Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Lentino.
Lisa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My passion is self-actualization. I’m driven to help as many people as possible live their ideal lives – the lives they were innately designed to live rather than one they were programmed to live. Currently, I pursue this mission through three different avenues, each with a larger scope of impact: my private practice as a clinical psychologist, my company Grow Beyond Your Mind and The Coaching Connector, Inc.
My philosophy for living your ideal life involves a three phase process: 1) freeing yourself from the programming you may have inherited while growing up; 2) discovering your true self; and 3) learning to program your mind in a constructive way that actually helps you manifest your true purpose. An in-depth description of this process can be found in my book Constructive Thinking How to Grow Beyond Your Mind.
When I talk about discovering your true self, I always use the analogy of an acorn. An acorn contains the full potential of an oak tree – it’s never going to be a maple or a pine no matter what. Similarly, when a baby is born he or she contains a unique set of potentials that only they can bring to the world. The path to true contentment, at least from my perspective, involves discovering “what’s in your acorn,” developing your gifts and talents and then sharing them with the world in some way shape or form. I’ve tried to capture this simple yet profound message in my children’s book, The Littlest Acorn.
The process of breaking free from our mind’s programming, discovering our true self and then learning to utilize our mind most constructively can certainly be a challenging process.
For better or for worse, our unconscious mind is designed to follow the same neural pathways, thought patterns and habits that we’ve accumulated beginning from our earliest moments – even if that programming is destructive. Think of our unconscious mind like a powerful computer. It produces an output based on its programming without the ability to qualitatively evaluate whether that programming is helping our cause or not. When we are trapped by our mind’s programming, which unfortunately is the case for the majority of us, one of the most unfortunate consequences is that we lose sight of who we truly are (what’s in our acorn) and instead define ourselves by our programming which reflects all the dysfunction of our families, society and culture. This phenomenon is where The Coaching Connector comes in.
My goal with The Coaching Connector is to introduce as many people as possible to the power of coaching to dramatically improve their lives. When someone is trying to break free from their mind’s programming, they may be able to take a few steps outside their comfort zone on their own. However, when they then try to make significant changes in how they approach life, their unconscious mind typically responds by producing intense feelings of fear, doubt or guilt in order to get them to “fall back in line” and resume their old behavioral patterns, even if they’re dysfunctional.
One of the greatest benefits of coaching, which I have experienced firsthand, is helping you continue to take constructive action in spite of the fear, doubt or guilt. The accountability that comes with coaching and the strength and courage you experience when a coach believes in you, even when you doubt yourself, can be the key difference in whether or not you break free from your mind’s dysfunctional programming. Coaches can also be invaluable in helping you discover your true self and developing constructive ways of thinking and behaving so you can really “grow your acorn.”
Has it been a smooth road?
I can honestly say starting The Coaching Connector has been a major growing and learning experience for me personally. As with any major startup company, there have been many challenges and struggles along the way. For example, we still continue to seek funding to help us get to the next stage of growth and have learned some difficult lessons about finding quality team members whom you can actually trust and depend upon. We’ve also had our share of technical/logistic difficulties.
Continuing to press on despite the challenges and obstacles has certainly been a test of mental fortitude. If it weren’t for the fact that I have such a strong genuine passion for doing what I’m doing and a belief that it’s what I’m truly meant to do, I could not have persevered through all the struggles. I also owe much credit for my perseverance to my business mentor Ron G. Holland. Ron relates building The Coaching Connector to climbing Mount Everest – even though conditions may be harsh and supplies minimal, the way forward to the summit is simply to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a phrase I find myself repeating to myself on a daily basis.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Grow Beyond Your Mind and The Coaching Connector story. Tell us more about the business.
At The Coaching Connector, we are striving to go far beyond being just another directory of coaches. Our vision is to create a rich community and comprehensive portal for coaches and any individuals interested in business development or personal growth. We are very excited that, despite being in our early stages of growth, we already have over 600 talented coaches in our community from several different countries across the globe and are adding more everyday.
One of the things we take most pride in at The Coaching Connector is our strong emphasize on providing high quality engaging content that helps increase the public’s awareness and utilization of coaching. With each article, we strive to teach, inspire, introduce a different perspective or plant a seed for change. In essence, the goal with our content is to serve as a PR firm for the entire field of Coaching.
Part of our vision also involves creating a major vehicle for coaches to exponentially increase their ability to effectively market their products and connect with potential clients. We believe some of the best ways for coaches to introduce themselves to potential clients, in addition to content, is through products such as books, assessment tools, e-courses and workshops and we aspire to create a global platform for coaches to do just that.
In order for the field of coaching to continue to grow and gain greater and greater credibility, it’s important for coaches to continuously strive for professional excellence.
With that in mind, we also aim to provide coaches a rich community to develop professionally through high level trainings, tools/resources and opportunities for collaboration with other leaders in the field.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We are very excited about the tremendous growth that is taking place in the professional coaching industry. The 2016 Global Coaching Study conducted by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) estimates that there are now approximately 53,000 professional coaches worldwide up from 41,300 in 2011 (ICF Global Coaching Study, 2011).
The Coaching Connector seeks to be a thought leader in the field and harness the power of technology, strategic alliances and the Internet to help make coaching explode worldwide. Our goal is to be a major player to help make coaching a household word within the next 5-10 years so that when executives seek to get to the next level professionally, entrepreneurs start businesses and individuals desire to live more ideal lives, they automatically think of harnessing the power of coaching to do just that.
Contact Info:
- Address: 416 Boston Post Road
- Website: www.thecoachingconnector.com
- Phone: 1 978 261 7095
- Email: lisa@thecoachingconnector.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Coaching-Connector-1731773920377044/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/coachconnector
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/12899676/
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