What do math dreaming, crowdfunding, and Sunday night heart palpitations all have in common? You’ll have to tune in to find out! 😀
Join us for some real talk about the common fears and hesitations many aspiring coaches face when starting their business, like feeling unprepared or overwhelmed by the need for a perfect plan. But fear not! You’ll be encouraged to embrace the messiness of starting out, and reminded that it’s okay to pivot and change your business model as you grow.
So, whether you're in the dreaming phase or already knee-deep in your entrepreneurial journey, this episode is packed with insights, encouragement, and a few laughs to help you navigate your own path. Join us as we explore the ups and downs of starting a coaching practice. Let’s celebrate the beauty of building a business that aligns with who you are!
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Embrace the journey: Every entrepreneur has their own unique path to success. And it doesn’t happen overnight. Whether you stumble into it or plan meticulously, what matters is that you keep showing up.
Use your strengths: Instead of following what others say you should do, focus on what feels authentic and enjoyable for you.
Don’t fear imperfection: It’s okay to experiment, pivot, and change your business model as you learn what works best for you.
Community is key: Finding a supportive community can help you build belief in your abilities and access resources to navigate challenges.
Assess and Adapt: Regularly step out to evaluate your business. What’s working? What’s not? This reflection can help you make informed decisions about your business direction so you can grow with intention and maximize your impact.
Do it scared: Sometimes, the best opportunities arise when we least expect them. If you're feeling stuck or hesitant, remember that action often leads to clarity.
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Lisa: I'm Lisa.
Brea: I'm Brea.
Lisa:
Hi, I'm Lisa. And I'm Brea. And in today's episode, we're going to talk about Sunday night heart palpitations. Oh my gosh.Brea: Wait, what happened on Sunday?
Lisa: I mean, actually, we're talking about starting a coaching business. That is part of my origin story. Instead of it being from starting a coaching business, it led me to start a business. But I just thought that was Yeah. Just a little teaser.
Brea: Yes. Like you were not looking forward to Monday. So you were getting stressed out.
Lisa: Well, you would think. But I would literally have this every single week in the job that I was in. And I loved my team and the CFO that I reported to. Like, it was just super cool on so many levels. And the role was a bad fit for me. And I literally had severe palpitations every Sunday night. And I would just I would sit on the couch and I would do breathing exercises. And you would think that I would, being such a health nut, that I would care about my cardiovascular health or otherwise. But it took a moment where my husband was actually in the room with me and he said, what was that? Because I had this hitch in my breath where I was like, and just trying to kind of breathe through the, the, the janky body systems. What was that? And I was like, sending out heart palpitations and he was like, uh, you need to quit. And he was like, you need to quit now. That is severe. And, and I was like, wait, are you serious? And he said, yeah. And I'm like, oh, um, that sounds really exciting, but I haven't planned anything. I don't know what I would do after this. And I am mega planner. I would totally have written it up differently, but I thought that would actually be a good part of this story because I didn't do it at all the way I would do it if I planned and I worked my regular system. But it was a time where a little intervention was called for and it took someone else noticing how bad it was for me to do the wake up.
Brea: Wow. Okay. I like this. I mean, it's just so good to hear what other people have gone through. And I know that there are other people that are listening that have had a similar palpitation or a similar hesitation of just, I've thought about going for it, but I just, I don't have all my ducks in the row. I, I'm not quite there yet, you know, and very different experience on my end, but also similar in the way of, If I knew then what I know now, I probably definitely would not have done it the way that I did it. No preparation, you know, I mean, really, it was bootstrapped from ground zero. So similarities and differences in our story. Yeah, this is exciting. Okay.
