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Julie DeLucca-Collins Helping Women Re-imagine Their Lives
Manage episode 282762704 series 2376807
Julie DeLucca-Collins, the founder and CEO of Go Confidently Coaching, host of the popular Casa De-Confidence podcast and author of the new book, “Confident You.” Julie's been a successful executor for 20 plus years, and recently completed her tenure as Chief Innovation Officer for an academic solutions company based in New York city. Her goal is to help others re-imagine their life. She has extensive experience in business development, strategic planning, staff development, leadership skills, life coaching and a vast history of assisting people in finding success. Her individualized positive approach helps her clients identify and attain their goals.
Learn more about Julie.
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Full Transcript:
Passionistas: Hi, and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast, where we talk with women who are following their passions to inspire you to do the same.
We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. And today we're talking with Julie DeLucca-Collins, the founder and CEO of Go Confidently Coaching, host of the popular Casa De-Confidence podcast and author of the new book, “Confident You.” Julie's been a successful executor for 20 plus years, and recently completed her tenure as Chief Innovation Officer for an academic solutions company based in New York city. Her goal is to help others. re-imagine their life.
She has extensive experience in business development, strategic planning, staff development, leadership skills, life coaching and a vast history of assisting people in finding success. Her individualized positive approach helps her clients identify and attain their goals.
So please welcome to the show, Julie DeLucca-Collins. Thanks.
Julie DeLucca-Collins: Thank you ladies. It's so exciting to be joining you again for some amazing conversation.
Passionistas: We're so happy to have you here. What's the one thing you're most passionate about?
Julie: My most passionate, uh, thing that I can talk about is just becoming a better version of myself because there are so many directions that life can pull us. And I have found that when I am just stagnant and not growing and, and in my growth takes place through a lot of different things, right? But it takes place through anything that I read or my, my trainings, or, but for me, I'm passionate about being the best version of me, because then I can show up better for the people that I love and I can show up better as a wife, as an auntie or as a community leader. And that's, that makes me super passionate. And again, things that make me better also include traveling, which we're not doing. I'm a, I'm an avid traveler. And I miss that a lot and I can't wait because I think what I have gained from being in other places, learning other cultures and meeting people from around the world has definitely changed me. And I'm passionate about that overall.
Passionistas: How does that translate into what you do for a living?
Julie: It was a, a small transition really, because everything that I am doing now is everything that I've done in my career before, while working for an educational company, I really had to figure out one how to strategize for the organization and grow the organization. And number two, I had to really be able to also learn some things that maybe were a little bit out of my comfort zone. And the organization grew from a small mom and pop to a large organization, a multi-million dollar organization. We expanded to provide services, but I wanted to make sure that everything that we were creating was something that was going to be meaningful to wherever our partners were in education, whether it'd be a school district or a parent or teachers, and in the same way in how that translates right now to what I'm doing is I know that I need to continue to learn right.
And strategize, like, how do I, how can I help these women in this group that I'm helping. Through self-love right. Or a lot of women that I'm working with as well are dealing with overwhelm because let's face it. It's a little bit of a, what everyone has been experiencing right now. So it translates in the sense that I have been learning so much more about for myself and growing myself. How, how can I be more peaceful? How can I grow my mindfulness practice? And then translate that into giving those things to the people that I partner or, or work with in my practice. And again, strategizing helping them strategize. I'm really good about you. Tell me what you want to do or what your goals are, or maybe you're not sure how to figure it out. My mind works in such a way like, “Ooh, have you ever thought of?” and then I start to, you know, maybe you could partner with this or this may be an opportunity.
This is really a great gift for you. And this is a way to go. And my mind just starts to put pieces together that then I help people work through in the same way that I did in business. Right? “Oh, Pat, how about we offer this service and be able to support principals and maybe training their teachers and yoga or mindfulness or whatever it might be.”
Passionistas: Why did you choose a career in education?
Julie: For me, it was something that was just a neat. My grandparents who were a big influence in my life were both educators. My grandmother in particular, she was born in 1905 at the turn of the century and she was in El Salvador, but she came from a very affluent home. Her father was a well, very well-regarded engineer. He was very well known in the country and traveled extensively. He came from Spain.
He studied in San Francisco as a matter of fact, and created this life from my grandmother of comfort. And as most women in that age, she was encouraged to just follow her passions. She was, she loved to play the piano, but she also wanted to become an educator. She wanted to be a teacher. It was something that she felt passionate about. So my grandfather continued to encourage her to go to school because he wanted to keep her busy and not necessarily go out into the workforce. Cause that was really unseen for someone, um, of my grandmother's background. Eventually my grandmother said, okay, I'm done. I really want to teach. So he built a school for her. So growing up in El Salvador until I was about 10, although we traveled to New York to see my dad's family, I really had this amazing influence in my life in which I saw her as a teacher.
I saw her as a community leader or principal. So for me, I started teaching my sisters and my cousins in a very early age. I also, we used to play kingdom with my cousins and my sisters and I was not the queen. I was the prime minister because my grandmother would always say to me that, you know, the prime minister is the one that has the power. So I learned from that early age that I wanted to definitely teach. And it, it comes very naturally to me. However, I also liked the leadership component and that's something I was always told that you better be a leader, not a follower, my grandfather, and the same way he came from a very different background. He was an educator, but he really came from a very poor environment. He was a child out of wedlock and had to fight for everything.
His brother wanted him to be a Shoemaker and sent him to the capital city from their small village to learn the trade of being a Shoemaker. But my grandfather wanted more. So everything that he earned in the Shoemaker and shop, he actually saved. So he could put himself through school. And that's what my grandparents met when they were both teachers. And in a, again, I, he went on to teach at night at the university and, and, and at night school, but he also went into business and was an executive in a large company. So I had those two examples. So growing up, I definitely had no choice. I started my career as a teacher, as a preschool teacher. I later on worked with middle school and I loved it, but I also had this sense that there was more in me and there was more so I sort of floated through life in my late twenties.
And when I was living in New York, I was hired by a company that sort of took both of my skills in education. And also because I put myself through school, working in retail, my retail business background. And from there, this company does a really great job at just growing people from within training them, building them. And I grew through the company for the next, almost 10 years to the executive level and learned a lot from them.
Passionistas: And what was that company?
Julie: Huntington Learning Center. So it's, it's a, it's a national tutoring company and the tutoring company itself. It's, I mean, I, I, I do, you know, worked for them and I have great passion for them because I know how well they do what they do. Actually. I just had in Huntington, who is the daughter or the founders on my podcast, it's amazing to see her because when I first met her, she was in elementary school getting ready to go into, into junior high and or middle school rather.
