Drive Your Success to the “Next Level” with Julie Hruska

Julie Hruska is a successful businesswoman and a dedicated mother to three. Her experience as a successful entrepreneur and coach offers valuable insight and actionable advice for anyone seeking clarity and action toward their goals! Julie discusses her latest project, a TV show called “The Next Level with Julie Hruska,” where she interviews successful people and gathers advice for anyone seeking it. In this episode, Julie Hruska provides practical tips and strategies to help you achieve your goals and reach new heights both professionally and personally.

https://youtu.be/xKjgZ5NRMBs

 

Brett Gilliland: I’m your host, Brett Gilliland, and today I’ve got Julie Hruska with me. Julie, how you doing? 

Julie Hruska: I’m awesome. Thank you so much for having me today, Brett. 

Brett Gilliland: Well, we are happy to have you. You’re in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. I love that place. 

Julie Hruska: It is so pretty here. I actually grew up in the Midwest where you’re at and, um, I didn’t like the cold winters, so I came south. I didn’t quite get far enough south to avoid winter, but it’s, it’s beautiful here. 

Brett Gilliland: Yes it is. We went there, uh, I guess maybe two summers ago on a family vacation. My wife, who’s also named Julie and, and, uh, our four boys and so little Biltmore mansion, if everybody’s not been out there, it’s such an awesome place, a great part of the country.

Julie Hruska: Yeah, it, it’s amazing. There’s so much to do in the outdoors, and we do have the best of all worlds. And we’re not too far from the beach too, which is like my favorite place. 

Brett Gilliland: That’s, that’s right. Well, uh, Julie, if you can, um, we’ll, we’ll dive into what you do for a living and all that kind of stuff, but you are a high performance, uh, strategist, uh, certified high performance coach, speaker, trainer. I know you got a TV show coming out called The Next Level. You’ve got some group coaching called Next Level as well. Um, but before we dive into that kind of stuff, can you just maybe give us a little lay of the land on what’s made you, the woman you are today? 

Julie Hruska: Oh, wow. That’s, that’s such a complex question. Right. So I grew up in the Midwest, um, in a very traditional conservative Christian family. Um, I was very much raised to become a wife and mother, and so I lived out that path. I got married at 20. Um, started having kids in my early twenties. I have three beautiful kids, so they’re the blessing of that part of my story.

But, um, as I went through that life, I started to realize that I was losing my identity. I was very unhappy. I was very anxious. And, um, my oldest son is severely dyslexic and so he needed to go to a special. That was quite expensive. So I looked at going back to work and I’d been out of work, um, for a while, staying at home with my kids.

So when I went back to get my master’s degree, there was a program, um, out in Colorado Springs, Colorado for brain-based gender differences. Um, I was a educator at the time, so when I went out there for the first time in over a decade, People were calling my name, they were asking my opinion. I was no longer Ethan, Erin, and Sidney’s mom.

I actually had a name.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah.

Julie Hruska: Which seems foreign to a lot of people who haven’t been through it, but for me, I really lost a sense of self. And so in that moment, it was like an asteroid literally hit me in the head and woke me up. And the wool came off my eyes and I realized all of the things that weren’t working in my life and very much that I had adopted my parents’ belief of what life should be and not my own.

Brett Gilliland: Mm-hmm. 

Julie Hruska: Um, so unfortunately, um, when you have that kind of awakening experience, some people celebrate that, but for me it was terrifying. Because I realized I was in my early thirties and I had followed someone else’s path. And the unraveling of that, the really stripping things down and looking at who I am and why I was created and what my purposes in the world was very challenging.

I had to face the fact that my marriage was toxic. Um, there were a lot of unhealthy patterns that were affecting my children, so I ended up getting divorced. I ended up with full custody of my oldest son, primary of my younger two. And um, then kind of had to go from there. At the time I was teaching kindergarten and um, for anybody that knows about education in this country, you really can’t support a family of four on a kindergarten salary.

So that started my move into, I’m a teacher. What else can I teach? And, um, from there I actually got into teaching power yoga because of the mindset and empowerment that I found during my divorce and during the process of recreating my life. And as soon as I quit my salary job to teach yoga full-time, I realized that yoga was just one of the tools.

For being your best self. And really it was the deeper issues. It was looking at what really holds people back. It’s not that you can just take the messy. Kind of chaos of a person’s life and pile on these great tools, you have to start over. You have to build a foundation. And so I realized that I needed to do advanced studies.

