Make It Visible
You’re full of amazing coaching skills, ideas, and a desire to make a difference, but marketing your coaching biz isn’t your thing?
Meet Michelle, your business bestie who knows exactly how to help coaches like you get seen, get heard, and get paying clients.
No more feeling invisible. Let’s make marketing easy-peasy and magical.
Make It Visible
Cultivating Joy and Community in Coaching with Lisa Lopez
In this episode, we're joined by Lisa Lopez, a beacon of joy and a Certified Happiness Coach. As the founder of Live Happy Coaching, Lisa dedicates her expertise to guiding women over 30 towards a life marked by happiness and purpose.
Lisa is a beacon for coaches who aspire to cultivate a thriving community that brings a bouquet of wisdom, sharing how she intertwines her floristry finesse into a coaching practice that's less about the hustle and more about heart.
You'll learn from this episode...
🌿 Lisa's journey from petals to empowerment, where she nurtures growth in gardens and lives. With her, we explore the power of authenticity and the magic that unfolds when we align with our true passions.
💫 Lisa also talked about her exclusive retreats crafted for women stepping into their 30s and beyond, proving that you can harvest a profitable purpose when you plant seeds of passion.
🎉 As the host of the Higher Coach Collective community on Facebook, Lisa created a virtual space to bring coaches together to share their gifts in a supported environment with the world without feeling constrained.
Connect With Lisa Lopez
Website
Self Love Retreat
LinkedIn
Facebook
IG
Lisa's Email
-----Free LIVE Visibility Marketing Bootcamp ---
3 Steps To Get Seen, Get Heard, And Get Paying Client
https://members.elevatelifecoaching.org/VMBSept2024
-------More Ways To Learn With Michelle-----
Learn With Me: https://www.elevatelifecoaching.org/learn-with-michelle
--------------------- Who Is Michelle Kuei ---------------------
Hey There! I’m Michelle! Your Visibility Marketing Coach, content and Email Marketing Strategist, Motivational Speaker, Author (…And soon to be your new business bestie!)
I help female coaches to simplify marketing so they can get seen, get heard, and get paying clients (..even if you work a full-time job!)
My job as your coach is to:
- Help you build a one-of-a-kind personal coaching brand with you so your business stands out and position you to be the authority within your coaching niche.
- Teach you how to develop marketing strategies that is aligned with your vision and value with the RIGHT brand messaging to attract your dream paying clients.
- Develop a simple and easy way to market your coaching business without being overwhelmed and burnout.
- Help you develop a course and membership...
If you're new, because one of the biggest struggles is probably not knowing where to start, how to begin. And yet when you have a question, you're not quite sure where to ask those questions without feeling like you're being coached. I remember when I first started out on my coaching business journey. That was exactly how I felt. Every time I have a question whether it is technology or how to set up or calendar or scheduling all these questions are just simple yes or no question. But yet every time I'm popping to a community of coaches, I get surrounded by coaches who wanted to coach me, and that is just not a great feeling for someone who loves and values connection. Today, I am bringing a guest on this episode to talk about the connectedness of how coaches can share inside a community setting and how we can all help each other out without feeling like we're being sold or being coached on, and just really sharing each other's gift and talent and create this beautiful space where we can come together to thrive. So let's get to it.
Michelle :Hello, welcome to the Make it Visible podcast. I'm your host, michelle Kway. I am a visibility and marketing coach, and this is our special spot for female coaches who might be feeling a little bit lost in the crowd, especially if you're introverted. We're here to help you to stand out. So join us as we share stories, tips and fun chat that will help you shine. Whether you are new or perhaps you've been coaching for a while, this is going to be your go-to place to be seen and hurt. So get comfy and grab your coffee. Let's get started.
Michelle :Today I have such an amazing guest, and I met Lisa years back when I first started my coaching journey. I didn't know where I was going and how I was going to get started, and there she was, standing right there in the middle of the room, welcoming all the students into the modules that we were receiving out coaching training, and I remember her from day one, and she is just this absolutely beautiful soul that's standing there and helping all the students and helping them to accomplish a lot of things, and so I'm really excited to have Lisa today on my show, because Lisa is doing a lot of amazing things in the Higher Coach Collective Facebook group and she also has a business where she helps others to be happier, and so I would love to hear more about what Lisa is doing in her part of the world. Welcome, lisa, yay.
