We were lucky to catch up with Nancy Lockhart recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nancy, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Lockhart Marketing is a mission driven organization that exists to help business owners exceed their goals for their brand by understanding and remembering the core reason they began pursuing their chosen profession and then peeling back the unconscious reasons that they may not be achieving everything that is possible for their business. This mission is so important to me because I too put unnecessary limitations on myself whether it be in large Fortune 500 Corporations or the within my own business. I wasn’t even aware of the stories that I had in my head about “how big my business could be”. how much money I could make given the current environment. I learned through my law of attraction life coaching training that I could redefine my reality in the way that best suits me and makes me happy. When I combined those learnings with my experience building brands for many organizations, large and small over the past 25 years, I found my my sweet spot. “Unlock the heart of your business” may seem like a tagline, but it is shorthand for my mission and it embodies my values and purpose as a business person.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into marketing in college. There was no such thing as “brand strategy”. The closest profession was market research. I always wanted to know why people bought things. I grew up in Illinois and right after college moved to California. I had no contacts, no network, but I was hungry and determined to be successful on the West Coast. I started hosting focus group sessions for a small agency and quickly met many marketing people. After awhile I left the agency and began my marketing career in healthcare. I work with some of the largest healthcare organizations in the nation, growing and enhancing their brand and business strategy. During that time I became very interested in law of attraction. I wanted to improve myself, learn more about my personal growth so I became a certified law of attraction life coach. I did some coaching, but then realized that many of the concepts in my coaching where concepts that I could use in my marketing career. I started my consulting business, Lockhart Marketing leveraging both aspects of my background. In my consulting I also get to explore my creative background by creating logos, and marketing materials for my clients. However the thing that really makes me proud is when I have helped someone unlock limitations and have enabled them to think bigger. I then translate that into personal and very meaningful icons that not only represent my clients, but also reminds them of their broader Vision and Mission for their company. When my clients tell me that I have changed their lives, there is no better feeling

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As my career continued to advance in corporate America, I began to feel unfulfilled at work. There was a gnawing feeling that things weren‘t perfect. I knew that there was something more that I was supposed to be doing. I was really good at my job and was making considerable impact, creating brand and product positioning and successful marketing campaigns. But I was under-appreciated, undermined and unable to lead my team in the way that I wanted: in the way that would allow them to grow and advance in their careers. I left my corporate job to pursue a position at a brand strategy agency. I thought that this move would provide me with the ability to make a more meaningful difference. These people knew what I did. They knew how I made marketing relevant. I was desperately searching to fill the void I was experiencing.

Unfortunately, that job did not fill the void and I was let go after two years of trying really hard to make it work.
I fell into a deep depression, peppered with sleep walking and panic attacks. I wasn’t going to therapy. I had done everything I was “supposed to do.” I was a good, smart person. I paid my dues. My family was confused and angry. I was letting them down and I was letting myself down.

Then, one day, I finally snapped. I thought to myself, “I‘ve had enough of this! There has got to be another way!” Chasing after organizations wasn‘t providing me with connection to my purpose. It wasn‘t even giving me the clarity to find my own purpose or value. I was continuing to look externally for validation and I was letting myself get beat up, and I had only myself to blame. So, I started looking for a new path. I realized that I could only take myself so far, and I wasn‘t willing to continue living my life halfway. I discovered that I was going to have to reach out and ask for help in order for me to rediscover myself
Even though it was really scary, I took my control back. I called my therapist and started regular sessions with her again. I built my first website. I took photography classes. I was re-reading books that I started years before. The words in those books now had new meaning. I was able to connect with them on a level that I had not before. I enrolled in a Law of Attraction life coach certification program, and I began to coach women. I could feel the enormous shift that my clients had after one coaching session with me. I was inspired. I realized that I had been doing this work with friends and family, but had never connected my coaching to a career. I was doing what I longed for, but couldn‘t define in my earlier years. I was helping clients who had experienced some of the same issues that I had experienced, looking externally for validation that could only come from within. Then I realized that many people struggle with these same issues when starting or restarting their own businesses or careers. I had the background to help people take back their power and rewrite their story. I could leverage all of my corporate marketing knowledge with my coaching to help other business owners redefine themselves and their businesses, while finding their purpose and creating a direct path to greater success and profitability.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think the key takeaway from my story is to never give up, listen to your gut, get out of your own way, and finally don’t be afraid to ask for help. We are so conditioned to be independent and strong and sometimes our interpretation of those attributes blocks out the very voice, coincidence, compelling urge to take an unconventional direction. I have found when you are able to truly challenge the “way it has always been” is when you reap the biggest successes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lockhart-marketing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nalockhart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lockhart.nancy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-lockhart-brand-strategy/
• Twitter: @NancyALockhart

Image Credits
Debbie Walton Photography