Are You...
a highly ambitious woman in healthcare who wants the Story of your life on the outside to match the Story your Soul is telling on the inside?
If your heart is saying YES, then you're in the right place
I'm enchanted to meet you
​I’m here to help ambitious & neurospicy women in healthcare uncover the brazen confidence to match the story your Soul tells on the inside to the way you live, love, work, play, and parent on the outside.
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I started Illuminate Freedom (and my podcast — the Sink and Swim Podcast) because I believe that you deserve to freely shine your innermost light — those hidden parts you often hide while you paddle furiously to conform to prefabricated narratives that tell you what you should be doing, believing, trusting, and modeling for others (and yourself).​
In a nutshell...
We live in a world that teaches us to sink OR swim. This world mostly celebrates when we are swimming — but only if we swim in tight lanes that are designed to keep us from shining too much, lest someone feel insecure around us as we shine.
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This can start to feel like we have to shrink and shapeshift to fit ourselves into a Conformity Corset to simply belong. We are told — “Be great and just keep swimming — but don’t be too much” —Too smart. Too successful. Too sensitive. Too intense. Too many interests. Too diverse. Too ‘activist.’
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But if you’re what a call a Luminaire — someone who is Loyal to your Soul, Untamed, Multidimensional, Intense, Native to your divine design, Authentic, Intuitive, Resilient, Encouraged — you know that paddling and swimming furiously to stay afloat inside the swim lanes that require you to conform and shapeshift is strangling and stifling your essence.
Your breath.
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Your very Soul.
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That’s because life isn’t sink OR swim.
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It’s sink AND swim.
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When you let go of swimming in the lines and free yourself from the Conformity Corset — and sink deeply into the stories of who you really are — that’s when you find the power and confidence to rise and swim in a vast and expansive ocean — full of people who celebrate you for being fully YOU.
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Around here, we’re about real conversations, celebrating your depths AND your heights, and finding the sexiness in the unsexy work.
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Thanks for being here to Sink and Swim with me.
I have guided thousands of women like you across the globe to illuminate the freedom to go:
From
Working in a career or business that no longer honors your talents, gifts, sensitivities, or passions
To
Immersing yourself in deeply fulfilling and life-changing work for you AND the people you serve
Putting up with relationships and people who don't "get" your passion, genius, talents. You're "too much" to them.
Being surrounded by a tribe of people who celebrate you because of your gifts and quirks and intensities
Feeling spread thin between ALL that you want to do -- meaningful work, building community, traveling, family time, and oh BTW your own self care
Creating a lifestyle that allows you to work, travel, play in nature, and be with your family as much (or little) as you desire with plenty of white space
Feeling caged and inauthentic because you're a square peg in a round hole at work, with friends and family, or in your community
Showing up unapologetically yourself and feeling like you fully belong and fit no matter what environment you're in
I see you, Friend
You've got a magic about you. You stand out and shine in just about everything you do
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Your bare minimum is most people’s “overachieving” – as a former member of the talented & gifted program, top athlete, and/or artist – most people can't relate to your level of success & genius. And because of this, you sometimes (...a lot of the time) feel "uncool" for being so talented. You just don't quite fit anywhere.
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You’re highly sensitive and empathetic – you’re real, kind, honest, and care deeply for people & animals – which makes you a gifted leader and caregiver to many ... but you also feel the weight of the world on your shoulders most of the time.
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You’ve got an inner mad scientist – you go ALL IN and are nerdy about the things you love. I see you holed up in your office, forgetting to eat lunch as 8 hours flies by while you’re immersed in a deeply joyful project. But this intensity can be off-putting to many people.
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To the average person, you're a bit of an overachiever. And some of them would say you're too sensitive, too smart, too talented, or you care too much.
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Most of your life, you've used your ambition and genius to achieve great things. But along the way, you've always felt like a bit of a square peg in a round hole --
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You hide your genius when it is off-putting to others.
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You dumb yourself down.
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You pretend to be more nonchalant than you actually are. You're actually quite chalant.
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Your life on the outside does not match the story your Soul is telling on the inside. You feel inauthentic and out of touch with what brings you joy, spark, and passion.
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This has you longing to make a shift in your Soul Story, which could look something like...
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Shifting from a career/business path that is "safe" and "acceptable"-- to a one that fully celebrates your genius, drive, creativity, and ambition
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Redefining your role and the expectations placed on you as a parent, child of aging parents, or both.
