Struggling with career uncertainty? Lisa Virtue, career and leadership coach, shares how resilience, confidence, and telling your career story effectively can transform your job search. With 20+ years of leadership experience, Lisa empowers women to own their worth, pivot careers, and land dream jobs.
Lisa Virtue knows what it’s like to navigate career uncertainty and financial challenges. Growing up with financial instability, she learned independence early—landing her first job at 14 and building the skills that would shape her future career. Today, Lisa helps professionals—especially women—overcome self-doubt, embrace career transitions, and land roles at top companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon.
In this episode, Lisa shares:
✨ Key Takeaways:
🎧 Tune in now for an inspiring conversation with Lisa Virtue on navigating career transitions with confidence!
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Lisa Virtue
What I realized is my niche people that are in a vulnerable state, either their confidence is shot for some reason, or they've been laid off and now their confidence is shot or they just are struggling in the job search or they're having interviews. They're not landing them and they're not getting job offers.
Those are the people that I help the most. So it's all about telling your career story in a way that's going to captivate and engage your audience.
Narrator
Welcome to Making Change With Your Money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves.
Now, here's your host, certified financial planner, Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
So I am so excited to have as my guest today, Lisa Virtue with the tagline, I make people cry happy tears. Lisa brings a unique blend of experience credentials. and holistic care to her career coaching. Her passion for helping women get the support they need to land their ideal jobs and thrive in their careers, so that they can thrive in life, led Lisa to found her career studio.
Lisa's coaching has helped countless individuals land prestigious roles in companies like Google, Meta, Amazon. Amazon and Microsoft her approach is all about nurturing and guiding clients to thrive personally and professionally by achieving their goals. So welcome Lisa to the making change with your money podcast.
Lisa Virtue
Thank you so much for having me Laura. I love the name of your podcast even making change with money. So thank you. Yes, I'm glad to be here.
Laura Rotter
It'll be interesting to see where this conversation takes us. I will start with the question I always start with, which was, what was money like in your family growing up, Lisa?
Lisa Virtue
So growing up with money, one of the memories that comes to mind is there were times it was very inconsistent. There was not a lot of saving going on. There's a lot of strapped for cash. My dad was finishing college when he had my older brother. And so our family began while he was getting his degree.
And I think he was the first in his family to get a college education because both sides of my family come from farming backgrounds and dairy farming in particular here in Oregon. And Washington. So when they started their family, it was college students and mom stayed home or did part time jobs like cashier at the local supermarket.
So it was a paycheck to paycheck kind of situation. And then when we were growing up, there was on and off like, Oh yeah, we'll do chores and you'll get 25 cents or 50 cents. Something that really My new, but to start showing you, you earn money by the work you do, right? So that was the money mindset. And the first memory of how that just, it didn't feel like my parents were maybe doing the right decisions all the time with this was when I had earned some money.
And I think I had also earned money outside the home. And so as a preteen and my dad came to my room and said, Hey, you know that money you've been saving up. I need it. And so it was no longer my money. And that was very eye opening for me at the time. Very devastating to, you know, of course, um, you know, you need to help the family out.
We need that money and very strange and kind of felt manipulated. And what came out of all of that too later was that my dad would be very reckless. He would take money and he would go buy marijuana with it, or he would go and do whatever he wanted with it. And so, We were constantly on food stamps, WIC program, free lunches at school, and a lot of that had to do with his kind of reckless behavior around money and also that he was always self medicating.
And so that took resources because he was a contractor and he would have jobs one day and be doing great. And the money's pouring in, but it wasn't consistent. And the next day, you know, the construction industry would be going through a lull in the nineties. They took a big hit. So that inconsistency really affected how money was handled and also kind of the relationship and the money mindset, right.
That we all work on as we get older and realize what that is. I've definitely done a lot of work around. Yeah. The start of it where it all began.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, thanks so much for sharing that Lisa. And certainly as you know, you said preteen to have that experience that never leaves you sense almost of like being violated, like that's my money.
And also, you know, we think of our parents as flawless.
Suddenly becoming aware that, you know, actually there is a little bit of a chink in the armor. There is an issue. Where were you in the birth order?
Lisa Virtue
Second, but oldest girl, oldest girl out of out of five.
Laura Rotter
Big family.
Lisa Virtue
Yeah, so a lot of us and there was a gap. So my mom had a miscarriage after me. And so there's seven years between me and the next three.
So there's 7 to 10 years. My junior. So a lot of babysitting, a lot of working for no money, you know, those chores that we did a little bit of when we were little. As I became a teenager, we weren't paid to do anything. We're just expected to do things.
