From Personal Passion to Global Purpose: Julie Colombino-Billingham's Fair Trade Revolution in Haiti

Building Champions for Life

Julie Colombino-Billingham shares her journey from an Italian-American bakery childhood and professional dance career to founding a fair-trade nonprofit and business in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. A pivotal encounter with a

Key takeaways

Julie's childhood working in her parents' Italian bakery instilled a strong work ethic and community responsibility that later fueled her nonprofit efforts.
Her career as a professional dancer and aerialist taught her resilience through constant rejection, directly translating to the grit needed for disaster response and entrepreneurship.

Main topics

Disaster response vs. sustainable development
Fair-trade business models

Notable quotes

"I don't want any water, but I need a job."

Conclusion

The episode underscores that lasting social impact requires shifting f

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) Welcome to Building Champions for Life, where we dive into the minds of extraordinary leaders, trailblazers, and champions from every corner of the world. I'm your host, Kirk Spahn, and together we're going to meet with visionaries who've conquered challenges, shattered ceilings, and redefined what's possible. From sports, tech, entertainment, to entrepreneurship, our guests have one thing in common. They are building legacies of greatness, and they're here to share their passion. and their process with you. Welcome to the show. Speaker 1 (0:43) We've been exploring different worlds of what being a champion means from hoisting gold medals and Wimbledon trophies to performing on the biggest stages around the world with Grammys to founding companies and really to creating impact that can be lasting in the world. And, you know, that word impact is so important for the process of what. building a champion for life is and our our next guest has turned a Passion into purpose and her background helped her in that seems that even when we talk to social entrepreneurs Incredibly successful people there seems to be an element of sports and discipline that comes into it So we'll we'll unwrap that as we talk about it, but I'd love to introduce our next guest Julie Columbino Billingham who is here in Florida, speaking to us today, and really focusing on how a purpose, when you take that passion to purpose, and you gain a super purpose out of that, can affect communities, and how you can take passions and develop skills that can help a broader group of people. And this story is one of those. after-school specials, inspiring movies, things that make you feel like, wow, there are people that are really impacting change. And Julie is one of them because after a horrible earthquake in, wow, it's weird that it's over 15 years ago. I remember that like it was yesterday. That's very weird. Anyway, well, in 2010, Haiti suffered one of the worst earthquakes ever. As we get into her story, obviously something, she was struck by something that said, how can I make an impact? What can I do to help these incredible people that are suffering, but have all this talent and potential? And where do we start? And most people, it's writing a check. Most people are like, you know, that's the easiest way. And you were like, no, no, no, no. We're going to get something creative that is. not a one-time thing, but what can we do to make something lasting? And you, you know, I'll let you tell your story, but what you've created is so fantastic and it touches upon education and craftsmanship and bigger purpose and everything that ICL 6Ps embody, what building a champion for life is. So let's go back and share your story with us. Welcome. Welcome, Julie. Speaker 2 (3:27) Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, it's quite a tale. And like you said, I can't believe it's been 16 years. It's crazy. Yeah, no Speaker 1 (3:36) doubt. No doubt. So take us back, you know, before, like, you know, your background, because to become, you know, and I don't know how you refer to yourself, you know, activist, impact, social entrepreneur, you know, it's almost like the word charity. I don't like it's like you're building something for communities. How did this, was there a fire in you? Let's go back to little Julie. Take us back to little Julie and how this may have come up. Speaker 2 (4:03) Oh gosh, well, little Julie, I mean, I had entrepreneurial parents. My parents owned a deli. My father immigrated from Italy when he was five and he was the classic American story, the first one in his family to go to college and to do all the things and to speak English. And so he was... really adamant about like school and work and, you know, really contributing to the community. And he and my mom together built this really great little Italian bakery deli. And since me and my sisters were little, you know, we'd have to step on Pepsi crates so we could wash the dishes, but they always had us working. And so like work was a big part of us growing up and making sure that we were contributing to the family and, you know, helping the business. thrive and like really upholding the colombino name you know like it was important to my parents yeah and Speaker 1 (4:54) and then uh through all that dishwashing you decided to dance yeah Speaker 2 (5:00) and then i started doing ballet like every little girl likes to do you know and just so happened it became a career for me i was teaching dance at a circus school actually like uh it was called circ usa And one season, the creative director said, I want all my dancers to be aerialists as well. I want you guys to float in and out of the screen. So we spent one summer training, climbing up ropes and doing all the things. And I found that I loved being an aerialist. And it also paid a lot better. So I was like, okay, I'm an aerialist now, a dancer and aerialist. And that actually, that job. Because it was so fluid, like, you know, you could take a job, you could travel, you could do the different things. My real passion was disaster response and nonprofit management. And so it allowed me to respond to disasters and then I could pick up work. And so like my life was really flowing in the right way with this, like with using my artistic talent of dancing to like pay the bills and then to be able to volunteer to deploy when disaster struck. So it was kind of