Inspiring Conversations with Liza Katsman of Liza K Coaching

Today we’d like to introduce you to Liza Katsman.

Hi Liza, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
“Even without seeing the final image first, you can still put the puzzle together yourself.” I will never forget those words from my coach as I was stepping off the ledge into running my business full time in 2021. They have echoed and pulled me forward ever since then; however, my journey into coaching unknowingly began far before my business did.
My first “real job” after college was teaching high school, but I was teaching and tutoring fellow students in official capacities (employed by the school) starting at around 18 years old. I didn’t know it then, but the years of tutoring and teaching taught me how fulfilling it was to support others in their learning, development, and success. I felt more joy when my tutoring clients or students figured out a problem or scored well on a test than I ever did for my own accomplishments. However, it took 10+ years, several massive career pivots, and a starting a business after graduating from business school directly into a global pandemic to bring me back to that same sense of fulfillment I now experience in supporting my clients.
What began as a consulting and training practice in DEI and employee engagement in 2020 slowly evolved to include one-on-one and small team coaching for clients who needed an additional layer of support. After a while, I realized that portion of the work felt increasingly more internally aligned and I took the plunge into an ICF (International Coaching Federation) certification program and never looked back. I feel very fortunate that now I can focus on coaching and related training as the central pillar of my business.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If the road was smooth, I would have never ended up here.
For a large portion of my earlier life, I just did my own thing. As long as I was a high achiever educationally, my parents trusted the road I chose for myself. Unfortunately, as a “gifted” child, I also never learned what it meant to fail or go after something that didn’t just come super naturally to me.
Teaching was the first taste of real failure. I remember crying thinking I was ruining my students’ lives by simply existing, but chose to keep going anyway. One, because I was stubborn. Two, because I had no idea what else I would do.
After leaving teaching, my career decisions started taking hard left turns with every step. And every one of them felt harder than the last. I went to business school as a way to try and figure out my life, and even that felt like I was a complete imposter. I learned a ton, but I was still a bit lost.
Then, on top of it all, I graduated in June of 2020. Job prospects were almost at zero, everyone I knew was laid off or furloughed. At the end of that year, while on a contract position at a consulting firm, I entered a women’s coaching program and my coach really changed the trajectory of my career simply by giving me the permission to pursue something different than what I assumed was acceptable.
I began my business in 2020 and went full time in 2021, which I thought would last about a year. I did a lot of work in the DEI space for the first several years, but that entire industry suffered immensely with the new administration. Luckily, I saw the writing on the wall and leaned into coaching and training about a year before what felt like complete collapse. That also meant, however, new business development and execution tactics. It felt like I was starting a new business, again.
Struggles and pivots continue on a constant basis as a business owner, and I’m grateful for every single one. Even if that gratitude comes a bit delayed.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I had a boss once who made me question my own read on reality. It created a slow erosion of confidence that happens when people lead from a place of fear and insecurity, instead of true service and commitment to their employees. That experience is a big part of why my coaching and leadership development training practice exists.
Most of my clients, whether business owners or within larger organizations, come to me having lived some version of that. A leader who made them smaller instead of sharper. An experience that taught them to distrust their own instincts. They don’t always name it that way at first, they just know something in how they lead or how they were led feels broken, and they don’t want to pass it down.
Teaching high school gave me the other half of this work. I started tutoring at 18, years before I called myself a teacher, and I learned early that the real job isn’t delivering information. It’s paying close enough attention to someone that you can tell the difference between what they’re saying and what they actually need. That skill built the backbone of how I coach now.
Starting my business in the middle of a pandemic and staying in it through every pivot since taught me the rest. I know what it costs to lead when nobody’s watching and nothing’s certain, because I’ve done it for years without a safety net. Clients don’t get theory or rigid frameworks when we work together. Instead, I meet clients where they are to create a space where they can be vulnerable, sometimes messy, and accountable to creating the change that drives them forward.
What changes for my clients isn’t a personality overhaul. It’s smaller and more permanent than that: they recognize how they are standing in their own way in the path to the goals and version of success they set for themselves. Then we work to unravel those obstacles piece by piece. That’s the work. That’s what I’m proud of.

What’s next?
There isn’t anything dramatic on the horizon; no rebrand, no pivot to a different kind of work. What I’m building toward is reach, which means getting in front of more people through speaking, media, and partnerships, so the work can grow without significantly changing shape. I’m open to change, but it’s not a requirement.
I’ve spent the last several years refining what I do and who it’s for. Now my focus on more people being able to find me and connect. That means saying yes to stages, conversations, and collaborations I might have hesitated on a few years ago, and being more intentional about seeking them out instead of waiting for them to land in my inbox.
My ethos has always been about steady growth and sustainability over some massive leap. I’ve done the leap already, back in 2021, and I’m not looking to repeat it at this moment. What I want now is to keep doing the work I’ve built, with constant refinement and growing impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lizakcoaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizakcoaching/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liza-katsman/