We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shardel Hodge Matthews a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shardel , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Lighthouse Perspective actually came to me pretty easily.

I’ve always loved the idea of what the purpose of a lighthouse is. According to Oxford, a lighthouse is defined as “a tower or other structure containing a beacon light to warn or guide ships at sea.” While Lighthouses stay in place, their light beam can be seen from miles and miles away to guide ships from the dangers of the shore ahead.
In the same beat, perspective is defined as “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.” The viewpoints that you can see at the top of a lighthouse is much more expansive than what you’d be able to observe from the ground. Your attitude about how you see things is very much associated to how much you can see!

The Lighthouse Perspective’s mission is to shift those negative or harmful perspectives/attitudes that we have about healthy relationships from a very objective viewpoint. As a therapist and a coach, I understand that there are a lot of complexities, resistances, and dangers in trying to build healthy relationships with self, others, and God. My goal is to serve as that beam of light to warn, guide, educate, support, motivate, and encourage my clients to steer clear of the dangers that come with relationships and shift their mentality about what it takes to stay on the safer and most enlightened path.

Shardel , 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?

Lighthouse Perspective was created as a coaching platform for singles and couples who are looking to shift their perspectives on creating, embracing, strengthening, & reinforcing healthy relationships with themselves, with others, and with God. Because relationships nowadays are not deemed as important in our current society, many people are losing out on the benefits of healthy emotional experiences.

Within Lighthouse Perspective, I provide 1:1 coaching calls as well as a Couples Coaching Program. In addition, there are at least 2x yearly where in-person events are held for singles and couples to mingle with like-minded individuals to learn, grow, and explore in creative ways!

Recently, I launched an online store with merchandise specifically targeting mental and physical health, including rest and daily affirmations.

Overall, I want to connect with as many motivated and intentional people who are wanting to be the best version of themselves for themselves and others!

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

While not on paper, my business partner is definitely my husband. I don’t think I could have started or even continued with creating Lighthouse Perspective if it wasn’t for his love, understanding, and overall support. Not only that, when it comes to the business his ideas are incorporated in everything that I do, including my programs, events, and couples activities/workshops.

The story about how we meet is pretty sweet and magical. Some may call it fate, but I know for a fact that he was destined for me!

We met in the first few hours of New Years Day 2019, but unbeknownst to us we could have met at a concert my singing group was hosting two nights before that! Long story cut very short, because of both of our best friends and a video posted on Facebook of our concert, my husband and I met randomly but instantly knew meeting each other was far from a mistake.

Stay Tuned…we plan on sharing our full explanation of “How We Met” story on YouTube soon!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Initially Lighthouse Perspective was focused on singles who were focused on minimizing the affects of trauma in their relationships. However, as the business grew, the intention behind the business expanded as well. I made the decision in January 2022 to pivot Lighthouse Perspective from focusing on trauma in relationships to the development of healthy relationships with both singles and couples. At the time, I already had a great following of individuals but only had a limited reach with aligned couples.

In February 2022, I created a 21 Day Couples Intimacy Challenge on Instagram to attract like-minded couples and create fun activities that they could engage in daily to grow their emotional, mental, and physical intimacy both in-person and long distance, if needed. By the beginning of the 21 days, there were already 100 couples enrolled and engaging with me on social media with their posts and updates! I was able to build sincere and positive relationships with couples at different levels of their journey (i.e. talking stage, dating, engaged, married, and even separated). Throughout the 21 days, I was able to witness first-hand the effects of how being intentional with intimacy (not just sexual intimacy) can improve any relationship from the inside out!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msha.ke/thelighthouseperspective
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/thelighthouseperspective
• Youtube: www.YouTube.com/@thelighthouseperspective1122
• Other: Lighthouse Perspective Official Merchandise: https://alittleperspective4u.myshopify.com Couples Truth or Dare (Freebie): https://rb.gy/dr206

Image Credits
Sarah Noelle (IG: @SarahNoellePhoto)