EP28 JuliaHorne
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Serena Reynolds: [00:00:00] Hi, welcome to Fearless and Flawed Today our very special guest is Julia Horne. She’s a fellow Londoner, which is unusual for us at here at Fearless and Flawed, and she runs a company called Juma’s Journeys. And I will leave that. I leave her to tell you all about it. It’s fascinating, uh, little company that she runs here in the uk.

Serena Reynolds: I’m Serena Reynolds, and my co-host is Sara Ferrer.

Sara Ferrer: Thank you, Serena. I am Sara. I am an email marketing pro converting clicks into cash, and together Serena and I are two women in charge, diving into the fearless, flawed, and fabulous journeys of female entrepreneurs. Julia, we are so excited to have you and thank you.

Sara Ferrer: A thank you for joining us because this isn’t gonna be exciting. But B, thank you for being a fellow Londoner. Finally, Serena gets somebody on her team for this podcast. Thank you [00:01:00] for being here.

Julia Horne: You are very welcome. You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me and inviting me on your, on your show.

Sara Ferrer: Yes, yes.

Sara Ferrer: Tell us. Tell us about Juma’s Journeys. We love the name. What is it? How did, what exactly is it? How’d you come up with the name too? Juma’s Journeys, I just wanna say it in my sleep,

Julia Horne: I started off as a professional singer, so I did all things singing. I was in bands, I taught in the country, and it was all just music, music, music.

Julia Horne: And I, what I did was then. Had children, um, and had to stop, you know, going away for three and six months, uh, because I couldn’t do that with my children. So, but I really, really enjoyed motherhood and I enjoyed and to the point where I actually worked in my children’s nursery. I. I volunteered and then I ended up working there.

Julia Horne: And then I ended up studying child development. I kind of just mashed the two together and realized that there was an [00:02:00] industry of children’s music and children’s, uh, entertainment. And so I kind of became the storyteller music person in the nursery. It was a Montessori nursery, and I be kind, I kind of became back person, and then when my children left, I was like, Ooh, do I have an excuse to stay here?

Julia Horne: And just play all day. And I thought to myself, right, I’ll get back to singing for a while. So I did. I went back to singing for a while, but realized it, then again, it still took me away from my children. So I ended up working for a music, a children’s music company, and they were, they were lovely. It was really, really good.

Julia Horne: Then they closed down in the area that I was working in, and I thought I’d set up on my own. Juma. Okay, so Juma is journey with us on a musical adventure. So that’s what Juma means. It started off with just a made up word from [00:03:00] me and my mum. And then it became, oh, right, let’s put some alliteration to it and break it down and then make it mean something so people could understand.

Julia Horne: And what I realized was the company I was working for before, it was very kind of generic. It was very, everything they’re saying, twinkle star. All the same. It was very, it was boring, basically. And I was thinking to myself, if I’m bored, then the parents must be absolutely bored out of their minds. So I was going around to different nurseries and schools and children’s centers, and I was delivering a music class for early years.

Julia Horne: And so one day having ADHD, I forgot my music, and I only had calypso and reggae in my car, so I. Decided that. I, I would just take that music out and we would have a little dance and, you know, and it was the best class I’d ever done. It was so much fun. We had so much fun and [00:04:00] the center manager came out and said, Hmm, that doesn’t, that didn’t sound like your normal class.

Julia Horne: You know, what were you doing there? Everybody had so much fun. And I said, oh, well, I bought a bit of my own, my own culture into. You know the the class. And she said, whatever you did there, it was fantastic. You need to do it again. And it made me think, oh, there’s like so many people in this class. There were in this class, there were Spanish moms, there were Japanese moms, there were Somalian moms, there were Polish moms.

Julia Horne: And it just really made me think, oh my gosh, they. There’s music from all of these different people and there’s children’s music actually from all these different cultures and maybe I should explore children’s music from around the world. And, and that’s what I started to do. And then it got a little bit, you know, as the years went on it.

Serena Reynolds: How many years ago was it, Julia? When did you start?

Julia Horne: It’s about 11 years now. Many [00:05:00] 12. So I’ve been doing children’s music for 18 years. And then, oh my gosh, about 14 years and it’s kind of ended up where I am now doing a class. And it’s a multicultural class because every month we visit a different country and we talk about the country, we look at the flag, we look at the food that’s there, we listen to the music that’s there, we do the dancing that’s there.

Julia Horne: It’s really amazing. It’s really amazing. It’s, um, it makes me feel. Like I’m teaching the parents how to be, I don’t know how community cohesion, you know, people are learning a bit about this country and a bit about, and it’s very, you know, it’s very short. It’s like 45 minutes of visiting Hawaii and we’ll talk about the language and, and depending on how old the child

Julia Horne: is.

