Say it Sister...
Lucy and Karen, two 40-somethings, are always chatting about life, and all that it has to throw at them, and now want to share their raw, honest conversations with you. Their journey of self-discovery and healing is something many of us can relate to. We all possess a unique power within us, but life’s trials often knock us off course. They have the tools, the courage to speak up and simply say it as it is, so you might feel seen, and understood and gain practical tools and techniques for self-discovery and personal growth during the changes we experience.
Say it Sister...
Embracing Self-Love: Jules Von Hepp's Journey to Body Confidence and Authenticity
This episode explores the transformative power of self-acceptance and body positivity through discussions with Jules Von Hepp, a spray tan artist and advocate. We reflect on societal pressures, the importance of community, and the journey toward finding peace with our bodies.
• Conversation about vulnerability and intimacy in the spray tanning experience
• The impact of societal beauty standards on self-image
• Exploring aging and evolving perceptions of beauty
• tips for cultivating body love through gratitude
• Importance of surrounding oneself with positive influences
• Music as a means of finding inner empowerment
• Highlighting authentic conversations over superficial appearances
https://www.instagram.com/julesvonhep/
https://theisleofparadise.com/uk/our-story/
https://www.tiktok.com/@julesvonhep
Hello and welcome to the Say it Sister podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm Lucy and I'm Karen, and we're thrilled to have you here. Our paths crossed years ago on a shared journey of self-discovery, and what we found was an unshakable bond and a mutual desire to help others heal and live their very best lives.
Speaker 1:For years, we've had open, honest and courageous conversations, discussions that challenged us, lifted us and sometimes even brought us to tears. We want to share those conversations with you. We believe that by letting you into our world, you might find the courage to use your voice and say what really needs to be said in your own life.
Speaker 2:Whether you're a woman seeking empowerment, a self-improvement enthusiast or someone who craves thought-provoking dialogue, join us, as we promise to bring you real, unfiltered conversations that encourage self-reflection and growth.
Speaker 1:So join us as we explore, question and grow together. It's time to say say it, sister, welcome back everybody. Now remember, we always said this podcast was for women, but we also have a lot of wonderful men in our lives and today we're going to introduce you to one of them, the wonderful Jules Von Hepp, also known as the Human Sunshine. Creator of the global brand Isle of Paradise, a spray tanner with over 17 years experience, host of the podcast Dial, a Dilemma confidence champion and content creator.
Speaker 1:Now Jules has seen thousands of naked women and some men when they all stripped off in his spray tan booth. He hears the conversations women have about their bodies and how unkind we can be to ourselves, showing little love to ourselves. Kind we can be to ourselves, showing little love to ourselves. He talks a lot about body transformation journey on his socials and his podcasts. You can find him everywhere, to be honest. So we've invited Jules along today to talk about self-love, acceptance, maybe a little bit of gossip about his high profile work behind the scenes at some amazing events. It's going to be deep, it's going to be fun, but overall it's like having a chat with a friend, isn't that right, karen?
Speaker 2:Oh, I literally feel like I could fall off my chair with excitement. My heart is pounding so fast and I'm so happy to be here with Jules on our amazing podcast. Jules is somebody that I met 16 years ago and I'll never forget the somebody that I met 16 years ago and I'll never forget. The first time I met him, I knew I needed to work with him and at the time I was head of PR for Sandra Pay and I had an assistant who absolutely hated me. I inherited her and she was very, very, very unhelpful he's laughing in the background, but yeah, she just um, it was a really. You know, I had a big job to do. I had somebody who was trying to sort of stop me from doing the job and it was really. It was really quite challenging.
Speaker 2:And then Jules arrived and he started to make me laugh and at that point in my life and I think every day of my life I need somebody who makes me laugh.
