About Me

First of all, let it be said that I’m not crazy about “About” pages. I mean, truly? Can someone really know me (in my bestselling author persona or as a former corporate executive or as a former cancer patient or just as a human being) from a few paragraphs on my very public web page? 

My guess is suspect at best. 

We are so much more than a few characters on a page.

But the About is the first page I go, too, when I get intrigued by someone’s blog post or their book or their latest 160-characters, which means I guess I have to indulge you, doesn’t it? Well…okay.

For those of you that just want to get to the meat of my past corporate career (and now my consulting) - click here for marketing services and here for my LinkedIn profile. 

For those of you that want a story, read on.

Perhaps you’ve already guessed this part: I hate convention. It may not look like it from the outside with the calm, put-together demeanor I put forward to the world, but inside, I’m often fighting a manic tug-o-war between my three-year-old and my 17-year old selves. Neither of whom have any interest in doing anything that anyone else has ever told them to do! 

Other notes of interest about Yours Truly.

I grew up in the South – Arkansas, specifically – in a conservative Religious Right home smack in the middle of a small town. And though I am not particularly religious these days, most of the time I do think I’m right. 

Two of the things that have served me best in this lifetime from my upper-middle-class upbringing were the development of a die-hard work ethic (because no one else was going to do it for you!), and a nose like a greyhound for sniffing out ill-placed participles in everything I read.

 The latter is the fortunate product of my father’s obsession with drilling his bevy of stair-stepped children on the necessity of impeccable grammar in between bites of homemade granola and yogurt at the breakfast table. (Because make note, no member of the Murphy clan would ever be caught talking with their mouth full!).

I dropped out of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville at 20 to “find myself” during which time I moved to Colorado. Most of what I cultivated during my time off, of course, was an astute interest in the finer aspects of the male species, which led to a string of broken hearts and one broken engagement. Ultimately, I came to and determined that true upward mobility was something I had to do myself and that required a college degree (at least at that point). I completed my undergrad studies with little fanfare at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Twenty-three years were spent climbing or chasing the corporate ladder as a marketing something or other. I was fortunate to learn from a number of (well-placed) mentors over the years to whom I continue to be eternally grateful. 

My specialty became marketing places including some of the largest real estate projects in the U.S. and abroad for a number of years which led to some fantastic experiences, a ton of wisdom (as much on what not to do) and my best-selling memoir, Dream Job: Shattering the Glass Ceiling Comes at a Price. 

Since turning 40, I traversed a lengthy mid-life crisis which led to an entirely new set of personal values for me:  Love, Abundance, and Freedom. So poignant was this transition that I had these inscribed in permanent ink on the inside of my wrist in Chinese symbols.

In 2018 came the biggest hurdle no woman ever wants to encounter: stage four metastatic breast cancer. I tried alternative treatments before I surrendered to Western medicine's chemotherapy and a new clinical trial drug, the mixture of which brought me to death's door twice. However, in November 2018, I was declared - by the grace of God - cancer-free. 

This entire experience burned my life as I had known it before to the proverbial ground. Yet as painful as those darkest of days were, I re-emerged with a new heart and a new perspective: older, wise, healthier and with a passion for giving. 

While that initial "get out of cancer jail free" card had a shorter timeline than I'd expected and I received news of "recurrence" in late 2019, it is with the utmost gratitude that I now bring my story to the world. I believe the reason I am alive today is to share with other women who are traversing their darkest days (often: cancer) and impact their lives in the form of hope and healing via what I have learned.

Important to note - and celebrate with me - I continue to be cancer-free to this day!

I launched several new videos specifically for women with breast cancer in early 2020. Take a look at those here, entitled The Waiting Room. 

If you wish to keep up to date on the Facebook Lives I do on Living Life Out Loud after Breast Cancer, for women with cancer (and anyone touched by cancer), please follow me at this link.

Want to send me a comment, quote, thought or inquiry? Lovely. Click here.

With so much love and gratitude for your interest - in my books, in my writing, in my blogging, my speaking, my consulting, in my health. Thank you.

JuliAnne