Hello Iskra and welcome to IWC Club! A woman with such an amazing and vast background! Tell us please more about your professional experience? What is that you do?
First, thank you for welcoming me in IWC Club! I am really excited to join this amazing community of women who change the world.
I work with powerful women of a career, in transition who have reached the ceiling in their present professional growth and want to open a new chapter in their life – pursuing their dreams of life in purpose, excitement, and impact.
I hold space for them to move from feeling stuck, lost, living on autopilot, into pursuing their dreams with clarity, confidence, and authenticity.
They start showing up today to thrive tomorrow, with inspiration, passion, and joy, elevating their relationships and finding a new purpose-driven professional expression.
I work with them individually as well as in my ongoing mastermind “the ShowUP INCUBATOR” in which they have both my support as well as a community of like-minded people on a similar journey.
How did you decide to transition from the film industry to coaching and why?
It was not an abrupt decision. In 2003, I was invited to create two university curricula for the master of art and bachelor of art programs at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, on the topics of advertising strategy and commercial film production, and this is how I created my first hands-on programs for teaching my students very practical skills while passing on my extensive knowledge in these fields.
My experience as tutor, advertising strategist (since 1995), mindfulness leader and martial artist (I will talk about this later), as well as my leadership role as an executive film producer, blended well together. And when I felt that I have reached the top in my career development and personal fulfilment – being in the same position as my ideal clients – I decided to take a step in different direction.
What I have been looking for was a field of professional realisation where it was possible to support amazing individuals to grow, heal, transform. I wanted to see myself creating impact in real people’s life, while being deeply connected with them and growing myself in the process. By choosing to work with changemakers, the impact of my work is exponential.
Tell us more about your experience with Mindvalley and Evercoach. What are the courses you lead there?
In January 2018 I joined a year long self-growth program in which I undertook the role of a group leader and led a female circle with participants from the US, Canada and Australia weekly for the whole year.
About the same time, I enrolled in a program by Mindvalley for inspirational speakers, led by Lisa Nichols. Apparently, this was what I had been looking for – to learn to express myself authentically on camera and on stage in a way that engages and motivates people to rediscover themselves. While still in the program, I and about ten other fellow participants connected and created a deep bond between each other. We started spontaneously supporting the other 1000 participants in the program.
In March 2018 we were all invited to become the first tribe facilitators, supporting the community of students in their work on the program by Lisa Nichols – a work which required deep soul searching, vulnerability in sharing personal stories and trust in the process. Back then we were called Tribe Elders, which by the end of 2018 transformed into Tribe Ambassadors. Since then, the group of ambassadors at Mindvalley and Evercoach has grown to a couple of hundreds.
In 2019, already on my coaching journey, I started supporting the students in several programs by Evercoach – the foundational courses “Start your coaching business’, “Grow your coaching business”, and since 2020 as a senior Evercoach ambassador I have been dedicated to the coaching certification programs “Business Coach Certification” and “Holobody Coach Certification”. I have a personal acknowledgment by Ajit Nawalkha, the co-founder of Evercoach of my contribution to the almost 100% students’ completion rate Evercoach’s foundational courses in 2019.
As a massive entrepreneur what is your greatest passion, which business do you enjoy the most?
My top core values are Co-creation, Connection, Authenticity, Purpose and Trust. Coaching and mentoring groups, and creating communities is where my passion is. I am humbled to witness the transformation in my clients while creating deep connections with their soul siblings, as I call them.
“Finding my family of soul brothers and sisters” was my first personal goal for 2018. And I started creating tribes, not simply looking to discover them.
I love coaching, mentoring, creating training programs, both for individuals on their journey of self growth , as well as for children, parents and teachers.
In 2020, I was inspired to create a program on Personal Values for the teachers and pupils in the primary school where my 8-year old son studied. The name of the program was “My little garden of virtues”. Its aim was to unite the teachers’ collective, to give them the sense of a higher purpose as well as to teach children the soft skills from very early age.