Lisa: I think this is a fun conversation for listeners because just like you said, some people are in the midst of the heart palpitations. Some people have been wanting to leave for 10 years, but they can't figure out like what it actually means. How do you know when your ducks are in a row? And some people are busy kind of filling their minds with this. But hey, like I've met people who had a pension and then they retired and they had money coming in forever. And they could use that to fund the business and not be scared. Or you must have had a buku bucks saved up, ready to go. And that made you confident. And I don't have the advantages that other people have. And the truth is, for a lot of us, it just takes courage, I would totally be the person who had preferred a plan. I would have done it absolutely differently. I would have spent a year or two figuring all those things out up front, because that would feel great to me. But it's not how it turned out that night, the heart palpitation night. We actually stayed up really late, which is odd for me. I'm like a be in bed by 10 o'clock kind of person. And it was one of those, like, stay up until 1 a.m. talking about all the things, like, what if I don't sell anything? Am I going to make us lose the house? What is the repercussion if I'm terrible at this? What if it all goes wrong? When it came down to it, after fast forward through like four hours of what's the worst that could happen, my answer was, if I lose it all, we'll go live in an RV. We're going to be camp hosts at some beautiful state park and life's going to be fine. And that never came true. But it did give me it gave me the confidence to to be like, all right, I'm not going to suffer and starve literally.
Brea: Yeah, that's so interesting, because that conversation would have sent me running for the hills. I would have been scared out of my mind and never would have jumped. But for me, I didn't have the luxury of even asking myself those questions. I accidentally fell into being a business owner. And that's the honest to God truth, I never set out to like open my own business. I had an unfortunate series of just a lot of instability in different jobs. And at one point a contract was ending and I was just like, what am I going to do next? And strengths had always been something that I was very passionate about. I've used strengths in different jobs, different companies, different capacities on my own, but never really explored being a coach or doing that as a career, let alone owning my own business and doing that full time. That was never a part of my thought process until There was no next step. And it just so happened that the very next week after my contract ended was the certification course to become a strengths coach in Omaha. I was living in Omaha at the time. I walked out of one job and into the certification course and I was like, I know this is my next step. How was I gonna use that? I have no idea, but I'm gonna do it. How am I gonna pay for that? I have no idea. I've been a missionary for four years. I'm not making a lot of money. I don't have a lot in savings. So do you know what I did? I crowdfunded $10,000 to pay for my certification. And I went into my certification course with 100 paying clients, people who paid in exchange for coaching. So think of it like a pre-sell. They were on the books. I came out of that certification and I coached a hundred people in less than 60 days. And they were all different kinds of people. Stay at home moms, students, couples, professionals, people who were in job transition, people who were in the C-suite, people who were business owners, people who were individual contributors. I mean, I got so much experience right out of the gate and built the business just because I could, you know, one step at a time.
Lisa: Yeah, and in the what went well column, I am hearing this brilliant thing that happened out of your creativity. And desperation, okay. Which does create a lot of stamina and motivation, right? Yes. That thing that happens often with coaches setting up their business and they are like, I don't know what I want to specialize in. I don't know what my niche is. I don't know what I love the most. And you coming out having a hundred people in 60 days. You got exposed to that wide swath of types of people and types of coaching that you just described. What a brilliant way to get in there and actually experience it. Because you're only guessing and hypothesizing. Like, if I would have picked my niche, and I would have done my year or two planning, doing all the things, I would have been guessing, and I know I would have guessed wrong, and I would have remade a lot of it, because I did that anyhow after I created it. What a beautiful way to get a head start on clarity of what you like and what aligns with your strengths.
Brea: You know, it, it did bring a lot of clarity. Even more than that, it brought a lot of practice. You know, I just got a lot of reps really, really fast, which also brought a lot of confidence. And the thing that I love the most about crowdfunding was my life before strengths was a lot of marketing and sales and being a missionary. So by running this crowdfunding campaign, people seeing me every day posting different things about the campaign and strengths and all the things. Like, people knew Brea as the strengths girl, right? Instead of Brea the missionary or Brea, however we first, you know, connected and came to know each other, they knew about this change. So it was possible for me to make this. Not even a career pivot. I mean, this is a huge jump a huge change and I was able to bring people along because They were part of it. They were the bridge that got me there. So if you're listening and you were Part of that go for Brea campaign. Thank you so much because look at what we did It's amazing.
