‘Even with entrepreneurship, you have to be so careful not to lose yourself within the work that you’re creating.’
Lisa Jeffs is a certified life coach who helps emerging and established entrepreneurs supercharge their mindset and bring their vision to life. Find out what motivates Lisa to do the work she does.
‘How meaningful it was to have someone fully listen to you, not talk over you, be present with you. I’ve always taken that with me to my profession.’
In this episode, Lisa shares with us some insights useful in both business and personal life. As an entrepreneur herself, she encourages other entrepreneurs to define and write their own success story. Learn about
– the downside of ‘hustle mentality’
– goal alignment
– achieving successful business outcomes
– defining your business goals and objectives
– challenging limiting belief systems and more.
Find Lisa in the following platforms:
Personal website: https://lisajeffs.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisa_jeffs/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajeffs/
Other links: https://linktr.ee/lisa_jeffs
John: Thank you for tuning in today, don’t forget to share this episode and subscribe. Joining me today is Certified Life Coach, Lisa Jeffs. She helps emerging and established entrepreneurs supercharge their mindset and bring their vision to life with her life purpose method framework. Thank you for being on the show today, Lisa.
Lisa: Thank you for having me, glad to be here.
John: So, I’m excited to learn a little about your journey to become who you are today, so maybe share with the listeners how Lisa started this entrepreneurial journey of yours and maybe even before then your upbringing.
Lisa: Great. Okay, so I’ll start by saying most coaches that I know and I’m no exception have a back story, they have gone through a lot of challenges that have gotten them to the place where they’re like you know what I want to take what I’ve learned from this and helped other people with it. I mean my life just to brief it up started as an adopted child. I was born to a teen mom who was actually also adopted herself and decided to put me up for adoption. I was raised by a wonderful family but I had a lot of challenges starting really early. I had anxiety which caused me to be very isolated, had a lot of social anxiety which then led to depression, which led to a lot of self-coping drugs, and alcohol, so the first part of my life was very challenging. Just going through a lot of stuff I had to process, a lot of healing, a lot of trying to manage and for a part not doing a very great job but it’s interesting because when I look back at that time I always had a very entrepreneurial spirit, even through all those challenges. I started working at 11, I had my first job, I was a courier a newspaper courier and I remember convincing the guy to hire me because he said, “You have to be 12.” I said, “But I’m really mature, 11-year old I could do this.” And he gave me the job and then I did that for a while and then I became a teenager and said, “Okay, this is I’m moving forward.” Started working for my parent’s company and then once it started hitting like my older teens getting out of high school, my dad got sick so it was that very ending part of high school when a lot of kids were going off to college and doing their thing and I was processing the passing of my father, he ended up passing away so that pivotal part was really challenging for me and I actually ended up going into the adult entertainment industry. And if anyone is familiar with that industry it can be very almost dark and almost kind of a black hole you can get really lost, you can lose yourself within that so I was in there for about 4 years until I ended up getting pregnant with my daughter, who’s 16 now and that was like the light bulb moment, that was the moment where it was okay, you’re either going to go down this, continuing to this black hole and God knows where you’re gonna come out or you’re going to make a change, a drastic change and be the mother that you want to be for your child. So within that time period of getting pregnant I made a drastic change. I got out of the industry, actually got a job at Tim Hortons when I was pregnant with my child and when she was about 16 months I enrolled in college, into Child and Youth Worker because I really had a passion to help teens and youth with what I had gone through. Then I went directly into university to get my degree in that and then I started into the school board and that was great until it wasn’t great anymore. And I realized that I really enjoyed helping people but I didn’t want to help people in a way that I didn’t have autonomy because you don’t have autonomy when you’re working under a certain like this is how you have to help these people and you can’t really innovate, so what happened was I’m like, okay, it’s time for me to step out my own. I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit this is not meeting my values. I’m not feeling like I am autonomous and I wasn’t and that’s when I started to kind of dabble in, well what would I want to do? What do I want to do? What am I good at? I know I like to help people but, how do I am going to turn that into a business, right? And it’s very interesting how coaching came about because it was almost me following those internal nudges like really just kind of listening to my intuition and following. I’m not even sure how I got introduced to coaching but I had a coach when I was in that tradition, that transitioned from working in the school board to starting my own business. I found a life coach online and I really resonated with her energy. I was like this woman just feels right let me contact her and I had my first call with her and I was like this woman is going to help me during this transition, she’s exactly what I need. I feel like I’m on a tangent, am I answering the question?