Laura Rotter
Which is positive and negative, right? The positive is that this is a, you know, we're a family.
We have responsibilities towards each other. And of course, it's a lot of work for now.
Lisa Virtue
Yeah. You know, it's interesting what I've picked apart too is that when I turned 14 at that time, I could get a worker's permit and I turned 14, got that permit, got out of the house and started working for my own money.
No one could take it from me. I'd put it in my bank account to ensure that because I had that other experience, right? When I was younger, if I had cash, but it was so interesting because then all of a sudden it was like, okay, my parents had to figure out babysitting because I had a job. And so they valued that very highly.
But it was also fascinating to think like, probably we could have had a conversation as a family of like, does it make sense for you to go out of the house? Maybe because we'll have to pay over here for daycare, like you could stay and we'll pay you. Like none of that happened. It's really interesting, but I'm grateful, quite frankly, I'm grateful because I got out of the house.
I got to start doing those things that, you know, you feel really independent with and money and women and girls and independence, right? That's so important.
Laura Rotter
And I'm hearing you are quite a mature, responsible young person. I don't even want to say young adults at 14, but to a bank account and that our money stories do provide, do act as catalysts, perhaps for us to push ourselves to do things that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise done.
Very interesting. So then where did you go from 14 on? Was there an expectation that you were going to go to college, given the scarcity mines?
Lisa Virtue
Yeah, I think so. I was a good student. And so it was definitely looking at how will I pay for it with scholarships and grants and otherwise. And. When I did have a scholarship, it's funny, we're just talking about Hawaii because I love to go to Hawaii.
I had a scholarship to a Hawaiian university, but it was private. And being in Oregon, Hawaii is pretty accessible, but it's still expensive to get over there and fly, especially back then. And it was either that or stay in state and Oregon and go to college. That was only about an hour, hour and 15 minutes from my parents home.
And my dad did have a conversation with me then, which was. Hey, if you go to Hawaii, he didn't, you know, they didn't push me to make a decision because those loans would have fallen on my shoulders. It wasn't a matter of them helping me. So that wasn't part of the conversation, but the conversation was, you know, nice looking back of if you're going to go to college in Hawaii, we really just can't help you much.
Right. And it was interesting. That was phrased that way, us helping you. But if you're here close by, you can come home. We can see you more often. And all of that makes sense, which is totally true. I did end up electing to go to Oregon state because I had a lot of scholarships that had to be in state. And it just fiscally made sense, right?
You look at the money and I'm really grateful. I did got my education in four years, but what's also interesting is the fact that my dad said that we can't help you, right? Just those freight, those words. And then fast forward my fourth year, I studied abroad and again, funded all of that myself with all my jobs.
I had multiple jobs going to college and savings. And then there was a credit card involved and gave me a lot of anxiety, but I did it. I called home at one point because of that whole credit card situation, and there was an issue with what the funding from my college promised me and what they were actually able to give me because the summer semester I tagged on to my full semester was considered full time when I left for Italy, but when I got to Italy, they said, Oh no, it's part time.
We can only give you funding for part time education. So I was in Europe at the time difference in school that was, you know, we were traveling around so I couldn't just, we didn't have cell phones back then. I couldn't remember that. I couldn't just call, you know, at any point in the day. So I was emailing the financial aid advisors and I'm so, you know, I'm so sorry.
This is why we say we can't guarantee anything when we meet with you and I said, I came in your office. three times to check on this money situation to make sure before I left, I knew what was going on. So let's just say I was strapped for cash. We're talking thousands of dollars as a college student that I was shorted what I thought was coming in.
And so at one point for the rent, cause then I went up to Norway for the full semester, right after Italy for the rent, I was starting to feel The squeeze of not having cash, and I had to pay cash for that, so I didn't know what I was going to do. And it couldn't work while I was there. Didn't even know where to look for, you know, work anyway.
Called my parents. Sure. Maybe they can help me. I'm talking like 200, right? It's not like I was talking the thousands. I just needed a little bit to really get me through that last month or so. And my dad. Said, sorry, sweetie. We can't help you. Really? So here I am in Europe away from my home. I've been gone five and a half months at that point.
Just feeling like, wow, what happened to that? If you stay close, we can help you.
Laura Rotter
We can help, yeah.
Lisa Virtue
And the only, that's the only time I ever asked my parents for money.
Laura Rotter
You certainly had a clear message.
Lisa Virtue
And it was a no.
Laura Rotter
How did you come up with the 200?
Lisa Virtue
So I took that credit card and I took cash out and I paid the interest on it.
