Day 333: Lesa Day

August 29, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… there are two things that will determine where I’m going to be five years from now … and that is the people I meet and the books I read.  When I understand how powerful that influence is and that I actually have some control over that, I discipline myself to put myself in front of people that I feel can influence me in ways that is bigger than mine …”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Lesa, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Lesa Day: Yes, Toni, thank you again for having me.  My name is Lesa Day, and I am originally from the Northeast here in the United States and living now in Atlanta, and I’m an author and a speaker and a parent/family coach.  The title of my book is How To Get Your Child To Say Yes I Can and I Will, and you can contact me and www.yesicanandiwill.com.

Toni: Fantastic.  Thank you, Lesa, and thank you for being here.  Lesa, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does that happen?

Lesa: Well, truthfully, Toni, I hope that I’m one of those people that every day the people that I encounter that I inspire them, just because I really believe in having a positive, upbeat attitude wherever I go.

I think again when we think about people who influence us throughout our lives, I’ve been extremely blessed to have people in my life like John Maxwell and Stephen Covey and all of those great authors that I was able to get exposed to, you know, like 20 years ago and having great leadership like that, so that’s sort of like in me.

My niche area is working with parents and families, because I really have a heart for our youth and really training up our kids to be as independent as possible, and yet really increasing self-esteem while they’re going through that process of growth, no matter what age they’re at, and honing in on what are they really passionate about and understanding their strengths in order to just make themselves better and the world better around them.

Toni: And you do this through coaching?

Lesa: I do.  I do it through coaching — personal coaching as well as offering workshops and also working online.

Toni: When you’re doing this type of work, how do you think that you will help someone to explore their own potential?

Lesa: I try … well, first of all, I try to relay to people whenever I’m communicating with them that all things are possible – it’s just a question of how bad you want it.  I guess I’ve always believed that, because I’m always an adventurous person.  I mean, like 12 years ago, I felt like I needed to go on an exploration journey, and I just hopped in my car and I just traveled for seven months.  That’s priceless, the things that you can learn when you do things like that.  So when you’re doing that in your own life and you’re willing to, you know, step out of your comfort zone, then it’s easy to teach that same type of thing when you’re coaching people.

So when I’m working with them and I’m thinking about their strengths … I even teach like on the personality types, and I’ll bring that into, you know, “Let’s talk about, do you know, you know, sort of why you do the things that you do and how you do them?”  It helps them to be more accepting of their strengths and to really hone in on that and not to feel bad about their weaknesses, because we all have weaknesses.  And then they’re also able to appreciate other people and how they can best work with them.

Toni: So really the inspiration then becomes almost a pay it forward situation, doesn’t it?

Lesa: Yes, and that’s wonderful.

Toni: Yeah.  So, what inspires you?

Lesa: When I see and hear other people’s stories, particularly those that have always stood on a high level of integrity.  I try to surround myself with positive people all the time, because I also understand that as a coach when you are working with people, there’s energy that’s flowing out of you all the time, and if I’m not feeding myself somehow, I’m going to empty out.  I’m going to … I’m going to just dry up, if that makes sense.  Does that make sense, Toni?

Toni: It does, absolutely.

Lesa: So I recall it was a guy by the name of Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, and Charlie’s got to be like in his 80s today, that was a motivational speaker like 30 years ago.  He wrote this great book called Life Is Tremendous, and it stuck with me ever since.

I tell people this all the time, that there are two things that will determine where I’m going to be five years from now, Toni, and that is the people I meet and the books I read.  When I understand how powerful that influence is and that I actually have some control over that, I discipline myself to put myself in front of people that I feel can influence me in ways that is bigger than mine — whether it’s a success level, what they’ve done in their life — because they have the opportunity to share things with me that can help me move forward, and I’m always grateful when I can do that.

Toni: Lesa, have you always shown up to the table that way, that you knew that you wanted to be a positive role model, work with children and parents, but also stay in that positive place?  Have you always been that way, or has this been something that you worked on based on a decision to not be another way?

Lesa: Two things.  One, the idea of inspiring people and sort of being there to nurture, I think, has always been that way, and I didn’t even realize that until many, many years later.  Like if you were to look back into my youth, back in like junior high and high school, I was one of those that the kids always came to for advice.  So that role was sort of there naturally without me even knowing it.

But until I got into my 20s and was in business with men and women that were like old enough to be my parents did I really get that wisdom of how powerful influence is on your life, you know, because whether we like it or not, we think about it.