Julia Horne: Yeah, so, so

Serena Reynolds: what ages do you cover? So, I know these questions. I’ve known Julia for a long [00:06:00] time.

Julia Horne: It’s up to five, so it’s zero to five. So babies usually come to my classroom about three, four months when they can see, you know, probably about 10 feet in front of them, and they are able to maybe lift their head a little bit and move from side to side and follow.

Julia Horne: Around the room. And then they usually go to school about four or five. So in this country they, they will be a nursery around about three. But some parents, you know, they homeschool. So they will come to my class until they’re five or six. And so I have three different classes. I have a baby class that’s non walking.

Julia Horne: Then I have a toddler class where they are toddling walking, stepping, bouncing maybe. And then there’s a preschool class where they are telling me what’s going on. They, they are talking, they are jumping, they are telling me what country where in the map we are, they’re talking about everything. So, so yeah, it’s, it’s really early years, but if [00:07:00] you think about it, whatever I’ve created can always be extended upwards towards an older.

Julia Horne: Um, group. So we’re kind of thinking about all of that at the moment.

Sara Ferrer: Let me, let me ask you, Julia, are you, are you doing this solo? I mean, this seemed like a great idea. You’ve been doing it for 14 years. Are you spearheading all this? ’cause like I, the business woman in me goes. Oh my gosh. She could rinse and repeat this.

Sara Ferrer: She could open up, you could have these classes in every major city, like where are we at with, do you wanna be kind of the one woman show? Do you have desires to scale? Does that appeal to you? Where are we at? Because bring it. Bring it to Madrid. Bring it to Boston. Like what parent’s gonna be like, you know what, no, I’ll pass on the educational fun activity for my child.

Sara Ferrer: I like, I’d like my kid to just stare at the wall. The multicultural fun activity. Fragile tile. Yes. I, I’d like my kid to have zero iq. Thank you very much.

Julia Horne: Over the years I’ve had people work with me [00:08:00] and they’ve done classes. I’ve taught them, I’ve done kind of teach the teacher or train the trainer. I’ve done those kind of courses and.

Julia Horne: At one point I had five teachers on my team doing different places, but it was never a kind of franchise model. I never got to that point where I could just say, please get, you know, take this and run with it, or, you know, pay me for this. And I never, I, I, I got into this completely by accident and I am not a business person, which is why I am so surprised to, to this day that.

Julia Horne: It’s still going, I’m still being paid for it, and I still am so proud of what it’s done. Like I still get messages from moms and, you know, I, I walk down the street and people, there are kids that will say, I remember you, you know, we used to sit in a circle and do whatever, you know. And I, and I have messages where [00:09:00] people have had more children and they’ve come back and say, have you got a class in this area?

Julia Horne: Or have you got a class in that area? And that just makes me, uh, makes me know that what it is is great. I know that, but I am now ready to, to go to a different level. So it, it does need this whole. You know, going to venues and delivering a class on my own is just not, it’s it, it’s not what I want anymore.

Julia Horne: And so I have been like, throughout Covid and everything like that there, I did some things online. I thought about apps, I thought about, you know, all different types of, of, of ways of expanding it and, and, and having that reach. So yeah, at the moment we’re in that developmental stage where, right, this needs to be, not juma, Julia’s Juma, but it needs to be

Julia Horne: the [00:10:00] world’s juma. And also I’m not getting any younger, I can’t be jumping around like Floella Benjamin for the rest of my life. Uh, Floella Benjamin by the way, is like Miss Rachel, that you would call in America like. She’s like the British, but she’s really old. Like she, she’s, she, well she’s not really old, but she’d kill me if I said that.

Julia Horne: She wouldn’t say that, but she’s kind of from, you know, we watched her, we watched as, as a child, like, and she was amazing. Like she was just this great kind of kid’s, TV presenter, whatever. And I’m, yeah, you know, I a proud 55 and I want to be able to retire at some point with. Something under my belt, but also saying that I’ve done something that’s really, that people love and can continue and build.

Julia Horne: And that’s, that’s what I really want. So yeah, I’m excited. I am not sure [00:11:00] what I’m excited about, but I’m excited that it can go online and it could, and I could have like an army of. People delivery this program.

Serena Reynolds: Let’s talk about Juma. Explain who Juma is.

Julia Horne: Okay, so, so I have a lovely little character. It’s a lion and, and it’s quite really funny the way that it came about because I used to have really bright red hair.

