Beautiful You Coaching Academy Review | Part 2: Interview with founder Julie Parker
This week one year ago I made a decision to attend Beautiful You Coaching Academy, a choice that changed my life forever. In honor of my journey I want to share with you heart of Beautiful You, as well as my experience. I chose to make this a 2-part post because I have SO MUCH GOOD to say about the program and everyone in it. Part 1 was all about my experience with Beautiful You, Part 2 is an interview with founder and lead trainer, Julie Parker.
Julie is one of the kindest, most passionate women I know and it is such an honor to have her interview on the blog. She exemplifies the grace and love that I strive for in my coaching.
If you're thinking of becoming a coach, or wondering why I chose BYCA as my school, get to know Julie today. Her genuine love of life and people rub off on everyone who interacts with her. Working so closely with her through the course made it that much more intimate. She's not only my trainer and owner of the company, she is truly a mentor.
Julie Parker and I at the NYC Beautiful You event June 2015
About Julie Parker:
Julie Parker is one of Australia’s foremost life and business coaches and trainers with more than a decade’s experience inspiring hundreds of clients and thousands of people to create beautiful lives and businesses. The CEO and Founder of The Beautiful You Coaching Academy, Julie passionately trains and supports heart centered and gifted people to bring their talents and love of giving into the world as life coaches.
Julie is a published author and Tedx speaker. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Australia Day Citizenship Award and Business and Professional Women’s Woman of Achievement Award. Julie appears regularly in the media including Today Tonight, A Current Affair, Sunrise and The Morning Show, as well as publications such as Grazia, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Fitness and Health and national newspapers. She is also the Editor in Chief of inspired COACH Magazine.
Julie lives in Melbourne with her husband, stepdaughter and two much loved adopted cats.
Julie, thank you for taking the time to share your story and heart with my tribe.
What inspired you to start BYCA?
"I have been a life and business coach for more than fifteen years and in the last years of working with my clients before establishing the Beautiful You Coaching Academy, I was chiefly coaching coaches. They wanted to learn how I was coaching my clients and marketing myself to create the sort of business they wanted for themselves.
I loved helping them in a way that was soulful, authentic and focused on how they wanted to feel as a coach and entrepreneur every day. However eventually I became so in demand (a very lovely issue to have!) that I had a six month waiting list and I knew I couldn’t sustain that for any length of time.
I consulted an amazing business coach and she bought to the surface something I had been secretly thinking about for a long time which was starting a life coaching academy training coaches, (and those who wanted to become one), in the way I was successfully working with clients, something I had developed and evolved over many years.
And we started small with a lovely pilot group and since then have grown to have hundreds of Beautiful You Life Coaches from all over the world. I love training them and seeing the incredible impact they are having on the world."
"I founded the Beautiful You Coaching Academy out of my sheer love for and commitment to coaching."
What is different about BYCA compared to other schools?
The Beautiful You Life Coaching Course is very heart centered, caring, inclusive and embracing of people who want to bring their own skills, passions, education and experiences to become the type of coach that is going to make them feel happy, fulfilled and like they are making a real difference in the world. We provide our trainees with an incredible coaching model that is certified by the International Coaching Federation and that we know works, however we want everyone who learns with us to take what we teach them and truly make it their own.
We are not the sort of training school that tells people you must ‘do it this way’ or that you are a ‘bad’ coach if you don’t. We are much more flexible, open and inclusive than that and I am sure that’s the reason why we attract truly caring, soulful trainees that are creating successful coaching businesses in their own way and inspiring so many clients while doing so. It also I am sure is part of the reason why our courses are so in demand and often sell out months in advance!
What is your favorite part of your job?
I’d love to sneak in two if I may!
I get a thrill every time I see a Beautiful You Coaching Academy trainee or new coach shout from the rooftops when they get their first paying client. That will never get old for me and I am always so overjoyed for them when it happens.
The second is seeing the incredible relationships that develop in every course with people from all over the world. It is truly magical and I feel very blessed to be a small part of seeing that unfold and the richness it brings to our coaches lives.
What would she say to someone wanting to be a coach, but is unsure if they are "healthy" or "emotionally ready" enough?
Be lovingly honest with yourself.
If you genuinely feel as though you need loving time to entirely focus on you and your own healing then take that and know that if becoming a life coach is calling you – it will still be there when you are feeling stronger. However also know that it is a myth that life coaches need to have ‘perfect lives’ – everything sorted out – be fully ok all the time – never get things wrong – not make mistakes – have pristine relationships – and whatever else perfectionist type binds we place on ourselves.
"The best coaches are those who embrace their flaws and the messiness of life."
Clients do not want to see pristine versions of people that we may think we know on the internet, but in reality are a façade of what is a genuine life. They want someone real, relatable and working through the inevitable peaks and valleys of life like we all do.
And so if you know you are not available enough to help others because you need help first – then by all means be brave and work on you to get those things back to a loving place for yourself. If however you just ‘think’ you have to have those things where they ‘should’ be then please give yourself a nice break! You are totally enough as you are and do not need to be anything more than yourself to be a wonderful coach.
I asked Julie these specific questions today because they were the questions I asked when I was searching for my path. Why Beautiful You? Would I truly love this job? What if I'm not ready? What if I'm not enough? What does "heart centered" mean and how can I become wholehearted?
All of these questions were answered on my journey with BYCA and continue to show themselves true. Julie is a complete inspiration to me, and even more of a peach in person. (As you can see above, we are total floral twins!)
If you would like to hear more from Julie, find her on the Beautiful You site, Facebook, and Instagram.
If you want to chat with me more about my experience with Beautiful You, I would love to chat. Shoot me a message! Read about my experience with BYCA here.
xx,
-Madison