We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Julie Reisler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Julie below.

Alright, Julie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Growing and scaling my business has taken time, and many twists and turns before realizing my main offering. I graduated a decade ago with a master’s degree in health & wellness coaching from the Maryland University of Integrative Health. I was a single mom at the time and after falling in love with the transformative work of coaching, I chose to finally leave my corporate day job (benefits, bonuses, guaranteed salary and all) to start my own life design coaching business. I had minimal to no entrepreneurial experience, yet felt passionate about the power of coaching and what I’d experienced personally and with the few clients who stayed on with me after my practicum at school. I initially started out coaching leaders, working in corporate systems, the military and government as a coach and facilitator of leadership and team development. I was asked to be a professor at Georgetown University in their coaching program and began teaching the fundamentals of coaching and took on individual clients who all seemed to have a similar ambition and interest to be their best self, maximize their potential and add value and be of service in the world. Another interest as I was teaching, facilitating and coaching was keeping up to date on how mindfulness, mindset and the healing arts can affect our wellbeing, health and even success. I decided to start a podcast that focused on bringing in experts and luminaries to share wisdom on how to be what I call your ‘You-est You’. Before the pandemic, I was trying to balance a lot — I was a teaching and coaching as a contractor with a high level training company working within government systems and well known companies like CareFirst, UnderArmor and Pandora Jewelers, working with my personal coaching clients, recording weekly episodes for my podcast, traveling to speak and lead trainings at conferences and workshops, writing books, finishing a certification and being a part of two mastermind programs, all the while trying to be a present mom to my two children and with my husband (newly married). I experienced incredible exhaustion and burnout, and while my passion was at an all time high, my energy and rest suffered. The pandemic proved to be a blessing in disguise, in many ways, as I was forced to slow down and to look at my time and energy from the perspective of what I loved, where I could serve the most and what would grow my business. I had always thought about creating a coaching certification program that could weave in the other training and certifications I had in science backed work like Energy Healing, Appreciative Inquiry (Positive Psychology), Heart Intelligence and Intuition and mindset. I literally woke up one March morning early into the pandemic and realized that now was the time to create my own coaching certification program. I had trademarked the term ‘Life Designer’ because I always felt coaching was really about getting back in the driver’s seat of your life to create what you love most and to design your best life. I created the modules, coursework, study guide, slides and entire Life Designer® Coach Academy certification program within a month, and launched my first certification cohort that spring. I’ve been teaching this certification virtually and in live classes to students all over the globe, like France, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, London, Grenada, etc. Two and a half years later, I have just about 70 graduates and am about to launch my 9th cohort, which will bring in some of my most seasoned mentor coaches to help teach. I believe in evolving and growing with each program, and will soon be launching my 9th cohort with a model that is now scalable. This has turned out to be a deep passion of mine as well as a prosperous business venture. What thrills me the most is being able to certify coaches from an integrative and in-depth foundation that teaches the core competencies, proven practices, strategies and gives a personal transformational experience on every level.

Julie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I come by this work honestly and from my own past struggles with addiction (namely sugar and food addiction) and years of personal development work within a 12 step program and with counselors, coaches and other healing modalities. I found a coach who changed my life with one powerful question and knew I had to devote my life to learning how to help others in a similar way. I went back to school for my master’s degree in coaching and started my business at 40, as a single mom.

A little more about my background– twenty years ago, it took polishing off two pounds of M&Ms in a 15-minute sitting, and getting sick for three whole days afterward, for me to realize that something major needed to be addressed in my life.
You see, I had been using food to cope with my emotions since I was a teenager. I gained and lost 40 pounds four different times. Whenever I felt upset, afraid, worried, angry—you name it—I would eat to feel better and distract myself from what was really going on inside of me. I abandoned and bullied myself and did not treat myself the way I treated others.