In 2021 I created two new programs for the school, one on Growth Mindset for children, and the second one – on Empathic Communication for parents, that were approved by the Bulgarian ministry of Education. The program for the kids was included in the official 2-year school curriculum and the school acquired the label “Innovative School”.
In your bio you talk about finding meditation and martial arts helpful for your inner peace and focus? How did you decide to work those crafts in addition to everything else that you do on a daly basis?
In 1994, after a big emotional turmoil, separating from my partner and a few other traumatic experiences, I got ill and spent three months in a pulmonary hospital. While on the hospital bed, I would talk myself into positive outcome the next morning, with cleaner, healthier lungs.
One day, after having completely relaxed my mind, I felt such lightness and ease in my body. I was not able to tell whether I was prone or laying on my back. And then I saw them – these little people, working on my chest, with enormously big tools – pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches. They were fixing my lungs. Soon after that I took the course of steady recovery – big role payed also the herbal remedies that my sister was bringing me in the hospital daily. Years later I realised that the vision of the little people fixing my chest was the way my mind was showing that healing was taking place.
After I got out of hospital I got very curious about what had happened. I realised that this was my first experience of meditation. I started learning qigong and meditation with a chinese master in Sofia in 1995.
In 1997 I met with my first taichi master. Meditation and the daily slow taichi movements in nature helped me keep balance in my very stressful life of an executive brand strategist in some of the biggest communication networks, allowed me to stay centred and focused. I always created time for reconnecting with myself, and managed to prepare for and take part as a contestant in the 3rd European taichi championship in Russia in 2004. Qigong, taichi and meditation became a part of my life. And I started integrating them in my work as a coach and retreat leader.
What is the most common problem you help your clients solve?
My clients are intelligent, intuitive, seeking women.
They have quite some achievements in their lives – running their own businesses or managing teams in corporations, creating strategies on international or local level.
They are heart-centred, spiritual (not religious) – in the sense of feeling the connection between ourselves and universe, practicing mindfulness to a small or big extend.
They feel lost, blocked, without motivation, in doubt, disconnected. They are usually on a cross road, at the verge of transition (that they not always recognise), without the sense of purpose.
They have the sense of something bigger possible for them, but lack the clarity to take a confident action – the possibilities are so many!
There is also the Fear, with many faces:
• a fear of failure (they are successful leaders, right? and falling from a higher place is even more painful)
• a fear of judgment – how would their circle react when all of a sudden they start taking risks, expressing their authentic voice (which might have been silent for years)
• a fear of success – “what if we leave loved ones behind?”
• a fear of letting others down – “I have not done this before, what if I disappoint my new clients, my new audience?”
• a fear of visibility related to the fear or judgment and rejection – “I don’t look good on camera, my voice sounds awful, I don’t know what to talk about in an interesting way”
I help them acquire profound self-awareness, learning about the foundational elements in their lives. With this self-awareness, they get out of the state of victims, and choose to rebuild their lives in a direction, aligned with the newly acquired sense of purpose.
They transition from self-doubt, overwhelm, anxiety, lack of motivation, into clarity and confidence in their self-worth and purpose. They start taking energised actions, inspired and motivated to pursue their dream. They start showing up, authentic in their self-expression, and thrive with joy, freedom and connection with others and themselves.
What are the teachers you had and what books and authors helped you build your coaching program?
My coaching programs are blend of all my life experiences and influences from the last 30 years, including my business, my emotional and physical healing.
Let me start with the books. A turning point for me has been the book by Steven Covey “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful people” – I read soon after it was first published in 1989.
Other authors that have been highly influential on me in the early years of my self-growth have been Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, Dale Carneggi, Mirzakarim Norbekov, Carlos Castaneda, Gal Sasson, James Redfield, Mircha Elliade, all sacred books of the major ancient civilisations, Lao Tzu (I feel deeply connected with the taoist and zen tradition).
