Hello everyone, this is Tonya Dawn Recla, your Super Power Expert, and I am really excited to talk today with Renee Lopez. We’re going to be talking about the entrepreneur mindset, and she brings such a really cool flare to this. You’re gonna love her energy, but she has such a unique background. She was a college soccer coach for fourteen years, high school varsity coach for three years. And she’s all the about … As most people who are who come on this show, there is a lot of different areas where she’s mastered expertise, and one of those is in helping kids get into college, and scholarship, and stuff like that.
She’s amassed a ton of information in that regard, but then also the leadership, and mindset, and you can start to see the threads, and how all of those tie together, and that’s why I love the conversation about the entrepreneur mindset because I feel like she really embodies the complexity of entrepreneurship, and how we all go about that, and how so many of us are like, “Yeah, I don’t want to just focus on one thing.” We really can do it all, and then how do you do it all? And how do you go about that? I’m excited about the dialogue today, and I’m really excited to welcome to the show Renee Lopez. Welcome Renee.
Thank you so much. I am honored to be here today.
Very cool, and you have quite the impressive resume. You’ve been featured on ESPN Radio. You were named Coach of the Year. You’ve got some really cool stuff that I don’t know that we always associate with entrepreneurship, and mindset, and that kind of thing. And so I’m really excited to get into that, and kind of flesh out that journey, and how you got here. But first let’s start with what are your superpowers?
From point A to point B.
Wow, well I think for me I really love to help take people in a strategic way from point A to point B. And I think that is something that overlaps in all capacities, whether I am a college soccer coach helping my little freshman who comes in, is all intimidated because everybody is good around them, and they were used to being the star in their high school to be flourishing, and become who they can be on the field, or academically when they’re choosing a major.
But also what it looks like in working with entrepreneurs, and also just top level leaders. I do a lot of work with community service projects, and community agencies as well as corporate Fortune 500 companies, and really helping them try to strategically plan where they want to go, and what they want to do. And it’s amazing to see the overlap that happens because I love seeing that often times it’s really just a shift in their mindset, and going from one place to another, and thinking a little bit differently.
And so I love doing what I do now. Obviously, being on the soccer field is a little bit different than being in corporate America, but it is amazing how much an overlap there is because it’s all about competitive spirit, drive, and strategically planning where you want to go, and where you want to grow as well.
Awesome. Well, I loved how you talked about all that, and their getting from point A to point B. And I especially appreciate the fact that you added the strategy in there, and I think that, that’s really … That comes out in everything that you talk about in the very short time that you and I have connected. How did you go from soccer to corporate America? What was that path for you?
Well, about two years ago I actually had kind of decided I was stepping out of the college coaching realm. I was sick of working 90 hours a week, always on the road, waking up and never remembering what city I was in. It happened quite a bit, and if you do that for 14 years you kind of needed a break, and you get a little worn down. I decided I really wanted to discover who I was, and kind of think through ways in which I could utilize the skills I had been fine tuning as a coach, and what I really realized, and I did a lot of personality tests, and things like that. I really realized I’m really strong in strategic planning. I’m really strong in helping people discover who they are, what their values are, and how all those areas can tie in together.
And so I started to think through that I was really good at helping high school student athletes through the recruiting process, and understanding what types of schools would be good for them according to their talents, and their skills, and their passions. And so I had been doing recruiting seminars for years, and years for high school students, and in high schools, and clubs, and things like that. And after every time I would do one of those seminars, somebody would walk up to me and say, “You know, you need to write a book on that.” And for 14 years I blew them off. And I just kept saying, “No, that’s crazy. I don’t know anything about writing a book.”
And then fast forward, I started thinking through all this as I was stepping out of college coaching, and I go to a seminar with the John Maxwell Team. And John Maxwell Team is all about leadership, development, growth, and I ended up hearing a little bit about the 15 Laws of Growth, and what that books stands for by John Maxwell. It really talks about being intentional about your growth, and that leadership is influence. And I started to realize all of these areas started to really tie across to each other.
I started the book because I felt like I needed to grow.
And so I decided to join the John Maxwell Team, and was honored to be offered an opportunity to do that. With that, kind of started an opportunity to work with the Jon Gordon company, and the Positive Coaching Alliance, and Three Dimensional Coaching. And so all of these areas started to overlap, and really what I started to see was an overlap of personal growth, and the mindset of leaders, and what they needed to do, and where they needed to go. I started the book because I felt like I needed to grow, and at least take that step of growth for myself personally. And then at the same time I really started to discover a lot more about leadership development, which lead me to working in organizations like State Farm, and different organizations across the country.
And really it’s amazing because when I’m working with a State Farm Insurance agent who is really looking to grow his company, or I’m working with the high school student athlete who is looking to go into college, and play, and wants to get some athletic scholarships, and things like that. All of that is really about planning out their future, and ways that they can grow personally in order to influence others. And they could be seeking out that next step, and if we can help them discover who they are to be able to grow, and really stretch themselves, then we can really look to help and influence.
That’s a little bit long winded answer for you, but it’s been an amazing journey for the past two years. And who would have thought a college soccer coach would be working with corporate 500s, Fortune 500 companies, and corporations. Who would have thought that? But it’s amazing how many of the things that overlap across just people growing, and their steps to really think beyond where they think they currently are.
I love that. And I love the synchronicity in all of it. And it really feels very perfect. We’re gonna take a quick break. When we come back we’re gonna dive into how you can help hone your mindset, and move yourself forward, and get some advice from Renee on that. But before we do Renee, where can people go to find out more about you?
Well, I would love for them to connect with me. My email address is [email protected]. You can also reach me on our website. It is rlopezcoaching.com. I run lots of blogs on the high school student athlete, and the college recruiting process, as well as I run a lot of Facebook groups in terms of mindsets, and opportunities for you to grow, and doing a lot of keynotes and such.
I’d love to offer out to the first 15 people who mention this podcast to me via email. Again, [email protected]. That I will offer out a 30 minute mindset reboot for you. Whether you are a high school student athlete, and just want a thought process to move yourself forward, or you’re a leader, an executive in a community, or in any avenue of life that if you’d like to have a little bit of a mindset reboot. I would be glad to help you out with that for free. The first 15 people that contact me and mention this podcast, [email protected].
Beautiful. What a great opportunity. Jump on that folks. But stay tuned, and we will be right back after this break to talk to Renee a little bit more about the entrepreneur mindset. Stay with us.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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