I mean, you are doing such an awesome project here, Toni, because you are honing in on something that’s positive, motivating, and helping people to be uplifted and to move forward.  But if we just walk out into the world and we just watch what’s going around us, there’s a lot of negativity out there, and we have to search for the positive.

Toni: Thank you for that; and so you are making a conscious choice to search for that positive.

Lesa: Absolutely.

Toni: Do you find … go ahead, go ahead, I’m sorry.

Lesa: And if it’s not … if it’s not like sort of like right there in front of me, I think because my brain has been trained sort of like that all the time now, I’m the one who will speak, you know, the positive into a situation.  What do you mean … like all my kids, if I’m working with kids, know that “I can’t” is not in the vocabulary.  “What do you mean you can’t?  You can do anything that you possibly want to do, if you want it bad enough.  I understand that it’s difficult.  I understand, you know, if you feel like you’re going to do 10 more steps than what you wanted to, but ‘I can’t’ is not an option.”

Toni: I think that’s great.  Do you find yourself … if you need to be inspired, do you find yourself reaching for the same tools and resources?

Lesa: Absolutely.  I’m an avid reader, whether it’s something on leadership or inspiration, I think there’s a balance there.  I think that I need to have a balance of sort of like “how to” in creating self-discipline, and then I also need to be able to have the stories, because that’s part of how we’re wired, you know?

Toni: Absolutely.  So what are you doing now to explore your own potential?

Lesa: Oh, I am doing a lot more marketing when it comes to the teachings and expanding upon that as far as an audience.  I have to tell you that I go back and forth, Toni, with … my niche is the area for parents and families, and that was one of those that just sort of happened.  Me working with agencies all over the country and working with the families didn’t, but the book and that … that just happened.  That wasn’t something that … if you had asked me 10 years ago or 15 years ago was I going to do that?  No, it wasn’t.  I did that because I felt again that was my responsibility with the gift that I’ve been given.

As I traveled throughout the U.S. — and I had already done motivational speaking in my past — I had families coming up to me in communities asking me, “What are you doing with these kids?  Why are we seeing such a significant difference in their behaviors and their attitudes and their self-esteem in a matter of like three weeks, a month, or six weeks?”

My thought process was, Toni, this is just normal to me.  This is just something that I do every day.  And I began to understand that people, they sort of understand what it is that I’m doing, but they don’t know how to do it.  And I’ve sort of had to like have people knock on my door for about five years, Toni, before I was like, okay, I gave in.  It was almost like, “All right, I’m going to write the book – I promise.  I’ll do it.  I’ll do it.”

And you know, there’s transitions that happen in your life and you say “Okay, well I guess now is the time.”  And what happened was, I was in New York.  I was working an hour out of Manhattan, and I was just sort of in a place where I’m like “Okay, I’ve got the time and there isn’t anything really here to distract me,” and I had my book in and out within 12 months.

Toni: Wow.

Lesa: But a lot it has to do with the team, too.  I mean, I think that again, when we talk about influence in our lives, okay, there are people in our lives that are there to be like mentors to us and to use their gifts to help us move forward, and I’ve known that, and I’ve followed that for more than 20 years now in my life.  I don’t hesitate to connect with them.

Whatever it is that I’m doing … if I was writing the book, I had people in my life that I had worked with back in my social work field that, you know, are now working in family mediation and family counseling.  And I had a whole array of people that were just really excited about this project, sort of like yours, Toni, that we’re willing to step in and we’re willing to be a part of this project, because we really believe and understand what it is that you’re doing, and we want to be a part of it.  That’s powerful.

Toni: It is powerful, and you’ve given some very powerful messages here.  You know, it really is a choice to seek out a positive or to stay in a negative or to dwell in the negative, and you’ve made it very clear that you make it a conscious choice to reach for that positive.  And to be able to share that choice and work with using your normal into the coaching world, as you said, I think with something that just makes total sense to you, you’re applying it to children and parents that you work with, and that’s pretty phenomenal stuff.

So Lesa, I’m thrilled that we were able to have you be part of the Get Inspired! Project, and I want people to be able to get ahold of your books or to see your websites, so we will have those links at the bottom of the transcript, and we can’t thank you enough for taking your time out of your schedule to be part of this Project.

Lesa: Thank you, Toni, so much.  It’s my honor, and any time that we can work together, you call me and let me know, and I’m more than happy to assist you.

Toni: Well thank you so much.  Take care of yourself.

Lesa: Thanks, Toni.

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For more information about Lesa Day:  www.yesIcanandIwill.com

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