Meet julia Linn

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

Julia, 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 found my life purpose through hardship – it’s the greatest teacher, and also the most demanding. Diagnosed with diabetes Type 1 in 1968 at age 11– it was a rare condition for children. Medical research and diabetes care were in the dark ages. As a result, I experienced classic diabetes complications by age 27 – failing kidneys, diabetic blindness, neuropathy, heart disease.

A near death experience that year taught me I am much more than my physical body, I was a soul having a human experience. This life was like a dream. The other was more real. My experience was profound and difficult at the same time. During a flood of exquisite light and love, I was asked if I wanted to go or stay, and I had a fleeting, sad thought: I won’t get to meet my sister’s new baby. In a split second whoosh, I went from a place of Love and Light and Home back into my body which was laying in a hospital bed. I had a deadly blood sepsis and was not supposed to live through the night. Coming “back” was very hard – it took me a year to reorient to my life.

Seven years later, at age 34, with end stage kidney disease, my doctors said with dialysis alone I might not live to age 40.

They offered a risky alternative: a double organ transplant – a working kidney and a pancreas to cure the diabetes. I may not live through the risky operation. I didn’t fear death and took the risk. My organ donor, Gina, died in a car accident, God bless her always.

The operation was a success, the diabetes was cured, my kidney functioned beautifully and that was 33 years ago. Trials were not over however and at age 48 I required a triple cardiac bypass. Two years after that, my thyroid was removed.

As my 30 year anniversary was coming up in 2021 of this miracle organ transplant, I made a pact at age 62 to get as fit as I possibly could. It was to honor Gina and be around for my husband and loved ones. I wanted vibrant health. I wanted more life! My transformation was so dramatic – yes in my physique, but more so in my mindset – my soul self and body self were connected in a joyous dance of living life.

I observed women in my age group all around me struggling with body confidence, health problems, peri – and post menopause, having gained unhealthy fat and feeling it was over – they were done, irrelevant and no longer viable. But the entire issue was a disassociation from self – decades of taking care of others but not herself. Women in their 40s/50s/60s/70s are so wise and have so much to give – but if you don’t feel well, it’s a loss for all – your light cannot shine.

I won a bodybuilding competition at age 64 on my 30th anniversary, and as I opened up about my medical history, I inadvertently started a narrative that you are never too old and it’s never too late to reclaim health, a joy of living, and body confidence. I felt called to share my knowledge, life experience, coaching skills, and my heart as an educator and speaker and began to help other women sustainably transform.

My purpose in life is to be of service to women who want that transformative change and who realize it’s not about the body. In a fitness journey it’s on all levels – mind and spirit included. The body is a side effect, but the real transformation is on a deep level of consciousness within each person.

I want these women to find THEIR purpose in life – built on a new trajectory of health and feeling amazing! At 67 I should be retired – but I have too much energy. My purpose is to give to others – what I have learned through my own experience – with the deepest, truest lessons coming during hardship. We all have those! Don’t shrink from hardship!

So many of my clients who have lost 30 pounds, 50 pounds, even one losing 80 pounds – say that the body transformation is fantastic, but the real change has been in self-concept. As such it is sustainable and built on self-worthiness, self-love and self-care. I focus on mindset issues as the foundation – working out and nutrition are secondary – which readjusts the lens through which women have viewed their body, their health and their worth.

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

My life as a Fitness Influencer, Intuitive Mentor, Body & Mindset Coach, Motivational Speaker, and Best Selling Author comes from a medically challenging history. At age 11, diagnosed with diabetes (it was 1968) my health deteriorated so much that at age 27 my kidneys started to fail, diabetic blindness started, as well as heart disease and nerve damage through my body.

By age 34, my kidneys had completely failed, and dialysis might have taken me to age 40, but no further. A kidney transplant was an option, but risky due to heart disease, and I’d still be diabetic which would ravage the transplanted kidney. My medical team was doing experimental pancreas transplants at the time and offered me this high risk surgery where death was a very real outcome.

My first brush with death was with septic shock at age 27. While in the hospital, I had a classic near death experience, which obliterated my fear of death. I discovered, ironically, I was not afraid to die, I was afraid to live! The experience gave me the spiritual understanding I needed to hold on to life. It also gave me the courage & purpose I needed to face another crisis by agreeing, 7 years later, to the high risk double organ transplant. I could not see my way forward without taking this chance.

My organ donor, Gina, died in a car accident and was 9 years younger than me. God bless her – what a gift she gave not only me but up to 75 other people needing organs and tissue donations.

So at age 34, my diabetes was healed, I got a working kidney and life took on such depth and meaning. I was incredibly grateful to be alive.

My life took many turns after that, living in New York City, San Francisco, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Italy – as I was a working artist and professor of fashion design. My commercial art has been widely published and won many awards – under a different name – both Julia Olson and Julie Johnson.

I traveled the world as a guest speaker at spiritual seminars in the US, Canada, Mexico, Asia, and West Africa. In 2018 I received my Masters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Practice. Life rolled on!

All the travel and my art career brought me to a point at age 62 when I had the realization that in two years, it would mark 30 years since my life saving organ transplant. I was inspired to leap into a phase of my life where my health was my biggest priority. And by age 64 I wanted to celebrate my 30 year gift from Gina, my organ donor.

I got into body building, and entered a competition and won in the Masters Bikini category age 60+. I didn’t realize how much hope this would give other women struggling with health, body confidence, menopause, weight gain. I started a private Instagram account just for my coach to check in – but the more people heard my story, the more they encouraged me to make it public.

