Anna Yulusova grew up in a family of swimming coaches and was in the water by the age of two. She moved from swimming into pentathlon and then kickboxing, where she won three Russian titles and an Asian championship before stepping away from competition at twenty. She completed a double degree in psychology and international relations, moved to Barcelona without a word of Spanish, and went on to spend twelve years at an American agricultural multinational, latterly as a senior treasury executive covering fifty entities across EMEA.

A restructuring brought her into an outplacement programme and her first experience of executive coaching. Today Anna is an ICF-certified executive coach and mentor working with accomplished women in their forties and fifties as they move through perimenopause and menopause. Her approach treats body and mind as one system, bringing together training, nutrition, stress management and nervous system regulation with the mindset work she developed through her own transformation.

In conversation with Grace McNamara, Anna explains why the strategies that served women for decades often stop working in this season of life, and why eating less and training harder can make things worse. She describes the “I want myself back” moment that brings most clients to her, the 360-style assessment she starts with, and the change that follows once women see the full picture. She also shares a candid story from her time as a manager, when she did not understand what women on her team were going through, and makes the case for companies to support women leaders through menopause so they stay in their roles.

The most personal part of the conversation returns to her father, who was also her coach, and the belief she carried into her forties that love had to be earned through performance. Anna talks about how she unlearned it, what recovery means for an athlete and an executive alike, and why pushing all the time leads to burnout.

In this episode

• Why what worked in your thirties may stop working in perimenopause
• Treating body and mind as one system
• Supporting women leaders through menopause at work
• Recovery as part of performance
• Separating self-worth from achievement

Chapters
00:00 Welcome
00:49 A childhood in the pool
02:50 From pentathlon to kickboxing
04:46 Choosing a future beyond sport
07:04 Studying, loss and a move to Barcelona
09:18 Building an international corporate career
10:56 Restructuring, outplacement and a first coach
13:29 Founding her coaching practice
14:39 Body and mind as one system
16:22 Why she works with women in midlife
18:25 “I want myself back”
20:13 Why pushing harder stops working
24:40 Taking the conversation into corporates
29:24 Teaching in business schools
30:27 Performance, worth and her father’s words
37:02 Collective spotlight
38:58 Close

Collective spotlight
Anna celebrates Mel Robbins for the way she brings everyday, relevant topics to a wide audience with humility. She credits the Let Them Theory and shares how she applied the same idea as a parent before the book was published.

Resources
Connect with Anna Yulusova: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-yulusova-coach/

Hosted by Grace McNamara. Produced by The Collective.