DeW Dish with Allison LaCoursiere

In Print Issues by Allison Lacoursiere

What is the best part of your job?

Helping people grow and seeing people achieve their goals, overcome challenges or tear down barriers that were holding them back. I am humbled and honored I get to be a part of other people’s growth. I love being challenged and having a variety of different people to work with, problems to solve, and being able to use my creativity to uncover solutions to problems that seem unsolvable.

Who has been the most influential woman in your life?

My mother. She is by far the most resilient person I have ever met. She is the kindest and most loving, giving person I know and has taught me so much by example. She is one of the hardest working people I know and stays true to herself and her values with a fierceness that is uncommon. She has the kind of love that makes you feel safe, accepted and completely cared for. Her compassion for others is visible with everything she does. She has an innocence and love that is present in people who, despite their hardship and challenges they have been through, still believe the best in people.

How do you measure your success?

I measure my success by the impact I am creating while maintaining my personal health, wellbeing and joy. My goal is to help a million people in my lifetime; and I want to do that while taking exceptional care of myself, leading by example, and not compromising my health, wellbeing, energy or joy. I also measure my success by how much I am growing and learning. Money always feels like an obvious measure of success to the majority of people. Yet, to me it is not about making a million dollars or having a successful company; it is becoming the person who can create that kind of wealth, impact and abundance. Who is that person? Success is in the becoming of that.

What obstacles have you overcome in your career?

At the age of 24 and after being a dental assistant, I became an office manager; and I was the youngest person in my office who had brought forward a lot of suggested strategies for improvement. Because of that, a lot of my coworkers felt threatened; and I had a lot of bullying, hostility and negativity projected at me. It took a lot as a young person to not feel extremely hurt and demotivated by that. I was able to overcome it by aligning my success to my values and always operating out of a place of service and genuine helpfulness. I took the high road, and it ended up with my driving positive change and creating a new team with new energy… and ultimately achieving massive success in the practice. A side benefit was creating a pretty strong backbone and an ability to handle myself in really uncomfortable or challenging moments.

What do you do to turn around a bad day?

When I am struggling, I will always turn to gratitude. Outside of that I will typically play with my dog, Leo, do a quick meditation, find someone to give me a hug, or dance it out. I don’t typically have “bad days” unless something terrible or unexpected happens. I find that we can typically turn our frustration or disappointment around with gratitude or movement very quickly.