I got my certified high performance coach training. I went beyond that, um, and did some mindfulness, some psychology, CMEs, and really, Got to the point where I could help people dive into the root causes of their challenges. 

Brett Gilliland: Hmm. Yeah, I think that’s the biggest part of it, isn’t it? I mean, we can do all these things, but if we don’t dive into what the issue is, it’s uh, we’re just putting band-aids on it, right?

Julie Hruska: Right. And, and as you know, it’s like that bucket. You plug one hole and then another one spouts out. So same, like I was saying, with the foundation, you have to really like demolish the old. A lot of times it takes that some people have a good foundation already and can build upon, but a lot of times you have to go in and just really excavate all of those limiting beliefs, all of the things that hold you back, and then start over and create that firm foundation with clarity, courage, energy, productivity mindset mastery. I could, this is, this is the stuff that I’m really passionate about because it does help people change their lives, both personally and professionally.

Brett Gilliland: Yep. So let’s talk about that. Let’s, let’s dig a little deeper. So you said one of the tools was yoga is what you found. And so, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m picturing or trying to paint a picture here of this toolbox, right. And we’ve got Julie’s toolbox over here to the side of you. And you, you open it up and, and you’re gonna need a different tool for every different project that you go work on, right? So if you had to fill up your toolbox, if you will, with uh, all these tools, and you’re gonna go to the hardware store now and you’re gonna go buy these tools, what, what are the tools we’re putting in there? What, what’s, what’s going in there besides the yoga? 

Julie Hruska: So yoga doesn’t have to be, I used to, when I started, when I shifted from doing yoga, mindfulness, and meditation and health and wellness coaching to high performance, people were completely freaked out. They’re like, are you gonna make me do yoga? I’m like, no.

Brett Gilliland: No.

Julie Hruska: You don’t have to do yoga to live your best life. But health and wellness is a tool.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah.

Julie Hruska: You, you have to make sure that you have some great forms of exercise in your tool. The nutrition, the hydration, the sleep. Those are the basics that sometimes we don’t think about when we’re facing challenges or when we’re hitting a wall in our lives. So those basics are really important, and then you get to your mindset. And examining the things that really hold people back. Those limiting beliefs, that fear of failure, the BS excuses and stories that we tell ourself that maybe started in childhood, that you’re not good enough, that you’re not capable, and we just repeat them and we look for other examples of how that’s true.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: To hold ourselves back, but oftentimes it’s subconscious, so you have to get in there and you have to do the work. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah, and I think coaching too. And, and, um, you know, you obviously have your next level coaching program, but coaching is so important with that. And, and if you think of the best athletes in the world, just, just think of sports, they all have coaches, right?

Tiger Woods had a swing coach in his prime and. Justin Thomas has a swing coach, a nutritionist, and all these people, right? And, and so Michael Phelps, I mean everybody. And, and so for you, what are you finding that the people that do hire a coach, where are you starting with them and how do you go through that process to find that That kinda what I would call the Pandora’s box, that everybody’s got stored inside.

Julie Hruska: Yeah, that, that’s a really great question, Brett. So what I do with my clients is we really dive in 75 to 90 minute with my one-on-one clients, um, individual SE session where we look at career relationships, health and finance. And we determine where they’re functioning at, their optimal levels and where they’re not.

Because you have to look at yourself really clearly in the mirror. You have to have that real and raw conversation to say, you know, honestly, when I pull it all back, when I take off the mask and the facades, here’s what’s working in my life and here’s what’s not. And then we take the things that aren’t working, and create a plan to optimize their lives. 

Brett Gilliland: Yep. And the planning is huge, but let’s go back to that toolbox cuz um, I like to skip around and keep going on conversations where whoever’s popping through my, my brain here. Um, but when you, when you look at those tools in the toolbox, so hydration, sleep, exercise, um, you know, those are just three of the ones that you mentioned.

Julie Hruska: Right?

Brett Gilliland: Do you, if, if I followed you around, you know, with the camera for the, you know, for the next week, what am I gonna find that are no miss items for you? Like what, what’s happening to you? 

Julie Hruska: Um, ooh, daily. That’s really good because those are just like the basics and then you have to pile on the clarity, your mindset mastery, um, your energy, all of those things.