Julia Horne: I had a bright red afro and I said to Serena, I need this character. And she. She made this character, which was a male lion with a pink afro, with polka dots, and you know, just this crazy little,

Serena Reynolds: it was really like the Montessori kind of shape in stuff on a preschooler.

Julia Horne: And he’s got, he’s got loads of friends that he visits in different countries.

Julia Horne: So, so, and, and, and how the class is [00:12:00] set up is that we. We’ll look at the map. We’ll see what country we’re going to. We’ll fly on our magic parachute and we’ll land, and when we land, underneath that, parachute will be all of the things from that country. All of the sensory things, all of the things that we’re gonna talk about, the animals, the pictures of people.

Julia Horne: It’s all there so that when we land with our parachute, we, we land in country and it’s, it’s all in your imagination, but I wish I was Doctor who. Yeah, it’s, it’s a really fun class. Parents love it. Kids love it, and they are exhausted by the end of it. Carrots are like. We, we, we bring the children to you to tie them out for four, five minutes and then they sleep for like two hours.

Julia Horne: ’cause you know, they’ve had so much stimulation, psych, so, [00:13:00]

Serena Reynolds: so Julia, when you are teaching the really small babies, are you just entertaining mum?

Julia Horne: Okay, so there’s different outcomes for different classes. So the first class for babies, it’s just sensory. And so if you think about babies and the way their brains develop.

Julia Horne: It’s just about sensory. But if they are in, at home with mom, looking at mom’s face and listening to mom’s music, mom’s sounds, washing machine, the tv, the whatever, they are not getting any learning. So, and that’s why you take babies out for a walk. That’s why you take them to different baby classes. It you people think, oh, they’re just sitting there.

Julia Horne: No, they’re learning. So they, babies learn through sensory. So. For my baby group, everything on the floor will be sensory. So you as mom will sit on the floor and you will show your baby the animals, show your baby the lights, show your baby the sounds, you’ll be playing the sounds. I’ll [00:14:00] be playing sounds around the baby.

Julia Horne: I’ll be showing them colors and lights. I’ll be playing music from Mexico or music from Hawaii. They’re not necessarily gonna do that at home. So for that 45 minutes, we have managed to create an environment of what your baby would be listening and seeing and doing if they were in Hawaii, you know, so they would be able to touch grass skirts, they would be able to hear the rustle as I walk around in my grass skirt and my flowers, I would see all of those different things.

Julia Horne: So. You are not so, you are So, yes, I am definitely entertaining the parents, ’cause they love it. Sometimes they dress up too. Um, but for baby babies it’s about sensory. Then you get to toddlers. And toddlers is all about [00:15:00] exploration because they can move. So they are going to move. They are going to touch, they are going to dress up, they’re going to put things over their head.

Julia Horne: They’re going to listen. They’re going to bounce to the music, they’re going to shake the maracas. If we’re in Mexico, they’re going to do things, you know, so they’re gonna explore. They might not necessarily be able to take instruction. You know, I might say to them, oh, let’s play sleeping bunnies. And some of them will lie down, and some of them won’t.

Julia Horne: Some of them won’t understand, but some of them will. And then they can bounce and do all of those things. So toddlers is about exploration of the things that are there, preschoolers Now they’re different. They will understand a map. They’ll point to the map, they will point to people. So there’ll be pictures of people from these different countries.

Julia Horne: Down there, they may be pictures of [00:16:00] instruments. So if we’re in Mexico, I may say, can you find any instruments on the floor or can you find the maracas? Or is there a guitar? And then I’ll say, oh, we need to listen to some music with the maracas in a guitar. And then I’ll play the mariachi band. And how do they dance to this?

Julia Horne: What do they do? And so that’s what a pre in preschool, they’re getting even more of what the, the, the, the toddlers and the babies get. They, we might even talk about the language, so we’ll say where we go to Mexico. They don’t speak the language. What are we gonna say? How do we say hello? And then somebody will say, Hola.

Julia Horne: And then I’ll say, can you say Hola? Right? Hola. So when we go to Mexico, we have to say Allah. It’s about just embracing the really super, super simple things [00:17:00] that they can go home and say, oh mommy, I know how to say. To say hello when I go to Mexico or when I go to Spain, because they speak the same language.

Julia Horne: It’s amazing. That’s what we’re looking at when it comes to preschoolers. So there are lesson plans that I’ve written for each age group, and so that if you become a teacher, you would be able to take that lesson plan and break it down. So that you can deliver the class. So yeah, it’s mu it’s, it’s got much bigger than it was and that’s really because I’ve been doing it for so many le so long, I’ve got kind of like, I think probably about 48 countries that I’ve done less lesson plans for and yeah, that, that is definitely.

