Our main objective here at the National Coach Academy is to enable aspiring coaches to reach their full professional potential. One of the most effective ways to educate students about the world of coaching is by offering them a window into the world of real, practicing coaches and showing them all the different ways coaches make a difference in the lives of their clients.
We hope today’s interview adds another insightful glimpse into the dynamic world of coaching.
Today we are interviewing Nicolette Tura. Nicolette is a Mindset Coach & Yoga Instructor based in Berkeley, California.
NCA: Can you describe your coaching practice and the kinds of clients you typically work with?
Nicolette: I coach through a program at UC Berkeley. I also have a private coaching practice.
My private coaching practice is always evolving. Right now, I work with mostly women by helping them get unstuck. I guide them from feeling powerless and like they aren’t doing enough to discover the underlying root causes, make important internal shifts to return to their natural weight, sleep better, have clarity and unshakeable self-confidence. I have the gift of using the ancient wisdom — the magical side and the practical side because I am certified in a bunch of esoteric practices. With my coaching from Berkeley, I offer practical behavior change. They get all of that with me.
NCA: What initially got you interested in becoming a coach and what kind of certifications did you need to complete, if any?
Nicolette: I will say coaching found me. I always knew I wanted to help people. I didn’t know how, so I thought it was through the nonprofit avenue. My first set of degrees are in Sociology, Bachelor and Masters. I thought I could change the world through the system and through direct contact in the nonprofit world. But I didn’t know in my late teens/early 20s that I am an empath and a sensitive, so when you don’t know that and you’re helping people at a homeless shelter and so on, you get really depleted.
I had to learn the hard way that my path wasn’t in the frontline and changing the system at that point. So I went and created my own wellness business because I wasn’t taking care of myself so I needed to learn how to do self-care. I built my own business and have been growing it for 8 years.
I’m acupressure certified, yoga certified, Zumba certified, NASM Certified — so many certifications. Corrective exercise to be exact because I care about sitting in an office and what it does to a body.
I worked at Cal as a yoga instructor and the person who leads their coaching program sought me out to become a coach and then took me on and trained me. There is no technical certification. I’ve been doing that for four years. I’ve also been learning hands on from my mentor who has been guiding me through practices I have been adapting into my own and sharing with my clients.
NCA: Can you talk about the most rewarding part of your career and on the flip side of that, the most challenging aspect of the work that you do?
Nicolette: Of all the ways I practice, whether it’s group class, one-on-one, presenting, or teaching, my favorite thing and the most rewarding is coaching. The one-on-one where people are vulnerable. They are in a safe space. They’re seeing they don’t have to do the, “Yeah, yeah. Everything’s great.” I love when a person feels safe when they’re telling me stuff and I get to really serve them and not fix them. It’s helping them help themselves. I feel like that’s the most rewarding.
The most challenging is the amount of energy a healer and a coach puts out and if you aren’t aware of that and you’re giving from a place of depletion, then that’s hard. You really have to make self-care not selfish. We get to model how much self-care is required to keep us in a space where we can handle our lives and be there for them.
NCA: Can you think of a mentor in your career who was the most vital to your success as a coach and in what ways did this mentor help you thrive in your career?
Nicolette: The person who is probably the most impactful on the way I serve, the way I coach, the way I serve as a healer is the woman who helped me work holistically on my own autoimmune and depression. I had a severe depression and it was linked to an autoimmune disorder but I never believed that it would be permanent no matter what any doctor says. I do not subscribe to that. The person who helped me feel better was this healer. I’m grateful for her and how she did see me through. I needed her at the time. She helped me refine my practices.
For a year, I hired a professional coach, Julie Foucht, and her business is The Art of Feminine Marketing. Like me, I feel like she has over 30 years of her expertise and now she has a feminine practice of trusting your intuition and going down the Feminine path after building expertise in the traditional sense. She’s really helped me tap into more tools and meditations to help women with. It’s pretty fabulous.
NCA: What advice would you give to somebody who is just starting out in their coaching career?
Nicolette: I would say it doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to figure it all out. People feel like, “Oh my God. I’m going to go on this call but I don’t know if I can be there for them. I don’t have all the tools and I don’t know everything.” That’s not the point. It’s having your training and just holding that space and trusting and you’re always going to evolve on that path and you’re always going to keep growing.
In summation, don’t be so hard on yourself and trust yourself more.