Ep. #24: From Heartbreak To Hope With Julie Plagens

<p>Dallas, TX native Julie Plagens is a wife, mother, teacher, blogger, and author. Before she married, she taught speech, drama, and English for three years in the Richardson Independent School District. After she married, she became a stay-home mom. Julie has volunteered for many years locally and in South Texas doing Vacation Bible Study,  food distribution, and door-to-door witnessing. Now that her children are grown, she is a substitute teacher for a private school in Dallas and works intermittently for her husband.</p><p>Growing up as a self-described “preacher’s kid” Julie felt the pressure to be perfect and to stand in the shadows of her father, who was a pastor for two local mega-churches. The strains of pastoral life and in the public eye took a toll on her family, and Julie painfully cut ties with her parents.</p><p>After a heartbreaking estrangement from her parents, Julie realized she was not alone in her feelings of shame and her struggles to interact with family in a healthy way. Julie’s experience with family estrangement formed the basis for her book, <em>Estranged: Finding Hope When Your Family Falls Apart</em>, available on Amazon.  Now that she has reconciled with her family, she wishes to help others find hope when they experience a family rift or a full-blown estrangement. When Julie is not talking about forgiveness, she is sharing helpful tips on her blog about family, marriage, school, and faith. </p><p>As a self-described creative, Julie offers the following tips to women who are venturing out into the world of business ownership or other endeavors:</p><ol><li>Create a schedule for completing related tasks such as writing. Allow yourself to be flexible.</li><li>Don’t let fear stand in your way of getting started. Do it scared. </li><li>Take things one step at a time, and allow yourself some grace when things don’t go as planned.</li><li>Make it a habit to do something toward your goal each day. </li></ol><p>Julie lives with her husband of 26 years in Dallas, Texas. </p><p>Julie’s book may