amazing. And Speaker 1 (6:02) how did that, I mean, I'm still picturing. This little girl in Pepsi crates washing dishes in the Italian bakery sounds so great right now. You're like, Speaker 2 (6:12) back Speaker 1 (6:13) to my community. But you know, in the Italian American culture, it's like community there. You, how, if you can go back, I mean, what was it about disaster relief? Was it something that you can remember that like affected you when you were young? What do you think sort of flipped that switch for you? Speaker 2 (6:30) I don't know. My mom said when I was like a little girl, like when even I was like five or six years old, I was collecting canned food for soldiers. I was always, I mean, I guess they always had us volunteering as well, but she just said I was kind of that kid that always wanted to like, you know, you play with the kid that didn't have any friends at the playground, just kind of that kid. Speaker 1 (6:49) Super empath. You were just, but that's incredible, I guess. And that's interesting for families to see that and to nurture it. But for you. I mean, most people don't have that flexibility. You basically chose a pathway that was like, hey, I can balance out. I mean, not many careers have pauses, stop starts, where you can be like, you know, unless you're like a movie star, you know, I'm not going to do my next project. So you were cognizant that this is something that, all right, you're like, I want to be able to make my money, have a passion and dance and aerialist, but I'm going to be focused on disaster relief. I mean, that. Right there, that's incredible. And then what was it, you were doing this, give us a timeframe. So you mentioned you were in New York at Alvin Ailey, you grew this, I mean, because dancing is no joke. So take us back to like, what do you think that training and what you were doing? Because people gloss over it all the time. Like, yeah, as a professional dancer, like let's talk about like what that actually meant. Like what went into that? Because the skills to start. a nonprofit to get it going. It is grit. It is resilience. It is setbacks. It is not a hockey stick to, yay, here we are at success. So talk about a little bit your training and how maybe that connectivity allowed you just keep going and make it happen. Speaker 2 (8:12) Well, the training, I mean, I find it. changed everything about my life. I was so lucky that I was in a dance company where they valued all body types and sizes. I'm really tall. I'm like 5'11", so which is actually extremely tall for a dancer. Yes. Speaker 1 (8:25) Wow. And an aerialist probably too. Speaker 2 (8:27) I was one of the tallest aerialists in the company. Yeah. And so, but like the leadership of the companies that I worked for really valued all different body types. And so even though I was passed over several times because I was too tall or too big or too this or too that, you learn to like kind of suck it up. And I think that is one of the, you know, the biggest things with building a company in Haiti was learning that like, you're going to be told no, you're going to be told you're not good enough. You're going to be told you're not this enough. You're not that enough, but you just keep going. And that determination and that spirit, I mean, that was really defined in Haiti because it is the Haitian people. I'm so sorry. It is the... you know, like the Haitian people with their incredible perseverance and resilience that like made me be the kind of woman I wanted to be, like seeing how that, like, I mean, I had a little bit, but they had a lot. Speaker 1 (9:18) They live it and exude it. So how did that happen? And what was your, yeah, how did you get involved in Haiti and take us to the, how that began? Speaker 2 (9:27) Okay, so. You know, I was dancing. I was in school. I got my master's in nonprofit management with this focus on disaster response. So I was, you know, I was like in all the systems. The earthquake happened and I knew immediately I wanted to deploy. However, I had worked for Hurricane Katrina for a couple of years and I was, you know, volunteering with the Red Cross. And something in me just. I'm a bit of a rebel spirit and like didn't really love all the things that were happening. So like when I was deployed during Hurricane Katrina, I would get in trouble for not following rules, but I would be getting promoted at the same time because people knew what I was doing was Speaker 1 (10:03) helping. You were helping people. You were putting people first. Speaker 2 (10:09) Yeah. And it might not have been following protocol, but it was, I mean, leadership couldn't do anything other than say like. this is the right thing to do. So it was like getting in trouble on one hand, but getting promoted on the other hand. So I decided to do something which is totally not like in the disaster response playbook, which is I went to Haiti by myself. So I got on a flight. I know Speaker 1 (10:30) 101 is like, maybe don't go solo. Speaker 2 (10:32) Yeah, it was it was ridiculous. It was. It was silly. It was dangerous. And I would definitely not. Speaker 1 (10:39) Watching this movie right now. So I'm picturing we're going there. Advise Speaker 2 (10:42) anybody do this. And it was scary. I was petrified, you know, but I just I didn't want to go with a big disaster relief organization. And I was lucky enough when I got to Haiti, when I actually landed in Port-au-Prince, you know, it took a couple of days, but I ended up volunteering with the Scientologists who are excellent at disaster response. They had a huge camp set up right on ground zero. And they took me into their camp and taught me a lot about disaster response. And I started working with Speaker 1 (11:10) them. You were doing disaster response with Tom Cruise? Like you were just hanging out? Speaker 2 (11:14) Actually, I think John Travolta was the first one that got a plane into Haiti, I think. But no, I was just with, you know, the other Scientologists. Speaker 1 (11:22) You're pretty malleable. You're like, here I am, a 5'11 dancing aerialist that's going to go solo. And I can definitely sneak in. unnoticed anywhere, right? In a disaster. No one's going to see me. I'm just going to pitch my tent with Speaker 2 (11:36) these guys. Speaker 1 (11:37) I'm going to Haiti and I'm like, hey, that Scientology group looks like it has a nice camp. How you doing? All right. I'm loving it. All right.