Vision is really big there. Um, so if we were following me around every day, what’s a non-negotiable, hydration exercise, um, clarity. I am very big on clarity. I believe it’s the foundation of all success, and so I like to end my day by looking ahead at the next day and the rest of the week and make sure that my priorities are aligned. So when I wake up, I know exactly what I’m doing. I don’t just wake up and go, well, you know, let’s, let me check my email. Right, right. Because an email is a convenient organizing system for other people’s priorities. 

Brett Gilliland: Yep. 

Julie Hruska: And in fact, if you wake up and you check your email right there, you’re losing 30% of your productivity.

Right there, because you’re taking your energy that should be intentional and you’re giving it away. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And this is my shameless plug here. I’ve never, I haven’t announced this on a podcast yet, but I created my own, uh, my own journal.

Julie Hruska: That’s fantastic. 

Brett Gilliland: And it’s got the not for sale yet because, uh, but it’s now officially on Amazon. You can type in achieving your future greater than your past, or My name, Brett Gililand, and buy the Journal. For those interested, they hear me talk about it all the time, but, but my point is, is that I, I call it focus 90, right? And so it’s how do I spend the next 90 or the first 90 minutes of my day on my 90 day goals?

So 90 minutes, what are my goals for the next 90 days? And I can only spend time on those goals and that first 90 minutes. Because what I found is when I do that, I win the day. Right? If I can win the morning, I win the day. 

Julie Hruska: Absolutely.

Brett Gilliland: You talk about clarity. I always said I read this in a book years ago, clarity proceeds mastery. Right? 

Julie Hruska: Mm-hmm. 

Brett Gilliland: So if I wanna master something, I have to be very, very clear on where I’m going and why I’m going there. So when you hear me say that focus 90 first 90 minutes of the day, what comes to mind for you? 

Julie Hruska: Um, productivity and the time blocks that I have my clients, um, add to their lives. So yeah, we have three priorities every day. Three main needle moving priorities. Um, depending on what industry you’re in, those could be projects that you have for work. Um, they could be an assortment of things. For me, it might be preparation for my clients. 

Brett Gilliland: Mm-hmm. 

Julie Hruska: Client calls, um, those things. So whatever they are, you have your three priorities. And then the way that I do it, and you can do it differently, if you were doing 90 minutes, you’d have three 30 minute blocks. But you would actually have to go to 25 minute blocks because you have to reset in between.

Brett Gilliland: Right.

Julie Hruska: So with 90 minutes, I tend to do it with three hours. It’s a little longer, but it’s your first priorities. Those three needle movers have 50 minutes to an hour of time for your situation. If it was 90 minutes right, you’d have 25 minutes per priority, and then you know that you’re moving the needle forward. So it’s constantly focused on action. Action is the key, and so many coaches, this is why the word coach is sometimes frustrating.

It’s gotten really watered down. So many coaches talk and talk and talk, but for high performance, it’s all about action. It’s, here’s a tool for organizing your day, like your planner, or like the method that I use for productivity. I have a productivity like one page planner that my clients use, and it’s all about, here’s the focus, action. Focus, action, focus, action, clarity, productivity. 

Brett Gilliland: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think again, that, that what comes to my mind is there’s a plan, right? And there’s a discipline process for the plan. And, and people, again, hear me talk about this stuff, but it’s, you don’t brush your teeth 14 times on Sunday, right? You, you brush ’em twice a day, minimally, right?

It’s twice a day, minimally, and it’s showing up every day. And I think that’s about life.

Julie Hruska: I’ve never heard that and I absolutely love it. I feel like my teenage son could use some of that. It’s like, you know, you don’t wait until like your whole room is smelly to go take a shower. 

Brett Gilliland: That’s correct. That’s. 

Julie Hruska: And you probably know that with your four boys, right? 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, why does the room look like this? This is crazy. But it’s true, right? And, and so many times I think the, the daily habit of showing up and, and it’s like investing money, you know, you invest money. A dollar today doesn’t just automatically turn into a dollar a $2 tomorrow, right?

Julie Hruska: No. 

Brett Gilliland: You’ve gotta do it over time. And I think when people are, you know, driving down the road listening, It’s showing up today and making that one choice. Control the controllable, make that one choice if it’s eating, like today for me, is always a discipline. I, I love french fries, but it was a choice to have a salad with my food today, right? And, and I think those things have to happen for us daily. So, so again, back to that clarity. How do you find clarity in your life? Um, so then you know what you’re looking at every single day. 