And now she is the president of the company cause she's taken over the legacy of her parents. And she's so passionate as well as, as far as education and everything that she does. And it has been a phenomenal journey and reconnecting with her and being able to work together because she, she is a supporter of arts and programs and a philanthropist. So it's amazing to see that, but that company really helped me come into my own in, in meld both of the sides of me, the education part, but also the, the entrepreneur or that business like, and I, and throughout the company, I had the opportunity to really, they were exploring, entering into contracts with school districts. So I helped to develop this brand new line of business for them. And I went from being just the coordinator of the program to grow into the manager, to then, uh, training the national franchisees, to developing a whole strategy for expanding this business side, to partnering with school districts.
By the time I left the company, I actually had helped to create over 157 school district contracts, which they didn't have before and get us approved in over 40 States to be a provider of services and partner with them. So it was a great experience and I loved it. And, but I also wanted to move into a different direction as far as not traveling as much. And I wanted to also the woman who the company that I went to was very similar, but she was based in New York. And she was a woman who was passionate about also teaching, but also didn't have the experience and expanding in the business side. So it was a great marriage for me to be able to come in and help her expand her business.
Passionistas: And what business was that?
Julie: The name of the company is Brienza's Academic Advantage and Mrs. Brienza or Lillian as, uh, every money knew her was a former educator. And she was just an incredible mentors. Another mom, if you, if you would. And, uh, she, she did such an amazing job at just by sheer force and passion starting this, this business out of nothing. And she grew it to also be a multi-million dollar company, but she wanted to really be able to bring other people in. And I had met Lillian doing some advocating in Capitol Hill. As a matter of fact, we had both representing our individual companies. We're talking to lawmakers on education issues and things that mattered when it came to funding and how they should hopefully send some fund to help underprivileged kids. So that's how I met Lillian. And I was with Lillian. I was with her company for over 12 years. The difficulty is Lillian passed away three years ago.
So, you know, the, the vision and, and obviously changes in the company came about. And really we scaled a little bit back. And at this point with COVID things really took a, a challenging turn. And for us, it was a mutual path that I started to had been doing some of the stuff that I'm doing now, working with women, leadership programs, coaching and mentoring. And it was a good time for me to, you know, unfortunately they had to let me go. And it was something that I, I, it was a difficult partying, but a mutual, you know, beneficial in the sense that they needed to grow and continue. And obviously it's hard to keep everybody on staff on your programs have been scaled so rapidly.
Passionistas: So the good news is that you struck out on your own. It's not always an easy transition. We've there before too. But sometimes it feels like the universe is telling you that you're supposed to be doing something else, whether you think you're ready for it or not.
Julie: Oh, Amy. I totally agree. I think that in the last year, and as I was going through my social, emotional learning facilitator training in the yoga teacher certification, which I did in order to, to create programs, to support the schools and districts that we worked with, I really found that I was so passionate about, wow, I really loved working with these women. I really love in this mentoring program. Wow. I'm working with this private client. And I thought, you know what, someday, maybe this is something I can transition to it some day. Maybe this is something that I could do, but of course the fear of, Ooh, how would I do this? And you know, what would that look like? Now? Obviously, if I were coach and myself, I would have been able to lay out a plan and say, this is how you do it. This is how you go about, it's no big deal. You can do it. It does, you know, and it wasn't until I was faced with a choice of, okay, I have to do something. And I thought, well, no time like the present. So here we are.
Passionistas: Since you do, do this for a living, you do, do this for other people. And I don't think this is unique to you. Why do you think it's so hard to be that cheerleader for yourself when you can do it for so easily for other people?
Julie: Because I think that when we are dealing with other people, it is easier to be able to say, okay, take the leap. It's no big deal, but when you're doing it for yourself, you're also dealing with that imposter syndrome. And you have to really be able to overcome that negative voice that says, Oh, who are you to do that? And who are you to go out and, and, uh, speak at a, at a conference. And who are you to think that you can get this up and running? And there's a lot of evidence that we create for ourselves. And sometimes we need to just be able to look back when you're self-coaching yourself, you have to find that evidence and look at it when you're coaching somebody else, you can show them that evidence, and you can talk about it where it really takes a lot of introspection to be able to find that for yourself.
Passionistas: For the people who don't know, describe what a life coach is.
Julie: I think that Amy kind of hit it on the head. I'm sort of your cheerleader. I am the person that when you are at a place that needs clarity is able to, out of stepping out of the main picture, be able to say, this is what I'm seeing. This is where you are. And also breathe some belief into you. And an end will be that cheerleader that you need, because sometimes we are. So as women's sport in particular, we're so hard on ourselves. We're so quick to say, I can't do it. Or who am I? Or we get caught up in the minutiae of the, every day that we don't see that there is possibility. And I think that sometimes as well, we need someone to hold our hands through the process, right? Because like, for me, yes, I had to do a lot of self-coaching, but I will tell you that the process of jumping onto my own really was also possible because I have a very supportive husband who he would say, well, what would you say to a client if you're a coaching them?
So he really reminded me. So he in essence became a little bit of a coach for me. And that's what happens. And that's what a coach does for you. A coach is not going to be a therapist, is not someone who's gonna, you know, revisit your past the past. When you're coming, when you're doing life, coaching defines you, it creates some habits and the coach will help identify what are the habits that don't serve you. And really for me, with cognitive behavioral techniques is really being able to use the mind and some of the mindset that it takes to be able to re shift your brain and create some of the new thought process that will help you go after what you're looking to do and could be accountability. A life coach also provides us very important.
Passionistas: We're Amy and Nancy Harrington, and you're listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Julie DeLucca-Collins. To learn more about her one-on-one coaching, the Casa De-Confidence podcast and her new book, “Confident You” visit GoConfidentlyCoaching.com. Now here's more of our interview with Julie.
Are there some tips you can give people if they're feeling stuck?
Julie: One of the things that I want people to see is especially like, Oh, I'm so down. I'm so depressed. You are not the feeling. And foremost a feeling does not define who you are, what defines who you are, is a lot of other things. The first and most important thing that you should do is if you're feeling sad is we sometimes try to push all of that away. Or if we are angry at someone, uh, again, that inner critic will say, Oh, you're not a good wife. If you're going to yell at your husband, right. Uh, it's not true. What happens is all of our emotions are really driven by what we're thinking. Most importantly. So for instance, if I trip over my husband's size 15 shoes, then maybe he perhaps left where he shouldn't have. And my first reaction is going to be to snap and be angry.
And if he's not there, like be really annoyed, like, Oh, so sloppy. Why would he leave his shoes here? And I can't believe he did this. Right? And then all of these thoughts that I'm beginning to think of what he did, then create that feeling of anger or annoyance or whatever. Once we have a feeling and for most of us, we feel a lot of different things. And we also have over 60 to 80,000 thoughts a day, that's a human nature. And what happens is we don't realize what our thoughts are. And we more importantly begin to experience these feelings. And then two things happen. One they're the people who actually act on a feeling in that action, right? So if he comes in the door and I'm feeling really annoyed at his shoes being there and me tripping over them, the first thing I'm going to do when he comes in the door, it's going to snap at him and that's going to also, you know, generate a reaction from him, or I can choose to like, well fine, I'll put these away.