While I certainly had many shameful binge moments over the years, this one was crossing the line big time. And you know what? I’m grateful for it. Because if you looked at my life back then, I had it all. The handsome, kind husband. The successful career. The beautiful house. The adorable children. I was supposed to be happy. Yet, I felt like a mess on the inside. And every time I plastered another fake smile on my face—trying to show everyone that I had it all together—I felt like a fraud. The M&Ms episode helped me realize that I had to face what was really going on with me. And that compelled me to make some big moves. I started going to therapy. I joined an emotional eating recovery group. And I gave notice at my job.

As I dug into the muck of my inner world, I found a lot of truths that I’d pushed away for many years. The first one being that I was a major people pleaser, and for most of my life I made decisions based on the opinions of others, not my own.
In fact, I had built a life around being what everyone else wanted me to be.It finally forced me to ask myself one very important question…Why am I doing this to myself? As all of these truths rose to the surface, I realized that the reason I was so unhappy, so lost, so afraid was because I had lost touch with myself. I had spent so much time being someone else that I didn’t know how to be myself, and I certainly didn’t know how to make myself happy.

I changed every aspect of my life and started to trust and follow my own inner guidance, and began teaching this to other ambitious leaders, entrepreneurs and creatives. Today, I think of myself as an interior designer for your soul. As a mentor for heart-led change-makers, I’m here to guide individuals back to their best self and help them manifest their biggest dreams.

I’m proud of myself for having the courage (which means ‘of the heart’) to do a full u-turn in life so I could follow my gifts, talents and greatest passions and purpose. I am grateful for the incredible podcast I created 5 years ago that has had luminaries and experts like Martha Beck, Mel Robbins, Marie Forleo, Gay Hendricks, Dr. Bruce Lipton, Rha Goddess and many others. These interviews have helped me and my own wellbeing and thankfully that of thousands in over 175 countries. I believe that when we follow our inner voice and wisdom, miracles happen.

I am also the author of Get a PhD in YOU, a book that wrote itself when I realized that I wanted to share what took my 20 years to figure out. It was written to my younger self and all those who suffer with the ‘not good enough’ and imposter syndrome. I’ve given two TEDx talks all about how to watch the words you say to yourself and why spending time on your own personal awareness is a priceless investment.

Today, I have a beautiful and thriving business with a small but mighty team of amazing women leaders who are helping me and our community to be our best selves through my coaching certification, speaking, books, show and work in the world. We all have the power to intentionally design our dream lives, and that’s what I love to mentor others to do!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I grew up outside of Boston in the town over from Harvard where I was surrounded by a lot of ambitious, overachieving, highly intelligent peers. Somewhere along the line I learned that I needed to push, work harder than others and achieve to feel worthy and like I was adding value. The problem is that staying in this type of high achieving energy and mindset is exhaustive on all levels — physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. One of my biggest lessons was learning to do less, say no, create clear boundaries, stop working at night and over the weekends and give my time for real rest and rejuvenation. I still work on this daily and have noticed a huge improvement in my health and energy levels.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have a library of transformative books. Here are a few that I would recommend to anyone on the entrepreneurial journey: 1) The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks (I had him on my podcast and this book is life changing. It will help you redefine your relationship with yourself, what’s possible and even with time)
2) Sacred Success by Barbara Stanny Huson (This is a powerful book, especially for women entrepreneurs, in how to be successful and humble, and tap into your highest potential on the road to success.)
3) Mindset by Carol Dweck (This is a must read for anyone, but especially if you’re called to become an entrepreneur.)
4) Whole Brain Living by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor (You will have a beautiful understanding of your brain and your emotional wellbeing, plus this book is a joy to read. Dr. Jill has been on my show twice and shares her brilliance with humor and wit.)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://juliereisler.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliereisler
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JulieReislerLifeDesigner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliereisler/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter/juliereisler
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/juliereisler
• Other: https://insighttimer.com/juliereisler

Image Credits
Photo credit: Melissa Henry