it's going to take care of not just your day to day expenses and bills, but your wildest dreams. So that's okay. So another phrase just came to me as soon as I said that was like I want to teach folks who look like me, move like me how to print their own money.

Kutloano Skosana: 2:59

Excellent. I love that, I love that and I like that you mentioned life coaches that you have. So coaching is clearly something you're passionate about. Can you tell me how it came about in your life? How did you enter this coaching world? Oh, it's that same life coach.

Stefanie Julia: 3:17

I have to shout her out now. They've got to say I've now mentioned her twice in this podcast. Her name's Catherine Searcy and now she actually is. She's known as the retreat maven, but back when I was working with her, she was getting really into life coaching. At the time I didn't know what life coaching was or anything like that. I thought I was hiring a virtual therapist.

Kutloano Skosana: 3:42

honestly, Like I was, just like I need somebody to talk to, right.

Stefanie Julia: 3:46

And on the first session she encouraged me to create what is now known as catch flights and fitness, my online fitness coaching program. I knew it was a passion of mine to coach others towards their fitness goals, but I didn't have a typical nine to five. I didn't have a consistent schedule. I was a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations so I couldn't be trusted with the gym session and like you don't want me to, you don't want to count on me at that time to be anywhere for one hour, like it, right, right. So I knew like I had to figure out how to monetize the online space and I had no clue. And she was very intuitive with me and kind of just encouraged me to explore and figure out how I could do it. And that's really like was the push, because whenever I got stuck I would reach out, you know, get educated, go to YouTube University or hire a business coach.

Kutloano Skosana: 5:03

Okay, I love that. So have you always been into health and fitness, or it's just something you needed because of your inconsistent schedule?

Stefanie Julia: 5:15

So I've always been into sports. So I was an athlete all the way to elementary school. I don't think I've ever mentioned this to anyone, but my sister almost went into the Olympics for track and field.

Kutloano Skosana: 5:32

What and so?

Stefanie Julia: 5:33

I'm, yeah, like cool and my, my, I have. Yeah, one of them was like right on the cusp of going to the Olympics. The other sister is a big athlete herself. We were, we went to brunch and they had a basketball court and we couldn't pull her away from the basketball court.

Stefanie Julia: 5:52

This last Sunday, so, like I've always been, my brother won state championships for football in high school. So I've always been surrounded by athletes my mom, everybody. So it was just a natural path because so I went to college, I was an athlete in college, at the University of Miami, and then when I graduated, I had no coach. So that's where I gained a ton of weight in my job, not really having that consistent schedule like you mentioned. And I didn't. I realized, I won't say early, I realized that it was because I was so used to having, you know, ingrained accountability inside my, inside, my lifestyle, you know always having a track and field coach or a basketball coach. You know practice schedule and they were fun for me. So I created that same community again and literally, like, over the years, it became a business.

Kutloano Skosana: 7:05

So I kind of totally fell into it. Yeah, yeah, wonderful. So when did you realize that you actually have a business? Who was paying you and how much and how often?

Stefanie Julia: 7:19

Oh man, when I realized so. So during that time, when I realized I needed like an accountability, like squad I needed, there was no partner and so I had saw a number on a scale that I thought I would never see and it wasn't. There was a bit of shame and embarrassment, but immediate action. I didn't sit still Like I saw it and I moved and I started to create challenges because I loved competition I'm big on competition so I created challenges for my coworkers, my family, friends, and they weren't big challenges, they were like maybe $25, $200.

Stefanie Julia: 8:05

And well, somewhere, somewhere like three weeks to like six months, and I was doing that for years and got addicted to it. But even my job it made me very well, so I could throw money at it, buy prizes for them, all that kind of stuff. And I was giving away thousands of dollars from just like the pot, the cash prize pot, and when I think, the third or fourth. But the only way that I could get paid during this time was if I won a challenge, and I will tell you, very rarely I won a challenge and so years would buy actually before I realized, oh, I'm give, there's money moving, a lot of money moving, just not too much, but in this.

Stefanie Julia: 8:58

it's not buying, it's not staying with me and I started charging like admin fees, like $50 for a challenge.

