Lisa Steven never imagined her journey as a teen mom would lead to founding an award-winning nonprofit that transforms the lives of thousands of young mothers. Yet that's exactly what happened.
With over 28 years leading Hope House Colorado (which now operates with a $4.7M annual budget AND two debt-free buildings), Lisa reveals how saying “yes” to telling her story reshaped her organization’s future.
You’ll hear the behind-the-scenes of the 6-year journey to publish her book, A Place to Belong, the fundraising magic that made it happen (including a $25,000 gift from a longtime champion!), and how strategic PR efforts are opening doors for new partnerships, speaking engagements, and national expansion.
Lisa and I also get transparent about the challenges of balancing leadership and creative work, imposter syndrome, the ripple effects of podcast interviews, and why hybrid publishing offers unexpected freedom.
Resources & Links
Learn more about Hope House Colorado on their website and their podcast, Life (Re)viewed, and connect with Lisa Steven on LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's episode is a powerful reminder that our
greatest challenges can becomethe very foundation of our
greatest impact.
Today's guest, lisa Steven, isthe co-founder and executive
director of Hope House Colorado.
It's an award-winningorganization that's been
transforming the lives of teenmoms for over 28 years.
Under her leadership it'sturned into a 4.7 million
(00:24):
powerhouse with two debt-freebuildings and national
recognition for their work.
Her story did not begin in aboardroom.
She navigated adversity,discovered a faith and
ultimately answered a callingthat would help thousands of
young moms find stability,community and purpose.
What I love about ourconversation today is that she's
(00:44):
taking us behind the scenes ofwriting her book A Place to
Belong the True Story of a TeenMom, and how it really fueled
her lived experience, fueled amovement to break the cycle of
generational poverty.
So you'll hear really some funbold steps that she's taken to
get her book into the hands ofthe right people and how it's
(01:06):
opened new doors for both herorganization and her voice as a
nonprofit leader.
If you have ever wonderedwhether your story matters, this
conversation is a great one.
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We happen to have had the most beautiful and amazing
woman who has now passed away,named Donna Wainer, who was one
of our champions.
She offered to help write thestory of Hope House, and so I
had given her my journals.
I had never given my journalsto anyone.
Eventually, after like twoyears, she was just like Lisa.
I'm a journalist by trade.
I write in vignettes.
(01:40):
I just can't do it.
About a year later, her husband, he called me and said we want
to give you $25,000 to writethis book.
We want to see this happen,Like that's going to be part of
our legacy is telling this story.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Welcome back everyone to another episode of Missions
to Movements.
Today's guest is an absolutepowerhouse in the nonprofit
space.
Lisa has spent more than 28years championing and empowering
teen moms.
She's the co-founder andexecutive director of Hope House
, colorado, where her leadershiphas transformed the
(02:16):
organization into a nationalstandout.
They have two debt-freebuildings, a multimillion dollar
budget and recognition thatincludes multiple awards.
But I think what's mostinspiring about you, lisa, is
that your journey began as ateen mom yourself, and you've
not only built a really thrivingorganization, but that you've
truly built a movement over theyears, and so Missions to
(02:37):
Movements that's what it's allabout.
You are also a fellow author ofA Place to Belong and a
co-founder of severalinitiatives that support young
moms and nonprofit leaders.
So, lisa, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Thank you so much.
I'm super excited to be here.
This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, yes, and I love having a fellow author on the
show, and one of the key topicsthat I love to discuss is
personal branding and thoughtleadership, especially for
nonprofit professionals andleaders in their organizations.
And last year I had mypublisher my hybrid publisher on
(03:14):
the show to really talk aboutthe process of bookmaking.
But I think it's a whole otherthing to hear specifically from
somebody who's gone through itat the nonprofit level.
What inspired you to write?
A Place to Belong.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh, wow.
So that is a really bigquestion.
One of the big things about mybook, the sort of the point of
the book, is what happens if yousay yes to God.
Like I, lead a faith-basedorganization and it was the
beginning journey of Hope House.
I mean, I literally still today.
My background is I worked atJCPenney's and I did home
daycare, so it's not like I hadthe credentials.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Thank you so much for that.
My daughter goes to a homedaycare and I love, love, love
her teacher.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes, I mean I learned a lot doing home daycare, for
sure, but I didn't.
And I actually did kind of learnsomething about running your
own small business from home,but it wasn't like I had all the
right credentials or tools ordegrees or things behind me to
start a nonprofit.
So part of the reason forwriting the book was like, okay,
I don't feel equipped for this,I don't feel like I have the
(04:19):
right tools or credentials forthis, credentials for this, but
I strongly feel that it'ssomething that I'm being called
to do because there literallywas nowhere in the state of
Colorado for a teen mother to goIf she were already parenting a
child.
We only had maternity homeswhere you could go if you were
pregnant, and so it was a hugeleap to say yes to God to do
something that was completelyout of my depth.
(04:40):
I had no nonprofit background,I'd never managed people, I
didn't know what a budget waslike, any of those things, but I
knew that I was being called todo this and I just had to trust
that God would equip me to dothat.
And he did by surrounding mewith, like, the most amazing
people.
So part of the point of thebook is what happens if you say
yes to God and then actuallysaying yes to writing the book
(05:04):
was a whole nother thing where Iwas like I'm not equipped, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I feel you on that.
I don't have time.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like why would you ask me to do this other than yes
?
I would love to share about allthe many miracles that God has
done along the way at Hope House, and I absolutely love telling
the stories of our teenage momsand their ability to overcome
and to.
They're so strong and sopowerful and determined and
brave and just problem solversand they'll do literally leap
(05:35):
tall buildings to create abetter life for their child.
So I love telling those stories.
I also knew kind of deep downthat I would have to tell my own
story, to tell the story ofHope House, and that I was not
so okay with that.
I was like, really, god, Idon't think so.
That just doesn't seemcomfortable and I'm not into
that.
So it took me a while to sayyes to writing the book.
(05:55):
But eventually my husband oneof my board members who happens
to be a pastor and he is verykind of shook his finger at me
and he's like you've got towrite this story, you've got to
tell the stories of what God hasdone, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
okay, I've got to do it.
So I finally said yes, but ittook a while.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Amazing, well, congratulations.
When did the book come out?
Came out in June of last year,2024.
Oh, so super recent.
Okay, yeah, I always likeasking how long did it take you
from?
You said yes to the process ofwriting it?
Did you self-publish?
Did you have a publisher?
Did you hybrid?
What was that experience like?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, so long I joke with my.
So we have a ghostwriter, susieFlory, who is absolutely
amazing.
I love her so much I joke withher that I'm probably the
longest storyteller she ever hadto work with.
I'm sure no one has ever takenso long to write a book as I did
.
So it took six years to writethe book, primarily because we
(06:53):
kept building buildings at HopeHouse.
So I have this big full-timejob of running this organization
and continuing to grow it andkind of trying to do this
writing on the side.
And I initially thought when wehired our ghostwriter that like
she would magically know myvoice and she would do the
writing and she is magical atknowing someone's voice.