It was tough, but I sucked it up and I just, yeah, when I got back home, I,
Laura Rotter
So, what did you do? What did you major in college? What, what did you think you were?
Lisa Virtue
So, international business. I knew I wanted to go into business. I had a fascination with that. I won an award in state at that time. Competition about creating a business plan when I was in high school. So went into business, didn't know what that would look like.
The entrepreneurship always had a tug at my heart and pull. And my grandma also was an entrepreneur. So as my father, not the best example all the time, right? So we talked about, he said, had some other demons he was always dealing with. Um, so went to school for business. In particular, and then on the international side, I love to travel and love culture and learning about people.
So I created my own minor, which my, I worked in the college advising office, the business college advising office and thank goodness. I did. Because when I pitched my minor, my advisor said. I'm only approving this because it's you. And I created this custom minor, which was, um, cross cultural communication.
Cause what I had done along the way is took on a lot of different electives of different languages and even sign language and also women's studies and different things that focused on any kind of interpersonal relationships or language between cultures. And I had studied abroad and all of that. So I put it all together.
I thought in a beautiful, pretty package, which she said this probably would not fly. But goodness, it's you, you know, you got a little bit of a case here, I'll approve it. But that just shows you kind of where my heart and my tug was always on the people side of it all. And so after college, my parents were getting divorced, actually the month that I was graduating, all of that happened.
So that changed quite a bit of what my life was. Theory of what I would do after college would be and during college, I was in athletics and teaching swim lessons and, um, doing fitness classes. And so I had been on the athletic fitness side and doing some administration and those facilities that I worked.
And so after I had moved home with my mom to help her through the divorce and all of that, I had started getting into some more corporate jobs, did some things locally where I could. Um, but none of it felt good and it was all these old boys clubs and things that I just was like, this is not for me. So I got back into aquatics in particular and started my management career then.
So started 23 years old. 22 years old, started as a manager and I was director title, but it was really a management within a school setting. It was in there where we, it was a private swimming pool and kids club. It was called. Um, and so we had all sorts of kids youth programs. And so I ran the pool and the aquatic center and built all their programs up and.
Doubled their numbers very quickly. And so from there, I said, Ooh, I got a knack for this. And it's really fun. You know, I love it. I love it too. And working with the kids and the adults and the parents. And then from there ended up in San Diego to build an entire team from scratch at A pool, but a fitness center and we also were in the amusement.
We were literally in an amusement park Belmont Park in San Diego and had the artificial waves that you surf on. So we're in the tourist industry too. And so I was helping create all of those programs and trainings for the staff. And so. Really started, you know, from Vancouver, Washington, down to San Diego, figuring out how to build teams, how to recruit teams.
And then at the same time, the programming, the development, the marketing, you know, all of it. Finance got on the team, the executive team about financial direction because I got promoted to assistant general manager there. And yeah, everything about business. I just, I liked all the different pieces. So I think it was like, yeah, sure.
Put me in coach. I'll do that too. I'll learn this, you know? And when you're 24, 25, you're like, I can do anything working way too much.
Laura Rotter
I will say Lisa, not every 24, 25 year old, especially women with imposter syndrome and everything else has the confidence. I mean, even forget about the capability, but Confidence to step into a role like that, which, you know, I'm going to reiterate in the same way you figured out how to open a bank account and find a job when you were 14.
Lisa Virtue
I mean, at that point, I was 10 years into my working life. Right? So for me, it was just. Here I am, I show up, I'm going to do it and I'm excited to do it. So yeah, then probably a lot of that starts with the money story, right? I'm going to work hard because I'm going to get resources and then I'm going to be able to travel.
I'm going to live my life. I'm going to go surfing. I'm going to do those things. I want to do also in addition to the career, which I was definitely working more than probably I even needed to, right? That's a lot of our, Us that are overambitious do that or have that imposter syndrome because it's not that I didn't have that along the way.
So then you overcompensate sometimes. But at the same time, I always knew it's not just about work. This is about life and like my work gives me the resources to have that life.
Laura Rotter
And I do think people. Who grow up with the sense of scarcity. I've, you know, often look back on how I grew up at one sister and at the time I didn't, you know, the world wasn't the way it is now.
You didn't have, you didn't see the kind of mega wealth. So I never had that kind of aspiration. I never really felt that I. Had imbibed a sense of scarcity, except that my sister and I both became the primary breadwinners of our family. So there was something communicated there that we don't want to have to choose which bill to pay.
And I'm also still commenting Lisa, not only on your confidence, but you know, your executive functioning skills that you could walk in and take on all these different roles and feel, where do you think that's from that you just had? This sense of, I guess, some centeredness to be able to take on that kind of level of responsibility at a young age.
