** replace with published episode **
Welcome to Ever Better Today: the daily podcast for creating your optimal business, career, or overall life in ten minutes or less. I’m Lisa Conners Vogt, Executive and Leadership Coach and founder of Ever Better Coaching and Consulting. To learn more about me or my work, check out everbetteru.com. Let’s jump in!
This is going to be a daily show, and you're listening to Episode One. When I say daily show, I'm referring to Monday through Friday, and maybe I'll take off a day or two for holidays here and there. But for the most part, when you subscribe to Ever Better Today, you can expect ten minute episodes or less where I'm touching on a particular topic that's of importance to my clients: something I've been discussing with them on a regular basis, something important to me or my family, or something that's been in the news. It could even be a book or a movie; something that's been on my mind. And my goal for each episode is for you to listen and come away inspired, with tips, tricks, techniques and maybe some homework to practice, so that you are working to elevate your life, which might include your business, your career, and your personal relationships.
So here's a little bit of background on me and how I came to be doing the ever better today podcast:
I am living in the DC area, and I have a 22 year old son named Conner. He recently graduated from West Virginia University and launched into his career as a financial services professional, so I'm super proud of him!
I am recently divorced as of November 2021, so you might also hear me reference this transition to a new sort of lifestyle that I'm enjoying creating.
I am from the Rochester, New York area, where I have two brothers, and my third brother lives in Syracuse. They're all sort of in Western New York. I have lots of nieces and nephews in Rochester, and my parents still live there. It's very snowy there these days, so yes, I do enjoy living in Maryland where it's just slightly warmer.
I'm a super active person. I love hiking, biking, exploring new places, and working out at the gym. I love doing Pilates, ao you'll hear me reference that in podcasts as well. And as I said earlier, I'm an executive and leadership coach.
A little over seven years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I did a lot of research into my treatment options. I listened to podcasts to get information about what breast cancer meant and what are the variations of it. What are the different treatments for it? And I spoke to a lot of people.
I also listened to podcasts about different topics that were inspiring to me. They were really a lifeline at times. I would go walking and I would listen to a podcast. If I was in a down mood, I would listen to a podcast and I'd come away with a different mindset.
So I started thinking, “it would be really cool for me to have a podcast of my own.” But I wasn't really thinking about it as a realistic goal. It was just something like a far-off vision. I held podcasters on a pedestal. This was seven years ago, and podcasts were not as prevalent as they are today. I didn't know how to create a podcast. I didn't know any podcasters. It was just sort of a mythical thing off in the future that I might do.
I actually ended up going to a camp called Camp Good Life Project, which is a camp for adults. And it attracts a lot of creative people and entrepreneurs. I went for the first time about six years ago.
The camp was sponsored by Jonathan Fields, who does the podcast, Good Life Project, which I highly recommend. It's one of my favorites.
I ended up going to that camp for four years in a row. It was in upstate New York, and it was set at a children's camp on a lake with lots of activities. At the end of August kids are no longer going to the camp, so they can rent it out to an adult or business group. So Jonathan fields and his crew took over this camp for good life project.
I was fortunate enough to have the idea that I wanted to go to this camp and actually follow through on it. I drove myself to camp, and it was a little bit scary. There's a lot of creative things going on; you can actually do arts and crafts! There's singing and smores making. There's a talent show of people who are extraordinary, and it turned out that there were a lot of podcasters who went to this camp. So this is the first time I actually said out loud to another person that I wanted to become a podcaster. I wanted to create a podcast to inspire people the way I had been inspired when I was going through my Breast cancer journey.
I actually said this out loud during one of the workshops that I went to, and people stood up and applauded me. They applauded the idea that I wanted to become a podcaster. I got the feedback that this wasn't a crazy idea and that this was actually something I could do.
So I started thinking, “alright, maybe I can do this…” Then a day later, I was having a one on one conversation with a guy who was doing a podcast, and he said, “give me your notebook.”
He wrote down in my notebook, “buy this microphone… sign up for this service… do this thing… do this thing,” and he had about five items that I needed to do in order to become a podcaster.
So I started doing it! Fast forward, and I created about 90 episodes of The ever better podcast, with the last episode created about three years ago.
As you listen to Ever Better Today, you’re going to see that it's Season Two of the ever better podcast, which builds on what I'm going to refer to as “season one” of the original, ever better podcast. I am building on top of that as opposed to creating a completely new podcast because I feel like those podcasts and those interviews that I had with people brought a lot of value. That’s the feedback that I get from people who listened to them, even today. And so, Ever Better Today - Season Two is what I'm creating in 2022. I don't know what's going to happen after that, But I'm committing to 2022.
Now, in the original ever better podcast, I would interview people and they would say to me, “You are a coach. I feel like I've been through a really good coaching session.”
At first, I would bat away that idea. I didn't really understand what a coach was, but as I listened to the theme of the podcast and to what people were telling me and investigated coaching, I realized I had always taken a coaching approach to my work. That's how I became a manager at a really young age of 23. I was managing software developers and I didn't understand what they were doing, but I was able to really help that team mesh and become very high-performing. Why? Because I took a coaching approach, which means I don't need to know how to code. I just need to know how to work with the team and bring out the best in each person.