From my more recent development as a coach, I could point out books by Derek Rydal, Eben Pagan (my first coach and mentor), Michael Neal, Rich Litvin, Ajit Nawalkha (I have done several programs with him, as his client as well as an ambassador for his courses), Vishen Lakhiani, and the work of Lisa Nichols, Erik Edmeades, Christian Mickelsen, and many others.
At the moment, I work with three coaches – I believe that a coach has to have a mentor, to be supported on their own continuous growth in excellence, and to serve better their clients.
Who is your best client – a short description so IWC members can relate?
My best client is Jane. She is 41 years old, single – she divorced her husband of 15 years two years ago. She is the co-chair of a big international company, based in Amsterdam. She travels the world, leads teams, she is responsible for the strategies of the company.
But she feels somehow stuck. She has reached the ceiling in her career and there is no much to motivate her in her daily job.
She does the work routinely, sometimes she feels that she is not even needed there. She started noticing that her own values are not totally aligned with the ones of the corporate culture.
She does not express her true desires, she is not really authentic in there daily interactions – there is not many colleagues and peers who would understand her desire to see people improving their lives, to be able to connect on a human level.
She knows of a local community of teachers who need more inspiration, so that they can do better their job and raise conscious children.
During her last trip to Kenya, she discovered the natural way of connecting with people from the heart, beyond the masks of luxury and status. She felt the power of genuine laughter, of appreciating people for their true talents and virtues.
She has a dream to create a change. But she does not know where to start from – these new fields are so foreign to her, she is not qualified.
Thinking of making a change feels scary. She could loose all her achievements, the prestige, the financial security and social status. What if she fails? What would her family say?
On the other hand, every day feels lost, empty. The impatience to start doing something different, the sense that the moment is now – that tomorrow might be too late to make a change – is growing.
This is when Jane comes to me – to hold a space for her to get the clarity, to connect with her inner strength, with the talents and skills that she already has, to see that the limitations that she sees are most probably imposed on her by her environment. And with the clarity comes the confidence – she can see the dream possible, and she is able to start making the steps, becoming visible, sharing her real message to the world. She transforms into the real leader of the heart and mind, and with the projects she creates, she thrives – with joy, inspiration, deep connections, elevated relationships and abundance.
My clients work with me for 6-12 months individually or in my ShowUP Incubator, for at least six months, under my immediate coaching and guidance, as well as with the support of a community of like-minded people on a similar journey.
Do you think having a social network only for women is a good idea? Why?
There is something really empowering in a sisterhood. When strong, sensitive, creative women get together, there is nothing impossible.
The woman-mother, woman-warrior, woman-healer, woman-peacemaker, woman-artist, woman-lover, woman-leader – so many great aspects of the femininity can be brought together in a platform, to promote the woman’s way of leading, guiding, and managing in our male dominated society.
As a creator where do you usually find your inspiration?
I feel inspired by my clients, by nature, by my tribe (I have a community of change makers which I consider my soul family), by my two sons (9- and 32-years old), by the silence in my meditation.
What do you wish people to remember you for?
What I hear from the people who interact with me, is their acknowledgment of my authenticity and deep self-connectedness.
As well as my sense of clarity, confidence (my clients labeled me as a “clarity and confidence coach” and speaking from my heart.
One of my clients recently said this about me: “H-E-A-R-T – Her Energy is Authentic and Really Transparent”.
Iskra Petrova
Clarity and Confidence Coach
How IWC members can get in contact with you?
The best way to connect with me is on social media – you can find me here and send me a DM:
LinkedIn: @coachiskrapetrova FB: @coachiskrapetrova Instagram: @coachiskrapetrova and by email: contact@iskrapetrova.com
Hello Iskra and welcome to IWC Club! A woman with such an amazing and vast background! Tell us please more about your professional experience? What is that you do?
