Meet Julia Haart: The CEO Modernizing the Modeling Industry

Welcome to Second Life, a podcast spotlighting successful women who've made major career changes—and fearlessly mastered the pivot. Hosted by Hillary Kerr, co-founder and chief content officer at Who What Wear, each episode gives you a direct line to women who are game changers in their fields. Subscribe to Second Life on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts to stay tuned.

Julia Haart has proven to be unstoppable. As the co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group, she leads the talent media company composed of 48 global agencies representing 5400 of the world's most dynamic talent, including actors, artists, musicians, models, and even virtual avatars. Haart's mission is to modernize the modeling industry by flipping the traditional power dynamic and creating autonomy for the talent that the company represents. "What we've done is create the back office to help them transform their digital presences into brands and into networks, thereby giving them longevity in their career. Long past the time they can swing a tennis racket or walk the runway, they have an audience. People listen to them and respect them. They are a brand," says Haart.

Creating financial freedom and autonomy (particularly for women) is a mission that runs through Haart to her core, and when you learn of her first life, it's not difficult to understand why. Until she was 43 years old, Haart lived in an Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York, where she taught and raised four children. "As I got older and started educating myself, the more and more I read, the more I understood of what was outside of my world, the more unhappy I became, and the more that I couldn't keep it in anymore," says Haart. In 2013, with a limited understanding of the outside world and no college degree, she left the community and stepped into a new way of life entirely. It's an astonishing story that's currently being featured in her new unscripted Netflix docuseries My Unorthodox Life—which depicts her professional life at EWG and her personal life as she guides her children to follow their own passions. 

Along her journey to where she is today, Haart founded her own shoe line and even served as the creative director at Italian luxury-intimates brand La Perla before finding her way to EWG, where she is not only leading the talent media business but is also launching a virtual marketing company, EWG Virtual, and serving as creative director of E1972, the world's first sizeless luxury brand introduced by Elite World. 

Tune in to the latest episode of Second Life to hear more about Haart's extraordinary journey in finding her voice and using it to uplift and empower those in the media and fashion industry around her.

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