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Extricating yourself from partners, friends, family, or coworkers/employer relationships who don't respect your heart, emotions, values, talents and/or genius
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Doing a lifestyle overhaul -- Moving to a different town or country ... or letting go of everything and traveling full time as a nomad ​​
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Exiting from strict religious, cultural, or body/health narratives that box you in and pull you away from your wild, untamed nature
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Fully expressing the truth of your spirituality, sexuality, gender, sensuality, neurodivergence, political views ... and every other thing you've been taught not to talk for risk of getting cancelled
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In this season of life, your Soul is longing for something more YOU
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You want to be confident in your most authentic Identity and Purpose.
​You want the people who surround you to love you for ALL of you.
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And you know you need support to do exactly that.
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Sounds inspirational, right?
Alas, there's a problem ...
You've sense that in order to fully remove the layers of conditioning and masks you've piled on throughout your life -- you will have to
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Face pushback from colleagues, friends and family ... and you aren't sure what that means for the future of your relationships
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Abandon ship from all the once-joyful pursuits, people, and places where you've invested countless gritty hours of heart, soul, time, money, and energy
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As a highly sensitive and intuitive person, you're in tune to the emotions, needs, and energy of not only yourself but also the people around you, and you're feeling --
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​​​​Misunderstood: Everyone thinks that because you're so ambitious and you've achieved so much in the "mainstream" and "comfortable" life, that you should just stay the course and be grateful for what you have.
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Caged: You know it’s going to be hard to shift, but you also know it’s equally hard to stay put. You feel damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
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Longing: You admire others who have followed their hearts, who boldly speak and live in their truths -- and the ambitious part of you longs for that kind of courage.
And even though you're self sufficient and don't typically let the thoughts of other people slow you down, ​that little gnawing in your gut pulls at you, makes you take pause, and whispers…
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“If I do fully express who I am, what I believe, and what purpose my soul is here to serve – Will anyone be there who truly "gets" it?”
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Does that sound like you?
If so, good news - I totally get you.
Here's what I want you to know
Cozy up. Let's chat a bit.
The good news? That longing voice and inside Story coming from your Soul is real, valid, and completely true.
The not so good news? You can’t avoid it much longer without the Universe finding a way to make you listen to it.
You probably already knew that though. 😉
So right out of the gate, let's just establish that if you're here reading this -- you have not lost your marbles, you're not doing something stupid, and you're not doing something wrong. Yes, even if your family, friends, and colleagues believe you have.
In fact, that inner Story your Soul is telling is the roadmap to you finding those damn marbles.
What you’ve created in your "comfortable" and "relatable life" with your ambition and genius might feel "great" to the average person – AND it’s completely ok that it doesn't feel "great" to you.
This doesn’t make you ungrateful, shortsighted, or arrogant.
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And for f*cks sake, it doesn't make you an overachiever to function naturally on a higher level than most of your peers.
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I get that this is your normal level of functioning. You woke up like this. Most people don't get it. It can feel really alienating and isolating.
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I also get that now - as you channel your inborn ambition to fully reveal your most authentic Soul Story to the world - that you fear even more alienation and isolation from people who just don't get it.
That's what makes you beautifully human.
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Regardless of how many times you've been taught to be a "strong independent woman/person," it's fundamentally correct that your Soul is craving support and recognition from others who "get" you as you morph and evolve and uncover the tenderest, truthiest, most vulnerable parts of your identity and purpose.
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I get that because every time I've dug deep and revealed a new layer of myself or my purpose, I've felt and wanted that too.​​​
Your particular Soul is one uniquely wired for brilliance–or as I like to call it–you're a Luminaire.
That’s the Old French and therefore more whimsical and fun version of "luminary."
And if you didn’t already know, I am all about whimsical and fun around here.
But you didn't come here for me to tell you what you are.
I'll let you decide for yourself. 👇
What the heck is a Luminaire?
A LUMINAIRE is an exceptional woman who is or desires to be:
Loyal
You're primarily loyal to the needs of your Soul instead of the needs of everyone else
Untamed
You live wild and free from your deepest desires instead of the roles you’ve been conditioned to play
You embrace the complexity, layers, and nuance in your life instead of picking one lane, one side, or a rigid identity
Multidimensional
Intense
You own that your passion, empathy, and sensitivity are intelligent gifts to be channeled in the right places instead of pathological problems to be fixed
Native
You unapologetically feel fully at home in your Soul Story AND belong to a group of Soul-designed supporters who get, understand, and celebrate all parts of you
Authentic
You take radical self responsibility to live and express yourself unfiltered, unapologetic, and with full integrity of who you truly are and what you value
Intuitive
Your success is rooted in your innate genius and gifts instead of the rules, expectations, and rituals you’ve learned from indoctrination & practice
You know that on the other side of challenge and adversity is joy and aliveness, and you face them with fluidity, hope, trust, and steadfastness
Resilient
Encouraged
Your main motivator is pleasure and joy as a fundamental birthright, not something that you have to earn, prove, or fight for.
Does any of that sound like you?