Speaker 2:And so he was also brilliant, you know, charming um, you know just the most kindest person. So I just said to him I need you, I need you to be like working with me and, um, eventually we made it happen over time, but he was just the most brilliant person and from there I remember the first day I said to him I think you should train to be a tanner because I think you'd be amazing at it and everybody loves you, and it's not just about the technique and the job, but it's about who you are and people will trust you. And I know that's not for me, because they'll end up really streaky or something. So yeah, so we sort of like cut this thing up and then, you know, jules took that on to be this amazing global phenomena and and I'm so proud of you, jules, I feel like I've watched you go from this young slip of a boy as an intern into this incredible man with just so much love for you in the world. Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 3:Oh what an honour to be here. Thank you so much, and also just sitting listening to that introduction, I was like God, I'm not even going to be able to leave this room. My head's going to be so bloody big when I get out. It's a joy to be here and I'm really excited to have a conversation with you about body confidence, about championing your inner self. But yeah, you've known me from the early days, so, and you've, you've definitely firsthand witnessed the journey that I've been on, so it's I'm really excited to have this conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what's it been like for you on that journey, Because I remember when you came in you must have been straight out. I don't know if you were still at uni at the time. Were you still at uni? I can't remember exactly.
Speaker 3:But when, when we were at Sandra Pay together yeah, I was still at uni I got my degree results in Sandra Pay office, my degree results in Santa Fe office and I started out as a PR assistant. And then I think I remember having that conversation with you where I just wasn't finding a job that was fitting. I felt almost like a jigsaw puzzle where everyone else had their piece around me and knew what they were doing but I just couldn't find something that gelled for me. And I think I remember, I remember that conversation about doing spray tanning because I I really I really judged spray tanning as a job and I thought it was a bit of a tacky job or a job that really wasn't very deep, wasn't very enriching. Maybe you didn't really need many brain cells to do it like I just was like I haven't been to uni and worked so hard to become a spray tunner. But actually, because I hated so many other avenues of work, nothing was really like fitting. I just said yes to having a go and so I just thought what have I got to lose? And actually the the process of spray tanning became very addictive to me because every single day I was making predominantly women feel like their best version of themselves.
Speaker 3:And spray tanning if you've never had a spray tan, it is nudity. But I really see spray tanning as everything is stripped back the jewellery comes off, the hair goes up, the makeup comes off, like even your wedding rings come off. And there's this moment where I put a client's hair up in a towel turban. They're in no knickers paper knickers, their own knickers, and that's it. And there's a moment where I look into the eye of the client and they look back and it's almost like you can see their soul, because they've got nothing to hide behind. And so I realized that actually, this process was about looking way deeper into what's on the surface. Even though I was being booked to do a spray tan to give a glow up, um, and actually turned out I'm pretty bloody good at doing it. Actually it was a much deeper connection that I was building with women on my journey in my career how beautiful is that like to get to see into someone's soul.
Speaker 2:And I mean, I remember the feeling, because you would do my tans and I would like take my clothes off and I would always make some sort of remark about my sweaty feet or something like that. You remember my feet when I used to go into the booth and you know it was just that thing. But I always felt so confident with you and you know, the afterglow was always really, really nice, but it was something about being seen by another person as well, and then the banter that we would have and the like, the fun conversations, and you know it became something more of an experience as opposed to you know that, like you say like, oh, I've got to take my clothes off, and it's a safety thing as well, I think, for us to get practically naked. There's something about feeling safe and in the world right now there's a lot going on. So I'm, you know, helping women to, I think, drop the layers. That's what's coming up for me.
Speaker 2:And what? What do you see when you sort of like see, you know, women there in their sort of like vulnerability, but also their power. What comes up for you?
Speaker 3:you see everything, to be honest, and I think, if you think about nudity as a moment, actually women are genuinely naked, either at a point of intimacy, childbirth or something medical Like that's really it. So a spray tan really is something very different. It's bringing an element of fun into this world of nudity and I think that the concept of being naked for a spray tan. I really started to explore the experience from the client's point of view not from my point of view always about the client and it was about wow, I could make this a really grounding, liberating experience. I can by the power of, of conversation, by making someone feel safe. Then actually we can really start to open this world up for each person individually and a hairdresser will tell you this, a makeup artist will tell you this.
Speaker 3:Every single client is different, but they're all the same. So you would know pretty quickly, I would know within seconds, the energy of a client. Are we going to have to treat this very gently? Has somebody been through something traumatic is? Are they feeling anxious? You can see the way that they hold their body. Are they covering their breasts? Are they really moving around very naked in the booth or are they just leaping straight in all off. It's very rare that someone does the latter firsthand.
