Founder's Story - Why Facing Your Darkest Fears Can Propel Your Success, with Coach Julian Heppt | S2 Ep. 168

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

In this inspiring episode, host Nadja Atwal sits down with business and life coach Julian Heppt, who shares his journey from facing severe depression and panic attacks to discovering his life’s calling: helping others reach their full potential. Julian opens up about the tough challenges he encountered in his twenties, the tools he used to overcome them, and how those experiences shaped his holistic coaching approach. Whether you’re an entrepreneur at a crossroads, a leader feeling overwhelmed, or simply someone seeking deeper purpose and alignment, Julian’s insights on emotional well-being, authenticity, and personal growth will resonate and motivate you to pursue positive change.Key Discussion PointsIntroduction & Personal JourneyJulian explains how his early fascination with psychology, relationships, and personal growth led him to become a coach. He candidly describes his first major crisis in his early twenties, including severe depression, panic attacks, and morning sickness related to stress. This difficult period—and his choice to pursue holistic healing rather than medication—deeply informed his coaching philosophy.Discovering Purpose Through AdversityMoving from Hamburg to Lake Constance on a strong intuitive calling opened unexpected doors in Julian’s life. He describes how stepping away from a victim mindset helped him understand the transformative power of adversity. Julian credits a higher power or universal guidance with showing him the path to becoming a mentor and coach.The Coaching ApproachJulian’s authenticity and relatability shine through on social media—particularly YouTube—where he balances grounded, practical advice with discussions of deeper, intangible elements like energy and intuition. His strong intuition allows him to pinpoint the root issues that clients face, while providing a safe space for them to open up and explore change.Common Client ChallengesAs a business and life coach, Julian often works with entrepreneurs and leaders who feel overwhelmed, empty, or in need of reevaluating their true purpose. Many struggle to balance their relentless drive for success with maintaining fulfilling personal relationships. Julian emphasizes that material achievements alone cannot fill deeper emotional voids.Embracing Change & The Hero’s JourneyJulian views entrepreneurship as a “hero’s journey,” one that can involve repeated cycles of crisis and transformation. He believes that life’s toughest challenges often propel us to evolve and grow. A key takeaway is that seeking help—through mentorship, coaching, or therapy—is a sign of strength, not weakness.Looking Ahead: 2025 & New VenturesJulian’s new podcast, Bold Leaders with Big Hearts, brings in high-profile guests who share personal stories of overcoming obstacles and finding meaningful success. He will be traveling more in the U.S. to speak at events and connect with philanthropic projects like the Ariel Recovery Group, which helps veterans repurpose their skills for rescue missions and disaster relief.Closing ThoughtsNadja highlights the transformative work Julian does for clients and thanks him for sharing his story. Julian expresses enthusiasm for future collaborations and live events.Notable Quotes“I don’t see myself as a victim of my hardships; I see them as challenges to grow.”“When we start a business, we basically take on a hero’s journey of the soul.”“My intuition helps me see exactly what my clients need—often within the first minute of our conversation.”About the Guest: Julian HepptJulian Heppt is a business and life coach dedicated to guiding entrepreneurs, leaders, and high achievers through transformative personal and professional growth. After overcoming severe depression and anxiety in his early twenties, Julian developed an approach that integrates practical business strategies with deeper emotional and spiritual insights. Passionate about helping others discover meaning beyond material success, he also hosts the Bold Leaders with Big Hearts podcast. Julian frequently travels internationally to speak at events and collaborates with philanthropic organizations.Resources & LinksJulian’s Website: Julian-Heppt.comFollow Julian on Instagram: @julian_heppt_germanThank you for listening to Founder’s Story!If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with friends who might benefit from Julian’s insights. Don’t forget to subscribe for more inspiring conversations with entrepreneurs and visionaries who are shaping the future.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.com* Check out Plus500: https://plus500.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Founder Story. I'm your host, Nadia Atwal. Today we have a very special guest who's helping us navigating through life. Everybody's in need of great advice. And he made exactly that his profession. Welcome to the show Julian Hebt. Hello Natya thanks for having me I'm really excited for this interview. Yeah Julian you are a business and life coach. Why did you choose this profession and how did you get started? Well at first like early in my, I really was fascinated about us human beings, living the journey of life and every aspect to go into this profession was that, basically my own rather tough journey. Like most of us, I also had suppressed trauma and wounds and patterns inside of myself. And in my case, all of that stuff came up pretty early in my life. Like in my early 20s, I was having my first real crisis in life and everything came up. I landed in like depression.

I was having panic attacks and I even threw up on an empty stomach every morning for like two years straight. So it was really, really tough. And at that time, like all of my friends were starting their careers and I was like busy like surviving every day. So that was like the start. And with me deep down inside, I always had the feeling,

okay, I don't see myself as a victim of that. I see it as a challenge to grow. So I didn't take any medication and I got help and I healed, you know, and it was quite some time, that journey. And when I got through it, I saw, wow, it was tough, but I grew and I found something inside of myself. I'm not dependent on like

material things anymore. I was more like grounded. So that's what I found really fascinating and I saw that when I came out the other side like doors in life Open up pretty magically for me. You know, for example, I was living in Hamburg, like North Germany at that time in that crisis. And then when I got through, I had like a certain calling that I needed to move to Lake Constance

in the south of Germany, you know? And when I followed that call, like everything was falling into place for me at once. It was so magical that I really started to believe that there's also like a higher power at play, you know? Some call it universe, some call it God or whatever. And that's when I really started to enjoy those circles in life that sometimes we face crisis, we need to look deep down inside of us and come out of it and new chapters are opening.