But it turned out.
I do love to write and I reallywanted to do the writing myself
(07:16):
.
So she did a lot of thedirection and polishing.
But primarily what she did thatI could not have done without
her is she built the story arc.
So it took like three days forus to sit down together and for
her to help me pull out.
Like I have 20 years or morethan 20 years worth of journals
of all this amazing stuff that'shappening at Hope House and all
(07:37):
these crazy stories of our moms.
But where do you even start?
Like, when you have 20 yearsworth of stuff like who's
important, what's important,what's important?
How do you pull that out?
And then she helped me addcolor to it so it would not have
gotten written without ourghostwriter.
In the title she says by LisaSteven with Susie Flory.
So I say it's sort of by SusieFlory as well.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I agree.
I had somebody work with me onthe outline and it was magic to
watch how their brain worked andI thought it was going to be
written one way.
Nope, Completely different.
And I was like this makes waymore logical sense.
You just can't see it whenyou're like the creative and all
the stories that are in yourmind.
That's amazing.
You talked a little bit aboutfinding the time to write a book
(08:26):
as somebody who has a full-timejob and you talked about
building buildings, which I wantto dive into a little bit here.
What was that balance Like?
How did you actually structurethe time?
I know it took six years, butdid you really like hone down a
year or a block of time to write, or was it in the evenings?
Like what would your, If thelistener is another leader that
(08:46):
is wanting to do this?
Like, what would you recommendto them that ended up working
for you in that creative process?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah gosh, if I could go back, I would say definitely
block your time a little bitbetter than I did.
I essentially ended up doing iton my own time and because
anybody out there running anonprofit, I mean, typically
you're working at least 50 hoursa week anyway, it's not like a
nine to five job, and so it wason the weekends when I had time,
or after work when I had time,and then finally, at the very
(09:13):
end, I just said I need to takethree weeks off.
Block the time like off inquotation marks.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
But this is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
One of the other things is I would do sort of
half day chunks of writing hereand there where I would go to
like a friend who had a littlemother-in-law house that she had
behind her house and she wouldlet me write there.
And we had a board member whohas a little cottage and I would
write there.
So getting away and gettinglike out of my environment and
definitely not at work, that wassuper key.
(09:40):
But at the end I had to justrent like the what is it the
space where people go when theydon't have an office?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
like the.
What is it?
The space where people go whenthey don't have an?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
office like workspace .
Yeah, so we work essentiallyand I just booked like three
weeks and just wrote full timefor three weeks to finish it,
because I just wasn't going toget it done otherwise, good for
you.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I had to block out just significant chunks of
time and not have anything elseon my calendar.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
People tried to tell me and I didn't listen, I was
stubborn, like they were right.
I have a few friends who areauthors and they're like, yeah,
you, but they're authors, likeauthors, like they like write
books and under contract frompublishers, I know you're
shaking your head at me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You're an author too.
This is part of the impostersyndrome that we have to get
through of being able to saylike yes, we can do this.
Yes, our stories are worthy ofsharing.
So did you decide to go with apublisher?
Did you hybrid or self-publish?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So, to be completely honest, I mean that's part of
the like.
I mean I am really an author, Ireally did write a book and I
love your positivity and likeencouragement.
But, gosh, when we started theprocess, it was the process of
actually publishing.
And here I am working with a.
She's a very well-knownghostwriter, like she has a
movie out right now that shehelped write the story of the
(10:55):
Unbreakable Boy.
So she's like the real deal andI figured for sure, with her
connections, she would have likea literary agent that would
help us to get a publisher.
Well, not only could we not getpicked up by a literary agent
and without a literary agent youreally can't go to one of the
big publishing houses.
We couldn't get a literaryagent and we didn't get a big
publishing house, and so we didend up going with I guess you
(11:18):
could call it hybrid publishing.
I'm not sure I 100% understandthe difference between hybrid
publishing and self-publishing,but we paid the publisher to
Hope House.
Colorado, paid the publisher topublish the book and run the
first.
I think we ran 2,500 books andafter we did that we worked with
a PR company to do the booklaunch.
(11:39):
Amazing, like.
That's why I get to be here onyour amazing show today because
we have a wonderful PRcoordinator.
Outside of what we have forHope House.
We have our own PR at HopeHouse, but we needed someone
specialized in working withauthors and getting a book out
there, and so one of the thingsthey've helped us do is get on
podcasts, so it's been super fun.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, okay, yes, I want to dive into so much of
this.
Yes, I was hybrid.
I did the same thing.
I paid a publisher to do theediting, to do the cover design
to.
It was like a package that youcan pay for instead of going the
traditional publishing route.
I also wanted to do that and Ithink, which is great, because
you now you own your IP, you ownthe rights to the book.
(12:24):
So one difference we talkedabout a little bit beforehand
was I just came out with theaudio book.
If you had published through atraditional publisher, they
wouldn't have necessarily askedyou if you wanted to read it.
They would have just putsomebody else on it and you
wouldn't have had the ability toreally have a say, like you
(12:45):
kind of could.
But they would be like no,we're going to have somebody
else read it.
And it could be they could haveput a guy as the person reading
your book.
Yeah, which wouldn't have madesense.
Which wouldn't have made sense,wouldn't have been authentic.
But that's the business ofbookmaking in that world,
whereas with hybrid andself-publishing, you have
complete autonomy over the IP ofyour book, which I think is
really important.
So, leaning on this, like youliterally being here, yes, I did
(13:09):
get pitched with an email fromobviously a publicist.
How else have you beendistributing it since last June
and what's the effect been fromthat?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah.
So I mean, honestly, podcastshave been huge.
I've been probably doing one totwo podcasts a week.
We did a big book launch.
So I mean we have a naturalaudience because we have like
6,000 people in our databasethat are supporters of Hope
House.
So we have a natural audiencejust from that perspective.
So we pitched through a bigbook launch with all of our like
(13:40):
a bunch of folks who areactually in the book because
they've been a part of the bookfrom beginning, and then family
and friends, but also a lot ofour champions.
We call our donors champions atOpaus.
So we had this big book launch.
I will say I feel very, veryblessed.
I'm not entirely sure how anindividual would afford to do
this, frankly, all on their own.
It made it easier and it was ahuge blessing that we had a
(14:04):
champion who kind of underwroteme, having the ghostwriter and
doing the publicist route andall of that.
So it's not cheap.
I mean, we probably have spentsomewhere in the neighborhood of
$50,000 between the ghostwriter, the publishing, the parties,
the kind of the PR that we'vedone.
So it hasn't been aninexpensive road and I'm sure
(14:26):
there are probably lessexpensive ways to go.
But having someone hold my handis what made this even possible
, because I have such a big jobto do outside of this work.
So I would say the biggest wayto spread is really through
locally, is through our ownchampions, but then in other
places outside of Denver,colorado has really been through
podcasts.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Amazing.
Okay, so I want to dive intothat fundraising story a little
bit.
Did you approach the championsto say, hey, I've written a book
, this is what we'd like to do,but we need your support to
spread it out into the world.
