We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Owen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?
I have learned many lessons in my professional career that haven gotten me to the place I am currently – a place I love tremendously – as a business owner with a ton of freedom, doing what I love and want to be doing. Through all of my experience, one of the most powerful and important lessons I learned is to decide what I want. Sounds simple, but it is really amazing how rarely people think about what they WANT to have happen. This applies to so many areas of business and life. How do you want this project to go? How do you want to experience your coworkers? What kind of work do you really WANT to do? How do I want to feel when I’m not working? How do I want to experience my family?
It feels as if, with most of these types of questions, “want” gets replaced with “have to”. How does this project have to go? How do I have to experience my coworkers? What kind of work do I have to do? How do I have to feel when I’m not working (to offset my misery during the week)? How do I have to experience my family?
The lesson starts with – where did we learn this approach vs. a more positive one that’s aligned with who we actually are – not with who someone else thinks we should be or aligned with extremely low expectations we picked up somewhere? We have it so backward. Why are we so hell bent on the idea that we can’t have what we want or worse, we don’t even think about it?
The next part of the lesson is, how can we have an outcome we are happy with if we don’t start with what we want? How do we know what steps to take? How can we possibly enjoy the journey? We have to define what we want to have happen. And why not? What is the harm in taking time to determine what it is that we want?
The lesson continues with belief – we have to believe we can have what we want. The idea that we can never get what we want feels like the lowest level of energy – and a very difficult place from which to create. I mean, what is the point if we always expect to only get what we don’t want? What if we believed we could have what we actually wanted? What an amazing place this world would be. Feeling fulfilled, satisfied, on the right track, excited – that’s where the magic is. From this place, it is very hard to shame others, to fight, to viciously compete. And in this amazing place we live, there truly are so many possibilities…
Once we know what we want and have a belief that we can have it – we can set the intention that it is available for you and then act accordingly. If I want this project to include innovative ideas and solutions – I’m going to share that direction with my team. I will support their new ideas and work to get them the resources they need even if it feels crazy. What kind of work do I want to do on this project? I’d think about my skills and where I can best be of service and enjoy the work, I would look for ways to delegate things I’m weaker in or don’t want to do and I’d decide if there were things I didn’t want to do that could really be dropped. My work product and that of my team will reflect the stronger energy I brought to tasks. Every example can go through this same process.
I have used and continue to use this lesson in my corporate career and in my family with great success. It doesn’t always work perfectly – but a majority of the time, it helps me, my teammates and clients have amazing experiences. I also know just what to do when things feel heavy with my family – I remember what I want and I act accordingly.
In more recent years, I started dreaming bigger – what if what I wanted sounded really outlandish? Something like – I want to have more time at home for my family and myself, I want to be of service and I want to be financially secure. That outline did not sound likely – I had never worked less than 50 hours a week and even then, my salary would not allow me to feel financially secure…But I decided that’s what I wanted – I worked on believing thtat was possible and then I acted accordingly. I looked for opportunities – I listened for the ways I could be of service – I acted bravely.
I am happy to report, I am doing and being exactly what I want to do and be. I believe I am meant to live this way – and you are too. I believe that what we want is actually guidance to our best life, and that there are infinite ways to get what you want. I believe that what we want is why we are here and amazing things happen when we allow that to be possible.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a mom of three and wife to an amazing entrepreneur, I have led an incredible life. Raised by a single mother with extremely limited means, I made my way, on my own, through a prestigious business degree and was the first University graduate in my extended family. I started my career with a Big Four consulting firm, rising the ranks quickly and receiving accolades for my incredibly hard work (read 70 hour work weeks.) Once married and ready to put down roots, I left the road warrior arena landing an executive level position for a private company. From there, I was recruited to Fortune 500 companies and found great success for my companies and clients.
Throughout my time in the corporate world, I found the stress and time commitment were not in line with what I truly wanted. I learned life changing skills using mindset shifts and spiritual guidance that have allowed me to create the life of my dreams. I now spend full time at home with my children and husband, while pursuing my life’s work of supporting those around me through Executive and Life Coaching.
In doing this work and living out my dreams, I have found my (current) purpose – to help others believe in themselves enough to fulfill their unique purpose and live out their hearts desires, all so the world can be a better place.
