Your hospitality business deserves a leader who isn’t running on empty
You got into hospitality because you love people and you believe in the magic of a remarkable experience. But somewhere between the staffing shortages, the razor-thin margins, and the uncertainty that never quite goes away, the passion got buried under the burnout — and your team feels it too. I help hospitality leaders untangle the overwhelm, reconnect to what they love about this work, and build careers, lives and teams that feel sustainable, energizing, and deeply their own.
Lori Varsames
Life & Leadership Coach
You love this industry, but you can’t keep pouring from an empty bottle.
You started because you had a vision and a passion for a restaurant, winery, a place that was all yours. Now, most days, you feel like you’re just treading water, leaving your dreams for growth to the wayside.
You’re not just good at what you do–you’re great at it. But that doesn’t protect you from the 60+ hour work weeks, a team that depends on you, the constant uncertainty, and the nagging feeling that something has to change.
You’ve read the books, taken the courses, and maybe even hired a consultant. But what you actually need is someone who gets hospitality and gets you.
Let’s not just help you find your way back. Let’s make you, your team, and your business better than ever.
Meet Lori Varsames
Lori is a certified professional coach who helps hospitality leaders stop running on fumes and start running the show. With decades of experience in wine, food and travel, she knows what it takes to build something you love — and what it costs when you give without filling your own cup.
She's the coach she wishes existed when she needed it most: warm, direct, and with zero patience for the myth that burnout is just part of the job.
Based in Sonoma, CA, she works with owners and leaders in wine, food, and travel across the globe who are ready to tap into their leadership style to take their businesses and teams to the next level.
Coaching Services with Lori Varsames
Lori works with clients individually, in groups, and in teams. Her work is grounded in trauma-informed coaching and organizational mindfulness, because the hard stuff in hospitality is rarely just operational.
Coaching Leaders at Top Wineries and Restaurants
Individual Coaching
Give yourself the space to cut through the noise. Individual coaching helps you break fixed mindsets, silence self-sabotage, and show up as the grounded, capable leader your business — and your team — deserves.
The Full Cup Collective Group Coaching
You give everything. Now it’s your turn to receive. Join a community of hospitality leaders ready to move through burnout and uncertainty to build lives of freedom, balance and choice.
Team & Partner Coaching
Great teams and partnerships don't happen by accident. Team and partner coaching builds the trust, communication, and emotional intelligence you need to tackle challenges together—and actually succeed.
Clients Love Working With Lori
Working with Lori over a six-month period genuinely transformed my life. She guided me through limiting beliefs, helped me navigate interpersonal conflict and communication challenges with my leadership team, and consistently pointed me in the right direction so that I came to my own conclusions and learned lessons that have actually stuck. That's the mark of a true leader and mentor—someone who knows that sustained progress comes from self-discovery, not being told what to do.
What sets Lori apart is her ability to balance humor with complete honesty...She has a rare understanding of leadership across different markets and truly gets the unique challenges of burnout, ambition, and the constant juggling act that working moms face. […]
If you're a leader feeling stretched thin, struggling with your team dynamics, or questioning whether you can have both success and sanity, Lori is who you need in your corner. I cannot recommend her enough!
Lori Varsames is truly exceptional. She joined us at a pivotal time when company morale was in flux, and communication challenges were beginning to surface. In what could have been a period of disarray, Lori provided us with clear, effective strategies to navigate complex situations with confidence. Thanks to her guidance, conversations that were once difficult and avoided became constructive and approachable, ensuring that relationships were respected and productivity was maintained. Her contributions have been instrumental in fostering a healthier workplace environment and driving the growth of our business.
Lori is a fantastic human to work with! She is enthusiastic and crazy supportive. And I mean, she will be your number one cheerleader!! But not in a blow smoke up yer a** kinda way. She'll still call ya out and put the hard questions/challenges in front of you, but at a pace she knows you can handle.
I got the chance to work with Lori when I was feeling very ungrounded and facing some pretty huge life and business choices. She dug right in in helping me get back to myself, which then made it so that I could approach my upcoming decision with a clearer view and better feel for what I needed/wanted. I look forward to working with Lori again when I take the next big step in my life.
To be an incredible life coach, I believe you have to be an incredible human being...Lori's genuine care for helping others find their path forward is rare; working with her in any capacity is bound to reveal chapters in your life or explore new areas of yourself that you either didn't think were possible or you didn't know existed. She showed me how to put my voice out there and also when I was not doing that. For me, that changed everything.
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Lori over six months. I was looking for guidance with midlife career direction and confidence-building around this. It was so helpful brainstorming with Lori and being asked key questions to help me narrow my focus around the aspects of work that would bring me fulfillment and those that would not. I also appreciated Lori's fresh perspectives and book recommendations, which felt spot-on for my areas of challenge. I can see how I have changed since our first meetings, and I came away from them feeling overall more hopeful, and clear about where I'm at now and my future path. I always looked forward to seeing Lori, loving her friendly and honest approach to coaching.
All of the coaching sessions with Lori are truly from a place of genuine interest and heart-felt intention to connect with clients. Her insights are spot on and always insightful, sparking a need for gentle, but needed change. Lots of 'aha' moments! Feeling immediately at ease, she made it seem like I was talking to my best friend with amazing insight vs. a coach with just some life skills to apply and a worksheet to fill out.
My favorite thing about Lori was her innate ability to truly see me. She saw my strengths AND weaknesses while helping me to realize some hard truths in a professional and compassionate manner. She guided me in throwing away old behaviors that were hindrances while putting new thoughts and beliefs into place.
Since working with Lori, I have learned to like my day job again, and co-founded a nonprofit organization that aligns with my personal passions. Her process does take some time but if you put in the work, you could see some beautiful opportunities open up in your own life.
Lori has a unique ability to listen deeply, ask thoughtful questions, and gently guide both group and individual sessions so they stay focused and productive. One of the most valuable things I learned from Lori was how to step back and gain a broader perspective on stressful situations, rather than getting caught up in the story surrounding them.
Her understanding of the wine industry made our conversations immediately relevant and practical. Lori also incorporates meditation into her coaching, creating a calm and reflective space that helped me gain clarity, confidence, and a more intentional approach to moving forward. I came away with practical tools to better cope with stressful situations and take a more objective, big-picture approach.
Learn More About Coaching
Whether you're navigating a career shift, looking for more fulfillment, or simply curious about coaching, I'd love to hear from you. Fill out the form and I'll be in touch soon.
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