And then I'll be angry. And I'll stuff, these feelings inside. And I, when he comes home, I'm that, you know, inaction is also an action. And that is also going to have a result on what we're doing. So your thoughts will generate your feelings, your feelings generate an action, and then your actions typically create a result in your life. So if I'm thinking my husband's a slob and my, my action was to snap at him and he just drops his, uh, drops his jacket on the ground. And I puffs over Mike, it's going to start to prove that, right? And I think that for us, really being able to feel and be more aware, you can't go from feeling, you know, things. And then all of a sudden switching them off, like you, you would have switch. You really have to one become really aware and really start to recognize what are the things that you're feeling and really not try to push them away, not try to change them, but really become more understanding of what is going on because we live our lives in this autopilot. We live our life. A lot of our feelings becomes a white noise of sorts that we don't pay attention to. And what we need to do is once we identify what we are feeling, and then we can start to explore, what am I thinking that is making me feel this way? What is that thought? And then we have to start to really evaluate, is that true? So for instance, with me losing my job and at first, uh, not thinking that I could go out on my own, I really had to say, wow, are you really incapable? Are you really not able to? How is that thought true or not? And proving that belief becomes something that if you start to shift what you're thinking, then you're feeling a little more confident. So for me, wait a minute. I know how to, I know how to do marketing.
I know how to coach someone. I know how to working with a business person, show them how to create a business plan, help. I know I have these skills. So as I started to see that, then what started to happen is my feelings like, Oh, wait a minute. I can do this. And then the more that you feel that you can do this and your actions begin to sort of resonate and become in line with what you want your result to me, here's what I usually start my sessions with. And if you had told me 20 years ago that I would be this person, and I still don't think I am in a way, because I think I'm a little too New York times for people, but some people would call me a little woo, woo. Right. Because when I start a session with a client, the first thing is, yes.
Hey, how was your week? Let's, let's talk about that. But I stop. And I say, okay, let's take a deep breath and come into this moment because we go through life, just, you know, jumping from moment to moment from meeting to meeting from, or from lunch to, okay, let me check email or here and that instant thing. Right. Whereas we need to really be able to regroup. We really need to be able to take a moment. For instance, I found myself, uh, Tuesday and I, I really did not want this to happen, but I found myself feeling a little anxious. And I started to do some of the things that I typically do when I, when I, when I'm anxious, right. I started to clean incessantly and I, then I thought, Oh, maybe I'm going to have some wine and then just kind of relax and take the edge off.
Right. And then I thought, no, I, I do, I did plan to have a glass of wine tonight, but really I'm working on being a little healthier and dropping my COVID-19 pounds that I gained. And I, I, um, I decided, okay, I need to finish my water. That was my goal for today. And really like, as, as I was drinking my water, I started to feel that anxiousness. Right. And I started to feel my heart and I thought, okay, what does that anxiousness feel like? Where is it in your body? And really taking a moment to relax in the same way with a client when they start. And they come in, I want to make us aware, how are you feeling? Let's be in this moment, let's take a deep breath and kind of resetting our nervous system. And that's been something that's very important.
Passionistas: What do you think is the most common obstacle that people have that prevents them from achieving their goals?
Julie: I hate to break it down to this, but having worked with both male and female clients, I can tell you that the obstacles are different from male and female. For most females. One of the biggest obstacles that we have is that we tend to want to do it all. And then we give ourselves a real hard time when we don't do it all. We want to keep all these balls in the air. And as we're juggling all these balls, we also think we're terrible at it. So that, that, uh, Oh, I just know, you know, I just, I'm a terrible mother or I'm a terrible wife. And, but really did you give yourself credit for the volunteering job that you were doing or for the little distance learning that you were working on or the project that you did at work? Or did you also give yourself credit for the house that is clean?
And here's what I tell my clients typically, uh, to overcome some of these obstacles as one, you really have to be able to prioritize. You really have to be able to understand one. If you're looking to accomplish something, you need to identify what that is. Number one, I think that all of us have an idea like, Oh, I want to retire rich someday. That's not specific. Right? You have to really be able to figure out what do you want, why you want it as well, because everybody wants to have money and retire and be, you know, safe. But you know, is it because you want to spend more time with your spouse or is it because you want to provide for your children, whatever it is, identify what your why, and what's pushing you because when you don't feel like doing something, understanding the reason behind your goal is gonna give you that ability and motivation to move forward.
And I think that that's the first thing for women. And the other thing too, is prioritizing and realizing, okay, when you say yes to one thing, you're going to say no to something else. And really being able to evaluate if these are my goals, this is where I'm going. What are the actions daily, weekly, monthly, and maybe even yearly that are going to take me there and identifying all of that. And that's really the process with our clients now with males, uh, they don't, they don't necessarily have the same obstacles in the sense that, you know, they, they do juggle stuff. I won't give you that in, but they don't feel like, Oh, I'm a terrible person for not doing it. All right. So I go, okay, well, I gotta do this. I gotta do that. But for them, it's being more again, reverse engineering the process for them.
And, and I think that with males, a lot of times they don't explore their, their why at times, or they don't create a realistic plan for themselves. And they allow themselves to get sidetracked. At least that's been my experience so far with them, with, with my clients.
Passionistas: Tell us about your podcast and what inspired you to start that?
Julie: I always knew I wanted a podcast. I, a podcast listener and I thought, well, what would it talk about? And then when I worked for my company, I thought, Oh, we should do a podcast on education, but I couldn't get anybody on board. So when COVID hit and we went into lockdown, I guess, March. And, um, and then I got laid off two weeks later. It really like, I, my husband really, he cause he's really the brains here. Sometimes he realized that it was going to be a little challenging for him.
He has a wife who had lost her job, who is really a high level achiever, who is, you know, also an extrovert who loves to be socially involved in different things. Um, I was turning 50 in April and I had planned a big birthday party. And as the days continue to come, the likelihood of me having this 50th birthday party was looking very slim. So he decided that he was going to buy podcast equipment as a birthday gifts. So when the equipment he came, he's like, I got you this great birthday gift. And I opened it. I'm like, what is this? He's like his podcast equipment. So you can start a podcast. And then I thought, okay, what would I do a podcast about it? And then I thought, huh, wait a minute. I definitely can do a podcast. Yeah. And it just, and I know for me, when I travel, for instance, one of the things that I love is connecting with people.