Or was it more of like aprivate conversation with a
group of people that they justcame to you with this generosity
?
How did that happen?
Because I'm sure otherorganizations are brainstorming
the same thing of like how do wemake this happen?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, I mean back when this first, when my husband
and my board member were likethis is something you have to do
, like you have to tell thesestories.
And we happen to have had themost beautiful and amazing woman
who has now passed away, namedDonna Wainer, who was one of our
champions, and many years agoprobably at least 10 years ago
(15:35):
she offered to help write thestory of Hope House, and so I
had given her my journals.
I had never given my journalsto anyone.
There's, like you know,personal stuff in there too,
about my struggles with likeleadership and my struggles with
, just on the day to day, how doyou make this decision, which
all ended up being good thingsto put in the book, frankly.
But she took all my journals andshe set out to try to write the
(15:56):
story of Hope House not mystory, but the story of Hope
House and eventually, after liketwo years, she was just like
Lisa I'm a journalist by trade,I write in vignettes.
I just can't do it.
I can't do the story arc reallyis what it came down to.
And she felt so bad.
She was like I have to give thejournals back.
I don't think that I can.
I just I can't do it and I'mlike, oh my gosh, you do not
(16:17):
have to feel bad, it'll getwritten when it's supposed to
get written.
I still wasn't thinking that Iwould write it.
It will get written when it'ssupposed to get written.
And I mean I just love whatyou've done so far and we'll put
that all together and set itaside and when the day comes,
it'll still be there.
So about a year later, herhusband, when I started finally
coming to the point of like,maybe I need to write it and I
(16:39):
was just telling her and herhusband about this he called me
and said we want to give you$25,000 to write this book.
We want to see this happen.
Like that's going to be part ofour legacy is telling this
story.
Even though Donna didn't end upfinishing writing the book,
it's dedicated to Bill and Donnabecause they I mean they really
just stepped out in faith andsaid we want to see this happen,
(17:02):
we want to see this done.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
So they donated $25,000 and then Hope House has
invested the rest, yeah, that'sincredible and this just goes to
show like it's out there.
You just you built therelationship, you were having
the natural conversation and thegenerosity was there and I
think this is such a big pointwhere sometimes I mean you in
that case you didn't have to ask, but in the other cases, I
(17:25):
think donors just like want tobe asked for things like this,
Like they love clearly theorganization and the mission of
what you're doing, and if youhad needed to ask, they would
have said yes.
Since the release of the bookand doing the podcast, have you
seen an amplification in themission?
Is there any specific thingsthat the team is tracking?
(17:47):
Website view, Anything on thatside?
Are you being asked to speak inengagements, Any emails about
the book and it being read andhearing from people?
What has happened in?
I guess we're almost coming upto a year since the original
launch.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So some of the things I love the most is I have an
author page, which I didn't evenknow that was a thing, but our
publicist helped us kind ofunderstand.
You know what an author page is, and now that's all
transitioned to my team here atHope House and so I have an
amazing young lady that takescare of my author page for me,
because I'm pretty hopeless atsocial media, so she's teaching
me.
But I absolutely love readingthe comments.
Like people will write thingsback Like wow, I've wanted to do
(18:27):
something whatever X, y, zthing and didn't feel like I was
equipped or I didn't have thecourage to just say yes and go
do it.
And it's like so humbling forpeople to write back their
feedback and say, wow, thisreally inspired me to say yes to
go do something that I've beenfeeling called to do.
That has been so gratifying,like I love getting to
(18:49):
communicate with.
So on the Hope House side, it'slike old home week or something
.
It's like so cool to havepeople that have known Hope
House for 20 years or more.
And then you know newer peopleto Hope House who read the book
and they're like, wow, I had noidea.
Like I knew what Hope House didand I knew about the moms, but
I didn't know the depth of theircourage and the work that they
(19:10):
put in to break the cycle ofpoverty.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Oh, I just had an idea for you Listeners before
the call.
We were talking about monthlygiving.
Do you for your monthly donors,have they all received a copy
of the book?
Not all of them.
No, that's a great.
That is a great idea To sendthem in the mail as a thank you
for becoming a monthly donor.
Here's a copy of the book.
We're so excited to have youpart of the mission.
You should do that movingforward.
(19:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I love that Boom Done .
I love that, dana.
That is such an awesome idea.
I have given lots of copies toour teenage moms and we've had a
ton of our own champions buythe book publicly, like on
Amazon.
It's, I mean, I think it's soldlike 300 copies or something
like that, but we've probablysold you know, a couple thousand
just to our own champions andfolks who are close to Hope
(19:58):
House.
But I love where you're goingwith this because I think giving
the book to some of ourchampions, particularly our
monthly donors, our monthlychampions, that is such a
brilliant idea because itconnects you so powerfully to
the mission and the true depthof the work that our teenage
moms are doing to reallyhonestly to break that cycle of
(20:19):
poverty for their kids.
Like those stories areincredible.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, if you can find , like we were just talking
about, a champion that supportedthe initial launch.
If there's someone who is likeI'll buy the next 500 books,
I'll buy the next a hundredbooks, like to share with our
new donors that are joining uson a recurring basis.
I mean, how powerful is that?
You mentioned like the 300, andlook, my book is also.
(20:42):
It's a trade book.
A book that's meant for monthlygiving in the nonprofit sector
is not meant to have millions.
I guess there could.
There's one point somethingmillion nonprofits in the United
States, but not everyorganization is going to buy it.
It's meant to reach a selectniche group of people and cause
ripple effects in that specificcommunity.
(21:05):
So, one great example is I can'teven believe that I get to say
this, but I'm speaking in Italybecause in June, because of this
podcast and because of my book,like, I had a call with the
people in Italy and on the Zoomcall they held up a copy of the
book and I was like blown away.
(21:26):
Oh my gosh, I love it, Blownaway.
So those are the types ofthings, like listener, that I
hope you're getting from.
This is like not only doesLisa's internal champions board
want to support her in doingthis and finance it, but just
the incredible growth andamplification within your niche.
Like I think we see New YorkTimes bestsellers that sell
(21:50):
millions of copies and we have,like those expectations of like
that is success with the book,and that's not true, like your
300 copies, the local copies.
that's creating the local,regional, national ripples that
it needs to.
Yes, and I cannot tell youtheir books are.
There's no way, like duringthis conversation with you on a
(22:11):
podcast.
If you were to speak in a 45minute session, there's no way I
would be able to get as deepwith you as your book does.
Right, right, there's no way,and so it's not like I said this
in the interview that I hadwith Alison Trollberg, my
publisher like it is the mostimpactful business card that you
can hand to somebody.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Such a good point.
Such a good point.
I love that and I guess I'vekind of come to you know, I
started out feeling like I mustnot have done a very good job of
writing this if it can't belike published by a big
publisher or whatever, and thencame to like spend some time
with God on that one and I'mlike no, this is the plan.
And there's a reason why I loveyour point about the IP.
(22:51):
Also, it's on your timelinewhen you self publish or hybrid
publish.
