Stop Trying to Fix Them: How Lisa Richer Helps Neurodivergent Kids Thrive

In this episode of The Passionistas Project Podcast, sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington dive deep into an inspiring conversation with Lisa Richer, a neurodivergent success partner and founder of Journey2Bloom. Lisa shares powerful motivational stories about her journey overcoming childhood anxiety, late diagnosis of ADHD, and other neurodivergent challenges, alongside her elite gymnastics background and how she transformed setbacks into triumphs.

Discover female empowerment tips through Lisa’s insights on advocating for neurodivergent kids and fostering environments where they can truly thrive. This episode highlights women inspiring women by showcasing resilience, courage, and authentic self-expression in the face of adversity.

Join the Passionistas sisterhood to access more empowering stories and practical advice for women seeking growth and empowerment.

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ON THIS EPISODE

[00:34] Meet Lisa Richer

[01:30] Passion and Purpose

[03:01] Childhood Survival Mode

[03:58] Becoming an Elite Gymnast

[05:42] Neurodivergence Revealed

[09:15] Injuries and Identity Shift

[11:07] A Skill Almost Named

[13:18] College and Career Detours

[18:21] Motherhood and Advocacy

[21:28] Why Diagnosis Came Late

[24:52] Anxiety in Competition

[26:08] Vision Challenges on Beam

[27:11] Reframing Regret into Purpose

[28:09] Burnout and Health Crisis

[32:32] Journey2Bloom Origins

[35:44] Certifications and Expanding Impact

[39:56] Client Wins and Breakthroughs

[44:56] Collaboration with Schools

[49:05] Contact and Big Dreams

[51:52] Passionistas Sisterhood Outro

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Passionistas: Hi, we're sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington, founders of the Passionistas Project, where we believe that every woman deserves to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Our mission is simple but powerful to give women a platform to tell their unfiltered stories, the stories that inspire challenge, and break the silence around what it really means to follow your Passionistas.

On each episode, we have conversations about courage, authenticity, and the messy, beautiful journey of living life unapologetically for families. Navigating neurodivergence can feel confusing, isolating, and overwhelming. Today's guest is Lisa Richer, a neurodivergent success partner who helps students, athletes, and families.

Move from feeling struck to thriving through her clarity, confidence, courage, journey map. She's helping families, educators, and professionals transform frustration and overwhelm into confidence, connection, and advocacy. So please welcome Lisa. We're so excited to have you here today. We have so much to talk about.

Lisa: Thank you. And I was like listening. Wow. That's a mouthful. Maybe I should streamline that a little bit. But thank you very much. I'm excited to be here too. It's, uh, I always love. Lifting up one another as female leaders, even though I work with everybody. Um, but everything I do is through that lens of neurodiversity.

So that, that's my lens is neurodiversity.

Passionistas: Yeah. And what are you most passionate about?

Lisa: I uh, gosh. Um, what am I most passionate about? That's a great question because I could go in so many angles, but if I, if I need to sum it up, which is always hard for me and I write things down 'cause I'll go all over the place. What I'm most passionate about is helping others bridge the gaps and connect the dots from the unknown unknowns into something that can help them transform.

So whatever pathway that looks like for them, that is what I'm most passionate about. So meeting them where they are and then moving through that process.

Passionistas: And where does that passion come from?

Lisa: Uh, it comes from not having the people, the support system, the foundation, and the scaffolding throughout most of my life, and having to learn how to navigate it on my own.

Because I was misunderstood, because I was told to be more of or less than, or just do as I say, not as I do. And so with my neuro divergent brain and learning more and more about it, as I've gotten older, you were talking about those unfiltered stories and that messy middle. I've learned to live in that without apology and, and that's what helps me help other people go through that journey too.

Passionistas: So let's take a step back. Where, where did it all start? What, tell us a little bit about your childhood, what you were like, and what some of your interests were back then.

Lisa: I was a very talkative child, um, but also very nervous child, which may not have come out. I know it didn't come out because people would say, you're so confident.

I was like, I really wasn't. Um, I was a child that. Complied with whatever was asked of me. I was the child who was the fixer in the household. I was the one that was put into situations that I've learned as an adult I was never should have been put into as a child to diffuse, to bring people together and to move through.

And so I grew up living in survival mode without even knowing it. Um. I was also a child who was very determined and very athletic. Um, we always joke, we don't know where that came from. I was an elite level athlete. I was a gymnast. We've talked about this, um, for many years. I started out, um, I was, this was four years old at, uh, nursery school, and I remember it was at St.