Julie Hruska: Right. So I wanna go back real quick to discipline and high performance habits, and then we’ll get to clarity.

Brett Gilliland: Yes. 

Julie Hruska: So what you were saying speaks right to what I do. It’s about developing high performance habits that move the needle forward. So like you were saying, with a journal or productivity planner, it’s, this is what you do and you wake up every workday and you do that. Some people do it seven days a week and, and I actually encourage my clients to have some equanimity in their life to actually schedule their family time.

Their date nights with their partner to actually schedule that in, because if it’s not on the schedule, it tends to get pushed back. So those are important things. For clarity, I like to start every day with an intention. What’s my intention for the day and what I do personally, um, and with my clients, because integrity is really important.

I think I, it’s my job to lead the way and serve as a role model for others. Um, so what I do is I start my day with three words. Three words that define who I am and how I wanna show up in the world. And from there then I look at the, the task, the productivity plan. Um, for me right now, I get up and take my son to school first, and then I come back and do this.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: Um, because I, I’m a night owl, so, you know, they’re all of these high performance people that are like, get up at 5:00 AM. Well, you have to do what works for you. Yeah, and there is no cookie cutter recipe. I know that all of the gurus out there would love you to buy their books and their programs, but the reason there’s such a high failure rate is because it’s not customized.

Brett Gilliland: Yep.

Julie Hruska: It’s one of the reasons that I’ve been doing customized one-on-one coaching for most of my career, because when it’s customized, it’s more effective. So you have to find what works for you. But whenever you wake up and whenever you start your official day, it’s about setting an intention. And creating a plan that has, that’s followed with action.

Brett Gilliland: Yep. It’s, I love hearing you say that too, because I, I was the guy early in my career too, when I, I’m not, I’m a night owl as well, and my wife is, my kids are, and, and so getting up for me at, you know, five o’clock in the morning is brutal, you know? 

Julie Hruska: Yeah. 

Brett Gilliland: And, um, But I, but then I would beat myself up over it, right? And then I’m like, all right, I’m gonna do it. And then I would do it for a week or a week and a half, and then I’m just like, you know, my eyeballs are bleeding I was so tired and, and it’s like, well, this sucks and it wasn’t sustainable. And I think over time you collectively have to find out what does work for you, right?

Julie Hruska: Right 

Brett Gilliland: Because the 5:00 AM thing doesn’t work for me, but I can get up at six and I can do it. And that’s, that’s fine. And I can come back to it after the kids stuff, uh, you know, once you get the kids to school and everything. So I think it’s perfect. I think we’re, we’re very much in line. And, and you keep you and go back to your other one that you were gonna talk about as well.

Julie Hruska: Um, so with clarity, you know, um, Is that what you want me to go back to? 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: So with clarity, it’s also about aligning everything you do with your overall vision of the life you want, and is this action taking you closer to the life you want or moving you further away? And when you look at everything through that filter, it’s very easy to say absolutely yes or absolutely no.

Brett Gilliland: You’d rather say, what was the book? I can’t remember what it was, but one book I read, it’s either Gotta Be a Hell Yes or a Hell No. Right? There’s no in between. 

Julie Hruska: Yes, I didn’t know if I was allowed to use that language on your podcast so.

Brett Gilliland: You can do whatever you want. 

Julie Hruska: Cause I’ve actually heard, am I allowed to use it?

Brett Gilliland: Yes you can. Yes, absolutely. 

Julie Hruska: No, I actually say it’s a fuck yes or a hell no.

Brett Gilliland: I like it. I like it. 

Julie Hruska: Cause that’s like really feeling it, right? That’s that passion. And you want passion. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, do something else.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: Because that’s sustainability. That discipline comes in.

Like if you hate your job, It’s gonna be really hard to maintain the high performance habits of having the discipline to get up to create your productivity planner to work every day toward the goals. If you don’t feel aligned and congruent with that, you’re setting yourself up for failure. 

Brett Gilliland: Yep. I agree. So do you have like a scorecard or like how do you know it’s working? Is it just based off of feeling, or do you have something where you kinda slow down and help yourself through that? 