Lisa: Go Team Brea. That is so cool. I definitely would mark that in the What Went Well column on about four different tallies. That's great. And I did mine differently, but I think we were both using our strengths for this What Went Well category. So I started a podcast and I felt really comfortable. This was early days of podcast. It was actually called Pinch Yourself Careers. I thought I was going to do more career transition coaching. And that is what the original name of this podcast was. It was the name of the business entity. And I'm just bringing this up because people are like, oh my gosh, I got the name wrong. I got the thing wrong. Me too. Me too. This podcast was totally a different niche than I ended up choosing. Pinch Yourself Careers, very different from the CliftonStrengths focus of today. When they were in career transition, I asked people, hey, What questions do you have? If you are in a career transition or you know someone in a career transition, send it through and then I'm doing Q&A and they would send an audio question through or even just a one sentence question and I would answer it in the podcast. So, I thought it was a really cool way to get the word out that I was playing in that space and I didn't have to have my sales pitch refined yet. I didn't have to have all that sitting down yet. It was, I was self-sponsoring my own podcast. And I was adding value out in the world. And people were getting to know me for being a career coach, then later, people development coach, then later specifically, team development and big corporate with CliftonStrengths, with, with team dynamics through CliftonStrengths. So, It evolved, but it was very comfortable. And I think because I felt good going back to my existing network, and I had a big corporate network because I always kept in touch with people, that felt like a natural way to plug in, be of service, and also start to spread the word that I was out there on my own offering a service.
Brea: Yes, that's so great. That's a lot of ticks in your win column as well, using what has worked for you in the past in the pivot that you made. I think that's awesome. I definitely relate with the feeling of, oh my gosh, what am I going to name my business? What is my brand going to look like? And what is my website going to look like? And I have to get it all right because This is what people are going to see and this is how they're going to think of me. I don't know the answers. I'm just figuring it out. So how can I do all those things? But I need those things. So like, oh my gosh, it's so overwhelming. It's OK. You can change your mind. I just want everybody listening to hear you just get started. It's really not that big of a deal what you call your business. It's really not. It feels that way, especially if you have communication. Number one, hi. I get it, but like it's really not that big of a deal. Just so true. Get out there and go.
Lisa: And even literally, like if you're in the U.S., not every listener is of course, but in the U.S. there's literally a thing called a doing business as. So on top of whatever entity you already bought, you set up a doing business as and you can add, you could have four of them. You can keep changing your name until you figure out who you are and then it's going to be fine. It is not a huge deal. It's not.
Brea: It's really not. I love that. You know, I have a lot of things in the I wish I would have done it differently column as well. Okay, so the crowdfunding campaign was playing to a lot of my strengths. And I'm believing what the internet is telling me. I'm getting sucked into all the things that I hear and read from all the other business owners and the social media influencers that are telling me I have to do this. I have to do that. I have to do it like this. I have to do it like that. What were some of the whispers that were getting you? Oh my gosh, I was spending hours a day creating graphics to post and finding the right words to make the perfect post that would convince people, influence people to go for Brea, right? To pledge toward the campaign. hours a day. I mean, that's exhausting. When I realized it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to get out there. And the easiest way for me to do that is talking. My talent is telling stories. My talent is on video. So I was just like, okay, Facebook Live, here we go. And I pushed a button and I would just talk and then it was done and it was out there and I couldn't edit it if I wanted to. So hours a day turned into minutes a day and the impact was so much greater. People were commenting and liking and sharing and pledging. The impact was there, the results were there when I started using my talents and stopped doing it like I thought that I should. So don't use my experience as a prescription of how you should move forward, but hear the underlying theme of use your talents to build your business and build your business around your talents. Create offerings that make sense for you because when you show up at your best, I mean, that's better for everyone else that you're serving.
