Lisa Hamilton-Smith: Transforming My Life into My Dream

By Sujany Baleswaran

The words, ‘live the life you love, it’s the only life you have,’ is the perfect introduction to Lisa Hamilton-Smith, one half of The Dream Team Podcast. Leaving an abusive relationship and becoming a single parent, Lisa started her life again at 36 years old, vowing to make the most of her life. Taking this pitfall in her journey to learn to love herself and set boundaries, the horsewoman, entrepreneur and mindset coach decided to don the title of podcaster with her podcast partner Marissa Manrique. Embarking on this podcast venture, Marissa and Lisa are teaching people the tools of manifestation and success as they interview people already living their dreams.

What inspired you to start The Dream Team podcast together?

Originally, I created something called the Global Mindset Summit during the first lockdown. The purpose was to help people cope with the pandemic and to find ways to create a powerful mindset to get them through it. The subheading was Change Your Mind To Change Your Life!

I got 1000 people within weeks, and 50 speakers took part. It was wonderful – the speakers loved it. We continued running monthly Summits until the end of the year. 

One of those speakers was Marissa Manrique, who spoke about manifestation. In the second summit, I decided to interview the speakers rather than just have them present, Marissa and I had a lot of fun, and we decided we should do this together more. The seed was laid for the podcast, but it took us many months to create it. 

I nearly forgot, Marissa also set herself a challenge of changing my manifestation skills in 4 weeks and started coaching me one on one in between the summits. This led me to increase my fascination with manifestation as part of life.

I had originally wanted to create a dream team of coaches to help people transform their lives and live lives they love. 

I held off doing the Dream Team whilst focusing on the podcast. My mission is to inspire and lead people to live their dreams. Marissa wants to help people, especially parents and younger people, to find their best life. We created the podcast to teach people the manifestation tools to be powerful, through hearing people’s stories and clearly showing people the steps that have led to people’s success. 

Can you tell us more about your work outside the podcast and how it has influenced the topics and interviews on your podcast?

I have been a horse trainer and top-level riding coach, done many years of personal development work, had therapy to escape a domestically violent marriage, and become a lone parent moving into my parents home, and starting my life over at 36! I picked up my life with a determination to this time do what I loved and have trained horses and coached ever since. I got to live an extraordinary life – I still do what I want, the way I want and always find a way. I noticed many of my friends did not live the way they wanted, they were more successful with homes, cars and fancy jobs, but they all seemed to envy me! 

This led me to the realisation that I created something special because I used a multitude of tools to transform and create my life into my dream.

At the beginning of your career, what were the challenges you encountered?

My first job was working in the City of London as an Insurance broker. I went to business school, did all the right things, was sitting in the office 6 months into my first proper job, hating it! It wasn’t for me – I am a countryside person, I need fresh air and horses. I quit. Uncertain what to do with the rest of my life, I decided to go travelling, which led me to a lot of adventures in the USA

Marrying an abusive man who went to jail for a violent attack during our divorce was not in my plans. But it forced me to learn to love myself, to see value in myself, and to set boundaries for what was to be acceptable in my life. 

So all my adventures meant I wasn’t exactly the corporate type and self-employment was the only thing that worked for me. 

I started the podcast four years after my mother died, as I had felt like I had lost the wind beneath my wings. I had lived with my mother for the last 20 years of my life, and she was as much a mother to my son as myself. Losing her was like losing the safety net. I lost my home with her, and many complex financial issues followed, so I buckled down and dug deep into everything I learned about coping with adversity and never giving up and believing in dreams coming true.

At the start, I had no idea how to create a podcast, but we live in an era where everything is on google! So I researched what to do, and the Dream Team Life podcast was born!

You made the transition from the corporate world to the entrepreneur life, working with horses as well as a life coach. What advice would you give to someone who wants to make that change?

So the key to any change is both desire and clarity. You cannot achieve anything you cannot define. 

I spent many years in the wilderness trying to find a way to utilise all my skills and solve people’s problems effectively. It has taken me the last 8 years, and then doubling down in the last 4, to understand both who I am and what my unique strengths and skills are. 

It started with my fascination with how we think, and as a result of my suffering from depression, I was forced to consider how my thoughts and my beliefs created my quality of life. This led me to study NLP – I’m becoming an NLP practitioner and life coach.

I was still confused about how to combine my fascination with how we think and how we create through our thoughts and beliefs with my very long career as an equine sports coach. In the struggle to bring these passions together, I found myself investing heavily in many business and mindset tools, which further developed my fascination in our mindsets dictating whether we achieve our dreams and live a life we love.

The last four years have been an intensive journey, sometimes wildly exciting and at other times deeply depressing and frustrating. The key is to invest in knowledge and then to take massive action in the direction of what we want in life. Sadly the average person does not have enough belief that they can achieve what they want to either invest and or take the consistent actions necessary. It is really this simple to achieve what you want in life – firstly, know what you want. Secondly, create an outline plan, thirdly take massive action, fourthly never give up, no matter how difficult it gets and finally stay open-minded and flexible for the best results.

Is there anything that you haven’t yet achieved that is next on your agenda, whether that’s together for your podcast or a personal goal?

I have two dreams that still drive me to this day. One of my major passions is horses, and I feel as society progresses we are both losing the wisdom of caring for animals, and with increased city dwellings, we are in danger of losing contact with animals which is both incredibly sad and detrimental to our mental well-being. Not only is it detrimental to humanity, but also to the animals and cells who continue to be mistreated and misunderstood.

It is my mission to become somebody who can facilitate a global movement to increase understanding of all animals, especially horses and dogs and create a global healing centre where people come to discover themselves and a haven for animals is created. This will include an online aspect so I can reach people across the world and create satellite programs. 

Additionally, one of my very personal dreams is to compete in a Grand Prix dressage competition which is the pinnacle of equestrian training.

Regarding the podcast, it is about to merge with my YouTube show Real Lives with Lisa so that I can educate people on how to live a life they love both through transformational tools and through the stories of those who have already created the lives of their dreams.

The Dream Team Life podcast stands to lead and inspire people to lead a life they design, to never give up, to be resilient in the face of challenge, and most of all dare to dream big.