We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julia Parzyck a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Julia, thanks for joining us today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?
I absolutely take vacations! Prior to starting my own business, I would get around 2 weeks of vacation a year, which in my eyes is not enough. I was hustling, working my butt off & felt I never had time for myself. One thing I really desired when I started my own business was to have freedom to travel when I wanted without feeling guilty. I recently went on a trip to Portugal and took 2 weeks off, and I definitely got some comments about it being a long chunk of time to just take off work. But for me, success is about freedom. I want to be able to travel and deserve to travel when I want to. when it comes to creating content, nothing is that serious or pressing that it needs to be done within 2 weeks. Those things can wait and I will more likely be more productive when I allow myself to relax and check out for a bit. Burn out is real, so if you have the ability to vacation and take time off — DO IT. And if someone has something to say about it, we’ll too damn bad. We are not machines and it’s okay to rest and recharge.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
So I’ve always been someone who’s been on social media and been interested in mental health, so both spaces have always interested me. I struggled with an eating disorder for 10+ years and when I started sharing my recovery on social media it started to pick up traction. I didn’t set out to be an influencer, but it kind of fell into my lap. I really loved the community it built for me and I loved connecting with other women in the same space as me. Once I was recovered I really wanted to continue to be in the recovery space and help other women recover from their eating disorders as well. I ended il becoming a recovery coach for awhile and have now shifted into working with Eating Recovery Center and create content for them as well as facilitating support groups around body image.
I am really proud of the career I’ve created. I’ve been able to turn my pain and traumas into my passion and help women feel confident in their bodies. And I’m really proud that I’ve done it all while staying authentic and true to myself. I haven’t had to water myself down, alter how I show up, or pretend to be someone else. I am really passionate about what I do, but I also am someone who doesn’t make their career their whole life. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I really value my freedom and really allow time for play and joy. And I think that’s something that sets me apart from other people. I won’t promote hustling or grinding when it comes to starting a business or doing the work when it comes to healing. Life is meant to be enjoyed and I fully intend to live that out!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I was myself! I think we can do easily get lost in all the “you should be doing this” to gain a following, and at the end of the day it’s not really about the big numbers of followers. It’s about an audience that trusts you and supports you. For me, it was about community and creating a safe space online, and allowing myself to be ME. And people enjoyed how I showed up, because it was filtered and pretty all the time. I shared the messes, the struggles, the real shit. And that resonates with people! So whatever your message is, share that and do it authentically. Be consistent, but don’t burn yourself out thinking it needs to look perfect. Just show up. That’s the best advice I can give!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Ooof, I think last year was the hardest year of my life. I am obviously someone who shares a lot of my life on social media, and my relationship was part of that. I was supposed to get married last year, and we ended up calling off our wedding and ending the relationship. It was incredibly hard when I had my followers asking where he was, what happened, and people just wanting to know the intimate details to my relationship. And while yes, I know I’m a public person, I really desired and needed privacy at that time. And I upset people in asking and putting in place a boundary around that. I had Reddit pages about me, people speculating what happened, talking trash about me and in the midst of my grief it was really hard to read. While also trying to keep my partnerships up with brands and still show up online. My mental health really took a hit and then my management at the time dropped me weeks before Christmas. I felt like I was failing at life. My relationship ended, my management drops me, then a big brand pulled their partnership with me. I was crushed. But I knew that I just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I had to keep going. This wasn’t it for me. This was just the start of something new and I really just had to believe and hope that things were going to get better. And they did! I have a management team that’s way make aligned with me, I am so happy I didn’t stay in that relationship, and I feel way more ME. I know that life will get hard again and I know that when that time comes I am equipped to get through anything. Just keep going!
Contact Info:
- Website: Fitfatandallthat.com
- Instagram: Fitfatandallthat
- Other: Tik tok: Thatgoodjuju
Image Credits
https://instagram.com/sunnieheers?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== https://instagram.com/taylorbellephotography?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==