Reinventing Yourself After Retirement
Lynette Loomis, 59, found her passion as a life and business coach. Now let her help you find yours.
By Amy Cavalier

Wouldn’t it be great to have a GPS to guide us through life? Enter Lynette Loomis, a certified life and business coach. According to the International Coach Federation, a life coach partners with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.

“Most people spend more time planning a single vacation than they do planning their life,” says Loomis.

Lynette-LoomisYou could define a life coach as kind of an “insightful cheerleader.” Loomis enjoys “helping people discover their magnificence.”

“All of us have gifts that we don’t recognize in ourselves,” she said.

Lynette Loomis, a certified life and business coach.

Just as professional athletes rely on coaches to help them master their sport, people can use a little coaching in every day life, she says.

“Anyone who excels at what they do has someone supporting them, mentoring, coaching them along the way,” Loomis adds.

And for individuals 55 and over, life coaching can help you reinvent yourself or find a new passion.

“I think at this stage in life we have usually had one or more careers and are ready for a new career or the change of life that is called retirement,” says Bob Emens, 60. “ We are so immersed in the responsibilities of parenting and career building that we need to open up to the endless possibilities of life after 55.”

With a background in marketing, communications, and counseling, and several degrees under her belt, Loomis decided to pursue a career in coaching about 10 years ago.

A former vice president of marketing and Medicare at Preferred Care, she became certified to coach individuals through the Coach Training Alliance. She graduated from Corporate Coach U to train as a business coach. Today, she is the proprietor of several businesses. In addition to Your Best Life Coaching, Loomis also offers marketing consulting under her business The Marketing Strategists.

As a life coach, Loomis works with individuals from 20 to 70 years old, and from all walks of life. In her business coaching she tends to work with sales people, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and even someone who might be having a performance issue at work. People seek out coaches out of passion or pain, Loomis says.

Dick Bennett, 60, helped to start Image City Gallery on University Avenue in Rochester. Bennet says Loomis helped him make connections in the business community, develop his business plan, and market it. He is also a noted photographer. See his work here.

Perhaps you’re 80 and you want to make peace with the sister you haven’t spoken to in 10 years. Maybe you want to write your first book, or explore volunteerism. Perhaps you recently lost your spouse and need to find a way to fill the emotional void.

“People my age grew up at a time when there were traditional and nontraditional women roles,” she explains. “There may be some women who didn’t work outside of the home and their whole identity was being a wife and a mother. Now the kids are grown, maybe her husband has died, and for the first time in her life, she gets to chose who she wants to be now, not just who she’s supposed to be.”

Bob Emens, 60, right is the owner of Luke's Mill Creek Farm, in North Chili. He said he couldn`t just `sit at home`after his retirement. That`s why he sought the help of Lynette Loomis. `She helped me with a lot of the incidental things I might not have thought about,`he said. He is pictured with celebrity chef Michael Psilakis. The photo was taken at the New york Botanical Garden show in October of 2010.

Older clients, like Dick Bennett, 60, and Emens, sought out Loomis for assistance starting up their own businesses after retirement. A retired history teacher, Emens said he couldn’t just “sit at home.”

“I knew when I retired, I wanted to have some purpose,” he says. “I wanted to do something productive.”

Falling back on his lifelong love of photography, Bennett helped started up Image City Gallery on University Avenue in Rochester. Bennett says Loomis helped him make connections in the business community, develop his business plan, and market it. She helped Bennett price his services, set up a website, and even get over some of the anxiety he had about going out to photograph strangers.

“She helped me with a lot of the incidental things I might not have thought about,” he says. “Even now if I have a question, I can e-mail her and she can get back to me with some options, ideas and impressions.”

Proprietor of Luke’s Mill Creek Farm, Emens sells products made from garlic scapes, or the flower stem that grows through the center of a hard neck garlic plant. After 25 years in the engineering field, Emens says, he had to break the corporate mindset to set out on his own.

“One’s mind is programmed to go to work every day and concentrate on the goals and mindset that the company or your career requires to succeed,” he says.

“When I tried to think outside the box, I had been used to, I was having difficulty, especially since I had never had my own business.”

Loomis gave Bennet valuable advice not only on business considerations, but also in how he needed to grow personally to achieve them.