John: No. No. This is perfect, I loved it.
Lisa: So I worked with her and she helped me get clarity on what it is like to be a coach and I really liked helping people at that time with health and fitness. I had always been interested in health and fitness ever since I watched I don’t know if you probably have seen Terminator 2, where that scene where she, I forget her name but she’s in her cell and she’s literally doing pull-ups. Do you know what I’m talking about?
John: I don’t really call the scene but I remember Terminator 2.
Lisa: Yes. So I was so inspired by her. I wish I could remember her name but I was so inspired by her, so I had always been interested in bodybuilding and working out. I’m like, this is perfect to help people with and I got into it and it took about a year to realize you know what this is not feeling aligned, this is starting to feel more like a job and not to say that a job is a bad thing but for me it started to feel very trapped and contained like I couldn’t really help people with what I wanted to help with. So as I just started to listen to my intuition again and tune out and the noise from other people because even with entrepreneurship I think you have to be so careful not to lose yourself within the work that you’re creating because it’s very easy to start listening to outside sources and view them as being more successful as you, so they know better than you and it’s like nobody knows you better than you. So as I started to kind of shed those, shoulds what I should be doing, what makes sense and coaching field and yadda yadda. I really started just kind of coming into my own and I found this powerful part of me that works really well with a type entrepreneurs that also have a little bit of a spiritual edge and want to combine both. I like to call it like the science and the spirit into creating their business and really focusing on helping the entrepreneurs that I work with are very aligned with purpose. They believe that they all have a purpose that they’re aligned to create in this lifetime, so through all my own self-discovery was it got me to a place where that’s what I’m doing now, is really helping these entrepreneurs self-discover who they are and the work that they want to do and when I shed all the sheds everything just started to align and it became a lot easier.
John: No, this is interesting. So I just want to thank you for sharing that and I know it was probably tough for you to be vulnerable and during different stages of your life I know it’s hard to share with people, what you had to go through adoption, to different career, aspirations, and having a child at such a young age. During that shift of all these different careers you mentioned you only reached out to that mentor or coach near the pivotal time of you working in the public system to then creating your entrepreneurial business but throughout that journey, were there other people that inspired you to kind of open up, to try something different? You know what I mean like bring them out of you because it must have been challenging losing your dad, and then how was your mom? Did you have other influences, like peers, friends, family, other employers, employees like people, colleagues, acquaintances that supported you with whatever you wanted to do?
Lisa: Yeah and there wasn’t a lot of support. I will say that I’ve had a very isolated life, mostly from my own doing, me isolating but I will always remember this one person, this was actually in high school and I had gotten kicked out of my previous high school because I just didn’t enjoy it and I didn’t show up so they kicked me out but I guess they appointed me an attendance officer. So this is somebody that puts you into finds a new school. Basically that’s what their job is and all I remember with this guy from my experience was he really listened to what I wanted as a 15-year-old. He really took into account what was meaningful for me, so at that time what was meaningful for me was doing hair, I wanted to do hair and makeup that’s what I wanted when I was 15. And I just remember him being so what’s the word he listened to me, he just like heard what I was saying, he didn’t discount because I was a kid, he didn’t put on a front like he knew what was better for me and he actually ended up finding me a high school that had a program which teaches, kids how to do hair, like in a professional setting you actually can leave that high school with a certificate of hairdressing. I didn’t continue on with that but I will never forget him to this day, how meaningful it was to have someone fully listen to you, not talk over you, be present with you, and do what listen to you and what you believe is best for you, not to overpower that. So I’ve always taken that with me into my profession now of how meaningful that is when someone is just present with you, listens and you can feel that their energy is with you.
John: And I think as a parent now, it’s even more vital to make sure that you harvest these values and trades so that they become their own self, to bring the most out of people. So as you mature, as you become wiser in every aspect of life you have a different perspective because you bring a different perspective to all the people that you touch and help but now you can share it with your life experience, so I love that you’re sharing this with the audience members. Now I just want to peel back in terms of how did you come about starting this aspect of your business and what made you want to do, you know life coaching and this kind of purpose-based coach versus all the other different types of coaching out there.
