What if God never left—even when you did?
In this raw and redemptive episode, I sit down with Julie Chenell, co-founder of Funnel Gorgeous, to talk about the real story behind the funnels, the faith, and the fire.
We go far beyond business into the depths of postpartum depression, divorce, church trauma, spiritual deconstruction, and how God pursued Julie even when she walked away. From building a multi-million-dollar business in survival mode to rebuilding her spiritual foundation through logic, AI, and grace—this conversation is everything.
If you’ve ever wrestled with whether your story is still usable… you need this episode.
💡 For the Listener Who’s...
- A Christian creator feeling stuck between calling and chaos
- Deconstructing faith, rebuilding hope, and craving something real
- Trying to lead, build, or parent while healing quietly behind the scenes
- Wondering if their past disqualifies their purpose
This is your permission to be in process—and still be powerful.
🔍 Topics We Explore:
- The pressure of building a business during trauma
- Why Julie refused alimony and support—and what God did instead
- When success and spiritual disconnection collide
- How AI helped Julie rediscover Jesus (seriously)
- Breaking cycles of people-pleasing and burnout
- Reconciling faith with intellect and healing
- Why shame doesn’t get the last word in your story
📌 Resources Mentioned:
📺 Watch the Visual Episode on YouTube
Catch this episode in full video format, plus bonus content and upcoming tutorials like:
🧠 How to Use ChatGPT for Deep Bible Study
🎥 YouTube Channel – Lead With Jim
🙏 Support the Show
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
- Share this episode with a friend
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- Join our newsletter → www.leadwithjim.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity,
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
(00:21):
have to.
Let's get into it.
Welcome to the show and todayI have a person I've been connected
to for a while now, since Ithink we first met in 2018 at funnel
hackers Live.
Julie, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Happy to be here.
So if you'll do the next 60 to90 seconds and just let people know
who you are and what you do.
Yeah.
So I'm a business coach andalso the co founder of Funnel Gorgeous,
(00:45):
which is a marketing educationand software company for creative
bootstrapping entrepreneurswho need both the education and the
tech to get them where theyneed to go.
I do.
So I run that company.
I'm also a private businesscoach, a webinar expert, and just
dabble in all things online marketing.
So to, to get this kicked off,because I think in this conversation
(01:07):
I want to go three different places.
First and foremost, I want toknow your rise.
Because Funnel Gorgeous is anincredible suite.
It's an incredible thing that,that has been developed.
I want to go to your faithbecause this is a Christian based
podcast.
So I do want to connect to that.
And then I want to go and howthis all your life all kind of goes
together to create the successthat you have through the ups and
(01:28):
downs and all that stuff.
With that being said, let mestart with this.
Where was the brainchild forFunnel Gorgeous and you even getting
into Funnels in general?
Like, where did that come from?
Yeah, I actually fell intoalmost all of my success accidentally.
There was no like grand plan,business plan or anything like that.
(01:50):
I was born out of crisis, outof failure, all that good stuff.
So I was a writer and ablogger because I was struggling
with very severe postpartumdepression after the birth of my
third child.
She was really sick.
I had three children, threeand under, stay at home mom, losing
my mind, trying to just stayabove board.
So I took to the Internet towrite and I found out that I was
(02:14):
good at this and I started toamass an audience and that was like
my very first, like toedipping into, oh, wow, there's this
whole world where I canconnect with people and when you
run a blog, you invariablyhave to learn tech.
So I started to learn allabout WordPress and how WordPress
works.
And so I was gathering thetech skills, so I had to copy and
(02:35):
I had tech.
And then somewhere in 2015,after I got divorced, I had another
big financial crisis.
I was like, man, I gottafigure this out.
I stumbled upon RussellBrunson, who had his Facebook ads
with his whiteboard, and he'sscribbling and he's talking about
funnels.
And I quickly realized thatthe skill of copy and tech and design,
(02:58):
which is what I was doing withblogs, could easily be translated
onto a funnel.
And I was like, man, peopleare making lots of money with these
things.
So that's how I fell into it.
I started building funnels forother people and charging ridiculous
amounts of money, like tinyamounts of money.
People I was charging 5,000,people were making 300,000.
And I one day I thought, Ireally, I need to build this funnel
(03:21):
for myself.
Like, what could I sell that Icould build a funnel for?
And so that was really whenthe switch flipped and I went from
grinding it out as a serviceprovider, as a funnel builder, and
I became this creator, coursecreator, and I went from 10k months
to 100k months in about 90 days.
Wow, that's.
That's incredible.
(03:41):
And so far the story is like, really?
Wow.
And what really stuck out tome, what I want to hit for a second,
you were dealing withpostpartum and your natural progression
of thought was, I'm going towrite now, were you starting to write
as a way to just get.
Navigate your thoughts, yourfeelings, or was it the entrepreneurial,
I'm going to be a writer to dosomething with it.
(04:02):
Unpack that a little bit for me?
Yeah, no, I was writing justpurely for survival.
I was writing about my children.
I was writing about myexperience as a mother.
I was writing about my faith.
I was not writing to monetize anything.
Now when my youngest at thetime went to kindergarten, I knew
that I had to start doingsomething to make some money.
(04:23):
I was always doing side gigs,teaching piano lessons, helping people
with their computers, stufflike that.
I thought, my blog is doing well.
I wonder if I can get someads, some Google Ads on my blog.
And then I was like, I wonderif I could write SEO articles on
Odesk or, or Text Broker orthose kinds of things.
And so I, I started, Icontinued to write on my blog just
(04:46):
for the sake of writing, andthen I used my writing skills.
And there was a time therewhere I was writing 500 word articles
for $25 an article and I waswriting like 20 of them a week for
optimized for SEO keywords.
And I was like, look, I.
I made the grocery budget.
