Creating & Nurturing Future Leaders

Lisa Anna Palmer believes in leadership at all ages, all levels, and all backgrounds. She and her team are passionate about helping people reach their full potential. As a public speaker, coach, and trainer focused on leadership development, she helps leaders to light a fire in their hearts by raising their self-awareness and practicing the 3 Cs of Connection: Compassion, Courage, and Competence. Her devotion to her craft is evident in her nearly three decades in the fields of leadership and, human resources & organizational development.

What sets Lisa apart from other coaches and mentors is her ability to teach leaders and their teams how to see the world through a lens of compassion and empathy, which elevates one’s leadership, boosts courage, and strengthens relationships through human connection and belongingness. She works with her valued LYLI team create and share courses and content that inspires, including communicating through social media and press releases to inspire people from across the globe to lead from the heart, backed by strengthened and aligned mindsets.

Light Your Leadership Inc. helps managers and executives to light their leadership and love their lives as leaders. We work with leaders in private, non-profit, or public sector organizations to evolve, elevate, and scale their leadership so they can drive results in healthy and sustainable ways. “We also help self-leaders to find their voice, boost their confidence, and help them unleash their full potential,” says Lisa. “We can teach the secrets of what sets great leaders apart: including the 3 Cs of Connection and the 8 Ps of Ignition: Profundity, Passion, Purpose, Perseverance, Professionalism, Play, Philanthropy, and Prosperity.”

As the proud daughter of hardworking Italian immigrants, Lisa has been passionate about helping people at work from day one. She started consulting in one of the Big Six firms at the age of twenty-two, where she led client teams to reengineer important government business processes. She has coached and facilitated workshops for thousands of people during her career. She started her journey as an entrepreneur after working in private and public sector roles for close to twenty years, when she founded her first company, Cattelan Palmer Consulting in 2011.

Since then, Lisa launched the international bestselling Light A Fire In Their Hearts: The Truth About Leadership, founded Light Your Leadership Inc., and created the LYLTalks Podcast in 2020–all done virtually during the pandemic while she was recovering from a serious fall that left her with a broken her arm and leg.

Lisa is currently writing her second book, the upcoming Leadership In A Post-Pandemic World: How To Elevate And SCALE For The Future With PURPOSE. Most recently, Lisa was featured as a co-host in five episodes of ECCL TV (on Roku), where she collaborated with a team of leadership and education experts to enlighten, encourage, and empower teachers, parents, and children to reimagine education. Lisa continues to advocate for and share strategies to raise awareness about the need for early leadership development.

Lisa supports female leaders and business owners by acting as a speaker, coach, mentor, trainer, and source of inspiration and encouragement for them. Her experience as a mother, partner, daughter and female business owner lends her to understand the challenges many women in business face. In addition, she has successfully overcome three burnouts and learned how to manage fibromyalgia. She eagerly shares her lessons learned with other women in the hope of helping them avoid burnout, to set healthy boundaries and to grow their leadership so they can advance their careers in healthier ways. In the past, she designed and delivered special workshops for participants in the WIL-STEM mentorship program for women enrolled in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Beyond business, she is a trusted advisor for women running for council and sits on the She Did It! movement Board.

She also delivered over 100 workshops as part of the World Skills Empowering Newcomer Women Program, and has delivered keynotes and moderated panels for the the local chapter of Dress for Success in Ottawa Canada. Lisa has moderated women’s panels to provide a platform, for instance, a panel for women’s mental health and an all-women panel for how to be respectful allies who honor Black lives. She is taking the opportunity to champion local makeup expert, L.A. Barrett as she launches her own make-up line by inviting her to collaborate in a tradeshow booth with the theme, “The Beauty of Leadership: It’s Within You.”

Recently, Lisa sat on a panel for Elevate International’s Girl Leadership Forum at Ottawa’s City Hall, as well as on a panel at the Elevate Women National Conference 2022 that took place in Canada’s National Capital Region. There, she inspired young women to step into their leadership and practice compassion and courage, find their voice, and get ahead while staying true to themselves. She is also creating a platform for shining a light on leaders who put people and the planet first. She prominently features women leaders and thought leaders through her LYLTalks Podcast, forming and emceeing panels, and all aspects of her work.

“As women leaders, we are constantly having to overcome barriers, find ways to harmonize family and community-related demands with growing our business. We continue to be challenged to prove that we are more than equipped to be ‘at the table’,” explains Lisa. “Given these circumstances, courage, grit, determination, and resiliency are key—as is finding our voice—while at the same time remaining compassionate and nurturing. That is the strength we have and that the world needs more of right now.”

Lisa encourages leaders to answer their calling with a clear vision and to trust that their faith, authentic relationships and the strength of their vision will pull them through, even as life tests us along the way. She holds steadfast in her belief that, “Together, we can make the world a better workplace for all,” WL