Julien’s path.

The path

Twelve steps, one thread.

1. Boarding school

   Boarding school — where teaching began (unknowingly)

   At boarding school I started giving remedial English lessons to my classmates, and German lessons too. I was picking up teaching skills without any idea that’s what I was doing — the very first thread of everything that came after.
2. 2000–2004

   Brussels: theory, and a quiet second education

   Four years at ICHEC Management School earned me an undergraduate business diploma — and left me bombarded with academic theory I simply couldn’t picture translating into real work. I stopped my studies there and moved to the UK. But something else was quietly happening: I’d become the first-line help for English and German, and my student accommodation turned into a hub for late-night revision and exam prep — refining teaching skills I still didn’t know I had.
3. 2005

   CELTA: the click

   A CELTA teaching course clicked immediately. Without realising it, I’d been trained in facilitated learning rather than lecturing — and in language-skills training that sits remarkably close to soft-skills and communication training. The method that defines my work today started right here.
4. 2005–2012

   Al-Khair Institute, Yemen: managing without noticing

   Teaching English at Al-Khair, I drifted into admin and management without even realising it — I just did what seemed normal. Organising, running, fixing: it turned out I’d been managing long before I had a word for it.
5. ~2008

   My first business: the gap gets real

   I opened my first company with two of my own English students. Here the theory-to-practice gap became painfully obvious, and I struggled to close it. I devoured management and self-development books — Getting Things Done (David Allen), What Management Is (Joan Magretta) and Winning (Jack Welch) stood out most. The most brutal lesson was sales: in B2B, a nice website was never going to cut it. I had to knock on doors and overcome a wall of phobias, so I devoured sales books and courses until I finally broke through and started selling.
6. 2013

   The Open University: theory that finally connected

   Studying for my management degree with the OU was a revelation. Unlike ICHEC, almost everything was problem-based and built for implementation — theory I could actually use.
7. 2013

   Muscat, Oman: my first seminar

   I delivered my first official training seminar — on leadership, in Muscat — with material I designed entirely myself, in Arabic, and delivered in Arabic. It was a real success, and the confidence it gave me set the direction for everything after.
8. Late 2014

   Yemen: building an ecodome by hand

   On a development project in Yemen, I built a superadobe ecodome house from the ground up — design, planning, sourcing tools and materials, managing the crew, and getting my own hands dirty in the construction. My first major project-management experience, start to finish.

   

9. 2015–2019

   Ibn Sina National College, Jeddah: leading a department

   As Head of Department and course coordinator, I led a team of about a dozen instructors through MOE and NCAAA accreditation, and in 2017 was appointed Chairman of the Languages and Islamic Studies Department.
10. 2016 & 2020

    Aquaponics: theory to rooftop

    I took an aquaponics design course and earned an A+ on the final design, then in 2020 built my first experimental system on a Jeddah rooftop — theory turned into something living and working.

    

11. 2019–2023

    Princeton English Academy, Jeddah: training under pressure

    I delivered English and professional training in Jeddah, alongside accreditation and curriculum projects.

    

12. 2023–present

    Freelance corporate trainer

    Everything since has come together as freelance corporate training: practical sessions for corporate and government teams across Saudi Arabia and online, for clients including Flynas, Renfe and Sulzer. Relevant theory, brought to application.