402 Building a Holistic Health Brand That Lasts: Julie Daniluk on Mindset, Pivoting, and Owning Your Platform

**Episode 402:** Rain or Shine Podcast
**Guest:** Julie Daniluk, registered holistic nutritionist, bestselling author of multiple books, and the host of *Healthy Gourmet*

From Near Death to National TV: Julie Daniluk on Building a Holistic Brand That Lasts

Episode 402: Rain or Shine Podcast
Guest: Julie Daniluk, registered holistic nutritionist, bestselling author of multiple books, and the host of Healthy Gourmet

Quick Summary

Holistic nutritionist, bestselling author, and TV host Julie Daniluk sits down with Kelsey and Emily for a rare dual-podcast crossover interview. In this episode, Julie traces her journey from co-founding the Big Carrot Natural Food Market in 1999 to landing an international TV show on the Oprah Winfrey Network — sharing the pivots, setbacks, and mindset tools that kept her going for over 25 years.

In This Episode

How Julie built one of Canada's first holistic nutrition brands — without any business plan
The near-death experience in Thailand that became her "why"
How her theater degree became her most valuable business tool
Surviving a devastating Facebook hack that wiped out 55,000 followers overnight
Why she invests tens of thousands of dollars in mindset work — and why she'd do it again
The raw truth about writing and selling books (hint: it's not what you think)
How she pivoted 100% of her business model during the pandemic and built Thrive Hive
The shower song that kept her sane while waiting to hear back from the Oprah Winfrey Network
Navigating the body positivity debate as a nutritionist committed to evidence-based health
Her single most powerful mindset tip for entrepreneurs

Key Takeaways

Build on your own land. Social platforms will change, get hacked, or disappear. Your email list and owned platform are your safe shore — protect them above all else.
Your past career isn't wasted — it's your secret weapon. Julie's theater degree gave her media presence decades before media training was a thing. Look for the skills in your history that make you uniquely positioned today.
Write a book for a calling card, not a paycheck. You earn $1–2 per copy. The real ROI is in the doors it opens, not the royalties.
Invest in your mindset like it's your most important business asset. For Julie, tens of thousands of dollars in personal development training was the investment that created the resilience to survive every setback.
Give away the gold, sell the silver. Generosity is a strategy. Being known as someone who truly gives will create more momentum than any marketing tactic.

Memorable Quotes

"We're not just fueling our body with every choice — we're actually rebuilding every cell. Like a constant renovation of our building." — Julie Daniluk
"You have to build your own home. You have to invest where you are the owner." — Julie Daniluk
"Never forget why you're sharing. Have that pep talk with yourself about how you can be a gift to others — instead of thinking about what you can gain. I promise you, that works." — Julie Daniluk

Resources Mentioned

Website: juliedaniluk.com
Thrive Hive Community: thrivewithJulie.com
Instagram & Socials: @JulieDaniluk
Kelsey's website: KelseyReidl.com
Kelsey's instagram: @KelseyReidl
Rain or Shine Podcast: www.kelseyreidl.com/podcast
Peaceful Mama Leads with Emily Elliot: www.emilyelliot.ca/
Wave Event (April 17th): www.kelseyreidl.com/paris2026
Finch App — Self-care habit tracker with gamification (great for ADHD brains); search "Finch" in the App Store
Tony Robbins — Mindset and performance coaching
Thrive Hive — Julie's five-pillar online wellness community
Big Carrot Natural Food Market — Toronto's beloved worker co-op health food store
Healthy Gourmet — Julie's TV show, which aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network in 78 countries
Toastmasters International — Public speaking and leadership development: toastmasters.org

About Julie Daniluk

Julie Daniluk is a registered holistic nutritionist, bestselling author of multiple books, and the host of Healthy Gourmet on the Oprah Winfrey Network. With over 25 years of experience in the wellness industry, she is known for her passionate, evidence-based approach to reducing inflammation and helping people find a "live-it" — not a diet — that works for life. She is the founder of the Thrive Hive, a five-pillar wellness community built alongside her family.n who competed in the first-ever Olympic beach volleyball tournament at the 1996 Atlanta Games — and spent the years before that building the sport from the ground up with nothing but a group of passionate women, a bag of volleyballs, and a relentless vision. Nearly thirty years later, she brings that same pioneering spirit to her work in marketing, communications, and sustainability. In this episode, she shares what it really means to forge your own path, advocate for yourself in rooms that weren't built for you, and know when to be brave enough to just start.