Julia Horne: What it’s about. Yeah. You know, I know that from the lesson plans, I could expand that to an older age group, [00:18:00] but what’s been, what’s been difficult is people, when people say, oh, what do you do? And I say, I’ve been saying for years, oh, baby kids music. And it’s actually not, it’s like. A kid’s multicultural geography class with music delivered through music and dancing and puppetry and stories.

Sara Ferrer: And Can I ask you about that? Because I think that’s a pain point that I wanna double click on, right? Like you’re, you didn’t just open up you Cookie bakery and you can, hi, I’m Julia, I sell cookies. Right? Like that is very, like, it’s very streamlined. You are a little bit of, you’re a service, you’re an activity, you’re an educational component, so.

Sara Ferrer: Talk to me from the business side when it comes to how do you market it? Like what was the, like, how do I market it? How do you, how did you figure out the pricing? Oh, I price it like a Montessori class or like a music class or like what did that look like when it came to developing? Did you survey people?

Sara Ferrer: Did you say, [00:19:00] Hey, what would you pay for this? Or did you just say, I’m gonna throw a number out and see what sticks?

Julia Horne: That’s exactly what happened, because I did not. Intends to be a businesswoman in any point, any way, form, shape or form. I’ve literally had to backtrack and go, actually, what, what do I want and how do I want, and who am I serving?

Julia Horne: So because I, I went into it through being in a company already, they had already done that. They had already done, like I literally was working for this franchise. I didn’t do all the, the, the research and everything. I was just working for them and then I kind of stepped sideways and continued working and now I’ve got to a point where I could have made so much more if I had a business head and if I had maybe gone to done a business plan [00:20:00] and followed through with.

Julia Horne: The discipline of business, you know, because it’s only now that I’m recognizing how important it is not to be fly by night. That it, it, I’m literally going back to basics. I am doing SOPs right now, like I am literally foundation below foundation. I’m going, what is it that I need? How do I need it? Who am I serving?

Julia Horne: I. Because I’ve always thought that I was serving the parents. I’ve always thought I was serving the parents. And one day I went to a music and dance. It wasn’t a festival, it was a, a like a seminar thing at, um, the Business Design Center in Islington. It was four teachers. It was four music teachers and drama teachers and you know, service providers.

Julia Horne: And it was great. And there was a guy there from the [00:21:00] Royal Society of Art. And I was just walking past and he said, oh, he said, oh, you look like fun. What do you do? And I was like, you really want to know? He said, yeah, I really want to know. And I was like, oh my gosh, how do I explain this? I’m meant to have a five second, you know, like a ten second kind of pitch.

Julia Horne: Yeah. Elevator pitch. And I don’t, like, I have this whole old drawn out, you know, version of what I do. Anyway, I sat there and I spoke to him and he was like, he was like. Wow. That’s amazing. He said, why don’t you create a qualification? I was like, what do you mean? He said, we’re the World Society of Arts.

Julia Horne: You could create a qualification that’s like how to teach teaching multicultural in the early

Julia Horne: years

Serena Reynolds: An RSA accreditation. That’s huge. Huge.

Julia Horne: Yeah. My head was like. I literally almost ran away from her [00:22:00] ’cause I was so scared of what I had.

Sara Ferrer: Like, first of all, Julia, the minute she entered this interview, I was like, she’s a full of energy.

Sara Ferrer: This is gonna be fun. So I just love the fact the minute someone gives you a great idea, your instinct is to run away. That is, that is so relatable on so many different levels. No, we can I just mention this before we proceed forward. I wanna, I wanna state something really important that I think a lot of women, and you have mentioned this, and it’s to no fault of your own, but we say I’m not a businesswoman.

Sara Ferrer: Uh oh. But I don’t have a business head. I just wanna, I wanna point this out. You have proof of concept. You have paying customers, you have, you have classes, you have maps. You have. You have a, you my dear, have a business head. What you may need to work on is maybe because you, you’ve got your hands in the pie, you’re moving, you’re shaking, you’re doing it, and most people are one of two things.

Sara Ferrer: You’re either doers. Or they’re people who sit behind a [00:23:00] desk and plan. And both those people are very important. You, you know, usually those people are not the same people. I like to get my hand dirty. My husband’s someone who he’d rather hire out the dirty work, which is me, right? But I, I, I wanna make it very clear, and I think this is so important to remember.