Lisa Virtue
I think really it attributes to my mentors because there was enough. Um, in our home where it was a lot of like you get put down and you kind of feel beat up a lot. That was going on too with emotional challenges and you can say abuse at certain levels. But I got out of the house early, right? I got, I went and found a job.
I was doing athletics. I contribute a ton of that to my athletic career in high school. Water polo became the water polo captain, swimming, you know, all those things. And then I went back into that world. And so I was back with my network and the people that. I just kind of fed off of for that confidence.
I think being around the people and the energy that helps with that, I think helped me certainly in starting out my career and my management career in leadership. You know, I learned a lot along the way, made a ton of mistakes as we all do, especially when you're young, but at the same time, my heart was in it.
So nothing catastrophic. So then my confidence built because then it was like, Oh, that went well, right? Because I was Very fortunate. I also had to make a huge move. The Pacific Northwest at that time, especially, and even now, it's very difficult in athletics and in aquatics in particular to find a full time job that's going to give you benefits because there's indoor pools, but they're all government owned.
People stay in those roles for their entire career. They're not going to leave. And so at that point, this was before a lot of boomers and things were retiring. There weren't a lot of opportunity for that. So I had to look like Southern California, Florida. Those are the places that have those opportunities.
So I ended up in Southern California. So my husband and I got married on a Friday night, packed our U Haul that day, and then Saturday morning moved and drove to San Diego from Portland, Oregon. So That was a big deal, knew a couple people a little bit down there, but I didn't have a network or a community.
And I think that's also why I poured my heart and soul into the work and the team, you know, because of the nature of the business we were in, the team was pretty young. So it was people around my same age too. So I found like an environment where we were all just working hard and then playing hard. And I think that's really important.
Find that right fit.
Laura Rotter
Yeah, I think working when you're in your 20s, it really is all about, well, in every age, it's about who you're working with. If you don't have a good manager, I don't care what the role is. It's not going to be a good position and when you're young, you don't have kids. You don't have other responsibilities.
You go out drinking after work. There's just the social aspect of work is so important. Also, I'm wondering, Lisa, I don't know. There's a way in which we all live in our heads. Do you think having I'm going to refer to it as an embodied practice? I mean, the fact that you were an athlete that you did that help grow your confidence?
Do you sometimes wonder about that?
Lisa Virtue
I think so. Like I was saying, I think just athletics for girls in general, if they're drawn to that or any kind of extracurricular activity where you find like there's a passion for it and you want to work hard to do it, the more that we can cultivate that and also support our children in that.
And I, you know, I used to think you want to hear about. Ambition. When I was 11, I was getting on the public bus and driving five miles on the bus by myself to get to swim practice. And I had to have those paper tickets. You talk about stress, like if they would get wet, cause it's a return ride home too, right?
If it would get wet and they can't read the date on it anymore. Cause I was at a swimming pool. Doing practice as an 11 year old, I was like, Oh, how am I going to get on the bus? You know? So those things just, you build that resilience and you take those risks. And I think that helped me too. So starting at the ripe age of 11, being very independent, I think really helped me.
And my parents allowed that and they encouraged it. And they, you know, my dad even told my brother and I, like, if you want to go do that sport, fantastic. We'll support you from here. Get yourself to practice, get yourself to tryouts, you know, um, and then in high school, I had to work in the athletics office so that I could afford sports.
And that's the other part. If we talk about money and mindset, there are ways, even if there's high fees to do athletics in your high school, there's ways to get a scholarship. There's ways to get people to help you, but you have to be willing to work for it.
Laura Rotter
So I'm hearing you say that. You were always interested in the people side, and I know now you're doing leadership coaching.
How did your roles grow the qualities that you have that led you to be more of a leader? I'm hesitating as I'm asking because you've already been a leader of yourself from a young age. It's very clear, but how did that evolve to be a leader of others?
Lisa Virtue
Part of it was that every role I had a supervisor, and this is going back to mentors, so many great mentors so privileged to have, would look at me and say, Hey, I need someone to lock up the building at night.
Here's the keys. Right? Going back to, even when I was 14, I was going to say, and you were 14. I mean, come on, who gives 14 year old keys to lock up? They're just like, Oh, you can handle it. Right? Here's the alarm code. Whoa. Okay. So people trusted you. Yeah. There was a lot of trust there. I think. And I did even from a young age, people would say, like, you, you appear or present like you're a couple years older, right?