Lisa: Yeah, that sounds so amazing. I could just feel the momentum shift, even though you're taking us back via story, but I could feel the difference like, oh, I'm spending hours worrying about it. It's the same today. We hear the same story from so many people who are like, oh, I just labor over trying to create the perfect social or get myself on video and I don't want to be on there, but I should do this. I should do that. This is the formula. And the great question, it's so obvious being a strengths coach, but even those of us going into strengths coaching, we forget to say, what would be fun? What would actually make us feel alive? And then, of course, you're going to attract people to you who want to be in your circle. That's the kind of customer you want to attract when you're at your best. So perfect. Yeah, that's right. I did very different things. So if we want to just give a contrast on not taking Breas as a prescription, and then what are some other ways people get started? I lead through Maximizer. And I lead through Strategic. And so I'm always thinking of things like, Every time I would ask myself the question, every time I would create something, I would say, How can I maximize this over and over again? Can I recycle content? Can I put things out there that are so timeless, someone could use it? four months later, and it's still just as relevant. If I'm going to go out on social media and post something, it's going to disappear out of an algorithm within 20 minutes. So why not use it over and over again? I had that thought from the beginning, and it felt so cool to use that as a filter from the beginning. And so if I'm going to make a podcast episode, then I'm going to turn that into a blog post as well. I'm going to turn that into email marketing. it's going to be content that someone could enter at any time five years into the future or today. And it's going to be just as useful for them. And I'm going to put together a series so that everything I do compounds on top of the next thing. And it's like baby steps, building one thing after the other thing after the other thing. And all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. So from the beginning, I was really strategic about that. And it felt wise, even though it wasn't the fastest momentum, I knew it was wise. And I knew that it was exciting to be able to take something and reuse it. And it really, really worked. It got me out of a lot of pinches later when I needed to step away from the business. And then I was still showing up because I was showing up in automations. that I had created years before. But it also, I was like, this is going to add up, even if I'm really busy and I only have time to do something once a month or once every two weeks, everything matters. And years later, it looks like years worth of content. And it happened really slowly. If you want everything to be lined up and perfect, and that leads you to do nothing, it's better to do something regularly. And I think that's a great lesson for anybody who's starting up
Brea: That's right. I love so many things from what you shared. I want to dub you the evergreen queen. It's such like a, just a court to who you are. I don't know, hearing that, that was so natural for you, even from the very beginning. I think that that's a real superpower that you have. Yeah, that's cool.
Lisa: Thank you. Yeah, there was another one. I think that one really spoke to my maximizer. One that I would say I both did well and I would do differently is when I was picking what I would focus on and what the business model would be, I remember going through strengths and thinking, all right, I lead through activator. I lead through strategic. I lead through these fast moving talents. I do not like having open loops hang over my head. And so I just decided I love kickoffs. It's sales kickoff meeting. It's your team summit. It's your team retreat. I love doing them and people need them and have them. So that is a what went well column. What I would do differently, though, is I might think a little more deeply about What could I have done to serve those customers more actively without it being a consulting engagement? Because I kind of wrote it off, like, it's either going to be kickoff and I'm out, which felt good, or it's going to be kickoff leading into a giant engagement. And I didn't like the idea of a giant consulting engagement. So I think what I would do differently there is I would have come up with more strategies to go deep in service of that customer without it having to be a consulting model because I was acting like there are only two choices, this way or that way. But that meant every sale I have to start over. Every prospect is a new prospect. And sometimes you get, you get spinoff business, you get repeat business, you get things like that. But I could have been more strategic about leveraging the accounts that I already had trust with and already had a relationship with. So give me a win tally because it was aligned with my strengths, but also give me a ding that I allowed myself to have to start over with the selling process.
Brea: 100% that is my experience as well. And I am not surprised because we share some similar talents that I think are contributing to that pattern. But yes, I definitely wish that I would have put some more thought into how do I continue to nurture and maintain those relationships.
Lisa: So you've worked with a lot of coaches also, we both have. What do you see they wish they would do differently after they come in and they feel frustrated, they feel like an incompetent business person and they're about to leave and go back to their former work lives?
Brea: Wow, what a loaded question. You know, it might just be because I bring marketing experience, so these might be the kinds of coaches that I attract, but I hear a lot of, I need to be doing social media, I need to be doing email sequences, I need to be doing more of that, more marketing, more messaging. Which, yes, there is so much value in that. And also, I don't have an email list. I never have. Really? It sucked the life out of me. Yes.
Lisa: What? No email list?
Brea: Yes. I know. I know. It's a shocker, right? It's like a doctor whose kids never go to the doctor or whatever.
Lisa: I see an email marketing fan, Lisa, over here. I'm like, what? No way.
Brea: But here's the thing is I choose as a consumer don't love being on email lists. I don't like sitting behind my computer and doing it. And I also, because I have high communication and a lot of training around how to craft a message, I don't like paying people to do it because they're never going to nail my voice like I will. So, it's either I do it or nobody does it and I just choose to connect with people in other ways that feel better to me. So, that makes sense for me. It is possible to run a business without an email list. Yeah. There's a lot of value in having an email list and doing it well. But, you know, I also kind of stopped. I mean, I haven't done my Instagram in almost two years. I haven't posted anything. And that's a big like.