Like if we'd had a publisherwho'd said to me you have to do
X, y, z by these dates.
Like they're kind of drivingthe bus in telling you how it's
going to go and what you'regoing to do and when.
Like that doesn't work for me.
We're beginning the nationalexpansion project and the book
is a big part of that and soI've realized it has to be sort
(23:15):
of organic.
It doesn't necessarily matterto me how much time it takes,
like it really has to be prettyorganic.
So we had a woman reach outfrom Kansas City who had picked
up the book somehow I don't evenknow how and she was like hey,
we need a Hope House in KansasCity.
Like we need to do this in mycommunity and that's really what
one of the big things we hopedfor from the book is.
(23:36):
That I mean, I want people tosay yes to whatever.
It might be something small,like you just keep feeling you
should volunteer for somethingand you haven't done it yet.
But it also might be somethingbig, like you should start a
hope house, like your communityneeds a hope house for the teen
moms who live near you, and sowho knows where that will go.
But kind of that organic growthof when you say thought
(23:58):
leadership, yeah, like yes,getting to tell the story on.
I love being on your podcast.
So I've been on a lot ofpodcasts and I absolutely love
all of them.
I love the storytelling aspectof most of them.
Most podcasts really seemmostly we're talking about like
having been a teen mom andstarting something and sort of
my story.
But speaking to other leaderslike really fires me up, like I
(24:21):
get to go speak at the coloradoprayer luncheon because of the
book, which is about 1100 peoplefrom across our state who get
together and that'll be thelargest audience I've ever
spoken in front of before.
Exciting it's so exciting andnerve-wracking, but very
exciting.
It's, like you said, justwaiting for the rebel events
(24:41):
make sure that that's going tobe on video.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
We do have our videographer coming.
Thank you, okay, goodvideographer photos capture that
.
Put that on your author page,that you speak on it, yes,
content, yes, so good.
No, I appreciate that andthat's what this show is all
about.
Is just like highlightingpeople like yourself,
organizations and the nittygritty behind the scenes that we
(25:04):
think it's like oh, a book likeyou must have da, da, da, da da
together, and it's like nopefor you.
It took six years.
I wrote mine, which is going toprobably blow your mind in four
weeks, and I just Holy moly.
And then I told my publisher Iwanted it published in four
months and she looked at me likeI was a little crazy, that I
was like we can do it For otherleaders, for other nonprofit
(25:25):
professionals who might beconsidering going down this path
and writing a book.
What advice would you give themnow, a year past launch?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Well, I guess I would say, think about your time,
like, think about you know, Iprobably could have done a
better job of prioritizing orreally understanding even what
the process would even.
I guess I would say, thinkabout your time, like, think
about you, know, I probablycould have done a better job of
prioritizing or reallyunderstanding even what the
process would even look like,how much time it would take and
how much you have to put into itto do it.
Well, I highly recommend havingsomeone, like you did, to at
least help you with the outline,even if you don't have a full
on ghostwriter, and think aboutyour audience and who it is
(26:00):
you're talking to.
So I got probably halfwaythrough writing and realized we
had started out writing what wasessentially a memoir and that
was kind of the space that SusieFlory plays best in as memoirs.
And then, through the process offinding that we weren't going
to get picked up by a literaryagent and realizing like, really
it's because I have an amazingstory and Hope House has an
(26:23):
amazing story, but a publisherhas to go out and sell tens of
thousands of books and tens ofthousands of people don't buy
memoirs of Lisa Stephen fromArvada, colorado, they buy like
memoirs of like like Susie Florywas writing like with
astronauts, you know, that hadgotten stranded on the space
station or whatever, like reallystories that, like, tens of
(26:47):
thousands of people will buy.
And so we had to change tracksand I'm so glad we did because
we moved and it never feltcomfortable to me in the first
place for it to be a memoir.
That seemed so I don't know,like I was done with whatever
I'm doing, which I'm not evenclose to done yet, so I never
felt super comfortable with it.
But we really moved more intolike women's leadership and this
(27:08):
being more of the angle ofbeing a leader and a woman and
just really so many humblingstories like leadership, stories
of learning how to lead peoplewell and what leadership really
looks like and how, frankly,just how hard it is and how
honest and authentic you have tobe about all the times you fell
(27:28):
down.
And very unfortunately, as aleader, when I fall down,
typically other people getlanded on a little bit.
So, like when I have bigdecisions to make when it comes
to our budget or what directionwe're going to go, that impacts
people's livelihood who work forHope House, and certainly
during 2008, when the GreatRecession happened, like we had
(27:50):
to make crazy hard decisionsabout letting people go because
we just had to.
We lost $250,000, had to cut$250,000 out of our budget in
one month Wow, and that was sopainful.
I definitely learned more thanI ever wanted to know about
leadership during that timebecause I had some incredibly
wise advisors around me whohelped me and guided me in
(28:13):
making the types of decisions wehad to make.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
You make those for the longevity of the
organization that is stillstanding in here today.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Exactly, but sadly, some of the people who were
amazing, people who were with usthen, are not with us now
because we had to cut so muchout of our budget.
So, all that to say, I guess mycomment would be determining
who it is that you're writing to, like.
Who are you telling this storyto or for?
Because that really sharpensyour focus of what you're
(28:41):
writing.
And why, like?
Why, are you writing this?
Why is it so critical forpeople to know we're here,
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Thank you so much for your time for writing this book
and I wanted to make sure wewill put a link to the book in
the show notes A Place to Belongyou can get it, I'm assuming
everywhere that you can orderbooks.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Anywhere you can order books.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Amazon is probably the best.
Okay, perfect.
And then you also have apodcast.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yes, we have a podcast.
It's called Life Reviewed, soR-E in parentheses, life
Reviewed.
And the whole kind of idea ofthe podcast is we have all these
assumptions about.
Well, for sure, people haveassumptions about teen moms.
They face judgment literallyeverywhere they go.
But we have assumptions aboutwho's a board member A board
(29:29):
member is ooh, they'reintimidating, they're like man,
they must be the CEO of somemajor company Like, and they're
super remote from the vision orthe day-to-day of the ministry.
So, like all these assumptionswe have of so many people, but
particularly I, teen moms, andjust reviewing that, like, if we
just shift our view just alittle bit, it changes the way
(29:51):
we think about maybe an entirepeople group like teen moms.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, so good.
So listen to the podcast.
Check out the book Lisa.
Where can people connect withyou individually?
Linkedin Is that a goodplatform for you?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Definitely go to LinkedIn, lisa Steven, with no S
on the end, the book is A Placeto Belong, and you can go to
our website,HopeHouseColoradoorg to learn
more about Hope House, and youcan find me there too.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Amazing Lisa.
Thank you again so much forbeing here and for putting the
book out there so that morepeople can learn about the
amazing work and the stories ofyour life and all of the amazing
moms that you've supported overthe years.
So, as from a fellow mom, thankyou so much for all you've done
.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Oh, thank you so much and thank you for the book you
wrote.
I cannot wait to buy it.
I didn't even know about itbefore this podcast and now it's
like the next thing I'm goingto do.