So I became a coach, I started taking coaching clients on the side, I had a full-time job, and I was director of marketing at an insurance company. I was also raising Conner and was married at the time, so I had a very full life.
But this was something that was really important to me. It was calling to me. Eventually, I left that corporate job (that was four years ago), and I became a full-time executive coach. I took that entrepreneurial leap and left the week-to-week paycheck, which was scary. It's a terrifying leap to take. But it wasn't the first time I had taken the entrepreneurial leap, and I'm sure I'll get into that in future episodes. It's just too much detail for today.
So I'll tell you a little bit about who I work with. I work with entrepreneurs who are growing their companies, and I help them to achieve whatever their goal is. Some people want to double or triple the size of their revenue or the number of employees that are working for them, and we really dig into the goal: why it's important to them and how they're going to achieve it. Then I work with them step-by-step.
For the most part, I'm not telling them exactly how to achieve that goal, although I do have a lot of input that tends to be helpful. I am encouraging, and I am helping them to connect the dots and see what might be slowing them down. I'm giving them a different perspective on everything that they're doing in their business and certain things related to their lives.
People refer to me as their business coach, and sometimes they refer to me as their life coach. I also get into health, wellness, mental and physical health, social issues, social relationships, communications with family and friends, and whatever is important to the person.
I know that it makes a difference because I work with clients on a long term basis, and I really see the upward trajectory. I started working with people on a short-term basis, maybe three or four months, and after a while we determined that we wanted to continue working together on a long-term basis. So I really see incredible growth with client after client, and that has been very gratifying to me.
That's why I'm looking forward to sharing more and more tips with you on Ever Better Today. If you want to talk to me about a coaching relationship, please contact me. You can send me an email at Lisa@everbetteru.com, and you can also check out my website at everbetteru.com.
Alright, what are the things that we are going to talk about on the podcast? Let me get a little bit more specific.
An example of a topic might be “creating or maintaining a billion dollar mindset.” Now, what do I mean by that? I could instead say, “creating or maintaining a million dollar mindset.” We used to hear that a person looks like a million bucks today. But I feel like with inflation, a million dollars isn't what it used to be, so we're going to go with a billion dollar mindset.
You might not have a billion dollar net worth yet and you might not strive to be achieving a billion dollar net worth, and that's okay! The mindset and the things that billionaires do are really important and informative if we want to elevate our lives.
Millionaires also have incredible mindsets, and so do people who are growing their companies by $100,000 or $10,000. I'm not judging you based on your net worth, but I want you to be able to achieve a mindset where you can grow your net worth to a billion dollars if that's of importance to you. And if you happen to already have gotten to that level, congratulations! The things that I'm going to share with you will be valuable as well. How do I know that? Because I already work with clients who have billion dollar net worths, and I know that they're finding value in the things that I'm sharing.
Another thing we might talk about is growing your business to the next level, and the next level and the next level…. When you are continuing to work your business and really be mindful about your life, there's always something new to achieve. And that doesn't mean we don’t stop, appreciate, admire, and look at those successes that we've achieved. That's super important! But in order to continue to feel vital, energetic, and charismatic, you want to always have the next goal that you're working towards.
We're going to talk about reframing events, ideas and messages and circumstances to make them work for you. Often people come to me and say, “Oh, this thing happened to me. Oh, it's awful. Why me? Why me? Why me?”
But I'm here to share with you that your circumstances can be turned around so that you can see things in a positive light. I'm not going to bypass tragedy or horrible things that happen in our world. There’s certainly a lot of that going on: racism, sexism, and all the isms that we're dealing with. But there is a way to make a positive difference and reframe what's happening so that we can be a positive contributor to change.
We will also talk about communication, how you can better communicate with your friends, family, co-workers, and perhaps even co-founders. I have a specialty in coaching co-founder teams: these are people who have founded a company together and are looking at their relationships or how they work together so that they can create a more resilient team, help grow the company, and help achieve their goals in an even more enjoyable way.
We also might get into executive presence. How do you show up for work? How do you show up in your life? How are you showing up to run a meeting and how are you showing up when you're just sitting in a meeting? These are things that we'll talk about.
Something else that comes up with my clients a lot is playing bigger. How can you play a bigger role in your life, business, career, and with your friends, This can involve a lot of different things. It also involves a lot of gender and race dynamics, and we'll touch on that as well.
Ultimately, we want to create the optimal life for you and those around you. I hope this gives you a sense of who I am, where this podcast is going, and why you should subscribe.
If anything that I've said resonates with you or might be inspiring because of my voice, energy, or perspective, then please go ahead and subscribe to the podcast. If you know someone who might appreciate it, please share it with them as well. I invite you to also check out my website, everbetteru.com, and if you'd like to set up a consultation with me or just say hello, send me an email at Lisa@everbetteru.com.
I look forward to speaking with you tomorrow, and I appreciate you listening to Episode One of ever better today!