Stefanie Julia: 9:06

And I was like this is something no one's even paying attention to, like admin fees, all the mind trash and charging, thinking, you know, while I was charging it was free before or whatever, or not free. But like they didn't know, I wasn't taking any part of that. I asked my sister this is what really happened. I asked my sister, who now is a full-time business owner, has a thriving business herself, went full-time after working full-time for someone else and at the time she had just transitioned to being a full-time entrepreneur and I was like, oh, this is what I got going on. How do I monetize this? Like, how do I make money off of this? I really love what I'm doing. How do I make this into a business? And that girl said just do it. And I was like okay, Okay, okay, okay, all right.

Stefanie Julia: 10:05

But really I got help. It took me a long time but I got help. I hired a business coach that helped me create and launch Catch fights, and fitness is what I ended up creating and really like the. It feels like forever ago, but it's like the rest is histories, you know, like sucking in as much information as I could and implementing and integrating what made sense.

Kutloano Skosana: 10:35

Right, but this is what. You didn't immediately go fully into the business, right. You still carried on with your nine to five. When did you take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship and actually maybe take me through the process of preparing for that transition into full-time entrepreneurship?

Stefanie Julia: 10:54

Oh, I was like okay, All right. Okay, I hope you're gonna need to take a breath there, so I said no it's okay, because it was a three-year journey and it wasn't like I honestly feel, like a lot of people think oh, I just you know, I was making all of this money and I left and I hit the goals.

Stefanie Julia: 11:20

I said well when, I make this, I'm gonna transition out. I've even quit and then a year and a half later, I actually walked away. So I'm gonna say, oh sorry. Oh for sure and for real, but it started in COVID. So before COVID hit, you asked me this was a retirement plan. Like it wasn't. I was just going to, you know, build the brand, really learn and set myself up so that I didn't have to work in retirement. I could do what I loved. But what I realized but shortly thereafter realized how long retirement was, from that moment I had at that time I had about 14 or 15 years left and I was just like, yeah, exactly, that's exactly so.

Stefanie Julia: 12:18

Covid, what the pandemic did for me was we weren't working. I was on detail in DC and I literally everything shut down because what I did you had to be in the office for there was not like you had to be there because I worked in a very secure area and they didn't let us in the office. So I was hiking during the day, I was answering some phone calls from when, like, the field would call me, but when I say I wasn't really doing much, I got to like breathe and what happened was when I had to come back into the day to day of working being a special agent all that I realized how burnout I was before the pandemic hit. So I was go, go go all day, all night answering phone calls from the prosecutor, writing after date. Doing all this stuff like nonstop for 10 years.

Stefanie Julia: 13:16

And then when the pandemic hit, it was like all I had to do was just take care of myself. Yeah, I was like I could breathe. This is amazing, but I didn't realize it inside of me. I'm back and it's still didn't realize it. Everything was very triggering. I was just not like I was not doing well, like everything bothered me. But at the same time, now I have my business. It's moving, it's grooving, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing and I was like you know what? I just leave. And I remember telling my supervisor I think I'm done and no one leaves this job.

Kutloano Skosana: 13:57

No one needs this job. Wow, ok, no, no, wow.

Stefanie Julia: 14:02

No one needs you Finished. And my supervisor was a black guy and I know he is an integral part of this whole story and he was only my supervisor for like a blimp but like a few months. But he, he was like stuff, like don't, don't do that, like what do we need to do? And they actually moved me long, long story short, that was a year and a half after I actually left and it was I took like I really didn't believe when I say that was my dream career.

Stefanie Julia: 14:39

It was my dream career since middle school, really, and I left because I left honestly, because I could no longer be of service in the way that I wanted to be Right this day, so I left. It had it, wasn't it honestly? Like? My reasoning for leaving my career wasn't the business, but it was like the pull of the business. So this is what now. This is what I warned my clients about you. This will happen to you when you start walking in your purpose.

Stefanie Julia: 15:11

Because, when I tell you that was my dream career, there was nothing wrong until I started moving inside of my, my real purpose, my, my real passion, because I loved what I did. But I started to move in that and literally the shedding was happening like we're moving this out of the way. So I'm thankful for being able to transition out in the way that I did, but it wasn't. It was more of a like what's going on? Like why am, why can't I do this work? Type of like I didn't understand. But it was more of like shedding. And now, in regards to like finance is something that I, what I love to, what I want to do for my clients is to show them how to set them up, set themselves up for success while they're still working the job, because I could have stayed, it wasn't, it wasn't the time, like a business, you know, with that time. But I just you know, I didn't want to be a public servant, who I?

