Press & Media Kit

Everything you need to book, introduce, and feature Billy Seol.

Billy Seol

Former Apple/Disney software engineer turned Buddhist life coach. I write mathematical formulas for why you're stuck — then I coach you through the identity that's keeping you there.

Bio

Billy Seol is a life coach and Buddhist practitioner who spent a decade in software engineering (Apple, Disney, Foursquare, Cornell CS) before recognizing that the same systems thinking he applied to code could explain why people stay stuck in patterns they understand perfectly well.


He developed the Karmic Formula System: a set of mathematical formulas that map the mechanics of procrastination, shame, anxiety, and the inability to change — all expressions of one operating system he calls karma (the secular, mechanical kind; not the cosmic punishment kind).


Billy has written over 1,300 coaching responses and essays (verifiable in his Reddit post history), completed 39,420 prostration bows in a single year of daily practice, and authored three books on the formula system. He coaches professionals who are successful on paper but suffering underneath — helping them close the gap between who they are and who they perform as.

Who I Work With

I coach professionals who are successful on paper but suffering underneath — people who have done the therapy, read the books, and understand their patterns intellectually, but still can't stop living them.


My clients aren't broken. They're running the wrong operating system. Through the Karmic Formula System and Buddhist self-inquiry, I help them identify the specific identity that's generating their suffering — not work around it, but dissolve it. The patterns that have persisted through years of self-work start collapsing once you see the self that was holding them in place.


Interested in working together? Start a conversation or explore the formula system first.

Episode Topics

Pick any of these as a ready-made episode angle.

Topic 01
The Formula for Procrastination
"I wrote a mathematical formula for why you can't take action. Not a metaphor — an actual equation with variables. I can walk your audience through it in 5 minutes."
Best for: Productivity, self-improvement, career development shows
Topic 02
Why Self-Help Doesn't Work (The Change Formula)
"Self-help books boost the wrong variable. They increase your belief that change is possible — but they never touch your belief that change is possible for YOU. That gap is where all the temporary motivation goes to die."
Best for: Psychology, self-help critique, evidence-based wellness shows
Topic 03
The Shame Formula: Why You Can't Let Go
"I can explain in one equation why someone can't forgive themselves for something that happened years ago — and show the single variable that collapses the entire formula."
Best for: Mental health, relationships, trauma recovery shows
Topic 04
The Anxiety Formula: Why Success Makes You More Anxious
"The better your life is, the more anxious you get. That's not broken — that's a formula. The numerator is the height of the cliff. The denominator is whether you believe you can fly."
Best for: Mental health, wellness, high-achiever / entrepreneur shows
Topic 05
Karma as an Operating System
"Everything you struggle with — procrastination, shame, inability to change — runs on the same system. Buddhism identified it 2,500 years ago. I just wrote the code for it."
Best for: Spirituality, philosophy, Eastern wisdom, mindfulness shows
Topic 06
From Apple Engineer to 39,420 Bows
"I left a software engineering career at Apple and Disney to do 108 bows at 5 AM every morning for a year. Not because I found religion — because I found out that understanding my problems was never going to be enough to fix them."
Best for: Career transition, life stories, unconventional paths shows

Credentials

Sample Questions for Hosts

  1. You say procrastination is a formula. What does that actually mean?
  2. What made you leave engineering at Apple and Disney to become a life coach?
  3. You trained under Buddhist monks. How does that show up in your coaching?
  4. What's the difference between knowing you should change and actually changing?
  5. You've coached over a thousand people on Reddit for free. Why?
  6. What's the one variable that keeps most people stuck?
  7. Can you walk us through the Anxiety Formula?
  8. What books or experiences shaped your philosophy?

Podcast Appearances

The 9–5 Exit Plan
Why Knowing Isn't Enough: The Formula for Real Change
YouTube Interview
Video podcast episode
Liberatory Business with Simone Seol
Why Life Coaching Is a Horrible Business (feat. Billy Seol)
Risky Conversations with Jamie Lee
Balancing Ambition and Inner Peace: A Conversation with Buddhist Teacher Billy Seol
HUMAN ENOUGH
The Math of Change: Why Knowing Isn't Enough
Liberatory Business with Simone Seol
Responsible AI Stewardship: A Buddhist Software Engineer's Perspective

The Formulas

Action Formula
Action = (Desire)^Hype / Perfectionism - (1 + Unwillingness) * Shame
Shame Formula
Shame = (Negative Impact * Idealization)^Self-Blame * -(Gratitude)
Change Formula
Change = Action * (Belief in Possibility)^(Belief in Personal Possibility)
Anxiety Formula
Anxiety = (Relative Good of Now + Relative Bad of Loss) / Self-Agency of Happiness
Difficulty of Change
Ease / Difficulty = Cultivated Power of Practice - Conditioned Power of Impulse

Full interactive system at julylifecoach.com/formulas

Links

The Karmic Formula System
julylifecoach.com/formulas
YouTube
youtube.com/@julylifecoach
Essays & Stories
here.julylifecoach.com/read
Reddit
u/julylifecoach
Reddit AMA — Live Coaching
Sponsored AMA with 48 coaching responses
Coaching in Action
julylifecoach.com/coaching-in-action
Website
julylifecoach.com

Book Billy

For podcast hosts & event organizers:
Available for podcast interviews, panels, lunch-and-learns, and speaking engagements.
Comfortable with audio, video, scripted, and conversational formats.
Professional mic setup, stable connection, Zoom/Riverside/StreamYard ready.

Schedule a Time or email billy@julylifecoach.com

Interested in coaching?
If something on this page resonated with you, you can book a session. $100/session, credited toward monthly.

Book a Session

Approved Introduction

Copy and read on-air:

Billy Seol is a Buddhist life coach and former software engineer at Apple, Disney, and Foursquare. A Cornell CS graduate, he left a decade-long engineering career to study under Buddhist monks and now coaches people through life's toughest patterns — procrastination, shame, overthinking, and the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. He's written over 1,300 essays on the topic and developed a set of mathematical formulas that map why people stay stuck, even when they desperately want to change.