Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya Jules.
Maya, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My story begins well before I even knew I’d have a story to tell. It was my freshman year of college in Oregon, and the seasonal depression hit hard. I never knew what depression felt like before this. I was going through a lot at the time, so it didn’t seem entirely random. I figured I just needed time and sunshine. But a lot of time passed and sunshine came and I still couldn’t pull it together.
I started working with a therapist and approaching my mental health from other angles, but to no avail. My state became chronic and nothing would help, so I took antidepressants for a whirl. I tried five different antidepressants, bipolar medication and three different anti-insomnia drugs. Nothing worked. I felt completely hopeless and suicidal, but I persisted. Despite feeling like shit, my career was going great. I was working in the music industry and had a very “cool” external life.
One day, on my way home from work, I stumbled upon a holistic fitness center and, after some thought, decided to join. At the center, they really took the time to get to know me and approached health in a way I hadn’t experienced before. They offered personal training, nutrition coaching, some blood testing, massage therapy and more. They made some suggestions based on my reported symptoms and I started changing my diet and taking supplements.
This later led me to seek additional help from a naturopathic doctor, who quickly determined what was going on with me. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s – an autoimmune thyroid condition, which often comes with depression and many other less than fortunate symptoms. This was both a tragedy and a relief and completely turned my life upside down (or right-side up, in retrospect). From there, I changed my diet, even more, started a new supplement protocol, got the right medication and began to adopt a totally new lifestyle.
I started spending every free moment I had researching and learning about Hashimoto’s, holistic nutrition, biohacking, and general wellness. This created a lot of confusion for me and my auspicious career in music, but eventually, the scream to pursue a career in health and wellness got louder and louder. I had no idea what that might look like, but I decided to enroll in a nutrition certification program, quit my job and go on a vision quest. This involved travel, retreats, working with healers, recipe development and doing a lot of self-experimentation.
Long story short, what resulted was a vision to help people heal from mental health and autoimmune issues through diet and lifestyle changes, as well as live experiences. With my nutrition and wellness knowledge, ten years of experience in event production and a true love for connection and bringing people together, I started a wellness concierge practice and a transformational events agency.
I now have the amazing opportunity to work with people 1:1 and in groups through local and international events and retreats. I’m happy to report that I’m no longer depressed, my Hashimoto’s is in remission, and I’m living a super dreamy life. I am 100% committed to spreading the truth about nutrition and our health care system and helping guide people through their own life transformations.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth couldn’t be further from actuality. It was like climbing the Himalayas in flip-flops. There were so many times I absolutely wanted to give up, but once I started to get answers and worked on changing my mindset, things definitely shifted. Being an extremely impatient person, it was tough to face the fact that the journeys of both healing and entrepreneurship are not linear.
On the health side of things, I experienced some crazy doctors and intensive protocols, hair loss, weight gain and being misunderstood by many people in my life. The business side is just an absolute whirlwind, which is not ideal for a perfectionist who likes to be in control. But I have a mission and a purpose, and I can’t imagine not doing this work.
Please tell us about your Wellness Concierge practice and Transform Agency.
My practice is based on providing personalized nutrition and lifestyle consulting on demand. My clients are able to reach out to me whenever they have a question, are going through something challenging with their health, or are looking for inspiration and motivation on their wellness voyage. I spend a lot of time with my clients to understand as much as I can about their health story from birth to the present moment.
Then, they have unlimited messaging access to me and the option to add on sessions and other services, as needed. I love that I can help my clients on the go as they live their day-to-day lives. I’ll often get messages from the grocery store where people are trying to make healthy shopping decisions and brainstorm recipes for the coming week. When people are feeling down, sick, tired, etc. they don’t want to wait to feel better.
They want answers and support asap, and I love being able to offer that, unconfined to hour-long sessions every other week or so. This allows me to really connect with my clients and watch them improve their lives quickly. I recently worked with an amazing woman who completely changed her diet, picked up a meditation practice, kicked her depression to the curb, quit her job and decided to travel to the other side of the world all in just three short weeks!
I also started a transformational events agency called Transform Agency to fulfill on my love of bringing people together for a purpose. I’m one of those “connector” humans who love to be surrounded by interesting people and introduce everyone I know to each other. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve worked in events for ten years and it continues to bring me so much joy. When my health crisis went down and I turned my life around, I wanted to produce events within the wellness space, since experiences like this had created huge successes for me on my healing quest.
I plan local and international events and retreats, partnering with amazing teachers and traveling the world. I am now working with Revamp Retreats to take retreats to the next level. It’s such a privilege to do this work because we get to watch people change their inner and outer worlds and get exposed to people, places and things that can truly improve their lives.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
On one end, there are tons of things I wish I could have done better or differently, but I’m honestly so grateful for the process and the mistakes I’ve made that have encouraged my growth. I’m a student for life and I know things will keep getting better and better from here. There will always be challenges, but I’m pretty confident there’s a greater plan in place and the universe is looking out 😉
Contact Info:
- Website: mayajules.co
- Email: hi@mayajules.co
- Instagram: @my.oh.maya
Image Credit:
Tory Putnam
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