A change of pace
Being a life coach is actress Deanna Yusoff’s new passion.
WITH two solo albums, a stream of movie titles and a fine food business to her name, one would think that Deanna Yusoff has got it all planned out for the future. While last year hasn’t been the most eventful of years (having had four film project cancellations), themodel-turned-actress now has her sights set on a new calling: life coaching.
Nevertheless, she is still only a student, and has been taking an online course with the US and Australia-based International Coach Academy since February.
“I have personally been coached in the last few years and I found it really helpful. It fits into a part of where I want to go in life: to help empower and inspire others. Human beings work better when there’s someone there telling them that they can get to where they want to be. People think that you only need a coach when you have a problem but that’s not true,” explains Deanna, who is in her mid-40s.
Everybody needs a coach in life, she adds. “If you want to better your life, you need somebody to hold you accountable; to get you motivated and push you in the right direction.”
Learning via audio conferences, Deanna is given the opportunity to interact with coaches and students from around the world. If all goes well, the multi-talented beauty will receive accreditation as a life coach from the International Coach Federation by June 2014.
“What I really love about the way the school is set up is, you’re allowed to give feedback but not your personal opinion. In life coaching, if you start judging then you are essentially forcing your own opinions onto somebody, which kind of defeats the purpose.”
Having zero background in the field, Deanna admits that she initially found the course a tad overwhelming, especially when she had to share virtual lessons with a host of experienced students.
“Most of the other students have had some training in the field whereas I knew nothing. It was a bit intimidating whenever they spoke up. But after a while, I realised that there were certain subjects that I fared better than them in because it was about life experiences. You can’t become a life coach just by reading a book; you have to bring in your own personal experiences. That’s when I thought: I can do this.”
Still, Deanna isn’t one to call her own experiences “unique”.
“With my kind of work, there are always ups and downs. You always have to reinvent yourself and deal with different people on a regular basis. And the rhythm is always off because we don’t work regular hours. I think everybody goes through their own share of experiences, but it’s how you deal with it that’s important.”
Deanna’s goal, once she graduates, is to start with one-on-one personal coaching before moving on to small groups and eventually, seminars where she gets to work with a larger number of people.
That being said, fans will be pleased to hear that the awardwinning actress of Selubung and
Ringgit Kassorga will not be going into life coaching full-time just yet.
“There are so many things going on in my life right now that when I graduate, I’ll probably just do it part time and see where it takes me.”
Deanna’s fine food business, Artisanal Asia Sdn Bhd, which made its debut in 2009 with handmade swiss chocolates Grandjean Freres, is currently taking a backseat as she busies herself with a new travel-related side project (which is still hush-hush at the moment).
Deanna was also recently chosen as one of the brand personalities for Colour for Life, a nationwide fundraising campaign initiated in 2002 by L’Oreal Professionnel for The Malaysian Aids Foundation (MAF) in support of HIV-affected children. This year, the campaign is collaborating with Datuk Jimmy Choo, Royal Selangor, Tom Abang Saufi, Eric Choong and Winnie Sin to create designer T-shirts and limited edition tote bags, of which the public can purchase for RM25 at partnering salons.
Come January, we’ll get to see her in a new comedy, CEO, directed by Razaisyam Rashid. This will be Deanna’s first movie in years, since her last foray as a vengeful ghost in Chermin in 2007.
Alongside Remy Ishak and Beto Kusyairy, Deanna plays a corporate lawyer who is nothing like who she claims to be in real life.
“I’m not a good person in the movie. I’m a lawyer who enjoys manipulating others to get to the top. Everything that comes out from my mouth is a sting. It was really fun to play somebody like that. I’ve seen about 70% of the movie and it’s actually looking good.”
As she gears up for more exciting prospects in the future, Deanna says she is happy with the way things are going in her life, particularly with the added perspective of becoming a life coach. “You have to just go in and make your mistakes. If you don’t, you’ll never
grow.”