The Female Founder Show

How Julia Stewart Navigated Entrepreneurship After Leading a $5B Company

• Bridget Fitzpatrick • Season 1 • Episode 18

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Julia Stewart, former CEO of a $5 billion company and now founder of the health tech startup Alurx, joins The Female Founder to discuss the realities of entrepreneurship, leadership, and values-driven growth. She reflects on the unexpected challenges she faced transitioning from corporate leadership to launching a wellness-focused venture, and how empathy, mentorship, and strategic planning shape her approach to building high-performing teams.

Stewart also shares insights from her decades-long career, including why securing the right investors remains difficult even for experienced leaders, how behavioral psychology informs team development, and why personal discipline and wellness practices are essential for sustained success. Her perspective offers practical guidance for aspiring founders navigating uncertainty, career transitions, and the demands of leading with conviction.

Key discussion areas:

  • Navigating investor challenges in the evolving health tech landscape
  • Applying empathy and behavioral insights to leadership and team culture
  • Building high-performing teams aligned with vision, values, and accountability
  • The role of mentorship, initiative, and career adaptability for women
  • Using strategic planning and personal routines to sustain productivity and balance



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Announcer:

This is the Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick exclusively on ASBN.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Hello everyone. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Julia Stewart to the Female Founder Show. Julia is the founder and CEO of Alurx, a wellness coaching app designed to make preventative health care accessible to everyone, and soon to be powered by AI. Before launching Alurx, Julia served as chair and CEO of Dine Brands Global, where she brought together two iconic names, iHop and Applebee's, creating the world's largest sit-down restaurant company. She's been recognized by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the U.S., and for good reason. You may have seen Julia's incredible story circulating on social media. After being passed over for the CEO role of Applebee's, despite doubling the company's stock and growing the brand, she resigned, joined IHOP, and later led IHOP's $2.1 billion acquisition of Applebee's. In a full circle moment, she became CEO of both companies, now known as Dine Brands Global. But that's not her full story. Today we'll hear more about the company she founded, Alurx, which focuses on helping people live healthier, more balanced lives, and how she's redefining what leadership and purpose look like in the next chapter. Julia has had a very impressive career breaking glass ceilings, building incredible teams, mentoring others, and now leading a company that's transforming preventative healthcare. I know you'll be inspired by Julia's story. So with that, Julia, welcome to the show.

Julia Stewart:

This is wonderful.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yes, I'm excited to talk to you about your journey as well as Alurx. So now you've had such an amazing career from starting out in restaurants to leading some of the biggest brands in the country. Can you talk to us a little bit about the early days in your career?

Julia Stewart:

The early days. So it really did start with my first job was as a food server at an IHOP. So I was young in high school, needed a car, so I needed to raise money to get a car. And so I went to work for a local IHOP restaurant in San Diego. It was owned by a franchisee. And I loved it. I felt, excuse me, I fell in love instantly with the family atmosphere in the restaurant, the family team environment, uh, the people who came into the restaurant. And I think I loved the fact that I would get feedback every day. So at the end of every shift, I would have a sense of how did I do? What did people like? What didn't people dislike? You know, I just I loved the whole environment. And fortunately, I think for me, I went off to college and while in college worked in a restaurant, uh, a high-end steakhouse. And then when I graduated, I immediately went into the restaurant business. So I spent, um, because my degree was in marketing and business, I spent the first 14 years in uh marketing, all for restaurants, and was learning the business and getting more and more responsibility and accountability. And then after 14 years made the decision, I didn't think anybody, and by then I knew I wanted to be CEO of a restaurant chain or at least a company. And by then I knew that I didn't think anybody would hire somebody from marketing into uh a CEO job. So I went into operations, which was easier said than done. Oh, uh, but finally got a job in operations, spent 10 years in operations for Taco Bell, and then uh 20 as CEO. So when you add all that up, it's a long time in the restaurant business. But it all started from being a food server at IHOP.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Which is great, uh such a great foundation for anyone um building their career to start in that customer-facing role as servers do. So I'm sure that you learned a lot uh in those years as well.

Julia Stewart:

Absolutely, and I've told everyone and anyone that would ever listen uh if you can't gain that sort of empathy early on for the customer or whoever you are uh facing, whatever whatever business you're in, it's really hard. So I always felt like I had a leg up. Yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

So you made the move from marketing to operations. Was that a difficult transaction or a transition for people to um when they probably saw you in this one role as marketing and then to move into operations? How did that transition go?

Julia Stewart:

That was not easy, that was very, very difficult. Um and I think the pigeonholing still goes on today. I'd love to say it's all over and you don't have those issues, but um, that's part, I think, of corporate America. They still have a tendency to pigeonhole you. So when I first I went to my own company and said, hey, I'd like to leave marketing and go into operations and the then CEO. So that's really the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of. So that didn't work so well. So I went looking, and I had heard at the time that Taco Bell was looking for what they called advanced management recruits, AMRs, they came from different businesses. They could teach them operations and they could bring a whole nother level of expertise to the business. And so I called the executive recruiter, and the executive recruit recruiter said, absolutely not. You know, you don't you don't meet the profile, which I never understood. Isn't that the profile? Is anyway. Long story short, I was getting uh the company that I work for was getting an award, as was Taco Bell. So I was at the same uh conference in Chicago for the National Restaurant Association, and um I had heard through the rumor mill that the CEO of Taco Bell was going to be there. This is a true story, and so when no one was looking, I asked the woman who was coordinating the meeting. There was like a cocktail hour, and then there was gonna be dinner. And I said, Do you mind showing me where my seat is at the dinner? It was a ssigned seating. And she took me to my seat and I said, Would you mind showing me where John Martin, who the then CEO was? And she said, Well, it's way over here. And I switched uh seats with someone so that I could sit next to him. He never knew uh until much later. And the rest, as they say, is history. I convinced him that I would be right for the job. And the next week the executive recruiter called and said, I I don't know what happened, but you're going on an interview. I mean, obviously there was a lot there. Sure. And um, I convinced the people that I was interviewing with, and I got the job. But I often wonder what woulda, coulda, shoulda had I not done that um switching of the of the dinner cards. I mean, who will ever know? But it just goes to show you I created a little bit of my own fate.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yes, and two big lessons there. You do not take no for an answer, starting with the previous company. And then also um taking advantage of an opportunity, you looked for it, you found it, and you went for it. So two big lessons there for sure.

Julia Stewart:

Yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now let's talk about. Now you've made the move from your massive success in the restaurant world to launching a wellness company, and that's such a big shift. What were some of the challenges that you faced taking this leap?

Julia Stewart:

So let me rewind the tape a little bit. So, in between taking that job at Taco Bell, I had then become CEO of a much larger entity, and I did that for 20 years. And during that whole time that I was running this public company, um, 250,000 employees, 2.5 million uh customers serving a day, I witnessed and saw every day many, many people not taking good care of themselves, not learning healthy habits. And I had been raised by two teachers that it was always about take care of yourself first and foremost before you do anything else. And that really was, you know, three basic components sleep well, eat well, and exercise. So that is the way I was raised. And it became, I think, because I grew up with teachers who didn't have a lot, but they certainly had this basic fundamental belief in taking care of one another and each other and themselves, I saw day-to-day, both running the company, looking at the insurance, and then obviously watching consumers every day, that healthy habits was harder than you may think. And for many, many, many people. And I remember thinking someday I'll be able to be in a position where I might be able to really impact and influence. And during all of that time in the restaurant space, by the time I got to the brand, it was what we call everyday indulgence. So kind of hard to teach somebody. Um, although I can still teach you how to eat for less than 500 calories at an IHOP, I can teach you how to use Weight Watchers at Applebee's, I can still teach you how to eat differently at Taco Bell. I it it's all doable, but most people prefer the everyday indulgence. And when you do that frequently, in addition to everything else you're doing in your personal life, there's there's nothing wrong with an occasional indulgence, and and we all do it, including myself, but the day-to-day, you have to take care of yourself. And frankly, that was sort of the epiphany I had in those 20 years as CEO. And when I left, I decided I would begin looking, researching, and better understanding how I could make a difference. So, you know, I always tell people, I've never had anybody say to me, No, I don't want to help you, no, I don't want to give you advice, no, I don't want to tell you about my world. So as soon as I left and had taken a breather, I did a, I don't know, had to be 50 informational interviews with people in the healthcare industry, both physicians, both advisors, clinical psychologists, behavioral psychology. I mean, I started talking to anybody and everyone who would listen to me and began to formulate an idea, did some consumer research, both qualitative and quantitative, and then began to began to write a business plan, which literally was on all these walls in my office, uh, about what it would look like. And that was the start of Alurx.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Okay, so let's talk about Alurx for a little bit. Tell us what Alurx does for people.

Julia Stewart:

So when I started it, it was all about how I could take the an just a simple app and find out about your needs initially just in sleep, nutrition, and stress management, because at the time, those were the things that people wanted and needed most. And it was smack dab in the middle of COVID. And so Google would tell you those were the three things people were researching. So it made sense that I would pivot to the three things that people wanted the most. And so created this app on the Apple store that people could sign up for, and you could only sign up for one thing at a time, and it would give you daily, it would prompt and it would talk to you daily in an app, and it would tell you the kinds of things you needed to do. So, for example, you went on it and you talked about yourself and you answered several questions and you said, I'm just not sleeping. Then we had physicians who were writing programs depending on where you occasionally had difficulty, you had moderate issues, or you had major issues. And we had sleep experts who were writing programs for you, and we were putting that into the database and into the app. And we did that throughout uh COVID. However, we began to realize that people's lives were far more complicated and they wanted even more personalization than we were giving them. And I was able to find uh some additional tech help that would get us literally using AI, not the kind of AI you're used, not Chat GPT, but proprietary AI that would enable us to pull specific data-based, science-backed research and guide you through whatever you needed in the way of your health and wellness. And so that is what we are in the midst of building. So the Alurx Wellness app is still available on the Apple store, but I am in the midst of fundraising so that we can build the next generation, which is both scalable, sustainable, and highly personalized. But I will tell you, even in the Alurx Wellness app, the things I've learned to do that I never knew box breathing, meditation, things I never knew that have just helped me. And I'm literally proud to tell you, I went to get my physical um on last week ago, Friday, and the doctor called yesterday, literally yesterday called to tell me that I have a body of somebody 20 years younger. And I'm convinced it is the daily routines, all that I do to stay healthy. And healthy isn't just physical, it's also mental.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Absolutely.