Andrew's up the street from our house, and somebody taught me a cartwheel. And I went home and I said, mom, I wanna go where she goes. And I uh, they sent me to the gym, parkettes. I went to a Monday tumbling class with a coach who was my very first coach and was pregnant with our triplets and then became one of my elite law coaches too.

It was very interesting. Um, and I went and I was going to the Monday tumbling class, and then one day I decided I don't wanna go. I wanna stay and hang out with my friends in the neighborhood. And then I climbed a trade at the very top where you couldn't see me. So I still needed to do, I was always active.

And then the following week I went back and I never looked back. So growing up, I was Lisa, the gymnast. I missed a lot of school. I traveled all over the world. I met so many people, gained so many experiences, but then I didn't know who I was without being Lisa, the gymnast.

Passionistas: What was it about competing and being Lisa, the gymnast that was motivating to you? What did you like about it?

Lisa: I could be me. I could just be who I am. It was me and the equipment. Nothing was moving. I was in control except Amy. It's interesting you say that because I've learned now. That I wasn't always in control, so late diagnosed A DHD, um, rejection sensitivity to, for dysphoria, um, was diagnosed with, um, anxiety in my twenties, but I never really understood like, eh, you know, don't really, no one really explained to me what that all meant.

Um, but as a middle, middle-aged adult, my younger son was going through a vision therapy and we were getting him trained for a home program. And the vision therapist said, you did say that you were an elite level gymnast. I said, yes. I competed for the US in the eighties. How did you do vault and how did you do like mounts and dismounts on beam and bars?

And I was, I said, what do you mean? And she said, your visual perception, your depth perception is so off. I have no idea how you competed at the elite level. And it was really interesting 'cause even as I say it out loud, I think, wow, I did accomplish things that I should never have been able to accomplish.

But then at the same time I get really mad like, how come I had to go through that? And so, you know, it taught the resilience, but I, I always had trouble with mounts and dismounts because of that debt perception, but I never understood it. So as hard as gymnastics was. I always, I was always able to be me and as tough as my coaches were, they never asked me to do something that I wasn't already stepping into that gym to accomplish.

I may not have loved the way that they showed up and, and engaged with me at times, but different than at home. I was never put in a situation. I never should have been in. At least that's how I felt. Other people might look at my years and former teammates and go, are you sure? That's my story. Um, at home I was often put in positions to fix things, to solve things, and to get in the middle of things.

Um, I never had to be that person in the gym. And, and also as a. As a friend, I always was not sure who to talk to, how to talk to them, what to do. I would get nervous, I would say things that didn't really make sense, that happened in the gym too, but then I could just go to my event and then I didn't have to worry about it anymore.

I could easily shift somewhere else. And then in school, school was hard for me. Um, I used to think it was just because I traveled so much, um, because in elementary school I was doing really well. But what I think it really was was as work got harder, yes, I missed, missed school 'cause I traveled so much, but I also, my neuro differences were starting to really show up, but we didn't understand them back then.

I'm in my fifties and so we didn't know what to do with them. Just like with the visual processing now there are tons of athletes that get. Therapy for visual processing. There's football players, there's, there's all sorts of people. I've been able to even help people in our gym 'cause I've seen what they did and I was like, that was me.

And one of our coaches said that was you, um, what, what is that? And I was able to explain it. So now I can help other athletes, other individuals, other parents, other people through those journeys. But be, but I coming full circle back to. That's why I feel safest like that as a gymnast, I just felt like I could be me until I couldn't because I got hurt.

You know? So then, then it was, now who am I?

Passionistas: Talk about that phase. How did you go from elite athlete to now? Who am I?

Lisa: Uh, well, it started slowly and then continued for years. Um. I made like US national team in 84 and I made it 86 85. I got grandfathered in at championships, but then I got injured and then in 87 I got injured again, and then in 88 fractured my back.

And so, and I had already also fractured 87. I think I had also fractured it. That was my first fracture. I can't remember the timeline anymore. Um, but slowly but surely, I was getting out and out of the elite level. And I also knew my, my dream of 88 Olympics was out the window. 'cause I didn't even go to championships, let alone Olympic trials that year.

Um, and then, um, I dropped down to level nine and 10 just to be able to continue to be able to go to college. But my heart wasn't in it and I wasn't, I wasn't myself in my body and I had groan and I'd gained some weight, but I was forced to go to college and do gymnastics. Um, so through all of those things, the common thread here is I was not afraid to be me first.

I wasn't afraid to be me because of injuries, and then I wasn't for it to be me because I was told I had to go. On my scholarship or I would have to figure out a way to put myself through college. Um, and those are hard things to swallow. Those are things I still have conversations with my parents. They still trigger me.

Um, but I got through it, but not easily. And then I spent the next 20 some years after college figuring out who I was.