Julie Hruska: Um, personally I have the way that the, um, high performance program is set up, there are definitely ways that you can check in with yourself, but I look at it as progress.

So I’m very task oriented. If I have my productivity planner, I have three major projects. Each project or task has to-dos underneath. So I very much like to print it out, check it off. So that’s how I personally measure progress. Of course, there’s the greater. Like looking at the entirety of the end of the week, how am I doing?

Am I living aligned and congruent with the best within me? Am I completing the task that move the needle forward so I can create, you know, an empowering experience for my clients, create financial abundance for my children and support them in their dreams and, and ultimately from a personal level. 

Am I feeling good? Am I thriving? Do I have that energy and that excitement about life? Because this really is it, right. You get one life. That’s my personal belief. And so with that life, if you’re not passionate and happy and fulfilled by what you’re doing, you have to ask yourself why you’re doing it, because our time is finite.

This is it. So that’s one of the ways I measure success as well, is really look at, am I feeling good? Am I feeling energized? Am I serving my clients with that energy as well? And then my kids, are they supported? I have three kids. Um, like I said, I started young, so two are in college already. Mm-hmm. I have one that just started high school and, um, that’s so important because we’ve been given these children to shepherd and steward to become their best selves, and so it’s really interesting in my line of work to see. How they’re showing up in their lives based on the role model that I’ve been. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. How, how do you find yourself, uh, I mean, and one will ask you, are you good at this or not? Uh, and then if so, how do you do it is how do you stay in the moment, right? Because I think a lot of people, they’re listening to this podcast. They’re hard charging. They, you know, they get after it in life. What do you do to be in the moment, uh, and what can you help us with there? 

Julie Hruska: That’s a great question and this is where I, I see every chapter of my life has come together to create the really, like a holistic approach to the way I live and the way that I work with my clients.

Sustained present is key to really enjoying life and also serving at your highest level. I’m a big fan of breath work. Um, like we were talking about with the productivity planner, and I said, whether it’s 90 minutes or three hours, you have to take incremental breaks. During those breaks, I like to stand up, stretch close my eyes, because your eyes are the number one way you lose energy, and especially when you’re on the screen all the time, your energy is just pouring out so you close your eyes and breathe.

10 deep breaths really like rooted and grounded in your feet. It is taking that deep inhale from the base of your spine to the crown of your head, an exhale soften release. When you block out the senses and you tune into your breath, you become more present. And then after that you can, you know, come back, open your eyes, set an intention, what’s next.

Brett Gilliland: And it’s, it’s the more I’ve done with meditation and practicing that it’s, it’s amazing that it does just bring you to a whole sense of a, of a different senses in your body. I mean, that you can feel you are in the moment and your heart rate slows down and people probably get tired of me talking about it, but it, it’s, for me, dealing with anxiety for so many years, it, it was the biggest game changer is learning about breathing and, and it sounds so simple, right? Cause we all just, thank God we wake up every day and we get to breathe. But how are you breathing? Right. That’s the, that’s the key. Those deep belly, you know, deep breaths are, are different than the from the chest, right?

And, and those things are extremely, extremely helpful. So you’ve used the word action, um, you know, numerous times today, and that’s one of the circuits of the Circuit of Success, hence the name of the podcast. It’s your attitude, your belief system, your actions ultimately get your results. So when you hear actions, what comes to mind for you there? How important is that. 

Julie Hruska: I mean, it’s everything. Thoughts are great. You have to master your mindset, but it won’t get you anywhere. You can’t think your way into success. Yeah. So action is key. The way that I see it is you can control three things in your life, your attitude, your effort, and your action. So it starts in the mind setting, the intention of who you are and how you wanna show up in the world, and then following that intention with action. Which is integrity, right. Right there your words and your actions align. And so when you live from that space, that’s how you achieve the success that you’re seeking. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. And when you see this future greater in your past, when you hear that comment, um, that’s our mission as a firm. It’s my personal mission.

Julie Hruska: Mm-hmm. 

Brett Gilliland: Um, achieving a future greater than your past, what does that mean to you? 

Julie Hruska: You know, I truly believe that anything is possible if you have the vision and you’re willing to wake up each and every day and dedicate your life to pursuing that purpose and pursuing it with passion. Yeah. So there is anything really, really, truly is possible and your future is, is there, it’s yours for the taking.

