Coach Lisa Stephenson embodies Growmotely’s spirit

Lisa Stephenson – of Invigorate You – is one of the service providers in our Benefits Marketplace. (When you’re a hired remote professional in our platform, not only do you earn a monthly salary, you also accrue benefits dollars that you can spend at our burgeoning marketplace.) She provides her clients with “the tools needed to attain greater fulfilment in life through personal development, self-directed healing, and coaching.”

She also is one of our Perks Partners – which means that anyone who has registered on our platform has access to a (significant) 20% discount on her services.

Reducing Lisa, however, to being simply ‘one of our service providers’ would be a huge mistake. It would be a mistake because in many ways, she completely embodies the spirit of Growmotely, and I might even go as far to say that the life she has chosen to lead is a battle cry for what we believe here at Growmotely.

So – who is Lisa, exactly? And why am I making this bold assertion that she embodies so fully what we believe here at Growmotely?

Born and raised in the north of England, Lisa has chosen to spend the last 15 years of her life in a country on the other side of the world from where she grew up – Australia. (And like me, she has come to a place of understanding that she does not have to choose between any two regions of the world.)

After having worked in a number of charities and organizations in the learning and development and performance and wellbeing space, last year (in 2021) she decided to branch out on her own and create her own coaching business, centered around personal development and self-healing.

Her willingness to look and listen inwards – paired with her passion for remote work and globe-trotting – has made her a natural fit for Growmotely’s ecosystem. Here are the reasons why we draw inspiration from Lisa every day when it comes to what we love most: living at the intersection of conscious culture and behavior and remote work.

⁜ Lisa is all about personal and professional development.

Lisa has been developing herself – and others – in a variety of different areas over the last 20 years. She created Invigorate You because she believes that everyone – with the right guidance and tools – “can be their own coach and healer, and have the ability to step into their true potential, thriving in all aspects of their lives.” She also recently took a step towards her own further academic development by enrolling in a degree program last year at the University of South Australia, studying psychology. (A program that is 100% remote, mind you.) 😊

⁜ Lisa leans into surrendering – rather than ‘driving’ with her ego.

Lisa has found that when she isn’t sure which next step she should take, or when the path forward isn’t completely clear, the best thing that she can do is to trust and surrender...instead of using her ego to try to force an outcome that perhaps isn’t meant to be. In my chat with her recently, Lisa invoked a Steve Jobs quote that I have heard a number of times before and have always appreciated: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” This is what Lisa does – and how she strives to move through the world: trusting that the dots will all connect exactly how they are meant to.

⁜ Lisa has set herself up so that her work is 100% remote.

Lisa went 100% remote in October 2018, and hasn’t looked back since. For Lisa, operating from a place of 100% remote-ness, means that she can follow the nudges that call her to the UK, to Australia, to Thailand, to Bali…and even to Cambodia, which is where she met our Founder and CEO Sarah Hawley in 2019 – on a social impact trip.

⁜ When Lisa started feeling unfilled in her life, she listened, and then took action.

In October 2019, Lisa started to sense that something was off in her life. She wasn’t completely unhappy, but she also wasn’t feeling fulfilled, and she knew that she needed to make some kind of change. She felt like she was on a hamster wheel (not really going anywhere) and when it came to her physical location, she was experiencing a push-pull between Australia and the UK.

She knew that she needed to take action and get realigned, and she felt the pull to plan a trip to an island – either in Thailand or Bali. As she got going on planning the trip however, COVID reared its head, thus stopping her in her tracks, and anchoring her (for the meantime) in Australia. Seeing that she couldn’t change locations as she was hoping to, she focused on listening inwards to what her person was wanting to communicate to her, and she trusted that she would make her island trip when the time was right.

⁜ Lisa is now in the midst of taking a two-month sabbatical (in Thailand) where she is working smartly and focusing on recharging her batteries.

More than two years after she had originally envisioned it, Lisa is now halfway through her two-month stay in Thailand. This week at Rawai Beach, in the province of Phuket, she is focusing on recalibrating, recharging her batteries, and getting ready for the next stage of her life, which will see her spending the summer in the UK, and then back to Australia in October.

What are her plans post-October? Lisa shared with me the following: “It will be about completely surrendering.”

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Here at Growmotely, we are all about living at the intersection of conscious culture and behavior and remote work. We believe that they are deeply interwoven, and we believe in leveraging the outer journey to facilitate our inner journeys, when we are called to do so. We see the Future of Work as a place where – like Lisa – we are able to ping-pong back and forth between two regions of the world if that is what we feel called to do. And we see the Future of Work as a place where we can plan and take two-month sabbaticals – in Thailand (for example – as Lisa has done) – if that is what our person is asking for.

We would love for you to join us – and the incredible Lisa Stephenson (of Invigorate You) – on this journey of discovery. The discovery of our inner worlds. And the discovery of our outer worlds. As above, so below. As within, so without. 🙏🏻💫

Written by: Vanessa Kettner (Growmotely’s Creative Writer and your Remote Work Cupid)
Dedicated to: Lisa Stephenson – It’s such a privilege to know you. ❣️