And I have met some amazing, especially women who are not necessarily on Instagram with millions of followers, but in their life, they have some amazing stories and they have faced fear and they have like most of us have faced fear here and there kind of push through those discomfort feelings and gone and achieved some of the things that we love or have maybe failed terribly and have learned great lessons from it. And I wanted to create and bring stories of these every day in some, you know, I have some great women that have come on board that have large platforms too, but I wanted to gave the stories of voice and Casa and the confidence, our house, my mom, DeLucca-Collins. My husband has Collins and we have always joked that our houses, Casa, the Collins. So when it came to, it came to, um, naming the podcast cast, the confidence just seemed like it was a natural transition.
My coaching practice is called Go Confidently Coaching because the Henry David Thoreau quote, has been my life code forever as a quote that my dad told me early on in my life. And I have driven, I have every time that I think I needed some bravery, I go back and I use that as a mantra in my life. So Casa, the confidence was an, uh, AC transition. And again, I aim to bring these stories and I've had friends who are doing amazing things. I have also, you know, for instance, and Huntington, who we talked about, who I saw as a young girl in blossom into now the president of a multi-million dollar national company on. So it's great to have them. I just had also someone who I, uh, I was a colleague as well. She was running for school board and she has grown into someone who at first sort of questioned where she was going.
And, you know, she was sort of growing into her own and now is a COO of a, of a company that works with people with disabilities and she is running for school board. She's a great mom. And then she talked about juggling her, her life. Right. And, and what it was like to deal with infertility as well. So yeah, I try to mix it up and have people of all walks of life. The podcast is Dan and I, my husband and I, we do the intro and we chat up a little bit and the Altro and people people know is, you know, they, they tend to give us a lot of feedback on how funny we are. And I said, well, we're not trying to be funny. We're just being us. So that's, that's also one of my favorite parts of the podcast is having him be my co-host.
One of the biggest things that I learned about myself, and I don't know if anybody is familiar with a disc personality profile, but, uh, there there's two tendencies in the disc profilers for, but I am, uh, to most, and, and most people tend to have one, uh, very high in another one second, but mine are tie one. So the disc is dominant in, um, the eye is influential and those are my two personalities. And I, I have learned that the dominant person in me, the bossy lady in me is also the extrovert friend, fun girl in me in those two sides tend to fight a lot as to who's in charge. And that, that definitely, I am great at seeing a big picture and just, uh, saying, okay, this is the big picture. And now the, the extrovert in me is like, Ooh, shiny, let me move on to the next thing.
So what I've learned is that the other two personalities, which are the supportive and, and, and the, really the, the other part is the C, which is really just compliant, but also very detail oriented. I realized that we may have parts of our personalities are prone to certain things, but we also take need to take a look at our less dominant parts and work on those because all of these parts work together to make us a better person. So that's one of the biggest things that I've learned. And, you know, it's interesting because I, I tend to have my clients take disc, but in our initial conversation, I'm pretty good about figuring out where their personality lies. And we really use some of the tendencies. You know, for instance, I have a client who is very shy, but she's also a very, um, a very, a people person too.
So she has to fight her tendencies to be friendly, but also push past the fear of, you know, out of her comfort zone to talk about her business or talk about, or stand up for herself or really create some boundaries. So it, it's interesting.
Passionistas: Tell us about your new book.
Julie: I wrote this book a long time ago, and it's about my grandparents. It's a story of my grandparents and I, I don't know how it had happened, but I started speaking to somebody about my love for writing. And they said, Oh, what do you, do you ever think of doing a book? And I said, well, I know someday. I always said I was going to write a book. And I said, I wrote one, but I never really, you know, it's not something that I've ever focused on. Then we got into a different conversation about me traveling to Spain and doing the Camino de Santiago.
And I said, you can read my experiences. I'll send you that blog. Cause I kept the blog. So I sent him that and then he came back and he said, you're an amazing writer. You really should talk to my friend who is literary agent and so on and so forth. I'm like, what? Anyhow. So long story short, the literary agent and this person helped me put together a book proposal. And then I met someone who has a small publishing firm and is helping me put together this book. And I've been working to what I wrote originally was a story of my grandparents and a story of their life and how they have influenced me. But it's sort of evolved into something more of, especially with a podcast. I get to meet so many amazing women. And I think that there is an overarching theme, right?
I may not have grown up in, in, in new England like you did, right. I may not live in California now, but there are some universal themes that we all have when it comes to confidence. When it comes to managing our fears and in the book talks about law, these lessons, and how to be able to one, you cannot have confidence if you don't have that peaceful, if you are not a peaceful person, if you are not in connection and being aware of what you're feeling and thinking in, in how you're reacting, right? And the second thing is that once you begin to have more peace, then you can become more of a purposeful person and really be able to connect to where am I going and why am I here? And how am I doing that? And once you begin to focus on what your purpose is, then you become a stronger person and you begin to, um, and I think that strength comes not only from intellect or what, you know, but also from physicality and being able to be in the best shape, whether you're feeding your body, the right foods or whether, and sometimes as women, we are so lacking in confidence when it comes to our self image and loving our bodies and loving what we see in the mirror that is very important to gain that power for ourselves, through what we are eating and how we nourish and what we, how we move our bodies as well.
And once we have all of that kind of put together, then my next pillar to, to that confidence is, is something that you guys probably relate to and that's passion, right? So begin to really live in your passion and begin to really go after the things that you love, knowing that you have the strength to do it, knowing that you have direction through your purpose and that you have the ability to really center yourself. And last night lists, at least as we find the prosperity that we want for our lives, and it's not necessarily money, but is being grateful and being filled with the right things. Then, you know, at the end of the day, when you're sitting at home and you're getting ready to close your eyes at night, you just feel like my life is good. And that's what prosperity is. And knowing that you may not be living in a million dollar house, or maybe you are, but it is not the house or the material, things that make you, but it's really what's on the inside.
Passionistas: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to follow her passion?
Julie: Find someone who is going to be your advocate, your cheerleader, your partner, who is going to laugh with you, who is going to cry with you and who is going to also give you the tough love and, and remind you how great you are and show you in the mirror and say, listen, stop putting yourself down. And you can do this. And even if, if you can't believe in yourself, find the person that can believe in you. And one of my guests and friends, Valerie, she has a one woman show. She is in LA and she talked about believing mirrors. And I think that we need to be believing mirrors for each other. And for the woman who can believe that she can find someone that will reflect the greatness in you.
Passionistas: Thanks for listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Julie DeLucca-Collins To learn more about her one-on-one coaching, the Casa De-Confidence podcast and her new book, “Confident You” visit GoConfidentlyCoaching.com. Now here's more of our interview with Julie.
Please visit the ThePassionistasProjectPodcast.com to learn more about our podcast and subscription box filled with products made by women-owned businesses and female artisans to inspire you to follow your passion. Sign up for our mailing list, to get 10% off your first purchase.