Speaker 3:It takes time and I really had to learn the art of making somebody feel at ease very quickly and I'd often crack a joke. You know, that's how. I'm really sorry, I'm a bit shy. I'm like listen, love, I don't give a shit. My car's on the meter outside, like let's get this on the go because it would instantly change the dynamic. That it would be fun.
Speaker 3:I think the apology is something that will never, never, not amaze me. But also, noticing the apology really shaped my entire career. I have worked with Victoria's Secret models. I have worked with supermodels. I've worked with some people and women that the magazines would deem as the most beautiful women in the world. I'm using inverted commas for the purpose of the listener. That's obviously not true. But having worked with those women and heard them apologise about something about their body, but also women who are outside of the public eye also apologising for their body I then realised that actually we're all just conditioned to hate how we look and it's all a learned behaviour. And actually when you look at how brands market to us and try to sell us product and you really unpack this, actually you're just made to feel worse about yourself in order to sell product, and so then you have to start unpacking it.
Speaker 1:So, jules, I have to tell you about a conversation I had on Friday. I was at a bit of a gathering of women and they were between, I guess, 30 and 55, and we were talking about, you know, the aging process and how we look in the mirror and every time we seem to see a new wrinkle or a new frown line. And it was almost like that Barbie conversation where we were saying like it's literally impossible to be a woman. And as we were talking about you know, this aging process, I asked the question you know, did you feel like this when you were 20? Did you feel like? And they were like, yeah, like.
Speaker 1:And when you look at pictures of yourself back then, what do you think? They were like I looked amazing, I looked gorgeous, and we all had this realization that it doesn't matter who we are. We have always felt this way. So, yes, the beauty industry is absolutely there to make us feel rubbish, but we so internalise this. And, you know, even today, getting ready for this podcast, you know, got to do my hair, got to do my makeup, in case somebody sees the video. So what's at the root of all of this? What's going on with women?
Speaker 3:I mean, what a massive question. Firstly, I don't necessarily think the beauty industry is entirely to blame, but I think there is an element of navigating our way through the beauty industry. I think the element of the beauty industry which I adore is hope and this chance that you might feel this element of empowerment through by use of a product, touch, etc. I think that something that I massively recognised was when I was working predominantly on huge, high profile celebrity campaigns and I remember seeing, I remember being on the shoot, looking at the monitor on the shoot and looking at the images coming forward, looking back at the celebrity looking at the monitor. Then, six months later I'd see that campaign on the side of a bus or on a billboard and I'd think she didn't bloody look like that. On the day I'd seen the shots I was doing, like her body. She's been so retouched. Her ass has been lifted, boobs been lifted, wrinkles removed well, the person that you're comparing yourself to doesn't even look like that. So that for me, was this huge lie that needed navigating within the beauty industry. And that's when we launched Isle of Paradise. That was really my gun forward with it, because I really needed to remove this smoke and mirror screen. That was happening, I think, in terms of women and how they navigate their body image.
Speaker 3:A it's very layered. B I think that within circles of women, the conversation, unless you're aware of what's happening, can be often negative, manifesting, whereby I hate my thighs, I hate my boobs, I feel old, my hair's so thin is constantly focusing on the negative, and it's feeding one another about the negative rather than stopping that and saying do you know what I actually really like, my eyes Like? We're so as humans we are, so it's so much easier to deliver the negative. And even though I'm on this podcast as a man, I'm actually very gender fluid and have a very feminine energy about myself. So I, although I don't identify as a woman, I sit very much within the feminine circles. So I think.
Speaker 2:I think it's about women finding their power, their inner power, because then actually Then it will become easier to navigate do you remember when we did the shoot with Kelly Osbourne and it was about self-esteem, and then we got this, these amazing images back of her and I was actually art directing the shoot and then the images came back and they were so airbrushed, um, and it was just the first, you know, the first round of images that I saw, and I just got back in touch with the um agency and said I don't want these images. They're so airbrushed, like she's gorgeous, she was a young girl. It was all about self-esteem for the princess trust. It was a really positive campaign. That was like we're not putting these images out. It's about self-esteem. We need to to see her, not some, you know, fancy airbrushed shoot Like I don't want to see that as a woman and it was like drawing a line in the sand.
Speaker 2:And then what I've loved about you and where you've taken your work with Isla Paradise Jewels is that I remember you using like plus size women and real you know, real women in your campaigns when you were doing you know, know when you first came out into the market and just going that is so perfect. It was so. Then you know, now it's more normal, it's more normalized to see normal women in. You know ad shoots and things, but you were really one of the first.