Passionistas: Um, before we move off gymnastics, because you told us something in other, another conversation that I think is fascinating and really speaks to, um, the achievements that you had, and that is, you said that I, if I'm, hopefully I'm saying this right. I think you said that had the rules been different back when you were competing, there would have been a move that was named after you.

Lisa: Yes, possibly so when, I don't know what the exact rules are right now, but I was the first person to compete a full and back out off the uneven bars as a dismount before it was in the code of book, the, the book, the Code of rule rule book. I can't remember what it's called right now, but before it was even a skill in the code book.

I competed it successfully and landed it. Um, I went to a meet in Japan, the TBS Cup in 85. Um, it was come from making national team in 84. I went there. And my coach said, because of the guideline of it had to be done internationally. And I think it's that way again, but I think there might've been a time where it wasn't.

'cause I know people that have tricks named after them that weren't international, so I'm not really sure those rules and everything's changed in gymnastics. Very confusing now to me. Um, but I, if I had. Made my release move, I would've done the dismount, but I didn't make my release move, so I didn't do the dismount.

So I didn't have the opportunity to do it internationally, but I was the very first person to ever compete it. Prior to being in the rule book, I successfully did it. And they weren't even sure how to, they didn't, they weren't sure how to score it. Um, so it was a huge accomplishment. There were articles written about me and the local papers where I grew up.

Um, and it was just, it was a. Probably one of the biggest, well, not probably, it was one of the biggest highlights of my, my career. Um, and now it's one of the most common bar dismounts.

Passionistas: That's absolutely incredible. Not many people can say that. Um, so let's talk about, um, your studies. You, you got a BA in English, so talk about. Why you chose after your gymnastic career, why you chose that path and, and what your, uh, education led you into in your career?

Lisa: Yeah. Uh, um, I chose English because I couldn't get through some of the other classes that I went in wanting to be a psychology major and some of those classes with the, uh.

At the time, like the economics and the math pieces, I was really struggling. And so then I was like, oh, I wanna be a, I let me do journalism. And I went into journalism, but I still had to do econ. And I dropped econ twice. And then my advisor said, you may wanna think about another degree just to get through school.

And then I ended up just doing English degree. 'cause I had already had so many classes. I, I have dyscalculia, which I also didn't know until much later in life. And so all those math things were really, really difficult for me. So honestly, it was my quickest way help. I chose it. It was my quickest way to get through school and get out.

Um, and then I spent years still trying to figure out who am I, what do I wanna do? Uh, I spent, I had jobs of. Sales insurance with MBNA when they had TIG as an underwriter. It's not even a thing anymore because I went, moved to de I first, I moved down to North Carolina and I was a gymnastics coach at Hawaii and then I ran a program at a little gym, which I absolutely loved.

Just didn't pay enough. But the little gym program was awesome because it's all fundamental. Um, just very much like self-esteem building fundamental. Um, teaching of children at the love of gymnastics, and it was just an amazing program. Got trained by the founder at the time. Um, he did all the trainings back then.

I got flown to Arizona to do the training. It was amazing. And so I did that for a couple of years, and then I went into the insurance sales, and then I went into staffing. Um, and then while I was in staffing, I had a company recruit me to be a sales, uh, sales manager in a contact center. Um, so I did that and then I became a certified trainer.

So I've been in all different industries. Um, but what happened for me is when I became a certified trainer, and I wanna say it was probably in 2003, um. That's when I really started to put the pieces together about my neuro differences without knowing what that was. I had spent years in businesses that didn't understand me and I didn't understand them, but in that time where I got trained, they were able to teach it to me, and then I was recorded doing it, and then I did it back, and then we modeled it, and then we had conversations about it.

And I started to connect the dots on why roleplaying was such a great thing for me and why I loved it so much, even though all my staff members hated it. Um, and so doing things in a multimodal format and really understanding that I needed all those pieces to come together for me to actually retain information.

So I had a, I had a. You do it? We do it. I do it now. I teach it. So it wasn't even, you know, it was like I had to do all those phases of it. Um, and so that was, I think, the first snippet of getting to understand who I am as a person. And then fast forward, I was working in. Other corporations I was asked to do, um, I was doing pieces of recruiting and then I was asked to take over HR departments.

I'm the non-typical HR person. I didn't have an HR degree, but I had everything but the comp and benefits from all the time I spent in staffing. Um, and then I took over some HR departments, got my hr, senior HR certification, um, because. People said I needed to have letters behind my name in order to get that role because the companies I worked at all had either a Master's or a PhD.