Lisa:Thank you, Michelle. I'm so happy to be here with you. Thank you for that amazing intro. You know I've been looking forward to spending this time with you.
Michelle :I remember that first day when I walked into module one it was actually module two where I met you. It was here in Los Angeles. I remember walking in and you had your coffee. You're just this beautiful soul and high energy level and you're walking in and you're all about the light. I'm just so attracted to you and your positivity. Tell us about how you got into coaching.
Lisa:Oh, I'd love to. So just a little overview of what I'm currently doing, and then maybe I can talk about how I arrived there. But I'm a certified happiness coach, and so what that means people often will say is that a real job? Yes, it's a real job. It's awesome, it's a career. So what I do is I leverage positive psychology, positive intelligence, and I help my clients to connect with their happiness and remove those blocks and obstacles that are preventing them from living there Most expansive life. I focus working mostly with women over 30, and then I also work with businesses and organizations to help them to improve their culture at work in terms of happiness and satisfaction, and so, yeah, so, and then I do that in a couple of different ways. I have transformational retreats for women, and then I also dabbled in the coaching space, which is kind of what we're going to talk about today, the coaching community itself.
Lisa:I arrived at coaching after a personal crisis of my own, where my oldest son ended up getting arrested at the age of 15.
Lisa:It was actually the morning of his 15th birthday and, as you can imagine, my family was devastated. I mean, we were like we had no idea what he was into. So, as a result of that pretty much total collapse of our family as we knew it, we were invited to participate in an experiential, extensive life coaching program for my entire family. So we all took the life coaching program at the same time, one geared for him as a teenager going through kind of recovering their own parents. And when I arrived there on that first weekend I really believed I was there to save my son's life. But upon completion of the program I recognized I was there to save my own life, and so I was really just blown away by the coaching I received and then felt so passionately that every man, woman and child should have access to a life coach and I wanted to be part of the solution. So that jumpstarted my journey into becoming a certified coach.
Michelle :Wow, there are so many things that came up for me as you're describing this journey. One is that how valuable coaching can be. It almost sounds like life saving right In that moment of desperation and you just have nothing else to hold on to. And when someone just throw you a light bow, it almost sounds like a light bow and you're just grabbing onto it and little did you know that you're not only being saved, but you're also sailing it now and you're actually navigating for other people who may be struggling with the same life traumas or life experiences where they have nothing else to hold on to. And so I think that we're happiness and we're the happy coach. What is the key to happiness?
Lisa:I would say, if I had to sum it up, it'd be total acceptance of all emotions as equally valuable to your overall happiness. I mean, I think it's improving, but for the longest time, people associated happiness with cheerfulness and positivity in. That is one lovely aspect of living a happy life, but in order to have that sustainable cheerfulness that most people really desire in their life, you need to create a really loving and compassionate relationship with your unhappiness, and so that's my message, and my goal is to help people navigate those less desirable times with more ease so they can return to feeling those more positive emotions more often.
Michelle :So a lot of my audience are women coaches, female coaches and a lot of them are starting out. I think one of the biggest misconception about coaching is oh, you have to be in the money-making industry. You have to have either business coaching or marketing coaching. You have to be helping people making their money in order to be successful in your coaching business. What's your take on that? Because I think your story is so inspiring of how life coach can actually have a market, have an industry, and you can be successful in that. So what's your take on that?
Lisa:Well, I would speak to the authenticity of that, and I know that word's used a lot, but I mean, if you're not someone who's lit up by doing business coaching, then you're not living your happiest life and that's gonna translate into your business and so that will create obstacles and energy that you don't want.
Lisa:I mean it's gonna feel super hard to do something just because you feel like that's how you're gonna make money. If you're not connected to your true purpose, your true calling and the people that you were meant to serve, then it's like why are you doing this? There's lots of ways to make money that aren't related to coaching. That if it's just about the money, right. So I feel like the coaching profession is one where you really want to be connected with the reason that you're doing it, like you know whether that's aligning with a value or a passion or like with my situation, kind of turning my message right. It's much more than that and it's an opportunity to be creative. I don't want to discount the necessity of money, for sure, but you can come up with very creative revenue streams that all honor what it is that you're wanting to do, so that you can grow it on the inside and the outside as well.
Michelle :I was visiting your website this morning and one of the creative way that you came up with was having these retreats. And can you tell us more about what inspires you to do all these amazing retreats for women over 30?
