We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julie Belcher a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Julie, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Success is born from confidence. I remember calling my dad when I got my first job in a kitchen as a pastry chef and saying, “Dad, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how I got here!” My dad just kind chuckled to himself and said, “Welcome to the real world. Fake it ’til you make it. That’s a real thing.” Nothing has ever been more true. If you look at the world around you and see possibility, things become possible.
Secondly, kindness. Be kind. Be honest. Be patient. You don’t have to be cruel and ruthless to know success.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Well, I left the country for the first time the Christmas after my 18th birthday. A German girl named Maria spent a year at my high school as an exchange student when I was in my senior year. She was painfully shy, but we somehow became good friends that year and she ended up moving in with my family. After starting at university that fall, I couldn’t wait to see her again so I planned a trip for the holiday break. I flew to meet her and her family at the Frankfurt airport, a nearly 5 hour drive from their home that they insisted on making. They took me to Christmas markets, castle restaurants, and museums. We hiked to the top of a mountain to watch the fireworks on New Year’s Eve. I met all of her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins within 100 miles of their home. They took the time to show me who they were and what was special about their home, their region, their foods (my GOD her grandmother’s rouladen were spectacular!!) and I got my first glimpse into life in another country.
I went back to Europe the following summer to study French in a little city called Angers in the Loire Valley and spent a month falling further in love with life abroad. I also fell in love with food in France. I ate baguettes in their entirety, often accompanied with some sort of jam or chocolate spread. It was as though I had never eaten bread before!
As soon as I got the chance, I headed back to France for a full semester to perfect my French. France had other plans, though, as the university students AND professors were on strike for nearly all my time there. Despite my disappointment – I was one of those kids that loved school – this gave me the opportunity to hop onto trains, planes, and whatever I could to see the rest of Europe. This is when I really learned to travel. To gather up my courage and step into a store where I didn’t speak the language and figure it out with the store clerk. To taste things I didn’t recognize, and often love it. I’ll never eat andouillette again though, no matter how many of my French friends swear by it. This experience led me to begin imagining the Bed and Breakfast I would open one day as a way to help other travelers discover a new place while feeling comfortable, at home, and well cared for.
Rêverie began as an operation where Lisa and I wanted to show people how to really BE in a new place. To go out and meet the people who work the land, stir the curds into cheese, and harvest the grapes for the wine. At the end of the day, travel is all about the people you meet. Especially these days when you can’t snap a better photo of a landmark than you can conjure up from a search engine. It’s all about the conversations you have, the ways of life you learn, and of course – the food on the table. We want our guests to leave a retreat feeling like they have really experienced a place, and like they could go back there and have a few friends. We know that they’ll leave with incredible memories.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I met Lisa Donovan back in the day when she was a pastry chef at Husk and I was a barista and French teacher in Nashville. I was looking to learn from some professionals in restaurant kitchens, and a mutual friend of ours connected us. Lisa wasn’t in a place to have any apprentices at the time – especially someone like me with zero experience – so she connected me with another chef in town. But Lisa and I stayed in touch, and eventually we worked together at Husk.
A few years after I moved to France, I got a call from Lisa saying she would be cooking at a painting retreat in the South of France and “Would you like to come cook with me?” I said, “Yes, duh, of course!” and headed down to one of the sweetest weeks of my life. We spent our time shopping at local markets, cooking gorgeous meals for the group of women who came to the retreat, and sipping on tasty wines together in the kitchen. We realized it was something we wanted to repeat, again and again, and here we are 6 years later doing just that!
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Word of mouth. Hands down. Especially in our industry, you can’t beat someone going home from a trip, glowing, and telling their friends and family about how amazing their experience was.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.reverieforever.com
- Instagram: @reverieforever
Image Credits
All photos by Victoria Quirk