Julia Stewart:

Uh, which I which I learned. I probably took on, I mean, a certain amount of stress is good for you, but too much stress and the inability to deal with it creates uh longer-term issues. So, but I'm telling you, it's so gratifying. Uh, just as the food service business was when people would say, you know, I I this particular situation changed my life, or this food server made a difference in, you know, my family. For me, people writing me saying, Because of you, I've gotten on a routine, I just had a baby, I just did this, I just did that, and all of a sudden making a difference and learning. And at the key is learning. I mean, that that's what I'm trying to do. I'm educating you, teaching you, and then prompting you. So, as my tech guy likes to say, so Julia, I'm gonna use this the rest of my life.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, and for so many people now, especially, they want to know, they don't want to someone to just tell them what to do. They want to know why they're doing it. Um, stress management is a is a huge part of that. Yes, exactly. And how? How do I do that?

Julia Stewart:

And so the my the doctor, the the my actual doctor is also helping as well. She she really became infatuated with Alorix. And like she said one day, look, Julia, I write doctor's orders all day long. I tell you the what. I don't necessarily tell you the how. And what I love about the app is you're like the how of healthcare. And I was reading an article last week that said by 2040, 65% of all health care will be focused on prevention, which is what we're about. We're all about preventing uh and having you live a longer, healthier life because you're taking care of yourself every day and getting healthy routines and healthy habits. And that was really born out of watching so many people not take care of themselves.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, absolutely. Now let's shift gears for a second and talk about what has been the biggest surprise about stepping into the founder role compared to your time in restaurants and hospitality.

Julia Stewart:

So, and I don't know if you would know this, but my entire 40-plus year career in the restaurant space was certainly company operated and owned restaurants, but largely franchisees. So I spent my entire career, you know, teaching, impacting, influencing, coaching entrepreneurs, franchisees, how to do a better job in their business. So when you've been doing it for 40 plus years, you feel like you have some capability yourself, right? So part of that, the transition, which I think people don't readily realize, came easy for me because I had spent 40 plus years coaching and educating others. So that part uh really wasn't difficult. I think, and you know, think about throughout my career, whether it was doing MA or financial analysis or whatever, dealing with banks and borrowing money or paying down debt or uh high finance, it all came easy, right? But when you're doing it on a small scale and it's you and it's your business, it was much harder. So I would say for me, and and attracting and finding a great team wasn't difficult. I mean, I'm very blessed that I have uh come across some wonderful team members, and that part's easy. Um, for me, I think the most difficult part was raising money. And it was probably it wasn't initially, uh, you know, the the friends and family raise was easy, but now raising this next round for significant money. It's been very interesting what I have learned about uh VC and private equity, which in the United States, not outside the US, but in the US, 98% of all venture capital money goes to men, does not go to women. And so that was sort of like a statistic, like surely that can't be right. I mean, I you know, I remember the first time somebody told me that fairly early on in doing this. I'm like, no, that that that that can't be a right statistic. I mean, surely there's a problem. And so when I went back and validated it, it's absolutely correct. And I'm not sure I can tell you why, but I can tell you that when I actually get people on the phone and I explain my 42-year career and the last 20 as a public CEO, and you know, taking businesses from little to big and taking the company I last worked for from 400 million and market cap to 5 billion, people are like, what? And now doing this, there is a bit of a morphing, but I I still think it's a um it's an interesting uh dynamic that uh I think uh in our lifetime will change, but it's been slow to change. And I also think it is a for many women that I speak to uh weekly and that I still do some coaching and mentoring for, it's a deterrent. People get uh it's it's really a deterrent, and you have to tell them you gotta overcome it. And it only takes one good investor and you're fine. So I think, but it's been interesting. That has been surprising, I think the the biggest surprise.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yes, and even with the career that you've had and all of your accolades, you're still having a hard time. You would think that people would be in line to help you with your project.

Julia Stewart:

So I think that is the most interesting now, having said all that to you, as I find the right places to go, and I'm not being funny about that. Find the right people who tell you to go to this person or that person or introduce you. I'm finding more women who are becoming investors and are far more interested in health tech and healthcare and making a difference. Um, but it was trying to find the right people, which sometimes felt like a needle in a haystack.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, absolutely.

Julia Stewart:

But it's um it's finally finding the right people um in the industry, both in in in the private world and the public world, who have realized that health care and preventive health care is the wave of the future. Really is and so it's getting easier today than maybe a couple of years ago, but yeah, definitely been um a surprise. Yeah, yeah.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now you talked before about learning the importance of empathy. How has empathy played a role in being a founder and leading your business today?

Julia Stewart:

So I I really am my father's daughter, who was a teacher as well as my mother, and I he always used to say, from when I can I can first remember, you know, it's a it's a privilege to be able to learn and to lead. And so don't ever forget that, Julia. Always be learning and always put yourself in the shoes of the person that you are impacting. So I guess I just was fortunate enough that I I learned it and it it grew into a real asset for me early on to have empathy. And so by the time I went into the into the work environment, empathy and learning sort of became you know cornerstones for the way I operated. And from an early age, I learned to ask people, I don't understand that. Can you help me? And as I said to you earlier, I never had anybody say, nope, not gonna teach you, not gonna educate you, not gonna share. I just never had that problem. So if you ask people, I I don't understand that business, or can you help me with from an early on that became part of it? And then having a real empathy early on for you know customers or being in that shoe or being in that role or understanding it. Um, and then frankly, as I was climbing the ladder, and my ladder sort of looked like this. Now I call it, we we've learned to call it experience capital, but back then I didn't know what to call it, but that's what it is, right? I remember many a time thinking uh with whether it was a supervisor or the CEO of the company, learning very early on, I don't want to be that way, I don't want to do that, I don't, I don't want to act that way. And so it was taking all of that in and sort of developing my own management style way before I was managing anyone, was here's what it takes and my mind to be successful. And so out of that, because I've often been asked, how did you get your management style? And it was frankly watching people who were not successful or who were not particularly, I didn't see as great leaders. And so it was learning and empathizing, I could do this differently and better. And then ultimately, not only does the empathy make you a great leader, a great mom, a great sister, a great friend, a great wife, a great whatever, but it also helps you in being a great producer of a product that consumers love, whether that's in the restaurant business or in health tech, having that empathy for being on the other side or experiencing it yourself, I don't think there's anything that really takes the place of that. And as I would climb the ladder, I began to realize even more so the importance of empathy and learning, and you know, not having to be the smartest person in the room, not having to have all the answers, um, it made me a better leader.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now it sounds like from a young age, your life has been very serendipitous, but not. It's really you have paved this way based on your experiences life and and what you have learned over the years. And every founder that I talk to has these moments of doubt when they they made me think, what am I doing? Um, this is you know, this is never gonna work. I don't feel like I I don't feel like you're the type of person that's ever said that. But have you ever had those moments of of doubt? And if so-

Julia Stewart:

No, it's interesting, it's a great question, by the way. And I I do get asked that, but it's funny, I don't, others do. And so um when I think about um, I think in you asked a question, uh, not not today on the on on this, but I think you said something about, hey Julia, you know, what's the most surprising thing you hear from people? It's that. Um, I will talk to potential, almost always potential investors who will say, so what if this doesn't work? What if you can't raise the money? What if you and and my answer is I that that's the least of all my worries. I mean, I would never be doing this unless I didn't have convention, conviction of heart and have done my research, talked to enough people to know this is the future. I mean, I'm I'm very comfortable, and we're probably disrupting healthcare as we know it today. So I'm very comfortable in what we're doing. I think sometimes it's not letting others who, for whatever reason, right, don't go there. But for whatever reason, um, you know, I don't, I don't know, you know, your own personal career, but I certainly had maybe one or two occasions in my career where you worked in a culture where my success meant someone else's failure. And I don't come from that world. So I come from the world of everybody has a chance to win. Yeah. And we can all be better for it. So, but I do think it's I've certainly heard more than one person like, why aren't you just going and sitting on a on a beach somewhere and relaxing? Because I don't want to. Right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

And sometimes that doubt comes from people very close to you, and that's when it's it's very hard. I know you talked about the investors doubting, and but when you're talking to friends and family about a dream or a vision that you might have and you're gonna do it, whether whatever, it doesn't matter what they say. And when you hear that, it does, it's it's it's difficult, but-

Julia Stewart:

Well, it's a learning for all of us when someone comes to you and says, Um, I have a dream, um, listen, because that dream can become a reality. And if you think about most things that you enjoy today, right, in your day-to-day life, came from somebody dreaming. Um, I'm a big believer that one must spend time uh dreaming and having, you know, those just moments of I just want to dream. And if you if you're surrounding yourself with people who um who don't want to let you dream or who want to uh quelch that dream, it it does give you pause for why is that? And do I really need to be around that person all the time? And by the way, that's true not just in your corporate life or you know, you work for somebody. Uh it's also true your personal life. It's a very, it's a very fair comment about I I I want this and I feel passionate about it. Now, if you have to, you know, if you're financially in a situation where you you can't do that, then you do it on the side until it becomes, you know, uh a possibility, which I I still teach uh all the time. Yeah. Whether it's whether it's my own children or it's coaching and mentoring others, don't give up your dream. You may have to pause that to do what you need to do to get by, but um, never give up the dream.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Love that. You were I heard I saw a podcast that you're on recently, and you mentioned someone when you were very young told you, I think it was a teacher, told you, that you can be anything that you want to be. I think that's so important as leaders to, as we're, you know, building a team and and talking to people every day to to keep that mindset in front of them. Um talk to us about the importance of that, because I didn't have that, and it it it made things a little bit difficult for me. Things I still work on today, am I enough? And all of the things that so many women and men deal with every day. But talk to us about the importance of when you are mentoring people, um, how to make them feel like they can do anything.

Julia Stewart:

Yeah, it's funny you asked that question because I would say sometimes I I because I I do mentor uh at any given time I try to mentor a couple people. And and I that's my you know how part of what makes you fulfilled in life is giving back, you know, paying it forward. I pay it forward by uh coaching and mentoring. And it's a it's an interesting, interesting question that you asked because as I reflect on that, sometimes they just meet me, need me to tell them, to give them permission, to tell them it's possible. Um, I often find, and I'm I mentor of all different levels, men and women, right? You know, starting out, just getting out of college, uh, where I had somebody the other day and they said, you know, I'm pigeonholed, I don't want to do this for a living. This I've made my decision. I'm like, okay, well, then you have to decide how you're gonna get out from the position that you're in, which is something they didn't want to do, and it get into something they have passion about and care about. And frankly, I kept telling her the fact that you're 25 years old and you already found that out, you're light years ahead of so many other people. Conversely, I coached somebody the other day who's a senior executive in a major corporation and is very successful and is part of the executive C-suite and isn't happy, not because she doesn't like her job, but because she doesn't like who she works for. And we had a lengthy conversation about how to address that. And again, I said, you know exactly what to do. You are very savvy and very capable, but I think she needed someone to give her permission. So sometimes coaching and mentoring and finding that space is also about just reinforcing for me and my own personal life. I've always had a plan since I was probably in college. Um It's literally next to the, it's right there. I always have my plan. It's my top 10 items in my life that are critical to me. And that plan changes for me. It's usually changed about every five to ten years. But I always keep it beside me and I always remind myself this is my vision. This is my focus for me personally and professionally. And it's really guided me about okay, it's about time to start figuring out how do you get from point A to point B and work the plan. Like I told you early on, my career move wasn't like this. It wasn't a straight ladder. It was sideways. I coach somebody who works in nonprofit. Same basic principle. It doesn't really matter whatever you're doing, whether it's it's for corporate America or it's on your own or something in between. Working those plans become critically important and giving yourself clear milestones, that's always been a guiding force for me. And if you ask me where that came from, I can't tell you. I just somehow intuitively knew by the time I got to college, I needed a plan. So I knew even when I was in high school, I knew my parents couldn't afford college. So if I was going to go to college, the only way I could think to do that was to earn a scholarship. So what was I good at in high school? I was on the speech team. So my whole thing was okay, if I win, the odds are someone will pick me up. And that's exactly what happened.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Well, they So the quote goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, right?

Julia Stewart:

So well, and again, I I had a woman who's very successful entering the second phase of her life and doing something different. And she made a really interesting comment to me. She said, Okay, I've done all these plans, I I've followed my own, but I'm I I got thrown a uh a zinger. And so not at all what I anticipated. Um and her position was eliminated, right? And so now she has to start all over. And I'm like, yes, but how wonderful for you that after all these years, now you get to think about what's next, and you get to interview people, and she's like, I've never been on an informational interview. And I'm like, here's how it works. Take some of the people you've worked with or that were your clients in the past and ask them about what they like and what they don't like. She's like, I never thought about that. You know, it's like here's a whole nother phase for you. So it doesn't have to be failure, it has to be what's next and how to think about it. And I do think it's about the glass being half full, not half empty.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

And I hear that in everything that you've said today. So I love your your positive mindset is yeah, I think you can move mountains with that kind of attitude.

Julia Stewart:

So that's absolutely, and and there will be setbacks. I've never met anybody who didn't have a setback, uh including my own and several of them. But it's it's what you do with that and how how that doesn't have to define you. That what defines you is what you want and how you want to get there and who you want to be. And the definition is is all about you. And I know we know that. I think intuitively we know that it's the practicality of it that sometimes needs a refresher or a reminder, or to your point, someone in your sphere of influence who can say to you, You got this.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. It's so important. Now you have built incredible relationships over the years and worked with so many different types of people. Um, I've even heard you talk about um how you're good at reading the room or reading the table. Um, when you're deciding to work with people now or bringing people into the company, are there any must-haves that you look for in those people?

Julia Stewart:

Yes. And it's honestly, it's not any different than when I was CEO of a public company. Many people will say to you, most people will say to you in an interview, I'm a team player and I want to be on a high-performing team. And not everybody really does. They say they do, but then they just they exhibit signs that say, I don't want to be a team player.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's right.

Julia Stewart:

I want to do my own thing. I don't like to work with others. You know, I always am critical of others. Um, I don't want to hold myself to the highest standard. Um, because when you're on a high performing team, that means your peers are giving you constructive feedback. That means your peers are saying, You, you, you didn't do this, and I'm frustrated with you. That's a high-performing team. Mom is not always at the lead telling you what you did and didn't do right. A high performing team is your peers. Yeah. So you'd be amazed at the number of people who don't really want to be on a high-performing team, or you'd be amazed at the number of people who don't want to be a team player. So I have three basic principles. You have to want to be on a team and be good at it, and you have to have demonstrated that you know how to be on a great team. Um, you have to talk to me about, give me examples. And if you can't think of them, that's not a good sign. Number two, you have to be good at something. There, there's a need set there, right? If you think about a great company, even a small one, it's the tapestry of people that bring different expertise. I want to know what your expertise is and how you're gonna contribute to the whole. And thirdly, if you don't fundamentally buy into the vision of the company, I don't care if it's big or small, um, and you can't articulate that, and then in turn, I'm gonna share with you the values of the company. So I was talking to my daughter recently and she was interviewing, this was probably a year or two ago, and I said, when you go on the interview, if the person you're interviewing with can't tell you the values of the company, you're working for the wrong company. So you want to be able to fit the needs of the company from a vision standpoint, and you want to fit the needs from a culture standpoint. If those three things don't exist, the culture and the vision, the clear team leadership and and and being part of the team and being accountable, I don't think it's gonna work for me to have you work with me. It's just inherently, it just doesn't work. And so people have said to me, so have you had to fire people for any one of those three reasons? And the answer is yes, especially since I interviewed you. I told you what the three non-negotiables were, and you promptly became not a team player, didn't want to, you know, support the vision, right? I mean, those are like classic, and I think I am amazed at the number of people who say the right words and then don't want to execute. So that's true of and those three things, by the way, have sort of been my three things my entire career. I those are not, and by the way, those are not necessarily what I've seen in companies I've worked for. So to go back to what I told you earlier, I watched people up above make mistakes, or I watched a culture that wasn't healthy or that didn't develop people. Um, those are places you probably don't want to work. And in today's environment, you have the choice. I mean, you you you can pretty much find a job in a company where people care about your development, they care about the culture, they care about the values, they stand for something. Um, and I used to always say, even when I was CEO of a large company, I don't think I went a day without making a decision based on our values. And today, running a small company trying to become bigger, it's the same thing. It's all based on basic values of how do we help people? How do we get people to work and live in an environment where they have healthy habits? What does that look like? And how do we help people get there? That is not uniquely different.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. No, those three things are fantastic, and I will be writing them down and using them myself. Now, you've been giving back and mentoring and helping people so much. Have there been any mentors that um have made a lasting impact on you? Um, and what's the best piece of advice that you've been given?

