Character is built daily. Influence begins with who you become.
Project Character exists to help ordinary people recognize their ability to create extraordinary influence through character, mental performance, leadership, and service.
We believe character is not something a person simply possesses. It is something developed through daily choices—especially when circumstances are difficult, pressure is high, and no one is watching.
Our Purpose
Why Project Character exists
Project Character was created to help people become individuals of character and understand the influence they already have on others.
Every person affects someone.
Parents influence children. Coaches influence athletes. Teachers influence students. Leaders influence organizations. Teammates influence culture. Friends influence one another. Even a brief interaction can shape how another person thinks, responds, or sees herself.
The question is not whether we influence others.
The question is:
What kind of influence are we choosing to have?
Project Character helps individuals answer that question intentionally and develop the character, mental strength, and leadership capacity required to make their influence meaningful.
Our Vision
The world we are working to create
We envision a world where people:
- Live with integrity.
- Keep their word.
- Care about the well-being of others.
- Lead through service.
- Respond to adversity with courage and adaptability.
- Understand that leadership is not limited to a position or title.
- Recognize that every person has the ability to create meaningful change.
Our long-term vision is to build a global movement that equips individuals, educators, coaches, mentors, businesses, schools, organizations, and communities to create cultures where character becomes the standard rather than the exception.
The Story Behind Project Character
Created from a life of service, coaching, teaching, and leadership
Project Character was founded by Coach Lisa Rios, a United States Navy veteran, educator, coach, fitness professional, and leadership advocate.
Throughout her career, Lisa has worked with students, athletes, employees, teams, and community members from many different backgrounds. Across each role, she encountered the same fundamental truth:
Talent may create opportunity, but character determines what a person does with it.
She saw that people often possessed ability but struggled with discipline, confidence, resilience, accountability, or direction. She also saw ordinary people create significant change—not because they held impressive titles, but because they consistently lived with integrity, served others, and chose to lead through their actions.
Project Character grew from a desire to help people recognize their influence and take responsibility for developing the person behind that influence.
It is built from lessons learned through military service, education, athletics, fitness, leadership, adversity, mentorship, and everyday life.
The goal is not to create followers of one person.
The goal is to equip people to become individuals of character who positively influence their families, teams, workplaces, schools, organizations, and communities.
A Message From Coach Rios
You are not a nobody
You do not need a title to lead.
You do not need a large platform to matter.
You do not need permission to become the kind of person who makes a difference.
Someone is already watching how you respond, how you treat people, how you handle pressure, and whether your actions match your words.
Your influence may begin with one student, one athlete, one coworker, one family member, or one person who needs to see that integrity, courage, and service still matter.
Never leave believing:
“I am a nobody. Why me? Who am I to create change?”
The better question is:
Who might become better because I chose to become better?
That is where meaningful influence begins.
Project Character 