Last updated: 03.09.2026

Ikigai Creative ("we", "us", "our") runs The VA Academy, a coaching business helping people become virtual assistants — including through our paid coaching programme, masterclasses, and other free trainings or events. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and what your rights are.

If you have any questions, email us at support@ikigaicreative.co.uk.

1. Who we are

Ikigai Creative is a UK based coaching business. We are the "data controller" for the personal data described in this policy, meaning we decide how and why it's used.

2. What information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us — including registering for a masterclass, joining our waitlist, or enrolling in our programme — we may collect:

* Contact details, such as your name, email address, phone number (if you provide one, for example when registering for a masterclass or event), and Instagram handle.
* Qualification information, meaning general answers you give us through our quizzes, waitlist forms, or masterclass/event registration forms, so we can understand your situation and whether our programmes are a good fit for you.
* Payment information, handled entirely by our payment processor, Stripe, if and when you purchase our paid programme. We do not see or store your full card details.
* Communication history, meaning messages or enquiries you send us via email, social media, or during calls.
* Website and event usage data, meaning general analytics collected automatically when you visit our website, attend a masterclass, or watch a replay — for example whether you attended live or watched later. See the Cookies section below for more on this.
We do not knowingly collect any special category data, such as health information, unless you choose to share it with us directly, for example during a coaching conversation.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to:

* Respond to enquiries and assess whether our programmes, masterclasses, or other events are a good fit for you.
* Deliver our coaching programme, masterclasses, community, and any related services.
* Process payments for our paid programme.
* Send you marketing emails (and, where you've agreed to this, text messages) about our programmes, masterclasses, offers, and content, but only if you've opted in to receive these.
* Show you relevant adverts and measure how our marketing is performing, where you've interacted with our adverts online.
* Improve our website and services based on general usage trends.
* Meet our legal and accounting obligations.

4. Marketing communications
When you join our waitlist, register for a masterclass or event, or submit one of our forms, you'll be asked whether you'd like to receive marketing emails (and, where applicable, text messages) from us. We only add you to our marketing list if you say yes. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of any marketing email, by replying STOP to a text message, or by emailing us directly.

5. Who we share your information with

We use a number of trusted third party tools to run our business, including delivering masterclasses and free trainings. These providers only process your data to help us deliver our services, and they don't use it for their own purposes.
* GoHighLevel (GHL): our main CRM. It stores contact details and manages email automations and booking.
* Stripe: processes payments securely. We never see your full card details.
* Zapier: connects our forms and quizzes to our CRM.
* Fillout: powers our qualification quiz.
* Skool: hosts our course content and community, for enrolled students only.
* Zoom and Google Meet: used for coaching calls.
* Fathom: records, transcribes, and summarises coaching calls for note taking purposes.
* Google Calendar and Google scheduling tools: used to book calls with us and used to host our masterclasses and manage registrations and replays.
* Advertising platforms — e.g. Meta/Facebook, TikTok, Google Ads: if we run paid adverts, these platforms may use tracking pixels to measure ad performance and show relevant ads to people who've engaged with our content. See the Cookies section below.
Some of these providers are based outside the UK and EEA, for example in the United States. Where this is the case, they are required to provide an adequate level of protection for your data, for example through Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards.
A note on call recording: if you have a call with us, it may be recorded and transcribed using Fathom for note taking purposes. We'll let you know this is happening at the start of the call.
We will never sell your personal information to third parties.

6. How long we keep your information

We keep your information for as long as necessary to provide our services, maintain our business records, and meet legal or accounting requirements.
If you register for a masterclass or other free event and don't go on to enrol in our paid programme or opt into marketing, we'll generally keep your registration data for 12 months (adjust if you'd prefer a different period) to allow us to follow up, after which it will be deleted unless we're required to keep it for a legitimate reason.
If you unsubscribe from marketing or ask us to delete your data, we'll do so unless we're required to keep it for a legitimate reason, such as financial records.

7. Cookies and analytics
Our website, built on Wix, uses cookies and similar technologies to understand how visitors use the site, for example which pages are most popular. This helps us improve the experience for future visitors.
If we run paid adverts, we may also use tracking pixels — such as the Meta Pixel / TikTok Pixel / Google Ads tag  — on our website and masterclass registration pages, to measure how our adverts are performing and to show relevant ads to people who've previously engaged with our content or attended a masterclass.
You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings, though this may affect how the site functions.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
* Ask what personal data we hold about you.
* Ask us to correct inaccurate data.
* Ask us to delete your data, sometimes called the "right to be forgotten".
* Ask us to restrict or object to certain processing.
* Withdraw consent to marketing at any time.
* Request a copy of your data in a portable format.
To exercise any of these rights, email support@ikigaicreative.co.uk. We'll respond within one month.
You also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk, if you feel your data hasn't been handled properly.

9. Children
Our services are intended for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.

10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal reasons. We'll update the "last updated" date at the top when we do.

11. Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, email us at support@ikigaicreative.co.uk.