Episode Full Transcript

Length: 01:18:58
Host: Patrick Francey
Guest: Julie Colombino-Billingham

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  [0:04] Introduction

  Patrick Francey:
  Hi there, and welcome to The Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Francey, and I am your host.

  I want to begin by saying thank you for listening. On this show, I have conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved amazing and extraordinary results in both life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow by having my guests share their journey, how they overcame challenges, and how they celebrated their wins.

  Now let’s get on with the show and today’s conversation.

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  [0:42] Patrick Introduces Julie

  Patrick Francey:
  What if luxury was not about status, but about dignity? What if the most powerful fashion statement you could make was not about what you are wearing, but who it empowers?

  Today’s guest did not set out to build a fashion brand. In the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, standing in the rubble of unimaginable loss, Julie Colombino-Billingham heard a sentence that changed the trajectory of her life: “I don’t want money. I need a job.”

  That line cut deep, because dignity does not come from charity. It comes from work.

  What began as disaster relief evolved into Deux Mains, French for “two hands.” Two hands that create, two hands that earn, two hands that build a future. Today, Deux Mains is a globally recognized, fair trade verified luxury brand and home to the only woman-owned, solar-powered leather goods factory in Haiti.

  This is not a charity story. It is a leadership story. A resilience story. An enterprise story.

  Building a luxury brand anywhere is hard. Building one in Haiti through political instability, currency volatility, supply chain disruption, and global competition requires a kind of conviction most people never see.

  With partnerships that include Nordstrom, the United Nations, and Eileen Fisher, Julie has proven that purpose and profitability are not mutually exclusive. And with her memoir, From Loss to Legacy, she is sharing the real story behind the brand, the risk, the resilience, and the cost of entry.

  So today, we are not talking about handbags. We are talking about dignity, enterprise, and whether capitalism, when structured intentionally, can be one of the most powerful humanitarian tools we have.

  Julie, welcome to The Everyday Millionaire podcast. Thanks so much for joining me.

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  [2:52] The Defining Moment

  Julie Colombino-Billingham:
  Thanks for having me, Patrick. I’m excited to be here.

  Patrick Francey:
  You’ve got a fascinating story. You were in Haiti after the earthquake, and someone said, “I don’t want money. I need a job.” Was that a light bulb moment for you?

  Julie:
  Yes. I had already been responding to the disaster for a few months, and I was starting to feel that something about the response effort was misaligned. This was the most catastrophic thing I had ever deployed to, so it was shocking and mind-blowing. But I still felt in the core of my being that something was not right.

  When that woman said, “I don’t want your water. I want a job,” that was the revolutionary point. I knew she was absolutely right.

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  [4:20] Background in Disaster Relief

  Patrick:
  You came from a disaster relief background, right?

  Julie:
  That’s right. I have a master’s in nonprofit management with a focus on disaster response. I’ve always been in social services and I guess I operate well in chaos. That was where I thought I would always be, but life throws different things at you and changes your course.

  Patrick:
  How many years had you been in that world before Haiti?

  Julie:
  Probably 10 to 15 years. I had traveled to underdeveloped places in Africa and elsewhere, and responded to disasters like Hurricane Katrina. I had seen the spectrum from first-world disaster response to developing-world disaster response. But Haiti was different because the poverty was so pervasive. There was so little infrastructure to begin with. It wasn’t just about rebuilding after disaster. It was about addressing the poverty that was already there.

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  [7:03] Her Book and the Bigger Story

  Patrick:
  Before I forget, tell listeners the title of your book.

  Julie:
  It’s called From Loss to Legacy: How a Fashion Business Rose from Haiti’s Rubble. It started out as a journal, then I thought it might be a textbook on what not to do when building a business in the developing world. It eventually became a memoir about me and my colleagues, and how we built this business, including all the mistakes we made along the way.

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  [7:57] Resilience, Adversity, and Leadership

  Patrick:
  My wife Steffany and I have been talking a lot about resilience. One of the things she does with Olympic and world-class athletes is create adversity in practice so they build the muscle of resilience before they need it.

  When I hear your story, I think about that. But I also think, who chooses this path? What led you into social services and a life of helping in the hardest places?

  Julie:
  I was definitely brought up to be compassionate. My mom says when I was five years old I was collecting canned food for soldiers. I always wanted to help the underdog. As I got older and started studying the world, I realized how lucky I was to be a woman born in America with access to education and opportunity.

  Then I started seeing how good intentions could still cause harm if people didn’t understand the local realities. That really stayed with me. I wanted to use the education and opportunities I had been given to do something that mattered.

  And the women of Haiti made me realize the kind of woman I wanted to become.

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  [11:56] The Emotional Cost of Relief Work

  Patrick:
  You’ve seen things that would emotionally overwhelm most people. How did you mentally and emotionally carry all of that?