Speaker 3:I think South Tam brands, you know, because there's a lot of the first brands really ever, and I think that for me was this just representing the women that I'd seen and the bodies that I'd seen in my spray tan booth, but at the time I've been a spray tanner for 17 years and at the time it was like 10 years that you know, a 10-year career as a spray tanner I could not bring out a brand that was so airbrushed. It's not representative. And the beauty industry and I stand proud of that the beauty industry changed when Isle of Paradise launched, because I think everybody, every person working within the beauty industry, every woman, saw oh my god, what are we doing? Why are we churning out all these airbrushed images when actually it's not making me feel good? And I feel like Isle of Paradise really shone a light on the empowerment side of beauty, which I think you know.
Speaker 3:I believe that there's two camps within the beauty industry. There's experts who work backstage and bring out products and really have spent a long time working with people, or there's the suited and booted, which are your boardrooms, your graphs. They want to make money. Well, though that camp don't give a fuck about how you feel, they are, just bottom line, sell the product. And that's when the beauty industry becomes the lie. On the other camp, you've got this lovely, warm side of beauty that really does care about the other side and unfortunately, the two interlink often. But, um, yeah, I think that was really my goal and has always been my goal, and I think whether people have been coming, whether women have been coming to me for a spray tan when I was 24, or whether women are messaging me on Instagram now saying that your content makes me feel amazing, it's always been the same message.
Speaker 2:It's just not about how you look, it's about how you feel you talk a lot about your body and your relationship with your own body, and I feel, like this is a fundamental sort of pillar in in what you do and who you are. Will you share whatever feels right for you?
Speaker 3:of course. So I hated my body for 20 years of my life and when I first started getting into spray tanning, I had I didn't have a very easy time in my late teens, early 20s. I had eating disorders, I had body dysmorphia, probably since I was 12 right through to 32. But actually being exposed to nudity in that retrospective spray tanner make and hearing the constant apology and seeing that everybody had their own stuff going on in their own head really helped me unpack where I was going in terms of my own body. And I say this whenever I work with a client who's incredibly nervous, like I really really, from the bottom of my heart, understand how it feels to hate every single aspect of how you look. Like I can fully empathize with how that feels. Um, I've had clients before who really wanted the tan, didn't want to get naked, and I've done the tan naked with them. I've said, look, I'll get in my pants, like it'll be you and me, it'll be a weird thing, there'll be loads of wobbles, but like let's just give it a go. Um, I think from that aspect and me then realizing that actually does my body need to change shape or does the way that I view my body need to change. It was almost like the scene of the valley stayed the same. I just needed to go to the other side of the mountain and that in itself sounds so simple. But when you have so much learned behavior of every single day, when you look in front of the mirror and you say, fuck, I hate my stomach, look how old I look you pick yourself apart. Stopping that is a huge part of the process. And the ship if you imagine body confidence as a ship sailing in the seas and it's going the wrong direction Well, ships are a massive entity and they can't just turn overnight. You need to turn the wheel a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. Each tiny change that you make today will make a huge knock-on effect to the future. That in itself, when Isle of Paradise launched, I knew that Isle of Paradise was going to represent the women that I'd seen in the spray tan booth.
Speaker 3:But as we launched with this body confident brand, I was still at home just pulling myself apart and still really in a place of body. Dysmorphia was front foot forward, and that really impacted every decision that I made as a founder, because I wasn't confident in myself, I was nervous and I remember trying. We were on a shoot and with the girls were there and we're shooting body confident content and the photographer said, do you want to have a shot of yourself, you know, without clothes on? I was like, oh no, I should do this. But anxiety ruled and I had the shot and I burst into tears and ran for the loo and it took me a long time to get over that and that people don't see that side of it.
Speaker 3:But I remember thinking you know, I really want to be authentic and how can I preach and have a body confident brand when actually I'm not body confident myself? I need to teach myself these lessons and, yeah, I went on a journey. I decided that actually, behind the scenes, I'm going to learn how to love what I look like in the mirror. And if I can't love what I look like, then I need to reach a place of acceptance and neutrality. I think we're told so much about body positivity, body confidence. You know, love yourself. Actually, that's not always the place that you need to aim to reach. It can be a place of just peace. You know, something that I've really learned recently is peace and inner peace and being okay with how things are. It's actually more powerful than being confident, and peace is actually the the best destination to be at body confidence and learning to like yourself. That's the journey, but the destination is peace and it takes time. It takes time, but it's never too late to start your journey.