So then what point did yousay, I'm worth more than this?
(05:07):
It was again, failure becauseI got divorced in 2014.
And so the years that I waswriting as a blogger from 272007
to 2014 is about seven years.
I was just making side hustlemoney, vacation money.
And when we got divorced in2014, I did not want to saddle my
(05:27):
ex husband with the financialheaviness of a divorce.
So I waived my right toalimony, I waived my right to child
support.
And I said, I just need you totake care of the kids during the
week and give me a year andI'm going to figure this out.
And so it was in that yearthat I, my three kids were with him
during the week, with me onthe weekends, and I began building
(05:52):
a business.
And it was that fire, thatpressure of I've got to be able to
make it so that I can not justmake money for me to live, but I
can make enough money that Ican have my kids in my home.
Because I had to move out of areally nice town and I moved into
an apartment in the armpit ofConnecticut and had to take a major
(06:13):
step down in status.
But I didn't, it didn't makesense to me to have my ex husband
pay alimony and child support.
It would have financiallywrecked him.
He wouldn't have been able to live.
And so I remember, I'll neverforget, the judge took his glasses
off and I was standing beforehim, he's, are you sure you want
to do this?
I was like, yes.
And so I did.
And I think ultimately Godhonored it and I became far wealthier
(06:39):
by doing it myself than askingmy husband, who couldn't afford it,
to support me.
So at what point, like, whatkept you going?
Was it just the fire of I haveto get this done versus because you're
in the middle of a divorce orpost divorce, you have the three
kids, you had the post apartum depression.
Like all of these things were stacking.
(07:00):
Like, what kept you going?
I also got pregnant.
Oh, wow.
So, yeah, even more to themidst of all of this.
Yeah, it was a really, it wasa really stressful time.
Like, I look back, I'm like,I'm not really sure how I did it.
I got pregnant right as I wasgetting divorced and it was a very
big failure on my part.
(07:21):
Although I have a little boythat I love dearly, so it's hard
to call it a failure, but.
Right.
Yeah, I Got pregnant.
And so I had two things going on.
I had a new baby that wascoming that I absolutely could not
figure out how I was going towork, support that child in daycare.
(07:43):
I had to have a work from home job.
My three older kids, I wasn'ttaken care of full time.
And to go from being a stay athome mom to seeing your kids on the
weekend was traumatic at alevel that is really hard to describe.
And I think I was just insurvival mode.
But I remember crying everySunday night when they would go back
to be with their dad.
(08:03):
And I was living in this notsafe part of town and I was pregnant
and I felt like a failurebecause it was my fault that I was
pregnant.
Like it was not fully, butalmost fully my fault.
And I felt like I had failedthe marriage and I was watching it
all come crashing down.
And the only thing I knew todo was just to put my head down and
(08:26):
work as hard and as fast as I could.
And I think that crisis andpressure creates an environment for
growth that success never will.
And it was a unique period oftime in my life.
Yeah, that's an incrediblestory so far.
And I know you're, you have somuch more to the levels to this story.
And so here's what comes up tomy mind because you being in a highly
(08:48):
successful entrepreneur andthis podcast being for entrepreneurs,
like, how did you navigate.
So you're in survival mode.
How did you navigate this?
Trying not to burn out withall of this and trying not to live
in a place of just absolutedesperation while still trying to
build abundance.
Like how was the balance ofthat for you?
(09:09):
It was completely unbalanced.
Yeah.
I would say for the ninemonths of my pregnancy, I.
And I was pregnant by, withsomebody else.
It was not a, it was not anice scene.
What happened?
I had just figured finalizedthat we were going to get divorced.
I Tinder had just become anapp in 2014 and one of my girlfriends
(09:32):
said, oh, you should downloadit now.
I grew up in a Christian home,I married my high school sweetheart
and I was with one person myentire life now.
I was 34 years old, it was 16years later and someone's downloading
this app.
How bad could it be?
Completely like oblivious as a34 year old woman entering the dating
scene.
And I got myself in a stickysituation and I got pregnant and
(09:55):
I panicked a little bit.
Okay.
Because I didn't want to havean abortion.
And I also didn't really feel qualified.
So I decided to get a job at acollege for the pregnancy just for
the health insurance.
And so I would wake up, Iwould go to work, I would come home,
I'd take like a two hour napand then I'd wake up around 5pm and
(10:17):
I'd work 5pm to 11pm on my business.
And I held both of those jobs,both my freelance job and my college
job for nine months.
Nearly killed myself doing itbecause I was pregnant.
And but once the baby wasborn, that's when I decided that
I was gonna just go all in onmy business.
(10:39):
But had I not done that for ayear, like double dipping, I don't
know that I would have beenable to pull it off.
So it was like a short periodof time of just nose down, working
80 hours a week because Ididn't have my kids during the week.
And so I thought, I'm justgonna make money as fast as I can.
So during this time too nowyou're, you're going through all
of this, you're doubledipping, you're pregnant, you've
(11:01):
got like this massive amountof things happening all at once.
And if I'm, if I read thearticle, like I read, been following
you for a long time.
I read your articles, I readyour blogs, I listen to your podcast.
And I think it said some, oneof the articles said in like 2014,
which is about this time youstarted deconstructing in your faith.
Yes.
So now you have all of this,the chaos and the crazy, and now
(11:26):
you're deconstructing faith.
So walk me through some of that.
Yeah.
So the deconstruction actuallyhappened, started to happen a little
bit before I got divorced.
I think that my divorce and myfaith deconstruction were kind of
symptoms of the same problem.
Like I had grown up in this environment.
(11:47):
I was in a church, I was apastor, I was a youth leader, I was
a worship leader.
I had a really pretty big fallfrom grace when I turned 30 just
to terrible adoptive reunionwith my biological father that went
really dark.
The church was not verysupportive of me during that time.
