York life coaches in Britain’s Next Top Coach competition

4:30pm Monday 16th March 2009

By Nicola Fifield

THREE women from York are locked in an online voting battle to be crowned Britain’s Next Top Coach.

Jules Wyman, Rachel Anderson and Julie Pearce are among 57 contestants in with a chance of winning a £100,000 media production and promotion package.

Each entrant has produced a short video giving their top life coaching tip and members of the public are invited to vote for the contestant they find most inspirational.

In July, the four coaches with the most votes will have a final chance to impress when they are filmed giving a coaching lesson.

Jules, 36, who currently tops the leaderboard, said: “Coaching can make a massive difference to your life, whether you want to make more money, have better relationships, lose weight or simply be happier.” Jules, who runs a coaching practice called Positive Belief, in Fishergate, became a confidence coach after turning her own life around. “I was a very unhappy person who didn’t know who I was,” she said.

“I was coping with many challenges, including alcohol and drug abuse, and it got to a stage where I thought there must be more to life than this. About five years ago, my husband gave me a course in life coaching and it went from there.I discovered that I had a talent for empowering others to believe in themselves and fulfil their dreams.”

Rachel, who lives with her husband and three daughters in Sutton-on-the-Forest, set up her own business, called Tea & Empathy Coaching, last year.

The 41-year-old, who worked as a forester for 18 years, said: “I started to realise that although I loved helping trees to grow, my real talent was for helping people to grow and realise their potential.

“My video is about how you can stop yourself feeling upset and angry when things come along to knock you off track.”

Julie, from Bishopthorpe, became a life coach because she wanted to share the methods that helped her lose five dress sizes in nine months.

In 2007, she dropped from size 22 to a trim size 12 after banishing her negative beliefs, and the 46-year-old now runs her own coaching practice, called Blueskythinkinguk. “I’ve been on an amazing journey,” she said. “And now I love seeing my own clients move on in life as well.”

1: Whatever it is you want to do in life, you have to take it one step at a time.

2: Focus on the things you have achieved, rather than the things you haven’t done.

1: Realising you always have a choice you can make – you are in control of your own destiny.

2: Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage rather than pull you down.

3: Don’t think you have to do it all by yourself – you can ask other people to help you see the better side of yourself.

1: Spend five minutes as you go to bed thinking about all the happy moments you’ve had that day.

2: Make a list of all the things in your life that you are grateful for and to keep adding to it.

3: Move your body everyday – go for a walk or dance, anything that gets your circulation going, because it lifts your spirits.