Lisa:Yeah, I would love to, because I think it really speaks to like kind of full being integration. As a coach, I grew up in a family of florists. We had like head flower shops in the Bay Area. My dad was a pretty famous florist, and so I grew up with him creating and planning events, and so I've always been this huge party thrower. In my personal life We'd have all of these things that I really loved creating spaces for people to connect with their joy. In essence, you know, whether it was a birthday party, anniversary party, vacation, I was always just that was my lane of genius. And so, as I became a coach and started to really hone in on what are my special gifts, my special gift is like holding and creating a fun and inviting spaces for learning, and so I thought how can I do that? Like, how can I integrate all the things I'm great at? So I'm an endurance athlete. I love creating these holding these events spaces. Animal Life Coach. You put those together and guess what? You have Retreat host. You have a retreat host. So I love doing all these things. When I'm doing what I love, I am connected to my higher consciousness and that's when I'm going to serve at my greatest level and so I just jumped in.
Lisa:I had never been to a retreat before I hosted my first retreat, I said I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to bring the happiness in the movement, in the dance party in. I found a beautiful location in Sedona and I said I'm going for it and it was magic. It was magic again because I was working from my true calling. Like who is Lisa Lopez? What's my unique signature?
Lisa:I didn't try to make my retreat look like anybody else's. I literally said guess what, if nobody shows up, I'm gonna have a big party with my friends. Like I had no fear around the outcome and I think because of that, people felt super connected and really enjoyed my space. So then I just kept going. So what started in Sedona is now Sedona, costa Rica, mexico. We're heading into Hawaii and Lake Tahoe, so it's just yeah. So I just want to say that, like really focusing on what it is that you love to do and really bring more of yourself into your coaching, whether it's retreat or creating programs or courses or whatever it is you want people to walk away and say, yeah, I just spent time with Lisa or Michelle and it felt like this very specific way it sounds so natural and you're such a great people connector.
Michelle :The word comes out from you as people connected. Because I know I've been in your Facebook group for a long time and you keep popping it into my peripheral and so I remember one day I'm like oh, you know what, Let me go check out her group. And it was just such a great energy and vibe inside the group. You welcome everybody, you allow like a lot of people because a lot of coaches have business and you allow them to promote, to talk about themselves. You even encourage them to talk about themselves and it's such an inviting place. It's so inspirational for myself to think about what type of group that I want to have and how do I want to show up. So you're setting up such an example for everybody. And one of the things and part of the reason why we're connected today is because you came up with another party for all the coaches you attend. Tell us about that party for all the coaches you attend.
Lisa:Yeah, so when I finish IPEC, so I'm a mentor coach as well through the ICF, ipec for a little while, I really was craving that coach connection. I mean, I think all of us here can appreciate what it feels like to be surrounded by coaches. It's what we love to do, right I have. Coaches are the best people to hang out with. We speak the same language, we're inspired by each other, and I used to meet with a few coaches going through the law being program, which is an IPEC proprietary tool, and at some point I go man, we should just invite more coaches to this conversation. I'm getting so much out of it and that literally birth at the time which was called the coaching collective. Now it's called the higher coach connective. It's morphed into something a little bit different now. I always think of it like a coaching playground, like come. We create different offerings depending on whatever we here is desired, what we want to do, and it's so. This Facebook group and the space is just an invitation, invitation to share all your creations and invitation to come speak about your passions, to connect with other coaches, to learn from other coaches, and so I've been hosting that with the help of my other coach friends for several years.
Lisa:The communities continue to grow. We allow all promotion. I mean, I think we feel limited a lot of times. We have this really valuable gift but we're like, how do we get it out? Because nobody lets me promote. You can promote, you can do whatever you want. That's our shared space. And then now what we are starting to play with is a higher level of connection and we've created the master series. So the higher coach connective mastery series, which is a donation based series hosted through Eventbrite, so that you don't just have to be in the higher coach connective to attend. You can share the Eventbrite with all your coach friends or people who are interested in coaching. And it's a more intimate space where we have created a higher level of content to expand us even further into our coaching careers and professions and businesses.
Michelle :What are some of the topics that you have covered in the mastery series already?