Kelsey: Julie, welcome — and this is actually a first for us. You are simultaneously a guest on the Rain or Shine Podcast and Peaceful Mama Leads with Emily Elliot. We are so thrilled to have you. You're a guest speaker at our April 17th Wave event, and we can't wait for our audiences to get to know you better.
Julie: I'm overjoyed to get to connect with such high-vibe women creating awesome lives. Thank you.
Kelsey: For some context for our listeners — Emily first met you at Little Lake Market in Puslinch Lake, which holds a very special place in our hearts. We've actually hosted Wave events there, and you two naturally connected over your shared love of holistic health.
Going even further back, in 2013 I was a student at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. You walked through the doors and gave us a presentation on building a holistic nutrition business. As a student, I thought, "This is what's possible for us as a profession." There are so many synergies and connections in this community, and we're thrilled to dig in.
[TOPIC: Building a Brand From Passion]
Kelsey: You were one of the first holistic nutritionists to start building a brand in public. What was that like, paving your own path? Did you have anyone to model yourself after, or did you feel like you were charting your own course?
Julie: I purely created it out of a passion to help transform people's health. I didn't really think about brand. This was 1999 — I was graduating, full of hope. I co-owned a health food store with about 35 people that eventually grew to 60. That became the Big Carrot Natural Food Market, built on a worker co-op model.
I created the job of having one person walk customers around the store, one at a time, and show them the foods that fit their actual health needs. That was brand new. Now it's very popular, but at the time, to book in with a nutritionist for a guided store tour — you can imagine how incredible that was from a business standpoint. It boosted sales, but more importantly, it cemented loyalty. We were giving the service away completely for free.
I was passionate. I just wanted to gain more knowledge, which is why I became a formal nutritionist — to have the accreditation to back up what I was offering people.
Kelsey: I think it's important to double down on something you said — you didn't get into this to build a massive company or chase big entrepreneurial dreams. You just loved this work and genuinely wanted to help people. And I believe you have your own personal backstory around why health matters so deeply to you.
Julie: A hundred percent. I nearly died of food poisoning in Thailand. I was so ill that when I recovered, I just wanted the world to know that you could have an extraordinary breakthrough simply by changing what you put in your mouth. We're not just fueling our bodies with every choice — we're actually rebuilding every cell. Like a constant renovation of our building.
It was so natural and easy to move in this direction. So I hope that whatever area you're choosing to build a brand in, there has to be that organic spark — that insatiable need to share.
[TOPIC: Early Growth Strategies]
Kelsey: Rewinding to those early days — you had a network within the health food store, co-owners, people passing through. But what were some of the other things you did when you wanted to reach beyond those four walls? How did you get yourself out there for those next 10 clients who didn't shop at the Big Carrot?
Julie: One big thing people may not be aware of is that I really leaned into my acting background. If you've never had the opportunity, take an improv class, or look into Toastmasters. I did all of it in the early days, and it truly helped me reach a larger audience organically.
I actually have a full degree in theater, and then nutrition — and it's wonderful to marry those two. If you don't have a performance background, there's no better time than now to take that improv class. It gives you the ability to listen, to go with the momentum. It makes you a more playful person, which is simply awesome. Toastmasters helped me develop real presentation skills.
I got out of my own way and rid myself of stage fright by focusing on one thing: I'm just here to serve.
Kelsey: What you're describing is really media training before media training was a thing. Now in 2026, every business owner has a phone — which is basically their own media outlet. If you're not confident on camera, not comfortable speaking to an audience, whether that's through a screen or on a stage, you may not be connecting with your community the way you want to.
Julie: Exactly. Story.
Kelsey: I remember the talk you gave in 2013. You had this performance background, but you'd become a nutritionist. I remember classmates who were nutritionists but also models, or whose parents owned an organic farm. Sometimes we try to discount our past by saying, "I spent all this time in that other profession — what does it matter?" But what you're saying is: it matters. Lean on the skills from every chapter of your life. The intersection of all of those things is probably where your real magic lives.