They said I needed it. So again, still not able to be who I am. So I'm still on this journey. Um, then I had my first son and I spent many years still in corporate, still fighting the whole. You're too emotional. You're too, uh, empathetic. You're too giving. You don't get doing things the way that we need you to do them.

What's wrong with you? Um, that doesn't make sense. Oh, and then I got things I got hired to do. I don't know what I'm talking about. So it went from A to z What gaslighting with, you know, diminishing, lost my sense of self. But in the midst of those things, I was fighting other battles that people didn't understand because both of my kids born neurodivergent, it wasn't because of a trauma incident.

I say that born because sometimes they can happen from a trauma incident. And um, my oldest son, it took us almost five years to figure out what was going on with him and to get his diagnoses and all the interventions we went through and what we needed to do. And we had lived in California where things were.

Way ahead of the game than here in Maryland at the time. So we had behavioral interventionists that were trauma informed and did a really great job. Behavioral psychologists, um, ot, speech, social skills, you name it. We had those interventions. We were paying for out of pocket for all of those, which now a lot of them are covered by insurances.

Um, so through him. My oldest, I learned some things about myself, but what I, what I had to learn was how to advocate for him and how to help, help him, help himself, unpack those unknowns, bridge the gaps and connect the dots. So that's where the rubber really met the road here in that integration of me starting to become free to be me, but he's 20 now.

Almost, he'll be 20 in this year. He's 20. Um, he'll be 20 in December, so he's not 20 yet. He is 19, but he will be 20 in December. And it wasn't until I hit burnout, um, five and a half years ago now that I really started to become free to be me. But through those years with him, I learned what I needed to do and didn't need to do, but I was still sitting in survival mood.

Which is partly how burnout ended up driving me to Ashes before I, you know, kinda, I say risen from the ashes, like a Phoenix. Um, but all of those things blended together. And my second son, Austin Neuro Divergent, very different than my, my first one. I learned so much about myself so far from my 15-year-old because.

Uh, we have some same diagnoses. How they show up might be different, but I've learned from myself, as I mentioned, the vision processing. Had it not been for me, getting someone to tell me. My best friend who's a ot, um, therapist assistant, she's like, there's something going on with his eyes. I'm like, 'cause he sees fine.

And she's like, well, you need to get him checked for this. And if it wasn't for her, I may never have known about that. So. Those, connecting those dots, those bridging those gaps that people helped me do over time and me taking these three domains of self, family, community, education and athletics, and bringing those things together with my clarity, confidence, and courage journey map.

That's how I get to do all those things with these different people, because I've lived in all these things and my pull through is that neurodivergence.

Passionistas: That's amazing. Um, yeah, it's incredible. The, the path you were on, I mean, do you think you weren't diagnosed early just because people weren't talking about those things, it just wasn't something people were aware of. Was it your, the environment you were in, why do you think you didn't get the, the diagnosis you.

You know, clearly would come to have later in life.

Lisa: That's a really good question. I think, Amy, it's all the above. Um, we didn't know. We didn't know as an or as a society, we looked at some neuro differences as if you, for example, the only people being diagnosed autistic were the ones that were put into.

Um, into a facility that it was, it was in, in some of those, when you look at levels 1, 2, 3 of the autism, or when my son was diagnosed, it was just the spectrum. Um, and even like Asperger's was off the spectrum, that it was in the spectrum. So like there's been all these different differing opinions. It was either you have a, a behavioral problem, a learning disability.

Or you're just normal and you might have some quirks. So like, you know, I, when I grew up in the seventies and eighties, like those were the things that they said, so we weren't looking for those things. But at the same time, especially with the visual processing, I don't know if there were even any visual and therapists there to do kind of what we're doing now.

I, I don't know, there might be, I just don't know of them. But from the standpoint of, for me, with the A DHD, um. I unknowingly was self-regulating no matter what in the gym. I spent so many hours flipping and spinning and twisting and getting that energy out, or climbing trees or, you know, doing those things.

That it was would've been hard potentially to see unless you were looking in the school. But then I missed so much time from school 'cause I was only there for my main classes. And then I didn't do any of the extra, like the gym and music and art. I was, I didn't even do those classes after fifth grade.

So there some, in some ways there weren't a ton of opportunities to, to recognize it. And many times it was like, oh, she's just missed time and that's why she's not getting it. So there wasn't someone like me Con helping to connect those dots. The one thing that I think could have been diagnosed and I believe really should have been was my anxiety, because I've always had it, it is at times been really bad.

Not so bad. Um, but I've always had it. And um, that is the one thing that when I look back over time, I look at my behaviors, I look at. Um, the different things that have happened, um, the things I have asked for, I've tried to get support with. I was screaming that something was going on and no one was listening.