Yay, everyone go buy books.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Thanks, Lisa.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of
Missions to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening, yourfeedback helps us reach more
change makers like you andcontinue bringing impactful
stories and strategies to theshow.
(31:09):
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button, too, so you'll
never miss an episode.
And until next time, keepturning your mission into a
movement.
Today's episode is a powerful reminder that our
greatest challenges can becomethe very foundation of our
greatest impact.
Today's guest, lisa Steven, isthe co-founder and executive
director of Hope House Colorado.
It's an award-winningorganization that's been
transforming the lives of teenmoms for over 28 years.
Under her leadership it'sturned into a 4.7 million
(00:24):
powerhouse with two debt-freebuildings and national
recognition for their work.
Her story did not begin in aboardroom.
She navigated adversity,discovered a faith and
ultimately answered a callingthat would help thousands of
young moms find stability,community and purpose.
What I love about ourconversation today is that she's
(00:44):
taking us behind the scenes ofwriting her book A Place to
Belong the True Story of a TeenMom, and how it really fueled
her lived experience, fueled amovement to break the cycle of
generational poverty.
So you'll hear really some funbold steps that she's taken to
get her book into the hands ofthe right people and how it's
(01:06):
opened new doors for both herorganization and her voice as a
nonprofit leader.
If you have ever wonderedwhether your story matters, this
conversation is a great one.
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
We happen to have had the most beautiful and amazing
woman who has now passed away,named Donna Wainer, who was one
of our champions.
She offered to help write thestory of Hope House, and so I
had given her my journals.
I had never given my journalsto anyone.
Eventually, after like twoyears, she was just like Lisa.
I'm a journalist by trade.
I write in vignettes.
(01:40):
I just can't do it.
About a year later, her husband, he called me and said we want
to give you $25,000 to writethis book.
We want to see this happen,Like that's going to be part of
our legacy is telling this story.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Welcome back everyone to another episode of Missions
to Movements.
Today's guest is an absolutepowerhouse in the nonprofit
space.
Lisa has spent more than 28years championing and empowering
teen moms.
She's the co-founder andexecutive director of Hope House
, colorado, where her leadershiphas transformed the
(02:16):
organization into a nationalstandout.
They have two debt-freebuildings, a multimillion dollar
budget and recognition thatincludes multiple awards.
But I think what's mostinspiring about you, lisa, is
that your journey began as ateen mom yourself, and you've
not only built a really thrivingorganization, but that you've
truly built a movement over theyears, and so Missions to
(02:37):
Movements that's what it's allabout.
You are also a fellow author ofA Place to Belong and a
co-founder of severalinitiatives that support young
moms and nonprofit leaders.
So, lisa, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Thank you so much.
I'm super excited to be here.
This is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yes, yes, and I love having a fellow author on the
show, and one of the key topicsthat I love to discuss is
personal branding and thoughtleadership, especially for
nonprofit professionals andleaders in their organizations.
And last year I had mypublisher my hybrid publisher on
(03:14):
the show to really talk aboutthe process of bookmaking.
But I think it's a whole otherthing to hear specifically from
somebody who's gone through itat the nonprofit level.
What inspired you to write?
A Place to Belong.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh, wow.
So that is a really bigquestion.
One of the big things about mybook, the sort of the point of
the book, is what happens if yousay yes to God.
Like I, lead a faith-basedorganization and it was the
beginning journey of Hope House.
I mean, I literally still today.
My background is I worked atJCPenney's and I did home
daycare, so it's not like I hadthe credentials.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Thank you so much for that.
My daughter goes to a homedaycare and I love, love, love
her teacher.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yes, I mean I learned a lot doing home daycare, for
sure, but I didn't.
And I actually did kind of learnsomething about running your
own small business from home,but it wasn't like I had all the
right credentials or tools ordegrees or things behind me to
start a nonprofit.
So part of the reason forwriting the book was like, okay,
I don't feel equipped for this,I don't feel like I have the
(04:19):
right tools or credentials forthis, credentials for this, but
I strongly feel that it'ssomething that I'm being called
to do because there literallywas nowhere in the state of
Colorado for a teen mother to goIf she were already parenting a
child.
We only had maternity homeswhere you could go if you were
pregnant, and so it was a hugeleap to say yes to God to do
something that was completelyout of my depth.
(04:40):
I had no nonprofit background,I'd never managed people, I
didn't know what a budget waslike, any of those things, but I
knew that I was being called todo this and I just had to trust
that God would equip me to dothat.
And he did by surrounding mewith, like, the most amazing
people.
So part of the point of thebook is what happens if you say
yes to God and then actuallysaying yes to writing the book
(05:04):
was a whole nother thing where Iwas like I'm not equipped, I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I feel you on that.
I don't have time.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like why would you ask me to do this other than yes
?
I would love to share about allthe many miracles that God has
done along the way at Hope House, and I absolutely love telling
the stories of our teenage momsand their ability to overcome
and to.
They're so strong and sopowerful and determined and
brave and just problem solversand they'll do literally leap
(05:35):
tall buildings to create abetter life for their child.
So I love telling those stories.
I also knew kind of deep downthat I would have to tell my own
story, to tell the story ofHope House, and that I was not
so okay with that.
I was like, really, god, Idon't think so.
That just doesn't seemcomfortable and I'm not into
that.
So it took me a while to sayyes to writing the book.
(05:55):
But eventually my husband oneof my board members who happens
to be a pastor and he is verykind of shook his finger at me
and he's like you've got towrite this story, you've got to
tell the stories of what God hasdone, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
okay, I've got to do it.
So I finally said yes, but ittook a while.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Amazing, well, congratulations.
When did the book come out?
Came out in June of last year,2024.
Oh, so super recent.
Okay, yeah, I always likeasking how long did it take you
from?
You said yes to the process ofwriting it?
Did you self-publish?
Did you have a publisher?
Did you hybrid?
What was that experience like?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, so long I joke with my.
So we have a ghostwriter, susieFlory, who is absolutely
amazing.
I love her so much I joke withher that I'm probably the
longest storyteller she ever hadto work with.
I'm sure no one has ever takenso long to write a book as I did
.
So it took six years to writethe book, primarily because we
(06:53):
kept building buildings at HopeHouse.
So I have this big full-timejob of running this organization
and continuing to grow it andkind of trying to do this
writing on the side.
And I initially thought when wehired our ghostwriter that like
she would magically know myvoice and she would do the
writing and she is magical atknowing someone's voice.
But it turned out.
I do love to write and I reallywanted to do the writing myself
(07:16):
.
So she did a lot of thedirection and polishing.
But primarily what she did thatI could not have done without
her is she built the story arc.
So it took like three days forus to sit down together and for
her to help me pull out.
Like I have 20 years or morethan 20 years worth of journals
of all this amazing stuff that'shappening at Hope House and all
(07:37):
these crazy stories of our moms.
But where do you even start?
Like, when you have 20 yearsworth of stuff like who's
important, what's important,what's important?
How do you pull that out?