Lisa:Yeah, I love this part because I'm like, oh, what can I create? So my number one, number one core value is connection. You probably could tell that by how I'm talking always crazy spaces. So I saw a real desire, both for myself and other coaches, to get to know each other more intimately, to be friends or collaborate together or do idea sharing in some way, and so I created my workshops are primarily around connection and idea sharing. So mine, I'm doing speed dating for coaches, where you'll come together, you'll be put out in breakout rooms and you're going to connect and you're going to walk away with some contact information with other coaches that you've clicked with with the hope of expanding that friendship or professional relationship in whatever way feels right for you, and a series of question props to get that party started. All that work, coaches, I'm sure we come up with our own questions, but if you need a little help, so that's one of the workshops that we're offering.
Lisa:The one that I'm doing tomorrow but by the time this post it will be done, but I'm going to do it again Is the coaches skill exchange, which is an idea. It's the welcoming, the bartering energy to the coaching experience. So we, how have been creating and producing and we're all coming from different levels of experience. Why not share with each other?
Lisa:Instead of going out and hiring somebody to teach you the one on one of social media or set up your scheduling app or those things that you may just need a little supportive, let's leverage each other. I mean, we are so resourceful as coaches. Why go out and pay when you could have a 60 minute conversation with a new friend and you can exchange those services? We're also doing mastery mind, where you can bring in your coaching situations where you want some support from other coaches and we all chime in on different ideas on how to coach your client in different ways. And then Canva for coaches, where you're actually creating workbooks, welcome packets and everything hosted by the other host, marilyn Rose in our group and Dana Zeller. So, higher level, like, let's produce something, let's move forward with what we're doing. Let's just not talk about it, but let's actually create some actionable items that will help us as coaches.
Michelle :I love everything that you just shared, because you're really speaking to my desire of creating community and how the community should be, and this is something that I was talking about the other day that a lot of time we just need one simple answer, like can you just help me on the stock and I just need to have a quick answer about this and that.
Michelle :But, like a lot of time, you feel like, oh, but someone is going to pitch me about their service, someone is going to coach me around it. No, I just want a simple answer, and what you have created it just is so amazing and powerful because then I can just pop in and come and ask the question, the simple question that you'll be able to help me on stock. And so this is another reason why I wanted to bring you on the podcast, because I feel like there's a lot of coaches who feel like they're doing things on their own, they're doing this their own journey, and so it feels quite lonely. I remember I was looking for this community and looking for this kind of support. How do you foresee the direction of whether it's the higher coach connective or within your own business? How do you foresee the future of our coaching industry and also your in your business.
Lisa:Oh, I mean, Jess, I've only been a full-time coach for five years and the growth has been exponential. I mean it's just so encouraging and inspiring to see the widespread acceptance of coaching in nearly every organization, business, personal. People now speak about coaching in the normal conversations. When I say I'm a coach, people go, oh, that's awesome, they already know, I don't have to do a lot of educating.
Lisa:I really am an advocate for the professionalism of coaching and really creating that very distinctive career around it. You know, right now I see they're doing a great job of trying to create that for us. So it's a you know that professional career. It's like a licensure. I mean, we are accredited. But even bringing that up higher, there's a lot of different versions of coaches out there. I really love us to be called something different, just so that we can be distinctive in what we do. So I feel like it's going to go in that direction over time.
Lisa:I'm very involved in the ICF and, like I said, I've even created out here different groups, professional groups around coaching, because I'm really passionate, like I shared earlier.
Lisa:It changed my life, it saved my family, it gave me a foundation to live a happy, fulfilled, purposeful life. I want everybody to have the ability to experience that, but we need to be, we need to find ways to stand out from the other versions of coaches that are out there. They provide an amazing service, but it's not the same as what we do as certified coaches, and so I just want to make that lane really, really clear, and I feel like that's the direction we're going in. But I encourage all of the coaches listening right now to understand just how specialized of a field that we're in, and the more that we lean into that, the more impactful, because we're going to keep the methodology around coaching in its purest essence, and that's where the transformation happens is when we adhere to those competencies. That's why it's different from therapy, from advice, giving, all of these things, but we have to hold the integrity of our profession to allow that impact to happen.
Michelle :Yeah, I remember when I first chose iPad coaching, it was one of my. It was one of my non-negotiable because I know that being accredited and because I'm dealing with someone else's life and I want to take it serious Right, I don't just want to coach someone, I want to make sure that what I'm doing is actually safe without harming the other person. So I want to do it with a certification where I can hold that standard of the. I'm practicing within the standard. So I love what you share.
