Life coach teaches self-care techniques to help people live their best lives

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

July 21, 2025

MENOMONIE – Whether someone is navigating a career crossroad, coping with loss, seeking more balance or simply craving deeper fulfillment, Lisa Traxler – owner of Inside Out Transformations, LLC – said a life coach can offer personalized strategies, accountability and mindset shifts that can help.

As a life coach and mindfulness consultant, Traxler said she does exactly that for her clients’ personal and professional growth.

Per Inside Out Transformations’ website (insideouttransformations.now.site), Traxler helps individuals, families, organizations and businesses “achieve their best lives through mindful practices, wellness habits and effective communication.” 

Specializing in relationships, stress management and conflict resolution, Traxler said she aims to empower people to transform themselves from the inside out.

“Life’s challenges can be uncomfortable and even painful, but they also create growth opportunities,” she said. “Like a caterpillar transforming in its cocoon, these moments allow you to emerge stronger and more beautiful.”

Learning from her own experiences

Though the business just had an official ribbon cutting earlier this month, Traxler said she has been a life coach for two years – a career inspired by her own personal experiences.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls with a degree in elementary education, Traxler said she taught for a couple of years in a private school, then 10 years as a middle school teacher in the public school system.

During that time, she said she also coached MATHCOUNTS – an extracurricular math program – high school cross country and middle school track. 

Traxler said she gained business knowledge selling Mary Kay Cosmetics, something she’d been doing as a side hustle since college. 

“That gave me a little bit of experience running my own business, even though it was supported by a very large brand,” she said.

After 12 years of teaching, Traxler said she was feeling burned out and felt like it was time to take a different direction in her life.

“I wasn’t sure what I was put here to do,” she said, “but I knew it was something different. I thought I’d figure it out when my daughter started kindergarten that fall. During the summer, I felt compelled to go to the Mary Kay seminar and training conference. I hadn’t been planning on going to that, but felt I was being led to go there.”

While at the conference, Traxler said one of the speakers told the audience that if someone wants something different in their life, they have to change what they’re doing. 

“That really spoke to me, and I then spoke to another person individually and felt almost like I was having an out-of-body experience,” she said. “It was really indescribable, but I felt I needed to pursue my Mary Kay business.”

However, after working at it full-time for about six months, Traxler said she still sensed something was missing.

“I felt like there was some other way in which I needed to serve the world,” she said.

About the time the COVID-19 pandemic started, Traxler said she was taking a personal branding class. 

“COVID was shutting the world down, so it was ideal timing for me, because I wasn’t hung up on what was happening in the world,” she said. “I was much more engrossed in who I was and exploring where I could go and what I could do with my life to serve the world based on what the world needs. Plus, I could be home for my daughter – that was really convenient.”

During her five years of personal exploration, Traxler said she got divorced, sold the house and she and her daughter – who by that time was going into the second grade – moved back in with her parents, who were needing a little assistance due to some newly diagnosed medical issues. 

“It was a place where I hadn’t planned to be, but it was exactly where I needed to be,” she said.

Coincidentally, during COVID, Traxler said she lost two close friends – both of whom were only in their mid-50s – which further inspired her focus on transformation.

“Losing them was a hard hit,” she said. “Between that, the birth of a business, a divorce, selling a home and moving in with my parents, it was all very emotional and very challenging. There were times I just cried, because I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing in my life – and I felt very alone a lot of the time.”

Traxler said she grew a lot during that time.

“I explored emotional health, emotional intelligence, co-dependency, boundaries and having healthy relationships,” she said. “I did a lot of learning during that time.”

Traxler said she also learned that everyone must do their own healing. 

“I now recognize where I played a piece in [past] unhealthy relationships, and what I needed to do so I wouldn’t repeat the same patterns,” she said. “Through all of that healing – which is the inside work – the results came out on the outside.” 

A new career

After searching for and praying about what she was put on this Earth to do, Traxler said the answer came to her during her time of personal exploration.

“Because of my own personal experiences, I felt this was something I could do to help people,” she said. “Then someone talked to me about life coaching, and as I started exploring that more deeply, I decided this was something I really felt I was being called to do and help people through their challenges.”

Traxler said she initially called herself a mentor, because she wasn’t sure what she could do with coaching from a legal standpoint. 

“But there aren’t a lot of stipulations, rules, regulations and laws about coaching clients,” she said.

Wanting to be as prepared as she could for the new role, Traxler said she earned a life coach certification from an online life coaching institute.

“I’m now working on getting my mental health coaching certification,” she said. 

Traxler said she stresses to people that she is not a counselor and doesn’t do any type of counseling.

“But I can help people find their next right step by listening to them and encouraging them to set their next goal and then help them reach it,” she said. “With my coaching background in sports, there are some similarities between that and life coaching and helping clients reach the next step and beyond. When our minds are healthy, our bodies are healthier. But to change our actions, we need to change our mindset.” 

Coaching and mindfulness

Traxler said there are two different aspects to the work she does with clients: coaching and mindfulness. 

Coaching, she said, is more one-on-one – though she is in the early stages of developing group coaching possibilities, a service that may be available by the fall – where clients are specifically looking for their next right step.

Traxler said that starts with clients discussing their goals with her.

“People know their lives and themselves better than I or anyone else,” she said. “So, for me it’s a matter of listening to the client, then helping coach them into their next right step.”

Though a separate focus of Inside Out Transformations’ services, Traxler said mindfulness is often brought into coaching sessions.

Mindfulness, she said, enhances life coaching by promoting self-awareness and emotion regulation – helping clients focus on the present moment, facilitating personal growth and decision-making.

Traxler said the benefits of mindfulness in life coaching include increased self-awareness, stress reduction, improved focus and emotion management – all of which can be accomplished through different techniques, such as:

• Breathing exercises to calm the mind and focus one’s attention
• Meditation practices that encourage self-reflection and presence
• Mindful journaling, where writing exercises promote self-reflection and clarity

Besides mindfulness, Traxler said self-care also encompasses self-talk, health and wellness habits and even our overall appearance.

In addition to using mindfulness in coaching sessions, Traxler said she shares mindfulness with larger group events – including community events she hosts and company-sponsored events.

“Mindfulness sessions are specifically centered around stress management and being intentional without judgment,” she said. “It’s also making sure everyone is centered around the same common language and they’re all practicing the same kind of tools for coping, de-stressing and refocusing.”

Everyone, Traxler said, has personal lives that bleed into work and work things that bleed into one’s personal life.

“By being intentional about slowing down, and finding techniques to cope when things go wrong or other people are having situations that are affecting us, we can better deal with and help de-escalate the situation,” she said.

From a company perspective, Traxler said this could help lead to a healthier workforce.

“There’s research that shows when meditation is combined with mindfulness, it can result in increased productivity, improved sleep, lower illness rates, to name a few,” she said. “That results in people being at work more and getting more done when they’re at work. All of that translates into increased retention.”

Traxler said she holds monthly mindfulness events for people in the community.

“These events give people an opportunity to de-stress and intentionally get away from the grind, the daily schedule and to-do lists and look internally and intentionally take time for themselves,” she said. “We have a busy mentality, and people need to learn to slow down and take time for themselves and think about their mental health.”