My husband and I, that was oneof the main reasons we ended up getting
(12:08):
divorced was because of all of that.
And I just felt alone.
And so we left the church in2013, actually got kicked out.
And then when I got divorced,all of my friends, my church friends,
my Bible study group, like, itjust all dissolved.
And so I would say for from2014 to like maybe 20, I don't know,
(12:31):
16, 2017, somewhere in there,I wasn't actively deconstructing,
but I was Not.
I didn't want anything to dowith church.
I still listened to worship music.
I stopped praying.
But what happened?
I continued to drift and Ifelt less and less connected to Christians
and church.
And then as soon as, like, thepolitical climate started to change
(12:52):
and I really didn't relate toDonald Trump and, like, the Christian
M.O.
then I started deconstructingeven further.
I'm like.
And then I went.
And that's when theexistential dread.
I was also neck deep in asecond marriage that was abusive.
And so that's when, like,every, like all the wheels fell off
the train.
(13:13):
And it was terrifying.
And I wouldn't wish it on myworst enemy.
So then.
So second marriage is nowyou're deconstructing, you're leaving
the childhood version of your faith?
Because I do want to makemention and honor you.
Because the faith I see comingfrom you now is very rich and it's
very deep in what.
Because even watching awebinar, how you set your chat GPT
(13:34):
up according to your Biblestudy, I actually set mine up the
same way.
I was like, that is brilliant.
So, like, I am.
I see the transitions.
You're.
You're now deconstructed.
Walking away a lot of hurtfrom the church.
This stuff.
Second marriage, it still justblows my mind.
You still kept going, what wasthat inside?
(13:55):
Like, you just have this I'mnever going to give up thing.
Love it.
Yeah, I think.
I think I'm a firstborndaughter, so I have a very strong
sense of responsibility.
Like, I just gotta keep going.
My kids used to watch Thomasthe Tank Engine.
I was a really useful engine.
Just I think some of myidentity is built on, like, being
useful.
And I had now four children.
(14:16):
I felt like I couldn't dependon anybody.
And so it's funny that the 12years that I was basically in the
wilderness with God alsohappened to be the 12 years when
I saw extraordinary financial success.
And that's weird to me.
And I haven't really unpackedthat, like, on my blog yet.
(14:38):
I plan to, but I wasfinancially getting richer and spiritually
getting debtor and debtor inthose 12 years.
And yet God used and is usingmy financial wealth for good.
But I think it was just, I hadto keep going because I had so many
(14:59):
freaking kids that needed me.
I think that was really thedrive that was pushing me was just
get a house.
And then in 2017, I got a house.
And then it's okay.
Now you got to get the college fund.
Because I was broke as a young Mom.
Like, my husband and I at thetime, we didn't have any money.
Get the college fund.
Okay.
Got the college fund.
Okay, now.
Stack cash.
Okay, now.
And I just.
I just kept going.
(15:20):
Like, it was like my enginedidn't know how to stop.
So then what does, like,emotional care or mental health care
for you look like?
Because that takes a toll.
And it did.
And it all eventually caughtup to me.
And I proceeded to have someof the darkest mental, emotional
years of my life.
(15:40):
It was like I didn't learn my lesson.
And I went around the mountainagain in 2014 when all of that kind
of fell apart and my life fellapart and all of that.
Instead of getting healed andturning towards God and asking him,
I, like, dug myself a bigger hole.
And it was all this, like,crisis and survival instinct that
(16:02):
kicked in.
And so it all came crashingdown a second time in 2022 when I
realized that if I did not getout of this marriage that was toxic
from day one, I was going to die.
And that was.
And I had so much existentialdread and burnout and fatigue.
(16:23):
And I would say it wasprobably two and a half years.
It's been the last six monthsthat I feel like I'm finally on solid
ground again.
It was about two and a halfyears of just darkness and a lot
of wrestling.
So then this brings up aquestion, because I want to honor
your journey, because yourjourney is incredible.
Like, my gosh, I'm like, I'mdefinitely just inspired by what
(16:46):
you've been through, whatyou're going through to build what
you've been building.
So then I asked the question,because now you're at a good place.
What patterns did you see werethe most prevalent that you had a
break to get to where you are today?
Yes, a lot that I'm still breaking.
I think people pleasing was areally big problem for me.
(17:07):
So that is something that I'vehad to break this addiction to, being
useful at the expense of mymental health.
I had to break boundaries.
I had to learn boundaries.
And I also had a tremendouslack of self trust, which is ironic
to say, because lots of peopletrust me, but I was not trusting
(17:28):
myself.
And some of that was due tothe abuse that I was going through.
And so I had to break all ofthose patterns.
And I also had to reconcilewith the existential dread.
Like, I was fighting so hardwith that dread about the afterlife
and God, and it wasterrorizing me.
I was in therapy.
(17:49):
I was like, this is.
I can't sleep.
This is frightening me.
And yeah, and so that it justhad to stop.
I had to stop and I had todeal with it.
So then this brings up twoquestions, one for the benefit of.
My wife listens to my podcast,which is great.
So at least I know I have one listener.
And my wife deals with some ofthat, the existential dread and things
(18:09):
like that, because she grew upin an abusive house and just different
things.
What was one thing you saidthat you did that really helped you
through some of that?
Yeah, I.
So I don't think that I everstopped believing that there was
a God.
So I think if that issomeone's issue, I'd have to sit
(18:32):
with that because I thinkthat, I think part of the existential
dread was that I knew thatthere was a higher creative power
and I felt so unworthy.
That's where my existentialdread was coming from.
And I, I just, I was worriedthat like I had believed something
about who Jesus was thatwasn't true.
(18:53):
So for me, it was acombination of prayer.
There were several instanceswhere people came to me and said,
God put you on my heart.