I am not a conventional life or executive coach – I believe that success and fulfillment truly begins with YOU – not a process or technique, rather who you are and what you WANT. I support people in shifting their mindsets with practical and spiritual concepts that produce impractical results. One of my greatest joys is witnessing an ‘ah ha’ moment experienced by a client that is most often followed by a “how did you do that?’
Coaching, teaching and supporting others is my gift – I’m really good at it – crazy good at it. It’s my job to support you in drawing out the things you are crazy good at so that you can live your best life. Living your best life feels good and trickles, or better yet flows into your family, friends, community and the world. It’s critical work – and I LOVE IT!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In October of 2019, I was let go from the role I had held for 6 years. The company I was working with was bought out by a business liquidator of sorts and my role was found to be redundant. I was devastated. I had never been let go. I had survived every lay off in several companies. I had only gone through 2 interviews in my career because I was always recruited into positions. I was always needed – courted even. Being let go was a new and terrible experience for me. I questioned my worth, my identity, my value – all of it, because someone told me I wasn’t needed any longer.
It is more straightforward now, looking back, that this was EXACTLY what I needed. I would NEVER have voluntarily quit my job without another one in place – NEVER. Not in a million years. I needed someone to kick me out. Why? Because my life got better than I ever could have imagined after I was let go.
My husband and I had a surprise baby in June of 2018 and the strain of raising three kids from ages 12 to 1 was extremely tough. I was not showing up well anywhere. Not for myself, not for my family, not for my work. I was weighed down by the idea that this was the way it had to be….
In the months following being let go, I started to realize that I had done some internal work in the year before, and I started to realize that maybe it was “working”. You see, I spent time deciding what I wanted. Truly wanted. One of those questions “if you could wave a magic wand and have whatever you wanted, what would that be? And when I was honest with myself, what I truly wanted was to be home with my kids, without the stress of my corporate job – or any job and just be a mom. That was it. I don’t think I shared that with anyone – why would I? It sounded crazy. Our family lived a life that required my income, working and succeeding was who I was. I loved my coworkers, I loved the thrill of making things happen – but it wasn’t what I wanted.
So I did something crazy, I believed it was possible. Even if just for a time, I decided that there could be a future for me that included being a stay at home mom. And here I was, a stay at home mom. And what a gift – I was a stay at home mom, with a generous severance package, when Covid hit. I was able to be financially secure, without a job, at home with my kids and husband full time at a time that would have been devastating to me and my family if I was also trying to work (my heart goes out to all that didn’t have my experience…I know this was a tragic time for so many).
Holy shit. What if this worked? If it did, I wanted to keep going. I decided I wanted this to be my situation even when my severance ended. I didn’t know how – but I believed anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, my husband’s business took off – it wasn’t magic, he had been building it for 20 years, but it took off at this moment in time. So much so – get this…it didn’t make sense for me to go back to work and pay for child care….So, here I am at home with my kids, without the stress of my corporate job – or any job and I can just be a mom. Exactly what I wanted.
I have so many more examples and 4 years later, it is now my honor and joy to support others in deciding what they want, believing it is possible and watching their dreams unfold. And these concepts apply in business and in life – it’s amazing. Unconventional? Yes. And also amazing.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
As a coach, there are tons of “formulas” that can be followed and cookie cutter approaches that are suggested or even touted as “the only way” to serve people. For me, I’ve found the most success – for myself and my clients – when I am truly myself, when I don’t hold back, when I use my intuition and believe and know that I am gifted at my work. One of my core beliefs is that the world needs us to show up as our authentic selves and it is so easy not to do that in today’s world. We seem to look for the tried and true way, the path least likely to disappoint, or fail – when in reality, we crave authenticity and belonging because acting in that way and experiencing others in that way creates the life we desire. I have an understanding that not everyone will like or resonate with my style, but that’s because I’m not meant for them but there are people, many of them, who are waiting for what I have to offer them. Same goes for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://lovelisaowen.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lovelisaowen?igshid=NzAzN2Q1NTE=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovelisaowen
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-owen0421/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lovelisaowen
Image Credits
Taylor Prinsen Photography @taylorprinsenphotography