We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julie Ann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Julie, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Our MISSION and VISION
With our unlimited passion for the power of story, everyone has the opportunity to become an influencer to change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world. We give influencers the space to express what matters by creating books, poetry, written word, podcasts, video, music, art and dance, through events, workshops, classes and retreats.
Two years prior to creating this environment, I was dancing through life with my soulmate and love of my life that I met in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Rosendo was better known as ‘Azukar’, Spanish for Sugar. Because he was an Earth Angel, so sweet, compassionate, loving and kind. He had a permanent wide bright white smile and he was a Salsa teacher and said ‘everyone can dance’ He was passionate about helping people to express themselves through dance and I was a book publisher and dyslexic, so I was passionate about inspiring people to write and share their story. He said everyone could dance, I said everyone could write, we both agreed that everyone can share their stories and creativity had a way to open people up. We inspired thousands on social media with our dancing videos and during covid we danced on the beach and broke all the rules. Everyone was trapped in their homes afraid of covid, we danced and shared joy.
Azukar got a bacteria infection from the river and his immune system was compromised, he caught covid and passed it to me. we went down hill very fast, his bacteria infection gave him delirious high fevers, my weak lungs from a collapsed post operative lung quickly turned into pneumonia. A concerned friend called us because we were always dancing and no-one had seen us for 2 weeks. Azukar answered the phone and begged for an ambulance because he realized our oxygen starved brains didn’t register our hands had turned blue and we were dying in our bed at home. When we were admitted to intensive care Azukar was put into a coma within a day. The doctors wheeled me to his bed to say goodbye. Once I recovered I did daily mass prayers on Facebook to try and save his life for 3 weeks. He gave his last energy to me. On August 17th 2021 he was pronounced dead. I was ready to go with him, as far as I was concerned my life was over too. He was the love of my life. But Azukar had other plans. Within a week of his death I had phone calls from many of my spiritual authors who I had published and knew Azukar. He couldn’t reach me in my grief but he reached out to everyone he could in their dreams and visions. he had a plan to create a retreat center in downtown Puerto Vallarta with the largest wooden dance floor in Puerto Vallarta, a stage and the perfect environment for writers retreats. he led me to building which is now ‘The house of Influence’ which was a 10 apartment building, I thought it was an apartment he wanted me to live in, in a 10 apartment building, but as soon as I walked into the building I was flooded with visions of the mission of this building. With a $200,000 USD debt from the private hospital bill I just surrendered to the idea of buying a 5 floor 10 apartment building to god. through a whole series of daily miracles and just following the guidance, my daily mantra was ‘if it’s meant to be, let it be’ My first investor asked me if I could make podcast studios, she had a dream to do podcast retreats in Mexico, but where could she guarantee silence and guaranteed high speed internet? Done. Starlink internet accepted my application for one of the first satellite dish services in Mexico. There was another deadline, she wanted her first podcast retreat that year, less than 5 months away, November 16th 2022. I had negotiated a 6 month rent to buy agreement so I had time to find investors, completion date Oct 1st. seemed doable, I just needed to find another $600,000 USD from other investors. If I didn’t complete by Oct 1st i started to have penalties. The final penalty was November 15th, if I didn’t sign by that date i would pay a $40,000 USD penalty. If I didn’t complete by December 1st, I handed the building back, with all the money already invested in remodeling sacrificed. I realized I was in a Mexican scam between the buyer and the lawyer. They both decided a Widow – English Gringo woman had no chance of meeting that deadline. They were almost glowing in victory a month before the deadline. On November 15th I was sitting in the lawyers office signing the agreement and I honestly think those Mexican machismos were almost astounded I had pulled it off. Honestly, me too. All the Mexican laws I had to negotiate with only a limited dyslexic knowledge of Spanish and a very limited budget had all the odds stacked against me. I did three very stressful trips to the tax offices in Guadalajara, Mexico with my corporation application to prove I was a legitimate Mexican corporation. They turned me down twice for something wrong on the application. In tears of frustration I left the offices after 12 hours driving to get there, 2 hours waiting for my appointment and a 6 hour return journey in front of me. Literally in 5 minutes, a straight forward NO with no chance of appeal. So to be actually signing the document with 3 investors sending money internationally with multiple chances of mishaps from the banks within the deadline was truly a miracle. Did I mention I did this ALONE. No lawyers, accountants, interpreters, translators, immigration lawyers, that was not in the budget. ALONE. The last interview I was so proud I did the whole thing in Spanish. I showed her photos of the podcast studios, the stage, the workshop space, I used google translate when I couldn’t figure out a question she asked, I showed her the pictures of me on the radio in Puerto Vallarta, in the local press, she smiled and signed the final document I needed! On November 16th 2022, Michelle of Amplify You arrived with 10 students for a podcast training retreat. As we sat around the welcome dinner served by my Mexican family (three sisters and cousins, nieces and anyone else needed) one lady asked ‘How long have you owned the ‘house of influence’? I looked at my watch and said..’16 hours’ She looked at me with distain and said ‘you mean we gave you our money and you didn’t even own this place?’ Michelle piped up, ‘No, you gave me money, because I believed in Julie and I knew she could pull this off’
