Lisa DeMarco

Productivity/Executive Functioning Coach

Less than a year

I was born and raised right down the street in Rhode Island. I moved to MA when I got married.

In my coaching business I help adults who want to have a successful business/career as well as a healthy work-life balance but struggle with focus, organization, time management, and planning projects. My clients are motivated, intelligent and creative but difficulties in these areas hold them back from having the life they really want. Working as a teacher helping students with time management and organization skills led me to begin coaching college students and adults. It is exciting seeing progress in my clients when they learn to apply strategies to stay on task, maintain attention and develop systems for organization and finishing what they start.

They would say that starting by building self awareness around what is holding them back was the key to beginning their journey to success. Once they had that awareness, learning simple tools and strategies have made a tremendous difference in their lives.

The best advice came from my coach Wendy Collier when she said ``never give up, it's who you become in the pursuit of your goals that is really the point.`` I love this because it made me realize there is no success or fail on our journey, it is really all a learning experience. So whenever I come across an obstacle and think about giving up, I remember this advice.

This is a tough question because I really enjoy reading, it's hard to pick one! One of my favorite fiction books is the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. One of my favorite non-fiction books is How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith.

There are so many great organizational tools out there, but one that I really love for projects is Trello. It's great for team projects and I couldn't have survived without this tool when I launched my summit From Frazzled to Finished last year.

I'm so excited about all that's been going on in my business and where I'm heading. I'd have to say launching my summit was a big win. I've never done anything like this before and it turned out to be an amazing 17 day event featuring 25 speakers. Not only was it a great experience but I met so many fabulous women as well!

Great question - I would love to go back to my younger self and give her advice. I was very shy and lacking confidence when I was younger. I would tell her to jump in and do what she really wants and don't worry about anyone else's opinion of her.

I love spending my time with my family and friends and anywhere on a beach is ideal!

I have my black belt in Karate. My children were in karate when they were younger and I decided to give the classes a try and stuck with it to receive my black belt!