And then she helped me addcolor to it so it would not have
gotten written without ourghostwriter.
In the title she says by LisaSteven with Susie Flory.
So I say it's sort of by SusieFlory as well.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I agree.
I had somebody work with me onthe outline and it was magic to
watch how their brain worked andI thought it was going to be
written one way.
Nope, Completely different.
And I was like this makes waymore logical sense.
You just can't see it whenyou're like the creative and all
the stories that are in yourmind.
That's amazing.
You talked a little bit aboutfinding the time to write a book
(08:26):
as somebody who has a full-timejob and you talked about
building buildings, which I wantto dive into a little bit here.
What was that balance Like?
How did you actually structurethe time?
I know it took six years, butdid you really like hone down a
year or a block of time to write, or was it in the evenings?
Like what would your, If thelistener is another leader that
(08:46):
is wanting to do this?
Like, what would you recommendto them that ended up working
for you in that creative process?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah gosh, if I could go back, I would say definitely
block your time a little bitbetter than I did.
I essentially ended up doing iton my own time and because
anybody out there running anonprofit, I mean, typically
you're working at least 50 hoursa week anyway, it's not like a
nine to five job, and so it wason the weekends when I had time,
or after work when I had time,and then finally, at the very
(09:13):
end, I just said I need to takethree weeks off.
Block the time like off inquotation marks.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
But this is.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
One of the other things is I would do sort of
half day chunks of writing hereand there where I would go to
like a friend who had a littlemother-in-law house that she had
behind her house and she wouldlet me write there.
And we had a board member whohas a little cottage and I would
write there.
So getting away and gettinglike out of my environment and
definitely not at work, that wassuper key.
(09:40):
But at the end I had to justrent like the what is it the
space where people go when theydon't have an office?
Speaker 1 (09:47):
like the.
What is it?
The space where people go whenthey don't have an?
Speaker 2 (09:49):
office like workspace .
Yeah, so we work essentiallyand I just booked like three
weeks and just wrote full timefor three weeks to finish it,
because I just wasn't going toget it done otherwise, good for
you.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, I had to block out just significant chunks of
time and not have anything elseon my calendar.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
People tried to tell me and I didn't listen, I was
stubborn, like they were right.
I have a few friends who areauthors and they're like, yeah,
you, but they're authors, likeauthors, like they like write
books and under contract frompublishers, I know you're
shaking your head at me.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You're an author too.
This is part of the impostersyndrome that we have to get
through of being able to saylike yes, we can do this.
Yes, our stories are worthy ofsharing.
So did you decide to go with apublisher?
Did you hybrid or self-publish?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
So, to be completely honest, I mean that's part of
the like.
I mean I am really an author, Ireally did write a book and I
love your positivity and likeencouragement.
But, gosh, when we started theprocess, it was the process of
actually publishing.
And here I am working with a.
She's a very well-knownghostwriter, like she has a
movie out right now that shehelped write the story of the
(10:55):
Unbreakable Boy.
So she's like the real deal andI figured for sure, with her
connections, she would have likea literary agent that would
help us to get a publisher.
Well, not only could we not getpicked up by a literary agent
and without a literary agent youreally can't go to one of the
big publishing houses.
We couldn't get a literaryagent and we didn't get a big
publishing house, and so we didend up going with I guess you
(11:18):
could call it hybrid publishing.
I'm not sure I 100% understandthe difference between hybrid
publishing and self-publishing,but we paid the publisher to
Hope House.
Colorado, paid the publisher topublish the book and run the
first.
I think we ran 2,500 books andafter we did that we worked with
a PR company to do the booklaunch.
(11:39):
Amazing, like.
That's why I get to be here onyour amazing show today because
we have a wonderful PRcoordinator.
Outside of what we have forHope House.
We have our own PR at HopeHouse, but we needed someone
specialized in working withauthors and getting a book out
there, and so one of the thingsthey've helped us do is get on
podcasts, so it's been super fun.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yes, okay, yes, I want to dive into so much of
this.
Yes, I was hybrid.
I did the same thing.
I paid a publisher to do theediting, to do the cover design
to.
It was like a package that youcan pay for instead of going the
traditional publishing route.
I also wanted to do that and Ithink, which is great, because
you now you own your IP, you ownthe rights to the book.
(12:24):
So one difference we talkedabout a little bit beforehand
was I just came out with theaudio book.
If you had published through atraditional publisher, they
wouldn't have necessarily askedyou if you wanted to read it.
They would have just putsomebody else on it and you
wouldn't have had the ability toreally have a say, like you
(12:45):
kind of could.
But they would be like no,we're going to have somebody
else read it.
And it could be they could haveput a guy as the person reading
your book.
Yeah, which wouldn't have madesense.
Which wouldn't have made sense,wouldn't have been authentic.
But that's the business ofbookmaking in that world,
whereas with hybrid andself-publishing, you have
complete autonomy over the IP ofyour book, which I think is
really important.
So, leaning on this, like youliterally being here, yes, I did
(13:09):
get pitched with an email fromobviously a publicist.
How else have you beendistributing it since last June
and what's the effect been fromthat?
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah.
So I mean, honestly, podcastshave been huge.
I've been probably doing one totwo podcasts a week.
We did a big book launch.
So I mean we have a naturalaudience because we have like
6,000 people in our databasethat are supporters of Hope
House.
So we have a natural audiencejust from that perspective.
So we pitched through a bigbook launch with all of our like
(13:40):
a bunch of folks who areactually in the book because
they've been a part of the bookfrom beginning, and then family
and friends, but also a lot ofour champions.
We call our donors champions atOpaus.
So we had this big book launch.
I will say I feel very, veryblessed.
I'm not entirely sure how anindividual would afford to do
this, frankly, all on their own.
It made it easier and it was ahuge blessing that we had a
(14:04):
champion who kind of underwroteme, having the ghostwriter and
doing the publicist route andall of that.
So it's not cheap.
I mean, we probably have spentsomewhere in the neighborhood of
$50,000 between the ghostwriter, the publishing, the parties,
the kind of the PR that we'vedone.
So it hasn't been aninexpensive road and I'm sure
(14:26):
there are probably lessexpensive ways to go.
But having someone hold my handis what made this even possible
, because I have such a big jobto do outside of this work.
So I would say the biggest wayto spread is really through
locally, is through our ownchampions, but then in other
places outside of Denver,colorado has really been through
podcasts.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Amazing.
Okay, so I want to dive intothat fundraising story a little
bit.
Did you approach the championsto say, hey, I've written a book
, this is what we'd like to do,but we need your support to
spread it out into the world.
Or was it more of like aprivate conversation with a
group of people that they justcame to you with this generosity
?
How did that happen?
Because I'm sure otherorganizations are brainstorming
the same thing of like how do wemake this happen?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, I mean back when this first, when my husband
and my board member were likethis is something you have to do
, like you have to tell thesestories.
And we happen to have had themost beautiful and amazing woman
who has now passed away, namedDonna Wainer, who was one of our
champions, and many years agoprobably at least 10 years ago
(15:35):
she offered to help write thestory of Hope House, and so I
had given her my journals.