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Julie DeLucca-Collins, the founder and CEO of Go Confidently Coaching, host of the popular Casa De-Confidence podcast and author of the new book, “Confident You.” Julie's been a successful executor for 20 plus years, and recently completed her tenure as Chief Innovation Officer for an academic solutions company based in New York city. Her goal is to help others re-imagine their life. She has extensive experience in business development, strategic planning, staff development, leadership skills, life coaching and a vast history of assisting people in finding success. Her individualized positive approach helps her clients identify and attain their goals.
Learn more about Julie.
Learn more about The Passionistas Project.
Full Transcript:
Passionistas: Hi, and welcome to The Passionistas Project Podcast, where we talk with women who are following their passions to inspire you to do the same.
We're Amy and Nancy Harrington. And today we're talking with Julie DeLucca-Collins, the founder and CEO of Go Confidently Coaching, host of the popular Casa De-Confidence podcast and author of the new book, “Confident You.” Julie's been a successful executor for 20 plus years, and recently completed her tenure as Chief Innovation Officer for an academic solutions company based in New York city. Her goal is to help others. re-imagine their life.
She has extensive experience in business development, strategic planning, staff development, leadership skills, life coaching and a vast history of assisting people in finding success. Her individualized positive approach helps her clients identify and attain their goals.
So please welcome to the show, Julie DeLucca-Collins. Thanks.
Julie DeLucca-Collins: Thank you ladies. It's so exciting to be joining you again for some amazing conversation.
Passionistas: We're so happy to have you here. What's the one thing you're most passionate about?
Julie: My most passionate, uh, thing that I can talk about is just becoming a better version of myself because there are so many directions that life can pull us. And I have found that when I am just stagnant and not growing and, and in my growth takes place through a lot of different things, right? But it takes place through anything that I read or my, my trainings, or, but for me, I'm passionate about being the best version of me, because then I can show up better for the people that I love and I can show up better as a wife, as an auntie or as a community leader. And that's, that makes me super passionate. And again, things that make me better also include traveling, which we're not doing. I'm a, I'm an avid traveler. And I miss that a lot and I can't wait because I think what I have gained from being in other places, learning other cultures and meeting people from around the world has definitely changed me. And I'm passionate about that overall.
Passionistas: How does that translate into what you do for a living?
Julie: It was a, a small transition really, because everything that I am doing now is everything that I've done in my career before, while working for an educational company, I really had to figure out one how to strategize for the organization and grow the organization. And number two, I had to really be able to also learn some things that maybe were a little bit out of my comfort zone. And the organization grew from a small mom and pop to a large organization, a multi-million dollar organization. We expanded to provide services, but I wanted to make sure that everything that we were creating was something that was going to be meaningful to wherever our partners were in education, whether it'd be a school district or a parent or teachers, and in the same way in how that translates right now to what I'm doing is I know that I need to continue to learn right.
And strategize, like, how do I, how can I help these women in this group that I'm helping. Through self-love right. Or a lot of women that I'm working with as well are dealing with overwhelm because let's face it. It's a little bit of a, what everyone has been experiencing right now. So it translates in the sense that I have been learning so much more about for myself and growing myself. How, how can I be more peaceful? How can I grow my mindfulness practice? And then translate that into giving those things to the people that I partner or, or work with in my practice. And again, strategizing helping them strategize. I'm really good about you. Tell me what you want to do or what your goals are, or maybe you're not sure how to figure it out. My mind works in such a way like, “Ooh, have you ever thought of?” and then I start to, you know, maybe you could partner with this or this may be an opportunity.
This is really a great gift for you. And this is a way to go. And my mind just starts to put pieces together that then I help people work through in the same way that I did in business. Right? “Oh, Pat, how about we offer this service and be able to support principals and maybe training their teachers and yoga or mindfulness or whatever it might be.”
Passionistas: Why did you choose a career in education?
Julie: For me, it was something that was just a neat. My grandparents who were a big influence in my life were both educators. My grandmother in particular, she was born in 1905 at the turn of the century and she was in El Salvador, but she came from a very affluent home. Her father was a well, very well-regarded engineer. He was very well known in the country and traveled extensively. He came from Spain.
He studied in San Francisco as a matter of fact, and created this life from my grandmother of comfort. And as most women in that age, she was encouraged to just follow her passions. She was, she loved to play the piano, but she also wanted to become an educator. She wanted to be a teacher. It was something that she felt passionate about. So my grandfather continued to encourage her to go to school because he wanted to keep her busy and not necessarily go out into the workforce. Cause that was really unseen for someone, um, of my grandmother's background. Eventually my grandmother said, okay, I'm done. I really want to teach. So he built a school for her. So growing up in El Salvador until I was about 10, although we traveled to New York to see my dad's family, I really had this amazing influence in my life in which I saw her as a teacher.
I saw her as a community leader or principal. So for me, I started teaching my sisters and my cousins in a very early age. I also, we used to play kingdom with my cousins and my sisters and I was not the queen. I was the prime minister because my grandmother would always say to me that, you know, the prime minister is the one that has the power. So I learned from that early age that I wanted to definitely teach. And it, it comes very naturally to me. However, I also liked the leadership component and that's something I was always told that you better be a leader, not a follower, my grandfather, and the same way he came from a very different background. He was an educator, but he really came from a very poor environment. He was a child out of wedlock and had to fight for everything.
His brother wanted him to be a Shoemaker and sent him to the capital city from their small village to learn the trade of being a Shoemaker. But my grandfather wanted more. So everything that he earned in the Shoemaker and shop, he actually saved. So he could put himself through school. And that's what my grandparents met when they were both teachers. And in a, again, I, he went on to teach at night at the university and, and, and at night school, but he also went into business and was an executive in a large company. So I had those two examples. So growing up, I definitely had no choice. I started my career as a teacher, as a preschool teacher. I later on worked with middle school and I loved it, but I also had this sense that there was more in me and there was more so I sort of floated through life in my late twenties.
And when I was living in New York, I was hired by a company that sort of took both of my skills in education. And also because I put myself through school, working in retail, my retail business background. And from there, this company does a really great job at just growing people from within training them, building them. And I grew through the company for the next, almost 10 years to the executive level and learned a lot from them.
Passionistas: And what was that company?
Julie: Huntington Learning Center. So it's, it's a, it's a national tutoring company and the tutoring company itself. It's, I mean, I, I, I do, you know, worked for them and I have great passion for them because I know how well they do what they do. Actually. I just had in Huntington, who is the daughter or the founders on my podcast, it's amazing to see her because when I first met her, she was in elementary school getting ready to go into, into junior high and or middle school rather.
