My name is Lois Hobart and I bring my Self fully to the arena of life coaching. With a wide variety of experience, a barely contained wit and nearly three decades of communication work, life’s journey brought me here – to this spot – at this moment in time – to offer up my “bag of tricks” to the profession of life coaching.

Earning an education degree with majors in Art and Theatre and a minor in Speech Communications, there’s always been a “flair for the dramatic”, the “creative” and the “humorous” involved - or HOPED for – in most of my life’s journey.

A keen observer of life, I found myself in the business communications field in the late 1970s and involved with talking to people up and down every rung of various corporate ladders (from CEOs to the mailroom), gathering information (from hamburgers to mascara to insurance to waste disposal), interviewing and producing. Then, fortunately, finding humor in it all, in 1983, I created and opened Corporate Comedy©, a production company specializing in humor for business – with an emphasis on musical parodies. By the mid-1990s the economy shifted and the oxymoron no longer worked.

I took my writing skills back into the same arena and worked as an audiovisual scriptwriter of corporate presentations and as a speechwriter for corporate executives. Again, the listening and parsing of information were necessary gifts I used to my advantage. Then I dabbled a bit in meeting planning and BAM! – age 40 struck and the “writer within” said: “If I don’t try to give my SELF a voice, she may choke and die.” In fact, this would have been a great time for me to see a life coach! I closed Corporate Comedy.

I wrote and played around – dabbled in theatre, wrote some short pieces that have been professionally produced on Chicago stages. I wrote some children’s books that remain unpublished but have won awards and delighted small children in their classrooms and at bedtime. I sang – sang my heart out – in professional choruses in Chicago, at weddings, at funerals, in the shower and may dabble with some cabaret tunes in the future – knowing that the “voice” – both inner and outer – matters.

I produced again – a women’s lecture series – Unique Lives & Experiences - in a 4300-seat venue in Chicago ; five internationally celebrated women – one a month – for five months. It was a “big deal” and a success. Then two and a half years were spent house managing the delightfully fun Chicago production of “Blue Man Group”, overseeing my staff and nightly full houses of 625 patrons.

I also spent over 12 years recording “books on tape” for the blind and visually impaired and the last decade as a director on the board at Chicago ’s Guild for the Blind. I also helped create their annual art show, “Passionate Focus”, a six-week gallery of juried works by blind and visually impaired artists that has become an annual benefit event.

In 2000, I attended a life-altering program called “Group Leadership Training” (now known as “Matrix Leadership Institute * The Art & Science of Sustainable Communities & Organizations”). Over an eight-month period, I tallied about 220 hours in an intense, experiential therapy setting with 12 other “students”, two facilitators and nine observers; an amazing and windmill-tilting adventure. When asked, I liken it to “Spending 220 hours with 22 Dr. Phil’s” – or “I sent my inner child to voodoo camp and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”. That being said, each moment of ALL these experiences brought me here. Not a moment of mistake or regret in any of it.

Oh, and then there was the journey with both my parents – their individual descents into illness and then death. Dad died of cancer in 1999 – with hope, dignity, grace, humor and was fearless. Mom died in 2004, also without fear, from heart-related issues and with her continued attitude of everyone else should be doing it for her. Their journeys, as different as they were as people in wellness, taught me great things.

Their deaths taught me about life – and about death – and about my role as an adult child - and how I quickly and painfully and, out of necessity, learned to define my “role” so I could be productive and giving to them until the end. Once I figured out it was not my role to be the “caregiver” – not a healthy role for a loved one - it all progressed beautifully – for all of us. I know, when they left this earth, I was able to bless them onward without guilt, hurts, regrets or resentments. And we’re all in better places today.

After the required course of study, I received my certification as a life coach from the Coach Training Alliance (CTA) in Boulder , Colorado .
I have membership in the International Coach Federation and the Chicago Coach Federation. Continued studies and client-hours will help me achieve accreditation with the ICF, currently “as far as one can go” in the field at present, as I proceed.

Want to meet the real deal?
Ready to try that complimentary sample session ?

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