There's and I was tall. So that helped just come across like, yes, my height helped, I think. So there was a lot of. Just opportunity presented itself, and I would say yes, and I will also say that that saying no is something I've had to work on and figure out how to do, especially as you get older and too many opportunities present themselves right?
We're not the right ones. And you're you got to figure out that gut. Instinct and all of that too, that I really help my clients figure out when they're going through challenge and change. And okay, here's an opportunity or I need to find an opportunity. How do I even go about it? Like really understanding yourself and doing that introspective work.
It's actually what I started doing when I was playing water polo in high school, didn't even realize it. And so this pattern of kind of what I was gravitating towards, I realized as I worked with a coach in my late thirties, figuring out, okay, I've had my daughter, we're a family, my husband, now I'm not the only breadwinner anymore or the primary.
Cause I had that too. Early on in our career, we moved literally for my job. And so my husband was always kind of playing catch up to try and figure out what was going to be his career path. Once we were there and it wasn't such a desperate feeling of, I've got to make all the money and we had a family, it's like, okay, I want to, now I've got some head space to go.
I know I don't want to do this forever. And I always had a side business, always had a side business going on, um, either a photography because of the people. People photography, or we had a bookkeeping business where I helped small businesses get online into the cloud when that was new, you know, so always trying to keep up with technology and help out other people.
Now it's like the gig economy. That's basically what I was part of. And then being a leader at my jobs. Back to when I was 16, I'll go back to, I've always been a coach. So when I was 16, I had some younger water polo players that were good friends of mine and they're the twins. And they were just struggling with some headspace and mindset around the game.
And I was like, Oh, I got to get them ready for this game. Right. And they had such natural raw talent, but now it's the mindset, which any athlete, like we're just coming off the Olympics. It's all you're going to talk about is mindset makes the difference. And so we knew that as kids, I mean, I was 16, still a kid, I just remember being in the pool and staying there and talking to them and one of them was having a rough day.
And so she was sharing with me and people have always shared with me very vulnerable moments. That's something too that's been kind of a natural thing for me. And so she was sharing a vulnerable moment with me and I just had her do a visualization exercise, which kills me to this day because I had no idea what that, I didn't know that was what I was doing.
I just said, let's imagine. So strong imagination did that with my younger siblings too. And I would babysit them like, let's play imagination games. Cause I knew it, it always led to results, right? So I experimented as a very young child. With others like children and just, I started kind of that leached into my adult practices and leadership and like, let's imagine, imagine this.
Let's, you know, manifest is really where we ended up going with like, now my daughter is a beautiful manifester. She's nine now and she's like manifest everything. It's incredible. I'm like, wait, just keep, at first my husband and I like, she's going to be so disappointed someday because people just keep giving her stuff.
And then at one point we went. Why is that a bad thing? She can be one of those people that just gets what she wants. Like, let's let her have that, you know, life's tough enough anyway. Um, so the 16 year old in me just knew that she needed something to visualize and imagine for her future. And so we did that exercise.
What she ended up visualizing was exactly what ended up happening a few years later. She and her sister got 70 percent rides to Stanford University for water polo, and they got to be in that sunny California environment, which is exactly what she had visualized when we were talking about. Imagine, you know, you get to do whatever you want in college.
Where would you go? What would that look like? And are you playing water polo? And yeah, I am. And I'm seeing the sunshine. Anyway, she painted this beautiful picture, and then they ended up there. And that was really cool. So, uh, That also started me understanding some of the human psyche and like psychology was always really interesting to me, but more so neuroscience and figuring out how is this brain working and a lot of that too, I think goes back to my childhood.
The mental state people were in, some mental disorders we've discovered people had been undiagnosed with, um, and now have been diagnosed. And so all of that too makes me really interested because it's so close to home, literally in my home that I wanted to understand what's going on in that brain. So why do we do those things?
You know, what's going on with our amygdala? Why is it stressing out so much? Yeah. That's where it all started.
Laura Rotter
So when you say where it all started, so you were, you know, working coaching athletic teams, and then you had a daughter. And so sort of how did the transition happen to code to. Life coaching, if you will, career coach rather than athletic coach.
Lisa Virtue
I've had been doing it all along and not even realizing it. And then when I got to work with coaches, because I was making my way to the executive suite at an organization I was working for. And I had some great mentors. An athletic organization? It was a private social club that has athletics as the primary focus.
Yeah. Okay. And so, yep. I was in administration and management on that side of it and coaching coaches and helping them development professionally develop and all of that. The idea and concept of career coaching for me came up throughout that time. And then going into these interviews, I had never interviewed for an executive role.