And now she is the president of the company cause she's taken over the legacy of her parents. And she's so passionate as well as, as far as education and everything that she does. And it has been a phenomenal journey and reconnecting with her and being able to work together because she, she is a supporter of arts and programs and a philanthropist. So it's amazing to see that, but that company really helped me come into my own in, in meld both of the sides of me, the education part, but also the, the entrepreneur or that business like, and I, and throughout the company, I had the opportunity to really, they were exploring, entering into contracts with school districts. So I helped to develop this brand new line of business for them. And I went from being just the coordinator of the program to grow into the manager, to then, uh, training the national franchisees, to developing a whole strategy for expanding this business side, to partnering with school districts.
By the time I left the company, I actually had helped to create over 157 school district contracts, which they didn't have before and get us approved in over 40 States to be a provider of services and partner with them. So it was a great experience and I loved it. And, but I also wanted to move into a different direction as far as not traveling as much. And I wanted to also the woman who the company that I went to was very similar, but she was based in New York. And she was a woman who was passionate about also teaching, but also didn't have the experience and expanding in the business side. So it was a great marriage for me to be able to come in and help her expand her business.
Passionistas: And what business was that?
Julie: The name of the company is Brienza's Academic Advantage and Mrs. Brienza or Lillian as, uh, every money knew her was a former educator. And she was just an incredible mentors. Another mom, if you, if you would. And, uh, she, she did such an amazing job at just by sheer force and passion starting this, this business out of nothing. And she grew it to also be a multi-million dollar company, but she wanted to really be able to bring other people in. And I had met Lillian doing some advocating in Capitol Hill. As a matter of fact, we had both representing our individual companies. We're talking to lawmakers on education issues and things that mattered when it came to funding and how they should hopefully send some fund to help underprivileged kids. So that's how I met Lillian. And I was with Lillian. I was with her company for over 12 years. The difficulty is Lillian passed away three years ago.
So, you know, the, the vision and, and obviously changes in the company came about. And really we scaled a little bit back. And at this point with COVID things really took a, a challenging turn. And for us, it was a mutual path that I started to had been doing some of the stuff that I'm doing now, working with women, leadership programs, coaching and mentoring. And it was a good time for me to, you know, unfortunately they had to let me go. And it was something that I, I, it was a difficult partying, but a mutual, you know, beneficial in the sense that they needed to grow and continue. And obviously it's hard to keep everybody on staff on your programs have been scaled so rapidly.
Passionistas: So the good news is that you struck out on your own. It's not always an easy transition. We've there before too. But sometimes it feels like the universe is telling you that you're supposed to be doing something else, whether you think you're ready for it or not.
Julie: Oh, Amy. I totally agree. I think that in the last year, and as I was going through my social, emotional learning facilitator training in the yoga teacher certification, which I did in order to, to create programs, to support the schools and districts that we worked with, I really found that I was so passionate about, wow, I really loved working with these women. I really love in this mentoring program. Wow. I'm working with this private client. And I thought, you know what, someday, maybe this is something I can transition to it some day. Maybe this is something that I could do, but of course the fear of, Ooh, how would I do this? And you know, what would that look like? Now? Obviously, if I were coach and myself, I would have been able to lay out a plan and say, this is how you do it. This is how you go about, it's no big deal. You can do it. It does, you know, and it wasn't until I was faced with a choice of, okay, I have to do something. And I thought, well, no time like the present. So here we are.
Passionistas: Since you do, do this for a living, you do, do this for other people. And I don't think this is unique to you. Why do you think it's so hard to be that cheerleader for yourself when you can do it for so easily for other people?
Julie: Because I think that when we are dealing with other people, it is easier to be able to say, okay, take the leap. It's no big deal, but when you're doing it for yourself, you're also dealing with that imposter syndrome. And you have to really be able to overcome that negative voice that says, Oh, who are you to do that? And who are you to go out and, and, uh, speak at a, at a conference. And who are you to think that you can get this up and running? And there's a lot of evidence that we create for ourselves. And sometimes we need to just be able to look back when you're self-coaching yourself, you have to find that evidence and look at it when you're coaching somebody else, you can show them that evidence, and you can talk about it where it really takes a lot of introspection to be able to find that for yourself.
Passionistas: For the people who don't know, describe what a life coach is.
Julie: I think that Amy kind of hit it on the head. I'm sort of your cheerleader. I am the person that when you are at a place that needs clarity is able to, out of stepping out of the main picture, be able to say, this is what I'm seeing. This is where you are. And also breathe some belief into you. And an end will be that cheerleader that you need, because sometimes we are. So as women's sport in particular, we're so hard on ourselves. We're so quick to say, I can't do it. Or who am I? Or we get caught up in the minutiae of the, every day that we don't see that there is possibility. And I think that sometimes as well, we need someone to hold our hands through the process, right? Because like, for me, yes, I had to do a lot of self-coaching, but I will tell you that the process of jumping onto my own really was also possible because I have a very supportive husband who he would say, well, what would you say to a client if you're a coaching them?
So he really reminded me. So he in essence became a little bit of a coach for me. And that's what happens. And that's what a coach does for you. A coach is not going to be a therapist, is not someone who's gonna, you know, revisit your past the past. When you're coming, when you're doing life, coaching defines you, it creates some habits and the coach will help identify what are the habits that don't serve you. And really for me, with cognitive behavioral techniques is really being able to use the mind and some of the mindset that it takes to be able to re shift your brain and create some of the new thought process that will help you go after what you're looking to do and could be accountability. A life coach also provides us very important.
Passionistas: We're Amy and Nancy Harrington, and you're listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Julie DeLucca-Collins. To learn more about her one-on-one coaching, the Casa De-Confidence podcast and her new book, “Confident You” visit GoConfidentlyCoaching.com. Now here's more of our interview with Julie.
Are there some tips you can give people if they're feeling stuck?
Julie: One of the things that I want people to see is especially like, Oh, I'm so down. I'm so depressed. You are not the feeling. And foremost a feeling does not define who you are, what defines who you are, is a lot of other things. The first and most important thing that you should do is if you're feeling sad is we sometimes try to push all of that away. Or if we are angry at someone, uh, again, that inner critic will say, Oh, you're not a good wife. If you're going to yell at your husband, right. Uh, it's not true. What happens is all of our emotions are really driven by what we're thinking. Most importantly. So for instance, if I trip over my husband's size 15 shoes, then maybe he perhaps left where he shouldn't have. And my first reaction is going to be to snap and be angry.
And if he's not there, like be really annoyed, like, Oh, so sloppy. Why would he leave his shoes here? And I can't believe he did this. Right? And then all of these thoughts that I'm beginning to think of what he did, then create that feeling of anger or annoyance or whatever. Once we have a feeling and for most of us, we feel a lot of different things. And we also have over 60 to 80,000 thoughts a day, that's a human nature. And what happens is we don't realize what our thoughts are. And we more importantly begin to experience these feelings. And then two things happen. One they're the people who actually act on a feeling in that action, right? So if he comes in the door and I'm feeling really annoyed at his shoes being there and me tripping over them, the first thing I'm going to do when he comes in the door, it's going to snap at him and that's going to also, you know, generate a reaction from him, or I can choose to like, well fine, I'll put these away.