Sara Ferrer: How many people have a business plan, but don’t follow through with it. How many people have a business plan about who they’d like to serve, but that persona doesn’t really exist? So you, my dear, very much have a business head, and for anyone listening needs to understand that a business head is anyone that can collect a paying cash from a paying customer.

Sara Ferrer: You have that. But maybe now, now, because you’ve been reactive. Because holy shit, people are paying you. There’s demand here. Now you take a step back, which is the best case business scenario. Oh my gosh, I haven’t had time to write a standard operating procedure because this thing is working so well. So I just wanna give you credit and I really wanna give you your flowers ’cause that is what a [00:24:00] business is supposed to be.

Sara Ferrer: Not talking about it, but doing it. So kudos.

Serena Reynolds: So I want to add to this now Apple was built by Steve Jobs and Cook, what’s his name? Tim Cook, right? So you, Tim Cook is the CEO personality. He gets shit done. Um, Steve Jobs was the, imagine the imagination, the driver, the, the stuff you, they were two different people.

Serena Reynolds: A lot of businesses are two different people. It’s not the same person that. Is the inspiration as well as the driver. And we have to remember that all because we can’t do both. Doesn’t make us failures, just means we’re normal.

Julia Horne: Uh, a hundred percent. I think. I think, I mean, I, I, I put the other day I was so frustrated that I put the idea into chat GPT, and I was like, you know, is this even a, is this even a business?

Julia Horne: You know, is this even work? You know, blah, blah, blah. [00:25:00] Of course, this business is amazing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then what was so funny is that it came back. At the end of it, I said, how many people does it take to run this business? It was like five, right? At least. At least like, oh, maybe that’s why I’m failing.

Serena Reynolds: Failing 14 years in business plus. She doesn’t even know how many years and she caused that failing.

Julia Horne: Although, I mean, just getting to a point where, you know, I mean, growing, then I should say I ki I kind, I’m kind of in the same place I was, you know, and I, I know that I could grow and I know. That I, I, I want the idea to spread.

Julia Horne: You know, I really want that and I think, I think getting something in my hand where I can pop it open and say, look, this is who I am. This is what I did. You know, I have never invested, [00:26:00] I. Never, I’ve never, the only thing I got money for, which I, which is quite, it was quite funny. The one thing I got money for, I got ripped off for, and that was for an app.

Julia Horne: You know, I was, I wanted to do this app. I got all the background out, everything, and then the company went into receivership, which is, was like pants, you know? And, and I, those, those are things that, that companies need, you know, like you need to invest, you need to, to pinpoint what it is. You wanna do who your customer is, why they are those per, you know, I know that I can sell parents.

Serena Reynolds: So who is your customer then? You’ve already said that you saw it was the parent. So where are, where are we thinking now?

Julia Horne: So, so I have, I think the children’s centers are closing down. A lot of the schools are bringing people in to do different things for them now, so I think schools and nurseries are probably where I need to go next.

Julia Horne: One of the reasons why I haven’t been in there [00:27:00] is because the feedback that you get from parents like homeschooling parents. They take on the program like, yes, this is, this is something that actually I wanna do. But she does it so much more with so much more fun, you know? So I think I’m, I’m looking at if it’s business, I think it’s me creating a franchise for people to deliver, but it’s also me creating a, a qualification for them to do before they deliver.

Julia Horne: And so they have to be qualified to do the job. You know, it’s taken me a long time to get here, to do what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, and I think they should be qualified to be able to, to deliver it. So they would have to, and they, they wanted to deliver it as. Being licensed to me, that’s fine if they’re, they’re unable to, to buy the franchise.

Julia Horne: [00:28:00] But it would be great if someone could buy the franchise and then, you know, and then them get, get people out there. That’s what I’d love to do, that, I’d love to do that. And then merchandise and, you know, Juma’s face everywhere and

Sara Ferrer: you become the Miss Rachel of like multicultural song. And I mean, like, but that’s the thing.

Sara Ferrer: I, I, I think it’s. I think sometimes the best businesses are not the ones that are overly complicated or this is kids learning fun, attention spa, like all of that. And you mentioned something very, very, very interesting, which I noticed when I used to run Zoey Koko when we had tweens spa parties, right?

Sara Ferrer: Where I’d show up to houses and throw this spa party for 10. 10 girls who were, let’s say eight years old. Oh, I realize, just like you did too. I had two customers. I had the birthday, the birthday mom who was paying for the party, right? I had the other mothers who were [00:29:00] coming to pick up their daughter who just spent two hours, that little Susie’s house.

Sara Ferrer: And so they want their daughter to have a good time to feel like she learned something. And then I had the, then the, the, the customers also the, so you, you don’t realize, which is a real gift that you have to wear. To serve all three of those people and to be, have eyes in the back of your ’cause when you’re performing, you’re performing to the whole room.

