Lashana West, a distinguished business therapist and mindset coach with over 20 years of expertise, has dedicated her career to helping entrepreneurs overcome mental barriers to success. Drawing from her experience in traditional mental health services and corporate leadership, West brings a unique perspective to business coaching, emphasizing the importance of “healing while building.”
As she prepares to share her insights at the upcoming Aware Humans Summit 2025 this Saturday, 25th of January, 2025, from The Aware Brand, West sat down with Rolling Out to discuss mental wellness in entrepreneurship, the power of self-awareness, and strategies for sustainable success. Her approach combines traditional therapy with innovative mindset coaching, making her a sought-after expert for entrepreneurs seeking to overcome personal obstacles and achieve their business goals.
How does your background in mental health relate to business coaching?
I was doing traditional mental health services, working with at-risk youth, at-risk families, and about 5 years ago I moved to Atlanta, and I seen the entrepreneurial scene, everybody rocking and rolling, going live and having events, and what I realized that a lot of them were leading while bleeding.
And what that is is where we show up like everything’s great, peachy keen, and then inside we’re struggling, and the root of that was lack of confidence.
What are three tips that can help with behavior changes?
The first one is very in alignment with The Aware Brand. It’s awareness, being aware that you are struggling with maybe imposter syndrome, and if for those that aren’t clear about what imposter syndrome, it’s the inner critic telling you that you’re not enough, that you don’t belong at the table.
And at some point everyone’s going to find out that you’re a fraud. It’s an internal thinking, right? And what I say is, you have to assess feelings versus facts. A feeling may be I don’t know what I’m going to say. Is anybody going to believe me? But a fact is, you have the accolades, you have the credentials, you have the expertise.
What drove you to this mission of helping others?
The focus reason on why I’m even in the field is because I grew up in a dysfunctional home. Both of my parents were addicted to crack cocaine, and I was resilient enough to not go down the same path. Now, luckily they’re both clean, but if you think about it, sometimes when people grow up in what I call a home that rocks and rolls, they can go down that same path.
And so I decided to make sure I didn’t repeat the cycle, started working with at-risk youth and then adults, and then realized that at the end of the day we are all here and destined for a reason, and if we don’t put ourselves first, then we can succumb to our environment.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
I was born in Germany, my dad was in the military, so when people say, “Where are you from?” There’s an array of eclectic experiences that I’ve had. I have a master’s in clinical counseling, I used to climb the corporate America ladder, I’ve been, direct care, middle management to executive director, and all of those things have enabled me to be well rounded.
What would you encourage other young professionals to do to advance their careers?
Number one would be for them to remember that there’s no roadmap to life. There is no book that you can go read that gives you all of the things that you need to do. You have to put yourself out there, and what I call try, test and tweak.
You’re gonna try it, you’re going to test it to see how it goes, and then you got to be open to tweaking it. So many people are very rigid and perfectionist to where, if it does not go right the first time, they’ll either give up or assume that they did not do what they were supposed to do.
What cultural influences have played a major role in your approach?
When I think of cultural influences, I’ll be honest with you, the things that we don’t think impact us is literally our superpower. If you grew up in the hood, and you had that auntie who was always struggling, but the family came and helped her, and she ended up getting on her feet, that’s a cultural influence.
If you had a parent or family member who ran a barbershop or hair salon and you were able to sit there and hear the conversations of whatever it was. And then, you see somebody knocking on the door selling things, that’s entrepreneurship.
What are some examples of your mental health practice and ecosystem for centering yourself?
I believe in a holistic approach, at the end of the day, when people hear mental health, they immediately think, laying on the couch talking to a therapist, and I engage in sound bolt healing. I actually do sound bolt healing myself at my event space, meditation, affirmations, mindset work.
Then also, the physical wellness, it doesn’t always have to be going to the gym and sweating, there’s Pilates, there’s Yoga, you can create a walking group. In short, coming up with your version of it, and being consistent and not comparing it to someone else’s, will be a way for you to make sure that you’re consistent with your mental health. So all the things I shared, I actually facilitate and engage in it myself, and that’s where I say coaches get the double dip, because we get to be served, when we’re serving.
How do you approach accountability in coaching relationships?
I’m smiling because my business is called accountability on demand, and that is how I know how important it is and what I realize self accountability is paramount. It does not matter what I tell Keisha whether it’s right, it’s wrong, whether you know I have evidence, that doesn’t matter, because perception is reality.
We got to stop personalizing it, and I would be concerned when I’m not getting feedback, because, in my opinion, if no one’s sharing what’s going well, what’s not going well or in the middle, then they don’t really care about me or my performance, and that’s a problem.