Speaker 1:I've had this weird journey with my. Well, I think every woman has a weird journey with their body because our bodies change as our life cycles change. So you know, at one point you're just this little girl and then suddenly you either have boobs or you don't, and you're the flat-chested one, or you grow this big ass and hips, or you're not. You're like the Twiggy, the Kate Moss one, and you get ridiculed for that. And then suddenly you become sexualized and everybody's just talking to your boobs rather than talking in your eyes. And then you get to, you know for many motherhood. Suddenly your body just becomes a baby creating machine, which is beautiful and a real blessing. But again you change.
Speaker 1:And then you've got this whole pressure to jump back into shape, just like all the celebrities seem to do on the TV, and if not, you're slammed. And then I'm going through the perimenopause stage right now, where I have got a tummy for the first time and there's nothing I can do about it. It just wants to stick there. I always used to be the hourglass. Now I'm more of an apple and I have learned just to accept it. But you're absolutely right, it's about finding this peace, and I'm not there yet, but I'm feeling like I'm getting closer and I'd just really like to hear about maybe some tips or some wisdom that you might be able to give, just so, you know, people might even just be listening to you and think, ah, maybe I've got an issue and I hadn't even realised it.
Speaker 3:For sure, and I think the changing body of a woman is the beauty of being a woman and I think that that shouldn't be overlooked. So, firstly, my first tip would be, if you ever go to the place of, oh, my body's changing or this is happening, and I, I'm at the age where a lot of my friends are pregnant and a lot of them are moaning about their body changing. But actually that is the beauty of being a woman your body changes because ultimately, when you boil it all back, the science and the cell format of a woman is to reproduce, to multiply. So that's incredible in itself. So, firstly, I would say gratitude and acceptance towards the body of being a woman. I find gratitude lists extremely helpful Every morning if you can wake up and just write things that you're grateful for and skew with it to the point that your body allows you to do X, y, z. So I'm grateful that I was able to go to a concert last night. I'm grateful that my body allowed me to hear the music, see the things. I think we can often forget, actually, what our body allows us to do. Our mind and our body are not two separate entities. It is us as one whole human being. So when we connect the two, then it becomes a little bit easier to actually have gratitude towards your body, I think, especially if anyone listening has been through the whole diet culture where your worth is based so much on the shape of your body Actually it's more about championing what your body allows you to do. Have you worked out? Could your body move? Rather than focus on if your hair is changing consistency, just focus on the fact that you have hair and you like having hair. You know like changing is part of being human. We're all going in the same direction and, rather than resist the change, actually just accept what's happening.
Speaker 3:A big thing that I realised was I needed to recognise who I was hanging out with and who was in my circles. I talk a lot about this when I host confidence workshops. There are two types of people. There are energy radiators, people that really push that positive energy out that make you feel amazing that you might not see them for two years, but you know, when you see them you're going to feel amazing. But there's also mood hoovers, and mood hoovers are people who have got their own stuff going on. They're probably not vibrating at the frequency that maybe matches yours and you dread seeing them. And after you've seen them you feel drained. Mood hoovers tend to bring us down about how we're feeling because they maybe have their own stuff going on.
Speaker 3:So actually I realized that I needed to cultivate who I was hanging out with, who was staying in my life and who wasn't staying in my life, who's making me feel good and who isn't. And there were people in my life that based their worth massively on their aesthetic and for me, as I went on my confidence journey, I realised actually I don't want to be in that place. I need to make sure that I'm circulating with people who are lifting my mood, because it's not about how I look, it's about how we're all feeling together. If you're in a place of deep body hatred, I think remembering that tiny steps do make a difference when you look in front of the mirror, if you're instantly going to a negative place, maybe you need to get some post-it notes out, put them on the mirror and write down the things that you like.
Speaker 3:At my time of darkest body hatred, the only thing I liked about myself was the colour of my eyes. That was it. But every time I slagged off my love handles, I'd instantly make myself go. But you like your eyes, we're going to focus on the eyes, that's fine. Then, as time went on, I was like, actually, you know what?