Sara Ferrer: And in my case, sometimes moms would stick around and watch how the party goes. So now I’m razzling up. So you are truly like all in one. You’re an entertainer, you’re running the business, you’re doing the classes. And I think there’s almost potential, like you said, it’s not what to do next is. Where do you put your energy, your, your, where do you concentrate next?

Sara Ferrer: Because someone like you has a thousand great ideas. Where do you go next? At a thousand miles. An hour. At a thousand, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But I mean, I always think whenever I think something’s a problem, [00:30:00] I think of the reverse scenario. Okay, you’re running a thousand miles an hour and you have a lot of great ideas.

Sara Ferrer: The reverse scenario is you’re going zero miles per hour with shit ideas. So like, so I, I think this is encouraging and like, let’s say hypothetically we. In three years, we check back in on you. In three years, we check back in and we check back in on Juma’s journey. Give us the one minute, you know, and I want you to talk about it as if it’s already happened.

Sara Ferrer: Where are you? What has been? Don’t get into technical things, high level. Sell us the one minute where Juma’s Journeys is in three years in your best imagination, wildest dreams. My best wildest imagination

Julia Horne: we have. An army of franchisees and we also have a box membership where people receive Juma Box every month and they are traveling in their little front rooms and they’re watching the Juma show.

Sara Ferrer: [00:31:00] Love that. Like, like that’s, but see, you just answered your question. Like, I don’t know where that is, where you now you just kind of have to break it down into how do I get that’s, and, and, and you’re selling internationally. I’m assuming now I’m adding to your dream because you know what, what, what? Now I’m adding to your dream.

Sara Ferrer: ’cause now I’m like, I wanna sign up for this box and it better be global. This is so exciting. And you have Serena, and I know Serena and you worked together. Serena has helped you out with a lot of like the behind the scenes, so. What a treat that you, you ladies get to work together and Serena, how fun, you know, out of all the clients you have.

Sara Ferrer: I feel like Julia, Julia’s really a hard one to talk,

Julia Horne: you know, between me and Serena. If we had like, I don’t know, like a dragon in the middle, one of from Dragons Den, we would be like multi-billionaires when we,

Sara Ferrer: hundred percent,

Julia Horne: which is like, you know, we’d just be creating, creating, creating.

Serena Reynolds: We, we do it for the love.

Serena Reynolds: This is the problem, [00:32:00] not for the dollars or the pounds.

Julia Horne: We, I know for the love. I know, I know. But I am excited. I’ve never not been excited about it. I’ve been frustrated and I’ve, and I think I’ve felt a little bit delusioned with my own ability to run the business, how I watch other people run their businesses.

Julia Horne: And I think I’ve got to a stage now where, because of my awareness of my ADHD. I am now so much kinder to myself and I am saying, do you know what? This part of the business is not me. Okay? This part is not me. I need someone to do this part. I will do this part. And even if I can’t do that part. I’ll do it another time, but it’s, it’s really about being kinder to, to myself, you know, because when you are not, you shut down and you don’t do anything for weeks.

Serena Reynolds: I’ve known Julia for a long time now, [00:33:00] so I happen to know that Julia has fostered children. I know that Julia has raised her own children by herself. Predominantly, I know that she has the support network, but she is a power woman, an absolute power woman. Not only has she, she built Juma journeys. She herself has got some amazing accomplishments in her own personal life, and she is everything to everyone.

Serena Reynolds: So here she is saying that she. I can tell you she is, she’s, she’s fearless. She’s completely fearless. Completely awesome.

Sara Ferrer: But that’s, listen, we love the flaw because listen, we don’t want delusional, flawed is, I know I could be better, but we have to balance that with, but I’m okay. Where I’m at. That’s really it.

Sara Ferrer: And I think your journey, a lot of what we, we’ve been hearing is like, it’s very relatable and, and what we strive to do on this podcast is not make things be fairytale esque. Our, our role [00:34:00] here is not to say, okay, Julia, tell us, you know everything about everything and nothing’s wrong, but our role as. As your girlfriends.

Sara Ferrer: You know, we like to pretend that, you know, we always say this is kind of like a brunch conversation, is also to look at you and call you out on the BS where we see it of wait, wait, wait. Stop. Stop saying you’re not a business woman. Stop saying you don’t know what you’re doing. Because if I, if, if I say that and you have the, the role and responsibility as a fellow woman in charge, say you do know what you’re doing.

