Meet Stacey Clark of Leap Learn Live in Fort Worth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacey Clark.

Stacey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started when I was in my early twenties, I read an article in Time Magazine that explained that women were the face of poverty. Being a single, under-educated, and under-employed mom at the time, the article resonated with me and scared the crap out of me. I feared that one day, I would end up being one of the statistics they listed in the article. What the article didn’t say, was that these women, more than likely were experiencing Holistic Poverty. I define Holistic Poverty as a multidimensional form of poverty that goes beyond income, and negatively impacts a family’s ability to live a balanced and stable life. I was experiencing holistic poverty, but like most, I didn’t know it. What I did know was that I needed to make a move. And, I wanted my loved ones, (friends and family who shared my circumstances) to make a move too. Back then, I dreamed of starting a network of single mothers who supported each other in getting an education and starting careers. However, I was the only one who could see my vision, so, I saved myself and my children. But the idea never left me, and even though I am long passed those lean and uncertain days, I still have a place in my heart for mothers who are unknowingly struggling through holistic poverty. My goal is and has been to eradicate holistic poverty among mothers and others struggling with holistic poverty. I believe the Lifestyle Design program I’ve developed, based on Design Thinking can empower many mothers and others to overcome their life struggles.

Being a single mom was cyclical in my family. As amazing as my matriarchs were, each of them, in their own way, contributed to the life of struggle I found myself in as a young, divorced, mother of two. The wonderful women in my family (including me) needed more than financial help to change our lives in a lasting and meaningful way. What we needed was emotional, intellectual, occupational, environmental, financial, physical, spiritual and social; knowledge, skills, abilities, and support. We needed a holistic approach to healing what ailed us. Being single wasn’t the biggest problem any of us faced. Our biggest problem was the lack of ability to mindfully solve problems, by thinking critically and creatively about solutions that were uniquely suited for us. They say, “When all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.” For me, all I had in those early years was a sassy attitude and a hypersensitive amygdala. So, when I had a problem, I used my emotions to address it or I guessed. The Lifestyle Design program I created, L3 Lifestyle Design (based on Design Thinking), takes the guesswork out of problem-solving and decision making, and builds in collaboration, along with critical and creative thinking for way-finding in a systematic way.

I learned to apply Design Thinking to life’s problems, at a workshop created by a couple of Stanford University professors who wrote a book called Designing Your Life. The workshop was great and I learned a lot from the amazing women who ran it, but it was expensive for the average person, and at the time, it didn’t offer much access to people with lesser means. I thought to myself, these are the people who need this the most. I knew I wanted to fill that void, and that by doing so, I could begin working towards reaching my goal of eradicating holistic poverty among mothers and others struggling in their lives. The program I created is L3 Lifestyle Design. People who participate in the L3 Lifestyle program will learn my simplifed version of Design Thinking – Define, Design, Create(DDC) – a method and mindset for innovative problem-solving and decision making. DDC is an easy and accessible way for everyday people to apply Design Thinking to solving their everyday life problems.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Following my passion and believing in my life’s purpose is the only way Leap Learn Live could have come in to being. Over the last year alone, both personal struggles and fears of failure have challenged me, and if it were not for my passion and commitment to seeing this through, I may have given up. However, the biggest struggle I’ve faced so far, is just having enough time to do all of the things I have set out to do, When I started I was a team of one, and as such, I was and still am, spinning plates on sticks all day long. I do have a few amazing volunteers who believe in the program enough to eventually (once fully trained) take over some of those spinning plates. I also have a SCORE mentor who has helped immensely. But, for now, the plates are still spinning. I believe this is just how it is when you first start a new, innovation-based nonprofit organization.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Leap Learn Live – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Leap Learn Live (L3) is a Lifestyle Design Training and Coaching nonprofit. At L3, we believe everyone deserves to live their best life no matter where they live. We are disrupting design thinking’s elitist application by focusing on teaching everyday people, how to use Design Thinking to design an authentic and better lifestyle. This kind of training is not typically accessible to everyday people; it’s the kind of training reserved for the elite (think Google, Amazon and Apple). But I know, that leveling the playing field means, leveling up, not down. At L3, we want to teach our learners how to use their thinking power as well as the elite do.

Our L3 Lifestyle Design program’s Define, Design, Create method and mindset teaches learners how to take an authentic, action-oriented and systematic approach to creating their best life.

The L3 Lifestyle Design program participants learn to define their purpose and passion, goal-setting, problem-solving, fear-setting, and way-finding through online training and coaching and full-day workshops. What sets us apart is we offer an easy, affordable and accessible Lifestyle Design training program that has the potential to eradicate holistic poverty.

.So, what’s next? Any big plans?

Right now we are building our volunteer staff and looking forward to graduating from our start-up phase which is focused on providing Lifestyle Design training and coaching to mothers and others in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Once we are set here, we will begin to expand outward. Ultimately, we are looking forward to expanding our program internationally. We are already getting enquiries from people who want to volunteer from Canada, Austraila, South Africa and a few other countires, but we have a ways to go on that front.

Pricing:

 

• We offer Lifestyle Design courses for everyone, online for about $10.00 per class. Our classes are a buy one give one. When you purchase one of our classes, you also give a class to a struggling mom.
• We offer Full-day Lifestyle Design for Women workshops for $250.00 per person. Our workshops are also, buy one give one. When you purchase one of our workshops, you also give one to a struggling mom.

 

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.leaplearnlive.com
• Phone: (469) 844-0104
• Email: leaplearnlive@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leaplearnlive

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.