Founded in 2008, Versatile Creative is dedicated to creating meaningful experiences.

Experiences are meaningful when they are personal, serve a purpose and generate insights. This necessitates an intentional approach. The guiding principles for how Jules shows up as a writer, facilitator, and avid outdoorswoman are: Consider the whole, speak from the heart, do the right thing and do it well.

Start today by collaborating with Jules Williams on a retreat for your organization.

Business Evolution

It was actually on her first retreat that founder Jules Williams discerned the path to graduate school for strategic communications and journalism and set the intention to run a business someday.

That someday showed up only a year later when several nonprofit project partners needed freelance communications support immediately. “Can you be a business by next week?,” asked one prospective client.

While still attending graduate school, Jules swiftly filled out the online form to establish an Oregon-based business. When she got to the field for a business name, the first thing that came to mind was Versatile Creative—the way she’d always thought of herself: someone who embraces a variety of subjects, fields, or skills; is able to adapt to many different functions or activities; and has a strong imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of artistic work.

Originally working freelance during 2008-2012, Jules transitioned to full-time self-employment during 2013-2018. Alongside many creative collaborators, Jules worked with a range of maturing, mission-driven organizations in education, environmental or social services, technology, and outdoor lifestyle, including universities, nonprofits, and B. Corps.

Through over a decade of combined in-house, agency and consulting experiences, Jules built expertise as an award-winning integrated marketing communications practitioner and designed a holistic approach to planning, training and facilitation that inspired creative and practical outcomes.

Versatile Creative Consulting offered strategic planning and staff development, as well as some add-on communications services such as writing, design, and production. During this time, Jules served on multiple boards for nonprofit and professional organizations and earned her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR).

During her entrepreneurial journey, Jules discovered that long-term consulting engagements didn’t always meet clients’ immediate needs and often took budget away from actual communications work. She noticed that tactics and campaigns often weren’t getting to the heart of the issue—and what was most meaningful to the client and those they serve—in order to truly connect and achieve desired results. Often that was due to a gap in knowledge, skills, or abilities in strategic planning and fundamental communications, and/or collaborative teamwork.

A new path forward

Jules’ deep roots in teaching and leadership shone through. She started integrating more facilitation into her consulting practice and her professional development, attending facilitation training courses, organizing, facilitating, and attending retreats with community organizations, designing workshops, presenting and speaking more frequently, and creating meaning through writing and blogging.

During the round of introductions, while attending a Circle of Trust Retreat in 2016, she spontaneously shared, “Hi, my name is Jules.” Formerly known to clients and friends as Julie, this family nickname had started to feel more true as well. It was all coming together.

Jules’ entrepreneurial journey was braided together with her self-leadership and her spiritual development. Each season from 2007-2014, she retreated in solitude to the Oregon coast to continue discernment and deeper connection. The insights showed up from creating, making, and journaling. And especially from walking, meditating, reading, and being. She aligned more and more with her deepest knowing of our purpose: living in harmony with nature and our own true nature. 

Inspired by conversations with her Spiritual Director, Jules started observing Sabbath in 2015 and realized this retreat state of being was actually available to her wherever she was every week. Sometimes even during the week! This was the dream: to show up with integrity every single day.

In 2017, Jules created EverydayIntegrity.com to offer practices and skills for showing up with your whole self. The credo came to life through a collaborative project with friends: Jules wrote the guiding principles, Laura Trimmell designed and hand lettered the text and Letterpress PDX printed posters and postcards one-by-one on an antique Chandler & Price platen press. Jules designed and facilitated the Sabbath course and retreat as an interfaith, personal approach to this universal tradition. And she wrote reflections and lessons learned about her own everyday journey toward integrity on the blog.

Unlike her previous consulting, this passion project was not profitable to sustain her whole self, so from 2018-2021 she took the opportunity to expand her skillset in Learning & Development through the corporate setting while developing meaningful learning experiences with larger teams and audiences around the world.

THE power of retreat

Over 15 years and 50+ personal, community, and company retreats later (along with 350+ “weekly retreat” days of Sabbath), retreat continues to be the most enlightening practice for embracing reality and finding meaning that truly connects us. It is one of the quickest ways to close the gap in knowledge, skills, or abilities, find common ground or spark new insights.

Depending on the  objective and group dynamic, numerous tools are pulled from Jules’ toolbox to ensure a rich learning and community building experience during a retreat, workshop or course.

Many of these same tools are applied to consulting projects as well so that teams come away with an actionable plan and skills to own the plans’ success. This toolbox has been built over 20 years of cumulative experience as a community leader, professional communicator, consultant, facilitator, teacher, writer, and observer of life.

Contact Jules through your favorite way of connecting to learn more.

Photo Credits: Header by Evan Cohan; Snapshot from Camp Yes! by Tristanne Endrina