Um, and that's one of the biggest things that I have let go of and come to terms with, that I didn't do anything I shouldn't have been doing to try to get help for those adults in my life across all facets. Weren't connecting the dots and were not listening to me.

Passionistas: How did you deal with anxiety as an elite athlete? Those two things seem like they don't go hand in hand very well.

Lisa: Um, uh, I guess the same way I dealt with my visual processing disorder, just dealt with it. Um, you know, I think that for me, I trained so many hours in the gym. That, and we did so much visualization. I was able to block out those things when I was on the mat, except with beam mounts and dismounts and with the ball.

And so that's where all those dots now connect for me. Of every injury I've, every injury I had that we know where the injury happened on vault and on beam. I sliced my token at the end of a beam. I got a concussion, broke a finger, um, vault, landed on my hand like this, did something with all the ligaments and te It was all on those two events now, uneven bars, my bar mounts.

I would also flip off and do crazy things sometimes. All three of those are connected to my visual processing disorder. Because to me it looked like the, the board was going like this and the beam was too. So as I got closer to the end of the beam, it looked like it was moving and my coaches would be like, why are you, you know, why can't you just do this consistently?

That's why, because everything was looking like it was, I attribute it to like, um, cars, you know how the side mirror say the cars are closer than they appear. That would, those are my eyes.

Passionistas: That is fascinating. It's, it's, it's amazing what you accomplished anyway, but then when you add that on top of it, it's, it's, it's miraculous.

Like the, the tenacity and the courage that you had to do all of that is spectacular. And thank you. I'm sorry that you didn't get the extra assistance you needed at the time to understand it better, but it's really. So inspiring to hear like, you know, the fight you had. Mm-hmm.

Lisa: My oldest son always like not always, he often says to me when I go down that path of, I wish I would've known or I this, he'll turn to me and very emphatically say, mom, you wouldn't be able to help the people you help today and do the things that you do today.

Had you not gone through everything you went through. Because sometimes I'll say, I wish I was born, you know, 30 years later, or I should have been born 30 years later. There's so many what you just said, Amy supports and tools and resources. And that's when he'll flip it on its head for me and he'll say, yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to do what you do for people today.

And he's right. Had I not gone through all those things, I went through and finally gave myself the um, gift of putting myself first. And moved into becoming free to be me again. I wouldn't be able to do what I do today.

Passionistas: So talk about that moment of burnout that you mentioned earlier and how it brought you to the Free To Be Me moment.

Lisa: Oh gosh. It was not period or period.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, so burnout. I, I, I said, for many years I felt like I was a rubber band about to snap, like I was a fraying rubber band. It was fraying and I was holding everybody together and holding everything together. And I always, for many, many years felt like I had to be the strong one.

And as people listen to this story here, and I haven't had anyone take me through all these phases, so. Um, I appreciate you all doing this and I recognize how far I've come 'cause I would've been crying numerous times right now in even a year ago probably. Um, so it was many, many years of all those things that led there.

The combination of stress and pressure with my children. Um, my oldest one had pretty much been established with what was going on with him, the supports. He needed interventions, but my younger one was still being. We were still trying to figure out what was going on with him. In fact, he got diagnosed with absence seizures.

The day I say the world shut down of, of COVID, he had a doctor's appointment. Um, and then COVID hit. And so we couldn't do treatments. We, I mean, so in addition to the other things we were dealing with all what was going on with him from a neuro distinct perspective and neurologically with his brain as well.

Um, and so all of those things. And then my second COVID shot. I ended up with a vaccine injury, um, and I just imploded my primary thought it was my heart. Um, they sent me to a cardiologist. The cardiologist said, there's nothing wrong with your heart. In fact, something I had been diagnosed with years ago from a cardiologist that this cardiologist said, Nope, that wasn't even, you don't even have that.

Um, so my heart was in great shape. And then they sent me to an endocrinologist because they wanted to test all my levels. Everything was good there. Went back to the cardiologist, 'cause I had some other tests done 'cause my heart would just spike. And he said between him and my therapist, the only explanation here is that the vaccine triggered these, this dysregulation.

My craniosacral therapist was like, I've never seen your cranial rhythm. Like this. And I had been going to her at that point for seven years maybe. Um, and so for months I could barely get off the couch for the first month. I couldn't even get downstairs to make a sandwich for my kids. I had to get up and get my husband that first doctor's appointment.

My husband, I don't wanna ruin like what's in my book chapter either from the, the Confident You book, but my, my husband had said at one point who said, you have to be the strong one. That was the moment that it all started to shift, that I started to unravel the feeling that I had to be that strong one and I started to allow myself to be me.