Julie: Completely agree. So good.
[TOPIC: Staying Relevant Over 20+ Years]
Kelsey: What were some of the biggest changes over the last 20 years that you needed to make as an entrepreneur to stay visible and relevant? Did you have to adopt new technology? What did that journey look like?
Julie: You have to learn when to let go. There was a social media platform called Periscope, and another called Meerkat. Then Instagram launched their Live feature and completely eclipsed both of them. But some people were so invested — they already had 10,000 followers on those platforms — that they kept pouring energy there when they needed to just bail and embrace the new.
We cannot be attached to the delivery system. We're here to ride a boat, and that boat carries our message. We need to stay pliable.
I also experienced something devastating recently — I lost 55,000 followers on Facebook. My entire account was hacked. I was one of the first people on Facebook, back in 2008. Those were 50,000 organic followers I didn't pay for — gold. Someone broke into my account, impersonated me, started selling weight loss supplements, and then got my page shut down. Meta had zero customer service and would not help resurrect it.
That was a devastating loss. I run an online business, so this was like the floor dropping out. But it forced me to remind myself: you have to build your own home.
That's when I doubled down on my own platform. My newsletter became my biggest asset — every week I write a love note to my community, investing up to five hours in it. I said to myself, "No matter what happens, I have built my own safe shore." It's actually given me a much tighter, more well-oiled machine now that I've had to let go of Facebook.
Kelsey: There's such a powerful business lesson there — build on your own land. A lot of entrepreneurs put all their eggs in one Instagram basket. They're not networking, not building a website, just going all-in on one platform. If that's your only outlet, your business is incredibly fragile. To de-risk any business, you need to be spread wide, not just deep on one platform.
Julie: Absolutely.
[TOPIC: Best Investment in Career]
Kelsey: Looking back, is there an investment — time, money, or a relationship — that had a really major return on investment for your career?
Julie: The biggest financial investment I've made is in Tony Robbins' technology. It's why I can bring the mindset piece to the conference. Being trained by the best in the business, investing tens of thousands of dollars in that technology, has totally changed my life. He has fundamentally reprogrammed me to choose to live a beautiful life — no matter what happens.
Trust me, I've had things happen that when people find out, they're like, "Really? You're still okay?" Because I now have a stand: no matter what happens, I choose to have a beautiful life. I used to have massive negative mental tape loops running. Now, I hear that voice in my head, but there's a louder voice that pulls me forward. It's worth every penny to invest in those practices.
[TOPIC: Book Writing Realities]
Kelsey: A lot of our Wave attendees know you've written many books that have sold incredibly well. What's one thing about writing a book or book marketing that nobody really tells you until you're in it?
Julie: Only 0.001% of people actually make money from books. It actually costs me money to write them. Even though I've sold hundreds of thousands of copies, I've never earned serious money from my books — you only earn one to two dollars per copy. You don't write a book to make a living. You write a book to have a calling card that opens up the rest of your career.
I also write because it distills my belief system. There's incredible focus and dedication required in that distillation process.
What they don't tell you is that you'll submit your masterpiece, get it back from an editor all marked up, and have to go through five rounds of revisions. By the end, it's going to be a different book than when you started — and you have to be okay with that. You can't be attached to having it exactly your way, or you won't work with a publisher. It took me until the fourth or fifth book before I started thinking, "This is co-created. I can't be attached to what they decide to change."
[TOPIC: Mindset & Burnout — with Emily Elliot]
Emily: Julie, something I'm hearing across every topic is this theme of surrender and letting go — whether it's a platform, or attachment to how your book should look. It's a beautiful thread. I want to ask: have you ever experienced burnout, and if so, what did you do about it?
Julie: I came close. I did a book tour that had me getting up at five in the morning for early media appearances and then doing book signings until ten at night. That kind of intensity puts you in a pressure cooker.
