For Lisa H. Harrington, 2026 marks a deeply intentional expansion of her life’s work—one that blends decades of strategic insight with legacy‑driven leadership. Inspired by the real constraints facing founder‑led and privately owned businesses, Lisa created The Abiding Membership to close the access gap to reliable, affordable guidance through a centralized resource library and an AI research assistant trained exclusively on her 40 years of experience. Alongside this launch, her forthcoming book Lessons from Dad: Leadership, Love and Legacy honors the quiet influence of servant leadership and reminds business owners that even in the daily grind, they are shaping culture, people, and purpose. Rooted in values, clarity, and joy in the workplace, her work invites leaders to build with intention—and leave something meaningful behind.
Lisa, you have two meaningful launches coming in 2026 — what inspired you to create The Abiding Membership, and what gap did you see for small business owners that this resource library is designed to fill? As my coaching business grew, I realized that it will be more difficult to add new clients to the Abiding Strategy system. Since I know that only around 20% of executives even have a business coach, the gap to fill is providing information when there aren’t enough coaches to take care of every executive. Plus, I focus on privately owned businesses, not public companies, and these are often still founder led. Sometimes margins are thin because, like me, they are the only producer in their company. This can make affordability an issue. By creating a single annual fee to access the Abiding Strategy Membership and Library, business owners can get the information they need from a trusted resource. After 40 years in business and having been a business owner myself since 2009, I recognize that just doing a search on the Internet doesn’t always get you a concise workable answer to your questions. Even with the new AI systems reliability is an issue. There are so many varying opinions about how to do things that sometimes it’s hard to narrow down the best solution for your company. I also encourage my members and clients to use the Fort Worth SCORE system through the Small Business Administration.
The membership includes an AI research assistant trained only on your original work — how do you see this changing the way entrepreneurs access guidance and make decisions in their businesses? When the Internet was invented all those years ago there was a limited ability to do quality control, for example, what things are coming from which websites. If a small business owner needs to research the Internet for an answer to an immediate problem, they might find tens of thousands of links and articles that they would have to scour to find the answer that’s appropriate for their own business. By limiting the AbiBot Research Assistant to my own work, they know that there’s 40 years of experience backed by the materials at abidingstrategy.com and the answers will be relatively concise and specific to their issue. It also allows them to have someone to ask when they need some clarification. For 2026, I’m keeping the price very low for this and calling it the Founders Rate.
You’ve written hundreds of articles, workshops, and workbooks over the years — how does bringing all of that into one centralized membership reflect the evolution of your work as a strategist and coach? Well, I’m only one person! Time constraints make it impossible for me to cover everything, even for my own clients, who will automatically have membership at abiding strategy. Small businesses are responsible for the majority of the employment in this country, and they deserve significant support in order to keep our economy strong! This will give anyone a starting point with which to do their research for all of the seven stages of business ownership period from Startup to Succession or Sale. In addition to the articles, the membership includes The Abiding Business Plan, (a workbook for business planning at startup), The Abiding Strategy System (workbook and online classes to build the strategy), and The Abiding Future, (a succession planning workbook to help steer the next generation).
Your upcoming book, Lessons from Dad: Leadership, Love and Legacy, is deeply personal — how did your father’s influence shape your views on leadership and business? My dad shaped the person I am in so many ways. He was a strong, fair leader who always looked at a situation from multiple angles. He was deeply faithful man and so had a very strong servant heart, but he knew when to shake things loose if something wasn’t going the way it should. He was never afraid of a challenge. He joined the Army very young and finished college in adulthood. After the military, he owned a business but his real second career was as Facilities Manager at a large church. He mentored the young people there, hiring them to help around the church, following their schooling and careers, and gently guiding them. I learned so much from him by observation, by his gentle parenting, and in long and deep discussions as adults when I was deciding about my career. He was my mentor. Even though he was 86, his death in 2025 was relatively unexpected. So many of the young adults he had helped commented in his online obituary about his impact in their lives! As I worked through settling his estate and the grieving process, I realized how much he had influenced me in ways I didn’t even expect. I am compelled to share his legacy.
What do you hope readers and members ultimately take away from both The Abiding Membership and Lessons from Dad in terms of how they lead, build, and leave a legacy? I’ve coached well over 100 executives and 50 or more companies over the years and so often these are wonderful, humble people who don’t even realize the impact that they’re having on the world. They’re so busy day-to-day, working their business and caring for their families. Like my Dad, they don’t always recognize that they are in fact leaving a legacy. So, by helping them plan a little more and become self-aware they can be more intentional about what they leave the world. When we build a strategy plan for a company we talk about mission, of course, but I always start with values and vision so that everyone understands both the who and the why of the firm. Having a simple system to communicate these important topics with the team (and, frankly, the world) helps keep everyone focused, lowers stress and allows everyone to enjoy the journey. My own vision statement is Joy in the Workplace and I hope that my legacy is helping others find joy in their work.
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