LaNise Thrasher, MBA—affectionately known as The Love Cheerleader®—is a best-selling author, speaker, faith-based emotional wellness coach, and 2025 Mental Health Advocate Award recipient who has made it her life’s mission to help women lead without losing themselves. Blending structured healing tools with faith and discernment, she guides high-achieving women through divorce, burnout, identity shifts, and life’s toughest transitions while they continue to show up in boardrooms, churches, and homes where others rely on them.
Her signature framework, The P.A.U.S.E. Challenge®, was born from her own journey through heartbreak and survival mode—years spent excelling professionally while silently unraveling personally. Today, LaNise empowers women to remove the “I’m fine” mask, pause with intention, and rebuild their emotional foundation with clarity, confidence, and spiritual grounding. Whether on stage, in coaching sessions, or through her writing, she is known for one powerful message: healing isn’t about pushing harder—it’s about learning how to lead yourself with wisdom, faith, and self-trust. Let’s meet her…
Tell our readers about yourself, how you got started in your current field.
I’m LaNise Thrasher, also known as The Love Cheerleader®. At my core, I help women come back to themselves after seasons of loss, burnout, and transition. While my work often begins with divorce and heartbreak, it has expanded to include women navigating job loss, career burnout, identity shifts, and the quiet exhaustion that comes from always putting everyone else first.
After my own season of heartbreak and rebuilding, I began to notice how many women were being praised for being strong while neglecting their emotional and physical well-being. Women were leading at work, caring for families, serving others, and pushing through pain without ever pausing to ask what they needed.
Over time, this work evolved into what I now call The P.A.U.S.E. Challenge®, a framework that encourages women to slow down, honor their emotions, and intentionally choose wellness before burnout forces it. At its core, PAUSE is about giving yourself permission to stop performing strength and start tending to your mental, emotional, and physical health.
I believe deeply that when a woman heals, generations shift. That belief guides the work I do and the spaces I create for women who are learning to choose themselves without guilt.
What are you most known for and have you let that control the reigns of your trajectory or do you still feel like you are being your authentic self?
My work initially focused on divorce and heartbreak, and that foundation remains important to me. At the same time, my work has expanded to support women who are leading at work, parenting, and managing responsibilities while quietly struggling inside. This evolution reflects my own lived experience and continues to grow alongside the conversations women are having today.
Rather than allowing one chapter of my story to define me, I’ve allowed my work to expand naturally. Today, I support women who are navigating both personal and professional demands while learning how to lead themselves with honesty, clarity, and care.
Have you ever failed at anything? How did you recover?
Yes, absolutely. Some of my greatest failures came from staying in situations longer than I should have because I believed strength meant endurance. I didn’t always honor my needs, and that cost me more than I realized.
Recovery came through faith, reflection, and learning to slow down instead of pushing through discomfort. I allowed myself to grieve what I thought my life would look like and rebuilt from a place of honesty. Those moments taught me that healing isn’t about bouncing back, but about choosing yourself differently moving forward.
Who are you at your core and in life what matters the most to you?
At my core, I am a woman of faith who believes love begins with self-honoring. What matters most to me is helping women release the belief that their worth is tied to how much they give or how much they endure.
So many women put their children first, their partners first, their parents first, and their work first, while leaving themselves last. I challenge that pattern. I believe rest is sacred, mental health days are valid, and wellness is not a reward. It’s a responsibility. When women care for themselves, they lead better, love better, and live more fully.
What sets you apart?
What sets me apart is my ability to hold space for both strength and softness. I don’t rush women through their pain or pressure them to be positive. I cheer women on with love while reminding them they are allowed to slow down, take mental health breaks, and choose themselves without guilt.
Women often tell me they feel permission around me. Permission to rest. Permission to say no. Permission to stop performing strength and start leading their lives from a place of wholeness. That permission is where real transformation begins.
Tell us about any point in your life’s journey that you felt changed you for the better?
One of the most defining moments of my life was choosing to stop performing strength and start prioritizing healing. That decision changed how I saw myself, my faith, and my future.
Instead of hiding my pain, I allowed it to inform my purpose. That moment became the foundation of my work, my book, and the spaces I now create for women who need permission to pause, reflect, and rebuild their lives with intention.
Complete this sentence, “If it had not been for my faith,_________________.”
If it had not been for my faith, I would not be the woman I am today. Deepening my relationship with God taught me how to trust Him, stop living in fear, and rediscover who I am after life transitions.
How do you support, empower or uplift other women?
I support and uplift other women by showing up consistently and honestly. I create spaces where women don’t feel rushed to be okay or pressured to perform strength. Whether through speaking, coaching, or conversation, I cheer women on with love while reminding them that rest is allowed, boundaries are healthy, and self-care is not something they have to earn.
At the heart of my work is cheering the leader in women — the leader at work, at home, and within themselves. I encourage women to trust their voice, honor their needs, and lead their lives with clarity and intention. Empowerment, to me, isn’t about fixing women. It’s about reminding them of who they already are.
What is up next for you? Do you have any projects, events or products to promote?
I’m continuing to expand my speaking and writing work with a focus on emotional wellness, resilience, and visibility. I speak at women’s empowerment events, entrepreneurial spaces, faith-based gatherings, and leadership-focused conversations where women are navigating both personal and professional growth.
I also host the annual Break Up With Heartbreak live event in Atlanta and am actively exploring additional opportunities to bring this work into conferences, media, and collaborative platforms. My goal is to keep creating spaces where women feel permission to pause, heal, and lead their lives from a place of wholeness rather than exhaustion.
How can our readers connect with you for more information? https://thelovecheerleader.com / https://instagram.com/thelovecheerleader
