Andrea Liu
Andrea Liu is the Founder & Coach at Frolic for Life, a specialist coaching practice working to improve the lives of children and their parents. She was born in Hong Kong, raised and educated in the United Kingdom. She spent the majority of her career in Marketing and Advertising – working for prestigious advertising agencies like M&C Saatchi and BBDO. After nearly 20 years in similar roles, she decided to ignite a passion in helping, guiding and supporting kids, parents and families in the mental health area.
Coaching is her life now and broadening her own skills that are innate in her personality has been incredibly rewarding for her. She is Certified with ICF (International Coaching Federation) and qualified Kids Life Coach with Kids Life Coach Academy. She currently lives in Singapore with her Australian husband and two teenage children, and their dog Roxy.
Tell us about your life before the venture/ leading up to your venture?
Just prior to Frolic for Life, I was working for a very popular online parenting portal – Sassy Mama, the TimeOut for parents and kids living in Singapore. I helped with their Marketing, Social Media and Events. I loved the flexibility, we all worked from home, and the like-minded team of women had a fantastic camaraderie. I moved to Singapore when the kids were 5 and 2 years old. My kids were still young and needed me around so it was the perfect job for that stage in my life.
Early 2019 I hired a Life & Career Coach. I had reached that point in my career where I was feeling unfulfilled and felt I needed to seek direction and clarity. I could have plodded along with my job, but I had this nagging feeling I had more to give in another capacity. What that was, I really did not have a clue. Funny thing was – by my second coaching session I had given in my resignation and by the third session I had a vague idea that I wanted to coach people. I definitely wanted to listen and give back, help and support people to find their own spark and happiness.
So I embarked on an intensive coaching course and spent some time equipping myself with coaching techniques and skills. I received ACC certification with ICF (International Coaching Federation) in 2020 and then went on to focus my coaching skills on Kids Life Coaching with Kids Life Coach Academy. The Kids Life Coaching is based on 6 proven, well researched, backed by scholars and science theories of: Life Coaching, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology and Social Psychology. I chose Kids Life Coaching as my area of expertise as I wanted to empower children and provide them with the much needed tools and strategies to manage their emotions and every-day challenges. I wanted to lay the foundation of self-awareness and emotional regulation so that they grow up to be mentally healthy and happy from the inside-out.
I could have promoted myself and my brand as a Kids Life Coach. But I decided to join forces with other like-minded women with an exciting common goal – to support kids and parents in other coaching areas that are fundamental for families to thrive. That is how Frolic for Life, family coaching practice was born earlier this year in 2022.
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
Frolic for Life is a specialist coaching practice working to improve the lives of children and their parents. There are five family fundamentals which provide a strong foundation for families to thrive. At Frolic for Life, specialist practitioners deliver personal and impactful coaching support in these essential areas:
* Kids: with Kids Life Coaching, Teen Coaching
* Parents: with Fertility Coaching, Motherhood Coaching, Parent Coaching, Relationship Coaching
* Life & Career: with Life Coaching, Career Coaching, Stress Management Coaching
* Health & Fitness: with Health & Wellness Coaching, Fitness Coaching
* Finance: with Financial Wellness Coaching
With mental health disorders on the rise globally – our mission is to support families through their challenges with coaching. We have a certified and experienced collective of coaches that aims to provide families with tools and strategies to raise resilient, healthy, happy children, who live harmoniously, with a frolic for life!
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
We launched in January 2022 and so far we’ve had a good gradual response. We’ve done no paid media so far. This year is for building the foundation – good user friendly website, social media presence, search engine optimisation. The coaching business being a service relies a lot on referrals. If we as coaches do an amazing job, our clients write awesome testimonials and our business has grown organically based on our results. We also enjoy collaborating with organizations and brands that have a good synergy with us. This has been very content driven and presents topics that people are interested in so that they come to see us in a thought-leadership capacity at live events or webinars. Our collective of coaches are the faces behind the brand so it’s important for us to raise our own personal brand awareness for people to see that we are approachable and professional.
Having a coaching practice with so many coaching areas under one roof targeting the same audience has made a lot of sense. A lot of coaches work solo and as a collective of women it has been a powerful proposition. We’ve had a lot of feedback saying it’s such a unique idea and one that is needed – especially post Covid when a lot of our parents and kids are going through some wobbly times.
How has your life changed because of your venture?
It’s definitely been a little more stressful than usual, but I need to be patient. Running your own business is rewarding but at the same time it’s a big juggle act. I have learnt to ask for help when I need it, outsource some areas that take too much time and energy and focus on what I love – which is to coach kids. There’s also a huge obligation to the rest of the coaching collective – the team of women rely on me and the business to promote and create leads for their coaching service.
What I do love is that I am still in absolute control of my time. I do my best for the business and I’m a true believer in what you put in is what you get out of anything you put your mind and heart into.
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
It is never too late to be what you might have been! But you must believe that you can achieve it. I should have done Psychology at University but I ended up picking the safe route or the route I thought I ‘should’ take. No regrets at all. Now I had time to reinvent myself and embrace the journey. I do have self-doubt creep in now and then – this is normal. In time, with more practice and more self-belief I know that I am great at what I do, and that’s because I love it and see so much joy in the transformation of the kids and their relationships with their parents.