Overcoming Obstacles with Lisa Olona

How did you take back control?   

I accepted that I was starting from rock bottom.  I got a front desk job at a small tennis club.  This was tough for me because I had a college degree and felt that I didn’t go to school to work at the front desk of a tennis club.  But again, I realized that it was going to take small steps to get to the top of my mountain.  There was a tiny workout room at this tennis club that was no longer being used.  So I cleaned out the workout room, painted the walls, and I made it my workout space to get back into shape and feel good again.  While I was losing weight and getting back into shape, some of the other ladies asked for me to help them get back into shape as well.  This started my fitness coaching journey, and it just built from there.  Two years later I was running my own outdoor fitness boot camp.  It did well, and I continued to work on it and keep building it.  It exploded, and I had over 200 clients, 4 locations, and 3 other trainers.  From that point, I discovered I wanted to link fitness coaching into life coaching, based off of the trials I had overcome in my life.  This is where retreats and my book came into play. 

Did you end up writing that book?   

I did finally write the book, Cross Your Creek: A Determined Woman’s Guide to Becoming Unstoppable.  The title was inspired by one of my transformation retreats.  We went out for a morning hike during the retreat.  When we showed up to our hiking location, we discovered the trail was on the other side of the creek.  This brought up all kinds of mindset issues with the ladies.  Because of these mindset issues, it took us an hour to get across this creek and find our hiking trail.  This is life though.  We start on a path, we know where we want to end up, but then a creek pops up (resistance), and we have to stay determined and create a plan to cross this creek and get to our destination, goals, desires, or dreams. 

What can our readers learn from this? 

Although I would never want to relive the struggle I went through over 20 years ago, I will always be grateful for the compassion, strength, perseverance and faith it developed in me.  I am grateful for the friends that stayed by my side and lent a helping hand when I seemed like a lost cause.  Without them, I wouldn’t be here, with a desire and a passion to help others. 

How can people find out more about how you can help?   

I can be reached through Facebook (Lisa Olona), Instagram (@lisaolona), or my website www.lisaolona.com. 

Luana Ribeira

Luana Ribeira is a best selling author, international speaker and host of business Innovators Radio.