Julia Stewart:

So I didn't, I never worked for a woman, and I never had particularly I I had a few people I worked for that I that I valued and respected. You know, we didn't call it mentoring in those days, right? I mean, but there were people who cared about me. Um I didn't have a lot of um positive influences. Uh early on, I had a boss who told me that my management style was exhausting, and I thanked him profusely, and he said, no, it's not a compliment. I and I said, I I know you don't mean it to be a compliment, I take it as a compliment. Um, so early on I learned that I mean there were certainly things I could do more, I could demonstrate more, I could showcase more, and and that I got um because I asked for it. I think in my career, um, both on the marketing side and the op side, right? I didn't necessarily get a lot of really great coaching that I I give today. However, I would ask people, what can you give me? What can you tell me that I can? And people would always say, Oh, you're doing a great job. And I'm like, Yeah, but there must be something I could do more or demonstrate more. Um, and because I, you know, I grew up uh with a glass ceiling on a regular basis, um I would oftentimes have to leave the organization because I would be told you're the highest ranking female and you're not going any further, or you know, you're you're and I know people look at me in a in aghast today about that comment, but that was fairly regularly. So I would simply say, look, I've gotten to the furthest I'm gonna get to. Nobody is willing to allow me, even if I wrote my own development plan to go any further, so I'll have to look elsewhere. And so I really didn't mind doing that. Now that's not for everybody, and easier said than done, and I moved a lot. So that's not for everybody, but each time I took a new role, it was one of more responsibility, more accountability, and I would learn different things. So by the time I got to the vice president level, I had learned a ton. So for me, it was all about I'm gonna show up having learned more, done more, experienced more to be this better executive to you. Not necessarily because somebody gave me that coaching, but because I kept drawing it out of each organization or each individual. I think today there are certainly more people, uh, men and women, trying to coach and mentor, but it's it's it's not as easy as it sounds. And I was just on the phone the other day with somebody I'm coaching who's in mid-management, and she's like, you know, I I just I I go to my boss and I tell my boss every day that I'm I'm not getting anything and I'm not getting any coaching. And he says, You're doing a great job, but he keeps promoting others and not me. And I said, Okay, now we have to have the difficult conversation about do you work in the right environment and do you have the right or do you have to think about doing something else? I mean, it's it's okay to say I've done everything I can possibly do here, I've learned everything I can, I've brought forward my development plan, but it it may not be the right long-term place. Again, I don't that's not a I don't say that, I don't say that lightly. I say that with a great deal of thoughtfulness, and it's also about where you are and and how important, you know, can you do something else and can you look for that? And are you very thoughtful about that process? Oftentimes I find that people haven't written their own development plan, right? They're waiting for somebody in the organization to say, here, do this, and then, and that's really not how it works. You look around and you recognize I don't have any skill set here, I'd love to volunteer for that project. Early on, I think it just came intuitively to me. I would volunteer for the projects nobody else wanted. I'd go to the places that, you know, I talk about that fairly regularly. Early in my career, I kept being transferred because I would take the job that nobody else wanted to go to the place nobody else wanted to work at where there'd been all these problems. I'm like, oh my gosh, let me try turning around, you know, um, a situation or uh, and it was incredibly valuable that I could then go to the next position and say, yes, I spent a year and a half turning around a market that was unsuccessful, made it successful with the help of a lot of people and grew the business. And go call them and ask them, they will tell you. But that came from recognizing, yeah, I've done as well as I'm gonna do here, but I look over there and I see all this opportunity. I'm gonna volunteer for it. No, maybe I don't know everything and I'm not exactly sure how I'm gonna do it, but once I get in the position, I'm surely I can, you know, um make it work or create the the lemonade out of lemons. And and so early in my career, not even realizing I was doing it, I became a turnaround expert because I would go into these places where they had failed.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah. And I think some really great advice you just dropped there was the uh to speak up, speak up if you want something or you you need more to do or you want to turn something around.

Julia Stewart:

And I think let's I I would say of all the mentoring and coaching I talk about, probably that single, I call it a gift, that single skill is not as um is not as readily that one's hard for a lot of people to stand up and say, I'm not getting what I need. I need more of X, Y, and Z. Um, and I thought that was generational. It's it's not generational. There are certain things I think that are more generational than not. Um you know, I think early on a lot of us paved the way with there's still a glass ceiling um for people of color, for women, but I think it's less prevalent than it used to be. I think today there's still this hesitancy um to say what you need um or to ask for the ask.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah. And it's hard as a leader because you want people to speak up, but if it doesn't come naturally or that if it's difficult or someone, it's hard to it's hard to navigate that situation.