So that was, if I had to pick a moment in time for that as Nancy asked, um, that would be it because he had to take me to the doctor's appointment and to some other ones. After that, I couldn't drive my kids to school and I had to rely on other people. Um, and in the midst of this, there was also tragedy happening with my best friend's family and so many things that were going on and I couldn't even be there for her.

And she's been my best friend since I was five years old. And, um, we grew up doing gymnastics together and her and my husband were like, oh my gosh, like, we've never seen you like this. Um, but I had no choice. And that's the other reason I expanded in some of the ways that I'm working with people is. I don't want everyone to feel like they didn't have a choice.

There's always a choice to put yourself first. I just couldn't see it until I was forced to.

Passionistas: So you finally put yourself first. Then you decide to help others. So talk about that. Talk about starting Journey2Bloom, where the name came from, first of all, but also what that decision was that you needed to help everyone else get through this.

Lisa: Absolutely. So ironically, my Journey2Bloom story started four years before burnout. So I was running HR department or working with trans transformational mindset work and, uh, career transformation. Um, so I was either working a part-time or full-time job while I was getting the business going. It initially started as bloom special education advocacy because of the years of going through what I did with my kids.

That's where the foundation started. When Burnett happened, everything shifted. I expanded, um, to become a neurodiversity consultant under the umbrella of neurodiversity and rebranded to Journey2Bloom. The business name is one of my favorite parts of all of it. So the vision came in part at first because of my first born and then continues with my second child.

Um. But the business name Bloom was my great aunt, Mildred's Bloom was her last name, her married, last name. And she and I, I am not even sure you can say this anymore, black Sheep of the Family. So I'm doing it in quotes. Um, and we were always very tenacious and courageous, as Amy was saying. And just when we were together, I, I was pretty to be me no matter what.

And I always wanted to do what I wanted to do. And, um, and so. When I was thinking about a business name, I wanted her to be part of it. And so bloom, even though I shifted from the taking special education, 'cause people go, oh, special education or advocate, I don't wanna talk to you. And so I stripped all that away and, and, but I kept bloom.

And my, I had a, um, I have a blog through Blogger. I haven't done it for a long time, but it's early intervention led me to bloom. So everything had bloom in it. And so I just. Rebranded my logo to, instead of just being an infinity sign to being an infinity heart, um, changed some of the patterning, kept the hearts as the flowers, which you'll see if you go look at my logo now.

And, um, it's a never ending journey and there's gotta be heart and soul in it. Um, and so that's where the business name came from and the, the, uh, the, the start of it. Um. There was a principal my kids had in elementary school who was transformational, especially with my older son and we still stay in touch.

And when he was leaving to go leave administration and go back into the school system, he said, your child is one of the reasons I'm leaving. And now this is a good thing, not one of those. Oh my God, you're kicking me. You know, he said, your child is one of the reasons I need to go back into the classroom.

I can make more of a difference in the classroom for kids, like your kid, like your children, than I can as an administrator. My hands are strapped as a teacher in a private school, I can do more. And so I had sent him my blogs and when as he was leaving, he said to me, you need to do this as a business.

And I said to him, well, I don't have certifications. And he actually smirked and responded with. You have no idea. The people that come into these meetings that call themselves advocates that are doing now, some of 'em are great. I'm not gonna say they're not, but some of the people that come in that are so against us demanding things, aren't collaborating.

You have this innate ability to be there as the family, to be there in collaboration with us as a school team, but to put your child at the center and if you can do that for other families. Get paid for it, why wouldn't you? And so I took that so to heart 'cause I trusted him and as a, just as a person and as an administrator and as a teacher, I went and got my certifications through copa.

And then I got a second level certification through copa. And then I continued to do a neuro divergent, one more in businesses and another DEI one. Um, and then I got an executive functioning certification. Um, and not because I felt like I needed all of those certifications, but what I was finding was everyone likes to hear what those certifications are, and I wasn't yet confident enough in my capabilities without those to not have them.

But the last one I got, which was the executive functioning one, I got it because I got tired of schools saying that executive functioning. Um, and language aren't coexisting with other learning differences. And so executive functioning threads through the language as well as A DHD and other neuro differences, those are just examples.

And so I got those not 'cause I wanted to be a coach, executive functioning, I wanted to have. The experts in the schools see me also as an expert in the field. And so all of those parts together, um, brought me to doing the work that I do today. And it started just with the parents and then it expanded into professionals because I was doing that work for other organizations.

I was doing some different trainings on authenticity and the relationship building or. C connecting. And I had numerous different trainings that I had done for different organizations, um, but I wasn't working with them anymore. But some of those leaders wanted me, so I was like, okay, I'll give them that.