You can envision the life that you desire and make it happen. Last summer, one of the, I love to travel and I love to share that with my kids and really expand their awareness. So last summer I, um, tried it out, can I work and can I travel? And I spent 33 days in Europe. It was amazing. I went to five different countries and I was able to be with my kids.

The first part of the trip I was alone. Then my son joined, and then we met my daughter who was studying abroad and the second part of the trip I was with them and so I was able to be with them during the day. Then at night, cuz they’re old enough, they’d go out to dinner, do their thing. I would get on Zoom and work with my clients and finding that equanimity.

Everyone has the potential to live the life they want, but you have to overcome your limiting beliefs to do that, right? 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Absolutely.

Julie Hruska: And then you have to create that vision and take the action to make it happen. 

Brett Gilliland: So, let’s go back, if you don’t mind. Um, and let’s talk about those. I, I call ’em the quote unquote dark days.

I have no idea about your past or what those days were, but you, you spoken, you shared that, that you had some, you know, troubling times with, you know mm-hmm. Marriage, different things like that. So what advice would you have? We’re not diving into that stuff, but what advice would you have? For somebody, cuz it’s easy to say um, oh, I, you know, it’s just think positive and, and everything can happen. And, but when you, when man when things suck, you know, and you try to tell yourself, oh, just be positive. Like, you’re just like, screw off. I don’t want to hear that. Right. So exactly how do you help somebody pull them up out of the hole with you and then, and then start to think that way?

Julie Hruska: Yeah. Um, I like mantras. That again, comes from my yoga, mindfulness, and meditation background. Um, the mantra that hit me was one courageous step at a time. Hmm. And so I like to encourage people when they are in that dark place, like is there that one? One little glimmer of light or hope that you can hold onto, and then it, it’s tough when you’re laying in bed in a fetal position, right?

You all the anxiety, all the stress of the world is right there with you. You have to go into that self-talk and it’s the, okay, Julie, come on. You got this. Just get up that one step and you focus on one step. What’s the next step? Okay, you got that. What’s the next step? And sometimes you do have to tiptoe through life like that.

And that’s, you know, the challenge. I’m not a psychologist, I don’t wanna give advice. Obviously if you have like in that realm, if you have severe depression or extreme anxiety, Go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, get the help you need. Some people need medication for it. Other people can, you know, work their way through it with some of these strategies.

Brett Gilliland: Mm-hmm. 

Julie Hruska: Um, but if you are one of those people that is working through it, It’s about that next step and really keeping it small, bite sized, manageable, getting out of bed for so many people that have the intensity of anxiety and depression on their shoulders. That’s a huge step. And then getting active that, you know, the chemicals, your body, chemicals when you exercise.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah, 

Julie Hruska: That’s so important. So get up, get dressed, get out of the house. I don’t care if you go stand in your driveway. Right? 

Brett Gilliland: Right. 

Julie Hruska: Just get out of your house. And then that was what was so jarring during the pandemic. The minute that the lockdown started to happen, I was like, I am terrified for the mental health of the world.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: I wasn’t, I was less worried about covid than I was about the mental health because when you lock yourself in and you’re not around people and you’re not taking care of yourself. All of that darkness finds a place and takes root. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. Yeah. I, I always say this, we talk about solitary confinement. You know, it’s one of the worst things other than, you know, the death penalty. I mean, it’s one of the worst things you can do to a human right is put ’em in a dark room by themselves for 23 hours a day or whatever it is. But I look at it from the business landscape. I see a lot of people that you start to see them.

Kinda put themselves in solitary confinement, right? So if somebody’s doing that to themselves, it happens to be listening to this right now, I would just say reach out. Right? Reach out to somebody, like you said, get up, put your sweatpants on and a sweatshirt, and go sit in your driveway and walk in a circle for a while. 

Julie Hruska: Yeah, walk in a circle.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah, I mean, just do walk something.

Julie Hruska: During Covid, I became friends with all of these cute, I call ’em cute little neighbors. I, I have a, a lot of older people around me for some reason. And, um, when I would, I’d go walk my dog. Which is a saving grace too. Having a pet Yeah. When you, when you’re feeling alone, can be a really nice thing.

Um, and I started to meet all of these wonderful neighbors that I wouldn’t have met if I wouldn’t have gone out there. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah.