I don't know what that interview looks like. Like, I want to get support and help to prepare for that. So I hired coaches. And then when I got the executive role, I hired a coach so I could be successful in it. And I even had a mentor who was great. Good mentor, by the way, will tell you like when to hire a coach, right?
Because they know that that's not necessarily the role they're going to play for you. They're going to be your mentor. And there's very different roles to that. And she said, you know, with your professional development fund, you should hire a coach. I found that this is like the game changer for me and my career.
And so I think it feels like that's what you could use too. And she was right. I found a great coach and I was looking for someone who was female focused and women in the workplace. And back then this was 2018, 2017, 2018. You couldn't find that. Very easily. Isn't that interesting? I just wanted someone who is like, I work with women and I want to empower women at work.
And back then, now there's a lot more of us that are doing this, but you just couldn't really find that. I was so fascinated. But I found her. She's fabulous. And we did a lot of that soul searching work. Like, what do I want to do? What clarity work, right? What do I want to do when I'm not doing this anymore?
Because I know I knew about that point. Every role I had was three and a half years average that I moved on and that starter, see the entrepreneur in me, right? I'm a starter, instigator, get it going. But then once the wheels were flowing really well, I would literally fall asleep at my desk. I can't do this anymore.
I gotta go and move and shake and do something else. And so I was at that institution though for nine years, but in three different roles. So it was always moving.
Laura Rotter
Lovely said that you were able to identify that pattern because I think most of us repeat patterns in our lives, obviously with a little different twist, but over and over and it's, and because there's always something different or like, well, but that job had a bad manager or this job had a bad commute, you know, that we often don't want to identify the patterns because once you identify them and see that you're stuck with them, it.
It's not always so easy to get out of it. So I applaud you for no pattern in yourself. So what would you do differently? Like, what do you know now, having gone through this, that you might that you wish you're. You knew when you started the journey.
Laura Rotter
Well, here's the big mistake I made
and it's financial. So it's perfect.
So I got a little impatient. Clearly, that's my personality. You're a doer. Yeah, exactly. And I wanted to help I knew I wanted to do career coaching after that 30 to 60 days I had spent like soul searching at eight business plans. My husband's like, whoa, whoa. So I'm like, really need to focus this. That's great.
He's like, I thought you were going to take a break. And I said, this is a break. This is great for my soul. And what ended up happening was I knew I wanted to be a career coach, but I also knew I wanted more tools in my tool belt and to build a network around that before I really launched anything. So that fall I joined a program that's fantastic, really well worth the money and the community and network I have now from it.
Laura Rotter
And the experience is amazing. So really glad I did that coaching program.
Lisa Virtue
Yep. And so I knew I'd be a career coach and specifically like a career coach. That's also a consultant. So not just life coaching, but also with job search, like doing resumes, helping with cover letters, interview prep, and telling people like, here's best practice in this space, right?
So that's very different than pure life coaching. But I did also get my life coaching certifications. I've got a lot of credentials, of course, with everything. But while I was doing that program, I took on a couple of clients because that was part of it too. As you take on some clients that just pay a minimal amount of money, but then you're learning as you're going and they know that you're in the program too.
So that was. Great, because you need to be really doing it to know it, right? I decided it wasn't enough for me to take just a class. And with those couple of clients, I'm going to open an online boutique because all my friends that are female makers don't have anywhere to sell their goods. And they need to be able to sell the goods while everything's in lockdown, especially in the Northwest.
We were locked down for a very extended time. And so I decided I can do this. I'm very tech savvy and I taught myself online boutique, did marketing, spent a lot of money. And the problem I did was I ended up doing a combination of. Commission where I had makers like, okay, I'll split commission with you, but I'll do all of the, the boutique and the marketing and everything of your product.
Also get your brand out there and then it's just a commission basis. And if I don't sell the product and I shut down or whatever, I give you the product back. Right. But I also ended up buying some product. Cause I got excited about some platforms out there at wholesale to help all these female makers.
And I wanted to make gift boutiques, gift boxes. And when I put all these different things and I themed the boxes, I just went too far with it. And I got so excited about gifting to everyone that I spent way too much money on that. And the money was in my 401k that I spent. And therein is the mistake. I wish I had not made because I could have done a lower lift with it.
I still could have done it. And it was fun. And I, my daughter got to help me and that was the best part. She got to tangibly see what we were doing and supporting these women and everything. But I really caution people and especially people that are like in their retirement years. Cause I heard from the people I worked with on how to do that.