Julia Stewart:

Yeah, and I think teaching, you know, it's I think the thing I learned early on, and I'm not sure how or why I learned it, but people would come to me and say, I don't like so-and-so. This is too difficult for me. I have a problem over here. And I remember early on I intuitively saying, and what would you like me to do about that? But what would you like? You want me to go to your peer and and fix that? Or wouldn't you rather build that relationship and fix that yourself? I can certainly give you some coaching, but eventually coming to the boss every time you have an issue and expecting the boss to fix it is kind of like a command and control 1950s environment. That's really not how America, that's not how corporate America or frankly, you know, nonprofits or small companies, that's not how it works anymore. Right. You gotta fight the good fight. Right now, if it's intolerable or there is harassment of any kind, that's a whole different scenario, which I experienced as well. But you know, again, what did I do when I couldn't get any, when it wouldn't get any better, I went somewhere else where I knew it would be. I mean, you have to be again, I don't want to paint a negative picture. I want to paint a realistic picture. But I also think one of the things that people are so worried about finding a job, they don't ask the right questions in the interview. It wasn't the right job to begin with. So getting that fit, I probably talk about more than any single thing when I'm coaching, mentoring, or talking to my own team. Let's make certain we have a good fit here and that that person fits in the whole environment. Remember, as you bring a new person on the team, it's everyone's responsibility to make them successful, not just the boss. That's right. I mean, I know you know this, but sometimes a lot of this is intuitive. It's just not as easy to execute.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right. You usually know pretty early on when they're not the right fit. They might tell you everything in the interview that you know they are a team player, they they want to be highly successful and move up in the company, and all of these things, and um and then you realize pretty quickly when they don't.

Julia Stewart:

So I relate this to, you know, because I told you I have on staff physicians, experts, behavioral psychologists, and one of the and the behavioral psychologists are teaching me every day how long does it take to create a healthy habit? What do you do to destroy a healthy habit? How do you change behavior set? Some of this goes well beyond health to just daily environments in your personal life and your professional life, what you do to sabotage your own success. And I think that for me has been very interesting. Um, especially people trying to do, and physicians have probably taught me this more than anybody. People go to an app and say, I want to fix five things. Well, it really doesn't work that way. Yeah, you aren't gonna fix five things at once. If you focus on one thing and get it down and feel really good about it, so it starts coming pretty easily to you, then you can start moving on to other things. But you're always gonna have to be reminded some kind of prompt engineering, which we have, about how's it going today? Are you remembering to do all those things you said you were gonna do for sleep? Right? Because as you know better better than most of us, that's all integrated. That you know, your sleep, your nutrition, your stress management, all of that's related. Yeah, and so if one of those things gets out of whack, the whole environment gets out of whack.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Absolutely, absolutely. So, what advice for those that might be thinking about starting a business, uh, what advice would you give to them? I know. It's a loaded question.

Julia Stewart:

Yeah, um well, I think fundamentally, the fundamentals, and I think I wrote a uh seminar about this, and and did it, if you go on alurx.com, you'll you can actually see me talking about you really have to have a clear vision, something that you feel passionate about. It has to be differentiated. I don't care what it is, a service, a product, whatever it is, it has to be unique in the marketplace or it won't be successful. So starting a business where you have clear conviction and vision, you've done your homework, it has a differentiator, and you're going to stick to that path, and you're going to surround yourself with people who will help you get there, especially experts or advisors. I can't underestimate the power of those three things. For me personally, even though I have all this experience, ridiculous amount of experience, I still wanted advisors who could help me in the healthcare industry and insurance industry. And so those kinds of advisors, and again, you you have to find a certain kind of person who wants to help you, which um I've been very fortunate. I mean, I'm I I I couldn't speak highly enough of my advisors that do this out of the graciousness of their own heart because they believe in the vision of what we're doing, right? So you need like-minded people, and these advisors have been invaluable, invaluable in growing our business and getting it to the next level. So I don't want to ever underestimate that. So let's say you're not trying to start a new business, you still need to find those people. Um, and even when I didn't necessarily have mentors early on uh through an organization, I met other women who had gotten further up the ladder than I did. And I would ask them, how'd you get there? What'd you, you know, like I said, I've never met anybody who's not willing to share. I I just haven't. Like, well, let me tell you how I got there. And so I've always said, some of, and by the way, some of those people that I would ask were direct competitors of my own company, uh, but were very helpful early on. The Carlas, the Pats of the world who worked for competitors and had gotten somewhere uh much faster than I had. What was it gonna take? Uh, and they had come from different walks of life. And it was really interesting. Um, many of it, much of what they described to me is what you and I would call nuance.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Okay. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Makes sense.

Julia Stewart:

It was never do A, then do B, then do C. It was, well, you gotta go here, and then you gotta go there, and then you gotta think about that. It was a lot of nuance.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Oh yeah. No, if we got Yes, as we know. Oh my.

Julia Stewart:

And now you're breathing.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Right? Thank you for that.