Sara Ferrer: Maybe there just needs to be some focus or some organization, but hell hit the ground running. That’s a good reason to not write an SOP.

Julia Horne: Every time I speak to Serena, like she does remind me that, you know, sometimes I cook myself in a box and say, oh, just businesswoman. And it’s like, no businesswoman mom, daughter, friend.

Julia Horne: Foster carer. I have three. I have a three month old baby that I’m fostering right now. I had her from four days old. My God. Yeah, which is like, you know, not [00:35:00] easy. I have a 16-year-old daughter who is hormones. And yeah, and she has ADHD too, so matching twins, which is like, it, it’s, it’s amazing actually.

Julia Horne: ’cause we really understand each other, like we understand each other more than the rest of my kids do. And I forget that bit. I, I do forget that bit. And it, it’s, and it’s a lot. But I wouldn’t, I also wouldn’t have it any other way. It, because it’s just who I am. So. Yeah, it, it, it is just who I am. So I’m, I am really, really proud of where I’ve got up to, and I now desperately want to almost like relax into it.

Julia Horne: Now, I want to enjoy the business now. I want to move forward with it. I have been stagnant for a very long time, and for me to move [00:36:00] forward, there needs to be focus. There needs to be a appreciation of my skills and there needs to be a delegation of other skills and, and I’m happy with that now. I’m happy with where I’m at.

Serena Reynolds: So, Julia, we’ve got to the part, part in the show where I’m going to ask you a question from our last guest. Oh, okay. Well, our last guest was Vanessa and she built Grow Strong Her.

Julia Horne: Oh, I like it.

Serena Reynolds: She’s a fitness coach and her question to you is how can you fit at least 10 minutes of mo movement into your day?

Serena Reynolds: I

Julia Horne: walk now to the contact center, which is 20 minutes, so I was, and I was, I was not doing that before. I was not doing anything before. I’m moving now, so that’s my way I think. At least 10 minutes. At least 10 minutes is [00:37:00] nothing really, because going to the paper shop and getting a pint of milk is five minutes.

Julia Horne: One way,

Serena Reynolds: I think you sound really English there. Does anybody else go to the paper shop for a pint of milk

Julia Horne: and then coming back is five minutes? Right?

Serena Reynolds: 10 minutes. There you go. 10 minutes. Then get your pin of milk from the newspaper shop.

Julia Horne: There’s your 10 minutes exercise and

Julia Horne: walk with pace.

Julia Horne: I would say that’s, that’s 10 minutes of movement

Serena Reynolds: or switching around the Juma class in a grass skirt.

Serena Reynolds: Oh. Oh,

Julia Horne: you

Julia Horne: are

Julia Horne: so welcome to come. Please. I’d love to see that.

Sara Ferrer: Listen, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll show up in my, I listen, I, I was willing to do it before this conversation started, so we, we, I am all in. I am all in. That’s what, what question would you have for our, for our next guest?

Julia Horne: We all need to love ourselves [00:38:00] more.

Julia Horne: So if you had a magic wand, what do you do now that you would give to someone else to do if you had a magic wand? What, what, what job in your business do you do now? If you had a magic wand you would give to somebody else to do.

Serena Reynolds: I’ve got so many, I need a magic wand

Sara Ferrer: awesome. I love that. I love that. I, that’s like a very nice, very, very like imaginative, very princess like way of being like, what the heck would you delegate first?

Sara Ferrer: Like if you could, what that magic wand is, delegation, what would you do? Sometimes the best questions are the one I’ve, I’ve realized like when it’s too deep, like, like remember one time we had a podcast where we had on our wonderful friend Brianna Brianna’s, a, a tr uh, a [00:39:00] travel advisor. She’s like a. A travel concierge, if you will.

Sara Ferrer: And like the guest before her, I believe was like a life coach. So the question was like, what’s something deep in your heart you desire? And, and Brianna is just the type of person that’s like, this got really deep, very quickly. Um, I would prefer not to an like, remember I really appre, I love Brianna.

Sara Ferrer: She’s just a, a wonderful per, but I appreciate the honesty where she was like. Uh, nothing like, I’m good. Like, so I, I appreciate the questions that basically are more universal, which is like, where’s your magical wand? What would you delegate? What would you kind of, you know, what would you export?

Julia Horne: Maybe even like what three things?

Julia Horne: Maybe like, maybe not one, maybe three things like really make ’em think

Serena Reynolds: personally. I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, my, my mind was racing when you said we all need to love ourselves a little bit more, and now you’ve got a magic wand. I was thinking, where’s she going with this?.

Serena Reynolds: Because it’s daytime tv. Surely, [00:40:00]

Julia Horne: you know, I believe in Genie.

