Her Story
About Olga
I am originally from the Czech Republic, where I earned my PhD in education. I now live on the east coast of the United States near Washington, where I have built a successful six-figure transformational coaching business over the past 15 years. The major bulk of my work is working with women on a one-on-one basis, and I also create what I call powerful women's immersions, which are gatherings of no more than 12 women at a time who stay with me for 5 or 6 days, usually in beautiful nature or by the ocean. My target group is women 50 plus who are at crossroads in their career, family, or marital status, because a lot of things change around that age. What I'm most proud of is being truly capable of holding the container for a woman who is with me in my space, having a level of listening that really comes from a deep loving space without any judgment, but with truly unconditional love toward the person. I really hear and see things that most of the time they would not be able to catch themselves. The biggest compliment I get from the clients I work with is that they have never had anyone who would be listening so intentionally to them. In the United States, I have added certifications in yoga therapy, especially working with people who had chronic back pain or suffered with anxiety and depression. I also got a certification from the Life Coach School by Brooke Castillo and have been coaching since then, working with people either only on the work of their mind, or some people come first to work in the body and then it transforms to working on their mind, or we do both together from the beginning. I am also a writer and have published an autobiography called Behind Enemy Lines through Deseret Book Printing Company, which is available on Amazon. I do a lot of public speaking as well because of that.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Olga
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to two things. First, having really great people in my life and mentors who have tremendously helped me to find the value of who I am. One of the biggest influences in my life was a mentor back in the Czech Republic, whom I met when I was young, and who was able to help me see who really Olga is and what she's capable of. Throughout my life, I still have a coach today, and I'm so grateful to be able to invest in myself and have someone who has a bird's eye view on seeing things in my forest and can point out things that otherwise I would not be able to see. The second thing is the resilience that I always have felt, even as a little child. I come from a communist background, growing up in that system, and seeing myself and the way I pivoted my life with courage, I really created a life that is beyond my dreams, honestly. I was always someone who saw that there is more to life than what was served to me on a plate, either at school or within the society I was brought up in.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be afraid to open your mouth and speak in places that otherwise you would not open your mouth or do anything. Just don't be afraid to speak and ask questions in places where you otherwise would be only a listener.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think the biggest challenge is really helping people to understand the value of an ability to invest in themselves, in upleveling the quality of their lives and how they are thinking about themselves. People might buy expensive cars or invest in lavish vacations, and many times I hear, 'I think that I probably cannot or I feel guilty about investing in myself.' Yet when they expand that possibility, they realize their life can have much more freedom and peace and grounding than they would ever experience. The challenge is that we don't deliver a tangible product like selling drinks or other things. We are working within the field where the transformation is not something that is tangible, but when you change one person's life, it can change the lives of generations. So helping women, especially because I love working with women, helping them not to feel guilty about investing in themselves and being able to open up to the possibilities that I actually can love more today than I loved yesterday, that I can be more free today than I was yesterday. I feel like still a lot of people don't know too much about coaching. Many times people think, is it consultation, or how different is it from therapy? Coaching is really truly moving people into the future and into creating the possibilities that they haven't seen that are there for them.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and being my word are the two most important values to me. Each day when I wake up and I look at myself, I ask what level of commitment I have toward myself and therefore toward the people that are around me. Can I be 100% my word? So if I say something to myself and to others, I really follow through and I do that. That would be something that is very, very deep and core to me.
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