Julia Stewart:

Yeah, there's there is, and that's you know, that's alive and well. And so, and I had somebody say to me the other day, I just don't know if I I have it in me, Julia. And I said, you know what, that's okay too. If that's too hard, and and you don't sell your soul for any company. So if you think this is beyond your reach, that it's just not something, then then you're gonna have to start thinking about something else. But if you want to get ahead, if the company or you know, this person had spent a fair amount of time explaining to me the culture, the vision, okay. And so I get your issue. Your issue is very much the person that is a stumbling block for you, it's an individual. Then you're gonna have to start working on the nuance. And I'll never forget the words used, which was I just I just don't think I have it in me. And I said, Okay, and and absolutely that does happen. Then you have to think about what plan B is. That's part of that planning. I you you can't just, it's not like a bull in a china shop. You just can't go in, you have to have a nuance, read the table, understand the players, and understand who's making that decision, whether that's turnable or not. I mean, there is a certain amount of common sense that says is that is that situation doable, livable? Yeah. Um, the answer is, well, I'll just wait until that person leaves. That's probably not a logical, but um, all of that is part of the you know, the the world of corporate America and or even even in general, any business, right? Small, big. Um I did some work with a woman in and nonprofit who it's the same basic principle, right? Um, you're dealing with people.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

And you were dealing with people starting franchises as well, which might not be this, you know, it's a little bit different than starting something from total scratch, but you probably give the same advice to them, right?

Julia Stewart:

Well, if you if you don't like or are good at recruiting and retaining people, I don't know why you'd go into business to begin with. So let's start there. So I can teach you the restaurant business, right? Yeah you have to have a certain amount of wherewithal and income or financial security such that you can start this business and you have to like the restaurant business, right? Now we have some basic principles. But if you are neither good at recruiting or you're not good at holding on to people, either you have to you have to hire somebody who does that for you or you're in the wrong business. And it doesn't, I mean, that's the restaurant business, but it's any business, yeah, right?

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Right, right.

Julia Stewart:

I mean, I've had my same team, my basic core team, since I started this company. Those people, I care about them, they care about me and they care about the vision of the company. Yeah, Alurx for them is is a passion for them. So if you don't have those kinds of folks, I don't know how you get I don't, it's a long-term kind of if you're not thinking in that regard, kind of hard.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you this um with the app that you've developed and all that goes into that and um and specifically what the app is about. What does your morning routine look like if you have one? Are there any non-negotiables that you have throughout your day?

Julia Stewart:

I do. Now, this is for me, um, and this is not for everybody, but for me, I have to start my day by some kind of exercise. And I don't do the same thing every day I've learned long ago that's not actually good for your body. So I do some form of exercise every single day. It's just it's as much physical for me as it is mental. So I get up, um, I get a half a cup of coffee, I get a little some kind of protein in me, I go do my workout, right? I start my day, I practice some form of gratitude. Sometimes it doesn't take long, but it's some form of gratitude for the day. I usually look at my day, right? I'm planning ahead, and then I begin the day, whether it's um I have you know, Zooms right in a row, or I've got to talk to somebody, um, or I do a lot of writing. It's and I know that seems odd to you, but in um in this world where you're meeting with investors and you're trying to pitch and you're talking, there's a lot of writing. So I have trained myself. I used to always think I had to be in the mood to write. Well, you don't have that luxury, so it's all about how to plan for my day. And then it took me a while to realize I I um going back to back for eight straight hours is not healthy, right? So I learned that through my app. So I take, and for me, sometimes it's a walk, it's just a walk for two minutes, five minutes. So helpful. It's um it's something that I do. Um, and because I work a lot out of my home, it's even something as as mundane as go do a load of laundry, just get up and down, walk, do something. Um, but that is my day, and then um towards the end of the day, start thinking about okay, what does dinner look like? What am I doing? How much, you know, can I put some time in there that's just me time? But it is it's a full day, yeah, but I don't start my day without, and then I'm big on um protein throughout the day because I have learned that partially because I do work out every day, partially just our body wants. Yeah. So it's um, and I had to train myself through the app to learn to eat in the morning because I had a tendency not to eat, and that's really not good for you. Okay. So it's just it's just the learning and then um running my day accordingly, and then stopping at least once or twice a day, even if it's just five minutes, I I need that. Um, and then if it's really there's something that doesn't go well, um, I find more than anything box breathing is incredibly helpful. Breathing in, breathing out, holding, it's really incredibly helpful. So that I've learned as well.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

It is. And I have signed up for the app and I have taken some of the stress management classes in there that are that are great. Um so I appreciate that very much. Um, but my morning starts out very much like yours. I think it is important to have that time in the morning for yourself, taking care of yourself, and it's so much of what Alurx is here to help everybody with as well. That's right.

Julia Stewart:

So that's right.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Now, when you think about the next five years, what is your vision for Alurx?

Julia Stewart:

I I will always be involved. I mean, for the rest of my life, whether I'm an advisor, whether I'm on the board, whether I'm just a participant, I will always be involved because this is it's life-changing. Yeah. So for me, um, this is this is my this is my dream come true. So I always want to be involved in it. And whatever that looks like in the next five years, you know, I don't, my ego's in check. If the next five years involves the next generation, for somebody to take it to a whole nother level, I'm very supportive of that. I don't, I don't need to be at the helm to be um to feel good about and proud of what we've accomplished, but I do see myself involved one way or the other for the rest of my life.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Fantastic. Well, you should be very proud of Alurx and everything that you've accomplished so far in your career. I can't wait to see where this goes. And I'd love to maybe a maybe we'll have to follow up on this and a I promise. Yes, awesome.

Julia Stewart:

You go on the list.

Bridget Fitzpatrick:

Well, it's been such a pleasure today. You've really been so inspiring and helpful. I know everybody watching is gonna get a lot out of this. So very much appreciate it. Thank you so much for giving us all your time today.

Julia Stewart:

Thank you for letting me come today. That was really that was fun.

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