“Once I saw improvements it became clear to me that I needed to consult with her from time to time to stay on track,” he says.

When it comes to helping clients set and attain their goals, Loomis begins by looking at where they are and where they want to be in their life, career or business. Then together they develop a plan on how to bridge the gap. She helps them anticipate the obstacles that may pop up along the way.

“We play out the worst case scenarios, get those fears and anxieties out on the table, and deal with them one by one, and most of the time, it’s never as severe as we thought it would be,” she says.

Along the way, Loomis challenges and supports her clients. Sometimes that requires some homework. For example, say your goal was to become a creative writer. Loomis might ask you to interview three creative writers and see how they got started or she might have you submit three articles for publication in an effort to build your portfolio. For a client looking to become an entrepreneur or inventor, Loomis may have them do research to explore whether or not there’s a market for their product or service.

Bennett says Loomis helped “put his feet to the fire.”

“It helps me become accountable for my decisions,” he said. “When we decide I need to do something, the next time I go see her, I’ve done something. I’m not just wasting my money ignoring what she said.”

Procrastination is the thief of time, 16th century poet Edward Young once said. Loomis says she understands how easy it is to stall. However, if a client isn’t serious about moving forward, she says, out of integrity, she can no longer work with them. She’s had to fire clients before.

“I’m not going to charge them and let them go nowhere week after week,” she says. “We talk about, are they ready for this or are they ready to make the commitment, because there’s more than just my time. There’s an emotional investment.”

Loomis recognizes making changes to better one’s life isn’t easy.

“People get scared because they’re changing their life’s paradigm,” she says. “For most of us, there’s a comfort zone and then there’s a rut. Most of us tend to revert back to what we know, what’s familiar, even if that’s not a comfortable place, or a joyful place, or an exciting place, so as a coach, I’m there to help you climb out of it.”

Sometimes, Loomis says, a client may decide that perhaps the goal they had set wasn’t something they wanted to do after all.

“Then we move onto what they want to try next,” she adds.

Loomis’ past experiences as a counselor come into play as a life coach. Being successful, she says, requires you to be in touch with your emotions and to be able identify what sets you off.

Those qualities can be particularly important if you’re say, the CEO of a company. Being in a position of power requires an individual to be very directive and high energy, Loomis says, and to be a good listener. If everyone in the company is intimidated by the CEO, and is afraid to provide feedback, or present other options to them, “a good idea goes unsupported and a poor idea goes unchallenged.” That can prevent the company from moving forward, says Loomis.

“If that CEO can create a non -confrontational environment where people feel safe expressing a different opinion, the company does better because you have a wealth of experience to work with, rather than if everyone just says ‘yes’ to the CEO,” she explains.

You might be thinking, why do I need a life coach? I have friends to bounce ideas off of. The difference with Loomis, is she is objective.

“I have no vested interest in a particular outcome,” she says. “I’m interested in helping you arrive at the outcome you want. I care deeply about my clients. I share your disappointments and celebrate your successes.”

Bennett says Loomis taught him a process to achieve goals, and helps him focus on the task at hand, and not be misdirected by cluttered thoughts.

“I don’t think Lynette can give just one good idea,” he says. “She’s full of them.”

He says investing in a life coach will pay off.

“I think personally, if you’re seeking a life coach, then the money is secondary, because if you work at it, she can guide you to happiness,” he says.

Loomis sees clients in their home or office, and also can coordinate group coaching. Sometimes it’s just a matter of responding to a quick email question, and there’s some clients that she’s never met, only spoken to over the phone. That’s the thing about coaching, she says, you can have clients all over the world. Some people may only need her help for three months, while Loomis has had other clients who’ve been with her for years. As for the cost, Loomis says she can work within clients to find the plan that will best fit their goals and their budget.

Besides the joy of connecting people and helping them accomplish their goals, Loomis says it’s a great privilege when someone trusts you enough to let you be part of a major life journey with them. She says changing careers in her second half of life was the best move she ever made.

“Let’s spend the last third of our lives fulfilling our dreams, growing, enriching the lives of others, and having exciting, interesting and enriching experiences,” she says. “We’re not retiring from life. We’re retiring from a job. There’s a difference.”