A PROLIFIC CAREER

Productions Tapis Rouge was founded in 1999, two weeks after Julie Massicotte gave birth to her son Samuel. “I’m a designer by trade,” she says. “I liked working on commercial contracts through which I could fully express my creativity. At that time, events were created by lighting companies, DJ companies or by the public relations departments of advertising agencies. The event industry as I developed it simply didn’t exist. I broke new ground.”

Her career has been punctuated by notable events such as the Bal des lumières for the Fondation de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal at the Bell Centre in 2013. "I wasn't afraid of anything," says the woman who was named co-president of youth entrepreneurship in Quebec in 2002 and 2003. "When they called me to tell me that my concept was being bought and that the event would be held at the Bell Centre and not at the Salle des pas perdus as planned, my knees were clenching. It was crazy, but I said yes!"

HIT A WALL

With prestigious clients such as the Montreal Marathon, Mont-Tremblant Resort and the International Order of the Blue Goose, among others, Tapis Rouge Productions quickly made its mark. “For 20 years, I had the pedal to the metal,” she notes. “I was like detached from myself. I didn’t take care of my personal environment. For some time, I had been having worrying symptoms, but I ignored them. I had started having panic attacks.”

On May 21, 2019, Julie Massicotte underwent emergency surgery for a uterine fibroid. Complications led to internal bleeding and cardiac arrest. Already weakened in her personal life, Julie Massicotte received the pandemic-related cancellations like a ton of bricks. “In May 2020, I was on my knees,” she says. “My business no longer had any points of reference. I had just separated. I no longer had a business, no longer had a home. I was not doing well. Result: diagnosis of major exhaustion and post-traumatic shock.”

The businesswoman has begun to mourn her company and her team, whom she considers her family. But the pandemic has also been a revelation in mourning the entrepreneur she had been and could no longer be.

“I’m not just experiencing the loss of a business,” she begins. “It’s a whole. My old self has fallen. I have to rebuild my whole system.”

HEADLIGHTS IN THE NIGHT

To get through this ordeal, Julie Massicotte received help. Psychological help first, but also from her network of friends who gave her unconditional support. She also crossed paths with the man who would become her partner, Jean-François Lacasse, founder of Mayday M'aider , a community of mutual aid and sharing on psychological distress, for which she is one of the ambassadors. "Listening to testimonies from people who have been through this does me a lot of good. I chose to testify in turn ."

With the third wave of COVID-19 in the spring of 2021, Julie Massicotte had to face the facts: she was considering bankruptcy. “Lately, I’ve been holding on by revisiting all the mandates I’m proud of,” she says. “A few months ago, I couldn’t consider my successes. I needed to reflect, to decant. My profession hurts. We can’t imagine gathering 250 people before next fall. My company won’t survive. I don’t see how to make a change right now.”

A philosopher, she nevertheless sees a glimmer of hope: "A Julie 2.0 will emerge from all this. A businesswoman who knows her value better. This is a second life that I am starting. When will we experience a return to the human in events? We are talking more and more about humanizing digital technology. That speaks to me and I see something positive in it. I will no longer do the job as I knew it, but my job is within me."