Lisa: Well, it did kind of happened organically mainly through just learning what I didn’t want to do, what I didn’t enjoy so, for instance, the health coaching you know I enjoyed it until I didn’t and then I started getting into a lot of mindset work and I still do a lot of mindset work with my clients but it was more focused on that. Then it got to the place where I think it was when I really started tuning in to the purpose, work was when I started noticing a shift in my own self and what it felt to really be doing what I believe is my purpose work and how that shifted, how I viewed the world, and how it actually business became easier like I would sign on clients easier when I really believe okay, this is what I meant to be doing. So the money was easier to make and I enjoyed the work more and when I have let’s say because I do sales calls so people book like a call on my website a discovery call when I would talk about purpose to certain people that would call like they would light their energy would just light up like they would be “Yes, purpose this is me like this is what I need.” And my energy would then light up and I’m like, “Oh My God!” We can do magic together. So it was this feeling of just being in total alignment it felt right, and I’m not saying that it’s gonna always feel right because there may come a time, where I’m like you know what now It’s time to move on to something different but for now, it just feels like it’s just exactly what I meant to do, so I keep doing it.
John: No. That’s amazing to hear because clarity in terms of a sense of different stages of your life, of course, career aspirations, and entrepreneurial journey takes you in different directions and knowing that you’ve gone through quite a bit growing up to now make an impact with people that you can actually give a different purpose in helping them achieve whatever they want to pursue and achieve but guiding them in the direction that they find, that you’re actually there present listening, caring, and it’s great to hear because I read a ton. I watch a ton. I’m a part of a lot of communities and the key component is making sure that you’re aligning yourself with someone that you respect, that is out for the same interest as you, and that alignment is so key, so finding that right person for whoever you want to become and being a coach and that’s more important than ever because you’re gonna be as vulnerable, as possible and you need to ensure that not just privacy but also they get you.
Lisa: Yes. Exactly what you said, “It’s so important to align with the right person.” I’ve had a lot of coaches that I’ve worked with and they’re all great coaches but they weren’t all really in alignment with me and I found that when I started almost they were like coaches, mentors, and teachers as well. When I started following some of them what they’re teaching and what they were mentoring me with, it did leave me kind of down a path. I was like this isn’t feeling in alignment, this is feeling harder than it needs to. I’m not enjoying it as much so it’s really finding someone which is like a full-body, like you feel it you’re like, “Yes, this is for me.” That there’s no convincing yourself, this seems like it’s the right fit, it makes sense logically, it’s like, “No. I actually feel it all over my body.” This is a yes if that makes sense.
John: Yeah and there’s no doubt, you’re not regretting any of the decisions you’re making. So yes, I wanted to then pivot to kind of ask you because you’ve been doing this for many years now, what are some of the challenges that you faced early stages? As opposed to what you’re facing today, and maybe share with the audience members some of the things that you would have done differently, how would you have overcome them? Kind of share with the audience some of your perspective on that.
Lisa: Yeah. Again I’m always the type that takes everything as a learning lesson, so I’m glad every all the challenges happen because I like to think that I’ve learned from all of them because they haven’t repeated themselves and I always say like, “If something is not repeating itself in your life then you’ve learned the lesson and you’ve moved forward.” But for a long period, in the beginning of my entrepreneur journey, so when I first started my journey what was very almost common in the entrepreneurial world and maybe you remember this, it was very that hustle mentality, it was a mentality of your work, you don’t sleep like sleeping is for losers, like you want to sleep and you don’t want it bad enough right, and all that led to was a lot of burnt-out business owners and me included which weren’t creating the business that they wanted, so I fell into that mentality of I gotta be working like 12, 14 hour days. If I take time off, I’m lazy and I don’t deserve success like what I saw growing up a lot from my father because he had his own business but it was picking up this idea that there’s only one way to build a business and that’s the way and what I learned from over the years was there’s actually a lot of ways to build a business and some people thrive on that like let’s go hardcore stop but there’s a lot of people that don’t thrive in that and when I started to let go of that guilty feeling of, “Oh, if I take a day off then my business is going to crumble.” And I’m not going to make any money all this, when I started to really reprogram that thought process, follow, and absorb the mentors that we’re building a business in the way, I wanted to build a business that had similar values to mine which really value time with family, time on spiritual pursuits like all-encompassing business with everything else. Then I started to shift and I started to make a lot more money. When I was able to create those gaps between work, rest and just doing what really fueled, I know this kind of sounds cheesy but fueled my soul. So if I learned anything it was you really have to do what’s in alignment for you and realize there’s so many different paths you can take to create success and if something is not aligning with you and you’re hearing something and you’re like that’s not going to work for me then just leave it, you’re not supposed to align with every single thing.
