2026 Finalist – Lisa Harper
What if the most powerful chapter of your life begins after 50?
For Lisa Harper, that question became a turning point – one that transformed personal loss, life transitions and decades of experience into a movement helping others rediscover purpose, connection and joy in life’s “third movement.”
Today, at 71, Lisa is the founder of FindYourTribe.Club, a growing community dedicated to helping people reconnect with themselves and with others as they navigate life’s major transitions. Through her speaking, programmes and community work, Lisa challenges outdated narratives about ageing, encouraging people to see later life not as a time of decline but as a powerful opportunity for reinvention and growth.
But Lisa’s journey to this work was far from straightforward. Her fifties were marked by profound change and hardship.
By the age of 54, she had experienced the loss of both parents, divorce and remarriage, breast cancer, redundancy, and the devastating suicide of her husband.
Each of these experiences could have defined her life in isolation. Instead, Lisa made a conscious choice to move through grief rather than be defined by it. As she describes it, she realised she could either become a victim of her circumstances or choose to become something greater than her pain – and she chose the latter.
After completing a major HR leadership project in London, Lisa returned to the North West determined to rebuild. Drawing on decades of professional experience in organisational change and leadership, she re-established herself through a referral networking business while continuing her HR consultancy work.
Over time she began to realise that her true calling lay not in corporate structures, but in helping people navigate the deeper personal changes that life inevitably brings.
In 2022, Lisa made another bold decision: she closed her HR consultancy and stepped fully into the work that felt most aligned with her voice and values. That year she launched FindYourTribe.Club, initially as a small reflective Facebook community. It quickly grew into a supportive network of hundreds of people seeking meaningful connection, honest conversation and guidance through life’s turning points.
Through her signature programmes Storm to Shore and True North Circle, Lisa supports women and men who feel lost after major life transitions, whether through grief, divorce, identity shifts or retirement. Her work helps people reconnect with themselves, rediscover their inner direction and build communities that support them in creating purposeful lives.
Through courage, honesty and an unwavering belief in the power of human connection, Lisa Harper is redefining what it means to grow older – and proving that the third quarter of life can be the most powerful movement of all.
Lisa will be sharing her story at the 34th annual Inspiring Women Awards on 15th May 2026 at The Lowry Hotel. More details here