Lisa: No, no in the marketing world and still it's possible, you know to like grow a business media Yeah, social is not my level English It's funny because I love email marketing because I love the automation of it and all of the evergreen part being evergreen Queen But I the same reaction I had like, oh no, no email. I'm the same on social media where I'm on social media and There are so many ways. I mean, that's the thing. So many ways to do it. Yeah. It's just like we understand this about strengths. There are so many ways to get a thing done and it's the same. There are so many marketing channels. You can run ads. You could write a book. You can run challenges. You can do cold calling. You can go to in-person conferences. You could run it on an email list. You could have a great blog. You could have affiliate sales. sell for you. You could be an affiliate for somebody else as your full business model. You could be on older things that other people are off of like Telegram or Snapchat. I mean like. Carrier pigeon anybody?
Brea: You could.
Lisa: You totally could. You could be a podcast guest. You could be a podcast host. There are Dozens of ways you could build a business and they don't all have to be social media. I love that. Think of all the possible channels and especially for those of you who are listening who are like, yeah, I have three clients, but I need 30 to have a solid book of business. How did you get those three? What is your easiest channel? What is your most effective channel? And a lot of times that's your answer where to drill into because you probably like it and people have responded well to it. And meanwhile, you're over here thinking, oh my gosh, I have to be on social media or whatever you're putting yourself under pressure for. But your answer is over there and your three clients that you already attracted and why they came to you so naturally.
Brea: Right. Did they come to you from social media? No. Do they come from your email list that you don't have? No. Then why do you think you need those things? Where did they come from? What is working? Lean into that. Lean into that. That's something that I wish I would have done earlier in my business journey, but a lot of grace. I've learned as I've gone. It's fine. I wish I would have done more of that looking backward, even just once a year, but quarterly, kind of assessing where is my profit? Where's my revenue coming from? What is turning the biggest profit? Those are two questions I didn't ask myself until I was, I don't know, maybe three years into business. I had no idea where my clients were coming from. No idea, you know, and I was just, whatever was in front of me was what I was doing. And I, there was no strategy. It was all just reacting, which is in line with my talents. So it serves me in a way. And I have other talents that love to plan and could have, I mean, I have strategic number six. there was room to refine a little bit and build a little bit more intentionally. So look to your talents and look to what's in front of you.
Lisa: Yes, you have data right in front of you. Just start playing with numbers. What do I need? How do I need to do this to get people in and how many does it need to be? And if you already are attracting people into your funnel in some way, all you have to do is back into how you've already gotten customers and your answers will be right there.
Brea: That's right. Yep. And because you're the boss, like you can see the data in front of you and decide that you want to keep going in that direction. Or you can say, okay, that serves me to this point, but now I want to try something different. You know, you don't have to be scared about what you're going to find because the data is just information. It's just helping you make a decision. You know, I love one of your coaching questions is how can you add a zero? Yes. There's a great book out there called the 10x book. What's that called? How to how to 10x your business or something.
Lisa: Oh, it's the same thing. Adding a zero is 10xing. I didn't know. I don't know that book.
Brea: Oh, well, it's such a great question. How do you add a zero, right? It's also a good question for an upsell, downsell situation. You know, if you come in with, we'll just do a hundred bucks for easy math because my math does not math very well in my head. Let's say you're offering a coaching session for $100. You need an upsell and you need a downsell, right? So how can you add a zero or take away a zero to give them an easier step up or an easier step down if that signature offer or that standard is not working for them?
Lisa: So many things we've learned along the way. Math dreaming is a thing. Obviously, I've told Brea about my Add a Zero challenge before. This started off, at the time, the biggest contract I had ever sold was $29,000. And I was like, $29,700. So what I have to add to sell a package for $297,000. So I went off and sold a package for $297,000. One single transaction. Come on! Yes! Yes, but I had to dream it up first, you to say like, what value would have to be added? And how can I say it to us with a straight face? And who would I have to say it to? And what conditions would have to be present for them to want to buy it? But then I've also done the thing where I'm like, what's a $300 product that would just be super easy, that would be really attainable for somebody who doesn't have a budget, that would be a nice add-on. So going lower ticket, higher ticket, play with the math, play with the numbers. I swear it's fun. It can be fun.
Brea: It can be fun. Absolutely.
Lisa: You're like, yeah, yeah, that sounds great.