John: Success is different for each individual and there’s a lot of people who put a lot of emphasis on dollar, figure, revenue, sales, profit but lifestyle is a huge consideration especially if you have a family if you are new to the country if you have different aspirations, and pursuits right, bigger impact different purpose. Understand what you want and I love hearing that yes, it’s not just working crazy hours, a lot of people spin their wheels like yes, I spent hours early in my pursuit in entrepreneurship as well but it’s because I didn’t know how to run a business I had to learn by always trying to increase my skill, knowledge, and level of expertise. So depending on what you’re in terms of this new business takes time like you can’t figure it out in 3 months, 6 months or a year. It takes multiple years, it may take a lot of failures, it takes a lot of ebbs and flows, you know that’s a part of the journey.
Lisa: Totally!
John: Well, in terms of this coaching I wanted to ask you, were there people out there in the world of coaching that you kind of resonated with to want to be like them because just like in that Terminator movie you wanted to be like that girl right. They’re in the poaching world, someone that really really made you want to be like I could see myself be like them in x amount of years.
Lisa: Yeah. There was people when I first started like people like Lisa Nichols. I’m going blank with names here but if you’re familiar with Lisa Nichols she’s just brought so much heart and integrity into the work she’s doing and she has a very high standard of excellence. So I really looked at that not to say that I wanted to have exactly what she has but I saw it in a sense of, that’s the type of business I want to create one that has very high integrity, one that is putting the needs of the client, and the needs of myself and taking into account all these things that are really like a heart-centered business right in a business model. That’s what I looked up to there were coaches that I put on the pedestal at the very beginning and I say, now take everyone off the pedestal like nobody should be on a pedestal but I put them on more for the sake of they’re driving a really nice car and they’re on Forbes magazine and all this stuff and it wasn’t until maybe about 3 or 4 years ago that I started tuning in and being on Forbes magazine would be great but is that really matter if I ended up leaving the earth today, would it really matter if I was on that magazine or not to me and I was like not really, so if a lot of it was superficial that kind of died away, Lisa Nichols is someone I’ve admired for my entire journey of entrepreneurship there are others but I’m blanking on who they are.
John: Yeah and that’s great that you’re sharing this because a lot of people are seeing these influencers on social media, on tv, magazines, radio whatever television and they always want to look like they’re driving that nice Bentley or drive flying everywhere in the world, they’re taking nice pictures and then really realistically they’re just like you and me right, they’re normal people living their own lives and they’re just trying to monetize that way and so you look at the business side of things and why they’re doing certain things, who they’re attracting and what’s the content they’re producing and does it resonate with who you are, so figure out what works and what doesn’t and do it your way personalize it, put it, make it so that you are different because everyone wants your unique story and everyone has their own story right.
Lisa: Exactly.
John: It’s great that you’re sharing that, so what some are the things that really motivate you today that you kind of look back, that you weren’t motivated in early days because when you’re starting, your goals are different than when you’re now doing it for x amount more years, what has changed and what has made you become better smarter and more intentful and purposeful?
Lisa: Yeah. I think it’s hard, it’s hard for me to really go back I mean I know in the beginning a big motivation is for me was being able to leave the school board like being able to make enough money to leave the school board because I had went down to part-time and I was really like I gotta get out of this place but not to say that money was the only motivator like my top values, included in my top values are excellence and integrity. So it’s always been a motivation for me to help the clients at a very deep level. I can’t do surface level coaching like it doesn’t work for me, even if the person was going to pay me for surface level. I couldn’t do it because I’m so designed to help people at the root of their problem and that’s been a motivation for me for forever to really help individuals clear the root of their challenge to move forward, so I would say that has never changed but also what’s motivating me now, I would say as opposed to before, it was mostly just money like I wanted to make money to get out of the school board but now it’s more of I want to create the life, the life design that I want that really feels in alignment with my heart, with my soul when I envision it, when I visualize it I’m like, oh my gosh! I am here, this feels so good, this feels right. So it’s really more of a motivation to keep creating this life that feels like it’s the next step in my journey, if that makes sense.
