Lawton hometowner brings in business of self-help, launches new book

12-24-25
By Lauren Royce, Editor

MONTROSE — What are you willing to do to change the way you move through your life? Lacey Cook and her partner Iván Quintero want to help you answer that question. Their self-help business, Move With Intention, operates with the goal of helping people lead happier lifestyles.
“When you break it down, we work with people to get them out of their comfort zone,” Cook said, “so they can start to take intentional action towards doing things that have a lot of meaning to them and becoming the person that they want to become.”
Tier brand of training, not coaching, includes habit building classes, not just motivation or quotes.
“It’s about the science of what makes us, us,” Cook said. “It’s neurotraining. I would say we don’t use the word coaching, we try to use the word training because what we do is we’re training your brain and your body to work together as a team instead of being in constant battle with themselves.”
Cook says she and her partner practice what they preach in their own lives, literally moving with intention. “It’s not just about your physical action, it’s about are your emotions on board?” Cook said “How about your metal state, is that on board too? And also energetically. So it touches all four bodies.” Mental, emotional, physical and energetic being the four.
Some of these techniques of checking in with oneself are inspired by Quintero’s professional soccer career, and Cook’s own recovery from an eating disorder. Quintero studied psychology at a university in Spain and Cook, who grew up in Lawton, holds a degree in hospitality from RIT. The two met while Cook was teaching English abroad and doing a dance class.
“We decided to come back here because we saw a lot of opportunity to give back,” Cook said, “to impact, and we know from experience when one person is impacted positively they become a ripple effect for their communities, their friends their families and then what happens with them, they ripple into their friends, their communities.” Cook said she believes people deserve to love the lives they live and wanted to bring this system back to her home.
“We work a lot with people that work in corporate, people that are entrepreneurs that have their own businesses,” she said, “because when you have your own business, you have to stay on top of your stuff and you have to make sure that there’s a system– so what we do is we provide a system.” Businesses scale marketing, Move With Intention helps people scale themselves with their business. Identities grow and change over time, and Cook wants to help people acknowledge that.
This isn’t your traditional therapy talk session where you talk about problems and your feelings towards those problems.
“It’s not talk therapy if that’s the definition of traditional therapy, we’re also not licensed psychiatrists or psychologists even— but this is basically going into your unconscious mind and disassociating from a negative emotion or a limiting belief,” Cook said. “Because as soon as you disconnect from it, you disassociate from it, as simple as I can put it, you don’t carry that baggage. You don’t carry it anymore.”
From there, you can become a “master observer” of yourself and your situation and take what you can learn from it. “We’re on the team of you have no limits, there are no limitations,” Cook said. Change doesn’t have to take a lot of time, just a lot of repetition and a bit of getting out of the comfort zone.
Cook said Move With Intention got its start back in 2023. But before that, she had been doing events and trainings since 2016. Cook declined to name the trainer she received her Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) master trainer certification from.
Cook said her business would be working with local entities such as the Wellness Center in Montrose, and already she and her partner had just donated some clothes to Interfaith after an event in Wilkes-Barre and canned goods to St. Paul’s pantry in Scranton.
“I would love to, our intention is to bring some low cost or free events for the community as well as the retreat in the Mount Poconos area or even this area— so that people can get involved,” she said.
Cook says she hosts a retreat every quarter of the year. Mobility workouts HIIT, dancing, anything that moves the body make up part of the retreats. There’s high and low-key team activities, like making music or breathing exercises and practicing how to emotionally regulate. Previously she hosted a retreat at the Octagon Barn in Woodbourne, went to Tunkhannock last February and next year, one will be in the Scranton and Mt. Poconos area. Recent trips have also included Panama and Mexico and the classes are also offered in Spanish.
“More people can come and get involved, and get a taste of what it is,” Cook said, “and everyone always leaves in a totally different state of energy. Which is really cool, I love to be part of that transformation and I love people. I love chatting with people and getting to know their stories, and hear what makes them click, their spark, their northern star.”
If you want to invest, it’s a steep price tag— for six month programs, it’ll cost you $10,000. For a year, $18,000. Day retreats range from $200-$400, full immersive retreats are $1,000-$5,000 and there are online masterclasses via membership. But the ROI on having a new look on life is worth it, she said.
“People are truly investing in themselves, but it’s really important that when someone invests in themselves, they invest in a way that gives them the long term transformation that’s not just a quick fix,” Cook said. “That’s why these things are not quick fixes.” Right now about 15 people are part of the clientele.
Cook’s book, “When Hope Speaks,” which she has co-authored with veteran wellness and self-help author Eric Campbell, aims to guide people towards hope.

“It’s all about how to build hope as a muscle– your brain is a muscle just like your arm. You don’t go to the gym, lift one weight and then look at it like, wait a second, where’s the muscle?” Cook said. “It’s not gaslighting yourself, it’s not fake positivity because what it is, is taking micro actions to shift your habits.” Shift your habits, shift your mind, shift yourself. It’s easy to live life disconnected and on autopilot, but connection is another theme of the books and Cook’s teachings.
Cook said she and Quintero met Campbell when they were in California at some trainings, where he hosts a biweekly coffee chat.
“We went, we had clients that morning in Europe so the time difference was nine hours (crazy) so we finished late and just made the end of his networking event,” Cook said. “But he invited us to stay and have lunch, so we did. Then Iván was extremely persistent to get coffee with him, and eventually we did on our only free day that month from the trainings. And it was like a power hour of knowledge and learning and connecting, and after, he asked if we’d want to brainstorm a book and collaborate.” The rest is history, thus “When Hope Speaks” was born. Find it on Amazon. Check out the website at https://www.wearemovewithintention.com/.