What prevented full burnout was protecting those few hours in between. I became a huge fan of self-care rituals — something I never used to be, having ADHD. I now use an app called Finch to keep me on track with my healthy habits. You actually grow a micro-pet and earn points, which is extremely dopamine-enriching for my ADHD brain. It keeps me accountable for things like vagal toning, skincare, and a hot bath with Epsom salts before bed.
When that intense season of work ends, you have to take a real break. I have 7,000 posts, 2,000 of which no one has ever seen. I can replay the greatest hits and step offline to rejuvenate my nervous system. Because without your nervous system, you don't have a career.
[TOPIC: Wanting to Quit]
Emily: Were there days you fully wanted to throw in the towel? And how did you talk yourself out of it?
Julie: I almost gave up in 2020. In 2019, I'd had one of the best years of my life — speaking on stages of 1,500 people, and about 95% of my income came from public speaking. Then the world shut down.
I had a really hard choice: fire my staff, collect CERB, and call it a day — or dip into my RRSPs, keep my team, and pivot harder than I ever had. I chose to pivot.
I went from huge sponsorships and big stages to building an online group called Thrive Hive — a five-pillar wellness community. It was born out of the pandemic. We now have about 218 Wellness Warriors and grow month over month. One of the biggest reasons I couldn't give up? My staff is my family — my sister is the herbalist, my nephew is the movement coach, my brother is the yoga instructor, my husband handles tech and mindset support. I didn't want to let them down.
Emily: That gave me full-body chills. These are exactly the kinds of conversations that matter, because from the outside, people look at someone like you and think, "She's killing it every day — she doesn't understand my struggle." So hearing the highs and lows is so valuable to any entrepreneur riding their own waves.
[TOPIC: A Dream-Come-True Moment]
Emily: Was there a specific moment where you thought, "My dreams have come true"?
Julie: Absolutely. I auditioned for Healthy Gourmet on the Oprah Winfrey Network — on June 6th, which happened to be my birthday. I felt great about the audition, and then I heard nothing for six months. Slowly, I let go of the outcome. But during that waiting period, I wrote a song — a personal chant born from my Tony Robbins work. I would sing it in the shower while washing my hair. One line went, "You're a TV star, get the show on and get paid" — a mashup of the Smash Mouth song. I kept the faith.
Then, on Christmas Eve, six months later, I got the call: "We'd like to offer you Healthy Gourmet. Are you still available?" Getting an international TV show broadcast in 78 countries was the highlight moment. Keep the faith. Somewhere, at some point, there will be resonance.
[TOPIC: Handling Negative Feedback]
Emily: Has negative feedback ever been part of your journey? Was there a moment you had to take it with a grain of salt and keep going?
Julie: I've had pushback recently around the body positivity movement. I believe wholeheartedly that we need to love ourselves exactly as we are. But there's something in a lot of people's blind spots: at a certain point, visceral fat causes massive inflammation and drives the risk of all major mortality factors. I'm bravely trying to address that, and sometimes I get pushback from people who don't want to hear anything that sounds like "diet talk."
That's why I use the word "live-it" instead of "diet" — not something you fall off in 21 days, but a sustainable way of living that reduces visceral fat and inflammation. And I'm learning: I don't have to be here for everyone. I'm here for the people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Emily: Your people will find you. I love that.
[TOPIC: Final Mindset Tip]
Emily: As we wrap up, what is the one mindset tip you would give an entrepreneur who wants to achieve the level of success, visibility, and impact you've created?
Julie: Never forget why you're sharing. Have that pep talk with yourself about how you can be a gift to others through the conversation, instead of thinking about what you can gain. I promise you — that works. If you give generously, it is so rare in this world that it is absolutely noticed.
A mentor once told me: "Give away the gold and sell the silver." Today, in this interview, I feel we've given so much — but there's still so much more to experience by meeting everyone live at the Wave event. We don't have to be stingy, because we can trust there will be ten times more when we're all together in person.
Kelsey: That is the perfect note to end on. Julie, thank you so much for your time, your energy, and your stories. To connect with Julie, visit thrivewithJulie.com, find her on Instagram and all socials at @JulieDaniluk, and check out her website at juliedaniluk.com. We cannot wait to see you in just a few weeks at Wave!
Julie: I'll be a hug machine if you're up for it. Can't wait to break radishes instead of bread and soak up all the wisdom in that room. It's going to be amazing.

402 Building a Holistic Health Brand That Lasts: Julie Daniluk on Mindset, Pivoting, and Owning Your Platform