And then I'll be angry. And I'll stuff, these feelings inside. And I, when he comes home, I'm that, you know, inaction is also an action. And that is also going to have a result on what we're doing. So your thoughts will generate your feelings, your feelings generate an action, and then your actions typically create a result in your life. So if I'm thinking my husband's a slob and my, my action was to snap at him and he just drops his, uh, drops his jacket on the ground. And I puffs over Mike, it's going to start to prove that, right? And I think that for us, really being able to feel and be more aware, you can't go from feeling, you know, things. And then all of a sudden switching them off, like you, you would have switch. You really have to one become really aware and really start to recognize what are the things that you're feeling and really not try to push them away, not try to change them, but really become more understanding of what is going on because we live our lives in this autopilot. We live our life. A lot of our feelings becomes a white noise of sorts that we don't pay attention to. And what we need to do is once we identify what we are feeling, and then we can start to explore, what am I thinking that is making me feel this way? What is that thought? And then we have to start to really evaluate, is that true? So for instance, with me losing my job and at first, uh, not thinking that I could go out on my own, I really had to say, wow, are you really incapable? Are you really not able to? How is that thought true or not? And proving that belief becomes something that if you start to shift what you're thinking, then you're feeling a little more confident. So for me, wait a minute. I know how to, I know how to do marketing.
I know how to coach someone. I know how to working with a business person, show them how to create a business plan, help. I know I have these skills. So as I started to see that, then what started to happen is my feelings like, Oh, wait a minute. I can do this. And then the more that you feel that you can do this and your actions begin to sort of resonate and become in line with what you want your result to me, here's what I usually start my sessions with. And if you had told me 20 years ago that I would be this person, and I still don't think I am in a way, because I think I'm a little too New York times for people, but some people would call me a little woo, woo. Right. Because when I start a session with a client, the first thing is, yes.
Hey, how was your week? Let's, let's talk about that. But I stop. And I say, okay, let's take a deep breath and come into this moment because we go through life, just, you know, jumping from moment to moment from meeting to meeting from, or from lunch to, okay, let me check email or here and that instant thing. Right. Whereas we need to really be able to regroup. We really need to be able to take a moment. For instance, I found myself, uh, Tuesday and I, I really did not want this to happen, but I found myself feeling a little anxious. And I started to do some of the things that I typically do when I, when I, when I'm anxious, right. I started to clean incessantly and I, then I thought, Oh, maybe I'm going to have some wine and then just kind of relax and take the edge off.
Right. And then I thought, no, I, I do, I did plan to have a glass of wine tonight, but really I'm working on being a little healthier and dropping my COVID-19 pounds that I gained. And I, I, um, I decided, okay, I need to finish my water. That was my goal for today. And really like, as, as I was drinking my water, I started to feel that anxiousness. Right. And I started to feel my heart and I thought, okay, what does that anxiousness feel like? Where is it in your body? And really taking a moment to relax in the same way with a client when they start. And they come in, I want to make us aware, how are you feeling? Let's be in this moment, let's take a deep breath and kind of resetting our nervous system. And that's been something that's very important.
Passionistas: What do you think is the most common obstacle that people have that prevents them from achieving their goals?
Julie: I hate to break it down to this, but having worked with both male and female clients, I can tell you that the obstacles are different from male and female. For most females. One of the biggest obstacles that we have is that we tend to want to do it all. And then we give ourselves a real hard time when we don't do it all. We want to keep all these balls in the air. And as we're juggling all these balls, we also think we're terrible at it. So that, that, uh, Oh, I just know, you know, I just, I'm a terrible mother or I'm a terrible wife. And, but really did you give yourself credit for the volunteering job that you were doing or for the little distance learning that you were working on or the project that you did at work? Or did you also give yourself credit for the house that is clean?
And here's what I tell my clients typically, uh, to overcome some of these obstacles as one, you really have to be able to prioritize. You really have to be able to understand one. If you're looking to accomplish something, you need to identify what that is. Number one, I think that all of us have an idea like, Oh, I want to retire rich someday. That's not specific. Right? You have to really be able to figure out what do you want, why you want it as well, because everybody wants to have money and retire and be, you know, safe. But you know, is it because you want to spend more time with your spouse or is it because you want to provide for your children, whatever it is, identify what your why, and what's pushing you because when you don't feel like doing something, understanding the reason behind your goal is gonna give you that ability and motivation to move forward.
And I think that that's the first thing for women. And the other thing too, is prioritizing and realizing, okay, when you say yes to one thing, you're going to say no to something else. And really being able to evaluate if these are my goals, this is where I'm going. What are the actions daily, weekly, monthly, and maybe even yearly that are going to take me there and identifying all of that. And that's really the process with our clients now with males, uh, they don't, they don't necessarily have the same obstacles in the sense that, you know, they, they do juggle stuff. I won't give you that in, but they don't feel like, Oh, I'm a terrible person for not doing it. All right. So I go, okay, well, I gotta do this. I gotta do that. But for them, it's being more again, reverse engineering the process for them.
And, and I think that with males, a lot of times they don't explore their, their why at times, or they don't create a realistic plan for themselves. And they allow themselves to get sidetracked. At least that's been my experience so far with them, with, with my clients.
Passionistas: Tell us about your podcast and what inspired you to start that?
Julie: I always knew I wanted a podcast. I, a podcast listener and I thought, well, what would it talk about? And then when I worked for my company, I thought, Oh, we should do a podcast on education, but I couldn't get anybody on board. So when COVID hit and we went into lockdown, I guess, March. And, um, and then I got laid off two weeks later. It really like, I, my husband really, he cause he's really the brains here. Sometimes he realized that it was going to be a little challenging for him.
He has a wife who had lost her job, who is really a high level achiever, who is, you know, also an extrovert who loves to be socially involved in different things. Um, I was turning 50 in April and I had planned a big birthday party. And as the days continue to come, the likelihood of me having this 50th birthday party was looking very slim. So he decided that he was going to buy podcast equipment as a birthday gifts. So when the equipment he came, he's like, I got you this great birthday gift. And I opened it. I'm like, what is this? He's like his podcast equipment. So you can start a podcast. And then I thought, okay, what would I do a podcast about it? And then I thought, huh, wait a minute. I definitely can do a podcast. Yeah. And it just, and I know for me, when I travel, for instance, one of the things that I love is connecting with people.
