Lisa Lukretia Fischer is an accredited professional coach who specialises in working with entrepreneurs – supporting them to achieve greater business results by building a holistic framework for emotional resilience, mental focus, and consistent productivity. SYB caught up with Lisa to find out more about her coaching business and her plans for the future.
Can you tell us about your background and career to date?
I would love to! My background is quite diverse. I was always involved as a sports coach, starting from a very young age with gymnastics and then rowing. Plus, I also had the pleasure of teaching and tutoring others at school and university, in Germany and abroad, with topics ranging from sports, maths, biology, languages to yoga. I am also a certified yoga practitioner. All the while, I studied environmental engineering and water management in an international context. After my studies, I worked in a consulting and planning office for urban hydrology for a couple of years. In my free time, I am deeply involved in organising some of Europe’s biggest Latin dance festivals.
From there, why and how and did you start your coaching business?
I started my coaching business for a few different reasons. Personally, I think the profession suits my strengths and previous experience very well plus I enjoy communication, uplifting people, and being a mirror for others as well as seeing the direct results of my work. Professionally, I believe that enabling leaders to know how to guide their own lives is very important and makes organisations better over the long run. My focus on mindset, wellbeing and resilience for start-up entrepreneurs came from my deep-seated desire to shift the general public focus towards a more holistic and sustainable work-life balance. If a leader is coming to work stressed, that usually affects the entire organisation and the product or service they offer. So, I believe that prevention is the best medicine.
How do you aim to help clients through your coaching?
Just a small clarification: I dislike the word help, and that is not what I do. I learn as much from my clients as they do from me. It is a partnership that enables creative, thought-provoking processes to take place. It is all about building resourcefulness on all levels and raising individual consciousness. I, as a coach, am here to give my clients a different perspective on themselves, to cheer them up, and ask them empowering questions. So, my coaching is about becoming aware of how you are showing up for yourself and others on a day-to-day basis, whether you are stressed or relaxed. And then modifying your thoughts, feelings, and actions if you are experiencing unpleasant situations in order to have a more pleasant life and reach your goals with ease.
What is your core teaching?
Our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations are all connected, and the world as we perceive is a direct reflection of the former. And it is up to us and our free will to choose what we want to focus on, believe in, and experience. Hence, if we do not like something in our world, if we struggle to reach a goal, or we just want a more satisfying life, it is very effective to bring awareness and curiosity to what you are thinking in the first place and then change that to something helpful. In combination with my background in yoga, I integrate breathwork and chakra openings into my teachings as well.
The main audience for your coaching is female entrepreneurs. Why are they your focus?
To be honest, my niche found me. Maybe because I felt quite isolated as an entrepreneur starting out, or maybe because I believe that female entrepreneurs have something special about them, and I am attracted to their persistence, their optimism, their attitude to service, and their ambition. Now, it has just become very rewarding to coach them because they are already very reflective, curious, open to learn and change, and just fun to work with. Also, it serves my bigger calling to support businesses that make a positive impact in the world, such as alternative therapies, yoga, natural healing methods, etc.
It’s very easy to look at things like wellbeing and productivity from a narrow point of view, but you emphasise taking a more holistic approach. Why, and what does that look like in practice?
I believe that everything is connected. So if you experience difficulties in one area of your life, it usually detracts from the quality of life in all other areas, too. We all know how having a fight with our best friend negatively impacts our focus at work. Hence, for me wellbeing and productivity go together, one affects the other. In my practise, we look at the two factors across your areas of life, such as personal development, spiritual awareness, family, career, fun, relationships, health, finance, and much more. And then we figure out the influencing factors that are negatively impacting your optimal wellbeing and productivity and find ways to eliminate or change them.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
From almost anything. Mainly autobiographies, insane stunt videos on YouTube, people who are intensely dedicated to their craft, and just anything I find beautiful and worthwhile. I also love being in nature and watching animals interact. Most recently, I got interested in graffiti and what it tells me about the “stream of consciousness” of the city I live in.
What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career so far?
I think that coming from a non-academic family, I was just completely confused as to which course to study or what career path to take. I felt very alone in making these decisions, and I had no overview of the options or guidance as to what would fit my interests and strengths. That took me a while to figure out.
What has been your proudest moment to date?
The moment when I decided to stop following what society proclaims as success, making up my own definition of happiness and fulfilment and following that no matter what.
What tips do you have to help people remain focused and build emotional resilience?
I like to work with questions because they give us clarity on why certain things happen repetitively.
So for focus, you could ask yourself: what is pulling my focus away right now and how can I let that go?
For emotional resilience, meaning the ability to bounce back from feeling negative: What am I feeling right now?
Then, if anything unpleasant comes up: If I could choose any emotion, how would I like to feel? How can I embrace and integrate the negative emotion, so that I get to a more pleasant one?
And then I would just listen to what my mind and body tells me. It is about slowly becoming aware of your automatic patterns before you can start dissolving them.
Pro-insider-tip: having fun with it works wonders 😉
What plans do you have for the future?
With the pandemic, I stopped planning that far ahead in the future. I still make a 3–5-year plan, however I see it more as a general guidance now and am way more open to changing it and going with what life presents me as new opportunities. My vision of wanting to build towards a more health-conscious, balanced, enjoyable and peaceful world where people are in tune with themselves is still intact though. For now, I play my part in it by providing coaching and yoga, but who knows what the future may bring.
Visit http://www.lisalukretiafischer.com