That's the primary demographic. If someone retires, they have a 401k account. They're like, I want to go buy this bed and breakfast. Which is usually a money loser, right? And so they invest all their 401k so they can get the property and then they end up losing that money. Well, I ended up losing a lot of money and I was young, younger, not young enough, but I regret that part because I, I depleted too many of my funds helping women.
I don't feel bad about who I supported, but I didn't do it in a business savvy way. I was very much leaning too much with my The stress in my heart and that time right in the time period and the passion and so definitely regret that because looking back, I'm like, Oh my gosh, that was so much money that I ended up just donating quite frankly, because I had to donate a lot of the goods later.
But yeah, I cut that. Offer myself once I saw the career coaching really was what I needed to be doing and I can't do it all and…
Laura Rotter
Having too many things that and I've heard this from other guests that if you choose, well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Then nothing gets 100 percent of your exactly.
Just ends up being diluted. Well, thank you for sharing what, what was a learning experience for sure. So you started your coaching in 2021,
Lisa Virtue
2021, well, really 2020, but 2021 was like full blown had a whole book of clients and yeah, I got going with that. And then I've worked a contract with organizations as well.
And I work with outplacement agencies. So at this point, Plus I've trained hundreds of people on different sessions, um, at this point, hundreds of people, if not, I might be into the thousands. Now, I need to go back and see with all those trainings that I've done
Laura Rotter
And who's, who's your favorite kind of person to work with Lisa? And then after you answer that, how do you work with people? It sounds like you have various ways, but
Lisa Virtue
It's really. My younger self that I love to work with. So women that are entering their thirties into their mid thirties. So kind of I say it's 28 ish because they've had some work experience there in their career.
They know the ins and outs of like what even corporate looks like at this point and they know they want more. or they want to shift. So career transitions where people are just going, I am not being respected or I'm not getting opportunity where I am and I want to change that. Or there is an opportunity internally, but I need help.
Like I was, how do I get that opportunity and really show that I'm the person I'm ready for it. And I'm the person there. So yeah, 28 to 35 is kind of my sweet spot. Although we always say what our niche is, right. And then people find me. So then I have to say really my ideal client. Is good people that know that there's more to life than just work, but they also respect the work.
There's a lot of people out there, especially in the younger generation that. You know, like the lazy girl, lazy girl jobs and stuff where it's just like, Ugh, I have to have a job. Uh, those aren't my ideal clients because I'm not there to just get people jobs that you can go pay someone a lot less to just write a quick resume for you and you know, good luck.
You know, that kind of thing. It's, I'm there to really support and partner with my clients and help them through those vulnerable moments, which is what I've realized is my niche. People that are in a vulnerable state, either their confidence is shot for some reason, or they've been laid off, and now their confidence is shot, or they just are struggling in the job search, or they're having interviews, but they're not landing them, and they're not getting job offers.
Those are the people that I help the most. So it's all about telling your career story in a way that's going to captivate people. And engage your audience and also how to negotiate was just on a call right before this, helping a client with negotiation. And I always one of my favorite times. It's very exciting, right?
Because you've got an offer. Thank goodness. Now we have a new problem. How do we negotiate this offer?
Laura Rotter
How do we get the best offer? Because, right, that's when you have the most leverage in the position, not when you're there. Yeah.
Lisa Virtue
And so helping women in particular. Negotiate those salaries, right? We're talking about money today.
So it's very, I've always been comfortable talking about it. Most people are not. So having somebody to help you. Okay, I need to craft a story and say something in that moment of how do I not leave any money on the table? That's what I help people with too.
Laura Rotter
Exactly. And how do you not leave money on the table while also making it clear that you are interested in the position, that you're excited, that it's not just about the money.
Right. And it's also important to feel well compensated. And I appreciate Lisa, you, you know, explaining your niche and really who, who you really enjoy working with. I'm. Because it's resonating with me that I often say I work with women in midlife and I work with a lot of men in midlife and I work with a lot of couples in a midlife transition and what it really is similar to how you stated is it's people who are interested in understanding what it is they want that they're using money as a proxy for.
If people come to me and it's just like. Make me a lot of money or make, you know, there are plenty of financial advisors that will promise performance and, and just focus on growing the money. And I am much more interested in who are you? What do you value? What is your life about? What do you want to use the money for?
Lisa Virtue
Yes. Oh my gosh, that's so similar to me because it's, what do you want to get out of life with this job? Right? Yeah, exactly. It's not just about the job. It's we're partners for your livelihood, right? And that's very different than just going through the motions and checking boxes.
Lisa Virtue
So as we're getting towards the end of our conversation, have you thought about your definition of success and how it might have shifted over this and this period of time with you really is almost since age 14 because you were a very direct young person. Not everyone was as directed at that point.