So it felt like these kind ofweird God moments where they were
popping into my life and Ididn't ask for it.
And then it was logic, becauseI had so much of my young faith,
(19:19):
my intellect and my logicweren't really valued in the church.
It was faith based.
And I remember when miracleswouldn't happen and I'd be like,
I'd be asking hard questionsand people didn't like those hard
questions.
And so I actually startedusing AI to, to ask all these logical
questions about theresurrection and about who Jesus
(19:39):
said he was.
Inerrancy of Scripture and.
And I decided to basically askit to give me a report on why Jesus
is the Messiah and then giveme a report on why he's not.
And I was so afraid to do thisbecause I thought I'm in such a fragile
place if I read this couldjust hit me right over the edge.
And it was through thiswrestling that I did this.
(20:00):
And I came to the conclusionthat the only truly logical answer
for all of this is that Jesusdid in fact rise from the dead.
And I told people, I said, Idon't care.
Any other theology, I don'tknow, I haven't figured out yet because
I deconstructed everything.
But what I do know is Jesusrose from the dead.
And so I'm going to startthere and that is going to be my
(20:22):
bullseye.
And then I'm going to.
And then I'm Going to balloonout from there.
And as soon as I said that andspoke that, it was like, it was crazy
what happened to me next,because then it was like scripture
was popping off the page.
I had been reading about Judaism.
I started having these crazydreams, like, more weird God moments.
(20:43):
It was just.
It was unbelievable.
I can definitely say even inscripture, Paul talks a lot about
saying, hey, all I want to dois talk about Christ and him crucified,
you know, and resurrect it.
And I think we need to getback to that.
So I really am very connectedto that message and your comments
about the intellectualism.
I faced some of that recentlywhere we actually had to leave the
(21:04):
church.
I was shunned because my momand my sister were dying of cancer
six months apart.
And I was trying to reallywork through this.
And I had a couple of thechurch prophets or Violet went to
a little bit more of acharismatic church, say actually
to me and shame me for it.
Why do you have tointellectualize everything?
And I was like, that's notwhat I'm doing.
I'm trying to literally try tofigure this out.
(21:26):
And it's a logical basis herewith an emotional component.
And so we ended up leavingthat particular church because of
that.
So my heart does go out forthat, because I think we devalue
intellect, and I think we needto value it more.
This comes back now, comingfull circle.
How did you define successpreviously versus how did you define
the success now?
(21:47):
Yeah, it's really easy formultimillionaire Julie to look back
and be like, that version ofsuccess that you had over there wasn't
the real version.
And this version of you thatcan read your Bible every morning
and take long walks and stuffis the version of success.
I've learned not to do that to myself.
Okay.
I think that I don't ever wantto go back to the 2014 Julie because
(22:12):
it was really painful.
And I think for her successwas, is there a roof over my head
for my kids?
Do I have my college fund?
All of those things.
And I think those things weregood and needed, and God used them,
and he was clearly with me theentire time.
The version of success that Icarry today is far different because
(22:32):
having gone through thedeconstruction, I will happily trade
everything.
As long as I do not have tofeel the terror of not knowing what
this life is about or whereI'm going, I would trade everything
for it.
And as long as I hold ontothat confidence, like I can face
anything, it doesn't matter.
(22:53):
I Love that.
So then what comes next for you?
What's on the horizon for Julie?
Yeah, so funny.
I'm looking over my whiteboardbecause I was trying to do this exercise
on asking people for help andI was reading a book and she says,
people can't help you if youdon't know what to ask for.
And I was like, what is itthat I want?
What is it that I need?
And the only things on mywhiteboard now have to do with animals
(23:14):
and garden projects.
I.
I have a large community thatI nurture and steward and I can and
I plan to continue to do that.
Obviously the funnel gorgeouscommunity is near and dear to my
heart.
I don't know what my next step is.
I am just taking it one day ata time.
I feel very content in myprofessional work.
I have a lot of spiritualcatching up to do that I'm looking
(23:37):
forward to doing.
I think there might besomething God wants me to do, but
I don't know what it lookslike yet.
And so I'm just waiting and that's.
A beautiful place to be.
So as we learn, land thisplane of this episode, what we spoke
about doing the wisdom bomband my.
And for you guys who are thelisteners full well that I do a wisdom
bomb every episode where wejust say a portable truth that somebody
(23:59):
can say put there in theirback pocket and take it with them.
So what would be a wisdom bombthat you would give to the audience
listening?
Yeah, I always want to ask aquestion in response.
Who listens?
Where are.
Where is your audience today?
Because I have a lot of thingsI could share, but so my audience.
Are Christian, basicallymulti, passionate Christian creatives
in the entrepreneur space.
(24:20):
And they're in the beginningstages of their journey is who I
really want to reach and helpthem get past the hurdles and get
past the uncertainty and theindecisions and stuff, find their
faith and build what God's putin their life.
I think what is really evidentin my story is, is that God had me
(24:42):
the entire time.
And I can look at all theyears, whether I was had my face
towards him or I didn't.
And he had me.
And he can win with a pair of twos.
Like anything that comes intoyour life that is hard or bad or
(25:03):
a result of sin or failure.
He can 100% use for his glory.
So much so that you mightstart to think, did God cause that
because of how much he usesthose things?
And I can think about some ofthe worst sin that I have done.
He has used to draw me back to himself.
(25:24):
And you could look at it andgo, gosh, did God sponsor that?
That sin?
No, of course not.
But that's how good he is at redemption.
And I have no sense that Ihave done any of this, that he has
done all of it through me andhas taken my failures.
And so that is a deepencouragement to me because it means
(25:45):
that we cannot be snatchedfrom his hand, no matter how dark
it gets.
That is.
That's beautiful.
We can't be snatched.
That's good.
That should be a T shirt.
That's.
I love that.