First, thank you for welcoming me in IWC Club! I am really excited to join this amazing community of women who change the world.
I work with powerful women of a career, in transition who have reached the ceiling in their present professional growth and want to open a new chapter in their life – pursuing their dreams of life in purpose, excitement, and impact.
I hold space for them to move from feeling stuck, lost, living on autopilot, into pursuing their dreams with clarity, confidence, and authenticity.
They start showing up today to thrive tomorrow, with inspiration, passion, and joy, elevating their relationships and finding a new purpose-driven professional expression.
I work with them individually as well as in my ongoing mastermind “the ShowUP INCUBATOR” in which they have both my support as well as a community of like-minded people on a similar journey.
How did you decide to transition from the film industry to coaching and why?
It was not an abrupt decision. In 2003, I was invited to create two university curricula for the master of art and bachelor of art programs at New Bulgarian University in Sofia, on the topics of advertising strategy and commercial film production, and this is how I created my first hands-on programs for teaching my students very practical skills while passing on my extensive knowledge in these fields.
My experience as tutor, advertising strategist (since 1995), mindfulness leader and martial artist (I will talk about this later), as well as my leadership role as an executive film producer, blended well together. And when I felt that I have reached the top in my career development and personal fulfilment – being in the same position as my ideal clients – I decided to take a step in different direction.
What I have been looking for was a field of professional realisation where it was possible to support amazing individuals to grow, heal, transform. I wanted to see myself creating impact in real people’s life, while being deeply connected with them and growing myself in the process. By choosing to work with changemakers, the impact of my work is exponential.
Tell us more about your experience with Mindvalley and Evercoach. What are the courses you lead there?
In January 2018 I joined a year long self-growth program in which I undertook the role of a group leader and led a female circle with participants from the US, Canada and Australia weekly for the whole year.
About the same time, I enrolled in a program by Mindvalley for inspirational speakers, led by Lisa Nichols. Apparently, this was what I had been looking for – to learn to express myself authentically on camera and on stage in a way that engages and motivates people to rediscover themselves. While still in the program, I and about ten other fellow participants connected and created a deep bond between each other. We started spontaneously supporting the other 1000 participants in the program.
In March 2018 we were all invited to become the first tribe facilitators, supporting the community of students in their work on the program by Lisa Nichols – a work which required deep soul searching, vulnerability in sharing personal stories and trust in the process. Back then we were called Tribe Elders, which by the end of 2018 transformed into Tribe Ambassadors. Since then, the group of ambassadors at Mindvalley and Evercoach has grown to a couple of hundreds.
In 2019, already on my coaching journey, I started supporting the students in several programs by Evercoach – the foundational courses “Start your coaching business’, “Grow your coaching business”, and since 2020 as a senior Evercoach ambassador I have been dedicated to the coaching certification programs “Business Coach Certification” and “Holobody Coach Certification”. I have a personal acknowledgment by Ajit Nawalkha, the co-founder of Evercoach of my contribution to the almost 100% students’ completion rate Evercoach’s foundational courses in 2019.
As a massive entrepreneur what is your greatest passion, which business do you enjoy the most?
My top core values are Co-creation, Connection, Authenticity, Purpose and Trust. Coaching and mentoring groups, and creating communities is where my passion is. I am humbled to witness the transformation in my clients while creating deep connections with their soul siblings, as I call them.
“Finding my family of soul brothers and sisters” was my first personal goal for 2018. And I started creating tribes, not simply looking to discover them.
I love coaching, mentoring, creating training programs, both for individuals on their journey of self growth , as well as for children, parents and teachers.
In 2020, I was inspired to create a program on Personal Values for the teachers and pupils in the primary school where my 8-year old son studied. The name of the program was “My little garden of virtues”. Its aim was to unite the teachers’ collective, to give them the sense of a higher purpose as well as to teach children the soft skills from very early age.