Or does it sound like the story your Soul is telling about you on the inside ... but not yet on the outside?
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If that little grin on your face or the bubble in your heart is any indication of yes, then allow me to illluminate why you're waiting to reveal the beautiful Story your Soul is beckoning you to tell.
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So what gives?
What if instead, you could be
Most Luminaire or Luminaire-aspiring women find here, hesitating to move forward with your Soul's desires for two reasons:
1. You have a case of the Terrible Too's
When you shine, excel, or feel and dream intensely, you’ve been told you're “too much” by people close to you. They can't relate, which makes you feel like you don't know where you belong. So you've learned to shrink or hide your Soul's desires, achievements, and emotions in order to be understood, included, and relevant.
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2. You want people to support you as you express your Soul's Story, but have been taught that it's wrong to want support
​As a gifted, empathetic, ambitious, and brilliant soul who has achieved and accomplished a lot, you take care of and nurture others a LOT. But who supports you? Probably not too many people, because you're smarter and more talented than most, and you even outgrow your own mentors. This fed you the message that the best and most worthy people are those who support others, but don't receive the same support, and therefore it's wrong to want that support because nobody can match you.​
So you're constrained in a lose-lose "sink or swim" space ...
You can swim toward your Soul's desire and blaze your trail as you normally do ... but risk losing belonging with people you love,
Or you can continue to sink into conformity and risk losing yourself.
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That has you feeling strangled and caged – like you’re walking around in a corset that is two sizes too small
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This "sink or swim" strangling is what I call the Conformity Corset.
What's the Conformity Corset and why are you in it?
This Corset requires you to shapeshift and squeeze yourself into the roles, stories, and expectations of the people you love and the society to which you belong.
Even though it's uncomfortable, you're trading constriction and shrinking for a sense of support, safety, and belonging. Corsets are quite supportive, after all ... so long as you squeeze and shapeshift into their mold of course.
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You feel that constraint, and you know you don't fit -- which is why you do all you can to support yourself -- self care, therapy, trying to convince yourself everything is fine and you should be grateful, distracting yourself with little projects, etc.
But at the end of the day, no matter how much you try and support yourself to fit the Story of the Conformity Corset -- you cannot support yourself in something that is simply not designed to contain all of your greatness and luminosity.​​​​
This means it's not YOU - the Luminaire - that is wrong or too much.
No, you're simply trapped in a Corset that was never designed to contain you in the first place.
And I get that it may feel like if you leave the Corset and fully shine, you’ll be exiled or banished from the safety of the places and people to whom you have belonged.
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This Corset has shaped your Identity and your Purpose. It's shaped the story you tell about yourself on the outside.
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But there's a story your Soul has told on the inside since the moment you were born.
And because the inner story of your Soul doesn't match your outside life, you've been living in exile from your Soul all this time.
So by choosing to remove the Corset, you’re actually making a conscious, powerful choice to return home to your Soul and its story of who you are and what you are here to believe, embody, and do.
But it's a tricky process. Because you've been conditioned to believe you must either sink OR swim -- sink and gain "belonging" in the Conformity Corset; or swim into your Soul's Story and be all alone.
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Which is why you haven't moved forward. Neither sinking nor swimming feels right.
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The good news is - it’s not sink OR swim.
It’s sink AND swim.
It’s time to sink your ship – the one you’ve been paddling furiously to try and conform.
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And it's time to sink into the depths of your Soul's Story, uncovering your true home.
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And you will do this all on the hope and faith that you will SWIM into your Soul's Story, surrounded by people who celebrate all the parts of your Story that have been living in exile.
You’ll alchemize the parts of you that you've been hiding into shining, sacred gifts that people in your world celebrate and love.
That sink AND swim process is Soul Story Alchemy.
This may feel like you’re sinking into a stormy sea.
But the fact that you’re here means you have a conscious choice in that jump – instead waiting for the Universe to FORCE you into it.
Those Luminaire traits of Resilience and Encouragement will become the very alchemical energy that carries you home into living Untamed and Authentically from Your Soul’s Story.
And as you sink and swim, I’d be honored to swim alongside you.
I have a long history as a swimmer and Luminaire, after all ;-)
Sink AND swim into Soul Story Alchemy, and illuminate the freedom to
Channel your intuitive capacity for empathy to serve others in a way that fills you up and self sustains without you having to spend 3 hours a day in self care and nervous system regulation
Discover purposeful, creative, and Soul-led work with people who ADORE your keen ambition, intellect, intensity, intuition, sensitivity while challenging you to grow
Unleash your passions, crazed fan antics, and mad scientist interests while being encouraged by people who are just as passionate, nerdy, and supportive as you
Uncage your sense of adventure to explore the corners of your own internal world and the external world -- being filled with awe and wonder
Experience and embrace your tender, vulnerable, wounded, and hidden parts in all their glory, uncovering the gifts and superpowers contained within each one
Show up and shine authentically as yourself, unfiltered, unapologetic, wild, untamed, and in full integrity to the story your Soul came here to tell
Doesn’t that sound amazing?