Kutloano Skosana: 16:22

didn't want to resent my job. You're right, and that was coming. Yeah, and you can see when people resent their jobs right here.

Stefanie Julia: 16:30

Yeah, I saw that that job. They definitely was a lot of resentment once you get closer to retirement. Yeah, yeah, that person.

Kutloano Skosana: 16:41

This is Shades and Layers. My guest today is Stephanie Julia Moton, aka the fitness challenge lady. Her companies catching flights and fitness as well as profitable passion and purpose p3 have changed the lives of many frequent travelers and aspiring online fitness and wellness entrepreneurs. Up next, she talks about the role of mindset and self care on your entrepreneurial journey, and we also hear how she's using these and other tools for her current transition from solopreneur to organizational leader. So how do you advise your clients to navigate full-time work with a side hustle?

Stefanie Julia: 17:22

Well, it's, it's tough. It's tough for everybody. I don't believe in the oh, just do XYZ, and it's going to be simple and fast. The fastest way is by getting a blueprint. So now they're. If they're my client, they have a blueprint. All they. They know exactly what to do, step by step, and all you got to do is work on the mind trash along the way. You don't have to like right, because that's the hard, that's the hard part. I could give you the relief what to do today, tomorrow, all the way through, whatever your goal is. However, you, you, you need support from my trash and this is okay.

Stefanie Julia: 18:07

So this is just came. This is all my spirit to say. So I'm gonna say it is when we don't, when we get like free resources, when we're out there, like we're looking at the YouTube Versa university, which was so me back in the day, if you go and all you university like what are you doing to take care of yourself when that my trash comes up, like who, what support system do you have in place? When the hard things happen and that's something that, like I Tried to encourage my clients is is it's gonna happen like it's gonna be tough, it's you're literally working two jobs.

Stefanie Julia: 18:49

The side hustles, if you really love it is very rarely Side hustle energy and time, right, like you could go and work at a bank as a side income or something like that. Or like work security is like side income, but your business isn't going to be that. Like you know, it's not a mind-numbing work, right? So you're, you're putting like a lot of you inside of this quote-unquote side hustle. So just know that, as long as you have a blueprint and you follow it and you have a support system With you to help with any tweaks because your time is limited or with focus, you know, focused action steps when your time is limited. You're golden and you just got to sit back and trust the process.

Stefanie Julia: 19:40

Now, for those who don't have that, I'm gonna encourage you to go get that, but if you don't have that, you can still yourself. You just got to be aware that your what's your Blueprint looks like isn't going to look like the full-time entrepreneur, all right. Like you, you can't move in the same way, and don't expect yourself to. Don't don't beat yourself Up for not having the same success, because even if you throw in family too on top of that, like it's just, we got to be realistic about, all right, you know the growth of our businesses.

Kutloano Skosana: 20:18

Yeah, and what? What are some of the lessons you learned while you were combining your Fitness business together with your full-time job?

Stefanie Julia: 20:28

I had a very Powerful, in my opinion, morning routine that started around the pandemic right like I did a lot of self-care work at that time and I honestly believe that business growth is like a roller coaster, like those dips when years and doubts start coming up, I'm sure be my continued growth and my continued success and my Continue like continued action and not just giving up and throwing it out to my morning routine. So every morning I wrote down Granted, while this is a bother over time, so I'll give you the evolution version morning Writing, a couple things of gratitude. What am I really like? Jotting down some wins Like what am I proud of myself for? For accomplishing, either that day or over the past week, goals like my goal for the day. And then I had a manifestation strategy from man project 365 where I would have write it right down my Affirmation, my goal affirmation. So let's say it's a how it is. This is one of my um, one of my it's not a new one, it's a very old one, but it's one that's I'm starting to speak more out loud and it's three goal affirmations, six goal affirmations in the afternoon and then nine in the evening. And let's say your goal is I am a residual million dollar income earner. You write that three times in the beginning of the day, three times in the afternoon and then three times in the evening, and that could be your morning routine at least the front part of it and then writing down some action steps up, you get there and then practicing visualization. It can be so powerful.