Sara Ferrer: So yeah, there you are. Like if you’re, if you’re like this just one-on-one in conversation, I already know in the classroom, like you don’t have to tell me, say less. You’re there, you’re razzling, you’re dazzling. You got eyes in the back of your head now, like if someone’s listening because you are London based, right?

Sara Ferrer: Like if someone’s listening and is like, Hey. I’m a fellow Londoner, or I’m moving to London. How does, how does someone get eaten on all the Juma journey? Fun. Is there a Facebook page? Is there, like, do they, are you at certain locations? Do they call you on your phone that keeps ringing? Like what? How do they get you?

Sara Ferrer: Because you’re a busy lady.

Julia Horne: So, yeah, so at the moment it’s, it’s all kind of, it’s not built back up since Covid, because I haven’t, I I, I have literally haven’t gone to my, my old places and built stuff up because I wanted to build up the online stuff side of stuff [00:41:00] and the, the, the box membership side of stuff.

Julia Horne: So at the moment it would be doers journeys.com Right? Which is like the. The the website and I am at a children’s center Ealing called Jubilee Children’s Center. I’m also in Acton Park Children’s Center as well. And I’m also in a nursery called TikTok Nursery in Twickenham. So those are the three places that I am at at the moment.

Serena Reynolds: However, if you’re interested in franchising a musical, uh, explorational. Help me out, Julia. I’ve lost the words

Julia Horne: that, that, that, so I was in 14 different places before Covid. I was in all of these different places and I think that was the reason why I couldn’t hone down. I. Who I was serving. I [00:42:00] was serving so many different people.

Julia Horne: Like I was doing insect days where I was teaching the teacher about music because the teachers teaching the children didn’t know basic music. Then I was teaching. The teacher about multiculture and then I was teaching the parents, and then I’m talking to the children. And what you said about having, who are you serving?

Julia Horne: Who’s got the money? Where’s the money at

Sara Ferrer: Exactly. If an eight, yes, yes, yes. If a 4-year-old, if a 4-year-old had a credit card, let me tell you, all my eyes would be on that 4-year-old. That’s,

Julia Horne: and that’s why the RSA was such an amazing idea because when they said you should do an accreditation, I was like, oh, people would pay me for the information that I’ve learned to, you know, and if it has the RSA at the bottom [00:43:00] of the certificate, that’s a huge thing.

Julia Horne: It’s like, and they would market for me.

Sara Ferrer: Wow. You know, Julia, here’s the thing. You’ve said this all, it’s been recorded everything. No, no, no. Like you’ve said it all three years from now. No. No, because once you say it, that’s one thing. Once you say it and it’s recorded. I watch a lot of legal shows, like a lot of Judge Judys in the US where like I never gave her a loan and it’s like, oh, it’s recorded that you did on a piece of paper.

Sara Ferrer: Um. But now that, now that you’ve recorded it, we, because I love your whole story, I love the evolution of it. I, I, I feel like there’s the next chapter, awai, so we are gonna check back in. I don’t know when it’s gonna be, but we’re gonna check back in and we want, and we’re holding you accountable as your fellow women in charge, that we want an update.

Sara Ferrer: We don’t expect you to reinvent the entire wheel because that, that’s never a good idea, but we expect. Some forward movement in many of these ideas because anyone listening is gonna say [00:44:00] Whatever happened to Julia. I’ve heard the story so. Thank you. This has been so lovely. Hearing your journey, hearing your story, hearing your success, not just as a business woman, but as as a woman in charge in every single environment in your life.

Sara Ferrer: So snap it up for Miss Julia. You know, if you’re in the London area, I don’t care if you’re past four or five years old, I’m 38 and holy hell, I’d put in a little pacifier and wear a diaper for any one of your classes. Okay. We’re going down a dark park here today, maybe. Yeah. A dark path. Okay. I’m telling you.

Sara Ferrer: But that’s how I feel. Any way to get into Miss Julia’s Juma journeys? I will be there, Julia. It is, it’s been wonderful chatting with you. Thank you so much for, for taking the time to, uh, to tell us about your journey.

Julia Horne: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. You are both. Yes. So lovely. So different.

Julia Horne: And what you are doing I think with this podcast is just [00:45:00] really elevating and illuminating people in different ways. So. Thank you for, for creating it. Yes. ’cause, you know, listening back to, to it, I’m sure by listening back to this and to listening to other people, it just, it, it’s, it really, really makes you human.

Julia Horne: It’s a real human podcast. It’s not, you know, fairy, it’s very, very human. So thank you.