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I left the UK in 1998 after feeling like I had already achieved a successful career and didn’t know what was left? After 7 years sailing around the world I landed in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Everyone begged me to write my story and so ‘Around the world in Seven Years – A Life Changing Story’ was created. With my background of product development I thought it would be easy to get a publishing contract for my book but I received 26 rejection letters within 6 months. I decided to investigate the other options and discovered Trafford Publishing in Victoria, Canada. They invented the print on demand book printing press, they did it with xerox because the owner was an environmentalist and was so unhappy with how many books were destroyed with the traditional offset printing. Literally millions of trees sacrificed for books that were burned if they were not sold. He wanted to change the industry, and he did. Print on demand and self-publishing was born. he was broke creating the technology and proving it worked so the big boys, Authorhouse made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Just a year later, AuthorHouse was purchased by Penguin Random house when they realized money was in self publishing. they even persuaded the new CEO of Hayhouse to sell out a self publishing division called Balboa. All my authors I was training by then begged me to start my own publishing company and so Influence Publishing was born. Just 14 years later I’ve published over 300 authors and created a model where I set them up as their own publisher so they keep all the rights and royalties of their books! yes that is rare! Even all the self publishing/vanity publishing houses own your book! Now i love to create a book in a week at the ‘house of influence’ with 10 authors sharing in a book project together – each writing a chapter!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Creating a Mexican corporation so I could buy the ‘house of influence’ property was a real test of my resilience. A single white woman in Mexico is a bit of a target for Mexican men wanting to take advantage. I’ve had my car stolen by my carpenter after he threatened to take possession of my building when I was in Guadalajara trying to secure my Mexican corporation. He had possessed my street apartments as his ‘drug den’ for him and his ‘boys’. I had to forcibly evict him with the police. He ran away and stole the keys to my car and took the car with him. he is still being investigated. Every contractor and worker I’ve had in the building has stolen property. I had people knock on my door asking if the ‘bizarre’ has a food processor? the workers next door ask my new workers if there are more TV’s for sale? lights, tools, atomizers, coffee makers, saucepans, glasses, and led outside lights last a day if they are not fixed. The last workers I had working on my rooftop decided to completely destroy my wooden dance floor, bar and stage because they needed to put up solar panels and decided between them the floor would get ‘more damaged’ if they put the scaffolding on of top of the floor..so they took it up..then it rained. then the wood got wet..then it started to rot..then.. the complete rebulid of the floor is now almost complete but was delayed by the another carpenter requesting $700 for wood material which my property manager gave in cash…and he disappeared. After a year of being ripped off by multiple workers I feel I have finally found a professional team that are helping me. I never give up trusting and believing their intentions are true and honest, but unfortunately drugs rules here in the construction industry.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I’ve published 300 authors. In an industry thwart with self publishing companies charging crazy money with no individual service I’m surprised that wanna be authors in love with the idea of being rich and famous with their story fall for the marketing ploys feeding into the ultimate dream. People loved to be sold to and false testimonials on the website by ABC happy author. When I talk to prospective authors I invite them to my 200 page website to randomly select a happy author to contact. Each author page has an interview about their experience working with me, but I encourage everyone to do their own due diligence and contact the author directly. I’m amazed people don’t do this and just believe marketing jargon. That is how all my business has ever come to me, word of mouth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.influencepublishing.com www.houseofinfluence.mx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfluencePublishing/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieannpv/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY3nkwrSL-o Julie and Azukar Shaw TV interview
- Other: My TEDx talk ‘The gift of dyslexia’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s35Gwz_NbOU&t=29s
Image Credits
Julie Ann Salisbury