Juli Okal is the founder of The Shift Matters and EPIC Sabbaticals, both endeavors that were developed to guide organizations and their employees successfully through ongoing, ever-varying corporate change, in the end delivering programs and people who are readied for the future of work.
Beginning with The Shift Matters, Juli compounded her experience working in a Fortune 100 company with her leadership coaching, process, and systems background to help organizations build enterprise-wide strategies that produced next-level customer and employee experiences.
Seeing first-hand the talent challenges that came about after the pandemic, Juli went on to develop a proprietary sabbatical guidance and design consulting program called EPIC Sabbaticals. Through this endeavor, Juli both guides individuals through their sabbatical time and consults with organizations looking to implement or reinvigorate their sabbatical offerings.
Juli Okal is so much more than a sabbatical advocate. She is a problem-solver, systems-builder, people-rejuvenator, no-job-too-big, all-in transformation strategist. And, she does it all with the bold-yet-friendly approach we can only think to call “Midwestern Hutzpah”.
In case you didn’t know, “Juli Okal” is actually synonymous with “Sabbatical Advocate”. Ok, perhaps that’s a stretch, but there’s no denying that Juli is a wildly enthusiastic proponent of using sabbaticals – or extended intentional time away from work – to revitalize energy, revisit priorities, and develop breakthrough strategies that lead to increased capacity and deepened impact.
Juli’s first formal sabbatical experience in 2022 was the game-changer that spurred her moniker. However, it was not her first-time curating, designing and facilitating innovative professional development offerings. Over the course of her career, in order to keep energized and focused on high-performing outputs and innovative solutions, she has designed and participated in over 20 career breaks (retreats). She knew in 2022 she needed something more substantial than a few days away. So, she spent the capstone of her master’s degree program designing her proprietary sabbatical guidebook.
Before that first formal sabbatical, Juli would describe herself as a corporate transformation strategist. She was a successful executive in a Fortune 100 company where she specialized in the transformation of talent, customer experience, and corporate systems.
Juli was perpetually driven to learn more, always asking “what enables and gets in the way of transformation?”. Beginning with a degree in marketing, followed next by certifications in Human Systems Dynamics, Six Sigma, and Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education, then most recently capped with a master’s degree in Educational Technology, Juli continued to add depth and understanding to her corporate pursuits.
She excelled in developing enterprise-wide processes, building end-to-end idea roadmaps, and creating global program solutions. The bigger the challenge, the larger the scope of the work, the more inspired Juli became. The end goal for every project she worked on was to position talent and the systems and strategies surrounding them to be future ready.
Until everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Work went remote to her Wisconsin home office. Although big projects continued to be completed, something had changed for Juli. She felt compelled to explore the emerging future of work and take on the challenges that resulted from the dramatic pandemic and post-pandemic shifts in the corporate world.
Fast forward 18 months – and about a thousand zoom calls later – and you will notice some even bigger shifts in Juli. She has trained and competed in 2 triathlons (one which she designed herself!), has started her own successful consulting business, formed new partnerships, and consulted with both large private organizations and small consulting start-ups in the Midwest.
This is where Juli’s sabbatical advocacy story begins. The jumping-off point from which she revitalized herself, realigned her priorities, and rediscovered her passion.
In fact, Juli’s sabbatical experience was so impactful that she felt inspired to share her experience and encourage others to do the same. “Why don’t more people do this?”, she wondered.
As she connected with others about the power of their sabbaticals in a corporate context, she realized the vastness of growing human capital challenges a sabbatical could successfully address.
She soon also realized the constraints preventing organizations from amplifying their sabbatical programs. So, she sought to create a new way to leverage the future of work to address this.
Today, Juli is more than just an advocate for sabbaticals. She’s a Sabbatical Guide, facilitating experienced professionals whose shoes she once wore through her proprietary sabbatical program. Additionally, she is Sabbatical Design Consultant assisting corporations in creating new and improving existing sabbatical offerings.
Juli’s services (and neighborly Midwest approach) take sabbaticals and shift them in a way that not only benefits the employee, but also their team, and the corporations they serve. As we know, our ability to meet the new demands from our customers requires us all to be alert, agile, and ready to shift.
Juli Okal is the founder of The Shift Matters & EPIC Sabbaticals, both endeavors that were developed to guide organizations and their employees successfully through ongoing, ever-varying corporate change, in the end delivering programs and people who are readied for the future of work.
Beginning with The Shift Matters, Juli compounded her experience working in a Fortune 100 company with her leadership coaching background to help organizations build enterprise-wide strategies that produced next-level customer and employee experiences.