Michelle :And then also, I think it's such a big assurance for coaches who are already certified to know that our industry is going in the direction where we have that accreditation, we have that standard of practice, we have that code of ethics that we need to follow as a certified coach and not just going out in tangent because of how chaotic that would be. Any last word of advice for coaches who are starting out, who's kind of like you know they're trying to test the water. The water is at their knee, they look like they're drowning. Can you give them some word of advice?
Lisa:Oh, I'd love to, and as a mentor coach, I do this all the time. Don't stop working with your own coach. Do not stop working with your own coach. Ladies and gentlemen, listening to me right now, as Michelle spoke eloquently about, it can be a very lonely journey or it can be the most deeply connected, wonderful experience of your life. But if you don't work with a coach to keep that negative thought pattern and saboteur interference and gremlin interference whatever you want at bay, it's easy to fall down into the slippery slope of the abyss and feel like you're not doing enough, you're not having an impact.
Lisa:You know all the knots. Good enough will come rolling into you and then the passion that you have for it will quickly fall to the waist side and you'll be left with feeling defeated. There's so many wonderful organizations out there for peer coaching, coaching bartering. I understand budgets are tight, but there's no excuse for you not having your own coach as a method of success so that you can continue to be resilient, to serve the people that you were meant to serve. So that would be my number one. I mean, I could go on with a million things I would recommend, but if you're asking me, the one most impactful thing that I think will keep coaches happy. That's what you need is your coach.
Michelle :I totally agree. I catch myself sometimes falling into that procrastination or self doubt, right, and you really need someone, a sounding voice, to pull you out of that pitfall and pull you out from that darkness and say, hey, look at you, you're comparing yourself with another coach who's like 10 years advanced, really ahead of you. Like you know, you just started out, you got this.
Lisa:Yeah, you know, it's so true. Sometimes I take a pause for my coaching, like with my coach, and I use all kinds of different spiritual coach, business coach, you know everyone but then whenever I'm feeling super stressed out, I go what's different? And I go, oh, I'm not working with my coach, and then I call so you know, let's start the coaching relationship again. So yeah, you need a team.
Michelle :You need a team and when in doubt you can always come into the higher coach connected to connect with Lisa and I get popping there every now and then, you know, to chime in some podcast episode like this one, and so I'm just really happy that I have met you early on in my journey and you set such a great example as a mentor coach, as someone who is really doing powerful things for other coaches to bring them together. Your party started.
Lisa:Thank you, Michelle, and I just want to acknowledge you for everything that you're doing and bringing really useful content to coaches. Sometimes it feels a little cookie cutter out there, but I feel like you really are walking the talk. I think you probably have these experiences and say how can I use it to make it helpful to my audience? And you're really doing that. I've enjoyed all your podcasts and all your contributions to the coaching space and you know, together we make things better.
Michelle :Yes, Thank you so much, Lisa. Thank you for coming to the show. Tell us again what's the upcoming mastery series call.
Lisa:Yeah. So the one that I feel like is going to hit when this podcast is active is the speed dating for coaching. So let me just kind of reference that I think that's October 19th is speeding for coaching. But you can go to the Higher Coach Connective on Eventbrite and we'll talk coming. Mark Shreena, can you do that? Also love to hear from ideas from you. And then you can visit us at the Higher Coach Connective on Facebook and you can partake in all of the activities. Again, a place for you to promote what's coming up for you. And then, finally, if you want to hear, like if you want anything from me, you can reach me at livehappycoachingcom or if a retreat's in your future, southloveretreatsnet is all that to date on all of our retreats.
Michelle :And I would encourage all the ladies and all the listeners who's checking out this podcast episode go and check out the retreat, because I have my eyes on a couple of them, so maybe I'll see you in the next retreat. Yay, thank you so much, lisa.
Michelle :Lisa, thank you for listening to Make it Visible Podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support for your coaching business, head over to elevatelivecoachingorg and see how we can partner together to turn your passion into a profitable business. I help female coaches launch and scale their coaching business faster than ever, without wasted time and money, filling the gaps in your marketing strategies, creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love. To wake up to. Head over to elevatelivecoachingorg and grab a free strategy out today. I'll see you in the next one.