  Julie:
  There were more down times than up times. I had some really dark seasons. I remember feeling so guilty for eating because there were so many hungry kids around us. On my walk to work, children would ask for food, and I started feeling like I did not deserve to eat.

  I stopped taking care of myself. I got sick. I got worms. I was not sleeping. I was smoking. Drinking. Picking up terrible habits just to survive.

  Eventually, I had to realize that if I did not take care of myself, I could not help anyone else. It is that cliché about putting your own oxygen mask on first, but it became very real. I was slowly destroying myself.

  Then I started looking at how the people of Haiti survived. They did it with grit, resilience, faith, passion, and community. I started learning from them.

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  [16:57] Building Deux Mains

  Patrick:
  Tell me where the business is today.

  Julie:
  We’re 16 years in and still going strong. What started in August 2010 as a little shack made of tents and tarps, with me and four women sitting on the floor making leather goods, has grown into an 11,000-square-foot solar-powered factory in Port-au-Prince. We have about 50 craftspeople.

  We manufacture handbags that are exported and sold in places like Nordstrom and small boutiques across the US. We also make school shoes for Haitian children, and that has become a beautiful part of our business.

  Historically, many people would donate old shoes to Haiti, but school uniforms require black closed-toe shoes. We started asking, why not make them locally? So we invested in the machinery, training, and equipment to do that.

  Our mission has always been the same: create great products, create great jobs.

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  [20:23] The Hybrid Model

  Patrick:
  Is this strictly a for-profit business?

  Julie:
  Deux Mains is a for-profit business, but we also have a nonprofit called REBUILD globally that focuses on education and job training. That is part of our secret sauce.

  Our leadership team is made up of graduates from our education and training program. They go through school support, job training, and then have access to jobs at Deux Mains.

  That hybrid model has been essential. In places of extreme poverty, nonprofit and for-profit often need to work together.

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  [22:44] Haiti’s Current Reality

  Patrick:
  Give listeners a sense of what Haiti is facing politically.

  Julie:
  Haiti is democratic, but four years ago the president was assassinated. Since then, gangs have taken over about 90 percent of the capital. The airport has been closed for 16 months. I have not seen my own company in 16 months because you cannot get into Port-au-Prince.

  Roads are blocked. Ports are restricted. It is mayhem. But life still happens inside that chaos. People still survive. The cost of operating is higher and the risk is higher, but we keep going.

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  [25:18] Why She Kept Going

  Patrick:
  From a CEO perspective, why do you keep this alive? Some advisors would tell you to shut it down.

  Julie:
  A few years ago, I actually did close the factory because I was terrified for the team’s safety. About 10 days later, the leadership team called and said, “We need to meet.”

  They told me, “We need to go to work. The factory has solar power, water, electricity, a radio. It is our livelihood.”

  I was sitting in my safe home in Florida and realized, who was I to make that decision for everyone else from 700 miles away? So from that point on, the leadership team has made a daily decision about whether the factory opens. Nine times out of ten, it does.

  And when peace comes, we will be positioned to lead.

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  [31:43] The Weight of Responsibility

  Patrick:
  Does that responsibility weigh on you every day?

  Julie:
  Absolutely. Every day. When we talk to the team, the first question is, “Are you okay?” And that literally means, are you safe, is your family safe, did you make it through the night?

  A few months ago, I was in England and got a call at 3 a.m. that there was a fire at the factory. The fire department would not come into the area because it was considered a red zone, so I’m watching videos of the team putting out the fire with buckets of water.

  Those are the kinds of things that happen. It is surreal.

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  [39:50] Julie’s Role Today

  Patrick:
  So what is your role now?

  Julie:
  I’m a saleswoman. That’s my role. I sell bags and I sell shoes. The more I sell, the more jobs I create. That’s literally what I do.

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  [41:17] Her Husband’s Support

  Patrick:
  Where does your husband fit into all this?

  Julie:
  We met in Haiti 16 years ago. He pulled me through some very dark times there. He is former British Special Forces and now has his own television career and platform, which he uses for philanthropic work.

  He is also deeply supportive of Haiti and of what we do. He helped us do some of the security planning for trips into Haiti. He understands the risk, and he understands me.

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  [44:20] Leadership, Education, and Self-Mastery

  Patrick:
  How much of your own development as a leader has been intentional?

  Julie:
  A lot. In 2016, I went back and got my MBA because I was running a business, not just working in nonprofit or relief. It was intense. I would fly from Haiti to Orlando every other weekend for school.

  I have also sought counseling when I needed it. I have had to learn not to make decisions alone. Everything now is collaborative and conversational. If you do not listen to the people on the ground, you will miss too much and make too many mistakes.

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  [48:54] Stress and Health

  Patrick:
  How do you sleep at night?