Duh, Of course it does! This is the reality I help clients achieve in my Soul Story Alchemy program
MEET THE FOUNDER and CEO:
Dr. Julie Granger
Hey there! I’m Julie, a Luminaire, Soul Storyteller, and truth illuminator.
I love to guide women to go from living in a story you think you should be telling instead living from the most beautiful and true story of your Soul.
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If you’re anything like me, you think, feel, operate, and perform deeply and powerfully. Big nerd? Check. Arts and music? Check. Love nature? Check. Love a big project? Check. Love sports and movement? Check.
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You sink into multiple things, juice them for all they're worth, outgrow them, and then move on. It's confusing to a lot of people, but you love it.
It's difficult to reconcile multiple changing passions in world that tells you to pick ONE thing or risk being too much and therefore instantly uncool. ​
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You aren't a stranger to the sink-or-swim challenge that comes with changing course in your life. Usually, you swim on to the next thing. But right now it feels like a lose-lose situation. It's deeper than it used to be.
Sink and continue to feel constrained to the life you've outgrown, or swim toward your desires and risk losing connection and belonging to the world you know.
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If that sounds like you, I want you to know I’ve been there.
But before we get to my story, I just want to let you in on a little secret –
Creating a beautiful, authentic, and TRUE life that lets you be fully YOU doesn’t have to feel like a lose-lose situation that will leave you sinking and constrained or swimming and exiled.
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So I get what you are feeling right now. Because I’ve been there, too.
Over the past 20 years of climbing to the top, abandoning ship and switching gears over and over again, I shifted in my career from a collegiate swimmer to accomplished physical therapist, and then accomplished coach. I did all this while selling everything and traveling full time, opening and shutting down a million dollar business, cutting ties with meaningful friendships, and nearly losing my life to cancer.
All tough, Soul-driven things. And I've learned that when at the crossroads, what often feels like a sink-or-swim and lose-lose challenge is the exact perfect opportunity to use your power to change the Story altogether.
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Because the truth is it's not sink OR swim. It's sink AND swim.
It's all about that AND. When sink deeply into your Soul AND trust yourself to swim into your Soul's Story, you'll feel at home and be celebrated and supported by people who love you and get you most. But when it's an either-or, you'll always feel constricted.
This is a vision I hold for EVERYONE who wants to live and love in the truest and most beuatiful story your Soul came here to tell. And it's why I created Soul Story Alchemy.
Which means, you can do it too.
These Client Results Illuminate What Is Possible For You
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Before working with Julie, I was crying after work and was told I'd need to "pay my dues" before I could make a decent income as a physical therapist. Y'all – Don't believe the bullshit!
Within one call, Julie helped me think differently. Two days later, I quit my job and started my own business.
Now, I'm selling packages to patients who easily say YES, have a nearly full schedule, and have the flexibility to take vacations, spend time with friends, and even support my two kids and growing family.
Jackie Roelofs
Physical Therapist and Fertilty Coach
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Before working with Julie, I worked 60 hour weeks – I worked as hard as I could to make my boss happy, coming home to snap at my teenager and depend on cocktails to help me wind down.
Now, I have passed the 6-figure mark in my own health coaching business and have been able to scale back my employee job to just 2 days per week.
I've done a lot of programs, and this was by far more valuable that anything I have ever taken. It is a life changer and not just for my business but most importantly for my family.
Dawn Allen
Women's Health Coach
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Before this program, I gave up my own personal appointments, lunches, and workouts for patients. I was seeing only 1 new patient per week after getting a lot of "no's" from people who wanted to use their insurance.
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Now I enroll 80-90% of my discovery visits and they are all SOULMATE clients who say hell yes and pay in full!
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Plus, I was able to close my clinic for an entire week to spend time with family this summer and not worry about my revenue or patients.
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April Morrison
Physical Therapist
Hey friend – I see you still scrolling! If you’ve made it to the bottom of this page, I invite you to pause and consider that there is no "right" time... Your Luminaire vision is waiting inside your Soul. If you feel the whisper in your heart saying "give it a try!" then I'm here with open arms, ready to chat with you and uncover your Soul's Story. You'll be so held, supported, and affirmed for all your genius, quirks, and desires, that perhaps a year from now you'll be able to look back and say "Dang, I'm so grateful fo myself for listening to the call of my Soul." And I'd love to partner with you to see you fully shine as your Luminaire self.
This Is All Available to You!