In 2021 I created two new programs for the school, one on Growth Mindset for children, and the second one – on Empathic Communication for parents, that were approved by the Bulgarian ministry of Education.
The program for the kids was included in the official 2-year school curriculum and the school acquired the label “Innovative School”.
In your bio you talk about finding meditation and martial arts helpful for your inner peace and focus? How did you decide to work those crafts in addition to everything else that you do on a daly basis?
In 1994, after a big emotional turmoil, separating from my partner and a few other traumatic experiences, I got ill and spent three months in a pulmonary hospital. While on the hospital bed, I would talk myself into positive outcome the next morning, with cleaner, healthier lungs.
One day, after having completely relaxed my mind, I felt such lightness and ease in my body. I was not able to tell whether I was prone or laying on my back. And then I saw them – these little people, working on my chest, with enormously big tools – pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches. They were fixing my lungs. Soon after that I took the course of steady recovery – big role payed also the herbal remedies that my sister was bringing me in the hospital daily.
Years later I realised that the vision of the little people fixing my chest was the way my mind was showing that healing was taking place.
After I got out of hospital I got very curious about what had happened. I realised that this was my first experience of meditation. I started learning qigong and meditation with a chinese master in Sofia in 1995.
In 1997 I met with my first taichi master. Meditation and the daily slow taichi movements in nature helped me keep balance in my very stressful life of an executive brand strategist in some of the biggest communication networks, allowed me to stay centred and focused.
I always created time for reconnecting with myself, and managed to prepare for and take part as a contestant in the 3rd European taichi championship in Russia in 2004.
Qigong, taichi and meditation became a part of my life. And I started integrating them in my work as a coach and retreat leader.
What is the most common problem you help your clients solve?
My clients are intelligent, intuitive, seeking women.
They have quite some achievements in their lives – running their own businesses or managing teams in corporations, creating strategies on international or local level.
They are heart-centred, spiritual (not religious) – in the sense of feeling the connection between ourselves and universe, practicing mindfulness to a small or big extend.
They feel lost, blocked, without motivation, in doubt, disconnected. They are usually on a cross road, at the verge of transition (that they not always recognise), without the sense of purpose.
They have the sense of something bigger possible for them, but lack the clarity to take a confident action – the possibilities are so many!
There is also the Fear, with many faces:
• a fear of failure (they are successful leaders, right? and falling from a higher place is even more painful)
• a fear of judgment – how would their circle react when all of a sudden they start taking risks, expressing their authentic voice (which might have been silent for years)
• a fear of success – “what if we leave loved ones behind?”
• a fear of letting others down – “I have not done this before, what if I disappoint my new clients, my new audience?”
• a fear of visibility related to the fear or judgment and rejection – “I don’t look good on camera, my voice sounds awful, I don’t know what to talk about in an interesting way”
I help them acquire profound self-awareness, learning about the foundational elements in their lives. With this self-awareness, they get out of the state of victims, and choose to rebuild their lives in a direction, aligned with the newly acquired sense of purpose.
They transition from self-doubt, overwhelm, anxiety, lack of motivation, into clarity and confidence in their self-worth and purpose. They start taking energised actions, inspired and motivated to pursue their dream. They start showing up, authentic in their self-expression, and thrive with joy, freedom and connection with others and themselves.
What are the teachers you had and what books and authors helped you build your coaching program?
My coaching programs are blend of all my life experiences and influences from the last 30 years, including my business, my emotional and physical healing.
Let me start with the books. A turning point for me has been the book by Steven Covey “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful people” – I read soon after it was first published in 1989.
Other authors that have been highly influential on me in the early years of my self-growth have been Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, Dale Carneggi, Mirzakarim Norbekov, Carlos Castaneda, Gal Sasson, James Redfield, Mircha Elliade, all sacred books of the major ancient civilisations, Lao Tzu (I feel deeply connected with the taoist and zen tradition).