Julie Hruska: And, um, so about support, you were talking about people that operate in a vacuum business, people that kind of self confine or, or pull back, um, I operate really well on my own, but I have learned the importance of creating a supportive circle of people that are at the next level or similar level to me, because those are those growth friendships that help us become the best version of ourselves, and I think we don’t, we underestimate the need for that.

In our society to really make sure you’re surrounding yourself with positive, uplifting people, podcast, right coaches, um, you have that support circle that can help you become your best and thrive in all areas of your life. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So let’s talk about your, uh, your next, uh, project here. The Next Level TV show on Rvn, uh, the network there. And so let’s talk about that. 

Julie Hruska: Yeah, so this is a really exciting opportunity. It’s called The Next Level with Julie Hruska. It’s gonna be housed on RV N television, but can be accessed on Hulu, Roku, or Apple tv. And it’s really about, you know, kind of getting the message out there bigger and broader. I interview successful people on their path, on the things that they’ve overcome to achieve success, and then they share their advice.

So it can be anyone from so far I’ve interviewed, um, a founder of a shoe company, a NCAA coach, the head of, um, New Jersey’s, African American Chamber of Commerce, and all the different people that I interview have amazing and compelling stories. And the thread that runs between all of the stories is we all face challenges in our lives.

They’re all very different, but we all face some. And the difference between achieving success and not achieving success is that resilience and those success strategies and, and so it’s my intention with that show to really empower everyone who listens, not just to get inspired by these successful people, but also to take away those nuggets like, like with your podcast here.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. 

Julie Hruska: That they can apply to their own lives and become better because TV is full of junk and nonsense and so many shows are on there and they just talk and you, you leave them and you’re like, okay, that was nice. But it doesn’t really help you in life, and I want everything I do, whether it’s my post on LinkedIn or when I’m on podcasts, like your wonderful one here, or when I’m on my TV show, I wanna make sure that I’m helping people become better, that their time listening to me or reading the things I’ve written empower them to be their best self.

Brett Gilliland: Yeah.

Julie Hruska: I feel like that’s my purpose in life. 

Brett Gilliland: I love it. It’s good to have a purpose in life, isn’t it? 

Julie Hruska: Yes. It’s so important and, and again, going back to that toolbox, if we bring it full circle, it’s the health and wellness, the clarity, the mindset mastery, the plan and strategies, those high performance habits that show up and, and courage, courage, energy, being intentional about the energy you bring into every space.

 So all of those things go into a successful person’s toolbox. And then you have to customize it, right? 

Brett Gilliland: Right. 

Julie Hruska: If you like to wake up at 10:00 AM but you work your plan from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM good for you. Like I am never going to tell people you must do X, Y, and Z, because that’s a bunch of BS.

It’s, it’s a bunch of bs. And all of those people, and I know they’re, they’re crushing it. They’re crushing it out there. They’re the gurus with their books and their plans. But the reason that people listening right now, if you followed some of those plans and you then feel bad that you weren’t able to stick to it, it’s because it wasn’t yours.

All we can do as coaches and as experts in our fields, Is provide people with the tools, but then they have to pick and choose which ones work for them, which ones honor their lives and their vision and their mission and purpose and passion. And when you do that, that’s where the power is. 

Brett Gilliland: Yeah. So where do our listeners find more of Julie Hruska?

Julie Hruska: I am on LinkedIn. I live on LinkedIn, so Julie Hruska, last name is H R U S K A. Connect with me there. I always love welcoming people into our community. I have a really actively engaged community there. And, um, I love it. I’m just so humbled and honored to be there. I also have a website, powerfulleaders.com and look out for the show.

It’s gonna be rolling out soon, depending on when this, um, podcast is launched. Um, it’s on R V N television. The next Level with Julie Hruska. Like I said, I’m getting some really interesting guests and they inspire me and they motivate me to continue the work to help everyone become their best self. 

Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Julie for being on the podcast. It’s been, uh, a ton of fun if time flew by and I got a lot of takeaways, so I appreciate your time today. 

Julie Hruska: Thank you, Brett. Thank you so much for having me. This is a lot of fun and I really hope that everyone out there listening can gain some new awareness that will help them take their life to the next level because it is like, get out there, create a wildly ambitious vision, raise your ambition, deepen your discipline, and do the work. Take the action to create a life that you love. 

Brett Gilliland: Awesome. Thanks so much, Julie. 

Julie Hruska: Thank you, Brett.