And I have met some amazing, especially women who are not necessarily on Instagram with millions of followers, but in their life, they have some amazing stories and they have faced fear and they have like most of us have faced fear here and there kind of push through those discomfort feelings and gone and achieved some of the things that we love or have maybe failed terribly and have learned great lessons from it. And I wanted to create and bring stories of these every day in some, you know, I have some great women that have come on board that have large platforms too, but I wanted to gave the stories of voice and Casa and the confidence, our house, my mom, DeLucca-Collins. My husband has Collins and we have always joked that our houses, Casa, the Collins. So when it came to, it came to, um, naming the podcast cast, the confidence just seemed like it was a natural transition.
My coaching practice is called Go Confidently Coaching because the Henry David Thoreau quote, has been my life code forever as a quote that my dad told me early on in my life. And I have driven, I have every time that I think I needed some bravery, I go back and I use that as a mantra in my life. So Casa, the confidence was an, uh, AC transition. And again, I aim to bring these stories and I've had friends who are doing amazing things. I have also, you know, for instance, and Huntington, who we talked about, who I saw as a young girl in blossom into now the president of a multi-million dollar national company on. So it's great to have them. I just had also someone who I, uh, I was a colleague as well. She was running for school board and she has grown into someone who at first sort of questioned where she was going.
And, you know, she was sort of growing into her own and now is a COO of a, of a company that works with people with disabilities and she is running for school board. She's a great mom. And then she talked about juggling her, her life. Right. And, and what it was like to deal with infertility as well. So yeah, I try to mix it up and have people of all walks of life. The podcast is Dan and I, my husband and I, we do the intro and we chat up a little bit and the Altro and people people know is, you know, they, they tend to give us a lot of feedback on how funny we are. And I said, well, we're not trying to be funny. We're just being us. So that's, that's also one of my favorite parts of the podcast is having him be my co-host.
One of the biggest things that I learned about myself, and I don't know if anybody is familiar with a disc personality profile, but, uh, there there's two tendencies in the disc profilers for, but I am, uh, to most, and, and most people tend to have one, uh, very high in another one second, but mine are tie one. So the disc is dominant in, um, the eye is influential and those are my two personalities. And I, I have learned that the dominant person in me, the bossy lady in me is also the extrovert friend, fun girl in me in those two sides tend to fight a lot as to who's in charge. And that, that definitely, I am great at seeing a big picture and just, uh, saying, okay, this is the big picture. And now the, the extrovert in me is like, Ooh, shiny, let me move on to the next thing.
So what I've learned is that the other two personalities, which are the supportive and, and, and the, really the, the other part is the C, which is really just compliant, but also very detail oriented. I realized that we may have parts of our personalities are prone to certain things, but we also take need to take a look at our less dominant parts and work on those because all of these parts work together to make us a better person. So that's one of the biggest things that I've learned. And, you know, it's interesting because I, I tend to have my clients take disc, but in our initial conversation, I'm pretty good about figuring out where their personality lies. And we really use some of the tendencies. You know, for instance, I have a client who is very shy, but she's also a very, um, a very, a people person too.
So she has to fight her tendencies to be friendly, but also push past the fear of, you know, out of her comfort zone to talk about her business or talk about, or stand up for herself or really create some boundaries. So it, it's interesting.
Passionistas: Tell us about your new book.
Julie: I wrote this book a long time ago, and it's about my grandparents. It's a story of my grandparents and I, I don't know how it had happened, but I started speaking to somebody about my love for writing. And they said, Oh, what do you, do you ever think of doing a book? And I said, well, I know someday. I always said I was going to write a book. And I said, I wrote one, but I never really, you know, it's not something that I've ever focused on. Then we got into a different conversation about me traveling to Spain and doing the Camino de Santiago.
And I said, you can read my experiences. I'll send you that blog. Cause I kept the blog. So I sent him that and then he came back and he said, you're an amazing writer. You really should talk to my friend who is literary agent and so on and so forth. I'm like, what? Anyhow. So long story short, the literary agent and this person helped me put together a book proposal. And then I met someone who has a small publishing firm and is helping me put together this book. And I've been working to what I wrote originally was a story of my grandparents and a story of their life and how they have influenced me. But it's sort of evolved into something more of, especially with a podcast. I get to meet so many amazing women. And I think that there is an overarching theme, right?
I may not have grown up in, in, in new England like you did, right. I may not live in California now, but there are some universal themes that we all have when it comes to confidence. When it comes to managing our fears and in the book talks about law, these lessons, and how to be able to one, you cannot have confidence if you don't have that peaceful, if you are not a peaceful person, if you are not in connection and being aware of what you're feeling and thinking in, in how you're reacting, right? And the second thing is that once you begin to have more peace, then you can become more of a purposeful person and really be able to connect to where am I going and why am I here? And how am I doing that? And once you begin to focus on what your purpose is, then you become a stronger person and you begin to, um, and I think that strength comes not only from intellect or what, you know, but also from physicality and being able to be in the best shape, whether you're feeding your body, the right foods or whether, and sometimes as women, we are so lacking in confidence when it comes to our self image and loving our bodies and loving what we see in the mirror that is very important to gain that power for ourselves, through what we are eating and how we nourish and what we, how we move our bodies as well.
And once we have all of that kind of put together, then my next pillar to, to that confidence is, is something that you guys probably relate to and that's passion, right? So begin to really live in your passion and begin to really go after the things that you love, knowing that you have the strength to do it, knowing that you have direction through your purpose and that you have the ability to really center yourself. And last night lists, at least as we find the prosperity that we want for our lives, and it's not necessarily money, but is being grateful and being filled with the right things. Then, you know, at the end of the day, when you're sitting at home and you're getting ready to close your eyes at night, you just feel like my life is good. And that's what prosperity is. And knowing that you may not be living in a million dollar house, or maybe you are, but it is not the house or the material, things that make you, but it's really what's on the inside.
Passionistas: What advice would you give to a woman who wants to follow her passion?
Julie: Find someone who is going to be your advocate, your cheerleader, your partner, who is going to laugh with you, who is going to cry with you and who is going to also give you the tough love and, and remind you how great you are and show you in the mirror and say, listen, stop putting yourself down. And you can do this. And even if, if you can't believe in yourself, find the person that can believe in you. And one of my guests and friends, Valerie, she has a one woman show. She is in LA and she talked about believing mirrors. And I think that we need to be believing mirrors for each other. And for the woman who can believe that she can find someone that will reflect the greatness in you.
Passionistas: Thanks for listening to The Passionistas Project Podcast and our interview with Julie DeLucca-Collins To learn more about her one-on-one coaching, the Casa De-Confidence podcast and her new book, “Confident You” visit GoConfidentlyCoaching.com. Now here's more of our interview with Julie.
Please visit the ThePassionistasProjectPodcast.com to learn more about our podcast and subscription box filled with products made by women-owned businesses and female artisans to inspire you to follow your passion. Sign up for our mailing list, to get 10% off your first purchase.
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