Who Is Lisa?
As a kid, I was carefree in the way only small-town kids get to be. I grew up with a mom, a dad, and a little sister in a world that felt steady and predictable. When my mom worked part-time, my grandma took care of me. Life felt calm and safe—like there would always be someone nearby who knew what to do next.
Somewhere between middle school and high school, that certainty disappeared.
Everyone kept telling me I could be anything I wanted to be. Which sounded encouraging—until I realized I had no idea what that “anything” was supposed to be. While other kids seemed to move confidently toward futures they could name, I lay awake at night stressed and overwhelmed by not knowing who I was meant to become.
By the time college rolled around, I didn’t arrive with a dream—I arrived with anxiety. So I did what made sense at the time: I took a career interest inventory. The results said my interests aligned most closely with people who became teachers. It sounded doable. Respectable. Efficient. It would get me in and out of school and into a job.
So I chose teaching.
Even then, I knew it wasn’t forever.
I dabbled in the family business along the way, but teaching became my steady place for thirty years. When the pandemic hit, I finally listened to the quiet knowing I’d carried all along. I submitted my letter of resignation and trusted it was time to do something different.
That was five years ago.
Since then, I’ve tried on a lot of roles—stay-at-home mom, grandma, housewife. None of them quite fit. Working at the local big-box distribution center wasn’t it either. Neither was juggling roles as the “garden girl” and then Team Lead in online pickup and delivery at the local Wally World.
Over the past year, I’ve poured myself into building two brands—Lisa Hoffman Coaching and Sidetracked Spark—trying to shape something meaningful out of experience, grit, and reinvention. I end this year as a struggling business owner, deeply in debt, still searching for what not only sticks…but THRIVES!
And yet… I’m looking toward next year with something that feels something like hope.
Sidetracked Sisters
Sidetracked Sisters is where four wildly different personalities come together to laugh, joke, poke fun, and solve the world’s problems. I could’ve said something more PC about celebrating family and honoring traditions, but let’s be real—that’s not our jam. So, come on in, roll your eyes, stick out your tongue, and brace yourself for the craziness we’re cooking up!