Stefanie Julia: 22:21

Yeah, I really do attribute my morning routine to the strength of my mindset as I was going through the realizing the burnout, addressing the burnout and modifying my time to Make sure that I was still like, enjoying life. Because I do travel a lot. Over the past six years I've traveled every single month, every single month, except for one month I missed one and I'm a little bit heard about that, but Every single month I Don't have a lot of time, you know. But as a fit online coaching, an online coach it makes it a little bit easier. I have more of a flexible schedule, but you still had to get on sales calls, right, like I'm working for a time where the calls going. So I just made sure to affect my schedule and prioritize the growth of my business and I brought my self-care to the beginning of the day.

Kutloano Skosana: 23:24

So it didn't it?

Stefanie Julia: 23:25

there was no Skipping out because I had a sales call in the afternoon or I wanted to go out with my friends in the evening. Me, my mind and my your self-care was always at the start of the day, and still to this day it is. I don't know how anybody does anything different Successfully would you say you're a digital nomad? In that case, I Probably could use that title with how much I move around, I did have a Digital nomad.

Kutloano Skosana: 24:02

Okay, I was in.

Stefanie Julia: 24:04

Puerto Rico and saloon and the saloon well both was just a magical experience. I can't wait to go back to the room. I haven't been back since then, but I was beautiful. I love the concept.

Kutloano Skosana: 24:18

I don't think I've ever done it intentionally right, it's just the way things I just move around.

Stefanie Julia: 24:24

Yeah, and I will say something, and I say a lot is like I always want to have a home base, because that was that was actually how I ended up, or ended that trip early because I didn't have a home base. I was in between apartments so I was like I'm not before I get you know, sign another lease, I'm gonna go travel a bit, but it messed with me a little bit to not feel like I had a home base.

Kutloano Skosana: 24:47

Right, right, right, okay, great. So now, how are you structured? You know, are you still a solo printer or do you have a team that you use for, you know, managing all these various tasks that it takes to run a business.

Stefanie Julia: 25:06

So I'm in transition mode to from one to the other, because I do believe it is impossible, and I'm sure maybe there's some people that have successfully done it, but I want to stand on this and say so where I want to grow by myself, right, I Right now have a team of contractors, um, but that helped me with the parts of my business that I don't really care for or are just Super time-consuming for me, and I do love, you know, when you're first starting out getting getting that team so that you can serve your clients, which is what we got into this business for anyway. Right, but now I want to build a company where there's a there's there's a leadership team and I'm helping to really like move things along. That's a. That's the transition that I'm moving in. So, right, I don't know about it, I was air. Maybe I already have my first employee, but that's that's what I'm working on. Next, it's starting to hire team teammates really, and growing this business or at one of the.

Kutloano Skosana: 26:23

Yeah, and you know your ideal leadership team. What kind of Values with their body. You know what. What would they be like? What are you dreaming of?

Stefanie Julia: 26:34

This is good. I almost feel like this is a coaching session now. Because, I do skip this one. You let's see if I can remember all five. It's really like passion and excitement. Luxury is one of my top values. I know it's funny, it feels a little special, but like moving fast, I like to grow fast. Mindset work, really understanding, like in order to be successful at anything, you gotta take care of the emotional body. I think that's. I know there's a fifth one in my camera, number one in it. No, no problem.

Kutloano Skosana: 27:23

I'm sorry, I'm gonna have. No, no problem, it's just, you know, I'm just always interested in, you know the kind of companies that people want to build and you know what they would look like, because I mean, it's inspiring for other people to hear these stories, right?

Stefanie Julia: 27:40

So that's why I'm saying this. That's a question. Yeah, yeah, a lot of the values. That a lot of the values have to do with not just the success that I had, like what pushed me along, but also, you know, the parts that almost took me out. And what can I do to show others how to mitigate those situations?

Kutloano Skosana: 28:08

Right.

Stefanie Julia: 28:09

Because they had, like, I've been a victim of life-lifing for a few times, but now, after going through those experiences, I'm like, okay, I understand why I had to go through that, so that I can set this up for next time, as well as teach others how to set it up in their businesses.

Kutloano Skosana: 28:33

Right, right, perfect. So let's talk about the fitness industry in general, and particularly the online fitness space. Now there is a representation problem and it's quite but you know, things have changed, so so, if you can talk me through. Like you know, what are you observing in terms of on the representation front? You know, is there more variety? What are you seeing? Or you know it's just too slow to even notice anything.

Stefanie Julia: 29:11

So there's a statistic that shocked me when I heard it, and I'll share why. So there's only 10% of the health and wellness industry are comprised of black women.

