Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Turkel.
Hi Julie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a NYC-based brand management and licensing consultant working with a range of creative, founder-led brands, and more recently, I’ve also become a content creator on TikTok.
I started my career in media, working at Nickelodeon and Discovery, where I managed licensed toy businesses with partners like Mattel and Target. Around 2001, I left corporate and started my own business because I saw an opportunity in the market. At the time, high-end designers collaborating with mass retailers was still relatively new, and I felt there was a niche in the licensing industry that no one was really focusing on yet.
I’ve always been passionate about design, fashion, and interiors, so I started approaching designers I admired, including Nate Berkus, who was on Oprah at the time. It was definitely a mix of intuition, timing, and luck that some of those early clients were open to working with a new business like mine.
That was over 25 years ago, and since then, I’ve had the opportunity to help build some incredible brands and, in some cases, help introduce entirely new names to the market, like Dabney Lee.
Over the past few years, the “brand collab” has become one of the dominant marketing strategies for both legacy and emerging brands. In many ways, it’s just a newer, cooler term for brand licensing.
A few years ago, I started sharing my thoughts and analysis around brand collaborations on TikTok, and I unexpectedly built a community there. That visibility has led to broader advisory work with larger companies, including a major auction house and private equity-backed businesses, as well as more holistic consulting engagements focused on branding, partnerships, e-commerce, and digital marketing.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I started my business in New York just a few months after 9/11, so I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a completely “smooth” road. I also started the company with a business partner, who left the business in 2008 during the financial crisis. Since then, I’ve navigated building a business through major life events, including having children, divorce, and COVID.
The licensing business is also largely commission-based, so your business is often impacted by what’s happening with your clients and partners. When markets shift, retail shifts, or consumer behavior changes, you feel it.
I think those experiences shaped me into someone who is constantly evolving and expanding. I’ve learned how to pivot, diversify revenue streams, and adapt to changing markets, which is also the core of what I help my clients do. Whether it’s through licensing, partnerships, digital marketing, personal branding, or new business models, I’ve always believed in staying flexible and looking for opportunity even during periods of uncertainty.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I’ve been in the brand licensing and partnership business for 25 years, and I built most of my reputation before the internet existed. I spotted Nate Berkus on Oprah, found his number in the phone book, and called him. He wanted to do a line of candles. I built him a multimillion-dollar lifestyle brand with a shop-within-shop at a major US home retailer. That’s still how I work. I see something popping off before most people do, and then I figure out how to expand it.
What I do sits at the intersection of brand strategy, licensing, partnerships, and fractional CMO work. I help founder-led creative and consumer brands grow without losing what makes them interesting in the first place. That might look like a licensing program, a partnership framework, brand guidelines, an e-commerce overhaul, or a book deal. Sometimes it’s all of those things at once.
What sets me apart is that I’ve lived this from every angle. I’ve been the agent, the strategist, the fractional CMO, and the creator. I’m also a brand myself. I show up on TikTok talking about brand strategy and partnerships through a cultural lens, which means I understand the digital space in a way that most people with my background don’t. My clients get someone who can read a licensing contract and read the room on social media in the same breath.
What I’m most proud of is the longevity of what I’ve built for people. Dabney Lee is in TJ Maxx and HomeGoods after twelve years and $40M in wholesale sales. Nate Berkus became a household name. These aren’t flash-in-the-pan deals. They’re businesses that compound over time.
What I want your readers to know is that if you have a brand with real potential and you’re not sure how to turn it into something bigger — a product line, a licensing program, a partnership that actually moves the needle — that’s exactly what I do. And I’m now working with founders and brands directly through strategy sessions and advisory engagements.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
A few things I wish I had known earlier.
The first is about pricing. Early in my career, a high-profile designer asked me to cut my price to sign with him. Someone told me something that stopped me: your price is your price.
Here’s why that matters especially in a business like mine. I negotiate on behalf of my clients. I represent their interests in rooms where people are trying to get the best deal possible. If I fold on my own pricing the moment someone pushes back, what does that say about how I’ll hold the line for them? My clients are watching how I conduct business before they ever see me in a negotiation. Define your value clearly and hold it.
The second is about intellectual property. Trademark your brand from the start. We’re watching so many businesses make costly, public mistakes with their filings right now, playing out in real time on social media.
And hire the best people you can afford, not the cheapest. The people you bring in early set the foundation for everything that comes after.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stan.store/julieturkel
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamjulieturkel/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieturkel/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@julieturkel?_t=8r7wXRfOMCk&_r=1&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnb8y6Rz9X0K71o2V4JzNc_rZBeq5K0j0vjpxezJ8NDelKdaFw4LNUZRgj4qk_aem_UCYe3MAnxyj8HjI3S9hsWA