Lisa Virtue
Yeah. It's a great question. The way it's shifted for me is that now I feel blessed and I have the luxury to think about things like I was able to quit my job, right?
I was able to quit my job, figure it out. And I have more trust that we'll figure it out as a family. Then that 14 year old where it was. I've got to get school clothes. I better work a few more shifts so I can pay for them. Very different. So it was never, I was never working so that I can have a big house.
So it was never working for material things. I definitely wanted to travel and I did right in college and still try to whenever I can and want my daughter to have those experiences. But now it's much more about, I understand that when I put my soul and my passion first, the money will come. And back then it was more like opportunity.
Yes. I must do it because scarcity mindset opportunity is going to go away, or I'm, I might not find a job or whatever that underlying subconscious belief was. And now I understand that we have more control than we think we do. And our mindset is so powerful. And like I said, when you lead with purpose and Mission, the opportunities will find you a lot of times.
Laura Rotter
So can I extrapolate from that, that Lisa, you have some sense that you're my words, but I'm sure you can follow that you're co creating with the universe that you're not just doing this alone. Is there sort of a role that spirituality, if you will, plays? And all this for you.
Lisa Virtue
Yeah, I definitely believe I call it the universe.
I don't know what it looks like. I don't subscribe to a one belief system, but I definitely know there's more at play or I, I believe that I shouldn't say I know that because I don't know that that's what I'm saying, but I have a belief in an underlying sense. Like my intuition is very strong. My husband's is not and we have learned as a couple over the years.
If I have an intuitive pull. We need to really pay attention to it. And at the same time, he's started to trust his more. And so it's fascinating this, what we learned from each other. And if I need a logical, like, let's sit down and kind of brainstorm about something, but I want to really pick it apart logically and I go to him.
Right. And so finding those people in your life that you can partner with and we'll subsidize what you're doing. I think that's part of the spirituality because I believe people come into our lives when we need them. Either to teach us a lesson or because we need their support. And so I think that's the universe too.
There's a, there's some kind of push and pull. And it's interesting. You're asking me that right now too, because we're about to start foster care with kiddos that need homes and talk about vulnerable population, having a safe place for them. This is something that we're about to embark on and it's. Since I was an early teenager, I always thought that was in my destiny, that and or adoption.
And so we're going to start looking into all those different things. And there too, it was one of these things like, you know, that you need to do something when you just can't not do it, fighting against it. Constantly, it keeps coming up for you. Even the book I wrote with my daughter, it was that moment that weekend that I sat down and wrote it and it was her words, right?
The book that I wrote is all in her words of her observation of her mom and it was inspired by her. It's not necessarily her exactly. It totally resonated with all the moms during the pandemic because first of all, it's hearing what your daughter or your child is observing during that really tough time.
And so even then it was like, I have to do this. I can't not do it. And so there's something there that whatever you believe in, I do think it's a spiritual element for sure.
Laura Rotter
Thank you for thinking through that with me. What a blessing for anyone who will benefit from what you're considering doing as a family.
And also what a blessing that you and your husband recognize, recognize differences, but respect.
Lisa Virtue
Strengths as opposed to doesn't mean we don't trigger each other, but you know, you're human. Oh, how annoying we can do a whole nother episode on money. We'll bring him on to different. He's a saver.
Laura Rotter
Well, again, something you recognize and I would assume respect about each other or learn or the respect matters.
Respect really does. And it's, as someone who works with couples, it's not always there.
Lisa Virtue
Yeah. And you know, really quick. I just, because you said that in our family, we have three rules. It's respect yourself, respect others and respect things. That's it. If you, everything could be bucketed into those three things.
Laura Rotter
Beautiful.
So as we're ending our conversation, Lisa, is there something else you want to make sure that you share with our listeners?
Lisa Virtue
I would love to share that I also have a podcast. So if you're in that situation, anyone listening that is looking for support on the career side and the work day to day, Her Career Studio, you can find it on any platform.
And I had Laura on. So, wonderful guests like Laura that come on and we talk about specific subjects that are more holistic around your career, but always come back to your work life and how to thrive at work so you can thrive in life. And then from there, I've got free resources too on hercareerstudio.com that I would love to share with anyone, you know, even just a simple resume templates. You don't have to go out there and buy one. You can come and get a free template from us and know how to craft your resume and get a review and all of that. So, Happy to help.
Laura Rotter
Thank you for sharing that Lisa. All of that will of course be in the show notes and I've so enjoyed our conversation.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to making change with your money certified financial planner, Laura Rotter specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook. For a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.