Brea: No, it can be. And I think this goes in the, I wish I would have done this sooner or known this sooner category. It's so easy for us to just get caught up in the moving forward. The momentum is here. We find ourselves working on this or saying yes to a project. And so then we just kind of keep moving in the direction that we're going. You'll never get to that $290,000 contract if you don't give yourself permission to shoot for it. If you don't give yourself the target, you're not going to get there. That's not going to fall in your lap. I mean, never say never, but that's never going to happen. So take some time every now and then to step out and allow yourself to see where you are in your business today and then dream about where you want to go, what could be. And if you're stuck in that place right now, you haven't started your business yet and you're just in the dreaming phase and you're thinking, gosh, wouldn't it be amazing if I could start this business and here are my aspirations. You got to take the first step. You know, you got to, you got to get into the business. So I think that's my biggest takeaway. If you're in the business, Try to take a step out every now and then. Or maybe you're outside of the business, you're thinking about a business, you need to take a step in. Wherever you are today, just give yourself some time to also step in or step out.
Lisa: Yes, yes. And I will piggyback on that and say, closing thoughts here. Along the lines of what Brea was talking about, if you're not taking the time to dream and you don't have anyone else to dream with, it makes it more difficult to believe it's possible. So if I were to start over, I would do something like my tools for coaches membership, where you can spend a hundred bucks a month and you're in the presence of these other amazing coaches who have incredible businesses. They're living the dream already. And you can build your belief because you're like, Oh my gosh, they're already doing all those things that I thought I just imagined, but people are actually buying that they're doing it. And And it is such great motivation to both get inspired by them, build your belief from them, learn together. It's, it's really an incredible process. So if you have trouble believing, because you're not going to live into it until you believe it, if you have trouble with some of that belief, come join a group like my Tools for Coaches group. Just go to LeadThroughStrengths.com, click on Tools for Coaches. And we will help you because we will show you how we're living it out in all different ways.
Brea: I love that. I was never short on the belief. I believed in things that I had no business believing. I had no business for reality. I was never short on belief, but I wish I would have asked for help if I had known then what I know now. This community of coaches is just incredibly generous, and we are so much better together than we are alone. I had every belief that I could do it, that I would do it, that it was going to work out, that the world needs what I can offer. I mean, that was never a question. But how to do it, I had no idea. I mean, I really just built the plane as I was flying and I could have asked for more help. I could have reached out and I didn't know that. So if you feel alone, you are not alone. And you have two people here who would love to Love to come alongside you and be your cheerleader, provide resources, connect you to other people, other resources. So please, if that's you, go ahead and reach out to Tools for Coaches with Lisa or just come to my website. We can get on a call and see how I might be able to help you or connect you with the resources that you're looking for. That would be awesome.
Lisa: Go to BreaRoper.com. What if you want to coach? who will dream with you, who won't tell you your dream is stupid, who will help you build on what you already have and align your strengths to it. Brio would be so perfect for that.
Brea: Thanks.
Lisa: Now for the listeners, it would be so fun to hear other people's coaching origin stories, coaching backstory. How did you get started? So come over to LinkedIn and share yours.
Brea: I love that. Well, as they say in the music business, that's a wrap.
Lisa: That's a wrap.
Brea: See ya.
“Remember, hard work doesn’t have to feel hard. Aligned with your strengths, it actually feels easy, energizing, and fun!”
MEET YOUR CO-HOSTS
BREA ROPER
Communication | Woo | Activator | Futuristic | Connectedness
If you need a Strengths Hype Girl, for yourself or your team, connect with Brea at brearoper.com. She’s ready to deliver an inspirational keynote, empowering training, or transformational workshop. If you’re looking for an expert guide to support your internal Strengths efforts, reach out today!
LISA CUMMINGS
Strategic | Maximizer | Positivity | Individualization | Woo
To work with Lisa, check out team workshops and retreats at the Lead Through Strengths site. For 1:1 strengths or life coaching, check out the Get Coached link. For independent coaches, trainers, and speakers, get business tools support with our Tools for Coaches membership.
The Fine Print: This podcast is not sanctioned or endorsed by Gallup in any way. Opinions, views and interpretations of CliftonStrengths© are solely the beliefs of Lisa Cummings and Brea Roper.