From my more recent development as a coach, I could point out books by Derek Rydal, Eben Pagan (my first coach and mentor), Michael Neal, Rich Litvin, Ajit Nawalkha (I have done several programs with him, as his client as well as an ambassador for his courses), Vishen Lakhiani, and the work of Lisa Nichols, Erik Edmeades, Christian Mickelsen, and many others.
At the moment, I work with three coaches – I believe that a coach has to have a mentor, to be supported on their own continuous growth in excellence, and to serve better their clients.
Who is your best client – a short description so IWC members can relate?
My best client is Jane. She is 41 years old, single – she divorced her husband of 15 years two years ago. She is the co-chair of a big international company, based in Amsterdam. She travels the world, leads teams, she is responsible for the strategies of the company.
But she feels somehow stuck. She has reached the ceiling in her career and there is no much to motivate her in her daily job.
She does the work routinely, sometimes she feels that she is not even needed there. She started noticing that her own values are not totally aligned with the ones of the corporate culture.
She does not express her true desires, she is not really authentic in there daily interactions – there is not many colleagues and peers who would understand her desire to see people improving their lives, to be able to connect on a human level.
She knows of a local community of teachers who need more inspiration, so that they can do better their job and raise conscious children.
During her last trip to Kenya, she discovered the natural way of connecting with people from the heart, beyond the masks of luxury and status. She felt the power of genuine laughter, of appreciating people for their true talents and virtues.
She has a dream to create a change. But she does not know where to start from – these new fields are so foreign to her, she is not qualified.
Thinking of making a change feels scary. She could loose all her achievements, the prestige, the financial security and social status. What if she fails? What would her family say?
On the other hand, every day feels lost, empty. The impatience to start doing something different, the sense that the moment is now – that tomorrow might be too late to make a change – is growing.
This is when Jane comes to me – to hold a space for her to get the clarity, to connect with her inner strength, with the talents and skills that she already has, to see that the limitations that she sees are most probably imposed on her by her environment. And with the clarity comes the confidence – she can see the dream possible, and she is able to start making the steps, becoming visible, sharing her real message to the world. She transforms into the real leader of the heart and mind, and with the projects she creates, she thrives – with joy, inspiration, deep connections, elevated relationships and abundance.
My clients work with me for 6-12 months individually or in my ShowUP Incubator, for at least six months, under my immediate coaching and guidance, as well as with the support of a community of like-minded people on a similar journey.
Do you think having a social network only for women is a good idea? Why?
There is something really empowering in a sisterhood. When strong, sensitive, creative women get together, there is nothing impossible.
The woman-mother, woman-warrior, woman-healer, woman-peacemaker, woman-artist, woman-lover, woman-leader – so many great aspects of the femininity can be brought together in a platform, to promote the woman’s way of leading, guiding, and managing in our male dominated society.
As a creator where do you usually find your inspiration?
I feel inspired by my clients, by nature, by my tribe (I have a community of change makers which I consider my soul family), by my two sons (9- and 32-years old), by the silence in my meditation.
What do you wish people to remember you for?
What I hear from the people who interact with me, is their acknowledgment of my authenticity and deep self-connectedness.
As well as my sense of clarity, confidence (my clients labeled me as a “clarity and confidence coach” and speaking from my heart.
One of my clients recently said this about me:
“H-E-A-R-T – Her Energy is Authentic and Really Transparent”.
Iskra Petrova
Clarity and Confidence Coach
How IWC members can get in contact with you?
The best way to connect with me is on social media – you can find me here and send me a DM:
LinkedIn: @coachiskrapetrova
FB: @coachiskrapetrova
Instagram: @coachiskrapetrova
and by email: contact@iskrapetrova.com
You can book a free strategy session, to explore what is possible for you, using my calendar: https://IskraPetrovaAppointmentSchedule.as.me/free-call-30min
I will be updating my website soon, so bookmark it, too:
www.iskrapetrova.com