I had never given my journalsto anyone.
There's, like you know,personal stuff in there too,
about my struggles with likeleadership and my struggles with
, just on the day to day, how doyou make this decision, which
all ended up being good thingsto put in the book, frankly.
But she took all my journals andshe set out to try to write the
(15:56):
story of Hope House not mystory, but the story of Hope
House and eventually, after liketwo years, she was just like
Lisa I'm a journalist by trade,I write in vignettes.
I just can't do it.
I can't do the story arc reallyis what it came down to.
And she felt so bad.
She was like I have to give thejournals back.
I don't think that I can.
I just I can't do it and I'mlike, oh my gosh, you do not
(16:17):
have to feel bad, it'll getwritten when it's supposed to
get written.
I still wasn't thinking that Iwould write it.
It will get written when it'ssupposed to get written.
And I mean I just love whatyou've done so far and we'll put
that all together and set itaside and when the day comes,
it'll still be there.
So about a year later, herhusband, when I started finally
coming to the point of like,maybe I need to write it and I
(16:39):
was just telling her and herhusband about this he called me
and said we want to give you$25,000 to write this book.
We want to see this happen.
Like that's going to be part ofour legacy is telling this
story.
Even though Donna didn't end upfinishing writing the book,
it's dedicated to Bill and Donnabecause they I mean they really
just stepped out in faith andsaid we want to see this happen,
(17:02):
we want to see this done.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
So they donated $25,000 and then Hope House has
invested the rest, yeah, that'sincredible and this just goes to
show like it's out there.
You just you built therelationship, you were having
the natural conversation and thegenerosity was there and I
think this is such a big pointwhere sometimes I mean you in
that case you didn't have to ask, but in the other cases, I
(17:25):
think donors just like want tobe asked for things like this,
Like they love clearly theorganization and the mission of
what you're doing, and if youhad needed to ask, they would
have said yes.
Since the release of the bookand doing the podcast, have you
seen an amplification in themission?
Is there any specific thingsthat the team is tracking?
(17:47):
Website view, Anything on thatside?
Are you being asked to speak inengagements, Any emails about
the book and it being read andhearing from people?
What has happened in?
I guess we're almost coming upto a year since the original
launch.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So some of the things I love the most is I have an
author page, which I didn't evenknow that was a thing, but our
publicist helped us kind ofunderstand.
You know what an author page is, and now that's all
transitioned to my team here atHope House and so I have an
amazing young lady that takescare of my author page for me,
because I'm pretty hopeless atsocial media, so she's teaching
me.
But I absolutely love readingthe comments.
Like people will write thingsback Like wow, I've wanted to do
(18:27):
something whatever X, y, zthing and didn't feel like I was
equipped or I didn't have thecourage to just say yes and go
do it.
And it's like so humbling forpeople to write back their
feedback and say, wow, thisreally inspired me to say yes to
go do something that I've beenfeeling called to do.
That has been so gratifying,like I love getting to
(18:49):
communicate with.
So on the Hope House side, it'slike old home week or something
.
It's like so cool to havepeople that have known Hope
House for 20 years or more.
And then you know newer peopleto Hope House who read the book
and they're like, wow, I had noidea.
Like I knew what Hope House didand I knew about the moms, but
I didn't know the depth of theircourage and the work that they
(19:10):
put in to break the cycle ofpoverty.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Oh, I just had an idea for you Listeners before
the call.
We were talking about monthlygiving.
Do you for your monthly donors,have they all received a copy
of the book?
Not all of them.
No, that's a great.
That is a great idea To sendthem in the mail as a thank you
for becoming a monthly donor.
Here's a copy of the book.
We're so excited to have youpart of the mission.
You should do that movingforward.
(19:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I love that Boom Done .
I love that, dana.
That is such an awesome idea.
I have given lots of copies toour teenage moms and we've had a
ton of our own champions buythe book publicly, like on
Amazon.
It's, I mean, I think it's soldlike 300 copies or something
like that, but we've probablysold you know, a couple thousand
just to our own champions andfolks who are close to Hope
(19:58):
House.
But I love where you're goingwith this because I think giving
the book to some of ourchampions, particularly our
monthly donors, our monthlychampions, that is such a
brilliant idea because itconnects you so powerfully to
the mission and the true depthof the work that our teenage
moms are doing to reallyhonestly to break that cycle of
(20:19):
poverty for their kids.
Like those stories areincredible.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, if you can find , like we were just talking
about, a champion that supportedthe initial launch.
If there's someone who is likeI'll buy the next 500 books,
I'll buy the next a hundredbooks, like to share with our
new donors that are joining uson a recurring basis.
I mean, how powerful is that?
You mentioned like the 300, andlook, my book is also.
(20:42):
It's a trade book.
A book that's meant for monthlygiving in the nonprofit sector
is not meant to have millions.
I guess there could.
There's one point somethingmillion nonprofits in the United
States, but not everyorganization is going to buy it.
It's meant to reach a selectniche group of people and cause
ripple effects in that specificcommunity.
(21:05):
So, one great example is I can'teven believe that I get to say
this, but I'm speaking in Italybecause in June, because of this
podcast and because of my book,like, I had a call with the
people in Italy and on the Zoomcall they held up a copy of the
book and I was like blown away.
(21:26):
Oh my gosh, I love it, Blownaway.
So those are the types ofthings, like listener, that I
hope you're getting from.
This is like not only doesLisa's internal champions board
want to support her in doingthis and finance it, but just
the incredible growth andamplification within your niche.
Like I think we see New YorkTimes bestsellers that sell
(21:50):
millions of copies and we have,like those expectations of like
that is success with the book,and that's not true, like your
300 copies, the local copies.
that's creating the local,regional, national ripples that
it needs to.
Yes, and I cannot tell youtheir books are.
There's no way, like duringthis conversation with you on a
(22:11):
podcast.
If you were to speak in a 45minute session, there's no way I
would be able to get as deepwith you as your book does.
Right, right, there's no way,and so it's not like I said this
in the interview that I hadwith Alison Trollberg, my
publisher like it is the mostimpactful business card that you
can hand to somebody.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Such a good point.
Such a good point.
I love that and I guess I'vekind of come to you know, I
started out feeling like I mustnot have done a very good job of
writing this if it can't belike published by a big
publisher or whatever, and thencame to like spend some time
with God on that one and I'mlike no, this is the plan.
And there's a reason why I loveyour point about the IP.
(22:51):
Also, it's on your timelinewhen you self publish or hybrid
publish.
Like if we'd had a publisherwho'd said to me you have to do
X, y, z by these dates.
Like they're kind of drivingthe bus in telling you how it's
going to go and what you'regoing to do and when.
Like that doesn't work for me.
We're beginning the nationalexpansion project and the book
is a big part of that and soI've realized it has to be sort
(23:15):
of organic.
It doesn't necessarily matterto me how much time it takes,
like it really has to be prettyorganic.
So we had a woman reach outfrom Kansas City who had picked
up the book somehow I don't evenknow how and she was like hey,
we need a Hope House in KansasCity.