John: And I think a lot of people will understand that in the early stages of either your career or entrepreneurial journey, money is always a deciding factor especially when your needs are not met shelter, food, place to live, family you know things that have to be in place before you pursue other things until you have that covered or that bare necessity is in place. Then you can pursue excellence and other things that really motivate you right, really you want to do and a lot of people are always saying purpose first, passion first but if it doesn’t pay the bills which is your needs it’s very hard to be in alignment. So a lot of people tell me you know to start with a side hustle, do things on the side which I get too like work in the evening, weekends, do things to ramp up your business so that you’re ready, so when you leave your full-time employment you have enough stability to sustain yourself because that’s the biggest thing because if you set yourself back you’re going to go backwards in your pursuit and then that stress mental health, mental stress it’s like a rippling effect, so it’s just understanding where you’re at and even entrepreneurship climbing more than anything if you’re not ready at that specific time, then you’re a new mom or dad your time is not on entrepreneurship it should be on the family right, so give it time to figure that out and yes it’s a long life that you have, so there’s no need to rush it. That one idea that you have that everyone thinks it’s going to make them billions of dollars. Well, they’re gonna be ideas every month once you become an entrepreneur, there’s gonna be so many different opportunities.
Lisa: So many, so many.
John: So it’s fun to talk to an entrepreneur just like yourself because you get it, you talk to so many people, you understand what really is the root and that’s what really helps people, have clarity in terms of where they want to achieve success right. Driving you today then what is the biggest passion for you to continue doing what you do, is it family, is it you’re doing it because of your daughter or son and or is it more about you finding something that really you know you’re happy, you’re joyful doing and waking up every day helping others.
Lisa: Yeah. It’s more of I always think about you know if when I’m like 80, 90 years old and I’m outside on my porch and I’m like thinking about my life, and my career. It’s for me, it’s always the driver is helping individuals with what I know I’m here to help them with my natural gift, so for me it’s very purpose driven. I’m like there’s no thought of me ever retiring. I don’t ever want to retire, the thought of me not being able to produce, help, and create, forget it like I don’t want to be here if I can’t do that, so yes, my family is also very important it’s my top value but at that real core for me it is am I living my purpose right now and if I feel like I’m not I feel off like something feels off to me, if that makes sense.
John: Totally. So tell me a little bit about your community, tell me a little bit about your ideal type of client because I would love to have the listeners understand if they needed some advice and seek some coaching you helped them.
Lisa: Yeah. So the type of client that I’ve been working with for about the past 3, 2 or 3 years that have really been coming to me and attracted to my work again like I said a very type of personality, so a very ambitious driven entrepreneur that almost has trouble turning off right, and they typically come to me when they do feel out of alignment, So it’s really helping them to align with the work that they’re designed to do, so one of my gifts I like to call it is being able to see what’s in alignment for you, work wise or what’s not an alignment because a lot of people get trapped in this idea of like this is what’s going to create more success for me like more no notation, or more financial success but it’s not really what they want to be doing. So a lot of times there’s a limiting belief system of, oh I really want to do this but I can’t make any money doing that so I’m going to do this and then I maybe do this on the side just for fun. And what I really like to show them is you can create a business doing anything you want right, if you’re solving a problem, if you’re giving some person a desire that they have you can make money doing it. So it’s really helping these very highly driven entrepreneurs align with their purpose and release all the stuff that has been keeping them almost it’s kind of like when I envision it’s like on a person on a train that’s going like a gazillion miles an hour and it’s very hard for them to like get off and slow down, so a lot of the work we do is helping them align to their work purpose but also their deeper soul purpose of okay, what’s going to make not only your business fulfilling but what’s going to nourish you on all levels, family, spiritual aspects. Whatever it is, things that you want to do on the side create adventures if that makes sense. It’s a very specific type of person I typically work with, it’s the people that almost have trouble getting help from others because a lot of people don’t understand them, they’re usually the helper.
John: You know that makes a lot of sense because a lot of the personality types of people they’re afraid to open up, no one gets them because they’re so driven that no one can read their mind, so I get where you’re coming from. So how can some of the listeners get in touch with you, visit your website, do you have social handles if you don’t mind sharing that.
Lisa: Yeah. So my website is always up, you can always contact me on my website “lisajeffs.com”. Instagram is my most active social platform so that’s “@lisa_jeffs”. I’m also on LinkedIn and Facebook but if you’re going to visit me on anyone it’s Instagram.
John: Perfect. Well, all that will be in the show notes. I really want to thank you for your time, Lisa. For sharing some great insight and sharing the journey that you were so vulnerable, you basically laid it all out there and that’s why I love podcasting and videos and getting to know good humans out there, this is what entrepreneurship is about right. Letting yourself, people see the true you and they either like you or not and either resonate or not but that’s you and that’s where I wanted to showcase, so thanks a lot Lisa and it’s been a pleasure speaking to you.
Lisa: Awesome. I enjoyed it, thank you for having me.