And he wins with a pair of twos.
That's.
Thank you for that.
So with that all being said,how do we find you?
If somebody wants to connect,you can.
Yeah, you can find me@funnelgorgeous.com.
that is the marketing andeducation company.
(26:07):
You can head over to mywebsite@julieschannel.com that has
all my coaching and stuff.
Or you can come find me on mypodcast called Million Dollar Grit.
And for you, the listener,thank you so much for listening and
getting this far in the episode.
We will have every bit of thatin the show notes to make it easier
for you to just click and headon over there.
And I highly do encourage andrecommend that you do connect with
(26:28):
Julie.
And, Julie, thank you so muchfor this episode, having this conversation,
it's been very rich, and Ireally, deeply appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Thanks for having me.
(28:08):
Sa.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity,
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgoon,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
(00:21):
have to.
Let's get into it.
Welcome to the show and todayI have a person I've been connected
to for a while now, since Ithink we first met in 2018 at funnel
hackers Live.
Julie, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
Happy to be here.
So if you'll do the next 60 to90 seconds and just let people know
who you are and what you do.
Yeah.
So I'm a business coach andalso the co founder of Funnel Gorgeous,
(00:45):
which is a marketing educationand software company for creative
bootstrapping entrepreneurswho need both the education and the
tech to get them where theyneed to go.
I do.
So I run that company.
I'm also a private businesscoach, a webinar expert, and just
dabble in all things online marketing.
So to, to get this kicked off,because I think in this conversation
(01:07):
I want to go three different places.
First and foremost, I want toknow your rise.
Because Funnel Gorgeous is anincredible suite.
It's an incredible thing that,that has been developed.
I want to go to your faithbecause this is a Christian based
podcast.
So I do want to connect to that.
And then I want to go and howthis all your life all kind of goes
together to create the successthat you have through the ups and
(01:28):
downs and all that stuff.
With that being said, let mestart with this.
Where was the brainchild forFunnel Gorgeous and you even getting
into Funnels in general?
Like, where did that come from?
Yeah, I actually fell intoalmost all of my success accidentally.
There was no like grand plan,business plan or anything like that.
(01:50):
I was born out of crisis, outof failure, all that good stuff.
So I was a writer and ablogger because I was struggling
with very severe postpartumdepression after the birth of my
third child.
She was really sick.
I had three children, threeand under, stay at home mom, losing
my mind, trying to just stayabove board.
So I took to the Internet towrite and I found out that I was
(02:14):
good at this and I started toamass an audience and that was like
my very first, like toedipping into, oh, wow, there's this
whole world where I canconnect with people and when you
run a blog, you invariablyhave to learn tech.
So I started to learn allabout WordPress and how WordPress
works.
And so I was gathering thetech skills, so I had to copy and
(02:35):
I had tech.
And then somewhere in 2015,after I got divorced, I had another
big financial crisis.
I was like, man, I gottafigure this out.
I stumbled upon RussellBrunson, who had his Facebook ads
with his whiteboard, and he'sscribbling and he's talking about
funnels.
And I quickly realized thatthe skill of copy and tech and design,
(02:58):
which is what I was doing withblogs, could easily be translated
onto a funnel.
And I was like, man, peopleare making lots of money with these
things.
So that's how I fell into it.
I started building funnels forother people and charging ridiculous
amounts of money, like tinyamounts of money.
People I was charging 5,000,people were making 300,000.
And I one day I thought, Ireally, I need to build this funnel
(03:21):
for myself.
Like, what could I sell that Icould build a funnel for?
And so that was really whenthe switch flipped and I went from
grinding it out as a serviceprovider, as a funnel builder, and
I became this creator, coursecreator, and I went from 10k months
to 100k months in about 90 days.
Wow, that's.
That's incredible.
(03:41):
And so far the story is like, really?
Wow.
And what really stuck out tome, what I want to hit for a second,
you were dealing withpostpartum and your natural progression
of thought was, I'm going towrite now, were you starting to write
as a way to just get.
Navigate your thoughts, yourfeelings, or was it the entrepreneurial,
I'm going to be a writer to dosomething with it.
(04:02):
Unpack that a little bit for me?
Yeah, no, I was writing justpurely for survival.
I was writing about my children.
I was writing about myexperience as a mother.
I was writing about my faith.
I was not writing to monetize anything.
Now when my youngest at thetime went to kindergarten, I knew
that I had to start doingsomething to make some money.
(04:23):
I was always doing side gigs,teaching piano lessons, helping people
with their computers, stufflike that.
I thought, my blog is doing well.
I wonder if I can get someads, some Google Ads on my blog.
And then I was like, I wonderif I could write SEO articles on
Odesk or, or Text Broker orthose kinds of things.
And so I, I started, Icontinued to write on my blog just
(04:46):
for the sake of writing, andthen I used my writing skills.
And there was a time therewhere I was writing 500 word articles
for $25 an article and I waswriting like 20 of them a week for
optimized for SEO keywords.
And I was like, look, I.
I made the grocery budget.
So then what point did yousay, I'm worth more than this?
(05:07):
It was again, failure becauseI got divorced in 2014.
And so the years that I waswriting as a blogger from 272007
to 2014 is about seven years.
I was just making side hustlemoney, vacation money.
And when we got divorced in2014, I did not want to saddle my
(05:27):
ex husband with the financialheaviness of a divorce.
So I waived my right toalimony, I waived my right to child
support.
And I said, I just need you totake care of the kids during the
week and give me a year andI'm going to figure this out.
And so it was in that yearthat I, my three kids were with him
during the week, with me onthe weekends, and I began building
(05:52):
a business.
And it was that fire, thatpressure of I've got to be able to
make it so that I can not justmake money for me to live, but I
can make enough money that Ican have my kids in my home.