Speaker 2:my skin's actually quite nice, I like my skin, and it would build, and it would build, and it builds to the point where my go-to conversation became praise, not punishment can I just say it's really important for people to seek out those people who will give them that boost as well, because when I listen to you talk about your story, when I listen to you like they're on the shoot, you know, and then going to cry, I feel like these are the messages that are really important to talk about as well. You know, because it can come from a. It can sound really egotistical, like, oh yeah, I love all of my buddy and I love all of myself, and I think most people have got like areas where they go oh, I'm a bit uncomfortable with that, or I'm a bit uncomfortable with this, and it's so normal to be able to talk about it and say well, actually, some days, you know, the first the thing that I had to go back to was I love the color of my eyes and I love the fact that I had nice skin and you telling your story and also, you know, doing the things that you do in the world helps others to go. Well, hold on a minute, look at him. I can do that too, and I feel like that's really really important that we we know where to be directed and we know who our people are, so that we can get that boost of inspiration. If we can't find it from the inside straight away, that's OK. From the inside straight away, that's okay. You know, we cultivate, we build, we nurture and we go towards the people that are out there.
Speaker 2:You know doing the work and talking about it, and I feel that's so important that you are that role model for others and they can come and get involved on so many different levels with you. You know it's, it's so much more than products on shelves. It's a, it's a bigger piece of a journey and that's, I think, what's really important. I want to say thank you to you for being authentic, speaking truthfully and sharing your journey, because I feel like that's the place of connection for so many. And I just want to say, you know, for me as a woman, in my life I had a, you know, difficult struggle with my body and I was very, very curvy and I would look, you know, I'd buy Vogue and I'd buy the magazines, and I'd think, well, I'm not, you know, super tall and you know, I've got, I've got hips and I've got a bum and I've got huge boobs and all of that, and, and then I would see Vivienne Westwood.
Speaker 2:And again, this isn't about, this is aesthetic work here and I would go. Well, they look like women walking down the catwalk and I can identify with that and it was something for me that was like, oh, actually, maybe I can be a bit proud of my body and my shape, because it's a sexy shape, you know, and that's been a really big journey for me. And now I'm, you know, now I'm 48 and I can look at my body and go thank you so much, but I didn't. I wasn't always like that. It's certainly been a process and certainly having a child has taught me to respect my body so much, because I feel like I'm in awe of my body because of what she's been able to do, and I take care of her and I promise every day that I will only do things for her that she is on board with, you know, but that's taken me 48 years to get to this point and I feel like the more we talk about that, you know, as men, as women, as groups together, it gives that a level of hope. That you're talking about, jules, to say it's not perfect every day and there are good times and bad times, but hey ho, you know like we're on a journey and there's so much that we can do.
Speaker 2:Talk to me about how you've you. You know, I don't know why, but this inner temple piece is coming up, and this, again, isn't about the aesthetic on the outside, it's about the feeling on the inside and that being able to, you know, go beyond the things that we don't like and come into the body and, you know, connect into the heart and just go deeper into our, into our I'm going to call it our inner cave and just feel this sense of power that we all hold from within our bodies. And you know, when I think about body wisdom, I'm not thinking about the crotch areas, I'm thinking about something that's a little bit higher, that's, you know, the center of the body and the heart. Um, talk to me about how you connect to that place and then how you show that to the world.
Speaker 3:I find music incredibly important in in order to find this inner vibration. Um, there was. We were in Las Vegas for a Sephora conference and it was like the biggest conference ever. We'd been asked last minute to get in there. Our whole launch was Sephora in America was very like fast. It happened within like two months. We didn't have much money and I was flown to Vegas to do this conference on a booth that we had cobbled together and at the conference there was like Jen Atkin, who's Kim Kardashian's hairdresser, there's Charlotte Tilbury, there's every beauty pro going.
Speaker 3:And just before I had to go onto the stand, I had a panic attack in my hotel room and I'd never had a panic attack before and I remember sitting there in a fully gold outfit ready to go on and I just thinking I can't do this, like I'm really not confident enough. And I just thought you know what I need to listen to my favourite song, elton John, are you Ready For Love and Karen. You will know I walked down the aisle to this song. It is my favourite song ever and I put that on. And there is a feeling that when you listen to your favourite song, your favourite album, you close your eyes. It almost like, transports you to this other place, and for me, that place really brings in inner empowerment and it just makes me remember that, oh God, all the stuff that we're worrying about, all the things that it doesn't really matter Actually, what's important is this feeling.
