Helping women reach their goals and realize their greatest potential is Tameika Hughes-Foote’s mission. Go Girl! Life Coaching is a passion project for Hughes-Foote, launched after she moved from Indiana to Green Bay in 2004.
Hughes-Foote was highlighted in the Entrepreneurs of Color Spotlight series, which highlights entrepreneurs of color to empower and support their businesses. It is sponsored by the Appleton Public Library, ColorBold Business Association and UW-Madison Division of Extension.
Hughes-Foote started Go Girl! Life Coaching a few years ago but gained a solid foothold in her business last year. As a certified life coach, she only recently decided to take the position seriously as a business.
“It’s just like my passion, my purpose, and it’s been confirmation after confirmation of it being my purpose to come alongside and help other women empower themselves to turn their pain into their superpower,” Hughes-Foote in an interview for the Entrepreneurs of Color Spotlight project. “It’s so funny because sometimes I’m ‘Go Girl.’ I’m not even Temeika, I’m Go Girl now.”
She worked in human services for 20 years before starting her life coaching company. Overcoming adversity she felt as a young mother was the first step she needed to take to start pursuing her passion.
Hughes-Foote was a teenage parent with three children by 19 — she had her first at 15. She worked hard to overcome adversity caused by a toxic and abusive relationship and eventually moved to Green Bay to provide a healthier lifestyle for her and her children.
“The name was new, but the actual desire to do this is actually not new. It’s been years and it took me years to get over the fear to do it,” Hughes-Foote said. “If you want true change then you have to get to the root — make a safe space that’s really causing them to stay in specific environments and different things that’s holding them back in life.”
A healthy support system is what Hughes-Foote credits for her ability to life coach and what others need to pursue their passions. Being open to receiving that support is the challenge that she sees in getting started.
Hughes-Foote doesn’t just speak the advice she gives, she practices what she preaches. Her support structure can be seen with people like her children that can be seen with her at vendor events.
“This is a process for me and I’m getting there,” said Hughes-Foote. “I just recently went to a business event where they said that business owners are the listeners because it’s their business… and I was like ‘ouch.’”
At Go Girl! Life Coaching, Hughes-Foote really likes to tap into women’s relationships with themselves. Setting boundaries, limited beliefs and renewing mindsets, especially with young girls, to examine and learn to appreciate themselves outside of relationships with others is one of the major focuses Hughes-Foote has with her life coaching.
As Go Girl! grows, Hughes-Foote wants to make an impact in the lives of younger girls in high school and possibly middle school, but it’s not where she feels like she is at with her business right now.
“When I was doing my own research… one of the things that captivated me is that when studies and research showed that young ladies start losing their self-esteem starts going down… [at] the ages of 12 into young adulthood and it’s not even replenished until 40 and 60,” said Hughes-Foote.
As a small business owner, Hughes-Foote urges people to know that growth and change comes with comfortability. She encourages hopeful entrepreneurs to accept that fear and comfortability and go for it.
