Yulia Rafailova is an Executive Function Coach who primarily works with families, practicing methods for collaborative problem solving using a strategy called Plan B.
Yulia has always been interested in learning and exploring her curiosities. Essentially, she wants to help people solve problems as well as solve her own problems. She has ADHD herself so she makes sure to seek out paths that are most interesting to her.
Inspiring kids to want to learn
Yulia would ask kids why they go to school and the consistent answer was “so I can get a job”. She realized that kids are not inspired to learn, they are just going to school because it is forced. Yulia helps kids execute a series of steps that get them to exactly where they want and helps parents reframe the reason why their kids are not performing the way they expected.
What does the world need, that you can help with?
When starting her own business, Yulia didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do. But, she knew that Executive Function Coaching was needed in the world. She began to explore the different ways she could bring Executive Function Coaching into the world, seeking out support from other Executive Function Coaches, listening to podcasts, and volunteering. To get her business going, she gave free service to 4 clients in return for feedback.
Taking the next steps for her business
Yulia got her message out there through YouTube and set up her website in a way that made people want to work with her. She knew that as long as she was doing meaningful work, everything would fall into place.
The business industry seems like a place of competition. But, being in the executive function business, Yulia loves the industry because it is very heart-centered. The people in this industry care so much and want more people to join.
There will be times where you don’t know what to do next. It is important to reach out to people for help and guidance, we can’t go through life alone.
You can find Yulia at www.mindfulleducation.com
Sean McCormick 0:00 This week on Earn More Tutoring, I talk with Yulia Rafailova about her journey to starting Mindfull Education, how she became the premier parent coach in Los Angeles, and how she had to go through her own trials and tribulations of running a massive tutoring business to find what worked for her. Yulia Rafailova 0:15 I remember the first four parents who were piloted my coaching program, and I was very honest with him, I said, Look, I have no idea what I'm doing here. I know I've got something. It's good. I know you need it. Because I you know, you shared with me these struggles and they're so common. So I'll give you some free service and you'll give me some feedback. And to this day, you know, I so connect with those parents. Sean McCormick 0:41 Welcome to Earn More Tutoring, the ultimate crowdsource education entrepreneurship show. This week I speak with Yulia Rafailova. Yulia is a parent coach and the founder of Mindfull Education. Yulia Rafailova 0:51 Welcome, Yulia. Hi, Sean, thanks for having me. Sean McCormick 0:55 Absolutely. So just to get started, share with me your different offerings and what your business is all about. Yulia Rafailova 1:00 Sure. So I'm an executive function coach. And I primarily work with families. And what we do is we practice a method for collaborative problem solving that was developed by Dr. Ross green, and it's called Plan B. And he calls it Plan B. Because when you think about it, when when problems come up, especially problems in families whose kids have executive function, difficulties, the reaction to those problems seems to include either trying to reward challenging behavior or punish challenging behavior. And there's a lot of friction that results in the relationships between parents and kids. And Dr. Oz screen calls typical parenting reactions to reoccurring challenges. Plan A, and parents tend to lean on Plan A, which means they tend to react in a top down authoritarian fashion. Where Plan A is this is what I need you to do, and I need you to do it now. Or else. And often when you have a child with ADHD, or any any sort of challenges with regulating their behavior or their emotions are tolerating frustration. There, they tend to react to that authoritarian style of parenting with opposition. And so many families experience an ongoing power struggle. So what Dr. rescreened talks about is getting rid of plan A and implementing Plan B. Meaning if that didn't work, if your kid is unable to comply with your expectation, you got to drop that expectation. And you need to figure out why this behavior is happening and why now. And the idea of plan B is to come together and have a very specific type of conversation. It's a series of steps in a certain order that helps parents engage with their kids in a way that they'll actually listen. And that's the biggest complaint kids have about their parents, and vice versa, is my parents won't listen to me. And parents say the same thing, my kid won't listen to me. So Plan B is a different way of solving problems that's collaborative, that's more democratic, and it's much more likely to help your child develop the skills they need, so they can get more of what they want, but more adaptively. So I guess I could boil it down to saying I help families get along better. And I help them get stuff done more collaboratively. Because your kid's going to do whatever they can to get what they want. That's their internal drive and motivation is that that's just like the rest of us. So let's help them develop the skills to do that adaptively. Sean McCormick 4:02 Yeah, that's every podcast episode. I have, well, not everyone, but many of them come back to this core issue in society that being a parent is hard. Being a kid is hard, of course, too. And parents don't have the tools they need or the coaching they need. And so it feels like such an important area that is is kind of a smaller market. I mean, there's a lot of parents who want support, but it doesn't feel like there's there's tons of providers, so it's great that people can know that this work is out there and that you do it. And it's almost like where you're talking. I'm thinking Plan A is not even a plan. It's just reacting and just kidding mad like, Oh, you don't want to go to bed when I know it's like you plan B is you have to have a process for working with people and it sounds like you've you've kind of drawn from one of the leaders in the field and created or you know, implemented that process. How did you Get in to doing this work? Yulia Rafailova 5:02 That's a great question. It's a complicated answer. Because, you know, I didn't follow the normal path, you know, I didn't like figure out what I wanted to do and go to school and learn how to do it. And then I'm doing it, it, I just sort of stumbled backwards into a series of things that brought me here. But I would say, looking back, I mean, at the time, it just felt like chaos...
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