Julie Rees: From Farm to Skyscraper - Building a Career, a Company, and a Life on Her Terms
Season 1 | Episode 6 - Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth
What happens when a poetry-reading farm girl from rural Wales accidentally overhears a classmate say “chartered surveyor”—and decides, on the spot, that’s what she’ll become?
For Julie Rees, that offhand comment launched a 40-year journey through one of the UK’s most competitive, male-dominated industries. In this episode of Places She Shapes, Zoe Smeeth sits down with Julie to trace the surprising, sometimes brutal, often brilliant path she’s walked—from the fields of Carmarthenshire to the boardrooms of London, with a few transatlantic detours along the way.
They talk about the challenges of breaking into commercial property in the 1980s as one of the only women in the room (or on the team, or on the floor), what it felt like to be called “the first member of the fairer sex” in a company memo, and how Julie weathered career curveballs, from sudden redundancies to motherhood, without ever losing her footing… or her sense of humour.
This is an episode about shaping your own path when none exists. About embracing failure as a plot twist, not an ending. About the value of mentorship, old-school phone calls, and marble-floored lobbies that look like they were designed by Bond villains.
Julie’s story is full of wisdom, wit, and the kind of practical, no-nonsense perspective that only comes from having actually done the thing—led the team, closed the deal, got back up after the fall, and built something better from the rubble.
Whether you're at the start of your career or facing your own “what now?” moment, this one’s for you.
🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.