Now. Some of them are neurodivergent, some weren't. But I knew that the things that I've done with my clarity, confidence, and journey map, they also needed. They needed to get, have the courage to get clear, to build the confidence, to be courageous enough to make that pivot. And so I could use it, Ian, I lived in their world in corporate and they were being gaslit or just looked over for jobs or taking advantage of, or whatever.

It was, men and females, and I knew I could help them. So that's where I opened the door into that. And then my latest domain piece of it is. With the athletes because people kept coming to me and saying, you guys have just heard my story, so you know what they were asking about. And so now I'm in the process and I, I've worked with people.

I mentioned that one where I was in the gym that I trained at and I was able to help them. But, but those gaps and connecting the dots, um, sometimes for those that are in the gym and other times for those that are. Transitioning out of whatever sport that they were in. I mean, I just told you how many years it took me to be free to be me again and define myself as an identity outside of Lisa, the gymnast.

And so you could say Lisa the blank, you know, it could be any. Um, and those, those pulp brews don't change meeting the person where they are changes. But then the ways that I would go about helping them move through that journey doesn't change.

Passionistas: Is there one success story from the people you've worked with that really stands out to you as one you're proud of?

Lisa: Can I do two?

Passionistas: Yeah. Of, of course,

Lisa: So, um, from a business perspective, one of one of my clients, um, and this is the one I was just referring to, and he has a quote in, in my book, um, chapter, but he, um. I had gone through a really bad divorce, um, and before the divorce I was working with him within this other company, ended up having to get hospitalized because of the stress, was working with me through all of this, and I was holding space for him.

You know, what's getting in your way? Where are those limiting beliefs? Like what's happening? But the success story in it was he kept showing up and he kept being willing to. Become vulnerable with me. In fact, that unknown unknowns, that zone of genius, he's the one that first said to me, you have just this innate ability to find some of these unknown unknowns.

Reframe them in a way that makes sense in a way that I never thought about them. And I would say to him, all I did was repeat back what I heard you say. He is like, yes, but no. The way that you repeat it back, it makes me think it's not derogatory. It's not barking at me. It's not telling me what to do.

It's showing me what I know and then you help guide me forward. So fast forward a year, he stayed in this business that he really shouldn't have been in. Ended up getting laid off and he realized, I always say, you don't have to have a job to get a job. And people always think, yes, you do. I'm like, no, that's here.

So he got laid off, had a six month severance, and then the severance came and went. And he's like, now what? And I said, now we keep going. Within a month of that severance being gone. So now he had no job and no severance. He landed a role that he helped create because he was showing up in the conversations free to be him.

And he got to show them and he got to collaborate. And now he's been there almost three years and his role just keeps expanding. So that from like a professional side would be that success from a parent perspective. Also in my chapter, so I will, I will show this. Um, I was the only one that believed her that her child could actually be successful and stand her diploma track.

People were dismissing her, um, they were telling mom that, um, you know, you, you're, you're expecting too much or we were doing everything we can. And we knew that we weren't, and I stuck by her. Now she invested in me, obviously, to be with her, but we went through the process and not only did she end up getting to the non-public school that was able to meet her where she was.

Appropriately support her child in some areas where she was well below grade level. She's now above grade level and in that area in math. This school kept saying, no, she's she's, she's a great kid. She's doing the best she can. We kept saying, no, we know she can do more. She needs to be in the right environment with the right scaffolding, the right supports, and she's still there and she's thriving and she has friends and she's on a sports team.

And this school wanted to take her off of diploma track and put her on a certificate track going into middle school. And we were emphatic no. And for a long time, I was the only one that. Believed in the mom enough to say, we're gonna continue down this path and we are going to get her where, you know, your mom got knows she deserves to be.

So it's acel another celebration. But I also just wanna share across both of those with the person, the, the adult, um, business. He had to be willing to go there with me, with the parent. She had to be willing to, at some point, believe me, if I said it's not gonna work. And she was, and we ended up getting a lawyer involved with that particular case.

I've gotten other people to non pubs without that, but in her case we did because the school psychologist, which I didn't realize that gaslit her and prompted her to call me in the first place, ended up being the person two and a half years later that wanted to move her onto this non diploma track. And at that point, when I learned that connection.

We both said we got a lawyer up because if we don't, there's nothing I can do. We've got to bring in the big guns in order, 'cause that person had dug their heels in. So I don't say I always do it on my own, but I find the people and I give people the space, but they also have to be willing to do it with me.

Passionistas: Oh, those are amazing stories. Um, so talk about what. An effective collaboration looks like between parents, schools, and professionals. What does that really require?

Lisa: Yeah. Um, so it requires objectivity, it requires open-mindedness, and it requires a willingness to collaborate. And I know those weren't the words probably that people were expecting me to say, but it all starts there.

