I’m Lisa Jass, and I am a transformational coach. I have also been a high school English teacher for over 20 years. As a teacher, I am very aware of my students and their struggles. It is something that comes up often as I try to connect what is going on in their lives to the content I am teaching. The longer I teach, the more passionate I am about the lives of my students and how to make sure they are happy, healthy, and whole. Over the course of 20 years, my students have come to me before school, at snack, at lunch, and after school asking for my advice about all sorts of things: friendship, relationships, family, college, or just being a teen. Sometimes they just want me to listen. Other times they really want my advice; and in the past, I often felt inadequate. Teacher education simply does not focus enough on the skills needed to deal with the emotional/social aspect of our jobs. Then, I attended a course about communicating for success. During that course, I learned about speaking to myself and others more precisely. It was like a light bulb went on. I learned techniques to remove old patterns of behavior that didn’t serve me – that were in fact harming me – and how to replace them with new behaviors that would allow me to create meaningful change in my life. I also learned that you cannot just do the same things over and over again, expecting different results; you need to shift your mindset and learn new techniques to communicate more precisely to get a successful outcome. Then another light bulb went on – I saw that not only were these techniques beneficial to me, but I could use them in my classroom to help my students. I want to give them the knowledge and tools they need to be successful in all aspects of their life. I also realized I could help the parents participate in this experience by providing them with the tools they need to communicate with their teens in a way that brings them together. That’s when I decided to become a transformational coach, to help others shed old patterns and adopt new techniques to live happier, healthier lives. After taking many courses and becoming certified, I felt empowered. It was now crystal clear to me how I could use these newfound techniques to help students and parents learn to communicate more effectively and find success in different areas of their lives. Candid Conversations Coaching™ - Transformational Coaching for Parents and Teens was created.