Speaker 3:And on that trip, a friend of mine said to me. She said why are you waiting for somebody else to come and light the end of the tunnel up? Surely you just have to light the tunnel up yourself. Me, listening to Elton John and also my friend said, I was like I'm, you always have to light the tunnel up yourself. Well then, that became how I found my inner temple, because, championing this feeling and this, it's almost like an out-of-body experience where you just focus on the inside, not the outside, because none of the stuff around you, none of it matters, because life ultimately is not forever. And if you think that on your deathbed someone's going to come from behind the curtain, be like that was great, brilliant dress rehearsal. We're going to do it all again, we're going to make some changes. That's not going to happen.
Speaker 3:And so you have, for me, these, this moment of closing my eyes, putting the music on, remembering I need to light the tunnel up. It's just reminding myself that this is it, this is the life that I'm living. This is happening right here, every single minute, every hour. So why am I spending so much time focusing on the shape of my body or what people think of me? That really doesn't matter. What matters the most is how I experience everything, this feeling that comes with it, and for me, music is an incredibly powerful tool to take me there. I have playlists on my phone that are just totally designed for these moments of, like, lifting my mood and changing. You know where I'm at, and I think that's really powerful it's just that comment, isn't it?
Speaker 2:you know, people will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you make them feel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's something also that I remembered from being a spray tanner. I never remembered the shape of somebody's body. I never remembered the thickness of someone's hair or like what jewelry they had. I remembered how they made me feel, every single client. I remembered how they made me feel Because the energy that you put out is way more effective than the shape of your hips.
Speaker 1:I've got to say. That's so true, because even if you just walk down the street or you're in a restaurant, wherever you are in public, it's the people who you know pop out and grab your attention. It's the ones with charisma, the ones with energy wands, who are unashamedly wearing whatever they goddamn wands, and they totally own it. And that's the energy that I always want to bring. And for me, my you said it's your eyes. For me, it's always been my smile, and everyone just has always said my God, lucy, when you smile, you light up the room, and so that is like, it's almost like if I can smile, everything else just follows. And what's your tip, karen? What do you do? Mine is my heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people have said to me like they've been sat next to me and they go. They've said I can feel, I can feel your heart. Well, obviously they can't physically feel it, but they know it's there and they know it's in the space. You, what I mean, and I always that gets me so emotional, because it's like there's a lot of feeling in my body. So, um, if I um putting that out into the world, then it's a brilliant day and you know, I can't ask for any more from myself. Really, um, but what a great question. You know, like I think I'm going to be using that one for a while. You know, it's like to be able to say you know, what is it that? What is it that you bring? You know, and, jules, like, when you look in your eyes, what is it that you see? Kindness, yeah, so like kindness and love. I mean what?
Speaker 1:a trio, and if only everybody just saw that essence of who they were and saw that essence in the person in front of them, everything else does just drift away. Because you're connecting, you know a soul, human spirit there, and all the rest of it is just yeah, it's just the, the dressing up. So I'm really intrigued because I did say right at the start, we can find you everywhere. So here we are in 2025, if people want to go and connect with you, jules, where, where are you hiding? Where are you showing your eyes to the world?
Speaker 3:um, I on Instagram and TikTok are at Jules Von Hepp and my sub stack is glow up, show up, so come and say hi.
Speaker 2:I will, I'm going straight there now. Please go find Jules, if you haven't already. He's, um, just the most wonderful human, as you'll be able to tell on this podcast, and he's got so much to share and add, and every time I see what you're doing in the world, I feel incredibly moved and so incredibly proud of you, and from seeing you now, I'm just like my heart is wide open. Thanks to everybody for listening and come and join the conversation with us. We're everywhere as well, but you can find us on tiktok, facebook, linkedin, instagram and everywhere else.
Speaker 1:So thanks for listening and we can't wait to welcome you next time until then, use your voice, journal, speak or sing out loud.
Speaker 2:However you do it, we hope you join us in saying it's a star.