And oftentimes it requires someone like me to come in and be that objective third party. Not always, but, but a lot of times, um, because there are so many emotions that are intertwined in working with. Schools working with the, uh, parents, with the students that oftentimes either ego or emotion gets in the way of progress.

And that's the unique perspective that, that, um, principal had said. I didn't let those things. Now I will say I was fully emotional. I cried in almost every meeting, but I was also that parent. The principal would come in at the very beginning of the meeting, say, okay, Ms. Richard, should we look to put the next meeting on the calendar?

Because I'm pretty certain we're not gonna get through this in an hour instead of let's try to move through it quickly and you know, just get to the end. That's the type of respect and mutual relationship that I've had with all the teachers and the administrators that I've worked with because of the way I showed up.

So, how you show up is most important. And you do wanna try to work with them on your own. Oftentimes though, we don't know what we don't know, right? So there comes the unknown, unknown zones again. Had I not had what I called my dream team with my first son, I would never have been able to navigate what I did with my second, and I wouldn't have known what to do to help the people that I do now.

So if we stick on the school team side of it for, you know, for the, for the moment. There are things that the schools can do. There are things that the schools need to do and there are things that the schools should do, and then there's also things that the schools can't do. So sometimes if it it, there's parents that want support in a certain area, but it's not actually having an academic impact.

But then what does that mean? It gets tricky because that academic impact could be triggered by emotional, it could be triggered by executive functioning, it could be triggered by lots of things. It's not always just, just 'cause someone has good grades doesn't mean they don't need more supports. Doesn't also, doesn't mean that they absolutely need an IEP.

They may need a 5 0 4, they may need another intervention. And so where I really come in and help people is. Looking at where they are and then figuring out who are the pieces, who are the players, how do those people fit into it? And then what do we do with them all? So many times I become so that we don't have a ton of people at a meeting and they don't have to pay five different people to show up from their team.

I become that conduit between them. So I will talk with the speech and language pathologist or the O outside ot or the tutors. Um, and then we'll prepare and I can talk on their behalf in the meeting. And then with the parents. And then we prepare. Um, sometimes some of them come in from the outside. I work with the psychologist from the outside.

I sometimes work with the psychologist on the inside. So everyone's team looks different, but it all has to start with that foundation of what does your child need, and then how do we build that team around it? And what are those supports or those interventions necessary to help them access the curriculum and be able to move through whatever the activity is.

Passionistas: That's fantastic. So how do people get in touch with you if they wanna work with you?

Lisa: Yes, so people can go to my website, which is Journey, the number two, bloom.com, or they can email me at Lisa at Journey, the number two bloom.com, and then my social, so you can find me on. LinkedIn and Insta at Donita Bloom.

Um, so you can find me on those places and then you can fill out a form if you'd like to inquire whether about working with me from a parent perspective or a professional or an organization. Uh, there's different forms to fill out and that will go in me and then I can schedule something with you and we could have, um, collaborative conversation to figure out your specific needs and if we're a good fit.

Passionistas: Fabulous. So we have one last two part question. Um, what's your dream for yourself and what's your dream for women?

Lisa: Oh gosh. And you didn't cue me on any of this. Okay. Bear with me.

My dream for myself. To retire and travel. That would be my dream, right? Like if I, I, 'cause honestly, like, I, I, I really am living my best life right now. And, um, full transparency, I, I had a therapy session this morning with my, this afternoon with my therapist who's been with me since I hit burnout. And she was like, wow, like you really have.

Come so far, like something, we were talking about something. Oh. And I said, I won't do it. I didn't say, I don't need to do it. I said I won't do it. And I was like, wow, where'd that word come from? Because I really am free to be me and I'm living in that space. So my dream would be win the lottery and go travel or have someone gift me a million dollars, right?

But in reality, it's to make enough enough funds right now to help my kids get through what they need to so that I can then go. And travel with my spouse, travel with my friends, and just really enjoy the next half of my life. Yeah, because I joke with my husband, I'm like, I'm living in my hundreds. And he's like, I'm not.

I'm like, well, I'm gonna, so, you know, who knows if I will, but I, I tell him that. But then, um, for other women, my dream for other women is that they find the courage to. Do whatever they need to be able to be free to be themselves because it is so empowering and, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Um, I just feel light.

Like it's, it's just such a great thing and I, I, that's my dream for all women.

Passionistas: Thanks for listening to the Passionistas Project. Since we are not only business partners, but best friends and real life sisters, we know how unique and truly special our situation is. We know so many solopreneurs, activists, women seeking their purpose and more who are out there doing it all on their own.

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