When I did that, the demand to serve women and coach in ways I had learned to transform my life became huge. I was officially certified and brought my experience of spiritual mentorship, being an educator, and artist to my new career at age 64.
I founded Body Beauty Love Life™ to guide and coach women online from anywhere
in the world. I have three programs currently – the very low ticket app where I host challenges of 4 or 6 weeks. These are designed workouts and community to encourage consistency and accountability, however there is no access to me. My 6 month program Fabulous After 50 (though I accept 40+) offers bi weekly livestreams accountability circles with small groups, in depth workouts, nutrition plans, but mostly we work on Mindset to put the most important lens on when women are ready to transform sustainably and without the failures of the past. Next May we’ll offer a retreat in Crete, Greece called MINDSET MASTERY & ADVENTURE IN CRETE.

Additionally, I have an elite program which is completely bespoke and limited in the number of clients I can take. These women tend to be celebrities or HNWI and the level of support is as high as I can give based on their personal vision of what they want.

I help women to connect soul-self to body-self, and stop the disassociation so many feel past a certain age. I mentor how to live their highest vision in body, mind, & spirit – by reclaiming their health and loving themselves.

At a time when I should be retired, I jumped into a life purpose. This happened as I got fit, felt amazing and needed to channel my energy and desire to serve others into something GOOD. I got official certification from the ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association) and used my decades as a spiritual mentor to pour my heart and soul into what matters most in a life. Especially to women age 45+ when all kinds of life changes rock the boat: menopause, empty nest, retirement, aging parents, sometimes divorce. It’s a hard time! The body takes on the stress and is a holding tank for low self-confidence, anxiety, food as numbing medication.

3 years later my Instagram is over 200K followers – @ dolphinine. I have met some of the most amazing clients in the world and been able to help them transform on all levels; Body, mind and spirit. I am devoted to the mindset aspect of changing your self-identity and how this aligns with thoughts, daily choices, and how true sustainable transformation happens.

My high-ticket one-on-one mentorship is offered to a small few – I’m all in 24/7, it’s completely bespoke, so I can’t take on many. It includes HNWI and celebrities. (A very fit person can be incredibly anxious about body confidence at those levels and still lose connection with inner self as the demands of their role in the world exert unbelievable pressure to be perfect, perform well, look incredible at all costs.)

My group coaching program has incredible success stories where I work with a larger group of women, in a vibrant atmosphere of support and camaraderie. This is my Fabulous After 50 Blueprint program that runs for 6 months – join anytime and extend if desired.

For those who just want a workout program, I have an app where there is no access to me, but you get lifetime access to a 4 week challenge. That’s the Fabulous After 40, Vol. 1 Challenge. More challenges, being built and on the way now.

I also wrote a book about my life as it relates to issues that women born in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s might also have. It’s called MY POWER DECADE and was on the best seller list for Women’s Health. available on Amazon.com or other book retailers.

What I care about is helping women think differently about their lives, their bodies, & clearing limiting beliefs embedded from the past. Because, the world needs the Bright Light of women of a certain age. This Light cannot shine as it should unless you feel well.

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

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The three qualities, skills or knowledge that have been the most impactful in my journey is my absolute trust in a spiritual force bigger than me – trusting and experiencing that It will bring the joys of life into reality without strain. So often we hustle, long for, lament for what we don’t have when such thought patterns only serve to continue to manifest a lack in our life. Saying “I want” is a way of saying “I don’t have” which is a way for that continued reality to persist.

So the knowledge I have come to trust is that the more I give up my ego self and rely on the intuitive direction that comes from the soul self, the more aligned I am with my life purpose.

Another quality is the joy of serving others and making use of the experiences I have had in order to share what might help someone else. My fitness and spiritual journey – just like anyone’s – has the ability to lift another up who might be struggling with the same experience.

I am deeply curious and love to learn – I read a lot, love people, and want to experience life in new ways all the time.

So to summarize: Loving the God force, giving up ego, being curious.

Advice for others: learn to love yourself and honor your experiences. Be willing to expand in your understanding of life and honor your traditions if they continue to make sense for you and build on those. Whatever your belief system is, you are right. It’s yours alone and it’s sacred. Trust your intuition. It bypasses the ego but can be a tricky and subtle shift!

Then share yourself with others!

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was twofold. My mother and I had a very difficult relationship. She was a product of the 50s housewife, frustrated that her own dreams were cast aside for what society expected of women in that era, so she was angry. She didn’t know how to show love in a way I could recognize. As such, she was my most powerful spiritual teacher – the emotional pain made me seek higher sources of love. I had to face the emotional traumas as an adult. Something she never got to do in her own life and I’m sure she had them too. I learned so much from the resistance she brought into my life as a child and adult. She made me so strong by rejection. I had to find within myself the love I was craving which she was unable to give as my mother. This made her a powerful force in my life, to help me become a spiritual seeker and a survivor on many levels.

My father, very differently, was supportive, loving, kind and supported me in whatever I wanted to do. He was emotinally open, unlike my mother. It was a balance as well as a paradox. Once they both passed I had a sense of something really coming to an end that had a specific mission of achievement that was successfully concluded. I’m grateful to both of them for the lessons I learned being their daughter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bodybeautylovelife.com/
• Instagram: @dolphinine
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087666122649
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-linn-06bb77251/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVy0wZbqnbwcZ0P_GKrpfAw

Image Credits

profile picture in pink is by @angelahopperphoto