Stefanie Julia: 29:26

The leaders inside that, Wow yeah, that's pretty interesting and I was like, really, and I'm not gonna lie, it's what you see, is what you curate. So, like my Instagram, my Facebook is curated to be black, af. Okay, but it's just, it's what I love to see. I love to see us winning, I love to see us supporting each other. I wanna support them. So it is.

Stefanie Julia: 29:56

You know, I didn't I think I walked in an assumption that we were, you know, we were in there doing our thing, but we're not doing it on the level that that is at the same level as our education and experience, and there's so much we said there. There is, you know, and I keep calling it, mind trash, but there's like systemic mind trash that we have to overcome. That other people get to, you know, like they were just raised to believe in themselves that way, believe in their values. So, yeah, there's more than just representation, like seeing our faces, but also seeing our faces and winning, you know, achieving new levels of success, however the way you define it. You know everybody defines success differently but like achieving that success and show it off. You know, I still get people in my DMs that are like I didn't even I didn't, like I really just wanted to meet you. Because I didn't? I don't see black women business coaches and I'm like, really Cause I'm surrounded by them, right, right right.

Stefanie Julia: 31:13

I can't wait to be like that, but it's really powerful to make sure that we are we're being of service in that way too, by just showing up for others who don't have the same experiences.

Kutloano Skosana: 31:28

That we did, sure, sure, you know, I thought just occurred to me. I mean, it obviously has to do with who owns media, right, because there's a little bit of a contradiction, because you can't have someone like Shakari Richardson coming out and winning Olympics if there is no fitness in the black community or other communities of color. Right, I mean there's like there's a mismatch there's. Yeah, I don't know what your thoughts on that are, but to me, I think there's a mismatch to what you see on an elite level compared to what you see in the mainstream.

Stefanie Julia: 32:04

That is so deep I got chills. I've never thought about it that way, honestly, but I used to say this too in different like Facebook groups where they were shocked at how much online fitness coaches make, and it's really us that are shocked by the numbers. But I was taught by I'll just be blunt and straight with you, chia. I was taught by. A white woman taught me how to create my online fitness coaching program my attributes so far, but she taught me how to create it and launch it, and she also told me how much fitness online fitness coaches were making since 2019. They were creating packages for $1,500 for 12 weeks.

Kutloano Skosana: 33:01

Oh my God, Come on. What am I doing with my life? One more time.

Stefanie Julia: 33:11

But I was just like what it like? Blown away. And now when I saw, and this was 2019. So I'm like we're at 2023. And I don't know what the industry standard is now.

Stefanie Julia: 33:25

I honestly think, now that I've cracked my mind, I've seen different things. It's so vast, like I know a fitness coach who charges $6,000 for their program. I also know a fitness coach that charges $750 for a fitness coaching program. But like we are now breaking into this industry, that was like was almost like, I feel like was walled off to us Because you don't know what you don't know. And honestly, I'm like nah, sis, you paid how much for your education. You spent how many hours in the gym training people. You also went through hail and back in your own fitness journey to achieve the success for yourself which, in my opinion, is way harder than teaching someone, right, right, like it's much harder to live in it in yourself.

Stefanie Julia: 34:23

I could go on this topic for so long, but it's frustrating because even when I'm working with my clients again that mind-touch of asking for the sale, pitching, saying your value, and then I always tell them you got to be able to say your price on the call. So don't be charging $6,000. If you can't even say 2,000 out loud, let's baby step our way there. But we're getting there 100%. I get to be front and center and watch this grow in this industry and it's so powerful Even for those who look like me, not even just being a black woman, but I've been on my fitness journey for some time, and even as fitness coaches. When you gain weight, we're building a business. You start to lose that six pack and it's like, oh, I can't post until my six pack comes back and I'm like, oh, this is what's dope about the online space. We get to be vulnerable, we get to be real, we get to be intentional and we get to tell our story and connect with our audiences. Wall around powerful and needed.

Kutloano Skosana: 35:39

Hey there. Before we continue with the episode, I have a favor to ask Please give Shades and Layers a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app, so that others can find us and we can continue to bring you this wonderful work. Five stars would be excellent, thank you, and now back to the episode. This is Shades and Layers. My guest today is Stephanie Julia Moton, a business coach for online fitness entrepreneurs and founder of Catching Flights and Fitness, as well as P3. As always, this is the part where we go into our guest's backstory and we also do a quick round of Shades and Layers rapid fire. So here we go. Let's talk about you, and you already mentioned that you know being working for Homeland Security was one of your career dreams since high school. So back then, what were the other things that you were dreaming about? You know the very influential moments in your life that still stand out to this day and have kind of informed how you turned out and carry yourself in the world.

