Life is short.
Why waste any moment experiencing a life without discovering your highest level of happiness?
● Life really is too short
Happiness has Power.
My Story
I am a Life Coach, The Happiness Coach. A speaker, a conversation host, and an encouraging voice for people who want their next level of happiness. Through coaching, conversations, videos, and speaking, I help people look at parts of their life from a different perspective, feel better on the inside, change the way they talk to themselves, and reconnect with what truly makes them happy.
My path to this work was not built in theory alone. It was built through living, learning, listening, healing, leading, and paying close attention to what helps people thrive.
I spent 20 years as the owner of a business center, where I worked closely with new entrepreneurs building businesses, facing uncertainty, and trying to find their way. Many came to me with questions, hoping I would have the answers. I often did not, so I learned to do something even more valuable. I learned how to ask thoughtful questions that helped people think for themselves more clearly, and trust themselves to discover their own answers. Looking back, it was one of the earliest foundations of the coaching style I bring to my work today.
My understanding of people was shaped not only by business, but by life. At 35, during the time when my youngest of two children started kindergarten, I began facing painful parts of my childhood that had long been buried. In that season I came to understand something that would change me forever.
Happiness is not reserved for people with perfect stories.
Watching Oprah Winfrey for 25 years, and seeing the strength, success, and joy she embodied, helped me realize that bad things can happen early in life and a person can still go on to build a beautiful, meaningful, and happy life. That realization opened a door. It gave me hope. It helped me understand that the past may shape us, but it does not have to define us.
My understanding deepened further through many years of helping family members through addiction, while learning firsthand how easy it is to lose yourself in the pain, fear, and emotional patterns that often surround it. Those experiences taught me about compassion, resilience, boundaries, and the importance of doing my own healing work. I later participated in and led Al-Anon for two and a half years, an experience that added even more depth to my understanding of recovery, hope, and human struggle.
I was invited to lead a Women’s Group in my community, women ages 50 and beyond. At first, I thought it was for a short time, although I was so taken with these women because of their curiosity to live life to the fullest, some of them in their 80’s and 90’s. Their willingness to learn something new and “not let the old lady in” just surprised me, and I love being with these outspoken, life loving, strong women. I learned from them that life can be so exciting at any age. These beautiful women saw something meaningful in what I was creating, and would not let me quit, even when I tried. Their faith in me became part of the story.
Then the course of my life changed in a single conversation. I was talking to my 90-year-old Aunt Renee on speaker, with my 8-year-old granddaughter and Layla by my side. My Aunt asked how my Women’s Group went the night before, and I told her I had been in tears, because two women, at different moments, told me I had helped change their life. My Aunt said, you really need to do something with this. And then my granddaughter looked up and said, “Yaya, you should be a Life Coach.” I asked her what she knew about a Life Coach. She said that in her theater class the main character’s mom was a life coach, and the director explained that she helped people, and that is what you do. One month later, at 70 years old, I enrolled in a coaching school.
That is how
Ilene the Happiness Coach
was born.
The Partner ♥
Cliffie, my husband of 45 years
Executive producer of the B12 Shots — and the steady hand behind everything. None of this is solo.
Teachers & Turning Points
The voices that shaped mine.
My work is warm, grounded, uplifting, and practical. These are the thinkers, authors, and ideas that helped me believe what I now teach: you can train your mind, you can shift your patterns, and you can change the way you speak to yourself.
Perspective
Charles R. Swindoll
Best known for the famous words, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” A truth that sits at the heart of everything I teach.
Self-Talk
Shad Helmstetter
What to Say When You Talk to Yourself. The book that helped me understand the power of self-talk and the way our thoughts shape the life we experience.
Mental Toughness University
Dawn Andrews & Steve Siebold
Their Mental Toughness University program introduced me to these ideas in a way that created lasting change, and profoundly shaped the message I now share with others.
Neuroscience
Neuroplasticity
The brain’s ability to change through repeated thought and behavior. It’s why I believe so deeply that change is possible, at any age, after anything.
Just Ilene, Being Ilene
The everyday me,
unscripted.
No lessons, no agenda, just letting you in. These are the little moments between the work.
My Story
Built by living, not theory.
Not as denial. Not as pretending. Not as perfection. But as a daily choice to move toward what helps you live with more joy and intention — especially when life gets hard.
A business center, and a better question
I spent 20 years as the owner of a business center, working closely with new entrepreneurs building businesses, facing uncertainty, and trying to find their way. Many came to me with questions, hoping I would have the answers.
I often didn't — so I learned to do something even more valuable. I learned how to ask thoughtful questions that helped people think for themselves more clearly, trust themselves to discover their own answers.
Looking back, it was one of the earliest foundations of the coaching style I bring to my work today.
When my daughter started kindergarten
During a quieter season when my youngest of two children started kindergarten, I began facing painful parts of my childhood that had long been buried. In that time I came to understand something that would forever change me: happiness is not reserved for people with perfect stories.
Watching Oprah Winfrey and seeing the strength, success, and joy she embodied helped me realize that bad things can happen early in life, and a person can still go on to build a beautiful, meaningful, and happy life.
That realization opened a door. It gave me hope. It helped me begin to understand that the past may shape us, but it does not have to define us.
Addiction in the family, and Al-Anon
My understanding of people was deepened through many years of helping family members through addiction — while also learning firsthand how easy it is to lose yourself in the pain, fear, and emotional patterns that often surround it.
Those experiences taught me about compassion, resilience, boundaries, and the importance of doing your own healing work. I later participated in and led Al-Anon for two and a half years, an experience that added even more depth to my understanding of recovery, hope, and human struggle.
A women's group that wouldn't let me quit
What began as heartfelt conversations, women's group leadership, and a lifelong fascination with how people stay positive through challenge eventually became something bigger: a calling.
Along the way, I was deeply encouraged by the beautiful women in my women's group — women who believed in me, saw something meaningful in what I was creating, and would not let me quit, even when I tried. Their faith in me became part of the story.
A nudge from my granddaughter
Another voice helped change the course of my life: my granddaughter, who suggested that I become a life coach.
That loving nudge helped bring into focus what my life had been building toward all along — my gift for listening, encouraging, asking the right questions, and helping people find their way back to themselves.
That is how Ilene the Happiness Coach was born.
What I Believe
Nine quiet convictions.
i.
Happiness is not frivolous
— it is foundational.
ii.
Joy and strength can coexist.
iii.
Mindset matters.
iv.
Words matter.
v.
Connection matters.
vi.
Healing matters.
vii.
The way we speak to ourselves matters.
viii.
It is never too late to begin again.
ix.
It is never too late to feel more like yourself again.
My Message
My work is ...
discovering that happiness can be built. It's not about having all the answers. It's about finding out what matters most to you.
I hope my work helps people feel seen, encouraged, and reminded that even now, especially now, something beautiful is always possible.
A Choice. A Practice. A Movement.
Your First Step
Ready for your next level?
Start with a warm, honest conversation. Just 30 minutes to see where you are and what you need most.
Let’s Start with a Conversation →