Julie Arora's secret

Working one summer in university as a flight attendant, Julie Arora found herself being flown home after an overtime shift sitting in front of a venture capitalist. “After a short conversation, he promised to follow my career and help me in any way he could. He told me that one day I’d be on the cover of Fortune. This is before I knew what I wanted to do.”

Their conversation and his ensuing advice led her to change her majors to business and world religion (Both areas that helped Julie “understand how people think”), change schools entirely in order to do so (from McGill to Guelph), and set her on a route of experiences that has led to her current job and passion. Julie is founder of a company so close to home, her mother invented the product: Mom’s Healthy Secrets cereals.

It’s the stuff of Julie’s childhood. Her mother, Neera, at the time a small-town girl in India who was also “wickedly smart,” says Julie, married her father in an arranged marriage. Traditional in at least one way, Julie’s mom was also completing a masters of economics, and was eager to learn about the world. She soon joined her husband in Canada, where she finished her degree.

Mindful of advice from an Ayurvedic practitioner in her native country, Neera’s philosophy became: “Your body is your vehicle; your food is your fuel.” She used her statistical brain to assure her success in setting her children on the right path, health-wise, by creating their breakfast. “She’s taken her traditions and scientifically validated everything,” says Julie. “She was very driven by her love for her family, and a sense of responsibility and duty, which is very traditionally Indian.”

But when her mother found herself doing little else other than making cereal to keep up with word of mouth demand, “[she] finally lost it,” says Julie. She looked to her daughter, who held a business degree and organizational consulting experience courtesy of some sound advice from a stranger, and an understanding of body and mind courtesy of her studies of religion, and training as both a stress management and yoga practitioner. “She said to me, ‘I think you need to do something about this.’”

Four years after the flight, she called the venture capitalist. He not only remembered her, but asked Julie “Who can I introduce you to?” One former VP of Kellogs and one large distributor later, her first two products were on the shelves. Mom’s Healthy Secrets is now a national brand, in stores such as Whole Foods, Sobeys, Loblaws, A&P/Dominion, and Quality Foods. Not bad for a three-year-old.

Yet Mom’s Healthy Secrets’ rapid growth belies the many challenges in nurturing a business. “As a smaller business, I’ve noticed that when I’m in a state of mind that is less motivated, the business moves less quickly. When I am completely driven, ... magic is abundant and amazing things happen.” So she works around the clock. “I’m physically tired but emotionally revved up, ... but I do this because I love it.”

There are the challenges of being the new kid on the cereal aisle, without the marketing budget of some of the other health food brands. “You have to be creative and quick on your feet,” Julie insists. When she needed consultants, she called the Richard Ivey School of Business. “They did a three-day live case study on our business ... I got 75 MBA students to help me.”

Her harbinger venture capitalist, traditional yet modern mother, some eager students, friends, family, and mentors along the way: All have helped Julie in her life and career. But only because she’s let them: “I have no qualms about asking for help because I’ll never know everything. I believe that everyone is here to express a talent.”

Another part of the strategy is using talent properly, and being gracious; Julie gives 10 percent of all profits from her newest line of cereals to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Her beliefs, resourcefulness, and organizational acumen have allowed Julie — Mom’s Healthy Secrets’ only full-time employee — to become a nationally distributed brand, but perhaps more importantly, have allowed her to find that happy place between nurturing a family tradition and having a fulfilling, dynamic outlet that her mother began looking for years ago.