An Inspiring Journey Of Triumph And Empowerment – Interview With Caroline Bellenger

Caroline is an award-winning entrepreneur, mental health advocate, and wellness warrior. After experiencing childhood sexual abuse and over twenty years of addiction and mental health issues, Caroline enhanced her life by creating a toolbox of strategies that enabled her to improve her mindset, and self-esteem and create three successful businesses. As the founder of “Be The Impossible”, she has coached and inspired thousands of women to overcome their own life obstacles and create fulfillment and joy. She is the co-author of three books including Amazon's 1 Best Seller "Queens In Sand Castles". She has climbed to Everest Base Camp and competed in national sporting teams, including representing Australia in Triathlon at 50. Her transformation and achievements are a testament to her courage and determination to define her future regardless of age or past challenges. Caroline has dedicated her life to empowering other women through inspirational keynotes, books, coaching programs, and online education.

Caroline Bellenger, Life Coach

Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.

I have had a fascinating life with careers in finance, travel, hospitality, construction and non-profit, to name a few. I am a self-esteem coach and business coach after five years of owning a gym and realising that the "fitness" industry was not aligned with my values about health & well-being.

I live near the beach on the Gold Coast, Australia, but I have lived in Thailand and the United States. I love to travel and, so far, have visited over 20 different countries, Asia being my favourite destination.

I am passionate about exercise and love to mix it up with weight training, ocean swimming, running and cycling. I was lucky to represent Australia in Triathlon at the World Championships in Switzerland alongside my son in 2019. My son is now 21, and I have been a single mum raising him on my own the entire time. When he was born, I suffered from mental illness and addiction, but I got Sober 13 years ago, and my life has been amazing ever since. Exercise has been instrumental in managing my mental health and set me on the course to further my career in the wellness industry.

I have a very demanding Siamese Cat that runs my household, but as long as there is Chocolate in the fridge, all is good in my world.

Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

While unexpectedly becoming a mum and getting sober are two of the most significant changes in my life, I would say the most pivotal moment in getting to where I am today happened during the years after I got Sober. The first few years of Sobriety were extremely challenging, having a whole heap of emotions and no alcohol to suppress them as I had been doing for the previous 20 years. During this time, I started running, and this was how I managed my mental health. Then in multiple workplaces from 2010 to 2018, I experienced toxic bullying and harassment. Due to this, I left my much-loved corporate career to start my entrepreneurial journey under my new Mentor, Aaron Sansoni.

How did you get started in the coaching industry, and what inspired you to start your own business?

Embarking on my personal development journey and having mentors and coaches in my corner made me realise that I could use my lived experiences and skills to support and empower other women who were feeling stuck or unfulfilled. I thought that the fitness and beauty industries were motivated by making women feel not good enough so that they would sign up for unrealistic diets or feel pressured to stay looking young forever. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I started meeting many clients still carrying unresolved trauma from their childhood experiences. I wanted to empower them to believe in themselves regardless of their past or society's expectations. It was 3 years ago I started transitioning from a gym owner to a self-esteem coach.

Can you describe your coaching philosophy and approach to helping clients achieve their goals?

My coaching style is a combination of counselling practices, performance coaching and neurolinguistic programming. These competencies are the underlying methodology behind my coaching philosophy: "Every woman is exactly enough just the way they are.” I consider my approach to be very supportive and encouraging while at the same time being very raw, authentic and no fluff. Walking the talk as a role model is the best way to inspire clients to make changes to improve their self-esteem and well-being.

What are some common challenges that your clients face, and how do you help them overcome these challenges?

Many of the women I coach do not believe in themselves or have spent so much time caring about others that they have forgotten their dreams or goals. I help them overcome these challenges by assisting them to discover their purpose and align goals with this. Then through a combination of mindset and physical activities, I get them to start prioritising self-care. I get women to understand that by becoming the best version of themselves, they can attract positive relationships, careers and health. I also support them to be authentically themselves and to stop worrying about what others think or what society expects them to be.

If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?

There are a lot of people in the coaching industry that are driven by money rather than genuinely wanting to help people. They make unrealistic promises over a short period with cookie-cutter strategies that don't take into account that every individual has a different journey and life purpose. It also concerns me that some coaches are not adequately trained, especially in areas of trauma, and offer advice that is entirely outside their scope of training. I recommend clients research their future coaches rather than getting caught up in a slick marketing campaign that preys on their vulnerabilities.

Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.

I recently won a National Award for Personal Counselling at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards. To be recognised on a national stage for the work I do to empower women was incredibly humbling. Being in a room of 1000 people was also a perfect opportunity for me to be the voice of the 1 in 5 women who are sexually abused before 15. I love that my coaching business has allowed me to be the voice for victims through national media, multiple awards and numerous podcasts.

Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?

Without a doubt, my son Amadeus is the person who inspires me to be the best I can be. We have a little story that when he was a spirit in the sky, he looked down and thought, OMG, this woman needs help, and that is how he became my son. He is the reason I got sober and survived my mental illness, and now I am proud that I can be a positive role model for him and give him the resilience and inspiration to chase his own dreams.

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