Because I had to move out of areally nice town and I moved into
an apartment in the armpit ofConnecticut and had to take a major
(06:13):
step down in status.
But I didn't, it didn't makesense to me to have my ex husband
pay alimony and child support.
It would have financiallywrecked him.
He wouldn't have been able to live.
And so I remember, I'll neverforget, the judge took his glasses
off and I was standing beforehim, he's, are you sure you want
to do this?
I was like, yes.
And so I did.
And I think ultimately Godhonored it and I became far wealthier
(06:39):
by doing it myself than askingmy husband, who couldn't afford it,
to support me.
So at what point, like, whatkept you going?
Was it just the fire of I haveto get this done versus because you're
in the middle of a divorce orpost divorce, you have the three
kids, you had the post apartum depression.
Like all of these things were stacking.
(07:00):
Like, what kept you going?
I also got pregnant.
Oh, wow.
So, yeah, even more to themidst of all of this.
Yeah, it was a really, it wasa really stressful time.
Like, I look back, I'm like,I'm not really sure how I did it.
I got pregnant right as I wasgetting divorced and it was a very
big failure on my part.
(07:21):
Although I have a little boythat I love dearly, so it's hard
to call it a failure, but.
Right.
Yeah, I Got pregnant.
And so I had two things going on.
I had a new baby that wascoming that I absolutely could not
figure out how I was going towork, support that child in daycare.
(07:43):
I had to have a work from home job.
My three older kids, I wasn'ttaken care of full time.
And to go from being a stay athome mom to seeing your kids on the
weekend was traumatic at alevel that is really hard to describe.
And I think I was just insurvival mode.
But I remember crying everySunday night when they would go back
to be with their dad.
(08:03):
And I was living in this notsafe part of town and I was pregnant
and I felt like a failurebecause it was my fault that I was
pregnant.
Like it was not fully, butalmost fully my fault.
And I felt like I had failedthe marriage and I was watching it
all come crashing down.
And the only thing I knew todo was just to put my head down and
(08:26):
work as hard and as fast as I could.
And I think that crisis andpressure creates an environment for
growth that success never will.
And it was a unique period oftime in my life.
Yeah, that's an incrediblestory so far.
And I know you're, you have somuch more to the levels to this story.
And so here's what comes up tomy mind because you being in a highly
(08:48):
successful entrepreneur andthis podcast being for entrepreneurs,
like, how did you navigate.
So you're in survival mode.
How did you navigate this?
Trying not to burn out withall of this and trying not to live
in a place of just absolutedesperation while still trying to
build abundance.
Like how was the balance ofthat for you?
(09:09):
It was completely unbalanced.
Yeah.
I would say for the ninemonths of my pregnancy, I.
And I was pregnant by, withsomebody else.
It was not a, it was not anice scene.
What happened?
I had just figured finalizedthat we were going to get divorced.
I Tinder had just become anapp in 2014 and one of my girlfriends
(09:32):
said, oh, you should downloadit now.
I grew up in a Christian home,I married my high school sweetheart
and I was with one person myentire life now.
I was 34 years old, it was 16years later and someone's downloading
this app.
How bad could it be?
Completely like oblivious as a34 year old woman entering the dating
scene.
And I got myself in a stickysituation and I got pregnant and
(09:55):
I panicked a little bit.
Okay.
Because I didn't want to havean abortion.
And I also didn't really feel qualified.
So I decided to get a job at acollege for the pregnancy just for
the health insurance.
And so I would wake up, Iwould go to work, I would come home,
I'd take like a two hour napand then I'd wake up around 5pm and
(10:17):
I'd work 5pm to 11pm on my business.
And I held both of those jobs,both my freelance job and my college
job for nine months.
Nearly killed myself doing itbecause I was pregnant.
And but once the baby wasborn, that's when I decided that
I was gonna just go all in onmy business.
(10:39):
But had I not done that for ayear, like double dipping, I don't
know that I would have beenable to pull it off.
So it was like a short periodof time of just nose down, working
80 hours a week because Ididn't have my kids during the week.
And so I thought, I'm justgonna make money as fast as I can.
So during this time too nowyou're, you're going through all
of this, you're doubledipping, you're pregnant, you've
(11:01):
got like this massive amountof things happening all at once.
And if I'm, if I read thearticle, like I read, been following
you for a long time.
I read your articles, I readyour blogs, I listen to your podcast.
And I think it said some, oneof the articles said in like 2014,
which is about this time youstarted deconstructing in your faith.
Yes.
So now you have all of this,the chaos and the crazy, and now
(11:26):
you're deconstructing faith.
So walk me through some of that.
Yeah.
So the deconstruction actuallyhappened, started to happen a little
bit before I got divorced.
I think that my divorce and myfaith deconstruction were kind of
symptoms of the same problem.
Like I had grown up in this environment.
(11:47):
I was in a church, I was apastor, I was a youth leader, I was
a worship leader.
I had a really pretty big fallfrom grace when I turned 30 just
to terrible adoptive reunionwith my biological father that went
really dark.
The church was not verysupportive of me during that time.
My husband and I, that was oneof the main reasons we ended up getting
(12:08):
divorced was because of all of that.
And I just felt alone.
And so we left the church in2013, actually got kicked out.
And then when I got divorced,all of my friends, my church friends,
my Bible study group, like, itjust all dissolved.
And so I would say for from2014 to like maybe 20, I don't know,
(12:31):
16, 2017, somewhere in there,I wasn't actively deconstructing,
but I was Not.
I didn't want anything to dowith church.
I still listened to worship music.
I stopped praying.
But what happened?
I continued to drift and Ifelt less and less connected to Christians
and church.
And then as soon as, like, thepolitical climate started to change
(12:52):
and I really didn't relate toDonald Trump and, like, the Christian
M.O.
then I started deconstructingeven further.
I'm like.