Stefanie Julia: 36:51

So the moment that it's not even a moment. It's a serious statement. It's one statement that I said to myself over and over again, and I'm not I actually don't remember where it came from, but so my real last, my last name on social media is Julia, which is actually my middle name. It's not like I'm trying to hide my last name. Well, when I was working for Homeland Security Investigations I was, but now everybody knows me as Stephanie Julia, so that's it. But my real last name is Moton, and I used to say growing up I'm a Moton, everything I touch turns the gold.

Stefanie Julia: 37:36

And I was so serious about it. Like imagine this Everything I touch turns the gold. I'm a Moton.

Kutloano Skosana: 37:45

And I was just like, like nail, nail play.

Stefanie Julia: 37:49

I need that energy. Come back, little stuff.

Kutloano Skosana: 37:51

Right, right.

Stefanie Julia: 37:55

So it's. It's translated into the confidence that I need in order to be of service in the way that I want to be of service Because, like, as I'm growing my business, as I'm expanding and stretching, I go through the same things that my clients go through. I have the same mind trash. I'm just that you know I might be at a different level, but the practices that I've, that I've made now need to be strengthened as I grow up. We're just learning layers. That was my very first layer and it was a very powerful one, and it's something that I remind myself of a lot more lately these days.

Kutloano Skosana: 38:39

Perfect. And then, if you had to sum up your life in a written memoir, what would it be called and why?

Stefanie Julia: 38:46

So I didn't think about the whole life, but always a VIP. Oh yeah, that's live. Yes, that is. That is that's the title that I'm living right now. And if I was to, you know, even bring it back to like past experiences, it would just be a reminder like, hey, you know you're always a VIP, right. And then I'll be like you're right, but now, more like in 2023, I'm going to step into that vibe left and right, and it's, it's a, it's a powerful vibe to walk in.

Kutloano Skosana: 39:26

That's all I think, yeah, yeah. And if you had to turn that memoir into a movie, who would you pick for the lead actress? Jill Scott? Yeah, of course. Oh, that's my, I see it. Yes, everything, yes, the curls, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, my girl, oh yeah, excellent, excellent. And if you had to invite one famous black woman, living or dead, to dinner tonight, who would it be?

Stefanie Julia: 40:04

So I bounce back on two people, but they both mean the same to me. So, uh, madam CJ Walker, the first woman to become a millionaire who just happens to also be a black woman as well Um, and then the person who made me really understand what she did for us and what, like, I almost feel like I was introduced to studying her. Um, she's, uh, her name's Rachel Rogers, and she wrote the book we should all be millionaires. So I know he said one person, but I'm like if I could put them into one spirit yeah, that's who I was I'd be like can I just have all y'all here? Thank you, excellent.

Kutloano Skosana: 40:57

Yeah, oh, wonderful. Yeah, I like this, I like this. So when? If people want to be your client, where can they find you?

Stefanie Julia: 41:10

Um, um, they can always find it. Like I always say, my DMs are always open on Instagram. You can go to the Stephanie Julia, Stephanie with an F? Um and hit me up on Instagram. Please let me know that you heard me on shades and layers, Um, and then you can go to grow your online fit bizcom slash podcast On there. I have a free training that goes through the blueprint, the steps on how I created cats, whites and fitness, launched it and did 15 K, my first launch Um. I outlined those steps in that training Brilliant.

Kutloano Skosana: 41:54

Wonderful. Thank you so much for this and for your generous spirit. Uh, I'm sure great things are yet to come and also I have to wish you congratulations on going solo.

Stefanie Julia: 42:08

Thank you so much. I will never get old or never get tired of hearing that Okay.

Kutloano Skosana: 42:14

And that is all from me this time around. Thank you, stephanie, for being so generous with your story, wishing you all the best and looking forward to seeing what you do next. Thank you also for listening. I've linked to Stephanie's socials in the show notes, so do take a moment to check them out. And also, if you liked this episode, please share it with a friend. I'm good, jonas, cosanna Richie, and until next time, please do take good care.