Meet jules shepard

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jules Shepard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jules, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I would say that my purpose found me. I was a prosecuting attorney, focused exclusively on domestic violence cases, trying to help families in crisis and spending my days in and out of a courtroom. After I was diagnosed with celiac disease, I had to re-invent my world and how I moved in it. Food pervades every social interaction and affects so much more of our lives than we realize until we’re forced to think about it before every bite. After years of figuring it out for myself, I wanted to share my learnings with others to abbreviate their learning curve and prevent them from having to reinvent the wheel of mastering a gluten free lifestyle. That’s when I pivoted completely from being an attorney to writing cookbooks and ultimately, to manufacturing gluten free flour.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I was diagnosed with celiac disease way back in the 1990s, and perhaps because of my role as a domestic violence attorney, I was simply unwilling to accept the dry, gritty, vacuous foods that were the norm then. It was simply unfair and unjust to anyone living gluten free to have to live with such compromise. So two years in my kitchen later, I perfected an all-purpose gluten free flour blend that enabled me to continue my passion for baking and to once again share my baked goods with friends and family.

This no-compromise approach is what I have brought to my company, gfJules. It’s founded on my mission to make everyone’s gluten free life safe, successful, and delicious. All of my products and recipes focus on helping bringing families back together around the table to share meals again. The same meals. I believe this is why my gfJules products have been voted #1 again and again in the consumer choice awards.

All of my gfJules products are certified gluten free and kosher, and are made in a dedicated gluten free facility. They are also certified Free From the Top 9 Food Allergens (NO: wheat, soy, dairy, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, or crustaceans), non-GMO and proudly made in the USA.
I also just released a revolutionary new grain-free multi-purpose flour blend called NADA Flour which allows bakers to substitute it in place of wheat flour in most recipes without modification. NADA Flour is also certified gluten free and certified Top 9 Allergen-Free, meaning it contains no nuts or grains — revolutionary!

In addition to running my company, I’m very passionate about gluten free safety and accurate gluten free food labeling. When the FDA appeared stuck in neutral regarding long-overdue gluten-free food labeling regulations, a couple good friends and I galvanized the entire gluten free community and petitioned congress people, lobbied the FDA, and built an 11-foot-tall, one-ton gluten free cake to get the FDA’s attention. The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes … and ultimately the FDA took note. The FDA not only attended the event, but promised to front-burner the legislation, which it did. The resulting gluten-free food labeling regulations we have today went into effect in August, 2014. It’s these educating and lobbying efforts that largely helped me to earn the first ever “Gluten Free Person of the Decade” award in 2020.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Collaborative Nature
Tenacity
Creativity

I don’t think anyone gets very far in life without help, but you have to be willing to look for it, ask for it, and accept it. Collaboration is the best way to get good help, as you’re not being helped, but participating in the assist and building upon it.
My being unwilling to accept mediocrity in the gluten free products available to me is what gave me the drive I needed to develop my own line of products to solve the problem; I needed the resolve and tenacity I found within myself to see it through though.
Without creativity, you don’t see an alternative to what’s already been done. It’s the classic “think outside the box” concept. To start a business and to iterate from it, you need a constant influx of creativity, whether that’s your own or from others (see “collaboration,” above).

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

My parents were always there to be my cheerleaders, but not in the “you get a trophy for showing up” sort of way. They pushed me to be the straight A perfectionist personality that I am today, but pushed me by reminding me at every step that I needed to live up to my potential. Of course they were also there to help pick me up when I’d fallen, and loved me unconditionally through all the highs and lows. A tall order when you’re trying to be a good parent, yourself! But I think that if your children know you believe in them, they will believe they can do anything, and that belief is what spurs creativity and emboldens entrepreneurial spirit.

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