Empoworks was created to encompass all aspects of living a long, healthy, happy and prosperous life.

Own your LIFE

We all want to live long, healthy, happy, and prosperous lives.  This does not just happen; we must plan our lives. 

First, YOU need to take personal responsibility for YOUR life.  You must think about what you want your life to look like, who do you want to be?  What are your individual desires, hopes, and dreams?

Then you need to gain knowledge and implement what you learn into your life plan.

Without direction we may lose track of what we want our lives to be and before we know it, we may not have accomplished any of our dreams or life’s desires.  When planning a trip, we must know our starting point and where we want to go!  Life is a journey; we will have many detours and surprises along the way but with proper planning we will get back on track and live the life of our dreams!

Lisa’s Story

I have lived a great life so far; I have experienced many of life’s twists and turns. I have planned, set goals, and I continue to learn, hope, and dream. I have accomplished many of my goals and learned a multitude of life’s lessons through formal education, observation, reading a plethora of books on many different topics and happenstance. One thing I know for sure is life is what you make it! Your thoughts, positive or negative will form your life’s experiences. Your self-image, self-esteem, level of confidence, acceptance of personal responsibility, all play huge roles in how your life will play out.

I started my adult life as an entrepreneur at the age of 17, when I started my first business as a dog groomer, I purchased my first property with the proceeds I saved from working at my first job as a file clerk at a large insurance company. At the age of 23, I entered, into the financial services field and began my journey learning the importance of self-improvement and personal responsibility. I was a wife, mother, stepmother, care giver and businesswoman for many years. At the age of 32, I enrolled into college for the first time in my life. I earned a BS in Design and a MS in Architecture. I taught design and architecture at Miami University and UC for ten years while running two successful businesses, my household and caregiving for my father and brother. I am a specialist at multi-tasking to say the least.

Own your HEALTH

We have all heard the saying… “without health, we have nothing”. This is absolutely true. Think about having all the money in the world and all the wonderful things you could acquire with it, but what if you are too sick to enjoy anything? Some health issues may not be within your control, but most of them are. Taking control of your health is not the easiest thing to do but when you learn how and what you can do to increase your chances for a healthy life, it becomes less of a challenge.

Lisa’s Story

I was living and loving life, working hard, loving my family, and enjoying my friends. Early October 2018 I received a call from my brother reminding me to get a routine colonoscopy. He had just had one which was clear, but his doctor asked him to call his siblings as a courtesy to recommend they get checked if they were over the age of fifty, I was 59. I remembered having one in 2011 and was told to have a follow up in a year or so due to the number of polyps they discovered. Life became very hectic shortly thereafter, my 25 year marriage fell apart and my life drastically changed. I completely forgot about the follow up test. I hung up from my brother and called the doctor immediately to schedule a colonoscopy. The results were the discovery of a large polyp consisting of high-grade dysplasia which led to a visit with a surgeon. Within weeks I had my entire descending colon (18 inches) removed. I never gave cancer a thought, I couldn’t possibly have cancer, I was active, had no pain or symptoms but after a seven day wait, I received the diagnosis of stage III colon cancer. The words, “you have stage III Colon Cancer” changed my life. Without time to think, I was in the cancer system, port surgery, and Chemotherapy within three weeks of the diagnosis. After a few treatments I started researching what else I could do to gain control of my health. I learned about alternative methods and the importance of nutrition. I am now cancer free and feeling better than I have in years! I follow a whole food plant-based diet and exercise regularly. I became a fitness instructor and a guru on what and how to eat. One of the many books I read was Dr. Michael Greger’s “How Not to Die”. The evidence became so clear to me, our typical westernized lifestyle, eating habits and lack of exercise play a huge role in the control of illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and yes… cancer. My passion and mission in life had been established for many years as a designer of empowering homes and as an educator on personal finance so it just seemed natural to progress into the education realm of personal responsibility and total wellness; body, mind, spirit and financial health.

 Own your WEALTH

Financial literacy is knowing how money works, its understanding how to earn, spend, save, manage, and invest money.  Having a strong understanding of financial literacy will allow you to make better financial decisions and hopefully improve your day-to-day life.

An empowered life begins with a solid financial foundation.  Having your financial goals in order is critical to living an empowered life.  This means understanding basic financial concepts and implementing them into your financial life.

It is our mission to teach people how money really works and to apply those concepts to your life.  To help you understand:

·      the power of compound interest

·      budgeting

·      to pay yourself first

·      the rule of 72

·      how to protect your family from the loss of an income

·      how and where to save money

·      the effects of taxation and inflation

You also need a clear vision and a plan for your retirement.  What does it look like? How have you prepared to protect your family if you die too early or live too long?

Once you have your strong financial foundation built, all other aspects of your life become more stable.  This is the foundation you build your life upon.

Lisa’s Story

I was introduced to the financial services arena in 1983. My father was self-employed, so I learned a lot about money, saving and debt control from him. I was fortunate because most of us never get sound information about how money works. It is not taught in most schools or colleges. Early in my financial career, I realized how much I enjoy teaching people the amazing financial concepts, like the magic of compound interest and the rule of 72. Even when I left the industry to pursue my design career, I continued to educate anyone that would listen about the importance of understanding personal finance. As my design practice evolved and eventually merged with my financial and educational careers to form Empoworks my life’s mission is right on track providing all the services I love so dearly. My life has been full of many twists and turns but through it all I have thoroughly enjoyed being a licensed financial professional, residential designer of empowering homes and an educator of total wellness including body, mind, spirt and financial health.