And then I went.
And that's when theexistential dread.
I was also neck deep in asecond marriage that was abusive.
And so that's when, like,every, like all the wheels fell off
the train.
(13:13):
And it was terrifying.
And I wouldn't wish it on myworst enemy.
So then.
So second marriage is nowyou're deconstructing, you're leaving
the childhood version of your faith?
Because I do want to makemention and honor you.
Because the faith I see comingfrom you now is very rich and it's
very deep in what.
Because even watching awebinar, how you set your chat GPT
(13:34):
up according to your Biblestudy, I actually set mine up the
same way.
I was like, that is brilliant.
So, like, I am.
I see the transitions.
You're.
You're now deconstructed.
Walking away a lot of hurtfrom the church.
This stuff.
Second marriage, it still justblows my mind.
You still kept going, what wasthat inside?
(13:55):
Like, you just have this I'mnever going to give up thing.
Love it.
Yeah, I think.
I think I'm a firstborndaughter, so I have a very strong
sense of responsibility.
Like, I just gotta keep going.
My kids used to watch Thomasthe Tank Engine.
I was a really useful engine.
Just I think some of myidentity is built on, like, being
useful.
And I had now four children.
(14:16):
I felt like I couldn't dependon anybody.
And so it's funny that the 12years that I was basically in the
wilderness with God alsohappened to be the 12 years when
I saw extraordinary financial success.
And that's weird to me.
And I haven't really unpackedthat, like, on my blog yet.
(14:38):
I plan to, but I wasfinancially getting richer and spiritually
getting debtor and debtor inthose 12 years.
And yet God used and is usingmy financial wealth for good.
But I think it was just, I hadto keep going because I had so many
(14:59):
freaking kids that needed me.
I think that was really thedrive that was pushing me was just
get a house.
And then in 2017, I got a house.
And then it's okay.
Now you got to get the college fund.
Because I was broke as a young Mom.
Like, my husband and I at thetime, we didn't have any money.
Get the college fund.
Okay.
Got the college fund.
Okay, now.
Stack cash.
Okay, now.
And I just.
I just kept going.
(15:20):
Like, it was like my enginedidn't know how to stop.
So then what does, like,emotional care or mental health care
for you look like?
Because that takes a toll.
And it did.
And it all eventually caughtup to me.
And I proceeded to have someof the darkest mental, emotional
years of my life.
(15:40):
It was like I didn't learn my lesson.
And I went around the mountainagain in 2014 when all of that kind
of fell apart and my life fellapart and all of that.
Instead of getting healed andturning towards God and asking him,
I, like, dug myself a bigger hole.
And it was all this, like,crisis and survival instinct that
(16:02):
kicked in.
And so it all came crashingdown a second time in 2022 when I
realized that if I did not getout of this marriage that was toxic
from day one, I was going to die.
And that was.
And I had so much existentialdread and burnout and fatigue.
(16:23):
And I would say it wasprobably two and a half years.
It's been the last six monthsthat I feel like I'm finally on solid
ground again.
It was about two and a halfyears of just darkness and a lot
of wrestling.
So then this brings up aquestion, because I want to honor
your journey, because yourjourney is incredible.
Like, my gosh, I'm like, I'mdefinitely just inspired by what
(16:46):
you've been through, whatyou're going through to build what
you've been building.
So then I asked the question,because now you're at a good place.
What patterns did you see werethe most prevalent that you had a
break to get to where you are today?
Yes, a lot that I'm still breaking.
I think people pleasing was areally big problem for me.
(17:07):
So that is something that I'vehad to break this addiction to, being
useful at the expense of mymental health.
I had to break boundaries.
I had to learn boundaries.
And I also had a tremendouslack of self trust, which is ironic
to say, because lots of peopletrust me, but I was not trusting
(17:28):
myself.
And some of that was due tothe abuse that I was going through.
And so I had to break all ofthose patterns.
And I also had to reconcilewith the existential dread.
Like, I was fighting so hardwith that dread about the afterlife
and God, and it wasterrorizing me.
I was in therapy.
(17:49):
I was like, this is.
I can't sleep.
This is frightening me.
And yeah, and so that it justhad to stop.
I had to stop and I had todeal with it.
So then this brings up twoquestions, one for the benefit of.
My wife listens to my podcast,which is great.
So at least I know I have one listener.
And my wife deals with some ofthat, the existential dread and things
(18:09):
like that, because she grew upin an abusive house and just different
things.
What was one thing you saidthat you did that really helped you
through some of that?
Yeah, I.
So I don't think that I everstopped believing that there was
a God.
So I think if that issomeone's issue, I'd have to sit
(18:32):
with that because I thinkthat, I think part of the existential
dread was that I knew thatthere was a higher creative power
and I felt so unworthy.
That's where my existentialdread was coming from.
And I, I just, I was worriedthat like I had believed something
about who Jesus was thatwasn't true.
(18:53):
So for me, it was acombination of prayer.
There were several instanceswhere people came to me and said,
God put you on my heart.
So it felt like these kind ofweird God moments where they were
popping into my life and Ididn't ask for it.
And then it was logic, becauseI had so much of my young faith,
(19:19):
my intellect and my logicweren't really valued in the church.
It was faith based.
And I remember when miracleswouldn't happen and I'd be like,
I'd be asking hard questionsand people didn't like those hard
questions.
And so I actually startedusing AI to, to ask all these logical
questions about theresurrection and about who Jesus
(19:39):
said he was.
Inerrancy of Scripture and.
And I decided to basically askit to give me a report on why Jesus
is the Messiah and then giveme a report on why he's not.
And I was so afraid to do thisbecause I thought I'm in such a fragile
place if I read this couldjust hit me right over the edge.
And it was through thiswrestling that I did this.