Juli was perpetually driven to learn more, always asking “what enables and gets in the way of transformation?”. Beginning with a degree in marketing, followed next by certifications in Human Systems Dynamics, Six Sigma, and Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education, then most recently capped with a master’s degree in Educational Technology, Juli continued to add depth and understanding to her corporate pursuits.
Seeing first-hand the talent challenges that came about after the pandemic, Juli went on to develop a proprietary sabbatical guidance and design consulting program called EPIC Sabbaticals. Through this endeavor, Juli both guides individuals through their sabbatical time and consults with organizations looking to implement or reinvigorate their sabbatical offerings.
Juli Okal is so much more than a sabbatical advocate. She is a problem-solver, systems-builder, people-rejuvenator, no-job-too-big, all-in transformation strategist. And, she does it all with the bold-yet-friendly approach we can only think to call “Midwestern Hutzpah”.
In case you didn’t know, “Juli Okal” is actually synonymous with “Sabbatical Advocate”. Ok, perhaps that’s a stretch, but there’s no denying that Juli is a wildly enthusiastic proponent of using sabbaticals – or extended intentional time away from work – to revitalize energy, revisit priorities, and develop breakthrough strategies that lead to increased capacity and deepened contributions.
Juli’s first formal sabbatical experience in 2022 was the game-changer that spurred her moniker. However, it was not her first-time curating, designing and facilitating innovative professional development offerings. Over the course of her career, in order to keep energized and focused on high-performing outputs and innovative solutions, she has designed and taken over 20 career breaks (retreats). She knew in 2022 she needed something more substantial than a few days away. So, she spent the capstone of her master’s degree program designing her proprietary sabbatical guidebook.
Before that first formal sabbatical, Juli would describe herself as a corporate transformation strategist. She was a successful executive in a Fortune 100 company where she specialized in the transformation of talent, customer experience, and corporate systems.
Juli was perpetually driven to learn more, always asking “what enables and gets in the way of transformation?”. Beginning with a degree in marketing, followed next by certifications in Human Systems Dynamics, Six Sigma, and Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education, then most recently capped with a master’s degree in Educational Technology, Juli continued to add depth and understanding to her corporate pursuits.
She excelled in developing enterprise-wide processes, building end-to-end idea roadmaps, and creating global program solutions. The bigger the challenge, the larger the scope of the work, the more inspired Juli became. The end goal for every project she worked on was to position talent and the systems and strategies surrounding them to be future ready.
Until everything changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Work went remote to her Wisconsin home office. Although big projects continued to be completed, something had changed for Juli. She felt compelled to explore the emerging future of work and take on the challenges that resulted from the dramatic pandemic and post-pandemic shifts in the corporate world.
Fast forward 18 months – and about a thousand Zoom calls later – and you will notice some even bigger shifts in Juli. She has trained and competed in 2 triathlons (one which she designed herself!), finished her master’s program, started her own successful consulting business, formed new partnerships, and consulted with both large private organizations and small consulting start-ups in the Midwest.
This is where Juli’s sabbatical advocacy story begins. The jumping-off point from which she revitalized herself, realigned her priorities, and rediscovered her passion. In fact, Juli’s sabbatical experience was so impactful that she felt inspired to share her experience and encourage others to do the same. “Why don’t more people do this?”, she wondered.
As she connected with others about the power of their sabbaticals in a corporate context, she realized the vastness of growing human capital challenges a sabbatical could successfully address. She soon also realized the constraints preventing organizations from amplifying their sabbatical programs. So, she sought to create a new way to leverage the future of work to address this.
Today, Juli is more than just an advocate for sabbaticals. She’s a Sabbatical Guide, facilitating experienced professionals whose shoes she once wore through her proprietary sabbatical program. Additionally, she is Sabbatical Design Consultant assisting corporations in creating new and improving existing sabbatical offerings.
Juli’s services (and neighborly Midwest approach) take sabbaticals and shift them in a way that not only benefits the employee, but also their team, and the corporations they serve. As we know, our ability to meet the new demands from our customers requires us all to be alert, agile, and ready to shift.
Mission: To offer experienced professionals experiences where the shifts that matter are intentional, evolving, and result in demonstrated increased capacity to lead through uncertainty.
Vision: To operate from a bold new vantage point complete with internal and external capacity to do our best work.
My body of work includes having built and improved dozens of enterprise-wide, global, end-to-end processes and programs to allow us, the amazing humans on the scene, to adeptly navigate the ever-changing business and professional development priorities.
Juli Okal is an expert on building bridges cross-functionally to empower your Talent Development team to understand, plan, prepare, and execute modern Talent Management strategies.
