25 questions with JULIE VAN DE GEVEL

Having faced her own midlife challenges, Julie Van de Gevel, founder of Pure Goddess, launched a line of supplements designed to support women through the often turbulent journey of menopause. Frustrated with products that lacked proven effectiveness, Julie spent two years developing and researching to create Pure Goddess, a unique superblend aimed at restoring vitality and balance for women over 35. Scroll down to read about Julie’s journey and her passion for helping women reclaim their health and energy…

1. Describe yourself in three words. Positive, Resilient and Curious

2. What or who inspires you the most? Three people, my mother for being the strongest most positive woman I know and my father who was an entrepreneur before it was even a term that was known and inspiring me want to own a business rather than be employed by a business. My husband who gets out of bed every day saying lets do this! Even when we have had hard times over the years, knowing we are a strong team of two makes us feel unbeatable and I find that really inspiring!

3. What is your current job title? Founder and Director of Pure Goddess

4. What was your very first job? A newspaper round at age 13 but my first full time role was a groom at a dressage stable at age 16.

5. What did you dream of becoming when you were little? A fashion designer

6. How did Pure Goddess come about? After struggling through my forties in perimenopause and then reaching 50 and full blown menopause hitting me like a ton of bricks despite a really healthy diet and lifestyle. No matter what I did losing weight, keeping my energy levels up and feeling good just became virtually impossible. I tried everything, diet, exercise, supplements and could not find anything that helped. Throughout this time I spoke to lots of women in the same position, women in their 40’s onwards are like the invisible sector of society, it is like the world just wants us to hide away and suffer with our hot sweats, insomnia, mood swings etc in silence. If we go to our doctor with our long list of symptoms they basically tell us to accept not feeling 100% because we are older. This infuriated me, I did not feel ready to be put out to pasture, I don’t think I ever will, so I created Pure Goddess firstly to address my own health by creating supplements that actually work and are designed for the woman over 35 and secondly because someone needs to shout from the rooftops that women in midlife have so much to give and we are amazing!

7. Walk us through a typical day in your life. I usually get up around 6am, then either go for a walk with my husband or use the gym for 30-60 minutes, then I like to have an infrared sauna while I am in the sauna, I check emails and messages and then I am usually at my desk around 8-9, I will speak with our team and run over the day’s work, things like our socials, marketing and new products we are working on, it is an exciting time being such a young company, I have a fantastic team with great ideas and it feels like we are all pushing Pure Goddess to win which is fantastic, at the same time it is growing incredibly fast so each day brings new challenges to find solutions for but that’s what makes it exciting. Being a start up means I work pretty much all the time, so lunch tends to be at my desk, a normal day would see me leaving the office and heading home to sort dinner around 6-7pm once we have had dinner I usually end up back at my computer for an hour or two then I will chill in front of the tv with my husband and dogs although this normally ends up with me on my phone answering customer comments and messages. I am trying to get better at putting my phone down but this is so difficult when you are a start up and your whole business revolves around your social media!

8. What brings a smile to your face each day? Messages and emails from our customers, we have so many customers who are women in midlife and I love to hear their health journey stories, and when they message to say how much our products or information has helped them then this just reaffirms why instead of settling down and waiting for retirement I created Pure Goddess – this makes me smile every single day. Plus messages and video calls from my sons which now includes photos and videos of our first grandson, I mean who wouldn’t smile at that, I absolutely love being a grandparent!

9. What are three things you can’t live without? My family, a good hand cream and coffee.

10. What are your favourite Pure Goddess products? It has got to be Metabolism & Energy Superblend, it is just such a great all rounder when it comes to health – most of our customers love it for its weight loss benefits but it is so much more, the energy boost it gives is amazing, it really prevents those afternoon energy crashes and the sense of vitality I get from using it makes me feel like I am 30 again!

11. What is your favourite getaway destination? Italy, we visited Rome earlier in the year and the history, the landscape, the food and the people, just really called to me, I definitely need to explore more of Italy.

12. How do you unwind and relax? Reading, exercise or watching trash tv where I don’t have to think too hard about anything.

13. What is the best piece of life advice you’ve ever received? Again from my parents – my mother always told us you can do anything if you put your mind to it and my father gave me this advice when I was very young and would go into his office with him – Turnover is vanity and profit is sanity, I have never forgot either of these pieces of advice, and I think about each one daily.

14. Where do you see yourself in five years? In five years time I will be 59, I know I should be planning to wind down but I plan to be embroiled in Pure Goddess, I have so many plans for it and want to take it to great heights, I have no intention of slowing down because I know that Pure Goddess is something special.

15. What motivates you to get up every morning? My need to feel like I am living my life to the fullest and to achieve my dreams – we only get one go at this and I don’t want to waste it.

16. If you could have dinner with any three people, dead or alive, who would they be? Sarah Blakely, Frida Kahlo, Emmeline Pankhurst

17. What is a hobby or interest that people might be surprised to learn about you? I love to read biographies, to read about the life journey of others and the adversities they may have overcome, it fascinates me how some people have the ability to overcome anything that life throws at them.

18. How do you stay productive and organised? I time block, each night I get ready for the next day by time blocking everything that I need to get done that day, right down to the trip to the supermarket to shop for dinner, I spin so many plates that it is the only way I can stay on top of things and remember what needs doing.

19. What accomplishment are you most proud of? Raising three amazing young men who are kind, intelligent, funny and resilient and of course Pure Goddess.

20. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why? I used to travel to Canada a lot when I was a child to visit family, but we never got much further than Ontario, I would love to go back one day and go back to the places I used to visit as a child to see how they have changed but also to tour around all the amazing places I haven’t visited outside of Ontario.

21. What book has had the biggest impact on your life? The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

22. What is your favourite quote and why? Don’t sweat the small stuff – Because this is so true, there is no point worrying or stressing over things because it does not help us at all, focus on the stuff that you can change, not the stuff you can’t, if you look hard enough there is a silver lining to most problems.

23. How do you balance your professional and personal life? I don’t, and any start up business owner that says they do are not telling the truth. I own a business and my husband owns a business also, we are constantly pulled in different directions on a daily basis. But even though it is sometimes near impossible, we do prioritize time for a date night or even just a coffee and a catch up at lunch time during the week, we make the most of the time we do spend together and with our family.

24. What advice would you give to someone starting in your field? I have done lots of different things work wise in my life, I went to university in my late 30’s and trained to become a midwife, then worked as midwife for a number of years but when this was not fulfilling me anymore I changed up a gear and left to start my own company and pursue a dream I had about supporting women’s health in a different way, I was 51 when I left my nice stable career as a midwife and took the leap. For any women who are in midlife and do not feel fulfilled but feel it is too late for a change, it is never too late, find a way and do it now, as I said earlier we only get one go at this life so make it count.

25. What are you passionate about outside of work? Biohacking my health, after years of thyroid issues and then menopause I have become so interested in biohacking my health for longevity, I have such a busy life and I have no intention of slowing down so I need to make sure I go into my golden years as fit and healthy as possible. I am not about following every health fad, I need to see some solid evidence behind something to implement it but there are so many things we can do to improve our health and longevity.