  Julie:
  Honestly, for the first 10 years, I barely did. I had ulcers. Chronic stress. There was always a money issue, a crisis, or a fear.

  A few years ago I had serious health issues and doctors basically told me I had to reduce stress. That felt almost impossible. But I had to evolve. If I live in the darkest place all the time, nobody benefits from that.

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  [53:04] Physical Health and Emotional Load

  Patrick:
  Do you see your physical health as connected to what you carry mentally and emotionally?

  Julie:
  Yes, 100 percent. I struggled with infertility for nine years, and the doctors kept saying that as long as I lived the way I was living, they did not think things would change.

  That forced me to think about legacy differently too. A lot of people think of legacy as children. I had to reframe what legacy would mean for me. For me, it is this other family. This team. This community. This work.

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  [56:41] Why She Never Walked Away

  Patrick:
  Why keep going?

  Julie:
  After the earthquake, so many people started things in Haiti and then left when it got hard. Businesses, schools, orphanages, all kinds of efforts. I watched people come in, get everyone excited, then pack up and leave.

  When I met my first business partner, Jolina, I told her that unless she asked me to leave, I would not. I would rather never start something than start it and abandon it.

  That is why I stay.

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  [59:08] Cultural Humility

  Patrick:
  What did you have to learn about leading in a place that was not your own culture?

  Julie:
  That I knew almost nothing. One of the biggest lessons was listening.

  In our education program, for example, the children had all the books and supplies they were supposed to need, but they were still failing. I went into the classroom and realized they were taught in Creole at home and at school, but their national exam was in French.

  So we added mandatory French instruction and the next year 100 percent of students passed. That was a huge lesson in how far local knowledge matters.

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  [1:02:05] Marriage, Risk, and Shared Mission

  Patrick:
  Your husband must have a deep understanding of who you are for this relationship to work.

  Julie:
  He does. I think if we had not met in Haiti, I’m not sure someone else would fully understand me or why this matters so much.

  Of course we have argued. There were times he said, “You are not going back into Haiti.” And my reaction was basically, “Who are you to tell me what to do?” But then I had to remember he is my husband and he is scared.

  Eventually it became less about stopping me and more about asking, “How do I use my experience to keep you safe?”

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  [1:05:37] Growth and Brand Strategy

  Patrick:
  What are you thinking strategically about the future?

  Julie:
  Getting into Nordstrom was huge for us. It tripled our sales. It put us in front of millions of people who bought the bag because they liked the bag, not just because of the story. That matters to me.

  I want Bloomingdale’s. I want Macy’s. I want all of them. I want us to become a household name. My mission is economic freedom for Haitian people. That means jobs. So I need to sell products people truly want.

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  [1:09:06] What Fair Trade Means

  Patrick:
  Give us your definition of fair trade.

  Julie:
  Fair trade verification took us more than a year. They examine your entire supply chain, wages, environmental standards, material sourcing, disposal practices, all of it.

  At the time, I found it frustrating because we had already been doing so much of it. But by the end, I was grateful it was hard, because that means the verification actually means something.

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  [1:11:59] The Power of Purchasing

  Patrick:
  What have we not covered that you want listeners to know?

  Julie:
  I really want people to understand how powerful their purchases are. Every dollar you spend circulates globally, and it matters where it goes.

  Especially in fashion, people buy disposable products over and over again. A cheap bag breaks, so they buy another one. But the total they spend might equal the cost of one fair trade bag that lasts.

  When you buy with intention, you are not just buying an object. You are participating in a system. And I think people should realize how much power they have in that.

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  [1:15:39] Rapid Fire

  Patrick:
  Apple or Android?

  Julie:
  Apple.

  Patrick:
  Favorite genre of music?

  Julie:
  Top 40. I love to dance.

  Patrick:
  Favorite movie?

  Julie:
  Life Is Beautiful.

  Patrick:
  A book that made an impact?

  Julie:
  The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist.

  Patrick:
  Favorite swear word?

  Julie:
  The F-bomb.

  Patrick:
  If there is a God, what do you want to hear at the gates?

  Julie:
  That you did well.

  Patrick:
  What are you grateful for today?

  Julie:
  That I got to share my story with you. It was a really fun conversation, and I feel like you really care about what we are doing in Haiti.

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  [1:17:28] Closing

  Patrick:
  I am so grateful to have had this conversation. What you are doing touches every aspect of business, leadership, contribution, and resilience. The last thing you ever need to worry about is legacy. The ripple effect of what you are doing is extraordinary.

  Thank you so much.

  Julie:
  Thank you, Patrick. I appreciate it.

  Patrick:
  Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. If you found value in this podcast, please take the time to rate, review, and share it with others. If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, email me at CEO@reincanada.com.

  Until next time, Patrick out.