So that was the main thing. I was feeling pretty inspired to share that with others and start my business. Yeah, wonderful. So definitely speaking also from experience. Yes. And you're passing on what you went through and you can relate obviously very well to people. I noticed, you know, you have a very full schedule and you have a big social media following, especially on YouTube.

I recommend the audience to check it out. What do you think makes your coaching so popular, so intriguing and ultimately successful? Yeah, so when it comes to my social media and YouTube, what I always hear from followers that they really appreciate that I'm authentic, you know, that I don't speak down to people as a guru or something, you must do this, you must do that. So I'm coming from a place of, you know, understanding because we are human beings trying to live our lives, live a happy life with this crazy world around us, you know, so that's what people like and can relate that I have this, I don't know, calmness, understanding thing around me. And what I also often hear that, you know, I have a pretty grounded side to myself, but I also speak about things we cannot see, like

feelings, emotions, patterns, or the energy behind things also in business. I think the combination of both is pretty important. That's what people tell me all the time, that they that I'm, you know, a grounded guy who speaks about that, those things. And when it comes to my coaching, mentoring with my clients, who often are leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners. One of my main skills is like that I can take on the meta perspective pretty good and I look at my clients or their business like a Swiss Swiss watch you know with all those gear wheels and ideally they they glide in perfectly together but when my clients contact me they are not you, you know, and, um, like also

in business, the biggest gear wheel of all is the business owner itself. You know, every star, everything starts from within, you know, and my main skill is that I have a pretty good intuition. So when people contact me, I know in the first minute what everything is about. When I talk to them, I feel things, you know, and other than that, of course, many people feel when they see me, okay, this guy went through hell and back. So they open up pretty quickly, you know, with men. It's not always easy that they open up, you know, about their weaknesses.

Um, so that's, that's also a skill that's just like in the air, people feel, okay. Um, I can open up to him and, um, he can hold what I bring, you know, like, so that that's the main things. You just mentioned clients, your clientele, business owners for example. When these people come to you, what are they typically seeking from you? Often they are at a crossroad in their lives. Many of them, so some of my clients,

they're starting out with living there or starting their business, living their purpose. But most of them contact me where they have already built something over the years and they feel like some kind of emptiness or pretty stressed out, everything's overwhelming. Or sometimes they feel something needs to change. I need to have a deeper meaning towards what I do. They have the feeling they need

to re-evaluate their purpose, you know, and often also like relationship comes into play because business owners, they don't often have an easy time to have relationships because they're very driven and often in their mind, you know, and need to function and then to open up to a partner and let love in, spend quality time, it's not always easy, you know. So that's often where they stand when they contact me. Yeah. Julian, you mentioned the keyword change. When we want our life to change for the better, then often it requires that we change our own ways.

Yes. A little or drastically. And this can be very tough for adults. How do you go about that? How do I go about that? I believe that especially when we start a business, we basically take on a hero's journey of the soul, when you can put it like that and our soul always wants us to grow and evolve. So sometimes life itself throws some things at us that aren't easy and we need to face the challenge and like go within find some things and then we can move forward. So basically when clients contact me, um, many of them, the, the level of

suffering is pretty high, so they, they say, okay, I need to do something. So life itself pushes them to, to change, you know, and I believe many of us face very challenging times, because our world itself is changing like a very rapid pace. The future is really hard to predict, and especially in the US, like the high cost of living, things aren't always easy. And as human beings,

we don't like the feeling of losing control, you know, so, um, that's, that's also things that come at play, like, especially this, this year, next year, I think, yeah, life itself pushes us to, to change. And, and I really enjoy when people take that step because it's not a weakness to get mentored by someone or get get help, you know, and someone who has a neutral perspective on things, you know. At the end of 2024, what are your big plans for the next year? Because I know that there are certain things that are coming from your end that is new. So I'd like to hear that and want our audience to hear about your future plans. Next year will definitely

be a year of expansion, you know. So we just launched our new podcast which is called Boat Leaders with Big Hearts where we have a really high profile I guess in in line that will share their their secrets their own story you know of sometimes death and rebirth and you know challenging times how they overcame it how they really found their purpose and um succeeded for the highest good of all and as we kick off the new year it's the perfect time to set meaningful goals one of the and succeeded for the highest good of all. And as we kick off the new year, it's the perfect time to set meaningful goals. One of the most fulfilling resolutions you can make

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with their skills towards rescuing children from human trafficking or rescue missions towards, I don't know, tornadoes and stuff and I really really like that so that's that's something I'm looking forward to and some other stuff yeah. Well we're definitely looking forward to having you here in New York in our studio so make sure that you keep us posted. It was such a pleasure having you on Julian. Your work is really impactful. It's you're changing people's life for the better. You're bringing tremendous value obviously to people's lives and was a pleasure having you on. I learned a lot. And this was another episode of Founder Stories. Join us again next time. Thank you,

Julian. Thank you.