What People Are Saying...
“I’ve been learning from Julie Smerdon for over 20 years. I joined her sessions at United Airlines during one of the most stressful periods in the company’s history, and witnessed firsthand her unique ability to transform high-stress environments into spaces of healing and growth.
In a landscape often defined by stress, she creates a profoundly loving and inclusive space. Her presence is the perfect balance of calm and deep knowledge. She doesn’t just teach movement; she facilitates a shift in mindset. Through her guidance, I’ve seen incredible growth in my physical strength, self-awareness, and overall joy.
What Julie does goes far beyond the room. She has an extraordinary ability to help people find calm and build resilience in high-pressure environments, and she does it in a way that meets everyone exactly where they are.
Twenty years later I’m still her student. That says everything.”
Jenna O – United Airlines
“Julie Smerdon has been a light in my life for the last 20 years. We first met when she was teaching near my home, and not long after I connected her with United Airlines, where our weekly classes in the basement of world headquarters began during one of the most stressful periods the airline industry has ever faced. We were coming off 9/11, in the middle of a bankruptcy. Julie’s guidance kept many of us centred and gave us a break from the weight of the day.
What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was how much that skill, helping people find calm, focus and resilience in high-pressure environments, is exactly what today’s corporate world needs. She has a gift for leading with quiet authority. She is someone I trust with my story, someone with whom I am completely comfortable in my vulnerability, and that quality is rare in any room, let alone a boardroom.
Although thousands of miles now separate us, her confidence and leadership still reach me through her writing and the connection we maintain. Any organisation that brings her in will find the same.”
Katie L – United Airlines
““I will be forever grateful to Julie for her wisdom, humour, and mentorship. The way she designs and delivers her programs has deeply impacted my personal growth and helped me step into my authentic self with confidence. Julie creates an environment that is safe, fun, and supportive, and one that also fosters lasting friendships as we laugh, learn, connect, and share.”
Linda C – Goodness by Me
While I’d taken workshops before, the group sessions Julie taught at United Airlines are what hooked me for life. Julie’s approach is so much deeper than the content itself. Each session is built around a theme that connects to how we exist in the world around us. Two decades later, I still have friends from those sessions Julie taught in the basement of HQ, and I still consider Julie my teacher despite a continent and an ocean between us.”
Sheila L – United Airlines
Ways to Work With Me
Every engagement starts with a conversation about what your people actually need.
The best work happens when we design something together that fits your culture and what you’re trying to build.
What follows are some examples of work I’ve brought to organisations and teams.
It's Not the Load, It's How You Carry It
Keynote
A keynote for teams navigating disruption, uncertainty, and the moments that test everything. Honest, human, and grounded in lived experience, this talk gives audiences a different relationship to difficulty and a genuine sense of their own capacity. Suitable for conferences, leadership summits, and company events.
Better Together
Team building • Two hours
A session designed to do one thing: bring your people together. Through experiential exercises, facilitated conversation and a healthy dose of laughter, this creates the conditions for genuine connection. People leave energised, more connected, and genuinely glad to be in each other’s company.
Better Together - Vision & Direction
Half or Full- Day
Everything Better Together delivers, with more time and more depth. Beginning with gentle movement and breathwork to release tension and create openness, moving through facilitated conversation and a vision-casting component that helps your team get clear on where they are, where they want to go, and what it will take to get there. Teams leave connected, settled, and with a shared vision for the future.
Love Your Busy Brain
Meditation • Three hours
Most people think they can’t meditate because they can’t quiet their mind. What they don’t know is that the “quiet your mind” technique was designed for monks who had left ordinary life behind. Your people haven’t. This session teaches meditation that honours the busy brain rather than fighting it. People leave with enjoyable techniques they can use every day.
Corporate Retreats
Day, Weekend, or International
Sometimes the most productive thing a team can do is step away entirely. I design and facilitate bespoke corporate retreats tailored to your team’s goals, from a single day at a stunning venue minutes from Brisbane, to a weekend in the hinterland, to an international retreat somewhere exciting.
Every element, the facilitation, the space, the meals, the bodywork, is curated to create the conditions for real rest, genuine connection, and clarity that lasts well after we say goodbye.
