Jules Schroeder has always been the kind of founder who turns lived experience into living architecture.

Unconventional Life did not begin as a polished brand with a launch strategy and a content calendar. It began as a visceral wake-up call. A near-death experience cracked open a different way of seeing the world, followed by a vision of entrepreneurs gathering in Bali and building businesses that did not cost them their lives.

Nearly a decade later, approaching the 500-episode mark, Jules is doing what she has done best all along. She is evolving the platform with intention. This season, Unconventional Life is expanding into more in-person segments while Jules simultaneously launches The Jules King Show to support her music era, with “Letting It Go” already released and more on the way.

But what makes this episode unusually powerful is not the milestone.

It is the return to the origin story, told not from a stage, but from a family couch.

This is the Schroeder sisters episode. Jules, Mary, and Raya. Three women shaped by the same household, the same expectations, and the same pressure to make something of your life. They are now building something bigger together.

A creative agency. A body of work. A philosophy.

And a model they call The Business of Being You.

Three Sisters, One Shared Pattern: The “Safe Path” Was Never the Point

The Schroeder sisters grew up with a clear script. Work hard. Do not slack. Rise.

Their father worked on Wall Street, carrying the imprint of an immigrant mindset. Bootstrap yourself. Outperform your circumstances. Stay safe.

In that world, being an artist was not considered a career. It was considered a risk.

Raya remembers loving art as a child. Painting. Creating. Losing herself in the craft. But building a life from it never felt available. She chose psychology, the “safe degree,” assuming creativity would remain a hobby.

Mary, in contrast, went fully unconventional. She became a professional circus artist, training handstands and hula hoop juggling, touring Europe, and building a life around an art form most people cannot even name. But with that came a quieter belief that followed her for years.

Choosing art meant choosing struggle.

Not logically. Identity-wise.

“I became addicted to a belief system,” Mary shares. “Not having money became part of my identity.”

It is the part many people feel but rarely say out loud.

Not because it is untrue, but because it is uncomfortable.

And in this conversation, discomfort is treated as information.

The “Starving Artist” Identity Is a Costume, and It Gets Heavy

Mary’s turning point came during the pandemic when she began learning digital marketing and realized something that shifted her internal economy completely.

She could generate income remotely from anywhere. Her gifts did not have to live in a single box.

She was not only a circus artist. She was also a storyteller. A strategist. A guide for others stepping into visibility without betraying themselves.

The biggest breakthrough was not a tactic. It was permission.

The permission to stop apologizing for wanting more.

Mary speaks about how desire shrinks over time when it is denied. Month after month. Year after year. Until people barely recognize themselves. For her, the work was not just mindset. It was nervous system regulation. Somatic rewiring. Learning how to be in choice again.

Because old beliefs are not just thoughts.

They are patterns the body learned to call safe.

Raya’s Career Began in the Unsexy Part of the Internet

Raya’s entry into creative work did not look glamorous.

Jules pulled her into the early days of Unconventional Life with a simple invitation. You love art. You love design. I need websites.

This was before plug-and-play templates. Before the creator economy had a name. Before step-by-step AI instructions existed. Raya learned by digging through text-heavy forums, archived threads, and tutorials that felt like decoding another language.

The work was slow.

But it mattered.

It proved that art could be practical. That creativity could be monetized. That the outcome their father feared was not the only one available.

Today, Raya says it plainly.

The starving artist narrative is outdated.

Not because hardship is gone, but because opportunity has expanded. Web design, branding, digital products, creative services, and niche education now allow artists to reach audiences who need what they offer.

Which brings them to the deeper conversation.

Magnetism Is Not Aesthetic. It Is Congruency.

People have told Jules for years that there is something about her brand. Something difficult to name, but easy to feel.

She calls it magnetism. Not a performance, but alignment. What happens on camera matches what happens off camera.

This is the foundation behind Pink Lemon Agency, the female-led creative marketing agency the sisters founded together. Their work centers on empathic, authentic marketing designed for women, moving away from exploitative tactics that rely on fear and pressure.

Marketing has evolved.

The brands that win now are built on honesty, congruency, and grounded ambition.

Lifestyle Freedom: Why Building the Business First Often Backfires

Jules shares a pivotal moment from her journey. As Unconventional Life scaled, the world applauded. Features grew. Visibility expanded. But privately, her personal life felt like an afterthought.

Then she got sick. Early onset MS. Autoimmune Lyme flare ups. Uncertainty about whether she could even continue.

The question that followed changed everything.

What does success mean if you do not have time, health, or relationships?

Most people build in this order: Build the business. Make the money. Create the lifestyle later.

Many never reach the third step.

They reach the income and lose the life.

Jules began reversing the order. Engineer the lifestyle first. Then build the business backward to support it.

Raya adds her own lived experience. The well-paying job. The long hours. The quiet guilt of not being present for family and relationships.

Mary adds the nuance. Time freedom and location freedom have become buzzwords, but without a deeper why, they become another chase.

Lifestyle freedom is personal.

For Mary, it looks like two months in Norway hiking under the midnight sun. For Jules, maybe a long weekend.

That difference is the point.

Freedom is not a template. It is a design.

Identity and Income: Why Charging Changes Everything

Many people can sell for someone else. But when they have to say, “This is who I am and what I do,” they freeze.

Visibility feels safe when it is free. Charging brings worthiness into the room.

Mary and Jules see this pattern constantly in their work. Pink Lemon is not just a branding agency. It is often a place where people come face to face with parts of themselves they have avoided.

Mary names it perfectly.

“I feel like I’m a doula for ideas.”

Because ideas do not just need strategy. They need safety.

The Zone of Turbulence Before Every Breakthrough

Jules offers a metaphor that stays with you. Astronauts do not reach space without turbulence. They train for the burn. They learn how to breathe through it.

In life and business, the zone of turbulence is the expansion threshold. A new income level. Greater visibility. Higher stakes.

People touch it, then sabotage, stall, or spiral back down. Not because they lack capability, but because their nervous system has not learned to hold that capacity yet.

Without that capacity, people default to what feels familiar.

Even when it is smaller than the life they want.

Stop Watching Waves and Get in the Water

Near the end of the episode, Jules compares growth to surfing.

You can sit on the beach for years preparing. You can consume podcasts and courses and call it productivity. You can plan forever.

But waves do not wait.

Mary admits she spent a long time convincing herself she was preparing when she was really avoiding being seen. Jules names it clearly. The real work is visibility.

Then the sisters bring levity into the lesson.

Mary is launching a brand-new handstand course and Instagram account, facing resistance in real time. Jules shares the now-legendary story of Mary spending sixty dollars on toilet paper rolls to stack them on her legs in a handstand. Lights set up. Family filming. Dad narrating. Full production chaos.

It is hilarious.

And it is the thesis.

The people who move forward are not the ones who never feel resistance. They are the ones who build structures, community, stakes, and support that make staying stuck no longer an option.