About Julie

Julie Shifman is an inspirational, award-winning speaker, author, and business owner. Julie believes in every woman’s ability to challenge herself and to grow as Julie herself continues to do. She started her career as a professional ballet dancer and then became a highly successful lawyer in New York City and Cincinnati before founding her company, Act Three, in 2008. She recently received the prestigious Athena award from Cincy Magazine, was named a “Woman to Watch” by the Cincinnati Enquirer and was named as a 2013 Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts.
Through the story of her own personal transformations—from ballerina to law partner to stay-at-home mom to business owner—and through the stories of the remarkable women she has interviewed, Julie energizes women to live their best lives.
She speaks with passion, humor, and heart as she encourages women to imagine what’s next for them, and then to take one small step at a time to do it.
Julie is the founder and president of Act Three, an organization that helps women define their next stage of life and create their own personal action plan for living out that life and is a certified coach. Julie is the author of Act Three: Creating the Life You Want, and has also created a documentary film featuring many of the incredible women profiled in her book.
For a detailed description of Julie’s life, download the introductory chapter of her book.
Keynote Topics
Imagine…Then Do It!
In Julie’s signature talk, her message challenges women to open their minds to the endless possibilities that can result in a fulfilling next act. She begins by granting them permission to dream again, as Julie finds that too many women have buried their dreams in some dark closet. Sometimes that means rediscovering old dreams that have gone dormant over the years, and sometimes it means imagining new dreams. But her message doesn’t end with the Imagining, she also provides practical advice on how to Do It …to actually begin the journey towards fulfilling those dreams. As Julie says “Imagining without the doing is just daydreaming.” Using her own personal story, interspersed with the stories of the many remarkable women she has interviewed, she challenges women to take a personal inventory and walk away with a renewed sense of purpose. For shorter time periods, this talk can be divided in two, with one talk about Imagining and one talk about Doing.
Catching Happiness
Happiness, quoting Benjamin Franklin, has to be caught, you can’t just sit back and wait for it to happen to you. Using personal stories, humor as well as today’s scientific research, Julie shares her top five “happiness catchers” including
- living life with gratitude
- performing acts of kindness (what Julie calls Looking for Lurch)
- stop sweating the small stuff or ignore the chocolate sauce
- finding the funny ( wait till you hear the story of the doped up dog)
- creating daily small happiness catchers
Julie believes that by seeking to catch happiness in a proactive way, we actually can live happier lives. This inspirational talk is ideal for women’s groups of any kind or age as the quest for happiness is universal. All participants will leave with specific action items they can practice immediately to live their best lives.
Get in Change Shape and Build Change Muscles.
We all know that it’s impossible to wake up one day and just decide to run a marathon… Our bodies would give up in the first few miles because our muscles simply weren’t in shape to tackle this challenge. And yet, we expect to be able to tackle major change in our lives with no practice, no training, or no preparation. So when some major change happens to us – and it always does in today’s fast-paced world – we struggle just like a couch-potato-turned-marathoner. Julie believes that most of us are basically out of Change Shape, but that we can, in fact, Build our Change Muscles to handle this change with confidence, ease and grace. Julie motivates her audience through her own personal stories and the stories of other inspiring women who she has interviewed for her book, articles, and documentary film. Participants learn Julie’s tips and tricks for Getting in Change Shape so that change and transition can be viewed as exciting and energizing.