Like we need to do this in mycommunity and that's really what
one of the big things we hopedfor from the book is.
(23:36):
That I mean, I want people tosay yes to whatever.
It might be something small,like you just keep feeling you
should volunteer for somethingand you haven't done it yet.
But it also might be somethingbig, like you should start a
hope house, like your communityneeds a hope house for the teen
moms who live near you, and sowho knows where that will go.
But kind of that organic growthof when you say thought
(23:58):
leadership, yeah, like yes,getting to tell the story on.
I love being on your podcast.
So I've been on a lot ofpodcasts and I absolutely love
all of them.
I love the storytelling aspectof most of them.
Most podcasts really seemmostly we're talking about like
having been a teen mom andstarting something and sort of
my story.
But speaking to other leaderslike really fires me up, like I
(24:21):
get to go speak at the coloradoprayer luncheon because of the
book, which is about 1100 peoplefrom across our state who get
together and that'll be thelargest audience I've ever
spoken in front of before.
Exciting it's so exciting andnerve-wracking, but very
exciting.
It's, like you said, justwaiting for the rebel events
(24:41):
make sure that that's going tobe on video.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
We do have our videographer coming.
Thank you, okay, goodvideographer photos capture that
.
Put that on your author page,that you speak on it, yes,
content, yes, so good.
No, I appreciate that andthat's what this show is all
about.
Is just like highlightingpeople like yourself,
organizations and the nittygritty behind the scenes that we
(25:04):
think it's like oh, a book likeyou must have da, da, da, da da
together, and it's like nopefor you.
It took six years.
I wrote mine, which is going toprobably blow your mind in four
weeks, and I just Holy moly.
And then I told my publisher Iwanted it published in four
months and she looked at me likeI was a little crazy, that I
was like we can do it For otherleaders, for other nonprofit
(25:25):
professionals who might beconsidering going down this path
and writing a book.
What advice would you give themnow, a year past launch?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Well, I guess I would say, think about your time,
like, think about you know, Iprobably could have done a
better job of prioritizing orreally understanding even what
the process would even.
I guess I would say, thinkabout your time, like, think
about you, know, I probablycould have done a better job of
prioritizing or reallyunderstanding even what the
process would even look like,how much time it would take and
how much you have to put into itto do it.
Well, I highly recommend havingsomeone, like you did, to at
least help you with the outline,even if you don't have a full
on ghostwriter, and think aboutyour audience and who it is
(26:00):
you're talking to.
So I got probably halfwaythrough writing and realized we
had started out writing what wasessentially a memoir and that
was kind of the space that SusieFlory plays best in as memoirs.
And then, through the process offinding that we weren't going
to get picked up by a literaryagent and realizing like, really
it's because I have an amazingstory and Hope House has an
(26:23):
amazing story, but a publisherhas to go out and sell tens of
thousands of books and tens ofthousands of people don't buy
memoirs of Lisa Stephen fromArvada, colorado, they buy like
memoirs of like like Susie Florywas writing like with
astronauts, you know, that hadgotten stranded on the space
station or whatever, like reallystories that, like, tens of
(26:47):
thousands of people will buy.
And so we had to change tracksand I'm so glad we did because
we moved and it never feltcomfortable to me in the first
place for it to be a memoir.
That seemed so I don't know,like I was done with whatever
I'm doing, which I'm not evenclose to done yet, so I never
felt super comfortable with it.
But we really moved more intolike women's leadership and this
(27:08):
being more of the angle ofbeing a leader and a woman and
just really so many humblingstories like leadership, stories
of learning how to lead peoplewell and what leadership really
looks like and how, frankly,just how hard it is and how
honest and authentic you have tobe about all the times you fell
(27:28):
down.
And very unfortunately, as aleader, when I fall down,
typically other people getlanded on a little bit.
So, like when I have bigdecisions to make when it comes
to our budget or what directionwe're going to go, that impacts
people's livelihood who work forHope House, and certainly
during 2008, when the GreatRecession happened, like we had
(27:50):
to make crazy hard decisionsabout letting people go because
we just had to.
We lost $250,000, had to cut$250,000 out of our budget in
one month Wow, and that was sopainful.
I definitely learned more thanI ever wanted to know about
leadership during that timebecause I had some incredibly
wise advisors around me whohelped me and guided me in
(28:13):
making the types of decisions wehad to make.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
You make those for the longevity of the
organization that is stillstanding in here today.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Exactly, but sadly, some of the people who were
amazing, people who were with usthen, are not with us now
because we had to cut so muchout of our budget.
So, all that to say, I guess mycomment would be determining
who it is that you're writing to, like.
Who are you telling this storyto or for?
Because that really sharpensyour focus of what you're
(28:41):
writing.
And why, like?
Why, are you writing this?
Why is it so critical forpeople to know we're here,
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Thank you so much for your time for writing this book
and I wanted to make sure wewill put a link to the book in
the show notes A Place to Belongyou can get it, I'm assuming
everywhere that you can orderbooks.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Anywhere you can order books.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Amazon is probably the best.
Okay, perfect.
And then you also have apodcast.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Yes, we have a podcast.
It's called Life Reviewed, soR-E in parentheses, life
Reviewed.
And the whole kind of idea ofthe podcast is we have all these
assumptions about.
Well, for sure, people haveassumptions about teen moms.
They face judgment literallyeverywhere they go.
But we have assumptions aboutwho's a board member A board
(29:29):
member is ooh, they'reintimidating, they're like man,
they must be the CEO of somemajor company Like, and they're
super remote from the vision orthe day-to-day of the ministry.
So, like all these assumptionswe have of so many people, but
particularly I, teen moms, andjust reviewing that, like, if we
just shift our view just alittle bit, it changes the way
(29:51):
we think about maybe an entirepeople group like teen moms.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Yeah, so good.
So listen to the podcast.
Check out the book Lisa.
Where can people connect withyou individually?
Linkedin Is that a goodplatform for you?
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Definitely go to LinkedIn, lisa Steven, with no S
on the end, the book is A Placeto Belong, and you can go to
our website,HopeHouseColoradoorg to learn
more about Hope House, and youcan find me there too.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Amazing Lisa.
Thank you again so much forbeing here and for putting the
book out there so that morepeople can learn about the
amazing work and the stories ofyour life and all of the amazing
moms that you've supported overthe years.
So, as from a fellow mom, thankyou so much for all you've done
.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Oh, thank you so much and thank you for the book you
wrote.
I cannot wait to buy it.
I didn't even know about itbefore this podcast and now it's
like the next thing I'm goingto do.
Yay, everyone go buy books.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Thanks, Lisa.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of
Missions to Movements.
If you enjoyed our conversationand found it helpful, I would
love for you to take a moment toleave a review.
Wherever you're listening, yourfeedback helps us reach more
change makers like you andcontinue bringing impactful
stories and strategies to theshow.
(31:09):
Don't forget to hit thatsubscribe button, too, so you'll
never miss an episode.
And until next time, keepturning your mission into a
movement.
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