Today we’d like to introduce you to Suzanne Culberg

Hi Suzanne , it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

Originally I was going to be a doctor! I went to medical school, and knew very quickly it was NOT for me. However my parents pressured me to ‘push through’. In my 5th year of medical school (it was a 6 year course of study here in Australia at that time) I was like ‘enough is enough’ and I quit.

I then studied a certificate 3 & 4 in fitness and became a personal trainer. I worked in that industry for just over a year, before deciding to do my diploma of education to become a school teacher. Suffice to say that was not my calling.

I left to work for the government in a public service role, for the following 8 years.

My husband and I decided to start our family and the original plan was to be a stay at home Mum. Suffice to say I didn’t last at that, and when my daughter was 9 months old I returned to my government role. However juggling driving, childcare and work was not something I enjoyed, so I quit to take on a virtual executive assistant role.

From there I did a couple of coaching certifications and became a life coach. In the beginning I had more of an ‘expensive hobby’ then an actual business and the journey from wanna-preneur to entrepreneur was NO where near as smooth as many of the sales pages make it out to be!

Fast foward 7 years and I now have an established coaching business teaching boundaries and helping people pleasers say “NO” without feeling mean! They say you teach what you most need to know and that has certainly been the case for me.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

It has NOT been a smooth road.

Early on in business I struggled to sign clients. For 13 months straight I ran a monthly webinar, I would get up to 100 sign ups, people would rave about my content, but no one would buy.

I would talk about my modalities, including hypnotherapy, then one day a person responded to my email saying “I hired a hypnotherapist after hearing you talk so much about it.” I was SO frustrated, why didn’t she hire me?

I realised I had never directly asked anyone to hire me, I had hinted, and danced around it, but never made a flat out offer.

The very first time someone signed up for a session I was SO overjoyed, only to have them email me the next day asking for a refund (we hadn’t even had the session yet?!) But they said they wanted it ‘in person’ even though I NEVER advertised in person work. I learnt very quickly to be a LOT clearer.

I’ve had people turn up late, no show, quit part way through their package, message me at all hours day and night and then get mad when I didn’t respond immediately. I’ve learned SO many lessons about being clear about what is and isn’t included in our time together, and how to set and uphold boundaries.

All of this has led to me becoming The Nope Coaching and teaching boundaries today, which I love.

We’ve been impressed with The Nope Coach , but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I teach people pleasers, over-givers, martyrs, can’t say No’ers how to set boundaries and say “No” to others in a way that feels good, so that they can say “Yes” to themselves.

I’ve helped hundreds of women break the cycle of putting themselves last and instead build the confidence to set boundaries.

My passion for helping women is fueled by my own experiences of over-giving, over-consuming, and over-doing everything. I’m on a mission to not only help women set boundaries for themselves but also to make boundaries normal. We should be saying “No” more often.

I have a podcast called The Nope Coach which I recorded daily for 365 days straight. During one of the toughest personal years of my life I committed to showing up daily and I grew so much both personally and professionally as a result. I still have the podcast, yet now I realise episodes on a ‘intuitive release’ schedule, which basically means whenever I feel like it.

My current passion project is YouTube and my aim for 2024 is to grow my channel to 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, so I can monetise my channel and make ‘passive’ income that was hundreds of hours in the making!

My YouTube channel includes a weekly YouTube live, free recorded coaching sessions and my podcast episodes.

I also offer 1:1 paid coaching, for individuals who are ready to put themselves first without feeling selfish, and reclaim the unapologetic badass they long to be!

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?

I think we make our own luck! When we are open and looking for opportunities they tend to arise (good luck) and when things ‘fail’ (bad luck) are they truly a failure if we learn a lesson from them? I’ve had many things that have worked out better then I could have imagined, and equally things that were ‘suboptimal’ but each day I keep turning up, trying new things, and reframing the ‘failures’ into lessons so they can become wins.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.suzanneculberg.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzanne_culberg/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@suzanneculberg
• Other: https://www.suzanneculberg.com/newsletter