(20:00):
And I came to the conclusionthat the only truly logical answer
for all of this is that Jesusdid in fact rise from the dead.
And I told people, I said, Idon't care.
Any other theology, I don'tknow, I haven't figured out yet because
I deconstructed everything.
But what I do know is Jesusrose from the dead.
And so I'm going to startthere and that is going to be my
(20:22):
bullseye.
And then I'm going to.
And then I'm Going to balloonout from there.
And as soon as I said that andspoke that, it was like, it was crazy
what happened to me next,because then it was like scripture
was popping off the page.
I had been reading about Judaism.
I started having these crazydreams, like, more weird God moments.
(20:43):
It was just.
It was unbelievable.
I can definitely say even inscripture, Paul talks a lot about
saying, hey, all I want to dois talk about Christ and him crucified,
you know, and resurrect it.
And I think we need to getback to that.
So I really am very connectedto that message and your comments
about the intellectualism.
I faced some of that recentlywhere we actually had to leave the
(21:04):
church.
I was shunned because my momand my sister were dying of cancer
six months apart.
And I was trying to reallywork through this.
And I had a couple of thechurch prophets or Violet went to
a little bit more of acharismatic church, say actually
to me and shame me for it.
Why do you have tointellectualize everything?
And I was like, that's notwhat I'm doing.
I'm trying to literally try tofigure this out.
(21:26):
And it's a logical basis herewith an emotional component.
And so we ended up leavingthat particular church because of
that.
So my heart does go out forthat, because I think we devalue
intellect, and I think we needto value it more.
This comes back now, comingfull circle.
How did you define successpreviously versus how did you define
the success now?
(21:47):
Yeah, it's really easy formultimillionaire Julie to look back
and be like, that version ofsuccess that you had over there wasn't
the real version.
And this version of you thatcan read your Bible every morning
and take long walks and stuffis the version of success.
I've learned not to do that to myself.
Okay.
I think that I don't ever wantto go back to the 2014 Julie because
(22:12):
it was really painful.
And I think for her successwas, is there a roof over my head
for my kids?
Do I have my college fund?
All of those things.
And I think those things weregood and needed, and God used them,
and he was clearly with me theentire time.
The version of success that Icarry today is far different because
(22:32):
having gone through thedeconstruction, I will happily trade
everything.
As long as I do not have tofeel the terror of not knowing what
this life is about or whereI'm going, I would trade everything
for it.
And as long as I hold ontothat confidence, like I can face
anything, it doesn't matter.
(22:53):
I Love that.
So then what comes next for you?
What's on the horizon for Julie?
Yeah, so funny.
I'm looking over my whiteboardbecause I was trying to do this exercise
on asking people for help andI was reading a book and she says,
people can't help you if youdon't know what to ask for.
And I was like, what is itthat I want?
What is it that I need?
And the only things on mywhiteboard now have to do with animals
(23:14):
and garden projects.
I.
I have a large community thatI nurture and steward and I can and
I plan to continue to do that.
Obviously the funnel gorgeouscommunity is near and dear to my
heart.
I don't know what my next step is.
I am just taking it one day ata time.
I feel very content in myprofessional work.
I have a lot of spiritualcatching up to do that I'm looking
(23:37):
forward to doing.
I think there might besomething God wants me to do, but
I don't know what it lookslike yet.
And so I'm just waiting and that's.
A beautiful place to be.
So as we learn, land thisplane of this episode, what we spoke
about doing the wisdom bomband my.
And for you guys who are thelisteners full well that I do a wisdom
bomb every episode where wejust say a portable truth that somebody
(23:59):
can say put there in theirback pocket and take it with them.
So what would be a wisdom bombthat you would give to the audience
listening?
Yeah, I always want to ask aquestion in response.
Who listens?
Where are.
Where is your audience today?
Because I have a lot of thingsI could share, but so my audience.
Are Christian, basicallymulti, passionate Christian creatives
in the entrepreneur space.
(24:20):
And they're in the beginningstages of their journey is who I
really want to reach and helpthem get past the hurdles and get
past the uncertainty and theindecisions and stuff, find their
faith and build what God's putin their life.
I think what is really evidentin my story is, is that God had me
(24:42):
the entire time.
And I can look at all theyears, whether I was had my face
towards him or I didn't.
And he had me.
And he can win with a pair of twos.
Like anything that comes intoyour life that is hard or bad or
(25:03):
a result of sin or failure.
He can 100% use for his glory.
So much so that you mightstart to think, did God cause that
because of how much he usesthose things?
And I can think about some ofthe worst sin that I have done.
He has used to draw me back to himself.
(25:24):
And you could look at it andgo, gosh, did God sponsor that?
That sin?
No, of course not.
But that's how good he is at redemption.
And I have no sense that Ihave done any of this, that he has
done all of it through me andhas taken my failures.
And so that is a deepencouragement to me because it means
(25:45):
that we cannot be snatchedfrom his hand, no matter how dark
it gets.
That is.
That's beautiful.
We can't be snatched.
That's good.
That should be a T shirt.
That's.
I love that.
And he wins with a pair of twos.
That's.
Thank you for that.
So with that all being said,how do we find you?
If somebody wants to connect,you can.
Yeah, you can find me@funnelgorgeous.com.
that is the marketing andeducation company.
(26:07):
You can head over to mywebsite@julieschannel.com that has
all my coaching and stuff.
Or you can come find me on mypodcast called Million Dollar Grit.
And for you, the listener,thank you so much for listening and
getting this far in the episode.
We will have every bit of thatin the show notes to make it easier
for you to just click and headon over there.
And I highly do encourage andrecommend that you do connect with
(26:28):
Julie.
And, Julie, thank you so muchfor this episode, having this conversation,
it's been very rich, and Ireally, deeply appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Thanks for having me.
(28:08):
Sa.
Host
Jim Burgoon
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