Kaisha Lawrence, Certified Integrative Health Coach
For many who start a business, becoming an entrepreneur isn’t the original plan. For Kaisha Lawrence, this was the case. During her college career, she was planning on getting her Master’s degree, but finding financial support was a challenge. However, one of her college neighbors was working on obtaining her Master’s and used massage to help supplement her income. Kaisha quickly saw the financial benefits of being a massage therapist, how flexible it was with a class schedule and workload. “I was always going to get my Master’s, and I thought, ‘How brilliant – a way to really maximize your time’,” says Kaisha. So, Kaisha went to massage therapy school, found a new passion and never ended up in her Master’s program.
Kaisha has always wanted to help people feel better, and her newfound career in massage was fulfilling that dream. She saw the opportunity in this field and the need in her community, so she took a risk and in 2008, Lotus Healthworks was born. However, she wanted to help people beyond massage. “Through my work as a massage therapist, I realized that I wanted to go deeper with people. My business is called Lotus Healthworks, and the reason that I used the word “Healthworks”, rather than Lotus Massage, was because I knew I wanted to offer more,” says Kaisha.
When working on her first business plan, however, Kaisha didn’t realize she was going to expand her offerings beyond massage therapist. But her work quickly taught her that her clients needed more than massage. “As I continued to work with people, I began to recognize that I couldn’t help them on a long-term basis, unless they made some lifestyle changes,” says Kaisha. So, she began to learn how to help her clients make these changes in their lives. “I started coaching people on the table, but they didn’t want to be coached. They were there to lay down and feel good for an hour,” says Kaisha. With this, she decided to start her own process of implementing health coaching into her business and went to school for health coaching in order to help people for a longer period of time. “Since then, now I get to say, instead of helping people for an hour, I get to help them feel better for the rest of their lives,” says Kaisha.
Lotus Healthworks focuses on the individual steps to establish healthy habits in a person’s lifestyle. After visiting a nutritionist or a functional medicine doctor, people take tests to tell them the things they need to eliminate. As a health coach, Kaisha works with people after they have visited their doctors to help guide them with their new recommended changes. “I spend time with people on how to do this elimination, and I also help them recognize that there is a lot more to it than food.” Kaisha continues, “I hold their hand through the process, I allow them to guide themselves, to lead the way.” Kaisha understands the significance of the changes that her clients are implementing into their lives and knows they require guidance. “I offer them steps, I offer them guidance, I offer them just a safe container to really work through the process and get to the bottom of it, rather than just ‘here’s what you do, bye.’” However, Kaisha doesn’t end her support there. It is a continuous process and with that, there is continuous support. She allows her clients to send her a message and offers calls throughout the week so she can support them in more ways than just one. This coaching aspect is what sets Kaisha apart from similar services. “That’s what is missing from other modalities is just simply the coaching, the handholding, the time, the listening ear,” says Kaisha.
Throughout her career, the Manhattan community provided her with the resources and support she needs to succeed in her business. In the Manhattan area, the Women in Entrepreneurship group has been influential in the sustenance of her business. “The Women in Entrepreneurship group is just awesome and supportive. I’ve just loved that community so much.” Within the WE group, she has been able to offer some speaking engagements and talks at different events the group hosts. “It has been an awesome and safe space for me to practice and step into that presenter role that I have been told I should become,” says Kaisha. Every time Kaisha steps in front of these women for a presentation, she constantly encourages them to do the same. “Because it is one of the wonderful ways to create awareness about your business and it’s such a safe space.” Kaisha continues, “The community resources that Manhattan has for businesses are awesome, but the one that I really tapped into was the Women Entrepreneurs group.”
Kaisha speaking at the Women Entrepreneur Fall Planning Retreat, in August 2022.
Another aspect of her business is accessibility. Kaisha built Lotus Healthworks to function virtually so that her services can go beyond her local community. “Everything that I do is virtual, other than my speaking engagements. All the work, the one-on-one work, is completely virtual,” says Kaisha. By keeping the same guidelines for all her clients, she can have inclusivity and accessibility be prime factors that set her business apart from others.
Since presenting for the Women in Entrepreneurship group, Kaisha has been motivated to present for other networking groups and offer her own free webinars. Kaisha has also recently been in contact with a group called Innovation Women, a business that connects event organizers with women presenters so that more women will have the opportunity to go on stage. Kaisha wants to get more speaking opportunities to spread the message of developing conscious awareness of what people are eating, and how it will impact them, and to help guide the audience towards a healthier lifestyle.
In the coming years, Kaisha hopes her business will become more visible. “Hopefully I will have more awareness of the fact that I exist, and I am doing this work. There are people out there who are ready to make their changes, they just don’t know what to do,” says Kaisha. As Lotus Healthworks continues to grow, the awareness will continue as well, so that Kaisha will be able to help get more and more people on board to help themselves for longer periods of time. “They’re not buying an 8-week program, they’re buying the rest of their lives,” says Kaisha.
At Lotus Healthworks, Kaisha offers 5-day detoxes that focus on detoxing added sugars. There are no supplements or shake powders – it is just you, your body, and your food. The goal is to become more aware and conscious of what people eat and get rid of the added sugars for five days so people can see what it feels like. The next 5-day detox, called January Jump Start. will be from January 6-13, 2023. Experience how simple these changes can be in your life by participating in this upcoming detox. Click the link here to learn more.
