We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Foster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

This is such a great question. The latest Gallup poll came out a few weeks ago and it showed that in the United States 67% of employees are disengaged with their work- globally that number jumps to 79%. This means that the vast majority of employees here and abroad don’t really like the work that they do. This simply isn’t sustainable.

I think a lot of companies believe that having a company party or bringing in an inspirational speaker can make a difference- and it might make a small difference, but if we are to really address the gap between where employees are and where we need them to be, it will require companies to invest in their people- to bring in training that helps employees assess where they are in their careers and what they want, and training that empowers them to shift the way they interact with their work and the people around them.

I’ve had clients who came to me with a clear desire to quit their jobs because they hated them. Within a year these clients learned to love the jobs they were in. They still worked in the same companies in largely the same roles, but they changed internally. They learned to take ownership of the experience they wanted to have and that changed everything for them. I have client testimonials that say they went from hating their work to loving their work. This is possible with the right training and support.

Laura, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m passionate about changing the way employees interact with their work because I used to hate a job I worked for years to earn- my dream job as a fashion designer. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and was forced to reckon with the fact that my dream job wasn’t a dream at all. In fact, it had taken over my life and left little room for anything else.

After taking some time off for treatment I went back to work convinced that I had changed, that I had the tools I needed to interact with the role in a different way. That did not happen. In a matter of weeks, I was right back to miserable.
When I decided to pursue coaching as a career, I started with a Masters’s Program in Spiritual Psychology at The University of Santa Monica in California simply because the leaders of the program said, “If you come to do this program, in two years you’ll have a different job. You might sit at the same desk and you might work with the same people, but you will change so much inside that your job will be different.”

Now, I knew that would be useful to me so I did it. And, that program completely changed my life. The truth is, if self-development doesn’t include how we are in the office, it isn’t sustainable.

I did several more programs at the University of Santa Monica, including their coaching certification program, and made the jump to full-time coaching in 2017.

I mainly work with executives and founders who are looking for more meaning and purpose in their work and lives. I work with clients 1:1 and I lead a six-month group coaching program for leaders. I also speak and do work with teams inside organizations.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For most of my life, I was terrified to become an entrepreneur. I truly believed that the only safe job was to work for someone else. In 2017 I made the terrifying decision to leave my “stable corporate job” to become a full-time entrepreneur. Two months into the pandemic in 2020 half of the employees in my last company were laid off, including most of the senior people in design. I’ve no doubt I would have been among them if I would have stayed. I am making significantly more income as an entrepreneur than I ever did as a “safe stable” employee. I had no idea how I was limiting my income by working for someone else.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I tell this to all the coaches who come to me to learn how I created my business- Serve your clients outrageously. Happy clients tell their friends. They talk about our work non-stop. I had one c-level executive who sent me family members, employees, and co-workers. The best marketing you have is the people who are working with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurafostercoaching.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurafostercoaching/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-foster/

Image Credits
Bree McCool